Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-10-03
Continued from Fifth Page.


election or appointment is not otherwis
provided for, shall be chosen or appointed
as may be prescribed by law. School dis
trIcts school district officers, municipa
corporations and their officers are not con
stitutionally provided for.
They are, therefore, creations OF the leg
islature and subject to legislative provis
islature has made women electors in al
matters pertaining to the government o
school districts
Upon the same principle the Legislature
conferred upon women the right OF NUM-
cipal suffrage. Can the legislature 60 any
further? The weight OF opinion on the
subject of constitutional law shows thai
the legislature of u state cannot add 10 OF
change the qualifications of an elector a.
prescribed in its constitution. Neither
can the legislature add to or change the
qualification for an office as prescribed III
the constitution. Parenthetically we may
observe that; as our state constitution nc
where requires any one OF the state oIIcer>
to be an elector and nowhere disquailfies
woman from holding any one OF the staCe
offices therefore there can be no legal 90
lection to woman filling any one OF those
Offices to when she can be elected or which
she can consistently and efficiently NIL Ii
the legislature has not the power
to add to the qualifications
for state officers, we fall To
see by what authority private individual
can presume to disqualify certain class
of citizens Many women make the mis-
take of supposing tina: citizens are rs a
matter of course electors or voters. Some
men arbitrarily assume that only electors
are citizens, and that the right of voting
and being voted for are uncontrovertle
terms.
Section /, article 2, of demonstration OF
the United States gives to each state uh"
authority to appoint in such manner as its
Legislature may direct. its proper number
Of presidential electors; and another clause
of the same section. modified Dy the
twelfth amendment. prescribes the man
Der in which these electors shall choose
the president and vice president. The cou-
stirution of the United States does not de-
fine the qualifications of electors, either
presidential or state, for the Durrofes OF this
article. Let us see what our state has de-
CARED and our legislature has enacted on
this subject Article of the state consti-
tuition declares that all elections by the
people sha be by ballot and all elections
by the legislature shall be viva voce-also
that general elections shall be held annu-
ally on the Tuesday succeeding the first
Monday in November. Article 5 declares
who are electors and who are not. 1t does
not say that women are, or are not In
the decisions of our supreme court, and
cannot vote for state or county officers.
The constitution also requires that each
member Of the legislature shall be quail
fled eiector Of and resident in, the county
or district for which he is elected. This is
the only officer of state, county or town
ship which the constitution requires shall
be an elector.
The legislature, in accordance with the
power vested in it, has passed certain laws
regulating elections their conduct and
CANVASS of the vote, and other miScellane-
Gus provisions, but has never provided any
special manner of choosing presidential
electors. except rs to the time of choosing
them. So far rs our laws go there seems
to be nothing that declares that these
electors shall be men or women, or shall
be voted Tor by men or women, except the
general influence that because they must
be chosen at the time of the general cleo =
tion. when only qualified electors of the
state are privileged to vote. This argu-
ment may be good as to the time; whether
1t is good as to The manner is for you to
say. These are absolutely the
only provisions our state has ever
made for the election of pres
idential electors. The legislature has
enacted that on certain date and every
second year thereafter, state officers, a jus
in congress and certain county officers
shall be elected; also, that at a certain
date and every second yenr therea fer, GER
tain other county officers shall be elected;
also that cerlain date and every fourth
year thereafter, there shall be elected In
each Judicial district one judge of the dis
trict court and as many electors of presi-
dent and vice president of she United
States AS this state may be entitled to; I'M
per an amendment to the constitution it
happens that this is also the time for the
election of state senators; under the same
amendment members eff the house of rep
resentatives are also elected, with the diff
ference that the senators are elected for
four years and the members of the house
for two years
The legislature is also empowered to
provide for such county aud township Off
GERS AS may be necessary, the only limita-
ton being that county officers shall hold
office for two years and township officers
for one. Accordingly the legislature has
made such provision. The board of county
commissioners must consist of three quail
flied electors, elected by the qualified
electors. Certain persons are ineligible to
this office, and among them, as clearly ap-
pears from The statuatory requirements,
are women. A county clerk may be elected,
but the law does not say he must be a
qualified elector, nor elected by the quail
ned electors, if the truth must be told: a
county treasurer. VINO is not required by
statute to be an elector or elected by cleo
tors; probate Judge, with no statu-
tory requirement different from that
TO the office of treasurer:
a register of deeds, sheriff, a coroner,
county attorney. clerk of the district
court, county surveyor, county super
lLtendent of public instruction, all with
the same conditions as the clerk or treas
urer. There has also been crested by
statute county officer known rs the
county auditor; this officer must be a
qualified elector, but he is appointed by
the district court of the judicial district in
which his county Is embraced, and not
elected.
There is no statue requiring township
officers to he electors or elected bv electors.
The law has conferred the right upon
TO vote at municipal elections and
In school districts as has been before ex-
planned. The questions therefore are can
legally vote for those county Off
GERS, other than the county commissioner,
aud can they vote for any township officers?
Suppose they offer TO vote and their vote is
rejected; test case is made, and makes its
way into the supreme court. Is it likely, |
after the decision rendered in the case of |
Winans VS.. Williams, before referred TO- |
that the suureme court will de- |
eide that women can vote for all the |
other county or township officers except |
the county superintendent? On the ether |
hand, suppose the votes were received and |
4 contested election resulted. could the de- |
,ision be differents We are confronted, |
not with what ought TO be- but what is |
There arises also another question; can /
he Legislature confer upon women the /
light OF presidential suffrages | believe |
he arguments in its favor are sufficient TO |
warrant women in asking for il. / have |
sometimes thought that, considering the |
act that the constitution refuses to- or at
east does not class women as anything, il |