WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN HAWAII.

MAY 6, 1918.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. RAKER, from the Committee on Woman Suffrage, submitted the

following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. 2380.]

The Committee on Woman Suffrage, to which was referred the bill (S 2380) granting to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii additional powers relating to the elections and qualifications of electors, having had same under consideration, begs leave to report it back to the House without amendments and recommends that the bill do pass. The bill as it passed the Senate and is recommended for passage by the House from the Committee on Woman Suffrage of the House is as follows:

AN ACT Granting to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii additional powers relative to elections and qualification of electors.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii be, and it is hereby, vested with the power to provide that, in all elections authorized to be held by the organic act of the Territory of Hawaii, female citizens possessing the same qualifications as male citizens shall be entitled to vote.

SEC. 2. That the said legislature is further hereby vested with the power to have submitted to the voters of the Territory of Hawaii the question of whether or not the female citizens of the Territory shall be empowered to vote at elections held under the laws of the Territory of Hawaii.

SEC. 3. That all provisions of the organic act of the Territory of Hawaii restricting the right to vote to male citizens which are in conflict with the provisions hereof are hereby repealed.

SEC. 4. That this act shall take effect and be enforced from and after its approval, and shall be held to apply to both Territorial and municipal elections

Hearings were held by your committee on S. 2380 and H. R. 4665. H. R. 4665 is the same as the Senate bill, and was introduced by the Delegate from Hawaii, Hon. J. K. Kalanianaole, on May 24, 1917. The committee report the Senate bill in place of the House bill.

The House committee adopts report No. 108 of the Senate committee in reporting the Senate bill to the Senate, which report is as follows:

The Committee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico, to which was referred the bill (S. 2380) granting to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii additional powers relative to elections and qualifications of electors, having had the same under con

sideration, begs leave to report it back to the Senate without amendment, and recommends that the bill do pass.

Under the organic act creating the Territory of Hawaii, suffrage was confined to male citizens. Senate bill 2380 proposes to vest in the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii the "power to provide that in all elections authorized to be held by the organic act of the Territory of Hawaii, female citizens possessing the same qualifications as male citizens shall be entitled to vote."

The bill also provides that the legislature "is further hereby vested with the power to have submitted to the voters of the Territory of Hawaii the question of whether or not the female citizens of the Territory shall be empowered to vote at elections held under the laws of the Territory of Hawaii." The proposal comes to the Congress of the-United States from the people of Hawaii through the action of their Territorial Legislature.

The measure is favored by both political parties of the islands, and there is indicated a large measure of popular interest in the granting of suffrage to the women of the Territory.

Since the organic law can only be changed by an act of Congress, the power necessary to make the needful changes so as to allow women to take part with men in the exercise of suffrage is by the bill vested in the Legislature of Hawaii, which can either of its own motion grant the rights of equal suffrage to all its citizens, subject to the other limitations of the organic act, or can provide for a referendum on the subject, or can do both. This statement of the facts of the case relieves the question from the suggestion that the Congress of the United States is forcing upon the people of the Territory of Hawaii a suffrage system which may be unwelcome to them. The request comes in the form of a petition from the representative body of the Territory, and further provision is made for a referendum vote. All that Congress is asked to do is to permit the legislature to grant the privilege of equal suffrage to the women of the Territory in the discretion of the legislative body itself.

The question of equal suffrage for the Territory of Hawaii should be disassociated from the question as it affects the United States of America. Nevertheless it is pertinent to observe that the alternative method here recommended empowering the legislature to grant equal suffrage or submitting the matter to a referendum of the people are methods already in force in the States of the Union.

During the present year the Legislatures of North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Michigan, Nebraska, and Indiana have voted to grant presidential suffrage to the women of these States, while in Maine, Iowa, South Dakota, and Oklahoma the legislatures have referred the question of woman suffrage to the people.

Congress simply grants in this bill to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii the power granted the State legislatures in the various State constitutions, and by Congress in acts granting Territorial government. Porto Rico was granted that power in the recent bill providing for civil government in that island.

It is also proper to observe that the cause of woman suffrage has been tremendously advanced on account of the war conditions which now prevail over so large a part of the world. The women of England, for example, patriotically enlisting in every form of service except that of actual combat on the fields of battle, have so deeply impressed members of Parliament that this long-deferred measure of justice has recently passed the House of Commons by an overwhelming majority.

