New-York tribune., 1920-03-25
Amendment Ratification
Lacks One in Senate.
Where First Ballot Is To
Be Taken Tomorrow
ANTI Round Robin
lnHouse Reported
Pledge to Defeat Cause
of Women Said to Have
Twenty-one Signatures
Special Dispatch to The Tr;bun.

DOVER, Del, March 24.-A vote on
ratification Of the Federal equal suf
frage amendment probably will be
taken in the Senate of the Delaware
Legislature Friday If this is done it
Will pass the Senate, according to all
indications tonight, unless the anti
ratification crowd forces the issue
ahead of the friends of the amend
ment.
When suffrage supporters took stock
late to-day they were just one vote
short of the required majority in the
Senate, and there was indication that
efforts to get that vote were bearing
fruit. About the only chance of de-
feat in the upper house now appears
to be coup by the anti-suffrage crowd
which would force the resolution out
ahead of the suffrage schedule, and
the suffragists say they can con-
troll that.
In the House, however, the situation
is not so hopeful. Twenty-one mem
bers of the lower branch are said to
have signed round-robin to-day
pledging themselves to vote against
ratification and Immediately after the
last signature was affixed the papers
bearing the names mysteriously dis
appeared. 1t seems to be certain
however, that the pledge was signed
Five Votes Needed in House
On the face of it, this would ap-
pear to seal the doom Of ratification
but it really is not considered SO
serious as it portends. Signers of the
pledge admit they cannot hold all 10
the pledge and it developed late to-day
that some OF the members signed
under misapprehension, believing the,
were merely subscribing to a straw
vote. 1t is also known that two OF
repudiate the "agreemcnt."
AS near as can be ascertained now
five votes arc needed in the House
Eighteen votes are necessary to sue.
cess. The suffrage crowd is reason.
ably sure of thirteen members, it an.
pears.
Different tactics have been used The
last two days in gaining converts. The
sufragists have abandoned the nationa
party appeal in dealing with their op
ponents and have got down to a differ
cnt basis. Senator Ball and Congress
man Layton have gone away, and the
antl-suffragc members to-day heard less
about the eyes of the nation resting
on Delaware, about the vote here being
wrapped up in the next Presidential
campaign and all that, than they have
for weeks.
instead they have got the quiet tir
that, however they vote, the State OF
Delaware is to continue at the same
old stand, that the Presidential powers
in this state will continue to have
favors to pass out, legislatures tt
elect, patronage to give and favors te
show, and that, of course, the powers
reckon only with their friends.
There was one vote on suffrage il
the House to-day, but it was not OF
sufficient Importance to be called 6
test. Representative Hart, Democrat
offered resolution for ratification
and in the hope of trying out the mem.
bers, Minority Leader McNabb asked
for assurance that speedy action would
be taken by the Committee on Revised
Statutes. When he received no such
assurance from Chairman Lyons, of
that committee, McNabb demanded the
bill be sent to the Committee of the
Whole House, in which case, he can
tended, it could be called up at any
time.
A roll call showed a party vote, with
the exception of Representative Hart
-suffragist, who voted with the
Republicans. So the resolution was
referred to the Committee on Revised
Statutes, Of which Representative
Lyons is chairman. The "antis" and
the "pros" did not show their hands
in this vote.
In the Senate the ratification reso-
luton was offered by Senator Walker
of Wilmington, who is favorable to
suffrage, and it was referred by Scna.
tor Short, President pro tenn, to the
Committee on Judiciary of which the
author of the resolution is chairman
1t is believed there are but two suf-
frage Senator'S on the committee-Sen.
ator Walker, who lives in Wilmington
and Senator Long, from Sussex. Sena-
tor Long, it is understood, only became
converted TO suffrage to-day. The
other members of the committee, Sena-
tors Brown and Bennett, of Sussex,
and Senator Gormley, of Wilmington,
are against it.
Senator Gormley, as soon as the
Walker resolution was offered, put in
Continued on page seven