This method of settling the question by the Legislatures is just
as much in the line of States' rights as is that of the popular
vote. The one question before you is, will you insist that a
majority of the individual voters of every State must be converted
before its women shall have the right to vote, or will you
allow the matter to be settled by the representative men in the
Legislatures of the several States? You need not fear that we
shall get suffrage too quickly if Congress shall submit the
proposition, for even then we shall have a hard time in going
from Legislature to Legislature to secure the two-thirds votes of
three-fourths of the States necessary to ratify the amendment. It
may take twenty years after Congress has taken the initiative step
to make action by the State Legislatures possible.
I pray you, gentlemen, that you will make your report to the
Senate speedily. I know you are ready to make a favorable one.
Some of our speakers may not have known this as well as I. I ask
you to make a report and to bring it to a discussion and a vote on
the floor of the Senate.
You ask me if we want to press this question to a vote provided
there is not a majority to carry it. I say yes, because we want
the reflex influence of the discussion and of the opinions of
Senators to go back into the States to help us to educate the
people of the States.
Senator LAPHAM.
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