Carrie Chapman Catt
(1859 - 1947)
President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
1900 -1904, 1915 - 1920 |
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington,
D.C.
|
Do you know by Carrie Chapman Catt
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
835870
ASTOR LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
R .......... 1918 .......... L
DO YOU KNOW that the question of votes for women is one which is
commanding the attention of the whole civilized world; that woman
suffrage organizations of representative men and women exist in
twenty-seven different countries; that in this country alone there are
more than 1,000 woman suffrage organizations; that there is an
International and a National Men's League for Woman Suffrage and numbers
of local men's leagues; that the number of women who are asking for the
vote in this country is larger than the number of men who have ever
asked for anything in its entire history; that more and larger petitions
asking for votes for women have been sent to legislative bodies than for
any other one measure; that the press of this country is giving more
space to woman suffrage than to any other one public question; that the
legislatures of twenty-eight states this
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page2
year entertained woman suffrage measures, II of them favorably; and that
a bill for a woman suffrage amendment to the United States Constitution
is now before Congress?
DO YOU KNOW that the women of New Zealand and the women of Australia
possess all the political rights accorded to men?
DO YOU KNOW that the women of Finland vote in all elections upon the
same terms as men, and that since then enfranchisement in 1906, from
sixteen to twenty-five have been elected to the different Parliaments.?
DO YOU KNOW that in Norway all women have the full Parliamentary vote
and that in 1910 one woman sat in the Norwegian Parliament, and that
number of women are serving as members and alternates to city councils?
DO YOU KNOW that the women of Iceland have the full Parliamentary
franchise and that since 1902 one-fourth of the members of the council
of the capital city have been women?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 33
in 1862 unmarried women who had to pay taxes were given the municipal
franchise, and that in 1909 this right was extended to all women; that,
furthermore, it is only a matter of a little time before women will have
the full Parliamentary vote? The measure has already twice passed the
Lower House of the Swedish Parliament and is known to have the support
of the King and the Prime Minister. It is opposed only by the
aristocrats of the Upper House who are against all democratic measures,
but it is admitted that even they cannot long keep back so popular a
cause.
DO YOU KNOW that in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales women vote
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 44
in all elections except for members of Parliament; that they are
eligible and have been elected to office as mayors and members of city
and county councils; and that on the Isle Man women who pay rent or
taxes can vote for members of the Manx Parliament?
DO YOU KNOW that in eight of the provinces of Canada-Ontario, New
Brunswick, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, British Columbia,
Alberta and Saskatchewan-tax-paying widows and spinsters have the
municipal vote, while in Nova Scotia married women whose husband are not
voters are included also?
DO YOU KNOW that within the past year the subject of woman suffrage
has been considered in the National Parliament of 17 countries; that the
revolutionary government in China stands pledged to woman suffrage, and
that
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 55
women have already voted in one province; that in France a special
commission appointed to investigate the question has recommended that
the full franchise be extended to women as rapidly as may be deemed
feasible, and that the municipal franchise be granted immediately?
DO YOU KNOW that wherever women have got the vote they have used it
in large numbers-larger, frequently
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
page 66
than the men of the same city, state or country; that in the first
election after the New Zealand women were given the franchise,
seventy-eight per cent of the women voted as opposed to sixty-nine per
cent of the men, while in subsequent elections the proportion of both
men and women voting steadily rose until now it is about eighty per cent
of the qualified persons of both sexes; that in the equal suffrage
states of our own country from seventy to ninety per cent of the women
vote, whereas in most states of the Union only sixty to sixty-five per
cent of the qualified men voters actually cast their ballots; that in
some of the equal suffrage states almost half of the vote is cast by
women, although they do not nearly constitute half the population; that
in the first elections after the Washington women were enfranchised,
women's votes secured the recall of corrupt city governments in Seattle
and Tacoma; that in the first election after the women of California
were enfranchised, taking place in Los Angeles in 1911, ninety-five per
cent of the women vote, outnumbering the men voters in many wards?
DO YOU KNOW that, on the other hand, large numbers of men are utterly
indifferent to their rights as voters; that
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
page 7
in the presidential election of 1912, the total vote cast was only
14,720,038, while the number of men eligible to vote was 24,335,000;
that in the presidential election of 1908 the total vote cast was only
14,888,442, while the number of men eligible to vote was fully
22,000,000; that in the presidential election of 1904 the total vote was
only 13,961,560 while the total number of men eligible to vote was
21,000,000?
DO YOU KNOW that extending the franchise to women actually increases
the proportion of intelligent voters, that there is now and has been for
years, according to the report of the Commissioner of Education,
one-third more girls in the high schools of the country than boys;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
page 88
and that, according to the last census, the illiterate men of the
country greatly outnumbered the illiterate women?
DO YOU KNOW that extending the suffrage to women increases the number
of native-born voters; that for every one hundred foreign white women
immigrants coming to this country there are 129 men, while among Asiatic
immigrants the men outnumber the women two to one, according to the
figures of the census of 1910?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
page 99
DO YOU KNOW that there are in the United States about 8,000,000 women
in gainful occupations outside the home who need the protection of the
ballot to regulate the conditions under which they must labor; and that
the efforts of working women to regulate these conditions without the
ballot have been practically unavailing?
DO YOU KNOW that wherever women, the traditional housekeepers of the
world, have been given a voice in the government, public housekeeping
has been materially improved by an increased attention to questions of
pure food, pure water supply, sanitation, housing, public
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
page 100
health and morals, child welfare and education?
DO YOU KNOW that the legislatures of some of the suffrage states, the
Australian Parliament, and numbers of the most representative people,
both men and women, in all the suffrage states and countries have
testified time and again in print and over their own signatures, that
woman suffrage has brought none of the evils which its opponents fear,
but has, is instead, been productive of much positive good; that it has
enlarged the outlook of women, increase their intelligence and
self-reliance, rendered homes happier, ennobled men and dignified
politics; that in all the places where women vote, the apponents, thus
far, have not been able to find a dozen respectable men to assert,
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
page 111
over their own names and addresses, that it has had any bad results;
that more than five hundred organizations-state, national and
international other than woman suffrage associations-aggregating
approximately a membership of over 50,000,000, have officially endorsed
woman suffrage?
DO YOU KNOW one single sound, logical reason why the intelligence and
individuality of women should not entitle them to the rights and
privileges of self-government?
Resources:
http://www.catt.org/ccabout.html
http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00118.html
|
