Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/326

 over to women teachers—that of coping with the foreign born and their children. Who can estimate the value of this great constructive work, the creation of American citizens out of the varied materials that are landed on our shores? And who can estimate the quickening force and the gain in appreciation and respect for law and order, if the mothers and the teachers of these children were considered worthy of the principles which they are asked to inculcate? Thousands of these women teachers are college graduates with fine training and all are women of more than average intelligence. They are not only bread winners but very often they are the heads of families which they have inherited. They are caring for and educating younger brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and providing for aged fathers and mothers. It has been said that the men of each class will protect the women of each class. Witness the men teachers of New York City, who in 1900 secured a State law that gave to themselves salaries from 30 per cent. to 100 per cent. higher than to women doing the same grade of work. A woman teacher in the elementary schools must work nine years in order to receive the salary that the man teacher begins with. She may and often does supervise men, because of having passed a difficult examination, and receive $800 a year less than the men whom she supervises. A woman principal receives $1,000 less than a man principal in the same grade of work, having the very same qualifications. Governor Hughes has characterized these discriminations against women as "glaring and gross inequalities," but in spite of the efforts of 15,000 women teachers for the last four years the inequalities still continue. It is rather easy to see the value of the ballot to the men teachers of the city of New York

As citizens under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, we claim the honored and inherited right to petition our Government or either branch thereof for a redress of grievances that very plainly exist because of the present legal status of women in 41 States of the Union. We ask that our petition, which is signed by hundreds of thousands of law-abiding citizens, shall receive serious and courteous attention. We well know that when a petition of such great consequence to millions of citizens is not so considered the foundation of republican government is attacked and weakened where it should be supported and strengthened.

Dr. Shaw: I present now Dr. Anna E. Blount, a physician from Chicago, who will speak in behalf of the medical practitioners.

Dr. Blount. In my city there are 500 women doctors; in my State there are 750; in the United States in 1900 there were 7,399. These women doctors know the womanhood of the country perhaps more intimately than any other class of women know it. I have talked with many of them and I have yet to find one who does not believe in woman suffrage. The Woman's Medical Club in Chicago has joined the suffrage association. Why do we want the ballot?