In The Interest Of Votes For Women
Edited by Emma Farrand Tyler.
HURRAH FOR TENNESSEE
Tennessee women will not be deprived of the fruits of their victory in
obtaining the passage of the presidential and municipal suffrage bill, the
supreme court of that state having
declared the new law constitutional
and valid in a decision handed down
on July 26. All objections made by the
opponents of the law were overruled.
A number of Nashville citizens had
attacked the constitutionality of the
act for various reasons, one of which
was that the failure to require the women to pay poll tax was an unjust discrimination against the men, who are
required to show tax receipts before they can vote. Another point of attack was that the purity of the ballot
was endangered by reason of the failure to provide for a separate ballot
box for women in elections where
there were some candidates for whom
the women could not vote under the
terms of the law. Both of these objections, together with others raised,
were overruled by the supreme court.
Under the terms of the Tennesse
law women may vote for president
and vice president and for municipal
officers.
Mrs. Guilford Dudley, a Tennessee
leader who is also a vice president of
the National, wires, "We are voters,
hurrah!"
It is a victory that is complete, except that the courts hold that under
the Tennessee constitution, by reason
of the peculiar provisions of it, women cannot vote upon questions of
lending the credit of municipalities to
an outside person, firm or corporation
This does not mean ordinary municipal
bond issues. Such a question is not
likely to arise in ten years.
