THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES "The People" Includes Women Says the Committee on Woman Suffrage of the United States Senate; and Recommends a Constitutional Amendment Abolishing the "Odious...
...We therefore, upon all grounds, conclude that the resolution should be submitted to the States for their adoption or ratification...
...Resolved by the Senate and House of Repre-sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of the said legislatures, shall be valid as part of said Constitution, namely: "ARTICLE— "Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex...
...That the granting of the elective franchise to women would add to the strength, efficiency, justice and fairness of the Government, we have not the slighest doubt, and this is especially true in the United States, where all power is reposed in the people, with universal suffrage as the primal basis of its exercise...
...D., in his Advanced Civics (see p. 106), will be found useful, and if a class fairly and in good faith meets the requirements of these conditions it is respectfully submitted that the elective franchise should be granted to such a class...
...Lo, before us gleams her camp fire...
...Not a "Novel" Proposal DURING the Sixty-second Congress, from December 4, 1911, to December 4, 1912, 21 amendments were proposed to the Constitution of the United States, and the feeling that the IN THIS REPUBLIC the people constitute the Government...
...Does this class of citizens pay taxes...
...Woman's sphere, her ideals, and her duties make her the inescapable and essential conservator of human life, charged as she is with the duty of conserving the human race...
...This table was made a part of Mr...
...The people" includes women, who can not be denied those political privileges and responsibilities which men claim and assert for themselves without doing violence to the fundamental principles of our Government...
...Chamberlain, to wit: Joint Resolution Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Extending the Right of Suffrage to Women...
...5. Will this class oppose dishonest measures...
...9. Will this class continue to fight for a righteous, although defeated, cause so long as thers is a reasonable hope of success...
...2. Will this class of citizens (females) attempt to comprehend the questions upon which it votes...
...It has been considered in its relation to the Constitution, and constitutional law bearing upon such polity has been given earnest and careful consideration...
...On the ground of public policy, minors, incompetents, and others are frequently denied political rights...
...It is not necessary, in the scope of this report, to discuss ail the causes of these changes, but it will not be denied that some of the contributing causes thereof are the adoption of improved means of transportation...
...that the conditions under which we have been living are rapidly changing, and that many, if not most, of the American people now recognize that society and government are dynamic, not static in character...
...Is this class of citizens able to read and write...
...It is, or at least ought to be, an axiom of American liberty that a class of persons obedient to the laws as are the women...
...they are the Government...
...how such laws and conditions will promote morals, human health, and human progress, more especially than as to how this or that particular law or polity will develop or serve material or property interests...
...The preservation of civil liberty will always depend upon the vigilance and zeal of those who love freedom, and if a people do not love liberty well enough to contend for it, if a people prefer turgid quietude to the boisterousness of liberty, they may be sure that the usurpers of power will sooner or later impose tyrannies and despotism upon them...
...The things to be considered, therefore, are as follows: 1. Will this class of citizens (females) vote whenever the lawful opportunity is presented...
...3. Will this class of citizens (females) attempt to learn something of the character and fitness of the persons for whom it votes...
...On July 2, 1776, two days before the Declaration of Independence was signed, New Jersey, in her first State constitution, enfranchised the women by changing the words of her provincial charter from "Male freeholders worth ?50" to "all inhabitants worth ?50," and for 31 years the women of that State voted...
...By direction of a majority of the committee the resolution is reported favorably and With the recommendation that it do pass...
...a class of voters which looks to all laws and movements as to how such Jaws and movements will affect her children...
...H. D. Money, who was a close observer of men and events, a statesman whose memory this Nation reverses, a scholar, a thinker, and orator, whose services here added glory and usefulness to this body said: "Mr...
...whereupon a number of eminent persons addressed the committee in support of and against the resolution...
...which is patient beyond estimate and constantly pouring forth costly sacrifices for the common good of the species, should not be denied a voice in the enactment and enforcement of laws and concerns of the Government...
...They are its creators and its maintenance...
