The mode of legislation is not much changed from the early days.  Usually bills have in theory to be read three times and must be voted for by a majority of a quorum.  Many States forbid new legislation to be attempted after the first few days of the session.  There has in the last few years been an effort at the proper drafting of bills, but it has hardly made much progress as yet, and will be discussed in our final chapter.

The two most radical changes of all are, of course, the initiative and referendum, and women’s suffrage.  The latter has, on the whole, made no progress since it was adopted in Colorado and three other States, about the year 1890.  The people of the States where it exists appear satisfied and it is probable that they will never make the change back; on the other hand, the better opinion seems to be that the existence of women’s suffrage has not materially altered conditions or results in any particular, except, possibly, that there is a little less disorder around the polling booths on election day.  The largest city in the world where women vote is Denver; and in hardly any American town has the “social evil” been more openly prevalent or politics more corrupt; while it has just voted against prohibition.  As in the case of school suffrage, it is probable that a smaller proportion of women are now exercising the right of suffrage than when the thing was a novelty.  In all the neighboring States to the four women’s suffrage States (Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah) a women’s suffrage amendment has been proposed to the Constitution, all the male voters have been given a chance to vote on the question, and in every instance it has been defeated by very large majorities.  As has been intimated, the movement to extend the right of suffrage to women for all matters connected with schools and education has also been arrested.  Many States had adopted this principle before the year 1895, but few, if any, during the past fifteen years.  The experience of Massachusetts, where sentiment was strongly for it, shows that the women take very little interest in the matter; an infinitesimal percentage of the total female population voting upon election day, even when a prominent woman was the leading candidate for the school committee.

Women’s suffrage was adopted in Colorado in 1805, and rejected in Kansas the same year; adopted in Idaho in 1890, and rejected in California; rejected in Washington and South Dakota in 1898; rejected in Oregon in 1900, in both Washington and Oregon, once at least since, and has been rejected by popular referendum in several other States.