emocrats brought forward a
new measure which accorded a prominent place to female suffrage.
February 8 the two chambers elected a joint committee to investigate
and report upon the Government's project. Various amendments were
added to the bill, e.g., one whereby members of the upper chamber
henceforth should receive an emolument for their services, and
eventually, May 14, the measure was brought to a vote. Despite the
apprehensions of the Government, it was carried. In the lower house
the vote was 128 to 98; in the upper, 110 to 29.

[Footnote 829: Under the prevailing system, each
elector in the towns had one vote for every 100
kroner income, subject to a limit of 100 votes;
each one in the country had ten votes for every 100
kroner income, subject to a limit of 5,000 votes.]

*660. Final Enactment, 1909: Woman's Suffrage.*--The measure (p. 596)
comprised a series of constitutional amendments, and, in accordance
with the requirements in such cases, it remained in abeyance until a
newly elected Riksdag (chosen in 1908 and assembled in 1909) should
have had an opportunity to take action upon it. In the Riksdag of 1908
ex-Premier Staaff introduced a measure granting female suffrage in
parliamentary elections and extending it in municipal elections. But
both chambers negatived this and every other proposal offered upon the
subject, preferring to support the Government in its purpose to keep
the issue of woman's suffrage in the background until the reforms of
1907 should have been carried to completion. Early in the session of
1909 the "preliminary resolution" of 1907 was given the final approval
of the chambers. The Liberals, being now interested principally in the
woman's suffrage propaganda, did not combat the measure, so that the
majorities for its adoption were overwhelming.

The enactment of this piece of legislation constitutes a landmark in
Swedish political history. Through upwards of a decade the question of
franchise reform had overshadowed all other public issues and had
distracted attention from various pressing problems of state.
Denounced still by the extremists of both radical and conservative
groups, the new law was hailed by the mass of the nation with the most
evident satisfaction.[830] The question of woman's suffrage remains.
At the elections of 1908 the Liberal party emulated the Social
Democrats in