...A people free from the exigencies of life —free from the desire to bring about a betterment of conditions—lose that keen incentive to improvement which adds so much zest, beauty, and grace to life...
...8. Will this class recognize the result of the election as the will of the people and therefore as the law...
...HON...
...That the granting of the elective franchise to women would add to the strength, efficiency, justice, and fairness of gov-ernment, we have not the slightest doubt, and this is especially true in the United States, where all power is reposed in the people with universal suffrage as the primal basis of its exercise...
...THIS QUESTION as to who is an American citizen was left somewhat in doubt by the Constitution of the United States until the adoption of the fourteenth amendment in 1868, when that amendment, in the first section thereof, created a distinct Federal citizenship, as follows: "ARTICLE XLV...
...The question of granting to women the elective franchise being one of far-reaching consequences and vast importance, involving the political rights of one-half of the citizens of the United States, the committee (notwithstanding the able arguments on this subject and exhaustive reports which have been submitted to Congress from time to time since 1866) took the view that a full and complete hearing should be had...
...of fixity incapable of amendments or change...
...Turn to page 14 and see the steady gains that have been made throughout the world in extending the ballot to women...
...That the class of citizens described in the above resolution (females) has abundantly demonstrated it is eminently worthy of possessing such a right has never been successfully contradicted...
...New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth, They must upward still and onward Who would keep abreast of truth...
...But it can not fairly be argued that the proposed constitutional amendment which provides that the rights of citizens of the United States shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State, by reason of sex, is a new, "novel," or "radical" movement, for every phase of this subject has been discussed from time to time by many of the ablest minds of the Nation...
...ASHURST, from the Committee on Woman Suffrage, submitted the following report, to accompany Senate joint resolution 1: The Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage having under consideration Senate joint resolution No...
...they are the Government...
...Speaking in the Senate of the United States on the 5th day of July, 1909, Hon...
...Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside...
...1, introduced by Mr...
...the ready communication among the people afforded by the telephone, the telegraph, the post offices, and the excellent facilities for obtaining education and me transmission of intelligence afforded by the schools, the newspapers, and the magazines...
...7. Will this class place country above party...
...a class which has a peculiar care for the rights of others...
...Progress Toward Liberty OBSERVANT persons will not fail to notice that marked changes in political and social conditions in the United States are now taking place...
...that is to say, civil rights and political rights...
...which is liable to punishment for acts which the law makes criminal...
...Ashurst's committee report.—Editor's Note...
...And this anomaly becomes odious and abhorrent when we reflect that the particular one-half of citizenship thus excluded is the identical one-half from which springs so much wisdom, courage, cheer, hope, and good counsel...
...Constitutional Amendments Are Possible ONLY a short time since some of the wisest and most profound citizens of this Republic believed that by reason of the complicated procedure and large majorities required it was difficult, if not impossible, to amend the Constitution of the United States, and some eminent statesmen even urged that strained constructions should be placed upon the Constitution so as to change somewhat the structure of our political system, bring it into conformity with the dynamic conditions of the day, and thus secure needful reforms...
...HENRY F. ASHURST Senator from Arizona who submitted for the Committee on Woman Suffrage of the United States Senate the notable report favoring a constitutional amendment extending the ballot to the women of the country...
...We ourselves must Pilgrims be, Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly Through the desperate winter sea, Nor attempt the future portals With the past's blood rusted key...
...The adoption of these amendments, in addition to the valuable reforms they will bring about, has convinced the American people that our Federal Constitution is a living, breathing, dynamic force that protects persons as well as property, and that it is not a pro-crustean bed...
...It needed the thunder of the Civil War to break Ms repose, and it may be doubted whether anything short of impending revolution will ever again rouse him to activity...
...In other words, as has been said, "Man looks after the affairs of life, and woman looks after life itself...
...and it is in harmony with political and natural justice to accord her the right to say what laws shall assist her in bringing about the betterment of economic conditions...
