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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13568-0.txt b/13568-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..edf6ec7 --- /dev/null +++ b/13568-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2230 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13568 *** + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE LIBRARY + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE BY FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT + +COMPILED BY CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +PUBLISHED BY NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE PUBLISHING CO., INC. 171 MADISON +AVENUE NEW YORK + + +1917 + + + +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO + +THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE LEGISLATURES OF THE +SEVERAL STATES. IT GOES WITH THE HOPE THAT IT MAY LEAD TO A BETTER +UNDERSTANDING OF THE REASONS FOR A FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT +PROVIDING THAT NO STATE SHALL DENY THE RIGHT TO VOTE ON ACCOUNT OF +SEX. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +No effort is made in the following pages to present an argument for +woman suffrage. No careful observer of the modern trend of human +affairs, doubts that "governments of the people" are destined to +replace the monarchies of the world. No listener will fail to hear the +rumble of the rising tide of democracy. No watcher of events will deny +that the women of all civilized lands will be enfranchised eventually +as part of the people entitled to give consent and no American +possessed of political foresight doubts woman suffrage in our land as +a coming fact. + +The discussion herein is strictly confined to the reasons why an +amendment to the Federal Constitution is the most appropriate method +of dealing with the question. This proposed amendment was introduced +into Congress in 1878 at the request of the National Woman Suffrage +Association. Since 1882 the Senate Committee has reported it with a +favorable majority every year except in 1890 and 1896. Twice only has +it gone to vote in the Senate. The first time was on January 25, 1887; +the second, March 19, 1914. In the House it has been reported from +Committee seven times, twice by a favorable majority, three times by +an adverse majority and twice without recommendation. The House has +allowed the measure to come to vote but once, in 1915. Yet while women +of the nation in large and increasing numbers have stood at doors of +Congress waiting and hoping, praying and appealing for the democratic +right to have their opinions counted in affairs of their government, +millions of men have entered through our gates and automatically have +passed into voting citizenship without cost of money, time or service, +aye, without knowing what it meant or asking for the privilege. Among +the enfranchised there are vast groups of totally illiterate, and +others of gross ignorance, groups of men of all nations of Europe, +uneducated Indians and Negroes. Among the unenfranchised are the +owners of millions of dollars worth of property, college presidents +and college graduates, thousands of teachers in universities, colleges +and public schools, physicians, lawyers, dentists, journalists, heads +of businesses, representatives of every trade and occupation and +thousands of the nation's homekeepers. The former group secured its +vote without the asking; the latter appeals in vain to Congress for +the removal of the stigma this inexplicable contrast puts upon their +sex. It is hoped this little book may gain attention where other means +have failed. + + C.C.C. + + January, 1917. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + PAGE + CHAPTER I. 1 + +WHY THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT? + +By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +There are seven reasons for Federal enfranchisement of women. +Other countries have so enfranchised women. Conditions of men's +enfranchisement in U.S. were easy. Many State constitutions today +practically impossible to amend. Election laws do not protect State +amendment elections from fraud. Men's right to vote protected by +Federal Constitution; state by state enfranchisement would not give +this protection to women. Woman Suffrage a national question. Decision +on technical and abstract question of Suffrage demands different class +of intelligence from election of candidates. + + + CHAPTER II 12 + +STATE CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTRUCTIONS + +By MARY SUMNER BOYD + +State Suffrage amendments defeated in recent years by technical +difficulties. Ratification by Legislature and People theory of State +Constitutional Amendment. So adopted in South Dakota and Missouri. +In most states technicalities make amending impossible. Classes +of technicalities. Limit to number of amendments. "Constitutional +majority." Passage of two Legislatures. More than majority of the +people required for ratification. Indiana. Time requirements. New +Mexico. Revision by Convention. Some states have no or infrequent +Constitutional Conventions. New Hampshire. Delaware Constitution alone +amended by Legislature or Convention without popular vote. Thirty +states gave foundations male suffrage by this easy means. + + + CHAPTER III 21 + +ELECTION LAWS AND REFERENDA + +By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +State Election Laws defective. Many state suffrage amendments +undoubtedly lost by frauds in elections. In twenty-four states +election law or precedents offer no correction of returns in +fraudulent amendment elections. In twenty-three states Contest on +election returns probably possible. In eight states recount of +votes made. A court procedure and expensive. Punishment for bribery. +Relation to Contest. Ohio cases. Vagueness of election laws protects +corruption. Ignorant vote used by corrupt. Form of ballot often helps +corruption. Only 13 states have headless ballots. Form of Suffrage +amendment ballots in recent years aided in defeat of measure. +Examples. Non-partisan referendum not protected from fraud like party +questions. In most states women cannot be watchers at polls. Aliens +can vote in eight states. Illiterate can vote in most states. Résumé. + + + CHAPTER IV 36 + +THE STORY OF THE 1916 REFERENDA + +By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +Three states voted on Woman Suffrage amendments. Some causes of +failure. Story of Iowa election. Woman's Christian Temperance Union +proves forty-seven varieties of corruption. South Dakota. Foreign +vote defeated Woman Suffrage there. Figures of some counties. +Relation between Prohibition and Woman Suffrage votes. West Virginia. +Illiteracy and conservatism defeated Woman Suffrage there. Liquor +influence felt. Corruption in Berkely County, West Virginia. Special +Legislative session called but investigation of frauds abandoned. +Analysis of vote of certain counties. Résumé. + + + CHAPTER V 55 + +FEDERAL ACTION AND STATES RIGHTS + +By HENRY WADE ROGERS + +Judge of U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, N.Y.C. + +Would Federal Amendment violate local self-government or conflict with +State Rights? States rights a sound doctrine, but has been perverted, +misapplied and carried to extremes. Henry St. George Tucker maintains +this way of gaining woman suffrage is contrary to rightful demarcation +of powers of federal and state governments. Constitutional Convention +1787 provided that amendments be ratified by three-fourths State +Legislatures, State Constitutions may not violate United States +Constitution for this is supreme Law. Amendment to U.S. Constitution +valid regardless of provisions in State Constitutions. Ratification by +State Legislatures does not violate States rights for by it states act +as sovereigns. Same argument for removal of sex line in Suffrage +as that on which 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were based. 15th +amendment gives the sound basis for woman suffrage amendment. + + + CHAPTER VI 69 + +OBJECTIONS TO THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +States Rights objection discussed. U.S. Constitution twice amended +recently under Democratic administration. Federal Prohibition +Amendment introduced by Southern Democrat. Even if all state +constitutions gave woman suffrage U.S. Constitution would contain +discrimination against women in word "male." Objection that woman +suffrage will increase Negro vote. If true, would be objection also +to State suffrage amendment. White supremacy will be strengthened by +woman suffrage. Discussion of figures of Negro and white population +in 15 southern states. Testimony of Chief Justice Walter E. Clark. +Objection that women do not want the vote. Men of 21 and naturalized +citizens become voters without being asked. Only those who wish +to need use the vote. That many women do want the vote is shown +by western figures in election of November, 1916. Objection that +unfavorable referenda in various states show that constituency has +instructed its representatives in Congress against woman suffrage. +Unfavorable majority against a suffrage amendment is in reality a +minority of constituency. Objection on ground of political expediency. +Meaning of this argument as used by different interests. If government +"by the people" is expedient, then government by _all_ the people is +expedient. If Government by certain classes is better, then basis of +franchise should, be morality and education, not sex. Objection +that Woman Suffrage will increase corrupt vote. Woman Suffrage will +increase intelligent electorate. Statistics. It will increase +the moral vote. Only one in twenty criminals is a woman. Election +conditions in equal suffrage states. Objection that Prohibition +sentiment is stronger than Suffrage sentiment since former has spread +faster. Prohibition can be established by statute and by local option +and suffrage cannot. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHY THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT? + + +Woman Suffrage is coming--no intelligent person in the United States +or in the world will deny that fact. The most an intelligent opponent +expects to accomplish is to postpone its establishment as long as +possible. When it will come and how it will come are still open +questions. Woman Suffrage by Federal Amendment is supported by seven +main reasons. These main reasons are evaded or avoided; they are not +answered. + + +1. KEEPING PACE WITH OTHER COUNTRIES DEMANDS IT. + +Suffrage for men and suffrage for women in other lands, with few and +minor exceptions, has been granted by parliamentary act and not by +referenda. By such enactment the women of Australia were granted full +suffrage in Federal elections by the Federal Parliament (1902), and +each State or Province granted full suffrage in all other elections by +act of their Provincial Parliaments.[A] By such enactment the Isle +of Man, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Denmark gave equal +suffrage in all elections to women.[A] By such process the Parliaments +of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta gave full provincial suffrage +to their women in 1916. British Columbia referred the question to the +voters in 1916, but the Provincial Parliament had already extended +all suffrage rights except the parliamentary vote, and both political +parties lent their aid in the referendum which consequently gave a +majority in every precinct on the home vote and a majority of the +soldier vote was returned from Europe later. By parliamentary act all +other Canadian Provinces, the Provinces of South Africa, the +countries of Sweden[A] and Great Britain have extended far more voting +privileges than any woman citizen of the United States east of the +Missouri River (except those of Illinois) has received. To the women +of Belise (British Honduras), the cities of Rangoon (Burmah), Bombay +(India), the Province of Baroda (India), the Province of Voralberg +(Austria), and Laibach (Austria) the same statement applies. In +Bohemia, Russia and various Provinces of Austria and Germany, +the principle of representation is recognized by the grant to +property-holding women of a vote by proxy. The suffragists of France +reported just before the war broke out that the French Parliament was +pledged to extend universal municipal suffrage to women. Men and women +of high repute say the full suffrage is certain to be extended by +the British Parliament to the women of England, Scotland, Ireland and +Wales soon after the close of the war and already these women have all +suffrage rights except the vote for Parliamentary members. These facts +are strange since it was the United States which first established +general suffrage for men upon the two principles that "taxation +without representation is tyranny" and that governments to be just +should "derive their consent from the governed." The unanswerable +logic of these two principles is responsible for the extension of +suffrage to men and women the world over. In the United States, +however, women are still taxed without "representation" and still +live under a government to which they have given no "consent." IT IS +OBVIOUSLY UNFAIR TO SUBJECT WOMEN OF THIS COUNTRY--WHICH BOASTS THAT +IT IS THE LEADER IN THE MOVEMENT TOWARD UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE--TO A +LONGER, HARDER, MORE DIFFICULT PROCESS THAN HAS BEEN IMPOSED BY OTHER +NATIONS UPON MEN OR WOMEN. American constitutions of the nation and +the states have closed the door to the simple processes by which men +and women of other countries have been enfranchised. An amendment to +our Federal Constitution is the nearest approach to them. To deny the +benefits of this method to the women of this country is to put upon +them a PENALTY FOR BEING AMERICANS. + +[Footnote A: See Appendix A for dates and conditions.] + + +2. EQUAL RIGHTS DEMANDS IT. + +Men of this country have been enfranchised by various extensions of +the voting privilege but IN NO SINGLE INSTANCE were they compelled to +appeal to an electorate containing groups of recently naturalized +and even unnaturalized foreigners, Indians, Negroes, large numbers of +illiterates, ne'er-do-wells, and drunken loafers. The Jews, denied the +vote in all our colonies, and the Catholics, denied the vote in +most of them, received their franchise through the revolutionary +constitutions which removed all religious qualifications for the vote +in a manner consistent with the self-respect of all. The property +qualifications for the vote which were established in every colony and +continued in the early state constitutions were usually removed by a +referendum but the question obviously went to an electorate limited to +property-holders only. The largest number of voters to which such an +amendment was referred was that of New York. Had every man voted who +was qualified to do so, the electorate would not have exceeded 200,000 +and probably not more than 150,000.[A] + +[Footnote A: Suffrage in the Colonies. New York Chapter. McKinley.] + +The next extensions of the vote to men were made to certain tribes +of Indians by act of Congress; and to the Negro by amendment to the +Federal Constitution. + +At least three-fourths of the present electors secured their votes +through direct naturalization or that of their forefathers. Congress +determines conditions of citizenship and state constitutions fix +qualifications of voters. In no instance has the foreign immigrant +been forced to plead with a vast electorate for his vote. The suffrage +has been "thrust upon him" without effort or even request on his +part. National and State constitutions not only close to women the +comparatively easy processes by which the vote was extended to men and +women of other countries but also those processes by which the vote +was secured to men of our own land. The simplest method now possible +is by amendment of the Federal Constitution. To deny the privilege of +that method to women is a discrimination against them so unjust and +insufferable that no fair-minded man North or South, East or West, can +logically share in the denial. + + +3. RELIEF FROM UNJUST CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTRUCTIONS DEMANDS IT. + +The constitutions of many states have provided for amendments by such +difficult processes that they either have never been amended or have +not been amended when the subject is in the least controversial. Their +provisions not infrequently are utilized by opponents of a cause to +delay action for years. A present case illustrates. Newspapers in +Kentucky which have opposed woman suffrage, and still do so, have +started a campaign (December, 1916) to submit a woman suffrage +amendment to voters with the announced intention of securing its +defeat at the polls in order to remove it from politics for five years +as the same question cannot be again submitted for that length of +time. + +There are state constitutions so impossible of amendment that women +of those states can only secure enfranchisement through Federal action +and fair play demands the submission of a Federal constitutional +amendment. (See Chapter II.) + + +4. PROTECTION FROM INADEQUATE ELECTION LAWS DEMANDS IT. + +The election laws of all states make inadequate provision for +safeguarding the vote on constitutional amendments. Since election +laws do not protect suffrage referenda, suffragists justly demand the +method prescribed by our national constitution to appeal their case +from male voters at large to the higher court of Congress and the +Legislatures. (See Chapters III and IV.) + + +5. EQUAL STATUS OF MEN AND WOMEN VOTERS DEMANDS IT. + +Until the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment the National +Constitution did not discriminate against women but in Section 2 of +that amendment provision was made whereby a penalty may be directed +against any state which denies the right to vote to its _male +inhabitants_ possessed of the necessary qualifications as prescribed +by nation and state. If the entire 48 states should severally +enfranchise women their political status would still be inferior to +that of men, since no provision for national protection in their right +to vote would exist. + +The women of eleven states are said to vote on equal terms with men. +As a matter of fact they do not, since they not only lose their vote +whenever they change their residence to any one of the 37 other states +(except Illinois, where they lose only a portion of their privileges), +but they enjoy no national protection in their right to vote. Women +justly demand "Equal Rights for All and Special Privileges for None." +Amendment to the National Constitution alone can give them an equal +status. Equality of rights can never be secured through state by state +enfranchisement. + + +6. NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF QUESTION DEMANDS IT. + +Woman suffrage in every other country is a National question. With +eleven American states and nearly half the territory of the civilized +world already won; with the statement of the press still unchallenged +that women voters were "the balance of power" which decided the last +presidential election, the movement has reached a position of national +significance in the United States. Any policy which seeks to shift +responsibility or to procrastinate action, is, to use the mildest +phraseology, unworthy of the Congress in whose charge the making of +American political history reposes. + + +7. TREATMENT OF QUESTION DEMANDS INTELLIGENCE. + +The handicaps of a popular vote upon a question of human liberty +which must be described in technical language will be clear to all +who think. It is probable that at least a fourth of the voters in West +Virginia, one of the recent suffrage campaign states, could not define +the following words intelligently: constitution, amendment, franchise, +suffrage, majority, plurality. It is probable they would succeed +even less well at an attempt to give an account of the Declaration +of Independence, the Revolution, Taxation without Representation, the +will of the majority, popular government. Such men might make a fairly +intelligent choice of men for local offices because their minds are +trained to deal with persons and concrete things. They could decide +between Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hughes with some discrimination, but would +have slight if any knowledge of the platforms upon which either stood. +A referendum in many of our states, means to defer woman suffrage +until the most ignorant, most narrow-minded, most un-American, are +ready for it. The removal of the question to the higher court of the +Congress and the Legislatures of the several states means that it will +be established when the intelligent, Americanized, progressive people +of the country are ready for it. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +STATE CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTRUCTIONS[A] + +[Footnote A: Table of difficulties in each state is to be found in the +Appendix.] + +MARY SUMNER BOYD + + +At its last session the Arkansas Legislature passed a Woman Suffrage +bill by a generous majority; in Kentucky a bill passed both houses +and one house in five other states. One of these was Arkansas where a +constitutional provision that only three amendments can be submitted +to the people at once rendered of no avail the passage of the +Legislature. In the five other states the enormous Constitutional +majorities required in a legislative vote on amendments defeated the +measure. + +This is the story of a typical year and these are two of the +difficulties which beset the gaining of suffrage "state by state." +Year after year labor is thrown away and money wasted because actual +minorities in legislatures can defeat constitutional amendments; or +because once past the legislature, constitutional technicalities can +keep them away from the polls; or because, safely past these hazards, +a minority vote of the people can defeat a bill that has successfully +reached the polls. + +Theoretically an amendment to a state constitution must have the +approval of the Legislature, ratified by the approval of the people. +This ratification is what differentiates it from a statutory law. This +is the actual requirement, however, in but two of the male suffrage +states, South Dakota and Missouri. In all the rest, except Delaware +and New Hampshire, which have special methods of amending, much more +than simple passage and ratification is required. + +There are some half-dozen classes of technical requirements which make +the amending of many state constitutions wellnigh impossible. Some +states have never been able to amend; others have had to submit the +same amendment again and again before it passed, even in the case of +measures which were not unpopular. The Legislatures of Nebraska and +Alabama have occasionally succeeded in passing amendments favored +by politicians, by resorting to clever tricks to circumvent the +constitutional handicaps. Only by outwitting the framers have they +been able to make changes in their constitutions. + +Among the common technical requirements are the passing by a set +proportion much larger than a mere majority of the legislature; +the passing of the people's vote by a majority of those voting for +candidates and not merely of those voting on the amendment itself; +the setting of special time and other limits for the submission +of amendments, etc. Many states combine three or more of these +requirements. + +No impediment seems more vexatious than that which prevented the +Arkansas bill from coming before the people after the Legislature of +1915 had approved submission. Nor is Arkansas alone in limiting +the number of amendments to be submitted to the people at one time; +Kentucky goes farther and makes the limit two and Illinois allows but +one at a time. + +The other six states whose bill failed at the last session belong to a +group of fifteen which require a special "constitutional majority" of +two-thirds or three-fifths favorable in the vote of both houses on an +amendment bill.[A] In South Carolina and Mississippi it must pass +two legislatures by this large vote, one before and one after the +referendum; in Mississippi this means four years' delay for its +sessions are quadrennial. In thirteen states the amendment bill must +pass two legislatures, in some by a constitutional majority at one +passage.[B] + +Alabama is one of the states whose bill failed through the +constitutional majority rule in 1915. In that state another suffrage +bill must wait four years for the next legislative session. If this +time it surmounts the hazard of a three-fifths favorable vote it will +be faced by another hazard; for Alabama is one of nine states in which +an amendment must pass the + +[Footnote A: South Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, West +Virginia, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi--all a two-thirds vote, +and Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Maryland and Kentucky a +three-fifths vote.] + +[Footnote B: In Connecticut, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont by a +two-thirds majority of one Legislature or of one house or both; in +Iowa, Indiana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, New +Jersey, New York and Rhode Island by majorities. All but the last +three have biennial Legislatures.] referendum not by a majority on +the amendment but by a majority of all voting for candidates at this +general election.[A] + +[Footnote A: These states are Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota, +Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Tennessee. Rhode +Island sets a definite majority (three-fifths) of those voting at the +election. Probably Texas and North Carolina should be included but the +amendment clause in their constitutions is misleading and they may +be given the benefit of the doubt; their clause reads: "An amendment +shall be submitted to the voters and adopted by a majority of the +votes cast."] + +This requirement by itself is regarded by one authority on state +constitutions[B] as making amendment practically impossible for it +means that the indifference and inertia of the mass of the voters can +be a more serious enemy than active opposition; the man who does not +take the trouble to vote is as much to be feared as the man who votes +against. + +[Footnote B: Dodd, W.F. Revision and Amendment of State +Constitutions.] + +A majority vote is required by the constitution of Indiana that is so +extravagant as to have caused contradictory decisions in the courts. +The constitution reads: "The General Assembly ... (shall) submit such +amendment ... to the electors of the state, and if a majority of said +electors shall ratify." This was interpreted in one case (156 Ind. +104) to mean a majority of all votes cast at the election, but in a +later case (in re Denny) it was taken, exactly as it reads, to mean +all the people in the State eligible to vote--and this in the face of +the fact that the number of people eligible to vote is unknown even +to the Federal Census Department. Indiana also requires that while one +amendment is under consideration no other can be introduced. She is, +needless to say, one of the states whose constitution has never been +amended. + +Other states besides Indiana have time requirements to insure the +immutability of their inspired state document. Thus the Vermont +Constitution can be amended only once in ten years--it was last +amended in 1913--and five others set a term of years before the same +amendment can be submitted again. Among these are New Jersey and +Pennsylvania, which having submitted the Woman Suffrage amendment in +1915 cannot do so again till 1920.[A] + +[Footnote A: The five states are Illinois (four years), Pennsylvania, +New Jersey and Kentucky (five years), and Tennessee (six years).] + +In no state is the Constitution so safeguarded from change as in New +Mexico, whose iron-bound rules are in a class by themselves. For the +first twenty-five years of statehood a three-fourths vote of both +houses of the Legislature ratified by three-fourths of the electors +voting, with two-thirds at least from each county, will be required to +change the suffrage clause. After twenty-five years the majority +will be reduced to two-thirds. This is the state whose Constitution +provides that illiteracy shall never be a bar to the suffrage; her +democracy falls short only in the matter of women whom she makes it +constitutionally impossible ever to add to her electorate. + +Where constitutions can be revised by the convention method as well as +by amendment there is some hope; if amendment fails revision holds out +a chance. But twelve states[A] hold no constitutional conventions; in +Maryland conventions are twenty years apart and in many other states +it is as difficult to call a constitutional convention as to revise +the Constitution by amendment. + +[Footnote A: Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Arkansas, +Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode +Island and Virginia.] + +New Hampshire amends by constitutional convention alone and these +conventions are held infrequently. + +Only in Delaware is the Constitution amended to-day by act of the +Legislature without the people's vote and without any technical +requirements except a large Legislative majority. + +Yet in twenty-four states[A] before the Civil War the foundations of +male suffrage were laid by legislature or constitutional convention +alone, and in many cases, furthermore, the conditions of suffrage were +dictated by the Federal Government. Even as late as the '90's five +State Constitutions were adopted, suffrage clause and all, by State +Legislatures or constitutional conventions without the referendum.[B] + +[Footnote A: New Hampshire, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, +North Carolina, Georgia, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New +Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Vermont, Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, +Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri and +Arkansas.] + +[Footnote B: Many reconstruction constitutions also but these were not +permanent. The five constitutions in the 90's were Mississippi, South +Carolina, Delaware, Louisiana and Virginia, and Kentucky made changes +after the constitution had been submitted.] + +In the other states universal male suffrage came easily at a time +when thinly populated states wanted to hold out inducements to male +immigrant labor. To-day any male once naturalized, and in some states +before he is naturalized, becomes automatically a voting citizen of +any state in the Union after he has fulfilled the state residence +requirements and, in some states, an educational requirement. + +The one word "male" shut women out in the old days from these easy +avenues to citizenship and to-day her path by the state by state +method is beset by almost insuperable difficulties. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ELECTION LAWS AND REFERENDA + + +To establish a "government of the people" is to follow an ideal set +by the growth of democratic principles, but, after such government has +been established by a constitution, it remains to be determined how +the will of the people is to be recorded and each state accordingly +has enacted an election law to provide for registration and for +taking the vote. These laws are so defective as to give unquestioned +advantage to dishonesty and corruption in most elections upon +referendum questions. In several states there is little doubt that +suffrage amendments have been lost through fraud. All the suffragists +in Michigan seem to agree that the amendment was counted out in the +first campaign of 1912 and that ballot boxes were stuffed in the +second, 1913. Willis E. Reed, Attorney General of Nebraska, has +declared that he believes the amendment was counted out in that +state. An investigation has revealed forty-seven varieties of fraud +or violation of the election law in forty-four counties in the Iowa +suffrage election of June 5, 1916. Given a group determined to prevent +women from getting the vote, a group provided with money and knowing +no scruple, and the inadequacy of the law in many States offers +a positive guarantee at the outset of a campaign that a suffrage +amendment will be lost. + +If suffrage amendments are defeated by illegal practices, why not +demand redress, asks the novice in suffrage campaigns. Ah, there's the +rub. In twenty-four states, no provision has been made by the election +law for any form of contest or recount on a referendum nor are +precedents for a recount found. Political corrupters may, in these +states, bribe voters, colonize voters and repeat them to their hearts' +content and redress of any kind is practically impossible. If clear +evidence of fraud could be produced a case might be brought to the +courts and the guilty parties might be punished, but the election +would stand. In New York, in 1915, the question was submitted to the +voters as to whether a constitutional convention should be called. +The convention was ordered by a majority of about 1,500. Later the +District Attorney of New York City found proof that at least 800 +fraudulent votes had been cast in that city. Leading lawyers discussed +the question of effect upon the election and the general opinion among +them was that, even though the entire majority, and more, should +be found to be fraudulent, the election could not be set aside. The +convention was held. + +In the other twenty-three states,[A] contests on referenda seem +possible under the law, but in practically every one, the contest +means a resort to the courts and in only eight[B] of these is +reference made to a recount. The law is vague and incomplete in nearly +all of these States. In some of these, including Michigan, where the +suffrage amendment is declared to have been counted out, application +for a recount must be made in each voting precinct. To have secured +redress in Michigan, provided the fraud was widespread, as it is +believed to have been, it would have been necessary to have secured +definite evidence of fraud in a probable 1,000 precincts and to have +instituted as many cases. This would have consumed many months and +would have demanded thousands of dollars. + +[Footnote A: In Ohio, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, New Jersey, Minnesota +and Michigan by law; in Illinois, Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, +Oregon, Arizona and Iowa by precedent; in West Virginia, South Dakota, +Kentucky and Colorado, officials express the opinion that the +law governing candidates's contests could be stretched to cover +amendments. In Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and +Washington, the law is so fragmentary as to make the possibilities +very uncertain. Information on this last group of laws will be found +in Appendix B.] + +[Footnote B: Ohio, Texas, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Minnesota, +Michigan, Massachusetts and Utah.] + +In some States the courts decide what the redress shall be, but where +such provision exists, no assurance is given by the law that such +redress will include a correction of the returns. In at least seven +States,[A] the applicants must pay all costs if they fail to prove +their case a provision amounting to a penalty imposed upon those who +try to enforce the law. + +[Footnote A: Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, West Virginia, +Minnesota, Utah.] + +The penalties for bribery range from $5 to $2,000 and from thirty +days' to ten years' imprisonment, but only one state (Ohio) provides +in definite terms for punishment of bribery as a part of the penalty +in an election contest. In most cases proof of bribery does not throw +out the vote of briber or bribed, nor does an action to throw +out purchased votes in contest cases bring with it automatically +punishment of the purchased voter. This omission from the contest +provisions presupposes that these bribery cases would be separate +actions. Thirty-two states in clear terms disfranchise (or give the +Legislature power to disfranchise) bribers and bribed, but few make +provision for the method of actually enforcing the law, and upon +inquiry the Secretary of State of many of these states reported +that, so far as he knew, no man had ever been disfranchised for +this offense. This was true of states which have been notorious for +political corruption. + +From Ohio alone has evidence been found of the actual enforcement +of the disfranchisement provision. In this state nearly 1,800 bribed +voters of Adams County were disfranchised in 1910 for scandalous +and well-remembered corruption but in 1915 they were restored to +citizenship. These cases reveal a disgraceful provision in the Ohio +law, by which the briber is given immunity if he will turn State's +evidence on the bribed; the vote-buyer may purchase votes by the +thousands with perfect safety provided that when suspected he will +deliver up a few of the bought by way of example. + +With a vague, uncertain law to define their punishment in most states, +and no law at all in twenty-four states, as a preliminary security, +corrupt opponents of a woman suffrage amendment find many additional +aids to their nefarious acts. A briber must make sure that the bribed +carries out his part of the contract. Whenever it is easy to check +up the results of the bribe, corruption may reign supreme with little +risk of being found out. A study of some of the recent suffrage votes +gives significant food for reflection. It shows how the form, color +and arrangement of the ballot may help the corrupt politician to +organize ignorant voters to do his will. In Georgia and Louisiana no +party names are printed on the official ballot and emblems only are +used. In almost half our states, though the party name is used also, +the emblem is the real guide. New York does not even relegate this +emblem to the top of the column. The emblem is placed before the name +of each candidate, so that the illiterate voter can make no mistake in +recognizing the sign of the machine which controls his vote. Scarcely +more than a dozen states have the headless ballot[A] which makes +it impossible for politicians to make corrupt use of the illiterate +voter. + +[Footnote A: Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida, Colorado, +California, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Massachusetts, +Mississippi, Nebraska, Pennsylvania.] + +In Wisconsin suffrage referendum the suffrage ballot was separate and +pink. It was easy to teach the most illiterate how to vote "No" and +to check up returns with considerable accuracy. In New York there +were three ballots. The official ballot had emblems which easily +distinguished it. The other two were exactly alike in shape, size and +color and each contained three propositions: those which came from +the constitutional convention and the other those which came from the +Legislature. The orders went forth to vote down the constitutional +provisions and it was done by a majority of 482,000, or nearly +300,000 more than the majority against woman suffrage. On the +ballot containing the suffrage amendment, which was No. 1, there was +proposition No. 3, which all the political parties wanted carried and +to which no one objected. It could easily be found by all illiterates +as it contained more lines of printing, yet so difficult was it to +teach ignorant men to vote "Yes" on that one proposition that, despite +the fact that orders had gone forth to all the state that No. 3 was to +be carried, it barely squeezed through. + +In Pennsylvania there are no emblems to distinguish the tickets and +on the large ballot the suffrage amendment was difficult to find by +an untutored voter. In probable consequence Pennsylvania polled the +largest proportional vote for the amendment of any eastern state. In +Massachusetts the ballot was small and the suffrage amendment could be +easily picked out by a bribed voter. In Iowa the suffrage ballot was +separate and yellow while the main ballots were white. + +In the North Dakota referendum the regular ballot was long and +complicated and the suffrage ballot separate and small. It was easy to +teach the dullest illiterate how to vote "No." It might be said +that it would be equally easy to teach him to vote "Yes." True, but +suffragists never bribe. Both the briber and the illiterate are allies +of the opposition. + +A referendum on a non-partisan issue has none of the protection +accorded a party question. Election boards are bi-partisan and each +party has its own machinery, not only of election officials but +watchers and challengers, to see that the opposing party commits no +fraud. The watchfulness of this party machinery, plus an increasingly +vigilant public opinion, has corrected many of the election frauds +which were once common and most elections are now probably free from +all the baser forms of corruption. When a question on referendum is +sincerely espoused by both the dominant parties it has the advantage +of the watchfulness of both party machines and is doubly safeguarded +from fraud. But when such a question has been espoused by no dominant +party it is utterly at the mercy of the worst forms of corruption. +The election officers have even been known to wink at irregularities +plainly committed since it was no affair of theirs. Or, they may even +go further and join in the entertaining game of running in as many +votes against such an amendment as possible. This has not infrequently +been the unhappy experience of suffrage amendments in corrupt +quarters. + +Honest election officers, respecting "the will of the majority" as +the sovereign of our nation, would protect honesty in elections, +regardless of their own or their party's views, but unhappily that +high standard is not universal. + +Surely, the method of taking the vote and of safeguarding the honesty +of elections should be the most important and fundamental of all +questions in a republic. Such laws ought to be preliminary to all +other laws. Yet as a matter of fact the laxity and ambiguity of +many state election laws and the utter inadequacy of provisions for +enforcement are almost unbelievable. The contemplation of the actual +facts seriously reflects upon the intelligence and good faith of the +successive lawmakers of our land. + +With no one on the election board whose special business it is to see +that honesty is upheld, a suffrage amendment must face further hazards +through the fact that most states do not permit women, or even special +men watchers, to stand guard over the vote and the count upon such +questions. + +When it is remembered that immigrants may be naturalized after a +residence of five years; that when naturalized they automatically +become voters by all our state constitutions; that in eight states[A] +immigrant voters are not even required to be citizens; that the right +to vote is limited by an educational qualification in only seventeen +states, and that nine of these are Southern, with special intent to +disfranchise the Negro while allowing the illiterate White to vote; +that evidence exists to prove that there is an unscrupulous body +ready to engage the lowest elements of our population by fraudulent +processes to oppose a suffrage amendment; that there is no authority +on the election board whose business it is to see that an amendment +gets a "square deal"; that the method of preparing the ballot is often +a distinct advantage to a corrupt opposition; and that when fraud is +committed there is practically no redress provided by election laws, +it ought to be clear to all that state constitutional amendments +when unsponsored by the dominant political parties which control the +election machinery, must run the gauntlet of intolerably unjust and +unfair conditions. When suffragists have been fortunate enough to +overcome the obstacles imposed by the constitution of their states +and a referendum to the male voters has been secured, they must +immediately enter upon the task of surmounting the infinitely greater +obstructions of the election law. They make their appeal to the public +upon the supposition that a majority of independent voters is +to decide their question. Instead, they may discover that in a +determining number of precincts the taking of the actual vote is a +game in which the cards are stacked against them. One woman, who had +watched at a precinct all day in a suffrage amendment election, said +"Something went out of me that day which never came back--and that was +pride in my country. At first I thought it was disappointment +produced by the defeat of the woman suffrage amendment, but when I had +recovered and could think calmly, I knew it was not that. I was still +patient and still willing to go on working, struggling, sacrificing, +for my right to vote; but I could not forget that I lived in a land +which tolerated the things I saw that day." The women who know cannot +rise to "The Star-Spangled Banner" without a "lump in their throats," +for they recognize the terrible fact that hidden under the beautiful +pretense of democracy is a hideous menace to our national liberties, +which no political party, no legislature, no congress, has dared to +drag out into the daylight of public knowledge. + +[Footnote A: The number of states which permitted men to vote on +"first papers" was formerly fifteen. The following eight states +still perpetuate this provision: Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, +Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Texas.] + +Bear these items in mind and remember that Congress enfranchised the +Indians, assuming its authority upon the ground that they are wards of +the nation; that the Negroes were enfranchised by Federal amendment; +that the constitutions of all states not in the list of the original +thirteen, automatically extended the vote to men; that in the original +colonial territory, the chief struggle occurred over the elimination +of the land-owning qualifications and that a total vote necessary +to give the franchise to non-landowners did not exceed fifty to +seventy-five thousand in any state. + +Let it also not be forgotten that the vote is the free-will offering +of our forty-eight states to any man who chooses to make this land his +home. Let it not be overlooked that millions of immigrant voters +have been added to our electorate within a generation, men mainly +uneducated and all moulded by European traditions, and let no man lose +sight of the fact that women of American birth, education and ideals +must appeal to these men for their enfranchisement. No humiliation +could be more complete, unless we add the amazing fact that political +leaders in Congress and legislatures are willing to drive their wives +and daughters to beg the consent of these men to their political +liberty. + +The makers of the Federal Constitution foresaw the necessity of +referring important and intricate questions to a more intelligent body +than the masses of the people and so provided for the amendment of the +Constitution by referendum to the legislatures of the several states. +Why should women be denied the privilege thus established? The United +States is one land and one people. All the states have the same +institutions, customs and ideals. + +Woman suffrage has been caught in a snarl of state constitutional +obstructions, inefficient election laws and the misapplied theory +of States Rights. It is a combination which has so far retarded the +normal progress of the movement in this democratic land that other +countries have already outstripped it. Under these circumstances +Congress should extricate the woman suffrage question from this tangle +by way of honorable reparation for the injustices unintentionally put +upon the only unenfranchised citizens left in our Republic, and women +should insist upon their enfranchisement by amendment to the Federal +Constitution as their self-respecting duty. