Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-23
NATIONALITY RIGHT
FOR WIVES URGED
BY WOMAN VOTERS
General Council Declares
Married Women Should
Accept Own Status.
ATTEMPTS TO GET OUT
LAGGARD VOTE DECRIED
Education of Leaders Declared
Great Task of Modern Democ-
racy in America.

Married women throughout the world
should have the right to accept their
own nationality, as unmarried persons
DO, and not be compelled to follow au-
tomatically the nationality of their
husbands, the General Council, National
League of Women Voters, declared to-
day at its meeting in the Hotel Wash
ington.
The leagues position was stated
formally in a resolution adopted by
10 delegates representing AZ States
and 300 groups of women in the coun-
try affiliated with the organization.
The council expressed the hope that
the projected international codification
conference will deal with the laws of
nationality and open the way to extern
sion of the principle.
Wholesale attempts to urge reluctant
voters to vote is waste Of valuable
civic energy, DR.. Robert D. Leigh,
president of Bennington College, told
the council.
Efforts to obtain more flexible rules
TO- for residence, provisions for easier regis
tration and for absent voting are well
directed" he said But wholesale at
tempts to urge reluctant voters to vote
is a waste of energy.
Education of Leaders Needed.
"The great task of modern democracy
is that of making decisions more in
telligent. This means primarily the
education and use of leaders," Miss
Belle Sherwin of Cleveland is president
Of the council.
Removal of legal hindrances to
voting due to clumsy election ma
chinery, and stimulation of a year.
round sense of responsibility to govern
ment were stressed as detectives of the
league. The council received a report
of surveys made in city wards ana
country towns in Minnesota, suggesting
that the habits of The American voter
are better than pictured.
A period of three and one-half years,
including eight elections, primary, gen.
eral and municipal, showed 81 per cent
of the total number of eligible voters
voting once or oftener during the period,
and of this voting group n per cent
voted from four to eight times.
Moving days" have depressing eff
feet on the total vote, the report pointed
out. In typical rooming-house dis
trict the shift in voting population was
4OQIt0 w uII 4ll5Ll do OF HCL NCllb NAA
ing the period" the report said. Apart
ment house districts showed change
of 40 per cent, while suburban sections
showed the smallest change in voting
population, approximately 80 per cent. :"
Cites Growing Interest.
Members of the council expressed the
opinion that the record of So per cent
of the estimated number of eligible
rra+orc xynfinn in, {hn 1oct T1raSidpF1fi ia l
election should not be attributed too
exclusively to keen interest in the per-
Sonalities of the two presidential can
didates. In IL cities, it was pointed out
Arizona, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota,
Montana, Missouri, Nevada, New York,
Washington, North Carolina, West Vir-
ginia and North Dakota-more votes
were cast for candidates other than the
presidential nominees.
Council members agreed that the in
crease in number of women voting had
a large effect on the increase in the per-
centage of the eligible vote cast, but 1t
was said that the increase must be at
tributed to a gain i'll established vot-
ing habits among women as well as to
immediate interest in the national con-
test.
Among those participating in the
anu d1IC1IIOOl4 oCoolOllo OA4 OAS
general theme we're: Mrs. A. j. Nc
CURE of st. Paul, who talked on survey
of voting habits; Mrs. Charles N. Tee
tor of Hagerstown. Ind, on improved
registration methods; Miss Elizabeth j.
Hauser of Girard, Ohio, on better bal
lots; Mrs. r. Templeton Smith of
Pittsburgh on accurate ballot counting;
Mrs B. G.. Jameson of Hollywood, Ill,
on candidates meeting; Mrs. Arthur
McGeoch of Milwaukee on education
in election issues by RADIO Mrs.
Chauncey J. Hamlin of Buffalo, N. Y,
on information booths in election cam
paigns; Mrs. George H. Crookef OF
Providence, r. l., on ballot-marking
classes.
Mrs. w. w. Ramsey of Chicago, who
presided, gave demonstration OF a
voters school. Miss katherine Merry
of the Michigan State Normal College
League, whose report won the $25 prize
for the best account of getting out the
student vote in the 1928 election, spoke
on aids to absentee voters. Miss Merry
is the only college league member at
tending the council.