Woman Suffrage

[H. J. Res. 1, Sixty-third Congress, first session.]

JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, extending the right of suffrage to women.

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 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."

[H. J. Res. 3, Sixty-third Congress, first session.]

JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, extending the right of suffrage to women.

"ARTICLE XV.-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, race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

SEC. 2. That Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

[H. J. Res. 25, Sixty-third Congress, first session.]

JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States giving women the right to vote.

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 in lieu of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the following article be proposed as an amendment to said Constitution, which, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution :

"ARTICLE XI.

"SECTION 1. The right citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, and this right shall be extended equally to men and women.

"SEC. 2. That Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

[H. J. Res. 31, Sixty-third Congress, first session.]

JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States extending the right of suffrage to women.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), The the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution:

"ARTICLE XVIII.

"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 thereof on account of sex.

SEC. 2. Congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce the provisions of this article."

[H. J. Res. 70, Sixty-third Congress, first session.]

JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States extending the right of suffrage to women.

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."

The CHAIRMAN. We shall be very glad to hear Mrs. McCormick.

STATEMENT OF MRS. MEDILL M'CORMICK, OF CHICAGO, ILL.. CONGRESSIONAL CHAIRMAN NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.

Mrs. McCORMICK. I should like simply to ask the privilege of correcting the chairman's statement with regard to the division of time. The first hour belongs to the National American Woman's Suffrage Association, the second to the Federal Woman's Equality Association, and the third hour to the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. As some of our speakers for this morning have been storm stayed we shall only present one speaker in our time, and I take great pleasure in introducing Mrs. Antoinette Funk, a member of our congressional committee, who will make our argument.

STATEMENT OF MRS. ANTIONETTE FUNK, CHICAGO, ILL., REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.

Mrs. FUNK. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Judiciary Committee, ours is the oldest national suffrage association in the United States. It has been in existence for something over 50 years, and comprises a membership of 462,000 enrolled women in the nonsuffrage States. In addition to these, gentlemen, I speak this morning in behalf of the 4,000,000 women voters in 10 different suffrage States in the Union.

I am not going to take the time of this committee in stating the reasons why women should vote. I take it that you have had those arguments presented to you, not only as members of this committee, but as men of understanding and intelligence in your various communities many times. I want to talk to you briefly upon our business in Washington; why we are here; and what we really hope to accomplish. I want to say to you that we have come to Washington, not for the purpose of propaganda work, not in order that the suffrage agitation may be carried on in the National Capital, but we have come earnestly asking you for legislation in our behalf."

You have had a number of resolutions, you have had a number of bills presented for your consideration, and I earnestly beg your consideration and action upon joint resolution No. 1 granting full suf

frage to women. I see no reason why in addition to these you yourselves in considering this subject—if there is nothing before you that meets your mind-should not initiate for yourselves something in the way of legislation to meet the demand of the women of the United States who are now clamoring and begging for political recognition. I have been in Washington now over two months, and during that time I have interviewed a great many Members of the Senate and of your body, and I say to you frankly at the outset that this is what I hear: Very little argument against women voting-almost all men now concede that women are going to vote, that it is a thing that is coming. A great many-indeed, I may say, the very, very large majority of men-say that they favor women voting at some time, perhaps immediately, perhaps in the near future. But here, in the Congress, we have run up against this principle that you know so well, we have run up against the doctrine of State's rights; and on that proposition, gentlemen, I want to speak to you for a moment.

I want to tell you how the women of your country fall between two fires all along the line. We come to Congress and we say, "Enfranchise us. Why not?" And you say, "Ladies, I think you should be enfranchised, I know that you are going to be, but the place for to seek your remedy is in your State."

you

Now, then, what happens? We go back to our States. I go back, perhaps, to my native State of Illinois, and what is the situation ĺ find there? The situation in Illinois is just about the situation we find in every other State, a little worse than some, a little better than others. We find ourselves bound and tied by a constitution which prevents what it started out to do. The constitution of the State of Illinois and when I say Illinois I am speaking of the constitution of every States contemplates that, in the last anaysis, the people (the citizens of the State) shall themselves decide whether women shall vote. But the constitution also provides that these people may not decide this question until the legislatures of the States have given them permission. And in almost all cases it is the getting of this permission that stands in the way not only of the women getting the vote, but it stands in the way of the people themselves expressing themselves upon this matter.

In our State of Illinois, gentlemen, the constitution was drawn 50 years ago. There has not been an amendment in 22 years. During that 50 years the State of Illinois has grown from a small agricultural community into the third largest State in the Union, presenting all the diversified and varied problems that a great State of that nature does present-more problems probably than any other State except the Empire State and Pennsylvania, perhaps, with Chicago, the second city in size in the United States, at the head of the State, with all the problems that come to a great city of near three million souls; with our great farming community in the middle of the State, rich and prosperous; with our mining district in the southern portion of the State. And, although all these things have grown and changed, that constitution provides that only on section of the constitution may be amended at one session of the legislature, and we are bound and tied by the understanding of men who have been in their graves for half a century.