...6. Will this class refuse, directly or indirectly, to accept a bribe, and refuse, directly or indirectly, to give a bribe...
...The People Are the Government WE DO NOT feel called upon in this report to discuss (if, indeed, it be debatable) the question as to the equality or inequality of the two sexes from an intellectual standpoint...
...But a monarch who slumbers for years is like a monarch who does not exist...
...The rights attaching to an American citizen may be divided into two classes...
...President, I am one of those who believe that there never will be another amendment to the Constitution of the United States...
...Government is strong or weak, capable or deficient, according to the people who control and make up that Government...
...Gains in Equal Suffrage EIGHTY YEARS ago women could not vote anywhere, except to a very limited extent in Sweden and in a few other places in the Old World...
...a class which is taxed upon its labor and property for the support of the Government...
...American civil liberty is the fruitage of many centuries of earnest and patriotic endeavor...
...The right of suffrage—that is, elective franchise, or the right to vote—is a political right which, upon the grounds of sound public policy and a due regard for the genius of our form of government, should never be withheld from a class of citizens fairly and in good faith proved to be worthy of possessing this right...
...and Recommends a Constitutional Amendment Abolishing the "Odious and Abhorrent" Anomaly by Which the Ballot is Withheld From One-half of Our Citizenship "From Which Springs So Much Wisdom, Courage, Cheer, Hope, and Good Counsel...
...4. Will this class vote against dishonest persons for office...
...Section 2. The Congress shall have power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce the pro-visions of this article...
...Some statesmen, publicists, and editors deplore the fact that we are now living in an age of inquiry, criticism, and searching analysis, but fortunately the country realizes that smug contentment is a corrosive effluent, deadly to the progress, advancement, and happiness of a nation...
...The people" includes women, who cannot be denied those political privileges and responsibilities which men claim and assert for themselves without doing violence to the fundamental principles of our Government...
...An Odious Anomaly IT IS anomalous and archaic, in the free Republic, professedly made up of, controlled by, and administered for all the people, to deny to one-half of its citizens the right of exercising a valuable function of citizenship, to wit, the elective franchise, and thus preclude that one-half from the right and power to say what law or polity shall be its rule of conduct...
...Constitution may be amended is not confined to any one political party...
...Government is simply a tool in the hands of the people for the fashioning of that people's civilization...
...I do not believe this amendment (income-tax amendment) to the Constitution will ever be a part of it...
...In this Republic the people constitute the Government...
...Dicey says of amending the Constitution of the United States: "The sovereign of the United States has been roused to serious action but once during the course of 90 years...
...Who Are American Citizens...
...Women Meet the Test WE SUBMIT that the class of voters (fe-males) sought to be enfranchised by this resolution answers each and every one of these interrogatories with distinguished credit to itself and that it fully, fairly, and in good faith measures up to these requirements...
...History is largely an account of man's struggle for freedom, and from the beginning of the human race down to the present time its tendency has been toward liberty—mankind reaching out for freedom and immeasurably attaining it...
...They are its creators and its maintenance...
...which is patriotic, learned, and in a large measure capable of the highest degree of efficiency in the useful arts and sciences...
...In determining whether or not a particular class of citizens is entitled to the elective franchise the following rules, set down by S. E. Forman, Ph...
...To this date, during the Sixty-third Congress, 14 proposals to amend the Constitution of the United States have been introduced in the Senate and 32 proposals in the House of Representatives, demonstrating that the "let-alone," noninterference, careless, laisser faire policy does not meet the demand of the present day...
...In this Republic we are in constant warfare against fraud and violence, avarice, and cupidity, and in behalf of liberty and justice whose success will be ac-celerated by extending the franchise to women, in whom the materialistic is generally submerged for the idealistic...
...But contrary to the opinion which a few years since prevailed among thinking people, within the past five months two amendments to the Constitution of the United States have been proclaimed, and they were adopted under the procedure which is indisputably complicated and involved...
Vol. 5 • July 1913 • No. 27
