WOMEN TO HELP
IN RATIFICATION
Support of Measure at Legislature's Special Session Pledged
at Mass Meeting.
SITUATION RE VIEWED
Miss Anita L. Pollitzer of Washington and Mrs. L. C. French
Make Addresses.
Miss Anita L. Pollitzer, legislative
secretary of the national woman's
party, with headquarters at Washington, who is in the city in the interests of the ratification by Tennessee of the Susan B. Anthony
amendment to the federal constitution, and Mrs. L.. C. French, addressed a mass meeting of men and
women held at the Woman's building
this afternoon at 3:30 o'clock.
Ratification by Tennessee as the
necessary thirty-sixth state, was the
main topic of discussion during the
afternoon, the situation being reviewed in all details.
The situation in other states was
reviewed also.
"In Oklahoma an attempt was
made to put through a referendum,"
she explained. "In New Mexico a
plot to gain native votes was discovered and thwarted just in time to
save the situation. In West Virginia the anti-suffrage forces brought
back a senator who had previously
resigned his seat in a written letter
to the governor, and had taken up
permanent residence in another state.
All this shows that in the states
where ratification was apparently most certain, it took the concentrated efforts of every man and woman in the state to show a suffrage victory." Outline Both Party Records
Miss Pollitzer then outlined the
contribution of the democratic and republlcan parties on the question of ratification. She showed that the republican parties on the question aware and the refusal of the gov-
ernors of Vermont and Connecticut
to call special sessions of the legislatures of their states had made the
chances of the women voting in the
coming election very slight. ""Then
came the decision of the United States supreme court in the Ohio case, and the decision of the assist-
ant attorney-general of the United States and the attorney general of Tennesse hat Tennessee could ratify,she stated. She then read the correspondence between Assistant
Attorney-General Frierson and Pres-
iden Wilson on the Ohio case.
As one of the committee from the
National Woman's Party which interviewed Gov. Cox and Senator Warren G. Harding, Miss Pollitzer told
several interesting incidents of the
visits to Columbus and Marion.
She read telegrams received today
from Miss Alice Paul, national chairman of the Woman's party, who reported that the Harding-Coolidge
League of the District of Columbia
had stated it considered the unanimous vote by the republican members
of the Tennessee legislature of the
first importance.
Miss Paul also stated that the democratic leaders are equally active.
Mrs. French Speaks.
Mrs. L. C. French was selected by
Miss Sue White, a former Tennes-
sean, but a resident of Washington
for several years, to represent Tennessee in the delegation chosen to
interview Gov. Cox and Senator Harding regarding their views on the ratification of the Susan B. Anthony
amendment by Tennessee. Miss White
is secretary of the Woman's party,
being closely associated with Miss
Paul, who heads the organization.
After a brief sketch of the interviews with Gov. Cox and Senator
Harding, Mrs. French spoke of the
provision in the Tennessee constitution which seems to create an impression on some minds that action by
the present legislature on the pro-
posed amendment would not be legal.
She mentioned the fact that a prom-
inent lawyer of the state had told her,
almost a year ago, that that clause
in Tennessee's constitution would not
hold good because no state constitu-
tion had any right to make conditions
for the ratification of a federal
amendment.
Mrs. French stated that she had
written a communication to a republican paper in answer to an editorial
in that paper, cautioning republican
members of the legislature to consult
their individual consciences as to
whether they could vote for ratifica-
tlon. The Paper, she said, did not
publish the communication, although
the editor had promised to do so.
Mrs. French gave as her opinion that the republicans were in no sense
under any obligation to strain a point
to uphold a clause put in the Tennessee constitution by partisan democrats in 1870 because of the passage of the fourteen ta amendment.
The democrats of the south thought
that by such means they might con-
trol further radical action by the re-
publican (missing)
