lilfSI ' jl'v .
Ipillill
l...iii - .ZMMr.-Ml'"i ij
.
How Their Battle for
Ballots HasMadeThem
a Dominant Force in
Their Nation
r TO little' the world really knows of
jri Scandinavia. One might be inclined
''to think, that the old viking coun
tries in the north of Europe were still buried
in the obscurity of the dark ages were it not
ior-ihfaci-that-ihey startle us occasionally
- "by proving how very much: alive they really
- are, how progressive and hovadmiraoly they
are working out the great problems that
wrench other nations to the core. . -t
We have heard much of the. tactics of
the English suffragettes, who have found it
necessary to fight every male official at every
turn with a mob's weapons, ', There has also -he
en some account .of the wiles which French
women have been practicing upon their, states'
men, with little enough effect.
But- scarcely any one was aware jhat
Women have been voting in Norway for three,
years on a limited suffrage basis.' And the
world, for some reason, fails to thrill at the
'annotincemenLthit they are about to have uni--versal
unrestricted suffrage. Yet Norway is
by no means an insignificant land, and the sub
ject is one which has excited sufficient com
ment in other countries to merit .at least a
passing interest, - . -:.-
The remarkable feai.ire of Norway's
Women's rights movement is that the' men
vere for many years the chief promoters of
t, A man won their first privileges, and the
men have frequently outnumbered the women
in the various societies formed for their ad
vancement insights and privileges, -There
9ias been co-operation instead of an intersex
hial feud ali to Norway's credit.
-tmHEJ history of omn'i suftrre in Norway Is ei.
I :, peclally interestng because It Is ao abaolutely
JL unique. The Idea ot men, and men of th highest
rank and caliber at that, taking the women's
fcause in hand and promoting their Interests" U certainly .
novel We have been trained by the English to regard
the .euffrag'ette as the statesman's natural enemy. But
In Norway this has been reversed, and the statesmen
Jiave stood by, Ihe women with such unanimity that In
ll the history of sufTrage there has never been an M. P.,
cr whatever they call them in Norway, horsewhipped or
tk window smashed.
)- Before entering Upon the history of. thia stonelers
tevoluUon, Jiowever, it will be of Interest to know just,
where things, aland now, no doubt. f
, , In the last election tt the members of the Norwegian
parliament, subdivided; Into the . Qde Is thing, and the
fctorthing. th Utter-being the upper house, tha liberal
farty, or left, as It la called, split, and the more radical
branch 4 took tip the campaign for universal woman'a
ultra ga. '"''"'' . .
This party won the recent elections and was strongly
represented in the odelsthlng. As a result, the odeis
thing by a sreat majority voted to grant women the right
to vote, regardlesa of their wealth, rank or other
jrovlslons. c '
All women over 25 years of age may vote for all ofn
cers, the new bill provides1, and are eligible to office.
"; . OUTCOME IS ASSURED
The opposing party, known as the right or conserva
tive, is not strong enough to oppose the further progress
of the new law, and it is fully anticipated that the num
ber of women who will vote at the next elections will ha
Increased from ,270,000 to 500,000.
Such Is the present status of the fair-haired daughters
of the north, who have Quietly acquired all the manly
riphts without so much as a sacrifice, of dignity or the
adoption of militant methods. lne
me begins tq wonder Just what sort of men they have
in Norway, that they should take such a unique stand in
lie affair; but a little -thought on the quality of Nor
tvy',men In the past will not permit one to enter-jiBirt-sftny
doubts of their strength. -
rvo; oouoier, Norway is not a henpecked land. Th
etory of the suffrage movement will prove that the men
t the bottom of it were not scolded Into It, but struarleJ
fir i heir feminlhi jtrlends betjause'they were "convinced
that the state could not be a heafthv one that dlsDen.ed
?ith the counsel and wisdom of the women
The story Is sufficiently full of Scandinavian namea
wnlch-non of vs eve. heard, but we must trust that
They are' sreat and good folic intsielr-native land and
Uttite worthy of being chronicled. T " ".
