Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/98

 1917. Three measures were introduced—a bill for Presidential and Municipal suffrage, a bill giving women a vote in local option elections and the amendment resolution. The two bills were fought with great determination. The first was defeated in the Senate by 19 noes, 13 ayes; in the House by 149 noes, 85 ayes. The Excise bill was tabled in the Senate, rejected in the House by 139 noes, 69 ayes. The resolution passed the House by 138 ayes, 96 noes and was referred to the next Legislature for final action, as required by law.

1919. The State constitutional amendment came automatically before the Legislature but a legal opinion given by former Governor Baldwin held that it would sweep away the literacy test for voters and the suffrage leaders, who doubted the wisdom of going to the work and expense of a referendum campaign when the Federal Amendment was so near, were glad to have so good a reason for not pressing the matter. The Presidential suffrage bill secured a majority favorable report from the Joint Woman Suffrage Committee and it passed in the House by a majority of 27. In the Senate the Republican "machine" was determined to defeat it. In the first vote there was a majority of two against it but on reconsideration there was only one. The "machine" only defeated it by winning a few Democratic votes. The fight over this measure had been made with skill and courage by the women against the most determined opposition on the part of the Republican "machine," which since 1900 had completely controlled both Houses.

The chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, John Henry Roraback, and Major John Buckley, secretary to the Governor, were accounted by the women their most bitter enemies and Speaker of the House James F. Walsh used his large powers to defeat the suffrage bills. Of the fifteen important House committees anti-suffragists held eleven of the chairmanships. The chairman of the Woman Suffrage Committee, Admiral William S. Cowles, was an "anti" but in spite of his influence the committee report was favorable. This was due to the progress of public sentiment, accelerated by the work of women during the war and to the organization for suffrage which had been going forward. Of the more progressive group