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diff --git a/29878.txt b/29878.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..167c4bb --- /dev/null +++ b/29878.txt @@ -0,0 +1,40926 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V, +Edited by Ida Husted Harper + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V + + +Editor: Ida Husted Harper + +Release Date: August 31, 2009 [eBook #29878] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE, +VOLUME V*** + + +E-text prepared by Richard J. Shiffer and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + Also, the HTML version contains links to references + in other volumes of _History of Woman Suffrage_ in + the Project Gutenberg library. + See 29878-h.htm or 29878-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29878/29878-h/29878-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29878/29878-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully + as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other + inconsistencies. + + Many occurrences of mismatched single and double quotes remain + as they were in the original. + + Text that has been changed to correct an obvious error is noted + at the end of this ebook. + + + + + +[Illustration: DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW. + +Vice-President-at-Large of the National American Woman Suffrage +Association 1892-1904 and President 1904-1915.] + + + +THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE + +Edited by + +IDA HUSTED HARPER + +Illustrated with Copperplate and Photogravure Engravings + +In Six Volumes + +VOLUME V + +1900-1920 + + +AFTER SEVENTY YEARS CAME THE VICTORY + + + + + + + +National American Woman Suffrage Association + +Copyright, 1922, by +National American Woman Suffrage Association + + + + +PREFACE + + +The History of Woman Suffrage is comprised in six volumes averaging +about one thousand pages each, of which the two just finished are the +last. While it is primarily a history of this great movement in the +United States it covers to some degree that of the whole world. The +chapter on Great Britain was prepared for Volume VI by Mrs. Millicent +Garrett Fawcett, leader of the movement there for half a century. The +accounts of the gaining of woman suffrage in other countries come from +the highest authorities. Their contest was short compared to that in +the two oldest countries on the globe with a constitutional form of +government--the United States and Great Britain--and in the former it +began nearly twenty years earlier than in the latter. The effort of +women in the "greatest republic on earth" to obtain a voice in its +government began in 1848 and ended in complete victory in 1920. In +Great Britain it is not yet entirely accomplished, although in all her +colonies except South Africa women vote on the same terms as men. + +Doubtless other histories of this world wide movement will be written +but at present the student will find himself largely confined to these +six volumes. This is especially true of the United States and many of +the documents of the earliest period would have been lost for all time +if they had not been preserved in the first three volumes. These also +contain much information which does not exist elsewhere regarding the +struggle of women for other rights besides that of the franchise. That +the materials were collected and cared for until they could be +utilized was due to Miss Susan B. Anthony's appreciation of their +value. The story of the trials and tribulations of preparing those +volumes during ten years is told in Volume II, page 612, and in the +Preface of Volume IV. They were written and edited principally by Miss +Anthony and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and covered the history from +the beginning of the century to 1884. The writers expected when they +began in 1877 to bring out one small volume, perhaps only a large +pamphlet. When these three huge volumes were finished they still had +enough material for a fourth, which never was used. + +Miss Anthony continued her habit of preserving the records and in +1900, when at the age of 80 she resigned the presidency of the +National American Woman Suffrage Association, she immediately +commenced preparations for another volume of the History. She called +to her assistance Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, who had recently finished +her Biography, and in her home in Rochester, N. Y., they spent the +next two years on the book, Mrs. Stanton, who was 85 years old, taking +the keenest interest in the work.[1] When the manuscript was completed +hundreds of pages had to be eliminated in order to bring it within the +compass of one volume of 1,144 pages. + +Miss Anthony then said: "Twenty years from now another volume will be +written and it will record universal suffrage for women by a Federal +Amendment." Her prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. She put upon +younger women the duty of collecting and preserving the records and +this was done in some degree by officers of the association. In 1917, +after the legacy of Mrs. Frank Leslie had been received by Mrs. Carrie +Chapman Catt, president of the association, she formed the Leslie +Suffrage Commission and established a Bureau of Suffrage Education, +one feature of which was a research department. Here under the +direction of an expert an immense amount of material was collected +from many sources and arranged for use. After the strenuous work for a +Federal Suffrage Amendment had brought it very near, Mrs. Catt turned +her attention to the publishing of the last volume of the History of +Woman Suffrage while the resources of the large national headquarters +in New York and the archives of the research bureau were available, +and she requested Mrs. Harper to prepare it. The work was begun Jan 2, +1919, and it was to be entirely completed in eighteen months. No +account had been taken of the enormous growth of the suffrage +movement. It had entered every State in the Union and it extended +around the world. It was occupying the attention of Parliaments and +Legislatures. In the United States conventions had multiplied and +campaigns had increased in number; it had become a national issue with +a center in every State and defeats and victories were of constant +record. + +To select from the mass of material, to preserve the most important, +to condense, to verify, was an almost impossible task. A comparison +will illustrate the difference between the work required on Volume IV +and that on the present volumes. The Minutes of the national +convention in 1901 filled 130 pages of large type; those of the +convention of 1919 filled 320 pages, many of small type; reports of +congressional hearings increased in proportion. Of the State chapters, +describing all the work that had been done before 1901, 29 contained +less than 8 pages, 18 of these less than 5 and 7 less than 3; only 6 +had over 14 pages. For Volume VI not more than half a dozen State +writers sent manuscript for less than 14 and the rest ranged from 20 +to 95 pages. The report on Canada in Volume IV occupied 3-1/2 pages; +in this volume it fills 18. The chapter on Woman Suffrage in Europe +outside of Great Britain found plenty of room in 4 pages; in this one +it requires 32. + +The very full reports of the national suffrage conventions, the +congressional documents, the files of the _Woman's Journal_ and the +_Woman Citizen_ and the newspapers furnished a wealth of material on +the general status of the question in the United States. It was, +however, the evolution of the movement in the States that gave it +national strength and compelled the action by Congress which always +was the ultimate goal. The attempt to give the story of every State, +in many of which no records had been kept or those which had were lost +or destroyed; the difficulty in getting correct dates and proper names +upset all calculations on the amount of material and length of time. +As a result the time lengthened to three and a half years and the one +volume expanded into two, with enough excellent matter eliminated to +have made a third. In each of these chapters will be found a complete +history of the effort to secure the franchise by means of the State +constitution, also the part taken to obtain the Federal Amendment and +the action of the Legislature in ratifying this amendment. + +The accounts of the annual conventions of the National American +Suffrage Association demonstrate as nothing else could do the +commanding force of that organization, for fifty years the foundation +and bulwark of the movement. The hearings before committees of every +Congress indicate the never ceasing effort to obtain an amendment to +the Federal Constitution and the extracts from the speeches show the +logic, the justice and the patriotism of the arguments made in its +behalf. The delay of that body in responding will be something for +future generations to marvel at. In Chapter XX will be found the full +history of this amendment by which all women were enfranchised. + +In one chapter is a graphic account of the effort for half a century +to get a woman suffrage "plank" into the national platforms of the +political parties and its success in 1916, with one for the Federal +Amendment in 1920. A chapter is devoted to the forming of the National +League of Woman Voters after the women of the United States had become +a part of the electorate. All questions as to the part taken in the +war of 1914-1918 by the women who were working for their +enfranchisement are conclusively answered in the chapter on War +Service of Organized Suffragists. In one chapter will be found an +account of other organizations besides the National American +Association that worked to obtain the vote for women and of those that +worked against it. A full description is given of the organizing of +the International Woman Suffrage Alliance and its congresses in the +various cities of Europe. + +Volumes V and VI take up the history of the contest in the United +States from the beginning of the present century to Aug. 26, 1920, +when Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby proclaimed that the 19th +Amendment, submitted by Congress on June 4, 1919, had been ratified by +the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States and was now a part of +the National Constitution. This ended a movement for political liberty +which had continued without cessation for over seventy years. The +story closes with uncounted millions of women in all parts of the +world possessing the same voice as men in their government and +enjoying the same rights as citizens. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, pages 1210, 1256, 1269. +Placing in libraries, 1279 to 1282. Bequeathed to National Suffrage +Association, History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V, page 205. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I. PAGE + +FOUNDING OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION 3 + + Work of the National American Woman Suffrage Association for an + amendment to the Federal Constitution, to State constitutions and + for other reforms--Annual convention in Minneapolis in 1901--Mrs. + Stanton's address on the Church, the Bible and Woman + Suffrage--Miss Anthony's and others' opinions--President's address + of Mrs. Catt on obstacles--Dr. Shaw's vice-president's address on + Anti-suffragists--Plan for national work--Miss Anthony's report on + work with Congress--Protest against "regulated vice" in + Manila--New York _Sun_ and Woman Suffrage--Discriminating against + women in government departments--A tribute to the national + suffrage conventions. + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1902 23 + + Meeting in Washington, D.C., of committee to form an + International Woman Suffrage Alliance--Greeting of Clara Barton + to foreign delegates--Letters from Norway and Germany--Response + of Mrs. Friedland of Russia--Mrs. Catt's president's address on + World Progress leading to the International Alliance--Mrs. + Stanton's address on Educated Suffrage--Miss Anthony's + introduction of Pioneers--Addresses on The New Woman and The New + Man--Women in New York municipal election--Miss Anthony's 82d + birthday--Mr. Blackwell on Presidential suffrage for + women--Hearings before committees of Congress--Addresses of + Norwegian and Australian delegates before Senate Committee--Dr. + Shaw's plea for a committee to investigate conditions in Equal + Suffrage States--Speeches of Russian, Swedish and English + delegates--Mrs. Catt's insistence on a Congressional Committee to + investigate the working of woman suffrage where it exists. + + +CHAPTER III. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1903 55 + + Very successful meeting in New Orleans--Description of + _Picayune_--Ovation to Miss Anthony and Mrs. Caroline E. + Merrick--Dr. Shaw's response--Mrs. Catt's president's + address--_Times Democrat_ brings up Negro Question, official + board of the association states its position--Visit to colored + women's club--Reports of officers--Presidential suffrage for + women--Mrs. Colby's report on Industrial Problems relating to + Women and Children--Addresses of Dr. Henry Dixon Bruns, M. J. + Sanders, president of Progressive Union--Memorial service for + Mrs. Stanton--Speeches on Educational Qualification for + voting--"Dorothy Dix" on The Woman with the Broom--Address of + Edwin Merrick--Belle Kearney on Woman Suffrage to insure White + Supremacy--Tribute to Misses Kate and Jean Gordon. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1904 86 + + Letter of greeting to the convention in Washington from Mrs. + Florence Fenwick Miller, suffrage leader in Great + Britain--Delegates appointed to International Alliance meeting in + Berlin--Mrs. Catt's president's address on an Educational + Requirement for the Suffrage--Address of Mrs. Watson Lister of + Australia--Charlotte Perkins Gilman's biological plea for woman + suffrage--Report from new headquarters--Addresses on Women and + Philanthropy by the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer and Dr. Samuel J. + Barrows--Mrs. Mead on Peace and Mrs. Nathan on The Wage Earner + and the Ballot--Miss Anthony's 84th birthday--A Colorado Jubilee, + speeches by Governor Alva Adams, Mrs. Grenfell and Mrs. + Meredith--Mrs. Terrell asks for moral support of colored + women--Declaration of Principles adopted--Mrs. Catt Resigns the + Presidency, tributes--Hearings before Congressional + Committees--Distinguished testimony from Colorado--Mrs. Catt's + strong appeal for a report even if adverse. + + +CHAPTER V. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1905 117 + + The convention in Portland, Ore., first held in the + West--Enthusiastic welcome and great hospitality--Miss Anthony + speaks of her visit in 1871--Speech of Jefferson Myers, president + of the Exposition--Mrs. Duniway on the Pioneers--Dr. Shaw's + president's address, answers ex-President Cleveland and Cardinal + Gibbons--Committee appointed to interview President + Roosevelt--Protest to committee of Congress against statehood + constitution for Oklahoma and other Territories--Fine work of + Press Committee--Woman's Day at Exposition--Unveiling of + Sacajawea statue--Convention adopts Initiative and + Referendum--Decision to have an amendment campaign in + Oregon--Tribute to Mr. Blackwell--Mrs. Catt's noble + address--Memorial resolutions for eminent members--Speeches by + prominent politicians. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1906 151 + + The convention held in Baltimore one of the most notable--Miss + Anthony, Julia Ward Howe and Clara Barton on the + platform--Welcome by Governor Warfield and Collector of the Port + Stone--Dr. Shaw scores President Roosevelt's reference to Women + in Industry in his message to Congress--Ridicules Cardinal + Gibbons' and Dr. Lyman Abbott's recent pronouncements on woman + suffrage--Organization of College Women's League--Florence Kelley + speaks on Child Labor--College Women's Evening--Women professors + from five large colleges speak--Week of hospitality by Miss Mary + E. Garrett--Speeches on Women in Municipal Government by Wm. + Dudley Foulke, Frederick C. Howe, Rudolph Blankenburg, Jane + Addams--Miss Anthony speaks her last words to a national suffrage + convention--Mrs. Howe's farewell address--President Thomas and + Miss Garrett decide to raise large fund for woman + suffrage--Delegates go to Washington for hearings before + Congressional Committees--Miss Anthony's 86th birthday + celebrated--Her last words on the public platform. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1907 193 + + Bishop Fallows welcomes convention to Chicago--Professor + Breckinridge on Municipal Housekeeping--Florence Kelley on + same--Mary McDowell, Anna Nicholes and others on Workingwomen's + Need of a Vote--Addresses by Professor C. R. Henderson, Hon. + Oliver W. Stewart--Memorials and service for Miss + Anthony--Organizations for Woman Suffrage--Farewell letter of + Mary Anthony--Rabbi Hirsch on woman suffrage--Near victories in + many States. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1908 213 + + Celebrates 40th anniversary in Buffalo--Emily Howland on Spirit + of '48--Kate Gordon describes interview with President + Roosevelt--Widespread work of national headquarters--Program of + 1848 convention--Responses to its Resolutions by Mrs. Gilman, + Miss Blackwell, Mrs. Blatch, the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane and + others--The Scriptures and St. Paul analyzed by Judith Hyams + Douglas--Discussion on the Social Evil led by the Rev. Anna + Garlin Spencer--College Women's Evening; addresses by Dr. M. + Carey Thomas, Professor Frances Squire Potter, Professor + Breckinridge and others--Mrs. Kelley on Laws for Women and Wage + Earners--Stirring speech by Jean Gordon, factory inspector--Maude + Miner on Night Courts for women--Mrs. William C. Gannett on + Woman's Duty--Katharine Reed Balentine on Disfranchised + Influence--Mrs. Philip Snowden describes English situation--Legal + Phases of Disfranchisement by Harriette Johnson Wood--Progress + since 1848--Mrs. Catt's inspiring address. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1909 243 + + Annual meeting held in Seattle--Delightful journey across + continent--Reception in Spokane--Mrs. Villard tells of opening + of Northern Pacific R. R.--Welcomed to Seattle by + Mayor--Elizabeth J. Hauser's report of headquarters work--Mrs. + Belmont's offer of headquarters in New York City--Mrs. Mead urges + association to work for Peace--Professor Potter's address on + College Women and Democracy--Mr. Blackwell's last suffrage + convention--Mrs. Avery reports on National Association's petition + to Congress--Mary E. Craigie tells of suffrage work with the + churches--Professor Potter elected corresponding + secretary--Political work for suffrage before elections urged, + Illinois cited--Suffrage Day at the Exposition. + + +CHAPTER X. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1910 266 + + Convention returns to Washington after six years--President Taft + makes speech of welcome--Delegates show displeasure--Exchange of + letters between national officers and the President--Official + resolution of regret--Comment of _Woman's Journal_--Report of + association's vast work from New York headquarters--Great + Petition officially received by Congress--Mrs. Upton resigns as + treasurer--Memorial addresses for Mr. Blackwell and Wm. Lloyd + Garrison--Alice Paul on "militant" suffrage in Great + Britain--"Dorothy Dix" on The Real Reason why Women can not + Vote--Max Eastman on Democracy and Woman--Mrs. Harper's report as + chairman of National Press Committee--Hearings before Committees + of Congress; speeches by Dr. Shaw, Mrs. McCulloch, Eveline Gano + of New York on teachers' need of the vote; Dr. Anna E. Blount of + Chicago on professional women's need; Minnie J. Reynolds on + writers signing petitions--U. S. Senator Shafroth's notable + speech to Senate Committee--House Committee: Mrs. Raymond Robins, + Elizabeth Schauss, factory inspector; Laura J. Graddick of a + District Labor Union and Florence Kelley argue for the working + women's need of vote--Speeches of Mrs. Upton and Laura Clay. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1911 310 + + Convention in Louisville, Ky., celebrates victories in Washington + and California--Welcomed by Laura Clay--Mr. Braly tells of + California campaign--Mary Ware Dennett, new corresponding + secretary, reports world wide work--Caroline Reilly, new + chairman, describes press work in 41 States--Jane Addams, on + College League's Evening shows what women might accomplish with + the franchise--Dr. Thomas what the suffrage means to college + women--Dr. Harvey W. Wiley speaks on Women's Influence in Public + Affairs--Katharine Dexter McCormick on Effect of Suffrage Work on + Women themselves--Mrs. McCulloch on Equal Guardianship + Laws--Church needs Woman Suffrage--Mrs. Desha Breckinridge + discusses Prospect for Woman Suffrage in the South--Mrs. + Pankhurst receives ovation. + + +CHAPTER XII. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1912 332 + + Three victories celebrated at convention in Philadelphia, + suffrage gained in Oregon, Arizona and Kansas--Welcomed by Mayor + Blankenburg--Rally in Independence Square--Reports show wonderful + progress--An Evening by Men's Suffrage League--Discussion on + officers of the association taking part in political + campaigns--Great meeting in Metropolitan Opera House, speeches by + Julia Lathrop, Miss Addams and Dr. Burghardt DuBois--On last + evening addresses by Bishop Darlington, Baroness von Suttner and + Mrs. Catt--Hearings before Congressional Committees, Dr. Shaw and + Miss Addams presiding--Speeches on Senate side by James Lees + Laidlaw, president of Men's League; Jean Nelson Penfield, + speaking for women in civic work; Elsie Cole Phillips and + Caroline A. Lowe for the wage-earning women--On the House side, + Representatives Raker, Taylor, Lafferty and Berger; Mary E. + McDowell, Ida Husted Harper--Colloquy with committee--Ella C. + Brehaut speaks for anti-suffrage women. + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1913 364 + + Convention opened in Washington Sunday afternoon with mass + meeting--Women's trade unions represented by speakers--Victories + in Illinois and Alaska--Dr. Shaw's account of Democratic National + convention in Baltimore--President Wilson urged to put woman + suffrage in his Message--He receives a delegation--Report of + year's work for the Federal Amendment by Alice Paul, chairman of + association's Congressional Committee--Objection to Congressional + Union--New Congressional Committee appointed--Vote on Federal + Amendment in Senate--Three days' hearings by House Committee on + Rules on appeal for a Committee on Woman Suffrage, Dr. Shaw + presiding--Speeches by Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Gardener, Mrs. Harper, + Jane Addams, Mrs. Breckinridge, Mary R. Beard and Representative + Raker--Women's Anti-Suffrage Associations out in force--In + rebuttal Miss Blackwell, Mrs. McCulloch and Mrs. + Mondell--Representative Mondell closes--Rules Committee refuses + the appeal. + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1914 398 + + Convention met in House of Representatives at Nashville, welcomed + by Mayor Howse--Dr. Shaw eulogizes Southern women--Governor + Hooper welcomes to State--Anne Martin tells of victory in Nevada, + Jeannette Rankin in Montana--National Association's work in + campaigns--Dr. Shaw on the War--Tribute of convention to + her--Address by U. S. Senator Luke Lea--Heated controversy over + Shafroth Federal Amendment--Defense by Ruth Hanna + McCormick--Antoinette Funk before Judiciary Committee--Her + "brief" for amendment--Her report of the campaigns--Miss Clay's + and Mrs. Bennett's bill--Committee Hearings: speakers, Mrs. Funk, + Mrs. Colby, Mrs. Beard, Crystal Eastman Benedict, Dr. Cora Smith + King, Mrs. Gardener--National Anti-Suffrage Association headed by + Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, with array of men and women speakers. + + +CHAPTER XV. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1915 439 + + At the convention in Washington defeats and victories to + consider--First vote in House on Federal Amendment--President + Wilson receives delegates--All reports show progress--Dr. Shaw + refuses to stand for reelection--Her farewell address--Beautiful + ceremonies--Mrs. Catt elected--Ethel M. Smith's report on + political work--Congressmen card-indexed--Ruth Hanna McCormick on + first House vote--Shafroth Amendment dropped--Conference with + Congressional Union, its policy of fighting party in power + condemned--Hearing before friendly Senate Suffrage + Committee--House Committee controversies with "antis" and + Congressional Union--Men "antis" grilled. + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1916 480 + + Great meeting in Atlantic City--President Wilson attends and + announces his allegiance--His address--Dr. Shaw responds--Mrs. + Catt on State campaigns--Shall association work for Federal and + State amendments?--Mrs. Catt sounds key-note in speech on The + Crisis--Mrs. Dudley, Mrs. Cotnam and Mrs. Valentine represent + South--The "golden flier"--Sharp debate on endorsing + candidates--Speeches of Owen Lovejoy, Julia Lathrop and Katherine + Bement Davis--Important report of Mrs. Roessing on work in + Congress; woman suffrage planks in national conventions at + Chicago and St. Louis; interviewing presidential candidates; + revised plan for work of association--Dr. Shaw on Americanism and + the Flag. + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +_National Suffrage Convention of 1917_ 513 + + + Convention in Washington under war conditions--Distinguished + reception committee--Delegates interview their Congressmen; + Association pledges loyalty to Government; its officers in + service--New York victory celebrated--Secretary Lane brings + President Wilson's greetings--Mrs. Catt's great address to + Congress--Maud Wood Park's full report of work with Congress--New + Washington headquarters--Report of Leslie Bureau of Suffrage + Education--Speech of Secretary of War Baker--Dr. Shaw on Woman's + Committee of Council of National Defense--Miss Hay on New York's + Socialist vote--"Suffrage Schools" begun--Last Hearing before + Senate Committee. + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1918-1919 550 + + + Convention of 1918 first ever omitted--War conditions--Many + suffrage gains--Jubilee Convention in St. Louis in 1919--Mrs. + Catt calls for League of Women Voters--Mrs. Shuler's secretary's + report of greatest year's work, State campaigns, war service, + work with Congress--Missouri Legislature gives Presidential + suffrage--Mrs. Park's report on congressional work--Votes in + House and Senate--President Wilson asks Congress for woman + suffrage--Tributes to Pioneers--League of Women Voters + formed--Work with Editors--Non-partisanship reaffirmed--In + Washington: Hearing before new Committee on Woman Suffrage--Dr. + Shaw on association's war record--Mrs. Catt's survey of + situation; urges committee to talk with President--Ex-Senator + Bailey's anti-suffrage speech--Mrs. Catt and Mrs. Park + answer--Last suffrage hearing. + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1920 594 + + + Call to convention in Chicago the last--Mrs. Catt's Jubilee + speech--Executive Council's recommendations--Mrs. Shuler's, + secretary's report of year's gains and losses, work in southern + States, great effort for Ratification--Mrs. Rogers' last + treasurer's report--Smithsonian Institution gives space for + suffrage mementoes--Memorial meeting for Dr. Shaw, college + foundations--Miss Anthony's centennial celebrated--League of + Women Voters perfected. + + +CHAPTER XX. + +STORY OF FEDERAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT 618 + + The "war amendments" discriminate against women--National + Association formed for Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment--Women + vote under the 14th--Supreme Court decides against them--Fifty + years' struggle with Congress for woman suffrage + amendment--Hearings before committees--Stubborn opposition--Votes + and defeats--Support of parties finally gained--Planks in their + platforms--Amendment submitted to Legislatures--Strenuous efforts + for ratification--Victory at last. + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +VARIOUS WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATIONS 656 + + Federal Suffrage Association--U. S. Elections Bill--College + Women's League--Friends' Equal Rights Association--Mississippi + Valley Conferences--Southern Women's Conference--International + and National Men's Leagues--National Woman's Party--Women's + Anti-Suffrage Association--Man Suffrage Association. + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS 683 + + Formed in St. Louis--Mrs. Catt outlines its work--Its eight + departments presented--Perfected and officers elected at + Chicago--Reports from department chairmen--Laws for women + demanded--Citizenship Schools--League asks planks in national + political conventions--Visits presidential candidates. + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTIONS 702 + + Long struggle for planks in national platforms--Refused for + nearly fifty years--Woman suffrage by State action approved in + 1916--Federal Amendment endorsed in 1920--Graphic story of + opposition. + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +WAR SERVICE OF ORGANIZED SUFFRAGISTS 720 + + Mrs. Catt calls Executive Council of One Hundred to + Washington--It sends letter to President Wilson offering services + of National American Association--Organizes four departments of + work--Mass meeting held, Secretary of War Baker speaks--President + expresses approval of the association's work--Woman's Committee + of Government Council of National Defense formed, Dr. Shaw + appointed chairman, Mrs. Catt and other leading suffragists made + members--Reports of department heads at National Suffrage + convention--Report of association's Oversea Hospitals, their + important work--Anti-suffrage women attack suffrage + leaders--After Armistice Mrs. Catt calls meeting in New York, + which requests President Wilson to appoint women delegates to + Peace Conference in Paris--Woman's Committee of National Defense + ends work--Secretary Baker's tribute to Dr. Shaw. + + +APPENDIX + +APPENDIX 741 + + Moncure D. Conway's address at Mrs. Stanton's funeral--Miss + Anthony's last letter to her--National American Association's + Declaration of Principles--Memorial building in Rochester for + Miss Anthony--Speech of Mrs. Catt at Senate hearing in 1910--Same + in 1915--Review of Shafroth Federal Suffrage Amendment--Different + National headquarters--Bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie--Memorial + tributes to Dr. Shaw--Present Status of National American + Association. + + +Contents of Illustrations added by Bank of Wisdom. + + Pioneers of Woman Suffrage 172+ + Court House of Warren, Ohio & Home of Susan B. Anthony 336+ + A Lecture in Banquet Hall of Suffrage Headquarters 526+ + National Suffrage Headquarters in Washington 632+ + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +A voice in the Government under which one lives is absolutely +necessary to personal liberty and the right of a whole people to a +voice in their Government is the first requisite for a free country. +There must be government by a constitution made with the consent and +help of the people which guarantees this right. It is only within the +last century and a half that a constitutional form of government has +been secured by any countries and in the most of those where it now +exists, not excepting the United States, it was won through war and +bloodshed. Largely for this reason its principal advantage was +monopolized by men, who made and carried on war, and who held that +such government must be maintained by physical force and only those +should have a voice in it who could fight for it if necessary. There +were many other reasons why those who had thus secured their right to +a vote should use their new power to withhold it from women, which was +done in every country. Women then had to begin their own contest for +what by the law of justice was theirs as much as men's when government +by constitution was established. + +Their struggle lasted for nearly three-quarters of a century in the +United States and half a century in Great Britain, the two largest +constitutional governments, and a shorter time in other countries, but +it was a peaceful revolution. Not a drop of blood was spilled and +toward the end of it, when in Great Britain the only "militancy" +occurred, its leaders gave the strictest orders that human life must +be held sacred. Although at the last the women of Central Europe were +enfranchised as the result of war it was not of their making and their +part in it was not on the battlefield. This was the most unequal +contest that ever was waged, for one side had to fight without +weapons. It was held against women that they were not educated, but +the doors of all institutions of learning were closed against them; +that they were not taxpayers, although money-earning occupations were +barred to them and if married they were not allowed to own property. +They were kept in subjection by authority of the Scriptures and were +not permitted to expound them from the woman's point of view, and they +were prevented from pleading their cause on the public platform. When +they had largely overcome these handicaps they found themselves facing +a political fight without political power. + +The long story of the early period of this contest will be found in +the preceding volumes of this History and it is one without parallel. +No class of men ever strove seventy or even fifty years for the +suffrage. In every other reform which had to be won through +legislative bodies those who were working for it had the power of the +vote over these bodies. In the Introduction to Volume IV is an +extended review of the helpless position of woman when in 1848 the +first demand for equality of rights was made and her gradual emergence +from its bondage. No sudden revolution could have gained it but only +the slow processes of evolution. The founding of the public school +system with its high schools, from which girls could not be excluded, +solved the question of their education and inevitably led to the +opening of the colleges. In the causes of temperance and anti-slavery +women made their way to the platform and remained to speak for their +own. During the Civil War they entered by thousands the places vacated +by men and retained them partly from necessity and partly from choice. + +One step led to another; business opportunities increased; women +accumulated property; Legislatures were compelled to revise the laws +and the church was obliged to liberalize its interpretation of the +Scriptures. Women began to organize; their missionary and charity +societies prepared the way to clubs for self-improvement; these in +turn broadened into civic organizations whose public work carried them +to city councils and State Legislatures, where they found themselves +in the midst of politics and wholly without influence. Thus they were +led into the movement for the suffrage. It was only a few of the clear +thinkers, the far seeing, who realized at the beginning that the +principal cause of women's inferior position and helplessness lay in +their disfranchisement and until they could be made to see it they +were a dead weight on the movement. Men fully understood the power +that the vote would place in the hands of women, with a lessening of +their own, and in the mass they did not intend to concede it. + +The pioneers in the movement for the rights of women, of which the +suffrage was only one, contested every inch of ground and little by +little the old prejudice weakened, public sentiment was educated, +barriers were broken down and women pressed forward. At the opening of +the present century, while they had not obtained entire equality of +rights, their status had been completely transformed in most respects +and they were prepared to get what was lacking. None of these gains, +however, had required the permission of the masses of men but only of +selected groups, boards of trustees, committees, legislators. It was +when women found that with all their rights they were at tremendous +disadvantage without political influence and asked for the suffrage +that they learned the difficulty of changing constitutions. They found +that either National or State constitutions had to be amended and in +the latter case the consent of a majority of all men was necessary. In +Volume VI the attempt to obtain the vote through State action is +described in 48 chapters and their reading is recommended to those who +insisted that this was the way women should be enfranchised. Fifty-six +strenuous campaigns were conducted, with their heavy demands on time, +strength and money, and as a result 13 States gave suffrage to women! +Wyoming and Utah entered the Union with it in their constitutions. +Compare this result with the proclamation of the adoption of a Federal +Amendment, which in a moment and a sentence conferred the complete +franchise on the women of all the other States. + +The leaders recognized this advantage and the National Suffrage +Association was formed for the express purpose of securing a Federal +Amendment in 1869, as soon as it was learned through the +enfranchisement of negro men that this method was possible. A short +experience with Congress convinced them that there would have to be +some demonstration of woman suffrage in the States before they could +hope for Federal action and therefore they carried on the work along +both lines. The question had to be presented purely as one of abstract +justice without appeal to the special interests of any party, but from +1890 to 1896 woman suffrage had been placed in the constitutions of +four States and there was hope that it was now on the way to general +success. From this time, however, such idealism in politics as may +have existed in the United States gradually disappeared. The +Republican party was in complete control of the Government at +Washington and was largely dominated by the great financial interests +of the country, and this was also practically the situation in the +majority of the States. The campaign fund controlled the elections and +the largest contributors to this fund were the corporations, which had +secured immense power, and the liquor interests, which had become a +dominant force in State and national politics, without regard to +party. Both of these supreme influences were implacably opposed to +suffrage for women; the corporations because it would vastly increase +the votes of the working classes, the liquor interests because they +were fully aware of the hostility of women to their business and +everything connected with it. + +This was the situation faced by those who were striving for the +enfranchisement of women. Congress was stone deaf to their pleadings +and arguments and from 1894 to 1913 its committees utterly ignored the +question. When a Legislature was persuaded to submit an amendment to +the State constitution to the decision of the voters it met the big +campaign fund of the employers of labor and the thoroughly organized +forces of the liquor interests, which appealed not only to the many +lines of business connected with the traffic but to the people who for +personal reasons favored the saloons and their collateral branches of +gambling, wine rooms, etc. They were a valuable adjunct to both +political parties. The suffragists met these powerful opponents +without money and without votes. A reading of the State chapters will +demonstrate these facts. From 1896 for fourteen years not one State +enfranchised its women. + +These were years, however, of marvelous development in the status of +women, which every year brought nearer their political recognition. +Girls outnumbered boys in the high schools; women crowded the +colleges and almost monopolized the teaching in the public schools. +Their organizations increased in size until they numbered millions and +stretched across the seas. In 1904 the International Woman Suffrage +Alliance was formed which soon encircled the globe. This year the +International Council of Women, the largest organized body of women in +existence, formed a standing committee on woman suffrage with branches +in every country. In 1914 the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the +largest organization in the United States, declared for woman suffrage +and this was preceded or followed by a similar declaration by every +State Federation. National associations of women for whatever purpose, +with almost no exceptions, demanded the franchise as an aid to their +objects, until the stock objection that women do not want to vote was +silenced. Women who opposed the movement became alarmed and undertook +to organize in opposition, thereby exposing their weakness. Their +organization was largely confined to a small group of eastern States +and developed no strength west of the Allegheny mountains. Its leaders +were for the most part connected with corporate interests and did not +believe in universal suffrage for men. There was no evidence that they +exercised any considerable influence in Congress or in any State where +a vote was taken on granting the franchise to women. + +An outstanding feature of the present century has been the entrance of +women into the industrial field, following the work which under modern +conditions was taken from the homes to the factories. Thus without +their volition they became the competitors of men in practically every +field of labor. Unorganized and without the protection of a vote they +were underpaid and a menace to working men. In self-defense, +therefore, the labor unions were compelled to demand the ballot for +women. They were followed by other organizations of men until hundreds +were on record as favoring woman suffrage. Men trying to bring about +civic or political reforms in the old parties or through new ones and +feeling their weakness turned to women with their great organizations +but soon realized their inefficiency without political power. The old +objections were losing their force. The lessening size of families and +the removal of the old time household tasks from the home left women +with a great deal of leisure which they were utilizing in countless +ways that took them out into the world, so that there was no longer +any weight in the charge that the suffrage would cause women to +forsake their domestic duties for public life. Women of means began +coming into the movement for the suffrage and relieving the financial +stringency which had constantly limited the activities of the +organized work. The opening of large national headquarters in New +York, the great news center of the country, in 1909, marked a distinct +advance in the movement which was immediately apparent throughout the +country. The friendly attitude of the metropolitan papers extended to +the press at large. Following the example of England, parades and +processions and various picturesque features were introduced in New +York and other large cities which gave the syndicates and motion +pictures material and interested the public. Woman suffrage became a +topic of general discussion and women flocked into the suffrage +organizations. + +Politicians took notice but they remained cold. This political +question had not yet entered politics. The leaders of the National +Suffrage Association strengthened its lines and established its +outposts in every State, but they still made their appeals to +unyielding committees of Congress. The Republican "machine" was in +absolute control and woman suffrage had long been under its wheels +with other reform measures. Then came in 1909-10 the "insurgency" in +its own ranks led by members from the western States, and in those +States the voters repudiated the railroad and lumber and other +corporate interests and instituted a new regime. One of its first acts +was the submission of a woman suffrage amendment in the State of +Washington and with a free election and a fair count it was carried in +every county and received a majority of more than two to one. The +revolt extended to California, whose Legislature sent an amendment to +the voters in 1911 after having persistently refused to do so for the +past 15 years, and here again there was victory at the polls. With the +gaining of this old and influential State the extension of the +movement to the Mississippi was assured. + +The insurgency in the Republican party resulted in a division at the +national convention in 1912 and the forming of the Progressive party +headed by Theodore Roosevelt. The Resolutions Committee of the regular +party gave the suffragists seven minutes to present their claims and +ignored them. The new party needed a fresh, live issue and found it in +woman suffrage, which was made a plank in its platform. The leaders of +the National Suffrage Association were required by its constitution to +remain non-partisan and with one exception did so, but thousands of +women rallied to the standard of the new party. As most of them were +disfranchised they brought little voting strength but the other +parties were forced to admit them and for the first time they gained a +foothold in politics. The division in Republican ranks resulted in +putting into power the Democratic party, with an unfavorable record on +woman suffrage and a President who was opposed to it, but "votes for +women" was now a national political issue. + +When the suffrage leaders went to the new Congress for a Federal +Amendment they met a Senate Committee every member but one of which +was in favor of it. The vote in the Senate on March 14, 1914, resulted +in a majority but not the required two-thirds, and it was a majority +of Republicans. The history of the struggle for this amendment for the +next six years, through Democratic and Republican administrations, +will be found in Chapter XX. Speaker Champ Clark was a steadfast +friend. In 1914 William Jennings Bryan declared for it and thenceforth +spoke for it many times. In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson announced +his conversion to woman suffrage and in 1918 to the Federal Amendment +and never wavered in his loyalty, rendering every assistance in his +power. His record will be found in these volumes. In 1916, after +Justice Charles Evans Hughes was nominated by the Republicans for the +presidency, he announced his adherence to the Federal Amendment, being +in advance of his party. This year the Republican and Democratic +national platforms for the first time contained a plank in favor of +woman suffrage but by State and not Federal action. A remarkable +feature of the progress of this amendment in Congress was the increase +of its advocates among members from the South, who for the most part +believed it to be an interference with the State's rights. In 1887, +when the first vote was taken in the Senate not one southern member +voted for it. On the second occasion in 1914 Senators Lea of +Tennessee, Ransdell of Louisiana, Sheppard of Texas, Ashurst of +Arizona and Owen of Oklahoma voted in favor. In 1919 on the final +vote, if Arizona, New Mexico and Delaware are included, 17 Senators +from southern States cast their ballots for the Federal Amendment, and +four from northern States who did so were born in the South. It +received the votes of 75 Representatives from southern States. The +women of every southern State suffrage association worked for this +amendment, believing that it was hopeless to expect their +enfranchisement from State action, and the above members took the same +view. It received a large Republican majority in Senate and House. + +While this contest was in progress many events were taking place which +had an influence on it. The movement for woman suffrage was +progressing in Europe but when the war broke out in 1914, involving +all countries, it was thought that all advance was lost. On the +contrary the splendid service of the women obtained the franchise for +them in Great Britain, The Netherlands and other countries, and at the +close of the war the revolution in the Central countries resulted in +the suffrage for men and women alike. The war work of Canadian women +brought full enfranchisement to them. When the United States entered +the war the patriotic response of the women to every demand of the +Government and the magnificent service they rendered swept away +forever the objection to their voting because they could not do +military duty. + +Stimulated by the action of Washington and California other western +States gave suffrage to their women and its practical working +effectually disproved every charge that had been made against it. At +the close of 1915 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt became president of the +National Association and bringing to bear her great executive and +organizing ability she re-formed it along the lines followed by the +political parties, created a large, active working force and prepared +for intensive State and national campaigns. Soon afterwards she +received a legacy of almost a million dollars from Mrs. Frank Leslie +to be used for promoting the cause of woman suffrage and thus she was +equipped for carrying the movement to certain victory. + +In 1917 the voters of New York State by an immense majority gave the +full suffrage to women, guaranteeing probably 45 votes in Congress for +the Federal Amendment. In 1917 and 1918 the great "drive" was made on +the Legislatures to give women the right to vote for Presidential +electors and this was done in 14 States, granting this important +privilege to millions of women. In several States the Legislature +added the franchise for municipal and county officers. In 1917 the +Legislature of Arkansas gave them the right to vote at all Primary +elections and in 1918 that of Texas conferred the same, which is +equivalent to the full suffrage, as the primaries decide the +elections. By 1918 in 15 States women had equal suffrage with men +through amendment of their constitutions.[2] + +In January, 1918, the Federal Prohibition Amendment went into effect, +putting an end to the powerful opposition of the liquor interests to +woman suffrage. All political parties were committed to the Federal +Amendment. In January, 1918, it passed the Lower House of Congress but +the opposition of two Senators and finally of one prevented its +submission. Meanwhile the Democratic administration of eight years had +been succeeded by a Republican. This party during 44 years in power +had refused to enfranchise women but now it atoned for the wrong and +with the help of Democratic members the Amendment was submitted to the +Legislatures on June 4, 1919. Nearly all had adjourned for two years +and if women were to vote at the next presidential election special +sessions would be necessary. One of the most noteworthy political +feats on record was that of the president of the National Suffrage +Association, with the assistance of others, in managing to have the +Governors of the various States call these sessions. It is told in the +State chapters with the dramatic ending in Tennessee. + +The certificate was delivered to Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby +at 4 o'clock in the morning on August 26, 1920, and at 9 he issued the +official proclamation that the 19th Amendment having been duly +ratified by 36 State Legislatures "has become valid to all intents and +purposes as a part of the Constitution of the United States." It reads +as follows: + +"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be +denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of +sex. + +"Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate +legislation." + +[Illustration: Signature (Eda Husted Harper.)] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] It is worthy of note that these fifteen States offer the only +instance in the world where the voters themselves granted the complete +suffrage to women. Those of British Columbia, Can., gave the +Provincial franchise but had not the power to give it for Dominion +elections. In all countries both the State and National suffrage was +conferred by a simple majority vote of their Parliaments. The U. S. +Congress had not this authority but a two-thirds majority of each +House was necessary to send it to the 48 Legislatures for final +decision. The Federal Suffrage Amendment had to be passed upon by +about 6,000 legislators. + + + + +THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION + +FOREWORD + + +The National Woman Suffrage Association was organized in New York +City, May 15, 1869, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton president and Susan B. +Anthony chairman of executive committee. [History of Woman Suffrage, +Volume II, page 400.] It held annual conventions for the next half +century, always in Washington, D.C., until 1895, after which date they +were taken in alternate years to other cities, meeting in the national +capital during the first session of each Congress. The object of the +association from its beginning was to obtain an amendment to the +Federal Constitution which would confer full, universal suffrage on +the women of the United States, and its work for amending the +constitutions of the States to enfranchise their women was undertaken +as one means to achieve this main purpose. The American Woman Suffrage +Association was organized in Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 24, 1869, with +Henry Ward Beecher president and Lucy Stone chairman of executive +committee, principally for action through the States, and it also held +annual conventions. [Volume II, page 756.] In 1890 the two united in +Washington under the name National American Woman Suffrage Association +[Volume IV, page 164], and the work was continued by both methods. +Full reports of conventions may be found in preceding volumes of the +History of Woman Suffrage, the list ending in Volume IV with that of +1900. This convention was especially distinguished by the public +celebration of the 80th birthday of Susan B. Anthony and her +retirement from the presidency of the association which she had helped +to found and in which she had continuously held official position, and +by the election of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt as her successor.[3] + +The assertion is frequently made that the enfranchisement of women was +due to a natural evolution of public sentiment. A reading of the +following chapters, which give the history of the work of the National +American Woman Suffrage Association, will show how largely the +creation of this sentiment was due to this organization to which all +the State associations were auxiliary. It represented the organized +movement during half a century to secure the vote for women--a +struggle such as was never made by men for this right in any country +in the world. It was the only large organization for this purpose that +ever existed in the United States and its efforts never ceased in the +more than fifty years. At each annual convention some advance was +recorded. These chapters show that, while the principal object of the +association was a Federal Amendment, it gave valuable assistance to +every campaign for the amendment of State constitutions and that it +was responsible for the granting of the Presidential franchise, which +was so important a factor in gaining the final victory. The reports of +its officers each year show the large amount of money raised and +expended, the hundreds of thousands of letters written, the millions +of pieces of literature circulated, the thousands of meetings held, +the many workers in the field. The committee reports and the +resolutions adopted show that all reforms vital to the welfare of +women and children and many of a wider scope were included in the work +of the association. The names of the speakers at the national +conventions and at the hearings before the committees of Congress +during all these years prove that this cause was championed by the +leaders among the men and women of their generation. Such quotations +from their speeches as space has permitted show that in eloquence, +logic and strength they were unsurpassed and that their arguments were +unanswerable. + +If this volume contained only the first nineteen chapters the reader +could not fail to be convinced that principally to the efforts of the +National American Woman Suffrage Association the women of the United +States owe their enfranchisement, but it shows too that in the +forty-eight auxiliary States they also fought their own hard battles. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, Chapters XX and XXI. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1901. + + +The Thirty-third annual convention opened on the afternoon of May 30, +1901, in the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, with the new +president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair, and continued +through June 4, with 144 delegates from twenty-six States present.[4] + +Miss Anthony was present at this Minneapolis convention, alert and +vigorous but happy to relinquish her official duties to one in whose +ability and judgment she had implicit confidence; and the rest of the +official board were there ready to give the same allegiance and +loyalty to the new chief which they had rendered for many years to the +supreme leader. The _Minneapolis Journal_ said: "The formal opening of +the suffrage convention yesterday afternoon was an impressive affair. +Among the national officers seated on the platform were women who saw +the first dawn of the suffrage movement, those who came into its fold +midway of its life and those whose earnest endeavors are of more +recent record. Among the first was the most honored member of the +body, Miss Susan B. Anthony, and among the latter is the president, +Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. When the delegates rose and the Rev. Olympia +Brown of Wisconsin stepped to the front of the platform and turned +her face heavenward, saying, "In the name of liberty, Our Father, we +thank thee," the impression even upon an unbeliever must have been +that of entire consecration and one was reminded of when the early +Christians met and consulted, fought and endured for the faith that +was in them." + +Although this was the first convention in many years over which Miss +Anthony had not presided she was the first to speak, as Mrs. Catt at +once presented her to the audience. With the loyalty which had +characterized her life Miss Anthony first read a letter from the +honorary president, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, then in her 86th +year, which she prefaced by saying: "It is fitting that I should read +this greeting from her, as I have stood by Mrs. Stanton's side for +fifty years." The letter urged the same vigorous work in the church +for woman's emancipation as had been kept up in the States and said: +"The canon law, with all the subtle influences that grow out of it, is +more responsible for woman's slavery today than the civil code. With +the progressive legislation of the last half century we have an +interest in tracing the lessons taught to women in the churches to +their true origin and a right to demand from our theologians the same +full and free discussion in the church that we have had in the State, +as the time has fully come for women to be heard in the ecclesiastical +councils of the nation. To this end I suggest that committees and +delegates from all our State and national associations visit the +clergy in their several localities and assemblies to press on their +consideration the true position of woman as a factor in Christian +civilization." + +Press reports of Mrs. Stanton's paper were as follows: + + "Woman today, as ever, supplies the enthusiasm that sustains the + church and she has a right in turn to ask that the church sustain + her in this struggle for liberty and take some decided action + with reference to this momentous and far-reaching movement. It + matters little that here and there some clergyman advocates our + cause on our platform, so long as no religious organization has + yet recognized our demand as a principle of justice. Discussion + is rarely held in their councils but it is generally treated as a + speculative, sentimental question unworthy of serious + consideration. Neither would it be sufficient if they gave their + adhesion to the demand for political equality, so long as by + scriptural teachings they perpetuate our racial and religious + subordination." Mrs. Stanton would demand that an expurgated + Bible be read in churches. "Such parables as refer to woman as + 'the author of sin,' 'an inferior,' 'a subject,' 'a weaker + vessel,'" she says, "should be relegated to the ancient + mythologies as mere allegories, having no application whatever to + the womanhood of this generation. It is not civil nor political + power that holds the Mormon woman in polygamy, the Turkish woman + in the harem, the American woman as a subordinate everywhere. The + central falsehood from which all these different forms of slavery + spring is the doctrine of original sin and woman as a medium for + the machinations of Satan, its author. The greatest block today + in the way of woman's emancipation is the church, the canon law, + the Bible and the priesthood. Canon Charles Kingsley said not + long ago: 'This will never be a good world for woman till the + last remnant of canon law is stricken from the face of the + earth.'"[5] + +After finishing Mrs. Stanton's letter Miss Anthony presented her own +greeting, in the course of which she said: + +"If the divine law visits the sins of the parents upon the children, +equally so does it transmit to them the virtues of the parents. +Therefore if it is through woman's ignorant subjection to man's +appetites and passions that the life current of the race is corrupted, +then must it be through her intelligent emancipation that it shall be +purified and her children rise up and call her blessed.... I am a full +and firm believer in the revelation that it is through woman the race +is to be redeemed. For this reason I ask for her immediate and +unconditional emancipation from all political, industrial, social and +religious subjection. It is said, 'Men are what their mothers made +them,' but I say that to hold mothers responsible for the characters +of their sons while denying to them any control over the surroundings +of the sons' lives is worse than mockery, it is cruelty. +Responsibilities grow out of rights and powers. Therefore before +mothers can rightfully be held responsible for the vices and crimes, +for the general demoralization of society, they must possess all +possible rights and powers to control the conditions and +circumstances of their own and their children's lives." + +The audience then listened with keen appreciation to the president's +address, during which she said: "If I were asked what are the great +obstacles to the speedy enfranchisement of women I should answer: +There are three; the first is militarism, which once dominated the +entire thought of the world and made its history. Although its old +power is gone and its influence upon public thought grows constantly +less, it still molds the opinions of millions of people and holds them +to the old ideals of force in government and headship in the family. +The second obstacle is the unconscious, unmeasured influence upon the +estimate in which women as a whole are held that emanates from that +most debasing of our evil institutions, prostitution.... The third +great cause is the inertia in the growth of democracy which has come +as a reaction following the aggressive movements that with possibly +ill-advised haste enfranchised the foreigner, the negro and the +Indian. Perilous conditions, seeming to follow from the introduction +into the body politic of vast numbers of irresponsible citizens, have +made the nation timid. These three influences, born of centuries of +tradition, shape every opinion of the opponents of woman suffrage. Not +an objection, argument or excuse can be urged against the movement +which may not be traced to one of these causes." + +At the close of Mrs. Catt's address Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Denver +presented her with a handsome gavel in behalf of the suffrage +association of Colorado. The gavel was made of Colorado silver and the +settings and engravings of Colorado gold. In one side was a Colorado +amethyst, and the Colorado flower, the columbine, was burned into the +gavel by a Colorado girl. Mrs. Bradford said she wished Mrs. Catt the +good luck said to follow the possessor of an amethyst, who "shall +speak the right word at the right time." She presented it as an +expression of gratitude for her aid in their successful suffrage +campaign of 1893. "We are apt to attribute everything good in Colorado +to woman suffrage," said Mrs. Catt in response, "but in my secret mind +I think much of it is due to the progressiveness of the Colorado men. +They must be better than other men or they would not have enfranchised +their women. I cannot love Colorado any better than I do but I shall +always value this gavel as a precious souvenir of that wonderful +campaign." + +In her report as vice-president at large the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw +said regarding her many suffrage speeches during the year: "The +manager of a bureau lately said to me: 'If you would only give up for +a time the two reforms in which you are most interested, woman +suffrage and prohibition, you could earn enough money on the regular +lecture platform in a few years to live on for the rest of your life.' +Any woman who does not live for unselfish service is a useless +cumberer of the earth. I would rather be known as an advocate of equal +suffrage and starve than to speak every night on the best-paying +platforms in the United States and ignore it." + +The first evening of the convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. +Marion H. Shutter.[6] The audience was far beyond the seating capacity +of the large church and in presenting the official speakers Mrs. Catt +said: "This is a great contrast to the early days when we did not use +to be welcomed because we were not welcome. Now we are welcomed +wherever we go but not often, as here, by the representative of a +whole State." Governor Samuel R. Van Sant gave a hearty western +greeting, which, he said, he wanted to make as cordial as he could +express it and as broad as the State he lived in. He made this point +among others: "You are doing a splendid work and the reason you do not +get the ballot sooner is because you do not convert your own sex. I +know for I have been a member of the Legislature. If you wanted to +vote as much as you want other things you would go there and block the +legislators so they couldn't get to their seats." Mayor Albert A. Ames +extended the welcome of the city and declared his belief in woman +suffrage. Former Mayor William Henry Eustis ended his address in +behalf of the Commercial Club and Board of Trade by saying: +"Commercial bodies are temporary but a great movement like this is +eternal." Former Mayor James Gray, representing the press, assured +them of its cooperation and said that from a dozen to twenty women +were doing important work on the papers of the city. Mrs. Maud C. +Stockwell, president of the State Suffrage Association, welcomed them +to "the hearts of the women of Minneapolis." + +Dr. Shaw closed the evening with a stirring address on An Invisible +Foe, in which she referred to the many refusals they had had from the +anti-suffrage leaders to come to the convention and debate the +question. She accused them of wearing a khaki-colored uniform to +conceal themselves from the foe and declared they were always careful +to make their attacks when the enemy was not present, saying: "The +anti-suffragists are not fighting woman suffrage, they are fighting +the ideals of democracy and leaning toward an aristocracy. Take note +of the words they use to designate the people, 'mob,' 'hordes,' etc. +They look at the people as not only incapable and ignorant now but so +for all time and they never learn that in the heart of every +individual in the mob lie the forces which make for martyrs or for +brutes." "From point to point through long and close argument the +brilliant speaker moved with lightning velocity," said a press report. +"She called up the anti-suffrage arguments made by the Rev. Samuel G. +Smith of St. Paul, in his recent series of sermons on women, and +laughed to scorn their plea for 'the days of chivalry,' which, she +said, were a man's protection of his own women against other men. +Woman must work out God's ideal of what a woman should be and she +cannot do it until she is absolutely free as man is free." + +Mrs. Catt brought to the presidency a definite belief that Congress +would not submit a Federal Suffrage Amendment nor would important +States be gained on referendum until national and State officers and +workers were better trained for the work required. The increasing +evidence of a united and politically experienced opposition as +manifested in legislative action and referendum results had convinced +her that the cause would never be won unless its campaigns were +equipped, guided and conducted by women fully aware of the nature of +opposition tactics and prepared to meet every maneuver of the enemy by +an equally telling counteraction. She had been appointed by Miss +Anthony chairman of a Plan of Work Committee at the convention of 1895 +and assembling the practical workers they agreed upon recommendations +which proved a turning point in the association's policy. These were +presented to that convention and adopted. A Committee on Organization +was established with Mrs. Catt as chairman and contrary to the usual +custom the convention voted that she be made a member of the National +Board. For the last five years her committee had held conferences in +connection with each convention which discussed and adopted plans for +more efficient work. As president, she now determined to link more +closely the work of national and State auxiliary organizations and in +the pursuance of this aim and as ex-officio chairman of the convention +program committee, she appointed the Executive Committee (consisting +of the Board of Officers, the president and one member from each +auxiliary State) to be the Committee on Plan of Work. For two entire +days preceding this convention the Executive Committee had discussed +methods of procedure, as presented by the Board of Officers, who had +prepared these recommendations at a mid-year meeting held in Miss +Anthony's home at Rochester in August. + +The convention accepted the report which included the following: (1) +Organization. That organization be continually the first aim of each +State auxiliary as the certain key to success; that each State keep at +least one organizer employed and endeavor to establish a county +organization in each county or at least to form an organization in +each county seat and at four other points; that organization work be +done among women wage earners and that definite work be undertaken to +win the endorsement and cooperation of other associations, chiefly the +General Federation of Women's Clubs and the National Education +Association. (2) Legislation. That each auxiliary State association +appeal to Congress to submit to the Legislatures a 16th Amendment to +the Federal constitution prohibiting the disfranchisement of U. S. +citizens on account of sex; that the plan initiated by Miss Anthony be +continued, namely, that all kinds of national and State conventions be +asked to pass resolutions in favor of this amendment, to be sent to +Congress; that State societies also ask their Legislatures to pass +resolutions in favor of a 16th Amendment, these also to be sent to +Congress; that auxiliaries whose States offer a reasonable possibility +of a successful referendum try to secure the submission of State +suffrage amendments to the voters, with assurance of national +cooperation; that auxiliaries whose State constitutions present +obstacles to such procedure work to secure statutory suffrage, such as +School, Municipal or Presidential; that auxiliaries not strong enough +to attempt a campaign work for the removal of legal discriminations +against women and attempt to secure co-guardianship of children, equal +property rights, the raising of the age of consent, the appointment of +police matrons, etc.; that a leaflet be prepared by Mrs. Laura M. +Johns advising best methods for successful legislative work. To carry +out this plan the Committees on Congressional Work, Presidential +Suffrage and Civil Rights found their work for the year. (3) Press. +Recommendations were made for rendering this department of work more +efficient in the States; enrollment of persons believing in woman +suffrage to be continued in order to secure evidence of the strength +of general favorable sentiment; the literature of the association to +include a plan of work for local clubs. + +Work conferences were interspersed during the convention; one on +Organization presided over by Miss Mary Garrett Hay; one by Mrs. +Priscilla D. Hackstaff, chairman Enrollment Committee; one by Mrs. +Babcock, chairman Press Committee. A chart showing the date of the +opening of the Legislature in each State; the provision for amending +its constitution; the suffrage and initiative and referendum laws and +all other information bearing upon the technical procedure of securing +the vote State by State was carefully drawn by the Organization +Committee. With this in hand each State was given its legislative +task. It was voted to urge the auxiliaries of Kansas, Indiana, New +York, Washington and South Dakota to ask for submission of State +constitutional amendments. It was voted that the corresponding +secretary be elected with the understanding that she would serve at +the national headquarters and be paid a salary. + +The Executive Committee at a preliminary meeting repeated the +resolution of the preceding year against the official regulation of +vice in Manila, which was under United States control. It closed: "We +protest in the name of American womanhood and we believe that this +represents also the opinion of the best American manhood.[7] This +resolution was unanimously adopted by the delegates after strong +addresses, and Miss Anthony, Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Avery and Miss +Blackwell were deputized to ask a hearing and present it to the +American Medical Association meeting in St. Paul at this time. That +body allowed them ten minutes to state their earnest wish that it +would endorse the resolution but it took no action. + +Miss Anthony had consented to act as chairman of the Congressional +Committee and her report was heard with deep interest. Her work during +the year was upon two distinct lines, the old familiar petition to +Congress to pass the 16th Amendment granting full suffrage to women, +and another brought about by new conditions--a petition that the word +"male" should not be inserted in the electoral clause of the +constitutions proposed by Congress for Hawaii and Porto Rico. These +petitions were secured from every State and Territory, a tremendous +work, and were laid before the members of Congress from each State. +The most interesting petition for the amendment was from Wyoming, +where one sheet was signed by every State officer, several U. S. +officials and other prominent citizens. They had signed in duplicate +several petitions and thus Miss Anthony had an autograph copy with +her. The work of securing this petition was done chiefly by Mrs. +Joseph M. Cary, wife of the Senator. Miss Anthony was chairman also of +the Committee on Convention Resolutions and believed strongly that to +present the question of woman suffrage to conventions of various kinds +and secure resolutions from them was an efficacious means of +propaganda. Her interesting report for 1900 made at this time will be +found in full in the History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 439. + +In introducing Mr. Blackwell (Mass.), Mrs. Catt said: "The woman +suffrage movement has known many women who have devoted their lives +and energies to it. I know of only one man. Years ago when Lucy Stone +was a sweet and beautiful girl he heard her speak and afterwards +proposed to her to form a marriage partnership. When she said that +this might prevent her from doing the large work she wanted to do for +equal rights he promised to help her in it and loyally and faithfully +all through their married life he did so, as constantly and earnestly +as Lucy Stone herself; and even after her death he continues to give +his time, his money and his effort to the same end. I am glad to +introduce Henry B. Blackwell." Mr. Blackwell was the pioneer in urging +the suffragists of every State to try to obtain from their Legislature +a law giving them a vote for presidential electors. Their authority +for this action was conferred by the National Constitution in Article +2, Section 2: "Each State shall appoint in such manner as the +Legislature thereof may direct a number of electors equal to the whole +number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be +entitled in the Congress." His comprehensive report made to this and +other conventions was an unanswerable argument in favor of the right +of a Legislature to confer this vote on women and eventually it was +widely recognized. + +The treasurer, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (O.), reported the total +receipts of the year $22,522. Mrs. Catt stated the needs of the +association for the coming year and under the skilful management of +Miss Hay subscriptions of $5,000 were soon obtained. On motion of Dr. +Shaw a vote of thanks was given to Miss Hay for her "able and +efficient work in securing these pledges." The report for the Federal +Suffrage Committee was given by Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett (Ky.)[8] + +The corresponding secretary, Mrs. Avery of Philadelphia, made the +report of the great bazaar which had been held before the Christmas +holidays in Madison Square Garden, New York City, and netted about +$8,500. It was accompanied by the carefully prepared report of its +treasurer, Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff of Brooklyn. An exact duplicate +of a beautiful vase three feet high which had been presented to +Admiral Dewey by the citizens of Wheeling, West Virginia, at a cost of +$250, with the exception that his face on it was replaced by Miss +Anthony's, was presented to the bazaar by Mrs. Fannie J. Wheat of that +city. As no "chances" were allowed at suffrage fairs it was purchased +by subscriptions and presented to Miss Anthony.[9] + +A letter to Miss Blackwell from Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, then past 80 +years of age, expressing her regret at not being able to attend the +convention, closed: "It is not for lack of interest in our great cause +or indifference to the dear western women with whom I was associated +so many years ago and who, like myself, have grown gray in the work +for women.... God bless you all and give you an ennobling season +together, harmonious and uplifting in its results. Remember me in love +to the old friends and pledge my affectionate regard to the new +friends with whom I will try to keep step here on the Massachusetts +coast. Yours with a thousand good wishes." A telegram of greeting was +sent to Mrs. Stanton and others to Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey of New +Jersey, Mrs. Jane H. Spofford of Maine and Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway +of Oregon, all pioneer workers for the cause. Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) +gave a strong, logical address on Counterparts, "the dualism of the +race," in which she said: + + Any social system founded on a theory designed for the elevation + of one sex alone, regardless of the other, is altogether false + and delusive to the expectations built upon it, for the human + race is dual and heredity keeps the stock common from which both + men and women spring. Since the common stock is improved and + invigorated by the acquired qualities of individuals, without + regard to sex, it is to the advantage of both that all + possibilities of development shall be extended to both sexes. In + animals acquired qualities can be imparted to the stock only by + parenthood; in the human family they are imparted even more + widely and permanently through the influence of ideas. All that + woman has lost by social systems which denied to her education + and the free expression of her genius in literature, art or + statesmanship, has been lost to man also, because it has + diminished the inheritable riches of the nature from which he + draws his existence. He has been less, though unhampered by the + shackles which bound her, because she was less. The world is not + more called upon to rejoice in the triumphs of his genius in + freedom than to mourn over the wasted possibilities of hers in + bonds.... + + The forward movement of either sex is possible only when the + other moves also and the obstacles to progress exist in the + attitude of both sexes to it, not in that of one alone. So in + this woman suffrage movement we have learned that the apathy of + women to their own political freedom is as great an obstacle to + our success as the unwillingness of men to grant our claims. It + is of the same importance to us to educate women out of their + indifference as it is to educate men out of their unwillingness. + If it should happen that this education shall come to women + first, they will never need the argument of force to induce men + to remove the legal obstacles, for men and women cannot long + think unlike on any subject. + +One of the most interesting reports was that of the Press Committee, +made by its efficient chairman, Mrs. Elnora Monroe Babcock (N. Y.). +Illustrating its work she said: "About 50,000 suffrage articles have +been sent out from the press headquarters since our last annual +convention; 2,400 of these were specials; 5,155 articles and items +advertising the Bazaar; many articles on prominent women were +furnished to illustrated papers and newspaper syndicates; a page of +plate matter was issued every six weeks and seven large press +associations were supplied with occasional articles." The names of +State chairmen were given and the number of papers they supplied--New +York, 500; Pennsylvania, 336; Iowa, 237; Massachusetts, 97; Indiana, +91; Illinois, 85; Ohio, 63, etc. Mrs. Babcock asked for a vote of +thanks, which was unanimous, to Paul Dana, proprietor and editor of +the New York _Sun_, for having given during the past two and a half +years and for still giving two columns of its Sunday issue to an +article by Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, an unprecedented concession by a +great metropolitan paper. Miss Anthony added her words of praise to +Mr. Dana and to the department which she herself had been largely +instrumental in securing.[10] + +One of the most popular addresses of the convention was made by Mrs. +Ellis Meredith of Denver--The Menace of Podunk--a clever satire +showing that narrow partisanship and dishonest politics were to be +found alike in New York and Podunk, Indiana. + + Podunk is the place where the country is nothing, the caucus + everything; where patriotism languishes and party spirit runs + riot. It is the centre of intelligence where they hold back the + returns until advices are received from headquarters as to how + many votes are needed. The Podunkians believe it is a good thing + to have a strong man at the head of the ticket, not because they + care about electing strong men but because by putting a good + nominee at the head of the ballot it is possible they may be able + to pull through the seven saloon keepers and three professional + politicians who go to make up the rest of the ticket.... But + there lives in Podunk another class that is a greater menace to + the life of the nation, the noble army of Pharisees. They have + read Bryce's American Commonwealth and have an intellectual + understanding of the theory and form of our government but they + do not know what ward they live in, they are vague as to the + district, have never met their Congressman and do not know a + primary from a kettle drum.... + + The politician and the shirk of Podunk are the creatures who are + doing their noble best to blot out the words of Lincoln and make + it possible for the government he died to save to perish from the + earth. And between these two evils the least apparent is the most + real. The man who votes more than once is nearer right than the + man who refuses to vote at all. The activity of the repeater in + the pool of politics may be wholly pernicious but is no worse + than the stagnation caused by the inertia of his self-righteous + brother. The republic has less to fear from her illiterate and + venal voters than from those who, knowing her peril, refuse to + come to the rescue. + +The resolutions were presented by Mr. Blackwell, who, at conventions +almost without number, served as chairman of this important committee, +and the first ones set forth the political status of the women in the +year 1901 as follows: + +"We congratulate the women of America upon the measure of success +already attained--school suffrage in twenty-two States and +Territories; municipal suffrage in Kansas; suffrage on questions of +taxation in Iowa, Montana, Louisiana and New York; full suffrage in +Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho--States containing more than a +million inhabitants, with eight Senators and nine Representatives in +Congress elected in part by the votes of women. + +"We rejoice in important gains during the past year; the extension of +suffrage upon questions of taxation to 200,000 women in the towns and +villages of New York and to the tax-paying women of Norway; the voting +of women for the first time for members of Parliament in West +Australia; the almost unanimous refusal of the Kansas Legislature to +repeal municipal woman suffrage and the acquittal in Denver of the +only woman ever charged with fraudulent voting." + +A tribute was paid to the tried and true friends of woman suffrage who +had died during the year, many of them veterans in the cause: Sarah +Anthony Burtis, aged 90, secretary of the first Woman's Rights +Convention in 1848 when adjourned to Rochester, N.Y.; Charles K. +Whipple, aged 91, for many years secretary of the Massachusetts and +New England Woman Suffrage Associations; Zerelda G. Wallace of +Indiana, the "mother" of "Ben Hur"; Paulina Gerry, the Rev. Cyrus +Bartol, Carrie Anders, Dr. Salome Merritt, Matilda Goddard and Mary +Shannon of Massachusetts; Mary J. Clay of Kentucky; Eliza J. Patrick +of Missouri; Fanny C. Wooley and Nettie Laub Romans of Iowa; Eliza +Scudder Fenton, the widow of New York's war governor; Charlotte A. +Cleveland and Henry Villard of New York; John Hooker of Connecticut; +Giles F. Stebbins and George Willard of Michigan; Ruth C. Dennison, D. +C., Theron Nye of Nebraska; Elizabeth Coit of Ohio; Major Niles +Meriwether of Tennessee; M. B. Castle of Illinois; John Bidwell of +California; Wendell Phillips Garrison of New Jersey. + +On the evening when Miss Anthony presided she introduced to the +audience with tender words Mrs. Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia, as +one of the few left who attended the first Woman's Rights Convention +at Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1848; Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborne of Auburn, +N. Y., niece of Lucretia Mott and daughter of Martha Wright, two of +the four women who called that convention; Miss Emily Howland, a +devoted pioneer of Sherwood, N. Y.; the Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine, +second woman to be ordained as minister; Mrs. Ellen Sulley Fray, a +pioneer of Toledo, O., and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, wife of a Chief +Justice of Louisiana, who organized the first suffrage club in New +Orleans. + +Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, who had been the corresponding secretary of +the association for twenty-one years, had insisted that she should be +allowed to resign from the office. A pleasant incident not on the +program took place one morning during the convention when Miss Anthony +came to the front of the platform and said: "I have in my hand a +thousand dollars for Rachel Foster Avery. It has been contributed +without her knowledge by about four hundred different persons; most of +you are on the list. I asked for this testimonial because I felt that +you would all rejoice to show your appreciation of her long and +faithful services and her great liberality to the cause. I should +never have been able to carry on the work of the society as its +president for so many years but for her able cooperation. She thinks +she cannot talk but we know that she can work. She has done the +drudgery of this association for more than twenty years and I hope the +woman who will be chosen in her place, whoever she may be, will be as +consecrated and free from all self-seeking." + +Miss Kate M. Gordon, president of the Era Club of New Orleans, was +almost unanimously elected as corresponding secretary. The only other +change in the official board was the retirement of Mrs. Catharine +Waugh McCulloch as second auditor and the election of Dr. Cora Smith +Eaton in her place. In referring later to Dr. Eaton, Mr. Blackwell +said: "In my attendance upon thirty-three successive annual national +conventions I have never seen one with such complete and faithful +preparation by the local committee and such abundant and cordial +welcome.... It seemed natural to recognize the generous hospitality +thus extended to the convention by the people of Minnesota by choosing +Dr. Eaton of Minneapolis, chairman of this local committee, as one of +the auditors for the coming year."[11] + +A closely reasoned address on the Ethics of Suffrage was made by Louis +F. Post of Chicago, in the course of which he said: + + Suffrage is a right, not a privilege. That it is a right of every + individual is the only basis for women's demanding it. If it is + not a right but a privilege that may be granted to men and + withheld from women, be granted to the white and withheld from + the black, be given to those who have red hair and kept from + those with black hair; if it may be rightfully given to the + millionaire and kept from the day laborer; rightfully extended to + those who can read and withheld from those who cannot, or to + those with a college education and from those who have only a + common-school education--if these are the only bases on which + women claim a share in government, then the fundamental argument + for woman suffrage disappears. + + Reason back far enough on the privilege line of argument and you + soon come to that fetish of tradition, the divine right of kings. + So if you cannot put your claim on any better ground than + privilege you would better not go on.... Being a right, it is + also a duty. He who has a right to maintain has a duty to + perform. This is the firm rock upon which woman suffrage must + rest. It must be demanded because women are members of the + community, because they have common interests in the common + property and affairs of the community; in a word, they have + rights in the community and duties toward it which are the same + as the rights and duties of every other sane person of mature age + who keeps out of the penitentiary. + +An unexpected pleasure was a brief address by Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, +a veteran suffragist and prominent physician of New York, who was +attending the convention of the American Medical Association. She +based her argument for equal suffrage on the injustice practiced +toward women physicians when they seek the opportunity for hospital +practice. Mrs. F. W. Hunt, wife of the Governor of Idaho, testified to +the good results of woman suffrage in that State for the past five +years. Others who gave addresses were the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis +(Wis.), The Feminine Doctor in Society; Mrs. Lydia Phillips Williams, +president of the Minnesota Federation of Clubs, Growth and Greetings; +Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert (Ill.), For the Sake of the Child; Miss +Frances Griffin (Ala.), A Southern Tour; the Rev. Olympia Brown +(Wis.), The Tabooed Trio; Mrs. Annie L. Digges (Kas.), The Duty of the +Hour; Miss Laura A. Gregg (Neb.), Who Will Defend the Flag?; the Rev. +Celia Parker Woolley (Ill.), Woman's Worth in the Community; the +Rev. William B. Riley (Minn.), Woman's Rights and Political +Righteousness.[12] + +An inadequate newspaper account of the very able address of Miss Gail +Laughlin (N. Y.), on The Industrial Laggard, said: + + Miss Laughlin described the nineteenth as the industrial century + of which the factory was a notable product and co-operation the + spirit. Men were trained to do one thing well and by division of + labor the maximum result was attained with the minimum + expenditure of labor and capital. This principal of division of + labor has been applied everywhere except in the household, the + field which especially concerns women. Household labor is outside + the current of industrial progress. It is not even recognized as + an industrial problem because it is not a wealth-producing + industry. Students of economics will sometime understand that the + industries which consume wealth should receive attention as well + as those which produce it. Business principles are not applied to + the domestic service problem. There are no business hours. The + person is hired, not the labor. One woman described the + situation: "If you have a girl, you want her, no matter at what + time." There is no standard of work and the result is confusion + worse confounded. The servant's goings-out and comings-in are + watched and she has no hours to herself. Is it any wonder that so + many women prefer to go into factory life at less pay but where + they can have some hours of their own? + +The report of the Committee on Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs. +Laura M. Johns (Kans.), chairman, showed that it had been in +correspondence with many State associations which were working for the +repeal of bad laws and the enactment of good ones; for raising the age +of consent; for child-labor bills; for women physicians in State +institutions; for women on school boards and in high educational +positions and for many other civil and legal measures. Mrs. Clara +Bewick Colby's report on Industrial Problems affecting Women and +Children showed much diligent research into the discriminations +against women in the business and educational world and gave many +flagrant instances. "In Government positions," she said, "this was +clearly due to their lack of a vote." + + The Government departments at Washington are almost entirely + governed by politics and women are greatly discriminated against, + notwithstanding civil service rules. The report of A. R. Severn, + chief examiner for the Civil Service Commission, shows that + during the last ten years less than ten per cent. of the women + who have passed the examinations have been appointed, while more + than 25 per cent. of the men who passed obtained positions. To + prevent the possibility of women obtaining high-class positions + the examinations for these are not open to women. Of the 58 + employments for which examinations were held, women were admitted + to only 22. The per cent. of women employed of those who had + passed was 13 in 1898; 6 per cent. in 1899, and lower in 1900, + not a woman being appointed to a clerk's position from the + waiting list. The Post Office Department in the last year sent + out an order that women should not be made distributing clerks + wherever it was possible to appoint men.... Legislation for the + protection of children has been defeated in Georgia, Alabama and + South Carolina. In the factories of Birmingham, it is stated, + children of six and seven are obliged to be at work by 5:30 a.m. + and to work twelve hours daily, attending spindles for ten cents + a day. Jane Addams says she knows from personal observations that + in certain States the conditions of child labor are as bad as + they were in England half a century ago. In the great cotton + mills at Columbia, S. C., she found a little girl scarcely five + years old doing night work thirteen hours at a stretch, for three + days in the week. + +Sunday afternoon the Rev. Olympia Brown gave the convention +sermon--The Forward March--in the First Baptist Church, with scripture +reading by Mrs. Catt, prayer by the Rev. Margaret T. Olmstead, hymns +by the Rev. Kate Hughes and the Rev. Mrs. Woolley; responsive reading +by the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw preached in +the Church of the Redeemer in the morning and Louis F. Post in the +evening. Dr. Shaw preached in the evening at the Hennepin Avenue +Methodist Church; Miss Laura Clay spoke at the Central Baptist; Dr. +Frances Woods at the first Unitarian; Miss Laura Gregg at Plymouth; +Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford at the Wesley Methodist in the morning and +the Rev. Olympia Brown in the evening; Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert +in the Chicago Avenue Baptist; the Rev. Margaret F. Olmstead at All +Souls; the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis at Tuttle Universalist; Mrs. Mariana +W. Chapman at the Friends' Church; Miss Ella Moffatt at the +Bloomington Avenue Methodist, and Mr. and Miss Blackwell at the +Trinity Methodist. + +An official letter was sent by request to the Constitutional +Convention of Alabama asking for a woman suffrage clause. An +invitation to hold a conference in Baltimore was accepted. +Arrangements were made to have a National Suffrage Conference +September 9, 10, in Buffalo, N. Y., during the Pan-American +Exposition. It was decided also to accept an invitation from the +Inter-State and West Indian Exposition Board to hold a conference +during the Exposition in Charleston, S. C. Official invitations were +received from various public bodies to hold the next convention in +Washington, Atlantic City, Milwaukee and New Orleans. + +The president made the closing address to a large audience on the last +evening, a keen, analytical review of the demand for woman suffrage. +"Its fundamental principle," she said, "is that 'all governments +derive their just power from the consent of the governed.' It is the +argument that has enfranchised men everywhere at all times and it is +the one which will enfranchise women." As it was extemporaneous no +adequate report can be given. + +Nothing was left undone by this hospitable city for the success and +pleasure of the convention. Very favorable reports and commendatory +editorials were given by the newspapers. An excellent program by the +best musical talent was furnished at each session under the direction +of Mrs. Cleone Daniels Bergren. An evening reception in honor of the +national officers, to which eight hundred invitations were sent, took +place in the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Gregory. The +Business Woman's Club, Martha Scott Anderson, president, gave an +afternoon reception in its rooms, the invitations reading: "The club +desires to show in a measure its appreciation of the labor by the +members of the National Suffrage Association in behalf of women." +Trolley rides through the handsome suburbs and a visit to the big +flouring mills were among the diversions.[13] + +This chapter has tried to picture the first convention of the National +American Suffrage Association in the new century, typical of many +which preceded and followed. If it and other chapters seem +overburdened with personal mention it must be remembered that it is a +precious privilege to those who assisted in this great movement, and +to their descendants, to have their names thus preserved in history. +In the biography of Susan B. Anthony (page 1246) may be found the +following tribute to these conventions, which were held annually for +over fifty years. + + It can be said without fear of contradiction that the National + Suffrage Conventions will go down in history as the most notable + held by women during the present age, excepting, of course, those + of an international nature. The lofty character of their demands, + the courage, ability and earnestness of their speakers, the + unswerving fidelity to one central idea, give them a dominating + position which they will hold for all time. They are pervaded by + a remarkable spirit of democracy and fraternity. Those who come + to scoff remain--not to pray but to have a good time. The + reporters are all converted during the first two or three + meetings and become members of the family. The delegates never + wait for an introduction to each other; all have come together on + the same mission and that is a sufficient guarantee. Nobody can + remember afterwards what her neighbor wore and this proves that + all were well dressed. The meetings are so systematic and + business-like that one never feels she has wasted a minute. If + points of serious difference arise they are taken up and settled + by the Business Committee, out of sight of the public, but in all + matters directly connected with the association every delegate + has a voice and vote. + + These are trained and disciplined women. There is nothing + hysterical, nothing fanatical about them. They are animated by + the most serious and determined purpose, and, in order to effect + this, all sectarian bias, all political preference, all fads and + hobbies in any direction are rigidly barred. Woman suffrage--that + is the sole object. The offices all represent hard work and no + salary, therefore no unseemly scramble takes place to secure + them, and the association has the most profound confidence in its + National Board. Every dollar subscribed has a definite channel + designated for its expenditure and so there is no big treasury + fund to quarrel over. There is always a sufficient number of + experienced members to hold the younger and more impulsive + recruits in check. Being one of the oldest women's organizations + in existence it has accumulated a large store of wisdom and + judgment. Even where people disapprove its purposes they cannot + fail to respect its dignified, orderly methods. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] Part of Call: The first years of the new century are destined to +witness the most strenuous and intense struggle of the movement. +Iniquity has become afraid of the votes of women. Vice and immorality +are consequently organized in opposition, while conservative morality +stands shoulder to shoulder with them, blind to the nature of the +illicit partnership. Believers in this cause are legion, but many, +satisfied that victory will come without their help, do nothing. We +are approaching the climax of the great contest and every friend is +needed. If the final victory is long in coming, the responsibility +rests with those who believe but who do not act. + + ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, } Honorary Presidents. + SUSAN B. ANTHONY, } + CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President. + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-president. + RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, Corresponding Secretary. + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. + HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } Auditors. + CATHARINE WAUGH MCCULLOCH, } + +[5] Miss Anthony had entreated Mrs. Stanton to send instead of this +letter to the convention one of her grand, old-time arguments for +woman suffrage but she refused, saying the time was past for these and +the church must be recognized as the greatest of obstacles to its +success. Miss Anthony felt that it would arouse criticism and +prejudice at the very beginning but declared that no matter what the +effect she would give what would probably be Mrs. Stanton's last +message. A number of the officers and delegates were interviewed for +the press and none was found who fully agreed with Mrs. Stanton's +views. The Rev. Olympia Brown and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw believed +the obstacles to be in the false interpretation of the Scriptures and +its application to women. The Methodist General Conference had this +year admitted women delegates. + +[6] Invocations were pronounced at different sessions by the resident +ministers, C. B. Mitchell, George F. Holt and Martin D. Hardin, and by +the visiting ministers, Alice Ball Loomis, Celia Parker Woolley, Kate +Hughes and Margaret T. Olmstead. + +[7] WHEREAS, Judge William Howard Taft and the Philippine +Commissioners in a telegram to Secretary Root dated January 17, 1901, +affirm that ever since November, 1898, the military authorities in +Manila have subjected women of bad character to "certified +examination," and General MacArthur in his recent report does not deny +this but defends it; and whereas the Hawaiian government has taken +similar action; therefore + +RESOLVED, That we earnestly protest against the introduction of the +European system of State-regulated vice in the new possessions of the +United States for the following reasons: + +1. To subject women of bad character to regular examinations and +furnish them with official health certificates is contrary to good +morals and must impress both our soldiers and the natives as giving +official sanction to vice. + +2. It is a violation of justice to apply to vicious women compulsory +medical measures that are not applied to vicious men. + +3. Official regulation of vice, while it lowers the moral tone of the +community, everywhere fails to protect the public health. + +Examples were given from Paris, garrison towns of England and +Switzerland, and St. Louis, the only city in the United States that +had ever tried the system. + +[8] The question of giving to women a vote for Representatives by an +Act of Congress is considered in Chapter I, Volume IV, History of +Woman Suffrage. + +[9] Among the donations which brought in the largest sums were the +locomobile from Mr. and Mrs. A.L. Barber of New York; the Kansas +consignment of fine flour and butter secured by Miss Helen Kimber of +that State; the carload of hogs from Iowa farmers obtained by Mrs. +Eleanor Stockman of Mason City; the handsomely dressed doll from Mrs. +William McKinley and a fine oil painting by the noted landscape +painter, William Keith of California. + +[10] At Miss Anthony's request Mrs. Harper had sent her a letter to +read to the convention giving some details as to the scope of the +_Sun_ articles, in which she said: "I consider the success of this +department due above all else to the fact that it deals with current +events. Its text each Sunday is taken from the occurrences of the +preceding week as they relate to women.... Letters of commendation and +of criticism have been received from all parts of the United States +and from London, Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Dresden, Zurich and Rome +and from Melbourne. Among the writers are bishops and ministers, +publishers, educators, authors, college presidents, physicians, +women's societies, workingmen's organizations and scores of men and +women in the private walks of life. One article brought twenty-five +pages of legal cap from lawyers in New York and Brooklyn. It is a +noteworthy fact that it is the first metropolitan daily paper to make +a woman suffrage department a regular feature." + +The articles were published until the autumn of 1903, almost five +years. Mr. Dana then sold the paper and it went under the control of +William A. Laffan, an anti-suffragist, who discontinued them. + +[11] Other local chairmen were Irma Winchell Stacy, Mrs. A. T. +Anderson, J. Bryan Bushnell, Dr. Margaret Koch, Mrs. James Harnden, +Mrs. H. A. Tuttle, Mrs. Marion D. Shutter, Lora C. Little, Nellie +Keyes, Mrs. Sanford Niles, Martha Scott Anderson, Josie A. Wanous, +Gracia L. Jenks, Dr. Corene J. Bissonette, Mrs. Stockwell and Mrs. +Gregory. + +[12] Among those who took part in conferences and on committees were +Helen Rand Tindall (D. C.); Annie R. Wood (Cal.); Ellen Powell +Thompson (D. C.); Mariana W. Chapman, Lila K. Willets and Florence +Gregory (N. Y.); Clara Bright and Jean Gordon (La.); Etta Dann +(Mont.); Emily B. Ketcham and Maud Starker (Mich.); Maude I. Matthews +(N. D.); Eleanor M. Hall (O.); Helen Kimber (Kas.); Eleanor C. +Stockman, Dr. Frances Woods and Dollie R. Bradley (Ia.); Emily S. +Richards (Utah); Bertha G. Wade (Ind.); Clara A. Young (Neb.); Evelyn +H. Belden (Ia.); Addie N. Johnson (Mo.); Mrs. E. A. Brown (Minn.); +Cornelia Cary (Brooklyn); Ida Porter Boyer (Penn.). Valuable reports +were made by all of the State presidents. + +[13] At the close of the convention twenty-seven of the visitors made +a trip in a special car to Yellowstone Park, which was arranged by +Mrs. Catt and Miss Hay. They had a most interesting time which was +graphically described by Miss Blackwell in the _Woman's Journal_ of +June 22. It also published some of the humorous poems written en route +by the gay excursionists. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1902. + + +The association held its Thirty-fourth annual convention, which was +especially distinguished by the presence of visitors from other lands, +in the First Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C., Feb. 12-18, +1902.[14] There was special significance in this meeting place, as the +pastor of the church for many years was the Rev. Byron Sutherland,[15] +who from its pulpit had more than once denounced woman suffrage and +its advocates; but it was now under the liberal ministry of the Rev. +T. DeWitt Talmage, their strong and valued advocate. The Washington +_Post_ said: "More than a thousand visitors were present yesterday +afternoon at the first session of the National American Suffrage +Convention and the first International Woman Suffrage Conference. +Perhaps no other meeting of its kind ever has occasioned as much +interest on the part of Washington women generally.[16] The large +audience room was packed to the doors ... and it has been arranged to +hold overflow meetings in the church parlors." The platform was banked +with flowers over which waved the flags of thirty nations, lent by +Miss Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross, to whom they had been +presented by representatives of each individual nation. Above them all +hung the "suffrage flag" with four golden stars on its blue ground for +the four States where women were fully enfranchised--Wyoming, +Colorado, Utah and Idaho. The president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, was +in the chair. + +This convention will be ever memorable because under its auspices the +First International Woman Suffrage Conference was held which resulted +later in the founding of the International Alliance. The proceedings +of this conference are described in the chapter devoted to the +Alliance. Ten countries were represented and their delegates took part +in the convention, which was welcomed on the opening afternoon by the +Hon. Henry B. F. McFarland, president of the board of commissioners of +the District of Columbia. He addressed the delegates as "stockholders +in the national capital" and said: "Personally I welcome not only you +but your cause. In common, I believe, with the majority of intelligent +men I think you have won your case on the argument. Equal suffrage is +equal justice and there is no reason why such women as you should be +classed in the States with idiots and criminals." Mrs. May Wright +Sewall, who was to greet the foreign guests in the name of the +International Council of Women, of which she was president, was +detained until later. Mrs. Catt with words of highest eulogy +introduced Miss Barton, who said: + + Madam President, Ladies and Delegates: Among many honors which + from time to time have been tendered me by my generous country + people, not one has been more appreciated than the privilege of + giving this word of public welcome to the honored delegation of + women present with us. + + Ladies of Europe, if a hundred tongues were mine they could not + speak the glad welcome in our hearts. It is an epoch in the + history of the world that your coming marks. For the first time + within the written history of mankind have the women of the + nations left their homes and assembled in council to declare the + position of women before the world, bringing to national and + international view the injustice and the folly of the barriers + which ignorance has created and tradition fostered and preserved + through the unthinking ages until they came to be held not only + as a part of the natural laws and rights of man but as the + immutable decrees of Divinity itself.... If woman alone had + suffered under these mistaken traditions, if she could have borne + the evil by herself, it would have been less pitiful, but her + brother man, in the laws he created and ignorantly worshipped, + has suffered with her. He has lost her highest help; he has + crippled the intelligence he needed; he has belittled the very + source of his own being and dwarfed the image of his Maker. + + Ladies, there is a propriety in your crossing the seas to hold + the first council in America, for it was in this new untrammeled + land of freedom, free birth, free thought and free speech that + the first outspoken notes were given, the first concerted action + taken toward the release of woman, the enlightenment of man as a + lawmaker, and the attention of the world directed to the + injustice, unwisdom and folly of the code under which it lived. + It was here that the first hard blows were struck. It was here + the paths were marked out that have been trodden with bleeding + feet for half a century, until at length the blows no longer + rebound and the hands of the grateful, loving womanhood of the + world struggle for a place to scatter roses in the paths which + erstwhile were flint and thorns; and an admiring world of women + and men alike breathe in tones of respect, gratitude and love the + names of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. + + Miss Anthony, I am glad to stand beside you while I tell these + women from the other side of the world who has brought them here. + This, ladies of Europe, is your great prototype--this the woman + who has trodden the trackless fields of the pioneer till the + thorns are buried in roses; this, the woman who has lived to hear + the hisses turn to dulcet strains of music; the woman who has + dared to plead for every good cause under heaven, who opened her + door to the fleeing slave and claimed the outcast for a brother; + the woman beloved of her own country and honored in all + countries. + + Although a slow lesson to learn it has always proved that the + grandeur of a nation was shown by the respect paid to woman. The + brightest garlands of Spain, linked with immortelles, twine about + the name of Isabella. The highest glory of England today is not + that she placed her crown on the brow of her trusted and beloved + new monarch, a man whom the nations of the earth welcome to their + galaxy of rulers, but that she lays her mantle of fifty years' + rule through war and peace and progress such as never was known + before, upon the grave of a woman--that mantle on which no stain + has ever rested and on which the sunlight of happiness is + shadowed and dimmed only by the tears of a sorrowing nation, as + it is reverently borne to its honored rest. England, thank God + you had no Salic law! America has none, and, Miss Anthony, the + path which you have trodden through these oft painful years leads + to that goal; and, though your eyes will have opened upon the + blessed light of the heaven beyond, verily there may be some + standing here who shall not taste death until these things come. + + Ladies and Delegates: In the name of the noble leader who has + called you, we welcome you. In the name of our country, its great + institutions of learning and equal privileges to all, we welcome + you. In the name of the brotherhood of man, we welcome you. In + the name of our never-forgotten pioneers, a Mott, a Stone, a + Gage, a Griffing, a Garrison, a May, a Foster, a Douglass, a + Phillips, we reverently welcome you. In the name of God and + humanity, in the name of the angels of earth and the angels of + heaven, we welcome you to our shores, to our halls, to our homes + and to our hearts. + +Miss Susan B. Anthony, honorary president of the association, who was +next presented and enthusiastically received, closed her brief welcome +by saying that Mrs. Stanton and herself conceived the idea of holding +an International Suffrage Conference in 1883 when they were in Europe +but the time was too early for it, and now, twenty years later, +European women had come as delegates to one in the United States and +henceforth the women of the two countries would go forward together in +this cause. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large, referred to +the fact that she was born in England and transplanted to America, and +said: "While you are divided from us by geographical lines, which are +imaginary, and by a language which is not the same, you have not come +to an alien people or land. In the realm of the heart, in the domain +of mind, there are no geographical lines dividing the nations. You +come to us as members of one family. You come that we may all stand +on one plane of freedom. I wish we could take you to our four 'star +States' where women vote. We mean to give you of our best but we +expect to get from you much more than we give. You will show us that +those who speak English are not the only ones whose hearts are alive +to the great flame of liberty." + +The national corresponding secretary, Miss Kate Gordon, read a +telegram from Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen, leader of the suffrage +movement in Canada: "Greetings and best wishes from your sisters +across the line"; a cablegram from Christiana: "Success to your work, +from the National Woman Suffrage Association of Norway." A letter was +read by the delegate from Norway, Mrs. Gudrun Drewsen, from the +president of the association, Miss Gina Krog, which said in part: "The +woman suffrage movement! I know of no movement, no cause that is at +the same time so national and so international. The victory now gained +in Norway, municipal suffrage and eligibility to municipal office for +a great many women, will no doubt in time influence every home in our +country; but we could not have won this victory without receiving +impulses from other civilized nations. We are indeed indebted to men +and women in several European countries for the privileges which we +now possess, but from no other country in the world have we received +the inspiration in our work which we have had from the United States; +to no women in the world are we so indebted as to the women of this +country. Those great and noble pioneers and their fervent +struggle--how they have inspired us and awakened our enthusiasm! That +assiduous work, year after year--how it has strengthened our hands! +That glorious example, those results attained in your country--how we +have brought them before our legislators to awaken their sense of +justice! I sincerely wish that the news of the victory achieved in our +country may prove an impetus to you in your work. To be assured of +this would give us the great satisfaction of feeling that at all +events a small fraction of our great debt to you was paid." + +Miss Gordon read a letter from the Federation of Progressive Women's +Societies in Germany which declared that its first and foremost object +was to secure for German women full political rights and continued: +"We watch with especial interest and sympathy the effort of those who +persistently and courageously work for the full citizenship of women. +The women of the United States have, in this struggle, set a noble +example to the women of Europe. In Germany we recall with tender +veneration such names as Lucy Stone, Frances Willard, Elizabeth Cady +Stanton, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw and Susan B. Anthony. The women of +Germany are without political rights. It is far easier to fight for +equality and freedom in a young country, like the United States, than +in an old civilization, cumbered with traditions--a country that looks +back on a history of many centuries, that only a few decades ago +fought its way through severe conflicts and painful changes to +political unity and is now slowly growing into responsibilities which +social and political problems impose on a modern State." + +"The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Tasmania sends hearty +greetings and trusts that the International Suffrage Conference may be +successful and that it will bring nearer that day when man and woman +shall sit 'side by side, full summed in all their powers,'" was the +message signed by Jessie S. Rooke, its president, which was given by +Miss Anna Gordon, president of the W. C. T. U. of the United States. +The response to the addresses of welcome was made by Madame Sofja +Levovna Friedland of Russia, who said in beautiful English: + + I am a loyal daughter of a friendly country, who thanks you for + your welcome and brings greetings from her distant home. Russia + and the United States have been friends for many a year and are + friends today, proven friends, who have stood by each other in + the hour of need. In 1863 the French ambassador at the court of + St. Petersburg laid before the Czar the proposition of Napoleon + III, to interfere in your civil war for the purpose of + perpetuating the division between the North and the South. After + listening to this bold proposal of the French Emperor, Czar + Alexander, the man who had freed twenty-five million slaves in + one stroke of his pen, replied: "Tell your Emperor that the + United States is our friend and tell him also that it has the + same right to maintain a republican form of government as we have + to choose a monarchy. Tell him also that he must keep his hands + off and not meddle in its affairs for I will not allow anyone to + interfere on the other side of the Atlantic. He who strikes my + friend, strikes me." This answer in diplomatic language went the + same day to Paris and soon after Russian battleships arrived in + the harbors of New York and San Francisco. There are still men + and women who remember them. They used to wonder why the Russian + men-of-war were lying peacefully in American waters. President + Lincoln could have given the answer, for in a private message + from the Czar he had been assured of the friendship of the great + Eastern Empire. He knew that the commanders of the Russian ships + had secret orders to act in case of necessity. + + But the American people have done more, for there came a morning + when the glorious winter sun of Russia greeted the Star-Spangled + Banner, when American ships landed on Russian shores ready to + protect us from a more cruel enemy--hunger. The cry of distress + from our famine-stricken villages had found an echo in American + hearts and the ships which came did not bear government orders, + they bore the tokens of love from one brother to another; they + brought us wheat and corn to feed our people. + +Madame Friedland told of the visit of the Grand Duke Alexis to this +country and of the poem read by Oliver Wendell Holmes at a banquet +given in his honor, and closed: "Thus an American poet has expressed +the feelings of his countrymen and women. God bless the United States! +Long life to President Roosevelt and prosperity to you all! In the +days to come and the years to follow may our two great nations stand +side by side in harmony and peace. May the Star-Spangled Banner and +the Russian Double Eagle soar aloft, not on battlefields, not against +any nation, but for a brotherhood of men in the federation of the +world." The opening session ended with the president's address by Mrs. +Catt, in the course of which she said: + + In ready response to growing intelligence and individualism the + principle of self-government has been planted in every civilized + nation of the world. Before the force of this onward movement the + most cherished ideals of conservatism have fallen. Out of the + ashes of the old, phoenix-like has arisen a new institution, + vigorous and strong, yea, one which will endure as long as men + occupy the earth. The little band of Americans who initiated the + modern movement would never have predicted that within a century + "Taxation of men without representation is tyranny" would have + been written into the fundamental law of all the monarchies of + Europe except Russia and Turkey and that even there + self-government would obtain in the municipalities. The most + optimistic seer among them would not have prophesied that + Mongolian Japan, then tightly shutting her gates against the + commerce of the world and jealously guarding her ancient customs, + would before the century closed have welcomed Western + civilization and established universal suffrage for its men. He + would not have dreamed that every inch of the great continent of + South America, then chiefly an unexplored region over which bands + of savages roved at will, would be covered by written + constitutions guaranteeing self-government to men inspired by + Declarations of Independence similar to that of this country; + that the settlements in Mexico and Central America and many + islands of the ocean would grow into republics, and least of all + that the island continent of Australia, with its associates of + New Zealand and Tasmania, then unexplored wildernesses, would + become great democracies where self-government would be carried + on with such enthusiasm, fervor and wisdom that they would give + lessons in methods and principles to all the rest of the + world.... + + Hard upon the track of the man suffrage movement presses the + movement for woman suffrage, a logical step onward. It has come + as inevitably and naturally as the flower unfolds from the bud or + the fruit develops from the flower. Why should woman suffrage not + come? Men throughout the world hold their suffrage by the + guarantee of the two principles of liberty and for these reasons + only: One, "Taxation without representation is tyranny"; who + dares deny it? And are not women taxed? The other, "Governments + derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." How + simple and unanswerable that petition of justice!... Woman + suffrage must meet precisely the same objections which have been + urged against man suffrage and in addition it must combat + sex-prejudice, a prejudice against the rights, liberties and + opportunities of women. + +Mrs. Catt closed her address with these words: "Yet before the +attainment of equal rights for men and women there will be years of +struggle and disappointment. We of a younger generation have taken up +the work where our noble and consecrated pioneers left it. We in turn +are enlisted for life and generations yet unborn will take up the work +where we lay it down. So through centuries if need be the education +will continue, until a regenerated race of men and women who are equal +before God and man shall control the destinies of the earth. It will +be the proud duty of the new International Alliance, if one shall be +formed, to extend its helping hand to the women of every nation and +every people and its completed duty will not have been performed until +the last vestige of the old obedience of one human being to another +shall have been destroyed." + +The presence of the foreign visitors and the greetings from abroad +made an original and pleasing variation of the usual program at +national conventions. The Evening with the Pioneers opened with the +singing by the audience of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, written by +one of them, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, led by another, John Hutchinson, a +member of the famous family of singers, who the day before had +celebrated his 90th birthday. Miss Anthony presided and the Washington +_Times_ said that she "was greeted with a storm of applause, the +convention rising as one woman and with waving handkerchiefs cheering +her to the echo for several minutes." The Loyal Legion of Women +through its president gave her an armful of red roses and in accepting +them she observed smilingly: "I can only say what I have often said in +late years--it is much pleasanter to be pelted with roses than stones! +The National Suffrage Association stands like a Mother Church with her +arms wide open to those who want to come in and we are especially glad +to receive loyal women."[17] + +Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller, a member of the London School Board for +nine years, brought greetings from Mrs. Priscilla Bright McLaren, 87 +years old, of whom Miss Anthony said: "She is an elder sister of John +and Jacob Bright. John was the great champion of manhood suffrage but +Jacob was still greater, for he was a champion of suffrage for women +also. Mrs. McLaren sent a loving and appreciative message to "the dear +American women who have so steadfastly held up the banner of woman +suffrage and especially to the octogenarians, Elizabeth Cady Stanton +and Susan B. Anthony," and closed it with a Christmas poem. Miss +Anthony recalled her last visit to Mrs. McLaren in Edinburgh three +years before and said: "I wish you could see how beautiful she looked +as she lay on the bed in her pretty white cap and blue dressing sack. +She is an inspiration to the women of Great Britain and she has been +to me." + +Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.), gave a greeting from Mrs. Stanton, +in her 87th year, and read her paper on Educated Suffrage.[18] In this +able and scholarly document Mrs. Stanton said: + + The proposition to demand of immigrants a reading and writing + qualification on landing strikes me as arbitrary and equally + detrimental to our mutual interests. The danger is not in their + landing and living in this country but in their speedy appearance + at the ballot-box, there becoming an impoverished and ignorant + balance of power in the hands of wily politicians. While we + should not allow our country to be a dumping-ground for the + refuse population of the old world, still we should welcome all + hardy, common-sense laborers here, as we have plenty of room and + work for them.... The one demand I would make for this class is + that they should not become a part of our ruling power until they + can read and write the English language intelligently and + understand the principles of republican government.... To prevent + the thousands of immigrants daily landing on our shores from + marching from the steerage to the polls the national Government + should prohibit the States from allowing them to vote in less + than five years and not then unless the applicant can read and + write the English language.... To this end, Congress should enact + a law for "educated suffrage" for our native-born as well as + foreign rulers, alike ignorant of our institutions. With free + schools and compulsory education, no one has an excuse for not + understanding the language of the country. As women are governed + by a "male aristocracy" we are doubly interested in having our + rulers able at least to read and write. + + The popular objection to woman suffrage is that it would "double + the ignorant vote." The patent answer to this is, abolish the + ignorant vote. Our legislators have this power in their own + hands. There have been various restrictions in the past for men. + We are willing to abide by the same for women, provided the + insurmountable qualification of sex be forever removed.... + Surely, when we compel all classes to learn to read and write and + thus open to themselves the door of knowledge not by force but by + the promise of a privilege all intelligent citizens enjoy, we are + benefactors, not tyrants. To stimulate them to climb the first + rounds of the ladder that they may reach the divine heights where + they shall be as gods, knowing good and evil, by withholding the + citizen's right to vote for a few years will be a blessing to + them as well as to the State.... + +Mrs. Stanton had made her last address in person to a national +convention in 1892, when she resigned the presidency of the +association--that incomparable essay on The Solitude of Self--but she +never had failed to send her annual battle cry. The one to this +convention, which began the fulfilment of her dream of a world-wide +movement for woman suffrage, was written with all her old-time logic +and forceful argument and it proved to be her last, as her long and +valuable life was ended the next November. + +Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (O.) read the paper of Mrs. Caroline +Hallowell Miller (Md.), detained at the last moment, on Why We Come +Again, in which she explained why the suffragists would continue to +come to Washington and haunt Congress until their object, a Federal +Amendment, had been attained. The humor for which Mrs. Miller, a staid +"Quaker," was noted sparkled in its sentences although she protested +that she was entirely serious. Miss Anthony introduced Henry B. +Blackwell (Mass.) with the quaint remark: "He was the husband of Lucy +Stone; I don't think he can quite represent her but he will do the +best he can!" Mr. Blackwell briefly reviewed the agitation for women +suffrage during the first half of the 19th century. He told of meeting +Lucy Stone in 1850 and being so charmed he advised his elder brother +to make her acquaintance; of hearing her address a Massachusetts +constitutional convention in 1852 with William Lloyd Garrison and +Wendell Phillips; of making his own first suffrage speech in +Cleveland, O., in 1853 and of his marriage in 1855. In presenting the +next speaker Miss Anthony said: "Mr. Blackwell alluded to his brother, +who did not marry Lucy but Antoinette--the Rev. Antoinette Brown +Blackwell, the first ordained woman minister--who will now address +you." Her paper on Chivalry was a clear analysis of the changed ideas +of this word, touching with sarcasm on that of the days when the +effort for the rights of women began, a chivalry which gave the person +and property of the wife, the guardianship of the children, all her +legal privileges, to the husband. She traced the evolution from the +early privations of the pioneer suffragists to the honors that are now +showered upon them and drew a striking contrast between "the dying old +chivalry, which made itself the sole umpire of the benefits to be +granted, and the increasing new chivalry, which consults the +beneficiaries themselves as to their needs and desires." + +Miss Anthony then introduced the first woman ordained by the +Universalist Church, the Rev. Olympia Brown, who struck the keynote +of her address in saying: "When we are vexed by the seeming +irrationality of some of our Congressmen, may we not explain it as due +to the fact that they are thinking of the kind of men who elected +them? The United States debars intelligent American women from voting +and says to the riffraff of Europe, 'Come over and help govern us.' It +is an experiment which no other country in the world ever did make and +no other ever will make and I predict that it will be a failure. It +will be necessary to call in the aid of the intelligent American women +and soon or late this will be done." + +Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of the noted Abolitionist, +Gerrit Smith, was asked to rise and Miss Anthony paid glowing tribute +to him and to many men and women who had stood by the cause of woman +suffrage in its early days. The audience were pleased to enjoy once +more her informal and unique method of presiding, as glancing over the +audience she singled out veteran suffragists who had come to hear and +not to speak, calling them by name with some reminiscent comment. Her +eye fell upon William H. Bright, who sponsored the bill in the +Legislature of Wyoming which gave the first equal suffrage ever +granted anywhere to women. In answering the demand of the audience for +a speech he told how Mrs. Esther Morris had come from New York State +to Wyoming in 1867 and how she and his wife had persuaded him to +prepare the bill, which was passed by a Democratic Legislature and +signed by a Republican Governor. In response to a general request Miss +Anthony told the story, of which audiences never seemed to tire, of +that historic occasion when she broke all precedents by addressing a +Teachers' Convention in 1853. This interesting session closed with the +singing of Auld Lang Syne led by the venerable John Hutchinson. + +During a morning session Miss Gordon made her report as corresponding +secretary, saying that although it covered only the seven months since +the last convention it showed that 6,500 letters had been sent out +from the headquarters during this period. In 1895, when Mrs. Catt +became chairman of the Organization Committee, she had established +headquarters for her work in one little room in the New York _World_ +building, that was really an annex of her husband's offices, and +begun the publication of a Bulletin, which was the organ of the +committee. In 1897 it became the organ of the National Association and +had now expanded into a quarterly paper called _Progress_, which was +edited by Alice Stone Blackwell, Ellis Meredith and Laura Gregg. A +preliminary edition of 100,000 had been sent out from the +headquarters, the expense borne by Boston women, and later 16,000 +copies of the October and 20,000 of the January editions had gone to +the 14,000 newspapers of the country, to members of Congress and +others. A monthly series of Political Equality Leaflets was also +commenced and a Course of Study for Clubs and individuals was +established for which a dozen or more books were published. These two +valuable features were carried on without any expense to the +association, as they paid for themselves. + +Miss Gordon described the National Conference held in Charleston, S. +C., February 3-4, at the invitation of the board of the Inter-State +and West Indian Exposition; told of the conference in Baltimore[19] +and said of the one in Buffalo: "The far-reaching effect and impetus +given to the woman's movement by the Congress of Women held in +connection with the Chicago Exposition, determined the Business +Committee's acceptance of an invitation to hold a National Conference +during the Pan-American Exposition. Too late did we learn that the +invitation extended included no responsibility whatever upon the +Exposition to further the success of the conference. Buffalo did not +represent an organized center and after several fruitless attempts to +form a local committee, the headquarters realized that every little +detail essential to success must be attended to by the board. From all +sides reports of the most discouraging nature were received as to the +absolute failure attending all conferences there but nevertheless we +started a vigorous correspondence and for five preceding weeks every +Sunday paper in Buffalo was supplied with matter from headquarters. To +make a long story short, September 9-10 witnessed our conference well +attended, with the night sessions crowded and success acknowledged on +all sides, even though we labored under the disadvantage of its being +held during the season of sorrow and distress in that city while +President McKinley's life hovered in the valley of the shadow of +death." + +Miss Gordon said that during the year Mrs. Catt had made a tour of +nine States and taken part in forty meetings. Referring to the efforts +made to have a woman suffrage clause put into new constitutions that +were being framed in several States she said: "The clause which lived +twenty-four hours in the Alabama Constitution, granting to taxpaying +women owning $500 worth of property the suffrage on questions of +bonded indebtedness, was killed by a disease peculiar to the genus +homo known as chivalry. In the case in point, the diagnosis revealed +that the fairest, purest and brightest jewels that ever shone under +the brilliant rays of God's shining sun would be immeasurably lowered +by voting upon questions relating to the taxation of their own +property. Yet, under the vagaries of this disease, this same +convention conferred on husbands the right to vote on their wives' +property. This is the same character of chivalry which gives the wages +of the brightest, fairest jewels to the husband, which makes +impossible equal pay for equal work and which classes the jewels with +the idiots, insane and criminals in that and other States." + +The program was so crowded with attractions that it left no time for +the usual conferences on work and campaigns, so they were placed at +9:30 a.m. As they had been so largely attended by visitors the +preceding year as to call forth a rule from the Board of Officers that +thereafter delegates only should be permitted to attend them, this was +not disastrous. Early morning conferences therefore were held on +Organization and Press and two others took the form of State +presidents' councils. The Plan of Work recommended again by the +Executive Committee and adopted by the convention urged work in +Congressional districts for the 16th Amendment; an attempt to secure +tax-paying suffrage; more resolutions by national and State +conventions; a campaign to secure suffrage speakers at Chautauqua +assemblies and State and county fairs; prizes for essays on woman +suffrage in schools and colleges; circulating suffrage libraries and +the general use of a suffrage stamp on letters. + +Two novel evening programs were devoted to The New Woman and The New +Man, the first with the following speakers: Mrs. Helen Adelaide Shaw +of Boston; Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer of New Orleans, known far and wide +as "Dorothy Dix," said to receive the highest salary of any woman +journalist; Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, a prominent physician and surgeon of +Minneapolis; Miss Gail Laughlin (N. Y.) who had taken the highest +honors in the Law Class of Cornell University; the Rev. Ida C. Hultin, +a successful Unitarian minister of Boston. Miss Margaret Haley of +Chicago, who led the great fight of the Teachers' Federation of that +city to compel the big corporations to pay their taxes in order that +the public schools should not be crippled for lack of funds, could not +be present because of a crisis in the legal proceedings. Each of the +women representing the four professions of law, medicine, theology and +journalism, in addresses scintillating with humor, reviewed the early +prejudices which had been overcome, told of the large number of women +who had entered the field when the opportunity came but showed that +they could never have an even chance until there was complete +obliteration of sex prejudice. Little idea of their interest could be +obtained from fragmentary paragraphs. + +The house was crowded to hear about The New Man,[20] represented first +on the program by Oswald Garrison Villard, grandson of William Lloyd +Garrison and owner and editor of the New York _Evening Post_, who gave +a spirited and effective account of Women in the New York Municipal +Campaign. This was the first in which women ever had taken a +prominent part and it had attracted wide attention, a revolt against +Tammany corruption under Richard Croker. Mr. Villard told of the +remarkable work done by the Women's Municipal League under direction +of the Citizen's Union for the election of Seth Low as Mayor and a +reform ticket. He paid a sarcastic tribute to the assistance of the +women anti-suffragists. "To have been really consistent," he said, +"they should have urged upon their more emancipated sisters that +woman's sphere is the home and any steps that lead beyond it tend in +the long run to the destruction both of the home and of the eternal +feminine." He closed by declaring that "the Titanic struggle between +right and wrong in the great cities can not be won without the +cooperation of that half of the nation's citizens in whose hearts are +ever found the truest ideals of family and society, of city life and +State life and of national existence." At its conclusion Mrs. Catt +said: "And yet after Mr. Low was elected Mayor of Greater New York a +large number of the women who had helped him win the victory urged him +to appoint some women on the school board and he refused. So we must +suppose that he is willing to have women pull the chestnuts out of the +fire for men but is not willing to give them a share of the +chestnuts." + +A feature of the evening was the scholarly address of the Hon. William +Dudley Foulke (Ind.), president of the U. S. Civil Service Commission. +He objected to being classed as a "new man," since long ago he was for +several years president of the American Suffrage Association. "Men +would not be satisfied with indirect influence," he declared and +continued: "It is often said that woman suffrage is just but that +there is no need of it, because women have no interests separate from +those of men. That argument was used to me only lately by an eminent +political economist. I said: 'Suppose a railroad runs through a town +and a woman owns a large property in that town and yet cannot vote on +the question of raising a subsidy; are her interests necessarily the +same as those of every man in the town?' My friends, that case is +universal. Suppose a widow is trying to bring up her son in the +principles of morality and a saloon is opened on the corner opposite +her home. I do not speak as an advocate of prohibition but I do say +that the interest of the mother is different from that of the man who +sells liquor. Or suppose she is bringing up a daughter; she has a +sacred right to protect that daughter from a libertine. Her interest +is certainly different from that of the tempter.... We do not realize +what an immense waste there is in denying woman entrance to political +life. She ought to have free access to anything she is qualified to do +and where she is not qualified she will drop out." + +John S. Crosby, a prominent Democratic leader of New York, made a +thorough analysis of the functions of the State and the Government, +showed the utter fallacy of constituting men the governing and women +the governed class and closed as follows: "Attempt to prove that +woman's claim to the right of suffrage is as valid as any that man can +make would be like trying to demonstrate the truth of a self-evident +proposition.... We ask the ballot for woman not merely because she has +a right to it but quite as much because it is her duty to exercise +that right. The irresistible power of that all-embracing organization, +the State, holds you and me and all that are dear to us as its +helpless and often hopeless subjects. The combined wisdom of all of us +would be none too great for its intelligent administration and we +demand for our own sake and for the sake of those that shall come +after us that the wisdom of woman shall be included; not only that her +delicate, intuitional sense of justice shall leaven the lump of public +opinion but that her deft hand shall help to knead it into the bread +of righteous law. We ask as one of the rights that government is bound +to secure that in the administration of its power it shall make use of +the fullest wisdom of the whole people; that the entire popular brain +and social conscience shall take cognizance of and be responsible for +all acts of government. Not until then shall we see true democracy; +not until then shall we indeed have a government of the people, by the +people and for the people." + +The next day was one always commemorated by suffragists--the birthday +of Susan B. Anthony--this time the 82nd. The _Woman's Journal_ began +its account: "As Miss Anthony sat at breakfast on February 15, with +one of the jars of delicious cream before her that were sent her +daily by the president of the Maryland Woman Suffrage Association, she +was unexpectedly surrounded by the foreign delegates in a body. A +birthday greeting drawn up and signed by them was read aloud by Mrs. +Florence Fenwick Miller of England, while the rest, grouped behind +her, bent forward listening with attentive faces--a pretty picture. +Among the gifts which she received during the afternoon session were a +canoe full of flowers from 'one of the girls' with a poem; a handsome +feather boa from Mrs. Swift and Mrs. Sperry of California; a cup made +from the wood of the floor under the table on which the Declaration of +Independence was signed, presented in the name of Mrs. General Geddes; +a bouquet of red roses from Prof. Theodosia Ammons of Colorado +Agricultural College; potted plants from the Swedish and Norwegian +delegates; over $500 from Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard, Miss Emily +Howland, Mrs. Kenyon, Mrs. W. W. Trimble, Miss Nettie Lovisa White, +Mrs. William M. Ivins and other friends; also quantities of fruit and +flowers. The address was as follows: + + We, the undersigned, Foreign Delegates to the first International + Woman Suffrage Congress, gladly take the opportunity of your 82nd + birthday to express to you our love and reverence, our gratitude + for your lifelong work for women, and are rejoicing that you have + lived to see such great steps onward made by the world at large + in the direction in which you led at first under such prejudice. + Praying that you may enjoy years of health, cheered by every + fresh advance, we remain, your loving friends, + + Florence Fenwick Miller, England; Sofja Levovna Friedland, + Russia; Carolina Holman Huidobro, Chili; Gudrun Drewsen, Norway; + Vida Goldstein, Australia; Emmy Evald, Sweden; Antonie Stolle, + Germany. + +[Later the foreign delegates gave Mrs. Catt a handsomely engraved +silver card case.] + +The Washington _Times_ said of the occasion: + + The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw presented a large basket of fruit from + some of the principal suffrage workers with these touching words: + "Miss Anthony, you have been more than a leader to us of your own + country, more than a teacher, more than a counselor, you have + been our beloved friend. Take this with our love for you, dear, + dear friend." This completed Miss Anthony's conquest and she + almost broke down. There has been very little emotionalism in + this convention but for some minutes there was ample proof all + over the hall that being delegates to a suffrage convention had + not made any woman forget how to cry. Mrs. Catt finally came to + Miss Anthony's rescue in a little speech full of tender + appreciation: "The greatest thing about Miss Anthony to my mind + is her utter unselfishness and lack of self-consciousness. As we + came up the aisle the other night and the audience broke into a + thunder of applause for her whom all love, Miss Anthony looked + about to see what caused it and then asked: 'What are they + applauding for?' She credits all attentions to herself as for the + cause and it is dearer to her than life. Last night at an hour + when all respectable women suffragists should have been in bed, + the treasurer and I put our heads together and decided that we + would ask all of you to give a present to the association on Miss + Anthony's birthday instead of giving it to her. We know her well + enough to be sure this is what she would like best." + +Miss Mary Garrett Hay, the champion money raiser, then made the appeal +to the audience, who quickly responded with over $5,000 and she +received an appreciative vote of thanks from the convention. Mrs. +Harriet Taylor Upton, the treasurer, reported the receipts of the +preceding year as $13,581, with a carefully itemized and audited +statement. + +Among the most interesting and valuable features of all national +conventions are the reports of the work in the various States and yet +because of the large number it is impossible to give specific mention +or quotations. They were varied on this occasion by the reports from +foreign countries--Venezuela, Chili, Japan, China, Australia, New +Zealand, the Philippines, Porto Rico, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, +Sweden, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and +France. These had been obtained at the request of Mrs. Catt from +ambassadors, consuls or persons appointed by them and represented +months of labor. Several evenings were largely devoted to addresses by +delegates from other countries; one by Public School Inspector James +L. Hughes, Toronto; the English Woman in Politics, Florence Fenwick +Miller; the Australian Woman in Politics, Vida Goldstein; Women in +South American Republics, Carolina Huidobro; Women in Porto Rico, +Resident Commissioner Federico Degetau; Women in the Philippines, +Harriet Potter Nourse; Deborah, Emmy Evald, Sweden; Women in Egypt and +Jerusalem, Lydia von Finkelstein Mountford; Women in Turkey, Florence +Fensham, Dean of American College for Girls in Constantinople; Women +in Germany, Antoine Stolle. + +When the report for Porto Rico was made Miss Shaw supplemented it with +a graphic account of a trip to the West Indies with Mrs. Lydia Avery +Coonley Ward of Chicago, which she had just finished, telling of the +position of women, the marriage laws, etc. The work of the National +Council of Women was presented by the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer (R. +I.); the report of the affiliated Friends' Equal Rights Association by +Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman (N. Y.), its president. + +The Sunday afternoon services in the church were conducted by the Rev. +Anna Garlin Spencer, assisted by the Rev. Olympia Brown and the Rev. +Anna Howard Shaw.[21] Mrs. Spencer first defined the ideal of womanly +character held by the older poets and philosophers, quoting Milton's +line describing Adam and Eve: "He for God only; she for God in him," +and the expression used by the hard, old father of Tennyson's +"Princess": "Man to command and woman to obey." She then expressed the +modern ideal as that of devotion to the same essentials but different +in expression. "Woman is not called to a new kingdom but to a larger +occupancy of that which has been hers from the beginning. The woman +with the child in her arms was the beginning of the family; the hearth +fire and the altar fire grew from this; the elder child teaching the +younger was the beginning of the school. We are making over all these +inherited traditions and inherited tendencies and socializing them.... +The ideal woman is no longer a far-away Madonna with her feet on the +clouds; she is as divine but she is human. What means the humanizing +of religion and the passing of harsh, old creeds but that a greater, +more human, more womanly influence is felt in all the relations of +life." + +Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee on Presidential suffrage, +said in his report: "This is the open door for woman suffrage in every +State in the Union. Any Legislature at any session by a majority vote +of both Houses, either separately or in joint session, without any +change of State constitution, can empower women to help select the +presidential electors on the same terms as male citizens. The power is +absolute and unqualified. Let women in every State petition their +Legislature to enable women to take part in this most important form +of suffrage known to the American people. It is objected to our demand +for woman suffrage that women do not want it and will not exercise it +if granted. This is now the only method of testing women's wish to +take part in their government. If by a general exercise of the right +they show their public spirit, the Legislature by submitting an +amendment to the State constitution can afterwards extend suffrage to +its citizens in State and local elections. This step will be the most +conservative way of procedure. The control will remain, as now, in the +hands of a Legislature elected by men alone. If it prove +unsatisfactory to the men of the State any subsequent Legislature can +repeal the law." + +A report of the International Suffrage Conference, which had been in +progress during the convention, and the forming of a committee to +further permanent organization, was made by its secretary, Miss +Goldstein, and the convention voted that the National American Woman +Suffrage Association should cooperate with this committee. The +nominations for office were made as usual by secret ballot and as +usual were so nearly unanimous that the secretary was instructed to +cast the vote. The only change in the present board was the election +of Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, for many years prominent in the work in +Iowa, as second auditor in place of Dr. Eaton, whose professional +duties required all her time. Invitations for the next convention were +received from Niagara Falls, Detroit, St. Louis, Denver, Baltimore and +New Orleans. The Board of Trade, the Era Club and the Progressive +Union united in the one from New Orleans, which was accepted and +cordial thanks returned for the others. + +The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the +committee, rejoiced in the suffrage already gained and the securing in +the past year of laws in various States giving equal guardianship of +their children to mothers and increased property rights to wives. +They called the attention of the Civil Service Commission to +discriminations made against women and emphasized the protest of the +preceding year against government regulation of vice in the +Philippines. Later at an executive meeting of the board a vigorous set +of resolutions was prepared, stating that the reports of Governor +William H. Taft and General McArthur admitted and defended "certified +examinations of women" in the new possessions of the United States. It +showed at length the results of government regulation in other +countries which had caused it to be abandoned and declared that "such +things ought not to be permitted under the American flag."[22] + +Mrs. Colby's report on Industrial Problems Relating to Women cited as +one example of discrimination: "An effort is now being made in +Congress to do away with the annual sick leave of employees, because, +it is claimed, women take so much advantage of it. Investigation +shows, however, that the per cent. of sick leave is highest in the +Inter-State Commerce Commission, where not a woman is employed--twelve +per cent.--and only seven per cent. in the Agricultural Department, +where a very large number are employed." She gave numerous instances +of unfairness against women on the civil service lists, said that +women wage earners must find a forum on the suffrage platform where +they can plead their cause and carefully analyze the industrial +problems especially affecting women. Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, chairman +of the Press Committee, gave a comprehensive report stating that while +50,000 news stories and articles had been sent to the papers in 1900 +the number had increased to 175,000 during the last year and there was +reason to believe that three-fourths of them had been used. The +largest city papers freely accepted the articles. + +Former U. S. Senator Henry W. Blair of New Hampshire came in for one +session and was called to the platform for a speech. He was much loved +by the suffragists, as he had been one of the strongest champions of +woman suffrage during his many years in the Senate and had brought the +Federal Amendment to a vote on Jan. 25, 1887. (History of Woman +Suffrage, Volume IV, chapter VI.) Letters of affectionate greeting +were sent to the pioneers and veteran workers, Mrs. Stanton, Isabella +Beecher Hooker, Mary S. Anthony, Jane H. Spofford, Sallie Clay +Bennett, Caroline Hallowell Miller and Abigail S. Duniway. The deaths +among the older and more prominent members during the year had been +many and fifty were mentioned in the memorial resolutions. + +The notable social features of the week were the afternoon receptions +given by Mrs. Julia Langdon Barber at her beautiful home, Belmont, and +by Mrs. John B. Henderson at Boundary Castle, the latter followed the +next day by a dinner for the officers of the association and the +delegates from abroad. Both of these well-known Washington hostesses +were early suffragists and had often extended the hospitality of their +spacious homes to the individual leaders and to the conventions. + +A very interesting address was given on the last evening by Madame +Friedland on Russian Women of Past Centuries. U. S. Senator Thomas M. +Patterson of Colorado presented a vigorous and convincing endorsement +of the practical working of woman suffrage in that State for the past +nineteen years and its benefits to women and to civic life. U. S. +Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, always a strong and loyal +supporter of suffrage for women, was on the platform. Dr. Shaw, +introduced by Mrs. Catt as "the Demosthenes of the movement," +delivered for the first time her impressive speech, The Power of an +Incentive, in which she showed how laws, customs and lack of +opportunity took away the incentive for great work from the life of +women. Until they can have the same that inspires men, she said, they +never can rise to their highest capabilities. No adequate reports of +any of these addresses exist. + +The audience waited to hear from Miss Anthony, who was thus described +by a writer present: "The picture that Miss Anthony made during the +evening was one which the delegates will carry away with them to keep. +She wore a black satin gown with a handsome point lace fichu and +draped over her shoulders a soft, white shawl, while close by was a +large jar of lavender hyacinths. Her expressive face reflected every +mood of the evening and it now spoke pride, satisfaction and sorrow. +She told of the joy and gratification she felt in the wonderful galaxy +of women at the convention and the progress of her loved cause, and +when she voiced the wish that she might be with them at the next +convention her words were almost lost in a whirlwind of applause." + +Mrs. Catt in closing with a brief address one of the most noteworthy +conventions on record, called attention to what had been the key-note +of her speech before the House Judiciary Committee and said: "We have +asked of Congress the most reasonable thing a great cause ever +demanded--an investigation of conditions in the equal suffrage +States--and on its results we rest our case." + +Under the heading Impressions of a Non-combatant a writer in the +Washington _Times_ gave the following opinion: + + If there is one convention among the many Washington has seen + which may be called unique, it is that of the National Suffrage + Association. There is nothing like it in the world. There is only + one Susan B. Anthony and there is practically only one suffrage + fight.... In the old days the power of an idea was the only thing + that could have waked up an interest and held the suffragists + together. It took faith and zeal and lots of other things to be a + believer in woman suffrage then. Now it only takes executive + ability and vim and a general interest in public affairs.... The + problems discussed were almost purely legal and economic, dealing + with the suffrage question proper, the wages of women and their + occupations. There was very little empty rhetoric but a good deal + of fun. In short, there are two extra senses with which most of + the delegates seem to be provided--common sense and a sense of + humor--excellent substitutes for emotion when it comes to + practical affairs. If the association ever loses the idealism + which is still its backbone it will be a political machine of + much power; it seems likely to be for the present a decided force + in the direction of civic reform. + + * * * * * + +For a quarter of a century during the first session of each Congress +committees of Senate and House had given a hearing to representatives +of the National Suffrage Association to present arguments for the +submission of an amendment to the Federal Constitution which would +enfranchise women, and at an earlier date to advocate other suffrage +measures. Because of the distinguished speakers from abroad the +hearings at this time were of unusual interest. The convention +adjourned for them on the morning of February 18 and the Senate and +House Committee rooms were crowded. + +All the members of the Senate Committee were present--Augustus O. +Bacon (Ga.) chairman; James H. Berry (Ark.); George P. Wetmore (R. +I.); Thomas R. Bard (Calif.); John H. Mitchell (Ore.). Miss Susan B. +Anthony, honorary president of the association, presided and said: + + Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, this is the + seventeenth Congress that has been addressed by the women of this + nation, which means that we have been coming to Congress + thirty-four years. Once, in 1887, the Senate brought the measure + to a discussion and vote and defeated it by 34 to 16, with 26 not + wishing to go on record. We ask for a 16th Amendment because it + is much easier to persuade the members of a Legislature to ratify + this amendment than it is to get the whole three million or six + million, as the case may be, of the rank and file of the men of + the State to vote for woman suffrage. We think we are of as much + importance as the Filipinos, Porto Ricans, Hawaiians, Cubans and + all of the different sorts of men that you are carefully + considering. The six hundred teachers sent over to the + Philippines are a thousand times better entitled to vote than are + the men who go there to make money. The women of the islands are + quite as well qualified to govern and have charge of affairs as + are the men. I do not propose to talk. I am simply here to + introduce those who are to address you. + +Miss Anthony then presented Miss Harriet May Mills (N. Y.), who spoke +from the standpoint of tax paying women, who in the towns and villages +alone of her State paid taxes on over $5,000,000 worth of property; +Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, president of the Pennsylvania Suffrage +Association, who showed the connection between politics and conditions +in Philadelphia; the Rev. Olympia Brown, president of the Wisconsin +association, who pointed out the need of both the reason and the +intuition in the country to govern it wisely. Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman, +president of the New York association, called for a Federal Amendment +to enfranchise women because of the principles on which this +Government was founded. Miss Gail Laughlin, a graduate of Wellesley +College and Cornell University Law School, made a strong argument on +the effect enfranchisement would have on woman's economic independence +and greater efficiency. Mrs. Jennie A. Brown, of Minneapolis, told of +the unlimited opportunities allowed to the women of the great +northwest which were largely counteracted by their political +restrictions. Mrs. Mary Wood Swift of California, president of the +National Council of Women, declared that the countless thousands of +the educated, developed women of today were fully equal to the +responsibilities of citizenship. Mrs. Lucy Hobart Day, president of +the Maine association, demonstrated the inferior and unfortunate +position of disfranchised women. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, editor of +the _Woman's Journal_ (Boston), indicated how every step of the +progress of women had been opposed by the same objections now made to +woman suffrage and submitted these objections and the answers to them +in a convincing statement which filled ten pages of the printed report +of the hearing. + +Miss Anthony introduced Mrs. Gudrun Drewsen, one of the foreign +delegates to the convention, who said in part: "Norwegian women look +back to the 25th of May, 1901, as a day of great victory, for on that +day a bill was passed in our Parliament which granted Municipal +suffrage to all women paying taxes on a certain limited income, about +$100 a year, or whose husbands paid on such income. This law has +thoroughly changed the position of the married woman and from having +always been a minor she has suddenly become of age. It may be of +interest to you of the United States, who can show so many tax paying +women without any right to vote, to know that we were not able to get +our Parliament interested in tax paying woman suffrage until the bill +included wives also. The immediate result of this law has been the +election of several women to important municipal positions; for +instance, members of the common council in the capital; members of the +board of aldermen; at one place chief assessor. Women may serve on +juries and grand juries and have been appointed members of special +congressional commissions. Several women doctors have been appointed +in public institutions, on boards of health as experts for the +Government, etc. Matrons have been employed at prisons where women +are and special prisons for women in charge of a matron have been +established. On the whole we begin to see the glory of the rising sun +which will give us in a little while the bright, clear day." + +Miss Vida Goldstein, a delegate from Australia, began her address: "I +am very proud that I have come here from a country where the woman +suffrage movement has made such rapid strides. The note was first +struck in America and yet women today are struggling here for what we +have had in Australia for years, and we have proved all the statements +and arguments against woman suffrage to be utterly without foundation. +It seems incredible to us that the women here have not even the School +and Municipal suffrage except in a very few States. We have had this +for over forty years and we have never heard a word against it. It is +simply taken as a matter of course that the women should vote. They +say that as soon as women get this privilege they are going to lose +the chivalrous attentions of men. Let me assure you that a woman has +not the slightest conception of what chivalry means until she gets a +vote...." Miss Goldstein told of woman suffrage in New Zealand and +produced the highest testimony as to its good results in both +countries. + +In closing the hearing Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national vice president, +said in part: + + Our association desires you not only to report the resolution for + this amendment favorably but to recommend the appointment of a + committee to investigate this subject. Years ago when our women + came before you we had nothing but theory to give you, what we + believed would be the good results of woman suffrage if it were + granted. The opponents had their theories and they stated the + evils they believed would follow. The theory of one person is as + good as that of another until it has been put to the test, but + after that both sides must lay aside all theory and stand or fall + upon facts. In four States women have the full suffrage. For more + than thirty years they have been exercising it in Wyoming equally + with men; in Colorado for nine years and in Utah and Idaho for + six years. We do believe that from six to thirty years is long + enough time to measure its effect. What we would like better than + anything else is that Congress should appoint a committee of + investigation, and that such a committee should investigate the + result of woman suffrage in the States where it has already been + granted.... So sure are we its report would be favorable that we + are perfectly willing to stake our future on it. While we do not + claim that only good would come from woman suffrage, we do + believe that among all the people of a community or of a nation + there are more good men and women than there are bad men and + women, and that when we unite the good men and good women they + will be able to carry measures for the general welfare and we + will have better laws and conditions. + + * * * * * + +At the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Representative +John J. Jenkins, in the chair, expressed regret that George W. Ray of +New York, the chairman, was unavoidably absent and said: "He is very +much in sympathy with what the ladies desire to say this morning--much +more so than the present occupant of the chair." Mrs. Carrie Chapman +Catt, president of the National American Suffrage Association, who had +charge of the hearing, said: "Mr. Chairman, we have just been holding +an International Woman Suffrage Conference in the city of Washington, +eight nations having sent official delegates from woman suffrage +organizations, and several others have cooperated through +correspondence, and we have invited representatives of these nations +to come to you this morning and present some facts concerning the +practical operation of suffrage in countries other than our own. Our +first speaker will be Miss Vida Goldstein of Australia." Miss +Goldstein gave in substance the address which will be found in the +report of the Senate hearing, after which Mrs. Catt said: "Although I +have been a resident and taxpayer in four different States and able to +qualify as a voter I have never been permitted any suffrage whatever. +I now have the privilege of introducing a Russian woman who has been a +voter in her country ever since she was 21." Madame Friedland said in +part: + + Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: In a country like + Russia, with an absolute government, there is but little suffrage + for either men or women but the little there is is equally shared + by both. We do not, of course, vote for Czars; neither do we vote + for Governors but the municipal officers are elected by the votes + of the real estate owners regardless of sex. The woman, however, + does not vote in person but transfers her vote to her husband, + her son or her son-in-law and in case these are unable to vote + for her she has the right to delegate her vote to an outsider. He + simply has the proxy and votes as the woman dictates. + + Russia, whose political institutions are the least liberal in + Europe, has the most liberal laws in regard to the civil capacity + of her women. Every woman, married or single, if she is of age, + enjoys complete civil capacity. Marriage does not in any way + change the rights of husband and wife over the property they + possess or may acquire. The husband has no legal right whatever + over the property of his wife and she is by no means under his + guardianship. This may account for the fact that we have less + divorce than in many other countries. We have different laws for + the different social classes. A nobleman will pay his taxes + according to the law for the nobility, while his wife may be a + commoner and have to pay hers according to the laws for the + commoners, but both are taxpayers and consequently both are + voters. It is quite a common thing to see a woman of the people, + a peasant woman, take her place and often her husband's place, as + he has a right to delegate his vote to her at elections, and she + may also take it at county meetings and assemblies of every kind. + Lately the government of the peasantry have made an effort to + deprive the women of the right to hold office but the Senate has + prevented them on the ground that if women share the hard + struggle for existence with the men, as they do in our remote + rural districts, they must also share the privileges. Gentlemen, + I hope I have your sympathy with the ideas practiced in my + country for our women. + +Mrs. Catt said of her next speaker: "It is eminently proper that a +woman of Sweden should address you, where women have voted longer than +anywhere else in the world." + + Mrs. Emmy Evald. I stand before this legislative power of America + representing a country where women have voted since the 18th + century, sanctioned in 1736 by the King. The men gave suffrage to + the women without their requesting it, because they believed that + taxation without representation is tyranny. The taxpayer's vote + is irrespective of sex. Women vote for every office for which + their brothers do and on the same terms, except for the first + chamber of the Riksdag. They have the Municipal and School + suffrage, votes for the provincial representatives and thus + indirectly for members of the House of Lords. + + Women are admitted to the postal service on equal salaries with + men. In the railway service, which is controlled by the + Government, women have ever since 1860 been employed in the + controlling office and ticket department and in the telegraph and + telephone service, which are owned by the Government. In 1809 + women were given the rights of inheritance and in the same year + equal matrimonial rights. The colleges and universities are open + to them and they receive degrees the same as men. All professions + are open except the clerical. Women teachers are pensioned + equally with men. Tax paying women have voted in church matters + since 1736. Every woman is taxed in the Lutheran Church in + America but has no vote and the women blame the Americans because + the clergy educated here imbibed the false spirit of liberty and + justice. + + You can not trust the ballot into the hands of women teachers in + the public schools but you give it to men who can not read or + write. You can not trust the ballot to women who are controlling + millions of money and helping support the country but you give it + to loafers and vagabonds who know nothing, have nothing and + represent nothing. You can not trust the ballot in the hands of + women who are the wives and daughters of your heroes but you give + it to those who are willing to sell it for a glass of beer and + you trust it in the hands of anarchists. Oh, men, let justice + speak and may the public weal demand that this disfranchisement + of the noble American women shall be stopped. + +Mrs. Catt then introduced to the committee Miss Isabel Campbell, +daughter of former Governor Campbell of Wyoming, who in 1869 signed +the bill which enfranchised the women of the Territory; Prof. +Theodosia Ammons of the Colorado University of Agriculture and Mrs. +Ida M. Weaver, a resident of Idaho. Each gave a comprehensive report +of the practical working of woman suffrage in her State; the large +proportion of women who voted; their appointment on boards and +election to offices; the result in improved polling places, better +candidates and cleaner politics; higher pay for working women; the +advantages to the community; the comradeship between men and women and +the general satisfaction of the people with the experiment. Their +reports as a whole offered unimpeachable testimony in favor of the +enfranchisement of women. + +Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller in her address said: + + I have been asked to direct especially my attention to the + position of women in England. I hope you, as members of a + republic, will be ashamed to hear that the monarchy of England + gives its women citizens a great many rights which you deny to + yours, that we have had those rights for so many years that + nobody talks about them. When I am asked to give you testimony as + to the smooth working of the women's vote in all local affairs, I + am at a loss to know what to say, because it runs along so easily + and naturally, so like breathing the air in a thoroughly healthy + state of the lungs, that there is absolutely nothing to be said. + Men and women vote on equal terms and the woman's vote is as much + a matter of course as the man's. + + The local government of England is divided among a number of + different bodies. We have the school boards, established in 1870, + which have managed the elementary education of the country, now + compulsory and free. They spend very large sums of the taxpayers' + money and for them every woman who pays taxes has a vote. Any + woman whom the electors choose is entitled to take a seat on + them. There are at present not only hundreds of thousands of + women voting for the school boards but there are 276 women + sitting as representatives upon those of England alone. I myself + have for nine years been a member of the school board of London, + sitting for one of the great divisions called Hackney, which has + 60,000 voters. My election committee was composed of men and + women. Men worked for me very hard indeed!... The next great + local governing bodies are the boards of guardians of the poor. + These bodies spend annually about $127,000,000, which they raise + from the taxpayers, men and women. These are huge organizations. + Many of the workhouses contain over 1,000 persons; besides which, + outside relief in money or food or medical aid is given. Every + woman who is a taxpayer can vote for a member of these boards. + Women are eligible to sit on them the same as men. There are + nearly 1,000 women on the boards. + + Women may vote for the municipalities, for the town councils. I + can not offer you any illustration of how the women's vote has + improved them for the simple reason that when those councils were + instituted in 1869 the Parliament of a monarchy was sufficiently + large-minded to perceive that women ought to vote for them; that + they have to pay their taxes and where a woman stands at the head + of a household she is not only equally entitled to representation + in regard to the spending of her money but also she is as much + concerned with the work that the councils have to do as any man. + This was so obviously just that women were given the right to + vote on them and have exercised that right ever since.... The + women vote as fully as the men do. + + We have district, parish and county councils, which have to a + considerable extent the moral and the intellectual government of + the cities under them, licensing of places of amusement, public + parks, technical education for young people over school age and + so on. The building of homes for the poor, the oversight of + lunatic asylums and matters of that kind, they have under their + authority. These were established in 1884 and the women who had + voted so well for many years for school boards and town councils + of course were given the right to vote for the new county + councils. + +Mrs. Miller went fully into the work of women on borough and county +councils and closed her valuable address by saying: "Gentlemen, the +work of women in English public life has not only been unattended with +any mischief but has been a great force for service and benefit. +Surely American men can trust their sisters as our men have for the +past generation trusted us, to their own as well as our advantage." + +In closing the hearing to which the committee gave the strictest +attention, Mrs. Catt said in part: + + I have a favor to ask of this committee in an official capacity; + it is something we have never asked before.... We have brought to + you testimonials of the success of woman suffrage in operation + throughout the world and I think that if any man among you were + called to stand before a committee and give in five or ten + minutes some proof of the favorable results of man suffrage, he + would find it a very difficult thing to do. What I now ask in + behalf of our association is that this committee will request the + House of Representatives to appoint a commission to investigate + the results of woman suffrage in operation. This has never been + done.... + + We ask you in the interest of fairness to see that this + commission is appointed to investigate woman suffrage in exactly + the same spirit it would use if it were investigating man + suffrage in Cuba. We ask you to chase down to its lair every + single charge and objection that has been made and if when an + honest commission has made an honest investigation you discover + that woman suffrage has proved a good thing, if you find that it + has proved as beneficial to women as man suffrage has proved to + men, then we shall expect that another Judiciary Committee will + give a favorable report and ask Congress to submit a 16th + Amendment. And if you discover that it is not a good thing, then + I promise you in behalf of our association that we will turn our + guns into those States and see that it is made a good thing; for + never so long as there are women who are educated, women who + think for themselves, will they rest content until they have the + only weapon that governments can give them for defending liberty + and pursuit of happiness. We stand before you as citizens of the + United States, qualified, intelligent, taxpaying women, who + demand for ourselves the same right to make the Government under + which we live that has been given to men. + +No commission was appointed, no report was made by Senate or House +Committee and there were no definite results of such appeals as never +had been made by men for the franchise in this or any other country. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] Part of Call: An International Woman Suffrage Conference will be +held in connection with this annual convention, to which suffrage +associations of fourteen countries have been invited to send +delegates. + +The principles which for a century have stood as the guarantee of +political liberty to American men, "Taxation without representation is +tyranny," and "Governments derive their just powers from the consent +of the governed," can no longer be claimed as belonging to the United +States alone for they have been adopted by all civilized nations. The +steadily increasing acceptance of the belief that self-government is +the highest form of government has revolutionized the popular thought +of the world within the last fifty years. During that period all newly +established governments have been fashioned after the model of a +Republic; while in most European nations and their colonies the +suffrage has been so largely extended that the mere skeleton of a +monarchy remains. + +Logical thinkers the world over have been led in consequence to ask: +Are not women equally capable with men of self-government? What +necessary qualification fits men for the exercise of this sacred right +which is not likewise possessed by women? Are they less intelligent? +The statistics of schools, colleges and educational bureaus answer +"No." Are they less moral, peaceful and law-abiding than men? The +statistics of churches, police courts and penitentiaries answer "No." +Are they less public spirited and patriotic than men? The labors of +millions of organized women in noble reforms, in helpful charities and +wise philanthropies answer "No." ... + +An International Woman Suffrage Conference for the exchange of +greetings, reports and methods forms a natural milestone on the march +of progress. All persons believing that the fundamental principles of +self-government contained in the Declaration of Independence and the +Constitution of the United States apply to women as well as to men, +are invited to visit the convention and to unite in welcome to our +foreign guests. + + ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, } + SUSAN B. ANTHONY, } Honorary Presidents. + CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President. + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-President-at-Large. + KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary. + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. + HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } + CORA SMITH EATON, } Auditors. + +[15] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page 543. + +[16] "February could be appropriately marked on the calendar as +woman's month at the national capital. For many years one or more +national bodies of women have met in Washington some time in February. +This year an unusually large number are assembling. On February 17, +the day before the National Suffrage Convention ends, the Continental +Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution will open to +continue five days. The fourth triennial of the National Council of +Women of the United States will begin on February 19 and extend over +the 25th. The National Congress of Mothers will convene February 25 +and be in session until the 28th." + +[17] The following pioneer workers for woman suffrage were seated on +the platform, their ages averaging more than 75 years: Mrs. Virginia +Clay Clopton, Ala.; A. E. Gridley, the Hon. Simon Wolf, Mrs. S. E. +Wall, Mrs. Olive Logan, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Dr. A. D. Mayo, Miss +Eliza Titus Ward, D. C.; Mrs. Mary B. Trimble, Ky.; Mrs. Caroline E. +Merrick, La.; Mrs. Helen Coffin Beedy, Dr. Abbie M. Fulton, Mrs. +Charlotte Thomas, Me.; Mrs. Harriet Jackson, Md.; Mrs. William Lloyd +Garrison, Mass.; Mrs. Helen P. Jenkins, Mrs. Emily B. Ketcham, Mich.; +Mrs. Phoebe Wright, N. J.; Mrs. H. E. Burger, Miss Mary Anthony, Mrs. +Elizabeth Smith Miller, N. Y.; Mrs. Harriet B. Stanton, O.; Dr. Jane +V. Meyers, Mrs. G. M. S. P. Jones, Dr. Agnes Kemp, John K. Wildman, +Dr. and Mrs. C. Newlin Pierce, Penn.; Mrs. Virginia D. Young, S. C.; +Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells, Utah; Miss Laura Moore, Vt.; Mrs. M. H. Grove, +W. Va. + +[18] Miss Anthony had objected strongly to Mrs. Stanton's letter to +the convention of 1901 criticising the church, and she did not approve +of demanding an educational requirement for the suffrage when women +would have to obtain it by consent of men of all classes. Mrs. +Stanton's letter, therefore, was sent for Mrs. Colby to read, who was +in sympathy with its sentiment. + +[19] The Charleston conference was held in the Assembly Room of the +Woman's Building, welcomed by Mayor Smyth, Mrs. S. C. Simons, +president of the women's department, and Mrs. Virginia D. Young in +behalf of the State Press Association. Mrs. Catt responded and later +Mr. Blackwell made an address. Among the speakers here and in German +Artillery Hall was the Hon. R. R. Hemphill (S. C.), always a staunch +advocate of woman suffrage. An afternoon reception was given by the +Woman's Board. The _News and Courier_ and other papers had long and +excellent reports. + +The Baltimore conference was held a few days later in the main +auditorium of the Central Y. M. C. A. Hall, with the Rev. Anna Howard +Shaw presiding. It was welcomed by Dr. E. O. Janney of Johns Hopkins +Medical School, and the national speakers were Miss Laura Clay, +president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association; Dr. Cora Smith +Eaton, Judge J. G. Flenner of Idaho; the Rev. Olympia Brown, Mrs. +Colby, Miss Gordon and Mr. and Miss Blackwell. + +[20] A Washington paper said: "There were a good many men in the +audience and they did not look much as they do in the comic papers. +The suffragists' husbands in caricature are consumptive, cadaverous, +insignificant mortals, trailing around in the wake of rambunctious and +overwhelming wives; but most of the men who mixed themselves up with +this convention looked as if they could not very easily have been +dragged there if they had not wanted to come. Some of them were six +feet tall and broad in proportion and none of them looked as if they +had been in the habit of asking their wives for permission to think. +They did not act like cats in a strange garret either but as if they +were having the time of their lives. No wonder; when a man does make +up his mind to come out for woman suffrage he can depend upon it he is +going to be appreciated." + +[21] Besides the women ministers mentioned in this chapter sessions +were opened by the Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, the Rev. John Van +Schaick, Jr., the Rev. Alexander Kent and the Rev. Donald C. McLeod, +all of Washington. + +The excellent musical program was in charge of Miss Etta Maddox of +Baltimore. She was a graduated lawyer but the courts of Maryland had +refused her permission to practice, as contrary to law. After the +convention she was accompanied to Baltimore by Miss Laura Clay, Mrs. +J. Ellen Foster, an attorney of Iowa; Miss Gail Laughlin, a New York +lawyer; Dr. Cora Smith Eaton and Mr. Blackwell. The Judiciary +Committee of the State Senate granted a hearing conducted by Miss +Maddox. By the end of March both Senate and House had passed a bill +giving women the right to practice law. + +[22] Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Upton and Miss Blackwell were made +a committee to present the matter to President Roosevelt. Protests +arose from all parts of the country and before they had time to call +on him he declared himself opposed to "regulated vice." The dispatches +of March 22 announced that a general order signed by Secretary Root +had gone from the War Department to Manila that no more "certificates" +would be issued but that soldiers as well as women would be inspected +and cases of disease would be sent to the hospital. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1903. + + +In 1903 the National American Suffrage Association for the second time +took its annual convention to a southern State and held it in New +Orleans, March 15-25, in Athenaeum Hall.[23] The _Woman's Journal_ +said: "To the northern delegates there was something almost magical in +the sudden change from snowdrifts and nipping winds to balmy air and a +temperature like June. The delicious climate of Louisiana in spring +has not been exaggerated and it seems wonderful to find roses in bloom +in March, the wistaria vines in a cloud of purple blossom and the +grass an emerald green.... The delegates were enthusiastic over the +quaint houses surrounded by palms, bananas and great live oaks, a +pleasing novelty to most of them." + +The hostess of the convention was the Era Club, the largest +organization of women in the city, its title--ERA--cleverly concealing +Equal Rights Association. It was founded in 1896; Miss Kate Gordon, +the present secretary of the National Association, was formerly its +president and her sister, Miss Jean M. Gordon, now filled that office. +On the first afternoon the spacious and beautiful home of Mrs. Reuben +Bush, prominent in club and civic work, was opened for the club to +entertain the officers, delegates and a large number of invited +guests. Sunday evening all were received informally in the charming +home of Misses Kate, Fanny and Jean Gordon. + +The excellent convention program was prepared by Miss Kate Gordon. The +first evening session was opened with prayer by the Right Reverend +Davis Sessums, Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, who said in the course +of it: "Prosper, we beseech thee, the deliberations of this +association whose representatives are here assembled and direct and +rule their judgment and actions in all things to the furtherance of +truth and justice, so that their work may be an abiding work and +contribute to the growth of true religion and civilization, to the +happiness of homes and to the advancement of Thy Kingdom." + +The _Picayune_ thus described the occasion: "In the presence of a +magnificent audience that packed the Athenaeum to its utmost capacity, +the thirty-fifth annual convention of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association was formally opened last night, with the +president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair. Seldom perhaps in +its history has the association received such a greeting, for the +audience was not only deeply interested and sympathetic but it was +representative of the finest culture in the city and State. +Distinguished jurists, physicians and teachers, staid men of business +and leaders in many lines united with women of the highest social +standing in giving the convention a hearty and earnest welcome. Many +were no doubt attracted by the memory of the former visits of Miss +Susan B. Anthony and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and the remarkable +personality of the pioneer suffrage workers, but whether they came +from pure interest in these famous leaders or deep sympathy with the +cause, all were generous in giving to both the credit and applause +they justly deserved.... + +Mayor Paul Capdeville, who was to welcome the convention, was ill and +this was very acceptably done by "Tom" Richardson, secretary of the +Progressive Union, an important commercial body of 1,600 members that +had joined in the invitation for it to come to New Orleans and +contributed the rent of the Athenaeum. He expressed his pleasure at +being associated with the suffragists of the city, "who had never +neglected any opportunity to promote its best interests," and said: +"No other class of our citizens have done it so much good." He was +followed by the Hon. Edgar H. Farrar, an eminent lawyer, author of the +Drainage and Sewerage plan, who told of the valuable assistance of +women in the strenuous fight against the State lottery ten years +before and described the splendid work of the women since the +constitutional convention of 1898 had given them taxpayers' suffrage. +Miss Gordon read a poem of welcome by Mrs. Grace G. Watts and gave the +Era Club's welcome and then Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who was presiding, +introduced Miss Anthony to respond. The _Picayune_ said in its report: + + Seated upon the platform was Miss Susan B. Anthony, the woman who + for two-score years stood the brunt of ridicule, sarcasm and + cartooning and never once was deterred from the course that she + fully believed to be the just and true one. Of the great leaders + in this movement she alone remains.... Spanning a distance of + forty years stood at her side Mrs. Catt, the younger woman who + has taken up the battle, and grouped around were earnest young + girls and middle-aged women fired with her enthusiasm and looking + up to her with a reverence that was very beautiful and a most + gracious tribute from youth to old age. When Miss Jean Gordon + advanced to present her with a great cluster of Marechal Neil + roses and took her so sweetly by the hand and in the name of the + young women of today and of the Era Club thanked her for the + battles she had fought, the scene was most touching, representing + as it did the two extremes of the suffrage workers, those of + half-a-century ago and those of today. + + There was another there, a woman who has been very near to the + hearts of New Orleans people, who has never been aggressive in + her advocacy of the cause but whose quiet approval, whose + earnest sympathy, whose expenditure of time and money and whose + high social standing gave to it a strength even in those early + days that one of less ability and social position and more + pronounced opposition could not have secured. Mrs. Caroline E. + Merrick, the pioneer suffragist of Louisiana and the lifelong + friend of Miss Anthony, came in for her share of the honors of + the evening. With equal grace and tenderness Miss Gordon advanced + to her and offered her too the fragrant expressions of more + youthful workers. For a moment Miss Anthony and Mrs. Merrick + stood together, and the audience, rising to its feet in a great + wave of enthusiasm, waved handkerchiefs and fans in greeting. + Perhaps that precious hour of triumph, away down here in this old + southern State, as she stands nearing the border land of another + world, recompensed the great pioneer for much that she had borne + when life was young and audiences, as she said, less sympathetic. + Mrs. Merrick's remarks, also, touched a deep chord and roused the + audience to a state of earnest sympathy. + +Miss Anthony told of her visit to New Orleans in 1884 during the +Centennial Exposition, when she was the guest of Mrs. Merrick, and +spoke of Mrs. Eliza J. Nicholson, owner and editor of the _Picayune_, +paying a tribute to her and to the gifted writer, "Catharine Cole," of +its editorial staff, both now passed from earth. In Dr. Shaw's +eloquent response to the greetings she said: "Nothing has given me +greater hope for women and has made me prouder of women than the +splendid reserve power shown by southern womanhood for the last +twenty-five years. When your hearthstones were left desolate and your +bravest and strongest had gone forth never to come back, your women, +who had been cared for as no other women ever were cared for, who were +uneducated to toil, unacquainted with business requirements, averse to +them by instinct and tradition--when they had to face the world they +went out uncomplaining and worked with sublime heroism.... I am glad +to come among you southern women and to say that you have been an +inspiration to the women of the North and to whole world. The +daughters of those women of twenty-five years ago are the ones who +have made this splendid convention possible. Over our country now +there floats only one flag but that is a flag for women as well as +men. If there are any men who ought to have faith in women and in +their power to dare and do it is southern men, who owe so much to +southern women." + +Mrs. Catt then gave her president's address of which an extended +press notice said: "Never was there a more masterly exposition of a +theme, never a more earnest or cogent argument. A distinguished +Justice of the Supreme Court who was present remarked to the writer: +'I have heard many men but not one who can compare with Mrs. Catt in +eloquence and logical power.' So the entire audience felt and at the +close of her magnificent discourse she was the recipient of an ovation +that came spontaneously from their hearts. The scene presented in the +Athenaeum was indeed a remarkable one." The address was not written and +no essential part of it can be reproduced from fragmentary newspaper +reports. + +A discordant note in the harmony was struck by the _Times-Democrat_, +which, in a long editorial, Woman Suffrage and the South, assailed the +association because of its attitude on the race question. The board of +officers immediately prepared a signed statement which said in part: + + The association as such has no view on this subject. Like every + other national association it is made up of persons of all shades + of opinion on the race question and on all other questions except + those relating to its particular object. The northern and western + members hold the views on the race question that are customary in + their sections; the southern members hold the views that are + customary in the South. The doctrine of State's rights is + recognized in the national body and each auxiliary State + association arranges its own affairs in accordance with its own + ideas and in harmony with the customs of its own section. + Individual members in addresses made outside of the National + Association are of course free to express their views on all + sorts of extraneous questions but they speak for themselves as + individuals and not for the association.... + + The National American Woman Suffrage Association is seeking to do + away with the requirement of a sex qualification for suffrage. + What other qualifications shall be asked for it leaves to each + State. The southern women most active in it have always in their + own State emphasized the fact that granting suffrage to women who + can read and write and who pay taxes would insure white supremacy + without resorting to any methods of doubtful constitutionality. + The Louisiana association asks for the ballot for educated and + taxpaying women only and its officers believe that in this lies + "the only permanent and honorable solution of the race question." + ... + + The suffrage associations of the northern and western States ask + for the ballot for all women, though Maine and several other + States have lately asked for it with an educational or tax + qualification. To advise southern women to beware of lending + "sympathy or support" to the National Association because its + auxiliary societies in the northern States hold the usual views + of northerners on the color question is as irrelevant as to + advise them to beware of the National Woman's Christian + Temperance Union because in the northern and western States it + draws no color line; or to beware of the General Federation of + Women's Clubs because the State Federations of the North and West + do not draw it; or to beware of Christianity because the churches + in the North and West do not draw it.... + +The _Times-Democrat_ published this letter in full and endeavored by +its press reports afterwards to atone for its blunder. It had been +feared that trouble over this question would arise but no other paper +referred to it. The _Picayune_, _Item_ and _States_ were most generous +with space and complimentary in expression throughout the +convention.[24] + +The reports at the executive sessions were possibly of more interest +to the delegates than the public addresses. Miss Gordon in her +secretary's report spoke of the 12,000 or 13,000 letters which had +been sent out since the last convention, many of them made necessary +by the International Conference of the preceding year, and of the +ending of its proceedings. To the 14,000 newspapers on the list to +receive the quarterly _Progress_ the names of legislators in various +States had been added, and to the latter leaflets attractively +prepared by Miss Blackwell also were sent. She described the new +suffrage postage stamp, a college girl in cap and gown holding a +tablet inscribed: "In Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho women vote on +the same terms as men," to offset the prevailing ignorance of this +fact. Resolutions endorsing woman suffrage had been secured from the +National Grange, the American Federation of Labor and a number of +large labor unions. For the first time in the history of the National +Education Association, three-fourths of whose members are women, a +woman had been invited to address their annual convention and the one +selected was the president of the National American Suffrage +Association. Mrs. Catt was cordially received by them in July at +Minneapolis. + +Four of the five morning sessions were given over completely to Work +Conferences. The usual ones on Organization and Press were held with +Miss Mary Garrett Hay and Mrs. Elnora Babcock respectively presiding. +The conference on Enrollment gave way to one on Literature, Dr. Mary +D. Hussey presiding, and a new one on Legislation was added. A +president's and a delegates' conference completed the list. The Plan +of Work again presented by the Executive Committee emphasized the line +of action adopted in the first year of Mrs. Catt's presidency and +urged that the States endeavor to secure recommendations of their +Legislatures asking the submission of a 16th Amendment; that special +efforts be made to secure the appointment of a Commission to +investigate the working of full suffrage in States where it now +exists; that correspondence be taken up vigorously with all members of +Congress giving them the arguments in favor of a Federal Amendment and +of a Commission on Investigation; that the association aim to double +its membership the coming year and that a catalogue of woman suffrage +literature be prepared for libraries. + +Only $3,000 in pledges were called for and $3,200 were quickly +subscribed.[25] The treasurer, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, announced +receipts during the year of $18,310 with a balance of $6,183 now in +the treasury. "New York has always been the largest contributor and +paid the largest auxiliary fee," she said, "and it never has any aid +from the national treasury. Its temper is always sweet and its +methods always business-like but to be sure it has always been blessed +by having one of its citizens as national president. This year, +however, Massachusetts has won the place at the head of the list." +Mrs. Catt reported for the Congressional Committee that Congress had +entirely ignored the urgent appeals of last year for a committee to +investigate the effects of woman suffrage in the equal franchise +States. Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett (Ky.) made her usual strong plea for +an effort to secure from Congress Federal suffrage or the right to +vote for members of Senate and House Representatives. For many years +Mrs. Bennett, as chairman of the committee, had appealed to the +association for action but while it considered that the measure would +be perfectly valid it believed it to be hopeless of attainment. +[History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 6.] Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock +(N. Y.), chairman of the Press Committee, made a comprehensive report +of the constantly increasing favorable comment of the newspapers. Mrs. +Boyer, chairman for Pennsylvania, had placed 5,700 suffrage articles +and the chairmen of various other States had a proportionate record. +Miss Blackwell gave as a recipe for finding favor with editors: "Make +your articles short; make them newsy; don't denounce the men." Mrs. +Priscilla D. Hackstaff (N. Y.), chairman of the Enrollment Committee, +reported a good start on the nation-wide enrollment of men and women +who believe in woman suffrage. + +Henry B. Blackwell, chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee, +urged the southern women to petition their Legislatures, seven of +which would meet during the year, to give women the right to vote for +presidential electors. "The choice of President and Vice-president of +the United States," he said, "is the most important form of suffrage +exercised by an American citizen.... The King of England and the +Emperor of Germany are practically possessed of no greater political +power than our President during his official term," and he continued: + + Here then is an open door to equal suffrage. Once let the women + of any State take their equal part in this great national + election and their complete equality is assured. Without change + of State or Federal Constitution, without ratification by the + individual voters, a simple majority of both houses of any + Legislature at any time in any State can confer upon women + citizens this magnificent privilege, which will carry with it a + certainty of speedy future concessions of all minor rights and + privileges. It is amazing that no concerted effort has been made + until recently to secure this right, so easily obtained and of so + much transcendent importance. Especially is it strange that in + States where iron-bound constitutional restrictions forbid any + exercise whatever of local or municipal woman suffrage and where + the social conditions make an amendment of State constitution + almost impossible, suffragists allow year after year to elapse + without any effort to get the only practical thing possible, + action by the State Legislature conferring Presidential suffrage + on women. Suffrage in school or municipal elections cannot give + us a full and fair test of the value of equal suffrage or of + woman's willingness to participate. Suffrage in State elections + cannot be had without amendment of State constitutions, always + difficult and usually impossible of attainment in the face of + organized opposition. Why not then avail ourselves of this + unique, this providential opportunity? + +Among other committees reporting was that on Church work, Miss Laura +De Merritte (Me.) chairman, and her recommendations were adopted that +the committee on National Sunday School lessons be asked to prepare +one each year on the rights and duties of women citizens; that +ministers of all denominations be urged to preach one sermon each year +on this topic; that all women's missionary societies be requested to +make it a part of their regular program at their annual conventions +and that a place be sought on the program of national conventions of +the Epworth League and Christian Endeavor Societies to present the +question of woman's enfranchisement. The valuable report of the +Committee on Industrial Problems Relating to Women and Children by the +chairman, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.) said: "Everyone can recall +instances of discrimination against women by factories, business +firms, school boards and municipalities, making it plain that women +are at a disadvantage as non-voting members of the community. As a +recent fact in regard to the government I would cite the order by +Postmaster-General Payne that a woman employee must give up her +position if she marries." The report continued: + + Nearly all the appointments in the departments obtained last year + by women were as printers' assistants at a small salary. Not a + woman has been selected by the Pension Office in six years. In + 1902 twenty-seven women were chosen as typewriters and + stenographers and 114 men. The Civil Service Commissioners are + compelled by law to keep separate lists of men and women who have + passed examinations and must certify to the appointing officers + from either list as specified by the heads of the bureaus, so + that it is quite possible for these to keep women out and fill + the places with voters. Commissioner W. D. Foulke not long ago + called the attention of the chiefs of bureaus to the fact that by + taking from the men's list down to the lowest point of + eligibility, while women who passed with a rank of 90 and over + were not chosen, the Government was not getting the skilled labor + to which it was entitled. + + The continued defeat of child labor protection laws in some of + the southern States and the conditions of children working in the + mines of Pennsylvania, as shown in testimony before the Coal + Strike Commission, show the need of woman's help in shaping + social economics and her powerlessness without the ballot.... How + can we get hold of the wage-earning women in mass and convince + them that from their own selfish and personal standpoint, if from + no other, they should join the ranks of those that are working + for the ballot? Talented speakers from the ranks of wage-earners + have thrilled audiences with their impetuous oratory but there + has been no general rally of working women to secure the ballot + for themselves.... + + How can we stimulate in women of wealth and opportunity, whose + influence would be invaluable and whose support might give the + movement the financial backing it needs, a consciousness of the + solidarity of human interests, so they will see that from an + impersonal, unselfish standpoint, if they have no personal need, + they are under the most commanding obligation to add their + strength to ours to make better conditions for working women? We + might despair of reaching either the overworked, underpaid and + unresponsive wage-earner, or the indifferent, irresponsible and + almost inaccessible woman of fortune, were it not that all along + the social line we are linked by one common possession, our + womanhood, which, when awakened, is the Divine Motherhood and it + is to this we must appeal. + +Miss Anthony presided at the Friday evening public meeting, which was +opened with prayer by the Rev. Gilbert Dobbs, who said: "We invoke Thy +divine blessing, O God, upon this assembly and we rejoice that Thou +hast always opened the way for Thy consecrated servants--women--to do +well from the time of Miriam and of Deborah to the present. While not +often has the call been to women to don armor and press on to battle, +yet it may be that Thou hast reserved them for the battle of ballots, +in which they can secure victory for all moral good and aid in the +overthrow of every organized vice and infamy, so that there shall be a +higher type of public morals and nobler methods of government." + +Mrs. Bennett spoke in her humorous and inimitable way on The Authority +of Women to Preach the Gospel of Christ in Public Places. Mrs. Rachel +Foster Avery (Penn.) under the title What's in a Name? told of the +efforts that were being made by the conservative women of Philadelphia +to reform municipal conditions through Civic Betterment Clubs, not by +the ballot in the hands of women but through the men voters. "Yet, +after all," she said, "are not these clubs doing good work for woman +suffrage under another name? For as these earnest but conservative +women find themselves in contact with life at so many new points they +are getting so used to all the things which go to make up that awful +bugaboo, 'politics,' that they will soon begin to realize that +politics affects for good or evil all the things which touch the daily +lives of every one of them. After awhile, perhaps sooner than most of +us think, they will join the ranks of the wiser women who are now +suffragists and who know that they want the vote and why they want +it." + +Miss Frances Griffin (Ala.) kept the audience in a gale of laughter +from the first to the last of her speech, which began: "My address is +put down on the program as 'A Song or a Sermon.' It is going to be +neither, I have changed my mind. Mrs. Catt's address last night +furnished argument enough to lie three feet deep all over Louisiana +for three years." + +The talented young lawyer, Miss Gail Laughlin (Me.), gave an address +entitled The Open Door, during which she said: + + Suffrage is not the ultimate end but it is the golden door of + opportunity. Through the open door of suffrage the mother may + follow her child and still guard him after he passes the + threshold of home, and through it she can extend a helping hand + to mothers whose children toil in the mills of Alabama, the + factories of the eastern States and the sweat-shops of New York. + Through this door the protected women of the world may go out to + bind up the wounds of those who have fallen in the battle of + life.... The old-fashioned Chinese man thought his wife was not + beautiful unless she had little feet on which she could not walk. + Some of the young Chinese are learning that it is pleasanter for + a man to have a wife who can walk by his side. Formerly men + thought it desirable that a woman's mind should be cramped. The + modern man is beginning to find that it is more satisfactory to + have for a wife a woman whose mind can keep pace with his.... It + is more womanly and dignified for women to sit in legislative + halls than to stand around the lobbies.... This exclusion of + woman from the government today is a relic of the dark ages when + they were regarded as appendages to men and it was even doubted + if they had a soul. Men and women must rise or fall together and + travel the pathway of life side by side. We shall not attain to + the heights of freedom unless we have free mothers as well as + free fathers, free daughters as well as free sons. + +One of the notable addresses of the convention was that of the eminent +physician, Dr. Henry Dixon Bruns--a lifelong advocate of woman +suffrage--on Liberty, Male and Female, a part of which was as follows: + + I can conceive of but one watchword for a free people. It is + written between the lines of our own constitution and underlies + the institutions of every liberal government: "Equal rights and + opportunities for all; special privileges to none," understanding + by this that the Government shall protect all in the enjoyment of + their natural rights--life, liberty and the pursuit of + happiness--and that all who measure up to a certain standard + shall have a voice in shaping the policy and choosing the agents + of the government under which they live. I can imagine none + better than that now accepted by a majority, I believe, of the + American people, namely, evidence of intelligence and the + possession of a certain degree of education and of character + evidenced by the acquirement of a modicum of property and the + payment of a minimum tax. It was for regulation of the full + suffrage in this manner that I contended in our constitutional + convention of 1898, to wit: the admission to the franchise of all + women possessing these qualifications. I still believe that this + would have afforded the best solution of our peculiar + difficulties and have spared us the un-American subterfuge of + "mother tongue" and "grandfather" clause. If a vote could have + been taken immediately after the notable address made by your + distinguished president before the convention, I feel confident + that women would have been admitted to the suffrage in this + State.... + + Keep ever in your mind that the professional politician is your + implacable enemy. To him an election is not a process for + ascertaining the will of the majority but a battle to be won by + any strategy whose maneuvers do not end within the walls of a + penitentiary. He knows that yours would be an uninfluenceable + vote, that you do not loaf on street corners or spend your time + in barrooms and he could not "get at" you; therefore he will + never consent to your enfranchisement until compelled by the + gathering force of public opinion; then, as usual, he will + probably undergo a sudden change of heart and be found in the + forefront of your line of battle.... Do not rely upon wise and + eloquent appeals to Legislatures and conventions. It is in the + campaigns for the election of the legislative bodies that you + should marshal your forces and use to the full the all-sufficient + influence with which your antagonists credit you. Secure the + election of men who do not give up to party all that was meant + for mankind and your pleas are not so likely to be heard in vain. + +The nomination and election of officers, both by secret ballot, were +almost unanimous and no change was made. A cordial letter was received +from Miss Clara Barton. Fraternal greetings from the Baltimore Yearly +Meeting of Friends (Quakers) were given by Mrs. Mary Bentley Thomas +(Md.); from the Supreme Hive of the Ladies of the Maccabees, the +largest business organization of women in the world, by Mrs. Emma S. +Olds, (O.); and from the Central Socialist Club of Indiana. The report +from the Friends' Equal Rights Association, an affiliated society, was +made by its president, Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman (N. Y.). In the report +for New York by its president, Mrs. Ella Hawley Crosset, she called +attention to the completion of the Fourth Volume of the History of +Woman Suffrage by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper. During the +convention word was received that the Territorial Legislature of +Arizona had given full suffrage to women but before they had time to +rejoice a second telegram announced that the Governor had vetoed it! + +The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee, +and adopted, rejoiced over the extension of national suffrage to all +the women of the newly federated Australian States; noted the granting +to Kansas women of the right to vote on issuing bonds for public +improvement and of an equal guardianship law in Massachusetts; +protested against "the recent action of the Cincinnati board of health +in introducing without legal warrant the European system of +sanctioning the social evil ... the object of a strong and growing +opposition wherever it prevails and favored the settlement of all +national and international controversies by arbitration and +disapproved of war as a relic of barbarism." Mrs. May Wright Sewall +(Ind.), president of the International Council of Women, who had come +to New Orleans to attend the executive meeting of the National Council +of the United States, as chairman of the International Committee on +Peace and Arbitration, spoke earnestly in favor of this resolution. +Miss Nettie Lovisa White (D. C.) was appointed a delegate to represent +the association at the Council meeting. + +The Saturday evening public session, with Mrs. Catt presiding, was +opened with prayer by the Rev. R. Wilkinson, in which he said: +"Almighty God, Thou hast always been pleased with consecration. We +pray Thee to look down upon these people gathered here--the women +whose lives have been devoted to a great cause. Send forth Thy light +so that they may achieve still more for Thee. In this work, men and +women, animated with a noble purpose, are combining their forces to +bring about the reign of righteousness and when that comes it will +take all that both can do to eradicate the great evils which men have +already wrought.... God bless this organization and may the +realization of its hopes be not far off! God bless the women engaged +in this work! God knows that if this city has in any way been lifted +up, it has been through the efforts of noble women. God bless them! We +want to feel that men and women are actuated by righteousness and are +working together to bring about its social and political +regeneration." + +Dr. Cora Smith Eaton (Minn.) thus began her address, Westward Ho: "The +geologists tell us that Louisiana and her sister State Mississippi are +built up of the particles of earth brought down by the great river +through the Mississippi valley," and after a picturesque description +she said: "Coming from the source of this river, travelling 1,500 +miles to its mouth, I find myself still on my native soil and I feel +at home; so all who have joined me on the way down the valley claim +kinship with you of New Orleans." She then paid tribute to the State +and its people and closed: "O, men of the South, your saviour is the +southern woman! Put into her hand the ballot of full enfranchisement, +like that you carry in your own hand on election day. Her interests +are identical with your own and she will hold your ideals sacred even +more loyally than you do yourselves." Mr. Blackwell gave one of his +customary logical and carefully reasoned addresses on Domestic +Imperialism. + +The Rev. Marie Jenney (Iowa) discussed the question Why Women do Not +Vote. She compared them to some wild ducks that were born in a +farmyard and as they were stepping timidly about the farmer said: +"Them ducks can fly, they can fly miles, but they don't know it." "One +reason why women do not vote," she said, "is the entire +self-effacement of many, and another is the kindness of many men. +These are lovely traits but they may be misapplied. Women sometimes +efface themselves to an extent that is bad for their men as well as +themselves, and men out of mistaken kindness shield their women from +responsibilities that it would be better for them to have." Mrs. +Virginia D. Young (S. C.), owner, manager and editor of a weekly paper +in Fairfax, announced her speech From the Most Conservative State, but +she did not say, as she might have done, that she had leavened the +State with woman suffrage sentiment. Her address was bubbling over +with the humor which seems inherent with Southern women. + +The Sunday services were held at 4 o'clock in the Athenaeum, which was +crowded. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw gave the sermon from the text: +"Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." The Rev. +Kate Hughes and the Rev. Marie Jenney assisted in the services. That +morning the latter had preached in the Unitarian church and Mr. and +Miss Blackwell had spoken in the handsome Temple Sinai to a cultured +Jewish audience by invitation of Rabbi Max Heller. A fine musical +service was arranged by Cantor Julius Braunfels. The next day they +received from the Council of Jewish Women a large bouquet of bride +roses and red carnations. Miss Blackwell spoke on A Righteous Reform +and Mr. Blackwell on A Modern Deborah. He paid a splendid tribute to +the Jewish race and declared that "the Hebrew history as recorded in +the Old Testament has been the principal source of our nobler +conception of woman's nature and destiny." He spoke of the prophetess +Miriam, of the daughters of Zelophehad, described the great work of +Deborah and said: "If, therefore, Divine Providence, for the guidance +of mankind, selected a married woman to be the supreme judge, the +supreme executive, the commander-in-chief of the army; to lead the +chosen people in war and peace, to rescue the nation from enslavement +and to rule over it in peace and prosperity for forty years, may we +not hope that He will raise up in your race modern Deborahs to +cooperate with the men of their race in the redemption of American +democracy from political corruption and misrule?" + +The interest did not diminish during the eight evening sessions. In +his invocation Monday night the Rev. Wallace T. Palmer said: "O Lord, +we account it a high honor and privilege to take part in this grand +work.... May those who are to speak tonight speak for Thy glory and +honor."[26] Dr. Shaw presided Monday and thus introduced the first +speaker: "Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago is an attorney and +the wife of an attorney. The sign on the door is 'McCulloch and +McCulloch.' My interest in the firm dates from the time when I +performed the ceremony that united them for life." Mrs. McCulloch +began her address on Woman's Privileges by saying: "One of the +principal reasons why women do not obtain the ballot is because there +is rooted in the popular mind the notion that now the laws in all +respects are so favorable to women and grant them such great +privileges that they would gain nothing more by a vote but instead +might lose these privileges. A careful investigation of laws relating +to women's property, earnings, rights of action, eligibility to paying +positions, selection of family home, guardianship of children and many +others where women's interests are involved shows that these so-called +privileges usually give women less than men enjoy in the same States +and that the vote in their own hands is the only assurance of equal +privilege." After referring to the laws in other States Mrs. McCulloch +made a thorough analysis of those relating to women in Louisiana, +showing them to be archaic and unjust and wholly without special +privileges. + +The address of M. J. Sanders, president of the Progressive Union, was +enthusiastically received as representing the best thought of advanced +Southern men. He said in beginning: "I believe my own state of mind on +the woman suffrage question when I attended your first public meeting +last Thursday evening represented fairly the average male opinion in +this city--one of moderate ignorance and considerable indifference. +Since listening to the addresses here I have had my ignorance largely +dispelled and my indifference dissipated, I hope forever. It has been +my lot to attend meetings all over the country but never in my life +have I heard such eloquence, such logic and such glorious oratory as +in this hall during this convention. A cause that can bring forth +such talent and devotion must have in it a great truth.... I have come +now to see that the franchise is not an end but a means to an end; +that the object of these women is not merely to escape injustice done +to themselves but to be able to take part in the great work of reform +which is calling for the best energies of the nation. I have seen +sufficient of the women who are working in this fight for suffrage to +believe that hand-in-hand with earnest men, as co-workers and equals, +in no way subordinate, they can furnish brains and power to remove a +vast load of the iniquities and inequalities of life and even in our +generation lift this country to a plane of civilization wherein the +masses shall have a chance for happiness and freedom." + +In explaining the absence of Dr. Julia Holmes Smith of Chicago Dr. +Shaw said: "She is detained because of illness of her husband and like +a good wife she puts him first and the convention second." Mrs. +Charlotte Perkins Gilman (N. Y.) spoke on the Duties of Today, +outlining her address by saying: "The strongest feeling of most women +is the sense of duty. The reason they do not see the practicability +and immediate need of suffrage is because they do not see the duty of +it. There is a gradual development of the sense of duty. The first +duty that we recognize is that of self-preservation--our duty to +ourselves. Then comes duty to our own, to our family, to those dear to +us, before which duty to self must and does go down unfailingly. These +two duties to one's self and to one's family are the foundation but +they are the beginning of life, not the end of it. Next comes social +duty.... In America we rank high in personal and family virtues but +not in public virtues. Our great need is for the deep and broad civic +virtues...." + +An interesting symposium took place one afternoon on The Need of Women +in Municipal Politics, with the following speakers: Mrs. Marie Louise +Graham (La.), City Politics is but a Broader Housekeeping; Mrs. Carrie +E. Kent (D. C.), The Home--the Ballot the Only Weapon for its Defence; +the Rev. Kate Hughes (Ill.), Justice Dictates, Expediency Confirms; +Dr. Sarah M. Siewers (O.), Men's and Women's Votes the Only True Basis +of Reform; Miss Laura E. Gregg (Kans.), The Stepping Stone to a Yet +Untried System of Government; Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg (Penn.), +Municipal Corruption under the Present System a National Disgrace. +Each topic was treated in a keen, incisive manner. Miss Gregg +described the practical benefit that the women's municipal vote had +been to Kansas. Dr. Siewers gave a dramatic illustration of the need +of women's votes in her own city of Cincinnati, which applied with +equal force to all cities. Mrs. Blankenburg emphasized all that had +been said by an account of conditions in Philadelphia, saying: + + Franchises worth millions of dollars are given away to the + faithful. Contracts are let to those who will divide with high + officials; they are granted to the highest "responsive" and not + to the lowest "responsible" bidder. Merchants of vice are + licensed and protected. The police are ordered to be blind when + they should see keenest. Nearly every office has its price. Even + school teachers are blackmailed and forced to pay for their + appointment and civil service fades before political influence. + The assessors' lists are padded by tens of thousands of dollars + and majorities are returned to keep the "machine" and the party + it represents in power, regardless of the actual vote cast.... + The cry of the reformer is, "We must waken the better element to + save our cities. We must make honesty and morality the supreme + question in our politics." Who represents these if not women?... + Let us for the moment think of a great city where the mothers + have a voice in the laws which are designed to protect the + children and the interests of the home. Imagine the burdens of + city housekeeping being shared with the women who by training are + expert housekeepers. Picture a council meeting composed of + fathers and mothers discussing ordinances to promote honesty and + virtue, prevent vice and extinguish corruption. When this time + comes, we shall have less municipal depravity and shall prove to + the world that our experiment in democracy is not a failure. + +Dr. Augusta Stowe-Gullen, a prominent physician of Toronto and an +early suffragist, who had come as a fraternal delegate from the +Canadian Association, spoke of the excellent results of the School and +Municipal vote in the hands of women. "We have better officials," she +said, "and therefore less dishonesty but the greatest gain has been in +the educative and broadening effect on women and men. The polls, which +used to be even in old stables, are now in the school houses and the +general tone of elections has been improved." Later Dr. Stowe-Gullen +gave a long and thoughtful address at an evening session on The +Evolution of Government. + +The Memorial Service on March 21 was opened with prayer by the Rev. +Marie Jenney and the singing of "The Lord is my shepherd," by Miss +Gordon. Mrs. Catt, who presided, paid eloquent tribute to those who +had died during the year, among them Mrs. Esther Morris, to whom the +women of Wyoming were principally indebted for the suffrage in 1869; +to the Hon. Thomas B. Reed of Maine, one of the most distinguished +Speakers of the lower House of Congress and always a staunch supporter +of woman suffrage; to Madame Sophie Levovna Friedland, delegate from +Russia to the International Woman Suffrage Conference the preceding +year, who died soon after returning home; to Dr. Hannah Longshore, the +first woman physician in Philadelphia, and told of the bitter +opposition she had to overcome, adding: "She gave to the Pennsylvania +Association its splendid president, her daughter, Mrs. Blankenburg." +Mrs. Catt spoke also of Mrs. Cornelia Collins Hussey of New Jersey and +her boundless generosity, saying: "Often and often she sent a hundred +dollars to our treasury with a note: 'I have just sold a piece of real +estate and I want to give a part of the proceeds to the suffrage +cause.'" Miss Blackwell added to the tribute: "A quiet woman of Quaker +blood, never seeking office or prominence, she came to the relief of +our distressed officers on innumerable occasions. She once told me +that there were many who could write and speak for equal suffrage but +that the Lord seemed to have given her only one talent, that of making +money, and she meant to use it for the cause.... She was a great +believer in preaching the gospel of reform through the printed page +and she and her daughter, Dr. Mary D. Hussey, who was like-minded with +her, have sent out probably more equal suffrage literature than any +other two women in the United States. She placed the _Woman's Journal_ +in a great number of college reading-rooms and sent it far and wide. +During the thirty-three years that the paper has been published--and +published always at a financial loss--she has been one of its most +steadfast and generous friends."[27] + +"The palm of victory has come this year to Elizabeth Cady Stanton," +said Mrs. Catt, "but though she has gone it is still our privilege to +have her friend and co-worker, Susan B. Anthony, and I echo the +prayer of every heart that she may be here till all women are +enfranchised." Miss Anthony was most affectionately greeted and said: +"I feel indeed as if a part of my life had gone. Mrs. Stanton always +said that when the parting came she wanted me to go first, so that she +might write my eulogy. I am not a 'word-artist,' as she was, and I can +not give hers in fitting terms." She read from the last volume of the +History of Woman Suffrage extracts from her great speeches and related +a number of instances showing her characteristics. Dr. Shaw then began +a eulogy, which can only be marred in quoting from memory, by saying: +"Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and Lucy Stone held up the standard of +truth and when they were urged to lower it in order to suit the ideas +of the world they answered: 'We will not lower our standard to the +level of your world; bring the world up to the standard.' ... I shall +always be thankful that I lived in the present age and knew these +women who never quailed in the face of danger. The side of Mrs. +Stanton that I like best to think of is her home life, her family +affections and her friendships. I was once a guest for several days in +the same house with her and other leaders and she was so vivacious, so +fresh, so full of joy of life that it was delightful to be with her. +She was so witty that no one wanted to leave the room a minute for +fear of losing something she might say. I used to love to see her +after she took a nap; though so advanced in years she would always +awaken with a look of wonder and pleasure like a child just gazing out +upon life."[28] + +Tributes also were paid to Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer of Massachusetts; +Mrs. Thomas M. Patterson of Colorado; the Hon. Albert H. Horton of +Kansas; Mrs. Addie M. Johnson of Missouri; Miss Anna C. Mott of Ohio; +the Hon. Lester H. Humphrey and Mrs. Hannah L. Howland of New York; +Dr. Marie Zakrzewska of Massachusetts and other workers in the cause. +Mrs. Gilman closed the services by reading her beautiful memorial +poem, In Honor, written for the occasion. + +A unique feature of the convention which lightened its serious tone +was Dr. Shaw's "question box," into which any one might drop a +question and at intervals she would take them out and answer them on +the spur of the moment to the delight of her audience. "If women +voted," was one of them, "would they not have to sit on juries?" "Many +women would be glad of a chance to sit on anything," she answered with +a smile. "There are women who stand up and wash six days in the week +at 75 cents a day who would like to take a vacation and sit on a jury +at $1.50. Some women would like to sit on a jury at the trial of the +sharks that live by corrupting boys and girls. It would be easier for +a woman to sit on a jury and send to the penitentiary the men who are +trying to ruin her boy than to be always watching the boy." Another +question was: "Have not men a better right to the suffrage because +they have to support the family?" She answered: "It is fallacy to say +that the men support the women. The men by their industry provide the +raw material and the women by their industry turn it into clothing and +nourishment. When my father sent home a barrel of flour my mother did +not lead us eight youngsters up to that barrel of raw flour at +mealtime and say, 'Children, here is your dinner.' When he bought a +bolt of cloth she did not take that bolt of cloth and wind it around +us and say, 'Children, here are the clothes your father has sent you.' +The woman has always done her full share of supporting the family. In +the South under the old regime she bore more than an equal part of the +care, for the planter could hire an overseer for the plantation work +but the wife could not hire one for the work of the house." + +Notwithstanding the utmost care and tact on the part of those who had +the convention in charge the "color question" kept cropping out. +Finally Dr. Shaw said: "Here is a query that has been dropped in the +box again and again and now I am asked if I am afraid to answer it: +'Will not woman suffrage make the black woman the political equal of +the white woman and does not political equality mean social equality?' +If it does then the men by keeping both white and black women +disfranchised have already established social equality!" The question +was not asked again. + +One of the able addresses during the convention was that of Mrs. Hala +Hammond Butt, president of the Mississippi Suffrage Association, +entitled, Restricted Suffrage from a Southern Point of View. After +referring to the man's all-mastering desire for liberty from the early +history of the race the speaker said: "Did women not share with men +this craving for freedom, then would they justly be reckoned as +unnatural and unworthy members of the human family, but the same red +blood pulses in our veins as in yours, fathers, sons, brothers; we are +alive to the same impulses, our souls are kindled by the same +aspirations as are yours. Why should this, our ambition, be held in +leash by the same bond that holds the ignorant, the illiterate, the +vicious, the irresponsible in the human economy? What does the idea of +government imply? The crystallized sentiments of an intelligent +people? Then do we meet it with but half a truth." + +The speaker denounced with much severity the 14th and 15th Amendments +and said that by the restrictive educational qualifications now so +generally adopted in the southern States the spirit of the amendments +had been practically set at naught. "It was born of the instinct of +self-preservation," she said, but she deplored the political crimes it +made possible and continued: "There is an undercurrent of thought that +recognizes in its true proportions the value of an educated suffrage +to the South, a restriction based not upon color, race or previous +condition of servitude, not upon sex, not upon the question of taxable +property, but its sole requirement is the ability to perform worthily +the functions of citizenship. This is the only honorable solution of +those questions that are vexing not only the body political but the +body social of this Southern country." + +Mrs. Butt's speech was one of a symposium on the question: Would an +educational qualification for all voters tend to the growth of +civilization and facilitate good government? Mrs. Hackstaff discussed +The Relation which Government Bears to Civilization, saying: "The +government which will increase social and individual development most +is the best. Progress depends on whether the government will give the +opportunity for such development. The one that serves the people best +is the one that strengthens them by letting them take part in it." +Mrs. Eleanor C. Stockman (Iowa) spoke strongly on Suffrage a Human +Right, not a Privilege; Mrs. Clara B. Arthur (Mich.) on A +Disfranchised Class a Menace to Self Government; Mrs. Mary Wood Swift +(Calif.) on Abolishment of Illiteracy, Its Ultimate Influence. After +calling attention to "the mass of ignorant immigrants who almost go +from the steerage to the polls"; to the enfranchisement of the +half-civilized Indian; to that of paupers, delinquents and defectives, +she said: + + All this great mass of ignorance goes into the electoral hopper + and the marvel is that no worse quality of grist is turned out. + It is true that the chief political schemers are by no means + illiterate but it is upon illiteracy in the mass that they must + depend to carry out their plans. An ignorant voter may be an + honest one but unless he is intelligent enough to study public + questions for himself he is an easy prey for the political + sharper. It is beyond the power of the pen to portray what a + magnificent government would be possible with an educated + electorate. The idea can be approximated only when we consider + how much we have been able to accomplish even with all the + inefficiency, vice and ignorance which are permitted to express + their will at the polls. + + It is because we have a noble ideal for the future of our + government that we make our demand for woman suffrage. We point + to the official statistics for proof that there are more white + women in the United States than colored men and women together; + that there are more American-born women than foreign-born men and + women combined; that women form only one-eleventh of the + criminals in the jails and penitentiaries; that they compose more + than two-thirds of the church membership, and that the percentage + of illiteracy is very much less among women than among men. + Therefore we urge that this large proportion of patriotism, + temperance, morality, religion and intelligence may be allowed to + impress itself upon the government through the medium of the + ballot-box. + +Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer substituted for her own address on Universal +Suffrage a Pretence a paper sent by Rudolph Blankenburg, one of +Philadelphia's most distinguished citizens, entitled: Not Sex but +Intelligence, in which he said: + + That universal suffrage--an arrant misnomer--has fallen short of + its well-meant original purpose is beyond dispute. We see its + baneful effect in municipal, State and national government. The + unparalleled political corruption in most of our large cities, + the narrowness of public men in State and nation, whose horizon + is bounded by the limits of their home districts or their own + sordid purposes, regardless of public interests, find their + culmination in the highest legislative body of our land. They + crowd seats of mental giants and honored statesmen of former days + with golden pigmies or political highwaymen of recent growth and + can be directly traced to our defective franchise system. It + permits the vote of the intelligent, law-abiding, industrious + and public-spirited to be overcome by that of the ignorant, + vicious, purchasable, lazy and indifferent. The ranks of the + latter are largely reinforced by the "stay-at-homes," who are a + permanent menace to good government.... Thinking people agree + that some qualification should be exacted from all voters. The + absurdity of the intelligent, tax paying but disfranchised woman + being governed by the vote of the illiterate, shiftless loafer or + pauper would be laughable were it not so serious. An educational + qualification should be a paramount requisite.... + +Mr. Blankenburg gave statistics of the illiterates in the United +States and said: "An educational qualification, wisely considered, +would within a few years entirely obliterate the whole mass of this +species of undesirable voters. The right of suffrage can not and +should not be taken from those who at present legally enjoy it. All +women of legal age with the proposed educational requirements should +be enfranchised without delay but laws should be enacted demanding +that all citizens, men and women alike, presenting themselves to cast +their ballot after 1910 must be able to read and write. If the women +suffragists will base their claim to vote upon the broad ground of +good government and not demand suffrage for the ignorant woman because +it is exercised by the ignorant man, they will make ten friends where +they now have one." + +The audience had the northern and the southern point of view on +Educated Suffrage. Mrs. Gilman, who spoke on whether it would serve +the best interests of the laboring classes, was alone in objecting to +it. "Will exclusion from the suffrage educate and improve the +illiterate masses more quickly than the use of it?" she asked. "We +shall educate them sooner if we dread their votes and this is our work +in common." A great deal of sentiment was developed in favor of an +educational requirement for the suffrage and an informal rising vote +showed only five opposed, but most of the officers were absent. This +vote was due largely to the southern delegates and to the arguments +which had been made for its necessity in this section of the country. +The policy of the association had always been and continued to be to +ask and work only for the removal of the sex qualification. + +One of the most popular speakers was Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer, known +far and wide as "Dorothy Dix," whose home was in New Orleans. Her +address, quaintly entitled The Woman with the Broom, filled more than +four columns of the _Woman's Journal_ and an adequate idea of its wise +philosophy illuminated with the sparkling wit for which she was +renowned cannot be conveyed by quotations. "A few years ago," she +said, "a famous poet roused the compassion of the world by portraying +the tragedy of hopeless toil by the Man with the Hoe. He might have +found nearer home a better illustration of the work that is never +done, that has no inspiration to lighten it and looks for no +appreciation to glorify it, in the Woman with a Broom." "She is +understudy to a perpetual motion machine," was one of her epigrams. +She referred to the many successful business and professional women at +the convention and said: + + But I am not here to speak for the wage-earning woman, she can + speak for herself. My plea is not for justice for her but for the + domestic woman--the woman who is the mainstay of the world, who + is back of every great enterprise and who makes possible the + achievements of men--the woman behind the broom, who is the + hardest-worked and worst-paid laborer on the face of the + earth.... + + Of the housekeeper we demand a universal genius. We don't expect + that our doctor shall be a good lawyer or our lawyer understand + medicine; we don't expect a preacher to know about stocks or a + stockbroker to have a soul; but we think the woman who is at the + head of a family is a rank failure unless she is a pretty good + doctor and trained nurse and dressmaker and financier. She must + be able to settle disputes among the children with the inflexible + impartiality of a Supreme Justice; she must be a Spurgeon in + expounding the Bible to simple souls and leading them to heaven; + she must be a greater surgeon than Dr. Lorenz, for she must know + how to kiss a hurt and make it well; she must be a Russell Sage + in petticoats, who can make $1 do the work of $2, and when she + gets through combining all of these nerve-wrecking professions we + don't think that she has done a thing but enjoy herself. It is + only when something happens to the housekeeper we realize that + she is the kingpin who holds the universe together. + +"Every injustice is the prolific mother of wrongs," said Mrs. Gilmer, +"and the fact that the woman with the broom is neither sufficiently +appreciated nor decently paid brings its own train of evils. It is at +the bottom of the distaste girls have for domestic pursuits and the +frantic mania of women for seeking some kind of a 'career.'" She thus +concluded: + + Always, always it is the frantic cry for financial independence, + the demand of the worker for her wage; the futile, bitter protest + of the woman with the broom against the injustice of taking her + work without pay. Men will say that in supporting their wives, in + furnishing them with houses and food and clothes, they are giving + the women as much money as they could ever hope to earn by any + other profession. I grant it; but between the independent + wage-earner and the one who is given his keep for his services is + the difference between the free-born and the chattel.... The + present state of affairs brings about a disastrous condition in + the woman's world of labor, so that the woman wage-earner must + not only compete with the man worker but with the domestic woman + who has her home and clothes supplied her and who does things on + the side in order to get a little money that she may spend as she + pleases.... When men grow just enough to abandon the idea that + keeping house and doing the family sewing and rearing children is + a "snap" and not a profession; when they grow broad enough to + realize that the woman with the broom is a laborer just as much + worthy of her hire as a typewriter, we shall have fewer women + yearning to go out into the world and earn a few dollars of + spending money. + +Edwin Merrick, the son of a Chief Justice of Louisiana and Mrs. +Caroline E. Merrick, its pioneer suffragist, began his address on A +Political Anomaly by referring to the distinguished women he had been +privileged to meet in his home. He spoke of the constitution drawn up +on the Mayflower to give equal liberty to all without the slightest +conception of what true liberty really meant, and of the larger +conception of it which was imbedded in the Declaration of Independence +and the Constitution of the United States. "But," he said, "while the +words were there, slavery still existed and the people of the Union +were slowly led to see the handwriting on the wall and slavery had to +go. Had the great leader of his day, Abraham Lincoln, been preserved +to help shape the destinies of this country, what followed would not +have happened." He then spoke of the crime of enfranchising "a horde +of ignorant negro men when at that time there were nearly 4,000,000 +intelligent white women keenly alive to the interests of their country +to whom the ballot was denied." He sketched the steady degeneration of +national and State politics and exposed the conditions in Louisiana. +He showed how the reforms that had been accomplished had been largely +aided by women and concluded: + + If we concede that women have any moral strength, and it has been + conceded from the time whereof the memory of man runneth not to + the contrary, I now ask the question: Is there any one place in + the universe where moral strength and moral character are more + needed than in modern politics under a republican form of + government? In some of our western States we have already seen + what the women can do and the day will come when they will vote + with us just as they read with us, talk with us, ride with us and + consult with us. The most important object of our Government is + education. The most important part of education is the education + of the young. The most important factor in education of the young + is woman's influence, and when it comes to saying who shall + decide upon the proper laws for the education of children, the + women of Louisiana or the intelligent wiseacres who have in this + State emasculated civil service, massacred the Australian ballot + and assaulted with intent to kill each and every measure which + looks to the improvement of the State, we give our answer in no + uncertain terms. + +Miss Mary N. Chase, president of the New Hampshire Suffrage +Association, made an earnest plea for the enfranchisement of women, +"the natural guardians and protectors of the home. It will strengthen +their minds and broaden their intellects and render them more fit for +its government," she said, "and until women join with men in +exercising the sacred right of the franchise we cannot hope for the +dawn of the kingdom of God on the earth." A letter was read from Mrs. +Harriot Stanton Blatch urging that for a year the organization should +be used nationally and locally to pursue and punish political +corruption. "The women in our association," she said, "are trained to +political action; we have had long experience in self-control; defeat +has taught us its lessons of poise; devotion to a great principle has +given us a faith almost religious in its optimism." The men were +taking no concerted action to protect the republic against this +menace, she thought, and the task seemed to be left to the women. + +The formal address of Dr. Shaw on The Modern Democratic Ideal made a +profound impression but no record of it exists except in newspaper +clippings. She began by saying: "It is impossible to discuss the woman +question without discussing also the man question. What is fundamental +to one is fundamental to the other. It is argued by some that on +account of the difference in characteristics between men and women it +is the man who ought to govern. They are mistaken. It is now +recognized that the best and noblest men and women are those in whom +the different characteristics of each sex are most harmoniously +blended. The modern democratic ideal illustrates this fact. It is +greatly different from the ancient democratic ideal, as neither Plato +nor Aristotle nor Dante had a place in their ideals for the common +people, but when the French Revolution startled the world with the +idea of human rights, of natural rights common to all, there sprang +into life the conception of the same ideal among the men of our own +country." Dr. Shaw traced the progress of democratic ideals in this +country from the early days of the republic when property and not +manhood constituted the prerequisite for representation. She spoke in +glowing terms of the pure democracy of Thomas Jefferson, who extended +its privileges to the great masses of the people. "This ideal has been +growing," she said, "it will never stop growing, developing, widening +and changing and it must ultimately extend to women citizens the same +rights in the government that men have. This is the 20th century idea +of democracy." + +The address of Miss Belle Kearney, Mississippi's famous orator, was a +leading feature of the last evening's program--The South and Woman +Suffrage. It began with a comprehensive review of the part the South +had had in the development of the nation from its earliest days. +"During the seventy-one years reaching from Washington's +administration to that of Lincoln," she said, "the United States was +practically under the domination of southern thought and leadership." +She showed the record southern leaders had made in the wars; she +traced the progress of slavery, which began alike in the North and +South but proved unnecessary in the former, and told of the enormous +struggle for white supremacy which had been placed on the South by the +enfranchisement of the negro. "The present suffrage laws in the +southern States are only temporary measures for protection," she said. +"The enfranchisement of women will have to be effected and an +educational and property qualification for the ballot be made to apply +without discrimination to both sexes and both races." The address +closed as follows: + + The enfranchisement of women would insure immediate and durable + white supremacy, honestly attained, for upon unquestioned + authority it is stated that in every southern State but one there + are more educated women than all the illiterate voters, white + and black, native and foreign, combined. As you probably know, of + all the women in the South who can read and write, ten out of + every eleven are white. When it comes to the proportion of + property between the races, that of the white outweighs that of + the black immeasurably. The South is slow to grasp the great fact + that the enfranchisement of women would settle the race question + in politics. The civilization of the North is threatened by the + influx of foreigners with their imported customs; by the greed of + monopolistic wealth and the unrest among the working classes; by + the strength of the liquor traffic and encroachments upon + religious belief. Some day the North will be compelled to look to + the South for redemption from those evils on account of the + purity of its Anglo-Saxon blood, the simplicity of its social and + economic structure, the great advance in prohibitory law and the + maintenance of the sanctity of its faith, which has been kept + inviolate. Just as surely as the North will be forced to turn to + the South for the nation's salvation, just so surely will the + South be compelled to look to its Anglo-Saxon women as the medium + through which to retain the supremacy of the white race over the + African. + +Miss Kearney's speech was enthusiastically received and at its end +Mrs. Catt said she had been getting many letters from persons +hesitating to join the association lest it should admit clubs of +colored people. "We recognize States' rights," she said, "and +Louisiana has the right to regulate the membership of its own +association, but it has not the right to regulate that of +Massachusetts or vice versa," and she continued: "We are all of us apt +to be arrogant on the score of our Anglo-Saxon blood but we must +remember that ages ago the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons were regarded +as so low and embruted that the Romans refused to have them for +slaves. The Anglo-Saxon is the dominant race today but things may +change. The race that will be dominant through the ages will be the +one that proves itself the most worthy.... Miss Kearney is right in +saying that the race problem is the problem of the whole country and +not that of the South alone. The responsibility for it is partly ours +but if the North shipped slaves to the South and sold them, remember +that the North has sent some money since then into the South to help +undo part of the wrong that it did to you and to them. Let us try to +get nearer together and to understand each other's ideas on the race +question and solve it together." + +Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.), who was introduced to the audience as "a +very unpopular woman with the anti-suffragists," did not prove to be +so with her audience, as in her brief address she charmed every one +with her beauty and womanliness and convinced by her delicate wit and +keen logic. The last address was made by the Rev. Ida C. Hultin +(Mass.), an eloquent summing up of the arguments for woman suffrage, +given with a dignity of manner and sweetness of words which thoroughly +eliminated any unpleasant feelings that might have been created and +diffused a spirit of forgiveness and consecration. + +At the conclusion of the program, Mrs. Upton came forward and in the +name of the officers of the association presented to Miss Kate Gordon +a handsome loving cup with the injunction to "handle it carefully as +it is filled to the brim with love"; and to Miss Jean Gordon a large +bouquet of roses, "in appreciation of the perfect arrangements that +had been made for the convention." The _Picayune_ said: "The two +sisters stood side by side on the stage, a picture of feminine +loveliness and grace. They tried to speak but their hearts were too +full and Miss Kate could only express in a few words their thanks for +these tokens of affection and esteem." + +All the expenses of the convention had been met by the citizens and +the collections had more than paid the travelling expenses of the +officers. Nothing had been left undone for the entertainment of the +visitors. The New Orleans Street Railway Company gave a trip of +several hours in special cars, taking them to Audubon Park and +Horticultural Hall, through the handsome residence sections, to the +Esplanade, City Park and famous cemeteries. They visited the Howard +and Fisk libraries, the Southern Yacht Club, the Exposition and the +antiquarian shops. An unusual experience was the boat trip on the +Mississippi, tendered by the Progressive Union. On a fine sunshiny +morning the several hundred visitors assembled in the palm garden of +the St. Charles Hotel, walked to the rooms of the Union and from there +to the steamer Alice. They crossed to Algiers, passed the French +quarter with the Ursuline Convent, the Stuyvesant Docks, the historic +houses and monuments, and saw the great Naval Docks, the large sugar +plantations with their big live oaks and magnolias, the immense sugar +and oil refineries and met a fleet of huge ocean steamers. Lunch was +served on board and the occasion was most interesting, especially to +the delegates from the North. + +Although this was the longest suffrage convention ever held and the +sessions were crowded, the people wanted more. The Progressive Union +arranged for meetings Thursday night, to be addressed by Mrs. Catt on +The Home and the Municipality, and Friday night by Dr. Shaw on The +Fate of Republics. The Athenaeum Hall, seating 1,200, was overflowing +and as many were gathered on the outside. It was a ten days never to +be forgotten by the visitors or the residents, and the convention +undoubtedly gave a decided impetus to favorable sentiment for woman +suffrage in that section of the South. