There was plenty of unwise handling, but not, as I am proud to think,

from the constitutional suffragists. The first was the wild outburst

of "militancy" already referred to. Mr. Lloyd George was pursued by

persistent interruption and annoyance deliberately organised by the

Women's Social and Political Union. A meeting he addressed at Bath,

mainly devoted to advocacy of Women's Suffrage, on Nov. 24, 1911, was

all but turned into a bear garden by these deliberately planned and

very noisy interruptions. Not to be outdone in "unwise handling" Mr.

Asquith next had his innings. He received an anti-suffrage deputation

on Dec. 14, 1911, about three weeks after he had received the

suffragists, and in the course of his remarks to them he said: "As an

individual I am in entire agreement with you that the grant of the

Parliamentary Vote to women in this country would be a political

mistake of a very disastrous kind." This went far to invalidate the

fair-seeming promises to us given about three weeks earlier. How could

a man in the all-important position of Prime Minister pledge himself

to use all the forces at the disposal of the Government to pass in all

its stages through both houses a measure which might include the

perpetration of "a political mistake of a very disastrous kind"? A

member of Mr. Asquith's own party who took part in the anti-suffrage

deputation interpreted this expression of his chief as an S.O.S. call

to his followers in the House to deliver him from the humiliation of

having to fulfil the promises he had given us. Every kind of intrigue

and trick known to the accomplished parliamentarian was put into

operation. Every Irish Nationalist vote was detached from support of

the Bill. A description of one of these discreditable devices, among

them an attempt to hold up the N.U.W.S.S. to public contempt as

purveyors of "obscene" literature, will be found in a book by myself

called The Women's Victory and After, published in 1920.

The first result of these intrigues was the defeat of the

Conciliation Bill, by 14 votes only, on March 28, 1912. This was

hailed as an immense triumph by the anti-suffragists, as indeed in a

sense it was, for exactly the same bill had been carried by the same

House in 1911 by a majority of 167; but it was a triumph which cost

the victors dear, especially when the tricks and perversions of truth

came to light by which it had been achieved. From this time forward

public opinion was more decided in our favour and the general view was

that the Government had treated us shabbily.

The progress made by the Government in pressing forward their

Electoral Reform Bill was not rapid. When it was at last introduced it

was discovered to be not a Reform Bill, but in the main a Registration

Bill. In the second reading debate Mr. Asquith described his Bill as

one to enfranchise "male persons only," and said in regard to women

that he could not conceive that the House would "so far stultify

itself as to reverse the considered judgment it had already arrived

at" earlier in the session. It was a "considered judgment" to defeat

the Bill by 14 votes in 1912 but not a "considered judgment" to have

it carried by 167 in 1911! Sir Edward Grey felt strongly that the

House had placed itself in a very undesirable position, but the

Conciliation Bill was defeated and Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Lloyd George

and the leading suffragists in the Government continued to assure us

that the inclusion of Women's Suffrage through an amendment of the

Government Bill presented us with by far the best prospect of success

we had ever had. We worked as we had never worked before to secure the

success of this amendment or series of amendments. The session of 1912

had lasted from January to December without the committee stage of the

Government Bill being reached. This interminable session overflowed

into 1913 and the debate on the suffrage amendments of the Government

Bill was dated to begin on January 24th of that year. On January 23rd,

however, in reply to a question, the Speaker [Mr. Lowther] indicated

that he would probably be compelled to rule that if the Bill were

amended so as to include the enfranchisement of women, he might feel

obliged to rule that in this form it was not the same bill of which

the second reading had been carried in July, and it would, therefore,

have to be withdrawn and re-introduced! This ruling he confirmed on

the following Monday, January 27th. Therefore, every one of the fair

promises which Mr. Asquith had given us in November, 1911, proved to

be absolutely worthless.

I do not accuse Mr. Asquith of anything worse at this stage than

blundering. He was manifestly confounded and distressed by the

Speaker's ruling. Whether this were due to the naming of the Bill or

to Mr. Asquith's own speech on the second reading, "This is a bill to

enfranchise male persons only, etc.", we were not able to discover;

but the net result was that he found himself in a position in which it

was impossible for him to fulfil the promises he had given us. Under

these circumstances he did not take the only honorable course open to

him, i.e., of sending for us once more and asking us what we should

consider a reasonable equivalent for these unredeemed promises. He had

made these promises five years back and had repeated them from time to

time ever since. Now they were null and void. The only reasonable

equivalent would have been the introduction of a Government Reform

Bill which included the enfranchisement of women. Probably Mr. Asquith

knew that this was what we should urge; for he not only did not send

for us but he refused to see us or consult us in any way. He tossed

us, without our consent, the thoroughly worthless substitute of a day

for a Private Member's Bill, such as we had had experience of time and

again ever since 1870. The N.U.W.S.S. indignantly rejected this offer

and took no interest in the proposed Bill, which was, however,

introduced and given a day for second reading in May, 1913, when it

was defeated by a majority of 47.

This discreditable series of incidents did far more harm to the

Government than to the suffrage cause, as was very conclusively shown

in the press. "Punch," for instance, had a cartoon on Feb. 5, 1913,

representing a dance in which Mr. Asquith figured as a defaulting

partner in a corner and trying to escape from an indignant woman who

said, "You've cut my dance!" This was indicative of the general trend

of public opinion.

In the previous year the N.U.W.S.S. had placed a new interpretation on

its election policy. This was to support in elections irrespective of

party "the best friend of Women's Suffrage." After the defeat of the

Conciliation Bill in 1912 when 42 so-called "friends" voted against

it, we resolved in the future that the best friend was a man who was

not only personally satisfactory but who also belonged to a party

which had made Women's Suffrage a plank in its platform. This meant

support for the Labour Party and for the development of this policy we

raised a special fund called the Election Fighting Fund and took

active steps in canvassing and speaking for Labour men whenever they

presented themselves as candidates for vacant seats. Our movement had

now become the storm centre of English politics. A well known labour

leader wrote of the political situation in February, 1913, as follows:

"The Women's Suffrage question will now dominate British politics

until it is settled. It has within the last few weeks killed a great

Government measure and it has done more than that. It has made it

impossible for this or any succeeding Liberal Government to deal with

franchise reform without giving votes to women. The Labour Party will

see to that."

In 1913 the N.U.W.S.S. organised the greatest public demonstration it

had ever made. We called it The Pilgrimage. It meant processions of

non-militant suffragists, wearing their badges and carrying banners,

marching towards London along eight of the great trunk roads. These

eight processions, many of them lasting several weeks, stopped at

towns and villages on their way, held meetings, distributed literature

and collected funds. It was all a tremendous and unprecedented

success, well organised and well done throughout. (Described in detail

in The Women's Victory.) The Pilgrimage made a very great impression

and was favourably commented on in the organs of the press which had

never helped us before. We finished The Pilgrimage with a mass meeting

in Hyde Park on July 26, where we had seventeen platforms, one for

each of our federations. We asked Mr. Asquith and the leaders of other

political parties to receive a deputation from The Pilgrimage the

following week. They all accepted with the exception of Mr. John

Redmond. When Mr. Asquith received us his demeanor was far less

unfriendly than it had ever been before. He admitted that the offer

of a Private Member's Bill was no equivalent for the loss of a place

in a Government Bill. He said: "Proceed as you have been proceeding,

continue to the end," and said if we could show that "a substantial

majority of the country was favourable to Women's Suffrage, Parliament

would yield, as it had always hitherto done, to the opinion of the

country."

In May, 1914, suffrage ground was broken in the House of Lords by Lord

Selborne and Lord Lytton, who introduced a bill on the lines of the

Conciliation Bill, the latter making one of the most powerful speeches

in our support to which we had ever listened. The Bill was rejected by

104 to 60, but we were more than satisfied by the weight of the

speeches on our side and by the effect produced by them. Another

important event which greatly helped our movement in 1914 was the

protest of the National Trade Union Congress on February 12th against

the Government's failure to redeem its repeated pledges to women and

demanding "a Government Reform Bill which must include the

enfranchisement of women." This was followed by resolutions passed at

the annual conference of the National Labour Party re-affirming its

decision "to oppose any further extension of the franchise to men in

which women were not included."

There must, according to law, have been a General Election in 1915 and

the remarkable progress of the women's cause made us feel confident

that a Parliament would be elected deeply pledged to our support. Our

friends were being elected and our enemies, including that worst type

of enemy, the false friend and the so-called Liberal afraid of his own

principles, were being rejected at by-elections in a manner that

foreshadowed a great gain to suffrage forces at the General Election.

Then suddenly, destroying all our hopes of success and jeopardizing

the very existence of representative government and all forms of

democracy throughout the world, came the outbreak of war; the entry of

our own country and the resulting concentration of the vast majority

of the British people, whether men or women, in the gigantic national

effort which the successful resistance of such a foe demanded. August

4, 1914, was a heart-breaking day for us. Nevertheless, suffragists

from the first faced the facts and saw clearly what their duty was.

The "militants" instantly abandoned every sort of violence. A large

number of the more active members of their societies formed the

Women's Emergency Corps, who were ready to undertake all kinds of

national work which the exigencies of the situation demanded. The

N.U.W.S.S. Executive Committee meeting on August 3, the day before our

own country was actually involved, resolved to suspend immediately all

political propaganda for its own ends. Under normal circumstances we

should have summoned a Council meeting to discuss the situation and to

determine the course to be taken by the Union. This being impossible

owing to difficulties connected with railway communication we

consulted our societies, then numbering over 500, by post, placing

them in possession of our own views, viz.: that ordinary political

work would have to be suspended during the war and suggesting that our

best course would be to use our staff and organising capacity in

promoting forms of work designed to mitigate the distress caused by

the war. We felt that our members would desire to be of service to the

Nation and that the N.U.W.S.S. had in their organisation a special

gift which they could offer to their country. This view was endorsed

by our societies with only two dissenting.

On receiving this practically unanimous backing we further proceeded

to recommend distinct forms of active service. The Local Government

Board had addressed a circular to Lord Mayors and Mayors and Chairmen

of Town and County Councils directing them at once to form Local

Relief Committees to deal with any kind of distress caused by the war.

We suggested to our societies that they should offer their services to

help, each in its own district, in this national work. We also opened

in different parts of the country forty workrooms in which women

thrown out of work by the war found employment. We established bureaux

for the registration of voluntary workers and gradually our work

spread in all directions; help for the Belgian refugees, the starting

of clubs and canteens for soldiers and sailors, clubs for soldiers'

wives, work in connection with the Sailors' and Soldiers' Families

Association, patrol work in the neighborhood of soldiers' training

camps, Red Cross work, conducting French classes for our men in

training. A very large number of our societies concentrated on

maternity and child welfare work; others in country districts took up

fruit picking and preserving in order to conserve the national food

supplies. It is really impossible to mention all our various

activities. These were included under a general heading adopted at a

Provincial Council meeting held in November, 1914, urging "our

societies and all members of the Union to continue by every means in

their power all efforts which had for their object the sustaining of

the vital energies of the Nation so long as such special efforts may

be required."

The war work with which the name of the N.U.W.S.S. is most widely

known was the formation of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign

Service. This was initiated and organised by the Hon. Sec. of our

Scottish Federation, Dr. Elsie Inglis, and was backed by the whole of

the N.U.W.S.S. (See Life of Dr. E. Inglis by Lady Frances Balfour.)

Meeting at first with persistent snubbing from the Royal Army Medical

Corps and the British Red Cross, Dr. Inglis formed her first hospital

at the Abbaye de Royaument about thirty miles from Paris, officered

entirely by women. Other units on similar lines quickly followed in

France and Serbia. Their work was magnificent and was rapidly

recognised as such by the military authorities and by all who came in

contact with it. These hospitals probably produced by the example of

their high standard of professional efficiency and personal devotion a

permanent influence on the development of the women's movement in

those countries where they were located. They received no farthing of

government money but raised the 428,856 pounds, which their audited

accounts show as their net total to August 3, 1919, entirely by

private subscription from all over the world including, of course, the

United States.

The N.U.W.S.S. were very early in the field of women's national work

during the war because their members were already organised and

accustomed to work together, but it is no exaggeration to say that the

whole of the women of the country of all classes, suffragist and

anti-suffragist, threw themselves into work for the nation in a way

that had never been anticipated by those who had judged women by

pre-war standards. Into munition work and all kinds of manufacturing

activity they crowded in their thousands. They worked on the land and

undertook many kinds of labour that had hitherto been supposed to be

beyond their strength and capacity. By what was called the Treasury

agreement of 1915 the Trade Unions were induced to suspend the

operation of their rules excluding the employment of female labour.

They bargained that women should be paid the same as men for the same

output and the Government agreed not to use the women as a reservoir

of cheap labour. Thus industrial liberty was ensured for women at

least so long as the war should last.

All these things combined to produce an enormous effect on public

opinion. Newspapers were full of the praises of women; financiers,

statesmen, economists and politicians declared that without the aid of

women it would be impossible to win the war. The anti-suffragism of

Mr. Asquith even was beginning to crumble. In speaking of the heroic

death of Edith Cavell in Belgium in October, 1915, he said: "She has

taught the bravest men among us a supreme lesson of courage; yes ...

and there are thousands of such women and a year ago we did not know

it." Almost the whole of the press was on our side. The general tone

was that it would be difficult to refuse woman a voice in the control

of affairs after the splendid way in which she had justified her claim

to it. We old suffragists felt that we were living in a new world

where everyone agreed with us. Nevertheless, I do not believe we

should have won the vote just when we did if it had not been that,

through the action of the Government itself, it was absolutely

necessary to introduce legislation in order to prevent the almost

total disfranchisement of many millions of men who had been serving

their country abroad in the Navy and Army, or in munition or other

work which had withdrawn them from the places where they usually

resided.

