case where
one has been submitted it has been done simply to please the women and
to get rid of them, and with the full assurance that it would not be
carried. Two conspicuous examples of the impossibility of obtaining an
amendment where it would be likely to receive a majority vote are to
be found in California and Iowa. In the former State one went before
the electors in 1896, and, although the conditions were most
unfavorable and the strongest possible fight was made against it, so
large an affirmative sentiment was developed that it was clearly
evident it would be carried on a second trial. Up to that time the
women of this State had very little difficulty in securing suffrage
bills, but since then the Legislature has persistently refused to
submit another amendment. (See chapter on California.)

In probably no State is the general sentiment so strongly in favor of
woman suffrage as in Iowa, and yet for the past thirty years the women
have tried in vain to secure from the Legislature the submission of an
amendment--simply an opportunity to carry their case to the electors.
(See chapter on Iowa.) The politics of that State is practically
controlled by the great brewing interests and the balance of power
rests in the German vote. It is believed that woman suffrage would be
detrimental to their interests and they will not allow it. Here, as in
many States, a resolution for an amendment must be acted upon by two
successive Legislatures. If a majority of either party should pass
this resolution, the enemy would be able to defeat its nominees for
the next Legislature before the women could get the chance to vote for
them. In other words, all the forces hostile to woman suffrage are
already enfranchised and are experienced, active and influential in
politics, while the women themselves can give no assistance, and the
men in every community who favor it are very largely those who have
not an aggressive political influence. This very refusal of certain
Legislatures to let the voters pass upon the question is the strongest
possible indication that they fear the result. If women could be
enfranchised simply by an Act of Congress they would have an
opportunity to vote for their benefactors at the same time as the
enemies would vote against them, and thus the former would not, as at
present, run the risk of personal defeat and the overthrow of their
party by espousing the cause of woman suffrage.

If, however, Legislatures we