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] Part of Call: The association goes to New Orleans in response to +an invitation from the Progressive Union, the Era Club of women and +many prominent individuals. It is especially appropriate that the +advocates of this important reform should assemble in Louisiana in +honor of the action taken by this State in 1898, when its +constitutional convention incorporated a clause giving to tax-paying +women a vote on all questions of taxation submitted to the electors; +and in commemoration of the splendid use they made of this privilege +at the election held to secure to New Orleans the completion of its +drainage and the establishment of a sewerage system and free water +supply.... + +Never in the fifty years of this movement have its advocates had such +a victory to record as was achieved in Australia in June, 1902, when +almost the first act of Parliament of the new Federation of States was +to confer the full national suffrage with the right to a seat in the +Parliament on all qualified women of the entire commonwealth. This one +act enfranchised about 800,000. These added to those of New Zealand +and of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho, it will be found that +1,125,000 English-speaking women are at the present time in possession +of the complete suffrage and all except those of Wyoming have been +enfranchised within the past ten years. By adding to these the women +of Great Britain and Ireland, who have all except the Parliamentary +vote, those of Kansas with Municipal, of Louisiana, Montana, and New +York with the Tax-payers' and of over one-half of the States with the +school ballot, the 1,125,000 will be multiplied several times.... + +It is, therefore, with courage and hope inspired by the glorious +promise of the new century for greater material and moral progress in +all directions than the world has ever known, that the advocates of +this measure, which ultimately will affect the destinies of the whole +American people, are called in convention to review the labor of the +past year, to plan that of the future, to strengthen the old +comradeship and greet new workers and friends. + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President. + CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President. + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-President-at-Large. + KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary. + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. + HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } + MARY J. COGGESHALL, } Auditors. + +[24] The colored women had some excellent organizations in New +Orleans, the most notable being the Phyllis Wheatley Club, which in +addition to its literary and social features maintained a training +school for nurses, a kindergarten and a night school. It invited Miss +Anthony, Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller to address it +and they were accompanied by "Dorothy Dix," the well-known writer, a +New Orleans woman. In the large assemblage were some of the teachers +from the four colleges for colored students--Methodist, +Congregational, Baptist and the State. "Dorothy Dix" said in her brief +address that no woman in the city was more respected or had more +influence than Mrs. Sylvanie Williams, the club's president, and gave +several instances to illustrate it. After the addresses Mrs. Williams +presented Miss Anthony with a large bouquet tied with yellow satin +ribbon and said: "Flowers in their beauty and sweetness may represent +the womanhood of the world. Some flowers are fragile and delicate, +some strong and hardy, some are carefully guarded and cherished, +others are roughly treated and trodden under foot. These last are the +colored women. They have a crown of thorns continually pressed upon +their brow, yet they are advancing and sometimes you find them further +on than you would have expected. When women like you, Miss Anthony, +come to see us and speak to us it helps us to believe in the +Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, and at least for the +time being in the sympathy of woman." + +[25] The important decision was made at this convention to remove the +headquarters on May 1 from New York to Warren, O., the home of the +national treasurer, Mrs. Upton. The burden of having charge of them +had borne heavily upon Mrs. Catt for the past three years and it grew +more difficult as each year she had to spend more time in field work. +Miss Gordon, the corresponding secretary, wished to remain in New +Orleans because of her mother's failing health and it was necessary to +have a national officer in charge. Mrs. Upton consented reluctantly to +assume the responsibility and only on the assurance of Miss Elizabeth +Hauser, a capable executive, that she would manage the details of the +office. The arrangement was to be temporary but it continued for six +years. + +[26] Quotations are given from each of the opening prayers because +each of them endorsed woman suffrage. + +[27] Mrs. Hussey left a bequest of $10,000 to the National American +Woman Suffrage Association. + +[28] For appreciations of Mrs. Stanton see Appendix. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1904. + + +The Thirty-sixth annual convention opened the afternoon of Feb. 11, +1904, in National Rifles' Armory Hall, Washington, D. C., and closed +the evening of the 17th.[29] There was a good attendance of delegates +from thirty States and the audiences were large and appreciative. Mrs. +Carrie Chapman Catt, the president, was in the chair at the opening +session. The delegates were welcomed by Mrs. Carrie E. Kent in behalf +of the District Equal Suffrage Association and the response was made +by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large, who began by saying: +"If the women here welcome us after we have been coming for thirty +years it must be because we deserve it; the men welcome us because in +the District they are in the same disfranchised condition as we are." +A cordial letter of greeting was read from Samuel Gompers, president +of the American Federation of Labor, whose headquarters were in +Washington. + +Greetings were received from Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller of London, +whose letter commenced: "Beloved Friends: As president of the British +National Committee of the International Woman Suffrage Committee, I +write to send you greetings from English, Scotch, Irish and Welsh +fellow-workers in the woman's cause. It seems but a short time since +the convention of 1902, which I attended as the delegate appointed by +the British United Women's Suffrage Societies and also of the Scottish +National Society. The admiration and affection that the ability, the +earnestness and sincerity, the sisterliness and the sweetness of +temper and manners of the American suffragists then aroused in me, are +unabated at this moment." She told of the progress that had been made +by the various societies toward uniting in an International Woman +Suffrage Alliance, gave a glowing forecast of the ultimate triumph of +their common cause and ended: "With admiring and abiding love for +America's grand women, the suffrage leaders." The convention sent an +official answer. Mrs. Mary Bentley Thomas (Md.) read an interesting +paper, Our Four Friends, compiled from the answers by the Governors of +Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho to a letter from Miss Anthony asking +for a summary of the results of woman suffrage after a trial of from +eight to thirty-five years. A Declaration of Principles, which had +been prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell and +Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, was read by Mrs. Harper and adopted by the +convention as expressing the sentiment of the association. [See +Appendix, chapter IV.] Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery (Penn.) and Dr. Shaw +were appointed delegates to the International Suffrage Conference at +Berlin in June in addition to the International Suffrage Committee +from the United States, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Lucretia L. +Blankenburg (Penn.), with three others yet to be selected. + +In her report as corresponding secretary Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.) +told of the interest which the convention of the preceding year in New +Orleans had awakened in the South and of the generous donation of a +month of Dr. Shaw's valuable time which she had given to a Southern +tour. This included the State Agricultural, State Normal and State +Industrial Colleges of Louisiana and various places in Texas, +Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. "While it might be said +of her addresses, 'She came, she spoke, she conquered,'" declared +Miss Gordon, "it was clearly shown that the South was not ready for +organization." Miss Gordon said of attending the National Conference +of Charities and Corrections as a State delegate appointed by the +Governor of Louisiana: "I found that resolutions of endorsement were +contrary to the policy of the conference, yet, except in our own +organization, I have never met such a unanimity of opinion upon the +justice of woman suffrage as well as upon the expediency of the +woman's vote to secure intelligent and preventive legislation as a +remedy for the many evils they were seeking to combat." + +The program for the first evening included short addresses by the +general officers and in opening the meeting Mrs. Catt said: "You will +all be disappointed not to have the promised addresses from Miss +Anthony and Mrs. Upton. It has been suggested that I might say that +Miss Anthony has been unavoidably detained but I can't see why I +should not tell the truth. Miss Anthony is out in society tonight. She +was invited by President and Mrs. Roosevelt to the Army and Navy +reception at the White House and Mrs. Upton is with her.[30] Our +vice-president-at-large will speak to you on What Cheer?" + +Dr. Shaw said that once when she was travelling about the prairies of +Iowa she met a woman who was always referring to her home town "What +Cheer," and when she was asked to give a title to her address she +could think of nothing better. She continued: "There are no problems +so difficult to understand as those of our own time, because of the +lack of perspective. The arrogant and insistent and noisy things press +to the front and the silent and eternal fall into the rear. But as +time passes it is as when we climb a mountain--we gradually rise to +where we can see over the foothills and everything appears in its +proper place and proportion. Out of the present, its arrogant +militarism, its sordid commercialism and worship of gold, is there +anything to give us cheer and hope for tomorrow? There never was +greater reason for hope for humanity. Underlying all the tumult and +disorder of our time is one grand, golden thought, that of the human +brotherhood of the world. There never was a democracy comparable to +ours, faulty as it is and hopeless as it appears to some. Though the +ideal does not seem to impress itself upon the world, yet in the +silence it is there.... Today is the best this world has ever seen. +Tomorrow will be still better." + +Miss Gordon spoke on A Sustaining Faith, showing that from labor, from +all forms of social service and from countless sources was converging +the demand for the reform which the suffrage association was seeking. +Miss Blackwell (Mass.) talked briefly as always but clearly and +convincingly on The New Woman. Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) began her address +on Dimes: "As an auditor I have been going over our treasurer's books. +Usually such books are mere debits and credits but in ours those stiff +rows of figures tell many beautiful things--the sacrifices of the poor +and the generosity of the rich--but best of all are the 'dimes' +because they are the dues paid to the association. They bear the +figure of Liberty and they stand for it.... These dimes are inspiring, +for they represent our membership when we gather here from the four +corners of the nation. Therefore I rejoice over these thousands and +thousands, each with a human heart behind it." + +"No woman has a record of greater faithfulness in this cause," Mrs. +Catt said in introducing Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, who began her +remarks on Precedents by saying: "I come from Iowa where things are +very different from those in this beautiful capital. We do not see +Senators and Representatives on every hand but we have lent to +Washington, Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, Secretary of the Treasury +Shaw, Speaker of the House Henderson and also Mrs. Catt to lead the +suffrage clans." + +The evening closed with Mrs. Catt's presidential address, the full +report of which filled eleven columns of the _Woman's Journal_. The +subject was the vital necessity of an educational qualification for +the use of the ballot in a country which opens its gates to +immigration from the whole world. Little idea of its logic and +virility can be conveyed by detached quotations. Referring to the +necessity for enfranchising women she said: "Despite the fact that +education even yet is not so generally advocated for girls as for boys +among our foreign and ignorant classes of society, the census of 1900 +reveals that between the ages of ten and twenty-one, representing +school years, there are 117,362 more illiterate males than females. If +men and women had been entitled to the franchise upon equal terms in +1900, the political parties, which always make their appeals to the +young man just turned twenty-one to cast his first vote for 'the party +of right and progress,' would of necessity have made the same appeal +to young women, but they would have appealed to 20,000 fewer +illiterates among the women than the men of from twenty-one to +twenty-four. If the same conditions continue for the next twenty +years--that is, if there is no restriction in the suffrage for men and +women still remain disfranchised, and if the proportionate increase of +women over men in the output of our public schools continues, we shall +witness the curious spectacle of the illiterate sex governing the +literate sex." + +Mrs. Catt did not, however, attribute all the evils of universal +suffrage to the ignorant vote but said: "It may be that an +investigation would reveal the fact that a very important source of +difficulty is to be found in the failure of intelligent men to +exercise their citizenship. If this proves true it may be found +necessary to turn a leaf backward in our history and adopt the plan in +vogue in some of the New England colonies which made voting +compulsory, and it may be found feasible to demand of every voter who +absents himself on election day an excuse for his absence, and when he +has absented himself without good excuse for a definite number +of elections, he may be made to suffer the punishment of +disfranchisement...." She called attention to the record that at the +last presidential election more than 7,000,000 men over twenty-one +years of age did not vote and asked: "What is to be done about it? Are +qualified women citizens to wait in patience until influences now +unseen shall sweep away the difficulties and restore the lost +enthusiasm for democracy? Or shall they attempt to determine causes, +apply remedies and clear the way for their own enfranchisement? That +is our problem. For myself, I will say I prefer not to wait. I prefer +to do my part, small as it must be, in the great task of the removal +of the obstructions which clog the wheels of the onward movement of +popular government." + +The convention was especially fortunate in having among its speakers a +charming and gifted young woman, Mrs. A. Watson Lister of Melbourne, +Australia, a country whose first national Parliament had two years +before conferred on women full suffrage and eligibility to all +offices. She showed a remarkable knowledge of laws and conditions +affecting women and was thoroughly informed on every phase of the +suffrage movement. The second evening she spoke on Woman's Vote in +Australia to an audience that was not willing to have her stop, saying +in part: + + Australia does lead the world in democratic government, a + government by the whole people, women as well as men, but we + realize the great debt that we owe to your brave pioneer women. + We are reaping the harvest which they planted. To us the names of + Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are + household words. It seems strange to me to be asked to come here + to tell you anything about suffrage, for with us the American + woman has been supposed to know and have everything. + + Australia is as large as the United States and women have + national and municipal suffrage and in four of our six States + they have State suffrage--South and West Australia, New South + Wales and Tasmania. In Victoria and Queensland they do not yet + possess it. When the six States became federated it was provided + that federal suffrage throughout Australia should be on the same + basis as State suffrage where it was the most liberal. South and + West Australia had it in full, so the women obtained it + throughout Australia in national elections. There was so little + opposition or discussion, it was regarded so completely as an + accepted fact and foregone conclusion, that most women did not + even know the measure had passed. It was not an experiment, as + our men had seen its working in South and West Australia for + years and also in New Zealand, which is the most democratic and + best governed country in the world. + + In Australia women are eligible to all offices, even that of + Prime Minister. At the last elections five stood for Parliament. + Miss Vida Goldstein was a candidate in Victoria. Although both + our large newspapers ignored her meetings she got 51,000 votes, + while the man highest got about 100,000. Not one of the five + women came out at the bottom of the poll.... + + After we had worked for years with members of Parliament for + various reforms without avail because we had no votes, you can + not imagine the difference the vote makes. When we held meetings + to advocate public measures that women wanted, we used to have to + go out into the highways and hedges and compel the members of + Parliament to come in; now the difficulty is to keep them out. I + have seen seven Senators at one small meeting. A prominent man + who, by an oversight, was not invited to the one held to welcome + Miss Goldstein on her return from the United States was decidedly + offended. Chivalry has not been destroyed but increased. On the + platform at one of our meetings the secretary happened to drop + her pencil and I saw the Premier and several members of + Parliament scrambling to pick it up. A woman is never allowed to + stand in a street car in Australia.... + +A good deal of light was shed on the inside history of the organized +anti-suffrage movement, which if turned on in other countries would +disclose a similar situation. "Our Anti-Suffrage Association," she +said, "died three months after it was born. It was formed by two of +our leading manufacturers, who hid behind their daughters. They had +plenty of money, took a large office on a main street, employed +several paid secretaries and spent more in three months than we had +done in all our years of work. They paid little boys and girls to +circulate their petition and got many signatures under false +pretences.... Much was made of their petition though it was not half +as large as ours. The daughters of these manufacturers drove up in +their carriages to their fathers' factories at the lunch hour and made +the working girls sign their petition." + +A scholarly review of Morley's Life of Gladstone was given by Mrs. +Harriot Stanton Blatch (Eng.). Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman turned A +New Light on the Woman Question, saying: + + My subject is a scientific theory as to the origin and relation + of the eternal duo. It was started by our greatest living + sociologist, Lester Ward--the explanation of the order in which + the sexes were developed. What is it that this suffrage movement + has had to meet, as it has plowed along up hill for fifty years, + with its tremendous battery of arguments which it discharges into + thin air? What it has to overcome is not an argument but a + feeling, which rests at bottom on the idea expressed in the "rib + story." As a parable this fairly represents the old belief that + man was created first, that he was the race, was "it," and that + woman was created, as modern jokers put it, for "Adams Express + Company." The poet expressed the same idea when he called woman + "God's last, best gift to man." ... Ward gives the biological + facts. In the evolution of species the earliest periods were the + longest. During ages of the world's history, while animal life + was slowly evolving, the female was the larger, stronger and more + representative creature; the male was small, often a parasite, + told off for the sole purpose of reproduction. By natural + selection, the female choosing always the best male, the male + was gradually developed until he became bigger and stronger than + the female. For a time natural selection continued to work, the + males competing for the favor of the female. Then the male + reduced the female to subjection. It occurred to him that it was + easier to fight one little female once and subjugate her than to + fight a lot of big males over and over. + + The feminine ideal with many is the bee-hive--lots of honey, lots + of young ones and nothing else. It was necessary that the male + should become dominant for a time if the race was to progress. + Now women are ceasing to be subjugated and we are approaching a + state of equal rights. It was through a free motherhood and the + female's constant selection of the best mate that she brought + into the world power and brain enough to enable man to do what he + has done. That free motherhood, reinstated, choosing always the + best and refusing anything less, will bring us a higher humanity + than we have yet known. + +The usual Work Conferences were held and the Executive Committee +presented the Plan of Work which was adopted. In addition to the usual +recommendations it urged that a Memorial Organization Fund be +established to perpetuate the memory of pioneers and that a legal +adviser for the association be appointed from its women lawyer +members. The morning meetings as always were given up to business and +reports of officers, chairmen of committees and field workers and the +afternoons to State reports. The latter, made for the most part by the +presidents, showed faithful work going on in every State and progress +in many. Miss Helen Kimber reported that the Legislature of Kansas had +added to the School franchise, which the women had possessed ever +since the State came into the Union, the right to vote on all public +expenditure of money for issuing of bonds, waterworks, sewerage, +libraries, etc. Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, office secretary, told of +the removal of the national headquarters from New York, where they had +first been established, to Warren, O., where they occupied two large +rooms on the lower floor of an old vine-covered family residence in +the heart of town. From here 35,000 pieces of literature had been sent +out and here had been printed 2,000 each of Lucy Stone and Mrs. +Stanton birthday souvenirs, a booklet to be used on Miss Anthony's +birthday; 10,000 suffrage stamps, Christmas blotters, etc., and 10,000 +letters written. The subscription list of _Progress_ had been +increased from 950 to 4,000 and a weekly headquarters' letter had +been sent to the _Woman's Journal_. Resolutions for woman suffrage had +been obtained in international, national and a large number of State +conventions. + +Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, the treasurer, reported the receipts, +$21,117, the largest in the history of the association. It contributed +$3,255 to the New Hampshire campaign. Neither Mrs. Upton nor any of +the national officers received a salary (except the secretary, who had +a nominal one), and in referring to the immense amount of unpaid work +done by them and by women in the different States, she said: "People +outside of the association often ask why it is that women can be found +who are willing to give their time to a work without recompense. We +can not answer such inquiries and yet we ourselves know that, through +this devotion to a just and holy cause, we rise to a higher plane, we +see with larger eyes, we feel the presence of the real self of our +fellow-worker. We can no more explain why this is so than we can +analyze 'mother love,' or the love of a daughter for a father but we +know it. It is for this reason your treasurer rejoices over the day +she was so placed, either by design or chance, and so blessed with +perfect health that she was able to serve in the cause of woman's +political freedom." Mrs. Upton referred to Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey's +bequest of $10,000 and that of Mrs. Henrietta M. Banker, from which +the association realized $3,000. + +Detailed and valuable reports were made by the chairman of committees +on Presidential Suffrage, Federal Suffrage, Congressional Work, Civil +Rights, Church Work, Enrollment and others. Mrs. Catt reported for the +Committee on Literature. Mrs. Catt with Mrs. Blankenburg (Penn.), Mrs. +Lucy Hobart Day (Me.) and Mrs. Minola Graham Sexton (N. J.), +presidents of their State associations, presided over Work +Conferences. Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, in her report on Libraries and +Bibliography, brought to light the lax manner in which many State +libraries are conducted. In that of New Jersey no catalogue had been +printed for fifty years. In Montana the collection of books was +thirty-five years old and had never been catalogued or classified. +Various librarians reported no works on woman suffrage and women from +those States rose in the audience and said that they had themselves +presented the History of Woman Suffrage--four large volumes. Mrs. +Elnora M. Babcock (N. Y.), chairman of the Press Committee, reported +93,600 general articles sent out; 3,665 special articles, much plate +matter, many personal sketches, photographs, etc., and a number of new +papers added to her list. + +Mrs. Maud Nathan read the report of Mrs. Florence Kelley, chairman of +the Committee on Industrial Problems Affecting Women and Children. As +executive secretary of the National Consumers' League Mrs. Kelley was +well qualified to speak and she gave an account of the labor laws in +the southern States affecting girls between 16 and 21, who are neither +children nor women, which was heartbreaking. Pennsylvania was equally +guilty but most of the northern States had improved their laws, +Illinois leading; in none, however, were they wholly adequate. She +urged the appointment of more women factory inspectors, who were now +employed in only eight States, and scored "the default of the +prosperous women of the country," saying: "It may be said that women +are not morally responsible for this unfortunate state of affairs, +since they do not make the laws, but the facts do not altogether +justify this excuse. The child-labor legislation which has been +achieved through the efforts of women during the past ten years shows +that women can do very much even without the ballot in the way of +securing legislation on behalf of women and children, and it remains +true that women buy the product of the work of women and children far +more than do men.... It is my hope that this great and influential +national suffrage organization may so influence public opinion that a +series of beneficent results will soon become visible." + +An Evening with the Philanthropists was one of the most enjoyable +during the week. The Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, of whom Felix Adler, +head of the Ethical Culture Society of New York, was quoted as saying: +"She is the only woman with whom I would share my platform," was the +first speaker. In considering New Professions in Philanthropic Work +for Women, she said: "Charity is old but social science is new and it +is the uniting of the two that makes modern philanthropy and that is +what opens these new professions. Charity is supposed to come by +nature but the knowledge of how to deal with its problems does not. +Society is divided into three groups. First, the reformers--a group +never too large, often seemingly too small--who make the way for those +that come after. They are often like the artist whose daughter, being +asked if her father had been successful, answered that he was +'successful after he was dead.' Then comes the great group, the +'middle-of-the-road' people, who walk along, slowly developing, +supporting the churches and schools, holding today's standards and +ideals--the people who live in today and who make up the fabric of the +world. They are sometimes irritating but they hold what has been +gained and they gradually grow. Then there is a group behind, what the +French call the 'unfinished' infants--the defectives, the moral and +physical imbeciles, the backward and incompetent. We must study how to +reduce this social burden in an intelligent way. This has started a +new class of vocations as sacred as the ministry was of old." + +A very convincing address was given by Dr. Samuel J. Barrows (Mass.), +secretary of the National Prison Reform Association, on Women and +Prison Reform. In referring to the progress of prison reform he said: +"In this array of apostles and prophets and expositors of the new +penology we find men and women standing side by side." He described +the work in this reform by eminent women in Europe and the United +States and concluded: "In the field of penology woman needs the ballot +as she needs it in other fields, not as an end but as a means, as an +instrument through which she can express her conviction, her +conscience, intelligence, sympathy and love. Questions in philanthropy +are more and more forcing themselves to the front in legislation. +Women are obliged to journey to the Legislature at every session to +instruct members and committees at legislative hearings. Some of these +days the public will think it absurd that women who are capable of +instructing men how to vote should not be allowed to vote themselves. +If police and prison records mean anything they mean that, considered +as law-abiding citizens, women are ten times as good as men. Why debar +the better and enfranchise the worse? In the field of commercial and +political competition, woman may demand the ballot as a right but in +the field of philanthropy and reform she needs it for the fulfillment +of her duties." + +Mrs. Nathan, president of the New York Consumers' League, considered +the Wage Earner and the Ballot, her handsome presence, fine humor and +long experience rendering her an unusually attractive speaker. "The +opponents of our cause," she said, "whether they be of the fair sex or +the unfair sex, seem to think that we regard the extension of the +suffrage to women as a panacea for all evils in this world and the +next. No honest suffragist has ever taken that ground. I can not +endorse any such general or sweeping statement but I feel that my +experience in investigating the condition of women wage-earners +warrants the assertion that some of the evils from which they suffer +would not exist if the women had the right to place their votes in the +ballot-box." She compared the industrial and educational situation +where women voted with that of States where they did not and showed +how women were excluded from official positions because disfranchised, +giving conclusive instances of the discrimination in her own State. "I +feel that not only on account of the women wage-earners should women +be accorded the ballot," she said, "but also because they are very +largely the spenders of all family incomes and as such they have the +right to the assurance that what they buy is free from adulteration +and has been produced under clean, wholesome and humane conditions. +For this right the Consumers' League persistently contends but it can +be only partially successful, in my opinion, so long as it depends +entirely upon moral suasion, while manufacturers and merchants have +the voting power to hold in terror over its administration." + +Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, president of the Massachusetts State Suffrage +Association and a leader in the movement for peace and arbitration, +was on the program to talk of Woman's Work for Peace. "I am not going +to speak of any philanthropy," she began, "but of something much more +far-reaching and radical, which will make three-fourths of our +philanthropy needless." She then made an impassioned plea for a world +organization of the forces that would conduce to peace. Representative +government was the first step, she said, and the establishment of a +World Court was the next. The achievement of an International Advisory +Congress might be the third. "A simultaneous effort must be made," she +declared, "to arrange arbitration treaties with every nation on earth, +referring all questions that cannot be settled by diplomacy to the +Hague Court. Questions of 'honor' must not be excluded. Carnegie well +said in his plea for this plan, 'No word has been so dishonored as the +word honor.' Such treaties and the use of the economic boycott upon +European enemies would be vastly more efficient than battleships to +keep the peace.... We need to convert the church. There are many of +our Christian ministers who believe they are living under the +dispensation of Joshua and not of Jesus." + +At the conclusion of Mrs. Mead's address Mrs. Catt said: "Sometimes +the cause of peace and arbitration seems to me the greatest of all. To +help working women was the motive that determined me to devote my life +to obtaining woman suffrage. How hard it is that women must spend so +many years just to get the means with which to effect reforms! But we +who believe that behind them all is the ballot are chained to the work +for that until it is gained." + +Religious services were conducted Sunday afternoon by the Rev. Mary A. +Safford of Des Moines, assisted by Dr. Shaw and the Rev. Marie Jenney +Howe. The subject of the sermon was The Goal of Life and the text: +"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the +children of God, and, if children, than heirs--heirs of God and joint +heirs with Christ." "In the preaching of the Gospel of all nations," +she said, "it has been recognized that in Christ there is neither Jew +nor Gentile; while in breaking the fetters of millions of slaves it +also has been recognized that in Him there is neither bond nor free. +The world still awaits the time when it will be proclaimed that in Him +there is neither male nor female."[31] + +Monday, February 15, was Miss Anthony's 84th birthday and it was a +coincidence that on the morning of that day the convention should be +opened with prayer by the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, chaplain of the +Senate, a life-long opponent of woman suffrage. When he was invited to +come he asked definite assurance that it would not be interpreted that +he had changed his opinion.[32] The air of the hall was fragrant with +the flowers that had been sent in honor of the birthday, and, as the +usual tribute of the convention, it made its pledges of money for the +expenses of the coming year. Mrs. Upton asked for $4,000 and nearly +$5,000 were quickly subscribed.[33] + +The preceding day Mrs. John B. Henderson had given a 12 o'clock +birthday breakfast for Miss Anthony at her handsome home, Boundary +Castle, attended by the national officers and a number of invited +guests. In the evening a social reunion for the officers, delegates +and speakers was held in the banquet room of the Shoreham Hotel, which +was the convention headquarters. On the afternoon of the birthday +President and Mrs. Roosevelt received the members of the convention +with much cordiality. From the White House they went to a reception +given by Miss Clara Barton in her interesting home at Glen Echo, near +Washington. The nearly five hundred visitors received a warm welcome +and enjoyed wandering through the unique house built of lumber left +after the Johnstown flood, unplastered and the walls draped with the +flags of many nations that had been presented to her by their rulers. +At urgent request Miss Barton brought forth the laces, jewels, medals +and decorations given to her by the dignitaries and crowned heads of +Europe for her distinguished services in behalf of the Red Cross, +such a collection, it was said, as no other woman possessed. + +The convention was largely in the nature of a Colorado jubilee, as its +women ten years before had cast their first vote, having been +enfranchised in the autumn of 1893. The program for two evenings was +given up to men and women from that State under the heading, Colorado +Speaks for Itself, and it was most appropriate that Miss Anthony +should preside. In presenting her Mrs. Catt said: "This is Miss +Anthony's 84th birthday. We might have had a program filled with +tributes to her and no doubt you would all have enjoyed them but +instead we have what she will like better, a program to show, not that +woman suffrage would be a good thing but that it has been a good +thing. When Miss Anthony was born no woman in America could vote; no +woman in modern times had been a lawyer. Tonight our ushers are seven +women graduates of the Washington Law School, in the cap and gown +which used to be forbidden to women. But there is something else going +on tonight that is a more noteworthy celebration of her birthday. A +measure to grant suffrage to women is pending in Denmark with the +backing of the government and the women of that country have arranged +a great demonstration in favor of the bill and have fixed the date for +today because it is the birthday of Susan B. Anthony. Opponents of +woman suffrage pay almost their whole attention to Colorado, so we +have asked Colorado to come and talk for itself and it has responded +magnificently. All the speakers pay their own expenses and have come +this long way for the pleasure of saying a word for woman suffrage." + +The Washington _Post_ commented, "Miss Anthony received an ovation and +it was delightful to see the pride with which she introduced the +speakers--a former Governor, a woman State Superintendent of Public +Instruction, chairmen of women's political committees and clubs, a +woman county superintendent." Mrs. Katharine Cook, president of the +Jane Jefferson Club, a Democratic organization of over a thousand +women, spoke on The Ideals We Cherish and strongly emphasized that +politics did not impair true womanliness or lower high ideals. "A +nation can be no more free or pure or beautiful than the homes of +which it is composed," she said. "Our country is but a greater home +and no mother whose love for her fireside is more than an instinct or +a sentiment can fail to see that the welfare of her home and family is +vitally connected with an unstained ballot and an honest government. +We women who believe in the right of suffrage and exercise it with the +utmost wisdom with which we are gifted, use it for the preservation +and defense and love of our homes ... and it is this spirit which is +needed at the polls." + +An entirely different but equally effective note was struck by Mrs. +Ellis Meredith, a prominent journalist of Denver, who said during her +address on Colorado Women and Legislation: + + If I regarded the ballot merely as a right or a privilege or an + end; a divine, far-off event toward which the whole creation + moves and which, once attained, obviates its ever having to move + afterward, I should say it does not make a bit of difference what + we have done with it. If it is a right, who can question it? If + it is a privilege, it is beyond question. If it is an end, it is + achieved. But I do not regard it as any of these. To my mind the + ballot is simply one of our many modern labor-saving inventions. + It is the easiest way.... In the ten years that women have been + voting in Colorado, I believe they have done at least five times + as much as all the rest of the non-voting women in the United + States together, and I base this modest claim upon the record of + our statute books as compared with those of other States. Women + stand relatively for the same thing everywhere and their first + care is naturally and inevitably for the child. Whatever we have + done, other women wish to do. In many States they have tried and + failed. The difference is they are using stone-age methods while + we have those of the 20th century." + + No one who knows anything about our laws will attempt to deny + that women have revolutionized the attitude of our State toward + the child. Two-thirds of their work has been for the children.... + These laws mean that in Colorado there are no children under 14 + out of school; we have no child beggars nor street musicians and + no girls vending anything. We have the best child labor law in + the world. We have the strictest laws for the prevention of the + abuse, moral, mental or physical of children, of any country, and + the best enforced, not merely in our cities but throughout the + entire State. We have the strongest compulsory school law and the + most enlightened law concerning delinquent children of any, save + where our laws have been copied.... What we have done has not + been for ourselves but for the very least of these. It has been + not for our fading today but for the dawning tomorrow. We have + gone to our legislators with new ideas and have set a little + child in the midst of them, and they have not been unmindful of + the heavenly vision. + +Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Denver, president of the State Federation +of Women's Clubs and county superintendent of schools, began her +address, A Message to Garcia, by referring to the noted pamphlet of +that title by Elbert Hubbard, "which," she said, "was translated into +fourteen languages and called out a response from the hearts of the +civilized world, because it set forth the duty and necessity of doing +a thing yourself if you want it well done," and she made the +application: "The women of Colorado have learned by experience the +advantage of a direct vote over direct influence." She then told in a +graphic manner the vast amount of good work the Federation of Clubs +had been able to do through the power of the ballot and said: "During +the last Legislature a department of the federation had to sit one day +each week to confer with the many members who wanted its endorsement +for their bills. Clubwomen in non-suffrage States do not have this +experience. It is because we can carry the message to Garcia +ourselves." "Mrs. Catt helped to win our mountain republic for +suffrage," Mrs. Bradford said in conclusion, "and we women of Colorado +pledge ourselves to Susan B. Anthony to work until death to help get +it in other States." + +Mrs. Isabella Churchill of Greeley spoke from the standpoint of the +women outside the cities. "To the women in the small towns and country +districts," she said, "it is a privilege and a pleasure to go to the +polls on election day with the men of their family and vote for the +candidates and measures they have had time to consider with care. In +such places the question next day is not, 'Did the election go +Democratic or Republican?' but 'Was it license or no license?' or else +concerning some candidate or issue that they believe of importance to +their community." Mrs. Helen Belford, chairman of the Women's State +Democratic Committee, devoted her address largely to the development +of the young women through the use of the ballot and the study of +political questions. Mrs. Ina Thompson, chairman of the Republican +Women's State Committee, gave a very interesting account of the way +campaigns are conducted by women. + +Mrs. Helen Loring Grenfell, as State Superintendent of Education, +spoke with high authority and by her dignified and beautiful presence +no less than by her ability made a deep impression on all who heard +her. She pointed out that Colorado came into the Union in 1876 with +School suffrage for women and through this they had always been able +to keep the schools on a non-partisan basis. She showed that it paid +more per capita for public schools than any other State, leaving even +New York and Massachusetts behind; described its advanced position +from kindergartens to training schools and colleges, with especial +care in guarding the welfare of children, and continued: + + In the East we hear of "the question of coeducation." It is not a + question west of the Mississippi River, it never has been, it + never will be. The eastern arrangement seems to us merely a + curious survival of antiquated ideas, a kind of sex-consciousness + which we have lost sight of in our care for the human being.... + The place of State Superintendent has always been held by a woman + since women became eligible. The first superintendent elected was + a Republican, the second a Democrat, each holding the place for + one term; the third, who is now serving her third term, was + nominated as a Silver Republican but has really been elected and + twice re-elected without regard to politics--an example of the + independence of the vote where school affairs are concerned. + There are 59 counties in Colorado and 33 of them, including most + of those with the largest population, have women county + superintendents.... + + I have found Colorado women much like their sisters elsewhere + save that they have a broader view of public affairs and they + take naturally a more active interest in the world's work. They + have learned to think and to say what they think simply and + freely in gatherings where men and women meet to discuss the + vital concerns of life. They have not forgotten that they are + women but they have come to know that they are also human beings, + and, like Terence, they find nothing that concerns humanity + foreign to them. Surely had we not been faithful in the smaller + things, we should not have had these large opportunities given to + us.... I can not help thinking that my sisters elsewhere have + lost something rare and precious from their lives through the + lack of that complete citizenship which has been bestowed upon + the women of Colorado, and I hope the day may be near when those + sisters may be made man's equal under the law of the land as they + have always been under the law of God. + +The Hon. Isaac N. Stevens, a pronounced suffragist, who had the topic +After Ten Years, was detained elsewhere. The Hon. Alva Adams, who had +twice been Governor of the State, in his strong and comprehensive +speeches before the convention and the Judiciary Committee of the +House of Representatives, answered for all time the misrepresentations +in regard to woman suffrage in Colorado which for years had been +persistently made by the anti-suffragists, and he also answered +conclusively the many objections that had been conjured up. In the +convention he discussed it From the Colorado Point of View, beginning +as follows: + + Colorado does not go into mourning when a girl is born. Equal + suffrage has not taken Colorado out of the Union. She stands an + example of what a sovereign State should be--a model to those + self-righteous States that preach equal rights in press, pulpit + and forum and deny it in the law. The statue of Justice that + crowns her city hall, court house and Capitol is not a lie. For + the Capitol in Washington and in 41 States of the Union the + figure of St. Paul would be more fitting than that of the Goddess + of Liberty. Unfettered by tradition and prejudice Colorado has + dared to do right. She has given to woman what Solomon gave to + Sheba--"whatsoever she asked"--and has no regrets and no desire + to recall the gift. After ten years of experience, equal suffrage + needs neither apology nor defense. No harm has come to either + woman, man or the State. Justice never harmed any one. If + Colorado women were not angels before, the ballot has brought no + wings. Suffrage has not elevated them, it has simply placed them + where they belonged but it has raised the men who have dared to + be just. Woman has not yet conquered iniquity nor has it + conquered her. Suffrage is not a revolution, it is but a step and + not the end of the journey.... + + If women have not overthrown the entrenched political machines + the failure is due to the so-called respectable Christian men. + The women are ready but the men are chained to partisanship.... + No single disaster, no backward step in politics or family morals + can be charged to woman suffrage. It has added nothing to the + business of the divorce court, no family has been disrupted, no + children neglected; but the prayers of hundreds of homeless + children and orphans have invoked a benediction upon the voting + women for the home and education that their influence has induced + the State to provide. Suffrage has sent no girl astray but it has + gathered many wanderers and turned their feet into paths of + safety and built for them a model State home. Through the age of + consent law many a seducer has ended his career in jail. The most + efficient members of the State Board of Charities and Correction + are women and this is true of other boards. Their influence has + sent rays of light and hope into darkened cells and established + reforms in asylums and prisons. + +In answer to the continued charges that the people of the State would +like to repeal the law he said: "I have too high a regard, too sincere +a faith in Colorado manhood to believe that any of the men who +voluntarily conferred the ballot upon their wives, sisters and mothers +would now repeal that just act. Common sense refutes the statement +regarding women themselves. Not 75 per cent., not 10 per cent., not 1 +per cent. would today vote to relinquish that which belongs to them. +It is not an American trait to give up rights.... I challenge any one +to find 100 intelligent women in Colorado who will voluntarily request +that the word 'male' be restored in the constitution and statutes of +the State. Many women may not go to the polls but the man who would +try to take away their right to do so would need a bombproof conning +tower. There will be no repeal, it stands for all time. There never +will be less than four woman suffrage States--there should be +forty-five.... Since 1876 school affairs have practically been in the +hands of women. They have voted at school elections, held the office +of superintendent in a majority of the counties and taught most of the +schools. In these twenty-eight years neither politics nor scandals +have impaired our public school system and in efficiency we challenge +comparison with any State in the Union. What the women have done for +our schools they can do for our civic government. They have introduced +conscience into educational affairs and they will do the same in city +and State. That is the fear of those who make politics a +profession...." + +Henry B. Blackwell was introduced and spoke briefly of having gone to +Colorado in 1876 to assist in getting full suffrage for women into the +constitution for statehood, but it was left for the voters to decide. +Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with references to the successful +campaign of 1893, seventeen years later. + +A resolution presented by Mrs. Mead was adopted urging Congress to +take the initial steps toward inviting the governments of the world to +establish an International Advisory Congress, and impressing upon +equal suffragists that they should create local public sentiment in +favor of arbitration treaties between the United States and all +countries with which it has diplomatic relations. On motion of Mrs. +Grenfell the convention endorsed the bill before Congress for a +national board of child and animal protection. It rejoiced in the +voting of 850,000 women in Australia and in the fact that woman +suffrage existed throughout 300,000 square miles of United States +territory and eight Senators and nine Representatives were sent to +Congress by votes of both men and women. Mrs. Mary Church Terrell (D. +C.), a highly educated woman, showing little trace of negro blood, +said: "A resolution asks you to stand up for children and animals; I +want you to stand up not only for children and animals but also for +negroes. You will never get suffrage until the sense of justice has +been so developed in men that they will give fair play to the colored +race. Much has been said about the purchasability of the negro vote. +They never sold their votes till they found that it made no difference +how they cast them. Then, being poor and ignorant and human, they +began to sell them, but soon after the Civil War I knew many efforts +to tempt them to do so which were not successful. My sisters of the +dominant race, stand up not only for the oppressed sex but also for +the oppressed race!" + +Resolutions of regret were adopted for the death of many pioneer +suffragists during the year, among them Sarah Knox Goodrich of +California; Sarah Burger Stearns of Minnesota; Judge J. W. Kingman of +Iowa; Ellen Sully Fray of Ohio; Eliza Sproat Turner and Samuel Pennock +of Pennsylvania; Henrietta L. T. Wolcott, Lavina A. Hatch, Alice +Gordon Gulick, Richard P. Hallowell and the Hon. Henry S. Washburn of +Massachusetts. Telegrams of remembrance were sent to the veteran +workers, Mrs. Martha S. Root of Michigan and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick +of Louisiana, and a letter to Mrs. Ellen Powell Thompson of the +District. Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey of Kentucky, author of Republics +vs. Women, was introduced to the convention and showed how republics +disfranchised half of their citizens. + +The Declaration of Principles, prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, Miss +Blackwell and Mrs. Harper remained a permanent platform of the +association. + +Dr. Shaw made the delegates smile at one morning session after they +had sung "America" by moving that hereafter the line, "Our Father's +God to Thee," should be printed on their program, "Our Father, God, to +Thee." She said the preachers and poets had a habit of talking so +exclusively about "the God of our fathers" that there was danger of +forgetting that our mothers had any God! Mrs. Mary Wood Swift +(Calif.), its president, brought the greetings of the National Council +of Women. The report from the Friends Equal Rights Association, an +affiliated society, was made by Mrs. Anne W. Janney (Md). Fraternal +greetings were given by Mrs. Olive Pond Amies for the Pennsylvania W. +C. T. U.; by Mrs. Arabella Carter (Penn.) for the Universal Peace +Union, and by Mrs. Emma S. Olds (O.) for the Ladies of the Maccabees +of the World. Mrs. Catt warmly complimented this last organization for +its fine business principles and the high character of its leaders. +The association appointed as its legal adviser Mrs. Catharine Waugh +McCulloch, a prominent lawyer of Chicago, for years the superintendent +of legislative work for the Illinois Suffrage Association and part of +the time its president. It is needless to say that it was not a +salaried position. One morning Mrs. Catt called the "pioneers" to the +platform and presented them to the convention, among them Miss Mary S. +Anthony, who had attended the first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848, +of whom her sister always said: "She has looked after the home and +made it possible for me to do my work." + +Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y., one of the early Abolitionists, +said in her few words of reminiscence: "I remember Lucy Stone holding +a series of meetings through New York State in my youth. My uncle came +home and reported that a young woman was lecturing and putting up her +own posters; that she was very bright and he was not sure but that she +was right and what she advocated would have to come. As I think of +those three great leaders, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and +Susan B. Anthony, I know what heroism is.... We women did not fully +realize at first that militarism was our greatest foe. We are always +told that women must not vote because they can not fight. I believe +they could--I see many women who have more fight in them than many +men.... Our cause came straight from the anti-slavery cause. All its +early advocates were also advocates of freeing the despised race in +bondage. Let us not forget them now. Neither a nation nor an +individual can be really free till all are free." + +It had been known for some months that Mrs. Catt would not accept a +re-election to the presidency. For the past nine years she had given +her entire time to work for woman suffrage, speaking in many States, +attending conventions, serving as chairman of the Committee on +Organization for five years and as president for four years. During +this time she had had charge of the national headquarters and under +the combined strain found her health breaking. The first measure of +relief was the removal of the national headquarters to Warren, Ohio, +in May, 1904, where Mrs. Upton took it in charge, but this was not +sufficient and she announced her determination to retire from the +presidency, much to the regret of the association. The delegates +naturally turned to Dr. Shaw and urged the presidency upon her but she +was most reluctant to accept. It was an unsalaried position; she was +entirely dependent on her lectures and she felt that in the field she +could best serve the cause but she finally yielded to Miss Anthony's +earnest entreaties. She was almost unanimously elected and Mrs. Catt +consented to remain in official position as vice-president-at-large. +The convention adopted the following resolution: "We tender to our +retiring president our hearty thanks for her years of faithful and +efficient labor in behalf of our cause and for her self-sacrificing +devotion to its interests. We congratulate ourselves that we shall +continue to have her wise counsel and cooperation and we express our +earnest hope for her health and prosperity." No other change was made +except that Mrs. Coggeshall retired as second auditor and Dr. Cora +Smith Eaton again became a member of the board. + +The _Evening Star_ had this description: "As the afternoon session was +about closing Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, retiring national president, +who has endeared herself to all by her gracious courtesy, her firm yet +gentle sway, presented to the convention its choice for her successor. +Miss Shaw was not as clear-eyed as usual when she faced the cheering +audience and her voice trembled and choked a little as she declared +she had accepted the office only to give Mrs. Catt a rest. As the +convention continued to applaud she said, trying to smile: 'Don't do +that or I shall surely cry!' The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw is probably the +first woman distinguished by having taken both theological and medical +degrees. She won her way into and through college by teaching and paid +for her theological training by preaching on Sundays.... After filling +one parish for seven years she found her widest opportunities in the +broad parish of the lecture field and is one of the ablest speakers on +the public platform." + +Detroit sent an invitation for the next convention and Mrs. Richard +Williams of Buffalo, N. Y., presented one from that city with a +guarantee from the State Suffrage Association of $1,000 toward the +expenses. While these were appreciated the invitation from Portland, +Ore., was the choice. It was presented by Dr. Annice Jeffreys for the +association and by the Hon. Jefferson Myers in behalf of the Lewis and +Clark Exposition to be held in 1905, which the convention gave a +hearty endorsement. + +The last evening found the large armory filled to the doors. Mrs. +Evelyn H. Belden (Ia.) made a delightful address on The Main Line, +which thoroughly disproved the assertion that women have no sense of +humor, as the audience testified by frequent laughter and applause. +Mrs. L. Annis Pound (Mich.) discussed the Problem of the Individual. +"A woman's value to society," she said, "will increase in direct ratio +as her value as an individual increases. Woman as the potential mother +of the race owes it to posterity to develop the noblest, strongest +type of individualism. She must be first a human being, a personality, +a member of society." Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, president of the National +Women's Republican Association, who had made political speeches from +ocean to ocean, told in a most entertaining manner of Campaigning in +Free States and paid a glowing tribute to the beneficial effects of +woman suffrage in the States where it existed. + +Towards the end of the evening Mrs. Catt presented Miss Anthony and as +she came forward she brought Miss Barton with her and the audience +rose in heartfelt recognition of the two great leaders. "It seemed +unable quite fully to express its pleasure," said the _Evening Star_, +"and applauded again and again, as Miss Barton bowed and Miss Anthony +looked smilingly and benignly out over the enthusiastic crowds." She +expressed in words of affection and esteem her pleasure in appearing +on that platform with one who had stood by her from the beginning of +her work and Miss Barton responded in the same strain, giving then as +always her adherence to Miss Anthony and the cause of woman suffrage. + +A national suffrage convention never seemed to be properly ended +unless Dr. Shaw made a speech at the close and for this one she chose +the subject, Woman without a Country, and with her matchless eloquence +described the position of women under the flag of a Government in +which they had no voice. Mrs. Catt spoke the president's inspiring +farewell words and the convention adjourned to meet next time in the +far northwest. + + * * * * * + +The usual hearings were granted by the Senate and House Committees on +February 16 at 10:30 a.m. Miss Anthony presided at the Senate hearing +and the speakers in the Marble Room were Mrs. Watson Lister, +Australia; Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, England; Dr. Anna Howard Shaw +and Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, Pennsylvania; Miss Laura A. Gregg, +Nebraska; Miss Harriet May Mills, Miss Emily Howland, Mrs. Maud +Nathan, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, New +York. In introducing Mrs. Gilman Miss Anthony said quaintly: "This is +one of the Beecher tribe," referring to her relationship, and she said +of Dr. Shaw, the last speaker, "She will wind us up!" In telling of +the first congressional hearing on woman suffrage ever granted--in +1869--she said: "Of all those who spoke here then I am the only one +living today and I shall not be able to come much longer." Her words +were prophetic, as this was the last hearing she ever attended. + +Each speaker considered the question from a different standpoint: Miss +Mills showed that the high schools everywhere were graduating more +girls than boys and women were increasing in the colleges at a higher +ratio than men and said: "If only you would fix an educational +qualification for the franchise we might hope to attain it." Mrs. +Swift described the great campaign that had been made by California +women for the suffrage in 1896 and yet they could not now even vote +for school officers and she told of the unjust laws for women. Mrs. +Boyer spoke for the millions of women wage-earners and declared that +the present form of government was a sex-aristocracy. Mrs. Gilman said +that to have intelligent men there must be educated mothers and that +America could be made greater but not out of little people. Mrs. +Harper reviewed the Senate hearings of the past, the favorable and +unfavorable reports and the many times when no reports were made and +said: "We represent no vested interests, no constituency: we cannot +help or harm you politically; we can only appeal to you in the name of +abstract justice." + +Mrs. Blatch, American by birth, told of the feelings of women arriving +in this country by steamer and seeing the men land from the steerage +who would soon have the right of suffrage which was denied to women +born in the United States. Mrs. Watson Lister was introduced as +representing over 800,000 women voters in Australia and said in part: +"It seems very odd to me to come to America to speak on +self-government. In Australia woman suffrage is not an experiment but +a long experience and one effect has been to disprove all the things +that were said against it." Dr. Shaw spoke of the hardships women had +endured to make this country what it is and of the injustice of +denying them any voice in its government. + +Miss Anthony closed by saying that she had appealed to committees of +seventeen Congresses and she urged that this one would make a +favorable report. Senator Mitchell of Oregon responded: "I introduced +this resolution for woman suffrage. I am earnestly in favor of +it--have been for many years--and if I live you will get a report. I +have been more instructed and interested by the magnificent speeches I +have heard today than by any in the Senate of the United States during +the twenty-one years I have attended it." Others expressed themselves +in the same strain. Senator Mitchell's own personal affairs, however, +soon became much involved and no report was made. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Catt conducted the hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the +House. Its chairman, Representative John J. Jenkins of Wisconsin, who +was presiding, made no secret of his hostility to woman suffrage but +some members of the committee were favorable. Colorado had been the +storm center of attack and defense for many years while Denver was the +only city of considerable size where women could vote. In opening the +hearing Mrs. Catt said: "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: +Last year when we appeared before the committee to speak in behalf of +the bill asking the submission of the 16th Amendment we called +attention to the fact that Congress had appointed a great many +commissions for investigation of the conditions, political and +otherwise, of various classes of people, and inasmuch as we have come +here year after year claiming that woman suffrage had wrought none of +the ills which its enemies said it would and that it had brought many +benefits, we asked that Congress, through a commission, should +investigate it in the western States. You are aware that no such +commission resulted from our petition. When Mahomet commanded the +mountain to come to him and the mountain did not come he said: 'Then +Mahomet will go to the mountain.' We have therefore this year brought +Colorado to you and the speakers who will address you this morning are +all from that State." + +The speeches largely followed the lines of those given before the +convention. Mrs. Katherine Cook showed the relation between the +women's vote and the home and family welfare. Mrs. Ellis Meredith, +introduced as on the editorial staff of the _Rocky Mountain News_ of +Denver, gave a summary of the excellent legislation that had been +effected since women began voting in 1894 and said: "I have read a +compilation of the laws in regard to the protection of children in +every State and I know that in no other have they such ample +protection and in no other are the laws so well enforced. This is +partly due to the fact that our Humane Society is a State institution +and has the free voluntary services of six hundred men and women +acting as agents over this big State of 104,000 square miles." +Answering questions she said: "In my district, one of the best, 571 +women registered and 570 voted. There are as many men as women in the +district but only 235 voted. Men form 55 per cent. of our population +and women 45. Women cast over 43 per cent. of the total vote." + +Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, president of the State Federation of Women's +Clubs, extended the account of the remarkable work it had accomplished +as described to the convention, a success, she said, due to the fact +that it represented a large body of well-informed voters. She +ridiculed the danger at the polling places. "Who are the evil +creatures we are supposed to meet there on election day? We vote in +the precinct in which we live and we meet our husbands, our brothers, +our sons.... In Colorado the environment in which the supreme right of +citizenship is performed has been improved to harmonize with the +improved character of the constituency." + +Mrs. Helen Loring Grenfell was introduced by Mrs. Catt as "the State +Superintendent of Public Instruction now serving her third term, the +only successful candidate on her ticket at the last election." She +began by saying: "Gentlemen, this is a very peculiar position for a +Colorado woman. It seems just as strange to me as it would be to my +husband to be coming here before a body of women and saying: 'We men +ask from you equal rights under the Constitution of the United +States.'" After showing the interest felt in elections by women she +said: "I have been an office-holder, which has involved running for +office, and I think it is right for me to tell you a little of my +experiences. My campaigns have taken me through almost every county in +Colorado, the farming counties, the roughest mining communities, and +let me say to you that if there could be any more chivalry in the +States where you think it would be unchivalrous to let your women +vote, I would like to see it. I have met with the greatest courtesy +from men all over the State. I have been treated just as kindly, just +as politely by the men when I appeared as a political candidate as by +the men with whom I am associated in my school work, in my home and +society life. We have come to the time when we must feel that the word +chivalry belongs to the past. It is connected with a period when +woman's position before the law and in her home was far from a +desirable one; and so I believe you will not misunderstand me when I +say that if you will give us justice we feel that it will mean a great +deal more than chivalry ever did." + +There had just been an exposition of fraud at the recent Congressional +election where Representative John F. Shafroth had been re-elected and +he at once resigned the office in order to disclaim all connection +with it. Nearly every speaker was interrogated about it by members of +the committee. Mrs. Grenfell answered, as did all of them: "The frauds +upon which this election was decided were committed in the city of +Denver alone and in the worst precincts in the city. We will admit +that they were committed. Is that a reason for considering that woman +suffrage is a mistake? I have heard reports from the cities of +Philadelphia and New York by which, if I should judge male suffrage, +I should say it was an utter failure in the States of Pennsylvania and +New York. We have tens of thousands of women voters in Colorado. We +have indictments out against many dishonest voters and with the utmost +searching they have found one woman who is charged with 'repeating' in +the election. Our State penitentiary has five women prisoners today +and 600 men. That surely cannot be used as an argument for woman +suffrage having injured the women, whatever it may have done to the +men."[34] + +The committee were particularly interested in the speech of former +Governor Alva Adams, which gave much information on the voting of +women and called out many questions from the committee. Representative +Littlefield of Maine inquired: "What do you say, Governor, about Miss +McCracken's article in the _Outlook_?" and he answered: "I call it +infamous, to use the proper term. It was an absolute falsehood. It was +based upon no facts, because no decent women in Colorado would make +the statements that she quotes. She may have found one woman who would +say that they were using philanthropy and charity for political +purposes but to admit that the women of the State would do a thing of +that kind--would so debase themselves--would be an impeachment of the +decency and honesty of womankind everywhere. I am not prepared to make +that admission and the citizens of Colorado cannot make it. There are +100,000 honest women in the State who are voters and there are not +100 who will subscribe to the sentiments she gave voice to."[35] + +Mrs. Catt closed the hearing with an earnest appeal for action, saying +in part: + + When the constitution of Colorado was first made in 1876 a + provision was placed in it that at any time the Legislature might + enfranchise the women by a referendum of a law to the voters. + That was done in 1893 and it was passed by 6,000 majority. Last + year an amendment to the constitution was submitted to the + electors, now both men and women, concerning the qualifications + for the vote and in it there was included, of course, the + recognition of the enfranchisement of women quite as much as that + of men, so that it was virtually a woman suffrage amendment. It + received a majority of 35,000, showing certainly that after ten + years of experience the people were willing to put woman suffrage + in the constitution, where it became an integral part of it and + permanent. + + When the American constitution was formulated it was the first of + its kind and this was the first republic of its kind. Man + suffrage was an experiment and it was considered universally a + very doubtful one. We find overwhelming evidence that the + thinkers of the world feared that if this republic should fail to + live it would come to its end through the instability of the + minds of men and that revolutionary thought would arise to + overturn the Government. We find it in George Washington and + Benjamin Franklin and all of our statesmen as well as those who + were watching the experiment here so anxiously from across the + sea. What was the result? The result was they made a constitution + just as ironclad as they could, so as to prevent its amendment. + They made it as difficult for the fundamental law of the nation + to be changed as they knew how to do.... Those of us who wish to + enter the political life, who believe that we have quite as good + a right to express ourselves there as any man--what is our + position? Within the last century there has been extension after + extension of the suffrage, and every one has put suffrage for + women further off.... + + Do you not see that while in this country there are millions of + people who believe in the enfranchisement of women, while there + is more sentiment for it than in any other, yet we are restricted + by this stone wall of constitutional limitations which was set at + a time when a republican form of government was totally untried? + Because of this we find ourselves distanced by monarchies and the + women enfranchised in other lands are coming to us to express + their pity and sympathy.... So I ask that you will this time make + a report to the House of Representatives and if you do not + believe that we are right, for Heaven's sake make an adverse + report. Anything will be more satisfactory than the indifference + with which we have been treated for many years. Do at least + recognize that we have a cause, that there are women here whose + hearts are aching because they see great movements to which they + desire to give their help and yet they are chained down to work + for the power that is not yet within their hands.... If you, Mr. + Chairman, feel that you can not offer a favorable report because + the majority of the committee is not favorable, then I beg of + you, in behalf of the women of the United States, to show where + you stand and to give an adverse report. + +The Senate Committee presented the National Association with 10,000 +and the House Committee with 15,000 copies of these hearings, which +they could use as a part of their propaganda literature. There was +not, however, enough political influence back of the appeals for the +submission of the Federal Amendment for woman suffrage to compel the +committees to make reports which would bring the subject before +Congress. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[29] Part of Call: In our own country the advocates of our cause know +no discouragement or disappointment. The seed planted by the pioneers +of the woman's rights movement is continuously bearing fruit in the +educational, industrial and social opportunities for the women of +today; these in turn presage the full harvest--political +enfranchisement. Under the stimulus of an educated intelligence and +awakened self-respect women daily grow more unwilling that their +opinions in government, the fundamental source of civilization, should +continue to be uncounted with those of the defective and criminal +classes of men. + +In the industrial world organized labor is recognizing in the +underpaid services of women an enemy to economic prosperity and is +making common cause with woman's demand for the ballot with which to +protect her right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, avowed to +be inalienably hers by the Declaration of Independence. Time, +agitation, education and organization cannot fail to ripen these many +influences into a general belief in true democratic government of the +people, without distinctions in regard to sex. + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President. + CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President. + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-President. + KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary. + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. + HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } Auditors. + MARY J. COGGESHALL,} + +[30] A ticket was sent with the invitation which took her carriage to +the private entrance and enabled her to avoid the crowd. She was +constantly surrounded by distinguished people and Miss Alice Roosevelt +left a party of friends, saying, "I must speak to Miss Anthony, she is +my father's special guest." The next day she told the convention in +her inimitable way that when she was presented to Mr. Roosevelt she +said: "Now, Mr. President, we don't intend to trouble you during the +campaign but after you are elected, then look out for us!" + +[31] Clergymen who opened the various meetings with prayer were Dr. +Edward Everett Hale, chaplain of the U. S. Senate; the Rev. J. L. +Coudon, chaplain of the House of Representatives; the Reverends A. D. +Mayo, D.D.; S. M. Newman, D.D., of the First Congregational Church; U. +G. B. Pierce, All Souls Unitarian Church; John Van Schiack, Jr., +Universalist Church; Alexander Kent, People's Church; the women +ministers at the convention, Anna Howard Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer, +Mary A. Safford, Marie Jenney Howe, and laywomen Laura Clay, Lucy +Hobart Day, Mrs. Clinton Smith, president District W. C. T. U. The +congregational singing was arranged and led by Miss Etta V. Maddox of +Baltimore and the evening musical programs were in charge of Herndon +Morsell and his pupils. + +[32] The Washington _Post_ of that date contained an amusing little +incident. Miss Anthony came into the morning session while Mrs. Upton +was raising the money and the audience rose to their feet waving their +handkerchiefs. She was about to sit down on the front seat when Mrs. +Upton insisted she should come to the platform. "Must I do that?" she +said sotto voce. "I have on my travelling dress." "How we do put on +airs as we grow older," said Mrs. Upton jokingly, assisting her to the +platform. The applause continuing Miss Anthony smiled, reached out her +hand with a deprecating gesture and said: "There now, girls, that's +enough." + +[33] The Washington _Times_ said: "Mrs. Upton is one of the most +popular women in the suffrage movement and her energy is a matter of +many years' history. If financial support is to be obtained from +States, societies or individuals there is no one more capable of +extracting generous subscriptions...." The _Star_ said: "Mrs. Upton +has served as treasurer many years. She is energetic, zealous, +tactful, possesses a remarkable insight of human nature and is greatly +admired. She is president of the Ohio Suffrage Association and member +of the Warren board of education. Before she became so engrossed in +suffrage she did a great deal of literary work. Her father, Ezra B. +Taylor, succeeded Garfield in Congress and she was with him during his +thirteen years in office. Miss Anthony always relied on him for advice +and assistance." + +[34] There was a large amount of unimpeachable testimony that the +women had no part in these election frauds. Mr. Shafroth himself said: +"The frauds were committed in a bad part of Denver where few women +live. To represent them as characteristic of women's election methods +in Colorado is an outrage." A prominent Denver lawyer, who was then in +Washington, was interviewed on the subject and said: "That 'Exhibit +64' (relating to the alleged frauds by women) was not competent +evidence and would have been thrown out by any court. The woman who +accused herself and other women of cheating did not stay to be +cross-examined; she simply made her affidavit and 'skipped out.' +Everything tends to the belief that she was in the employ of the +opposite party." + +The president of the League for Honest Elections in Denver, when +stating that about thirty arrests had been made in connection with the +frauds, said: "Of those arrested and bound over, only one is a woman. +We believe that she is the least guilty of all and whatever connection +she had with the election in her precinct was as the passive +instrument of the men in charge of the fraudulent work at that place. +Of the persons for whom warrants have been issued but not yet served, +only one is a woman. She was a clerk in one of the lower precincts and +we understand has left the city. I may say, as a result of my own +experience in connection with this League, I find that women have +practically nothing to do with fraudulent work." + +[35] A Miss Elizabeth McCracken had been sent to Colorado by the +_Outlook_ to prepare an article on woman suffrage, which it published. +The statements in it were universally repudiated by the press and the +people of that State. Mrs. Grenfell said of it at this convention: "It +is as absurd to refute her assertions as to reply to Baron Munchausen +or to insist that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland never happened. +Such conditions as she describes do not exist in Colorado." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1905. + + +Until 1905 the national suffrage conventions had never been held +further west than Des Moines, Ia. (1897), but this year the innovation +was made of going to the Pacific Coast for the Thirty-seventh annual +meeting, June 28-July 5,[36] at the invitation of the managers of the +Lewis and Clark Exposition held in Portland, Ore. It was a delightful +experience from the beginning, as the delegates from the East and +Middle West met in Chicago and had three special cars from there. The +Chicago Woman's Club gave a large reception in the afternoon of June +23 for Miss Anthony, the officers and delegates. They took the train +that night; Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt joined them in Iowa and others +along the way, as it sped westward. The newspapers had given it wide +publicity and they were greeted by suffragists at many places. The +Political Equality Club of Boone, Ia., brought large bouquets for Miss +Anthony, Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt, who made brief speeches from the rear +platform. The colored porter listened attentively and said: "Well, +that settles me; I am for woman suffrage," and afterwards diligently +circulated copies of the _Woman's Journal_ on the train. Another +ovation awaited them at Council Bluffs. The train waited half an hour +at Omaha and the women of the Political Equality Club, the W. C. T. U. +and the Woman's Club united in a demonstration. A platform had been +improvised and their presidents expressed a welcome to which responses +were made by Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, the Rev. Antoinette +Brown Blackwell, Miss Laura Clay and Mr. and Miss Blackwell, editors +of the _Woman's Journal_, while reporters were busy getting +interviews. They returned to the train laden with flowers, which they +distributed, sending buttonhole bouquets to the engineer, fireman and +all the crew. + +The train was delayed two hours at Cheyenne and former U. S. Senator +Joseph M. Carey and his wife, staunch suffragists and old friends of +Miss Anthony, took her for a drive while the officers and delegates +walked about the pleasant little city and went to see the handsome +State House. Miss Blackwell wrote of the occasion: "Everything in +Wyoming was surrounded by a sort of halo. The sky seemed of a more +vivid blue, the grass of a brighter emerald than in the States where +women do not enjoy equal rights. The leaves of the many cottonwood +trees twinkled pleasantly in the clear sunlight, the air was fresh and +bracing and the snow mountains looked down upon the city like a +visible realization of ideals." The presence of the visitors soon +became known and an impromptu reception was held in the large waiting +room of the station, which was beautified by potted ferns and palms. + +Sunday services were held on the train and during the week days +business meetings in the stateroom of Miss Anthony and Dr. Shaw. As +the journey neared the end the porter confided to Lucy E. Anthony, the +railroad secretary, who arranged the trip: "I ain't never travelled +with such a bunch of women before--they don't fuss with me and they +don't scrap with each other!" Monday morning they entered the +magnificent scenery along the Columbia River and at The Dalles were +met by Mrs. Duniway and a party of friends. By noon they had reached +the City of Roses and were comfortably settled in the Portland Hotel +and the hospitable homes of the city. + +The convention, held in the First Congregational Church, was planned +for a very full program of ten days instead of the usual week. +Notwithstanding the Exposition was in progress and conventions were a +matter of daily occurrence, none of the national suffrage conventions +ever had fuller or more satisfactory reports. _Journal_, _Telegram_ +and _Oregonian_ vied with each other and the Associated Press sent out +whatever was requested of it. _The Oregonian_ said of the first +executive session: "Room 618 in the Portland Hotel was the scene of a +notable gathering yesterday afternoon. Lawyers, doctors, ministers of +the gospel, lecturers of renown and expert auditors were in close +conference, mapping out a plan of campaign by which they will fight +for their rights in this land of the free and home of the brave. That +they have not had the rights accorded by the Declaration of +Independence to all American citizens they attribute to the fact that +they are women and it is to convince unseeing mankind that women who +are intelligent enough to obey laws are capable of helping frame them, +that the most profound and representative women of the country are +gathered here in the interests of equal suffrage." Miss Blackwell +presented this interesting picture in her letter to the _Woman's +Journal_. + + The convention has opened magnificently, with glorious sunshine, + great audiences, full and friendly press reports and the + suffragists of the Pacific Coast outdoing themselves in cordial + hospitality. The beautiful city of Portland is so full of flowers + at this season that the whole city might be thought to have + decorated in honor of the coming of the national convention. As + the yellow-ribboned delegates go through the streets they + constantly utter exclamations of delight over the enormous roses, + the curtains of dark blue clematis draping the verandas, the + luxuriant masses of ivy and the majestic trees rising above the + velvet lawns and casting their shade upon the many handsome + residences.... Hospitable Oregonians send in presents to the + officers of huge red and yellow apples and baskets of mammoth + cherries nestling in their green leaves.... + + The large gray stone church has its auditorium hung with American + flags and bunting of the suffrage color; portraits of Lucy Stone + and Susan B. Anthony stand back of the pulpit and along its front + runs the word "progress" in large letters made of flowers.... A + splendid bouquet of white lilies has just been sent to the + convention as a greeting from the Oregon State Federation of + Women's Clubs and another of rich red roses from the Portland + Woman's Club, and the platform is imbedded in carnations from + local florists. All sorts of organizations seem to vie with each + other in welcoming their happy guests. + +The convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. Elwin L. House, +pastor of the church. The president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was in the +chair and greetings were given from the Oregon Suffrage Association by +its president, Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe; the National Council of Women by +the president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift (Calif.), who called attention to +the fact that it was organized by suffragists; the National Woman's +Christian Temperance Union by Mrs. Lucia Faxon Additon; the National +Grange by Mrs. Clara H. Waldo, who said: "The basic principle of the +Grange is equal rights for men and women and it practices what it +preaches, all the offices being open to women." Greetings from the +National Federation of Labor were offered by Mrs. F. Ross; the Ladies +of the Maccabees by Mrs. Nellie H. Lambson; the Federation of Women's +Clubs by Mrs. Sarah A. Evans; the Forestry Association by Mrs. Arthur +H. Breyman; the Women's Henry George League by Dr. Mary H. Thompson, +the pioneer woman physician of Oregon. The National Conference of +Charities and Corrections, then in session in Portland, sent greetings +by Mrs. Lillie R. Trumbull, who said: "If woman suffrage means +anything it means the protection of children, therefore we march under +the same banner." + +Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, the pioneer suffragist of the northwest, +presented to Dr. Shaw a gavel from the Oregon Historical Society with +a letter from its secretary, Dr. George H. Himes, describing the six +kinds of wood out of which it was made, each of important historical +value. It was accepted with thanks and used by her to preside over the +convention. A Centennial Ode, composed by Mrs. Duniway, was finely +read by Mrs. Sylvia W. McGuire. The response to all these greetings +was made by Miss Anthony, of whom the _Oregonian_ said: "The +appearance of Susan B. Anthony was the signal for a wild ovation. The +large audience rose to its feet and cheered the pioneer who has done +so much for the cause of equal suffrage and who is still the life of a +great work. At the close of the session men and women rushed forward, +eager to clasp her hand and pay homage to her. There are many famous +delegates present at this convention, women whose names are known in +every civilized nation on the globe, but none shines with the luster +which surrounds Miss Anthony." She began by recalling her visit in +1871, when Mrs. Duniway and she made a speaking tour of six weeks in +the State; the long stage rides over the corduroy roads, the prejudice +encountered but personal friendliness and large audiences everywhere, +and continued: + + I am delighted to see and hear in this church today the women + representatives of so many organizations and it is in a measure + compensation for the half-century of toil which it has been my + duty and privilege to give to this our common cause. The sessions + of this convention will be treated by the press of America + exactly as it would treat any national gathering which was + representative in character and had an object worthy of serious + attention. The time of universal scorn for woman suffrage has + passed and today we have strong and courageous champions among + that sex the members of which fifty years ago regarded our + proposals as part of an iconoclasm which threatened the very + foundation of the social fabric.... Elizabeth Cady Stanton and I + made our first fight for recognition of the right of women to + speak in public and have organizations among themselves. You who + are younger cannot realize the intensity of the opposition we + encountered. To maintain our position we were compelled to attack + and defy the deep-seated and ingrained prejudices bred into the + very natures of men, and to some of them we were actually + committing a sin against God and violating His laws. Gradually, + however, the opposition has weakened until today we meet far less + hostility to equal suffrage itself than then was manifested + toward giving women the right of speaking in public and + organizing for mutual advantage. + +The opening exercises closed with an address by the Rev. Thomas L. +Eliot, a Unitarian minister, who with his wife had encouraged Miss +Anthony during that visit of 1871. He said his mother's great-aunt, +Abigail Adams, had probably uttered the first declaration for woman +suffrage on American soil, and paid a warm tribute to Mrs. Duniway's +long and earnest labors for this cause as he had seen them during his +thirty-seven years in Oregon. + +At the insistence of Dr. Shaw Miss Anthony presided at the first +evening session. It was said that she had wielded the gavel at more +conventions than any other woman and she had presided over national +suffrage conventions for nearly forty years, but this proved to be the +last at which she filled that honored position. A press report said: +"Her voice is more vigorous than that of many a woman half her age and +she speaks with fluency and ease." The _Oregonian_ thus described her +appearance on this occasion: "A rare picture she made in the +high-backed oaken chair, her snowy hair puffed over her ears in +old-time fashion and the collar of rose point lace, which seems to +belong to dignified old age, forming a frame for her gentle but +determined face. When she rose to call the meeting to order she was +deluged with many beautiful floral tributes and drolly peering over +the heap of flowers she said: "Well, this is rather different from the +receptions I used to get fifty years ago. They threw things at me +then--but they were not roses--and there were not epithets enough in +Webster's Unabridged to fit my case. I am thankful for this change of +spirit which has come over the American people." + +Governor George E. Chamberlain gave the welcome of the State, +declaring himself unequivocally and emphatically in favor of woman +suffrage and expressing the hope that Oregon was now ready to grant +it. T. C. Devlin extended the welcome of the city as proxy for the +Mayor, who addressed the convention later. The Hon. Jefferson Myers, +president of the State Commission for the Exposition, paid eloquent +tribute to Miss Anthony and her co-workers and said: + + I hope that you may yet live to see many victories for the + principles which you have so nobly advocated in behalf of the + women of our land. These principles are not new to the American + people. There are many differences of opinion, but, after all the + argument for and against, it hardly seems possible that any one + who is entitled to the privilege which you request can afford to + deny that privilege to his mother. There is no question but that + the women of our land bear today as great, if not greater, + burdens in the affairs of a good and honorable government than + our men. The raising of the children, their education and + protection from the vices of the world, are cares that mothers + have which no man's responsibility equals.... + + You are today among a citizenship on this coast that is very + fair, broad-minded and ready to assist your cause whenever + convinced that it will be an advantage and a betterment to our + present government. If it is fairly placed before the voters of + this commonwealth with a reasonable argument in its favor, there + is no doubt in my mind of its success. We are the only State that + has adopted the broad principle of government which permits the + citizens of the commonwealth to prepare and vote its own + legislation, by its own people, without aid or consent of any + other power. I refer to the Initiative and Referendum.... I + sometimes doubt whether this great western country would ever + have had the Stars and Stripes without the influence of the + American mother. Therefore my sympathies are with you in your + cause and all others supported by the mothers of our government + for the liberties of themselves and families. + +Mrs. Duniway spoke on The Pioneers of the Northwest as one of them, +introduced by Miss Anthony as "the woman with whom I went gipsying +thirty-four years ago," and the audience grew enthusiastic at the +sight of these two brave veterans, the one 85 and the other 71. The +press commented: "Mrs. Duniway's talk will be remembered as one of the +best of the session. She said she had been electrified by the +Governor's speech and her own fairly scintillated with the result of +the shock. Her anecdotes were capital and her reminiscences of the +cabbage and rotten-egg days convulsed the audience." Mrs. Catt, +vice-president-at-large, responded to the greetings and expressed the +pleasure of the delegates at being in "this most beautiful city of the +United States and of the world." She spoke in highest praise of the +free, independent spirit of the West, quoting the man who said: "Out +here we don't ask who your grandfather was but everybody stands on his +own hypothenuse!" + +Dr. Shaw was so impressed with the responsibility of her new office +that for the first time she wrote her president's address and it was +published in twelve columns of the _Woman's Journal_. A Portland paper +thus prepared the audience: "The event of the evening will be the +address of the president, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. She is easily the +best and foremost woman speaker in the world and in her appearance +Portland will enjoy a rare treat. Her eloquence is seldom equalled and +she is a woman of deep learning, a cogent reasoner and a brilliant +thinker.... She has wonderful magnetism and a rare voice of round, +rich tones and great carrying capacity. An unusual combination of +dignity and wit is hers and many brilliant remarks intersperse the +numbers on the program, keeping the audience in fine humor and +constant interest." After a glowing word-picture of the natural beauty +of Portland and Oregon Dr. Shaw turned her attention to Sacajawea, the +young Indian woman who guided Lewis and Clark through thousands of +miles of trackless wilderness on their expedition to the great +northwest. + + Others will speak of that brave band of immortals whose + achievements your great Exposition commemorates, while we pay our + tribute of honor and gratitude to the modest, unselfish, enduring + little Shoshone squaw, who uncomplainingly trailed, canoed, + climbed, slaved and starved with the men of the party, enduring + all that they endured, with the addition of a helpless baby on + her back. At a time in the weary march when the hearts of the + leaders had well nigh fainted within them, when success or + failure hung a mere chance in the balance, this woman came to + their deliverance and pointed out to the captain the great Pass + which led from the forks of the Three Rivers over the mountains. + Then silently strapping her papoose upon her back she led the + way, interpreting and making friendly overtures to powerful + tribes of Indians, who but for her might at any moment have + annihilated that brave band of intrepid souls.... The Pass + through which she led the expedition has long borne the name of a + French explorer who had not seen it until many years after + Sacajawea had been gathered to her rest, but tardy + acknowledgements of this heroine's services have at last been + partially made. The U. S. Geological Survey has recently named + one of the finest peaks in the Bridge range in Montana "Sacajawea + Peak." ... + + Forerunner of civilization, great leader of men, patient and + motherly woman, we bow our hearts to do you honor! Your tribe is + fast disappearing from the land of your fathers. May we, the + daughters of an alien race who slew your people and usurped your + country, learn the lessons of calm endurance, of patient + persistence and unfaltering courage exemplified in your life, in + our efforts to lead men through the Pass of justice, which goes + over the mountains of prejudice and conservatism to the broad + land of the perfect freedom of a true republic; one in which men + and women together shall in perfect equality solve the problems + of a nation that knows no caste, no race, no sex in opportunity, + in responsibility or in justice! May "the eternal womanly" ever + lead us on!... + +Referring to the convention and the delegates Dr. Shaw said: + + What does our coming mean to us, who gather in this 37th annual + convention where sits the woman whose chair has never been + vacant in all these years of hope deferred; whose heart has + continually glowed with perennial youth; whose soul has burned + with a vivid flame of love and freedom; whose brain has been the + inspirer of herculean service; whose industry has never flagged; + whose quenchless hope for humanity has carried us from victory to + victory? May her spirit of devotion to freedom ever lead us on! + + It means fifty-seven years nearer to victory than when the first + invincible band of pioneers of universal freedom met in that + little church in Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1848. It means that in + this body are women from four States of our Union already crowned + with full citizenship; that delegates from more than two-score + States have crossed the borderland of freedom, and that + representatives from nearly every State and Territory are banded + together in an unfaltering purpose to become politically free. It + also means that more has been accomplished for the betterment of + the condition of women, for their physical, economic, + intellectual and religious emancipation, by these fifty-seven + years of evolutionary progress, than by all the revolutions the + world has known; and it means that in every civilized nation of + the earth, more and more the most patriotic, the most + law-abiding, the most intelligent and the most industrious people + are coming to see the justice of our claim, that in a + representative government "the people who bear the burdens and + responsibilities should share its privileges also--not excepting + women." ... + +The recent attacks of Cardinal Gibbons and former President Cleveland, +who had protested against women taking part in the Government lest it +interfere with the home, she answered with keen analysis, saying in +part: + + The great fear that the participation of women in public affairs + will impair the quality and character of home service is + irrational and contrary to the tests of experience. Does an + intelligent interest in the education of a child render a woman + less a mother? Does the housekeeping instinct of woman, + manifested in a desire for clean streets, pure water and + unadulterated food, destroy her efficiency as a home-maker? Does + a desire for an environment of moral and civic purity show + neglect of the highest good of the family? It is the "men must + fight and women must weep" theory of life which makes men fear + that the larger service of women will impair the high ideal of + home. The newer ideal that men must cease fighting and thus + remove one prolific cause for women's weeping, and that they + shall together build up a more perfect home and a more ideal + government, is infinitely more sane and desirable. Participation + in the larger and broader concerns of the State will increase + instead of decrease the efficiency of government and tend to + develop that self-control, that more perfect judgment which are + wanting in much of the home training of today. + +A comprehensive review was made of the great events in the world's +history during the past year and the work of the National American +Suffrage Association was described. "Whatever others may say or do," +she declared, "our association must not accept any compromises. We +must guard against the reactionary spirit which marks the present time +and stand unfalteringly for the principle of perfect equality of +rights and opportunities for all.... Never was there a time when +heroic service was more needed--not the spectacular heroism marching +with flying banners and weapons of destruction but the quiet, earnest +heroism of men and women standing steadfastly by that which seems +right and rigidly adhering in daily intercourse to that sterling +honesty of purpose which ennobles character and develops the best in a +nation's life." This inspiring address, all of which was on the same +high level as the portions quoted, thus concluded: + + We are told that to assume that women will help purify political + life and develop a more ideal government but proves us to be + dreamers of dreams. Yes, we are in a goodly company of dreamers, + of Confucius, of Buddha, of Jesus, of the English Commons + fighting for the Magna Charta, of the Pilgrims, of the American + Revolutionists, of the Anti-slavery men and women. The seers and + leaders of all times have been dreamers. Every step of progress + the world has made is the crystallization of a dream into + reality. To look forward to a time when men shall be just, when + "fair play and a square deal for all" will include women, when + our republic shall in truth become what its dreamers have hoped + it would be, a government "of the people, by the people and for + the people,"--this _is_ a dream but it is a dream which we are + helping to make real, and the result will come not alone because + a vision has been revealed but by following it steadfastly to its + fruition. The idealists dream and the dream is told, and the + practical men listen and ponder and bring back the truth and + apply it to human life, and progress and growth and higher human + ideals come into being and so the world moves ever on. + +During the several business sessions the following action was taken: +It was directed that a letter be sent to the President-elect, Theodore +Roosevelt, asking him to recommend the submission of a 16th Amendment +in his message to Congress; that as many organizations of women as +possible be secured to unite in urging him to do so, following the +methods employed by the Protest Committee (a committee appointed to +wait upon him to present this request); that the Banker, Starr, +Underwood and Green bequests amounting to $3,801 be appropriated for +campaign work in Oregon and the Territories. Miss Clay announced that +Miss Laura Bruce had bequeathed $5,000 to her in trust for the +National American Woman Suffrage Association. + +The work conferences established by Mrs. Catt during her +administration were held with the following among the questions +discussed: Must we supplement our present form of organization to +achieve our "argument of numbers"? How can we best spread our ideas in +other organizations? The field in 1904 and 1905. Our request in 1904 +for a plank in the national platforms. These conferences, which had +been a feature of the conventions for eight years, were dropped after +this one but many of the practical subjects formerly discussed in such +conferences were placed on the regular program. Mrs. Catharine Waugh +McCulloch presided at the conference on How can we nationalize our +request for a 16th Amendment? At its conclusion it was voted to refer +to the Business Committee the idea of asking the suffragists of the +four free States to instruct their Senators and Representatives in +Congress to move for the submission of a 16th Amendment. It was her +thought that all the State suffrage associations should send petitions +to their respective Congressmen asking for a 16th Amendment to the +National Constitution enfranchising women; that earnest efforts should +be made to have other organizations take similar action and every +means employed to bring the question before them. + +The reports of the standing and special committees and those from the +various State presidents, which occupied the morning and afternoon +sessions, were excellent and valuable as usual. Miss Kate M. Gordon +(La.) in her corresponding secretary's report called attention to the +conspicuous triumph for woman suffrage when the great International +Council of Women, whose delegates represented practically the whole +civilized world, at its meeting in Berlin the preceding year +unanimously endorsed woman suffrage and appointed a standing committee +on Citizenship and Equal Rights, with Dr. Shaw as its chairman. She +read letters from the Governors of the four equal suffrage States +regretting their inability to be present for Woman's Day at the +Exposition and giving the strongest possible endorsement of the +practical working of woman suffrage. + +The report of Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, headquarters secretary, of the +first year's work in its new home at Warren, O., was most interesting. +The letters sent out numbered 14,000 and included three during the +year to the president of every local club, giving information, plans +of work and encouragement. The bureau had over 1,200 individual +correspondents. Nearly 44,000 copies of _Progress_ went to newspapers, +public men, delegates to the political conventions and subscribers. +About 65,000 pieces of literature exclusive of _Progress_ were +distributed, going to every State and Territory, to Canada, England, +Holland and Australia. In addition thousands of booklets, political +equality leaflets and souvenirs of various kinds were sent forth as +propaganda. The report of Mrs. Catt, chairman of the Committee on +Literature, showed that it had provided 62,000 of these pieces and had +printed about 100,000 during the year. Miss Anthony had presented to +the association ten sets of the History of Woman Suffrage and eighty +copies of the new Volume IV to be sold, Miss Hauser said. Headquarters +were maintained at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. The +work inaugurated by Miss Anthony of securing resolutions for woman +suffrage from conventions of various kinds was successfully continued. +Fraternal delegates were sent to national conventions and the U. S. +National Council of Women had created a Committee on Political +Equality. Nineteen State organizations adopted resolutions endorsing +woman suffrage; fraternal delegates from suffrage associations were +sent to eighteen other State gatherings and the question was given a +hearing at six Territorial conventions; greetings were sent to three, +literature distributed in four and woman suffrage day observed in +three State gatherings. Add to these the 283 societies (not suffrage) +which reported adopting resolutions on the Statehood Protest and there +is positive knowledge that the question was before and received +favorable action from 339 societies in 1904. A full report was given +of the effort to obtain woman suffrage planks in the platforms of the +political parties, delegates from the association being sent to all. +[See Chapter XXIII.] + +An outstanding feature of the year's achievements was what was known +as the Statehood Protest. At the beginning of the 58th Congress a bill +passed the Lower House providing for the admission to Statehood of +Oklahoma, Indian, Arizona and New Mexico Territories under the names +of Oklahoma and Arizona. It contained a clause saying that "the right +of suffrage should never be abridged except on account of illiteracy, +minority, _sex_, conviction of felony or mental condition." The +association's legal adviser, Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of +Chicago, was consulted by Mrs. Upton and Miss Hauser the preceding +June as to how the word "sex" could be eliminated. She took the matter +under consideration and laid her plan before the Business Committee in +September. It called for a nation-wide protest from women's +organizations and individuals. The committee approved but did not feel +able to make a sufficient appropriation. The report continued: + + When the result was communicated to Mrs. McCulloch by letter she + answered post-haste: "We dare not let this work go undone. I will + raise the money for it myself." The headquarters undertook to do + the work. We appealed to the president or the corresponding + secretary for directories of associations and as fast as names + were secured copies of the circular letter of the Woman's Protest + Committee, written by Miss Blackwell, were sent out. This letter + was signed by twenty-six women, among them presidents of the + following national organizations: Council of Women, Council of + Jewish Women, Woman Suffrage Association, Teachers' Federation, + Catholic Women's League, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, + Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, Lutheran Women's + League, Congress of Mothers, etc., and 34,000 were sent out with + 28,000 leaflets, "Why Women Should Protest." Perhaps no more + spontaneous response was ever given to anything than to this + letter. All sorts of societies, not of women only but of men and + of men and women, protested. More than 400 reported their action + to headquarters. The number of individuals who reported that they + had written to Senator Albert J. Beveridge (Ind.), chairman of + the Committee on Territories, and to their own Senators was so + great that we could not keep a record. Newspapers the country + over commented on the matter, hundreds of clippings on the + subject sometimes being received in one mail. + + What was the result? Under date of Dec. 16, 1904, Senator + Beveridge notified headquarters that the Senate Committee had + unanimously voted to strike out the objectionable word "in + accordance with your very reasonable request." It was a great + victory and more than paid for the labor. Mrs. McCulloch was as + good as her word and raised the money to defray all the expenses, + giving $100 herself and securing from her friend and ours, Mrs. + Elmina Springer of Chicago, $500; Mrs. Mary Wood Swift of + California, president of the National Council of Women, + contributed $50; our own president, Miss Shaw, gave $25 and there + were some small contributions. The work was most economically + done, the printing and envelopes costing $118, the postage over + $300 and a balance was left.[37] + +The report of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, showed +receipts for the year to be $14,662, including bequests of $4,237 from +Mrs. Henrietta L. Banker of New York and $500 from Mrs. Armilla J. +Starr of Michigan; $2,000 from Mrs. Charlotte A. Cleveland of New York +and $100 each from Mrs. Jonas Green of Virginia and Mrs. Helen J. +Underwood of California. The disbursements were $12,437. Miss Hauser +asked for the money for the next year's work and $4,614 were quickly +subscribed. A large number of $50 life memberships were taken. One +hundred one-dollar pledges were made in memory of Sacajawea. Mrs. Catt +guaranteed that Mrs. Upton and herself would raise $3,000 for the +Oregon campaign. + +Henry B. Blackwell, chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee, +gave the welcome information that the U. S. Supreme Court through +Chief Justice Fuller had rendered a decision that "the power of every +State Legislature in the appointment of presidential electors is +plenary, exclusive and final." The report of Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, +chairman of the Libraries Committee, was read by Mrs. Blankenburg and +showed that thus far a bibliography of 823 books, pamphlets, etc., on +woman suffrage had been compiled. One book bore the date of 1627. +Another had the title "No Female Suffrage; Theology, Logic, Anatomy, +Physiology and Philology United to Establish the Truism that Woman is +No Human Being." Mrs. Blankenburg went as fraternal delegate to the +convention of the National Libraries Association meeting in Portland +at this time and gave part of this report, which was received with +much interest and cooperation was promised. + +The report of Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, chairman of the Press Committee, +was as complete and valuable as usual. It said that 80,000 general +suffrage articles had been sent out and 6,000 papers supplied by the +chairman and committee since the last convention. Each paper in +Portland had been furnished with personal sketches of every officer +and speaker connected with the convention and copies of all the +reports and speeches that could be obtained, as was customary wherever +a convention was held. In referring to special articles she said that +5,000 copies from members of the association and residents of Colorado +had been sent out in answer to the charges that woman suffrage was +responsible for the recent election frauds in that State, which seemed +to be made by every opponent who could wield a pen. Answers were +widely distributed to the report of the Mosely Educational Commission +sent here from Great Britain, and the Male Teachers' Association of +New York, to the effect that women should not be employed to teach +boys over ten years of age and that teaching was interfering with the +marriage of many women and keeping them from their proper place in the +world. The article of former President Grover Cleveland in the +_Ladies' Home Journal_ denouncing women's clubs and particularly +suffrage clubs had been almost universally commented on by the press +and required extensive attention. A reply to Cardinal Gibbons's +address to the women graduates of Trinity College, Washington, by Mrs. +Ida Husted Harper was sent to eighty metropolitan papers and hundreds +of shorter ones were scattered broadcast. The excellent work of the +various State press chairman was described. + +One afternoon was devoted to a conference on How Can We Best Utilize +the Press? Mrs. Harper presided and nearly twenty speakers took part. +One of the Portland papers commented: "If the great political organs +of the United States knew how well these women have the tricks of the +trade at their fingers' ends they would employ special detectives to +watch for suffrage literature in disguise." Mr. Lathrop, editor of the +Portland _Journal_, said: "A newspaper man in his official capacity is +not an educator but a seller of news. One who would treat a suffrage +convention as a negligible quantity would lose his job. The question +is not how you can get matter about women into the papers but how you +can keep it out." Mrs. Florence Kelley added: "We all know to our +sorrow that women cannot keep out of the papers but the question is +how to get our subject in them in a way to promote it. I can recommend +the following method: Write something in editorial style just about as +you want it to appear and send it to the editor with a deprecatory +note to the effect that it is only raw material but perhaps it could +be whipped into an editorial by his able pen. The chances are that the +first time he is hard up for one he will use it--probably beheaded or +with the end off or the middle amputated to show that the editor is +editing, but it will be published." + +Miss Anthony was asked for reminiscences of her famous paper, the +_Revolution_, published in New York in 1868-70. Mrs. Duniway gave an +interesting account of her paper, the _New Northwest_, begun in 1871 +in Portland and continued for a number of years with the help of her +five young sons. She expressed her love for the _Woman's Journal_, +"the dear, reliable, old paper started by Lucy Stone and kept going by +the heroic efforts of her husband and daughter," and many joined in +this expression. Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.), editor of the +_Woman's Tribune_, told of the press conference at the International +Council of Women. Mrs. Julia B. Nelson (Minn.) and Miss Amanda Way +(Ind.) were among the veteran writers who spoke. Miss Blackwell gave +experienced advice and a number of younger women made brief but clever +suggestions. + +An interesting part of the convention was Woman's Day at the +Exposition on June 30 and this day had been chosen for the dedication +of the statue of Sacajawea, the Indian woman who led the Lewis and +Clark Expedition thousands of miles through the wilderness unknown to +white men. It was thus described: "The statue, a beautiful creation in +bronze, was the work of Miss Alice Cooper of Denver, a pupil of Lorado +Taft, the figure full of buoyancy and animation, a shapely arm +suggestive of strength pointing to the distant sea, the face radiant, +the head thrown back, the eyes full of daring." The exercises were in +charge of the Order of Red Men and the Women's Sacajawea Association, +Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, president, and on the platform facing the statue +prominent members of the convention sat with President Goode, of the +Exposition, Mayor Lane and other dignitaries. Miss Anthony and Mrs. +Duniway spoke during the unveiling and presentation ceremonies and Dr. +Shaw pronounced the benediction. [See Oregon chapter.] + +The afternoon session of the convention was held in Festival Hall on +the grounds and greetings were offered for organizations, including +the Young Woman's Christian Association by Mrs. L. E. Rockwell and +Women's Medical Association by Dr. Esther C. Pohl. Dr. Sarah A. +Kendall of Washington responded. The Los Angeles Suffrage Club sent a +greeting and Mrs. Helen Secor Tonjes brought one from the New York +City Equal Suffrage League. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman gave an +original poem. Mrs. Mabel Craft Deering, a graduate of California +State University and the Hastings Law School of San Francisco, read an +able paper on Coeducation. Its sentiments were strongly endorsed by +Professor William S. Giltner, president of Eminence College, Kentucky, +one of the earliest women's colleges, from its beginning in 1858 to +its close in 1894. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, under the title, Sowing +the Seed, gave an interesting account of the early trials of her +mother and two aunts, the pioneer doctors, Elizabeth and Emily +Blackwell. The Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, an aunt by marriage, +the pioneer woman minister, who was on the platform, said: "Ever since +I made my first suffrage speech in 1848 I have believed that the cause +of woman suffrage was the cause of religion and vice versa." Mrs. Maud +Wood Park read the eloquent address of Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead on The +Organization of the World. + +Mrs. May Arkwright Hutton (Idaho), who spoke for the equal suffrage +States, gave this unique reminiscence of her early life in Ohio when +William McKinley, a young lawyer, after speaking in the town hall, was +a guest of her grandfather. She said in part: "Mr. McKinley carried +the lantern, leading me by the hand, while I led grandfather, we +little dreaming that the kindly young man guiding a child and an old, +blind man through the wintry night would some day guide the destiny +of the nation. On reaching home, I brought cider, apples and +doughnuts from the cellar that we might have what grandfather called a +'schold check' before going to bed. The fire roared in the wide +chimney place; grandfather sat in his armchair, Mr. McKinley opposite +and I on a low stool between them. They talked of the late war, +reconstruction and woman's rights. Then it was that I learned that +women were denied rights enjoyed by men. Mr. McKinley deplored the +fact and contended that woman was the intellectual equal of man and +should be his political equal. Patting my head he said: 'I believe +when this lassie grows up she will be a voter.'" + +At the close of the session a reception for Miss Anthony and the +officers, speakers and delegates was given in the Oregon building by +its hostess, Dr. Annice Jeffreys (Mrs. Jefferson) Myers, assisted by +Mrs. Coe, the State president. The big reception hall and the parlors +were filled with visitors from all parts of the country. The +_Oregonian_ said: "When Miss Anthony, the honored guest, reached the +Oregon building the band played Auld Lang Syne and the crowds became +so dense that it was with difficulty Dr. Myers could escort her to the +parlors. Here she stood in line for more than an hour, women and men +pressing around her wanting just a word and they got it! She declared +that it did not make her nearly so tired as she used to feel when +nobody wanted to take her hand." In a letter to the _Woman's Journal_ +Miss Blackwell said: "Both in the convention and at all the social +functions Miss Anthony has been the central figure, the object of +general admiration and affection. It is the strongest possible +contrast to the unpopularity and persecution of her early days. All +these attentions were most gratifying to the members of the +convention, who appreciated her courage and devotion in making this +long journey at the age of 85, and afterwards they were remembered +with especial pleasure because it was the last in which she was able +to take an active part." + +The social courtesies during the convention were unbounded. The +Woman's Club gave a large evening reception in the rooms of the +Commercial Club and Mrs. Arthur H. Breyman, its president, opened her +handsome residence for an afternoon tea. Mrs. Coe gave a dinner party +of about thirty, her lovely home decorated in yellow flowers, the +suffrage color. Mrs. Hutton had a handsome dinner of thirty covers at +the Portland Hotel and the Ode which she had written and dedicated to +the convention was sung by Mrs. Alice Mason Barnett of San Francisco +here and at the convention. Private dinners and teas were of daily +occurrence and the drives around this beautiful city and its environs +were a never failing delight. + +At one evening session C. E. S. Wood (Ore.) spoke on The Injustice of +Majority Rule in a cynical strain, believing that woman suffrage was +right but fearing it would not do as much good as its advocates hoped +for. Now suffrage meant "little stuffed men going to a little stuffed +ballot box" and he was afraid "women would take their place on the +chess board to be moved in the game by some power they did not see." +After he had finished Dr. Shaw observed: "I would rather be a little +stuffed woman having my own say than to be ruled by a little stuffed +man without my consent, and the only way we will cease to have little +stuffed men is for them to be born of free mothers." + +Dr. Harriet B. Jones of Wheeling, W. Va., told of the unsuccessful +campaign to have Municipal suffrage for women included in its new +charter. "The anti-suffrage women of New York and Massachusetts," she +said," flooded the newspapers with literature and the heaviest +opposing vote came from the lowest and most ignorant sections of the +city." In answer to the request of the Wheeling women the National +Association had sent Miss Hauser to take charge of the campaign and +appropriated funds for it. A telegram to Dr. Shaw from Samuel Gompers, +president of the American Federation of Labor, was read, saying: +"Kindly convey fraternal greetings to the officers and delegates of +your convention and the earnest expression of our hope for the +enfranchisement and disenthrallment of women." A telegram of greeting +was received from Mrs. Frederick Schoff, president of the National +Congress of Mothers. One came from the National Suffrage Association +of Denmark. + +Mrs. Harper gave an address under the subject Facing the Situation, +showing the satire of the disfranchisement of one-half the citizens in +a Government boasting of being founded on individual representation. +In closing she said: "Eastward the star of woman's empire takes its +way. She does not look for the star in the East but for the star in +the West. Her sun of political freedom rose not in the East but in the +West. It is to the strong, courageous and progressive men of the +western States that the women of this whole country are looking for +deliverance from the bondage of disfranchisement. It is these men who +must start this movement and give it such momentum that it will roll +irresistibly on to the very shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Today the +eyes of the whole country are on this beautiful and progressive State. +This magnificent Exposition has been a revelation of its splendid +powers. It is an anomaly, a contradiction, a reproach indeed that in +the midst of these wonderful achievements one-half of its citizens +should be in absolute political subjection, without voice or share in +affairs of State. Are you not ready now to wipe out that paltry 2,000 +majority which five years ago voted to continue this unjust condition? +Would it not add the crowning glory to this greatest period in your +history if the free men of Oregon should decree that this shall be, +henceforth and forever, the land also of free women?" The Rev. J. +Burgette Short expressed regret that his church, the Methodist +Episcopal, had refused to ordain Dr. Shaw and said it was much poorer +in consequence. "You represent the brains of the world," he said to +the delegates, "and you have my hearty interest and support in your +work." + +A noteworthy address was made by the Hon. W. S. U'Ren, known as "the +father of the Initiative and Referendum," which was then in its early +stages but had been adopted by Oregon and some other States. The +convention was much impressed by this innovation, as the suffragists +had long struggled against the refusal of Legislatures to submit their +question to the voters, and Mrs. Catt offered a resolution that "the +convention affirms its belief in the Initiative and Referendum as a +needed reform and a potent factor in the progress of true democracy." +It was enthusiastically received and later adopted by the convention, +contrary to the habit of the association to consider only subjects +relating directly to women and children.[38] + +Under the pen name of Lucas Malet, Mrs. Mary St. Leger Harrison, a +daughter of Charles Kingsley who was a strong believer in woman +suffrage, had published an article in the London _Fortnightly Review_ +attacking it and quoting President Roosevelt as an opponent. A long +resolution giving his favorable record for the past twenty-five years +on questions relating to women was presented and adopted, against the +judgment of many delegates. A committee was appointed to ask him for a +more definite expression on woman suffrage.[39] + +Telegrams of greeting were sent to veterans in the cause--Mrs. Laura +de Force Gordon, Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent +of California; Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick of Louisiana; Mrs. Julia Ward +Howe, Col. T. W. Higginson, Mrs. Judith W. Smith of Massachusetts; +Mrs. Armenia S. White of New Hampshire; Miss Laura Moore of Vermont; +Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell of Iowa. + +The Committee on Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs. Blankenburg, +chairman, reported that among measures the suffragists had worked for, +the child labor laws had been strengthened in New York, Pennsylvania +and California; the "age of consent" had been raised in Illinois and +Oregon; laws had been passed in several States requiring that women +should be appointed to public boards and women physicians to public +institutions, California leading. In Massachusetts a petition that +women might take part in nominating candidates for the school board, +for which they were allowed to vote, signed by 100,000 women, was +refused by the Legislature. School suffrage was granted to women in +the first class cities of Oklahoma. + +Mrs. Mead, chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration seems to +outshine the preceding one but last night's was the one in Portland; +of the series of articles published in preparation for the +International Peace Congress in Boston in 1904 and the work she had +done in connection with it; of the many lectures given to universities +and clubs and of the arrangements to have the public schools observe +the anniversary of the first Hague Conference. + +The _Oregonian_ said: "Each program given by the convention seems to +outshine the preceding one but last night's was the best thus far." +The speakers were Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, former president of the +Illinois Suffrage Association; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (N. +J.); Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall (Ia.); Miss Gail Laughlin (N. Y.); Judge +Stephen A. Lowell, one of Oregon's leading jurists. Judge Lowell +reviewed the political situation, the evils that had crept into the +Government and the remedies that had been tried and failed and he +summed up his conclusion by saying: "The reforms of the last century +have come from women. Man has few to his credit because he could not +measure them by the only standard he had mastered, that of the dollar. +Witness the movement for female education led by Mary Lyon, the birth +of the Red Cross in the work of Florence Nightingale, the institution +of modern prison methods under the inspiration of Elizabeth Fry and +the campaigns for temperance and social purity under the leadership of +Frances Willard. The electorate needs the inspiring influence of women +at the ballot box and the full mission of this republic to the world +will never be met until she is admitted there. Not color or creed or +sex but patriotic honesty must be the test of citizenship if the +republic lives." + +Mrs. Stewart took up the objections made by many of the clergy to +woman suffrage and applied these to the ministers themselves. "They +should not vote," she said with fine sarcasm, "because like women they +are exempt from jury duty. They seldom go to war--some of them are too +old, others too delicate, some too near-sighted, some too far-sighted. +Ministers as a rule are not heavy tax-payers. Many of them do not want +to vote and do not use the vote they have. A preacher has not time to +vote. It might lead him to neglect his pastoral duties. Political +feeling often runs high and if he voted it might make quarrels in the +church. The minister has a potent indirect influence. He would be +contaminated by the corruption of politics. He is represented by his +male relations; they are not as good and pure as he is and are +probably immune from contamination by politics." + +Mrs. Catt, who presided, in presenting the Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, one of +the first to make the fight for the right of women to speak in public, +said: "The combination of her sweet personality and her invincible +soul has won friends for woman suffrage wherever she has gone." Her +address on Suffrage and Education showed the evolution in woman's +work. "My grandmother taught me to spin," she said, "but the men have +relieved womankind from that task and as they have taken so many +industrial burdens off of our hands it is our duty to relieve them of +some of their burdens of State." Introducing Mrs. Coggeshall of Iowa +Mrs. Catt said: "When I get discouraged I think of her and for many a +year she has been one of my strongest inspirations." A Portland paper +commented: "Her snow-white hair and demure face give no indication of +the brilliant repartee and sharp argument of which she is capable." In +her Word from the Middle West she said: "Its women are determined to +have the ballot if they have to bear and raise the sons to give it to +them. This scheme is in active operation. I myself have raised +three--eighteen feet for woman suffrage--and others have done better. +No bugle can ever sound retreat for the women of the Middle West." The +_Oregonian_ said of Miss Laughlin's address: + + Her arguments are the straight, convincing kind that leave + nothing for the other fellow to say. She comes to Oregon a lawyer + of New York who is proudly boasted of, and justly, by her fellow + workers as the woman who carried off the oratorical honors of + Cornell and won for that institution the championship in + intercollegiate debating contests.... In asking for a "Square + Deal" Miss Laughlin said: + + "'A square deal for every man.' These words of President + Roosevelt were more discussed during our last presidential + campaign than was any party platform plank. The growing + prominence of the doctrine of a square deal is of vital + significance to us who stand for equal suffrage, as we ask only + for this. It has been invoked chiefly against 'trusts.' We invoke + the doctrine of a square deal against the greatest 'trust' in the + world--the political trust--which is the most absolute monopoly + because entrenched in law itself and because it is a monopoly of + the greatest thing in the world, of liberty itself. The exclusion + of women from participation in governmental affairs means the + going to waste of a vast force, which, if utilized, would be a + great power in the advance of civilization.... But there depends + on the success of the equal suffrage movement something more + valuable even than national prosperity and that is the + preservation of human liberty. Now, as in 1860, 'the nation + cannot remain half slave and half free,' and either women must be + made free or men will lose the liberty which they enjoy." + +Sunday services were conducted at 4:30 in the First Congregational +church by the Rev. Eleanor Gordon, pastor of the First Unitarian +church of Des Moines, Ia., assisted by Dr. Shaw and the Rev. Eliza +Tupper Wilkes of Los Angeles, with a special musical program. Miss +Gordon had filled the Unitarian pulpit in the morning, giving an +eloquent sermon on Revelations of God. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman +had preached in the Congregational church in the morning and the Rev. +Mrs. Blackwell in the evening. Miss Laura Clay gave a Bible reading +and exposition in the Taylor Street Methodist Episcopal church in the +evening. The Rev. J. Whitcomb Brougher, pastor of the White Temple, +the large Baptist church, invited Miss Anthony to occupy its pulpit +and expound "any doctrine she had at heart." The _Oregonian_ said: +"She took him at his word and got in some of the best words for +suffrage that have been put before the Portland public. There was such +enthusiasm over the venerable founder and leader of the suffrage +movement that when she appeared on the rostrum the applause was as +vigorous as though it had not been Sunday and the place a church. +There was not room in the big Temple for another person to squeeze +past the doors." The papers quoted liberally from the sermons of all +and the Portland _Journal_ said: "Each preached to a congregation that +taxed the capacity of the church.... The welcome accorded the women +by the Portland pastors was sharply in contrast with the hostility +shown by the clergy when equal suffrage conventions began in the +middle of the last century.[40] + +The Monday evening session was opened by Willis Duniway, who gave a +glowing appreciation of the work of the National American Suffrage +Association and said in the course of a strong speech that he wanted +to see woman suffrage because it was right and because he wanted the +brave pioneer women who had worked for it so long to get it before +they passed away. "I want my mother to vote," he declared amid +applause.[41] "The basis of safe and sane government is justice, which +has its roots in constitutional liberty and means equal rights and +opportunities.... I claim no right or privilege for myself that I +would not give to my mother, wife and sister and to every law-abiding +citizen." When he had finished his mother rose and said dryly: "That, +dear women from the north, east, south and west, is one of Mrs. +Duniway's poor, neglected children!" + +Miss Mary N. Chase, president of the New Hampshire Association, spoke +convincingly on The Vital Question, taking as the keynote: "A republic +based on equal rights for all is not the dream of a fanatic but the +only sane form of government." I. N. Fleischner, who had just been +elected to the school board largely by the votes of women, assured the +convention of his approval and support of the measures it advocated +and said he hoped to see the women enjoying the full right of suffrage +in Oregon in the very near future. + +Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary of the National Consumers' +League, spoke with deeper understanding than would be possible for any +other woman of The Young Bread-winner's Need. "We have in this +country," she said, "2,000,000 children under the age of sixteen who +are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven in the +cotton mills of Georgia, eight, nine and ten in the coal-breakers of +Pennsylvania and fourteen, fifteen and sixteen in more enlightened +States.... In some of the States children from six to thirteen may +legally be compelled to work the whole night of twelve hours," and she +described the heart-breaking conditions under which they toil. She +urged the need of woman's votes to destroy the great evil of child +labor and said: "We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our +enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the +children." + +In introducing Mr. Blackwell, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, who was presiding, +said: "As we came across the continent what impressed me most was the +mountains. First came the foothills, then the high mountains and then +the grand, snow clad peaks. Some of us are like the foothills, just +raised a little above the women who have all the rights they want; +then come those on a higher level of public spirit and service, who +are like the mountains; and then the pioneers rising above all like +the snow covered peaks." Taking the ground that "the perpetuity of +republican institutions depends on the speedy extension of the +suffrage to women," Mr. Blackwell said in his sound, logical address: +"How can we reach the common sense of the plain people, without whose +approval success is impossible?... A purely masculine government does +not fully represent the people, the feminine qualities are lacking. It +is a maxim among political thinkers that 'every class that votes makes +itself felt in the government.' Women as a class differ more widely +from men than any one class of men differs from another. To give the +ballot to merchants and lawyers and deny it to farmers would be class +legislation, which is always unwise and unjust, but there is no class +legislation so complete as an aristocracy of sex. Men have qualities +in which they are superior to women; women have qualities in which +they are superior to men, both are needed. Women are less belligerent +than men, more peaceable, temperate, chaste, economical and +law-abiding, with a higher standard of morals and a deeper sense of +religious obligation, and these are the very qualities we need to add +to the aggressive and impulsive qualities of men." + +The _Journal_ in commenting on this address said: "A venerable and +historical figure is that of Henry B. Blackwell, who in company with +his daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, is in attendance upon the +national suffrage convention. This snowy-haired, white-bearded +patriarch embodies in his voice, his presence, his interest in every +passing event, in his appreciation of every beauty of earth and sky, +in the shifting panorama of nature, the loyal spirit of freedom, the +true spirit of manhood that has dominated his passing years."[42] + +A valuable report on Industrial Problems Relating to Women and +Children was made by Mrs. Kelley, chairman of the committee, which she +began by saying that during 1905 eleven States had improved their +Child Labor Laws or adopted new ones and in every State suffragists +had helped secure these laws. She said that wherever woman suffrage +was voted on its weakness proved to be among the wage-earners of the +cities and she urged that the association submit to the labor +organizations its bill in behalf of wage-earning women and children +with a view to close cooperation. To the workingmen woman suffrage +meant chiefly "prohibition" and an effort should be made to convince +them that it includes assistance in their own legislative measures. +Mrs. Kate S. Hilliard (Utah) answered the question, Will the Ballot +Solve the Industrial Problem? Wallace Nash spoke on the work of the +Christian Cooperative Federation. The leading address of the afternoon +was made by Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago on The Educational +Problem. "It is a strange anomaly in American public life," he said, +"that we have given our schools largely into the hands of women who +must teach history and patriotism but are not considered competent to +vote. I plead for the same education for boys and girls and I urge you +to take a deep interest in the public schools." He gave testimony to +the excellent legislative work women had done along many lines and +declared that "women pay taxes and do public service and hold up +before men the standard of righteousness and they ought to have a +vote," and closed by saying: "We need appeals to the heart and +conscience in our schools and a revival of conscience. We need a +standard of character and conscience and women can bring it into the +schools much better than men can. The woman, because she is a woman, +is less easily corrupted than the man who has forgotten that he had a +mother. If we must disfranchise somebody, it would better be many of +the men than the women." + +At one meeting Judge Roger S. Greene, who was Chief Justice of the +Territory of Washington when the majority of the Supreme Court gave a +decision which took away the suffrage from women and who loyally tried +to preserve it for them, was invited to the platform and received an +ovation. At another time Judge William Galloway, a veteran suffragist, +was called before the convention, and after referring to his journey +to Oregon by ox-team in 1852 told of his conversion by Mrs. Duniway +when he was a member of the Legislature at the age of 21. National +conventions were of daily occurrence during the Exposition and a +number of them called for addresses by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw and other +suffrage speakers. At the evening session preceding the last Miss Mary +S. Anthony, 78 years old, read in a clear, strong voice the +Declaration of Sentiments adopted at the famous first Woman's Rights +Convention in 1848, which she had signed. The rest of the evening of +July 4 was given to what the _Woman's Journal_ spoke of as "Mrs. +Catt's noble address," The New Time, beginning: + + This is a glorious Fourth of July. In a hundred years the United + States has grown into a mighty nation. This last has been a + century of wonderful material development, but we celebrate not + for this. July 4 commemorates the birth of a great idea. All over + the world, wherever there is a band of revolutionists or of + evolutionists, today they celebrate our Fourth. The idea existed + in the world before but it was never expressed in clear, + succinct, intelligible language until the American republic came + into being.... Taxation without representation is tyranny, it + always was tyranny, it always will be tyranny, and it makes no + difference whether it be the taxation of black or white, rich or + poor, high or low, man or woman.... The United States has lost + its place as the leading exponent of democracy. Australia and New + Zealand have out-Americanized America. Let us not forget that + progress does not cease with the 20th century. We say our + institutions are liberal and just. They may be liberal but they + are not just for they are not derived from the consent of the + governed. What is your own mental attitude toward progress? If + you should meet a new idea in the dark, would you shy? + Robespierre said that the only way to regenerate a nation was + over a heap of dead bodies but in a republic the way to do it is + over a heap of pure, white ballots. + +"Mrs. Catt was awarded the Chautauqua salute when she appeared on the +platform," said the _Oregonian_, "and it was some minutes before the +former president of the association could proceed. She spoke +eloquently and at considerable length and in this assemblage of +remarkably bright women it was plain to be seen that she was a star of +the first magnitude." It was hard for the convention to accede to Mrs. +Catt's determination to retire from even the vice-presidency of the +association because of her continued ill health but they yielded +because this was so evident. Mrs. Florence Kelley was the choice for +this office and in accepting she said: "I was born into this cause. My +great-aunt, Sarah Pugh of Philadelphia, attended the meeting in London +which led to the first suffrage convention in 1848. My father, William +D. Kelley, spoke at the early Washington conventions for years." Dr. +Eaton was again obliged to give up the office of second auditor on +account of her professional duties and Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, who +had so successfully planned and managed the convention, was almost +unanimously elected. No other change was made in the board. + +Among the excellent resolutions presented by the chairman of the +committee, Mr. Blackwell, were the following: + + Whereas, the children of today are the republic of the future; + and whereas two million children today are bread-winners; and + whereas the suffrage movement is deeply interested in the welfare + of these children and suffragists are actively engaged in + securing protection for them; and whereas working-men voters are + also vitally interested in protection for the young + bread-winners; therefore, + + Resolved, That it is desirable that our bills for civil rights + and political rights, together with the bills for effective + compulsory education and the proposal for prohibiting night work + and establishing the eight-hour day for minors under eighteen + years of age, be submitted to the organizations of labor and + their cooperation secured. + + The frightful slaughter in the Far East shows the imperative need + of enlisting in government the mother element now lacking; + therefore we ask women to use their utmost efforts to secure the + creation of courts of international arbitration which will make + future warfare forever afterwards unnecessary. + + We protest against all attempts to deal with the social evil by + applying to women of bad life any such penalties, restrictions or + compulsory medical measures as are not applied equally to men of + bad life; and we protest especially against any municipal action + giving vice legal sanction and a practical license.... We + recommend one moral standard for men and women. + +The list of Memorial Resolutions was long and included many prominent +advocates of woman suffrage. Among those of California were Mrs. +Leland Stanford, Judge E. V. Spencer and the veteran workers, Mrs. E. +O. Smith and Sarah Burger Stearns, the latter formerly of Minnesota; +Jas. P. McKinney and Jas. B. Callanan of Iowa; Helen Coffin Beedy of +Maine. Twenty-two names were recorded from Massachusetts, among them +the Hon. George S. Boutwell, President Elmer H. Capen, of Tufts +College; the Hon. William Claflin, the Rev. George C. Lorimer, Mrs. +Ednah D. Cheney; Mrs. Martha E. Root, a Michigan pioneer; Grace Espey +Patton Cowles, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Montana. The Rev. +Augusta Chapin, D. D., Dr. Phoebe J. B. Waite, Bishop Huntington, +James W. Clarke, Dr. Cordelia A. Greene, were among the ten from New +York; Mayor Samuel M. Jones, among seven from Ohio. Five pioneers of +Pennsylvania had passed away, John K. Wildman, Richard P. White, Mrs. +Mary E. Haggart, Miss Matilda Hindman, Miss Anna Hallowell. Cyrus W. +Wyman of Vermont and Orra Langhorne of Virginia were other deceased +pioneers; also Mrs. Rebecca Moore and Mrs. Margaret Preston Tanner, +who were among the earliest workers in Great Britain. + +Special resolutions were adopted for Mrs. Mary A. Livermore and U. S. +Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts; Col. Daniel R. Anthony of +Kansas; Mrs. Louisa Southworth of Ohio. The eloquent resolutions +prepared by Mr. Blackwell ended: "Never before in a single year have +we had to record the loss of so many faithful suffragists. Let the +pioneers who still survive close up their ranks and rejoice in the +accession of so many young and vigorous advocates, who will carry on +the work to a glorious consummation." The California delegation +presented the following resolution, which was enthusiastically +adopted: "Resolved, That we remember with the deepest gratitude the +one man who has stood steadfast at the helm, notwithstanding constant +ridicule and belittlement on the part of the press during the early +years of the work, unselfishly and unceasingly devoting his life to +the self-imposed task year after year, never faltering, never seeking +office or honors but always a worker; one who has grown gray in the +service--Henry B. Blackwell." + +Invitations were received to hold the next convention in Washington, +Chicago and Baltimore. The by-law requiring that every alternate +convention must be held in Washington during the first session of +Congress was amended to read "may be held." The _Woman's Journal_ +said: "Miss Anthony favored the change and Mr. Blackwell opposed +it--an amusing fact to those who remember how strongly he used to +advocate a movable annual convention and Miss Anthony a stationary one +in Washington. Evidently neither of them is so fossilized as to be +unable to see new light." The invitation of the Maryland Woman +Suffrage Association was accepted. + +The dominant interest of the convention had been in a prospective +campaign for a woman suffrage amendment to the constitution of Oregon. +The Legislature had refused to submit it but under the Initiative and +Referendum law this could be done by petition. Public sentiment +throughout the State seemed to indicate that it was now ready to +enfranchise women and officials from the Governor down believed an +amendment could be carried. All the officers of the State Suffrage +Association had joined in the invitation to the National Association +to hold its convention of 1905 in Portland and inaugurate the campaign +and to assist it in every possible way. After the report of the State +vice-president, Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, had been read to the +convention of 1904 a resolution had been moved by Mrs. Catt, seconded +by Miss Anthony and unanimously adopted, that the association accept +this invitation and a pledge of $3,000 had been made. Throughout the +present convention the speeches of public officials and the pledges +made on every hand encouraged the members to feel that the association +should give all possible help in money and workers.[43] + +The public was much impressed at the last session by the appearance on +the platform of four prominent politicians of the State representing +the different parties and this was generally regarded as the opening +of the campaign for woman suffrage. They were introduced by State +Senator Henry Waldo Coe, M. D., who spoke in highest praise of homes +and housekeepers as he had seen them in his practice and said: "The +woman who takes an interest in the affairs of her country has the +highest interest in her home, and the suffrage will not lessen her +fitness as wife and mother." He introduced Mayor Harry Lane as the +Democrat who carried a Republican city and who was the best mayor +Portland ever had. Mr. Lane declared that women were as much entitled +to the suffrage as men and that the enfranchisement of women would +tend to purify politics. Dr. Andrew C. Smith, a Republican, was +introduced as "the man who presented the names of thirteen women +physicians to the State Medical Association and got them admitted." +The press report said: "The prospective women voters were informed +that they saw before them the next Governor of Oregon." Dr. Smith +declared that he had been for woman suffrage twenty-five years and +that "the United States was guilty of a national sin in not giving +women equal rights." Thomas Burns, State Secretary of the Socialist +party, asserted that it was the only one which had a plank for woman +suffrage in its platform and the Socialists had fought for it all over +the world. "Men have made a failure of government," he said, "now let +the women try it." O. M. Jamison, of the Citizens' movement, said: "We +have found women the strongest factor in our work for reform and I +think 99 per cent. of us are for woman suffrage." B. Lee Paget, who +spoke for the Prohibitionists, declared himself an old convert to +woman suffrage and said: "I think intelligent women far better fitted +to vote on public measures than the majority of men who take part in +campaigns and are wholly ignorant of the issues." + +L. F. Wilbur of Vermont told of its improved laws for women and +advancing public sentiment for woman suffrage and paid a glowing +tribute to the early work in that State of Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell +and Julia Ward Howe. Mrs. Maud Wood Park, president of the +Massachusetts College Women's Suffrage League, gave a scholarly +address on The Civic Responsibility of Women, which she began by +saying that the first "new woman" was from Boston--Anne Hutchinson. +Dr. Marie D. Equi, candidate for inspector of markets, spoke briefly +on the need of market inspection for which women were especially +fitted. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (N. Y.) in discussing Woman's +World said in part: "Ex-President Cleveland, after warning women +against the clubs which are leading them straight to the abyss of +suffrage, told us that 'the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand +that rules the world.' ... Is it true? The Indian woman rocks the +cradle; does she rule the world? The Chinese woman--the woman of the +harem--do they rule it? An amiable old gentleman in opening a suffrage +debate said: 'My wife rules me and if a woman can rule a man, why +should she care to rule the country?' He seemed to think he was equal +to the whole United States! Women have been taught that the home was +their sphere and men have claimed everything else for themselves. The +fact that women in the home have shut themselves away from the thought +and life of the world has done much to retard progress. We fill the +world with the children of 20th century A. D. fathers and 20th century +B. C. mothers." + +Miss Blackwell lightened the proceedings with some of her clever +anecdotes with a suffrage moral, and Mrs. Gilman with several of her +brilliant poems. Mrs. Catt gave a concise review of the International +Woman Suffrage Alliance, formed at Berlin in 1904, and told of the +progress of woman suffrage in other countries. Greetings to all of +them were sent by the convention. Dr. Shaw gave an impressive +peroration to this interesting session by pointing out the +responsibility resting on the men and women of Oregon to carry to +success the campaign which they had now begun, and Miss Anthony closed +the convention with a fervent appeal to all to work for victory. + +The delegates and visitors greatly enjoyed the Exposition, which had +such a setting as none ever had before, looking out on the dazzling +beauty of the snowclad peaks of Mt. Hood and the Olympic Range, and +now they had to select from the many opportunities for travel and +sight-seeing. The Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, Emily Howland, Mrs. Cartwright +of Portland and others from seventy to eighty years of age, took a +steamer for Alaska. Mr. and Miss Blackwell and others went to +Seattle, Vancouver and home through the magnificent scenery of the +Canadian Pacific Railroad. Mrs. Catt and another party returned east +by way of the Yellowstone Park. Dr. Cora Smith Eaton with a few daring +spirits went for a climb of Mt. Hood. Miss Anthony with a group of +friends started southward, stopping at Chico, California, for her to +dedicate a park of 2,000 acres, which Mrs. Annie K. Bidwell had +presented to the village. They went on to San Francisco where they +were joined by Dr. Shaw, who had remained in Portland for the Medical +Convention and spoken at several places en route. Here they were +beautifully entertained in the homes of the suffrage leaders, Mrs. +Mary Wood Swift, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, Mrs. +Emma Shafter Howard and others, and mass meetings crowded to the doors +were held in San Francisco and Oakland. From here they went to Los +Angeles for other meetings, except Dr. Shaw, who started eastward for +her round of Chautauqua engagements. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[36] Part of Call: A government of men and women--not by women alone, +not by men alone, but a government of men and women by men and women +for men and women--this is the aim and ideal of our association. + +One hundred years ago Oregon was an untrodden wilderness. The +transformation of that primeval territory into prosperous communities +enjoying the highest degree of civilization could not have been +accomplished without the work of women. No restriction should be +placed upon energies and abilities so potent for good. The extension +of the right of suffrage would remove a handicap from the efforts of +women and give them an opportunity to work for the welfare of the +State. We do not claim that woman's voice in the government would at +once sound the death knell to all social and political evils but we do +believe that a government representing the interests and beliefs of +women and men would prove itself, and is proving itself where it now +exists, to be a better government than one which represents the +interests and beliefs of men alone. + +The movement for the enfranchisement of women is based upon the +unchanging and unchangeable principles of human liberty, in accordance +with which successive classes of men have won the right of +self-government. On such a foundation ultimate victory is assured and +in truth is conceded even by those who oppose. The day is ever drawing +nearer when the nation will apply to women the principles which are +the very foundation of its existence; when on every election day there +will be re-affirmed the immortal truths of our Declaration of American +Independence. Then will this indeed be a just government, "deriving +its powers from the consent of the governed." + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President. + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Vice-president. + KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary. + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. + HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } + CORA SMITH EATON, } Auditors. + +[37] If this request was so "reasonable" why was the word "sex" +included in the first place? Although it was omitted from the Act of +Congress which admitted these Territories to Statehood under the names +of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, each one adopted a constitution +whose suffrage clause absolutely barred women and those constitutions +were approved by Congress. (See their special chapters.) + +[38] In later years woman suffrage amendments were submitted to the +voters through the Initiative and Referendum after the Legislature had +refused to do it and were carried in Oregon and Arizona and defeated +in Nebraska and Missouri. Still later by this method the ratification +of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in Ohio by the Legislature was sent +to the voters after they had defeated the ratification of the +Prohibition Amendment. This was attempted in several other States and +both prohibitionists and suffragists were in great distress, which was +relieved by a decision of the U. S. Supreme Court that this action was +unconstitutional. They learned, however, that the Initiative and +Referendum has its harmful as well as its beneficial side. + +[39] Miss Anthony and Mrs. Upton went to Washington in November, where +Mrs. Harper joined them, and on the 15th President Roosevelt received +them cordially and granted them a long interview. Miss Anthony was the +principal spokesman and made these requests: 1. To mention woman +suffrage in his speeches when practicable. 2. To put experienced women +on boards and commissions relating to such matters as they would be +competent to pass upon. 3. To recommend to Congress a special +committee to investigate the practical working of woman suffrage where +it exists. 4. To see that Congress should not discriminate against the +women of the Philippines as it had done against those of Hawaii. 5. To +say something that would help the approaching suffrage campaign in +Oregon. 6. To speak to the national suffrage convention in Baltimore +in February, as he did to the Mothers' Congress. 7. To recommend to +Congress a Federal Suffrage Amendment before he left the presidency. + +These requests were given to him in typewritten form but President +Roosevelt did not comply with one of them and did not communicate +further with the committee who called upon him. For full account of +this occurrence see Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, page 1375. + +[40] Different sessions were opened with prayer by Rabbi Stephen S. +Wise, Father Black and the Reverends Elwin L. House, H. M. Barden, E. +S. Muckley, J. Burgette Short, J. Whitcomb Brougher, E. Nelson Allen, +Edgar P. Hill, W. S. Gilbert, A. A. Morrison, T. L. Eliot, Asa Sleeth, +J. F. Ghormley, George Creswell Cressey, representing various +denominations. Nearly all of them pledged their support to the +suffrage movement. The fine musical programs throughout the convention +were in charge of Mrs. M. A. Dalton. + +[41] Oregon gave suffrage to women in 1912 and Mrs. Duniway received +full recognition. See Oregon chapter. + +[42] Mr. Blackwell, then 80 years old, used to rise early in the +morning and take a trolley ride of thirty or forty miles in various +directions to enjoy the beauties of nature. "Feeling unwilling to +return east without bathing in the Pacific," he said in one of his +letters, "and wishing to visit Astoria, the ancient American fur-post +so charmingly immortalized by Washington Irving, I left Portland after +the convention closed and had a beautiful voyage of nine hours down +the river to where it meets the ocean.... After an early morning +plunge into the big waves we chartered an auto and sped over the hard +sands to the fir-crowned cliffs." + +[43] For results the following year see Oregon chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1906. + + +The Thirty-eighth annual convention held in Baltimore Feb. 7-13, 1906, +was notable in several respects. It had gone into the very heart of +conservatism and a larger number of eminent men and women took part in +its proceedings than had ever before been represented on a single +program.[44] There were university presidents and professors, men and +women; office holders, men and women; representatives of other large +movements, men and women, and more distinguished women than had ever +before assembled in one convention. It was especially memorable +because of the presence on the platform together for the first and +only time of the three great pioneers, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton +and Julia Ward Howe, and never to be forgotten by suffragists as the +last ever attended by Miss Anthony. Here was sung the Battle Hymn of +the Republic in the presence of the woman who wrote it, Mrs. Howe; +and the Star Spangled Banner in the home of its author, Francis Scott +Key. + +The meetings were held in the beautifully decorated Lyric Theater with +appreciative and enthusiastic audiences. The arrangements had been +made by the Maryland Suffrage Association and its president, Mrs. Emma +Maddox Funck. Ministers of nearly all denominations asked blessings on +the various sessions and the best musical talent in the city gave its +services. The papers were most generous with space and fair and +friendly in their reports. Through the influence and efforts of Dr. M. +Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, the remarkable +representation of Women's Colleges was secured. Baltimore's most +prominent woman, Miss Mary E. Garrett, was largely responsible for the +social prestige which is especially necessary to success in a southern +city. It was a convention long to be remembered by those who were so +fortunate as to be a part of it. + +The convention opened on the afternoon of February 7 with Dr. Anna +Howard Shaw, president of the association, in the chair and was +welcomed by Mrs. Funck, who said in a graceful speech: "You have come +to the conservative South. Conservative--what a sweet-sounding word, +what an ark for the timid soul! So you must expect to find a good many +folks who mean well but who have not discarded their silver buckles +and ruffles, but nothing will more clearly indicate the development of +our people from provincialism and bigotry than their generosity of +spirit and kindly intent towards the gathering of our clans in this +convention. Most people have come to realize that to be a great nation +we must have that catholicity of spirit which embraces all ologies and +all isms.... From the suffrage pioneers we have learned the lessons of +fair play and equal rights." + +Fraternal greetings were offered by Mrs. Albert L. Sioussat, president +of the State Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. Hattie Hull Troupe, +president of the Women's Twentieth Century Club of Baltimore; Mrs. +Rosa H. Goldenberg, president of the Maryland section Jewish Council +of Women, and Mrs. Mary R. Haslup, president of the Baltimore Woman's +Christian Temperance Union. As the vice-president of the association, +Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers of Oregon, who was to respond, had been +delayed en route. Dr. Shaw took her place, saying in answer to certain +of the greetings: "In all my experience I have observed that those +people are most likely to have their prayers answered who do +everything they can to help God answer them; so while we may try by +prayer to bring about the highest good not only in the State but in +education and philanthropy, we hope to add to our prayers the +citizen's power of the ballot.... We have never had a more generous +welcome or a warmer hospitality offered to us and we thank you with +all our heart. Whatever may happen while we are here, nothing can take +away from us the beauty of the sunshine and the kindliness of your +welcome." + +The first evening session was opened with prayer by the Rev. John B. +Van Meter, dean of the Woman's College, Baltimore, and music by a +chorus of two hundred voices under the direction of William R. Hall. +Governor Edwin Warfield made an eloquent address in which he said: "A +man who would not extend a welcome to such a body of women would not +be worthy the name of Maryland, which we consider a synonym of +hospitality. Our doors are always wide open to friends and strangers, +especially strangers. We are delighted to have you here. While I may +not agree with all your teachings, I recognize one fact, that there +never has been assembled in Baltimore a convention composed of women +who have been more useful in this country and who have done more for +the uplift of humanity. It was proper for you to come to Maryland, a +State that was named for a woman, whose capital was named for a woman +and whose motto is 'Manly deeds and womanly words.'" He paid glowing +compliments to the splendid public service of Maryland women and said +he would not have been elected Governor but for their kindly +influence. He declared that he had been almost persuaded by the +charming words of Mrs. Howe and said his wife was a "convert" and he +"had been voting as a proxy for some time." He believed "the final +solution of the question would be a referendum to the women +themselves." + +Dr. Shaw could not resist saying when she rose to introduce the next +speaker: "So many have told us, as the Governor has, about being +proxy-voters, that we think it is time they should be relieved of +that role and have an opportunity to do their own voting while we +women attend to ours." Mayor Timanus was indisposed and the welcome +for the city was given by the Hon. William F. Stone, Collector of the +Port. He vied with the Governor in the warmth of his greeting and his +splendid tributes to women and acknowledged his indebtedness for "all +that he was or expected to be to his sainted mother and beloved wife," +but, like the Governor, he could not give his full sanction to woman +suffrage. When he had finished Dr. Shaw said with her winning smile +and melodious voice: "We have the testimony of Governor Warfield and +of Collector Stone that the best each has been able to accomplish has +been due to the influence of good women. Now if a good woman can +develop the best in an individual man, may not all the good women +together develop the best in a whole State? I am glad of this strong +point in favor of enfranchising women." + +Miss Anthony was to have presided at this meeting and in referring to +her absence on account of illness Dr. Shaw said: "I am not taking Miss +Anthony's place this evening--there is only one Susan B. Anthony, but +it is also true that there is only one Clara Barton and but one Julia +Ward Howe and these grand women we have with us." Miss Barton, who, in +her soft plum-colored satin with fichu of white lace, her dark hair +parted smoothly over her forehead, did not seem over sixty although +she was eighty-four, was enthusiastically received and said in part: +"What greater honor and what greater embarrassment than to be asked to +take ever so small a step on a platform that Susan B. Anthony had +expected to tread. As I stand here tonight my thoughts go back to the +time when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Anthony were pioneers +struggling for this righteous cause. I think the greatest reforms, the +greatest progress ever made for any reforms in our country have been +along the lines on which they worked. Miss Anthony's has been a long +life. She has trod the thorny way, has walked through briars with +bleeding feet, but it is through a sweet and lovely way now and the +hearts of the whole country are with her. A few days ago some one said +to me that every woman should stand with bared head before Susan B. +Anthony. 'Yes,' I answered, 'and every man as well.' I would not +retract these words. I believe that man has benefited by her work as +much as woman. For ages he has been trying to carry the burden of +life's responsibilities alone and when he has the efficient help of +woman he will be grateful. Just now it is new and strange and men +cannot comprehend what it would mean but the change is not far away. +The nation is soon to have woman suffrage and it will be a glad and +proud day when it comes." + +Mrs. Howe in the dignity of her eighty-seven years made a lovely +picture in a gown of mauve satin with a creamy lace scarf draped about +her head and shoulders. She was escorted to the front of the platform +by the Governor and said in her brief response: "Madam president and +you dear suffrage friends, and the rest of you who are going to become +suffrage friends before we leave this city, I give you thanks for this +friendly greeting. I am very, very glad to meet you all. I am not +going to preach a sermon but I have a text from the New Testament, a +question that the Lord asked when the crowd came to see him, 'What +came ye out to see? A reed shaken with the wind?' No, it was a prophet +that they came to see and hear. When you come to these suffrage +meetings you do not come to see reeds shaken by the wind. We do not +any of us claim to be prophets but you do come to hear a prophecy, a +very glad prophecy which some of us have believed in and followed for +years, and all the way of that following has been joyous and bright +though it has not been popular. I remember many years ago going with +Mrs. Livermore and Lucy Stone to a meeting in New England and the +report was sent out that 'three old crows were coming to disturb the +town with their croakings.' I can never forget that evening. When Mary +Livermore looked the audience over in her calm and dignified manner +they quieted down as if by magic. When reasonable measures are +proposed in a reasonable way there are always some people who will +respond and be convinced. We have no desire to put out of sight the +difficulties of government. When we talk about woman suffrage people +begin to remember how unsatisfactory manhood suffrage is, but I should +like to see what men would do if there was an attempt to take it away. +We might much improve it by bringing to it the feminine mind, which +in a way complements the masculine. I frankly believe that we have +half the intelligence and good sense of humanity and that it is quite +time we should express not only our sentiments but our determined will +to set our faces toward justice and right and to follow these through +the thorny wilderness if necessary--follow them straight, not to the +'bitter end,' for it will not be bitter but very sweet and I hope it +will come before my end comes." + +For the second time Dr. Shaw had written her president's address but +although it was a statesmanlike document the audience missed the +spontaneity, the sparkle of wit, the flashes of eloquence that +distinguished her oratory above that of all others, and there was a +general demand that hereafter she should give them the spoken instead +of the written word. She complied and while it was a gain to the +audiences of her day and generation it was a great loss to posterity. +Even extended quotations can give little idea of this address which +filled over ten columns of the _Woman's Journal_. + + For the first time in the history of our association we meet to + protest against the disenfranchisement of women in a State in + which the first public demand for a part in the conduct of our + government was made by a woman. It was in an impassioned appeal + to your Assembly, that in 1647 Mistress Margaret Brent demanded + "a part and voyce" as representative of the estate of her + kinsman, Lord Baltimore, whose name your city bears. Here Mary + Catherine Goddard published Baltimore's only newspaper through + all the severe struggle of the Revolutionary War, and it is + stated upon good authority that when Congress, then in session in + Baltimore, sent out the official Declaration of Independence, + with the names of the signers attached, it was published by + official order in Miss Goddard's paper; that her name was on the + sheet which was officially circulated throughout the country; + but, although a memorial sheet was afterwards placed in the Court + House, Miss Goddard's name was not left on it. This omission is + but one of many evidences that in the compilation of the world's + historic events it has been customary to overlook the part + performed by women. + +Dr. Shaw took up the section on Labor in President Roosevelt's recent +message to Congress in which he recommended a thorough investigation +of the condition of women in industry, saying: "There is an almost +complete dearth of data on which to base any trustworthy conclusions," +and then drawing this one: "The introduction of women into industry +is working change and disturbance in the domestic and social life of +the nation; the decrease in marriage and especially in the birth-rate +have been coincident with it." Dr. Shaw's comment was in part: + + This is unquestionably true but it is also true that this has + been coincident with the wider discovery of gold and the + application of steam and electricity to mechanics ... and to draw + sweeping and universal conclusions in regard to a matter upon + which there is an "almost complete dearth of data" is never wise. + Is it true that there is a lower birth-rate among working women + than among those of the wealthy class? Are not the effects of + over-work and long hours in the household as great as are those + of the factory or the office? Is the birth-rate less among women + who are engaged in the occupations unknown to women of the past? + Or is the decline alike marked among those who are pursuing the + ancient occupations but under different conditions?... If + conditions surrounding their employment are such as to make it a + "social question of the first importance" it is unfortunate the + President had not seen that women should constitute at least a + part of any commission authorized to investigate it. + + One can not but wish that with his expressed desire for "fair + play" and his policy of "a square deal" it had occurred to the + President that, if five million American women are employed in + gainful occupations, every principle of justice would demand that + they should be enfranchised to enable them to secure legislation + for their own protection. In all governments a subject class is + always at a disadvantage and at the mercy of the ruling class. It + matters not whether its name be Empire, Kingdom or Republic, + whether the rulers are one or many; and in a democracy there is + no way known for any class to protect its interests or to be + secure in its most sacred rights except through the power of the + ballot.... + +There had been about this time in high places an outburst of attacks +on woman suffrage and predictions as to its dangerous possibilities. +Dr. Shaw referred to their authors as Oracles and said: "The great +difficulty is that when one Oracle claiming to be divinely inspired +has laid down a specific line of conduct which if implicitly followed +would lead to the proper development of woman, the happiness of man, +the good of the family and the well-being of the State, another Oracle +also divinely enlightened lays out a different path by which these +ends may be secured, and then another and another until poor women if +they should try to follow these self-appointed divine revealers would +not only have to be hydra-headed to see these devious paths but +hydra-footed to walk in them." Referring to Cardinal Gibbons, she +said: + + The Oracle of Baltimore tells us that the education and culture + of women are good up to a certain point, no further, but he + sagely fails to define the point, simply declaring that "too much + education of the head is apt to cool the heart; the cultivation + of the soul is too much neglected in the higher education; the + head and the heart and the body should all be educated together; + then they develop equally." There certainly can be no + disagreement among us as to the latter statement but why is it + more applicable to women than to men? The Oracle does not leave + us in doubt as to his view, for in response to the question, + "What do you think of the societies and club organizations which + attract women so largely just now?" he replies: "A society like + the Daughters of the American Revolution I heartily approve of, + for it tends to foster patriotism and keep it alive, but other + clubs of all kinds for women I strictly disapprove of." + + The Oracle of Princeton, ex-President Cleveland, who has gained + the most notoriety for his heavy diatribes against women's clubs, + also admits that there are a few societies which it might be well + for women to encourage and keep alive--religious organizations + and those which administer to the needs of the heathen in a + foreign land. The Oracle of Brooklyn, Dr. Lyman Abbott, adds a + few more to the list and includes philanthropic, reform and + social clubs. Would it be unwomanly to ask why there should have + been such wide divergence in the Divine Illumination which each + Oracle received? + +Dr. Shaw quoted from Mr. Roosevelt: "The President of the United +States does not absent himself from the country during the term of his +presidency, it is his domain. So should it be with woman; she is queen +of her empire and that empire is the home," and after reminding him +that the President's term lasts but four or eight years she asked: +"What do men mean by saying that women should remain contentedly in +their homes? They do not intend us to understand that we are never to +leave them, for they are frequently calling us forth when conditions +become so intolerable that even men can no longer endure them. Then +they call upon women to come out from the seclusion and protection of +their homes and aid them to 'save the city and the State.'" She +pointed out the difference between the time when the home was "a +protective and industrial center" and now when "the results of +electricity and steam have scattered the households," but in picturing +the advance that women had made in their own domain she said: "There +never was a time when there was as large a number of good +housekeepers and homemakers; when there was as much intelligence shown +in the scientific preparation of food; such knowledge of household +sanitation; such reverence for individual life; such painstaking study +of the needs and rights of childhood; when there was so much thought +given to the development of the finer and more permanent qualities of +character; when such good comradeship existed between children and +their parents; when marriage had so deep a spiritual and human meaning +as at the present time. The home ideal of today is the best the world +has yet known and it will continue to develop as larger freedom and +broader culture come to all who share in its life...." + +The manner in which politics enters the modern home was pointed out +and the contempt which was shown for the political opinions of women +and then in a rousing appeal to women the speaker said: "A few days +since I was asked by a compiler of other people's thoughts to express +for him my opinion of the greatest need of American women and I +replied, 'self-respect.' ... The assumption that woman have neither +discernment nor judgment and that any man is superior in all the +qualities that make for strength, stability and sanity to any woman, +simply because he is a man and she is a woman, is still altogether too +common. The time has come when women must question themselves to learn +how far they are personally responsible for this almost universal +disrespect and then set about changing it." + +Dr. Shaw told of the organization of the College Women's Equal +Suffrage League and asked: "Who can compute the loss sustained by our +country every year by the addition of unrestricted, ignorant and often +criminal male voters and the exclusion of the vast number of college +and high-school graduates through the disfranchisement of women? If +the stability of a government depends upon the morality and +intelligence of its voting citizens, how long can the foundations of +ours remain secure if we continue to enfranchise ignorance and vice +and disfranchise intelligence and virtue?" The action of Legislatures +in past years was depicted as "playing shuttlecock and battledore with +the amendment, passing it in one House to defeat it in another, in a +hypocritical desire to appear favorable and inspire us with hope in +order to retain the small amount of influence they think we possess, +and yet compelling us to begin the work all over again." After +reviewing the long struggle of American women for political freedom +she ended with an impassioned peroration of which only a portion can +be quoted: + + No class of men in any nation have ever been compelled to wage + such an arduous and difficult struggle for their political + freedom. Through the influence of the Democratic party, without + an effort on their own behalf, white working men were + enfranchised; and by an Act of Congress under Republican + leadership the newly emancipated men slaves were protected in + their right of suffrage. The same Act placed in the Constitution + of the United States for the first time the word "male," which + robbed women of the protection guaranteed to every other class of + citizens in the most sacred right of citizenship--the right to a + voice in the Government. + + Such is the boasted chivalry of the Land of Freedom, which has + left its women to strive against tradition, prejudice, + conservatism, self-interest, political power and in addition all + the forces of corruption combined, to secure the privilege which + was conferred upon vast numbers of men who never even demanded it + and many of whom knew nothing of its significance after it was + granted. I claim, and fear no contradiction, that the women of + this land are better qualified to exercise the suffrage with + intelligence, honesty and patriotism than were any other class of + citizens in the world at the time when it was conferred upon + them. + + Must women, unaided, continue the struggle for forty years longer + until they have rounded out a century, assailing the bulwarks of + prohibitive constitutions in the forty-one States yet to be won? + Or will not some brave, consistent and freedom-loving President, + recognizing the duty the Government owes to the disfranchised + millions of patriotic women, recommend to Congress to submit an + amendment to the Federal Constitution forbidding disfranchisement + on account of sex? And will not the time speedily come when + Congress, recognizing the great injustice which was inflicted + upon the women of the land when by enfranchising a race of slave + men they riveted the fetters of disfranchisement upon educated + and patriotic women, redeem the nation from this stigma? It was + the most ungrateful and unjust act ever perpetrated by a republic + upon a class of citizens who had worked and sacrificed and + suffered as did the women of this nation in the struggle of the + Civil War only to be rewarded at its close by such unspeakable + degradation as to be reduced to the plane of subjects to + enfranchised slaves.... + + I stand here tonight to say that we have never known defeat; we + have never been vanquished. We have not always reached the goal + toward which we have striven, but in the hour of our greatest + disappointment we could always point to our battlefield and say: + "There we fought our good fight, there we defended the principles + for which our ancestors and yours laid down their lives; there + is our battlefield for justice, equality and freedom. Where is + yours?" + +While the eminent speakers attracted the largest audiences that ever +had attended the conventions of the association, according to the +opinions of the older suffragists, the delegates themselves were +equally interested in the morning meetings devoted to the reports and +other business. The corresponding secretary, Miss Kate M. Gordon, a +keen student of politics and organization, in speaking of factors in +success, said: "There is great necessity for a personal acquaintance +between the leaders in our suffrage work in the States and the +prominent politicians in the States; the personal acquaintance also of +the editors and managers of our great public-opinion-forming +newspapers; a pleasant working relation in women's clubs and all +movements for better social conditions in our respective communities; +a more intimate acquaintance with the educational influences, the +teachers in our public schools and the college life of our +communities." + +Miss Gordon made a special plea for cooperation in the efforts for +Child Labor legislation and she ended by saying: "But means and +methods for the future of our work pale into insignificance in the +need of the hour, which is Oregon. Funds for this campaign must be a +matter of conscience with every believer. In proportion to the +gratitude you feel for the comfortable position which women occupy +today, measure your contribution; no sacrifice can be too great at +this crucial moment in our onward history." Throughout the convention +the work in Oregon, where an amendment to the State constitution would +be voted on in November, was the uppermost thought. The treasurer made +a special appeal for funds; the chairman of the Press Committee told +of it; it was discussed and planned for in the business meetings and +different speakers referred in hopeful words to its probable success. + +An amendment to the constitution abolishing proxies empowered to cast +the full vote to which the State was entitled and providing that +delegates present should cast only their own vote caused a spirited +discussion, with Mrs. Catt and eastern delegates in favor and Dr. Shaw +and western delegates opposed and was lost by a vote of 68 to 11. No +change of officers was made at this convention. Reports of Committees +on Libraries, Literature, Enrollment, Presidential Suffrage, etc., +were presented by their chairmen. A lively discussion on the use of +the union label on literature, stationery, etc., resulted in an almost +unanimous decision to retain it. Very interesting reports of work in +the States were made by their respective presidents. Invitations for +the next convention were received from the Chamber of Commerce of +Wheeling, W. Va., the Chamber of Commerce, Bar Association and +Suffrage Club of Oklahoma City and the Commission for celebrating the +founding of Jamestown, Va. + +Miss Antoinette Knowles (Cal.), chairman of the Committee on Church +Work, said that by standing for temperance many churches could be +obtained for meetings that would not be opened for those purely on +suffrage. She gave a list of orthodox churches which had been thus +secured; told of successful addresses she had made on the relation +between woman suffrage and temperance and urged the appointment of a +church committee in every State. The report of Miss Elizabeth J. +Hauser, headquarter's secretary, told of the usual large amount of +work, which included the distribution of 62,000 copies of the +quarterly publication, _Progress_; 106,753 pieces of literature and +many thousands of suffrage stamps, picture postals and souvenirs. +Speakers and fraternal delegates had been sent to a large number of +national conventions throughout the country and cordially received. +Many of these had adopted resolutions for woman suffrage including the +American Federation of Labor, National Association of Letter Carriers, +National Grange, National Council of Jewish Women, Supreme Commandery +Knights of Temperance, National Associations of Universalists and of +Spiritualists. The State conventions of various kinds that had +endorsed it were almost without number and excellent work had been +done at county fairs, granges, farmers' institutes, summer assemblies +and educational and religious societies. It was voted to make +_Progress_ the official organ of the association and issue it monthly. +The national headquarters in Warren, O., had been removed to a +spacious room on the ground floor of the county court house, formerly +used for a public library. + +The chairman of the Press Committee, Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, made her +last report, as the press work was henceforth to be done at the +national headquarters with its excellent staff and facilities. For +twelve years Mrs. Babcock had carried on this work, which in her +capable hands had reached an immense volume and become a leading +feature of the National Association. She reported that over 5,000 +papers were now using the material sent out from the press bureau and +that it was very difficult to respond to all the calls for it. In +answer to the second broadside of former President Cleveland in the +_Ladies' Home Journal_, which refused to publish anything from anybody +on the other side, 2,000 copies of articles by different persons and +1,000 of the excellent refutation by Representative John F. Shafroth +of Colorado had been distributed. The report stated that Mrs. Ida +Porter Boyer, the efficient chairman of Pennsylvania, had been sent by +the National Association to supervise the press work of the Oregon +campaign. It urged that grateful recognition should be shown to papers +that favor woman suffrage saying: "Editors are called upon for help +and are not thanked for the kindness and good they do nearly as much +as they should be." The convention gave Mrs. Babcock a rising vote of +thanks for her long and faithful work. + +The Executive Committee recommended in its Plan of Work that the +States work for a uniform resolution in favor of a Sixteenth +Amendment; that they endeavor to secure Initiative and Referendum +laws; that in each Legislature measures be introduced for full +suffrage or for some form of suffrage; that efforts be continued to +obtain equalization of property and intestate laws, also +co-guardianship of children; that the working forces of the +association be concentrated where there are State campaigns for +suffrage; that each club organize one new one and each individual +member secure one more; that all present lines of work be continued +and extended; that there be a more systematic and liberal distribution +of literature; that hearings be obtained before all kinds of +organizations. It was voted that "the Board of Officers consider the +propriety of recommending all the States to make a concerted effort to +secure Presidential suffrage for women in the election of 1908." But +one work conference was held, that on Press, Miss Hauser presiding. +One of the most important conferences of the week was that of State +presidents, at which each told of the most effective work within the +year, and the discussion which followed gave much practical and +helpful information. + +At the second afternoon session Dr. Shaw read a number of letters from +Governors of the equal suffrage and other States answering favorably +an appeal from the California Suffrage Association that they would +appoint one or more women to the national commission soon to meet to +consider uniform marriage and divorce laws. She had emphasized this +necessity in her president's address. The report of Mrs. Florence +Kelley, chairman of the Committee on Industrial Problems Affecting +Women and Children, was heard with deep interest and feeling. As +executive secretary of the National Consumers' League for many years +and a close student of labor conditions, she spoke with accurate +knowledge when she told of the employment of children. A Baltimore +woman in her welcome to the convention had said that Maryland women +were satisfied with what they could secure by petition without the +ballot, and Mrs. Kelley, referring with fine sarcasm to the "sadly +modest results of their petitions," said: + + Last night while we slept after our evening meeting there were in + Maryland many hundred boys, only nominally fourteen years old, + working all night in the glass-works; and here in Baltimore the + smallest messenger boys I have ever seen in any city were + perfectly free to work all night. No law was broken in either + case, for the women of Maryland have not yet by their right of + petition brought to the children of the State protection from + working all night. Here in this city children must go to school + until they are nominally twelve years old but outside of + Baltimore and three other counties there is no limit whatever to + the work of any child. Moreover, here in Baltimore where the law + nominally applies children are free to work at any age if they + have a dependent relative or if they are liable to become + dependent themselves! + + It is five years since the first delegation of women went to + Atlanta to ask for legislation on behalf of the working children + of Georgia, carrying petitions with them, and they have gone in + vain every year since. Each year the number of women joining in + the protest has been greater and, alas, the number of little + girls under ten years old, who work in Georgia cotton mills all + night, has also been greater. The number of working children + grows faster than the number of petitioning women.... In New + York, where women can vote on school questions in the country + only, not in the city, children five, six, seven and eight years + old, who ought to be in the kindergarten and public schools, are + working in cellars and garrets, under the sweating system, sewing + on buttons and making artificial flowers. So many such children + are not in the schools that no city administration in the last + ten years has dared to make a school census; and we are striving + in vain, (all the philanthropic bodies), to induce the present + Tammany administration just to count the children of school age + but they dare not reveal the extent to which they are failing to + provide for them.... + + We Americans do not rank among the enlightened nations when we + are graded according to our care of our children. We have, + according to the last census, 580,000 who cannot read or write, + between the ages of ten and fourteen years, not immigrant but + native-born children, and 570,000 of them are in States where the + women do not even use their right of petition. We do not rank + with England, Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland or the + Scandinavian countries when we are measured by our care of our + children, we rank with Russia. The same thing is true of our + children at work. We have two millions of them earning their + living under the age of sixteen years. Legislation of the States + south of Maryland for the children is like the legislation of + England in 1844.... Surely it behooves us to do something at once + or what sort of citizens shall we have? + +Miss Gertrude Barnum, secretary of the Women's National Trade Union +League, followed with an earnest address on Women as Wage Earners. She +began by saying that although this would be called a representative +audience, wage-earning women were not present. "A speaker should have +been chosen from their ranks," she said. "We have been preaching to +them, teaching them,'rescuing' them, doing almost everything for them +except knowing them and working with them for the good of our common +country. These women of the trade unions, who have already learned to +think and vote in them, would be a great addition, a great strength to +this movement. The working women have much more need of the ballot +than we of the so-called leisure class. We suffer from the insult of +its refusal; we are denied the privilege of performing our obligations +and we have as results things which we smart under. The working women +have not only these insults and privations but they have also the +knowledge that they are being destroyed, literally destroyed, body and +soul, by conditions which they cannot touch by law...." Miss Barnum +discussed "strikes," the "closed shop," conditions under which factory +women work, the domestic problem, the trade unions, and said: "I hope +that this body, which represents women from all over the country, will +take this matter back to their respective States and cities and try to +make the acquaintance of this great half of our population, the +working people. You must bring them to your conferences and +conventions and let them speak on your platform. They will speak much +better for themselves than you can get any one to speak for them...." + +An animated discussion took place, many of the delegates asking +sympathetic questions. Mrs. Ella S. Stewart (Ill.) followed with a +delightfully caustic address on Some Fallacies; Our Privileges. The +reporters were so carried away by her "sweetness and beauty" that they +almost forgot to make notes of her speech, of which one of them said: +"She picked up Grover Cleveland, Lyman Abbott and other +anti-suffragists from the time of Samuel Johnson and figuratively spun +them around her finger, to the joy of the audience." In paying her +tribute to chivalry she said: "Of what benefit was the chivalry of the +knights toward their ladies of high degree to the thousands of peasant +women and wives of serfs hitched up with animals and working in the +fields? Of no more value now is the protection given to the wives and +daughters of the rich by men who are grinding down and taking +advantage of those of the poor. In Chicago women have no vote except +once in four years for a trustee of the State university, yet every +day if we try to take a street car we are overrun and trampled down by +men who get on the cars before they stop, and when we finally limp in +we see them comfortably seated reading the papers while we dangle from +the straps. We are crowded in stores and smoked in restaurants; in +fact the only place of late where I was not crowded was at the polls +when I went to cast my vote!" + +Mrs. Mary E. Craigie (N. Y.) closed the session with a serious, +impressive address on Our Real Opposition; Ignorance and Vice, the +Silent Foe. She pointed out the "indirect alliance between the +anti-suffragists and the vicious elements, opponents of all reform, +fearful that if women vote good will prevail over evil." "The chief +foes of woman suffrage," she said, "are the saloon keepers, scum of +society, barred from fraternal organizations, social clubs and even +from some of the insurance societies." + +The Biography of Miss Anthony contains this paragraph.[45] + + When Miss Anthony had visited President M. Carey Thomas, of Bryn + Mawr College, and Miss Mary E. Garrett the last November she had + talked of the approaching convention, expressed some anxiety as + to its reception in so conservative a city and urged them to do + what they could to make it creditable to the National Association + and to Baltimore. They showed much interest, asked in what way + they could be of most assistance and talked over various plans. + Both belonged to old and prominent families in that city, Miss + Garrett had the prestige of great wealth also, and Dr. Thomas of + her position as president of one of the most eminent of Women's + Colleges. Miss Anthony was desirous of having the program in some + way illustrate distinctly the new type of womanhood--the College + Woman--and eventually Dr. Thomas took entire charge of one + evening devoted to this purpose, which will ever be memorable in + the history of these conventions. A day or two after Miss + Anthony's visit she received a letter from Miss Garrett saying: + "I have decided--really I did so while we were talking about the + convention at luncheon yesterday--that I must open my house in + Baltimore for that week in order to have the great pleasure of + entertaining you and Miss Shaw under my own roof and to do + whatever I can to help you make the meeting a success." + +At a good-bye reception given for Miss Anthony in Rochester the +evening before she left home for Baltimore she took cold and +immediately after reaching Miss Garrett's she became very ill and was +under the care of physicians and trained nurses. On the second night, +however, the College Evening for which elaborate preparations had been +made, she summoned the will power for which she had always been noted, +rose from her bed, put on a beautiful gown and went to the convention +hall. Quoting again from the Biography: "When she appeared on the +stage and the great audience realized that she actually was with them +their enthusiasm was unbounded. She was so white and frail as to seem +almost spiritual but on her sweet face was an expression of ineffable +happiness; and it was indeed one of the happiest moments of her life +for it typified the intellectual triumph of her cause." + +The Baltimore _American_ thus began its account: "With the great +pioneer suffrage worker, Susan B. Anthony, on the platform, surrounded +by women noted in the college world for their brilliant attainments, +as well as those famed for social work and in other professions, and +with a large audience, the session of the woman suffrage convention +opened last evening in the Lyric Theater. If the veteran suffragist +thought of more than the pleasure of the event it must have been the +contrast of this occasion with the times past, when, unhonored and +unsung, she fought what must have often seemed a losing fight for +principles for which the presence of these women proclaimed +victory.... It had been announced as 'Colloge evening' but it might +just as well have been called 'Susan B. Anthony evening,' for, while +the addresses dealt with various phases of the woman question, all +evolved into one strong tribute to Miss Anthony." + +The following remarkable program was carried out: + + COLLEGE EVENING + + February 8, 1906 + + _Presiding Officer_ + Ira Remsen, Ph.D., LL.D., _President of Johns Hopkins University_. + + _Ushers_ + Students of the Woman's College of Baltimore in Academic Dress. + + _Addresses_ + Mary E. Woolley, A.M., Litt.D., L.H.D., _President of Mount + Holyoke College_. + Lucy M. Salmon, A.M., _Professor of History_, _Vassar College_. + Mary A. Jordan, A.M., _Professor of English_, _Smith College_. + Mary W. Calkins, A.M., _Professor of Philosophy and Psychology_, + _Wellesley College_. + Eva Perry Moore, A.B., _Trustee Vassar College_; _President of + the Association of Collegiate Alumnae_ (_over three thousand + college women_). + Maud Wood Park, A.B. (_Radcliffe College_), _President of the + Boston Branch of the Equal Suffrage League in Women's + Colleges and Founder of the League_. + M. Carey Thomas, Ph.D., LL.D., _President of Bryn Mawr College_. + + A tribute of gratitude from representatives of Women's Colleges. + + What has been accomplished for the higher education of women by + Susan B. Anthony and other woman suffragists. + +The statement is sometimes questioned that all of the advantages which +women enjoy today had their inception in the efforts of the pioneers +suffragists. The addresses made on this occasion by some of the most +distinguished women educators of the country certainly should sustain +this claim so far as the higher education is concerned. It seems a +sacrilege to use only brief quotations from these important +contributions to the literature of the movement for woman suffrage. + + PRESIDENT WOOLLEY: It will not be possible in the limited time + given to the representatives of colleges for women to do more + than suggest what has been accomplished for the higher education + of women by Miss Anthony and other suffragists, but it is a + pleasure to have this opportunity to add our tribute of + appreciation.... + + At a meeting called in 1851 at Seneca Falls, N. Y., to consider + founding a People's College, Miss Anthony, Lucy Stone and Mrs. + Elizabeth Cady Stanton were determined that the constitution and + by-laws should be framed so as to admit women on the same terms + as men and finally carried their point. The college, however, + before it was fairly started was merged in Cornell University. + Five years later Miss Anthony's lecture on "Co-education" brought + that subject most forcibly to the attention of the public.... It + was no part of Miss Anthony's plan to have work given to women + for which they were not fitted but rather that they should be + prepared to do well whatever they attempted. There were not to be + two standards of efficiency, one for the man and another for the + woman. "Think your best thoughts, speak your best words, do your + best work, looking to your own conscience for approval," was her + charge to women forty years ago.... The higher education of women + should be added to the list of causes for which she and other + women struggled. She has lived to see the work of her hands + established in the gaining of educational and social rights for + women which might well be called revolutionary, so momentous have + been the changes.... + + It seems almost inexplicable that changes surely as radical as + giving to women the opportunity to vote should be accepted today + as perfectly natural while the political right is still viewed + somewhat askance.... The time will come when some of us will look + back upon the arguments against the granting of the suffrage to + women with as much incredulity as that with which we now read + those against their education. Then shall it be said of the + woman, who with gentleness and strength, courage and patience, + has been unswerving in her allegiance to the aim which she had + set before her, "Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her + own works praise her in the gates." + + PROFESSOR SALMON: The personal experience will perhaps be + pardoned if it is considered representative of the possibly + changing attitude of other college women toward the subject. The + natural stages in the development seem to have been, opposition, + due to ignorance; rejection, due to conscientious disapproval; + indifference, due to preoccupation in other lines of work; + acceptance, due to appreciation of what the work for equal + suffrage has accomplished. It has been a work positive rather + than negative, active rather than destructive, and thus it is + coming to appeal to the judgment and reason of college women. + They are coming to realize that they have been taught by these + pioneers, both by precept and example, to look at the essential + things of life and to ignore the unessential and for this they + are grateful.... + + The college woman is beginning to wonder whether it is worth + while to reckon the mint, anise and cummin while the weightier + matters of the law are forgotten. For a larger outlook on life we + are all indebted to Miss Anthony, to Mrs. Howe and to their + colleagues. We are indebted to them in large measure for the + educational opportunities of today. We are indebted to them for + the theory, and in some places for the reality, of equal pay for + men and women when the work performed is the same. We are + indebted to them for making it possible for us to spend our lives + in fruitful work rather than in idle tears. We are indebted to + these pioneer women for the substitution of a positive creed for + inertia and indifference. From them we also inherit the weighty + responsibility of passing on to others, in degree if not in kind, + all that we have received from them. + +Professor Jordan, after considering the woman's college, said: "The +suffragists lent us Maria Mitchell and they felt severely the loss +they sustained in her increasing absorption in the class room and in +the requirements of modern scientific work. When we had taken Maria +Mitchell they turned to us in friendship, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Julia +Ward Howe, Miss Anthony, Miss Elizabeth Peabody, Mrs. Cady Stanton, +Lucy Stone, Mrs. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Lois Anna Green, Mary +Dame--and never failed to stir our minds with their urgent appeals for +our thoughtful consideration of the causes they presented and the +interest they took for granted. The last was their strong point. They +simply implicated us in whatever was good and true. Their enthusiasm +was infectious and we 'caught' it--to our own lasting spiritual +benefit.... I do not believe that I was over-fanciful when I used to +feel that Lucy Stone and you, Miss Anthony, looked at us as if you +would say, 'Make the best of your freedom for we have bought it with a +great price.'" + + PROFESSOR CALKINS: I wish to indicate this evening the definite + form in which I think the gratitude of all college women might be + expressed to Miss Anthony and to the other leaders of the equal + suffrage movement for their service to the cause of women's + education. In other words, I wish to ask what have these veteran + equal suffrage leaders a right to expect from university and + college students, and in particular from the students and + graduates of our women's colleges?... Equal suffragists, if I may + serve as interpreter, demand just this, that women trained to + scientific method shall make equal suffrage an object of + scientific analysis and logic and ask of college women that they + cease being ignorant or indifferent on the question; that they + adopt, if not an attitude of active leadership or of loyal + support, at least a position of reasoned opposition or of + intelligent hesitation between opposing arguments. To ask less + than this really is an insult to a thinking person, man or + woman.... The student trained to reach decisions in the light of + logic and of history will be disposed to recognize that, in a + democratic country governed as this is by the suffrage of its + citizens and given over as this is to the principle and practice + of educating women, a distinction based on difference of sex is + artificial and illogical, and thus suspicious.... For myself, I + believe that the probabilities favor woman suffrage. + + MRS. MOORE: The women of today may well feel that it is Miss + Anthony who has made life possible to them; she has trodden the + rough paths and by unwearied devotion has opened to them the + professions and higher applied industries. Through her life's + work they enjoy a hundred privileges denied them fifty years ago; + from her devotion has grown a new order; her hand has helped to + open every line of business to women. She has spoken at times to + thousands of girls on the public duties of women.... Her life + story must epitomize the victorious struggle of women for larger + intellectual freedom in the last century.... The world does move. + Those who are aware of the great and beneficent changes made in + the laws relating to the rights of property, in the civil and + industrial laws pertaining to women and children, may estimate + the good accomplished by these pioneers. + + MRS. PARK: I suppose it is true that all through history + individual women have been able, sometimes by cajolery, sometimes + by personal charm, sometimes by force of character, to get for + themselves privileges far greater than any that the most radical + advocates of woman's rights have yet demanded. But in the case of + Miss Anthony and the other early suffragists all that force of + character was turned not to individual ends, not to getting large + things for themselves, but to getting little gains, step by step, + for the great mass of other women; not for the service of + themselves but for the service of the sex and so of the whole + human race.... The object of the College Women's League is to + bring the question of equal suffrage to college women, to help + them realize their debt to the women who have worked so hard for + them and to make them understand that one of the ways to pay that + debt is to fight the battle in the quarter of the field in which + it is still unwon; in short, to make them feel the obligation of + opportunity. + + PRESIDENT THOMAS: In the year 1903 there were in the United + States 6,474 women studying in women's colleges and 24,863 women + studying in co-educational colleges. If the annual rate of + increase has continued the same, as it undoubtedly has, during + the past three years, there are in college at the present time + 38,268 women students. Although there are in the United States + nearly 1,800,000 less women than men, women already constitute + considerably over one-third of the entire student body and are + steadily gaining on men. This means that in another generation or + two one-half of all the people who have been to college in the + United States will be women; and, just as surely as the seasons + of the year succeed one another or the law of gravitation works, + just so surely will this great body of educated women wish to use + their trained intelligence in making the towns, cities and States + of their country better places for themselves and their children + to live in; just so surely will the men with whom they have + worked side by side in college classes claim and receive their + aid in political as well as home life. The logic of events does + not lie. It is unthinkable that women who have learned to act for + themselves in college and have become awakened there to civic + duties should not care for the ballot to enforce their wishes. + + [Illustration: PIONEERS OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE. + + ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. Born, 1815. + + LUCY STONE. Born, 1818. + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY. Born, 1820. + + LUCRETIA MOTT. Born, 1793. + + MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT Born, 1846.] + + The same is true of every woman's club and every individual woman + who tries to obtain laws to save little children from working + cruel hours in cotton mills or to open summer gardens for + homeless little waifs on the streets of a great city. These + women, too, are being irresistibly driven to desire equal + suffrage for the sake of the wrongs they try to right.... It + seems to me in the highest degree ungenerous for women like these + in this audience, who are cared for and protected in every way, + not to desire equal suffrage for the sake of other less fortunate + women, and it is not only ungenerous but short-sighted of such + women not to desire it for their own sakes. There is nothing + dearer to women than the respect and reverence of their children + and of the men they love. Yet every son who has grown up + reverencing his mother's opinion must realize, when he reaches + the age of twenty-one, with a shock from which he can never + wholly recover, that in the most important civic and national + affairs her opinion is not considered equal to his own.... + + I confidently believe that equal suffrage is coming far more + swiftly than most of us suspect. Educated, public-spirited women + will soon refuse to be subjected to such humiliating conditions. + Educated men will recoil in their turn from the sheer unreason of + the position that the opinions and wishes of their wives and + mothers are to be consulted upon every other question except the + laws and government under which they and their husbands and + children must live and die. Equal suffrage thus seems to me to be + an inevitable and logical consequence of the higher education of + women. And the higher education of women is, if possible, a still + more inevitable result of the agitation of the early woman + suffragists.... + + We who are guiding this educational movement today owe the + profoundest debt of gratitude to those early pioneers--Elizabeth + Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and, above and beyond + all, to Susan B. Anthony. Other women reformers, like other men + reformers, have given part of their time and energy. She has + given to the cause of women every year, every month, every day, + every hour and every moment of her whole life and every dollar + she could beg or earn, and she has earned thousands and begged + thousands more. + +Turning to the honored guest of the evening Dr. Thomas said: + + To most women it is given to have returned to them in double + measure the love of the children they have nurtured. To you, Miss + Anthony, belongs by right, as to no other woman in the world's + history, the love and gratitude of all women in every country of + the globe. We, your daughters in the spirit, rise up today and + call you blessed. + + In those far-off days when our mothers' mothers sat contented in + the darkness, you, our champion, sprang forth to battle for us, + equipped and shining, inspired by a prophetic vision of the + future like that of the apostles and martyrs, and the heat of + your battle has lasted more than fifty years. Two generations of + men lie between the time when, in the early fifties, you and Mrs. + Stanton sat together in New York State, writing over the cradles + of her babies those trumpet calls to freedom that began and + carried forward the emancipation of women--and the day eighteen + months ago when that great audience in Berlin rose to do you + honor, thousands of women from every country in the civilized + world, silent, with full eyes and lumps in their throats, because + of what they owed to you. Of such as you were the lines of the + poet Yeats written: + + "They shall be remembered forever, + They shall be alive forever, + They shall be speaking forever, + The people shall hear them forever." + +Miss Anthony was profoundly moved. This wonderful scene--the +magnificent audience in one of the oldest and most conservative of +cities; this group of the most distinguished women educators; the +president of one of the leading universities of the world in the +chair; the large number of college women in the audience, free, +independent, equipped for life's highest work--represented the +culmination of what she had striven for during half a century. Her +Biography gives this account: "After the applause had ended there was +a moment of intense silence and then, as Miss Anthony came forward, +the entire audience rose and greeted her with waving handkerchiefs, +while tears rolled down the cheeks of many who felt that she would +never be present at another convention. 'If any proof were needed of +the progress of the cause for which I have worked,' she said, in +clear, even tones, distinctly heard by all, 'it is here tonight. The +presence on the stage of these college women, and in the audience of +all those college girls who will some day be the nation's greatest +strength, will tell their own story to the world. They give the +highest joy and encouragement to me. I am not going to make a long +speech but only to say thank you and good night.' It was all she had +the strength to say but she never would publicly confess it." + +Interesting State reports, conferences and addresses filled the +mornings, afternoons and evenings of this unparalleled week. The +Initiative and Referendum was presented by an acknowledged authority, +George H. Shibley of Washington, director of the department of +representative government in the bureau of economic research. He +congratulated the association on having endorsed the new experiment +that would rapidly further the woman suffrage cause, in which he had +long believed. The system of questioning candidates and publishing +their replies, developed by the Anti-Saloon League, was now being used +with great success, he said, by many organizations. He described the +carefully worked-out system in detail and declared that this, with the +Initiative and Referendum, would terminate "machine" rule in politics, +and whatever did this would promote the advance of woman suffrage. The +address called forth an animated discussion in which it was shown that +when women questioned a candidate they had no constituency back of +them to influence his answers. + +A valuable conference was opened with a comprehensive paper by Mrs. +Mary Kenney O'Sullivan (Mass.), prominently identified with the +women's trade unions, on the best methods of securing from Congress +the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The question, if +each State should secure an endorsement from its Legislature of a +uniform resolution calling for this submission would it not influence +Congress and also compel favorable recommendation in the national +platforms of the dominant political parties, was unanimously answered +in the affirmative. + +Miss Hauser, the new chairman, presided over the press conference, +which was opened with a paper by Miss Jane Campbell, a veteran +suffragist, president of the Philadelphia County Suffrage Club of 600 +members, on The Unbiased Editor, which bristled with the humorous +sarcasm in which she was unsurpassed. She said in the course of it: +"As the result of close observation I may state that the calm, +judicial mind of the unbiased editor is never more in evidence than +when he bends his energies to a consideration of the woman +question--that is, the woman question in reference to politics. Then +he is on sure ground and he always is actuated by a desire to serve +the best interests of women. Does it come under his ken that a woman +has the temerity to suggest even in faint tones the advisability and +feasibility, the common sense and justice of being allowed to cast a +ballot, then the opportunity of the unbiased editor has come and the +rash claimant is admonished in fatherly, protecting tones to 'Remember +that only in the Home'--he always spells home with a capital in this +connection--'should a woman be in evidence.' He almost weeps when he +pictures the dire consequences that would inevitably result should +women enter the uncleanly pool of politics. Chivalry would become +extinct--chivalry being the guiding principle, according to the +unbiased editor, on which men act--and then would tired men no longer +give up their seats in trolley cars to masculine women and no longer +would they accord equal pay for equal work, as they chivalrously do +now!" + +Turning her shafts on Mr. Bok, editor of the _Ladies' Home Journal_, +and ex-President Cleveland's articles in it, Miss Campbell evoked so +much laughter and applause that Miss Hauser became anxious as to the +effect on the representatives of the press who were there and called +on Mrs. Upton to calm the tempestuous waters, who offered some "golden +precepts" for dealing with editors, among them the following: "Keep +the paper fully informed of all suffrage news. If there is something +unpleasant in it and the reporter tells you that the editor and not +himself is responsible for it, smile and believe him. Take the +reporter into your confidence and let him absorb the impression that +you trust him implicitly. The result will be that you and your cause +will get the best of it. In a word, treat the newspaper reporter as +you would any other gentleman and in the long run you will profit by +it. If you are the press representative of your local organization try +to have from time to time items of news pertaining to matters other +than that of woman suffrage. Use the telephone lavishly and let your +home be a sort of stopping place for the reporter in his routine work. +When you present such an attitude toward the press the editors cannot +find it in their hearts to refuse if you want a little space for +yourself and your cause." The Baltimore _Evening Herald_ commented: +"From the foregoing it will be observed that in the dark and devious +avocation of working the unsophisticated editor, Mrs. Upton is truly a +past mistress, entitled to wear the regalia and jewels of the +superlative degree." + +Mrs. May Arkwright Hutton of Idaho told of the excellent results of +woman suffrage on the politics of that State. Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, +chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration, gave her usual +able report describing her extensive work during the past year, which +neither in this or any other year was exceeded by that of any one +individual. After her return from the International Peace Congress in +London she succeeded in having the presidents of the suffrage +associations in fifteen States appoint supervisors of peace work and +others were about to do so. The educational authorities in every State +had been requested to arrange celebrations for May 18, the anniversary +of the first Hague Conference, and she should notify the suffrage +clubs to do this. Equal suffragists will aid the cause of justice for +themselves in the nation by working also for justice between the +nations. The abolition of war will do more than anything else to make +women respected and influential. It will substitute moral force for +brute force, reason for passion and will forever remove one of the +most popular arguments against giving political power to those who are +incapable of military service." + +Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows (Mass.), the well known writer on social and +economic subjects, took part in the symposium that followed. Miss +Alice Stone Blackwell presided over the conference on What the Home +Needs for its Protection--Women on Health Boards, School Boards and in +the Police Department, and these subjects were considered by Mrs. +Susan S. Fessenden (Mass.), Mrs. Upton and Mrs. Barrows. It closed +with a paper by the Rev. Marie Jenney Howe on Woman's Municipal Vote. + +One of the most important evening sessions was devoted to the question +of Municipal Government, with Dr. William H. Welch, Professor of +Pathology in Johns Hopkins University, presiding. A leading feature +was the address of the Hon. Frederick C. Howe of Cleveland, O., The +City for the People. He reviewed the mismanagement and political +corruption of the large cities, "controlled by great financial +interests and yet filled with eager, energetic people, struggling to +organize a good democratic movement of humanity focused on a +democratic ideal." In voicing the hope for the future he said: + + There is an upward movement in all our cities. We are endeavoring + to work out democracy and are doing amazingly well. When it is + possible to organize the ideals of this new democratic movement + it will be a city not for men alone but for men and women. It is + business which has made our cities take the illogical position + that women should not participate in municipal affairs as the + chief corrective of the evils which underlie most of our + municipal problems. I believe in woman suffrage not for women + alone, not for men alone, but for the advantage of both men and + women. Any community, any society, any State that excludes half + of its members from participating in it is only half a State, + only half a city, only half a community. So, you see, woman + suffrage does not interest me so much because woman is a taxpayer + or because of justice as because of democracy; because I believe + in the fullest, freest, most responsible democracy that it is + possible to create. The city of the people will be a man and + woman city. It will elect its officials for other than party + reasons and will keep men and women in office who give good + service. + +The Hon. Rudolph Blankenburg, Philadelphia's noted reformer, who was +to speak on Municipal Regeneration, was detained at home and his wife, +Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, president of the Pennsylvania Suffrage +Association, told of the big campaign of the preceding autumn for +better government in that city and the important part women had in it +and said: "The men claimed that the women helped them a great deal but +when the day came for the jubilation after the election, not a woman +was invited to sit on the platform or to take part in the jubilee, +except in the audience. In one of our suburbs the successful people +gave a banquet and they did condescend to invite the women who had +helped them win the election to sit in the gallery after the banquet +and hear the speeches.... We are to have an election very soon and +when I left home to come to this convention our city party was holding +meetings in churches and halls and parlors and the chairman of the +committee chided me for deserting my 'home work.' I told her that it +was a greater work to try to get the right to vote and increase my +influence." + +The Hon. William Dudley Foulke, president of the National Civil +Service Commission, spoke informally on An Object Lesson in Municipal +Politics, describing the revolution of the citizens against the +corrupt government of his home city, Richmond, Ind., and the valuable +assistance rendered by the women, and, as always, demanding the +suffrage for them. + +It was at this meeting that Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago, +made the address on The Modern City and the Municipal Franchise for +Women, which was thenceforth a part of the standard suffrage +literature. Quotations are wholly inadequate. + + It has been well said that the modern city is a stronghold of + industrialism quite as the feudal city was a stronghold of + militarism, but the modern cities fear no enemies and rivals from + without and their problems of government are solely internal. + Affairs for the most part are going badly in these great new + centres, in which the quickly-congregated population has not yet + learned to arrange its affairs satisfactorily. Unsanitary + housing, poisonous sewage, contaminated water, infant mortality, + the spread of contagion, adulterated food, impure milk, + smoke-laden air, ill-ventilated factories, dangerous occupations, + juvenile crime, unwholesome crowding, prostitution and + drunkenness are the enemies which the modern cities must face and + overcome, would they survive. Logically their electorate should + be made up of those who can bear a valiant part in this arduous + contest, those who in the past have at least attempted to care + for children, to clean houses, to prepare foods, to isolate the + family from moral dangers; those who have traditionally taken + care of that side of life which inevitably becomes the subject of + municipal consideration and control as soon as the population is + congested. To test the elector's fitness to deal with this + situation by his ability to bear arms is absurd. These problems + must be solved, if they are solved at all, not from the military + point of view, not even from the industrial point of view, but + from a third, which is rapidly developing in all the great cities + of the world--the human-welfare point of view.... + + City housekeeping has failed partly because women, the + traditional housekeepers, have not been consulted as to its + multiform activities. The men have been carelessly indifferent to + much of this civic housekeeping, as they have always been + indifferent to the details of the household.... The very + multifariousness and complexity of a city government demand the + help of minds accustomed to detail and variety of work, to a + sense of obligation for the health and welfare of young children + and to a responsibility for the cleanliness and comfort of other + people. Because all these things have traditionally been in the + hands of women, if they take no part in them now they are not + only missing the education which the natural participation in + civic life would bring to them but they are losing what they have + always had. + +The Sunday afternoon service was held in the Lyric Theater, whose +capacity was taxed with an audience "representing every class of +society, every creed and no creed," according to the Baltimore papers. +It was preceded by a half-hour musical program by Edwin M. Shonert, +pianist, and Earl J. Pfonts, violinist. The Rev. Antoinette Brown +Blackwell made the opening prayer; the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw read the +Scripture lesson and gave the day's text: "Be strong and very +courageous; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy +God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." The Battle Hymn of the +Republic was beautifully read by the Rev. Olympia Brown and sung by +Miss Etta Maddox, the audience joining in the chorus. Mrs. Maud +Ballington Booth gave the principal address on the work of the +Volunteers of America for the men and women in prisons and after they +are discharged. At its beginning she said: "I have never before stood +on the platform with these leaders in the struggle for woman suffrage +but I sympathize with any movement whose motive is, like theirs, the +uplifting of humanity." Her beauty, her sweet voice and her rare +eloquence made a deep impression on the audience, who responded with a +generous collection for her Hope Halls. The meeting closed with the +congregational singing of America and the benediction by the Rev. +Marie Jenney Howe. All of the women ministers occupied the pulpits of +various churches in the morning or evening, and, according to the +reporter for the _News_, "astonished the large congregations which +assembled to do them honor with their facility of expression and the +soundness of their logic!"[46] + +The resolutions offered by Henry B. Blackwell, chairman of the +committee, covered a wide and rather unusual range of subjects, +showing the broad scope of the work of the association and expressing +its pleasure at the world-wide indications of progress. Deep regret +was expressed for the death of the friends of the cause during the +year, among them George W. Catt of New York, husband of Mrs. Carrie +Chapman Catt; Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell of New York; Mrs. Jane H. +Spofford of Maine; Mrs. Caroline Hallowell Miller of Maryland; Mrs. +Sarah M. Perkins of Ohio; John K. Wildman of Pennsylvania, and Speaker +Frederick S. Nixon of the New York Legislature. + +Fraternal greetings were brought from the Ladies of the Maccabees by +Mrs. Melva J. Caswell, State Commander of the District of Columbia, +Maryland and Delaware; from the National W. C. T. U., by Miss Marie C. +Brehm, president for Illinois, and from the American Purity Alliance +by its president, Dr. O. Edward Janney of Baltimore. A letter was read +by Mrs. Mary Bentley Thomas (Md.), from Governor Warfield expressing +his thanks for the opportunity of meeting so many distinguished women +and his enjoyment of the convention. Letters and telegrams were read. +A letter of greeting was sent to Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent, a veteran +suffragist of San Francisco, and letters to Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. +Harriet Taylor Upton, regretting their absence. A special vote of +appreciation was given to Dr. and Mrs. William Funck and a letter of +thanks was sent to Dr. Thomas and Miss Garrett for their part in the +unsurpassed success of the convention. + +A comprehensive report of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, +organized in Berlin in 1904, was given by its president, Mrs. Carrie +Chapman Catt, showing that "the agitation throughout Europe for a +broader democracy has naturally opened the way for the discussion of +woman suffrage and the subject is being considered as never before in +Europe." [See Chapter on the Alliance.] The Evening with Women in +History was opened by Mrs. Catt, who said: "One idea is the mainspring +of the opposition to woman suffrage--that women are by nature of the +inferior sex. Even Darwin, so scientific that he tried to see all +things fairly, entertained this unjust view. When women have had the +same inspiration and opportunity as men their work has been equal in +merit." + +The program assuredly showed no inferiority of mental power. Mrs. +Belle de Rivera (N. Y.) depicted Women of Genius, quoting Sappho, +Margaret of Navarre, Vittoria Colonna, Angelica Kauffman and others +eminent in the annals of history. A newspaper report said of Mrs. +Oreola Williams Haskell (N. Y.): "The thoroughness of her address gave +the lie to any intimation of frivolity made by her youth and beauty, +the pink crepe de chine dress and the giddy pink bow in her fluffy +brown hair." In discussing Women in Politics she said that, "even +though debarred from Parliaments and Congresses women will take part +in politics because political situations and public events vitally +affect their lives" and concluded: + + The student, remembering the laws that strove to make women + nonentities, the tremendous force of adverse public opinion, the + lack of training and preparation, must repudiate forever the + usual query of the scoffer. "Why have there not been more eminent + women?" and in amazement ask himself, "How does it happen that + there have been any?" To those women who would do great things, + who sigh for the old days, when the political queen ruled from + the salon or the throne, we may say that today woman stands on + the threshold of a broader and more real political life than she + has ever known. In the future there may be no Sarah Jennings or + Mme. de Maintenons, but when to the million-and-a-quarter of the + women of our time, who in the United States, in Australia and in + New Zealand are exercising the mighty power of the ballot as + fully and freely as their brothers, we shall be able to add other + enfranchised women of the world, we will have a mighty political + sisterhood, free to realize their patriotic dreams and powerful + to bring about better conditions for humanity. + +Miss Campbell described in an able and interesting manner Women +Scholars of the Middle Ages. Miss Brehm pictured Heroes and Heroines. +Mrs. Maud Nathan, who had as a subject Women Warriors, according to +the reporter, "remarked as she took off her long white kids that she +could not handle it with gloves." Declaring that she did not approve +of war, she said that nevertheless whenever there was a fight for +municipal reform in New York she was in the thick of it. After showing +how women had led wars and fallen in battles she concluded: + + In the middle ages, when the electors were called upon to defend + their cities at the point of the bayonet, we can understand why + men considered that women should be debarred from the privilege + of citizenship; but today our cities are not walled, our foes + are not without the gates trying to scale the walls. The enemies + are within, often found sitting in high places. Today citizens + are called upon to fight, not warriors, but vice and corruption + and low standards. Are not our mothers quite as capable as our + fathers to wage warfare against these, the enemies in our midst? + + When I was in The Hague last summer I visited the only kind of + battleground which any intelligent, progressive, self-respecting + nation ought to show with pride.... There in the peaceful little + House in the Wood national disputes are settled, not by + sacrificing the lives of thousands of innocent, helpless young + men, not by creating thousands of widows and orphans, but by + threshing out all matters relating to the dispute in a rational, + calm, judicial and honorable way.... It seemed to me that this + 20th century battleground, this quiet, peaceful House in the + Wood, augured well for a new era, one in which our swords will + indeed be turned into ploughshares and our spears into pruning + hooks, and the angels of peace and righteousness will hover over + us. + +The social features of the convention were of an unusually interesting +character. The Garrett family mansion had been closed for the winter +but Miss Garrett opened it completely, invited as home guests Miss +Anthony, Mrs. Howe, Miss Addams, Dr. Thomas and other distinguished +visitors and gave a series of entertainments that conferred on the +convention a prestige which added much to its influence in that +conservative city. In order that its representative men and women +might meet the officers and delegates Miss Garrett had a luncheon and +dinner every day, the formal invitations reading: "To meet Miss Susan +B. Anthony and Governor and Mrs. Warfield"; "To meet Miss Anthony and +the speakers of the College Evening," etc.,--on each invitation Miss +Anthony's name preceding those of the other guests of honor. All of +the speakers on the College Women's evening were her house guests and +after the meeting she gave a large reception. To quote again from the +Biography: "No one present will ever forget the picture of Miss +Anthony and Mrs. Howe sitting side by side on a divan in the large bay +window, with a background of ferns and flowers. At their right stood +Miss Garrett and Dr. Thomas, at their left Dr. Shaw and the line of +eminent college women, with a beautiful perspective of conservatory +and art gallery.... There was nothing in the closing years of Miss +Anthony's life that offered such encouragement and hope as to see +women possessing the power of high intellectual ability, wealth and +social position taking up the cause which she had carried with patient +toil through poverty and obscurity to this plane of recognition." + +While Miss Anthony was a guest in the home of Miss Garrett she and Dr. +Thomas asked her what was the greatest service they could render to +advance the movement for woman suffrage. She answered that the +strongest desire of her later years had been to raise a large fund for +the work, which was constantly impeded for the lack of money, but her +impaired health had prevented it. This need was frequently discussed +during the week, and before the convention closed they promised her +that they would try to find a number of women who, like themselves, +were unable to take an active part in working for woman suffrage but +sincerely believed in it, who would be willing to join together in +contributing $12,000 a year for the next five years to help support +the work and to show in this practical way their gratitude to Miss +Anthony and her associates and their faith in the cause.[47] + +The officers, speakers and delegates accepted invitations of President +Remsen to visit Johns Hopkins University and received every possible +attention; to a special exhibit at the Maryland Historical Art +Gallery; to a handsome afternoon tea at the Arundel Club, welcomed by +its president, Mrs. William M. Ellicott; to a large reception by the +Baltimore Woman Suffrage Club and to other pleasant functions. + +The report of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton called attention to the +receipts of $2,000 for 1893 and $12,150 during the past year, a period +of thirteen years during which she had been treasurer. "The fact that +nowadays the association always has funds," she said, "gives us a +standing with the bankers and business men which works largely to our +credit." She spoke of the bequests, which had been put at interest, +and told of persons who refused to contribute a dollar while they +remained unspent. It was the hope of the officers, she said, that they +could be used for campaigns and other emergencies and that +contributions should pay the running expenses, which was now nearly +accomplished. The disbursements during the year, including money +advanced for the Oregon campaign, had been $16,565, the amount above +receipts being taken from the bequests. + +The College Women's meeting took place on Thursday and Miss Anthony +was unable to attend the convention the next day. "At the Saturday +morning session," the Biography relates, "Dr. Shaw expressed the great +regret of all at her enforced absence and their gratitude for the +excellent care she was receiving at the home of Miss Garrett; but when +the afternoon session opened, in she walked! She had learned that the +money was to be raised at this time and she knew she could help, so +she conquered her pain and came. When contributions were called for +she was first to respond and holding out a little purse she said: 'I +want to begin by giving you my purse. Just before I left Rochester my +friends gave me a birthday party and made me a present of eighty-six +dollars. I suppose they wanted me to do as I liked with the money and +I wish to send it to Oregon.'" Under this inspiration the pledges soon +reached $4,000. Afterwards Miss Anthony's seventeen five dollar gold +pieces were sold for $10 each, and later some of them for $25. + +Miss Anthony was not able to leave the house for the next two days, to +her great sorrow. The leading feature of the Monday evening session +was to be an address by Mrs. Howe but she also was too ill to appear, +and realizing the intense disappointment this would be to the audience +Miss Anthony made another heroic effort and took her place on the +platform. The Rev. Herbert S. Bigelow came from Cincinnati to give an +address on The Power of an Idea, in which he said: "If the world were +never again to get another new idea, progress would be at an end.... +The birth and growth and struggle and triumph of one great idea after +another--this is the story of human progress. For more than half a +century the men and women who championed the idea of woman suffrage +were made the butt of ridicule, yet in the light of history how +ridiculous are the enemies of this idea. Fifty years ago no American +college but Oberlin was open to women. Now a third of the college +students in the United States are women." Mrs. Fessenden of Boston +spoke eloquently on The Mount of Aspiration, and Mrs. Lydia A. Coonley +Ward of Chicago represented the strong, practical side in her address +on The Nearest Duty. Miss Alice Henry of Melbourne gave an interesting +account of woman suffrage in Australia, where women now possessed the +complete franchise, which had been followed by very advanced laws. + +It was not supposed that Miss Anthony would be able to speak, but, +stimulated by the occasion and longing no doubt to say what she felt +might be her last words, she came forward near the close of the +meeting. A report of the occasion in the New York _Evening Post_ said: + + The entire house arose and the applause and cheers seemed to last + for ten minutes. Miss Anthony looked at the splendid audience of + men and women, many of them distinguished in their generation, + with calm and dignified sadness. "This is a magnificent sight + before me," she said slowly, "and these have been wonderful + addresses and speeches I have listened to during the past week. + Yet I have looked on many such audiences and in my lifetime I + have listened to many such speakers, all testifying to the + righteousness, the justice and the worthiness of the cause of + woman suffrage. I never saw that great woman, Mary + Wollstonecraft, but I have read her eloquent and unanswerable + arguments in behalf of the liberty of womankind. I have met and + known most of the progressive women who came after her--Lucretia + Mott, the Grimke sisters, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone--a + long galaxy of great women. I have heard them speak, saying in + only slightly different phrases exactly what I heard these newer + advocates of the cause say at these meetings. Those older women + have gone on and most of those who worked with me in the early + years have gone. I am here for a little time only and then my + place will be filled as theirs was filled. The fight must not + cease; you must see that it does not stop." + +There were indeed Miss Anthony's last words to a woman suffrage +convention and they expressed the dominant thought which had directed +her own life--the fight must not stop! + +The address of Mrs. Howe was read at a later session by her daughter, +Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, who expressed her mother's extreme +disappointment at not being able to be present in person and said: +"She regarded this convention as probably the last she should attend +and she hoped to clasp hands with many whom she has known in former +years and with many whom she has not known. She has heard with joy of +its success and sends you her affectionate greeting and glad +congratulations." In the course of this scholarly address Mrs. Howe +said: + + I can well recall the years in which I felt myself averse to the + participation of women in political life. The feminine type + appeared to me so precious, so indispensable to humanity, that I + dreaded any enlargement of its functions lest something of its + charm and real power should therein be lost. I have often felt as + if some sudden and unlooked for revelation had been vouchsafed to + me, for at my first real contact with the suffragists of, say, + forty years ago, I was made to feel that womanhood is not only + static but also much more dynamic, a power to move as well as a + power to stay. True womanliness must grow and not diminish, in + its larger and freer exercise. Whom did I see at that first + suffrage meeting, first in my experience? Lucy Stone, sweet faced + and silver voiced, the very embodiment of Goethe's "eternal + feminine"; William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Thomas + Wentworth Higginson, noble advocates of human freedom; Lucretia + Mott, eloquent and beautiful in her holy old age. What did I + hear? Doctrine which harmonized with my dearest aspirations, + extending as it did the hope which I had supposed was for an + elect and superior few to all the motherhood of the human race. + The new teaching seemed to me to throw the door open for all + women to come up higher, to live upon a higher plane of thought + and to exercise in larger and more varied fields the talents, + wonderful indeed, to which such limited scope had hitherto been + allowed. I felt, too, that the new freedom brought with it an + identity of interest which formed a bond of sisterhood and that + the great force of cooperation would wonderfully aid the + promotion of objects dear to all true women alike.... + + I have sat in the little chapel in Bethlehem in which tradition + places the birth of the Saviour. It seems fitting that it should + be adorned with offerings of beautiful things but while I mused + there a voice seemed to say to me, "Look abroad! This divine + child is no more, he has grown to be a man and a deliverer. Go + out into the world. Find his footsteps and follow them. Work, as + he did, for the redemption of mankind. Suffer as he did, if need + be, derision and obloquy. Make your protest against tyranny, + meanness and injustice!" + + The weapon of Christian warfare is the ballot, which represents + the peaceable assertion of conviction and will. Society + everywhere is becoming converted to its use. Adopt it, oh, you + women, with clean hands and a pure heart! Verify the best word + written by the apostle; "In Christ Jesus there is neither bond + nor free, neither male nor female, but a new creature," the + harbinger of a new creation! + +On the last evening Senorita Carolina Holman Huidobro told of The +Women of Chili and Argentina in the Peace Movement. Mrs. Mead spoke on +The World's Crisis, and, with an unsurpassed knowledge of her subject, +pointed out the vast responsibility of the United States in the cause +of Peace and Arbitration, saying in part: "Protected by two oceans, +with not a nation on the hemisphere that dares to attack her; with not +a nation in the world that is her enemy, rich and with endless +resources, this most fortunate nation is the one of all others to lead +the world out of the increasing intolerable bondage of armaments. If +the United States will take a strong position on gradual, proportional +disarmament the first step may be made toward it at the second Hague +conference soon to be held.... Of all women the suffragists should be +alert and well informed upon these momentous questions. Our battle cry +today must be 'Organize the world!' War will cease when concerted +action has removed the causes of war and not before." + +Mrs. Pauline Steinem, an elected member of the Toledo (O.) school +board, showed convincingly the need for Women's Work on Boards of +Education. Miss Harriet May Mills (N. Y.) made a clear, logical +address on The Right of Way, and Mr. Blackwell (Mass.) discussed from +his knowledge of politics The Wooing of Electors. + +In closing the convention Dr. Shaw expressed the hope that if it had +brought no other truth to the people of Baltimore it had shown that +women want the ballot as a means for accomplishing the things that +good men and women wish to accomplish. She made an earnest appeal for +a deeper interest in the highest things of life and more consecrated +work for all that contributes to the progress of humanity. + + * * * * * + +In order to have the usual hearings before committees of Congress on +the submission of a woman suffrage amendment to the Federal +Constitution a large delegation went to Washington on February 14, the +next day after the convention closed, and the hearing was held the +morning of the 15th, Miss Anthony's birthday. She was not able to +attend, greatly to her own disappointment and that of the older +speakers, whose inspiration she had been for so long on these +occasions. She had arranged the first one ever held in 1869 and had +missed but two in thirty-seven years. + +The hearing before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage took place +in the Marble Room, as usual, Senator Augustus O. Bacon of Georgia in +the chair and Dr. Shaw presiding. The speakers were Senorita Huidobro +of Chili; Mrs. Elizabeth D. Bacon, president of the Connecticut +Suffrage Association; Mrs. Mary Bentley Thomas (Md.); the Rev. +Antoinette Brown Blackwell (N. J.); Miss Anne Fitzhugh Miller (N. Y.); +Mrs. Upton, Mrs. Steinem and Mrs. Fessenden. + +The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, the Hon. John J. +Jenkins (Wis.), chairman, was in charge of Mrs. Florence Kelley, first +vice-president of the association. Mrs. Blankenburg told of the +herculean efforts of over 2,000 women at the last November election of +Philadelphia. Mrs. Harriet A. Eager spoke of the work of a woman's +Committee of Moral Education in Boston where there was no law +prohibiting the circulation of any kind of literature. They went to +the Legislature for such a law with a petition from 32,000 of the +representative women of Massachusetts and stayed there six weeks +working for it only to have it refused. She told how the women of the +State petitioned fifty-five years for a law giving mothers equal +guardianship of their children and pointed out the helpless position +of women without political power. + +Miss Kate M. Gordon of New Orleans, corresponding secretary of the +association, began: "My message this morning was particularly for the +southern members of the committee but I shall have to ask others +present to carry it to them, as I do not believe any of them are here +although seven are members." She protested against the attitude of +southern members of Congress toward woman suffrage and expressed the +deep resentment of southern women at their classification with the +disfranchised, saying that their men more than all others should feel +the responsibility of lifting them from their present humiliating +position. Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, president of the Illinois Suffrage +Association, based her argument on simple justice, and said in +conclusion: "Your power is absolute and your responsibility +correspondingly great. Humiliating as it is for me to beg for what is +mine from strangers, I would a thousand times rather be a defrauded +mendicant than to hold in my hand the rights, the destiny and the +happiness of millions of human beings and have the heart to deny their +just claims." + +Mrs. Mary Kenney O'Sullivan (Mass.) spoke "as one representing +3,000,000 women who have been forced out of the home through +necessity," and said in the course of her strong speech: "I know that +the working women of this country are not receiving the highest wages +because they have not a vote. Right here in Washington, in your big +bindery of the Government, a trade to which I gave the larger part of +my life, the women who do equal work with the men do not receive equal +pay. The Government more than any other employer has taken advantage +of women of my class because they have not a vote.... The workmen, +more than any other men, even more than those who are supposed to be +statesmen, have seen the necessity for women to have a vote. Ever +since 1890 the convention of the American Federation of Labor has +unanimously adopted a resolution favoring woman suffrage. I do not +believe that any one will deny that the workingmen are the thinking +men of the country. I am asking you, in the name of the women I +represent at least, to do for us what our working brothers are trying +to do--give us our rights." + +Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead said in the course of a long address: "The man +who talks about home today as if it still gave ample opportunity for +woman's productive activity as it once did, is talking about a +condition which is as obsolete as the conditions before we had +railroads and telegraphs. Woman's educational opportunities and +productive capacity are so altered as to require her political status +to be altered.... There is a class of women who do not need to earn +their living and have a large leisure. They are not idle, they are as +active as fireflies, but they are not obliged to be productive as +every human being should be.... They have more time than men to study +and to apply the principles of justice and mercy and to do that +preventive, educational work which is a better defense of country than +a squadron of battleships. The suffrage has done much to develop man; +the woman of leisure needs it to develop her; the working woman needs +it to obtain salutary conditions under which to earn her living; the +woman working for reforms needs it so as to accomplish in a year what +otherwise she may wait for twenty-five years of pleading and +'influence' to obtain." + +Miss Alice Stone Blackwell began her address: "We are not here to ask +you to extend suffrage to women but to give to the State Legislatures +an opportunity to vote on it, and probably some practical +considerations should be offered to show that public sentiment has +arrived at a point where it seems to be timely and worth while that +this question should be submitted to them. We would like to convince +you that this is only right. If three-fourths of them are not prepared +to give us suffrage, we shall not get it. If three-fourths of them are +prepared, then public sentiment has arrived at a point where we ought +to have it." She reviewed the advance of the movement and said: "We +could keep this committee here until next week reading to them +testimony from representative men and women as to the good results of +woman suffrage where it is in operation." The unimpeachable testimony +which she then presented from the equal suffrage States filled several +pages of the printed record. + +Introducing Mrs. Kelley, Chairman Jenkins had spoken of her father, +William D. Kelley, known as the Father of the House, and she said: + + It is quite true that my father, Judge Kelley of Pennsylvania, + came to Congress in the year in which President Lincoln was first + elected and for twenty-five years he patiently introduced at + every session a resolution preliminary to a hearing for the woman + suffragists. Through all that period of ridicule, when the + hearings were not conducted so respectfully or in so friendly a + manner as this one has been, he continued to introduce that + resolution. In 1890 death removed him from the House of + Representatives and I come here as the second generation. I + assure you that I and the rest of the women throughout the + country will come from generation to generation, just so long as + it is necessary. Next year my oldest son will vote and that + generation will take up the task on behalf of the enfranchisement + of the women of this country.... Every time we come there is some + gain to record, but, between the times, at least 1,000,000 new + immigrants have come into this country who will have to be + brought to the American way of thinking about women before they + will vote to give the ballot to those who are born here and whose + forefathers have asked that we be enfranchised. + + It is an ignominious way to treat us, to send us to the Chinaman + in San Francisco, to the enfranchised Indians of other western + States, to the negroes, Italians, Hungarians, Poles, Bohemians + and innumerable Slavic immigrants in Pennsylvania and other + mining States to obtain our right of suffrage. There yet remain + forty-three States in which women are not enfranchised and it + looks as if it might take us a hundred years, at the present rate + of progress, before we can relieve you and your successors from + these annual hearings. What we are asking today is that you shall + take a short cut and not oblige our great-grandchildren to come + here and ask for a Federal Amendment. + +Although the women received courteous treatment and a respectful +hearing from both committees no report was made by either, and the +only advantage gained was that as usual thousands of franked copies of +the hearings were sent to the national suffrage headquarters to be +distributed throughout the States. + + * * * * * + +For some time arrangements had been under way to celebrate the +birthday of Miss Anthony in the city where this had been so often done +and which she loved above all others. By carefully conserving her +strength she was able to attend the evening ceremonies in the Church +of Our Father (Universalist) where many suffrage conventions had been +held and where six years before, at the age of 80, she had resigned +the presidency and laid down the gavel for the last time. Letters of +congratulation were read from President Roosevelt, Vice-President +Fairbanks, members of Congress and other prominent men; from Mrs. +Russell Sage, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick +and other eminent women, and from organizations in this and other +countries. Well known men and women brought their greetings in person. +To quote again from her Biography: + +"On account of her extreme weakness it was not expected that Miss +Anthony would speak but at the close of the evening she seemed to feel +that she must say one last word, and rising, with a tender, spiritual +expression on her dear face, she stood beside Miss Shaw and explained +in a few touching words how the great work of the National +Association had been placed in her charge; turning to the other +national officers on the stage she reached out her hand to them and +expressed her appreciation of their loyal support, and then, realizing +that her strength was almost gone, she said: 'There have been others +also just as true and devoted to the cause--I wish I could name every +one--but with such women consecrating their lives'--here she paused +for an instant and seemed to be gazing into the future, then dropping +her arms to her side she finished her sentence--'failure is +impossible!' These were the last words Miss Anthony ever spoke in +public and from that moment they became the watchword of those who +accepted as their trust the work she laid down." One month later to +the day she was laid to rest with her loved ones. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] Part of Call: Never have we had so much cause to issue a +thanksgiving proclamation. Never has it been so easy to love our +enemies, for they have combined to fight for us in their courses. + +The inevitable logic of events is with us. All over the world +intelligent women are interested in securing better protection for +their homes and their children.... They are called upon to take part +in civic affairs, and social and economic conditions force them into +the world's broad field of battle where there is no place for +non-combatants. The time has gone by for subterfuge and +indirection.... The American Republic settles its questions in the +light of day at the ballot box. No one, man or woman, has ever lost +influence by the possession of power. We do not ask the ballot simply +as a right, though if it be a right it cannot be rightfully denied us; +we do not ask it as a privilege, though if it be a privilege it must +be ours unless we admit the existence of a privileged class. We demand +it because it is a duty and one which no good citizen has a right to +shirk. + +If you are indifferent come and be convinced. What we ask is not +revolutionary but is the reasonable and just demand of every being +living under a democratic form of government. If you are opposed, come +and let us reason together, consider our points of agreement and waive +for a moment those of difference.... Let us have the truth for +authority and we shall not need authority for truth.... + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President. + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + FLORENCE KELLEY, Vice-President-at-Large. + KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary. + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. + HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } Auditors. + ANNICE JEFFREYS MYERS, } + +[45] Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, by Ida Husted Harper, Volume +III, page 1383. + +[46] The clergymen of the city gave cordial assistance to the +convention and among those who opened different sessions with prayer +were the Reverends Dr. Van Meter of the Woman's College; George +Scholl, D.D., Lutheran Church; Lloyd Coblentz, St. Paul's Reformed +Church; John Y. Dobbins, Grace M. E. Church; E. L. Watson, Harlem Park +M. E. Church; Alfred R. Hussey, First Independent Church; Peter +Ainslee, Christian Temple; Oliver Huckel, Associate Congregational +Church; Rabbi Adolf Guttmacher, Madison Avenue Temple; Marshall V. +McDuffie, North Avenue Baptist Church; Ezra K. Bell, First English +Lutheran Church; Edward W. Wroth, All Saints' Episcopal Church. + +[47] Although Miss Anthony lived only one month longer every day was +made happy by the thought that those who would carry on the work would +have the great assistance of this fund. A committee was formed the +following summer with Miss Garrett as chairman and Dr. Thomas as +treasurer and the work of securing subscriptions was begun on Miss +Anthony's birthday the next year, 1907. By May 1 the $60,000 had been +subscribed and put at the disposal of the national board of officers. +The sum was completed by a subscription of $20,000 from "a friend" and +not until after the death of Mrs. Russell Sage, who had headed the +list with $5,000, was it known that she was the donor. Mrs. Sage had +made generous subscriptions at other times. The full list of donors +will be found in Miss Anthony's Biography, page 1401. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1907. + + +The six preceding chapters have described at length and in detail the +annual conventions of the National American Woman Suffrage Association +in order to show that those who took part in them were the +representative women and men of the day. Their addresses, reports of +committees, resolutions adopted and other proceedings demonstrate the +wide scope of the activities of this organization, which from 1869 was +the foundation and the bulwark of the vast movement to obtain equality +of rights for women. The Thirty-ninth convention met in Music Hall, +Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Feb. 14-19, 1907, and received a cordial +welcome to the State of Lincoln, who in 1836 was almost the first +public man in the United States to declare in favor of suffrage for +women.[48] Lorado Taft's bust of Susan B. Anthony, its pedestal +draped in the Stars and Stripes, adorned the platform and a portrait +of Lucy Stone looked down on the speakers in serene benediction. The +national president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was in the chair and +addresses of welcome were made for Illinois by Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, +president of the State Equal Suffrage Association; for the churches by +the Right Rev. Samuel E. Fallows, Presiding Bishop of the Reformed +Episcopal Church; for the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union +by Mrs. Susanna M. D. Fry, its corresponding secretary. Mrs. Fannie J. +Fernald, president of the Maine Suffrage Association, and Mrs. Mary S. +Sperry, president of that of California, responded and in introducing +them Dr. Shaw said: "These responses from the Atlantic and the Pacific +Coasts represent greetings from all the women between them." The +presidents of the Chicago North Side, the South Side and the Evanston +Political Equality Clubs were presented and received with applause. +Bishop Fallows expressed the wish that what he should say could be +voiced by the ministers of all the churches in the land and said: "I +am proud that from the period of the Civil War and a little before, +when the cause of the emancipation of the slave was the foremost +question of the time and was only settled by the horrors of a long +struggle--from that time I espoused the cause of woman suffrage. I +hope there will be no need to fight for it as we fought during those +long years but at least there should be a war of words until women +have the power to deposit a ballot, until they have complete +enfranchisement. Your case is just; yours is a righteous cause. I +cannot help believing that the exercise of the suffrage by women is +necessary to the welfare and growth of the nation. Your cause stands +for the home; it stands for political purity, for civic righteousness, +for everything that is for the betterment of the State, and I should +be guilty of high treason to my deepest convictions if I did not bid a +hearty God-speed to your efforts until every State shall recognize the +equality of woman before the great law of civic redemption, as God has +recognized her right before the great law of human redemption." + +The appointment of the usual committees was followed by a symposium on +Municipal Suffrage, at this time a vital issue in Chicago, as a +spirited campaign was in progress to secure a clause giving it to +women in the new city charter which a convention was preparing.[49] +Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin was to preside but she yielded to Mrs. Florence +Kelley, who had to leave the city, and later took Mrs. Kelley's place +in presiding over the symposium on Industrial Conditions. Professor +Sophonisba Breckinridge (Ky.), of Chicago University, gave an able +address on Municipal Housekeeping, saying in the course of it: + + In all the things that make the city a good place in which to + work, the woman is as much concerned as any one. When it comes to + the questions which affect women, she has of course a peculiar + ability to speak, a peculiar responsibility and an obligation to + assume every right necessary to carry out that responsibility. It + is incumbent upon her to secure the power to move in the most + direct way upon the obstacles which lie in her path in the + controlling of conditions.... It is to the housekeeper that I + want to call your attention, rather than to the working woman. + She has to decide how she will use her time, energy and money to + promote the life, health, comfort and welfare of her family. The + little group must live in a house. If she resides in a city, it + is a matter of concern what shall be the structure of it, whether + made of material endangering the household or not; if in an + apartment house, she is concerned in the regulations under which + such houses are built and controlled, in the fire escapes, the + sort of gas, the dimensions of the apartments, the order of the + rooms, the plumbing, etc. + + It is obvious that today no woman can be a competent housekeeper + unless she has an intelligent knowledge of these subjects. She + must exercise a control over the ordinances and have something to + say about the men who make these ordinances and who enforce them. + She has not the power she needs as a housekeeper unless she feels + that the officials of the city are as much responsible to her, + although they are not chosen by her alone, as are the domestic + servants whom she does select. Her collective responsibility is + just as great as her individual responsibility.... Women cannot + stop either at the bottom or the top by asking for Municipal + suffrage. If woman is going to be a complete housekeeper she must + be a member of a political group and that leads to the demand for + Municipal, State and Federal suffrage. + +Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.) told of the remarkable work the women of New +Orleans had been able to do with their taxpayers' right to vote on +matters of special taxation. "If the women of one part of the country +more than another need the suffrage," she declared, "it is those of +the South." The Chicago _Tribune_ commented: "As Miss Gordon sat down +all the women clapped, many waved handkerchiefs and the applause +continued several minutes." Mrs. Lilla Day Monroe described the +excellent effects of the Municipal suffrage enjoyed by all women in +Kansas, the only State where it existed in full. She called attention +to the fact that the next day, February 15, would be the 20th +anniversary of its granting by the Legislature. Miss Anna E. Nicholes +of Chicago spoke on The Ballot for Working Women, saying in part: + + The women who work in our city have a special claim to Municipal + enfranchisement, inasmuch as they not only help create Chicago's + wealth but are subject to the industrial conditions regulated by + the city voters.... + + Legislation is becoming more and more industrial in its aspect. + Abating sweating and its evils, inspection of toilets, hygienic + conditions in shops are now matters frequently controlled by our + city fathers. Women are more and more coming into the industrial + field. The 5,000,000 now gainfully employed in the United States + represent one-fifth of the total number of wage-earners and this + number are non-voters. This is a serious handicap to labor in its + efforts to secure humane industrial legislation.... To these + working women this matter of suffrage is an economic question--a + bread-and-butter necessity. It is a fact, acknowledged by many + large employers of labor and stated also by Carroll D. Wright in + Government bulletins, that one of the leading reasons for the + preference of women wage-earners to men is that they can be + secured more cheaply. Employers are frank in acknowledging that + the women work for less, that they are more reliable, more + temperate, less inclined to strike and more faithful. + + It was quite as much for the industrial opportunity as for + maintaining personal liberty that Lincoln insisted on the + necessity of enfranchising the negroes. Such prominent economists + as the Webbs of England, Carroll D. Wright and Richard T. Ely of + our own country state that woman's lack of the ballot is one of + the determining causes in placing her in the ranks of the cheap + laborer with all its attending evils. So placed she becomes a + menace in industry and drags down the wages of the men. At the + last convention of the American Federation of Labor this + necessity of the ballot for the working woman was recognized when + the resolution was adopted stating that woman would never come + into the full wage scale until she came into her full rights of + citizenship.... To the large body of women in our city who have + to shift for themselves as completely as men do Municipal + suffrage would mean a higher rating industrially, a fairer + compensation for their labor and more possible living conditions. + +Mrs. Kelley, who, as executive secretary of the National Consumers' +League for years and before that as State Factory Inspector of +Illinois, had an unsurpassed knowledge of the conditions that affect +women and children, gave a scathing review of the failure of Congress +to enact protective laws and of the reactionary decisions of Supreme +Courts. "Do we ask what this has to do with Municipal suffrage?" she +inquired and answered: + + If we are not to be given power to help determine our own laws by + electing men to Congress in the larger field of the republic; and + if, one by one, the States are to repeal or annul the legislation + that once gave some slender protection to women and youth, there + remains at least the city. It should be our immediate demand that + in all matters of the life of a city we shall have a word. The + greatest numbers of working people are in the cities. If our + boards of health, our school boards, our street-cleaning + departments, our water boards--if all these local bodies which + have most to do with the health of working people, as with the + health of other people, in the great centers of population--can + be given the additional stimulus which comes from the lively + interest of women, (both those who support themselves and those + who have more leisure), then a very large proportion of the + working women can have more adequate care for life and health and + the children will have education beyond that which we have as yet + achieved. + + Does any one here believe that if the women had power to make + themselves felt in the administration of school affairs we should + have 80,000 children on half-time in New York City? Truly, if the + mothers of these school children, as well as their fathers, spoke + in the elections, the interest in the schools would be quite a + different one. Does any one believe that if the women of this + community could make themselves felt more effectively than by + "persuasion," if they could make their will felt, we should have + such a smoky sky as characterizes Chicago? Does any one believe + that we should have to boil all the water before we dared to + drink it? It would make a vast difference if women in American + cities could enforce their will and conscience by the ballot + instead of by the indefinitely slow work of persuasion. + +The first evening was devoted to a more extended welcome and to the +president's address. On behalf of the city Dr. Howard S. Taylor +represented Mayor Edward F. Dunne and in an eloquent speech he +reviewed the various epochs in the country's history. "Take, for +instance," he said, "the first chapter, when the old Liberty Bell +clanged out to the world the doctrine that 'all men are created equal +and endowed with certain inalienable rights to life, liberty and the +pursuit of happiness, and to secure these rights governments are +established among men deriving their just powers from the consent of +the governed.' There is no casuistry, however dextrous, that can take +woman out of that charter." He referred to pioneer days and the heavy +part borne by women and said: "But when the foundations had been +established and the pioneer fathers got down to writing the +constitutions they left the pioneer mothers out." He spoke of the time +in the '50's when "the Government invited the people from all over the +world to come and help us settle our political, social and commercial +questions but did not invite American mothers, sisters, wives and +daughters." "Then came the Civil War," he said, "and the large part +taken in it by women and when the war was over the Government made the +great army of emancipated slaves citizens and gave the men the ballot +but forgot the patriotic white women of the country." "I know," he +said in conclusion, "that if the women of Chicago and Illinois were +enfranchised the corruption of the city council and the Legislature +would be much less than it is. We should have a higher state of morals +among public men and better laws on the statute books." + +When the speaker finished Dr. Shaw observed: "We ought to thank Mayor +Dunne for substituting a man like Dr. Taylor for himself." This +brought Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch to her feet to say: "Mayor +Dunne would have made just as good a suffrage speech as Dr. Taylor." +"I did not intend any reflection on the Mayor," answered Dr. Shaw with +a quiet smile, "but I think he showed excellent judgment." + +The Chicago Woman's Club of over a thousand members, a recognized +force in the great city, sent its greetings through its president, +Mrs. Gertrude E. Blackwelder. Mrs. Minnie E. Watkins, as president of +the State Federation of Women's Clubs, gave a welcome in the name of +its membership of 294 clubs and told of the increasing growth of +suffrage sentiment among them. "Through the work of our Industrial, +Civil Service and Legislative Committees," she said, "we have learned +our need of the ballot." The Rev. Charles R. Henderson, Professor of +Sociology, an earnest suffragist, welcomed the convention, saying in +part: + + As I am to represent the University of Chicago, it will not do + for me to make a speech on either side. No one person can + represent the sentiments of four hundred men, who all the time + are in an attitude of friendly hostility to anything that comes + up. I think, however, there is one point of sympathy with us who + are engaged in the work of investigation, trying to get beyond + the frontier of present knowledge of all the sciences. It is + this: As soon as anything comes to be in the possession of the + majority, it loses interest for us; as long as there is something + to do, we are interested in it. When the effort for woman + suffrage is a thing of the past, then the people will take care + of it. Our duty is to make the public sentiment and let some one + else put it into legal form.... + + They say that women cannot manage the great questions of + government. That has yet to be submitted to the final scientific + test of experiment. As a matter of fact, today the one highest, + finest, noblest task of society, if not of government, is the + task of education and the inculcation of religion and of ideals; + and in this land, which in most respects leads all lands, woman + has the first word in this matter, as hers is the strongest and + the wisest word, and her influence, her thought and her character + lead upward and on. I need not, in this presence, argue the + question. + + I do not speak merely for the University of Chicago. I am proud + to belong to a university of letters, a republic that has its + branches in all parts of the civilized world. And I am glad that, + from the time I started to learn to read, in my own education in + this Middle West, from my childhood with my mother, through the + church, the Sunday school, the elementary and secondary schools, + the college and now the university, I have seen women side by + side with men, sharing the same teaching and having the same + teachers. That is what we stand for in the Middle West.... The + foundation of our institutions throughout the West is this + fundamental law, not to be changed, that if there is any + advantage to be had, women shall have it now and forever. + +Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, national recording secretary, and Miss +Jane Campbell, secretary of the Pennsylvania Association, responded. +The Hon. Oliver W. Stewart spoke on The Logic of Popular Government. +He pointed out that there has been a steady movement of mankind toward +government by the people for the people and said in part: + + In our own country we can see this growth clearly. Take the + election of the President. There was at first no thought that the + people should elect him but do you not see how quickly they + assimilated the machinery which was provided? We have not changed + the machinery but we have changed the spirit, so that instead of + the electoral college deliberating and choosing a President, it + is scarcely more than a stenographer to take the dictation of the + public. The people have absorbed the power themselves, and you + can write it as true that they do not surrender any power which + they have acquired as the result of their own struggles. If any + change should come it would be to give the people a more direct + voice rather than a more indirect voice. Take the change in the + convention system toward direct primaries. Do you not see how, in + spite of politicians, the people have been writing direct primary + laws? It is a part of the general movement toward popular + government.... + + There is a steady drift in this direction the world over and it + would be an anomalous condition if that movement could exist and + there could be at the same time a retrograde movement as to the + rights of women.... I have grown philosophical with reference to + the temporary defeats that we suffer. The thing to do is to + commiserate those who bring about the defeats. I look at the + black disgrace with which they will live in history who said they + would die for their own rights and yet were tyrants enough to + deny the rights of others.... The hour is quickly coming when the + genius of our government, where it is true to itself, will have + to give the ballot to womankind. May that day come speedily! + +This was Dr. Shaw's 60th birthday and many pleasant references had +been made to it by the delegates. She began her president's address by +saying: "We have never before been more enthusiastic than today. +Victory has not come in the United States but we are not working for +ourselves alone. Wherever freedom comes to any woman that is our +victory and when the new constitution of Finland granted absolute +equality to its woman citizens, that was our victory." Municipal +suffrage had been given to the women of Natal, South Africa, she said: +"and now at the foot of Mt. Ararat, where the ark rested, the +Catholicos, or High Priest of that conservative people and religion, +the Armenians, has issued an edict that the women of the church shall +not only have a voice in the election of its officers but also shall +be eligible to official position." She referred to the recent defeat +of the suffrage amendment in Oregon and said: "All honor to those +37,000 men who voted for it; their descendants will not be ashamed of +their fathers' act. There are today organizations of Sons and +Daughters of the American Revolution and there will some day be one of +'Sons and Daughters of the Evolution of Women's Freedom,' but there +will never be one of the Tories who fought against that Revolution or +this Evolution," and she continued: + + This year I took for my motto those splendid words: "Truth loses + many battles but always wins its war." We did not win save as + those who fight for the truth are always the people who win. + There never was, there never will be greater defeat in any human + life than the victory which comes to the man or woman who is + fighting against the truth, and there never can be a greater + victory to any human soul than the fact that it is fighting for + the truth, whether it wins or not.... This has been a year of + victory in that more women have been enfranchised than in any + preceding year. We have the largest membership that we have ever + had. We come together in hope and in the firm determination that + we will fight it out on this line if it takes all summer and all + the summers of our life, and then the battle will not be finished + unless the victory is absolutely won for all women.... While we + have cause to rejoice we have also cause for sorrow. As an + organization it has been the saddest year we have known or ever + can know, for there has gone out from among us the visible + presence of her who was our leader for over fifty years, and I + have just come with others directly from the home in Rochester + where we attended the funeral services of the dear sister Mary, + who was the first of the two to enter the movement and was always + the faithful co-worker and home-maker. Both have folded their + hands in rest since our last convention. Each gave her whole life + to the cause of woman and each in passing away left all she had + to this cause. The sorrow is ours, the peace and the triumphal + reward of loving service are theirs. I hope we shall spend no + time in mourning and turning to the past but with our faces + toward the future, strengthened by the inspiration we have + received from our great leader, go on fighting her battle and + God's battle until the complete victory is won. + +With two exceptions this was the only national convention during the +thirty-nine years that had not been animated by the presence of Miss +Anthony and the second day--February 15, her 87th birthday--was +largely devoted to her.[50] There were three reports on Memorials. One +was presented by Mrs. May Wright Sewall (Ind.) for the Executive +Committee of the National Council of Women and contemplated a bust to +be executed in marble by the sculptor, Adelaide Johnson, who had made +the one in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. A second was presented +by Mrs. Mary T. Lewis Gannett of Rochester, N. Y., for an Anthony +Memorial Building for the women students of the university of that +city, who had been admitted largely through the effort of Miss +Anthony. [Life and Work, page 1221.] A third was for a $100,000 +Memorial Fund for the work of the National American Association. The +report of the committee for this third fund, which was presented by +Mrs. Avery, stated that the nearness of success for woman suffrage now +depended on securing the money to do the necessary work of propaganda, +organization, publicity, etc., and that the most fitting memorial to +Miss Anthony would be a fund of not less than $100,000 to be used +exclusively for "the furtherance of the woman suffrage cause in the +United States in such amounts and for such purposes as the general +officers of the association shall from time to time deem best." It +also provided that the officers should be permitted to select eleven +women to act as trustees of this fund, six of whom should be from the +official board. This report was unanimously adopted. Mrs. Upton, the +national treasurer, at once appealed for pledges and the delegates +responded with about $24,000. The business committee of the +association elected as its six members Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Avery, Mrs. +Upton, Miss Blackwell, Miss Gordon and Miss Clay. Mrs. Henry Villard +of New York; Mrs. Pauline Agassiz Shaw of Boston and Miss Jane Addams +of Chicago were the only others selected.[51] + +According to the custom for a number of years Miss Lucy E. Anthony was +requested to present in the name of the association framed portraits +of Miss Anthony to various institutions--in this instance to Hull +House and the Chicago Political Equality League. Telegrams were +received from the Mayor of Des Moines, Ia.; from the Utah Council of +Suffrage Women; from the Interurban Woman Suffrage Council of Greater +New York, saying they had observed the day by opening headquarters, +and from a number of other sources telling that the birthday was being +celebrated in ways that would have been pleasing to Miss Anthony. + +The evening memorial services were beautiful and impressive. Mason +Slade at the organ rendered the great chorus--Guilmant; +Cantilene--Wheeldon; Marche Militaire--Schubert. The Rev. Mecca Marie +Varney of Chicago offered prayer. During the evening Miss Marie Ludwig +gave an exquisite harp solo and Mrs. Jennie F. W. Johnson sang with +deep feeling Tennyson's Crossing the Bar, a favorite poem of Miss +Anthony's. A telegram of greeting from the International Woman +Suffrage Alliance was sent through its president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman +Catt. A tribute of an intimate and loving nature was paid by Miss +Emily Howland of Sherwood, a friend of half a century, in which she +said: "The first time I ever met Miss Anthony was at an anti-slavery +meeting in my own shire town of Auburn, N. Y., which was broken up by +a mob and we took refuge with Mrs. Martha Wright, a sister of Lucretia +Mott." She spoke of Miss Anthony's "genius for friendship" and quoted +the lines: "The bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring." +Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery gave a number of instances during their +travel in Europe which showed Miss Anthony's strong humanitarianism. + +Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams of Chicago paid touching tribute in +behalf of the colored people, in which she said: "My presence on this +platform shows that the gracious spirit of Miss Anthony still survives +in her followers.... When Miss Anthony took up the cause of women she +did not know them by their color, nationality, creed or birth, she +stood only for the emancipation of women from the thraldom of sex. She +became an invincible champion of anti-slavery. In the half century of +her unremitting struggle for liberty, more liberty, and complete +liberty for negro men and women in chains and for white women in their +helpless subjection to man's laws, she never wavered, never doubted, +never compromised. She held it to be mockery to ask man or woman to be +happy or contented if not free. She saw no substitute for liberty. +When slavery was overthrown and the work of reconstruction began she +was still unwearied and watchful. She had an intimate acquaintance +with the leading statesmen of the times. Her judgment and advice were +respected and heard in much of the legislation that gave a status of +citizenship to the millions of slaves set free." + +The principal address was made by the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones of +Chicago, a devoted friend, with whose courageous and independent +spirit Miss Anthony had been in deep sympathy.[52] Tributes were paid +to other devoted adherents to the cause who had died during the year +and Henry B. Blackwell in closing his own said: "The workers pass on +but the work remains." Dr. Shaw took up the words, making them the +text of a beautiful memorial address, calling the long list one by +one, beginning with the Anthony sisters and Mrs. Isabella Beecher +Hooker and naming among the other veteran workers: Rosa L. Segur, +Ohio; Emily B. Ketcham, Michigan; the Hon. H. S. Greenleaf, Professor +Henry A. Ward, Eliza Thayer, Emogene Dewey and Mrs. James Sargent, New +York; Virginia Durant Young, South Carolina; Ellen Powell Thompson, +District of Columbia; Laura Moore, Vermont; Mrs. Henry W. Blair and +Mrs. Oliver Branch, New Hampshire; Susan W. Lippincott, New Jersey, +and many others. + +The all-pervading spirit of the convention was that of carrying +forward Miss Anthony's work. The board of officers was re-elected +almost unanimously except that Dr. Jeffreys Myers, who wished to +retire as second auditor, was replaced by Mrs. Mary S. Sperry of San +Francisco. Mrs. Avery, for twenty-one years corresponding secretary, +had returned from a long sojourn in Europe and the desire was so +strong to have her on the board again that the office of second +vice-president was created. At Mrs. Florence Kelley's insistence she +was allowed to yield the first vice-presidency to Mrs. Avery and take +the second place as having less responsibility. + +The report of the headquarters secretary, Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, +told of the sending out of 19,000 letters and 182,264 pieces of +literature within the year. It gave the names of many eminent men and +women who were contributors to this literature, much of which first +appeared in prominent magazines and newspapers, and spoke of the +excellent propaganda work of _The Public_, edited by Louis F. Post. It +emphasized the important accession of the _North American Review_ and +the Harper publications, which had come under the management of +Colonel George Harvey. The report told of the bequest of Miss Anthony +to the National American Association of all the remaining bound +volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, which had been sent to the +headquarters and weighed ten tons.[53] Fifty sets had been sold during +the year. Files of the Reports of the national conventions from 1900 +to 1906 inclusive had been placed in one hundred of the largest +libraries in the United States. The association arranged with Mrs. +Harper for the exclusive sale of the Life and Work of Susan B. +Anthony. The convention voted that _Progress_, edited by Mrs. Upton, +should be changed to a weekly and enlarged, and every suffrage club +was urged to subscribe for _Jus Suffragii_, the official paper of the +International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Thousands of copies of new and +valuable literature had been sold. After the press work was turned +over to the headquarters 1,200 copies of articles of national interest +were supplied each week to the fifty-eight State chairmen of the press +committee from July to January and 28,875 copies of 118 news items and +50 special articles were sent to prominent newspapers. + +The important work with organizations and their conventions was not +neglected and during the past year they were asked specifically for a +resolution calling on Congress to submit a Federal Woman Suffrage +Amendment, with the following result: + + The American Federation of Labor at its annual meeting in + Minneapolis covered this request in a series of carefully worded + resolutions. Other important organizations which gave official + endorsement within the year are the World's Woman's Christian + Temperance Union, National Purity Conference, National Free + Baptist Woman's Missionary Society, Spiritualists of the United + States and Canada, Ladies of the Modern Maccabees, International + Brotherhood of Bookbinders, International Brotherhood of + Teamsters, Patrons of Husbandry, National Grange, and the United + Mine Workers of America. To these we may add the fourteen other + national organizations reported in previous years which have + received fraternal delegates from our association or given formal + endorsement, making a total of twenty-five large associations + which responded favorably to our "convention resolutions" + requests. + + For the first time the General Federation of Women's Clubs + invited our president to take part in the program at the + Biennial. Resolutions have been reported to headquarters from the + State W. C. T. U.'s of seven States; the Letter Carriers' + Associations of Illinois, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania; the + State Granges of thirteen States; the State Federations of Labor + of fifteen States. The Prohibitionists of eight States have had + woman suffrage in their party platforms; the Socialists always + declare for it and in California the Democrats, the Independence + League and the Union Labor parties incorporated planks in their + State platforms. The State Teachers' Associations of California + and Illinois, the Sons of Temperance of Connecticut and Illinois, + the Good Templars of Maine, the Congress of Mothers and the + Federations of Women's Clubs of Illinois and New Hampshire are + among other organizations which have acted favorably on some + phase of the woman suffrage question.[54] + +Saturday afternoon was devoted entirely to social affairs. They began +with a luncheon given at Hull House by Miss Jane Addams to officers, +delegates and alternates, after which the activities of this +remarkable institution were explained. Systematic sight-seeing was +carried out, groups of the guests being personally conducted to the +Field Columbian Museum, the Art Museum, the big department stores and +other points of interest. One group went to Chicago University, where +Dr. Shaw addressed the students of the Women's Union and the College +Girls' Suffrage Club. Afterwards they were entertained by the Dean of +Women, Miss Marian Talbot. In the evening the Chicago Woman's Club +gave a large reception, its president, Mrs. Blackwelder, and the +chairman of the Social Committee, Miss Clara Dixon, being assisted in +receiving by the officers of the association. Its handsome club rooms +in the Fine Arts Building were placed at the service of the delegates +throughout the convention. + +Ministers of Chicago who opened the sessions with prayers were Dr. J. +A. Rondthaler of the Normal Park Presbyterian Church; Dr. Austin K. de +Blois of the First Baptist Church, and the Rev. Jean F. Loba of the +First Congregational Church, Evanston. A number of pulpits in the city +were filled by officers and delegates Sunday morning. The Studebaker +Theater was taken for the regular service of the convention in the +afternoon in order to accommodate the large audience. The Rev. Kate +Hughes of Chicago offered prayer. Dr. Shaw presided and read a message +from Miss Mary S. Anthony dictated a few days before her death, when +Miss Shaw asked her what word she would like to send to the +convention. It said in part: + + Until we, a so-called Christian nation, put into practice those + principles of justice which we claim are the foundation of our + national greatness, we cannot hope to inspire confidence in the + people of the world in our lofty pretensions of freedom and fair + play for all. The wrong which today outranks all others is the + disfranchisement of the mothers of the race. So long as this + injustice toward women continues, just so long will men fail to + recognize justice in its application to each other. This one + question puts all else into the background and until we can + establish equality between men and women we shall never realize + the full development of which manhood and womanhood are capable. + Because I believe this so thoroughly I have given the best of + myself and the best work of my life to help obtain political + freedom for women, knowing that upon this rests the hope not only + of the freedom of men but of the onward civilization of the + world. I therefore urge upon the delegates and members of the + National Association not to lose courage, no matter what befalls, + but to work on in hope and faith, knowing well that the time of + the coming of woman's political liberty depends largely upon the + zeal and unwearying service of those who believe in its justice. + +The Rev. Herbert S. Bigelow of Cincinnati in a strong address showed +the Value of the Ballot. Miss Addams told with much feeling of the +recent campaign for the Municipal franchise, the objections they had +to meet, the character of the opposition and how hard it was for women +to be patient. + +Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch gave an able address under the title "Why Not?" a +study in Prejudice and Superstition, reviewing the objections to woman +suffrage and finding their origin in Orientalism, in the military +ideal, in political expediency. He ended his refutation of all of them +by saying: "All our American institutions will be protected and +benefited when we open the doors and give women, who never should +have been denied it, the right to govern themselves, to govern the +country in conjunction with men and to decide the issues that affect +their own interests. Men have had this right for themselves alone too +long. The day will come, my sisters, when the conscience of the world +will be aroused to such a degree that no one will dare question the +justice of your movement." + +Many greetings were received through letters, telegrams and fraternal +delegates. Prof. John A. Scott, representing president A. M. Harris of +Northwestern University, Evanston, brought an invitation for speakers +to address the students and Miss Gordon and Miss Caroline Lexow +responded. In his greeting Professor Scott said: "I believe in woman +suffrage because I believe in the home.... I don't care a whit for the +argument that women with property should have a vote. Property will +always be represented and it does not so much matter whether the +property-holding women have a vote or not but it is of immense +importance to those women who work for their living. That they have no +representation is a great menace to those who are nominally free but +who must compete with slaves. Women are economic entities and they +should be represented. Labor without representation is as wrong as +taxation without representation." + +E. M. Nockels, fraternal delegate from the American Federation of +Labor, addressed the convention and read a letter from its president, +Samuel Gompers, expressing the hope of universal suffrage for women. +Mrs. Emma S. Olds brought greetings from the Ladies of the Maccabees +of the World, and Mrs. Martin Barbe, the first vice-president, from +the National Council of Jewish Women. A letter from Mrs. Mary Wood +Swift (Calif.), president of the National Council of Women, gave its +fraternal greetings. A cordial letter was read from Mrs. Mary B. Clay +of Kentucky and telegrams from Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, Dr. Frances +Woods, Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer and the Canadian Woman Suffrage +Association. Telegrams of appreciation were sent to Julia Ward Howe, +Clara Barton, Caroline E. Merrick, Emily P. Collins, Col. T. W. +Higginson, Margaret W. Campbell, Judith W. Smith, Caroline M. +Severance, Emma J. Bartol, Armenia S. White, Elizabeth Smith Miller, +Ellen S. Sargent, Sarah L. Willis and Charlotte L. Pierce, all old +and beloved suffrage workers. + +The symposium on Industrial Conditions of Women and Children, with +Mrs. Henrotin presiding, occupied one afternoon. She pointed out the +revolution in the work of women by its being taken from the home into +the open market where they had to follow; described their handicaps, +the immense importance of their labor, the business ability that many +had developed, the property they had accumulated, the taxes they pay; +she said if they had a voice in deciding how these taxes should be +spent it would not only be a splendid thing for the city financially +but morally, and urged that they should have the power of the +suffrage. Graham Romeyn Taylor of Chicago paid high tribute to the +work of women's organizations in all movements for civic improvement +and described that of the Women's Clubs in Chicago; spoke of the +Consumer's League also and declared the Women's Trade Union League +most effective of all in bettering the condition of working women. He +predicted close cooperation between this League and the National +Suffrage Association. Miss Alice Henry of Australia spoke very +effectively from her knowledge of the conditions of labor in her own +country and the investigation she was making in the United States. +Miss Casey, president of the Chicago Working Women's Suffrage +Association, gave facts from personal knowledge showing their need of +the vote. James C. Kelliher, former president of the National Letter +Carriers' Association, spoke briefly and to the point. Miss Mary +McDowell of Chicago made the principal address entitled The Working +Women as a National Asset, in which she showed how little conception +Congress and the Courts had of the legislation needed in their behalf +and the sins of omission and commission that had resulted. In closing +she said: + + We need a body of facts so strong that the Judiciary will see the + light. We need a body of facts that will teach housekeepers not + to scorn these women because they can not get a cook. We need a + body of facts to teach working men that this work of women is + something which has come to stay. There are going to be more + women earning their living in the future than in the past. These + girls are pioneers in a movement that we do not yet quite + understand. I do not believe that our Heavenly Father permits so + large a movement as these five million women in one country + earning their own living without there being in it something that + is for the best.... As a means to our work we want the suffrage. + We all get very tired of the woman question. I will discuss the + human question with any one but I will not discuss the woman + question, because I think that is past. If women are going into + industry, if they are going to have their places of + responsibility, then they must more and more meet the + responsibility that their brothers have with whom they work. It + is not fair to the working brother to let the girls come in and + cut down the wages and have no sense of responsibility, no + feeling of permanency. It is a very great danger. Therefore, + working women should have the ballot to make them feel that they, + too, are responsible citizens.... + + All reverence to the work that the suffragists have done! We have + always honored dear Miss Anthony and we all owe gratitude to you + women who have been so long in this cause making a way for the + rest of us. The working women are joining your ranks because they + know that they must do so. + +The report of the Congressional Committee, Mrs. Catt chairman, was +read by Mrs. Kelley. It said that after the excellent hearings before +the committees of Congress the preceding winter had no effect it was +decided to ask the cooperation of the General Federation of Women's +Clubs. This was done and its Industrial Advisory Board agreed to send +out a circular letter. The association's Congressional Committee +prepared one which the federation's board sent to 4,000 individual +clubs asking them to question the members of Congress from their +districts as to their opinion of a Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment +and the request was largely complied with. A resolution was adopted +that the association urge concerted action among the State auxiliaries +to secure the submission by Congress of a Sixteenth Amendment +forbidding disfranchisement on account of sex and that they be +recommended to make it a feature of their work to obtain from their +Legislatures a resolution in favor of such an amendment. A telegram of +greeting was sent to Mrs. Catt and she was appointed fraternal +delegate to the Peace Conference in New York in April. + +Hard and conscientious work was shown in the reports of the chairmen +of all the committees: Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs. Lucretia L. +Blankenburg; Peace and Arbitration, Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead; Presidential +Suffrage, Henry B. Blackwell; Libraries, Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer; +Literature, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell; Enrollment, Mrs. Oreola +Williams Haskell; Membership, Miss Laura Clay, and others. Miss Clay +urged that the organization of the political parties be taken as a +model by the suffrage societies. As usual the State reports were among +the most interesting features of the convention, for they gave in +detail the nation-wide work that was being done for woman suffrage. At +this time that of Oklahoma, Mrs. Kate L. Biggars, president, had a +prominent place, as the association had been helping its women during +the past year in an effort to have the convention which was framing a +constitution for statehood put in a clause for woman suffrage. A corps +of able national workers was there for months while the most strenuous +work was done but the only result was the franchise on school matters. + +The report on Oregon was read by the corresponding secretary, Miss +Gordon. The campaign there for a woman suffrage amendment to the State +constitution was possibly the most strenuous that had ever been made +for this purpose and the National Association had given more +assistance, financial and otherwise, than to any other, a number of +its officers going there in person. Among them were Miss Clay and Miss +Gordon, who made full reports.[55] + +The report of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, showed +that the receipts of the association for 1906 had been $18,203 and it +had expended on the Oregon campaign $18,075, a sum equal to its year's +income. A portion of the money, however, was taken from the reserve +fund and $8,000 had been subscribed directly for this campaign by +individuals and States. The total disbursements for the year had been +$25,933. The power of the association to rise above defeat and its +courage and determination, so many times shown, were strikingly +illustrated on this occasion when the convention voted to raise a fund +of $100,000 and pledged $24,000 of this amount before it adjourned. + +The Resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee, +covered a wide range of subjects, among them the following: + + In view of the fact that in only 14 of our States have married + mothers any legal right to the custody, control and earnings of + their minor children, we urge the women of the other States to + work for laws giving to mothers equal rights with fathers. + + The traffic in women and girls which is carried on in the United + States and in other countries is a heinous blot upon civilization + and we demand of Congress and our State Legislatures that every + possible step be taken to suppress the infamous traffic in this + country. + + We urge upon Congress and State Legislatures the enactment of + laws prohibiting the employment of children under 16 years of age + in mines, stores or factories. + + We favor the adoption of State amendments establishing direct + legislation by the voters through the initiative and referendum. + + Inasmuch as in the second Hague Peace Conference there will be + offered the greatest opportunity in human history to lessen the + burden of militarism, therefore we request the President of the + United States to approve the recommendations for the action of + that conference which were presented by the Inter-Parliamentary + Union, to-wit: (1) An advisory world congress; (2) a general + arbitration treaty; (3) the limitation of armaments; (4) + protection of private property at sea in time of war; (5) + investigation by an impartial commission of difficulties between + nations before declaration of hostilities. + +The convention at one evening session listened to interesting +addresses by Mrs. Mary E. Coggeshall, president of the Iowa Suffrage +Association, Then and Now; Professor Emma M. Perkins of Western +Reserve University (Ohio), Educational Ideals; Louis F. Post, editor +of _The Public_, The Denatured Woman. Mrs. Avery gave a much enjoyed +report of the Congress of the International Suffrage Alliance in +Copenhagen the preceding August. On the last evening addresses were +made by John Z. White of Chicago; Mrs. Upton on What Next? Miss Lexow +on The Place of Equal Suffrage in Higher Education. Dr. Shaw closed +the convention with a few eloquent words of encouragement, hope and +prophecy for the success of the cause to which they gladly gave to the +utmost their time, their labor and the best of everything they +possessed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] Part of Call: The friends of equal rights will come together on +this occasion with an outlook even more than usually bright. During +the last year full suffrage has been granted to the women of Finland, +the greatest victory since full national suffrage was given to the +women of Federated Australia in 1902. Within the past year the +Municipal franchise has been given to women in Natal, South Africa; +national associations have been organized in Hungary, Italy and Russia +and the reports at the recent meeting of the International Alliance at +Copenhagen showed a remarkable increase in the agitation for woman +suffrage all over Europe. In England, out of the 670 members of the +present House of Commons, 420 are pledged to its support. + +In the United States widely circulated newspapers and magazines +representing the most opposite political views have lately declared +for woman suffrage; the National Grange and the American Federation of +Labor have unanimously endorsed it. In Chicago 87 organizations with +an aggregate membership of 10,000 women have petitioned for a +Municipal suffrage clause in the new charter and the men and women +most prominent in the city's good works are supporting the plea. + +Men and women are natural complements of one another. American +political life today is marked by executive force and business +ability, qualities in which men are strong, but it is often lacking in +conscience and humanity. These a larger infusion of the mother element +would supply. We believe that men and women in co-operation can +accomplish better work than either sex alone.... + + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + FLORENCE KELLEY, Vice-President-at-Large. + KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary. + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. + HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } + ANNICE JEFFREYS MYERS, } Auditors. + +[49] The proposition was defeated during the suffrage convention by a +tie, with the chairman, Milton J. Foreman, giving the deciding vote +against it. [See Illinois, Volume VI.] + +[50] Miss Anthony helped arrange for the first National Woman Suffrage +Convention and it was held in Washington in January, 1869. From that +time to 1906 she missed but two of these annual meetings, when she was +speaking in the far West under the auspices of a lecture bureau, and +each time she sent the proceeds of a week's lectures as her +contribution. + +[51] Through lack of initiative and effort the money for the bust was +never raised. For Mrs. Gannett's report and other matter about the +Memorial Building see the Appendix to this chapter. See also page 442, +Volume VI. Reports on the Memorial Fund were made to the convention +year after year. The intention at first was to create a fund and use +only the interest but immediate demands were so urgent that the money +subscribed was appropriated as needed and an audited account given by +the national treasurer at each annual convention. + +[52] In the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony Chapter LXXIV begins: +"The death of no woman ever called forth so wide an editorial comment +as that of Miss Anthony, except possibly that of Queen Victoria, whose +years in public life numbered about the same. On the desk where this +is written are almost one thousand editorials, representing all the +papers of consequence in the United States and many in other +countries, and they form what may be accepted without reserve as the +consensus of thought in the early years of the twentieth century in +regard to Miss Anthony and the work she accomplished." + +Over eighty pages of extracts from these editorials are given and +several memorial poems. A large number of magazines in this and other +countries contained sketches and articles from which quotations are +made. Tributes of her biographer were published in the April numbers +of the _Review of Reviews_ and the North American _Review_, and on the +week following her death in _Collier's_ and the New York +_Independent_. + +In Chapter LXXI and following in the Biography are full accounts of +Miss Anthony's death and funeral services. + +[53] By vote of the convention these volumes were to be presented to +the club or individual member under whose auspices a new club of not +less than twenty paid up members had been formed and remained in +active existence for not less than a year and was properly certified. +The following year the Executive Committee voted to place 300 sets in +public libraries. + +[54] This work was continued year after year until the list became far +too large to publish. Not one organization, save a few connected with +the liquor business, ever adopted a resolution against woman suffrage +except the anti-suffrage societies themselves. + +[55] One of the striking features of the recent national suffrage +convention in Chicago was the large number of very close votes on +woman suffrage bills that were announced from different States, all +taking place at about the same time. While the convention was in +session, the Chicago charter convention defeated woman suffrage by a +tie vote. The Nebraska delegates got word that it had been lost in +their Lower House by a vote of 47 to 46, with a tie in the Senate. In +the Oklahoma constitutional convention, where the gambling and liquor +forces as usual lined up against woman suffrage, it came so near +passing that a change of seven votes would have carried it. In the +West Virginia Legislature, where the last time it was smothered in +committee, the House vote this time stood 38 yeas to 24 nays. In South +Dakota the measure passed the Senate and came so near passing the +House that a change of seven votes would have carried it. In the +Minnesota House the vote showed a small majority for suffrage but not +the constitutional one required. All these close legislative votes +followed hard upon the remarkable vote in Vermont, where the suffrage +bill passed the House 130 to 25 and came so near passing the Senate +that a change of three votes would have carried it.--_Woman's +Journal._ + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1908. + + +The Fortieth annual convention, Oct. 15-21, 1908, celebrated a notable +event, as it was the 60th anniversary of the first Woman's Rights +Convention, that famous gathering of July 19-20, 1848, in Seneca +Falls, N. Y., the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The celebration was +appropriately held in Buffalo, the largest city in the western part of +the State, and was one of the most interesting and successful of the +organization's many conventions.[56] The evening before it opened the +president and directors of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy gave a large +reception to the officers, delegates, members and friends of the +association. + +The convention met in the Young Men's Christian Association building +but this proved to be entirely too small for the evening sessions, +which were held in the large Central Presbyterian Church. The +excellent program was the work of Miss Kate Gordon, national +corresponding secretary, and the admirable arrangements were due to +Mrs. Richard Williams, president for the past eight years of the +Political Equality Club, with a corps of local helpers, but an +accident on the first day prevented her from welcoming the convention +or taking part in its proceedings. With the national president, Dr. +Anna Howard Shaw, in the chair, it was opened with prayer by the Rev. +Antoinette Brown Blackwell.[57] Mrs. Helen Z. M. Rodgers, a lawyer of +Buffalo, extended a welcome from women in the professions, who, she +said, "had only penetrated the ante-rooms and the annexes--the +teachers never able to reach the salaries paid to men; the doctors +shut out from the advantage of hospital positions; the lawyers allowed +to help interpret the laws but not to help make them." "To get much +further," she said, "we must be invested with full citizenship." + +Mrs. John Miller Horton gave a cordial welcome for the City Federation +of Women's Clubs, of which she was president, and for the Buffalo +Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Niagara +Frontier Chapter of the Daughters of 1812 and the Nellie Custis Branch +of the Children of the Revolution, as regent of each of them. She +presented to Dr. Shaw a large cluster of American Beauty roses tied +with the blue and gold of the federation and the blue and white of the +D. A. R., which was accepted in the name of Susan B. Anthony and +reverently laid over her portrait that stood on an easel. Dr. Ida C. +Bender, president of the Women Teachers' Association, spoke earnestly +in behalf of "the army of teachers who are training the future +citizens of the republic," and Dr. Shaw commented: "Political +nonentities can hardly be expected to inspire a political entity with +enthusiasm." + +The Western Federation of Women's Clubs gave its welcome through its +president, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, of whom the _Woman's Journal_ +said: "She spoke with an accent of unaffected sincerity and +self-forgetfulness that recalled the spirit of the pioneers." She +referred with pride to the fact that this organization, with nearly +100 clubs and about 32,000 members, was the first Federation of +Women's Clubs to admit suffrage societies. Mrs. Lucretia L. +Blankenburg, president of the Pennsylvania Suffrage Association and +officer of the General Federation, brought its greeting, the first it +had ever sent to a national suffrage convention. Mrs. Frances W. +Graham, president of the New York State Woman's Christian Temperance +Union, gave its greeting and spoke of the close cooperation which had +always existed between the workers for temperance and suffrage. Dr. +Shaw asked that she would convey the cordial greetings and best wishes +of the association to the National W. C. T. U., to whose convention in +Denver she was en route. Mrs. Ella Hawley Crossett, for the sixth term +president of the New York State Suffrage Association, united with Dr. +Shaw in responding to the welcoming addresses and spoke with deep +feeling of the courage and persistence of the pioneers and of the +pride with which the State where the movement for woman suffrage had +its birth welcomed the convention to celebrate the event. + +Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y., reformer, educator and +philanthropist, a co-worker and friend of the early suffragists, gave +a delightful address on The Spirit of 1848, "herself a living +embodiment of that spirit," in which she said: + + "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life + for his friends!" These are the words that come to me as I essay + to speak of the Spirit of '48! Was it not something of this love + which inspired that immortal Declaration made at the Woman's + Rights Convention on July 19-20, 1848? "This," says Mrs. Stanton + in her autobiography, "was the initial step in the most momentous + reform that has yet been launched upon the world--the first + organized protest against the injustice which had brooded for + ages over the character and destiny of one-half of the race. No + words could express our astonishment on finding a few days + afterward that what seemed to us so timely, so rational and so + sacred should be a subject for sarcasm and ridicule in the entire + press of the nation. The anti-slavery papers alone stood by us + manfully." + + The Declaration had been signed by many, the audiences being + large, but when pulpit and press ridiculed and reproved do we + marvel that one by one the women withdrew their names and "joined + the persecutors?" Much I fear that our own organization would + shrivel to pitiful proportions if today submitted to the ordeal + from which they recoiled. Indeed even Mrs. Stanton confessed that + if she had had the slightest premonition of all that would + follow this convention, she feared her courage would not have + been equal to it. Fortunate ignorance, if she did not underrate + her bravery, for she and a goodly number of the other signers + were steadfast. They chose to side with truth and take the + consequences. + +Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery (Penn.), corresponding secretary of the +International Woman Suffrage Alliance, presented a long and valuable +report of its recent congress in Amsterdam. [See chapter on Alliance.] +The convention then adjourned for the reception given by Mrs. Horton, +whose handsome home on Delaware Avenue was decorated with American +Beauty roses, the dining room with yellow chrysanthemums. She was +assisted in receiving by Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Crossett and Mrs. Allison S. +Capwell, president of the Erie County Suffrage Association. + +At the evening session Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller (N. Y.), presided, +daughter of Gerrit Smith, who was a staunch advocate of woman suffrage +from the time the movement for it began. Hundreds were turned away for +lack of room. The convention was officially welcomed to the city by +Mayor J. N. Adams and the welcome on the part of the State was +expressed by Senator Henry W. Hill, a consistent supporter of the +legislative work for suffrage. The principal feature of the evening +was the president's address of Dr. Shaw, of whom the report in the +Buffalo _Express_ said: "The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw has set a new +standard for womanhood. She is one of the most wonderful women of her +time, alert, watchful, magnetic, earnest, with a mind as quick for a +joke as for the truth. She points her arguments with epigrams and tips +the arrows of her persuasion with a jest.... Even the unbelievers are +carried away with her brilliancy, eloquence and mental grasp." There +was no adequate report of her address but she began by saying: + + We are scarcely able today to understand what those brave + pioneers endured to secure the things which we accept as a matter + of course. They started the greatest revolution the world has + ever witnessed. During these last sixty years more changes have + been wrought for the benefit of women, more opportunities for + education have been secured and more all-round enlightenment than + in the 6,000 years preceding. There are women who accept these + advantages and the positions that have been obtained because of + this early movement who have no conception of what it has meant + to open the highways of progress for them. Some of those who + oppose the suffrage say: "These things would have come; men would + have given woman these opportunities as civilization advanced." + Why did they not come sooner if men were so willing? Why should + they have grown more in the last sixty years than in all the + years before?... But the women in all this long time of struggle + have not stood entirely alone. There have always been some men to + stand by their side and they owed it to do so, for ever since the + world began women have stood by men in their efforts to achieve + the right. Never was there a great leader who had not some woman + by his side. Woman was first at the cradle, last at the cross and + first at the tomb. Women have stood shoulder to shoulder with men + always in their efforts.... Some tell us that we have not made + great progress. It is impossible to change the attitude of all + the conflicting elements of humanity in three-score years. If + Christianity in 1900 years, with the teaching of such a Leader, + has not yet made Peace Congresses unnecessary, what can be + expected of other reforms? + +The secretary's report of Miss Gordon contributed this bit of history: + + At this junction of the work a question arising upon the + advisability of securing a petition of a million signatures to + present to President Roosevelt in order to influence a + recommendation of suffrage for women in his annual message, a + request was made that he receive at Oyster Bay a committee from + our association. The President reasonably declined to have his + vacation interrupted with committees but offered to receive our + request in writing. Your secretary accordingly wrote him to the + effect that we wished to know--before going to the labor and + expense involved in securing such a petition--whether its + influence would have any weight in leading him to recommend woman + suffrage in his message. Courteously but emphatically came the + reply that it would not, but at the same time extending an + invitation for the National Association to appoint a committee to + see him on his return to Washington. The committee appointed was + composed of your national treasurer, Mrs. Upton, Mrs. Henry + Dickson Bruns of New Orleans, Mrs. Katharine Reed Balentine of + Maine and your corresponding secretary, and at the appointed time + it was received by the President, who again reiterated his + opinion on the absolute valuelessness of such a petition. In so + doing he ignored what for the women of this republic is their + only right--the right of petition. The interview was fruitful of + no suggestion beyond the time-honored recommendation to "get + another State." Women who worship as a fetish the power of this + right to petition may well catalogue this fallacy with those + other American fallacies that "taxation without representation is + tyranny"; that "governments derive their just powers from the + consent of the governed," and that the Government guarantees + "equal rights for all and special privileges for none." + +Miss Gordon told how the last convention had changed the plan for +forty years of holding the national convention in Washington during +the first session of a new Congress and therefore the corresponding +secretary had been obliged to arrange for representative women to go +there and have a hearing before the committees of Senate and House. +Mrs. Balentine, who was staying in Washington, and Miss Emma Gillett, +a lawyer of that city, took charge and hearings were granted March 3. +They lacked the inspiration of the presence of delegates from all +parts of the country and the convention lost the pleasure and benefit. + +The Work Conferences were continued under the name of Round Table +Conferences. The subjects considered were: Increase of membership; +press work; 16th Amendment as a line of policy; finance; State +legislative methods. An organizers' symposium discussed "A comparison +of conditions today with those of ten years ago; the building of a +State association; the personal touch; preliminary arrangements for +meetings." + +The usual comprehensive report was made by the headquarters secretary, +Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, who told of the vast amount of work done, +which included the sending out of 13,000 letters and 207,410 pieces of +literature, exclusive of matter for the press. _Progress_ had been +issued monthly, the Political Equality Leaflets and twenty other kinds +had been published and a card catalogue of 5,696 names completed; the +convention reports edited and distributed, the sales of the Life of +Miss Anthony and the History of Woman Suffrage looked after and an +endless amount of other work done. Miss Hauser told also of the +extensive effort with organizations. Ten great national associations +during 1907, twenty-four State associations and ninety-three labor +unions had passed resolutions for woman suffrage, and thus far in 1908 +nine national and thirty-six important State associations had done so. +She gave an equally encouraging report of the work with the press, +which was done through committee chairmen in thirty-two States, who +had furnished thousands of articles to hundreds of newspapers. Part of +this material was local but the national headquarters had supplied +69,244 pages. Suitable matter had been sent to religious, educational +and other specialized papers and over a thousand letters to editors. A +long list was given of the leading magazines which had published +articles on woman suffrage by prominent writers during the year. The +reason was that things were happening in all parts of the world +directly related to this question. + +Miss Hauser's report was accepted by a rising vote. She presided at +the Press Conference on how to secure the publication of woman +suffrage in country and in city papers; character of material; what is +the greatest need in press work; should "anti" articles be answered, +etc. Interesting addresses were made on Woman's Share in Productive +Industry by Mrs. Anna Cadogan Etz (N. Y.); A Square Deal, by Mrs. +Grace H. Ballantyne (Ia.); and one by Mrs. Clara B. Arthur, president +of the Michigan State Association, reviewing the extensive work that +had been done in its recent constitutional convention to secure a +woman suffrage clause. Henry B. Blackwell (Mass.) began his report on +Presidential Suffrage by saying: "It was the maxim of Napoleon +Bonaparte to concentrate his military forces upon the point in his +enemy's lines of the greatest importance and least resistance and by +so doing he conquered Europe. This point in the woman suffrage battle +is, under our form of government, the Presidential Suffrage, the vote +for presidential electors." + +The great evening of the week was the one devoted to the Commemorative +Program in Honor of the 1848 Convention. This convention was called by +Mrs. Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann McClintock and Martha C. +Wright--the last three Friends, or Quakers--to consider a Declaration +of Sentiments and set of Resolutions which they had prepared and it +adopted both.[58] Those resolutions of sixty years ago were now +discussed by women who represented the two succeeding generations, +still in the midst of the contest which the women who began it +expected to see ended during their lifetime. The session was opened +with prayer by the Rev. Olympia Brown, a veteran suffragist, and the +presiding officer was Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborne (N. Y.), daughter of +Martha C. Wright and niece of Lucretia Mott. Each resolution was +presented and commented on in a brief, pungent speech, the speakers +including Mr. Blackwell, husband of Lucy Stone, both pioneers, and +another pioneer, the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first +ordained woman minister; Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Mrs. +Stanton; Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard, daughter of William Lloyd +Garrison, a pioneer; the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, an early leader in +Rhode Island, and Miss Laura Clay, at the head of the movement in +Kentucky almost from its beginning. Among the later generation were +the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane (Mich.), Miss Julie R. Jenney (N. +Y.), Mrs. Ella S. Stewart (Ill.), Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (N. +Y.) and Mrs. Judith Hyams Douglas (La.). + +Of most of these addresses there is no printed record. Mrs. Gilman +commented on the resolution that "the laws which place woman in a +position inferior to that of man are contrary to the great precept of +nature," saying in part: "Woman has the same right to happiness and +justice as an individual that man has and as the mother of the race +she has more.... Women have a right to citizenship and to all that +citizenship implies, not only for their own sake but especially +because the world needs them. We have the masculine and the feminine +but above them both is the human, which has nothing to do with sex. +The argument for equal freedom and equal opportunities for women rests +not on the law of the worthy Mr. Blackstone but on the law of nature, +which is the law of God...." + +Mrs. Blackwell said in response to the resolution that "as man accords +to woman moral superiority it is his pre-eminent duty to encourage her +to speak and teach in religious assemblies": "You cannot realize how +serious a thing it was to be a minister in early days when St. Paul +was taken literally. I know from personal experience that nearly all +the religious world in those days believed it to be a sin for a woman +to try to preach. My own mother urged me to become a foreign +missionary instead; she was willing to send her daughter away to other +lands rather than have her become a minister at home. At 18 I was +considered as well-fitted for college as the half dozen young men +among my schoolmates who were going to take a college course. At that +time Oberlin, O., was the only college that admitted women. When I +arrived there Lucy Stone had pretty well stirred up the whole +institution. I was warned against her in advance but we soon became +warm friends. One beautiful evening we walked out together and as we +stood in that glorious sunset I told her that I meant to be a +minister. She said: 'You can't do it; they will never let a woman be a +public teacher in the church.' ... One other woman and I graduated +from the theological school. For three years the authorities of the +school put our names into the catalogue with a star and then they +dropped us out and it took forty years to get us reinstated." + +Mrs. Spencer said of the resolution that "the same transgressions +should be visited with equal severity on man and woman." "Of all the +notable pronunciamentos at Seneca Falls no resolutions shows a finer +spiritual audacity than this. A delicious flavor of transcendentalism +from beginning to end marks the phraseology. Like the Brook Farm +experiment the Seneca Falls Convention was the outcome of a great wave +of idealism sweeping over the world. It was seen in England and in +Europe. Germany was stirring things up and Italy was seething with +revolution. This new world was eager to put its idealism into +immediate practical living.... Women were looking after their woman's +share of it. They felt that it must be founded on spiritual ideas and +this was a spiritual Declaration of Independence. We honor these +pioneers because women who had been trained to follow and not to lead, +and taught that wives and mothers should buy their security at the +cost of a discarded fragment of their sex, dared to summon men to an +equal bar and to declare that in purity, as in justice, there is no +sex." + +Mrs. Stewart treated with delicious wit and sarcasm the resolution of +protest against "the objection of indelicacy and impropriety which is +so often brought against women who address a public audience by those +who encourage their appearance in the theatre and the circus." Miss +Clay discussed with dignity and seriousness the resolution that +"equality of human rights necessarily follows identity in capabilities +and responsibilities." Mrs. Villard spoke of the great privilege of +being the daughter of a reformer and said: "The cause of woman is so +intimately connected with that of man that I think the men will be the +gainers by its triumph even more than women." Mrs. Douglas, a +brilliant young speaker from New Orleans, new to the suffrage +platform, took up the resolution, "Woman has too long rested +satisfied in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a +perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and +it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere which her great +Creator has assigned to her," and said in part: + + Only one thing can make me see the justness of woman being + classed with the idiot, the insane and the criminal and that is, + if she is willing, if she is satisfied to be so classed, if she + is contented to remain in the circumscribed limits which corrupt + customs and perverted application of the Scriptures have marked + out for her. It is idiotic not to want one's liberty; it is + insane not to value one's inalienable rights and it is criminal + to neglect one's God-given responsibilities. God placed woman + originally in the same sphere with man, with the same + inspirations and aspirations, the same emotions and intellect and + accountability.... The Chinamen for centuries have taken peculiar + means for restricting women's activities by binding the feet of + girl babies and yet there remains the significant fact that, + after centuries of constraint, God continues to send the female + child into the world with feet well formed, with a foundation as + substantial to stand upon as that of the male child. As in this + instance, so in all cases of restriction put upon women--they do + not come from God but from man, beginning at birth.... For + thousands of centuries woman has heard what sphere God wanted her + to move in from men, God's self-ordained proxies. The thing for + woman to do is to blaze the way of her sex so thoroughly that + sixteen-year-old boys in the next generation will not dare ask a + scholarly woman incredulously if she really thinks women have + sense enough to vote. Woman can enter into the larger sphere her + great Creator has assigned her only when she has an equal voice + with man in forming public opinion, which crystalizes customs; + only when her voice is heard in the pulpit, applying Scripture to + man and woman equally, and when it is heard in the Legislature. + Only then can be realized the full import of God's words when He + said, "It is not well for man to be alone." + +Mrs. Douglas analyzed without mercy the pronouncements of Paul +regarding women and said: "The pulpits may insist that Paul was +infallible but I prefer to believe that he was human and liable to +err." When she had finished Dr. Shaw remarked dryly: "I have often +thought that Paul was never equalled in his advice to wife, mother and +maiden aunt except by the present occupant of the Presidential chair" +[Roosevelt]. + +To Mrs. Blatch was given the privilege of speaking to the resolution +so strenuously insisted upon by her mother: "It is the duty of the +women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to +the elective franchise." In the course of an animated speech she said: + + Mrs. Stanton was quick to see and, what is greater, quick to + seize the psychological moment, and in that July of 1848 she had + not only the inspiration but the determination to grasp the + opportunity to set forth a resolution asking "votes for women." + How clear was her vision, how perfect her sense of balance! + Property rights might be gained, rights of person protected, + guardianship of children achieved, but without the ballot she saw + all would be insecure. What was given today might be taken away + tomorrow unless women themselves possessed the power to make or + remake laws. Women are getting the sense of solidarity by being + crowded together in the workshop; they are learning the lesson of + fellowship. Brought side by side in the college and in the + business world, they are beginning to learn that they have a + common interest. They know now that they form a class. The + anti-suffragist is the isolated woman, she is the belated product + of the 18th century. She is not intentionally, viciously selfish, + she has merely not developed into 20th century fellowship. She is + unrelated to our democratic society of today.... How shallow, in + the face of that idea of duty in fulfilling our obligations of + citizenship, sound the words of Governor Hughes that "when women + want the vote they will get it!" Want it? That is no measure of + social need. It was death to the nation to have slavery within + its bounds but no one advised waiting until the enslaved negroes + wanted to be free before this dire disease should be cured. The + State needs the attention of women, their thought, their service, + and so it becomes the duty of all who have the best interests of + the State at heart to seek to bind women to it in closest bonds + of citizenship. + +In response to Resolution Eleven that, being held morally responsible, +woman had therefore a right to express herself in public on all +questions of morals and religion, the Rev. Mrs. Crane began with fine +sarcasm: "To women has always unquestionably been allowed the being +good. They are called too good to enter the slimy pool of politics. +They are complimented often in the spirit of the man who said to his +wife: 'Angelina, you get up and make the fire; it will seem so much +warmer if laid by your fair hands!' To women is also conceded the +right to be religious and unfortunately it often happens that all the +religion a man has is in his wife's name. Ruskin said: 'If you don't +want the kingdom of heaven to come, don't pray for it but if you do +want it to come you must do more than pray for it.' Women must vote +as well as pray. Whoever is able to make peace in this distracted +world is the one who should be allowed to do it." + +A full report of the work among the churches was made at a morning +meeting by Mrs. Lucy Hobart Day (Me.), chairman of the committee, +which showed that eighteen States had appointed branch committees. +These had organized suffrage circles in different churches, encouraged +debates among the young people, arranged meetings, distributed +literature, obtained hearings before many kinds of religious bodies, +secured resolutions and tried to have official recognition of women in +the churches. Ministers had been requested to preach sermons in favor +and many had done so, twenty-five in San Francisco alone. Mrs. Pauline +Steinem (Ohio), chairman of the Committee on Education, reported on +its efforts in organizing Mothers' and Parents' Clubs and working +through these for suffrage; putting pictures of the pioneers in +schools and securing the cooperation of the teachers for brief talks +about them; supplying books containing selections from suffrage +speeches, poems, etc., to be used in the schools. It was also proposed +to see that text books on history and civics are written with a proper +appreciation of the work of women. + +Part of an afternoon was devoted to a discussion led by Dr. Rosalie +Slaughter Morton (N. Y.), delegated representative of Prince Morrow +and the American Society for Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. In an +eloquent address she described the terrible devastation, especially +among women and children, from diseases which until lately had been +concealed and never mentioned. She attributed these conditions partly +to the fact that boys and girls were left in ignorance and this was +often because the mothers were ignorant. The chief cause of the wide +prevalence of these diseases was the double standard of morals, the +belief that a chaste life for a man is incompatible with health and +that the consequences of immorality end with themselves and will not +be transmitted. She urged women to unite in the demand for a higher +standard of morals among men. Mrs. Gilman spoke strongly on the +necessity for more vigorous measures for a quarantine of the infected +and health certificates for every marriage and she laid a large share +of the cause of immorality at the door of the economic dependence of +women. Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary of the National +Consumers' League, whose life was being spent in improving the +economic position of women, said: "How are we dealing with this +monstrous evil? Are we going to wait patiently and rear a whole +generation of children and grandchildren and trust to their gradual +increase in strength of character?" She told of the mothers who bring +up children in the best and wisest manner but the environment outside +the home, which they have no power to shape, nullifies all their +teaching. "That is a very slow way of dealing with a cancer," she +said. "Women have tried for forty years to get the power to have the +laws enforced and that is our greatest need today." A principal +feature of this important discussion was the strong, analytical +address of the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, in the course of which she +said: + + The formation of the New York Society for Sanitary and Moral + Prophylaxis marked an important era. For the first time the + physicians as a whole assumed a social duty to promote purity. + They had done it as individuals, but this was the first instance + of their banding themselves together on a moral as well as a + sanitary plane to enlighten the public as to the causes of social + disease.... Dr. Prince Morrow should be everlastingly honored by + every woman.... I consider no woman guiltless, whether she lives + in a suffrage State or not, if she does not hold herself + responsible for guarding less fortunate women. Corrupt custom has + rent the sacred, seamless robe of womanhood and cast out part of + the women, abandoning them to degradation. We must learn to + recognize the responsibility of pure women for the fallen women, + of the woman whose circumstances have enabled her to stand, for + the woman whom adverse conditions have borne down. We should + oppose the sacrifice of womanhood, whether of an innocent girl + sacrificed with pomp and ceremony in church, or of a poor waif in + the street; and the great protection is the ability of young + girls to earn their living by congenial labor. All the social + purity societies do not equal the trade schools as a + preventive.... + + We must not look at this matter from only one point of view or + say that we can do nothing about it until we are armed with the + ballot. I am a suffragist but not "high church," I am a + suffragist and something else. We ought to have the ballot, we + are at a disadvantage in our work while we are deprived of it, + but even without it we have great power. We must stamp out the + traffic in womanhood, it is a survival of barbarism. Womanhood is + a unit; no one woman can be an outcast without dire evil to + family life. What caused the doctors to come together in a + Society for Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis? It was because the + evil done in dark places came back in injury to the family + life.... We must make ourselves more terrible than an army with + banners to despoilers of womanhood.... Men are no longer to be + excused for writing in scarlet on their foreheads their + incapacity for self-control. None of us is longer to be excused + for cowardice and acquiescence in the sacrifice of womanhood. Not + even that woman--vilest of all creatures on the face of the earth + I do believe--the procuress, shall be beyond the pale of + sympathy, for she is merely the product of the feeling on the + part of men that they owe nothing to women or to themselves in + the way of purity, and the feeling on the part of women that they + have no right to demand of men what men demand of them. If women + are going to amount to anything in government, they would better + begin to practice here and now and band themselves together with + noble men to bring about this reform. + +Of equal interest with Pioneers' Evening and in striking contrast with +it was the College Evening. One commemorated the first efforts to +obtain a college education for women, the other the full fruition of +these efforts in the announcement of a National College Women's Equal +Suffrage League with branches in fifteen States. Dr. Shaw, possessing +three college degrees, opened the session, and the founder of the +League, Mrs. Maud Wood Park, a graduate of Radcliffe College, +presided. "With the exception of Oberlin and Antioch," she said, "not +one college was open to women before the organized movement for woman +suffrage began." She gave statistics of the large number now open to +them and said: "Such facts as these help us to understand the service +which the leaders of the suffrage movement performed for college women +and it is fitting that these should make public recognition of their +debt. It was with this idea of responsibility for benefits received +that the first branch of this League was formed in Massachusetts in +1900. The League realizes that the best way to pay our debt to the +noble women who toiled and suffered, who bore ridicule, insult and +privation, is for us in our turn to sow the seed of future +opportunities for women." + +In introducing Dr. Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, dean of the Junior +Women's College of the University of Chicago, Mrs. Park said that she +had half the letters of the alphabet attached to her name representing +degrees. Dr. Breckinridge also paid a tribute of gratitude to the +National Suffrage Association and began her address: "My faith has +three articles. I believe it is the right and the duty of the +wage-earning woman to claim the ballot and to have her claim +recognized to participate in the political life of her community. Her +status as a worker depends in part upon it and only thus can she +protect the interests of her group. I believe it is the right and duty +of the wife and mother to claim the ballot, for as a housekeeper and +carer of her children she cannot do her work economically and +satisfactorily without it. It is easy to see why the wage-earning +women and the housekeepers need the ballot; but why should we, who do +not belong to either of those groups, want it? Every woman should want +it because tasks lie before the public so difficult that they can not +be fulfilled without the cooperation of all the trained minds in the +community, and these problems can be met only by collective action. We +want to get hold of the little device that moves the machinery." + +Miss Caroline Lexow, president of the New York branch of the league, a +graduate of Barnard College, a part of Columbia University, "charmed +the audience with her girlish simplicity and with the tribute she paid +to the women who more than half a century ago sowed the seeds which +have yielded so rich a harvest for the women of today," to quote from +an enthusiastic reporter. Of another young speaker the Buffalo +_Express_ said: "To the front of the platform stepped a sweet-faced, +bright-eyed, rosy English girl, Miss Ray Costello, a graduate of +Newnham College, Cambridge University, who spoke on Equal Suffrage +among English University Women. She had captured her audience before +she started to describe the energetic work of the college women." "In +England as in the United States," Miss Costello said, "the pioneers in +the demand for higher education were also pioneers in the demand for +votes. When the action of the 'militant' suffragettes brought the +question into such prominence that the opponents began to state their +objections, the college women were aroused and became more and more +active, but as a whole they were in favor of peaceful rather than +militant tactics." She told also of the growth of favorable sentiment +in the men's colleges. + +This was the first appearance at a national suffrage convention of +Mrs. Frances Squire Potter, professor of English in the University of +Minnesota, and her address on Women and the Vote was one of the ablest +ever given before this body which was accustomed to superior +addresses. Limited space forbids extended quotation: + + Louis XIV said an infamous thing when he declared: "I am the + State," but he announced his position frankly. He was an autocrat + and he said so. It was a more honest and therefore less harmful + position than that of a majority of voters in our country today. + Can it help but confuse and deteriorate one sex, trained to + believe and call itself living in a democracy, to say silently + year by year at the polls, "I am the State"? Can it help but + confuse and deteriorate the other sex, similarly trained to + acquiescence year after year in a national misrepresentation and + a personal no-representation? This fundamental insincerity of our + so-called democracy is as insidious an influence upon the minds + and morals of our franchised men, our unfranchised women and our + young Americans of both sexes, as hypocrisy is to a church member + or spurious currency to a bank. It is to be remembered that the + evils which are pointed out in our commonwealth today are not the + evils of a democracy but of an amorphous something which is + afraid to be a democracy. Whether the opposition to women's + voting be honestly professed or whether it is concealed under + chivalrous idolatry, distrust and skepticism are behind it.... + When pushed to the wall, objectors to woman suffrage now-a-days + take refuge behind one of two platitudes: The first is used too + often by women whose public activities ought logically to make + them suffragists--the assertion that equal suffrage is bound to + come in time but that at present there are more pressing needs. + "Let us get the poor better housed and fed," these women say. + "Let us get our schools improved and our cities cleaned up and + then we shall have time to take up the cause of equal suffrage." + Is not this a survival of that old vice of womankind, + indirection?... The suffrage issue should not be put off but + should be placed first, as making the other issues easier and + more permanent.... + + This brings me to the other platitude. How often we are told, + "Women themselves do not want it; when they do it will be given + to them." That is to say, when an overwhelming majority of women + want what they ought to have, then they can have it. Extension of + suffrage never has been granted on these terms. No great reform + has gone through on these terms. In an enlightened State wanting + is not considered a necessary condition to the granting of + education or the extension of any privilege. Such a State confers + it in order to create the desire; unenlightened States, like + Turkey and Russia, hold off until revolution compels a reluctant, + niggardly abdication of tyranny.... We have the conviction that + that which has come in Finland and Australia, which is coming in + Great Britain, will come in America, and there is a majesty in + the sight of a great world-tide which has been gathering force + through generations, which is rising steadily and irresistibly, + that should paralyze any American Xerxes who thinks to stop it + with humanly created restraints. + +Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, received an +ovation. "The formation of this National College League," she said, +"indicates that college women will be ready to bear their part in the +stupendous social change of which the demand for woman suffrage is +only the outward symbol," and she continued: + + Sixty years ago all university studies and all the charmed world + of scholarship were a man's world, in which women had no share. + Now, although only one woman in one thousand goes to college even + in the United States, where there are more college women than in + any other country, the position of every individual woman in + every part of the civilized world has been changed because this + one thousandth per cent. have proved beyond the possibility of + question that in intellect there is no sex, that the accumulated + learning of our great past and of our still greater future is the + inheritance of women also. Men have admitted women into + intellectual comradeship and the opinions of educated women can + no longer be ignored by educated men.... Women are one-half of + the world, but until a century ago the world of music and + painting and sculpture and literature and scholarship and science + was a man's world. The world of trades and professions and work + of all kinds was a man's world. Women lived a twilight life, a + half-life apart, and looked out and saw men as shadows walking. + Now women have won the right to higher education and to economic + independence. The right to become citizens of the State is the + next and inevitable consequence of education and work outside the + home. We have gone so far; we must go farther. Why are we afraid? + It is the next step forward on the path toward the sunrise--and + the sun is rising over a new heaven and a new earth. + +The National College Women's Equal Suffrage League was formally +organized as auxiliary to the National American Association, with Dr. +Thomas president, Miss Lexow secretary; Dr. Margaret Long, of Smith +College, treasurer; Mrs. Park chairman of the organization committee; +Dr. Breckinridge, Mrs. C. S. Woodward, adviser to women in the +University of Wisconsin, and Miss Frances W. McLean of the University +of California were among the vice-presidents. Three thousand dollars +were appropriated for its work the first year from the Anthony +Memorial Fund. The following day Mrs. George Howard Lewis gave a +beautiful luncheon at the Twentieth Century Club in honor of Dr. Shaw, +Dr. Thomas and the college women and it included the officials of the +national and State suffrage associations. The tables were decorated +with orchids and yellow chrysanthemums and there were corsage bouquets +of violets for the guests of honor. + +The women ministers in attendance and some of the delegates spoke in +various churches Sunday morning. A departure was made from the usual +custom of holding religious services in the afternoon and they were +replaced by an industrial meeting. One of the city papers thus +introduced its account: "Any theatre after a packed house had better +advertise a woman's meeting with the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw presiding. +At the Star Theatre, where an industrial mass meeting was held under +the auspices of the National Suffrage Association yesterday afternoon, +when Dr. Shaw stepped to the front of the stage to call it to order, +men, as well as women, filled all the seats on the ground floor and +packed the galleries and boxes, while many stood during the entire +program and many more were turned away. It was the largest meeting in +the cause of equal suffrage that Buffalo has ever known. After prayer +by the Rev. Robert Freeman and a musical selection by the choir of the +First Unitarian Church, Dr. Shaw announced that the audience would +rise while Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic was sung. She +stood with bowed head as she listened. "Some one asked me this morning +if I am very happy," said Dr. Shaw, "and I said yes, for I have +everything in the world that is necessary to happiness, good faith, +good friends and all the work I can possibly do. I think God's +greatest blessing to the human race was when He sent man forth into +the world to earn his bread by the sweat of his face. I believe in +toil, in the dignity of labor, but I also believe in adequate +compensation for that toil." + +The report of the committee on Industrial Problems Affecting Women and +Children was given by its chairman, Mrs. Kelley, executive secretary +of the National Consumers' League, in which she said: "In New York +woman can not be deprived of the sacred right to work all night in +factories on pain of dismissal. Such is the recent decision of the +Court of Appeals. On the other hand the same Court has within a week +held that the law is constitutional which restricts to eight hours the +work of men employed by the State, the county or the city. I wish the +women who think that 'persuasion' is all-sufficient might have our +experience in New York City; we worked for twelve years to get +inspectors who should look after the women and children in stores and +mercantile establishments. At last an act was passed by which +inspectors were to be appointed and for about a year and a half they +really inspected and looked after the children and young girls in the +stores. Then a great philanthropist, Nathan Straus, who was connected +with an establishment employing many young people, got himself +appointed, as he frankly said, in order to get the salaries of the +inspectors stricken out of the budget and to get sterilized milk put +into it. He got the salaries out and the sterilized milk in and then +he resigned. The next year his successor got the sterilized milk out +and there we were, back just where we had been at the beginning. We +had to set to work again and labor for years longer, petitioning all +the changing and kaleidoscopic officials who have to do with the +finances of New York; and one mayor said frankly to us--to the +Consumers' League: "Ladies, why do you keep on coming? You know you +will never get anything--there isn't a voter among you!..." Mrs. +Kelley said the Consumers' League had been investigating the condition +of girls working in stores, away from home, and she gave a +heartbreaking account of their destitution and semi-starvation. "Only +nineteen States protect grown women at all," she said. "I am very +tired of 'persuasion' and from this time on I mean to try other +methods." + +Intense interest was manifested in the address entitled Noblesse +Oblige by Miss Jean Gordon, factory inspector for New Orleans, in +which she said in part: + + One of the strongest and truest criticisms brought against our + American leisure class is that they are absolutely devoid of a + proper appreciation of what is conveyed in the expression, + "Noblesse Oblige." In no country in the world are there so many + young women of education, wealth and leisure, free as the winds + of heaven to do as they wish. In no country are there more + interesting problems to be solved and one would think such work + would appeal to this very class, especially as most of them are + the daughters of men who by their large constructive minds have + created conditions and opportunities and developed them into the + great industries for which America is justly famous; and it would + seem by the law of cross inheritance that these daughters would + inherit some of the great creative ability of their fathers and + fairly burn to apply their leisure and education to working out + the social problems which are besetting more and more this great + country. But unfortunately, with a few exceptions, they rest + contented with playing the Lady Bountiful and their only + appreciation of the spirit of Noblesse Oblige has been the old, + aristocratic idea of charity.... + + Think what it would mean to bring their trained minds and great + wealth and leisure to the study of the economic conditions which + are represented in the underpaid services and long hours of their + less fortunate sisters in the mills and factories throughout this + broad land! Think what it would mean if from the protection with + which their wealth and position surround them they took their + stand on the great question of the dual code of morality! Think + what it would mean to the little children being stunted mentally + and physically in our mills and factories, if these thousands of + young women, many of them enjoying the wealth made out of these + little human souls, refused to wear or buy anything made under + any but decent living conditions! Think what it would mean if + they decided that every child should have a seat in school, that + every neighborhood should have a play-ground and a public bath! + + Too long the men and women of leisure and education in America + have left the administration of our public affairs to fall into + the hands of a class whose conception of the duties involved in + public service is of the lowest order.... Instead of being + regarded as only fitted for women of ordinary position and + intellect, all offices such as superintendents of reformatories, + matrons and women factory inspectors, should be filled by women + of standing, education, refinement and independent means. Such + women would be above the temptation of graft or the fear of + losing their positions. They are on a social footing with the + manufacturers and no mill or factory owner likes to meet the + factory inspector at a reception or dining in the home of a + mutual friend if he is trying to evade the law. American women of + leisure must awaken to an appreciation of the democratic idea of + Noblesse Oblige. + +Mrs. Blatch was introduced as "president of the Self-Supporting +Women's Suffrage League and the only one in it who was not +self-supporting in the accepted sense of the term." "When I hear that +there are 5,000,000 working women in this country," said Dr. Shaw, "I +always take occasion to say that there are 18,000,000 but only +5,000,000 receive their wages." Mrs. Blatch traced the changes of the +years which have made it necessary for women to go out of the home to +earn their bread in factory, shop and mercantile establishments. +"Cooperation is the only way out of the present condition of the +working women," she asserted. "President Thomas said last night that +the gates of knowledge had swung wide open for women. They have not +done so for the working girls." She pointed out the many opportunities +for the boys to learn the trades which are denied to the girls. "There +is only one way to redress their wrongs and that is by the ballot," +she declared, and in closing she said: "Of all the people who block +the progress of woman suffrage the worst are the women of wealth and +leisure who never knew a day's work and never felt a day's want, but +who selfishly stand in the way of those women who know what it means +to earn the bread they eat by the sternest toil and who, with a voice +in the Government, could better themselves in every way." + +The last address was made by Dr. Shaw and even the cold, prosaic +official report of the convention said: "It was one of the greatest +speeches of the entire week." She began by telling of the immense +demonstration in London during the past summer when 10,000 women +marched through the streets to prove to the Government that women did +want to vote, and then she proceeded to tell why American women wanted +it and how they were determined to compel some action by the +Government. In the evening the officers held a reception for the +delegates, speakers and friends in the Lenox Hotel, convention +headquarters. + +In the Monday afternoon symposium the stock objections to woman +suffrage were considered by Miss Lexow, Miss Laura Gregg (Kans.), Mrs. +William C. Gannett (N. Y.), Mrs. Kelley and Miss Maude E. Miner, a +probation officer in New York. Miss Miner said in answering the +objection to "the immoral vote": "Is the fact that immoral women would +have the vote a real objection? I do not believe that it is. In the +first place such women are a very small proportion of the whole. Fifty +to one hundred a night are brought into the night court but we see the +same faces over and over again. There are perhaps 5,000 such women in +New York City in a population of four million but there is less reason +against enfranchising the woman than for disfranchising some of the +men, as there are at least 4,000 men who are living wholly or in part +on these women's earnings.... I do not believe that all women who have +fallen would use their votes for evil. I have dealt with 250 of them +and I am often surprised to see how much sense of honor some of them +have and how intelligent they are. At present they are the slaves of +the saloon-keepers, and the Raines law hotels and the saloons are at +the root of the evil. We ought to do more to protect them from such a +life.... It seems to be women's work to deal with such problems and to +secure legislation along these lines and we can only do this by having +the ballot. With it we can do much more in the way of breaking up the +power of the saloon in politics, which is at the bottom of all." + +Dr. Shaw was quickly on her feet to say that Miss Miner had touched +upon the vital spot in the whole suffrage movement; that the liquor +interests were at the bottom of the opposition to it and that in the +States where it had been defeated they were responsible. Mrs. Kelley +spoke for The Woman at the Bottom of the Heap, who had even greater +need of the ballot than her more fortunate sisters. Mrs. Gannett, wife +of the Unitarian minister, William C. Gannett of Rochester, N. Y., +both loving friends of Miss Anthony, considered the assertion that +"women do not want to vote," saying in part: + + They tell us that women can bring better things to pass by + indirect influence. Try to persuade any man that he will have + more weight, more influence, if he gives up his vote, allies + himself with no party and relies on influence to achieve his + ends! By all means let us use to its utmost whatever influence we + have, but in all justice do not ask us to be content with this. + Facts show that a large body of earnest, responsible women do + want the ballot, a body large enough to deserve very respectful + hearing from our law-makers, but there certainly are many women + who do not yet want to vote. We think they ought to want it; that + women have no more right than men to accept and enjoy the + protection and privileges of civilized government and shirk its + duties and responsibilities. They say they do not thus shirk, + that woman's sphere lies in a different place, and we answer: + "This is true but only part of the truth." ... Municipal + government belongs far more to woman's sphere than to man's, if + we must choose between the two; it is home-making and + housekeeping writ large, but just as the best home is that where + father and mother together rule, so shall we have the better + city, the better State, when men and women together counsel, + together rule. No mother fulfills her whole mother duty in the + sight of God who is not willing to do her service, to take her + share of direct responsibility for the good of the whole. She can + not fully care for her own without some care for all the children + of the community. Her own, however guarded, are menaced so long + as the least of these is exposed to pestilence or is robbed of + his birthright of fresh air and sunshine. + + The hard struggle and toil of our honored pioneers was for + Woman's Rights. We of the coming day must take up the cry of + Woman's Duty. We live in the new age; new obligations are laid + upon us. We must labor until no woman in the land shall be + content to say, "I am not willing to pay the price I owe for the + comfort and safety of my life"; until every woman shall be + ashamed not to demand equal duties and equal responsibilities for + the common weal; until none can be found of whom it can with + truth be said, "They do not want to vote." + +Miss Gregg discussed The Real Enemy, and, while endorsing all that had +been said, asserted that "this enemy is among our own sex." "It is not +the anti-suffragist," she said, "she is our unwilling ally, for when +there is danger that we might fall asleep she arouses us by buzzing +about our ears with her misrepresentations. It is not the indifferent +suffragist, she can be galvanized into life. Our real enemy is the +dead or dormant suffragist," and then she preached a stirring sermon +on the necessity for hard, incessant, faithful work by all who were +enlisted heart and soul in this cause. + +Mrs. Upton, the treasurer, called attention to the mistaken idea +conveyed through the newspapers that the association had unlimited +funds. The report that it intended to raise $100,000 had been made to +read that it had raised it, and the Garrett-Thomas fund of $12,000 a +year had caused many to cease their subscriptions.[59] The new +opportunities for effective work caused larger demands for money than +ever before and the year 1907 had been the most anxious the board had +known. The expenditures had been larger than the receipts and most of +the balance that was in the treasury had been used. Even this strong +statement, backed by an appeal from Dr. Shaw, brought pledges only to +the amount of $3,600, a less amount than for years, the delegates, +many of small means, still feeling that their former subscriptions +were not necessary. Dr. Shaw then read to the convention a letter to +herself from Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo, who expressed the +pleasure of the New York State suffrage clubs that the 60th +anniversary of the first Woman's Rights Convention had been held in +this city, at Miss Anthony's expressed wish, and ended: "In memory of +Susan B. Anthony will you accept the enclosed check for $10,000 to be +used as the national officers deem best in the work, so dear to her +and to all true lovers of justice, for the enfranchisement of women?" +As she showed the enclosure Dr. Shaw said: "This is the largest check +I ever held in my hand." The convention rose in appreciation of Mrs. +Lewis's generous gift. + +The report of Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, chairman of the Libraries +Committee, the result of a month's research in the Library of Congress +in Washington and another month in the Public Library of Boston, was +most interesting, as it dealt with old manuscripts and books on the +Rights of Women written in the 16th and 17th centuries. The valuable +report of Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, chairman of the Committee on +Legislation and Civil Rights, embodied those of presidents of +twenty-three State Suffrage Associations, covering school, labor, +factory and temperance laws, mercantile inspection, juvenile courts, +educational matters, protection of wives and many others relating to +the welfare of women and children, most of them showing advance. + +The speakers at the Monday evening session were Miss Harriet Grim, +winner of the Springer prize for the best essay written by an Illinois +college student, who described "The Womanly Woman in Politics"; Mrs. +Katharine Reed Balentine (Me.), daughter of Thomas B. Reed, the famous +Speaker of the lower house of Congress and a staunch suffragist, and +the brilliant orator, Mrs. Philip Snowden of England. Mrs. Balentine +said in beginning her address that now women were voting in Russia she +had the courage to hope that they would sometime obtain the suffrage +in New York, Massachusetts and Maine, and continued in part: + + In England the last final argument, that women do not themselves + want the franchise, has in the light of recent events become + ridiculous. On June 13, 15,000 suffragists paraded through the + streets of London and it is said that the woman suffrage meeting + of June 21 was the largest public meeting ever held for any + cause. Fifty thousand women have just stormed Parliament.... No + one now doubts that the women of England want and intend to have + votes. It is said that history repeats itself but this particular + phenomenon--the world-wide claim of women to political equality + with men--has never appeared before; it has no historic + precedent.... + + Does disfranchised influence, unsteadied by the responsibility of + the ballot and the broadening experience of public service, make + for the greatest good to the greatest number, which is the aim of + true democracy? Can women, and do the average, every-day women in + their present condition as subjects take a very lively interest + in the real welfare of the State? Hardly, and are not men and + children affected by this indifference? It could scarcely be + otherwise. It may be said that average men, notwithstanding their + possession of the ballot, are indifferent to the public weal, but + are they not rendered doubly so by continually associating with a + class that feels no allegiance to the State?... In the political + subjection and consequent political ignorance and indifference of + women, men are unconsciously forging their own fetters. They can + not retain their rights unless they share them with women. This + is the true significance of the woman suffrage movement + throughout the world. It is a vast attempt at the establishing of + real government by the people of republics which, being real, + shall endure; and as such it is as much a movement for men's + rights as for women's. + +The "militant" suffrage movement in Great Britain, at this time in its +early stage, was attracting world-wide attention and Mrs. Snowden +devoted much of her address to explaining it, saying in part: "Our +methods may seem strange to you, for perhaps you do not fully +understand. We have the Municipal vote and have used it for many +years. Today an Englishwoman may vote for every official except a +member of Parliament; she may sit in every political body except the +Parliament and we are after that last right. We have 420 members out +of 670 of its members pledged to this reform. When the full suffrage +bill went to its second reading the votes stood three to one in favor. +We want that vote put through but it is the British Cabinet we must +get at to approve finally the act when it has passed the two Houses. +It is the Government we are trying to annoy. Our Government never +moves in any radical way until it is kicked. Sir Henry Campbell +Bannerman, when prime minister, advised the women to harass the +Government until they got what they wanted and that is just what we +are doing today. The Liberal Government, helped into power by at least +80,000 tax-paying women, promised to grant their rights. How have they +kept that promise?" + +Speaking of the two "militant" societies Mrs. Snowden said: "Our +policy of aggressiveness has been justified by its results. When we +began almost every newspaper in England was against us. Now, with one +exception, the _Times_, the London papers are all for us. The +'militancy' thus far has consisted chiefly in 'heckling' speakers; +assembling before the House of Commons in large numbers; getting into +the gallery and into public meetings and calling out 'Votes for Women' +and breaking windows in government buildings, a time-honored English +custom of showing disapproval. Many suffragists in the United States, +knowing the contemptuous manner in which those of Great Britain and +Ireland have been treated by the Government, have felt a good deal of +sympathy with these measures." At this convention and the one +preceding sympathy was expressed by Dr. Shaw and others and +resolutions to this effect were adopted. + +One of the Buffalo papers said in regard to the election of officers: +"If the way the women vote at the national convention may be taken as +a criterion of what they will do when they gain the ballot, there will +be very little electioneering. Yesterday's election was characterized +by entire absence of wire-pulling. The balloting was done quickly and +there was no contest for any office, the women voting as they wished +and only a few scattered ballots going for particular friends of +voters. The election of the president, first vice-president, +corresponding secretary and treasurer was unanimous and the others so +nearly so that there was no question of result by the time half the +ballots had been counted." Mrs. Sperry retired from the office of +second vice-president and Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, president of the +Illinois suffrage association, was chosen in her place. + +The paper on Some Legal Phases of the Disfranchisement of Women by +Mrs. Harriette Johnston Wood, a New York lawyer, was regarded as so +important that it was ordered to be printed for circulation. She +quoted from Federal and State constitutions and court decisions to +prove that "if properly construed the laws specify the rights and +privileges of 'persons' and no distinction is made as to 'sex' in +provisions relating to the elective franchise." She encouraged women +to try to register for voting and qualify for jury service and urged +that bills be presented to legislative bodies covering the following +points: First, that citizens shall equally enjoy all civil and +political rights and privileges; second, that in the selection of +jurors no discrimination shall be made against citizens on account of +sex; third, that representation be based on the electorate and that +non-voters be non-taxpayers; fourth, that husband and wife have equal +right in each other's property; fifth, equal rights in the property of +a child; sixth, in case of separation, equal rights to the custody of +the children. A visit to the Albright Art Gallery and an automobile +ride along the lake front, through Delaware Park and the many handsome +avenues of the city, was a much-enjoyed part of this afternoon's +program. + +At one evening session Miss Grace H. Ballantyne, attorney in the noted +City Hall case at Des Moines, Iowa, gave a spirited account of the way +in which the women's right to vote on issuing bonds was sustained. +Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey (Ky.), who had resided some years in +England, compared the condition of women in that country and the +United States to the disadvantage of the latter, "where," she said, +"the women did not profit by the Declaration of Independence but on +the contrary lost when the colonies were supplanted by the republic. +In this they discover that a republic may endure as a political +institution to the end of time without conferring recognition, honors +or power on women; that it can exist as an oligarchy of sex, and they +say: 'Why should we be loyal to this government?' Thus through women +republicanism itself is imperiled and I tell you that if an amendment +is not added to the National Constitution giving women the power to +vote, this republic, within the living generation, will find that +prophecy, 'Woman is the rock upon which our Ship of State is to +founder,' will be fulfilled." + +As chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration Mrs. Lucia Ames +Mead gave a report of its many activities. In 1907 she had attended a +plenary session at The Hague Peace Conference, which she described in +glowing terms, and she went as a delegate in September to an +International Peace Conference in Munich. In July, 1908, she went to +one in London, where Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood of Washington, D. C., +presented a paper on the Central American Peace Congress, held in that +city, and the recently established Arbitration Court, which formed the +basis of three resolutions adopted by the congress. She told of the +new society, the American School Peace League to improve the teaching +of history and in every way promote international fraternity, sympathy +and justice. + +During business meetings the following were among the recommendations +adopted: To recommend to States to continue a systematic and +specialized distribution of literature; to secure and present to +Congress at an early date a petition asking for a 16th Amendment +enfranchising women, the chair to appoint a committee to superintend +this work; to try to obtain the appointment of a U. S. Senate +Committee on Woman Suffrage favorable to it; to send letters +simultaneously to the President of the United States in advance of the +time for writing his message, followed by telegrams one week preceding +the opening of Congress, expressing the wishes of women for the +ballot; to ask their Legislatures for some form of suffrage and follow +up this request with systematic legislative work; to urge that States +having any form of partial suffrage take measures to secure the +largest possible use of it by women. It was decided to appropriate +$125 for two months' work in South Dakota to ascertain conditions with +a view to the submission of a State amendment. + +The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee, +reviewed the wonderful progress made by women since the first +convention whose 60th anniversary they were celebrating. They told of +the progress of suffrage, as outlined in the Call for the convention, +and said: "When that first convention met, one college in the United +States admitted women; now hundreds do so. Then there was not a single +woman physician or ordained minister or lawyer; now there are 7,000 +women physicians and surgeons, 3,000 ordained ministers and 1,000 +lawyers. Then only a few poorly-paid employments were open to women; +now they are in more than three hundred occupations and comprise 80 +per cent. of our school teachers. Then there were scarcely any +organizations of women; now such organizations are numbered by +thousands. Then the few women who dared to speak in public, even on +philanthropic questions, were overwhelmingly condemned by public +opinion; now the women most opposed to woman suffrage travel about the +country making speeches to prove that a woman's only place is at home. +Then a married woman in most of our States could not control her own +person, property or earnings; now in most of them these laws have been +largely amended or repealed and it is only in regard to the ballot +that the fiction of woman's perpetual minority is still kept up." + +Mrs. Catt's powerful address was entitled The Battle to the Strong but +nothing is preserved except newspaper clippings. She ended by saying: +"In all history there has been no event fraught with more importance +for the generations to follow than the present uprising of the women +of the world.... Every struggle helps and no movement for right, for +reform in this country or in England but has made the woman's movement +easier in every other land. We have brought the countries of the world +very close together in the last few years. Papers and cables and +telegraph spread the news almost instantly to the centres of the earth +and then to the obscure corners, so that the women of other nations +know what the women here are doing and what they are doing in every +other part of the world.... The suffrage campaign in England has +become the kind of fanaticism that caused the American Revolution. +These women are no longer reformers, they are rebels, and they are +going to win.... Woman's hour has struck at last and all along the +line there is a mobilization of the woman's army ready for service. We +are going forward with flags flying to win. If you are not for us you +are against us. Justice for the women of the world is coming. This is +to be a battle to the strong--strong in faith, strong in courage, +strong in conviction. Women of America, stand up for the citizenship +of our own country and let the world know we are not ashamed of the +Declaration of Independence!" + +A newspaper account said: "And then Anna Howard Shaw stepped forward, +the light of a great purpose shining in her eyes. 'Our International +president has asked for recruits,' she said. 'Never have we had so +many as now.' She spoke of the immense gains to the suffrage cause +within the last few months in America and of the suffrage pioneers and +their sufferings, and ended: 'The path has been blazed for us and they +have shown us the way. Who shall say that our triumph is to be long +delayed? It is the hour for us to rally. We have enlisted for the war. +Ninety days? No; for the war! We may not win every battle but we shall +win the war. Happy they who are the burden-bearers in a great fight! +Happy is any man or woman who is called by the Giver of all to serve +Him in the cause of humanity! Friends, come with us and we will do you +good; but whether you come or not we are going, and when we enter the +promised land of freedom we will try to be just and to show that we +understand what freedom is, what the law is. 'God grant us law in +liberty and liberty in law!'" + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[56] Part of Call: Since we met last in convention women in Norway +have won full suffrage; tax-paying women in Iceland have been granted +a vote and made eligible as municipal councillors; Municipal suffrage +has been given to women in Denmark and they now vote for all officers +except members of Parliament; women in Sweden, who already had the +Municipal vote, have been made eligible to municipal offices; a proxy +in the election of the Douma has been conferred on women of property +in Russia. In Great Britain, where they have long possessed Municipal +suffrage, women have been made eligible as mayors, county, borough and +town councillors and their heroic struggle for Parliamentary suffrage +is attracting the attention of the world. + +In our own country during the past year, 175,000 women of Michigan +appealed for full suffrage to its constitutional convention and a +partial franchise was given; in Oregon women obtained the submission +of a constitutional amendment for suffrage to a referendum vote. +Though no large victories were won the advocates of equal suffrage +have never felt more hopeful, as public sentiment is in closer +sympathy with them than ever before. Five hundred associations of men, +organized for other purposes and numbering millions of voters, have +officially declared for woman suffrage; only one, the organized liquor +traffic, has made a record of unremitting hostility to it and the +domination of the saloon in politics has wrested many victories from +our grasp.... + +We cordially invite all men and women who have faith in the principles +of the American government and love liberty and justice to meet with +us in convention in Buffalo. + + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, First Vice-President. + FLORENCE KELLY, Second Vice-President. + KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary. + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. + HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } + MARY SIMPSON SPERRY,} Auditors. + +[57] Other ministers who officiated at different times were the +Reverends Anna Howard Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer and Olympia Brown of +the convention, and the Reverends Richard W. Boynton, Robert Freeman, +L. O. Williams, E. H. Dickinson and F. Hyatt Smith of Buffalo. + +[58] For full account see History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page +67. + +[59] This fund had been raised primarily to pay salaries to officers +who now had to devote their whole time to the increased work of the +association and who had hitherto for the most part given their service +gratuitously. Dr. Shaw received $3,500; the secretary $1,000, the +treasurer $1,000. This left $6,500 for other purposes each year. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1909. + + +The invitation to hold the Forty-first annual convention of the +association in Seattle was accepted for two special reasons. The +Washington Legislature had submitted a woman suffrage amendment to be +voted on in 1910; similar action had been taken by the Legislatures of +Oregon and South Dakota, and a convention on the Pacific Coast would +attract western people and create sentiment in favor of these +amendments. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in progress during the +summer, by causing reduced railroad rates, would enable those of the +east and middle west to attend the convention and visit this beautiful +section of the country.[60] The date fixed was July 1-6. + +The eastern delegates assembled in Chicago on June 25 to take the +"suffrage special" train for Seattle and a reception was given to +them at Hotel Stratford by the Chicago suffragists. At St. Paul the +next morning ex-Senator S. A. Stockwell and Mrs. Stockwell, president +of the Minnesota Association, with a delegation of suffragists, met +them at the station and escorted them to the Woman's Exchange, where a +delicious breakfast was served on tables adorned with golden iris and +ferns. Many club officials were there and brief addresses were made by +Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Florence Kelley, Miss Laura Clay, Mrs. +Fanny Garrison Villard, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Miss Alice +Stone Blackwell, Miss Kate M. Gordon and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton. +Mrs. Villard recalled a visit she had made there twenty-six years +before with her husband, Henry Villard, who had just completed the +Northern Pacific Railroad and his train was making a kind of triumphal +tour across the continent. "St. Paul welcomed him with a procession +ten miles long," she said, "and Minneapolis, determined not to be +outdone, got up one fifteen miles long. It gives me joy to remember +that not only my father, William Lloyd Garrison, but also my good +German-born husband believed in equal rights for women." + +The train sped through the Great Northwest and continuous business +meetings were held by the board of officers in what was usually the +smoking car until the next stop was made at Spokane, Washington. Here +the Chamber of Commerce had appropriated $500 for their entertainment. +They were presented with buttons and badges and taken in automobiles +through the beautiful residence district, the handsome grounds of the +three colleges and to the picturesque Falls. Then they saw the fine +exhibits in the Chamber of Commerce and were taken to the Amateur +Athletic Club, whose facilities for rest and recreation were placed at +their disposal. An elaborate banquet followed with Mrs. May Arkwright +Hutton, president of the Spokane Equal Suffrage Club, presiding. Mrs. +Emma Smith De Voe, president of the State Suffrage Association, +welcomed them to Washington, and Mayor N. S. Pratt to the city. "I +have welcomed many organizations to Spokane," he said, "but none with +so much pleasure as this. My belief in equal suffrage is no new +conviction; I have voted for it twice and hope soon to do so again. +The coming of equal rights for women is the inevitable result of +progress and enlightenment." He presented Dr. Shaw with a gavel made +of wood from the four suffrage States bound together with a band of +Idaho silver and expressed the hope that when she used it to open the +convention in Seattle the sound would be like "the shot heard round +the world." + +The account in the _Woman's Journal_ said: "Dr. Shaw, in returning +thanks, said: 'It is an apt simile, for the blow will be struck on the +Pacific Coast and it needs to be heard to the Atlantic and not only +from the west to the east but from the north to the south. I hope it +will be answered by men who, having known themselves what freedom is, +wish to give women the benefits of it also. The only man who can be in +any way excused for wanting to withhold freedom from women is the man +who is himself a slave.' She recalled the times when the suffragists +were offered not banquets but abuse and compared them to the pioneer +days of clearing the forest. She closed with a beautiful tribute to +the pioneer mothers and called upon the men to pay their debt to them +next November." + +Mrs. Villard, recalling here also her visit of more than a quarter of +a century before, said in part: "Never could I have believed that such +changes could have been wrought since that historic train. Then there +was nothing at Spokane but Indians and cowboys and the beautiful +Falls. I am glad you want women to share the full life of the city. +'The woman's cause is man's.' This movement is as wide as the world +and will benefit men as well as women. I have come on this trip +largely because I like to connect my husband's name not merely with +the building of a great railroad but also with the cause of justice to +women in which he believed. I wish greater and greater prosperity to +Spokane but with her material prosperity let her not forget the larger +things which must go hand in hand with it if cities are not to perish +from the earth." + +Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Portland, Ore., the renowned suffrage +pioneer of the northwest, was enthusiastically received and in the +course of her interesting reminiscences said: "I remember when 'Old +Oregon' comprised most of the Pacific Northwest. At that time I was +living in a log cabin engaged in the very domestic occupation of +raising a large family of small children.... On my first visit to +Spokane I came by stage from Walla Walla. It went bumping and +careening over the rocks and the one hotel of the village had not +accommodations for the three or four passengers. They made up +improvised beds for us on slats and all the food we had for several +days was bread and sugar, but I enjoyed it for after such a journey +anything tasted good. There was only one little hall in the town and I +was importuned by Captain Wilkinson of Portland to speak. So I hired +the hall for Sunday and he advised me to offer it to a clergyman there +for the afternoon service. I did so and asked him to announce after +his sermon that my meeting would be held in the evening. He accepted +the use of the hall but failed to give the notice. When I asked him +about it he said: 'Do you think I would notice a woman's meeting?' But +we had a good one and almost everybody in Spokane subscribed for my +paper, the _New Northwest_. The next time I came here was to celebrate +the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad. I had the honor of +writing a poem for the occasion and reading it in that little hall and +Henry Villard wrote me a letter about it." + +A large evening meeting was held in the First Methodist Church with +Mrs. LaReine Baker presiding. Henry B. Blackwell and Prof. Frances +Squire Potter were among the national speakers. A tired lot of +travellers but happy over their cordial welcome took the night train. +Next day they stopped for a brief time at North Yakima and Ellensburg +and spoke from the rear platform to the crowds awaiting them. Women, +girls and children dressed in white greeted them with banners, songs +and quantities of the lovely roses for which that section is noted and +with fancy baskets of the wonderful cherries and apples. During +several hours spent in Tacoma they had the famous ride around the city +in special trolley cars, supper at sunset on the veranda of a hotel +overlooking the beautiful Puget Sound and a walk through the +magnificent park. + +The never to be forgotten convention in Seattle was preceded by an +evening reception on June 30 in Lincoln Hotel, given by the State +suffrage association, whose former president, Mrs. Homer M. Hill, +extended its welcome to the delegates. Dr. Shaw, the national +president, called the convention to order the next afternoon in the +large Plymouth Congregational Church and the audience sang The March +of the Mothers. Mrs. Margaret B. Platt brought the greetings of the +Woman's Christian Temperance Union, pointing out that "there are +wrongs which can never be righted until woman holds in her hand the +ballot, symbol of the power to right them." In introducing Mrs. M. B. +Lord to speak for the Grange, Dr. Shaw said she herself was a member +of it. Mrs. Lord said in part: "From the first of it women came into +our organization on a perfect equality and for forty years the Grange +has carried on an education for woman suffrage. It was the proudest +moment of my life when I got a resolution for it through the New York +State Grange. Here in Washington it has increased three-fold in five +years and always passes a resolution in favor of suffrage for women." +Mrs. De Voe gave a big-hearted welcome from the State and Mrs. Mary S. +Sperry, president of the California suffrage association, made a +gracious response. By a rising vote the convention sent a message of +warm regard to Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of New York, the former +national president, and regret that she was not able to be present. +Dr. Shaw spoke of the "masterly way" in which she had presided at the +meeting of the International Suffrage Alliance in London in May, "her +power and dignity commanding universal respect," and told of the +message of greeting from Queen Maud of Norway and other incidents of +the congress. + +Leaving more formal ceremonies for the evening the convention +proceeded to business and listened to the report of the corresponding +secretary, Miss Gordon (La.). In referring to the specialized +literature which had been sent out, she spoke of the letter of the +Brewers' and Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association, so widely +circulated during the recent Oregon Suffrage campaign, calling the +attention of all retailers in the State to the necessity of defeating +the amendment, and to the postal instructing them how to mark their +ballot, with a return card signifying their willingness. This had been +put into an "exhibit" by Miss Blackwell and her Literature Committee +and Miss Gordon urged that clergymen of all denominations should be +circularized with it. She said: "I believe the association should not +be dissuaded from this undertaking because of the amount of work and +its costliness. The burden of responsibility rests upon us to prove +with such evidence that the worst enemy of the church and the most +active enemy of woman suffrage is a mutual foe, the 'organized liquor +and vice power.' If in the face of such direct evidence +representatives of the church still allow prejudice, ignorance or +indifference to woman suffrage to influence them, then they knowingly +become the common allies of this power." + +Miss Gordon gave instances to show the great change taking place in +the attitude of the public toward woman suffrage and said the present +difficulty was to utilize the opportunities which presented +themselves. She urged more concentrated effort from the national +headquarters and a substantial appropriation to enable the chairmen of +the standing committees to carry on their work; also that they should +be elected instead of appointed and be members of the official board, +and she concluded: "It is earnestly recommended that suffragists take +steps to politicalize their methods. The primaries, affording in many +States an opportunity for women to secure the nominations of favorable +candidates; active interest in defeating the election of those opposed +to suffrage; the questioning of candidates, etc., are all instances +where intelligent interest and activity on the part of suffragists +will educate the public far more effectively than debates, lectures +and literature--to see that women are determined to take an active +part in so-called politics, so intimately associated for weal or woe +in their lives." + +The reports of the headquarters secretary and national press chairman, +Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser (Ohio) were read by Mrs. Upton. The first in +speaking of the increased demands on the headquarters began: "In no +previous presidential campaign in the United States were the views of +candidates on the enfranchisement of women ever so generally commented +on by the press. Perhaps never before did candidates consider the +question of sufficient importance to have any opinion upon it. Never +before did the newspaper interviewer put to every possible +personage--politician or preacher, writer or speaker, inventor or +explorer, captain of industry, social worker, actor, prize-fighter, +maid, matron, widow--the burning query, 'What about votes for women?'" +She told of about 30,000 letters having been sent out and an average +of nearly 1,000 pieces of literature a day, as many in the first half +of the present year as in all of 1908. The Book Department, in charge +of Miss Caroline I. Reilly, reported that the sales of the Life and +Work of Susan B. Anthony had amounted to $800; 200 sets of the History +of Woman Suffrage had been placed in the libraries of the leading +colleges and universities; 100 copies of the Reports of the last two +national conventions had been put into the libraries which keep the +file. + +The delegates to the presidential nominating conventions had been +appealed to by letter for a suffrage plank in the platform but without +result. The Independence Party convention in Chicago voted it down. +The usual work had been done in international and national conventions +and many had adopted favorable resolutions, among them those of the +International Bricklayers' and Stone Masons' Union meeting in Detroit; +the International Cotton Spinners' Union in Boston and the Woman's +National Trade Union League in that city: the National Council of +Women and the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. The United Mine +Workers of America, meeting at Indianapolis, passed the woman suffrage +resolution by unanimous vote and sent to the headquarters 500 copies +of it, which were promptly mailed to members of Congress. The American +Federation of Labor, representing 2,000,000 members, at its convention +in Denver, followed its long established custom of passing this +resolution. Dr. Shaw attended the National Conference of Charities and +Corrections: Mrs. Julia Ward Howe was received as a fraternal delegate +from the National American Suffrage Association by the General +Federation of Women's Clubs at its biennial in Boston; Mrs. Stockwell +by the convention of the American Library Association; Mrs. Sperry and +Mrs. Alice L. Park of California, by the Nurses Associated Alumnae of +the United States; Mrs. Coryell by the American Baptist Home +Missionary Society, and the association had representatives at many +other conventions. "To summarize, 29 national associations have +endorsed woman suffrage; 14 others have taken action on some phase of +the question; 20 State Federations of Labor, 16 State Granges and +seven State Letter Carriers' Associations have endorsed it. Some of +the States have carried on a very active propaganda in this +direction, securing endorsements from hundreds of local organizations +representing labor unions, educational and religious societies, +Farmers' Institutes, etc." + +In the press report Miss Hauser said that 43,000 copies of _Progress_ +had been sent out and 52,095 pages of material representing 190 +different subjects had been distributed, including 1,262 copies of +Mrs. Catt's address to the International Suffrage Alliance. She told +of the special articles, of the full pages, of the personal work with +editors--a report of remarkable accomplishment, filling eight printed +pages of the Minutes. In concluding she said: "The day of old methods +has gone by and if new methods are to be successfully developed there +must be for press chairman a woman who is not only acquainted with the +philosophy and history of the woman suffrage movement but who is +possessed of the newspaper instinct and the ability to make friends +readily. Nothing but press work should be expected of her and she +should be enabled to get in touch with the controlling forces in the +newspaper world." This report was supplemented with that of Miss +Blackwell, chairman of the Committee on Literature. + +As the headquarters were soon to be removed from Warren, Ohio, and +Miss Hauser had resigned as secretary, this was the last of her +excellent reports and the convention sent her a letter of thanks and +appreciation for her admirable work. Dr. Shaw said of her: "There +never was a woman who gave more consecrated service; she dreamed of +woman suffrage by night and toiled for it by day." [Afterward Miss +Hauser went to the headquarters in New York as vice-chairman of the +National Press Committee.] + +In the evening Mayor John F. Miller welcomed the convention and +congratulated the association on the personnel of its members in +Washington. "This has been a pioneer State in the woman's rights +movement," he said. "In 1854 Arthur Denny introduced a woman suffrage +bill in the Territorial Legislature. In 1878 the civil disabilities of +married women were removed and this was the first State west of the +Rocky Mountains to say that a wife's property should be her own. Women +here have all the rights of men except to vote and hold office. I do +not know whether woman suffrage will bring in everything good and +abolish everything evil but if it will by all means let us have it." +He closed with a tribute to the mothers in the State. + +In an eloquent response Mrs. Villard reminded the Mayor that if a +cause is just the consequences following in its path need not be +feared and said: "I was early taught by my father that moral principle +in vigorous exercise is irresistible. It has an immortal essence. It +may disappear for a time but it can no more be trod out of existence +by the iron foot of time or the ponderous march of iniquity than +matter can be annihilated. It lives somewhere, somehow, and rises +again in renovated strength. The women of this country who are +advocating the cause of woman suffrage are animated by a great moral +principle. They are armed with a spiritual weapon of finest caliber +and one that is sure to win." She told of the great reception given in +1883 to her husband and his guests when they reached Seattle for the +opening of the railroad after its completion; of his response and that +of the Hon. Carl Schurz. She described an address made by a young +girl, the daughter of Professor Powell of the university, the entire +expenses of which Mr. Villard had paid for several years, in which she +said he would be remembered more for what he had done for education +than for the building of the railroad. "In the retrospect of time," +said Mrs. Villard, "I can see her, sweetly modest and gracious, +standing as it were with outstretched arms inviting the women who are +gathered here today to come and help make the State of Washington +free." Then in an appeal for the pending suffrage amendment she said: +"Many tributes of respect and admiration have been paid to my noble +companion in the great northwest, which are carefully cherished by me +and my children, but I crave one more and it is this--that Mr. +Villard's keen sense of justice and fair play for women shall find +echo in the hearts of the men of Washington, to whose extraordinary +development he gave such powerful impetus, so that in November, 1910, +they will proclaim with loud accord that the women of Washington are +no longer bond but free, no longer disfranchised but regenerated and +disenthralled, equal partners in the unending struggle of the human +race for nobler laws and higher moral standards." + +The evening session closed with the president's address of Dr. Shaw, +which the _Woman's Journal_ described as "inimitable" but not a +paragraph of it can be found after the lapse of years. Her speeches +always were inspired by the occasion and only a stenographic report +could give an adequate idea of them. Miss Anthony mourned because this +was not made and others often spoke of it but Dr. Shaw herself was +indifferent. There were pressing demands for money and the endless +details of these meetings absorbed the time and strength of those who +might otherwise have attended to it. + +Mrs. Upton in her report as treasurer made a stirring appeal in which +she said: "The most important question before this convention is that +of money. A grave responsibility rests upon the shoulders of each +delegate. She should know how much money we have had in the last year, +where it went and why. More than this, she should decide for herself +how money for the coming year shall be disbursed and suggest ways of +raising the same. No delegate ought to quiet her conscience with the +thought that the judgment of the general officers is the best +judgment. Each State has entrusted into the hands of its delegates +precious business and the responsibility is great and cannot honestly +be disregarded. In the long ago we worked until our money gave out. +Now, as the beginning of the end of our work is in sight, demands for +money are many and if business rules are followed they must be met. +The small self-sacrifices must be continued and larger ways of +obtaining money created. We are all shouting for a fifth star on our +suffrage flag but we must remember that no star was ever placed upon +any flag without cost, without sacrifice. Our fifth star will find its +place because we explain to voters what a fifth star really means. +These voters will not come to us; we must go to them. To go anywhere +costs money. To go to the voters of a large and thinly populated State +means much money. Shall we be content with four stars or shall we +provide the means to get a fifth?" + +The total receipts of the past year were $15,420; disbursements, +$14,480. She told of the many ways in which the money was being +used--over $2,000 added to several other thousands spent in field work +in Oklahoma for the next year's amendment campaign; $3,000 to the +College League; headquarters' expenses, literature, posters, etc. Part +of the money came from the Anthony Memorial Fund, part from the fund +raised by Dr. Thomas and Miss Garrett, the rest from individual +subscriptions. The convention, which was not a large one, subscribed +over $3,000. The following recommendations of the Business Committee +were adopted by the convention: Appropriations shall be made for +educational, church and petition work; financial aid shall not be +given to States having campaigns on hand unless there be perfect +harmony within the ranks of the workers of those States; an organizer +shall be sent to Arizona to prepare the Territory for constitutional +or legislative work and a campaign organizer to South Dakota. + +There was much interest in the question of returning the national +headquarters to New York City. It was long the desire of Miss Anthony +to do this on a scale befitting so large a city and so important a +cause and the funds had never been available. Mrs. Oliver H. P. +Belmont, who had lately come into the suffrage movement, had taken the +entire twentieth floor of a new office building for two years and +invited the New York State Suffrage Association to occupy a part of +it. She now extended an invitation to the National Association to use +for this period as many rooms as it needed and she would pay the +difference in the rent between these and the headquarters at Warren, +O. In addition she would maintain the press bureau. The advantages of +this great newspaper and magazine center were recognized by the +general officers, executive committee and delegates, the offer was +gladly accepted and a rising vote of thanks was sent to Mrs. Belmont. + +Miss Perle Penfield (Texas) read the report of Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, +chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration. She told of the +tenth anniversary this year of The Hague Conference, which was +attended by representatives of forty-six instead of twenty-six nations +and had made various international agreements that would lessen the +likelihood of war. She spoke of attending the second National Peace +Congress in Chicago in May, at which all the women who took part were +suffragists. Mrs. Mead referred to having spoken eighty-six times +during the year. In pointing out the work that should be done in the +United States for peace she said: + + A great campaign of education is needed in the schools and + colleges, in the press and pulpit and in every organization of + men and women that stands for progress. Pre-eminently among + women's organizations, the National American Woman Suffrage + Association, which opposes the injustice of refusing the ballot + to women, should stand against the grossest of all injustices + which leaves innocent women widowed and children orphaned by war, + and which in time of peace diverts nearly two-thirds of the + federal revenue from constructive work to payment for past wars + and preparation for future wars. Thus far this association has + been so absorbed in its direct methods of advancing suffrage that + it has not perhaps sufficiently realized the power of many + agencies that are furthering its cause by indirect means. I + firmly believe that substituting statesmanship for battleship + will do more to remove the electoral injustices that still + prevent our being a democracy than any direct means used to + obtain woman suffrage, important and necessary as these are. + Women, though hating war, quite as frequently as men are deluded + by the plea that peace can be ensured only by huge armaments. It + is a question whether woman suffrage would greatly lessen the + vote for these supposed preventives of war, but there is no + question that more reliance on reason and less on force would + exalt respect for woman and would remove the objection that + woman's physical inferiority has anything to do with suffrage. + +Several delegates expressed the need and the right of mothers to +strive to prevent war. Mrs. Duniway, Mrs. Philena Everett Johnson and +Mrs. DeVoe spoke on the pending amendment campaigns in their +respective States of Oregon, South Dakota and Washington. Mrs. Clara +Bewick Colby's subject was the American Situation vs. the English +Situation and she described the conditions in England which caused the +"suffragette" or "militant" movement. Mrs. Florence Kelley, chairman +of the Industrial Committee, spoke on the Wage Earning Woman and the +Ballot. "Because of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in +the Oregon case," she said, "fourteen State Legislatures in the past +year have considered bills for shortening the workday for women and +six have enacted laws for it. South Carolina has taken a step backward +by changing the hours from ten to twelve. Child labor is constantly +increasing in spite of our efforts. I have seen the evolution of +modern industry and it has meant the sacrifice of thousands of young +lives." At the close of the afternoon session the delegates enjoyed +an automobile ride of many miles amidst scenery which many who had +travelled widely declared was unsurpassed in the whole world. + +The most brilliant session of the convention probably was that of the +College Women's Evening, with Dr. Shaw presiding. Miss Caroline Lexow +(N. Y.), secretary of the College Women's League, spoke of its +remarkable growth since its organization the preceding year and said +that it now had twenty-four branches in as many States and twenty-five +chapters in as many colleges. She called attention to the fact that no +College Anti-Suffrage Association had ever been formed and said that +college women remembered the words of one of the pioneers: "Make the +best use you can of your freedom for we have bought it at a great +price." Mrs. Eva Emery Dye (Ore.) gave an able address on College +Women in Civic Life. The Law and the Woman was the subject considered +by Miss Adella M. Parker, a popular lawyer, president of the +Washington College League. "I have been looking for years," she said, +"to find any legislation that does not affect women, from a tariff on +gloves to a declaration of war. The great problems which face the +human race demand the genius of both men and women to solve them. The +law needs women quite as much as women need the law." The closing +address on College Women and Democracy by Frances Squire Potter, +professor of English at the University of Minnesota, was a masterly +review of the relation of college women to the life of the present, +and later it was printed by the College League as a part of its +literature. In the course of it she said: + + The admission of women began with Oberlin, Ohio, in 1833, then a + provincial institution, religious in its purpose and one where + the boys and girls did the work. From that time on the West was + committed to the co-educational State university. The influence + set back eastward and women demanded admittance successively in + this college and that college. It is to be remembered that they + did not go in naturally and pleasantly but at the point of the + sword and to the sound of the trumpet. And to-day the segregated + college life of the East illustrates the "last entrenchments of + the middle ages." Those monasteries and nunneries of learning + crown the hilltops from Boston to Washington and "watch the star + of intellectual empire westward take its way." ... Following upon + the democratization of the university we now see rising a tide + which is as inevitable as was that first movement, which will + bear the college woman, as it bears the college man, out of the + fostering shelter of the college hall into the great welter of + life, of full citizenship.... Since the colleges of America + opened to women, nothing so vital to the nourishment of this + spirit has happened as the formation of the College Equal + Suffrage League.... There are certain definite things for which a + college woman registers herself in joining this league. First, a + direct return to the country of the energy which it has trained. + A woman's whole education to-day is toward direct results. She + has been educated away from the old indirect ideal of the + boarding-school. There she was taught to be a persuasive + ornament, now she is taught to be an individual mind, will and + conscience and to use these in acting herself. I hold that there + is no more graphic illustration of inconsistent waste than the + spectacle of a college-trained woman falsifying her entire + education by shying away from suffrage.... The time has gone by + when a college woman can be allowed to be noncommittal on this + subject. If she has not thought about equal suffrage she must do + so now, exactly as persons of intelligence were compelled to + think about slavery in the time of Garrison, or about the + reformation in the time of Martin Luther. To those who try to get + out of it it is not unfitting to quote Thomas Huxley's famous + sentence: "He who will not reason is a bigot; he who dare not + reason is a coward; he who can not reason is a fool." ... + + It devolves upon the college woman more than upon any other one + type to face and conquer a retarding tendency which is becoming + marked in this country. I refer to the anti-feminization + movement. Dr. Stanley Hall has given voice to it in education; + Dr. Lyman Abbott quavers about it in religion; the committee on + tariff revision is an example of it in politics. When women sent + a petition to the committee against raising the duties on certain + necessities of life of which they were the chief consumers, the + chairman said: "It doesn't make any difference whether these + women send in a petition signed by 500 or 5,000 names, they will + receive no consideration. Let them talk things over in their + clubs and other organizations; this will occupy them and do no + one any harm; but it will not affect the tariff." On the same day + the committee accorded a deferential hearing to a deputation of + lumbermen.... This discrimination against woman, the vague + feeling that she has been allowed to get on too fast, to get out + of control, that she has slipped into too large activities while + the good man slept, has come upon us at the very time when + Scandinavia and Germany and England are getting rid of their + simian chivalry. It is notorious that America, which once was the + progressive nation, has been for a generation in a comatose state + in the matter of social ideas. It is high time that our college + women should stand solid against the blind superstition, whose + mother is fear and whose father is egoism, that women can not be + trusted in public affairs.... + +The report of Mr. Blackwell on Presidential suffrage was accepted by a +rising vote and his report as chairman of the Committee on Resolutions +was adopted, as usual, without change.[61] For many years he had +served as chairman of these committees. His constitutional argument +for the right of Legislatures to grant women a vote for presidential +electors always stood unchallenged and his faith that they would do +this was eventually justified. One of the founders of the American +Suffrage Association in 1869, he had not during forty years missed +attending a national suffrage convention, first with his wife, Lucy +Stone, and later with his daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell. He had +never seemed in better health and spirits than at this one in Seattle +but two months later, on September 7, he died at the age of 84, a +great loss to the cause of woman suffrage. (Memorials in next +chapter.) + +The Legislative Evening was in charge of the State suffrage +association, Mrs. De Voe in the chair, and it was the intention to +have those members of the Legislature who were principally responsible +for submitting the amendment address the convention but an extra +session at that time spoiled this program. The Hon. Alonzo Wardell +spoke for Charles R. Case, president of the State Federation of Labor, +which was strongly in favor of the amendment, he said, and had votes +enough to carry it if the members would go to the polls. Mrs. Lord +represented the Grange, which she said could be depended on for an +affirmative vote. Miss Parker gave a graphic description of the +"illegal and dishonorable methods" by which the vote was taken away +from the women while Washington was a Territory.[62] Mrs. John Moore +of Tacoma read a powerful scene from The Spanish Gypsy by George +Eliot. After a lively collection speech by Mrs. Upton, Dr. Shaw closed +the evening with a mirth-provoking "question box." + +At an afternoon session Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery read the report of +the National Committee on the Petition to Congress. It had been the +plan of Mrs. Catt, as presented and adopted at the convention of 1908, +to have one final petition to Congress for the submission of the +Federal Amendment and she had consented to take the chairmanship +temporarily. Headquarters had been opened in the Martha Washington, +the woman's hotel in New York City, where the headquarters of the +Interurban Woman Suffrage Council, of which Mrs. Catt was chairman, +were located. Here she and Miss Mary Garrett Hay spent many months +from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m., assisted by Miss Minnie J. Reynolds, who did +press work and correspondence with the States. Mrs. Priscilla D. +Hackstaff of Brooklyn, a former Missourian, took charge of the work in +that State from these headquarters and there was an energetic +volunteer sub-committee of New York suffragists. The report continued: + + "The Governors of the four enfranchised States served on an + honorary Advisory Committee, as did the following men and women: + Anna Howard Shaw, Clara Barton, Julia Ward Howe, William Lloyd + Garrison, William Dudley Foulke, Jane Addams, Mary E. Garrett, + Sarah Platt Decker, the Hon. John D. Long, Samuel Gompers, + Colonel George Harvey, Rabbi Charles Fleischer (Mass.), Dr. + Josiah Strong, Edward T. Devine, John Mitchell, Judge Ben + Lindsey, Mrs. Clarence Mackay, Lillian M. Hollister, Mary Lowe + Dickinson, Mrs. Bourke Cockran and Cynthia Westover Alden. + + When Mrs. Catt left for London in March, 1909, in the interests + of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, the work came to + me. At that time upwards of 10,000 letters had been written and + 100,000 petitions distributed and twenty-three State + organizations were collecting, counting, pasting and classifying + the lists. Since then five other States have gone to work. + Letters were written to all the newspapers in the four equal + suffrage States asking the insertion of a coupon petition and + these coupons brought in the names of many friends who could not + otherwise be reached and who were enthusiastic workers for the + petition. Others to the _Age of Reason_ and _Wilshire's Magazine_ + brought hundreds of willing workers. Letters were sent in every + direction, friends stirred up, reminded of their task and + requested to send names of others who would work. Every sheet + that came in was searched for names of possible friends who might + circulate the petitions. Between March 1 and July 1, 1909, nearly + 2,000 letters were written and 45,000 blanks distributed.... + +Later the work was removed to Washington and headquarters established +there to finish the petition by 1910. + +The report of Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg (Penn.), chairman of the +Committee on Civil Rights, showed the usual painstaking year's work. +Her letters to all the State presidents for information had brought +answers from twenty-two and eleven of these showed advanced +legislation for women and children. In some of them it was amended +labor laws or new ones; in others for a Juvenile Court, for improving +the position of teachers, for the advantage of children in the public +schools, for property rights of wives. Maine reported nearly a dozen +such new laws. Minnesota was in the lead with thirty Acts of the +Legislature. + +Mrs. Mary E. Craigie (N. Y.), chairman of the Committee on Church +Work, introduced her excellent report by saying: "President Taft +recently said in a public address: 'Christianity and the spirit of +Christianity are the only basis for the hope of modern civilization +and the growth of popular self-government.' ... Women are to-day and +always have been the mainstay and chief support of the churches and +the leaders in all great moral reforms; yet as a disfranchised class +they are powerless to aid in bringing about any reforms that depend +upon legislative or governmental action and the church is thereby +deprived of more than two-thirds of its power to help extend civic +righteousness throughout the land. Now that there is a world-wide +movement among women to demand the political power to do their part in +the world's work, they have a right to ask and to receive from +ministers and from all Christian people support and help in working +for this greatest of all reforms." ... Mrs. Craigie told of addressing +the ministerial association of Canada at Toronto, where fifteen +minutes had been allotted to her but by unanimous insistence she was +obliged to keep on for an hour. An interesting discussion followed, +after which an endorsement of the principle of woman suffrage was +unanimously voted. She spoke at a meeting of the Dominion Temperance +Alliance, where there were 600 delegates, many of them clergymen, and +a resolution by the chairman endorsing the woman suffrage bill then +before the Provincial Legislature was carried without a dissenting +vote. Reports were included of the good work accomplished by the +members of her committee in the various States. + +The usual Sunday afternoon convention meeting was held in the +auditorium on the Exposition grounds, under the auspices of this +church committee, with a large audience who listened to an able +presentation of The Sacred Duties and Obligations of Citizenship. Dr. +Shaw presided and the speakers were the Rev. C. Lyng Hansen, Mrs. +Craigie, Professor Potter and Miss Janet Richards. Mrs. Kelley spoke +in the First Christian Church, Mrs. Eva Emery Dye in the Second Avenue +Congregational Church and the Rev. Mary G. Andrews preached for the +Universalists on The Freedom of Truth. At the First Methodist +Protestant Church, Miss Laura Clay talked on Christian Citizenship in +the morning and Dr. Shaw preached in the evening. Mrs. Charlotte +Perkins Gilman spoke at the Boylston Avenue Unitarian Church in the +morning and Mrs. Gilman and Mrs. Pauline Steinem at a patriotic +service in Plymouth Church in the evening. Mr. Blackwell and Mrs. +Steinem spoke in the Jewish synagogue.[63] In the evening the officers +of the association were "at home" to the members of the convention and +friends at the Lincoln Hotel. + +The election of officers took place Monday morning. At Miss +Blackwell's request she was permitted to retire from the office of +recording secretary, which she had filled for twenty years, and the +convention gave her a rising vote of thanks for her most efficient +service. Her complete and satisfactory reports of the national +conventions in her paper, the _Woman's Journal_, had formed a standard +record that nowhere else could be found. She exchanged places with +Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, second auditor, and was thus retained on the +board. The remainder of the officers were re-elected but Miss Gordon, +the corresponding secretary, stated that with the removal of the +headquarters to New York and the increased work which would follow, +this officer should be there all the time, which was impossible for +her. Professor Potter was the unanimous choice of the convention, and, +after communicating with the university and securing a leave of +absense for two years, she accepted the office. Her assistant and +friend, Professor Mary Gray Peck, accepted the office of headquarters +secretary. Both were prominent in the College Suffrage League in that +State. The convention by a rising vote expressed its appreciation of +the excellent work Miss Gordon had done, "and for the still greater +work that she will yet do," added Dr. Shaw. + +It was voted to change the name of the Business Committee to the +Official Board and to add Mrs. Catt, the only ex-president, to this +board. Urgent invitations were received from Governor Robert S. Vessey +of South Dakota and the Mayor and Chamber of Commerce of Sioux Falls +to hold the convention of 1910 there, as an amendment was to be voted +on in the autumn. Dr. Shaw commented: "Governor Vessey is a man who +has convictions and is not afraid to stand by them. I am grateful that +he dares to do this while he is in office." A delegate spoke of the +appointment of a woman for the first time to an office in her State +and immediately delegates from other States gave the same announcement +until it was necessary to stop the flood. Miss Penfield, one of a +number of national organizers who were kept constantly in the field, +told of having worked in six States in the past six months. In +Pennsylvania she visited thirty-five small towns, holding parlor +meetings, which she advocated as leading to the formation of suffrage +clubs. In Kentucky she addressed fifteen colleges and schools. Mrs. +Ida Porter Boyer (Penn.), Miss Mary N. Chase (N. H.) and Miss Laura +Gregg (Kans.) gave experiences in field work. + +Mrs. Villard presided Monday evening and in introducing Mr. Blackwell, +whom the audience rose to greet, she said: "It is a pleasure for me to +pay also a tribute to the loveliness of his wife, Lucy Stone. To my +childish vision she was a type of perpetual sunshine." Mr. Blackwell +gave the opinion of a man of long observation and experience on How to +Get Votes for Women. Mrs. Craigie spoke on Citizenship--What Is It? +Mrs. Stewart relieved Mrs. Upton of her usual task of taking a +collection and among her witty remarks was one on Bartholdi's statue +of Liberty. "The real goddesses of Liberty in this country do not +spend a large amount of time standing on pedestals in public places; +they use their torches to startle the bats in political cellars." +Referring to the ignoring of women's work in the histories she said: +"When I was a child and studied about the Pilgrim Fathers I supposed +they were all bachelors, as I never found a word about their wives." +Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's topic was Masculine, Feminine and +Human, discussed with her usual keen analysis and illuminated with her +pungent epigrams. + +A spirited symposium took place on Pre-Election Methods, led by Mrs. +Stewart, who outlined the work done in Illinois, where it had been +reduced to a system. "We find candidates much less tractable after +election than before," she said, "although we always send literature +and letters to the members-elect and subscribe for the _Woman's +Journal_ for them. We are now strong enough in some districts for +pre-election work to elect our friends and defeat our enemies. Mrs. +Catharine Waugh McCulloch sent a circular letter to every member of +the last Legislature, with questions as to his attitude on woman +suffrage and from the answers she compiled a leaflet recommending the +election of the men who promised to vote for our measures. She sent +this to every paper in Illinois and distributed it as widely as +possible among the women's clubs and women at large. She did the same +with our Congressmen. Not one of the legislators who promised to vote +for our bill voted against it. Our most important measure was lost in +the Senate by a majority of only one vote. Eight of the Senators who +voted against it are up for re-election and we shall do our best to +keep them from going back. Illinois has printed for several years a +Roll of Honor of the legislators who have voted right on our bills." + +The discussion showed a general opinion that it was high time for +action of this kind. Mrs. Kelley asked: "Why not do prenomination +work?" and Dr. Shaw said: "I do not know a political method when I see +it and I haven't an ounce of political sense but I do believe heartily +in this sort of work." Led by Mrs. Ella Hawley Crossett, president of +the New York association, "Should there be concentration on one bill +or work for several"? was discussed. Miss Gordon said: "Ask for +everything in sight and you will get a little." Mrs. Cornelia Telford +Jewett, editor of the _Union Signal_, brought a fraternal greeting +from the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union and when she said +that most of the criticism she received was that she gave the readers +too much suffrage, Dr. Shaw remarked in her jovial way: "They would +get more if I could write, as Mrs. Jewett has often asked me for +articles." + +Among the symposiums and round table conferences in the morning and +afternoon sessions were those on "How to make existing suffrage +sentiment politically effective," Miss Clay presiding; "The tariff in +its relation to women," and "Taxation without representation is +tyranny in 1909 as much as in 1776," Mrs. Villard presiding in place +of Mrs. DeVoe, who was ill; "Parents' organizations, their value in +creating public sentiment," and "The self-government plan in our +public schools as an aid in preparing the coming generations for woman +suffrage," Mrs. B. W. Dawley (Ohio), presiding. The report of the +Committee on Education, presented by its chairman, Mrs. Steinem, said +that the principal work of the half-year had been to carry out the +resolutions adopted at the Buffalo convention to investigate the text +books on History and Civics used in the public schools and she had +secured a valuable expression of opinion through letters sent to 400 +superintendents of schools and twenty-six school book publishing +houses. Some of them quoted the names of Betsy Ross, Molly Pitcher, +Martha Washington and Dolly Madison to show that women were not +neglected in the text books. Many declared they had given the subject +no thought but were open to conviction. In summing up Mrs. Steinem +expressed the belief that this lack of recognition of woman's +influence in history was not so much the result of intention as of the +masculine point of view which has dominated civilization. "The +impression conveyed by our text books," she said, "is that this world +has been made by men and for men and the ideals they are putting forth +are colored by masculine thought.... Our text books on Civics do not +show the slightest appreciation of the significance of the 'woman's +movement.' ... + +On the closing night Miss Richards, the noted lecturer of Washington, +D. C., made a delightfully clever and sparkling speech on Sex +Antagonism, Why and What is the Cure? Professor Potter gave a second +splendid address and Dr. Shaw's eloquent farewell sent the audience +home in an exalted mood. + +The excellent arrangements for the convention and the entertainment of +the officers and delegates had been made with much care and judgment +by the State association and the Seattle society, which appropriated +$1,000 for the purpose.[64] The surpassing beauty of the city and the +Exposition was an unceasing delight. Miss Blackwell said in her +description in the _Woman's Journal_: "The splendid setting of the +convention was a constant pleasure--the tall firs, the beautiful water +and picturesque mountains. Large bunches of sweet peas and of the +enormous roses never seen but on the Pacific coast were constantly +being handed up to the president and speakers in the course of the +convention by the pretty little pages. All the delegates agreed that +the display of flowers on the grounds was more beautiful than they had +seen at any previous Exposition. Some of the delegates from the +Atlantic coast said it was worth coming across the continent just to +see this flower garden." + +The always-to-be-remembered feature of the week was Suffrage Day at +the Exposition, arranged by its officials for the day following the +convention. To quote again from Miss Blackwell: + + In the morning on arriving at the Exposition we found above the + gate a big banner with the inscription, "Woman Suffrage Day." + Every person entering the grounds was presented with a special + button and a green-ribbon badge representing the Equal Suffrage + Association of Washington, the Evergreen State. High in the air + over the grounds floated a large "Votes for Women" kite. All the + toy balloons sold on the grounds that day were stamped with the + words "Votes for Women" and many of the delegates bought them and + went around with them hovering over their heads like Japanese + lanterns--yellow, red, white or green but predominantly green. At + the morning meeting in the great auditorium there was fine music + by the Exposition band, with addresses of welcome from J. E. + Chilberg, president; Louis W. Buckley, director of ceremonies and + special events, and R. W. Raymond, assistant director, and brief + speeches by Dr. Shaw, Miss Gordon, Mrs. Upton, Miss Blackwell, + Mrs. Stewart, Miss Clay, Mrs. Kelley, Mrs. Gilman and Professor + Potter.... After the morning exercises, the national officers + were taken to the Education building and treated to an excellent + lunch cooked and served by the domestic science class of the high + school. + + In the afternoon there was a reception in the magnificent room + occupying the ground floor of the Washington State building with + more addresses of welcome by prominent men connected with the + Exposition and more short speeches by the visitors. Later in the + afternoon there was another reception at the Idaho building by + the Idaho and Utah women with more refreshments served by + motherly matrons and pretty girls. The day closed with a + "daylight dinner" given by the Washington Equal Suffrage + Association at The Firs, the headquarters of the Young Women's + Christian Association. Hundreds of suffragists sat down to the + table within the building and on the large veranda looking off + over a delightful prospect and there were many appreciative + speeches. It was long after nightfall when the happy gathering + broke up and the visitors then had a chance to see the fairy-like + spectacle of the Exposition by night, with every building + outlined in electric lights, the pools shimmering, the fountain + gleaming and a series of cascades coming down in foam, with + electric lights of different colors glowing through each + waterfall. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[60] Part of Call: In entering upon the fifth decade of its work for +the enfranchisement of women in the United States, the National +American Woman Suffrage Association invites all those to share in its +councils who believe that the help of women is needed by the +Government. It is a grave mistake of statesmanship to continue to +ignore the wisdom of the thousands of our women citizens, who, fitted +by education and home interests, are anxious to help solve the many +and vital problems upon which our country's future safety and +prosperity depend.... + +During the year 1908 our cause won four solid victories. Michigan gave +taxpaying women a vote on questions of local taxation and the granting +of franchises; Denmark gave women who are taxpayers or wives of +taxpayers a vote for all officers but members of Parliament; Belgium +gave women engaged in trade a vote for the Conseils des Prudhommes; +and Victoria in Australia gave full State suffrage to all women. The +legislative hearings in New York, Massachusetts and Nebraska have +called out unprecedented crowds showing the growth of popular +interest.... The Legislatures of Oregon, Washington and South Dakota +have voted to submit the question of woman suffrage to the electors in +1910. The workers for woman's political freedom have great cause for +rejoicing. + + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, First Vice-President. + FLORENCE KELLEY, Second Vice-President. + KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary. + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. + HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } Auditors. + ELLA S. STEWART, } + +The Call ended with the touching poem of the young Southern poet, Mrs. +Olive Tilford Dargan, "The Lord of little children to the sleeping +mothers spoke." + +[61] The resolutions declared the movement for woman suffrage to be +but a part of the great struggle for human liberty; called for the +enactment of initiative and referendum laws; equal pay for women and +men in public and private employment; uniform State laws against child +labor and for compulsory education; more industrial training for boys +and girls in the public schools; more strenuous effort against the +white slave traffic. They demanded that the United States should take +the lead in an international movement for the limitation of armaments. +A cordial vote of thanks was given for the hospitality and courtesies +of the city and the people of Seattle. + +[62] See History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 1096. + +[63] The ministers of Seattle who opened the various sessions with +prayer were: Doctors A. Norman Ward, Protestant Methodist; Thomas E. +Elliott, Queen Anne Methodist; George Robert Cairns, Temple Baptist; +Edward Lincoln Smith, Pilgrim Congregational; Sydney Strong, Queen +Anne Congregational; the Reverends J. D. O. Powers, Unitarian; W. H. +W. Rees, First Methodist Episcopal; W. A. Major, Bethany Presbyterian; +Joseph L. Garvin, First Christian; C. Lyng Hanson, Scandinavian +Methodist; F. O. Iverson, Norwegian Lutheran; P. Nelson, Norwegian +Congregational Missionary. + +[64] Committee: Mrs. DeVoe, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, Mrs. Bessie J. +Savage, Miss Adella M. Parker, Dr. Sarah A. Kendall, Mrs. Ellen S. +Lockenby and a small army of assistants. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1910. + + +As a national convention had not been held in Washington since 1904 +the suffragists were pleased to return to that city with the +Forty-second in the long list, which was held April 14-19, 1910.[65] +Three special cars were filled by delegates from New York City alone. +It had become very difficult to get a suitable place for conventions +in the national capital and the experiment was made of holding this +one in the large ball room of the Arlington Hotel, which proved +entirely inadequate for the audiences. The convention was called to +order on the first afternoon by the national president, Dr. Anna +Howard Shaw, and welcomed by the president of the District of Columbia +suffrage association, Miss Harriette J. Hifton, and the president of +the District branch of the College Equal Suffrage League, Miss Mabel +Foster. The response for the National Association was made by Miss +Laura Clay of Kentucky, one of its officers. + +The report of the Committee on Church Work was read by its chairman, +Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, who gave a record of the accomplishments of her +committees in the various States and said: "The moral awakening of the +churches to a need for more united efforts along lines of social and +moral reform carries with it a great responsibility for women, who, +representing two-thirds of the numerical power of the churches, are in +their present disfranchised condition negative factors in those +broader fields of activity which now constitute church work. Women are +beginning to realize that they are wasting their efforts and energies +in trying to effect moral and social reforms dependent upon +legislative action or law enforcement and they are asking: 'Shall we +go on with the farce of attacking the constantly growing evils of +intemperance, immorality and crime which menace our homes, our +children and society at large, knowing that our efforts are useless +and futile, or shall we take a stand which will show that we are in +earnest and demand the weapon of the ballot which is necessary before +we can do our part as Christian citizens in advancing the kingdom of +God on earth?'" + +The excellent report of the new headquarters secretary, Professor Mary +Gray Peck, filled ten pages of the printed Minutes and in addition to +the large collection of statistics contained many useful suggestions. +Like all of the reports from the headquarters it showed the great +advantage of having them in a large center. Referring to the +literature department she said: "Local chairmen should see that tables +with suffrage literature are placed in all church and charitable +bazaars as far as possible and that our papers may be subscribed for +at all subscription agencies; also that our publications are on the +shelves and on file in the public libraries throughout the State. One +of the things Mrs. Pankhurst said when she was looking over our +work-room was: 'Don't give away your publications. We found we got rid +of much more when we sold and now we give away nothing.' We have +always given away ours with considerable freedom and been glad to have +them read at our expense but at the low figure we put on them we could +draw the gratis line closer without impairing our popularity.... The +average daily output of literature since the opening of headquarters +in New York--and this does not include the orders which continued to +be filled in Warren--has been 2,742 pieces, or a growth of more than +25 per cent. over the average of last year. Our cash sales from +January 1 to April 1 have amounted to $938, or an average of $312 per +month as against the average of $89 per month for 1908-9. That is, our +cash sales for the past three months are three and a half times +greater than they were at the same time last year." + +"The propagandist part of the correspondence," said Miss Peck, "soon +makes a wise woman of the headquarters secretary. The time for general +argument and abstract appeal has largely gone by. The call now is for +statistics, laws, definite citations, instances of industrial +conditions, legal status of women and children, etc.... The State +organizations could do no more valuable service in aiding our +efficiency as an information agency than by each getting out a +condensed and reliable bulletin of State laws relating to women and +children; and also by collecting data as to the property held +and taxes paid by women, with illustrative instances where +disfranchisement has forced these taxpayers to submit to injustice and +unfair discrimination." She told of the increasing call for woman +suffrage literature from public libraries to meet the demand and urged +the encouragement of debates, saying: "If the State organizations +would make a persistent effort to have suffrage debated in the schools +and if they advertised the national headquarters as prepared to +furnish a volume of debate material for thirty cents, suffrage would +receive continuous advertising at no financial expense to us, nor +would the good to the movement cease with the debate. Get the young +people interested and you catch the mothers. Also by keeping a card +register of the young debaters, the State organization would have the +names and addresses of an ever-growing list of oncoming citizens +interested in the subject. Debaters are a good deal cheaper than +organizers. The State University of Wisconsin is sending out through +its university extension department our suffrage literature in +travelling libraries to meet the demand in the public schools for +debate material. I believe most State universities would be glad to do +the same for us. Many universities and colleges have discussed +suffrage the past winter, notably Dartmouth, Williams and Brown in +their annual intercollegiate debate, Yale in the inter-class debate, +the University of Texas against Tulane University of Louisiana, and +Stanford will debate with Berkeley, April 16." Miss Peck made many +other valuable suggestions from the trained viewpoint of a university +woman. + +Representative A. W. Rucker was introduced as a proxy for the Colorado +association and gave its report with a warm personal endorsement of +equal suffrage as it had existed in his State for seventeen years. The +convention greeted with enthusiasm the mother of U. S. Senator Robert +L. Owen of Oklahoma, who said she could not make a speech but would +send her son to do so that evening. + +Although national suffrage conventions had been held in Washington +since 1869 no official recognition ever had been asked for or given by +the President of the United States. The leaders thought that now the +movement was of sufficient size and importance to justify them in +inviting President Taft to give simply an address of welcome. The +invitation was sent with the statement that its acceptance would not +be regarded as committing him to an advocacy of woman suffrage and it +was accepted with this understanding, although Mrs. Elihu Root +presented a request from the Anti-Suffrage Association that he would +not accept it. The entire country was interested and on the opening +evening, when he was to speak, the auditorium was crowded and lines of +people reached to the street. President Taft came in with his escort +while Dr. Shaw was in the midst of her annual address but she stopped +instantly and welcomed him to the platform. The audience arose and +with applause and waving of handkerchiefs remained standing until he +was seated. At one point in his brief address there was apparently a +slight hissing in the back part of the room. The President paused; Dr. +Shaw sprang to her feet exclaiming, "Oh, my children!" and the +audience, which was excited and amazed, instantly became quiet and +listened respectfully to the rest of his speech, but as he left the +room, after shaking hands with Dr. Shaw, a few remained seated. As +this incident attracted nation-wide comment and much criticism it +seems advisable to publish the proceedings in full. The address was as +follows: + + I am not entirely certain that I ought to have come tonight, but + your committee who invited me assured me that I should be welcome + even if I did not support all the views which were here advanced. + I considered that this movement represented a sufficient part of + the intelligence of the community to justify my coming here and + welcoming you to Washington. The difficulty I expect to encounter + is this--at least it is a difficulty that occurs to me as I judge + my own feelings in causes in which I have an intense interest--to + wit: that I am always a good deal more impatient with those who + only go half-way with me than with those who actually oppose me. + Now when I was sixteen years old and was graduated from the + Woodward High School in Cincinnati, I took for my subject "Woman + Suffrage" and I was as strong an advocate of it as any member of + this convention. I had read Mills's "Subjection of Women"; my + father was a woman suffragist and so at that time I was orthodox + but in the actual political experience which I have had I have + modified my views somewhat. + + In the first place popular representative government we approve + and support because on the whole every class, that is, every set + of individuals who are similarly situated in the community, who + are intelligent enough to know what their own interests are, are + better qualified to determine how those interests shall be cared + for and preserved than any other class, however altruistic that + class may be; but I call your attention to two qualifications in + that statement. One is that the class should be intelligent + enough to know its own interests. The theory that Hottentots or + any other uneducated, altogether unintelligent class is fitted + for self-government at once or to take part in government is a + theory that I wholly dissent from--but this qualification is not + applicable here. The other qualification to which I call your + attention is that the class should as a whole care enough to look + after its interests, to take part as a whole in the exercise of + political power if it is conferred. Now if it does not care + enough for this, then it seems to me that the danger is, if the + power is conferred, that it may be exercised by that part of the + class least desirable as political constituents and be neglected + by many of those who are intelligent and patriotic and would be + most desirable as members of the electorate. + +It was at this point the supposed hissing occurred and the President +continued: + + Now, my dear ladies, you must show yourselves equal to + self-government by exercising, in listening to opposing + arguments, that degree of restraint without which self-government + is impossible. If I could be sure that women as a class in the + community, including all the intelligent women most desirable as + political constituents, would exercise the franchise, I should + be in favor of it. At present there is considerable doubt upon + that point. In certain of the States which have tried it woman + suffrage has not been a failure. It has not made, I think, any + substantial difference in politics. I think it is perhaps + possible to say that its adoption has shown an improvement in the + body politic, but it has been tested only in those States where + population is sparse and where the problem of entrusting such + power to women in the concentrated population of large cities is + not presented. For this reason, if you will permit me to say so, + my impression is that the task before you in securing what you + think ought to be granted in respect to the political rights of + women is not in convincing men but it is in convincing the + majority of your own class of the wisdom of extending the + suffrage to them and of their duty to exercise it. + + Now that is my confession of faith. I am glad to welcome you + here. I am glad to welcome an intelligent body of women, earnest + in the discussion of politics, earnest in the question of good + government and earnest and high-minded in the cause they are + pursuing, even if I disagree with them, not in principle but in + the application of it to the present situation. More than this I + ought not to say and I hope you will not deem me ungracious in + saying as much as I have said, but I came here at the invitation + of your committee with the understanding as to what I might say + and that I should not subscribe to all the principles that you + are here to advocate. I congratulate you on coming to Washington, + this most beautiful of cities, to hold your convention. I trust + that it may result in everything that you hope for and I am sure + that the coming together of honest, intelligent and earnest women + like these cannot but be productive of good. + +Some persons thought that the hissing was done by one or more +delegates from the equal suffrage States because of the aspersion cast +on the class of women who were likely to vote. Others believed there +was no hissing but that it was merely an exclamation of "hush" because +of the noise caused by the moving of loose chairs, many in the back +part of the room standing up on them to get a better view. It was, +however, a matter of great concern and regret on the part of the +national officers, who met early the next morning and framed the +following resolution: + + WHEREAS the President of the United States in welcoming the + Forty-second Annual Convention of the National American Woman + Suffrage Association has taken the historic position of being the + first incumbent of his office to recognize officially our + determination to secure a complete democracy, thereby testifying + his conviction as to its power and growth, and WHEREAS his + seriousness, honesty and friendliness converted what might have + been an empty form into an official courtesy, historic alike for + him and for us, + + THEREFORE be it resolved that we convey to President William H. + Taft the thanks and appreciation of this convention for his + welcome, assuring him at the same time that the patriotism and + public spirit of the women of America intend to make themselves + directly felt in the government of which he is the honored head + and that at no distant date. + +This was adopted at the morning's session of the convention by a +unanimous rising vote. At the opening of the afternoon session Dr. +Shaw said: "I think one of the saddest hours that I have ever spent in +connection with one of our national conventions I spent last night +after the occurrence of an incident here for which none of the +officers of this association bears the least responsibility and we +trust none of the delegates needs to bear any of it, when there was a +dissent made to an utterance of President Taft. It seemed to us a most +unwise and ungracious act and we feel the keenest possible regret over +it. Because of this the Official Board has prepared a letter to the +President expressing our regret that the occurrence should have taken +place, whether by a member of this body or by a visitor. It is +impossible to control a great public audience individually and an +organization is not responsible for everything which takes place in +its public meetings. While I do not think our organization as a body +is at all responsible for what took place last night I feel that, +since the President was our guest, it is our duty to express our very +deep regret for the incident. I ask, therefore, that, without +discussion and without further speech, there shall be concurrence on +the part of the convention with the Official Board in sending a letter +of regret to the President." + +The convention agreed to this instantly with but one dissenting and it +was ascertained that she was not only not a delegate but not a member +of the association. This justified the general opinion that if there +had been any hissing the night before it was done by some of the large +number of outsiders in the audience. The letter signed by Professor +Frances Squire Potter, as corresponding secretary, read as follows: + + To President William Howard Taft, + + My dear Mr. President: + + The enclosed resolution, introduced by the Committee on + Convention Resolutions, was passed unanimously by the National + American Woman Suffrage Association today at the opening of its + morning session. I am instructed by the unanimous vote of the + Official Board and of the delegates now assembled to send you + with the resolution this official communication. + + The official board and delegates were but a small part of the + very large gathering to hear your greeting last evening but as + the representatives of the association these delegates feel great + sorrow that any one present, either a member or an outsider, + should have interrupted your address by an expression of personal + feeling, and they herewith disclaim responsibility for such + interruption and ask your acceptance of this expression of regret + in the spirit in which it is given. + +The letter was sent in the afternoon by messenger across Lafayette +Square, which separated the Arlington from the White House, and the +next morning the following answer was received: + + The White House, + Washington, April 16, 1910. + + My dear Mrs. Potter: + + I beg to acknowledge your favor of April 15. I unite with you in + regretting the incident occurring during my address to which your + letter refers. I regret it not because of any personal feeling, + for I have none on the subject at all, but only because much more + significance has been given to it than it deserves and because it + may be used in an unfair way to embarrass the leaders of your + movement. + + I thank the association for the kindly and cordial tone of the + resolutions transmitted and hope that the feature of Thursday + night's meeting, which you describe as having given your + association much sorrow, may soon be entirely forgotten. + + Sincerely yours, + William H. Taft. + +This closed the incident as far as it could be closed but there was a +great deal of sympathy with the sentiment expressed by Miss Alice +Stone Blackwell in the _Woman's Journal_: "It was known that while the +President was not an anti-suffragist he was not a strong suffragist +and might not even be wholly with us. It was, therefore, not expected +that he would at the convention 'come out for suffrage.' Indeed, he +was not invited to make an address but simply to extend to the +convention the welcome of the national capital, not because he was a +suffragist but because the convention thought that it was +representative enough and of sufficient size and standing in the +country to warrant asking the President to do this one thing. He could +have declined the invitation and no one would have been offended. He +could have said he was an anti-suffragist. He could have tactfully +omitted his opinion and confined his time to greetings and welcome as +Chief Executive to the convention as a large organization of the women +of the nation. At the point where the supposed hissing occurred, it +was as if the speaker had struck those women in the face with a whip. +Even those who most resented the President's remarks regretted the +expression of open disapproval in such a manner, but, to a person, +the audience felt that he had been untactful, and, however +unintentionally, had implied an odious comparison; that he had not +sufficiently considered this great body of the picked women of the +land to choose his language in addressing them." + +The President's address was preceded by one given by Professor Potter +on The Making of Democracy, which had seldom been equalled in its +statesmanlike qualities. This was followed by a powerful argument on +Why Women Should Have the Suffrage, by Senator Robert L. Owen (Okla.), +one of the ablest speakers in the U. S. Senate and always an +uncompromising supporter of the political rights of women. + +At an afternoon session Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery (Penn.), who had +succeeded Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt as chairman of the Committee on +Petition to Congress, took up the report where it had ended at the +last convention. She said that, in addition to the 100,000 petitions +and 5,000 individual letters sent from New York under Mrs. Catt's +supervision, there had gone out from the headquarters after they had +been removed to Washington and placed in charge of Mrs. Rachel Brill +Ezekiel, 60,000 more petitions, 11,000 more letters and 1,185 postals +with appeals. "The petition," she said, "has been a means of +introducing suffrage into thousands of households and hundreds of +meetings of all kinds in which the subject had not before been +mentioned. Even women's clubs have had to listen to suffrage when +brought to them by eager seekers after signatures. It has given to +many people who have never before done anything for suffrage an +opportunity. In some cases whole neighborhoods have been reached +through the work of a single energetic woman willing to go from house +to house circulating the petition and leaving literature with families +where she found little or no sympathy for our movement. All letters +sent out from petition headquarters enclosed suffrage leaflets and +carried to thousands of men and women the first suffrage literature +they had seen." All this vast work had cost only $4,555, of which Mrs. +Catt had contributed $1,000. The most strenuous effort had not +succeeded in getting the return of all the petitions in time for the +convention but those at hand contained 404,825 names.[66] + +The arrangements for the parade which was to carry the petitions to +Congress were in the hands of Miss Mary Garrett Hay. Mrs. Helen H. +Gardener obtained the use of fifty cars from interested residents of +Washington and these were handsomely adorned with the flag of the +United States and suffrage banners. The official report said: "The +most picturesque incident of the convention was the long line of fifty +decorated automobiles which bore the petitions and delegates of each +State from the Hotel Arlington to the Capitol, where the petitions +were personally delivered to the various Senators and Representatives +who were to present them to Congress. The large piles of rolled +petitions, the respect of the people who lined the streets, the +courtesy of the Congressmen and the crowds which watched the +presentation in Senate and House were all impressive. Senator +LaFollette brought instant silence when, presenting his share of the +petitions, he said, "I hope the time will come when this great body of +intelligent people will not find it necessary to petition for that +which ought to be accorded as a right in a country of equal +opportunities." + +At the afternoon session a vote of thanks was given to Senator +LaFollette and all the Senators and Representatives who presented the +petitions. Deep appreciation was expressed of the labor of Mrs. Catt +in connection with the petitions and regret that she was not able to +be present at the Capitol. This was the last of the hundreds of +thousands of petitions to Congress for the submission of a National +Amendment to enfranchise women which began in 1866.[67] + +Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton in her treasurer's report said the past year +had been an unusually hard one financially not because of adversity +but because of prosperity. Formerly the States had sent their money to +the national treasury to be used as the Official Board thought best, +but now there were so many campaigns and new lines of work in various +States that they wanted to disburse their own money. This was +encouraging but hard on the national work. Few were the years between +1899 and 1908 when some legacy was not received, as Miss Anthony never +missed an opportunity to urge women to make such bequests. After her +death Miss Mary Anthony followed her example but since both had passed +away little had been done in this direction. The total receipts for +1909 were $21,466, and the general disbursements $19,814. With the +headquarters in New York more money had been received but more also +had to be spent. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont furnished the offices of +the Press Committee, paid their rent, the salaries of three workers +and all other expenses connected with it. Mrs. William M. Ivins of New +York City and Mrs. Mary Ely Parsons of Rye, N. Y., furnished Dr. +Shaw's office. + +In closing Mrs. Upton said that the duties of the headquarters and of +the treasurer's office had been so closely connected that up to this +time it had been difficult to separate them. In fact from the time she +was elected to date she had always done some work properly belonging +to headquarters. From the first a clerk was supplied to her and she +was so situated that she could do this and was more than willing to. +She had edited twelve reports of annual conventions and was editor and +manager of _Progress_ for seven years. She told how letters and +requests continued to come to her after the headquarters went to New +York and she was obliged to employ another clerk, whose salary she +herself paid. In closing she said: "Since 1893 your treasurer has +received and disbursed more than $275,000 and she wishes the +treasurer for the coming year could have that full amount for the next +twelve months' work." The convention accepted the report with a rising +vote of thanks for her many years of continuous service. + +The general subscriptions at the convention, including those for the +South Dakota campaign, were $4,363. Mrs. Belmont continued her pledge +of $600 a month. The association had various funds to draw from, which +were supplied by contributions. It was voted to appropriate $150 a +month for six and a half months' work in Oklahoma if the amendment was +to go to the voters in November. + +Memorial services were held on the morning of April 15 for two +distinguished members of the association, Henry B. Blackwell, who had +died Sept. 7, 1909, and William Lloyd Garrison, five days later. On +the program was an extract from a speech made by Mr. Blackwell at a +national Woman's Rights Convention in Cleveland, O., in 1853: "The +interests of the sexes are inseparably connected and in the elevation +of the one lies the salvation of the other. Therefore, I claim a part +in this last and grandest movement of the ages, for whatever concerns +woman concerns the race." Affectionate and beautiful tributes to Mr. +Blackwell's nearly fifty years' devotion to the cause of woman +suffrage were paid by those who had known him long and intimately, +which are partially quoted here. + + Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard: I have ever regarded Mr. Blackwell + as a many-sided reformer, one whose most distinguished claim to + remembrance consists in the fact that no other man has devoted so + much of his life to the task of securing the enfranchisement of + women. Only those who have read the _Woman's Journal_ regularly + and depended on it for an accurate record of the slow but steady + march of progress of this great movement can fully realize the + enormous amount of editorial work contributed to it by him during + the past forty years. The combination of superior intellectual + powers with tenderest sympathies formed a rare equipment for + success in his chosen field of usefulness. In truth his advocacy + of the woman's cause was marked by such zeal and enthusiasm that + one not knowing the initials "H. B. B." stood for a man might + quite naturally have believed that only a woman could own them. + Fortunately he was possessed of the sunniest possible temperament + and blessed with an unusual sense of humor which enabled him to + see things in their true proportions and make light of obstacles + in his path. The many and varied tributes that have been paid to + his memory all dwell upon his intense love of justice which led + him to wage war against oppression wherever he found it.... It + was my good fortune to be present at the celebration of Mr. + Blackwell's eightieth birthday in Faneuil Hall in Boston. With + great clarity of vision he defined the duty of the hour and said: + "But we can not afford to be a mutual admiration society, there + is still work to do." ... With what patience, fortitude and true + courage he and Lucy Stone, his wife, played their part in the + face of ridicule and opprobrium is now a matter of history. Women + who today live a freer life because of their labors and those of + their coadjutors must offer to their memory the highest meed of + praise. + + Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch: Lives consecrated to great + reforms, particularly to the advancement of a reform to + emancipate women, teach us that the age of chivalry is not past. + These great men whom we honor to-day were not, like the knights + of old, inspired by the love of some one woman whom they desired + to possess, but they strove for justice for those they loved best + and for us too, who were their friends, and for millions of women + they never knew. Their far-reaching chivalry was one of the most + important elements in the characters of Mr. Blackwell and Mr. + Garrison. Both of them were unusually fortunate in the women who + were their nearest and dearest. Mr. Blackwell's sister Elizabeth + was the first woman physician in the United States; his + sister-in-law, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first ordained + minister; his wife, Lucy Stone, one of the sweetest and truest of + the pioneer suffrage lecturers. + + Mr. Garrison was not old enough to be related to so many + pioneers, except through his illustrious father, but his wife's + devotion to the suffrage work, his sister's unfaltering activity + and his association from boyhood with Boston's brilliant coterie + of renowned women, might well have influenced him to have a + higher regard and deeper respect for all their sex.... Mr. + Blackwell and Mr. Garrison, in their beautiful family lives, are + particularly illustrious examples that woman suffrage will not + break up the home. Many long years did these pairs of married + friends work together for our cause.... + + To-day we sorrow for the loss of these men but not without hope, + for there are other men coming forward to take up the work they + have dropped. We women who are here to-day do not represent + merely ourselves and the tens of thousands of other suffrage + women but we are backed by the sympathy, the active encouragement + and the money of our husbands, our brothers, our fathers, and + many of us have chivalrous sons. More even than sympathy they now + give, as some are giving themselves for service. One of Mr. + Blackwell's last letters to me related to securing a large + membership among men, and our Men's Suffrage Leagues, now + springing up in all large cities, might well name themselves for + him.... Go forward, men, with the spirit of Blackwell and + Garrison! + +Mrs. McCulloch paid a beautiful tribute to the human side of Mr. +Blackwell's character, his love of nature and his companionship with +children. + + Miss Jane Campbell: I need not enter into the details of the + life, public or private, of Mr. Blackwell. They are written in + letters of gold in the annals of the suffrage movement from the + moment when in the beautiful, unselfish ardor of youth, with his + wife, the silver-tongued Lucy Stone, he entered upon a career of + patient, unflagging devotion to the cause of woman's rights.... + It evinced a high and noble spirit, a great courage, for any man + to espouse an almost universally ridiculed cause, as did Mr. + Blackwell; possibly greater courage than even a woman, + conservative and timid if not by nature yet made so by education, + showed when she emerged from her awed subjection and ventured to + demand her equal share of privileges as well as of disabilities. + The woman had the burning sense of injustice to arouse her, the + indignation caused by her calm relegation to the position of an + inferior to inspire her with courage to fight for freedom, but a + man, a man like Mr. Blackwell, had no such bitter sense of + personal wrong to impel him. He entered the contest not for + himself, for he had no wrongs to redress, but his great soul saw + that woman had and he devoted life, means, energy, talents to + redress them. It is a rarely high, unselfish record of a noble + life that he has left for the admiration and example of other + men.... He was one of the most eloquent, forceful and logical + speakers we have ever had on our platform, with his fine, + resounding voice giving clear expression to his logical thinking, + and he was a ready and forceful writer.... + + Miss Anne Fitzhugh Miller: It was always a joy to meet Mr. + Blackwell for there was never any picking up of broken threads of + our spinning or knitting or weaving of good comradeship, which at + once continued as if no absence had intervened. I felt at home + with him always, he was a man after my own heart, direct, + decided, accurate, devoted to high ideals, and yet he possessed + an elasticity of nature which made him the most comfortable of + comrades. His sense of humor and his love of fun made the best of + good times for those who were fortunate enough to share his merry + moods.... It was always a delight to hear him speak. The sound of + his voice rested and refreshed and the soundness of his thought + inspired confidence and admiration. His half-century of + continuous and absolute devotion to the cause of woman suffrage + gives Mr. Blackwell a unique position in history. All women owe + him a debt of gratitude which they can best pay by renewed + devotion to the cause to which he dedicated his life. In the + truest and broadest sense he was and should be remembered as a + "Brother of Women." + +Dr. Shaw added her own fine appreciation of the two men and speaking +from almost a lifetime of acquaintance with Mr. Garrison gave a +glowing eulogy of his noble character, lofty convictions and fearless +courage, a worthy son of a great father. Among other prominent friends +of woman suffrage who had passed away during the year, recorded in the +memorial resolutions, were Justice Brewer, of the U. S. Supreme Court; +Dr. Borden P. Bowne, head of the department of philosophy and dean of +the graduate school in Boston University; Judge Charles B. Waite and +Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson of Chicago; Charles Sprague Smith, +director of Cooper Institute, New York, and many devoted workers in +the various States. + +At one interesting evening session Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey (Ky.) +spoke on Republics versus Women, the title of her book; Mrs. Meta L. +Stern on Woman Suffrage from a Socialist's Point of View; Miss Alice +Paul on The English Situation. Mrs. Catt's subject was Caught in a +Snare and the convention voted to have it printed for circulation. As +Miss Alice Stone Blackwell was ill at home, missing the annual +convention for the first time, the readers of the _Woman's Journal_ +were deprived of her usual comprehensive reports and abstracts of the +speeches where the manuscript was not available. That of Miss Paul was +published in full. She had recently returned from London, where she +had been a member of Mrs. Pankhurst's organization, had been sent to +prison, had gone on a "hunger strike" and been forcibly fed, and she +felt the situation keenly. A part of her speech was as follows: + + As we gather here as suffragists, our hearts naturally go out to + those women at the storm-center of our movement--to those women + in Great Britain who are having a struggle such as women have + never had in any other land. The violent criticism, the + suppression and distortion of facts from which they have suffered + at the hands of the politically-inspired press of their own + country have made it difficult for one on this side to gain any + true conception of their movement.... + + The essence of the campaign of the suffragettes is opposition to + the Government. The country seems willing that the vote be + extended to women. This last Parliament showed its willingness by + passing their franchise bill through its second reading by a + three-to-one majority, but the Government, that little group + which controls legislation, would not let it become law. It is + not a war of women against men, for the men are helping loyally, + but a war of men and women together against the politicians at + the head, who because of their own political interests seem + afraid to enfranchise women. The suffragettes have gone with + petitions to the head of the Government, as our representatives + will go in a few days to the authorities in Washington. Here they + will be received with courtesy, but Mr. Asquith has never since + he has been Prime Minister received a deputation of women on this + question of their suffrage. Each time he curtly refuses to see + them and orders the police to drive them away or arrest them. + Thirteen times the deputations of one society alone have been + arrested.... + + The Earl of Lytton said the other day that more violence had been + done by the men during the three weeks of the recent election + than by the women during their entire agitation. Such action on + the part of voters is wrong for they have a constitutional way, + through the ballot, of redressing their grievances, but on the + part of a disfranchised class, after half a century's trial has + proved all their methods to be of no avail, a protest such as + these women have made seems entirely right. We are so close at + hand that perhaps we hardly realize the full significance of + their movement. The greatest drama that is being enacted in the + world today, it seems to me, is the battle of the British women. + When historians can look back from the perspective of a century + or two I think they will say that this talk of dreadnaughts and + budgets and House of Lords was after all of but little moment and + that the great event of world significance in Great Britain early + in the century was the magnificent struggle for political freedom + on the part of her women. + +The comprehensive report of the corresponding secretary, Professor +Potter, filled ten pages of the printed Minutes and was a complete +summary of the year's work and that which should be done. Names were +given of about forty associations which had passed resolutions for +woman suffrage during the year, preceded usually by discussion. These +included Federations of Labor, Granges, Temperance Societies, +Federations of Women's Clubs, religious bodies and labor +organizations. Among the last were the International Typographical +Union, International Chair Workers, Amalgamated Association of Street +and Electric Railway Employees, American Federation of Labor, National +Women's Trade Union League and many others. She called attention to +the fact that in many instances the endorsement was unanimous and that +the labor resolutions were stronger than ever before, using the phrase +"our intention to secure woman suffrage." The Pennsylvania Federation +said: "In selecting candidates for political office we will endeavor +to secure men who are committed to a belief in the right of women to +vote." + +Professor Potter emphasized the need of research experts to bring the +statistics up to date, as it was now impossible to answer the requests +for information from the best type of those asking it, university +graduates working for higher degrees, men and women writing articles, +books, plays, etc. She reported the beginning of a card catalogue of +subjects and the progress made toward carrying out the instructions of +the Seattle convention that the national headquarters undertake a +handbook of Federal and State Laws for Women and a bibliography. She +described the character of the thousands of letters sent out, covering +work for prize essays, poster campaigns, mass meetings, "settlement" +work, appointments of women, newspaper and magazine publicity and +especially organization along political lines. As she had been asked +to act as field lecturer as well as corresponding secretary she +reported fifty-four lectures given, not only at State suffrage +conventions but before men's leagues, press clubs, labor meetings, +churches, universities, etc. + +The convention showed by a rising vote its full appreciation of this +report, which was the first and last given by Professor Potter as +corresponding secretary. Differences in regard to administration had +arisen which proved to be irreconcilable and she had declined to stand +for re-election. The Official Board was divided in opinion and this +led to several changes in its personnel. Dr. Shaw was re-elected +president; Mrs. Avery, first vice-president; Mrs. Stewart, second +vice-president; Mrs. Upton, treasurer; Miss Clay and Miss Blackwell, +first and second auditors. Mrs. Florence Kelley declined re-nomination +as second vice-president and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch was +elected. Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett (Mass.) was chosen for corresponding +secretary. Later in the convention Mrs. Avery and Mrs. Upton gave in +their resignations, which the delegates refused to accept and then +both announced that their offices would be vacant in one month. Mrs. +Upton had been treasurer of the association since 1893 and the +delegates were most reluctant to let her go. By action of the +Executive Committee Mrs. McCulloch was advanced to the office of first +vice-president; Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.) was made second +vice-president and Miss Jessie Ashley (N. Y.), treasurer. + +The National College Equal Suffrage League held business sessions +Saturday forenoon and afternoon with its president, Dr. M. Carey +Thomas of Bryn Mawr presiding, and a luncheon was given for its +delegates. Miss Caroline Lexow made the annual report. At the evening +meeting of the convention Mrs. Alice Duer Miller (N. Y.), representing +the Equal Franchise Society, of which Mrs. Clarence Mackay was +president, spoke on The Sisterhood of Women, saying in part: "We have +plenty of work to do but it is not that, it is not the organization, +the growth of membership and the spread of theories that make me +confident of success. It is the extraordinary spirit that animates the +women who are working for suffrage, the sense of comradeship and +community among them, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, old and +young, mothers and daughters. We have been taught to admire the 18th +century because it did so much to dissolve class distinctions. It +broke down some of the barriers, not between man and woman, but +between groups of men, for within groups men have always had this +spirit of comradeship, and oh, how they have valued it! They did not +get it in domestic relations, however happy; or in friendships, +however warm. They got it, or rather they found a field in which to +exercise it, in the impersonal activities of their lives, in their +crusades, guilds, colleges, labor unions and clubs. But between women +the barriers have been of a more serious type. They have been +segregated not only class by class but individual by individual and +house by house. Now these barriers too are dissolving. Women are +finding an expression for their sense of comradeship, for their +impersonal loyalty to their own sex; they are waking up to the fact +that a sense of equality is more thrilling to those who have the right +stuff in them than any sense of superiority could ever have been." + +Miss Harriet E. Grim of Wisconsin University described The Call of the +New Age to College Women. Miss Juliet Stuart Poyntz, president of +Barnard chapter of the College League, discussed Education and Social +Progress. Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer, "Dorothy Dix," in an address on +The Real Reason why Women cannot Vote, gave a delightful imitation of +the voice and words of a wise old negro, "Mirandy," from which the +following is quoted: + + Yassum, dat's de trouble wid women down to dis very day. Dey + ain't got no backbone. Of a rib dey was made an' a rib dey has + stayed an' nobody ain't got no right to expect nothin' else from + 'em. Hit's becaze woman was made out of man's rib--an' from de + way she acts hit looks lak she was made out of a floatin' rib at + dat--an' man was left wid all his backbone, dat he has got de + comeuppance over woman. Dat's de reason we women sets down an' + cries when we ought to git up an' heave brickbats. What's de + reason dat we women can't vote, an' ain't got no say-so 'bout + makin' de laws dat bosses us? Ain't we got de right on our side? + Yassir, but we'se got no backbone in us to just retch out an' + grab dat ballot. + + Dere ain't nobody 'sputing dat we'se got to scrape up de money to + pay de tax collector, even if we does have to get down into a + skirt pocket for hit insted of pants' pocket, an' our belongin' + to de angel sect ain't gwine to keep us out of jail if we gits in + a fight wid anodder lady or we swipes a ruffled petticote off de + clothesline next do'. Fudermo', when de meat trust puts up de + price of po'k chops, hits de woman dat has to squeeze de eagle on + de dollar ontel hit holler a little louder an' pare de potato + peelin's a little thinner. An' dat makes us women jest a-achin' + to have a finger in dat government pie an' see if we can't put a + little mo' sweetnin' in hit, an' make hit a little lighter so dat + hit won't get so heavy an' ondigestible on de stomachs of dem + what ain't millionaires. + + Yassir, we'se jest a-honin' for de franchise an' we might have + had hit any time dese last forty years ef we'd had enough + backbone to riz up an' fit one good fight for hit, but instead of + dat we set around a-holdin' our hands an' all we'se done is to + say in a meek voice: "Please, sir, I don't lak to trouble you but + ef you'd kindly pass me de ballot hit sho'ly would be agreeable + to me." An' instead of givin' hit to us, men has kinder winked + one eye at de odder an' said: "Lawd, she don't want hit or else + she's make a row about hit. Dat's de way we men did. We didn't go + after de right to vote wid our pink tea manners on." + + Yassir, dat's de true word, an' you listen to me--de day dat + women spunks up an' rolls up dere sleeves an' says to dere + husband dat dey ain't a-gwine to do no' mo' cookin' in his house, + nor darnin' of socks, nor patchin' of britches untel dere is some + female votin', why dat day de ballot will be fetched home to + women on a silver platter. All dat stands between women an' + suffrage is de lack of a spinal colum. + +An able address was given by Henry Wilbur, as representative of the +Friends' Equal Rights Association. Max Eastman, assistant professor +in Columbia University, representing the New York Men's League for +Woman Suffrage, of which he was secretary, taking the broad subject +Democracy and Women, said in the course of his speech: + + The democratic hypothesis is that a State is good not when it + conforms to some abstract eternal ideal of what a State ought to + be, as the Greeks thought, but when it conforms to the interests + of particular concrete individuals, namely, its citizens, all of + them that are in mental and moral health; and that the way to + find out their interests is not to sit on a throne or a bench and + think about it but to go and ask them.... Barring this question + of democracy, I think the political arguments for woman suffrage + are not the main ones. The great thing to my mind is not that + women will improve politics but that politics will develop women. + The political act, the nature it demands and the recognition it + attracts, will alter the character and status of women in society + to the benefit of themselves, their husbands, their children and + their homes. Upon this ground we can stand and declare that it is + of high and immediate importance to all humanity not only that we + give those women the vote who want it but that we rouse those who + do not know enough to want it to a better appreciation of the + great age in which they have the good fortune to live. Whatever + else we may say for the industrial era we can say this, that it + has made possible and actual the physical, social, moral and + intellectual emancipation of women.... + + The other day I had a letter from a man who said he wouldn't join + my society because he feared I was "striking a blow at the + family, which is the cornerstone of society." Well, I am not much + of an authority on matrimony but that sort of language sounds to + me like a hysterical outcry from a person whose family is already + tottering. It is at least certain that a great many of these + cornerstones of society are tottering, and why? Because there + dwell in them triviality and vacuity, which prepare the way of + the devil. Who can think that intellectual divergence, + disagreement upon great public questions, would disrupt a family + worth holding together? On the contrary, nothing save a community + of great interests--whether in agreement or disagreement--can + revive a fading romance. A high and equal comradeship is the one + thing that can save those families which are the tottering + cornerstones of society. A greater service of the developed woman + to the State, however, will be her service in motherhood.... And + yet to hear the sacredness of motherhood advanced as a reason why + women should not become public-spirited and effectual, you would + think this nation had no greater hope than to rear in innocence a + generation of grown-up babies. Keep your mothers in a state of + invalid remoteness from life and who shall arm the young with + intelligent virtue? To educate a child is to lead him out into + the world of experience. It is not to bring him in virgin + innocence to the front door and say, "Now run on and be a good + child!" A million lives wrecked at the very off-go can bear + witness to the failure of this method. + +Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch (N. Y.) presided at a symposium on Open +Air Meetings, which were then being much discussed, and they were +advocated by Miss Ray Costello of England; Mrs. Katherine Dexter +McCormick (Mass.), Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald (Mass.) and Mrs. Helen +LaReine Baker (Wash.). Mrs. Blatch announced a practical demonstration +that afternoon at the corner of Seventh Street and Pennsylvania +Avenue. Mrs. Catt presided over a conference on Political District +Organization as demonstrated in New York City. An afternoon meeting +was devoted to an Industrial Program arranged by Mrs. Myra Strawn +Hartshorne of Chicago. Conditions affecting Women as Workers and as +Wives and Mothers of Workers were graphically described by Miss Rose +Schneiderman (N. Y.), president of the Cap Makers' Union. The +Consequences to Motherhood and Womanhood, as demonstrated by the White +Slave Traffic, were strikingly pictured by Mrs. Raymond Robins +(Ills.), president of the National Women's Trade Union League. A +private conference, Mrs. Mary Hutcheson Page (Mass.) presiding, +discussed the necessity for defeating anti-suffrage candidates for +Congress and Legislatures. Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary +of the National Consumers' League, brought greetings from the Southern +Conference on Woman and Child Labor, which she had just attended, with +a special one from Miss Jean Gordon (La.), and made a striking +address. Dr. Anna Mercy, president of the first suffrage club on the +East Side of New York, gave practical experiences. Miss Nettie A. +Podell and Miss Bertha Ryshpan, representing the Political Equality +League, of which Mrs. Belmont was president, told of its gratifying +experiments with Political Settlements in New York City. The session +closed with a stirring address by Charles Edward Russell on +Self-Defense or the Demand for Political Action. + +Mrs. Pauline Steinem (Ohio) reported the usual active and efficient +work of her Committee on Education, urging among other valuable +methods the organization of Mothers' and Parents' Clubs in connection +with all public schools. Mrs. McCulloch gave her report as Legal +Adviser, which combined sound sense with sparkling humor. She showed +how much money had been lost to the association because those who +intended to leave bequests to it delayed making their wills. She urged +the women to study the statutes of their States relating to women and +said that, while she had been glad to contribute her services as legal +adviser and would not accept a salary, the association should employ a +competent lawyer who could stay at the national headquarters and give +her entire time to compiling the laws for women and giving legal +information. The convention Minutes say: "A rising vote of thanks was +given to Mrs. McCulloch for her magnificent work as legal adviser for +many years." Miss Gordon presented the plan for raising the Susan B. +Anthony Memorial Fund; Mrs. Alice C. Dewey (N. Y.), the report on +Bibliography; Dr. Mary D. Hussey (N. J.), on Enrollment. Miss +Elizabeth J. Hauser read the report of Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, +chairman of the National Press Committee, which said in part: + + My strong belief that New York offered the greatest and most + promising field in the world for suffrage press work has been + abundantly sustained. The national press bureau was opened about + the middle of September, soon after the national headquarters + were moved to this city, with a private reception to the + representatives of every newspaper in the city, to whom its + objects and hopes were stated. From that day the most of the men + and women reporters have been its unfailing friends. A number of + the women have not missed coming a single day and most of them + are ardent suffragists and anxious to help the cause in every + possible way. Back of reporters have been the interest and + support of city and managing editors. In the nearly seven months + there have not been half-a-dozen really opposing editorials and + there have been many of a favorable and helpful character. Every + day sixteen papers of New York City have been examined by some + member of the bureau and the clippings carefully filed. These, + during the past five months, have comprised over 3,000 articles + on woman suffrage, ranging in length from a paragraph to a page. + + During these five months there have been received from one news + service bureau 10,800 clippings on woman suffrage from papers + outside of New York City. Included in these are 2,311 editorials. + All of these were read, sorted and filed. (See exhibit.) The + number of magazine articles on woman suffrage as noted in + _Progress_ during this period has been about one hundred. It is + doubtful if there was such a record in all the preceding ten + years combined. + + In years past there has been great rejoicing when one of the + large syndicates would accept an article on woman suffrage. From + the time the press bureau was established in New York, + practically every one of any consequence in the United States + has urgently requested articles and used all that could be + furnished. From one to a dozen articles each, with a great many + photographs, have been sent to the Associated Press, United + Press, Laffan Bureau and National News Syndicate of New York; + Western Newspaper Union, Chicago; Newspaper Enterprise + Association, Cleveland; North-American Press Syndicate, Grand + Rapids; over 100 short items to the American Press Association. + There has been scarcely a limit to the requests for suffrage + matter from influential papers in all parts of the country.... + Once a month I have supplied an article on the work in the United + States for _Jus Suffragii_, the international paper published in + Rotterdam.... I have also edited _Progress_.... + + Before closing, I want to express my deep appreciation of the + generosity of Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, through which the press + bureau has this splendid opportunity for work. Every comfort and + facility have been provided and every request cheerfully granted. + Mrs. Belmont never attempts, because of her financial assistance, + to exercise any supervision over the bureau. It is now well + established; it enjoys the confidence of the press and the public + and the opportunities that lie before it cannot be measured in + extent and importance. + +During the convention many prominent visitors were introduced to the +audiences, among them Miss Mary Johnston, who had taken a leading part +in organizing the State Suffrage Association of Virginia, and its +president, Mrs. Lila Meade Valentine; Mrs. Elizabeth Upham Yates, the +new president of Rhode Island; J. H. Braly, president of the Men's +League of California; J. Luther Langston, secretary and treasurer of +the Oklahoma Federation of Labor, and Daniel R. Anthony, M. C., of +Kansas. Many greetings were received including one from the Finnish +Temperance organizations through Miss Maggie Walz of Michigan and +others from Mrs. Caroline M. Severance and Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton +Harbert, pioneer suffragists now living in California. Greetings were +sent to Miss Clara Barton of Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe +of Boston; Miss Blackwell; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of +Elizabeth, N. J.; Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo; Mrs. Eliza +Wright Osborne of Auburn, N. Y.; Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller of +Geneva, N. Y., all pioneers in suffrage work, and to Mrs. Belmont in +New York. A vote of thanks was extended to Miss Belle Bennett (Ky.), +president of the Southern Home Mission, for her strong efforts to +secure the admission of women to the General Conference of the +Methodist Episcopal Church South. + +Through the effort of the District Equal Suffrage Association the +spacious Belasco Theater had been secured for the Sunday afternoon +meeting. Dr. Shaw presided and Rabbi Abram Simon offered prayer.