_The Enfranchisement of Women._.--These arguments in favor of suffrage for women gradually made a strong appeal to the men and one state after another conferred a limited suffrage on women citizens. At first they were allowed to vote in school elections, or in municipal elections, or on proposed bond issues (if they were taxpayers). From this it was a short step to equal suffrage with men in all elections and by 1920 there were some sixteen states in which this right had been conferred upon women. In the meantime various foreign countries, including England and even Germany, had granted the full right of suffrage to women. After long agitation on the part of American women, Congress in 1919 submitted to the state legislatures an amendment to the Federal Constitution providing for full woman suffrage in all the states, and this nineteenth amendment was ratified in 1920. =The Duty to Vote.=--The better opinion is that the exercise of the suffrage is not only a high privilege conferred by the state on a select class of its citizens, but is a duty as well. Among the great dangers of popular government are indifference and apathy of the voters. If popular government is to be a success, we must have not only an intelligent and honest electorate but also one which is wide-awake and vigilant. Under a democratic system of government like ours, the character of the government is largely what the voters make of it. If we are to have capable and honest officials to enact laws and enforce them, the voters must see to it that such men are nominated and elected and compelled by the pressure of a vigorous and alert public opinion to the faithful performance of their duties. Every voter should inform himself as to the qualifications of candidates for office and as to the merits of policies upon which he is called to express an opinion, and having done this, he ought to go to the polls and contribute his share to the election of good men and the adoption of wise public measures.