of the Poor. In 1900 they were made eligible to all municipal offices. An influential Finnish Woman's Association with twenty branches is agitating for suffrage on the same terms as men.
In Holland there is no form of woman suffrage and the constitution of 1887 expressly prohibits it.
Women in Denmark have no franchise, but Premier Duentzer has announced that the first reform movement of the new Cabinet (1901) will be the extension of Municipal Suffrage to women.
In 1893, through the efforts of the Socialists, universal suffrage was granted to men in Belgium. While this gives to every man a vote, it permits to the married man, if he pays a small tax, two votes as the head of a family; if he pays tax on what would be about $2,000, or has a university degree, he is allowed three votes. The vast majority of those owning property or possessing university degrees belong to the established (Catholic) Church, and the Socialists soon found themselves out-voted by a minority. They then instituted a new movement demanding "one man, one vote," and the Government, which is Catholic, said: "If you compel this we will enfranchise women," believing that this would strengthen its power. At this writing the contest is going on and becoming more violent.
Switzerland, whose pride is its absolutely republican form of government, allows no woman a vote on any question or for the election of any officer. They are admitted to the universities.
In France, in 1898, unmarried women engaged in commerce (including market women, etc.) were given a vote for Judges of the Tribunals of Commerce. A Woman Suffrage Society has just been formed in Paris which is attracting considerable attention. Women are admitted to the highest institutions of learning.
The laws in all the countries thus far mentioned are most unjust to women and especially to wives.
Women in Sweden have voted in church matters since 1736. It was provided in 1862 that women who are rate-payers may vote directly or by proxy, as they choose, for all officers except for members of the Parliament. Indirectly they have a voice in the election of the First Chamber or House of Lords, as they vote for the County Council which elects this body. They have School and Municipal Suffrage and that for Provincial repre-