[68] A +large audience listened to forceful addresses by Miss Beatrice Forbes +Robertson, Miss Laura Clay, Miss Harriet May Mills, Mrs. Ella S. +Stewart and Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In the evening the officers +of the association received the delegates, speakers and members of the +convention in the parlors of the Arlington. + +One of the most valuable reports given at the convention was that of +Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, chairman of the Standing Committee on Peace and +Arbitration. The events of a few years later caused the delegates to +remember with renewed interest the extended work and fervent appeals +of Mrs. Mead and her associates for settling the world's disputes by +peaceful methods. On this occasion she made a special plea to those +who were working for the enfranchisement of women. + +Professor Potter, Mr. Blackwell's successor as chairman of the +committee, presented a set of strong resolutions, international as +well as national in character, which were adopted without discussion. + +A subject which received much attention was the offer of Miss +Blackwell to make the _Woman's Journal_ the official organ of the +association. It needed the help of the paper and since the death of +her father she needed some one to share the responsibility of its +publication. Miss Clay, Mrs. McCulloch, Mrs. Dennett and Miss Mary +Garrett of Baltimore were appointed to plan the business details. An +agreement was made for one year, Miss Blackwell to continue as editor +without salary but the association to employ a business manager and +such other help as she required. + +A noteworthy program marked the last evening of the convention, which +opened with a powerful address by Raymond Robins on The Worker, the +Law and the Courts. It was to be followed by a consideration of +Scientific Propaganda in Practical Politics, with the Literature +discussed by Mrs. Hartshorne but she was ill and Professor Potter +took her place. Plans for activity in behalf of changes of law and its +administration that will benefit women and children in particular and +society in general were presented by Miss Grace Strachan, president of +the New York Federation of Teachers. Special plans in behalf of woman +suffrage were submitted by Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw (N. Y.). Dr. Shaw, +who presided, called attention to the hearings before the committees +of Senate and House the next morning and closed the convention with +one of her characteristic speeches which sent the audience home happy +and ready for the battle. + +The dominant note of the convention was the intention henceforth to +enter the field of politics. The New York _Evening Post_ said in its +account: "The audiences at all the meetings were too large for the +capacity of the room and at the Sunday night public gathering hundreds +had to be turned away. Without exception State delegations reported +that the work of the next year would consist of active effort along +political lines, the organization of woman suffrage 'parties' with +membership comprising men and women. Delegations would interview +candidates and voters in regard to their suffrage opinions; conduct +open-air meetings throughout the summer and be on duty at the polls +during elections." + +The _Woman's Journal_ said in its summing up: "The personnel of the +delegates and speakers was such as to inspire the most hostile, the +most conservative and the most despondent student of human nature. +When an observer reflected that these delegates represented thousands +of women in each State who believe in equal suffrage, and that the +speakers and leaders of the convention voiced the thoughts, hopes and +aspirations of suffragists the world over, he could not help being +stirred profoundly with the conviction not only that equal rights are +inevitable in the near future but also with the compelling faith that +the world is truly marching on in the very best sense and that it can +never again be quite as dark a place to live in as it has been. A +notable feature was the absolute conviction with which these +representatives of the people speak and the unmistakable determination +to win a speedy victory." + +The "hearings" before committees of Senate and House took place on the +historic date, April 19, when in 1776 "the shot was fired which was +heard around the world" proclaiming the birth of a republic founded on +the right of every individual to represent himself by his ballot! +Heretofore they had been held in the Marble Room of the Senate +Building and the room of the House Judiciary Committee, which could +accommodate only a very limited number of the delegates and none of +the public. The splendid new office buildings of the two Houses of +Congress were now finished and in the spacious rooms assigned for the +hearings all of the delegates found seats and many others, although a +long line of the disappointed extended down the corridor. + +The members of the Senate Committee were Alexander S. Clay (Ga.), +chairman; Senators Joseph F. Johnston (Ala.), Elmer J. Burkett (Neb.), +George Peabody Wetmore (R. I.), Albert J. Beveridge (Ind.). All were +present except Senator Beveridge. Dr. Shaw presided and before +introducing the speakers gave a resume of the petitions which had just +been presented to the Congress, called attention to the names of many +eminent men and women who had signed them and said: "Believing that +the first republic in the world, founded upon the principle of +self-government with 'equal rights for all and special privileges for +none,' should be among the leaders and not the laggards in this great +world movement, your petitioners pray this honorable body to submit to +the Legislatures of the several States for ratification an amendment +to the Federal Constitution which will enable American women to vote." +She continued: + + It is not revolutionary on our part to ask a share in our + Government. We are demanding it because it is in accord with + American ideals and absolutely essential to the establishment of + true democracy. A democratic form of government is right or it is + not right--it is either right that the people should be + self-governed or that they should not. If it is not right, then + we ought to know it; the whole people ought to know it. If it is + right, then the whole people ought to have equal opportunities in + self-government. It is not that we women wish to dictate in + regard to men or that we assume any superior ability for + government, any superior wisdom, but it is that we do assume that + whether we are wise or not, whether we have a grasp of all the + affairs of state or not, whether we are earning and producing + equally with men or not, we are human beings and as a part of + the Government we should have at least a chance to exercise + whatever powers we possess equally with all other citizens. It is + because we believe that this Government should be true to its + fundamental principles that we make these demands. + + Some one asked Wendell Phillips if Christianity were not a + failure and he replied, "It has not yet been tried." So we can + say in regard to democracy. We hear the cry everywhere that + democracy is a failure. A speaker in New York said that our + democracy was the laughing stock of all the civilized nations of + the world. It is the laughing stock because of the failure of + this democracy to dare to be democratic. We have never tried + universal suffrage but if that which we have is a failure the + cure for it is not to restrict it but to extend it, because no + class of men is able to represent another class and it is much + truer that no class nor all classes of men are capable of + representing any class or all classes of women. Believing this, + we have come as citizens of the United States to this Mecca of + all the people for more than forty years and we are ready to come + for as many years more as may be necessary until our plea is + granted. + +Dr. Shaw then said: "I desire to introduce speakers from the +professions and lines of work represented in our petitions: Mrs. +Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago, who has been a practicing lawyer +for twenty-four years and was recently re-elected to the office of +justice of the peace." + + Mrs. McCulloch. There may be a woman school-teacher somewhere who + does not want to vote that may be satisfied to receive only 75 + per cent. as much as men teachers and to have no chance at highly + paid superintendencies. There may be a mother who does not want + equality at the ballot box nor in the guardianship of her + children. There may be some factory girl who so earnestly + believes it right to receive less wages than men do that she + never wants the ballot to help her get equal pay for equal work. + It may be that there is some woman paying heavy taxes--heavier + than the equally wealthy man next door--who is happy to be taxed + without being represented. It may be that some woman + civil-service employee at Washington or in the State has for a + long time been at the top of the list of those who are eligible + for promotion and has seen men below her on the list + requisitioned for places with large salaries and approves of this + and enjoys being discriminated against because she is not a + voter. There may be some woman physician who does not want to + vote and who observes uncomplainingly that all remunerative + political offices to which physicians are eligible on city or + State boards of health or in public hospitals are filled by men. + There may be a nurse so busy saving life that she has not + realized the foolishness of her disfranchisement on the ground + that she was never a soldier to destroy life. There may be some + young woman in railroad office, stenographer, bookkeeper or + clerk, who meekly approves an order for the discharge of all + women employees for the ostensible reason that they marry too + soon but for the real reason that they do not vote. + + There may be a woman in any of these varied employments who is so + convinced of her own inferiority that she does not want the + ballot but to the credit of the women lawyers it may be said that + almost every one does want to vote and can tell several reasons + why. A woman may in this century go through a law college the + only woman in her class without discomfort. She opens those + sacred law books as easily and learns as readily as do the men + and passes as good an examination. She sees her young men + classmates rise to great distinction in the service of the State. + She may count among them, as I can, city attorneys, State + attorneys, civil-service commissioners, Judges of high degree, + Senators and Governors. It will be impossible to prove to her + that she, who in law school fed on the same mental diet as did + these now renowned political leaders, is too ignorant to vote for + them or against them or that the quality of her brain forbids her + understanding of the great problems her law classmates are now + solving.... + +Dr. Shaw: The next speaker will be Miss Eveline Gano, a teacher of +history in one of the high schools of New York City, who will speak on +behalf of the teachers of the country. + + Miss Gano. If the woman teacher's need of the ballot is a + debatable question then another very natural question arises: Do + men teachers need the ballot?... I am asked to speak particularly + of women who have made teaching a profession. In 1870, 41 per + cent. of the teachers in the United States were men; 21 per cent. + to-day are men. In large cities the number of women teachers is + still greater in proportion. In New York only 12-1/2 per cent. of + the 17,000 teachers are men. According to the last census there + are 17,000,000 children in the United States who should be in + elementary schools. Approximately 90 per cent. are taught almost + entirely by women. In New York City only seven per cent. of the + 600,000 children in the public schools ever enter grades higher + than the elementary; in western cities a few more. Practically + all of the schooling that 90 citizens out of 100 ever get they + receive from the hands and hearts and minds of women. Whatever + this great number of future citizens knows of citizenship and + correct standards of morals and industry they have learned from + the mothers and the women teachers. The very foundations of law + and equity and justice are in the hands of women who are in the + eyes of the law but wards and dependents. If these women teachers + and mothers had a keener sense of their responsibilities by + actual participation in civic life, what might be the results in + even one decade? Who is to blame if they do not have the keener + sense? + + One of the greatest problems facing this republic has been + turned over to women teachers--that of coping with the foreign + born and their children. Who can estimate the value of this great + constructive work, the creation of American citizens out of the + varied materials that are landed on our shores? And who can + estimate the quickening force and the gain in appreciation and + respect for law and order, if the mothers and the teachers of + these children were considered worthy of the principles which + they are asked to inculcate? Thousands of these women teachers + are college graduates with fine training and all are women of + more than average intelligence. They are not only bread winners + but very often they are the heads of families which they have + inherited. They are caring for and educating younger brothers and + sisters, nieces and nephews, and providing for aged fathers and + mothers. It has been said that the men of each class will protect + the women of each class. Witness the men teachers of New York + City, who in 1900 secured a State law that gave to themselves + salaries from 30 per cent. to 100 per cent. higher than to women + doing the same grade of work. A woman teacher in the elementary + schools must work nine years in order to receive the salary that + the man teacher begins with. She may and often does supervise + men, because of having passed a difficult examination, and + receive $800 a year less than the men whom she supervises. A + woman principal receives $1,000 less than a man principal in the + same grade of work, having the very same qualifications. Governor + Hughes has characterized these discriminations against women as + "glaring and gross inequalities," but in spite of the efforts of + 15,000 women teachers for the last four years the inequalities + still continue. It is rather easy to see the value of the ballot + to the men teachers of the city of New York.... + + As citizens under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the + United States, we claim the honored and inherited right to + petition our Government or either branch thereof for a redress of + grievances that very plainly exist because of the present legal + status of women in 41 States of the Union. We ask that our + petition, which is signed by hundreds of thousands of law-abiding + citizens, shall receive serious and courteous attention. We well + know that when a petition of such great consequence to millions + of citizens is not so considered the foundation of republican + government is attacked and weakened where it should be supported + and strengthened. + +Dr. Shaw: I present now Dr. Anna E. Blount, a physician from Chicago, +who will speak in behalf of the medical practitioners. + + Dr. Blount. In my city there are 500 women doctors; in my State + there are 750; in the United States in 1900 there were 7,399. + These women doctors know the womanhood of the country perhaps + more intimately than any other class of women know it. I have + talked with many of them and I have yet to find one who does not + believe in woman suffrage. The Woman's Medical Club in Chicago + has joined the suffrage association. Why do we want the ballot? + Partly our reasons are personal to our own profession and partly + they are the same that move the whole mass of mankind to ask for + suffrage today. Some of our personal reasons are these: As women + we are excluded from most of the well-paid positions for + physicians. We know that the dependent womanhood of the country + needs our care; from time to time we hear grewsome tales from the + insane asylums and the pauper institutions of wrongs done the + women because there is no woman doctor there to protect them. + Little children in my own State have gone through a life of + degradation owing to the fact that there was no woman doctor in + charge of them in the public institutions. The best paid + positions are political jobs and no woman can get one. Another + reason why, as physicians, we want the ballot is that at present + we need police protection. We need a city that is well lighted + and safe for women, as we are obliged to go out at all hours of + the night. A few years ago the hunters of women became unusually + active and several respectable women were in the early hours of + the evening hunted to their death and murdered. We were told at + that time by the commissioner of police that it would be well for + all the respectable women of the city to remain indoors after 8 + o'clock in the evening unless they were escorted by a gentleman! + Imagine when the telephone rings for a woman doctor to attend + some critical case that she shall be required either to get a + male escort or remain at home! This is also true of nurses and + many others.... + + I do not think that men can grow to be the best men when they are + in constant association with a subject class. I ask you gentlemen + of the United States Senate, for the sake of womanhood, but most + of all for the sake of manhood, to report this resolution out of + the committee, and to ask the Senate of the United States to give + the women of this country, so far as in its power, the right of + suffrage. + +Dr. Shaw: "I present a lawyer, Mrs. Ellen Spencer Mussey, but she will +speak in the capacity of a college woman." After giving her experience +in trying to secure better laws for women in the District of Columbia, +Mrs. Mussey told of her visits to Norway and Sweden, where as attorney +for a legation she had every opportunity to attend the Parliaments, +meet the statesmen and leading women and hear their universal +testimony in favor of the experiment in woman suffrage. In closing she +stated that as chairman of the legislative committee of the General +Federation of Women's Clubs she had received reports from hundreds of +them regretting their lack of power to obtain legislation and their +need of representation on boards of education and of public +institutions. Dr. Shaw then introduced Miss Minnie J. Reynolds of New +Jersey, formerly of Colorado, who had supervised the petition of the +writers. + + Miss Reynolds. This attempt to canvass the writers of the United + States is absurdly inadequate and fragmentary. It was the unpaid + work of women, each of whom had her own occupation in life, in + such spare time as they could get during the year. These writers + represent only twenty-one States. Others, including such great + States as New York, Michigan and Wisconsin, sent in huge rolls of + names without a classification. I am speaking for 1,870 writers. + The first name is that of William Dean Howells, the "dean of + American letters," perhaps more truly representative of American + literature than any other living person. The second name is that + of John Bigelow, ex-ambassador to France, ex-secretary-of-state + of New York, and author of some twenty scholarly books. On this + list are the names of men and women known to every reader of + American literature and to every reader of the periodical press. + The petition blanks were sent to them by mail and if they did not + wish to sign they had only to drop them in the waste-basket. A + number of publicists have signed, among them Melville E. Stone, + head of the Associated Press, and six of his editors; S. S. and + T. C. McClure, publishers of the McClure's Magazine; the editors + of Everybody's, the Independent, the Public, Philistine, + Delineator, Designer, New Idea, Harper's Bazar, La Follette's + Magazine, the Springfield Republican: editors of Current + Literature, Philadelphia Record, Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, + New York Herald, New York Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore + American, Minneapolis News, Cincinnati Post and numerous other + newspapers over the country. These publications reach millions of + readers. + + There are on this list the names of many persons who, although + authors or magazine writers, are still more distinguished in + other lines of work, as William James and George Herbert Palmer + of Harvard; Graham Taylor and Shailer Matthews of the University + of Chicago; Simon N. Patten of the University of Pennsylvania; + and other professors from the universities of Harvard, Chicago, + Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Cornell and Columbia, and from Oberlin, + Vassar and Wellesley. The great families of Hawthorne, Chanler + and Beecher are represented by living descendants who are + carrying on the literary traditions which must ever be associated + with those names. The late Richard Watson Gilder, editor of the + Century, published a tribute to Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi after her + death. In this he said in substance that the American women who + had most conspicuously united rare intelligence with rare + goodness were Josephine Shaw Lowell, founder of the New York + Charity Organization; Alice Freeman Palmer, president of + Wellesley College, and Dr. Jacobi. Mr. Gilder was an + anti-suffragist. The three women whom he thus placed at the + pinnacle of American womanhood were all strong suffragists. + + The women whose names are on this list represent brains and + character; they represent that element of American womanhood + which is winning its own way successfully in the great world of + competition and strenuous endeavor; influencing the minds and + molding the public opinion of the country through their books and + through the press. There may be those among you, gentlemen, who + are opposed to suffrage, but I am sure there is not one who would + not be glad to know that his daughter was a woman of this type if + it so happened that he was obliged to leave her unprovided for. + There is one girl, Jean Webster, who made $4,000 on one book the + year she left college. There is one woman, Mary Johnston, who was + paid $20,000 in advance royalties on one book before a word of it + was printed. A number of distinguished writers had signed the + general petition before the writers' blank had reached them, + among them Mark Twain, Booth Tarkington, Ernest Thompson Seton, + Julia Ward Howe, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mary Wilkins Freeman + and Ellen Glasgow. + +Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, former corresponding secretary of the +National Suffrage Association, in speaking of the petition told of one +containing 10,000 names which had been gathered in Indiana years ago +and presented to the Legislature by Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace, often +referred to as the mother pictured in "Ben Hur." It was treated with +the utmost contempt, one member saying, "These 10,000 women have about +as much influence as that many mice." This experience sent that +eloquent woman to the suffrage platform for the rest of her life. Mrs. +Avery urged the committee to give a favorable report on this great +petition as the first step toward making the influence of the +thousands of women who had signed it of more value than that of so +many mice. [For the address of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of +the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, see Appendix for this +chapter.] + +U. S. Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, a consistent supporter of +woman suffrage from the very beginning of the movement for it in his +State twenty years before, made an address to the committee which was +printed in a pamphlet of seven pages and made a part of the propaganda +of the National Association. Limited space permits only brief +extracts, which give little idea of its compelling arguments. + + An eminent writer has said that all powers of government are + either delegated or assumed; that all not delegated are assumed + and all assumed powers are usurpations. The powers of government + by men over women are not delegated, because the women never + delegated such powers to men. They are assumed then and, as all + assumed powers are usurpations, the exercise of the powers of + government by men over women is usurpation. How can those who + refuse to give women the right to vote reconcile their opinion + with the form of government in which they believe? What right + have I to make all the laws which shall govern not only myself + but also my wife, sister and mother, without giving to them any + voice in determining the justice or wisdom of those laws? It can + only be on the assertion of an assumed or usurped right--that + which we have condemned as not the source of rightful power. We + all remember Lincoln's declaration that "when the white man + governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs + himself and also governs another man, that is despotism." The + exercise of any power of government not emanating from the + consent of the governed, therefore, is despotism. After men by an + assumption of power have attached the elective franchise to + themselves, is it a just answer to the demand of women to say + that men have concluded that "suffrage is a privilege which + attaches neither to man nor to woman by nature?" Have we + forgotten the cry of our forefathers which stirred the blood of + every patriotic American, that "taxation without representation + is tyranny?" Why is it tyranny to men but not to women? Is it + sufficient to say that "they are not the only persons taxed as + property holders from whom the ballot is withheld," when the only + other persons from whom it is permanently withheld are lunatics, + idiots and criminals? How would men like such reasoning applied + to themselves?... + + Deprive any class or nationality of men of the elective franchise + and the detrimental effect would be felt immediately. Their + petitions for legislation would no longer receive prompt and + careful consideration and if the proposed legislation conflicted + with conditions favorable to a class of voters it would be almost + impossible to get a legislator or Congressman even to introduce + such a measure. The equal suffrage advocates have appeared before + a committee of the House of Representatives at Washington every + session for a great many years, begging for a favorable report. + If persons representing one-tenth as many voters had made an + appeal for some important legislation affecting their rights, + don't we know that those same Congressmen would almost have + fought with each other for the privilege of writing a favorable + report? + +Governor Shafroth quoted election statistics which showed conclusively +that women in Colorado voted in about the same proportion as men and +he gave a long list of progressive laws which had been enacted through +the support of women. He declared that in no respect had the ideals of +womanhood been lowered and closed by saying: "The highest +considerations of justice and good government demand equal suffrage +for all women." + +Dr. Shaw in closing the hearing said in part: + + I have in my hand a document which was today sent, I believe, to + every Senator and Representative, signed by the ladies + representing societies opposed to the further extension of the + suffrage to women. Of those which purport to be State societies, + three at least are merely local clubs in cities. These ladies + have petitioned this honorable body and the House of + Representatives not to grant the appeal of the women who have + come here with this very large petition on the ground that it + would be an interference on your part with the rights which the + States have reserved to themselves, if you were to submit an + amendment to the Federal Constitution giving full suffrage to + women.... I see by this document that the great danger with which + you are threatened if you do this unjust thing is that you admit + into the body politic a vast non-fighting horde of people, a most + dangerous class. Man suffrage is a method adopted, it says, for + the peaceful attainment of the will of the majority, to which the + minority must submit. + + If there is anything which must appeal to every sense of justice, + it is the struggle of the industrial world to get out from under + the domineering, military power. The age in which we live is no + longer a militant age. Today it is not so much the question of + which nation can produce the greatest number of soldiers as of + which can produce the greatest number of things the world needs + to buy. It is a problem of industry and into this problem women, + either by force or by desire, have come.... In olden times women + could control the hours of their labor and the conditions + affecting their health and the health of their families; they + could regulate the price of the product which they themselves + produced in the home but since men have taken from it the + industries, the necessity for women to protect themselves in the + workshop, in the sweatshop, in the factory has come about. + Wherever man has taken woman's work the woman must follow it and + she must have the same method of protecting herself which man + must have and there is no other means save through the ballot.... + + We have been over forty years, a longer period than the children + of Israel wandered through the wilderness, coming to this Capitol + pleading for this recognition of the principle that the + Government derives its just powers from the consent of the + governed. Mr. Chairman, we ask that you report our resolution + favorably if you can but unfavorably if you must; that you report + one way or the other, so that the Senate may have the chance to + consider it. + +The Chairman: "In behalf of the committee I desire to thank the ladies +for the splendid arguments they have made and to say that we +appreciate them most heartily. It is my intention to call the +committee together at a very early date and we will give a careful +and intelligent consideration to this measure, and, I hope, make a +report on it." + +Notwithstanding this promise no further attention was paid to these +logical and eloquent appeals or to the immense petition, and no report +whatever was made by the committee. + + * * * * * + +All but four of the members of the House Judiciary Committee were +present, including the chairman, Richard Wayne Parker (N. J.), a +remarkable attendance, and they showed much interest.[69] Mrs. +Florence Kelley, second vice-president of the National Suffrage +Association, was in charge of the speakers and the hearing was opened +by Representative A. W. Rucker (Col.), who had introduced the +resolution for the Federal Amendment, as also had Representative F. W. +Mondell (Wyo.). Mrs. Kelley called attention to the petition of +404,823 names, saying: "Among those who have signed the petition are +sixteen Governors, a large number of Mayors and many State, county and +city officials; many of the best-known instructors and writers on +political economy and many presidents of colleges and universities. It +includes the names of many Judges of Supreme Courts and among them the +Chief Justice and Associate Justice of Hawaii. It contains a long list +of the names of persons engaged in various trades and from those in +the thirty-three States which are classified are 7,515 professional +people, lawyers, doctors, clergymen and others; also 52,603 listed as +home keepers." + +Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald (Mass.) said in part: "I come here to speak +for those 52,000 home makers who signed the petition to Congress +asking for equal political rights in this democracy.... To ask woman +under our modern industrial conditions to care adequately for her home +and family without a right to share in the making of the laws and the +electing of all those officers who are to enforce the laws is like +asking people to make bricks without straw. It cannot be done. We must +remember that in the early days of this country a family was +practically self-supporting and independent of the rest of the +community; a man and a woman working together could provide for their +family all that was necessary for their sustenance; meats, vegetables, +grains, milk, eggs, butter, cheese, all were home products. They +provided their own lighting and controlled their own water supply. The +women spun the thread, wove the cloth, dyed it and made the garments. +In every way, if it was necessary, the family could maintain its +existence independent of the cooperation of society except in the one +matter of defense from violence. None of this is true today." Mrs. +Fitzgerald took up the questions of food, drink and clothing as +supplied at the present time and showed the great need that women +should have a voice in the legislation that controls their production. + +It had been announced that all of the arguments would be made along +industrial lines. Arthur E. Holder, of the legislative committee of +the American Federation of Labor, presented for the record a series of +the very positive resolutions for woman suffrage which had been +adopted by that body at its annual conventions beginning with 1904 and +read the one passed at Toronto in 1909: "The best interests of labor +require the admission of women to full citizenship as a matter of +justice to them and as a necessary step toward insuring and raising +the scale of wages for all." He closed a strong speech by saying: "We +want the right of representation for all the people, women as well as +men. Women have been disfranchised in our country long enough and we +now ask for that measure which will constitutionally grant the right +to vote to the women of our land. We believe that women ought to be +free agents, free selectors, free voters. The law is no respecter of +persons. Women cannot shirk their responsibility because they are +women; neither should they be longer denied their normal citizenship +rights and privileges because they are women." + +In a most convincing address Mrs. Elizabeth Schauss, factory inspector +of Ohio, said: + + It seems almost superfluous that we should come here pleading for + the vote when we know it is the only thing which will give the + wage-earning woman the protection that she needs and should have, + as to-day she has absolutely no chance beside her brother. + Although she gives the same quality and the same amount of work + yet she can not command the same wage, and why? Simply because + she is not a recognized citizen by virtue of the ballot. If you + would go into the factories, the mills, the mercantile + establishments and meet these women and learn from them the + indignities to which they ofttimes are subjected in order that + they may retain their places you would not wait for any one to + come here and argue the question with you. You would see for + yourselves that the only remedy is to grant to them that same + protection that you give to every man over 21 years of age. The + girl so employed submits in a way to these things because she is + thinking of the time when her factory days will be over, when she + will make a home for husband and children, and God forbid that + the time shall ever come that our girls will lose sight of this, + their greatest vocation! But before they are competent to take + charge of the home in every sense of the word, before they can + give to their children all that these should have, they must + themselves be placed upon a basis of equality with their + husbands.... + + Why should I, a tax-paying woman, be denied the right by casting + my ballot to say how these taxes that I am paying shall be + expended? In the light of progress and of American civilization, + we know this cannot continue. We have great things at stake in + our children. We are trying to take away that shadow which rests + upon these United States, the shadow of child labor. It will not + be done until the mothers have the right to speak for their + children through the ballot. We are looking for the day when we + shall be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with our men and + share with them the burdens and responsibilities of this greatest + nation and be able to hold up our heads and say: "We are on an + equal footing because we have men in the United States who + recognize equality of rights." + +Mrs. Raymond Robins, thoroughly qualified to speak on this question, +said in part: "I have the great honor and privilege of representing, +as president of the National Women's Trade Union League, something +like 75,000 organized working women, and I believe all through our +country as well as through all the world there is a growing +recognition of the cost of our modern industrial conditions to women. +These are such that in many thousands of instances the motherhood of +our girls has to be forfeited. No one knows except those who have made +a very intimate and careful study of the present cost of social and +industrial conditions how great that cost is. When we demanded in +Illinois the limiting of the working hours for women to ten a day, +many of our women physicians brought forward facts of great value +showing the tremendous physical danger to girls of overwork. At +present a very interesting and valuable investigation is going on, +led by some of our woman physicians, showing the evil result on the +second generation of these industrial conditions.... These facts are +of national importance and it is because right there is the crux of +the entire situation that we women are working for the ballot, for the +sake of protecting the womanhood and motherhood of our 6,000,000 +working women, I think half of them under 21 years of age...." + +Mrs. Robins gave a number of special instances and in answer to the +question how the ballot would remedy these evils, she said: "The +women, an unorganized group, get together and take collective action +and they find themselves not fighting their industrial battles in the +economic field but in the political field and the weapons that are +constantly used against them with the greatest success are political +weapons. The power of the police and of the courts is used against +them in many instances and whenever they try to meet that expression +of political power, they are handicapped because there is no force in +their hands to help change it...." + +In the course of a speech punctuated with lively questions and answers +Mrs. Upton said: "I represent the industry of wifehood and +housekeeping. I spent many of my childhood days in the room of this +committee, my father having been a member of the Judiciary Committee +for thirteen years and chairman for several years. He was the only one +who ever reported a bill favorably for woman suffrage.... I want to +ask you to report against us if you will not report for us. Just tell +the world that we must not vote because we cannot fight, because it +will destroy the home, anything you please, but break your long years +of silence. Is it fair for you _not_ to tell us why you are opposed to +us? Women are not fools; on the contrary, they are very intelligent +people and sure to be enfranchised before long. If this committee does +not help some other will; it is going to be done and it is for you to +decide whether your daughters will be able to say years from now, 'My +father was one of the men who helped get woman suffrage!' While men of +this country have been running after dollars at a terrific rate in +recent years women have been studying and preparing themselves in +clubs and all sorts of organizations for this right, so that they will +be the most intelligent class--if you call them a class--that was +ever enfranchised in all history. Are you afraid of intelligence? All +we ask is to let the mother heart, the home element, be expressed in +the government.... I beg of you to let all the world know _why_ the +women of the United States, who by hundreds of thousands have +petitioned you to submit this amendment, ought not have at least this +request considered and a report on it made." + +Miss Laura J. Graddick, representing a labor union in the District of +Columbia, said during an able and earnest address: + + They say that politics is too corrupt for woman to enter the + field as a voter but does she not live under a Government + dominated by politics? Shame on the manhood of our country that + our government housekeeping is so administered that woman can not + come in contact with it and escape contamination.... If our + Government is built on moral law it should be clean enough for a + woman to have a voice in it. We assure you there are no better + house-cleaners than women and the above statement certainly + indicates the need of women in politics. There is no great cry on + the part of men because of the contaminating influences which + woman meets in the business and industrial world. They are not + keeping her out of the various vocations of life because of the + evil which she might encounter. Are not sweat-shop conditions and + overwork and underpaid work evils far more destructive to the + physical, mental and moral welfare of women than any condition in + which suffrage might place them? Because of the great economic + and political changes of the last century the working woman of + to-day is entitled to the same rights accorded the working man in + the political world. These changes have taken her from the home + and brought her into business and industrial life, where she has + become more and more man's equal and competitor, leaving behind + those conditions which so long made her dependent upon him. This + has not been of her choosing. Men, in their pursuit of wealth, + have taken the work formerly done in the home, from the spinning + and weaving even down to the baking and laundering, and massed it + in great factories and shops. Instead of woman taking man's work, + it is the reverse and he has appropriated to himself what was + long supposed to be hers. Woman finds that what was formerly with + her a work of love is now done under new conditions and strange + environments. + + This experience in the outside world is educating her, for she is + studying conditions. She sees that she is forced to compete with + those who have full political rights while she herself is a + political nonentity. She finds that she must contend with and + protect herself against conditions which are more often political + than economic, thus forcing upon her the conviction that she too + is entitled to be a voter. She sees that politics, business and + industrial life generally are so united that one affects the + other and that since she is a factor in two she should be granted + the rights and privileges of the third. Think of the number of + women wage-earners in this country who are without political + representation, there being no men in the family, and at present + laws all made without a woman's point of view!... The working + woman does not ask for the ballot as a panacea for all her ills. + She knows that it carries with it responsibilities but all that + it is to man it will be and even more to woman. Let her remain + man's inferior politically and unjust discriminations against her + as a wage-earner will continue, but let her become his equal + politically and she will then be in a position to demand equal + pay for equal work. + +In a speech of deep feeling Miss Laura Clay, president of the Kentucky +Suffrage Association, said in part: "Gentlemen, when I hear our women +making the pleas that they have made, brought up, as I have been, to +believe that the manhood of the United States is the grandest in the +world, I ask, 'Shall we not find any members of Congress except those +who say, 'Can you not get some one else to protect you? Go to your +States, go anywhere but do not come to us?' It has been said to me +when I have spoken for childhood, 'You have no child?' And I have +answered: 'No, I have no child, but just as surely as men in the order +of nature are the protectors of womanhood, so surely in the order of +nature women are the protectors of childhood. I would dishonor my +womanhood to say that I will not do what I can for a child because I +have none and I hope the time will never come when women must be +ashamed of men because they are not willing to sacrifice something to +take this action for women.' Think of it! Must we crawl on our knees +to ask you for that which we feel we have a right to demand? You +should see that every protection which every lifting hand that it is +possible for manhood to offer to womanhood should be extended and your +position gives you a great opportunity. I urge that, as far as your +official power extends, you will show that the manhood of the United +States responds to the pleas of the womanhood of the United States." + +The closing address of Mrs. Kelley and the many questions it called +for from the committee with her answers filled nearly twelve pages of +the printed report of the hearing. A small part only can find space +here. + + Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, it is sixty years last month since my + father, Judge William D. Kelley, became a member of the House of + Representatives and in those days it took a great deal of courage + for a man to do what he did year after year--introduce this + resolution which you are considering to-day. He did it partly, I + think, out of chivalrous regard for Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton + and the few brave women who fifty years ago patiently came before + your predecessors; but very much more he introduced that + resolution because he believed it was essentially just. He saw in + those days the beginnings of the industrial change in the midst + of which we now live and they appalled him. He saw how difficult + it had been for his widowed mother to get an education for + himself and his sisters, and how infinitely difficult life was + for the whole great class of women, not only widows but those who + by the circumstances of our changing industries had been forced + out into the industrial market. He believed they ought to have + the same power to protect their own interests as had been given + to the American workingman and which he helped give to the + negro.... + + Women now do not count in our communities at all in proportion to + the responsibilities which they carry. One of the gentlemen has + asked: "What is the relation of all this labor talk to the + ballot?" I will give you some examples: I was for four years the + head of the factory inspectors of Illinois. During that time we + had an eight-hour law enacted for the protection of women and + children employed in manufacturing industries. The Supreme Court + held that it was contrary to the constitutions of the State and + of the United States for women to be deprived of the right to + work twenty-four hours whenever it suited the convenience of the + employers. The court said--and it took 9,000 words to say + it--that women could not be deprived of working unlimited hours, + because they were citizens, although it said the term + "citizenship" was limited; the Court said they could not be + allowed to work underground in mines; they could not be allowed + to work out their taxes on the roads, as farmers do; they could + not be called to the militia; they could not vote except for + school committees and once in four years for the trustees of the + State University, but, with those minor deductions, they were + citizens and could not be deprived of the freedom of contract. + + The Supreme Court of the United States has proclaimed that the + Judges of Illinois guessed wrong on that occasion, that it is not + contrary to the Constitution of the United States to limit the + working hours of women but that it is the obvious duty of every + Legislature to do this in the interest of public health and + morals. A year ago, largely through the efforts of Mrs. Robins, + the Legislature tried it again and passed this time a ten-hour + law for women. A Judge was found who held that it was a + legitimate object for an injunction and he enjoined my successor, + the present factory inspector, and the prosecuting attorney from + enforcing this law. To-day under that injunction the women are + again free to work twenty-four hours, as they do one day in the + week quite regularly in the laundries in Chicago, and to work + sixteen hours a day as they do in the stores during the Christmas + rush, and as they do in the box factories and candy factories. + Yet the women of Illinois have not had one word to say as to the + personnel of these courts which decide what is a matter of life + and death for every woman who is rushed into her grave by work in + the laundries and other sweat shops of that State. + +Mrs. Kelley gave some tragic instances of occurrences during her eight +years in Hull House with Miss Jane Addams, where the working of women +overtime caused death and permanent invalidism, and continued: + + During the fifteen years since that Illinois court so decided, + the miners who work underground in sixteen States, from Missouri + to Nevada and from Montana to Texas and Arizona, have been able + to change the constitutions of their States so that they work but + eight hours a day. They are voters, they have power, they have + intelligence and organization; they obtained from the Supreme + Court of the United States the famous decision of Holden vs. + Hardy, in which it held that it is not only the right but the + duty of the State to restrict the hours of those who work + underground. In Illinois the women must have unlimited hours + because they are not voting citizens.... + + For twelve years a body of influential women of New York City + appeared before the board of estimate and apportionment to ask + for the pitiable sum of $18,000 to be appropriated to pay the + salaries of eighteen inspectors to look after the welfare of + 60,000 women and girls in retail stores but we never got it. One + candid friend, Mayor Van Wyck, in listening to our plea, told us + the whole trouble. Said he: "Ladies, why do you waste your time + year after year in coming before us and asking for this + appropriation? You have not a voter in your constituency and you + know it and we know it and you know we know it," and they never + did give it to us.... + +A spirited discussion ensued here between Representative Robert L. +Henry (Tex.) and Mrs. Kelley as to whether Congress has the power to +coerce a State through a Federal Amendment into giving women the right +to vote. Representative Edwin Y. Webb (N. C.) asked if the majority of +women wanted to vote and she answered that there was not the slightest +doubt of it, that as reasoning beings women could not help desiring a +full share in the Government under which they live. Representative +Goebel (O.) said that at any time man might be called on to uphold the +laws and the Constitution and asked: "Do you think that woman is +physically and temperamentally fitted to give any return to the +Government for any privilege she might have in the exercise of her +right as a citizen?" Mrs. Kelley answered: "Yes, I think we have +always done it. We pay taxes, we teach the children to obey the laws, +we fill their hearts with patriotism, but the principal thing is that +we furnish the army at the risk of our own lives. Every time an army +has been called for in the United States it has been the sons of +American women on the whole who have carried the weapons and every son +has been born at the risk of his mother's life. Her service is a very +much greater contribution than the two or three years of the son's +carrying a gun or perhaps dying of typhoid fever while in the +service." + +Miss Clay could not keep silent but asked if they realized how much +the order of society depended on the teaching and the restraining +influence of women, on their power to maintain decency of life, not +alone by their presence but also by their high ideals of law and +society. "When they are recognized as voting citizens," she said, +"their idea of civic duty will reach a still higher point and they +will have power to see that it is enforced." Members of the committee +began to bring forward the stock misrepresentations about the voting +of women in Colorado, which called Mr. Rucker to his feet with +statistics to show that women voted in quite as large a proportion as +men; that, instead of men's controlling the women's votes, women often +controlled the men's; that in the hundreds of cases of election frauds +only one or two women had been implicated; that less than 15 per cent. +of the so-called "ostracized" women go to the polls. + +In closing Chairman Parker said: "I wish to render the thanks of the +committee for this large and representative audience, which is almost +an American Congress. I am all the more pleased and interested to find +such strong presentations by those whom I might call, possibly without +offense, 'Daughters of the American Congress,' two of whom claim an +acquaintance with this committee that goes back at least as far as any +of us. I wish to offer all of you our thanks for the earnest +consideration that you seem to have given to the great problems, +industrial and social, as well as those of the family, which confront +us all, and in comparison with which the political powers and actions +of this country are but as nothing. Those who think and work for the +good of the family, the home, the workshop, the farm and the school +are those to whom the American Congress always owes its thanks." + + * * * * * + +Although the speakers who addressed these committees represented the +very highest of American womanhood; although it was conceded that +their arguments had never been exceeded in logic, directness and +force; although there was no doubt that they represented a large +proportion of the women of the country in the homes, colleges, +professions and trades, yet this committee, like that of the Senate, +ignored the petitions and the hearing completely and made no report +whatever, either favorable or unfavorable. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[65] Part of Call: During the past year women have voted for the first +time in Norway at a Parliamentary election, for the first time in +Denmark at the Municipal elections, for the first time in Victoria at +an election for the State Parliament. This year a woman has been +nominated as a member of the Municipal Council in Paris, a woman is +filling the office of Mayor in one English city and a number are +serving as aldermen in others. In our own country women are voting for +the first time in Michigan on questions of local taxation, while in +Washington, Oregon, South Dakota and Oklahoma, suffrage amendments to +the State constitutions are pending. From Chicago, radiating north, +east, south and west, there is going out an influence which is making +the social settlements centers of political influence. In Spokane, New +York and Baltimore, political settlements are under way. From one of +the great press centers of the world, New York City, suffrage +propaganda is travelling through all civilized countries, and in its +New York headquarters the National American Woman Suffrage Association +is receiving news of an unprecedented rising suffrage sentiment from +men and women belonging to all the great nations of the earth. + +Our cause is universal, its majesty is intrinsic, its logic is +unanswerable, its success is sure. Let the women of America come +together in this year 1910 consecrated anew to the superb hope for +humanity which lies in a full democracy. + + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, First Vice-President. + FLORENCE KELLEY, Second Vice-President. + FRANCES SQUIRE POTTER, Corresponding Secretary. + ELLA S. STEWART, Recording Secretary. + HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, } Auditors. + +[66] Mrs. Catt's original plan required each State to tabulate the +signers according to their lines of work but this was not fully +carried out. Miss Minnie J. Reynolds, in charge of the Writer's +Section, published a long and interesting report in the _Woman's +Journal_. Simply the names of distinguished writers, men and women, +who had signed, filled a solid column and yet she said: "The work on +this section was absurdly fragmentary. In the city of Washington Miss +Nettie Lovisa White had obtained the names of sixty, including the +most prominent newspaper correspondents." + +[67] See History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II, page 91. + +[68] Washington ministers who opened various sessions with prayer were +the Reverends U. G. B. Pierce, Samuel H. Woodrow, John Van Schaick and +William I. McKenney. + +[69] Names of committee: Present--Representatives Sterling, Moon, +Diekema, Goebel, Denby, Howland, Nye, Clayton, Henry, Brantley, Webb +and Carlin; absent--Terrell, Reid, Malby, Higgins. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1911. + + +The national convention which met in Louisville, Ky., Oct. 19-25, +1911, might well be called a "jubilee" meeting, for it celebrated two +of the most important victories yet won for woman suffrage in the +United States--the adoption of State amendments by a majority of the +voters in Washington in November, 1910, and in California in October, +1911, giving the same franchise rights to women as possessed by +men.[70] The sessions were held in the large De Molay Commandery Hall +but it was far too small for the evening audiences. This was a new +experience for Louisville but it rose finely to the occasion. A +message to the _Woman's Journal_ said: "Enthusiasm for equal suffrage +runs high in Louisville this week as women from all parts of the +country throng its spacious streets morning, afternoon and evening for +the annual convention.... Altogether it is a most inspiring and +encouraging convention and we are daily excited with news of the good +prospects of more campaign States and more victories in the very near +future.... We all have votes-for-women tags on our baggage, yellow +badges and pins, California poppies and six-star buttons on our +dresses and coats and dainty votes for women butterflies on our +shoulders, and as we go about in dozens or scores or hundreds the +onlookers receive the fitting psychological impression and we find +them thinking of us as victors and conquerors." + +The opening of this convention, with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, the +national president, in the chair, was a proud moment for Miss Laura +Clay, who was one of the organizers of the Kentucky Equal Rights +Association in 1888 and had been continually its president. In her +address of greeting she said: + + We welcome you with hearts tender with the remembrance of the + past, when two of the great historic figures which have made this + convention possible gave their labors to Kentucky. In the early + fifties, Lucy Stone, in the vigor and freshness of her lovely + youth and enthusiasm for high ideals, spoke in the cities and + towns on both sides of the Ohio River; and in 1881 she held in + Louisville a convention of the American Woman Suffrage + Association. She established the _Woman's Journal_, which is now + edited, with all the noble moral principles and polished literary + ability which have characterized it throughout, by her daughter, + Alice Stone Blackwell, who is with us today. In 1879 that other + heroic woman, Susan B. Anthony, made a tour through central + Kentucky and left an enduring monument of her visit in the Equal + Rights Association of Richmond, Madison County, which has had the + longest continuous existence of any woman suffrage society in the + State.... + + We welcome you with hearts strong with hope for the future. The + glorious victories that we have had inspire us and in all the + harbingers of hope we see none greater than the Men's Leagues for + Woman Suffrage. These prove to us that the men of our country are + preparing to extend equal political rights to women, who, since + the time when this vast continent was a wilderness, have stood + side by side with them in the heroic labors which have made it + blossom like the rose with the fairest civilization the world has + ever known. In the great International Alliance Congress at + Stockholm men of many nations formed themselves into a Suffrage + League, and the Men's League of California did grand service in + the glorious victory in their State. This noble land extends from + California across the continent to Virginia where the latest + league of men has just been formed. We see in this generous + cooperation of the men of our nation a better exposition of the + legend on Kentucky's shield, "United we stand, divided we fall," + when man and woman shall clasp hands and become a truer + realization of the vision of the poet and the patriot. + +Mrs. Patty Blackburn Semple, president of the Louisville Woman's Club, +in offering its welcome, said: "When the Woman's Club was organized +three subjects were tabooed--religion, politics and woman suffrage. We +kept to the resolution for awhile but gradually we found that our +efforts in behalf of civic improvements and the correcting of +outrageous abuses were handicapped at every turn by politics. Last +year an appeal came to the Woman's Club--to the women of +Louisville--to take our schools out of politics. It was a gigantic +fight but we won. As the climax of our struggle we spent the greater +part of election day at the polls and I think at the close of that day +every one of us had exhausted all the joys of 'indirect influence,' +which is supposed to satisfy every craving of the female heart. Our +club will be twenty-one years old in November, and--we want to vote! +We will make you most heartily welcome and most of us will also +welcome the principles for which you stand." + +Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.), first vice-president of the +National Association, in responding said: "Now we know definitely that +all the things we have heard about Kentucky are true; we have met her +brave women and handsome colonels. While we remember all the tradition +of the past we live in the present. Kentucky is proud of what her men +named Clay have done in the past but it is a pleasure to us to know +that today when Kentucky wants anything done she appeals to a woman +who is either Clay by name or Clay by blood." Another chivalry is +coming into the world besides that felt by a strong man for a +beautiful woman. It is that felt by strong women for their weaker and +less fortunate sisters. It is the chivalry foreshadowed by Spenser in +The Faerie Queene, in Britomart, the noble knight, herself a woman, who +rescued Amoretta and devoted herself to the help of all weak and +helpless women." + +Assistant District Attorney Omar E. Garwood of Denver, a founder and +the secretary of the Men's Defense League, to refute the +misrepresentations of the practical working of woman suffrage in +Colorado, was introduced and outlined its work. Mrs. Alexander Pope +Humphrey was presented and gave a cordial invitation to a reception +for the convention at her home, Truecastle, at the close of the +afternoon session, which was as cordially accepted. Mrs. Ben Hardin +Helm, a sister of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, was greeted and expressed her +sympathy with the work of the association. + +After these pleasant ceremonies at the morning session the convention +immediately proceeded to business and listened to the reports from the +various committees. That of the new corresponding secretary, Mrs. Mary +Ware Dennett, gave a graphic illustration of the rapid increase in the +size and scope of the work in her department. After describing the +demands from almost every State and saying that the correspondence had +doubled during the past year while the output of literature had +tripled, she continued: + + The correspondence with Canada has been very interesting and has + steadily increased and we have sent a good deal of literature to + British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia. Literature and letters + have gone to Switzerland, Finland and even Japan, in answer to + requests, the Japanese correspondent being in the midst of + writing a book on the rights of women, because, as he quaintly + put it, he believed there was "undoubtedly a truth in it." We + have a steadily increasing stream of requests for suitable + programs for study clubs, also a sudden spurt of requests for + suffrage speakers from the Federation of Women's Clubs. The + example of the last Biennial, when woman suffrage appeared for + the first time on the official program of the Federation, has + precipitated almost an epidemic of suffrage meetings in the State + federations and local clubs. + + The Official Board of the association has made a serious + recommendation to the State officers to push the plan of + political district organization as the best and most systematic + and reliable way of preparing for the submission of a suffrage + amendment. A leaflet giving the details of the plan has been + published and widely distributed and it has been accepted as + scheduled or in modified form in ten States, in most of which the + name Woman Suffrage Party has been adopted, following the example + of New York City, which was the first to adapt the enrollment + work long ago established by the National Association to the + needs of modern political action.... The National office prepared + reports of the work of the association for the meeting of the U. + S. National Council of Women and for the congress of the + International Suffrage Alliance in Stockholm. We have established + an exchange of propaganda with the International Shop in London. + At the suggestion of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt we have cooperated + with the Women's Enfranchisement League of Cape Colony, South + Africa, by asking a large number of American women writers to + send copies of their books to an exhibition and sale there of + women's work. + + Since our last convention there have been two annual meetings of + the House of Governors, the first in Kentucky, at which Miss + Laura Clay obtained a hearing and presented our cause in a most + admirable address; the second in New Jersey, at which a hearing + was obtained for Dr. Shaw, who was accorded every courtesy and + received with heartiest enthusiasm by the Governors and + afterwards by their wives. In Kentucky Governor Wilson was + largely instrumental in securing the hearing; in New Jersey, + although the governor is also a Wilson, he is unfortunately an + "anti," but by the efforts of Governor Shafroth of Colorado, a + place on the program was made for Dr. Shaw. + + Two valuable compilations have been made, one showing how many + times and when and what sort of suffrage bills have been + introduced into Legislatures in the last ten years, and the other + showing the exact procedure necessary for amending the + constitutions of the various States. Under the direction of Mrs. + Catharine Waugh McCulloch, our legal adviser, a series of + questions on the legal status of women has been printed and sent + with letters to the various States. The returns will be published + in pamphlet form. At the suggestion of Miss Clay, letters were + sent to all members of Congress urging their effort to include + women as electors in the bill providing for the direct election + of U. S. Senators. Copies of _Hampton's Magazine_ for April were + sent to special lists of people in Wisconsin, Kansas and + California, which contained Mrs. Rheta Childe Dorr's article on + Colorado Women Voters. + + We have published 30,000 copies of the "What to Do" leaflet, + which have been sent out gratis, some States applying for 3,000 + at once; California sent for 10,000 and evidently learned "What + to Do" effectively. We issued 45,000 of the little convention + seals and the supply has hardly held out. The drawing for the + seal was the contribution of Miss Charlotte Shetter of New + Jersey. Through the equally generous cooperation of Mrs. Helen + Hoy Greeley of New York we have been able to give free of charge + for use on letters 13,000 "suffrage stamps." Another bit of + cooperation in both labor and money was that between headquarters + and Mrs. Raymond Brown, president of the Woman Suffrage Study + Club, who with members of her association addressed and sent to + about a thousand presidents of suffrage clubs all over the + country two copies of Miss Blackwell's striking editorial in + answer to Richard Barry's slanderous statements about Colorado, + together with a note asking each president to send one copy to + the editor of the _Ladies' Home Journal_, in which Barry's + article had appeared, with her own personal protest, and the + other to the editor of some paper in her vicinity. The result was + a perfect avalanche of protests to the editor of the unfortunate + magazine. + +The treasurer's report was divided between Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, +who had resigned the office, and Miss Jessie Ashley, her successor, +and it showed the receipts from all sources, January, 1910, to +January, 1911, to have been $43,844; the disbursements, $34,838. +Pledges were made at this convention to the amount of $12,251, +including $1,000 from Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo; $1,000 from +Mrs. Donald Hooker of Baltimore, and $3,000 by Dr. Shaw from a +contributor not named. + +Miss Agnes E. Ryan, business manager of the _Woman's Journal_, +reported the many changes made in the paper during the year since it +became the official organ of the association and the removal of its +offices from Beacon Street to 585 Bolyston Street in the building with +the Massachusetts and Boston woman suffrage associations and the New +England Woman's Club. The advertising had increased from $256 a year +to $852 and the circulation from 4,000 to nearly 15,000. The methods +by which the increase had been obtained were described. The contract +with the association was renewed. + +Miss Caroline I. Reilly gave her first report as chairman of the Press +Committee in the course of which she said: + + The annual reports of the National Press Bureau formerly made by + Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, who so long and ably conducted this + department, had reached so high a standard and the foundation + laid by her was so substantial and solid that it was possible for + us to meet the new conditions and increased volume of work with + systematic and business-like methods. Then came Mrs. Ida Husted + Harper, with her literary ability and historical knowledge, to + open a new field for suffrage propaganda through the magazines, + the great syndicates and Sunday papers in the large cities. Thus + you will see that when the present chairman took charge of the + bureau it had been so splendidly developed by her predecessors + that she found only hard work and plenty of it. + + During the eighteen months since the last convention the records + show that we have written 5,584 letters. We are in constant + receipt of letters from all over the world written in various + languages, the majority containing inquiries regarding suffrage + methods in this country and what has been accomplished by our + enfranchised women.... We have furnished material for one hundred + magazine articles, which have appeared in various periodicals.... + Our list of newspaper syndicates has increased to nine, some of + which are international, and since the last convention we have + furnished them 1,314 articles, many by special request. Every + one of these syndicates asked for detailed accounts of this + convention, together with personal sketches of the officers and + speakers. The Associated Press has sent out suffrage news as + occasion warranted and has solicited our cooperation.... Last + December we resumed the weekly press bulletin and since then we + have mailed 31,200. These weekly items are regularly mailed to + press chairmen and newspapers in forty-one States, also to + Canada, Alaska and Cuba, and every day brings requests for more. + A number of monthly pamphlets issued by women's clubs use them. + Papers devoted to the labor movement publish them regularly and + very often give helpful suggestions. The bureau is impressed with + the fact that in future the farm papers should receive serious + consideration.... One of these, with a circulation of nearly + 400,000 has offered us space for suffrage articles to be supplied + regularly and this work should be carefully looked after, + especially in agricultural States like Kansas and Wisconsin, + where campaigns are now in progress. + + We have responded to fifty requests from schools and colleges for + information to be utilized in debates, lectures and school + magazines.... The records show that we have replied to 1,214 + adverse editorials and letters in papers from Maine to California + and secured space in New York City papers for 2,163 notices and + articles without any charge to us. We have received and read + 62,519 clippings gathered for us by the press clipping bureau, + 9,163 of them cut from New York papers alone. Representatives of + newspapers and magazines from the following countries have come + to us for material: Australia, Finland, Alaska, France, Germany, + England, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Wales, Denmark, Russia, Italy, + Mexico, Spain, Holland, Hawaii, South America and Canada, as well + as from nearly every State in the Union. A number of Sunday + papers in the large cities are devoting weekly space to suffrage + departments, beginning by publishing the press items and + gradually expanding.... Some of the more serious magazines have + recently solicited our cooperation, notably the _Literary Digest_ + and the _American Review of Reviews_, whose political editor + called personally a few days ago and requested that we send him + regularly such suffrage news as we may have at hand, that the + items may be embodied in reports of the world's political news. + Another important feature of the work of the bureau consists in + furnishing material to press chairmen and others to be used in + answering attacks on suffrage in their local papers. + +Miss Reilly complimented the work of the press chairmen in the States, +speaking especially of Mrs. D. D. Terry of Little Rock, who furnished +material to seventy-five papers in Arkansas and to a syndicate +reaching the weekly papers of the southwest. + +A conference was held in the afternoon on the Proper Function of the +National Association, led by Dr. M. Carey Thomas of Bryn Mawr and Dr. +Anna E. Blount of Chicago. The first evening of the convention was +designated as Jubilee Night and Dr. Shaw said in beginning her +president's address: "The eighteen months which have elapsed since our +last convention have been permeated with suffrage activity. Never in +an equal length of time has there been such rapid progress in the +enlistment of recruits and the development of active service. By an +aggressive out-of-door campaign the message has been carried to a not +unwilling people. Never was there a more signal example of manly +loyalty to womanhood than in the three-to-one vote for woman suffrage +in Washington in 1910. Following close upon it comes the signal +victory of California, where as never before were the friends and foes +of woman's freedom so equally lined up. Wherever vice, corruption and +cupidity held sway, there the vote for woman suffrage was weak. +Wherever refinement, education, industry and self-respecting manhood +and womanhood dwelt, there the vote in favor of women was strong. +These are the battles in this war for justice which have been +victorious. Others have been and are being fought at the present time +with equal courage." + +Graphic accounts were given of the successful campaign in Washington, +where the amendment was carried in every county, by Mrs. Caroline M. +Smith of Seattle, Mrs. E. A. Shores of Tacoma and Mrs. May Arkwright +Hutton of Spokane; and of the one in California by Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe +Watson, president of the State Suffrage Association, and J. H. Braly, +president of the Political Equality League. Later Miss Frances Wills +of Los Angeles; Miss Florence Dwight of Pasadena; Mrs. Mary E. +Ringrose, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry of San Francisco, former State +president, and Mrs. Rose French were introduced. Mrs. Watson in an +eloquent address showed how their success was the culmination of the +campaign of 1896 and the result of the years of hard and constant work +between that time and the present. + +When Mr. Braly began speaking he presented, the association with the +State flag of California, saying: "The grizzly bear is the king of all +American beasts. On the flag, you see, he has a beautiful golden star +above his head--the star of hope that brought our Pilgrim fathers +across the sea finally coming to rest over the Golden State. There +that star of hope and progress and freedom hung for more than sixty +years, until Oct. 10, 1911, when it flamed forth with a wondrous +brilliancy and started all the bells of heaven ringing." He predicted +that Oregon, Arizona and Nevada would soon follow the example of +California and said: "Then the star will cross the Rocky Mountains and +in will come the States of the Middle West!" Continuing the story the +speaker said: + + In January, 1910, the last meeting of the last suffrage society + in Southern California was held in the parlor of the Angeles + Hotel in the city of Los Angeles. The women were discouraged and + dispirited. I rode home alone in my car, my heart weeping and + praying a prayer ten miles long, that being the distance to my + home in Pasadena. That night I had a vision. I saw in panorama a + future glory of my beloved State. I saw well-kept cities and + churches filled with devout worshippers; I saw thousands of + bright-faced, happy children going to clean schoolhouses and + romping and laughing in their playgrounds. I saw, oh, so many + sweet and happy homes! I saw no saloons, no drunken men, no + places of vice. I saw men and women, husbands and wives, going up + to the ballot booths, laughing and chatting as they went and + placing their ballots in the boxes. Everything seemed beautiful. + The vision passed and I said to myself, "There it is--the women + of California will have the ballot and the blessings and glory + will follow." + + Now we come to the beginning of the movement that has had much to + do in the enfranchisement of the women of California. I trust you + will entirely lose sight of the speaker and see only the great + cause away out in the West. A man sat in his room one night with + pencil and paper before him. He began to write names of big men + who ought to take an interest in the pending suffrage campaign. + He wrote down about one hundred names and the next day started + out alone to see them. Then followed two months of patient, + personal work and about seventy good men and true had signed the + league membership form, which read as follows: "The undersigned + hereby associate themselves together under the name and style of + the Political Equality League of California for the purpose of + securing political equality and suffrage without distinction on + account of sex." On April 5, 1910, they met around a banquet + table and organized the league. Then followed earnest, + enthusiastic, impromptu speaking by many of the members.... + +Mr. Braly told of going to Washington to the national convention, +visiting suffrage headquarters in New York and returning home in June, +when "immediately the league's Board of Governors, consisting of nine +men, met and proceeded to add to it nine splendid women. Headquarters +were fitted up and business began." He described the vigorous work of +their Legislative Committee with the result that every member from the +nine southern counties went to the Legislature pledged to vote for +submitting a suffrage amendment. + +Saturday morning was partly occupied by a conference on How to Reach +the Uninterested, in which fifteen members from as many States took an +animated part; and by one on Propaganda, led by Mrs. Grace Gallatin +Seton (Conn.) and Miss Mary Winsor (Penn.). Throughout all the daytime +sessions valuable and interesting reports on the work in the different +States were read. The proposed new constitution was vigorously +discussed whenever the time permitted. The delegation from Illinois +came with a request that the national headquarters be removed to +Chicago but the convention decided to have them remain in New York. + +The College Equal Suffrage League held a business meeting in the +Seelbach Hotel at ten o'clock followed by a luncheon for college and +professional women. The president of the League, Dr. M. Carey Thomas, +president of Bryn Mawr College, was toast mistress and Dr. Shaw and +Miss Jane Addams were guests of honor. One especially enjoyable +feature was Miss Anita C. Whitney's account of the excellent work done +by the College League of California in the recent campaign. [For all +the above California reports see chapter for that State in Volume VI.] + +The report of the National Congressional Committee by its chairman, +Miss Emma M. Gillett, a lawyer of Washington, D. C., showed a decided +advance in political work over all preceding years. She had placed on +her committee Mrs. Upton, Mrs. Elizabeth King Ellicott (Md.), Miss +Mary Gray Peck (N. Y.), Mrs. Katharine Reed Balentine (Me. and Cal.) +and Miss Belle Kearney (Miss.). State presidents were invited to +cooperate and lists of the nominees for Congress in their States were +sent to them. The Democratic National Committee furnished the names of +its nominees; the Republican National Committee practically refused to +do so. Letters asking their opinion on woman suffrage were sent to 378 +Democratic and 293 Republican candidates; 135 of the former and 88 of +the latter answered; 93 Democrats and 65 Republicans were in favor of +full or partial suffrage for women; 13 of the former and one of the +latter were opposed; 29 and 23 non-committal. The letters received +were almost without exception of a pleasant nature. The District +Suffrage Association paid a stenographer and rent of headquarters for +the work of sixteen months. Contributions of only $214 were received +for it, $100 from U. S. Senator Isaac Stevenson of Wisconsin. + +The report on official endorsements of conventions showed the usual +large number, political, religious, agricultural, labor, etc. Mrs. +Dennett estimated that such endorsements had now been given by +organizations representing 26,000,000 members. + +Mrs. Pauline Steinem, chairman of the Committee on Education, reported +sub-committees in sixteen States working for suitable text books, +encouraging the placing of women on school boards, organizing mothers' +and parents' clubs, offering prizes for essays on woman suffrage, +encouraging methods of self-government in schools, etc. The chairman +for New Jersey announced that Governor Woodrow Wilson approved of +School suffrage and that State Senator Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, +president of the State Board of Education, recommended it in his last +report. + +College Women's Evening, as always, attracted one of the largest +audiences of the week. In the course of an address on What Women Might +Accomplish with the Franchise, Miss Jane Addams said: + + Sydney Webb points out that while the wages of British working + men have increased from 50 to 100 per cent. during the past sixty + years the wages of working women have remained stationary. The + exclusion from all political rights of five million working women + in England is not only a source of industrial weakness and + poverty to themselves but a danger to English industry. Working + women can not hope to hold their own in industrial matters where + their interests may clash with those of their enfranchised fellow + workers or employers. They must force an entrance into the ranks + of responsible citizens, in whose hands lies the solution to the + problems which are at present convulsing the industrial world. + + Much of the new demand for political enfranchisement arises from + a passionate desire to reform the unsatisfactory and degrading + social conditions which are responsible for so much wrong doing. + The fate of all the unfortunate, the suffering, the criminal, is + daily forced upon woman's attention in painful and intimate ways. + It is inevitable that humanitarian women should wish to vote + concerning all the regulations of public charities which have to + do with the care of dependent children and the Juvenile Courts, + pensions to mothers in distress, care of the aged poor, care of + the homeless, conditions of jails and penitentiaries, gradual + elimination of the social evil, extended care of young girls, + suppression of gambling, regulation of billboard advertising and + other things. + + Perhaps the woman who leads the domestic life is more in need of + the franchise than any other. One could easily name the + regulations of the State that define her status in the community. + Among them are laws regulating marriage and divorce, defining the + legitimacy of children, defining married women's property rights, + exemption and homestead laws which protect her when her husband + is bankrupt. Then there are the laws regulating her functions as + mother to her children. + +Dr. Thomas, who presided, spoke on What Woman Suffrage Means to +College Women. Only fragmentary newspaper reports are available but +she said in beginning: "We are entering an age of social +reconstruction and general betterment and no class today are spending +more of their strength and energy to eradicate the wrongs which have +resulted from a defective system that denies woman her rights, than +the class of women who have received a college education. These +efforts, however, amount to little as long as the franchise is denied +compared to what is in the reach of possibility. Our efforts have been +rewarded to a great extent but until woman has come into her own and +is recognized and treated as a citizen of the State on an equal +footing with man, our work will continue to be a mere scratching on +the surface. Between 30 and 40 per cent. of the college women today +are supporting themselves. It is the educated woman who is making the +fight for equality and our hope lies in education, the education of +both men and women." + +Dr. Shaw presided over the Sunday afternoon meeting at which four +notable addresses were made. Miss Mary Johnston's subject was Wanted, +an Architect, and in eloquent words she showed how woman might be +developed physically, mentally and spiritually, with the conclusion: +"She can do what she wills and now the thing above all others to be +desired is that she wills to act. The time has passed when +indifference on her part will be tolerated. Women must rouse +themselves to action, the crying needs of the hour demand it. With the +ballot in our hands and with the will to produce better conditions our +achievements will be unsurpassed." Professor Sophonisba Breckinridge, +dean of the Junior College of Women in Chicago University, considered +with keen analysis woman suffrage in its relation to the interests of +the wage-earning woman. The Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane (Mich.) +presented A New Phase of Home Rule for Cities, saying in conclusion: +"Politics at its best is a noble profession in which we earnestly +desire to engage. Woman's age-long experience in home-making and +mothering of children has fitted her for politics just as well as have +man's activities in trade fitted him." + +Dr. Shaw introduced Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Chief of the Government +Bureau of Chemistry, as "the man who is trying to get us women a fair +chance to live," and he jokingly answered that in view of the swift +advance of the woman suffrage movement it was a question whether men +would continue to have a chance to live. His topic was Woman's +Influence in Public Affairs, "which," he said, "are the summing up of +private affairs." In his address he said: + + I am not a newcomer myself. My first suffrage address was made in + 1877. I believe it is almost useless to work on us old folks. The + reforms in our politics and ethics must begin with the children. + Educate them to the right and justice of woman suffrage even + before they are born. Instill the idea in them at school; see + that they get the proper kind of an education. Women have done + wonders in securing our splendid system of public schools.... + Women have intellect enough and some to spare. What we want is + more ethics. A sense of justice and right is just as important to + this country as intellectual strength. Women have the instinct of + right. I have never known an organized body of women to be on the + wrong side of a public question, although as individuals women + sometimes get the wrong point of view, just as men are prone to + do. I want equal suffrage because it is right. I want it also + because it would have a great effect on woman's influence in + public affairs and would help powerfully to get the right thing + done. The very fact that woman had the vote would be a + restraining and elevating influence. The women have been a tower + of strength to every official in this country who has tried to do + his duty. Take the question of pure food: I could tell you by the + hour of the support that I have had from women and women's + organizations. I should despair if I thought that the women did + not stand for pure food. + + We have in this country problems which I almost fear to face. + Among them is the great problem of the relation between the + wage-earner and the capitalist; that of the distribution of the + necessities of life; that of the congestion in the cities and + depopulation of the country districts. These and many others will + take all the wisdom and sympathetic insight of men and women + together to solve them. I am glad that men are to have the help + of women. They are just entering on their career of greater + usefulness in public affairs. With the ballot in their hands they + will be endowed with a power much stronger than they have ever + had before and they will wield it, I am sure, on the side of + right and justice. + +Sunday evening the officers of the association were "at home" to +delegates, speakers and friends in the parlors of the Hotel Seelbach. + +Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who, to the great happiness of suffragists +on several continents, had entirely recovered her health, was now +making a trip around the world in the interest of the International +Woman Suffrage Alliance, of which she was president. At one session a +letter from her was read, dated at Kimberly, South Africa, which was +enthusiastically received. It said in part: + + At the very moment that you will be planning the work for the + sixty-third year of the American suffrage campaign, the + suffragists of this new-east of all nations will be sitting in + their first national convention at Durban, the metropolis of + Natal. The movement here is young but is wholly unlike the + beginnings of the campaigns in England and America, for our + revered pioneers fought their battle against the prejudice and + intolerance of their time for the women of the whole world. These + women are beginning at the very point where we of the older + movements find ourselves today. The old-time arguments are not + heard and here, as everywhere, expediency and political advantage + are the causes of opposition. + + No two cities could be more unlike than Louisville and Durban. + The latter lies in a tropical country with its buildings buried + in masses of luxuriant and brilliant flora, all unfamiliar to + American eyes. The delegates will look out upon the placid waters + of the Indian Ocean and will ride to and fro from their meetings + in rickshas drawn by Zulus in the most fantastic dress + imaginable, the chief feature being long horns bound upon the + head. In Louisville it will be autumn, in Natal it will be + spring. Yet, dissimilar as are the scenes of these two + conventions, the women composing them will be actuated by the + same motives, inspired by the same hopes and working to the same + end. The rebellion fomented in that little Seneca Falls + convention has overspread the wide earth and from the frigid + lands above the North Polar Circle to the most southerly point of + the Southern Temperate Zone, the mothers of our race are + listening to the new call to duty which these new times are + uttering. It is glorious to be a suffragist today, with all the + hard times behind us and certain victory before. + + May wisdom guide us to do the right thing; may love unite us; may + charity temper our differences and may we never forget the + obligations we owe the blessed pathfinders of our movement who + made the present position of our cause possible! + +The election resulted in several changes in the board of officers. Dr. +Shaw was re-elected. Mrs. McCulloch declined to stand for re-election +as first vice-president and Miss Gordon as second and Miss Addams and +Professor Breckinridge were chosen. For corresponding secretary Mrs. +Dennett was re-elected. Mrs. Stewart withdrew as recording secretary +and Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald (Mass.) was elected. Miss Ashley was +re-elected treasurer. Mrs. Robert M. LaFollette was elected first +auditor and Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw (N. Y.) second. Later Mrs. +LaFollette declined to serve and Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick was +appointed by the board. + +In all preceding conventions there had been such unanimity in the +choice of officers that the secretary had been able to cast the +informal ballot for the election. This new division of sentiment was +frequently illustrated during the meetings and indicated that an +element had come into the movement, which, as usual with newcomers, +wanted a change to accord with its ideas. This was particularly +noticeable in the discussion of the proposed new constitution but the +differences of opinion were peaceably adjusted by compromise. + +After the election Mrs. McCormick, who had recently come into close +touch with the National Association, spoke on the Effect of Suffrage +Work on Women Themselves, saying in part: "So much attention has been +given to the growth and development of the movement for woman suffrage +that the effect on the women themselves has been lost sight of or has +been little considered but today it is becoming clear that the cause +of suffrage is more valuable to the individual woman than she is to +the cause. The reason is that this movement has the great though +silent force of evolution behind it, impelling it slowly forward; +whereas the individual is largely dependent for her development on her +own powers and especially on those expressions of life with which she +brings herself into contact. The woman suffrage movement offers the +broadest field for contact with life. It offers cooperation of the +most effective kind with others; it offers responsibility in the life +of the community and the nation; it offers opportunity for the most +varied and far-reaching service. To come into contact with this +movement means to some individuals to enter a larger world of thought +than they had known before; to others it means approaching the same +world in a more real and effective way. To all it gives a wider +horizon in the recognition of one fact--that the broadest human aims +and the highest human ideals are an integral part of the lives of +women." + +The report of the Committee on Church Work by its chairman, Mrs. Mary +E. Craigie, (N. Y.) began: "It is estimated that there is in the +United States a total church membership of 34,517,317 persons. It +would mean a great deal to the woman suffrage cause if this great +organized force, representing the most thoughtful and influential men +and women of every community, could be brought to endorse it and work +for it. The experiences of this committee seem to prove that in the +transition taking place in the world of religious thought this is the +most propitious time to obtain such support." She gave a resume of the +splendid work that had been done by the branch committees in the +various States, the religious gatherings that had been addressed, +often resulting in the adoption of a resolution for woman suffrage, +and the hundreds of letters sent to ministers asking for sermons +favorable to the cause, which were many times complied with. She +closed by saying: "It needs neither figures nor argument to establish +the fact that church attendance and church worship are in a condition +of decline. It is a critical period in the history of the church, +which is changing from the exercise of power to the employment of +influence, and the appeals that are coming to the churches are for +service from the men and women who are their real strength. The church +is not appreciating the resources that are lying dormant, when +two-thirds of its membership--the women--are left powerless to carry +on the moral and social reform work, because, as a disfranchised class +having no political status, they are not counted as a potential +force." + +Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates (R. I.), chairman, made the report on +Presidential suffrage. The report of the Committee on Peace and +Arbitration, Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead (Mass.), chairman, spoke of the Ginn +Endowment of a million dollars for the World's Peace Foundation and of +Mr. Carnegie's great gift of ten million dollars, creating a fund to +secure the peace of the world. It told of the vast work that was being +done for peace by the women in the various States and said: "The world +for the first time has seen the head of a great government declare +that all questions between nations can be peacefully settled. +President Taft's noble effort to secure treaties with other nations, +to ensure arbitration between them of every justiciable question, +should command the gratitude of every patriotic woman. I had hoped to +felicitate you on the ratification of these treaties by the necessary +two-thirds of the Senate, but in chagrin and disappointment I must +instead appeal to you to endeavor instantly to create such public +sentiment as shall result in December in the acceptance of the +treaties without amendment. If they are thus ratified they will be +secured not only with Great Britain and France but certainly Germany, +and I have no doubt Japan and most other nations will agree to +identical treaties." + +Miss Florence H. Luscomb (Mass.) gave an interesting report of the +Sixth Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held in +Stockholm in June, 1911. [See chapter on the Alliance.] Mrs. Agnes M. +Jenks, proxy for the president of the New Hampshire association, asked +assistance in getting a clause for woman suffrage in the new +constitution to be made for that State. Conferences were held +throughout the week on legislative work, district organization, +publicity, raising money and other branches of the vast activities of +the association. The convention Monday afternoon adjourned early in +order that the members might enjoy the hospitality of the Woman's Club +of Louisville at a "tea" in their attractive rooms, and at another +time take the beautiful Riverside Drive. One evening was devoted to +light entertainment with two suffrage monologues by Miss Marjorie +Benton Cooke; a suffrage slide talk by Mrs. Fitzgerald; a clever +speech portraying the results if women voted, by Miss Inez Milholland +(N. Y.) and the sparkling play, How the Vote Was Won, read by Miss +Fola La Folette. A striking address was given one afternoon by Mrs. T. +P. O'Connor, an American woman but long a resident of England and +Ireland, who took for her subject, Let Our Watchword be Unity. + +One of the most valuable contributions to the convention was Mrs. +McCulloch's report as Legal Adviser. This was the result of a list of +forty-four questions sent to presidents of State suffrage +associations, Woman's Christian Temperance Unions, Federations of +Clubs and leading lawyers, followed up by many letters. One of these +questions related to the guardianship of children, of which she said: + + The subject of the guardianship of children could have been + treated a century ago in a few words. The father of the + legitimate child was his sole guardian and the mother had no + authority or right concerning their child except such as the + husband gratuitously allowed her. She had, however, all the + duties which the husband might put upon her. This meant that the + husband decided about the children's food, clothing, medicine, + school, church, home, associates, punishments, pleasures and + tasks and that he alone could apprentice a child, could give him + for adoption and control his wages. Many mothers were kept in + happy ignorance of such unjust laws because their husbands + voluntarily yielded to them much of the authority over the + children but this was not so in all families and many mothers + took cases to Supreme Courts, protesting against the absolute + paternal power. When mothers learned what this sole guardianship + meant they urged legal changes. Our present guardianship laws, + very few alike, show how women, each group alone in their own + States, have struggled to mitigate the severest evils of sole + fatherly guardianship, especially of the child's person. This to + mothers was more important than the guardianship of the child's + property. + + Perhaps the greatest suffering came from the father's power to + deed or to bequeath the guardianship to a stranger and away from + the mother. Most of the States now allow a surviving mother the + sole guardianship of the child's person with certain conditions. + Six States have not yet thus limited the father's power and in + those where the guardianship is not specifically granted to the + surviving mother, the father's sole power of guardianship covers + his child even if yet unborn. + +The report gave a thorough digest of these guardianship laws filling +eight printed pages and this and Mrs. McCulloch's digest of other laws +were printed in the _Woman's Journal_ and the Handbook of the +convention. + +Miss Alice Henry presented greetings from the National Womens' Trade +Union League; Miss Caroline Lowe from the Women's National Committee +of the Socialist Party; Mrs. A. M. Harrison from the State Federation +of Woman's Clubs; Mrs. Charles Campbell of Toronto from the Canadian +Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. W. S. Stubbs, wife of the Governor, +and Mrs. William A. Johnston, wife of the Chief Justice and president +of the State Suffrage Association, from Kansas. A letter of love and +good wishes with regrets for her absence was ordered sent to Mrs. Catt +and one of affectionate sympathy to Mrs. Susan Look Avery (Ky.) for +the death of her son, which prevented her attendance. During the +convention Mrs. Lida Calvert Obenchain, author of Aunt Jane of +Kentucky, and Miss Eleanor Breckenridge, president of the Texas +Suffrage Association, were introduced and said a few words. A telegram +of greeting was read from Mrs. Caroline Meriwether Goodlett, a founder +of the Daughters of the Confederacy. + +The resolutions were presented by the chairman, Miss Bertha Coover, +corresponding secretary of the Ohio Suffrage Association, the +committee as usual consisting of one member from each State +delegation. They urged the ratification of the Arbitration Treaties in +the form desired by President Taft; expressed sympathy with Finland in +its struggle for liberty; endorsed the proposed Federal Amendment for +the election of U. S. Senators by popular vote and demanded that women +should have part in this vote; endorsed the campaign for pure food and +drugs; called for the same moral standard for men and women and the +same legal penalties for those who transgress the moral law; asked the +Government to erect a colossal statue of Peace at the entrance to the +Panama Canal, and there were others on minor points. Greetings and +appreciation were sent to "the justice-loving men of Washington and +California, whose example will be an inspiration to the men of other +States." Memorial resolutions were adopted for prominent suffragists +who had died during the year, among them Thomas Wentworth Higginson, +Dr. Emily Blackwell, Ellen C. Sargent, William A. Keith, the artist; +Samuel Walter Foss, the poet; Lillian M. Hollister, Elizabeth Smith +Miller, Eliza Wright Osborne and Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers. + +There was a long resolution of thanks for the courtesy and hospitality +received in Louisville, which included the clergymen who opened the +sessions with prayer, the musicians, who gave their services, the +press committees, the hostesses and others.[71] + +On the last evening with a large audience present Mrs. Desha +Breckinridge spoke on The Prospect for Woman Suffrage in the South. +"Although Kentuckians are wont to boast that within these borders is +the purest Anglo-Saxon blood now existing, the spirit of their +ancestors has departed," she said, and continued: + + Since 1838 Kentucky has retrograded. An effort to obtain School + suffrage for a larger class of women has brought about a + reactionary measure. Kentucky women at present have no greater + political rights than the women of Turkey--for we have none at + all--but the action of certain male politicians in defeating the + School suffrage measure in the last two Legislatures has really + been of advantage to the movement. It has put not only women but + the progressive men of the State into fighting trim.... The + opposition of the non-progressive element has made of this "scrap + of suffrage" a live, political issue. It is likely to be carried + in the next Legislature by the determination of the better men of + the State even more than of the women, and the fight made against + it has gone far to convince both that the full franchise should + be granted to women. The action of the Democratic party, when + leadership in it is resumed by the best element, shows a + realization that the wishes of the women of the State are to be + reckoned with and that the friendship of the women, which may be + gained by so simple an act of justice in their favor, is a + political asset of no small importance. It is quite possible that + the party in Kentucky and throughout the South may eventually + realize that by advocating and securing suffrage for women it may + bind to itself for many years to come, through a sense of + gratitude and loyalty, a large number of women voters, just as + the Republican party since the emancipation of the negro has had + without effort the unquestioning loyalty of thousands of negro + voters; although the women would never vote so solidly as do the + negroes, because they would represent a much more thoughtful and + independent body.... + +After showing what had been the results in the South from admitting a +great body of illiterate voters she said: + + A conference of southern women suffragists at Memphis a few years + ago, in asking for woman suffrage with an educational + qualification, pointed out that there were over 600,000 more + white women in the southern States than there were negroes, men + and women combined. If the literate women of the South were + enfranchised it would insure an immense preponderance of the + Anglo-Saxon over the African, of the literate over the + illiterate, and would make legitimate limitation of the male + suffrage to the literate easily possible.... + + Conditions of life in the South have made and kept Southerners + individualists. The southern man believes that he should + personally protect his women folk and he does it. He is only now + slowly realizing that, with the coming of the cotton mills and + other manufactories and with the growth of the cities, there has + developed a great body of women, young girls and children who + either have no men folk to protect them or whose men folk, + because of ignorance and economic weakness, are not able to + protect them against the greed and rapacity of employers or of + vicious men. It is a shock to the pride of southern chivalry to + find that women are less protected by the laws in their most + sacred possessions in the southern States than in any other + section of the Union; that the States which protect their women + most effectively are those in which women have been longest a + part of the electorate.... + + In the community business of caring for the sick, the incurable, + the aged, the orphaned, the deficient and the helpless, women of + the South bear already so important a part that to withdraw them + from public affairs would mean sudden and widespread calamity. + Women in the South are in politics, in the higher conception of + the word. "Politics," says Bernard Shaw, "is not something apart + from the home and the babies--it is home and the babies." Women + have long since gotten into politics in the South in the sense + that they have labored for the passage and enforcement of + legislation in the interest of public health, the betterment of + schools and the protection of womanhood and childhood--for the + preservation, in short, "of home and the babies." + +Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England, received an ovation when she rose +to speak and soon disarmed prejudice by her dignified and womanly +manner. She began by pointing out the fallacy that the women of the +United States had so many rights and privileges that they did not need +the suffrage and in proof she quoted existing laws and conditions that +called loudly for a change. She then took up the situation in Great +Britain and explained how many years the women had tried to get the +franchise by constitutional methods only to be deceived and spurned by +the Government. She told how at last a small handful of them started a +revolution; how they had grown into an army; how they had suffered +imprisonment and brutality; how the suffrage bill had again and again +passed the second reading by immense majorities and the Government had +refused to let it come to a final vote. "We asked Prime Minister +Asquith to give us a time for this," she said. "For eight long hours +in a heavy frost some of the finest women in England stood at the +entrance to the House of Commons and waited humbly with petitions in +their hands for their rulers and masters to condescend to receive them +but the House adjourned while they stood there. The next day, while +they waited again, there was an assault by the police, acting under +instructions, that I do not like to dwell upon outside of my own +country." + +Dr. Shaw made the closing address, eloquent with hope and courage for +the future and, as always, the final blessing at the convention as the +benediction is at church. + +In summing up the week the _Woman's Journal_ said: "Only those who +attended our national convention at Louisville can understand how +really wonderful it was. For hospitality, for good management, for +beautiful cooperation and self-effacement, the Kentucky women set a +standard that will long be remembered and will be very hard to equal +in the future. It made hard work easy and all work a joy. The +gratitude of the National Association is theirs forever. They gave +much to us, did we give anything to them? Here we can only say we +trust that we did and accept with confidence what one of the State's +great women said many times: 'This convention has done wonders for +Kentucky; it has surpassed my hopes.'" + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[70] Part of Call: Within the year the State of Washington has +completed its work of fully enfranchising its adult citizens. Before +the convention assembles, California will no doubt have accepted the +idea of true democracy. We also rejoice because the Legislatures of +Kansas, Wisconsin, Oregon and Nevada have voted to submit the question +to their electors. Many States, however, still refuse to allow the +voters to pass upon the question of giving political independence to +women. Since the purpose of the National American Woman Suffrage +Association is "to secure the right to vote to women citizens of the +United States," we have called this national convention of +suffragists. From every State will come delegates, who will bring with +them the growing spirit of rebellion against injustice.... + +We call upon every public-spirited woman to come and help devise +methods of carrying on the fight, to strengthen the fire of revolt, to +show by overwhelming numbers and determined earnestness that women +will no longer be satisfied to be treated with political contempt by +the legislators who are supposed to represent them.... Do your part to +inspire our workers with courage, determination, fervor and +consecration; to arouse them to put forth their full strength, even to +the utmost sacrifice, to obtain universal recognition of the truth +that every adult citizen should have a voice in the government of a +free country. + + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + CATHARINE WAUGH MCCULLOCH, First Vice-President. + KATE M. GORDON, Second Vice-President. + MARY WARE DENNETT, Corresponding Secretary. + ELLA S. STEWART, Recording Secretary. + JESSIE ASHLEY, Treasurer. + LAURA CLAY, } + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, }Auditors. + +[71] Of the press the _Woman's Journal_ said: "The Louisville papers +gave the convention full and fair reports and the _Herald_ and _Times_ +had editorials declaring woman suffrage to be inevitable. Colonel +Henry Watterson in the _Courier-Journal_ struggled between a sincere +desire to be courteous and hospitable to a convention of distinguished +women meeting in his city and an equally sincere belief that woman +suffrage would be a bad thing. A rousing editorial in favor of it +appeared in Desha Breckinridge's paper, the _Lexington Leader_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1912. + + +The Forty-fourth annual convention, which met in Witherspoon Building, +Philadelphia, Nov. 21-26, 1912, celebrated three important victories. +At the general election in the early part of the month, Oregon, +Arizona and Kansas had amended their constitutions and conferred equal +suffrage on women by large majority votes and the result in Michigan +was still in doubt. It was the sentiment of the country that the +eastward sweep of the movement was now fully under way. There was a +new and vibrant tone in the Call and in the speeches and +proceedings.[72] The _Woman's Journal_ said in its account: "Another +new feature was the enormous crowds that turned out at the convention. +Evening after evening, in conservative Philadelphia, ten or a dozen +overflow meetings had to be held for the benefit of the people who +could not possibly get into the hall. At the Thanksgiving service on +Sunday afternoon, not only was the great Metropolitan Opera House +filled to its capacity but for blocks the street outside was jammed +with a seething crowd, eager to hear the illustrious speakers. It +looked more like an inauguration than like an old-fashioned suffrage +meeting." + +There was a great out-door rally in Independence Square at the +beginning, such as had been witnessed many times on this historic spot +conducted by men but never before in the hands of women. Miss +Elizabeth Freeman was manager of this meeting, assisted by Miss Jane +Campbell, the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane, Mrs. Camilla von Klenze, +Mrs. Teresa Crowley and Miss Florence Allen. From five platforms over +forty well-known speakers demanded that the principles of the +Declaration of Independence signed in the ancient hall close by should +be applied to women and that the old bell should ring out liberty for +all and not for half the people. Mrs. Otis Skinner read the Women's +Declaration of Rights, which had been written by Elizabeth Cady +Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage in 1876 and +presented at the great centennial celebration in that very square,[73] +and a little ceremony was held in honor of Mrs. Charlotte Pierce of +Philadelphia, the only one then living who had signed it, with a +remembrance presented by Mrs. Anna Anthony Bacon. + +The convention was noteworthy for the large number of distinguished +speakers on its program. On the opening afternoon, after a moment of +silent prayer in memory of Lucretia Mott, the welcome of the city was +extended by the widely-known "reform" Mayor Rudolph Blankenburg, who +pointed out the vast field of municipal work for women and expressed +his firm conviction of their need for the suffrage. He was followed +with a greeting by Mrs. Blankenburg, a former president of the State +Suffrage Association. Its formal welcome to the delegates was given by +the president, Mrs. Ellen H. Price, who said in part: "We hope that +you will feel at home in Pennsylvania, for the idea that has called +this organization into being--that divine passion for human +rights--actuated the great founder of our Commonwealth in setting up +his 'holy experiment in government.'" After regretting that a State +founded on so broad a conception had not applied it to women Mrs. +Price said: + + We welcome you in the name of William Penn, who, antedating the + Declaration of Independence by nearly a century, enunciated in + his Frame of Government the truth that the States of today are + coming very rapidly to acknowledge: "Any Government is free to + the people under it when the laws rule and the people are a party + to those laws; anything more than this (and anything less) is + oligarchy and confusion." We welcome you in the name of our only + woman Governor, Hannah Penn, who, as we are told, for six years + managed the affairs of the infant colony wisely and well. + + We welcome you in the name of the patriots who placed on our + Liberty Bell the injunction, "Proclaim Liberty throughout the + Land to all the Inhabitants Thereof"; in the name of those + ancestors of ours (yours and mine) who here gave up their lives + in that struggle to establish the principle that "taxation + without representation is tyranny" for a nation; in the name of + those uncompromising agitators who delivered their message of + liberty even at the risk of life itself, till the shackles fell + from a race enslaved; in the name of Lucretia Mott, that gentle, + that queenly champion of the downtrodden and oppressed, that + inspired preacher whose motto, "Truth for Authority, not + Authority for Truth," should be the watchword of every soul that + seeks for freedom. + + We welcome you in the name of the pioneers in the education of + women, of those who gave us the first Medical College for Women, + Ann Preston, Emily Cleveland, Hannah Longshore, whose daughter is + here today--our honorary president, Lucretia L. Blankenburg, wife + of the chief executive of this city, to whose eloquent words of + welcome you have just listened; in the name of the first + president of our State association, of whom the poet Whittier + wrote: "The way to make the world anew is just to grow as Mary + Grew." We welcome you in the name of our national president, the + Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, who, although a citizen of the world, + comes back to her Pennsylvania home to get fresh strength and + courage. + +Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, a national officer, made a graceful response +for the association. Fraternal greetings were given by Mrs. Barsels, +from the Pennsylvania Woman's Christian Temperance Union; by Mrs. +Branstetter of Oklahoma from the National Socialist Party; by Mrs. +Campbell McIvor of Toronto from the Canadian Woman Suffrage +Association and later by Miss Leonora O'Reilly from the New York +Women's Trade Union League. + +Miss Laura Clay, chairman of the Membership Committee, announced the +admission of nine new societies to the National Association. There +were 308 delegates in attendance. Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, +corresponding secretary and chairman of the Literature Committee, said +in the course of her report: + + We are often asked at headquarters and by mail what the national + headquarters is for and what it does. The briefest answer that + can be given is that we furnish ammunition for the suffrage + fight. The ammunition is of many sorts, from money, leaflets and + buttons to historical data, slide lectures and advice on + organization.... One decided advantage in making headquarters + more useful to visitors has been the enlargement of the main + office. A partition was removed which gave us a large, light room + where all our publications are accessible for consultation or + purchase, all the chief suffrage periodicals of the world are on + file, the gallery of eminent suffragists is on exhibition and all + the various kinds of supplies, like buttons, pennants, posters, + etc., are shown. It serves as reference library as well, for + beside the History of Woman Suffrage, the Life of Susan B. + Anthony and the bound volumes of the _Woman's Journal_, there is + a collection of books on interests allied to suffrage, which have + been selected and approved by the board. These are also on + sale.... During the summer of 1912 a questionnaire was sent to + the States and the answers tabulated and printed in a folder + showing conclusively the status of each regarding headquarters, + press, membership, finance, political district, legislative and + Congressional work. There is an increasing demand for suffrage + facts rather than for suffrage argument. It was in response to + this demand that it became necessary to appoint an editor for the + literature department. Fully half of the publications needed + revising and bringing up to date and new compilations of data + were urgently needed. Mrs. Frances Maule Bjorkman, a trained + newspaper and magazine writer, was chosen and has filled the + position admirably. + +Mrs. Dennett gave a detailed account of the pamphlets, speeches, +leaflets, plays, magazine articles, etc., published by the +association--250 kinds of printed matter--and said: + + We have published over 3,000,000 pieces of literature in this + year and our total receipts from literature and supplies have + been $13,000, or $746 over the cost of the printing and purchase. + Our record month was September, when our receipts were more than + the entire receipts for the whole year of 1909. If we count our + unsold stock and our uncollected bills as assets, we have a net + gain for the year of $3,578. About $700 worth of literature has + been sold in the office, the remainder having been ordered by + mail. + + Through the courtesy of the Illinois association and the + generosity of Miss Addams and Miss Breckinridge, who paid for the + rent and service, a sub-station for the supply of literature was + established at the Chicago headquarters in April. The sales at + this western branch have been $1,924. It would seem well worth + while to continue this service for western customers. Also for + their benefit Mrs. McCormick made a gift of a sample copy of + every one of our new publications to the presidents of State + associations in eighteen of the western States, as a means of + bringing them in closer touch with the national office.... Aside + from our own literature we have been grateful for a very + serviceable congressional document, thousands of which have been + distributed in the last few months, the speech of Congressman + Edward T. Taylor of Colorado. It proved a successful and timely + campaign document and we are indebted not only to Mr. Taylor but + to a most efficient volunteer worker in Washington--Mrs. Helen H. + Gardener--who gave unstinted personal service in seeing that the + documents were obtained and franked when needed.... + +[Illustration: COURT HOUSE OF WARREN, OHIO + +Headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from +1903 to 1910--on the ground floor.] + +[Illustration: HOME OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY IN ROCHESTER, N. Y. + +Headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association until +1895.] + +The convention accepted the recommendation of the board that it should +issue a monthly bulletin of facts and figures to be sent to every +paying member, thus establishing a real bond between the association +and its thousands of members. The report of the Press Bureau by its +chairman, Miss Caroline I. Reilly, showed remarkable progress in +public sentiment as expressed by the newspapers. It said in part: + + The winning of California last year wrought so complete a change + in the work of the national press bureau that it was like taking + up an entirely new branch. Before that victory our time was + employed in furnishing suffrage arguments, replying to adverse + editorials and letters published in the newspapers and writing + syndicate articles. Now this department has resolved itself into + a bureau of information, news being the one thing required. Each + week we send to our mailing list 2,000 copies of the press + bulletin, giving brief items relative to suffrage activities the + world over. These go into every non-suffrage State in the Union, + to Canada, Cuba and England, and the demand for them increases + daily. Almost every mail brings letters from newspapers asking to + be placed on the regular mailing list.... Since the winning of + the four States on November 5, newspapers and press associations + from all over the United States have written us asking for help + to establish woman suffrage departments. The time has come when + our question is a paying one from a publicity point of view, ... + + We now have twenty syndicates on our list and are no longer + obliged to write the articles ourselves but simply furnish the + information which their own writers work up. These syndicates are + both national and international and cover all of this country as + well as some foreign countries. An interesting thing happened + last week, when the representative of a European press syndicate + came and said that he had been sent to America for the sole + purpose of reporting the woman movement in the United States, the + subject being regarded a vital one by the press of Europe. + Special suffrage editions seem to be more popular than almost + anything else and appeals come to us from all over the Union to + help on them.... During the past year we have received and + answered over 3,000 communications. The Italian papers have been + on our mailing list for some time, also many French and Hebrew + papers.... The editors and associate editors of twelve Italian + newspapers in New York are enrolled in the city suffrage + organization. + +Miss Alice Stone Blackwell made an extended report of the _Woman's +Journal_ since it became the official organ of the National American +Association in June, 1910, and had been published under its auspices. +The expenses had increased and funds had not been supplied to meet +them. Committees of conference were appointed and eventually the +deficit was paid and the paper was returned to Miss Blackwell, who +offered the free use of its columns to the association. The report of +the treasurer, Miss Jessie Ashley, was not encouraging. Under the old +regime the year always closed with a balance in the treasury but this +indebtedness to the _Woman's Journal_ left the association $5,000 in +debt.[74] As its work broadened the expense became heavier and the +income although far larger than ever before was not sufficient. During +the past year it had contributed $18,144 to campaigns in eight States. +A very large part of this amount was paid by Dr. Shaw from a fund +given to her personally for the purpose by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw of +Boston. At this time and later she gave to Dr. Shaw to be used for +campaigns according to her judgment $30,000 and the name of the donor +was not revealed until after her death in 1917. + +The first evening of the convention was devoted to the president's +address and the stories of the successful campaigns for suffrage +amendments at the November elections, related by Mrs. William A. +Johnston and Miss Helen N. Eaker for Kansas and Mrs. M. L. T. Hidden +for Oregon. No one being present from Arizona Dr. Shaw told of the +victory there. Mrs. Clara B. Arthur and Mrs. Huntley Russell described +the situation in Michigan, where the indications were that the +amendment would be lost by fraudulent returns. Dr. Shaw's speech, as +usual, was neither written nor stenographically reported but this +floating paragraph was found in a newspaper: + + In all times men have entertained loftier theories of living than + they have been able to formulate into practical experience. We + Americans call our government a republic but it is not a republic + and never has been one. A republic is not a government in which + one-half of the people make the laws for all of the people. At + first the government was a hierarchy in which only male church + members could vote. In the process of evolution the qualification + of church membership was removed and the word "taxpayer" + substituted. Later that word was stricken out and all white men + could vote. Then followed the erasure of the word "white" and now + all male citizens have the ballot. The next measure is obvious + and it is not a revolutionary one but the logical step in the + evolution of our government. I believe thoroughly in democracy, + the extension of the franchise to all men, for all have a right + to a voice in the making of the laws that govern them, and no + nation has a right to place before any of its people an + insuperable barrier to self-government. We would make no outcry + against an educational standard, the necessary age limit, a + certain term of residence in any place--in fact there is no + regulation women would object to that applied to all citizens + equally. I make no criticism of the policy of the country in + giving all men the ballot. The men are all right so far as they + go--- but they go only half way. The United States has subjected + its women to the greatest political humiliation ever imposed upon + the women of any nation. German women are governed by German men; + French women by French men, etc., but American women are ruled by + the men of every country and race in the world.... I do not + belong to any political party and I have too much self-respect to + ally myself with any party until my opinion is of enough + importance to be counted at the polls. + +The delegates heard reports from the chairmen of various +committees--Ways and Means, Dr. M. Carey Thomas; Enrollment, Mrs. Jean +Nelson Penfield; Presidential Suffrage, Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates; +Laws for Women, Miss Mary Rutter Towle (D. C.). Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead +made her usual comprehensive report as chairman of the Peace and +Arbitration Committee. Mrs. Mary E. Craigie in her report of seven +printed pages on the extensive and successful efforts of her Committee +on Church Work told of a circular letter that had been sent to +thousands of clergymen throughout the country asking for a special +sermon in support of woman suffrage on Mothers' Day. It pointed out +that in the vast moral and social reform work of the churches their +women members are denied the weapon of Christian welfare, the ballot, +while the forces of evil are fully enfranchised and the influence of +the churches is thus essentially weakened. + +Mrs. William Kent, in her report as chairman of the Congressional +Committee, said that it had not been necessary to request members to +introduce a resolution for a Federal Suffrage Amendment as six were +offered by as many Representatives of their own volition. Senator +Works of her own State of California had been glad to present it. She +told of the "hearings" before the committees of the two Houses on +March 13, when the National Association sent representatives to +Washington. The preceding day a reception for the speakers was given +in her home and many of the guests became interested who had been +indifferent. In May the Congressional Committee sent out cards for a +"suffrage tea" in her house to the wives of Senators and +Representatives; many were present and interesting addresses were +made. + +Among the resolutions submitted by the chairman of the committee, Mrs. +Raymond Brown, and adopted were the following: + + We reaffirm that our one object and purpose is the + enfranchisement of the women of our country. + + We call upon all our members to rejoice at the winning of the + School vote by the women of Kentucky and at the full + enfranchisement of four more States, Kansas, Oregon, Arizona and + Michigan[75]; and in the fact that at the last election the + electoral vote of women fully enfranchised was nearly doubled, + and to rejoice that all the political parties are now obliged to + reckon with the growing power of the woman vote; and be it + resolved + + That this association believes in the settlement of all disputes + and difficulties, national and international, by arbitration and + judicial methods and not by war. + + That we commend the action of those State Federations of Women's + Clubs which have founded departments for the study of political + economy and we congratulate those clubs which have endorsed our + movement to gain the ballot for all women. + + That we deeply deplore the exploiting of the children of this + country in our labor markets to the detriment and danger of + coming generations; that we commend the action of Congress in the + creation of a National Children's Bureau and President Taft's + appointment of a woman, Miss Julia Lathrop, as head of the + bureau. + + That we commend the efforts of our National Government to end + the white slave traffic; that we urge the passage in our States + of more stringent laws for the protection of women; that we + demand the same standard of morals for men and women and the same + penalties for transgressors; that we call upon women everywhere + to awake to the dangers of the social evil and to hasten the day + when women shall vote and when commercialized vice shall be + exterminated. + +A unique feature of the convention was Men's Night, with James Lees +Laidlaw of New York, president of the National Men's League for Woman +Suffrage of 20,000 members, in the chair and all the speeches made by +men. Miss Blackwell said editorially in the _Woman's Journal_: "From +the very beginning of the equal rights movement courageous and +justice-loving men have stood by the women and have been invaluable +allies in the long fight that is now nearing its triumph but never +before have been actually organized to work for the cause. Men old and +young, men of the most diverse professions, parties and creeds, spoke +with equal earnestness in behalf of equal rights for women." The +speakers were the Hon. Frederick C. Howe, Judge Dimner Beeber, +president of the Pennsylvania League; A. S. G. Taylor of the +Connecticut League; Joseph Fels, the Single Tax leader; Julian Kennedy +of Pittsburgh; George Foster Peabody of New York; the Rev. Wm. R. Lord +of Massachusetts; Jesse Lynch Williams, J. H. Braly of California and +Reginald Wright Kauffman. The last named, whose recently published +book, The House of Bondage, had aroused the country on the "white +slave traffic," discussed this question as perhaps it never before had +been presented in public and he found a sympathetic audience. + +The Rev. James Grattan Mythen, of the Prince of Peace Church, +Walbrook, Md., made a strong demand for the influence of women in the +electorate, in which he said: "Whatever wrongs the law allows must not +be laid entirely at the door of paid public servants whom by the +franchise we employ to do our public will. Where there are criminals +in public office they represent criminals. They represent the active +criminals whose debased ballots put them in office, and they represent +the passive criminals whose ballot was not cast to keep them out! +'That ye did it not' merits as great a condemnation as 'That ye did +it.' What is needed in politics is the reassertion of the moral +ideal, and as men we know that this moral ideal has been, is now and +always will be the possession of womankind. For this reason men ought +to demand that women come into the body politic and bring with them +the same moral standard that they hold for themselves in the home, in +the Church, in the hospitals, in the great reform movements which are +voiced by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and all other +endeavors for righteousness that are always championed by women." + +This was not the time and place arranged for taking a collection but +the enthusiasm was so great that Mr. Fels started the ball rolling and +$2,000 were quickly subscribed. Later at the regular collection the +amount was increased to $6,908. Among the largest pledges were those +of Miss Kate Gleason of Rochester, N.Y., for $1,200; Mrs. Oliver H.P. +Belmont, $1,000; Mrs. Bowen of Chicago, $600; New York State +Association, $600; Pennsylvania State Association, $500; Miss Emily +Howland, $300. The treasurer, Miss Ashley, stated that the receipts +from April 1 to November 1 had been $55,197. + +Dr. Shaw had telegraphed the congratulations of the association to the +Governors of the four victorious States and telegrams of greetings to +the convention were read from Governors Oswald West of Oregon; George +P. Hunt of Arizona; W.R. Stubbs of Kansas; and Chase S. Osborn of +Michigan. Greetings were received from Miss Martina G. Kramers of +Holland, editor of the international suffrage paper; the U.S. National +Council of Women, and from Mrs. Champ Clark and her sister, Mrs. Annie +Pitzer of Colorado, sent through Miss Nettie Lovisa White of +Washington. Telegrams of congratulation were sent to the State +presidents, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon and Mrs. Frances W. +Munds of Arizona, and of sympathy to the Rev. Olympia Brown and Miss +Ada L. James for the defeat in Wisconsin. + +It was voted to continue the national headquarters in New York. There +was a flurry of discussion over a proposed amendment to the +constitution changing the present method of voting, which allowed the +delegates present to cast the entire number of votes to which the +State was entitled by its paid membership. The convention finally +adopted the amendment that hereafter the delegates present should +cast only their individual votes. The election resulted in a change of +but two officers. Professor Breckinridge and Miss Ashley did not stand +for re-election and Miss Anita Whitney of California was chosen for +second vice-president and Mrs. Louise De Koven Bowen of Chicago for +second auditor. + +A serious controversy arose during the convention in regard to the +deviation of some of the national officers from the time-honored +custom of non-partisanship. It had always been the unwritten but +carefully observed law of the association that no member of the board +should advocate or work for any political party. Mrs. George Howard +Lewis, a veteran suffragist of Buffalo, N.Y., sent a resolution to the +convention declaring that officers of the association must remain +non-partisan and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper presented it and led the +contest for it. Dr. Shaw announced before it was discussed that the +board recommended that it should not pass. + +Women had taken a larger part in the political campaign which had just +ended than ever before and one of the officers and many of the +delegates present had spoken and worked for the Progressive party +because of the suffrage plank in its platform. Other members had done +the same for the Socialist and Prohibition parties for a like reason. +As a result, while the resolution had some warm support it was +defeated by a vote of ten to one, although it applied only to the +officers and left individual members free. The consequences of this +vote soon began to be realized by the board and the delegates and in +the official resolutions was one which said: "The National American +Suffrage Association reaffirms the position for which it always has +stood, of being an absolutely non-partisan, non-sectarian body." When +asked for an interpretation the officers answered that "the +association must not declare officially for any political party."[76] + +One of the most enjoyable evenings of the convention was the one in +charge of the National College Equal Suffrage League, the program +consisting of a debate between groups of clever speakers, each +with one or more university degrees, half of them posing as +anti-suffragists, with Dr. Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College and +of the league, in the chair. A suffrage meeting which touched high +water mark was that of Sunday afternoon, when the immense opera house +was filled to overflowing and literally thousands stood on the outside +in the intense cold and listened to speakers who were hastily sent out +to address them. Dr. Shaw presided. The meeting was opened with prayer +by the Rt. Rev. Philip Mercer Rhinelander and the music was rendered +by the choir, under its director, Samuel J. Riegel, with the audience +joining. An eloquent address was given, the Democracy of Sex and +Color, by Dr. W.E. Burghardt Du Bois, and one by Miss Addams on the +Communion of the Ballot, the necessity for cooperative work by men and +women, in which she said: "Take a still graver subject. Everywhere +vice regulation is coming up for government action. The white slave +traffic is international and it goes on from city to city. I ask you, +in the name of common sense, is it safe or wise or sane to entrust to +men alone the dealing with this age-long evil? Our laws are superior +to those of most European countries. In England, because women have +been obliged to appeal to the pity of men against these evils, (for +the appeal to chivalry seems to have fallen), there is a disposition +to divide into two camps, men in one and women in the other. Any sex +antagonism thus engendered arises because these grave moral questions +have not been taken up by men and women together. By debarring women +from suffrage, we are failing to bring to bear on these questions that +vast moral energy which dwells in women.... Whenever there is a great +moral awakening it is followed by an extension of the movement for +women's rights. The first wave came with the anti-slavery agitation; +the second with the prohibition movement and Frances Willard, and now +there is coming all over the world this irresistible movement of +government to take up great social and industrial questions." + +The very fine address of Miss Julia Lathrop, Chief of the National +Children's Bureau, on Woman Suffrage and Child Welfare filled over +five columns of the _Woman's Journal_ and contained a sufficient +argument for the enfranchisement of women if no other ever had been or +should be made. "My purpose," she began, "is to show that woman +suffrage is a natural and inevitable step in the march of society +forward; that instead of being incompatible with child welfare it +leads toward it and is indeed the next great service to be rendered +for the welfare and ennoblement of the home. A little more than +one-third of all the people in this country, something over 29,500,000 +in actual numbers, are children under the age of fifteen--that is, +still in a state of tutelage; and it is of unbounded importance that +nothing be done by the rest of us which will injure this budding +growth. So it is right to judge in large measure any proposed change +in our social fabric by its probable effect on that dependent third of +the race to whom we are pledged, for whose succession it is the work +of this generation to prepare. What we propose is to give universal +suffrage to women." + +Answering the question, "Do we propose a mad revolution?" she traced +the development in the position of woman, every step of which was +condemned at the time as a dangerous innovation. "It was a revolution +when women were given equal property rights over their goods and equal +rights over their children," she said. "We must blush that there are +States in this country where that revolution is still to be +accomplished. I have heard an old Illinois lawyer describe the early +efforts to secure equal property rights for women in that State and +the constant objection that such laws would destroy the family, that +there could be no harmony unless the ownership were all in one person +and that person the man. It was feared then, as now, that women would +become tyrannical and unbearable if they were allowed too much +independence. Do children suffer because their mothers own property?" +She pointed out the necessity for woman's political influence on +humanitarian movements and said: "Suffrage for women is not the final +word in human freedom but it is the next step in the onward march, +because it is the next step in equalizing the rights and balancing the +duties of the two types of individuals who make up the human race." + +Miss Lathrop showed the need of legislation for all social reforms and +how the experience of women beginning with domestic duties carried +them forward to a sense of their obligations in community life and a +fitness for it. Referring to the uneducated women she said: "The +ignorant vote is not the working vote. Working women in great +organized factories have been having, since they began that work, an +education for the suffrage. They are not the ignorant voters nor are +wives of workingmen; at least, they know in part what they need to +safeguard themselves and their homes. The ignorant vote is the +complacent, blind vote of men and of the feminine 'influence' that +moves them, which disregards the real problems of setting safe and +wholesome standards of life and labor and education and spends its +strength in looking backward, insisting upon precedents without seeing +that, good and enduring as they may be, all precedents must be daily +retranslated into the setting of today. "Women must vote for their own +souls' good," she said, "and they must vote to protect the family. The +newer conception of the family is one which depends upon giving to +both parents the fullest expression on all those matters of common +concern." + +The address closed with a fine peroration--Pass on the Torch! In the +evening the officers of the association gave a largely attended +reception to delegates and friends in the banquet hall of Hotel +Walton. + +The closing night of the convention was one long to be remembered. +There was the same vast, eager audience: Dr. Shaw presided and on the +platform was the distinguished Apostle of Peace, winner of the Nobel +prize, Baroness Bertha von Suttner, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, just +returned from a two-years' trip around the world. The meeting was +opened by the Rt. Rev. James Henry Darlington, bishop of central +Pennsylvania, whose brief address was of great value to the cause. He +congratulated the American people on the fact that four more States +had been added to the ever-growing list of those which had given the +suffrage to women and he called upon all observers to notice that no +State which had once voted in woman suffrage had ever voted it out. +Once in use, local opposition to it ceased by reason of the +self-evident good results. He offered congratulations to those who +were humble privates in the ranks and to the famous and brave leaders +who organized the victories. "As the Elizabethan and Victorian eras +are the most distinguished for philanthropic, literary and economic +advancement in the whole history of Great Britain, though the Kings +were many and the Queens were few in the long line," he said, "so no +man need be ashamed to follow feminine leadership when it means +advancement in every good word and work," and he offered +congratulations to little children of the future generations of this +and all lands. "When our anti-suffrage sisters throw aside their +complacency and selfish ease," he said, "to strive side by side with +men to formulate and pass necessary laws to protect and develop the +bodies, minds and souls of our present little children and all that +are to come through the passing centuries, then will dawn a new day +for humanity." + +Brief addresses were made by Mrs. Blankenburg, Miss Jane Campbell and +Professor Breckinridge of Chicago University. Miss Crystal Eastman +gave a graphic account of why the amendment failed in Wisconsin and +Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, State president, told in her inimitable way +of the campaign that failed in Ohio. Baroness von Suttner made a +magnificent plea for the peace of the world and asked for the +enfranchisement of women as an absolutely necessary factor in it. The +dominant note of Mrs. Catt's speech was the great need for political +power in the hands of women to combat the social evil, which she had +found intrenched in the governments of every country. These last two +addresses, which carried thrilling conviction to every heart, were +made without notes and not published. + + * * * * * + +From the early days of the National Suffrage Association its +representatives had appeared before committees of every Congress to +ask for the submission of an amendment to the Federal Constitution and +during many years this "hearing" took place when the annual convention +met in Washington. As it was to be held elsewhere this year and at a +time when the Congress was not in session a delegation of speakers had +gone before the committees the preceding March by arrangement of Mrs. +William Kent, chairman of the association's Congressional Committee. + +At the hearing before a joint committee of the Senate Judiciary and +Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage March 13 six of the members were +present: Senators Overman (N. C.), chairman; Brandegee (Conn.); +Bourne (Ore.); Brown (Neb.); Johnston (Ala.); Wetmore (R. I.). Senator +John D. Works of California, who had introduced the resolution in the +Senate, presented Dr. Anna Howard Shaw as "one of the best known and +most distinguished of those connected with the movement for the +enfranchisement of women." As she took charge of the hearing she said +in part: + + Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee, this is the + forty-third year that the women suffragists have been represented + by delegations appointed by the national body to speak in behalf + of resolutions which have been introduced to eliminate from the + Constitution of the United States in effect the word "male," to + eliminate all disqualifications for suffrage on account of sex. + The desire of our association is not so much to put on record the + opinions of this committee in regard to woman suffrage as to + plead with it to give a favorable report, so that the question + can come before the Congress, be discussed on its merits and then + submitted to the various States for ratification. The Federal + Constitution guarantees to every State a republican form of + government--that is, a government in which the laws are enacted + by representatives elected by the people--and we claim that it + has violated its own principle in refusing to protect women in + their right to select their representatives, so we are asking for + no more than that the Constitution shall be carried out by the U. + S. Government. As the president of the National Suffrage + Association, I stand here in the place of a woman who gave sixty + years of her life in advocacy of that grand principle for which + so many of our ancestors died, Miss Susan B. Anthony. There is + not a woman here today who was at the first hearing, nor a woman + alive today who was among those that struggled in the beginning + for this fundamental right of every citizen. I now introduce Mrs. + Susan Walker Fitzgerald of Massachusetts. It has been said that + women cannot fight. Mrs. Fitzgerald's father was an Admiral of + the Navy and if she can not fight her father could. + +Mrs. Fitzgerald spoke at length in the interest of the home and the +family, showing the evolution that had taken place until now "the +Government touches upon every phase of our home life and largely +dictates its conditions while at the same time the woman is held +responsible for them and is working with her hands tied behind her +back and she asks the vote in order to do her woman's work better." +Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw of New York spoke beautifully of the desire of +the mothers of the rising generation that their daughters should not +have to enter the hard struggle for the suffrage and pictured the need +for the highest development of the womanly character. Mrs. Elsie Cole +Phillips of Wisconsin showed the standpoint of the so-called working +classes, saying in part: + + The right to vote is based primarily on the democratic theory of + government. "The just powers of government are derived from the + consent of the governed." What does that mean? Does it not mean + that there is no class so wise, so benevolent that it is fitted + to govern any other class? Does it not mean that in order to have + a democratic government every adult in the community must have an + opportunity to express his opinion as to how he wishes to be + governed and to have that opinion counted? A vote is in the last + analysis an expression of a need--either a personal need known to + one as an individual as it can be known to no one else, or an + expression of a need of those in whom we are + interested--sister-women or children, for instance. The moment + that one admits this concept of the ballot that moment + practically all of the anti-suffrage argument is done away + with.... Is it to strengthen the hands of the strong? Oh, no; it + is to put into the hands of the weak a weapon of self-protection. + And who are the weak? Those who are economically + handicapped--first of all the working classes in their struggle + for better conditions of life and labor. And who among the + workers are the weak? Wherever the men have suffered, the women + have suffered more. + + But I would also like to point out to you how this affects the + homekeeping woman, the wife and mother, of the working class, + aside from the wage-earning woman. Consider the woman at home who + must make both ends meet on a small income. Who better than she + knows whether or not the cost of living advances more rapidly + than the wage does? Is not that a true statement in the most + practical form of the problem of the tariff? And who better than + she knows what the needs of the workers are in the factories? + Take the tenement-house woman, the wife and mother who is + struggling to bring up a family under conditions which constantly + make for evil. Who, better than the mother who has tried to bring + up six or seven children in one room in a dark tenement house, + knows the needs of a proper building? Who better than the mother + who sees her boy and her girl playing in the streets knows the + need of playgrounds? Who better than a mother knows what it means + to a child's life--which you men demand that she as a wife and a + mother shall care for especially--who, better than she, knows the + cruel pressure that comes to that child from too early labor in + what the U. S. census report calls "gainful occupations"? + + There is a practical wisdom that comes out of the pressure of + life and an educational force in life itself which very often is + more efficient than that which comes through textbooks of + college.... The ignorant vote that is going to come in when women + are enfranchised is that of the leisure-class woman, who has no + responsibilities and knows nothing of what life means to the rest + of the world, who has absolutely no civic or social + intelligence. But, fortunately for us, she is a small percentage + of the women of this land, and fortunately for the land there is + no such rapid means of education for her as to give her the + ballot and let her for the first time feel responsibilities.... + + Now the time has come when the home and the State are one. Every + act, every duty of the mother in the home is affected by + something the State does or does not do, and the only way in + which we are ever going to have our national housekeeping and our + national child-rearing done as it should be is by bringing into + the councils of the State the wisdom of women. + +James Lees Laidlaw of New York was introduced as president of the +National Men's League for Woman Suffrage and after stating that such +leagues were being organized throughout the country he spoke of the +great change that had taken place in the status of women and said: + + Most important of all is the change of woman's position in + industrial, commercial and educational fields. We are all + familiar with the exodus of millions of women from the home into + the mill and the factory. Today they may enter freely into + business either as principal or employee. I was astonished to + hear reported at a recent meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in + New York that in the commercial high schools of that city, where + a business education is given, 85 per cent. of the pupils are + girls. We have today a great body of intelligent citizens with + many interests in the Government besides their primary interests + as mothers and home-keepers. If men are not going to take the + next logical step they have made a great mistake in going thus + far. Why give women property rights if we give them no rights in + making the laws governing the control and disposition of their + property and no vote as to who shall have the spending of tax + money? Why give women the right to go into business or trades, + either as employees or employers, without the right to control + the conditions surrounding their business or trades? Why train + women to be better mothers and better housekeepers and refuse + them the right to say what laws shall be passed to protect their + children and homes? Why train women to be teachers, lawyers, + doctors and scientists and say to them: "Now you have assumed new + responsibilities, go out into the world and compete with men," + and then handicap them by depriving them of political expression? + Women now have the opportunity for equal mental development with + men. Is it right or is it politically expedient that we should + not avail ourselves of their special knowledge concerning those + matters which vitally affect the human race?... + +Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association +and member of the national board, contrasted the old academic plea for +the ballot with the modern demand for it to meet the present +intensely utilitarian age and continued: "Today we know that the +ballot is just a machine. In fact it impresses us as being something +like the long-distance telephone which we in this scientific age have +grown accustomed to use. We go into the polling booth and call up +central (the Government) and when we get the connection we deliver our +message with accuracy and speed and then we go about our business. +Women have been encouraged during the past to have opinions about +governmental matters and there is no denying that we do have opinions. +If we could submit to you today the list of bills which the +Federations of Women's Clubs of the various States have endorsed and +for which they are working you would know that women have a large +civic conscience and an intelligent appreciation of the measures which +affect both women and the homes. They have been encouraged to have +these opinions but to try to influence legislation only in indirect +ways. Today, being practical and scientific, we are asking ourselves +all the time why should we be limited to expressing our opinion on +governmental affairs in our women's clubs? Why should we breathe them +only in the prayer meeting or in the parlors of our friends? Why not +directly into the governmental ear--the ballot box? Why do we not go +into that long-distance telephone booth, get connection with central, +and then know that our message has been delivered in the only place +where it is recorded. The Government makes no record whatever of the +opinions which we express in our women's clubs and our prayer +meetings." + +Mrs. Caroline A. Lowe of Kansas City, Mo., spoke in behalf of the +7,000,000 wage-earning women of the United States from the standpoint +of one who had earned her living since she was eighteen and declared +that to them the need of the ballot was a vital one. She gave +heart-breaking proofs of this fact and said: + + From the standpoint of wages received we wage earners know it to + be almost universal that the men in the industries receive twice + the amount granted to us although we may be doing the same work. + We work side by side with our brothers; we are children of the + same parents, reared in the same homes, educated in the same + schools, ride to and fro on the same early morning and late + evening cars, work together the same number of hours in the same + shops and we have equal need of food, clothing and shelter. But + at 21 years of age our brothers are given a powerful weapon for + self-defense, a larger means for growth and self-expression. We + working women, because we find our sex not a source of strength + but a source of weakness and a greater opportunity for + exploitation, have even greater need of this weapon which is + denied to us. Is there any justice underlying such a condition? + + What of the working girl and her employer? Why is the ballot + given to him while it is denied to us? Is it for the protection + of his property that he may have a voice in the governing of his + wealth, of his stocks and bonds and merchandise? The wealth of + the working woman is far more precious to the welfare of the + State. From nature's raw products the working class can readily + replace all of the material wealth owned by the employing class + but the wealth of the working woman is the wealth of flesh and + blood, of all her physical, mental and spiritual powers. It is + not only the wealth of today but that of future generations which + is being bartered away so cheaply. Have we no right to a voice in + the disposal of our wealth, the greatest that the world + possesses, the priceless wealth of its womanhood? Is it not the + cruelest injustice that the man whose material wealth is a source + of strength and protection to him and of power over us should be + given the additional advantage of an even greater weapon which he + can use to perpetuate our condition of helpless subjection?... + The industrial basis of the life of the woman has changed and the + political superstructure must be adjusted to conform to it. This + industrial change has given to woman a larger horizon, a greater + freedom of action in the industrial world. Greater freedom and + larger expression are at hand for her in the political life. The + time is ripe for the extension of the franchise to women. + + We do not come before you to beg of you the granting of any + favor. We present to you a glorious opportunity to place + yourselves abreast of the current of this great evolutionary + movement. + +Mrs. Donald Hooker of Baltimore gave striking instances of the +conditions in that State regarding the social evil, of the hundreds of +virtuous girls who every year are forced into a life of shame, of the +thousands of children who die because mothers have no voice in making +laws for their protection. "There was never a great act of injustice," +she said, "that was not paid for in human life and happiness. A great +act of injustice is being perpetrated by denying women the right to +vote." + +Miss Leonora O'Reilly, a leader among the working women of New York, +made an impassioned plea that carried conviction. "I have been a +wage-earner since I was thirteen," she said, "and I know whereof I +speak. I want to make you realize the lives of hundreds of girls I +have seen go down in this struggle for bread. We working women want +the ballot as our right. You say it is not a right but a privilege. +Then we demand it as a privilege. All women ought to have it, +wage-earning women must have it." After plainer speaking than the +committee had ever heard from a woman she concluded: "You may tell us +that our place is in the home. There are 8,000,000 of us in these +United States who must go out of it to earn our daily bread and we +come to tell you that while we are working in the mills, the mines, +the factories and the mercantile houses we have not the protection +that we should have. You have been making laws for us and the laws you +have made have not been good for us. Year after year working women +have gone to the Legislature in every State and have tried to tell +their story of need in the same old way. They have gone believing in +the strength of the big brother, believing that the big brother could +do for them what they should, as citizens, do for themselves. They +have seen time after time the power of the big interests come behind +the big brother and say to him, 'If you grant the request of these +working women you die politically.' + +"It is because the working women have seen this that they now demand +the ballot. In New York and in every other State, we plead for shorter +hours. When the legislators learn that women today in every industry +are being overspeeded and overworked, most of them would, if they +dared, vote protective legislation. Why do they neglect the women? We +answer, because those who have the votes have the power to take the +legislator's political ladder away from him, a power that we, who have +no votes, do not have.... While the doors of the colleges have been +opened to the fortunate women of our country, only one woman in a +thousand goes into our colleges, while one woman in five must go into +industry to earn her living. And it is for the protection of this one +woman in every five that I speak...." + +Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield, chairman of the Woman Suffrage Party of New +York numbering 60,000 members, said in part: + + In the few moments given me I will confine myself to the handicap + women have found disfranchisement to be in social-service work. + It is supposed by many that because our so-called leisure women + have been able to do so much apparently good community betterment + work without the ballot we do not need it. I should like to ask + you to remember that the important thing is not that women + succeed in this kind of work but that where they do succeed it is + at tremendous and needless expenditure of energy and vital + strength and at the cost of dignity and self-respect. + + The dominant thought in the world today is that of conservation; + the tendency of the whole business world is toward economy. How + to lessen the cost of production; how to improve the machinery of + business so as to reduce friction--these are the questions that + are being asked not only in the business world but in the affairs + of state. No intelligent man in this scientific day would try to + do anything by an indirect and wasteful method if he could + accomplish his purpose by a direct and economic method. Even the + bricklayer is taught how to handle his bricks so that the best + results may be secured at the least possible expenditure of time + and energy. Women alone seem to represent a great body of energy, + vitality and talent which is unconserved, unutilized and + recklessly wasted. If a man wants reforms he goes armed with a + vote to the ballot box and even to the Legislature with that + power of the vote behind him; but if women want these things they + are asked to take the long, questionable, roundabout route of + personal influence, of petition, of indirection. Women have + accomplished a great deal in this way but it has required a long + time.... Take, for instance, one class of work--the establishment + of manual training, domestic science, open-air schools, school + gardens and playgrounds--all once just "women's notions" but now + established institutions. Women have had to found and finance and + demonstrate them before municipalities would have anything to do + with them, but when city or State adopts these institutions the + management is immediately and entirely taken out of the hands of + women and placed in the hands of men.... + + Among thinking women there is a growing consciousness of being + cut off, shut out from the civic life in which they have an equal + stake with men. We ask you to recognize that the time is here for + you to submit an amendment to the States for ratification which + will give women the influence and power of the suffrage. + +In closing Dr. Shaw asked that her association might have some printed +copies for distribution and was assured that it might have fifteen or +twenty thousand if it desired them. She also urged that the committee +would report the resolution to the Senate for discussion and as a +third request said: "We are told that men are afraid to grant women +suffrage lest fearful results should come to the Government and to the +women. We have asked for years that Congress would appoint a committee +to investigate its practical working in the States where it +exists--there are now six of them--and we are entirely willing to risk +our case on that investigation. We feel that its results would be +such that we would not have to come here much longer and take up your +time with our arguments on the subject." + +Franklin W. Collins of Nebraska spoke in opposition, presenting his +case in a series of over fifty questions but not attempting to answer +any of them. Among the questions were these: If woman by her ballot +should plunge the country into war, would she not be in honor bound to +fight by the side of man? Will the ballot in the hands of women pour +oil on the troubled domestic waters? Has not this movement a strong +tendency to encourage the exodus from the land of bondage, otherwise +known as matrimony and motherhood? Is it not true that every +free-lover, socialist, communist and anarchist the country over is +openly in favor of female suffrage? + +The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage sent from its +bureau in New York a letter of "earnest protest" against the amendment +signed by its president, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge. Its auxiliary in the +District of Columbia sent another of greater length signed by its +chairman, Mrs. Grace Duffield Goodwin, which not only protested +against a Federal Amendment but against the granting of woman suffrage +by any method. + + * * * * * + +Six members of the House of Representatives had introduced the +resolution for a Federal Suffrage Amendment--Raker of California; +Lafferty of Oregon; Mondell of Wyoming; Berger of Wisconsin; and +Taylor and Rucker of Colorado. The hearing before the Judiciary +Committee proved to be of unusual interest. Sixteen of this large +committee of twenty-one were present and a reason given for the +absence of the others. They were an imposing array as they sat in a +semi-circle on a raised platform. The chairman, Judge Henry D. Clayton +of Alabama, treated the speakers as if they were his personal guests, +assured them of all the time they desired and at the close of the +hearing was photographed with Miss Addams and Mrs. Harper. Instead of +listening in a perfunctory way the members of the committee showed +much interest and asked many questions. Miss Jane Addams, first +vice-president of the National American Suffrage Association, presided +and in presenting her with words of highest praise Representative +Taylor said that all who had introduced the resolution would be +pleased to speak in support of it at any time and that personally he +wished to put in the record a statement of the results of woman +suffrage in Colorado during the past eighteen years with a brief +mention of 150 of the wisest, most humane and progressive laws in the +country for the protection of home and the betterment of society, +which the women of Colorado had caused to be put upon its statute +books. + +Miss Addams called the attention of the committee to the fact that +more than a million women would be eligible to vote for the President +of the United States in November. She named the countries where women +could vote, saying: "America, far from being in the lead in the +universal application of the principle that every adult is entitled to +the ballot, is fast falling behind the rest of the world," and +continued: + + As I have been engaged for a good many years in various + philanthropic undertakings, perhaps you will permit me, for only + a few moments, to speak from my experience. A good many women + with whom I have been associated have initiated and carried + forward philanthropic enterprises which were later taken over by + the city and thereupon the women have been shut out from the + opportunity to do the self-same work which they had done up to + that time. In Chicago the women for many years supported school + nurses who took care of the children, made them comfortable and + kept them from truancy. When the nurses were taken over by the + health department of the city the same women who had given them + their support and management were excluded from doing anything + more, and I think Chicago will bear me out when I say that the + nurses are not now doing as good work as they did before this + happened. I could also use the illustration of the probation + officers who are attached to the juvenile court. For a number of + years women selected and supported these probation officers. + Later, when the same officers, paid the same salary, were taken + over by the county and paid from the county funds, the women who + had been responsible for the initiation and beginning of the + probation system and for the early management of the officers, + had no more to do with them and at the present moment the + juvenile court has fallen behind its former position in the + juvenile courts of the world. I think the fair-minded men of + Chicago will admit that it was a disaster when the women were + disqualified by their lack of the franchise to care for it. The + juvenile court has to do largely with delinquent and dependent + children and there is no doubt that on the whole women can deal + with such cases better than men because their natural interests + lie in that direction. I could give you many other examples.... + So it seems fair to say that if women are to keep on with the + work which they have done since the beginning of the world--to + continue with their humanitarian efforts which are so rapidly + being taken over into the Government, and which when thus taken + over are often not properly administered, women themselves must + have the franchise.... + +Introducing Representative Raker Miss Addams said smilingly that while +the women speakers were allowed ten minutes the men were to have but +five. Judge Raker of California referred to the fact that he had +pledged himself to this Federal Amendment when he was first a +candidate for Congress eight years before and said: "This matter, as +it appears to me, has passed beyond the question of sentiment; it has +passed beyond the question of advisability; it has passed beyond the +question of whether or not women ought to participate in the vote for +the benefit of the home or the benefit of the State. As I view it it +is a clean-cut question of absolute right and upon that assumption I +base my argument--that we today are depriving one-half of the +intelligence, one-half of the ability of this republic from +participating in public affairs and that from the economic standpoint +of better laws, better homes, better government in the country, the +city, the State and the nation, we need our wives', our sisters' and +our mothers' votes and assistance." + +"May I introduce one of my own fellow townswomen, Miss Mary E. +McDowell," said Miss Addams, "who has had what I may call a +distressing life in the stockyards district of Chicago for many years, +and she will tell you what she thinks of the franchise for women." +Miss McDowell said in part: + + We are all together very human, it seems to me, both men and + women, and it is because we are human, because this is a human + proposition and not a woman proposition, that I am glad to speak + for it and believe in it so firmly. Giving the vote to women is + not simply a woman's question, it has to do with the man, the + child and the home. Women have always worked but within much less + than a century millions of women and girls have been thrust out + of the home into a man-made world of industry and commerce. We + know that in the United States over 5,500,000, according to the + census of 1900, are bread winners.... Do we not see that the + working women must be given every safeguard that workingmen have + and now as they stand side by side with men in the factory and + shop they must stand with them politically? The ballot may be but + a small bit of the machinery that is to lift the mass of + wage-earning women up to a higher plane of self-respect and + self-protection but will it not add the balance of power so much + needed by the workingmen in their struggle for protective + legislation, which will in the end be shared by the women? Today + women are cheap, unskilled labor and will be until organization + and technical training and the responsibility of the vote in + their hands develop a consciousness of their social value.... + + The vote and all that it implies will awaken this sense of value. + It will give to the wage-earning woman a new status in industry, + for men will help to educate her when she is a political as well + as an industrial co-worker. As man gave strength to the + developing of the institution of the home so woman must be given + the opportunity to help man humanize the State. This can be done + only when she has the ballot and shares the responsibility. + +Representative A. W. Lafferty of Oregon said in his brief five +minutes: "I believe it is not only practicable but that it would be +profitable to the United States to extend equal suffrage to men and +women. We have had here this morning a practical demonstration of the +ability of the women of this country to participate intelligently in +the discussion of public questions. I think that we could not make a +mistake in placing the ballot in the hand that rocks the cradle. +Having only the best interests of this republic at heart, I believe it +would be a good thing if fifty of the mothers of this country were in +the House of Representatives today and I wish that at least +twenty-five of them were in the Senate. You should consider, as +lawyers, as statesmen and as historians that in the history of the +civilized world in monarchies women have participated in the +Government; it is a shame that in a republic like ours, the best form +of government that has ever yet been established, women can not, under +the present law, actively participate in it." + +The address which Representative Edward T. Taylor put into the +_Congressional Record_ on this occasion was also printed in a pamphlet +of forty pages and until the end of the movement for woman suffrage +was a standard document for distribution by the National Association. +He said in the introduction: + + I want to recite in a plain, conversational way some of my + personal experiences and individual observations extending over a + period of thirty years of public life, during nearly nineteen + years of which we have had equal suffrage in Colorado.... + + When I came to Congress I did not realize and I have not yet been + able fully to understand the deep-seated prejudice, bias and even + vindictiveness against woman suffrage and the astounding amount + of misinformation there is everywhere here in the East concerning + its practical operation. I have been equally amazed and indignant + at the many brazen assertions I have seen in the papers and heard + that are perfectly absurd and without the slightest foundation in + fact, and I have had many heated discussions on the subject + during the past three years. When I hear men and women who have + never spent a week and most of them not an hour in an equal + suffrage State attempt to discuss the subject from the standpoint + of their own preconceived prejudices and idle impressions, I feel + like saying: "May the Lord forgive them for they know not what + they do." Let me say to them and to my colleagues in the House + that it will not be ten years before the women of this country + from the Pacific to the Atlantic will have the just and equal + rights of American citizenship.[77] + + Since coming here I have been frequently asked by friends what we + think of woman suffrage in Colorado, and when I tell them that it + is an unqualified success and that I doubt if even five per cent. + of the people of the State would vote to repeal it, they ask me + what it has accomplished. I believe it is generally conceded by + enlightened people that the laws of a State are a true index of + its degree of civilization. I will, therefore, give a brief + catalogue of some of the most important of the 150 legislative + measures that have been either introduced by the women or at the + request of the various women's organizations and enacted into + law. + +Then followed under the head of different years, beginning with 1893, +that in which women were enfranchised, a roster of Colorado's +unequalled laws. These were followed by a complete analysis of the +practical working of woman suffrage during the past eighteen years, +with comprehensive answers to all the stereotyped questions and +objections. + +Several who had addressed the Senate Committee came over to the House +office building and spoke to the Judiciary Committee. Mrs. William +Kent, wife of a Representative from California, was introduced by Miss +Addams as one who was not a member of the House but was eligible. In +the course of a winning speech she said: "The United States is +committed to a democratic form of government, a government by the +people. Those who do not believe in the ideals of democracy are the +only ones who can consistently oppose woman suffrage. The hope of +democracy is in education. There is food for thought in the fact that +the early education of all the citizens is now administered by a class +who have no vote.... Our recent California Legislature when it +submitted the amendments which were to be referred to the voters on +October 10 did a very sensible and intelligent thing. Speeches for and +against each one of these amendments were published in a little +pamphlet which was sent to every voter. One man--and he was a good +man, too--who argued against woman suffrage said that women should not +descend into the dirty mire of politics, that the vote would be of no +value to them. In the same speech he said that the women should teach +their sons the sacred duties of citizens and to hold the ballot as the +most precious inheritance of every American boy. Can we really bring +up our sons with a clear sense of the civic responsibility which we +ourselves have not? We believe that our children need what we shall +learn in becoming voters and that the State needs what we have learned +in being mothers and home makers." + +"May I present next," said Miss Addams, "Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, of +New York? She has been before other Congressional committees with Miss +Susan B. Anthony, who for so many years came here to present this +cause. Mrs. Harper has written a history of the equal suffrage +movement and a very fine biography of Miss Anthony and it is with +special pleasure that I present her. She will make the constitutional +argument." + +Mrs. Harper said in beginning: "This argument shall be based entirely +on the Federal Constitution and the only authorities cited will be the +utterances of two Presidents of the United States within the past +month." She then quoted from speeches of President Taft and former +President Roosevelt extolling the Constitution as guaranteeing +self-government to all the people with the right to change it when +this seems necessary, and she showed the utter fallacy of this +statement when applied to women. In closing she said: "Forty-three +years in asking Congress for this amendment of the Federal +Constitution to enfranchise women they have followed an entirely legal +and constitutional method of procedure, which has been so absolutely +barren of results that in the past nineteen years the committees have +made no report whatever, either favorable or unfavorable. How much +longer do you expect women to treat with respect National and State +constitutions and legislative bodies that stand thus an impenetrable +barrier between them and their rights as citizens of the United +States?" A long colloquy followed which began: + + The Chairman: The committee will be very glad to have you extend + your remarks to answer a question propounded by Mr. Littleton + awhile ago. I wish to say that this committee, during my service + on it, has always been met with this proposition when this + amendment was proposed, that the States already have the + authority to confer suffrage upon women, and, therefore, why is + it necessary for women to wait for an amendment to the Federal + Constitution when they can now go to the States and obtain this + right to vote, just as the women of California did last year? + + Mrs. Harper: Mr. Chairman, the women are not waiting; they are + keeping right on with their efforts to get the suffrage from the + States. They began in 1867 with their State campaigns and have + continued them ever since, but in sending the women to the States + you require them to make forty-eight campaigns and to go to the + individual electors to get permission to vote. After the Civil + War the Republican party with all its power and with only the + northern States voting, was never able to get the suffrage for + the negroes. The leaders went to State after State, even to + Kansas, with its record for freeing the negroes, and every State + turned down the proposition to give them suffrage. I doubt if the + individual voters of many States would give the suffrage to any + new class, even of men. The capitalists would not let the working + people vote if they could help it, and the working people would + not let the capitalists vote; Catholics would not enfranchise the + Protestants and the Protestants would not give the vote to + Catholics. You impose upon us an intolerable condition when you + send us to the individual voters. What man on this committee + would like to submit his electoral rights to the voters of New + York City, for instance, representing as they do every + nationality in the world? If we could secure this amendment to + the Federal Constitution, then we could deal with the + Legislatures, with the selected men in each State, instead of the + great conglomerate of voters that we have in this country, such + as does not exist in any other. + + The Chairman: But if one of these suffrage resolutions should be + favorably reported and both Houses of Congress should pass it of + course it would be referred to the States and then before it + became a law it would have to have their approval. + + Mrs. Harper: Only of the Legislatures, not the individual voters. + + The Chairman: You use an expression which a member of the + committee has asked me to have you explain--"conglomerate of + voters," which you said does not exist elsewhere. The desire is + to know to whom you refer. + + Mrs. Harper: I mean no disrespect to the great body of electors + in the United States but in every other country the voters are + the people of its own nationality. In no other would the question + have to go to the nationalities of the whole world as it would in + our country. For instance, we have to submit our question to the + negro and to the Indian men, when we go to the individual voters, + and to the native-born Chinese and to all those men from southern + Europe who are trained in the idea of woman's inferiority. You + put upon us conditions which are not put upon women anywhere in + the world outside the United States. + + Mr. Littleton (N. Y.): You would have to convince every + legislator of the fact that this amendment to the National + Constitution ought to be adopted. If you could convince the + Legislatures of three-fourths of the States you could get + three-fourths of them to grant the suffrage itself. + + Mrs. Harper: They could only grant it to the extent of sending us + to the individual voters, while if this amendment were submitted + by Congress and the Legislatures endorsed it we would never have + to deal with the individual voters. We would not have to convince + every legislator but only a majority. + + Mr. Higgins (Conn.): In other words, as I understand you, you + have more confidence in the Legislatures than in the composite + citizenship. + + Mrs. Harper: The composite male citizenship, you mean. We + suppose, of course, that the Legislatures represent the picked + men of the community, its intelligence, its judgment, the best + that the country has. That is the supposition. + + The Chairman: That supposition applies to Congress also, does it? + + Mrs. Harper: In a larger degree. + +Representative Victor L. Berger of Wisconsin, who was out of the city, +sent a statement which Miss Addams requested Mrs. Elsie Cole Phillips +of Wisconsin to read to the committee. It said in part: + + Woman suffrage is a necessity from both a political and an + economic standpoint. We can never have democratic rule until we + let the women vote. We can never have real freedom until the + women are free. Women are now citizens in all but the main + expression of citizenship--the exercise of the vote. They need + this power to round out and complete their citizenship.... In + political matters they have much the same interests that we men + have. In State and national issues their interests differ little, + if at all, from ours. In municipal questions they have an even + greater interest than we have. All the complex questions of + housing, schooling, policing, sanitation and kindred matters are + peculiarly the interests of women as the home makers and the + rearers of children. Women need and must have the ballot by which + to protect their interests in these political and administrative + questions. + + The economic argument for woman suffrage is yet stronger. + Economics plays an increasingly important part in the lives of + us all and political power is absolutely necessary to obtain for + women the possibility of decent conditions of living. The low pay + and the hard conditions of working women are largely due to their + disenfranchisement. Skilled women who do the same work as men for + lower pay could enforce, with the ballot, an equal wage rate. + + The ideal woman of the man of past generations (and especially of + the Germans) was the housewife, the woman who could wash, cook, + scrub, knit stockings, make dresses for herself and her children + and take good care of the house. That ideal has become + impossible. Those good old days, if ever they were good, are gone + forever.... Moreover, then the woman was supported by her father + first and later by her husband. The situation is entirely + different now. The woman has to go to work often when she is no + more than fourteen years old. She surely has to go to work + sometime if she belongs to the working class. She must make her + own living in the factory, the store, the office, the schoolroom. + She must work to support herself and often her family. The + economic basis of the life of woman has changed and therefore the + basis of the argument that she should not vote because she ought + to stay at home and take care of her family has been destroyed. + She cannot stay at home whether she wants to or not. She has + acquired the economic functions of the man and she ought also to + acquire the franchise. + +Mr. Berger called attention to the fact that "the Socialist party ever +since its origin had been steadfastly for woman suffrage and put this +demand of prime importance in all its platforms everywhere." +Representative Littleton made a persistent effort to ally woman +suffrage with Socialism, saying that he "had noticed the identity +during the past two years" and Mrs. Harper answered: "I wish to remind +Mr. Littleton that the Socialist party is the only one which declares +for woman suffrage and thereby gives women an opportunity to come out +and stand by it. The Democratic and Republican parties do not stand +for woman suffrage and that is why there seem to be more Socialist +women than Republican or Democratic women. If the two old parties will +declare for woman suffrage, then the women in general will show their +colors." + +Miss Ella C. Brehaut, member of the executive committee of the +District Anti-Suffrage Association, stated that she also represented +the National organization and when questioned by Representative +Sterling as to the size of its membership answered: "It is too new for +us to know the figures." Miss Brehaut's address filled six printed +pages of the stenographic report and was an attempt to refute all the +favorable arguments that had been made and to show that not only were +the suffrage leaders Socialists but "free lovers" as well. +"Conservative women can see nothing but danger in woman suffrage," she +concluded. Mrs. Julia T. Waterman, of the District association, sent +to be put in the report a statement which filled ten pages of fine +print, a full summary of the objections to woman suffrage as expressed +in speeches, articles and documents of various kinds, with quotations +from prominent opponents in the United States and Great Britain. It +was a very complete presentation of the question. + +Miss Addams in closing urged the appointment of a commission by +Congress to make a thorough investigation in the States where woman +suffrage was established and the chairman answered that "the committee +would probably wish to take this matter under advisement in executive +session." She thanked him for their courtesy and asked if the National +Suffrage Association might have 10,000 copies of the hearing for +distribution. This request was cheerfully granted by the committee and +the chairman offered to "frank" them as a public document. [Later the +committee increased the number to 16,000.] + +Apparently the matter never was considered, as no report, favorable or +unfavorable, ever was made by either committee. In so far as bringing +the Federal Amendment before Senate or House for action was concerned +the hearings might as well never have taken place, but 26,000 franked +copies of the splendid arguments before the two committees went forth +to accomplish the mission of educating public sentiment. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[72] Part of Call: This convention has big problems confronting it, +interesting, stimulating problems coincident with the tremendous +expansion of our government, problems worthy the indomitable mettle of +suffrage workers; but in spite of hard work, this week will be a gala +week, a compensation for all the hard, dull, gray work during the past +year and a stimulus for still harder work during the year to come.... + +Let us listen to our fellow workers, and, listening and sympathizing +with the unselfish labor being carried on everywhere, pledge ourselves +to a flaming loyalty to suffrage and suffragists that will burn away +all dross of dissension, all barriers to united effort. Let us come +with high resolve that we will never waver in our effort to obtain the +right to stand side by side with the men of this country in the mortal +struggle that shall bid perish from this land political corruption, +privilege, prostitution, the industrial slavery of men, women and +children and all exploitation of humanity. + +Let us come together, in this autumn of 1912, this unprecedented year +of suffrage, consecrating ourselves anew on this, the greatest of all +battlegrounds for democracy, the United States of America. + + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + JANE ADDAMS, First Vice-President. + SOPHONISBA BRECKINRIDGE, Second Vice-President. + MARY WARE DENNETT, Corresponding Secretary. + SUSAN W. FITZGERALD, Recording Secretary. + JESSIE ASHLEY, Treasurer. + KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, }Auditors. + HARRIET BURTON LAIDLAW, } + ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, + Editor of the _Woman's Journal_. + +[73] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III, page 31. + +[74] Later the total deficit of $6,000 was paid by Mrs. Katharine +Dexter McCormick of Boston, an officer of the National Association. + +[75] It was supposed at this time that the suffrage amendment had been +carried in Michigan but the final returns indicated its defeat, +apparently due to fraudulent voting and counting. + +[76] It is a noteworthy fact that although woman suffrage was a +leading issue in the presidential campaign of 1916 no officer of the +National American Suffrage Association took any public part in it, +although the platform of each of the parties contained a plank +endorsing woman suffrage. + +[77] It was eight and a half years. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1913. + + +The Forty-fifth annual convention of the National American Suffrage +Association met in Washington, November 29-December 5, 1913, in +response to the Call of the Official Board.[78] The first day and +evening were given to meetings of the board and committees, so that +the convention really opened with a mass meeting in Columbia Theater +Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock and it was cordially welcomed by +District Commissioner Newman. Dr. Shaw presided and a large and +interested audience heard addresses by Miss Jane Addams, State Senator +Helen Ring Robinson of Colorado, Miss Margaret Hinchey, a laundry +worker, and Miss Rose Winslow, a stocking weaver of New York; Miss +Mary Anderson, member of the executive board of the National Boot and +Shoemakers' Union, and others. It was a comparatively new thing to +have women wage-earners on the woman suffrage platform and their +speeches made a deep impression, as that of Miss Hinchey, for +instance, who said in part: + + When we went to Albany to ask for votes one member of the + Legislature told us that a woman's place was at home. Another + said he had too much respect and admiration for women to see them + at the polls. Another went back to Ancient Rome and told a story + about Cornelia and her jewels--her children. Yet in the laundries + women were working seventeen and eighteen hours a day, standing + over heavy machines for $3 and $3.50 a week. Six dollars a week + is the average wage of working women in the United States. How + can a woman live an honorable life on such a sum? Is it any + wonder that so many of our little sisters are in the gutter? When + we strike for more pay we are clubbed by the police and by thugs + hired by our employers, and in the courts our word is not taken + and we are sent to prison. This is the respect and admiration + shown to working girls in practice. I want to tell you about + Cornelia as we find her case today. The agent of the Child Labor + Society made an investigation in the tenements and found mothers + with their small children sitting and standing around + them--standing when they were too small to see the top of the + table otherwise. They were working by a kerosene lamp and + breathing its odor and they were all making artificial + forget-me-nots. It takes 1,620 pieces of material to make a gross + of forget-me-nots and the profit is only a few cents. + + Four years ago 30,000 shirtwaist girls went on strike and when we + went to Mayor McClellan to ask permission for them to have a + parade he said: "Thirty thousand women are of no account to me." + If they had been 30,000 women with votes would he have said that? + We have in New York 14,000 women over sixty-five years old who + must work or starve. What is done with them when their bones give + out and they cannot work any more? The police gather them up and + you may then see in jail, scrubbing hard, rough concrete floors + that make their knees bleed--women who have committed no crime + but being old and poor. Don't take my word for it but send a + committee to Blackwell's Island or the Tombs and see for + yourselves. We have a few Old Ladies' Homes but with most of them + it would take a piece of red tape as long as from here to New + York to get in. Give us a square deal so that we may take care of + ourselves. + +Miss Addams devoted her address to the great change that was taking +place in the conception of politics. She called attention to the +practical investigations which were being made in the education of +children, in immigration, in criminology, in industrial conditions, +and said: "This whole new social work can be translated into political +action, and, with this, politics will be transformed and women will +naturally have a share in it." She called attention to the pioneer +days in various countries where women bore a full part in their +hardships and to the revolutions in older countries where women fought +by the side of the men, "and yet," she said, "when popular governments +are established, women for considerations of expediency are left +out.... But in the final program for social problems men and women +will solve them together with ballots in the hands of both." Senator +Robinson gave a keen and comprehensive account of Women as +Legislators. The officers of the association held the usual Sunday +evening reception to delegates and friends at Hotel Bellevue. + +The 456 delegates, the largest number ever present at a convention, +representing 34 States, were officially greeted Monday afternoon by +Mrs. Nina Allender, president of the District of Columbia Association, +and Miss Alice Paul, chairman of the National Congressional Committee. +Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, president of the Alabama Suffrage +Association, responded in behalf of the national body. The excellent +arrangements for the convention had been made by the new Congressional +Committee: Miss Paul, chairman; Miss Lucy Burns, Mrs. Mary Beard, Mrs. +Lawrence Lewis and Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict, who raised the funds +for all its expenses, including those of the national officers, and +secured hospitality for the delegates. The report of the corresponding +secretary, Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, described the granting of woman +suffrage by the Territorial Legislature of Alaska the preceding +January and said: "The bulk of suffrage legislation this year is quite +unprecedented. Bills were introduced in twenty-five Legislatures and +in the U. S. Congress; bills were passed by ten Legislatures and +received record-breaking votes in seven others, and for the second +time in history there has been a favorable report from the Woman +Suffrage Committee of the U. S. Senate. It continued: + + There are three suffrage decisions on record for the year just + passed--victory in Alaska and Illinois by act of the Legislature + and temporary defeat in Michigan by vote of the electorate. There + are four actual campaign States where the amendment will be + submitted to the voters next autumn, Nevada (where the bill has + passed two Legislatures), Montana, North and South Dakota; and + there are three other States where initiative petitions are now + in circulation and if the requisite number of signers is secured + the amendment will be submitted next autumn, Ohio, Nebraska and + Missouri. Then there are three half-way campaign States where the + amendment has passed one Legislature and must pass again, in + which case the decision will be made by the voters in 1915--New + York, Pennsylvania and Iowa, in the first two of which the + amendment has the very promising advantage of having been + endorsed by all parties. + + The full number of twelve delegates and twelve alternates went + from the National Association to the Congress of the + International Alliance in Budapest last June, and there were many + more applicants.... During the year the national president, Dr. + Shaw, has spoken at many large meetings in New Hampshire, + Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Missouri, + Kansas, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut and + Michigan. She also spoke in England, Holland, Germany, Austria + and Hungary. + + A mass meeting was held under the auspices of the association in + Carnegie Hall, New York, where the international president, Mrs. + Catt, and all but one of the national officers made addresses. + Every ticket was sold and a good sum of money was raised. The + headquarters cooperated with the New York local societies in the + big suffrage benefit at the Metropolitan Opera House the night + before the May parade, where a beautiful pageant was given and + Theodore Roosevelt spoke. There was a capacity audience and many + people were turned away. The headquarters have taken part so far + as possible in all the suffrage parades; that of March 3, in + Washington; those of May and November in New York and Brooklyn; + that of October in Newark, New Jersey. The association was + represented at the annual meeting of the House of Governors in + Richmond, Va., last December by Mrs. Lila Mead Valentine, the + State president, and Miss Mary Johnston, whose admirable speech + was published in pamphlet form by our literature department. + + The association has cooperated as fully as was possible with the + Congressional Committee in all its most creditable year's work. + This committee is unique in that its original members volunteered + to give their services and to raise all the funds for the work + themselves. Their singlemindedness and devotion have been + remarkable and the whole movement in the country has been + wonderfully furthered by the series of important events which + have taken place in Washington, beginning with the great parade + the day before the inauguration of the President. Several of the + national officers have made special trips to Washington to assist + at these various events--the March parade, the Senate hearing, + the April 7th deputation to Congress, the July 31st Senate + demonstration and the Conference of Women Voters in August. An + automobile trip was made from headquarters the last week in July, + with outdoor meetings held all the way to Washington, to join the + other "pilgrims" who came from all over the country. Mrs. Rheta + Childe Dorr, Miss Helen Todd, Mrs. Frances Maule Bjorkman and the + corresponding secretary were the speakers for the trip. + + Petitions to Congress were circulated, special letters on behalf + of the association were sent to the members of the Senate + Committee before the report was made, and to the Rules Committee + urging the appointment of a Woman Suffrage Committee for the + House. Miss Elinor Byrns, assisted by another lawyer, Miss Helen + Ranlett, has made a chart of the legislation in the suffrage + States since the women have been enfranchised. A collection of + all the State constitutions has been made with the sections + bearing on amendments and the qualifications for voting marked + and indexed. + + The following telegram was sent by the National Board April 4 to + Premier Asquith: "We urge that the British Government frankly + acknowledge its responsibility for the present intolerable + situation and remove it by introducing immediately an emergency + franchise measure." + +The report of Miss Byrns, chairman of the Press Committee, which +filled eight printed pages, showed the usual vast amount of press +work, as described in other chapters. "There now exists," she said, "a +most remarkable and unprecedented demand for information about +suffragists and suffrage events. We are 'news' as we have never been +before. Moreover, we are not only amusing and sometimes picturesque +but we are of real intellectual and political interest." Mrs. +Bjorkman, editor and secretary of the Literature Committee, devoted a +full report of ten pages to the recent and widely varied publications +of the association, to the vastly increasing demands for these, which +could not be entirely met, and to the pressing need for a properly +equipped research bureau. The report of Miss Jeannette Rankin (Mont.), +field secretary, told of a year of unremitting work under four heads: +legislative, visiting of States, work with the Congressional Committee +and special work in campaign States. Delaware, Florida, Tennessee, +Alabama, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota were visited. She +travelled by automobile from Montana to Washington City with petitions +for the Federal Amendment, stopping at thirty-three places for +meetings, and two weeks were given to interviewing Senators. Among the +campaign States three weeks were spent in Saginaw, Michigan; +organizing the city into wards and precincts; five in North Dakota and +the rest of the time in Montana, organizing, arranging work at State +and county fairs, visiting State Central Committees and State +Federations of Women's Clubs. + +Among the recommendations presented from the board and adopted were +two of prime importance: 1. That in order that the convention may give +its support to the Federal Amendment before Congress, it shall +instruct the affiliated organizations to carry on as active a campaign +as possible in their respective States and to see that all candidates +for Congress be pledged to woman suffrage before the next election. 2. +That the convention endorse the Suffrage School as a method of work +and the National Association offer to organize and send out a +traveling school when requested by six or more States, provided they +agree to share the expense. To the Official Board was referred the +question of appointing a committee to devise and put into operation a +scheme for establishing more definite connection between the +enfranchised women of the States and the National Association. + +After all the years of patient effort to persuade Legislatures to +grant Presidential suffrage to women under the inspiration of Henry B. +Blackwell, chairman of the committee, his successor, Miss Elizabeth +Upham Yates, could announce the first success and she emphasized the +important bearing which this and others would have on securing a +Federal Amendment. Her report said: + + The extraordinary victory in Illinois has emphasized the fact, + not duly apprehended hitherto, that State Legislatures have power + to grant Presidential suffrage to women. No man derives his right + to vote for presidential electors from the constitution of his + State but the U. S. Constitution delegates the power and duty to + qualify citizens to vote for them to the Legislatures, in the + first section of Article II, in these words: "Each State shall + appoint in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct a + number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators and + Representatives to which the State may be entitled in Congress." + Probably U.S. Senator George F. Hoar was the first to discover + that this power given to Legislatures involved the possibility of + the enfranchisement of women for presidential electors. + + The conspicuous position that women suddenly attained in American + politics in 1912 was due to the fact that in six States women + were able to determine the choice of thirty-seven presidential + electors. The large interests involved in a presidential + administration, among which are 300,000 offices of honor and + emolument, cause keen political concern from the fact that women + voters may hold the balance of power in a close election. The + whole number of electoral votes in the nine States where women + now have full suffrage is fifty-four. These were attained by + campaigns for constitutional amendments that involved vast outlay + of time and treasure. Simply by act of Legislature, Illinois has + added twenty-nine to the list, an increase of over thirty-three + per cent., thus bringing an incalculable influence and power into + the arena of national politics.... + +Mrs. Mary E. Craigie made her usual report of the excellent work done +by her Church Committee. She gave a list of the Catholic clergy who +had declared in favor of woman suffrage and told of the cordial assent +by those of other denominations to include it in their sermons on +Mother's Day. She named some of the many questions of social reform to +which pulpits were freely opened--temperance, child labor, pure food, +the white slave traffic and others--and asked: "Why does not woman +suffrage, the reform that would bring two-thirds more power to all +such movements, receive the same cooperation and support from the +churches? The answer plainly is: Because of the apathy of women in +demanding it." + +The changing character of the national suffrage conventions is +illustrated by the reports in the _Woman's Journal_, whose editors had +for a generation collected and preserved in its pages the unsurpassed +addresses which had delighted audiences and inspired workers. As the +practical work of the association increased and spread throughout the +different States, more and more of the time of the conventions had to +be given to reports and details of business and the number of speeches +constantly lessened. The first evening of the convention was devoted +to the victory in Illinois, with delightful addresses by Mrs. +Catharine Waugh McCulloch, long the State president, who twenty years +before had discovered the loophole in the Illinois constitution by +which the Legislature itself could grant a large measure of suffrage +to women and had tried to obtain the law that had just been gained; by +Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, another president, who had carried on this work; +and by Mesdames Ruth Hanna McCormick, Grace Wilbur Trout, Antoinette +Funk and Elizabeth K. Booth, the famous quartette of younger workers, +who had finally succeeded with a progressive Legislature. As there was +no representative from far-off Alaska, Dr. Shaw told how its +Legislature had given full suffrage to women. [See Illinois and Alaska +chapters.] Miss Lucy Burns gave a clear analysis of the situation in +regard to the Federal Suffrage Amendment and the evening closed with +one of Dr. Shaw's piquant addresses, which began: "I know the +objections to woman suffrage but I have never met any one who +pretended to know any reasons against it," and she closed with a flash +of the humor for which she was noted: + + By some objectors women are supposed to be unfit to vote because + they are hysterical and emotional and of course men would not + like to have emotion enter into a political campaign. They want + to cut out all emotion and so they would like to cut us out. I + had heard so much about our emotionalism that I went to the last + Democratic national convention, held at Baltimore, to observe the + calm repose of the male politicians. I saw some men take a + picture of one gentleman whom they wanted elected and it was so + big they had to walk sidewise as they carried it forward; they + were followed by hundreds of other men screaming and yelling, + shouting and singing the "Houn' Dawg"; then, when there was a + lull, another set of men would start forward under another man's + picture, not to be outdone by the "Houn' Dawg" melody, whooping + and howling still louder. I saw men jump up on the seats and + throw their hats in the air and shout: "What's the matter with + Champ Clark?" Then, when those hats came down, other men would + kick them back into the air, shouting at the top of their voices: + "He's all right!!" Then I heard others howling for "Underwood, + Underwood, first, last and all the time!!" No hysteria about + it--just patriotic loyalty, splendid manly devotion to principle. + And so they went on and on until 5 o'clock in the morning--the + whole night long. I saw men jump up on their seats and jump down + again and run around in a ring. I saw two men run towards another + man to hug him both at once and they split his coat up the middle + of his back and sent him spinning around like a wheel. All this + with the perfect poise of the legal male mind in politics! + + I have been to many women's conventions in my day but I never saw + a woman leap up on a chair and take off her bonnet and toss it up + in the air and shout: "What's the matter with" somebody. I never + saw a woman knock another woman's bonnet off her head as she + screamed: "She's all right!" I never heard a body of women + whooping and yelling for five minutes when somebody's name was + mentioned in the convention. But we are willing to admit that we + are emotional. I have actually seen women stand up and wave their + handkerchiefs. I have even seen them take hold of hands and sing, + "Blest be the tie that binds." Nobody denies that women are + excitable. Still, when I hear how emotional and how excitable we + are, I cannot help seeing in my mind's eye the fine repose and + dignity of this Baltimore and other political conventions I have + attended! + +One evening session was devoted to Women and Children and the Courts. +Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen of Chicago presided and made a stirring plea for +better conditions in the courts of the large cities. She told of the +outrageous treatment of women and urged the need of women police, +women judges and women jurors. "From the time of the arrest of a woman +to the final disposition of her case," Mrs. Bowen said, "she is +handicapped by being in charge of and surrounded by men, who cannot be +expected to be as understanding and considerate as those of her own +sex. The police stations in most of our cities are not fit for human +beings." Judge of the Juvenile Court Julian Mack of Chicago described +its methods and their results; and Justice Harry Olsen of the Court of +Domestic Relations and the Court of Morals, gave an illuminating +address on its functions and their results; Miss Maude Miner of New +York spoke from experience of the Women's Night Court and the Work of +a Probation Officer. The delegates were deeply moved and determined to +investigate and improve the conditions in their own localities. + +There had for some time been need of revising the constitution to meet +new requirements and a revision committee had been appointed the +preceding year with Mrs. Catt chairman, but as she had been in Europe +her place had been taken by Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees (Conn.), who was +assisted by attorneys Helen Hoy Greeley and Jessie Ashley. The +discussion was as long and earnest as if the fate of nations were +involved but the principal changes adopted concerned representation, +dues, assessments, methods of election and similar details. The report +of Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, treasurer, showed the total +receipts of the year to be $42,723; disbursements, $42,542; balance on +hand from preceding year, $2,874. A carefully prepared "budget" of +$42,000 was presented to the convention and quickly oversubscribed. +The legal adviser, Miss Mary Rutter Towle (D. C.), reported two +lawsuits in progress to secure legacies that had been left the +association, the usual fate that attended similar bequests. The +literature had become so large a feature that it was decided to form a +company to publish it. Mrs. Raymond Brown, president of the New York +State Suffrage Association, proposed a corporation with a capital +stock of $50,000, of which $26,000 should be held by the National +American Association, the rest sold at $10 a share. The first $10,000 +were at once subscribed and later the Woman Suffrage Publishing +Company was organized with Mrs. Cyrus W. Field president. + +The election took place under the new primary system and required two +days for completion. The only change was the electing of Mrs. Desha +Breckinridge second and Miss Ruutz-Rees third vice-presidents. The +majorities for most of the officers were very large. The report of the +delegates to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Budapest was +made by Mrs. Anna O. Weeks (N. Y.). The demand for congressional +documents, hearings, speeches, etc., had become so extensive that Mrs. +Helen H. Gardener (D. C.) had been appointed to report in regard to it +and she shed a good deal of light on the subject. She showed that some +documents are free for distribution and some have to be paid for. +Hearings are usually limited to a small number but the committee +strains a point for those on woman suffrage and prints about 10,000, +which may be had without charge. If a member is kind enough to "frank" +them nothing else must be put in the envelope under penalty of a $300 +fine. If more are wanted they must be ordered in 5,000 lots and a +member can get a reduced rate, but, while he is always willing to pay +the Government for printing his speech, those who want it for their +own purposes should send the money for it. The speech of +Representative Edward T. Taylor of Colorado in 1912 was cited as an +example, of which the suffragists circulated 300,000 copies. + +The resolutions presented by Mrs. Helen Brewster Owens (N. Y.), +chairman, were brief and to the point. They called on the Senate to +pass immediately the joint resolution proposing an amendment to the +National Constitution, which had been favorably reported; they urged +President Wilson to adopt the submission of this amendment as an +administration measure and to recommend it in his Message; they urged +the Rules Committee of the House of Representatives to report +favorably the proposition to create a Committee on Woman Suffrage; and +they demanded legislation by Congress to protect the nationality of +American women who married aliens. + +Strong pressure had been made on the President to mention woman +suffrage in his Message, his first to a regular session of Congress, +but it was delivered on Tuesday, December 2, with no reference +whatever to the subject. At the meeting of the convention that evening +Dr. Shaw said with the manifest approval of the audience: "President +Wilson had the opportunity of speaking a word which might ultimately +lead to the enfranchisement of a large part of the citizens of the +United States. Even Lincoln, who by a word freed a race, had not such +an opportunity to release from bonds one-half of the human family. I +feel that I must make this statement as broad as it is for the reason +that we at Budapest this year realized as never before that womankind +throughout the world looked to this country to blaze the way for the +extension of universal suffrage in every quarter of the globe. +President Wilson has missed the one thing that might have made it +possible for him never to be forgotten. I am saying this on behalf of +myself and my fellow officers." + +The next morning Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick, a clever politician like +her father, Mark Hanna, offered the following motion: "Since President +Wilson omitted all mention of woman suffrage in his Message yesterday, +and since he has announced that he will send several other messages to +Congress outlining the measures which the administration will support, +I move that this convention wait upon the President in order to lay +before him the importance of the woman suffrage question and urge him +to make it an administration measure and to send immediately to +Congress the recommendation that it proceed with this measure before +any other. I also move that a committee of two be appointed to make +the arrangements with the President." The motion was unanimously +carried and the Chair appointed Mrs. McCormick (Ills.) and Mrs. +Breckinridge (Ky.) to arrange for the interview and for a committee of +fifty-five, representing all the associations auxiliary to the +National, to wait upon the President at his pleasure. To finish the +story here--he expressed entire willingness to receive them but was +not well enough to do so during the convention. Nearly a hundred of +the delegates waited until the next Monday, December 8, when they met +in the rooms of their Congressional Committee, a few blocks from the +White House and marched two by two to the executive offices, +attracting much attention, as this was the first time a President had +ever received a woman suffrage delegation officially.[79] He met them +cordially and gave them as much time as they desired. Dr. Shaw spoke +as follows: + + As president of the National Suffrage Association I have come + with this delegation, authorized by the association, to present + to you the object for which we are organized--to secure equal + suffrage for the women citizens of the United States. We have + made these pilgrimages to Washington for many, many years and + committees have received us with graciousness and have listened + to our arguments, but the difficulty is that they have not + permitted our claims to come before Congress, so that body itself + might act upon them. Our wish is that we may have a national + constitutional amendment, enfranchising the women citizens and + preventing the States from depriving them of representation in + the Government. Since the Judiciary Committee has not reported + our measure for many years and has not given the House an + opportunity to discuss it we have asked that a special committee + shall be appointed to consider it. The Senate some years ago did + appoint a special committee and our question has been referred to + it. We have appeared before it this year and it has again + reported favorably. We hope that the administration of which you + are the head may use its influence to bring the matter before the + Senate and House. + + We ask your assistance in one of two ways or in any other way + which may appeal to your judgment: First of all that you shall + send a special message to Congress to submit to the Legislatures + of the States an amendment to the National Constitution + enfranchising women citizens of the United States; if, however, + this does not appeal to you, we ask that you will use the + administration's influence on the Rules Committee to recommend + the appointment in the Lower House of a committee corresponding + with the Suffrage Committee in the Upper House, one which will + have leisure to consider our subject and report on it. + + We appeal to you in behalf of the women citizens of the country. + Many of them have cast their ballots for the President already + and have an influence in the Government; many are very eager to + take an equal part and they appreciate the just manner in which + since your administration began you have weighed public + questions. Recognizing your splendid stand on the liberties and + rights of the people, we appeal to you because we believe you + will bring to ours that same spirit of justice which you have + manifested toward other great issues. + +The President gave close attention and in his answer seemed to weigh +every word carefully: + + I want you ladies, if I can make it clear to you, to realize just + what my present situation is. Whenever I walk abroad I realize + that I am not a free man; I am under arrest. I am so carefully + and admirably guarded that I have not even the privilege of + walking the streets alone. That is, as it were, typical of my + present transference--from being an individual, free to express + his mind on any and every subject, to being an official of a + great government and incidentally, or so it falls out under the + system of government, the spokesman of a party. I set myself this + very strict rule when I was Governor of New Jersey and have + followed and shall follow it as President--that I am not at + liberty to urge upon Congress in messages policies which have not + had the organic consideration of those for whom I am spokesman. + In other words I have not yet presented to any Legislature my + private views on any subject and I never shall, because I + conceive it to be part of the whole process of government that I + shall be spokesman for somebody, not for myself. To speak for + myself would be an impertinence. When I speak for myself I am an + individual; when I am spokesman of an organic body, I am a + representative. For that reason, you see, I am by my own + principles shut out, in the language of the street, from + "starting anything." I have to confine myself to those things + which have been embodied as promises to the people at an + election. That is the strict rule I set for myself. + + I want to say that with regard to all other matters I am not only + glad to be consulted by my colleagues in the two Houses but I + hope they will often pay me the compliment of consulting me when + they want to know my opinion on any subject. One member of the + Rules Committee did come to me and ask me what I thought about + this suggestion of yours of appointing a Special Committee for + the consideration of woman suffrage and I told him that I thought + it was a proper thing to do. So that, so far as my personal + advice has been asked by a single member of the committee it has + been given to that effect. I wanted to tell you this to show that + I am strictly living up to my principles. When my private opinion + is asked by those who are cooperating with me, I am most glad to + give it, but I am not at liberty until I speak for somebody + besides myself to urge legislation upon the Congress. + +The following conversation then took place: "May I ask you a +question?" said Dr. Shaw. "Since we are not members of any political +party, who is going to speak for us--there is no one to speak for +us----" "I realize that," interjected the President, "----unless we +speak for ourselves?" "And you do that very admirably," rejoined Mr. +Wilson. A general laugh broke up the somewhat solemn occasion and as +the delegates went away Dr. Shaw said exultingly: "He is in favor of a +House Woman Suffrage Committee and that was our chief object in coming +to see him." + +An interesting evening's program had been prepared under the auspices +of the National Men's League for Woman Suffrage with addresses by +seven or eight Senators and Representatives, all staunch supporters of +the "cause," but all were prevented from coming by one reason or +another except Representatives J. W. Bryan of Washington and Victor +Murdock of Kansas. They made up for all failures, however, by their +strong arguments. James Lees Laidlaw of New York, president of the +league, gave a dignified, earnest address and the Hon. Gifford Pinchot +made a logical and unanswerable demand for the enfranchisement of +women because of the nation's great need for their votes. + +An excellent report was presented at this time by Miss Alice Paul, +chairman of the Congressional Committee. From the founding of the +National Association in 1869 prominent representatives had appeared +before committees of every Congress and during many winters Miss Susan +B. Anthony had remained in Washington until she obtained a report from +these committees, but after she ceased to do this, although the +hearings were still granted, nobody made it an especial business to +see that the committees made reports and so none was made and action +by Congress seemed very remote. In 1910, when the movement entered a +new era, the association appointed a special Congressional Committee +to look after this matter. By the time of the convention of 1911 the +two great victories in Washington and California had been gained and +the prospect of a Federal Amendment began to grow brighter. A large +committee was appointed consisting chiefly of the wives of Senators +and Representatives with Mrs. William Kent (Calif.) chairman. No +busier women could have been selected and beyond making excellent +arrangements for the hearings, the committee was not active. In 1912, +when Kansas, Oregon and Arizona enfranchised women, the whole country +awoke to the fact that the turning point had been reached and +universal woman suffrage through an amendment to the Federal +Constitution was inevitable. + +At this time Miss Paul and Miss Burns returned from England, where +they had been studying and doing social welfare work and had been +caught in the maelstrom of the "militant" suffrage movement, then at +its height. Both had taken part in demonstrations before the House of +Commons and been sent to prison and they came back to the United +States filled with zeal to inaugurate a campaign of "militancy" here. +The idea was coldly received by the suffrage leaders and they modified +it to the extent of asking the National Association to cooperate in +organizing a great suffrage parade to take place in Washington the day +before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. Dr. Shaw had seen and taken +part in such parades in London and was favorably inclined to the +project. She put Miss Paul at the head of the Congressional Committee +with power to choose the other members to organize the parade, with +the proviso that they must themselves raise all the money for it but +they could have the authority of the National Association letterheads. +Headquarters were opened in a basement on F Street near the New +Willard Hotel in Washington. They displayed astonishing executive +ability, gathered about them a small army of women and during the next +twelve months raised $27,378, the larger part of it in Washington and +most of the remainder in Philadelphia. The parade was long, beautiful +and impressive, women from many States participating. The report of +the Congressional Committee presented to the convention by Miss Paul +slightly condensed, read as follows: + +Work for Federal Amendment: + + Headquarters were opened in Washington, Jan. 2, 1913. + + Hearings were arranged before the Woman Suffrage Committee of the + Senate; before the Rules Committee of the House, when members of + the National Council of Women Voters were the speakers; before + the Rules Committee during the present convention. + + Processions: March 3, when from 8,000 to 10,000 women + participated; April 7, when women from congressional districts + went to Congress with petitions and resolutions; July 31, when an + automobile procession met the "pilgrims" at the end of their + "hike" and escorted them through the streets of Washington to the + Senate. This procession was headed by an automobile in which rode + several of the Suffrage Committee of the Senate. + + Pilgrimages coming from all parts of the country and extending + over the month of July were organized, about twelve. These all + ended in Washington on July 31, when approximately 200,000 + signatures to petitions were presented to the Senate. + + Deputations: Three deputations to the President were organized + immediately preceding the calling of the special session of + Congress in order to ask him to give the administration support + to the suffrage amendment during the special session. One of + these was from the National Association, one from the College + Suffrage League and one from the National Council of Women + Voters. On November 17 a fourth deputation, composed of + seventy-three women from New Jersey, was sent to the President to + urge him to take up the amendment during the regular session of + Congress. + + Local arrangements were made for the conventions of the National + Council of Women Voters and the convention of the National + American Woman Suffrage Association. + + A campaign under a salaried organizer was conducted through the + resort regions of New Jersey, Long Island and Rhode Island during + July, August and September; and one through New Jersey, Delaware + and Maryland during July. A month's campaign was carried on in + North Carolina. On September 1 permanent headquarters were opened + in Wilmington in charge of a salaried organizer and since that + time a vigorous campaign has been carried on in Delaware in the + attempt to influence the attitude of the Senators and + Representatives from that State. + + A salaried press chairman has been employed throughout the year, + who has furnished daily press copy to the local papers, to the + Washington correspondents of the various papers throughout the + country and to all of the telegraphic bureaus in Washington. + Approximately 120,000 pieces of literature have been printed and + distributed. A weekly paper under the editorship of Mrs. Rheta + Childe Dorr was established on November 15. This now has a paid + circulation of about 1,200 and is self-supporting from its + advertisements. + + A Men's League was organized, General Anson Mills, U. S. A., + being the temporary and Dr. Harvey W. Wiley the permanent + chairman. A large number of Congressmen are members. + + Eight theater meetings, exclusive of those during this + convention, have been held in Washington. Smaller meetings both + indoor and out have been held almost daily and frequently as many + as five or ten a day. A tableau was presented on the Treasury + steps at the time of the suffrage procession of March 3 under the + direction of Miss Hazel Mackaye. A suffrage play was given, also + two banquets, a reception and a luncheon, and a benefit and a + luncheon were given for the purpose of raising funds. + + A delegation in two special cars went to New York for the + procession of May 3. An even larger delegation went to Baltimore + for the procession of May 31. The play given in Washington was + reproduced in Baltimore for the benefit of one of the suffrage + societies there. A week's campaign was conducted in the four + southern counties of Maryland prior to the primary election, at + the request of one of the State's societies. + + The Congressional Union was formed during the latter part of + April and now numbers over a thousand members. + +Congressional Work. + + Senate and House Joint Resolution Number One for Federal + Amendment introduced in Congress April 7, 1913. + + Woman Suffrage Committee of Senate voted on May 14 to report the + resolution favorably and did so unanimously, one not voting. On + July 31 twenty-two Senators spoke in favor of the resolution and + three against it. On September 18 Senator Andrieus Jones (N. M.) + spoke in favor and asked for immediate action. On the same day + Senator Henry F. Ashurst (Ariz.) announced on the floor of the + Senate that he would press the measure to a vote at the earliest + possible moment. + + Three resolutions were introduced in the House for the creation + of a Woman Suffrage Committee and referred to the Rules Committee + and are still before it. + + The amendment resolution is awaiting third reading in the Senate + and is before the Judiciary Committee of the House. + +The action of the Senate was due to the fact that under the new +administration a committee had been appointed which was favorable to +woman suffrage instead of one opposed as heretofore, with a chairman, +Senator Charles S. Thomas of Colorado, who had helped the women of his +own State to secure the suffrage twenty years before. The resolutions +in the Lower House were introduced by old and tried friends and the +association's new Congressional Committee had arranged hearings, +brought pressure to bear on members and not permitted them to forget +or ignore the question. Miss Agnes E. Ryan, business manager of the +_Woman's Journal_, said in her account: "The convention received the +report with enthusiastic applause, giving three cheers and rising to +its feet to show its appreciation." + +This report was signed by Miss Paul as "chairman of the Congressional +Committee and president of the Congressional Union" and she said at +the beginning that it was impossible to separate the work of the two. +At its conclusion Mrs. Catt moved that the part of the report as from +the Congressional Committee be accepted, which was done by the +convention. She then asked what was the relation between the two and +why, if this was a regular committee of the National American +Association, no appropriation had been made for its work during the +coming year and why there was no statement in the treasurer's report +of its expenditures during the past year. It developed that the +committee had raised and expended its own funds, which had not passed +through the national treasury, and that the Congressional Union was a +society formed the preceding April to assist the work of the +committee. It was moved by Mrs. Catt and carried that the convention +request the Official Board to continue the Congressional Committee and +to cooperate with it in such a way as to remove further causes of +embarrassment to the association. The motion was amended that the +board should appropriate what money could be spared for the work of +this committee.[80] + +The movement for woman suffrage was now so plainly centering in +Congress, which had been the goal for over forty years, that there was +a widespread feeling that the national headquarters should be +established in Washington. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, a delegate from +New York, through whose generosity it had been possible to take them +to that city in 1909, offered a motion that they now be removed to +Washington. She had given notice of this action the preceding day and +the opponents were prepared. A motion to lay it on the table was +quickly made and all discussion cut off. The opposition of the +national officers was so apparent that many delegates hesitated to +express their convictions for the affirmative but nevertheless the +vote stood 134 ayes, and 169 noes. + +The National Association had now so many auxiliaries and so much work +was being done in all the States that the day sessions were largely +consumed in hearing reports from them and the usual conferences and +symposiums were almost crowded off the program. For the first time +Hawaii took her place among the auxiliaries, a suffrage society having +been formed there during the year. At one of the morning sessions U. +S. Senator Moses E. Clapp of Minnesota was presented to the convention +and extended a pressing invitation to hold its next meeting in St. +Paul. Later this invitation was repeated in a cordial invitation from +Governor Adolph O. Eberhard. At another morning session Representative +Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee addressed the convention and invited it +to meet in Chattanooga the next year. The last evening there was not +standing room in the large theater. Miss Harriet May Mills, president +of the New York State Suffrage Association, took for her subject A +Prophecy Fulfilled and gave convincing reasons for believing that the +successful end of the long contest was near. Mrs. Katharine Houghton +Hepburn made a strong arraignment of Commercialized Vice, using her +own city of Hartford, Conn., for an example. Mrs. Catt gave the last +address, a comprehensive review of the advanced position that had been +attained by women and the great responsibilities it had brought. Dr. +Shaw, who presided, spoke the final inspiring words. + +A delightful ending of the week was the reception the last afternoon +in the hospitable home of Senator and Mrs. Robert M. LaFollette. Three +members of the Cabinet were among the guests, Secretaries Lane, +Houston and Daniels. Those in the receiving line were: Senator and +Mrs. LaFollette, Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt; also Mrs. Franklin K. Lane, +Mrs. Josephus Daniels, Mrs. Albert Sidney Burleson, Mrs. David +Franklin Houston, Mrs. Miles Poindexter, Mrs. Reed Smoot, Mrs. Victor +Murdock, Mrs. Wm. L. LaFollette, Mrs. J. W. Bryan, Mrs. John E. Raker, +Mrs. James A. Frear, Mrs. Henry T. Rainey, Mrs. Albert B. Cummins, +Mrs. John D. Works and Mrs. William Kent, all members of the Cabinet +and Congressional circles, and the husbands of most of them were +present. To the older members of the association it recalled the +conventions of olden times when even the wives of members of Congress, +with a few rare exceptions, feared to attend the social functions lest +it might injure the political status of their husbands. + + * * * * * + +The Senate committee of the Sixty-third Congress had already granted +three hearings on woman suffrage during its extra session: on April +10, 1913, to representatives of the Anti-Suffrage Association; on +April 21 to those of the Federal Women's Equality Association and on +April 26 to those of the National American Suffrage Association. This +new committee, which the advocates of the Federal Suffrage Amendment +will always remember with deep appreciation for its firm and favorable +action, consisted of the following Senators: Charles S. Thomas +(Colo.), chairman; Robert L. Owen (Okla.); Henry F. Ashurst (Ariz.); +Joseph E. Ransdell (La.); Henry P. Hollis (N. H.); George Sutherland +(Utah); Wesley L. Jones (Wash.); Moses E. Clapp (Minn.); Thomas B. +Catron (N. M.). The last named was an opponent of woman suffrage by +any method and was the only member who did not sign the favorable +report. Senator Ransdell at first said that he had an open mind but he +soon placed himself on the suffrage side, signed the report and later +voted several times in favor of the amendment. + +The immediate object of the National American Association at the +present moment was to secure a Committee on Woman Suffrage in the +Lower House such as had long existed in the Senate. A resolution to +create such a committee had been introduced April 7 by Edward T. +Taylor (Colo.) and referred to the Committee on Rules. The hearing at +the regular session during this convention, therefore, was before this +committee, which would have to recommend the Woman Suffrage Committee +to the House, and it was set for 10:30 A.M., December 3. As soon as +the application was made the National Anti-Suffrage Association also +asked to be heard, and Chairman Henry, who was opposed to the proposed +new committee and to woman suffrage, announced that he proposed to +allow both sides all the time they wanted. The leaders of the National +Suffrage Association stated that they would ask for only the usual two +hours and would not discuss the general question of woman suffrage but +only the need of a special committee. Their arguments were concluded +at the morning session. The "antis" began after luncheon with massed +forces and talked the entire afternoon and all of the next day and +part of the third, covering the whole subject of woman suffrage, with +the appointment of the committee only one feature of it. Several of +their men speakers consumed nearly an hour each and were repeatedly +requested by the chairman to face the committee instead of the +audience, which filled the largest room in the House office building. +The first morning all of the committee were present but they gradually +dwindled until during the latter part of the "antis'" arguments only +two or three were in their seats, not including the chairman[81]. Only +limited extracts of the speeches are possible. Dr. Shaw presided and +said: + + Our purpose in coming before you this morning is not to make any + attempt whatever to convert the members of the Rules Committee, + if they should need converting, to the democratic principle of + the right of the people to have a voice in their own government. + It is to ask you to appoint a committee in the House on woman + suffrage, which corresponds with the one in the Senate, in order + that we may have hearings before a committee which is not so + burdened with other business as is the Committee on the + Judiciary.... It seems to the women of the United States that a + question of so much importance that the parliaments of Europe + feel under obligations to discuss and act upon it, is at least of + sufficient importance in this great republic of ours for the + committee which has it under consideration to take time for a + report. Year after year we have asked the Judiciary Committee not + that they should believe in woman suffrage or express any opinion + on it but only to report the measure either favorably or + unfavorably so as to bring it before the House, in order that the + representatives of the men of this country might be able to + consider it, but thus far it has been impossible to secure any + sort of a report.... + +Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.), after showing that woman suffrage was +a mere side issue with the Judiciary Committee and that it would be +busier than ever the coming session, said: "Those of us who live here +and have known Congress from our childhood know that an outside matter +has less chance to get any real consideration by such a committee +under such conditions than the proverbial rich man has of entering the +kingdom of heaven." She pointed out that over one-fifth of the Senate +and one-seventh of the House were elected by the votes of women and +continued: + + You will remember that there is a committee on Indian Affairs. + Are the Indians more important than the women of America? They + did not always have a special committee, they used to be a mere + incident, as we now are. They used to be under the War + Department and so long as this was the case nobody ever doubted + for an instant that the "only good Indian was a dead + Indian"--just as under the incidental administration of the + Judiciary Committee it is not doubted by some that the only good + woman is a voteless woman. When the Indians secured a committee + of their own they began to get schools, lands in severalty and + the general status of human beings.... It became the duty of that + committee to investigate the real conditions, the needs, the + grievances and the best methods of promoting the interests of the + Indians. That was the beginning of the end of Indian wars; the + first hope of a possibility--previously sneered at--of making + real and useful citizens of this race of men who now have + Representatives in Congress. It was precisely the same with our + island possessions, only in this case we had profited by our + experience with Indian and labor problems, and it did not take so + long to realize that a committee whose duty it should be to + utilize, develop and conserve the best interests of these new + charges of our Government and to develop them toward citizenship + as rapidly as possible was the safe and sane method of + procedure.... + + We want such a committee on woman suffrage in the House. We do + not ask you to appoint a partisan committee but only one + open-minded and honest, which will really investigate and + understand the question, its workings where it is in effect--a + committee which will not accept wild statements as facts, which + will hear and weigh that which comes from the side of progress + and change as well as that which is static or reactionary.... The + recommendation that we have such a committee does not in any way + commit you to the adoption of a belief in the principle of + self-government for women. This is not much to ask and it is not + much to give, nor will it be needed for very many more years. + +Mrs. Ida Husted Harper was introduced as one of the authors of the +four-volume History of Woman Suffrage and the biographer of Susan B. +Anthony and began: "This is not the time or place to enter into an +argument on the merits or demerits of woman suffrage and we shall use +the valuable hours you have so graciously accorded us simply to ask +that you will give us a committee of our very own, before which we may +feel that we have a right to discuss this question. In making this +request we ask you to decide, first, whether the issue of woman +suffrage is sufficiently national in its character to justify a +special committee for its consideration; second, whether it has been +so fairly treated by the committee which has had it in charge for +forty-four years that another is not necessary; and, third, whether +justice requires that it should come under the jurisdiction of +Congress." + +The national status of the woman suffrage movement was sketched and +then the question asked: "Has the treatment of this subject by the +committee to which it has always been referred been such as to warrant +a continuance of this custom?" which she answered by saying: + + The National Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1869 for + the express purpose of obtaining an amendment to the Federal + Constitution. Its representatives went before the congressional + committees that year and have continued to do so at each new + Congress since that time, never having been refused a hearing. At + the beginning of 1882 both Senate and House created special Woman + Suffrage Committees. The Senate has continuously maintained this + committee, but in 1884 the House declined to renew it by a vote + of 124 nays, 85 yeas; 112 not voting. The debate was long and + heated and almost wholly on the question of woman suffrage + itself. Thenceforth the women appeared before the House Judiciary + Committee, which, although busy and overworked, had always a good + representation present and was respectful and often cordial. + + The ablest women this country has produced have appeared before + this committee.... Repeatedly the eminent members of this + Judiciary Committee have said that no hearings before them were + conducted with such dignity and ability as those of the advocates + of woman suffrage. And what is the result? Six reports in + forty-four years and five of these unfavorable! Does the record + end here? No; for there has been no report of any kind since + 1894. For the last twenty years the women of this nation have + made an annual pilgrimage to Washington to plead their cause + before a committee which has forgotten their existence as soon as + they were out of sight.... Gentlemen of the Committee on Rules, + will you not give to women a committee of their own that will not + ignore them for half a century?... + + The entire status of woman has changed since the Federal + Constitution was framed, and ethical and social questions have + entered into politics which could not have been foreseen. It is + inevitable that this Constitution must occasionally be amended to + meet new conditions, while leaving its fundamental and vital + provisions undisturbed. The advocates of woman suffrage believe + that it should now be changed so as to give a voice in + governmental affairs to a half of the people which has become an + important factor in the public life of the nation. By the only + means now available the half which possesses the ballot has the + absolute authority over its further extension and no ruling class + likes to divide its power. State rights are desirable to a very + large extent when all the people of the State have a voice, but + it is not in harmony with the spirit of our republic that one + half of the citizens of a State should have complete power over + the political liberty of the other half. + +Instance after instance was given from different States showing how +this power had been abused after the women had struggled long and +heroically for even a partial franchise and the speaker concluded: +"Women have been defeated over twenty times in the strongest campaigns +they were able to make for full-suffrage amendments to State +constitutions. From 1896 to 1910 they were not once successful. +Sometimes they were sold out by the party 'machines' at the last +moment; sometimes they were counted out after they had really secured +a majority; but, whatever the reason, they lost. The victories of the +last three years may be cited as evidence that henceforth they will +succeed. Those victories were largely due to political conditions +which do not exist in many other States and against them must be set +the crushing defeats these same years in Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, +where the woman suffrage amendment was fought by every vicious +interest which menaces the body politic...." + +Miss Jane Addams was presented by Dr. Shaw as one who did not need to +be introduced to any civilized being, "not because of any political +agitation by her but for the service she has rendered humanity, one +which is distinctly woman's service, and she long ago came to realize +that it was impossible to do this work as it should be done unless she +and the women associated with her had the ballot." Miss Addams +referred to a committee hearing once before when she was able to give +but one precedent for the jurisdiction of Congress over the +franchise--the 15th Amendment--but now, she said, she could give nine +more. She cited the case of the Indians, the Confederate soldiers, +foreigners who fought in the Civil War, naturalized foreigners, +Federal prisoners, American women marrying aliens, election of U. S. +Senators, etc. Each point brought questions or objections from the +committee and the discussion was very interesting. + +Members of the committee asked Dr. Shaw if the association would be +willing to have the matter of a Federal Suffrage Amendment referred to +the Committee on Election of President, Vice-President and +Representatives in Congress but after consultation with members of her +board it was decided to stand for a special committee. Mrs. Desha +Breckinridge was introduced as the great granddaughter of Henry Clay +and in the course of a speech worthy of her ancestry she recalled the +early history of Kentucky, the part of her grandfather in preserving +the Union, the fact that the State had not maintained its prestige +and that if this was to be regained the women must be permitted to +help and said: + + I do not feel that I am doing any injustice to the men of my + State in asking this Federal Amendment, in asking the help of the + Congress of the United States. Some years ago, after we had + worked for our School-suffrage law at three sessions of the + Legislature and had at last gotten it past the House and up to + the Senate, only three days before adjournment a letter was sent + to the members by the German-American Alliance, calling upon the + men of Kentucky to protect the homes and womanhood of the State + by defeating it and saying that the Alliance believed the home + was the sphere for women. When we investigated we found that the + German-American Alliance was the brewers' alliance, with + headquarters at Louisville.... I would suggest to the men of this + committee, who I understand are mostly southern, that if they + object to having the suffrage for women forced upon them by the + U. S. Government, there is still time in which they may go home + and get it for their women in the States. + +Representative John E. Raker (Calif.), speaking with a full knowledge +of the inner machinery of Congress, brushed aside all objections, +showed that it was the custom to appoint special committees for +special subjects, stood up against the heckling of the Rules Committee +and put the necessity for this desired committee beyond argument. Dr. +Shaw joined him in refuting the reiterated charge that the suffragists +would insist on having it composed entirely of their supporters. Mrs. +Mary Beard (N. Y.) addressed the committee as Democrats and from the +standpoint of party expediency with such a knowledge of politics as +they never had met in a woman. She said in a scathing arraignment: + + This committee is composed of thirteen men and seven constitute + the deciding vote on our appeal for the Woman Suffrage Committee. + These seven belong to the majority, the Democratic party. One of + them comes from a partial suffrage State, Illinois, and another + from a campaign State, New York, where the Legislature has + declared in favor of submitting this question to the voters. I + shall, therefore, limit my examination to the remaining five + gentlemen whose point of view will in all probability decide the + women's destiny in the House of Representatives at least for the + moment. These five all represent one section of the country and + my analysis of them is made in the hope that they will take a + national point of view and help us obliterate sectional feeling. + Who are you that hesitate to promote, if you do not actually + obstruct this Federal Amendment? In looking over various public + records I find that the honored chairman of this committee holds + his strategic position as a result of the will expressed at the + polls of 7,623 men. Opposite his name should be written: "No + opposition." Another of the five comes here through the vote of + 13,906 men. Another is sent by the very small group of 6,474 men, + and the remaining two represent respectively 18,000 and 16,000 + men. The total vote behind all five of these gentlemen is 63,570. + These 63,570 voters, therefore, have the decision of this + momentous question.... + + You know the fight that you Democratic men put up against the + combination by the Committee on Rules under the leadership of + Speaker Cannon and you led that fight against the domination of + the committee over the House. You are today in this same position + of political power. Can you consistently oppose now the things + for which you fought so bitterly a short time ago? We know how + rapidly you have appointed committees when changed economic + conditions demanded it. I have here the report of the Committee + on the Judiciary for the special session, showing what work it + did, how many sittings it held, which proves conclusively that it + has not time for the consideration of our question.... + +This part of the hearing closed with the address of Mrs. Carrie +Chapman Catt, who was introduced as president of the International +Woman Suffrage Alliance, representing the organized womanhood of +twenty-six nations. She said in the course of her address: + + A few weeks ago a dispatch was sent out from Washington, saying + that the Judiciary Committee for the next year was going to be + more overworked than ever before. It was accompanied by a letter + from the President to Mr. Clayton, begging him to continue as + chairman of that committee and to withdraw from his candidacy for + the Senate from Alabama because this committee was going to do + more work than it had ever been required to do before. He called + attention to the fact that the Ways and Means Committee had been + obliged to work day and night, sometimes spending the whole night + on their particular business, and he warned Mr. Clayton that this + might be the expectation of the Judiciary Committee in this + coming Congress. When this committee has only worked during the + day, we suffragists have not been able to get the attention which + we think our cause demands and with this additional work it is + quite impossible to expect more attention than we have had in the + past. Since the suggestion was offered that possibly our business + might go before the Elections Committee, the information has come + that the President's plan for presidential primary legislation + will make this committee also a very busy one this coming + session.... We pride ourselves on our democracy, but while the + Judiciary Committee has been refusing to report our measure and + bring it before the House for discussion the question of woman + suffrage has been considered by the Imperial Parliaments of + twelve European countries. This has been done in fact within the + past two years. + +Mrs. Catt gave particulars from each and said the only ones where it +had not been discussed were those of Germany, Austria, Turkey and the +United States. This assertion stung the committee and Representative +Hardwick (Ga.) asked if there was not the wide difference that in this +country State laws reached the suffrage while in others the Parliament +regulated the vote, and she answered: "Of course there is that +difference but I wish to add my opinion to that of Miss Addams, that +while the States have the right to extend the vote it is the most +outrageously unfair process through which any class of unenfranchised +citizens of any land have ever been called upon to obtain their +enfranchisement and that is the reason why we come to Congress. The +overwhelming majority of the men of this country have not secured +their suffrage by any vote at the polls in the States. The only class +that I have ever been able to find in our history so enfranchised are +the working men in the original thirteen colonies, and they got the +vote by the process long ago when the population was exceedingly +small. There are more men today voting on the basis of their +citizenship under naturalization than for any other reason and yet our +State constitutions compel us to go to these men and ask our vote at +their hands. They say whether the women who have been born and bred +here and educated in our schools shall have the vote. We believe we +have the right to have our question considered by Congress and that is +why we ask for a special committee." + +A spirited discussion followed in which the 15th Amendment played a +part and Mr. Hardwick said all the women had to do in order to vote +was to add the word "sex" to it and Dr. Shaw answered: "This would +require a constitutional amendment and what we are asking is such an +amendment to our National Constitution, which shall forbid the States +to deprive women citizens of the right which it grants to every man +born in the United States and to every man imported from any country +under the light of the sun. No nation has subjected its women to the +humiliating position occupied by those of this nation today. There is +no race which is not represented in the citizenship of this country +and these citizens are made the governing power which determines the +destinies of our women. While women are disfranchised in Germany, yet +German women are governed by German men; French women are governed by +Frenchmen; in all the nations of Europe where women are disfranchised +it is by the men of their own nation but in the United States men of +every race may go to the polls and vote that American-born women may +not have a voice in their own government. Therefore we claim that it +is the business of the Government to protect women citizens in this +right of suffrage as it protects men citizens, and we ask for this +committee because we believe that if our question can be brought +before Congress and discussed freely, it will be submitted to the +Legislatures and decided favorably." + +Two anti-suffrage associations were represented, the National, headed +by its president, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge of New York, and the Guidon +Club, headed by its president, Mrs. William Force Scott of New York. +Mrs. Dodge presented as speakers Miss Alice Hill Chittenden and Miss +Minnie Bronson (N. Y.), Mrs. Robert Garrett (Md.), Miss Emily P. +Bissell (Del.), Mrs. A. J. George (Mass.), Miss Annie Bock (Calif.), +Mrs. O. D. Oliphant (N. J.), Miss Ella Dorsey (D. C.), Mrs. R. C. +Talbot and Miss Lucy Price (O.), Miss Eliza Armstrong, Miss Emmeline +Pitt and Miss Julia Harding (Penn.), Miss Alice Edith Abell, president +"Wage-earners' Anti-Suffrage League" (N. Y.); Everett P. Wheeler and +Charles L. Underhill, representing the Men's Anti-Suffrage Leagues of +New York and of Massachusetts. Letters were read from Miss Elizabeth +McCracken (Mass.) and Arthur Pyle (Minn.). Mrs. Scott introduced as +speakers Dr. and Mrs. Rossiter Johnson and John C. Ten Eyck of New +York. Representative J. Thomas Heflin (Ala.) spoke over an hour on his +own initiative. + +As the anti-suffragists had entirely disregarded the agreement to +confine the hearing to the purpose of obtaining a special committee +and had covered the whole field of woman suffrage itself, the +Committee on Rules willingly granted time for a rebuttal. Miss Alice +Stone Blackwell (Mass.), editor of the _Woman's Journal_, was selected +as the principal speaker because of her extensive knowledge of the +subject and another large audience assembled for the fifth time, both +suffragists and opponents. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.) +presided and Miss Blackwell said in beginning: + + Gentlemen of the committee, it is difficult in a short time to + review the arguments that have been made during nine or ten + hours, therefore I shall take up only the most important points. + The argument has been made over and over that you ought not + appoint this committee because there is not a sufficient public + demand and because the number of women who oppose suffrage is + greater than the number who favor it. It is an actual fact that + we represent a very much larger number. The opponents say that + only 8 per cent. of the women of this country favor suffrage. + They have no authority for this, nobody knows how many there are, + but it is a fact that less than one per cent. of the women of the + United States have expressed any objection to equal suffrage. The + anti-suffragists claim to be organized in seventeen States. The + suffragists are organized in forty-seven; the only State without + an organization is New Mexico. The anti-suffrage movement + maintains only three periodicals--two monthlies and one + quarterly. The suffrage movement maintains seven weekly papers, + one fortnightly and four or five monthlies. + + In every State where petitions for suffrage and remonstrances + against it have been sent to the Legislature, the petitioners + have always outnumbered the remonstrants and generally by 50 or + 100 to one. At the time of the last New York constitutional + convention as far back as 1894 the suffragists obtained more than + 300,000 individual signatures to their petitions. Suppose only + one-half of those were women, that would make 150,000. At the + same time the anti-suffragists obtained only 15,000, men and + women. In Chicago, a few years ago, 104 organizations, with an + aggregate membership of more than 100,000 women, petitioned for a + municipal woman-suffrage clause in the new city charter, while + only one small organization of women petitioned against it ... + + One of the opposing speakers claimed that the majority of the + grangers were opposed to suffrage. The National Grange passes a + strong resolution in favor of woman suffrage every year and a + long list of State granges have done the same. Individual working + women have appeared before this committee and have said that they + believed that the majority of working women were opposed to + suffrage, but all the great organizations of working men and + working women have repeatedly passed strong resolutions in favor + of it. + + We have been told that all kinds of terrible things will happen + if suffrage is granted. With the exception of Illinois, every + State that has adopted it borders directly upon some State which + has it. If, as has been claimed here, homes were broken up and + made desolate, if husbands found that their wives were neglecting + their home duties and their children, it is not likely that + suffrage would spread from the State which first adopted it to + one adjoining State after another. You have had one California + woman here who claimed that woman suffrage there does not work + well. California adopted the initiative and referendum at the + same time with woman suffrage. The "antis" immediately started an + initiative petition for the repeal of woman suffrage. They said + that 80 per cent. of the women of California were opposed to it + and that they would repeal it. Both men and women were eligible + to sign the repeal petitions; but out of the 1,591,783 men and + women they failed to get the 32,000 signatures necessary. It has + been asserted that the women in all the equal suffrage States + would like to repeal it. In any one of these States they could + repeal it if they wished to. A great effort was made by the + editor of the _Ladies' Home Journal_ to find Colorado women who + would express themselves against it and the fact that he wanted + adverse opinions was widely announced in the papers. Out of the + more than 200,000 women he succeeded in finding only nineteen who + said they did not think much of woman suffrage and of these three + said it had not done any harm. + + A few years ago Mrs. Julia Ward Howe took a census of all the + ministers of four leading denominations in the four oldest + suffrage States--Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho--and of all + the editors, asking them whether the results of woman suffrage + were good or bad. She received 624 answers, of which 62 were + unfavorable, 46 undecided and 516 in favor. The answers from the + editors were favorable more than 8 to 1: those from the Episcopal + clergymen more than 2 to 1; from the Baptist, 7 to 1; from the + Congregationalists about 8 to 1; from the Methodists more than 10 + to 1; and from the Presbyterians more than 11 to 1. + +Miss Blackwell disproved thoroughly the charges made by the opposition +disparaging to the laws for working women in the equal suffrage States +and many other charges, giving full proof of the accuracy of her +statements. The committee asked her many questions and gave her leave +to print as much of her argument as she wished. Her carefully prepared +data filled thirty-five pages of fine print in the published hearing. + +James Lees Laidlaw (N. Y.), president of the National Men's League for +Woman Suffrage, showed that the attitude of the opponents expressed a +distrust of democracy. He refuted many of their assertions, among them +the one that U. S. Senator John D. Works (Calif.) had declared woman +suffrage a failure in that State. He read a letter received from the +Senator the preceding day as follows: "I did not make any statement +anywhere that woman suffrage in California has proved a failure. Such +a news item was sent out over the country but it was entirely without +foundation and was based on a false headline in a newspaper not borne +out by the quotation from my speech even in that paper. You may say +for me that the statement is wholly without foundation and that woman +suffrage has not proved to be a failure in my State." + +Mrs. McCulloch referred to the "poor, misguided working girl" among +the "antis" who said wage-earning women didn't want the vote and asked +Miss Rose Winslow, a prominent working woman, to read the resolution +demanding the suffrage which was passed by the National Women's Trade +Union League. She did so and in a few sentences scored one of the +flowery anti-suffrage speakers, saying: "I have not had any choice as +to whether I should walk on the Bowery or on Fifth Avenue, because I +walk nowhere in the sunshine. I am one of the millions of women who +work in the shadow of these women of whom men speak as though they are +the only ones in the country, in order that they may parade the avenue +in all the beauty and glory of everything brought from all over the +world for their decoration, but I do not come with merely my personal +opinion and experience. I have the opinion of the organized working +women of America in convention assembled. These women represent all +the trades that women work at in the United States and they have +passed this resolution demanding the ballot without a dissenting +vote." + +Mrs. Emma S. South, wife of former Representative Oliver South of +Illinois, said the opponents had given alleged facts that would +require weeks of investigation to prove or disprove. She answered +their favorite assertion that women had more influence without the +vote by convincing illustrations of what the women of Chicago had been +able to accomplish with even their partial suffrage, retaining Mrs. +Ella Flagg Young as superintendent of schools, for instance. She +showed how in the appointment of the new school board the fact that +their power had been doubled and trebled by the recently granted +Municipal vote was manifest. Mrs. William Kent, after showing why the +women of California had asked for the ballot, gave her time to Miss +Helen Todd, who said in the course of an impassioned speech: "My +conversion to suffrage came through six years of work as factory +inspector in Illinois. I have always thought that the reason there +could be such a thing as women 'antis' was simply that the screen of +ignorance and the comfort and protection of home were so thrown +around them that they never had to face the realities.... No one can +go, as I have gone, through the factories of a great State and see the +suffering just of the children and not want the women who create human +life to have the power to protect that life." + +Mrs. Ella S. Stewart (Ills.), Mrs. John Rogers, Jr. (N. Y.), Mrs. +Katharine Houghton Hepburn (Conn.), Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer (Penn.) and +Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (O.) spoke briefly but strongly and an +effective letter was read from Miss Constance Leupp (D. C.). The women +present from the South were deeply incensed at the long, opposing +speech of Representative Heflin, who claimed to represent the women of +that section, and he was severely answered by Mrs. Pattie Ruffner +Jacobs, Mrs. Oscar Hundley and Mrs. Felix Baldwin of his own State; +Mrs. S. D. Meehan of Louisiana; Mrs. L. Crozier French and Miss +Catharine J. Wester of Tennessee and Mrs. Lulu Loveland Shepherd of +Utah, formerly of Tennessee. Mrs. Harper cited the three classes +enfranchised since the founding of the Government, the working men, +the negroes and the Indians, and said: "There was never any question +as to whether they would improve things or hurt things; now, in the +President's Message, he asks you to bring in the Porto Rican men. Are +you going to do this because you think they are needed in the +electorate and because they will make conditions better? We women are +the only class who have ever asked for suffrage in this country to +whom all these objections have been made and in regard to whom all +these fears have been expressed. There is not a class of voters in the +United States today which has lifted one finger to get the ballot, yet +the women of this country have been struggling sixty-five years for +the right to a voice in the Government. You must admit that they are +the best-equipped class that have ever asked this privilege and yet +you have kept them out. All we ask of you is to make it a little less +hard than it has been by giving us a committee from whom we can get +some consideration." + +Mrs. Frank W. Mondell, wife of the Representative from Wyoming, said +in the course of a very comprehensive address: "We do not desire to +base our request for the appointment of a Committee on Woman Suffrage +solely on the proposition that the subject is one of greater +importance than those included within the jurisdiction of many +committees of the House but rather on the ground that it has never, so +far as my recollection and information go, failed to provide by +general or special committee for the study and consideration of any +vitally important question that has arisen in the growth and +development of the nation." A review of the different committees was +made and she concluded: "We do not ask or expect a committee +constituted to represent our views but we ask for one whose special +duty it shall be to consider the question. We feel that we are only +asking the House of Representatives to follow its usual rule and +procedure." + +Mr. Mondell closed the hearing with a sarcastic review of the +objections made by the opponents during which he said: "I had the +privilege and pleasure of listening to the exceedingly strong and +forceful argument in favor of woman suffrage made this morning by the +gentleman from Alabama, or was it intended for an argument against it? +I think, taking it as a whole, that it was the most conclusive +argument I have ever heard in favor of it.... We have a committee +whose business it is to inquire how much further we should extend the +franchise to the little brown brother over in the Philippines, some +six or seven millions of him, and the President considers that a +sufficiently important matter to refer to it in his Message. I hope it +was through forgetfulness and not deliberate intent that he seemed to +fail to realize that it is of vastly less importance than the question +of granting the franchise to the mothers, wives and sisters among the +95,000,000 of the folks here in the United States." Mr. Mondell +ridiculed the sentimental effusion of Mr. Heflin and his solicitude +lest the harmony of family life might be disturbed and said: "If the +testimony of one who speaks from experience is worth while I can say +with full realization that it is a sweeping statement: In twenty-seven +years' wide knowledge of a people where woman suffrage prevails I have +never known a solitary case where a difference of political opinion +resulted in family quarrels or misunderstanding, not a single one.... +Are we to understand that men elsewhere--in Alabama, for instance--are +less considerate than with us and that they would make trouble if +their women folks did not vote as they wanted them to?... The exercise +of the franchise is a privilege and a right but above and beyond the +question of right or privilege stands the fact that as time goes on +and we are attempting to meet wisely the multitude of questions that +arise in government, many of them social and economic, we need the +assistance of the best half of mankind." + + * * * * * + +The Rules Committee met January 24, 1914, with eight of the fourteen +members present and Mr. Lenroot moved to report favorably the +resolution for a Woman Suffrage Committee. Representatives Foster +(Ills.), Campbell (Kans.) and Kelly (Penn.) joined him; +Representatives Hardwick (Ga.), Pou (N. C.), Cantrill (Ky.) and +Garrett (Tenn.) opposed. Mr. Lenroot then moved to report it without +recommendation and there was a tie vote. Enough signatures were +secured for the calling of a Democratic caucus on February 3 but just +before it convened a meeting of Democrats was held in the office of +Representative Oscar J. Underwood (Ala.) and it was decided by a vote +of 123 to 55 that suffrage was a State and not a Federal question and +no further action on a special committee was taken. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[78] Call: For the forty-fifth time in its history the National +American Woman Suffrage Association summons its members together in +council. By thus assembling, one more united step toward the final +emancipation of the women of this country is made practicable.... To +the wise and courageous, to those not fearful of the changes demanded +by the vital needs of growing humanity, this Call will have two +meanings: first, it will speak of loyalty to work and to comrade +workers; of large undertakings worthily begun and to be worthily +finished; of the stimulus of difficulty; of joy in the exercise of +talents and strength; of the self-control and ability required for +cooperation. + +Second, it will express--like other summons of women to women +throughout the ages--the need not alone for counsel and comfort but +also for the preservation of all they hold most high--for that to +which they gladly give their lives. It will speak of the struggle for +development which individual women have made; of the opportunities +they have won for each other; of the unequivocal demand for the best, +to which the few have led the many.... + +To you who grasp the underlying meaning of this struggle; to you who +know yourselves akin to those who have preceded and to those who will +follow; to you who are daily making this ideal a reality, this Call is +sent. + + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + JANE ADDAMS, Vice-President. + CHARLOTTE ANITA WHITNEY, Second Vice-President. + MARY WARE DENNETT, Executive Secretary. + SUSAN WALKER FITZGERALD, Recording Secretary. + KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, Treasurer. + HARRIET BURTON LAIDLAW,} + LOUISE DEKOVEN BOWEN, } Auditors + +[79] The first delegation received by President Wilson after his +inauguration was a group of eight or ten suffragists. It was arranged +by Miss Alice Paul, chairman of the Congressional Committee of the +National Suffrage Association. They stated their case in a few words +and quoted freely from his book, The New Freedom. The President was +very courteous but his attitude was one of amused curiosity. + +[80] When the board met after the convention it was disclosed that the +Congressional Union, instead of being merely a local society to assist +the committee in its efforts with Congress, as Miss Paul had said, was +a national organization to work for the Federal Amendment. That is, it +was to duplicate the work which the National Association had been +formed to do in 1869 and had brought to its present advanced stage. +The association's letterheads had been used for this purpose and +persons from all parts of the country had sent their names and money, +many supposing they were assisting the National Association. Miss Paul +had been obtaining names for membership in the Union during all the +sessions of the convention. The board decided that there must be +complete separation of the work of the committee and the Union; that +the same person could not be at the head of both and that the plans of +the Union must be regularly submitted to the Board. Miss Paul refused +to accept these conditions and she was at once relieved from the +chairmanship of the Congressional Committee and the other members +resigned. The Union was continued as a separate organization. Another +committee was appointed by the National American Association +consisting of Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick, chairman; Mrs. Antoinette +Funk, Mrs. Sherman Booth, all of Illinois, Mrs. Desha Breckinridge +(Ky.), Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.), Mrs. H. Edward Dreier (N. Y.), +Mrs. James Tucker (Calif.). Headquarters were opened in the Munsey +Building, Washington, with the Illinois women in charge. + +[81] Hubert L. Henry (Tex.), Chairman; Edward W. Pou (N. C.); Thomas +W. Hardwick (Ga.); Finis J. Garrett (Tenn.); Martin D. Foster (Ills.); +James C. Cantrill (Ky.); Henry W. Goldfogle (N. Y.); Philip P. +Campbell (Kans.); Irvine L. Lenroot (Wis.); Edwin A. Merritt, Jr. (N. +Y.); M. Clyde Kelly (Penn.). + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1914. + + +The Forty-sixth annual convention of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association had the honor and privilege of holding its +sessions in Representatives' Hall at the State Capitol in Nashville, +Tenn., Nov. 12-17, 1914.[82] Dr. Anna Howard Shaw was in the chair and +it was officially and cordially welcomed in the name of the city by +Mayor Hilary Howse; of the State Suffrage Association by its +president, Mrs. L. Crozier-French, and of the Nashville Equal Suffrage +League by the president, Mrs. Guilford Dudley. As Dr. Shaw rose to +respond she was presented by Miss Louise Lindsey, vice-regent of the +Ladies' Hermitage Association, with a gavel made from the wood of a +hickory tree planted by General Jackson at the Hermitage, his home. +She spoke of memories which made Nashville dear to the whole country; +referred to the merry barbecue which had been held for their +entertainment the preceding day "at the old mansion of that great +Democrat, Andrew Jackson," and continued: + + When his Honor the Mayor spoke of the hope that if women entered + into the political life of our country conditions would be made + better, I forgot the North and turned back in memory to the great + South, where no stronger argument in favor of our cause can be + found than the women themselves. It is not the men who have made + this nation what it is, it is the men and the women, and in no + part of it have women contributed more than in the South. When we + look back over its past history; when we see the land barren, the + desolation everywhere; when we see the homes left destitute and + the women prostrate by the graves of their dead; when we realize + that the men were nearly all swept away--we know that the power + which kept the South steadfast, which held the homes together, + which cherished the traditions, which made the South what it is + today was the loyalty, the patriotism, the unconquerable courage + and the devotion of Southern women in that hour of darkness and + despair. Had it not been for the new spirit of action born of the + necessity of the times in the character of Southern women to + inspire Southern men with hope and courage, desolation would + still be over the South. They evolved from within themselves a + power which no one knows that women possess until some hour of + extreme trial calls it forth. Never has there been a test of + human endurance and wisdom to which women have not responded and + become the inspiration and the strength of manhood. If any women + of this nation have ever bought their freedom and paid a dear + price for it, it is the women of the Southland. + + I cannot see how any man who calls himself a Democrat can fail to + recognize that the fundamental principle of democracy is the + right of the citizen to a voice in the government under which + that citizen lives; much less can I understand how any southern + man can look unmoved into the face of southern women knowing that + they are branded as no other body of intelligent people in this + country are--by disfranchisement--that they are deprived of that + one symbol of power which elevates the citizens of a democracy + out of the class of the defective and unfit. The only way men can + redeem themselves, the only way they can be honest American + citizens and Democrats is to stand by the fundamental principle + of democracy--that "Governments derive their just powers from the + consent of the governed"--"governed" women as well as "governed" + men. When Nashville and Tennessee and the South and the North and + the East and the West shall stand on this basic principle of just + government, then we shall have a republic, a government of the + people, by the people and for the people. + +At the close of the address this resolution was enthusiastically +adopted: "The National American Woman Suffrage Association in +convention assembled hereby expresses its heartfelt thanks and deep +appreciation to our national president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, for her +devoted and unremitting work for woman suffrage and for this +association during the past year; for her splendid services in the +campaigns which did so much to lead to victory two States; for her +willingness to stand for re-election in order that she may lead us to +new victories in the coming year." + +Greetings were brought from the recently formed National Suffrage +Association of Canada by Miss Ida E. Campbell, who said that although +it was only eight months old it represented many affiliated societies +in all the Provinces. She spoke of the splendid war work that was +being done by women and said: "Our national president, Mrs. L. A. +Hamilton of Toronto, is at the head of the relief work in that city +and the feeling is general that the patriotic activities of the +suffragists are doing much to enhance the cause of woman suffrage in +the eyes of the Canadian public.[83] May we now express the hope that +when the war is over we may welcome many of our American sisters to +what we have been looking forward to--our first Canadian National +Suffrage Convention. Canada salutes you." Greetings were read from the +Colorado State Federation of Women's Clubs and were presented from the +Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference by its president, Miss Kate +M. Gordon (La.). + +The large hall was crowded at the first evening meeting and the +convention was formally welcomed by Governor B. W. Hooper, who said in +the course of his address: + + It is highly appropriate that your progressive movement should + unfurl its banners in this, the most progressive State in the + South. Our people are not swift in their pursuit of strange + doctrines, but they are as a rule open to conviction and tolerant + of differences of opinion. Whatever may be our views of the + necessity and efficacy of woman suffrage most of us have sense + enough to know that it is surely coming in every State in the + republic.... When it comes to Tennessee I trust that there will + be no faltering compromise, giving only the limited right to vote + in the election of certain classes of officials. The suffrage, if + granted at all, should not be grudgingly given but should be the + complete and comprehensive right to participate in all elections. + When suffrage comes to the women of Tennessee I shall derive one + substantial pleasure from it if I am still living, the joy and + exultation of my little daughter, who has been a pronounced and + persistent suffragist since she was nine years old. She has taken + a keen and intelligent interest in all of my struggles, has + rejoiced in the hour of my victory and wept in the hour of my + defeat. She is the connecting link between me and the woman + suffrage cause. + + In behalf of all the good people of Tennessee, I extend greetings + to your great association and express the hope that your sojourn + in the historic Volunteer State may be filled with pleasure and + profit to each and every member of your convention. + +The Governor's daughter was introduced to the convention and it +settled itself in anticipation of the stories of the campaigns for +woman suffrage amendments which had ended with the general election +the preceding week, in some of them with victory, in others with +defeat. Miss Anne Martin, president of the Nevada Suffrage +Association, was heartily applauded as she told of the triumph in her +State, saying: + + The suffrage victory in Nevada means not only a solid equal + suffrage West and another step toward equal suffrage for the + United States but a triumph for better government in Nevada. It + is the most "male" State in America, perhaps in the world. The + census of 1910 shows that there are two men to every woman. Law, + custom, social life are more nearly man-made than those of any + other country; consequently Nevada needs the help of her women to + modify law, custom and social life, the help of those women whose + pioneer mothers stood shoulder to shoulder with the men in + building up a great commonwealth out of a wilderness. Owing to + the transitory character of many of the industries, such as the + construction of irrigation works, railway construction and + mining, there are nearly three times as many unattached men + living outside of home influences as there are married women in + the State. + + The male population is over 50 per cent. transient; the + population of women is only 20 per cent. transient, as they have + permanent occupations on the farms and in the schools. The + argument of the anti-suffragists that "the women do not want it" + was answered by a house-to-house canvass throughout the counties + of the State. In many of them at least 90 per cent. of the women + enrolled themselves in favor of equal suffrage and their + signatures are on file at the headquarters of the Nevada Equal + Franchise Society. The fact that out of a voting population of + only 20,000 a majority of 3,400 votes was cast to give women the + franchise shows not only that men all over the State were just + and fair-minded but that they must have instinctively felt the + need of women's help.... + +The story of victory for Montana was related by Miss Mary Stewart, as +the president, Miss Jeannette Rankin, had been detained to prevent a +tampering with the election returns, but she afterwards arrived and +was enthusiastically welcomed. Mrs. Clara Darrow, president of the +North Dakota association, gave an account of how the amendment had +been lost in that State through political tricks. Mrs. Draper Smith, +president of the Nebraska association, gave a report on the loss of +that State and paid tribute to William Jennings Bryan, who had made +sixteen strong speeches for it. Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, president of +the Missouri association, told of the effort through the hot summer to +get the necessary 38,000 signatures to an initiative petition, after +the Legislature had refused to submit the amendment, and the tactics +used to defeat it at the polls. Her mention of the name of Champ +Clark, Speaker of the National House of Representatives, who had +recently declared for woman suffrage, was applauded. As Mrs. Harriet +Taylor Upton, president of the Ohio Suffrage Association, was not at +the convention, the loss of the amendment in that State was described +by Mrs. Myron Vorce. [See State chapters.] + +The evening closed with the president's address. The report said: Dr. +Shaw declared she had some sympathy for the anti-suffragists, as they +were bound to lose. "When the campaign for woman suffrage was begun," +she said, "the 'antis' had all of the earth and the suffragists had +only hope of heaven but now many nations of the world and half of the +United States have been converted to the cause of votes for women." +She ridiculed the arguments of the anti-suffragists and said: "Until +you grant the right of a vote to all persons, you haven't a +democracy--you have an aristocracy and the worst of all--an +aristocracy of sex. Soon the divine right of sex here will be as +obsolete as the divine right of Kings in Europe." Answering the +argument that if women have the ballot they ought also to have the +musket, Dr. Shaw said in telling of the sufferings of the women during +the war: "It is said that 300,000 of the flower of Europe's manhood +have been killed in the last nine weeks of the war. I can't grasp the +thought of that many dead men but I can look into the face of one dead +soldier and know that he had a mother. If this woman had escaped death +at childbirth she had watched over him day by day until she had to +look up into the eyes of her boy. And then that boy was called by his +country and soon he was dead--he was in the happy peace of glory and +she was facing the empty years of agony. Then they ask what a woman +knows about war!... The very flower of a country perishes in a war, +leaving the maimed and diseased to father the children of future +generations. Women ought to have the ballot during war and during +peace, for we know that if they had had it in all countries this war +would not have occurred." + +The report of Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, corresponding and executive +secretary, covered much of the work of the National Association during +1914, which was more extensive probably than in any preceding year in +its history. It said in part: + + This year has completely broken all records in the number of + campaign States--seven in all. In four of them--Nevada, Montana, + North and South Dakota--the amendment was submitted by + legislative act; in three--Nebraska, Missouri and Ohio--by + initiative petition. It is noteworthy that in all of the last the + suffragists consider the work of securing the requisite number of + signatures, although it was exceedingly arduous, an invaluable + asset to the campaign, each signer being practically guaranteed + to vote right on the amendment itself. In Ohio, Nevada, Montana + and South Dakota, only a simple majority vote on the amendment is + necessary to pass it, but in Nebraska 35 per cent. of all the + votes cast at the election is required and in North Dakota and + Missouri a majority of all the votes cast. + + The year 1914 has been what suffragists call an "off year," since + most of the State Legislatures meet biennially in the odd years. + Nevertheless, what acts of Legislatures there have been are of + the greatest significance. Those of Massachusetts and New Jersey + submitted the suffrage amendment by overwhelming votes and in + both States the suffragists are confident of the approval of the + 1915 Legislatures, which is necessary before final submission to + the voters. An amendment was introduced into the Legislatures of + eight others. The national legislative record shows that never + before has the Congressional atmosphere been so thoroughly + permeated with woman suffrage. The anxiety of some members of + Congress to show that they stood right with their constituents on + the question and the agility of others in side-stepping every + possible necessity for meeting the issue, have unerringly + indicated that they all recognize the fact that the time has come + when national politics must reckon with woman suffrage. + + All through the year there has been the most hearty cooperation + between national headquarters and the Washington and Chicago + offices of our Congressional Committee.... It is impossible to + mention this committee without expressing on behalf of the + officers of the association a most thorough appreciation of the + service of its chairman, Mrs. Medill McCormick, who has not only + given money generously to the work but has added what is more + valuable still--steady, hard, personal labor, coupled with an + indefatigable good humor, frequently under most trying + circumstances.... + +The new State associations formed and the many suffrage organizations +applying for affiliated or auxiliary membership were named and an +account was given of the large sums of money, the vast amount of +literature and the many workers supplied to the seven State campaigns +of the year. These facts and the other activities of the association +were related in part as follows: + + Miss Harriet Grim of Wisconsin was sent by request to North + Dakota to cover the series of Chautauqua meetings in June and + July. Miss Katharine Devereux Blake of New York offered her + services for only expenses for a month of campaign work in July. + Hurried arrangements were made by telegram and as the promptest, + most urgent pleas came from Montana, it won her, although later + she did some work in North Dakota also. Miss Shaw's special fund + was the backing which provided for both tours. Miss Blake made + the wonderful record of obtaining from the collections at her + meetings enough to cover all her travelling and living expenses. + Miss Shaw's fund,[84] which has often seemed like the miraculous + pitcher, also provided part of the expense of sending Mrs. Jennie + Wells Wentworth to Ohio and Mrs. Laura Gregg Cannon to Nevada. + Miss Addams has contributed several weeks of campaigning and Dr. + Shaw herself has made an itinerary, giving ten days to each of + the campaign States, starting August 27 and ending with Election + Day.... + + Another noteworthy feature of the year's work was the + establishment of Woman's Independence Day on the first Saturday + of May, initiated by Mrs. McCormick and phenomenally successful. + There was a wonderful response to the ringing call sent out by + the National Board to all the suffragists of the country to meet + together in every city and town at a given time and sing a + suffrage hymn, declare their faith, pass a resolution and have a + speech. A woman's version of the Declaration of Independence was + prepared for the occasion and President Wilson was asked by Dr. + Shaw to proclaim the day a legal holiday to be celebrated in + recognition of the right and necessity that the women of the + United States should become citizens in fact as well as in name. + The President did not heed Dr. Shaw's request but the women of + the country did. Not a State was silent, not even the equal + suffrage States, and many added parades and other events to the + regular program. + +The story was told of the National Junior Suffrage Corps to enroll the +young people, the idea of Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees (Conn.); of the +large amount of Congressional documents distributed, among them 1,000 +copies of the speech of Senator Henry F. Ashurst (Ariz.) before the +Senate on the Federal Amendment, presented by him; the travelling +schools organized; lists prepared of many thousand active members and +an infinite variety of details. Mrs. Dennett had severed her +connection with the association the preceding September after four +years' invaluable service. + +Mrs. Dennett made also the report of the Literature Committee, whose +duties had now been merged in the National Woman Suffrage Publishing +Co. The latter reported through its chairman, Mrs. Cyrus W. Field. The +greatly needed Data Department had been established under the +cooperation of Miss Elinor Byrns, chairman also of the Press +Department; Mrs. Frances Maule Bjorkman and Mrs. Dennett. The +volunteer services of Miss Helen Raulett, like Miss Byrns a lawyer, +had been obtained, and while its great need and possibilities had been +demonstrated it was evident that it must be put on a paid, business +basis to be effective. Miss Byrns gave an interesting account of the +ramifications of the Press and Publicity Department and its important +accomplishments. "In my opinion," she said, "it is almost impossible +to have suffrage news given out successfully by any one who is not an +earnest suffragist. Knowledge of publicity does not make up for the +lack of conviction and enthusiasm," and she gave this instance: "A few +months ago a writer for one of the New York newspapers--the worst +'anti' paper we have--telephoned me, saying, 'I have been told to +write an editorial on the menace of woman suffrage. Can you help me?' +I said, 'Yes, I can prove to you that the majority of the presidential +electors in 1916 may represent equal suffrage States and that in all +probability every political party will have to endorse woman suffrage +before that time. What could be worse than that?' He agreed with me +and his editorial based on the facts Dr. Shaw and I gave him has been +a most successful campaign document for us." + +Among other valuable suggestions Miss Byrns said: "While there are +some editors who give us space because they have to--that is because +we are always doing something 'different' and making news which cannot +be ignored--there are perhaps even more who have a real interest in +the suffrage movement and are therefore eager to give us all the space +which the business department of their paper permits. And, by the way, +one of the most valuable kinds of press work is that which can be done +by every suffragist individually. Newspaper and magazine offices are +most sensitive to the praise and blame of readers. Suffrage +departments are sometimes stopped because no readers write their +approval. Individual newspaper policies, belittling or perverting the +suffrage issue, are sometimes persisted in because no readers write +their disapproval. It is discouraging to an editor when a reader +writes a letter complaining of one opposing news item or one cartoon +although she has ignored everything which has been printed in favor of +suffrage." + +Miss Jane Thompson, field secretary, told of the 8,000 miles she had +travelled in the campaign States since early in April; of her +experiences pleasant and unpleasant; of the excellent opportunities it +had afforded of establishing thorough understanding and cordial +relations between the National Association and the States. She spoke +of the long and arduous work of the national president and presented +the following expression of loyalty and appreciation from those who +had conducted the campaigns in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, +Montana and Nevada: + + To Dr. Anna Howard Shaw: + + When service of the highest type has been faithfully and loyally + rendered it is the pleasure of those most benefited by that + service to express, though inadequately, their deep appreciation. + We, the representatives of the Campaign States, feel that to you + we owe much for the splendid way in which you and your Executive + Board stood by us in our efforts, but even more do we appreciate + your personal labor, your untiring, beautiful spirit. Always + ready to meet whatever situation arose, regardless of fatigue, + you encouraged the believers, braced up the uncertain and + converted the unbelieving. Your service, in our estimation, is + invaluable and cannot be dispensed with. + +The legal adviser announced the settlement at last of the bequest of +Mrs. Sarah J. McCall of Ohio, including 100 shares of Cincinnati +Street Railway stock, worth from $5,000 to $6,000, and $705 interest; +also the receipt of a legacy of $4,750, after the inheritance tax was +paid, from former U. S. Senator Thomas W. Palmer of Michigan. + +Miss Elizabeth Yates said in her report on Presidential suffrage: "The +favorable decision the past year by the Supreme Court of Illinois +leaves no room for any further contention regarding its +constitutionality. It can be granted by any Legislature by a bare +majority vote and this can be obtained by many States that could not +secure the large vote necessary to submit a constitutional amendment +for full suffrage." She strongly urged that any State contemplating a +campaign for full suffrage should first secure the Presidential +franchise. In her usual excellent report on Church Work, Mrs. Mary E. +Craigie told of her visits to the Methodist Ministerial Associations +of Atlanta, Tampa and New Orleans with most gratifying results, as a +friendly spirit towards woman suffrage was developed and the last +named recommended the General Conference to give laity rights to +women. In cooperation with Dr. Nina Wilson Dewey, her chairman for +Iowa, arrangements were made during the Mississippi Valley Conference +in Des Moines with the clergymen of eighteen Protestant churches to +have their pulpits filled at some service on Sunday by women delegates +and the combined audiences by actual count numbered 6,000. Four +thousand copies of the annual letter asking for a mention of the need +of women's influence in State affairs in their Mothers' Day sermons +were sent to as many clergymen. + +One of the most valuable sessions was Voters' Evening, under the +auspices of the National Men's League, with its president, James Lees +Laidlaw (N. Y.) in the chair. The opening address was made by U. S. +Senator Luke Lea (Tenn.), who received a great ovation when he began +and the audience rose with cheers and waving handkerchiefs when he +finished. He said in the course of his speech: + + I am embarrassed by not knowing how to address this distinguished + audience.... Much as I regret it I must address you as "my + disfranchised friends," who, in spite of your learning, your + cultivation and your intelligence, under our enlightened and + progressive civilization occupy the same political plane as + insane persons, idiots, infants and others laboring under + disabilities. To say I regret to be forced to address you thus is + no mere lip service, contradictory of real sentiment and + conviction, for I was one of the three Southern Senators who were + sufficiently impressed with the absolute necessity of woman + suffrage to step beyond the sacred portals of State rights and + vote for the amendment to the constitution of the United States, + removing from the electoral franchise the limitation of sex, and + I am glad to have an opportunity to express the reasons for my + faith. + + These two twofold: First, the wholesome effect upon our + Government of extending the privilege of voting to women; and + second, the far-reaching results upon womanhood of granting this + right. The first reason is justified by the statement which will + be conceded by all, even the "antis," that an overwhelming + majority of women are good rather than bad and have the highest + ideals of government and politics. Therefore, to give the right + to vote to this class is to increase overwhelmingly the number of + good voters and to multiply the number of citizens with these + highest ideals. + + In answer to this, some "anti," who, by her opposition to woman + suffrage, pleads guilty to the threadbare charge that women have + not sufficient intelligence to vote, comes forward and says: "But + the good women won't vote; only the bad women will exercise the + privilege." This argument is answered by the contrary experience + in States where women vote. If woman suffrage only increased the + number of bad voters, then instead of spreading like a prairie + fire from coast to coast it would be repealed in the States where + it was originally tried as an experiment. The results in the + States where the franchise has been granted are an absolute and + irrefutable argument in favor of national woman suffrage. In + these States it has removed the polling places from the dives to + the churches and has opened more schools and closed more saloons + than all other political movements combined. The ideals of + government and the standard of right and wrong by which public + officials are measured have been raised without lowering one iota + the standard of motherhood, of wifehood and of womanhood, a + standard of which every woman is proud and which every man + reverences and worships.... + +Other speakers were President H. S. Barker of the University of +Kentucky; R. A. McDowell (Ky.), the Hon. Leon Locke (La.), Miss S. +Grace Nicholes of Chicago, and Charles T. Hallinan, vice-president of +the league. A branch of the Men's National League was formed during +the convention by about thirty prominent men, with John Bell Keble, +dean of the Vanderbilt Law School, as temporary chairman. + +Delegates to these national conventions now felt less need of +oratorical eloquence and more of practical knowledge of the work which +was under way that they might carry back with them to their own +States. One evening was profitably spent in listening to short +speeches by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell on the work of the National +Association; Mrs. Antoinette Funk on that of the Congressional +Committee; Mrs. Raymond Brown, president of the New York association, +on the unusual and spectacular campaign now under way in that State; +Miss Hannah J. Patterson on the preparatory campaign in Pennsylvania; +Mrs. Maud Wood Park, secretary of the Boston Equal Suffrage +Association, and Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley on the coming campaign in +Massachusetts; Mrs. Lillian J. Feickert, president of the State +association, on that of New Jersey. In all of these States amendments +had been submitted for 1915. Miss Rankin told the welcome story of the +Montana victory. + +The mass meeting on Sunday afternoon was one of the largest ever +assembled in Ryman Auditorium, all the standing room occupied and many +turned from the doors. The audience represented every station in life +and the large number of men was noticeable. Dr. Shaw presided and paid +a splendid tribute to the people of Nashville. Miss Jane Addams took +for a text her visit to the historic home of Andrew Jackson, which, +she said, had caused her to think of the great part the men of the +South had in shaping the policies of the early government of the +States, and how Chief Justice John Marshall, a southern man, had +welded them together into an unconquerable whole. She referred to the +way in which women had borne their part and asked why the men were so +progressive in those early days and yet so reactionary now, when women +asked that they should make another experiment in popular government. +Miss Rose Schneiderman, president of the New York City Women's Trade +Union, spoke on the Industrial Woman's Need of the Vote, telling of +the 800,000 working women in New York State, the low wages of many, +the unjust conditions. "Do you talk of chivalry?" she exclaimed. "We +women who work will tell you that we have no chivalry shown us in +industry and we will also tell you that we go home with half the wages +that men get. These same men who tell us we are angels send vice +commissioners to investigate why girls go wrong. I should think a +glance at the pay-roll would give them the answer." + +Miss Rosika Schwimmer of Budapest, who had come with a petition to +President Wilson from the women of fifteen countries that were at war +to use his influence to bring about peace, made an eloquent and +impassioned address. A storm of applause greeted her appeal to the men +of this country to avoid the catastrophe of war in the future by +granting the vote to women, who would always use it for peace. Mrs. +Desha Breckinridge, president of the Kentucky Equal Rights +Association, one of the most brilliant and forceful of the suffrage +speakers, took for a subject The South Needs her Women. "Do not call +upon the women of the South to help you solve your cotton problems +while you are using up the children of women in the cotton mills," she +said. "Women must have the ballot to cope with all the hard conditions +of life. When we think of war and patriotism we think of men. We +forget the little army of women that always follow in the wake of the +big armies and brave the bullets and the fearful conditions of warfare +that they may become ministering angels on the battlefields; the +Florence Nightingales who undergo the hardships to nurse the wounded. +We are also likely to forget the large army that stays behind, the +women on whom the hardships of war fall heavily, those who must endure +the sorrow and waiting. Is it fair to say woman shall have no part in +the every-day affairs of life when she must bear so much in war?" + +The program closed with an address by Mrs. Kate Waller Barrett on The +Attitude toward Woman Suffrage of the International Council of Women, +of which she was an officer. She described its quinquennial meeting in +Rome the preceding May, shortly before the breaking out of the war, +and said the desire for the suffrage was the connecting link between +the women of all nations. She declared that the safety of the country +depended on women's having a vote in the administration of all that +concerned the welfare of men as well as of women and children. In the +evening the officers, delegates and visitors were entertained by Mrs. +Benjamin F. Wilson at her beautiful home, Wilmor Manor. + +This convention of 1914 will be always noted for the long controversy +over what was known as the Shafroth National Suffrage Amendment. It +occupied all or a part of several sessions and the _Woman's Journal_ +said: "The greatest emphasis of the convention was laid on the work in +Congress; this was true even to the extent of cutting short discussion +of State methods. The story of the year's work in the different States +for both full and Presidential suffrage had to be abruptly dismissed." +A new Congressional Committee had been appointed on January 1, +consisting of Mrs. Medill McCormick, Mrs. Antoinette Funk and Mrs. +Sherman M. Booth, of Illinois, Mrs. Breckinridge (Ky.), Mrs. Mary C. +C. Bradford (Colo.); Mrs. John Tucker (Cal.); Mrs. Edward Dreier (N. +Y.); Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.). Mrs. Dreier resigned; Mrs. +Gardener was largely prevented from serving by illness and absence. +Other members were too far away for active work and the headquarters +in Washington were in charge of the three comparatively young, +energetic women from Illinois, who had shown such remarkable political +acumen in getting the Presidential suffrage bill through the +Legislature of that State and were leaders in the Progressive party. +The remarkable report of the committee's work presented by the +chairman, Mrs. McCormick, including her report as chairman of the +Campaign Committee, filled 45 pages of the printed Handbook of the +convention. It contained a full account of the action on woman +suffrage in both houses of the 63rd Congress, names and votes of +members, committee hearings, Senate debate, record of speeches, +statistics and information such as was never before presented to a +suffrage convention, and showed an amount of committee work +accomplished almost equal to that which had been done in all preceding +sessions of Congress combined.[85] It was clear that for the first +time the attempt to secure action by Congress on woman suffrage was +being made in political fashion, which was the proper way, but +unfortunately it showed also that the Federal Amendment, which had +been the principal object of the National Association for the past +forty-four years, was in danger of being replaced with one of a +totally different character. Space can be given for only enough of +Mrs. McCormick's exceedingly clever presentation of this proposed +amendment to make the matter fully understood. + + I assumed the responsibility as chairman early in January, 1914, + and after opening our headquarters in the Munsey Building at + Washington, D. C., divided the committee's work into three + departments--Lobby, Publicity and Organization. The lobby and + publicity were continued from the Washington office and an + organization office was opened in Chicago during the latter part + of January, as it was decided that Chicago was much better + situated geographically to carry on the program of this + department. + + As Congress was in session it was necessary for us to concentrate + our attention on our lobby at the Capitol and to determine as + quickly as possible both our policy to be adopted and the wisest + method of legislative procedure. In order to facilitate this work + Mrs. Booth and I joined Mrs. Funk in Washington, and, dividing + our duties, we proceeded to investigate the temper of Congress. + What was known in the present Congress as the Bristow-Mondell + resolution had been reported out favorably by the Standing + Committee on Suffrage in the Senate and, if we desired, could be + placed as unfinished business on the calendar, which would result + in a discussion terminating in a vote. + + The situation in the House of Representatives was not so + favorable. It has no suffrage committee and the Mondell amendment + was in the Judiciary. As that committee was composed of men if + not actually opposed at least indifferent there did not seem to + be any immediate chance of action. We discovered very soon, + however, that the Congressional Union was circulating a petition + among the Democrats requesting them to caucus on the subject of + establishing a Suffrage Standing Committee. The members of your + Congressional Committee felt this to be a great mistake. It gave + the Democratic party a splendid opportunity to commit themselves + as opposed to woman suffrage, using their State's rights doctrine + as a reason for their action. We discussed it with the members of + the Congressional Union, who were convinced they were right in + putting the Democratic party on record for or against suffrage, + and it developed during our discussion that their policy of + holding this party responsible, as the party in power, was to be + put into action at once and announced as soon as the Democrats + had voted in caucus. Knowing that this policy was diametrically + opposed to that of the National Association, which has always + been non-partisan--to hold the individual and not the party + responsible--we tried desperately hard to block the petition and + avoid the Democratic caucus at that time, but as the + Congressional Union had a lobby of forty women against our three, + it was impossible for us to head it off. The party caucused and + not only voted against a Standing Committee on Suffrage but Mr. + Heflin of Alabama amended the resolution before the caucus so + that the members were enabled to vote on February 3 by 123 to 55 + that woman suffrage was a question to be determined by the States + and not by the national government. + + It was now necessary for us to make a complete canvass of both + Houses of Congress, to tabulate the records of the men, in so far + as we were able to secure the information, and to determine at + the earliest possible moment whether or not it was advisable to + bring the Bristow amendment to a vote in the Senate.... My first + call was on Senator Borah of Idaho, who is a personal friend, a + suffragist, and has the advantage of being a progressive + Republican from an equal suffrage State. "I cannot vote for this + amendment," he said, "and want you to understand my reasons for + taking such a stand. I do not believe the suffragists realize + what they are doing to the women of the South if they force upon + them universal suffrage before they are ready for it. The race + question is one of the most serious before the country today and + the women must help solve it before they can take on greater + responsibilities. I am also a strong conservationist and + entertain a State's rights attitude of mind on both these + questions." + +Mrs. McCormick then called on Senator Burton of Ohio, whom she +described as "a reactionary Republican"; Senator Johnson of Maine and +Senator Saulsbury of Delaware, "strong States' rights Democrats," and +she gathered the impression that the new amendment which her +Congressional Committee had in mind would have a better chance than +the original, to which the Congressional Union had given the name +Susan B. Anthony Amendment. The following men agreed to serve on the +Advisory Committee in the Senate: Borah of Idaho; Bristow of Kansas; +Shafroth and Thomas of Colorado; Owen of Oklahoma; Clapp of Minnesota; +Smoot of Utah; Kern of Indiana; Lea of Tennessee and Ashurst of +Arizona. "They unanimously agreed with us," she said, "that it would +be of great educational value to have the question brought up before +the Senate during the present session, as there had never been a +debate on the question of woman suffrage in Congress."[86] + +Mrs. McCormick told how the amendment had been put on the calendar as +unfinished business and discussed daily at 2 o'clock for ten days +until the vote was taken March 19, 1914, when it received 35 ayes, 34 +noes, a majority but not the necessary two-thirds. A change of 11 +votes would have carried it and more than half of the absentees were +known to be in favor but these facts did not give her any faith in the +amendment. "During the canvassing of the Senate," she said, "we were +more and more impressed with the necessity of meeting the State's +rights argument and felt more and more keenly the barrier of the State +constitutions in advancing our cause. An analysis of these +constitutions proved most illuminating and in arguing with the +Senators upon this point they constantly reiterated the general idea +of submitting this question, as well as other big national questions, +to the decision of the people. We also discovered at this time that +there were seven or eight different amendments before Congress on the +woman suffrage question. For example, there is a bill giving us the +right to vote for Presidential electors. There is another bill giving +us the right to vote for Senators and Congressmen, etc....[87] A +general canvass of the Lower House and also the action of the +Democratic caucus convinced us in an even more pronounced way that we +are blocked by the State's rights doctrine." The report continued: + + It was at this time that Mrs. Funk, Mrs. Booth and myself + interpreted our duty as a committee to mean that we were + appointed not only for the purpose of national propaganda and for + the promotion of the Bristow amendment but that our duty was a + more extensive one and required us to meet whatever political + emergency might arise during our term of office. We, therefore, + set about to originate a new form of amendment to the U. S. + Constitution which would meet the State's rights argument, if + such a thing were possible. As Mrs. Funk is a lawyer, Mrs. Booth + and I agreed that it was most important for her to draw up such + an amendment. This was done; it was submitted to several lawyers, + to our Advisory Committees of Senate and House; to an able + constitutional lawyer in Washington, to Judge William J. Calhoun, + of Chicago, a lawyer of international reputation, and to Judge + Hiram Gilbert, one of the best constitutional lawyers in + Illinois. We accepted Judge Gilbert's rewording and then sent it + on to the Progressive party's legislative bureau in New York, + where it was endorsed by their corps of lawyers, who draft all + their bills. + + The amendment was at this time discussed with our Advisory + Committee in the Senate and met not only with their approval as + an amendment but they considered it a very shrewd political move + on the part of our organization. At the next meeting of the + National Suffrage Board I presented the amendment, and, after + nearly two months' consideration and discussion with some of the + leading suffragists of the country, they voted _unanimously_ + endorsing it and instructing us to have it introduced whenever we + thought it advisable. This action was taken by the National Board + about two weeks before the vote came up in the Senate. Not + wishing in any way to interfere with the Bristow amendment, we + did not discuss even the idea of this one with any other member + of Congress excepting of course our Advisory Committees.[88] + +Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, at the request of Mrs. +McCormick's committee, introduced the new measure, which took his +name, and it was favorably reported to the Senate by Senator Owen of +Oklahoma in May. At this Nashville convention it was for the first +time brought before the association. In her report Mrs. McCormick thus +described the hearing which had been held before the House Judiciary +Committee March 3: + + The hearing was just at the time of the big blizzard and our + speakers were stormbound, so that when we appeared before the + committee there were only Mrs. Funk, Mrs. Booth and myself to + represent the National Association, and, as Mrs. Booth was not + prepared to speak and I was chairman for the time given our + committee, it left Mrs. Funk as our only speaker. We had + discussed the night before the hearing the possible phases of the + suffrage question Mrs. Funk could use in her speech that would be + new to the Judiciary Committee. As an organization we have been + conducting hearings before this committee for over forty years, + and, as many of its members have served several terms, they are + as familiar as we are with the suffrage arguments. We, therefore, + decided to be perfectly frank with the committee and draw to + their attention the fact that they possessed the power, if they + wished to exercise it, to suggest to Congress some other form of + legislation than had been presented to them. Mrs. Funk made this + statement to them and said that in interviewing the members of + the Judiciary Committee individually we found that they were + convinced that woman suffrage was a question which was growing so + rapidly throughout the country that it would only be a short time + before the women would succeed in gaining their political + freedom, but that as a committee, and because there was a + majority of Democrats on it, they did not feel that they were + able to report the Mondell amendment in any form.[89] + +Mrs. McCormick then called on Mrs. Funk to present the Shafroth-Palmer +Amendment, which had been introduced in the House by A. Mitchell +Palmer (Penn.), and the argument for it. The amendment read as +follows: + + Whenever any number of legal voters of any State to a number + exceeding 8 per cent. of the number of legal voters at the last + preceding general election held in such State, shall petition for + the submission to the legal voters of said State of the question + whether women shall have equal rights with men in respect to + voting at all elections to be held in such State, such question + shall be so submitted, and if a majority of the legal voters of + the State voting on the question shall vote in favor of granting + to women such equal rights, the same shall thereupon be deemed + established, anything in the constitution or laws of such State + to the contrary notwithstanding. + +In beginning her carefully prepared "brief" Mrs. Funk said: + + This amendment to the U. S. Constitution must pass both branches + of the national Congress by a two-thirds vote and be ratified by + a majority vote of three-fourths of the State Legislatures before + it becomes a law. So far it is identical with the Bristow-Mondell + amendment. The difference between the two is that after the + latter amendment has passed three-fourths of the State + Legislatures it completely enfranchises the women. The + Shafroth-Palmer amendment, after it has passed three-fourths of + the State Legislatures, enables 8 per cent. of the voters of a + State to bring the suffrage question up for the consideration of + the voters at the next general election. Such a petition may be + filed at any time, not only once but indefinitely, until suffrage + is won, and a majority of those voting on the question is + sufficient to carry the measure. In other words, every State + where the women are not at present enfranchised may be a campaign + State every year. If the male voters are obliged to hear the + woman suffrage question agitated and discussed at a perennial + campaign, how long will it be before, in desperation and + self-defense, they will vote in favor of it? + + Now, why is the Shafroth-Palmer amendment easier to pass Congress + than the Bristow-Mondell amendment? First of all it shifts the + responsibility of actually enfranchising the women from the + Senators and Representatives to the people of their respective + States. Second, the State's rights doctrine is the one objection + raised to every federal issue that comes before Congress. It is + primarily the greatest obstacle to federal legislation on any + subject and is recognized as a valid objection by the members of + Congress and particularly those from the North, who feel that + they owe to the members of the South the justice of refraining + from interference in matters vital to the South.... + + Third, the Democratic party is committed to the initiative and + referendum but not to woman suffrage.... The President has + endorsed the initiative and referendum and has fully convinced + himself of its merit.... We are asking the Democratic party to + give us, the women of the country, the initiative and referendum + on the question of whether or not we shall be allowed to vote, + and no State can have this question forced upon it or even + settled until a majority of the voters of the State cast their + ballots in favor of it. + +The difficulties connected with the old amendment both in Congress and +in many States were described and the case of New York was cited among +others: + + If the matter of suffrage is submitted to the State of New York + in 1915 and does not carry, under the New York constitution it + cannot again be submitted for two years. Meantime all the energy + that should be expended in directly educating the people must + again be wasted trying to get a majority vote in two successive + Legislatures. It is the opinion of one of the great suffrage + leaders in New York, as expressed to me, that if the amendment + does not carry in 1915 the people will not have an opportunity to + vote upon it for another fifteen or twenty years.[90] + + The early passage of the Shafroth-Palmer amendment would + eliminate the State constitutional barrier and leave for the + State organization only the work of ratification of this + amendment, which only requires a majority vote in both branches + of the Legislature. Again the legislator is able to shift the + responsibility to the voters of his State. He is not voting + directly on the question himself--only to submit the question to + the people. You can readily see that here again this amendment + is easier to ratify in the Legislatures than the Bristow-Mondell + would be, because in the ratification of the latter the + legislators are practically casting the final vote on the + enfranchisement of the women all over the country.... The + simultaneous consideration of suffrage in every State at the same + time would give overwhelming accumulative impetus to the movement + and would increase suffrage activity inestimably. The fact that + the national Congress had taken any action whatsoever in regard + to the suffrage question would stamp it as a national issue, and + I very much doubt whether the Democratic and Republican parties + would be able to decline to put a suffrage plank in their + national platforms. + +This ended Mrs. Funk's statement and Mrs. McCormick continued: "In +dividing up the work of the lobby Mrs. Sherman undertook to card +catalogue Congress by the same method which she used so successfully +in the Illinois Legislature and a list of members was prepared who +should be defeated on their record in Congress. Arthur Dunn, who had +been a Washington newspaper correspondent for thirty years, was put at +the head of the publicity bureau and proved to be of inestimable value +because of his personal acquaintance with every member of Congress." +Charles T. Hallinan, also an experienced newspaper man, had been made +chairman of the press bureau and in his report to the convention told +of the introduction of the latest methods of publicity work and the +signal success they had achieved. A Chicago office had been opened for +organization and a system established of thorough congressional +district work, a detailed account of which filled half a dozen pages +of the printed Minutes. Miss Lillie Glenn and Miss Lavinia Engle had +been appointed field organizers and a number of States were canvassed, +speeches made indoors and out in scores of counties, women's societies +visited and many suffrage clubs formed. Every kind of transportation +was used, from muleback to automobiles, and many hardships were +encountered. The report closed with several pages of valuable +suggestions for what would be a thorough political campaign if carried +out. Mrs. McCormick also gave an interesting report of her +chairmanship of another committee, saying: + + Early in the summer of 1914 Mrs. Desha Breckinridge advanced the + valuable idea of a special campaign committee to be appointed by + the National Board for the purpose of giving aid to the campaign + States by establishing a speakers' bureau for their benefit and + devising means for raising necessary funds, which the National + Board approved. My indorsement would have been less enthusiastic + could I have foreseen that I would be selected as chairman. A + special finance committee was appointed, Mrs. Stanley McCormick, + chairman; Miss Addams, treasurer, and I, secretary. Miss Ethel M. + Smith, of Washington, D. C., spent her vacation establishing a + speakers' bureau in the Chicago headquarters and it has been + conducted by Mrs. Josephine Conger-Kanecko. As many national + speakers have been routed through the campaign States as our + finances would permit. We were faced with the discouraging fact + that to do really active campaign service we would need a fund of + not less than $50,000 and we had less than $13,000. We collected + and distributed in cash a less amount than would be used on the + campaign of a city alderman in an off year. + + The plan of self-sacrifice day had been suggested to Mrs. + Breckinridge by a Wisconsin suffragist and adopted by the + National Board and a general appeal went out to the women of + America to sacrifice something in aid of suffrage and contribute + the amount to the general fund for use in the campaign States. + [$9,854 were realized.] Mrs. Funk, while walking through the + Capitol one day, observed a bride with much gold jewelry in + evidence and expressed the wish that a little of the gold used + for personal ornament might find its way into a treasure chest to + be sold for the campaign States and so the idea of the "melting + pot" was suggested.... The plan was endorsed and put into + operation as follows: A carefully selected list of names of women + was taken from among the various suffrage organizations, + colleges, churches, etc. These women received a letter asking for + a contribution to the melting pot and further urging them to + accept a sub-committeeship, making themselves responsible for + soliciting from at least six people a contribution and keeping + track of this group until their possibilities had been exhausted. + The names of these persons were carefully scanned by the general + committee and two or three out of each group of six were asked to + go at the head of a further sub-committee and so something not + unlike an endless chain was created. Although this was put into + effect hastily and during the intense heat of a Washington + summer, it was an enormous success and now at the close of the + campaign contributions are still coming in and we consider that + the top soil of melting pot possibilities has not been scratched. + [$2,732 were realized.] + +Mrs. Funk's report of her campaign work was an excellent showing of +the situation which the suffragists faced in State campaigns and had +done from the beginning: + + From the time I left Washington August 25, until I returned to + Chicago October 27, I covered approximately 8,000 miles. After + speaking three days in Indiana, where the suffragists were + straining every nerve to secure a constitutional convention, I + spent two days in Chicago and then started into the western + States. My first three days were spent in Omaha, and, although my + original itinerary contemplated my coming to Nebraska for the + last ten days of the campaign, this was afterwards changed and I + went back to Montana a second time, so my observations regarding + Nebraska refer to Omaha alone. Here existed an almost + unbelievable condition of opposition. The brewers had come openly + into the field against us and the brewing interests are connected + with many of the big financial ventures in that city. Bankers, + merchants, tailors and other business men whose wives were in + suffrage were brazenly warned that the brewing deposits would be + withdrawn from banks, that patronage would be taken away from + merchants and tradespeople--even doctors were threatened with the + loss of their clientele if their wives continued actively in the + campaign. The result was a paralysis of action among many women + who would naturally have been leaders and supporters of the work. + Mrs. Draper Smith was doing all that was humanly possible under + the circumstances to stem the tide of opposition, but money for + publicity and organizing and many speakers seemed to be a + necessity. Upon my report to Mrs. McCormick all extra aid + possible was given. + + My trip to South Dakota was interesting in the extreme. It and + North Dakota are agricultural States, the cities are small and + far apart, the villages are scattered over vast areas. By far the + larger percentage of population dwells in the country on farms + and ranches. The two Dakotas are almost pioneer States even now, + but they present the highest degree of educational advantage and + of general literacy perhaps in the whole United States. Their + laws are generally good and for that reason there appears to be + much apathy on the part of both men and women regarding suffrage. + The States are prosperous and the people have not felt to any + extent the pinch of wrong political conditions. The great problem + was to reach the people and make them think, as when they think + at all upon the subject they are apt to think right. I am + convinced that whatever the vote against the suffrage amendment + may have been in North Dakota it was the result of indifference + and lack of special information and not to any extent real + opposition. + + I believed from what I could learn in South Dakota the liquor + interests were making their last fight for State control and + about the time I arrived Mrs. Pyle had ascertained that a large + amount of money was being used to subsidize the State press, and + simultaneously the literary efforts of the anti-suffragists, + which have appeared throughout the press during the last year, + came out in the leading papers, and anti-suffrage ladies at $100 + a week and expenses appeared on the platform of the principal + towns and cities. During my campaign there I spoke wherever + possible out-of-doors, even though meetings were arranged for me + in halls, courthouses and churches. I found that the small + audiences which would assemble in these places were made up of + women and men already interested and that the uninstructed voter + would only listen when you caught him on the street. I spent the + week of the State fair at Huron with Mrs. Pyle and witnessed a + wonderful demonstration of activity. As high as 50,000 people a + day were in attendance and the grounds were covered with our + yellow banners. Every prize-winning animal, every racing sulky, + automobile and motorcycle carried our pennants. Twenty thousand + yellow badges were given away in one day. The squaws from the + reservation did their native dances waving suffrage banners, and + the snake charmer on the midway carried a Votes for Women pennant + while an enormous serpent coiled around her body. I spoke during + the fair four and five times a day and held street meetings + downtown in the evening. When not thus engaged I assisted Mrs. + Pyle and her committee in distributing thousands of pieces of + literature and was amazed at the eagerness of the people to + receive them. We investigated the fair grounds to see how much + was thrown away and found almost none. + + In North Dakota Mrs. Darrow had asked me to go into the untilled + suffrage field. In many places they had never heard a suffrage + address nor had a suffrage meeting ever been held. I zigzagged + across from the southeast to the northwest corners and in Minot + was arrested for making a street speech. There was no law that I + could discover against my speaking in the street and I was + convinced and am still that it was the result of the petty + tyranny of town officials unfavorable to women. A fine of $5 + imposed upon me by the justice of the peace was remitted by him. + I spent twelve days in Montana, travelling about 2,000 miles, and + found more general interest than in any other State. With 118,000 + voters scattered over the third largest State in the Union, with + many contending elements, with an acute labor situation, with the + political control of the State vested very largely in one great + corporation, there was plenty to occupy the attention of a + suffragist worker. Miss Rankin's organization work had been + carried to a high degree of efficiency by the most strenuous + endeavor on her part. The Amalgamated Copper Company, striving to + defeat the workmen's compensation act, had joined hands with the + liquor interests, working to defeat woman suffrage, and had put + on the petticoat and bonnet of the organized female + anti-suffragists. I spoke to thousands of people all over the + State, and while on the surface all appeared well, there was an + undertow of fierce opposition that could be felt but that can not + be estimated until the votes are counted. [The State was carried + by 3,714.] + + Nevada was like a story in a book--a big, little State, with + 80,000 inhabitants and 18,000 voters, and so thoroughly was it + organized by Miss Martin that I believe she could address every + voter by his first name. I felt like a fifth wheel. All the work + appeared to be finished and hung aside to season by the time I + arrived and I was in the unenviable position of being sandwiched + between Dr. Shaw, who had just preceded me, and Miss Addams, who + immediately followed me. I went over the desert, however, and + into mines, and spoke in butchers' homes and at meetings that + wound up with a supper and a dance and came away with the + certainty that Miss Martin had two or three thousand votes tucked + away in her inside pocket. [The State was carried by 3,678.] On + this trip I learned of hundreds of thousands of pieces of + literature sent out by our entertaining friend, the Hon. Tom + Heflin of Alabama. I know now why it was that all last winter he + jumped up in Congress every few minutes and read into the + Congressional Record something about the horror of women voting. + He had a long business head and he was thriftily saving postage + on anti-suffrage literature in the interest of the "society + opposed," of the liquor interests, of organized crime and of all + those forces that have taken arms against us. + +The convention was deeply appreciative of the arduous and extensive +work that has been done by the Congressional Committee but there was +intense dissatisfaction with the so-called Shafroth Amendment, which +had been freely discussed in the _Woman's Journal_ for the last eight +or nine months.[91] The debate in the convention consumed several +sessions and more bitterness was shown than ever before at one of +these annual meetings. The Official Board having endorsed the +amendment felt obliged to stand by it, but to most of those delegates +who had been in the movement for years it meant the abandonment of the +object for which the association had been formed and for which all the +founders, the pioneer workers and those down to the present day, had +devoted their best efforts. Dr. Shaw was the only member of the board +who had been many years connected with the association, and, while her +judgment was opposed to the new amendment, she yielded to the earnest +pleas of her younger colleagues and the optimistic members of the +Congressional Committee that it should have a fair trial. Miss +Blackwell, editor of the _Woman's Journal_, strongly endorsed it and +gave it the support of her paper in many long, earnest editorials. She +also granted columns of space to vigorous arguments on both sides by +suffragists throughout the country.[92] The question had been before +the State associations for the last seven or eight months. + +Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, corresponding secretary of the National +American Association, wrote to the State presidents the first week in +May, 1914: "Strange as it may seem, we find that quite a number of the +members of our association have gotten the impression that the +introduction of the Shafroth amendment means the abandoning of the old +amendment which has been introduced into Congress for forty years or +more, and which, as you know, has now been re-introduced and at this +session will be called the Bristow-Mondell amendment. Nothing could be +further from the truth. The reason for the introduction of the +Shafroth amendment is to hasten the day when the passage of the +Bristow-Mondell amendment will become a possibility.... Both +amendments are before Congress but only the new one stands any chance +of being acted upon before adjournment.[93] We stand by the old one as +a matter of principle; we push for the new one as a matter of +immediate practical politics and to further the passage of the old +one." Mrs. Dennett also vigorously advocated the new amendment in the +_Woman's Journal_. + +At the opening of the second session of the convention devoted to the +subject Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch moved that the Shafroth amendment +be not proceeded with in the next Congress and it was seconded. +Instantly Mrs. Raymond Brown, president of the New York State +Association, offered as a substitute resolution: "It is the sense of +this convention that the policy of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association shall be to support by every means within its +power, in the future as in the past, the amendment known as the Susan +B. Anthony amendment; and further that we support such other +legislation as the National Board may authorize and initiate to the +end that the Susan B. Anthony resolution become a law."[94] After the +discussion had lasted for hours, with the administration supporting +this resolution, a motion to strike out the words "and further" and +all that followed was lost and it was carried by a vote of 194 to +100.[95] + +The next day an informal conference was held at which Miss Laura Clay +and Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett explained a bill for Federal Suffrage, +which they, with others, had long advocated, to enable women to vote +for U. S. Senators and Representatives. Congress had the power to +enact such a law by a simple majority vote of both houses. The +association for many years had had a standing committee on the +subject, which was finally dropped because it was believed that the +law could not possibly be obtained. It found much favor at this +convention, which instructed the Congressional Committee to +"investigate and promote the right of women to vote for U. S. +Senators, Representatives and Presidential Electors through action of +Congress." + +There was spirited discussion of the Congressional Committee's plan +for "blacklisting" candidates for Congress whose record on woman +suffrage was objectionable and it finally resulted in the passing of a +resolution that this could be done only when approved by the majority +of the societies in the State concerned. It was decided that the +Congressional Committee should send out information and suggestions +for congressional work but that the State associations should +determine how this material should be used and that when the majority +of them in a State could not agree upon some plan of cooperation the +Congressional Committee should not work in said State. + +The feeling aroused by the discussion of the Shafroth amendment was +manifested in the election, where 315 delegates were entitled to vote +and 283 votes were cast. Dr. Shaw received 192 for president and the +rest were blank, as even delegates who opposed this amendment would +not vote against her. Miss Jane Addams declined to serve longer as +vice-president and reluctantly consented to her election as honorary +vice-president but resigned before the close of the convention, as she +felt that she could not be responsible for actions in which she had +practically no part. Mrs. Desha Breckinridge of Kentucky was +re-elected second vice-president without opposition but resigned soon +afterwards, although not because of any disagreement with the policy +of the board. Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick of New York received 173 +votes for first vice-president and Miss Jean Gordon of New Orleans +107. Dr. Katharine Bement Davis of New York was made third +vice-president without opposition, nor was there any to Mrs. Orton H. +Clark of Michigan for corresponding secretary. For recording secretary +Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald of Massachusetts received 166 votes and Miss +Anne Martin of Nevada 115. Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers of New York was +almost unanimously chosen for treasurer and Mrs. Walter McNab Miller +of Missouri for first auditor. For second auditor Mrs. Medill +McCormick of Chicago received 177 votes and Miss Zona Gale of New York +103. Later Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Mississippi was appointed +in place of Mrs. Breckinridge. The new board finally included only two +members of the old one besides Dr. Shaw--Mrs. McCormick and Mrs. +Fitzgerald. + +The present convention was declared by resolution to have been "one of +the greatest and most delightful meetings in the history of the +organization," and a long list of thanks was extended "to the city of +Nashville for its broad and generous hospitality and for special +courtesies." The Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association gave a dinner, +with Mrs. L. Crozier French, its president, as toast-mistress; the +Women's Press Club had a luncheon for the visiting press +representatives and the College Women's League one for its delegates. +It was a relief from the tension of the week to have the last evening +of the convention devoted to entertainment. Miss Zona Gale read a +charming unpublished story, Friendship Village; a musical program was +given by the Fiske Jubilee Singers and the convention closed with a +remarkable moving picture play, Your Girl and Mine, an offering to the +association by Mrs. Medill McCormick.[96] + +The treasurer's report showed receipts for the year of $67,312 and +expenditures $59,232. In addition a special fund for the "campaign" +States had been subscribed of $12,586, of which $11,020 had been +spent. Mrs. Medill McCormick had made a personal contribution of +$6,217 to the publicity work of the Washington and Chicago +headquarters. Pledges of $7,500 were made by the convention. + +The committee of which Mrs. Frances E. Burns (Mich.) was chairman +reported resolutions that urged the U. S. Senate and House of +Representatives to take up at once the amendments now pending in +Congress for the enfranchisement of women; demanded equal pay for +equal work and legislation to protect the nationality of American +women who married foreigners. They re-affirmed the association's past +policy of non-partisanship and declared that "the National American +Woman Suffrage Association is absolutely opposed to holding any +political party responsible for the opinions and acts of its +individual members, or holding any individual public official or +candidate responsible for the action of his party majority on the +question of woman suffrage." Of the European war now in its fourth +month, the resolutions said: + + WHEREAS: It is our conviction that had the women of the countries + of Europe, with their deep instinct of motherhood and desire for + the conservation of life, possessed a voice in the councils of + their governments, this deplorable war would never have been + allowed to occur; therefore, be it + + RESOLVED: That the National American Woman Suffrage Association, + in convention assembled, does hereby affirm the obligation of + peace and good will toward all men and further demands the + inclusion of women in the government of nations of which they are + a part, whose citizens they bear and rear and whose peace their + political liberty would help to secure and maintain. + + RESOLVED: That we commend the efforts of President Wilson to + obtain peace. Sympathizing deeply with the plea of the women of + fifteen nations, we ask the President of the United States and + the representatives of all the other neutral nations to use their + best endeavors to bring about a lasting peace founded upon + democracy and world-wide disarmament. + + * * * * * + +As the national convention for 1914 would meet in Nashville it was +necessary to have a special delegation attend the "hearing" in +Washington which always was held at the first session of a new +Congress. The officers of the Congressional Union arranged for one +before the House Judiciary Committee for March 3, and, as it was not +likely that a second would be granted, Mrs. Medill McCormick, Mrs. +Antoinette Funk and Mrs. Sherman Booth represented the National +American Association at this one, as members of its Congressional +Committee. Mrs. Funk was the speaker and the main points of her +address are included in Mrs. McCormick's report in this chapter. In +effect it prepared the way for the new measure afterwards called the +Shafroth Amendment and she began by saying: "Ours is the oldest +national suffrage association in the United States. It has been in +existence over fifty years and comprises a membership of 462,000 +enrolled women in the non-suffrage States. In addition to these I +speak this morning in behalf of the 4,000,000 women voters in the ten +equal suffrage States." Further on she said: "Gentlemen, the dearest +wish of our hearts would be fulfilled if you would enfranchise the +women. I know pretty much whether you are going to or not and you know +that I know." The committee asked her a number of questions and she +concluded: "We feel that this question could at least safely go to the +people. It might be submitted by petition of the voters. In addition +let me make this point along the line of the States' rights argument: +You see, a Legislature _per se_ has no right; it is nothing; it has no +privilege--the privilege is all in the people themselves, and you +could not say it would be contrary to the rights of the people in the +State to take down an obstacle that was built up in front of them. So, +in view of the action of the Democratic caucus in the House, we think +you can at least do this much for us; you can take down this +obstacle--State Legislatures." + +The Federal Women's Equality Association also had asked for a portion +of the time and its corresponding secretary, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby +of Washington and Portland, Ore., had charge of it. Although this +association was organized twelve years before for the special purpose +of obtaining a bill enabling women to vote for Senators and +Representatives, it sponsored in the present Congress the same measure +which the old association had introduced for the past thirty-five +years and on this occasion its speakers discussed only the amendment. +Mrs. Colby introduced first Representative Frank W. Mondell of +Wyoming, who always was ready to champion the cause of woman suffrage +for every organization. He made the point among others that "as State +after State grants the franchise to women the condition is reached +where its denial in other States deprives American citizens of a +sacred right if they have moved from one commonwealth to another." +"Our Federal Union," he said, "will be more firmly cemented the nearer +we come to the point where qualifications for this right of +citizenship are the same in all States." In Mrs. Colby's comprehensive +address she said: + + It may be news to some of you that we have had 12 reports on the + woman suffrage amendment from committees of Congress. In 1869 the + first hearing was given on woman suffrage and from that time to + the present every Congress has had one.... + + Never were there such splendid women in the records of time as + those who have stood for the rights of their sex and the rights + of humanity.... All those women passed on without being allowed + to enter the promised land and for every one of them one hundred + sprang up for whom the doors of opportunity and education had + been opened by the efforts of those pioneer women. Now these also + are coming to gray hairs and weariness, but for every one of + these hundreds there are a thousand of the 20th century insisting + that this question shall be settled now and not be passed on to + the children of tomorrow to hamper and limit them, to exhaust and + consume their energy and ability. + + I was present at the last hearing where Mrs. Stanton spoke before + a Judiciary Committee, and she said: "I have stood before this + committee for thirty years, may I be allowed to sit now?" ... + Miss Anthony before a committee in 1884 said: "This method of + settling the matter by the Legislatures is just as much in the + line of State's rights as is that of the popular vote. The one + question before you is: Will you insist that a majority of the + individual men of every State must be converted before its women + shall have the power to vote, or will you allow the matter to be + settled by the representative men in the Legislatures of the + several States? We are not appealing from the States to the + nation. We are appealing to the States, but to the picked men of + those States instead of to the masses." She used to say when John + Morrissey, champion of the prize ring, was in the New York + Legislature, that it was bad enough to go and ask him to give her + her birthright but it was infinitely worse to go down into the + slums and ask his constituents.... + +Mrs. Colby closed with an extract from one of Mrs. Stanton's eloquent +speeches before the Judiciary Committee and submitted a valuable +summary of Congressional hearings and reports on woman suffrage from +1869 to 1914. + +Mrs. Glendower Evans of Boston presided over the hearing for the +Congressional Union and introduced as the first speaker Mrs. Crystal +Eastman Benedict (N. Y.) who said in part: + + When we go to the voters of a campaign State to ask them to vote + "yes" on a woman suffrage amendment, we go as petitioners with + smiles and arguments and unwearied patience. We tell them over + and over again the same well established truths; that it is the + essence of democracy that all classes of people should have the + power of protection in their own hands; that women are people and + that they have special interests which need representation in + politics; that where women have the right to vote they vote in + the same proportion as men; that on the whole their influence in + government has been decidedly good and absolutely no evils can be + traced to that influence. In short, we reason and plead with + them, try to touch their sense of honor, their sense of justice, + their reason, whatever noble human quality they possess. + + That is one way of getting woman suffrage in the United States, a + long, laborious and very costly way. We have now achieved it in + nine States and are a political power, and the time has come for + us to compel this great reform by the simple, direct, American + method of amending the Federal Constitution. Our argument is not + one of justice or democracy or fair play--it is one of political + expediency. Our plea is simply that you look at the little + suffrage map. That triumphant, threatening army of white States + crowding rapidly eastward toward the center of population is the + sum and substance of our argument. It represents 4,000,000 women + voters. Do you want to put yourselves in the very delicate + position of going to those women next fall for endorsement and + re-election after having refused even to report a woman suffrage + amendment out of committee for discussion on the floor of the + House? + + You might say, "Why do you select this Democratic administration + for your demand? This is the first time in eighteen years that + this party has been in control of the Government. We are doing + our best to give the people what they want; we are trying to live + up to our platform pledges; we think we are doing pretty well. + Why persist in embarrassing us with this very troublesome + question?" ... I answer that if this Congress adjourns without + taking action on the woman suffrage amendment it will be because + the party deliberately dodged the issue. Every woman voter will + know this and we have faith that the woman voter will stand by + us. You will go to her and say: "We have lowered the tariff; we + have made new banking laws; we have avoided war with Mexico," and + she will say: "It is true you have done these things, but you + have done a great injustice to my sister in this nearby State. + She asked for a fundamental democratic right, a right which I + possess and which you are asking me to exercise in your favor. + It was in your power to extend this right to her and you refused, + and after this you come to me and ask me for my vote, but I shall + show you that we stand together on this question, my sister and + I." + +Several of the committee made caustic remarks about trying to hold the +Democrats responsible after the Republicans had ignored them during +all the past years. Mrs. Evans then introduced Mary (Mrs. Charles R.) +Beard, wife of the well-known professor in Columbia University. Her +address in the stenographic report of the hearing filled seven closely +printed pages, an able review of the Democratic party's record in +regard to Federal legislation. It was the most complete expose of the +fallacy of the Democratic contention that this party stood for State's +rights as opposed to Federal rights ever made at a hearing in behalf +of woman suffrage and is most inadequately represented by quotations. +In the course of it she said: + + Did Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, founders of the + Democratic party, rend the air with cries of State's rights + against Federal usurpation when the Federalists chartered the + first United States bank in 1791, and when the Federalist Court, + under the leadership of John Marshall, rendered one ringing + nationalist decision after another upholding the rights of the + nation against the claims of the States? Jefferson, as President, + acquired the Louisiana Territory in what he admitted was an open + violation of the Federal Constitution; and the same James Madison + who opposed the Federalist bank in 1790 as a violation of the + Constitution and State rights, cheerfully signed the bill + rechartering that bank when it became useful to the fiscal + interests of the Democratic party. Jefferson was ready to nullify + the alien and sedition laws and the Constitution of the United + States in the Kentucky resolutions of 1798. The very Federalists + who fought him in that day and denounced him as a traitor and + nullifier lived to proclaim and practice doctrines of + nullification in behalf of State's rights during the War of 1812. + + In the administration of Jefferson the Federal Government began + the construction of the great national road without any express + authority from the Constitution and notwithstanding the fact that + the construction of highways was admittedly a State matter.... On + August 24, 1912, the Congress of the United States, then + controlled by the Democratic party, voted $5,000,000 for the + construction of experimental and rural-delivery routes and to aid + the States in highway construction. From high in the councils of + that party we now have the advocacy of national ownership of + railways, telegraph and telephone lines. + + In the early days of the republic the Democratic party protested + even in armed insurrection in Pennsylvania against the + inquisitorial excise tax, which, to use the language of that + day, "penetrated a sphere of taxation reserved to the State." + Today this party has placed upon the statute books the most + inquisitorial tax ever laid in the history of our country by the + act of April 9, 1912--a tax on white phosphorus matches, not for + the purpose of raising revenues, for which the taxing power is + conferred, but admittedly for the purpose of destroying an + industry which it could not touch otherwise. The match industry + was found to be injurious to a few hundred workingmen, women and + children. The Democratic party wisely and justly cast to the four + winds all talk about the rights of States, made the match + business a national affair and destroyed its dangerous features. + Men and women all over the country rose up and pronounced it a + noble achievement. Republicans joined with the Democrats in + claiming the honor of that great humane service. + + I have not yet finished with this tattered shibboleth. The State + had the right to nullify Federal law in 1798, so Jefferson taught + and Kentucky practiced. Half a century elapsed; the State of + Wisconsin, rock-ribbed Republican, nullified the fugitive slave + law and in its pronunciamento of nullification quoted the very + words which Jefferson used in 1798. A Democratic Supreme Court at + Washington, presided over by Chief Justice Taney, the arch + apostle of State rights, answered Wisconsin in the very language + of the Federalists of 1798, whom Jefferson despised and + condemned: "The Constitution and laws of the United States are + supreme, and the Supreme Court is the only and final arbiter of + disputes between the State and National Governments." + + A few more years elapsed. South Carolina declared the right of + the State to nullify and Wisconsin answered on the field of + battle: "The Constitution and laws of the National Government are + supreme, so help us God!" ... At the close of that ever to be + regretted war the nation wrote into the Constitution the 14th and + 15th Amendments, their fundamental principle that the suffrage is + a national matter. Those amendments were intended to establish + forever adult male suffrage.... + +Mrs. Beard then presented for the record a thorough synopsis of the +proceedings in relation to the franchise of the convention that framed +the U. S. Constitution, which showed, she declared, that it would have +made a national suffrage qualification if the members could have +agreed on one. "In all the great federations of the world," she said, +"Germany, Canada, Australia, suffrage is regarded as a national +question," and continued: "If respect for the great and wise who have +viewed suffrage as a national matter did not compel us so to regard +it, the plain dictates of common sense would do so. We are all ruled +by the laws made by Congress, from Maine to California; we must all +obey them equally whether we like them or not. We are taxed under +them; we travel according to rules laid down by the Interstate +Commerce Commission under the Interstate Commerce law; the remaining +national resources are to be conserved by Congress; whether we have +peace or war depends upon Congress. Is it of no concern who compose +Congress, who vote for members of Congress and for the President?" + +It was shown by Mrs. Beard how closely national and State policies +were interwoven; that the submission of this amendment would take it +to the State Legislatures for a final decision; how with woman +suffrage in nine States there was a much greater demand for it than +there was for the one changing the method of electing U. S. Senators; +how the plank in the national platform adopted in Baltimore exempting +American ships in coastwise trade from Panama canal tolls was now +before the Democrats in Congress for repudiation; how another plank +demanded State action on presidential primaries and President Wilson +called for a national law. Now a Democratic Congress refused to submit +a national suffrage amendment because the platform did not ask for it! +She concluded: "No, gentlemen, you can not answer us by shaking in our +faces that tatterdemalion of a State's rights scarecrow.... It is a +travesty upon our reasoning faculties to suppose that we can not put +two and two together. It is underestimating our strength and our +financial resources to suppose that we can not place these plain facts +in the hands of 15,000,000 voters, including over 3,000,000 women. To +take away from the States the right to determine how Presidential +electors shall be chosen is upholding the Constitution and the +previous rights of the States; but to submit to the States an +amendment permitting them to decide for themselves whether they want +woman suffrage for the nation is a violent usurpation of State's +rights! We can not follow your logic." + +Dr. Cora Smith King of Seattle, who had so large a part in obtaining +equal suffrage in Washington, said: + + I am a voter like yourselves; I am eligible to become a member of + Congress, like any one of you. However, I do not stand before you + as one voter only but to remind you that there are nearly + 4,000,000 women voters in the United States today. I represent + an organization called the National Council of Women Voters, + organized in every one of the States where women vote on equal + terms with men. These States, as you know, are Wyoming, Colorado, + Utah, Idaho, Washington, California, Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona. + There are three objects of the Council: One is to educate + ourselves in the exercise of our citizenship; the second is to + aid in our own States where we vote in putting upon the statute + books laws beneficial to men and women, children and the home; + and our third object is the one which brings me here this + morning--to aid in the further extension of suffrage to women. + + The members of your committee from the latest equal suffrage + States will bear me out in saying that there are thousands of + women voters who have not yet made their party alignment. I + desire to call attention to these many thousands who have only + recently won the battle which they have fought so earnestly--as I + have done from the time that I attained my majority and have not + yet forgotten what it cost--and who have their ears attuned to + the plea of their sisters in the other States. I remind you, + gentlemen, that they may not prove unheeding when requested to + vote for the men who are favorable to the further extension of + suffrage. I trust that this present committee will not justify + the charge of being a graveyard for many suffrage bills. I warn + you that ghosts may walk. + +Mrs. William Kent, wife of Representative Kent of California, spoke +briefly, telling how the suffrage societies there became civic leagues +after the vote was won and stood solidly back of seventeen bills +relating to the welfare of the State and the home and the influence +they were able to exert because of having the franchise. She urged the +committee to submit the amendment and spare women the further drudgery +of State campaigns and assured them that the women would not stop +until the last one was enfranchised. Representative Joseph R. Knowland +of California gave earnest testimony in favor of the practical working +of woman suffrage in that State saying: "For years we heard the same +arguments against equal rights for women as we hear today but we have +tried it and many who were most bitterly opposed are now glad that +California has given the franchise to women. It has proved an +unqualified success. What I desire to impress upon this committee is +that even though you may oppose the amendment it is your duty to +report it in order that every member of the House may have an +opportunity to register his vote for or against it." + +Mrs. Donald Hooker of Baltimore pointed out the injustice of +permitting women to vote in California, for instance, and holding them +disfranchised when they crossed the State boundary line, and asked the +committee to put themselves in the place of citizens so discriminated +against. Mrs. Evans closed the hearing in an interesting speech but as +she could not resist eulogizing President Wilson she was assailed by a +storm of questions and remarks from the Republican members of the +committee as to his attitude on woman suffrage, while her support of +the Democratic party brought protests from the members of the +Congressional Union. + +Mrs. McCormick closed for her side by saying: "Mr. Chairman, I simply +want to clear up what may be a little confused in your mind in regard +to the difference in the policy in the two organizations represented +here today. I represent the National American Woman Suffrage +Association, and, as we have stated over and over again, it has +enrolled more than 462,000 women, organized in every non-suffrage +State in the country. Our policy, which is adopted by our annual +convention, is strictly non-partisan. We do not hold any party +responsible for the passage of this amendment. We are organizing all +over the country, using the congressional district as our limit, in +order to educate the constituents of you gentlemen in regard to the +great need to enfranchise women and we do not hold the policy which is +adopted by the smaller organization, the Congressional Union." + +This brought the members of the Judiciary Committee into action again +and they persisted in knowing the size of the Congressional Union +until Mrs. Benedict answered: "Our immediate membership is not our +strong point." Mr. Webb of North Carolina repeated the question why +the Republican party, which was in power sixteen years, was not held +responsible for not reporting the amendment and she replied that it +was not until after the elections of 1912 that the women were in a +position to hold any party responsible. + +Mrs. Frances Dilopoulo spoke for a moment. Miss Janet Richards (D. C.) +called the attention of the committee to the etymology of the word +democracy--_demos_, people; _kratein_, to rule--rule of the +people--and asked: "If women must pay taxes and must abide by the +law, how can the suffrage be denied to them in a true democracy?" She +spoke of her personal study of the question in Finland and the +Scandinavian countries where women are enfranchised. Dr. Clara W. +McNaughton (D. C.), vice-president of the Federal Women's Equality +Association, in closing stated that they had a tent on the field of +Gettysburg during its 50th anniversary and found the old soldiers +almost to a man in favor of woman suffrage. Mrs. Evans filed a +carefully prepared paper, State versus Federal Action on Woman +Suffrage. Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.), officially connected with +the National American Association, submitted to the committees a +comprehensive "brief" on the case which said in part: + + In a published statement yesterday the Secretary of State, + William Jennings Bryan, used these simple, direct, easily + understood words: "All believers in a republic accept the + doctrine that the government must derive its just powers from the + consent of the governed and the President gives every legitimate + encouragement to those who represent this idea while he + discourages those who attempt to overthrow or ignore the + principles of popular government." + + I am sure that all of us hope and want to believe that this + latest pronouncement given out officially as from the leading + Cabinet officer was intended to be accepted at home as well as + abroad as literally and absolutely true and not a mere bit of + spectacular oratory. But if it is true, then not one of you + gentlemen who has it in his heart to oppose woman suffrage is a + believer in our form of government; not one of you is loyal to + the flag; not one of you is a true American. You do not allow us + women to give our consent, yet we are governed. You are not + sitting in Congress justly and Mr. Bryan and the President do not + believe that you are--none of you except those who are from woman + suffrage States--or else that official statement is mere oratory + for foreign consumption. He says that the President discourages + those who attempt to overthrow or even to "ignore" this principle + of popular government. We are more than glad to believe that Mr. + Bryan is correct in this plain statement, for then we will know + that a number of you will receive a good deal of "discouragement" + at the hands of the President, and that those of you who stand + with us and vote for us will receive your sure reward from him, + in that "every legitimate encouragement" will be yours, and also, + incidentally, ours. We need it, we think it is overdue. Up to the + present time we have not felt that either the President or the + Secretary of State quite fully realized that there is a good deal + of belated encouragement due us and quite a limitless supply of + discouragement due those who try "to overthrow or ignore" all + semblance of a belief in the right of women to give their consent + to their own government. I am glad to have so high an authority + that the good time is not only coming but that it has at last + arrived--and through the Democratic party! + + Again, in this simple, plain, seemingly frank statement of the + Secretary of State, he says: ... "Nothing will be encouraged away + from home that is forbidden here." Yet, away from home, he says, + the fixed foreign policy is that "the people shall have such + officers as they desire," and that these officers must have "the + consent of the governed." That is precisely what we women demand. + Are the Mexican peons more to our Government than are the women + of America? If the Mexican officials must be disciplined, unless + they are ready to admit that "the consent of the governed must be + obtained" before there can be a legitimate government which we + can recognize, how it is possible for you and for the President + and for the State Department absolutely to ignore or refuse the + same ethical and political principle here at home for one-half of + all the people, who form what you call and hold up to the world + as a republic? + + No one who lives, who ever lived, who ever will live understands + or really accepts and believes in a republic which denies to + women the right of consent by their ballots to that government. + Such a position is unthinkable and the time has come when an + aristocracy of sex must give place to a real republic or the + absurdity of the position, as it exists, will make us the + laughing stock of the world. Let us either stop our pretence + before the nations of the earth of being a republic and having + "equality before the law" or else let us become the republic that + we pretend to be. + +This concluded the hearing for the suffrage associations and as the +"antis" also had asked for one they occupied the afternoon. Mrs. +Arthur M. Dodge, the president of the National Association Opposed to +Woman Suffrage, said in opening the discussion: "We begin to hear from +all over the country a very decided demand for help. The women are +beginning to be frightened. They are frightened at exactly the same +sort of thing by which the suffragists try to frighten you +men--noise--so that in many States women are beginning to organize for +the first time against suffrage. We are here today rather against our +wishes. We did not want to bother you men again because the matter has +been pretty well settled for this session of Congress at least. But +the suffragists had demanded a hearing of you gentlemen, and so we +asked you to hear us, and you have very courteously extended to us +that privilege. We are here to represent the majority of women still +quiet but not going to be quiet very much longer...." Mrs. Dodge made +an analysis of the number of enfranchised women to show that the +parties had nothing to fear and said in closing: "I wish to say that +the suffragists who make these threats are not representing the women +of the country. It is the women of the country whom we try to +represent and we have tried for several years against the noisy, +insistent and persistent demands of a group." + +The other women speakers were Mrs. Henry White, member of the +executive committee of the Massachusetts Association; Miss Alice Hill +Chittenden, president of the New York Association; Miss Marjorie +Dorman, secretary of the Women Wage-earners' Anti-Suffrage League of +New York City[97]; Mrs. O. D. Oliphant of New Jersey, who was not able +to reach Washington but whose paper on Feminism was put into the +report; Miss Minnie Bronson, secretary of the National Association. +Miss Bronson's address, which was largely statistical, called out many +questions from the suffrage members of the committee. She said the +association had approximately 100,000 members.[98] + +The first of the men speakers against the amendment was J.N. Matthews +(N. J.) who began by saying it would be difficult for him to put aside +his Democratic partisanship even for a moment. He was soon involved in +a wrangle with the committee which occupied over half of the space +filled by his speech in the report. This was true also of the speech +of Representative Thomas J. Heflin (Ala.), which ended with a long +poem entitled The Only Regeneration, beginning: "There's no earthly +use in prating of eugenics' saving grace." Mrs. Dodge had scored the +suffragists for having more than one association but delegates from +three of the "antis" were present at this hearing, the Guidon Society +of New York City, represented by a New York lawyer, John R. Don +Passos, who stated that he represented also the Man Suffrage +Association. He filed a "brief" of its president, Everett P. Wheeler, +a Democratic New York lawyer, entitled Home Rule. As was the case with +the other men speakers most of his time was taken up by the "heckling" +of the committee and his answers. In the latter he said that woman +suffrage sooner or later would have a tendency to destroy the home, +hurt the social and moral standard of women and "convert them into +beasts." + +Dr. Mary Walker spoke ten minutes at her own request, scoring the +suffragists and saying that women already had the right to vote under +the National Constitution. Mrs. Evans closed the hearing. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[82] Part of Call: Our task will be to formulate judgment on those +great issues of the day which nearly concern women; to choose the +leaders who during the coming year are to guide the fortunes of our +cause; and finally, to deliberate how the whole national body may on +the one hand best give aid and succor to the States working for their +own enfranchisement and on the other press for federal action in +behalf of the women of the nation at large.... + +Since the last convention met all the horror of a great war has fallen +upon the civilized world. The hearts of thousands of women have been +torn by the death and wounds of those they bore, of those they love, +yet never has their will and power to help been greater, never man's +need of such help been more clearly seen. We, who are spared the +anguish of war, well understand that as weight is given in the world's +affairs to the voice of women, moved as men are not by all the tragic +waste of battles, the chances of such slaughter must perpetually +diminish. Now is the time when all things point to the violence that +rules the world, now is the very time to press our claim to a share in +the guidance of our country's fortunes, to urge that woman's vision +must second and ratify that of man. Let us then in convention +assembled kindle with the thought that, as we consider methods for the +political enfranchisement of our sex, our wider purpose is to free +women and to enable their conception of life in all its aspects to +find expression.... Let us set a fresh seal upon the great new loyalty +of woman to woman; let our response be felt in the deep tide of +fellowship and understanding among all women which today is rising +around the world. + + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + JANE ADDAMS, First Vice-President. + MADELINE BRECKINRIDGE, Second Vice-President. + CAROLINE RUUTZ-REES, Third Vice-President. + SUSAN WALKER FITZGERALD, Recording Secretary. + KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, Treasurer. + HARRIET BURTON LAIDLAW,} + LOUISE DEKOVEN BOWEN, } Auditors. + +[83] Complete, universal suffrage was conferred by the Parliament in +1917. + +[84] For a number of years Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw of Boston gave Dr. Shaw +a fund for campaign work. + +[85] A portion of this report is in the chapter on the Federal +Suffrage Amendment. + +[86] The Federal Suffrage Amendment had been thoroughly debated and +voted on in the Senate in 1887; the question of woman suffrage itself +discussed in 1866, 1881-3-4-5-6 in the Senate; at great length in the +Lower House in 1883 and 1890 and briefly in both houses at other +times. + +[87] Instead of seven or eight amendments there was only one and never +had been but one--the old, original amendment introduced by Senator A. +A. Sargent (Calif.) in 1878. There was and long had been one "bill" +advocated, the one to give women so-called "federal" suffrage, the +right to vote for Senators and Representatives, but it had never been +reported out of committee. There was no bill before Congress to give +women the right to vote for Presidential electors and there was no +other bill proposed. It was of course the "State's rights argument" +that had been the continuous barrier to the Federal Suffrage Amendment +ever since it was first introduced but the favorable attitude of a +majority of the Senators showed how much progress had been made in +meeting that argument. + +[88] On the contrary at a public hearing before the Judiciary +Committee of the Lower House on March 3, Mrs. Funk referred several +times to such an amendment and stated that she represented an +association of 462,000 women. She intimated that she knew the old +amendment could not pass and that another might be introduced, which, +it was hoped, would be more acceptable. The vote was not taken in the +Senate till March 19. Meanwhile the newspapers gave to the suffragists +of the country their first knowledge of the new amendment and vigorous +protests soon followed, especially from the older leaders of the +movement. _The Woman's Journal_ of March 28 said editorially: "It is +felt by many that before the Congressional Committee introduced a +wholly new measure, which had never been sanctioned or even considered +by the National Association, it ought to have been submitted to the +National Executive Council." + +As soon as the Senate had voted on the original amendment, Senator +Bristow, at the request of the Congressional Union, re-introduced it, +and it was reported favorably April 7, Senator Thomas B. Catron of New +Mexico alone dissenting. Senator Bristow in re-introducing it said of +the Shafroth measure: "It is more of a national initiative and +referendum amendment than a woman suffrage amendment. I prefer that +the question of woman suffrage rest directly upon its own merits and +be not involved with the initiative and referendum." + +[89] This amendment had been reported by the Judiciary Committee on +the 9th of May preceding this report "without recommendation" and a +strong effort was being made by its supporters to bring it before the +House for debate. The Rules Committee sent it to the House on December +12, 1914. + +[90] The proposed State amendment failed in New York in 1915, was +submitted again by the Legislatures of 1916 and 1917, voted on in +November, 1917, and adopted by an immense majority. + +[91] The first week in the preceding April the Mississippi Valley +Conference, composed of the Middle and some of the Western and +Southern States, met in Des Moines and thirty-five prominent delegates +signed a telegram to the Official Board of the National American +Association, asking it "to instruct its Congressional Committee not to +push the Shafroth Amendment nor ask for its report from the Senate +Committee"; also "to ask the Senate Committee not to report this +amendment until so requested by the national suffrage convention." +This was not official action but they signed as individuals, among +them the presidents of the Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, +Indiana, Ohio and Louisiana State associations and officers from other +States. + +[92] Some of the arguments may be found in the Appendix. An +examination of the file of the _Journal_ will show that ninety-nine +per cent. of the writers were opposed to the amendment. + +[93] The old amendment had been voted on in the Senate March 19 and +obtained a majority but not the required two-thirds. It had been +reported without recommendation by the House Judiciary, which had not +acted on the new one. The latter had been introduced in the Senate and +the former re-introduced. + +[94] The original measure had always been called the Sixteenth +Amendment until the adoption of the Income Tax and Direct Election of +Senators Amendments in 1913. The Congressional Union, organized that +year, gave it the name Susan B. Anthony Amendment and for awhile it +was thus referred to by some members of the National American +Association. The relatives and friends of Mrs. Stanton rightly +objected to this name, as she had been equally associated with it from +the beginning, and all the pioneer workers had been its staunch +supporters. The old association soon adopted the title, Federal +Suffrage Amendment. + +[95] At the first board meeting after the convention Mrs. McCormick +was re-appointed chairman of the Congressional Committee with power to +select its other members and Mrs. Funk was re-appointed vice-chairman. + +[96] Mrs. McCormick spent a large amount of time and money on this +play, hoping it would yield a good revenue to the association, but the +arrangement with the Film Corporation proved impossible and it finally +had to be abandoned. + +[97] The most persistent efforts of the suffragists never succeeded in +locating this league. + +[98] At the request of the committee the exact figures were furnished +later and showed a membership of 105,000, of whom 85,600 lived in the +five non-suffrage States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New +Jersey and Pennsylvania. Of the remaining 19,400 the non-suffrage +States of New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Ohio had 11,500; Virginia, +2,100, and 6,500 were divided among other non-suffrage States and the +District of Columbia. Not one member was reported from States where +the franchise had been given to women, although it was a stock +argument of the "antis" that it had been forced on them and they would +gladly get rid of it. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1915. + + +The Forty-seventh annual convention of the association was held Dec. +14-19, 1915, in Washington, the scene of many which had preceded it, +with 546 accredited delegates, the largest number on record. The one +of the preceding year had left many of the members in a pessimistic +frame of mind but this had entirely disappeared and never were there +so much hope and optimism.[99] The Federal Amendment had for the first +time been debated and voted on in the House of Representatives, +receiving 204 noes, 174 ayes, a satisfactory result for the first +trial. Although in November, 1915, four of the most populous +States--Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania--had +defeated suffrage amendments yet a million-and-a-quarter of men had +voted in favor. These were all Republican States and yet had given a +larger vote for woman suffrage than for the Republican presidential +candidate the preceding year. Over 42 per cent. of the votes in New +York and over 46 per cent. in Pennsylvania were affirmative and the +press of the country, instead of sounding the "death knell" as usual +after defeats, predicted victory at the next trial. In October the +cause had received its most important accession when President Wilson +and seven of the ten members of his Cabinet declared in favor of woman +suffrage; and in November the President had gone to his home in +Princeton, N. J., on election day to cast his vote for the pending +State amendment. + +An honorary committee of arrangements for the convention had been +formed in Washington which included many of the most prominent women +officially and socially, headed by Miss Margaret Wilson, the +President's eldest daughter. Republican and Democratic National +Committees had cordially received suffrage speakers. The first measure +to be introduced in both Houses of the new Congress was the resolution +for the Federal Suffrage Amendment, with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, +president of the National American Suffrage Association, sitting on +the Speaker's bench by invitation of Speaker and Mrs. Champ Clark. The +convention opened Tuesday morning and at five o'clock in the afternoon +the delegates were received by President Wilson in the White House. +They walked the few short blocks from the convention headquarters in +the New Willard Hotel to the White House and the line reached from the +street through the corridors to the East Room. After each had had a +hearty handshake Dr. Shaw expressed the gratitude of all suffragists, +not for his vote, which was a duty, but for his reasons, to which the +widest publicity had been given. She said the women felt encouraged to +ask for two things: first, his influence in obtaining the submission +of the Federal Amendment by Congress at the present session; second, +if that failed, his influence in securing a plank for woman suffrage +in his party's national platform. The latter he answered to their +great joy by saying that he had it under consideration. He looked at +his hand a little ruefully and said: "You ladies have a strong grip." +"Yes," she responded, "we hold on." + +The most striking contrast between this and other conventions was +seen in the program. For more than two-score years the evening +sessions and often those of the afternoon had been given up to +addresses by prominent men and women and attended by large general +audiences. In this way the seed was sowed and public sentiment created +and people in the cities which invited the convention looked forward +to an intellectual feast. This year it was felt that the general +public needed no further education on this subject; the association +had become a business organization and the woman suffrage question one +of practical politics. Therefore but one mass meeting was held, that +of Sunday afternoon, and the entire week was devoted to State reports, +conferences, committee meetings, plans of work, campaigns and +discussion of details. These were extremely interesting and valuable +for the delegates but not for the newspapers or the public. + +The entire tenth floor of the New Willard Hotel was utilized for +convention purposes and the full meetings were held in the large ball +room, which had been beautifully decorated under the artistic +direction of Mrs. Glenna Tinnin, with flags, banners and delicate, +symbolic draperies. The large number of young women was noticeable and +the association seemed permeated with new life. "Old men and women for +council and young ones for work," said Dr. Shaw smilingly, as she +opened the convention. "The history that has been made by this +organization is due to the toil and consecration of the women of the +country during past years, and, while I am happy to see so many new +faces, my heart warms when my eyes greet one of the veterans. So in +welcoming you I say, All hail to the new and thank God for the old!" + +The convention plunged at once into reports. That of Mrs. Henry Wade +Rogers, the treasurer, showed receipts during the past year of $51,265 +and disbursements of $42,396, among them $12,000 for State campaigns. +A large and active finance committee had been formed and thousands of +appeals for money distributed. At this convention $50,000 were pledged +for the work of the coming year and the convention showed fullest +confidence in the new treasurer, who said in presenting her report: +"This has been a most interesting and beautiful year of activity for +the National Association. The officers and assistants at the +headquarters have worked in perfect harmony. You have all, dear +presidents and members of the sixty-three affiliated associations, +been most kind to your new treasurer and she has deeply appreciated +your forbearance." + +The report of a temporary organization, the Volunteer League, was +given by its director, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick. Its purpose +was to interest suffragists who were not connected with the +association and President Mary E. Woolley of Mt. Holyoke College, Mrs. +Robert Gould Shaw, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and Mrs. Winston +Churchill accepted places on the board. Letters were sent out, +avoiding the active workers, and over $2,000 were turned into the +treasury. The legal adviser, Miss Mary Rutter Towle, reported a final +accounting of the estate of Mrs. Lila Sabin Buckley of Kansas and the +association received the net amount of $9,551 on a compromise. The +legacy of $10,000 by Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall of Iowa would be paid in +a few months. + +Charles T. Hallinan, as chairman, made a detailed report of the newly +organized Publicity Department. Miss Clara Savage, of the New York +_Evening Post_, was made chairman of the Press Bureau and Mrs. Laura +Puffer Morgan of Washington, D. C., a member of the Congressional +Committee, took charge of its publicity. Mrs. Ernest Thompson Seton +accepted the chairmanship of a special finance committee which did +heroic work. The _News Letter_, an enlarged bulletin of information +and discussion in regard to the activities of the association, had +already more than a thousand subscriptions and went to 116 weekly farm +papers, 99 weekly labor papers and 120 press chairmen and suffrage +editors. The report told of the successful publicity work for Dr. Shaw +and other speakers, and said: "I prize especially my relationship with +Dr. Shaw, whose courage, humor and zest, whose whole heroic +personality, have made this a stimulating and memorable year." An +amusing account was given of the effort "to accommodate the routine +activities of the organization to the demand of the press for +something new or sensational, which made great demands upon the +originality, initiative and judgment of both the board and the +publicity department," but it was managed about four times a week. The +Sunday papers "drew heavily upon the ingenuity of the publicity +department; special or feature stories were sent to special +localities; for instance those that would appeal to the Southerners to +the papers of the South, others to those of the West, and others were +prepared for the syndicates and press associations." Of a new and +important feature of the work Mr. Hallinan said: "The need of a +competent Data Department for the National Association was early +recognized but it seemed a difficult thing to manage on the budget +provided by the convention. It was finally decided that owing to the +pressure of the campaigns the money must be found somehow and it was. +In September the department was established on a temporary basis with +Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, formerly associate editor of _The Survey_, in +charge. She was admirably equipped for research work and soon got into +usable shape the valuable records of the national headquarters. +Sometimes the pressure upon the department for facts, including +'answers to antis,' was tremendous but there were few requests for +information which were not answered by mail or telegraph within 24 or +48 hours." + +Mrs. Boyd's own full report of her first year's work was heard with +much interest and satisfaction. In it she said: + + The opponents of woman suffrage have by their criticisms made it + cover the whole field of human affairs, so it is not surprising + that the inquiries by correspondents of this department have + ranged from the moral standard of women to a request for + assistance in righting a personal wrong. Others come under main + headings of the progress of woman suffrage, both partial and + complete; the standing of women under the laws; the effect of + voting women on the character of legislation; the part they take + in political life and its reaction on their lives and characters; + statistics and facts in regard to the makeup of the population of + the various States; details in regard to State constitutions, + election laws and methods of voting on woman suffrage in the + various States.... What has become of late "stock" + anti-criticisms of some effects of the ballot has been thoroughly + investigated and "stock" answers prepared. Facts and figures from + official sources have been gathered to disprove the claim of + enforced jury duty, excessive cost of elections, lowered birth + rates and increased divorce rates in suffrage States. The results + of these studies have been surprisingly favorable to the suffrage + position, showing that in such criticisms the "antis" have been + ridiculously in the wrong. They have only been able to use this + line of argument at all because the suffragists have had no one + free to take the time to answer them once and for all with the + facts. + +At an important afternoon conference Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who had +been chairman of the New York Campaign Committee during the effort for +a State amendment, made the opening address on The Revelations of +Recent Campaigns which shed a great deal of light on the causes of +defeat. She was followed by Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, who, as president +of the Pennsylvania association, had charge of the campaign in that +State, and Mrs. Gertrude Halliday Leonard, who was a leading factor in +the one in Massachusetts, both presenting constructive plans for those +of the future. Mrs. Raymond Brown, Mrs. Lillian Feickert, Mrs. Harriet +Taylor Upton and Mrs. Draper Smith, presidents of the New York, New +Jersey, Ohio and Nebraska associations, described the Need and Use of +Campaign Organization. Miss Mary Garrett Hay, chairman of the New York +City Campaign Committee, and Miss Hannah J. Patterson, chairman of the +Woman Suffrage Party of Pennsylvania, told from practical experience +How to Organize for a Campaign. The conference was continued through +the evening, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, president of the +Massachusetts association, speaking on the Production and Use of +Campaign Literature; Mrs. John D. Davenport (Penn.) telling How to +Raise Campaign Funds in the County and Mrs. Mina Van Winkle (N. J.) +and Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.) how to do so in the city. Mrs. Teresa +A. Crowley (Mass.) discussed the Political Work of Campaigns. Another +afternoon was devoted to a general conference of State presidents and +delegates on the subject of Future Campaigns. It was recognized that +these were henceforth to be of frequent occurrence and the association +must be better prepared for their demands. + +Mrs. Medill McCormick presided at the evening conference on Federal +Legislation and the speeches of all the delegates clearly showed that +they considered the work for the Federal Amendment paramount to all +else and the States won for suffrage simply as stepping stones to this +supreme achievement. Senator John F. Shafroth was on the platform and +answered conclusively many of the anti-suffrage misrepresentations as +to the effect of woman suffrage in Colorado. Every hour of days and +evenings was given to conferences, committee meetings, reports from +committees and States and the practical preparations for entering +upon what all felt was the last stage of the long contest. The +overshadowing event of the convention was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw's +retirement from the presidency, which she had held eleven years. The +delegates were not unprepared, as she had announced her intention in +the following brief letter published in the _Woman's Journal_ Nov. 27, +1915: + + During the last year I have been increasingly conscious of the + growing response to the spoken word on behalf of this cause of + ours. Because of the unparalleled large audiences drawn to our + standard everywhere, I have become convinced that my highest + service to the suffrage movement can best be given if I am + relieved of the exacting duties of the presidency so that I may + be free to engage in campaign work, since each year brings its + quota of campaign States. Therefore, after careful consideration, + I have decided not to stand for re-election to the office of + president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. I + have deferred making this announcement until the campaigns were + ended, but now that it is time to consider the work for the + coming year, I feel it my duty to do so. + +The president's address of Dr. Shaw had long been the leading feature +of the conventions but this year it was heard with deeper interest +than ever before, if this were possible. Because every word was +significant she had written it and as it afterwards appeared in +pamphlet form it filled fourteen closely printed pages. It was a +masterly treatment of woman suffrage in its relation to many of the +great problems of the day and it seems a sacrilege to attempt to +convey by detached quotations an idea of its power and beauty. A large +part of it will be found in the Appendix to this chapter. She set +forth in the strongest possible words the necessity of a Federal +Amendment but said: + + There is not a single reason given upon which to base a hope for + congressional action that does not rest upon the power and + influence to be derived from the equal suffrage States, which + power was secured by the slow but effective method of winning + State by State. If all our past and present successes in Congress + are due to the influence of enfranchised States, is it not safe + to assume that the future power must come from the same source + until it is sufficiently strong to insure a reasonable prospect + of national legislation? To transform this hope into fulfillment + we must follow several lines of campaign, each of which is + essential to success: 1. By continuing the appeal which for + thirty-seven years without cessation the National Association + has made upon Congress to submit to the State Legislatures an + amendment enfranchising women and by using every just means + within our power to secure action upon it. 2. By Congressional + District organization, such as has been set in motion by our + National Congressional Committee and which has proved so + successful during the past year. 3. By the organization of + enfranchised women, who, through direct political activity in + their own States and within their own political parties may + become efficient factors in national conventions and in Congress. + 4. By increasing the number of equal suffrage States through + referring a State amendment to the voters. + +The delegates were deeply moved by Dr. Shaw's closing words: + + In laying down my responsibility as your president, there is one + subject upon which I wish to speak and I ask your patient + indulgence. If I were asked what has been the cause of most if + not all of the difficulties which have arisen in our work, I + would reply, a failure to recognize the obligations which loyalty + demands of the members of an association to its officers and to + its own expressed will. It is unquestionably the duty of the + members of an organization, when, after in convention assembled + certain measures are voted and certain duties laid upon its + officers, to uphold the officers in the performance of those + duties and to aid in every reasonable way to carry out the will + of the association as expressed by the convention. It is the duty + also of every officer or committee to carry out the will of the + association unless conditions subsequently arise to make this + injurious to its best interests.... Without loyalty, cooperation + and friendly, helpful support in her work no officer can + successfully perform her duty or worthily serve the best + interests of the association. I earnestly appeal to the members + of this body to give the incoming Board of Officers the loyalty + and helpful support which will greatly lighten their arduous task + of serving our cause and bringing it to final victory. + + In saying farewell to you as your president I find it impossible + to express my high appreciation and gratitude for your loyal + support, your unfailing kindness, your patience with my mistakes + and especially the affectionate regard you have shown me through + all these years of toil and achievement together. The memory of + your sacrifices for our cause, your devotion to our association + and your unwearied patience in disappointment and delay will give + to the remaining years of my life its crowning joy of happy + memories. + +The _Woman's Journal_ said in its report: "On the table was a large +bouquet of roses from Speaker and Mrs. Champ Clark. When Dr. Shaw had +finished and received a great ovation, she said: 'My life has been one +of the happiest a woman ever lived. From the depths of my heart I +thank you. You have done more for me than I have ever done for you.' +She unfastened a little pin on the front of her grey velvet gown and +held it up for all to see, saying: 'This is Miss Anthony's flag, which +she gave me just before she died. It was the gift of Wyoming women and +had four tiny diamonds on it for the four equal suffrage States; now +it has thirteen. Who says "suffrage is going and not coming"? We have +as many stars now as there were original States when the government +began.'" It was voted unanimously that the thanks of the convention be +extended to the president for her noble address and that it be ordered +printed. The tribute of the delegates came later in the week. + +The report of the Committee on Literature was made by its chairman, +Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees, showing the usual careful selection of +valuable matter for publication. Two important compilations she had +made herself--Ten Extempore Answers to Questions by Dr. Shaw and +extracts from a number of her speeches, gleaned from scattered +reports; also an eloquent address made at Birmingham, Ala., the +preceding April. So little from Dr. Shaw existed in printed form that +these were very welcome. She urged the necessity for a library +covering the field of women's affairs, well catalogued and open to the +public. Miss Lavinia Engle's report as Field Secretary showed active +work, speaking and organizing in Alabama, West Virginia, New Jersey +and New York. Mrs. Funk's report as chairman of the Campaign and +Survey Committee described a vast amount of work before the New Jersey +campaign opened, including a series of twenty meetings addressed by +Senators and Representatives and a number of prominent women, and +others continuously through the summer with State and national +speakers. Dr. Shaw spoke at thirty of these meetings. + +In closing her report Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates, chairman of the +Committee on Presidential Suffrage, said: "In addition to the +beneficent consequences of women's vote in State and municipal +affairs, the number of votes in the electoral college that may be +determined by their ballots is of paramount political significance. By +their votes in twelve States, which have 91 presidential electors, +they might decide the presidency. Of these 91 electoral votes 62 come +from the States where constitutional amendments enfranchising women +have been obtained after repeated campaigns of inestimable cost and +exhaustive effort, while 29, nearly a third of the whole, were secured +simply by an act of the Illinois Legislature in giving the electoral +vote to women. Is it not good political tactics to proceed along the +lines of least resistance and bring our energies to bear upon +Legislatures for the measure most potent and at the same time most +easily procured?" + +Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, who, as chairman of the Church Work Committee, +had given such valuable service for years, told of the excellent work +of her State branches, especially that of New Jersey during the recent +campaign, whose chairman, Mrs. Mabel Farraday, had sent out hundreds +of letters with literature to the clergymen and reached thousands of +people at Ocean Grove and Asbury Park. She told of the encouragement +she had received in her month of preparatory work for the approaching +West Virginia campaign; the Ministerial Association of Wheeling had +invited her to address them and expressed a desire to help it; several +pastors turned over their regular meetings to her; the largest +Methodist church in the State, at Moundsville, holding a week of big +meetings, invited her to fill one entire evening with an address on +the Federal Suffrage Amendment. "More and more I am led to believe," +she said in closing, "that the most important work before the +suffragists today is church work, especially the organizing of the +Catholic women, that they will make their demands so emphatic the +church will see the wisdom of supporting the movement. The church work +is non-sectarian but it should also be omni-sectarian and our efforts +should be extended to include all churches and religious sects." + +The Congressional Committee had placed two departments of its work in +charge of Miss Ethel M. Smith, whose comprehensive report showed +beyond question their great value: + + When the Congressional Committee was reorganized after the + Nashville convention two departments were given into my charge, + the congressional district organization work and the office + catalogue of information concerning members of Congress. The + Congressional plan, which had been launched but a year before, + had been adopted in many of the States but not in all. My first + step, therefore, was to urge by correspondence with the + presidents that this machinery be established or completed in + every State. On December 12 came the test as to how well this + had been done. The Rules Committee of the House reported the + Mondell amendment, which was to come to a vote January 12. I + wrote or telegraphed at once to every congressional chairman or + State president asking her to bring to bear all possible pressure + upon the individual members of Congress from her State. Those + States which had established this machinery were able at once to + send the call to the respective district chairmen and so on down + the line; the other States responded through their existing + machinery and the result was that thousands of letters and + telegrams poured into the offices of the Congressmen during the + four weeks. Meantime our lobby was busy interviewing the members + and the latest expressions obtained in each case were wired back + to the States, whose chairmen responded again. + + This interchange and cooperation were so effective that + Congressmen themselves complimented our "team work." But the real + proof of its value came after the vote was taken, when by + checking with our office records of the individual Congressmen we + found that many uncertain, noncommittal or almost unfriendly + members' attitude had so changed that they voted yes on the + amendment. Such a result could not fail to show, if proof had + been necessary, that the greatest need as well as the greatest + opportunity in national suffrage work for the future lay in + furthering to the last degree of completeness and efficiency the + organization of every State by congressional districts.... + + At a distance from Washington it is difficult to know and easy to + lose sight of what a Representative does or stands for, so I + prepared special reports to the State congressional chairmen + whenever opportunity occurred. The first, and a most interesting + one, came when the vote was taken in the House on the National + Prohibition Amendment Dec. 22, 1914. This was just three weeks + before the vote on our own amendment and our catalogue showed a + large number of Congressmen who opposed us on the ground of + State's rights. The National Prohibition Amendment is obviously + as direct an assumption by the Federal Government of rights now + reposing in the States as could possibly be devised. I, + therefore, checked off the names of the State's rights + Congressmen who voted for it but probably would not vote for + national suffrage, and sent the list to our respective State + chairmen, urging that they call these Representatives' attention + to this inconsistency. It has been reported to me that this + argument proved effective with several of them and it is a fact + that after the suffrage vote was taken a number of the names on + our first list had to be removed because those men had voted + "aye" on suffrage. Seventy-two, however, in the final count, + voted _for_ the National Prohibition Amendment but _against_ + ours.... + + In June I devised a special congressional district campaign which + would reach the members of Congress before they left their homes + to go to Washington. This was intended to impress them with the + strength of the suffrage sentiment in their districts and thus + deprive them of a favorite excuse for not voting for our + amendment. The plan called for congressional district meetings + all over the country on or about November 16 in every district + where the Representative was not already pledged to the Federal + Amendment. The call was sent to every congressional district + chairman and it requested that every local suffrage league send + as many delegates as possible to the meeting which would be held + in the city where the Senator or Representative lived. It was + urged that they be invited to attend the meetings and to speak + and that resolutions be adopted asking them to vote for the + amendment. It was a part of the plan to send these resolutions + also to the State Central Committees of the Republican and + Democratic parties, asking for suffrage planks on the State and + national platforms.... We received most cordial and widespread + cooperation in this work. I believe we can say that practically + every Senator and Representative returned to Washington this + session with the knowledge that behind him at home is an + organized demand for his favorable vote on the Federal Amendment. + +The usual pleasant social features of these conventions had been +eliminated and the only relaxation for the delegates was one large +evening reception in the New Willard Hotel. The National College Equal +Suffrage League held its annual luncheon on the 18th at the New Ebbitt +Hotel, Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, presiding. +The guests were 225 women graduates of various colleges and the topic +of all the speeches was, "How to advance women suffrage by making +friends instead of enemies." The speakers included Dr. Shaw, Mrs. +Charles L. Tiffany, Mrs. Raymond Brown, Mrs. Medill McCormick, Miss +Florence Stiles, Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, Miss Hannah J. Patterson, +Mrs. Elizabeth Puffer Howes and Mrs. Laura Puffer Morgan. + +The convention sent a telegram of sympathy in her illness to Miss Jane +Addams. A special vote of thanks was tendered to Senators Charles S. +Thomas and John F. Shafroth and to Representative Edward T. Taylor, +all of Colorado, and to Representative Frank W. Mondell of Wyoming for +the very great assistance they had given to the Congressional +Committee. A cordial invitation came from the Chicago suffrage +headquarters for the delegates to accept its hospitality during the +National Republican Convention in June, 1916. Invitations for the next +convention were received from St. Louis, Little Rock and Atlantic +City. + +Mrs. Medill McCormick, chairman of the Congressional Committee, +introduced Mrs. Antoinette Funk, its vice chairman, who told of the +strong and successful effort made to have the Committee on Rules +ignore the adverse action of the Democratic caucus and send the +resolution to the Lower House for action after the Judiciary Committee +had reported it without recommendation. The date finally set for the +debate in the House was Jan. 12, 1915. Her report was in part as +follows: + + From the moment the resolution was reported by the Judiciary + Committee the energies of the Congressional Committee were + directed toward the end of bringing out as large a favorable vote + as was humanly possible and all the members of the committee then + resident in Washington undertook some portion of the task. The + leaders of both sides of the House, Mr. Mondell for the + Republicans and Mr. Taylor for the Democrats, gave us their + heartiest support. Through them and through the courtesy of the + Speaker of the House, Mr. Champ Clark, we learned what members + would be recognized for speeches, and each man who had asked for + time or who had been asked to speak because of his locality or + for other reasons was interviewed. Our cooperation in the matter + of gathering up suffrage data and material was offered and freely + accepted. All suffrage literature known to us was brought in + large quantities into our office and assorted into sets bearing + upon the situation of the different Congressmen according to + their locality, political faith, etc. Every man known to be + favorable to us was urged to be in his seat on January 12 and + those of our friends who, we learned, would be unavoidably kept + away from Washington were written and telegraphed to arrange for + favorable pairs. + + Some time before the vote was taken the Congressional Committee + reported to the National Board that our minimum vote would be + 168. In fact, 174 favorable votes were cast and 11 favorable + pairs were registered. The negative votes were 204.... + +The favorable speeches of the Congressmen were put in form for the +campaign States and over a million and a half were circulated. The +report continued: + + The amendment having been voted on in both Houses and direct work + in its behalf being definitely closed for that session the + Congressional Committee was increased by Miss Jeannette Rankin, + who, together with the vice-chairman, discussed with members of + the House and Senate the Shafroth amendment, then pending. No + effort was made to bring this measure forward for a vote but the + work of presenting the idea of a _national initiative_ upon the + proposition of suffrage for the consideration of the members of + Congress was considered worth while. By many who disapproved of a + National Suffrage Amendment, this was regarded as a practical + method of overcoming such obstacles as the State constitutions + had erected, thus making their amending easy and practicable. + + The Nashville convention had endorsed the Federal Elections Bill + and instructed the Board to advance it in every way possible. The + bill had been introduced in Congress through the Federal Society + represented by Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby and we consulted with her + as to the manner in which the National might be of greatest + assistance. It was extremely difficult to get favorable + consideration for it by individual Congressmen but the committee + recommends that it should receive the endorsement and support of + the National Association, although in its judgment it is a + measure that cannot be successfully concluded at an early date. + +Mrs. McCormick reported in person on the use made by the committee of +the record of members of Congress. It was again voted that the plans +of the committee should be carried out in a State only when all its +societies were agreed but when they were not the Congressional +Committee should not work there. It also seemed to be the opinion of +the convention that States which were considering a campaign should +first consult the Survey Committee and show whether or not they were +prepared for it, and if the committee advised against it and they +persisted they should not expect any assistance from the National +Association. Miss Laura Clay was requested to explain the Federal +Elections Bill, which would enable women to vote for Senators and +Representatives, and would require only a majority vote of each house +for its adoption. Miss Clay was enthusiastically received and the +convention again requested the Board to take up this bill and press +its claims on Congress. Later the Executive Council passed a +resolution to do all in its power for Presidential suffrage. + +At a morning session of the convention on December 18 a motion was +passed that "last year's action in regard to the Shafroth Amendment be +rescinded." The following motion was then carried: "The National +American Woman Suffrage Association re-endorses the Susan B. Anthony +Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, for which it has been working +forty-five years, and no other amendment of the U. S. Constitution +dealing with National Woman Suffrage shall be introduced by it during +the coming year." The Minutes of the convention (page 43) say: "Miss +Shaw asked as a matter of personal privilege that she be permitted to +make a statement to the association with regard to her attitude on +the Shafroth Amendment to the effect that she had been opposed to its +adoption and had voted against it but that when the Board by majority +vote adopted it she supported the Board in its decision; that the +longer she studied the question the more she approved of it but that +she felt the mistake made was in trying to work for it before the +women of the association had become informed as to its value and had +learned to believe in it." This was the end of the so-called Shafroth +Amendment, which had threatened to carry the old association on the +rocks. [See Chapter XIV.] + +Another problem came before this convention--the policy of the +recently formed Congressional Union to adopt the method of the +"militant" branch of the English suffragists and hold the party in +power responsible for the failure to submit the Federal Suffrage +Amendment. They had gone into the equal suffrage States during the +congressional campaign of 1914 and fought the re-election of some of +the staunchest friends of this amendment, Senator Thomas of Colorado, +for instance, chairman of the Senate Committee which had reported it +favorably and a lifelong suffragist. The press and public not knowing +the difference between the two organizations were holding the National +American Association responsible and protests were coming from all +over the country. Some of the younger members, who did not know the +history and traditions of the old association, thought that there +should be cooperation between the two bodies. Both had lobbyists +actively working at the Capitol, members of Congress were confused and +there was a considerable feeling that some plan for united action +should be found. Miss Zona Gale, the writer, offered the following +motion, which was carried without objection: "Realizing that all +suffragists have a common cause at heart and that difference of +methods is inevitable, it is moved that an efficiency commission +consisting of five members be appointed by the Chair to confer with +representatives of the Congressional Union in order to bring about +cooperation with the maximum of efficiency for the successful passage +of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment at this session of Congress." The +Handbook of the convention (page 155) has the following: + + In accordance with the action of the convention, on the motion of + Miss Zona Gale, the president of the National American Woman + Suffrage Association appointed a committee of five consisting of + Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of New York; Mrs. Medill McCormick of + Illinois; Mrs. Stanley McCormick of Massachusetts; Mrs. + Antoinette Funk of Illinois and Miss Hannah J. Patterson of + Pennsylvania, to confer with a similar committee from the + Congressional Union on the question of cooperation in + congressional action. These committees met at the New Willard on + December 17, Miss Alice Paul, Miss Lucy Burns, Mrs. Lawrence + Lewis, Miss Anne Martin and Mrs. Gilson Gardner being present as + representatives of the Congressional Union, all but Mrs. Lewis + (Penn.) of the District of Columbia. + + Its representatives made two suggestions: (1) That the + Congressional Union should affiliate with the National American + Woman Suffrage Association. (2) That in any event frequent + meetings for consultation should be held between the legislative + committees of the two in order to secure more united action. + + In the discussion of these suggestions it developed that at this + time the Congressional Union has no election policy and that its + future policy must depend on political situations. The Union + declares itself to be non-partisan according to its constitution, + which pledges its members to support suffrage regardless of the + interests of any national political parties. At this point the + report of the joint conference ends. + + The committee of five representing the National American + Association recommends that no affiliation shall take place + because it was made quite clear that the Congressional Union does + not denounce nor pledge itself not to resume what we term its + anti-party policy and what they designate as their election + policy; also because it is their intention, as announced by them, + to organize in all States in the Union for congressional work, + thus duplicating organizations already existing. Your committee + further recommends that the incoming board of officers give their + serious consideration to the suggestion of conferences with a + view to securing more united action in the lobby work in + Washington. + +At the conference Mrs. Catt explained to Miss Paul that the +association could not accept as an affiliated society one which was +likely to defy its policy held since its foundation in 1869, which was +neither to support nor oppose any political party, nor to work for or +against any candidate except as to his attitude toward woman suffrage. +Miss Paul would give no guarantee that the Congressional Union would +observe this policy. It was thought that some way of dividing the +lobby work might be found but in a short time the Union announced its +program of fighting the candidates of the Democratic party without +any reference to their position on the Federal Amendment or their +record on woman suffrage. They offered as a reason that as the +Democratic party was in control of the Government it should have the +Federal Amendment submitted. There never was a time when the Democrats +had the necessary two-thirds of the members of each house of Congress, +but enough of them favored it so that it could have been carried if +enough of the Republicans had voted for it. It was plainly evident +that it would require the support of both parties. The policy of the +Congressional Union, put into action throughout the presidential +campaign of 1916, made any cooperation impossible. + +When in 1904 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt had been obliged to resign the +presidency on account of impaired health it was most reluctantly +accepted by Dr. Shaw and only because Miss Anthony so earnestly +impressed it on her as a duty. She felt that her own great mission was +on the platform rather than in executive office and she preferred it; +besides there was no salary attached to the office and she was +dependent for her livelihood on her own efforts. Miss Anthony, Mrs. +Catt and others overcame all her objections and for eleven years she +had made almost superhuman efforts to fulfil her executive duties and +keep in the field a large part of the time, speaking from ocean to +ocean, from lakes to gulf, and every few years in European countries. +She was in constant demand and could hardly refuse an appeal. Only a +fine constitution and supreme will power enabled her to endure the +strain, and with it all her fund of humor was never exhausted and her +courage never faltered. There was a feeling, however, among some +members of the association that the movement had reached a stage when +she was more than ever needed to address the immense audiences which +everywhere now were hungry to hear the doctrines of woman suffrage; +and they felt also that the situation at present demanded an executive +at the head of the association who could give practically her entire +time to the vast demands for administrative work. + +Dr. Shaw had but one regret at laying down the heavy double burden, +which was that it was placed in her hands by Miss Anthony in her last +hour with the charge not to give it up until the final victory was +won. She knew, however, that Miss Anthony would be satisfied if Mrs. +Catt, an unsurpassed executive and organizer, would take it, and such +was the sentiment of a large majority of the delegates, but this she +positively refused to do. She was president of the International +Suffrage Alliance, which had branches in twenty-six countries, and as +most of them were in the very midst of the World War the United States +had to assume the entire responsibility of maintaining the London +headquarters and the official paper. New York State had decided to go +immediately into another amendment campaign and she had again assumed +the chairmanship and was pledged to the work. For several days she +resisted all pleadings until finally the ground was completely taken +out from under her feet. First, a few wealthy women guaranteed a fund +of $5,000 for the year's expenses of the International Alliance to +relieve her of that care. Then a number of delegates went to the New +York delegation of over fifty and labored with them to release her +from the chairmanship of the campaign committee, which, after an +exciting caucus, they reluctantly consented to do at a great +sacrifice, and finally the convention went to her in a body and laid +the fruits of their efforts at her feet and she surrendered. + +At the primaries 45 votes were cast for Mrs. Mina C. Van Winkle (N. +J.) principally by members of the Congressional Union who were in some +of the State delegations, but she withdrew her name. For other +officers the opposition that had been manifesting itself for several +years recorded from 41 to 77 votes out of 546, except that Mrs. Susan +W. Fitzgerald (Mass.) received 118 for recording secretary and Dr. +Katharine Bement Davis 141 for third vice-president but withdrew her +name. Others of the present board did not stand for re-election. Mrs. +Henry Wade Rogers was unanimously re-elected treasurer. The following +officers were elected: Mrs. Catt unanimously; Mrs. Frank M. Roessing +(Penn.), first vice-president; Mrs. Katherine Dexter McCormick +(Mass.), second; Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. J.), third; Miss Hannah J. +Patterson (Penn.), corresponding secretary; Mrs. James W. Morrison +(Ills.), recording secretary; Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.), first +auditor; Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Ala.), second. Dr. Shaw came in +from the hearing before the Judiciary Committee as the balloting was +about to begin, and as she took the chair she asked from the +convention the privilege of casting the first vote for Mrs. Catt, "the +woman who from the beginning has been my choice, the one who more than +any other I long to see occupy the position of your president." + +The afternoon session was a beautiful and memorable occasion. +Delegates knew there was "something in the air" when they entered the +ante-room and were asked to help themselves from the great quantities +of flowers on the tables and when they saw a uniformed brass band in +one end of the convention hall. Dr. Shaw was in the chair and at her +right and left were Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo and Mrs. Henry +Villard of New York, lovely, white-haired veterans in the cause. +Gathered about her on the platform were those who had been her nearest +associates during the many years of her presidency. The meeting was +called to order and Mrs. Raymond Brown on behalf of the New York +delegation presented a resolution of thanks to Dr. Shaw for the 204 +speeches made by her during the past year in that State and asked +unanimous consent of the convention for the adoption of a new by-law +to the constitution making her Honorary President of the association +with a seat on the Board. + +As the delegates answered with a rising vote the band broke forth with +patriotic airs and from a side room entered the national officers +followed by the State presidents and chairmen of standing committees. +Dr. Thomas, president of the National College League, bore a golden +laurel wreath on a blue velvet cushion and each of the officers a +large cornucopia filled with yellow blossoms. Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw +carried a long garland of flowers and the presidents had huge +bouquets. The procession marched entirely around the room with the +band playing and the audience singing. Dr. Thomas presented the laurel +wreath to Dr. Shaw "as a symbol of the triumphant work she had done +for the cause which the blue and gold represent." Mrs. Laidlaw placed +the garland about her neck saying, "With these flowers we bind thee to +us forever." The presidents came forward and laid their bouquets at +her feet until they were banked as high as the arms of her chair and +then all grouped themselves around her. As she rose to speak the +whole audience sprang to their feet and commenced to shower her with +roses until she was almost lost to sight. Dr. Shaw was very pale and +her voice faltered in spite of her effort to control it but with the +old smile she said: "Men say women are too emotional to vote but when +we compare our emotions here today to theirs at political conventions +I prefer our kind. If this resolution means that I can still work for +suffrage I accept it gratefully and thank you for the opportunity but +under no consideration would I accept merely an honorary office. The +flowers are beautiful and I shall remember this hour as long as I live +but what will make my heart glad all my life is the love I know the +members of this association have for me." + +"The storm of roses ended in a rainbow with a pot of gold at its end," +said the report in the New York _Tribune_, "for President Thomas came +forward and announced that an annuity had been raised which would give +Dr. Shaw an income of $3,200 as long as she lived. 'This is in order' +she said, 'that you may work for suffrage every day without stopping +to think of finances, and every mill in the $30,000 represents a heart +you have won or a mind you have converted to woman suffrage.' To this +gift Mrs. Lewis added $1,500 to pay a year's salary to a secretary." +"I have always wanted to know how it feels to be a millionaire and now +I know," responded Dr. Shaw. "I cannot think what to say except that +I'm very happy."[100] The delegates cheered and the band played and +when the tumult ceased she turned to where Mrs. Catt sat at the very +back of the platform looking pale as herself and by no means so happy, +and taking her hand led her forward and presented her as the new +president of the association. Again there was a scene of great +enthusiasm and when it ceased Mrs. Catt said: "When I came to this +convention I had no more idea of accepting the presidency of this +association than I had of taking a trip to Kamtchatka. I will do my +best but because I am an unwilling victim and because you all know it +I think I have a right to exact a pledge from you--that if you have +any fault to find with my conduct or that of the Board you will bring +your complaint first to us. I ask all of you to work harder the coming +year than you have ever worked before. I cannot be otherwise than +deeply touched by the confidence you have placed in me. I promise you +to do my best not to disappoint you." The convention clearly +demonstrated its joy over her election and received cordially the new +officers as they were introduced. + +Miss Margaret Wilson was among those who showered Dr. Shaw with +flowers on Friday afternoon and she sat on the platform at the mass +meeting in Poli's Theater on Sunday afternoon. Secretary of the +Interior Lane, Senators Moses E. Clapp of Minnesota and Shafroth of +Colorado and many other officials and prominent men and women had +seats on the platform and a large audience was present. The Rev. U. G. +B. Pierce, of All Souls Unitarian Church, gave the invocation. Dr. +Shaw was in the chair and the speakers were Dudley Field Malone, +Collector of the Port of New York; Dr. Katharine Bement Davis, +Commissioner of Corrections of New York City, and Mrs. Catt. Dr. Davis +spoke with marked effect on the Reasonableness of Woman Suffrage. Mr. +Malone traced the extension of suffrage from the earliest to the +present time and showed that in seeking the right to vote American +women were asking nothing new. He spoke of "the million women in New +York State who have to go into the shop, the factory and the market +place each day to earn a living and support a home" and demanded the +vote for these women as a matter of justice. He scorned the idea of +woman's inferiority to man and said: "It is desirable to place in the +electorate every mature individual of brains, character, intelligence +and love of country to perpetuate American traditions and the American +idea of democracy. America today, facing the world problems of +infinite difficulty and variety, needs every element of moral force +and influence in the electorate which she can summon to her service, +for it may be that our country will be called upon before the world to +redeem the pledges made in behalf of democracy itself. The right of +suffrage involves the question of justice; the exercise of suffrage +raises it to one of ethics. The question before the men of the +country is, Should the women have the suffrage and if they get it how +will they use it?" + +Here Mr. Malone could not resist the temptation to predict that the +vast majority would vote for military "preparedness," a burning +question at this time. This roused Mrs. Catt's resentment both because +it was contrary to her belief and because it was contrary to the +custom of the association to discuss political subjects. She largely +abandoned the rousing suffrage speech she intended to make in order +that Mr. Malone's assertion might not go out over the country with the +sanction of the association and said in beginning: "Behind +preparedness is a bigger thing--the right to maintain peace. Unless +this country carries a militant peace policy into the court of +nations, nobody will, and if we do not take a firm stand we ourselves +will soon be at war. It has been made clear to me in the last few +months that men are too belligerent to be trusted alone with +governments. The world needs woman's restraining hand. Man's instinct +has been militant since primitive times when it was his job to do the +hunting and fighting and woman's to do the work. Woman's instinct has +been to conserve and protect life. It is much easier to fight than to +make peace. We women would not allow our country to be made the door +mat for other nations but we would find a way to settle disputes +without killing fathers, husbands and sons." + +Dr. Shaw sustained firmly the position of Mrs. Catt, obtained a big +collection and sent the people home in a peaceful frame of mind by her +closing speech. + +Toward the close of the convention the following resolutions were +presented by the committee, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, chairman, and +adopted: + + WHEREAS, women already have the ballot in twelve States of the + Union and one Territory and in seven foreign countries, and the + trend of civilization the world over is toward enlarged rights + for women; therefore, be it + + RESOLVED, That the National American Woman Suffrage Association, + in convention assembled, again calls upon Congress to submit to + the States the Constitutional Amendment providing for nation-wide + suffrage for women. + + We rejoice in the recent granting of full suffrage to women in + Denmark and Iceland; Municipal suffrage in South Africa and an + enlarged local suffrage in the provinces of Canada and the States + of our Union.... + + We express our heartfelt sympathy with the women of all countries + now suffering through the war and our earnest wish for the speedy + establishment of peace with justice. Since women must bear their + full share of all the burdens and sufferings of war they ought in + fairness to have a share in choosing those in high places who + settle the question of war or peace. + + The heroic work done for the sick and wounded by the women of + every land shows them to be worthy of the ballot, their right to + which Florence Nightingale declared to be an axiom, and their + plea for which has been endorsed almost unanimously by the + International Council of Nurses representing nine nations. + + The association reaffirms that its policy is non-partisan and + non-sectarian, opposing no political party as such and opposing + no candidate because of his party affiliations but judging every + candidate by his own attitude and record. + + We believe the home is the foundation of the State; we believe in + the sacredness of the marriage relationship, and further, we + believe that the ballot in the hands of women will strengthen the + power of the home and sustain the sacredness and dignity of + marriage; we denounce as gross slander statements made by the + enemies of woman suffrage that its advocates as a class entertain + opinions to the contrary. + + The thanks and appreciation of the association are tendered to + its retiring president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, for her long and + arduous service to this cause, her many labors and hardships and + her innumerable and powerful addresses, which have won adherents + to woman suffrage not only throughout the United States but in + foreign lands. + + We highly appreciate President Wilson's action in declaring in + favor of the principle of equal suffrage and in stating his + belief in the good results to be expected from its adoption. + + * * * * * + +As the resolution to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment to the +State Legislatures for ratification had been lost in the Senate and +House of the 63rd Congress it was necessary to begin again with the +64th. Usually the hearings before the committees of the two Houses +were held at the same time and the convention adjourned so the +delegates might be present but at this time the one for the National +American Association before the Senate was set for the morning of +December 15 and the one before the House for the following day. It +adjourned for the first one but as the second promised to be long +drawn out only a delegation went with Dr. Shaw and she returned to the +convention after she had made the opening speech. + +At the Senate hearings the chairman, Senator Charles S. Thomas (Col.), +presided and members present were Senators Hollis (N. H.); Clapp +(Minn.); Sutherland (Utah); Catron (N. M.); Jones (Wash.). The other +members, Senators Owen (Okla.) and Johnson (S. Dak.), were suffragists +and probably were out of town. Senator Catron was the only opponent. +Senator Ransdell was added to the committee the second day. On the +third day only Senators Hollis, Clapp, Sutherland and Jones attended. +The time was divided among the representatives of the National +Association, the Congressional Union and the National Anti-Suffrage +Association, the first taking from 10 to 12 o'clock Wednesday; the +second from 10 to 11:30 Thursday; the third from 2 to 3:15 Monday. The +joint resolution for the amendment had been introduced by Senators +Thomas and Sutherland. + +On the first day Chairman Thomas said: "This meeting of the Senate +Committee on Woman Suffrage is called at the instance of the National +Association of which Dr. Anna Howard Shaw is the honored president. +The hearing will be conducted under the auspices of that association +and by her direction. Dr. Shaw, we will be glad to hear you now." Dr. +Shaw said in part: + + For thirty-seven years this amendment has been introduced and + re-introduced into the Congress by members who have been + favorable to our movement, or who have believed in the justice + and right of citizens to petition Congress and have that petition + heard. Last year we were permitted to address your body and we + rejoiced in the fact that a committee, which from the time of its + creation usually had been indifferent toward our subject, had now + been appointed with Senator Thomas, who from the very beginning + had seen the justice of the demand for woman suffrage, at the + head. This committee gave us great courage and hope, which were + fully justified in the fact that for the first time in twenty + years our resolution was reported out of committee and acted upon + in the Senate, receiving a majority vote but not the necessary + two-thirds. We come again with the same measure and again we + appeal to this committee, in the same terms as for all the past + years, for the women citizens of the United States who at every + call have responded as readily as the men in doing their duty and + serving their country. More and more the demand is being made by + ever-increasing groups of women that they shall directly share in + the Government of which they form a part. So we come to you today + with the same old measure but we come with greater hope than + ever before because we realize that back of you there are now in + many of the States constituencies of women. + +Dr. Shaw introduced Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs of Alabama, who quoted +from distinguished southern members of Congress on State's rights and +asked that these sentiments be applied to the National Amendment for +Woman Suffrage, saying in part: + + If this amendment is adopted it in no wise regulates or + interferes with any existing qualification for voting (except + sex) which the various State constitutions now exact. It leaves + all others to be determined by the various States through their + constitutional agencies. It is a fallacy to contend that to + prohibit discrimination on account of sex would involve the race + problem. The actual application of the principle in the South + would be to enfranchise a very large number of white women and + the same sort of negro women as of negro men now permitted to + exercise the privilege.... + + However much these chivalrous gentlemen may wish it were so, that + southern women might truly be called roses and lilies which toil + not, they must know that their compliments do not provide equal + pay for equal service, which obtains in all the woman suffrage + States and that their flowers of speech do not help us secure a + co-guardianship law, which every suffrage State has and which is + non-existent in all southern States. The pedestal platitude + appeals less and less to the intelligence of southern women, who + are learning in increasing numbers that the assertion that they + are too good, too noble, too pure to vote, in reality brands them + as incompetents. It cannot be sugarcoated into any other + significance as long as we remain classed with idiots, criminals + and some of the negro men who also are disfranchised. As things + stand in the South an incentive is held out to the negro man to + become educated that he may meet the tests; to practice industry + and frugality and acquire property to meet the taxpaying + qualification; but no such incentive is held out to the white + women, who meet the insuperable barrier of sex at every turn + which might lead to progress.... + + We women of the South today, while proud of our past do not live + in it. We wish to be proud of our present that we may look + forward with confidence to our future. We know that sectionalism + should have no place in our hearts or lives. This demand for + suffrage is not sectional, it has its adherents in every State + and in almost every town in every State. There is little or no + organized opposition in my part of the country but there are many + thousands of fine, thoughtful, forward-looking southern women + banded together seeking the removal of this last badge of + incompetency. For them there is no North or South but one great + nation, the interest of whose women is the same. We realize that + we are not different or better, we southern women, than the women + in Montana, Illinois, Maine or Massachusetts but are just human + beings as they are. We are not queens but political and + industrial serfs. We are not angels but our better natures, our + higher selves are becoming aroused by the needs of our common + humanity with a solidarity of purpose, a keenness of vision + unmarred by selfish motives. + +Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees, head of the Rosemary School for Girls in +Greenwich, Conn., described the work of the National Suffrage +Association and its sixty-three auxiliaries in the many State +campaigns and the long effort for a Federal Amendment and said in +closing: "In its propaganda and campaigns the association has steadily +maintained a non-partisan attitude, endeavoring so far as it had power +to help the friends of suffrage and considering as antagonistic only +its opponents. It does not hold its friends responsible for the +failure of their party to pass its measures. It never forgets that it +may have to look for help in amending the State constitutions to the +adherents of a party unfriendly to a Federal Amendment. It believes in +educating the public until the demand for the enfranchisement of women +becomes so strong as to be irresistible. The enormous change of +opinion in that public within a few years inspires the association to +hope for the speedy conclusion of its labors." + +Mrs. George Bass, the well-known suffrage and political worker of +Chicago, said in the course of her remarks: + + Women want the ballot because they need it in their business--the + business of being a woman--in the business that began when the + first man and the first woman commenced housekeeping in a cave. + + The duties of the man and the woman differentiated themselves at + that time and they have been differentiated ever since. The woman + as mother became the first artisan because she had to clothe the + children. She became the first doctor because she had to treat + the ills that came to those children of hers and to the man who + lived by her side. She had to invent tools; she was the first + farmer. Man and his duties and his responsibilities have been the + same from that time to this. He brought in to her the slain + animal which she transmuted into food and changed into clothing. + He was the protector, and the first government that grew up about + that first home considered only the problems of offense and + defense. As the governments of the world became more stable, as + they developed, they still centered about war, offense and + defense.... Woman still is the mother of the race but what of the + home? It has become socialized and the spinning wheel is in the + attic and millions of women are standing at the great looms of + this country. The women are in the shops, the factories, the + offices, everywhere that modern industrialism is extending + itself. The school has been socialized and the children are by + the thousands in the schools. + +Mrs. Bass then strikingly illustrated how the business of being a +woman now took women to legislative bodies in the interest of the +State's dependent children, of the women in the industries, of the +so-called fallen women, and showed how fatally handicapped all were +without the power of the ballot. + +Mrs. Medill McCormick, chairman of the Congressional Committee of the +association, sent a comprehensive report of the vast work it had done +in district organization throughout the States and the evident +influence this had exerted on Congress. Dr. Shaw introduced Mrs. +Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International Woman Suffrage +Alliance, who made the principal address, a searching and +comprehensive review of the methods by which men had obtained the +ballot compared to those which had been used by women and showed the +many requirements made of the latter which were entirely omitted in +the case of men. She took the four recent campaigns in Massachusetts, +New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as the basis of her masterly +address, which will be found in the Appendix of this chapter. At the +end of it she said: "It was twenty-two years ago that I had the +privilege and pleasure of standing upon the same platform with the +chairman of this committee when he made an eloquent appeal to the +citizens of Colorado for the women there and many said that his speech +turned the tide and gave women the vote. I hope that he and every +member will not only make a favorable report but will do more--will +follow that report on the floor of the Senate and work for it and +immortalize themselves while freeing us from the humiliation and the +burden of this struggle." + +The hearing was closed by Dr. Shaw with a strong and convincing +argument to show that "if nothing entered into the life of the homes +of this nation except what came through State action it might be said +that only the State should decide who should vote but since the women +are as much affected by the acts of Congress as are the men, this +becomes a national question." She drew a striking picture of +conditions among the nations of Europe where the war was raging; of +how "women in our own country every morning scanned the papers to see +whether we were nearer with the rising sun than we were with the +setting sun of the day before to connections with the Old World which +will plunge us into the war." She took up the questions of tariff and +of prohibition, asked if women should not have a vote on these and the +other great national issues before the country and concluded: "I only +wish that the woman whose name is so closely associated with this +amendment--Susan B. Anthony--might have lived to see this committee as +it exists today instead of having passed away before it was composed +of members of the character of those before whom we now come to +present our cause." + + * * * * * + +At the hearing of the Congressional Union the following day, Senator +Thomas, chairman of the committee, was present but refused to preside, +as the leaders of the Union had gone to Colorado during the recent +campaign and spoken and worked, though unsuccessfully, against his +re-election. Senator Sutherland took the chair. It was conducted by +the vice-president of the Union, Miss Anne Martin. "One of our chief +purposes in asking this hearing," she said, "is to bring before you +not only the ethical importance but the political urgency of settling +this question of national suffrage for women. At present the thought +and strength of large numbers of them throughout the country are +absorbed by this campaign to secure fundamental justice, which +prevents their giving assistance in matters vitally affecting the +interests of the men, women and children of the nation." There would +be five-minute speeches, she said, until the last half hour, which +would be divided between the envoys of the women voters' convention in +San Francisco during the past summer.[101] + +Most of the speeches were crisp and clever and well fortified with +facts and figures to prove the advantage of a Federal Amendment over +State amendments in securing universal woman suffrage. The two +"envoys" were Miss Frances Jolliffe and Mrs. Sara Bard Field of +California, who started in an automobile from the grounds of the +Exposition in San Francisco to motor to Washington to present to +Congress a petition which had been collected during the Fair and to do +propaganda work on the way. The former made only part of the trip in +the car but Mrs. Field completed the entire 3,000 miles. Both made +excellent addresses. + + * * * * * + +Senator Hollis occupied the chair at the hearing of the National +Anti-Suffrage Association December 20. Its president, Mrs. Arthur M. +Dodge, introduced the speakers, saying: "We appear before you to urge +that you do not report this resolution to the Senate because we +believe very earnestly that it is a question which should be taken to +the States to be voted on by the electorates and not submitted to the +Legislatures." Mrs. M. C. Talbot, secretary of the Maryland +Anti-Suffrage Association, read a paper prepared by the Hon. John W. +Foster, a strong argument against a Federal Amendment but without a +word of opposition to the granting of woman suffrage by the States. +The other speakers were Miss Florence H. Hall, publicity chairman of +the Pennsylvania Association; Mrs. George P. White, a member of its +executive board; Miss Lucy J. Price, secretary of the Cleveland, O., +branch; Mrs. A. J. George (Mass.), executive secretary of the National +Congressional Committee. They were trained speakers and their side of +the question was well presented. It was heard by the Senate Committee +without interruption except on one point. Miss Hall said: "On waves of +Populism, Mormonism, insurgency and Socialism ten States have been +added to the pioneer State of Wyoming and are recognizing the suffrage +flag." When she had finished the following colloquy took place: + + Senator Sutherland. I do not ordinarily like to inject anything + into these hearings, but one statement has been made by the last + speaker which I do not think I ought to let go without making a + suggestion in regard to it. If I understood her correctly she + insists that Mormonism has had something to do with the granting + of woman suffrage in the ten States in which it has been granted. + I want to say that in California, Oregon, Washington and Kansas, + taking those four States which are the largest in which suffrage + has been granted, the Mormon population and Mormon vote are + practically negligible. + + Miss Hall. I did not base it on that. I said Mormonism, Populism, + Socialism and insurgency brought suffrage along with them. + + Senator Sutherland. There is only one State in all of these, so + far as I know, where Mormons are in the majority and that is in + my own State of Utah. There are comparatively few in Colorado, + probably not more than a thousand altogether in the entire + population, and their numbers are practically negligible in the + other States. + + Miss Hall. How about Idaho? Forty per cent. there. + + Senator Sutherland. I think perhaps there are twenty-five per + cent. There are probably 400 or 500 in the State of Nevada. In + Arizona I do not know just what the percentage is but there are a + number of Mormon voters there. + + Miss Hall. I would refer the committee to Senator Cannon's recent + letter on that question, where he names eleven States---- + + Senator Sutherland (interposing). I know that claim has been made + but I undertake to say that it is utterly without foundation. I + speak in regard to this matter with just as much knowledge as Mr. + Cannon or anybody else. + + Senator Jones. It is without foundation, so far as the State of + Washington is concerned. + + Senator Sutherland. While I am not a member of the Mormon Church + and never have been, I have lived in that section practically all + my life and it is not correct to say that such a situation as has + been described prevails in those States. + + Miss Hall. I thought I had pretty good authority for making that + statement and I think I could produce the evidence to show it. + + Senator Sutherland. I would be surprised if you could produce any + evidence whatever to substantiate that statement. + +Mrs. George, who spoke last, came to the rescue of Miss Hall and this +dialogue occurred: + + Mrs. George. I am confident that the speaker only meant to imply + that woman suffrage has always been a radical movement and that + where Mormonism did exist it helped on suffrage.... + + Senator Sutherland. As a matter of fact, the Mormon Church and + the Mormon people are not radical. They are conservative and in + some instances almost ultra conservative.... + + Mrs. George. They may be conservative along certain lines but we + do look upon the Mormon Church as advocating certain social + measures which seem to us radical. + + Senator Sutherland. I will grant you that in the past there have + been some things that you and I would not agree with, but from a + very careful observation of events I can say to you with perfect + confidence in the truth of what I say, that that sort of thing + has passed away. + + Mrs. George. May I say un-American, if you object to the word + "radical"? + + Senator Sutherland. I object to the word "un-American" much more + strongly because the Mormon people are not un-American. They are + good citizens, among the best in this country. + +Mrs. George concluded her address to the committee with these words: +"These are grave times. Questions of international relationships, of +preparedness, of the national defense, of finance, are vexing the +wisest minds. Is it a time to further the propaganda of this new crop +of hyphenated Americans--Suffrage-Americans--who place their +propaganda above every need of the country?" + + * * * * * + +With the women of eleven States now eligible to vote for all +candidates at the general election of 1916 and the large number in +Illinois possessing the Presidential franchise woman suffrage had +become a leading issue. Most of the House Judiciary Committee of +twenty-one members, including the chairman, Edwin Y. Webb of North +Carolina, an immovable opponent, were present at the hearing on +December 16 and they faced sixteen speakers for the Federal Amendment +and twelve opposed. Three hours were granted to the former, divided +between the National American Association and the Congressional Union, +and two hours to the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage. +Dr. Shaw opened the hearing by referring to the thirty-seven years +that had seen the leaders of her association pleading with Congress +for favorable action on this amendment and introduced Mrs. Carrie +Chapman Catt, president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, +comprising twenty-six nations. + +Mrs. Catt said in part: + + Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee, I fear that the + hearings before this Judiciary Committee have become in the eyes + and understanding of many of the members a rather perfunctory + affair which you have to endure. May I remind you that since the + last hearing something new has happened in the United States and + that is that more than a million men have voted for woman + suffrage in four of the most conservative States of the East? I + consider that that big vote presents to this committee a mandate + for action which was never presented before. There are those, + doubtless, who will say that this is a question of State rights. + I have been studying Congressmen for a good many years and I have + discovered that when a man believes in woman suffrage it is a + national question and when he does not believe in it he says it + is a question for the States.... + +Mrs. Catt told of the prominent educator who was sent from Belgium to +investigate the working of woman suffrage in the United States and +after he had made a visit to the States where it existed he summed up +the result by saying: "I am convinced in favor in my mind but my heart +is still opposed." "There are members of this committee," she said, +"who are governed by their hearts instead of their heads," and she +continued: + + Gentlemen, this movement has grown bigger and stronger as the + years have passed by until today millions of women are asking in + all the States for the vote. The president of Cornell University, + Dr. Schurman, said that his reason for now aggressively + advocating woman suffrage was because he had discovered in + studying history that it was never good for a government to have + a restless and dissatisfied class; he had made up his mind that + the women of the nation did think that they had a grievance, + whether they had or not, and he believed that a government was + stronger and safer when grievances were relieved. + + A few days before the election in order to show that the women + wanted to vote there was a parade in New York City and 20,000 + marched up Fifth Avenue, among them a great number of public + school teachers of the city, 12,000 of whom had contributed to + our campaign funds. These women deal with the most difficult + problems; they are teaching all that the new-coming people know + of citizenship and they were asking their own share in that + citizenship. A man whose name is known to every one of you was + sitting at the window of a clubhouse watching the women pass hour + after hour until at last this great group of teachers, sixteen + abreast, marched by with their banners. He looked out upon them + and do you think he said, "I am convinced that the women of New + York do want to vote and I will help them?" That is what an + honorable American citizen, an open-minded man, would have said. + Instead he exclaimed: "My God! I never realized what a menace the + woman suffrage movement is to this country; we have got to do + something next Tuesday to keep the women from getting the vote." + + There is not a man on this committee or in this House who can + produce a single argument against woman suffrage that will hold + water, and the thing that is rousing the women of this land + continually and making them realize that our Government visits + upon us a daily injustice is that the doors of our ports are left + wide open and the men of all the nations on earth are permitted + to enter and receive the franchise. In New York City women must + ask for it in twenty-four languages.... + +Walter M. Chandler of New York City, a member of the committee, asked +Mrs. Catt if she thought a Representative should vote against the +mandate of his district, which in his case had given a majority of +2,000 against a State amendment in November, although he himself had +spoken and voted for it. A spirited dialogue followed which filled +several pages of the printed report, Mrs. Catt insisting that he +should stand by the broad principle of justice and Mr. Chandler +equally insistent that he must represent his constituents. As Dr. Shaw +rose to return to the convention Mr. Carlin of Virginia said: "Dr. +Shaw, would you mind explaining to this committee the essential +difference between this organization known as the National Woman +Suffrage Association and the Congressional Union? There is a great +deal of confusion among the members of the committee as to just what +is the difference between them," and she answered: + + It is, perhaps, like two different political parties, which + believe in different procedure. The National Woman Suffrage + Association has two fundamental ideas--to secure the suffrage + through State and national constitutions--and we appeal both to + Congress and to the States. The Congressional Union, as I + understand it, appeals only to the Congress. Another essential + difference is that the policy of the Union is to hold the party + in power responsible for the acts of Congress, whether they are + acts of that party by itself or of the whole Congress. They + follow a partisan method of attacking the political party in + power, whether the members of it are friendly to the + woman-suffrage movement or not. For instance, Senator Thomas of + Colorado, Senator Chamberlain of Oregon and other Senators and + Representatives who have always been favorable to our movement + and have aided us all the way along, have been attacked by this + Union not because of their personal attitude toward our question + but because of the attitude of their party. The National Suffrage + Association pursues a non-partisan method, attacking no political + party. If we could defeat a member of any political party who + persistently opposed our measure we would do it, whether in the + Republican or the Democratic or any other, but would never hold + any party responsible for the acts of its individual members. + +Many other questions were asked, the committee seeming incredulous +that suffragists would fight the re-election of their friends. The +next speaker was Miss Alice Stone Blackwell whose address consisted in +a solid array of facts and figures that were absolutely unanswerable. +As the daughter of Lucy Stone and editor of the _Woman's Journal_ from +girlhood she was fortified beyond all others with information as to +the progress of woman suffrage; the connection of the liquor interests +with its many defeats; the statistics of the votes that had been taken +and all phases of the subject. Mrs. Harriet Stokes Thompson, an +educator and social worker of Chicago, said in part: + + I wish to make my appeal this morning to both your intellect and + your sympathies when I speak to you in behalf of the nine million + women who are out today assuming their part in the industrial + world. These women who are working in the shops and factories + have simply followed the evolution of industry. It is not that + they have entered into man's work at all, because they are doing + what they formerly did in their homes, and I am asking today that + you give to them power to protect themselves. Those girls working + there now are the mothers of the generation to come and that they + may be well protected in their hours of labor, in the conditions + under which they work, that they may become mothers of healthy + children in the future, we are asking that they may speak with + authority through legislative chambers.... I wish to appeal to + you, too, for another large group of women, the teachers of the + United States. I myself am one of those who stand before the + children of this great nation day after day. The teachers should + be made citizens in order that they may keep both the letter and + the spirit of this democratic country in their teachings. I have + lived in my own State to know the difference in the spirit with + which you teach citizenship when you yourself are a citizen. A + slave cannot teach freedom, cannot comprehend the spirit of + freedom; neither can a woman who is not a citizen comprehend the + spirit of true citizenship. The teachers of Illinois since they + were enfranchised have come to their work with a new life, a new + zest and a new responsibility and we expect to send the boys out + with a finer appreciation of what it means to render public + service to a whole community and not a fraction of it. We also + recognize the fact that our men are feeling that in every good + work which they undertake a great help has been given to them. + +Mrs. George Bass, whose address is quoted in the report of the Senate +hearing in this chapter, gave a valuable resume of the civic and legal +reforms which already the women of Illinois had been able to +accomplish with their votes and answered a number of questions. Miss +Ruutz-Rees spoke along the lines of her speech before the Senate +Committee, as did Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, who made a strong appeal +in the name of southern women for the Federal Amendment. She was +subjected to a crossfire of questions from the southern members and +Chairman Webb asked the question which many times afterwards came back +to plague him: "Do you not think that as soon as you have a big enough +majority of women in Alabama who want suffrage you will get it from +the State and that you ought not come here bothering Congress about +something that it should not, under our form of government, take +jurisdiction of?" She answered: "I am very regretful that you have +been bothered." During the questions and answers that followed Mrs. +Jacobs brought forward the unjust laws of South Carolina and Alabama +for working women and for all women and said: "The southern man still +prefers to think of the southern women as the sheltered, protected +beings he would like to have them and he does not realize that now +they are the exploited class." Representatives Whaley of South +Carolina and Tribble of Georgia denied her statements and afterwards +put into the Record statistics attempting to disprove them. + +In the paper presented by Mrs. Medill McCormick, chairman of the +Congressional Committee, she showed the excellent work that had been +done by its branches organized in the congressional districts; the +pressure on members of Congress by their constituents; the favorable +resolutions that had been passed by organizations and meetings +representing hundreds of thousands and closed: "I wonder whether you +gentlemen of the committee have computed the number of votes that are +now behind the woman suffrage movement in this country? I do not mean +the votes of women in the equal suffrage States alone, I mean the +popular voting strength as shown at the polls all over the country. +Nearly 1,250,000 votes were cast for woman suffrage in New York, +Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts this fall. Nearly 800,000 +were cast in Ohio, Missouri, the Dakotas and Nebraska last fall, +besides the popular vote of the equal suffrage States and Illinois. +The total of these figures from twenty-one States is 6,400,000--that +is, 191,000 more than were cast for President Wilson in forty-eight +States. Would Congress fail to recognize such voting strength upon any +other issue? + + * * * * * + +The rest of the time was given to the Congressional Union, its +chairman, Miss Alice Paul, presiding. The speakers were Mrs. Andreas +Ueland, president of the Minnesota Suffrage Association; Miss Mabel +Vernon of Nevada; Mrs. Jennie Law Hardy, an Australian residing in +Michigan; Mrs. Florence Bayard Hilles of Delaware; Miss Helen Todd, +Miss Frances Jolliffe and Mrs. Sara Bard Field of California. The +first two speakers proceeded without interruption but when Mrs. Hardy +said that by marrying in the United States she found herself +disfranchised, the committee woke up. After questioning her on this +point Mr. Steele of Pennsylvania asked her how she accounted for the +large defeat the second time the suffrage amendment was submitted in +Michigan and she answered: "I account for it partly by the fact that +this was the only State having a campaign that year and the whole +opposition was centered there. The liquor interests themselves +admitted that they spent a million dollars to defeat it." + +The address of Mrs. Hilles also brought out a flood of questions, +which, with the answers made by Miss Paul, filled four printed pages +of the official report. They began with requests for information about +the difficulties of amending State constitutions but soon centered on +the campaign of the Union against the Democrats in 1914 and this line +was followed throughout the rest of the hearing, the Federal Amendment +being largely lost sight of. The members showed deep personal +resentment. For example: + + Mr. Taggart (Kan.). Your organization spent a lot of time and + money trying to defeat men on this committee that you are now + before, did it not? + + Miss Paul. We went out into the suffrage States and told the + women voters what was done to the suffrage amendment by the last + Congress. + + Mr. Taggart. We have before us a joint suffrage resolution by Mr. + Taylor of Colorado. You tried to defeat him, did you not? + + Miss Paul. The suffrage amendment was not brought to a vote in + the House until after we went to the West. + + Mr. Taggart. You tried to defeat the man in the House who + presented this resolution which you are having hearings for, did + you not? + + Miss Paul. What we did was to go to the Rules Committee, a + Democratic committee, to ask that this measure be reported out + and brought to a vote; when the committee had refused to do this + we went out into the suffrage States of the West and told the + women voters how the bill was being blocked at Washington. As + soon as we did that they stopped blocking and the bill was + brought up before the House for the first time in history. + + Mr. Taggart. That was after the election? + + Miss Paul. Yes. + + Mr. Taggart. You are aware that more Democrats voted for it than + men of any other party? + + Miss Paul. We are aware that the Democrats met in caucus and + decided that woman suffrage should not be brought up in the House + and after we went out into the West they brought it up. We went + out to tell the women voters about the way some of their + Representatives were treating the matter. + + Mr. Taggart. And with this result--that in the suffrage State of + Colorado Senator Thomas, a Democrat, was re-elected to succeed + himself; in the suffrage State of Arizona, Senator Smith, a + Democrat, was re-elected to succeed himself; in the suffrage + State of California a Democrat was elected to succeed a + Republican; in the suffrage State of Washington the House was + reinforced by one Democrat, and in the suffrage State of Utah and + in the suffrage State of Kansas Democrats were elected to + reinforce the party. One Democrat only, Mr. Seldomridge of + Colorado, was defeated, for the reason, he says, that his + district has been gerrymandered; nevertheless, he came and voted + for the amendment on the floor of the House. Why should you take + such an interest in defeating Democratic Congressmen and + Senators? + +Miss Paul persisted that all the favorable action taken by Congress +after the election of 1914 was because they campaigned against the +Democrats, ignoring the fact that Nevada and Montana had enfranchised +their women at that election and public sentiment was veering so +rapidly in favor of woman suffrage as to compel both parties to regard +it as a political issue. After the opening sentences of Miss Todd's +speech it became a heated dialogue between her and the members of the +committee. + +Miss Paul said in introducing Miss Frances Jolliffe: "She is a strong +Democrat who campaigned for President Wilson and Senator Phelan and is +one of the envoys sent by the women's convention in San Francisco, at +which there were present 10,000 people who bade her 'Godspeed' on this +journey."[102] The beginning of her speech was as follows: "I am here +as a messenger from the women voters of the West. Perhaps first I +should offer my apologies to the minority for appearing at all; for, +gentlemen, I did my level best to defeat the Republican candidate for +the Senate last year and I think I did a good deal to defeat him when +I went before the women and told them they could not send back----" + +Mr. Volstead spoke quickly saying: "Will you pardon me an +interruption? Was that the pay you gave the Republicans for giving you +almost as many votes in the House as the Democrats gave you, and that +despite the fact that the Democrats had a two-thirds majority in the +House? That is, less than one-half of the vote in favor of your +proposition came from the Democrats and more than five out of every +six who voted against it were Democrats." The controversy kept up and +when Mrs. Sara Bard Field, the other "envoy," commenced her speech she +begged that she might finish it without interruption. Toward the +close, however, the hearing became a free-for-all debating society, +the discussion filling seven pages of the official report. Miss Paul's +closing remarks caused the debate to be continued through another six +pages. "Can you tell me what will be in the platform of the Democratic +party in 1916?" she asked Chairman Webb. "I can tell you one plank +that will not be in it and that is a plank in favor of woman +suffrage," he answered. The retorts of the women were clever but both +Republican and Democratic members of the committee were very much out +of humor and not in a very good frame of mind to make a favorable +report. + + * * * * * + +The hearing of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage +followed immediately. Its president, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, said in +opening their hearing: "We have come here today to ask you as a +committee not to report this bill favorably to the House, because we +consider that, in the first place, it is a question of State's rights. +In the second place we consider that the women, as represented by +their men--good, bad and indifferent, honest or venal--should be heard +through the men who represent them at the present time and whom the +majority of women are still perfectly willing to have represent them." +She then showed how much larger the majorities were which had voted +against woman suffrage than for it. The speakers were Miss Emily P. +Bissell of Delaware; Mrs. O. D. Oliphant of the New Jersey +association; Mrs. James Wells of the Texas association; Miss Lucy J. +Price of the Cleveland branch; Mrs. A. J. George of the Massachusetts +association. The Judiciary Committee was in an argumentative mood and +began with Mrs. Dodge as follows: + + Mr. Dyer (Mo.). What is the position of your organization with + reference to the question of whether or not women should have the + right to vote at all? Are you in favor of women voting? + + Mrs. Dodge. We are in opposition to woman suffrage generally. We + have never opposed women voting in school matters; we think that + is a perfectly legitimate line for them to vote upon. The only + trouble is they do not vote upon those questions where + authorized; only two per cent. of them do so. + + Mr. Dyer. That is as far as you want them to go? + + Mrs. Dodge. Yes; that is a perfectly legitimate line for them, we + have always taken that position from the first, but that does not + mean that women are to be drawn into politics and government and + we only draw the line at their taking part in politics and + government. + + Mr. Dyer. I understand your position is that you favor submitting + this question to the States directly. + + Mrs. Dodge. Yes. We have always rather inclined to the idea that + it should be submitted to the women themselves.[103] ... + + Mr. Taggart. Would you say that it was just to require a woman to + pay the income tax demanded by the government and then deny her + the right to any voice as to who should be the Representative + that voted that tax on her? + + Mrs. Dodge. I certainly should. I have paid taxes in five States + myself. I feel that I am entirely protected--that is what the tax + is for. I think that taxpaying men are just as capable of taking + care of my rights as of their own and I feel that I am justified + in saying that the men can quite as well look after that which + ought to be and is their business as I can. + +Mr. Taggart asked: "Why should the women of Kansas have the vote when +it is denied to those of other States who need it as much or more?" +Mrs. Dodge answered: "We think the men in Kansas did not quite know +what they were doing when they gave it to women and a great many +thousands of women there wish they had not done so." "You are then +opposed to having a State grant suffrage to its own women?" he asked. +"Not at all," she replied. "Then why do you say the men did not know +what they were about?" "I do not know whether a majority or a minority +of the voters desired it," she said. "Well, it was a very large +majority and I have never heard a regret expressed in the State that +it was done," responded Mr. Taggart. + +Mrs. Oliphant was held up because after saying that the women did not +want the suffrage she argued against a Federal Amendment because if +the women got it it would be very difficult to repeal it. Mr. Graham +(Penn.) rushed to her relief by saying: "The line of thought is that +20 States, holding a minority of the population of the United States +might pass this National Amendment over the protest of the larger +States with the greater population." His attention was called by one +of the committee to the fact that it would require 36 States. Mrs. +Wells kept reminding the committee that she was an inexperienced +speaker and knew nothing about politics but said: "I am a Catholic and +a Democrat. I claim no knowledge of northern women but I cannot +understand how southern women--I speak for them--can so far forget the +memory of Thomas Jefferson and State's rights as to insist on having a +minority of men in Congress pass this constitutional amendment against +our desire." She was reminded that it required two-thirds of each +House. She then told of opposing a suffrage resolution in the Texas +Legislature some years before but neglected to tell of opposing one +for prohibition also. Asked if women did not vote at school elections +in Texas she answered: "I do not know because I know nothing about +politics." + +Miss Price was a shrewd speaker and guarded her position but before +she had finished the members of the committee themselves were making +speeches for or against woman suffrage. The speech of Mrs. George of +Massachusetts with its statistics filled fifteen closely printed pages +of the stenographic report. It was an argument for State's rights +which would have done credit to the most extreme southerner and she +protected her defenses against the volley of questions that were kept +up until time for the committee to adjourn. + +The anti-suffragists had wisely refrained this year from bringing any +of their male advocates but the latter did not intend to be left out +and they obtained a hearing six weeks later on February 1. Franklin +Carter, secretary of the Man Suffrage Association of New York City, +told the committee he could "get through in half an hour," which was +granted. He consumed over an hour, the official report showing that +after the first few sentences there were not more than three or four +without an interruption from the committee and the "heckling" +continued through seventeen interesting printed pages. Mr. Carter, who +said he received a salary of $100 a month and had expended between +$6,000 and $7,000 during the recent New York amendment campaign, was +at last obliged to submit what he had to say in the form of a "brief," +which filled six closely printed pages. He was followed by Paul +Littlefield representing the Men's Campaign Committee of the +Pennsylvania Women's Anti-Suffrage Association. His experience was +more disconcerting than that of Mr. Carter, who had freely stated the +expenditures of his association and his own salary while Mr. +Littlefield refused any information on these and other points. He +brought a message from Mrs. Horace Brock, president of the +association, saying: "The women of our State trust the men to +legislate wisely and justly for them, and the ideas of chivalry which +have existed for a thousand years are the great bulwark surrounding +and protecting women, upon which, because of their lack of physical +strength, they must rely for safety and happiness." His grilling +filled twelve printed pages of the report. Mr. Stone asked permission +to get a "brief" from the chairman of the Massachusetts Man Suffrage +Association, Robert Turner, which would clear up many matters. His own +recollection was that the expenditures of that association in the 1915 +campaign were $54,000. Mr. Littlefield then relented and said that the +Pennsylvania men's committee spent $20,000 on the campaign. Mr. +Turner's "brief" of 5,000 words was afterwards submitted but did not +mention expenditures. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[99] Call: In the long years of work for equal suffrage none has been +so crowded with self-sacrificing labor for the cause as this one and +no year so significant of its early ultimate triumph. As we issue this +Call four great campaigns for equal suffrage are in progress in four +eastern States. Thousands of women are working with voice and pen and +tens of thousands are contributing in time and money to win political +freedom for women in these States. Other States are rapidly preparing +for active campaigns in 1916. At the same time the National +Association is putting forth the strongest efforts to win nation-wide +suffrage through the passage of its historic Amendment to the +Constitution of the United States. + +We shall come together at this, our forty-seventh annual convention, +larger in numbers, more united in spirit and effort, more assured of +early success than ever before....and, with renewed zeal and +inspiration, rejoicing that the long struggle for the new freedom for +women is nearing an end. Public opinion for equal suffrage has +increased a hundredfold in this fateful year. It seems borne in upon +the most conservative that it is only a matter of time when +nation-wide political freedom will be granted to women as an +inevitable outcome of our democracy and the last step in the great +experiment of self-government.... + + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. + KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, First Vice-President. + NELLIE NUGENT SOMERVILLE, Second Vice-President. + KATHARINE BEMENT DAVIS, Third Vice-President. + NELLIE SAWYER CLARK, Corresponding Secretary. + SUSAN WALKER FITZGERALD, Recording Secretary. + EMMA WINNER ROGERS, Treasurer. + HELEN GUTHRIE MILLER,} Auditors. + RUTH HANNA MCCORMICK,} + +[100] Although Dr. Shaw was but sixty-eight years old and in perfect +health she afterwards asked the custodians of this fund--George Foster +Peabody, James Lees Laidlaw and Norman de R. Whitehouse, New York +bankers--to hold it in trust, paying her only the annuity each year +and giving her the right to dispose of it at her death in some way to +advance the cause of woman suffrage, which was done. + +[101] The speakers were Mrs. William Spencer Murray, secretary of the +Women's Political Union of Connecticut; Mrs. Annie G. Porritt, press +chairman of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. Dana +Durand of Minnesota; Miss Julia Hurlburt, vice-chairman of the Women's +Political Union of New Jersey; Mrs. Agnes Jenks, president of the +Rhode Island W. S. A.; Mrs. Alden H. Potter, chairman of the +Congressional Union in Minnesota; Mrs. Glendower Evans, member of the +Minimum Wage Commission of Massachusetts; Mrs. R. H. Ashbaugh, +president of the Michigan Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. James +Rector, vice-chairman of the C. U. of Ohio; Mrs. Cyrus Mead of the +Ohio C. U. + +[102] The automobile started from the Exposition and there were +possibly more than that many people on the grounds. As its departure +had been widely advertised and was made a spectacular event a large +crowd was at the gate. + +[103] For the last twenty years the members of the Anti-Suffrage +Association had appeared regularly before committees of Legislatures +in various States to oppose the submission of the question to the +voters, picturing the injury it would be to the community and to the +women. They had never in any State made the slightest effort to have +it submitted to women themselves. The School suffrage was granted in +most of the States before they had any organization but they went +before a committee in the New York Legislature to oppose women on +school boards. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1916. + + +The year 1916 marked a turning point in the sixty-year-old struggle +for woman suffrage. Large delegations of women had attended the +Republican and Democratic National Conventions during the summer and +for the first time each of them had put into its platform an +unequivocal declaration in favor of suffrage for women; the +Progressive, Socialist and Prohibition platforms contained similar +planks, the last three declaring for a Federal Amendment. It had +become one of the leading political issues of the day and a subject of +nation-wide interest. The president of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, quickly recognized the +situation and saw that its official action must not be deferred until +the usual time for its annual convention which would be after the +presidential elections, therefore the Board of Officers issued a call +for an Emergency Convention to meet in Atlantic City, N. J., Sept. +4-10, 1916.[104] The members throughout the country were much +surprised but welcomed the opportunity to visit this beautiful ocean +resort. The headquarters were in the famous Hotel Marlborough-Blenheim +and after the first day the sessions were held in the large New Nixon +Theater on the Board Walk. + +After two days of executive meetings the Forty-eighth annual +convention opened the morning of September 6 in the handsome St. +Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, granted by the trustees and pastor, +with an invocation by the latter, the Rev. A. H. Lucas. Mayor Harry +Backarach gave a cordial address of welcome, ending by presenting to +Mrs. Catt, who was in the chair, a huge "key to the city and to our +hearts" tied with ribbons of blue and gold, the colors of the +association. Members of the Board made their official reports at this +and other meetings and all were valuable and interesting but space +permits only a brief mention of most of them. Miss Hannah J. Patterson +(Penn.), corresponding secretary and chairman of organization, told of +the division of the national work into six departments with a national +officer at the head of each and of moving the national headquarters +from 505 Fifth Avenue, corner of 42nd Street, New York, where they had +been since 1909, into much larger offices at 171 Madison Avenue, +corner of 33rd Street. An entire floor was rented with 3,800 square +feet of space, nearly 1,000 more than in the old location. The +Publishing Company took part of this, the association retaining ten +rooms. Miss Patterson told of the thorough organization work being +done under fourteen organizers, who had covered twelve States. She +spoke of the need of training schools for organizers and told of the +value of combining all departments, data, literature, publishing, +organizing, etc., under headquarters management. + +Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. J.), third vice-president and head of the +Publishing Company, told of doing field work in Colorado and +California to interest their women in the demonstrations which were +being planned for the political conventions. She spoke of the large +correspondence in connection with the trip of the little "golden +flier," saying: + + This tour was undertaken by Miss Alice Burke and Miss Nell + Richardson, who left New York April 6 to make a circuit of the + United States in the interest of the National Association and the + cause of suffrage. The Saxon Motor Company donated the car, while + the association arranged for entertainment for Miss Burke and + Miss Richardson along the route and for expenses over and above + the collections taken at their meetings, of which they have held + one a day in the closely settled States. They reached San + Francisco early in June and are now on their way east. From each + State through which they have passed we have had appreciative + letters of their endurance and courage as automobilists and of + their worth as public speakers. They have suffered actual + privations crossing the desert and more recently in the Bad Lands + of the northwest. They were on the Mexican border during the + raids and their car had to be pulled out of rivers during the + floods; their courage has never faltered and they have given + another proof of the well-known fact that you can't discourage a + suffragist. They set out to make a circuit of the United States + with the same determination that we all have set out to win our + enfranchisement and they will not give up until the circuit is + made. So far nineteen States have been included in the itinerary + and it is planned to cover six more. The newspaper publicity has + been nation-wide.... + +Later Miss Ogden made her report for the National Woman Suffrage +Publishing Company. "We exist," she said, "for two purposes--to serve +the suffrage cause throughout the country and to prove that we can +serve that cause and also develop a successful business." She spoke of +the devoted office staff, under the business manager, Miss Anna De +Baun, who had made personal sacrifices again and again when necessary. + +The report of the recording secretary, Mrs. Mary Foulke Morrisson +(Ills.), to whom had been entrusted the organization of the great +parade of suffragists during the National Republican Convention in +Chicago and especially its financing, stated that $6,699 had been +raised by the State and Chicago Equal Suffrage Associations; $200 by +the Chicago Political Equality League and some hundreds of dollars by +local leagues and individuals. She paid high tribute to the unwearying +work of Mrs. Medill McCormick, who, speaking and organizing in the +city and outlying towns "won the support of whole sections of the +community that had hitherto been utterly indifferent." Mrs. Morrisson +herself had spoken fifty times in the interest of the parade in +Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Iowa and the Mississippi Valley Conference. + +The report of the national treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, was +received with much appreciation of her money-getting ability and +satisfactory accounting. The total receipts for the year were $81,863 +and the close of the fiscal year found a balance on hand of $8,869. +The largest contributions had been $500 each from the State +associations of Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and +Pennsylvania. The National College Equal Suffrage League gave $450. +The expenditures in round numbers were: Headquarters, including +salaries, expenses of conventions, etc., $16,531; publicity, $9,096; +National Congressional Committee, $4,676; publishing _News Letter_, +$982; contributions to campaigns, $21,131; demonstrations, +organization, etc., $20,000. + +In commenting Mrs. Rogers said: "Nothing to my mind indicates so +vividly the progress of equal suffrage as the comparative ease with +which the largest budget in the history of the National Association +was pledged and most of it paid by August 25, and the fact that an +excess of that budget amounting to many thousands of dollars has been +raised three months before the usual convention date. 'Money talks' +and it is saying this year: 'No cause in which I could be used appeals +to me as does this fundamental one of enfranchising women, of opening +the door to let them enter and help to make a more Christian +civilization.' Literally we have had only to ask and it has been given +unto us. Scores and hundreds of women in sending their generous gifts +have said: 'Would that my check were ten times as large!' The +wonderful spirit of kindliness and ardent desire to cooperate have +touched the treasurer's heart deeply and made the work of the passing +year a real joy. I am confident that all necessary funds for suffrage +expenditures--national, State and local--can be raised, even to a +million dollars, if more systematic work is done on the financial side +in the States...." Mrs. Rogers outlined the business methods that +should be used and expressed her obligations to her committee of fifty +on finance for their helpful support. + +Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.), first auditor, in the report of her +field work told of days, weeks and months spent in visiting cities +from New York to St. Louis, holding conferences and meetings and +writing hundreds of letters to raise money and arrange for the +demonstration to be held in St. Louis during the Democratic National +Convention--the "walkless parade," to which the Missouri Suffrage +Association contributed nearly $2,000. She attended State suffrage and +political conventions and the biennial of the General Federation of +Women's Clubs in New York. "And then came Chicago," the report said, +"with its exciting surge, its march in the rain and its near-victory +plank, followed by St. Louis with its 'golden lane' of suffragists and +a plank a little less pleasing; another trip to Indianapolis with our +Chief--and the most momentous June in suffrage history was over." The +report told of the journey to Cheyenne to attend the Council of Women +Voters; the addresses of the present Democratic Governor Kendrick and +the former Republican Governor and U. S. Senator Carey; the two days +at the State University in Laramie, "the guest of one of the +best-known suffragists in the State, Professor Grace Raymond Hebard"; +the visit in Denver, "asking questions and being interviewed." "All of +this," she said, "sent me back firmly convinced that the western women +want to help us in our battle and only wait for a definite program of +work." + +The second auditor, Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Ala.), in the report +of her field work showed an equally full schedule. She had been +present at every board meeting but one, of which she was notified too +late; as a member of the Congressional Committee had assisted with the +lobby work in Washington; had attended a three-days' State conference +in Nashville and spoken three times; the Mississippi State convention +and spoken twice; spoken in Savannah and Asheville and at the May-day +celebration of the Nashville League; attended the Chicago and St. +Louis demonstrations and spent the intervening times in raising the +money to meet her pledge of $2,000 for her State to the National +Association. + +Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, chairman of the Press Department, +stated that this was largely a nominal position, as the practical work +was done by professionals and would be related in the report from the +Publicity department. The reports of the national officers were +concluded by that of Mrs. Catt, chairman of the Campaign and Survey +Committee, a new feature of the association. It began: "For the +purpose of making a survey of suffrage conditions throughout the +nation, either an officer of the National Board or some person or +persons representing the Board have visited nearly every State in the +Union. I have myself visited twenty-three States; Miss Hauser and Miss +Walker visited nine enfranchised States; Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Jacobs, +Mrs. Morrisson and Mrs. Rogers have each visited several; Mrs. +Roessing and Miss Patterson have made a number of trips to West +Virginia. Our chief motive was to learn conditions. To corroborate our +impressions questionnaires were sent to all the State associations in +January and again in July. As a result of the information obtained the +National Board is convinced that our movement has reached a crisis +which if recognized will open the way to a speedy and final victory." + +Mrs. Catt expressed the belief that in the future a better +understanding between national and State boards would be possible and +spoke of the visits of herself and other national officers to West +Virginia and South Dakota, where woman suffrage amendments would be +voted on in November. She then took up the case of Iowa, where one had +been defeated the past June, and made an analysis of a situation which +had existed here and in nearly all States where defeats had taken +place as follows: + + When the present Board came into office, Iowa was in campaign and + but a few months remained for work. In January I met with the + State Board and we counselled together concerning the needs of + the campaign; later I met with it on three different occasions + and gave one month to speaking in the State. The National Board + contributed $5,000 to the campaign from the legacy of Mary J. + Coggeshall of Iowa and gave one organizer from January 1 until + the vote was taken. It also sent speakers and workers toward the + end of the campaign. The various States contributed generously + through the national treasury. + + The campaign came up splendidly at the last. Men, I believe, + supported it more earnestly than they have done in other States. + One of the best press bureaus any State has had, under the + direction of Mrs. Rose Lawless Geyer, was at work for some + months. The able president, Miss Flora Dunlap, gave all her time + and ability. There were many brilliant forays which were truly + effective, but nothing could overcome a weakness which has + appeared in every campaign and that is the inability of + newly-formed, untrained committees to put speakers and workers to + the best use. It will be the case in every campaign that, near + the end, weak spots must be reinforced by outside experienced + workers. Another difficulty was that money-raising was left to + the close of the campaign when all the efforts of workers were + demanded by other duties. This has been the trouble in most + States. The lesson we must learn is that at the beginning a + money-raising plan must be formed and carried out and pledges + must be made to cover the major portion of the cost before the + real campaign is begun. Toward the close there are many things + which ought to be done but are left undone for want of money. + State committees grow timid because they do not see the money in + sight and naturally trim their budgets to the point which renders + defeat inevitable. + + Iowa, like every other State, showed opposition from the "wets," + tricks of politicians and the rounding up of every drunkard and + outcast to vote against the amendment. The unprecedented result + was that 35,000 more votes were cast on the suffrage proposition + than on the Governor. This could only have been brought about by + inducements of some sort which were made to the lowest elements + of the population. This story differs in coloring and detail with + each campaign but varies little as to general fact. It must be + borne in mind and our campaigns must be so good that these + purchasable and controllable elements will be outvoted. + + A number of men worked against the amendment in Iowa and men are + working at this time in South Dakota and West Virginia. Who + employs or pays these men we have never been able to discover. + Their ordinary method is to secure strictly private meetings of + men only, where they spread the basest of untruths. All past + campaigns point to the necessity of waging those of the future + with a distinct understanding that the worst elements of the + population will be lined up by this unscrupulous, well-supported, + combined opposition of men and of women. The women appeal to the + respectable elements of the community; the men make little + pretense in this direction. There is a sure alliance between the + two. + +The first public session was held Thursday afternoon and the delegates +looked forward with keen enjoyment to the "three-cornered debate" on +what had become a paramount question. Mrs. Catt was in the chair. Each +leader was to have ten minutes and her second five minutes to speak in +the affirmative only; when the six had presented their arguments there +was to be free discussion from the floor, and, after all who had +wished had spoken, each leader would have ten minutes to answer the +opposition to her point of view. The program was as follows: + +Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association drop work on +the Federal Amendment and confine its activities to State legislation? +Leader, Miss Laura Clay, Kentucky; second, Miss Kate Gordon, +Louisiana. + +Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association drop work for +State Referenda and concentrate on the Federal Amendment? Leader, Mrs. +Ida Husted Harper, New York; second, Mrs. Glendower Evans, +Massachusetts. + +Shall the present policy of the National American Woman Suffrage +Association to work for woman suffrage "by appropriate National and +State legislation" be continued? Leader, Mrs. Raymond Brown, New York; +second, Miss Florence Allen, Ohio. + +The alternative amendments to the constitution will then be put: I. To +strike out the words "National and." II. To strike out the words "and +State." If both are lost, the constitution will remain as it is and +the National American Woman Suffrage Association will stand pledged to +both Federal and State campaigns. + +The speakers presented their arguments with great earnestness; the +discussion was vigorously carried on and the rebuttals were made with +much spirit. By request the honorary president, Dr. Shaw, who was +sitting on the platform, closed the debate and she strongly urged that +there should be no change in the policy of the association. The +convention voted overwhelmingly in favor of continuing to work for +both National and State constitutional amendments, nearly all of the +southern delegates joining in this vote. Mrs. Harper then rose to a +question of personal privilege and said that she should consider it a +great calamity for the association to discontinue its work for State +amendments and that she only took the opposite side at the urgent +request of Mrs. Catt, with the promise that she should be permitted to +make this explanation. Mrs. Evans made a similar statement and the +audience, which had been mystified by their position, had a hearty +laugh. This debate and the vote of the convention restored the +association to its position of standing for the original Federal +Suffrage Amendment and working for amendments of State constitutions +as a means to this end. + +In the evening a brilliant reception for the officers and delegates +was given in the large drawing-room of the Marlborough-Blenheim by the +Atlantic City Woman Suffrage Club and the New Jersey State +Association. + +The convention was opened in the New Nixon Theater Thursday morning +with prayer by the Rev. Thomas J. Cross, pastor of the Chelsea Baptist +Church, and much routine business was disposed of. The constitution +was changed so as to exclude from membership all organizations not in +harmony with the policy of the association and the term of the +officers was extended from one to two years. A unique program was +carried out in the afternoon under the direction of the second +vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick--The Handicapped +States, a Concrete Lesson in Constitutions. The States whose +constitutions practically could not be amended were grouped under +these heads: The Impossibles; The Insuperables; The Inexecutables; The +Improbables; The Indubitables; The Inexcusables; The Irreproachables. +Each group was represented by one or more women who quoted from the +constitutions. It was intended as an object lesson to show the +necessity for a Federal Amendment. + +At 3:30 Mrs. Catt began her president's address before an audience +that filled the large theater and listened with intense interest until +the last word was spoken at five o'clock. It was a masterly review of +the movement for woman suffrage and a program for the work now +necessary to bring it to a successful end. The opening sentences were +as follows: + + I have taken for my subject, "The Crisis," because I believe that + a crisis has come in our movement which, if recognized and the + opportunity seized with vigor, enthusiasm and will, means the + final victory of our great cause in the very near future. I am + aware that some suffragists do not share in this belief; they see + no signs nor symptoms today which were not present yesterday; no + manifestations in the year 1916 which differ significantly from + those in the year 1910. To them, the movement has been a steady, + normal growth from the beginning and must so continue until the + end. I can only defend my claim with the plea that it is better + to imagine a crisis where none exists than to fail to recognize + one when it comes, for a crisis is a culmination of events which + calls for new considerations and new decisions. A failure to + answer the call may mean an opportunity lost, a possible victory + postponed.... + +This address, coming at the moment when woman suffrage was accepted as +inevitable by the President of the United States and all the political +parties, was regarded as the key-note of the beginning of a campaign +which would end in victory. In pamphlet form it was used as a highly +valued campaign document. + +Mrs. Catt showed the impossibility of securing suffrage for all the +women of the country by the State method and pointed out that the +Federal Amendment was the one and only way. "Our cause has been caught +in a snarl of constitutional obstructions and inadequate election +laws," she said, after drawing upon her own experience to show the +hazards of State referenda, and we have a right to appeal to our +Congress to extricate it from this tangle. If there is any chivalry +left this is the time for it to come forward and do an act of simple +justice. In my judgment the women of this land not only have the right +to sit on the steps of Congress until it acts but it is their +self-respecting duty to insist upon their enfranchisement by that +route.... Were there never another convert made there are suffragists +enough in this country, if combined, to make so irresistible a driving +force that victory might be seized at once. How can it be done? By a +simple change of mental attitude. If you are to seize the victory, +that change must take place in this hall, here and now. The crisis is +here, but if the call goes unheeded, if our women think it means the +vote without a struggle, if they think other women can and will pay +the price of their emancipation, the hour may pass and our political +liberty may not be won.... The character of a man is measured by his +will. The same is true of a movement. Then _will_ to be free." The +address made a deep impression and was accepted as a call to arms. + +Throughout the convention open-air meetings were held on the Boardwalk +addressed by popular suffrage speakers and thousands in the great +crowds that throng this noted thoroughfare were interested listeners. +The Friday morning session was enlivened by a resolution offered by +Mrs. Raymond Robins, which said that this Emergency Convention had +been called to plan for the final steps which would lead to +nation-wide enfranchisement of women; that the method of amending +State constitutions meant long delay; that many national candidates in +all parties had declared in favor of a Federal Amendment, and +therefore the delegates in this convention urged that in the present +campaign suffragists should support for national office only those +candidates who pledged their support to this amendment. The delegates +quickly recognized that this meant to endorse Judge Charles Evans +Hughes for president, although President Wilson was to address the +convention that evening. Party feeling ran high but still stronger +was the determination of the convention that the association should +not depart from its policy of absolute non-partisanship. Motions were +made and amendments offered and the discussion raged for two hours. +Dr. Shaw spoke strongly against the resolution and finally it was +defeated by a large majority. Later Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of +Chicago offered a resolution which after several amendments read: "We +re-affirm our non-partisan attitude concerning national political +parties but this policy does not preclude the right of any member to +work against any candidate who opposes woman suffrage, nor shall it +refer to the personal attitude of enfranchised women." This was +carried enthusiastically. A resolution by Mrs. J. Claude Bedford +(Penn.) for a vigorous publicity campaign to make clear the +association's non-partisan policy was passed. + +There had been such marked increase of public opinion in favor of +woman suffrage in the southern States and so many of their able women +had come into the association that a "Dixie evening" had been +arranged. Mrs. Catt presided and the following program was presented: +Master Words--Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, president Texas Woman +Suffrage Association; Kentucky and Her Constitution--Mrs. Thomas +Jefferson Smith, president Kentucky Equal Rights Association; The +Evolution of Woman--Mrs. Eugene Reilley, vice-president General +Federation of Women's Clubs and vice-president North Carolina Woman +Suffrage Association; Progress of Today and Traditions of +Yesterday--Mrs. Edward McGehee, president Mississippi Federation of +Women's Clubs; For Woman Herself--Mrs. Lila Mead Valentine, president +Virginia Equal Suffrage League; The Southern Temperament as Related to +Woman Suffrage--Mrs. Guilford Dudley, president Tennessee Equal +Suffrage Association, Inc.; Real Americanism--Mrs. T. T. Cotnam, +vice-president Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association. Southern women +have a natural gift of oratory and the audience was delightfully +entertained. But three of these addresses were published and space can +be given only to brief extracts. + +"There is in America today," Mrs. Cotnam said, "a large class of +people who are restless and dissatisfied and are smarting under the +injustice of being governed without their consent. This is a class +with the blood of the Pilgrim mothers in their veins--of those who +cheerfully endured untold hardships as the price of liberty; a class +with the blood of the Revolutionary fathers in their veins--of those +who gave their lives that their children might be free; a class who +are the rightful joint heirs with all the people of the United States +of the heritage of freedom but whose inheritance after 140 years is +still kept 'in trust.'" She referred to the anxiety of Congress "to +make the Filipinos a self-governing people after only a few years of +American tutelage while 140 years have not been enough to equip +American women for self-government," and said: "Political leaders say +America is 'the waymark of all people seeking liberty' and yet +one-half of the American people have never known liberty. They promise +justice to the oppressed of every land who are seeking refuge and +practice injustice against one-half of those whose homes have always +been here. Every citizen of the United States is jealous of her +standing among the nations and just now each political party is +claiming to be the only worthy custodian of national honor. It is with +amazement we read the arraignment of one party by another and note +that in no instance have they taken each other to task for injustice +to American women which violates the fundamental principle of +democracy, 'Equal rights for all, special privileges to none.' ... +Americanism--it stands for the recognition of the equality of men and +women before the law of man as they are equal before the law of God. +Americanism--it stands for truth triumphant. Americanism--it will find +its full realization when men and women meet upon a plane of equal +rights with a united desire to maintain peace, to guard the nation's +honor, to advance prosperity and to secure the happiness of the +people." + +"We are a race of dreamers in the South by choice and because of +climatic conditions," said Mrs. Guilford Dudley in an eloquent +address. After a keenly sarcastic comparison between southern chivalry +and the unjust laws for women, and the observation that "the only +business a southern girl is taught is the business of hearts," she +said: + + As long as it was a question of woman's rights; as long as the + fight had any appearance of being against man; as long as there + seemed to be a vestige of sex antagonism, the southern woman + stood with her back turned squarely toward the cause. She + wouldn't even turn around to look at it, she would have none of + it, but when she awoke slowly to a social consciousness, when + eyes and brain were at last free, after a terrible reconstruction + period, to look out upon the world as a whole; when she found + particularly among the more fortunate classes that her leisure + had come to mean laziness; when she realized that through the + changed conditions of modern life so much of her work had been + taken out of the home, leaving her to choose between following it + into the world or remaining idle; when with a clearer vision she + saw that her help in governmental affairs, especially where they + touched her own interests, was much needed--right about face she + turned and said to the southern man: "I don't wish to usurp your + place in government but it is time I had my own. I don't complain + of the way you have conducted your part of the business but my + part has been either badly managed or not managed at all. In the + past you have not shown yourself averse to accepting my help in + very serious matters; my courage and fortitude and wisdom you + have continually praised. Now that there is a closer connection + between the government and the home than ever before in the + history of the world, I ask that you will let me help you." + +Mrs. Dudley described the effect of the demand for woman suffrage on +the politicians, on the men who feared they would be "reformed," on +the sentimentalists, and then she paid tribute to the broad-minded, +justice-loving men who encouraged the women in their new aspirations +and concluded: "So you see not only the southern woman but the +southern man is now awake and present conditions strongly indicate +that before another year has passed we will have some form of suffrage +for the woman of Tennessee.... We have had a vision--a vision of a +time when a woman's home will be the whole wide world, her children +all those whose feet are bare and her sisters all who need a helping +hand; a vision of a new knighthood, a new chivalry, when men will not +only fight for women but for the rights of women." + +The plea of Mrs. Valentine for a higher womanhood should be given in +full but an idea at least can be gained by a quotation: + + If I were asked to give one reason above all others for + advocating the enfranchisement of women I should unhesitatingly + reply, "The necessity for the complete development of woman as a + prerequisite for the highest development of the race." Just so + long as woman remains under guardianship, as if she were a minor + or an incompetent--just so long as she passively accepts at the + hands of men conditions, usages, laws, as if they were decrees of + Providence--just so long as she is deprived of the educative + responsibilities of self-government--by just so much does she + fall short of complete development as a human being and retard + the progress of the race. We are the children of our mothers as + well as of our fathers and we inherit the defects as well as the + perfections of both. Many a man goes down in his business--is a + "failure in life," as the phrase goes--because he is the son of + an undeveloped mother and, like her, is lacking in independence, + in initiative, in ability to seize upon golden opportunities. Yet + she was trained to passivity, to submission, to the obliteration + of whatever personality she may have possessed. What more could + we expect of her son? Imagine for a moment the effect upon men + had they from infancy been subjected to the narrowing, ossifying + processes applied to women for centuries! + + Happily for the race, however, the great majority of women are + waking from the sleep of centuries, are eagerly stretching out + their hands for the key that is to open wide the door of larger + opportunity. Happily, too, the forward-looking men of today are + seeing the vision of womanhood released from the old-world + thraldom. In rapidly increasing numbers they are welcoming the + new woman, in whom they find not only the wife and mother more + fully equipped for her task but a comrade of congenial tastes, + keenly interested in the outside world and capable of taking her + place beside the husband, whether in peace or war, wherever her + country calls.... The suffrage movement is a world-wide protest + against the mental subjection of woman. Therein lies its vital + importance. It strikes deep into the core of life. It is a basic, + fundamental reform, for it is releasing for the service of the + State the unused natural resources dormant in womanhood; it is + transforming the dependent woman into woman enfranchised that she + may the more perfectly fulfill her destiny as the mother of the + race. + +The morning and afternoon sessions were crowded with reports, +conferences and business of various kinds in which the delegates were +keenly interested. Mrs. Grace Thompson Seton, chairman of the Art +Publicity Committee, gave an interesting account of its work, told of +the prizes that had been offered for posters and slogans and the +cooperation of men and women prominent in the literary, artistic and +social world; of the "teas" given at the national headquarters, +bringing many who had never visited them before: of the beautiful +banners and costumes designed for the suffrage parades and other +features of this somewhat neglected side of the work for woman +suffrage. The chairman of the Literature Committee, Mrs. Arthur L. +Livermore, submitted a comprehensive report of the systematizing of +that department, the classifying and cataloguing and the endeavor to +ascertain and meet the varied demands. A Suffrage Study Outline, a +Blue Book Suffrage School and Mrs. Annie G. Porritt's Laws Relating +to Women and Children had been published; literature for the rural +districts, for the home, for campaigns, placards, fliers and an +endless number of novelties. + +It would be impossible to give in a few paragraphs even an idea of the +carefully prepared report of Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, the skilled head +of the Data Department, which filled eight printed pages. It told of +the progress that had been made in organizing the department, the wide +scope of the collections and the increasing demand for information +from many sources. It would be equally difficult to do justice to the +sixteen printed pages of the report of Charles T. Heaslip, national +publicity director. He had organized a publicity council, which thus +far had members in twenty-six States. His full knowledge of the large +syndicates had enabled him to keep the subject before the public +throughout the country; he had made wide use of photographs, cartoons, +posters and moving pictures. Hundreds of papers on the route of the +"golden flier" had been supplied with pictures and stories. He had +gone to Iowa to assist in the campaign there and he described also the +large amount of publicity work done at the time the suffragists were +making their national demonstrations during the presidential +conventions in Chicago and St. Louis. He showed how victory could be +hastened by thorough publicity work in every State from Maine to +California. Later the Chair announced the receipt of a letter from the +press, signed by representatives of nineteen newspapers at the +convention, expressing their thanks to Mr. Heaslip and their hearty +appreciation of his services, without which they could not have +handled its press work in a satisfactory manner. + +Under the topic How and Where to Drive the Entering Wedge, Miss +Florence Allen of Ohio told of the openings offered by amending city +charters for woman suffrage and Mrs. Roger G. Perkins described the +successful campaign in East Cleveland for this purpose. The recent +campaigns in West Virginia and South Dakota were discussed by the +State presidents, Mrs. Ellis A. Yost and Mrs. John L. Pyle; that of +Iowa by Mrs. Geyer, publicity director, and the work in Tennessee for +a constitutional convention by Mrs. James M. McCormack, State +president. The chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee, Mrs. +Robert S. Huse (N. J.), reported that bills had been introduced in the +Legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Kentucky and Rhode Island, +public hearings being granted by the first three, but no vote was +taken. + +Is Limited Suffrage Worth While? was answered by Mrs. George Bass +(Ills.) who declared it to be "a positive influence for good"; it was +called by Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout (Ills.) "a step toward full +suffrage"; by Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (Ohio) "a help to other +States." Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch described "the chances opened +by the Illinois law." It was the consensus of opinion that partial +suffrage was quite worth striving for. This was directly opposed to +that heretofore held by the association but in the past only a +Municipal vote had been asked for and Kansas alone had granted it. +Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) made a strong presentation of the Elections +Bill, which would permit women to vote for members of Congress. What +Kansas Thinks about Woman Suffrage was graphically told by Mrs. W. Y. +Morgan, president of the State association. Help from the West was +promised by Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe (Wash.), president of the National +Council of Women Voters. + +The climax of the convention came on the evening of September 8 with +the address of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. Only +once before had a President appeared before a national suffrage +convention--when William Howard Taft made a ten-minute speech of +welcome to Washington in 1910 but without committing himself to the +movement. When the present convention was called, after the +endorsement of woman suffrage by the national conventions of all +parties, the two leading candidates for President were invited to +address it. Judge Hughes, who had declared in favor of the Federal +Suffrage Amendment, answered that he would be too far away on a +speaking tour to reach Atlantic City. President Wilson wrote that he +would endeavor to arrange his itinerary so as to be present. Later he +announced that he would come and would remain throughout the evening. +Undoubtedly he never before faced such an audience. The greatest care +had been taken to exclude all but delegates and invited guests and +from the stage of the theater to the back stretched tier after tier +of white-robed women, while the boxes were filled with prominent +people, mostly women. As he came from the street to the stage with +Mrs. Wilson, also gowned in white, he passed through a lane of +suffragists, one from each State, designated by banners, with broad +sashes of blue and gold across their breasts. He was accompanied by +Private Secretary Tumulty and several distinguished men and the entire +stage behind the decorations of palms and other plants was surrounded +by a cordon of the secret service. Forty-three large newspapers +throughout the country were represented at the reporters' table. + +The President had asked to speak last and he listened with much +interest to a program of noted public workers as follows: Why Women +Need the Vote. The Call of the Working Woman for the Protection of the +Woman's Vote--Mrs. Raymond Robins, president of National Women's +Trades Union League. Mothers in Politics--Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of +National Children's Bureau. A Necessary Safeguard to Public +Morals--Dr. Katharine Bement Davis, Chief of Parole Commission, New +York City. Working Children--Dr. Owen R. Lovejoy, general secretary of +National Child Labor Committee. Each speaker emphasized the necessity +for the enfranchisement of women as a means for the nation's highest +welfare. Mrs. Catt was in the chair and introduced the President, who +said with much earnestness and sincerity: + + Madam President, Ladies of the Association: I have found it a + real privilege to be here tonight and to listen to the addresses + which you have heard. Though you may not all of you believe it, I + would a great deal rather hear somebody else speak than speak + myself, but I would feel that I was omitting a duty if I did not + address you tonight and say some of the things that have been in + my thoughts as I realized the approach of this evening and the + duty that would fall upon me. + + The astonishing thing about the movement which you represent is + not that it has grown so slowly but that it has grown so rapidly. + No doubt for those who have been a long time in the struggle, + like your honored president, it seems a long and arduous path + that has been trodden, but when you think of the cumulating force + of the movement in recent decades you must agree with me that it + is one of the most astonishing tides in modern history. Two + generations ago--no doubt Madam President will agree with me in + saying this--it was a handful of women who were fighting for + this cause; now it is a great multitude of women who are fighting + for it. There are some interesting historical connections which I + should like to attempt to point out to you. + + One of the most striking facts about the history of the United + States is that at the outset it was a lawyers' history. Almost + all of the questions to which America addressed itself, say a + hundred years ago, were legal questions; were questions of + methods, not questions of what you were going to do with your + government but questions of how you were going to constitute your + government; how you were going to balance the powers of the State + and the Federal government; how you were going to balance the + claims of property against the processes of liberty; how you were + going to make up your government so as to balance the parts + against each other, so that the Legislature would check the + Executive and the Executive the Legislature. The idea of + government when the United States became a nation was a + mechanical conception and the mechanical conception which + underlay it was the Newtonian theory of the universe. If you take + up the Federalist you see that some parts of it read like a + treatise on government. They speak of the centrifugal and + centripetal forces and locate the President somewhere in a + rotating system. The whole thing is a calculation of power and + adjustment of parts. There was a time when nobody but a lawyer + could know enough to run the government of the United States.... + + And then something happened. A great question arose in this + country which, though complicated with legal elements, was at + bottom a human question and nothing but a question of humanity. + That was the slavery question, and is it not significant that it + was then, and then for the first time, that women became + prominent in politics in America? Not many women--those prominent + in that day are so few that you can almost name them over in a + brief catalogue--but, nevertheless, they then began to play a + part not only in writing but in public speech, which was a very + novel part for women to play in America; and after the Civil War + had settled some of what seemed to be the most difficult legal + questions of our system the life of the nation began not only to + unfold but to accumulate. + + Life in the United States was a comparatively simple matter at + the time of the Civil War. There was none of that underground + struggle which is now so manifest to those who look only a little + way beneath the surface. Stories such as Dr. Davis has told + tonight were uncommon in those simpler days. The pressure of low + wages, the agony of obscure and unremunerated toil did not exist + in America in anything like the same proportions as they exist + now. And as our life has unfolded and accumulated, as the + contacts of it have become hot, as the populations have assembled + in the cities and the cool spaces of the country have been + supplemented by feverish urban areas, the whole nature of our + political questions has been altered. They have ceased to be + legal questions. They have more and more become social + questions, questions with regard to the relations of human beings + to one another, not merely their legal relations but their moral + and spiritual relations to one another. + + This has been most characteristic of American life in the last + few decades, and as these questions have assumed greater and + greater prominence the movement which this association represents + has gathered cumulative force, so that when anybody asks himself, + What does this gathering force mean? if he knows anything about + the history of the country he knows that it means something + _which has not only come to stay but has come with conquering + power_. + + I get a little impatient sometimes about the discussion of the + channels and methods by which it is to prevail. _It is going to + prevail_ and that is a very superficial and ignorant view of it + which attributes it to mere social unrest. It is not merely + because women are discontented, it is because they have seen + visions of duty, and that is something that we not only can not + resist but if we be true Americans we do not wish to resist. + Because America took its origin in visions of the human spirit, + in aspirations for the deepest sort of liberty of the mind and + heart, and, as visions of that sort come to the sight of those + who are spiritually minded America comes more and more into its + birthright and into the perfection of its development; so that + what we have to realize is that in dealing with forces of this + sort we are dealing with the substance of life itself. + + I have felt as I sat here tonight the wholesome contagion of the + occasion. Almost every other time that I ever visited Atlantic + City I came to fight somebody. I hardly know how to conduct + myself when _I have not come to fight anybody but with somebody_. + + I have come to suggest among other things that when the forces of + nature are working steadily and the tide is rising to meet the + moon, you need not be afraid that it will not come to its flood. + We feel the tide; we rejoice in the strength of it, and _we shall + not quarrel in the long run as to the method of it_, because, + when you are working with masses of men and organized bodies of + opinion, you have got to carry the organized body along. The + whole art and practice of government consist not in moving + individuals but in moving masses. It is all very well to run + ahead and beckon, but, after all, you have got to wait for them + to follow. I have not come to ask you to be patient, because you + have been, but I have come to congratulate you that there has + been a force behind you that will beyond any peradventure be + triumphant and for which you can afford a little while to wait. + +When President Wilson had finished amid enthusiastic applause Mrs. +Catt asked Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president, to respond. She +was much moved by the occasion and taking the last sentence of the +address for a text she eloquently told how women had already worked +and waited for more than three score years. "We have waited long +enough for the vote, we want it now," she exclaimed, and then turning +to the President with her irresistible smile she finished, "and we +want it to come in your administration!" He smiled and bowed and the +whole audience rose in a sea of waving handkerchiefs as he took his +departure. The President of the United States had said: "Your cause is +going to prevail; I have come to fight with you; we shall not quarrel +as to the method!" + +The other speeches of the evening were all of a high order. Mrs. +Robins, as always, made an unanswerable argument for giving women wage +earners the protection of the ballot. "In the Children's Bureau," Miss +Lathrop said, "we have come to see the close connection between the +welfare of mother and child. Because we are so concerned for the +children we asked a physician to take those vast, mysterious volumes +of the census and look up the facts about the mortality of mothers. +Last year in the United States more than 15,000 women lost their lives +carrying on the life of the race. The death rate from other things, +such as typhoid and diphtheria, has been cut in half but between 1900 +and 1913 maternal mortality was not lessened but seemingly increased; +yet this waste of life is just as preventable as those diseases, for +medical science has shown that with proper care the dangers of +childbirth can be made very small. Just as fast as women are allowed a +voice in public affairs it is their duty to see that no mother and +child shall perish for lack of care. Every country should have a +mother and child welfare center. When a memorial was lately proposed +for a woman who had died in the war, a well-known man said: 'We can +enfranchise her sex in tribute to the valor which she proved that it +possessed.' It is not too much to give suffrage to women in tribute to +the 15,000 who are dying every year in this great duty and service; +yet we do not ask the ballot for women as a reward but because, as a +duty and a service, we ought to ask for it...." + +"Woman suffrage is needed in the interest of good morals," was the +keynote of Dr. Davis's address, who said: + + You cannot legislate righteousness into the human heart but you + can reduce to a minimum the temptations that are offered to + youth. To a large extent you can stop commercialized vice and the + manufacture of criminals. I am not one of those who think that + the millenium will come soon after women get the vote, but I + believe that women will take an unusual interest in the effort to + clean up vicious conditions, because all down the ages women have + paid the price of vice and crime. + + I do not believe that at heart a man is any worse than a woman, + but all through the centuries he has been taught that he may do + some things which a woman may not. It is only of late that we + have begun to fight these things in the open and you cannot + successfully fight any evil in the dark. For sixteen years my + work has brought me in contact with this peculiar phase of public + morals and I know whereof I speak. Public morals are corrupted + because woman's point of view has no representation. We have laws + to regulate these things but they are man-made and the public + sentiment behind them which should govern their enforcement has + grown up through the ages and it is the sentiment of men only. + The laws are not equal nor equally enforced. If you doubt it you + have only to go into the night court and you will see woman after + woman convicted on the word of a policeman only, while in order + to convict a man you have to pile evidence on evidence. I think + this inequality of treatment will not cease till women get a + vote. + +In a very convincing address Dr. Lovejoy said: + + The past month has been memorable in the history of child labor + reform in America. A three-years' campaign culminated last Friday + in the signing of a bill by President Wilson which excludes from + the facilities of interstate commerce the exploiters of child + labor. It has been estimated that 150,000 children who now bow + under the yoke of excessive toil will be able to straighten up + and look heaven in the face when this law begins to operate on + the first of next September. In signing the bill the President + said: "I want to say that with real emotion I sign this bill, + because I know how long the struggle has been to secure + legislation of this sort and what it is going to mean to the + health and vigor of this country and also to the happiness of + those whom it affects. It is with genuine pride that I play my + part in completing legislation." + + I am convinced that we need the voice of the church, the school, + the home, in making and enforcing laws to protect working + children, and, since half the adult population of our American + homes are women, since approximately 75 per cent. of the church + members are women, since 90 per cent. of the school teachers are + women and since every moral and educational enterprise in the + country is represented in about the same proportion, cold logic + forces us to the conclusion that we need women in politics. Of + 10,000 members of the National Child Labor Committee, 6,400 are + women. Some of the experiences we have had with men in + Legislatures in response to the appeal of mothers for the + protection of working children have forced me to the conclusion + that in this protection the participation of women in the + law-making of the State is vital. + +The primary nominations and elections were held with voting machines +and when the result was announced it was found that all the old board +was nominated with the exception of Mrs. Roessing, Miss Patterson and +Mrs. Morrisson, who declined to stand for re-election. Their places +were filled with Mrs. Frank J. Shuler (N. Y.), corresponding +secretary; Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith (Ky.), recording secretary and +Miss Heloise Meyer (Mass.), first auditor. As there were no other +candidates the secretary was unanimously requested by the convention +to cast its vote. This was a remarkable record for 543 delegates. A +national suffrage flag was adopted, the gift of Pennsylvania--a yellow +field with fringed edges, in the center a circle of eleven blue stars +representing the equal suffrage States enclosing an eagle on the wing +holding the globe in its talons. Mrs. J. O. Miller in behalf of the +president made an eloquent presentation. + +Miss Clay moved a resolution on her Elections Bill that the convention +endeavor to protect women citizens in their right to vote for U. S. +Senators and Representatives and with this object in view endorse this +bill introduced by Senator Robert L. Owen (Okla.). This motion was +carried. Mrs. Catt stated that the resolution of Mrs. Sallie Clay +Bennett (Ky.) was similar and this also was passed. A large number of +letters and telegrams were read from eminent men and women and from +societies of many kinds. Mrs. Catt stated that in not one had it been +suggested that the association lessen its activities for the Federal +Amendment. The convention then adopted a resolution instructing the +Congressional Committee "to concentrate all its resources on a +determined effort to carry this amendment through the next session of +Congress." + +Invitations for the next convention were received from nine States. +Greetings were sent to three of the original surviving pioneers, the +Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of New Jersey; Mrs. Judith W. Smith of +Massachusetts and Miss Emily Howland of New York. The delegates were +introduced who brought greetings from the National Equal Franchise +Union of Canada, and Mrs. Campbell McIvor responded. A special vote of +thanks was given to Miss Mary Garrett Hay and Miss Lulu H. Marvel, +chairman of the General Committee of Arrangements, for their perfect +management of President Wilson's visit to the convention. Among those +submitted by the Committee on Resolutions, Mrs. Alice Duer Miller (N. +Y.), chairman, and adopted were the following: + + Whereas, all political parties in their national platforms have + endorsed the principle of woman suffrage, be it + + Resolved, That the National American Woman Suffrage Association + in convention assembled calls upon Congress to submit to the + States the Constitutional Amendment providing nation-wide + suffrage for women. + + Whereas, the Democratic and Republican parties in endorsing the + principle of woman suffrage have specially recognized the right + of the States to settle the question for themselves, we call upon + these parties in the States where amendment campaigns are in + progress to take immediate action to obtain the enfranchisement + of women, and in other States to take such action as the suffrage + organizations deem expedient. + + Whereas, honest elections are vital to good government in this + country and to the decisions in the campaigns for woman suffrage; + and + + Whereas, public records of all funds used in political campaigns + will benefit our movement in that they will bring to light its + real opponents, therefore + + Resolved, That this convention urges the passage by Congress and + the States of a thorough and comprehensive Corrupt Practices Act + providing effectual punishment for offenders. + + That in recognition of Miss Clara Barton's lifelong support of + woman suffrage, as well as her service to the country in founding + the American Red Cross and standing at its head for more than a + quarter of a century, this association endorses the bill recently + introduced in Congress providing for an appropriation of $1,000 + to place a suitable memorial to Miss Barton in the Red Cross + Building now being constructed in the city of Washington. + + That we express our profound sympathy with the women in the + countries now at war and our sense of the advance that has been + made in the cause of all women by the devotion, ability and + courage with which those women have risen to the new demands on + them. + + That we express our deep appreciation of the great honor the + President of the United States has done the women of the country + by coming to Atlantic City especially to address this convention. + +Rejoicing was expressed over the many victories during the year, the +endorsement by large organizations--the General Conference of the +Methodist Episcopal Church, the Anti-Saloon League, the Women's Relief +Corps and others; a plank for woman suffrage in all national party +platforms; a favorable declaration by all presidential candidates and +for the first time the sanction of the President of the United States. +The report of Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, chairman of the National +Congressional Committee, gave so complete an account of the situation +at the time the great "drive" for the Federal Amendment was begun that +it is largely reproduced. + + At the opening of the 64th Congress in December, 1915, several + political leaders interested in the progress of social and + economic legislation stated that 1916 would be a lean year in + Congress for such movements. It was pointed out that particularly + in the Senate some of the most reactionary men had been returned + at the preceding election. It is also a presidential election + year and neither of the great parties is willing to take one + unnecessary step which in its judgment may tend to add to the + number of its adversaries or to its vulnerable points in some + particular section of the country. All of the 435 members of the + House and one-third of the Senators come up for re-election in + November of this year--they, too, are shy and sensitive. Some + legislation, notably child labor after it had been endorsed by + the National Democratic platform, successfully ran the gauntlet + but not so our Federal Suffrage Amendment. It is with keen regret + your committee reports that it has not had action in either the + Senate or House of Representatives. + + In the Senate the resolution was introduced Dec. 7, 1915, by + Senators Sutherland, Thomas and Thompson of Kansas and referred + to the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage. This committee + reported favorably resolution No. 1, introduced by Senator + Sutherland. The written report made from the committee by Senator + Thomas is one of the best pieces of literature on the subject and + copies were mailed to every State president and State chairman of + congressional work. Since that early date our measure has been on + the calendar. It has come to the top a number of times but at the + request of suffrage Senators has been held until a more + auspicious hour. + + As the National Association was desirous of having a vote on the + measure at this session, your committee began to work to that end + immediately after receiving specific instructions from the Board + June 17, 1916. The meaning of the suffrage planks in the + Republican and Democratic platforms was disputed by some men in + both parties. The leaders stated that the planks were silent as + to the Federal Amendment and thus left men free to vote on the + amendment as each decided. In order to ascertain the + interpretation which would be given by members of Congress it was + determined to push for a vote in the Senate. On June 27 Mrs. + Catt, Miss Hannah J. Patterson, corresponding secretary of the + National Suffrage Association, Mrs. Antoinette Funk, + vice-chairman of the committee, Miss Hay and the chairman held an + informal conference with the Senators of the enfranchised States + in the office of Senator Shafroth to secure their assistance. As + unanimous consent is required for the consideration of such a + measure, the Senators agreed that if we would have the vote taken + without debate it would probably be possible, since this would + not consume the time of the Senate. We believed that this was + best in order to make sure of the vote. On July 22 Senator Thomas + wrote to every Senator asking whether he would consent to a vote + being taken without debate. He informed us that on both the + Republican and Democratic sides there were men who would not give + such consent, some stating that they had been asked by certain + suffragists of the other organization not to consent. After the + endorsement of the Federal Amendment by Judge Hughes, the + candidate for President, frequent remarks were made in the Senate + on it by members of both parties. Senator Clark (Republican) of + Wyoming and Senator Pittman (Democrat) of Nevada were among those + who urged action at this session but finally in August Senator + Thomas gave up the effort. + +The unfair treatment of the amendment resolution in the House +Judiciary Committee and its final suppression by Chairman Edwin Y. +Webb (N. C.) were described in full and the unsuccessful efforts, led +by Mrs. Catt, to obtain action on it. [See Chapter on Federal +Amendment.] The report continued: + + Federal Elections Bill: On December 6 Representative Raker + introduced at the request of the Federal Suffrage Association a + bill to protect the rights of women citizens of the United States + to register and vote for Senators and members of the House. The + bill was referred to the Committee on the Election of the + President, Vice-President and Representatives in Congress and has + not yet been reported out. On December 10 this same bill was + introduced by Senator Lane of Oregon, referred to the Committee + on Woman Suffrage and is still there. + + United States Elections Bill: The United States Elections Bill, + introduced by Senator Owen at the request of Miss Laura Clay on + February 3, aims also to secure to women the right to vote for + Senators and Representatives in Congress. Miss Clay says it is + simply a declaratory act; that it does not permit Congress to + specify qualifications of voters and therefore does not involve + the issue of State's rights. This bill was referred to the + Committee on Privileges and Elections, where it remains. Your + committee assisted the suffragists in the District of Columbia in + the effort for a bill enabling it to elect a delegate to the + Lower House.... + + * * * * * + + Planks:[105] For some time prior to June your committee used + every opportunity with Senators and Representatives to further + the work of securing suffrage planks in the Republican and + Democratic national platforms. Its chairman was put in charge of + drafting for submission to Mrs. Catt the planks which were to be + offered to the two conventions on behalf of the National + Association. Its members who went to Chicago and St. Louis + concentrated their efforts on the planks. The two demonstrations + of women planned and supervised by the National Board were the + culmination of the campaign on behalf of these planks. In + cooperation with your Congressional Committee, many State + delegations of women who came for the demonstrations did special + eleventh-hour work with the delegates to the conventions. + + Your committee regrets that the planks in the two dominant + national party platforms, since they mention method at all, do + not specifically endorse Federal action, but they will be of + great value in the States and progress there will help the + Federal work. Every man in Congress is keenly alive to the + strength of our movement in his district and State. For that + reason we urged the women of each State to secure planks in the + State platforms endorsing the principle of woman suffrage. As a + last resort, if they could not secure a separate plank in their + State platforms, we asked them to make sure that each State + convention endorsed its party's national platform, that the plank + might in this way have the equivalent of a State endorsement. + + With the final yielding of the two dominant parties to the + justice of woman suffrage all are now on record in favor of the + principle; all except the Republican and Democratic endorse the + Federal Amendment. Republicans have been strengthened in their + advocacy of Federal action by Judge Hughes' personal endorsement + of the amendment. Your committee must sound a note of warning + here against over-confidence. Some too zealous suffragists, + including one suffrage organ, state quite seriously, + notwithstanding the fact that their attention has been called to + their error, that "the Republican party has specifically declared + for the Federal Suffrage Amendment." Alas! it has done no such + thing. It has not done one bit more than the Democratic party. + The personal endorsement of the Republican candidate for + President can not properly be construed as party endorsement. + Those of us who have had some years of experience have witnessed + the worming and screwing, fallacy and treachery exhibited by + members of a party after their leading candidate has endorsed a + particular measure. We know that we can not hold the party + responsible for one man's utterances made after the platform had + been adopted by the party convention and accepted by the party + candidate. + + Committee: Mrs. Medill McCormick was unable to continue as + chairman of the Congressional Committee and the present chairman + was appointed by the National Board in January, 1916, immediately + went to Washington and lived there eight months, until the + opening of this convention. During the entire term of this + session of Congress this committee has had some representatives + on duty at the Washington headquarters every moment. The service + of each member has not been continuous but has varied from a week + to three months in length. In addition to the chairman, the + committee consisted of Mrs. Funk of Illinois; Miss Hay of New + York; Mrs. Jacobs of Alabama; Mrs. Cotnam of Arkansas; Mrs. C. S. + McClure of Michigan; Mrs. Valentine of Virginia; Miss Martha + Norris of Ohio; Mrs. Elizabeth Higgins Sullivan of Nebraska and + Miss Ruth White of Missouri. + + Mrs. Funk resigned March 14 to take up other work and in July + Miss White was appointed secretary and has done much special + work. Because of the amount of travel involved only two meetings + of the full committee have been held, on March 2 and September 4. + Every plan for congressional work has been submitted to the + National Board or to the national president for approval. + + Revision of Work: At the beginning of the present year the work + of the National Association was revised and departmentalized, the + organization branch was separated from the congressional work, + made a distinct department, placed under another head and + operated from the New York office. This division was advisable, + since each task is big enough by itself. The only disadvantage + resulted from the distance between the bases of operation of the + two departments--one of the paramount reasons for the removal of + all the headquarters to Washington.... The work of the committee + in 1916 consisted of the supervision and direction of all + activity connected with the Federal Amendment, including lobby + work at the Capitol; the stimulating of congressional activity in + the States; the cataloguing of information concerning Senators + and Representatives; the assembling and filing of all information + specifically relating to the Federal Amendment in Congress and in + the States; the issuing of newspaper articles; the handling of + the large correspondence. + + Headquarters: The chairman had been on duty only a short time + when the necessity for removing national headquarters to + Washington was deeply impressed upon her--so deeply that she made + a special trip to New York to labor with the national officers + there to this end but was unsuccessful. The headquarters of the + Congressional Committee at the opening of this session consisted + of two rooms in the Munsey Building at Washington too diminutive + to hold even our furniture, to say nothing of our workers. On + February 19 it moved to two larger rooms in the same building. + +A summary of the correspondence, etc., was given and the report said +of the lobby work: + + All the direct work with Senators and Congressmen is a time as + well as brain consuming process. Usually it means tramping up and + down the long stone corridors, hour after hour, in order to find + one man in his office. Then he may be having a committee meeting + or a previous engagement or emergency business and you are + invited to come some other day. Perhaps you have waited an hour + before you are sure that he can not see you. It is not uncommon + for the members of our lobby to state that they have made as many + as six, eight or ten calls before they succeeded in reaching a + man. Speaking from my own knowledge, I have wasted hours at the + Capitol trying to see men who would not make appointments. I have + called eighteen times to see one man and have not seen him yet! + He is the Representative from my own district. We carried the + district for suffrage in Pennsylvania last year but I am told + that he does not want to vote for the Federal Amendment. It is, + of course, possible to interview members by calling them out of + the session but this method is uncertain and not very successful, + since they feel hurried and interviews in a public reception room + are seldom satisfactory. + + The latest piece of work done by the committee is the + interviewing by letter of all congressional candidates who will + stand for election in November. This has been done in cooperation + with the State associations which have been urged to institute + vigorous interviewing in the congressional districts. + + Presidential Interviewing: The presidential candidates of the two + parties whose platforms do not endorse the Federal Amendment have + been interviewed in person. On July 17 Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw and + Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, president of the New York suffrage + association, called on Judge Hughes in New York and had a long + and satisfactory conversation. He told them that in his speech of + acceptance he could not endorse the Federal Amendment because + this was the accepting of the party's nomination and of its + platform, which had not mentioned it. He said, however, that he + believed in it and that soon after his speech of acceptance he + would announce his personal advocacy of the amendment. He asked + them to hold this information in confidence, which of course they + did. His public statement of August 1 was therefore no surprise + to them but was nevertheless most gratifying. + + On August 1 Mrs. Catt and your chairman called on President + Wilson in Washington. He reiterated his belief that woman + suffrage should come by State action. We presented the arguments + in behalf of the Federal Amendment but he remained unconvinced. + He is a fair and openminded man and your representatives have by + no means given up hope of proving to him the justice and + advisability of the amendment. + + Conferences: At the last national convention a special committee + recommended that the Board of Officers should consider the + suggestion of conferences between the Congressional Committee of + the National Association and the Legislative Committee of the + Congressional Union, with a view to securing more united action + in the lobby work in Washington. Nine such conferences were + held--one in January, three in February, three in March, one in + June, one in July. Your chairman was present at each and Miss + Anne Martin, representing the Union, was present at each. At some + of them each organization had additional representatives. Mrs. + Catt attended two and our corresponding secretary, Miss + Patterson, attended one. The subject was the time at which action + on the Federal Amendment should be secured in both branches of + Congress. When on July 20 it was found that the National + Committee wished to obtain a vote in the Senate before + adjournment and the Congressional Union wished to postpone it the + conferences came to an end. It is the unanimous judgment of your + committee that they were of no value to the work on the + amendment. + + General: The congressional work done in Washington this year by + the National Association has not been spectacular. Your committee + had not been on duty long before they realized that many members + had been irritated by the too-frequent calls of suffragists and + by the inconsiderate demands on their time. As our last national + convention was held at the opening session of this Congress, + delegations of suffragists used the opportunity to call on their + Senators and Representatives. Considering the strain of work of + Congress during the past months and the fact that the men had + already been interviewed by State delegations or representatives, + we did not encourage further visits to the Capitol. In Washington + such visits, like pageants and other spectacular forms of + activity, have been overdone. There was nothing to be gained and + probably something to be lost by them. + + Your committee wishes to express its appreciation of the + cooperation of many Senators and members of the House. Our + friends have often gone out of their way to assist us and not + once has any one refused a request for help. They have made + speeches on the floor at our suggestion, taken polls for us, held + conferences, arranged interviews, provided us with documents and + extended all the official courtesies within their power. While we + have not secured action we are not discouraged in the least. Even + the most radical opponents acknowledge that our movement has + grown tremendously this year. We have achieved recognition of the + justice of our principle by the political parties and we have + with us in our Federal fight the great majority of the leaders of + thought and action who believe in suffrage at all. By a + continuation of sane methods, sound tactics, coordination and + concentration we shall soon accomplish the submission of the + Federal Amendment. + + Your chairman becomes more convinced each day that one of the + next steps necessary to nationalize our work and to secure + Federal action is the removal of the national headquarters to + Washington. She feels it to be her clear duty frankly to state + to the convention her conviction on this point. It is her + judgment, based upon her own observation this year and a study of + the past work on the Federal Amendment, that it will not pass + until the national headquarters are in Washington and the + National Board as well as the Congressional Committee is in a + position to gives its direct attention to the work on this + amendment. + + A lobby in Washington for special educational purposes may be a + good thing but you will have to do special educational and + political work in the States if your committee is to achieve + political action to the point of a two-thirds vote on the + amendment. We appreciate that support has been given to it by + many suffragists and a number of State chairmen and presidents + but there has not been the intensive, persistent, determined + congressional activity in the States which there must be before + the amendment can be passed and ratified. Your committee has done + its utmost, I believe, but it can no more put the Federal + Amendment through Congress without your activity in the States + than a State committee can achieve success without activity in + the counties. Activity on the part of a small number of local + Washington suffragists is not a sufficient backing for the work + of the Congressional Committee. If you propose to secure the + Federal Amendment you must work just as hard in the States as you + expect it to work in Washington. Without a doubt we can secure + the Federal Amendment if the women of this country + enthusiastically want their enfranchisement that way.... + + The friendliness of members of Congress toward the National + Association and their continued respect for the suffrage movement + in this country have been maintained by the dignity, poise and + ability of the national lobby. In the many years of my connection + with various kinds of organizations I have never served any in + which there was more frankness, unity and good fellowship than in + the National Board and the National Congressional Committee. That + such harmony exists is due to our great president, to whom each + is more indebted than all of us together can express. Her visits + to Washington did for us what nothing and no one else could do. + It was my duty and pleasure always to accompany her to the + Capitol, and the unfailing impression of nobility, directness and + power which she left upon the men was a joy to witness. + + I can not close this report without acknowledging my personal + debt to that co-officer who is not on our committee, Miss Hannah + J. Patterson. It is but fair to say that had we not had her + assistance at hazardous moments the suffrage planks would not be + in the two national platforms today. Food, sleep, rest, pleasure, + all were day after day given up by this most self-sacrificing + officer. She it was who kept with one other [Mrs. Roessing] the + lonely vigil the night of June 6 at the door of the Republican + Resolutions Committee while it debated for hours its + sub-committee's adverse report on the suffrage plank. The crisis + in our work for both the planks came in this sub-committee of + seven, for we knew that if we lost in Chicago there would be no + hope in St. Louis. At midnight that all-powerful sub-committee by + a vote of 5 to 4 turned down our plank and refused to permit + suffrage to be mentioned in the platform in any way. That + committee has seldom been reversed in all the history of the + party. When later Senator Borah, also sleepless and hungry, came + to us in one of those agonizing moments when decision must be + made at once, when we could not reach our president or our board, + it was Miss Patterson who made the decision that won the + plank.[106] + +A comprehensive plan of work was adopted with the following principal +features: + + Federal Work: The National Board shall continue a lobby in + Washington until the Federal Amendment shall be submitted; the + matter of removing headquarters to Washington shall be left to + the judgment of the Board; it shall conduct a nation-wide + campaign of agitation, education, organization and publicity in + support of the amendment, which shall include the following: a + million-dollar fund for the campaign from Oct. 1, 1916, to Oct. + 1, 1917; a monthly propaganda demonstration simultaneously + conducted throughout the nation; at least four campaign directors + and 200 organizers in the field and a vigorous, thorough + organization in every State; a nationalized scheme for education + through literature; national suffrage schools; a speakers' + bureau; innumerable activities for agitation and publicity; a + national press bureau and a national publicity council with + departments in each State; a national committee to extend + suffrage propaganda among non-English-speaking races. + + State Work: A Council of the representatives of States shall meet + in executive session in connection with each annual national + convention to hear reports as to the status of each campaign + State and to fix upon States which shall be recommended to go + forward with campaigns. + + No State association shall ask the Legislature for the submission + of a State constitutional amendment or for the submission of the + question by initiative or by a referred law until such Council or + the National Board has had the opportunity to investigate + conditions and to give consent. + + Any State which proceeds to a referendum campaign without + securing this consent shall be prepared to finance its own + campaign without help from the National Board. + + Any State which has secured the consent of the National Board to + proceed with a campaign shall have its cooperation to the fullest + extent of its powers. + + As soon as possible experienced campaign managers shall be + trained for the work and shall be supplied to a campaign State to + work under the direction of the National Board in cooperation + with the State board. + + States willing to contribute to campaigns in other States should + do so by the advice of the National Board, who should be informed + as to conditions, and the money so contributed should be passed + through the national treasury. + + The rule that the National Board shall do nothing in States + without the consent of the State shall be repealed. + + The organization, press work, literature distributed and general + activity of the States shall be standardized and regular reports + on all of these departments shall be made to the National Board + in order that advice and help may be rendered when most needed. + + This Board shall have the authority to nationalize the suffrage + movement by unifying the work as far as is possible. + + Any States not desiring to work for the Federal Amendment may + remain members of the National Association provided they do not + work actively against it. + +Dr. Shaw presided over the last evening session of the convention and +three of the strongest speeches during the convention were made by the +Hon. Herbert Parsons, New York member of the Republican National +Committee; Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston (Me.), Superintendent of +Franchise of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and +Raymond Robins, a national leader of progressive thought. The +convention ended with a mass meeting Sunday afternoon in the New Nixon +Theater with Mrs. Catt presiding. Rabbi Henry M. Fisher of Atlantic +City gave the invocation and inspiring addresses were made by Mrs. +David F. Simpson (Minn.) and the Rev. Effie McCollum Jones (Ia.). Dr. +Shaw closed her address with a beautiful delineation of Americanism, +saying at its close: + + What is Americanism? Every one has a different answer. Some + people say it is never to submit to the dictation of a King. + Others say Americanism is the pride of liberty and the defence of + an insult to the flag with their gore. When some half-developed + person tramples on that flag, we should be ready to pour out the + blood of the nation, they say. But do we not sit in silence when + that flag waves over living conditions which should be an insult + to all patriotism? Why do we care more about our flag than any + other flag? Why, when we have been travelling and seeing others, + does the sight of the American flag bring tears to our eyes and + warmth to our hearts? Is it not because it is a symbol of the + hopes and aspirations of the men and women of the whole world? + They say Americanism is the love of liberty, but men died for + that and women gave their lives for it thousands of years before + America was known. Others say it is the love of justice but the + whole world is filled with that, no one country loves it more + than another. Human love, sacrifice and sympathy have been + manifested in the history of the world since the beginning of + time. The American sees in Americanism just what he wants to see. + He looks over the world and finds every good thing and calls it + his own--justice, liberty, humanity, patriotism. It is not + Americanism but humanism. There is only one thing we can claim in + higher degree than the other nations--opportunity is the word + which means true Americanism. + + The anti-suffragists have said that when women have the vote they + will have less time for charity and philanthropy. They are + right--when we have the vote there will be less need for charity + and philanthropy. The highest ideal of a republic is not a long + bread line nor a soup kitchen but such opportunity that the + people can buy their own bread and make their own soup. + Opportunity must be for all, men and women alike, and the peoples + of every nationality. Americanism does not mean militarism. The + greatest need of Americans is not military preparedness nor + changed economic conditions but a baptism of the spirit, higher + religious ideals, deeper tolerance and sympathy. The human heart + must be in accord with the Divine heart if America is to mean + more than other countries, and, if we are to be what our mothers + and fathers aspired to be, we must all be a part of the + Government. + +At 5 o'clock Mrs. Catt spoke the closing words and declared the +convention adjourned. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[104] Call: Our cause has been endorsed in the platforms of every +political party. In order to determine how most expeditiously to press +these newly won advantages to final victory this convention is called. +Women workers in every rank of life and in every branch of service in +increasing numbers are appealing for relief from the political +handicap of disfranchisement.... Unmistakably the crisis of our +movement has been reached. A significant and startling fact is urging +American women to increased activity in their campaign for the vote. +Across our borders three large Canadian provinces have granted +universal suffrage to their women within the year. In every thinking +American woman's mind the question is revolving: Had our forefathers +tolerated the oppressions of autocratic George the Third and remained +under the British flag would the women of the United States today, +like their Canadian sisters, have found their political emancipation +under the more democratic George the Fifth? American men are neither +lacking in national pride nor approval of democracy and must in +support of their convictions hasten the enfranchisement of women. To +plan for the final steps which will lead to the inevitable +establishment of nation-wide suffrage for the women of our land is the +specific purpose of the Atlantic City Convention. + + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Honorary President. + CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President. + JENNIE BRADLEY ROESSING, First Vice-President. + KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, Second Vice-President. + ESTHER G. OGDEN, Third Vice-President. + HANNAH J. PATTERSON, Corresponding Secretary. + MARY FOULKE MORRISON, Recording Secretary. + EMMA WINNER ROGERS, Treasurer. + HELEN GUTHRIE MILLER, } + PATTIE RUFFNER JACOBS, } Auditors. + +[105] On June 1, a short time before the meeting of Republican and +Democratic National Conventions, twenty-nine members of the Lower +House of Congress from States where women vote, who wished the +conventions to put woman suffrage in their platforms, had a hearing +before the House Judiciary Committee. The Representatives, both +Democratic and Republican, who made brief arguments for the Federal +Amendment were: Ariz., Carl Hayden; Cal., Denver S. Church, Charles H. +Randall, William Kettner, John E. Raker; Colo., Benjamin C. Hilliard, +Edward Keating, Edward T. Taylor; Ills., James T. McDermott, Adolph J. +Sabath, James McAndrews, Frank H. Buchanan, Thomas Gallagher, Clyde H. +Tavenner, Claudius U. Stone, Henry T. Rainey, Martin D. Foster, +William Elza Williams (a member of the Judiciary Committee); Kans., +Joseph Taggart (also a member), Dudley Doolittle, Guy T. Helvering, +John R. Connelly, Jouett Shouse, William A. Ayres; Mont., John M. +Evans, Tom Stout; Utah, James H. Mays; Wash., C. C. Dill. + +Judge Raker acted as chairman and the remarkably strong presentation +called out many questions from the anti-suffrage members of the +Judiciary Committee. + +[106] Senator Borah told them that the plank the National Suffrage +Board had submitted, endorsing a Federal Amendment, was absolutely +impossible but one could be obtained declaring for woman suffrage by +State action. They accepted it, which was a wise thing to do, as had +the Republican platform not favored woman suffrage _per se_ the +Democratic platform, adopted the following week, would not have done +so. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1917. + + +The Forty-ninth National Suffrage Convention, which met in Poli's +Theater at Washington Dec. 12-15, 1917, was held under the most +difficult conditions that ever had been faced in the long history of +these annual gatherings. Always heretofore they had been comfortable, +happy times, when the delegates came from far and wide to exchange +greetings, report progress and plan the future work for a cause to +which many of them were giving their entire time and effort. Now great +changes had taken place, as the Call for the convention indicated. + + Since last we met the all-engulfing World War has drawn our own + country into its maelstrom and ominous clouds rest over the + earth, obscuring the vision and oppressing the souls of mankind, + yet out of the confusion and chaos of strife there has developed + a stronger promise of the triumph of democracy than the world has + ever known. Every allied nation has announced that it is fighting + for this and our own President has declared that "we are fighting + for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to + have a voice in their own government." New Russia has answered + the call; Great Britain has pledged full suffrage for women and + the measure has already passed the House of Commons by the + enormous majority of seven to one. Canada, too, has responded + with five newly enfranchised provinces; France is waiting only to + drive the foe from her soil to give her women political liberty. + + Such an array of victories gives us faith to believe that our own + Government will soon follow the example of other allied nations + and will also pledge votes to its women citizens as an earnest of + its sincerity that in truth we do fight for democracy. This is + our first national convention since our country entered the war. + We are faced with new problems and new issues and the nation is + realizing its dependence upon women as never before. It must be + made to realize also that, willingly as women are now serving, + they can serve still more efficiently when they shall have + received the full measure of citizenship. These facts must be + urged upon Congress and our Government must be convinced that the + time has come for the enfranchisement of women by means of an + amendment to the Federal Constitution. + + Men and women who believe that the great question of world + democracy includes government of the people, by the people and + for the people in our country, are invited to attend our + convention and counsel with us on ways and means to attain this + object at the earliest possible moment.[107] + +On account of the large rush of soldiers to the eastern coast and the +many other problems of transportation travelling had become very hard +and expensive but so greatly had the interest in suffrage increased +among women that nearly 600 delegates were present, the highest number +that had ever attended one of the conventions. They came through +weather below zero, snowstorms and washouts; trains from the far West +were thirty-six hours late; delegates from the South were in two +railroad wrecks. It was one of the coldest Decembers ever known and +the eastern part of the country had never before faced such a coal +famine, from various reasons. Washington was inundated with people, +the vast number who had suddenly been called into the service of the +Government, the soldiers and the members of their families who had +come to be with them to the last, and this city of only a few hundred +thousand inhabitants had neither sleeping nor eating accommodations +for all of them. The suffrage convention had been called before these +conditions were fully known and because of the necessity of bringing +pressure at once on Congress. The national suffrage headquarters were +now occupying a large private house and the officers were cared for +there but the delegates were obliged to scatter over the city wherever +they could find shelter, were always cold and some of the time not far +from hungry and prices were double what was expected. Notwithstanding +all these drawbacks the convention program was carried out and a large +amount of valuable work accomplished, tried and loyal suffragists +being accustomed to hardships and self-sacrifice. + +The victory in New York State the preceding month had marked the +beginning of the end and the universal enfranchisement of women seemed +almost in sight. Even the intense excitement of the war had not +entirely overshadowed what had now became a national issue. Under the +auspices of Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, resident in Washington, an +Advisory Council was formed to act in an honorary capacity and extend +official recognition to the convention, Senators, Representatives, +Cabinet officers, Judges, clergymen and others prominent in the life +of the capital, with their wives and other women of their family, +cheerfully giving their names for this purpose.[108] + +The evening before the convention opened a reception by invitation was +given in the ball room of the New Willard Hotel to Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt +and the other officers and the delegates, the following acting as +hostesses: Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo, Mrs. Newton D. Baker, Mrs. +Thomas W. Gregory, Mrs. Albert Sidney Burleson, Mrs. Josephus Daniels, +Mrs. Franklin K. Lane, Mrs. David F. Houston, Miss Agnes Hart Wilson, +Mrs. James R. Mann, Mrs. Philip Pitt Campbell. The first seven were +the wives and the eighth the daughter of the members of President +Wilson's Cabinet, only Mrs. Robert Lansing being absent, who, like her +husband, was an anti-suffragist. The last two were the wives of +prominent Representatives from Illinois and Kansas. Because of the war +the other social festivities that were usually so delightful a +feature of these annual meetings were omitted. Before the convention +opened Mrs. Gifford Pinchot, whose home was directly across from +"suffrage house," the national headquarters, entertained the officers +at luncheon. + +The hearings before the committees of Congress which generally took +place during the convention, had been held in the spring at an extra +session and therefore Mrs. Catt had planned an effective ceremony for +this occasion at the Senate office building, the senior Senator from +each State where women were without a vote being requested to invite +to his office the congressional delegation from the State to receive +its women who were in attendance at the convention. There were thirty +of these gatherings and in many instances all the delegation were +present. Senators Penrose and Knox refused to call the Pennsylvania +members together. It is impossible to go into details but most of the +interviews were satisfactory, the women asking solely for votes in +favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, and it was said that +thirty-five were won for it. From fifty to one hundred women were in +many of the groups. To the Missouri delegation, headed by Mrs. Walter +McNab Miller, vice-president of the National Association, Speaker of +the House Champ Clark said: "If my vote is necessary to pass the +amendment I will cast it in favor," and the delegation was solid for +it except Representative Jacob E. Meeker. Senator Warren G. Harding +received the Ohio women, led by Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, State +president, and Mrs. Baker, wife of the Secretary of War, and later, he +voted for the amendment. A hundred women called on the Virginia +members and fifty on those of Alabama, without effect, but many of the +large groups of southern women did receive much encouragement from the +members from their States. President Wilson himself gave an audience +to the Arkansas women, whose Legislature had recently granted full +Primary suffrage and whose entire congressional delegation would vote +for the Federal Amendment. This was found to be the case in nearly all +of the northern and western States. + +Forty-four States had sent delegates to the convention and from the +equal suffrage States of Montana and Wyoming came Mrs. Margaret +Hathaway and Mrs. Mary G. Bellamy, members of the Legislature; from +Colorado, Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, State Superintendent of Public +Instruction; from New Mexico, Mrs. W. E. Lindsay, wife of the +Governor, and from Kansas, Mrs. W. Y. Morgan, wife of the Lieutenant +Governor. Fraternal delegates were present from four countries. The +convention was opened Wednesday afternoon, December 12, with an +invocation by the honorary president of the association, the Rev. Anna +Howard Shaw. In her brief words of greeting Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, +the president, who was in the chair, declared her firm conviction that +the American Congress would not allow this country to be outstripped +in the race toward the enfranchisement of women while the countries of +Europe were hastening to give woman suffrage as a part of that right +to self-government for which the world is fighting today, and said: +"For fifty years we have been allaying fears, meeting objections, +arguing, educating, until today there remain no fears, no objections +in connection with the question of woman suffrage that have not been +met and answered. The New York campaign may be said to have closed the +case. It carried the question forever out of the stage of argument and +into the stage of final surrender. As the women of the country +foregather for this convention nothing stands out more emphatically +than the new stress that has been laid on suffrage as a political +issue in the minds of women as in the minds of men. As such the +Federal Amendment must now be dealt with by Congress." + +Mrs. Catt emphasized the necessity for active war work and introduced +Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, vice-president of the New York Suffrage +Association, who presented the "service flag" and said: "The National +American Suffrage Association's service flag, here unfurled--a field +of white with golden stars surrounded by a deep blue border--shows +thirteen stars for its first thirteen women serving at the front. +These stars represent women who have been connected with the +association or one of its State affiliations in official or +representative capacity. The total of suffragists in foreign service +numbers thousands."[109] The president accepted the flag on behalf of +the convention. Miss Hannah J. Patterson, an officer of the +Pennsylvania Association, presented the following resolution: + + Whereas, The Executive Council of the National American Woman + Suffrage Association, assembled in executive session last + February, pledged the loyalty of the organization to the country + in event of war and forthwith placed a plan of intensive service + at the Government's command in view of the impending peril, and + + Whereas, America since then has entered into the dread actuality + of war and is in greater need of woman's loyal service than our + readiest anticipation could visualize last February, and + + Whereas, The suffragists of this organization are already in + compact formation as a second line of defense for husbands, sons, + fathers and brothers "somewhere in France," therefore, be it + + Resolved, That we, delegates to the Forty-ninth annual convention + of the association, representing a membership of over 2,000,000 + women, reaffirm this organization's unswerving loyalty to the + Government in this crisis, and, while struggling to secure the + right of self-government to the women of America, pledge anew our + intention gladly and zealously to continue those services of + which the Government has so freely availed itself in its war to + secure the right of self-government to the people of the world. + +On request of Dr. Shaw a rising vote was taken and the resolution was +adopted with no dissenting vote. + +The first evening meeting was devoted to the great victory in New +York, where an amendment to the State constitution giving full +suffrage to women had been carried at the November election by a +majority of 102,353. The following program was given in the presence +of a large and very enthusiastic audience, Mrs. Catt presiding: + + Addresses: Mrs. Ella Crossett, former president New York State + Woman Suffrage Association, 1902-1910. Miss Harriet May Mills, + former president, 1910-1913. + + Organization in New York State--Mrs. Raymond Brown, chairman. + Campaign district chairman, Mrs. F. J. Tone. Rural assembly + district leader, Mrs. Willis G. Mitchell. Election district + captain, Mrs. Frederick Edey. + + From the Organization to the Voter--Mrs. Laidlaw. + + Organization and Campaign Work in New York City--Miss Mary + Garrett Hay, chairman. Assembly district leader, Mrs. Charles L. + Tiffany. Election district captain, Mrs. Seymour Barrett. + + State Departmental Work: Teachers--Miss Katharine D. Blake, + chairman. Industrial: Miss Rose Schneiderman, proxy for chairman. + + Speakers in War Time--Mrs. Victor Morawetz, chairman of speakers' + bureau. + + Financing a State Campaign--Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, treasurer. + + Winning New York--Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, State president. + +The many phases of this remarkable campaign, which won the State of +largest population and opened the way to certain victory in Congress, +were presented in a most interesting manner. In speaking of the big +city where the fight was actually won, Miss Hay, chairman of the +committee, said: "We won, first, because of a continuous campaign in +New York City begun eight years ago. On election day in 1915, about +midnight, when we knew the amendment had not carried, we decided to +have another campaign and began it the next day. Second, we won +because of organization along district political lines. No State +should ever go into a campaign unless the women are willing to +organize in this way and stick to it. It was not the five borough +leaders but the 2,080 precinct captains who carried the city. The +campaign represented an immense amount of work in many fields. There +were 11,085 meetings reported to the State officers and many that were +never reported. Women of all classes labored together. 'If you want to +reach the working men,' said Rose Schneiderman, 'remember that it is +the working women who can reach them.' The campaign cost $682,500. +This sum, which lasted for two years and covered the whole State, was +less than half the amount spent in three months in New York City that +year to elect a Mayor. The largest individual gift to the New York +City campaign was $10,000 from Mrs. Dorothy Whitney Straight. Most of +the money was given in small sums and represented innumerable +sacrifices." + +The story of the campaign in Maine the preceding September was told by +the chairman of the campaign committee, Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston, +the next afternoon, and the reasons given for its almost inevitable +failure. [See Maine chapter.] A lively discussion took place on the +advisability of campaigns for Presidential suffrage and Mrs. Catt gave +the opinion that its legality when granted by a Legislature was +unquestioned but if by a referendum to the voters it would be +doubtful. The war work undertaken by the association was thoroughly +considered, with a general review of Women's War Service by Mrs. +Katharine Dexter McCormick, second vice-president. She sketched +briefly the appointment of a woman's branch of the Council of National +Defense and pointed out how the choice of Dr. Shaw for chairman had +brought the suffragists into even closer cooperation with the +Government if possible than would have resulted from their intense +patriotism.[110] Reports were made by the chairmen of the +association's four committees, as follows: Food Production--Mrs. Henry +Wade Rogers; Thrift--Mrs. Walter McNab Miller; Americanization--Mrs. +Frederick P. Bagley; Industrial Protection of Women--Miss Ethel M. +Smith. A Child Welfare Committee was added to the list. + +Dr. Shaw presided at the evening session of the second day of the +convention and to this and other programs Mrs. Newton D. Baker +contributed her beautiful voice, with Mrs. Morgan Lewis Brett at the +piano. Mrs. Charles W. Fairfax and Paul Bleyden also sang most +acceptably and there was music by the Meyer-Davis orchestra. This +evening the speakers were the Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the +Interior; the Hon. Jeannette Rankin, first woman member of the +National House of Representatives, and Mrs. Catt, who gave her +president's address. The presence of Secretary Lane added much +prestige as well as political significance to the program, for it was +interpreted as an indication that President Wilson had advanced from a +belief in woman suffrage itself to an advocacy of the Federal +Amendment, which was the keynote of the convention. "I come to you +tonight," the Secretary said, "to bring a word of congratulation and +good will from the first man in the nation. Dr. Shaw spoke of always +being proud when she had some man back of her who could give +respectability to the cause. What greater honor can there be, what +greater pride can you feel, than in having behind you the man who is +not alone the President of the United States but also the foremost +leader of liberal thought throughout the world? It is to have with you +the conscience, the mind and the spirit of today and tomorrow." He +spoke of his own strong belief in the enfranchisement of women and the +necessity of establishing for every one an individuality entirely her +own, socially and politically. Only scattered newspaper references to +this strong speech are available. + +Especial interest was felt in the address of the young member of +Congress, Miss Jeannette Rankin. In speaking of the bill which she had +recently introduced to enable women to retain their nationality after +marriage she said: "We, who stand tonight so near victory after a +majestic struggle of seventy long years, must not forget that there +are other steps besides suffrage necessary to complete the political +enfranchisement of American women. We must not forget that the +self-respect of the American woman will not be redeemed until she is +regarded as a distinct and social entity, unhampered by the political +status of her husband or her father but with a status peculiarly her +own and accruing to her as an American citizen. She must be bound to +American obligations not through her husband's citizenship but +directly through her own." + +Mrs. Catt's address had been announced as a Message to Congress and +was eagerly anticipated. Miss Rose Young, the enthusiastic editor of +_The Woman Citizen_, gave this vivid pen picture of the occasion: + + When Mrs. Catt rose, the house rose with her. It was a crowded + house and everybody was aware that the message in Mrs. Catt's + hand was the vital message of the convention. Everybody wondered + what would be its main focus. Nobody quite understood why an + address to Congress should be delivered at a mass meeting. The + latter point the speaker quickly cleared up. Once before in + suffrage history, she said, there had been an address to + Congress. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had made + it. At this moment she was but doing over what they had done a + half-century ago. She would deliver her address to Congress from + that platform to that audience and leave it to the printed page + to carry the message on into the sacred halls themselves. + + Then, with Senate and House visualized by the directness of her + appeal to them and by the sharp limning of her argument, she + pleaded for democracy, arraigned the obstructionists of the + Federal Suffrage Amendment, showed up the harsh inconsistencies, + the waste of time and energy and money asked of women in State + referenda, clarified the reasons for establishing suffrage by the + Federal route and brought the whole case into high relief by + resting the responsibility where it belongs--on the Congress of + the United States. + + The speaker, never ornate in rhetoric or delivery, seemed to + withdraw her personality utterly, so that there was left only the + mental and spiritual content of her message. To hear her was like + listening to abstract thought, warmed by the fire of abstract + conviction. To see her was like looking at sheer marble, + flame-lit. Many an orator sways an audience's mind by emotional + appeal. Hers was the crowning achievement to sway an audience to + emotion by the symmetry and force of her appeal to its mind. + Again and again salvos of applause stopped her for a moment but + again and again the steady rhythm of her strong voice regained + control. At the end her grip on attention was so acute that a + little hush followed the last word. + +The address consumed an hour and a half in delivery and made a +pamphlet of twenty-two pages when published. Up to the time the +Federal Amendment was ratified it was a part of the standard +literature of the National Association and thousands of copies were +circulated.[111] Among the subheads were these: The History of our +Country and the Theory of our Government; the Leadership of the United +States in World Democracy compels the Enfranchisement of its Own +Women; Three Reasons for the Federal Method; Three Objections +Answered. It was an absolutely conclusive argument and closed with a +ringing appeal for "the submission and ratification of the Federal +Suffrage Amendment in order that this nation may at the earliest +possible moment show to all the nations of the earth that its action +is consistent with its principles." Dr. Shaw, who never could forego a +little joke, had said in introducing Mrs. Catt: "I had long thought I +should be willing to die as soon as suffrage was won in New York; that +I never should be interested in politics or the making of tickets, +but five minutes after the midnight of November 6 I had picked my +ticket and now I don't want to die until it is elected." Here she +stopped and presented the speaker. After Mrs. Catt had finished Dr. +Shaw rose and looking at her with twinkling eyes said to the delighted +audience: "The head of my ticket!" + +The mornings of the convention were devoted to routine business and to +the reports of the presidents of the States, most of whom were +present, and almost without exception they told of active work and a +great advance in public sentiment. It was such a time of rejoicing and +hopefulness as suffragists had never known. The chief and universal +interest, however, was centered in the action of Congress, as this had +always been the goal and it now seemed near at hand. Therefore the +report of the Congressional Committee, made through its chairman, Mrs. +Maud Wood Park, was heard with close attention. The outline presented +was as follows: + + The duties of the present chairman began March 17, 1917, four + days before President Wilson called an extra session of Congress + to meet on April 2, a significant step toward the entrance of the + United States into the World War. Thus our work started at a time + of supreme importance in the history of our country and under + conditions full of new possibilities for the cause of woman + suffrage. + + Mrs. Catt, keenly alive to the crisis in our national affairs, + foresaw that our people, with their idealism fired by thought of + increased freedom for the oppressed subjects of autocratic + governments, might be aroused to new consciousness of the flaw in + our own democracy. With this thought in mind, on the eve of the + opening of the extraordinary session, she sent out a summons to + the suffragists of the whole country to unite in a stupendous + appeal to Congress for the immediate submission of the Federal + Amendment. + + The opening of the Sixty-fifth Congress was marked by another + circumstance of unusual interest, the seating of the first woman + member, the Hon. Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who made a speech + from the balcony of our headquarters on the morning of April 2 + and was then escorted to the Capitol by Mrs. Catt and other + members of our association in a cavalcade of decorated motor + cars. The day which opened so happily for suffragists ended with + the President's message to Congress asking for the Declaration of + War. + + In the Senate the resolution for our amendment was introduced in + behalf of our association by Senator Andrieus A. Jones of New + Mexico, the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Woman + Suffrage, the other members of which were Senators Owen of + Oklahoma; Ransdell of Louisiana; Hollis of New Hampshire; + Johnson of South Dakota; Jones of Washington; Nelson of + Minnesota; Cummins of Iowa and Johnson of California. Chairman + Jones, at our request, had secured the privilege of having his + resolution made number one on the calendar, but when it was + decided that the war resolution should be introduced immediately, + he tactfully yielded his place. Similar suffrage resolutions were + introduced by Senators Shafroth, Owen, Poindexter and Thompson. + + In the House our resolution was introduced by Representative + Raker, on the Democratic side, and by Representative Rankin, on + the Republican side. Similar ones were introduced by + Representatives Mondell, Keating, Hayden and Taylor. + + The War Resolution was adopted by the Senate April 4 and by the + House April 5. A few days later the Finance Committee of the + Senate informally recommended and leaders of both parties agreed + that only legislation included in the war program should be + considered during the extra session. The Democratic caucus of the + House passed a similar recommendation, which was acquiesced in by + the Republicans. It soon became clear to your committee that the + suffrage resolution would not be admitted under this rule, and a + total revision of plans had to be made. Three meetings were held + and it was the opinion of all that the aim should be to establish + and maintain friendly relations with both parties rather than to + arouse the antagonism of leaders whose support we must have if + our measure is to succeed, so it was recommended and the National + Board voted that our "drive" should be postponed until there was + a possibility of securing a vote on the Federal Amendment. + Happily, however, there were forms of work not prohibited by the + legislative program. + + The Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage gave a hearing to our + association April 20 ... and on September 15, Chairman Jones made + a favorable report. The measure is now on the calendar of the + Senate. In the House, resolutions calling for the creation of a + Committee on Woman Suffrage had been introduced at the beginning + of the session by Representatives Raker, Keating and Hayden and + referred to the Committee on Rules. + + Our first step was to get the approval of Speaker Clark, who gave + us cordial support. Later, to offset the fear on the part of + certain members of conflicting with President Wilson's + legislative program, a letter was sent, at Mrs. Helen H. + Gardener's request, to Chairman Edward Pou (N. C.), of the Rules + Committee, by the President himself, who stated that he thought + the creation of the committee "would be a very wise act of public + policy and also an act of fairness to the best women who are + engaged in the cause of woman suffrage." Then, through the + efforts of a working committee made up of the six members who had + introduced suffrage resolutions, a petition asking for the + creation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage, as called for in the + Raker resolution, was signed by all members from equal suffrage + States and by many of those from Presidential suffrage States and + from Primary suffrage Arkansas. This petition was presented to + the Rules Committee, which on May 18 granted a hearing on the + subject. On June 6, by a vote of 6 to 5, on motion of Mr. + Cantrill of Kentucky, a resolution calling for the creation of a + Committee on Woman Suffrage to consist of thirteen members, to + which all proposed action touching the subject should be + referred, was adopted, with an amendment, made by Mr. Lenroot of + Wisconsin, to the effect that the resolution should not be + reported to the House until the pending war legislation was out + of the way. + + The report of the Rules Committee, therefore, was not brought + into the House until September 24, when the extremely active + opposition of Chairman Edwin Y. Webb (N. C.) and most of the + other members of the Judiciary Committee made a hard fight + inevitable. Thanks to the hearty support of Speaker Clark, the + good management of Chairman Pou and the help of loyal friends of + both parties in the House, as well as to the admirable work done + by our own State congressional chairmen, the report was adopted + by a vote of 180 yeas to 107 noes, with 3 answering present and + 142 not voting. Of the favorable votes, 82 were from Democrats + and 96 from Republicans. Of the unfavorable votes, 74 were from + Democrats and 32 from Republicans. Of those not voting, 59 were + Democrats and 81 were Republicans. These facts show that the + measure was regarded, as we had hoped it would be, as strictly + non-partisan. The victory came so late in the session that the + appointment of the new committee was postponed until the present + session. + +Referring to the housing of the Congressional Committee in the new +headquarters of the National Association in Washington Mrs. Park said: + + To the preceding chairman, Mrs. Miller, fell the hard work of + finding new headquarters, moving the office and establishing the + house routine which has been continued under the efficient care + of our house manager, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Walker. The secretary of + the committee, Miss Ruth White, who has worked indefatigably in + the office since June, 1916, has had charge of the records of + members of Congress and of correspondence with our State + chairmen, besides lightening in numberless other ways the burdens + of your chairman. To a member of the committee, who is a + long-time resident of Washington, Mrs. Gardener, the association + is profoundly indebted for constant advice and help, as well as + for the most skillful handling of delicate and difficult + situations. She has been called the "Diplomatic Corps" of the + committee and the name in every good sense has been well won by + the important services which she has rendered. Another member of + the committee, a former chairman, Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, after + helping to start the legislative work last December, generously + came to our aid at busy seasons and took active charge of the + work from July 10 to September 12, during the absence of the + chairman. The management of the office and the Department of + Publicity have been in the hands of the executive secretary, Miss + Ethel M. Smith. + + Social activities through the spring and early summer were in + charge of Miss Heloise Meyer, assisted by Mrs. J. Borden + Harriman. Miss Mabel Caldwell Willard has represented the + committee in undertakings involving the house as a center for + local work. These have included getting hostesses to receive + visitors at headquarters, supplying speakers for local meetings, + providing cooperation with the suffrage federation of the + District of Columbia for the daily afternoon teas, and looking + after hospitality for delegates to conventions meeting in + Washington. Among the organizations for which receptions have + been arranged are Daughters of the American Revolution, + Association of Collegiate Alumnae, Confederate Veterans, Sons of + Veterans, Daughters of the Confederacy, Congress of Mothers, + Parent-Teacher Associations and Farm and Garden Associations. Ten + of the fourteen members of the committee, in addition to the + executive secretary, have given highly valued service in + Washington during the last nine months. Other suffragists not + members have kindly devoted days or weeks to our work and the + local suffrage associations have been most cordial in their + response to our requests. + + Any attempt to state our obligations to our national president + would be futile. Our high hope for the adoption of the Federal + Amendment by the 65th Congress is linked inseparably with our + faith in her leadership. + +[Illustration: A LECTURE IN THE BANQUET HALL OF THE WASHINGTON +SUFFRAGE HEADQUARTERS. + +Formerly occupied by the French Embassy.] + +The report of Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.) first vice-president, +described a year of continuous work, almost from ocean to ocean, +speaking to State suffrage conventions, federations of women's clubs, +federations of labor, trade unions, universities, normal schools, +churches, meetings of all kinds and without number. In the two Dakotas +she spoke twenty-nine times. She referred to her visit to Jefferson +City, Mo., her luncheon with the wife of Governor Frederick D. +Gardner, the suffrage meeting "which put the State capital in a +ferment and caused the politicians to sit up and take notice" and the +Governor's declaration for woman suffrage. Mrs. Miller said of the +work during the five months when she was chairman of the Congressional +Committee: + + After mature consideration the board decided that, for various + reasons, it was not wise to move the headquarters from New York + to Washington but that more spacious quarters should be found + than the office here where the efficient lobby work that had + already been done could be followed up and supplemented by a + social atmosphere. Finally we found our present home, a large + private mansion at 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, just off of Scott + Circle. It was taken for a term of eight months, the offices + moved at once and cards sent out to 2,000 people for a + housewarming before we had been there a week. + + During five months Miss Meyer and I made 300 calls, organized a + Junior Suffrage League, planned for publicity "stunts," such as + the dedication of the Susan B. Anthony room, the presentation of + a flag by Pennsylvania, a poster exhibit, celebration of the + North Dakota victory and the mid-lenten bazaar. Much of the work + was of the sort that would be impossible to tabulate, but the + effect of the whole in making the National Association well known + in Washington and able to work effectively from there has proved + the wisdom of the expenditure for the headquarters. + + The latter part of February the so-called War Council was called, + a meeting of the association's Executive Committee of One + Hundred, and planning for that and the mass meeting on Sunday + kept us all busy for several weeks. This Council decided that the + suffragists should undertake certain definite forms of war work + and the chairmanship of the division of the Elimination of Waste + was given to me.... Summing up the year I have attended six State + meetings, spoken 200 times in 15 States, written 3,000 letters + and travelled 13,000 miles. + +All of Friday was given to symposiums on different phases of this +movement, grouped as follows: What my State will do for the Federal +Amendment. Should We Work for Woman Suffrage in War Time? What Good +Will Woman Suffrage Do Our Country? What is the Best Thing it Has Done +for my State? What Can the Enfranchised Women Do to Secure Suffrage +for the Women of the Entire Nation? Twenty-five women, most of them +State presidents, took part in these valuable discussions. + +Mrs. McCormick related how her work as chairman of the national Press +Committee had been taken over by the press department of the Leslie +Bureau of Education when it was organized the preceding March and a +merger committee appointed consisting of Miss Rose Young and Mrs. Ida +Husted Harper of the Leslie Commission, and Mrs. Shuler and herself of +the association.[112] The report of the Leslie Bureau filled over +thirty pages of fine print as submitted by Miss Young, director, who +said in beginning: + + By January of 1917 it had become apparent that the National + Association had an increasingly direct and comprehensive part to + play in State and Federal campaigns through its Press department + as one of its various points of contact with the suffrage field. + To inaugurate news and feature propaganda and information + services that would be live wires of connection between 171 + Madison Avenue and the State affiliations all over the country + and the Capitol at Washington and the public press was the + immediate prospect of the then Press department.... Its + accumulated task included not only the conduct of its federal + political campaign at Washington, not only its definite program + of State propaganda and organization for constitutional amendment + campaigns, it had on its hands as well the great "drive" for + Presidential suffrage that had been initiated. + + By spring Mrs. Catt's custodianship of the Leslie funds had been + determined by court decision and plans that she had been + mothering since 1915 could be put into execution. Those plans had + for their central detail the founding of a bureau for the + promotion of the woman suffrage cause through the education of + the public to the point of seeing it as essential to democracy, + and in March the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education was + organized for that purpose. From the beginning the outstanding + feature of the work was its size, and the outstanding need was to + get it housed and departmentalized, with department heads and an + adequate clerical staff. This done, the bureau, with a staff of + twenty-four, swarmed out over the whole 15th floor, besides two + small rooms on the 14th floor. It now includes six departments, + counting the Magazine Department, which is an everlasting story + by itself. + +Miss Young told of merging the _Woman's Journal_, the _Woman Voter_ +and the _National Suffrage News_ in the _Woman Citizen_, for which +2,000 subscriptions were taken at this convention. The report included +those of Mrs. Harper, chairman of editorial correspondence; Mrs. Mary +Sumner Boyd, of the research bureau; Miss Mary Ogden White, feature +and general news department; Mrs. Rose Lawless Geyer, field press +work. There was also a report of the Washington press bureau after the +headquarters there were opened, at first in charge of Mrs. Gertrude C. +Mosshart, afterwards of Miss Ethel M. Smith. The latter told of the +unexcelled opportunities in that city for the distribution of news +through the more than 200 special correspondents of the large +newspapers and the bureaus of all the great press associations and +syndicates. News had to be fresh and well written and 450 copies of +each of her "stories" distributed. About half of them were sent to +State press chairmen, presidents and others. + +Mrs. Harper's work was almost wholly with editors, watching the +editorials, which now came in literally by hundreds every day. Her +report of three closely printed pages said in part: + + When an editorial was friendly a letter of thanks has been sent + expressing the hope that the paper would contain many such + editorials. When one made a strong appeal for woman suffrage the + editor has had a letter expressing the deep appreciation of all + at headquarters and saying that it would unquestionably affect + public sentiment in his city and State. In many instances, even + in the largest papers, there have been mistakes in facts and + figures, as the question has not been a national issue long + enough for editors to become thoroughly informed, and these have + been corrected as tactfully as possible. Often carefully selected + literature, suited to the editor's point of view, has been + enclosed--to Western editors arguments in favor of a Federal + Amendment; to Southern editors statements on the good effects of + woman suffrage in the Western States; to Eastern editors a good + deal of both. Where an editorial has been directly hostile an + argument has been taken up with the editor, supported by + unimpeachable testimony. When the editor has been implacable I + have frequently written to suffragists in his city to learn what + were the influences behind the paper, and usually have found they + were such as gave the editor no chance to express his own + opinions, but even those papers have almost invariably published + my letters. + +During the year letters were written to over 2,000 editors in the +United States and several in Canada and the returns through the +clipping bureaus indicated that a large majority were published. The +report said: "I wish there were space to give concrete instances of +the results of this year's experiment. Editors have written that, +while for years their paper had supported woman suffrage, this was the +first time they ever had come in touch with the national organization +or known that their work was being recognized outside of their own +locality. Many who were wavering have been persuaded to come out +definitely in favor; this has been especially noticeable in the South. +In a number of cases papers which condemned a Federal Amendment have +been helped to see its necessity, and this in the South as well as the +North...." As an example of the many special articles it continued: + + When the "picketing" began in Washington last January, almost + every newspaper in the United States held the entire suffrage + movement responsible for it. At once 250 letters were sent in + answer to editorials of this nature, stating that the National + American Association organized in 1869, had been always strictly + non-partisan and non-militant; that it represented about 98 per + cent. of the enrolled suffragists of the United States; that all + the suffrage which the women possessed to-day was due to its + efforts and those of its State auxiliaries, and that Dr. Shaw, + its honorary president, and Mrs. Catt, its president, strongly + condemned the "picketing." The letter urged the newspapers in + their comment on it to make a clear distinction between the two + organizations. In countless instances this request was complied + with but at the time of the Russian banner episode of the + "pickets" before the White House another flood of more than 1,000 + editorials poured into the national headquarters, many of them + crediting it to the whole cause. A second letter more emphatic + than the first was sent to 350 of the largest newspapers in the + country, enclosing Mrs. Catt's protest against the "picketing." + These had the desired effect and practically all of the papers + thereafter, except those hostile to woman suffrage, exonerated + the National Association from any part in it. + +An argument for the Federal Suffrage Amendment and asking support for +it was sent to a carefully selected list of 2,000 editors the month +before the first vote was taken in Congress. Over 500 individual +letters were sent, for the most part to prominent persons, called out +by some expression of theirs, which almost without exception were +cordially answered. A long letter to the International Suffrage News +each month had been part of the work of this department. + +Miss White's report on publicity should be reproduced in full, as it +convincingly showed why all of a sudden the newspapers of the country +were flooded with matter on woman suffrage. Not until the Leslie +bequest became available had the National Association been possessed +of the funds to do the publicity work necessary to the success of a +great movement. She told how the very first "stories" sent out +describing the granting of Presidential suffrage in the winter of 1917 +brought back returns of about half-a-million words. The story of the +Maine campaign returned 79 columns in 145 papers and Mrs. Catt's +speeches, 50,000 words. Her protest against the "antis" charge of +disloyalty against the suffragists instantly brought a return of 16 +columns in 40 metropolitan papers. Feminism in Japan, a story written +in the bureau around a little Japanese suffragist, was sent out by +syndicate to a circulation of 10,000,000. The War Service of the +National Suffrage Association was told in 15,000 words and the first +instalment came back in over 500 newspapers and 400,000 words. The +papers gave 680,000 words to the story of the Woman's Committee of +National Defense. These figures might be continued indefinitely. Plate +matter was furnished to 500 papers in sixteen States in May, and the +bulletins of facts, statistics and propaganda issued during the nine +months would make a book of 25,000 words. + +The report of Mrs. Geyer, a trained journalist, was equally valuable. +A part of her work had been to organize a press committee in every +State, arrange for the collection of news and put it in proper form +for the bulletins, the plate service, the _Woman Citizen_ or wherever +it was needed and make a roster of the principal newspapers and their +position on woman suffrage. She had managed in person the press work +for the Maine campaign, the Mississippi Valley Conference in Columbus, +O., and the present national convention. + +Mrs. Boyd's painstaking, scholarly and efficient report on the service +rendered by the Data department showed the vast amount of time and +labor necessary to collect accurate data and how unreliable is much +that exists. This was especially the case in regard to woman suffrage, +which, when compiled from current sources and returned to the various +States for verification, always required much correction. The report +told of 350 letters sent to county clerks in the equal suffrage States +for trustworthy information as to the proportion of women who voted, +with most gratifying response. Many such investigations were made of +women in office, laws relating to women, suffrage and labor +legislation, women's war record, an infinite variety of subjects. +Thousands of newspaper clippings were tabulated and a roomful of +carefully labelled files testified to the unremitting work of the +bureau. Twenty State libraries and some others were supplied during +the year with the books issued by the National Suffrage Publishing +Company and its pamphlets were widely distributed. + +Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman Suffrage +Publishing Company, made an interesting report and showed how suffrage +victories, the thing the company was working for, meant its financial +loss, for as soon as a State had won the vote it ceased to order +literature. The tremendous demands of the campaigns of 1915 and 1916 +had enabled the company to pay a three per cent. dividend but the +entrance of the United States into the war, causing a general +lessening of suffrage work, would create a deficit for the present +year. For the New York campaign of 1917 the company furnished +10,081,267 pieces of literature, all promptly paid for. Miss Ogden +gave an amusing account of how the company was "bankrupted" trying to +supply "suffrage maps" up to date, for as soon as a lot was published +another State would give Presidential or Municipal suffrage and then +the demand would come for maps with the new State "white," and +thousands of the others would have to be "scrapped." + +The chairman of the Literature Committee, Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore, +said that for the first time finances had been available for +publishing a well-indexed catalogue with the publications grouped +under more than twenty headings. These included efficiency booklets, +suffrage arguments, answers to opponents, Federal Amendment +literature, State reports, etc. Some of these publications were in +book form, including Mrs. Catt's volume on the Federal Amendment, Mrs. +Annie G. Porritt's Laws Affecting Women and Children and Miss Martha +Stapler's Woman Suffrage Year Book. A number of pamphlets were printed +in lots of 100,000, and 700,000 copies of the amendment speech of +Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado before the Senate. + +The report of the Art Publicity Committee was made by its chairman, +Mrs. Ernest Thompson Seton, and related principally to the poster +competition, which closed with the exhibition at the national suffrage +headquarters in January. About 100 posters were submitted and $500 in +prizes awarded. Afterwards the prize winners and a selection from the +others, about thirty in all, were sent to the Washington suffrage +headquarters for display and then around to various cities which had +asked for them. + +One of the largest evening meetings was that devoted to American +Women's War Service, with Mrs. Catt presiding. The first speaker was +Secretary of War Newton G. Baker and a few detached paragraphs can +give little idea of his eloquent address: + + I sometimes ask myself what does this war mean to women? War + always means to women sorrow and sacrifice and a mission of mercy + but one of the large, redeeming hopes of this particular + struggle is that it will bring a broadening of liberty to women. + This war is waged for democracy. Democracy is never an + accomplished thing, it is always a process of growth, an endless + series of advances. President Wilson has called it a rule of + action. It is a rule that adapts conduct to environment. What was + called a democracy in Greece was a small privileged class ruling + over slaves. The members of the ruling class had certain + democratic relations with one another. There was no more of real + democracy in Rome. The first constitutional convention of the + French Revolution had a very restricted electoral system with a + property qualification. It was so with our own government in 1776 + and 1789. It was a rule of conduct adapted to the environment of + that time.... + + The whole environment has changed. In 1789 we might quite + possibly have defined ourselves as a democracy, although women + did not vote, but not now. We speak of this as a war for + democracy. Women are making sacrifices just like men. The + activities of women in aid of the war are a necessary part of it. + If all the women were to stop their work tonight we should have + to withdraw from the war, at least temporarily, until we could + entirely readjust ourselves. One of the things this war is + bringing home to us is that men and women are essentially + partners in an industrial civilization, and by the end of the war + the women will be recognized as partners. + +When the Secretary finished Dr. Shaw said: "May we not send a message +to President Wilson and say: 'Mr. President, as you came to our +convention a year ago to fight with us, so we come now to fight with +you. As you have kept your pledge of loyalty to us, so we shall keep +our pledge to you. We are with you in this world struggle.'" The +convention enthusiastically endorsed the message. Other speakers were +Mrs. McAdoo and Mrs. Bass--Financing the War; Miss Martha Van +Rensselaer, department of Home Economics, Cornell University--Food and +the War; Miss Jane Delano--The Red Cross and the War; Mrs. Laidlaw, +Mrs. Louis F. Slade--Women's War Service in New York; Dr. Shaw, +chairman Woman's Committee of the National Council of Defense. Mrs. +McAdoo, daughter of President Wilson and wife of the Secretary of the +Treasury, said that she was a resident of New York State and a voter +and that women were making a great fight for democracy but the thought +which should now be first in the minds of all of them was how to win +the war. She described briefly her work as chairman of the Women's +Committee of the Liberty Loan and told of its wonderful success in +raising millions of dollars. Mrs. Bass, the only woman member of the +War Savings Committee, added an earnest appeal to women to help +finance the war, and the other speakers on their several topics raised +the meeting to a high level of patriotic enthusiasm. In a stirring +address Dr. Shaw showed what the country expected of women at this +critical time, saying: + + We talk of the army in the field as one and the army at home as + another. We are not two armies; we are one--absolutely one + army--and we must work together. Unless the army at home does its + duty faithfully, the army in the field will be unable to carry to + a victorious end this war which you and I believe is the great + war that shall bring to the world the thing that is nearest our + hearts--democracy, that "those who submit to authority shall have + a voice in the government" and that when they have that voice + peace shall reign among the nations of men. + + The United States Government, learning from the weaknesses and + the mistakes of the governments across the sea, immediately after + declaring war on Germany knew that it was wise to mobilize not + only the man power of the nation but the woman power. It took + Great Britain a long time to learn that--more than a year--and it + was not until 50,000 women paraded the streets of London with + banners saying, "Put us to work," that it dawned upon the British + government that women could be mobilized and made serviceable in + the war. And what is the result? It has been discovered that men + and women alike have within them great reserve power, great + forces which are called out by emergencies and the demands of a + time like this. + +Dr. Shaw described the forming of the Woman's Committee of the Council +of National Defense by the Government and her selection as its +chairman. She said she had no idea what the committee was expected to +do, so she went to the Secretary of the Navy to find out, and +continued: "I learned that the Woman's Committee was to be the channel +through which the orders of the various departments of the Government +concerning women's war work were to reach the womanhood of the +country; that it was to conserve and coordinate all the women's +societies in the United States which were doing war work in order to +prevent duplication and useless effort. This was very necessary, not +because our women are not patriotic but because they are so patriotic +that every blessed woman in the country was writing Washington, or her +organization was writing for her, asking the Government what she could +do for the war and of course the Government did not know; it has not +yet the least idea of what women can do." + +An amusing picture was given of men supervising a department of the +Red Cross where women were knitting, making comfort bags, etc. She +showed how for the past forty years women in their clubs and societies +had been going through the necessary evolution, "until today," she +said, "they are a mobilized army ready to serve the country in +whatever capacity they are needed. So when the Council of National +Defense laid upon the Woman's Committee the responsibility of calling +them together to mobilize women's war work, we knew exactly how to do +it.... It is not a question of whether we will act or not, the +Government has said we _must_ act; it is an order as much as it is an +order that men shall go and fight in the trenches. It is an order of +the Government that the women's war work of the country shall be +coordinated, that women shall keep their organizations intact, that +they shall get together under directed heads. I said to the gentlemen +here in Washington, when at first they feared our women might not be +willing to cooperate: 'If you put before them an incentive big enough, +if you appeal to them as a part of the Government's life, not as a +by-product of creation or a kindergarten but as a great human, living +energy, ready to serve the country, they will respond as readily as +the men.'" + + We must remember that more and more sacrifices are going to be + demanded but I want to say to you women, do not meekly sit down + and make all the sacrifices and demand nothing in return. It is + not that you want pay but we all want an equally balanced + sacrifice. The Government is asking us to conserve food while it + is allowing carload after carload to rot on the side tracks of + railroad stations and great elevators of grain to be consumed by + fire for lack of proper protection. If we must eat Indian meal in + order to save wheat, then the men must protect the grain + elevators and see that the wheat is saved. We must demand that + there shall be conservation all along the line. I had a letter + the other day giving me a fearful scorching because of a speech I + made in which I said that we women have Mr. Hoover looking into + our refrigerators, examining our bread to see what kind of + materials we are using, telling us what extravagant creatures we + are, that we waste millions of money every year, waste food and + all that sort of thing, and yet while we are asked to have + meatless days and wheatless days, I have never yet seen a demand + for a smokeless day! They are asking through the newspapers that + we women shall dance, play bridge, have charades, sing and do + everything under the sun to raise money to buy tobacco for the + men in the trenches, while the men who want us to do this have a + cigar in their mouth at the time they are asking it! I said that + if men want the soldiers to have tobacco, let them have smokeless + days and furnish it! If they would conserve one single cigar a + day and send it to the men in the trenches the soldiers would + have all they would need and the men at home would be a great + deal better off. If we have to eat rye flour to send wheat across + the sea they must stop smoking to send smokes across the sea. + + There is no end to the things that women are asked to do. I know + this is true because I have read the newspapers for the last six + months to get my duty before me. The first thing we are asked to + do is to provide the enthusiasm, inspiration and patriotism to + make men want to fight, and we are to send them away with a + smile! That is not much to ask of a mother! We are to maintain a + perfect calm after we have furnished all this inspiration and + enthusiasm, "keep the home fires burning," keep the home sweet + and peaceful and happy, keep society on a level, look after + business, buy enough but not too much and wear some of our old + clothes but not all of them or what would happen to the + merchants?... We are going to rise as women always have risen to + the supreme height of patriotic service.... + + The Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense now asks + for your cooperation, that we may be what the Government would + have us be, soldiers at home, defending the interests of the + home, while the men are fighting with the gallant Allies who are + laying down their lives that this world may be a safe place and + that men and women may know the meaning of democracy, which is + that we are one great family of God. That, and that only, is the + ideal of democracy for which our flag stands. + +The National Anti-Suffrage Association took this time to hold its one +day's annual convention in a Washington hotel and re-elect for +president Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., wife of the New York Senator, +and elect as secretary Mrs. Robert Lansing, wife of the Secretary of +State. Mrs. Wadsworth at this time sent to the members of Congress and +circulated widely a pamphlet entitled Consider the Facts, in which she +charged the suffragists with being pacifists and Socialists and +asserted that the recent New York victory was due to the Socialist +vote. Miss Mary Garrett Hay, who was chairman of the campaign +committee in New York City, where the victory was won, expressed her +opinion from the platform in this fashion: + + Senator Wadsworth and his wife announced that they weren't going + to give any entertainments till the war was over, nevertheless + they are dining tonight the Senators and Representatives who are + opposed to the Federal Amendment. So I thought I would signalize + the occasion by answering the circular Mrs. Wadsworth has sent + broadcast asking people to "consider a few facts about the woman + suffrage victory in New York." Here are some other facts to + consider: + + There were only three assembly districts in Manhattan where the + suffrage amendment did not poll over a thousand more votes than + the Socialists polled. Even in these three suffrage got an + average of 600 more votes than the Socialist candidate got. In + the 4th district suffrage had the advantage of the Socialists by + 551 votes; in the 6th it got 600 more votes than Socialism got; + in the 8th it got 656 more. In the 12th, a typical district, + where the Socialists got only 1,822 votes, suffrage got 5,480. In + my own district, the 9th, suffrage and Fusion ran almost neck and + neck, suffrage polling 5,911, Fusion, 5,578; the Socialists + polled only 977. In Brooklyn the 14th, 19th and 23rd assembly + districts are accounted the Socialists' strongholds. In all three + suffrage ran ahead of Socialism. In the 14th suffrage polled a + "yes" vote of 4,052, the Socialists 3,142; in the 19th suffrage + polled 3,608, the Socialists 3,037; in the 23rd suffrage polled + 5,060, the Socialists 3,992. + + Considering the suffrage vote in Greater New York in comparison + with the vote for Mayor, suffrage polled a "yes" vote of 335,959, + the Socialist candidate only 142,178. The Fusion candidate polled + 149,307; the Republican, 53,678; the Democratic, the successful + one, 207,282. Suffrage, therefore, polled 38,677 more affirmative + votes than did the successful candidate. No candidate for Mayor + was in the class with the amendment, though all were for + suffrage. + +Others prominent in the suffrage movement, both men and women, made +indignant protest against Mrs. Wadsworth's accusation and pointed to +the splendid organized work of the National Suffrage Association in +cooperation with the Government from the very beginning of the war. + +During this week of the convention the Federal Prohibition Amendment +made its triumphant passage through the House, having already passed +the Senate, and the suffragists saw the bitterest opponents of their +amendment on the ground of State's rights throw this doctrine to the +winds in their determination to put through the one for prohibition. +They felt that the adoption of that amendment opened wide the way for +the passing of the one for suffrage in the near future and this was +the view generally taken by the public. Another event in this +remarkable week was the creation and appointment of a Woman Suffrage +Committee in the House of Representatives, for which the association +had been so long and earnestly striving. This was done against the +vigorous opposition of the Judiciary Committee, which for the past +forty years had prevented the question of woman suffrage from coming +before the House for a vote. At this time it reported the Federal +Amendment "without recommendation" and tried to prevent its being +referred to the new committee. + +The report of the corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler, for +1917, continued the story of the immense amount of work that had been +done at and through the national headquarters, beginning immediately +after the great impetus of the Atlantic City convention. A nation-wide +campaign was instituted under the three heads set forth by Susan B. +Anthony at the beginning of the movement--Agitate, Educate, Organize. +It was decided to center the effort even more than ever before on the +Federal Amendment and a wide call was sent out for universal +demonstrations in its favor, where a resolution for it would be +adopted. Twenty-six States responded, New York leading with 101 such +meetings. These were followed by visits to State political conventions +to secure endorsements, which met with considerable success, and +candidates for Congress were interviewed in most of the States. There +was advertising in the street cars of Washington during the sessions +of Congress. Carefully selected literature was distributed by the +hundreds of thousands of copies to the clergy, the politicians, the +business men, the rural population; no class was overlooked. +Questionnaires were sent to the equal suffrage States for information +which was compiled in pamphlets. The first experiment in "suffrage +schools," which proved so successful that they were made a permanent +feature of the work, was thus described: + + It was the general of our suffrage army, Mrs. Catt, "the + country's greatest expert in efficient suffrage methods," who + first saw the need of suffrage schools and put them into effect + in New York State. She knew the value of systematic training and + realized that our failure many times had not alone been due to + the fact that numbers of women would not work but that those who + were willing were untrained and inefficient. It was at first + proposed to charge for instruction in the schools but this plan + had to be abandoned and the National Association assumed most of + the financial obligation. + + Our first school was held in Baltimore in December, 1916. The + manager was Mrs. Livermore, the instructors herself, Mrs. Wilson + and Mrs. Geyer. The second was in Portland, Me., January 8-20, + 1917. The nineteen schools were all under the direction of the + organization department. They began with Maryland and extended + through fourteen of the southern and middle-west States, closing + March 30 in Detroit, Mich. Three instructors, Mrs. Halsey Wilson, + Mrs. Cotnam and Miss Doughty, taught Suffrage History and + Argument, Organization, Publicity and Press, Money Raising, + Parliamentary Law. The chairman of organization, Mrs. Shuler, + taught Organization, Parliamentary Law and Money Raising in the + Portland school and in the last five schools of the series. + +Mrs. Shuler referred to the war work of the association, which is +described elsewhere, and told of the wide field that had been covered +by organizers, who had reached the number of 225 during the year, many +of them employed by the States. The organization work was classified +and standardized. A conference of organizers met in New York where +they were instructed by Mrs. Catt, and a pamphlet, the A. B. C. of +Organization, was prepared by Mrs. Shuler. As an example of the work +done, nine organizers reported 385 meetings in eleven weeks in 25 +States and organization effected in 178 towns. The report told of the +work done from the headquarters for the Presidential suffrage that had +been obtained in various States and in campaigns. + +The report of the Committee on Presidential Suffrage was of especial +interest, as for the first time in all the years, with one exception, +there were victories to record. This report had been made annually by +Henry B. Blackwell, editor of _The Woman's Journal_ until his death in +1910, but although he had implicit faith in the possibility of this +partial franchise he did not live to see its first success in Illinois +in 1913. Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates (R. I.) followed him in the +chairmanship but met with an accident which caused her to relinquish +it to Mrs. Robert S. Huse. She believed the granting of this form of +the franchise helped the cause of full suffrage and through a +questionnaire to the different States she had collected much +information as to the best method of handling such bills. All wrote +that the anti-suffragists were supported in their opposition to them +by the liquor interests. + +During a discussion of the war work of women Mrs. F. Louis Slade of +New York moved (adopted) that as so large a share of the work of the +Red Cross is done by women, the association request that women be +given adequate representation on the War Council of the American Red +Cross. Miss Yates suggested that Clara Barton's name be introduced +into Mrs. Slade's resolution. Dr. Shaw spoke of the far-reaching +importance of the work Clara Barton had accomplished and of the +unworthy manner in which it had been treated. Mrs. L. H. Engle (Md.) +suggested that the Red Cross be reminded that the plan of having women +nurses in army hospitals had originated with a woman and that the +first military hospital in the world had been established by a woman. +Mrs. Medill McCormick moved that the Chair appoint a committee of +three to confer with the Executive Committee of the American Red +Cross. The Chair appointed Mrs. McCormick as chairman, Mrs. Slade and +Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College. + +Mrs. Catt read telegrams from Governor W. P. Hobby of Texas, the +Houston _Chronicle_, the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor inviting +the association to hold the next convention in that city; also "a +telegram from the Mayor of Dallas, Texas, inviting it to meet there. +Fraternal delegates cordially received by the convention were Mrs. +Flora MacDonald Denison, honorary president of the Canadian Suffrage +Association, and Mrs. Philip Moore, president of the National Council +of Women. Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery was presented by Dr. Shaw as having +been corresponding secretary of the association for twenty-one years +and was warmly greeted. Mrs. Frances C. Axtel was introduced as a +former member of the Legislature in Washington, now chairman of the U. +S. Employees' Compensation Commission. Mrs. Margaret Hathaway, a +member of the Montana Legislature, addressed the convention. The Rev. +Olympia Brown told of the memorial of Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, which +she had prepared, and asked the delegates to see that copies were +placed in libraries. Mrs. Catt paid high tribute to Mrs. Brown's many +years of work for woman suffrage. The Rev. James Shera Montgomery, of +the Fourth M. E. Church, and the Rev. Henry N. Couden, Chaplain of the +House of Representatives, pronounced the invocation at the opening of +two sessions. + +The elections of the association were models of fairness with no +unnecessary waste of time. Mrs. Catt received all the votes cast for +president but three. All of the other officers but one had only from +10 to 27 opposing votes. Five members of the old board retired at +their own wish, one of them, Miss Meyer, being in the war service in +France. Mrs. McCormick, Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Shuler were re-elected. +The new members were Miss Mary Garrett Hay (N. Y.), second +vice-president; Mrs. Guilford Dudley (Tenn.) third; Mrs. Raymond Brown +(N. Y.) fourth and Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.) fifth; Mrs. Halsey +Wilson (N. Y.) recording secretary. The convention had voted to drop +the two auditors from the list of officers and substitute two +vice-presidents. A board of directors was elected for the first time, +in the order of the votes received as follows: Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw +(N. Y.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. Y.); Mrs. Nonie Mahoney (Tex.); Mrs. +Horace C. Stilwell (Ind.); Dr. Mary A. Safford (Fla.); Mrs. T. T. +Cotnam (Ark.); Mrs. Charles H. Brooks (Kans.); Mrs. Arthur L. +Livermore (N. Y.). + +In place of a flowery speech of acceptance Mrs. Catt laid out more and +still more work and outlined a plan of organization for uniting the +women of the enfranchised States in an association which should be +auxiliary to the National American. Each State association would upon +enfranchisement automatically become a member of this organization +with an elected working committee of five persons, these State +committees to be finally united in a central body to be known as the +National League of Women Voters. [Handbook of convention, page 48.] +Besides the obvious advantages, she suggested that such an +organization would provide a way for recently enfranchised States to +maintain intact their suffrage associations for the benefit of work on +the Federal Amendment.[113] + +One of the most vital reports was that of the treasurer, Mrs. Henry +Wade Rogers. It was a remarkable story especially to those who +remembered the time when the receipts of the association for the whole +year did not exceed $2,000, laboriously collected by Miss Anthony, +with possibly a little assistance, in subscriptions of from $5 to $10 +with one of $50 regarded as high water mark. The report began: "Our +fiscal year closed October 31 with a balance of $11,985 in the +treasury and in addition to this our books showed investments of +$19,061, the interest of which we have received during the year." The +feeling of many suffragists that they wished to use all their money +for war work retarded contributions but the example of the National +Association was pointed out, which undertook a widespread war service, +as the treasury had proved, but did not leave its legitimate suffrage +work undone. Mrs. Rogers, whose gratuitous services as treasurer had +proved of the highest value to the association, told of the help of +her committee of forty-two members in the various States and presented +her report carefully audited by expert accountants. It showed +expenditures for the year of $803,729. This covered the expenses of +the two headquarters, congressional work, State campaigns, publicity +and organization throughout the United States. Mrs. Catt's plan to +raise a million dollar fund for 1917 had met a generous response and +had not lacked a great deal of fulfilment. Pledges to the amount of +$120,000 were made for the coming year, the Leslie Commission leading +with $15,000, Mrs. William Thaw, Jr., of Pittsburgh subscribed +$12,000; Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw of Boston, $5,000; Mrs. Katharine +Dexter McCormick, $2,000; Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Joseph Fels, Mrs. V. Everit +Macy of New York; Mrs. Wirt Dexter of Boston; Mrs. Arthur Ryerson, +Mrs. Cyrus H. McCormick of Chicago, $1,000 each. + +The plan of work for the coming year provided for concentration on +securing the submission of the Federal Amendment and the following was +adopted: "If the Sixty-fifth Congress fails to submit the Federal +Amendment before the next congressional election this association +shall select and enter into such a number of senatorial and +congressional campaigns as will effect a change in both Houses of +Congress sufficient to insure its passage. The selection of candidates +to be opposed is to be left to the Executive Board and to the boards +of the States in question. Our opposition to individual candidates +shall not be based on party considerations, and loyalty to the Federal +Amendment shall not take precedence over loyalty to the country." + +It was resolved that a compact of State associations willing and +ready to conduct such campaigns should be formed. It was directed that +the six departments of war work should be continued and that each +State association should be asked to establish a War Service Committee +composed of a chairman and the chairmen of these departments, with an +additional one for Liberty Loans, and that this committee cooperate +with the State divisions of the Woman's Committee of National Defense. + +In addition to the resolution of loyalty to the Government at the +beginning of the convention the following, submitted by the committee, +Miss Blackwell chairman, were among those adopted: + + Whereas, the war is demanding from women unprecedented labor and + sacrifices and women by millions are responding with utmost + loyalty and devotion; and + + Whereas, Abraham Lincoln, writing of woman suffrage, declared + that all should share the privileges of the government who assist + in bearing its burdens; and + + Whereas, it is important to a country in war even more than in + peace that all its loyal citizens should be equipped with the + most up-to-date tools; therefore be it + + Resolved, that we urge Congress, as a war measure, to submit to + the States an amendment to the United States Constitution + providing for the nation-wide enfranchisement of women. + + That we rejoice this year in the most important victories yet won + in the history of the cause. Since January 1, 1917, women have + received full suffrage in New York, practically full suffrage in + Arkansas, Presidential suffrage in Rhode Island, Michigan and + Indiana, Presidential and Municipal suffrage in Nebraska and + North Dakota, statewide Municipal suffrage in Vermont, local + Municipal suffrage in seven cities of Ohio, Florida and Tennessee + and nation-wide suffrage in Canada and Russia; while the British + House of Commons has gone on record in favor of full suffrage for + women by a vote of seven to one. + + That we pledge our unswerving loyalty to our country and the + continuance of our aid in patriotic service to help make the + world safe for democracy both at home and abroad. + + That we pledge our unqualified support to the campaign for the + sale of the War Savings Certificates and Thrift Stamps and urge + our members to aid it in every way.... + + That we urge the establishment of the economic principle of equal + pay for equal work as vital to the welfare of the nation.... + + That an American-born woman should not lose her nationality by + marrying a foreigner and we urge a change of the law in this + respect. + +A resolution of gratitude to the memory of the many earnest workers +for woman suffrage who had passed away during the year was adopted +and letters of greeting were sent to the pioneers still living. A +message of love and admiration was sent to Mrs. Catherine Breshkovsky, +"the grandmother of the Russian Revolution." "Cordial and grateful +appreciation for the inestimable service of the press," was voted. + +The program for the last evening was devoted to Women's War Service +Abroad. Miss Helen Fraser, representing Great Britain, was here on a +special mission from its Government to tell what its women were doing. +The audience was deeply moved by her simple but thrilling recital of +the unparalleled sacrifices of the women of Great Britain and its +colonies. Madame Simon pictured in eloquent language how the war had +strengthened the devotion of France to America, not only through the +unequalled assistance of this Government in money and soldiers but +also through the sympathy and help of the American women. Miss C. M. +Bouimistrow, a member of the Russian Relief Council, spoke of the warm +feeling of that country for the United States and the bond between +them created by the war in which they had a common enemy. Mrs. Nellie +McClung, a leader of the Canadian suffragists, described what the war +had meant to the women of the Dominion, and, as the _Woman Citizen_ +said in its account, "kept her hearers wavering between laughter and +tears as she hid her own emotion behind a veil of stoicism and humor." + +The convention ended with a mass meeting at the theater on Sunday +afternoon at three o'clock with a notable audience such as can +assemble only in Washington. Mrs. Catt presided. Mrs. McClung told +enthusiastically the story of How Suffrage Came to the Women of Canada +in 1916 and 1917, and Miss Fraser related how the work of women during +the war had made it impossible for the British Government longer to +deny them the franchise, that now only awaited the assent of the House +of Lords, which was near at hand. It was always left to Dr. Shaw to +finish the program. One who had attended many suffrage conventions +said of her at this time: "As ever, Dr. Shaw's oratory was a marked +feature of the week's proceedings. Sometimes she was the able advocate +of loyalty to the country; sometimes she rose to heights of +supplication for an applied democracy which shall include women; +sometimes the mischief that is in her bubbled and sparkled to the +surface." + +Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with ringing words of inspiration, with a +call for more and better work than had ever been done before and with +a prophecy that the long-awaited victory was almost won. This +convention, which had been held under such unfavorable auspices, +proved to have been one of the best in way of accomplishment, and, +although the papers were overflowing with news of the war, they came +to the national suffrage press bureau from 44 States with excellent +accounts of the convention; there were over 300 illustrated "stories" +and it was estimated that it had received half a million words of +"publicity." + + * * * * * + +It had been customary to have a hearing on the Federal Suffrage +Amendment before the committees of every new Congress and this year an +extra session had been called in the spring. As the question of a +special Committee on Woman Suffrage in the Lower House was under +consideration no hearing before its Judiciary Committee was asked for +but a hearing took place before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage +April 20. This was largely a matter of routine as the entire committee +was ready to report favorably the resolution for the amendment. +Chairman Jones announced that the entire forenoon had been set apart +for the hearing, which would be in charge of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, +president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs. +Catt said: "The Senate Committee of Woman Suffrage was established in +1883. Thirty-four years have passed since then and seventeen +Congresses. We confidently believe that we are appearing before the +last of these committees and that it will be your immortal fame, Mr. +Chairman, to present the last report for woman suffrage to the United +States Senate." With words of highest praise she introduced Senator +John F. Shafroth of Colorado, "who has been our staunch and unfailing +friend through trial and adversity." + +Senator Shafroth answered conclusively from the twenty-four years' +experience of his State the stock objections to woman suffrage, which +he declared to be "simply another step in the evolution of government +which has been going on since the dawn of civilization." He asked to +have printed as part of his speech two chapters of Mrs. Catt's new +book Woman Suffrage by Constitutional Amendment, which was so ordered. +Senator Kendrick of Wyoming, former Governor, gave his experience of +woman suffrage in that State for thirty-eight years. He declared that +the early settlers were of the type of the Revolutionary Fathers and +gladly gave to woman any right they claimed. He testified to the help +he had received from them "in the promotion of every piece of +progressive legislation" and said: "If for no other reason than the +forces that are fighting woman suffrage, every decent man ought to +line up in favor of it." He closed as follows: "Here and now I want to +give this Constitutional Amendment my unqualified endorsement. No +State that has adopted woman suffrage has ever even considered a plan +to get along without it. It is soon realized that the votes of women +are not for sale at any price, and, while they align themselves with +the different parties, one thing is always and preeminently true--they +never fail to put principle above partisanship and patriotism above +patronage." Senator William Howard Thompson of Kansas sketched the +steady progress of woman suffrage in his State, told of its beneficent +results and submitted a comprehensive address which he had made before +the Senate in 1914. + +The committee listened with much interest to the first woman member of +Congress, Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who reviewed the +almost insurmountable difficulties of amending many State +constitutions for woman suffrage and made an earnest plea for the +Federal Amendment. Senator Charles S. Thomas of Colorado, who for the +past twenty-five years had been a consistent and never failing friend +of woman suffrage, said in beginning: "I learned this lesson in my +early manhood by reading the addresses of and listening to such +advocates as Susan B. Anthony," and he summed up his strong speech by +saying: "The matter is simply one of abstract and of concrete justice. +We cannot preach universal suffrage unless we practice it and we can +never practice it while fifty per cent. of our population is +disfranchised." Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, to whom the women of his +State could always look for help in this and every other good cause, +said in his brief remarks: "I have for many years watched the work and +the sacrifices by many of the best women of this country to bring this +question before the people and convince them of its justice and +righteousness and I have gloried with them in every victory they have +won. Nothing on earth will stop it. The country will not much longer +tolerate it that a woman shall have the privilege of voting in one +State and upon moving into another be disfranchised." + +Mrs. Catt stated that Senators Chamberlain of Oregon and Johnson of +California, were not able to be present and asked that the favorable +speeches they would have made be put in the Congressional Record, +which was granted. Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana made a thorough +analysis of the attitude of the Federal Constitution toward suffrage +and its gradual extension and declared that it was now "the duty of +the government to see that every one of its citizens was assured of +this fundamental right." The hearing was closed by Mrs. Catt with a +comprehensive review of the status of woman suffrage throughout the +world and the naming of the many countries where it prevailed. She +pointed out that Great Britain and her colonies had recognized the +political rights of women as the United States had never done, and, +now that they were to be called on for the supreme sacrifices of the +war, the British Government was granting them the franchise, which our +own Government was still withholding. "This fact," she said, "has +saddened the lives of women, it has dimmed their vision of American +ideals and lowered their respect for our Government. The tremendous +capacity of women for constructive work, for upbuilding the best in +civilization and for enthusiastic patriotism has been crushed. In +consequence this greatest force for good has been minimized and the +entire nation is the loser." Senator Walsh's and Mrs. Catt's speeches +were printed in a separate pamphlet and circulated by the thousands. + +On April 26 the Senate Committee granted a hearing to that branch of +the suffrage movement called the National Woman's Party. Miss Anne +Martin, its vice-chairman, presided and able speeches were made by +Mrs. Mary Ritter Beard and Mrs. Rheta Childe Dorr of New York; Mrs. +Richard F. Wainwright of the District; Miss Madeline Z. Doty and Miss +Ernestine Evans, war correspondents; Miss Alice Carpenter, chairman of +the New York Women's Navy League; Miss Rankin and Dudley Field Malone, +collector of the port of New York. On May 3 the National Anti-Suffrage +Association claimed a hearing. Its president, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, +introduced the president of the New York branch, the wife of U. S. +Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., who presided. The speakers were Miss +Minnie Bronson, national secretary; Miss Lucy Price of Ohio; Judge +Oscar Leser of Maryland and Mrs. A. J. George of Massachusetts. Their +speeches, which fill twenty pages of the printed report, comprise a +full resume of the arguments against the enfranchisement of women and +will be read with curiosity by future students of this question. On +May 15, at the request of the National Woman's Party, the committee +granted a supplementary hearing at which the speakers were J. A. H. +Hopkins of New Jersey, representing the new Progressive party being +organized; John Spargo of Vermont, representing the Socialist Party; +Virgil Henshaw, national chairman of the Prohibition party and Miss +Mabel Vernon. They gave to the committee copies of a "memorial" which +they had presented to President Wilson urging immediate action by +Congress. It was signed also by former Governor David I. Walsh of +Massachusetts for the Progressive Democrats and Edward A. Rumely for +the Progressive Republicans. The pamphlet of these four hearings, of +which the Senate Committee furnished 10,000 copies, was widely used +for propaganda. + +A hearing was held on May 18 before the Committee on Rules of the +Lower House, with the entire membership present: Representatives +Edward W. Pou, N. C.; chairman; James C. Cantrill, Ky.; Martin D. +Foster, Ills.; Finis J. Garrett, Tenn.; "Pat" Harrison, Miss.; M. +Clyde Kelly, Penn.; Irvine L. Lenroot, Wis.; Daniel J. Riordan, N. Y.; +Thomas D. Schall, Minn.; Bertrand H. Snell, N. Y.; William R. Wood, +Ind. Its purpose was to urge favorable report for a Committee on Woman +Suffrage. The speakers for the National American Suffrage Association +were Judge Raker, Representatives Jeannette Rankin of Montana; Edward +T. Taylor of Colorado; Frank W. Mondell of Wyoming and Edward Keating +of Colorado; Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman, and Mrs. Helen H. +Gardener, member of the association's Congressional Committee. The +speakers for the National Woman's Party were Miss Martin, Miss Maud +Younger, Mrs. Wainwright, Miss Vernon, Representatives George F. +O'Shaughnessy of Rhode Island; C. N. McArthur of Oregon; Carl Hayden +of Arizona. On December 13 a Committee on Woman Suffrage was +appointed. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[107] Signed: Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president; Mrs. Carrie +Chapman Catt, president; Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, Mrs. Stanley +McCormick and Miss Esther G. Ogden, vice-presidents; Mrs. Frank J. +Shuler, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith, +recording secretary; Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer; Mrs. Pattie +Ruffner Jacobs, auditor; Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman Congressional +Committee; Miss Rose Young, chairman of Press; Mrs. Arthur L. +Livermore, chairman of Literature. + +[108] On the list were: All the members of the Cabinet except +Secretary of State Lansing; nineteen U.S. Senators and fourteen +prominent Representatives; Speaker Champ Clark; U.S. Commissioner of +Education Philander P. Claxton; Assistant Secretary of Agriculture +Carl Vrooman; Justices of the Supreme Court of the District Wendell P. +Stafford and Frederick L. Siddons; Secretary to the President Joseph +P. Tumulty; Commissioners of the District Louis Brownlow and W. Gwynn +Gardiner; former Commissioners Henry F. MacFarland and Simon Wolf; +Major Raymond S. Pullman, Chief of Police; Resident Commissioner and +Mme. Jaime De Veyra (Philippine Islands); Resident Commissioner Felix +C. Davila (Porto Rico); John Barrett, director of the Pan-American +Union; Major-General W. C. Gorgas; the Reverends U. G. B. Pierce, +Henry N. Couden, chaplain of the House of Representatives; James Shera +Montgomery, Rabbi Abram Simon, John Van Schaick, president of the +School Board; Theodore Noyes, editor of the _Evening Star_; Arthur +Brisbane, the _Times_; C. T. Brainerd, the Washington _Herald_; W. P. +Spurgeon, the Washington _Post_; Gilbert Grosvenor, editor of the +_National Geographic Magazine_; J. Leftwich Sinclair, president, and +Thomas Grant, secretary of the Washington Chamber of Commerce; Dr. +Harry A. Garfield, president Williams College and director Fuel +Administration for the United States; Edward P. Costigan, U. S. Tariff +Commission; Frank A. Vanderlip, V. Everit Macy, on War Boards; Samuel +Gompers, president American Federation of Labor; Alexander Graham +Bell; Gifford Pinchot; Dr. Ryan Devereux; General Julian S. Carr, +commander-in-chief United Confederate Veterans. + +Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of the Children's Bureau; Mrs. Mary C. C. +Bradford, president, and Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, secretary National +Education Association; Mrs. George Thacher Guernsey, president-general +Daughters of the American Revolution; Mrs. Cordelia R. P. Odenheimer, +president-general Daughters of the Confederacy; Miss Janet Richards; +Mrs. Charles Boughton Wood; Mrs. Blaine Beale; Mrs. Ellis Meredith; +Mrs. Christian Hemmick; Mrs. Herbert C. Hoover; Mrs. A. Garrison +McClintock. + +[109] The names of the thirteen were given as follows: Miss Heloise +Meyer of Massachusetts, first auditor of the association, scheduled +for canteen work in France. Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, member of the +Congressional Committee of the association, now on governmental +assignment in Europe. Miss Irene C. Boyd, of the New York Suffrage +Party, serving in a United States base hospital with the American +Expeditionary Forces in France. Dr. Esther Pohl-Lovejoy of Portland, +Ore., serving with the party sent by the "Fund for French Wounded." +Miss Mary W. Dewson, chairman of legislative committee of the +Massachusetts Suffrage Association, social worker in France at the +call of Major Grayson M. P. Murphy. Miss Lodovine LeMoyne, publicity +chairman of the Fall River Equal Suffrage League, serving in a United +States base hospital with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. +Miss Elizabeth G. Bissell, corresponding secretary of the Iowa Equal +Suffrage Association in the French Red Cross canteen. Miss Susan P. +Ryerson, former corresponding secretary Chicago Equal Suffrage +Association, now bacteriological expert attached to base hospital in +France. Miss Lucile Atcherson, of the Ohio association, serving as +secretary to Miss Anne Morgan in her relief work in France. To these +nine will be added the names of the four doctors leading the New York +Infirmary Hospital Unit, which is now seeking the support and +authorization of the National Suffrage Association--Caroline Finley, +Mary Lee Edwards, Anna Von Sholly and Alice Gregory. + +[110] See Mrs. McCormick's complete account in the last chapter on The +War Work of Organized Suffragists prepared for this volume. + +[111] This Address to Congress in handsome pamphlet form was presented +to every member in person by the various women of the association's +Congressional Committee. After the Federal Amendment was submitted by +Congress it was revised, printed under the title An Address to +Legislatures, and through the mail or by the State suffrage workers +was put into the hands of every one of the 6,000 members of the +forty-eight State Legislatures. + +[112] For information regarding the bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie see +Appendix. + +[113] This organization, originated by Mrs. Catt even to the name, was +effected at the national convention in St. Louis, March, 1919. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1918-1919. + + +For the first time since it was founded in 1869 the National American +Woman Suffrage Association in 1918 omitted its annual convention. +Suffragists were accustomed to strenuous effort but this year strained +to the last ounce the strength of all engaged in national work. The +Congressional Committee could not secure the respite of a single day +and were summoning women from all parts of the country for service in +Washington and demanding extra work from them at home, telegrams, +letters, influence from the constituencies, etc. There was a vote Jan. +10, 1918, in the Lower House and a continual pressure from that moment +to get a vote in the Senate, which did not come till October and was +adverse. Then the committee pushed on without stopping. Mrs. Shuler, +the corresponding secretary, had been in the Michigan, South Dakota +and Oklahoma campaigns all summer and was exhausted. The three States +were carried for suffrage and when the election was over all the +forces were used to obtain Presidential suffrage in the big +legislative year beginning January, 1919. It was a question of +pressing forward to victory or stopping to prepare for and hold a +convention and lose the opportunities for gains in Congress. + +During the first ten months of 1918 the vast conflict in Europe had +gone steadily on; the United States had sent over millions of soldiers +and other millions were in training camps on this side of the ocean; +transportation was blocked; the advanced cost of living had brought +distress to many households; thousands of families were in mourning, +and everywhere suffragists were devoting time and strength to those +heavy burdens of war which always fall on women. By November 1, when +it would have been necessary to issue the call for a convention, there +was no prospect of a change in these hard conditions, and when on +November 11 the Armistice was suddenly declared no one was interested +in anything but the end of the war and its world-wide aftermath.[114] +During the dark days of 1918, however, there had come a tremendous +advance in the status of woman suffrage. The magnificent way in which +women had met the demands of war, their patriotic service, their +loyalty to the Government, had swept away the old-time objections to +their enfranchisement and fully established their right to full +equality in all the privileges of citizenship. Early in the winter the +Lower House of Congress by a two-thirds vote declared in favor of +submitting to the Legislatures an amendment to the Federal +Constitution, the object for which the National Suffrage Association +had been formed, and the Parliament of Great Britain had fully +enfranchised the majority of its women. In the spring the Canadian +Parliament conferred full Dominion suffrage on women. Before and after +the Armistice the nations of Europe that had overthrown their Emperors +and Kings gave women equal voting rights with men. In November at +their State elections, Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma gave +complete suffrage to women. The U. S. Senate was still holding out by +a majority of two against submitting the Federal Amendment but it was +almost universally recognized that the seventy years' struggle for +woman suffrage in this country was nearing the end. + +With the opening of the year 1919 the progress was evident by the +addition of seven more States to those whose Legislatures had granted +the Presidential franchise to women; that of Tennessee included +Municipal suffrage and that of Texas had given Primary suffrage the +preceding year. The situation now seemed to require an early +convention of the National Association and the time was especially +opportune, as this year marked the 50th anniversary of its founding. A +Call was issued, therefore, for a Jubilee Convention to be held in +March, fifteen months after the one of 1917. As it was the intention +to launch the organization of Women Voters it was decided to meet in +the central part of the country and the invitation of St. Louis was +accepted.[115] + +The Report of the annual convention of 1901, with which this volume +begins, filled 130 printed pages; the Report of 1919 filled 322, which +makes a complete account of its proceedings impracticable. Their +character had been changing from year to year and at this convention +it was almost transformed. At the public evening meetings there were +no longer eloquent pleas and arguments for the ballot and the daytime +sessions were not devoted to discussions of the many phases of the +work. Now there was business and political consideration of the best +and quickest methods of bringing the movement to an end and the most +effective use that could be made of the suffrage already so largely +won. It was a little difficult for some of the older workers to +accustom themselves to the change, which deprived the convention of +its old-time crusading, consecrated spirit, but the younger ones were +full of ardor and enthusiasm over the limitless opportunities that +were nearly within their grasp. + +On Sunday evening the national officers and directors held an informal +reception in the Hotel Statler for the delegates and all the sessions +were held in this hotel, with the two evening mass meetings in the +Odeon Theater. The convention opened Monday evening, March 24, with +the president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair. Dr. Anna Howard +Shaw, who was an ordained Methodist minister, pronounced the +invocation and the community singing at this and all sessions was led +by Mrs. W.D. Steele of St. Louis.[116] The Mayor, Henry W. Kiel, +extended a cordial welcome to the city and pledged his earnest support +of woman suffrage. Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, president of the Missouri +suffrage association, gave the welcome from the State. Mrs. B. +Morrison Fuller, president of the Daughters of Pioneers, brought their +greeting and referred to a convention held in St. Louis in 1872, +introducing three ladies who were present at that time. + +Dr. Shaw, honorary president, took the chair and presented Mrs. Catt. +Her address, The Nation Calls, was a strong appeal for an organization +of Women Voters to be formed in the States where they were +enfranchised. The plan was outlined and she asked: "Shall the women +voters go forward doing their work as free women in the great world +while the non-free women are left to struggle on alone toward liberty +unattained?" She showed how powerful an influence such a coordinated +body could wield and among its primary objects she pointed out the +Federal Suffrage Amendment, corrections in the present laws and true +democracy for the world. She named nine vital needs of the Government +at the present time, to which the proposed organization could +contribute--compulsory education, English the national language, +education of adults, higher qualifications for citizenship, direct +citizenship for women and not through marriage, compulsory lessons in +citizenship through foreign language papers, oath of allegiance as +qualification for citizenship, schools of citizenship in every city +ward and rural district and an educational requirement for voting. + +This comprehensive and convincing address is given in part in the +chapter on The League of Women Voters, by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, +corresponding secretary. It showed beyond question the great work that +awaited the action of women endowed with political power and it swept +away all doubts of the necessity for this new organization to which +Mrs. Catt and her committee had given so much time and thought. +Throughout the convention the League was the dominating feature, +meetings being held daily to discuss its organization, constitution, +objects, methods, officers, etc. + +At the close of Mrs. Catt's address Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee, +with a group of sixteen women from as many southern States came to the +platform and with eloquent words presented her and Dr. Shaw with large +framed parchments on which President Wilson's appeal to the Senate for +the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment Sept. 30, 1918, was +beautifully wrought in illuminated letters by the artist Scapecchi. At +Mrs. Catt's request Dr. Shaw made the response for both of them. + +Tuesday morning the convention was cordially welcomed to the city by +Mrs. George Gellhorn, president of the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League +and chairman of local arrangements. There were present 329 delegates, +seventeen officers and three chairmen of standing committees. The +chair announced that because of the crowded program the separate +reports of officers and committee chairmen, which always had been read +to the conventions, would be replaced with a general report of the +year's work by Mrs. Shuler, chairman of Campaigns and Surveys. This +report was a remarkably comprehensive survey of the varied work of the +association. After recounting the gains in the States she said: + + Our question is now political. The past year has seen suffrage by + Federal Amendment endorsed by twenty-one Democratic and twenty + Republican State conventions; by all those of the minor parties + and by many State Central Committees, while many others have + approved the principle of equal suffrage by a large vote. In + July, 1918, our second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, + was made chairman of the platform committee at the State + Republican conference in Saratoga, N. Y., a distinct suffrage + victory, inasmuch as the men realized that in thus signally + honoring her they were honoring the woman, who, by her work in + winning the suffrage campaign in New York City, had made possible + the victory in the State. Miss Hay has since been made a member + of the Republican State Executive Committee and chairman of the + Executive Committee Woman's Division of the Republican National + Committee. + + The work of the last fifteen months has been accomplished under + most trying and difficult conditions. Many women under the + allurement of war work dropped suffrage work altogether, and + could not be persuaded that it was necessary at this time; others + were unable to endure the criticism that they would be "slackers" + if they did anything besides war work; still others thought if + they did this well that men, "seeing their good works" would + "reward them openly" with the ballot. + + + Mobilization: The mobilization of our suffrage army came April + 18, 1918, with the call for the Executive Council meeting at + Indianapolis. At that time Mrs. Catt, our chief, plainly stated + that there could be no "go it alone" campaigns but that + provincial shackles must be dropped, nation-wide plans adopted + and constructive cooperation from all branches assured. Her plans + were accepted unanimously. On May 14 a bulletin was issued asking + for a nation-wide protest campaign against further delay in + passing the Federal Amendment. Resolutions were to be passed by + State bodies and points given to be stressed at mass meetings and + in publicity. Resolutions of protest were sent from the women of + the Allied countries of Europe to the President of the United + States; from National Republican and Democratic Committees; + General Federation of Women's Clubs; National Women's Trade Union + League; American Collegiate Alumnae; American Nurses' Association; + National Education Association; National Convention of Business + Women; Woman's Christian Temperance Union; American Federation of + Labor. Many States responded with resolutions from State + political parties, press associations, churches, granges, labor + and business organizations, political leaders and large numbers + of citizens. + + + Our Fighting Units: From honorary president to the last director, + every member of the board of the National Association had some + part in war work. Our service flag representing suffrage + officials of our branches carried twenty-five stars. Dr. Shaw, + Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick were conscripted for the Woman's + Committee of the National Council of Defense; Mrs. Catt for the + Liberty Loan's National List; Miss Hay, Mrs. Gardener and Mrs. + Dudley for Congressional and Mrs. Brown for Oversea Hospitals + work. Other members of the board were sent from time to time to + various States on special missions. + + + Congressional Work: Mrs. Rogers went to New Jersey; Mrs. Wilson + and Mrs. Stilwell to Delaware and Mrs. Livermore to New Hampshire + for work connected with the Federal Amendment. Mrs. Wilson + attended the State suffrage conventions in Maine, Rhode Island, + New Hampshire and made a longer stay in Florida and Vermont. Mrs. + Shuler went to the three campaign States twice, spending five + weeks in South Dakota, holding a suffrage school there; five + weeks in Michigan and nearly five months in Oklahoma, later going + to West Virginia. Others who were sent by the National + Association on special missions were Miss Louise Hall, Mrs. + Fitzgerald, Mrs. Anna C. Tillinghast and Miss Eva Potter to New + Hampshire; Miss Mabel Willard to Delaware; Mrs. Cunningham, Miss + Marjorie Shuler and Mrs. Mary Grey Brewer to Florida, while Mrs. + Brewer made a trip as special envoy to five of the western + States. Our nineteen national organizers have been in twenty + States. In eighteen part or all of the expenses have been borne + by the National Association. At present we have ten organizers in + the field. + + To the one who has made our victories possible, our national and + international president, Mrs. Catt, women owe a debt of gratitude + that can never be paid. Her strength and sagacity, her unerring + judgment and masterful leadership have acted as a stimulus and + inspiration, not only to those of us who have been privileged to + work at close range but also to the women of the entire world. + Our national suffrage headquarters have been a place of peace and + happiness because of her patience, good-nature and sympathy. Her + battle for the past fifteen months has been with adverse + conditions and reactionary forces, which are always the hardest + to combat, but not once has her courage faltered or her strength + of purpose failed. + + Our Ammunition: At national headquarters in New York City our + work is departmentalized and functions through the Leslie Bureau + of Suffrage Education under three department heads: The _Woman + Citizen_, Press Bureau and Research. These cooperate with a + fourth department, the National Publishing Company, and all are + so closely co-ordinated that they work as one. + + The _Woman Citizen_--Our National Organ. (See special report.) As + you will remember, the Leslie Commission took over the Press + Bureau March, 1917, and since then has paid all of its expenses. + + In order to keep our official machinery moving, there are about + fifty people on the two floors at 171 Madison Avenue, New York. + + Circularization: The _Woman Citizen_ has been sent each week to + members of Congress and on thirty different occasions they + received literature prepared in the most tempting fashion for + their instruction and edification. Mrs. Catt put into operation + the plan for resolutions from the Legislatures calling upon the + Senate to pass the Federal Suffrage Amendment. These from + twenty-four States were read into the Congressional Record, and + while they did not put the Federal Amendment through they were + effective as showing the nation-wide urge for favorable action. + The Legislatures themselves were circularized with excellent + literature. + + In February, 1918, a bulletin was sent to State presidents + offering one or more traveling libraries of sixty-two volumes, + the Leslie Commission to pay expenses to the State and its + association to pay them within the State. A library could be held + one year. Quantities of literature have been sent to the States + for distribution while requests for special literature have + received prompt attention. + + The activity regarding the appointment of a woman or women on the + Peace Commission originated in the national office and stirred + the people of the entire country. On Dec. 8, 1918, the + association held a meeting of war workers in the National Theatre + in Washington, D. C., to protest against further delay in the + Senate on the Federal Amendment. Twenty-seven delegates + representing the association attended the eight congresses held + throughout the United States in the interest of the League of + Nations. + + Field Work. The resolution committing the National Association to + an aggressive policy was passed at its convention of 1917. It + read: "If the 65th Congress fails to submit the Federal Amendment + before the next Congressional election the association shall + select and enter into such a number of campaigns as will effect a + change in both houses of Congress sufficient to insure its + passage." + + October came; the November elections were approaching; the 65th + Congress had failed to pass the amendment. Probabilities had to + be weighed which would produce the necessary two votes if + possible and it was decided to enter the campaigns in New + Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Delaware. The first two + were at no time specially hopeful, as they were likely to poll + Republican majorities and the Republican Senatorial candidates of + both were against woman suffrage. However, as a result of the + work done in New Jersey, Senator Baird fell much behind his + ticket, while in New Hampshire the women and the advertising made + so strong a case for the pro-suffrage candidate that for a day or + two the result was in doubt, but it was finally declared that + Moses had won by 1,200 votes.... The two most important and + successful contests were in Massachusetts against the Republican + Senator Weeks; in Delaware against the Democratic Senator + Saulsbury.... + +Under the sub-title "In the trenches" Mrs. Shuler told of the three +great State campaigns of the year in Michigan, South Dakota and +Oklahoma (described in the chapters for those States) and said: + + The National Association gave to these States eighteen + organizers, all of whom rendered valuable service. It gave plate + matter at a cost of $4,600; 100,000 posters, 1,528,000 pieces of + literature, eighteen street banners and 50,000 buttons. It gave + to South Dakota a "suffrage school," June 3-20, sessions in the + daytime in seven cities and street meetings in ten of the nearby + towns in the evenings. The sending of Miss Marjorie Shuler as + press chairman to Oklahoma enabled it to issue 126,000 copies of + a suffrage supplement and supply 300 papers with weekly + bulletins, information service and two half-pages of plate. These + three campaigns cost the association $30,720. This was the + financial cost, but the immense output of time and energy by the + women cannot be computed. It is safe to say that all of them as + they emerged from this trench warfare again questioned the + advisability of trying to secure suffrage by the State route. + +Mrs. Shuler's fine report closed with an optimistic peroration on +Seeing it Through. [See Handbook of convention.] + +The carefully audited report of the treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, +showed almost incredible collections during a period when the war was +making its endless calls for money. In part it was as follows: "The +year 1918 has been a very remarkable one for the national suffrage +treasury. The large demands of the war on every individual, both for +money and work, seemed to forebode financial difficulties for us +before the close of our fiscal year. Instead, the response to the +needs of our treasury was never more fully met, both in the payment of +pledges made at the last convention and in securing new pledges and +donations. Early in the year the treasurer was asked to assume also +the duties of treasurer of the association's Women's Oversea Hospitals +Committee and this fund has passed regularly through the treasury, +amounting in all to $133,339. The very generous and hearty response of +the State suffrage associations to the demands of our Oversea +Hospitals' war work has been most gratifying and its financing has not +diminished the regular income of the association.... About one-third +of the association's income has been received from the State +auxiliaries and two-thirds from individual donations. The receipts for +suffrage work were $107,736; balance on hand $11,874." [The Leslie +Commission contributed $20,000.] + +A message to the convention from President Wilson was received +conveying his greetings and best wishes for the success of the Federal +Amendment. On motion of Dr. Shaw the convention sent to the President +an expression of its appreciation of his support. Mrs. Philip North +Moore, president of the National Council of Women, brought its +fraternal greetings. Others were received from far and wide.... On +motion of Mrs. Shuler a telegram of appreciation was sent to Mrs. +Helen H. Gardener of Washington, and on motion of Dr. Shaw one to Mrs. +Ida Husted Harper of New York. A message of sympathy in the loss of +her husband was sent to the veteran suffragist, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton +Harbert of Pasadena, formerly of Chicago. It was voted that letters +from the convention should be sent to the pioneers, Dr. Antoinette +Brown Blackwell, Miss Rhoda Palmer, Mrs. Charlotte Pierce, Miss Emily +Howland and Mrs. C. D. B. Mills. + +During the convention the Legislature of Missouri passed the bill +giving Presidential suffrage to women by 21 to 12 in the Senate and +118 to 2 in the House. The convention sent a message of enthusiastic +appreciation. [For full account see Missouri chapter.] Miss Anna B. +Lawther, president of the Iowa Suffrage Association, requested the +National Association and the League of Women Voters to appeal to the +Legislature of that State to pass a similar bill. Mrs. Dudley of +Tennessee and Miss Mary Bulkley of Connecticut made the same request +for these States and it was granted for all three. Mrs. Frederick +Nathan (N. Y.) urged the suffragists to contribute to the Women's +Roosevelt Memorial Association. Mrs. Gellhorn's young daughter was +introduced as having recently organized a Junior Suffrage League in +St. Louis of thirty-two members. Mrs. Katharine Philips Edson (Cal.) +announced that though it had no regular suffrage organization, +Northern and Southern California each had telegraphed a contribution +of $500 to the work of the National Association. + +The present policies of the association were endorsed. The reason +given for wishing the officers to hold over until the next annual +convention in 1920 was that the complete ratification of the Federal +Amendment by that time was considered certain and these officers would +be best fitted to close up the affairs of the association, which would +then be merged into the League of Woman Voters. From the list of +candidates the following eight directors were elected: Mrs. George +Gellhorn (Mo.); Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.); Mrs. C. H. Brooks +(Kans.); Mrs. Ben Hooper (Wis.); Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.); +Mrs. J. C. Cantrill (Ky.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. Y.); Mrs. George +A. Piersol (Penn.). Mrs. Brooks, Mrs. Livermore and Miss Ogden were +re-elected. + +The afternoon session of Tuesday was devoted to suffrage war work, +with Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, chairman of the War Service +Department, presiding. At the meeting of the Executive Council of the +National Association in Washington, in February, 1917, just before the +United States entered the war, it formed a number of committees in +order that the suffragists throughout the country might do their +especial work for it under the same generalship as they were +accustomed to, and later chairmen of these committees were appointed +to organize and superintend State branches. At the present session of +the national convention these chairmen reported as follows: General +Survey of War Program, Mrs. McCormick (N. Y.); Food Production, Miss +Hilda Loines (N. Y.); Americanization, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley +(Mass.); Child Welfare, Mrs. Percy Pennybacker (Tex.); Industrial +Protection of Women, Mrs. Gifford Pinchot (D. C.); Food Conservation, +Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.); Oversea Hospitals Service, Mrs. +Charles L. Tiffany (N. Y.), chairman, and Mrs. Raymond Brown (N. Y.) +director general in France. + +These reports are considered at length in Mrs. McCormick's chapter on +War Work of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and they +conclusively refuted the charge publicly made again and again by the +National Anti-Suffrage Association through its official organ and on +the platform that the suffragists were "slackers," unpatriotic, +pro-German and concerned only in getting the franchise for themselves. +This charge was frequently made by the editor of the paper and +president of the association, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., wife of +the Republican U. S. Senator from New York, also a strong opponent of +woman suffrage. + +At the close of this very interesting session the convention enjoyed +an automobile ride to see the beautiful city and its environs, +tendered by the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League and under the auspices +of Mrs. Philip B. Fouke. The "inquiry dinner" in the banquet room of +the hotel in the evening, with Mrs. Catt presiding, carried out the +clever idea of trying to ascertain why American women could not obtain +their enfranchisement. The program was as follows: What is the matter +with the United States? Women want it! Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout +(Ills.); Men want it! the Rev. W. C. Bitting (Mo.); Political Parties +want it! Mrs. Emma Smith De Voe (Wash.); The Press wants it! Miss Rose +Young (N. Y.); The Old South wants it! Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs +(Ala.); Congress wants it! Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.); The +Legislatures want it! Mrs. T. T. Cotnam (Ark.); All other Countries +have it! Mrs. Guilford Dudley (Tenn.); Who doesn't want it! Mrs. +Harriet Taylor Upton (Ohio); Well then what is the matter? Mrs. Arthur +L. Livermore (N. Y.); Making it right next time! U. S. Senator Selden +P. Spencer (Mo.). + +At one business session Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) argued that the time had +come to change the form of the Federal Suffrage Amendment to meet the +objections of the southern members of Congress. Discussion showed a +preponderance of sentiment in favor of the old amendment and the +convention so voted, but at the suggestion of Mrs. Park it empowered +the Congressional Committee to make any minor changes which might seem +advisable. At another session there was considerable talk of merging +the National American Association into the new organization of voters +and dropping its name at this convention, but Miss Hay carried the +delegates with her in urging that they retain the old name until they +celebrated Miss Anthony's one-hundredth birthday and were safely +through the ratification of the Federal Amendment. This decision was +especially pleasing to the older members for whom the name had many +endearing memories. Mrs. Catt announced that suffrage societies had +been formed in Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines and it was +voted to extend an official invitation to them to join the National +Association without payment of dues. Mrs. Catt called attention to the +increased educational value of the convention through the many +opportunities extended to the delegates for addressing bodies of +various kinds in the city. These included the churches, synagogues, +Ethical Society, public schools, Chamber of Commerce, Junior Chamber +of Commerce, City Club, Rotary Club, Town Club, Wednesday Club, +Women's Trade Union League and other organizations. + +One of the leading features of the convention was the report of Mrs. +Maud Wood Park, chairman of the Congressional Committee, which gave a +complete summary of the status of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in +Congress from the time of the last convention to the present. This and +Mrs. Shuler's secretary's report offer so comprehensive a survey of +the important work of the National Association that a considerable +amount of space is devoted to them. The report of Mrs. Park filled +over thirty pages of the Handbook of the convention and was an +interesting account of the struggle of the past year and a half to +secure from Congress the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. +A large part of it will be found in the chapter devoted to that +amendment. It showed the work done at the national headquarters in New +York City and Washington and also in the States and gave an idea of +the tremendous effort which was necessary before the measure was sent +to the Legislatures for ratification. It told of the House Judiciary +Committee reporting the resolution on Dec. 11, 1917, "without +recommendation," after amending it so as to limit the time for +ratification to seven years, and of the determination of the opponents +to force a vote on it before the appointment of a Woman Suffrage +Committee for which the friends were striving. This committee was +announced, however, on December 13, 1917. + +All the members but three of the committee were in favor of the +amendment. Chairman Raker introduced a new resolution omitting the +seven-year clause and the committee gave a five-days' hearing to the +National American Association, the National Woman's Party and the +Anti-Suffrage Association, January 3-7 inclusive. The committee made a +favorable report to the House on January 8. On the 9th twelve +Democratic members called by appointment on President Wilson, _who +advised the submission of the amendment_. Speaker Clark gave valuable +assistance, as did many prominent Democrats and Republicans both in +and out of Congress. A five-hours' debate took place in the House on +the afternoon of Jan. 10, 1918, and the vote resulted as follows: + + In Favor Opposed + Republicans 165 33 + Democrats 104 102 + Miscellaneous 5 1 + --- --- + 274 136 + +This was a majority of less than one vote over the necessary +two-thirds. + +Mrs. Park gave a graphic account of the struggle to secure a favorable +vote in the Senate. She described the influences brought to bear from +all possible sources; the conferences with committees and individuals; +the fixing and then postponing of days for a vote; the difficulty in +arranging "pairs"; the "filibustering" of the opponents, the +adjournments, the endless tactics for preventing a vote which for +years had been employed against this amendment. She described the +great five days' discussion in the Senate September 26-October 1; the +appeal to President Wilson for help and his magnificent response in +person on September 30 with its contemptuous treatment by the +opponents; the failure of the Republican leaders to supply the +thirty-three votes promised and of the Democrats to provide from their +ranks the thirty-fourth, which would complete the necessary +two-thirds, and she gave the summary of the result of the balloting on +October 1. Analyzed by parties and including pairs the vote stood: + + Yes No + Democrats 30 22 + Republicans 32 12 + -- -- + Total 62 34 + +The amendment was lost by two votes. This debate, printed in full in +the Congressional Record for those days, hands down to posterity the +noble effort of some members of the U. S. Senate to grant to women a +voice in the Government to which they were giving the most loyal and +devoted service in this hour when it was joining with other nations in +the greatest battle for democracy ever fought. It preserves also the +determination of other U. S. Senators to deny them this citizen's +right and to continue their disfranchised condition. The _Woman +Citizen_, official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage +Association, in its issue of Oct. 5, 1918, gave a spirited account of +the proceedings of those momentous five days. + +Mrs. Park took up the story after the defeat in the Senate and said in +part: "The election returns on Nov. 6, 1918, indicated that the +necessary two-thirds majority in the 66th Congress had been secured. +This belief was shared by prominent Democrats, who from that time on +spared no effort to make unfriendly Democratic Senators realize the +folly of their position in leaving the victory for a Republican +Congress. Only the stupidity of extreme conservatism or a thoroughly +provincial point of view can account for their failure to yield, +unless we are to suppose that more sinister forces were at work.... On +the eve of his sailing for Europe December 2 President Wilson included +in his address to a joint session of Congress another eloquent appeal +for the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment."[117] She +described the mass meeting of the suffrage war workers on December 8 +at the National Theater in Washington arranged by Miss Mabel Willard +with the following program: Mrs. Catt, the national president, in the +chair; Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman Woman's Committee of National +Council of Defense; Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo, chairman National +Woman's Liberty Loan Committee; Mrs. Josephus Daniels, member National +War Work Council, Y. W. C. A.; Miss Jane Delano, director Department +of Nursing, American Red Cross; Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, representing +Community War Work and Women's Oversea Hospitals; Mrs. F. Louis Slade, +of Young Women's Department, Y. M. C. A.; Mrs. Raymond Robins, +president National Women's Trade Union League; Miss Hannah Black, +Munitions Worker. An overflow meeting was held and strong resolutions +for the amendment were adopted at both and sent to each Senator. + +Resolutions calling on every Senator to vote for submission of the +amendment were adopted by twenty-five State Legislatures during +January and February, 1919, and the gaining of Presidential suffrage +in Vermont, Indiana and Wisconsin that winter increased hope. The +suffrage Democrats were desirous of taking one more vote before going +out of power. Mrs. Park's report said: "On petition of twenty-two +Senators, a Democratic caucus on suffrage was held on February 5, the +first since the United States entered the war. On a motion to adjourn, +the suffragists without proxies defeated the "antis," who voted +proxies, by 22 to 16. On a resolution recommending that the Democratic +Senators support the Federal Amendment, twenty-two voted in the +affirmative and when ten had voted in the negative, those ten were +allowed by Senator Thomas S. Martin (Va.), Democratic floor leader, to +withdraw their votes in order that he might declare that, as the vote +stood 22 to 0, a quorum had not voted and the resolution was lost! +This decision was, of course, most irregular and unfair but it +afforded a good illustration of the kind of tactics used by the +opponents. + +"After the close of the morning business February 10, Senator Jones +moved to take up the amendment. An extremely strong speech in its +favor was made by the new Senator, William P. Pollock of South +Carolina. The only other speeches were by Senator Frelinghuysen (N. +J.), on the question of individual naturalization of women and by +Senator Gay (La.) in opposition to the amendment. The vote taken early +in the afternoon showed 55 in favor and 29 opposed. As on October 1, +all the members who were not present to vote were accounted for by +pairs, so that it stood practically 63 in favor to 33 opposed. In +other words the amendment was lost in the 65th Congress by one vote. +The responsibility for the defeat lies at the door of every man who +voted against it. Analyzed by parties and including pairs, the vote on +February 10, was: + + Yes No + Democrats 30 21 + Republicans 33 12 + -- -- + Total 63 33 + +"Thus the Democrats lost their last opportunity and on March 1 the +resolution for the amendment was again favorably reported by the Woman +Suffrage Committee of the Lower House to be acted upon by a +Republican Congress." In commenting on this result Mrs. Park said: +"While we are condemning the un-American stand of our opponents, we +should never lose sight of the hard work done by many of the Senators +who were our friends. There is not space here for the record of all +who helped us but special mention should be made of one, the Hon. John +F. Shafroth, who will not be present to vote when victory comes in the +next Congress. When our cause had only a handful of supporters in +public life, he, then a member of the House, helped Miss Anthony bring +the amendment forward, and from that time to the present his loyal and +devoted service never flagged. Chairman Jones, Senators Ransdell, +Hollis, Wesley Jones, Cummins and the other members of the Woman +Suffrage Committee worked in constant cooperation with your committee. +Among the others who were most frequently called on for help were +Senators Curtis, Smoot, Walsh, Pittman, Lenroot, McNary, Hollis and +Sheppard." + +Mrs. Park spoke briefly of the hearing before the House Committee on +Woman Suffrage April 29 on the bill granting to the Legislature of +Hawaii the power to enfranchise its women. (See the chapter on +Territories.) This bill had passed the Senate in September, 1918. On +Jan. 3, it passed the House without a roll call. + +Tribute to the association's Congressional Committee and other workers +in Washington was paid by Mrs. Park, who said: + + During the past fifteen months there have been several changes in + the personnel of the committee, chief among them the resignation + in September, 1918, of Miss Ruth White, whose gratuitous service + as secretary had extended more than three years. She was + succeeded by Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, but just as her + marked gift for political work was making itself felt in + Washington, the submission of a constitutional amendment in Texas + made it necessary for her to return home in January, 1919. In + August, 1918, the National Board appointed as a special + congressional steering committee two women of widely known + political acumen and experience, Miss Mary Garrett Hay of New + York and Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Nashville, with Mrs. Catt and + Mrs. Park ex officio. In October Mrs. Frank Roessing, who had + been residing in Washington since the preceding April and thus + had been able to give help from time to time, sent in her + resignation. In November Miss Marjorie Shuler was added to the + committee as secretary in charge of publicity, a designation that + by no means expresses the varied duties which have fallen to her + lot or the extent to which she has proved of service. To Mrs. + Helen H. Gardener a new title, that of vice-chairman of the + Congressional Committee, has been recently given by the National + Board.... Her work can rarely be reported because of its + confidential nature, but this may truly be said, that whenever a + miracle has appeared to happen in our behalf, if the facts could + be told they would nearly always prove that Mrs. Gardener was the + worker of wonders.... + + Other members of the Congressional Committee who have been in + Washington for the whole or a part of the period covered by this + report are, in addition to its chairman, Miss Mabel Caldwell + Willard, chairman of the social activities; Mrs. George Bass and + Mrs. Medill McCormick, representing respectively the + organizations of Democratic and Republican women affiliated with + the national party committees; Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Mrs. C. + W. McClure and Mrs. William L. McPherson. No report of the + Washington headquarters would be complete without mention of the + help given in innumerable ways by our house manager, Mrs. + Elizabeth W. Walker, whose patience, tact and good judgment have + made comfortable living possible under the most trying + circumstances. + + Members of the National Board who have been called on to assist + are first and foremost our honorary president, Dr. Shaw; Mrs. + Katharine Dexter McCormick and Mrs. Horace C. Stilwell of + Indiana. Upon Mrs. Catt, the national president, your committee + has constantly depended for advice and direction. Our misfortune + has been that we could not have her continually in Washington. + +To these a list of names was added of those who assisted during long +or short periods. There was an account of the social uses of the +Washington headquarters. In January, February and March of 1918 Miss +Willard, with the help of Mrs. Louis Brownlow, arranged a series of +weekly teas on Wednesday afternoons. Among the hostesses, the guests +of honor and those serving at the table were some of the most +prominent women in Washington--wives of the members of the Cabinet, +Senators and Representatives. Social affairs were finally given up as +war relief work absorbed other interests. Under the direction of Mrs. +Brownlow, daughter of Representative Sims (Tenn.) and wife of the +Chief Commissioner for the District of Columbia, the Washington Equal +Franchise League established a Red Cross Branch at headquarters, where +valuable work was done by suffragists. Several entertainments for the +benefit of the Oversea Hospitals were given at the house and over +$1,000 raised. + +At the close of this report the convention gave a rising vote of +thanks to Mrs. Park and a number of delegates paid special tribute to +the excellent work of the chairman and the committee. A discussion +which followed by Miss Katharine Ludington (Conn.); Mrs. Andreas +Ueland (Minn.); Miss Anna B. Lawther (Iowa); Mrs. Lila Mead Valentine +(Va.) and Mrs. Leslie Warner (Tenn.), under the head "And Now--What?" +was devoted to ways and means for carrying the Federal Amendment. A +number of conferences were held to consider various phases of the work +of the association which had become all-embracing. The one on How to +do Political Work for Suffrage was led by a past-master in it, Miss +Hay. One on How to use our Organization to Win was under the direction +of Mrs. Shuler. The conference of press workers was in charge of Miss +Young. Why We Did Not Win was told by Mrs. Lydia Wickliffe Holmes, +president of the Woman Suffrage Party of Louisiana, referring to the +defeat of the State suffrage amendment; Why We Did Win, by Mrs. Ben +Hooper, president of the Wisconsin association, describing the gaining +of the Presidential franchise. There were reports by the State +presidents of the work that had been done by women during the year +throughout the country for the war, for suffrage, for civic +improvement. + +A report that was heard with the deepest interest was that of the +Oversea Hospitals in France, by Mrs. Raymond Brown, general director, +and Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, chairman of the committee. This had been +a very important part during the past two years of the work of the +association, which had raised $133,000 for its maintenance. [See the +chapter on War Work.] + +When it had been arranged to hold the convention the last week in +March, 1919, it was supposed that the Federal Suffrage Amendment would +have been submitted by Congress by that time, as it had passed the +Lower House early in January. It seemed especially appropriate that +this jubilee convention could celebrate this event on the Fiftieth +Anniversary of the founding of the National Association for the sole +purpose of obtaining this amendment but to the keen disappointment of +its leaders and members two obdurate Senators had spoiled this +beautiful plan. Its success, however, was so universally conceded that +it was decided to hold the semi-centennial celebration and the +afternoon of March 26 was dedicated to this purpose and to the +honoring of the early leaders. Fifty Years of Ever Widening Empire was +the motto at the head of the program. The tribute to the Pioneers of +the National Association was paid by Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, for +twenty-one years from 1881 the corresponding secretary of the +association and closely associated with Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Stanton, +Miss Anthony and the other pioneers almost from her girlhood. To Miss +Anthony she was like a daughter and she gave a touching account of her +personal relations with these noble leaders. Miss Alice Stone +Blackwell drew from her stores of memory a wealth of incidents of the +lives of her parents and the eminent men and women who were associated +with them in founding the American Woman Suffrage Association, also +begun in 1869. A resolution offered by Mrs. Desha Breckinridge was +enthusiastically adopted--that "we owe an undying and inextinguishable +debt to Henry B. and Lucy Stone Blackwell for their great service in +behalf of suffrage for women but believe their greatest gift was their +daughter, who has kept us true to the trust which they committed to +the care of their followers." + +Mrs. Catt, who always had an eye to the practical and who was on the +program to urge the members of the united associations to Finish the +Fight, soon yielded her time to Miss Hay, the noted money-raiser, +whose subject was, Make the Map White. In a very short time the +delegates had shown their appreciation of the pioneers by subscribing +$120,000, the whole amount of the "budget" for the work of the coming +year. Dr. Shaw then closed the afternoon's services with reminiscences +of her forty years' companionship with the workers in both +associations. "The suffragist who has not been mobbed," she said, "has +nothing really interesting to look back upon." She spoke of the last +national convention which Miss Anthony ever attended, in 1906 at +Baltimore, and how she had set her heart on a grand triumph for the +cause in that old, conservative city, describing how her hopes had +been realized in the most successful one from every point of view that +ever had been held. And then she told with exquisite pathos how one +month later Miss Anthony passed into eternal rest. Little did the +listeners think that the next annual convention would hold memorial +services for Dr. Shaw herself and for Mrs. Avery! + +Throughout the week the meetings of the National Association +alternated with the conferences for organizing the enfranchised women +and the name officially decided on was League of Women Voters. A +constitution for it was adopted and Mrs. Charles H. Brooks of Kansas +was elected chairman. Mrs. Catt presented its first aims as outlined +in her annual address and with some additions they were adopted. The +addresses made by the chairmen of the war committees evinced +statesmanship of a high order. The entire proceedings of the +convention connected with this new organization are fully described in +Mrs. Shuler's chapter on the League of Women Voters. There could be no +greater contrast than between the firmness and authority of the +speakers on this program and the pleading and argument of just as able +women in earlier years for the opportunity and power to help in the +solution of great national problems. + +The large Odeon Theater was crowded on the evening of March 27 by an +audience that heard with much interest the story of the recent +campaigns for full and Presidential suffrage as told in the following +program: The Indiana Irritation, Mrs. Richard E. Edwards; The Vermont +Vortex, Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson; The Nebraska Nightmare, Mrs. W. E. +Barkley; The South Dakota Sore Disasters, Mrs. John L. Pyle; The +Michigan Mystery, Mrs. Myron B. Vorce; The Oklahoma Ordeal, Mrs. +Nettie R. Shuler; The Texas Turmoil, Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham; +The Duty of Citizenship, Mrs. Raymond Robins; All Roads Lead to Rome, +Dr. Shaw. + +The report of the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education, made by its +director, Miss Rose Young, filled eighteen pages of the printed +Handbook and covered a vast field of activity which included service +to 25,000 publications--2,500 dailies, 16,000 weeklies, 3,233 +monthlies, a number issued fortnightly, quarterly, etc., and the large +syndicates and press associations. In addition were the mimeographed +news bulletins and the editorial service. An idea was given of the +varied character of the material sent out and the immense amount +furnished during the campaigns. A compliment was paid to the press +work of Mrs. Rose Geyer, "whose task it is to collect the news, State +by State, and distribute the parts of nation-wide interest through +weekly bulletins, and who has by direct personal correspondence of an +intimate and tactful kind trained State organization women to send in +reports of conventions, political and legislative situations, +candidates, etc." Many incidents were cited of important publicity, +special editions of papers and display advertising. Six pages were +devoted to the mission of the weekly official magazine, the _Woman +Citizen_, and the way it had been fulfilled. A tribute was paid to its +very able associate editor, Miss Mary Ogden White. The invaluable +service of the Research Bureau, under the expert direction of Mrs. +Mary Sumner Boyd, assisted by Miss Eleanor Garrison, was strongly set +forth. + +Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, who conducted the editorial correspondence, +referred in her report to her full accounts in preceding years of the +wide correspondence with editors. "The scope of the department was +gradually enlarged," she said, "and many letters were sent to +prominent people in reference to their speeches, interviews in +newspapers and other public expressions. For instance, in the debates +on the Federal Amendment in the Senate, whenever a speaker showed lack +of correct information, a letter giving it was sent to him. Other +letters also were sent to Senators and usually received courteous +answers from themselves, not their secretaries." The report continued: + + Several letters were written to Colonel Theodore Roosevelt urging + him to use his influence with the Republican leaders and always + were fully answered. A letter dictated and signed by him on + January 3, 1919, enclosed one he had just sent to Senator Moses + of New Hampshire, strongly urging him to cast his vote for the + Federal Suffrage Amendment on the 10th. I received it on January + 4 and he died the night of the 5th. + + Letters were sent to Chairman Hays and members of the National + Republican Committee and to different State chairmen on various + points connected with the suffrage amendment. The pamphlet on the + Difficulty of Amending State Constitutions, which was prepared + and sent to every Senator, was put into the Congressional Record + by Senator Shafroth, and a circular letter on the founding and + record of the National Woman's Party by Senator Thomas. Scores of + letters were sent out showing up the fallacies of the + Anti-suffragists during the year; others exposing the connection + of the German-American Alliance with the Antis; others giving + historic information and still others telling of gains in our + own and foreign countries. + + During the first year I wrote to over 2,000 editors in the United + States and Canada. At the end of that time, and after the New + York victory, so many were in favor of woman suffrage itself that + during 1918 the work was very largely concentrated on the Federal + Amendment. In the two months from November, 1917, to January, + 1918, when the vote was taken in the House of Representatives, + 2,600 circular letters containing an argument for this amendment + went out from this department to the principal newspapers of the + United States and in addition 100 special articles were sent to + the largest papers. After that vote was taken this record was + kept up to obtain favorable action by the Senate and a second and + different circular argument was sent to 2,000 papers. A carefully + selected list of several hundred southern newspapers was + furnished to Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, to which he sent + franked copies of his excellent speech on this amendment. + + An open letter to Senator Baird was supplied to all the principal + papers of New Jersey; one to Senator Benet to those of South + Carolina; one to Senator Shields to Tennessee papers. A letter + showing the attitude of the National Association toward organized + labor went to a considerable number of labor papers in the + various States. During the week following the failure to vote on + the Federal Amendment in May, 250 letters and articles in regard + to it were sent out from this department. Most of them enclosed + printed or typed suffrage literature, some of Mrs. Catt's + editorials and articles, and some from other sources, including + my printed pamphlet on the Federal Amendment. Altogether nearly + 8,000 letters and articles went out from this department. + + Several pamphlets also were prepared and an article of about + 2,000 words was furnished every month to the _International + Suffrage News_ in London, with many clippings for its files. A + number of letters and clippings also were sent to Mrs. Fawcett, + the national president of Great Britain, keeping her informed on + the progress of the movement in the United States, of which she + was very appreciative, and letters of information were written to + other countries. + + By the end of 1918 from 300 to 500 editorials on woman suffrage + were received every month and it was as much a subject of comment + in the newspapers as any political issue of the day. The old-time + attacks were almost entirely absent; the editorials showed + knowledge and discrimination; fully nine-tenths of the northern + newspapers advocated not only woman suffrage but the Federal + Amendment, while in every southern State some leading papers were + in favor of enfranchising women and a few approved of its being + done through this amendment. This editorial department of the + Leslie Bureau might venture to claim some share in the evolution + of editorial opinion, to which, of course, many causes + contributed. While the need for its work was by no means at an + end, another task yet remained for the bureau to see + accomplished. + +Mrs. Harper then stated that it was the wish of both the Leslie +Commission and the Board of the National Association that the final +volume of the History of Woman Suffrage should be written while the +excellent facilities of the headquarters were available. Because of +her experience in writing Volume IV this work was entrusted to her and +the editorial department, therefore, was discontinued and the History +begun in January, 1919. + +The report of the Washington Press Bureau was made by its secretary, +Miss Marjorie Shuler, dating from the preceding November and it stated +that weekly press articles had been furnished to the big news +services, the 200 newspaper correspondents in Washington, the papers +of that city and many outside; State presidents, Congressional and +press chairmen, in addition to a certain daily service; feature +articles and Washington letters to the _Woman Citizen_. Material for +favorable editorials was sent out through the Washington +correspondents and 244 friendly to the policy of the National +Association were received with only 12 opposed. The social activities +at the Washington headquarters furnished good local publicity. + +In the report of Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman +Suffrage Publishing Co., she called attention to the almost +insuperable difficulties of the publishing business during the past +eighteen months through the high cost of production, deterioration of +materials and uncertainties of transportation. With all these +handicaps the company had printed 5,000,000 pieces of literature for +the association and 1,000,000 for its own stock. It had filled orders +from Great Britain, Canada, South America, Mexico, Porto Rico and the +Philippines. She told of prominent visitors from foreign countries who +expressed much surprise at the variety and extent of the literature +and took samples home with them for translation. Mrs. Arthur L. +Livermore, chairman of the Literature Committee, gave a list of the +new publications which filled two printed pages and told of a notable +group of booklets dealing with patriotic subjects; a large amount of +special literature to facilitate the passage of the Federal Amendment; +maps, folders, booklets and posters. + +The following recommendations were made by the Executive Council and +adopted by the convention: + + 1. That the N. A. W. S. A. continue to support and endorse the + Federal Amendment which has been before Congress for the past + forty years. 2. That the next convention be in the nature of a + centennial celebration of the birthday of Susan B. Anthony and be + held in February, 1920. 3. That the Board of Officers be asked to + serve until that date, thus confining the election of officers at + this convention to Directors only. 4. That the budget for 1919 be + adopted as presented by Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, the + treasurer--$120,000 if the Voters' League is formed and $100,000 + if it is not formed. 5. That the six War Service Committees + appointed at the last convention be discontinued with the + exception of the Oversea Hospitals Committee, which shall be + discontinued at the conclusion of its work, and those on + Americanization and Industrial Protection of Women, which shall + be continued. 6. That the post-convention board be requested to + reappoint Mrs. Maud Wood Park as chairman of the Congressional + Committee and extend to her a vote of appreciation of her + services. 7. That the Board of Directors shall have authority to + enter any State to carry on work without the authority of that + State, if necessary. 8. That the policy of the association in + regard to referendum campaigns be affirmed. 9. That an + organization of women voters be formed. 10. That the constitution + when amended and made satisfactory to the needs of the + association be substituted for the present constitution; that, + with this end in view, the Chair be instructed to appoint a + committee of five women from enfranchised States and five from + the Executive Council to whom the constitution shall be + referred.[118] + +It was recommended that the following resolution be adopted "in view +of the fact that a request had been made for a new definition of +'non-partisan' in relation to the National Association as at present +constituted or as it may be constituted": "Resolved, That the N. A. W. +S. A. shall not affiliate with any political party or endorse the +platform of any party or support or oppose any political candidates +unless such action shall be recommended by the Board of Directors in +order to achieve the ends and purposes of this organization as set +forth in its constitution. Nothing in this resolution shall be +construed to limit the liberty of action of any member or officer of +this association to join or serve the party of her choice in any +capacity whatsoever as an individual." + +Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, chairman of the committee, offered +fourteen resolutions, the last which were acted upon by +representatives of the National American Suffrage Association, the +first having been presented in 1869. They illustrate the wide scope +of women's interests considered by that body. After full discussion +the following, which are somewhat condensed, were among those adopted: + + Whereas, women may now vote for President in twenty-six States of + the Union, and for all elective officers in England, Scotland, + Ireland, Canada and throughout the largest part of Europe; our + eastern and southern States are now the only communities in the + English-speaking world in which women are still debarred from + self-government; our nation has just emerged from a war waged in + the name of making the world safe for democracy and ought in + consistency to establish real democracy at home; and every + political party in the United States has endorsed woman suffrage + in its national platform; therefore be it + + Resolved, that we call upon the 66th Congress to submit the + Constitutional Amendment for nation-wide woman suffrage to the + States at the earliest possible moment. + + Whereas, one-fourth of the men examined for the army were unable + to read English or to write letters home to their families, be it + + Resolved, that we urge the establishment at Washington of a + national department of education with a Secretary of Education in + the Cabinet. + + Resolved, that this association earnestly favors a League of + Nations to secure world-wide peace based upon the immutable + principles of justice. + + Resolved, that we protest against the unfair treatment of + professional women by the United States authorities in declining + the services of women physicians, surgeons and dentists in the + recent war, thus compelling loyal, patriotic women to serve under + the flag of a foreign government. We recommend that in future our + Government recognize the fitness of accepting the services of + professional women for work for which their training and + experience have qualified them. + + Resolved, That we urge our Government to bring about the prompt + redress of all legitimate grievances, as the removal of the sense + of injustice is the surest safeguard against revolution by + violence. + + Whereas, the Woman in Industry Service of the U. S. Department of + Labor was established as a result of the war emergency, + + Resolved, that we call upon Congress to establish this service as + a permanent Women's Bureau in the U. S. Department of Labor with + adequate funds for the continuance and extension of its work. + + Resolved, that we ask the U. S. Government in its next census to + classify definitely the unpaid women housekeepers as homemakers, + thus recognizing their important service to the nation. + + Resolved, that we call upon Congress to give military rank to + army nurses. + + Resolved, that we tender to our national president, Mrs. Carrie + Chapman Catt, our deep appreciation of her sagacity, good + judgment, fairness and indefatigable devotion to the cause of + equal rights, and we pledge our best efforts to carry out her + wise and far-reaching plans for ultimate victory. + +The last evening of the convention was given to a second mass meeting +at the Odeon Theater with Dr. Shaw presiding and a notable program. +The first speaker was Miss Helen Fraser of Great Britain, who had been +making a tour of the United States in the interest of the women's war +hospital work of that country. She was announced on the program as +"Great Britain's foremost speaker," and she eloquently pictured Women +and the Future. The Hon. Henry J. Allen, Governor of Kansas, stirred +the audience to enthusiasm with an address on Woman's Place in War and +Peace. Mrs. Catt's splendid closing speech on Looking Forward ended a +convention whose keynote throughout had been "progress"; a farewell to +the past years of toil and disappointment, a preparation for the +future work of women under better conditions than had ever before +existed. A spirit of hope, courage and unlimited expectation pervaded +the army of younger women, who were soon to take up the great work +committed to their care. + +On Saturday three important meetings took place. In the morning was +the formal organization of the League of Women Voters, election of +officers, appointment of committees and adoption of a program; also +the final business session of the convention to harmonize the work of +the National Association and that of the league. In the afternoon the +two bodies met in joint session to discuss the question of how voting +and non-voting women might best cooperate and the three following +objects were agreed upon: (1) To secure the vote for all the women of +the nation in the shortest possible time; (2) to obtain the vote for +women in all civilized countries; (3) to carry out the legislative +program of the new organization. + +Thus ended the perfectly managed Jubilee Convention, probably the most +important and far-reaching in the long history of the National +Association. + + +HEARING ON THE FEDERAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT BEFORE THE + +HOUSE COMMITTEE ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE OF THE 65TH + +CONGRESS, JAN. 3-7, 1918. + +There was no longer any necessity for a hearing before the Senate +Committee on Woman Suffrage, as it had unanimously reported in favor +of the Federal Amendment. The suffrage leaders were profoundly +thankful that they would never again have to address a hostile +Judiciary Committee of the Lower House, which not in all the years had +permitted the amendment to come before the Representatives for +discussion, and which had now under pressure reported it out but +"without recommendation." A new era had dawned and a Committee on +Woman Suffrage had been formed, whose chairman, Judge John E. Raker of +California, by advice of Speaker Clark, had introduced another +resolution for the submission of the amendment which was sent to this +committee and it desired to have a hearing.[119] This began Jan. 3, +1918, and in opening it the chairman said: "We have determined to hear +first the National American Suffrage Association and then the Woman's +Party. There seem to be a few opponents--a few men--and they will be +given an opportunity to be heard, as well as Mrs. Wadsworth and her +organization." This hearing extended through four days and the +stenographic report filled 330 closely printed pages. It was the last +of the committee hearings on a Federal Suffrage Amendment which began +in 1878 and had been held during every Congress since that date. If an +investigator of this subject has time to read only one document it +should be the report of this hearing. + +The committee was composed of seven Democrats and six Republicans and +it was well known that all but three--Saunders, Clark and +Meeker--would report in favor of submitting the amendment. The +National Suffrage Association was represented the first day by its +honorary president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw; its president, Mrs. Carrie +Chapman Catt; the chairman of its Congressional Committee, Mrs. Maud +Wood Park; Mrs. Rosalie Loew Whitney, an able lawyer of New York; +Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee, a vice-president of the +association; Mrs. Henry Ware Allen, a prominent suffragist and war +worker of Kansas. Their speeches were among the strongest ever made at +a hearing. Those of the opponents show the character of their +objections up to the very end of the long contest. Dr. Shaw's address +was especially notable for two reasons: it was devoted largely to the +work of women in the war, which was now at its height, and it was the +last one before a congressional committee by this eloquent woman, who +had been coming to the Capitol for almost thirty years in behalf of +the amendment, as she died the following year. She was introduced as +having been appointed by the Secretary of War chairman of the Woman's +Committee of National Defense and as such the head of the war work of +women throughout the country. Dr. Shaw began by referring to the new +line of attack which was now being made on suffragists as pro-Germans +and pacifists but scattered quotations can give small idea of the +strength and beauty of her answers to these charges. Regarding the one +of pacifism she said: + + We grant that we are in favor of peace; we grant that we have a + large sympathy for the sufferings of humanity, but we also claim + to be possessed of intelligence and knowledge and these have + convinced us that there could be nothing more disastrous to the + human race than a peace at this time, which would lead to greater + suffering than a continuation of the war. Therefore, because we + love peace and because we have large sympathy for human + sufferings, we are opposed to anything that will bring a peace + which does not forever and forever make it impossible that such + sufferings shall again be inflicted on the world, and the women + of all countries take that stand with us. We have only to face + the present situation to know that any charges that women as a + whole are not courageous, are not patriotic, are not devoted to + the highest interests of their country are wholly false.... Even + before war was declared the National American Woman Suffrage + Association met in convention in this city and was the first + organized body of women to formulate a definite line of action + and present to the President and the Government a plan which + would be followed by its more than 2,000,000 members, provided + hostilities went so far that war should be declared. The + President accepted our services, and not only did he accept them + but the devotion of the suffragists to the welfare of the country + was so uniformly recognized that when the Government decided upon + war and upon the necessity for organizing the woman-power of the + nation, it called upon the leaders of this association and + appointed them on a committee for co-ordinating the war work of + women throughout the United States. Can it for a moment be + supposed that the men in whose charge the great interests of our + nation rested would have called upon women whom they did not know + to be thoroughly endowed with patriotic devotion and loyalty to + their country for such a service at such a time? + +Dr. Shaw told of the loyalty of women in other countries and quoted +from the tributes of their distinguished men, such men as Mr. Asquith, +Lloyd George, Lord Derby and General Joffre to the services of these +women and in our own country of General Pershing and scores of others. +She told of how the Canadian Government gave the suffrage to women and +how they voted for conscription; of the splendid courage of the men of +Australia and New Zealand, born of enfranchised mothers. She said that +in ten of the eleven western States which filled their quota of +volunteers before any eastern State had done so, there was equal +suffrage. She referred to the eminent supporters of the Federal +Suffrage Amendment, beginning with President Wilson and his Cabinet +and Theodore Roosevelt; asked if these men were pro-Germans and +pacifists and matched them with equally loyal women. In conclusion she +said: + + To fail to ask for the suffrage amendment at this time would be + treason to the fundamental cause for which we, as a nation, have + entered the war. President Wilson has declared that "we are at + war because of that which is dearest to our hearts--democracy; + that those who submit to authority shall have a voice in the + Government." If this is the basic reason for entering the war, + then for those of us who have striven for this amendment and for + our freedom and for democracy to yield today, to withdraw from + the battle, would be to desert the men in the trenches and leave + them to fight alone across the sea not only for democracy for the + world but also for our own country.... The time of reconstruction + will come and when it comes many women will have to be both + father and mother to fatherless children, and these mothers and + their children will have no representatives in this Government + unless it is through the mothers who have given everything that + it might be saved and democracy might be secured.... No men + better than those of the South know what it owes to southern + women and shall those men stand in the way of freedom for the + women who gave everything to retain for our country the very best + of southern traditions--shall they plead in vain for the freedom + of their daughters? What is true of the women of the South is + true of the women of the North.... We are today a united people + with one flag and one country because the women are worthy of + their men, and we plead because we are a part of the people, a + part of the Government which claims to be a democracy, and in + order that this country may stand clean-handed before the nations + of the world. + +The speech of Mrs. Whitney, analyzing the vote on the suffrage +amendment which was carried in New York State the preceding November +was a complete statistical refutation of the charge made by the +anti-suffragists that the favorable vote was due to Socialists and +pro-Germans. A letter was read from Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, +saying that speaking personally and not officially he favored the +submission of the amendment. Telegrams urging it were received from +well-known women in the southern States and Mrs. Catt read editorials +strongly favoring it from a number of southern newspapers. Mrs. George +Bass, head of the Democratic Women's National Committee, protested +against the circulation in the Capitol which was being made by the +"antis" of President Wilson's declaration made in 1914, "I believe +this is a matter to be fought out in the individual States," because +in 1916 he addressed the National Suffrage Convention in Atlantic +City, saying: "I have come to fight with you ... and in the end we +shall not differ as to methods." + +Mrs. Dudley represented the women of the South, saying in the course +of her address: + + What has happened to the State's rights doctrine? Recently the + Federal Constitution has been twice amended and that under a + Democratic administration. While the child labor bill and + eight-hour bill are not amendments, they are really open to the + same objections because they impose upon a State laws to which it + has not given consent. These bills were proposed in one House or + both by southern Democrats; Federal prohibition was proposed in + both Houses by southern Democrats and passed by the votes of + others. So it appears that the theory of State's rights is only + invoked when women plead at the bar of justice for that voice in + their Government to which all those who submit to authority are + entitled. Now, as to the negro problem. We southern women feel + that the time has come to lay once and for all this old, old + ghost that stalks through the halls of Congress. It is a phantom + as applied to woman suffrage. In fifteen States south of the + Mason and Dixon line there are over a million more white women + than negro men and women combined. There are only two States in + which the negro race predominates, South Carolina and + Mississippi. In the former the percentage is 55.2, but there a + voter must read and write and own and pay taxes on $300 worth of + property. In Mississippi the percentage is 56.2 but there also + they impose an educational qualification. In the eight years + since these figures were estimated by the Government this + percentage has greatly decreased, so that South Carolina claims + that there is now no preponderance of negroes. In the other four + States also in the so-called "black belt" an educational test is + imposed upon the voters. In addition to all this we must consider + that during the last decade the negro population has increased 11 + per cent and the white population 22 per cent. Furthermore, in + the past year alone 75,000 negroes have gone from one southern + State to the north, and 73,000 have gone from three other + southern States to one northern State alone. So it appears that + we must transfer part of our rather hysterical anxieties with + regard to the southern negro vote to some other States. + +Mrs. Allen spoke from the standpoint of one who had lived many years +in a State where women voted and asked the question: "Can you +gentlemen not think what it means to women to know that their men are +so chivalrous and have such a belief in their integrity and their +intelligence that they are willing to make them their equal partners +politically? Can you not see that under such conditions men and women +are firmer friends; that husbands and wives are closer together and +that all of the family relations are better because the adults of all +the families are equally interested in city, State and national +affairs?" She told how on the battlefield and in the hospitals in +France could be heard in all languages the one cry, "mother," and she +ended with the plea: "Our world is weary and wounded and sick and if +you will listen in the silence of the night you will hear the same +cry; the world is calling for the mother voice in its councils and in +its activities." + +The afternoon was devoted to the address of Mrs. Catt, which, with the +questions of the committee and her answers, filled twenty-five pages +of the printed report. For four decades the distinguished presidents +of the National Suffrage Association had made their arguments and +pleadings before committees of Congress--Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, +Miss Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, and then Mrs. Catt for +eight years. This was the last time it would ever be necessary and the +first time before a House committee which intended to report in favor. +The changed character of her speaking was shown in her opening +sentence: "The time of argument on woman suffrage has gone by. The +controversy has been waged over a greater part of the civilized world +for the last fifty years, with the result that many nations have +capitulated and woman suffrage is now established under many flags. +That it is still pending in the Congress of the United States is a +disgrace to our country and a reflection on the intelligence and +progress of our people." She illustrated how the doctrine of State's +rights had been ignored by the southern members in their fight for +prohibition, led by Mr. Webb of North Carolina, who as chairman of the +House Judiciary Committee had also led the opposition to woman +suffrage on this same ground. She proved by editorial quotations from +southern papers the changing attitude on this point. + +The vast number of American men who would be in the army in France at +the time of the next election was pointed out and the question was +asked: "When the election comes who will do the voting? Every +'slacker' has a vote; every newly-made citizen; every pro-German +who cannot be trusted with any kind of war service; every +peace-at-any-price man; every conscientious objector and even the +alien enemy. It is a risk, a danger, to a nation like ours to send +millions of loyal men out of the country and not replace their votes +by those of the loyal women left at home." In referring to the "negro +problem" in the South Mrs. Catt said: + + In talking with some of the members of Congress we have learned + that an idea prevails throughout the South that the colored women + are more intelligent, ambitious and energetic than the men, and + that while it is easy enough to keep the men from exercising too + much ambition in the matter of politics, it will not be easy to + control the women. When talking with these same men about the + white women of the South, I have never known an exception to the + rule that they have finally rested their case upon the statement + that the women of the South do not want the vote anyway and if + they did they would only vote as their husbands do. To say that + means what? That the women of the South in the estimate of those + men are too weak-minded to have an opinion of their own; it means + that they have no independence of character; it means that they + have been reduced so far to nonentity that they will only echo + their husbands' opinions. Is living in the homes of the white men + of the South so degrading to the character of the white women + that they really cannot be trusted to have an honest conviction + of their own, but that living in the South outside of those homes + renders women more ambitious and more intelligent than the men? + Do these men realize that they are saying almost in the same + breath that the colored woman is superior to the colored man but + that the white woman is the inferior of the white man? Or is it + possible that the climate of the South produces a stronger + "female of the species" than male, and that the men of the South + are afraid of both the white and the black women? + +Detached quotations give a most inadequate idea of this masterly +address which embodied the complete case for the advocates of the +Federal Amendment. Toward its close Mrs. Catt, in speaking of the +assertion of the "antis" that President Wilson was opposed to the +Federal Suffrage Amendment, made this significant answer: "I request +you, Mr. Chairman, to ask Mr. Wilson for a conference and go to it +taking Democrats and Republicans and say: 'Mr. President, are you or +are you not for this Federal Amendment?' Then you will know. I trust +that you will do this and that, if then it is possible to make a +public statement, you will do so." Afterwards it was apparent that she +knew of Mr. Wilson's complete change of opinion and his intention to +support the amendment. On January 9 Mr. Raker and eleven other members +of the Lower House held a conference with the President and he urged +the submission of the amendment. + +At the continuation of the hearing on January 4 the American +Constitutional League, formed after the suffrage amendment was adopted +in New York out of the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association, was +represented by the chairman of its executive committee, Everett P. +Wheeler, a lawyer of New York City, and by one of its members +introduced as "Dr. Lucian Howe of Buffalo, a very eminent surgeon, a +Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine and the Royal Academy of +Surgeons." The two men occupied the entire day, Mr. Wheeler about +two-thirds of it, but the committee consumed a good deal of this time +by a running fire of questions not far from "heckling." Mr. Wheeler +offered for insertion in the _Record_ a page and a half of finely +printed statistics compiled by the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association to +prove that the laws for women and children were not so good in equal +suffrage States as in those where women could not vote. + +The session of January 5 began with the reading of another sheaf of +urgent telegrams from women of the southern States and petitions for +the amendment signed by a long list of southern women. The first +speaker was Mrs. L. A. Hamilton, president of the National Equal +Franchise Association of Canada and president also of the Women's +Union Government League of Toronto, who was thoroughly informed on the +granting of Provincial and Dominion suffrage and able to answer +convincingly all the questions of the committee. The hearing was then +turned over to the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, +with its president, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., in charge. I am much +pleased by the personnel of this committee," she said, "because both +the Republican Speaker, Mr. Gillett, and the Democratic floor leader, +Mr. Kitchin, promised us that, unlike the suffrage committee in the +Senate, this one would have a fair representation of 'antis.' I find +we have been given two out of thirteen. Of course we think that a +perfectly fair ratio, as we have always felt that one 'anti' was worth +about five suffragists, but we did not suppose you would admit it." +"That is about the ratio that exists in the House," observed Mr. +Blanton, of the committee. "We will know more about that when we vote +in the House," answered Mr. Clark, member from Florida. "I am going to +give you the privilege this morning of hearing from my general staff," +said Mrs. Wadsworth, "and I will have some of my officers of the line +here Monday. I want to introduce Miss Minnie Bronson, our general +secretary." The second speaker was Mr. Eichelberger, who presented +elaborate charts and figures to show that woman suffrage was carried +in New York by the Socialists. To the question of Chairman Raker, +"This is nothing more or less than a compilation of figures as an idea +of your own, to show what certain votes could do or certain figures +would do, isn't it?" he answered: "Yes, absolutely, that is the idea." +At one point Miss Jeannette Rankin of the committee asked: "Are you +the gentleman who compiled some figures on the Democratic and +Republican women's vote in Montana last year?" "I think so," was the +answer. "Where did you get your figures?" "From the official election +report." "How could you tell a Democratic woman's vote from a +Republican woman's vote?" "Well, that part of it was estimation!" The +statements of Mr. Eichelberger and the questions of the committee +filled twenty-four pages of the stenographic report and with Miss +Bronson's address consumed one session. + +The hearing in the afternoon was given to the National Woman's Party, +in charge of its vice-chairman, Miss Anne Martin of Nevada. Mrs. +William Kent of California introduced the speakers--Mrs. Richard +Wainwright, Mrs. Townsend Scott, Miss Ernestine Evans, Mrs. Francis J. +Heney, Miss Elizabeth Gram, Miss Maud Younger, Mrs. Adeline Atwater, +Mrs. Ellis Meredith. + +Monday morning the hearing of the Anti-Suffrage Association was +resumed, Mrs. Wadsworth presiding and speaking at length, saying: "We +never have and never will ask a man to vote with us against his +conscience but the men we do blame are those spineless opportunists +who for political expediency or because they are too lazy to fight are +preparing to surrender their principles for the sake of a dishonorable +and, we believe, a temporary peace." Mrs. Edwin Ford followed and then +Miss Lucy Price. Her remarks and the committee's questions filled +fourteen pages of the report. About fifty telegrams opposing the +amendment were received, nearly half of them from men and all from +Massachusetts. One purported to represent 250 women of Wellesley and +another 1,000 of New Bedford. Henry A. Wise Wood was introduced as +president of the Aero Club of America. During his speech he declared +that "this was no time to unman the Government by this foolhardy +jeopardizing of the rights of both sexes"; that "one wonders at the +spectacle of strong, masculine personalities urging at such an hour +the demasculinization of Government--the dilution with the qualities +of the cow, of the qualities of the bull upon which all the herd +safety must depend"; that "this from now on is a man's job--the job of +the fighting, the dominating, not the denatured, the womanlike man." +Referring to Miss Rankin's vote against war he said: "I do not think +she cried; I was speaking of the real woman, the woman that men love." +He also said that during his campaign for "preparedness" he discovered +that "the woman suffrage movement was hopelessly given over to +pacifism in its extreme socialistic form." In closing he said that +"for any sentimental or political reason it is a damnable thing that +we should weaken ourselves by bringing into the war the woman, who has +never been permitted in the war tents of any strong, virile dominating +nation." This speech was made Jan. 7, 1918, after nearly a year's +experience in the United States of the war work done by women. + +At this hearing the opponents made their supreme effort, knowing that +it was their last chance, and they brought to Washington one of the +South's most noted orators, former U. S. Senator Joseph W. Bailey, of +Texas. He began by saying: "I shall confine my speech entirely to the +political aspect of the question, leaving these very intelligent women +to explain the effect of suffrage on their sex and on our homes," but +he got to the latter phase of it long before he had finished. He +believed that under the Federal Constitution the right to control the +suffrage belonged absolutely to the States but he said: "I am opposed +to women voting anywhere except in their own societies; I would let +them vote there but nowhere else in this country.... No free +government should deny suffrage to any class entitled to it and no +free government should extend suffrage to any class not entitled to +it, for the ultimate success or failure of every free government will +depend upon the average intelligence and patriotism of the electorate. +I hope to show that as a matter of political justice and political +safety women should not be allowed to vote...." + +Giving other reasons why women should not be allowed to vote, he said: +"The two most important personal duties of citizenship are military +service and sheriff's service, neither of which is a woman capable of +performing." Reminded by the chairman that there were many places +where women then were performing the duty of sheriff, constable, +marshal and police, he answered: "They may be playing at them but they +are not really performing them. If an outlaw is to be arrested are you +going to order a woman to get a gun and come with you? If you did she +would sit down and cry, and she ought to keep on crying until her +husband hunts you up and makes you apologize for insulting his +wife.... A woman who is able to perform a sheriff's duty is not fit to +be a mother because no woman who bears arms ought to bear children.... +We agree, I think, that the women of this country will never go into +our armies as soldiers or be required to serve on the sheriff's posse +comitatus. That being true I hardly think they have the right to make +the laws under which you and I must perform those services." The +chairman asked: "When the men go to front with the cartridges and guns +the women assisted in making are the latter not participating in the +war the same as men?" He answered: "They are doing their part and it +may be just as essential as the man's, for if there is not somebody +here to provide the ammunition the guns would be useless, but it is +not military service." + +The war had been in progress three and a half years when these +assertions were made and the whole world knew the part that women had +taken in it. + +"The third personal duty of citizenship is jury service," Mr. Bailey +said, "and while women are physically capable of performing that +service there are reasons, natural, moral and domestic, which render +them wholly unfit for it.... We go to the court house for stern, +unyielding justice. Will women help our courts to better administer +justice? They will not. Nobody is qualified to decide any case until +they have heard all the testimony on both sides but the average woman +would make up her mind before the plaintiff had concluded his +testimony." The awful consequences of "sending women with strange men +into the jury room to discuss testimony which a sensible mother would +not talk over with her grown daughter" were declared to be that +"modesty for which we reverence women would disappear from among +them." "Who will care for the children during the mother's absence?... +They tell me they will require the unmarried women to act as jurors. +There will be enough of them, for marrying will become a lost habit in +our country if we apply ourselves much longer to this business of +making women like men." Mr. Bailey appeared not to know that women had +been serving on juries for from twenty to forty years in the western +States where they were enfranchised. + +"Will women vote intelligently? Can they do it? What time will a woman +have to prepare herself for these new duties of citizenship? Will she +take it from her home and husband or from her church and children or +from her charities and social pleasures? She must take it from one or +all of them and will she make herself or the world better by doing +so?" Mr. Bailey asked. He said he wished that "every woman in the land +was fortunate enough to have servants to do their work"; deplored "the +unfortunate situation of eighty per cent. of the good women whose hard +lot it is to toil from sunup to sundown" and inquired: "Do you think +when they have done all this they will have time and strength to learn +something about their duties as a citizen?" Asked if he did not think +a woman ought to have something to say about the laws that concern the +education and disposition of her children, he answered: "If she cannot +trust that to the father of her children I pity her." "How about the +women who have lost their husbands?" asked a member of the committee. +"If they have neither father nor son nor brother to provide for them +the public will do so," Mr. Bailey replied. In pointing out how +favorable "man-made laws" are to women he said: "In my State, where +women have never voted and where I sincerely trust they never will, +the law gives to the wife as her separate property everything she owns +at the time of her marriage and everything she may afterwards acquire +by gift, devise or descent," but he omitted to say that all of it +passes under the absolute control of the husband and that the wages +she earns belong to him. + +Further on he said: "We must have two sexes and if the women insist on +becoming men I suppose the men must refine themselves into women.... I +dread the effect of this woman's movement upon civilization because I +know what happened to the Roman republic when women attained their +full rights. They married without going to church and were divorced +without going to court." After having discussed widows' pensions, the +double standard of morals, divorce, alimony and various other matters +in carrying out his promise at the beginning to confine his remarks +"entirely to the political aspect of the question" he reached the +subject of women's smoking. He summed up his opinion of this by +saying: "If it were a question between their smoking and their voting +and they would promise to stay at home and smoke I would say let them +smoke." In this connection he said: "A single standard of conduct for +men and women is an iridescent dream. We cannot pay women a higher +tribute than to insist that their behavior shall be more circumspect +than ours." + +Finally Mr. Blanton of Texas, a member of the committee, having +obtained Mr. Bailey's assent that the right of petition is the most +sacred right of the people and that legislators should give it careful +consideration, said: "I have here a very extensive petition from your +State signed by prominent citizens of the leading cities urging +Congress to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment and I notice from +Houston, your city, the following: He then read a long list of bank +presidents, judges, editors, college professors, the Mayor and other +city officials, officers of labor unions, and, in addition, the Chief +Justice of the Supreme Court, Attorney General, District Attorney and +other State officials, and pressed Mr. Bailey to admit their high +character and standing. He did so but said: "I would not vote for this +amendment if a majority of my constituents asked me to do so." + +An undue amount of space is given to the address of Mr. Bailey because +he had been selected by the anti-suffragists as the strongest speaker +for their side in the entire country and it embodied their views as +these had been presented ever since the suffrage movement began. He +was thoroughly representative of the opposition, and the officers and +members of the women's Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage who were +present applauded his remarks from beginning to end. He made this +speech Jan. 7, 1918, and the following March the Texas Legislature by +a large majority gave Primary suffrage to women for all officers from +President of the United States down the list and the bill was +immediately signed by the Governor. The primaries decide the election +in that State.[120] + +The committee received petitions asking their favorable action on the +amendment from the Texas State Federation of Women's Clubs and those +of Houston and other cities; from women's clubs of many kinds in Waco +representing 2,000 members; from women's organizations all over the +State and from individuals, the number reaching thousands. There was +the same outpouring from the other southern States, although it was +the principal argument of the opposition that the vote was being +forced on southern women. There was also a remarkable expression from +southern men. Seventy-five pages of these petitions were printed in +the official report of this hearing. As the sentiment in the northern +States was now so largely in favor it was considered unnecessary for +them to send petitions, although many did so. There were presented to +the committee a message from the Governor of every equal suffrage +State urging the immediate submission of the amendment and strong +letters to this effect from Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and +Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo, Southerners and +Democrats. None of this pressure was necessary to influence it but the +leaders of the National Suffrage Association arranged this +demonstration in order to show that favorable action by the committee +would be fully sustained by the sentiment of the country, and as an +answer to the charge that "a small, insistent lobby was forcing the +amendment through Congress." The anti-suffragists did not present one +communication of any kind from any State except Massachusetts. + +The valuable space in this volume could not be better used perhaps +than for the closing speeches of Mrs. Park, chairman of the +association's Congressional Committee, and Mrs. Catt, its president. A +greater contrast can scarcely be imagined than that between their +statesmanlike quality and the rambling, inconsequential, prejudiced +character of Mr. Bailey's. "After the eloquent address of the last +speaker," began Mrs. Park with delicious satire, "I sympathize with +the committee and the audience who will have to return to the plain +subject of the Federal Amendment for Woman Suffrage.... I think those +who have been listening to all of these hearings will agree that the +opponents have made many interesting statements but have given +comparatively few facts." Saying that Mrs. Catt would reply to Mr. +Bailey's speech she answered the points in the others with a keenness +and clearness that no lawyer could have exceeded and met with dignity +and acumen the questions of the opponents on the committee. She was +not once disconcerted or unable to reply convincingly and always with +a disarming courtesy but she did not deviate from her subject or allow +the questioners to do so. + +Mrs. Catt's answer to Mr. Bailey's speech, which filled twenty-five +pages of the stenographic report, occupied seven pages and there was +not a superfluous word. She began by calling attention to the +petitions as a whole from the southern States, printed copies of which +were furnished to each member of the committee. They included the +names of over a thousand prominent men, among them two and a half +pages of Mayors; the Governors of Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida and +many other State officials. She said that as she listened to Mr. +Bailey's speech she was reminded of the declaration of a president of +Harvard College, who asserted that without question there were witches +and it was the duty of all good people to hunt them out, but +twenty-five years later every intelligent man knew there had never +been such a thing as a witch. A man once wrote a book to prove that a +steamship could never cross the ocean and the book was brought to +America by the first one that crossed. Daniel Webster made a speech +against admitting as a State one of the western Territories because +its members of Congress after their election would not be able to +reach Washington until the session was over. "These men lacked +vision," she said, "and so does the last speaker. He does not know +what has been happening in the world." She referred to the vast +changes in the industrial life of women since the days of the mother +of Washington and the wife of Jefferson, whom he had used as models +for those of the present day, and said: "It is my pleasure to inform +him that I myself am that which he regrets--a voter--and I would +rather have my vote as a protector than the reverence even of the +gentleman from Texas." + +Mrs. Catt continued: "The speech to which we have listened has been +interesting because it has seemed to be a chapter from a book that was +written long ago. The week before the war began it was my privilege, +sitting in the balcony of the House of Commons, to look down upon the +bald head of Mr. Asquith while he made a speech against woman +suffrage. 'I am unalterably opposed to woman suffrage because Great +Britain is a mighty empire and it will always be necessary to defend +it by military power and what do women know about war?' he asked. +Three years later he humbly confessed before the world that when a +nation like Great Britain goes to war, and such a war as this one, +which calls for every ounce of power the nation can offer in its +defense, men and women make equal sacrifices and therefore it is not a +man's job but it is a man's and a woman's job and they are doing it +together. So the Premier demanded woman suffrage and voted for it in +the House of Commons. Remembering Mr. Asquith, I think there is hope +for Mr. Bailey." + +Mrs. Catt pictured eloquently the marvelous work being done by women +in Great Britain in the munitions factories, the railway service, the +dockyards, and also in our own and all countries; she described the +heroic sacrifices of the nurses; she told how the women of Canada and +New Zealand had voted for conscription and how in all countries the +women were backing their men in the war. "It is declared that American +women cannot carry a gun," she said. "Why that is the kind of talk we +heard forty years ago and Mr. Bailey's speech is just that much behind +the times.... I am sorry for any man who has stood still while the +world has moved on." + +Only the merest outline of this convincing address is given but before +its conclusion Mr. Bailey had deliberately insulted Mrs. Catt by +leaving the room. Mrs. Wadsworth, when asked if she wished her side to +be heard in rebuttal, introduced Miss Charlotte E. Rowe of Yonkers, N. +Y., who made a vigorous plea for saving the home, children and +womanhood and declared woman suffrage would lead to Socialism. During +the course of her speech she said, according to the official +stenographic report: "If working girls and women in colleges will +study cooking and sewing and domestic science and hygiene, or simple +rules of health and how to care for the sick and the fine and +beautiful art of home making, it will be much better for them and +better for the country than if they spend their time parading up the +avenue of a crowded city and praying that they may some day, somehow, +become policemen or boiler-makers side by side with men.... I say to +you that it has remained for this self-sufficient 20th century to have +produced a womanhood which would stand--even a small proportion of +it--in legislative halls and say that they are doing more in this +great and terrible war than the men are doing.... Gentlemen, if I were +a married woman and my husband was a feminist and on the first Tuesday +after the first Monday in November he said to me, 'Come, walk by me so +as to strengthen and sustain me as I go to the polls,' I would say to +him, 'Look here, Mabel, here is the key of the flat; I am going home +to father.' I would advise men and women suffragists--and especially +those suffragist men who need their wives to strengthen and sustain +them on election day--I would advise them to go to the cellar and +check over the laundry." + +This last hearing on the Federal Suffrage Amendment closed on January +7 and the following day the committee made a favorable report to the +House of Representatives. By consent of the Committee on Rules the +10th was set for the debate and vote and on that day the House by a +two-thirds majority voted to submit the amendment to the State +Legislatures. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[114] Although there was no national convention in 1918 Mrs. Catt +called a conference of the Executive Council, consisting of the +national officers, chairmen of standing and special committees and +State presidents, at Indianapolis, April 18th and 19th. It was in +effect a convention except for the presence of elected delegates and +forty-five States were represented, including many of the South. They +were entertained by the Indiana Women's Franchise League, welcomed by +Governor Goodrich and Mayor Jewett and were guests at many brilliant +social functions. A full program of daytime plans for work and +committee reports and of evening addresses was carried out. The +visitors were able to attend meetings of the Indiana State Suffrage +Convention and the League of Women Voters. + +[115] Call: The National American Woman Suffrage Association calls its +State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to meet in annual +convention at St. Louis, Statler Hotel, March 24 to March 29, 1919, +inclusive. + +In 1869, Wyoming led the world by the grant of full suffrage to its +women. The convention will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this +event. In 1869, the National and the American Woman Suffrage +Associations were organized--to be combined twenty years later into +the National American. The convention will celebrate the fiftieth +anniversary of the founding of the organization which without a pause +has carried forward the effort to secure the enfranchisement of women. +As a fitting memorial to a half-century of progress the association +invites the women voters of the fifteen full suffrage States to attend +this anniversary and there to join their forces in a League of Women +Voters, one of whose objects shall be to speed the suffrage campaign +in our own and other countries. + +The convention will express its pleasure with suitable ceremonials +that since last we met the women of England, Scotland, Ireland and +Wales, Canada and Germany have received the vote, but it will make +searching inquiry into the mysterious causes which deny patriotic, +qualified women of our Republic a voice in their own government while +those of monarchies and erstwhile monarchies are honored with +political equality. Suffrage delegates, women voters, there is need of +more serious counsel than in any preceding year. It is not you but the +nation that has been dishonored by the failure of the 65th Congress to +pass the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Let us inquire together; let us +act together. + + CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President. + ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Honorary President. + KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, First Vice-President. + MARY GARRETT HAY, Second Vice-President. + ANNE DALLAS DUDLEY, Third Vice-President. + GERTRUDE FOSTER BROWN, Fourth Vice-President. + HELEN H. GARDENER, Fifth Vice-president. + NETTIE ROGERS SHULER, Corresponding Secretary. + JUSTINA LEAVITT WILSON, Recording Secretary. + EMMA WINNER ROGERS, Treasurer. + +[116] Ministers who opened the different sessions with prayer were +Mary J. Safford, of Iowa; Dr. Ivan Lee Holt, Rabbi Samuel Thurman, Dr. +G. Nussman and the Rev. Father Russell J. Wilbur; at the meetings in +the Odeon, Dr. J. W. Mclvor and Dean Carrol Davis, all of St. Louis. + +[117] From the address of President Wilson: + +And what shall we say of the women?... Their contribution to the great +result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new luster to the annals +of American womanhood. The least tribute we can pay them is to make +them the equals of men in political rights as they have proved +themselves their equals in every field of practical work they have +entered, whether for themselves or for their country. These great days +of completed achievements would be sadly marred were we to omit that +act of justice. + +[118] For action of this committee see Appendix for Chapter XIX. + +[119] Names of Committee: John E. Raker, California, chairman; Edward +W. Saunders, Virginia; Frank Clark, Florida; Benjamin C. Hilliard, +Colorado; James H. Mays, Utah; Christopher D. Sullivan, New York; +Thomas L. Blanton, Texas; Jeannette Rankin, Montana; Frank W. Mondell, +Wyoming; William H. Carter, Massachusetts; Edward C. Little, Kansas; +Richard N. Elliott, Indiana; Jacob E. Meeker, Missouri. + +[120] In the summer of 1920, Mr. Bailey, who had been living in New +York City ever since he resigned from the Senate, returned to Texas +and made the race for Governor to "rescue" the State from woman +suffrage, prohibition and other progressive measures which had made +great headway since he left it. He was badly defeated for the +nomination, with women voting. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1920. + + +The official report of the Fifty-first convention, in 1920, was +entitled Victory Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage +Association and First Congress of the League of Women Voters and the +Call was as follows: + +"Suffragists, hear this last call to a suffrage convention! + +"The officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association +hereby call the State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to +meet in annual convention at Chicago, Congress Hotel, February 12th to +18th, inclusive. In other days our members and friends have been +summoned to annual conventions to disseminate the propaganda for their +common cause, to cheer and encourage each other, to strengthen their +organized influence, to counsel as to ways and means of insuring +further progress. At this time they are called to rejoice that the +struggle is over, the aim achieved and the women of the nation about +to enter into the enjoyment of their hard-earned political liberty. Of +all the conventions held within the past fifty-one years, this will +prove the most momentous. Few people live to see the actual and final +realization of hopes to which they have devoted their lives. That +privilege is ours. + +"Turning to the past let us review the incidents of our long struggle +together before they are laid away with other buried memories. Let us +honor our pioneers. Let us tell the world of the ever-buoyant hope, +born of the assurance of the justice and inevitability of our cause, +which has given our army of workers the unswerving courage and +determination that at last have overcome every obstacle and attained +their aim. Come and let us together express the joy which only those +can feel who have suffered for a cause. + +"Turning to the future, let us inquire together how best we can now +serve our beloved nation. Let us ask what political parties want of +us and we of them. Come one and all and unitedly make this last +suffrage convention a glad memory to you, a heritage for your children +and your children's children and a benefaction to our nation.[121]" + +The seven days of the convention were divided between the National +Association and the League of Women Voters, the latter having the +lion's share as a new organization requiring much time and attention. +All of February 12 was given to the meetings of its committees, with +dinners for all delegates and a program of speakers at the Auditorium, +Morrison and La Salle Hotels in the evening. All matters relating to +the league are considered in the chapter on the League of Women Voters +by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary. The addresses +at the convention, with the exception of those on Miss Anthony's one +hundredth birthday and the memorial meeting for Dr. Shaw, were given +under the auspices of the league and the Resolutions were prepared by +its committee. + +The convention of the National Association began February 13 but the +two preceding days had been occupied by almost continuous business +sessions of the officers and board of directors. Mrs. Grace Wilbur +Trout, State president, was chairman of the local committee of +arrangements of nearly forty women of Chicago, Evanston and suburban +towns for this largest national suffrage convention ever held and the +arrangements had never been surpassed. Nothing was forgotten which +could contribute to the success or pleasure of the convention. A +hostess was appointed for each State to make its delegates acquainted +and contribute to their comfort. There were present 546 delegates, a +large number of alternates and thousands of visitors, while for the +audiences at the public meetings there was not even standing +room.[122] + +At the morning session on the 13th, with Mrs. Catt presiding, the +following program was presented by the Executive Council for the +consideration of the delegates and was discussed at this and other +business sessions: + +1. Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association dissolve +when the last task concerning the extension of suffrage to women is +completed? + +2. Shall it recommend its members to join the League of Women Voters? + +3. Shall this be the last suffrage convention held under its auspices? +If not, when shall the next be called? + +4. If this is to be the last convention, shall a Board of Officers be +elected at this convention to serve until all tasks are completed? If +this is done, to whom shall such a board render its final report and +by whom shall it be officially discharged? + +5. If dissolution is determined upon, what disposition shall be made +of (a) the files of data; (b) the property; (c) the funds, if any +remain? + +6. In the event that the association shall be dissolved what agency +shall become the auxiliary of the International Woman Suffrage +Alliance? + +7. What plan for the intensive education of new women voters is +possible and shall it be recommended that the League of Women Voters +take up this work or shall it be conducted under the National American +Woman Suffrage Association? + +At the beginning of the afternoon session Mrs. Catt said that for +twenty-eight years the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw had opened the national +conventions with prayer and she asked that in memory of her the +delegates rise and join in silent prayer. They did so and many were +in tears. The Rev. Herbert L. Willet then offered the invocation. Mrs. +Trout, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association, cordially +welcomed the delegates to Chicago. The greeting from the Canadian +Woman Suffrage Association was brought by its president, Dr. Margaret +Gordon. Mrs. Catt made a gracious response and resigning the chair to +the first vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, gave a +brief address, reserving a longer one for the League of Women Voters. +She said in part: + + When we met at St. Louis a year ago in the 50th annual convention + of our association, we knew that the end of our long struggle was + near. We comprehended in a new sense the truth of Victor Hugo's + sage epigram: "There is one thing more powerful than Kings and + Armies--the idea whose time has come to move." We knew that the + time for our idea was here, and as State after State has joined + the list of the ratified we have seen our idea, our cause, move + forward dramatically, majestically into its appropriate place as + part of the constitution of our nation. We have not yet the + official proclamation announcing that our amendment has been + ratified by the necessary thirty-six States, but thirty-one have + done so and another will ratify before we adjourn; three + Governors have promised special sessions very soon and two more + Legislatures will ratify when called together. There is no power + on this earth that can do more than delay by a trifle the final + enfranchisement of women. + + The enemies of progress and liberty never surrender and never + die. Ever since the days of cave-men they have stood ready with + their sledge hammers to strike any liberal idea on the head + whenever it appeared. They are still active, hysterically active, + over our amendment; still imagining, as their progenitors for + thousands of years have done, that a fly sitting on a wheel may + command it to revolve no more and it will obey. They are running + about from State to State, a few women and a few paid men. They + dash to Washington to hold hurried consultations with senatorial + friends and away to carry out instructions.... It does not + matter. Suffragists were never dismayed when they were a tiny + group and all the world was against them. What care they now when + all the world is with them? March on, suffragists, the victory is + yours! The trail has been long and winding; the struggle has been + tedious and wearying; you have made sacrifices and received many + hard knocks; be joyful to-day. Our final victory is due, is + inevitable, is almost here. Let us celebrate to-day, and when the + proclamation comes I beg you to celebrate the occasion with some + form of joyous demonstration in your own home State. Two + armistice days made a joyous ending of the war. Let two + ratification days, one a National and one a State day, make a + happy ending of the denial of political freedom to women! + + Our amendment was submitted June 4, 1919, and to-day, eight + months and eight days later, it has been ratified by thirty-one + States. No other amendment made such a record but the time is not + the significant part of the story. Of the thirty-one + ratifications twenty-four have taken place in _special sessions_. + These mean extra cost to the State, opportunity for other + legislation and the chance of political intrigue for or against + the Governor who calls them. These obstacles have been difficult + to overcome, far more difficult than most of you will ever know, + and in a few instances well-nigh insurmountable, but the point to + emphasize to-day is that they _were_ overcome. As a whole the + ratifications have moved forward in splendid triumphal + procession. There have been many inspiring incidents of daring + and clever moves on the part of suffragists to speed the campaign + and there have been many incidents of courage, nobility of + purpose and proud scorn of the pettiness of political enemies on + the part of Governors, legislators and men friends. On the other + hand there have been tricks, chicanery and misrepresentation, but + let us forget them all. Victors can afford to be generous. + +Referring to the cost of special sessions, Mrs. Catt said: + + If the Governor is a Republican tell him that had it not been + that two Republican Senators, Borah of Idaho and Wadsworth of New + York, refused to represent their States as indicated by votes at + the polls, resolutions by their Legislatures and planks in their + party platforms, the suffrage amendment would have passed the + 65th Congress. It then would have come into the regular sessions + of forty-two Legislatures with more than thirty-six pledged to + ratify and without a cent of extra cost to any State! When a + Republican Governor calls an extra session in order to ratify he + merely atones for the conduct of two members of his own party. + They, not he, are to blame that it became necessary. If the + Governor is Democratic say that had it not been for two northern + Democratic Senators, Pomerene of Ohio and Hitchcock of Nebraska, + who refused to represent their States on the question as + indicated by their Legislatures and platforms, Congress would + have sent the amendment to the 1919 Legislatures and it would + have cost the States nothing. The Democratic Governor who calls a + special session only makes honorable amends for the + misrepresentation of members of his own party.... + + We should be more than glad and grateful to-day, we should be + proud--proud that our fifty-one years of organized endeavor have + been clean, constructive, conscientious. Our association never + resorted to lies, innuendoes, misrepresentation. It never accused + its opponents of being free lovers, pro-Germans and Bolsheviki. + It marched forward even when its forces were most disorganized by + disaster. It always met argument with argument, honest objection + with proof of error. In fifty years it never failed to send its + representatives to plead our cause before every national + political convention, although they went knowing that the + prejudice they would meet was impregnable and the response would + be ridicule and condemnation. It went to the rescue of every + State campaign for half a century with such forces as it could + command, even when realizing that there was no hope. In every + corner it sowed the seeds of justice and trusted to time to bring + the harvest. It has aided boys in high school with debates and + later heard their votes of "yes" in Legislatures. Reporters + assigned to our Washington conventions long, long ago, took their + places at the press table on the first day with contempt and + ridicule in their hearts but went out the last day won to our + cause and later became editors of newspapers and spoke to + thousands in our behalf. Girls came to our meetings, listened and + accepted, and later as mature women became intrepid leaders. + + In all the years this association has never paid a national + lobbyist, and, so far as I know, no State has paid a legislative + lobbyist. During the fifty years it has rarely had a salaried + officer and even if so she has been paid less than her earning + capacity elsewhere. It has been an army of volunteers who have + estimated no sacrifice too great, no service too difficult. + +Mrs. Catt enumerated some of the immortal pioneer suffragists and +said: "How small seems the service of the rest of us by comparison, +yet how glad and proud we have been to give it. Ours has been a cause +to live for, a cause to die for if need be. It has been a movement +with a soul, a dauntless, unconquerable soul ever leading onward. +Women came, served and passed on but others took their places.... How +I pity the women who have had no share in the exaltation and the +discipline of our army of workers! How I pity those who have not felt +the grip of the oneness of women struggling, serving, suffering, +sacrificing for the righteousness of woman's emancipation! Oh, women, +be glad today and let your voices ring out the gladness in your +hearts! There will never come another day like this. Let joy be +unconfined and let it speak so clearly that its echo will be heard +around the world and find its way into the soul of every woman of +every race who is yearning for opportunity and liberty still +denied...." + +After this inspiring address the convention was turned into a +jollification meeting for a considerable time until the delegates were +tired out by their enthusiasm and composed themselves to receive a +telegram of greeting from President Woodrow Wilson addressed to Mrs. +Catt: "Permit me to congratulate your association upon the fact that +its great work is so near its triumphant end and that you can now +merge it into a League of Women Voters to carry on the development of +good citizenship and real democracy; and to wish for the new +organization the same wise leadership and success." On motion of Mrs. +McCormick it was voted that "the gratitude of the convention be +expressed to the President for his constant cooperation and help, with +deep regret for his illness." On motion of Miss Mary Garrett Hay, +second vice-president, the convention authorized a letter of +appreciation to be sent to the Governors of States that had ratified +the Federal Amendment and telegrams to those who had not called +special sessions strongly urging them to do so.