It may be necessary to explain to non-British readers that by far the

most important qualification for the Parliamentary franchise in this

country before 1918 was the occupation of premises, and before a man

could be put on the register of voters it was necessary for its owner

to prove "occupation" of these premises for twelve months previous to

the last 15th of July. Seven out of every eight voters were placed on

the register through this qualification. It was not a property

qualification, for the tiniest cottage at a shilling a week could

qualify its occupier for a vote if he had fulfilled the condition just

described; and a man might be a millionaire without getting a vote if

he were not in occupation of qualifying premises. Before the war the

register of voters was kept up to date by annual revision. The war,

however, made this difficult and the Government in 1915 gave

directions that this annual revision should be abandoned. As the war

went on, the existing register, therefore, rapidly became more and

more out of date. Millions of the best men in the country had become

disqualified through their war service by giving up their qualifying

premises. The House of Commons again and again postponed the date of

the General Election but the occasional by-elections which took place

proved that there was no register in existence on which it would be

morally possible to appeal to the country. The old, the feeble, the

slacker, the crank, the conscientious objector would all be left in

full strength and the fighting men would be disfranchised. A

Parliament elected on such a register would, Mr. Asquith declared, be

wholly lacking in moral authority. Therefore, by sheer necessity the

Government was forced to introduce legislation dealing with the whole

franchise question as it affected the male voter. A Coalition

Government of the Liberal, Conservative and Labour Parties had been

formed in 1915. This improved suffrage prospects, for many of the new

men joining the Government, more especially Lord Robert Cecil, the

Earl of Selborne and the Earl of Lytton, were warm supporters of our

cause; while in making room for these newscomers, Mr. Asquith found it

possible to dispense with the services of men of the type of Sir

Charles Hobhouse, Mr. A. J. Pease and others who were our opponents.

The formation of a Coalition Government helped us in another way.

Neither of the great parties, Conservative and Liberal, had been

unanimous on the women's question and the heads of these parties lived

in terror of smashing up their party by pledging themselves to

definite action on our side. Mr. Gladstone had broken up the Liberal

Party in 1886 by advocating Irish Home Rule, and Mr. Balfour and Mr.

Chamberlain had broken up the Conservative Party by advocating

Protection in 1903-4. Each of these had, in consequence, a prolonged

sojourn in the wilderness of Opposition. But now a Government was

formed in which all the parties were represented except the Irish

Nationalists, who had refused to join, and therefore our friends in

both the old parties could give free rein to their disposition to make

Women's Suffrage a reality without dread of bringing disaster on their

organisations. The attitude of the N.U.W.S.S. and seventeen other

Constitutional Suffrage Societies who had united to form a

Consultative Committee, was quite clear as to the line we should take

under these circumstances. In various ways and by repeated

communications, letters, memorials and deputations we kept the

Government informed that if their intentions with regard to the new

register were limited simply to replacing upon it the names of the men

who had lost their vote through their patriotic service, we should not

press our own claim; but if on the other hand the Government

determined to proceed by creating a new basis for the franchise, or

changing the law in any way which would result in the addition of a

large number of men to the register, without doing anything for women,

we should use every means in our power within the limits of lawful

agitation to bring the case for the enfranchisement of women before

Parliament and the country.

Mr. Asquith answered a communication from us on these lines in May,

1916, with the greatest politeness but said that "no such legislation

was at present in contemplation." However, within the next fortnight

it was in contemplation and the Government made repeated attempts to

deal with the situation by the creation of a special register. All the

attempts were rejected by the House of Commons, which evidently wanted

the subject dealt with on broader and more comprehensive lines. On

August 14 Mr. Asquith, in introducing yet another Special Register

Bill, announced his conversion to Women's Suffrage! This was an advent

of great importance to our movement, for it virtually made the Liberal

Party a Suffrage Party, but the Parliamentary difficulty was not

removed, for the Government was still nibbling at the question by

trying to deal with it by little amendments to the law relating to

the registration of voters. At last a way out was devised. Mr. Walter

Long, president of the local government board, a typical conservative

country gentleman and at that time an anti-suffragist, made the

suggestion that the whole question of Electoral Reform, including the

enfranchisement of women, should be referred to a non-party

Conference, consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament and

presided over by the Speaker. Mr. Asquith concurred and Parliament

agreed. Women's Suffrage was only one of many subjects connected with

Electoral Reform which had to be dealt with by the Conference but it

is not too much to say that if it had not been for the urgency of the

claim of women to representation the Conference would never have been

brought into existence.

The members of this Conference were chosen by the Speaker, who was

careful to give equal representation to suffragists and

anti-suffragists. Sir John Simon and Sir Willoughby Dickinson, members

of the Conference, were very active and skilful in organising the

forces in our favour. The Conference was called into being in October,

1916, and began its sittings at once. A ministerial crisis which

occurred in December resulted in the resignation of Mr. Asquith and

the appointment of Mr. Lloyd George as his successor. The Speaker

enquired of the new Prime Minister if he desired the Conference to

continue its labours. The reply was an emphatic affirmative. The

Conference reported on January 27, 1917. Everyone knows that it

recommended by a majority, some said a large majority, the granting of

some measure of suffrage to women. Put as briefly as possible the

franchise recommended for women was "household franchise," and for the

purposes of the bill a woman was reckoned to be a householder not only

if she was so in her own right but if she were the wife of a

householder. An age limit of thirty was imposed upon women, not

because it was in any way logical or reasonable but simply and solely

in order to produce a constituency in which the men were not

out-numbered by the women.

Some few weeks earlier we had heard on unimpeachable authority that

the new Prime Minister was "very keen and very practical" on our

question and was prepared to introduce legislation upon it without

delay. He no doubt remembered how emphatically he had told us in 1911

of the extreme value of the promises which had been made to us by Mr.

Asquith, and how in our meeting in the Albert Hall in the following

March he had referred to the doubt which some suffragists had

expressed upon the worth of these promises as "an imputation of deep

dishonour which he absolutely declined to contemplate." He had in 1911

put into writing and sent as a message to the _Common Cause_, the

official organ of the N.U.W.S.S., a statement of his conviction that

Mr. Asquith's promises made the carrying of a Women's Suffrage

amendment to next year's franchise bill a certainty and he had offered

his personal help to bring this about. It has already been described

how all these confident hopes had been brought to nought; but now,

December, 1916, within a fortnight of becoming Prime Minister, Mr.

Lloyd George let us know that he was not only ready but keen to go

forward on practical lines. When Parliament met we asked the Prime

Minister to receive a large and representative deputation of women who

had worked for their country during the war. Our object was to ask him

to legislate at once on the lines recommended by the Speaker's

Conference but we were pushing an open door.

The new Prime Minister had arranged to receive us on March 29, 1917,

and on the 28th Mr. Asquith had moved a resolution in the House of

Commons, and his motion had been agreed to by 341 votes to 62, calling

for the early introduction of legislation based on the recommendations

of the Speaker's Conference. When our deputation waited on Mr. Lloyd

George the following day he was able to inform us that he had already

instructed the Government draftsman to draw up a bill on these lines.

The debate in the House on March 28 had turned mainly on Women's

Suffrage and the immense majority in support of Mr. Asquith's motion

was rightly regarded as a suffrage triumph. Every leader of every

party in the House of Commons had taken part in the debate and had

expressed his support of the enfranchisement of women. The Government

whips had not been put on and throughout the debates which followed

the Bill was not treated as a Government but as a House of Commons

measure. The victory, therefore, was all the more welcome to us

because it was the result of a free vote of the House. Mr. Asquith's

retraction of his former errors was quite handsome. He said, among

other things, that his "eyes which for years in this matter had been

clouded by fallacies and sealed by illusions at last had been opened

to the truth." It required a European War on the vastest scale that

the world had ever known to shake him out of his fallacies and

illusions, and many of us felt that it would have been better if a

less terrible convulsion had sufficed to awaken him, but still, now he

was awakened, he was prompt in owning he had been in the wrong and

therefore no more was to be said. The subsequent stages of this

Representation of the People Bill were a series of triumphs for the

suffrage cause. The second reading debate was taken on May 22d and 23d

and again turned almost entirely on the women's question; the majority

was 329 to 40. When the Bill was in Committee and the clauses

enfranchising women were taken up on June 19 the majority was 385 to

55, or exactly seven to one. On June 20 a last division was made, when

the number of anti-suffragists was only 17.

Our friends in the Speaker's Conference had so often impressed on us

the danger of departing, even in the direction of obvious improvement,

from its recommendations that we had carefully abstained from urging

any deviation from them; but when the immense majorities just quoted

showed that the Bill and our clauses in it were safe beyond a

peradventure, we did press very strongly that the same principle

should be applied to Municipal suffrage for women which had already

been sanctioned by the House for the Parliamentary Suffrage, namely,

that the wives of householders should be recognized as householders,

which would entitle them to vote. On November 15 an amendment to this

effect was moved but was not accepted by the Government. There were

vigorous protests in our favour from all parts of the House and the

debate on it was adjourned. During the interval the N.U.W.S.S. and

other societies with whom we were cooperating bombarded the leader of

the House and the Minister in charge of the bill with letters and

telegrams in support of the amendment. These produced a good effect

and on November 20, Government opposition having been withdrawn, the

amendment was agreed to without a division. Thus without the existence

of a single woman voter but on the strength of her coming into

existence within the next few months, the women on the Municipal

registers of Great Britain and Ireland were increased in number from

about one million to over eight-and-a-half millions. And yet Lord

Bryce and the other anti-suffragists assured us that the vote would

make no difference!

In the House of Commons a third reading of the Representation of the

People Bill was taken on December 7 without a division. The Bill was

now safely through the Commons but its passage through the Lords had

yet to be undertaken. The second reading debate began on December 17

and lasted two days. No one could predict what would happen; Lord

Curzon, president of the Anti-Suffrage League, was leader of the House

and chief representative of the Government. The Lord Chancellor [Lord

Finlay], who is in the chair in House of Lords' debates, was an

envenomed opponent. Among other influential Peers whom we knew as our

enemies were Lord Lansdowne, Lord Halsbury, Lord Balfour of Burleigh

and Lord Bryce. On the other hand we could count on the support of

Lord Selborne, Lord Lytton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop

of London, Lord Courtney and Lord Milner. We looked forward to the

debate and the divisions in the Lords with considerable trepidation.

The Lords have no constituents, they have no seats to fight for and

defend. It is therefore impossible to influence them by any

electioneering arts but we sent to all the Peers a carefully worded

and influentially signed memorandum setting forth the chief facts and

arguments in our favour. The second reading of the Bill was taken in

the Lords without a division, the most important speech against it

being Lord Bryce's; he insisted again and again that the possession of

a vote made no difference. Lord Sydenham had the courage (!) to assert

that the suffrage movement had made no progress in America, and, while

admitting that it had lately been adopted in the State of New York, no

doubt thought that he was giving a fair description when he said: "In

America ... fourteen States have refused the franchise to women and

two, Montana and Nevada, have granted it. The population of the

fourteen States is 43,000,000 and that of the two States is 500,000."

(Twelve States had fully enfranchised their women.)

The real fight in the House of Lords began on Jan. 8, 1918, when the

committee stage was reached. The debate lasted three days and on

Clause IV, which enfranchised women, Lord Selborne made an

extraordinarily powerful and eloquent speech in its favour. The House

was filled and the excitement on both sides was intense. As we were

sitting crowded in the small pen allotted to ladies not Peeresses in

the Upper House on January 10th we received a cable saying the House

of Representatives in Washington had accepted the Women's Suffrage

Amendment to the Federal Constitution by the necessary two-thirds

majority. This we hailed as a good omen. No one knew what Lord

Sydenham thought of it! The most exciting moment was when Lord Curzon

rose to close the debate. The first part of his speech was devoted to

a description of the disasters which he believed would follow from the

adoption of women's franchise but the second part was occupied by

giving very good reasons for not voting against it. He reminded their

Lordships of the immense majorities by which it had been supported in

the House of Commons, by majorities in every party "including those to

which most of your Lordships belong.... Your Lordships can vote as you

please; you can cut this clause out of the Bill--you have a perfect

right to do so--but if you think that by killing the clause you can

also save the Bill, I believe you to be mistaken.... The House of

Commons will return it to you with the clause re-inserted. Will you be

prepared to put it back?..." Before he sat down Lord Curzon announced

his intention of not voting at all, for the reason that if he had done

otherwise he "might be accused of having precipitated a conflict from

which your Lordships could not emerge with credit." The division was

taken almost immediately after the conclusion of this speech. Both of

the Archbishops and the twelve Bishops present voted for the bill. Our

clause was carried by 134 votes to 71, and Women's Suffrage was,

therefore, supported in the Lords by nearly two to one. The Lords

inserted in it among other things Proportional Representation. It was

on this and not on women's suffrage that the final contest took place

when it was returned to the Commons, but at last the long struggle of

women for free citizenship was ended, having continued a little over

fifty years. The huge majorities by which we had won in the House of

Commons had afforded our ship deep water enough to float safely over

the rocks and reefs of the House of Lords. The Royal Assent was given

on Feb. 6, 1918.

The first election at which women voted was held on December 14. Our

friends in the Speaker's Conference had aimed at producing a

constituency numbering roughly about 10,000,000 men and 6,000,000

women. The actual numbers of both sexes enfranchised by the Act of

1918 turned out to be considerably in excess of this calculation. A

Parliamentary return published in November, 1918, showed the following

numbers of men and women on the register.

_Men._

12,913,166

Naval and Military Voters 3,896,763

16,809,929

_Women._

8,479,156

Naval and Military Voters 3,372

8,482,528

At the annual Council meeting of the National Union of Women's

Suffrage Societies held in March, 1918, its object was changed by

formal vote. It was no longer necessary to concentrate on Women's

Suffrage and we adopted as our object "To obtain all such reforms as

are necessary to secure a real equality of liberties, status and

opportunities between men and women." No change of name was made until

the following year when a revised constitution was adopted and the

name was modified in accordance with our present object. We have now

become the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship and we

hope that the letters N. U. S. E. C. will soon become as familiar and

as dear to our members as N. U. W. S. S. were in the old days. At the

same meeting I retired from the presidency and my friend and

colleague, Miss Eleanor Rathbone, was elected in my place.

