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1 M. Carey Thomas, A New-Fashioned Argument for Woman Suffrage 1 (1909)

handle is hein.peggy/nfafws0001 and id is 1 raw text is: A NEW-FASHIONED ARGUMENT FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE. Made by M. Carey Thomas, President of Bryn Mawr College, at the opening meeting of the Equal Franohise Society of Pennsylvania held at the Acorn Club, Philadelphia, April 30, 1909.* I have been asked to tell you what seem to me, and will I hope seem to you, the most convincing new-fashioned reasons for giving women the franchise. The old- fashioned theoretical arguments based on justice and no taxation without representation so marvelously set forth in 1867 by John Stuart Mill in his great parlia- mentary plea for the enfranchisement of women,t are now being pushed into the background by the urgent practical need of the ballot felt by women today. During the last fifty years there has taken place a stupendous social revolution of which the demand for woman suffrage is only the outward symbol. Neiver before in history were fifty years so momentous in their consequences. During them the whole mighty movement for the higher education of women has run its triumphant course. Only this year the last barrier has given way and the universities of Prussia the greatest centres of scientific learning in the world have admitted women on the same terms as men. The floodgates of knowledge are open wide never to close again. Fifty years ago the world of scholarship was a * The substance of this address was given before the College Equal Suffrage League at the National American Woman Suffrage Convention, Buffalo, October 17, 1908; the Equal Suffrage League of Maryland at the Arundel Club Hall, Baltimore, February 20, 1909; and the Bryn Mawr Club of New York, April 2, 1909. t Ten thousand copies of this plea have been reprinted for the Equal Franchise Societies of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore and for the National College Equal Suffrage League. A copy will be sent on receipt of ten cents by the Corresponding Secretary of the Equal Suffrage League, 505 Fifth Avenue, New York. (I)