The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-03-25
Municipal Suffrage Bill Defeated in
the House.
BY EVEN A LARGER MAJORITY
THAN WAS FIRST CAST.
A Lively But Profitless Debate-The Hon.
Llewellyn Powers as Squire of DANES
Brown and Bird Among the Speakers
in Opposition.
Especial to the Press.1

Brown and Bird Among the Speakers
in Opposition.
Especial to the Press.1
AUGUSTA, March 24.-Today's devel-
opments in the House showed that the
members who favored women suffrage
week ago had not changed their minds.
Fifty-four voted for the bill granting
municipal suffrage to women and forty
eight voted for it today. The many ex-
cuses would account for the falling off
in the vote. Thrasher of the Senate,
in passing the bill brought out it's oppo-
nents in force in the House and they mus
tered Is votes against it, after an inter-
esting debate.
Mrs. L. NJ. N. Stevens, Mrs. e. S..
Osgood, Miss Cornelia Dow and other
ladies prominently identified with the
movement were present.
MI. Brown of Waterville, spoke in
opposition to the bill and painted
picture of the condition of things in every
neighborhood, as he saw 1t, if the women
were allowed to vote. Mr.. Brown said,
to begin with, that he had inquired
among ladies whom be had met in social
gatherings recently and he ventured the
assertion that not one woman in 200
wanted this thing. Members all knew
that men had at times hard work to keep
bitterness out of their political discuss
ions. What would be the effect if ladies
were to become mixed up in these politi-
cal disputes? Mr.. Brown thought it
would be very deplorable. He did not
believe that his friend from Monson rep
resented the people of his district when
he supported this bill. Mr.. Brown
thought that had the people of Monson
understood their representative attitude
on this question, they would not have
elected him. In Waterville the ladies
were opposed to this thing with perhaps
the exception of one or two active women.
What would be the effect politically of
this bill? Who would vote among the
women? Would they be the ladies of
Maine, or another class of females? Mr..
Brown thought that it would be the lat
ter class. This branch of the legislature
was the one nearest the people and it;
should act in accordance with its own
ideas and not do a thing because the
Senate had done the same. He was in
formed that several senators had already
changed their minds on this matter and
he believed that the senate now did not
want to go out of this building with this
bill enacted. He believed the Senate
would change its vote if the House gave
it chance. He applealed to the House
to stand by its former action. APP
plause.
Hon. LlewelIyn Powersssspoke forcibly
and eloquently for the bill and his re-
marks were frequently interrupted by
applause. He took issue with the gen
tleman from Waterville. He did not
know how that gentleman, with all his
other arduous duties, had found time to
become the spokesman of the people of
Maine. He did not know who the gen
tleman from Waterville referred to when
he spoke of those women who would
exercise the right of suffrage under this
bill. 1t certainly did not mean the
prominent ladies from all
parts of this state who had petitioned for
this bill. Mr.. Powers urged that if the
right of suffrage was God given right,
and not the bounty of some king, then it
was right that belonged to women as
we'll as men. And if one woman wanted
to exercise that right, it was no argument
to urge that she should not do so because
SO other women did not. Mr.. Powers
believed that the exercise of this right
by women would be as beneficial here as
it had under some restrictions in. the
neighboring state of Massachusetts.
Mr.. Sylvester of Lisbon opposed the
bill in carefully prepared speech. He
did not know but the time would come
when he should have to say Mrs. Speaker
and the lady from Houlton, but he urged
that woman already had cares enough
and did not desire the additional duties
imposed upon her by this bill.
Mr., Twitchell of Bath wanted the
House to think what this proposition
meant. He had regarded the measure as
one not toIbe seriously considered, butthe
action of the Senate changed that The
gentleman from Houlton spoke of the
inherent right of suffrage. Was it the
action of the people if this legislature
turned loose on the state $4,000 voters?
Did the people, in that case, have chance
to express their wishes?
Mr.. Belleau of Lewiston said he had
been married nine years, and had half
dozen children. [Laughter]. He did
not want any man to go into his house
and try to convert his wife from her hus
bands politics. [Laughter].
Mr.. Fairbanks rose to point of order.
He hoped that the levity which prevailed
yesterday Wnlle ne was IN The cnalr
flaughter] would not be permitted to
continue today. He hoped this question
would be considered with the serious
ness to which it was entitled, and that
the Speaker would preserve order.
The Speaker pro tenn said that he
would endeavor to do so.
Mr.. Higgins-That would shut off the
gentleman from Bangor. laughter
Mr. Belleau, in continuing his remarks,
said he hoped the levity would continue
as to his mind that was the treatment
the subject deserved. Mr.. Belleau's re-
marks gave an object lesson in the oper-
alton of the five-minute rule. Mr.. Bel
leau's time having expired, Mr. Powers
called attention to that fact, and Mr..
Shaw of Bath promptly made Mr.. Bel
leau present of his five minutes.
Mr.. Shaw of Portland supported the
bill. He called attention to the fact that
the bill only extended the right of muni-
cipal suffrage. The remarks of other
gentlemen seemed to indicate that the
understood that it was proposed to ex-