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Show U- - ' By MRS, 0, R P. BELMONT still commands a lower wago than man's, and tho slogan of fifty yea ago, "Let down the bars.-' has been succeeded by "Equal pay for equal work." This la the demand of hundreds hun-dreds of thousands, hut a smaller group the simon pure woman euf- of tho Methodist Church South next May we shill witness tho speetaelo of women petitioning for all the rights of the laity. Honor to Whom Honor is Due. Some one has well said that tho tN THIRTY-TWO STATES WOMEN CAN VOTE AT SCHOOL ELECTIONS Female Taxpayers Have the Franchise in Many Places Legal Status Has Improved Economic Field Widened and Emoluments Increased erty can ho made profitable to it. "lie ban monopolized nearly all the profitable em ploy men la, and from those she is permitted to follow fol-low she receives but a scanty remuneration. re-muneration. Ii closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction dis-tinction which ho considers most honorahle to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law. she is not known. "lie has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her. "He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her oxclu3ion from the ministry, and WHAT did it have to win? What -wo the task the pioneers pio-neers of the movement set for themselves? Uld they )avc a clearly-defined purpose when they met In that memorable first woman's rights" convention at Sen- premacy of man, and giving all power Into his hands. "After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the owner of property, ho has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her prop- franchise" when those "Sentiments" were promulgated a littlo more than three score years ago, now has some voting privileges In two-thirds of our States and Territories. School Suffrage for women prevails in some form in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida. Iowa, Illinois, Indiana. Idaho. Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska. Ne-braska. New Hampshire,1 New Jersey, New York. North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio. Oregon. South Dakota. Utah, Vermont. Washington, Wyoming and Wisconsin 30 in all. Add to those Louisana, where women may vote In person or by proxy on nvicsilons of taxation; Maryland, which has one town, at least, where women tax-payers may vote Still Pond, incorporated with such provision In its charter in 190S; Virginia, which late lu 1009 conferred con-ferred similar privilege on tho women of Glntor Park, a suburb of Richmond; and West Virginia, whero tho town of Triadelphla gave women municipal suffrage years ago and only needed the present wide-spread agitation agita-tion to direct attention to tho fact, and wo have 34 of our 50 States and Territories Ter-ritories which have in a measure removed re-moved women's political disabilities. In one case, Kansas, women havo municipal suffrage and bond suffrage; In Montana tax-paying women have a vote on questions submitted to tax-payers; in Iowa ihey have bond suffrage; in Minnesota women numbors, comparatively speaking, and though thero Is still a long road to travel before they will hae equal "representation with men In tho halls of legislation," much advance has been mado In this direction. The Wife No Longer Dead in Law. It certainly caunot be said that ihe married woman is now "civilly dead," for in the year U'OO there remained but seven states in which married women did not have control of their separate property and tho right of married women to ruako wills had been extended throughout tho United States. Th divorce laws have been mollified and are much less one-sided than they were when that littlo band of pioneers uttered their protoat In ISIS. Guardianship of Children. South. Carolina alono grants no divorces di-vorces for any cause whatever. Tho laws affecting the guardianship of children, while vastly Improved, still leave much to be desired, for Colorado. Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa. Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Ithodo Island, Washington, and the District of Columbia alono make mothers co-guardians on equal terms with fathers. Mrs. Catherine Waugh McCulloch, legal adviser of the National Na-tional American Woman Suffrage Association, As-sociation, is authority for tho state ment that in Idaho. Utah and Wyoming, Wyom-ing, mothers are actually co-guardians by reason of powers invested In them i;-v: .:::.' ffl&? . ; 'v;': - . - ': I.-:!,-.. ., r Kav- . 1 - . - . : -.?;-;..: . '-.M'Vi ' ' . .- . Ir s:vj.": ' -r . -', "X '. ' 7 ; ' ; V'".-':':'' ' v. ' ' ' fy-j ' '" ' '' : v. 7"'.. ::- .f-e ' '.-. vr'Svi-v. , ' : fit:;' " v'-'::-v r'A iV- r S-J.--S. ' . . ;f ; . - - .. - ., . . iffv.-V: " i '. , '--a :.:, . :; - vt: . - " s.tY". U;.-f-v'-4V.'; v-S-v r - -, :. v- .. v,- . ;V":;!.,;vv'::.l:.'r','f . ": "-v':-';'-.i ' - ' V."--'-- . -'"V. , - . ' ' J :; ,fVV:Nx. 7";' : - Ka Falls. N. Y in IS IS 7 ixt the rot-pwlng rot-pwlng from the Declaration of Sentl-pents Sentl-pents adopted by that gathering, bo ho answor to these questions: "Tho history of mankind is a history his-tory of repeated injuries and usurpations usur-pations on the part of man toward woman, having In direct object tho establishment of an absolute tyranny tyran-ny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. "Ho has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. "Ho has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which fho had no voice. "He has withheld from her rlghl9 which are given to the most ignor-j ant and degraded men both natives and foreigners. "HaviDg deprived her of this first right of a cltizon, the elective fran cbtso, thereby leaving her without representation In the halls of legislation, legis-lation, he has oppressed her on all sides. "He has made her, if married, in the eye of tho law, civilly dead. "He has taken from her all right i !n property, even to the wages she : earns. j "He has mado her, morally, an ir- ' responsible boiDg, as she can com- mlt many crimes with Impunity, pro-f pro-f Tided thoy are done in tho presence ' Of her husband. In the covenant of , marriage she Is compelled to prom- ISO obodienco to her husband, he ! becoming, to all Intents and pur-;: pur-;: poses, her master tho law giving v htm. the power to deprive her of ber liberty and. to administer chastise- fcoent, ft Man Made Divorce Laws. w "He has so framed the laws of dl-f; dl-f; Vorce, as to what shall bo tho proper :' causes, and In caso of separation, to vhom the guardianship of tho chll- drcn Bhall be given, as to be wholly ; regardless of tho happiness of wo-4 wo-4 tnen the law. In all cases, going upon a false supposition of tho su- CAKRIE CHAPMAU" CATT, who succeeded Susan B. Anthony as President of the national American Woman Association; now President of tho International Woman SuiTragc Alliance. y'Ji fr HI I . : ; : 'Vr 7 ' h-hiK V ; - : y - ' r' .. t 4 V ' ' " ' ' ' . ' . ' ' V f'yv XV v ;: . '.VV r y- t r, Vr'-' ZL 7'.vv ' .i ' 7. .R J7 - .; . - , ..