Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1920 — SUFFRAGISTS TURN SOUTH [ARTICLE]

SUFFRAGISTS TURN SOUTH

N. CAROLINA OR LOUISIANA, POSSIBLY VERMONT. NOW ONLY HOPES. Dover, Del., April I.—With the defeat of the equal suffrage amendment in the Delaware lower house today by 23 to 9 suffrage leaders staked their hopes on Vermont, North Carolina and Louisiana. It is hoped ratification of the amendment will be completed before midsummer. The expectations that -the Vermont Legislature will be called into special session are somewhat shaky. Governor Biokett of North Carolina has promised to call a special session in July, and it is believed the North Carolina Legislature will ratify, making the thirty-sixth state necessary to put the amendment into effect, if Vermont or Louisiana has not acted before that time. Advices from New Orleans today said suffrage leaders there predicted that Louisiana would be the thirty-sixth state to ratify. The legislature meets May 10. Delaware “Anti*” Joyous. | Eight Republicans and one Democrat in the Delaware House supported the resolution and thirteen Republicans and ten Democrats voted against it. | 'The House later defeated a motion to reconsider. The Senate has not yet acted. A wild demonstration by the “antis” followed the-vote.. Women leaders were lifted on the press table in the chamber and speakers were showered with red roses. The suffragists, with nearly every woman wiping tear-stained cheeks, slowly left the statehouse, while the “antis” staged a whpoping war dance around the hall. Governor Townsend said: “I think suffrage is thoroughly beaten. I am sorry, for some Republican representatives have brought a stain upon the integrity of the Republican party.” Mrs. Florence Hilles, president of the suffrage state organization, said; “We have a majority in the Senate. We will try to shove the measure through that body and then strive to have the House act favorably on the joint ratification resolution. We are discouraged, but we are by no means licked, fiihgle Hope Loft. Parliamentarians claim it is possibte for the House again to vote on the resolution because the ‘antis,” after defeating a motion to reconsider, neglected to adopt a motion to lay it on the table, which is a necessary parliamentary procedure to make the death of h measure. The suffragists grasped at this, and immediately began buttonholing members into turning them to vote for their cause. Referendum In Ohio. Golumbus, 0., April I.—The action of the Ohio Legislature m ratifying the federal suffrage amendment will be submitted to a referendum of the voters at the general election in November under a state constitutional provision unless the United States Supreme Court holds invalid such a referendum provision. The Ohio suffrage case now is before the Supreme “Court for decision. State courts have upheld the validity of the state constitutional referendum provision.