Evening star., 1942-08-23
Bp Susan B. Anthonv II.

bt OhSHn d. II TfHOTy IL.
Twenty-Five years ago on August
Is the last woman suffrage parade
marched with banners. bands and
torchlights down the streets of cities
all over the Nation, into the annals
of history.
The longest legislative fight on
record ended successfully with the
ratification on August 26, 1920, of
the Susan B. Anthony amendment,
the 18th amendment to the Consti-
tuition, giving women the right to
vote
With the ratification proclamation
by the Secretary of State, so ended,
too, the parades, the picket lines,
the delegations and petitions to
Congress. the Jail sentences and the
hunger strikes that American wom-
en- had resorted to in their efforts
to win the right to vote. Women
from sunken drawing rooms and
women with shrunken incomes alike
had shared prison cells because they
insisted on proclaiming their de-
mand for the franchise.
On the 22nd anniversary of the
Anthony amendment this Wednes-
day there will be no mass parades,
no giant celebrations of the date
The League of Women Voters will
issue statement. The National
Woman's Party will present sketch
of the lives Of the woman leaders
of the 18th century. But, by and
large, American women in 1912 are
too busy in the factories. Offices,
fields and volunteer defense posts
of their warning Nation to take time
off for celebrations! They are
fighting for their future right to
vote rather than looking back to
past successes.
Women Put War First.
American. British, Russian and
Chinese women are the last men,
bers of their sex to retain the fran
chise. Woman suffrage has been
snuffed out in all Fascist
countries. The vote went out when
Hitler went into power in Germany,
Austria, Czecho- -Slovakia and France.
Women in the United States, recog-
nizing that fact. have put winning
the war first and pushing their own
claims second.
An anniversary, however, is a
time to take stock of progress. The
72-year struggle to win the vote
ended in 1920, but it did not end the
program laid down by the woman
| leaders in 1848 who asked for equal
! ity of economic, social, educational
and political opportunity in their
Declaration of Sentiments.
/ Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Lucretia Mott al
! viewed the vote as means to at
tanning equal participation in the
life of the Nation Woman Wants
Bread. Not the Ballot" was reit.
Grated up and down 10Th century
America by Miss Anthony. For She
and her co-workers wanted the right
to jobs in Government, industry
and the professions They wantec
schooling. equality in church Office
and the right to guide the lives o.
their children.
The vote was won % years ago
Women will vote in the 1912 elec
ton on an equal basis with men, ane
they will run for seats in Congress
and in some of the State Legisla
lures. In the executive branch O
the Government they have obtained
and will gain more important Offices
Restrictions in Some States.
But in Oklahoma today no woman
can hold high elective or appointiv
jobs. In Wisconsin women ar
barred from the State Legislatures
In % States women cannot serv,
on juries. In 16 States married
women are restricted in their righ
to contract, and their right to holt
their own earnings and property i
subject to their husbands consen
in at least IL States. The common
law principle that the father is en-
titled to the services and earning
of minor child is followed in /
| States.