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE STORY OF THE 1916 REFERENDA + + +Constitutional amendments were submitted to the voters of three states +in 1916, namely, Iowa, where the vote was taken June 5th on Primary +Day; South Dakota and West Virginia, where the vote was taken at the +general election in November. More than one influential newspaper +editorially discussed the returns with the comment that "the people" +of three states had refused to extend the suffrage to women. +An investigation unveils some ugly facts and raises significant +questions. + +In 1882 a prohibition constitutional amendment was adopted by a large +majority in Iowa and was promptly set aside by the supreme court upon +a technicality. The wet and dry question has been a vexed political +issue ever since. The state now has prohibition by statutory +enactment. A constitutional amendment is pending, having passed the +Legislature of 1914, and is due to pass the Legislature of 1916. +The "wets" believing that women would generally support the proposed +prohibition amendment were extremely active in opposing the suffrage +amendment. Although the suffragists kept their question distinctly +separate from prohibition, the wet and dry issue, it was generally +admitted, would prove a determining factor. + +Every judge of the Supreme Court, the United States Senators, the +Governor, most of the men prominent in Republican and Democratic +politics, most of the clergymen, most of the press and every woman's +state organization espoused the suffrage amendment. + +Men familiar with Iowa politics advised the suffrage campaigners early +and late and all the time between that it was unnecessary to conduct +an intensive campaign as "everybody believed in it." + +Yet despite this omnipresent optimism thousands of women gave +every possibility of their lives for months before to arouse public +sentiment, instruct and acquaint the men and women of the state +concerning the question. + +The amendment was lost by about 10,000 votes. Were four of the +ninety-nine counties (Dubuque, Clinton, Scott and Des Moines counties) +lying along the Mississippi River, not included in the returns, the +state would have been carried for woman suffrage. It is instructive +to inquire what kind of population occupied the four counties which +defeated it. The following table gives the answer: + +======================================================== +| | | | | Total | +| | | | Total | German, | +| | Total | Total | Foreign |Austrian,| +|Iowa Counties| | Native | and | Russian | +| |Population|Parentage| Foreign | and of | +| | | |Parentage| such | +| | | | |Parentage| ++-------------+----------+---------+---------+---------+ +|Dubuque | 57,450 | 24,024 | 33,426 | 14,566 | +|Clinton | 45,394 | 19,116 | 26,278 | 11,494 | +|Scott | 60,000 | 24,104 | 35,896 | 20,119 | +|Des Moines | 36,145 | 17,769 | 18,376 | 7,828 | +======================================================== + +The vote on woman suffrage was 162,679 yes and 173,020 no. The "yes +vote" of the above four counties was 8,061; the "no vote" 18,941. +Subtract these totals from the totals of the state vote and 154,618 +"yes" and 154,079 "no" remains, giving a majority of 539 for woman +suffrage. + +Once more in the history of suffrage referenda a foreign and colonized +population decided the issue. Was the election an honest one? That +is a question of interest to Iowa just now. The returns revealed some +suspicious facts. Nearly 30,000 more votes were cast on the suffrage +proposition than in the primary. Where did they come from? The +president of the W.C.T.U., Mrs. Ida B. Wise Smith, employed a +detective after the election. His investigation covered forty-four +counties and was not confined to those wherein woman suffrage +was lost. The findings have not been given to the public in their +entirety, but they were conclusive enough to cause an injunction suit +to be filed against the Board of Elections and the Legislature to +restrain them from accepting the official returns. + +Registration was necessary for the amendment, not for the primary, +yet thousands of unregistered votes apparently were cast upon the +amendment. All good election laws provide that a definite number of +ballots shall be officially issued to each precinct; that the number +of those deposited in the ballot box, the number spoiled and those +unused shall not only tally with the number received, but the +unused ones must be counted, sealed, labelled and returned with the +certificate recording the count. This is the law of Iowa; but the +report of the investigation, as given to the press, shows that in +thirty-five counties out of the forty-four investigated no tally list +was used and there was nothing by which to check in order to determine +the correctness of the number on the certificate. In many cases no +unused ballots were returned. The poll lists did not tally with the +number of votes and even a recount could not reveal whether fraud or +carelessness had led to irregularity. + +Despite the fact that the Iowa law provides that a definite number of +ballots and the same number of each kind is to be distributed to each +precinct, the separate suffrage ballots in a number of cases were +reported by election officials as not having arrived until the voting +had been in progress for some time; and in others they gave out an +hour before the polls closed. + +Forty-seven varieties of violations of the election law are alleged to +have been committed. Do these indicate wilful fraud or mere ignorance +and carelessness? Just now no one seems prepared to answer. Meantime +Iowa, one of the most intelligent and progressive states in the +nation, stands at the bar of public opinion accused of incapacity +to conduct an honest election. How she will defend herself, what +reparation she will make to her women, and what steps she will take to +insure clean elections and better enforcement of her election law in +the future are problems which await the Legislature. That body cannot +refuse to take action of some kind without inviting the suspicion that +her legislators prefer conditions which lend themselves to the +base uses of election manipulators whenever they may care to avail +themselves of them. + +On November 7, 1916, woman suffrage and prohibition amendments were +voted upon in South Dakota. It was the first time these two questions +have gone to referendum in the same election and the results furnish +interesting data for comparison. + +Certain facts tell a story which should make progressive, patriotic +Americans and fair-minded Congressmen reflect. + +Prohibition was carried by a majority of 11,469; woman suffrage +was lost by a majority of 4,664. Prohibition was lost in thirteen +counties; in one of these, Lawrence, which lies in the heart of the +mining country, prohibition was lost by two votes, and woman suffrage +was carried. + +In all the others a large foreign population was the dominant power. +Had nine of the sixty-eight counties of the state not been included in +the returns woman suffrage would have been carried. + +The total "yes" vote on woman suffrage was 51,687; the "no" vote +56,351.[A] The total "yes" vote of these nine counties was 4,877; the +"no" vote was 10,569. Subtracting these county totals from the state +totals the record would stand 46,810 "yes" votes and 45,782 "no" +votes. + +[Footnote A: The figures here used are those given to the press by the +County Boards of Election. The final returns were not available.] + +Who then are the voters of nine counties who kept the women of an +entire state disfranchised? The following table presents the answer: + +================================================================== +| | | | | Total | +| | | | Total | German, | +| | Total | Total | Foreign and | Austrian, | +| Counties | Population | Native | Foreign | Russian, | +| | | Parentage | Parentage | or of such| +| | | | | Parentage | +|-------------+------------+-----------+-------------+-----------| +|Bon Homme....| 11,061 | 3,448 | 7,6l3 | 4,759 | +|Brule .......| 6,451 | 3,008 | 3,443 | 1,556 | +|Charles Mix..| 14,899 | 6,387 | 8,512 | 2,757 | +|Campbell ....| 5,244 | 600 | 4,644 | 3,491 | +|Douglas .....| 6,400 | 2,017 | 4,383 | 1,644 | +|McCook ......| 9,589 | 4,068 | 5,521 | 1,691 | +|Hutchinson ..| 12,319 | 2,671 | 9,648 | 7,515 | +|McPherson ...| 6,791 | 1,152 | 5,639 | 4,889 | +|Turner ......| 13,840 | 4,206 | 9,634 | 4,432 | +|================================================================ + +The large "no" vote in several counties was due to the same character +of population. The total population is 583,888, the population of +foreign birth or foreign parentage is 243,835. South Dakota is one of +the eight remaining states where foreigners may vote on their "first +papers" and citizenship is not a qualification for a vote. + +The returns offer still other food for reflection. Hutchinson county, +for example, carried prohibition and lost woman suffrage. It gave 584 +dry votes; 510 wet votes. It gave 432 "yes" votes on woman suffrage +and 1,583 "no" votes. Thus 921 more votes were cast on the suffrage +proposition than on the prohibition question. The people in this +county are German-Russians and exceedingly ignorant. Apparently +they were not intelligent enough to be lined up to vote "no" on both +questions. Is it not likely that these votes were intended to be "wet" +and that they made a mistake and picked No. 6 instead of No. 7? If +not, why not? + +The largest group of the foreign population of these counties are +German-Russians. They migrated from Germany and found a home in Russia +some 230 or more years ago, in order to escape conscription. When +Russia began to enforce conscription about 1888 the entire group came +to America and settled in colonies in the Western states which at the +time offered free lands. They were totally illiterate then. They had +not progressed as Germans in their own country had done but being +clannish had remained at the point of development reached at the date +of their migration. They are still clannish and have not yet escaped +from the mental habits of the Middle Ages. These are the men who have +denied American women the vote in South Dakota. That the women of +South Dakota in very large numbers wanted the vote no one questions. +During the campaign six women in Sioux Falls published an appeal to +voters not to support the amendment as they did not wish to vote. +Shortly after an appeal to the voters of the same city was published +and was signed by 3,000 women. In every county of the state the women +manifested their interest by doing all they knew how to do. West +Virginia was the first Southern state to submit a referendum on woman +suffrage and the vote was taken November 7, 1916. The amendment was +defeated by the largest proportional majority any suffrage amendment +ever received. Unlike Iowa and South Dakota, where all the educated +classes with notable exceptions believe in woman suffrage, West +Virginia probably has many conscientious doubters. Arguments and +excuses which did service in the West twenty-five years ago were +brought forward as though just formulated. The illiteracy of the state +is appallingly high and the illiterate is universally an antiwomen +suffragist. + +The ever present prohibition issue again played an important if not +a determining part. A prohibition law was voted in by an immense +majority in 1912, but the undismayed "wets" propose to secure a +resubmission if possible. They apparently regarded the woman suffrage +amendment as an outer defense to be taken before the march on the main +prohibition fort could be begun; and every "wet," high and low, was +on duty. The "drys" who would do well to study Napoleon's rule of +strategy, that is, "find out what your enemy doesn't want you to do, +and then do it," were much disturbed as to what St. Paul would think +were he here, and concluded not to be over hasty about giving the +women the vote. + +At the Democratic convention an anti woman suffragist spoke. The +applause in the gallery and in the standing groups filling the outside +aisles was uproarious and clearly represented an organized, carefully +planted claque. The leaders were an ex-brewer, an ex-saloonkeeper and +the chief liquor lobbyist of the state. It was evident that they were +there to intimidate the party, and they did. The Democrats threw +a bouquet to the women in the form of a plank and then quietly +repudiated it. Practically the same thing happened in the Republican +convention. They, too, endorsed a plank and "double-crossed." There +was apparently no difference between the two dominant parties on that +score. Men who had always been pronounced suffragists weakly confessed +themselves afraid to speak for woman suffrage in the campaign lest +votes be lost for their party. Political campaigners who went into the +state, with the exception of Senator Borah and Raymond Robins, were +told not to mention suffrage, and they obeyed. The wets apparently had +the state literally by the throat and in order to save votes the great +fundamental principle of "government by the people" was refused a +public hearing. Election Day came. Women poll workers reported from +many parts of the state that drunken hoodlums were marched in line +into the precinct, saying boldly that they were going to vote "agin +the ---- women." The women workers testified with remarkable unanimity +that their opposition was chiefly "riffraff and illiterate negroes and +that it was under the direction of well-known 'wets.'" Even an excise +commissioner under pay of the National Government worked against woman +suffrage all day in one precinct. + +A premonition of what might happen appeared in September, when +Judge John M. Woods of the circuit court instructed a grand jury to +investigate the political situation in Berkely county. He declared, as +reported by the press, that election conditions had become intolerable +and that in his judgment one-third of the votes in the county were +purchasable. Elections, he said, had degenerated into "an auction +wherein offices went to the highest bidder." + +It was not surprising, therefore, that the cry of fraud arose from +many localities as soon as the election was over, and was so insistent +that the Governor called a special session of the Legislature for the +announced purpose of an investigation into the charges. Colonization, +bribery, repeating and every known form of corruption was alleged to +have been employed. One of the chief newspapers of the state declared +that the election scandals had surpassed all that had gone before. + +The Legislature met but the Governor did not proceed with his proposed +investigation. No explanation was given, but to the onlooker it was +clear that one of two reasons, or perhaps both, was the cause of +silence on the part of the chief lawmaking body of the state--either +the lifted curtain would reveal "the pot calling the kettle black," or +so extensive and noxious a mass of corruption was known to exist that +no means were available for correction of the wrongs perpetrated. + +That money was used many women were willing to testify. For what +purpose it was used, who furnished it and who were the actual bribers +were questions not so readily answered. In one city it was reported +"that warrants were out after the elect of the city and that this was +true in nearly every ward of the city." The warrants were based upon +the alleged use of money. + +Other women poll workers reported that men boldly asked whether they +would be paid, and if so, how much. When they found there was no +reward for suffrage votes they scornfully but frankly confessed that +they could do better on the other side. Irregularities were numerous. +The amendment was ordered by the state officials printed on the main +ticket, but one county so far disobeyed instructions as to print the +amendment on a separate ballot, yet the vote was accepted. The returns +on the amendment were withheld for many days and in several counties +for weeks. + +A few straws from the election show the way the wind blew in West +Virginia. In only four counties is the per cent, of illiteracy +among males of voting age less than 6 per cent. The returns in these +counties are found in the following table: + +================================================================= +| Per Cent. | | For | Against | | +| Illiteracy | County | Suffrage | Suffrage | | +| Voting Age | | Amendment| Amendment| | +| Males | | | | | +|------------+--------+----------+----------+-------------------| +| 5.5 | Brooke | 1,041 | 907 | Carried | +| 5.8 | Morgan | 443 | 1,098 | 2-1/2 to 1 against| +| 4.7 | Ohio | 4,513 | 6,014 | 1-1/3 to 1 against| +| 5.3 | Wood | 3,260 | 3,960 | 1-1/4 to 1 against| +================================================================= + +The returns from the five counties having the highest per cent. of +illiteracy are as follows: + +================================================================ +| Per Cent | | For | Against | | +| Illiteracy | County | Suffrage | Suffrage | | +| Voting Age | | Amendment| Amendment| | +| Males | | | | | +|------------+--------+----------+----------+------------------| +| 26.2 |Lincoln | 466 | 3,213 |7 to 1 against | +| 26.4 |Boone | 678 | 1,828 |3 lacking 6 votes | +| | | | | to 1 against | +| 27.7 |Logan | 856 | 2,774 |3-1/4 to 1 against| +| 28.2 |Mingo | 712 | 2,609 |3-2/3 to 1 against| +| 29.7 |McDowell| 1,436 | 4,832 |3-1/3 to 1 against| +================================================================ + +In the first group the negro vote is under 5 per cent. of the whole. +In the second this is also true of Boone and Lincoln counties. The +number of negro males of voting age is nearly 6 per cent. in Logan +county, 11.2 per cent. in Mingo county and 34.1 per cent. in McDowell +county. + +It is a matter of interest to observe that the counties giving the +largest majority against were Clay, 6 to 1; Grant, 7 to 1; Hardy, +7-2/3 to 1; Lincoln, 7 to 1; Raleigh, 5 to 1, and that in none of +these is the negro male population of voting age in excess of 5 per +cent. White illiteracy is high, the lowest in this group being that +found in Grant county, 13.3 per cent. + +Had there been an honest election and a fair count in West Virginia, +it is possible, even probable, that woman suffrage would have been +defeated, but the fact remains that no human being can know that, +since the amendment went down to defeat in an election that can only +be described as "The Shame of West Virginia." + +In all three states the pending amendments were caught in the toils +of the "wet and dry" issue. The "wets" obsessed by the idea that woman +suffrage is "next door to prohibition" used their entire machinery +to defeat the amendments, while the "drys" regarded the amendments as +distinctly separate questions. These conditions may be regarded as +the inevitable hazards of a campaign. It is, however, not at all clear +that the amendments were defeated in any one of the three states +by the honest "will of the majority." In none of them were women +permitted to serve as watchers over their amendment. In Iowa well +established proof of wilful or careless violations of laws throws +doubt over the returns, while in West Virginia the suspicion of fraud +rests upon the entire election. In Iowa four and in South Dakota nine +counties colonized by people of foreign birth or parentage deprived +the women of the state of their vote. + +A Federal amendment ratified by the legislatures of the several states +would secure to the women of South Dakota and Iowa the rights for +which American and Americanized men have voted. The entire western +or most American part of South Dakota has been twice carried for +suffrage, that is, in 1914 and 1916. One county, Harding, adjacent to +Wyoming, has been carried for woman suffrage in the six referenda on +the question, the first one being held in 1890. + +The only real argument against the Federal amendment thus far advanced +is that one group of states which want woman suffrage may force it +upon another group which does not want it. That argument works both +ways. _A group of counties_ which want woman suffrage may be deprived +of it for years because another group of un-Americanized, foreign-born +citizens do not want it. The first is said to be the principle of +"American sovereignty," the second may fairly be called the principle +of "foreign sovereignty." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FEDERAL ACTION AND STATE RIGHTS + +HENRY WADE ROGERS + +Judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, New York City, +and Professor in the Yale University School of Law. + + +I do not propose to discuss the subject of woman suffrage in the +abstract. I am content with saying as regards the general question +that in a republic which theoretically is founded upon the principle +that government derives its just powers from the consent of the +governed I think it illogical, unreasonable and an injustice to deny +the vote to adult women who are citizens. With that statement I +shall address myself to the suggestion of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association that Congress should propose to the States an +amendment to the Constitution which shall in effect provide that no +State shall deny to any person the right to vote on account of sex. +And as respects that suggestion I shall deal with a single phase of +the matter. It seems to be supposed in some quarters that if such an +amendment were to be adopted it would involve a breach of faith with +the dissenting States, or violate some unwritten principle of local +self-government, or conflict with the historic doctrine of State +Rights. + +I have no hesitancy in saying that I have for years believed and still +believe that there is a constitutional doctrine of State Rights which +cannot be safely or rightfully ignored. Many of the foremost men in +both parties share that belief. It must be admitted, however, that +this doctrine sometimes has been so perverted, misapplied and carried +to such extreme limits as seriously to prejudice many worthy and +intelligent citizens against its true merit and value. This fact makes +it all the more necessary on the part of those who would save the +doctrine from absolute repudiation to be careful when and how and to +what purpose it is invoked. + +There has recently been published a book entitled "Woman Suffrage by +Constitutional Amendment." The author of that book, the Hon. Henry St. +George Tucker of Virginia, was at one time a member of Congress, and +has been president of the American Bar Association. He was invited to +deliver a course of five lectures, in 1916, before the School of Law +of Yale University on the subject of "Local Self-Government." In one +of the lectures woman suffrage by Federal Amendment was discussed and +the theory was advanced that the attempt to bring about the right of +suffrage by an amendment to the Constitution of the United States +was opposed to the genius of the Constitution and subversive of the +principle of local self-government. In his opinion, woman suffrage +by Federal Amendment is contrary to the rightful demarcation of the +powers of the Federal and State governments under the Constitution of +the United States. + +I may remark in passing that the title of the book is liable to +mislead the public into thinking that Mr. Tucker was invited to Yale +to discuss woman suffrage, whereas the fact was that that was only an +incident in his discussion of Local Self-Government. + +But is woman suffrage by Federal Amendment contrary to the genius +of the Constitution and contrary to the rightful demarcation of the +powers of the Federal Government? + +In considering the question involved it is to be noticed in the first +place that a difference exists between the Articles of Confederation +and the Constitution. In the Articles of Confederation it was in the +Thirteenth Article expressly provided that no alteration should be +made in any of the Articles "unless such alteration be agreed to in +a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by +the legislatures of every State." This provision was an element +of weakness and recognized as such by the men who sat in the +Constitutional Convention of 1787. As the Articles constituted a +league between independent states it was deemed necessary to make it +incapable of alteration except by unanimous consent of the states in +order to preserve to each state all of its rights. + +When the convention of 1787 met to agree upon a Constitution to submit +to the States one of the questions they had to consider was whether it +should be made capable of amendment. They agreed that it was the +part of wisdom to provide that the States might modify the system of +government the Constitution established when in the progress of time +to do so seemed desirable. Mr. Madison accordingly proposed what with +some modifications became the Fifth Article. + +The Congress was given power by that Article to propose amendments by +a vote of two-thirds of both Houses and amendments so proposed were to +become valid to all intents and purposes as parts of the Constitution +when ratified by three-fourths of the several States. This is not +the only method by which the Constitution may be amended. For it is +provided that the States may themselves propose amendments through a +convention called by two-thirds of the States, and it is also +provided that proposed amendments may be submitted for ratification +to conventions in the several States instead of to the Legislatures of +the States if Congress so directs. + +When the Constitution of a State is amended care must be taken to see +to it that the amendment proposed does not involve a violation of the +Constitution of the United States. For a constitution adopted by the +people of a State in so far as it violates the Constitution of the +United States is void, for exactly the same reason that an Act passed +by a State Legislature is void if it is contrary to some provision +in the Constitution of the United States. This is so because the +Constitution of the United States in the Sixth Article directs that +"This Constitution ... shall be the supreme law of the land; and +the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the +Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." + +But any amendment with a single exception, which is proposed by +Congress, no matter what it may be, if it has received the two-thirds +vote of both Houses and has been ratified by the Legislatures of +three-fourths of the States, or of three-fourths of the conventions in +the several States, according as Congress has submitted it in the one +way or the other, is valid irrespective of any provision that can be +found in any State Constitution or law. The one exception to which +reference has been made is that no change can be made which would +deprive a State of its right to equal representation in the Senate. +As it is, the Senate is composed of two Senators from each state. New +York and Nevada, the one with a population of 9,113,614, and the other +with a population of 81,875 are entitled to equal representation in +that body, and that equality of representation cannot be destroyed by +any amendment not assented to by all the States. The reason is that +the Constitution expressly declares in the Fifth Article--the one +which deals with amendments--"that no State, without its consent, +shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." This provision +was incorporated into the Constitution at the suggestion of Roger +Sherman of Connecticut. Certain other restrictions were imposed +which now have become unimportant, but which at the time were of the +greatest possible importance. It was provided that no amendment was to +be made prior to the year 1808 which should prohibit the States from +further importation of slaves, and that no capitation or other direct +tax should be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration +of the inhabitants of the states in which three-fifths only of the +slaves were included. So we see that the founders withdrew from the +possibilities of amendment the subjects regarding which they were +unwilling amendments should be made. The understanding of the +States therefore must have been that as respects all subjects not +so withdrawn the right of amendment might be exercised whenever the +States desired to exercise it. Whenever they do see fit to exercise +it they are not breaking faith with each other, or doing anything +wrongfully. + +The mode of amending the Constitution is in strict accordance with the +doctrine of State Rights. The amending power is not to be exercised +by the collective people of the United States acting as a majority. It +can only be exercised by three-fourths of the States acting as States +in their sovereign capacity. If three-fourths of the States desire to +amend the instrument then the one-fourth must submit to the will of +the three-fourths. There is no principle in the doctrine of State +Rights which is violated when the Constitution is amended by the +three-fourths, for all the states have agreed that the three-fourths +shall possess the power to do so and that the minority will consent +to be bound by action so taken. The principle that the minority must +submit to the majority is a principle which the States apply to the +government of their local communities and to the people of their +several commonwealths. And it is a principle which the States as +sovereigns have agreed shall be applied to themselves in their +relations to each other and to the Federal Government. In creating the +amending power the framers of the Constitution were careful to +remove it from the people of the nation and to lodge it in the State +sovereignties. That is all that the believers in the doctrine of State +Rights asked. They could not wisely ask, and they did not ask, more. +They only asked that in so important a matter as the amendment of the +fundamental law the minority should not be compelled to submit to a +mere majority, but only to three-fourths of the whole. + +If it be assumed simply for the purpose of this discussion, that the +amendment of the Constitution is not wholly a political question, no +one can seriously contend that the amendment the National American +Woman Suffrage Association urges violates any principle of law, +written or unwritten. Mr. Tucker makes no such claim. His argument, +as I understand it, is that woman suffrage by Federal Amendment is a +departure from the original thought of the makers of the Constitution; +that they left the subject of suffrage along with most other subjects +to be regulated by State action and that their decision upon that +question was wise and should not be disturbed. The same argument +exactly was made against the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth +Amendments and without effect. It can be made against any amendment +which can be proposed which deprives the States of any power which +they now possess. + +When the Constitution was adopted it is true it did not confer the +right of suffrage upon any class, but left the subject to each +state to regulate in its own way. The members of the House of +Representatives were to be chosen by the people of the several States +and it was simply provided that "the electors in each state shall have +the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch +of the State Legislature." Senators were to be chosen by the State +Legislatures. The President and Vice-President were to be chosen by +electors, who were to be appointed in each state "in such manner as +the Legislature thereof may direct." These were at the time very +wise regulations, for they showed, as James Wilson, a member of the +Constitutional Convention, said, the most friendly disposition toward +the governments of the several States, and they tended to destroy the +seeds of jealousy which might otherwise spring up with regard to the +National Government. At that time the framers of the Constitution did +not deem it wise to limit in any respect the control of the States +over the subject of suffrage. There was then no uniformity regarding +the suffrage in the several states. A property qualification was +usually prescribed, but the amount of property it was necessary +to hold varied considerably in different states. For instance, in +Maryland all freemen, above 21 years of age, having a freehold of +fifty acres of land in the county in which they resided, and all +freemen having property in the state above the value of thirty pounds +current money and who had resided in the county one year, could vote. +In New Jersey "all inhabitants" of full age worth "fifty pounds, +proclamation money clear estate within that government," could vote. +In New York "every male inhabitant of full age" who had resided within +the county for six months immediately preceding the day of election +could vote if he had been a freeholder possessing a freehold of the +value of twenty pounds within the county or had rented a tenement +therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and had been rated and +actually paid taxes to the state. In a number of the States the right +to vote was restricted to taxpayers. In Pennsylvania every freeman +of 21 years who had resided in the state two years next before the +election and within that time had paid a State or a county tax could +vote. + +There is today a wide divergence in the qualifications required in +the various states to entitle one to vote. In a few States there +are educational qualifications, as in California, Connecticut, +Massachusetts, Washington and North Carolina. In some States one +cannot vote unless he has paid certain taxes, almost always poll +taxes. In certain States Indians who are not members of any tribe can +vote. And in a number of the States every male of foreign birth, +21 years of age, who has declared his intention to become a citizen +according to the naturalization laws of the United States can vote. + +These differences exist because the Constitution remains, so far as +this subject is concerned, as it was originally adopted, except that +the Fifteenth Amendment provides that "The right of citizens of the +United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United +States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition +of servitude." It is, however, an anomalous condition that the right +of citizens of the United States to vote remains wholly dependent on +the laws of the States, subject only to the restriction that in the +regulations the States establish they cannot discriminate against any +citizen on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. +If woman suffrage is a sound principle in a republican form of +government, and such I believe it to be, there is in my opinion +no reason why the States should not be permitted to vote upon an +Amendment to the Constitution declaring that no citizen shall be +deprived of the right to vote on account of sex. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +OBJECTIONS TO THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT + + +I. STATES RIGHTS. THIS OBJECTION IS URGED BY ALL OPPONENTS OF WOMAN +SUFFRAGE, BUT IS EITHER A BARRICADE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM THE +NECESSITY OF EXPOSING THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE NO REASONS, OR IS A PLAY +TO POSTPONE WOMAN SUFFRAGE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. BY A FEW IT IS URGED +CONSCIENTIOUSLY AND WITH CONVICTION. + +That there are many problems whose treatment belongs so appropriately +to state governments that any infringement of that right by the +Federal Government would be an act of tyranny, no American will +question. But assuredly woman suffrage is not one of these. One by +one classes of men have been granted the vote until women are the only +remaining unenfranchised class. States have set up various restrictive +qualifications so that criminality, idiocy, insanity, pauperism, +drunkenness, foreign birth are accepted as ordinary causes of +disfranchisement. Yet not one of these conditions is common to all the +states. The foreigner votes on his first papers in eight states and +a five years' residence will usually secure his naturalization and a +consequent vote in any state. The criminal, idiot and insane are not +denied a vote in several states, and in most a large class of ignorant +un-American men with no comprehension of our problems, our history, or +ideals, are conspicuous voters on election day. Millions of new voters +have entered our country and without the expenditure of time, money or +service have received the vote since the pending Federal Amendment was +first introduced. + +For two generations groups of women have given their lives and their +fortunes to secure the vote for their sex and hundreds of thousands of +other women are now giving all the time at their command. No class of +men in our own or any other country has made one-tenth the effort nor +sacrificed one-tenth as much for the vote. The long delay, the +double dealing, the broken faith of political parties, the insult of +disfranchisement of the qualified in a land which freely gives the +vote to the unqualified, combines to produce as insufferable a tyranny +as any modern nation has perpetuated upon a class of its citizens. +The souls of women which should be warm with patriotic love of their +country are growing bitter over the inexplicable wrong their country +is doing them. Hands and heads that should be busy with other problems +of our nation are withheld that they may get the tools with which +to work. Purses that should be open to many causes are emptied into +suffrage coffers until this monumental injustice shall be wiped away. +Woman suffrage is a question of righting a nation-wide injustice, of +establishing a phase of unquestioned human liberty and of carrying out +a proposition to which our nation is pledged; it therefore transcends +all considerations of states rights. This objection comes chiefly +from Southern Democrats, who claim that it is a form of oppression for +three-fourths of the states to foist upon one-fourth measures of +which the minority of states do not approve. Yet the provision for +so amending the Constitution was adopted by the states and has stood +unchallenged in the Constitution for more than a century. If it be +unfair, undemocratic or even unsatisfactory, it is curious that no +movement to change the provision has ever developed. The Constitution +has been twice amended recently and it is interesting to note that it +happened under a Democratic Administration. More, the child labor and +eight-hour bills, while not constitutional amendments, are subject to +the same plea that no state shall have laws imposed upon it without +its consent. Both measures were introduced by Southern Democrats. +The pending Federal Prohibition Amendment was also introduced by a +Southern Democrat and is supported by many others. Upon consideration +of these facts, it would seem that "states rights" is either a theory +to be invoked whenever necessary to conceal an unreasoning hostility +to a measure or that those who advance it are guilty of extremely +muddy thinking. + +The Constitution of the United States as now amended provides that no +male citizen subject to state qualifications shall be denied the +vote by any state. Were all the state constitutions amended so as to +enfranchise women, the word male would still stand in the National +Constitution. Men and women would still be unequal, since the National +Constitution can impose a penalty upon a state which denies the vote +to men, but none upon the state which discriminates against women. +A woman comes from Montana to represent that state in Congress. +The State of Montana has done its utmost to remove her political +disabilities, yet should she cross the border of her state and live +in North Dakota, she loses all that Montana gave her. Not so the male +voter. Enfranchised in one state, he is enfranchised in all (subject +to difference of qualification only). The women of this nation will +never be content with less protection in their right to vote than +is given to men and there is no other possible way to secure that +protection except through amendment to the National Constitution. +No single state, nor the forty-eight collectively, can grant that +protection except through the Federal Constitution. + +As granting to half the population of our country the right of +consent to their own government, whose expenses they help to pay, is +a question of fundamental human liberty, Congress and the legislatures +should be proud to act and to add one more immortal chapter to +America's history of freedom. + + +II. SOUTHERN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS VERY GENERALLY URGE THAT THEY OPPOSE +THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT BECAUSE IT WILL CONFER THE VOTE UPON THE NEGRO +WOMEN OF THEIR RESPECTIVE STATES; AND THAT THAT WILL INTERFERE WITH +WHITE SUPREMACY IN THE SOUTH. + +It is difficult to believe this objection to be sincere, since facts +do not support the contention. The facts are that woman suffrage +secured by Federal Amendment will be subject to whatever restrictions +may be imposed by state constitutions (provided those restrictions are +in accord with the National Constitution) in precisely the same way +as woman suffrage secured by state constitutional amendment. No larger +number of negro women can be enfranchised by Federal Amendment than +will be enfranchised by State Amendment. If the women of the South +are ever to be enfranchised, it must be by (1) Federal Constitutional +Amendment, or (2) State Constitutional Amendment. If their franchise +is obtained by the former method, it will come by the votes of white +men in Congress and legislatures; if by the second, they will be +forced to appeal to voting Negroes to elevate them to their own +political status. One would suppose the first would be the preferable +method from the Southern viewpoint. It is possible that behind this +commonly spoken objection, lies a hope and belief that Southern women +will remain disfranchised forevermore. A man unfamiliar with political +history, psychology, and the science of evolution might cherish such +a belief in fancied security, but ideas cannot be shut outside the +borders of a state. There is no Southern state in which women of the +highest families are not giving their all in order to propagate this +cause, and they are doing it with so noble a spirit and so eloquent +an appeal that final surrender of the citadel of prejudice is only a +question of time. No one has ever questioned the "fighting ability" of +the South. That ability is not confined to men. Courage, intelligence, +conviction and willingness to sacrifice characterize the suffrage +movement in every state, and the South is no exception. The women of +that section will vote; the question is how long must they work, how +much must they sacrifice to win that which has so freely been granted +to men of all classes? + +White supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by woman suffrage. +In the fifteen states south of the Mason and Dixon line are: + + 8,788,901 white women, + 4,316,565 negro women, or + 4,472,336 more white than negro women. + +The total negro population is 8,294,274, and white women outnumber +both negro males and females by nearly half a million. In two states +only, South Carolina and Mississippi, are there more negro than white +women, and in these states there are more negro men than white men. In +South Carolina, voters must read, own and pay taxes on $300 worth of +property. In Mississippi, voters must read the Constitution. The +other four states of the "black belt"--Georgia, Florida, Alabama and +Louisiana--impose an educational test. Women voters would be compelled +to submit to the same qualifications. In the other nine states white +women exceed the total negro population. Woman suffrage in the South +would so vastly increase the white vote that it would guarantee white +supremacy if it otherwise stood in danger of overthrow. If a sly dread +of female supremacy is troubling the doubter he may find comfort in +the rather astonishing fact that white males over 21 are considerably +in excess of white females over 21 in all except Maryland and North +Carolina; negro females over 21 exceed negro males in Alabama, +Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, but +the restrictions in these states of property ownership represented +by tax receipts, education and various other tests, would fall more +heavily upon women than men, and thus admit fewer women than men to +the vote. If the South really wants White Supremacy, it will urge +the enfranchisement of women. The following table offers insuperable +proof: + +==================================================================== +| |Per Cent. of| WHITE | NEGROES +| | Negroes in | 21 Years and Over | 21 Years and Over +| STATES | Population | | +| | All Ages | Male | Female | Male | Female ++---------------+------------+---------+---------+---------+-------- +|Delaware ......