Page:Women Wanted.djvu/333

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AT THE GATES OF GOVERNMENT
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dead. There are villages with not so much as a man to be made mayor, and a woman filling the office instead. The French Chamber of Deputies has before it a bill to confer the municipal franchise on women. "It is an act of justice," says ex-Premier Viviani. The Droit du Peuple declares, "After the war, many homes will be maintained by women who will perform men's tasks and fulfil men's obligations. They ought to have men's rights."

Canada, too, thought to reward her women with a vicarious vote. The "next of kin" franchise was devised, by which the Government has conferred on the wife or widow, mother, sisters and daughters of men in the service the right to vote. But the delegations of women outside the government house at Ottawa do not go away. They still wait. "We also serve," they repeat. And the country, in which no less than five provinces last year gave to all of their women full citizenship, has promised now to prepare the full direct federal franchise.

In Mittel Europa, Rosika Schwimmer is marshalling the feminist forces. Under her leadership, a great deputation has marched to the Town Hall in Budapest. The resolution there presented for universal suffrage was carried by the Burgomaster to the Emperor. In reply, the Hungarian Feminist Union has received the assurance of the prime minister that the Government will introduce a measure extending the franchise to a limited class of women. At Prague, Austria, the Town Council has appointed a committee to draw up a new local government