[123] This was made +especially emphatic to Governor Louis F. Hart of Washington, the only +equal suffrage State which had not ratified. [The session was called +and the Legislature ratified unanimously March 22, leaving but one +more to be gained.] + +At the evening session the Recommendations were considered as +presented by the Executive Council, which consisted of the president +of the association, officers, board of directors, chairmen of standing +and special committees, presidents of affiliated organizations and one +representative of each society which paid dues on 1,500 or more +members. After discussion and some amendment they were adopted as +follows: + + Whereas, The sole object of many years' endeavor by the National + American Woman Suffrage Association has been "to secure the vote + to the women citizens of the United States by appropriate + national and State legislation" and that object is about to be + attained, and + + Whereas, The association must naturally dissolve or take up new + lines of work when the last suffrage task has been completed, + therefore, be it + + Resolved, That the association shall assume no new lines of work + and shall move toward dissolution by the following process: + + (1) That a Board of Officers shall be elected at this convention, + as usual, to serve two years (if necessary) in accordance with + the provisions of the constitution; + + (2) That the eight directors elected at the 50th annual + convention, and whose term of office does not expire until March, + 1921, shall be asked to serve until the term of elected officers + shall expire; + + (3) That any vacancy or vacancies occurring in the list of + directors shall be filled by election at this convention; + + (4) That all vacancies in the Board of Directors occurring after + this convention shall be filled by majority vote of the board; + + (5) That the Board of Officers so constituted shall have full + charge of the remainder of the ratification campaign and all + necessary legal proceedings and shall dispose of files, books, + data, property and funds (if any remain) of the association + subject to the further instruction of this convention. The + Executive Council shall be subject to call by the Board of + Officers if necessary; + + (6) That the Board of Officers shall render a quarterly account + of its procedure and an annual report of all funds in its + possession duly audited by certified accountant, to the women who + in February, 1920, compose its Executive Council. When its work + is completed and its final report has been accepted by this + council it may by formal resolution dissolve.[124] + +A resolution was adopted regarding action in case of a referendum to +the voters of ratification by a Legislature but later the U. S. +Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional. Another urged the new +league to make political education of the voters its first duty. The +last resolution was as follows: + +"We recommend that the League of Women Voters, now a section of the +National American Woman Suffrage Association, be organized as a new +and independent society, and that its auxiliaries, while retaining +their relationship to the Board of Officers to be elected in this 51st +convention in form, shall change their names, objects and +constitutions to conform to those of the National League of Women +Voters and take up the plan of work to be adopted by its first +congress." + +Following the precedent of the last convention, in order to save time, +all headquarters' activities were summed up in the report of the +corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler. Much condensed the +report was as follows: + + In the greater glory of the Federal Amendment and the + ratifications which are bringing about our ultimate victory we + should not overlook the solid, constructive work of the past ten + and a half months and those successes of the National American + Woman Suffrage Association and its branches in the various + States, which made possible the Federal Amendment. + + At our convention in St. Louis, March 24-29, 1919, when we met to + counsel together for the future and to gird on our armor for the + "one fight more--the last and the best," we celebrated the + Missouri victory, the twenty-seventh State to give Presidential + suffrage to women. Mrs. Catt, by resolution of the convention, + immediately wrote to the legislators of Tennessee and Iowa urging + passage of a similar bill. Tennessee gave Presidential and + Municipal suffrage to women April 14 and Iowa Presidential + suffrage on April 19, increasing the number of presidential + electors for whom women may vote to 306 out of 531, the total in + the United States. + + Connecticut women made a magnificent campaign for Presidential + suffrage, failing by only one vote in the Legislature. The + strength displayed by the suffragists, the obtaining of 98,000 + women's signatures and the dignity and ability shown under the + leadership of Miss Katherine Ludington, so advanced suffrage in + that State as to make the battle seem a victory rather than a + defeat. + + Municipal suffrage was given by the Legislature to the women of + Orlando, Fla., April 21, making sixteen towns in ten counties in + that State where women have this right. An effort to secure a + Primary suffrage bill for the entire State failed. + + Suffrage in the Democratic municipal primaries was granted by the + local Democratic committee to the women of Atlanta, Ga., May 3, + for one election. + + In a referendum vote on a State amendment, May 24, 1919, full + suffrage was defeated in Texas. The main causes were: The large + number of men who were so confident of the success of the + amendment that they did not take the trouble to go to the polls + to vote for it; illegal changes in the numbering and position of + the amendment on the ballots of the various counties; the absence + from the State of about 200,000 soldiers; unfavorable weather + conditions; the shortness of the time allowed for the campaign, + and, chief of all, the organized opposition of the foreign-born + and negro voters. The Texas suffragists won a clear-cut victory + January 28 when the State Supreme Court upheld the decisions of + the lower courts that the Primary suffrage bill was + constitutional.... + + On June 28 the women of Nebraska won a distinctive victory when + the State Supreme Court held the Presidential and Municipal + suffrage act of 1917 to be constitutional. The history of woman + suffrage records no harder fought legal battle than this. They + won another victory in the decision by Attorney General Clarence + E. Davis that they had the right to help choose delegates to the + national political party conventions. On February 12 the + constitutional convention voted to leave the word "male" out of + the new constitution. + + In Tennessee the decision of the Court of Chancery, which + declared the Presidential and Municipal suffrage bill of 1918 + unconstitutional, has been reversed by the State Supreme + Court.... + + On February 13 the suffrage committee of the constitutional + convention then in session in Illinois voted unanimously to + strike "male" out of the new constitution. + + We began the year 1918 with nineteen organizers, but as the + legislative work came to occupy the place of chief importance + most of the States expressed a preference for the services of + their own women and it became necessary to reduce the national + staff.[125] + + During the winter of 1918-1919 a series of conferences was + offered to the southern States but for various reasons not + accepted. At the St. Louis convention in March, 1919, Mrs. Catt + requested the southern representatives to outline the definite + help desired from the National Association and their requests + were accepted by the board at its post-convention meeting as + follows: The National to give (a) one speaker or organizer to + each State for two months; (b) a suffrage school to each; (c) one + thousand copies of Senator Pollock's speech to each. This help + from the National was conditional upon the promise of the + southern States (a) that each State would furnish one of its own + workers to be under the instruction of the national worker and to + continue in charge after her departure; (b) that it would + establish and maintain a speakers' bureau; (c) that it would + begin the petition campaign. By October the association had + fulfilled its promise of an organizer for two months to Virginia, + West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia, + Florida, Alabama and Tennessee and had arranged to send + organizers to Kentucky, Delaware and Mississippi when those + States were ready for them. Later, because of ratification, it + gave additional help, sending Mrs. McMahon to Delaware, Mrs. + Cunningham, Miss Watkins and Miss Peshakova to Mississippi; Miss + Pidgeon, Miss Miller and Mrs. McMahon to Alabama, where a + splendid campaign for ratification was directed by Mrs. Pattie + Ruffner Jacobs, State suffrage president. + + Not only were the promised copies of Senator Pollock's speech + sent but an additional 10,000 pieces of literature were given to + Maryland, North Carolina and Delaware; 5,000 to Virginia, South + Carolina, Georgia and Florida; 36,000 to West Virginia and 51,000 + to Mississippi. In place of the suffrage schools a series of + conferences was agreed to by the southern States. Three speakers + were selected with great care and an outline for the trip was + submitted to the States. Some responded that they could not + arrange satisfactory conferences, others that they could not make + dates to fit the itinerary, two did not reply in time and two + did not respond at all. Since speakers could not be sent at such + great cost for small, unsatisfactory meetings or on an incomplete + itinerary, we were reluctantly forced to cancel the conferences. + With regard to the work which the southern States agreed to do, + only one State met the provision to provide a worker of its own + under the direction of the national organizer to take charge + after her departure. None of the States established a speakers' + bureau. Three States started the petition campaign but none + finished it. + + FEDERAL AMENDMENT. We were confident of victory for the amendment + in 1919 in the 66th Congress. The House passed it May 21 by an + affirmative vote of 304, a majority of 42 votes, and June 4 the + Senate by a vote of 56 to 25. The passage of this amendment + introduced in Congress over forty years ago by the National + Suffrage Association closed a long and interesting chapter of the + movement. The completion of that part of our work made it no + longer necessary for us to maintain a Washington headquarters. + Accordingly June 30, 1919, the doors of the Suffrage House, 1626 + Rhode Island Avenue, were closed after having received cabinet + members, senators, congressmen, distinguished persons from this + and foreign countries, thousands of American men and women and + those active suffragists who were called to Washington from time + to time to assist in the work of the congressional committee. + Mrs. Maud Wood Park, to whose indefatigable energy, honesty of + purpose and action and infinite tact we owe much, led the way to + victory for the amendment. Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, whose + diplomatic abilities made her the constant adviser of the + committee, Miss Marjorie Shuler, chief of publicity, Miss Mabel + Willard in charge of social affairs, Miss Caroline I. Reilly and + Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, secretaries, formed the personnel + of the Congressional Committee at the time of victory. + + During the months preceding the passage of the Federal Amendment + the National Association had carried not only the burden of the + actual amendment campaign but had planned and carried out the + preparatory work for ratification. Legislatures had been polled, + Governors interviewed on the subject of special sessions and + organization and publicity built up, looking forward to the final + ratification battle. The presidential suffrage campaigns and the + resolutions calling upon Congress to pass the suffrage amendment, + which the National Association had secured in State Legislatures, + were all part of the ratification strategy, a test of the + suffrage sentiment in the current Legislatures as well as an + impelling force on Congress to pass the amendment. + + We had hoped that from this point the State associations would + undertake their own campaigns and to that end Mrs. Catt issued a + bulletin May 24 telling each one just what steps to take. She + stated that the National Association would immediately ask + Governors of all equal suffrage States to call sessions and would + circularize all the Legislatures. She called upon the State + associations to (1) circularize their legislators with the news + of the final victory; (2) send deputations to secure the pledge + of the vote of each legislator for ratification; (3) begin a + statewide campaign through the press, petitions, literature and + meetings to secure their own special sessions. It soon became + apparent that the States as a whole were not carrying out these + plans and instead of promises of special sessions excuses came + from the men with the endorsement of the women themselves. It was + evident that the national office in New York must be in command. + + During the following weeks up to the present time the days and + nights have been filled with intensive effort. Never before have + the members of the national force, the board, the office force of + forty persons in the national headquarters, the Leslie + Commission, the publicity department, the _Woman Citizen_ and the + Publishing Company worked with so little sparing of themselves + and with such absolute concentration upon the matter in hand, + still carrying on citizenship preparation, organization and all + the routine work but always giving Ratification the right of way. + It was Mrs. Catt who sounded the rallying call, who mapped out + every step of the way, who did the work of a dozen women herself + and cheered the rest on. No one will ever know the full story of + her ingenious plans which brought about the ratification and in + some States even the women think it was easily won because they + do not know of the efforts put forth from the national office. + + As soon as the amendment had passed the Senate, Mrs. Catt kept + the agreement made by her in the bulletin and sent telegrams to + the Governors of full suffrage States, asking for special + sessions, and to Legislatures then in session asking for + ratification. With the cooperation of the suffrage associations, + Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan ratified on June 10, in six days + after the amendment was submitted by Congress. Kansas and New + York ratified in special session and Ohio in regular session on + June 16. Pennsylvania ratified on June 24, its blackness wiped + off the map. The change of black Massachusetts to the ratified + white on June 25 gave another big impetus to the campaign. Texas + distinguished itself by ratifying on June 28. This made nine + ratifications in nineteen days! + + Mrs. Catt had previously asked the presidents of State suffrage + associations to interview their Governors regarding special + sessions and she had sent personal letters to them and to members + of the Legislatures enclosing facts concerning the Federal + Amendment. As a result the Governors of Nebraska, Indiana and + Minnesota sent letters and telegrams to twenty-two other + Governors asking them to call special sessions. + + To carry the appeal to the West, two commissions were sent out + the last of July, Mrs. John Glover South of Kentucky and Miss + Shuler of New York to the Republican States; Mrs. Cunningham of + Texas and Mrs. Hooper of Wisconsin to the Democratic States. + After a tour of the States and visits to the Governors they went + to Salt Lake City for the Governors' Conference. Their reports + revealed the fact that women in the enfranchised States had been + absorbed into the political parties, and, with their suffrage + campaign organizations practically dissolved, were in no position + to determine or carry out independent political action. The + replies of the Governors--that "the women of _my_ State have the + suffrage, it will not help us, the cost of a special session is + too great, ill-advised legislation might be considered"--revealed + an even more deplorable fact, that both men and women in those + States were bounded in thought by their State lines and did not + have a national point of view on national issues. + + From the first Mrs. Catt had believed that the strategy of + ratification demanded rapid action by the western full suffrage + States, the partial suffrage States falling into line and the + last fight coming in the eastern States where women had not yet + become political factors. Therefore the Governors of the fully + enfranchised States were wired as soon as the Federal Amendment + passed. Those of Kansas and New York responded at once with + special sessions on June 16. Then came an ominous pause. No far + western States had yet ratified. What mysterious cause delayed + them? + + Ratifications came in Iowa July 2; Missouri July 3; Arkansas July + 28; Montana July 30; Nebraska August 2; Minnesota September 8; + New Hampshire September 10; Utah September 30. Another ominous + pause, with Montana and Utah the only far western States yet + heard from. + + On October 23 Mrs. Catt opened a "drive" for ratification through + sixteen conferences in twelve States, all but two with equal + suffrage. She was accompanied by two chairmen of the League of + Women Voters, Dr. Valeria Parker of the Committee of Social + Hygiene, and Mrs. Edward P. Costigan of the Committee on Food + Supply and Demand, with Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield speaking for + the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Shuler for that on + Child Welfare. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of the Committee on + Unification of Laws and Miss Julia Lathrop, chairman of the Child + Welfare Committee, spoke at one of the conferences and Miss + Jessie Haver substituted for Mrs. Costigan during the latter part + of the trip. Mrs. Catt's address--Wake Up America--was an appeal + for special sessions to ratify in those States where there were + to be no regular sessions until 1921 and an appeal to both men + and women to use their votes for a better America. Ratifications + in North Dakota December 1; South Dakota December 4; Colorado + December 12; Oregon January 12; Nevada February 7--were in answer + to those stirring appeals. California ratified November 1; Maine + November 5; Rhode Island and Kentucky January 6; Indiana January + 16. Following soon New Jersey ratified by regular session + February 9. Idaho by special session February 11; Arizona + February 12. The special session is called in New Mexico February + 16 and in Oklahoma February 23. [Both ratified.] + + In the story of our ratification campaign there occurs often the + name of our second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, whose + work for the National Association has always been valuable but + who has made her greatest contribution in work for the passage of + the Federal Amendment in the campaign to secure special sessions + and the overwhelming number of ratifications in Republican + States. + +Mrs. Shuler told of the Oversea Hospitals, which are considered in +another chapter. She gave an eloquent tribute to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw +and spoke of the beautiful memorial booklet prepared by a committee of +officers of the National Association, who distributed 5,000 copies. It +also aided in circulating 10,000 copies of her last speech--What the +War Meant to Women--prepared as a memorial by the League to Enforce +Peace. She spoke tenderly of the death of Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, +corresponding secretary of the National Association twenty-one years; +of that of Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler Walker, who presided so charmingly +over the headquarters in Washington, and of Miss Aloysius +Larch-Miller, who as secretary of the committee on ratification in +Oklahoma sacrificed her life through her work for it. Reference was +made to the contributory work of the National Board in stabilizing the +League of Women Voters; to the Citizenship Schools and Travelling +Libraries, and the very complete report closed with a testimonial to +the immeasurable value of the national organization which read in +part: + + Our State suffrage associations welded into a great chain have + made the National Association. Our members have been one in + heart, one in hope, one in purpose. We have held the same + standards, the same ideals. When the way has seemed long and dark + and the goal of our efforts afar off, we have supported, cheered + and encouraged each other. We have rejoiced over even the + smallest victory and have never been a downhearted group. The + suffrage spirit has ever buoyed us up and carried us on even when + the road was the steepest and the obstructions seemed almost + insurmountable. These experiences could not have been realized + through fifty-one years without "lengthening the cords and + strengthening the stakes of friendship" but more--the result has + been a liberal training, a greater belief in each other and more + confidence in the merits of our cause. + + While the value of any movement depends upon the success with + which its practical details are worked out, yet in the final + analysis the idealism of a movement is the mainspring of its + vitality. + + "The spirit stands behind the deed, + In holy thought the dream must start + And every cause that moves the world + Was born within a single heart." + + So to-day we render homage to our great leader, Mrs. Catt, whose + hand has guided and whose genius has vitalized our movement. She + has given to a world of women her love, her faith. She has + dreamed a dream and then with prophetic vision and undaunted + courage led the way to victory and the consummation of that + dream. + +The exquisite poem, "Oh, Dreamer of Dreams," was quoted and the report +ended: "Year after year at national conventions women have agreed to +'carry on'. How well this has been done the records prove. All who +have shared in the service and sacrifice which were necessary to bring +about the great victory which we are here to celebrate will be glad +that they were given and rejoice that they helped in putting to flight +the powers of darkness." + +In the course of her report as national treasurer Mrs. Henry Wade +Rogers said: + + It was in November, 1914, at the Nashville convention, that I was + elected treasurer of the National Suffrage Association. In + November, 1919, I completed my fifth year of service, these last + three months additional being by way of good measure. I succeeded + with trepidation Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick's very efficient + service. She and I are the only members on the present board who + were members in 1914. + + In February, 1918, the duties of treasurer of the Women's Oversea + Hospitals were added to those of the association and the sum of + $178,000 has passed through the special treasury of the hospitals + to carry on the splendid war work undertaken by the National + Suffrage Association. A balance of about $35,000 remains in that + treasury, the use of which in some form of memorial this + convention will be asked to designate.[126] + + The receipts of the treasury since I took office have been, for + 1914-1915, $43,186; 1915-1916, $81,862; 1916-1917, $103,826; + 1917-1918, $107,736; 1919-1920, $97,379; a total of $443,989. + Adding the fund raised for the Hospitals the total is $611,991. + Each year I have solicited funds for the National Association + from hundreds of suffragists, in addition to the large sums + pledged at the conventions, and have had always most generous + responses. In November and December, 1919, 38,000 letters were + sent out signed by the president and treasurer of the National + Suffrage Association asking for a ratification fund of $100,000. + Very gratifying returns have come from this appeal and are still + coming.... + + We come to this final convention of our National Association with + a balance in the treasury and it must be determined here whether + or not this sum is sufficient to finish the fight for nation-wide + suffrage. Because of your sympathy and generous cooperation I + have found the treasurership a real pleasure. The actual work has + been lightened by the faithful service of Miss Eleanor Bates, + accountant of the association since 1912. We cannot too + gratefully acknowledge also the devoted service of many others, + who, unheralded and unsung, have helped to make possible this + victory hour.... + +With this report were ten closely printed pages of perfectly kept and +audited accounts. They showed a balance of $10,905 in the treasury. +Mrs. Rogers continued the duties of her office at unanimous request +having given up to the present time about seven years of most +efficient service, spending days, weeks and months at the national +headquarters with no remuneration except the joy of helping the cause +of woman suffrage. At one session through the efforts of Miss Mary +Garrett Hay and Mrs. Raymond Brown, pledges of $44,500 were obtained +for the League of Women Voters, Miss Lucy E. Anthony making the first +contribution of $1,000 in memory of her aunt, Susan B. Anthony. The +Leslie Commission guaranteed $15,000 of this amount. + +The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington had +during the year set apart a division of space for mementoes of +distinguished suffragists, and Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, through whose +efforts chiefly this concession had been secured, offered the +following resolution, which was unanimously adopted: "This convention +expresses to the Directors of the Smithsonian Institution profound +appreciation of this section devoted to the great women leaders of +liberty and civilization on the same broad basis accorded to men and +believes that this shrine will be an object of the reverence and +education of all womanhood.[127] + +A resolution was adopted to send congratulatory and affectionate +letters to the pioneers, Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y.; the +Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of Elizabeth, N. J., and Mrs. +Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia. The Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine, +Wis., one of the few remaining pioneers, was guest of honor of the +convention and received especial attention throughout the week. A +telegram was sent to Mrs. Ida Husted Harper of New York in recognition +of her constant, untiring work on the last volumes of the History of +Woman Suffrage, still in progress. Very laudatory resolutions of +"sincere gratitude" were adopted and sent to Will H. Hays and Homer +Cummings, chairmen of the Republican and Democratic National +Committees, for their services in behalf of the Federal Suffrage +Amendment. + +Five large rooms in the hotel were required for the 1,400 guests who +attended the "ratification banquet" the evening of February 14 and +there were almost as many disappointed women who could not obtain +seats. Mrs. Catt presided and the following program of sparkling +speeches was given: The Apology of New York [for re-election of U. S. +Senator Wadsworth], Mrs. F. Louis Slade; The Specials of the Middle +West, Mrs. Peter Olesen, Minnesota; Tradition vs. Justice, Mrs. Pattie +Jacobs, Alabama; By the Grace of Governors, Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, +Wyoming; "All's Well That Ends Well," Mrs. T. T. Cotnam, Arkansas. +Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, "cheer leader," had prepared a program of +well-known songs cleverly adapted to suffrage and set to popular airs. + +The culminating feature, arranged by Mrs. Richard E. Edwards, was a +living "ratification valentine." On the stage was disclosed a big +heart of silver and blue and in the opening appeared one after another +the faces of the presidents of the States whose Legislatures had +ratified and they recited caustic but good humored rhymes at the +expense of the women whose States were still in outer darkness. It was +a hilarious occasion greatly enjoyed by the younger suffragists and +those who had come late into the movement. Many memories were +awakened, however, in those older in years and service of the days +when conventions were largely a time of serious conferences and +impassioned appeal; a time when one banquet table was all sufficient +but those who gathered around it were very near and dear to each other +as they consecrated themselves anew to continue the work till the hour +of victory, which seemed very far ahead. + +The 14th of February was the seventy-third birthday of Dr. Shaw, who +had died the preceding July 2, and the 15th was the one hundredth of +Susan B. Anthony, falling on Sunday this year, but it was arranged to +have the memorial services for Dr. Shaw on the afternoon of this day. +The following program was carried out: + + MEMORIAL TO DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW + Fourth Presbyterian Church + Corner Lake Shore Drive and Delaware Place + Dr. Stone, pastor of the church, presiding. + Sunday, February 15, 1921. + + "She was a genuine American with all the qualities which in + fiction collect about that name but which are not so often seen + in real life; an American with the measureless patience, the deep + and gentle humor, the whimsical and tolerant philosophy and the + dauntless courage, physical as well as moral, which we find most + satisfyingly displayed in Lincoln, of all our heroes."--New York + _Times_. + + Organ Prelude, "In Memoriam." + Anthem by Choir, "How blest are they." + Invocation. + Anthem, "Crossing the bar." + Scripture Lesson, Bishop Samuel Fallows, D.D., LL.D. + Greetings and Communications, Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees. + Address--Memory Pictures, Mrs. Florence Cotnam. + Anthem--The Shepherds and Wise Men. (Composed for this + occasion by Witter Bynner and A. Madely Richardson.) + Address--The Courageous Leader, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw. + Address--Reminiscences, Miss Jane Addams. + Address--Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. + A Closing Word, Rev. John Timothy Stone, D.D., LL.D. + The Last Farewell, Dr. Caroline Bartlett Crane. + Hymn--"My Country 'Tis of Thee." + Benediction. + Choir Refrain. + Organ Postlude--Toccata. + +Eric Delamater, formerly director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, +was the organist. It was a most impressive occasion with many +evidences of deep feeling, and, although it was a church service, the +audience responded with warm applause as Mrs. Catt closed her eulogy +with this beautiful comparison: "A significant ceremony is performed +each Easter in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. In the +wall that encloses the tomb of Christ there is an opening which on +Easter Sunday is surrounded by priests of the shrine carrying +unlighted candles. It is believed that the candles are touched into +flame by a holy fire emanating from Divinity through this opening. +Also provided with candles are the worshippers who throng the church, +the nearby receiving their light from the priests and passing it on +until every candle is aflame. Men nearest the door hasten to light the +candles of horsemen outside who speed away on the mission of +torchbearer to every home, so that by nightfall the candles on every +altar burn with a new brightness that has been transmitted from the +holy fire. Likewise the fire of inspiration, kindled in the great soul +of Anna Howard Shaw, touched into flame the zeal and courage of her +messengers, who in turn reached the homes throughout the nation with +her fervor and power." + + * * * * * + +[Dr. Shaw had given forty-five years of consecrated devotion to the +cause of woman suffrage and this was the first national convention for +nearly thirty years without the inspiration of her presence. She first +met Miss Anthony at the International Council of Women in Washington +in 1888 and from that time gave her the deepest affection and truest +allegiance. While the years went by she became nearer and dearer to +Miss Anthony and was loved by her beyond all others. As an orator she +played upon the whole gamut of human emotions, lifting her audiences +to intellectual heights, touching their sentiment with her exquisite +pathos, convincing them with her keen logic and winning their hearts +with her irresistible humor. People not only admired but loved her, +and this was true not alone in the United States but in all parts of +the world, as she had addressed international congresses in most of +the large cities of Europe. She lived to see the submission by +Congress of the Federal Suffrage Amendment and to render most +valuable assistance to her country during the World War as chairman of +the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense, and she died +in its service.] + +There was considerable discussion in the convention of a suitable +memorial to Dr. Shaw and finally a resolution was adopted that the +association establish an official joint memorial--at Bryn Mawr College +a Foundation in Politics and at the Woman's Medical College of +Pennsylvania a Foundation in Preventive Medicine--as a fitting +continuation of her life work;[128] that a committee be appointed to +carry out the project by appealing to the women throughout the country +and that this committee be incorporated and assume the financial +responsibility.[129] The Chair presented as the first donation towards +the fund a check of $1,000 sent by Mrs. George Howard Lewis of +Buffalo, in memory of Dr. Shaw on her birthday. The gift was +accompanied by an eloquent tribute from Mrs. Lewis, an intimate and +devoted friend of nearly twenty years, in which she gave beautiful +quotations from Dr. Shaw's letters and an extract from her charming +autobiography, The Story of a Pioneer.[130] + +As had long been the custom the officers of the association gave an +informal reception to the delegates and friends on Sunday evening. +This took place in the Congress Hotel and they were assisted by the +local committee of arrangements. + +The final report of the Oversea Hospitals maintained by the National +Association, as given by Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, chairman, and Mrs. +Raymond Brown, general director in France, is in the chapter on the +War Work of Organized Suffragists. + +A brief report of the Leslie Bureau of Education was made by Miss +Young who said: "The Leslie Bureau was founded by Mrs. Catt in 1917, +as administratrix of the fortune left to her to promote the cause of +suffrage by Mrs. Frank Leslie. Mrs. Catt cherished the view that if +the public were thoroughly educated on the subject of suffrage it +would be wholly in favor of it. She proposed to set aside a large part +of the Leslie fund for use in channels of education. I was appointed +director of the bureau and departmentalized it under the following +heads: News, Field Work, Features, Research.... The _Woman Citizen_ +was termed "an adventure in journalism." Miss Young was +editor-in-chief and business manager and Miss Mary Ogden White was +associate editor. "The great body of testimony shows," she said, "that +the service of the magazine has been at all times indispensable." + +Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman Suffrage +Publishing Co., supplemented Mrs. Shuler's report of its dissolution, +paid a tribute to its board of directors and said: "In reviewing the +six years of the company's existence a few facts come to my mind which +I think may interest you. We have printed and distributed over +50,000,000 pieces of literature. Besides supplying suffrage material +to practically every State in the Union we have filled orders from +Switzerland, France, Italy, Great Britain, Norway, Canada, Philippine +Islands, Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, Argentina, China and Japan. +Recently we have been asked to send a complete line of our +publications to the new American Library in Rome, Italy, and nearly +every day we receive requests for pamphlets from libraries all over +the United States and from universities for their extension courses. +My correspondence and association with suffragists over the country +through the Publishing Company will ever be among the happiest +memories of my life." + +Almost every State president submitted a report of vigorous work +either to secure the suffrage or where this had been done to organize +and put into operation a League of Women Voters. Never before in the +history of the National Association had so much interest and activity +been manifest in the States. + +The Pioneer Suffrage Luncheon with Mrs. McCormick presiding brought +together many of the older workers, whose rejoicing over the final +victory after their long years of toil and sacrifice such as the +younger ones had never known, was lessened by the thought that this +was the last of the love feasts which they had shared together for +many decades. The response to the leading toast--What the Modern Woman +Owes to the Pioneers--was made by the Rev. Olympia Brown, now +eighty-four years old, whose excellent voice was not equalled among +any of the younger women. Songs, reminiscences and clever, informal +speeches contributed to a most delightful afternoon. + +It had been a keen disappointment that the Jubilee Convention of the +preceding year--March, 1919--which marked the fiftieth anniversary of +the founding of the association, could not have celebrated the +submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment but this had to await a +new Congress. Now it was almost unendurable that this commemoration of +Miss Anthony's one hundredth birthday could not have been glorified by +the proclamation that this amendment was forever a part of the +National Constitution. However, by the time another month had rolled +by, this culmination of her life work awaited the ratification of only +one more Legislature and it was so universally recognized as near at +hand that this last meeting could appropriately be termed the Victory +Convention. Following is the program of the celebration of her +centenary: + + SUSAN B. ANTHONY CENTENARY CELEBRATION. + + "To me Susan B. Anthony was an unceasing inspiration--the torch + that illumined my life. We went through some difficult times + together--years when we fought hard for each inch of headway + gained--but I found full compensation for every effort in the + glory of working with her for the cause that was first in our + hearts and in the happiness of being her trusted friend."--Anna + Howard Shaw. + + MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1920, 2 p. m. + + What Happened in Ten Decades Briefly Told: + + 1820-1830--The Age of Mobs and Eggs. + Mrs. E. F. Feickert, president of New Jersey. + + 1830-1840--The First School Suffrage. + Mrs. Desha Breckenridge, president of Kentucky. + + 1840-1850--The Dawn of Property Rights. + Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, former president of + Missouri. + + 1850-1860--The First High School for Girls. + Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, president of Massachusetts. + + 1860-1870--The World's First Full Suffrage. + Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, professor of Political + Science, University of Wyoming. + + 1870-1880--The Negro's Hour. + Mrs. Henry Youmans, president of Wisconsin. + + 1880-1890--The First Municipal Suffrage. + Mrs. William A. Johnston, president of Kansas. + + 1890-1900--Suffrage Spreads. + Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, former press director of + Pennsylvania. + + 1900-1910--Ridicule Gives Way to Argument, Indifference to + to Organization. + Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, president of Ohio. + + 1910-1920--The Portent of Victory. + Mrs. Raymond Brown, national vice-president. + + Miss Anthony--An Appreciation, Mrs. Harriette Taylor Treadwell, + member of the Illinois board. + + Miss Anthony--A Historical Recognition, Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, + national vice-president. + + + THE SUFFRAGE HONOR ROLL. + + "Undaunted by opposition brave spirits led on." + + PRESENTATION OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS BY THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN + SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION to Pioneers, those who labored before 1880; + Veterans, those who labored between 1880 and 1900; Honor Workers + after 1900. + +While Mrs. Catt was busy handing out the honor rolls to pioneers and +veterans with a few precious words to each, Mrs. Upton came suddenly +forward and laid a detaining hand on her arm. With tender +reminiscence, relieved by the sparkles of humor never absent from +whatever she said, she presented in the name of countless suffragists +an exquisite pin, a large star sapphire surrounded by diamonds and set +in platinum. It was the association's parting gift to its beloved +leader, whose usually perfect poise deserted her and she could not +acknowledge it. To her whispered appeal to Mrs. Upton to speak for +her, the latter laughingly answered that this was the first time she +ever was able to do something that Mrs. Catt could not. + +The evening part of the celebration began with community singing, +William Griswold Smith, director, and was followed by an illustration +of Then and Now, Told in Pictures, under the management of Miss Young. +Down a wide flight of stairs came one picturesque figure after another +garbed to represent the passing years during the suffrage contest, +beginning with the middle of the last century, many clothed in the +actual garments worn at the period, and after crossing the stage they +took their seats in tiers, a lovely spectacle. At the last came the +Red Cross workers, the nurses, the motor corps and others in war +service. The picture ended with a gay group of debutantes in filmy +chiffon gowns to symbolize the present day of rejoicing. The triumphs +of women in the intellectual field were told in the program that +followed: Education--Professor Maria L. Sanford; Medicine--Dr. Julia +Holmes Smith; Law--Miss Florence Allen; Theology--the Rev. Olympia +Brown; Journalism--Miss Ethel M. Colson; Politics--Miss Mary Garrett +Hay. + +Different sections of the League of Women Voters were in session day +and night perfecting the organization of this most significant +association of women ever attempted. The culmination of seventy years' +continuous effort was about to be reached in the complete and +universal enfranchisement of women and now a new generation, under the +guidance of the older workers who remained, was bravely taking up +another great task, that of bringing about cooperation among women in +the effective use of this supreme power for the highest welfare of the +State. On the last afternoon of the convention the National American +Woman Suffrage Association and the League of Women Voters held a joint +session for discussion of matters in which they had a mutual interest. +On the last evening, just before the beginning of the first session of +the School for Political Education in the Florentine Room, Mrs. Catt, +with suitable ceremony formally adjourned the Victory Convention, the +last of a series held for fifty years by the old association. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[121] Following are the officers of the association who were elected +at the convention in St. Louis in 1919 and re-elected in Chicago in +1920 to remain in office until the association should go out of +existence: President, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt; first vice-president, +Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick; second vice-president, Miss Mary +Garrett Hay; third vice-president, Mrs. Guilford Dudley; fourth +vice-president, Mrs. Raymond Brown; fifth vice-president, Mrs. Helen +H. Gardener; treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers; corresponding +secretary, Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler; recording secretary, Mrs. Halsey W. +Wilson. All were of New York City except Mrs. Dudley of Tennessee and +Mrs. Gardener of the District of Columbia. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who +had been president from 1904 to 1915 and honorary president +thereafter, had died July 2, 1919. + +Directors: Mrs. Charles H. Brooks (Kans.); Mrs. J. C. Cantrill (Ky.); +Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.); Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.); Mrs. Ben +Hooper (Wis.); Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.); Miss Esther G. Ogden +(N. Y.); Mrs. George A. Piersol (Penn.). + +[122] Fraternal delegates were present from the Association of +Collegiate Alumnae; Florence Crittenden Mission; General Federation of +Women's Clubs; Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic; National +Board of the Young Women's Christian Association; National Congress of +Mothers; Parent Teachers' Association; National Council of Jewish +Women; National Council of Women; National Council of College Women; +National Women's Trade Union League; National Women's Association of +Commerce; National Women's Relief Corps; National Women's Relief +Society; State Federation of Women's Clubs; State Trade Union League; +Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Women's City Club; State League of +Women Voters; Womens' International League for Peace and Freedom. + +[123] To Governors who called special sessions: "On behalf of the +National American Woman Suffrage Association meeting in its 51st +annual convention I am instructed to express its official appreciation +and gratitude to you for your assistance in ratifying the Federal +Suffrage Amendment. Woman suffrage will soon be a closed chapter in +the history of our country and we are confident that the pride and +satisfaction of every Governor and legislator who has aided the +ratification will increase as time goes on. We want you to know that +the women of the nation are truly grateful to you for your part in +their enfranchisement. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary. + +[124] For account of meetings of the Board of Officers and Executive +Council in April and June, 1921, see Appendix for this chapter. + +[125] The names of the organizers retained, all of whom gave most +effective service, were Mrs. Augusta Hughston, Miss Edna Annette +Beveridge, Mrs. Maria S, McMahon, Miss Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, Miss +Josephine Miller, Miss Lola Trax, Miss Edna Wright, Miss Marie Ames +and Miss Gertrude Watkins. Their organized work extended over Iowa, +Missouri, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South +Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, +Kentucky, Delaware and New Hampshire. In addition to the regular force +Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham and Miss Liba Peshakova were sent to +Mississippi for two months. The work of the organizers is regarded as +the hardest and most difficult connected with a State campaign and +Mrs. Shuler paid high tribute to them. + +[126] The final report of the Oversea Hospitals Committee is given in +the chapter on War Work of Organized Suffragists. + +[127] In this space have been placed the little mahogany table on +which were written the Call for the first Woman's Rights Convention in +1848, the Declaration of Principles and the Resolutions; a portrait in +oil of Miss Anthony on her eightieth birthday; large framed +photographs of Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt; photographs of the signing of +the Federal Suffrage Amendment by Vice-president Marshall and Speaker +Gillett, the pens with which it was done and the pen with which +Secretary of State Colby signed the Proclamation that it was a part of +the National Constitution, and personal mementoes of Miss Anthony. The +table has special historical value. It stood for years in the parlor +of the McClintock family at Waterloo, N. Y., and was bequeathed to +Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who, with Mrs. McClintock, Lucretia Mott +and her sister, Martha C. Wright, wrote the Call, etc. When Mrs. +Stanton died in New York City it stood at the head of her casket +holding the Biography of Susan B. Anthony and the History of Woman +Suffrage, of which Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony wrote the first three +volumes. The table was left to Miss Anthony and was in her home at +Rochester, N. Y., until her death, when it stood at the head of her +casket, bearing a floral tribute from the National American Woman +Suffrage Association. It then passed to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and was +in her home at Moylan, Penn., until the national suffrage headquarters +were opened in Washington December, 1916, when it was taken there. At +the time they were closed, after the Federal Suffrage Amendment had +been submitted by Congress, the table found a final haven in the +Smithsonian Institution. + +[128] Dr. Shaw was a graduate of Albion College, Mich.; of the medical +department of Boston University and of its School of Theology. The +honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on her by Temple University, +Philadelphia. + +[129] Mrs. John O. Miller, president of the Pennsylvania State +Suffrage Association, was appointed chairman of this committee, to +which six others were added and it was decided to raise $500,000 to be +divided between the two colleges. When Bryn Mawr was making its +"drive" for $2,000,000 in 1920 it included an appeal for $100,000 for +this chair in politics, which were subscribed. The Medical College +raised $30,000 for the chair in preventive medicine. The committee +hopes to have the full amount by Feb. 14, 1922. + +Several months before, at the invitation of Dean Virginia C. +Gildersleeve, a meeting had been held at Barnard College, Columbia +University, to arrange for the Anna Howard Shaw Chair of American +Citizenship. It was addressed by President Nicholas Murray Butler, who +strongly favored it; by Dean Gildersleeve, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw and +other alumnae and a committee formed to raise $100,000, of which amount +$4,000 were subscribed at that time. Mrs. George McAneny (a daughter +of Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi) was made chairman and the other members +were Barnard alumnae and well-known workers for woman suffrage. The +convention was asked to endorse the project, which was done. The +committee expects soon to have the full amount. These lectures on +American Citizenship will not be confined to Barnard students but will +be offered to women in general. + +[130] For accounts and tributes see Appendix for this chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE.[131] + + +The first convention in all history to consider the Rights of Women +was called by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and two others to +meet July 19, 20, 1848, at Seneca Falls in western New York, Mrs. +Stanton's home.[132] In 1851 the work was taken up by Susan B. +Anthony, destined to be its supreme leader for the next half century. +Meetings soon began to take place and societies to be formed in +various States, so that by 1861 there was a well-defined movement +toward woman suffrage. Large conventions were held annually in eastern +and western cities, in which the most prominent men and women +participated. The commencement of the Civil War ended all efforts for +this object and its leaders devoted themselves for the next five years +to the women's part of every war. In May, 1866, Mrs. Stanton and Miss +Anthony issued a call for the scattered forces to come together in +convention in New York City, and here began the movement for woman +suffrage which continued without a break for fifty-four years. + +No large extension of the franchise had been made since the government +was founded except to the working men between 1820 and 1830 and this +had been accomplished by amending State constitutions. There had been +no thought of enfranchising women in any other way but now Congress, +for the purpose of giving the ballot to the recently freed negro men, +was about to submit an amendment to the National Constitution. This +convention was called to protest against "class legislation" and +demand that women should be included. It adopted a Memorial to +Congress, prepared by Mrs. Stanton, which contained a portion of +Charles Sumner's great speech, Equal Rights for All, and was a +complete statement of woman's right to the franchise. In Miss +Anthony's address she said: "Up to this hour we have looked only to +State action for recognition of our rights but now, by the results of +the war, the whole question of suffrage reverts to Congress and the +United States Constitution. The duty of Congress at this moment is to +declare what shall be the true basis of representation in a republican +form of government." + +As soon as the intention to submit the 14th Amendment was announced +Miss Anthony and her co-workers began rolling up petitions to Congress +that it should provide for the enfranchisement of women and tens of +thousands of names had been sent to Washington. These petitions +represented the first effort ever made for an amendment to the Federal +Constitution for woman suffrage and the action of this convention +marked the first organized demand--May 10, 1866. At this time the +American Equal Rights Association was formed and the Woman's Rights +Society merged with it, as having a larger scope.[133] + +The following month the 14th Amendment was submitted by Congress for +the ratification of the State Legislatures and it was declared adopted +by the necessary three-fourths in July, 1868. By this amendment the +status of citizenship was for the first time definitely +established--"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and +subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens." This plainly put +men and women on an exact equality as to citizenship. Then followed +the broad statement: "No State shall make or enforce any law which +shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United +States." This also seemed to guarantee the equal rights of men and +women. It was the second section which aroused the advocates of +suffrage for women to vigorous protest: + + Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several + States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole + number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But + when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors + for President and Vice-President of the United States, + Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers + of a State or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied + to the _male_ inhabitants of such State, being 21 years of age + and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged except + for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of + representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which + the number of such _male_ citizens shall bear to the whole number + of _male_ citizens 21 years of age in such State. + +Up to this time there was no mention of suffrage in the Federal +Constitution except the provision for electing members of the Lower +House of Congress but now for the first time it actually discriminated +against women by imposing a penalty on the States for preventing men +from voting but leaving them entirely free to prohibit women. When +even this penalty proved insufficient to protect negro men in their +attempts to vote, Congress in 1869 submitted a 15th Amendment which +was declared ratified the following year: "The right of citizens of +the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the +United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous +condition of servitude." + +Those who had been striving for two decades to obtain suffrage for +women protested by every means in their power against this second +discrimination. They implored and demanded that the word "sex" should +be included in this amendment, which would have forever settled the +question, just as the omission of the word "male" in the 14th +Amendment would have settled it. The most of the men who had stood by +them in their early struggles for the vote, when both were working +together for the freedom of the slaves, now sacrificed them rather +than imperil the political rights of the negro men. Some of the women +themselves were persuaded to abandon their opposition to these +amendments by the promise of the Republican leaders that as soon as +they were safely intrenched in the constitution another should be +placed there providing for woman suffrage. This promise they did not +try to keep and it remained unfulfilled over fifty years. Miss Anthony +and Mrs. Stanton were never for one moment deceived or silenced but in +their paper, _The Revolution_, they opposed these amendments as long +as they were pending. + + * * * * * + +Although the protests were in vain the women had learned that they +might be relieved of the intolerable burden of having to obtain the +suffrage State by State through permission of a majority of the +individual voters. They had seen an entire class enfranchised through +the quicker and easier way of amending the Federal Constitution and +they determined to invoke this power in their own behalf. From the +office of _The Revolution_ in New York in the autumn of 1868 went out +thousands of petitions to be signed and sent to Congress for the +submission of an amendment to enfranchise women. Immediately after its +assembling in December, 1868, Senator S. C. Pomeroy of Kansas +introduced a resolution providing that "the basis of suffrage shall be +that of citizenship and all native or naturalized citizens shall enjoy +the same rights and privileges of the elective franchise but each +State shall determine the age, etc." A few days later Representative +George W. Julian of Indiana offered one in the House which declared: +"The right of suffrage shall be based on citizenship ... and all +citizens, native or naturalized, shall enjoy this right equally ... +without any distinction or discrimination founded on sex." These were +the first propositions ever made in Congress for woman suffrage by +National Amendment. + +In order to impress Congress with the seriousness of the demand, a +woman's convention--the first of its kind to meet in the national +capital--was held in Washington in January, 1869. It continued several +days with large audiences and an array of eminent speakers, including +Lucretia Mott, Clara Barton, Mrs. Stanton, a number of men and Miss +Anthony, the moving spirit of the whole. In response Congress the next +month submitted the 15th Amendment with even a stronger discrimination +against women than the 14th contained. + + * * * * * + +The annual gatherings of the Equal Rights Association had been growing +more and more stormy while the 14th and 15th Amendments were pending +and the point was reached where any criticism of them made by the +women was met by their advocates with hisses and denunciation. Finally +at the meeting of May 12, 1869, in New York City, with Mrs. Stanton +presiding, an attempt was made, led by Frederick Douglass, to force +through a resolution of endorsement. Miss Anthony opposed it in an +impassioned speech in which she said: "If you will not give the whole +loaf of justice to the entire people, then give it first to women, to +the most intelligent and capable of them at least.... If Mr. Douglass +had noticed who applauded when he said black men first and white women +afterwards, he would have seen that it was only the men." + +The men succeeded in wresting the control of the convention from the +women, who then decided that the time had come for them to have their +own organization and endeavor to have the question of their +enfranchisement considered entirely on its own merits. Three days +later, at the Women's Bureau in East 23rd Street, where now the +Metropolitan Life Building stands, with representatives present from +nineteen States, the National Woman Suffrage Association was formed. +Mrs. Stanton was made president, Miss Anthony chairman of the +executive committee. One hundred women became members that evening and +here was begun the organized work for an Amendment to the Federal +Constitution to confer woman suffrage which was to continue without +ceasing for half a century.[134] Its constitution declared the object +of the association to be "to secure the ballot to the women of the +Nation on equal terms with men." On June 1 its executive board sent a +petition to Congress for "a 16th Amendment to be submitted to the +Legislatures of the States for ratification which shall secure to all +citizens the right of suffrage without distinction of sex." + +Before the work for a 16th Amendment was fairly organized a number of +members of Congress and constitutional lawyers took the ground that +women were already enfranchised by the first clause of the 14th +Amendment. At the convention held in St. Louis in the autumn of 1869, +Francis Minor, a prominent lawyer of that city, presented this +position so convincingly that the newly formed National Association +conducted an active campaign in its favor for several years. In 1872 +women tried to vote in a number of States and in a few of them were +successful. Miss Anthony's vote was accepted in Rochester, N. Y., and +later she was arrested, charged with a _crime_, tried by a Justice of +the U. S. Supreme Court and fined $100. The inspectors in St. Louis +refused to register Mrs. Francis Minor, she brought suit against +them, and her husband carried the case to the Supreme Court of the +United States (Minor vs. Happersett). He made an able and exhaustive +argument but an adverse decision was rendered March 29, 1875.[135] + +The women then returned to the original demand for a 16th Amendment, +which indeed many of them, including Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, +never had entirely abandoned. Beginning with 1869 Congressional +committees had granted hearings on woman suffrage every winter, even +though no resolution was before them. Under the auspices of the +National Association petitions by the tens of thousands continued to +pour into Congress, which were publicly presented. Finally on Jan. 10, +1878, Senator A. A. Sargent of California offered the following joint +resolution: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall +not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on +account of sex." + +The Committee on Privileges and Elections granted a hearing which +consumed a part of two days, with the large Senate reception room +filled to overflowing and the corridors crowded. Extended hearings +were given also by the House Judiciary Committee and constitutional +arguments of the highest order were made by noted women in attendance +at the national suffrage convention. The Senate committee reported +adversely, however, and the House committee not at all. This took +place over forty years ago. Senator Sargent's amendment, which in +later years was sometimes called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, was +presented to every Congress during this period and hearings were +granted by committees of every one. The women who made their pleadings +and arguments simply to persuade these committees to give a favorable +report and bring the question before their respective Houses for +debate comprised the most distinguished this country had produced. It +is only by reading their addresses in the History of Woman Suffrage +that one can form an idea of their masterly exposition of laws and +constitution, their logic, strength and oftentimes deep pathos. + +There are in the pages of history many detached speeches of rare +eloquence for the rights of man but nowhere else is there so long an +unbroken record of appeals for these rights--the rights of man and +woman. Again and again at the close of the suffrage hearings the +chairman and members of the committee said that none on other +questions equalled them in dignity and ability. From 1878 to 1896 +there were five favorable majority reports from Senate committees, two +from House committees and four adverse reports. Thereafter, when Miss +Anthony no longer spent her winters in Washington and persisted in +having a report, none of any kind was made until the movement for +woman suffrage entered a new era in 1912. One significant event, +however, occurred during this time. Largely through the efforts of +Senator Henry W. Blair (Rep.) of New Hampshire, the resolution for a +16th Amendment was brought before the Senate. After a long and earnest +discussion the vote on Jan. 25, 1887, resulted in 16 ayes, all +Republican; 34 noes, eleven Republican, twenty-three Democratic; +twenty-six absent.[136] + + * * * * * + +It early became apparent to the leaders of the movement that there +would have to be a good deal of favorable action by the States before +Congress would give serious consideration to this question and +therefore under the auspices of the National American Association, +they continuously helped with money and work the campaigns for +securing the suffrage by amendment of State constitutions. Miss +Anthony herself took part in eight such campaigns, only to see all of +them end in failure. Up to 1910 there had been at least twenty and +only two had been successful--Colorado, 1893; Idaho, 1896; Wyoming and +Utah had equal suffrage while Territories and came into the Union with +it in their constitutions, but all were sparsely settled States whose +influence on Congress was slight. Commercialism had become the +dominating force in politics and moral issues were crowded into the +background. Nevertheless in every direction was evidence of an +increasing public sentiment in favor of woman suffrage in the +accession of men and women of influence, in the large audiences +at the meetings, in the official endorsement of all kinds of +organizations--the Federation of Labor, the Grange and many others of +men, of women and of the two together, for educational, patriotic, +religious, civic and varied purposes almost without number. There was +not yet, however, any strong political influence back of this movement +which was so largely of a political nature. + +In 1910 an insurgent movement developed in Congress and extended into +various States to throw off the party yoke and the domination of +"special interests" and adopt progressive measures. One of its first +fruits was the granting of suffrage to women by the voters in the +State of Washington. Under the same influence the women of California +were enfranchised in 1911, a far-reaching victory. In 1912 Oregon, +Arizona and the well populated State of Kansas adopted woman suffrage +by popular vote. In 1913 the new Legislature of Alaska granted it, and +that of Illinois gave all that was possible without a referendum to +the voters, including municipal, county and that for Presidential +electors. In 1914 Nevada and Montana completed the enfranchisement of +women in the western part of the United States, except in New Mexico. + +The effect upon Congress of the addition of between three and four +million women to the electorate was immediately apparent. A woman +suffrage amendment to the Federal Constitution had suddenly become a +live question. A circumstance greatly in its favor was the shattering +of the traditional idea that the Federal Constitution must not be +further amended, by the adoption of two new Articles--for an income +tax and the election of U. S. Senators by the voters. + + * * * * * + +In 1912 came the division in Republican ranks and the forming of the +Progressive party, headed by former President Theodore Roosevelt, +which made woman suffrage one of the principal planks in its platform, +and for the first time it took a place among the other political +issues. The Republican party so long in power was defeated. Woman +suffrage never had received any special assistance from this party +during its long regime but the entire situation had now changed. The +National Association appointed a Congressional Committee of young, +energetic women headed by Miss Alice Paul, a university graduate with +experience in civic work in this country and England. They arranged an +immense suffrage parade in which women from many States participated. +It took place in Washington March 3, 1913, the day before the +inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, and the new administration entered +into office with a broader idea of the strength of the movement than +its predecessor had possessed. An extra session was soon called and +Senate and House Resolution Number One, introduced April 7, was for a +Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment. The chairmanship of the new Senate +Committee on Woman Suffrage, instead of being filled as usual by an +opponent, was given to Senator Charles S. Thomas (Dem.) of Colorado, +always an ardent suffragist, and a friendly committee was +appointed--Robert L. Owen (Okla.); Henry F. Ashurst (Ariz.); Joseph E. +Ransdell (La.); Henry P. Hollis, (N. H.); George Sutherland (Utah); +Wesley L. Jones (Wash.); Moses E. Clapp (Minn.); Thomas B. Catron (N. +M.). There were now eighteen members of the Senate with women +constituents and several million women were eligible to vote, so that +it was possible to bring a pressure which had never before existed. +Many of the large newspapers were declaring that the time had come for +the submission of this amendment to the State Legislatures. + +On May 3 a great suffrage procession took place in New York with a +mass meeting in the Metropolitan Opera House addressed by Colonel +Roosevelt, who made a ringing speech in favor of votes for women. On +June 13 the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage gave a unanimous +favorable report, Senator Catron, the only opponent, not voting. On +July 31 the resolution was discussed on the floor of the Senate, +twenty-two speaking in favor and three in opposition. It had been +referred to the Judiciary Committee in the Lower House, where +resolutions also were introduced for the creation of a Committee on +Woman Suffrage and referred to the Committee on Rules. During July +pilgrimages of women came from different parts of the country and on +the 31st a petition with 200,000 signatures was presented to the +Senate by 531 "pilgrims." Three deputations called on President Wilson +asking his support of the amendment, one from the National American +Association, one from the National College Equal Suffrage League and +one from the National Council of Women Voters, and in November a +fourth from his own State of New Jersey. Congress remained in session +all summer and mass suffrage meetings in theaters were held in +Washington. The large corps of newspaper correspondents were +constantly supplied with news. Countless suffrage meetings were held +in Maryland, Virginia and all the way up to New York and the members +were kept constantly informed of the activities in their own +districts. On September 18 Senator Ashurst announced on the floor of +the Senate that he would press the resolution to a vote at the +earliest possible moment and Senator Andrieus A. Jones of New Mexico +spoke in favor and asked for immediate action. + +During the regular session in 1914 the resolution was discussed at +different times and many strong speeches in favor were made. The +Senate vote, which was taken on March 19, stood, ayes, 35; noes, 34; +lacking eleven of a necessary two-thirds majority. Twenty Republicans, +one Progressive and fourteen Democrats voted aye; twelve Republicans +and twenty-two Democrats voted no; ten Republicans and sixteen +Democrats were absent. For the first time southern Senators declared +in favor of giving suffrage to women by amending the National +Constitution--Senators Owen, Ransdell, Luke Lea of Tennessee and +Morris Sheppard of Texas voting in the affirmative. + +For a trial vote this was considered satisfactory. The effort in the +Lower House was not so successful. Its Judiciary Committee had been +continuously opposed to allowing the amendment to reach the +Representatives, but two favorable majority reports having been made +in the thirty-six years during which the question had been before it +(1883, 1890). A larger Congressional Committee had been formed by the +National Suffrage Association, of which the chairman was Mrs. Ruth +Hanna McCormick, a daughter of former U. S. Senator Mark Hanna, who +had inherited her father's genius for constructive politics. +Headquarters were opened in the Munsey Building in Washington and the +work was divided into three departments--Lobby, Publicity and +Organization. Careful and systematic effort was made and it was +followed by the Senate vote recorded above. A record was compiled of +the votes of every member of Congress on prohibition, child labor and +various humanitarian and welfare measures and sent to the women in his +district for use in urging him to vote for the suffrage amendment. +Organizers were placed where needed to hold meetings and arrange for +chairmen of counties who would cooperate with the national committee +in bringing pressure on members from their own constituencies. + +The Federal Amendment as usual was held up in the House Judiciary +Committee in 1914. The suffrage leaders had tried for years to get a +House Committee on Woman Suffrage, such as the Senate had. A +resolution for this purpose had been introduced by Representative +Edward T. Taylor of Colorado in April, 1913, referred to the Committee +on Rules, an extended hearing granted, but no action taken. Mrs. +McCormick's committee brought great pressure to bear and on Jan. 24, +1914, the question came before the Committee on Rules through a motion +by Representative Irvine L. Lenroot (Wis.) to make a favorable report. +Eight of the eleven members were present and Martin D. Foster (Ills.), +Philip P. Campbell (Kans.), and M. Clyde Kelly (Penn.) voted with Mr. +Lenroot; James C. Cantrill (Ky.), Finis J. Garrett (Tenn.), Edward W. +Pou (N. C.) and Thos. W. Hardwick (Ga.) voted in the negative, making +a tie. Two of the absent members were known to be favorable and a +Democratic caucus was called for February 3 to discuss the matter. +Just before it met the Democratic members of the Ways and Means +Committee, who constitute the ruling body of that party's membership, +met in the office of Representative Oscar W. Underwood (Ala.). +Representative John E. Raker (Cal.) offered a resolution for the +creation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage. Representative J. Thomas +Heflin (Ala.) moved a substitute: "Resolved, that it is the sense of +this caucus that woman suffrage is a State and not a Federal +question." It was carried by 123 ayes, 55 noes and further action +blocked. + +The House Judiciary Committee, after granting a hearing to the +suffragists on March 3, 1914, voted to report the resolution for a +Federal Amendment "without recommendation." At a meeting of the Rules +Committee August 27 Representative Campbell moved that an opportunity +be given to the House to vote on submitting this amendment. +Representatives Pou, Garrett and Cantrill voted to adjourn; Campbell, +Kelly and Goldfogle (N. Y.) against it. Chairman Robert L. Henry +(Texas) gave the deciding vote to adjourn.[137] + +During this year of 1914, while such heroic efforts were being made to +secure favorable action by Congress on a Federal Amendment and the +workers were being told that they should look to the States for the +suffrage, hard campaigns were carried on for this purpose in seven +States. In only two, and those the most sparsely settled--Montana and +Nevada--were they successful. Even these had their influence, however, +as they added four to the U. S. Senators who were elected partly by +the votes of women. The National Suffrage Association continued Mrs. +McCormick as chairman of its Congressional Committee and she increased +her forces. Although the Judiciary Committee had reported the +resolution for the Federal Amendment "without recommendation" +Representative Frank W. Mondell, who introduced it, and its other +friends were determined to have a vote on it and a reluctant consent +was obtained from the Committee on Rules. The Congressional Committee +directed its fullest energies toward obtaining as large an affirmative +vote as was possible. Through the courtesy of Speaker Champ Clark they +learned who would be the probable speakers and carefully assorted +literature was sent them. Thousands of letters and telegrams poured in +upon the members from their constituencies. Every available pressure +was used to obtain favorable votes and to have all the friends +present. Mr. Mondell, the Republican leader, and Mr. Taylor, the +Democratic, gave fullest support. The first debate on this amendment +in the House of Representatives took place on Jan. 12, 1915, and +lasted ten hours without intermission. At its conclusion the vote +resulted in 174 ayes, 88 Republicans and Progressives, 86 Democrats; +204 noes, 33 Republicans and 171 Democrats. The affirmative vote was +larger than expected. The suffragists had been thirty-seven years +trying to secure a vote in the Lower House and they felt that this was +the beginning which could have but one end. + +Both the suffragists and the anti-suffragists now redoubled their +efforts. The four big campaigns of 1915 in Massachusetts New York, +New Jersey and Pennsylvania for suffrage amendments to their State +constitutions attracted the attention of the whole country. All failed +of success at the November election but the effects were not wholly +disastrous. The announcement by President Wilson and the majority of +his Cabinet that they were in favor of woman suffrage brought many +doubters into the fold. The two-thirds vote of Massachusetts in +opposition set that State aside as one in which women could only hope +to gain the suffrage through a Federal Amendment. In New Jersey in one +county alone thousands of votes were afterwards found to have been +cast illegally and there was colossal fraud throughout the State, yet +the law did not permit the question to be submitted again for five +years. In Pennsylvania the amendment polled over 46 per cent of the +whole vote cast on it and was defeated by the notoriously dishonest +election practices of Philadelphia, but by the law of that State it +could not be submitted again for four years. The facts thus disclosed +converted many people to a belief in the necessity for an amendment to +the National Constitution. + +In New York the measure had received 42-1/2 per cent. of the vote cast +on it; in New Jersey 42 per cent. (by the returns), and the total vote +in the four States of a million and a quarter for the amendments was +indisputable evidence of the large sentiment for woman suffrage. The +immense cost of these campaigns in time, labor and money made it seem +more than ever necessary to bring about the short cut to the universal +enfranchisement of women through a Federal Amendment. The +Congressional Committee was strengthened and as Mrs. McCormick could +no longer act as chairman it was headed by Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, the +efficient president of the State association in the recent +Pennsylvania campaign. Resolutions for the amendment were presented to +the Senate on December 7 by Senators Thomas, Sutherland and Thompson +(Kans.). On Jan. 8, 1916, the favorable report was made by Senator +Thomas, a valuable document, widely circulated by the National +Association. This was the year of the Presidential campaign and there +was no time when the prospect for a majority vote seemed good enough +to take the risk. It was carefully considered after Judge Charles E. +Hughes, the Republican candidate for President, made his declaration +for the Federal Amendment but many members were absent and a vote was +not deemed advisable. The planks in the Republican and Democratic +national platforms demanding woman suffrage by State action deprived +it of political support. + +The Judiciary Committee of the House, Edwin Y. Webb (N. C.), chairman, +added to its unpleasant reputation. Resolutions for the amendment were +introduced in December, 1915, by five members--Representatives +Mondell, Raker, Taylor, Keating of Colorado and Hayden of Arizona. +They were referred to a sub-committee which on Feb. 9, 1916, reported +one of them to the main committee "without recommendation." On the +15th it sent the resolution back to the sub-committee to hold until +the next December by a vote of 9, all Democrats, to 7, three Democrats +and four Republicans. As this was done when many were absent the +Congressional Committee undertook to have the Judiciary take up the +resolution again when the full committee could be present. It finally +agreed to do so on March 14. Twenty of the twenty-one members were +present, nine opponents and eleven friends, Hunter H. Moss of West +Virginia among the latter coming from a sick bed. A motion was made to +reconsider the action of February 15, which Chairman Webb ruled out of +order. A debate of an hour and a half followed and to relieve the +parliamentary tangle unanimous consent was given to act on the +amendment resolution March 28 at 10:30 a.m. Four members of the +National Association's Congressional Committee were on hand at that +time but the Judiciary went at once into executive session, which +barred them out. Instead of presenting the amendment resolution for +consideration, which was the chairman's duty when there was a special +order of business, he permitted a motion to postpone all +constitutional amendments indefinitely! Ten of the members present +were pledged to vote for a favorable report but Representative +Leonidas C. Dyer of Missouri defaulted and voted with the nine +opponents and no further action in 1916 was possible. + + * * * * * + +With the whole country now aroused to the importance of the votes of +women in the election of a President the suffrage leaders saw the +opportune time for pushing a measure which they had long advocated, +namely, the granting to women by State Legislatures of the right to +vote for Presidential electors. That of Illinois had been persuaded +to do this in 1913; they had exercised it in 1916 and its +constitutionality had been established by the acceptance of the +State's vote in the Electoral College. As soon as the Legislatures of +the various States met in 1917 they received from the headquarters of +the National American Association in New York the opinion of Chief +Justice Walter Clark of North Carolina that the Federal Constitution +empowered Legislatures to determine who should vote for Presidential +electors, with the authorities and arguments to support it. The +presidents of the State suffrage associations affiliated with the +National were prepared to take up the matter at once with their +Legislatures and as a result those of North Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana, +Michigan, Ohio and Rhode Island conferred this vote on women during +the winter. That of Arkansas gave to women full suffrage in all +Primaries, equivalent to a vote in regular elections, and that of +Vermont gave the Municipal franchise. The following November came the +great victory in New York. + +This was the situation when Congress met in December, 1917. Mrs. +Roessing could not serve longer as chairman of the Congressional +Committee and the National Association had appointed Mrs. Maud Wood +Park (Mass.), a founder and organizer of the National College Women's +Suffrage League, who had taken up the work in March. The association, +whose headquarters were in New York City, had enlarged its staff in +Washington and taken a large house for this committee and its work. +There on April 2 the first woman ever elected to Congress, Miss +Jeannette Rankin of Montana, was entertained at breakfast, made a +speech from an upper balcony and was escorted to the Capitol by Mrs. +Carrie Chapman Catt, national president, at the head of a cavalcade of +decorated automobiles, filled with suffragists. That day the President +asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. The +resolution for the Federal Suffrage Amendment was to have been the +first introduced in the Senate but the War Resolution took its place +and it became Number Two on the calendar. Senator Thomas had given up +the chairmanship of the Committee on Woman Suffrage and Senator +Andrieus A. Jones (N. M.) had been appointed. Senators Nelson +(Minn.), Johnson (S. D.) Cummins (Iowa) and Johnson (Cal.) had been +added to the committee and Senators Ashurst, Sutherland, Clapp and +Catron had retired. + +In the House the resolution was introduced by Representatives Rankin, +Raker, Mondell, Taylor, Keating and Hayden. Both Houses agreed that +only legislation pertaining to the war program should be considered +during the extra session, which excluded the amendment, but there were +some forms of work not prohibited. On April 20 the Senate Committee +gave a hearing on it with Mrs. Catt in charge and very strong +addresses were made by her and by Senators Shafroth (Colo.), Kendrick +(Wyo.), Walsh (Mont.), Smoot (Utah), Thomas, Thompson and +Representative Rankin. Thousands of copies were franked and given to +the National Association for distribution. On September 15 Chairman +Jones made a unanimous favorable report to the Senate. In the House +efforts were concentrated on securing a Committee on Woman Suffrage, +resolutions for which had been introduced by Representatives Raker, +Hayden and Keating and referred to the Committee on Rules. Mrs. Park's +report said: + + Our first step was to get the approval of Speaker Clark, who gave + us cordial support. Later, to offset the fear on the part of + certain members of conflicting with President Wilson's + legislative program, a letter was sent to Chairman Edward W. Pou + (N. C.) of the Rules Committee by the President, who stated that + he thought the creation of the committee "would be a very wise + act of public policy and also an act of fairness to the best + women who are engaged in the cause of woman suffrage." + + A petition asking for the creation of a Committee on Woman + Suffrage was signed by all members from equal suffrage States and + by many of those from Presidential suffrage States, and from + Arkansas. This was presented to the Rules Committee, which, on + May 18, granted a hearing. On June 6, by a vote of 6 to 5, on + motion of Mr. Cantrill a resolution calling for the creation of a + Committee on Woman Suffrage to consist of thirteen members, to + which all proposed action touching the subject of woman suffrage + should be referred, was adopted by the Rules Committee, with an + amendment, made by Mr. Lenroot to the effect that the resolution + should not be reported in the House until the pending war + legislation was out of the way. + + The report of the Rules Committee, therefore, was not brought + into the House until September 24, when the extremely active + opposition of Chairman Webb and most of the other members of the + Judiciary Committee made a hard fight inevitable. Thanks to the + hearty support of Speaker Clark, the good management of Chairman + Pou and the help of loyal friends of both parties in the House, + as well as to the admirable work done by our own State + congressional chairmen, the report was adopted by a vote of 180 + yeas to 107 nays, with 3 answering present and 142 not voting. Of + the favorable votes, 82 were from Democrats and 96 from + Republicans. Of the unfavorable votes, 74 were from Democrats and + 32 from Republicans. Of those not voting, 59 were Democrats and + 81 were Republicans. These facts show that the measure was + regarded, as we had hoped that it would be, as strictly + non-partisan. The victory came so late in the session that the + appointment of the new committee was postponed until the present + session. + +At the November election in 1917 occurred the greatest victory for +woman suffrage ever achieved, when the voters of New York by a +majority of 102,353 declared in favor of an amendment to the State +constitution granting the complete franchise to women. This added 45 +to the members of Congress elected partly by votes of women and +presumably obligated to support a Federal Amendment. Colonel Roosevelt +and other leading Republicans and Progressives were advocating it and +William Jennings Bryan headed the Democratic leaders in its favor. +President Wilson had not yet reached this point but he had +congratulated Mrs. Catt, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and the other leading +suffragists on every victory gained. Both Republican and Democratic +opponents now realized that it was inevitable and they could only hope +to postpone it. After strong efforts to prevent it the Committee on +Woman Suffrage was appointed in the House on December 13 with Judge +Raker (Cal.) chairman. Besides himself nine of the thirteen members +were openly in favor of submitting the amendment: Benjamin C. Hilliard +(Colo.); James H. Mays (Utah); Christopher D. Sullivan (N. Y.); Thomas +L. Blanton (Texas); Jeannette Rankin (Mont.); Frank W. Mondell (Wyo.); +William H. Carter (Mass.); Edward C. Little (Kans.); Richard N. +Elliott (Ind.). Three were opposed: Edward W. Saunders (Va.); Frank +Clark (Fla.); Jacob E. Meeker (Mo.). + +The Judiciary refused to turn over the amendment resolution to the new +Committee but amended it by limiting to seven years the time in which +the Legislatures could ratify it, and reported it "without +recommendation" on December 11. Democratic floor leader Claude +Kitchin (N. C.) announced that it would come to a vote on the 17th. He +was strongly pressed to set a later date, as the required number of +votes were not yet assured, but the alternative was probably a long +postponement. Finally he consented to wait until January 10. At the +beginning of the session, through the initiative of Mrs. Park, a +"steering committee" of fifty-three friendly Republicans had been +brought together with an executive composed of Mr. Hayden chairman, +Mr. French (Ida.) secretary, Mr. Keating, Mr. McArthur (Ore.) and Mr. +Cantrill, who had now become an ally. During all of December the +National Suffrage Association had a large lobby of influential women +working daily at the Capitol with the members from their States. The +national suffrage convention met in Washington December 10-16, and, +following a plan of Mrs. Catt, the president, Senators from about +thirty States invited the Representatives to their offices to meet the +women from their States who were attending the convention and many +pledges of votes were obtained. In the meantime, at the suggestion of +Speaker Clark and Chairman Pou, Judge Raker introduced a new amendment +resolution, which went automatically to his own committee, where it +was in the hands of a strong friend instead of a bitter opponent as +was Mr. Webb. + +The Committee on Woman Suffrage held hearings Jan. 3-7, 1918, for the +National Suffrage Association, the National Woman's Party and the +Anti-Suffrage Association.[138] On the 8th it reported favorably and +on the 9th the Committee on Rules voted to give to it instead of the +Judiciary Committee charge of the hearing. + +Great efforts were made to secure the cooperation of Democratic and +Republican leaders. Letters of endorsement were given out by +Secretaries McAdoo, Daniels and Baker of the Cabinet among others of +influence. It was now understood that President Wilson had come to +favor the Federal Amendment but he had not yet spoken. Finally through +the mediation of Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, vice-president of the +National Suffrage Association, an appointment was made for Chairman +Raker and eleven Democratic Representatives to call on the President +January 9. After a conference he wrote with his own hand the +following statement to be made public: "The Woman Suffrage Committee +found that the President had not felt at liberty to volunteer his +advice to members of Congress in this important matter but when we +sought his advice he very frankly and earnestly advised us to vote for +the amendment as an act of right and justice to the women of the +country and of the world." This declaration had a marked effect on the +Democratic members and on the party outside. + +[Illustration: BALCONY OF THE NATIONAL SUFFRAGE HEADQUARTERS IN +WASHINGTON. + + Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, + Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, + Mrs. Maud Wood Park.] + +On the Republican side, Colonel Roosevelt wrote a letter to Chairman +Willcox of the Republican National Committee, urging that the party do +everything possible for the amendment, and Mr. Willcox went more than +once to Washington to labor with Republican leaders in the House to +secure fuller party support for it. On the evening of January 9, a +meeting was called in the hope of securing caucus action. It could not +be had but the following very moderate resolution was adopted: "The +Republican conference of the House of Representatives recommends and +advises that the Republican members support the Federal Suffrage +Amendment in so far as they can do so consistently with their +convictions and the attitude of their constituents"! + +Shortly after 12 o'clock on Jan. 10, 1918, with the galleries of the +House crowded, Representative Foster (Ills.) presented the rule, +which, when adopted, provided for the closing of debate at five +o'clock that afternoon and even division of time between supporters +and opponents. With Chairman Raker's consent the general debate was +opened by Miss Rankin and it continued until five o'clock, when +amendments were in order. One, offered by Representative Moores of +Indiana, providing for ratification by convention in the several +States instead of by the Legislatures, was defeated by a vote of 131 +to 274. A second, by Representative Gard of Ohio, limiting the time +allowed for ratification by the States to seven years, was defeated by +a vote of 158 to 274. + +Analyzed by parties and not including pairs, the vote on the joint +resolution for submitting the Federal Suffrage Amendment to the +Legislatures was as follows: + + Republicans 165 ayes, 33 noes + Democrats 104 " 102 " + Miscellaneous 5 " 1 " + --- --- + 274 136 + +This vote was a fraction less than one over the necessary two-thirds. +Twenty-three State delegations voted solidly for the amendment: +Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, +Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, +New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South +Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The delegations of only six +States voted solidly against it--Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, +Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina. + +A number of men who voted favorably came to the Capitol at +considerable inconvenience to cast their votes. Republican Leader Mann +of Illinois at much personal risk came from a hospital in Baltimore. +He had not been present in Congress for months and his arrival shortly +before five o'clock caused great excitement in the chamber. +Representative Sims of Tennessee, who had broken his shoulder two days +before, refused to have it set until after the suffrage vote and +against the advice of his physician was on the floor for the +discussion and the vote. Representative Barnhart of Indiana was taken +from his bed in a hospital in Washington and stayed at the Capitol +just long enough to cast his vote. One of the New York Representatives +came immediately after the death of his wife, who had been an ardent +suffragist, and returned on the next train. + +When it became apparent that the resolution had carried, the opponents +became very active on the floor attempting to persuade some member to +change his vote. They demanded a recapitulation but it stood the same +as the original vote. Speaker Clark had given his assurance that in +case of a tie he would vote in favor. Only one member broke his pledge +to the women. The most remarkable feature was that 56 of the +affirmative votes were from southern States. + +The women were jubilant, as they believed the end of their long +struggle was near. It was not anticipated that there would be serious +difficulty in the Senate. Its committee had reported favorably and in +a short time promises were obtained for the needed two-thirds lacking +only three or four. There had been, however, an unprecedented series +of deaths in the Senate during the past few months which in the early +part of 1918 were increased to ten, seven of whom were pledged to +vote for the amendment. Some of the vacancies were filled by friends +and some by foes but there was a net loss to it of one. Nevertheless +no means were left untried to obtain help from individuals, committees +and organizations with influence. + +Through the national headquarters in New York a petition signed by a +thousand men of nation wide reputation was obtained and presented to +the Senate. Among the most important favorable resolutions adopted +were those by the Democratic National Committee Feb. 11, 1918; by the +Republican National Committee February 12; by the Democratic +Congressional Committee June 4; by the model State platforms of the +Republican and Democratic parties in Indiana in May and June; by the +Republican Congressional Committee; by the General Federation of +Women's Clubs May 3; by the American Federation of Labor June 14. Will +H. Hays, newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, +gave interviews in favor and worked diligently in many other ways for +its success, as did Vance McCormick, former chairman, and Homer +Cummings, present chairman of the National Democratic Committee, and +many other men conspicuous in public life. + +It was finally decided to take a vote on May 10 but on the 9th so +serious a fight in opposition had developed that it was considered +best to postpone it. By June 27 the outlook was so favorable that the +amendment was brought before the Senate. Senators Poindexter (Wash.) +and Thompson (Kans.) spoke in favor, Brandegee (Conn.) in opposition. +A wrangle over "pairs" followed and Reed (Mo.) launched a +"filibuster." After he had spoken two hours Chairman Jones saw that +the situation was hopeless and withdrew his motion. + +During the summer representatives of the National Association obtained +in Delaware a petition of over 11,000 to Senators Wolcott and +Saulsbury to support the amendment. Petitions poured in on other +opposing Senators and influence of many kinds was exerted. Only two +more votes were needed and it seemed important to put the amendment +through before the fall election. On August 24 a conference of +Republican Senators was held in Washington to elect a floor leader in +place of Senator Gallinger (N. H.), who had died, and it passed the +following resolution: "We shall insist upon the consideration of the +Federal Suffrage Amendment immediately after the disposition of the +pending unfinished business and upon a final vote at the earliest +possible moment, provided that this resolution shall not be construed +as in any way binding the action or vote of any member of the Senate +upon the merits of said suffrage amendment"! + +The friends of the measure could have had "immediate consideration" at +almost any time during the past year. They could have had a vote on +May 10 had they considered that time favorable. Even on June 27 some +way might have been found to obtain it had there been a very great +desire to have it taken then. This conference resolution called upon +the Senate to vote on it and get it out of the way, no matter whether +it should be carried or defeated, and did not even give it the +prestige of a favorable endorsement. Here, as in the State's rights +plank put into the Republican national platform in 1916, one could +easily see the fine hand of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of +Massachusetts. + +The way was now wide open for President Wilson to secure for the +Democratic party the credit for submitting the amendment, which the +suffrage leaders were quick to take advantage of. On September 18 a +delegation of Democratic women, members of the National American +Suffrage Association, had a conference with him to ask his help, which +he willingly promised. A few of the newly elected or appointed +Senators held out some hope and Chairman Jones gave notice that he +would call up the amendment on September 26, as it was most important +to get it through at this session, so as not to have it go back to the +House. + +On August 26 a five days' debate in the Senate began and the report of +it in the _Congressional Record_ is a historic document which will +take its place with the debates on slavery before the Civil War. It +was soon apparent that three of the new Senators, who there was reason +to hope would vote in favor--Drew of New Hampshire, Baird of New +Jersey and Benet of South Carolina--were among the opponents and there +would be two less than a two-thirds majority. Every minute was filled +with the efforts to obtain these votes and finally an appeal was again +made to President Wilson. There was the greatest anxiety until it was +learned that he would take the unprecedented step of addressing the +Senate in person on the subject September 30. This was done to the joy +of its friends and the wrath of its enemies. Mrs. Park, chairman of +the Congressional Committee of the National Suffrage Association, said +in her report: "For a while our fears were at rest and Monday +afternoon when the words of that noble speech fell upon our ears it +seemed impossible that a third of the Senate could refuse the +never-to-be-forgotten plea.[139] + +Scarcely had the door closed upon the President when Senator Underwood +took the floor for a prolonged State's rights argument against the +amendment. He was followed by others opposed and in favor, during +whose speeches the leaders of the opposition of both parties went +about among the members trying to counteract the influence of the +President's address. + +The next day various amendments proposed were defeated; one by Senator +Williams (Miss.) to amend by making the resolution read: "The right of +_white_ citizens to vote shall not be denied, etc.," was laid on the +table by a vote of 61 to 22. One by Senator Frelinghuysen (N. J.), +denying the vote to "female persons who are not citizens otherwise +than by marriage" was also laid on the table by a vote of 53 to 33. +One by Senator Fletcher (Fla.) to strike out the words "or by any +State" so that the section would read: "The right of citizens of the +United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United +States on account of sex," was laid on the table by a vote of 65 to +17. + +The Senate vote Oct. 1, 1918, on the amendment itself, stood 54 in +favor to 30 against, or, including pairs, 62 in favor to 34 against, +two votes short of the needed two-thirds majority. Chairman Jones +changed his vote and moved reconsideration, which put the amendment +back in its old place on the calendar. Analyzed by parties and +including pairs the vote stood: + + Yes No + Democrats 30 22 + Republicans 32 12 + -- -- + Total 62 34 + +President Wilson on the eve of sailing for Europe to the Peace +Conference included in his address to a joint session of Congress +December 2 another eloquent appeal for the passage of the Federal +Suffrage Amendment. + +It had become evident by the action of the 65th Congress that +something more efficacious than public opinion or pressure from high +sources was required to secure the needed two votes in the Senate. The +official board of the National Suffrage Association, therefore, for +the first time in its history decided to enter the political +campaigns. Those of New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and +Delaware were selected in the hope of defeating the Senatorial +candidates for re-election who had opposed the amendment and electing +those who would support it. It was necessary to use influence against +Republican candidates in three States and a Democratic candidate in +Delaware. Two of these efforts were successful and a Republican, J. +Heisler Ball, defeated the Democratic Senator Saulsbury of Delaware, +and a Democrat, David I. Walsh, defeated the Republican Senator Weeks +of Massachusetts. Both of the new members voted for the amendment in +the 66th Congress. + +The election returns on November 6 indicated that the necessary +two-thirds majority in the 66th Congress had been secured. This belief +was shared by prominent Democrats, who from that time spared no effort +to make unfriendly Democratic Senators realize the folly of their +position in leaving the victory for the Republican Congress which had +been elected. At this election the voters of Michigan, South Dakota +and Oklahoma by large majorities fully enfranchised their women, +adding six Senators and twenty-four Representatives to the number +partly elected by the votes of women. Texas this year had given women +a vote at Primary elections, almost equal to the complete suffrage. +Resolutions were passed by twenty-five State Legislatures in January +and early February, 1919, calling upon the Senate to submit the +Federal Amendment. William P. Pollock of South Carolina, who had been +elected to succeed Senator Benet, was not only in favor of it but was +working to secure the one vote among the southern Senators which, +added to his own, would complete the two-thirds. A conference of +friendly Democratic Senators on February 2 decided that a vote must +be taken the following week if this party was to have the credit. The +next day the Senate Woman Suffrage Committee met and unanimously voted +to bring up the amendment on February 10. The reasons for the decision +were, first, that there was a chance to win and nothing to be lost by +recording the friends and enemies; second, that one man had been +gained since the last vote and there was a possibility that another +could be won. President Wilson cabled from Paris urging doubtful +Senators to vote in favor. William Jennings Bryan came to Washington +to intercede for it. + +On petition of twenty-two Democratic Senators, a party caucus on +suffrage was held on February 5, but the enemies died hard. They +immediately made a motion to adjourn but the suffragists without +proxies defeated the "antis," who voted proxies, by 22 to 16. On a +resolution that the Democratic Senators support the Federal Suffrage +Amendment, twenty-two voted in the affirmative but when ten had voted +in the negative those ten were allowed by Senator Thomas S. Martin +(Va.), Democratic floor leader, to withdraw their votes in order that +he might declare that, as the vote stood 22 to 0, a quorum had not +voted! + +After the close of the morning business on Feb. 10, 1919, Chairman +Jones moved to take up the amendment. An extremely strong speech in +its favor was made by Senator Pollock. The only other speeches were by +Senator Frelinghuysen on points of naturalization and by Edward J. +Gay, the new Senator from Louisiana, in opposition. The vote taken +early in the afternoon showed 55 in favor and 29 opposed. As on +October 1, all the members who were not present to vote were accounted +for by pairs, so that it stood practically 63 to 33. In other words +the amendment was lost in the 65th Congress by only one vote and the +individual responsibility for the defeat lay at the door of every +Senator who voted against it. + +From the States west of the Mississippi River only three Senators +voted "no"--Borah of Idaho, Reed of Missouri and Hitchcock of +Nebraska. + +Only three States--Alabama, Delaware and Georgia--cast all their votes +in both Senate and House against the amendment. + +Twenty States cast all their votes in Senate and House in +favor--Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, +Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, New Mexico, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and +Wyoming. In all of these women already had full or partial suffrage. + +On February 17 Senator Wesley L. Jones of Washington re-introduced the +amendment in its old form, stating that he expected no action during +the present Congress. On the following day Senator Gay introduced an +amendment in which the right of enforcement was given to the various +States and Congress was excluded. On the 20th Senator Kenneth McKellar +of Tennessee introduced one requiring personal naturalization of alien +women. Senator Gay agreed to support an amendment introduced February +28 by Chairman Jones, giving the States the right to enforce the +amendment, but, in case of their failure to do so, permitting Congress +to enact appropriate legislation. Just before the close of the session +on March 3, a southern Democrat, in response to a cablegram from +President Wilson, consented to give the measure the lacking vote if it +could be brought up again but this the Republicans declined to permit. + + * * * * * + +During this winter of 1919 the National American Association continued +the work of obtaining from the Legislatures Presidential suffrage for +women and to the list were added Maine, Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota, +Iowa, Missouri and Tennessee, fourteen altogether. By May 1, adding +the States with this Presidential suffrage to the fifteen where women +had the complete franchise, it was estimated that about 15,500,000 +would be able to "vote for the President" in the general election of +1920. They could vote for 306 of the 531 members of the Electoral +College, 40 more than half. About half of the above number would +exercise the full suffrage. Thirty-four Senators and 130 +Representatives were now elected partly by women, including those from +Arkansas and Texas. + +One-third of the Senate and all of the House of Representatives were +elected in November, 1918. Many of the old members were re-elected, +some friends and some enemies of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The +Republicans had a large majority and both parties wanted an early +vote on it. President Wilson made this possible by calling a special +session to meet May 19, 1919. Representative Frank W. Mondell (Wyo.) +was elected majority leader of the House and Representative James R. +Mann (Ills.) appointed chairman of the Committee on Woman Suffrage, +both Republicans. The resolution for the Federal Amendment was +introduced by six members on the opening day and on the 20th was +favorably reported by the committee and placed on the calendar for the +next day, even before the President's message was read, in which it +was recommended. On May 21, after two hours' discussion, it was passed +by 42 more than the needed two-thirds. The vote stood as follows: + + In Favor Opposed + Republicans 200 19 + Democrats 102 70 + Miscellaneous 2 0 + --- -- + 304 89 + +Members from southern States cast 71 of the affirmative votes and four +from the North were born in the South. The Democrats polled 54 per +cent. of their voting strength for the amendment and the Republicans +polled 84 per cent. of theirs. + +In all the great area west of the Mississippi River, excluding Texas +and Louisiana, only one vote in the lower house was cast against the +amendment--that of Representative H. E. Hull (Rep.), Iowa. In the +group of Middle States only five opposing votes were cast--two from +Wisconsin, one from Michigan, two from Ohio. The opposition centered +in the coast States from Louisiana to Maryland; aside from these the +largest opposing majorities were from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. +Twenty-six States--over half of the whole number--gave unanimous +support; thirteen had large favorable majorities; one was +tied--Maryland; five gave opposing majorities--Alabama, Georgia, +Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia; only two cast a solid vote in +opposition--Mississippi and South Carolina. + +These statistics did not indicate that "a few States were trying to +force this amendment on a vast unwilling majority of States," as the +opponents asserted. The increase from the majority of one in 1918 to +42 in 1919 is accounted for by the fact that at the congressional +election during the interim 117 new members were elected, of whom 103 +voted for the amendment. As it had been an issue in the campaign they +represented the sentiment of their constituencies. Fifteen of the +former members who were re-elected changed from negative to +affirmative. From January, 1918, to June, 1919, not one member of +either House broke his promise to vote for the amendment except +Representative Daniel J. Riordan (Dem.) of New York, although many of +them were subjected to extreme pressure by the interests opposed to +it. + +The resolution for the Amendment was introduced in the Senate May 23, +1919, by four members and half a dozen others expressed a wish to +present it. The new Committee on Woman Suffrage had not been appointed +and it was referred to the old one, whose chairman, Senator Jones, +asked unanimous consent to have it placed on the calendar at once. +Senators Underwood of Alabama; Hoke Smith of Georgia; Swanson of +Virginia; Reed of Missouri, Democrats; Borah of Idaho; Wadsworth of +New York, Republicans, and other opponents objected and it was delayed +several days. Meanwhile a new committee was appointed with Senator +James E. Watson (Rep.) of Indiana, as chairman. Finally on May 28 he +was able to report the resolution favorably, by unanimous vote of the +committee, and have it placed on the calendar for June 3. + +The discussion was continued for two days, principally by the +opposition, the friends of the amendment having agreed to consume no +time except when necessary to correct misstatements. For this purpose +Senators Lenroot of Wisconsin and Walsh of Montana, Republicans, and +Thomas of Colorado, King of Utah, Kirby of Arkansas and Ashurst of +Arizona, Democrats, made brief speeches. Senators Wadsworth, Brandegee +(Rep.) of Connecticut and Borah; Underwood, Smith (Dem.) of South +Carolina and Reed, consumed the rest of the time, Reed speaking +several hours. Senator Underwood offered an amendment to have the +ratifications by conventions instead of Legislatures, and Senator +Phelan (Dem.) of California wanted to amend this by requiring them to +be called the first week in December. Senator Harrison (Dem.) of +Mississippi tried to have the word "white" inserted in the original +amendment. Senator Gay (Dem.) of Louisiana wished to amend by +providing that the States instead of the Congress should have power to +enforce it. All these amendments were defeated by large majorities. + +The Senators knew that all this debate was a waste of time, as enough +votes were pledged to pass the amendment. Senator Watson opened and +closed it in a dozen sentences. The roll was called at 5 p. m. June 4, +and the vote was announced, 56 ayes, 25 noes. With the "pairs" that +had been arranged the entire 96 members of the Senate were recorded +and they stood as follows: + + Ayes Noes + Republicans 40 9 + Democrats 26 21 + -- -- + Total 66 30 + +The certificate to be sent to the Legislatures for ratification was +signed by President of the Senate Thomas R. Marshall (Ind.) and +Speaker of the House Frederick H. Gillett (Mass.) both unyielding +opponents of the amendment. + +Thus ended the struggle for the submission to the Legislatures of an +amendment to the National Constitution to give complete universal +suffrage to women, which had been carried on without cessation for +almost exactly fifty years--a struggle which has no parallel in +history. + +It is not possible to give in this limited space due recognition to +all the Senators and Representatives who during this long period stood +faithfully by this Federal Amendment, many of them at serious +political risk. This was especially true of those from the South. The +speech of Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, Aug. 5, 1918, was as +strong an argument as ever was made for the Federal Amendment. The +great corporate interests of the country, including the liquor +interests, which were the dominating force in politics, were +implacably opposed to woman suffrage and the women had no material +influence to counteract them. All the more honor is due, therefore, to +those members who loyally supported it in this long contest founded +upon abstract right, justice and democracy. + + +VOTE ON FEDERAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT IN THE U. S. SENATE, JUNE 4, +1919. + + _Republicans, Aye_ _Democrats, Aye_ + + Cal. Johnson Ariz. { Ashurst + Col. Phipps { Smith + Del. Ball Ark. { Kirby + Ills. { McCormick { Robinson + { Sherman Cal. Phelan + Ind. { New Col. Thomas + { Watson Ga. Harris + Iowa { Cummins Ida. Nugent + { Kenyon Ky. Stanley + Kans. { Capper La. Ransdell + { Curtis Mass. Walsh + Me. { Fernald Mont. { Myers + { Hale { Walsh + Md. France Nev. { Henderson + Mich. { Newberry { Pittman + { Townsend N. M. Jones + Minn. { Kellogg Okla. { Gore + { Nelson { Owen + Mo. Spencer Ore. Chamberlain + Neb. Norris R. I. Gerry + N. H. Keyes S. D. Johnson + N. J. { Edge Tenn. McKellar + { Frelinghuysen Tex. { Culberson + N. M. Fall { Sheppard + N. Y. Calder Utah King + N. D. { Gronna Wyo. Kendrick + { McCumber + Ohio Harding + Ore. McNary + R. I. Colt + S. D. Sterling + Utah Smoot + Vt. Page + Wash. { Jones + { Poindexter + W. Va. { Elkins + { Sutherland + Wis. { LaFollette + { Lenroot + Wyo. Warren + -------- -------- + Total 40 Total 26 + + _Republicans, No_ _Democrats, No_ + + Conn. { Brandegee Ala. { Bankhead + { McLean { Underwood + Ida. Borah Del. Wolcott + Mass. Lodge Fla. { Fletcher + N. H. Moses { Trammell + N. Y. Wadsworth Ga. Smith + Penn. { Knox Ky. Beckham + { Penrose La. Gay + Vt. Dillingham Md. Smith + Miss. { Harrison + { Williams + Mo. Reed + Neb. Hitchcock + N. C. { Overman + { Simmons + Ohio Pomerene + S. C. { Dial + { Smith + Tenn. Shields + Va. Martin + Swanson + -------- -------- + Total 9 Total 21 + +Benet was appointed for a few months to succeed Senator Tillman and +voted against the amendment October 1. Pollock was elected to serve +until March and voted for it February 10. Dial was elected for the +full term beginning March 4. Senator Hale of Maine was the only +hold-over Senator who changed his position, voting "no" in October and +"aye" in June. The suffragists deeply regretted that Senator John F. +Shafroth of Colorado, an able and valued friend for the past +twenty-five years, was no longer a member of the Senate. + +After the woman suffrage amendment had become a part of the +Constitution of the United States Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the +national president, prepared a complete summary of the several votes +on it in the two Houses of Congress according to the political parties +and sent it to Chairman Will H. Hays of the Republican National +Committee and Chairman George White of the Democratic. To the former +she said in part: "I take the occasion to express to you personally on +behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, our +grateful appreciation of your own faithful, consistent and always +sincere efforts to carry out the platforms of your party wherein they +referred to the enfranchisement of women. Ratification at this date +would not have been achieved without your conscientious and +understanding help. I wish also to express our gratitude to the +Republican party for its share in the final enfranchisement of the +women of the United States...." + +To Mr. White Mrs. Catt said: "There is one important Democratic factor +which should be included in the record and that is the fearless and +able sponsorship of the amendment by the leader of your party, the +President of the United States.... He has never hesitated to let +members of his party know in every State that he favored +ratification.... His championship furnishes cause for pride to all +forward-looking Democrats, since his vision foresaw this now achieved +fact of the enfranchisement of the women of this country. On behalf of +the National American Woman Suffrage Association, I wish to thank you +and your party for its share in the completion of the task to which +our association set itself more than fifty years ago." + +Mrs. Catt said in the course of her summing up: "Women owe much to +both political parties but to neither do they owe so much that they +need feel themselves obligated to support that party if conscience and +judgment dictate otherwise. Their political freedom at this time is +due to the tremendous sentiment and pressure produced by their own +unceasing activities over a period of three generations. Had either +party lived up to the high ideals of our nation and courageously taken +the stand for right and justice as against time-serving, vote-winning +policies of delay, women would have been enfranchised long ago.... If, +however, neither of the dominant parties has made as clean and +progressive a record as its admirers could have wished, there is no +question but that individual men of both parties have given heroic +service to the cause of woman suffrage and this has been true in every +State, those which ratified and those which rejected. Women should not +forget these men who have stepped in advance of the more slow moving +of their own constituents to help this great cause of political +freedom." + + +RATIFICATION. + +Before this Federal Amendment could become effective it had to be +ratified by the Legislatures of thirty-six States, three-fourths of +the whole number. The plan by which Mrs. Catt, president of the +National American Suffrage Association, had expected ratification to +follow the submission immediately was that all of the western equal +suffrage States would ratify at once. To make certain that this would +be done a representative of the association was sent on a circuit of +these States while the amendment was still pending. She called on the +Governors and instructed the women as to the procedure when it was +submitted. If there had been the expected early vote this plan would +have succeeded but it was thwarted by the late submission. Had the +vote taken place even as late as February, 1919, the Legislatures +could have considered it, which was the principal reason why the +opponents prevented it. By June 4 most of them had adjourned not to +meet again for two years. A few, however, were still in session and of +these Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan ratified it within six days of +its submission and Pennsylvania and Massachusetts a little later. That +of Ohio had taken a recess until June 16 and ratified it on this date. + +To obtain enough extra sessions, with all the expense, time and +trouble entailed, seemed a hopeless undertaking. Nevertheless, +scarcely had the Senate vote been announced when Mrs. Catt began +telegraphing to the Governors of many States a request that they would +call special sessions for the purpose of ratification. This was +favored by leaders in both political parties in order that it might be +completed in time for the women of the entire country to vote in the +general election of 1920. + +Governors Alfred E. Smith (Dem.) of New York and Henry J. Allen (Rep.) +of Kansas were the first to call special sessions. They were followed +by a few others, some willingly, others under great pressure from the +women of their States. Even the Governors of some of the equal +suffrage States were hesitating for various reasons and vigorous +action seemed to be necessary. Under the auspices of the National +Association four women, Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham of Texas, Mrs. +John G. South of Kentucky, Mrs. Ben Hooper of Wisconsin and Miss +Marjorie Shuler of New York, were sent to these States in July. The +two Republican women visited Republican States and the two Democratic +women visited Democratic States, the four reaching Salt Lake City to +attend the National Conference of Governors. Despite their pledges of +extra sessions some of them still demurred, as special sessions were +not approved by the taxpayers. Two of these Governors, one Republican +and one Democratic, were threatened with impeachment proceedings +whenever the Legislature should meet. Others feared that matters +besides the ratification might come up. + +The summer waned and the required number of special sessions were not +called, although letters and telegrams and every kind of influence +were being used. Finally Mrs. Catt herself headed a deputation +consisting of Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of the U. S. Children's +Bureau; Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield of New York; Dr. Valeria H. Parker +of Connecticut; Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Illinois, Mrs. +Edward P. Costigan of Colorado and Miss Shuler, who had continued +working in those western States. The Governors were again interviewed; +the situation was presented to the States through public meetings and +at last the desired pledges were secured. In Oregon the women agreed +to raise the money to pay for a special session. In Nevada, Wyoming +and South Dakota campaigns to persuade the members to attend at their +own expense were started and carried through. Altogether sixteen +conferences were held in twelve western States. While this campaign in +the West was under way the women of other States were hard at work to +obtain legislative action. Those of Indiana had the Herculean task of +collecting a petition of 86,000 names asking for a special session and +securing pledges from two-thirds of the Legislature to consider no +other business, before the Governor would call the session. + +While this strenuous work was in progress, which continued into 1920, +the National Republican and Democratic Committees, Will H. Hays and +Homer S. Cummings, chairmen, used all of their great influence for +special sessions and for favorable action. Prominent politicians of +both parties lent their assistance. The successful efforts to secure +ratification planks in the national platforms of all the political +parties are described in Chapter XXIII. Every candidate for President +and Vice-president gave his full endorsement. + +It was only necessary for thirteen Legislatures to hold out against +ratification to prevent the adoption of the amendment and those of the +nine southeastern States from Maryland to Louisiana were certain to do +this. All of them defeated it except that of Florida, which did not +vote on it. By March 22, 1920, thirty-five Legislatures had ratified, +leaving but four States from which to obtain the thirty-sixth and +final ratification. Delaware defeated it in June, leaving only +Tennessee, Connecticut and Vermont. A provision in the State +constitution of Tennessee prevented action by its Legislature. The +Republican Governors of Connecticut and Vermont refused absolutely to +call a special session. The former declared that there was no +emergency requiring it and was adamant to every argument. Mrs. Catt +and her Board then undertook another Herculean task of bringing to +Connecticut an influential woman from every State, and, cooperating +with those of Connecticut, a mass meeting was held in Hartford. After +this they divided into groups and held meetings in every city and +large town, ending the campaign with a visit to the Governor, at which +earnest pleas were made that he would call the Legislature to give the +final vote for ratification, as the women of the nation were waiting +for it. In Vermont, under the auspices of the National Board, 400 +women of the State under most trying weather conditions met in +Montpelier and called on the Governor with pleadings and arguments for +a special session, through whose action the women of the whole country +would be enfranchised. Both Governors remained obdurate. + +In the meantime the opponents had succeeded in Maine under its +Initiative and Referendum law in having the ratification submitted to +the voters and they threatened to take this action in all States +having this law. The Ohio Supreme Court sustained the legality of a +petition for a referendum and it was carried to the Supreme Court of +the United States--Hawk vs. the Secretary of the State of Ohio. Here +it was argued April 23, 1920. On June 1 the Court announced its +decision that the ratification of a Federal Amendment was not subject +to action by the voters. + +This decision removed the obstacle that existed in Tennessee and its +Governor called a special session for August 9. Mrs. Catt took charge +of the campaign in person and the ratification was obtained in the +Senate on the 13th and the House on the 18th, in the latter with the +greatest difficulty. It called for assistance from President Wilson, +from both of the Presidential candidates, the National Committees of +both parties and many prominent men and women within and without the +State. A full account will be found in the Tennessee chapter. A vote +for reconsideration followed; enough members left the State to prevent +a quorum and it was not until the 24th that Governor Roberts could +forward the certificate of ratification to Secretary of State +Bainbridge Colby in Washington.[140] Here on August 26 he proclaimed +the 19th Amendment a part of the Federal Constitution. A body of the +Tennessee legislators, headed by Speaker of the House Seth Walker, +went immediately to Washington and undertook to obtain an injunction +on this action but it was refused by the court. + +Although the ratification by the Tennessee Legislature was due to the +votes of both Democrats and Republicans the former claimed the credit. +The general election was close at hand in which all women could take +part and Republican leaders felt that some action was necessary. +Governor Marcus H. Holcomb of Connecticut called a special session of +the Legislature for September 14 and its first act was to ratify the +Federal Amendment by unanimous vote of the Senate and 216 to 11 in the +House. Owing to a technical question the ratification was repeated +September 21.[141] + +The stories of these 37 ratifications are interesting--in some States +occasions of much pleasure accompanied by music and feasting; in +others strenuous contests which left some unpleasant memories. They +are described in each State chapter and the failures as well. Especial +reference should be made to those of States mentioned here and of +Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, +Mississippi and Louisiana. + +When the opponents could not prevent ratification they had recourse to +the law. The attempt to have a referendum to the voters has been +referred to. Efforts were made in many States to have the Attorney +Generals declare that the ratification was unconstitutional or that +further legislation by the States would be necessary, but they were +unavailing. In May, 1920, the official board of the National Woman +Suffrage Association retained former U. S. Supreme Court Justice +Charles Evans Hughes as counsel and his advice and his opinions widely +published proved to be of the greatest benefit. Although one of the +most eminent of lawyers his interest in woman suffrage was so great +that he never refused any appeal for assistance. + +On July 7, 1920, before the 36th State had ratified, Charles S. +Fairchild, president of the American Constitutional League, formerly +the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association of New York, instituted injunction +proceedings in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia against +Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby and Attorney General A. Mitchell +Palmer. They sought to restrain the Secretary from proclaiming the +Federal Suffrage Amendment when it should receive the final +ratification and the Attorney General from doing anything to enforce +it. On July 13 the case for the Government was argued by Solicitor +General William L. Frierson and Assistant U. S. District Attorney +James B. Archer. Mr. Fairchild and the league were represented by +Everett P. Wheeler, a New York attorney and officer of the league. He +contended that under the U. S. Constitution Congress had no power to +submit the amendment and that various ratifications were illegal. +Justice Thomas J. Bailey dismissed the injunction proceedings on the +ground that neither Mr. Fairchild nor the league had sufficient +interest to entitle them to ask for an injunction and that the court +had no authority to go behind the action of the Legislatures in voting +for ratification. The case was taken to the District Court of Appeals. +On October 4 this court denied the injunction and dismissed the case +as "frivolous and brought for delay." It was then carried to the +Supreme Court of the United States. + +Litigation was threatened in Tennessee. In Maryland a League for State +Defense was formed to defeat ratification. It succeeded in the +Maryland Legislature and had delegations of legislators sent to +Tennessee and West Virginia for the purpose, who were not successful. +On Oct. 30, 1920, this league brought a test case in the Court of +Common Pleas in Baltimore through Attorney William L. Marbury against +J. Mercer Garnett et al., constituting the Board of Registry, to +compel them to strike the names of two women from the registration +books. The suit was filed in the name of Oscar Leser, a former Judge, +who had long fought woman suffrage, and twenty members of the league, +on the following grounds: The alleged 19th Amendment is not authorized +by Article V of the U. S. Constitution; it was never legally ratified +by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States; (those of West +Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri were cited); it was rejected by the +Maryland Legislature. Everett P. Wheeler assisted in the trial just +before Christmas. The case was conducted for the State by Attorney +General J. Lindsay Spencer. Judge Heuisler gave an adverse decision on +Jan. 29, 1921. The case was taken to the Court of Appeals and set for +April 7. The decision of the lower court was sustained--that "the +power to amend the Constitution of the United States granted by +Article V is without limit except as to the words 'equal suffrage in +the Senate.' ... From all the exhibits and other evidence submitted +the court is of the opinion that there was due, legal and proper +ratification of the amendment by the required number of State +Legislatures." + +This case also went to the U. S. Supreme Court and there both of them +rested. Meanwhile millions of women voted in the general election on +Nov. 2, 1920, and in the State and local elections which followed +through 1921, and the cases were almost forgotten. Finally in +February, 1922, the court heard the arguments, the Government +represented by Solicitor General James M. Beck. On the 27th it handed +down its decision on the two cases. It upheld the authority of +Congress under the Constitution of the United States to submit the +amendment; declared that "the validity of the 15th Amendment had been +recognized for half a century"; that "the Federal Constitution +transcends any limitations sought to be imposed by the State"; that +"the Secretary of State having issued the proclamation the amendment +had become a part of the National Constitution." + +This was the decision of the highest legal authority, from which there +was no appeal. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[131] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Ida Husted +Harper, author of the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, and with Miss +Anthony of Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage, which ended +with 1900. + +[132] For full account see History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page +67. + +[133] Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Chapter XVI. + +[134] The American Woman Suffrage Association was organized in +Cleveland, O., Nov. 25, 1869, with the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, +president; Lucy Stone, chairman of the executive committee, to work +especially for amending State constitutions. The two bodies united in +February, 1890, under the name National American and the association +thenceforth worked vigorously by both methods. + +[135] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II, page 734. + +[136] For full account see History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, +Chapter VI. + +[137] In 1913 and the years following strenuous work with members of +Congress was done by the Congressional Union, afterwards called the +National Woman's Party. + +[138] For full report of this hearing see Chapter XVIII. + +[139] For speech in full see Appendix for this chapter. + +[140] As soon as the certificate was despatched Mrs. Catt left +Nashville, where she had been for six weeks, accompanied by Mrs. +Harriet Taylor Upton, vice-chairman of the National Republican +Executive Committee; Miss Charl Williams, vice-chairman of the +Democratic National Committee, and Miss Marjorie Shuler, the National +Association's chairman of publicity, who had been working with her +during this time. They went to Washington, called on the President and +Secretary of State and in the evening addressed an enthusiastic mass +meeting that filled the largest theater to overflowing. Secretary +Colby represented President Wilson, from whom he brought this message: + +"Will you take the opportunity to say to my fellow citizens that I +deem it one of the greatest honors of my life that this great event, +the ratification of this amendment, should have occurred during the +period of my administration. Nothing has given me more pleasure than +the privilege that has been mine to do what I could to advance the +cause of ratification and to hasten the day when the womanhood of +America would be recognized by the nation on the equal footing of +citizenship that it deserves." + +From Washington the women, joined by others, went to New York, where +Governor Alfred E. Smith was waiting at the station and said in +greeting Mrs. Catt: "I am here on behalf of the people of the State of +New York to convey congratulations to you on your great victory for +the motherhood of America." [See frontispiece Volume VI.] + +[141] Vermont was thus left the only State, except those in the +so-called "black belt," which did not ratify the Federal Amendment and +its Legislature was ready to do so any day when Governor Percival W. +Clement would permit it to meet. It ratified unanimously in the Senate +and with three negative votes in the House when it met in regular +session in 1921. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +VARIOUS WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. + + +The National Woman Suffrage Association formed in New York City May +15, 1869, by pioneers in the movement from nineteen States was the +first of the kind in the world. [History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II, +page 400.] This was followed by the forming on November 24 at +Cleveland, O., of the American Woman Suffrage Association. [Same, page +576.] In 1890 these two were combined under the name National +American. [Volume IV, pages 164, 174.] For various reasons other +organizations came into existence, as the years passed, which had some +claim to being considered national, but this great united association +was the bulwark of the movement for woman suffrage from its beginning +to its end in 1920. It was always the official authority recognized by +Congress, State Legislatures, the press and the public, but all of the +others assisted, each in its own way and degree, and, except in the +case of one, the National Woman's Party, there was no antagonism among +them, as all were consecrated to a common cause, and followed similar +methods. + + +THE FEDERAL SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. + +This association was organized on March 3rd and 10th, 1892, in the +lecture room of the Sherman House, Chicago, with the following +officers: President, the Hon. M. B. Castle, Sandwich, Ills.; +vice-president, the Rev. Olympia Brown, Racine, Wis.; secretary, Mrs. +A. J. Loomis, Chicago; treasurer, Mrs. S. M. C. Perkins, Cleveland, O. +Judge Charles B. Waite of Chicago; Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker of +Hartford, Conn.; Mrs. Lucinda H. Stone of Kalamazoo, Mich., and Mrs. +Lucia E. Blount of Washington, D. C., with many other prominent people +assisted. The object was to secure the passage of a Law by +Congress authorizing women to vote for members of the House of +Representatives, according to Sections 2 and 4, Article I of the +Federal Constitution, which gives Congress authority to change the +regulations made by the States for the election of these members. The +way for this organization had been prepared by articles in the _Forum_ +and the _Arena_ by Judge Francis Minor of St. Louis, presenting the +arguments for this law. He quoted James Madison, who said at the time +Virginia adopted the National Constitution that "the power was given +to Congress to change the regulations made by the States in order to +protect the people. Should the people at any time be deprived of the +right of suffrage for any cause it was deemed proper that it should be +remedied by the general government." At the first meeting a memorial +was adopted asking Congress to enact this law, which later was +presented by Representative Clarence D. Clark of Wyoming. The officers +of the association were instructed to present a memorial to the +Republican national convention in Minneapolis that summer asking that +a plank approving this Federal suffrage be inserted in the platform. +The Rev. Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Perkins attended the convention, where +they were treated with marked courtesy and given prominent seats. They +secured a hearing and the presentation of the memorial in the +Committee on Resolutions. The papers of Minneapolis printed it in +full, which was something unusual at that time when woman suffrage was +scarcely recognized by the press. At the Columbian Exposition in 1893 +a section in the Political Congress was assigned to the Federal +Association and a day appointed for its meetings. Two sessions were +held, addressed by prominent speakers and attended by large audiences. + +Much propaganda work was done and efforts were made to form local +organizations. The subject was kept before the Republican and +Democratic parties by memorials presented to their national +conventions. In 1902 the society was reorganized as the Woman's +Federal Equality Association in order to include other interests of +women besides suffrage. It was hoped thus to enlist the cooperation of +those employed by the Government but this hope not being realized the +name was changed to the original. Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood had been +chosen president in 1902 and was followed in 1903 by the Rev. Olympia +Brown, who held the office until the end in 1920, Mrs. Lockwood +continuing as honorary president until her death. Mrs. Clara Bewick +Colby was chosen corresponding secretary in 1902 and devoted herself +to the interests of the association unceasingly until her death Sept. +7, 1916. No session of Congress was allowed to pass without the +presenting of a bill demanding the right of women to vote for federal +officers. These bills were referred to the Committee on Election of +President, Vice-President and Representatives in Congress. Usually +hearings were granted and arranged for with much care by Mrs. Colby, +who resided in Washington. They were very effective. Among the most +important was that of 1904, which attracted so much attention that the +committee appointed a second day to continue it and invited Mrs. Colby +to explain more fully the demand of the association. Another important +hearing was that of 1913, when the largest committee room was filled, +many standing outside. It began in the morning and was continued in +the evening, with the speakers nearly all members of Congress, a +remarkable circumstance at that time. + +At the hearings of 1914, 1915 and 1916 Representative Burton L. French +of Idaho was a valuable speaker, as was Representative John E. Raker +of California. Mrs. Lockwood and other women took part at different +times, Mrs. Colby in all the hearings and the Rev. Mrs. Brown in most +of them. Dr. Clara McNaughton, the treasurer, rendered important +service in raising money and in other ways. At the great Gettysburg +celebration in 1913 she and Mrs. Anna Harmon represented the +association, obtaining signatures to petitions, circulating literature +and finding a wide sentiment for woman suffrage among the old +soldiers. + +On July 11-13, 1915, the Federal Suffrage Association held a Congress +at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, over which the Rev. +Olympia Brown presided. Mrs. Colby went out some time before the +meeting and made the arrangements. Among the distinguished people who +took part were Mrs. May Wright Sewall, founder of the International +Council of Women, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, historian of woman suffrage +and biographer of Susan B. Anthony; Mrs. Adelaide Johnson, the noted +sculptor; the eminent Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe Watson of California; Mrs. +Emma Smith DeVoe of Tacoma, president of the National Council of Women +Voters, and Mrs. Mary G. Bellamy, former member of the Wyoming +Legislature. The most notable of the exercises was the fine pageant in +the Court of Abundance on the closing night. This court was a most +beautiful place for scenic display, the arrangement of the platform, +lights and decorations all contributing to make any function there an +enchanting scene. Mrs. Colby had prepared a comprehensive lecture on +Woman's Part in the Building of America, and, with the assistance of a +skilful specialist, Mrs. Andrea Hofer, had arranged a memorable +entertainment. She stood on the pedestal of a massive column while she +gave her lecture, which was illustrated by tableaus on the platform in +the presence of a large audience. The congress was continued at San +Diego with largely attended meetings. + +The history of Federal Suffrage would not be complete without some +mention of the work of Miss Laura Clay and her sister, Mrs. Sarah Clay +Bennett, of Kentucky, who advocated the idea of Federal Suffrage even +before the forming of the association and long worked for a U. S. +Elections Bill. Miss Clay's maintenance of the Federal suffrage +principles, her writings and her strong personality were a guarantee +to many of the southern women that no infringement of the State's +rights idea was intended. By Aug. 26, 1920, the Federal Amendment had +been submitted by Congress and ratified. All the women of the United +States were fully enfranchised and the association had no longer any +reason for being. + + [Prepared by the Rev. Olympia Brown.] + + +UNITED STATES ELECTIONS BILL. + +From the time the National Woman Suffrage Association was organized to +secure the enfranchisement of women by amending the Federal +Constitution there were among its members those who did not favor this +method because it was contrary to the doctrine of State's rights. They +did, however, want Congress to provide that woman should vote for its +own Representatives, which could be done simply by a Law requiring +only a majority vote of each House. From the early 80's this group was +led by Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. Sarah Clay Bennett of Kentucky. There +was no doubt that Congress had authority over the election of its +Representatives, as was clearly shown in Article I, Section 2, which +prescribes the manner of their election and the qualifications of the +electors in the different States. Later it fixed a time for these +elections. This authority was conferred when, after the amendment was +adopted for the election of U. S. Senators by the voters, Congress +enacted that all who were qualified to vote for Representatives should +be eligible to vote for Senators. The leaders of the National American +Suffrage Association recognized the constitutionality of the bill and +for many years kept a standing committee on it but they did not +believe Congress ever would accept it. Its advocates claimed that if +members of Congress had women for their constituents they would soon +see that the States enfranchised them. The national leaders held that +if women could elect members of Congress it would not take them long +to compel the submission of a Federal Amendment and that the members +would not put this power into their hands. They held also that it +would be just as much a violation of the State's right to determine +its own voters as would the Federal Amendment itself. The Southern +Woman Suffrage Conference, or Association, however, had a committee to +further this U. S. Elections Bill. + +At the annual convention of the National American Association in 1914 +its Congressional Committee was instructed to include this bill in the +measures which it promoted. It was re-endorsed at the conventions of +1915 and 1916. Miss Clay went to Washington and lobbied for it with +all the prestige of her family back of her and with all her commanding +ability, supporting it by unanswerable argument. Members often +presented it in both Houses but it never was reported by a committee. + + +NATIONAL COLLEGE EQUAL SUFFRAGE LEAGUE. + +While Miss Maud Wood of Boston was a senior in Radcliffe College her +attention was directed to woman suffrage by the efforts of its women +opponents in Cambridge to enlist the college girls on their side. +Later, hearing a speech in favor of it by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, +she associated herself with the Massachusetts Suffrage Association, +spoke at its next annual convention and was drawn into its work. After +hearing and meeting Miss Susan B. Anthony she felt a deeper +obligation of service to the cause for which Miss Anthony and her +associates had sacrificed so much and she thought that college women +especially should pay their debt to those who had made their education +possible by helping them fight the battle for woman suffrage. In 1900, +with the help of Mrs. Inez Haynes Gillmore, also a Radcliffe student, +Miss Wood, now Mrs. Park, founded the Massachusetts College Equal +Suffrage League and steps were at once taken to form leagues in other +States. In 1906 the National American Woman Suffrage Association held +its annual convention in Baltimore and under the auspices of Dr. M. +Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr, there occurred that remarkable +"college women's evening," when before an audience that filled the +theater women professors from the largest Colleges for Women in the +United States paid their tributes to Miss Anthony and announced their +allegiance to her cause. + +It was decided at this meeting that there ought to be a national +association of college women, the first steps toward it were taken, +and Mrs. Park was appointed to organize leagues in the States. In 1908 +a Call was sent out signed by Dr. Thomas, President Mary E. Woolley of +Mt. Holyoke College: Miss Mary E. Garrett, a founder of the Johns +Hopkins Medical School; Mrs. Elsie Clews Parsons, Ph.D. of Barnard +College; Miss Caroline E. Lexow (Barnard), president of the New York +College Equal Suffrage League, and Miss Florence Garvin of the Rhode +Island League, to meet for organization. The time and place selected +were during the annual convention of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association in Buffalo, N. Y., October 15-21. By this time +College Leagues had been formed in fifteen States extending across the +country to California. On October 17, in the beautiful club house of +the Woman's Twentieth Century Club, with delegates present from most +of these States, the National College League was organized with the +following officers: President, Dr. Thomas; Professor Sophonisba +Breckinridge of Chicago University at the head of a list of five +vice-presidents; secretary, Miss Lexow; treasurer, Dr. Margaret Long +(Smith) of Denver; Mrs. Park was made chairman of the organization +committee. The purpose of the league was announced to be "to promote +equal suffrage sentiment among college women and men both before and +after graduation." It became auxiliary to the National Association and +its annual conventions were to be held at the same time and place as +those of the association. In its early existence office space was +given in the national suffrage headquarters in New York City. + +For the next nine years this National College League was a vital force +in the movement for woman suffrage. It soon had the largest voting +delegation at the national suffrage conventions except that of New +York. Dr. Thomas remained its president and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw its +honorary vice-president. Miss Martha Gruening and Miss Florence Allen +(now Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Cleveland, O.), were +secretaries, and from 1914 Mrs. Ethel Puffer Howes (Smith) of New York +City. Organizers were sent throughout the States to form new leagues +and lecturers of note were engaged to address league meetings. Among +the latter were Professor Frances Squire Potter of the University of +Minnesota; Dr. B. O. Aylesworth and Mrs. Helen Loring Grenfell, State +Superintendent of Public Instruction of Colorado; Mrs. Charlotte +Perkins Gilman of New York and Mrs. Philip Snowden of England. Dr. +Shaw spoke a number of times. In 1915 a lecture tour among the +colleges was arranged for Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst. Literature and +letters were sent to colleges and to graduates. In 1914, for instance, +twenty colleges in New York State were supplied and letters were sent +to a thousand graduates in New Jersey, campaigns being in progress in +those States. During the Iowa campaign in 1916 the colleges of that +State received 12,000 leaflets. Travelling libraries of twenty-five +volumes relating to suffrage were circulated among the colleges. The +most important achievement of an individual league was that in +California in 1911. Under the presidency of Miss Charlotte Anita +Whitney the work of the league of over a thousand members was a large +factor in the success of the campaign for a woman suffrage amendment. +In 1917, during the second New York campaign, Miss M. Louise Grant +(Columbia), under the auspices of the National and State leagues, made +forty-five speeches to arouse the college women, which contributed to +the victory for the suffrage amendment in November. + +The gaining of the franchise in this influential State made a Federal +Amendment a certainty of the not distant future and in December the +following official notice was sent to the branches of the National +League: + + At the meeting of the annual council of the National College + Equal Suffrage League, held at the New Ebbitt Hotel in + Washington, D. C., on Dec. 15, 1917, it was unanimously voted on + recommendation of the president and executive secretary to close + its work and go out of existence. The delegates present, the + officers, and many other suffragists who had been consulted were + of the opinion that the objects for which the league was + originally organized had been fully attained and that there was + no reason for it to continue its work as a separate suffrage + organization.... + + At the time when the league began its work the subject of + suffrage could scarcely be mentioned in gatherings of college + students and college faculties and was forbidden even as a topic + for discussion in the annual conventions of the Association of + Collegiate Alumnae, but in the nine years that have elapsed since + then an overwhelming change of opinion has taken place. Many + colleges in which it was planned to organize chapters have stated + that there is no need for them, as practically all the members of + their faculties and most of their students are already + suffragists. At the last biennial convention of the Association + of Collegiate Alumnae held in Washington, D. C., in April, 1917, + by a unanimous vote it not only reaffirmed its belief in woman + suffrage but urged its members to win it for all American women + by working for the Federal Amendment. In bringing about this + revolution in educated opinion we are happy to believe that the + National College Equal Suffrage League has played an important + part.... + + There are belonging to the National League 5,000 members enrolled + in over fifty State leagues and chapters and it suggests that + they become "Federal Amendment Suffrage Clubs" and arrange for + speakers and student debates on the amendment.... Its officers + wish to make an urgent appeal to all its leagues and chapters and + to every one of its individual members to put their whole force + behind the drive for this amendment.... We can perform no more + patriotic service for our country or for the world than to win + woman suffrage while we are working with all our might to win the + war.[142] + +This notice contained a statement that the small dues and special +gifts had never been sufficient to meet the expenses of the league and +said: "With the exception of $450 lent by one of its former officers +all the loans and debts of the National College League, amounting to +$6,686 were paid off by its president, who stated that in thus +financing its work during the past few years she believed she was +making the most valuable financial contribution that she could make to +the cause of woman suffrage." + + +FRIENDS' EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION.[143] + +The Society of Friends always has held advanced views on the woman +question and was for a long time the only religious body which gave +women equal rights with men in the church. Women of this sect were +naturally leaders in the great movement for the emancipation of women +educationally, professionally and politically. Lucretia Mott stepped +forth almost alone at first but soon Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone +(both of Quaker ancestry) stood by her side, powerful in vision to see +and will to do and dedicated to their great task. + +With such heritage comes unusual responsibility, and, feeling the +surge of this tremendous wave everywhere for human rights, the Society +of Friends at its Biennial or General Conference (liberal branch) +representing the seven Yearly Meetings of the United States and +Canada--Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and +Genesee (western New York and Canada)--held at Chautauqua, N. Y., 8th +month, 24th day, 1900, through the Union for Philanthropic Labor, +created a new department to be known as Women in Government and +recommended to the committees of the various Yearly Meetings that they +"should work in this direction." Before the adjournment of the +conference Mariana W. Chapman of Brooklyn was made superintendent of +the department and the name was changed to Equal Rights for Women. +This official action committed all the Yearly Meetings of this branch +of Friends to the endorsement of political rights for women. + +Realizing the need for increased enthusiasm and active participation +in the imminent struggle for the enfranchisement of women, members of +the New York Yearly Meeting organized the State Friends' Equal Rights +Association, with annual membership dues to meet necessary expenses. A +definite list of members was thus made, who could be called upon when +opportunity for service occurred. At Westbury (Long Island) Quarterly +Meeting in 1901 a proposal was approved that this association should +ask to co-operate as an auxiliary with the National American Woman +Suffrage Association and at the following annual convention of that +body in Washington, D. C., it was represented by five delegates. In +December, 1902, Mrs. Chapman, president of the New York association, +addressed a meeting in Philadelphia and a branch was formed there, +which in less than three months numbered about 200 members, with Susan +W. Janney as president. The Baltimore Yearly Meeting quickly followed +with a paid-up membership of 85, which increased the following year to +114, with Elizabeth B. Passmore president. + +In 1904 the entire dues-paying membership was over 500. The New York +association sent letters to members of the State Senate and Assembly +bearing on woman suffrage bills and was active in all State suffrage +campaigns. Much energy was devoted to public meetings and literature. +The Philadelphia and Baltimore associations worked mainly along +educational lines. This year the Baltimore branch sent out 4,000 +leaflets--For Equal Rights. The Philadelphia association reorganized +in 1905, with an enrolled instead of a paid membership. Their Yearly +Meeting is a large body with a membership scattered over Pennsylvania, +New Jersey, Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland.... + +The associations continued their work, holding meetings and "round +tables," especially at times of annual and biennial conferences, one +of the most effective of these meetings being held at Saratoga in +1914, addressed by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the +International Woman Suffrage Alliance. The subject was kept constantly +under consideration by the Society of Friends at large and in local +gatherings, such as monthly and quarterly meetings, where it was +brought up in regular order as one of the departments of philanthropic +labor or social service to be reported upon. Each branch held a +meeting at the time of its Yearly Meeting. A business meeting of the +whole association (branches and general membership) was always held at +the Biennial Conference of the seven Yearly Meetings. Usually a fine +speaker was engaged to address the conference at a public meeting +numbering from 800 to 1,500. The Superintendent of the Department for +Equal Rights in the General Conference was always the president of the +Friends' Equal Rights Association as a whole and made the contact +between the Society of Friends and the National American Woman +Suffrage Association. + +In 1911 Mrs. Effie L. D. McAfee, a member of the New York branch, was +sent by the Friends' Equal Rights Association to the congress of the +International Alliance held at Stockholm, Sweden, where, in honor of a +sect so long identified with the cause of woman suffrage, she was +given a place on the program and filled it most acceptably. In 1916 +the Philadelphia branch returned to the regular dues-paying basis, +with Rebecca Webb Holmes of Swarthmore as president. The New York +branch, notwithstanding the enfranchisement of the women of that State +in 1917, continued its organization in order to help the less +fortunate sisters, with P. Francena Maine as president. The Illinois +Yearly Meeting in 1919 added to the membership of the Friends' Equal +Rights Association. + +The association usually has been represented at the annual conventions +of the N. A. W. S. A. Its presidents have been: Mrs. Chapman, New +York; Lucy Sutton, Baltimore; Mary Bentley Thomas, Ednor, Md.; Ellen +H. E. Price, Philadelphia; Anne Webb Janney, Baltimore. The specific +task of the association has been to get a clear utterance on woman +suffrage from the different Yearly Meetings, representing in total +membership about 20,000. Invariably they have endorsed the principle +and any pending legislation in favor. Affiliation with the National +Association has been deeply appreciated by its members, as to be an +integral part of one of the glorious world forces is a privilege not +to be lightly held. + + +THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY CONFERENCES.[144] + +For half a dozen years toward the end of the long contest for the +enfranchisement of women--1912-1917 inclusive--an organization that +played a considerable part in it was the Mississippi Valley +Conference. From the time that the National Suffrage Association was +formed in 1869 to 1895 its annual conventions were held in Washington, +and from that date to 1912 nine of the seventeen were held in eastern +States. Because of the expense of travel the representation of western +women was very small compared to that of the eastern section of the +country. All the national presidents were from the East and in order +that the officers might attend board meetings and conferences most of +them were eastern women. Those of the West keenly realized the need of +greater opportunity of getting together, becoming acquainted, +developing leadership and planning their work, as all of the suffrage +campaigns at this time took place in the western States. This was felt +more especially by the women of the Middle West, as many of the States +in the far West had given the vote to their women. + +Finally in 1912 the initiative was taken by a group of women in +Chicago, headed by Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, six years president of the +Illinois Suffrage Association; Miss Jane Addams, national vice +president, and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, a former State and +national officer, to form an organization in the central part of the +country that could hold occasional conferences. They asked the +presidents of the State associations in that section if they would +join in a call for a meeting in Chicago for this purpose and sixteen +responded in the affirmative. Mrs. Stewart, as chairman of the +committee, took charge of the arrangements, assisted by Mrs. Mary R. +Plummer, and prepared the program. The meeting took place in La Salle +Hotel, May 21-23, with the following States represented by women +prominent in the movement for woman suffrage: Illinois, Wisconsin, +Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, +Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, +South Dakota, Mrs. Elvira Downey, president of the Illinois Suffrage +Association, presiding. There were three sessions daily with large +audiences and the _Woman's Journal_ said: "Every session was like a +great study class with teachers and students, questions, answers and +discussion. It was not an occasion for a display of oratory but a +practical and business-like conference." All phases of the work for +suffrage were considered and especially the management of campaigns, +which were now frequent. The third day a meeting was held in +Milwaukee, arranged by Miss Gwendolen Brown Willis. The great need and +value of such an organization was clearly apparent and the Mississippi +Valley Conference was organized with Mrs. Stewart president. There was +no constitution or fixed rules, it was simply decided to hold a +meeting the next year and a committee to arrange for it appointed: +Mrs. Stewart, chairman; Miss Kate Gordon of Louisiana and Mrs. Maud C. +Stockwell of Minnesota. + +The second conference met in St. Louis April 2-4, 1913, in the +Buckingham Hotel, at the Call of nineteen State presidents. Mrs. +George Gellhorn, president of the Missouri association, had charge of +the arrangements, with a corps of committee chairmen. Mrs. Stewart +presided and the conference was welcomed by Mrs. David M. O'Neil. The +three daily sessions were crowded with eager, interested women. At one +evening mass meeting in the Sheldon Memorial Governor Joseph K. Folk +made an address. Miss Harriet E. Grim of Illinois was elected +president and Mrs. Gellhorn and Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, president +of the Alabama Suffrage Association, were appointed to assist her in +arranging for the next conference. + +The third conference took place in Des Moines, Iowa, March 29-31, +1914, in the Savery Hotel, with the presidents of twenty State +Suffrage Associations among the delegates. It opened with a mass +meeting on Sunday afternoon in Berchel Theater and an overflow meeting +had to be held for the hundreds who could not gain admittance. +Governor George W. Clark, Miss Jane Addams, Rabbi Mannheimer, Miss +Dunlap and Mrs. Stewart were the speakers. In the morning and evening +most of the pulpits in the city were filled by delegates. The +conference was welcomed Monday by Miss Flora Dunlap, president of the +Iowa Suffrage Association and Mrs. Marie M. Carroll, president of the +Des Moines Woman's Club, and at the mass meeting in the evening by +Mayor James R. Hanna. Several hundred delegates were in attendance and +a valuable program of work occupied the sessions. Mrs. Harriet Taylor +Upton, president of the Ohio association, was elected president and +with Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. John Pyle, presidents of the Kentucky +and South Dakota Suffrage Associations, was appointed to arrange for +the next conference. + +The fourth conference was held at Indianapolis, March 7-9, 1915, in +the Hotel Claypool, with Dr. Amelia R. Keller, president of the Equal +Franchise League, chairman of the committee of arrangements. It opened +with a mass meeting Sunday afternoon in Murat Theater, Dr. Keller +presiding. An address of welcome was made by James A. Ogden in behalf +of the Chamber of Commerce, to which Mrs. Upton responded. The +principal speaker was Rosika Schwimmer of Hungary, formerly an officer +of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Presidents and delegates +from twenty-two State Suffrage Associations carried out the usual +comprehensive program. Mrs. Florence Bennett Peterson of Chicago was +elected president, with Mrs. W. E. Barkley and Miss Annette Finnegan, +presidents of the Nebraska and Texas Suffrage Associations, to assist +in the plans for the next meeting. + +The conference of 1916 met in Minneapolis, May 7-10, four days now +being none too long to carry out the important program of work. Mrs. +Andreas Ueland, president of the Minnesota Suffrage Association, was +chairman of the large committee of arrangements. The conference opened +with a mass meeting in the Auditorium Sunday afternoon, Mrs. Ueland +presiding. The invocation was pronounced by Dr. Cyrus Northrop, +president emeritus of the State University. The conference was +welcomed by Mayor Wallace G. Nye and Mrs. Peterson responded. +Professor Maria L. Sanford of the State University; president Frank +Nelson of Minnesota College; Mrs. Nellie McClung of Alberta, Can.; +Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International Suffrage +Alliance and the National American Association, and others made +addresses. An evening mass meeting was held in St. Paul. At a banquet +attended by 500 guests Dr. George E. Vincent, president of the State +University, made his first declaration in favor of woman suffrage. +Twenty-six States were now members of the organization and nearly all +of those who took part at this time were prominent in the activities +of their various States. The _Woman's Journal_ said: "It was a +magnificent and glorified Work Conference." Mrs. Peterson was +continued as president and Mrs. Ueland and Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser of +the Ohio Suffrage Association were placed on her committee, the latter +to act as chairman for arranging the next conference. + +The sixth annual meeting of what had now become an important factor in +the movement for woman suffrage took place at Columbus, O., May 12-14, +1917, in Hotel Deshler. At the Sunday afternoon mass meeting in +Memorial Hall, the Hon. William Littleford of Cincinnati, president of +the Ohio Men's League for Woman Suffrage, was in the chair and a +number of eminent men and women were on the platform. The speakers +were Governor James M. Cox and Mrs. Catt. The Governor strongly +endorsed the movement and pledged his support. Mrs. Catt gave a +masterly review of its progress throughout the world. Twenty-one +States were represented on the program. An important feature of this, +as of several preceding conferences, was the reports of what women had +been able to accomplish in the many States where they were now +enfranchised. Organization and political action in order to carry +State amendments formed the principal theme of discussion. Mrs. John +R. Leighty of Kansas was elected president with Mrs. Ueland and Mrs. +Grace Julian Clarke of Indianapolis on her committee to arrange for +the next conference. The shadow of war rested over the meeting, yet in +all the speeches was a note of victory for woman suffrage, which +evidently was not far distant. + +It was planned to hold the next Conference in Sioux Falls, May 26-28, +1918, as South Dakota was in the midst of an amendment campaign, but +Mrs. Catt called the Executive Council of the National Association to +meet at Indianapolis during the Indiana State convention April 16-18, +to plan action on the Federal Amendment, which seemed near passing. +This required the attendance of its members from every State and as +many of them did not wish to spare the time and money for another +meeting so soon the conference was given up. In 1919 the convention of +the National Association was held in St. Louis and in 1920 in Chicago, +which made the conference unnecessary, and then the Federal Amendment +was ratified and the long contest was ended. + + +THE SOUTHERN WOMAN SUFFRAGE CONFERENCE. + +The Southern Woman Suffrage Conference was formed as the result of a +Call sent out in 1913 by women of the southern States to the Governors +of those States to meet them in conference and prepare for the +extension of woman suffrage by State enactment rather than by Federal +Amendment. Women from every southern State signed the Call, although +in North and South Carolina and Florida not a vestige of suffrage +organization existed. Miss Kate Gordon, who inaugurated the +conference, felt impelled to begin some distinctly southern suffrage +movement when listening to the effort of the Speaker of the House of +Representatives in Louisiana, to secure the ratification of the Income +Tax Amendment upon the sole and only ground that it was a Democratic +party measure. To make woman suffrage a Democratic party measure +seemed then the logical field for immediate, intensive propaganda. The +Congressional Committee of the National American Association was +vitalizing into activity the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment. What +more logical from a political standpoint than for the southern +suffrage forces to advance with a flank movement in harmony with the +traditions and policies of the Democratic party? + +In November, 1913, there assembled in New Orleans the organization +force of the Southern Conference, with representatives from almost all +of the southern States. The platform adopted was primarily for State's +Right Suffrage. Miss Gordon was elected president and Miss Laura Clay +of Kentucky vice-president; Mrs. John B. Parker of Louisiana +corresponding secretary; Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Mississippi +treasurer. The plan of campaign consisted of the establishment of +headquarters in New Orleans; the creating of an active press bureau +and the holding of conferences in the southern States, particularly +those where no suffrage organization existed. It was originally hoped +that the National Association would encourage with active support the +development of this specialized suffrage work but it refused any +financial assistance. + +The founders undaunted pursued their own plan of financing, when +suddenly through the generosity of Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont of New +York the wheels were set in motion. Under caution that secrecy be +maintained, Mrs. Belmont, a southern born woman, attracted by the +practicability of the plan, endorsed it by sending a check for +$10,000. Later at a meeting of the conference in Chattanooga, Tenn., +she said: "I plead guilty to so strong a desire for the political +emancipation of women that I am not at all particular as to how it +shall be granted. I have sworn allegiance to the National Amendment +for woman suffrage, while the Southern States Conference, of which I +am proud to be a member, holds rigidly to the principle of State's +rights. As a southerner I thoroughly understand the problems which +create this attitude and if that method proves effective I shall +gratefully accept the results." + +In May, 1914, the headquarters were opened in New Orleans with Mrs. +Ida Porter Boyer of Pennsylvania as their secretary. Within three +months 1,000 southern newspapers were using the specially prepared +weekly editorials and fillers sent out. In October was launched the +_New Southern Citizen_, a monthly suffrage magazine, which made its +initial trip with a distinctively southern suffrage appeal. This +little arsenal of facts reached every legislator in the South prior to +the sessions of the Legislatures. Special bills endorsed by +suffragists or women were made the theme of weekly news articles, +which called out editorials by wholesale. To illustrate: When +Mississippi women were making an effort to secure an amendment to +enable women to serve on public boards, an enthusiastic Mississippian +wrote to the conference of the support given by local papers in their +editorials and general comments. Every word printed had been furnished +by the news bulletins from the conference headquarters. + +The work of the Southern Conference would be incomplete without +special mention of the valuable services of Mrs. Wesley Martin Stoner +of Washington, D. C. Mrs. Stoner had been sent as the special +representative of the National Association's Congressional Committee +to make a survey of southern conditions, in the winter of 1913-14, and +reported that her observations led her to believe that the best +results would be obtained by a furtherance of the policies of the +Southern Conference and from that time she became a valued worker in +its ranks. + +The conference felt that in a great measure its chief purpose had been +achieved when the Democratic party, in its national platform of 1916, +went on record for woman suffrage by State enactment. It kept up an +active organization throughout the South, however, until May, 1917, +when the war situation demanded caution in continuing a movement which +was costing over $600 a month. An additional reason for discontinuance +was that Miss Gordon, who had been donating all of her time to the +work, was obliged to give attention to her own business affairs. + + [Prepared by Miss Kate Gordon.] + + +INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL MEN'S LEAGUES FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE. + +The National Men's League for Woman Suffrage in the United States was +the outgrowth of the State League in New York, formed in 1910, an +account of which is in the New York chapter. National Leagues were +afterwards formed in other countries. In Great Britain the Earl of +Lytton was president and among the vice-presidents were Earl Russell, +the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, Sir John Cockburn, K.C., M.G., Forbes +Robertson, Israel Zangwill and others of prominence in various fields. +At the time of the congress of the International Woman Suffrage +Alliance in Stockholm in the summer of 1911 delegates from these +national leagues held a convention there and formed an International +Men's League. The United States League was represented by Frederick +Nathan of New York. A second international convention of National +Men's Leagues took place in London in 1912, the sessions continuing +one week. The third convention occurred in Budapest in June, 1913, +when the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held its congress and +the delegates were warmly welcomed by the Men's League of Hungary. In +1914 came the World War. At the next congress of the Alliance, in +Geneva in 1920, the International Men's League was represented by a +fraternal delegate, Colonel William Mansfeldt, president of the +National League of The Netherlands. + +The New York Men's League soon received requests for information from +far and wide and it was evident that such a league was needed in every +State. Correspondence followed and in 1911 Omar E. Garwood, Assistant +District Attorney of Colorado, came to New York. An association of +influential men had been formed in that State two years before to +refute the misrepresentations of the effects of woman suffrage and he +was interested in the New York Men's League. While here he assisted in +organizing a National League and consented to act as secretary. James +Lees Laidlaw, a banker and public-spirited man of New York City, who +was at the head of the State Men's League, was the unanimous choice +for president and continued in this office until the Federal Woman +Suffrage Amendment was ratified in 1920. In a comparatively short time +Men's Leagues were formed in California, Colorado, Connecticut, +Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, +Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New +Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and +Virginia. + +As the years went by leagues were formed in other States and were more +or less active in furthering the cause of woman suffrage according to +their leaders. Their officers assisted the campaigns in various +States, spoke at hearings by committees of Congress and sent +delegations to the conventions of the National American Suffrage +Association. Here an evening was always set apart for their meetings, +at which Mr. Laidlaw presided, and addresses were made by men well +known nationally and locally. A delegation from the National League +marched in the big suffrage parade in Washington March 3, 1913. In +every State the members were of so much prominence as to give much +prestige to the movement. For instance in Pennsylvania Judge Dimner +Beeber was president and the Right Reverend James H. Darlington a +leading member. In Massachusetts Edwin D. Mead was president; former +Secretary of the Navy John D. Long vice-president; John Graham Brooks +treasurer; Francis H. Garrison chairman of the executive committee. A +similar roster could be given in other States. In New York the most +eminent men in many lines were connected with the league. The leagues +remained in existence until their services were no longer needed. + + +THE NATIONAL WOMAN'S PARTY. + +The National Woman's Party was organized in the spring of 1913 under +the name of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. Its original +purpose was to support the work of the Congressional Committee of the +National American Woman Suffrage Association and its officers were the +members of that committee: Miss Alice Paul (N. J.); Miss Crystal +Eastman (Wis.); Miss Lucy Burns (N. Y.); Mrs. Lawrence Lewis (Penn.); +Mrs. Mary Beard (N. Y.). In successive years names added to its +executive committee were those of Mesdames Oliver H. P. Belmont, +William Kent, Gilson Gardner, Donald R. Hooker, John Winters Brannan, +Harriot Stanton Blatch, Florence Bayard Hilles, J. A. H. Hopkins, +Thomas N. Hepburn, Richard Wainwright; Miss Elsie Hill, Miss Anne +Martin and others. A large advisory committee was formed. + +The object of the Union was the same as that of the National +Association--to secure an amendment to the Federal Constitution which +would give universal woman suffrage. At the annual convention of the +association in December, 1913, a new Congressional Committee was +appointed and the Congressional Union became an independent +organization. Its headquarters were in Washington, D. C. It never was +regularly organized by States, districts, etc., although there were +branches in various States. The work was centralized in the Washington +headquarters and the forces were easily mobilized. The exact +membership probably was never known by anybody. It was a small but +very active organization and Miss Paul was the supreme head with no +restrictions. A great deal of initiative was allowed to the workers in +other parts of the country who were often governed by the exigencies +of the situation. After the first few years annual conventions were +held in Washington. + +While the principal object of the National Association always was a +Federal Amendment, for which it worked unceasingly, it realized that +Congress would not submit one until a number of States had made the +experiment and their enfranchised women could bring political pressure +to bear on the members. Therefore the association campaigned in the +States for amendments to their constitutions. The Union did no work of +this kind but when it was organized nine States had granted full +suffrage to women, the time was ripe for a big "drive" for a Federal +Amendment and it could utilize this tremendous backing. Within the +next five years six more States were added to the list, including the +powerful one of New York. In addition the National Association, +cooperating with the women in the States, had secured in fourteen +others the right for their women to vote for Presidential electors. +The Federal Amendment was a certainty of a not distant future but +there was yet a great deal of work to do. + +In carrying on this work, while the two organizations followed similar +lines in many respects there were some marked differences. The +National Association was strictly non-partisan, made no distinction of +parties, and followed only constitutional methods. The Congressional +Union held the majority party in Congress wholly responsible for the +success or failure of the Federal Amendment and undertook to prevent +the re-election of its members. In the Congressional elections of 1914 +its representatives toured the States where women could vote and urged +them to defeat all Democratic candidates regardless of their attitude +toward woman suffrage. This policy was followed in subsequent +campaigns. + +In 1915 the Union held a convention in San Francisco during the +Panama-Pacific Exposition and sent envoys across the country with a +petition to President Wilson and Congress collected at its +headquarters during the exposition. In 1916 it held a three days' +convention in Chicago during the National Republican convention and at +this time organized the National Woman's Party with the Federal +Suffrage Amendment as the only plank in its platform and a Campaign +Committee was formed with Miss Anne Martin of Nevada as chairman. At a +meeting in Washington in March, 1917, the name Congressional Union was +officially changed to National Woman's Party and Miss Paul was elected +chairman. + +On Jan. 10, 1917, the Union began the "picketing" of the White House, +delegations of women with banners standing at the gates all day "as a +perpetual reminder to President Wilson that they held him responsible +for their disfranchisement." They stood there unmolested for three +months and then the United States entered the war. Conditions were no +longer normal, feeling was intense and there were protests from all +parts of the country against this demonstration in front of the home +of the President. In June the police began arresting them for +"obstructing the traffic" and during the next six months over 200 were +arrested representing many States. They refused to pay their fines in +the police court and were sent to the jail and workhouse for from +three days to seven months. These were unsanitary, they were roughly +treated, "hunger strikes" and forcible feeding followed, there was +public indignation and on November 28 President Wilson pardoned all of +them and the "picketing" was resumed. Congress delayed action on the +Federal Amendment and members of the Union held meetings in Lafayette +Square and burned the President's speeches. Later they burned them and +a paper effigy of the President on the sidewalk in front of the White +House. Arrests and imprisonments followed. + +While these violent tactics were being followed the Union worked also +along legitimate lines, organized parades, lobbied in Congress, +attended committee hearings, went to political conventions, +interviewed candidates and worked unceasingly. When the amendment was +submitted for ratification it transferred its activities to the +Legislatures and the Presidential candidates. + +After the Federal Amendment was proclaimed a convention was called to +meet in Washington Feb. 15-19, 1921, and decide whether the +organization should disband or continue its work until women stood on +the same legal, civil, and economic basis as men. The convention +decided on the latter course. The name was retained. Miss Paul +insisted upon retiring from office and Miss Elsie Hill, who had long +been an officer, was elected chairman. A large executive committee was +named, headed by Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont of New York. An impressive +ceremony took place in the rotunda of the Capitol on February 15, the +101st birthday of Susan B. Anthony, when the party presented to +Congress a marble group of Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and Lucretia +Mott, the work of Mrs. Adelaide Johnson, with representatives of sixty +organizations of women taking part. It was officially accepted by +Congress. + +The National Woman's Party will undertake to secure a Federal +Amendment removing all disabilities on account of sex or marriage and +will also have bills for this purpose introduced in State +Legislatures. In 1921 Mrs. Belmont, who had been the largest +contributor, gave $146,000 for the purchase of a historic mansion in +Washington to be used for permanent headquarters and for a national +political clubhouse for women. At a new election Mrs. Belmont was made +president; Miss Paul vice-president and Miss Hill chairman of the +executive committee. + + +ASSOCIATIONS OPPOSED TO WOMAN SUFFRAGE. + +The first society of women opposed to the suffrage seems to have been +formed in Washington, D. C., in 1871, with the wife of General +Sherman, the wife of Admiral Dahlgren and Mrs. Almira Lincoln Phelps, +a sister of Miss Emma Willard, as officers. Their first public effort +on record was two letters to the Washington _Post_ published in 1876 +and a memorial from Mrs. Dahlgren in 1878 to a Senate Committee which +was to grant a hearing to the suffragists on a Federal Amendment. + +An Anti-Suffrage Committee was formed in Massachusetts in the early +'80's with Mrs. Charles D. Homans as chairman. About twenty prominent +women signed a remonstrance against a State suffrage amendment, which +was first presented to the Legislature in 1884 and each year +afterwards when there was a resolution before it for this purpose. An +Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women was +organized in Massachusetts in May, 1895, with Mrs. J. Elliott Cabot +president and Mrs. Charles E. Guild secretary; Laurence Minot, +treasurer. Executive Committee, chairman, Mrs. Henry M. Whitney. A +paper called the _Remonstrance_, started about 1890, was published +quarterly in Boston, edited for some years by Frank Foxcroft. It +ceased publication October, 1920, at which time Mrs. J. M. Codman was +editor. + +In 1894, when a convention for revising the constitution of New York +State was held, Anti-Suffrage Committees were formed in Brooklyn, +April 18; in New York City, April 25; in Albany, April 28. These +committees combined to form the New York State Association Opposed to +Woman Suffrage on April 8, 1895, with Mrs. Francis M. Scott, +president. The other States in which there was an association or +committee in late years were as follows: Alabama, Connecticut, +Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, +Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, +Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D. C., Wisconsin. + +The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was organized in +New York City in November, 1911, with the following officers: +President, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge; vice-presidents, Miss Mary A. Ames, +Boston, and Mrs. Horace Brock, Philadelphia; secretary, Mrs. William +B. Glover, Fairfield, Conn.; treasurer, Mrs. Robert Garrett, +Baltimore. Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., succeeded Mrs. Dodge in July, +1917, and was followed by Miss Mary G. Kilbreth in 1920. The aim of +the association was "to increase general interest in the opposition to +universal woman suffrage and to educate the public in the belief that +women can be more useful to the community without the ballot than if +affiliated with and influenced by party politics." It held mass +meetings during campaigns; sent delegates to hearings given by +committees of Congress on a Federal Suffrage Amendment and other +matters connected with national woman suffrage; also to Legislatures +to oppose State amendments; sent speakers and workers to States where +amendment campaigns were in progress and circulated vast quantities of +literature. + +The national headquarters were in New York City at 37 West 39th St. +until 1918 when they were moved to Washington, D. C. Three papers were +published, the _Anti-Suffragist_ in Albany; the _Woman's Protest_ in +New York from May, 1912 to March 1, 1918, when it was succeeded by the +_Woman Patriot_, published in Washington. + + +THE MAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. + +It is difficult to get statistics of the men's association to prevent +woman suffrage. Everett P. Wheeler, a prominent lawyer of New York +City, always the moving spirit of the association and its branches, +sent the following information: + +"The Man Suffrage Association, opposed to political suffrage for +women, was organized in New York in 1913 at the request of the State +Woman's Anti-Suffrage Association. Its officers were: Everett P. +Wheeler, chairman; executive committee: Walter C. Childs, Arthur B. +Church, John R. DosPassos, Chas. S. Fairchild, Eugene D. Hawkins, +Henry W. Hayden, George Douglas Miller, Robert K. Prentice, Louis T. +Romaine, Herbert L. Satterlee, George W. Seligman, Prof. Munroe Smith, +Francis Lynde Stetson, John C. Ten Eyck, Gilbert M. Tucker, Dr. +Talcott Williams, George W. Wickersham. + +"The association issued many pamphlets, briefs, legal arguments, +articles and speeches by prominent men, editorials, etc. The Case +Against Woman Suffrage, a pamphlet of 80 pages, was prepared as a +Manual for writers, lecturers and debaters and contained historical +sketches, statistics, opinions of men and women, bibliography, answers +to suffrage arguments--a mass of information from the viewpoint of +opponents. + +"The association continued in existence until after the adoption of +the suffrage amendment to the State constitution of New York in +November, 1917. It was not national in scope but was in affiliation +with similar societies in other States. The name of the New Jersey +association was Men's Anti-Suffrage League and its principal officers +were: Colonel William Libbey, president; Edward Q. Keasbey, +vice-president; Walter C. Ellis, secretary; John C. Eisele, treasurer. +There was also an association in Maryland and other States. + +"The name of the New York association was not changed but in November, +1917, a new one called the American Constitutional League, was formed. +The reason for the change was that the question so far as the +constitution of New York was concerned had been settled by vote and +agitation was being pressed with vigor in Congress for the proposal by +that body of a National Suffrage Amendment. This league is still in +existence (1920). It was active in opposing the adoption of the +Federal Amendment, was heard before committees of Congress and +afterwards before committees of the Legislatures opposing +ratification. It is national in its scope and has members in fifteen +States. + +"When it was announced that the Legislature of West Virginia had +passed a resolution ratifying the Federal Amendment, the league +presented to Secretary of State Colby the evidence that it had not +been legally adopted. This evidence he declared he had no power to +consider but was bound by any certificate he might receive from the +Secretary of West Virginia. The league also urged upon him that under +the constitution of Tennessee, when the Legislature was called in +extra session it had no power to ratify the amendment. This evidence +he also declined to consider. Thereupon a suit was brought in the +Supreme Court of the District of Columbia to restrain him from issuing +the proclamation of ratification. The ground was taken that the +proposed amendment was not within the amending power of Article V of +the National Constitution; that its first ten amendments form a Bill +of Rights which can only be changed by the unanimous consent of all +the States. It was contended that it was essential to a republican +form of government that the States should have the right to regulate +and determine the qualifications for suffrage for the election of +their own officers and that the guarantee in the National Constitution +of a republican form of government would be violated if this amendment +should be held to be valid. The bill was dismissed in the Supreme +Court on several grounds, partly technical, and the decree was +affirmed in the District Court of Appeals apparently on the ground +that the proclamation of ratification was not final. An appeal from +this decree is now pending in the Supreme Court of the United States. +All this litigation has been conducted by the American Constitutional +League. + +"The New York headquarters are in Mr. Wheeler's office in William +Street; the Washington headquarters are where the official +anti-suffrage organ, the _Woman Patriot_, is published. While the +declared object of the League is 'to protect the Federal Constitution +from further invasion' the only effort it has made is to defeat woman +suffrage. The Hon. Charles S. Fairchild, Secretary of the Treasury +under President Cleveland, is president; honorary vice-presidents, Dr. +Lyman Abbott, Francis Lynde Stetson, Herbert L. Satterlee, George W. +Wickersham, John C. Milburn, George W. Seligman, the Rev. Anson P. +Atterbury and Dr. William P. Manning; Mr. Wheeler, chairman of the +executive committee." + +During the struggle to secure ratification of the Federal Suffrage +Amendment from the Tennessee Legislature in August, 1920, Mr. Wheeler +went to that State and a branch of the league was formed there. The +strongest possible fight against it was made. Chancellor Vertrees +wrote articles and delivered speeches against it. Professor G. W. Dyer +of Vanderbilt University; Frank P. Bond, a Nashville attorney, and +others made a speaking tour of the State. When Governor Roberts sent +the certificate of ratification to Secretary of State Colby, Speaker +of the House Seth M. Walker headed a delegation to Washington to +protest against its being accepted. Failing in this they went on to +Connecticut to try to prevent ratification by its Legislature. + +In Maryland the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association took the name of +League for State Defense. Having defeated ratification in the +Legislature of that State a delegation went to the West Virginia +Legislature in a vain effort to prevent it there. After Maryland women +had voted in 1920, suit was brought in the Court of Common Pleas to +invalidate the action in the name of Judge Oscar Leser and twenty +members of the league's board of managers. Receiving an adverse +decision they carried the case to the Court of Appeals, which +sustained the decision. Mr. Wheeler and William L. Marbury, George +Arnold Frick and Thomas F. Cadwalader of Baltimore represented the +league. They carried the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it +remains at present.[145] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[142] The following were the officers of the National College Equal +Suffrage League at the time it disbanded: President, M. Carey Thomas, +president of Bryn Mawr College; First vice-president, Dr. Anna Howard +Shaw, honorary president of the National American Woman Suffrage +Association; vice-presidents: Mary E. Woolley, president of Mount +Holyoke College; Ellen F. Pendleton, president of Wellesley College; +Lucy M. Salmon, professor of history in Vassar College; Lillian Welch, +professor of physiology and hygiene in Goucher College (Baltimore); +Virginia C. Gildersleeve, dean of Barnard College (Columbia +University); Lois K. Mathews, dean of women in the University of +Wisconsin; Eva Johnston, dean of women in the University of Missouri; +Florence M. Fitch, dean of college women and professor of Biblical +literature, Oberlin College; Maud Wood Park, Boston; executive +secretary, Mrs. Ethel Puffer Howes, New York City; treasurer, Mrs. +Raymond B. Morgan, president Washington, D. C., Collegiate Alumnae. + + ETHEL PUFFER HOWES, M. CAREY THOMAS, + Executive Secretary. President. + +[143] The History is indebted for this sketch to Anne Webb (Mrs. O. +Edward) Janney, president of the Friends' Equal Rights Association and +superintendent of the department of equal rights of the Committee of +Philanthropic Labor of the Friends' General Conference. + +[144] Detailed accounts of these conferences may be found in the +_Woman's Journal_ (Boston) of the dates following those on which they +were held. + +[145] As this volume goes to press the U. S. Supreme Court on Feb. 27, +1922, rendered a unanimous adverse decision in both cases and declared +that the Federal Amendment had been legally ratified. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +THE LEAGUE OF WOMAN VOTERS.[146] + + +The League of Women Voters was first mentioned at the convention of +the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Washington, D. C., +Dec. 12-15, 1917, when its president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, +outlined a plan to unite the women of the equal suffrage States. She +suggested organization committees of five women in each, these +committees to be united in a central body known as the National League +of Women Voters. Upon the enfranchisement of its women each State +would automatically join the organization, which would provide a way +to retain suffrage associations for work on the Federal Amendment and +various reforms. It was voted that a committee be appointed to +undertake such a plan of organization. [Handbook of convention, page +48.] + +The League of Women Voters was organized at the national convention in +St. Louis March 24-29, 1919, in commemoration of the Fiftieth +Anniversary of the first grant of suffrage on equal terms with men in +the world (in Wyoming) and the Fiftieth Anniversary of the +organization of the first National Woman Suffrage Association. Women +were eligible at this time to vote for President in twenty-eight +States. The submission of the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment was +promised by the Sixty-sixth Congress and early ratification was +assured, so that the object for which the association had labored +through half a century of arduous sacrifice and toil was nearly +attained. The natural question, therefore, was, Should the association +make plans to dissolve immediately upon ratification or was there +reason for continuance? + +On the opening night of the convention Mrs. Catt answered this +question and gave the purpose and aims of the new organization in her +address The Nation Calls. She said in part: + + Every suffragist will hope for a memorial dedicated to the memory + of our brave departed leaders, to the sacrifices they made for + our cause, to the scores of victories won.... I venture to + propose one whose benefits will bless our entire nation and bring + happiness to the humblest of our citizens--the most natural, the + most appropriate and the most patriotic memorial that could be + suggested--a League of Women Voters to "finish the fight" and to + aid in the reconstruction of the nation. What could be more + natural than that women having attained their political + independence should desire to give service in token of their + gratitude? What could be more appropriate than that such women + should do for the coming generation what those of a preceding did + for them? What could be more patriotic than that these women + should use their new freedom to make the country safer for their + children and their children's children? + + Let us then raise up a League of Women Voters, the name and form + of organization to be determined by the members themselves; a + league that shall be non-partisan and non-sectarian and + consecrated to three chief aims: 1. To use its influence to + obtain the full enfranchisement of the women of every State in + our own republic and to reach out across the seas in aid of the + woman's struggle for her own in every land. 2. To remove the + remaining legal discriminations against women in the codes and + constitutions of the several States in order that the feet of + coming women may find these stumbling blocks removed. 3. To make + our democracy so safe for the nation and so safe for the world + that every citizen may feel secure and great men will acknowledge + the worthiness of the American republic to lead. + +The following ten points covered by Mrs. Catt in her address were +adopted later as the first aims of the League of Women Voters and made +the plan of work for the Committee on American Citizenship: 1. +Compulsory education in every State for all children between six and +sixteen during nine months of each year. 2. Education of adults by +extension classes of the public schools. 3. English made the national +language by having it compulsory in all public and private schools +where courses in general education are conducted. 4. Higher +qualifications for citizenship and more sympathetic and impressive +ceremonials for naturalization. 5. Direct citizenship for women, not +through marriage, as a qualification for the vote. 6. Naturalization +for married women to be made possible. 7. Compulsory publication in +foreign language newspapers of lessons in citizenship. 8. Schools of +citizenship in conjunction with the public schools, a certificate from +such schools to be a qualification for naturalization and for the +vote. 9. An oath of allegiance to the United States to be one +qualification for the vote for every citizen native and foreign born. +10. An educational qualification for the vote in all States after a +definite date to be determined. + +With Mrs. Catt in the chair and Miss Katharine Pierce of Oklahoma +secretary, after full discussion the League of Women Voters was +launched to replace the National American Woman Suffrage Association +when the work for which the latter was organized was fully +accomplished. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president of the +association, expressed herself as "whole-heartedly in favor of the +proposed action." [Handbook of convention, page 43.] Mrs. Charles H. +Brooks of Kansas was elected national chairman. The recommendations of +the sub-committees on organization plans, Mrs. Raymond Brown (N. Y.) +chairman, were adopted as follows: 1. The Council of the League of +Women Voters will consist of the presidents of the States having full, +Presidential or Primary suffrage and the chairmen of the Ratification +Committees in the seven States of Montana, Idaho, Washington, +Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and Wyoming--this Council to pass upon all +policies of the league and approve the legislative programs. 2. The +permanent chairman, who will also be chairman of the legislative +committee, will conduct correspondence, direct organization in +unorganized States and visit States with the view of stimulating +organization and clarifying the objects of the league, the work for +suffrage to remain in the National Congressional Committee and the +State Ratification Committees. 3. The State Leagues of Women Voters +will consist of individual members and organized committees with the +addition of associations already established which subscribe to the +principles of the league. At the regular State convention or at a +special State conference to be called the object of the league will be +set forth and each department presented, with publicity and +advertising to bring it to the attention of the public. + +Eight departments each composed of a national chairman and one woman +from every State were recommended, the members of these departments +to become familiar with all laws on the subjects under consideration, +recommend legislative programs, prepare and issue literature on their +subjects and work in the States through the State committees. A +"budget" of $20,000 was recommended. + +The program for the Women in Industry Committee presented by Mrs. +Raymond Robins (Ills.) was adopted. The greatest needs for Unification +and Improvement of Laws defining the Legal Status of Women were named +by Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.), such as joint guardianship +of children, marriage and divorce laws, property rights, industry, +civil service, morality, child welfare and elections. Education was +set forth as the best means to Social Morality and Social Hygiene by +Dr. Valeria Parker (Conn.). Miss Julia Lathrop (Washington, D. C.), +chief of the Federal Child Welfare Bureau, spoke on present needs, +saying: "Child labor and an educated community, child labor and modern +democracy cannot co-exist.... Time does not wait, the child lives or +dies. If he lives he takes up his life well or ill equipped, not as he +chooses but as we choose for him." + +The following needed Improvements of Election Laws were named by Mrs. +Ellis Meredith (Colo.): _Federal_--A national amendment guaranteeing +women the franchise on the same terms as men; restricting the +franchise to those who are citizens; repealing the Act of 1907 which +disfranchises women marrying foreigners; an extension of the present +five-year time after which a foreigner becomes a full citizen by +virtue of having taken out two sets of papers and giving the oath of +allegiance. _State_--Adoption of the Australian ballot; reduction of +number of ballots printed to not more than 5 per cent. more than +registration; for "military" and "poll tax" substitution of "election +tax," to be remitted to persons voting and collected from those +failing to do so when not unavoidably prevented by illness; adoption +of absent voter law--Montana or Minnesota statutes recommended; +discontinuance of vehicles except for sick or feeble or crippled +persons; even division of Judges between major political parties, +examination required, more latitude in appointment and removal for +cause; election of judicial, legislative and educational officers at a +different time from that for national and State. + +Miss Jessie R. Haver, legislative representative of the National +Consumers' League and executive secretary of the Consumers' League of +the District of Columbia, read a paper on The Government and the +Market Basket, after which she presented a resolution urging the +chairman of the Senate and House Interstate Commerce Committee to +re-introduce and pass the bill drafted by the Federal Trade Commission +in reference to the Packers' Trust. + +During the convention sectional conferences were held on the +department subjects. Out of these conferences came many suggestions +and two resolutions were adopted: 1. That the League of Women Voters +supports the Federal Trade Commission in its efforts to secure +remedial legislation in the meat-packing industry. 2. That the +convention endorses the principle of federal aid to the States for the +removal of adult illiteracy and the Americanization of the adult +foreign born. + +In June, 1919, the initial conference of the president, Mrs. Brooks, +and the committee chairmen of the League of Women Voters, was held at +the headquarters of the National Suffrage Association, 171 Madison +Avenue, New York City, and plans were made to render the league +effective throughout the United States. + + * * * * * + +The record of the action of the Official Board of the National +American Woman Suffrage Association in 1919 on questions pertaining to +the League of Women Voters is as follows: In April it was voted that +the Americanization Committee and the Committee on Protection of Women +in Industry of the association be united with the committees of the +same name in the league. In May the following chairmen for new +committees were selected, subject to endorsement of the Council of the +league: Mrs. Edward P. Costigan, Washington, D. C., Food Supply and +Demand; Mrs. Jacob Baur (Ills.), Improvement of Election Laws and +Methods; Mrs. Percy V. Pennbacker (Tex.), Child Welfare. In July an +appropriation of $200 for each of the eight departments of the league +was made from the treasury of the association. + +As the National Association was the convener of the first congress of +the League of Women Voters and there was no method of determining the +number of delegates that any league was entitled to, the Board on +December 30, in preparation for the approaching annual convention in +Chicago, adopted the following resolution: 1. That each State +auxiliary of the association be invited to secure for the league +congress, which would be held at the same time, one delegate from the +State Federation of Women's Clubs, one from the State Woman's +Christian Temperance Union and one from the State Women's Trade Union +League; and ten delegates at large from the national organizations of +each. 2. That invitations be extended to the following national +bodies, asking each to send ten delegates at large: Association of +Collegiate Alumnae, International Child Welfare League, Ladies of the +Grand Army of the Republic, Ladies of the Maccabees, National Council +of Jewish Women, National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers' +Associations, Federation of College Women, Florence Crittenden +Mission, Women's Relief Corps, Women's Relief Society, Women's Benefit +Association of the Maccabees, Women's Department National Civic +Federation, United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Young Women's +Christian Association. 3. That each of the ten unorganized western +States be entitled to ten delegates to be secured by the chairman of +ratification. + +At the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association +and the League of Women Voters in Chicago Feb. 12-18, 1920, there were +present 507 delegates, 102 alternates and 89 fraternal delegates. +Among the resolutions for dissolving the association recommended by +its Executive Council and adopted by vote of the delegates was the +following pertaining to the League of Women Voters: + +_Citizenship_--Whereas, millions of women will become voters in 1920, +and, Whereas, the low standards of citizenship found in the present +electorate clearly indicate the need of education in the principles +and ideals of our Government and the methods of political procedure, +therefore be it resolved: 1. That the National League of Women Voters +be urged to make Political Education for the new women voters (but not +excluding men) its first duty for 1920. 2. That the nation-wide plan +shall include normal schools for citizenship in each State followed by +schools in each county. 3. That we urge the League of Women Voters to +make every effort to have the study of citizenship required in the +public schools of every State, beginning in the primary grades and +continuing through the upper grades, high schools, normal schools, +colleges and universities. + +The recommendations were: 1. That the League of Women Voters, now a +section of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, be +organized as a new and independent society. 2. That the present State +auxiliaries of the association, while retaining their relationship in +form to the Board of Officers to be elected in this convention, shall +change their names, objects and constitutions to conform to those of +the league and take up the plan of work to be adopted in its first +congress. + +At the opening session of the congress of the League of Women Voters +Saturday afternoon, February 14, Mrs. Brooks, the chairman, presiding, +Mrs. Catt was made permanent chairman and Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson +recording secretary for the convention. By vote of the convention the +chair named the following committees and chairmen: Constitution, Mrs. +Raymond Brown (N. Y.); Nominations, Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.); +Regions, Mrs. Andreas Ueland (Wis.). The constitution was adopted +defining the aims of the league--to foster education in citizenship; +to urge every woman to become an enrolled voter, but as an +organization the league not to be allied with or support any party. + +Following are the officers elected for 1920-1921, the regional +division of States and the chairmen of departments: Directors at +Large--Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.), Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.), +Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Ala.). Board as Organized--Chairman, Mrs. +Park; vice-chairman, Mrs. Gellhorn; treasurer, Mrs. Edwards; +secretary, Mrs. Jacobs. Mrs. Catt was made honorary chairman by the +board. + +Regional Directors--First Region: Miss Katharine Ludington +(Conn.)--Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and +Rhode Island. Second: Mrs. F. Louis Slade (N. Y.)--New York, New +Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. Third: Miss Ella Dortch +(Tenn.)--Virginia, District of Columbia, North Carolina, South +Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and +Tennessee. Fourth: Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser (O.)--Michigan, Ohio, +Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Fifth: Mrs. +James Paige (Minn.)--Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, +Wyoming and Montana. Sixth: Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.)--Nebraska, +Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri. +Seventh: Mrs. C. B. Simmons (Ore.)--Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, +Utah, Arizona and California. + +Chairmen of Departments.--1. American Citizenship, Mrs. Frederick P. +Bagley, Boston; 2. Protection of Women in Industry, Miss Mary +McDowell, Chicago; 3. Child Welfare, Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, Austin +(Tex.); Social Hygiene, Dr. Valeria H. Parker, Hartford (Conn.); 5. +Unification of Laws Concerning Civil Status of Women, Mrs. Catharine +Waugh McCulloch, Chicago; 6. Improvement in Election Laws and Methods, +Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, New York; 7. Food Supply and Demand, Mrs. +Edward P. Costigan, Washington, D. C.; 8. Research, Mrs. Mary Sumner +Boyd, New York. + +The recommendations of the Committee on Plans for Citizenship Schools, +appointed by the National Suffrage Association, Mrs. Nettie Rogers +Shuler, chairman, were adopted as follows: + +1. That a normal school be held in the most available large city in +each State, to which every county shall be asked to send one or more +representatives, the school to be open to all local people. 2. That no +State shall feel that it has approached the task of training for +citizenship which has not had at least one school in every county, +followed by schools in as many townships and wards as possible, with +the ultimate aim of reaching the women of every election district. 3. +That minimum requirement of a citizenship school should include (a) +the study of local, State and national government; (b) the technique +of voting and election laws; (c) organization and platform of +political parties; (d) the League of Women Voters--its aims, its +platforms, its plans of work. 4. That each State employ a director for +citizenship schools to be under the direction of the national director +of such schools. 5. That the States urge the assistance of State +universities through summer schools, extension departments and active +participation by professors from these departments to make the +teaching of citizenship of real benefit to the State. 6. That the +States invite the cooperation of local men who are experienced in +public affairs and that every agency, including that of publicity, be +employed which will tend to increased interest in the teaching of +citizenship. 7. That the States try to make the study of citizenship +compulsory in the public schools from the primary grades up. + +The following resolutions were adopted: 1. That a copy of the +legislative program as selected by the Board of Directors shall be +submitted to all State presidents and presidents of national women's +organizations for approval, and that a deputation from the League of +Women Voters be sent to the conventions of two at least of the +dominant political parties to present this program to the delegates +and to chairmen of the Resolutions Committees if announced in advance, +leaders of these parties having been previously interviewed or +circularized. 2. That the recommendations of the standing committees +as accepted by the convention be referred to the Board of Directors of +the League of Women Voters; after consultation with the chairmen the +Board in turn to pass on its recommendations to the State chairmen +with the request that they use as many of them as possible. 3. That +resolutions relating to Federal legislation, after submission to the +National Board, be considered binding; that resolutions affecting +State legislation be considered recommendations to be submitted to +States. 4. That in order to create a better understanding of the +purposes of the League of Women Voters and its relation to other +national organizations of women, the directors of the league make the +purposes of the league exceedingly clear to local groups--namely, that +its function is for the purpose of fostering education in citizenship +and of supporting improved legislation; that as far as possible +organizations already existing and doing similar work be used and +asked to cooperate in the work of educating women to an understanding +of these purposes; that a Committee on Congressional Legislation be +created with headquarters in Washington and that in addition to a +chairman the committee be made up of a representative from each of +the great national organizations of women. + +It was moved by Mrs. John L. Pyle (S. D.), seconded by Mrs. Harriet +Taylor Upton (O.) and carried by the convention that, Whereas, all +women citizens of the United States would today be fully enfranchised +had not James W. Wadsworth, Jr., misrepresented his State and his +party when continuously and repeatedly voting, working and +manoeuvering against the proposed 19th Amendment to the Federal +Constitution, be it Resolved, That we, representing the enfranchised +women of the country, extend to the women of New York our appreciation +and our help in their patriotic work of determining to send to the U. +S. Senate to succeed the said James W. Wadsworth, Jr., a modern-minded +Senator who will be capable of comprehending the great American +principles of freedom and democracy. + +Before the convention opened there were eight conferences followed by +dinners presided over by the chairmen of the departments. The voting +members of each conference were the chairman and forty-eight State +members and representatives of other agencies doing the same work. The +purpose of each conference was to formulate a legislative program +combining the best judgment and experience of all workers for the same +cause. This program was presented to the convention of the League of +Women Voters for its consideration and after adoption it became the +platform to which the league was pledged. These conferences were open +to visitors without speaking or voting privileges. + +The program as submitted by the chairmen, approved by the conferences +and amended and adopted by the convention was as follows: Women in +Industry, Mrs. Raymond Robins; recommendations presented by Miss Grace +Abbott (Ills.): + + I. We affirm our belief in the right of the workers to bargain + collectively through trade unions and we regard the organization + of working women as especially important because of the peculiar + handicaps from which they suffer in the labor market. + + II. We call attention to the fact that it is still necessary for + us to urge that wages should be paid on the basis of occupation + and not on sex. + + III. We recommend to Congress and the Federal Government: 1. The + establishment in the U. S. Department of Labor of a permanent + Women's Bureau with a woman as chief and an appropriation + adequate for the investigation of all matters pertaining to wage + earning women and the determination of standards and policies + which will promote their welfare, improve their working + conditions and increase their efficiency. 2. The appointment of + women in the Mediation and Conciliation Service of the U. S. + Department of Labor and on any industrial commission or tribunal + which may hereafter be created. 3. The establishment of a Joint + Federal and State Employment Service with women's departments + under the direction of technically qualified women. 4. The + adoption of a national constitutional amendment giving to + Congress the power to establish minimum labor standards and the + enactment by Congress of a Child Labor Law extending the + application of the present Federal child labor tax laws, raising + the age minimum for general employment from 14 to 15 years and + the age for employment at night to 18 years. 5. Recognizing the + importance of a world-wide standardization of industry we favor + the participation of the United States in the International Labor + Conference and the appointment of a woman delegate to the next + conference. + + IV. We recommend to the States legislative provision for: 1. The + limitation of the hours of work for wage earning women in + industrial undertakings to not more than 8 hours in any one day + or 44 hours in any one week and the granting of one day's rest in + seven. 2. The prohibition of night work for women in industrial + undertakings. 3. The compulsory payment of a minimum wage to be + fixed by a Minimum Wage Commission at an amount which will insure + to the working woman a proper standard of health, comfort and + efficiency. 4. Adequate appropriations for the enforcement of + labor laws and the appointment of technically qualified women as + factory inspectors and as heads of women in industry divisions in + the State Factory Inspection Departments. + + V. We urge upon the Federal Board of Vocational Education and + upon State and local Boards of Commissioners of Education the + necessity of giving to girls and women full opportunity for + education along industrial lines, and we further recommend the + appointment of women familiar with the problems of women in + industry as members and agents of the Federal Board of Vocational + Education and of similar State and local Boards. + + VI. Recognizing that the Federal, State and Local Governments are + the largest employers of labor in the United States, we urge (a) + an actual merit system of appointment and promotion based on + qualifications for the work to be performed, these qualifications + to be determined in open competition, free from special privilege + or preference of any kind and especially free from discrimination + on the ground of sex; (b) A reclassification of the present + Federal civil service upon this basis with a wage or salary scale + determined by the skill and training required for the work to be + performed and not on the basis of sex; (c) A minimum wage in + Federal, State and local service which shall not be less than the + cost of living as determined by official investigations; (d) + Provisions for an equitable retirement system for superannuated + public employees; (e) Enlarging of Federal and State Civil + Service Commissions so as to include three groups in which men + and women shall be equally represented; namely, representatives + of the administrative officials, of the employees and of the + general public, and (f) The delegating to such commissions of + full power and responsibility for the maintenance of an + impartial, non-political and efficient administration. + + VII. Finally this department recommends that the League of Women + Voters shall keep in touch with the Women's Bureau of the U. S. + Department of Labor securing information as to the success or + failure of protective legislation in this and other countries, as + to standards that are being discussed and adopted and as to the + results of investigations that are made. + +Upon motion of Miss Abbott, duly seconded, it was voted that the +following resolutions be adopted: "That the report of the Women in +Industry Department of the National League of Women Voters in its +entirety be officially transmitted by the secretary to the +congressional legislative bodies or committees thereof before which +legislation on the subject is now pending and to the administrative +officials who may have authority to act upon any of its +recommendations; that the article concerning the establishment on a +permanent basis of the Women's Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor +be telegraphed tonight to Representative James W. Good and Senator +Francis E. Warren, chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations +Committees in Congress, and to Senator William S. Kenyon and +Representative J. M. C. Smith, chairmen of the Senate and House +Committees on Labor before which this legislation is now pending; that +the whole of the article concerning the Federal civil service be +telegraphed tonight to Senator A. A. Jones, chairman of the Joint +Congressional Commission on Reclassification of the Federal Service; +to Senator Kenyon of the State Labor Committee; Senator Thomas +Sterling and Representative Frederick R. Lehbach, chairmen of the +Senate and House Committees on the Civil Service. + +Food Supply and Demand, Mrs. Edward P. Costigan, chairman. Whereas, in +addition to the results of inflated currency due to the war, the high +cost of living in the United States is increased and the production of +necessary food supplies diminished by unduly restrictive private +control of the channels of commerce, markets and other distributing +facilities by large food organizations and combinations; and, Whereas, +if our civilization is to fulfil its promise, it is vital that +nourishing food be brought and kept within the reach of every home and +especially of all the growing children of the nation, be it + +Resolved, First, that the principles and purposes of the +Kenyon-Kendrick-Anderson Bills now pending in Congress for the +regulation of the meat-packing industry be endorsed for prompt and +effective enactment into laws and that this declaration be brought to +the attention of the leading political parties in advance of an urgent +request for corresponding and unqualified platform pledges; Second, +that the Food Supply and Demand Committee be authorized to keep in +touch with the progress of the proposed legislation and to cooperate +with the National Consumers' League, the American Live Stock +Association, the Farmers' National Council and other organizations of +like policy in an effort to promote through legislation the +realization of such principles and purposes; furthermore, that the +committee be authorized to confer with the Department of Agriculture +in regard to the extension of its service, with a view to establishing +long-distance information to enable shippers and producers to know +daily the supplies and demands of the food market; Third, that the +early enactment of improved State and Federal Laws to prevent food +profiteering, waste and improper hoarding is urged and the strict +enforcement of all such present laws is demanded; Fourth, that the +various State Leagues of Women Voters are requested to consider the +advisability of establishing public markets, abattoirs, milk depots +and other terminal facilities; Fifth, that aid be extended to all +branches of the league in spreading knowledge of the methods and +benefits of legitimate cooperative associations and that endorsement +be given to suitable national and State legislation favoring their +organization and use. + +The meat packers asked for a hearing and by vote of the convention ten +minutes were allowed them to present their case. This was done by +Louis D. Weld, manager of the commercial research department of Swift +and Company, Chicago, who said during his remarks: "I believe you +ladies are not prepared to pass on such a vital matter as this +proposed legislation; it is a mighty complicated and intricate +subject." A decided titter ran around the room. Women who had been +making a study of the question from the home side for a number of +years did not resent being told that they did not understand it but +they smiled at a man's coming to tell them so. To show that they were +fair, when he said that the packers did a great amount of good in +carrying food in time of war he was cheered. His argument had no +effect. After he had finished the league adopted the committee's +recommendations and passed the resolution against which the packers +had directed their efforts. + +Social Hygiene, Dr. Valeria H. Parker, chairman. Resolutions +recommended and adopted on the abolition of commercialized +prostitution: (a) The abolition of all segregated or protected vice +districts and the elimination of houses used for vicious purposes. (b) +Punishment of frequenters of disorderly houses and penalization of the +payment of money for prostitution as well as its receipt. (c) Heavy +penalties for pimps, panderers, procurers and go-betweens. (d) +Prevention of solicitation in streets and public places by men and +women. (e) Elimination of system of petty fines and establishment of +indeterminate sentences. (f) Strict enforcement of laws against +alcohol and drug trades. + +Drastic resolutions were passed for the control of venereal diseases, +applying alike to men and women. Those on delinquents, minors and +defectives were as follows: (a) Legal age of consent to be not less +than 18 and laws to include protection of boys under 18 as well as of +girls. (b) Trying cases involving sex offenses in chancery courts +instead of in criminal courts is advocated. (c) Mental examination and +diagnosis of all children, registration of abnormal cases, education +suited to their possibilities; supervision during and after school +age; custodial care for those unable to adjust to a normal +environment. (d) Reformatory farms for delinquent men and women ... +these institutions to have trained officers. (f) Women on governing +boards of all charitable and penal institutions; as probation and +parole officers; as State and local police; as protective officers; as +court officials, as jurors; as physicians in institutions for women +and on all State and local boards of health. The committee recommends +the establishment of local protective homes for girls in all the +larger cities, proper detention quarters for women awaiting trial and +separate detention quarters for juvenile offenders, as well as +Travelers' Aid agents at all large railroad stations and steamship +embarkation points. + +Child Welfare--Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, chairman. The resolutions +adopted covered: 1. The endorsement of the Sheppard-Towner Bill for +the Public Protection of Maternity and Infancy; (2) of the principle +of a bill for physical education about to be introduced into Congress +to be administered by the Bureau of Education of the Department of the +Interior; (3) of an appropriation of $472,220 for the Children's +Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor; (4) of the Gard-Curtis Bill +for the regulation of child labor in the District of Columbia. + +American Citizenship--Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley, chairman. Resolutions +provided for: 1. Compulsory education which shall include adequate +training in citizenship in every State for all children between six +and sixteen nine months of each year. 2. Education of adults by +extension classes of the public schools. 3. English made the basic +language of instruction in the common-school branches in all schools +public and private. 4. Specific qualifications for citizenship and +impressive ceremonials for naturalization. 5. Direct citizenship for +women, not through marriage, as a qualification for the vote. 6. +Naturalization for married women made possible, American women to +retain their citizenship after marriage to an alien. 7. Printed +citizenship instruction in the foreign languages for the use of the +foreign born, as a function of the Federal Government. 8. Schools of +citizenship in conjunction with the public schools, a certificate from +such schools to be a qualification for the educational test for +naturalization. 9. An educational qualification for the vote in all +States after a sufficient period of time and ample opportunity for +education have been allowed. + +Laws Concerning the Legal Status of Women, Mrs. Catharine Waugh +McCulloch, chairman. Following resolutions presented and adopted: 1. +Independent citizenship for married women. 2. Equal interest of +spouses in each other's real estate. 3. The married woman's wages and +business under her sole control. 4. Just civil service laws in all +cities and States now under the spoils system; amendments to existing +civil service laws to enable men and women to have equal rights in +examinations and appointments. 5. Mothers' pensions with a minimum +amount adequate and definite; the maximum amount left to the +discretion of the administering court; the benefits of all such laws +extended to necessitous cases above the age specified in the law, at +the discretion of the administering body, and residence qualifications +required. 6. The minimum "age of consent" eighteen years. 7. Equal +guardianship by both parents of the persons and the property of +children, the Utah law being a model. 8. Legal workers should read a +book published by the Department of Labor entitled Illegitimacy Laws +of the United States. 9. A Court should be established having original +exclusive jurisdiction over all affairs pertaining to the child and +his interests. 10. The marriage age for women should be eighteen +years, for men twenty-one years. The State should require health +certificates before issuing marriage licenses. There should be Federal +legislation on marriage and divorce and statutes prohibiting the +evasion of marriage laws. 11. Laws should provide that women be +subject to jury service and the unit vote of jurors in civil cases +should be abolished. 12. Members of committees of the League of Women +Voters should not use their connection with the league to assist any +political party. + +On February 17 Miss Mary Garrett Hay in an appeal for funds secured +pledges of $44,450. Of this sum the amount of $15,000 by the Leslie +Commission was offered by Mrs. Catt as follows: + +(1) The _Woman Citizen_ as an organ of the league until Jan. 1, 1921, +at which time we believe that it should issue a Bulletin of its own. + +(2) The full use of the publicity department of the National American +Woman Suffrage Association until May 1, 1920. + +(3) The remainder for the use of the league during the year. + +Following the convention Mrs. Catt conducted a School of Political +Education in the Auditorium of Recital Hall, in Chicago, February +19-24. Its aim was to train women already equipped with competent +knowledge of civil government and political science to teach new +voters the ideals of American Citizenship, the processes of +registering and casting a vote, the methods of making nominations and +platforms, the nature of political parties and the best ways of using +a vote to get what they want and to effect the general welfare of the +people. Mrs. Catt urged each State to hold a similar State school to +be followed by others in every election district, to carry the message +to every woman that good citizens not only register and vote but know +how to do so and why they do it; to set a standard of good citizenship +with an "irreducible minimum" of qualifications below which no person +can fall and lay claim to the title good citizen. It was planned to +give certificates of endorsement to those who passed 75 per cent. in +the examinations at the close. + +A widespread demand arose for Citizenship Schools, requests coming +even from women who were indifferent or opposed to suffrage but who, +now that the vote was assured, were anxious to make good and +intelligent use of the ballot. Under the direction of Mrs. Gellhorn, +vice-chairman of the National League of Women Voters and chairman of +Organization, twenty-seven field directors were employed and schools +held in thirty-five States. Missouri had 102 schools, Nebraska 30, +Ohio 35. In sixteen States, the State universities cooperated with the +League of Women Voters in their citizenship work. Those of Iowa and +Virginia employed in their extension departments directors of +citizenship schools, who, responding to calls, went to various +localities and conducted courses in citizenship. That of Missouri put +in a required course for every freshman, with five hours' credit. A +normal training school was conducted in St. Louis in August and a +correspondence course of twelve lessons was issued and used by +forty-two States. In many cases these schools made a thorough study of +the fundamental principles of government. + +In compliance with the instruction of the convention the Board of +Directors of the League of Women Voters at its post-convention meeting +in Chicago selected from the program recommended by the standing +committees the issues to be presented to the Resolution Committees of +the political parties with a request that they be adopted as planks in +the national platforms. Two of the Federal measures endorsed by the +League in Chicago--the bill for the Women's Bureau in the Department +of Labor and the Retirement Bill for Superannuated Public +Employees--were passed by Congress the following June and became law. +Twelve others were grouped into six planks and later condensed into a +single paragraph as follows: + +"We urge Federal cooperation with the States in the protection of +infant life through infancy and maternity care; the prohibition of +child labor and adequate appropriation for the Children's Bureau; a +Federal Department of Education; joint Federal and State aid for the +removal of illiteracy and increase of teachers' salaries; instruction +in citizenship for both native and foreign born; increased Federal +support for vocational training in home economics and Federal +regulation of the marketing and distribution of food; full +representation of women on all commissions dealing with women's work +and women's interests; the establishment of a joint Federal and State +employment service with women's departments under the direction of +technically qualified women; a reclassification of the Federal Civil +Service free from discrimination on account of sex; continuance of +appropriations for public education in sex hygiene; Federal +legislation which shall insure that American-born women resident in +the United States but married to aliens shall retain American +citizenship and that the same process of naturalization shall be +required of alien women as is required of alien men." + +Deputations from the Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters +presented this program to the Resolutions Committee of the Republican +party at its convention in Chicago; to that of the Democratic party in +San Francisco, and to the convention of the Farmer Labor party and the +Committee of Forty-eight held jointly in Chicago. The last named +included the following planks: Abolition of employment of children +under 16 years of age; a Federal Department of Education; Public +ownership and operation of stock yards, large abattoirs, cold-storage +and terminal warehouses; equal pay for equal work. Five of the planks +were included in the Republican platform: Prohibition of child labor +throughout the United States; instruction in citizenship for the youth +of the land; increased Federal support for vocational training in home +economics; equal pay for equal work; independent citizenship for +married women. The Democratic Resolutions Committee incorporated in +its platform all of the requests made by the League of Women Voters +except a Federal Department of Education. The Socialist Party held its +convention before the planks were sent out. The Prohibition Party +adopted the full program of the League of Women Voters. + +One of the important steps taken in 1920 by the League of Women Voters +in support of its social welfare program was the presenting of these +platform planks to the Presidential candidates of the two major +parties for their approval. Its representatives with a deputation went +to Marion, O., the home of Senator Harding, Republican candidate, +October 1 and to Dayton, O., the home of Governor Cox, Democratic +candidate, the following day. Each promised assistance in the event of +his election. + +At the call of Mrs. Park, chairman of the league, delegates +representing national organizations which collectively numbered about +10,000,000 women, met in Washington on November 22. These included the +National League of Women Voters, General Federation of Women's Clubs, +National Council of Women, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, +National Women's Trade Union League, National Consumers' League, +National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers' Associations, +Association of Collegiate Alumnae, American Home Economics Association, +National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. They +formed a Woman's Joint Congressional Committee and endorsed the +largest constructive, legislative program ever adopted. It was +arranged that all organizations might participate to the limit of +their specific field of work and purposes and at the same time all +possibility was eliminated of any being involved in supporting a +measure or a principle outside of its scope or contrary to its +opinions. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[146] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Nettie Rogers +Shuler, corresponding secretary of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN NATIONAL PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTIONS.[147] + + +The courage and patience of the woman suffrage leaders in their long +struggle for the ballot is nowhere more strongly evidenced than in +their continued appeals to the national political conventions to +recognize in their platforms woman's right to the franchise. These +distinguished women were received with an indifference that was +insulting until far into the 20th century. To two parties, the +Prohibition and the Socialist, it was never necessary to appeal. The +Prohibition party was organized in 1872 and from that time always +advocated woman suffrage in its national platform except in 1896, when +it had only a single plank, but this was supplemented by resolutions +favoring equal suffrage. The Socialist party, which came into +existence in 1901, declared for woman suffrage at the start and +thereafter made it a part of its active propaganda. All the minor +parties as a rule put planks for woman suffrage in their +platforms.[148] + +Before the conventions in 1904 the board of the National American +Woman Suffrage Association secured full lists of delegates and +alternates of the two dominant parties--667 Republicans and 723 +Democratic delegates; 495 Republican alternates and 384 Democratic, a +total of 2,269. To each a letter was sent directing his attention to a +memorial enclosed, signed by the officers of the association, an +urgent request for the insertion in the platform of the following +resolution: "Resolved, That we favor the submission by Congress to the +various State Legislatures of an amendment to the Federal Constitution +forbidding the disfranchisement of United States citizens on account +of sex." + +The Republican convention met in Chicago June 21-23. The committee +appointed by the National Association consisted of Mrs. Harriet +Taylor Upton and Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser of Ohio, its treasurer and +headquarters secretary, and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago, +a former officer, who arranged the hearing. The beautiful rooms of the +Chicago Woman's Club were placed at their disposal, where they kept +open house, assisted by Mrs. Gertrude Blackwelder, president of the +Chicago Political League, Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin and other prominent +club women. Mrs. McCulloch went to the Auditorium Annex to ask the +Committee on Resolutions for a hearing. Senator Hopkins of Illinois +presented her to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, the chairman, and the +choice was given her of having it immediately or the next morning. She +chose the nearest hour and a little later returned with her committee. +Mrs. McCulloch introduced the speakers and made the closing argument. +Mrs. Upton, the Rev. Celia Parker Woolley and the Rev. Olympia Brown +addressed the committee. They were generously applauded, the suffrage +plank was referred to a sub-committee and buried. + +The Democratic convention was held in St. Louis July 6-9 and Mrs. +Priscilla D. Hackstaff, an officer of the New York Suffrage +Association, secured a hearing before the Resolutions Committee. Mrs. +Louise L. Werth of St. Louis and Miss Kate M. Gordon of Louisiana +joined her on the opening day of the convention and at 8 o'clock the +evening of the 7th they appeared before the committee. Mrs. Hackstaff +argued on the ground of abstract justice and Miss Gordon from the +standpoint of expediency. The committee listened attentively and were +liberal with applause but the resolution never was heard from. + +Undaunted by a failure which began in 1868 and had continued ever +since, the suffragists made their plans for 1908. The Republican +convention was again held in Chicago, June 16-20, and a committee of +eminent women presented the suffrage resolution--Miss Jane Addams, +Mrs. Henrotin, the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane, Miss Harriet Grim, +Mrs. Blackwelder and Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch. They were heard +politely but not the slightest attention was paid to their request. +Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, tried +to secure the adoption of a plank pledging the Republican party to +support a Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment but also was ignored. + +When the Democratic party met in national convention in Denver July +7-11, all the delegates and alternates received an appeal which read: +"You are respectfully requested by the National American Woman +Suffrage Association to place the following plank in your platform: +'Resolved, That we favor the extension of the elective franchise to +the women of the United States by the States upon the same +qualifications as it is accorded to men.' We ask this in order that +our Government may live up to the principles upon which it was founded +and in order that the women in the homes and the industries may have +equal power with men to influence conditions affecting these +respective spheres of action. In making this demand for justice our +association calls your attention to the fact that more than 5,000,000 +women who are occupied in the industries of the United States are +helpless to legislate upon the hours, conditions and remuneration for +their labor. We call your attention to the fact that through the +commercialized trend of legislation the children of our nation are +being sacrificed to a veritable Juggernaut--cheap labor--while this +same trend is wasting our mineral land and water resources, imperiling +thereby the inheritance of future generations. We call your attention +to the moral conditions menacing the youth of our country. Justice and +expediency demand that women be granted equal power with men to mould +the conditions directly affecting the industries, the resources and +the homes of the nation. We therefore appeal to the Democratic +convention assembled to name national standard bearers and to +determine national policies, to adopt in its platform a declaration +favoring the extension of the franchise to the women of the United +States." + +This appeal was signed by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president, Kate M. +Gordon, Rachel Foster Avery, Alice Stone Blackwell, Harriet Taylor +Upton, Laura Clay and Mary S. Sperry, national officers. It received +no consideration whatever, but, although the suffragists did not know +it, this was the last year when the two powerful political parties of +the country could stand with a united front hostile to all progressive +movements. There was shortly to be brought to the assistance of such +movements strong forces which could not be resisted. + +Early in 1912 President William Howard Taft and U. S. Senator Robert +M. La Follette announced their intention of trying to secure the +Republican nomination for the presidency and the press of the country +took up the burning question, "Will Roosevelt be a candidate for a +third term?" On February 25 he announced his candidacy and from then +until the date of the Republican national convention the public +interest was intense. The convention met in Chicago, June 16-20. Miss +Jane Addams, vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage +Association, had arranged with a number of women to appear at a few +hours' notice before the Resolutions Committee but she could not give +even that, as she learned at 8:30 p.m. on the 19th that the committee +would meet at 9:30 in the Congress Hotel and she must appear at that +time. There was hastily mustered into service a small but +distinguished group of suffragists consisting of Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen +and Miss Mary Bartelme of Chicago; Professor Sophonisba Breckinridge +of Kentucky; Mrs. B. B. Mumford of Richmond, Va.; Miss Lillian D. Wald +and Mrs. Simkovitch of New York City; Miss Helen Todd of California; +Professor Freund of the Chicago University Law Faculty and a few +others. At ten o'clock the suffragists were admitted to the committee +room and greeted cordially by Governor Hadley of Missouri and +courteously by the chairman, Charles W. Fairbanks. Miss Addams was +told that she might have five minutes (later extended to seven) and +present one speaker. She introduced Mrs. Bowen, president of the +Juvenile Protective Association, who spoke earnestly four minutes, +leaving Miss Addams three to make the final plea. There were confusion +and noise in the room and the attention of the committee was +distracted. The platform contained no reference to woman suffrage. +Senator LaFollette presented his own platform to the convention in +which was a plank favoring the extension of suffrage to women but it +went down to defeat. Two days later the convention amid great +excitement nominated President Taft by a vote of 561 while Colonel +Roosevelt's vote was only 107. Directly after the convention adjourned +the delegates who favored Roosevelt assembled at Orchestra Hall and +nominated him in the name of the new Progressive party, Miss Addams +seconding the nomination. + +Soon after Colonel Roosevelt announced his candidacy he was visited +by Judge "Ben" Lindsey of Denver, a representative of the progressive +element in politics, who pointed out to him the great assistance it +would be to his campaign for him to come out for woman suffrage. +Roosevelt, who was an astute politician, saw the advantage of +enlisting the help of women, who through their large organizations had +become a strong factor in public life. Judge Lindsay therefore was +authorized to announce that he would favor a woman suffrage plank in +the Progressive platform and Roosevelt confirmed it. This caused wide +excitement and the suffragists throughout the country began to rally +under the Roosevelt banner. He had always been theoretically in favor +but with many reservations and during his two terms as President he +had refused all appeals to endorse it in any way. When he went to +Chicago to the first convention of the Progressive party August 5 he +carried with him the draft of the platform and in it was a plank +favoring woman suffrage but calling for a nation-wide referendum of +the question to women themselves! + +When this plank was submitted to the Resolutions Committee, on which +were such suffragists as Miss Addams, Judge Lindsay and U. S. Senator +Albert J. Beveridge, they vetoed it at once. It had already been +issued to the press in printed form and telegrams recalling it had to +be sent far and wide. The plank presented by the Resolutions Committee +and unanimously adopted by the convention read as follows: "The +Progressive party, believing that no people can justly claim to be a +true democracy which denies political rights on account of sex, +pledges itself to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women +alike." + +Many States sent women delegates and they were cordially welcomed. The +convention was marked by a deep, almost religious zeal, the delegates +breaking frequently into the singing of hymns of which Onward +Christian Soldiers was a favorite. Women took a prominent part in the +proceedings and woman suffrage was made one of the leading features. +Senator Beveridge referred to it at length in his speech, saying: +"Because women as much as men are a part of our economic and social +life, women as much as men should have the voting power to solve all +economic and social problems. Votes are theirs as a matter of natural +right alone; votes should be theirs as a matter of political wisdom +also." + +Later in a glowing tribute Mr. Roosevelt said: "It is idle to argue +whether women can play their part in politics because in this +convention we have seen the accomplished fact, and, moreover, the +women who have actively participated in this work of launching the new +party represent all that we are most proud to associate with American +womanhood. My earnest hope is to see the Progressive party in all its +State and local divisions recognize this fact precisely as it has been +recognized at the national convention.... Workingwomen have the same +need to combine for protection that workingmen have; the ballot is as +necessary for one class as for the other; we do not believe that with +the two sexes there is identity of function but we do believe that +there should be equality of right and therefore we favor woman +suffrage." The Progressive party in State after State followed the +lead of the convention and women were welcomed into its deliberations. +From this time woman suffrage was one of the dominant political issues +throughout the country. + +The Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore June 25-July 3. +The Baltimore suffragists applied on Thursday for a hearing before the +Resolutions Committee for Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and were informed that +the hearings had ended on Wednesday. Urged by the women the chairman, +John W. Kern of Indiana, finally consented to give a hearing that day, +although he said he had turned away hundreds of men who wanted +hearings, and he allotted five minutes to it. Mrs. W. J. Brown of +Baltimore, Mrs. Lawrence Lewis of Philadelphia and several others went +with Dr. Shaw but after a long wait only Mrs. Lewis and she were +admitted. With a strong, logical speech Dr. Shaw presented the +following resolution and asked that it be made a plank in the +platform: + + Whereas, The fundamental idea of a democracy is self-government, + the right of citizens to choose their own representatives, to + enact the laws by which they are governed, and whereas, this + right can be secured only by the exercise of the suffrage, + therefore, + + Resolved, That the ballot in the hand of every qualified citizen + constitutes the true political status of the people and to + deprive one-half of the people of the use of the ballot is to + deny the first principle of a democratic government. + +The committee was courteous and listened with marked attention, +William Jennings Bryan among them, but took no action on the +resolution.