Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/451

on the question is sufficient to carry the measure. In other words, every State where the women are not at present enfranchised may be a campaign State every year. If the male voters are obliged to hear the woman suffrage question agitated and discussed at a perennial campaign, how long will it be before, in desperation and self-defense, they will vote in favor of it?

Now, why is the Shafroth-Palmer amendment easier to pass Congress than the Bristow-Mondell amendment? First of all it shifts the responsibility of actually enfranchising the women from the Senators and Representatives to the people of their respective States. Second, the State's rights doctrine is the one objection raised to every federal issue that comes before Congress. It is primarily the greatest obstacle to federal legislation on any subject and is recognized as a valid objection by the members of Congress and particularly those from the North, who feel that they owe to the members of the South the justice of refraining from interference in matters vital to the South....

Third, the Democratic party is committed to the initiative and referendum but not to woman suffrage.... The President has endorsed the initiative and referendum and has fully convinced himself of its merit... . We are asking the Democratic party to give us, the women of the country, the initiative and referendum on the question of whether or not we shall be allowed to vote, and no State can have this question forced upon it or even settled until a majority of the voters of the State cast their ballots in favor of it.

The difficulties connected with the old amendment both in Congress and in many States were described and the case of New York was cited among others:

If the matter of suffrage is submitted to the State of New York in 1915 and does not carry, under the New York constitution it cannot again be submitted for two years. Meantime all the energy that should be expended in directly educating the people must again be wasted trying to get a majority vote in two successive Legislatures. It is the opinion of one of the great suffrage leaders in New York, as expressed to me, that if the amendment does not carry in 1915 the people will not have an opportunity to vote upon it for another fifteen or twenty years.^[1] The early passage of the Shafroth-Palmer amendment would eliminate the State constitutional barrier and leave for the State organization only the work of ratification of this amendment, which only requires a majority vote in both branches of the Legislature. Again the legislator is able to shift the responsibility to the voters of his State. He is not voting directly on the question himself—only to submit the question to the people. You can readily see that here

1. The proposed State amendment failed in New York in 1915, was submitted again by the Legislatures of 1916 and 1917, voted on in November, 1917, and adopted by an immense majority.