-.-. , MBS. OLIVER H. P. BELMONT is giving; time, talent, energy, money, self to the promotion of tho woman's cause. She is President of the Political Equality Association of New York. fragists. who hold wiih tho late United States Commissioner of Labor, Can oil D. Wright, that "the lack of direct political influence constitutes a powerful reason why women's wages havo been kept at a minimum." go a step farther and, like tho founders of tho movement, they begiu and they end with "Votes for Women." Miss Anthony summed it up long ago in a characteristic expression "The right protective of all other rights." The Attitude of The Church. Tho church has yielded but grudgingly, grudg-ingly, yet here too progress has been made, and at the General Conference greatest achievement ot the woman mov.imenl within the century has been the "personal liberty" which is now conceded to women. Who can say just how much of this phenomenal progress Is duo to the efforts ef-forts of women who for sixty years have labored so unselfishly in tho cause of woman's emancipation? Perhaps Per-haps tho suffragist is disposed to claim too much Perhaps the "Antl" Is wil'.ing to concede too little. Thv-so two opposing forces might unlfe, however, how-ever, in tho verdict of Miss Ida Tar-bell, Tar-bell, who can hardly be claimed as an adherent by cither side. I ! B-y- V 7 7. i ' ' . .v-i::.-.;,- , V'fsif' . ' ;Tr? yj . . " : ; " 7'';' V- : ; ' ''T.v7:'' '?J?-i -7' ' 7jfe; with some exceptions, from any public pub-lic participation in the affairs of the Church. "Ho has created a false public sentiment by giving tho world a different dif-ferent code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies delinquen-cies which exclude women from society so-ciety aro not only tolerated but doomed of littlo account in man. "He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to' assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God. "Ho has endeavored, in every wav that he could, to destroy her confidence confi-dence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to load a dependent and abject ab-ject lifo. "Now, in view of this entiro disfranchisement disfran-chisement of one-half tho people of this country, their social and religious relig-ious degradation in vlow of the unjust laws above mentioned, and becaiiKO women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed and fraudulently fraudu-lently deprived of their most sacred rights. Ave insist that thoy have Immediate Im-mediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizen. of the United States. "In entering upon tho great work before us wo anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation misrep-resentation and ridicule; but we hhall use every lnstrumenlallty within our power to effect our object. ob-ject. Wo shall employ agents, circulate cir-culate tracts, petition the State and National Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist I ho pulpit and tho press in our behalf. We hope this Convention Conven-tion will be followed by a series of Conventions embracing every part of tho country,"" Suffrage Extended. Woman "not permit tod to exercise her inalienable right to tho elcctlv ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, who had to fight to secure from tho first Woman's Rights Convention, held at Seneca Falls, N. Y., 1813, a resolution demanding votes for women. : :. U .vV77 "' V 77-; :" - 7iH- ,Vv' .;?..: v Av-'-v" 7' - . ' -:-y.AH - : y7:: '' ' may vote for library trustees; in New York women havo tax-payers suffrage in . tho towns and villages, vil-lages, and by special charter provision provis-ion In some -cities; in Michigan women havo tax payers suffrage, and In Colorado, Colo-rado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming they may vote upon all questions on tho same terms as men. Representation in Public Office. In tho four States where women vote they are eligible to public office on tho same terms as men, and may servo on juries, in some of the states where they havo school suffrage they may serve on Hoards of lOducatlon; in others they may he County or State Superintendents of Public Inst ruction, and in Kansas they are eligible to municipal offices. Though women do not hold office la any considerable by other statutes than those written directly on tho subject of tho guardianship guard-ianship of children, Tho Industrial Revolution. In tho forties seven occupations only were open to women, viz household service, keeping boarders, work in cotton factories, needle work, teaching, book-binding and typesetting. typeset-ting. The United States Census for 1000 classified 131 occupations as gainful and reported that women wero engaged in all but two tho ones Including (a) soldiers, sailors, and marines: and (b) telegraph and telephone linemen. Woman's position posi-tion in industry and In education has undergone a veritable revolution. Schools, colleges, the learned profes-slons-all are open to her today. But In the labor market woman's work 1 niin.i 1 SUSAN B. ANTHONY, the preat lender of tho woman suffrnppe movement in America, who died March 13, 1906. after more than half ' a century of active service in tho cause. REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the most famous woman uuffrnge orator iu America. |
