Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/968

 row, of Illinois, also did good service for some time preceding election, in visiting the various fraternal associations of men in the city of Portland, by whom she was generally accorded a gracious hearing. These ladies represented the National Association.

All went well until about two weeks before election day, June 6, 1900, and the measure in all probability would have carried had it not been for the slum vote of Portland and Astoria, which was stirred up and called out by the Oregonian, edited by H. W. Scott, the most influential newspaper in the State. It was the only paper, out of 229, which opposed the amendment. But notwithstanding its terrible onslaught, over 48 per cent. of all the votes which were cast upon the amendment were in its favor. Twenty-one out of the thirty-three counties gave handsome majorities; one county was lost by one vote, one by 23 and one by 31.

The vote on the amendment in 1884 was 11,223 ayes; 28,176 noes. In 1900 it stood 26,265 ayes; 28,402 noes. Although the population had more than doubled in the cities, where the slum vote is naturally the heaviest and is always against woman suffrage, the total increase of the "noes" of the State was only 226, while in the same time the "ayes" had been augmented by 15,042.

Laws: If either husband or wife die without a will and there are no descendants living, all the real estate and personal property go to the survivor. If there is issue living, the widow receives one-half of the husband's real estate and one-half of his personal property. The widower takes a life interest in all the wife's real estate, whether there are children or not, and all of her personal property absolutely if there are no living descendants, half of it if there are any.

All laws have been repealed that recognize civil disabilites of the wife which are not recognized as existing against the husband, except as to voting and holding office.