ich we express in our women's clubs and our prayer
meetings."

Mrs. Caroline A. Lowe of Kansas City, Mo., spoke in behalf of the
7,000,000 wage-earning women of the United States from the standpoint
of one who had earned her living since she was eighteen and declared
that to them the need of the ballot was a vital one. She gave
heart-breaking proofs of this fact and said:

From the standpoint of wages received we wage earners know it to
be almost universal that the men in the industries receive twice
the amount granted to us although we may be doing the same work.
We work side by side with our brothers; we are children of the
same parents, reared in the same homes, educated in the same
schools, ride to and fro on the same early morning and late
evening cars, work together the same number of hours in the same
shops and we have equal need of food, clothing and shelter. But
at 21 years of age our brothers are given a powerful weapon for
self-defense, a larger means for growth and self-expression. We
working women, because we find our sex not a source of strength
but a source of weakness and a greater opportunity for
exploitation, have even greater need of this weapon which is
denied to us. Is there any justice underlying such a condition?

What of the working girl and her employer? Why is the ballot
given to him while it is denied to us? Is it for the protection
of his property that he may have a voice in the governing of his
wealth, of his stocks and bonds and merchandise? The wealth of
the working woman is far more precious to the welfare of the
State. From nature's raw products the working class can readily
replace all of the material wealth owned by the employing class
but the wealth of the working woman is the wealth of flesh and
blood, of all her physical, mental and spiritual powers. It is
not only the wealth of today but that of future generations which
is being bartered away so cheaply. Have we no right to a voice in
the disposal of our wealth, the greatest that the world
possesses, the priceless wealth of its womanhood? Is it not the
cruelest injustice that the man whose material wealth is a source
of strength and protection to him and of power over us should be
given the additional advantage of an even greater weapon which he
can use to perpetuate our condi