League of Women Voters of Washington

PRINCIPLES

The League of Women Voters Believes...

• in representative government and in the individual liberties established in the Constitution of the United States.
• that
  democratic government depends upon the informed and active
  participation of its citizens and requires that governmental bodies
  protect the citizen's right to know by giving adequate notice of
  proposed actions, holding open meetings and making public records
  accessible.
• that every citizen should be protected in the right to
  vote; that every person should have access to free public education
  which provides equal opportunity for all; and that no person or group
  should suffer legal, economic or administrative discrimination.
• that efficient and economical government requires
  competent personnel, the clear assignment of responsibility, adequate
  financing and coordination among the different agencies and levels of
  government.
• that responsible government should be responsive to the
  will of the people; that government should maintain an equitable and
  flexible system of taxation, promote the conservation and development
  of natural resources in the public interest, share in the solution of
  economic and social problems which affect the general welfare, promote
  a sound economy and adopt domestic policies which facilitate the
  solution of international problems.
• that cooperation with other nations is essential in the
  search for solutions to world problems, and that the development of
  international organization and international law is imperative in the
  promotion of world peace.

HOW WE BEGAN

Arthur Denny,
founder of Seattle, proposed woman suffrage in the first legislative
meeting in Olympia in 1854. He lost on an eight to nine vote. The
Washington Territory Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1871 in
Olympia. The territorial legislature gave women the vote in 1883. Women
lost their vote in 1887 when the Territorial Supreme Court ruled that
Congress did not intend to give territories the power to enfranchise
women.

Women were unable to vote for delegates to the State
Constitutional Convention in 1889. Woman suffrage was submitted to the
voters as a separate amendment to ratification of the constitution. It
failed again in an 1897 vote.

In 1895 the first convention of
Washington State's Equal Suffrage Association was held. Washington
Territory was known for its suffragists. With differing styles, the
persistent Emma Smith DeVoe and the direct and indomitable May
Arkwright Hutton worked for the common cause of women's suffrage in
Washington State. By 1907, the Washington Equal Suffrage Association
had several thousand members, and in November of 1910 the amendment to
the state constitution allowing women to vote carried by nearly two to
one. This made Washington the fifth state to give women the right to
vote - nine years before the 19th Amendment to the US. Constitution
extended the vote to all the nation's women.

The League of
Women Voters of the United States was first projected at the Jubilee
Convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association in 1919.
The League of Women Voters of Washington was organized the next year.
Seattle and Tacoma were the first two local Leagues in the state. In
the early days the League of Women Voters of Washington supported state
legislation pertaining to protection of children in fields of labor,
health and education. At the present time there are twenty-one local
Leagues around the state.