The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-11-21
DAY. CHOSEN BY WOMEN
 ID CELEBRATE VOTE
National League of Women Voters to Give Thanks for Po- IiticaI Recognition, Franchise
 and Independence

Members of the National League of Women voters have issued a proclamation choosing Thanksgiving Day, 1920, as their official day of celebration of freedom and citizenship for women.
 We wish the women of Birmingham to feel sense of citizenship and respon- sibility such as they have never felt be- fore on Thanksgiving of this year." said Mrs S. L, Ledbetter, chairman of the city league. The women are 90 years late, but this Thanksgiving symbolizess for them the era of independence just as the celebration of the Pilgrims in 1920 meant emancipation and the right to live for American men of all time.
 By the large number of registrations, men can see that the women of Bir- mingham and Jefferson county appre- ciate the vote and expect to use 1t. Be- ginning January l. women under 45 will be urged by the league to pay their poll taxes and hereafter they will take their places with the men in all matters of good government. When the registration books open again, the women of Jeffer- son county will In all probability, raise their registrations to equal those of the men and they will be urged by all the in- fluence of the league to do so."
 The official proclamation of the Ma tional league follows:
 THE PROCLAMATION
 Three hundred years ago. in Novem- Der, 1920 the Pilgrims founded Plymouth. The following year they proclaimed q day of thanksgiving. because their plans had come safe to port after many storms.
 "The political freedom the Pilgrims sought did not come to women until 300 years later. Now the women of America have, after long voyage of many storms, arrived at their port of freedom.
 Their day of thanksgiving is there fore due.
 For this reason the National Alneri- can Woman Suffrage association, the di- rect heirs of the long line of brave women, who, in the persons Of Abigail Adams, I.ucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton.s Anna Howard Shaw, Julia Tutwiler. Vir- ginia Clay Clopton, Ellalee Chapman Humes and Frances Griffin. also thou sands more, never paused in their wors for liberty, now urge that the women or the United States use Thanksgiving Day IS a day for the especial expression or their gratitude for the blessing of poiiti- sal emancipation.
 eve the members of the executive board of the National American Woman Suffrage association. offer our own thanks; first, to Almighty God who has led the unfaltering efforts of three gen erations to this hour; second, to the noble company of men in the 15 full sur- frage states who have in the last 50 years braved opposition at the polls ih order to enfranchise the women of their several states.
 "we thank again the sixty-fifth and sixty-sixth Congresses of the United States which stood staunch. agalns- fierce opposition and finally brought the bark of liberty to port. We thank the President of the United states for his un- precedented act in personally prlnglns the amendment before Congress. We thank those states which cleared tne way for the amendment by prompt rat,- fication. We thank the governors who called special sessions, the hundreds or legislators who responded to these calls, who endured Journeys, resisted opposl- ton, repudiated bribery, defeated cor ruption, for the sake of justice to the women of the country.
 ssWe thank all the political parties for their final acceptance of the principe that just government rests upon the con sent of the governed. We thank the minor parties for their adoption Of this principle before the major parties had awakened to it's application. But we also thank the two major parties which have. since 1915 increasingly accepted woman suffrage as political issue 10 be maintained and who furthered the cause of ratification in spite of reac- tionary elements in their midst
 Finally, we give thanks that in spite of all obstacles the women of the United States on November were invested with f,,l political liberty With new self-re- snect and new hope for the future. mil- lions of them went to the polls and par ticipated in the great presidential cleo ton. Reverently they dedicate them selves to the service of their country that government of the people. by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
 NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN
 SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.
 Carrie Chapman Catt, President; Mary Garret Hay, Second Vice President; Ger trude Foster Brown. Fourth Vice Presi- dent: Emma Winner Rogers. Treasurer, Nettie Rogers Shuler, Corespondins Secretary; Justina Leavitt Wilson. Re cording Secretary: Jane NJ. Brooks, Dl- rector; Ester c. Ogden, Director; Flor- ence l.. Piersol, Director; Ross Young, Press Director"