The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1919-04-21
100000 WOMEN
|RAVE THE VOTE NOW
States They Live in Will
Control 293 Electoral
Votes Next Year,

70 the inspiring leadership OF Mrs.
leslie Warner, OF Nashville, head OF
he Tennessee Equal Suffrage associa-
ton, Is attributed the rousing victory
whereby Tennessee becomes the first
\ Southern state east Of the Mississippi
% enter the suffrage fold.
According TO a statement issued by
the National American Woman Suf-
lfage Association, the entrance of Ten
Hessee into the list of presidential sui.
lrage states gives total Of 14,SS9,10?
women ever q who are living in
states which have granted women the
3right to vote for president. This in
ciudes Vermont, whose legislature
gave women the presidential vote this
year and whose senate confirmed the
grant over the governors veto. With
out Vermont there are still nearly
fourteen and three-fourths million
women to whom the right to vote for
president has been granted.
With Vermont these states control
5 2o3 electoral votes, twenty-seven more
!. than majority. II Vermont's four
electoral votes should be lost women
voting states will still hold 90 more
than 9 majority.
The Tennessee suffrage victory is
the most notable one of 1918, as 1t is
the first Southern state to grant votes
TO women in so large measure. 1t
has granted all that can be given by
Z Legislative action. BY the suffrage
bill which passed the state senate on
4 April 18th by vote Of IL to IA both
presidential and municipal suffrage
for women have been gained for this
slice Of the Solid South. The bill
passed the House by a. vote of 81 to
80 on April 3. On April II Governor
: A, 81, Roberts signed the bill.
An entering wedge for municipal
Suffrage was gained two years ago,
when the little town OF Lookout Noun
tain, near Chattanooga, won municipal
suffrage with much pomp and circum-
stance, the governor signing the bill.
One of the women who helped put
10 work that first bit of yeast in Ten.
nessee was Mrs. Margaret Erwin Ford,
Chattanooga lawyer, who has acted
Is press chairman during the present
campaign.
The passage of the bill ends an ac-
s tive fight for suffrage eight years long.
During some of that time Mrs. Gull
ford Dudley, now third vice president
DC the National American Woman Suf-
Slfage Association. was president OF the
Tennessee Woman Suffrage Associa.
! ton.
Last year Mrs. Dudley, who is one
81 the Woman's committee for the Ma.
tionai Liberty Loan and who has been
fecord.making speaker for all the
loan drives, resigned from the state
presidency and was followed by Mrs.
Warner.
One of the most dramatic incidents
0flthe debate in the Tennessee House
came when Speaker Seth Walker left
his chair to announce his conversion
to the suffrage cause. He declared
that he had become convinced that his
former stand in opposition to woman
Suffrage was wrong, and that he was
now sure OF the justice of the move
nient to enfranchise the women. Con-
finuing his address from the floor,
: Sneaker Walker declared that any
man who opposed the bill would do so
because he had not given carefnl
Z study and consideration to 1t. He
told the Legislators that suffrage had
been granted to negroes, and that 1t
should not be withheld from women.
sThe original thirteen colonies
fought England because of taxation
without representation declared the
speaker. sThe same principle Is in
Tolved in the suffrage cause. The
Z women of Tennessee are taxed and
they are amenable to our laws. de-
clare to you that this is not right, and
that they should have voice in our
EoFernment."
The Speakers remarks were greet
ed with cheers. Another of the mem
sbers who addressed the House on the
subject OF suffrage was Representa-
tive L d. Miller, of Hamilton county,
the author OF the Presidential Suffrage
bfl,