t number of voters to which such an
amendment was referred was that of New York. Had every man voted who
was qualified to do so, the electorate would not have exceeded 200,000
and probably not more than 150,000.[A]

[Footnote A: Suffrage in the Colonies. New York Chapter. McKinley.]

The next extensions of the vote to men were made to certain tribes
of Indians by act of Congress; and to the Negro by amendment to the
Federal Constitution.

At least three-fourths of the present electors secured their votes
through direct naturalization or that of their forefathers. Congress
determines conditions of citizenship and state constitutions fix
qualifications of voters. In no instance has the foreign immigrant
been forced to plead with a vast electorate for his vote. The suffrage
has been "thrust upon him" without effort or even request on his
part. National and State constitutions not only close to women the
comparatively easy processes by which the vote was extended to men and
women of other countries but also those processes by which the vote
was secured to men of our own land. The simplest method now possible
is by amendment of the Federal Constitution. To deny the privilege of
that method to women is a discrimination against them so unjust and
insufferable that no fair-minded man North or South, East or West, can
logically share in the denial.

3. RELIEF FROM UNJUST CONSTITUTIONAL OBSTRUCTIONS DEMANDS IT.

The constitutions of many states have provided for amendments by such
difficult processes that they either have never been amended or have
not been amended when the subject is in the least controversial. Their
provisions not infrequently are utilized by opponents of a cause to
delay action for years. A present case illustrates. Newspapers in
Kentucky which have opposed woman suffrage, and still do so, have
started a campaign (December, 1916) to submit a woman suffrage
amendment to voters with the announced intention of securing its
defeat at the polls in order to remove it from politics for five years
as the same question cannot be again submitted for that length of
time.

There are state constitutions so impossible of amendment that women
of those states can only secure enfranchisement through Federal action
and fair play demands the submission of a Federal constitutional
amendment. (See Chapter II.)

4. PROTECTION FROM INADEQUATE ELECTION LAWS DEMANDS IT.

The election laws of all states make inadequate pr