I do not need to talk to you gentlemen about an Illinois legislature. I do not know that it is different in any way from a great

many other legislatures. I know that it is very much like some other legislatures; very much like the legislature that you have in New York; very much like the legislature in Pennsylvania. For six years, for the last three terms, the people have voted directing the members of the legislature to amend the constitution in some particular. Six years ago they asked the legislature to amend by giving us the intitiative and referendum, and that was by a majority vote of 250,000; and four years ago the legislature failed to do it. Again they directed them by a majority of over 350,000 to give us an initiative and referendum, and again they failed. Two years ago they directed them to give us relief on our revenue matters, our tax laws being as bad as they can be anywhere, and the legislature ignored that demand.

Now, we can go to the members of the legislature for the next 50 years and ask to have the question of woman suffrage submitted, and they will always have an argument against us. They can always say, as they say now, "There are other things ahead of you.' And although the people have reached the point where they want to decide this question, they can not, because of the restrictions imposed upon them by their State constitution.

There are people in many, many of your States, gentlemen, who want to vote upon this question. I do not say that all of them are going to decide the way we wish, but they want an opportunity to express themselves upon it, and we can not get that expression from the people. In a few States we can, and occasionally there comes along a political shake-up and then the people get a legislature that is for a time more or less responsive to the will of the people. But I think I am not overstating it if I say to you experienced men here that there has been a legislature in any State in the last 20 years that half the time-no; nor one-third of the time-was really responsive to the will and wishes of the people of the State.

I am not making an attack upon legislatures. I am simply talking about things that men and women know and understand, and so I am telling you why we are here in Washington. That is the reason we are here because we can not get to the people where we ought to get to them. Gentlemen, the dearest wish of our hearts would be fulfilled if you would enfranchise the women. I know pretty much whether you are going to or not, and you know that I know. [Laughter.] But the time is here now when women certainly can not be denied consideration somewhere along the line. We bear the burdens just as much as you do. We pay the bills just the same as you do. We are subject to the laws just the same as you are, and 4,000,000 of us vote; and I know some you are going to say now, What can we do for you within the limits that many of us are bound by?"

We recognize, gentlemen, that the majority party in the Congress to-day is a party that is bound or thinks it is bound more or less by the doctrine of State rights, and we are very anxious to present something to you that may avoid that objection which is in your minds. We feel that the day is almost at hand when you will recognize that a doctrine which works a hardship on one-half of all citizens-works an injustice to them-is one that should be relaxed in their favor. If that day, in your judgment, is not at hand, you can at least, without violating any party principle, so amend the Consti

tution of the United States that the people in the various States, upon a petition of a certain number of their votes, may at such time as they please and see fit to vote upon this question in their States? You would not be forcing anything upon them that they do not want; you would simply be giving effect to the spirit of the law.

We feel, gentlemen-and I am speaking now for my committee and my organization—that in asking that we are asking the least thing that you can do for us here. And we feel, in addition to that, that probably you are not indifferent to our demands, that probably you do want to do something if you can find the thing that would bring us relief, and I, myself, can see no better action for this committee and for the Congress to put into effect a great democratic principle, the principle upon which the democracy is founded, and that is, let the people govern; let the people decide these things for themselves. Gentlemen, I thank you for your courteous attention. [Applause.] The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed, Mrs. McCormick, if you have another speaker.

Mrs. McCORMICK. We have no other speaker, but we should like very much if you gentlemen would ask us any questions.

Mr. CHANDLER. I would like to ask the last speaker if the objection has been made by the opponents of the suffrage movement that at the recent election in Chicago only about 30 per cent of the registered women in the city voted?

Mrs. FUNK. I should be glad to explain that. There is a great nonpartisan wave in Chicago, in municipal affairs. In fact, our mayor himself, a Democratic mayor, went down to the legislature at the last session and tried to get a bill through abolishing party circles in municipal matters. The women of Chicago have taken up the question of nonpartisanship with great vigor, and almost all of the women are nonpartisan. Under our primary law if you vote at a primary you bind yourself to that party for two years. The women did not want to bind themselves to any party, they wanted to take their time about considering their party affiliations later on. That explains it.

Mr. CHANDLER. Is it not an old charge against this cause that in cities where they have woman suffrage no considerable per cent of the women do vote?

Mrs. FUNK. That is not true. I do not know why people make that charge.

Mr. CHANDLER. But it is made?

Mrs. FUNK. Oh, yes; all sorts of charges are made, but that does not prove the truth of them. As a matter of fact, it is not true. In the State of Colorado last year one-half of 1 per cent fewer women than men voted. I think, as a matter of fact, that in the State of Illinois there will be a larger per cent of them that will not vote, because in Chicago we have a perfectly enormous foreign population. We have 100,000 women there, as well as men, who do not speak English. The men have been taught, however, to vote, and do vote, but the women are a little timid, and we do not look for that vote to come out yet.

The CHAIRMAN. Does the National Congressional Committee, Mrs. McCormick, desire to occupy any more time?

Mrs. MCCORMICK. Yes, sir; the National Woman's Suffrage Association. If there are any further questions to be asked our committee,

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Woman Suffrage: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of ...