Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/802

a society, elected a chairman and secretary and worked strenuously and systematically, making a thorough canvass of the House and pledging as many members as possible to vote “No.”

The suffragists made the mistake of devoting their attention mainly to the Senate, where it was expected that the bill would come up first, and where it was believed that the main difficulty would be, but on March 5 the Municipal Suffrage Bill was brought up in the House. Every inch of space was crowded with spectators. After much discussion the bill was defeated by 137 yeas, 97 nays.

On March 13 a bill to raise the “age of protection” for girls from 16 to 18 years was defeated by 108 yeas, 55 nays.

On May 17 Senator Wellman’s bill for a “mock referendum” was adopted by the Legislature. It proposed to take a vote of the men and women of the State on the question “Is it expedient that Municipal Suffrage should be extended to women?”

The Mock Referendum: This is called by the advocates of equal rights a “mock referendum” because it was to have no legal validity and was to give the women nothing even if it should be carried in their favor. The Woman’s Journal said:

Two years ago an amendment was added to the Municipal Suffrage Bill providing that it should become law when ratified by a vote of the majority of the men and women of the State. Nearly every opponent in the House voted against the bill after that amendment had been incorporated, showing clearly that they were not willing to let women have suffrage even if a majority of the men and women of the State should vote for it. It was then believed that such action would be constitutional. The Supreme Court afterwards gave its opinion that Municipal Suffrage could not be extended by a popular vote of: either the men or the women, or both, but must be extended, if at all, by the Legislature. Following that decision, the opponents have become clamorous for a popular vote.

The suffragists, who, beginning in 1869, had petitioned year after year for the submission to the voters of a legal and straightforward constitutional amendment, which would give women the ballot if the majority voted for it, were disgusted with this sham substitution. Mrs. Livermore, the State president, declared that she would neither take part in the mock vote herself nor advise others to do so. This feeling was so general that at the last meeting of the executive committee of the W. S. A. for