Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/806

79 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE a result of the War would come victories for equal suffrage that it would have required many years to win. These victories began with the enfranchisement of the women of Great Britain and Ireland in February, 1918, as described in another chapter, the direct result of the War. On the Continent woman suffrage came first where it had been least expected in Germany and Austro- Hungary. In some of the German States women landowners could vote by male proxies. Each of the 22 States had its own King and Parliament and made its own laws and all men of 25 could vote for the Reichstag or Lower House of the Imperial Parliament but this privilege was largely nullified by a system of plural voting. In Prussia and Bavaria, the two largest States, women were not allowed to attend political meetings or form political organizations, and those for suffrage came under this head. The first attempt to form a suffrage society was made in Hamburg, one of the three "free cities," in 1901 and it was followed by others in the other two "free cities," Frankfort and Bremen, and in the southern States, where these restrictions did not exist. In 1902 these societies were united in a National Association, of which Dr. Anita Augspurg was president. Its members kept up an agitation for the Municipal vote, carrying the question into the courts, and they also petitioned the Reichstag for the full suffrage. The International Council of Women met in Berlin in 1904, the largest meeting of women ever held in any country, and the organ- izing at this time of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance aroused universal interest. In the election of the new Reichstag in 1906 the suffrage societies took an active part and in 1907 it repealed the old law forbidding women to attend political meetings and form political associations, the new law going into effect in May, 1908. The suffragists celebrated with an immense meeting in Frankfort, addressed by Mrs. Pethick Lawrence and Miss Annie Kenney of England, who roused great enthusiasm. Suf- frage associations were then organized in the various States, which began to work with their own Parliaments. Through lectures, literature and organizing the effort was continued, the women joining and working with the political parties, especially the Social Democratic, which espoused their cause. In 1912 forty