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for its Council, this body must submit the question to all the voters
in the Canton. It never has been submitted by the Federal Council,
which holds that it must first be granted in the Cantons. Whenever
they have voted on it they have defeated it, the agricultural
population being especially hostile. There are many organizations of
women, the most important of which ask for the suffrage. The largest
of them, the National Council of Women, with 20,000 members from all
kinds of societies, was very slow to recognize the value of the vote
but in January, 1919, when a revision of the constitution was
expected, it took official action and unanimously adopted suffrage
work.

Mme. Chaponniere-Chaix (who is now president of the International
Council of Women), Mme. Saulner and Mlle. Camille Vidart were present
at the forming of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Berlin
in 1904 to represent a group in Geneva. In May, 1908, a Central Woman
Suffrage Committee was formed in Berne of societies in seven cities
and it was admitted to membership in the Alliance. In January, 1909, a
National Association was organized with M. de Morsier, a Deputy of the
Council of the Geneva Canton, as president and lectures and organizing
commenced. The work was continued and small gains were made. Vaud,
Geneva, Neuchatel, Bale-Ville and Berne gave women a vote in the
State church. They can sit on school boards in these Cantons
and Zurich. They can vote for and serve on the tribunaux de
prud'hommes--industrial boards--in two or three Cantons, these rights
granted by the Councils. The universities and the professions are open
to women.

Work for woman suffrage was at an end during the War and after it was
over there was not the disposition to enfranchise women that prevailed
in other countries of Europe but it was taken up by the liberal
parties. The suffragists entered upon vigorous efforts to have the
rights of women included in the proposed revision of the national
constitution. On March 17, 1919, in response to large petitions, the
Council of Neuchatel by a vote of 60 to 30 submitted the question of
woman suffrage to the voters. In June the National Suffrage
Association held its annual meeting in this Canton with a large
attendance and its president, Mlle. Emily Gourd, gave an account of an
active year's work. A petition signed by 157 women's societies asked
the Federal Council to put woman suffrage in the revised national
constitu