Omaha daily bee., 1920-02-14
Suffrage Work Of
Year Reviewed
In Chicago

At the Friday session OF the Ma
tional American Woman Suffrage
association the work Of all the Off
GERS and departments was summed
up in the report of Mrs. Frank J.
Shuler, corresponding secretary and
chairman of campaigns and surveys.
The report included the Leslie
Woman Suffrage commission, whose
bureau OF education, the worlds
largest propaganda bureau run by
women, provides the national pub
licity department, the daily news
paper services, the weekly magazine
called the Woman Citizen, and
data department; the National Suf-
frage Publishing company; the Wo-
mems Overseas hospitals, founded
and maintained by the association,
whose staff received French and
English decorations; the League of
Women Voters, which is launching
forth on a big program of reform
legislation; citizenship work,
schools, books and outlines of
study.
OF chief interest was the section
devoted to the fe,'eral suffrage
amendment with the first revelation
of the strategy employed by the
national association to secure rati-
hcation by the states. I'm some
states even the women think rati-
fcation was easily won because they
do not know the efforts put forth
from the national Office" declared
Mrs. Shuler. And she went on to
tell of the floods of letters and tele-
grams, and the power of influence
directed upon those high in political
authority and the subsequent weak
ening of governors who had been
saying they would not call special
sessions because the women of my
state have suffrage and it will not
help us, the cost of special session
is too great, ill-advised legislation
might beconsidered."
She reviewed some of the fea-
lures OF the ratification campaign.
There was race between Illinois
and Wisconsin for the first place on
the ratification list" she said, wis
consin putting a special messenger
on the train to insure its certificate
being the first to reach the secretary
of state and being further helped in
holding first place by the technical
error in the Office Of the United
States secretary of state which
forced Illinois to ratify a second
time. Illinois at least is distinctive
in being the only state to twice
ratify the amendment" She told of
the legislators who paid their own
expenses to their special sessions.
New Hampshire, where the ratifca-
tion committee was composed en-
tirely of men, California where the
pen used was presented to the new
League of Women Voters, Nehras-
ka and Pennsylvania where the pres
idents of the state suffrage organiza-
tions were asked to address the leg
islatures, Minnesota which ratified
in half-an-hour, Oregon where the
special session was denied on the
ground of cost until the women an
nounced if necessary they would |
raise fund of $4,000 to pay the ex-
pense, Indiana where a petition of |
$4,000 names and thirds
pledge of the legislature to consider
no other matters were required to |
get the session.
In addition to the federal amend
ment, she named the following 9TH
er victories of the year: The presi-
dental suffrage gains in Missouri,
Tennessee and Iowa; the grant of
suffrage in Orlando, one
of the l6 towns in 10 Florida coun-
ties to enfranchise its women; the
extension of municipal suffrage to
the women in the democratic prim-
aries in Atlanta, Ca; the upholding
of the constitutionality of the presi-
dental and municipal suffrage laws
in Nebraska, and the decision by the
Nebraska attorney general that the
women have the right to vote for
delegates to the national political
party conventions; the passage of a
woman watchers bill in the Ohio |
legislature; the favorable decision of
Texas supreme court on the con-
stitutionality of the state primary
suffrage bill.
One in every 90 women in New
York City is a wage-earner, while !
in Charleston. S. c., the percentage