- it. .; werner, the mayor of Chrlstlanla, was at
J'T1 i1 rt'',,rTJj- nkjB JhttxUy , hniiMessntf
one
?'rs nso or mote, aone lime Hi lie won for women
telr nrst tecoimltirm in the world of affairs, wh, v-
' -erW In laving them dmltted to the unlversitla
;tr long debate and much opposition. '
This was the first achievement, but aot th firtt
HE OREGON SUNDAY
I ( uo n w - ) VJO I. - . K
symptom. - Away back in the fifties certain courageous
women Of intelligence bad 'made public their opinions on
the subject of woman's rights, and had drawn upon
themselves at that time their share of bitter criticism,
and in one case of ridicule. "' - ' .
Camilla Collett Is regarded with reverence and respect
III Norway as the mother of the, woman's movement, and
It Is said that In the fifties, ' when she was advancing
A GUIDE TO THE HUSBANDS
OF FAMOUS .WOMEN . -:. .
. Cathtrlne the (Ireat.. .
' Mary, qneea' of 6eot.7."
Zenobla, queen ef Palmyra...
Charlotte BcunU,. ,. . ., , .. ..
Sappho ...............
George Eliot ............... ; .
Harriet Beecher Btowe. ......
Fallola Heraam. .............
Margaret Fuller..
Ann Chase..
eemlramis
Pocahontas
"Empress of China............
.Peter III of Russia
Fcanuli 11 at Frsnoe
Dsrnlcy, earl of Koss .
.Odenatus the 6aracen
.....Th Rev. A. Nlcholls
....... .CercaJa ot-Andro
. . . . . .George Henry Xewes
,The Rev. Calvin K. Btowe
......... .Captain Hemans
... . . .Marqula d'Oaioll
...Captain Franklin Chaa
................ Merlonei '
..John Rolf
........Hlan Feng
T"" AME i one of . thoae impartial ' sirena that
Li do their part V the just and the unjust
J ; equally,, provided only they stir up sufc-'
cient dust and flurry in , pursuing them, '
Caesar Borgia is Just as immortal, so far as fame
is conceded, as Petrarch, and Ifachiavelli has been
as well handled by4the jade as Fra Angelico. ,
When a man is famous, fame usually makes a
concession to his wife and grants her a share of the
spoils. We know, in a general way; why tbe wives
" of the greatest males in history were. But the man
who dares to espouse a famoul, woman is' lost for- -ever,
unless he pulls himself out4h.rnirfl ty '
doing something desperate on his" own account.
Of all the famous, women of history who were
wedded, granting that they were not renowned on.
account of their alliance with their more famous
known to posterity even by name.
Moreover, there a.re examples enough in the lin
ing age to dispense with history; bu,t. it is not polite
to announce to a man so publicly that he doesn't
JOURNAL, TOSTLAHD. SUNDAY VLOnillllC, JULY
WW,,.
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mow
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A 1
W A W
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countaao this dissertation will be confined to the '
past. If foil do not "wish to lose alLilftndimr uitk
ifieaiul Titallleavord im fmnnq worn nrT
.urn aim xiy aiues, avgm wie lamous woman.
oiana aione, ana you may be remembered a een '
erauon.' Marry the feminine public-idol of the day,'
and you :have sealed your, name in a" leaden casket
and dropped it into-a sea of obscurity.
-mf&m ft '
.Mil
1 1 1
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what were then extremely radical theories, sh jshowed
such strength of purpose, such intellectual fiber and such
womanliness wljthal that she was never the butt of
ridicule, though, ne Inspired honest opposition in many
quarters. .-
She was th daughter of a university professor, and
about the same time another daughter of scholasticism
waa fighting for her rlghta with different weapons, which
unfortunately brought down upon her the mockery and
Jeers of the publlo.
. Her name was
Aasta (pronounced O-sta) Hansteen,
T
nL ifl L Jltf JJ
HE shades of thousands of fond but unfortunat.teJusuaUiglyj6n..lhe..nttroulyj,tltlof. Mistress, but
hobbles who were allied to Fame, Dut never on :
speaking ' terms with her, gather about th
archives that heap-renown upon me neaas or-
heir earthly Partners and. say mournfully to one an-
' i other; "If the world had only known her as I did, these
vV records wettld have been different"
How abused thessworthy relics of former gentle- -,
men must feel to find the name of their dependent
halves know to a million and their own existence
Vtterly Ignored! ' - '
- How must the Rev, A, Nlcholls feel, if he still does
feel, when he hears,, the moderns ask if Charlotte ,
Bronte was evermarried? No one ever heard pf the
Reverend Nick, nd yet Charlotte and he were happily
married, and there U no record that the distinguished
authoress mads a deliberate attempt to overshadow-T-lr-..--
Tv;-.:iitil.:
- He was simply victim of the common fat that
pursues the .. maa .who . marrlss a famous .woman.
