Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-18

with the ratification of the nine
teenth amendment by the Tennessee
house of representatives. the women of
the united States may draw a deep
sign OF relief that their active efforts
TO OBTAIN the franchise, begun by
Lucretia Mott in 1913. have at last
been rewarded.
BY the American revolution and the
civil war, political equality was OBJ
tanned Tor the men of the United
states. The women's struggle for po-
litical freedom" has been won with
out bloodshed. but only after a hard
and bitter campaign extending
through three generations.
The first demand for equal rights
for women came at the time of the
revolution and had a distinctly mill
tant tone. Abigail Adams wrote to
! her distinguished husband. John
Adams, in the Continental Congress,
ASKING That women be given voice
IN the new government, threatening a
Woman's revolution if such was not
granted.
Militant Note Heard Early.
Protest against their disenfran-
chlsement grew among the women
or the country, and in 1S48 Lucretia
Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
called together at Seneca Falls. n. Y,
the first woman's rights convention.
From this time the suffrage cam
paign was most active. In 1872 the
militant note was again sounded by
Susan b. Anthony, Quaker leader of
the suffrage forces.
At the opening of the civil war
the women were told by influential
men in Congress that if they would
give up their work for their own
freedom and bend their energies
toward winning the war, in the day
of victory they would not be forgot
ten The war was won. but the free
dom that followed did not include
women. Miss Anthony for several
years endeavored to secure an in
depreciation of the fourteenth and
hfteenth amendments which would
permit women to exercise the fran
chise. In this attempt she went to
the polls in New York state cleo
ton and cast her ballot. She was ar.
rested and sentenced to pay a fine.
Miss Anthony then realized there
must be special federal amendment
to enfranchise women. In 1878 the
amendment which she drafted in the
exact form in which it has been rati-
fled today. was introduced in the SEN
ate. She worked patiently for it's pas
sage, but the opposition of Congress
| convinced her that women must have
some political power in their own
hands in order to secure action. Wig
orously protesting against the method
as Wasteful of Womans time and en-
ergy, Miss Anthony turned to the
state-by-state campaigns.
Some States Grant Vote.
In 1913 women had secured the vote
| in nine states.
In 1913 there was formed an organ
iZation devoted solely to the passage
of the federal amendment. Formed by
Alice Paul, first known as the Con-
gressional Union and later as the
National Woman's Party. it revived
the political policy and the militant
tone of Susan B. Anthony's campaign
for national action.
For five years interest was centered
on the amendment and on the atti-
| tude of the party in power in regard
| to it, by spectacular parades at the
National Capital, national deputa-
tions to Congress, woman voters con-
ventions. tours of suffrage specials
and finally by picket line at the
gates of the White House. Rather
than give up this method of keeping
their cause before the public and the
politicians, more than 500 women en-
dured arrest and 200 served sentences
in Jail.
The first great victory came on jan
uary 10, 1918, when the suffrage
amendment passed the lower House
of Congress with one vote to spare
forty years to the day from the TING