under consideration and after a brief discussion it was defeated by one vote — 11 ayes, 12 noes.[1]
That evening Mrs. Livermore gave her belated dissertation and, upon motion, was followed by Adele Hazlitt, who with great courtesy slew her weak arguments.
At this session the charters of East Saginaw and Detroit were amended to give women of those cities the school ballot; the former through the efforts of Representative Rowland Connor.[2]
In 1891 the Municipal Suffrage Bill was again presented to the Legislature, in the House by Samuel Miller and in the Senate by Alfred Milnes, both champions of the measure. The State suffrage convention was in session at the capital February 10-12, and the Legislature gave a joint hearing in Representative Hall to its speakers, all Michigan women. The Senate Bill was taken up March 25, discussed and lost by 14 ayes, 12 noes. It was then tabled and taken up again May 13, receiving 14 ayes, 15 noes. Just prior to this consideration of the bill ninety-five petitions in its favor, representing eighty-eight towns and bearing several thousand signatures, were presented.
This discussion was the most trying of all during the ten years of effort to secure Municipal Suffrage, owing to the character of the chief opponent, Senator Frank Smith, who represented the basest elements of Detroit. Knowing his illiteracy, the reporters had expected much sport by sending his speech to the papers in full, but in the interests of decency they refrained from publishing it. Women came down from the galleries white with anger and disgust, and avowed that if they never had wanted the ballot before they wanted it now. The suffrage committee received many friendly courtesies from Lieut.-Gov. John Strong, besides a substantial gift of money. When asked for the use of the Senate Chamber for one evening of the convention he said: "Certainly; your money helped to build the State House. You have as much right to it as any of us."
- ↑ Many petitions in favor of the bill had been sent unsolicited, this not being a part of the plan of work. After the quick defeat in the Senate it was found that the chairman of the committee to which these had been referred had on file the names of 5,502 petitioners (2,469 men, 3,033 women) out of twenty-one senatorial districts. These were in addition to many thousands sent in previous sessions, when petitioning had been a method of work.
- ↑ Although the Detroit women obtained the change in their law just before the spring election, they made a house to house canvass to secure registration and polled a vote of 2,700 women, electing Sophronia O. C. Parsons to the school board.