The people of Russia, in the enjoyment of their new freedom, have already sent delegates to the National Council of Farmers and Workmen, who were elected by the votes of women as well as men in the various districts of Russia, and it is noteworthy that one of the first acts of this council was the resolve in the interest of democracy not to make a separate peace with Germany. Hon. Elihu Root, of New York, who has just returned from his mission to Russia, in an interview at Chicago on August 7, 1917, used this language:

"I never saw a finer lot of soldiers than those Russian women who joined the army to fight their country's battles. I saw the command of death' march away from Petrograd. It was one of the most inspiring sights I have ever seen to see those women, some of them slender girls, with their hair cropped and their ugly uniforms, go away to do the work of men. They marched as befitted their name, for they knew no fear. "It would not surprise me if, as time goes on, American women did the same thing. American women are just as capable and noble as those of Russia. And when the call comes, and I would not be surprised if it should, we, too, will see women giving their blood on the field of battle.

"Let the men of Russia, and of America, too, look to these heroic women fighters of Russia and they will hang their heads in shame to think that women had to spur them on in this way.

"Russian women have surely earned a right to a voice in political affairs: and not only have they earned that right, but the welfare of the new Russia depends on their exercising it."

This is a significant statement, in view of the fact that Senator Root was formerly opposed to woman suffrage.

In other parts of the British Empire, in Australia, New Zealand, the six Provinces of Canada, and British Columbia, women possess equal rights with men; while in India. Burma, and British Honduras women have been granted municipal suffrage by the British Parliament. Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland have granted equal suffrage, and Sweden every suffrage right except the vote for Parliament. Republican France has pledged to extend municipal suffrage to women in the immediate future. One of the States of Mexico, Yucatan, has granted suffrage to its women. As Mr. Asquith recently remarked:

"I no longer regard this question from the standpoint we occupied before the war. Women have worked out their own salvation. I am ready to give them the vote." It has been deemed advisable to remove the source of discontent and disunion by rewarding the tremendous share of women in the labors and sacrifices incident to a state of war.

An act of Congress, therefore, empowering the Legislature of Hawaii to remove one restriction of the organic act or to submit the question to a referendum of the voters will be in line with many precedents that have been established during the period of the great war.

Ever since Jefferson declared as the foundation of our liberties the principle that "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," it has become apparent that equal suffrage is inevitable not only in America but throughout the world. . For these reasons the committee recommends the favorable consideration of the bill.

In addition to the facts presented in the Senate report, it is worthy of note that since that report was made, the House of Representatives on January 10, 1918, by the constitutional two-thirds majority passed H. J. Res. 200. The further fact has been brought to the attention of the committee that since the Senate report, the House of Commons and the House of Lords of England passed a suffrage amendment enfranchising the women of England, which was approved by the King. The women of England now have full rights of suffrage for which they have been struggling for many years.

The Premier of Italy, last week, said that he feels the time has come for the extension of full suffrage to the women of Italy, and that he trusts that the Italian Parliament will immediately pass the measure granting woman suffrage in Italy.

In our own United States, it is worthy of note, that within the last four weeks the great Lone Star State of Texas has given primary suffrage to the women of Texas.

Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, president of the Equal Suffrage Association of Galveston, Tex., appeared before the committee and among other things said:"

Mr. Blanton has embarrassed me greatly, as I had not expected to have the honor of addressing this committee. I haven't anything to say except that we are very anxious to have a chance to ratify the Federal amendment in Texas. We are one of the Southern States, a states-right State, and we consider that one of the highest rights that the States have is their right to amend the Federal Constitution. We appreciate the splendid work that this committee has done for suffrage. It has been an inspiration to Texas women in their work in the State and I am happy to have this opportunity to express our gratitude and appreciation to you in person.

Mrs. Benjamin F. Pittman, of Boston, Mass., speaking on the bill before the committee at its hearing, among other things, said:

My interest in the Hawaiian suffrage bill, apart from my deep interest in the enfranchisement of all women, comes, as you have heard, through my husband's connection with Hawaii. His mother, who was Kenole, chiefess of Hilo, was a woman of great influence among her people. She died many years ago, and he left his island home as a child, to return after 50 years of absence to find that in the minds of his

mother's people he occupied, and always had, the same position. To them he is Keola-o-Kilani, chief of Hilo.

