Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/849

 eligible to hold any office pertaining to the management of libraries. On as harmless an amendment as this 43,600 men voted in the negative, but 71,704 voted in the affirmative; and it was adopted. :

This was probably the last election at which any amendment whatever could have been carried; for, among four submitted in the same year, was one providing that thereafter no amendment could be adopted by merely a majority of those voting upon it, but that it must have a majority of the largest number of votes cast at that election. None ever has been submitted which aroused sufficient interest to receive as large a vote of both affirmative and negative combined as was cast for the highest officer. Therefore in Minnesota it is impossible for women to obtain any further extension of the franchise. Their only hope for the full suffrage lies in the submission of an amendment to the Federal Constitution by Congress to the Legislatures of the various States.

An act of 1887 declares that a woman shall retain the same legal existence and legal personality after marriage as before, and shall receive the same protection of all her rights as a woman which her husband does as a man; and for any injury sustained to her reputation, person or property, she shall have the same right to appeal, in her own name alone, to the courts for redress; but this act shall not confer upon the wife the right to vote or hold office, except as is otherwise provided by law. By a constitutional amendment adopted in 1875 women were made eligible to all offices pertaining to the public schools and to public libraries. They have served as State librarians.

Miss Jennie C. Crays was president of the Minneapolis school board for two years. There are forty-three women county superintendents at the present time, each having from 100 to 130 districts to visit. Women have served as clerks and treasurers of school districts.

A law of 1889 gave to women as well as men the powers of constables, sheriffs or police officers, as agents of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.