Women Want Vote

Women demand suffrage at a House of Congress meeting and gain support from Senator Robert Owen who states “I give my adherence to this cause with enthusiasm and religious zeal.”

Washington- Women suffrage made a grand showing before the house committee on judiciary here. With the exception of Senator RObert L. Owen of Oklahoma those who appeared in favor of the enfranchisement of the women of the land had all their Sunday clothes on. Judge John Jacob Jenkens, chairman of the committee, opened the proceedings. Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton of Warren, O., introduced the suffragists with the remark that she was not afraid of the judiciary committee or anybody else. She was provided with a bell which she rang when she thought the speakers had consumed enough time. The first time it rang one or two of the women looked around in dismay. Once or twice the bell had to be rung with great insistence before the enthused female orator would yield to another. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt opened the arguments by saying that Great Britain had done more its women in the suffrage line that has the United States; that South Africa and Canada had given the right of municipal suffrage to their women, while Norway and Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries had given every suffrage right to their women. The last speaker was Senator Robert Owen of Oklahoma, who made a strong speech for women suffrage. “Every god principle I have learned,” he said, “everything of good morals and good manners, I received from a women. And I have observed in history that just as high as is the position given to women in a nation just so surely will that nation rise to distinction and fame. “I give my adherence to this cause with enthusiasm and with religious zeal. I know when I serve the women I serve God. I know it is a just cause, because I have studied it, and I have studied deeply. As the women are, so is the nation.

“Women Want Vote,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed April 24, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/528.