Again Anthony

Before the Judiciary Committees of the House and Senate appeared representatives of the National Woman's Party, to lobby for the "Lucretia Mott Amendment" which they wished as a companion to the "Susan B. Anthony" (Woman Suffrage) Amendment. The proposed amendment reads:

Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The expression "equal rights" is the crux of the Amendment. It means not only equal rights in matters of citizenship and property, in guardianship of children and holding office, but it also means that women shall have the right to work equally with men, unhampered by restrictions. In short, minimum hour, minimum wage and similar laws, if they apply only to women, would be wiped off the statute books.

The sponsors of this proposed Amendment in Congress are Senator Curtis and Representative Daniel Read Anthony, both of Kansas. The name of Anthony is famous in the annals of the feminist movement. It is not an accident that the Representative from Kansas is named Anthony, for he is a nephew of the famed Susan B. Anthony. Once more the name of Anthony serves feminism, although some are inclined to question the value of this service. Many women's organizations are opposed to the "Lucretia Mott" Amendmentment. The National League of Women Voters--the National Women's Trade Union League, for example. They argue that to adopt the Amendment would be to undo all the work they have done to secure legislative protection for women in industry. The argument of the National Woman's Party may be represented by an argument from the speech of one Mrs. Mary Murray: "Women in industry need to be protected against their protectors. Those who are so eager to protect us, placing us in a class of weaklings, unable to decide for ourselves, are divided into two classes: the nonworkers and the professional uplifters. The nonworkers want women brought back out of industry so they can have plenty of maids. The professional uplifters are working women, all right, but they work for salary instead of wages and they neglect to say for whom they are working. They are willing to sacrifice their sisters in industry to keep their nice jobs." However, since congressional action on the proposed Amendment is quite out of the question during this session of Congress, the hearings may be interpreted chiefly as a compliment to the National Woman's Party.