Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/941

 This was the only suffrage granted to women until 1901, when the following was enacted by the Legislature:

A woman who possesses the qualifications to vote for village or town officers, except the qualification of sex, and who is the owner of property in the town or village assessed upon the last preceding assessment-roll thereof, is entitled to vote upon a proposition to raise money by tax or assessment.

This law is believed to include about 1,800 places. The bill for it was managed by a committee of the State Suffrage Association in three successive Legislatures.

By the city charters of eleven of the thirty-six third-class cities — Amsterdam, Cohoes, Corning, Geneva, Ithaca, Jamestown, Newburg, Niagara Falls, North Tonawanda, Oswego and Watertown, taxpaying women have a vote on special appropriations. Hornellsville also conferred this privilege but it was declared illegal by the corporation council, because the word "resident" was used instead of "citizen."


 * By a statute of 1880 women are eligible for any school office. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is elected by the Legislature. Instead of county superintendents, as in most States, New York has District Commissioners. A district may comprise either a part or the whole of a county, but no city may form any part of it. At present ten women are serving as District Commissioners. A considerable number sit on the school boards of cities and villages but no exact record is kept. In Greater New York thirty women serve as school inspectors; there are also four supervisors in the departments of sewing, cooking, kitchen-garden and physical culture, at salaries ranging from $2,000 to $2,500.

The same law which enables women to serve as District School Commissioners makes them eligible to all district offices, including those of trustee, collector, treasurer and librarian, as the law in prescribing qualification, omits the word "male."

Women also are eligible to the office of village clerk. They serve as notaries public, clerks of the Surrogate Court and deputy