MASSACHUSETTS. 



525 



isting laws relating to vagrancy, and the enact- 

 ment of a law making it the duty of the Chief 

 of the State Detective Force to arrest all per- 

 sons who are deemed vagrants, and to enforce 

 or cause to be enforced against such persons 

 the penalties provided by law. 



A bill was also passed which was intended 

 to afford temporary relief to the savings banks 

 under certain conditions. The first section of 

 the act empowers the Savings Bank Commis- 

 sioners, whenever the security of the depos- 

 itors of any savings bank shall, in their judg- 

 ment, render it expedient, to require a limita- 

 tion or regulation of the payment of deposits, 

 such as the interest of the depositors shall seem 

 to demand. The second section provides for 

 an appeal from the action of the Commission- 

 ers to the Supreme Court by such depositors as 

 may feel aggrieved at such action. Its chief 

 purpose is to protect the property of the sav- 

 ings banks in cases of emergency. Inasmuch 

 as these banks are the property of the depos- 

 itors, the measure is in the interest of those 

 whose money is held by them. Another pur- 

 pose is to secure to all depositors the same 

 treatment. Under special pressure or undue 

 excitement a strong bank may be pushed to 

 pay out so much of its available funds to the 

 first depositors who come that others who may 

 need money will be compelled to wait. If the 

 Commissioners deem it for the interest of all 

 the depositors to do so, they can direct the 

 managers to pay depositors 25 per cent, of 

 their deposits at once and another installment 

 in such time as they may deem expedient. This 

 will give the managers time to raise money on 

 their mortgages without sacrificing the general 

 interests of the depositors. In the debate on 

 the bill in the lower House, Mr. White, of 

 Plymouth, said : 



He saw as the only objection to the bill the possi- 

 bility of its being unconstitutional. It' the bill tends 

 to impair contracts, it would be unconstitutional, as 

 no body of men has the power to do that. The tact 

 that the bill finds so much favor shows that it is not 

 settled in the minds of the people that the relations 

 between a bank and its depositors are a contract. 

 He thought the bill to be simply in tha form of a 

 stay law, and therefore not unconstitutional, as it 

 does not ignore the obligations existing on the part 

 of a bank to its depositors. The bill aims simply to 

 stand between the depositors and their own foolish 

 fears. He saw no objection to immediate action. 



The joint committee on the petitions for 

 woman's suffrage reported to the Legislature 

 a provision for an amendment to the Constitu- 

 tion to be submitted to a vote of the people. 

 This amendment, if adopted, would authorize 

 female taxpayers to vote on municipal affairs. 

 The minority of the committee in their report 

 set forth the present state of the law on the 

 subject very summarily. They say that there 

 was no difference of opinion among the mem- 

 bers of the committee as to the question of 

 municipal suffrage accompanied by a property 

 qualification for women, but there was a differ- 

 ence of opinion on the general question of 



woman's suffrage. On this broad question, 

 whether suffrage and eligibility to public office 

 shall be granted to women upon the same terms 

 as to men, the minority say : 



We are urged to grant it for the reasons that it is 

 (I) a natural right ; (2) a constitutional right ; and (3) 

 for the welfare of society. By natural, or, as Black- 

 stone terms them, absolute rights, is properly meant 

 those which upon moral grounds ought to exist in 

 every state of society, and which no state has a riglit 

 to deny. Such are the right to life, liberty, and the 

 acquisition of property. But such is not the right to 

 the ballot. Judge Story declares that the right of 

 voting has always been treated by nations as a civil 

 right, derived from and regulated by each society 

 according to its own circumstances aud interests. 

 The minority also refer to the case of Anderson v,. 

 Baker, 23 Maryland Reports, 531, which, was a deci- 

 sion against the existence of a natural right of suf- 

 frage. This decision disfranchised a considerable 

 part of the inhabitants of Maryland who had pre- 

 viously voted. The decision was confirmed by the 

 decision of Chief Justice Waite of the United States 

 Supreme Court in the case of Minor vs. Happensett, 

 the question involved being whether women are en- 

 titled under the Constitution of the United States to 

 vote because they are citizens. It is believed that 

 no well-considered case or recognized authority can 

 be found at variance with these principles. 



In regard to the ground of supposed rights un- 

 der the Constitution, the minority contend that the 

 ground is not well taken, and that the language of 

 the Constitution can not be made to confer the right 

 upon women. The third ground, that of the welfare 

 of society, was fully considered, and it was argued 

 that for women to give sufficient time to the study 

 of public affairs to make them effective in political 

 affairs, would interfere with their home duties and 

 thus be an injury to society ; or that, not having full 

 information on the matters to be voted on, their 

 political action would be of no advantage. The op- 

 position of a large proportion of the women of the 

 State to suffrage for women was also urged as an ar- 

 gument against the movement. 



The report concludes by saying that the great ob- 

 jection is fundamental. " The accident of sex," a 

 term adopted by the petitioners, is not an accident- 

 It defines and fixes the conditions and limits of hu- 

 man society. It does not imply a subordination of 

 one sex to the other, but points out that all the du- 

 ties in life of one can not well be performed by the 

 other. The petitioners urge that women are not 

 responsible for having been born females. This 

 is true ; but if certain duties appertain by nature to 

 their sex and certain duties to the other sex, each is 

 responsible for the performance of its own. Suppose 

 this question should be considered in the light of 

 duties instead of the light of rights ; will it not ap- 

 pear that there are natural duties, ordained of God, 

 inconsistent and incompatible with the "rights" 

 now claimed for women ? If the duties and func- 

 tions of public life, participation in public affairs, 

 eligibility to public office, are antagonistic to the 

 duties of woman in the family, which are we to 

 choose for her, the order of nature or its opposite ? 



Believing that these measures, in the consequences 

 of which every interest in human society would be 

 involved, propose a revolution contrary to the order 

 of nature, in which the household and the family 

 would to a great extent be sacrificed to public duties 

 and political life, we recommend that the petition- 

 ers have leave to withdraw. 



Subsequently a bill to grant municipal suf- 

 frage to women was rejected in the House 

 yeas 92, nays 128. 



The report of the Labor Bureau of 1877 

 shows that, comparing the year 1877 with 1875, 



