ions for voting and
office-holding in force in the various states were not disturbed. The
Constitution did not recognize the principle of universal suffrage. It
not only allowed the states to retain the power to prescribe the
qualifications of voters in state and municipal elections, but also
limited the suffrage for Federal purposes to those who were qualified to
vote at state elections.[166] The removal, during the first half of the
nineteenth century, of property qualifications for voting at state
elections and holding state offices had the effect of placing the
Federal suffrage upon a popular basis.

The influence of the democratic movement was less marked, however, in
the domain of municipal affairs. Here the old system under which voting
and office-holding were regarded as the exclusive right of the
property-owning class has not entirely disappeared. In this as in other
respects the American state has evinced a fear of municipal democracy.
It is true that in the choice of public officials the principle of
manhood suffrage prevails. But the suffrage may be exercised either with
reference to candidates or measures; and in voting upon questions of
municipal policy, which is far more important than the right to select
administrative officers, the suffrage is often restricted to taxpayers
or the owners of real estate. Thus in Colorado, which has gone as far as
any state in the Union in the direction of municipal democracy, no
franchise can be granted to a private corporation or debt incurred by a
city for the purpose of municipal ownership without the approval of the
taxpaying electors. When we consider that 72 per cent. of the families
living in Denver in the year 1900 occupied rented houses,[167] and that
the household goods of a head of a family to the value of two hundred
dollars are exempt from taxation,[168] the effect of this restriction is
obvious. In thus limiting the right to vote, the framers of the state
constitution evidently proceeded upon the theory that the policy of a
city with reference to its public utilities should be controlled by its
taxpayers. The justification for this constitutional provision is not
apparent, however, inasmuch as the burden of supporting the public
service industries of a city is not borne by the taxpayers as such, but
by the people generally. Such a system makes it possible for the
taxpaying class to control public utilities in their own interest and to
the disadvantage of the