I refer to this only to show you how I, a stranger and an American, was in a position to feel the pulse of the Hawaiian people in regard to the enfranchisement of their women. It was known in Hawaii that I am greatly interested in this subject, and almost immediately upon my arrival I was asked to hold suffrage meetings. I did this and soon learned that I was in a suffrage country, and that the suffrage bill had been approved by both the Republican and Democratic Parties.

It was my privilege to be present at the opening of the legislature, and I was able to interview members of both houses. Every man to whom I spoke, including the president of the senate and the speaker of the house, expressed himself as in favor of the measure. The legislature had passed an overwhelming vote for it, and the Delegate had been commissioned to lay the bill before Congress, and there it stopped as far as they knew. Everyone was awaiting the outcome, and as months went by without hearing one way or the other I promised the women of Hawaii to inquire into the matter. I reported to my chief, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, with the result that the Senate has already passed the bill, and this committee is here to-day to consider it. I promised to do all in my power to bring this matter before Congress, and I have traveled far to be present to-day in the hope that this message from the women of Hawaii may influence you to consider the matter favorably.

In the days of the monarchy Hawaiian women took great interest and could be effectively active in politics. The women are to-day, as heretofore, the possessors of great wealth and hold a large share of the property. Their men fully appreciate the wisdom, public spirit, and executive ability of their women, both of the native and missionary classes, but since the monarchy ceased to exist and Hawaii became a Territory of the United States they have been obliged to take their place beside their American sisters of the unenfranchised States. The gallant men of Hawaii believe with us in the old cry that taxation without representation is unjust, and have gone as far as they can to rectify the injustice.

Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman Congressional Committee, National American Woman Suffrage Association, appeared before the committee, and among other things, said:

Our association is interested in the bill, as we are interested, of course, in any question that has to do with the enfranchisement of women in the States and Territories of the United States.

Out attention was called to the fact that the Legislature of Hawaii had requested this legislation, through the presence of one of our members, Mrs. Pitman, in Hawaii. It seems that in the last Congress, the Sixty-fourth Congress, a memorial from the Hawaiian Legislature was received, asking for the rights which this bill could confer. That memorial seems to have been lost sight of in the Sixty-fourth Congress. In the Sixty-fifth Congress, as I understand it, the Territorial Legislature presented through Prince Kalanianaole a second memorial, requesting to have the rights asked for in the first memorial conferred by the Sixty-fifth Congress. A bill in accordance with the request was introduced into the House by Prince Kalanianaole, and into the Senate, at our request, by Senator Shafroth.

As I said, it was through the presence in Hawaii of one of our members, Mrs. Pitman, that our attention was called to the active interest of the Hawaiian people in this legislation.

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, speaking before the committee at its hearing, among other things, said:

In reading over this bill I find that it is practically in accord with not only the position taken by both political parties of Hawaii but with that of both national political parties of the United States. It is not a bill asking that Congress shall grant to the women of Hawaii the right of suffrage, but that it shall permit the people of Hawaii to decide this question for themselves, which is one of the questions that are being agitated very strongly in this country and is certainly in accord with the action of both the Republican and Democratic Parties nationally and with nearly all of the political parties in the States. And since both political parties of Hawaii and the Legislature of Hawaii have asked Congress to so amend their organic law that they may be permitted to grant suffrage to women, I can see no reason whatever why there should be any objection to it on the part of the Congress of the United States, since it is uniformly conceded that the people should be permitted to decide the qualification of electors.

65th CONGRESS, 1 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 2d Session.

BRIDGE ACROSS LITTLE PEEDEE RIVER, S C.

MAY 6, 1918.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. MONTAGUE, from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 11552.]

The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R 11552) granting the consent of Congress to Marion and Horry Counties to construct a bridge across Little Peedee River, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it pass.

The bill has the approval of the War Department, as will appear by the letter attached and which is made a part of this report.

[Second indorsement.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, April 24, 1918. Respectfully returned to the chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives.

So far as the interests committed to this department are concerned, I know of no objection to the favorable consideration by Congress of the accompanying bill, H. R. 11552, present session, to authorize the construction of a bridge across Little Peedee River, at Galivants Ferry, S. C.

B. CROWELL, Assistant Secretary of War.