A similar development took place on the other side of the Atlantic. The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, regarding female suffrage, was being hotly debated in the summer of 1920. Thirty-six of the states had to ratify it to make it law, but only thirty-five had done so. A special session in Tennessee was the last hope. During the voting session, the vote was at 48-48, when the twenty-four-year-old Harry T. Burn cast the decisive vote. He had made it clear in advance that he opposed reform. But just ahead of the vote, he got a letter from his mother, urging him to vote in favour. And
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