New-York tribune., 1920-09-18
w omen DENY
Obligation to
Either Party;
Manner i'm Which Suffrage
Was Granted Did Not I'm.
cur Collective Debt of
Gratitude, Says Mrs. Gait

The suffrage "debt Of gratitude" will
not be used by the League of Women
! Voters as an issue in the political cam
paign this fall This was made plain
by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Gait yester-
day. She said:
1T is clear that although women owe
much to the two political parties. the
obligation to neither is so great that
lfhey need to support that party, if
Judgment and conscience dictate othef-
wise. On the other hand, they 10 owe
6 debt Of gratitude which it is hoped
they will never fail to acknowledge to
individual men in many states.
Neither party has made perfectly
clean record of ratification, but lAdi-
vidual men Of both parties have given
truly heroic service to the cause of
woman suffrage, and this has been true
in every state"
No Rewards to be Paid
Mrs. Gait made her declaration of
neutrality in connection with a letter
which she sent to Will Hays, thanking
MN for his own personal services and
the services of the Republican party
in obtaining ratification. A similar let
ter, emphasizing President Wilson's
aid, was sen. to Chairman White. of
tn. Democratic National Committee.
The letter to Mr. Hays read as
fellows:
In submitting herewith the record
or the two dominant parties on the
submission and ratification of the Fed
efai suffrage amendment | take the
occasion to express to you personally,
on behalf Of the National American
woman Suffrage Association, our
grateful appreciation of your own
faithful. consistent and always sim
cere efforts to carry out the platforms
OF your party wherein they referred to
the enfranchisement of women.
Rati1caticn at this date would not
have been achieved without your con-
scientious and understanding help.
II wish also to express our graft
tude TO the Republican party for its
share in the final enfranc chisement Of
the women of the United States. Al
though we women regret that both
parties were not sufficiently forward
looking to ratify the suffrage amend
ment b. unanimous vote in each of the
forty-eight states, and also regret that
the Republican Governors Of Vermont
and Connecticut would not allow the
| legislatures Of those two states to act
upon the amendment, yet despite those
disappointments your party may be
proud Of it's record.
Political Campaign Hampered
1.-The long delay in ratification has
without doubt brought many embar-
rassments in the political campaigns Of
all parties. The woman's vote is GER
tain to be much smaller and far less
effective than it would have been with
more time to organize it..
"Again expressing the gratitude Of
our association to you and your party
for its share in the completion Of the
task to which our organization set it-
self more than fifty years ago"
Some OF the facts in the record of
are:
"Six thousand four hundred and
! sixty-one men actually voted upon the
amendment ia Congress and the legis-
latures, which have already passed
upon the amendment, thirty-six Of
which ratified the amendment and nine
rejected or postponed action. Four
thousand nine hundred and tWenty-one
men voted to- ratify and l,s40 voted
against ratification. OF this totai vote
3,f9S we're cast by Republicans and
1877 by Democrats.
"Of the thirty-six legislatures
which ratified the amendment, twenty
eight ''ere called into special session
! for the purpose. Eighteen of these
special sessions were called bv Repub-
| ifcan Governors and ten by Democratic
Governors. Twenfv-seven Of the
thirty-six Legislatures rstifying were
Republican, two en-p8r&isan and seven
| were Democratic.
"yhe totaidegiaiative vote for ratiG-
| cstasys in the thirty-six states was
| Ai2S. Of which 2,545 were Republican
@f,d t,2il Democratic, 323 n~pa rtisan
ssd foxty-sevsn Socialist and lndepsn-
| dent"
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