Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/82

 women; Local Veto of the liquor traffic and the closing of saloons on election day; the raising of the age of consent to seventeen. The Australian States have each and all accomplished a number of similar reforms with the help of the women's vote, and with consequent benefit to the country at large.

Of the forty-eight States of America, ten have complete woman suffrage; but in no country in the world has woman, as woman, so much liberty as in this great Republic. Every profession is open to her, not excluding that of the preacher. She may enter every business. Industry is an open field, and agriculture her sphere by right. The average American woman has more money to spend than the average woman of any other nation, more leisure in which to spend it, and more beautiful things on which to spend it. The accumulation of wealth as a result of economical production has caused the things which only wealth can command to be poured into this fortunate land. The American woman would have long since been completely ruined by her good fortune had it not been for her native good sense, her kindly heart, her ready intellect, and her passion for doing something. It is fortunate for the well-placed American woman, as it is a calamity for the others, that the competitive system of industry, by playing havoc with