Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-02-12
A Legislative Comedy


1t is rumored that, despairing Of
defeating on it's merits the bill to con-
fer upon Maine women the right to
vote for Presidential electors, the op-
ponents Of that measure are prepar-
ing:
I. To kill the bill by offering
substitute resolution calling for
constitutional amendment confer.
ring full suffrage upon women.
Having joekeyed the friends Of
suffrage into abandoning the
present measure, which requires
only majority vote, tho authors
Of this substitute resolution,
which would require two thirds
vote, will then turn to and stran.
sic their own child.
2. Or, failing in this ruse, they
will attempt to beouiIe the friends
Of presidential suffrage for wom-
en- into voting to attach a ref
e-endum to the bill.
Ely these. or similarly ingenious
methods. they hope to befuddle and
divide the friends Of Maine Senate
Bill No. IS. who. being blessed with
a sense Of humor. will sit quietly by
and enjoy the show. and then vote
straight.
To successfully stage this little
two-act anti suffrage comedy, the
leading man in Act 1 should be one Of
hitherto unsupported anti tendencies.
II would really be a little bit uncon-
vincing. don't you know, for an
avowed opponent of the present bill
to play the part of the Constitutional
full suffrage" hero. In the interest Of
dramatic verities, let it be one who
has not too vociferiously applauded
the argument that full suffrage was
laid to rest beyond the power of legis-
lative resurrection by the referendum
vote Of 1917. 1t is disconcerting to
expect a funeral dirge and be greeted
with wedding march.
In staging Act II. entitled "The Re-
ferendum Attachment to Senate Bill
1G," the opponents of justice to Maine
women must attend to few essential
preliminaries.
First. sink without trace, or
inter without tombstone or marker,
their own favorite argument of lex
pense" which they urge against all
suffrage measures.
Second. call in and confiscate the
literature with which they circular
lied the legislature. wherein one of
their friends made this unsuarded ad :
mission:
II do not claim that the vote Of
Maine in 1917 was binding on her
representatives in 1918. confess
! have no patience with the doc.
trine Of instruction that would
make a representative a rubber
stamp"
Is he really in earnest: A rubber
stamp" statesman Is a noble and i'm
posing figure. He captivates our
fancy and thrills the imagination.
With courage BETTING his title he
combats the pernicious doctrine that
legislators are supposed to exercise
either brains or conscience. or to
stand up and be counted. No. They
are legislative sleeves or conduit pipes,
through which all public questions
should dow unvexed to popular
vote! All such questions will then
appropriately bear the legislative
teste: Witness our act and stamp"
Having thus disposed Of these pre-
liminartes. the curtain may then be
rung up on Act II, wherein the open
ing chorus sings the song Of the
referendum to the peepul," with a
roof-raising harmony that our op-
ponents hope will out MARBLE the
quiet little fact that under our
constitution 10000 "peepul' can at
any time within ninety days after
the adjournment Of the legislature in
woke the referendum on this bill-if
they choose.
II the friends Of the pending bill
vote down every amendment offered
either openly or eovsrtIy, directly or
indirectly by its opponents, and if
they refuse to be beguiled or befud-
died by the little two-act comedy of
the suffragists. the latter will
possibly regard 1t as an instance of
that inability to appreciate high art
to which Goldsmith alludes in the
couplet:
When they talked Of their Raphaels,
Corregios. and stuff.
He shifted his trumpet, and only took
SNUFF"
A country member Of the Journal
stan dopes it this way: