The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-06

saws &A10 ~ A0Ao0aSA0 "a
would scarcely dare tell US women that we are
not meant in the sbill of rights" which refers
alone to "menn in the strict wording and letter
of the Constitution.
tions for county officers. Article vi, Section
4, explicitly says: mo person shall be elected or
appointed as a county officer who shall not be an
'elector of the county, ETC." This applies to
clerk OF the court, auditor, recorder, and sur.
veyor, etc. A woman may be elected justice OF
the peace, as this is a township Office with no
qualifications specified in any law of the State.
In contrast to this permit me to digress and
state that in Kansas and Iowa women may be
elected to any county Office, and many women
are now serving in these several capacities.
Women may not fill judicial offices as Article
VII, Section q, State Constitution, says: Every
person of good moral character, being a voter,
shall be entitled to admission to practice law in
all courts of Justice"
1t is plainly within the power of the General
Assembly to grant the same control in municipal
affairs that is now vested in men. The State
Constitution is silent upon municipal law, except
as to municipal debt. All laws controlling
municipal affairs are prescribed by the General
Assembly, and by this body can be abrogated,
changed or amended The city is the creature
of the Legislature, a corporation, and derives all
its privileges and powers from this source alone.
/ would suggest, therefore, that the incoming
Legislature be asked TO amend Section 3O45, Re-
vised Statutes of Indiana, 1881, Law of city
elections, which reads: 'All elections of such
cities shall be governed by the laws in force
regulating township and other elections, and the
voters therein shall have the like qualifications
and be subject to the same restrictions and liza
bilities." l would have the amendment read:
provided, also, Any woman, married or single,
of the age of twenty-one years and upward, and
possessing the qualifications prescribed for men,
shall be eligible to vote and hold Office the same
as men,"
DECISIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT.
Should doubts arise in the minds of any of
the competency of the Assembly to grant
municipal suffrage because of the wording of
Article Ii, Section 2. of the State Consti-
tuition, n umerous decisions can be found
in Supreme Court reports to fully set
tie such doubts, as it has been again and again
decided that a city government is separate and
distinct from the government of the State. We
refer to such decisions as The State VS.. Kirk,
4th Indiana Reports, page, 4O1; Mohan VS.. Jack
son, SD Indiana Reports, page, 500. In these
decisions 1T is made clear that ''the executive
and administrative duties of city officers are not
such as come within the departments of the
State government as established by the COnsti-
tuition"
We believe municipal government, as now pre-
scribed by the laws of the State, to be uncon'
stitutional, as the General Assembly has in it's
Law Governing Elections" overstepped the pro-
vision of the State Constitution, Article /, Sec
ton %, which expressly directs that ''the Gen
eral Assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or
class of citizens, privileges or immunities which,
upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to
all citizens" If n was deprived of hisvote or
the privilege of holding Office, being a '~'citizen,"
the decision would at once be made in his favor,
and women are equally ''citizens" who are BE-
ing deprived of the privilege of holding Office,
distributing taxes and expressing themselves in
municipal affairs. We would that a
test case be made upon this point.
The General Assembly has absolute control of
all school laws except those relating to raising
funds. This the State Constitution controls;
also the selection of Superintendent of Public In
struction. Article VIII, Section 8, reads: The
General Assembly shall provide for the election,
by the voters of the State, of a State Supe rim
tendent of Public Instruction, who shall hold his
office for two years, and whose duties and COM
pensatlon shall be prescribed by law. A woman,
however, can be elected to this Office" The Gen
eral Assembly has recognized its power to con-
troll the schools, regardless of constitutional re-
straint, by the law that permits only taxpayers
OF thedistrict, except married women and minors,
to vote at school meetings" (Revised Statutes,
Ind, section 1885, also, by permitting women
to be eligible to school offices, section 454O, which
specifies: ANY woman. married or single, of
the age of twenty-one years and upwards. and
possessing the qualifications prescribed for men,
shall be eligible to any Office under the general
or special school laws of the sState.Rs As the
law now stands, single women, who are tax
payers, by reason of not being excepted, may
vote on all school matters except for the election
of Superintendent of Public Instruction.. | would
recommend that the Legislature be asked to so
amend the school laws as to allow not only
single, but all women possessed of the same
qualifications as men, to vote upon all matters
pertaining to schools.
JUDGES AND CLERKS OF ELECTION.
would suggest that the General Assembly be
asked to amend sections 4698-89-90, Re-
vised Statutes, changing the words qualified
voters to qualified citizens" thus allowing
women to act as judges, inspectors and clerks Of
elections, positions for which women are emf
nently fitted. This is plainly within the power
of the Legislature to grant. | would also ask
that women be empowered to vote upon public
improvements, such as gra vel roads, railroads,
etc.
There is crying need of a law that shall enable
wives of men who spend their time in drunken
ness to have these arrested, confined in q work
house, the proceeds of such labor to be given to
the support of their families. If men will license
this awful traffic and call the blood-money ''reve-
nue." then, in the name of justice, let the poor,
helpless victims of this revenue raising have
some redress from the law. A work-house seems
the most feasible plan, unless the amount of fine
imposed upon men for drunkenness be paid from
the treasury receiving the revenue" from license
back to the families of men so confined. This is
an. important civil right" that is due women
under the present system of men-made laws
governing the liquor traffic.
WOMEN AS JURoRs-PREsIDENTIAL SUFFRAGE.
1t is plainly within the power of the General
Assembly to grant women the right to act as
jurors, the Constitution, both national and
State, being silent as to qualifications OF this
Office. / would therefore recommend that the
incoming Legislature be asked to amend Section
1893, Revised Statutes, Indiana, by striking out
the word ~"voter," the qualifications of Jurors
now being: "A person must be a resident voter
of the county, and a freeholder or householder"
| believe the law unconstitutional as it now
stands, to be unconstitutional under the re-
restrictions of Article |, Section %, which re-
stricts the General Assembly in class legisla-
change in this law. 1t is one of the most neces-
sary things to be done. Women are leading out
into fields of labor, education and politics, and
it will be necessary for them to seek redress at
the hands of courts more largely in the future
than in the past; and as the courts are managed
now, the shameless disregard of all decency
towards women, no matter whether they enter
the courts for the protection of life, property or
reputation, shows the absolute necessity of a
general invasion of the courtroom, just SO far
as nnsSihla. hV women. that decancv and iustica