The labor standard., 1919-06-01

1 1n the meanC1mG, the nearing on CI{ state referendum bill had been hele and the committee reported favorably on that measure to the House so that starred for action on the same day Tuesday, April 18th.
 The presidential bill was one of the l first matters to be taken up on Tues. day morning. The debate lasted over two hours during which time mum Der of splendid speeches were made il , favor of suffrage and the usual mum. Der of rambling, weak anti-arguments l were produced. Representatives Samuel c. Shaw of Bedding, who has fathered the suffrage bills through three legislatures, Harry R. Sherwood of Westport, Judge John c. Geary o1 Waterford, O. H. Ripley of Winsted w. B. Rogers of Manchester, Martin Emerson of Roxbury spoke in favor of the bill. When the roll call vote was taken, 125 votes were recorded in favor to 97 against,
 The referendum bill which had been starred for action on the same day was postponed until the next day Then, because of flaws in the wording of the amendment which would admit illiterate voters according to the opinion of Judge Simeon E. Baldwin the House unanimously agreed that action on this measure should be indefinitely postponed.
 The Suffrage Association, as soon as it had heard the decision of Judge Baldwin had withdrawn it's support from the bill since it is entirely con- trary to the policy of the Association to stand for any lowering of educa- tional qualifications for voters.
 The presidential bill was now auto matically to be reconsidered by the senate because of disagreeing action. However, when suffrage senators on May 1st asked to have the bill recon sidered, the clerk of the senate said he did not have the bill. Again the bill was lost! No one knew where it was! The senate by this time became thoroughly aroused and demanded, friend and foe alike, that the bill be produced immediately. One senator said that "dirty work had been going on'' and moved the appc :ntment of a committee was appointed and while the senate took a short recess the bill was found in the Secretary of States office, where it had been sent by the clerk of the House. Here again ancient history was called into use, and the opposition assured the in- credulous senators that former ruling required that all bills, whether they were to be reconsidered or not, should go from the House to the office of the Secretary of State, where they were to remain until called for by the Senate.
 When the final vote came that afternoon only one senator Richard 1F Hartford d,-courageously changed his vote from his former stand. Although Honorable David E. Fitzgerald, Chair man of the Democratic State Central Committee, had come to Hartford personally to call Democratic con- ference, the bill was lost by an 18-17 vote.
 Had there been a tie vote the de- cision would have been in favor of passing for the Lieutenant Governor, Clifford B. Wilson, of Bridgeport, is not only believer in equal suffrage but is chairman of the Mems Council of One Hundred of the Association.
 Such was the career of the presi- dential suffrage bill in Connecticut. The bare relation of the mishaps one-vote defeat cannot begin to tell of the work done by the Suffrage Association through it's splendid organization. Folders containing the opinions of. eight of the leading authorities in the state confirming the constitutionality of the bill were pub lished and widely distributed, thus forstalling any unconstitutionality objection. Weekly bulletins announc- ing the rapid spread of suffrage were placed on the legislators desks, county leaders and organizers saw to it that their senators and representa- tives were made aware of the demand for suffrage in their own locality, and the state press was full of news and editorials concerning the presidential bill.
 The dignity and ability with which the campaign was conducted, together with the tricks of the opposition, have placed suffrage in a more firmly entrenched position than it has ever held before in Connecticut. The association now rallies with much newly acquired wisdom and eagerness to the support of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.