The domestic reform that was begun in England has echoed round the world. See that which had come to pass in 1917: Four other nations, France, Italy, Hungary and the United States had suffrage measures before their parliaments. Members of the Reichstag were warning that Germany cannot avoid it if she would keep up in efficiency with the rest of the world. King Albert announced that it should be one of his first acts for a restored Belgium to confer citizenship on its women. Holland and Canada have just accomplished it in limited measure. Russia and Mexico in the throes of revolution have actually achieved it. Women have for the first time taken their seats in the governing bodies of three nations, Hermila Galindo in the Congress of Mexico, Mrs. McKinney and Lieutenant Roberta Catherine McAdams in Canada and Jeanette Rankin in the United States. A woman, the Countess Sophia Panin, has been a cabinet minister in Russia. And for the first time since civilisation began, a woman, Dr. Poliksena Schiskina Yavein, as a member of the Council of 61 at Petrograd, has assisted in writing a nation’s constitution.
MME. CHARLES LE VERRIER
One of the feminist leaders in Paris to whose appeal for votes for women the French government is listening to-day.
On with Democracy! Nations are convinced that those who serve their country should have a voice in directing its destinies. Land after land preparing to extend its franchise for soldiers, as England with her Representation of the People Bill, is reflecting on a real representation. For every country is finding itself face to face with the question with which Asquith first startled Britain, “Then what are you going to do with the women?” Everywhere at the gates of government are deputations like that in England who are saying, “We also serve who stand behind the armies. We too want to be people.”
And some one else wants them to be. From the training camps to the trenches, the supporting column of the man in khaki stretches. Every knitted sweater, every package of cigarettes tied with yellow ribbon has been helping votes for women. And now over there he is getting anxious about his job or his home or his children. What can he know at the front about food control or the regulation of school hours in Paris or London or New York? And when there are decisions like that to be made, “I’d like to leave it to Her,” the soldier is beginning to conclude. Why, war-time is the time for women to be free! The whole world is athrill with the new ideal.
See the lines of women arriving before the government houses. Theresa Labriola voices the demand of the National Federation in Italy: “Women,” she says, “form the inner lines of defence for the nations. We need the ballot to make our lines strong.” Yes, yes, agrees her country. You shall begin right away with the municipal franchise. And Premier Boselli and the Italian Parliament are proceeding to get it ready.
In France, Mme. Dewitt Schlumberger and Mme. Charles LeVerrier for the Union Française pour le Suffrage des Femmes, present the “unanswerable case.” The senate on the Seine, looking out, sees many women wearing long crêpe veils in the delegation before its doors. “Let us give them,” says a member of the Chamber of Deputies in a burst of poetic chivalry, “the suffrage de la morte: every soldier dying on the battle field shall be permitted to designate the woman relative he wishes to have carry on his citizenship for him.” Very gently the women of France declined the suffrage of the dead. Presenting a carefully prepared brief that was the review of their war work, they said, “We can vote for ourselves, please.” And who else shall? There are whole communes with most of the men dead. There are villages with not so much as a man to be made mayor, and a woman filling the office instead. The French Chamber of Deputies has before it a bill to confer the municipal franchise on women. “It is an act of justice,” says ex-Premier Viviani. The Droit du Peuple declares, “After the war, many homes will be maintained by women who will perform men’s tasks and fulfil men’s obligations. They ought to have men’s rights.”
Canada, too, thought to reward her women with a vicarious vote. The “next of kin” franchise was devised, by which the Government has conferred on the wife or widow, mother, sisters and daughters of men in the service the right to vote. But the delegations of women outside the government house at Ottawa do not go away. They still wait. “We also serve,” they repeat. And the country, in which no less than five provinces last year gave to all of their women full citizenship, has promised now to prepare the full direct federal franchise.
In Mittel Europa, Rosika Schwimmer is marshalling the feminist forces. Under her leadership, a great deputation has marched to the Town Hall in Budapest. The resolution there presented for universal suffrage was carried by the Burgomaster to the Emperor. In reply, the Hungarian Feminist Union has received the assurance of the prime minister that the Government will introduce a measure extending the franchise to a limited class of women. At Prague, Austria, the Town Council has appointed a committee to draw up a new local government franchise which shall include women. The free town of Hamburg, Germany, preparing to enlarge its franchise in recognition of the self-sacrifice of soldiers, hears the voice of Helene Lange and 27,000 women. They are reminding the Hamburg Senate that women, too, who have borne the burdens of war, will wish to devote themselves to reconstruction and in order to fulfil the duties of citizens, they claim citizens’ rights. The Prussian Diet has before it the petition of Frau Minna Cauer and the Frauenstimmrechtsbund urging that suffrage for women be included in the projected franchise reform. The Reichstag arranging a Representation of the People Bill has at last referred the petition of the Reichverbund, the German National Union for Woman Suffrage, “for consideration” zur kenntnisnahme, which is the first indication of their change of attitude before the women’s offensive. The Socialists in the Reichstag are urging: “Women suffrage is marching triumphantly through other lands. Can Germany afford to fall behind the other nations, with her women less fully equipped than the rest for the struggle for existence?” Meanwhile, Germany, as other countries, is depending more and more upon her women. Two leading cities, Berlin and Frankfort-on-Main, both have women appointed to their municipal committees. Frau Hedwig Heyl, that woman behind the food control policy for the Empire, who has turned her great chemical factory on the Salzufer to canning meat for the army, says: “Woman suffrage in Germany is a fruit not yet ripe for the picking. I water the tree,” she adds significantly.
Holland has seen in The Hague 4,000 women assembled in the Binnehof, the public square before the House of Parliament. On their behalf, Dr. Aletta Jacobs, president of the Vereenigingvoor Vronwenkeisrecht, presented to Premier Cort Van der Linden a petition with 164,696 signatures, asking for citizenship for women. “Society,” Dr. Jacobs told him, “can only gain when the forces and energy of its women, now concentrated on the struggle for the vote, can be used along with men’s in finding a solution for the many social problems for which the insight of both is necessary.” And the Dutch Parliament, making over its Constitution to enlarge the franchise for men, decided on the amazing plan about women, “We will try them first, as members of Parliament. And if we find they can make the laws, afterward we shall let them vote for law makers.” So the new Dutch constitution gives to women the “passive” franchise, which is the right to hold all administrative offices, including representation in Parliament. There is also removed an old prohibitory clause, so that the way is now clear for the introduction of a measure for the “active” franchise for women—if it is found the dinner doesn’t burn while they are sitting in Parliament.