Republican farmer., 1920-04-23
CONGRESS MAY HAVE TO CONFER
 DEFINITE RIGHT

Hartford. April Ex-Governor Hol comb is in receipt of a copy of al opinion by Attorney General J. Yves ton Allen of Massachusetts to the ef' feet that women in that state canno' vote even after the suffrage amend ment is ratified by the thirty-sxtt state until the state constitution E amended or an act is passed by Con gress definitely conferring the rlsh of suffrage on women. It was point ed out yesterday by prominent law yers that the situation in ConneetIcu . in that respect is an exact parallel O that in Massa chusetts, and that if ths opinion of Attorney General Westor is found to be sound, Connecticut wo' men will have to wait at least thre' years unless Congress acts in tht meantime.
 The opinion was made in a lettex te Albert M. Lantry, Massachusetts sec retary of state, in connection with question that has been raised as te whether women will be entitled te vote in the Bay State primaries nexl Tuesday if the federal suffrage amend ment should be ratified by the thirty sixth state before that time.
 1 Many provisions of the federal constitution require legislation by Congress to make them effective.'' 9 says the attorney general in his mega l tive reply. "Prohibitory clauses however, of both federal and state | constitutions are generally said to be self-executing.
 "In a sense, the proposed amend ment, which is prohibitory in form, is self executing. It should be rati- fled by the legislatures of three fourths of the states. Any state constitution or statute. which afirnra. lively denies suffrage to women be- cause of their sex would be unconsti itutoqal, and a federal court would so hold it in a case properly before it It is, however, my opinion that a con. stitution or statute which confers the Ivote upon men but fails to confer il upon women does not deny the vote to women within the meaning of the proposed amendment.
 ''The right to vote is not inherent
 in any person Indeed, a person may be citizen of the United States and
 still not have a right to vote In
 general, the states may confer the
 right as they see fit Only since tha
 Fifteenth Amendment they may not
 deny the right to a. man merely be-
 cause he is black, and if the pro-
 posed amendment is ratified, they
 may not deny it to women merely
 because they are women
 l confer upon female citizens the right to vote, but only the right not to be discrininated against because ot ; their sex.
 f'It is my opinion that women vii
 not be entitled to vote in the primar-
 ies of April 2F, even if the proposed
 amendment should be ratified by the
 thirty-sixth state before that date. IT addition to the ratification of the
 amendment, it is necessary that sui
 frage be conferred upon them by either state action on Congressional
 legislation
 A proposed amendment to the Con-
 necticut constitution, after having passed the House of Representatives
 must be continued to the next Gen ? eral Assembly for a two-thirds vot, , of each branch before it may be sub
 nitted to the electorate on a refer
 en6un. For this reason, if the opin r ion of the Massachusetts atterne, general should hold good for Connec = ticut, an amendment specifically con l ferrng suffrage upon women of thi
 state could not be gotten through tn 7 Legislature until 1923, as regular ses f stons of the Legislature are held bu once in two years and the next i |. 1 not scheduled to convene until Jan |