| 15.4 | 52,804 | 50,160 | 9,050 | 8,281 +|Maryland ......| 17.9 | 303,561 | 309,897 | 63,963 | 63,899 +|Dist. Columbia.| 28.5 | 75,765 | 81,622 | 27,621 | 34,449 +|Virginia ......| 32.6 | 363,659 | 353,516 | 159,593 | 164,844 +|North Carolina.| 31.6 | 357,611 | 358,583 | 146,752 | 159,236 +|South Carolina | 55.2 | 165,769 | 162,623 | 169,155 | 181,264 +|Georgia .......| 45.1 | 353,569 | 343,187 | 266,814 | 269,937 +|Florida .......| 41.0 | 124,311 | 105,662 | 89,659 | 72,998 +|Kentucky ......| 11.4 | 527,661 | 506,299 | 75,694 | 73,413 +|Tennessee .....| 21.7 | 433,431 | 419,646 | 119,142 | 122,707 +|Alabama .......| 42.5 | 298,943 | 284,116 | 213,923 | 217,676 +|Mississippi ...| 56.2 | 192,741 | 180,787 | 233,701 | 231,901 +|Arkansas ......| 28.1 | 284,301 | 248,964 | 111,365 | 102,917 +|Louisiana .....| 43.1 | 240,001 | 222,473 | 174,211 | 172,711 +|Texas .........| 17.7 | 835,962 | 722,063 | 166,393 | 161,959 +|Missouri ......| 4.8 | 919,480 | 874,997 | 52,921 | 48,057 +|Oklahoma ......| 8.3 | 393,377 | 311,266 | 36,841 | 30,208 +|West Virginia .| 5.3 | 315,498 | 270,298 | 22,757 | 14,667 +==================================================================== + +Speaking of the probable enforcement of the National Constitution +against the "Grandfather clause" in Southern constitutions, Walter E. +Clark, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, said: + +"In North Carolina such a decision would readmit to the polls 125,000 +negro votes. What preparation have we made to meet such a possible +result? I know of but one remedy. The census shows that the white +population of North Carolina is seventy per cent. and the colored +population thirty per cent. It follows that the white adult women of +North Carolina are more in numbers than the negro men and negro women +combined. _The votes of 260,000 white women can be relied on to +stand solid against any measure or any man who proposes to question +Anglo-Saxon supremacy._ + +"I am not intimating that the admission of the white women to the +polls will secure democratic supremacy (they will not impair it), +nor that it will prejudice the republican element. The equal suffrage +movement has never proceeded on party lines and the women would scorn +to be admitted unless they were as free in their choice of party +measures and candidates as the men. But what I am saying is that +if the negroes are readmitted by a decision of the Federal Court to +suffrage, the 260,000 votes of the white women of the State will be +one solid obstacle to any measure that would impair either for them or +their children the continuance of white supremacy." + + +III. WOMEN DO NOT WANT TO VOTE AND HENCE IT IS UNFAIR TO THRUST THE +VOTE UPON THEM BY FEDERAL AMENDMENT. + +We have two classes of voters in the United States, young men who +automatically become voters at twenty-one, and naturalized citizens. +No one among them has ever been asked whether he wishes the vote. It +was "thrust upon them" all as a privilege which each would use or not +as he desired. To extend the suffrage to those who do not desire it is +no hardship, since only those who wish the privilege will use it. On +the other hand, it becomes an intolerable oppression to deny it to +those who want it. The vote is permissive, not obligatory. It imposes +no definite responsibility; it extends a liberty. That there are women +who do not want the vote is true, but the well-known large number of +qualified men who do not use the vote, indicates that the desire to +have someone else assume the responsibility of public service is not +confined to women. It is an easy excuse to say "wait until all the +women want it," but it is a poor rule which doesn't work both ways. +Had it been necessary for members of Congress to wait until all men +wanted the vote before they had one for themselves, we should be +living in an unconstitutional monarchy. More, had it been necessary +for women to wait until all women approved of college or even public +school education for girls, property rights, the right of free speech, +or any one of the many liberties now enjoyed by women, but formerly +denied them, the iniquities of the old common law would still measure +the privileges of women, and high schools and colleges would still +close their doors to women. + +A certain way to test whether any class of people want the vote is to +note the numbers of those who use it when granted. + +As men and women voters do not use separate boxes and as initials +are often employed by both sexes in registration, election officials +invariably reply to queries as to the number of women actually voting +in their respective states, that positive figures are not obtainable. +Yet the testimony, while lacking definite statement, is overwhelming +that women in all lands vote in about the same proportion as men. +Women in Illinois, not being possessed of complete suffrage rights, +have voted in separate boxes, and figures are therefore obtainable. +The report from the City of Chicago for 1916 as submitted by the Chief +Clerk of the Board of Election Commissioners is as follows: + + REGISTRATION + Men Women Total + 504,674 303,801 808,475 + + VOTES CAST NOV 7 + Men Women Total + 487,210--96.5% 289,444--95.2% 776,654--96% + + VOTES CAST--DEMOCRATIC + Men Women Total + 217,328 133,847 351,175 + + VOTES CAST--REPUBLICAN + Men Women Total + 235,328 141,533 377,201 + + PROGRESSIVE AND SOCIALIST + 48,278 + +Although New York City is nearly two and a half times as large as +Chicago, the registration of the latter exceeded that of New York by +69,307. + +The following is quoted from an official statement issued by the +California Civic League on what the women of California have done with +the vote: + + "There has been some attempt on the part of those opposed + to women voting to make it appear that in San Francisco + particularly, women were slow to register and loth to vote. + The fact is always suppressed that there are never less + than 132 men to every 100 women in the city and that women + therefore should properly be only forty-three per cent. of the + total number of voting adults. At the last mayoralty election + the women unquestionably re-elected the incumbent as against + Eugene Schmitz of graft-prosecution fame, who tried to 'come + back.' In this election women constituted thirty-seven per + cent. of the total registered vote and the women of the best + residence districts voted in the proportion of forty-two + to forty-four per cent. of the total vote cast in those + precincts; while in the downtown, tenderloin and dance-hall + districts women constituted only twenty-seven per cent. of + the registration and negligible portion of the vote. These + proportions have been substantially maintained in minor + elections since, and were slightly increased in the National + election of November, 1916, when they comprised thirty-nine + per cent. of the registration and voted within two per cent. + as heavily as men." + +From no state comes the report that women have not used their vote. +The evidence that they do use it has been so largely distributed +through the press, that more definite proof seems unnecessary, even +were it possible to secure it. The following bits of testimony taken +from press reports are of interest: + +In WYOMING, out of 45,000 registered voters, 20,000 are reported +as women. But Wyoming has 219 men to every 100 women of voting age. +Therefore to compare favorably with Wyoming's 20,000 women voters +there should the 53,800 men. + + * * * * * + +In MONTANA, one-third of a registration of 255,000 is made up of +women. Montana has 189.6 men to every 100 women. As there were only +81,741 women of voting age in Montana in 1910, the present number, +85,000, must mean that nearly every woman in the state voted in 1916. + + * * * * * + +About 40% of UTAH'S 130,000 registration is made up of women. Utah has +6 men of voting age to every 5 women, 20% more men than women. + + * * * * * + +In IDAHO, out of a registration of 95,000, there are 40,000 women. +Idaho has more than half as many again men as women. Therefore to +have a fifty-fifty representation at the polls, Idaho should have +registered 60,000 men instead of 55,000 to match its 40,000 women. + + +IV. CONSTITUENCY HAS INSTRUCTED AGAINST SUFFRAGE. + +This objection is urged by members in whose states there have been +referenda on the subject in recent years with adverse results. Members +of Congress are apportioned among the several states according to +population and are constitutionally obligated to represent women as +well as men. As the electors of no constituency have voted solidly +against woman suffrage, such objectors are accepting instructions +from less than half their adult constituents and often from less than +one-fourth. Women have had no opportunity to speak for themselves. As +a matter of very suggestive fact, thirty-five members of Congress, +who upon interview have expressed opposition to the Federal Amendment, +were elected by minorities. Some of these represent states which +have had a referendum on woman suffrage and were elected by a smaller +number of total votes than their respective districts gave the +suffrage amendment. These are such curious facts, that it is difficult +to believe in the sincerity of the objection. That men and elements +which have contributed money and work to secure the election of a +member of Congress instruct him how to vote is more believable. For +the sake of the common welfare of the American people, it is well, +that the number of such members is probably few. + + +V. POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY. The South professes to fear the increased +Negro vote; the North, the increased Foreign vote; the rich, the +increased labor vote; the conservative, the increased illiterate +vote. The Republicans since the recent presidential election fear +the increased Democratic vote; the Democrats fear the woman voters' +support was only temporary. The "wet" fears the increased dry vote; +the "dry" the increased controlled wet vote. Certain very numerous +elements fear the increased Catholic vote and still others the +increased Jewish vote. The Orthodox Protestant and Catholic fear +the increased free-thinking vote and the free-thinkers are decidedly +afraid of the increased church vote. Labor fears the increased +influence of the capitalistic class, and capitalists, especially of +the manufacturing group, are extremely disturbed at the prospect of +votes being extended to their women employees. Certain groups fear the +increased Socialist vote and certain Socialists fear the "lady vote." +Party men fear women voters will have no party consciousness and prove +so independent as to disintegrate the party. Radical or progressive +elements fear that women will be "stand-pat" partisans. Ballot +reformers fear the increased corrupt vote and corruptionists fear +the increased reform vote. Militarists are much alarmed lest women +increase the peace vote and, despite the fact that the press of the +country has poured forth increasing evidence that the women of every +belligerent country have borne their full share of the war burden +with such unexpected skill and ability that the authorities have been +lavish in acknowledgment, seem certain that women of the United +States will prove the exception to the world's rule and show the white +feather if war threatens. + +Ridiculous as this list of objections may appear, each is supported +earnestly by a considerable group, and collectively they furnish the +basis of opposition to woman suffrage in and out of Congress. + +The answer to one is the answer to all. + +Government by "the people" is expedient or it is not. If it is +expedient, then obviously _all_ the people must be included. If it +is not expedient, the simplest logic leads to the conclusion that the +classes to be deprived of the franchise should be determined by their +qualities of unfitness for the vote. If education, intelligence, +grasp of public questions, patriotism, willingness and ability to give +public service, respect of law, are selected as fair qualifications +for those to be entrusted with the vote and the opposite as the +qualities of those to be denied the vote, it follows that men and +women will be included in the classes adjudged fit to vote, and also +in those adjudged unfit to vote. Meanwhile the system which admits the +unworthy to the vote provided they are men, and shuts out the +worthy provided they are women, is so unjust and illogical that its +perpetuation is a sad reflection upon American thinking. + +The clear thinker will arrive at the conclusion that women must be +included in the electorate if our country wishes to be consistent with +the principles it boasts as fundamental. The shortest method to secure +this enfranchisement is the quickest method to extricate our country +from the absurdity of its present position. + + +VI. THE LOW STANDARDS OF CITIZENSHIP which lead to controlled votes, +bribery and various forms of corruptions, will be accentuated by +woman suffrage with the doubling of every dangerous element, hence +any effort to postpone its coming is justifiable. Woman suffrage will +increase the proportion of _intelligent voters_. According to the +Commissioners of Education there are now one-third more girls in the +high schools of the country than boys. In 1914, the latest figures, +64,491 boys were graduated from the high schools of the United States +and 96,115 girls. In the normal schools the educational report for +1915 states that 80 per cent. of the pupils were girls. The Census of +1910 reports a larger number of illiterate men than illiterate women. + +Woman suffrage would increase the _moral_ vote. Only one out of every +twenty criminals are women. Women constitute a minority of drunkards +and petty misdemeanants, and in all the factors that tend to handicap +the progress of society women form a minority; whereas in churches, +schools and all organizations working for the uplift of humanity, +women are a majority. In all American states and countries that +have adopted equal suffrage the vote of the disreputable woman is +practically negligible, the slum wards of cities invariably having the +lightest woman vote and the respectable residence wards the heaviest. +Woman suffrage would increase the number of _native born voters_ as +for every 100 foreign white women immigrants coming to this country +there are 129 men, while among Asiatic immigrants the men outnumber +the women two to one, according to the Census of 1910. + +Woman suffrage would help to _correct election procedure_. In all +states where women vote, the polling booths have been moved into +homes, church parlors, school houses or other similar respectable +places. Women serve as election officials and the subduing influence +of woman's presence elsewhere has had its effect upon the elections. +Women greatly increase the number of competent persons who can be +drawn upon as election officials. No class of persons in the nation +is so well trained as school teachers for this work. The presence of +women as voters and officials would in itself eliminate certain +types of irregularity and go a long way toward establishing a higher +standard of election procedure. Woman suffrage cannot possibly make +political conditions worse, since all the elements which combine to +produce those conditions are less conspicuous among women than men. On +the other hand the introduction of a new class possessing a very +large number of persons who would unwillingly tolerate some of the +conditions now prevailing offers evidence that a powerful influence +for better things would come with the woman's vote. + + +VII. PROHIBITION HAS OUTSTRIPPED SUFFRAGE, THEREFORE SUFFRAGE +SENTIMENT IS LESS STRONG. + +It should be remembered that prohibition may be obtained by statutory +enactment, a privilege denied woman suffrage; that it has been largely +established by local option, another privilege denied woman suffrage. +These facts account for the larger success as indicated by relative +territory covered by prohibition and woman suffrage. + + + + +APPENDIX A + +The Following Statement Shows the Extent of Suffrage Enjoyed by Women +in Other Lands: + + +THE AUSTRALIAN PROVINCES granted municipal suffrage to women as +follows: New South Wales, 1867; Victoria, 1869; West Australia, 1871; +South Australia, 1880; Tasmania, 1884; Queensland, 1886. They granted +full suffrage to women as follows: South Australia, 1897; West +Australia, 1899; New South Wales, 1902; Tasmania, 1903; Queensland, +1905; Victoria, 1908. + + * * * * * + +Full suffrage was granted to the women of The Isle of Man, 1892; New +Zealand, 1893; Finland, 1906; Norway, 1907; Denmark, 1915; Iceland, +1916. + + * * * * * + +CANADIAN PROVINCES extended municipal suffrage to women as follows: +Ontario, 1884, to widows and spinsters assessed for not less than +$400, married women entitled to vote on some propositions; New +Brunswick, 1886, to women and spinsters rate payers; Nova Scotia, +1887, to all women rate payers; Manitoba, 1888, to all woman rate +payers; British Columbia, 1888, widows and spinsters rate payers; +Alberta, 1888, widows and spinsters rate payers; Saskatchewan, 1888, +widows and spinsters rate payers; Prince Edward Island, 1888, widows +and spinsters property holders; Quebec, 1892, widows and spinsters +property holders. The full suffrage was granted to all women in the +Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in +1916. + + * * * * * + +SOUTH AFRICA--Municipal suffrage was extended to women as follows: In +The Transvaal, in 1854, to burghers' wives; in 1903 to white women +on a property qualification; in Cape Colony, 1882, to all women on +a property qualification; in Orange River Colony, 1904, to all women +resident householders. + + * * * * * + +SWEDEN--Municipal suffrage for unmarried women, School Board and +Ecclesiastical Franchise (without eligibility to office), 1862; School +Board and Poor Law (with eligibility), 1889; eligibility to municipal +and church councils, and extension of suffrage rights to married +women, 1909. + + * * * * * + +In ENGLAND and WALES the first extension of suffrage to women was +granted in 1834. Since that time various extensions of suffrage to men +and to women have taken place. The first woman suffrage was given to +widows and spinsters. The disability of married women was removed in +1900, and English and Welsh women now enjoy suffrage in all elections +upon the same terms as men with the sole exception of the right to +vote for members of Parliament. + + * * * * * + +SCOTLAND--1872--First extension of suffrage to women to elect School +Boards (with eligibility). 1881--Municipal suffrage for unmarried +women (with eligibility). 1900--Disability of married women in +municipal elections removed. 1907--Town and County Council eligibility +for married and unmarried established. + + * * * * * + +IRELAND--1837--First extension of suffrage to women to elect Poor +Law Guardians. 1887--Municipal suffrage granted the women of Belfast. +1894--Municipal suffrage extended to other cities. 1911--Town +and County Council eligibility for married and unmarried women +established. + + + + +APPENDIX B + + +(In the table below, the 36 male suffrage states are grouped under +classifications which represent, as far as can be represented in a +table, the various degrees of difficulty met in the amending clauses +of State Constitutions.) + +A.--Amendment passed by the Legislature or Constitutional Convention: + +Delaware: Amendments are not put to the referendum vote. + +They must pass two legislatures by a two-thirds majority each time. +The Legislature sits biennially. A Constitutional Convention can also +pass amendments without reference to the people. + + +B.--Passed by majority one Legislature and majority vote of people on +the referendum or by constitutional convention with referendum: + +Missouri--Biennial Legislature. Initiative petition also possible. + +South Dakota--Biennial. Constitutional Convention hard to call. + + +C.--Large Legislative vote necessary: + +Florida, three-fifths, biennial. + +Georgia, two-thirds, annual. + +Maine, two-thirds, biennial. + +Michigan, two-thirds, biennial. Initiative petition also possible. + +North Carolina, three-fifths, biennial. + +Ohio, three-fifths, biennial. Initiative petition also possible. + +West Virginia, two-thirds, biennial. + + +D.--Same as C., but no, or infrequent Constitutional Conventions: + +Louisiana, two-thirds, biennial, no Constitutional Convention. + +Texas, two-thirds, biennial, no Constitutional Convention. + +Maryland, three-fifths, biennial, 20 years interval between +Constitutional Conventions. + + +E.--Difficult States: + +Alabama--Legislature: three-fifths vote of one Legislature +(quadrennial). People: Majority of all votes cast at the election. + +Iowa--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). People: +Majority of all voting for representatives. + +Minnesota--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial). +People: Majority of votes at the election. + +New York--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual). People: +Majority voting on amendment. + +Virginia--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). +People: Majority of people voting on amendment. + +Oklahoma--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial). +Initiative petition possible. People: Majority voting at election. + +North Dakota--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). +Initiative petition possible. People: Majority voting on the +amendment. No Constitutional Convention. + +South Carolina--Legislature: Two-thirds of two Legislatures +(annual).--One before submission to people; the other after +ratification by them. People: Majority voting for representatives. + +Wisconsin--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). +People: Majority voting at the election. + + +F.--Very Difficult States: + +Arkansas--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial). +People: Majority of all voting at election. Only three amendments at +once. No Constitutional Convention. + +Connecticut--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature; two-thirds +vote a second Legislature (biennial). People: Majority votes of the +people on the amendment. No Constitutional Convention. + +Kentucky--Legislature; three-fifths vote of one Legislature +(biennial). People: Majority of people voting on the amendment. Not +more than two amendments at once. + +Massachusetts--Legislature: Majority in Senate and two-thirds House in +two Legislatures (annual). People: Majority voting on the amendment. +No Constitutional Convention. + +New Jersey--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual). +People: Majority voting on amendment. Same amendment can be submitted +only once in five years. No Constitutional Convention. + +Mississippi--Legislature: Two-thirds vote of one Legislature; majority +of a second, after the referendum vote (quadrennial). People: Majority +voting at the election. No Constitutional Convention. + +Pennsylvania--Legislature: Majority of the two Legislatures +(biennial). People: Majority of people voting at election. Same +amendment can be submitted only once in five years. No Constitutional +Convention. + +Rhode Island--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual). +People: Three-fifths of all voting at election. No Constitutional +Convention. + +Tennessee--Legislature: Majority vote in one Legislature, and a +two-thirds vote in a second (biennial). People: Majority of all voting +for representatives. Same amendment can be submitted only once in six +years. + + +G.--Most Difficult States: + +Vermont--Legislature: Majority in House and two-thirds in Senate +in one Legislature; majority of both houses in a second (biennial). +People: Majority voting on the amendment. No Constitutional +Convention. Constitution can be amended only once in ten years. + +New Hampshire--Constitutional Convention alone can propose amendment. +This convention is held once in seven years. People: Two-thirds +majority vote on amendment. + +Illinois--Legislature: Two-thirds vote of one Legislature (biennial). +People: Majority voting at the election. Only one amendment at a time. +Same amendment only once in four years. + +Indiana--Legislature: Majority vote of two Legislatures (biennial). +People: Majority of voters in state. While one amendment awaits action +no other can be proposed. No Constitutional Convention. + +New Mexico--Legislature Three-fourths vote of one Legislature +(biennial). People: Three-fourths of those voting at election; +two-thirds from each county. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman Suffrage By Federal +Constitutional Amendment, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13568 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..78b12ac --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13568 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13568) diff --git a/old/13568-8.txt b/old/13568-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a598f0a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13568-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2620 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman Suffrage By Federal Constitutional +Amendment, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Woman Suffrage By Federal Constitutional Amendment + +Author: Various + +Release Date: October 1, 2004 [EBook #13568] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN SUFFRAGE *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, S.R.Ellison and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE LIBRARY + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE BY FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT + +COMPILED BY CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +PUBLISHED BY NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE PUBLISHING CO., INC. 171 MADISON +AVENUE NEW YORK + + +1917 + + + +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO + +THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE LEGISLATURES OF THE +SEVERAL STATES. IT GOES WITH THE HOPE THAT IT MAY LEAD TO A BETTER +UNDERSTANDING OF THE REASONS FOR A FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT +PROVIDING THAT NO STATE SHALL DENY THE RIGHT TO VOTE ON ACCOUNT OF +SEX. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +No effort is made in the following pages to present an argument for +woman suffrage. No careful observer of the modern trend of human +affairs, doubts that "governments of the people" are destined to +replace the monarchies of the world. No listener will fail to hear the +rumble of the rising tide of democracy. No watcher of events will deny +that the women of all civilized lands will be enfranchised eventually +as part of the people entitled to give consent and no American +possessed of political foresight doubts woman suffrage in our land as +a coming fact. + +The discussion herein is strictly confined to the reasons why an +amendment to the Federal Constitution is the most appropriate method +of dealing with the question. This proposed amendment was introduced +into Congress in 1878 at the request of the National Woman Suffrage +Association. Since 1882 the Senate Committee has reported it with a +favorable majority every year except in 1890 and 1896. Twice only has +it gone to vote in the Senate. The first time was on January 25, 1887; +the second, March 19, 1914. In the House it has been reported from +Committee seven times, twice by a favorable majority, three times by +an adverse majority and twice without recommendation. The House has +allowed the measure to come to vote but once, in 1915. Yet while women +of the nation in large and increasing numbers have stood at doors of +Congress waiting and hoping, praying and appealing for the democratic +right to have their opinions counted in affairs of their government, +millions of men have entered through our gates and automatically have +passed into voting citizenship without cost of money, time or service, +aye, without knowing what it meant or asking for the privilege. Among +the enfranchised there are vast groups of totally illiterate, and +others of gross ignorance, groups of men of all nations of Europe, +uneducated Indians and Negroes. Among the unenfranchised are the +owners of millions of dollars worth of property, college presidents +and college graduates, thousands of teachers in universities, colleges +and public schools, physicians, lawyers, dentists, journalists, heads +of businesses, representatives of every trade and occupation and +thousands of the nation's homekeepers. The former group secured its +vote without the asking; the latter appeals in vain to Congress for +the removal of the stigma this inexplicable contrast puts upon their +sex. It is hoped this little book may gain attention where other means +have failed. + + C.C.C. + + January, 1917. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + PAGE + CHAPTER I. 1 + +WHY THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT? + +By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +There are seven reasons for Federal enfranchisement of women. +Other countries have so enfranchised women. Conditions of men's +enfranchisement in U.S. were easy. Many State constitutions today +practically impossible to amend. Election laws do not protect State +amendment elections from fraud. Men's right to vote protected by +Federal Constitution; state by state enfranchisement would not give +this protection to women. Woman Suffrage a national question. Decision +on technical and abstract question of Suffrage demands different class +of intelligence from election of candidates. + + + CHAPTER II 12 + +STATE CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTRUCTIONS + +By MARY SUMNER BOYD + +State Suffrage amendments defeated in recent years by technical +difficulties. Ratification by Legislature and People theory of State +Constitutional Amendment. So adopted in South Dakota and Missouri. +In most states technicalities make amending impossible. Classes +of technicalities. Limit to number of amendments. "Constitutional +majority." Passage of two Legislatures. More than majority of the +people required for ratification. Indiana. Time requirements. New +Mexico. Revision by Convention. Some states have no or infrequent +Constitutional Conventions. New Hampshire. Delaware Constitution alone +amended by Legislature or Convention without popular vote. Thirty +states gave foundations male suffrage by this easy means. + + + CHAPTER III 21 + +ELECTION LAWS AND REFERENDA + +By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +State Election Laws defective. Many state suffrage amendments +undoubtedly lost by frauds in elections. In twenty-four states +election law or precedents offer no correction of returns in +fraudulent amendment elections. In twenty-three states Contest on +election returns probably possible. In eight states recount of +votes made. A court procedure and expensive. Punishment for bribery. +Relation to Contest. Ohio cases. Vagueness of election laws protects +corruption. Ignorant vote used by corrupt. Form of ballot often helps +corruption. Only 13 states have headless ballots. Form of Suffrage +amendment ballots in recent years aided in defeat of measure. +Examples. Non-partisan referendum not protected from fraud like party +questions. In most states women cannot be watchers at polls. Aliens +can vote in eight states. Illiterate can vote in most states. Résumé. + + + CHAPTER IV 36 + +THE STORY OF THE 1916 REFERENDA + +By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +Three states voted on Woman Suffrage amendments. Some causes of +failure. Story of Iowa election. Woman's Christian Temperance Union +proves forty-seven varieties of corruption. South Dakota. Foreign +vote defeated Woman Suffrage there. Figures of some counties. +Relation between Prohibition and Woman Suffrage votes. West Virginia. +Illiteracy and conservatism defeated Woman Suffrage there. Liquor +influence felt. Corruption in Berkely County, West Virginia. Special +Legislative session called but investigation of frauds abandoned. +Analysis of vote of certain counties. Résumé. + + + CHAPTER V 55 + +FEDERAL ACTION AND STATES RIGHTS + +By HENRY WADE ROGERS + +Judge of U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, N.Y.C. + +Would Federal Amendment violate local self-government or conflict with +State Rights? States rights a sound doctrine, but has been perverted, +misapplied and carried to extremes. Henry St. George Tucker maintains +this way of gaining woman suffrage is contrary to rightful demarcation +of powers of federal and state governments. Constitutional Convention +1787 provided that amendments be ratified by three-fourths State +Legislatures, State Constitutions may not violate United States +Constitution for this is supreme Law. Amendment to U.S. Constitution +valid regardless of provisions in State Constitutions. Ratification by +State Legislatures does not violate States rights for by it states act +as sovereigns. Same argument for removal of sex line in Suffrage +as that on which 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were based. 15th +amendment gives the sound basis for woman suffrage amendment. + + + CHAPTER VI 69 + +OBJECTIONS TO THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +States Rights objection discussed. U.S. Constitution twice amended +recently under Democratic administration. Federal Prohibition +Amendment introduced by Southern Democrat. Even if all state +constitutions gave woman suffrage U.S. Constitution would contain +discrimination against women in word "male." Objection that woman +suffrage will increase Negro vote. If true, would be objection also +to State suffrage amendment. White supremacy will be strengthened by +woman suffrage. Discussion of figures of Negro and white population +in 15 southern states. Testimony of Chief Justice Walter E. Clark. +Objection that women do not want the vote. Men of 21 and naturalized +citizens become voters without being asked. Only those who wish +to need use the vote. That many women do want the vote is shown +by western figures in election of November, 1916. Objection that +unfavorable referenda in various states show that constituency has +instructed its representatives in Congress against woman suffrage. +Unfavorable majority against a suffrage amendment is in reality a +minority of constituency. Objection on ground of political expediency. +Meaning of this argument as used by different interests. If government +"by the people" is expedient, then government by _all_ the people is +expedient. If Government by certain classes is better, then basis of +franchise should, be morality and education, not sex. Objection +that Woman Suffrage will increase corrupt vote. Woman Suffrage will +increase intelligent electorate. Statistics. It will increase +the moral vote. Only one in twenty criminals is a woman. Election +conditions in equal suffrage states. Objection that Prohibition +sentiment is stronger than Suffrage sentiment since former has spread +faster. Prohibition can be established by statute and by local option +and suffrage cannot. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHY THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT? + + +Woman Suffrage is coming--no intelligent person in the United States +or in the world will deny that fact. The most an intelligent opponent +expects to accomplish is to postpone its establishment as long as +possible. When it will come and how it will come are still open +questions. Woman Suffrage by Federal Amendment is supported by seven +main reasons. These main reasons are evaded or avoided; they are not +answered. + + +1. KEEPING PACE WITH OTHER COUNTRIES DEMANDS IT. + +Suffrage for men and suffrage for women in other lands, with few and +minor exceptions, has been granted by parliamentary act and not by +referenda. By such enactment the women of Australia were granted full +suffrage in Federal elections by the Federal Parliament (1902), and +each State or Province granted full suffrage in all other elections by +act of their Provincial Parliaments.[A] By such enactment the Isle +of Man, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Denmark gave equal +suffrage in all elections to women.[A] By such process the Parliaments +of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta gave full provincial suffrage +to their women in 1916. British Columbia referred the question to the +voters in 1916, but the Provincial Parliament had already extended +all suffrage rights except the parliamentary vote, and both political +parties lent their aid in the referendum which consequently gave a +majority in every precinct on the home vote and a majority of the +soldier vote was returned from Europe later. By parliamentary act all +other Canadian Provinces, the Provinces of South Africa, the +countries of Sweden[A] and Great Britain have extended far more voting +privileges than any woman citizen of the United States east of the +Missouri River (except those of Illinois) has received. To the women +of Belise (British Honduras), the cities of Rangoon (Burmah), Bombay +(India), the Province of Baroda (India), the Province of Voralberg +(Austria), and Laibach (Austria) the same statement applies. In +Bohemia, Russia and various Provinces of Austria and Germany, +the principle of representation is recognized by the grant to +property-holding women of a vote by proxy. The suffragists of France +reported just before the war broke out that the French Parliament was +pledged to extend universal municipal suffrage to women. Men and women +of high repute say the full suffrage is certain to be extended by +the British Parliament to the women of England, Scotland, Ireland and +Wales soon after the close of the war and already these women have all +suffrage rights except the vote for Parliamentary members. These facts +are strange since it was the United States which first established +general suffrage for men upon the two principles that "taxation +without representation is tyranny" and that governments to be just +should "derive their consent from the governed." The unanswerable +logic of these two principles is responsible for the extension of +suffrage to men and women the world over. In the United States, +however, women are still taxed without "representation" and still +live under a government to which they have given no "consent." IT IS +OBVIOUSLY UNFAIR TO SUBJECT WOMEN OF THIS COUNTRY--WHICH BOASTS THAT +IT IS THE LEADER IN THE MOVEMENT TOWARD UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE--TO A +LONGER, HARDER, MORE DIFFICULT PROCESS THAN HAS BEEN IMPOSED BY OTHER +NATIONS UPON MEN OR WOMEN. American constitutions of the nation and +the states have closed the door to the simple processes by which men +and women of other countries have been enfranchised. An amendment to +our Federal Constitution is the nearest approach to them. To deny the +benefits of this method to the women of this country is to put upon +them a PENALTY FOR BEING AMERICANS. + +[Footnote A: See Appendix A for dates and conditions.] + + +2. EQUAL RIGHTS DEMANDS IT. + +Men of this country have been enfranchised by various extensions of +the voting privilege but IN NO SINGLE INSTANCE were they compelled to +appeal to an electorate containing groups of recently naturalized +and even unnaturalized foreigners, Indians, Negroes, large numbers of +illiterates, ne'er-do-wells, and drunken loafers. The Jews, denied the +vote in all our colonies, and the Catholics, denied the vote in +most of them, received their franchise through the revolutionary +constitutions which removed all religious qualifications for the vote +in a manner consistent with the self-respect of all. The property +qualifications for the vote which were established in every colony and +continued in the early state constitutions were usually removed by a +referendum but the question obviously went to an electorate limited to +property-holders only. The largest number of voters to which such an +amendment was referred was that of New York. Had every man voted who +was qualified to do so, the electorate would not have exceeded 200,000 +and probably not more than 150,000.