ng, after which Mrs. Catt said: "Although I
have been a resident and taxpayer in four different States and able to
qualify as a voter I have never been permitted any suffrage whatever.
I now have the privilege of introducing a Russian woman who has been a
voter in her country ever since she was 21." Madame Friedland said in
part:

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: In a country like
Russia, with an absolute government, there is but little suffrage
for either men or women but the little there is is equally shared
by both. We do not, of course, vote for Czars; neither do we vote
for Governors but the municipal officers are elected by the votes
of the real estate owners regardless of sex. The woman, however,
does not vote in person but transfers her vote to her husband,
her son or her son-in-law and in case these are unable to vote
for her she has the right to delegate her vote to an outsider. He
simply has the proxy and votes as the woman dictates.

Russia, whose political institutions are the least liberal in
Europe, has the most liberal laws in regard to the civil capacity
of her women. Every woman, married or single, if she is of age,
enjoys complete civil capacity. Marriage does not in any way
change the rights of husband and wife over the property they
possess or may acquire. The husband has no legal right whatever
over the property of his wife and she is by no means under his
guardianship. This may account for the fact that we have less
divorce than in many other countries. We have different laws for
the different social classes. A nobleman will pay his taxes
according to the law for the nobility, while his wife may be a
commoner and have to pay hers according to the laws for the
commoners, but both are taxpayers and consequently both are
voters. It is quite a common thing to see a woman of the people,
a peasant woman, take her place and often her husband's place, as
he has a right to delegate his vote to her at elections, and she
may also take it at county meetings and assemblies of every kind.
Lately the government of the peasantry have made an effort to
deprive the women of the right to hold office but the Senate has
prevented them on the ground that if women share the hard
struggle for existence with the men, as they do in our remote
rural dis