[216] In 1907 Acts of parliament for England, Wales and Scotland (and

one for Ireland in 1911) made women eligible as members of Town,

County, Burgh and Borough Councils and as chairmen of these bodies,

including the right to be Mayors and Provosts, Aldermen and Baillies,

with the limitation that women appointed to an office carrying with it

the right to be Justices of the Peace should be incapacitated from so

acting. These Acts though non-contentious in the party sense required

fourteen years' strenuous work to secure their adoption as Government

measures. This was achieved during Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman's

premiership, the necessary legislation being announced in the King's

Speech as part of the Government programme.

In 1918 the Qualification of Women Act for the United Kingdom made

women eligible to the House of Commons. The Bill passed almost without

opposition through both Houses and became law in the week ending

November 16. As the General Election took place on December 14 there

was little time for preparation, nevertheless, there were seventeen

women candidates and one, the Countess Makievicz, a Sinn Feiner, was

elected but refused to take her seat. The fact that her husband was a

foreigner made it doubtful whether she would have been allowed to do

so, though an Irishwoman by birth. In 1919 Viscountess Astor was

elected for Plymouth.

In 1919 the Sex Disqualification Removal Act for the United Kingdom

went some way but not the whole way towards the fulfilment of the

pledge given by the Coalition Government of Mr. Lloyd George in

December, 1918, "to remove existing inequalities in the law as between

men and women." A much more complete bill had been introduced by the

Labour Party early in the session, which passed through all its stages

in the House of Commons notwithstanding Government opposition but was

defeated in the House of Lords and the Government changeling

substituted. This Act, though it did not give women the parliamentary

vote on the same terms as men nor admit them to the civil service on

equal terms, and though the clause specifically conferring on them

eligibility to the House of Lords was cut out, contained,

nevertheless, important provisions in the direction of equality. It

allowed them to sit on juries, be Justices of the Peace, sworn in as

police officers, enter the legal profession and made it possible for

the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to admit women to membership

and degrees on equal terms with men.

The only important advance in education after 1900 was the throwing

open to women by the Governing Body of Trinity College, Dublin, of

degrees, membership and all privileges pertaining thereto in 1903. All

the universities in the United Kingdom, with the exception of Oxford

and Cambridge, have been for many years open to women and in November,

1919, a Royal Commission was appointed to enquire into their financial

resources and into the administration and application of these

resources. On the commission, Miss Penrose of Somerville College,

Oxford, and Miss B. A. Clough of Newnham College, Cambridge, the

women's colleges, were appointed as members. An Act of Parliament

later enabled both universities to grant membership, degrees and all

privileges to women. Oxford availed itself of these powers without

delay. Cambridge in December, 1920, refused to do so by a large vote,

but it will ultimately have to open its doors.

FOOTNOTES:

[215] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Millicent

Garrett Fawcett, J.P., LL.D., who has been prominently connected with

the movement for women's suffrage in Great Britain for nearly fifty

years and was President of the National Association from 1904, when it

was re-organized, until after the victory was won in 1918.

[216] Accompanying this chapter was a complete list of laws in the

interest of women enacted by the Parliament beginning in 1902,

prepared by Miss Chrystal Macmillan, M.A., B.Sc. The lack of space

which has compelled the omission of similar laws from all of the State

chapters makes it necessary in this one. Three of importance

politically are given.--Ed.

CHAPTER LII.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN BRITISH COLONIES.

In granting the complete franchise to a part of her women in 1918

Great Britain followed all of her self-governing colonies, which, with

the exception of South Africa, had given the full suffrage on the same

terms as exercised by men. New Zealand, Australia and Canada gave

Municipal suffrage at early dates, extending from 1867 in New South

Wales to 1894 in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand was the first country in the world to give full suffrage

to women, its Parliament in 1893 conferring the franchise on all

persons over 21. In case of women, however, this did not include the

right to sit in Parliament, and, although efforts to secure this right

were made at intervals during all the following years, the bill for it

several times passing the Lower House, they were not successful until

1919. The unvarying record has been that the registration and vote of

women have nearly averaged those of men and in some instances have

exceeded them. In the election of 1919 the registration of men was

355,000; of women, 328,320. New Zealand is noted for its advanced

legislation.

AUSTRALIA.

In 1901 the six States of Australia federated in a commonwealth with a

National Parliament and one of its earliest acts in June, 1902, was to

confer the complete universal suffrage on women and eligibility to

this body. About 800,000 women were thus enfranchised. This action had

been preceded by the granting of the State suffrage by the

Legislatures in South Australia in 1894 and in West Australia in 1899

and this was done in New South Wales in August, 1902. Women received

the State suffrage in Tasmania and Queensland in 1905, Victoria in

1908. South Australia was the only one that gave the right to sit in

the Legislature with the State suffrage. This eligibility was not

conferred until 1919 in New South Wales and Victoria; 1920 in West

Australia and does not yet exist in Tasmania and Queensland. One must

be a property owner to be a municipal voter or office holder.

Australia has largely substituted advanced legislation for women for

the English Common Law. The statistics relating to the voting of women

follow closely those of New Zealand. There never has been a proposal

to take away the political privileges of women, which could be done by

an Act of Parliament. On the contrary during the years when the

contest for woman suffrage was being carried on in Great Britain its

Parliament was more than once urged by that of Australia to grant it.

In 1917, when the struggle was at its height, the strongest possible

memorial was adopted by the National Parliament of Australia, which

said:

Appreciating the blessings of self-government in Australia

through adult suffrage, and appreciating the desire of Your

Majesty's Government to vindicate the claims of the small nations

to self-government, we are confident that Your Majesty will

recognize the justice of the same claim in the case of the small

nation of women in Your Majesty's kingdom--women who, in this

great crisis in the history of the British Empire ... have proved

themselves as worthy soldiers as those on the battlefield, and as

worthy of the protection of the ballot, which is conceded to

men.... We are deeply interested in the welfare of the women of

the Empire and we again humbly petition Your Majesty to endow

them with that right of self-government for which they have

petitioned for nearly three-quarters of a century.

The most prominent statesmen of Australia and New Zealand in their

visits to Great Britain, Canada and the United States have given

testimony as to the benefits of woman suffrage.

DOMINION OF CANADA.

When Volume IV of this History was written in 1900 four pages sufficed

for an account of woman suffrage in Canada. It was confined to a

Municipal or School franchise or both in the Provinces for widows and

spinsters, and in some of them married women were included. This

privilege began in Ontario in 1884 and the situation remained

unchanged until 1916, when the World War, which brought the full

enfranchisement of women in many countries, began to have its effect

in Canada. For the large amount of valuable material from which the

following brief résumé is made the History is indebted to Dr. Augusta

Stowe Gullen, a leader of the woman suffrage movement. Its foundation

was laid in 1878 and following years by the mother of Dr. Gullen, the

pioneer woman physician, Dr. Emily Howard Stowe, a friend and

contemporary of Susan B. Anthony[217]. Dr. Stowe was a founder and the

first president of the Dominion Women's Enfranchisement Association,

which secured many privileges for women.

The first woman suffrage society was organized in 1883 in the city

council chamber of Toronto with the Mayor in the chair. Mrs. Donald

McEwan was made president and other officers were Dr. Stowe, Miss Mary

McDonnell and Dr. James L. Hughes, afterwards Inspector of Schools.

Petitions were sent to the Dominion Parliament and bills presented but

when in the late 90's the Electoral Act was changed to make the

voters' list for its members coincide with the lists in the Provinces,

the latter became in a large measure the battle ground, although the

efforts for a national law were not discontinued. The movement for

Prohibition had a strong influence in the granting of woman suffrage

in the Provinces and it was hastened by the splendid war work of the

women.

The first Provincial Legislature to enfranchise women was that of

Manitoba, Jan 27, 1916. A convention of the Woman's Christian

Temperance Union as early as July, 1902, passed a resolution to press

the work for it and later in the year the Labor Party endorsed equal

suffrage through its paper, _The Voice_, and its officers affiliated

with the suffrage club. Dr. Amelia Yeomans was a devoted worker. In

1906 when there was a prospect that the Municipal vote would be taken

away from married women property owners, the Liberal party convention

made its retention a plank in their platform but the Conservative

Legislature abolished it. In 1907 it was restored. In 1913 the women

succeeded in getting a full suffrage bill before one House of the

Legislature, which was defeated by 21 to 14 votes. The next year the

Liberal Party pledged itself to give the complete franchise if it won

the election. It did so and the women rolled up a big petition as a

backing. Premier Norris and the Cabinet supported the bill. The

Executive Board of the Political Equality League were invited to seats

on the floor of the House the day of the third reading and the bill

giving women equal suffrage and eligibility was passed amid great

enthusiasm by unanimous vote.

The suffragists of Alberta began extensive work in 1910 to have the

Municipal franchise possessed by widows and spinsters extended to

married women and the agitation was continued to include the full

suffrage. Following the example of Manitoba Premier A. L. Sifton

announced on Feb. 24, 1916, before the Legislature opened, that the

Government would introduce a woman suffrage bill of the widest scope.

The bill passed in Alberta in March with the full approval of press

and people and the suffragists met at once in the home of Mrs. Nellie

McClung at Edmonton to arrange for taking up their new duties. Mrs. O.

C. Edwards had been a ceaseless worker here and in Saskatchewan. In

1914 the first woman Judge in Canada, Mrs. Jamieson, president of the

Local Council of Women of Calgary, was appointed by the Attorney

General as Commissioner of the Juvenile Court. In February, 1918, two

women, Mrs. L. M. McKinney and Miss Roberta McAdams, a Lieutenant on

the staff of the Canadian military hospital in Orpington, Kent, were

elected to the Legislature, the first women legislators in the British

Empire.

In 1910 the women of Saskatchewan sent in petitions, some of them

endorsed by city councils, asking Municipal suffrage for married

women, but the Government refused it. In opening the Legislature on

Mar. 14, 1916, Lieutenant Governor Lake said: "In future years the one

outstanding feature of your program will be the full enfranchisement

of women." The suffragists of the Province had been organized about

five years and the president of the Franchise Board, Mrs. F. A.

Lawton, had presented to Premier Scott a petition signed by 10,000

names to show that public sentiment was in favor of this action. He

answered that he could give them a definite answer and, as he had

already announced, their request would be granted. He said that

although Manitoba had been the first to give women the suffrage those

of Saskatchewan would be the first to have a chance to use it. At an

early and full meeting of the Legislature a number of members spoke in

favor of it and it passed practically without opposition. In 1919 Mrs.

M. O. Ramsden was elected to the Legislature.

In 1902 a petition for woman suffrage was presented to the Government

in British Columbia and refused. Another effort was made in 1903 but

the subject was not brought before the Legislature until 1906, when it

defeated a bill. In 1908 it took away the Municipal franchise from

women householders. The women's clubs in Victoria secured 1,000 names

in three days protesting against this action. Mr. Naden, Liberal

member from Greenwood, introduced a bill restoring it, supported by

his party, but it was defeated. The Council of Women, at its November

meeting, adopted a resolution "to do all in its power to promote the

woman suffrage cause." It was the first Local Council in Canada to

endorse this cause and later held two public meetings in its interest.

In 1910 extensive work was done to regain the Municipal franchise. In

1911 nine important amendments to the very reprehensible laws

concerning women and children were submitted to the Legislature by the

Council through the Attorney General and one was passed. In the autumn

the Political Equality Club was re-organized in Victoria, Mrs. Gordon

Grant, president, and in December at a Provincial Conference in

Vancouver she assisted in organizing one there; Mrs. Lashley Hall,

president--later Mrs. C. Townley--and Miss Lily Laverock, secretary.

The two societies organized a large deputation to wait upon the

Attorney General and solicit better property laws for women, equal

guardianship of children for mothers, the right taken away from

fathers to dispose of their guardianship by will and other equally

needed laws. They also memorialized the Legislature for the full

Provincial suffrage for women. On Feb. 15, 1913, fifty women in the

Province presented a petition of 10,000 names to the Premier, asking

that suffrage on equal terms with men be given to women and on the

19th he answered that as a matter of Government policy it was

impossible.

The agitation increased and continued until the full enfranchisement

of women in the three great Provinces to the east brought the

question to a climax. Even then, however, it was not allowed to be

settled by the Legislature, as it had been in those Provinces, but on

April 14, 1916, Premier Bowser stated that the Elections Act, which

provided for allowing a vote to soldiers over 18, would include women

and would be submitted to a referendum of the electors. This was done

by the Legislature, which met May 31, and the election took place

September 15. The amendment was carried by an immense majority in

every district, about two to one, and later this was increased by the

large favorable majority of the absent soldiers, who were entitled to

vote. It went into effect March 1, 1917. The area of Canadian

territory in which women were now enfranchised extended from Ontario

to the Pacific Ocean. In 1919 Mrs. Ralph Smith, widow of the Minister

of Finance, was elected to the Legislature and in 1921 she was made

Speaker, the first instance on record.

The struggle for woman suffrage in Canada was now centered in the

Province of Ontario, where it began in 1883, and it was largely

carried on during much of the time by the Dominion Women's

Enfranchisement Association, which had been incorporated in 1889. Dr.

Augusta Stowe Gullen became its president in 1903, after the death of

her mother, Dr. Emily Howard Stowe, and held it until 1911. While its

principal object was the Dominion or National franchise for all women

it was for years at the head of the effort for the Provincial suffrage

in Ontario. In 1905, in connection with the Woman's Christian

Temperance Union, it organized a very representative deputation to

wait upon the Premier to ask that the Municipal vote possessed by

widows and spinsters be extended to married women. He said that

'neither he nor any other statesman had placed woman where she was;

that the Infinite was at work and woman being a part of the Divine

plan her place was assigned by a greater power.' In 1906 a deputation

from the association, headed by Dr. Stowe Gullen, with Dr. Margaret

Gordon and Mrs. Flora McDonald Denison as speakers, called on the

Mayor and Council of Toronto and asked them to pass a resolution for

the extension of this Municipal franchise. They did so and sent it by

this deputation to the Legislature. As a result a bill for it was

introduced and after a day's fun and sarcasm in the House it was

defeated by 69 to 2.

In 1907 the Dominion Association at its annual meeting changed its

name to the Canadian Suffrage Association. In 1908 it decided not to

memorialize the Government but to make greater efforts to organize and

for this purpose Mrs. Denison, vice-president and official organizer,

visited Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. On March 24, 1909, the

association sent a deputation of 1,000 of its members to the House of

Parliament to ask for full suffrage for the women of Ontario. Dr.

Stowe Gullen presented with a strong argument a petition which

represented 100,000 names and many important organizations, among them

the Women's University Clubs, Women Teachers' Association, Medical

Alumnae of the University of Toronto, Progressive Club, Trades and

Labor Council, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,

Woman's Christian Temperance Union and Dominion Temperance

Association. There were prominent men and women speakers. Sir James

Whitney, the Premier, answered adversely. The crowds were so great

that Cabinet ministers could not gain admittance but all this

demonstration resulted in no action. Allan Studholme, Labor member

from East Hamilton, introduced a bill for woman suffrage, which was

defeated.

In 1910 all the members throughout the Province were written to or

interviewed by suffragists, but the woman suffrage bill of the labor

members was defeated. Through the efforts of Mrs. Denison, Mrs.

Emmeline Pankhurst and Mrs. Philip Snowden of England came to Toronto

and lectured in Massey Hall to immense audiences. Dr. Gordon attended

the annual meeting of the National Council of Women in Halifax and

presented a motion that "the Council place itself on record in favor

of the enfranchisement of women." This was seconded by Dr. Rachel Todd

in behalf of the Medical Alumnae, University of Toronto. After much

discussion it was carried and this large and influential organization

was brought into the movement. The Local Council of Toronto adopted a

resolution to the same effect.

In 1911 the association organized another deputation to wait upon the

Premier March 4, who were introduced by William Munns, the secretary.

The bill introduced by Mr. Studholme, seconded by W. Proudfoot,

Liberal from Center Huron after three days' discussion was lost.

Before the Provincial elections the association sent a letter to all

candidates and twenty-five answered that they would vote for woman

suffrage if elected. In June Dr. Stowe Gullen resigned the presidency

and Mrs. Denison was chosen in her place and Mrs. William Munns was

elected secretary. Mrs. Denison, who was an ardent suffragist, an

indefatigable worker and a fine organizer, edited a page in the

Toronto _Sunday World_ each week devoted to woman suffrage, which was

of immeasurable value. She represented the association at the meetings

of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Copenhagen in 1906 and

in Budapest in 1913. This last year she organized a delegation and

went with them to take part in the suffrage parade in Washington, D.

C., March 3.

In 1912 three suffrage bills were introduced. A resolution was moved

by Mr. Marshall, Liberal, from Lincoln, seconded by Mr. Bowman,

Liberal whip, but no bill was passed. Bills were presented every year

only to be voted down by the Conservative Government. N. W. Rowell,

the Liberal leader, pledged the support of his party in a non-partisan

measure but in vain.

In 1912 Mrs. Denison secured for a deputation an interview with Sir

Robert L. Borden, Prime Minister of Canada, to ask that the Dominion

Parliament should grant a national franchise to women. He stated the

difficulties in the way, as the Election Act provided that the

Provincial lists of voters were in force for the election of the

members of the Dominion Parliament and if the Provinces did not first

grant the suffrage to women the cost and work would be required of

preparing new lists of the women voters. He said that each Province

must enfranchise its women before the Federal Government could act and

no Province had done so at this time.

In 1914 Dr. Gordon, president of the Toronto Suffrage Society,

organized an influential deputation from its members which asked the

city council to submit to the voters at the approaching local election

the question of extending to married women the Municipal franchise now

possessed by widows and spinsters simply to ascertain their opinion.

This was done and the measure was carried by a majority of 13,713.

During 1914, 1915 and 1916 Dr. Gordon sent a letter to the councils of

the other cities, towns, villages and rural communities asking them to

hold a referendum or to pass a resolution in favor of this extension

and send it to the Government. The letters were followed by a

successful campaign in the municipalities by the society. As a result

33 referenda were held, all giving favorable majorities, and about 160

other municipal governments memorialized the Ontario Legislature in

favor. Dr. Gullen published an open letter describing these efforts.

They had no effect on the Legislature nor did it make any concessions

to the women even in the way of much needed better laws, for which

they petitioned.

At the annual meeting of the Canadian Suffrage Association, October 30

Mrs. Denison resigned the presidency and Dr. Gordon was elected. On

the 31st the members put on record the work of its beloved founder and

one of the originators of the National Council of Women by presenting

a bronze bust of Dr. Emily Howard Stowe to the city of Toronto. It was

officially received by the Mayor and placed in the main corridor of

Municipal Hall, the first memorial of this kind to any woman in

Canada.

This year the National Council of Women took a firm stand and urged

that each Province fully enfranchise its women and asked the Dominion

Parliament to grant the Federal vote to women. In 1915 the Ontario

society sent another deputation to the Legislature to ask for the

Municipal franchise and reminded the Premier, Sir William Hearst, of

the favorable verdict that had been given by the voters. He answered

that "it had not been proved that the influence of women for good

would be increased by the possession of the franchise." When asked if

he would submit the question of their full suffrage to the voters of

the Province he replied that this would mean only a vote by the men

and he was most desirous to ascertain the wishes of the women! No

attention was paid to either request. In 1916 the association again

went to the Legislature with a petition but Mr. Studholme's bill was

defeated. This year came the complete enfranchisement of women in all

the Provinces between Ontario and the Pacific Ocean. The women of

Canada had given their full share of the work and sacrifices demanded

by the war for two years but in the Province of Ontario not the

slightest recognition had been shown of their right to a voice in the

Government.

The franchise societies and the W. C. T. U. canvassed the whole

Province, circulating a monster petition for the full Provincial

franchise. A group of women in Toronto organized an Anti-Suffrage

Association and called a public meeting at which the suffragists were

denounced for "pressing their claims when all the thought and effort

of the Government should be given to the demands of the war." Up to

1917 neither the Liberal nor Conservative party had shown the least

favor to woman suffrage but now the former, which was out of power,

made it a plank of its platform and its leader, N. W. Rowell, on

February 20 at the opening of Parliament moved an amendment to the

speech from the throne providing for the full enfranchisement of women

in Ontario. It was declared out of order by Premier Hearst. A few days

later J. W. Johnson of Belleville, a private member, introduced a bill

for woman suffrage. On February 27 this bill was indorsed for the

Conservative Government by Premier Hearst, who said: "Having taken our

women into partnership with us in our tremendous task I ask, 'Can we

justly deny them a share in the government of the country, the right

to have a say about the making of the laws they have been so

heroically trying to defend?' My answer is, 'I think not.'"

Thus without discussion this act of justice for which women had

petitioned since 1903 was granted by a single word. Mr. Rowell and the

Liberals united with the Conservatives and the bill was passed Feb.

27, 1917. Although passed by a Union Government it was largely due to

the incessant efforts of the Liberal members in the past.

While in Quebec and a few of the small Provinces the suffrage was

still withheld from women it now so largely prevailed that their

national enfranchisement by the Dominion Parliament seemed the next

inevitable step. During 1917 Sir Robert Borden made a visit to England

and the war front. Although it was estimated that in some of the

Provinces one man in every fourteen had enlisted, he returned fully

convinced that "conscription" would be necessary and this would

require a referendum to the voters. Quebec would vote solidly against

it, as would certain elements in the other Provinces. A Fusion party

was formed in the Parliament and under tremendous pressure a War Time

Election Act was passed in September. It disfranchised during the war

Doukhobors and Mennonites, conscientious objectors, those born in

enemy countries not naturalized before 1902 and some others. It

enfranchised certain women in all the Provinces and Yukon and the

Northwest Territories, which send a member to the Parliament, in the

following words: "Every female who, being a British subject and

qualified as to age, race and residence as required of a male, is the

wife, widow, mother, sister or daughter of any person, male or female,

living or dead, who is serving or has served without Canada in any of

the military forces, or within or without in any of the naval forces

of Canada or Great Britain in the present war...."

It was estimated that this Act would enable about 600,000 women to

vote when the question of "conscription" was submitted and leave about

1,000,000 unable to do so although having the Provincial franchise. It

raised a storm of protest from those who were not included and who

doubted that this arbitrary action would result in securing

conscription. Sir Robert Borden had no doubts but based his faith on

the belief that those women having relatives in the war would vote to

compel other men to go and he said at the time: "We are now verging on

the point at which women must be entitled to the same voice in

directing the affairs of this country as men, and as far as I am

concerned I commit myself absolutely to that proposition, but in

working it out it is necessary to take into account certain

considerations." With this concession the women had to be satisfied.

The general campaign came on in November 1917, with "conscription" the

issue on which the Government appealed for return to power. The

election took place in December and the Union Government carried the

four Western Provinces, Ontario and New Brunswick, receiving almost

the full vote of the women. The Opposition carried Quebec, Nova Scotia

and Prince Edward Island.

During the campaign the Premier several times pledged himself and his

Government to equal suffrage for women and it was generally recognized

that if they were re-elected this pledge would be redeemed at an early

date. This action was urged by the Labor members. On Feb. 15, 1918,

the Government announced the extension of the full suffrage to the

women of Canada as a part of its policy and its consideration of the

measure at the approaching session of Parliament. Later the War

Cabinet invited all of the large organizations of women in the

Dominion to send representatives to a conference with the Government

in Ottawa on March 1. There was a very large response and the

delegates were welcomed by the Governor General, the Duke of

Devonshire, with a tribute to the conduct of women during the war. The

President of the Privy Council, N. W. Rowell, outlined the work of the

Conference and the confidence felt by the Government in the continued

assistance of women. They were assured by various members of the

Government of the desire for their suggestions on all matters

connected with the carrying on of the war. The conference lasted for a

week and the women submitted their recommendations, the first of which

was that women should be permitted to take a fuller share in the

responsibilities of government. All of these were respectfully and

cordially received by the members of the Cabinet.

The Parliament opened on March 18. The Duke of Devonshire read the

speech from the throne to galleries crowded with women and said in the

course of it: "A bill for extending the franchise to women, with

suitable provisions respecting naturalization, will be submitted and

commended to your consideration."

Sir Robert Borden introduced the bill March 21 and an extended

discussion took place in the House on the 23rd. There was no real

opposition, although the members from Quebec were not friendly, saying

that it was not wanted there by men or women. Sir Wilfred Laurier

favored woman suffrage but thought it should be conferred only by the

Provinces. The Premier spoke at length in moving the second reading.

It passed without division and again on the third reading April 12,

1918, when the full Parliamentary or Federal suffrage was conferred on

every woman who fulfilled the following conditions: (1) Is a British

subject; (2) is of the full age of 21 years or upwards; (3) possesses

the qualifications which would entitle a male person to vote at a

Dominion election in the Province in which the woman is seeking to

vote, provided that a married woman or a daughter living at home with

her parents shall be deemed to have any necessary property or income

qualifications if her husband or either of her parents is so

qualified. A woman is banned if married to an enemy alien. This Act

superseded the War Time Election Act.[218] The following year

this Parliament passed an Act enabling a wife to retain her

nationality.[219]

In New Brunswick in 1908, led by Mrs. Fiske, Mrs. Hathaway and Miss

Peters, the suffragists memorialized the Legislature to extend the

full suffrage to women but a bill for this purpose was defeated. In

1909 a bill to give it to taxpaying widows and spinsters passed the

Upper House and after much discussion in the Lower House was

postponed. In 1915 married women were included in the Municipal

franchise possessed by widows and spinsters. These efforts were

continued from year to year and finally after the Dominion franchise

had been conferred, the Elections Act was amended by the Legislative

Assembly on April 17, 1919, to confer complete universal suffrage on

women.

On May 20, 1919, the Council of Yukon Territory amended its Election

Law to read: "In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise

requires, words importing the masculine gender include females and the

words 'voter' and 'elector' include both men and women ... and under

it women shall have the same rights and privileges as men."

Bills to give the full suffrage to women in Nova Scotia were many

times defeated. In 1916, when all the western provinces were

enfranchising their women, the Lower House of the Legislature passed a

bill for it and later rescinded it on the excuse that it was not

desired by the women. This put them on their mettle and they took

action to convince the lawmakers that they did want it. The suffrage

society was re-organized and a resolution was adopted by the executive

board of the Local Council of Women and sent to every member of the

Legislature. A joint independent committee was created with Mrs.

Charles Archibald chairman and suffrage groups were formed within many

organizations of women. All the members of the Government were

interviewed and many promised support and the two Government

newspapers were favorable. Before the committee had time to put in a

bill one was drafted by Supreme Court Justice Russell and introduced

by R. H. Graham. The women filled the galleries at its second reading

and it passed without opposition and was referred to the Law

Amendments Committee, of which the Attorney General was chairman. It

gave a public hearing and the women crowded the Assembly Chamber

upstairs and downstairs and nine short speeches were made by women.

The Premier and Attorney General said it was the best organized

hearing and best presented case that had come before a House Committee

in twenty-five years. The Bill was left with the committee with the

assurance that it would be well cared for--and then it was postponed

indefinitely! The excuse was that there had been no demand from the

country districts! By another year, however, it was too late for such

tactics and when Lieutenant Governor McCallum Grant opened the

Legislature with the speech from the throne on Feb. 21, 1918, he

announced that the electoral franchise would be given to women. The

amended Franchise Act went through the Lower House without opposition;

had its second reading in the Senate April 29 and the third May 3, and

received the royal assent May 23. This added the State suffrage to the

Federal, which had been conferred the preceding month.

Widows and spinsters in the Province of Quebec had Municipal and

School suffrage from 1892. In 1903 in the city council of Montreal an

amendment to the charter was moved to take it away. The Woman's

Christian Temperance Union held several large public meetings to

oppose such action addressed by prominent men. The press published

articles and letters of protest and it was voted down. In 1910 the

first suffrage society was formed in Montreal with Mrs. Bullock

president. In 1914 a deputation of Montreal women presented a petition

to the Premier, Sir Lorner Guoin, asking that women might sit on

school boards and that the Municipal franchise be extended to married

women. No action was taken. After the Federal Suffrage was granted in

1918 by the Dominion Parliament, which included the women of Quebec, a

bill was introduced in its Legislature to grant them the Provincial

franchise, which was voted down. Similar bills were defeated in 1918

and 1920 and Quebec remains the only Province in Canada where women

do not possess the State franchise in addition to the National.

