Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-09-26
ANTS
RAP COLBY VERSION
OF SUFFRAGE TALK
Delegation Which Came Here
Denies Statement as to
Political Effect.

| by the Associated Press.
I NASHVILLE. Tenn, September a5.-
The anti suffrage delegation from
Tennessee. headed by Speaker Seth
| Walker which called on Secretary of
state Colby. issued a statement today
taxing issue with Mr.. Colby as to
what the delegation had recently
| asked him to give out concerning
| Tennessee's action on suffrage. The
statement in part follows:
| In the Nashville morning paper of
September "a there appeared news
item. sent from Washington by the
Associated Press, in which Secretary
Colby is reported to have said, among
| other things. that the Tennessee leg
| islators, who recently called upon nm
at Washington. had requested him to
| publish some statement in which the
| opinion was expressly or implicitly
| conveyed that the action of the state
| OF Tennessee was inconcIusive and
| that grave doubt existed as to the
| f1nality and legal effect of it's vote on
| the nineteenth amendment, and that
their theory in so requesting was
| that political effect would be OBJ
| tanned thereby in Connecticut and
Maryland, and might cause either of
| those states to vote differently on the
| subject of ratification if they real
| lied that the action in Tennessee was
! overshadowed by doubt as to it's true
effects, and that the Tennessee legis-
| latorS went so far as to submit to
him statement which met their
! specifications with the request that
| the Secretary issue it.
Attitude Toward Statement.
1.-The Secretary was presented with
! the statement, as he declares in his
interview, and when he read 1t he
stated that he saw no reason why he
| should not sign it, but would submit
it to his legal adviser.
"A similar request had been made
| orally the day before, which the Sec
rotary promised unreservedly to give,
| but in this he failed. The statement
which we requested him to give,
copy of which he now has in his Of
! flee, and which he says was obviously
an improper thing for him to do is
as follows:
AT the request of certain repre-
sentatives of the lower house of the
Tennessee legislature I give to the
public the following facts with ref
erence to the action of the Tennessee
| legislature on the nineteenth amend
ment:
ION August 81. 1920, I received
from the Governor of Tennessee a
certificate showing that the legisla-
ture of Tennessee had ratified the
nineteenth amendment in manner and
| form appearing on the journal of the
senate and house, true and correct
copies of which were made a part of
the governors certificate. Acting
| thereon, 1 issued a proclamation in
the discharge of duty. ministerial
! only. proclaiming the ratification of
said amendment.
ION September 7, 1920, I received
another certificate from the Gov
ernor of Tennessee, showing that the
lower house had reconsidered its for
mer action and, by a vote of At to "a.
twenty members present and not
voting, rejected said amendment.
ut was not within the province
of my duties and is not now, to de-
| termine whether Tennessee, as mat
ter of law, adopted or rejected the
nineteenth amendment
Connecticut Action.
"At the time the above paper was
handed to Secretary Colby Con-
! necticut had ratified for the second
time the nineteenth amendment,
| which he we'll knew, for the reason
that an afternoon paper published
| in Washington, carrying this news
item, was shown him. This fact is
conclusive evidence of the truth as
to whether the Secretary discovered
that we thought the issuance of the
statement requested would have any
political effect in Connecticut"