Testimony on ERA continues,
both sides a speak in Salem
By NAN HENDERSON
Of the Emerald
SALEM (Special) — Testimony
on ratification of the Equal
Rights Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution continued last week
as proponents and opponents of
ratification Monday calmly faced
each other during the second
hearing on ratification of the
legislative session.
They crowded into Room 20 of
the Capitol in much the same way
as the week before during the
first hearing on the issue before
the House State and Federal
Affair Committee.
Last week, the testimony was
given to the Senate Judiciary
Committee as identical measures
calling for ratification have been
introduced in both the House and
Senate. Sen. Betty Browne (D
Oakridge), chairer of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, reported
that she does not intend to
schedule more hearings on the
issue before that committee.
At least one more hearing on
the amendment is planned,
however, by Rep. Les Aucoin (D
Portland), chairer of the House
State and Federal Affairs
committee, though no date for
that hearing has been announced.
Last week’s testimony, too,
was nearly identical to that given
the previous week except two
Lane County women, not present
then, Monday added their sup
port to the ERA.
Nancy Hayward, chairer of the
Lane County Board of Com
missioners and Mary Klonoski,
chairer of the Fourth
Congressional District
Democratic Committee coun
tered most of the arguments
against ratification in their
testimonies.
Hayward said she served in the
ERA opponents hit
‘shot-gun ’ approach
A middle-aged Portland housewife who considers herself
“politically active’’ but asked that her name not be used “because
sometimes reporters don’t write down exactly what I say,” typified
the opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment present in a fuller force
last week at the second hearing on the issue.
The woman said she belonged to “the Committee for the
Preservation of Womanhood” which was formed “a couple of months
ago” specifically to lobby against the ERA. She said the group drew
members from many “concerned organizations” including the
American Independent Party and though the organization was
initiated in Portland “it is growing all over Oregon.”
She said the group is increasing their membership by circulating
petitions urging persons to “stop the ratification of the ‘Equal Rights’
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Five points are outlined against the amendment on the petitions;
“Would you, in the name of equality, want your 18-year-old
daughter to be compelled to register for the draft and, when inducted,
to stand in a common physical examination line with men, share living
quarters with them and be sent into combat to run the risk of
mutilation and capture?”
— “The ERA will wipe out women’s right to privacy” (by forcing
the integration of rest rooms, physical education classes and all public
facilities).
— “The ERA would turn loose on the public all criminals now
imprisoned for sex crimes” (since seduction and statutory rape laws
would no longer be iegal undo1 the ERA).
— “The ERA will strip women of all protective laws gained for
them over the decades by unions and legislators.”
“The ERA will wipe out the financial obligation of a husband and
father to support his wife and children—the most important of all
women’s rights.”
The point of most concern to the housewife, and to all opponents
testifying against the amendment was the possibility that “young
girls” will be subject to conscription.
“When I was first telling my sister that the ERA would make
women eligible for the draft she gave me a big horse laugh and said
‘those women libbers are going to get what they deserve,’ ” the woman
said. But when her sister and other persons she talked to about the
amendment realized she was serious, “they just couldn’t believe it,”
she said.
“So little information about the amendment has been in the
press,” the woman said, “most people just don’t understand the broad
interpretation of the amendment but when they do, they are against
it.”
She said neither women nor men “should be forced to go to this no
win war in Vietnam.” She felt that conscription of any person “is a
violation of the involuntary servitude clause of the 13th Amendment.”
But she added that women are physiologically and psychologically
less able to serve in the military than men. “I have a daghter that will
be eligible for the draft in two years if the ERA is ratified,” the woman
said, “but none of us could expect her to go.”
She also expressed concern that passage of the ERA would “be
issuing a blank check to Congress” to pass any laws that supposedly
would correct existing sex discrimination.
“Our side could be wrong about what would happen, but so could
the other side,” the woman said. The problem, she added, is that no
one knows exactly what will happen if the amendment is ratified.
She said that The Committee for the Preservation of Womanhood
will probably petition for a referendum on the ratification issue, if the
legislature ratifies the amendment.
“I think this is so important that I would be willing to go door to
door to inform people about the ERA,” she said.
She admitted that women are discriminated against “in a few
areas still,” but objected to using “a shot-gun approach to solve that
problem." The woman said ratifying the ERA to deal with existing
discrimination “is like using an atomic bomb to exterminate a few
mice.”
Navy in World War II and saw
“no reason why women should
not give service to their country”
in the same way as men. She said
that it is unfair only the men in
the country bear the burden oi
national defense.
“Almost nine out of ten jobs
done in the military are non
combat,” Hayward said. She
added that women would also be
able to “reap the benefits of the
military” such as the G.I. Bill.
Hayward also answered the
argument the ERA would no
longer permit separate public
toilets for men and women.
“Separate toilets and sleeping
facilities between men and
women have been created not to
discriminate against women, but
for other reasons,” Hayward
said. She called the situation
“totally different” from the
separate facilities blacks were
required to use before passage of
the 14th Amendment.
She also argued that dealing
with discriminatory laws on a
one-by-one basis, as many of the
opponents to the ERA propose,
would leave women “in a tenous
position as they move from state
to state and county to county.”
Klonoski called the ERA “the
equal rights and responsibilities
amendment” in her testimony
before the committee. She said
that it would give women “equal
adulthood” by abolishing many
laws that place women in a
position below their husbands.
DAIRY-ANN
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