Woman Suffrage by Federal Constitutional Amendment | Page 5

in Kentucky a bill passed both houses and
one house in five other states. One of these was Arkansas where a
constitutional provision that only three amendments can be submitted
to the people at once rendered of no avail the passage of the Legislature.
In the five other states the enormous Constitutional majorities required
in a legislative vote on amendments defeated the measure.
This is the story of a typical year and these are two of the difficulties

which beset the gaining of suffrage "state by state." Year after year
labor is thrown away and money wasted because actual minorities in
legislatures can defeat constitutional amendments; or because once past
the legislature, constitutional technicalities can keep them away from
the polls; or because, safely past these hazards, a minority vote of the
people can defeat a bill that has successfully reached the polls.
Theoretically an amendment to a state constitution must have the
approval of the Legislature, ratified by the approval of the people. This
ratification is what differentiates it from a statutory law. This is the
actual requirement, however, in but two of the male suffrage states,
South Dakota and Missouri. In all the rest, except Delaware and New
Hampshire, which have special methods of amending, much more than
simple passage and ratification is required.
There are some half-dozen classes of technical requirements which
make the amending of many state constitutions wellnigh impossible.
Some states have never been able to amend; others have had to submit
the same amendment again and again before it passed, even in the case
of measures which were not unpopular. The Legislatures of Nebraska
and Alabama have occasionally succeeded in passing amendments
favored by politicians, by resorting to clever tricks to circumvent the
constitutional handicaps. Only by outwitting the framers have they
been able to make changes in their constitutions.
Among the common technical requirements are the passing by a set
proportion much larger than a mere majority of the legislature; the
passing of the people's vote by a majority of those voting for candidates
and not merely of those voting on the amendment itself; the setting of
special time and other limits for the submission of amendments, etc.
Many states combine three or more of these requirements.
No impediment seems more vexatious than that which prevented the
Arkansas bill from coming before the people after the Legislature of
1915 had approved submission. Nor is Arkansas alone in limiting the
number of amendments to be submitted to the people at one time;
Kentucky goes farther and makes the limit two and Illinois allows but
one at a time.

The other six states whose bill failed at the last session belong to a
group of fifteen which require a special "constitutional majority" of
two-thirds or three-fifths favorable in the vote of both houses on an
amendment bill.[A] In South Carolina and Mississippi it must pass two
legislatures by this large vote, one before and one after the referendum;
in Mississippi this means four years' delay for its sessions are
quadrennial. In thirteen states the amendment bill must pass two
legislatures, in some by a constitutional majority at one passage.[B]
Alabama is one of the states whose bill failed through the constitutional
majority rule in 1915. In that state another suffrage bill must wait four
years for the next legislative session. If this time it surmounts the
hazard of a three-fifths favorable vote it will be faced by another hazard;
for Alabama is one of nine states in which an amendment must pass the
[Footnote A: South Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, West
Virginia, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi--all a two-thirds vote, and
Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Maryland and Kentucky a
three-fifths vote.]
[Footnote B: In Connecticut, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont by a
two-thirds majority of one Legislature or of one house or both; in Iowa,
Indiana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, New Jersey,
New York and Rhode Island by majorities. All but the last three have
biennial Legislatures.] referendum not by a majority on the amendment
but by a majority of all voting for candidates at this general
election.[A]
[Footnote A: These states are Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota,
Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Tennessee. Rhode
Island sets a definite majority (three-fifths) of those voting at the
election. Probably Texas and North Carolina should be included but the
amendment clause in their constitutions is misleading and they may be
given the benefit of the doubt; their clause reads: "An amendment shall
be submitted to the voters and adopted by a majority of the votes cast."]
This requirement by itself is regarded by one authority on state
constitutions[B] as making amendment practically impossible for it

means that the indifference and inertia of the mass of the voters can be
a more serious enemy than active opposition; the man who does not