[A] + +[Footnote A: Suffrage in the Colonies. New York Chapter. McKinley.] + +The next extensions of the vote to men were made to certain tribes +of Indians by act of Congress; and to the Negro by amendment to the +Federal Constitution. + +At least three-fourths of the present electors secured their votes +through direct naturalization or that of their forefathers. Congress +determines conditions of citizenship and state constitutions fix +qualifications of voters. In no instance has the foreign immigrant +been forced to plead with a vast electorate for his vote. The suffrage +has been "thrust upon him" without effort or even request on his +part. National and State constitutions not only close to women the +comparatively easy processes by which the vote was extended to men and +women of other countries but also those processes by which the vote +was secured to men of our own land. The simplest method now possible +is by amendment of the Federal Constitution. To deny the privilege of +that method to women is a discrimination against them so unjust and +insufferable that no fair-minded man North or South, East or West, can +logically share in the denial. + + +3. RELIEF FROM UNJUST CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTRUCTIONS DEMANDS IT. + +The constitutions of many states have provided for amendments by such +difficult processes that they either have never been amended or have +not been amended when the subject is in the least controversial. Their +provisions not infrequently are utilized by opponents of a cause to +delay action for years. A present case illustrates. Newspapers in +Kentucky which have opposed woman suffrage, and still do so, have +started a campaign (December, 1916) to submit a woman suffrage +amendment to voters with the announced intention of securing its +defeat at the polls in order to remove it from politics for five years +as the same question cannot be again submitted for that length of +time. + +There are state constitutions so impossible of amendment that women +of those states can only secure enfranchisement through Federal action +and fair play demands the submission of a Federal constitutional +amendment. (See Chapter II.) + + +4. PROTECTION FROM INADEQUATE ELECTION LAWS DEMANDS IT. + +The election laws of all states make inadequate provision for +safeguarding the vote on constitutional amendments. Since election +laws do not protect suffrage referenda, suffragists justly demand the +method prescribed by our national constitution to appeal their case +from male voters at large to the higher court of Congress and the +Legislatures. (See Chapters III and IV.) + + +5. EQUAL STATUS OF MEN AND WOMEN VOTERS DEMANDS IT. + +Until the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment the National +Constitution did not discriminate against women but in Section 2 of +that amendment provision was made whereby a penalty may be directed +against any state which denies the right to vote to its _male +inhabitants_ possessed of the necessary qualifications as prescribed +by nation and state. If the entire 48 states should severally +enfranchise women their political status would still be inferior to +that of men, since no provision for national protection in their right +to vote would exist. + +The women of eleven states are said to vote on equal terms with men. +As a matter of fact they do not, since they not only lose their vote +whenever they change their residence to any one of the 37 other states +(except Illinois, where they lose only a portion of their privileges), +but they enjoy no national protection in their right to vote. Women +justly demand "Equal Rights for All and Special Privileges for None." +Amendment to the National Constitution alone can give them an equal +status. Equality of rights can never be secured through state by state +enfranchisement. + + +6. NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF QUESTION DEMANDS IT. + +Woman suffrage in every other country is a National question. With +eleven American states and nearly half the territory of the civilized +world already won; with the statement of the press still unchallenged +that women voters were "the balance of power" which decided the last +presidential election, the movement has reached a position of national +significance in the United States. Any policy which seeks to shift +responsibility or to procrastinate action, is, to use the mildest +phraseology, unworthy of the Congress in whose charge the making of +American political history reposes. + + +7. TREATMENT OF QUESTION DEMANDS INTELLIGENCE. + +The handicaps of a popular vote upon a question of human liberty +which must be described in technical language will be clear to all +who think. It is probable that at least a fourth of the voters in West +Virginia, one of the recent suffrage campaign states, could not define +the following words intelligently: constitution, amendment, franchise, +suffrage, majority, plurality. It is probable they would succeed +even less well at an attempt to give an account of the Declaration +of Independence, the Revolution, Taxation without Representation, the +will of the majority, popular government. Such men might make a fairly +intelligent choice of men for local offices because their minds are +trained to deal with persons and concrete things. They could decide +between Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hughes with some discrimination, but would +have slight if any knowledge of the platforms upon which either stood. +A referendum in many of our states, means to defer woman suffrage +until the most ignorant, most narrow-minded, most un-American, are +ready for it. The removal of the question to the higher court of the +Congress and the Legislatures of the several states means that it will +be established when the intelligent, Americanized, progressive people +of the country are ready for it. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +STATE CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTRUCTIONS[A] + +[Footnote A: Table of difficulties in each state is to be found in the +Appendix.] + +MARY SUMNER BOYD + + +At its last session the Arkansas Legislature passed a Woman Suffrage +bill by a generous majority; in Kentucky a bill passed both houses +and one house in five other states. One of these was Arkansas where a +constitutional provision that only three amendments can be submitted +to the people at once rendered of no avail the passage of the +Legislature. In the five other states the enormous Constitutional +majorities required in a legislative vote on amendments defeated the +measure. + +This is the story of a typical year and these are two of the +difficulties which beset the gaining of suffrage "state by state." +Year after year labor is thrown away and money wasted because actual +minorities in legislatures can defeat constitutional amendments; or +because once past the legislature, constitutional technicalities can +keep them away from the polls; or because, safely past these hazards, +a minority vote of the people can defeat a bill that has successfully +reached the polls. + +Theoretically an amendment to a state constitution must have the +approval of the Legislature, ratified by the approval of the people. +This ratification is what differentiates it from a statutory law. This +is the actual requirement, however, in but two of the male suffrage +states, South Dakota and Missouri. In all the rest, except Delaware +and New Hampshire, which have special methods of amending, much more +than simple passage and ratification is required. + +There are some half-dozen classes of technical requirements which make +the amending of many state constitutions wellnigh impossible. Some +states have never been able to amend; others have had to submit the +same amendment again and again before it passed, even in the case of +measures which were not unpopular. The Legislatures of Nebraska and +Alabama have occasionally succeeded in passing amendments favored +by politicians, by resorting to clever tricks to circumvent the +constitutional handicaps. Only by outwitting the framers have they +been able to make changes in their constitutions. + +Among the common technical requirements are the passing by a set +proportion much larger than a mere majority of the legislature; +the passing of the people's vote by a majority of those voting for +candidates and not merely of those voting on the amendment itself; +the setting of special time and other limits for the submission +of amendments, etc. Many states combine three or more of these +requirements. + +No impediment seems more vexatious than that which prevented the +Arkansas bill from coming before the people after the Legislature of +1915 had approved submission. Nor is Arkansas alone in limiting +the number of amendments to be submitted to the people at one time; +Kentucky goes farther and makes the limit two and Illinois allows but +one at a time. + +The other six states whose bill failed at the last session belong to a +group of fifteen which require a special "constitutional majority" of +two-thirds or three-fifths favorable in the vote of both houses on an +amendment bill.[A] In South Carolina and Mississippi it must pass +two legislatures by this large vote, one before and one after the +referendum; in Mississippi this means four years' delay for its +sessions are quadrennial. In thirteen states the amendment bill must +pass two legislatures, in some by a constitutional majority at one +passage.[B] + +Alabama is one of the states whose bill failed through the +constitutional majority rule in 1915. In that state another suffrage +bill must wait four years for the next legislative session. If this +time it surmounts the hazard of a three-fifths favorable vote it will +be faced by another hazard; for Alabama is one of nine states in which +an amendment must pass the + +[Footnote A: South Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, West +Virginia, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi--all a two-thirds vote, +and Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Maryland and Kentucky a +three-fifths vote.] + +[Footnote B: In Connecticut, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont by a +two-thirds majority of one Legislature or of one house or both; in +Iowa, Indiana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, New +Jersey, New York and Rhode Island by majorities. All but the last +three have biennial Legislatures.] referendum not by a majority on +the amendment but by a majority of all voting for candidates at this +general election.[A] + +[Footnote A: These states are Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota, +Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Tennessee. Rhode +Island sets a definite majority (three-fifths) of those voting at the +election. Probably Texas and North Carolina should be included but the +amendment clause in their constitutions is misleading and they may +be given the benefit of the doubt; their clause reads: "An amendment +shall be submitted to the voters and adopted by a majority of the +votes cast."] + +This requirement by itself is regarded by one authority on state +constitutions[B] as making amendment practically impossible for it +means that the indifference and inertia of the mass of the voters can +be a more serious enemy than active opposition; the man who does not +take the trouble to vote is as much to be feared as the man who votes +against. + +[Footnote B: Dodd, W.F. Revision and Amendment of State +Constitutions.] + +A majority vote is required by the constitution of Indiana that is so +extravagant as to have caused contradictory decisions in the courts. +The constitution reads: "The General Assembly ... (shall) submit such +amendment ... to the electors of the state, and if a majority of said +electors shall ratify." This was interpreted in one case (156 Ind. +104) to mean a majority of all votes cast at the election, but in a +later case (in re Denny) it was taken, exactly as it reads, to mean +all the people in the State eligible to vote--and this in the face of +the fact that the number of people eligible to vote is unknown even +to the Federal Census Department. Indiana also requires that while one +amendment is under consideration no other can be introduced. She is, +needless to say, one of the states whose constitution has never been +amended. + +Other states besides Indiana have time requirements to insure the +immutability of their inspired state document. Thus the Vermont +Constitution can be amended only once in ten years--it was last +amended in 1913--and five others set a term of years before the same +amendment can be submitted again. Among these are New Jersey and +Pennsylvania, which having submitted the Woman Suffrage amendment in +1915 cannot do so again till 1920.[A] + +[Footnote A: The five states are Illinois (four years), Pennsylvania, +New Jersey and Kentucky (five years), and Tennessee (six years).] + +In no state is the Constitution so safeguarded from change as in New +Mexico, whose iron-bound rules are in a class by themselves. For the +first twenty-five years of statehood a three-fourths vote of both +houses of the Legislature ratified by three-fourths of the electors +voting, with two-thirds at least from each county, will be required to +change the suffrage clause. After twenty-five years the majority +will be reduced to two-thirds. This is the state whose Constitution +provides that illiteracy shall never be a bar to the suffrage; her +democracy falls short only in the matter of women whom she makes it +constitutionally impossible ever to add to her electorate. + +Where constitutions can be revised by the convention method as well as +by amendment there is some hope; if amendment fails revision holds out +a chance. But twelve states[A] hold no constitutional conventions; in +Maryland conventions are twenty years apart and in many other states +it is as difficult to call a constitutional convention as to revise +the Constitution by amendment. + +[Footnote A: Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Arkansas, +Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode +Island and Virginia.] + +New Hampshire amends by constitutional convention alone and these +conventions are held infrequently. + +Only in Delaware is the Constitution amended to-day by act of the +Legislature without the people's vote and without any technical +requirements except a large Legislative majority. + +Yet in twenty-four states[A] before the Civil War the foundations of +male suffrage were laid by legislature or constitutional convention +alone, and in many cases, furthermore, the conditions of suffrage were +dictated by the Federal Government. Even as late as the '90's five +State Constitutions were adopted, suffrage clause and all, by State +Legislatures or constitutional conventions without the referendum.[B] + +[Footnote A: New Hampshire, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, +North Carolina, Georgia, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New +Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Vermont, Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, +Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri and +Arkansas.] + +[Footnote B: Many reconstruction constitutions also but these were not +permanent. The five constitutions in the 90's were Mississippi, South +Carolina, Delaware, Louisiana and Virginia, and Kentucky made changes +after the constitution had been submitted.] + +In the other states universal male suffrage came easily at a time +when thinly populated states wanted to hold out inducements to male +immigrant labor. To-day any male once naturalized, and in some states +before he is naturalized, becomes automatically a voting citizen of +any state in the Union after he has fulfilled the state residence +requirements and, in some states, an educational requirement. + +The one word "male" shut women out in the old days from these easy +avenues to citizenship and to-day her path by the state by state +method is beset by almost insuperable difficulties. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ELECTION LAWS AND REFERENDA + + +To establish a "government of the people" is to follow an ideal set +by the growth of democratic principles, but, after such government has +been established by a constitution, it remains to be determined how +the will of the people is to be recorded and each state accordingly +has enacted an election law to provide for registration and for +taking the vote. These laws are so defective as to give unquestioned +advantage to dishonesty and corruption in most elections upon +referendum questions. In several states there is little doubt that +suffrage amendments have been lost through fraud. All the suffragists +in Michigan seem to agree that the amendment was counted out in the +first campaign of 1912 and that ballot boxes were stuffed in the +second, 1913. Willis E. Reed, Attorney General of Nebraska, has +declared that he believes the amendment was counted out in that +state. An investigation has revealed forty-seven varieties of fraud +or violation of the election law in forty-four counties in the Iowa +suffrage election of June 5, 1916. Given a group determined to prevent +women from getting the vote, a group provided with money and knowing +no scruple, and the inadequacy of the law in many States offers +a positive guarantee at the outset of a campaign that a suffrage +amendment will be lost. + +If suffrage amendments are defeated by illegal practices, why not +demand redress, asks the novice in suffrage campaigns. Ah, there's the +rub. In twenty-four states, no provision has been made by the election +law for any form of contest or recount on a referendum nor are +precedents for a recount found. Political corrupters may, in these +states, bribe voters, colonize voters and repeat them to their hearts' +content and redress of any kind is practically impossible. If clear +evidence of fraud could be produced a case might be brought to the +courts and the guilty parties might be punished, but the election +would stand. In New York, in 1915, the question was submitted to the +voters as to whether a constitutional convention should be called. +The convention was ordered by a majority of about 1,500. Later the +District Attorney of New York City found proof that at least 800 +fraudulent votes had been cast in that city. Leading lawyers discussed +the question of effect upon the election and the general opinion among +them was that, even though the entire majority, and more, should +be found to be fraudulent, the election could not be set aside. The +convention was held. + +In the other twenty-three states,[A] contests on referenda seem +possible under the law, but in practically every one, the contest +means a resort to the courts and in only eight[B] of these is +reference made to a recount. The law is vague and incomplete in nearly +all of these States. In some of these, including Michigan, where the +suffrage amendment is declared to have been counted out, application +for a recount must be made in each voting precinct. To have secured +redress in Michigan, provided the fraud was widespread, as it is +believed to have been, it would have been necessary to have secured +definite evidence of fraud in a probable 1,000 precincts and to have +instituted as many cases. This would have consumed many months and +would have demanded thousands of dollars. + +[Footnote A: In Ohio, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, New Jersey, Minnesota +and Michigan by law; in Illinois, Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, +Oregon, Arizona and Iowa by precedent; in West Virginia, South Dakota, +Kentucky and Colorado, officials express the opinion that the +law governing candidates's contests could be stretched to cover +amendments. In Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and +Washington, the law is so fragmentary as to make the possibilities +very uncertain. Information on this last group of laws will be found +in Appendix B.] + +[Footnote B: Ohio, Texas, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Minnesota, +Michigan, Massachusetts and Utah.] + +In some States the courts decide what the redress shall be, but where +such provision exists, no assurance is given by the law that such +redress will include a correction of the returns. In at least seven +States,[A] the applicants must pay all costs if they fail to prove +their case a provision amounting to a penalty imposed upon those who +try to enforce the law. + +[Footnote A: Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, West Virginia, +Minnesota, Utah.] + +The penalties for bribery range from $5 to $2,000 and from thirty +days' to ten years' imprisonment, but only one state (Ohio) provides +in definite terms for punishment of bribery as a part of the penalty +in an election contest. In most cases proof of bribery does not throw +out the vote of briber or bribed, nor does an action to throw +out purchased votes in contest cases bring with it automatically +punishment of the purchased voter. This omission from the contest +provisions presupposes that these bribery cases would be separate +actions. Thirty-two states in clear terms disfranchise (or give the +Legislature power to disfranchise) bribers and bribed, but few make +provision for the method of actually enforcing the law, and upon +inquiry the Secretary of State of many of these states reported +that, so far as he knew, no man had ever been disfranchised for +this offense. This was true of states which have been notorious for +political corruption. + +From Ohio alone has evidence been found of the actual enforcement +of the disfranchisement provision. In this state nearly 1,800 bribed +voters of Adams County were disfranchised in 1910 for scandalous +and well-remembered corruption but in 1915 they were restored to +citizenship. These cases reveal a disgraceful provision in the Ohio +law, by which the briber is given immunity if he will turn State's +evidence on the bribed; the vote-buyer may purchase votes by the +thousands with perfect safety provided that when suspected he will +deliver up a few of the bought by way of example. + +With a vague, uncertain law to define their punishment in most states, +and no law at all in twenty-four states, as a preliminary security, +corrupt opponents of a woman suffrage amendment find many additional +aids to their nefarious acts. A briber must make sure that the bribed +carries out his part of the contract. Whenever it is easy to check +up the results of the bribe, corruption may reign supreme with little +risk of being found out. A study of some of the recent suffrage votes +gives significant food for reflection. It shows how the form, color +and arrangement of the ballot may help the corrupt politician to +organize ignorant voters to do his will. In Georgia and Louisiana no +party names are printed on the official ballot and emblems only are +used. In almost half our states, though the party name is used also, +the emblem is the real guide. New York does not even relegate this +emblem to the top of the column. The emblem is placed before the name +of each candidate, so that the illiterate voter can make no mistake in +recognizing the sign of the machine which controls his vote. Scarcely +more than a dozen states have the headless ballot[A] which makes +it impossible for politicians to make corrupt use of the illiterate +voter. + +[Footnote A: Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida, Colorado, +California, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Massachusetts, +Mississippi, Nebraska, Pennsylvania.] + +In Wisconsin suffrage referendum the suffrage ballot was separate and +pink. It was easy to teach the most illiterate how to vote "No" and +to check up returns with considerable accuracy. In New York there +were three ballots. The official ballot had emblems which easily +distinguished it. The other two were exactly alike in shape, size and +color and each contained three propositions: those which came from +the constitutional convention and the other those which came from the +Legislature. The orders went forth to vote down the constitutional +provisions and it was done by a majority of 482,000, or nearly +300,000 more than the majority against woman suffrage. On the +ballot containing the suffrage amendment, which was No. 1, there was +proposition No. 3, which all the political parties wanted carried and +to which no one objected. It could easily be found by all illiterates +as it contained more lines of printing, yet so difficult was it to +teach ignorant men to vote "Yes" on that one proposition that, despite +the fact that orders had gone forth to all the state that No. 3 was to +be carried, it barely squeezed through. + +In Pennsylvania there are no emblems to distinguish the tickets and +on the large ballot the suffrage amendment was difficult to find by +an untutored voter. In probable consequence Pennsylvania polled the +largest proportional vote for the amendment of any eastern state. In +Massachusetts the ballot was small and the suffrage amendment could be +easily picked out by a bribed voter. In Iowa the suffrage ballot was +separate and yellow while the main ballots were white. + +In the North Dakota referendum the regular ballot was long and +complicated and the suffrage ballot separate and small. It was easy to +teach the dullest illiterate how to vote "No." It might be said +that it would be equally easy to teach him to vote "Yes." True, but +suffragists never bribe. Both the briber and the illiterate are allies +of the opposition. + +A referendum on a non-partisan issue has none of the protection +accorded a party question. Election boards are bi-partisan and each +party has its own machinery, not only of election officials but +watchers and challengers, to see that the opposing party commits no +fraud. The watchfulness of this party machinery, plus an increasingly +vigilant public opinion, has corrected many of the election frauds +which were once common and most elections are now probably free from +all the baser forms of corruption. When a question on referendum is +sincerely espoused by both the dominant parties it has the advantage +of the watchfulness of both party machines and is doubly safeguarded +from fraud. But when such a question has been espoused by no dominant +party it is utterly at the mercy of the worst forms of corruption. +The election officers have even been known to wink at irregularities +plainly committed since it was no affair of theirs. Or, they may even +go further and join in the entertaining game of running in as many +votes against such an amendment as possible. This has not infrequently +been the unhappy experience of suffrage amendments in corrupt +quarters. + +Honest election officers, respecting "the will of the majority" as +the sovereign of our nation, would protect honesty in elections, +regardless of their own or their party's views, but unhappily that +high standard is not universal. + +Surely, the method of taking the vote and of safeguarding the honesty +of elections should be the most important and fundamental of all +questions in a republic. Such laws ought to be preliminary to all +other laws. Yet as a matter of fact the laxity and ambiguity of +many state election laws and the utter inadequacy of provisions for +enforcement are almost unbelievable. The contemplation of the actual +facts seriously reflects upon the intelligence and good faith of the +successive lawmakers of our land. + +With no one on the election board whose special business it is to see +that honesty is upheld, a suffrage amendment must face further hazards +through the fact that most states do not permit women, or even special +men watchers, to stand guard over the vote and the count upon such +questions. + +When it is remembered that immigrants may be naturalized after a +residence of five years; that when naturalized they automatically +become voters by all our state constitutions; that in eight states[A] +immigrant voters are not even required to be citizens; that the right +to vote is limited by an educational qualification in only seventeen +states, and that nine of these are Southern, with special intent to +disfranchise the Negro while allowing the illiterate White to vote; +that evidence exists to prove that there is an unscrupulous body +ready to engage the lowest elements of our population by fraudulent +processes to oppose a suffrage amendment; that there is no authority +on the election board whose business it is to see that an amendment +gets a "square deal"; that the method of preparing the ballot is often +a distinct advantage to a corrupt opposition; and that when fraud is +committed there is practically no redress provided by election laws, +it ought to be clear to all that state constitutional amendments +when unsponsored by the dominant political parties which control the +election machinery, must run the gauntlet of intolerably unjust and +unfair conditions. When suffragists have been fortunate enough to +overcome the obstacles imposed by the constitution of their states +and a referendum to the male voters has been secured, they must +immediately enter upon the task of surmounting the infinitely greater +obstructions of the election law. They make their appeal to the public +upon the supposition that a majority of independent voters is +to decide their question. Instead, they may discover that in a +determining number of precincts the taking of the actual vote is a +game in which the cards are stacked against them. One woman, who had +watched at a precinct all day in a suffrage amendment election, said +"Something went out of me that day which never came back--and that was +pride in my country. At first I thought it was disappointment +produced by the defeat of the woman suffrage amendment, but when I had +recovered and could think calmly, I knew it was not that. I was still +patient and still willing to go on working, struggling, sacrificing, +for my right to vote; but I could not forget that I lived in a land +which tolerated the things I saw that day." The women who know cannot +rise to "The Star-Spangled Banner" without a "lump in their throats," +for they recognize the terrible fact that hidden under the beautiful +pretense of democracy is a hideous menace to our national liberties, +which no political party, no legislature, no congress, has dared to +drag out into the daylight of public knowledge. + +[Footnote A: The number of states which permitted men to vote on +"first papers" was formerly fifteen. The following eight states +still perpetuate this provision: Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, +Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Texas.] + +Bear these items in mind and remember that Congress enfranchised the +Indians, assuming its authority upon the ground that they are wards of +the nation; that the Negroes were enfranchised by Federal amendment; +that the constitutions of all states not in the list of the original +thirteen, automatically extended the vote to men; that in the original +colonial territory, the chief struggle occurred over the elimination +of the land-owning qualifications and that a total vote necessary +to give the franchise to non-landowners did not exceed fifty to +seventy-five thousand in any state. + +Let it also not be forgotten that the vote is the free-will offering +of our forty-eight states to any man who chooses to make this land his +home. Let it not be overlooked that millions of immigrant voters +have been added to our electorate within a generation, men mainly +uneducated and all moulded by European traditions, and let no man lose +sight of the fact that women of American birth, education and ideals +must appeal to these men for their enfranchisement. No humiliation +could be more complete, unless we add the amazing fact that political +leaders in Congress and legislatures are willing to drive their wives +and daughters to beg the consent of these men to their political +liberty. + +The makers of the Federal Constitution foresaw the necessity of +referring important and intricate questions to a more intelligent body +than the masses of the people and so provided for the amendment of the +Constitution by referendum to the legislatures of the several states. +Why should women be denied the privilege thus established? The United +States is one land and one people. All the states have the same +institutions, customs and ideals. + +Woman suffrage has been caught in a snarl of state constitutional +obstructions, inefficient election laws and the misapplied theory +of States Rights. It is a combination which has so far retarded the +normal progress of the movement in this democratic land that other +countries have already outstripped it. Under these circumstances +Congress should extricate the woman suffrage question from this tangle +by way of honorable reparation for the injustices unintentionally put +upon the only unenfranchised citizens left in our Republic, and women +should insist upon their enfranchisement by amendment to the Federal +Constitution as their self-respecting duty. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE STORY OF THE 1916 REFERENDA + + +Constitutional amendments were submitted to the voters of three states +in 1916, namely, Iowa, where the vote was taken June 5th on Primary +Day; South Dakota and West Virginia, where the vote was taken at the +general election in November. More than one influential newspaper +editorially discussed the returns with the comment that "the people" +of three states had refused to extend the suffrage to women. +An investigation unveils some ugly facts and raises significant +questions. + +In 1882 a prohibition constitutional amendment was adopted by a large +majority in Iowa and was promptly set aside by the supreme court upon +a technicality. The wet and dry question has been a vexed political +issue ever since. The state now has prohibition by statutory +enactment. A constitutional amendment is pending, having passed the +Legislature of 1914, and is due to pass the Legislature of 1916. +The "wets" believing that women would generally support the proposed +prohibition amendment were extremely active in opposing the suffrage +amendment. Although the suffragists kept their question distinctly +separate from prohibition, the wet and dry issue, it was generally +admitted, would prove a determining factor. + +Every judge of the Supreme Court, the United States Senators, the +Governor, most of the men prominent in Republican and Democratic +politics, most of the clergymen, most of the press and every woman's +state organization espoused the suffrage amendment. + +Men familiar with Iowa politics advised the suffrage campaigners early +and late and all the time between that it was unnecessary to conduct +an intensive campaign as "everybody believed in it." + +Yet despite this omnipresent optimism thousands of women gave +every possibility of their lives for months before to arouse public +sentiment, instruct and acquaint the men and women of the state +concerning the question. + +The amendment was lost by about 10,000 votes. Were four of the +ninety-nine counties (Dubuque, Clinton, Scott and Des Moines counties) +lying along the Mississippi River, not included in the returns, the +state would have been carried for woman suffrage. It is instructive +to inquire what kind of population occupied the four counties which +defeated it. The following table gives the answer: + +======================================================== +| | | | | Total | +| | | | Total | German, | +| | Total | Total | Foreign |Austrian,| +|Iowa Counties| | Native | and | Russian | +| |Population|Parentage| Foreign | and of | +| | | |Parentage| such | +| | | | |Parentage| ++-------------+----------+---------+---------+---------+ +|Dubuque | 57,450 | 24,024 | 33,426 | 14,566 | +|Clinton | 45,394 | 19,116 | 26,278 | 11,494 | +|Scott | 60,000 | 24,104 | 35,896 | 20,119 | +|Des Moines | 36,145 | 17,769 | 18,376 | 7,828 | +======================================================== + +The vote on woman suffrage was 162,679 yes and 173,020 no. The "yes +vote" of the above four counties was 8,061; the "no vote" 18,941. +Subtract these totals from the totals of the state vote and 154,618 +"yes" and 154,079 "no" remains, giving a majority of 539 for woman +suffrage. + +Once more in the history of suffrage referenda a foreign and colonized +population decided the issue. Was the election an honest one? That +is a question of interest to Iowa just now. The returns revealed some +suspicious facts. Nearly 30,000 more votes were cast on the suffrage +proposition than in the primary. Where did they come from? The +president of the W.C.T.U., Mrs. Ida B. Wise Smith, employed a +detective after the election. His investigation covered forty-four +counties and was not confined to those wherein woman suffrage +was lost. The findings have not been given to the public in their +entirety, but they were conclusive enough to cause an injunction suit +to be filed against the Board of Elections and the Legislature to +restrain them from accepting the official returns. + +Registration was necessary for the amendment, not for the primary, +yet thousands of unregistered votes apparently were cast upon the +amendment. All good election laws provide that a definite number of +ballots shall be officially issued to each precinct; that the number +of those deposited in the ballot box, the number spoiled and those +unused shall not only tally with the number received, but the +unused ones must be counted, sealed, labelled and returned with the +certificate recording the count. This is the law of Iowa; but the +report of the investigation, as given to the press, shows that in +thirty-five counties out of the forty-four investigated no tally list +was used and there was nothing by which to check in order to determine +the correctness of the number on the certificate. In many cases no +unused ballots were returned. The poll lists did not tally with the +number of votes and even a recount could not reveal whether fraud or +carelessness had led to irregularity. + +Despite the fact that the Iowa law provides that a definite number of +ballots and the same number of each kind is to be distributed to each +precinct, the separate suffrage ballots in a number of cases were +reported by election officials as not having arrived until the voting +had been in progress for some time; and in others they gave out an +hour before the polls closed. + +Forty-seven varieties of violations of the election law are alleged to +have been committed. Do these indicate wilful fraud or mere ignorance +and carelessness? Just now no one seems prepared to answer. Meantime +Iowa, one of the most intelligent and progressive states in the +nation, stands at the bar of public opinion accused of incapacity +to conduct an honest election. How she will defend herself, what +reparation she will make to her women, and what steps she will take to +insure clean elections and better enforcement of her election law in +the future are problems which await the Legislature. That body cannot +refuse to take action of some kind without inviting the suspicion that +her legislators prefer conditions which lend themselves to the +base uses of election manipulators whenever they may care to avail +themselves of them. + +On November 7, 1916, woman suffrage and prohibition amendments were +voted upon in South Dakota. It was the first time these two questions +have gone to referendum in the same election and the results furnish +interesting data for comparison. + +Certain facts tell a story which should make progressive, patriotic +Americans and fair-minded Congressmen reflect. + +Prohibition was carried by a majority of 11,469; woman suffrage +was lost by a majority of 4,664. Prohibition was lost in thirteen +counties; in one of these, Lawrence, which lies in the heart of the +mining country, prohibition was lost by two votes, and woman suffrage +was carried. + +In all the others a large foreign population was the dominant power. +Had nine of the sixty-eight counties of the state not been included in +the returns woman suffrage would have been carried. + +The total "yes" vote on woman suffrage was 51,687; the "no" vote +56,351.[A] The total "yes" vote of these nine counties was 4,877; the +"no" vote was 10,569. Subtracting these county totals from the state +totals the record would stand 46,810 "yes" votes and 45,782 "no" +votes. + +[Footnote A: The figures here used are those given to the press by the +County Boards of Election. The final returns were not available.] + +Who then are the voters of nine counties who kept the women of an +entire state disfranchised? The following table presents the answer: + +================================================================== +| | | | | Total | +| | | | Total | German, | +| | Total | Total | Foreign and | Austrian, | +| Counties | Population | Native | Foreign | Russian, | +| | | Parentage | Parentage | or of such| +| | | | | Parentage | +|-------------+------------+-----------+-------------+-----------| +|Bon Homme....| 11,061 | 3,448 | 7,6l3 | 4,759 | +|Brule .......| 6,451 | 3,008 | 3,443 | 1,556 | +|Charles Mix..| 14,899 | 6,387 | 8,512 | 2,757 | +|Campbell ....| 5,244 | 600 | 4,644 | 3,491 | +|Douglas .....| 6,400 | 2,017 | 4,383 | 1,644 | +|McCook ......| 9,589 | 4,068 | 5,521 | 1,691 | +|Hutchinson ..| 12,319 | 2,671 | 9,648 | 7,515 | +|McPherson ...| 6,791 | 1,152 | 5,639 | 4,889 | +|Turner ......