MASSACHUSETTS. 



fi'JO 



Buffrngo upon women. Mr. Winn of Franklin 

 Hjmko in opposition, reviewing the history of 

 suffrage, and urging the dependent position of 

 women, un<l thrir physical inequality with men, 

 as arguments against allowing the former to 

 vote. He gave statistics to prove that since 

 the agitation of women's rights began there 

 has been a decrease in the number of births 

 among the native population, and an increase 

 in the number of divorces and of illegitimate 

 births, and that consequently the conferring 

 of the right of suffrage upon women would bo 

 a dangerous experiment, regarded either from 

 a moral point of view or as a question in polit- 

 ical economy. Mr. Burrage of Suffolk said 

 that if the Senator's arguments were sound, 

 society would evidently be benefited by a re- 

 turn to that condition of things under which 

 women were held as slaves. He favored the 

 bill on the ground that the State should be no 

 respecter of persons, and that every person 

 meeting the requirements of the Constitution 

 in regard to the qualifications of voters should 

 be allowed to vote, irrespective of color or sex. 

 Mr. Ely of Norfolk advocated the bill, and con- 

 tended that to give women the right to vote is 

 simply a matter of justice. The bill finally 

 passed the Senate yeas 24, nays 11. In the 

 House it was passed by a vote of 129 yeas to 

 69 nays. The following ia the act : 



Sa U enacted, etc., at follows : 



SECTION 1. Every woman who is a citizen of this 

 Commonwealth, or twenty-one years of age and up- 

 ward, and has the educational qualifications required 

 by the twentieth article of the amendments to the 

 Constitution, excepting paupers and persons under 

 guardianship, who shall have resided within this 

 Commonwealth one year, and within the city or town 

 in which she claims the ri^ht to vote six months next 

 preceding any meeting of citizens, either in wards or 

 in general meeting, for municipal purposes, and who 

 shall have paid by herself, or her parent or guardian, 

 a State or county tax, which within two year* next 

 preceding such meeting has boon assessed upon her in 

 any city or town, shall have a right to vote, at such 

 town or city meeting, for members of school com- 

 mittees. 



SBC. 2. Any female citizen of this Commonwealth 

 may, on or before the fifteenth day of September in 

 any year, give notice in writing to tne assessors of any 

 city or town, accompanied by satisfactory evidence, 

 that she was on the first day of May of that year an 

 inhabitant thereof, and that she desires to pay a poll- 

 tax, and furnish under oath a true list of her estate, both 

 real and personal, and she shall thereupon be assessed 

 for her poll and estate, and the assessors shall, on or 

 before the first day of October in each year, return her 

 name to the olerk of the city or town in the list of the 

 persons so assessed. The taxes so assessed shall be 

 entered in the tax-list of the collector of the city or 

 town, and the collector shall collect and pay over the 

 some in the manner specified in his warrant. 



SEC. 8. All laws in relation to the registration of 

 voters shall apply to women upon whom the right to 

 vote Ls herein conferred ; provided, that the names of 

 such women shall be placed on a separate list. 



SEC. 4. The mayor and aldermen of cities and the 

 selectmen of towns may, in their discretion, appoint 

 and notify a separate day for the election of school 

 committees ; provided, that such meeting shall be held 

 in the same month in which the annual town meeting 

 of the municipal election occurs. 



This is the first decided triumph of the wo- 



man-suffragists in the State, and it gives an 

 opportunity to subject their demands to the 

 test of experiment. 



The fourth proposition was the passage of 

 a law to give women the right to vote on all 

 matters relating to the sale of intoxicating 

 liquors. The report of the committee in the 

 Senate was unfavorable, l>qt the Senate sub- 

 stituted a bill providing for special elections in 

 cities and towns to determine whether or not 

 liquors should be sold therein, and providing 

 further that women might vote thereat upon 

 the usual conditions. When the bill reached 

 the House, a great deal of objection was made 

 to the special election provisions which it con- 

 tained, and it was quite as much upon that 

 consideration as on account of opposition to 

 women voting that the bill was rejected by 

 a very large vote. 



The following bill was substituted for an 

 unfavorable report in the House; it is known 

 as the "civil-damage bill ": 



SEC. 1. Every husband, wife, child, parent, guardi- 

 an, employer, or other person, who shall be injured 

 in person or property, or means of support, by any in- 

 toxicated person, or in consequence or the intoxication, 

 habitual or otherwise, of any person, shall have a right 

 of action hi his or her own name, severally or jointly, 

 against any person or persons who shall, by selling 

 or giving intoxicating hquors ? have caused the intox- 

 ication, in whole or in part, of such person or persons ; 

 and any person or persons owning, renting, leasing, or 

 permitting the occupation of any building or premises, 

 and having knowledge that intoxicating liquors are to 

 bo sold therein, or who, having leased the same for 

 other purposes, shall knowingly permit therein the 

 sale or any intoxicating liquors, shall, if any such 

 liquors sold or given therein have caused, in'wnole or 

 in part, the intoxication of any person, be liable, sev- 

 erally or jointly with the person or persons selling or 

 giving intoxicating liquors as aforesaid, for all dam- 

 ages sustained, and for exemplary damages, and the 

 same may bo recovered in an action of tort. A mar- 

 ried woman may bring such action in her own name, 

 and all damages recovered by her shall inure to her 

 separate use. In case of the death of either party, the 

 action and right of action shall survive to or against 

 his executor or administrator. 



SEO. 2. This act shall take effect upon its pas- 

 sage. 



The bill is similar to the one previously 

 passed by the New York Legislature. It was 

 amended by adding a section as follows : " Any 

 owner or lessor of real estate, who shall pay 

 any money on account of his liability incurred 

 under this act for any act of his tenant, may 

 in an action of contract recover of said tenant 

 the money so paid." The clause concerning 

 exemplary damages was stricken out ; owners 

 and lessees of buildings who should rent them 

 for liquor-selling were made jointly respon- 

 sible; and no license for the sale of liquor 

 should be granted unless the application there- 

 for had the signature of such owner or lessee. 

 In the Senate the bill was ordered to a third 

 reading by yeas 26, nays 8. In the Honse the 

 vote to substitute was yeas 105, nays 54. 



The State Detective Force was abolished, 

 and the Governor was authorized to appoint 

 not more than two district police for each ju- 