NEWFOUNDLAND.

When the Provinces of Canada united in a Confederation Newfoundland

was the only one that declined to enter it and remained independent.

Therefore, when the Dominion suffrage was conferred by the Parliament

in 1918 it did not include the women of this island. This was keenly

felt by many of them and they made efforts to have its Legislature

grant them the Provincial franchise but without success. In 1921 the

Woman Suffrage League determined to make an organized effort and

collected a petition of 10,000 names, representing every district, and

presented it to the Legislature. From the first the Premier, Sir

Richard Anderson Squires, was hostile and this was the case with most

of the Cabinet, but Minister of Marine Coaker showed a friendly

spirit; Minister of Justice Warren introduced the bill and Mr.

Jennings, chairman of the Board of Public Works, agreed to bring it up

for action. After the sending of many deputations to the Executive

Members of the Government the women were astonished at being told one

day that these members had held a meeting and it had been arranged

that the Premier himself should introduce the bill as a Government

measure. Seven went with Mr. Jennings by pre-arrangement to the

Premier's office and meeting Mr. Coaker he said: "Your bill goes

through all right, the Premier has his orders." Some provisions had

been attached to the bill--non-eligibility to office, no voting power

until the next general election and an age limit of 30 years. The

Premier promised to have the Government reduce this to 25 and they

were compelled to agree. Then he impressed upon them that the bill

would go through as a Government measure, declaring: "I will pass it

this session, whether the House closes in one month or three--what I

say goes!"

Some time afterwards the women read in an account of the House

proceedings that the Premier had said in answer to a question that the

bill was not a Government measure. An official letter was at once sent

from the Woman Suffrage League, reminding him of his promise, to which

he made no answer. They obtained an interview with him at which he

treated them very discourteously and denied all responsibility for the

bill after its second reading. They could get no satisfaction from any

member of the Government. The bill was not reported from the committee

for weeks and when at last brought before the House in August it was

turned over to a Select Committee of five, three of them pronounced

anti-suffragists, and was not heard of again.

SOUTH AFRICA.

At the present time South Africa has the distinction of being the only

English-speaking nation that has not enfranchised its women. There

seems to have been some agitation for a vote by the Boer women in

early days but a "movement" for it was definitely begun in 1895, when

at the annual conference of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of

Cape Colony at Kimberley, woman suffrage was made one of their

official departments of work. In 1902 a Woman's Enfranchisement League

was formed in Durban, Natal, and in a few years one in Cape Town, Cape

Colony, followed by others in seven or eight towns. In 1904 M. L.

Neithling moved in the Legislative Council of Cape Colony a resolution

to enfranchise widows and spinsters with the required property and

educational qualifications, which was discussed but not voted on. In

1907 Dr. Viljoen presented one to extend the suffrage to women on the

same terms as to men. The division showed 24 in favor of it, twelve

from each party.

In 1909 the Enfranchisement Leagues of Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg

and Pretoria united in sending four delegates to the International

Woman Suffrage Alliance meeting in London. This year representatives

of Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State met in a

national convention to prepare a constitution for the Union of South

Africa and the suffrage leagues sent a numerously signed petition

asking that it include the franchise of women. This was rejected and

they were told to "await a more convenient season." The women were

much aroused and early in 1910 the Women's Citizen Club of Cape Town

and the Women's Reform Club of Johannesburg were formed. In the summer

of 1911 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International

Woman Suffrage Alliance, accompanied by Dr. Aletta Jacobs, president

of the National Association of The Netherlands, made a tour of 4,000

miles in South Africa, remaining 76 days. They were present when the

delegates from eleven suffrage societies met and organized the Women's

Enfranchisement Association of the Union of South Africa and it soon

had twenty-two branches. The visits of the international president

with the suffragists of the different localities gave them much

courage and inspiration and thenceforth she was in close touch with

them, conferring and advising.

The new association presented a monster petition to the Parliament in

1912 and Mr. Andrews of the Transvaal introduced a woman suffrage

bill, which after two days' debate was defeated by 70 to 30 votes. In

1914 Mr. Wyndham's bill did not reach a vote. In 1917 Mr. Rockey's was

defeated by 63 to 28. In 1918 a woman suffrage clause in the new

Electoral Bill was defeated by 54 to 39. All this time the splendid

service and sacrifice of the women during the long years of the war

was being lauded, while St. Paul's definition of their "sphere" was

being quoted as a reason for not giving them the suffrage.

In January, 1919, a conference took place in Cape Town and it was

decided that the three suffrage associations unite immediately and

form a standing committee of their parliamentary secretaries through

which intensive work could be done with the Parliament. On April 1 Mr.

Wyndham introduced the following motion: "In the opinion of this House

the sex qualification for the exercise of the parliamentary franchise

should be removed." It simply affirmed the principle but was

strenuously debated without regard to party lines and finally carried

by a vote of 44 to 42. No further action was taken. Mrs. Laura Ruxton,

parliamentary secretary, attended the convention of the Government

Party to present the question, addressed it and the resolution to put

a woman suffrage plank in the platform was carried by 72 to 58. The

Unionist, Labor and South African parties accepted it, the Nationalist

Party alone refusing it. At a banquet in Bloemfontaine Premier Botha

appealed to the Parliament, saying that in view of the great services

of women during the war the men would be compelled to give them the

franchise. He died soon afterwards and petitions from the most

representative citizens then began to pour in upon his successor,

General Smuts.

In 1920 Daniel McLaren Brown presented a resolution that in the

opinion of this House the time has arrived when the right of voting

for members of Parliament and the Provincial Councils should be

extended to women. After a two days' debate it passed on May 3 by 66

ayes, 39 noes, a majority of 27 as against two a year before. Mr.

Brown then introduced a bill conferring this right. A deputation of

500 women carried an immense petition for it to the Parliament and it

passed first reading by 66 to 47. Although Premier Smuts had supported

it as "a great and necessary reform" and promised it every chance he

declined to make it a Government measure or give any facilities for

second reading. Mr. Brown and his House Committee and the Hon.

Secretary, Mr. Mullineux, worked valiantly for the bill but it got no

further, although eight of the Cabinet ministers were in favor of it

and the Government Party had endorsed it. It is the almost

insurmountable objection to the colored vote which is the chief factor

in preventing women's enfranchisement.

The Parliament of Rhodesia gave full State suffrage to women in April,

1919, and that of the British East African Protectorate in July, 1919.

In both this carried eligibility to office and a woman was elected to

the Parliament of Rhodesia in 1920. In several of the States women

have the Municipal franchise and have been elected to the city

council.

INDIA.

There has been remarkable progress in the enfranchisement of women in

India, although it has been for the most part since 1920, with which

this volume of the History closes. The Women's Indian Association

ranks with other women's organizations in the British Dominions and

has branches throughout the country. There are many political reform

organizations and almost without exception they are willing to include

women in any rights obtained. Increased opportunities for their

education have been opened and there are hundreds of women university

graduates. In several cities the limited municipal vote that men have

is shared by women and they are eligible to the council. In 1917

Great Britain announced that self-government would be given to the

people of India and the Women's Indian Association and other agencies

began a strenuous campaign to have women included. In 1918 the Women's

Indian Association had suffrage resolutions introduced in many

provincial conferences and national congresses of men and they were

usually passed by large majorities. The British Parliament sent a

committee to India to collect evidence as to the amount of franchise

that should be included in the proposed Government Bill and

distinguished men and women appeared before it in behalf of women,

among them Mrs. Annie Besant, president of the National Home Rule

League of India, which was strongly in favor of woman suffrage.

Contrary to all the evidence the committee reported against it. Mass

meetings of women in India were held in protest. In 1919 eminent women

and men were sent to London to present the case to Parliament. They

were cordially greeted by the British suffragists and given every

possible assistance. A petition was sent to the Government of India

Committee by the Women Citizen's Union of the British Dominions, where

in all but South Africa women were now fully enfranchised.

All were in vain and woman suffrage was not included in the India

Reform Bill but the question was left to the decision of the governing

bodies that had been created. The women then had to begin campaigns

throughout India, mass meetings, petitions, even processions and

lobbying. In May, 1921, the Madras Presidency, one of the largest

divisions of the country, gave the complete franchise to women and it

was followed soon afterwards by the great Bombay Presidency, whose

Legislative Council voted for it by 52 to 25, and by that of Burmah.

Each State has its Legislative Council and a number of these have

given the vote to women. The movement is active for it throughout

India.

FOOTNOTES:

[217] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, page 832.

[218] On Dec. 6, 1921, Miss Agnes McPhail was elected to the House of

Commons for Southeast Grey.

[219] This Act was heralded far and wide, as it was unprecedented. In

1920, giving as a reason that the Act had been only a war measure, it

was repealed bodily by the Parliament and the old Act substituted with

a few amendments that did not by any means give the privileges

afforded by the new one. It was generally believed that this was done

under the direct influence of England.

CHAPTER LIII.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN MANY COUNTRIES.

When Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage was written in 1900

four pages contained all the information that could be obtained in

regard to woman suffrage outside of the United States and Great

Britain and her colonies. At the time the first International Council

of Women was held in Washington, in 1888, under the auspices of the

National Woman Suffrage Association of the United States, Great

Britain was the only other country that had an organization for this

purpose. At the writing of the present volume in 1920 there are

comparatively few countries in the world having a constitutional form

of government where women are not enfranchised. The only two of

influence in Europe are France and Italy; the others are Switzerland,

Spain, Portugal, Greece and Turkey. Women do not vote in Oriental

countries. This is also true of Mexico, Central and South America.

FINLAND.[220]

The first country in Europe to give equal suffrage to women was

Finland in 1906, when it was a Grand Duchy of Russia with its own Diet

or Parliament, whose bills required the sanction of the Czar to become

laws. Girls were admitted to the full privileges of the university in

1878 and in the student organization they were on a footing of perfect

equality. Important positions and even places in the civic

administration were open to women. As early as 1863 the Diet gave the

local or Municipal vote to taxpaying women in the country and in 1872

to those in the towns, but not eligibility to office. In 1897 the

Finnish Women's Association presented a petition to the Diet for full

suffrage, which did not reach second reading. Its president, Baroness

Alexandra Gripenberg, had attended the World's Congress of Women

during the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and become

intimately acquainted with Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. May Wright

Sewall and other noted suffragists in the United States. In 1899 the

sword of Russia descended, the constitution of Finland was wrecked and

her autonomy, religion, customs, language, everything sacred was

threatened.

The real movement for the full enfranchisement of women began in 1904,

when bills were introduced in the Diet. In the autumn the president of

the Woman's Alliance Union, Miss Annie Furuhjelm, returned from the

inspiration of the great International Council of Women in Berlin and

the forming of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. With the

political oppression now existing the women were feeling a strong

desire to share in the responsibility for the fate of the country.

Under the auspices of the Union the first public meeting for woman

suffrage was held in Helsingfors on November 7, attended by more than

a thousand women of all classes and all parties. Resolutions were

passed that the complete suffrage should be extended to every citizen

and a petition demanding it should be sent to the Diet. For the first

time the Union included eligibility to office in its demands.

Forty-seven addresses of sympathy signed by hundreds of women were

received from different parts of the country. From this time the Union

devoted all its energies to the movement for the franchise.

In another year the Russo-Japanese War was over and Russia was in the

midst of a revolution. In October, 1905, the long pent-up forces of

Finland broke the barriers and a "national strike" was inaugurated.

Women were members of the central committee elected at a mass meeting

to manage it. Those in the highest ranks of society had for the past

year been members of a secret organization extending over the country

raising funds, smuggling literature and daily risking their lives. For

five days not a wheel turned and no work was done except under the

most urgent necessity. There was perfect order and at intervals

deputations of men and women went to the Russian Governor General in

Helsingfors asking for the restoration of Finnish autonomy. At last

the Government at St. Petersburg yielded, as all its forces were

required in Russia. Meetings of women were then held in all parts of

the country to elect delegates to another mass meeting in Helsingfors

on December 7, where amid great enthusiasm a resolution was carried

demanding full suffrage and eligibility for every citizen twenty-four

years old.

On May 28, 1906, this reform was passed by the Diet without objection.

It was taken to the Czar by the eminent Senator Mechelin, who assured

him that the nation demanded it, and he gave his assent. The Diet

consisted of four chambers--nobles, clergy, burghers (taxpayers in

towns and cities) and peasants who were landowners. It was now

reorganized in a single chamber of 200 members. The first election

took place March 15, 16, 1907, and 19 women were chosen, among them

the Baroness Gripenberg by the Old Finnish Party. Miss Furuhjelm

belongs to the comparatively small National Swedish Party, which

elects few candidates. She was elected in 1913 and has been

continuously re-elected. Following are the numbers of women members of

Parliament: 1907--19; 1908--25; 1909--21; 1910--17; 1911--14;

1913--21; 1916--24; 1917--18; 1919--17. From the beginning the women

members have introduced bills for much needed reforms, for the care of

children, protection of wives and mothers, benefit of working women

and many for social welfare. While the Czar was in power these were

all vetoed. Since then, with their small number and the great

questions that have pressed upon the Parliament, they have found it

difficult to secure domestic legislation but they have united with the

men in passing many bills of a political nature.

In 1917 a law gave to every man and woman 21 years old Municipal

suffrage, without paying taxes, and eligibility to office and a number

of women have been elected to city and rural councils. The Czar had

hitherto vetoed this bill. In 1919, after a period of the greatest

strife and sorrow, caused by the World War, Finland severed all

connection with Russia and became an independent republic. In a new

constitution adopted at this time the word "citizen" was used instead

of "man" and all legal disqualifications of women were removed. Both

the men and women of Finland at last are free.

NORWAY.

The second country and the first independent Government in Europe to

enfranchise women was Norway. With characteristic caution and

conservatism this was done by degrees, beginning with the Municipal

vote for taxpayers, followed by the complete franchise, and then the

removal of the taxpaying qualification for the former and at last for

the full suffrage. The president of the National Association through

all the years has been Mrs. F. M. Qvam of Stenkjaer, county of N.