| 13,840 | 4,206 | 9,634 | 4,432 | +|================================================================ + +The large "no" vote in several counties was due to the same character +of population. The total population is 583,888, the population of +foreign birth or foreign parentage is 243,835. South Dakota is one of +the eight remaining states where foreigners may vote on their "first +papers" and citizenship is not a qualification for a vote. + +The returns offer still other food for reflection. Hutchinson county, +for example, carried prohibition and lost woman suffrage. It gave 584 +dry votes; 510 wet votes. It gave 432 "yes" votes on woman suffrage +and 1,583 "no" votes. Thus 921 more votes were cast on the suffrage +proposition than on the prohibition question. The people in this +county are German-Russians and exceedingly ignorant. Apparently +they were not intelligent enough to be lined up to vote "no" on both +questions. Is it not likely that these votes were intended to be "wet" +and that they made a mistake and picked No. 6 instead of No. 7? If +not, why not? + +The largest group of the foreign population of these counties are +German-Russians. They migrated from Germany and found a home in Russia +some 230 or more years ago, in order to escape conscription. When +Russia began to enforce conscription about 1888 the entire group came +to America and settled in colonies in the Western states which at the +time offered free lands. They were totally illiterate then. They had +not progressed as Germans in their own country had done but being +clannish had remained at the point of development reached at the date +of their migration. They are still clannish and have not yet escaped +from the mental habits of the Middle Ages. These are the men who have +denied American women the vote in South Dakota. That the women of +South Dakota in very large numbers wanted the vote no one questions. +During the campaign six women in Sioux Falls published an appeal to +voters not to support the amendment as they did not wish to vote. +Shortly after an appeal to the voters of the same city was published +and was signed by 3,000 women. In every county of the state the women +manifested their interest by doing all they knew how to do. West +Virginia was the first Southern state to submit a referendum on woman +suffrage and the vote was taken November 7, 1916. The amendment was +defeated by the largest proportional majority any suffrage amendment +ever received. Unlike Iowa and South Dakota, where all the educated +classes with notable exceptions believe in woman suffrage, West +Virginia probably has many conscientious doubters. Arguments and +excuses which did service in the West twenty-five years ago were +brought forward as though just formulated. The illiteracy of the state +is appallingly high and the illiterate is universally an antiwomen +suffragist. + +The ever present prohibition issue again played an important if not +a determining part. A prohibition law was voted in by an immense +majority in 1912, but the undismayed "wets" propose to secure a +resubmission if possible. They apparently regarded the woman suffrage +amendment as an outer defense to be taken before the march on the main +prohibition fort could be begun; and every "wet," high and low, was +on duty. The "drys" who would do well to study Napoleon's rule of +strategy, that is, "find out what your enemy doesn't want you to do, +and then do it," were much disturbed as to what St. Paul would think +were he here, and concluded not to be over hasty about giving the +women the vote. + +At the Democratic convention an anti woman suffragist spoke. The +applause in the gallery and in the standing groups filling the outside +aisles was uproarious and clearly represented an organized, carefully +planted claque. The leaders were an ex-brewer, an ex-saloonkeeper and +the chief liquor lobbyist of the state. It was evident that they were +there to intimidate the party, and they did. The Democrats threw +a bouquet to the women in the form of a plank and then quietly +repudiated it. Practically the same thing happened in the Republican +convention. They, too, endorsed a plank and "double-crossed." There +was apparently no difference between the two dominant parties on that +score. Men who had always been pronounced suffragists weakly confessed +themselves afraid to speak for woman suffrage in the campaign lest +votes be lost for their party. Political campaigners who went into the +state, with the exception of Senator Borah and Raymond Robins, were +told not to mention suffrage, and they obeyed. The wets apparently had +the state literally by the throat and in order to save votes the great +fundamental principle of "government by the people" was refused a +public hearing. Election Day came. Women poll workers reported from +many parts of the state that drunken hoodlums were marched in line +into the precinct, saying boldly that they were going to vote "agin +the ---- women." The women workers testified with remarkable unanimity +that their opposition was chiefly "riffraff and illiterate negroes and +that it was under the direction of well-known 'wets.'" Even an excise +commissioner under pay of the National Government worked against woman +suffrage all day in one precinct. + +A premonition of what might happen appeared in September, when +Judge John M. Woods of the circuit court instructed a grand jury to +investigate the political situation in Berkely county. He declared, as +reported by the press, that election conditions had become intolerable +and that in his judgment one-third of the votes in the county were +purchasable. Elections, he said, had degenerated into "an auction +wherein offices went to the highest bidder." + +It was not surprising, therefore, that the cry of fraud arose from +many localities as soon as the election was over, and was so insistent +that the Governor called a special session of the Legislature for the +announced purpose of an investigation into the charges. Colonization, +bribery, repeating and every known form of corruption was alleged to +have been employed. One of the chief newspapers of the state declared +that the election scandals had surpassed all that had gone before. + +The Legislature met but the Governor did not proceed with his proposed +investigation. No explanation was given, but to the onlooker it was +clear that one of two reasons, or perhaps both, was the cause of +silence on the part of the chief lawmaking body of the state--either +the lifted curtain would reveal "the pot calling the kettle black," or +so extensive and noxious a mass of corruption was known to exist that +no means were available for correction of the wrongs perpetrated. + +That money was used many women were willing to testify. For what +purpose it was used, who furnished it and who were the actual bribers +were questions not so readily answered. In one city it was reported +"that warrants were out after the elect of the city and that this was +true in nearly every ward of the city." The warrants were based upon +the alleged use of money. + +Other women poll workers reported that men boldly asked whether they +would be paid, and if so, how much. When they found there was no +reward for suffrage votes they scornfully but frankly confessed that +they could do better on the other side. Irregularities were numerous. +The amendment was ordered by the state officials printed on the main +ticket, but one county so far disobeyed instructions as to print the +amendment on a separate ballot, yet the vote was accepted. The returns +on the amendment were withheld for many days and in several counties +for weeks. + +A few straws from the election show the way the wind blew in West +Virginia. In only four counties is the per cent, of illiteracy +among males of voting age less than 6 per cent. The returns in these +counties are found in the following table: + +================================================================= +| Per Cent. | | For | Against | | +| Illiteracy | County | Suffrage | Suffrage | | +| Voting Age | | Amendment| Amendment| | +| Males | | | | | +|------------+--------+----------+----------+-------------------| +| 5.5 | Brooke | 1,041 | 907 | Carried | +| 5.8 | Morgan | 443 | 1,098 | 2-1/2 to 1 against| +| 4.7 | Ohio | 4,513 | 6,014 | 1-1/3 to 1 against| +| 5.3 | Wood | 3,260 | 3,960 | 1-1/4 to 1 against| +================================================================= + +The returns from the five counties having the highest per cent. of +illiteracy are as follows: + +================================================================ +| Per Cent | | For | Against | | +| Illiteracy | County | Suffrage | Suffrage | | +| Voting Age | | Amendment| Amendment| | +| Males | | | | | +|------------+--------+----------+----------+------------------| +| 26.2 |Lincoln | 466 | 3,213 |7 to 1 against | +| 26.4 |Boone | 678 | 1,828 |3 lacking 6 votes | +| | | | | to 1 against | +| 27.7 |Logan | 856 | 2,774 |3-1/4 to 1 against| +| 28.2 |Mingo | 712 | 2,609 |3-2/3 to 1 against| +| 29.7 |McDowell| 1,436 | 4,832 |3-1/3 to 1 against| +================================================================ + +In the first group the negro vote is under 5 per cent. of the whole. +In the second this is also true of Boone and Lincoln counties. The +number of negro males of voting age is nearly 6 per cent. in Logan +county, 11.2 per cent. in Mingo county and 34.1 per cent. in McDowell +county. + +It is a matter of interest to observe that the counties giving the +largest majority against were Clay, 6 to 1; Grant, 7 to 1; Hardy, +7-2/3 to 1; Lincoln, 7 to 1; Raleigh, 5 to 1, and that in none of +these is the negro male population of voting age in excess of 5 per +cent. White illiteracy is high, the lowest in this group being that +found in Grant county, 13.3 per cent. + +Had there been an honest election and a fair count in West Virginia, +it is possible, even probable, that woman suffrage would have been +defeated, but the fact remains that no human being can know that, +since the amendment went down to defeat in an election that can only +be described as "The Shame of West Virginia." + +In all three states the pending amendments were caught in the toils +of the "wet and dry" issue. The "wets" obsessed by the idea that woman +suffrage is "next door to prohibition" used their entire machinery +to defeat the amendments, while the "drys" regarded the amendments as +distinctly separate questions. These conditions may be regarded as +the inevitable hazards of a campaign. It is, however, not at all clear +that the amendments were defeated in any one of the three states +by the honest "will of the majority." In none of them were women +permitted to serve as watchers over their amendment. In Iowa well +established proof of wilful or careless violations of laws throws +doubt over the returns, while in West Virginia the suspicion of fraud +rests upon the entire election. In Iowa four and in South Dakota nine +counties colonized by people of foreign birth or parentage deprived +the women of the state of their vote. + +A Federal amendment ratified by the legislatures of the several states +would secure to the women of South Dakota and Iowa the rights for +which American and Americanized men have voted. The entire western +or most American part of South Dakota has been twice carried for +suffrage, that is, in 1914 and 1916. One county, Harding, adjacent to +Wyoming, has been carried for woman suffrage in the six referenda on +the question, the first one being held in 1890. + +The only real argument against the Federal amendment thus far advanced +is that one group of states which want woman suffrage may force it +upon another group which does not want it. That argument works both +ways. _A group of counties_ which want woman suffrage may be deprived +of it for years because another group of un-Americanized, foreign-born +citizens do not want it. The first is said to be the principle of +"American sovereignty," the second may fairly be called the principle +of "foreign sovereignty." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FEDERAL ACTION AND STATE RIGHTS + +HENRY WADE ROGERS + +Judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, New York City, +and Professor in the Yale University School of Law. + + +I do not propose to discuss the subject of woman suffrage in the +abstract. I am content with saying as regards the general question +that in a republic which theoretically is founded upon the principle +that government derives its just powers from the consent of the +governed I think it illogical, unreasonable and an injustice to deny +the vote to adult women who are citizens. With that statement I +shall address myself to the suggestion of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association that Congress should propose to the States an +amendment to the Constitution which shall in effect provide that no +State shall deny to any person the right to vote on account of sex. +And as respects that suggestion I shall deal with a single phase of +the matter. It seems to be supposed in some quarters that if such an +amendment were to be adopted it would involve a breach of faith with +the dissenting States, or violate some unwritten principle of local +self-government, or conflict with the historic doctrine of State +Rights. + +I have no hesitancy in saying that I have for years believed and still +believe that there is a constitutional doctrine of State Rights which +cannot be safely or rightfully ignored. Many of the foremost men in +both parties share that belief. It must be admitted, however, that +this doctrine sometimes has been so perverted, misapplied and carried +to such extreme limits as seriously to prejudice many worthy and +intelligent citizens against its true merit and value. This fact makes +it all the more necessary on the part of those who would save the +doctrine from absolute repudiation to be careful when and how and to +what purpose it is invoked. + +There has recently been published a book entitled "Woman Suffrage by +Constitutional Amendment." The author of that book, the Hon. Henry St. +George Tucker of Virginia, was at one time a member of Congress, and +has been president of the American Bar Association. He was invited to +deliver a course of five lectures, in 1916, before the School of Law +of Yale University on the subject of "Local Self-Government." In one +of the lectures woman suffrage by Federal Amendment was discussed and +the theory was advanced that the attempt to bring about the right of +suffrage by an amendment to the Constitution of the United States +was opposed to the genius of the Constitution and subversive of the +principle of local self-government. In his opinion, woman suffrage +by Federal Amendment is contrary to the rightful demarcation of the +powers of the Federal and State governments under the Constitution of +the United States. + +I may remark in passing that the title of the book is liable to +mislead the public into thinking that Mr. Tucker was invited to Yale +to discuss woman suffrage, whereas the fact was that that was only an +incident in his discussion of Local Self-Government. + +But is woman suffrage by Federal Amendment contrary to the genius +of the Constitution and contrary to the rightful demarcation of the +powers of the Federal Government? + +In considering the question involved it is to be noticed in the first +place that a difference exists between the Articles of Confederation +and the Constitution. In the Articles of Confederation it was in the +Thirteenth Article expressly provided that no alteration should be +made in any of the Articles "unless such alteration be agreed to in +a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by +the legislatures of every State." This provision was an element +of weakness and recognized as such by the men who sat in the +Constitutional Convention of 1787. As the Articles constituted a +league between independent states it was deemed necessary to make it +incapable of alteration except by unanimous consent of the states in +order to preserve to each state all of its rights. + +When the convention of 1787 met to agree upon a Constitution to submit +to the States one of the questions they had to consider was whether it +should be made capable of amendment. They agreed that it was the +part of wisdom to provide that the States might modify the system of +government the Constitution established when in the progress of time +to do so seemed desirable. Mr. Madison accordingly proposed what with +some modifications became the Fifth Article. + +The Congress was given power by that Article to propose amendments by +a vote of two-thirds of both Houses and amendments so proposed were to +become valid to all intents and purposes as parts of the Constitution +when ratified by three-fourths of the several States. This is not +the only method by which the Constitution may be amended. For it is +provided that the States may themselves propose amendments through a +convention called by two-thirds of the States, and it is also +provided that proposed amendments may be submitted for ratification +to conventions in the several States instead of to the Legislatures of +the States if Congress so directs. + +When the Constitution of a State is amended care must be taken to see +to it that the amendment proposed does not involve a violation of the +Constitution of the United States. For a constitution adopted by the +people of a State in so far as it violates the Constitution of the +United States is void, for exactly the same reason that an Act passed +by a State Legislature is void if it is contrary to some provision +in the Constitution of the United States. This is so because the +Constitution of the United States in the Sixth Article directs that +"This Constitution ... shall be the supreme law of the land; and +the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the +Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." + +But any amendment with a single exception, which is proposed by +Congress, no matter what it may be, if it has received the two-thirds +vote of both Houses and has been ratified by the Legislatures of +three-fourths of the States, or of three-fourths of the conventions in +the several States, according as Congress has submitted it in the one +way or the other, is valid irrespective of any provision that can be +found in any State Constitution or law. The one exception to which +reference has been made is that no change can be made which would +deprive a State of its right to equal representation in the Senate. +As it is, the Senate is composed of two Senators from each state. New +York and Nevada, the one with a population of 9,113,614, and the other +with a population of 81,875 are entitled to equal representation in +that body, and that equality of representation cannot be destroyed by +any amendment not assented to by all the States. The reason is that +the Constitution expressly declares in the Fifth Article--the one +which deals with amendments--"that no State, without its consent, +shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." This provision +was incorporated into the Constitution at the suggestion of Roger +Sherman of Connecticut. Certain other restrictions were imposed +which now have become unimportant, but which at the time were of the +greatest possible importance. It was provided that no amendment was to +be made prior to the year 1808 which should prohibit the States from +further importation of slaves, and that no capitation or other direct +tax should be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration +of the inhabitants of the states in which three-fifths only of the +slaves were included. So we see that the founders withdrew from the +possibilities of amendment the subjects regarding which they were +unwilling amendments should be made. The understanding of the +States therefore must have been that as respects all subjects not +so withdrawn the right of amendment might be exercised whenever the +States desired to exercise it. Whenever they do see fit to exercise +it they are not breaking faith with each other, or doing anything +wrongfully. + +The mode of amending the Constitution is in strict accordance with the +doctrine of State Rights. The amending power is not to be exercised +by the collective people of the United States acting as a majority. It +can only be exercised by three-fourths of the States acting as States +in their sovereign capacity. If three-fourths of the States desire to +amend the instrument then the one-fourth must submit to the will of +the three-fourths. There is no principle in the doctrine of State +Rights which is violated when the Constitution is amended by the +three-fourths, for all the states have agreed that the three-fourths +shall possess the power to do so and that the minority will consent +to be bound by action so taken. The principle that the minority must +submit to the majority is a principle which the States apply to the +government of their local communities and to the people of their +several commonwealths. And it is a principle which the States as +sovereigns have agreed shall be applied to themselves in their +relations to each other and to the Federal Government. In creating the +amending power the framers of the Constitution were careful to +remove it from the people of the nation and to lodge it in the State +sovereignties. That is all that the believers in the doctrine of State +Rights asked. They could not wisely ask, and they did not ask, more. +They only asked that in so important a matter as the amendment of the +fundamental law the minority should not be compelled to submit to a +mere majority, but only to three-fourths of the whole. + +If it be assumed simply for the purpose of this discussion, that the +amendment of the Constitution is not wholly a political question, no +one can seriously contend that the amendment the National American +Woman Suffrage Association urges violates any principle of law, +written or unwritten. Mr. Tucker makes no such claim. His argument, +as I understand it, is that woman suffrage by Federal Amendment is a +departure from the original thought of the makers of the Constitution; +that they left the subject of suffrage along with most other subjects +to be regulated by State action and that their decision upon that +question was wise and should not be disturbed. The same argument +exactly was made against the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth +Amendments and without effect. It can be made against any amendment +which can be proposed which deprives the States of any power which +they now possess. + +When the Constitution was adopted it is true it did not confer the +right of suffrage upon any class, but left the subject to each +state to regulate in its own way. The members of the House of +Representatives were to be chosen by the people of the several States +and it was simply provided that "the electors in each state shall have +the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch +of the State Legislature." Senators were to be chosen by the State +Legislatures. The President and Vice-President were to be chosen by +electors, who were to be appointed in each state "in such manner as +the Legislature thereof may direct." These were at the time very +wise regulations, for they showed, as James Wilson, a member of the +Constitutional Convention, said, the most friendly disposition toward +the governments of the several States, and they tended to destroy the +seeds of jealousy which might otherwise spring up with regard to the +National Government. At that time the framers of the Constitution did +not deem it wise to limit in any respect the control of the States +over the subject of suffrage. There was then no uniformity regarding +the suffrage in the several states. A property qualification was +usually prescribed, but the amount of property it was necessary +to hold varied considerably in different states. For instance, in +Maryland all freemen, above 21 years of age, having a freehold of +fifty acres of land in the county in which they resided, and all +freemen having property in the state above the value of thirty pounds +current money and who had resided in the county one year, could vote. +In New Jersey "all inhabitants" of full age worth "fifty pounds, +proclamation money clear estate within that government," could vote. +In New York "every male inhabitant of full age" who had resided within +the county for six months immediately preceding the day of election +could vote if he had been a freeholder possessing a freehold of the +value of twenty pounds within the county or had rented a tenement +therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and had been rated and +actually paid taxes to the state. In a number of the States the right +to vote was restricted to taxpayers. In Pennsylvania every freeman +of 21 years who had resided in the state two years next before the +election and within that time had paid a State or a county tax could +vote. + +There is today a wide divergence in the qualifications required in +the various states to entitle one to vote. In a few States there +are educational qualifications, as in California, Connecticut, +Massachusetts, Washington and North Carolina. In some States one +cannot vote unless he has paid certain taxes, almost always poll +taxes. In certain States Indians who are not members of any tribe can +vote. And in a number of the States every male of foreign birth, +21 years of age, who has declared his intention to become a citizen +according to the naturalization laws of the United States can vote. + +These differences exist because the Constitution remains, so far as +this subject is concerned, as it was originally adopted, except that +the Fifteenth Amendment provides that "The right of citizens of the +United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United +States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition +of servitude." It is, however, an anomalous condition that the right +of citizens of the United States to vote remains wholly dependent on +the laws of the States, subject only to the restriction that in the +regulations the States establish they cannot discriminate against any +citizen on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. +If woman suffrage is a sound principle in a republican form of +government, and such I believe it to be, there is in my opinion +no reason why the States should not be permitted to vote upon an +Amendment to the Constitution declaring that no citizen shall be +deprived of the right to vote on account of sex. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +OBJECTIONS TO THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT + + +I. STATES RIGHTS. THIS OBJECTION IS URGED BY ALL OPPONENTS OF WOMAN +SUFFRAGE, BUT IS EITHER A BARRICADE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM THE +NECESSITY OF EXPOSING THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE NO REASONS, OR IS A PLAY +TO POSTPONE WOMAN SUFFRAGE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. BY A FEW IT IS URGED +CONSCIENTIOUSLY AND WITH CONVICTION. + +That there are many problems whose treatment belongs so appropriately +to state governments that any infringement of that right by the +Federal Government would be an act of tyranny, no American will +question. But assuredly woman suffrage is not one of these. One by +one classes of men have been granted the vote until women are the only +remaining unenfranchised class. States have set up various restrictive +qualifications so that criminality, idiocy, insanity, pauperism, +drunkenness, foreign birth are accepted as ordinary causes of +disfranchisement. Yet not one of these conditions is common to all the +states. The foreigner votes on his first papers in eight states and +a five years' residence will usually secure his naturalization and a +consequent vote in any state. The criminal, idiot and insane are not +denied a vote in several states, and in most a large class of ignorant +un-American men with no comprehension of our problems, our history, or +ideals, are conspicuous voters on election day. Millions of new voters +have entered our country and without the expenditure of time, money or +service have received the vote since the pending Federal Amendment was +first introduced. + +For two generations groups of women have given their lives and their +fortunes to secure the vote for their sex and hundreds of thousands of +other women are now giving all the time at their command. No class of +men in our own or any other country has made one-tenth the effort nor +sacrificed one-tenth as much for the vote. The long delay, the +double dealing, the broken faith of political parties, the insult of +disfranchisement of the qualified in a land which freely gives the +vote to the unqualified, combines to produce as insufferable a tyranny +as any modern nation has perpetuated upon a class of its citizens. +The souls of women which should be warm with patriotic love of their +country are growing bitter over the inexplicable wrong their country +is doing them. Hands and heads that should be busy with other problems +of our nation are withheld that they may get the tools with which +to work. Purses that should be open to many causes are emptied into +suffrage coffers until this monumental injustice shall be wiped away. +Woman suffrage is a question of righting a nation-wide injustice, of +establishing a phase of unquestioned human liberty and of carrying out +a proposition to which our nation is pledged; it therefore transcends +all considerations of states rights. This objection comes chiefly +from Southern Democrats, who claim that it is a form of oppression for +three-fourths of the states to foist upon one-fourth measures of +which the minority of states do not approve. Yet the provision for +so amending the Constitution was adopted by the states and has stood +unchallenged in the Constitution for more than a century. If it be +unfair, undemocratic or even unsatisfactory, it is curious that no +movement to change the provision has ever developed. The Constitution +has been twice amended recently and it is interesting to note that it +happened under a Democratic Administration. More, the child labor and +eight-hour bills, while not constitutional amendments, are subject to +the same plea that no state shall have laws imposed upon it without +its consent. Both measures were introduced by Southern Democrats. +The pending Federal Prohibition Amendment was also introduced by a +Southern Democrat and is supported by many others. Upon consideration +of these facts, it would seem that "states rights" is either a theory +to be invoked whenever necessary to conceal an unreasoning hostility +to a measure or that those who advance it are guilty of extremely +muddy thinking. + +The Constitution of the United States as now amended provides that no +male citizen subject to state qualifications shall be denied the +vote by any state. Were all the state constitutions amended so as to +enfranchise women, the word male would still stand in the National +Constitution. Men and women would still be unequal, since the National +Constitution can impose a penalty upon a state which denies the vote +to men, but none upon the state which discriminates against women. +A woman comes from Montana to represent that state in Congress. +The State of Montana has done its utmost to remove her political +disabilities, yet should she cross the border of her state and live +in North Dakota, she loses all that Montana gave her. Not so the male +voter. Enfranchised in one state, he is enfranchised in all (subject +to difference of qualification only). The women of this nation will +never be content with less protection in their right to vote than +is given to men and there is no other possible way to secure that +protection except through amendment to the National Constitution. +No single state, nor the forty-eight collectively, can grant that +protection except through the Federal Constitution. + +As granting to half the population of our country the right of +consent to their own government, whose expenses they help to pay, is +a question of fundamental human liberty, Congress and the legislatures +should be proud to act and to add one more immortal chapter to +America's history of freedom. + + +II. SOUTHERN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS VERY GENERALLY URGE THAT THEY OPPOSE +THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT BECAUSE IT WILL CONFER THE VOTE UPON THE NEGRO +WOMEN OF THEIR RESPECTIVE STATES; AND THAT THAT WILL INTERFERE WITH +WHITE SUPREMACY IN THE SOUTH. + +It is difficult to believe this objection to be sincere, since facts +do not support the contention. The facts are that woman suffrage +secured by Federal Amendment will be subject to whatever restrictions +may be imposed by state constitutions (provided those restrictions are +in accord with the National Constitution) in precisely the same way +as woman suffrage secured by state constitutional amendment. No larger +number of negro women can be enfranchised by Federal Amendment than +will be enfranchised by State Amendment. If the women of the South +are ever to be enfranchised, it must be by (1) Federal Constitutional +Amendment, or (2) State Constitutional Amendment. If their franchise +is obtained by the former method, it will come by the votes of white +men in Congress and legislatures; if by the second, they will be +forced to appeal to voting Negroes to elevate them to their own +political status. One would suppose the first would be the preferable +method from the Southern viewpoint. It is possible that behind this +commonly spoken objection, lies a hope and belief that Southern women +will remain disfranchised forevermore. A man unfamiliar with political +history, psychology, and the science of evolution might cherish such +a belief in fancied security, but ideas cannot be shut outside the +borders of a state. There is no Southern state in which women of the +highest families are not giving their all in order to propagate this +cause, and they are doing it with so noble a spirit and so eloquent +an appeal that final surrender of the citadel of prejudice is only a +question of time. No one has ever questioned the "fighting ability" of +the South. That ability is not confined to men. Courage, intelligence, +conviction and willingness to sacrifice characterize the suffrage +movement in every state, and the South is no exception. The women of +that section will vote; the question is how long must they work, how +much must they sacrifice to win that which has so freely been granted +to men of all classes? + +White supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by woman suffrage. +In the fifteen states south of the Mason and Dixon line are: + + 8,788,901 white women, + 4,316,565 negro women, or + 4,472,336 more white than negro women. + +The total negro population is 8,294,274, and white women outnumber +both negro males and females by nearly half a million. In two states +only, South Carolina and Mississippi, are there more negro than white +women, and in these states there are more negro men than white men. In +South Carolina, voters must read, own and pay taxes on $300 worth of +property. In Mississippi, voters must read the Constitution. The +other four states of the "black belt"--Georgia, Florida, Alabama and +Louisiana--impose an educational test. Women voters would be compelled +to submit to the same qualifications. In the other nine states white +women exceed the total negro population. Woman suffrage in the South +would so vastly increase the white vote that it would guarantee white +supremacy if it otherwise stood in danger of overthrow. If a sly dread +of female supremacy is troubling the doubter he may find comfort in +the rather astonishing fact that white males over 21 are considerably +in excess of white females over 21 in all except Maryland and North +Carolina; negro females over 21 exceed negro males in Alabama, +Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, but +the restrictions in these states of property ownership represented +by tax receipts, education and various other tests, would fall more +heavily upon women than men, and thus admit fewer women than men to +the vote. If the South really wants White Supremacy, it will urge +the enfranchisement of women. The following table offers insuperable +proof: + +==================================================================== +| |Per Cent. of| WHITE | NEGROES +| | Negroes in | 21 Years and Over | 21 Years and Over +| STATES | Population | | +| | All Ages | Male | Female | Male | Female ++---------------+------------+---------+---------+---------+-------- +|Delaware ......| 15.4 | 52,804 | 50,160 | 9,050 | 8,281 +|Maryland ......| 17.9 | 303,561 | 309,897 | 63,963 | 63,899 +|Dist. Columbia.| 28.5 | 75,765 | 81,622 | 27,621 | 34,449 +|Virginia ......| 32.6 | 363,659 | 353,516 | 159,593 | 164,844 +|North Carolina.| 31.6 | 357,611 | 358,583 | 146,752 | 159,236 +|South Carolina | 55.2 | 165,769 | 162,623 | 169,155 | 181,264 +|Georgia .......| 45.1 | 353,569 | 343,187 | 266,814 | 269,937 +|Florida .......| 41.0 | 124,311 | 105,662 | 89,659 | 72,998 +|Kentucky ......| 11.4 | 527,661 | 506,299 | 75,694 | 73,413 +|Tennessee .....| 21.7 | 433,431 | 419,646 | 119,142 | 122,707 +|Alabama .......| 42.5 | 298,943 | 284,116 | 213,923 | 217,676 +|Mississippi ...| 56.2 | 192,741 | 180,787 | 233,701 | 231,901 +|Arkansas ......| 28.1 | 284,301 | 248,964 | 111,365 | 102,917 +|Louisiana .....| 43.1 | 240,001 | 222,473 | 174,211 | 172,711 +|Texas .........| 17.7 | 835,962 | 722,063 | 166,393 | 161,959 +|Missouri ......| 4.8 | 919,480 | 874,997 | 52,921 | 48,057 +|Oklahoma ......| 8.3 | 393,377 | 311,266 | 36,841 | 30,208 +|West Virginia .| 5.3 | 315,498 | 270,298 | 22,757 | 14,667 +==================================================================== + +Speaking of the probable enforcement of the National Constitution +against the "Grandfather clause" in Southern constitutions, Walter E. +Clark, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, said: + +"In North Carolina such a decision would readmit to the polls 125,000 +negro votes. What preparation have we made to meet such a possible +result? I know of but one remedy. The census shows that the white +population of North Carolina is seventy per cent. and the colored +population thirty per cent. It follows that the white adult women of +North Carolina are more in numbers than the negro men and negro women +combined. _The votes of 260,000 white women can be relied on to +stand solid against any measure or any man who proposes to question +Anglo-Saxon supremacy._ + +"I am not intimating that the admission of the white women to the +polls will secure democratic supremacy (they will not impair it), +nor that it will prejudice the republican element. The equal suffrage +movement has never proceeded on party lines and the women would scorn +to be admitted unless they were as free in their choice of party +measures and candidates as the men. But what I am saying is that +if the negroes are readmitted by a decision of the Federal Court to +suffrage, the 260,000 votes of the white women of the State will be +one solid obstacle to any measure that would impair either for them or +their children the continuance of white supremacy." + + +III. WOMEN DO NOT WANT TO VOTE AND HENCE IT IS UNFAIR TO THRUST THE +VOTE UPON THEM BY FEDERAL AMENDMENT. + +We have two classes of voters in the United States, young men who +automatically become voters at twenty-one, and naturalized citizens. +No one among them has ever been asked whether he wishes the vote. It +was "thrust upon them" all as a privilege which each would use or not +as he desired. To extend the suffrage to those who do not desire it is +no hardship, since only those who wish the privilege will use it. On +the other hand, it becomes an intolerable oppression to deny it to +those who want it. The vote is permissive, not obligatory. It imposes +no definite responsibility; it extends a liberty. That there are women +who do not want the vote is true, but the well-known large number of +qualified men who do not use the vote, indicates that the desire to +have someone else assume the responsibility of public service is not +confined to women. It is an easy excuse to say "wait until all the +women want it," but it is a poor rule which doesn't work both ways. +Had it been necessary for members of Congress to wait until all men +wanted the vote before they had one for themselves, we should be +living in an unconstitutional monarchy. More, had it been necessary +for women to wait until all women approved of college or even public +school education for girls, property rights, the right of free speech, +or any one of the many liberties now enjoyed by women, but formerly +denied them, the iniquities of the old common law would still measure +the privileges of women, and high schools and colleges would still +close their doors to women. + +A certain way to test whether any class of people want the vote is to +note the numbers of those who use it when granted. + +As men and women voters do not use separate boxes and as initials +are often employed by both sexes in registration, election officials +invariably reply to queries as to the number of women actually voting +in their respective states, that positive figures are not obtainable. +Yet the testimony, while lacking definite statement, is overwhelming +that women in all lands vote in about the same proportion as men. +Women in Illinois, not being possessed of complete suffrage rights, +have voted in separate boxes, and figures are therefore obtainable. +The report from the City of Chicago for 1916 as submitted by the Chief +Clerk of the Board of Election Commissioners is as follows: + + REGISTRATION + Men Women Total + 504,674 303,801 808,475 + + VOTES CAST NOV 7 + Men Women Total + 487,210--96.5% 289,444--95.2% 776,654--96% + + VOTES CAST--DEMOCRATIC + Men Women Total + 217,328 133,847 351,175 + + VOTES CAST--REPUBLICAN + Men Women Total + 235,328 141,533 377,201 + + PROGRESSIVE AND SOCIALIST + 48,278 + +Although New York City is nearly two and a half times as large as +Chicago, the registration of the latter exceeded that of New York by +69,307. + +The following is quoted from an official statement issued by the +California Civic League on what the women of California have done with +the vote: + + "There has been some attempt on the part of those opposed + to women voting to make it appear that in San Francisco + particularly, women were slow to register and loth to vote. + The fact is always suppressed that there are never less + than 132 men to every 100 women in the city and that women + therefore should properly be only forty-three per cent. of the + total number of voting adults. At the last mayoralty election + the women unquestionably re-elected the incumbent as against + Eugene Schmitz of graft-prosecution fame, who tried to 'come + back.' In this election women constituted thirty-seven per + cent. of the total registered vote and the women of the best + residence districts voted in the proportion of forty-two + to forty-four per cent. of the total vote cast in those + precincts; while in the downtown, tenderloin and dance-hall + districts women constituted only twenty-seven per cent. of + the registration and negligible portion of the vote. These + proportions have been substantially maintained in minor + elections since, and were slightly increased in the National + election of November, 1916, when they comprised thirty-nine + per cent. of the registration and voted within two per cent. + as heavily as men." + +From no state comes the report that women have not used their vote. +The evidence that they do use it has been so largely distributed +through the press, that more definite proof seems unnecessary, even +were it possible to secure it. The following bits of testimony taken +from press reports are of interest: + +In WYOMING, out of 45,000 registered voters, 20,000 are reported +as women. But Wyoming has 219 men to every 100 women of voting age. +Therefore to compare favorably with Wyoming's 20,000 women voters +there should the 53,800 men. + + * * * * * + +In MONTANA, one-third of a registration of 255,000 is made up of +women. Montana has 189.6 men to every 100 women. As there were only +81,741 women of voting age in Montana in 1910, the present number, +85,000, must mean that nearly every woman in the state voted in 1916. + + * * * * * + +About 40% of UTAH'S 130,000 registration is made up of women. Utah has +6 men of voting age to every 5 women, 20% more men than women. + + * * * * * + +In IDAHO, out of a registration of 95,000, there are 40,000 women. +Idaho has more than half as many again men as women. Therefore to +have a fifty-fifty representation at the polls, Idaho should have +registered 60,000 men instead of 55,000 to match its 40,000 women. + + +IV. CONSTITUENCY HAS INSTRUCTED AGAINST SUFFRAGE. + +This objection is urged by members in whose states there have been +referenda on the subject in recent years with adverse results. Members +of Congress are apportioned among the several states according to +population and are constitutionally obligated to represent women as +well as men. As the electors of no constituency have voted solidly +against woman suffrage, such objectors are accepting instructions +from less than half their adult constituents and often from less than +one-fourth. Women have had no opportunity to speak for themselves. As +a matter of very suggestive fact, thirty-five members of Congress, +who upon interview have expressed opposition to the Federal Amendment, +were elected by minorities. Some of these represent states which +have had a referendum on woman suffrage and were elected by a smaller +number of total votes than their respective districts gave the +suffrage amendment. These are such curious facts, that it is difficult +to believe in the sincerity of the objection. That men and elements +which have contributed money and work to secure the election of a +member of Congress instruct him how to vote is more believable. For +the sake of the common welfare of the American people, it is well, +that the number of such members is probably few. + + +V. POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY. The South professes to fear the increased +Negro vote; the North, the increased Foreign vote; the rich, the +increased labor vote; the conservative, the increased illiterate +vote. The Republicans since the recent presidential election fear +the increased Democratic vote; the Democrats fear the woman voters' +support was only temporary. The "wet" fears the increased dry vote; +the "dry" the increased controlled wet vote. Certain very numerous +elements fear the increased Catholic vote and still others the +increased Jewish vote. The Orthodox Protestant and Catholic fear +the increased free-thinking vote and the free-thinkers are decidedly +afraid of the increased church vote. Labor fears the increased +influence of the capitalistic class, and capitalists, especially of +the manufacturing group, are extremely disturbed at the prospect of +votes being extended to their women employees. Certain