Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/810

794 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE and a Men's League for Woman Suffrage of representative men was formed. There were suffrage societies in 87 cities and towns composed of all classes. The women were badly treated by all political parties and excluded from their meetings, the Radicals and Social Democrats being their strongest opponents. The struggle continued with sometimes a favorable and sometimes an unfavorable Government and always the contest by men for their own universal suffrage. In 1913, through the remarkable efforts of Rosika Schwimmer, the International Suffrage Alliance held its congress in Budapest with delegates from all over the world. It was a notable triumph, welcomed by the dignitaries of the State and city; its meetings for seven days crowded to overflowing and every possible courtesy extended. The demand that women should have the vote seemed to have become universal. Then came the War and all was blotted out for years. When it was over in 1918 internal revolution followed and out of it came a Republic but without stability. A law was enacted giving suffrage to all men of 21 but only to women of 24 who could read and write. Women voted under it in 1919 and one was elected to the Parliament but the law has not yet been written into a permanent constitution. BOHEMIA. Bohemian women suffered the disadvantages of those of Austria and could not attend political meetings or form suffrage societies, although by an old law taxpayers and those belonging to the learned professions could vote by a male proxy for the mem- bers of the Diet of the Kingdom, and were eligible themselves after the age of 30. They had a Woman Suffrage Committee and petitioned the Diet to include women in the new electoral law of 1907 but it received word from Vienna that nothing must be done. By 191 1 a Woman Suffrage Committee was doing a good deal of active suffrage work and women's organizations were being formed in the political parties but the Social Democratic was the only one that favored equal suffrage. For a number of years the women endeavored to secure the nomination of a woman candi- date for the Bohemian Diet but were always unsuccessful. Finally in 1912 the Social Democratic and a section of the Liberal