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Show THE AMERICAN WAyTT v t j Ladies! I ; - I Get Tough I ' V ' J , ' m-m. By George Pr' ' granted equal rights, but the 19th Amendment did give you equal franchise at v the polls. There is your club by all means swing it. Qualify your Congressional Congres-sional candidate this Fall make them commit themselves unequi-vocably unequi-vocably to the support of this equal rights amendment. Ladies, you've been patient and meek about this equal rights business busi-ness for all too long. The time has come for you to get tough. Not very ladylike advice, we admit, ad-mit, but it appears to be the only course of conduct left for you to pursue to insure your getting your case before the great American jury of voters. Just what do the women of these United States have to doj in order to convince the MEN of Congress that the nation's voters vot-ers (both male and female) should be given an opportunity to vote on an amendment to the Constitution of the United States which would give the ladies equal rights? There seems to be but one answer an-swer to that question. It is: "GET TOUGH, LADIE9!" If there ever was any reasonable argument against extending equality of rights under the law to American women, the war has provided the erroneously called "weaker sex" with an unanswerable rebuttal. It is not our purpose here to go into a glowing recital of women's participation with men in the military services, nor to become ecstatic about the splendid jobs millions of women are performing on the war production line. These things are matters of common knowledge, but if anyone doubts them, just ask any male service man or war worker. It's been a long fight this struggle strug-gle on the part of our women folks for equal rights. It goes back as far as Congress is concerned con-cerned to 1923 when the following resolution proposing as amendment amend-ment was introduced in Congress: Con-gress: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied cr abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress and the several States shall have power within their respective jurisdiction to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. legis-lation. This amendment shall take effect five years after the date of ratification." Do you see anything wrong with this proposal? Yet, over a 5period of twenty years it has been kicked around by Congressional Congres-sional committees. As recently as last October, the Judiciary committee com-mittee of the House of Representatives Represen-tatives by a vote of 15 to 11 failed to report the proposal out of committee. We marvel at the courage of those 15 Congressmen who voted against the proposal, even though we may not think so highly of their wisdom on this particular issue. Can you picture what is going to happen to those intrepid fifteen when they get back to their congressional districts dis-tricts and the women can lay hands on them? It is difficult to understand this action on the part of the House Judiciary committee. The arguments argu-ments against extending equal rights to women are few and flimsy, while those in its favor are many and strong. But even if the reverse were true, it is contrary con-trary to our American concepts to have a Congressional committee block a discussion of this reso-! lution in the Conrgess, and that the voters should be denied an opportunity to vote upon it in accordance with their convictions. convic-tions. Ladies, it looks very much as though one more year will have to be added to the twenty already elapsed since your equal rights amendment was first introduced, before we voters will be given the privilege of voting those equal rights into the Constitution for you. However, it is being whispered whis-pered around that there is to be a general election, come next November. No-vember. You may not as yet by due process of law have been |