groups fear the +increased Socialist vote and certain Socialists fear the "lady vote." +Party men fear women voters will have no party consciousness and prove +so independent as to disintegrate the party. Radical or progressive +elements fear that women will be "stand-pat" partisans. Ballot +reformers fear the increased corrupt vote and corruptionists fear +the increased reform vote. Militarists are much alarmed lest women +increase the peace vote and, despite the fact that the press of the +country has poured forth increasing evidence that the women of every +belligerent country have borne their full share of the war burden +with such unexpected skill and ability that the authorities have been +lavish in acknowledgment, seem certain that women of the United +States will prove the exception to the world's rule and show the white +feather if war threatens. + +Ridiculous as this list of objections may appear, each is supported +earnestly by a considerable group, and collectively they furnish the +basis of opposition to woman suffrage in and out of Congress. + +The answer to one is the answer to all. + +Government by "the people" is expedient or it is not. If it is +expedient, then obviously _all_ the people must be included. If it +is not expedient, the simplest logic leads to the conclusion that the +classes to be deprived of the franchise should be determined by their +qualities of unfitness for the vote. If education, intelligence, +grasp of public questions, patriotism, willingness and ability to give +public service, respect of law, are selected as fair qualifications +for those to be entrusted with the vote and the opposite as the +qualities of those to be denied the vote, it follows that men and +women will be included in the classes adjudged fit to vote, and also +in those adjudged unfit to vote. Meanwhile the system which admits the +unworthy to the vote provided they are men, and shuts out the +worthy provided they are women, is so unjust and illogical that its +perpetuation is a sad reflection upon American thinking. + +The clear thinker will arrive at the conclusion that women must be +included in the electorate if our country wishes to be consistent with +the principles it boasts as fundamental. The shortest method to secure +this enfranchisement is the quickest method to extricate our country +from the absurdity of its present position. + + +VI. THE LOW STANDARDS OF CITIZENSHIP which lead to controlled votes, +bribery and various forms of corruptions, will be accentuated by +woman suffrage with the doubling of every dangerous element, hence +any effort to postpone its coming is justifiable. Woman suffrage will +increase the proportion of _intelligent voters_. According to the +Commissioners of Education there are now one-third more girls in the +high schools of the country than boys. In 1914, the latest figures, +64,491 boys were graduated from the high schools of the United States +and 96,115 girls. In the normal schools the educational report for +1915 states that 80 per cent. of the pupils were girls. The Census of +1910 reports a larger number of illiterate men than illiterate women. + +Woman suffrage would increase the _moral_ vote. Only one out of every +twenty criminals are women. Women constitute a minority of drunkards +and petty misdemeanants, and in all the factors that tend to handicap +the progress of society women form a minority; whereas in churches, +schools and all organizations working for the uplift of humanity, +women are a majority. In all American states and countries that +have adopted equal suffrage the vote of the disreputable woman is +practically negligible, the slum wards of cities invariably having the +lightest woman vote and the respectable residence wards the heaviest. +Woman suffrage would increase the number of _native born voters_ as +for every 100 foreign white women immigrants coming to this country +there are 129 men, while among Asiatic immigrants the men outnumber +the women two to one, according to the Census of 1910. + +Woman suffrage would help to _correct election procedure_. In all +states where women vote, the polling booths have been moved into +homes, church parlors, school houses or other similar respectable +places. Women serve as election officials and the subduing influence +of woman's presence elsewhere has had its effect upon the elections. +Women greatly increase the number of competent persons who can be +drawn upon as election officials. No class of persons in the nation +is so well trained as school teachers for this work. The presence of +women as voters and officials would in itself eliminate certain +types of irregularity and go a long way toward establishing a higher +standard of election procedure. Woman suffrage cannot possibly make +political conditions worse, since all the elements which combine to +produce those conditions are less conspicuous among women than men. On +the other hand the introduction of a new class possessing a very +large number of persons who would unwillingly tolerate some of the +conditions now prevailing offers evidence that a powerful influence +for better things would come with the woman's vote. + + +VII. PROHIBITION HAS OUTSTRIPPED SUFFRAGE, THEREFORE SUFFRAGE +SENTIMENT IS LESS STRONG. + +It should be remembered that prohibition may be obtained by statutory +enactment, a privilege denied woman suffrage; that it has been largely +established by local option, another privilege denied woman suffrage. +These facts account for the larger success as indicated by relative +territory covered by prohibition and woman suffrage. + + + + +APPENDIX A + +The Following Statement Shows the Extent of Suffrage Enjoyed by Women +in Other Lands: + + +THE AUSTRALIAN PROVINCES granted municipal suffrage to women as +follows: New South Wales, 1867; Victoria, 1869; West Australia, 1871; +South Australia, 1880; Tasmania, 1884; Queensland, 1886. They granted +full suffrage to women as follows: South Australia, 1897; West +Australia, 1899; New South Wales, 1902; Tasmania, 1903; Queensland, +1905; Victoria, 1908. + + * * * * * + +Full suffrage was granted to the women of The Isle of Man, 1892; New +Zealand, 1893; Finland, 1906; Norway, 1907; Denmark, 1915; Iceland, +1916. + + * * * * * + +CANADIAN PROVINCES extended municipal suffrage to women as follows: +Ontario, 1884, to widows and spinsters assessed for not less than +$400, married women entitled to vote on some propositions; New +Brunswick, 1886, to women and spinsters rate payers; Nova Scotia, +1887, to all women rate payers; Manitoba, 1888, to all woman rate +payers; British Columbia, 1888, widows and spinsters rate payers; +Alberta, 1888, widows and spinsters rate payers; Saskatchewan, 1888, +widows and spinsters rate payers; Prince Edward Island, 1888, widows +and spinsters property holders; Quebec, 1892, widows and spinsters +property holders. The full suffrage was granted to all women in the +Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in +1916. + + * * * * * + +SOUTH AFRICA--Municipal suffrage was extended to women as follows: In +The Transvaal, in 1854, to burghers' wives; in 1903 to white women +on a property qualification; in Cape Colony, 1882, to all women on +a property qualification; in Orange River Colony, 1904, to all women +resident householders. + + * * * * * + +SWEDEN--Municipal suffrage for unmarried women, School Board and +Ecclesiastical Franchise (without eligibility to office), 1862; School +Board and Poor Law (with eligibility), 1889; eligibility to municipal +and church councils, and extension of suffrage rights to married +women, 1909. + + * * * * * + +In ENGLAND and WALES the first extension of suffrage to women was +granted in 1834. Since that time various extensions of suffrage to men +and to women have taken place. The first woman suffrage was given to +widows and spinsters. The disability of married women was removed in +1900, and English and Welsh women now enjoy suffrage in all elections +upon the same terms as men with the sole exception of the right to +vote for members of Parliament. + + * * * * * + +SCOTLAND--1872--First extension of suffrage to women to elect School +Boards (with eligibility). 1881--Municipal suffrage for unmarried +women (with eligibility). 1900--Disability of married women in +municipal elections removed. 1907--Town and County Council eligibility +for married and unmarried established. + + * * * * * + +IRELAND--1837--First extension of suffrage to women to elect Poor +Law Guardians. 1887--Municipal suffrage granted the women of Belfast. +1894--Municipal suffrage extended to other cities. 1911--Town +and County Council eligibility for married and unmarried women +established. + + + + +APPENDIX B + + +(In the table below, the 36 male suffrage states are grouped under +classifications which represent, as far as can be represented in a +table, the various degrees of difficulty met in the amending clauses +of State Constitutions.) + +A.--Amendment passed by the Legislature or Constitutional Convention: + +Delaware: Amendments are not put to the referendum vote. + +They must pass two legislatures by a two-thirds majority each time. +The Legislature sits biennially. A Constitutional Convention can also +pass amendments without reference to the people. + + +B.--Passed by majority one Legislature and majority vote of people on +the referendum or by constitutional convention with referendum: + +Missouri--Biennial Legislature. Initiative petition also possible. + +South Dakota--Biennial. Constitutional Convention hard to call. + + +C.--Large Legislative vote necessary: + +Florida, three-fifths, biennial. + +Georgia, two-thirds, annual. + +Maine, two-thirds, biennial. + +Michigan, two-thirds, biennial. Initiative petition also possible. + +North Carolina, three-fifths, biennial. + +Ohio, three-fifths, biennial. Initiative petition also possible. + +West Virginia, two-thirds, biennial. + + +D.--Same as C., but no, or infrequent Constitutional Conventions: + +Louisiana, two-thirds, biennial, no Constitutional Convention. + +Texas, two-thirds, biennial, no Constitutional Convention. + +Maryland, three-fifths, biennial, 20 years interval between +Constitutional Conventions. + + +E.--Difficult States: + +Alabama--Legislature: three-fifths vote of one Legislature +(quadrennial). People: Majority of all votes cast at the election. + +Iowa--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). People: +Majority of all voting for representatives. + +Minnesota--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial). +People: Majority of votes at the election. + +New York--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual). People: +Majority voting on amendment. + +Virginia--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). +People: Majority of people voting on amendment. + +Oklahoma--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial). +Initiative petition possible. People: Majority voting at election. + +North Dakota--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). +Initiative petition possible. People: Majority voting on the +amendment. No Constitutional Convention. + +South Carolina--Legislature: Two-thirds of two Legislatures +(annual).--One before submission to people; the other after +ratification by them. People: Majority voting for representatives. + +Wisconsin--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). +People: Majority voting at the election. + + +F.--Very Difficult States: + +Arkansas--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial). +People: Majority of all voting at election. Only three amendments at +once. No Constitutional Convention. + +Connecticut--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature; two-thirds +vote a second Legislature (biennial). People: Majority votes of the +people on the amendment. No Constitutional Convention. + +Kentucky--Legislature; three-fifths vote of one Legislature +(biennial). People: Majority of people voting on the amendment. Not +more than two amendments at once. + +Massachusetts--Legislature: Majority in Senate and two-thirds House in +two Legislatures (annual). People: Majority voting on the amendment. +No Constitutional Convention. + +New Jersey--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual). +People: Majority voting on amendment. Same amendment can be submitted +only once in five years. No Constitutional Convention. + +Mississippi--Legislature: Two-thirds vote of one Legislature; majority +of a second, after the referendum vote (quadrennial). People: Majority +voting at the election. No Constitutional Convention. + +Pennsylvania--Legislature: Majority of the two Legislatures +(biennial). People: Majority of people voting at election. Same +amendment can be submitted only once in five years. No Constitutional +Convention. + +Rhode Island--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual). +People: Three-fifths of all voting at election. No Constitutional +Convention. + +Tennessee--Legislature: Majority vote in one Legislature, and a +two-thirds vote in a second (biennial). People: Majority of all voting +for representatives. Same amendment can be submitted only once in six +years. + + +G.--Most Difficult States: + +Vermont--Legislature: Majority in House and two-thirds in Senate +in one Legislature; majority of both houses in a second (biennial). +People: Majority voting on the amendment. No Constitutional +Convention. Constitution can be amended only once in ten years. + +New Hampshire--Constitutional Convention alone can propose amendment. +This convention is held once in seven years. People: Two-thirds +majority vote on amendment. + +Illinois--Legislature: Two-thirds vote of one Legislature (biennial). +People: Majority voting at the election. Only one amendment at a time. +Same amendment only once in four years. + +Indiana--Legislature: Majority vote of two Legislatures (biennial). +People: Majority of voters in state. While one amendment awaits action +no other can be proposed. No Constitutional Convention. + +New Mexico--Legislature Three-fourths vote of one Legislature +(biennial). People: Three-fourths of those voting at election; +two-thirds from each county. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman Suffrage By Federal +Constitutional Amendment, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN SUFFRAGE *** + +***** This file should be named 13568-8.txt or 13568-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/6/13568/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, S.R.Ellison and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/13568-8.zip b/old/13568-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..343a098 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13568-8.zip diff --git a/old/13568.txt b/old/13568.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2333a16 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13568.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2620 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman Suffrage By Federal Constitutional +Amendment, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Woman Suffrage By Federal Constitutional Amendment + +Author: Various + +Release Date: October 1, 2004 [EBook #13568] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN SUFFRAGE *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, S.R.Ellison and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE LIBRARY + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE BY FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT + +COMPILED BY CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +PUBLISHED BY NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE PUBLISHING CO., INC. 171 MADISON +AVENUE NEW YORK + + +1917 + + + +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO + +THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE LEGISLATURES OF THE +SEVERAL STATES. IT GOES WITH THE HOPE THAT IT MAY LEAD TO A BETTER +UNDERSTANDING OF THE REASONS FOR A FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT +PROVIDING THAT NO STATE SHALL DENY THE RIGHT TO VOTE ON ACCOUNT OF +SEX. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +No effort is made in the following pages to present an argument for +woman suffrage. No careful observer of the modern trend of human +affairs, doubts that "governments of the people" are destined to +replace the monarchies of the world. No listener will fail to hear the +rumble of the rising tide of democracy. No watcher of events will deny +that the women of all civilized lands will be enfranchised eventually +as part of the people entitled to give consent and no American +possessed of political foresight doubts woman suffrage in our land as +a coming fact. + +The discussion herein is strictly confined to the reasons why an +amendment to the Federal Constitution is the most appropriate method +of dealing with the question. This proposed amendment was introduced +into Congress in 1878 at the request of the National Woman Suffrage +Association. Since 1882 the Senate Committee has reported it with a +favorable majority every year except in 1890 and 1896. Twice only has +it gone to vote in the Senate. The first time was on January 25, 1887; +the second, March 19, 1914. In the House it has been reported from +Committee seven times, twice by a favorable majority, three times by +an adverse majority and twice without recommendation. The House has +allowed the measure to come to vote but once, in 1915. Yet while women +of the nation in large and increasing numbers have stood at doors of +Congress waiting and hoping, praying and appealing for the democratic +right to have their opinions counted in affairs of their government, +millions of men have entered through our gates and automatically have +passed into voting citizenship without cost of money, time or service, +aye, without knowing what it meant or asking for the privilege. Among +the enfranchised there are vast groups of totally illiterate, and +others of gross ignorance, groups of men of all nations of Europe, +uneducated Indians and Negroes. Among the unenfranchised are the +owners of millions of dollars worth of property, college presidents +and college graduates, thousands of teachers in universities, colleges +and public schools, physicians, lawyers, dentists, journalists, heads +of businesses, representatives of every trade and occupation and +thousands of the nation's homekeepers. The former group secured its +vote without the asking; the latter appeals in vain to Congress for +the removal of the stigma this inexplicable contrast puts upon their +sex. It is hoped this little book may gain attention where other means +have failed. + + C.C.C. + + January, 1917. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + PAGE + CHAPTER I. 1 + +WHY THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT? + +By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +There are seven reasons for Federal enfranchisement of women. +Other countries have so enfranchised women. Conditions of men's +enfranchisement in U.S. were easy. Many State constitutions today +practically impossible to amend. Election laws do not protect State +amendment elections from fraud. Men's right to vote protected by +Federal Constitution; state by state enfranchisement would not give +this protection to women. Woman Suffrage a national question. Decision +on technical and abstract question of Suffrage demands different class +of intelligence from election of candidates. + + + CHAPTER II 12 + +STATE CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTRUCTIONS + +By MARY SUMNER BOYD + +State Suffrage amendments defeated in recent years by technical +difficulties. Ratification by Legislature and People theory of State +Constitutional Amendment. So adopted in South Dakota and Missouri. +In most states technicalities make amending impossible. Classes +of technicalities. Limit to number of amendments. "Constitutional +majority." Passage of two Legislatures. More than majority of the +people required for ratification. Indiana. Time requirements. New +Mexico. Revision by Convention. Some states have no or infrequent +Constitutional Conventions. New Hampshire. Delaware Constitution alone +amended by Legislature or Convention without popular vote. Thirty +states gave foundations male suffrage by this easy means. + + + CHAPTER III 21 + +ELECTION LAWS AND REFERENDA + +By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +State Election Laws defective. Many state suffrage amendments +undoubtedly lost by frauds in elections. In twenty-four states +election law or precedents offer no correction of returns in +fraudulent amendment elections. In twenty-three states Contest on +election returns probably possible. In eight states recount of +votes made. A court procedure and expensive. Punishment for bribery. +Relation to Contest. Ohio cases. Vagueness of election laws protects +corruption. Ignorant vote used by corrupt. Form of ballot often helps +corruption. Only 13 states have headless ballots. Form of Suffrage +amendment ballots in recent years aided in defeat of measure. +Examples. Non-partisan referendum not protected from fraud like party +questions. In most states women cannot be watchers at polls. Aliens +can vote in eight states. Illiterate can vote in most states. Resume. + + + CHAPTER IV 36 + +THE STORY OF THE 1916 REFERENDA + +By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +Three states voted on Woman Suffrage amendments. Some causes of +failure. Story of Iowa election. Woman's Christian Temperance Union +proves forty-seven varieties of corruption. South Dakota. Foreign +vote defeated Woman Suffrage there. Figures of some counties. +Relation between Prohibition and Woman Suffrage votes. West Virginia. +Illiteracy and conservatism defeated Woman Suffrage there. Liquor +influence felt. Corruption in Berkely County, West Virginia. Special +Legislative session called but investigation of frauds abandoned. +Analysis of vote of certain counties. Resume. + + + CHAPTER V 55 + +FEDERAL ACTION AND STATES RIGHTS + +By HENRY WADE ROGERS + +Judge of U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, N.Y.C. + +Would Federal Amendment violate local self-government or conflict with +State Rights? States rights a sound doctrine, but has been perverted, +misapplied and carried to extremes. Henry St. George Tucker maintains +this way of gaining woman suffrage is contrary to rightful demarcation +of powers of federal and state governments. Constitutional Convention +1787 provided that amendments be ratified by three-fourths State +Legislatures, State Constitutions may not violate United States +Constitution for this is supreme Law. Amendment to U.S. Constitution +valid regardless of provisions in State Constitutions. Ratification by +State Legislatures does not violate States rights for by it states act +as sovereigns. Same argument for removal of sex line in Suffrage +as that on which 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were based. 15th +amendment gives the sound basis for woman suffrage amendment. + + + CHAPTER VI 69 + +OBJECTIONS TO THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT By CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT + +States Rights objection discussed. U.S. Constitution twice amended +recently under Democratic administration. Federal Prohibition +Amendment introduced by Southern Democrat. Even if all state +constitutions gave woman suffrage U.S. Constitution would contain +discrimination against women in word "male." Objection that woman +suffrage will increase Negro vote. If true, would be objection also +to State suffrage amendment. White supremacy will be strengthened by +woman suffrage. Discussion of figures of Negro and white population +in 15 southern states. Testimony of Chief Justice Walter E. Clark. +Objection that women do not want the vote. Men of 21 and naturalized +citizens become voters without being asked. Only those who wish +to need use the vote. That many women do want the vote is shown +by western figures in election of November, 1916. Objection that +unfavorable referenda in various states show that constituency has +instructed its representatives in Congress against woman suffrage. +Unfavorable majority against a suffrage amendment is in reality a +minority of constituency. Objection on ground of political expediency. +Meaning of this argument as used by different interests. If government +"by the people" is expedient, then government by _all_ the people is +expedient. If Government by certain classes is better, then basis of +franchise should, be morality and education, not sex. Objection +that Woman Suffrage will increase corrupt vote. Woman Suffrage will +increase intelligent electorate. Statistics. It will increase +the moral vote. Only one in twenty criminals is a woman. Election +conditions in equal suffrage states. Objection that Prohibition +sentiment is stronger than Suffrage sentiment since former has spread +faster. Prohibition can be established by statute and by local option +and suffrage cannot. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHY THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT? + + +Woman Suffrage is coming--no intelligent person in the United States +or in the world will deny that fact. The most an intelligent opponent +expects to accomplish is to postpone its establishment as long as +possible. When it will come and how it will come are still open +questions. Woman Suffrage by Federal Amendment is supported by seven +main reasons. These main reasons are evaded or avoided; they are not +answered. + + +1. KEEPING PACE WITH OTHER COUNTRIES DEMANDS IT. + +Suffrage for men and suffrage for women in other lands, with few and +minor exceptions, has been granted by parliamentary act and not by +referenda. By such enactment the women of Australia were granted full +suffrage in Federal elections by the Federal Parliament (1902), and +each State or Province granted full suffrage in all other elections by +act of their Provincial Parliaments.[A] By such enactment the Isle +of Man, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Denmark gave equal +suffrage in all elections to women.[A] By such process the Parliaments +of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta gave full provincial suffrage +to their women in 1916. British Columbia referred the question to the +voters in 1916, but the Provincial Parliament had already extended +all suffrage rights except the parliamentary vote, and both political +parties lent their aid in the referendum which consequently gave a +majority in every precinct on the home vote and a majority of the +soldier vote was returned from Europe later. By parliamentary act all +other Canadian Provinces, the Provinces of South Africa, the +countries of Sweden[A] and Great Britain have extended far more voting +privileges than any woman citizen of the United States east of the +Missouri River (except those of Illinois) has received. To the women +of Belise (British Honduras), the cities of Rangoon (Burmah), Bombay +(India), the Province of Baroda (India), the Province of Voralberg +(Austria), and Laibach (Austria) the same statement applies. In +Bohemia, Russia and various Provinces of Austria and Germany, +the principle of representation is recognized by the grant to +property-holding women of a vote by proxy. The suffragists of France +reported just before the war broke out that the French Parliament was +pledged to extend universal municipal suffrage to women. Men and women +of high repute say the full suffrage is certain to be extended by +the British Parliament to the women of England, Scotland, Ireland and +Wales soon after the close of the war and already these women have all +suffrage rights except the vote for Parliamentary members. These facts +are strange since it was the United States which first established +general suffrage for men upon the two principles that "taxation +without representation is tyranny" and that governments to be just +should "derive their consent from the governed." The unanswerable +logic of these two principles is responsible for the extension of +suffrage to men and women the world over. In the United States, +however, women are still taxed without "representation" and still +live under a government to which they have given no "consent." IT IS +OBVIOUSLY UNFAIR TO SUBJECT WOMEN OF THIS COUNTRY--WHICH BOASTS THAT +IT IS THE LEADER IN THE MOVEMENT TOWARD UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE--TO A +LONGER, HARDER, MORE DIFFICULT PROCESS THAN HAS BEEN IMPOSED BY OTHER +NATIONS UPON MEN OR WOMEN. American constitutions of the nation and +the states have closed the door to the simple processes by which men +and women of other countries have been enfranchised. An amendment to +our Federal Constitution is the nearest approach to them. To deny the +benefits of this method to the women of this country is to put upon +them a PENALTY FOR BEING AMERICANS. + +[Footnote A: See Appendix A for dates and conditions.] + + +2. EQUAL RIGHTS DEMANDS IT. + +Men of this country have been enfranchised by various extensions of +the voting privilege but IN NO SINGLE INSTANCE were they compelled to +appeal to an electorate containing groups of recently naturalized +and even unnaturalized foreigners, Indians, Negroes, large numbers of +illiterates, ne'er-do-wells, and drunken loafers. The Jews, denied the +vote in all our colonies, and the Catholics, denied the vote in +most of them, received their franchise through the revolutionary +constitutions which removed all religious qualifications for the vote +in a manner consistent with the self-respect of all. The property +qualifications for the vote which were established in every colony and +continued in the early state constitutions were usually removed by a +referendum but the question obviously went to an electorate limited to +property-holders only. The largest number of voters to which such an +amendment was referred was that of New York. Had every man voted who +was qualified to do so, the electorate would not have exceeded 200,000 +and probably not more than 150,000.[A] + +[Footnote A: Suffrage in the Colonies. New York Chapter. McKinley.] + +The next extensions of the vote to men were made to certain tribes +of Indians by act of Congress; and to the Negro by amendment to the +Federal Constitution. + +At least three-fourths of the present electors secured their votes +through direct naturalization or that of their forefathers. Congress +determines conditions of citizenship and state constitutions fix +qualifications of voters. In no instance has the foreign immigrant +been forced to plead with a vast electorate for his vote. The suffrage +has been "thrust upon him" without effort or even request on his +part. National and State constitutions not only close to women the +comparatively easy processes by which the vote was extended to men and +women of other countries but also those processes by which the vote +was secured to men of our own land. The simplest method now possible +is by amendment of the Federal Constitution. To deny the privilege of +that method to women is a discrimination against them so unjust and +insufferable that no fair-minded man North or South, East or West, can +logically share in the denial. + + +3. RELIEF FROM UNJUST CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTRUCTIONS DEMANDS IT. + +The constitutions of many states have provided for amendments by such +difficult processes that they either have never been amended or have +not been amended when the subject is in the least controversial. Their +provisions not infrequently are utilized by opponents of a cause to +delay action for years. A present case illustrates. Newspapers in +Kentucky which have opposed woman suffrage, and still do so, have +started a campaign (December, 1916) to submit a woman suffrage +amendment to voters with the announced intention of securing its +defeat at the polls in order to remove it from politics for five years +as the same question cannot be again submitted for that length of +time. + +There are state constitutions so impossible of amendment that women +of those states can only secure enfranchisement through Federal action +and fair play demands the submission of a Federal constitutional +amendment. (See Chapter II.) + + +4. PROTECTION FROM INADEQUATE ELECTION LAWS DEMANDS IT. + +The election laws of all states make inadequate provision for +safeguarding the vote on constitutional amendments. Since election +laws do not protect suffrage referenda, suffragists justly demand the +method prescribed by our national constitution to appeal their case +from male voters at large to the higher court of Congress and the +Legislatures. (See Chapters III and IV.) + + +5. EQUAL STATUS OF MEN AND WOMEN VOTERS DEMANDS IT. + +Until the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment the National +Constitution did not discriminate against women but in Section 2 of +that amendment provision was made whereby a penalty may be directed +against any state which denies the right to vote to its _male +inhabitants_ possessed of the necessary qualifications as prescribed +by nation and state. If the entire 48 states should severally +enfranchise women their political status would still be inferior to +that of men, since no provision for national protection in their right +to vote would exist. + +The women of eleven states are said to vote on equal terms with men. +As a matter of fact they do not, since they not only lose their vote +whenever they change their residence to any one of the 37 other states +(except Illinois, where they lose only a portion of their privileges), +but they enjoy no national protection in their right to vote. Women +justly demand "Equal Rights for All and Special Privileges for None." +Amendment to the National Constitution alone can give them an equal +status. Equality of rights can never be secured through state by state +enfranchisement. + + +6. NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF QUESTION DEMANDS IT. + +Woman suffrage in every other country is a National question. With +eleven American states and nearly half the territory of the civilized +world already won; with the statement of the press still unchallenged +that women voters were "the balance of power" which decided the last +presidential election, the movement has reached a position of national +significance in the United States. Any policy which seeks to shift +responsibility or to procrastinate action, is, to use the mildest +phraseology, unworthy of the Congress in whose charge the making of +American political history reposes. + + +7. TREATMENT OF QUESTION DEMANDS INTELLIGENCE. + +The handicaps of a popular vote upon a question of human liberty +which must be described in technical language will be clear to all +who think. It is probable that at least a fourth of the voters in West +Virginia, one of the recent suffrage campaign states, could not define +the following words intelligently: constitution, amendment, franchise, +suffrage, majority, plurality. It is probable they would succeed +even less well at an attempt to give an account of the Declaration +of Independence, the Revolution, Taxation without Representation, the +will of the majority, popular government. Such men might make a fairly +intelligent choice of men for local offices because their minds are +trained to deal with persons and concrete things. They could decide +between Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hughes with some discrimination, but would +have slight if any knowledge of the platforms upon which either stood. +A referendum in many of our states, means to defer woman suffrage +until the most ignorant, most narrow-minded, most un-American, are +ready for it. The removal of the question to the higher court of the +Congress and the Legislatures of the several states means that it will +be established when the intelligent, Americanized, progressive people +of the country are ready for it. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +STATE CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTRUCTIONS[A] + +[Footnote A: Table of difficulties in each state is to be found in the +Appendix.] + +MARY SUMNER BOYD + + +At its last session the Arkansas Legislature passed a Woman Suffrage +bill by a generous majority; in Kentucky a bill passed both houses +and one house in five other states. One of these was Arkansas where a +constitutional provision that only three amendments can be submitted +to the people at once rendered of no avail the passage of the +Legislature. In the five other states the enormous Constitutional +majorities required in a legislative vote on amendments defeated the +measure. + +This is the story of a typical year and these are two of the +difficulties which beset the gaining of suffrage "state by state." +Year after year labor is thrown away and money wasted because actual +minorities in legislatures can defeat constitutional amendments; or +because once past the legislature, constitutional technicalities can +keep them away from the polls; or because, safely past these hazards, +a minority vote of the people can defeat a bill that has successfully +reached the polls. + +Theoretically an amendment to a state constitution must have the +approval of the Legislature, ratified by the approval of the people. +This ratification is what differentiates it from a statutory law. This +is the actual requirement, however, in but two of the male suffrage +states, South Dakota and Missouri. In all the rest, except Delaware +and New Hampshire, which have special methods of amending, much more +than simple passage and ratification is required. + +There are some half-dozen classes of technical requirements which make +the amending of many state constitutions wellnigh impossible. Some +states have never been able to amend; others have had to submit the +same amendment again and again before it passed, even in the case of +measures which were not unpopular. The Legislatures of Nebraska and +Alabama have occasionally succeeded in passing amendments favored +by politicians, by resorting to clever tricks to circumvent the +constitutional handicaps. Only by outwitting the framers have they +been able to make changes in their constitutions. + +Among the common technical requirements are the passing by a set +proportion much larger than a mere majority of the legislature; +the passing of the people's vote by a majority of those voting for +candidates and not merely of those voting on the amendment itself; +the setting of special time and other limits for the submission +of amendments, etc. Many states combine three or more of these +requirements. + +No impediment seems more vexatious than that which prevented the +Arkansas bill from coming before the people after the Legislature of +1915 had approved submission. Nor is Arkansas alone in limiting +the number of amendments to be submitted to the people at one time; +Kentucky goes farther and makes the limit two and Illinois allows but +one at a time. + +The other six states whose bill failed at the last session belong to a +group of fifteen which require a special "constitutional majority" of +two-thirds or three-fifths favorable in the vote of both houses on an +amendment bill.[A] In South Carolina and Mississippi it must pass +two legislatures by this large vote, one before and one after the +referendum; in Mississippi this means four years' delay for its +sessions are quadrennial. In thirteen states the amendment bill must +pass two legislatures, in some by a constitutional majority at one +passage.[B] + +Alabama is one of the states whose bill failed through the +constitutional majority rule in 1915. In that state another suffrage +bill must wait four years for the next legislative session. If this +time it surmounts the hazard of a three-fifths favorable vote it will +be faced by another hazard; for Alabama is one of nine states in which +an amendment must pass the + +[Footnote A: South Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, West +Virginia, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi--all a two-thirds vote, +and Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Maryland and Kentucky a +three-fifths vote.] + +[Footnote B: In Connecticut, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont by a +two-thirds majority of one Legislature or of one house or both; in +Iowa, Indiana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, New +Jersey, New York and Rhode Island by majorities. All but the last +three have biennial Legislatures.] referendum not by a majority on +the amendment but by a majority of all voting for candidates at this +general election.[A] + +[Footnote A: These states are Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota, +Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Tennessee. Rhode +Island sets a definite majority (three-fifths) of those voting at the +election. Probably Texas and North Carolina should be included but the +amendment clause in their constitutions is misleading and they may +be given the benefit of the doubt; their clause reads: "An amendment +shall be submitted to the voters and adopted by a majority of the +votes cast."] + +This requirement by itself is regarded by one authority on state +constitutions[B] as making amendment practically impossible for it +means that the indifference and inertia of the mass of the voters can +be a more serious enemy than active opposition; the man who does not +take the trouble to vote is as much to be feared as the man who votes +against. + +[Footnote B: Dodd, W.F. Revision and Amendment of State +Constitutions.] + +A majority vote is required by the constitution of Indiana that is so +extravagant as to have caused contradictory decisions in the courts. +The constitution reads: "The General Assembly ... (shall) submit such +amendment ... to the electors of the state, and if a majority of said +electors shall ratify." This was interpreted in one case (156 Ind. +104) to mean a majority of all votes cast at the election, but in a +later case (in re Denny) it was taken, exactly as it reads, to mean +all the people in the State eligible to vote--and this in the face of +the fact that the number of people eligible to vote is unknown even +to the Federal Census Department. Indiana also requires that while one +amendment is under consideration no other can be introduced. She is, +needless to say, one of the states whose constitution has never been +amended. + +Other states besides Indiana have time requirements to insure the +immutability of their inspired state document. Thus the Vermont +Constitution can be amended only once in ten years--it was last +amended in 1913--and five others set a term of years before the same +amendment can be submitted again. Among these are New Jersey and +Pennsylvania, which having submitted the Woman Suffrage amendment in +1915 cannot do so again till 1920.[A] + +[Footnote A: The five states are Illinois (four years), Pennsylvania, +New Jersey and Kentucky (five years), and Tennessee (six years).] + +In no state is the Constitution so safeguarded from change as in New +Mexico, whose iron-bound rules are in a class by themselves. For the +first twenty-five years of statehood a three-fourths vote of both +houses of the Legislature ratified by three-fourths of the electors +voting, with two-thirds at least from each county, will be required to +change the suffrage clause. After twenty-five years the majority +will be reduced to two-thirds. This is the state whose Constitution +provides that illiteracy shall never be a bar to the suffrage; her +democracy falls short only in the matter of women whom she makes it +constitutionally impossible ever to add to her electorate. + +Where constitutions can be revised by the convention method as well as +by amendment there is some hope; if amendment fails revision holds out +a chance. But twelve states[A] hold no constitutional conventions; in +Maryland conventions are twenty years apart and in many other states +it is as difficult to call a constitutional convention as to revise +the Constitution by amendment. + +[Footnote A: Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Arkansas, +Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode +Island and Virginia.] + +New Hampshire amends by constitutional convention alone and these +conventions are held infrequently. + +Only in Delaware is the Constitution amended to-day by act of the +Legislature without the people's vote and without any technical +requirements except a large Legislative majority. + +Yet in twenty-four states[A] before the Civil War the foundations of +male suffrage were laid by legislature or constitutional convention +alone, and in many cases, furthermore, the conditions of suffrage were +dictated by the Federal Government. Even as late as the '90's five +State Constitutions were adopted, suffrage clause and all, by State +Legislatures or constitutional conventions without the referendum.