COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, The committee this day met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Edwin Y. Webb (chairman) presiding. Gentlemen The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. of the committee, as you know, we have met this morning for the purpose of hearing arguments in favor of various joint resolutions relating to woman suffrage which have been referred to this committee, one being by Mr. Raker, House joint resolution No. 1; one by Mr. Mondell, House joint resolution No. 2; one by Mr. Keating, House joint resolution No. 4; one by Mr. Taylor, House joint resolution No. 6; and one by Mr. Hayden, being House joint resolution No. 7. At the meeting yesterday it was agreed that those in favor of woman. suffrage should be given three hours this morning, and that immediately thereafter those opposed should be given two hours. The three hours' time will be divided between the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, both favoring woman suffrage, if they can agree on the time; if not, then the chairman will parcel out the time. If there is anyone present who can say whether or not an agreement on time has been made the committee will be glad to hear from her. Dr. SHAW. I am the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and will say to the committee that the first half of the time is to be assigned to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and the latter half to the Congressional Union. The CHAIRMAN. I am sure that is quite agreeable to the committee, and without objection the committee extends to you one hour and a half, that time to be controlled by you as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in favor of woman suffrage. Control the time as you may desire; use it yourself or parcel it out to others. The committee is glad to recognize you. NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. STATEMENT OF DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. Dr. SHAW. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Committee on the Judiciary: This, I believe, is the forty-fifth year since the first introduction of the resolution of which I wish to speak, and of which the members of my association wish to speak, which is popularly known throughout the country as the Susan B. Anthony amendment to the National Constitution, but which has been known by various names in Congress because of the different gentlemen who have introduced it from Congress to Congress-this resolution is the one which we have asked to have passed all these years, making an amendment to the National Constitution granting to the women citizens of the United States equal political rights, and as far as the right to vote is concerned, with the male citizens of the nation. We of the older days popularly know this amendment as the Sixteenth Amendment of the National Constitution. It is only recently that the name has been changed so that we could designate it amongst ourselves, because the Sixteenth Amendment was taken by another. We come again this year with the same hope and same expectation which we have had in our hearts all these 45 years, and as I look over your committee and over the ladies present I find that I am the only woman alive and the only person alive who was present at that first hearing. I did not attend the very first hearing, but I am the only person alive among those who were present at the first hearing that I attended. During all these years we have been working toward this one end and aim as citizens of this great Nation of ours. We feel that we are the only class of citizens, the only sex of citizens, deprived of citizens' rights, and being deprived of the rights of citizens deprives us of many other rights which belong to us as human beings. And because of this we are making our usual demand of this Congress, that your committee shall report to the lower House of Congress a bill asking that this amendment shall be granted by the Congress of the United States. And we hope, from the agitation which has taken place, from the education which has taken place, throughout the country that Congress is particularly impressed with the fact of the progress of our movement, and we hope that not only will the com mittee report our measure favorably but that it will receive favorable action at the hands of Congress. We know that Congress is not able to grant suffrage to women; we only know that this amendment opens up the way by which it is possible for some of the States to pass it. We know that there are objections on the ground of State rights, and other objections which have been raised. But one of the difficulties which stands in our way is the fact that the constitutions of some of the States are so framed that it is absolutely impossible to amend them, and the only way by which we can hope to receive our rights as citizens, and have the power to protect and defend ourselves as other citizens do, is by an act of Congress. The process has been very long; it has been long enough; it needs to be shortened, and the shortest process by which this thing can be gained is by the passage of the amendment in the United States Congress and its submission to the legislatures of the various States, realizing, as we do, that it needs only a two-thirds vote in the Congress of the United States and a vote of three-fourths of the States in order to enact it into law. I am not here to address you this morning on the reasons why we want this done. I only come here as one of the oldest of the suffragists, one who has labored longest, one who has devoted more years of service to this fundamental principle of freedom and justice than any woman who has ever lived has devoted to it. And I come appealing to you again. I ask that we may have a favorable report from your committee. My duties as president of the national association call me away from this meeting, and I must leave after I have introduced Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the president of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance, which body comprises 28. nations, all of whom have large organizations like our own asking for suffrage. This international body meets every four years-although I think it does meet yearly for the purpose of reelecting its officers, and it holds a foremost place in the nations of the world. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt is president, and has been president from the beginning, and as such I introduce her to-day, not only as president of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance but as president of the New York State Suffrage Association. After Mrs. Catt has finished her address I will be compelled to leave, and I would like to have one of our officers, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, also from New York, take my place. STATEMENT OF MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE ALLIANCE AND PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK STATE SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. Mrs. CATT. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I fear that the hearings before this Judiciary Committee have become, in the eyes and understanding of many of the members, a rather perfunctory affair which you have to endure, having accepted positions upon this committee. May I remind you that since the last hearing before this committee something new has happened in the United States, and that is that more than a million men have voted for woman suffrage in four of the most conservative States of the East. In my own State, New York, we are rather slow and we do not yet even know the total "yes" votes, but the votes of the other States are in. The last returns showed that there were 535,000 in that State. That number, if correct, is larger than the "yes" which gave the privilege of the ballot to the women of nine other States. I consider that that big vote in the four eastern States presents to this committee a mandate for action which was never presented before. There are those, doubtless, on this committee who will say that this is a question of State rights. I have been studying Congressmen for a good many years, and Congressmen come and Congressmen go, but our cause goes on forever. I have discovered this important fact, that when a man believes woman suffrage is right it is a constitutional and a national question and when he does not believe it is right he then says it is a question of State rights. But as the Constitution has provided-and no one denies it a method of securing suffrage by this means, it is a fair proposition for us to come to you and ask that it be submitted to the several legislatures of our country. We come asking this privilege because there are two ways in which we can secure the vote, this way and by a referendum. Now, a referendum presents a proposition bigger and harder than any of you gentlemen have met in any political question in which you are interested. Whether you are Democrats or Republicans, when you begin a campaign you have the machinery ready; you have a certain number of votes upon which you can count; you know they are always going to be Republicans or always going to be democratic, and then your duty is to secure a certain additional number in order to win your majority. But we have no precedents, and we are obliged to campaign all men of every rank and religion. Mr. GARD. If you will pardon me, I must ask to be excused, because I have another committee engagement. to us. Mrs. CATT. We have discovered not only in the eastern States, but we had discovered it in other States as well, that when we begin our campaign there were certain groups of people who were opposed In the State of New York our constitution is very liberal. We allow illiterates to vote, and so kind is the State to those illiterates that it prints a little picture at the top of the ticket so that a man will be sure to know which party he belongs to, and if that is not enough, a man can go inside the booth and teach him how to vote. We have in New York the privilege of paupers having the vote, and besides these two classes we have those who have gone through the courts and who are not criminals in jail. For example, in the city of New York of 125,000 who passed through our courts last year, having committed some sort of minor misdemeanors but who come under the great general class of criminals, 16 per cent were women and all the others were voters. We have now a commissioner of prisons, who is a woman, and who, wanting to vote herself, has made some investigation along these lines. And in the city of New York we have discovered, through her investi gations, that the men in the prisons of New York are privileged, when they shall come out with a pardon, to vote. Not very long ago she visited one of those prisons which is an experiment, and while the different members of the commission were addressing the prisoners she was invited to do so herself, and the gentleman said, "Talk to them about woman suffrage." They did it rather as a joke. She said to them: "Gentlemen, I want to ask you how many of you believe in |