Petition from Carrie Chapman Catt of the National American Woman Suffrage Association

by Carrie Chapman Catt

National American Woman Suffrage Association

BRANCH OF INTERNATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ALLIANCE AND OF NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN

HONORARY PRESIDENT
Dr. ANNA HOWARD SHAW

PRESIDENT Mrs. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT	3RD VICE-PRESIDENT Miss ESTHER G. OGDEN	RECORDING SECRETARY Mrs. THOMAS JEFFERSON SMITH Louisville, Kentucky
1ST VICE-PRESIDENT Mrs. WALTER McNAB MILLER	TREASURER Mrs. HENRY WADE ROGERS	1ST AUDITOR Miss HELOISE MEYER 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, Washington, D. C.
2ND VICE-PRESIDENT Mrs. STANLEY McCORMICK	CORRESPONDING SECRETARY Mrs. FRANK J. SHULER	2ND AUDITOR Mrs. PATTIE RUFFNER JACOBS Altamont Road, Birmingham, Ala.
NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc. 171 Madison Avenue, New York PRESIDENT Miss ESTHER G. OGDEN	National Headquarters 171 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK Telephone, 4818 Murray Hill	CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN Mrs. WALTER McNAB MILLER HEADQUARTERS 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, Washington, D. C.

April 10, 1917.

Hon. Champ Clark,

Speaker of the House of Representatives,

Washington, D. C.

My dear Sir:

On behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, I write to ask that a Committee on Woman Suffrage be appointed in the House of Representatives as in the Senate of the Congress of the United States. We make this request because the Judiciary Committee, to which constitutional amendments are referred, is and always has been so occupied with other important questions, that it has never been able to give the consideration due to this measure, supported by so large a portion of our people.

May I remind you that the national governments of Great Britain, France and Russia have promised woman suffrage in the near future; and that the greater part of Canada has already established it within a few months. The leaders of these governments have announced that the vote has been or will be given to their women in recognition of the devotion, sacrifice, skill and endurance of women in their varied service to their country under the strain of war. Our Republic stands upon the threshold of what may prove the severest test of loyalty and endurance our country has ever had. It needs its women; and they are ready — as fearless, as willing, as able, as loyal as any women of the world.

You have had a long and successful political career and that means that you know men and women. You know that both work better when their hearts bear no sense of being wronged. You will realize that our women will feel a less exalted patriotism, a less unselfish spirit of devotion, a less spontaneous desire to serve, if they are forced to carry a conviction that the monarchies of the world have been more just to their women citizens than this Republic has been to us.

Mr. Speaker, the women of our country appreciate the fact that you are yourself an advocate of our cause, but we do not presume upon your interest when we ask for a House Suffrage Committee. We ask it because the world is calling to the Congress of the United States to make better time if it would hold its place as Leader in the march of world democracy.

As a small concession to this world-wide movement, we beg you to recommend to the House the establishment of a Woman Suffrage Committee.

Very truly,

President.

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