Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-03-09
Hitting Woman,s Suffrage

HE suffrage amendment is in grave dam
l ger OF defeat in so far as the presiden-
tial campaign of 1920 is concerned, and if
this election passes without the measure be-
coming u part of the organic law. there is
reason to believe that the general reaction
against it may make ratification an indeti-
mite, IL not an impossible, thing. Already
there are signs of revolt against this amend
ment, and while not as pronounced as the
upheaHal against the prohibition amend
ment: they are sufficiently portentous to
give tho suffra gists alarm.
AS The situation now stands The amend
ment is shy the votes Of three States. o
the thirty-siA necessary to make the amend
ment operative. thirty-three have moved to
ratify. Seven States have refused to swal-
low this panacea for all governmental ills.
Eight States have yet to ballot upon the
question. They are Florida, Tennessee,
Delaware, North Carolina. Washington,
Louisiana, Connecticut and Vermont.
Washington and Tennessee may be ex-
pected to ratify as soon as they take the
matter UP. Both States already have granted
suffrage to their women locally. The Gov
ernor OF Washington has called a special
session of the Legislature for the sole pur-
pose of dealing will, the question, but no
other State executive has shown the same
enthusiasm. Neither the Southern nor the
New England Governors feel called upon to
go to such lengths in order that this amend
ment may be railroaded into the Constitution
by November.
When West Virginia and Maryland re-
Jected the amendment, the former refusing
to reconsider its adverse vote, the ''suffs'
felt that their cause was well-nigh hopeless
as far as the coming election is concerned,
and although their Hobbies are working
feverishly in an effort 10 persuade other
States TO act, their leaders quite understand
that theirs is an uphill fight. Nor are they
able to charge the South with the sole blame
Tor their defeat. That section, it is true,
has stood firmly against the appeals OF the
sufragist agitators and has stood faithfully
by its best traditions, but il every essen
TALLY Southern State had voted in opposition
to ratification and every other had voted for
ratification, the amendment would now be in
full force.
But Maryland and West Virginia can
scarcely be classed as Southern States, and
yet, both have refused to be parties TO Civ
ing the vote TO millions Of women who do
not want it, and to millions more who would
not know what to do with it if they had it.
New England can scarcely be regarded as
Southern territory, even by the noisiest OF
the South's defamers, and yet that section
has refused to date to plunge into such an
experiment as the suffragists ask the coun-
try to make. .,
Nor can the delay in ratifying the amend
ment be, charged ntorany political party. West
Virginia is not a Democratic State. Mary
land has a Republican United States Sena-
tor and only elected a Democratic Governor
by 1856 majority. Vermont is not a Demo-
cratic State, nor is Delaware or Connecticut.
Furthermore. the two most powerful pleaders
of the suffrage cause are Woodrow Wilson
and William j. Bryan, the foremost Demo-
Gratis OF the time.