#clara barton

WOMAN'S PROTEST COMMITTEE.

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"The Status of Woman Marks the Degree of a Nation's Civilization."

OCTOBER 22nd, 1904.

DEAR MADAM:-A bill is now pending in Congress which so vitally affects the interests of women in the great South-

West that we believe you and your organization would like to protest against the injustice therein threatened our sisters.

The bill proposes to unite Oklahoma and Indian Territories into one State under the name of Oklahoma, and to com-

bine New Mexico and Arizona Territories into a State under the name of Arizona. This measure has passed the Lower House

of Congress, has been read twice in the Senate and is now before the Senate Committee on Territories, of which Senator Al-

bert J Beveridge is Chairman, and the following named Senators are also members: William P. Dillingham, Knute Nelson,

Thomas R. Bard, Henry E. Burnham, John Kean, William B. Bate, Thomas M. Patterson, James P. Clarke and Francis G.

Newlands. Now is the time to amend, while the bill is in Committee.

The portion of the bill threatening injustice to the women in the proposed new States is found in Paragraph 5 of Sec-

tions 3 and 21, which would allow these States, when organized, to disfranchise minors, criminals, lunatics, non-residents,

ignoramuses and [italic] women. This part of the bill reads as follows:

"Fifth-That said State shall never enact any law restricting or abridging the right of suffrage on account

"of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, or on account of any other conditions or qualificartions, save

"and except on account of illiteracy, minority, [italic] sex, conviction of felony, mental condition, or residence; pro-

vided, however, that any such restrictions shall be made uniform and applicable alike to all citizens."

There may be other objections to this part of the bill, that Congress gratuitously interferes to forbid negro disfranchise-

ment, or disfranchisement "for any other conditions or qualifications," which latter will prevent disfranchisement for lack of

United States citizenship, a prohibition never before laid on a State. This wording will be interpreted by some as even pro-

hibiting the future enfranchisement of women in these new States. These paragraphs might well be omitted.

But the injustice to women might be averted if only the word "sex" were stricken from the paragraphs. The pioneer

women of the West, who have labored and suffered by their husbands' sides to advance civilization, ought not to be so unjustly

classed with felons, lunatics and children, while their own husbands, equals in other respects, are enfranchised. The Congress

of the United States ought not to set its seal upon the possibility of the perpetual disfranchisement of these women, an un-

merited disgrace and punishment. It is true that in many States women have been tacitly ranked with these defective delin-

quent and dependent classes, but never before has the insult been so open and flagrant, nor has it been in an Act of Congress.

The representative of the United States Government, the Territorial Governor of Arizona, once before interfered in

Arizona legislation to the defeat of women, by vetoing the woman suffrage bill passed by the Legislature of Arizona.

The women of all our great country should now protest against the women of the Southwest being ranked with the

classed justly disfranchised, any other member of which may be effort, behavior, or lapse of time, achieve enfranchisement.

Will you not ask your organization to write to the two Senators from your own State, to Senator Beveridge, the Chair-

man of the Committee on Territories, and to the rest of the Committee, asking each to work for the omission of the word

"sex" from the two paragraphs quoted above, or for the omission of the entire paragraphs.

There is need of haste in this matter and we urge action by your organization at the earliest possible date.

The sending out of this letter is authorized by the following named women, who, as individuals, urge you to take

speedy action:

Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin, Honorary President General Federation of Women's Clubs; Miss Susan B. Anthony, Honorary

President National American Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, President National Council of Women;

Mrs. Hannah G. Solomon, President National Council Jewish Women; Rev. Anna H. Shaw, President National American

Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. Mary A. Livermore; Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard; Miss Laura Clay; Miss Margaret Haley,

President National Teachers' Federation; Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, Franchise Superintendent of National Women's Temperance

Union; Mrs. Emily W. Thorndyke, President National Catholic Woman's League; Mrs. Lida P. Robinson, President Arizona

Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer, (Dorothy Dix); Mrs. Mary T. Hagar, President National Ladies of

the Grand Army of the Republic; Mrs. Ellen C. Sargent, Honorary President of California Woman's Suffrage Association; Mres.

Mary S. Sperry, President California Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, Legal Advisor National

American Woman Suffrage Association; Miss Clara Barton; Mrs. May Wright Sewall, Honorary President International Coun-

cil of Women; Mrs. Elmina Springer, of the Woman's Relief Corps and Eastern Star; Mrs. Florence Kelley; Mrs. Emmy C.

Evald, President National Lutheran Woman's League; Mrs. Frederick Schoff, President National Congress of Mothers; Mrs.

Leonora M. Lake; Mrs. Margaret Dye Ellis, Legislative Superintendent of National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and

Mrs. Lilian M. N. Stevens, President National Woman's Christian Temperance Union.