The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1921-02-24
RULING BARS WOMEN FROM
HOLDING STATE OFFICES
Armstrong Says Nineteenth Amend
ment Applies Only to Vote.

Armstrong Says Nineteenth Amend
ment Applies Only to Vote.
Women are barred from every pub
lie office in Maryland where the stat
ute indicates the Office should be held
only by male, according to an opin
ion delivered last Friday by Attorney
General Alexander Armstrong, Jr.
The use of the masculine pronoun in
laws which create offices is accepted
by the Attorney General as Indicative
of the intention of the law that the
office should be filled only by a male.
As practically every office in the State,
from Governor down to town clerks
in the smallest townships, is created
in statutes which use the masculine
pronoun, the opinion is held to be all
inclusive
If the opinion stands it will bar
women from running for the Legisla-
ture or any other office this year. The
common law of Maryland, on which
the opinion is based, provides that
women may hold Office "by special
legislative statute" but such legisla-
ton cannot be enacted until after the
elections this year.
1T is perhaps needless to add" the
opinion includes, "that the Nine
tenth Amendment relates only to
the right of suffrage and not to the
right to hold office"
The opinion is the first given by
Mr.. Armstrong on the question of
women in public Office since the adop-
ton of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Previously he had ruled on the eligi
bility of women as election judges,
but such eligibility was established
by special legislation enacted at the
special session of the Legislature to
amend the election laws.
1t was given on Friday to A. W.
Starratt, Clerk of the town of Som
erset, Montgomery county, who was
asking about women voters generally
but particularly about their right to
the Mayoralty. or Councilmanic posts
in Somerset.
at is true" said Mr.. Armstrong,
relative to the right of women to hold
office, chat Section of article 1 of
the Code of Public General Laws pro-
vides that the masculine includes all
genders except where such construc-
ton would be absurd or unreasonable.
In the case of in Rex. Maddox, 90 Md.
TIT, it was decided that, where the
word he was used in statute re-
lating to a public office the language
just quoted did not extend to women
the right to hold such office
"The reason given for this decision
was that at common law no woman
could hold any Office except that of
queen or overseer of the poor with
out express authority of statute
and that, therefore, the statute just
quoted, being in derogation of the
common law, must be strictly con-
strued.
'This must be regarded as a def
mite decision that Section 6 of Ar
ticle l of the Code does not confer
on woman the right to hold office in
cases where the statute creating the
office uses language indicative of ar
intention that it shall be held only by
a man."
The Maddox case referred to was
that of Miss Eta H. Maddox, who
had applied for admission to the bar
The opinion quoted was handed down
in the Court of Appeals by the late
Judge McSherry, denying the appli
cant the right of admission to the bar
on the ground that, as lawyer takes
public oath of Office, he is, in that
sense, public officer; women being
barred as public officers under the
common law, as embodied in the Dec
laration of Rights, except the offices
of queen and overseer of the poor.
Although this opinion antedated the
adoption of the Nineteenth Amend
ment, it holds, in the opinion of Mr.
Armstrong, because "the Nineteenth
Amendment relates only to the right
of suffrage and not to the right tc
hold office"
The opinion of Mr.. Armstrong will
in effect annul the election of the
three women as members of the towr
council of Kitzmiller, unless reversed