Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/446

 The New Jersey law in regard to constitutional amendments provides that after being submitted by one Legislature they must be advertised in every county for three months prior to the next election, acted upon favorably by the succeeding Legislature and then voted on at a special election, the date of which it decides. After the passage of the referendum resolution in 1913 the Legislative Committee took up with the Secretary of State the matter of advertising and were assured that it would be attended to and they could go home and "forget it," which they trustingly did. When no advertisements appeared members of the committee hurried to Trenton and learned that Governor James F. Fielder was responsible. His excuse was that his secretary had mislaid the resolution and forgotten to remind him of it.

1914. The resolution was introduced in January by Senator Charles M. Egan and Assemblyman Joseph M. Branegan, both of Hudson county. It passed the Senate by 15 ayes, 3 noes, and the Assembly by 49 ayes, 4 noes.

1915. The advertising was properly done for this year and the resolution came up for second passage in January, introduced by Senator Blanchard H. White and Assemblyman Robert Peacock, both of Burlington county. A hearing was held January 25, Mrs. Philip McKim Garrison chairman and speakers Dr. Shaw, E. G. C. Bleakley, city counsel of Camden; Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Feickert. The Senate passed the resolution by 17 ayes, 4 noes, and the Assembly by unanimous vote.

1916, A bill for Presidential suffrage for women was introduced by Senator Charles O'Connor Hennessy of Bergen county and was lost by a vote of 10 noes, 3 ayes—Senators Hennessy, Austen Colgate of Essex county and Carlton B. Pierce of Union county. No effort was made to press the bill in the Assembly.

1917. Another bill for Presidential suffrage was introduced by Senator Edmund B. Osborne of Essex county and Assemblyman Roy M. Robinson of Bergen. In both Houses the presiding officers were strongly opposed to woman suffrage and put the bill into unfavorable committees, who refused to report it for action. A hearing was held with Mrs. Robert S. Huse chairman and Mrs. Antoinette Funk the chief speaker. Finally by using what is known as the "rule of fifteen," in the Assembly