Charlotte Bronte's -father was a pastor in England.
. and -her husband: was her father's curate, a man
whom she had known and loved all her life. ,
It was a very pretty romance In a way, but the
sweets of. domestic felicity refuse to be transmuted
Into material to build renown upon,- and while the
brilliant writer grew famoua, the pastor became jess
- and less a person, ot note, overshadowed by her llghti
This Is trueof many authoresses. It is not true,
of Mrs. Browning, of course, because 'more people
know th great Browning than those who ar f amll-
lar with-his wife's career.: ;ButjQeorgi Eltot is a
favorite example oi .a.jwoiuan wu ww'L v V"' . .
shadowed her husband. Can you nam hlmT He was
welt known in his day as a literary man and a writer
on the theory of writing and literary criticism. He
nnorao Henrv Lwes. a big enough man, but not
inet
married- iuL.werwedded.Jaiucommona
tract unloYi. Both continued to write after.they were
j, but alM f9r Lewesi he was never a match for
George Eliot, so you -never - hear of him
Mrs. -Felicia Hemans was the wife of
Captain
Hemans. an Irish officer, whot distinguished hlmse
tir
In the Spanish campaign, but Is never allotted any
of th renown that cam to his wtfs.
X;;X:.cXex
: X
the daughter of & professor of mathematics, and shfwor
boots, carried a 'whip anil donned as much of man's
apparel as she conveniently could. . She has been immor
talized by the sharpest, keenest, most satirical pen la all
Norway, that of Ounnar Helbelg, the dramatist.; H ...
wrote a play called. "Aunt flrlckke,", which .has sine
been translated into' German and French, and has been
received with tremendous favot: In Norway. - ,
v. 'The fact, that the first women to take Up the struggl
' were daughters of the most intellectual men In the coun
try, and that the greatest satirist shouldered his pen, a
U werirnd Joined their ranks; js typical of the status" -of
the movement In 'Norway. It was many years befor ? ;
the. vital Interest In woman's rights reached the common
people, Only the tipper classes jwere interested. It was '
not 'in -the strictest sense , popular, upheaval to begin
with, but a percolatiory from the top down.'
The first society in Norway for -the advancement of
wonWj rights was Instituted twenty-Hve years ago, Jtnd
Befner, the banker-mayor, was elected the first presiiirlt
Among his earliest efforts, was the demonstratlon of th
injustltse of the system of property rights in. Scandinavia, v.-
He told this story, taken from court records, and he
told it's effectively that It brought about a revision - ;
of the laws governing property holdings throughout
the Und: , - ' ...
1 A certain husband, having possessed himself 0,t his '
wife's dowry and bis own money, which he had spent
recklessly, for the most part, found his home no longer
attractive and eloped with a married woman. 'For
some' time he was not found, and his deserted wife
collected th little that was left and established her- :
self so modestly, and yet with such good management, t,
that she was quite comfortably situated and her prop
erty was on the Increase, when the runaway was cap
tured and brpugh.t back.
NOT PROTECTED BY LAW "
He was lodged In Jail by the man whoBe wife he
had stolen) nd wheh tried was heavily fined. He had
no money; his- wife had.' By the laws of Norway his
wife had no property rights, so he simply took the
little place she had built up, sold It over her head and -turned
her out. Such was the Justice of the law.
-' The first society sent out invitations or appeals,
and the personnel of the signers shows how suffrage
- stood tn Norway at that time. . They were all the
powerful, the intellectual, the cultured people -of
Scandinavia, Eighty were men and ninety-one were
women.':-;"' '5. .i-w -
On their executive committee were the. following
names: Berner Nlcolaygen, a superintendent of public
Instruction; Mr. Mathilda 8chJoett; Miss Glna Krog,
editor in later years Of the Neulander, the woman'-
rights publication of Scandinavia; Cecllle Thoresen,
the first woman university student admitted through
Berner'8 efforts, and Professor Olaf Bkavlan, a man
prominent In university and scholastic circles.
