Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/858

 the grant of license depend upon a petition therefor signed by men and women, or by women only, or upon any other condition that it may prescribe; and it seems to be equally true that the Legislature may grant to women the right to vote at elections held to determine whether or not local option laws shall be put in force, but it never has done so.

The constitution provides that "all qualified electors, and no others, shall be eligible to office."

In the constitutional convention of 1890 Jordan L. Morris offered a resolution "that the Legislature may make women, with such qualifications as may be prescribed, competent to hold the office of county superintendent of schools." This amendment was tabled. J. W. Cutrer submitted a section "making eligible to all offices connected with the public schools, except that of State Superintendent of Public Education, all women of good moral character, twenty-five years or upwards of age," which was not favorably reported. A clause was introduced by W. B. Eskridge making "any white woman twenty-one years old, who has been a "bona fide" citizen of the State two years before her election, and who shall be of good moral character," eligible to the office of chancery or circuit clerk; and another, that "any white woman, etc., shall be qualified to hold the office of keeper of the Capitol and State librarian."

The last office, as recommended in a separate measure by George G. Dillard, which was adopted, is the only one to which women are specifically eligible, but none has held it.

In some counties the constitution has been liberally interpreted to make women eligible to serve on school boards; this, however. is regulated usually by the judgment of the county superintendent. Women are elected to such positions occasionally in the smaller towns.

The code of 1892 created the text-book committee, whose duty is to adopt a uniform series of books for use in the public schools of a county. An official record is kept of its specific functions, all members being required to "take the oath of office," etc., and thus constituted public officers according to a recent ruling of the Attorney-General. The majority of these com-