edited by Frances M. Björkman and Annie G. Porritt (1917) Show For Lesson Two NOTE: This is an excerpt from "The blue book"; woman suffrage, history, arguments and results,edited by Frances M. Björkman and Annie G. Porritt (1917) found in National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection. {Excerpt Begins} {Page no. 20} Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several states as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which when ratified by three-fourths of the said legislatures, shall be valid as part of said constitution, namely: Article -, Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Sec. 2. Congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce the provisions of this article. During the years that followed, suffragists directed their efforts towards obtaining the vote in two ways-through the states and by means of the Federal Amendment. The successes in the several states will be traced under each of the states. Miss Anthony worked as devotedly to help the women of the states to win the ballot as she worked for the favorable consideration of her amendment by Congress. Until very recently it was felt by most suffragists that the state-by-state method alone offered any good prospects of success, and only since women have been enfranchised in twelve states has hope revived of the passage of the Federal Constitutional amendment. Federal Constitutional Amendment. {Text Omitted} (All Western states, and some other states, as well as other countries are researched.) Colorado In 1898, as a result of certain misrepresentations, a statement approving equal suffrage was issued, signed by the Governor, three ex-Governors, both United States Senators, two ex-Senators, two Representatives in Congress, the Chief Justice and two Associate Justice of the Supreme, Court, three Judges of the Court of Appeals, four Judges of the District Court, the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, the State Auditor, the Attorney-General, the Mayor of Denver, the president of the State University, the president of Colorado College and the presidents of officers of numerous women's clubs. In 1899 the Colorado Legislature passed, by a vote of 45 to 3 in the House and 30 to 1 in the Senate, a resolution declaring that during time that equal suffrage had been in operation women had used the vote as generally as men, with the result that better candidates had been selected for office, election methods had been purified, the character of legislation improved, civic intelligence increased and womanhood developed; and recommending the adoption of the measure by all the States and Territories of the Union. {Text Omitted} Effect of Women Voting Upon Legislation. The statutes of Colorado present a most imposing array of laws affecting the welfare of women, children and the home. A large number of these must unquestionably be attributed to the work of women. In this State, where the sexes are more evenly distributed than in any of the older suffrage States, the women voters have used their political power to influence legislation more consciously and deliberately and over a longer period of time than anywhere else. Women have introduced many of these laws into the Legislature, where, in most sessions, they had the advantage of women members to look after them. Every woman's club has its legislative committee, which scrutinizes every bill introduced and makes recommendations as to whether it should be supported or opposed. Among the laws most easily traceable to women's influence are the following measures: Making mother joint guardians with the fathers over their children. Raising the age of protection of young girls to 18. Establishing a juvenile court; making parents responsible for the offenses of delinquent children, when they have by neglect or any other cause contributed to such delinquency. Forbidding the employment of children in certain industries. Making the wife the head of the family in cases where she provides the principal support. Providing for supervision of lying-in hospitals and maternity homes conducted by private individuals. Compelling men to support their families and making wife-desertion a felony. Providing penalties for the punishment of male and female procurers. Making it a felony for any person under 18 to work as a servant or employee in any house of ill-fame. Making immoral solicitation a felony. Imposing heavy penalties upon men for living upon the earnings of immoral women. Forbidding the insuring of the lives of children under ten years. Establishing State parental schools. Establishing a State home for dependent children, two of the five members of the board to be women. Requiring that at least three of the six members of the Board of County Visitors shall be women. Establishing a State industrial home for girls, three of the five members of the board to be women. Requiring one woman physician on the board of the insane asylum. Providing for the care of the feeble-minded. Making father and mother joint heirs of a deceased child. Establishing a State travelling library commission, to consist of five women from the Colorado Federation of Women's Club, to be appointed by the Governor. Prohibiting the gift or sale of cigarettes to children. Prohibiting the sale of opium. Making employers liable for industrial accidents. Removing the emblems from the Australia ballot (an approach to an educational qualification for voting). Establishing the indeterminate sentence for prisoners. Making the Colorado Humane Society a State bureau of child