quirement has not been complied with and the act is void. Not every enactment, however, which enlarges, restricts or modifies previous statutes is subject to the constitutional objection made here. "Any new provision of law may in some sense be said to amend and change the prior system of laws, and whenever there is an irreconcilable conflict between two acts the later one must prevail. To the extent of the conflict the later act amends the earlier one by implication, and if the later act is not amendatory in form and perfect in itself it is not within the prohibition of the constitution. It is not necessary, when a new act is passed, that all prior acts modified by it by implication shall be re-enacted and published at length." (Hollingsworth v. Chicago and Carterville Coal Co. 243 Ill. 98.) The requirement of the constitution was intended to enable the meaning of enactments directly amending prior statutes to be ascertained by an examination of the enactments themselves, without the necessity of examining all prior statutes on the subject to ascertain the effect of the amendment. The purpose of this provision and its meaning have been announced in numerous cases, and in People v. Crossley, 261 Ill. 78, the whole question was again considered with reference to these cases, and the rule was reiterated that "an act which is complete within itself and does not purport, either in its title or in the body thereof, to amend or revive any other act, is valid though it may by implication modify or repeal prior existing statutes." This act does not purport to amend or revive any other act and it is complete in itself. Its only object is to extend to women the right of suffrage so far as the offices and subjects mentioned in it are concerned. The intention of the legislature can be ascertained without reference to any prior act. The act is entirely intelligible; its meaning appears clearly on its face; no further legislation is necessary; no machinery other than is provided is required to put it in operation and make it effective; nothing remains to be done other than

for the women to vote. The act does not violate section 13 of article 4 of the constitution.

It is argued that by section 1 of article 7 of the constitution, which has already been set out, the power of extending the right of suffrage to women has been denied to the legislature. This question is one of constitutional construction, purely. We cannot give expression to our own views as to the justice, the wisdom or the public policy of extending the right of suffrage to women or permit those views to affect the decision of this case. The right to determine who may vote rests with the legislature and not the courts, and the courts have no authority to interfere with the act of the legislature unless such act has been clearly prohibited by some provision of the constitution. It is elementary that the right of suffrage is not a natural right but exists only by positive law; that the constitution is not a grant of authority so far as the legislature is concerned but is a limitation of legislative power, and that the legislative power of the General Assembly is unlimited, except by such restrictions as the constitution has imposed in express terms or by necessary implication. It is also true that where the constitution has prescribed the qualifications of the electors they cannot be changed by the legislature. The question presented, therefore, is whether the qualifications of electors prescribed by section 1 of article 7 of the constitution apply to elections for the officers named in the act under consideration, and this question has been heretofore answered, practically and in principle, by the decisions of this court, in the negative. None of the offices named in the act in question are mentioned in the constitution but all have been created by statutory enactments. From the time of the organization of the territory of the United States north-west of the Ohio river under the ordinance of 1787, the right of suffrage under the various acts of Congress, constitutions and statutes from time to time in force in the territory now constituting the State of Illinois was confined to male inhabitants

or male citizens, and no woman was permitted or authorized to cast a vote for any office or upon any question until 1891. The General Assembly in that year enacted a law "to entitle women to vote at any election held for the purpose of choosing any officer under the general or special school laws of this State." Immediately the power of the legislature to extend to women the limited right of suffrage conferred by this act was questioned, the objection to the existence of such power being based upon the section of the constitution. involved in the present case,-section 1 of article 7. The question was presented to this court in a petition for mandamus against the board of election commissioners of Cook county. (People v. English, 139 Ill. 622.) The precise question in that case was the right of a woman to vote at an election for county superintendent of schools. It was held that the legislature had no power to grant her such right, upon the ground that the county superintendent of schools was an officer provided for by the constitution, and that no person not possessing the qualifications prescribed in section 1 of article 7 could have the right to vote for a constitutional officer. The court expressly reserved the question whether it was competent for the legislature to provide that women might vote at an election of school officers not mentioned in the constitution, but the inference to be drawn from the opinion was that it was competent.

A year later this precise question was presented to the court in the case of Plummer v. Yost, 144 Ill. 68, in which case two men contested the election of two women as members of the board of education of a school district. The election turned upon the votes of women cast and counted for the women candidates, who would otherwise have been defeated. It was held that as to the two school officers mentioned in the constitution,-the State superintendent of public instruction and the county superintendent of public instruction,-the qualifications of electors must be those prescribed in section 1 of article 7 of the constitution,

but that the General Assembly had complete control as to what other school offices should be created and the manner in which the incumbents of those offices should be designated, and, if it provided for the choice of such officers by popular vote, it was not necessary that the voters should have the same qualifications as those of electors as defined by the constitution.

These two cases have established this construction of the constitution and they have been followed without question for many years. (Ackerman v. Haenck, 147 Ill. 514; Dorsey v. Brigham, 177 id. 250; Collier v. Anlicker, 189 id. 34; Bloome v. Hograeff, 193 id. 195.) The distinction which they indicate between offices of constitutional origin and those created by statutes as to their control by the legislature has been repeatedly recognized, and the rule has been often announced that an office created by legislative action is wholly within the control of the legislature. If an office is not of constitutional origin it is competent for the legislature to declare the manner of filling it, how, when and by whom the incumbent shall be elected or appointed, and to change, from time to time, the mode of election or appointment. People v. Morgan, 90 Ill. 558; People v. Kipley, 171 id. 44; People v. Loeffler, 175 id. 585; People v. Olson, 245 id. 288; People v. Bowman, 247 id. 276.

By these decisions the rule is settled that section I of article 7 of the constitution refers only to elections provided for by that instrument. The qualifications of voters at such elections are fixed by the constitution and the legislature cannot change them. Other elections, however, provided for only by statute and not by the constitution, are wholly within the control of the legislature. Against this statement of the law it is contended by counsel for the appellant, in the language of their brief, "that the words 'any election,' in section 1, refer to and embrace every election at which any political office is to be filled, whether the political office is created by the constitution itself or by

any law passed by the legislature under the powers conferred upon it by that constitution." They then proceed to argue that the case of Plummer v. Yost, supra, and the cases which followed it, are not inconsistent with their argument because those cases involved only "district school elections, i. e., non-political elections," and they lay down the postulate that "school districts, boards of education and similar instrumentalities for the control of the education of the people of the State are of a philanthropic and nonpolitical character. They exercise no functions of a political or governmental nature." This proposition is essential to their argument, for if school directors and members of boards of education hold political offices, then it has been the uniform holding of this court for more than twenty years that the words "any election," in section of article 7 of the constitution, do not embrace every election at which any political office is to be filled and that the legislature may confer on women the right to vote for political offices.

Counsel give no definition of "political," and we know of no division of the agencies of government into those which are political and those which are philanthropic. The terms have no relation to each other, and the division is no more logical than would be a division of articles into. those which are red and those which are round. "Political" is thus defined by Webster: "Of or pertaining to polity or politics, or the conduct of government, referring in the widest application to the judicial, executive and legislative branches; of or pertaining to or incidental to the exercise of the functions vested in those charged with the conduct of government; relating to the management of affairs of state." Politics is "the science and art of government; the science dealing with the organization, regulation and administration of a State in both its internal and external affairs." The public school system of the State was not established and has not been maintained as a charity or