These fieople lectured trade unions to popularize
the struggle. .
In lbb7 they made their first plea for woman's
saffrage. From that time down to 1901 the work con-
slsted in enlisting supporters. In that year the women
were granted municipal suffrage. That is, they could
vote for members of the city councils and were eligi
ble to a place In these bodies and also on Juries.
Since that time, In the city of Bergen, one woman,
Miss Schnelle, has been a member of the city council
for seven years, and In many cases women have been
elected for shorter terms.: , it. .. , ,..-, . j
- In 1907 limited suffrage was rranted to all women
over 25 who were paying taxes on a certain amount of J
property. This limitation was "property yielding an
Income of $113 in the cities or $8 in the country per
annum," - At the time of this great concession, passed
by the storthing, Mrs. (or Fru, as the Norwegians say)
Randl Blehr was president of the great suffrage or
ganisation. She is a most remarkable woman, and has
been interested Mn so many movements for Internal ,
Improvement that the suffragists cannot claim her
exclusively. One of her greatest fields of endeavor ha
been the education of the peasants. - ,
, Mrs. F, M. Quam, the wife of a cabinet minister tf -the
realm, was at one time president of the suffrage',
society, and is still a powerful worker In the ranks.
She Is especially noted for her administrative ability I
, and her charming personality as well.
Another leader In the struggle Is the versatile Mrs. r
Nico Hambre, wife of the headmaster of a famous co- ,
educational school in Bergen. She was the founder of
the Bergen Suffrage Society and Is also a Journalist,
musician, a lecturer on social questions and a founder '
of a school for-trainlhg servants in domestic work.
Margaret Fuller Is "sometimes called the mar
chloness of Oaspli. which Is some clue to her alliance.
Ossoll, the Italian marquis, never contributed ny
thlng to Margaret's fame, however, and If her nam
is allied in history with the names of any. men. It is
with the distinguished New England group of writers
and philosophers of the eighteenth century. '
' The authoress or "Uncle Tom's CaWa," Mrs. Stow,
no one ever ttiinKs to tnquire wno tne man was that
' gave her th Tight, to : us his. name.- He' was well
Ktrowa in ms aay, ioo,7an aDoutionisi -of some re-
down; Jh Rev. Calvin E. Btowe. '-0
, To go back Into the mythological past, where real
people are so blithely mixed up with pecple who
never really ; lived, who was Sappho's . Jtusband f Tn
truth, he was one Cercala, a rich merchant of th
iBland of Andros. How completely has his nam been
swamped in oblivion! , t ', .
- There are gome queen who' have special facilities
for blotting out the memory of their husbands. They
are born to the throne, and their husbands ar mere
figureheads, who flgur little in state affairs or stat
records."" i , . .
The queens who-started as the - consorts ' Of '
crowned monarcha, however, and Von such renown
that their lords arf . well-nigh forgottert,1 ar worthy -of
soma attention. In" ths. first place, Catherine th
Great, of Russia, started out by being a wlf of '
ruler. There, is treed to retrac her remarkable
career,' for every one know that .her husband wag
deposed and that she took his seat. His nameT ' Why,
he was Peter III,' one of those men who was not big
enough to hold down his seat when It was assured
him. Catherine never showed any weakness in this'
fespect. . . .,' i.r .', . , . -. ; . .. ...
rh? ha" n0 heard of Mary, queen of Scots, th 1
Idol- orall sentimentalists? She had two husbands:
the flrst occupied a lofty position by birth and the
second jwa elevated lochia 4igh rank- by bl alliance -with
Miry, All hlstorlana know their names, but they '
have not kept pace with Mary in history,- The first
was Francia ji, king- of France, an the second was
Parnley, earl of Ross and king of Scotland. . -
- In history, ancient and . modern, there 'are Scorel "
of examples.
w. Her are a f tr smwy- knew4 some- yrp-
cuumuver navw guessea. ' urieiiv, eemiramis : was
the wife of Merlones, governor of Nineveh; Ann Chase
was the wife of Captain Franklin Chase; Pocahontas
married John Rolf- Zenobla; the famous queen o
Palmyra, was wedded to Odenatus, a Saracen, and"
the dowager empress of China ruled over Hlen Feng,
emperor of China, whom nf on pow gemembera,
; " "i. 'V. ' '-'. "' 'i, ;;..,- !
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