[149] + +The convention nominated Woodrow Wilson, who had answered a question +from a chairman of the New York Woman Suffrage Party the preceding +winter, while Governor of New Jersey: "I can only say that my mind is +in the midst of the debate which it involves. I do not feel that I am +ready to utter my confident judgment as yet about it. I am honestly +trying to work my way toward a just conclusion." President Taft had +written in answer to a letter of inquiry from the secretary of the +Men's Suffrage League of New York: "I am willing to wait until there +shall be a substantial, not unanimous, but a substantial call from +that sex before the suffrage is extended." + +As the result of the year's political work a summing up in December, +1912, showed a woman suffrage plank in the national platforms of the +Progressive, Socialist and Prohibition parties; a plank in the +platform of every party in New York State and in that of one or more +parties in many States. The Progressive party with woman suffrage as +one of its cardinal principles had polled 4,119,507 votes. Kansas, +Oregon and Arizona by popular vote had been added to the number of the +equal suffrage States. In 1914 these were increased by Montana and +Nevada, making eleven where women voted on the same terms as men. In +1913 Illinois granted a large amount of suffrage including a vote for +Presidential electors. In 1915 President Wilson and all his Cabinet, +except Secretary Lansing; Speaker Champ Clark and Mr. Bryan publicly +endorsed suffrage for women. Constitutional amendments were defeated +in four eastern States but they polled 1,234,470 favorable votes. + +By 1916, the year of the Presidential nominating conventions, there +had been so vast an advance of public sentiment that the official +board of the National American Woman Suffrage Association was +encouraged to believe that its effort of nearly fifty years to obtain +woman suffrage planks in the national platforms of the Republican and +Democratic parties would be successful. Its president, Mrs. Carrie +Chapman Catt, in the letters sent to the delegates, who were +circularized three times, called attention to the great gains and the +existing status of the movement, adapting the appeal to each party. +Under her direction, as a preliminary to the conventions, favorable +opinions were obtained from many leading men who were to attend them, +similar to the following: Representative John M. Nelson of the House +Judiciary Committee said: "The endorsement of equal suffrage by either +of the two great parties would do more at this time to simplify the +question than any other one thing. It seems to me that in directing +their efforts toward securing this endorsement its advocates have +exhibited sound practical judgment and admirable political acumen." "I +am in favor of an endorsement in the Republican platform of the +principle of equal suffrage," said Senator Borah, a Republican +delegate. "I have no doubt there will be a plank offered to that +effect and it will receive my active support." U. S. Senator Owen on +the floor of the Senate declared: "This demand ought to be made by men +as well as by thinking, progressive women. I hope that all parties +will in the national conventions give their approval to this larger +measure of liberty to the better half of the human race." The +suffragists began preparations for two striking demonstrations during +the conventions. + +The Republican convention took place in Chicago June 7-10. On the 6th +a mass meeting was held under the auspices of the association at the +Princess Theater. Speeches by Mrs. Catt and others roused the audience +to great enthusiasm and the following resolution was adopted: "We, +women from every State, gathered in national assembly, come to you in +the name of justice, liberty and equality to ask you to incorporate in +your platform a declaration favoring the extension of suffrage to the +only remaining class of unenfranchised citizens, the women of our +nation, and to urge you to give its protecting power and prestige to +the final struggle of women for political liberty. We are not asking +your endorsement of an untried theory but your recognition of a fact. +The men of eleven States and Alaska have already fully enfranchised +their women and Illinois has granted a large degree of suffrage, +including the Presidential vote. The women of five States have gained +the vote since 1912, your last convention, and have party affiliations +yet to make." + +A parade of 25,000 women had been planned to show the strength of the +movement. A cold, heavy rain upset these plans but on June 7, 5,500 +women (the others believing the demonstration would not be given) +braved the storm, gathered in Grant Park and marched to the Coliseum, +where the Republican Resolutions Committee was meeting. The Chicago +_Herald_ in describing that march said: "Over their heads surged a +vast sea of umbrellas extending two miles down the street; under their +feet swirled rivulets of water. Wind tore at their clothes and rain +drenched their faces but unhesitatingly they marched in unbroken +formation. Never before in the history of this city, probably of the +world, has there been so impressive a demonstration of consecration to +a cause." The first division reached the convention hall before five +o'clock. The committee had given a hearing to the suffragists and was +listening to the "antis." Just as Mrs. A. J. George of Brookline, +Mass., was asserting, "there is no widespread demand for woman +suffrage" hundreds of drenched and dripping women began to pour into +the hall, each woman's condition bearing silent witness to the +strength of her wish for the vote. Thousands of converts were made +among those who witnessed the courage and devotion of the women in +facing this storm. + +The hearing took place before a sub-committee of the Resolutions +Committee and instead of seven minutes being allotted to it, as in +1912, representatives of the National American Woman Suffrage +Association had half an hour, the National Association Opposed to +Woman Suffrage the next half hour and the Congressional Union a final +half hour. Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Abbie A. Krebs of California, Mrs. Ellis +Meredith of Colorado, Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout of Illinois and Mrs. +Frank M. Roessing of Pennsylvania spoke for the National Suffrage +Association. They asked for the following resolution: "The Republican +party reaffirming its faith in government of the people, by the people +and for the people, as a measure of justice to one-half the adult +people of this country, favors the extension of the suffrage to +women." The speakers for the Congressional Union were Miss Anne +Martin, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch and Mrs. Sara Bard Field and they +asked for an endorsement of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The +"antis" were represented by their national president, Mrs. Arthur M. +Dodge, and national secretary, Miss Minnie Bronson; Miss Alice Hill +Chittenden, New York State president, and Mrs. George. They asked that +there should be no mention of woman suffrage. + +The sub-committee reported against the adoption of a suffrage plank, +the vote standing five to four--Senators Lodge, Wadsworth, Oliver, and +Charles Hopkins Clark, editor of the Hartford (Conn.) _Courant_, and +former Representative Howland of Ohio opposed; Senators Borah, +Sutherland and Fall and Representative Madden of Illinois in favor. + +The question was then taken up in the full Committee on Resolutions. +Senators Borah and Smoot led a vigorous fight for a plank; Senator +Marion Butler of North Carolina headed the opposition. The strongest +possible influence was brought to bear against it by the party +leaders, Senators W. Murray Crane and Henry Cabot Lodge of +Massachusetts; Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania and James W. Wadsworth, +Jr., of New York and Speaker Cannon of Illinois. Nevertheless it was +carried by 26 to 21. Within a half hour defeat was again threatened +when seven absent members of the committee came and asked for a +reconsideration. After repeated parleys it was reconsidered and +emerged as the last plank in the platform. The final vote was 35 to 11 +but it was the result of a compromise, for it read: "The Republican +party, reaffirming its faith in government of the people, by the +people and for the people, as a measure of justice to one-half the +adult people of this country, favors the extension of the suffrage to +women but recognizes the right of each State to settle this question +for itself"! + +For the first time this party declared for the doctrine of State's +rights, which was the chief obstacle in the way of the Federal +Amendment, the goal of the National Association for nearly fifty +years. Mrs. Catt knew that it would be utterly useless to ask for a +plank favoring this amendment and so she asked simply for a clear-cut +endorsement of the principle of woman suffrage. This was secured, +after women had been appealing to national Republican conventions +since 1868, and although it was weakened by the qualifying +declaration, she realized that an immense gain had been made. By the +press throughout the country the adoption of the plank was hailed as +"a victory of supreme importance," and as guaranteeing a suffrage +plank in the Democratic national platform, which could not have been +obtained without it. It was adopted by the convention without +opposition and with great enthusiasm. + +The Democratic convention met in St. Louis June 14-16. The first day +the suffragists staged their "walkless parade," which the press +poetically called "the golden lane," as the 6,000 white-robed women +who formed a continuous lane from the convention headquarters in the +Jefferson Hotel to the Coliseum where the convention was held carried +yellow parasols and wore yellow satin sashes. They gave resplendent +color to the aisle through which hundreds of delegates walked to their +political councils. On the steps of the Art Museum the suffragists +presented a striking tableau showing Liberty, a symbolic figure +effectively garbed, surrounded by three groups of women, those in +black typifying the non-suffrage States; those in gray representing +the partial suffrage States; those in red, white and blue the States +where political equality prevailed. The suffragists had now no +difficulty in obtaining a hearing and plenty of time. Representatives +of the National American Association, the National Woman's Party, the +Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference and the National Association +Opposed to Woman Suffrage appeared before the sub-committee of the +Resolutions Committee. + +The entire Resolutions Committee met in the evening of the 15th to +make the final draft of the platform. Although it was a foregone +conclusion that it would have to contain a woman suffrage plank the +enemies did not intend to concede it willingly. It was not reached +until 3 o'clock in the morning, when platform building was suspended +while a contest raged. The sleepy committeemen became wide awake and +their voices rose till they could be heard in the corridors and out +into the street. The unqualified endorsement of woman suffrage asked +for by the National Association was defeated by a vote of 24 to 20. +The approval of the Federal Amendment asked for by the National +Woman's Party was rejected by a vote of 40 to 4. The plea of the +"antis" not to mention the subject was defeated by 26 to 17. Finally +the committee fell back on what was said to have been President +Wilson's suggestion for a plank, which was adopted by 25 ayes, 20 +noes. A minority report was immediately prepared by James Nugent of +New Jersey, Senator Smith of South Carolina, former Representative +Bartlett of Georgia, Stephen B. Fleming of Indiana, Governor Ferguson +of Texas and Governor Stanley of Kentucky, in opposition. + +The Resolutions Committee adjourned at 7:15 a.m. and the convention +opened at 11. Senator William J. Stone of Missouri, chairman of the +Resolutions Committee, brought forward the platform but confessed that +he was too tired to read it, so Senators Hollis and Walsh took turns +at it and when the suffrage plank was reached it was greeted with +applause and cheers. Senator Stone moved the adoption of the platform +and Governor Ferguson was given thirty minutes to present the minority +report, which finally was signed by himself, Nugent, Bartlett and +Fleming. The resolution was supported by the chairman. The young +Nevada Senator, Key Pittman, handled the signers of the minority +report without gloves, showed up their unsavory records and stirred +the convention to a frenzy. Yells and catcalls on the floor were met +with the cheers of the women who filled the gallery and waved their +banners and yellow parasols. Again and again he was forced to stop +until Senator John Sharp Williams took the gavel and restored a +semblance of order. Senator Walsh of Montana made a powerful speech +from the standpoint of political expediency and pointed out that the +minority report was signed by only four of the fifty members of the +Resolutions Committee. Attempts were made to howl him down and in the +midst of the turmoil a terrific storm broke and flashes of lightning +and roars of thunder added to the excitement. At last the vote was +taken on the minority report and stood 888 noes, 181 ayes. That ended +the opposition. + +Senator Stone had said to the delegates: "I may say that President +Wilson knows of this plank and deems it imperative to his success in +November that it be inserted in the platform." The plank, which was +adopted by a viva voce vote read as follows: "We favor the extension +of the franchise to the women of this country, State by State, on the +same terms as to the men." It transpired afterwards that President +Wilson had written it. + +As soon as the convention adjourned Mrs. Catt, president of the +National Suffrage Association, who with the board of officers was +present, sent the following telegram to President Wilson: "Inasmuch as +Governor Ferguson of Texas and Senator Walsh of Montana made +diametrically opposite statements in the Democratic convention today +with regard to your attitude toward the suffrage plank adopted, we +apply to you directly to state your position on the plank and give +your precise interpretation of its meaning." To this message the +President replied on June 22: "I am very glad to make my position +about the suffrage plank clear to you, though I had not thought that +it was necessary to state again a position that I have repeatedly +stated with entire frankness. The plank received my entire approval +before its adoption and I shall support its principle with sincere +pleasure. I wish to join with my fellow Democrats in recommending to +the several States that they extend the suffrage to women upon the +same terms as to men." Later the President made it plain that the +Democratic plank was to be considered a distinct approval of the +suffrage movement and that it did not necessarily disapprove of a +Federal Amendment. + +The general sentiment of the press was to the effect that as a result +of the endorsement of the national conventions woman suffrage went +before the country with its prestige immeasurably strengthened and +recognized as a great force to be reckoned with. The suffragists ended +their political convention campaign with planks in the platforms of +all the five parties, Republican, Democratic, Progressive, +Prohibitionist and Socialist. The Progressive party made its +declaration stronger than at its national convention in 1912, its +plank reading: "We believe that the women of the country, who share +with the men the burden of government in times of peace and make equal +sacrifice in times of war, should be given the full political right of +suffrage both by State and Federal action." It was adopted unanimously +and with great applause at the party's national convention in Chicago +June 7-10. The planks were taken by the suffragists as pledges that +the parties would help in a practical way to assist the movement in +the various States and nationally and this view was made plain to the +leaders and to the rank and file of the voters. + +Results were soon apparent and between 1916 and 1920 the cause of +woman suffrage took immense strides forward. In 1917 New York State +gave the complete suffrage to women. In 1918 Michigan, South Dakota +and Oklahoma fully enfranchised them, increasing the number of equal +suffrage States to fifteen. In thirteen other States women obtained +the Presidential franchise and in two the vote in Primary elections. +The resolution for a Federal Amendment passed both Houses of Congress +in May and June, 1919, and was submitted to the State Legislatures for +ratification. By March 22, 1920, it had been ratified by 35, lacking +only one of the three-fourths required to make it a part of the +National Constitution. The women, therefore, approached the political +parties this year in quite a different frame of mind from that of the +past, feeling the strength of their position and realizing that where +they had formerly pleaded they could now demand. The burning question +of the hour was whether the 36th State would ratify in time to enable +the millions of women to vote in the Presidential elections in +November. The National Committees of the two dominant parties had +become ardently in favor of it. Through the influence of Republican +women suffragists, the committee of that party sent on June 1 to the +Republican Governors and legislators of Delaware, Connecticut and +Vermont the following appeal to ratify the Federal Amendment so that +the Republican party might have the credit of assisting women to win +their final battle and thus gain their gratitude and allegiance: + + Whereas, The Republican National Committee at its regular + meetings has repeatedly endorsed woman suffrage and the 19th + Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and has + called upon the Congress to submit and the States to ratify such + amendment; and, whereas, it still lacks ratification by a + sufficient number of States to become a law, therefore be it + + Resolved, by the Republican National Committee that the 19th + Amendment be and the same is hereby again endorsed by this + committee, and such Republican States as have not already done so + are now urged to take such action by their Governors and + Legislatures as will assure its ratification and establish the + right of equal suffrage at the earliest possible time. + +When the Republican National Convention met in Chicago June 8-12 the +Resolutions Committee received the following memorial: + + The National American Woman Suffrage Association asks permission + to place on record with the National Republican Convention its + appreciation of the resolution of the National Republican + Executive Committee on June 1.... It seems the spirit of fairness + underlying the committee's action must commend it to every lover + of liberty regardless of party and its political far-sightedness + must be evident to every Republican desirous of party victory. + + Conceding to the committee's action its full and friendly + significance, this association further asks permission to + re-emphasize before this convention the fact that on the very eve + of complete victory a deadlock supervenes in the ratification of + this amendment and for that deadlock the Republican party must + carry its full share of responsibility, since three States with + Republican Legislatures remain on the unratified list. Republican + leaders frequently point out that their party has insured a far + larger proportion of ratifications than has the Democratic, and + apparently count on this situation to accrue to its advantage. + This position would be logical if the relative proportion between + Republicans and Democrats were the essential thing but it is by + no means the essential thing. The 36th State is the essential + thing. + + Women who are waiting on that State for their right to vote in + the Presidential elections of 1920 cannot rest satisfied with the + assurance or the evidence that Republican leaders are doing all + in their power to bring about ratification. Women who are going + to vote the Republican ticket anyhow may be satisfied but they + are not the women whose vote is important to the party. The + important vote is the vote of the undecided woman who would just + as soon be a Republican as a Democrat. That woman has not been + convinced by the final Republican showing on ratification and she + will not be convinced until the 36th State has ratified. This + ratification is the only solution of the situation that can make + actual what is so far a merely potential claim of the Republican + party on the woman voter. + + The National American Woman Suffrage Association urges upon this + convention the necessity for such action as will make inevitable + and immediate the ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment + by the 36th State. + +This was signed by Mary Garrett Hay, acting president, in the absence +of Mrs. Catt in Europe; Gertrude Foster Brown, vice-president; Nettie +Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary; Emma Winner Rogers, treasurer; +Esther G. Ogden, director, and Rose Young, press chairman. + +Miss Hay called a conference of the suffragists attending the +convention in Chicago and a plank was drawn up. Miss Hay, Mrs. Richard +Edwards, Mrs. Maud Wood Park, Mrs. George Gellhorn, Miss Ada Bush and +Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs constituted a committee to present this +plank to the Resolutions Committee of which Senator James E. Watson +(Ind.) was chairman. Miss Hay made the principal speech and Mrs. +Gellhorn and Miss Bush spoke briefly. A sub-committee of the +Resolutions Committee accepted the plank which was given out to the +press on June 10. It read: + + We welcome women into full participation in the affairs of + government and the activities of the Republican party. We urge + Republican Governors whose States have not yet acted upon the + suffrage amendment to call immediately special sessions of their + Legislatures for the purpose of ratifying said amendment, to the + end that all the women of the nation of voting age may + participate in the coming election, so important to the welfare + of our country. + +As soon as this appeared in the Chicago papers, members of the +Connecticut delegation rushed to leaders of the Platform Committee and +protested that it was a gross insult to their Governor, Marcus H. +Holcomb, and they wanted the wording changed. Accordingly the +offending sentence was revised and in the plank adopted by the +convention read: "We earnestly hope that Republican Legislatures in +States which have not yet acted upon the suffrage amendment will +ratify it, to the end that all the women of the nation of voting age +may participate in the election of 1920 so important to the welfare of +our country." + +Republican women in attendance at the convention united in a demand +for a fifty-fifty recognition inside of the party. They asked for a +woman vice-chairman of the National Republican Committee and for men +and women to be represented on it in equal numbers. The Committee on +Rules, responding to this demand, changed the rules for representation +and provided that seven members be added to the National Executive +Committee, all to be women. With this concession the women had to be +content. + +The Democratic National Convention met in San Francisco June 28-July +5. Prior to the convention the National Committee had yielded to the +pressure from the suffrage leaders and Democratic women and on May 30 +sent out the following Call: "This committee calls upon the +Legislatures of the various States for special sessions, if necessary, +to ratify woman suffrage when the Constitutional Amendment is passed +by Congress, in order to enable women to vote at the Presidential +election in 1920." On June 26, after the amendment had been submitted +by Congress, the committee again gave its aid by sending the following +message to Governor Roberts of Tennessee: + + We most earnestly emphasize the extreme importance and urgency of + an immediate meeting of your State Legislature for the purpose of + ratifying the proposed 19th Amendment to the Federal + Constitution. We trust that for the present all other legislative + matters may, if necessary, be held in abeyance and that you will + call an extra session for such brief duration as may be required + to act favorably on the amendment. Tennessee occupies a position + of peculiar and pivotal importance and one that enables her to + render a service of incalculable value to the women of America. + We confidently expect, therefore, that under your leadership and + through the action of the Legislature of your State, the women of + the nation may be given the privilege of voting in the coming + Presidential election. + +The National American Woman Suffrage Association appointed Mrs. +Mrs. Guilford Dudley, one of its vice-presidents, who was a +delegate-at-large from Tennessee to the convention and a member of the +Credentials Committee, to present the following plank to the +Resolutions Committee: "The Federal Suffrage Amendment, whose passage +in Congress was greatly furthered by the efforts of a Democratic +President, is one State short of the number required to make its +ratification effective. In two Republican States, Vermont and +Connecticut, where ratification could be at once achieved, Republican +Governors are refusing to call special sessions. In simple justice to +women, we, Democrats in national convention assembled, urge the +cooperation of Democratic Governors and legislators in North Carolina, +Tennessee, Florida and other Democratic States that have not ratified, +in a united effort to complete ratification by the addition of the +36th State in time for the women of America to participate in the +approaching elections." + +The National Woman's Party through Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, its +publicity chairman, presented a plank through U. S. Senator Carter +Glass of the Resolutions Committee, which read: "The Democratic Party +endorses the proposed amendment to the U. S. Constitution +enfranchising women and calls upon all Democratic Governors of States +which have not yet ratified the amendment immediately to convene their +Legislatures so that they may act upon it and urges all Democratic +members of such Legislatures immediately to vote for the +amendment...." + +The plank finally adopted by the convention read: "We endorse the +proposed 19th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States +granting equal suffrage to women. We congratulate the Legislatures of +35 States which have already ratified said amendment and we urge the +Democratic Governors and Legislatures of Tennessee, North Carolina and +Florida and such States as have not yet ratified it to unite in an +effort to complete the process of ratification and secure the 36th +State in time for all the women of the United States to participate in +the fall election. We commend the effective advocacy of the measure by +President Wilson." + +The Democratic women achieved a victory also in the important decision +which was reached in regard to the representation of women in future +national conventions, this convention deciding that full sex equality +should be observed in its delegations and that the National Committee +hereafter should include one man and one woman from each State. + +Thus the struggle begun in 1868 for the approval of woman suffrage by +the National Presidential Conventions of the political parties ended +with its complete endorsement by all of them in 1920. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[147] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Mary Garrett +Hay, second vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage +Association. + +[148] For a full account of the effort to obtain planks in the +national platforms from 1868 to 1900, inclusive, see Chapter XXIII, +Volume IV, History of Woman Suffrage. + +[149] One evening during the convention the Maryland suffragists, +reinforced by others from surrounding cities, had a long and +handsomely equipped parade. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +WAR SERVICE OF ORGANIZED SUFFRAGISTS.[150] + + +The response of the women of the United States to the call of their +country as it entered the World War was as vigorous and eager as had +been that of women of other more deeply involved nations. Although +American women had little opportunity for giving first line aid in +comparison with the women of the Allied countries they gave a second +or supporting line service in organization and conservation to which +they applied their full energy. These efforts brought them close in +spirit to the firing line long before the Stars and Stripes were +carried to Chateau Thierry and beyond. + +It is the province of this chapter to review especially the work of +the organized suffragists in their loyalty to their government--a +government which from the first had refused to women all voice and +part in its proceedings. This work may best be examined under two +headings: 1. War Service of the National American Woman Suffrage +Association; 2. War Service of suffragists as a whole under the +direction of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense. + +On Feb. 5, 1917, the president of the association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman +Catt, issued the following Call to its Executive Council of One +Hundred to meet in Washington on February 23-24 to confer upon the +approaching crisis in national affairs: + + "To Members of the Executive Council: + + "Our nation may be on the brink of war. To those who live in the + interior war may seem a long way off but in the East, where + public buildings, water works, forts, etc., are now under + military guard and where some of the regiments of the National + Guard have been called to duty, it comes as a sad realization + that our country is facing a far more serious crisis than most + of us have ever known. A few days may determine whether our + people are to be drawn into war at once or whether the break can + be patched up and the more tragic circumstances postponed or even + averted. + + "If the worst comes, very serious problems confront us. Our + suffrage work would unquestionably come to a temporary + standstill. How shall we dispose of our headquarters, our + workers, our plans? How shall we hold our organization and + resources meanwhile, so that our movement will not lose its + prestige and place among the political issues of our country? + These are questions we must not leave to answer themselves. If we + are 'not the hammer, our cause will be the anvil.' Women not + connected with any particular movement are calling meetings in + order to pass pointless resolutions of the promised service of + women if required. The big question presents itself, shall + suffragists do the 'war work' which they will undoubtedly want to + do with other groups newly formed, thus running the risk of + disintegrating our organizations, or shall we use our + headquarters and our machinery for really helpful constructive + aid to our nation? The answer must be given _now_. + + "Because this unexpected turn of public affairs creates an + unprecedented condition, the majority of the National Board + avails itself of the provision of the constitution which permits + the call of the Executive Council on a two weeks' notice. I + therefore issue this call to all Elected Officers, all + Presidents, all Auxiliaries, all State Members, (auxiliaries + which pay dues on a membership of 1500 or more are entitled to a + State member in addition to the president), and all Chairmen of + Standing and Special Committees to meet in Washington at the + National Suffrage Headquarters, 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, + February 23-25 inclusive, as per inclosed program. Each State is + urged to send its State Congressional Chairmen also to this + meeting...." + +It was, therefore, for the Executive Council to decide what the +association could best do to help the Government in case of war. The +summons came as no surprise to the members of the National +Association, since for many months their eyes had been fixed on the +war-clouds gathering upon the horizon. It was evident that the United +States was about to enter the World War. + +When this council met at the headquarters in Washington the national +officers submitted to it the draft of a Note that specified various +concrete ways in which, according to their ideas, the members of the +association might give aid to their country in an emergency. This +draft was discussed section by section and the motion then came to +adopt the Note as a whole. This called out the most important debate +of the two-days' meeting, remarkable for the kindly spirit and good +temper with which were set forth opposing views on a vital matter +concerning which public feeling ran high. The president gave an +opportunity to all "conscientious objectors" to come forward and +record their names as dissenting. Almost all who did so stated that +they believed women should give their assistance in case of war but +they feared that an offer of help to the Government made in advance +might tend to fan the war spirit and create a psychological impetus +towards war. Even this minority felt that the proposed services were +judiciously chosen, as they were such as would benefit the country +were it at war or at peace. The majority decision was that the +National Association should now abandon its unbroken custom of not +participating in any matters except those relating directly to woman +suffrage and that in view of the national emergency it should offer +its assistance to the Government of the United States and proceed to +organize for war service. The registered vote on such action was 63 to +13. As the attendance at the conference represented 36 States out of +the 45 in which the association had auxiliaries, it might be +considered as expressing an almost nation-wide conviction among the +members of the association. On February 24 the conference issued the +following Note: + + "To the President and Government of the United States: + + "We devoutly hope and pray that our country's crisis may be + passed without recourse to war. We declare our belief that the + settlement of international difficulties by bloodshed is unworthy + of the 20th Century, and also our confidence that our Government + is using every honorable means to avoid conflict. If, however, + our nation is drawn into the maelstrom, we stand ready to serve + our country with the zeal and consecration which should ever + characterize those who cherish high ideals of the duty and + obligation of citizenship. With no intention of laying aside our + constructive forward work to secure the vote for the womanhood of + this country as 'the right protective of all other rights,' we + offer our services in the event that they should be needed, and, + in so far as we are authorized, we pledge the loyal support of + our more than two million members. We make this offer now in + order to avoid waste of time and effort in an emergency; also, + that the executive ability, industry and devotion of our women, + trained through years of arduous endeavor, may be utilized, with + all other national resources, for the protection of our country + in its time of stress. We propose that a National Committee be + formed at once, composed of a representative from each national + organization of women willing to aid in war work, if the need + arises. The object shall be to establish a clearing house between + the Government and those organizations in order that service may + be rendered in the most expeditious manner. With this end in view + we recommend that each component organization list its resources + and report to this central committee concerning the definite work + it is prepared to do. To further the practical application of + this suggestion our association declares its willingness to + undertake the following departments of work: + + "I. The Establishing of Employment Bureaus for Women.--Through + its local, State and national headquarters to register the names + and qualifications of women available for occupations which men + will leave to enter the army; to supply these women to employers + and to protect the work of such women. + + "II. The increase of the Food Supply by the Training of Women for + Agricultural Work and by the Elimination of Waste. The aid of the + Department of Agriculture will be sought in planning systematic + courses for women to accomplish these purposes. The cultivation + by women of garden plots and vacant lots in cities will be + encouraged at the same time that the larger importance of regular + farming is urged. + + "III. The Red Cross.--As the Red Cross, in which many of our + members are zealous workers, is already equipped to render + hospital, medical and general supply service, we offer our + organized service in other fields and we promise continued + cooperation with the Red Cross as needed. + + "IV. Americanization.--A problem unknown to other lands will + become accentuated in the event of war. Within our borders are + eight millions of aliens, who by birth, tradition and training + will find it difficult, if not impossible, to understand the + causes which have led to this war. War invariably breeds + intolerance and hatred and will tend to arouse antagonisms + inimical to the best interests of the nation. With the desire to + minimize this danger, our association, extending as it does into + every precinct of our great cities and into the various counties + of the States, offers to conduct classes in school centers + wherein national allegiance shall be taught, emphasizing + tolerance, to the end that the Stars and Stripes shall wave over + a loyal and undivided people. + + "V. Conference Committee.--In order to carry out our expressed + desire and purpose, a committee of three is hereby ordered + appointed to confer with the proper authorities of the + Government. If need arises, this committee shall be the + intermediary between the Government and our association." + + + Signed, Executive Council, National American Woman Suffrage + Association. + + by Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president; Carrie Chapman Catt, + president; Helen Guthrie Miller, first vice-president; Katharine + Dexter McCormick, second vice-president; Esther G. Ogden, third + vice-president; Emma Winner Rogers, treasurer; Mrs. Thomas + Jefferson Smith, recording secretary; Nettie Rogers Shuler, + corresponding secretary; Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, first auditor; + Heloise Meyer, second auditor. + +The conference ended on Saturday and on Sunday afternoon a public mass +meeting was held. Poli's Theater was filled by a representative +audience and on the platform were four members of the Cabinet: +Secretaries Baker, McAdoo, Daniels and Houston, with their wives; also +United States Senators, Representatives and many other prominent +people, including Miss Margaret Wilson, the daughter of the President. +The meeting was opened with an address by Mrs. Catt on The Impending +Crisis, expressing the hope that after the war there would arise a +truer democracy than ever known before and that the world would never +see another war. The Note to President Wilson was read by Mrs. Ida +Husted Harper and handed to Secretary of War Baker. In accepting it he +paid a tribute to the aspirations of women and expressed the belief +that at the close of the war the United States would take its place in +a concert of neutral nations and having practiced justice at home it +would have earned the right to help establish international justice. +Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton delighted the rather tense audience with her +inimitable humor and Dr. Shaw closed the meeting with one of her +strongest speeches. The addresses of Mrs. Catt and Dr. Shaw emphasized +not only the desire of women to do effective patriotic service in time +of stress but also their wish that a more civilized way than by the +waste and destructiveness of war might be found to settle +international disputes. + +President Wilson immediately answered as follows: + + "The Secretary of War has transmitted to me the Resolutions + presented to him at the meeting held on Sunday afternoon, + February 25, under the auspices of the National American Woman + Suffrage Association. I want to express my great and sincere + admiration of the action taken. + + Cordially and sincerely yours, Woodrow Wilson." + +On April 6, 1917, the United States declared that a state of war with +Germany existed. News of the severance of diplomatic relations +elicited a deep and reverberating response from the millions of +suffragists over the country. At the New York and Washington +headquarters of the National Association telephone calls and telegrams +were received all day, as State by State the suffrage organizations +proffered concerted action with the national on any program of +constructive service which it might decide to offer to the Government. +The National Suffrage Association at once commenced its war work on +the lines adopted at the Washington conference. This comprised +departments under four sections: Thrift; Food Production; Industrial +Protection of Women and Americanization. Branches of these four +sections had already been formed by all its State auxiliaries and +Mrs. McCormick, its second vice-president, had been appointed general +chairman of the War Service Department. In many States the president +of the suffrage association became chairman of the War Service +Committee. Thus the suffragists of the United States started their war +activities with as much vigor as they had been accustomed to put into +efforts for their own cause. + + * * * * * + +There had been created in August, 1916, by an Act of Congress, the +Council of National Defense, composed of the Secretaries of War, Navy, +Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor. This council was formed in +order that an emergency might not find the country without a central +agency to direct the mobilization of troops back of the regular army. +It was not an executive body; its function was to consider and advise. +By a wise provision of the Congressional Act the formation of +subordinate agencies was authorized and upon the declaration of war +advantage of this was quickly taken. Large fields of action were +mapped out and assigned to committees on which were appointed the +foremost men and women of the country. It was at once evident that the +women of the United States had a definite and powerful role to play in +the great war and the council decided that "for the purpose of +coordinating the women's preparedness movement a central body of woman +should be formed under the Council of National Defense." On April 19, +1917, the director, Secretary of War Baker, telegraphed to Dr. Anna +Howard Shaw that Secretary of the Interior Lane and he would like to +consult her in regard to important matters concerning the relations of +women to the council. She was on a lecture tour in the South but +arranged to meet with them in Washington on April 27. On April 21, +before the time for this meeting, the Council of National Defense +voted that a Woman's Committee be formed with the following personnel: +Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Katharine Dexter +McCormick, Mrs. Josiah Evans Cowles, Mrs. Philip North Moore, Mrs. +Antoinette Funk, Miss Ida Tarbell, Miss Maude Wetmore, Mrs. Joseph R. +Lamar. Later Miss Agnes Nestor and Miss Hannah J. Patterson were +added. Of the eleven members of the committee all were prominent +suffragists except Miss Tarbell, Mrs. Lamar and Miss Wetmore, who +were well-known "antis." It was learned that the names had been +carefully considered by the council. Dr. Shaw was designated as +chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense +and asked to hold a meeting in Washington at the earliest possible +date. Its headquarters were opened in this city and the members +accepted their appointments as a call by the Government to the service +of the country. + + * * * * * + +In December, 1917, the 49th annual convention of the National American +Woman Suffrage Association was held at Washington. The chairman of its +War Service Department, Mrs. McCormick, described the combination of +efforts desirable between its branches and those of the Woman's +Committee of the Council of National Defense, saying that such a +combination was essential to efficient war-service by the women of the +country. Comprehensive reports were made of the activities of the four +sections by their chairmen which may be read in full in the Handbook +of the association for 1917 and space can be used here only for the +briefest summaries. + +(1) Thrift and Elimination of Waste. The chairman, Mrs. Walter McNab +Miller, first vice-president of the association, said in part: "After +consultation with Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Vrooman and the +heads of Economics and Extension Departments and the Children's +Bureau, a letter was sent to each State suffrage president outlining +the plan of work and asking that a chairman be appointed to inaugurate +and carry out the Thrift program. Food conservation was the subject +stressed, for the experience of the European countries made it of +prime importance. It is a matter of interest that the original food +outline sent out in April contained all the suggestions afterwards +insisted upon by Mr. Hoover, and the outline on Clothing contained the +same advice as was later given out by the Woman's Committee of the +Council of National Defense. The response from the southern States was +especially gratifying. I have spoken 100 times for Thrift, travelled +6,000 miles, sent out 144 form letters and written 100 individual +letters. Reports from States where Thrift Committees have been at work +show constantly increasing interest and the gradual adoption of a +definite line of effort." + +(2) Food Production. The chairman, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer +of the association, after speaking of the cooperation received from +the Department of Agriculture, said in part: "We appealed to all State +suffrage presidents to appoint chairmen and encourage their local +leagues to cooperate in every way possible in increasing the food +supply and a splendid response came. We urged the importance of +enlisting women to undertake practical gardening or farming and to +provide training for women to this end. We urged the opening in every +State of two or three Farm Employment Bureaus for women through which +graduates of Agricultural Colleges and others with less training could +be placed on farms, and farmers who were progressive enough to want +women's help could be reasonably sure of securing it. We arranged with +the largest overalls company in the United States to design and put +out a suitable farm uniform for women, which was extensively sold and +used.... The reports at the end of the season testified to the +millions of gardens worked by suffragists, to the thousands who helped +on farms or went to farm training schools, to canning kitchens and +home canning on a scale hitherto unthought-of." + +(3) Industrial Protection of Women. The chairman, Miss Ethel M. Smith, +said in part: + + "This committee was created by the National Suffrage Board to + secure women workers to fill the places of men called for + military service and it promised to 'protect the work of such + women.' A letter was sent to five hundred Chambers of Commerce + over Mrs. Catt's signature, asking for their cooperation in + behalf of women workers against the danger of excessive overtime + and underpay. The slogan of 'Equal Pay for Equal Work' was + utilized and vigilance committees were planned for each State to + note the conditions in industrial localities and report back to + Washington. The questions of equal pay for equal work and equal + opportunity for women were then taken up with the Government + departments, which have been quite as unfair to women employees + as have private firms. The scale of pay is notoriously less than + for men, and women have been excluded from the civil service + examinations for many positions which they are well equipped to + fill. We therefore sent a letter to the Departments of War, + Navy, State and Commerce where the discrimination had been + proved, asking whether they would not modify their regulations to + give women equal chances with men, and, now that men were needed + for the army, give women the clerical positions in preference to + men. We published these letters and received favorable replies + from all but the State Department." Miss Smith told of the + discovery that women in the Bureau of Engraving, under the + Treasury Department, were working twelve hours a day seven days + in the week; of the protest of her committee sent through Mrs. + Catt to Secretary McAdoo and of his order restoring the + eight-hour day and removing all cause of complaint." + +(4) Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley, said that +her first act was to secure three wise and experienced suffragists to +form with her a central committee, Mrs. Shuler, corresponding +secretary of the National Suffrage Association; Mrs. Robert S. Huse of +New Jersey, and Mrs. Winona Osborn Pinkham, executive secretary of the +Boston Equal Suffrage Association. A plan for Americanization work was +printed in the _Woman Citizen_, June 30, 1917, and was sent to each +State president with a letter asking for the appointment of a State +chairman. Mrs. Bagley's thorough resume of the work of her committee +filled eleven pages of the printed convention report and among the +various branches described were recruiting in the foreign tenement +quarters for attendance at the public schools; securing cooperation +with foreign leaders and with existing agencies for Americanization +work; enlisting the cooperation of employers in providing school +facilities for employees; teaching English in the homes where the +women had not been able to attend school and aiding in the carrying on +of the day school for immigrant women now established in the North End +of Boston. She told of two new departments, Americanization for rural +districts and citizenship classes for women voters. She urged, not +only the necessity of schools for adult foreigners but the +desirability of good ones that would hold their attention and she made +a special plea for the immigrant women. She also called attention to +the imperative need for teaching patriotism. + +The plan of work recommended by the Executive Council and adopted by +this convention provided that the association during 1918 should +continue the four departments and add the Woman's Hospital Unit in +France and Child Welfare; that these six departments be placed under +the direction of a committee, the chairman of which should be a member +of the national suffrage board; that each State suffrage auxiliary be +asked to establish a War Service Committee, composed of chairmen of +the above sections, with an additional one on Liberty Bonds. This +Committee of Eight was to direct the war work for each State in +cooperation with the State division of the Woman's Committee, Council +of National Defense. The Land Army Section was added in the spring of +1918 and took the place of the Food Production section. The name of +the Thrift section was changed to that of Food Conservation; Miss +Hilda Loines became its chairman and its work was combined as closely +as possible with the similar section in the Woman's National Defense +Committee directed by Mrs. McCormick. + + * * * * * + +The National Suffrage Association held no convention in 1918 but it +met in March, 1919, at St. Louis for its 50th Anniversary. The +Armistice had been declared and the final reports of the association's +war activities were rendered. In that of the War Service Department +the chairman, Mrs. McCormick, stated that the reason the reports did +not cover all six of its sections but only Land Army, Americanization +and Oversea Hospitals was that the other sections, after the +convention of 1917, were merged with the similar sections of the +Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense. Detailed statements +regarding Food Conservation and Industrial Protection for women in +which the suffrage committees took so large a part, may be found in +the reports of the Government Agriculture and Labor Departments. The +Child Welfare Department was combined with that of the Woman's +National Defense Committee and both were put under the guidance of +Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of the Children's Bureau of the United +States Department of Labor. Miss Lathrop made an address to the +convention in St. Louis on this subject which was published in full in +its Handbook for 1919. + +In the section Industrial Protection of Women Mrs. Gifford Pinchot +had followed Miss Ethel M. Smith as chairman and in a brief report +told how nominal the function of her committee had recently become, +owing to the fact that all agencies working in this field had been +consolidated under the direction of the U. S. Department of Labor. +Before this amalgamation three interesting lines of effort had been +carried forward by this committee: An attempt was made to secure a +representation of women on the War Labor Board, which did not succeed; +action was taken against the decision of this board in dismissing +women street car conductors in Cleveland, O., and the committee's +position was upheld; an unsuccessful effort was made through Mr. +Gompers to have women appointed on the committee of labor delegates +who went abroad to confer with the labor representatives of other +countries during the Peace Conference. + +Land Army. Miss Hilda Loines, chairman, said in part: + + "The training of women for agricultural work as a war necessity + was early foreseen by the National Suffrage Association and was + made a part of its program of war service. Early in the spring of + 1917 a number of organizations undertook to register and place + women who could and would do agricultural labor. Bureaus were + opened for their registry and field workers were sent out to + secure promises of employment from the farmers. This was + difficult at first but as the season wore on and there were no + men to cultivate the crops and pick the fruit the farmers in + desperation turned to the women. During the spring and summer of + 1918 the Woman's Land Army was organized in thirty States, and + about 15,000 women were placed on the land, 10,000 in units and + 5,000 in emergency groups. The majority of these women had had no + previous experience and most of them could receive little + training but they did practically every kind of farm labor, + ploughing, planting, cultivating and harvesting. They cut, + stacked and loaded hay, corn and rye and filled the silos; worked + on big western farms and orchards, dairy farms, truck farms, + private estates and home gardens; did poultry work, beekeeping + and teaming; learned to handle tractors, harvesters and other + farm machinery. Their efficiency is best proved by the change of + attitude from skepticism to enthusiastic appreciation on the part + of the farmers for whom they worked." + +Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Bagley, continued her report of +the preceding year of the work in connection with the Councils of +Defense of the several States "by means of the local machinery of the +various suffrage organizations." She urged the teaching of English to +aliens as the first step in Americanization, with emphasis on the +point that the immigrant women must not be left out. "This +Americanization is a function peculiarly appropriate to suffragists," +she said, "as a woman married to an alien must herself forever remain +an alien unless her husband becomes a citizen, and as the States +enfranchise women hundreds of thousands will still be left without the +vote. Every married alien whom suffragists help to take out +naturalization papers means not only a vote for him but also for his +wife. + +During the convention in December, 1917, the plan for Oversea +Hospitals was presented to the delegates by Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany of +New York, at the request of Mrs. Catt, the national president, to whom +the matter had been suggested by the action of the Scottish Suffrage +Societies in sending to France in 1914 the Scottish Women's Hospitals, +units managed and staffed entirely by women, and was accepted. Mrs. +Tiffany was made chairman of the Hospital Committee and Mrs. Raymond +Brown director of the work in France. At the convention of March, +1919, in St. Louis, Mrs. Brown made a full report, from which the +following is an extract. + + "At its convention in 1917 the National Suffrage Association, as + part of its war work, agreed to support a hospital unit in France + and undertook to raise $125,000 for its maintenance for a year. + This unit was already in process of organization by a group of + women physicians of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children + and was to be composed entirely of women. Since the U. S. + Government does not accept women in its Medical Reserve Corps, + and at that time neither it nor the Red Cross was sending women + surgeons for service abroad, the unit was offered to the French + Government, which accepted it by cable. The first group of the + unit sailed on Feb. 17, 1918, and expected to establish a + hospital for refugees in the devastated area. Before they could + be installed the villages to which they had been assigned were + taken in a new drive by the Germans and about half the group, + headed by Dr. Caroline Finley, was suddenly called upon for + hospital service within the war zone. The hospital to which they + were assigned was evacuated before they could reach it and they + were finally placed in Chateau Ognon, a few miles north of Senlis + on the road to Compiegne. + + "Soon after the first group was sent into the war zone, the + French Government asked the remainder of the unit to go to the + Department of Landes in the south of France in order to establish + there a hospital for refugees. The Germans were still advancing + and as the refugees poured into the south the government was + trying to build villages of barracks for them. When Dr. Alice + Gregory with a group of fifteen women, including a carpenter, + plumber, chemist and chauffeur, reached Labouheyre, early in + April, a site had still to be found for the hospital and the + buildings were still to be built, furnished and equipped. The + barracks were erected in due time by the government; the + equipment was the gift of the American Red Cross; the planning, + directing purchasing and installing were done by our women. Dr. + Marie Formad was finally put in charge. Later, at the request of + the French Service de Sante, a 300-bed hospital unit for gas + cases was organized by the Women's Oversea Hospitals and was + started on its way from America to France. This was the first + hospital unit exclusively for gas cases and had a personnel + solely of women. Its principal group in Lorraine cared for 19,307 + cases in three months." + +The Oversea Hospitals service was divided and sent from point to point +to answer the many demands of war, having charge of hospitals and +treating tens of thousands of cases. "With the signing of the +Armistice," Mrs. Brown's report said, "the great problem in France +became the care of refugees and repatriates, who were returning at the +rate of thousands a day, most of them utterly destitute and in need of +medical care, to homes in many cases completely destroyed." The +hospital and dispensary service was therefore continued. Dr. Finley +and her group were sent to Germany and here met the returned prisoners +of war, who were in desperate condition. + +"The work of the Oversea Hospitals has been handled with great +economy," the report said, "and has cost less than was anticipated, +both because of the large amount of volunteer work and because the +units in French military hospitals received French rations. The State +suffrage organizations have contributed most generously." A list was +furnished of the trucks and ambulances given by the women's +organizations in the United States. "The total number of women sent to +France with the hospitals was seventy-four, who came from all parts of +the United States. Several of the doctors received the French +equivalent of a commission; three obtained the Croix de Guerre and two +were decorated with the Medaille d'Honneur." + +The report of Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer of the National +Association, given at the convention, stated that funds for the +hospitals service to the amount of $133,340 had passed through her +hands. Their disbursement, carefully audited, is published in the +Handbook of the association for 1918, page 111. + +At the annual convention of the National Suffrage Association held in +Chicago, in February, 1920, the report of Mrs. Rogers stated that +Oversea Hospitals funds to the amount of $178,000 had passed through +the treasury and a balance of $35,000 remained. (See Handbook, page +116.) The question of the disposition of this balance was put to the +convention, which voted that it be divided equally between the work in +France of the Women's Oversea Hospitals and the American Hospital for +French Wounded in Rheims. Mrs. Tiffany, chairman of the committee, and +Mrs. Brown, director in France, made a final report to the convention, +stating that the work in France was continued until September 1, 1919, +in order to care for the French disabled soldiers, and to maintain +hospitals, dental clinics, dispensaries, ambulances, motor cars, etc. +Such work proceeded in connection with the American Fund for French +Wounded. The principal group was transferred from Lorraine to Rheims +in April, with Dr. Marie Lefort still in charge. On September 1, with +its mission finished, the hospital and all its equipment were +presented to the American Fund for French Wounded. The Mayor sent a +letter to Dr. Lefort which said in part: "The Municipality of Rheims +would like to express to you and the Women's Oversea Hospitals its +profound gratitude for the splendid assistance you have given our +population. France and the city of Rheims are deeply moved." The full +equipment of the smaller hospital groups was given to the French +government for its own hospital service. Dr. Caroline Finley returned +to the U. S. in August, still a Lieutenant in the French Army. The +Prince of Wales, who was in New York, invited her on board H. M. S. +_Renown_, where he conferred on her the Order of the British Empire in +recognition of her work at Metz, where British prisoners stricken with +influenza were cared for as they arrived from German prison-camps. + +This ends the story of the Women's Oversea Hospitals, for which the +National Suffrage Association willingly raised nearly $200,000 at the +crisis in its own fifty-year movement. Desks for suffrage work were +vacant over all the country while their occupants were cheerfully +giving their best service to the demands of the war. For the vast +majority this took the forms indicated by the above committee reports. +In addition there were the activities of money-raising; caring for +children and other dependents; safeguarding public health; the usual +tasks of nursing and other Red Cross work; the distribution of food +administration pledge cards, the organizing of food committees in all +townships under the direction of district captains, with "clean-up" +days and "elimination of waste" days in counties; canning +demonstrations throughout communities; alloting and directing garden +plots; holding normal training schools to teach gardening; making +collections for the Red Cross and other war funds, with countless +other activities. Liberty Bonds in the second, third and fourth +campaigns to the amount of one-fourth of the total sales were disposed +of through the National Suffrage Association, its State branches and +women throughout the country. + + * * * * * + +While the suffragists were devoting themselves to war-service they did +not lay down arms for their own cause, which had reached a stage where +further delay was impossible. There was a general tacit understanding +that, while the war needs of their country were and should be +uppermost, their hands must never relinquish the suffrage throttle, +and the double tasks of war work and suffrage work were undertaken in +a fine spirit of devotion to both. Nevertheless, the anti-suffrage +women seized upon the occasion to accuse them of disloyalty, +pacifism, pro-Germanism and of placing the interests of woman suffrage +above those of the nation! These attacks were repeatedly made in the +press and on the platform, Mrs. Catt, the president of the National +Association, being especially the victim. At times they grew so +virulent that it became necessary to answer them through the +newspapers. + +Her letters were published with headlines and widely quoted. One of +these letters, under date of Oct. 2, 1917, addressed to Mrs. Margaret +C. Robinson of Cambridge, Mass., chairman of the press committee of +the National Anti-Suffrage Association, began: "My attention has been +called to the fact that you are circulating by public letter and +bulletin various statements that impugn my loyalty as an American and +thereby put in jeopardy my good name and reputation. These assertions +are made by you either with wilful intent to injure my name and +standing in the community or without having made an effort to +establish their proof. I hereby set forth the facts which have been +distorted by you into untruths, either by contrary statements or by +implications." It ended: "In the name of our common womanhood, I ask +you to meet the suffrage issue fairly and squarely, and I warn you +that for personal attacks tending to injure my name or those of my +fellow-workers, you will be held responsible." + +Another letter dated Nov. 1, 1917, addressed by Mrs. Catt to Mrs. +James W. Wadsworth, Jr., president of the Anti-Suffrage Association; +Mrs. Robinson and Miss Alice Hill Chittenden, president of the New +York State Anti-Suffrage Association, took up and refuted the charges +saying: "To every single and collective insinuation, implication or +direct charge, published or spoken in any place at any time by +professional anti-suffrage campaigners, which has conveyed the +impression that I or any other officially responsible leader of the +National Suffrage Association has by word or deed been disloyal to our +country, I make complete and absolute denial here and now." It said in +closing: "In this connection I wish to call your attention to the fact +that the late John Hay, the father of the president of the National +Association of Anti-suffragists, had his own experiences with people +who challenged his loyalty and 'cursed me,' he says, 'for being the +tool of England.' In May, 1898, when our country was at war with +Spain, John Hay actually had the temerity to draft a peace project, +although he knew, so he said, that he 'would be lucky if he escaped +lynching for it.' Are you willing to apply to Mrs. Wadsworth's father +the chain of alleged reasoning that you apply to me, and, because of +his great faith in and hope for peace, call him a traitor to his +country?" + +These letters had no effect on the abuse and misrepresentation of the +suffragists but the charges were continued by the leaders of the +"antis" until after the close of the war. There can be no doubt that +the splendid war work of the suffragists was a principal factor in the +submission and ratification of the Federal Amendment. Their instant +and universal response in New York to the call of the Government, and +later the actual conscription of all women over sixteen years of age +by the Governor, proved that not only were women capable of war +service but actually liable for it. These facts were largely +responsible for the big majority vote cast by the men for woman +suffrage in November, 1917, and the action of this great State paved +the way for the success of the Federal Amendment in Congress. + +It is impossible in this brief space to set forth the achievements of +the Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense, whose chairman, +Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was honorary president of the National American +Woman Suffrage Association and had been for eleven years its +president; two of whose members, Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick, were +now its president and vice-president, while five of the remaining +eight were prominent suffragists. Its accomplishments were on so large +a scale and embodied so much important detail that only a full review +could do them justice. The facts attested to the work of an +organization which built up branches in forty-eight States comprising +18,000 component units and capable in at least one instance of +reaching as many as 82,000 women in a single State. The reader is +referred to the excellent account by Mrs. Emily Newell Blair--The +Woman's Committee, United States Council of National Defense, an +interpretative report. (Government Printing Office.) + +From the time Dr. Shaw called the first meeting, May 2, 1917, to the +middle of March, 1919, the committee labored unceasingly to perform +its great task. On New Year's Day, 1918, a telegram to Dr. Shaw from +Queen Mary expressed the "thanks of the women of the British Empire +for the inspiring words of encouragement and assurance from the +Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense of America." + +On Nov. 11, 1918, the Armistice was signed and on the 18th +representatives of New York organizations of women met in the +ball-room of the Hotel McAlpin at the call of Mrs. Catt. The second +vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, presided and Mrs. Catt offered +the following resolution: + + "Whereas, the great war just ended has been a partnership of all + the people of all belligerent countries composing two vast + armies, one of soldiers in the trenches and one of civilians who + formed a second line of defense to supply the needs of the + fighters, thus making it possible to fight; and whereas, the war + could not have been carried to a victorious conclusion without + the aid of women in civilian activities, as is shown by the + testimony of men in high authority in every belligerent land; and + whereas, all truly civilized, intelligent people now wish to make + a final end of war and to organize the forces of civilization so + as to make future war impossible; and whereas, women compose half + of society with very special and peculiar interests to be + conserved and protected--all too frequently overlooked by + men--therefore + + Resolved, that we urge the President of the United States to give + women adequate representation on the United States delegation to + the Peace Conference to meet in Paris. We urge him to select + women whose broad experience and sympathies render them competent + to support and defend every point which bears upon the + establishment of liberty for all the peoples of the world and + especially upon the proper protection of women and children in + peace and war. We urge him to select women who may be relied upon + to uphold free representative institutions, based upon the will + of the people in every land in which independence is established, + in order that democratic institutions may make an end of war." + +No attention was paid to this resolution by the President or the +Government and no women were appointed on the Peace delegation as a +recognition of their work and sacrifice. + +The Woman's Committee gradually closed up its affairs and at a +meeting on Feb. 12, 1919, Dr. Shaw was instructed to write to the +Secretary of War that it believed its work to be at an end and +tendered its resignation to take effect when, in the judgment of his +Council, its services should no longer be required. This resignation +was accepted by President Wilson on February 27 with a splendid +tribute to the work of the committee. The announcement was formally +made on March 15, and the committee passed out of existence.[151] Two +of its members, the chairman and the resident director, Miss Hannah J. +Patterson, received from the Government in May the distinguished +service medal. + +Secretary of War Newton D. Baker in a Foreword to Mrs. Blair's report +said: "The chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of +National Defense from the beginning was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw--ripened +by a long life devoted intensely to the advocacy of great causes; +cheered and heartened by recent victories for the greatest cause for +which she had fought in her long and unusual life; loved and honored +by her sex as their leader and by men as a citizen combining in a rare +degree high qualities of intellect, force of character and persuasive +eloquence in speech. She and her committee wrought a work the like of +which had never been seen before, and her reward was to see its +success and then to be caught up as she was engaged in another high +and fierce conflict into which she threw herself when hostilities +ceased in order that this great work might be but a helpful part of a +greater thing in the hope and history of mankind.... The Woman's +Committee was the leader of the women of America. It informed and +broadened the minds of women everywhere, and with no thought of +propaganda it made an argument by producing results. The Council of +National Defense fades out of this work and the Woman's Committee +looms large--and yet larger still is the American woman...." + +It was the earnest desire of Dr. Shaw and the suffragists that she +might now give her important services to the Federal Suffrage +Amendment, which was at a critical stage, but this hope could not be +realized. Former President Taft and President Lowell of Harvard +University, both of whom had done valuable work for the Peace Treaty +and the League of Nations, were starting in May, 1919, on a speaking +tour to advocate the League in fifteen States and they urged Dr. Shaw +to cancel all other engagements and join them on this tour. For two +years she had been giving her time and labor without price and now she +had commenced again to fill her own lecture dates. She was going later +to Spain as the guest of Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr +College, for a well-earned and much-needed rest, but at this call +everything was given up willingly and cheerfully to continue her +service to her country. As the tour was arranged, every night was to +be spent on a sleeping car and Dr. Shaw was to speak only once in +twenty-four hours. She could not, however, resist the pleading of +people in different cities and at Indianapolis she filled eight +engagements of various kinds in one day. The following day at +Springfield, Ills., she succumbed to her old foe, pneumonia. She +received every possible care in the hospital and after two weeks +recovered sufficiently to make the journey to her home at Moylan, +Pennsylvania. She had, however, put too great a strain on her vital +forces and died July 2, at the age of seventy-two. + + * * * * * + +Whatever may have been the unthinking verdict passed upon suffragists +and their activities prior to the World War, it was thereafter widely +acknowledged that in the national crisis they played a leading role in +the support and defense of the nation. While it is a matter for regret +that their war record cannot be chronicled as fully and definitely as +can their work for suffrage, nevertheless, even a casual examination +will show that it was a heroic one and none the less so because it was +frequently merged, through far-sighted efficiency, in the war-service +of all American women, of which it formed a distinguished part. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[150] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Katharine +Dexter McCormick, first vice-president of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association and general chairman of its War Service +Department. + +[151] It was a question long and seriously discussed whether this vast +organization should be wholly dissolved or whether it should be +continued in the various States for civic and humanitarian purposes. +Dr. Shaw was strongly in favor of preserving it and her earnest appeal +will be found in Mrs. Blair's Report, page 137. + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III. + +THE DEATH OF MRS. STANTON. + +From the address of an old and valued friend, the Rev. Moncure D. +Conway of Virginia, who was many years at the head of the Ethical +Culture Society of London, at the funeral of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in +her home in New York City, Oct. 28, 1902. + + A lighthouse on the human coast is fallen. To vast multitudes the + name Elizabeth Cady Stanton does not mean so much a person as a + standard inscribed with great principles. Roses will grow out of + her ashes; individual characters will give a resurrection to her + soul and genius, but the immortality she has achieved is that of + her long and magnificent services to every cause of justice and + reason. Beginning her career amid ridicule and obloquy, all the + worth she put into her life has not only been returned to her + personally in the love and friendship which have surrounded her + and made life happy even to her last day, but has been returned + to her tenfold in the successes of her cause. + + Could I utter to her my farewell I would say: Revered and beloved + friend, you pass to your rest after a brave and beautiful life; + you have journeyed by a path of unsullied light. If ever there + shall be established in America a republic--a Constitution and + Government free from all caste and privilege, whether of color, + creed or sex--its founders will be discovered not in those who + purchased by their valor and blood mere independence of territory + in which a government allied with slavery was founded, but among + those who, while faithful to heart and home, toiled unweariedly + for an ideal civilization. + +A few touching words were spoken by the Rev. Antoinette Brown +Blackwell, a contemporary in the early days of the movement for woman +suffrage. At Woodlawn Cemetery the committal to earth was pronounced +by the Rev. Phoebe A. Hanaford, another companion in the long contest. + + * * * * * + +MISS ANTHONY'S LAST BIRTHDAY LETTER TO MRS. STANTON, WRITTEN A FEW +DAYS BEFORE HER SUDDEN DEATH. + + My Dear Mrs. Stanton:-- + + I shall indeed be happy to spend with you November 12, the day on + which you round out your four-score and seven, over four years + ahead of me, but in age as in all else I follow you closely. It + is fifty-one years since first we met and we have been busy + through every one of them, stirring up the world to recognize the + rights of women. The older we grow the more keenly we feel the + humiliation of disfranchisement and the more vividly we realize + its disadvantages in every department of life and most of all in + the labor market. + + We little dreamed when we began this contest, optimistic with the + hope and buoyancy of youth, that half a century later we would be + compelled to leave the finish of the battle to another generation + of women. But our hearts are filled with joy to know that they + enter upon this task equipped with a college education, with + business experience, with the fully admitted right to speak in + public--all of which were denied to women fifty years ago. They + have practically but one point to gain--the suffrage; we had all. + These strong, courageous, capable young women will take our place + and complete our work. There is an army of them where we were + but a handful. Ancient prejudice has become so softened, public + sentiment so liberalized and women have so thoroughly + demonstrated their ability as to leave not a shadow of doubt that + they will carry our cause to victory. + + And we, dear, old friend, shall move on to the next sphere of + existence--higher and larger, we cannot fail to believe, and one + where women will not be placed in an inferior position but will + be welcomed on a plane of perfect intellectual and spiritual + equality. + + Ever lovingly yours, + Susan B. Anthony. + +Practically every magazine in the United States contained an article +about Mrs. Stanton and her great work and there was scarcely a +newspaper that did not have an editorial. An extended account, with +tributes from Miss Anthony, will be found in her Life and Work, +Chapter LXI. + +In the _Review of Reviews_ for December, 1902, appeared an +appreciation from the writer of these volumes. + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV. + +DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES. + +The following Declaration of Principles, prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr. +Shaw, Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Harper, was adopted by the convention of +the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1904. + + When our forefathers gained the victory in a seven years' war to + establish the principle that representation should go hand in + hand with taxation, they marked a new epoch in the history of + man; but though our foremothers bore an equal part in that long + conflict its triumph brought to them no added rights and through + all the following century and a quarter, taxation without + representation has been continuously imposed on women by as great + tyranny as King George exercised over the American colonists. + + So long as no married woman was permitted to own property and all + women were barred from the money-making occupations this + discrimination did not seem so invidious; but to-day the + situation is without a parallel. The women of the United States + now pay taxes on real and personal estate valued at billions of + dollars. In a number of individual States their holdings amount + to many millions. Everywhere they are accumulating property. In + hundreds of places they form one-third of the taxpayers, with the + number constantly increasing, and yet they are absolutely without + representation in the affairs of the nation, of the State, even + of the community in which they live and pay taxes. We enter our + protest against this injustice and we demand that the immortal + principles established by the War of the Revolution shall be + applied equally to women and men citizens. + + As our new republic passed into a higher stage of development the + gross inequality became apparent of giving representation to + capital and denying it to labor; therefore the right of suffrage + was extended to the workingman. Now we demand for the 4,000,000 + wage-earning women of our country the same protection of the + ballot as is possessed by the wage-earning men. + + The founders took an even broader view of human rights when they + declared that government could justly derive its powers only from + the consent of the governed, and for 125 years this grand + assertion was regarded as a corner-stone of the republic, with + scarcely a recognition of the fact that one-half of the citizens + were as completely governed without their consent as were the + people of any absolute monarchy in existence. It was only when + our government was extended over alien races in foreign countries + that our people awoke to the meaning of the principles of the + Declaration of Independence. In response to its provisions, the + Congress of the United States hastened to invest with the power + of consent the men of this new territory, but committed the + flagrant injustice of withholding it from the women. We demand + that the ballot shall be extended to the women of our foreign + possessions on the same terms as to the men. Furthermore, we + demand that the women of the United States shall no longer suffer + the degradation of being held not so competent to exercise the + suffrage as a Filipino, a Hawaiian or a Porto Rican man. + + The remaining Territories within the United States are insisting + upon admission into the Union on the ground that their citizens + desire "the right to select their own governing officials, choose + their own judges, name those who are to make their laws and levy, + collect, and disburse their taxes." These are just and + commendable desires but we demand that their women shall have + full recognition as citizens when these Territories are admitted + and that their constitutions shall secure to women precisely the + same rights as to men. + + When our government was founded the rudiments of education were + thought sufficient for women, since their entire time was + absorbed in the multitude of household duties. Now the number of + girls graduated by the high schools greatly exceeds the number of + boys in every State and the percentage of women students in the + colleges is vastly larger than that of men. Meantime most of the + domestic industries have been taken from the home to the factory + and hundreds of thousands of women have followed them there, + while the more highly trained have entered the professions and + other avenues of skilled labor. We demand that under this new + regime, and in view of these changed conditions in which she is + so important a factor woman shall have a voice and a vote in the + solution of their innumerable problems. + + The laws of practically every State provide that the husband + shall select the place of residence for the family, and if the + wife refuse to abide by his choice she forfeits her right to + support and her refusal shall be regarded as desertion. We + protest against the recent decision of the courts which has added + to this injustice by requiring the wife also to accept for + herself the citizenship preferred by her husband, thus compelling + a woman born in the United States to lose her nationality if her + husband choose to declare his allegiance to a foreign country. + + As women form two-thirds of the church membership of the entire + nation; as they constitute but one-eleventh of the convicted + criminals; as they are rapidly becoming the educated class and as + the salvation of our government depends upon a moral, + law-abiding, educated electorate, we demand for the sake of its + integrity and permanence that women be made a part of its voting + body. + + In brief, we demand that all constitutional and legal barriers + shall be removed which deny to women any individual right or + personal freedom which is granted to man. This we ask in the name + of a democratic and a republican government, which, its + constitution declares, was formed "to establish justice and + secure the blessings of liberty." + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII. + +THE ANTHONY MEMORIAL BUILDING IN ROCHESTER, N.Y. + +Shortly after the death of Susan B. Anthony a group of her co-workers +and other friends in Rochester set out to raise a fund for the purpose +of erecting, as a memorial to her, a building for the use of women +students at the University of Rochester. This seemed to them +especially fitting, as Miss Anthony had been intensely interested and +very active in the raising of the Co-education Fund which admitted +women students to the University in 1900.[152] Endorsement of this +plan and the use of their names were given by her sister, Mary S. +Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and many well known women throughout +this country and several from over-seas. + +A Memorial Association was formed with an executive committee of +Rochester women[153] but very little organized committee work was +done. Suffragists were by this time too busy with the growing +intensity of their own campaigns and said, truly enough, that Miss +Anthony would much rather they would spend their time and money for +the cause. However, an appeal was issued, coupon books were scattered +among many women's organizations and individuals and the chairman of +the committee addressed her personal appeal to every club and +conference that would give her a hearing. + +The largest single gift was from Miss Anthony's old friend Mrs. Sarah +L. Willis of Rochester, $5,250. Mrs. Susan Look Avery of Louisville, +Ky., gave $1,199. Of nine gifts of $1,000 each, five were from +Rochester women--Miss Mary S. Anthony, Mrs. Hannah M. Byam, Mrs. Mary +H. Hallowell, Miss Ada Howe Kent and Miss Frances Baker. The other +$1,000 gifts were from Mrs. Emma J. Bartol, George and Mary A. Burnham +of Philadelphia; John C. Haynes of Boston; Mrs. Lydia Coonley Ward of +Chicago. Among many interesting gifts may be noted one from the women +of The Netherlands and one from the Portia Suffrage Club of New +Orleans. Women students at the college made class gifts from time to +time but the fund grew slowly. After eight years it had reached +$27,475. At this point the college authorities offered to complete the +amount necessary for the building as planned, if the committee would +turn over its money, which it gladly did. The cost was $58,763, the +balance, which came to $31,288, being paid from the Co-education Fund +raised by and for the women in 1900. + +In the fall of 1914 the college girls took possession of the handsome +gray stone building, bearing on its face, cut in stone, "Anthony +Memorial." It contains a well-equipped gymnasium, a lunch room and +four parlors for the social life of the students and the use of the +Alumnae Association. The possession of this building and Catherine +Strong Hall, the two connected by a cloistered walk, has added greatly +to the enjoyment and convenience of the women students. Miss Eddy's +half-length portrait of Miss Anthony hangs over the chimney-piece in +the largest parlor and these rooms furnish a homelike place for their +smaller social gatherings: larger affairs, such as the alumnae dinner, +are held in the gymnasium. "Miss Anthony would certainly rejoice if +she could look in on some February 15th and see the girls +commemorating her birthday, as they do in some way every year," Mrs. +Gannett writes in sending information for this account. + +Dr. Rush Rhees, president of the university, who has sent for this +volume a picture of the Memorial Building and some additional +information, says: "The building is in constant use and is a great +contribution to the comfort, health and pleasure of our women +students." + +Friends of Miss Anthony gave a scholarship for women in her name and +Miss Mary S. Anthony gave the money for one in her own name. The +university has seven other scholarships for women. + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X. + +STATEMENT BY MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT AT SENATE HEARING IN 1910 + +Although the Constitution of the United States in section 2 of Article +I seems to have relegated authority over the extension of the suffrage +to the various States, yet, curiously, few men in the United States +possess the suffrage because they or the class to which they belong +have secured their right to it by State action. The first voters were +those who possessed the right under the original charters granted by +the mother country and as the restrictions were many, including +religious tests in most of the colonies and property qualifications in +all, the number of actual voters was exceedingly small. When it became +necessary at the close of the Revolution to form a federation for the +"common defense" and the promotion of the "general welfare," it was +obvious that citizenship must be made national. To do this it became +clearly necessary that religious tests must be abandoned, since +Catholic Maryland, Quaker Pennsylvania and Congregational +Massachusetts could be united under a common citizenship by no other +method. The elimination of the religious test enfranchised a large +number of men and this without a struggle or any movement in their +behalf. + +In 1790 the first naturalization law was passed by Congress. Under the +Articles of Confederation citizenship had belonged to the States but +since it was apparent that it must now be national, a compromise was +made between the old idea of State's rights and the new idea of +Federal union. Each of the original States had its representatives in +the convention which drafted the Federal Constitution and by common +consent it was there planned that citizenship should carry with it the +right to vote, although this was to be put into the State +constitutions and not into the National. These delegates, influencing +their own States in the forming of their constitutions, easily brought +this about and without any movement on the part of those who were to +be naturalized. This common understanding in the National +Constitutional Convention and the Naturalization Act of Congress in +1790 certainly enfranchised somewhere between three-fourths and +four-fifths of all men in the United States at this time. + +The population of the colonies at the time of the Revolution was two +and a half millions and even though all men had been voters the number +could not have been more than seven or eight hundred thousand. By the +census of 1900 there were 21,000,000 men of voting age in the United +States. The Act, therefore, of the U. S. Government virtually +enfranchised millions upon millions of men. Generations then unborn +have come into the right of the suffrage in this country under that +Act and men of every nationality have availed themselves of its +privileges to become voting citizens. Although, technically speaking, +enfranchisement of the foreign-born was extended by the States, yet in +reality it is obvious that the real granting of this privilege came +from Congress itself. The thirteen original States retained their +property qualifications after the formation of the Union and these +were removed by State amendments. This extension of the suffrage was +made in most cases many years ago, when the electorate was very small +in numbers. + +The history of the enfranchisement of the negro is well known. States +attempted it by amending their constitutions but in no case was this +accomplished. Congress undertook to secure it by national amendment +and although this was ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the +State Legislatures yet it must be remembered that all the southern +States were virtually coerced into giving their consent.... The +Indians were enfranchised by Acts of Congress. + +The evolution of man suffrage in the United States shows that but one +class received their votes by direct State action--the nonproperty +holders. They found political parties and statesmen to advocate their +cause and their enfranchisement was made easy by State constitutional +action. + +In the 120 years of our national life no class of men have been forced +to organize a movement in behalf of their enfranchisement; they have +offered no petition or plea or even given sign that the extension of +suffrage to them would be acceptable. Yet American women, who have +conducted a persistent, intelligent movement for a half-century, which +has grown stronger and stronger with the years, appealing for their +own enfranchisement and supported now by a petition of 400,000 +citizens of the United States are told that it is unnecessary to +consider their plea since all women do not want to vote! + +Gentlemen, is it not manifestly unfair to demand of women a test which +has never been made in the case of men in this or any other country? +Is it not true that the attitude of the Government toward an +unenfranchised class of men has ever been that the vote is a privilege +to be extended and it is optional with the citizen whether or not he +shall use it? If any proof is needed it can be found in the fact that +the U. S. Government has no record whatever of the number who have +been naturalized in this country. It has no record of the number of +Indians who have accepted its offer of the vote as a reward for taking +up land in severalty. Manifestly the Government, as represented by +Congress and the State Legislatures, considers it entirely unnecessary +to know whether men who have had the suffrage "thrust upon them" use +it or not, but imperative that women must not only demand it in very +large numbers but give guaranty that they will use it, before its +extension shall be made to them. + +Is it not likewise unfair to compel women to seek their +enfranchisement by methods infinitely more difficult than those by +means of which any man in this country has secured his right to a +vote? Ordinary fair play should compel every believer in democracy and +individual liberty, no matter what are his views on woman suffrage, to +grant to women the easiest process of enfranchisement and that is the +submission of a Federal Amendment. + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIV. + +THE SHAFROTH-PALMER WOMAN SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT. + +In 1914 the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman +Suffrage Association, of which Mrs. Medill McCormick was chairman and +Mrs. Antoinette Funk vice-chairman, caused to be introduced in +Congress, with the sanction of the National Board, a Federal Amendment +for woman suffrage radically different from the one for which the +association had been working since 1869. It was named for its +introducers in Senate and House. The merits of the proposed amendment, +as stated by Mrs. Funk, which are given in condensed form in Chapter +XIV, will be found in full in the published Handbook or Minutes of the +national suffrage convention of this year. Specimens of the objections +made as published in the _Woman's Journal_ are given herewith: + + Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.), a lawyer: Senator + Shafroth's new suffrage amendment may do good by keeping + law-makers discussing woman suffrage but as a practical method of + securing it has serious defects. It is open to all the States' + rights objections raised against our Susan B. Anthony + amendment,[154] for it goes further and proposes a universal + method of amending 48 State constitutions. State law-makers and + Judges and even State voters from the North as well as the South + will resent such dictation as an unwarrantable interference. The + Initiative and Referendum scheme will have its own enemies, who + will fear that this way may be an entering wedge for more + Initiative and Referendum amendments to be pushed into State + constitutions. + + The amendment is, however, too indefinitely framed to be + workable. No officer is named to whom the petitions should go; no + officer is obligated to submit the question; no method of + authenticating the petitions is prescribed and no time for voting + is fixed. The United States has no facilities of its own for + conducting any such elections or punishing State or county + officers who may not volunteer to do the work. The Congressional + Committee would better keep this amendment in committee rather + than let the country know the great objection there is to it on + the part of our constituency.... + + * * * * * + + Mrs. M. Tascan Bennett (Conn.): The three principal objections to + the new amendment appear to be as follows: It divides suffragists + all over the country. The Anthony Amendment has had the support + since 1869 of the annual conventions, where the members of the + National Association have their one opportunity to direct its + work. The Shafroth Amendment furnishes an excellent excuse to + Congress for taking no action on the Anthony Amendment. It might + well appear as a happy way to dispose of the whole question of + woman suffrage by foisting responsibility for it back on the + States where it already is.... It defeats what I consider to be + the unanswerable advantage of the Anthony Amendment, whose + ratification by the required three-fourths of the States will + force the remaining one-fourth into line. The southern States, + for whose special benefit the Shafroth Amendment appears to have + been conceived, will undoubtedly be many years in accepting woman + suffrage. With this new amendment ratified, they can still hold + it back within their borders as long as they cling to their + prejudices. + + * * * * * + + George H. Wright, M.D. (Conn.): The greatest objection is that, + if passed, this amendment would throw the whole suffrage campaign + into chaos. At present when we have carried one State we stop + worrying about that State. The women cannot again be + disfranchised except by an amendment to the State constitution, + which would first have to pass a Legislature elected by the whole + people. No such Legislature would dare to pass such a bill; the + members who voted for it would accomplish nothing and would at + once be ousted by their outraged women constituents. But under + the Shafroth Amendment 8 per cent. of the voters could force a + referendum on the question at any time.... Also a large part of + the effort and money now used to gain new victories would be + spent in defending what we had already won. + + * * * * * + + The Rev. Olympia Brown (Wis.), a pioneer suffragist: The passage + of the Shafroth Amendment is spoken of several times in the + explanations and arguments for it as being an "endorsement of + woman suffrage by Congress." "Federal sanction," it is said, + "would dignify the movement." This is another misnomer. There is + no "indorsement" by Congress and no "federal sanction" about it. + There is not even a hint that Congress favors woman suffrage. The + amendment merely provides for the Initiative and Referendum in + the States. + + The _Woman's Journal_ lately called attention to the statement + twice made that "the effect of the amendment, if ratified, would + be the same as if every State in the Union had passed a suffrage + amendment." This is a most singular assertion. If every State + adopted a suffrage amendment our work would be done. Again: "The + passage of this resolution would have the same effect over the + United States as if any other suffrage amendment had passed." + Surely anyone can see that if the Anthony Amendment had been + passed by Congress the effect would be entirely different from + that produced by the passage of one merely giving the Initiative + and Referendum to the States. And again: "If ratified, this + amendment would have the same effect in every State as if a + suffrage amendment had already passed its Legislature." Even this + is untrue. If any Legislature had submitted a suffrage amendment, + the subject would at once go to the men to be voted on but by + this method there must be a petition signed by 8 per cent. of the + voters.... + + One thing, however, seems to be ignored by all. When once an + amendment to the Federal Constitution is passed and ratified by + three-fourths of the Legislatures it becomes a part of the + Constitution and is fixed for all time. No amendment has ever yet + been repealed but it would be difficult, if not impossible, to + secure another amendment on the same subject, especially one + providing for a course of action entirely different from the + former. + + Therefore, this Shafroth Amendment, if passed, will place an + impassable barrier to future Congressional action in behalf of + woman suffrage. It simply refers the matter to the States. As a + reason for passing it, it is claimed that we cannot secure the + submission of the original amendment. Perhaps not today or during + this session of Congress; possibly not during this + administration, but with the wonderful progress of our cause, the + spread of the recognition of the rights of women and the "new + doctrine of freedom," the demand for it will be overwhelming and + it will be gained at no distant day. + + * * * * * + + Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, historian of the suffrage movement: In + behalf of many loyal and experienced suffragists I wish to enter + two strong protests--one against the resolution which has been + presented in the U. S. Senate by Senator Shafroth of Colorado, by + request of Mrs. Medill McCormick and Mrs. Antoinette Funk; the + other against their statement made to Congress that they speak + for the 642,000 members of the National American Suffrage + Association in offering this resolution. + + The Congressional Committee, of which they are chairman and + vice-chairman, was appointed, according to the understanding of + the convention which met in Washington last fall, to work for the + submission by Congress of the Federal Amendment for which the + association has stood sponsor forty-five years. It was organized + in 1869 for the express purpose of securing this amendment: "The + right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be + denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on + account of sex." No other ever has been considered by the + association. + + When this committee opened its headquarters in Washington the + National Board asked contributions for its support through the + _Woman's Journal_, saying: "The speedy submission of this Federal + Amendment is of vital concern to every suffragist." Later it + announced: "The Washington office will be occupied largely with + the political end of the Federal Amendment campaign, while a + Chicago office will specialize in the work of organizing the + congressional districts of the United States in cooperation with + the various State associations." All this, of course, was for the + old, original amendment. No experienced suffragist expected it to + receive the necessary two-thirds vote this session, but, as it + had been reported favorably to the Senate, the desire was to have + it brought to a discussion; to secure as large a vote as possible + and to ascertain which members were friends and which were + enemies. In spite of most unfavorable conditions this was + accomplished and the amendment received a majority. There were no + more negative votes than when it was acted upon in 1887 by the + Senate and over twice as many favorable votes. The opposition was + based almost entirely on the doctrine of State's rights, as was + to be expected; but three Southern Senators voted in the + affirmative. Before another session of Congress several more + States are certain to be carried for woman suffrage, thus + insuring more votes for this Federal Amendment. The defeat of + suffrage bills in a number of Legislatures in the South is + converting the women of that section to the necessity of action + by Congress. Just at the most favorable moment in the entire + history of this amendment, the committee having it in charge + suddenly throws it on the dust heap; has another introduced of a + radically different character, and announces to the public that + this is done with the sanction of the National Board and that it + represents the sentiment of the 642,000 members of the National + American Association!... In behalf of countless members of this + association, I protest against this high-handed action. I insist + that the National Board exceeded its prerogatives when it + sanctioned so radical and complete a change in the time-honored + policy of the association without first bringing it before a + national convention and giving the delegates a chance to pass + upon it. The proposed amendment seems undesirable from every + point of view.... + +These and all protests were answered by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, +editor of the _Woman's Journal_, generally recognized as high +authority by the suffragists of the country. Throughout the months of +controversy she kept up a vigorous defense and advocacy of the +Shafroth Amendment, saying: "The old amendment has not been dropped +and many of us believe that the new amendment will pave the way for +the passage of the old one. Most of the suffragists are much attached +to the old nation-wide amendment. If any proposal should be made at +the next national convention to drop it the proposal could hardly +carry, or, if it did, the resulting dissatisfaction would greatly +weaken the National Association, but at present nothing of the sort is +proposed." She did, however, say in mild criticism: + + The National Board has authority to decide questions that come up + in the interim between the national conventions. On the other + hand it has never before had to pass upon anything so important + as committing the association to the advocacy of a wholly new + amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It would probably have been + the part of wisdom to get a vote of the National Executive + Council. This would not have taken long and would have saved + considerable hard feeling and perplexity. The approval of the + majority of the Council could probably have been had, for there + is no earthly ground for objecting to the Shafroth Amendment when + it is thoroughly understood. It merely furnishes a short cut to + amendments in the States--a method which any State could use or + not as it chose. Supposing the Shafroth Amendment to have passed + Congress and been ratified, if the suffragists of any State + preferred the old way of amending their State constitution, it + would still be open. The Shafroth Amendment would lay no + compulsion upon any State; it would only take snags out of the + way of amendments in those States where the snags are now very + thick. + + Feeling on this subject is more acute than it needs to be because + the suffrage atmosphere just now is highly charged with + electricity. The Shafroth Amendment is a first-rate little + amendment and the sooner it passes the better. + +The National Convention at Nashville in November, 1914, after many +hours of heated discussion, finally adopted a resolution that it +should be the policy of the association to "support by every means +within its power the Anthony Amendment and to support such other +legislation as the National Board might authorize to the end that the +Anthony resolution should become law." (Minutes, p. 26.) At the +convention of December, 1915, in Washington it was voted that the last +year's action in regard to the Shafroth Amendment be rescinded; that +the association re-indorse the Anthony Amendment and that no other be +introduced by it during the coming year. (Minutes, page 43.) This +ended the matter for all time. + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XV. + +FROM ADDRESS OF DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW WHEN RESIGNING THE PRESIDENCY OF +THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, DEC. 15, 1915. + +After a brief sketch of the condition of the world after a year and a +half of the war in Europe, the address continued: + + As an association we are confronted through the eternal law of + progress by changes in our methods such as we have not met since + the union of the two national societies in 1890. Our enlarged and + expanding status as an association, the new and varied duties + which devolve upon us and the innumerable demands increasing with + the accumulation of means and workers call for a new kind of + service in leadership. Political necessity has supplanted the + reform epoch; the reapers of the harvest have replaced the + ploughman and seed sower, each equally needed in the process of + the cultivation and the development of an ideal as in the harvest + of the land. When this movement began its pioneers were + reformers, people who saw a vision and dreamed dreams of the time + when all mankind should be free and all human beings have an + equal opportunity under the law. Other reformers became possessed + by it, and, following it in the spirit of Him who cried, "I was + not disobedient to the Heavenly vision," they went forth + proclaiming it to the world, knowing that misunderstanding, + misrepresentation and persecution would combine to make the task + difficult. It was not that they sought persecution but that they + loved justice and freedom more than escape from it--these + pioneers of the greatest political reform which history recounts. + Year after year the task has been carried forward until the time + has come when "new occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient + good uncouth," and the idealist and the reformer are supplanted + in our movement by the politician. Our cause has passed beyond + the stage of academic discussion and has entered the realm of + practical politics. The time has come when our organized + machinery must be political in its character and work along + political lines directed by political leaders.... + + The United States is looked upon as being the most powerful + neutral nation, which with its high human ideal is the best + equipped to present its good offices in mediation between the + warring nations of the East, but is this true? What better + preparation could it make than by removing from within its own + borders the very cause which led to the present barbarous + conditions across the sea?... How can the United States, in any + spirit of a truly great nation, offer its services as mediator + when it is following the same line of action towards its own + people? How can it plead for justice in the East when it denies + this to its own women? How can it claim that written agreements + between nations are binding when it violates the fundamental + principles of its own National Constitution which declare that + "the right of the citizen to vote shall not be denied or abridged + by the United States or any State," and for forty-five years + Congress has turned a deaf ear to the appeal of our own citizens + for protection under this law? Is it true that the United States + Constitution too is but a "scrap of paper" to be repudiated at + will? If, as a mediator of justice, we hold out our hands to lift + other nations from the abyss into which injustice has plunged + them, they must be clean hands. Our words must ring true.... + + Many appeals will be made to our association to abandon its one + purpose of securing votes for women and turn its attention and + organized machinery to the real or imaginary dangers which beset + us as a nation, but let us never for a moment forget the specious + promises and assurances that were given to the pioneers, who, + when the Civil War took place, gave up their associated work and + turned their efforts to its demand in the belief that when the + war was over the country would recognize their patriotic services + and the dependence of the nation upon women in war as in peace + and reward them with the ballot, the crowning symbol of + citizenship. But instead of recognizing their service and + rewarding the loyal women, the cry went forth: "This is the + negroes' hour. Let the women wait"--and they are still waiting. + As they wait they are not blind to the fact that this nation did + what no other nation has ever done, when it voluntarily made its + former slaves the sovereign rulers of its loyal and patriotic + women. + + The greatest service suffragists can render their country and + through it the whole world at this time, is to teach it that + there is no sex in love of individual liberty and to stand + without faltering by their demand for justice and equality of + political rights for men and women. + +Dr. Shaw impressed upon the workers, especially the younger ones, not +to be discouraged at what seemed slow progress and said: + + It has been the privilege of your president to participate + actively in twenty-four out of twenty-seven State campaigns; in + the New Hampshire constitutional convention campaign, the + Wheeling municipal campaign and directly though not actively in + all the others except that of Illinois. The vote cast upon the + amendments but inadequately expresses the expanding sentiment in + behalf of woman suffrage and it needs only consecrated, + persistent, systematic service to reach the goal and complete the + task begun by the pioneers of 1848 and led by Susan B. Anthony + until her death in 1906. While we accept as our motto her last + public utterance, "Failure is impossible," we must also remember + her prophetic words, uttered just before she laid down her life + work: "There is nothing which can ultimately prevent the triumph + of our cause but the time of its coming depends largely upon the + loyalty and devotion of those who believe in it." ... + + While recognizing that our primary object is to secure the ballot + for women citizens and that as an organization we are not wedded + to one method of obtaining it but are willing to adopt any just + plan which promises success, nevertheless until a better way is + found we will seek to secure an amendment to the National + Constitution prohibiting disfranchisement on account of sex, and + at the same time will appeal to the States that by their action a + sufficiently strong support may be given to the Federal Amendment + to secure its adoption, unless it become unnecessary by action of + the States themselves.... We must face the fact that large bodies + of our new recruits know practically little of the history of the + suffrage movement, of the long years of faithful devotion and the + wise and statesmanlike service which have brought it to its + present successful position. These recruits are attracted by new + and spectacular methods, are impatient of delay and eagerly + follow any scheme which promises to "get it quick." ... If we + analyze the arguments set forth by these most ardent advocates of + the Federal Constitutional Amendment as the only means of + securing immediate results and learn upon what they base their + hopes of success, we shall see, as has been shown again and + again, that every one of them has its source in the enfranchised + States; that instead of State by State action being "wasteful, + expensive and slow," it is the foundation of hope. This is the + strongest argument in behalf of the wisdom of the founders of + our movement, that they recognized the necessity that State and + Federal action must go together. + + +ADDRESS OF MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT AT SENATE HEARING, DEC. 15, 1915. + + Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: + + Since our last appeal was made to your committee a vote has been + taken in four Eastern States upon the question of amending their + constitutions for woman suffrage. The inaction of Congress in not + submitting a Federal amendment naturally leads us to infer that + members believe the proper method by which women may secure the + vote is through the referendum. We found in those four States + what has always been true whenever any class of people have asked + for any form of liberty and was best described by Macaulay when + he said: "If a people are turbulent they are unfit for liberty; + if they are quiet, they do not want it." We met a curious + dilemma. On the one hand a great many men voted in the negative + because women in Great Britain had made too emphatic a demand for + the vote. Since they made that demand it is reported that + 10,000,000 men have been killed, wounded or are missing through + militant action, but all of that is held as naught compared with + the burning of a few vacant buildings. Evidently the logic that + these American men followed was: Since some turbulent women in + another land are unfit to vote, no American woman shall vote. + There was no reasoning that could change the attitude of those + men. On the other hand the great majority of the men who voted + against us, as well as the great majority of the members of + Legislatures and Congress who oppose this movement, hold that + women have given no signal that they want the vote. Between the + horns of this amazing dilemma the Federal amendment and State + suffrage seem to be caught fast. + + So those of us who want to learn how to obtain the vote have + naturally asked ourselves over and over again what kind of a + demand can be made. We get nothing by "watchful waiting" and if + we are turbulent we are pronounced unfit to vote. We turned to + history to learn "what kind of a demand the men of our own + country made and determined to do what they had done. The census + of 1910 reported 27,000,000 males over 21. Of these 9,500,000 are + direct descendants of the population of 1800; 2,458,873 are + negroes; 15,040,278 are aliens, naturalized or descendants of + naturalized citizens since 1800. The last two classes compose + two-thirds of the male population over 21. The enfranchisement of + negro men is such recent history that it is unnecessary to repeat + here that they made no demand for the vote. The naturalization + laws give citizenship to any man who chooses to make a residence + of this country for five years and automatically every man who is + a citizen becomes a voter in the State of his residence. In the + 115 years since 1800 not one single foreigner has ever been asked + whether he wanted the vote or whether he was fit for it--it has + literally been thrust upon him. Two-thirds of our men of voting + age today have not only made no demand for the vote but they have + never been asked to give any evidence of capacity to use it + intelligently. + + We turned again to history to see how the men who lived in this + country in 1800 got their votes. At that time 8 per cent. of the + total population were voters in New York as compared with 25 per + cent. now. There was a struggle in all the colonial States to + broaden the suffrage. New York seemed always to have lagged + behind the others and therefore it forms a good example. It was + next to the last State to remove the land qualification and it + was not a leader in the extension of the suffrage to any class. + + In 1740 the British Parliament disqualified the Catholics for + naturalization in this country. That enactment had been preceded + in several of the States by their definite disfranchisement. In + 1699 they were disfranchised by an Act of the Assembly of New + York. Although the writers on the early franchise say that Jews + were not permitted to vote anywhere in this country in 1701, as + they certainly were not in England, yet occasionally they + apparently did so. In New York that year there was a definite + enactment disfranchising them. In 1737 the Assembly passed + another disfranchising Act. Catholics and Jews were disfranchised + in most States. It is interesting to learn how they became + enfranchised. One would naturally suppose that together or + separately they would make some great demand for political + equality with Protestants but there is no record that they did. I + find that the reason why our country became so liberal to them + was not because there was any demand on their part and not + because there was any special advocacy of their enfranchisement + by statesmen. It was due to the fact that in the Revolution, + Great Britain, having difficulty with the American colonies on + the south side of the St. Lawrence River, did as every + belligerent country does and tried to hold Canada by granting her + favors. In order to make the Canadian colonies secure against + revolution the British Parliament, which had previously + disfranchised the Catholics and the Jews, now extended a vote to + them. The American Constitution makers could not do less than + Great Britain had done, and so in every one of the thirteen + States they were guaranteed political equality with Protestants. + + The next great movement was the elimination of the land + qualification and on this we find that history is practically + silent. In Connecticut and Rhode Island a small petition was + presented to the Assembly asking for its removal. In New York in + the constitutional convention of 1821 when some members advocated + its removal others asked, "Where is the demand? Who wants to vote + that has no land?" The answer was that there had been some + meetings in New York in behalf of removing this qualification. No + one of them had seen such a meeting but some members had heard + that a few had been held in the central districts of the State. + This constitutes the entire demand that has been made by the men + of our country for the vote. + + In contrast we may ask what have women done? Again I may say that + New York is a fair example because it is the largest of the + States in population and has the second city in size in the world + and occupies perhaps the most important position in any land in + which a suffrage referendum has been taken. Women held during the + six months prior to the election in 1915, 10,300 meetings. They + printed and circulated 7,500,000 leaflets or three-and-a-half for + every voter. These leaflets weighed more than twenty tons. They + had 770 treasuries in the State among the different groups doing + suffrage work and every bookkeeper except two was a volunteer. + Women by the thousands contributed to the funds of that campaign, + in one group 12,000 public school teachers. On election day 6,330 + women watched at the polls from 5:45 in the morning until after + the vote was counted. I was on duty myself from 5:30 until + midnight. There were 2,500 campaign officers in the State who + gave their time without pay. The publicity features were more + numerous and unique than any campaign of men or women had ever + had. They culminated in a parade in New York City which was + organized without any effort to secure women outside the city to + participate in it, yet 20,000 marched through Fifth Avenue to + give some idea of the size of their demand for the vote. + + What was the result? If we take the last announcement from the + board of elections the suffrage amendment received 535,000 + votes--2,000 more than the total vote of the nine States where + women now have suffrage through a referendum. It was not + submitted in Wyoming, Utah or Illinois. Yet New York suffragists + did not win because the opponents outvoted them. How did this + happen? Why did not such evidence of a demand win the vote? + Because the unscrupulous men of the State worked and voted + against woman suffrage, aided and abetted by the weakminded and + illiterate, who are permitted a vote in New York. In Rochester + the male inmates of the almshouse and rescue home were taken out + to vote against the amendment. Men too drunk to sign their own + names voted all over the State, for drunkards may vote in New + York. In many of the polling places the women watchers reported + that throughout the entire day not one came to vote who did not + have to be assisted; they did not know enough to cast their own + vote. + + Those are some of the conditions women must overcome in a + referendum. One can eventually be carried even in New York but we + believe we have made all the sacrifices which a just Government + ought to expect of us. Even the Federal Amendment is difficult + enough, with the ratification of 36 Legislatures required, but we + may at least appeal to a higher class of men. We were obliged to + make our campaign in twenty-four different languages.... It is + too unfair and humiliating treatment of American women to compel + us to appeal to the men of all nations of the earth for the vote + which has been so freely and cheaply given to them. We believe we + ought to have the benefit of the method provided by the Federal + Constitution. + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XVII. + +HEADQUARTERS OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. + +During the early years of the movement for woman suffrage the +headquarters were in the home of Miss Susan B. Anthony, in Rochester, +N. Y. In 1890 her strong desire to have a center for work and social +features in Washington was fulfilled by the National Association's +renting two large rooms in the club house of Wimodaughsis, a newly +formed stock company of women for having classes and lectures on art, +science, literature and domestic and political economy, with Dr. Anna +Howard Shaw president. It did not prove to be permanent, however, and +in two years the association had to give up the rooms and the work +went back to Rochester, where much of it had continued to be done. + +In October, 1895, when Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt became chairman of the +Organization Committee, she opened headquarters in one room of her +husband's offices in the _World_ Building, New York City. At the same +time Miss Anthony, with a gift of $1,000 from Mrs. Louisa Southworth +of Cleveland, had Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, national corresponding +secretary, open headquarters in Philadelphia, with Miss Nicolas Shaw +as secretary. Both acts were endorsed by the Business Committee of the +association. At the next convention Mrs. Avery recommended that the +Philadelphia headquarters be removed to those of New York. This was +done April 1, 1897; two large rooms were rented in the _World_ +Building and all the work of the association except the treasurer's +and the convention business was transacted here. For six years the +national headquarters, in charge of Mrs. Catt, remained in New York. +In May, 1903, they were removed to Warren, Ohio, near Cleveland, and +Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, took charge of them, +with Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, executive secretary. Here they were +beautifully housed, first in the parlors of an old mansion and later +on the ground floor of the county court house where formerly was the +public library. In 1909, partly through the contribution of Mrs. +Oliver H. P. Belmont, they were returned to New York City and with the +New York State Association occupied the entire seventeenth floor of a +large, new office building, 505 Fifth Avenue, corner of 42nd Street. +When Mrs. Catt again became president the work of the association had +outgrown even these commodious headquarters and in January, 1916, the +fourteenth floor, with much more space, was taken in an office +building at 171 Madison Avenue, corner of 33rd Street. In March, 1917, +the Leslie Commission opened its Bureau of Suffrage Education in this +building and the two organizations occupied two floors with a staff of +fifty persons. On May 1, 1920, their work was concentrated on one +floor, as the great task of securing complete, universal suffrage for +the women of the United States was almost finished. + +Branch Headquarters: In January, 1914, branch headquarters were opened +in the Munsey Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington for the +work of the association's Congressional Committee. They continued +there until the effort to obtain a Federal Amendment became of such +magnitude as to require a great deal more room and in December, 1916, +a large house was taken at 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, just off of Scott +Circle [see page 632]. This was occupied by the committee, national +officers, the lobbyists and other workers until July, 1919, when the +amendment had been submitted by Congress. + +The first headquarters in a business building in 1895 had been rented +for $15 a month; the last year's rent for the headquarters in New York +and Washington was $17,500. + + +BEQUEST OF MRS. FRANK LESLIE. + +Mrs. Frank Leslie, long at the head of the Leslie publications in New +York City, died Sept. 18, 1914, leaving a will which made the +following provisions: + + All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, whatsoever and + wheresoever situate, whereof I may be seized or possessed, or to + which I may be in any manner entitled at the time of my death, + including the amount of any legacies hereinbefore given which may + for any reason lapse or fail, I do give, devise and bequeath unto + my friend, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of the city of New York. It + is my expectation and wish that she turn all of my said residuary + estate into cash, and apply the whole thereof as she shall think + most advisable to the furtherance of the cause of Women's + Suffrage, to which she has so worthily devoted so many years of + her life, and that she shall make suitable provision, so that in + case of her death any balance thereof remaining unexpended may be + applied and expended in the same way; but this expression of my + wish and expectation is not to be taken as creating any trust or + as limiting or affecting the character of the gift to her, which + I intend to be absolute and unrestricted. + +Mrs. Leslie had previously made two wills of a similar character. The +estate was appraised at $1,800,000 in stocks, bonds and real estate. +There was an immense inheritance tax to be paid and harassing +litigation was at once begun and continued. It was not until the +winter of 1917 that the executors commenced a distribution of the +funds. Mrs. Catt incorporated the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, +which has received and expended all monies realized from the estate. +They were a large factor in the legitimate expenditures for obtaining +the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment from Congress and its +ratification by 36 State Legislatures. They were also of great +assistance in the campaigns of the last years to secure the amendments +of State constitutions, which required organizers, speakers, printing, +postage, etc. Contributions have been made to women's struggle for the +franchise in other countries. + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIX. + +PRESENT STATUS OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, +ORGANIZED IN 1869. + +Acting on the plan adopted at the last convention of the National +American Association at Chicago in February, 1920, Mrs. Carrie Chapman +Catt, president, issued a call for a meeting of the Executive Council +in Hotel Statler at the time of the second annual convention of the +National League of Women Voters in Cleveland, Ohio. The meeting took +place at 10 a. m., April 13, 1921, Mrs. Catt in the chair. She made a +report of the receipts and disbursements of the Leslie Fund, saying +that as soon as the estate was finally settled she would render a +detailed statement. She said there were reasons why the association +should not at this time be dissolved and gave them as follows: + +(1) Legal attacks on the Federal Amendment are still pending and there +are attempts to secure submission of a repeal to the voters. The +association must remain till no further efforts are made to invalidate +the amendment. + +(2) The necessity of some authority to give advice and to help our +dependencies where suffrage campaigns are pending. + +(3) Several bequests, delayed because estates are not settled, also +require the continuation of the association. + +The Chair stated that the incorporation does not expire till 1940. +Conventions of elected delegates are no longer feasible and, +therefore, continuation without conventions should be provided for in +an amended constitution, such amendments to be confirmed by the +Executive Council. + +It was unanimously agreed that the association be continued and on +motion of Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, attorney, of Chicago, it was +voted that the Chair appoint two other members of the Council to +co-operate with her in revising the constitution in accordance with +the new arrangement. She appointed Mrs. McCulloch and Mrs. Nettie +Rogers Shuler, the corresponding secretary of the association. + +The report of the national treasurer from Jan. 1, 1920, to March 31, +1921, showed that $12,451 had been used for the expenses connected +with the ratification in eleven difficult States; the headquarters had +been maintained; legal fees paid; the expenses of the Chicago +convention met; deficit of the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co. +paid; printing and other bills settled, and a balance of $3,534 +remained in the treasury. + +The General Officers had been re-elected in Chicago to serve until the +end. At the present meeting the Directors, whose term of office had +expired, were re-elected to serve continuously, except Mrs. Arthur L. +Livermore, whose resignation was accepted and Mrs. Harriet Taylor +Upton was chosen to fill the vacancy. It was voted that the League of +Women Voters be asked to take the place of the National Suffrage +Association as auxiliary to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance; +also that the association no longer continue as auxiliary of the +National Council of Women of the United States. + +Brief remarks were made by delegates present and enthusiastic +appreciation was expressed of the action of the Tennessee Legislature +in giving the 36th ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. +Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with advice to the delegates to put their +State records, literature, etc., into libraries for preservation and +she urged the necessity of the best training for their new +responsibilities, reminding them that the duty would always rest on +women to conserve civilization. + + * * * * * + +The committee, consisting of Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Shuler and Mrs. +McCulloch, recommended the adoption of an abridged constitution with +the elimination of all the by-laws and articles of the old one which +were now unnecessary. The Board could incur no financial obligations +beyond the assets in their hands; they could fill vacancies caused by +death or resignation as heretofore; adopt such rules for their +meetings as they deemed proper and amend the constitution by a +two-thirds vote. The Board should continue to consist of nine officers +and eight directors, with the power to summon the Executive Council. +This Council should comprise the Board and the presidents and +executive members of State auxiliaries as they existed in 1920. The +name of the association would be retained. + +The abridged constitution was sent to every member of the Council to +be voted on. + + * * * * * + +The Executive Council was called to meet at the headquarters of the +National American Woman Suffrage Association in New York at 10:30 +a.m., June 22, 1921, for final action on the new constitution. Mrs. +Catt presided and Mrs. Lewis J. Cox, State executive member from +Indiana, acted as secretary. It was voted that the following sentence +be added to the objects of the association: "To remove as far as it is +possible all discriminations against women on account of sex." +Sixty-six of the eighty-two members of the Council having voted in the +affirmative and none in the negative the constitution was declared to +be legally adopted. + + +APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIX. + +DEATH OF DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW. + +It is literally true that a nation mourned the death of Anna Howard +Shaw. Having lectured from ocean to ocean for several decades she was +universally known and there were few newspapers which did not contain +a sympathetic editorial on her public and personal life. Telegrams +were received at her home from all parts of the world and the letters +were almost beyond counting. Friend and foe alike yielded to the +unsurpassed charm of her personality and the rare qualities of her +mind and heart. + +In February, 1919, the Woman's Council of National Defense, of which +Dr. Shaw had been chairman since its beginning in April, 1917, +dissolved with its duties ended. For the past two years she had +practically given up her platform work for woman suffrage, then at its +most critical stage with the Federal Amendment pending. Now she had +made a large number of speaking engagements for the spring in its +behalf and had accepted the invitation of Dr. M. Carey Thomas, +president of Bryn Mawr College, to be her guest on a trip to Spain +afterwards. Everything was put aside when in May came an urgent +request from former President Taft and President Lowell, of Harvard +University, to join them in a speaking tour of fourteen States from +New Hampshire to Kansas to arouse sentiment in favor of the League of +Nations as a means of assuring peace forevermore. She was to speak but +once a day but she could not resist the appeals in the different +cities and it became four or five times a day. At Indianapolis she +made speeches, gave interviews, etc., eight times. The next day at +Springfield, Ill., she was stricken with pneumonia and was in the +hospital two weeks. By June 12 she was able to leave for her home in +Moylan, a residence suburb of Philadelphia, with her beloved friend +and companion, Lucy Anthony, who had gone to her and who wrote to +anxious friends: "She made the journey without even a rise of +temperature, found the house all bright with sunshine and flowers and +was the happiest person in the world to be at home again." She seemed +to recover entirely but on June 30 had a sudden relapse and died at 7 +o'clock on the evening of July 2. + + + DR. SHAW'S TRIBUTE TO THE AMERICAN FLAG, GIVEN MANY TIMES. + + "This is the American flag. It is a piece of bunting and why is + it that, when it is surrounded by the flags of all other nations, + your eyes and mine turn first toward it and there is a warmth at + our hearts such as we do not feel when we gaze on any other flag? + It is not because of the beauty of its colors, for the flags of + England and France which hang beside it have the same colors. It + is not because of its artistic beauty, for other flags are as + artistic. It is because you and I see in that piece of bunting + what we see in no other. It is not visible to the human eye but + it is to the human soul. + + "We see in every stripe of red the blood which has been shed + through the centuries by men and women who have sacrificed their + lives for the idea of democracy; we see in every stripe of white + the purity of the democratic ideal toward which all the world is + tending, and in every star in its field of blue we see the hope + of mankind that some day the democracy which that bit of bunting + symbolizes shall permeate the lives of men and nations, and we + love it because it enfolds our ideals of human freedom and + justice." + + * * * * * + + In 1917. "It is because we love our country so much and because + we are so anxious to give ourselves entirely to the great service + of winning the war, that we want the freedom of American women + now. We suffragists would be thrice traitors if at this time of + the great struggle of the world for democracy we should fail to + ask for the fundamental principles here which America is trying + to help bring to other countries." + + * * * * * + +When Dr. Shaw received the Distinguished Service Medal from Secretary +of War Baker she said: "I realize that in conferring upon me the +Distinguished Service Medal, the President and the Secretary of War +are not expressing their appreciation of what I as an individual have +done but of the collective service of the women of the county. As it +is impossible to decorate all women who have served equally with the +Chairman of the Woman's Committee, I have been chosen, and while I +appreciate the honor and am prouder to wear this decoration than to +receive any other recognition save my political freedom, which is the +first desire of a loyal American, I nevertheless look upon this as the +beginning of the recognition by the country of the service and loyalty +of women, and above all that the part women are called upon to take in +times of war is recognized as equally necessary in times of peace. +This departure on the part of the national government through the +President and Secretary of War gives the greater promise of the time +near at hand when every citizen of the United States will be esteemed +a government asset because of his or her loyalty and service rather +than because of sex." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Shaw was a valued member of the executive committee of the League +to Enforce Peace, under whose auspices she was making the tour with +former President Taft and President Lowell of Harvard University, and +it sent her a transcript of her speech to revise for publication. This +she did on the last Sunday of her life and the committee prepared tens +of thousands of copies of it for circulation. It was entitled What the +War Meant to Women and mere extracts can give little idea of its +strength and beauty. After speaking of the Woman's Committee of the +Council of National Defense, the Peace Treaty and President Wilson's +declaration that the United States did not want any material advantage +out of the war, she ended: + + While Mr. Wilson declared we want nothing out of the war, I said + in my own heart: "It may be that we want nothing material out of + the war, but, oh, we want the biggest thing that has ever come to + the world--we want Peace now and Peace forever." If we cannot get + that peace out of this war what hope is there that it will ever + come to humanity? Was there ever such a chance offered to the + world before? Was there ever a time when the peoples of all + nations looked towards America as they are looking to-day because + of our unselfishness in our dealings with them during the war? We + have not always been unselfish but we have been in this war. + + The war is over as far as the fighting is concerned but it is + only begun as far as the life of the people is concerned. What + would there be of inspiration to them to come back to their + ruined homes and build up again their cities if within a few + years the same thing could be repeated and homes destroyed and + cities devastated, the people outraged and made slaves as they + have been? + + Men and women, they are looking to us as the hope of the world + and whenever I gaze on our flag, whenever I look on those stars + on their field of blue and those stripes of red and white, I say + to myself: "I do not wonder that when that flag went over the + trenches and surmounted the barriers, the people of the world + took heart of hope. It was then that they began to feel they + could unite with us in some sort of security for the future. And + that flag means so much to me. I never look on its stars but that + I see in every star the hope that must stir the peoples of the + old world when they think of us and the power we have of helping + to lead them up to a place where they may hope for their children + and for their children's children the things that have not come + to them." ... + + We women, the mothers of the race, have given everything, have + suffered everything, have sacrificed everything and we say to you + now: "The time is come when we will no longer sit quietly by and + bear and rear sons to die at the will of a few men. We will not + endure it. We demand either that you shall do something to + prevent war or that we shall be permitted to try to do something + ourselves." Could there be any cowardice, could there be any + injustice, could there be any wrong, greater than for men to + refuse to hear the voice of a woman expressing the will of women + at the peace table of the world and then not provide a way by + which the women of the future shall not be robbed of their sons + as the women of the past have been? + + To you men we look for support. We look for your support back of + your Senators and from this day until the day when the League of + Nations is accepted and ratified by the Senate of the United + States, it should be the duty of every man and every woman to see + that the Senators from their State know the will of the people; + know that the people will that something shall be done, even + though not perfect; that there shall be a beginning from which we + shall construct something more perfect by and by; that the will + of the people is that this League shall be accepted and that if, + in the Senate of the United States, there are men so blinded by + partisan desire for present advantage, so blinded by personal + pique and narrowness of vision, that they cannot see the large + problems which involve the nations of the world, then the people + of the States must see to it that other men sit in the seats of + the highest. + + + * * * * * + +In the beautiful Memorial issued by the Board of Directors of the +National American Woman Suffrage Association were affectionate +tributes from those who were officially associated with her for many +years. Among the many from eminent men and women which were reproduced +in the Memorial were the following: + + It was not my privilege to know Dr. Shaw until the later years of + her life but I had the advantage then of seeing her in many + lights. I saw her acting with such vigor and intelligence in the + service of the Government, and, through the Government, of + mankind, as to win my warmest admiration. I had already had + occasion to see the extraordinary quality of her clear and + effective mind and to know how powerful and persuasive an + advocate she was. When the war came I saw her in action and she + won my sincere admiration and homage. + + WOODROW WILSON, + President of the United States. + +(President and Mrs. Wilson, who were on the way home from France, sent +a wireless message of sympathy and a handsome floral tribute from the +White House.) + + + The world is infinitely poorer by the death of so great and good + a woman. + + THOMAS R. MARSHALL, + Vice-President of the United States. + + + Dr. Anna Howard Shaw was a member of the Executive Committee of + the League to Enforce Peace. She was constant in her attendance, + full of suggestion and earnest in support of the cause. It was my + great pleasure to speak with her from many a platform in favor of + the League and to enjoy the very great privilege of listening to + her persuasive eloquence and her genial wit and humor, which she + always used to enforce her arguments. She thought nothing of the + sacrifice she had to make and was only intent upon the + consummation of our purpose. She was a remarkable woman. I deeply + regret her death. There were many avenues of great usefulness + which a continuance of her life would have enabled her to pursue. + Her going is a great loss to the community. + + WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, + President of the League to Enforce Peace. + + + I desire officially to pay tribute to the passing of Dr. Shaw. + Aside from her epic contribution to the cause of progressive + American womanhood it is in no sense perfunctory to say that + whether in war time Washington, organizing and directing the + eighteen thousand units of the Woman's Committee of National + Defense, or with indomitable courage and power going up and down + the country pleading great public causes relating to the war, + this woman of seventy years was an inspiration to all of us. + There was no one in American life who epitomized more finely + Roosevelt's philosophy that in the public arena one must to the + uttermost spend and be spent. It was a magnificent and enduring + trail that Dr. Shaw blazed. Everywhere her endeavors had the + impersonal and unselfish touch that marks the great protagonist + of new ideals. She was a gallant and stirring figure in the + history of this country and leaves the government of the United + States distinctly in her debt. + + GROSVENOR B. CLARKSON, + Director United States Council National Defense. + + + As a member of the Council of National Defense I wish to express + my very sincere appreciation of the patriotic service that Dr. + Shaw rendered during the past two years, the magnitude of which + cannot be appreciated except by those intimately familiar with + it. Her distinguished service medal was well earned. + + FRANKLIN K. LANE, + Secretary of the Interior. + + + I hardly know how to write you about the death of our dear Anna + Howard Shaw. She has been such a tower of strength to our cause + everywhere and now her place knows her no more! There is one + comfort in that she lived long enough to know of the triumph of + your cause in the passage of the Federal Amendment. She will be + sorely missed and deeply mourned, first and foremost in America + and Great Britain, but really all over the world, in every + country where woman's cause is a living issue. + + MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT, + Honorary President, + National Union of Societies for + Equal Citizenship of Great Britain. + + + My deepest sorrow and sympathy go out to the family of Dr. Shaw, + to the National Council of Women of the United States and to the + International Council and the Woman Suffrage Alliance. Her + passing is indeed a great loss to the women of the whole world. + + ISHBEL ABERDEEN AND TEMAIR, + President International Council of Women. + + + Truly all womanhood has lost a faithful friend. + + ELIZABETH C. CARTER, + President Northeastern Federation + of Women's Clubs (colored). + + +Loving and appreciative tributes were sent from the officers of +National and International Associations in all parts of the world. + + +APPENDIX FOR CHAPTER XX. + +APPEAL OF PRESIDENT WILSON TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES TO +SUBMIT THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE DELIVERED IN PERSON +SEPT. 30, 1918. + + +Gentlemen of the Senate: The unusual circumstances of a World War in +which we stand and are judged in the view not only of our own people +and our own consciences but also in the view of all nations and +peoples, will, I hope, justify in your thought, as it does in mine, +the message I have come to bring you. + +I regard the concurrence of the Senate in the constitutional amendment +proposing the extension of the suffrage to women as vitally essential +to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we +are engaged. I have come to urge upon you the considerations which +have led me to that conclusion. It is not only my privilege, it is +also my duty to apprise you of every circumstance and element involved +in this momentous struggle which seems to me to affect its very +processes and its outcome. It is my duty to win the war and to ask you +to remove every obstacle that stands in the way of winning it. + +I had assumed that the Senate would concur in the amendment, because +no disputable principle is involved but only a question of the method +by which the suffrage is to be now extended to women. There is and can +be no party issue involved in it. Both of our great national parties +are pledged, explicitly pledged, to equality of suffrage for the women +of the country. + +Neither party, therefore, it seems to me, can justify hesitation as to +the method of obtaining it, can rightfully hesitate to substitute +Federal initiative for State initiative if the early adoption of this +measure is necessary to the successful prosecution of the war, and if +the method of State action proposed in the party platforms of 1916 is +impracticable within any reasonable length of time, if practical at +all. And its adoption is, in my judgment, clearly necessary to the +successful prosecution of the war and the successful realization of +the objects for which the war is being fought. + +That judgment I take the liberty of urging upon you with solemn +earnestness for reasons which I shall state very frankly and which I +shall hope will seem as conclusive to you as they seem to me. + +This is a people's war and the people's thinking constitutes its +atmosphere and morale, not the predilections of the drawing room or +the political considerations of the caucus. If we be indeed democrats +and wish to lead the world to democracy, we can ask other peoples to +accept in proof of our sincerity and our ability to lead them whither +they wish to be led, nothing less persuasive and convincing than our +actions. + +Our professions will not suffice. Verification must be forthcoming +when verification is asked for. And in this case verification is asked +for--asked for in this particular matter. You ask by whom? Not through +diplomatic channels; not by foreign ministers; not by the intimations +of parliaments. It is asked for by the anxious, expectant, suffering +peoples with whom we are dealing and who are willing to put their +destinies in some measure in our hands, if they are sure that we wish +the same things that they do. + +I do not speak by conjecture. It is not alone that the voices of +statesmen and of newspapers reach me, and that the voices of foolish +and intemperate agitators do not reach me at all. Through many, many +channels I have been made aware what the plain, struggling, workaday +folk are thinking, upon whom the chief terror and suffering of this +tragic war fall. They are looking to the great, powerful, famous +democracy of the West to lead them to the new day for which they have +so long waited; and they think, in their logical simplicity, that +democracy means that women shall play their part in affairs alongside +men and upon an equal footing with them. + +If we reject measures like this, in ignorant defiance of what a new +age has brought forth, of what they have seen but we have not, they +will cease to believe in us; they will cease to follow or to trust us. +They have seen their own governments accept this interpretation of +democracy--seen old governments like that of Great Britain, which did +not profess to be democratic, promise readily and as of course this +justice to women, though they had before refused it; the strange +revelations of this war having made many things new and plain to +governments as well as to peoples. + +Are we alone to refuse to learn the lesson? Are we alone to ask and +take the utmost that our women can give--service and sacrifice of +every kind--and still say we do not see what title that gives them to +stand by our side in the guidance of the affairs of their nation and +ours? We have made partners of the women in this war. Shall we admit +them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not +to a partnership of privilege and right? This war could not have been +fought, either by the other nations engaged or by America, if it had +not been for the services of the women--services rendered in every +sphere--not merely in the fields of efforts in which we have been +accustomed to see them work but wherever men have worked and upon the +very skirts and edges of the battle itself. + +We shall not only be distrusted, but shall deserve to be distrusted +if we do not enfranchise women with the fullest possible +enfranchisement, as it is now certain that the other great free +nations will enfranchise them. We cannot isolate our thought or action +in such a matter from the thought of the rest of the world. We must +either conform or deliberately reject what they approve and resign the +leadership of liberal minds to others. + +The women of America are too intelligent and too devoted to be +slackers whether you give or withhold this thing that is mere justice; +but I know the magic it will work in their thoughts and spirits if you +give it to them. I propose it as I would propose to admit soldiers to +the suffrage--the men fighting in the field of our liberties of the +world--were they excluded. + +The tasks of the women lie at the very heart of the war and I know how +much stronger that heart will beat if you do this just thing and show +our women that you trust them as much as you in fact and of necessity +depend upon them. + +I have said that the passage of this amendment is a vitally necessary +war measure and do you need further proof? Do you stand in need of the +trust of other peoples and of the trust of our own women? Is that +trust an asset or is it not? I tell you plainly, as the +commander-in-chief of our armies and of the gallant men in our fleets; +as the present spokesman of this people in our dealings with the men +and women throughout the world who are now our partners; as the +responsible head of a great government which stands and is questioned +day by day as to its purpose, its principles, its hope.... I tell you +plainly that this measure which I urge upon you is vital to the +winning of the war and to the energies alike of preparation and of +battle. + +And not to the winning of the war only. It is vital to the right +solution of the great problems which we must settle, and settle +immediately, when the war is over. We shall need in our vision of +affairs, as we have never needed them before, the sympathy and insight +and clear moral instinct of the women of the world. The problems of +that time will strike to the roots of many things that we have +hitherto questioned, and I for one believe that our safety in those +questioning days, as well as our comprehension of matters that touch +society to the quick, will depend upon the direct and authoritative +participation of women in our counsels. We shall need their moral +sense to preserve what is right and fine and worthy in our system of +life as well as to discover just what it is that ought to be purified +and reformed. Without their counsellings we shall be only half wise. + +That is my case. This is my appeal. Many may deny its validity, if +they choose, but no one can brush aside or answer the arguments upon +which it is based. The executive tasks of this war rest upon me. I ask +that you lighten them and place in my hands instruments, spiritual +instruments, which I have daily to apologize for not being able to +employ. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[152] See Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, page 1221 and following. + +[153] Executive Committee: Mrs. Mary T. L. Gannett, chairman; Mrs. +Georgia F. Raynsford, first vice-chairman; Mrs. Helen B. Montgomery, +second; Mrs. William S. Little, third; Mrs. W. L. Howard, fourth; Mrs. +Henry G. Danforth, treasurer; Miss Jeannette W. Huntington, assistant; +Miss Charlotte P. Acer, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Emma B. Sweet, +assistant; Mrs. Adele R. Ingersoll, recording secretary. Security +Trust Co., Rochester, N.Y., Financial Agent. + +A national committee of prominent women was formed. + +[154] For the purpose of making a clear distinction between the two +amendments the name of Susan B. Anthony is permitted in this one +instance for the original Federal Amendment. It is not just to the +others who worked for it to give it this designation. + + + + +INDEX + +Readers of this volume of the History of Woman Suffrage will be spared +some trouble in searching the index by noticing the arrangement of the +chapters as shown in the Table of Contents. The Introduction gives a +very brief outline of the movement for woman suffrage. The first 19 +chapters contain accounts of the annual conventions of the National +American Association during the last twenty years chronologically +arranged, including the hearings before the committees of each +Congress. Enough extracts from speeches are included to show the line +of argument. The plans of work and the reports of committees indicate +the development from year to year. These chapters record the work for +a Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment, for which the association was +especially organized. + +Chapter XX contains in condensed form the full story of the contest +for the Federal Suffrage Amendment. It is followed by chapters on +various suffrage associations; the League of Women Voters; Woman +Suffrage in National Presidential Conventions of the political parties +and the War Service of the Organized Suffragists. Each has practically +complete information on its particular subject, to which reference is +made in other chapters and indexed. + +The activities in the States auxiliary to the National Association are +recorded in Volume VI, also accounts of the work in Great Britain and +other countries and the chapter on the International Woman Suffrage +Alliance. + + + Abbot, Grace, 692-3. + + Abbott, Dr. Lyman, Dr. Shaw criticizes, 158; 256; 682. + + Aberdeen and Temair, Marchioness of, pres. Intl. Council of Women, + tribute to Dr. Shaw, 761. + + Adams, Abigail, makes first decl. for wom. suff, 121. + + Adams, Gov. Alva, tribute to wom. suff. in Colorado, answers + criticisms; State will never repeal, 103-105. + + Addams, Jane, on child labor, 20; + noteworthy address on Municipal Franchise for Women, 178; + guest of Miss Garrett, 182; 202; + entertains natl. suff. conv. at Hull House, 206; 207; 258; + guest of honor Coll. Wom. Suff. League, 319; + working woman's need of vote, humanitarian woman's need, domestic + woman's need, 320; + elected first vice-pres. of Natl. Assn, 324; + helps sub-station for suff. lit. in Chicago, 335; + necessity for women to deal with social evil, 343; + presides at suff. hearing 1912; says America falling behind rest of + world; if women are to continue humanitarian efforts they must + have the franchise, 354-356; + urges a commssn. to investigate the equal suff. States and report, + 363; + men and women must solve social problems together with ballots in + the hands of both, 364-5; + at hearing bef. House Com. on Rules, gives nine instances where + Cong. controlled suff, 387; + unfair process for wom. suff, 390; + western campaigning, 404; + at Nashville conv. refers to Andrew Jackson and Chief Justice + Marshall, asks why southern men so progressive in their day + and so reactionary now, 409; 419; + resigns office, 424; 450; + at mem. service for Dr. Shaw, 611; 613; + org. Miss. Valley Conf, 667-8; + at Repub. Natl. Conv, 1908, 703; + bef. Repub. Res. Com. in 1912; seconds Roosevelt's nomination, 705; + for wom. suff. plank in Progressive platform, 706. + + Additon, Lucia Faxon, 120. + + Advisory Committee on Woman Suffrage in Senate, 413-14; + approves Shafroth Amend, 415. + + Alabama, peculiar chivalry, 36; + hostility of members of Cong. to Fed. Suff. Amend, 516. + + Alaska, wom. suff. granted, 366, 370, 625. + + Alaska - Yukon - Pacific Exposition, 243; + great beauty, suff. day, 264-5. + + Alden, Cynthia Westover, 258. + + Allen, Florence E, in Independence Square, 333; + advises amending city charters for wom. suff, 494; 617; 662. + + Allen, Gov. Henry J. (Kans.), addresses suff. conv, 576; + calls spec, session to ratify Fed. Amend, 650. + + Allen, Mrs. Henry Ware, at suff. hearing; world calls for mother + voice, 578, 581. + + Allender, Nina, 366. + + Amalgamated Copper Co, works against wom. suff, 421. + + Amendments, State, failure of campaigns for, xvii; + Natl. Assn. assists, xvii, 1, 2; + difficulty of, xviii; + requirements in different States; record of, 403; + in New York, 417; + defeated in 1915 in Mass, N. Y, Penn. and N. J, but reed, million + and a quarter votes, 439; + campaigns for must have consent of Natl. Bd, 510; + carried in Mich, S. Dak. and Okla, 550; + the campaigns, 557; 620; 630; + foundation of Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, 751. + + American Constitutional League, at last suff. hearing, 583; + tries to prevent proclaiming of Fed. Suff. Amend, 653; + work against Amend, 680-682. + + American Equal Rights Association, formed, 619; + women desert, 621-2. + + American Federation of Labor, endorses wom. suff, 205, 249; + record of wom. suff. res, 301; 638. + + American Woman Suffrage Association, 38; 311; + formed, 622. + + Americanization, Natl. Suff. Assn. works for, 724, 729, 732. + + Ames, Mayor Albert A, (Minneapolis), 7. + + Ammons, Prof. Theodosia, 52. + + Anderson, Martha Scott, 21. + + Anthony, U. S. Rep. Daniel R. (Kans.), 146; 288. + + Anthony, Lucy E, 118; + gives $1,000 to League of Women Voters in memory of her aunt, Susan + B, 609; 757. + + Anthony, Mary S, 45; 107; + reads Decl. of Sentiments to conv, 144; + death, 201; + last message to suff. conv, 207; 276; + assists memorial bldg. at Rochester University; scholarship, 744-5. + + Anthony Memorial Building at Rochester University, 201; + names of exec. com; list of donors; Miss Anthony's work for + admission of girls; they commemorate her birthday; Pres. Rhees + calls bldg. great contribution, 743-745. + + Anthony, Susan B, work for Hist, of Wom. Suff, iii, iv, resigns as + pres. of Natl. Amer. Suff. Assn, 1; + at natl. conv. in Minneapolis, reads Mrs. Stanton's letter on church + and wom. suff. and comments, 3-5; 9; + appeal against "regulated" vice, 11; + work on Congressl. Com, 11; + vase presented, 13; + interest in N. Y. Sun suff. dept, 14; + presides and introduces pioneers, 16; + extract from biography, 22; + Clara Barton's tribute, 25; + welcomes intl. suff. conf, had early idea of it, 26; + presides at pioneer's meeting, 31; + on eductl. qualif. for suff, 32; + introd. Mr. Blackwell, 33; + at teacher's conv, 34; + 82d birthday celebr. in Washtn, 39; + lack of self-consciousness, 41; + on com. to interview Pres. Roosevelt, 44; + pen picture of on suff. platform, 45; + at natl. suff. conv. in New Orleans, 57; + tribute to Mrs. Merrick, 58; + flowers presented from Phyllis Wheatly Club, 60; + presides at conv, 64; 67; + tribute to Mrs. Stanton, 73-4; + writes to Govs. of equal suff. States, 87; + dele. to intl. suff. conv. in Berlin, 87; + attends White House reception, tells Pres. Roosevelt to expect the + suffs; + Alice Roosevelt greets, 88; + 84th birthday celebr. in Washtn, 98; + incident, 99; + Mrs. Catt's tribute, 100; + presides on Colo, evening, 100; + women pledge loyalty, 102; 107; + tribute to Miss Barton, who responds, 109; + presides at Senate hearing, says she has appealed to seventeen + Congresses, urges a report for the last time, 110-11; + recep. by Chicago Woman's Club and others en route to Portland, + 117-18; + entertained by U.S. Sen. and Mrs. Carey in Cheyenne, 118; + responds to greetings to natl. suff. conv, receives ovation, tells + of Mrs. Stanton's and her visit to Ore. in '71 and early + opposition, 120, 121; + presides at first session, pen picture of, not always roses that + were thrown, 122; + introduces Mrs. Duniway, 123; + tells of her paper, _The Revolution_, 132; + speaks at unveiling of Sacajawea statue, 133; + recep. on Expos. grounds, central figure, tribute of Miss + Blackwell, 134; + appeal to Pres. Roosevelt, 137; + fills pulpit in Portland, 140; + would not compel natl. suff. convs. to be held in Washtn, 147; + for helping Ore. campaign, 147; + fervent appeal, 149; + dedicates park in Chico, cordial recep. in Calif, 150; + attends her last suff. conv, 151; + tribute of Clara Barton, 154; + Pres. M. Carey Thomas and Miss Mary E. Garrett assure her of their + interest in the natl. conv. in Baltimore, 167; + guest of Miss Garrett, very ill but goes to conv. on college + evening; warmly greeted; account of Baltimore _American_, great + triumph, 167-8; + tribute of women college presidents and professors, 168-173; + supreme moment, her response, 173; + Miss Garrett's social functions in her honor, 182; + Dr. Thomas and Miss Garrett promise her to raise large fund for + suff. work; her great happiness, 183; + gives birthday money to Ore. campaign, 184; + last words to a suff. conv, 185; + not able to attend Congressl. hearing, 188; + last birthday celebr. in Washtn, letters of congratulation, places + work in Dr. Shaw's charge, pays tribute to the suff. workers, + speaks last words in public, 191-2; + Lorado Taft's bust of, 193; + Dr. Shaw's farewell tribute, Miss Anthony never missed natl. + suff. convs, 201; + plans for memorials, 201-2; + Mrs. Johnson's bust of; mem. bldg. in Rochester; mem. fund, 200-1; + celebr. of birthday, 1907, mem. services, 202-4; + favorite poem, 203; + champion of colored race, 203; + wide comment of press on her death, magazine articles, accounts of + funeral, 204 + leaves Hist. of Wom. Suff. to Natl. Assn, 205; 214; + Mrs. Lewis gives Natl. Assn. $10,000 in her memory, 236; + wanted stenog. rept. of Dr. Shaw's speeches, 252; + memorial fund, 253, 287; + urged bequests for wom. suff, 276; + at first wom. suff. hearings, 306; + early visit to Ky, 311; + writes Women's Decl. of Rights, 333; + at Senate hearings, 347; + secured reports from coms. of Cong, 377; + argument for Fed. Suff. Amend. bef. Judic. Com, 428; + urges Dr. Shaw to accept presidency; + places duty in her hands but would be satisfied with Mrs. Catt, + 455-6; + Dr. Shaw wishes she could know present Senate com, 466; + address to Cong. in 1866, 521; + Susan B. Anthony room at natl. suff. headquarters, 527; + collections for assn. in early days, 541; 546; 561; + U.S. Sen. Shafroth helped, 566; + mem. meeting at natl. suff. conv, Dr. Shaw's and Mrs. Avery's + reminis, 569; + centennial to be celebr. by assn, 574; + at suff. hearings, 581; 609; 611; + first meets Dr. Shaw, 612; + celebr. of 100th birthday by natl. suff. conv.; + tribute of Dr. Shaw; program of exercises, 615-16; + enters wom. suff. movement, calls first conv. after Civil War, 618; + her first demand and work for Fed. Suff. Amend; opposes 14th and + 15th Amends, 619; + in her paper, _The Revolution_, 620-1; + arranges first conv. in Washtn, 621; + scores Amer. Rights Assn, deserts it and forms Natl. Wom. Suff. + Assn, 621-2; + in eight campaigns, 624; 661; 664; + last birthday letter to Mrs. Stanton, 741; + work for admis. of girls to Rochester University; memorial bldg. + for her, 743; + her portrait over fireplace, birthday celebr. each year, 744; + scholarship, 745; + has natl. suff. headqrs. in Rochester, N. Y, till 1890; + later in Washtn.; still later in Phila, then back to Rochester, + 754; + last words, 751; + see Susan B. Anthony Amend. + + Anti-Suffrage Associations, weakness of, xix; + in Australia, 92; + undeveloped women, 223; 235; + Natl. Assn. asks Pres. Taft not to welcome suff. conv, 269; + urges Cong. not to grant petition of suffs, 299; + at Congressl. hearing in 1912, 354, 362-3; + at hearing on appointmt. of Wom. Suff. Com, 383; + Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge presides, list of speakers, 391; + Natl. Assn. membership compared with that of Natl Suff. Assn, same + with petitions, 392; 394; + U.S. Sen. Lea answers, 408; + work in Mont, 421; + bef. House Judic. Com. to oppose Fed. Suff. Amend, 1914, 436; + membership analyzed, 437; + bef. Senate Com, 467; + bef. House com, 476; + com. "heckles" speakers, 467, 476; + some male speakers appear, 478-9; + expenditures of men's associations to defeat wom. suff. amends, + in N. Y, Penn. and Mass, 478-9; + alliance with liquor interests, 486; + Natl. Assn. holds one day conv. in Washtn. hotel, re-elects Mrs. + Wadsworth pres, makes Mrs. Lansing secy, 536; + at Senate com. hearing, 1916, 548; + at last suff. hearing, 1918, 577; + misrepresents Pres. Wilson on Fed. Amend, 580; + two members of men's assn. occupy whole day, 583; + hearing continued, 584-589; 592; + last efforts, 597; 635; + first heard in Washtn, com. in Mass, assn. org. there, officers, + _Remonstrance_ published, 678; + coms. and assns. in N.Y. and other States, Natl. Assn. formed, + officers, work, headqrs, papers published, 678; + Men's assns. organized, officers, various branches, work, name + changed, 680; + oppose. Fed. Suff. Amend, in Cong. and ratif. by States; + take cases to the courts, 681-2; + at Rep. Natl. Conv. in 1912, 710; + 1916, 711; + at Dem, 712; + attack Mrs. Catt and other suffs, during the war, Mrs. Catt makes + defense, 735-737. + + Arizona, + Gov. Brodie vetoes Wom. Suff. Bill, 67; + admission to Statehood, 129-30; + Natl. Assn. helps suff. work, 253; + gives majority vote for wom. suff, 332; 337; 625. + + Arkansas, + gives Primary suff. to women, xxiii, 516; + dele. to suff. conv. reed, by Pres. Wilson, 516. + + Armistice, effect on wom. suff, 551. + + Armstrong, Eliza, 391. + + Arthur, Clara B, 76; 219; 337. + + Ashley, Jessie, + Natl. treas. report, 315; + re-elected, 324; + reports $55,200 receipts for 1912, 341; 342; 372. + + Ashurst, U. S. Sen. Henry F, + urges wom. suff, 380; + Senate speech, 405; 626-7; + speaks for Fed. Amend, 645. + + Asquith, Prime Minister Herbert H. (Gt. Brit.), 281; 331. + + Atlantic City, entertains natl. suff. conv. in 1916, 480. + + Australia, grants natl. suff. to women, 55; + Mrs. Watson-Lister describes, 91. + + Avery, Rachel Foster, 11; 12; + testimonial to, 17; 44; + on Phila. women in civic work, 65; + chmn. Anthony mem. fund com, 202; + tribute to Miss Anthony, 203; + re-elected to Natl. Bd, 204; 216; + report on natl. petit, for Fed. Suff. Amend, 258; + vast work of petit, 274; + resigns office, 282; + urges fav. rept. on petit, 297; 540; + reminis. of suff. pioneers, 569-70; + 21 years cor. secy. Natl. Assn, 607; 704; + has charge of natl. suff. headqrs. in Phila, 754. + + Avery, Susan Look, 328. + + Axtel, Frances C, 540. + + + B. + + Babcock, Elnora M, 10; + work with press, 10; 14; + natl. chmn. Press Com, gives rept, 44; 61-2; 95; + wide work of natl. press dept, 131; + makes last rept, efficient work, 163. + + Bacharach, Mayor Harry, presents key to Atlantic City to Mrs. Catt, 481. + + Bacon, Anna Anthony, 333. + + Bacon, Elizabeth D, 188. + + Bagley, Mrs. Frederick P, reports for natl. assn's, war com. on + Americanization, 520; 560; 690; + chmn. Amer. citizenship, 697; + work for Americanization, 729, 732. + + Bailey, ex-U. S. Sen. Joseph W, + star speaker for "antis" at last suff. hearing; women cannot perform + sheriff's duties or jury or military service; have no time to vote; + men can make laws for them; single standard of morals "iridescent + dream"; flouts petitions from his constituents, 586-589; + Mrs. Catt answers, 590; + he leaves the room, 592; + Texas women defeat for Governor, 589. + + Baker, Abby Scott, 718. + + Baker, La Reine, 246; 286. + + Baker, Secretary of War Newton D, + addresses natl. suff. conv; the war will bring broadening of liberty + to women, 532; + favors Fed. Suff. Amend, 580; + speaks at suff. meeting and carries message to Pres. Wilson, 724-5; + tribute to Dr. Shaw and Woman's Com. Natl. Defense, 739; + presents disting. service medal to Dr. Shaw, 758. + + Baker, Mrs. Newton D, 515-16; + sings for natl. conv, 526. + + Baldwin, Mrs. Felix, 395. + + Balentine, Katharine Reed, 217-18; + danger in women's disfranchisement, 237; 319. + + Ball, U. S. Sen. J. Heisler, 641. + + Ballantyne, Grace H, 219; 239. + + Baltimore, entertains natl. suff. conv, a noteworthy meeting, 151. + + Banker, Henrietta L, bequest to Natl. Assn, 130. + + Barber, Mrs. A. L, 13; + receives conv, 45. + + Barker, Pres. H. S. (Ky. University), 408. + + Barkley, Edna M, 570; 669. + + Barnard College, Chair of Amer. Citizenship, mem. to Dr. Shaw, 613. + + Barnhart, U. S. Rep. Henry A. (Ind.), 637. + + Barnum, Gertrude, says suff. movement needs working women, 165. + + Barrett, Kate Waller, + speaks for Intl. Council; safety of the country depends on women's + having a vote, 410. + + Barrett, Mrs. Seymour, 519. + + Barrows, Isabel C, 176. + + Barrows, Rev. Samuel J, 96. + + Bartol, Emma J, 208. + + Barton, Clara, + at intl. suff. conv, address, 24, 25; 67; + receives natl. suff. conv, 99; + gives adherence to Miss Anthony, who responds, 109; + at natl. suff. conv. in Baltimore, 151; + pen picture of, tribute to Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, wom. suff. + near, 154; 208; 258; 288; + Natl. Suff. Assn. endorses bill for mem. to her in Red Cross bldg. + in Washtn, 502; + Dr. Shaw speaks of unworthy treatment of her work, 540; + at first suff. conv. in Washtn, 621. + + Bass, Mrs. George, + bef. Senate com. shows women's work in the home, schools, factories, + offices, philanthropies handicapped without the ballot, 464-5; + bef. House com, 472; + on limited suff, 495; + urges women to help finance war, 533-4; + on Congressl. Com, 567; + protests against "antis'" use of Pres. Wilson's name, 580. + + Bates, Eleanor, 609. + + Baur, Mrs. Jacob, 687. + + Bazar, natl, in New York, 12, 13. + + Beard, Mary Ritter, 366; + bef. Com. on Rules, shows small constituencies back of southern + members; asks them not to abuse their power, 388; + bef. House Judic. Com, demolishes State's rights argument against + wom. suff; gives record of Dem. party, 430-432; 547; 675. + + Beck, Solicitor Genl. James M, 655. + + Bedford, Mrs. J. Claude, 490. + + Beeber, Judge Dimner, 340; 674. + + Beecher, Henry Ward, 1; 622. + + Belden, Evelyn H, 109. + + Belford, Helen, 102. + + Belgium, 243. + + Bellamy, Mary G, member Wyo. Legislature, 516; 568. + + Belmont, Mrs. Oliver H. P, + offers to assist taking natl. suff. headqrs. to New York, conv. + accepts and thanks, 253; + maintains natl. suff. press dept, 276-7; 286; + recog. of her support of press bureau, 288; 341; + moves to take natl. suff. headqrs. from New York to Washtn, natl. + officers oppose, 381; + gives $10,000 to South. Wom. Conf, 672; 675; + chmn. exec. com. Natl. Wom. Party, 677; + gives it natl. headqrs, 678; + contributes to Natl. Assn. headqrs, 754. + + Benedict, Crystal Eastman, 346; 366; + bef. House Judic. Com, tells Dem. members their party will be held + responsible for Fed. Suff. Amend; they object, 429-30; 675. + + Bennett, Belle, 288. + + Bennett, Mrs. M. Toscan, objections to Shafroth Palmer Amend, 747. + + Bennett, Sarah Clay, + on Fed. Suff, 12; 45; + urges a Fed. Elections Bill, 62, 65, 424; 501; 659. + + Berger, U. S. Rep. Victor L. (Wis.), + wom. suff. necessary from polit. and economic standpoint; women who + do the same work as men could enforce an equal wage rate, 361. + + Beveridge, U. S. Sen. Albert J, 129; 291; + for wom. suff. plank in Progressive platform, 706-7. + + Bible, edicts on women are perverted by men, 222. + + Bidwell, Annie K, 150. + + Bigelow, Rev. Herbert S, 184; 207. + + Biggars, Kate L, 211. + + Bissell, Emily P, 391; 478. + + Bitting, Rev. W. C, 561. + + Bjorkman, Frances Maule, 335; + report of Lit. Com, 368; 405. + + Black, Hannah, 564. + + Blackwelder, Gertrude, 198; + pres. Chicago Woman's Club, receives Natl. Suff. conv, 206; 703. + + Blackwell, Alice Stone, 11; 13; 21; + edits _Progress_, 35; 44; + addresses Senate Com, 48; 60; + how to please editors, 62; + tribute to Mrs. Hussey, 73; + prepares Decl. of Principles, 87; + writes of Wyo, 118; + of Portland conv, 119; 133; + reminis. of mother and aunts Elizabeth and Emily, 133; + tribute to Miss Anthony, 134; 149; 176; + presents testimony from equal suff. States to coms. of Cong. 190; + 199; 202; 210; 244; + makes "exhibit" of liquor dealers anti wom. suff. circular, 247; + 249; 257; + retires as rec. secy. after 20 yrs; work on _Woman's Journal_, + conv. thanks, 260; + account of expos. and suff. day in Seattle, 264-5; + comment on Pres. Taft's speech to natl. suff. conv, 273; + misses conv. of 1910, 280; 282; 288; + offers to make _Woman's Journal_ offic. organ of Natl. Assn; + accepted, 289; + edits _Woman's Journal_, 311; + answer to Barry's article on Colo, 315; + has to resume charge of _Woman's Journal_, 337; + tribute to men, 340; + refutes statements of "antis" at hearing bef. House Com. on Rules + in 35 pages of fine print, complete answer, 391-393; 409; + supports Shafroth Amend, 422; 444; + presents resolutions, 460; + addresses House com, 471; + gives reminis. of pioneers, conv. pays tribute to her, 569; + presents 14 resolutions, 574; + at Anthony celebr, 615; 660; 704; + defends Shafroth Palmer Amend, but criticises, 749. + + Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, + on chivalry, 33; 118; + at Portland conv, 133, 138; + Mrs. Catt's tribute, 139; 140; + goes to Alaska, 149; 179; 188; 214; + tells of early days at Oberlin Coll, 220; 278; 288; + natl. conv. sends greetings, 501, 559, 610; + farewell words for Mrs. Stanton, 741. + + Blackwell, Dr. Elizabeth, 278. + + Blackwell, Dr. Emily, 328. + + Blackwell, Henry B, + Mrs. Catt introd. to conv, refers to marriage; + he urges effort for Pres. suff. for women, 12; + presents resolutions, 15; + tells of marriage, 33; 35; 42; + reports on Pres. suff, argument for, 43; + "the open door", 62; 67; 68; + tribute to Deborah and the Jewish race, 69; + work in Colo, 105; 118; 130; + speaks against class govt.; Portland _Journal_ pays tribute, 142; + physical vigor, 143; + presents resolutions, 145-6; + natl. conv. expresses appreciation, 146; 147; 148; 149; + chmn. Res. Com, 179; 187; + pays tribute to Miss Anthony, 203; 210; 212; 219; + presents resolutions showing women's great progress, 240; + at Spokane, 246; + report on Pres. Suff. and resolutions, his last suff. conv, 257; + 260; + audience rises to greet, 261; + mem. service at natl. suff. conv. of 1910; + tributes of Mrs. Villard, Mrs. McCulloch, Miss Campbell, Miss + Miller and Dr. Shaw, 277-280; + natl. suff. conv. passes resolution of indebtedness, 569. + + Blair, Emily Newell, writes history of Woman's Com. Council of Natl. + Defense, 737, 739. + + Blair, U. S. Sen. Henry W, 45; + secures first Senate vote on wom. suff, 624. + + Blake, Katharine Devereux, + campaign work in West, 404; + in N. Y, 519. + + Blankenburg, Lucretia L, + addresses Senate Com, 47; + shows need of women's votes in Phila, 72-3; + dele. to Berlin suff. conf, 87; 92; + report on laws for women, 137; + on women's Phila. civic campaign and the way they were ignored, + 177; 188; 210; + brings to suff. conv. greetings Genl. Fed. of Clubs, 215; + report on legis. for women, 236; + same, 259; + greets natl. suff. conv. in Phila, 333-4. + + Blankenburg, Mayor Rudolph, on educatl. qualif. for suff, 77; 177; + welcomes natl. suff. conv. to Phila, 333. + + Blanton, U. S. Rep. Thomas L. (Tex.), 584; + presents petition for wom. suff, 588. + + Blatch, Harriot Stanton, 81; 92; 111; 220; + speaks of Mrs. Stanton's clear vision, saw need of suff. for women, + 222-3; + workingwomen's need of vote, 232; + demonstrates out-door meetings, 286; + objects to Shafroth Amend, 423; 675; + at Repub. natl. convention of 1908, 703; + of 1916, 711. + + Blount, Dr. Anna E, shows women doctors' need of suff, 294; 317. + + Blount, Lucia E, 656. + + Bock, Annie, 391. + + Booth, Elizabeth K, work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370; 381. + + Booth, Maud Ballington, addresses natl. suff. conv, 179. + + Booth, Mrs. Sherman M, + on Congressl. Com, 411-12; 414-15; + card catalogues membs. of Cong, 418; + at hearing, 427. + + Borah, U. S. Sen. William E, + opp. Fed. Suff. Amend, 413; + effort for wom. suff. plank in Natl. Repub. platform, 510; + refuses to represent his State on Fed. Amend, 598; 645; + for wom. suff. plank in 1916, 709, 711. + + Boutwell, Gov. George S. (Mass.), 146. + + Bowen, Mrs. Joseph T, 341-2; + shows need for women police, Judges and jurors, 705. + + Bowne, Prof. Borden P, 280. + + Boyd, Mary Sumner, + report of natl. Research Bureau, 443; + same, 494; 531; + invaluable service, 571; 690. + + Boyer, Ida Porter, 62; 77; + tells of lax system in libraries, 94; 110; + makes bibliog. of wom. suff, 130; + sent to help Ore. campaign, 163; 208; 210; + rept. on libraries, 236; 261; 395; + at Anthony celebr, 615; + ed. _New Southern Citizen_, 672. + + Brackenridge, Eleanor, 328. + + Bradford, Mary C. C, + presents gavel to Mrs. Catt, 6; 20; + effect of wom. suff. in Colo, 102, 112; 208; + on Congressl. Com, 411; + pres. Natl. Educ. Assn, dele. natl. suff. conv, 515; + same, St. Supt. of Educ, 517. + + Braly, J. H, 288; + tells of Calif. victory and work of Polit. Equal. League; + presents State flag to Natl. Assn, 317-319. + + Brandegee, U. S. Sen. Frank B, 638; 645. + + Brannan, Mrs. John Winters, 675. + + Breckinridge, Desha, 329. + + Breckinridge, Mrs. Desha, + on Prospect of Woman Suffrage in the South; Dem. party may secure + it; would insure preponderance of Anglo-Saxon over the African, 330; + on. com. to ask Pres. Wilson for interview on wom. suff, 374; 381; + at hearing bef. Com. on Rules, shows right of southern women to ask + for Fed. Amend, 387; + women's part in war justifies their demand, 410; + on Congressl. Com, 411; + suggests special campn. com, its members, 418-19-20; 425; + speaks at Anthony celebr, 615. + + Breckinridge, Prof. Sophonisba, + need of Munic. suff. for women, 195; + all classes need ballot, 226; 229; + addresses natl. suff. conv, 322; + elected vice-pres, 324; + helps sub-station for suff. lit. in Chicago, 335; 342; 346; 661; 705. + + Brehaut, Ella C, opp. wom. suff, 363. + + Brehm, Marie C, 180-1. + + Brent, Mistress Margaret, 156. + + Brewer, Justice U. S. Sup. Ct. David J, 280. + + Brewer, Mary Grey, 556. + + Breyman, Mrs. Arthur H, 120; 134. + + Bright, John and Jacob, 31. + + Bright, William H, 34. + + Bristow, U. S. Sen. Joseph L, on Shafroth Amend, 415. + + British Colonies, women vote in, 111. + + Brock, Mrs. Horace, 479; 679. + + Bronson, Minnie, + secy. Natl. Anti-Suff. Assn, 391; 437; 548; + at last suff. hearing, 584; + at Natl. Repub. Conv, 711. + + Brooks, Mrs. Charles H, 541; + director, Natl. Suff. Assn, 559; + chmn. League of Women Voters, 570; 685; 687; 689. + + Brooks, John Graham, 674. + + Brougher, Rev. J. Whitcomb, 140. + + Brown, Jennie A, addresses Senate com, 48. + + Brown, Rev. Olympia, + at natl. conv. in Minneapolis, 3; 17; 18; + conv. sermon, 20; + in Washtn, 33; + in Baltimore, 35; + addresses Sen. Com, 47; 179; 219; 341; + prepares mem. to Mrs. Colby, 540; + guest of honor at Jubilee conv, 610; + speaks at Pioneer suff. luncheon, 615; + on last evening, 617; + heads Fed. Suff. Assn, 656-659; + at Repub. Natl. Conv, 703; + objections to Shafroth Palmer Amend, 748. + + Brown, Mrs. Raymond, 314; 339; 372; + rept. on N. Y. campn, 409; 423; 444; 450; + presents res. to make Dr. Shaw hon. pres, 457; 519; + elected natl. vice-pres, 541; 555; + rept. on Oversea Hospitals, 560, 568; + raises fund for League of Women Voters, 609; + Oversea Hospitals, 614; + at Anthony celebr, 615; 685; 689; 716; + full rept. of work of women's Oversea Hospitals during the war, + 732-734. + + Brownlow, Mrs. Louis, 567. + + Bruce, Laura, bequest to Natl. Assn, 127. + + Bruns, Dr. Henry Dixon, addresses natl. suff. conv, 66. + + Bryan, U. S. Rep. J. W. (Wash), 377. + + Bryan, Mrs. J. W, 382. + + Bryan, William Jennings, + helps wom. suff, xxi; + speaks for it in Neb, 402; 435; + supports Fed. Suff. Amend, 634; + same, 642; + at Dem. Natl. conv. 1912, 708; + endorses wom. suff. in 1915, 708. + + Bryn Mawr College Foundation in Politics, mem. to Dr. Shaw, 613. + + Buckley, Lila Sabin, bequest to Natl. Assn, 442. + + Buffalo, entertains natl. suff. conf. 1901, 35; + same, 1908, 213. + + Bulkley, Mary, 559. + + Burke, Alice, 6,000 mile motor suff. trip, 481. + + Burleson, Mrs. Albert Sidney, 382; 515. + + Burnett, Frances Hodgson, for wom. suff, 297. + + Burns, Frances E, 426. + + Burns, Lucy, 364; 370; 377; + in Eng. "militant" movement; on Natl. Congressl. Com, 377-8; + resigns, 381; 454; 675. + + Bush, Ada, 717. + + Butler, U. S. Sen. Marion, 711. + + Butler, Pres. Nicholas Murray, 613. + + Butt, Hala Hammond, on restricted suff, 75. + + Bynner, Witter, 611. + + Byrns, Elinor, rept. of Natl. Press Com, 368; + same, 405-6. + + + C. + + Cabot, Mrs. J. Elliott, 678. + + Calhoun, Judge William J, on Shafroth Suff. Amend, 414. + + California, + wom. suff. amend, carried, xx; + same, 310; + Dr. Shaw's comment; reports from State officials, 317; + natl. conv. sends greetings, 328; + anti-suff. petition fails, 398; + contrib. to natl. suff. assn, 559; 625. + + Calkins, Prof. Mary W, + at natl. suff. conv. in Balto; what leaders of movement have a right + to ask of college women, 168, 170. + + Calls to convs. of Natl. Suff. Assn, at beginning of first 19 chapters. + + Campaigns and Surveys, + Mrs. Shuler's rept.; great progress in polit. parties; Mrs. Catt's + plans for nation-wide Fed. Amend, campn. carried out; res. of + protest against delay sent to Pres. Wilson from large orgztns. in + this country and in Europe, 555; + nearly every State visited by members of the Natl. Bd.; the work of + the Press and Research bureaus, the bulletins and travelling + libraries have extended over the country; resolutions have been + put through Legislatures; polit. work has been done, 556-7. + + Campaigns, State, + fund for, given by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw, 337; + in 1912, 366, 368; + Mrs. Catt shows usual weaknesses, 485; + record of, 624; + in New York Mrs. Catt describes, 753. + + Campbell, Ida E, invites ass'n. to Canada, 400. + + Campbell, Isabel, 52. + + Campbell, Jane, + satire on The Unbiased Editor, takes Mr. Bok for example, 174; + 181; 199; + mem. tribute to Mr. Blackwell and Lucy Stone, 279; 333; 346. + + Campbell, Margaret W, 137; 208. + + Campbell, U. S. Rep. Philip P. (Kans.), 628. + + Campbell, Mrs. Philip P, 515. + + Canada, + sends message to natl. suff. conv.; its natl. assn. hopes to greet + members in Canada, 400; + Natl. Eq. Franchise Union sends greetings to natl. suff. conv, 501; + enfranchises women, 551; + Natl. Suff. Assn. sends return greetings, 597. + + Cannon, Speaker Joseph G, 711. + + Cantrill, U.S. Rep. James C. (Ky.), offers res. for Wom. Suff. Com, + 525; 548; 628; 633; 635. + + Cantrill, Mrs. James C, 559. + + Capen, Pres. Elmer H. (Tufts Coll.), 146. + + Carey, U. S. Sen. Joseph M, addresses Council of Women Voters, 484. + + Carey, U. S. Sen. and Mrs. Joseph M, 118. + + Carey, Mrs. Joseph M, obtains suff. petit, 11. + + Carpenter, Alice, 548. + + Carter, Elizabeth C, pres. N. E. Fed. of Women's Clubs (colored), + tribute to Dr. Shaw, 761. + + Carter, Franklin, secy, of N. Y. Anti-Suff. Assn, 478. + + Castle, M. B, 656. + + Catholics, how enfranchised, 752. + + Catron, U. S. Sen. Thomas B, 383; 626. + + Catt, Carrie Chapman, + elected natl. pres, xxii, 1; + secures special legis. sessions, xxiii; + at natl. suff. conv. in Minneapolis, 1901, address on obstacles + to wom. suff, gavel presented; plan of work for Fed. Amend, + orgztn, 3-22; + appeal against "regulated" vice, 11; + introd. Mr. Blackwell, 12; 20; + arr. trip to Yellowstone, 21; + at natl. conv. in Washtn, 1902, first steps toward Intl. Alliance, + 24; + introd. Clara Barton, 25; + president's address, 29; + presides over Congressl. hearing, 50; + estab. natl. suff. headqrs. in New York, 34; 35; + tour of States, 36; + scores Seth Low, 38; + card case presented, 40; + on Miss Anthony's birthday, 41; + obtains foreign reports, 41; 44; + presides at Congressl. hearing, urges appoint. of a com. to + investigate effects in equal suff. States, 46, 54; + presides at natl. suff. conv. in New Orleans, 1903, 56-7; + annual address, receives ovation, 59; + work of natl. headqrs, 61; + reports Cong. ignores appeals, 62; 65; 67; + tributes to the dead, 73; + says each State must decide race problem for itself, 83; + lectures in New Orleans, 85; + presides at natl. suff. conv. in Washtn. in 1904, 86; + prepares Decl. of Principles, 87; + dele. to Berlin intl. suff. conf, 87; + tells of Miss Anthony's visit to White House, 88; + pres. address, less illiteracy among women than men, would + disfranchise for failure to vote, 90; + presides over work conf, 94; + speaks for peace and arbitration, 98; + tribute on Miss Anthony's birthday, 100; + work in Colo, 102, 105; + compliments Ladies of the Maccabees, 107; + resigns presidency of Natl. Assn, 107; + its tribute; introd. Dr. Shaw; remains as vice-pres. at large, 108; + presents Miss Anthony and Miss Barton, closes conv, 109-10; + on success of wom. suff. in Colo, 115; + urges House Judic. Com. to report on Fed. Suff. Amend, 116; + recep. en route to Portland conv, 117, 118; + responds to greetings to conv, 123; + estab. "work conferences", 127; + raises fund for Ore. campn, 130; + presides at conv, tributes to speakers, 139; + Fourth of July address, 144; + tribute of _Oregonian_, 145; + resigns vice-presidency, 145; + for helping Ore. campn, 147; + rept. on Intl. Suff. Alliance, 149, 150; + would abolish proxy votes at conv. 161; + rept. on Intl. Suff. Alliance; + opens Evening with Women in History, says women are not the + inferior sex, 180; + brings Intl. Suff. Alliance greeting, 203; + report as chmn. Congressl. Com, its work for Fed. Amend, 210; + appoint. frat. dele. to Peace conf, 210; + powerful speech, The Battle to the Strong, woman's hour has struck, + 241; + Dr. Shaw pays tribute, natl. conv. in Seattle sends greetings, 247; + work as chmn. of natl. petit. for Fed. Suff. Amend, 258; + added to Official Bd, 261; + work on Fed. Amend. petition, her contrib, conv. expresses + appreciation, 274-5; + address ordered printed, 280; + on Polit. Dist. Orgztn, 286; + address bef. Senate Com. 1910, most men in U.S. received suff. from + Govt. not States, 297, 745; + leaflet on What to Do, 314; + sends letter from South Africa to natl. suff. conv, 1911; "suffs. of + two countries are actuated by the same motives, inspired by the + same hopes, working to the same end;" letter of good wishes sent + her with regrets for absence, 328; + home from trip around world, address at natl. suff. conv, 1912; + need for polit. power in hands of women to combat social evil, + 345-6; + speaks in Carnegie Hall, New York, 367; 372; + inquires about Congressl. Union at natl. suff. conv. in 1913; + has its report separated from that of Congressl. Com, 380-1; + reviews advanced position of women and great responsibilities, 382; + bef. House Com. on Rules asking for Wom. Suff. Com, says while + Judic. Com. has been refusing to report a res. on wom. suff, 12 + European countries have considered it; has spirited discussion + with Rep. Hardwick; says men have not had to ask other men for + the vote, 389; + tells of N. Y. amend. campn, 444; + explains to Alice Paul why Natl. Suff. Assn, cannot cooperate with + Congressl. Union, 454; + had persuaded Dr. Shaw to accept natl. presidency in 1904, 455; + Dr. Shaw wants her to take it in 1915; her duties as pres. of Intl. + Alliance and chmn. of N.Y. campn. com. prevent; pressure from + delegates forces her to yield; unanimously elected, 456; + Dr. Shaw casts first vote with tribute, 456-7; + Mrs. Catt asks loyalty of members who show joy over her election, + 458; + addresses Washtn. mass meeting, resents Mr. Malone's assertion that + women would vote for "preparedness" and declares they would settle + disputes without war, 460; + bef. Senate com. reviews way men got the vote, 465, (Appendix 745); + account of four recent St. campns, tribute to Sen. Thomas, 465; + presides at House hearing; says when a man believes in wom. suff. + it is a natl. question and when he doesn't it is one for the + States, 469; + tells of great vote for wom. suff. during past year; parade in New + York of 20,000 women, 12,000 public school teachers; in that city + women must ask for it in 24 languages, there is no argument + against it, 470; + argues with Rep. Chandler whether a member should obey mandate of + his district or broad principle of justice, 470-1; + calls natl. suff. conv. to meet in Atlantic City, 1916, 480; + mayor presents key to city, 481; + report as chmn. of Campaign and Survey Com, had visited 23 States, + members of the Natl. Bd. nearly all the others and questionnaires + sent to all St. presidents; convinced crisis has been reached + which if recognized will lead to speedy victory, 485; + discusses recent Iowa campn.; shows its weaknesses, same as in all; + lessons learned for future; methods of liquor interests and other + "antis", alliance between them, 486; + opens conv, 486; + president's address on The Crisis, keynote of great campn, 488; + declares Fed. Amend, only method; women must sit on steps of Cong.; + a "call to arms," 489; + introd. Pres. Wilson to natl. suff. conv, 496; + asks Dr. Shaw to respond, 498; + says no suggestion has been made to lessen work for Fed. Amend, 501; + work with Cong, 503-4; + for planks in party platforms, 505; + calls on presidential candidates, 1916, 507; + tribute from chmn. Natl. Congressl. Com, 509; + presides over mass meeting Sunday afternoon, 511; + closes the conv, 512; + reception, with wives of Cabinet at suff. conv, 1917, 515; + arr. for dele, to meet their Senators and Reps, 516; + opens conv, thinks Cong. will not allow this country to be + outstripped by Europe in giving suff. to women; urges necessity + for war work, 517; + presides at N. Y. victory meeting, 518; + says Legis. can legally grant Pres. suff. to women, 520; + president's address to Cong.; plea for Fed. Amend.; pen picture in + _Woman Citizen_; in pamphlet form standard literature of Natl. + Assn, 521-2; + Dr. Shaw nominates her for office, 523; + calls for nation-wide appeal for Fed. Amend, 523: + escorts Hon. Jeannette Rankin to Capitol, 523; + Mrs. Catt's tribute, 526; + condemns "picketing", 530; + presides at Amer. Women's War Serv. meeting in Washtn, 532; + writes book on Fed. Amend, 532; + originates suff. schools, 538; + instructs organizers, 539; + tribute to Rev. Olympia Brown, 540; + re-elected pres, 541; + first suggests League of Women Voters, 541; + plan for million dollar fund, 541; + contrib. to Natl. Assn, 542; + closes conv. with "ringing words of inspiration," 545; + presides at Senate hearing, April, 1917, believes it will be last, + 545; + says action of Govt. in denying suff. has "saddened women's lives"; + thousands of copies circulated, 547; + opens natl. suff. conv. 1919, gives president's address, The Nation + Calls; outlines plan for Natl. League of Women Voters; names + vital needs of Govt, 553; + presented with illuminated testimonial by southern dele, 554; + Govt. puts her on Woman's Com. of Natl. Defense and Liberty Loan + Com, 555; + carries for'd great campn. for Fed. Amend.; women of entire world + owe thanks, 555-6; + presides at "inquiry" dinner at St. Louis Conv, 561; + announces suff. soc. in Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and Philippines, + 561; + presides at meeting of suff. war workers, 564; + work with Cong, 566; + help to Congressl. Com, 567; + urges dele. to conv. to "finish the fight," 569; + outlines aims of League of Women Voters, 570; + conv. adopts res. of apprec. and loyalty, 575; + closing speech on Looking Forward, 576; + at last suff. hearing, 577; + reads testimony from South, 580; 581; + address to com.; analyzes "negro problem"; scores attitude of + southern members on Fed. Amend, 582; + tells members of com. to have conf. with Pres. Wilson, 583; + answers speech of ex-Sen. Bailey; he reminds her of pres. of Harvard + who said there were witches and Daniel Webster who objected to + admitting western States to the Union; tells of Premier Asquith's + change of views; heard such speeches 40 years ago; Mr. Bailey + leaves room, 590-592; + presides at last natl. suff. conv, 596; + responds to greetings, gives president's address, says Fed. Amend. + close at hand, 597; + describes spec. sessions of Legis. to obtain; both Repubs. and Dems. + responsible for delay; unsullied record of Natl. Suff. Assn.; its + vast work, 598-9; + pities those not in it; + tribute to pioneers, 599; + Pres. Wilson sends greetings, 599; 602; + asks southern women to state help desired from Natl. Assn; granted, + 603; + her immense work for Fed. Amend, 604; + for ratification, having special sessions called, Legis. polled, + commissns. of women sent, etc, 604-606; + Mrs. Shuler's tribute, 605; + western trip for Amend, 606; + presides at ratif. banquet, 610; + eulogy at Dr. Shaw's mem. service, 612; + founds Leslie Bureau of Educatn, 614; + gives honor rolls to early workers; + suffs. present with diamond pin; + asks Mrs. Upton to respond, 616; + closes Victory conv. and opens School for Polit. Education, 617; + escorts Rep. Jeannette Rankin to Capitol, 632; + addresses Senate Com, 633; + Pres. Wilson congratulates, 634; 635; + Mrs. Catt sends to Repub. and Dem. Natl. chairmen a summary of votes + on Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, thanking their parties and dividing the + credit; tribute to Pres. Wilson, 648; + says women are not bound to either party, 649; + plans and works for ratification, 649 et seq. (See Ratification.) + Mass meeting in Washtn. to greet Mrs. Catt and workers for ratif. + in Tenn; Pres. Wilson sends message; Gov. Smith welcomes at + railroad station in New York, 652; + addresses Friends' Eq. Rights Assn, 665; + Miss. Valley Conf. in Minnesota, 669; + in Ohio, 670; + calls Exec. Council meeting in Indpls, 670; + launches League of Women Voters, 681-4-5; 689; 690; + offers assistance of Leslie Commissn, 698; + conducts school for polit. educatn, 698-9; + sends letter to delegates of natl. pres. convs. in 1916; + addresses mass meeting in Chicago, 709; + marches in parade, 710; + secures plank, 711; + asks Pres. Wilson meaning of Dem. suff. plank, 714; 716; + calls Exec. Council of Natl. Suff. Assn. to consider helping Govt. + in war work, 720; + speaks on Impending Crisis, deprecates war, 724; + on Woman's Com. Natl. Defense, 726; + asks equal pay for equal work, 728-9; + resents attacks of anti-suffs. during the war and answers them, + 736-7; + after war calls meeting and urges appt. of some women to Peace Conf; + President and Govt. ignore them, 738; + address before Senate com. in 1910, Federal Enfranchisement of Men, + 745; + in 1915, progress of men's enfranchisement, different treatment of + women, small effort by men; how Jews and Catholics obtained suff; + land qualif. removed; immense effort of women; plea for Fed. + Amend, 752-754; + natl. suff. headqrs, under her presidency, 754-5; + opens natl. suff. headqrs, in N. Y. City in 1905 and again in 1916; + branch headqrs. in Washtn. in 1916, 754; + calls Exec. Council to meet in Cleveland in 1921; + later in New York, to arr. end of Natl. Amer. Wom. Suff. Assn, + 756-7. + + Catt, George W, 180. + + Chamberlain, Gov. George E. (Ore.), + welcomes suff. conv, 122; + as U. S. Senator, 547. + + Chandler, U. S. Rep. Walter M. (N. Y.), 470. + + Chapin, Rev. Augusta, 146. + + Chapman, Mariana W, 20; 42; 47; 67; 665. + + Charleston, S. C, wom. suff. conf, 35. + + Chase, Mary N, 81; 141; 261. + + Cheney, Ednah D, 146. + + Chicago, entertains natl. suff. conv. 1907, 193; + women petit. for Munic. suff, 392; + their power doubled when gained, 394; + entertains natl. conv. 1920, 594. + + Child Labor, 20; + Mrs. Kelley speaks on, 141, 143; + Natl. Suff. Assn. calls for legislation, 145; + Mrs. Kelley shows backwardness of U. S, 164; + natl. suff. conv. protests against, 212; + its end waits on wom. suff, 302; + Dr. Lovejoy shows help of women in securing natl. law; need of women + in politics, 500. + + Chittenden, Alice Hill, 391; 437; 711; + Mrs. Catt refutes her attacks during the war, 736. + + Church and Woman Suffrage; + Mrs. Stanton's views, Miss Anthony's, Dr. Shaw's, Olympia Brown's, + 4, 5. + Ministers at natl. suff. convs. listed in each chapter; church work + for wom. suff, 63; 162; + in 1908, 224; + women comprising two thirds of membership demand ballot, 267; + effort to secure admission of women to M. E. Genl. Conf, South, 288; + religious gatherings addressed on wom. suff. ministers asked to + preach on it, 325; + thousands asked to preach on it Mother's Day, 338; + apathy of women for suff, clergy favor, 370; + southern Ministerial Assns. friendly to wom, suff.; at Miss. Valley + Conf. in Des Moines 18 pulpits filled by delegates; letters sent + to 4,000 clergymen asking for wom. stiff, in sermons on Mother's + Day, 407; + work in N. J. and W. Va, 448; + see Clergy. + + Churchill, Isabella, 102. + + Churchill, Mrs. Winston, 442. + + Citizenship Schools, 607; 690. + + Clapp, U. S. Sen. Moses E, invites natl. suff. conv. to St. Paul, + 382; 383; + on suff. platform, 459; 626. + + Clark, Speaker Champ, helps wom. suff, xxi; + name applauded at suff. conv, 402; + invites Dr. Shaw to Speaker's bench, 440; + assists Congressl. Com, 451; 515; + promises vote for Fed. Amend, 516; + supports creation of Com. on Wom. Suff, 524-5; + assists in vote for Fed. Amend, 562; + advises new res. for Amend, 577; + assists Amend, 629, 633-4-5; + promises vote for, 637; + endorses wom. suff, 708. + + Clark, Mrs. Champ, + greetings to natl. suff. conv, 341; + sends flowers to, 446. + + Clark, U. S. Rep. Clarence D. (Wyo.), 657. + + Clark, U. S. Rep. Frank (Fla.), 384. + + Clark, Gov. George W. (Iowa), 668. + + Clark, Mrs. Orton H, 425. + + Clark, Chief Justice Walter, 632. + + Clarke, Grace Julian, 670. + + Clarkson, Director U. S. Council of Natl. Defense Grosvenor B, tribute + to Dr. Shaw, 760. + + Clay, U. S. Sen. Alexander S, 291; 299. + + Clay, Laura, address to conv. 1901, 13; 20; 35; 42; 89; 98; 118; 127; + 140; 180; 202; 211; 220-1; 244; 260; 265; + responds to welcome of natl. suff. conv, 267; 282; 289; + every protection which manhood can offer to womanhood should be + extended, 305; + social order depends on women, 308; + founder and pres. Ky. Eq. Rights Assn, welcomes natl. suff. conv. + to Louisville; recalls visits of the pioneers, Lucy Stone and + Susan B Anthony; pays tribute to Men's Leagues for Wom. Suff, 311; + makes suff. address bef. House of Governors, 314; + has Natl. Suff. Bd. ask members of Cong, to empower woman to vote + for U. S. Senators, 314; 334; + for Fed. Elect. Bill, 424; + explains it, 452; + debate on future work of Natl. Assn, 486; + speaks on U. S. Elections Bill, 495; + conv. endorses, 501; 504; + wants form of Fed. Amend, changed, 561; + work for Fed. Elections Bill, 659, 660, 669; + vice-pres. South Wom. Conf, 671. + + Clay, Mary B, 208. + + Clayton, Judge Henry D, + presides at House hearing on wom. suff, photographed, 354; + asks questions, 360-1; + promises consideration and offers to "frank" the hearing reports, + 363; 389. + + Clement, Gov. Percival W. (Vt.), 653. + + Clergy, in New Orleans endorse wom. suff, 56, 64, 68, 70; + in Washtn, 98; + objections reviewed, 138; + changed attitude, 141; + in Canada, 259; + testimony in equal suff. States, 398. + See names in footnotes of first 19 chapters of those officiating + at natl. suff. convs. + + Cleveland, President Grover, + Dr. Shaw answers, 125; 131; + she criticizes article against women's clubs, 158; + second against wom. suff, 163; 166; 175. + + Cockran, Mrs. Bourke, 258. + + Codman, Mrs. J. M, 679. + + Coe, Mrs. Henry Waldo, 120; 134. + + Coggeshall, Mary J, 43; 89; + tributes to, 139; 212; + bequest to Natl. Suff. Assn, 442; + used for Iowa campn, 485. + + Colby, Secretary of State Bainbridge, proclaims Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, + vi; xxiii; 652; + effort to enjoin, 653-4; + brings message from Pres. Wilson to suff. mass meeting, 652; + Men's Anti-Suff. Assn. tries to prevent proclaiming Amend, 681-2. + + Colby, Clara Bewick, Industrial Problems of Women, 19; 31; 35; + shows Govt. and civil service unfair to women, 44; + same, 63; + ed. of _Woman's Tribune_, 132; 254; + addresses House Judic. Com, describes past hearings, Mrs. Stanton's + and Miss Anthony's speeches, 428; + life work for Fed. Elections Bill, 452, 658; + memorial to, 540. + + College Women's Equal Suffrage League, formed, 159; + object of, 171; + fully org. in 1908, evening at natl. suff. conv, 226, 229-30; + at natl. suff. conv. of 1909, 255; + of 1910, 283; + of 1911, 319; + has an evening at conv, noted speakers, 320-1; + debate at natl. suff. conv. in 1912 bet. suffs. and pretended + "antis", 342; + in 1914, 425; + in 1915, 450; 483; + deputation calls on President, 626; + sketch of; organization, officers, 661-2-3; + great force for wom. suff, 662; + results among college women, 663; + Pres. M. Carey Thomas's contribution, league dissolves, 664. + + College Women's Evening at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 167; + program of eminent speakers, 168; + all tell of indebtedness to suff. leaders, 168-173; + Miss Anthony's response, 173. + + Collins, Emily P, 208. + + Collins, Franklin W, anti-suff, 354. + + Colorado, + effect of wom. suff, 52; + eminent speakers testify as to wom. suff, 100-105; + Gov. Adams, Mrs. Grenfell and others refute charges, 112-115; + U. S. Sen. Shafroth on election frauds, 114; + highest testimony exonerates women, 114; + wom. suff. re-affirmed by large majority, 115; + Sen. Shafroth testifies as to wom. suff, 298; + Rep. Rucker, same, 308; + Men's Defense League, 312; + Mrs. Dorr's article, 314; + Richard Barry's slanders in _Ladies Home Journal_; + thousands of copies of Miss Blackwell's answer sent to editor by + women with protest, 314; + report on wom. suff. by Rep. Taylor, 355, 357; + women satisfied with suff, 393; + Sen. Shafroth answers charges against it, 444; + State gives wom. suff, 624. + + Committee on Rules, + natl. suff. conv. asks for an especial Com. on Wom. Suff, 373; + grants a hearing in Dec, 1913, Dr. Shaw presides, "antis" out in + force, 383; + names of com, tie vote on reporting res, 397; + grants a hearing 1917 and creates Wom. Suff. Com, 525, 548-9; + names of Rules Com, 548; + sets time for suff. debate in House, 593; 628; + action of House Judic. Com, 631; + Mrs. Park's report of Com. on Rules, 634-5. + + Committee on Woman Suffrage, + the natl. conv. of 1913 makes strenuous effort for in Lower House; + appeals to Pres. Wilson to recommend, he approves, 373-376; + three res. for presented, 380; + Rep. Edward T. Taylor's referred to Com. on Rules, which grants + hearings; "antis" out in force, 383; + names of com, 384; + tie vote on reporting, 397; + in 1917 Pres. Wilson approves; Speaker Clark supports; all members + from equal suff. States sign petition, 524; + Com. on Rules grants hearing; creates desired com.; vote on, 525; + House Judic. Com. had prevented it for years, 537-8; + hearing for bef. Com. on Rules, May, 1917, 548; + com. appointed, 549; + it gives 4 days' hearing on Fed. Amend.; names of com, 577; + reports favorably to House, 593; + effort for com. in Lower House, 626, defeated, 628; + full report, Pres. Wilson favors, House votes for, 633; + names of com, 634; + Judic. Com. hostile, 634; + friendly "steering" com. names, 635. + + Committees, + of National American Woman Suffrage Association (special) for war + work, 723, 725, 727, 730, 734; + on State Councils of Natl. Defense, 726. + + Committees, Senate, on Wom. Suff, 626; 632; 642; 645. + + Conger-Kanecko, Josephine, 419. + + Congress, United States, + deaf to appeals for wom. suff, xvii, xviii; + converted, xxi; + votes on Fed. Amend, xxiii; + no power to give wom. suff, xxiii; + committees urged by suff. leaders to appt. com. to investigate + results of equal suff, 49, 54, 353; + they refuse, 54, 62, 363; + many members kind and helpful, 508; + first petitioned for wom. suff, 618-19; + submits 14th and 15th Amends, 619-20; + receives first petition for 16th, 622-3; + insurgency in, 625; + no. of members elected by women, 643; + James Madison says it has right to confer suff, 657. + + Congressional Committee of National American Woman Suffrage + Association, Mrs. Catt reports for, 62; + Emma M. Gillett's report; com. entered upon polit. work; letters + sent to candidates for Cong. asking opinion on wom. suff.; dif. + bet. Dems. and Repubs, 319; + com. for 1913, tribute to by natl. cor. secy.; assn. cooperates, + 366-368; + in 1910-11-12, Mrs. William Kent chmn, 377; + declines to serve longer, Alice Paul appt.; report for 1913; + hearings bef. Senate and House coms.; processions, pilgrimages, + deputations to Pres. Wilson, State campns, press work, etc; fav. + report from Senate com.; reasons for progress, new Congressl. Com. + appt, names of, headqrs, 380-1; + Washtn. and Chicago officers, Mrs. Medill McCormick's work, + 403-4; 409; + com. for 1914, 411; + protest against Congressl. Union's effort for Dem. caucus on forming + Wom. Suff. Com, 412; + members of Cong. canvassed, 413; + Shafroth Amend. decided on, 414-15; + attends hearing on the original amend, 415; + its lobby, publicity and campn. work, 418-422; + self-denial day, the "melting pot," 419; + assists Neb, 421; + natl. conv. appreciates its work, 422; + on "blacklisting" candidates, 424; + Ethel M. Smith's report; members of Cong. catalogued, pressure from + women of home district to vote on Fed. Suff. Amend, checking up + records, votes compared with those on Prohib. Amend.; work in + Congressl. districts necessary to success, 448-450; + Mrs. Funk's report, important work for vote on Fed. Amend.; + for Shafroth Amend, 451; + Mrs. McCormick's report, 452, 465; + shows 6,500,000 votes cast for wom. suff. in 1915, 473; + instructed by natl. conv. to concentrate forces on Fed. Amend, 501; + report of work in 1916 by Mrs. Roessing, chmn, 503-511; + effort for Fed. Amend. in Cong, fav. report from Senate Com.; + Senators urged action, no vote taken, 503-4; + unfair treatment by House Judic. Com, 504. (See pages to 511.) + Names of Congressl. Com, headqrs, 506; + its work divided into depts, lobby work, 506-7; + report of Maud Wood Park, chmn, for 1917, 523-527; + headqrs. in Washtn, Mrs. Miller's report, 526-7; + report of Mrs. Park, 562-567; + see ref. under Fed. Amend, 562; + Mrs. Park praises members of com. and tells of their work; gives + names, 566; + at time of victory, 604; + its work under Alice Paul, 625; + under Ruth Hanna McCormick, 627-8; + under Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, 630; + under Maud Wood Park, 632; + her report on effort for a Wom. Suff. Com. in House, 633; 671; 673; + com. made up of many orgztns. under League of Women Voters, 701. + + _Congressional Record_, report of debate on Fed. Suff. Amend, 563. + + Congressional Union, (National Woman's Party), + organized to assist Natl. Congressl. Com.; headqrs.; large work; + first appears at natl. suff. conv. of 1913; Mrs. Catt will not + recognize; proves to be orgztn. to duplicate work of Natl. Amer. + Assn.; Natl. Bd. demands complete separation; it continues as + independt. society, 380-1; + urges Dems. in Cong. to caucus on forming Wom. Suff. Com.; + disastrous result, decides on policy of fighting party in power, + 412; 415; + names Fed. Amend. Susan B. Anthony, 423; + arr. suff. hearing, 427; + speakers urge Fed. Amend, 429-434; + difference in policy from Natl. Amer. Assn, 434, 471; + House Judic. Com. asks its size, 434; + fights the party in power, opp. re-election of best friends of wom. + suff; res. offered in natl. suff. conv. of 1915 for com. to secure + cooperation with Natl. Assn, 453; + each orgztn. appoints five; Union declines to change policy; will + duplicate the work of Assn. in States; no affiliation possible, + 454; + hope for dividing on lobby work given up, Union opens fight on Dem. + party, 455; + hearing bef. Senate com, 1915; + list of speakers, 466-7; + bef. House com, 473-476; + com. "heckles" speakers, 474-476; + result of its policy summed up, 475; + hearings bef. Senate and House Coms, 547-549; + account of orgztn. put in _Congressl. Record_, 571; + at last suff. hearing, 577, 585; + (Natl. Woman's Party) work with Congress, 629, 635; 656; + organized by Alice Paul, officers, headqrs, object, 675; + opp. party in power, convs. in San Francisco and Chicago, 676; + "picketing" and "militancy," jail sentences, reorganizes, presents + busts of pioneers to Cong, 677; + seeks Fed. Amend. for civil rights of women, Mrs. Belmont presents + headqrs. in Washtn, 678; + at natl. Repub. conv. 1916, 710; + at Dem. Natl. Conv, 719. + + Connecticut, + 98,000 women ask for Pres. suff. in vain, 602; + ratif. of Fed. Amend, 653. + + Conventions, annual, of National American Woman Suffrage Association, + in Minneapolis, 1901, 3; + Washington, 23; + New Orleans, 55; + Washington, 86; + Portland, Ore, 117; + Baltimore, 151; + Chicago, 193; + Buffalo, 213; + Seattle, 243; + Washington, 266; + Louisville, 310; + Philadelphia, 332; + Washington, 364; + Nashville, 398; + Washington, 439; + Atlantic City, 480; + Washington, 513; + St. Louis, 550; + Chicago (last), 594. + Names of speakers given in each: chronologically arranged in first + 19 chapters; tribute to in Anthony Biography, 22. + + Conventions, Woman's Rights, + first ever held, 618; + first in Washtn, 621. + + Conway, Rev. Moncure D, funeral service for Mrs. Stanton, 741. + + Cooke, Katharine, 100; 112. + + Cooke, Marjorie Benton, 326. + + Coover, Bertha, 328. + + Costello, Ray (England), tribute of Buffalo _Express_, 227; 286. + + Costigan, Mrs. Edward P, + on tour for ratif, 606; 650; 687; 690; + assn's. chmn. Food Supply and Demand, 694. + + Cotnam, Mrs. T. T, + shows injustice of Cong. to women, failure of America to stand by + its ideals, 490-1; + instructs suff. schools, 539; 541; 561; 610; + at service for Dr. Shaw, 611. + + Coudon, Chaplain Henry N, 540. + + Council of Women Voters, 484; 495. + + Court decisions, + on length of women's work day, 306-7; + in Ills, St. Supreme Court upholds Pres. suff, 407; + in Texas, Primary suff. for women constitutl, 602; + in Tenn. and Neb. Pres. and Munic. constitl, 602; + on Miss Anthony's voting under 14th Amend, 622; + on Mrs. Minor's attempt, 623; + on referendum of Fed. Amends, Ohio St. Sup. Ct, U. S. Sup. Ct, 652; + to prevent ratif. and proclaiming of Amend in D. C. and Md, 654-5; + U. S. Sup. Ct. decision, 655; + in D. C. on Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, 681; + in Md, on its ratif, 682; + in U. S. Sup. Ct. on its validity, 682. + + Cowles, Commssr. Grace Espey Patton, 146. + + Cowles, Mrs. Josiah Evans, 726. + + Cox, Gov. James M. (Ohio), + addresses wom. suff. conf, 670; + as presidential candidate receives League of Women Voters, 701. + + Cox, Mrs. Lewis J, 757. + + Craigie, Mary E, chmn. church work, + points out real opp. to wom. suff, 166: + church work for wom. suff. in Canada, 259; 260-1; + says church women are seeing need of suff, 267; + church not appreciating the resources lying dormant with two-thirds + of its membership disfranchised, 325; 338; 370; + on church work in 1914, 407; + church work most important to be done for wom. suff, must be + non-sectarian and omni-sectarian, 448. + + Crane, Rev. Caroline Bartlett, + women must vote as well as pray, 223; + addresses natl. suff. conv. in 1911, "politics a noble profession + in which women long to engage," 322; 333; + at mem. service for Dr. Shaw, 611; 703. + + Crane, U. S. Sen. W. Murray, 711. + + Crosby, John S, 39. + + Crossett, Ella Hawley, 67; + responds for New York, 215; 216; 262; + on N. Y. campn, 518. + + Crowley, Teresa A, 333; + on Mass. campn, 409; 444. + + Cuba, suff. soc. formed, 561. + + Cummings, Homer S, chmn. Dem. Natl. Com, + natl. suff. conv. thanks for help with Fed. Amend, 610; 638; + helps ratif. in Tenn, 651. + + Cummins, U. S. Sen. Albert B, 324. + + Cummins, Mrs. Albert B, 382. + + Cunningham, Minnie Fisher, 490; 556; 566; 570; + on suff. commssn. to West, 605; 650. + + + D. + + Dana, Paul, gives space in N. Y. _Sun_ for wom. suff, 14. + + Daniels, Secretary of the Navy Josephus, 382; 724. + + Daniels, Mrs. Josephus, 382; 515; 564. + + Dargan, Olive Tilford, 243. + + Darlington, Rt. Rev. James Henry, congratulates suffs. and scores + "antis," 345; 674. + + Darrow, Clara L, tells of defeat in N. Dak, 402; 421. + + Data Department (Research Bureau), org. 1915, 443. + + Davenport, Mrs. John D, 444. + + Davis, Dr. Katharine Bement, + elected natl. vice-pres, 425; 456; 459; + asks wom. suff. in the interest of good morals, 496; 499. + + Day, Lucy Hobart, 48; 94; 98; 224. + + De Baun, Anna, with Natl. Suff. Pub. Co, 482. + + Deborah, 64; 69. + + Decker, Sarah Platt, 258. + + Declaration of Principles, + presented to natl. conv. 1904, 87; 106; + in full, reasons for demanding wom. suff, 742. + + Deering, Mabel Craft, 133. + + Delano, Jane, Red Cross and the War, 533. + + Delemater, Eric, organist at mem. service for Dr. Shaw, 612. + + De Merritte, Laura, 63. + + Democratic National Committee, gives natl. suff. com. list of its + candidates for Cong, 319; + receives suff. speakers, 440; + natl. suff. conv. thanks chmn. for help with Fed. Amend, 610; 638; + 648; 651-2; + urges Gov. Roberts to call spec. session of Tenn. Legis. to ratify + Fed. Suff. Amend, 718. + + Democratic National Conventions, Dr. Shaw describes one in Balto, 371; + in 1916 refuses plank for Fed. Amend. but endorses wom. suff, + 480; 505; + action on wom. suff. planks in 1904, 703; + in 1908, 704; + in 1912, 707; + great struggle in 1916, 710-12; + in 1920 League of Women Voters' planks accepted, 701; + women welcomed, strong Fed. Amend. plank adopted, full polit. recog. + granted, 717-719. + + Democratic Party, hostile to wom. suff, adopts plank, xxi; + vote in Cong, xxiii; + members in Cong. caucus against Wom. Suff. Com, 397, 412; + Senators for State's rights, 413-14; + reasons for holding it responsible for Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, 429; + early leaders ignored State's rights, 430; + this argument against wom. suff. demolished by its own record, + 430-432; + not strong enough in Cong. to submit Fed. Suff. Amend, 455; + candidates for Cong. fought by Congressl. Union, 474; + vote of members of Cong. on Wom. Suff. Com, 525; + on Fed. Suff. Amend, 562-3, 565; + folly in leaving victory to Repubs, 564; + unfair caucus on Fed. Amend, 565, 642; + members in Cong. responsible for delay of Fed. Suff. Amend, 598. + + Democratic Vote in Congress on Fed. Amend, 624, 627, 629, 636, 640, + 642, 644, 646; + see 647-8-9. + + Denison, Flora MacDonald, 540. + + Denmark, greeting to suff. conv. in U. S, 135; 213; 243. + + Dennett, Mary Ware, elected natl. cor. secy, 282; 289; + in report of 1911, tells of vast work of natl. suff. headqrs. in + New York; pushed plan of polit. dist. orgztn; sent out tens of + thousands of suff. stamps and seals and scores of thousands of + leaflets; letters to members of Cong. to give women a vote in + direct election of U.S. Senators, etc, 313; + re-elected, 324; + report for 1912; 3,000,000 pieces of literature published, 250 kinds + of printed matter, reference library established, 335; + report 1913, suff. bills passed by ten Legislatures; campns, + parades, tours, petitions, mass meetings, work with Cong, + delegations to Europe, 366-368; + report for 1914; record of State amends, tribute to Mrs. Medill + McCormick, nation-wide work of speakers and organizers, women's + Independence Day, 403-5; + resigns office, 405; + supports Shafroth Amend, 423. + + De Rivera, Belle, 181. + + Devine, Edward T, 258. + + Devlin, T. C, 122. + + De Voe, Emma Smith, welcomes delegates to St. of Wash, 244; 247; 254; + 257; 263-4; 495; 561; 568. + + Dewey, Dr. Nina Wilson, 407. + + Dexter, Mrs. Wirt, 542. + + Dickinson, Mary Lowe, 258. + + "Dix, Dorothy," Elizabeth M. Gilmer, speaks to colored women's club, + 60; + addresses conv. on The Woman with a Broom, 78; + gives "Mirandy's Reason Why Women Can't Vote, No Backbone," 284. + + Dodge, Mrs. Arthur M, presides at hearing bef. Rules Com, opposes Wom. + Suff. Com. in Lower House, 391; + speaks bef. House Judic. Com. against Fed. Suff. Amend, 436-7; + urges Senate com. not to report Amend, 467; + tells House com. women are willing to be represented by men, 476; + says her assn. believes women should have School suff. but not take + part in politics and govt; question should be submitted to women; + tax paying men can look after rights of tax paying women; men of + Kans. didn't know what they were doing and women wish they hadn't + suff, 477; + is told these statements contrary to facts, 477; + at Senate com. hearing, 548; 679; + at Natl. Repub. Conv, 711. + + Dorman, Marjorie, 437. + + Dorr, Rheta Childe, article on Colorado Women Voters, 314; 367; + edits wom. suff. paper, 379; 547. + + Dos Passos, John R, says suff. would convert women into beasts, 437-8. + + Doty, Madeline Z, 548. + + Douglas, Judith Hyams, restriction put upon women came from man not + God, 220-2. + + Douglass, Frederick, 621. + + Downey, Elvira, 668. + + Dreier, Mrs. H. Edward, 381; 411. + + Drewsen, Mrs. Gudrun, 27: 40; + addresses Senate com. on wom. suff. in Norway, 48. + + Du Bois, Dr. W. E. Burghardt, 343. + + Dudley, Mrs. Guilford, + welcomes natl. suff. conv. to Nashville, 398; + on changed attitude of southern women toward suff; + now demand it, 491-2; + elected natl. vice-pres, 541; 554-5; 559; 561; 566; + at last suff. hearing, 578; + repudiates State's rights doctrine as applied to wom. suff; + discusses negro vote, 580. + + Duniway, Abigail Scott, 13; 45; + meets delegates to Portland suff. conv, 119; + writes ode, presents gavel to Dr. Shaw, 120; + tour with Miss Anthony in '71, tribute to both, 121; + makes fine address, 123; + tells of her paper the _New Northwest_, tribute to _Woman's + Journal_, 132; + speaks at unveiling of Sacajawea statue, 133; + son wants her to vote, she receives full recog, 141; 144; + reminis. of pioneer suff. days in northwest, 245; 254; 341. + + Duniway, Willis, 141. + + Dunlap, Flora, 485; 668-9. + + Dunn, Arthur, 418. + + Dunne, Mayor and Gov. Edward F. (Ills.), 197-8. + + Dye, Eva Emery, 133; 255; 260. + + Dyer, U. S. Rep. Leonidas C. (Mo.), 631. + + + E. + + Eager, Harriet A, 188. + + Eaker, Helen N, 337. + + Eastman, Max, + on need of politics to develop women; + will improve family life, 285. + + Eaton, Dr. Cora Smith, + tribute to, 17; 35; 37; 42-3; 68; + tribute to Pioneers, 142; 145; 150; 264; + see King. + + Eberhard, Gov. Adolph O. (Minn.), 382. + + Eddy, Sarah J, portrait of Miss Anthony, 744. + + Edson, Katharine Philips, 559. + + Education, opportunities for women, iv. + + Educational Qualifications for Suffrage, 32, 66, 76; + plea of Mrs. Swift, 77; + argument of Mayor Rudolph Blankenburg, 77-8; + Mrs. Gilman objects, 78; + natl. suff. conv. votes in favor but not policy of assn, 78; + Miss Kearney's demand for it, 82; + Mrs. Catt approves, 89; + Miss Mills for, 110. + + Edwards, Mrs. Richard E, 559; 570; 610; 689; 717. + + Eichelberger, J. S, at last suff. hearing; grilled by members of com, + 584. + + Election of Officers of National American Suffrage Association, + in 1901, 17; + in 1902, 43; + in 1903, 67; + in 1904, 107; + in 1905, 145; + in 1906, 161; + in 1907, 204; + in 1908, 238; + in 1909, 260; + in 1910, 282; + in 1911, 324; + in 1912, 342; + in 1913, 373; + in 1914, 424; + in 1915, 456; + in 1916, 501; + in 1917, 540-1; + in 1919, directors elected, 559, + old board continued, 574; + in 1920, 595, 600-1; + list of officers at beginning of first 19 chapters; + newspapers compliment election methods, 238. + + Eliot, Rev. Thomas L. and Mrs, 121. + + Ellicott, Mrs. William M, 183; 319. + + Ely, Richard T, for wom, suff, 196. + + Engle, Mrs. L. H, 540. + + Equal Guardianship, 327. + + Etz, Anna Cadogan, 219. + + Eustis, William Henry, 7. + + Evald, Emmy, 40-1; + addresses House com. on status of women in Sweden, 51; + urges wom. suff. in U. S, 52. + + Evans, Ernestine, 548; 585. + + Evans, Mrs. Glendower, + bef. House Judic. Com, 429; + closes hearing with eulogy of Pres. Wilson, stirs com, 434; + bef. Senate com, 466; + debate on future work of Natl. Assn, 487. + + Evans, Sarah A, 120. + + + F. + + Fairbanks, Vice-President Charles W, 191; 705. + + Fairchild, Charles S, 653-4; 680; 682. + + Fall, U. S. Sen. Albert B, 711. + + Fallows, Bishop Samuel, + espouses cause of wom. suff, 104; + officiates at Dr. Shaw's mem. service, 611. + + Farmer Labor Party and Committee of 48 on League of Women Voters' + planks, 700. + + Farraday, Mabel, 448. + + Farrar, Edgar H, 57. + + Fawcett, Millicent Garrett (Mrs. Henry), hon. pres. of British Natl. + Union, writes chapter for History, iii; + tribute to Dr. Shaw, 761. + + Federal Amendments, + 14th, defines citizenship, puts "male" in Natl. Constitution, 619; + 15th guarantees male suff, women protest, 620; + women demand 16th, 622; + try to vote under 14th, Miss Anthony arrested, 622; + Mrs. Minor brings suit, 623; + res. for 16th presented in Cong, first hearings granted, 623; + reports of committees, first Senate vote, 624; + for income tax and election of U. S. Senators, 625. + + Federal Elections Bill, + natl. conv. approves, 424; + introd. in Cong, Miss Clay explains, 452; + natl. conv. endorses, 501; 504; + see U. S. Elections Bill. + + Federal Enfranchisement of Men, + natl. constl. conv. and naturalization act enfranchised most men in + U. S. religious and property tests abolished, 745-6; + congressl. action gave suff. to negro and Indian men; only women + sent to States, 746. + + Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment, + effect on laws for women and office holding, iv; + natl. assn's. work for, vi, xvii, 1, 2; + vote taken, xxii; + submitted and 6,000 legislators vote for, xxiii; + proclaimed, text of, xxiv; + work described in full in first 20 chapters; + plan of work for, 8; + petitions for in 1913, 368; + Natl. Assn's. work for, 369; + Pres. Wilson urged to recommend, 373-376; + great effort for in 1913, 378-380; + Senate Com. reports favorably, 380; + Dem. members of Cong. caucus against, 397; + in danger of being replaced, 411; + status in 1914 in Senate and House, 412-13; + receives majority vote in Senate but not two-thirds; + votes in the past, 413; + re-introduced by Sen. Bristow, 415; + hearing bef. House Com, 415, 426; + Amend. reported, 417; + sometimes called Susan B. Anthony Amend, 423. + For arguments on see Congressl. Hearings and conv. speeches. + Voted on first time in House of Representatives, 439; + first measure introd. in Cong, in 1915, 440; + Dr. Shaw asks Pres. Wilson to use his influence for, 440; + conv. speeches show work for it paramount, 444; + Com. on Rules reports it; + pressure by women on members of Cong. from their districts, 449; + natl. suff. conv. 1915, resolves to work only for original Fed. + Amend, 452; + strong demand for it, 460-1; + lost in Senate and House, 1914-15, new hearings granted by + committees, 461; + southern women appeal for, 472; + record of Dem. and Repub. members of Cong, 474-5; + Prog. Prohib. and Soc. natl. convs. declare for, 480; + debate at Atlantic City suff. conv. on continuing work for, 486; + vote largely in favor, 487; + object lesson in its necessity, 488; + Mrs. Catt says only way to wom. suff, 489; + natl. conv. resolves to concentrate all its resources on getting it + through Cong, 501; + Congressl. Com. report of great "drive" for, 503; + members of Lower House from equal suff. States have hearing for bef. + House Judic. Com, 504; + nation-wide plan of work for, 510; + conditions at end of 1917 favorable to, 514; + delegates to natl. suff. conv. discuss it with their Senators and + Representatives, many pledged, 516; + Mrs. Catt says Cong. must deal with, 517; + Pres. Wilson reaches a belief in, 520; + Mrs. Catt's strong plea for, 520-1; + issues nation-wide appeal, 523; + her book on, 532; + Mrs. Shuler reports work for all over the country, 538-9; + Natl. Assn. will campaign against enemies in Cong, 542; + Cong. urged to submit as a War measure, 543; + hearings bef. coms. of Cong, 545-549; + Lower House votes in favor, Senate defeats, 1918, 550-1; + nation-wide campaign by Natl. Amer. Assn, 554-557; + Pres. Wilson sends best wishes for, 558; + change of form proposed, conv. refuses, 561; + no merging of assn. till Fed. Amend, secured, 561; + Mrs. Park's report, complete summary; + House Judic. Com. tries to defeat; + Pres. Wilson advises the Amend, 562; + Wom. Suff. Com. appt. gives five days' hearing; + Speaker Clark assists; + five hours' debate, 562; + vote in House; five days' discussion in Senate; Pres. Wilson's + appeal in person; vote, Oct. 1918, 563, 761; + second appeal from the President; + vote in Feby, 1919, 565; + twenty-five State Legislatures call for submission, 564; + Dem. caucus opposes, 565; + Natl. Assn. continues its efforts, 574; + last hearing bef. com. of Cong, 577; + Roosevelt and Pres. Wilson support; + not to ask for it would be treason, 579; + Pres. Wilson urges, 583; + sentiment in South, 580, 582-3, 588-9, 590; + four days' hearing ends; favorable report, debate in Lower House + and vote to submit, 593; + record of ratifications, 598; + Governors called on by natl. suff. conv. for spec. sessions, 600; + strenuous work for from natl. suff. headqrs. in New York and Washtn, + under Mrs. Catt's supervision, 604; + great "drive" for ratification, 604-606. + Entire chapter on Amend, 618; + first petitions for, 619; + first resolutions for in Cong, 621; + first vote in Senate, 1887, 624; + discussed, 626; + second vote, 1914, 627; + first vote in Lower House, 629; + struggle for second, 635; + vote, 636-7; + action of House Judic. Com, 627-8-9, 631; + Senate com. gives hearing and makes favorable report, 633; + difficulty in Senate, 637-8; + 1,000 prominent men petition for, 638; + five days' debate, 639; + vote, Oct. 1, 1918, 640; + vote, Feb. 10, 1919; analyzed by States, 642; + final vote in House, analyzed by States, 644; + debate in Senate, final vote, signed by Vice-pres. and Speaker, 645-6; + friends and foes, 641-646; + table of votes, 647. + See Ratification. + Proclaimed by Secy. of State, 652; + many law suits; U. S. Sup. Ct, decides in favor, 653-655; + opp. by women's Anti-Suff. Assns, 679; + by men's, 681-2; + record of polit. natl. convs, 702-719; + appeals for amend, in 1912, 709; + at Repub. natl. conv, 1916, 711; + at Dem, 712; + great change, 715; + endorsed by all parties at natl. convs, 1920, 714, 717, 718; + indebtedness to bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie, 755; + Pres. Wilson's address to Senate in its favor, 761. + + Federal Woman Suffrage Association, + at hearings, 383, 427, 428; + organized, officers, object, 656; + memorializes Cong. and polit. convs; + at Columbian Expos, 657; + Congressl. hearings on bills, conv. in San Francisco, 678; + Miss Clay's U. S. Elec. bill, 659. + + Federation of Women's Clubs, + Genl. and State, endorse wom. suff, xix; + Genl. Fedn. invites suff. speaker, 206; + cooperates with Natl. Suff. Assn, 210; + sends first greeting to natl. suff. conv, 215; + causes "epidemic of suffrage meetings," 313; + in States, bills show civic conscience, 350; + Genl Fedn, 638. + + Feickert, Lillian J, + on N. J. campn, 409; 444; + at Anthony celebr, 615. + + Fels, Joseph, 340-1. + + Fels, Mrs. Joseph, 542. + + Fensham, Florence (Turkey), 42. + + Ferguson, Gov. James E. (Texas), 713. + + Fernald, Fannie J, 194. + + Fessenden, Susan, 176; 185; 188. + + Field, Mrs. Cyrus W, 372; 405. + + Field, Sara Bard, + motors from San Francisco to Washtn. with suff. petition, 466-7; + bef. House Judic. Com, 476; + at natl. Repub. conv, 711. + + Finley, Dr. Caroline, + work in women's Oversea Hospitals during the war, 733; + decorated by Prince of Wales, 735. + + Finnegan, Annette, 669. + + Fitch, Dean Florence M, 664. + + FitzGerald, Susan Walker, 286; + asks suff. for home makers, 300; + elected natl. rec. secy, 324; 326; + at Senate hearing, 347; 425; 456; 556. + + Flags, + Miss Barton's at Intl. Suff. Conf.; the suff. flag, 24; + Penn. suff. assn. presents one to Natl, 501; + Dr. Shaw's tribute to flag of U. S, 511; + "service" flag of assn, 517; + Dr. Shaw's tribute to American, 758. + + Fleischer, Rabbi Charles, 258. + + Fleming, Stephen B, 713. + + Fletcher, U. S. Sen. Duncan U, 640. + + Formad, Dr. Marie (France), 733. + + Foss, Samuel Walter, 328. + + Foster, J. Ellen, 42; 109. + + Foster, Genl. John W, 467. + + Foster, Mabel, 266. + + Foster, U. S. Rep. Martin D. (Ills.), 548. + + Fouke, Mrs. Philip B, 560. + + Foulke, Commissr. William Dudley, 38; 64; 178; 258. + + Foxcroft, Frank, 678. + + Fray, Ellen Sully, 17; 106. + + Frazer, Helen, tells of British women's war work, which brought suff, + 544; 576. + + Freeman, Elizabeth, 333. + + Freeman, Mary Wilkins, for wom. suff, 297. + + Frelinghuysen, U. S. Sen. Joseph S, as St. Senator approves School + suff. for women, 320; 565; 640. + + French, U. S. Rep. Burton L. (Ida.), 658. + + French, Mrs L. Crozier, 395; + welcomes natl. suff. conv. to Nashville, 398; 425. + + French, Rose, 317. + + Friedland, Sofja Levovna, 28; 40; 45; + addresses House com. on status of woman in Russia, 50; 73. + + Friends' Equal Rights Association, 42; + orgztn. and work for wom. suff, 664-667. + + Frierson, Solicitor General William L, 654. + + Fry, Susannah M. D, 194. + + Fuller, Mrs. B. Morrison, 553. + + Fuller, Chief Justice Melville Weston, decision on appointment of + presidential electors, 130. + + Funck, Emma Maddox, arranges for and welcomes natl. suff. conv. in + Balto, 151; + it passes vote of thanks, 180. + + Funck, Dr. William, 180. + + Funk, Antoinette, work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370; 381; 409; + on Congressl. Com, 411; + bef. House Judic. Com, refers to new Fed. Suff. Amend, 415-16; + explains and defends Shafroth Amend, to natl. suff. conv, 416-418; + report of campn. work in western States; found liquor interests + active; travels 8,000 miles, 419-422; + re-appointed vice chmn, 424; + foreshadows new Fed. Amend, at Congressl. hearing, 427; + chmn. Campn. and Survey Com, work in N. J. campn, 447; + report for Congressl. Com, 451; 454; 503; + resigns from com, 506; 726; + sponsor for Shafroth Palmer Amend, 747-8. + + + G + + Gage, Matilda Joslyn, writes Women's Declaration of Rights, 333. + + Gains, for wom. suff. in 1907, 213; + in 1908, 243. + + Gale, Zona, 425; + offers res. to unite work of Natl. Suff. Assn. and Congressl. Union, + 453-4. + + Gannett, Mrs. William C, chmn. com. for Anthony mem. bldg, 201-2; + women's duty to want to vote, 234; + work for bldg, 744. + + Gano, Eveline, shows disadvantage to teachers in having no vote, + quotes New York, 293. + + Gardener, Helen H, arr. parade to carry Fed. Amend, petition to Cong, + 275; + "unstinted personal service," 336; + tells how to get Congressl. docs, 373; 381; + urges appt. of Com. on Wom. Suff, 384; + on Congressl. Com, 411; + bef. House Judic. Com, quotes Bryan's declaration that Pres. Wilson + insists the Govt. must derive just powers from consent of governed + and applies it to women's demand for suff, 435-6; + arr. for natl. suff. conv, 1917, 515; + asks Pres. Wilson for letter on forming Com. on Wom. Suff, 524; + called "diplomatic corps," 525; + elected natl. vice-pres, 541; + bef. Rules Com, 549; + natl. suff. conv. sends greeting, 559; + vice-chmn. Congressl. Com, 567; 604; + secures space in Smithsonian Inst. for suff. exhibit; offers res. of + thanks to Inst, 609; + at Anthony celebr, 615; 635. + + Gardner, Gov. Frederick D. (Mo.), for wom. suff, 526. + + Gardner, Mrs. Gilson, 454; 675. + + Garrett, U. S. Rep. Finis J. (Tenn.), 548. + + Garrett, Mary E, entertainments for natl. suff. conv. in Balto, + 152-167; + conv. sends letter of thanks, 180; + invitations "to meet Miss Anthony," account of functions, + distinguished women house guests, 182; + with Dr. Thomas raises large fund for suff. work, 183, 258; 289; 661. + + Garrett, Mrs. Robert, 391; 679. + + Garrett-Thomas Suffrage Fund, 235, 253. + + Garrison, Eleanor, 571. + + Garrison, Francis J, 674. + + Garrison, William Lloyd, 244. + + Garrison, William Lloyd, Jr, 258; + mem. service at natl. suff. conv, 1910; + tributes of Dr. Shaw and Mrs. McCulloch, 277-280. + + Garvin, Florence, 661. + + Garwood, Omar E, 312; + secy. Natl. Men's League, 674. + + Gay, U. S. Sen. Edward J, opp. Fed. Suff. Amend, 565; 642-3; 646. + + Gellhorn, Mrs. George, welcomes natl. suff. conv, 554; 559; 668; 689; + 690; 699; 717. + + George, Mrs. A. J, 391; + in anti-suff. speech attacks Mormons, says suffs. place their cause + above needs of country, 467-8; + makes State's rights argument bef. House com, 478; 548; 710-11. + + German American Alliance, anti-suff. work in Ky, 388. + + Germany, venerates suff. pioneers, 28. + + Geyer, Rose Lawless, press work in Iowa campn, 485; + report to natl. conv, 494; 528; + report on natl. press work, 531; + instructs suff. schools, 539; + tribute to her work, 571. + + Gibbons, Cardinal, Dr. Shaw answers, 125; + Mrs. Harper answers, 131; + opp. women's societies, Dr. Shaw criticizes, 158. + + Gilbert, Judge Hiram, on Shafroth Suff. Amend, 414. + + Gilder, Richard Watson, 296. + + Gildersleeve, Dean Virginia C, 613; 663. + + Gillett, Emma M, 218; + report as chmn. of Congressl. Com, 319. + + Gillett, Speaker Frederick H, 584; 646. + + Gillmore, Inez Haynes, 661. + + Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 71; + mem. poem, 74; + on educated suff, 78; + describes Lester F. Ward's biolog. theory of the sexes, 92; 110; + 133; 140; + on "hand that rocks the cradle," 149; + woman's right to citizenship, 220; + economic dependence cause of immorality, 224; 244; 260; 262; 265; + 289. + + Giltner, Prof. William S, 133. + + Glasgow, Ellen, for wom. suff, 297. + + Glass, U. S. Sen. Carter, 719. + + Gleason, Kate, 341. + + Goddard, Mary Catherine, Congress ignored her paper in days of + Revolution, 156. + + Goldenberg, Rosa H, 152. + + Goldstein, Vida, 40-1; 43; + addresses Senate com. on wom. suff, in Australia and New Zealand, + 49; + candidate for Senate, 91. + + Gompers, Samuel, 86; + greeting to suff. conv, 135; 208; 258; 703; 731. + + Goodlett, Caroline Meriwether, 328. + + Goodrich, Gov. James P. (Ind.), 551. + + Goodrich, Sarah Knox, 106. + + Gordon, Anna A, 28. + + Gordon, Rev. Eleanor, 140. + + Gordon, Jean, 56; + welcomes Miss Anthony to New Orleans, 57; + receives testimonial from natl. suff. conv, 84; + address on duty of women of leisure to workingwomen, 231; 286; 425. + + Gordon, Kate M, elected natl. cor. secy, 17; + report in 1902, chivalry in Ala, 34-36; 56; + welcomes natl. suff. conv. to New Orleans, 57; + report of year's work, 60; 61; + receives loving cup, 84; + tells of Dr. Shaw's southern tour attitude of South, 87-8; 89; + report in 1905, 127; + protests against southern members' attitude on wom. suff, 188; + shows need of personal acquaintance of suff. leaders with editors, + politicians, teachers, women's clubs; appeals for funds for Ore. + campn, 161; + tells of women's Munic. suff. in New Orleans, 195-6; 202; 208; + 211; 214; + describes interview with Pres. Roosevelt, 217; + arr. hearings, 217; 244; + tells of liquor dealers' fight on wom. suff. in Ore, 247; + urges suff. assn. to use polit. methods, 248; + resigns as cor. secy, convention thanks, 260; 263-4; + elected vice-pres, 283; 287; 324; 400; + debate on future work of Natl. Assn, 486; 668; + org. Southern Wom. Suff. Conf 671; 673; + at Dem. natl. conv, 1912, 703-4. + + Gordon, Laura de Force, 137. + + Gordon, Dr. Margaret (Canada), 597. + + Graddick, Laura J, working women polit. nonentities forced to compete + with those having full polit. rights, 304. + + Graham, Frances W, 215. + + Gram, Elizabeth, 585. + + Grand Army of Republic, for wom. suff, 435. + + Grange, National and State, endorses wom. suff, 206; + always for it, Dr. Shaw a member, 247; + Natl, 392. + + Grant, M. Louise, 662. + + Gray, James, 7. + + Great Britain, wom. suff. work not finished, iii; xxii; + official and polit. status of women, 52; + women made eligible to office, 213; + women's demonstratn, "militancy," situation in Parliament, 237-8; + "militant" movement, 281; + enfranchises women, 551; + chapter on in Vol. VI. + + Greeley, Helen Hoy, 314; 372. + + Greene, Judge Roger S, 144. + + Greenleaf, Halbert S, 204. + + Gregg, Laura, 18; 20; edits _Progress_, 35; 71; 110; + indifferent women real enemy to equal suff, 235; 261; 404. + + Gregory, Dr. Alice, work in women's Oversea Hospitals during the war, + 733. + + Gregory, Mrs. Thomas W, 515. + + Grenfell, Helen Loring, describes effect of wom. suff. in Colo, 102; + 105; + refutes charges against women, 113. + + Grew, Mary, 334. + + Griffin, Frances A, 65. + + Grim, Harriet, 236; 283; 404; 668; 703. + + Gruening, Martha, 662. + + Guernsey, Mrs. George Thatcher, pres. genl. D. A. R, 515. + + Guild, Mrs. Charles E, 678. + + Gulick, Alice Gordon, 106. + + + H + + Hackstaff, Priscilla D, 10; 13; 62; + work on natl. petit, 258; 703. + + Haggart, Dr. Mary E, 146. + + Hale, Rev. Edward Everett, 98. + + Hale, U. S. Sen. Frederick, 648. + + Haley, Margaret A, 37. + + Hall, Florence Howe (N. J.), speaks for her mother at conv. of 1906, + 185. + + Hall, Florence H. (Penn.), + in anti-suff. speech attacks Mormonism; + Sen. Sutherland objects, 467-8. + + Hall, Louise, 556. + + Hall, Dr. Stanley, 256. + + Hallinan, Charles T, 408; 418; + report of Natl. Publicity Dept; + tribute to Dr. Shaw; + orgztn. of Data Dept, 442-3. + + Hamilton, Mrs. L. A. (Canada), 400; + pres. natl. assn, 584. + + Hanaford, Rev. Phoebe A, last words for Mrs. Stanton, 741. + + Hanna, Mayor James R. (Des Moines), 669. + + Harbert, Elizabeth Boynton, 18; 20; 288; 559. + + Harding, U. S. Sen. Warren G, + votes for Fed. Suff. Amend, 516; + as Pres. candidate receives League of Women Voters, 701. + + Hardwick, U. S. Rep. Thomas W. (Ga.), 384; + discussion with Mrs. Catt at com. hearing, 390. + + Hardy, Jennie Law, 473. + + Harmon, Mrs. Anna, 658. + + Harper, Ida Husted, + tells of suff. dept. in N. Y. _Sun_, 14; 67; + presents Decl. of Principles to natl. conv, 87; + answers Cardinal Gibbons, 131; + presides at press conf, 1905, 131; + address, wom. suff. will come from the West, 135; + has interview with Pres. Roosevelt, 137; + articles on death of Miss Anthony, 204; + report as chmn. of Natl. Press Com, immense increase of notice of + wom. suff; appreciation of support of natl. press bureau by Mrs. + Belmont, 287-8; 315; + presents and supports res. that officers of Natl. Assn. must be + non-partisan, 342; 354; + bef. House Judic. Com, 1912, makes constitl. argument; + quotes from Presidents Taft and Roosevelt; + says women have been asking Cong. for Fed. Amend. 43 years; + shows St. amends. practically impossible; + no other country subjects women to this struggle; + answers questions, 359-361-2; + bef. House Com. on Rules; + asks appoint. of Com. on Wom. Suff; shows treatment of res. for a + Fed. Suff. Amend. by Judic. Coms. for over forty years; the + defeats in St. campns; the need of a Fed. Amend, 385-387; + no class of men in U. S. have lifted a finger to get suff. but women + have struggled 65 yrs, 395; + debate at Atlantic City conv. on future work of Natl. Assn, 487; + 527; + editorial dept. Leslie Bureau of Education, describes work with + editors, espec. for Fed. Amend; concrete results; many letters + to editors on "picketing" and results; change in southern papers, + 528-530; + natl. suff. conv. sends greeting, 559; + second report of dept. in Leslie Bureau; + letters to 2,000 editors; letters to and from ex-President + Roosevelt; work for Fed. Amend; 8,000 letters sent; articles to + _Intl. Suff. News_; change in character of editorials, 571-2; + prepares to finish History of Wom. Suff, 573; + conv. sends telegram of recog. for work on History, 610; + writes chapter on Fed. Suff. Amend. for History, 618; 658; + objections to Shafroth Palmer Amend, 748. + + Harriman, Mrs. J. Borden, in war service, 517; 526; + on Congressl. Com, 567. + + Harrison, U. S. Rep. Pat (Miss.), 548; + U. S. Sen, 645. + + Hart, Gov. Louis F. (Wash.), urged to call spec. session, 600. + + Hartshorne, Myra Strawn, 286; 289. + + Harvey, Col. George, 205; 258. + + Haslup, Mary R, 152. + + Haskell, Oreola Williams, 181; 211. + + Hatch, Lavina, 106. + + Hathaway, Margaret, member Mont. Legis, 516; 540. + + Hauser, Elizabeth J, shares work of natl. suff. headqrs. in 1903, 61; + tells of work at conv. of 1904, 93; + in 1905, vast amount of literature distrib. res. secured from + convs, etc, 128; + describes the Statehood Protest of 400 orgztns. of women to Senate + com. against proposed bill for admitting new territories, 129; + 130; 135; + in 1906, endorsement of orgztns, 162; 163-4; + in 1907, describes vast work, 204-6; + headqrs. secy's. report for 1908; + thousands of articles furnished, hundreds of orgztns. endorse, 218; + presides at press conf, 219; + report for 1909, polit. work; + many endorsements, widely extended press work; + conv. thanks; + goes to N. Y. headqrs, 248-250; 287; 315; 485; 670; 690; + at Repub. Natl. Conv, 703; 754. + + Haver, Jessie R, on tour for ratif, 606; 687. + + Hawaii, + Natl. Assn. asks wom. suff. for, 11; + suff. soc. formed, 381, 561; + action of Cong. on wom. suff, 566. + + Hawk, George, takes referendum on Fed. Amend, to U. S. Sup. Ct, 652. + + Hay, Secy. of State John, 736. + + Hay, Mary Garrett, + at natl. conv, 1901, 10; + conv. thanks, 12; 21; + champion money raiser, 41; + report on organization, 61; + work on Fed. Amend. petition, 258; + arr. parade to carry it to Cong, 275; + tells how to organize, 444; + natl. conv. thanks for arr. Pres. Wilson's visit, 501; 503; + on Congressl. Com, 506; + shows why New York campn. was won, 519; + scores circular of Mrs. Wadsworth on New York victory; + gives figures to show not due to Socialist vote, 536-7; + elected natl. vice-pres, 541; + Repub. party gives important positions, 554-5; + does congressl. and war work, 555; + wants name of Natl. Assn. retained, 561; + on Congressl. steering com, 566; 568; + raises "budget" for 1919, 569; + offers res. to thank Governors who have called spec. sessions and + urge others to do so, 600; + great service in securing ratif. of Fed. Amend, 606; + raises money for League of Women Voters, 609, 698; + speaks on Women in Politics, 617; + at Repub. natl. conv, 1920, calls conf. of suffs; + they present plank to Res. Com, 716-17; + presides at meeting for women on Peace conf, 738. + + Hayden, U. S. Rep. Carl (Ariz.), 524; 549. + + Hays, Will H, chmn. Natl. Repub. Com, + natl. suff. conv. thanks for help with Fed. Amend, 610; + work for it, 638; + Mrs. Catt thanks in name of Natl. Amer. Suff. Assn. for his own and + party's support of Fed. Suff. Amend, 648; + helps in Tenn, 657. + + Headquarters, National Suffrage, in New York, xx; 34; + removed to Warren, O, 61; + important work described, 93; + see Hauser; + removed to New York, Mrs. Belmont assists financially, thanked by + natl. conv, 253; + Ills. dele. want them removed to Chicago, 319; + Natl. conv. votes to retain in New York, 341; + Mrs. Belmont offers res. to move to Washtn, 381; + Mrs. Roessing urges it, 506, 508; + Natl. Bd. decides not wise to move from New York but estab. branch + in Washtn, activities, 525-527; + closed, 604; 627; 632; + summary, in Rochester, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Warren, + O, and New York City, 754. + + Hearings, before Committees of Congress for quarter of a century, 46; + in 1902, names of Senate com, Miss Anthony hon. pres. Natl. Suff. + Assn. presides and pleads for a Fed. Suff. Amend; noted speakers, + 47; + bef. House Judic. Com, Mrs. Catt introd. foreign speakers, 50; + she and Dr. Shaw urge Cong. to appoint a com. to investigate results + of wom. suff, 49; 53-4; + in 1904 Miss Anthony presides at Senate hearing, her last; had + appealed to 17 Congresses; Mrs. Watson-Lister tells of wom. suff. + in Australia; a report promised, none made, 110-11; + House Judic. Com, Mrs. Catt presides; + urges a commsn. to investigate conditions in equal suff. States; + Sen. Shafroth, Gov. Adams and eminent Colo. women speak, 111-116; + in 1906, Miss Anthony, unable to attend; had missed but two hearings + in 37 years; Dr. Shaw presided at Senate, Mrs. Florence Kelley at + House; strong speeches but no report, 187-191; + in 1908, hearing given but convention not in session, 218; + in 1910, first in splendid new office bldgs; + names of Senate com; Dr. Shaw presides, tells of great petition + for Fed. Suff. Amend, just presented; introd. women speakers + representing different professions, 291-8; + closes with strong appeal for a report; + the chairman promises one, 299; + none ever made, 300; + bef. House Judic. Com. in 1910; + names of com; + Mrs. Kelley presides, tells of great petition; + many strong speeches along industrial lines, 300-309; + in 1912, arr. by Mrs. William Kent, 339; 346-363; + names of Senate com, 346; + of House com, 354; + in 1913, 382-397; + bef. Com. on Rules in 1913, Dr. Shaw presides, asks for a spec. com. + because Judiciary never reports suff. res, 384; + bef. House Judic. Com, in 1914, 427; + in 1915, bef. Senate, names of com, 462; + House, 469; + Representatives from equal suff. States bef. Judic. Com, list of, 504; + bef. Senate com, 1917, entire forenoon given, 545; + Apr. 26 to Natl. Wom. Party, 547; + May 3 to Anti-Suff. Assn, 548; + May 18 bef. Com. on Rules, 548; + bef. Wom. Suff. Com. last ever held, 577; + resume, 624; + Mrs. Park's report, 633; 635. + + Heaslip, Charles T, 494. + + Hebard, Dr. Grace Raymond, 484; 610; + at Anthony celebr, 615. + + Heflin, U. S. Rep. J. Thomas (Ala.), at suff. hearing, 391; + southern women incensed, 395; + Rep. Mondell ridicules, 396; + offers res. against Fed. Suff. Amend, 412; + sends his anti-suff. speeches to western States, 422; + quotes poetry against wom. suff, 437; 628. + + Helm, Mrs. Ben Hardin, 313. + + Hemphill, Robert R, 35. + + Henderson, Rev. Charles R, 198. + + Henderson, Mrs. John B, receives conv, 45; 99. + + Heney, Mrs. Francis J, 585. + + Henrotin, Ellen M, 195; + asks ballot for working women, 209; 703. + + Henry, Alice, 185; 209; 327. + + Henry, U. S. Rep. Robert L. (Texas), 307; + opposes sending Fed. Amend. to the House, 629. + + Henshaw, Virgil, at suff. hearing, 548. + + Hepburn, Mrs. Thomas N. (Katharine Houghton), 382; 675. + + Hidden, Mrs. M. L. T, 337. + + Hifton, Harriette J, 266. + + Higgins, U. S. Rep. Edwin W. (Conn.), at Congressl. hearing, 361. + + Higginson, Col. Thomas Wentworth, 137; 208; 328. + + "Hikes," headed by members of Senate Com. on Wom. Suff, 378. + + Hill, Elsie, 675; 677. + + Hill, Mrs. Homer M, 246. + + Hilles, Florence Bayard, bef. House com, 473-4; 675. + + Himes, Dr. George H, 120. + + Hinchey, Margaret, 364-5. + + Hindman, Matilda, 146. + + Hirsch, Rabbi Emil, + appeal for wom. suff, 143; + address in Chicago, 207. + + Histories, give no place to women, 263. + + History of Woman Suffrage, early vols; + work of Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Harper; Mrs. Catt arranges + for last two, labor in preparing, wide scope, their value, see + Preface; 67; 74; 94; + Miss Anthony bequeaths to Natl. Assn, its wide distribution, 205, + 218; 249; 335; 359; + Mrs. Harper begins last vols, 573; 610; + contain great speeches, 623. + + Hitchcock, U. S. Sen. Gilbert H, refuses to represent his State on + Fed. Suff. Amend, 598. + + Hoar, U. S. Sen. George F, 146; + first to suggest Pres. suff. for women, 369. + + Hobby, Gov. W. P. (Texas), invites natl. suff. conv, 540. + + Holcomb, Gov. Marcus H. (Conn.), 653; 717. + + Hollis, U. S. Sen. Henry P, 323; 383; + at Senate hearing, 462; 467; 626. + + Hollister, Lillian M, 258; 328. + + Holmes, Lydia Wickliffe, 568. + + Hooker, Mrs. Donald, + contrib. to Natl. Assn, 315; + at Senate hearing, 351; + bef. House Judic. Com, 433; 675. + + Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 45; 191; 204; 656. + + Hooper, Gov. Ben W. (Tenn.), addresses natl. suff. conv, 400. + + Hooper, Mrs. Ben (Wis.), 559; 568; + on commissn. to West, 605; 650. + + Hoover, Mrs. Herbert C, 515. + + Hopkins, J. A. H, at suff. hearing, 548. + + Hopkins, Mrs. J. A. H, 675. + + Horton, Albert H, 74. + + Horton, Mrs. John Miller, + presents greetings and flowers, 214; + recep. to natl. suff. conv, 216. + + House of Governors in Ky. and N. J. hears suff. speeches by Miss Clay + and Dr. Shaw, 314; + Natl. Suff. Assn. represented in 1913, 367; + suffs. received in 1919, 605. + + Houston, Secretary of Agriculture David Franklin and Mrs, 382; 724. + + Houston, Mrs. David Franklin, 515. + + Howard, Emma Shafter, 150. + + Howe, Frederick C, on The City for the People, 177; 340. + + Howe, Julia Ward, 31; 137; 148; + at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 151; + introd, by Dr. Shaw, 154; + escorted by Governor, responds to greetings, speaks of Lucy Stone + and Mrs. Livermore, 155; + guest of Miss Garrett, 182; + too ill to give address, read by her daughter, tells of conversion + to wom, suff; speaks of the great leaders, plea for the ballot, + 184-5; 208; 230; + suff. dele, to Genl. Fed. of Women's Clubs, 249; 258; 288; 297; + gets testimony on wom. suff. from ministers and editors, 393. + + Howe, Dr. Lucian, at suff. hearing, 583. + + Howe, Marie Jenney, 98; 176; 179. + See Jenney. + + Howells, William Dean, for wom. suff, 296. + + Howes, Elizabeth Puffer, 450. + + Howes, Ethel Puffer, 662; 664. + + Howland, Emily, 16; 40; + tells of pioneers, 107; 110; + at Anthony mem. meeting, 203; + tells of first Wom. Rights Conv, 215; 341; + natl. conv. sends greetings, 501; 559; + conv. sends letter, 1920, 610. + + Howse, Mayor Hilary (Nashville), 398. + + Hughes, Gov. Charles Evans (N. Y.), 223; + on teachers' salaries, 294; + as Presidential candidate, 489; + in favor of Fed. Suff. Amend, 495; + personal but not party endorsement, 505; + natl. suff. leaders interview, tells them he will endorse Fed. + Amend, 507; + declares for it, 630; + counsel for Natl. Suff. Assn, 653. + + Hughes, James L. (Canada), 41. + + Hughes, Rev. Kate, 20; 69; 71; 207. + + Huidobro, Carolina Holman (Chili), 40-1; 186; 188. + + Hull, U. S. Rep. Harry E. (Iowa), 644. + + Hultin, Rev. Ida C, 37; 84. + + Humphrey, Mrs. Alexander Pope, 313. + + Hundley, Mrs. Oscar, 395. + + Hunt, Gov. George P. (Ariz.), greets natl. suff. conv, 341. + + Huntington, Bishop Daniel T, 146. + + Huse, Mrs. Robert S, 495; 539; 729. + + Hussey, Cornelia C, 13; + contrib. to Natl. Suff. Assn, 73; + bequest to assn, 94. + + Hussey, Dr. Mary D, 61; 73; 287. + + Hutchinson, John, 31; 34. + + Hutton, May Arkwright, tells anecdote of McKinley, 133; + writes ode to suff, 135; 176; + welcomes suff. dele, to Spokane, 244; 317. + + Huxley, Thomas H, 256. + + + I + + Idaho, effect of wom. suff, 52. + + Indianapolis, entertains Natl. Exec. Council, 551. + + Indians, men enfranchised by Congress, 746. + + Industrial Problems, Govt. discriminates against women, 63; + unpaid housework, 79. + + Industrial Program, 286; + Congressl. hearings on, 300. + + Initiative and Referendum, endorsed by natl. suff. conv, adverse + effect on suff. and prohib, 136-7; + natl. conv. re-endorses, 212; + again, 257; + petit. to repeal wom. suff. in Calif, failed, 393; + suff. campn. in Mo. and other States, 402-3; + Shafroth Palmer Suff. Amend, called Natl. I. and R, 415, 451; + Dem. party and Pres. Wilson in favor of, 417; + on ratif. Fed. Suff. Amend, in Me; in Ohio, St. Sup. Ct. sustains; + U. S. Sup. Ct. decides against, 652. + + International Council of Nurses of 9 nations endorses wom suff, 461. + + International Council of Women, forms wom. suff. com, xix; 25; + estab. Standing Com. on Equal Rights, 127; 612. + + _International Suffrage News_, 530. + + International Woman Suffrage Alliance, vi; + formed, xix; + first conf. held in Washtn, 24; + its duty, 30; + intl. com. formed, 43; + sends greeting to Natl. Assn, 203; + Mrs. Catt's presiding, 247. + See complete chapter on in Vol. VI. + + Iowa, Mrs. Catt discusses suff. campn, 485. + + Ivins, Mrs. William M, 40; + furnishes Dr. Shaw's office, 276. + + + J + + Jacobi, Dr. Mary Putnam, addresses suff. conv, 18; 296; 613. + + Jacobs, Pattie Ruffner, 366; + answers Rep. Heflin, 395; + elected to Natl. Bd. 456; + at Senate hearing, shows attitude of southern women, proud of past + but do not live in it; Fed. Suff. Amend, does not interfere with + State's rights, 463; + bef. House com. shows unjust laws for women in the South; members + try to disprove, 472-3; + report of extensive field work, 484; 506; 560-1; 610; 668-9; 717; 724. + + James, Ada L, 341. + + James, Prof. William, for wom. suff, 296. + + Janney, Dr. O. Edward, 35; 180. + + Janney, Mrs. O. Edward, 106; 664; 666. + + Jeffreys, Dr. Annice, 109. + + Jenks, Agnes M, 326; + bef. Senate com, 466. + + Jenney, Julie R, 220. + + Jenney, Rev. Marie (Howe), 68-9; 73. + + Jewett, Cornelia Telford, 263. + + Jews, how enfranchised, 752. + + Johns, Laura M, 10; + on Civil Rights, 19. + + Johnson, Addie M, 74. + + Johnson, Adelaide, makes bust of Miss Anthony, 201; 658. + + Johnson, U. S. Sen. Hiram W, 547. + + Johnson, Philena Everett, 254. + + Johnson, Dr. and Mrs. Rossiter, 391. + + Johnston, Dean Eva, 664. + + Johnston, Mary, 288; 297; + addresses natl. suff. conv. in 1911, 321; 367. + + Johnston, Mrs. William A, 328; + report of Kans. campn, 337; + on Congressl. Com, 339; + at Anthony celebr, 615. + + Jolliffe, Frances, 466; + controversy with House com, 475. + + Jones, U. S. Sen. Andrieus A, speaks for wom. suff, 380; + chmn. Senate Wom. Suff. Com, 523; + makes favorable report, 524; 565; 627; 632-3; 638-9; 640; 642-3; + 645. + + Jones, Effie McCollum, 511. + + Jones, Dr. Harriet B, 135. + + Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, tribute to Miss Anthony, 203. + + Jones, U. S. Sen. Wesley L, 323; 383; 643. + + Jordan, Prof. Mary A, address at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, college + women's tribute to suff. leaders, 168, 170. + + Jubilee Convention of National American Woman Suffrage Association in + St. Louis, 551. + + Julian, U. S. Rep. George W. (Ind.), offers first res. for Fed. Wom. + Suff, 621. + + Juries, women on, Dr. Shaw's idea, 75; + ex-Senator Bailey's idea, 587. + + Jury service for women, iv. + + _Jus Suffragii_, _offic._ organ, Intl. Wom. Suff. Alliance, 205; 288. + + + K + + Kauffman, Reginald Wright, 340. + + Kearney, Belle, on the South's Need of Woman Suffrage, 82; 319. + + Keating, U. S. Rep. Edward (Colo.), introd. Fed. Amend, and res. for + Wom. Suff. Com, 1917, 524; 548. + + Keble, Dean John Bell, 408. + + Keil, Mayor Henry W. (St. Louis), 553. + + Keith, William, picture for suff. bazaar, 13; + memorial, 328. + + Keller, Dr. Amelia, 669. + + Kelley, Florence, on labor laws for women and children, 95; + comment on editors, 132; + speaks on child labor, 141; + elected natl. vice-pres, 145; + gives facts on child labor, 164; + presides at hearing, speaks of work for wom. suff. by her father, + William D. Kelley, asks for Fed. Suff. Amend, 188, 190-1; + shows need of Munic. suff. for women, 195, 197; 204; + on the social evil, 225; + describes struggle of Consumer's League for working women in New + York, 230; 233-4; 244; + Ore. decision on woman's work-day, 254; 260; 262; 265; + declines re-election, 282; 286; + presides at Judic. Com. hearing, discusses conflicting court + decisions on labor laws for women, gives tragic instances, need of + vote; women's war service, 300-308. + + Kelley, William D, 190; + work in Cong. for wom. suff, 306. + + Kelly, U. S. Rep. M. Clyde (Penn.), 548. + + Kendall, Dr. Sarah A, 133, 264. + + Kendrick, Gov. John B, addresses Council of Women Voters, 484; + as U. S. Senator bef. Senate Com. tribute to wom. suff. in Wyo.; + endorsement of Fed. Amend, 546; 633. + + Kennedy, Julian, 340. + + Kent, Carrie E, 71; + welcomes natl. suff. conv, 86. + + Kent, Mrs. William, report for Congressl. Com, 1912, 339; + speaks of wom. suff. in Calif, 358; + Congressl. Com. work, 377; 382; 394; + urges House Judic. Com. to spare women drudgery of St. campns, 433; + 585; 675. + + Kern, Chairman Democratic National Convention John W, 707. + + Ketcham, Emily B, 204. + + Kilbreth, Mary, 679. + + Kimber, Helen, 93. + + King, Dr. Cora Smith, bef. House Judic. Com, 432; + see Eaton. + + King, U. S. Sen. William H, 645. + + Kingsley, