The Monitor-register., 1897-09-17
To the Friends of Education in the
State of New Jersey.

VS4aSJ
We, the undersigned, would respect
fully call your attention to the fact that
the following amendment to Section |. of
Article ii, of the State Constitution. will
be submitted to the voters at a special
election to be held on September 2Sth,
1897.
every female citizen of the United
States of the age of twenty.one years,
who shall have been a resident of the
State one year and of the county Of
which she claims her vote five months
before said meeting, shall be entitled to
vote at any school meeting, held in Any
school district of this state in which she
may reside, for members of Boards of
Education and all other school officers
that now are or hereafter may be elected
at such meetings."
AS will be seen, the proposed amend
ment only affects school meetings held in
rural districts, and not the choice of
members of Boards of Education in cities,
but the special election will be held in
all parts of the State and in every city,
borough and township. Voters in cities
and %boroughs, as we'll as rural districts,
will, therefore, aid in the passage or de-
feat of the amendment.
! We would, therefore, call your item.
ton especially to the following facts !:
First.-Tbe amendment will give no
new rights or privileges to women, but
will simply restore to them the right to
vote at school meetings for the election
of members of Boards of Education.
This right was granted to them by the
Legislature of 1887, and was used BY
women in increasing numbers and with
decided benefit to the schools until
November, 1894, when the supreme
court decided that it was contrary to the
Constitution for women to vote for
| school trustees.
Second.-The right of women to vote
| upon all other questions that come before
school meetings, such as the voting of a
tax, or authorizing the issue OF bonds.
was wholly unaffected by the decision of
the supreme court, and is still possessed
by the women of our State. (See Off
cial opinion of Hon. A. B. Poland, State
Superintendent of Public Instruction in
1850.
Third.-It is also the law of New
Jersey that women can hold the position
of school trustees, and a number are
doing so in different parts of the State at
the present time, having been elected
thereto by the votes OF men. Chapter
CCCXXXVI of the laws of 1873, pro
vided as follows: mo person shall be
eligible to the office of school trustee
unless he or she can read and wiite; and
women who are residents in the district
and over twenty-one years shall also be
eligible to the Office of school trustee"
No new power of holding office, therefore,
will be conferred upon women by the
proposed amendment.
Fourth Women at school meetings
possess at the present moment precisely
the same rights as men, with the single
exception that after voting a tax or
bonding a district, they are debarred
from voting for the men who are to *
pend the money voted to be raised by q
tax or bond. At a school meeting a
woman may lawfully preside as chair
man, or act as secretary of the meeting,
or as teller to count the votes. She may
move and debate any business which
may come before the meeting; In short,
with the single exception named, she has
at a school meeting the same rights,
powers and privileges as if she were q
man.
Fifth 1t is evident, therefore, that
this exception brings about an anoma-
lous condition of affairs, which needs to
be rectiied, and it is simply to remove
this ipcongruity that this amendment to
the Constitution has been framed.
Sixth.-The Legislature ofNsw Jersey,
as soon as the condition of things was
called to their notice, voted with hardly
a dissenting voice in favor the above
amendment, which has bsen passed by
three successive Legislatures, namely
those of 1895, '96 and 1917, and is now, in
pursuance of the requirements of the
Constitution, to be voted upon by the
p ople at large
Believing as we do that public educa-
ton is one of the most important bull
warks of our system of government;
that this amendment will promote the
welfare of the public schools by secur-
ing the cooperation Of the women. and
especially the mothers of our State, and
believing also that all intelligent citizens
" ill vote in it's favor if the matter ia
brought to their attention, we would
urge all clergymen to bring it to the
notice of their congregations ia such
II amer and at suoh times as NAV seem
proper to them, and we would also urge
all good citizsns, aud especially the
women of the State, to use their in
f1uence in favor of this amendment, and
10 see to it that a full vote is called ont
IN SEPTEMBER 28th, lest this good
measure, designed to restore to the
women of the State the priyilepes agar.