For permission to quote some of these authoritative utterances which had been previously printed, we owe cordial thanks to the publishers or authors.  Mrs. Harper’s summary appeared originally in the American Review of Reviews, and Miss Addams’s comments in The Survey of June, 1912.  Both Elbert Hubbard’s words and those of Lloyd-George are reprinted from Hearst’s Magazine of August, 1912, and August, 1913.

IDA HUSTED HARPER

A few years ago no changes in the governments of the world would have seemed more improbable than a constitution for China, a republic in Portugal, and a House of Lords in Great Britain without the power of veto, and yet all these momentous changes have taken place in less than two years.  The underlying cause is unquestionably the strong spirit of unrest among the people of all nations having any degree of civilization, caused by their increasing freedom of speech and press, their larger intercourse through modern methods of travel, and the sending of the youth to be educated in the most progressive countries.

It would be impossible for women not to be affected by this spirit of unrest, especially as they have made greater advance during the last few decades than any other class or body.  There is none whose status has been so revolutionized in every respect during the last half-century.  As with men everywhere, this discontent has manifested itself in political upheaval, so it is inevitable that it should be expressed by women in a demand for a voice in the government through which laws are made and administered.

In 1888, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the leaders of this movement in the United States, where it began, attempted to cooperate with other countries, they found that in only one—­Great Britain—­had it taken organized shape.  By 1902, however, it was possible to form an International Committee, in Washington, D.C., with representatives from five countries.  Two years later, in Berlin, the International Woman Suffrage Alliance was formed with accredited delegates from organizations in nine countries.  This Alliance held a congress in Stockholm during the summer of 1911 with delegates from national associations in twenty-four countries where the movement for the enfranchisement of women has taken definite, organized form.

THE UNITED STATES

At the November election, 1910, the men of Washington, by a vote of three to one, enfranchised the women of that State.  Eleven months later, in October, 1911, a majority of the voters conferred the suffrage on the 400,000 women of California.  These two elections doubtless marked the turning-point in this country.  In 1890 Wyoming came into the Union with suffrage for women in its constitution after they had been voting in the Territory for twenty-one years.  In 1893 the voters of Colorado, by a majority of 6,347, gave full suffrage to women.  In 1895 the men of Utah, where as a Territory women had voted seventeen years, by a vote of 28,618 ayes to 2,687 noes, gave them this right in its constitution for Statehood.  In 1896 Idaho, by a majority of 5,844, fully enfranchised its women.