Arizona republican., 1910-05-07
IN THE BEGINNING.
Facts About the History of Woman's
 Suffrage.

It is surprising that with the ques-
 ton of woman's suffrage as important
 an issue as it is today before the coun- try, so few persons know why it is that the matter of determining the enfran- lchisement of woman is left to the
 states and is not of national consider
 ation as it is in England Miss Ida NJ l Tarbell. in the May American Maga- | zine. discusses the woman's rights movement and gives its history in this country from earliest times. Of how the matter was referred by the United
 States courts to the individual states, Miss Tarbell says:
 Before the passage of the fifteenth
 amendment a new line of possible ap-
 proach to their goal had been laid out
 for the women suffragists. This was
 to prove that under the fourteenth 1 amendment they had already the right
 to vote. This interesting proposition, l admirably worked out by Francis Min 1 or of St. Louis, was immediately ad- opted by the more militant of the two suffrage societies and for the next five years every conceivable means was em- ployed to secure legislation and judi
 ciai recognition and confirmation
 The National association declared that women already had the right to the ballot. that since they had it they
 ought to exercise it; that is. the organ
 ization really called on its members n vote will-nilly.
 The response to this call was gem
 eral. All over the country women de-
 termined tn try to vote. Sometimes they ucceeded-sometimes they passed the registrar and were stopped by the inspector; again the registrars held them back Out of these attempts came a series of most interesting law suits.
 "The first of these suits came out of attempt to vote made in the District of Columbia by some fifty women I They were refused On the ground that they had been denied a natural | right guaranteed by the constitution they brought suit against the board of l inspectors. The case, which was carried 1 to the supreme court of the United | States. was lost, the court holding that 1 the right to vote was not a natural but l political right, and that declaring l a person citizen as the fourteenth ! amendment did. was not making him ] a voter. The decision was not taken ] as final. however. and at various points 1 women. decided to attempt to exercise | the franchise in the presidential cleo 1 tion of 1872. Among these was Susan | B. Anthony herself.
 She had been watching for the time !, when she should be long enough at her | home in Rochester to test her claim. | That happened in the fall of '72. She ] not only registered, but she persuaded | some fifty other women to do the same. l The excitement over the registration i produced a great stir in Rochester and ! frightened all but fifteen of the women l from voting. but fifteen did vote. Two l weeks later these fifteen women were | arrested for having voted without the i legal right. and the inspectors who had ] permitted it were also arrested A true i bill of indictInent was found against i them all. I
 Tt was not until the next June that | the trial came off. The trial, which was 1 held at Canandaigua. N. Y. was q i summary affair. The opposing attor- neys made their arguments the judge | read a written opinion, evidently pre- | pared before hand, in which ne reiter- i ted what had already been declared l by the supreme court. that the regula- i ton of suffrage was d states right. He 1 then instructed the jury to bring in | charge of guilty and ordered the clerk ! to record it. He even refused that the ! jury be boiled Miss Anthony's indig- ! nation was bOundless. She. declared i that she had not had fair trial. Her 1 counsel asked for new trial, but this i was denied. The only consolation Miss l Anthony had was telling the court | what she thought of him and his pro- 1 cedure, which she succeeded in doing in ! spite of his repeated declaration: The | court cannot allow the prisoner to go l on, The prisoner must sit down, etc. !