In September, 1908, there were two great demonstrations in the Hague in favor of _universal_ suffrage for both men and women. The right to vote in Holland is based on the payment of a property tax or ground rent; therefore numerous proposals in favor of widening the suffrage had been made previously. When a liberal ministry came into power in 1905, it undertook a reform of the suffrage laws; in 1907 the Committee on the Constitution, by a vote of six out of seven, recommended that Parliament grant active and passive suffrage to men and women. But with the fall of the Liberal ministry fell the hope of having this measure enacted, for there is nothing to be expected from the present government, composed of Catholic and Protestant Conservatives. As has already been stated, propaganda is in the meantime being carried on with increasing vigor, and in Java a woman's suffrage society has also been organized. A noted jurist, who is a member of the Dutch _Bond voor Vrouwenkiesrecht_, has just issued a pamphlet in which he proves the necessity of granting woman's suffrage: "Man makes the laws. Wherever the interests of the unmarried or the married woman are in conflict with the interests of man, the rights of the woman will be set aside. This is injurious to man, woman, and child, and it blocks progress. The remedy is to be found only in woman's suffrage. The granting of woman's suffrage is an urgent demand of justice." SWITZERLAND[67] Total population: 3,313,817. Women: about 1,700,000. Men: about 1,616,000. Federation of Swiss Women's Clubs. Woman's Suffrage League.