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1918 - League of Women Voters Formed
"Every suffragist will hope for a memorial dedicated to the memory of our brave, departed leaders, to the sacrifices they made for our cause, to the score of victories won... I venture to propose one who benefits will bless our entire nation and bring happiness to the humblest of our citizens - the most natural, the most appropriate and the most patriotic memorial that could be suggested - A League of Women Voters to 'finish the fight' and to aid in the reconstruction of the nation.
"What could be more natural than that women having attained their political independence should desire to give service in token of their gratitude? What could be more appropriate than that such women should do for the coming generation what those of a preceding did for them? What could be more patriotic than that these women should use their new freedom to make the country safer for their children and their children's children?
"Let us then raise up a League of Women Voters, the name and form of organization by the members themselves; a league that shall be non-partisan and non-sectarian and consecrated to three chief aims:
1. To use its influence to obtain the full enfranchisement of women of every State in our own republic AND TO REACH ACROSS THE SEAS IN AID OF THE WOMAN'S STRUGGLE FOR HER OWN IN EVERY LAND. [Emphasis added -- IS.]
2. To remove the remove the remaining legal discriminations against women in the codes and constitutions of the several States in order that the feet of coming women may find these stumbling blocks removed.
3. To make our democracy so safe for the nation and so safe for the world that every citizen may feel secure and great men will acknowledge the worthiness of the American republic to lead."
The following ten points covered by Mrs. Catt
in her address were adopted later as the first aims of the League of Women
Voters and made the plan of work for the Committee of American Citizenship:
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