The Connecticut labor news., 1924-10-18
COURT DECISION MEANS
 MRS. FERGUSON WILL BE
 NEXT GOVERNOR OF TEXAS
By Staff Correspondent Internationa
 Labor News Service

Labor News Service Dallas, Tex, Oct 18.-Mrs. Marian A. Ferguson, now international known as Ma" Ferguson, will be the next gov ernor of Texas.
 If anyone had any remaining doubts on that subject they were dispelIed when Superior Judge George C. Cal houn, of Austin, upheld the right of wo- men to hold public elective office in | Texas
 Women were held in all particulars to have right to hold public elective | offices. The decision brushed aside the old English common law disabilities against women holding office as was contended by the plaintiff in an action seeking to disqualify Mrs Ferguson. Charles M Dickson of San Antonio brought the suit praying for an injunc- ton restraining certain state officials from placing Mrs. Ferguson's name on the ticket at the November election
 In his decision the judge attacked the contention of the state constitution had barred women from holding the office of governor because 1t used the words "he" and "his" The court held that in other places the constitution barred women by specific provisions and if 1t had been the intention of the framers of the law to prevent a woman from becoming governor they would have said so and specifically excluded her from this office.
 The plaintiff had set up a contention that was regard by all lawyers and by almost all the public as purile He con- tended that the impeachment of James Ferguson reflected specifically upon the wife and other members of the family. This the judge threw out with the words:
 "This Is so narrow and technical an objection that to uphold 1t is to say that the taint is on the entire family A sense of justice and fairness is against this No matter what the husband does the punishment in law is not visited on the entire family
 There was a question in this entire legal action that was kept in the back ground. There are in Texas many wo- men holding public elective offices. There are tax assessors, tax collectors, county clerks and at least one sheriff
 To have decided that women could not legally hold public elective offices would have placed all these women Ill position of holding office illegally, therefore their acts would not be legal and would have no standing in law
 This was a situation fraught with far-reaching effects Women county clerks perform all the functions that men do. They are the county recorders and all deeds, conveyances and record able documents pass through their hands. All land conveyances under the hands of women clerks would therefore have been rendered null and void and this alone would entail snarl that it would require generation of curative effort to disentang1e
 But the judge decided otherwise and by his decision legalized all these acts and established Mrs, Ferguson's position on safe grounds The decision will stand and Mrs. Ferguson will be overwhelrn- ingly elected.
 That election will mean the complete overthrow of the political power of the Ku Klux Klan in the state of Texas. The Klan announces that 1t will stay in politics but that means a bolt from the Democratic party and, while some of the leaders may bolt they are more in the position of being kicked out than that of gracefully retiring.
 No one has raised voice to declare that Mrs. Ferguson did not fairly, le- gally and overwhelmingly win the Dem ocratic nomination Her election IS vir- tually conceded by all contending parties and she will go into office early in Jan uary on a majority probably the largest ever given to a governor in the history of the state.
 Dr. C. C. Butte, until recently dean of the law school at the University of Texas, is running on the Republican ticket but no one takes his candidacy seriously It is an empty honor.