[B] + +[Footnote A: New Hampshire, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, +North Carolina, Georgia, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New +Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Vermont, Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, +Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri and +Arkansas.] + +[Footnote B: Many reconstruction constitutions also but these were not +permanent. The five constitutions in the 90's were Mississippi, South +Carolina, Delaware, Louisiana and Virginia, and Kentucky made changes +after the constitution had been submitted.] + +In the other states universal male suffrage came easily at a time +when thinly populated states wanted to hold out inducements to male +immigrant labor. To-day any male once naturalized, and in some states +before he is naturalized, becomes automatically a voting citizen of +any state in the Union after he has fulfilled the state residence +requirements and, in some states, an educational requirement. + +The one word "male" shut women out in the old days from these easy +avenues to citizenship and to-day her path by the state by state +method is beset by almost insuperable difficulties. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ELECTION LAWS AND REFERENDA + + +To establish a "government of the people" is to follow an ideal set +by the growth of democratic principles, but, after such government has +been established by a constitution, it remains to be determined how +the will of the people is to be recorded and each state accordingly +has enacted an election law to provide for registration and for +taking the vote. These laws are so defective as to give unquestioned +advantage to dishonesty and corruption in most elections upon +referendum questions. In several states there is little doubt that +suffrage amendments have been lost through fraud. All the suffragists +in Michigan seem to agree that the amendment was counted out in the +first campaign of 1912 and that ballot boxes were stuffed in the +second, 1913. Willis E. Reed, Attorney General of Nebraska, has +declared that he believes the amendment was counted out in that +state. An investigation has revealed forty-seven varieties of fraud +or violation of the election law in forty-four counties in the Iowa +suffrage election of June 5, 1916. Given a group determined to prevent +women from getting the vote, a group provided with money and knowing +no scruple, and the inadequacy of the law in many States offers +a positive guarantee at the outset of a campaign that a suffrage +amendment will be lost. + +If suffrage amendments are defeated by illegal practices, why not +demand redress, asks the novice in suffrage campaigns. Ah, there's the +rub. In twenty-four states, no provision has been made by the election +law for any form of contest or recount on a referendum nor are +precedents for a recount found. Political corrupters may, in these +states, bribe voters, colonize voters and repeat them to their hearts' +content and redress of any kind is practically impossible. If clear +evidence of fraud could be produced a case might be brought to the +courts and the guilty parties might be punished, but the election +would stand. In New York, in 1915, the question was submitted to the +voters as to whether a constitutional convention should be called. +The convention was ordered by a majority of about 1,500. Later the +District Attorney of New York City found proof that at least 800 +fraudulent votes had been cast in that city. Leading lawyers discussed +the question of effect upon the election and the general opinion among +them was that, even though the entire majority, and more, should +be found to be fraudulent, the election could not be set aside. The +convention was held. + +In the other twenty-three states,[A] contests on referenda seem +possible under the law, but in practically every one, the contest +means a resort to the courts and in only eight[B] of these is +reference made to a recount. The law is vague and incomplete in nearly +all of these States. In some of these, including Michigan, where the +suffrage amendment is declared to have been counted out, application +for a recount must be made in each voting precinct. To have secured +redress in Michigan, provided the fraud was widespread, as it is +believed to have been, it would have been necessary to have secured +definite evidence of fraud in a probable 1,000 precincts and to have +instituted as many cases. This would have consumed many months and +would have demanded thousands of dollars. + +[Footnote A: In Ohio, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, New Jersey, Minnesota +and Michigan by law; in Illinois, Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, +Oregon, Arizona and Iowa by precedent; in West Virginia, South Dakota, +Kentucky and Colorado, officials express the opinion that the +law governing candidates's contests could be stretched to cover +amendments. In Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and +Washington, the law is so fragmentary as to make the possibilities +very uncertain. Information on this last group of laws will be found +in Appendix B.] + +[Footnote B: Ohio, Texas, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Minnesota, +Michigan, Massachusetts and Utah.] + +In some States the courts decide what the redress shall be, but where +such provision exists, no assurance is given by the law that such +redress will include a correction of the returns. In at least seven +States,[A] the applicants must pay all costs if they fail to prove +their case a provision amounting to a penalty imposed upon those who +try to enforce the law. + +[Footnote A: Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, West Virginia, +Minnesota, Utah.] + +The penalties for bribery range from $5 to $2,000 and from thirty +days' to ten years' imprisonment, but only one state (Ohio) provides +in definite terms for punishment of bribery as a part of the penalty +in an election contest. In most cases proof of bribery does not throw +out the vote of briber or bribed, nor does an action to throw +out purchased votes in contest cases bring with it automatically +punishment of the purchased voter. This omission from the contest +provisions presupposes that these bribery cases would be separate +actions. Thirty-two states in clear terms disfranchise (or give the +Legislature power to disfranchise) bribers and bribed, but few make +provision for the method of actually enforcing the law, and upon +inquiry the Secretary of State of many of these states reported +that, so far as he knew, no man had ever been disfranchised for +this offense. This was true of states which have been notorious for +political corruption. + +From Ohio alone has evidence been found of the actual enforcement +of the disfranchisement provision. In this state nearly 1,800 bribed +voters of Adams County were disfranchised in 1910 for scandalous +and well-remembered corruption but in 1915 they were restored to +citizenship. These cases reveal a disgraceful provision in the Ohio +law, by which the briber is given immunity if he will turn State's +evidence on the bribed; the vote-buyer may purchase votes by the +thousands with perfect safety provided that when suspected he will +deliver up a few of the bought by way of example. + +With a vague, uncertain law to define their punishment in most states, +and no law at all in twenty-four states, as a preliminary security, +corrupt opponents of a woman suffrage amendment find many additional +aids to their nefarious acts. A briber must make sure that the bribed +carries out his part of the contract. Whenever it is easy to check +up the results of the bribe, corruption may reign supreme with little +risk of being found out. A study of some of the recent suffrage votes +gives significant food for reflection. It shows how the form, color +and arrangement of the ballot may help the corrupt politician to +organize ignorant voters to do his will. In Georgia and Louisiana no +party names are printed on the official ballot and emblems only are +used. In almost half our states, though the party name is used also, +the emblem is the real guide. New York does not even relegate this +emblem to the top of the column. The emblem is placed before the name +of each candidate, so that the illiterate voter can make no mistake in +recognizing the sign of the machine which controls his vote. Scarcely +more than a dozen states have the headless ballot[A] which makes +it impossible for politicians to make corrupt use of the illiterate +voter. + +[Footnote A: Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida, Colorado, +California, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Massachusetts, +Mississippi, Nebraska, Pennsylvania.] + +In Wisconsin suffrage referendum the suffrage ballot was separate and +pink. It was easy to teach the most illiterate how to vote "No" and +to check up returns with considerable accuracy. In New York there +were three ballots. The official ballot had emblems which easily +distinguished it. The other two were exactly alike in shape, size and +color and each contained three propositions: those which came from +the constitutional convention and the other those which came from the +Legislature. The orders went forth to vote down the constitutional +provisions and it was done by a majority of 482,000, or nearly +300,000 more than the majority against woman suffrage. On the +ballot containing the suffrage amendment, which was No. 1, there was +proposition No. 3, which all the political parties wanted carried and +to which no one objected. It could easily be found by all illiterates +as it contained more lines of printing, yet so difficult was it to +teach ignorant men to vote "Yes" on that one proposition that, despite +the fact that orders had gone forth to all the state that No. 3 was to +be carried, it barely squeezed through. + +In Pennsylvania there are no emblems to distinguish the tickets and +on the large ballot the suffrage amendment was difficult to find by +an untutored voter. In probable consequence Pennsylvania polled the +largest proportional vote for the amendment of any eastern state. In +Massachusetts the ballot was small and the suffrage amendment could be +easily picked out by a bribed voter. In Iowa the suffrage ballot was +separate and yellow while the main ballots were white. + +In the North Dakota referendum the regular ballot was long and +complicated and the suffrage ballot separate and small. It was easy to +teach the dullest illiterate how to vote "No." It might be said +that it would be equally easy to teach him to vote "Yes." True, but +suffragists never bribe. Both the briber and the illiterate are allies +of the opposition. + +A referendum on a non-partisan issue has none of the protection +accorded a party question. Election boards are bi-partisan and each +party has its own machinery, not only of election officials but +watchers and challengers, to see that the opposing party commits no +fraud. The watchfulness of this party machinery, plus an increasingly +vigilant public opinion, has corrected many of the election frauds +which were once common and most elections are now probably free from +all the baser forms of corruption. When a question on referendum is +sincerely espoused by both the dominant parties it has the advantage +of the watchfulness of both party machines and is doubly safeguarded +from fraud. But when such a question has been espoused by no dominant +party it is utterly at the mercy of the worst forms of corruption. +The election officers have even been known to wink at irregularities +plainly committed since it was no affair of theirs. Or, they may even +go further and join in the entertaining game of running in as many +votes against such an amendment as possible. This has not infrequently +been the unhappy experience of suffrage amendments in corrupt +quarters. + +Honest election officers, respecting "the will of the majority" as +the sovereign of our nation, would protect honesty in elections, +regardless of their own or their party's views, but unhappily that +high standard is not universal. + +Surely, the method of taking the vote and of safeguarding the honesty +of elections should be the most important and fundamental of all +questions in a republic. Such laws ought to be preliminary to all +other laws. Yet as a matter of fact the laxity and ambiguity of +many state election laws and the utter inadequacy of provisions for +enforcement are almost unbelievable. The contemplation of the actual +facts seriously reflects upon the intelligence and good faith of the +successive lawmakers of our land. + +With no one on the election board whose special business it is to see +that honesty is upheld, a suffrage amendment must face further hazards +through the fact that most states do not permit women, or even special +men watchers, to stand guard over the vote and the count upon such +questions. + +When it is remembered that immigrants may be naturalized after a +residence of five years; that when naturalized they automatically +become voters by all our state constitutions; that in eight states[A] +immigrant voters are not even required to be citizens; that the right +to vote is limited by an educational qualification in only seventeen +states, and that nine of these are Southern, with special intent to +disfranchise the Negro while allowing the illiterate White to vote; +that evidence exists to prove that there is an unscrupulous body +ready to engage the lowest elements of our population by fraudulent +processes to oppose a suffrage amendment; that there is no authority +on the election board whose business it is to see that an amendment +gets a "square deal"; that the method of preparing the ballot is often +a distinct advantage to a corrupt opposition; and that when fraud is +committed there is practically no redress provided by election laws, +it ought to be clear to all that state constitutional amendments +when unsponsored by the dominant political parties which control the +election machinery, must run the gauntlet of intolerably unjust and +unfair conditions. When suffragists have been fortunate enough to +overcome the obstacles imposed by the constitution of their states +and a referendum to the male voters has been secured, they must +immediately enter upon the task of surmounting the infinitely greater +obstructions of the election law. They make their appeal to the public +upon the supposition that a majority of independent voters is +to decide their question. Instead, they may discover that in a +determining number of precincts the taking of the actual vote is a +game in which the cards are stacked against them. One woman, who had +watched at a precinct all day in a suffrage amendment election, said +"Something went out of me that day which never came back--and that was +pride in my country. At first I thought it was disappointment +produced by the defeat of the woman suffrage amendment, but when I had +recovered and could think calmly, I knew it was not that. I was still +patient and still willing to go on working, struggling, sacrificing, +for my right to vote; but I could not forget that I lived in a land +which tolerated the things I saw that day." The women who know cannot +rise to "The Star-Spangled Banner" without a "lump in their throats," +for they recognize the terrible fact that hidden under the beautiful +pretense of democracy is a hideous menace to our national liberties, +which no political party, no legislature, no congress, has dared to +drag out into the daylight of public knowledge. + +[Footnote A: The number of states which permitted men to vote on +"first papers" was formerly fifteen. The following eight states +still perpetuate this provision: Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, +Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Texas.] + +Bear these items in mind and remember that Congress enfranchised the +Indians, assuming its authority upon the ground that they are wards of +the nation; that the Negroes were enfranchised by Federal amendment; +that the constitutions of all states not in the list of the original +thirteen, automatically extended the vote to men; that in the original +colonial territory, the chief struggle occurred over the elimination +of the land-owning qualifications and that a total vote necessary +to give the franchise to non-landowners did not exceed fifty to +seventy-five thousand in any state. + +Let it also not be forgotten that the vote is the free-will offering +of our forty-eight states to any man who chooses to make this land his +home. Let it not be overlooked that millions of immigrant voters +have been added to our electorate within a generation, men mainly +uneducated and all moulded by European traditions, and let no man lose +sight of the fact that women of American birth, education and ideals +must appeal to these men for their enfranchisement. No humiliation +could be more complete, unless we add the amazing fact that political +leaders in Congress and legislatures are willing to drive their wives +and daughters to beg the consent of these men to their political +liberty. + +The makers of the Federal Constitution foresaw the necessity of +referring important and intricate questions to a more intelligent body +than the masses of the people and so provided for the amendment of the +Constitution by referendum to the legislatures of the several states. +Why should women be denied the privilege thus established? The United +States is one land and one people. All the states have the same +institutions, customs and ideals. + +Woman suffrage has been caught in a snarl of state constitutional +obstructions, inefficient election laws and the misapplied theory +of States Rights. It is a combination which has so far retarded the +normal progress of the movement in this democratic land that other +countries have already outstripped it. Under these circumstances +Congress should extricate the woman suffrage question from this tangle +by way of honorable reparation for the injustices unintentionally put +upon the only unenfranchised citizens left in our Republic, and women +should insist upon their enfranchisement by amendment to the Federal +Constitution as their self-respecting duty. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE STORY OF THE 1916 REFERENDA + + +Constitutional amendments were submitted to the voters of three states +in 1916, namely, Iowa, where the vote was taken June 5th on Primary +Day; South Dakota and West Virginia, where the vote was taken at the +general election in November. More than one influential newspaper +editorially discussed the returns with the comment that "the people" +of three states had refused to extend the suffrage to women. +An investigation unveils some ugly facts and raises significant +questions. + +In 1882 a prohibition constitutional amendment was adopted by a large +majority in Iowa and was promptly set aside by the supreme court upon +a technicality. The wet and dry question has been a vexed political +issue ever since. The state now has prohibition by statutory +enactment. A constitutional amendment is pending, having passed the +Legislature of 1914, and is due to pass the Legislature of 1916. +The "wets" believing that women would generally support the proposed +prohibition amendment were extremely active in opposing the suffrage +amendment. Although the suffragists kept their question distinctly +separate from prohibition, the wet and dry issue, it was generally +admitted, would prove a determining factor. + +Every judge of the Supreme Court, the United States Senators, the +Governor, most of the men prominent in Republican and Democratic +politics, most of the clergymen, most of the press and every woman's +state organization espoused the suffrage amendment. + +Men familiar with Iowa politics advised the suffrage campaigners early +and late and all the time between that it was unnecessary to conduct +an intensive campaign as "everybody believed in it." + +Yet despite this omnipresent optimism thousands of women gave +every possibility of their lives for months before to arouse public +sentiment, instruct and acquaint the men and women of the state +concerning the question. + +The amendment was lost by about 10,000 votes. Were four of the +ninety-nine counties (Dubuque, Clinton, Scott and Des Moines counties) +lying along the Mississippi River, not included in the returns, the +state would have been carried for woman suffrage. It is instructive +to inquire what kind of population occupied the four counties which +defeated it. The following table gives the answer: + +======================================================== +| | | | | Total | +| | | | Total | German, | +| | Total | Total | Foreign |Austrian,| +|Iowa Counties| | Native | and | Russian | +| |Population|Parentage| Foreign | and of | +| | | |Parentage| such | +| | | | |Parentage| ++-------------+----------+---------+---------+---------+ +|Dubuque | 57,450 | 24,024 | 33,426 | 14,566 | +|Clinton | 45,394 | 19,116 | 26,278 | 11,494 | +|Scott | 60,000 | 24,104 | 35,896 | 20,119 | +|Des Moines | 36,145 | 17,769 | 18,376 | 7,828 | +======================================================== + +The vote on woman suffrage was 162,679 yes and 173,020 no. The "yes +vote" of the above four counties was 8,061; the "no vote" 18,941. +Subtract these totals from the totals of the state vote and 154,618 +"yes" and 154,079 "no" remains, giving a majority of 539 for woman +suffrage. + +Once more in the history of suffrage referenda a foreign and colonized +population decided the issue. Was the election an honest one? That +is a question of interest to Iowa just now. The returns revealed some +suspicious facts. Nearly 30,000 more votes were cast on the suffrage +proposition than in the primary. Where did they come from? The +president of the W.C.T.U., Mrs. Ida B. Wise Smith, employed a +detective after the election. His investigation covered forty-four +counties and was not confined to those wherein woman suffrage +was lost. The findings have not been given to the public in their +entirety, but they were conclusive enough to cause an injunction suit +to be filed against the Board of Elections and the Legislature to +restrain them from accepting the official returns. + +Registration was necessary for the amendment, not for the primary, +yet thousands of unregistered votes apparently were cast upon the +amendment. All good election laws provide that a definite number of +ballots shall be officially issued to each precinct; that the number +of those deposited in the ballot box, the number spoiled and those +unused shall not only tally with the number received, but the +unused ones must be counted, sealed, labelled and returned with the +certificate recording the count. This is the law of Iowa; but the +report of the investigation, as given to the press, shows that in +thirty-five counties out of the forty-four investigated no tally list +was used and there was nothing by which to check in order to determine +the correctness of the number on the certificate. In many cases no +unused ballots were returned. The poll lists did not tally with the +number of votes and even a recount could not reveal whether fraud or +carelessness had led to irregularity. + +Despite the fact that the Iowa law provides that a definite number of +ballots and the same number of each kind is to be distributed to each +precinct, the separate suffrage ballots in a number of cases were +reported by election officials as not having arrived until the voting +had been in progress for some time; and in others they gave out an +hour before the polls closed. + +Forty-seven varieties of violations of the election law are alleged to +have been committed. Do these indicate wilful fraud or mere ignorance +and carelessness? Just now no one seems prepared to answer. Meantime +Iowa, one of the most intelligent and progressive states in the +nation, stands at the bar of public opinion accused of incapacity +to conduct an honest election. How she will defend herself, what +reparation she will make to her women, and what steps she will take to +insure clean elections and better enforcement of her election law in +the future are problems which await the Legislature. That body cannot +refuse to take action of some kind without inviting the suspicion that +her legislators prefer conditions which lend themselves to the +base uses of election manipulators whenever they may care to avail +themselves of them. + +On November 7, 1916, woman suffrage and prohibition amendments were +voted upon in South Dakota. It was the first time these two questions +have gone to referendum in the same election and the results furnish +interesting data for comparison. + +Certain facts tell a story which should make progressive, patriotic +Americans and fair-minded Congressmen reflect. + +Prohibition was carried by a majority of 11,469; woman suffrage +was lost by a majority of 4,664. Prohibition was lost in thirteen +counties; in one of these, Lawrence, which lies in the heart of the +mining country, prohibition was lost by two votes, and woman suffrage +was carried. + +In all the others a large foreign population was the dominant power. +Had nine of the sixty-eight counties of the state not been included in +the returns woman suffrage would have been carried. + +The total "yes" vote on woman suffrage was 51,687; the "no" vote +56,351.[A] The total "yes" vote of these nine counties was 4,877; the +"no" vote was 10,569. Subtracting these county totals from the state +totals the record would stand 46,810 "yes" votes and 45,782 "no" +votes. + +[Footnote A: The figures here used are those given to the press by the +County Boards of Election. The final returns were not available.] + +Who then are the voters of nine counties who kept the women of an +entire state disfranchised? The following table presents the answer: + +================================================================== +| | | | | Total | +| | | | Total | German, | +| | Total | Total | Foreign and | Austrian, | +| Counties | Population | Native | Foreign | Russian, | +| | | Parentage | Parentage | or of such| +| | | | | Parentage | +|-------------+------------+-----------+-------------+-----------| +|Bon Homme....| 11,061 | 3,448 | 7,6l3 | 4,759 | +|Brule .......| 6,451 | 3,008 | 3,443 | 1,556 | +|Charles Mix..| 14,899 | 6,387 | 8,512 | 2,757 | +|Campbell ....| 5,244 | 600 | 4,644 | 3,491 | +|Douglas .....| 6,400 | 2,017 | 4,383 | 1,644 | +|McCook ......| 9,589 | 4,068 | 5,521 | 1,691 | +|Hutchinson ..| 12,319 | 2,671 | 9,648 | 7,515 | +|McPherson ...| 6,791 | 1,152 | 5,639 | 4,889 | +|Turner ......| 13,840 | 4,206 | 9,634 | 4,432 | +|================================================================ + +The large "no" vote in several counties was due to the same character +of population. The total population is 583,888, the population of +foreign birth or foreign parentage is 243,835. South Dakota is one of +the eight remaining states where foreigners may vote on their "first +papers" and citizenship is not a qualification for a vote. + +The returns offer still other food for reflection. Hutchinson county, +for example, carried prohibition and lost woman suffrage. It gave 584 +dry votes; 510 wet votes. It gave 432 "yes" votes on woman suffrage +and 1,583 "no" votes. Thus 921 more votes were cast on the suffrage +proposition than on the prohibition question. The people in this +county are German-Russians and exceedingly ignorant. Apparently +they were not intelligent enough to be lined up to vote "no" on both +questions. Is it not likely that these votes were intended to be "wet" +and that they made a mistake and picked No. 6 instead of No. 7? If +not, why not? + +The largest group of the foreign population of these counties are +German-Russians. They migrated from Germany and found a home in Russia +some 230 or more years ago, in order to escape conscription. When +Russia began to enforce conscription about 1888 the entire group came +to America and settled in colonies in the Western states which at the +time offered free lands. They were totally illiterate then. They had +not progressed as Germans in their own country had done but being +clannish had remained at the point of development reached at the date +of their migration. They are still clannish and have not yet escaped +from the mental habits of the Middle Ages. These are the men who have +denied American women the vote in South Dakota. That the women of +South Dakota in very large numbers wanted the vote no one questions. +During the campaign six women in Sioux Falls published an appeal to +voters not to support the amendment as they did not wish to vote. +Shortly after an appeal to the voters of the same city was published +and was signed by 3,000 women. In every county of the state the women +manifested their interest by doing all they knew how to do. West +Virginia was the first Southern state to submit a referendum on woman +suffrage and the vote was taken November 7, 1916. The amendment was +defeated by the largest proportional majority any suffrage amendment +ever received. Unlike Iowa and South Dakota, where all the educated +classes with notable exceptions believe in woman suffrage, West +Virginia probably has many conscientious doubters. Arguments and +excuses which did service in the West twenty-five years ago were +brought forward as though just formulated. The illiteracy of the state +is appallingly high and the illiterate is universally an antiwomen +suffragist. + +The ever present prohibition issue again played an important if not +a determining part. A prohibition law was voted in by an immense +majority in 1912, but the undismayed "wets" propose to secure a +resubmission if possible. They apparently regarded the woman suffrage +amendment as an outer defense to be taken before the march on the main +prohibition fort could be begun; and every "wet," high and low, was +on duty. The "drys" who would do well to study Napoleon's rule of +strategy, that is, "find out what your enemy doesn't want you to do, +and then do it," were much disturbed as to what St. Paul would think +were he here, and concluded not to be over hasty about giving the +women the vote. + +At the Democratic convention an anti woman suffragist spoke. The +applause in the gallery and in the standing groups filling the outside +aisles was uproarious and clearly represented an organized, carefully +planted claque. The leaders were an ex-brewer, an ex-saloonkeeper and +the chief liquor lobbyist of the state. It was evident that they were +there to intimidate the party, and they did. The Democrats threw +a bouquet to the women in the form of a plank and then quietly +repudiated it. Practically the same thing happened in the Republican +convention. They, too, endorsed a plank and "double-crossed." There +was apparently no difference between the two dominant parties on that +score. Men who had always been pronounced suffragists weakly confessed +themselves afraid to speak for woman suffrage in the campaign lest +votes be lost for their party. Political campaigners who went into the +state, with the exception of Senator Borah and Raymond Robins, were +told not to mention suffrage, and they obeyed. The wets apparently had +the state literally by the throat and in order to save votes the great +fundamental principle of "government by the people" was refused a +public hearing. Election Day came. Women poll workers reported from +many parts of the state that drunken hoodlums were marched in line +into the precinct, saying boldly that they were going to vote "agin +the ---- women." The women workers testified with remarkable unanimity +that their opposition was chiefly "riffraff and illiterate negroes and +that it was under the direction of well-known 'wets.'" Even an excise +commissioner under pay of the National Government worked against woman +suffrage all day in one precinct. + +A premonition of what might happen appeared in September, when +Judge John M. Woods of the circuit court instructed a grand jury to +investigate the political situation in Berkely county. He declared, as +reported by the press, that election conditions had become intolerable +and that in his judgment one-third of the votes in the county were +purchasable. Elections, he said, had degenerated into "an auction +wherein offices went to the highest bidder." + +It was not surprising, therefore, that the cry of fraud arose from +many localities as soon as the election was over, and was so insistent +that the Governor called a special session of the Legislature for the +announced purpose of an investigation into the charges. Colonization, +bribery, repeating and every known form of corruption was alleged to +have been employed. One of the chief newspapers of the state declared +that the election scandals had surpassed all that had gone before. + +The Legislature met but the Governor did not proceed with his proposed +investigation. No explanation was given, but to the onlooker it was +clear that one of two reasons, or perhaps both, was the cause of +silence on the part of the chief lawmaking body of the state--either +the lifted curtain would reveal "the pot calling the kettle black," or +so extensive and noxious a mass of corruption was known to exist that +no means were available for correction of the wrongs perpetrated. + +That money was used many women were willing to testify. For what +purpose it was used, who furnished it and who were the actual bribers +were questions not so readily answered. In one city it was reported +"that warrants were out after the elect of the city and that this was +true in nearly every ward of the city." The warrants were based upon +the alleged use of money. + +Other women poll workers reported that men boldly asked whether they +would be paid, and if so, how much. When they found there was no +reward for suffrage votes they scornfully but frankly confessed that +they could do better on the other side. Irregularities were numerous. +The amendment was ordered by the state officials printed on the main +ticket, but one county so far disobeyed instructions as to print the +amendment on a separate ballot, yet the vote was accepted. The returns +on the amendment were withheld for many days and in several counties +for weeks. + +A few straws from the election show the way the wind blew in West +Virginia. In only four counties is the per cent, of illiteracy +among males of voting age less than 6 per cent. The returns in these +counties are found in the following table: + +================================================================= +| Per Cent. | | For | Against | | +| Illiteracy | County | Suffrage | Suffrage | | +| Voting Age | | Amendment| Amendment| | +| Males | | | | | +|------------+--------+----------+----------+-------------------| +| 5.5 | Brooke | 1,041 | 907 | Carried | +| 5.8 | Morgan | 443 | 1,098 | 2-1/2 to 1 against| +| 4.7 | Ohio | 4,513 | 6,014 | 1-1/3 to 1 against| +| 5.3 | Wood | 3,260 | 3,960 | 1-1/4 to 1 against| +================================================================= + +The returns from the five counties having the highest per cent. of +illiteracy are as follows: + +================================================================ +| Per Cent | | For | Against | | +| Illiteracy | County | Suffrage | Suffrage | | +| Voting Age | | Amendment| Amendment| | +| Males | | | | | +|------------+--------+----------+----------+------------------| +| 26.2 |Lincoln | 466 | 3,213 |7 to 1 against | +| 26.4 |Boone | 678 | 1,828 |3 lacking 6 votes | +| | | | | to 1 against | +| 27.7 |Logan | 856 | 2,774 |3-1/4 to 1 against| +| 28.2 |Mingo | 712 | 2,609 |3-2/3 to 1 against| +| 29.7 |McDowell| 1,436 | 4,832 |3-1/3 to 1 against| +================================================================ + +In the first group the negro vote is under 5 per cent. of the whole. +In the second this is also true of Boone and Lincoln counties. The +number of negro males of voting age is nearly 6 per cent. in Logan +county, 11.2 per cent. in Mingo county and 34.1 per cent. in McDowell +county. + +It is a matter of interest to observe that the counties giving the +largest majority against were Clay, 6 to 1; Grant, 7 to 1; Hardy, +7-2/3 to 1; Lincoln, 7 to 1; Raleigh, 5 to 1, and that in none of +these is the negro male population of voting age in excess of 5 per +cent. White illiteracy is high, the lowest in this group being that +found in Grant county, 13.3 per cent. + +Had there been an honest election and a fair count in West Virginia, +it is possible, even probable, that woman suffrage would have been +defeated, but the fact remains that no human being can know that, +since the amendment went down to defeat in an election that can only +be described as "The Shame of West Virginia." + +In all three states the pending amendments were caught in the toils +of the "wet and dry" issue. The "wets" obsessed by the idea that woman +suffrage is "next door to prohibition" used their entire machinery +to defeat the amendments, while the "drys" regarded the amendments as +distinctly separate questions. These conditions may be regarded as +the inevitable hazards of a campaign. It is, however, not at all clear +that the amendments were defeated in any one of the three states +by the honest "will of the majority." In none of them were women +permitted to serve as watchers over their amendment. In Iowa well +established proof of wilful or careless violations of laws throws +doubt over the returns, while in West Virginia the suspicion of fraud +rests upon the entire election. In Iowa four and in South Dakota nine +counties colonized by people of foreign birth or parentage deprived +the women of the state of their vote. + +A Federal amendment ratified by the legislatures of the several states +would secure to the women of South Dakota and Iowa the rights for +which American and Americanized men have voted. The entire western +or most American part of South Dakota has been twice carried for +suffrage, that is, in 1914 and 1916. One county, Harding, adjacent to +Wyoming, has been carried for woman suffrage in the six referenda on +the question, the first one being held in 1890. + +The only real argument against the Federal amendment thus far advanced +is that one group of states which want woman suffrage may force it +upon another group which does not want it. That argument works both +ways. _A group of counties_ which want woman suffrage may be deprived +of it for years because another group of un-Americanized, foreign-born +citizens do not want it. The first is said to be the principle of +"American sovereignty," the second may fairly be called the principle +of "foreign sovereignty." