New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-08-22
Tennessee's
Ants Bolt to
Halt Suffrage
Continued from page one)

lhcatlon and rendered of no avail the
hasty trip to Alabama which the ants
engineered for their members at 1925
this morning.
Speaker Walker had changed his vote
from no to aye for the purpose of en-
1ering motion OF reconsideration.
This was entered on the journal
Under the rules of procedure of the
House, when a question has been made
and carried in the affirmative or mega
tive, it shall be in order for any mem
bel voting with the prevailing side to
move for reconsideration thereof at
any time the same day or the two
next succeeding days of actua! session.
and no motion to reconsider a reconsid
Grafton shall be in order. The clerk
shall transmit to the Senate no bill.
resolution, message, report, amendment
or motion nor shall the Committee on
Enrolled Bills present any bill to the
governor of the state for his action
until the time for moving a reconsider
alton shall have expired, unless ex-
pressly ordered by the House"
AS Walker has on the journal mo-
ton to reconsider, and did not bring it
up that day nor the two succeeding
days, any member had the right to do
so to-day. The forty-nine suffrage
lmmortals we're mistaken, and the
ants knew that they would bring IN
and XIII the reconsideration motion.
Accordingly, in last desperate. de-
spairlng effort to stave off suffrage
they sent enough of their men out of
the state to break quorum, thinking
thereby to prevent any action by the
House save adjourning from day ia
day
But they reckoned without their
host. The suffrage men were fullv "a
determined to save the amendment as
were the ants to thrust further legal
obstacles in its path. When the House
opened this morning q smile of content
went over Speaker Walkers face as he
saw the empty seats. The chaplain,
the Rev. A. R. Cawthorne, a Walker
appointee, prayed that Goods richest
piesslng be invoked upon those who are
absent to-day" amid smiles of DELIGHT
from the nine ants on the Job. .
But as soon as the PRAYER was
finished, Riddck arose and moved that
rollcall be dispensed with. 1t was
ordered, by vive voce vote. Then an
anti made the point of order Of no
quorus. The rollcall showed tiftv
nine present, fifty suffrage men and
nine antis. The sergeant at arms was
ordered to arrest the absentees and
bring them to the bar of the House
He smiled, as he knew they were in
little hotel in Decatur, Ala, and he
had no power over them there. Then
the House recessed for an hour, despite
the Speakers protest that it could not
recess, but could only adjourn from
day to day when quorum was not on
hand
At first the Senate considered recall
ing its ratification resolution from the
House. This would have forced Speaker
Walker to give its present status. in
Guiding its passage Wednesday, 50 to
At. This plan was abandoned in favor
of one for the House to disregard the
lack of quorum, call up the reconsid-
GRAFTON motion, kill it and force the
clerk to send the resolution to the Sem
ate as having passed.
When the House reconvened, Mr.. Rid
dick arose. "Mr Speaker, rise to a
parliamentary inquiry and point of
order" he began.
State it," said Walker.
Il make the point of order that rati-
tication of Federal amendment is
power derived from the Federal Con-
stltutlon and not that of the state. and
that state requirements as to q quorum
have no effect on our ratification of the
amendment | therefore move you to
call the motion for reconsideration
from the journal for action"
The motion is out of order" said
Speaker Walker Then he gave three
reasons for his ruling, two of them
based on the lack of quorum and the
third on an injunction which had q
few minutes before been served on him
to prevent his signing the resolution
as passed.
Appeal Taken From Ruling
I,o1r i -
the ruling of the chair. Speaker
Walker called Representative ode. of
Benton County, one of the immortal
forty-nine, to the chair. He did this
so as to be able to make an appeal
about the noquorum. But Odle didn't
bulge. He would not order rollcall
on the quorum. He Immediately put a
rollcall on overturning Walkers ruling
which resulted in SO ayes and not
voting, the ants refusing to commit
themselves either way Then Rddick
moved reconsideration of the r:titica-
ton.
you want to vote MOI" he shouted,
and vote 'No" the fifty men did with
vim. Riddick then moved that the
clerk of the House be instructed to
transmit as passed the resolution to
the Senate. This was ordered by q
journed to 9 o'clock Monday afternoon.
In the fifty VINO to-day put the blight
on the last anti hope were two men
whom the suffragists tonight are call
ing heroes. c. W. Brooks, of Atwood.
chartered special train to get to
Nashville this morning to vote. He
left his wife, although the physician
there held out little hope of the re-
covery
T. A. Dodson, of Kingsport, was eager
to get to the bedside of his baby, as his
wife had telephoned the infant could
not live another day. When there was
no quorum on hand he prepared to de-
part, bought his ticket and had actually
taken his seat on the train. But suf-
frage leaders found him and explained
the plan they had arrived at He at
once gathered his baggage, got off the
train, came back to the Capitol and
gave the fiftieth vote to the suffragists.
Speaker Walker this morning made
another blunder which will rank with
his blunder of Wednesday in changing
his vote to aye" to get chance to
reconsider. After he had surrendered
the chair to Representative Odle he did
not resume it, and Odle, who had not
been enjoined under the courts action,
signed the resolution.
Court Action on Resolution
The court action which was brought
was an injunction to prevent Speaker
Todd of the Senate or Walker of the
House from signing the resolution, and
temporarily restraining Governor Rob
erts and Secretary of State Stevens
from issuing any proclamation of rati-