and animal protection. Providing for the teaching of humanity to animals in the public schools. Establishing mothers pensions. Creating a minimum wage board to determine minimum wage for women. Establishing an eight-hour law for women. Providing for the initiative, referendum, recall, and for direct primaries. At the election of November, 1914, Statewide prohibition was adopted, and in the Session of 1915 a red light injunction and abatement law on the model of the Iowa law was passed. In the same session Colorado adopted a comprehensive workman's compensation act and an industrial disputes act. Before the franchise was granted women's property rights had already been fairly well secured, and now the last discriminations have been removed, so that, with respect to property, women are on a basis of perfect equality with men, the old laws of power and courtesy having been replaced with measures even more favorable to women. {Text Omitted} Objections Answered by Alice Stone Blackwell Why Should Women Vote? The reasons why women should vote are the same as the reasons shy men should vote-the same as the reasons for having a republic rather than a monarchy. It is fair and right that the people who must obey the laws should have a voice in choosing the law-makers, and that those who must pay the taxes should have a voice as to the amount of the tax, and the way in which the money shall be spent. Roughly stated, the fundamental principle of a republic is this: In deciding what is to be done, we take everybody's opinion, and then go according to the wish of the majority. As we cannot suit everybody, we do what will suit the greatest number. That seems to be, on the whole, the fairest way. A vote is simply a written expression of opinion. In thus taking a vote to get at the wish of the majority, certain classes of persons are passed over, whose opinions for one reason or another are thought not to be worth counting. In most of our states, these classes are children, aliens, idiots, lunatics, criminals and women. There are good and obvious reasons for making all these exceptions but the last. Of course no account ought to be taken of the opinions of children, insane persons, or criminals. Is there any equally good reason why no account should be taken of the opinions of women? Let us consider the reasons commonly given, and see if they are sound. (For each argument she gives a compelling counter-argument) Are
Women Represented? {Text Omitted} Is "Influence" Enough? {Text Omitted} The Ignorant Vote {Text Omitted} The Foreign Vote {Text Omitted} The Criminal Vote {Text Omitted} The Bad Women's Vote {Text Omitted} Don't Understand Business Division of Labor Would Lose Their Influence Cease to Be Respected {Text Omitted} Would Make Women Partisans {Text Omitted} Opposition of Women Already OverBurdened Women and Office Holding {Text Omitted} Ballots and Bullets {Text Omitted} Can Laws Be Enforced? {Text Omitted} Will It Increase Divorce? The
Question of Chivalry Known By Its Enemies Too Emotional {Text Omitted} What Is the Unit? Women's Small School Vote Will Women Vote? A Growing Cause {Text Omitted} The Test of Experiment Doubling
the Vote Would Unsex Women Suffrage and Marriage Suffrage and
Feminism Suffrage and Wages Suffrage and Jury Duty Women Do Not Want It {Text Omitted} (There is then a list of all of the political groups and male politicians and civic leaders who support womenís suffrage, with comments.) Twelve Reasons Why Women Should Vote
Have We a Democracy? There are three foundation principles which embody this democratic spirit today: First-"No taxation without representation." This principle was recognized in the Magna Charta and was made the battle cry in our American Revolution. Second-"Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." This is the "self-evident truth" in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, and is the rock on which our republic is built. The third foundation principle was voiced by Lincoln when he said "that this nation under God should have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, should not perish from the earth." {Excerpt Ends} What major event caused the women's suffrage movement?Women in America first collectively organized in 1848 at the First Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY to fight for suffrage (or voting rights). Organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, the convention sparked the women's suffrage movement.
How did Texas lead the South in women's suffrage?Texas became the ninth state and the first Southern state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on June 28, 1919. This allowed white women to vote, but African American women still had trouble voting, with many turned away, depending on their communities.
What event triggered the women's suffrage movement quizlet?What was the significance of the Seneca Falls Convention? Its purpose was "to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women." Organized by women for women, many consider the Seneca Falls Convention to be the event that triggered and solidified the women's rights movement in America.
How did the women's suffrage movement affect Texas?Both suffrage and anti-suffrage activism increased in Texas in the 1910s. Texas women won the right to vote in primary elections in 1918. In January 1919, an amendment to the state consitution enfranchising women finally passed through the legislature but was defeated when put to the male voters in May of that year.
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