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FEDERAL ACTION AND STATE RIGHTS + +HENRY WADE ROGERS + +Judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, New York City, +and Professor in the Yale University School of Law. + + +I do not propose to discuss the subject of woman suffrage in the +abstract. I am content with saying as regards the general question +that in a republic which theoretically is founded upon the principle +that government derives its just powers from the consent of the +governed I think it illogical, unreasonable and an injustice to deny +the vote to adult women who are citizens. With that statement I +shall address myself to the suggestion of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association that Congress should propose to the States an +amendment to the Constitution which shall in effect provide that no +State shall deny to any person the right to vote on account of sex. +And as respects that suggestion I shall deal with a single phase of +the matter. It seems to be supposed in some quarters that if such an +amendment were to be adopted it would involve a breach of faith with +the dissenting States, or violate some unwritten principle of local +self-government, or conflict with the historic doctrine of State +Rights. + +I have no hesitancy in saying that I have for years believed and still +believe that there is a constitutional doctrine of State Rights which +cannot be safely or rightfully ignored. Many of the foremost men in +both parties share that belief. It must be admitted, however, that +this doctrine sometimes has been so perverted, misapplied and carried +to such extreme limits as seriously to prejudice many worthy and +intelligent citizens against its true merit and value. This fact makes +it all the more necessary on the part of those who would save the +doctrine from absolute repudiation to be careful when and how and to +what purpose it is invoked. + +There has recently been published a book entitled "Woman Suffrage by +Constitutional Amendment." The author of that book, the Hon. Henry St. +George Tucker of Virginia, was at one time a member of Congress, and +has been president of the American Bar Association. He was invited to +deliver a course of five lectures, in 1916, before the School of Law +of Yale University on the subject of "Local Self-Government." In one +of the lectures woman suffrage by Federal Amendment was discussed and +the theory was advanced that the attempt to bring about the right of +suffrage by an amendment to the Constitution of the United States +was opposed to the genius of the Constitution and subversive of the +principle of local self-government. In his opinion, woman suffrage +by Federal Amendment is contrary to the rightful demarcation of the +powers of the Federal and State governments under the Constitution of +the United States. + +I may remark in passing that the title of the book is liable to +mislead the public into thinking that Mr. Tucker was invited to Yale +to discuss woman suffrage, whereas the fact was that that was only an +incident in his discussion of Local Self-Government. + +But is woman suffrage by Federal Amendment contrary to the genius +of the Constitution and contrary to the rightful demarcation of the +powers of the Federal Government? + +In considering the question involved it is to be noticed in the first +place that a difference exists between the Articles of Confederation +and the Constitution. In the Articles of Confederation it was in the +Thirteenth Article expressly provided that no alteration should be +made in any of the Articles "unless such alteration be agreed to in +a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by +the legislatures of every State." This provision was an element +of weakness and recognized as such by the men who sat in the +Constitutional Convention of 1787. As the Articles constituted a +league between independent states it was deemed necessary to make it +incapable of alteration except by unanimous consent of the states in +order to preserve to each state all of its rights. + +When the convention of 1787 met to agree upon a Constitution to submit +to the States one of the questions they had to consider was whether it +should be made capable of amendment. They agreed that it was the +part of wisdom to provide that the States might modify the system of +government the Constitution established when in the progress of time +to do so seemed desirable. Mr. Madison accordingly proposed what with +some modifications became the Fifth Article. + +The Congress was given power by that Article to propose amendments by +a vote of two-thirds of both Houses and amendments so proposed were to +become valid to all intents and purposes as parts of the Constitution +when ratified by three-fourths of the several States. This is not +the only method by which the Constitution may be amended. For it is +provided that the States may themselves propose amendments through a +convention called by two-thirds of the States, and it is also +provided that proposed amendments may be submitted for ratification +to conventions in the several States instead of to the Legislatures of +the States if Congress so directs. + +When the Constitution of a State is amended care must be taken to see +to it that the amendment proposed does not involve a violation of the +Constitution of the United States. For a constitution adopted by the +people of a State in so far as it violates the Constitution of the +United States is void, for exactly the same reason that an Act passed +by a State Legislature is void if it is contrary to some provision +in the Constitution of the United States. This is so because the +Constitution of the United States in the Sixth Article directs that +"This Constitution ... shall be the supreme law of the land; and +the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the +Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." + +But any amendment with a single exception, which is proposed by +Congress, no matter what it may be, if it has received the two-thirds +vote of both Houses and has been ratified by the Legislatures of +three-fourths of the States, or of three-fourths of the conventions in +the several States, according as Congress has submitted it in the one +way or the other, is valid irrespective of any provision that can be +found in any State Constitution or law. The one exception to which +reference has been made is that no change can be made which would +deprive a State of its right to equal representation in the Senate. +As it is, the Senate is composed of two Senators from each state. New +York and Nevada, the one with a population of 9,113,614, and the other +with a population of 81,875 are entitled to equal representation in +that body, and that equality of representation cannot be destroyed by +any amendment not assented to by all the States. The reason is that +the Constitution expressly declares in the Fifth Article--the one +which deals with amendments--"that no State, without its consent, +shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." This provision +was incorporated into the Constitution at the suggestion of Roger +Sherman of Connecticut. Certain other restrictions were imposed +which now have become unimportant, but which at the time were of the +greatest possible importance. It was provided that no amendment was to +be made prior to the year 1808 which should prohibit the States from +further importation of slaves, and that no capitation or other direct +tax should be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration +of the inhabitants of the states in which three-fifths only of the +slaves were included. So we see that the founders withdrew from the +possibilities of amendment the subjects regarding which they were +unwilling amendments should be made. The understanding of the +States therefore must have been that as respects all subjects not +so withdrawn the right of amendment might be exercised whenever the +States desired to exercise it. Whenever they do see fit to exercise +it they are not breaking faith with each other, or doing anything +wrongfully. + +The mode of amending the Constitution is in strict accordance with the +doctrine of State Rights. The amending power is not to be exercised +by the collective people of the United States acting as a majority. It +can only be exercised by three-fourths of the States acting as States +in their sovereign capacity. If three-fourths of the States desire to +amend the instrument then the one-fourth must submit to the will of +the three-fourths. There is no principle in the doctrine of State +Rights which is violated when the Constitution is amended by the +three-fourths, for all the states have agreed that the three-fourths +shall possess the power to do so and that the minority will consent +to be bound by action so taken. The principle that the minority must +submit to the majority is a principle which the States apply to the +government of their local communities and to the people of their +several commonwealths. And it is a principle which the States as +sovereigns have agreed shall be applied to themselves in their +relations to each other and to the Federal Government. In creating the +amending power the framers of the Constitution were careful to +remove it from the people of the nation and to lodge it in the State +sovereignties. That is all that the believers in the doctrine of State +Rights asked. They could not wisely ask, and they did not ask, more. +They only asked that in so important a matter as the amendment of the +fundamental law the minority should not be compelled to submit to a +mere majority, but only to three-fourths of the whole. + +If it be assumed simply for the purpose of this discussion, that the +amendment of the Constitution is not wholly a political question, no +one can seriously contend that the amendment the National American +Woman Suffrage Association urges violates any principle of law, +written or unwritten. Mr. Tucker makes no such claim. His argument, +as I understand it, is that woman suffrage by Federal Amendment is a +departure from the original thought of the makers of the Constitution; +that they left the subject of suffrage along with most other subjects +to be regulated by State action and that their decision upon that +question was wise and should not be disturbed. The same argument +exactly was made against the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth +Amendments and without effect. It can be made against any amendment +which can be proposed which deprives the States of any power which +they now possess. + +When the Constitution was adopted it is true it did not confer the +right of suffrage upon any class, but left the subject to each +state to regulate in its own way. The members of the House of +Representatives were to be chosen by the people of the several States +and it was simply provided that "the electors in each state shall have +the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch +of the State Legislature." Senators were to be chosen by the State +Legislatures. The President and Vice-President were to be chosen by +electors, who were to be appointed in each state "in such manner as +the Legislature thereof may direct." These were at the time very +wise regulations, for they showed, as James Wilson, a member of the +Constitutional Convention, said, the most friendly disposition toward +the governments of the several States, and they tended to destroy the +seeds of jealousy which might otherwise spring up with regard to the +National Government. At that time the framers of the Constitution did +not deem it wise to limit in any respect the control of the States +over the subject of suffrage. There was then no uniformity regarding +the suffrage in the several states. A property qualification was +usually prescribed, but the amount of property it was necessary +to hold varied considerably in different states. For instance, in +Maryland all freemen, above 21 years of age, having a freehold of +fifty acres of land in the county in which they resided, and all +freemen having property in the state above the value of thirty pounds +current money and who had resided in the county one year, could vote. +In New Jersey "all inhabitants" of full age worth "fifty pounds, +proclamation money clear estate within that government," could vote. +In New York "every male inhabitant of full age" who had resided within +the county for six months immediately preceding the day of election +could vote if he had been a freeholder possessing a freehold of the +value of twenty pounds within the county or had rented a tenement +therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and had been rated and +actually paid taxes to the state. In a number of the States the right +to vote was restricted to taxpayers. In Pennsylvania every freeman +of 21 years who had resided in the state two years next before the +election and within that time had paid a State or a county tax could +vote. + +There is today a wide divergence in the qualifications required in +the various states to entitle one to vote. In a few States there +are educational qualifications, as in California, Connecticut, +Massachusetts, Washington and North Carolina. In some States one +cannot vote unless he has paid certain taxes, almost always poll +taxes. In certain States Indians who are not members of any tribe can +vote. And in a number of the States every male of foreign birth, +21 years of age, who has declared his intention to become a citizen +according to the naturalization laws of the United States can vote. + +These differences exist because the Constitution remains, so far as +this subject is concerned, as it was originally adopted, except that +the Fifteenth Amendment provides that "The right of citizens of the +United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United +States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition +of servitude." It is, however, an anomalous condition that the right +of citizens of the United States to vote remains wholly dependent on +the laws of the States, subject only to the restriction that in the +regulations the States establish they cannot discriminate against any +citizen on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. +If woman suffrage is a sound principle in a republican form of +government, and such I believe it to be, there is in my opinion +no reason why the States should not be permitted to vote upon an +Amendment to the Constitution declaring that no citizen shall be +deprived of the right to vote on account of sex. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +OBJECTIONS TO THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT + + +I. STATES RIGHTS. THIS OBJECTION IS URGED BY ALL OPPONENTS OF WOMAN +SUFFRAGE, BUT IS EITHER A BARRICADE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM THE +NECESSITY OF EXPOSING THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE NO REASONS, OR IS A PLAY +TO POSTPONE WOMAN SUFFRAGE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. BY A FEW IT IS URGED +CONSCIENTIOUSLY AND WITH CONVICTION. + +That there are many problems whose treatment belongs so appropriately +to state governments that any infringement of that right by the +Federal Government would be an act of tyranny, no American will +question. But assuredly woman suffrage is not one of these. One by +one classes of men have been granted the vote until women are the only +remaining unenfranchised class. States have set up various restrictive +qualifications so that criminality, idiocy, insanity, pauperism, +drunkenness, foreign birth are accepted as ordinary causes of +disfranchisement. Yet not one of these conditions is common to all the +states. The foreigner votes on his first papers in eight states and +a five years' residence will usually secure his naturalization and a +consequent vote in any state. The criminal, idiot and insane are not +denied a vote in several states, and in most a large class of ignorant +un-American men with no comprehension of our problems, our history, or +ideals, are conspicuous voters on election day. Millions of new voters +have entered our country and without the expenditure of time, money or +service have received the vote since the pending Federal Amendment was +first introduced. + +For two generations groups of women have given their lives and their +fortunes to secure the vote for their sex and hundreds of thousands of +other women are now giving all the time at their command. No class of +men in our own or any other country has made one-tenth the effort nor +sacrificed one-tenth as much for the vote. The long delay, the +double dealing, the broken faith of political parties, the insult of +disfranchisement of the qualified in a land which freely gives the +vote to the unqualified, combines to produce as insufferable a tyranny +as any modern nation has perpetuated upon a class of its citizens. +The souls of women which should be warm with patriotic love of their +country are growing bitter over the inexplicable wrong their country +is doing them. Hands and heads that should be busy with other problems +of our nation are withheld that they may get the tools with which +to work. Purses that should be open to many causes are emptied into +suffrage coffers until this monumental injustice shall be wiped away. +Woman suffrage is a question of righting a nation-wide injustice, of +establishing a phase of unquestioned human liberty and of carrying out +a proposition to which our nation is pledged; it therefore transcends +all considerations of states rights. This objection comes chiefly +from Southern Democrats, who claim that it is a form of oppression for +three-fourths of the states to foist upon one-fourth measures of +which the minority of states do not approve. Yet the provision for +so amending the Constitution was adopted by the states and has stood +unchallenged in the Constitution for more than a century. If it be +unfair, undemocratic or even unsatisfactory, it is curious that no +movement to change the provision has ever developed. The Constitution +has been twice amended recently and it is interesting to note that it +happened under a Democratic Administration. More, the child labor and +eight-hour bills, while not constitutional amendments, are subject to +the same plea that no state shall have laws imposed upon it without +its consent. Both measures were introduced by Southern Democrats. +The pending Federal Prohibition Amendment was also introduced by a +Southern Democrat and is supported by many others. Upon consideration +of these facts, it would seem that "states rights" is either a theory +to be invoked whenever necessary to conceal an unreasoning hostility +to a measure or that those who advance it are guilty of extremely +muddy thinking. + +The Constitution of the United States as now amended provides that no +male citizen subject to state qualifications shall be denied the +vote by any state. Were all the state constitutions amended so as to +enfranchise women, the word male would still stand in the National +Constitution. Men and women would still be unequal, since the National +Constitution can impose a penalty upon a state which denies the vote +to men, but none upon the state which discriminates against women. +A woman comes from Montana to represent that state in Congress. +The State of Montana has done its utmost to remove her political +disabilities, yet should she cross the border of her state and live +in North Dakota, she loses all that Montana gave her. Not so the male +voter. Enfranchised in one state, he is enfranchised in all (subject +to difference of qualification only). The women of this nation will +never be content with less protection in their right to vote than +is given to men and there is no other possible way to secure that +protection except through amendment to the National Constitution. +No single state, nor the forty-eight collectively, can grant that +protection except through the Federal Constitution. + +As granting to half the population of our country the right of +consent to their own government, whose expenses they help to pay, is +a question of fundamental human liberty, Congress and the legislatures +should be proud to act and to add one more immortal chapter to +America's history of freedom. + + +II. SOUTHERN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS VERY GENERALLY URGE THAT THEY OPPOSE +THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT BECAUSE IT WILL CONFER THE VOTE UPON THE NEGRO +WOMEN OF THEIR RESPECTIVE STATES; AND THAT THAT WILL INTERFERE WITH +WHITE SUPREMACY IN THE SOUTH. + +It is difficult to believe this objection to be sincere, since facts +do not support the contention. The facts are that woman suffrage +secured by Federal Amendment will be subject to whatever restrictions +may be imposed by state constitutions (provided those restrictions are +in accord with the National Constitution) in precisely the same way +as woman suffrage secured by state constitutional amendment. No larger +number of negro women can be enfranchised by Federal Amendment than +will be enfranchised by State Amendment. If the women of the South +are ever to be enfranchised, it must be by (1) Federal Constitutional +Amendment, or (2) State Constitutional Amendment. If their franchise +is obtained by the former method, it will come by the votes of white +men in Congress and legislatures; if by the second, they will be +forced to appeal to voting Negroes to elevate them to their own +political status. One would suppose the first would be the preferable +method from the Southern viewpoint. It is possible that behind this +commonly spoken objection, lies a hope and belief that Southern women +will remain disfranchised forevermore. A man unfamiliar with political +history, psychology, and the science of evolution might cherish such +a belief in fancied security, but ideas cannot be shut outside the +borders of a state. There is no Southern state in which women of the +highest families are not giving their all in order to propagate this +cause, and they are doing it with so noble a spirit and so eloquent +an appeal that final surrender of the citadel of prejudice is only a +question of time. No one has ever questioned the "fighting ability" of +the South. That ability is not confined to men. Courage, intelligence, +conviction and willingness to sacrifice characterize the suffrage +movement in every state, and the South is no exception. The women of +that section will vote; the question is how long must they work, how +much must they sacrifice to win that which has so freely been granted +to men of all classes? + +White supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by woman suffrage. +In the fifteen states south of the Mason and Dixon line are: + + 8,788,901 white women, + 4,316,565 negro women, or + 4,472,336 more white than negro women. + +The total negro population is 8,294,274, and white women outnumber +both negro males and females by nearly half a million. In two states +only, South Carolina and Mississippi, are there more negro than white +women, and in these states there are more negro men than white men. In +South Carolina, voters must read, own and pay taxes on $300 worth of +property. In Mississippi, voters must read the Constitution. The +other four states of the "black belt"--Georgia, Florida, Alabama and +Louisiana--impose an educational test. Women voters would be compelled +to submit to the same qualifications. In the other nine states white +women exceed the total negro population. Woman suffrage in the South +would so vastly increase the white vote that it would guarantee white +supremacy if it otherwise stood in danger of overthrow. If a sly dread +of female supremacy is troubling the doubter he may find comfort in +the rather astonishing fact that white males over 21 are considerably +in excess of white females over 21 in all except Maryland and North +Carolina; negro females over 21 exceed negro males in Alabama, +Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, but +the restrictions in these states of property ownership represented +by tax receipts, education and various other tests, would fall more +heavily upon women than men, and thus admit fewer women than men to +the vote. If the South really wants White Supremacy, it will urge +the enfranchisement of women. The following table offers insuperable +proof: + +==================================================================== +| |Per Cent. of| WHITE | NEGROES +| | Negroes in | 21 Years and Over | 21 Years and Over +| STATES | Population | | +| | All Ages | Male | Female | Male | Female ++---------------+------------+---------+---------+---------+-------- +|Delaware ......| 15.4 | 52,804 | 50,160 | 9,050 | 8,281 +|Maryland ......| 17.9 | 303,561 | 309,897 | 63,963 | 63,899 +|Dist. Columbia.| 28.5 | 75,765 | 81,622 | 27,621 | 34,449 +|Virginia ......| 32.6 | 363,659 | 353,516 | 159,593 | 164,844 +|North Carolina.| 31.6 | 357,611 | 358,583 | 146,752 | 159,236 +|South Carolina | 55.2 | 165,769 | 162,623 | 169,155 | 181,264 +|Georgia .......| 45.1 | 353,569 | 343,187 | 266,814 | 269,937 +|Florida .......| 41.0 | 124,311 | 105,662 | 89,659 | 72,998 +|Kentucky ......| 11.4 | 527,661 | 506,299 | 75,694 | 73,413 +|Tennessee .....| 21.7 | 433,431 | 419,646 | 119,142 | 122,707 +|Alabama .......| 42.5 | 298,943 | 284,116 | 213,923 | 217,676 +|Mississippi ...| 56.2 | 192,741 | 180,787 | 233,701 | 231,901 +|Arkansas ......| 28.1 | 284,301 | 248,964 | 111,365 | 102,917 +|Louisiana .....| 43.1 | 240,001 | 222,473 | 174,211 | 172,711 +|Texas .........| 17.7 | 835,962 | 722,063 | 166,393 | 161,959 +|Missouri ......| 4.8 | 919,480 | 874,997 | 52,921 | 48,057 +|Oklahoma ......| 8.3 | 393,377 | 311,266 | 36,841 | 30,208 +|West Virginia .| 5.3 | 315,498 | 270,298 | 22,757 | 14,667 +==================================================================== + +Speaking of the probable enforcement of the National Constitution +against the "Grandfather clause" in Southern constitutions, Walter E. +Clark, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, said: + +"In North Carolina such a decision would readmit to the polls 125,000 +negro votes. What preparation have we made to meet such a possible +result? I know of but one remedy. The census shows that the white +population of North Carolina is seventy per cent. and the colored +population thirty per cent. It follows that the white adult women of +North Carolina are more in numbers than the negro men and negro women +combined. _The votes of 260,000 white women can be relied on to +stand solid against any measure or any man who proposes to question +Anglo-Saxon supremacy._ + +"I am not intimating that the admission of the white women to the +polls will secure democratic supremacy (they will not impair it), +nor that it will prejudice the republican element. The equal suffrage +movement has never proceeded on party lines and the women would scorn +to be admitted unless they were as free in their choice of party +measures and candidates as the men. But what I am saying is that +if the negroes are readmitted by a decision of the Federal Court to +suffrage, the 260,000 votes of the white women of the State will be +one solid obstacle to any measure that would impair either for them or +their children the continuance of white supremacy." + + +III. WOMEN DO NOT WANT TO VOTE AND HENCE IT IS UNFAIR TO THRUST THE +VOTE UPON THEM BY FEDERAL AMENDMENT. + +We have two classes of voters in the United States, young men who +automatically become voters at twenty-one, and naturalized citizens. +No one among them has ever been asked whether he wishes the vote. It +was "thrust upon them" all as a privilege which each would use or not +as he desired. To extend the suffrage to those who do not desire it is +no hardship, since only those who wish the privilege will use it. On +the other hand, it becomes an intolerable oppression to deny it to +those who want it. The vote is permissive, not obligatory. It imposes +no definite responsibility; it extends a liberty. That there are women +who do not want the vote is true, but the well-known large number of +qualified men who do not use the vote, indicates that the desire to +have someone else assume the responsibility of public service is not +confined to women. It is an easy excuse to say "wait until all the +women want it," but it is a poor rule which doesn't work both ways. +Had it been necessary for members of Congress to wait until all men +wanted the vote before they had one for themselves, we should be +living in an unconstitutional monarchy. More, had it been necessary +for women to wait until all women approved of college or even public +school education for girls, property rights, the right of free speech, +or any one of the many liberties now enjoyed by women, but formerly +denied them, the iniquities of the old common law would still measure +the privileges of women, and high schools and colleges would still +close their doors to women. + +A certain way to test whether any class of people want the vote is to +note the numbers of those who use it when granted. + +As men and women voters do not use separate boxes and as initials +are often employed by both sexes in registration, election officials +invariably reply to queries as to the number of women actually voting +in their respective states, that positive figures are not obtainable. +Yet the testimony, while lacking definite statement, is overwhelming +that women in all lands vote in about the same proportion as men. +Women in Illinois, not being possessed of complete suffrage rights, +have voted in separate boxes, and figures are therefore obtainable. +The report from the City of Chicago for 1916 as submitted by the Chief +Clerk of the Board of Election Commissioners is as follows: + + REGISTRATION + Men Women Total + 504,674 303,801 808,475 + + VOTES CAST NOV 7 + Men Women Total + 487,210--96.5% 289,444--95.2% 776,654--96% + + VOTES CAST--DEMOCRATIC + Men Women Total + 217,328 133,847 351,175 + + VOTES CAST--REPUBLICAN + Men Women Total + 235,328 141,533 377,201 + + PROGRESSIVE AND SOCIALIST + 48,278 + +Although New York City is nearly two and a half times as large as +Chicago, the registration of the latter exceeded that of New York by +69,307. + +The following is quoted from an official statement issued by the +California Civic League on what the women of California have done with +the vote: + + "There has been some attempt on the part of those opposed + to women voting to make it appear that in San Francisco + particularly, women were slow to register and loth to vote. + The fact is always suppressed that there are never less + than 132 men to every 100 women in the city and that women + therefore should properly be only forty-three per cent. of the + total number of voting adults. At the last mayoralty election + the women unquestionably re-elected the incumbent as against + Eugene Schmitz of graft-prosecution fame, who tried to 'come + back.' In this election women constituted thirty-seven per + cent. of the total registered vote and the women of the best + residence districts voted in the proportion of forty-two + to forty-four per cent. of the total vote cast in those + precincts; while in the downtown, tenderloin and dance-hall + districts women constituted only twenty-seven per cent. of + the registration and negligible portion of the vote. These + proportions have been substantially maintained in minor + elections since, and were slightly increased in the National + election of November, 1916, when they comprised thirty-nine + per cent. of the registration and voted within two per cent. + as heavily as men." + +From no state comes the report that women have not used their vote. +The evidence that they do use it has been so largely distributed +through the press, that more definite proof seems unnecessary, even +were it possible to secure it. The following bits of testimony taken +from press reports are of interest: + +In WYOMING, out of 45,000 registered voters, 20,000 are reported +as women. But Wyoming has 219 men to every 100 women of voting age. +Therefore to compare favorably with Wyoming's 20,000 women voters +there should the 53,800 men. + + * * * * * + +In MONTANA, one-third of a registration of 255,000 is made up of +women. Montana has 189.6 men to every 100 women. As there were only +81,741 women of voting age in Montana in 1910, the present number, +85,000, must mean that nearly every woman in the state voted in 1916. + + * * * * * + +About 40% of UTAH'S 130,000 registration is made up of women. Utah has +6 men of voting age to every 5 women, 20% more men than women. + + * * * * * + +In IDAHO, out of a registration of 95,000, there are 40,000 women. +Idaho has more than half as many again men as women. Therefore to +have a fifty-fifty representation at the polls, Idaho should have +registered 60,000 men instead of 55,000 to match its 40,000 women. + + +IV. CONSTITUENCY HAS INSTRUCTED AGAINST SUFFRAGE. + +This objection is urged by members in whose states there have been +referenda on the subject in recent years with adverse results. Members +of Congress are apportioned among the several states according to +population and are constitutionally obligated to represent women as +well as men. As the electors of no constituency have voted solidly +against woman suffrage, such objectors are accepting instructions +from less than half their adult constituents and often from less than +one-fourth. Women have had no opportunity to speak for themselves. As +a matter of very suggestive fact, thirty-five members of Congress, +who upon interview have expressed opposition to the Federal Amendment, +were elected by minorities. Some of these represent states which +have had a referendum on woman suffrage and were elected by a smaller +number of total votes than their respective districts gave the +suffrage amendment. These are such curious facts, that it is difficult +to believe in the sincerity of the objection. That men and elements +which have contributed money and work to secure the election of a +member of Congress instruct him how to vote is more believable. For +the sake of the common welfare of the American people, it is well, +that the number of such members is probably few. + + +V. POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY. The South professes to fear the increased +Negro vote; the North, the increased Foreign vote; the rich, the +increased labor vote; the conservative, the increased illiterate +vote. The Republicans since the recent presidential election fear +the increased Democratic vote; the Democrats fear the woman voters' +support was only temporary. The "wet" fears the increased dry vote; +the "dry" the increased controlled wet vote. Certain very numerous +elements fear the increased Catholic vote and still others the +increased Jewish vote. The Orthodox Protestant and Catholic fear +the increased free-thinking vote and the free-thinkers are decidedly +afraid of the increased church vote. Labor fears the increased +influence of the capitalistic class, and capitalists, especially of +the manufacturing group, are extremely disturbed at the prospect of +votes being extended to their women employees. Certain groups fear the +increased Socialist vote and certain Socialists fear the "lady vote." +Party men fear women voters will have no party consciousness and prove +so independent as to disintegrate the party. Radical or progressive +elements fear that women will be "stand-pat" partisans. Ballot +reformers fear the increased corrupt vote and corruptionists fear +the increased reform vote. Militarists are much alarmed lest women +increase the peace vote and, despite the fact that the press of the +country has poured forth increasing evidence that the women of every +belligerent country have borne their full share of the war burden +with such unexpected skill and ability that the authorities have been +lavish in acknowledgment, seem certain that women of the United +States will prove the exception to the world's rule and show the white +feather if war threatens. + +Ridiculous as this list of objections may appear, each is supported +earnestly by a considerable group, and collectively they furnish the +basis of opposition to woman suffrage in and out of Congress. + +The answer to one is the answer to all. + +Government by "the people" is expedient or it is not. If it is +expedient, then obviously _all_ the people must be included. If it +is not expedient, the simplest logic leads to the conclusion that the +classes to be deprived of the franchise should be determined by their +qualities of unfitness for the vote. If education, intelligence, +grasp of public questions, patriotism, willingness and ability to give +public service, respect of law, are selected as fair qualifications +for those to be entrusted with the vote and the opposite as the +qualities of those to be denied the vote, it follows that men and +women will be included in the classes adjudged fit to vote, and also +in those adjudged unfit to vote. Meanwhile the system which admits the +unworthy to the vote provided they are men, and shuts out the +worthy provided they are women, is so unjust and illogical that its +perpetuation is a sad reflection upon American thinking. + +The clear thinker will arrive at the conclusion that women must be +included in the electorate if our country wishes to be consistent with +the principles it boasts as fundamental. The shortest method to secure +this enfranchisement is the quickest method to extricate our country +from the absurdity of its present position. + + +VI. THE LOW STANDARDS OF CITIZENSHIP which lead to controlled votes, +bribery and various forms of corruptions, will be accentuated by +woman suffrage with the doubling of every dangerous element, hence +any effort to postpone its coming is justifiable. Woman suffrage will +increase the proportion of _intelligent voters_. According to the +Commissioners of Education there are now one-third more girls in the +high schools of the country than boys. In 1914, the latest figures, +64,491 boys were graduated from the high schools of the United States +and 96,115 girls. In the normal schools the educational report for +1915 states that 80 per cent. of the pupils were girls. The Census of +1910 reports a larger number of illiterate men than illiterate women. + +Woman suffrage would increase the _moral_ vote. Only one out of every +twenty criminals are women. Women constitute a minority of drunkards +and petty misdemeanants, and in all the factors that tend to handicap +the progress of society women form a minority; whereas in churches, +schools and all organizations working for the uplift of humanity, +women are a majority. In all American states and countries that +have adopted equal suffrage the vote of the disreputable woman is +practically negligible, the slum wards of cities invariably having the +lightest woman vote and the respectable residence wards the heaviest. +Woman suffrage would increase the number of _native born voters_ as +for every 100 foreign white women immigrants coming to this country +there are 129 men, while among Asiatic immigrants the men outnumber +the women two to one, according to the Census of 1910. + +Woman suffrage would help to _correct election procedure_. In all +states where women vote, the polling booths have been moved into +homes, church parlors, school houses or other similar respectable +places. Women serve as election officials and the subduing influence +of woman's presence elsewhere has had its effect upon the elections. +Women greatly increase the number of competent persons who can be +drawn upon as election officials. No class of persons in the nation +is so well trained as school teachers for this work. The presence of +women as voters and officials would in itself eliminate certain +types of irregularity and go a long way toward establishing a higher +standard of election procedure. Woman suffrage cannot possibly make +political conditions worse, since all the elements which combine to +produce those conditions are less conspicuous among women than men. On +the other hand the introduction of a new class possessing a very +large number of persons who would unwillingly tolerate some of the +conditions now prevailing offers evidence that a powerful influence +for better things would come with the woman's vote. + + +VII. PROHIBITION HAS OUTSTRIPPED SUFFRAGE, THEREFORE SUFFRAGE +SENTIMENT IS LESS STRONG. + +It should be remembered that prohibition may be obtained by statutory +enactment, a privilege denied woman suffrage; that it has been largely +established by local option, another privilege denied woman suffrage. +These facts account for the larger success as indicated by relative +territory covered by prohibition and woman suffrage. + + + + +APPENDIX A + +The Following Statement Shows the Extent of Suffrage Enjoyed by Women +in Other Lands: + + +THE AUSTRALIAN PROVINCES granted municipal suffrage to women as +follows: New South Wales, 1867; Victoria, 1869; West Australia, 1871; +South Australia, 1880; Tasmania, 1884; Queensland, 1886. They granted +full suffrage to women as follows: South Australia, 1897; West +Australia, 1899; New South Wales, 1902; Tasmania, 1903; Queensland, +1905; Victoria, 1908. + + * * * * * + +Full suffrage was granted to the women of The Isle of Man, 1892; New +Zealand, 1893; Finland, 1906; Norway, 1907; Denmark, 1915; Iceland, +1916. + + * * * * * + +CANADIAN PROVINCES extended municipal suffrage to women as follows: +Ontario, 1884, to widows and spinsters assessed for not less than +$400, married women entitled to vote on some propositions; New +Brunswick, 1886, to women and spinsters rate payers; Nova Scotia, +1887, to all women rate payers; Manitoba, 1888, to all woman rate +payers; British Columbia, 1888, widows and spinsters rate payers; +Alberta, 1888, widows and spinsters rate payers; Saskatchewan, 1888, +widows and spinsters rate payers; Prince Edward Island, 1888, widows +and spinsters property holders; Quebec, 1892, widows and spinsters +property holders. The full suffrage was granted to all women in the +Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in +1916. + + * * * * * + +SOUTH AFRICA--Municipal suffrage was extended to women as follows: In +The Transvaal, in 1854, to burghers' wives; in 1903 to white women +on a property qualification; in Cape Colony, 1882, to all women on +a property qualification; in Orange River Colony, 1904, to all women +resident householders. + + * * * * * + +SWEDEN--Municipal suffrage for unmarried women, School Board and +Ecclesiastical Franchise (without eligibility to office), 1862; School +Board and Poor Law (with eligibility), 1889; eligibility to municipal +and church councils, and extension of suffrage rights to married +women, 1909. + + * * * * * + +In ENGLAND and WALES the first extension of suffrage to women was +granted in 1834. Since that time various extensions of suffrage to men +and to women have taken place. The first woman suffrage was given to +widows and spinsters. The disability of married women was removed in +1900, and English and Welsh women now enjoy suffrage in all elections +upon the same terms as men with the sole exception of the right to +vote for members of Parliament. + + * * * * * + +SCOTLAND--1872--First extension of suffrage to women to elect School +Boards (with eligibility). 1881--Municipal suffrage for unmarried +women (with eligibility). 1900--Disability of married women in +municipal elections removed. 1907--Town and County Council eligibility +for married and unmarried established. + + * * * * * + +IRELAND--1837--First extension of suffrage to women to elect Poor +Law Guardians. 1887--Municipal suffrage granted the women of Belfast. +1894--Municipal suffrage extended to other cities. 1911--Town +and County Council eligibility for married and unmarried women +established. + + + + +APPENDIX B + + +(In the table below, the 36 male suffrage states are grouped under +classifications which represent, as far as can be represented in a +table, the various degrees of difficulty met in the amending clauses +of State Constitutions.) + +A.--Amendment passed by the Legislature or Constitutional Convention: + +Delaware: Amendments are not put to the referendum vote. + +They must pass two legislatures by a two-thirds majority each time. +The Legislature sits biennially. A Constitutional Convention can also +pass amendments without reference to the people. + + +B.--Passed by majority one Legislature and majority vote of people on +the referendum or by constitutional convention with referendum: + +Missouri--Biennial Legislature. Initiative petition also possible. + +South Dakota--Biennial. Constitutional Convention hard to call. + + +C.--Large Legislative vote necessary: + +Florida, three-fifths, biennial. + +Georgia, two-thirds, annual. + +Maine, two-thirds, biennial. + +Michigan, two-thirds, biennial. Initiative petition also possible. + +North Carolina, three-fifths, biennial. + +Ohio, three-fifths, biennial. Initiative petition also possible. + +West Virginia, two-thirds, biennial. + + +D.--Same as C., but no, or infrequent Constitutional Conventions: + +Louisiana, two-thirds, biennial, no Constitutional Convention. + +Texas, two-thirds, biennial, no Constitutional Convention. + +Maryland, three-fifths, biennial, 20 years interval between +Constitutional Conventions. + + +E.--Difficult States: + +Alabama--Legislature: three-fifths vote of one Legislature +(quadrennial). People: Majority of all votes cast at the election. + +Iowa--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). People: +Majority of all voting for representatives. + +Minnesota--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial). +People: Majority of votes at the election. + +New York--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual). People: +Majority voting on amendment. + +Virginia--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). +People: Majority of people voting on amendment. + +Oklahoma--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial). +Initiative petition possible. People: Majority voting at election. + +North Dakota--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). +Initiative petition possible. People: Majority voting on the +amendment. No Constitutional Convention. + +South Carolina--Legislature: Two-thirds of two Legislatures +(annual).--One before submission to people; the other after +ratification by them. People: Majority voting for representatives. + +Wisconsin--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). +People: Majority voting at the election. + + +F.--Very Difficult States: + +Arkansas--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial). +People: Majority of all voting at election. Only three amendments at +once. No Constitutional Convention. + +Connecticut--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature; two-thirds +vote a second Legislature (biennial). People: Majority votes of the +people on the amendment. No Constitutional Convention. + +Kentucky--Legislature; three-fifths vote of one Legislature +(biennial). People: Majority of people voting on the amendment. Not +more than two amendments at once. + +Massachusetts--Legislature: Majority in Senate and two-thirds House in +two Legislatures (annual). People: Majority voting on the amendment. +No Constitutional Convention. + +New Jersey--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual). +People: Majority voting on amendment. Same amendment can be submitted +only once in five years. No Constitutional Convention. + +Mississippi--Legislature: Two-thirds vote of one Legislature; majority +of a second, after the referendum vote (quadrennial). People: Majority +voting at the election. No Constitutional Convention. + +Pennsylvania--Legislature: Majority of the two Legislatures +(biennial). People: Majority of people voting at election. Same +amendment can be submitted only once in five years. No Constitutional +Convention. + +Rhode Island--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual). +People: Three-fifths of all voting at election. No Constitutional +Convention. + +Tennessee--Legislature: Majority vote in one Legislature, and a +two-thirds vote in a second (biennial). People: Majority of all voting +for representatives. Same amendment can be submitted only once in six +years. + + +G.--Most Difficult States: + +Vermont--Legislature: Majority in House and two-thirds in Senate +in one Legislature; majority of both houses in a second (biennial). +People: Majority voting on the amendment. No Constitutional +Convention. Constitution can be amended only once in ten years. + +New Hampshire--Constitutional Convention alone can propose amendment. +This convention is held once in seven years. People: Two-thirds +majority vote on amendment. + +Illinois--Legislature: Two-thirds vote of one Legislature (biennial). +People: Majority voting at the election. Only one amendment at a time. +Same amendment only once in four years. + +Indiana--Legislature: Majority vote of two Legislatures (biennial). +People: Majority of voters in state. While one amendment awaits action +no other can be proposed. No Constitutional Convention. + +New Mexico--Legislature Three-fourths vote of one Legislature +(biennial). People: Three-fourths of those voting at election; +two-thirds from each county. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman Suffrage By Federal +Constitutional Amendment, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN SUFFRAGE *** + +***** This file should be named 13568.txt or 13568.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/6/13568/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, S.R.Ellison and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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