Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/737

IN THE TERRITORIES AND PHILIPPINES 72! of Manila. Its work extended in many directions and it became one of the city's leading institutions. Other clubs were formed and they joined the General Federation of Clubs in 1915. There are between 300 and 400 clubs in the Islands (1920). Meanwhile the men were not satisfied with their one-house Legislative Assembly largely under American control, but wanted more power. In response Congress provided for a Legislature of a Senate of 24 members and a Lower House of 90, all to be elected except two of the former and nine of the latter, who would be appointed by the American Governor-General to represent districts where elections were not held, the Act to go into effect in 1918. The suffrage was still confined exclusively to males, although in 1916 the Women's Club had organized fifty-seven Mothers' Clubs for the welfare of infants; had secured through women lawyers legal aid for over thirty poor women ; had been instrumental in having 15,000 people make gardens to give variety to their fish and rice diet and done a vast amount of other valuable public work. The Act passed by large majorities, members voting for it who had persistently voted against the Federal Amendment to enfranchise the women of the United States. The Philippines were from 1917 represented in Congress by an able and progressive Commissioner, Jaime C. De Veyra, an advo- cate of woman suffrage. His wife, a native of Iloilo, who had been prominent in civic work in the Islands, shared his views, and was a frequent visitor at the suffrage headquarters in Washing- ton. In 1919, assisted by Miss Bessie Dwyer, vice-president of the Manila Women's Club, she gave beautifully illustrated ad- dresses in Washington and New York, on the position of women in the Islands. In these and in interviews she said : Philippine women have always been free and have always been held as e<jiiaK of the men. In the little rural "barrios" you will uhvuvs find some sort of vnian leader. All over the islands they are highly co when old they exercise full sway over the family and have the laM wrd in all financial matters. The married children still rlintf t<> the mother as adviser. I he vmintf marry ,<M, into partnership with their hiishands and while tl.< a'ndle the the v -men vlio do the paying and oversee things generally. They arc engaged in all s for th and are employed by scores of