Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/85

 as it may, it is a warning signal to American women to lose no time in having their position secured through the vote, the symbol of citizenship, lest their task become wellnigh impossible by this lowering in the voting quality of the present citizens.

It is astonishing that any American man or woman of culture can be found to oppose this reform; but the stock argument in the United States is, that there, politics is corrupt and degrading, and that women would lose something if they entered the political arena; but the new hope and the new idealism which is abroad has little room for this argument of selfishness, which has this demerit, that it is simply not true.

To leap back again to the old world. Full citizenship on equal terms with men is at present enjoyed by the little country of Finland. Since 1906 the Finnish women have exercised their powers. All adults of twenty-four years of age have the right to vote for, and be elected to, the Finnish Parliament. Nineteen women were elected to the Finnish Parliament in 1907. To the Parliament of 1908 twenty-five women were elected. Of these, nine are married women. The women members belong to all parties and are of all classes. Their special work has been the introduction to the House of a variety of measures for improving the status of women