Trondhjem, to whom the women have given undivided allegiance. The

History is indebted to Mrs. Qvam for most of the following

information. In sending it she wrote: "The last twenty years are like

an Adventure of a Thousand Nights for suffragists. What was sown and

seemed lost has sprouted and brought the greatest victories around the

world. May women now be able to do at least a little of the good that

the workers for the suffrage have dreamt that it would bring to the

nations." Its results in Norway certainly have realized that dream, as

they have effected many beneficial changes in the laws.

The first demand for woman suffrage at a public meeting, so far as

known, was made in 1869 by Mr. Qvam, a barrister. The pioneer of the

organized movement was Miss Gina Krog, who, after having written and

lectured on the subject for years, founded the Christiania Woman

Suffrage Union in 1885. She was moved to do this by reading the early

volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, published about this time

and sent by Miss Susan B. Anthony to the university at Christiania.

Miss Krog edited _Nylande_, a monthly devoted to the interests of

women, and continued as president twelve years. She was succeeded by

Miss Rogstad. In 1886 bills were presented to the Parliament in

connection with an extension of the male suffrage. In 1888 the first

large public meeting was held. These were continued, petitions were

collected, bills were presented at every session, one in 1893

receiving a majority but not the necessary two-thirds. Women from

other parts of the country became interested and on Feb. 12, 1898, the

National Woman Suffrage Association was organized; Mrs. Qvam was

elected president. The association is still doing a vast amount of

work in the interest of women and children. There was never an active

working membership in the association of more than 2,500 but whenever

petitions were needed for an advanced step the signatures poured in by

the thousands and the Executive Committee was always assured of a

large support. In 1899 the names signed to a petition for equal

suffrage numbered 12,000.

As the grant of universal suffrage to men had been made only the

preceding year it was too much to expect it for women at once but

through the assistance of Liberals and Radicals with the help of many

Conservative members, and the efforts of women themselves, the

Municipal suffrage was given by the Parliament in May, 1901, to the

following: All who pay taxes to State or Municipality on an income of

400 kroner in the towns and 300 (about $71) in the country districts,

or have complete or partial joint property with a husband who pays

such tax. The amount was so small that a considerable proportion

received this vote. It carried eligibility to the municipal councils

and this year 98 women were elected and 160 "substitutes." The

National Executive Committee conducted an active campaign of

literature and lectures to rouse the women to exercise their new

privilege, and it continued to ask for the full suffrage. In 1905 the

momentous question arose of separation from Sweden. The women made

every effort to be permitted to vote in the referendum but in vain.

The National Suffrage Association then undertook the task of obtaining

the personal signatures of women to a petition in favor of separation

and on August 22 the Executive Committee presented it with an address

to the president of the Storthing with the statement that it was

signed by 300,000 women, a very large proportion of the adults. All

the members arose in tribute to the women.

As a result of this action by the National Association its petition in

1906 was received with much sympathy. During the summer before the

next Storthing was to be elected the Executive Committee carried on a

most strenuous campaign. The president and other members went to the

political meetings of all parties to secure endorsement. They called

attention to the granting of universal suffrage to women by the

Parliament of Finland in May of that year. The fifty branches

throughout the country held meetings and sent appeals. In August, when

the campaign was at its height, the International Woman Suffrage

Alliance held a most successful congress in Copenhagen, which was

enthusiastically commented on by the Danish press and that of Norway

adopted an entirely different attitude from this time. The Lefts and

the Socialists, who had put the plank in their platforms, elected a

majority of the Storthing but from January to June the women were in

the greatest suspense and those in the different constituencies were

working on their members. Finally on June 14, 1907, after only two

hours' debate, the complete franchise with full eligibility was

conferred on women by 96 to 23 votes, only 82 being needed.

This grant was made to the taxpaying women who had the Municipal

franchise and it was then the work of the National Association to have

it made universal. On June 7, 1910, it succeeded in having the

taxpaying qualification removed for the Municipal suffrage, and on

June 11, 1913, a paragraph was added to the constitution which

provided that "all men and women 25 years of age, who have been

domiciled in Norway five years shall be entitled to the complete

franchise and eligibility." Over half the total number of voters are

women. Women may be Premier, State officers, Judges, magistrates,

sheriffs, professors in the university, even the theological

department, and are eligible to all public offices with equal pay. The

constitutional arrangement for electing members of Parliament has been

an obstacle to the election of women but it has now been remedied.

Five had been elected as "substitutes" or "proxies" to take the place

of absent members. Hundreds have been elected to city councils and to

juries, which are elected for fixed periods. The only positions from

which they are excluded are those of a military character, the

Cabinet, the diplomatic corps, the clergy and officials of the State

church.

DENMARK.

Although Danish women had long had the highest educational advantages

and considerable freedom under the laws they had no suffrage up to the

time the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held its congress in

Copenhagen in 1906. The following women had gone to the meeting in

Berlin in 1904 when this Alliance was organized: Mrs. Johanne Münter,

Mrs. Charlotte Norrie, Mrs. Vibetha Salicath, Mrs. Charlotte

Eilersgaard, Misses Rasmussen, Eline Hansen and Anna Hude. They

reported its proceedings to the Woman Suffrage Association of Denmark,

formed in 1899, of which Mrs. Louise Norlund was president, and it

then affiliated with the Alliance and invited it to hold its next

congress in Copenhagen. At the time it met this association comprised

fourteen societies and they had worked chiefly for the Municipal

franchise. In 1906 the Kvindesamfund, organized in 1871 to work for

the general cause of women and advocating the franchise, adopted as

part of its regular program Municipal and full suffrage and joined the

Woman Suffrage Association. As early as 1888 it had presented to the

Rigsdag a petition by women all over the country asking the Municipal

franchise for single women, which the Lower House was willing to grant

but the Upper House ignored. The interest died out for awhile but in

1904 and 1905 the Lower House again favored this limited grant and in

the winter of 1906 both Houses received delegates from the society but

no action was taken.

The congress of the Alliance in 1906, which lasted over a week, was a

revelation of the size and strength of the movement for woman suffrage

and the great ability of women. It was cordially recognized by the

press and people and a great impetus was given to the work in Denmark.

That year a liberal Rigsdag was elected and a suffrage campaign was

made by the association. In 1907 the Parliament gave a vote to women

for public boards and the right to be elected to them and the Upper

House abandoned its opposition to enfranchising married women. A

strong movement was developed among women and many new suffrage

societies were formed. On April 20, 1908, the Parliament gave to

single women who pay taxes and to married women whose husbands are

taxpayers the Municipal franchise and eligibility. This was a

beginning and the Suffrage Association distributed 18,000 circulars to

women in Copenhagen before the elections the following March urging

them to go to the polls. Seventy per cent. of those entitled to vote

did so and seven were elected to the city council. In all districts

127 were elected.

There was a growing demand for a revision of the constitution and in

October the association sent in a petition that this should include

the complete enfranchisement of women. There was at this time national

agitation for election reforms, for direct election of the Upper

House, for lowering the voting age from 30 to 25, and this went in

with the other demands. By 1911 the National Association had 144

sections with 12,000 members and maintained a press bureau, supplying

60 papers. Another association, the Landsforbundet, had 100 branches

and 11,000 members, and published a paper, and there were many outside

groups. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International

Suffrage Alliance, stopped in Copenhagen on her way to its congress in

Stockholm in June and addressed a mass meeting under the auspices of

the two large associations.

With all parties in favor of giving the full suffrage to women and

public sentiment favoring it the bill was caught in the maelstrom of

agitation for a revised or new constitution and the Rigsdag refused to

consider it separately. Finally the bill for a new constitution

including woman suffrage passed the Lower House by a vote of 95 to 12.

It was sent to the Upper House, referred to a committee and there it

remained while the controversy raged over the constitution. This was

still the situation when the World War broke out in 1914 and it was

April, 1915, before an entire new constitution passed both Houses by

an enormous majority. It provided for universal suffrage with

eligibility for men and women, no taxpaying qualifications, the age to

be 29 with gradual reduction to 25. A general election at once took

place on this issue, the new Rigsdag immediately adopted the

constitution the required second time and on June 5 it was signed by

the King. The women voted for the first time at a general election in

1918 and nine, representing all parties, were elected to the Rigsdag,

five to the Upper and four to the Lower House. They voted a second

time in 1920 and eleven were elected. They have obtained laws for

equal pay, the opening of all positions to women and equal status in

marriage.

ICELAND.

Iceland was a dependency of Denmark with its own Parliament, the

Althing. In 1881 a bill was passed, presented by Skuli Thorvoddsen, a

member and an editor, giving to widows and spinsters who were

householders or maintained a family or were self-supporting, a vote

for parish and town councils, district boards and vestries, at the age

of 25, which became law in 1882. In 1895 the Woman's Alliance was

formed and a petition of 3,000 women was collected and sent to the

Althing asking it to consider suffrage for married women and increased

property rights, which it ignored. In 1906 Mrs. Briet Asmundsson, the

leader of the woman's movement, attended the congress of the

International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Copenhagen, and, returning to

Reykjavik, the capital, organized in January, 1907, the Association

for Women's Rights. In four months 12,000 signatures had been obtained

to a petition for full suffrage for women and eligibility to all

offices. Mr. Thorvoddsen introduced the bill, which was not

considered, but one was passed giving the Municipal franchise and

eligibility to all women in the Reykjavik and one other district,

which became law Jan. 1, 1908. The association carried on a vigorous

campaign and four women were elected to the council of Reykjavik. Its

president then made a two months' tour of the country and organized

five branches. At all political meetings the women had resolutions

presented for equal suffrage and eligibility, which were usually

carried unanimously. On April 15 a law was passed extending Municipal

suffrage and eligibility to all women.

In 1911 women were made eligible to all State offices, including those

of the church, and a constitutional amendment was passed granting the

complete franchise. It had to pass a second Althing and political

questions arose which were all absorbing until 1914. Then the

amendment passed but a compromise had to be made fixing the age for

women at 40, to be lowered annually, under much protest, but Premier

Eggers refused to submit it to the King of Denmark for his sanction.

It had to wait until another took the office and finally was signed

June 19, 1915, two weeks after the women of Denmark were fully

enfranchised. In 1918 a referendum was taken, in which women voted,

on making Iceland an independent State having a personal union with

Denmark and the same King, which resulted favorably. A new Althing was

elected Nov. 15, 1919, and a new constitution adopted which gave to

women full suffrage at 25, the same age as to men.

SWEDEN.

The story of Sweden is especially interesting as the women were the

first in Europe to have the Municipal vote and among the last to have

the Parliamentary. In 1862 widows and spinsters who had paid taxes had

a vote for all officers except members of the Parliament. In 1909 they

were made eligible for the offices. Later this franchise was enlarged

to admit married women, and in 1918 it was made universal for men and

women of 23 without taxpaying requirements. This chapter is indebted

for much of the information in it to Mrs. Anna B. Wicksell, who was a

delegate from Sweden to Berlin in 1904, when the International Woman

Suffrage Alliance was formed and is now a vice-president. Mrs.

Wicksell gained international fame when her Government appointed her a

delegate to the League of Nations meeting at Geneva in 1920-21 and she

was placed on the Mandates Commission.

The first bill to give women full suffrage and eligibility was

presented in the Second Chamber by F. D. Borg, an enlightened member,

in 1884 and ridiculed by Parliament and press. In 1902 Carl Lindhagen

offered a bill calling on the Government to investigate the subject.

The first organized movement among the women was the forming of a

society in Stockholm this year and an address to Parliament with 5,641

signatures urging this bill. It was rejected by 111 to 64 in the

Second Chamber (Lower House) and without a division in the First. In

1904 his bill, endorsed by 30 members, received 115 noes, 93 ayes and

no vote in the First Chamber. In 1905, endorsed by 57, it had 89 noes,

30 ayes in the First Chamber and the Second rejected it by 109 to 88.

The suffrage societies had multiplied and now there were 63.

A National Suffrage Association was formed in 1904, which still

exists. It carried on the work for seventeen years, under the

presidency of Miss Anna Whitlock, Dr. Lydia Wahlstrom, Miss Signe

Bergman and Dr. Karolina Widerström. When success finally crowned its

efforts it had 240 branches and 15,000 members. With the great

difficulties of securing names in this country of widely scattered

people the petitions collected and sent to Parliament were remarkable,

the last one in 1914 having 350,000 signatures. Among the women who

were conspicuous in long and arduous service besides the presidents

were Mrs. Ann M. Holmgren, Dr. Gulli Petrini, Mrs. Frigga Carlberg and

Mrs. Gloria Hallberg. Miss Selma Lagerlöf assisted on great occasions.

Men who for years were most valuable workers were Stockholm's

burgomaster, Carl Lindhagen, and the three Prime Ministers, Karl

Staaf, Nils Edén and Hjalmer Brantung. Two of the most conspicuous

opponents were Mr. Lindeau and Mr. Trygger, through fear that the

Social Democratic Party would gain.

The years 1905-1906 saw much advance, as the separation from Norway

took place and the question of the enlargement of male suffrage was to

the fore. The women made strenuous but unsuccessful efforts to have

the Parliament include women but the bill for men was rejected. It

did, however, by a majority even in the Upper House, order an

investigation of woman suffrage where it existed. Societies were

organized from the Sound to Lapland. King Oscar received a deputation

and in answer to the address of Miss Gertrud Adelborg expressed his

sympathy but said the Government could not endanger the desired

suffrage for men. In 1907 a petition from 142,128 women was presented

to the Parliament. The Labor Party made woman suffrage a part of their

program, the Lindhagen group supported it, a number of bills were

brought in but all was in vain. At a woman suffrage mass meeting in

1908 in Stockholm thousands were turned away. Meetings were held

throughout the country. The Liberals and Social Democrats put woman

suffrage in their programs. At the opening of Parliament the King's

speech contained a few favorable words. Leading members conferred with

the Executive Committee of the National Suffrage Association, with the

result that it arranged a meeting at the Grand Hotel with many members

of Parliament present, who were addressed by prominent women and

seemed much impressed, but all suffrage bills were lost.

