hopping
districts in the cities and urged the women in the country to go to
the court house and register when in town. They sent out women
notaries with blanks to register the women.[49] In Vigo county, of
which Terre Haute is the county seat, 12,000 registered, more than the
average number of men who usually voted at elections. In all parts of
the State the registration of women was very large and the women were
studying political questions and showing much interest in their new
duties.

Meanwhile the action of the Legislature was taken into the courts. On
June 25 Judge W. W. Thornton of the Marion County (Indianapolis)
Superior Court gave a decision that the Legislature had no authority
to call for an election of delegates to a constitutional convention
and no right to grant to women the privilege of voting for such
delegates or any constitution which might be submitted to the voters.
The case was at once appealed to the State Supreme Court, which on
July 13 sustained the decision. Chief Justice Erwin wrote the opinion
and Justices Spencer, Harvey and Myers concurred. Justice M. B. Lairy
filed a dissenting opinion. There was a wide difference of opinion
among the lawyers of the State.

This decision did not affect the limited suffrage law, which gave
women the right to vote for (1) Presidential electors; (2) all State
officers not expressly named in the constitution, including Attorney
General and Judges of the Appellate, Superior, Criminal, Probate and
Juvenile Courts; (3) all city, township and county officers not named
in the constitution. The law was referred to as nine-tenths suffrage.

Action was brought in the Superior Court of Marion county for a
decision on this law. The Court gave an adverse decision but it
embraced definitely only the Municipal suffrage. On October 26 the
Supreme Court upheld this decision concerning Municipal suffrage and
implied that the entire Act was invalid. The counsel for the
suffragists, including some of the foremost lawyers in the State,
with Eli Stansbury, Attorney General, and Mrs. McCulloch, presented
masterly arguments. The decision of the Supreme Court was condemned by
many besides the suffragists. The hearing was not held before a full
bench and the decision was not unanimous, Judge Lawson J. Harvey
handing down a dissenting opinion, so that two men virtually decided
this momentous question.

By Jan. 1, 1919 the Federal Suffrage Amendment had passed the Lower
House of