voor Vrouenkiesrecht_). Both carry on an energetic propaganda in the
entire country, the older organization being the more radical. In 1908 the
older organization made all necessary preparations for the Amsterdam
Congress of the Woman's Suffrage Alliance, which resulted in a large
increase in its membership (from 3500 to 6000), and resulted, furthermore,
in the founding of a Men's League for Woman's Suffrage (modeled after the
English organization). The question of woman's suffrage has aroused a
lively interest throughout the Netherlands; even the _Bond_ increased its
membership during the winter of 1908 and 1909 from 1500 to 3500.

In September, 1908, there were two great demonstrations in the Hague in
favor of _universal_ suffrage for both men and women. The right to vote in
Holland is based on the payment of a property tax or ground rent;
therefore numerous proposals in favor of widening the suffrage had been
made previously. When a liberal ministry came into power in 1905, it
undertook a reform of the suffrage laws; in 1907 the Committee on the
Constitution, by a vote of six out of seven, recommended that Parliament
grant active and passive suffrage to men and women. But with the fall of
the Liberal ministry fell the hope of having this measure enacted, for
there is nothing to be expected from the present government, composed of
Catholic and Protestant Conservatives. As has already been stated,
propaganda is in the meantime being carried on with increasing vigor, and
in Java a woman's suffrage society has also been organized. A noted
jurist, who is a member of the Dutch _Bond voor Vrouwenkiesrecht_, has
just issued a pamphlet in which he proves the necessity of granting
woman's suffrage: "Man makes the laws. Wherever the interests of the
unmarried or the married woman are in conflict with the interests of man,
the rights of the woman will be set aside. This is injurious to man,
woman, and child, and it blocks progress. The remedy is to be found only
in woman's suffrage. The granting of woman's suffrage is an urgent demand
of justice."

SWITZERLAND[67]

Total population: 3,313,817.
Women: about 1,700,000.
Men: about 1,616,000.

Federation of Swiss Women's Clubs.
Woman's Suffrage League.

Switzerland's existence and welfare depend on the harmony of the German,
the French, and the Italian elements of the population. Switzerland is
accustomed to considering three racial elements; out of t