The well-organized suffragists then went actively into the campaign

and worked to defeat their opponents. As a result a majority was

elected to the Second Chamber in favor of giving the suffrage to

women. A deputation of 35 was granted an audience by the new King,

Gustav V, and he expressed the hope that the time was near when their

claims could be regarded. In February, 1909, the Government's bill

embodying universal suffrage for men finally passed both Chambers and

it included eligibility to the municipal offices for the women who

could vote for them, which the suffrage association had worked for.

The next April the first woman suffrage bill was passed by the Second

Chamber. In 1910 37 women were chosen for the councils in 34 towns,

which partly elect the First Chamber.

The situation looked so favorable that the National Association

invited the International Woman Suffrage Alliance to hold its congress

in Stockholm in 1911 for the effect which this large and important

body would have on public sentiment. After this had been arranged, the

Swedish women learned to their disappointment and indignation that the

Government did not propose to introduce a woman suffrage bill this

year, as they wished first to see the effect of the new universal

franchise law for men. Besides, the investigation of woman suffrage

was not completed! A representative Men's League for Woman Suffrage

was formed. A new Second Chamber was to be elected and as the suffrage

bill would have to be acted upon by two Parliaments there would have

to be a wait of several years. A bill was presented and passed the

Lower House but all progressive legislation was blocked by the First

Chamber. During the campaign the women worked vigorously for the

election of Liberal and Social Democratic candidates, who had woman

suffrage on their program, 29 women speaking on their party platforms

at 217 meetings. They formed a large majority of the new Government

and a Liberal Cabinet was formed. The First Chamber was dissolved and

in the new one, instead of a negligible few, there were 64 Liberals

and Social Democrats to 86 Conservatives. In his speech on opening the

new Parliament in 1912 the King announced that he would present a bill

giving to women suffrage and eligibility on the same conditions as

possessed by men. On April 2 the Government brought in this bill

which was carried in the Lower House by 140 to 66; defeated in the

Upper by 86 to 58. This year 64 women councillors were elected. The

women strengthened their organization, added to their monster

petitions, held their mass meetings and then in 1914 came the War!

In the flood-tide of democracy which resulted the existence of the

kingdom itself was threatened. The First Chamber of nobles and landed

proprietors was forced to abandon its conservatism. The Reform Bill

proposed in December, 1918, at an extra session, abolished plural

voting, gave universal Municipal suffrage, made women eligible to

County Councils and provided for the Parliamentary franchise for them.

At the session of 1919 the bill was laid before the Parliament and on

May 24 it was passed by both Chambers without opposition. On the 29th

great celebrations were held in Stockholm and other cities and at the

old university town of Upsala the speakers were the Archbishop, Dr.

Selma Lagerlöf and Prime Minister Brantung.

It was not all ended, however, for the measure had to pass a second

Parliament, although this was a mere matter of form. The elections

took place in the autumn of 1920. On Jan. 26, 1921, without debate,

the law was sanctioned by the new Parliament and two days later it was

promulgated by the King. It gives complete, universal suffrage to

women. In September the election occurred in which women took part and

five were elected to the Parliament, one of them to the First Chamber,

which so many years stood between women and their political rights.

THE NETHERLANDS.

The story of woman suffrage in the Netherlands is one of intense,

unceasing work for a quarter of a century. The old constitution did

not specifically exclude women and in 1882 Dr. Aletta Jacobs, the

first woman physician, who had been studying in England and met the

suffrage leaders, applied to be registered for an election. This was

refused and she carried the case through the highest court with a

decision against her. It was in effect that by the letter of the law

she was eligible but the spirit of the law intended to exclude women.

In 1885 a new constitution was made which definitely excluded women

but made a further extension of the suffrage to men, who had not

asked for it. It required a long, hard effort to organize for woman

suffrage, as there was almost no sentiment for it, but on Feb. 5,

1894, the Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht was formed of women in

different places with Mrs. Versluys-Poelman, president. She held the

office eight years and then Dr. Jacobs, who had been president of the

Amsterdam branch during this time, was elected and served till the

contest was finished in 1918. It is to Dr. Jacobs this chapter is

indebted for the information it contains. This was the only

association of a national character until 1908, when the Bond voor

Vrouwenkiesrecht came into existence. When the work ended it had 80

branches and about 10,000 members. The former had 160 branches and

over 25,000 members and reorganized in the Netherlands Society of

Women Citizens to work for the legal and economic equality of women.

At first the press was hostile, all political parties were opposed

except a small group of Constitutional Democrats and no member of

Parliament would introduce the question. The work had to begin from

the bottom with personal interviews with the members, watching the

bills relating to women and children, showing the need of women's

influence, etc. In 1904 Dr. Jacobs, Misses Johanna W. A. Naber and E.

L. van Dorp, Mrs. von Loenen de Bordes, Mrs. Rutgers Hoitsema and Mrs.

Hengeveld Garritson were present at the organization of the

International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Berlin, as was Miss Martina

Kramers, who was elected Secretary, and the Dutch national association

became auxiliary. From that time it went into direct political work,

in 1905 presenting to the Queen and the Prime Minister its request

that in a proposed revision of the constitution the words men and

women be used after citizens. The Commission that drafted it in 1907

recommended suffrage and eligibility for women. The association,

expecting a campaign, had invited the International Alliance to hold

its congress in Amsterdam in June, 1908. It proved to be one of the

most brilliant and successful ever held and was enthusiastically

received by the press and the public. An active Men's League for Woman

Suffrage was formed.

From that time the question of woman suffrage was on a constantly

rising tide. A liberal Parliament had been elected and it was to

consider giving the vote to women. Appeals were made through the

members from the fifty branches of the association and through public

meetings and much outdoor propaganda was carried on in little boats.

There was no cessation of the work and as a result leaders of the four

political parties declared themselves in the Parliament in favor of

the enfranchisement of women, but in 1909 a Conservative Government

was elected and the revision was withdrawn. This year the Lutheran and

Mennonite churches gave women a vote on all matters. In 1913 the

Cabinet announced its own revision of the constitution. Early in 1914

the association memorialized the Premier and the Queen, sent letters

to all the electors and carried on the most strenuous work. Its

meetings in every town and city were crowded and in a short time a

petition signed by 165,000 women was presented to the Parliament. Then

the War broke forth and everything was at a standstill.

In 1915 the suffragists were roused by the announcement that the

constitution would positively be revised. In June they held a big

demonstration in Amsterdam, in which trade unions and political

parties participated. It was evident that the country was back of the

demand for woman suffrage. Although street processions were forbidden,

the burgomaster, a suffragist, allowed it. In The Hague a large one

took place in September, when the Parliament opened, the burgomaster

yielding to the entreaties of the women that if the Government was

going to bring in a new constitution in the midst of the War, which so

much concerned women, they should be allowed to express themselves. It

was preceded by an immense meeting and a resolution calling for woman

suffrage was passed; thousands of women massed in front of the

Parliament House and Dr. Jacobs and a deputation carried it in to the

Speaker, who promised to do all in his power for them. During all the

weeks while the discussion raged the members had to pass through two

rows of silent women wearing broad sashes with the name of the

association on them. Women filled the seats inside and the Speaker

offered his private box to Dr. Jacobs and her friends. Prime Minister

Cort van Linden threatened that if a vote were permitted on woman

suffrage he would withdraw the whole constitution. The members of

Parliament were so afraid they would lose universal male suffrage

that they gave up this amendment and the constitution was adopted

without it. It did, however, make the valuable concession that it

should be possible for the Parliament to grant the suffrage to women

at any time without submitting it to the voters as part of the

constitution. It also contained the remarkable provision that women

should be eligible to election to the Parliament and all

representative bodies, although they had not a scrap of suffrage.

The exclusion of women was received with the disapproval of the

country and in the election campaign of 1918 the demand of all the

non-clerical parties was for woman suffrage. At the opening of

Parliament H. P. Marchant, leader of the Constitutional Democrats,

introduced a bill for the complete enfranchisement of women. Early in

November, 1918, all Europe was alarmed by the revolution in Russia and

The Netherlands was threatened. There was a demand for woman suffrage

at once as a deterrent. The Government agreed and took up Mr.

Marchant's bill but the danger passed and nothing was done. By

February, 1919, the suffragists were obliged to hold another mass

meeting and demonstration at The Hague and assure the Government that

they would rouse the country. The Speaker then brought in the bill,

which was discussed in April, and on May 9 universal suffrage for

women on the same terms as possessed by men was accepted by a vote of

64 to 10 by the Second Chamber. The following July it passed the First

Chamber with five dissenting votes and was signed by the Queen on

September 8.

In 1918 a woman had been elected to the Second Chamber and in 1920 one

was elected to the First Chamber, and there were 36 on County Councils

and 88 on Municipal councils, chosen by men before women had yet

voted.

BELGIUM.

On November 23, 1918, five days after the armistice which ended the

World War the National Federation for Woman Suffrage in Belgium

resumed its activities with an open letter to the Labor Party,

referring to their manifesto for universal suffrage and reminding them

that this included women. A little later it addressed an appeal to the

newly established Government and started a petition. In the midst of

the war King Albert and Queen Elizabeth had expressed themselves in

favor of the enfranchisement of women but when he opened the first

Parliament after it was over he recommended only equal, universal

suffrage for men. Notwithstanding the unfavorable conditions the

petition soon had 35,000 signatures and was sent to the Parliament. By

midwinter of 1919 the question was one of heated controversy among the

parties, which continued. By April the petition had reached 175,000.

The Catholics favored woman suffrage, the Liberals and Socialists

opposed it, fearing the influence of the church. To avoid a

dissolution of the Parliament a compromise was finally effected by

which the parliamentary vote was given to "all widows of soldiers and

civilians killed by the enemy, or, where there is no widow, to the

mother"; and to "all women condemned or imprisoned for patriotic acts

during the enemy occupation." This enfranchised about 30,000 women and

was only to be in effect until a Constituent Assembly should be

elected which would revise the electoral law.

Meanwhile a bill for the Municipal or Communal franchise for women was

introduced. Plural voting for men was abolished; a general election

took place November 16 and the new Parliament met in December. The

necessary two-thirds vote for the Parliamentary suffrage for women

seemed impossible but the three parties were virtually pledged to give

the Municipal. After three months of controversy and suspense this

Communal franchise was granted in the Chamber of Deputies on March 3,

1920, to all women 21 years of age, by vote of 120 to 37. All the

Catholics voted in favor; all the Liberals but two against

it--Burgomaster Max and Paul Hymans, Minister of Foreign Affairs; the

Socialist vote was divided, 45 of the 56 in favor. It was accepted in

the Senate April 14 by 60 to 33.

The commission on revising the constitution refused by 11 to 9 votes

to include the Parliamentary franchise for women but recommended

unanimously their eligibility to sit in both chambers. This was

accepted in June by the Deputies by 142 to 10 votes. On July 1 they

rejected by a vote of 89 to 74 a bill giving the complete suffrage to

women. On July 28 they voted by a large majority for a clause that

any future Parliament might do this by a two-thirds vote without a

revision of the constitution.

LUXEMBURG.

Under the Treaty of Peace after the war Luxemburg became an

independent government with its own Parliament. There was a temporary

Constituent Assembly and on May 8, 1919, without even an effort by

women, this body adopted universal suffrage, without distinction of

sex, by a vote of 39 to 11. All inhabitants 21 years of age are

electors and after 25 are eligible for the Parliament and Communal

Councils. On September 28 men and women voted on the country's future

form of government and decided by a four-fifths vote to have an

independent monarchy with an elected Parliament. A month later the

elections for it took place. One of the two women candidates was

elected.

RUSSIA.

It would be difficult to relate the story of woman suffrage in Russia.

In the villages and among the peasants women had long voted at the

local elections either as proxies of the husband or by right of owning

property, and among the nobility and wealthy classes they could vote

through male proxies. There was little national suffrage even among

men and the Revolution after the Russo-Japanese war was a struggle for

representation. In March, 1905, a Russian Union of Defenders of

Women's Rights was started in Moscow and spread among different

classes throughout Russia. It became a part of the general movement

for liberty, was well organized and its demands were many but the

first one was for a Constituent Assembly elected by universal, secret

ballot. It united with the great political Union of Unions, which

officially recognized the equal rights of women in all respects in

July, 1905, and before the end of the year this had been done by many

municipalities.

Everything was stopped by the Revolution and that was followed by the

establishment of the Douma. All that women hoped for from it was

wrecked when it was dissolved. Their Union at this time had 79

branches and 10,000 members and had collected and used $50,000 for

its work. The struggle was continued but two years later not 1,000

members could be found. In December, 1908, the first Women's Congress

in Russia was held in St. Petersburg, welcomed by the Mayor and

addressed by members of Parliament and eminent women, and was

favorably received. Many women's societies were formed but worked

under great difficulties. Woman suffrage bills came before the Douma

and it passed one giving the Municipal franchise, after striking out

eligibility, but the Czar did not sign it. A bill for adult suffrage

was taken up and Professor Miliukov made a brilliant plea for

enfranchising women but it was not passed and the suffrage had not

been granted to women at the beginning of the war in 1914.

In the second revolution in 1917 women took practically the same part

as men and in the Provisional Government which was the result there

was no question as to their equal rights in suffrage and office

holding. They were elected to the City Council of St. Petersburg and

put on all public committees. Then came the counter revolution and

chaos. From the beginning of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance

in 1904 Russian delegates, women of great ability, had come to its

congresses with their reports but at the first meeting after the war,

in Geneva in 1920, there was no word. When Russia eventually secures a

stable government it probably will make no distinction between the

political rights of men and women.

GERMANY.

When the International Woman Suffrage Alliance met in Budapest in

June, 1913, delegates were present from affiliated societies in

twenty-one countries; national associations from several had applied

for admission and committees had been formed in several others. Over a

hundred fraternal delegates were sent from organizations in twelve

countries having woman suffrage as one of their objects or as the only

one. In every direction the prospect looked encouraging and then one

year later the great War burst upon the world! The first thought of

the suffrage leaders was that the work of years had been swept away

and after the War it would have to be commenced again. They did not

dream that as a result of the War would come victories for equal

suffrage that it would have required many years to win. These

victories began with the enfranchisement of the women of Great Britain

and Ireland in February, 1918, as described in another chapter, the

direct result of the War. On the Continent woman suffrage came first

where it had been least expected--in Germany and Austro-Hungary. In

some of the German States women landowners could vote by male proxies.

