WOMAN SUFFRAGE 



6348 



WOMBAT 



the same suffrage rights as men. The Michigan. 

 Oklahoma and South Dakota legislatures in 

 1918 passed laws giving women the right to vote 

 for all officers, state and national. Women in a 

 dozen states have been given the ballot in 

 i ntial elections. In Arkansas ami Texas 

 they may vote at the local primaries. Women 

 hool, bond or taxation suffrage in nearly 

 half the states, and in some towns and cities 

 they have municipal suffrage. Full suffrage also 

 prevails in Ala.-ka. The election of Miss Jean- 

 nette Rankin of Montana, in 1916, to the Na- 

 tional House of Representative^, was considered 

 a victory for woman's rights, and possibly has- 

 tened favorable action in Congress on the 

 Amendment. 



The great majority of women active in suf- 

 frage work showed admirable loyalty and de- 

 votion to the government after America's en- 

 trance into the war, but an extreme faction of 

 1 :rty aroused much resentment 

 by "heckling" tactics. In 1917 pickets sta- 

 tioned at the White House grounds were re- 

 peatedly arrested, and occasionally they were 

 mobbed by angry crowds. When placed in jail 

 they followed the tactics of their militant sis- 

 ters in England, and went on hunger strikes. 



In Canada. Women have provincial suffrage 

 rights in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Sas- 

 katchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, and 

 in the other provinces there is municipal or 



WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN CANADA 

 school suffrage. In 1917 the Dominion Parlia- 

 ment enacted a so-called war-time election bill 

 giving Parliamentary suffrage to the mothers, 

 sisters, wives, widows and daughters of men in 

 active military service. 



In Other Countries. In many foreign coun- 

 tries woman has received political recognition, 

 and the stress of the War of the Nations has 

 done much to advance her economic impor- 

 tance. Norway was the first European country 



to extend full suffrage rights to women and the 

 privilege of holding office in Parliament. The 

 women of Iceland, Finland and Denmark, Aus- 

 tralia and New Zealand also have full suffrage; 

 women may be elected to the Danish Parlia- 

 ment, and they constitute a considerable num- 

 ber of the members in the Finnish House and 

 in the council at Iceland's capital. In Novem- 

 ber, 1916, the lower chamber of Holland voted 

 to remove the sex barriers of suffrage. In Swe- 

 den women have had certain privileges of vot- 

 ing since the eighteenth century. The women 

 of Great Britain vote in various local elections, 

 and have excellent prospects of gaining Parlia- 

 mentary suffrage. The militant suffragists de- 

 clared a truce in their war for full rights at the 

 outbreak of the War of the Nations, but the 

 courageous and helpful work of the women dur- 

 ing the struggle was so tremendous an argu- 

 ment for their enfranchisement that in 1917 

 the House of Commons went on record as fa- 

 voring full political rights for them. In France 

 a special committee in 1915 recommended full 

 suffrage for women and asked that municipal 

 suffrage be extended at once. In the Russian 

 republic (1917) w r omen were enfranchised. 



The government of China is pledged to ad- 

 vance w^oman suffrage, which already exists in 

 one of its provinces. In Rangoon, the capital 

 of Burma; in Belize, the capital of the British 

 Honduras, and in Bombay and Baroda, India, 

 women have the municipal vote. B.M.W. 



Consult, for favorable expressions, George's 

 Women and Tomorrow; Spencer's Woman's Share 

 in Social Culture; Mead's What Women Might 

 Do with the Ballot. For opposing views, consult 

 Wright's The Unexpurgated Case against Wom- 

 an's Suffrage; Buckley's The Wrong and the 

 Peril of Woman Suffrage. 



WOM'BAT, a thickset, burrowing animal 

 from two to three feet long, which inhabits 

 Tasmania and Eastern and Southern Australia. 

 In its native home the wombat holds the place 

 that is occupied by the badger in other parts 

 of the world. It 

 is highly prized 

 for its tough hide 

 and long, coarse 

 fur of a yellow- 

 ish-black or gray- 

 ish-brown color. 

 The fur makes * WOMBAT 



nearly indestructible rugs arid mats, and the 

 flesh is esteemed for food, having much the 

 flavor of pork. These animals excavate large 

 earth burrows as dwelling places, emerging only 

 at night to feed on roots, vegetables and leaves, 



