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Charleston Gazette
February 18, 1913


LOWER HOUSE PASSED WOMAN SUFFRAGE BILL

Yesterday by the Necessary Two-Thirds Vote of Fifty-Eight

FAILED TO PASS UNTIL HARTLEY CHANGED HIS VOTE

Resolution now Rests With the Senate to Either Adopt or Reject

The resolution providing for the submission to a popular vote of a proposed constitutional amendment giving the right of suffrage to the women of West Virginia, passed the House of Delegates yesterday by the necessary two-thirds vote—58.

The scene on the floor was a most interesting one. The resolution had failed of passage on Saturday, but the day was saved for the suffragists by the postponement of the announcing of the vote. As soon as the matter was called up by Speaker George just before 12 o’clock yesterday, men began changing their votes—the changes being well divided between the two sides. After much jockeying, the advocates of equal suffrage finally mustered 57 votes, thereby leaving them only one short of the required two-thords [sic].

Then it was that the youthful delegate from Jackson county, Charles H. Hartley, forever enshrined himself in the affection and good graces of all suffragettes. He had been recorded as voting in the negative, when he arose and changed his vote to the affirmative. A cheer went up that almost perforated the ceiling. Wysong and Yost fell over themselves with joy; John Dice, of Greenbrier, looked wistfully at the passing clouds, and Speaker George sat back, looking like “Patience on a monument smiling at grief.”

The victory exceeds even the sanguine hopes of the suffragists. The organization and propaganda in this state has only commenced, and the general opinion is that its failure to pass the Senate will mean nothing more than a little delay. The news spead [sic] rapidly among the equal suffragists of Charleston, and Mrs. Cannady wired Miss Mary Johnston the good news. The good women have led the fight for the extension of the franchise to their sex, and are to be congratulated upon the outcome in the House.


"Fighting the Long Fight" Chapter 2