Each of the 22 States had its own King and Parliament and made its own

laws and all men of 25 could vote for the Reichstag or Lower House of

the Imperial Parliament but this privilege was largely nullified by a

system of plural voting. In Prussia and Bavaria, the two largest

States, women were not allowed to attend political meetings or form

political organizations, and those for suffrage came under this head.

The first attempt to form a suffrage society was made in Hamburg, one

of the three "free cities," in 1901 and it was followed by others in

the other two "free cities," Frankfort and Bremen, and in the southern

States, where these restrictions did not exist. In 1902 these

societies were united in a National Association, of which Dr. Anita

Augspurg was president. Its members kept up an agitation for the

Municipal vote, carrying the question into the courts, and they also

petitioned the Reichstag for the full suffrage.

The International Council of Women met in Berlin in 1904, the largest

meeting of women ever held in any country, and the organizing at this

time of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance aroused universal

interest. In the election of the new Reichstag in 1906 the suffrage

societies took an active part and in 1907 it repealed the old law

forbidding women to attend political meetings and form political

associations, the new law going into effect in May, 1908. The

suffragists celebrated with an immense meeting in Frankfort, addressed

by Mrs. Pethick Lawrence and Miss Annie Kenney of England, who roused

great enthusiasm. Suffrage associations were then organized in the

various States, which began to work with their own Parliaments.

Through lectures, literature and organizing the effort was continued,

the women joining and working with the political parties, especially

the Social Democratic, which espoused their cause. In 1912 forty

petitions for the Municipal suffrage in Prussia were presented to its

Diet by women. A Woman's Congress was held in Munich and for the first

time in Germany a procession of women marched through the streets. In

1911 differences in questions of policy which had been increasing had

resulted in the forming of a second National Association. The two

united in 1916 under the presidency of Mrs. Marie Stritt, former

president of the National Council of Women of Germany and secretary of

the International Alliance. In March, 1918, Mrs. Stritt wrote to the

_International Suffrage News_: "We German women have at present no

reason to rejoice over the progress of our cause but we have followed

with all the greater joy the unexpected success of our sisters in

other countries."

In 1920 Mrs. Stritt, now a member of the city council in Dresden,

wrote for this History as follows: "Although throughout the more than

four years of war the women worked eagerly for the suffrage through

their organizations, demanding it in public meetings and petitioning

legislative bodies, they did not get it by their own efforts but by

the Revolution in November, 1918, at the end of the war. In August,

1919, their rights were confirmed unanimously by all parties in the

new constitution. They received the suffrage and eligibility for the

Reichstag, and for the Parliaments of the States and local

bodies--universal, equal, direct and secret and applied exactly on the

same terms as to men. Women are by the constitution eligible to all

State and Government offices. In the first elections, in January,

1920, 39 were elected to the National Assembly, 117 to the State

Parliaments in Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, etc., and 1,400 to local

bodies. Twenty were elected to the Diet of Prussia."

Dr. Alice Salamon, of Berlin, secretary of the International Council

of Women, wrote: "From the first day of the Revolution, when suffrage

was proclaimed for all men and women from the age of 20, it was

accepted as the most natural thing in the world. It was neither

questioned nor opposed by any political or professional groups. All

political parties resolutely accepted woman suffrage as a fact and

issued electoral platforms in which they declared themselves for the

full partnership of women in political life."

In the autumn of 1919 the National Union for Woman Suffrage held a

convention in Erfurt and by unanimous vote dissolved, considering that

its work had been accomplished. The members then devoted their efforts

to abolishing the many legal, civil and social discriminations against

women.

AUSTRIA.

The situation in Austria was much the same as in Germany except that

from a very early date women taxpayers had some small franchise

rights, but in 1906, when by a peaceful revolution men secured

universal suffrage for themselves, the new constitution took even

those away from women which they had. Although large numbers of women

had stood shoulder to shoulder with the Progressives and Social

Democrats in their struggle for suffrage, when the latter succeeded in

getting control of both branches of the Parliament they refused to

grant any voting rights to women. The Austrian Government had never

allowed women to attend political meetings or form suffrage societies.

It was not until 1905 that they dared even to form a Woman Suffrage

Committee and while the men were demanding their own rights it sent a

petition to the Parliament that these should be granted to women also.

In 1907, after the new régime was under way, they sent another

petition signed by 4,000 men and women asking for the repeal of the

above obnoxious law. It was refused and the Supreme Court sustained

the refusal.

The women did not relax their efforts. Mass meetings were held in

Vienna and the provincial capitals under the auspices of the Woman

Suffrage Committee and other committees were formed. They published a

monthly paper and many of the newspapers took up their cause. In 1910

they sent a deputation to the Premier and Minister of Internal

Affairs, which was sympathetically received, and the latter said that

not only ought the law to be repealed but women should have the

Municipal franchise. A Socialist Deputy brought the matter of the law

before the Constitutional Committee, which reported it to the Chamber,

where the sentiment was almost unanimous for its repeal. It went to

the Upper House but before it could be sanctioned the Parliament was

dissolved. In the autumn of 1913 a new Law of Assemblies was passed

from which the section so bitterly opposed was omitted and in fact the

women had been defying it. They began at once a nation-wide suffrage

organization, which affiliated with the International Alliance. The

next year the country was immersed in a World War which continued over

four years. At the end of it the Government passed into the hands of

the people. The new constitution provided that all women over 20

should have full suffrage and eligibility to all offices, national and

State, on the same terms as men. For the first elections the following

February the Austrian Union of Suffrage Societies and the National

Council of Women worked together and it was estimated that 2,000,000

women voted; eight were elected to the National Constituent Assembly,

twelve to the city council of Vienna and 126 to other municipal

councils.

HUNGARY.

Women were not prohibited from political activities in Hungary as in

Austria and when the International Woman Suffrage Alliance was formed

in Berlin in 1904 Rosika Schwimmer came from Budapest with a report

that in 1900 Francis Kossuth and Louis Hentaller were advocating woman

suffrage in the Parliament and in 1903 women were working with men for

political reforms. By 1905 a Woman Suffrage Association was formed,

auxiliary to the International, mass meetings were held and petitions

were sent to the Parliament. In 1906 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the

international president, and Dr. Aletta Jacobs, president of the

Netherlands National Association, visited Budapest and addressed

enthusiastic meetings. Later Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg of Finland

and Mrs. Dora Montefiore of England did the same. Strenuous agitation

was kept up, meetings, processions, demonstrations, and half a million

leaflets were distributed. The Government was to discuss a Reform Bill

in 1908 and a determined effort was made to keep the women out of the

House of Parliament as spectators. Mrs. Catt paid another visit that

year and gave ten lectures in eight cities. Eloquent women speakers

went to the aid of the Hungarian women from Berlin, Munich, Berne,

Turin and Rotterdam. In 1910 the conservative National Council of

Women added a woman suffrage committee and a Men's League for Woman

Suffrage of representative men was formed. There were suffrage

societies in 87 cities and towns composed of all classes. The women

were badly treated by all political parties and excluded from their

meetings, the Radicals and Social Democrats being their strongest

opponents. The struggle continued with sometimes a favorable and

sometimes an unfavorable Government and always the contest by men for

their own universal suffrage.

In 1913, through the remarkable efforts of Rosika Schwimmer, the

International Suffrage Alliance held its congress in Budapest with

delegates from all over the world. It was a notable triumph, welcomed

by the dignitaries of the State and city; its meetings for seven days

crowded to overflowing and every possible courtesy extended. The

demand that women should have the vote seemed to have become

universal. Then came the War and all was blotted out for years. When

it was over in 1918 internal revolution followed and out of it came a

Republic but without stability. A law was enacted giving suffrage to

all men of 21 but only to women of 24 who could read and write. Women

voted under it in 1919 and one was elected to the Parliament but the

law has not yet been written into a permanent constitution.

BOHEMIA.

Bohemian women suffered the disadvantages of those of Austria and

could not attend political meetings or form suffrage societies,

although by an old law taxpayers and those belonging to the learned

professions could vote by a male proxy for the members of the Diet of

the Kingdom, and were eligible themselves after the age of 30. They

had a Woman Suffrage Committee and petitioned the Diet to include

women in the new electoral law of 1907 but it received word from

Vienna that nothing must be done. By 1911 a Woman Suffrage Committee

was doing a good deal of active suffrage work and women's

organizations were being formed in the political parties but the

Social Democratic was the only one that favored equal suffrage. For a

number of years the women endeavored to secure the nomination of a

woman candidate for the Bohemian Diet but were always unsuccessful.

Finally in 1912 the Social Democratic and a section of the Liberal

party each nominated a woman and by the most heroic effort and a

combination of fortunate circumstances the latter, Mrs.

Vikova-Kuneticka, a prominent writer and suffragist, was elected on

June 13. The Governor of the district, doubting her eligibility,

delayed issuing the certificate; the Diet did not meet; the War came

on and after it ended Bohemia assumed her own government with equal

rights for women, and she took her seat.

In the newly organized country of Czecho-Slovakia woman suffrage

prevailed throughout and in 1920 thirteen women were elected to the

Lower and three to the Upper House of the National Parliament. The new

Parliament of Jugo-Slavia voted against woman suffrage.

* * * * *

It is practically impossible to give an accurate account of the

situation in regard to the suffrage and office-holding of women in the

re-alignment which took place in central and southeastern Europe after

the war. The States which were formed with new or changed boundaries

all began with the declaration of absolute democracy, equal suffrage

for men and women and eligibility to all offices. At their first

elections women in some of them were elected to the Parliaments and

city councils of the new régime. Poland, restored, gave universal

suffrage, and elected eight to the Parliament. Its women are strongly

organized and very capable. It is not possible to foretell the future

of these experiments in democracy. It has been reported from time to

time that the suffrage had been given to women in Bulgaria, Roumania

and Serbia and then denied but at present they do not seem to be

exercising it. (1920.)

SWITZERLAND.

Switzerland, like France, is a republic only in name, as women are

wholly disfranchised. It is now the only country where the question of

woman suffrage has to be submitted to the individual voters. To give

women the franchise for the Federal Council that body must submit the

question to all the voters, and to give it in each Canton of the 22

for its Council, this body must submit the question to all the voters

in the Canton. It never has been submitted by the Federal Council,

which holds that it must first be granted in the Cantons. Whenever

they have voted on it they have defeated it, the agricultural

population being especially hostile. There are many organizations of

women, the most important of which ask for the suffrage. The largest

of them, the National Council of Women, with 20,000 members from all

kinds of societies, was very slow to recognize the value of the vote

but in January, 1919, when a revision of the constitution was

expected, it took official action and unanimously adopted suffrage

work.

Mme. Chaponnière-Chaix (who is now president of the International

Council of Women), Mme. Saulner and Mlle. Camille Vidart were present

at the forming of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Berlin

in 1904 to represent a group in Geneva. In May, 1908, a Central Woman

Suffrage Committee was formed in Berne of societies in seven cities

and it was admitted to membership in the Alliance. In January, 1909, a

National Association was organized with M. de Morsier, a Deputy of the

Council of the Geneva Canton, as president and lectures and organizing

commenced. The work was continued and small gains were made. Vaud,

Geneva, Neuchâtel, Bâle-Ville and Berne gave women a vote in the

State church. They can sit on school boards in these Cantons

and Zurich. They can vote for and serve on the tribunaux de

prud'hommes--industrial boards--in two or three Cantons, these rights

granted by the Councils. The universities and the professions are open

to women.

Work for woman suffrage was at an end during the War and after it was

over there was not the disposition to enfranchise women that prevailed

in other countries of Europe but it was taken up by the liberal

parties. The suffragists entered upon vigorous efforts to have the

rights of women included in the proposed revision of the national

constitution. On March 17, 1919, in response to large petitions, the

Council of Neuchâtel by a vote of 60 to 30 submitted the question of

woman suffrage to the voters. In June the National Suffrage

Association held its annual meeting in this Canton with a large

attendance and its president, Mlle. Emily Gourd, gave an account of an

active year's work. A petition signed by 157 women's societies asked

the Federal Council to put woman suffrage in the revised national

constitution. There was a spirit of hopefulness that a new régime was

at hand, as many Cantons were considering the question.

The vote was taken in Neuchâtel June 28, 29, 1919. A dishonorable

campaign had been made by the opponents, financed by the liquor trade,

and the result in the entire Canton was 12,017 noes, 5,346 ayes. In

the town it stood 1,647 noes, 831 ayes; in the industrial and

Socialist town of Chaux de Fonds it was 2,400 noes, 1,800 ayes. The

Federal Council refused all appeals to submit the question, although

it was discussed in the First Chamber. In October the Council of Basle

by 63 to 24 voted to submit the proposition. The Council of Zurich

also sent it to the voters, adding eligibility to office. On February

8, 1920, the vote in the Canton of Zurich was 88,249 noes; 21,608

ayes. In that of Basle it was 12,455 noes; 6,711 ayes. The peasants

were solidly opposed and the workingmen voted against it.

The suffragists then concentrated upon Geneva and set out to get a

petition from 2,500 electors, which would compel the Council of the

Canton to submit the proposition. In June, 1920, the International

Woman Suffrage Alliance held in Geneva its first congress after the

war. Delegates were present from all over the civilized world.

Twenty-one countries had now enfranchised women. From every point of

view it was one of the most successful it had ever held and it was

expected to influence the referendum on woman suffrage. The year was

crowded with work and the 2,500 names were not obtained until

November. It was February, 1921, before the Council of the Canton

discussed the petition and then it was referred to a Special

Commission, where it was held until September 21 before the proposal

to give full suffrage and eligibility to women was submitted to the

voters. The election took place October 17 and resulted in 14,166

noes; 6,629 ayes.

ITALY.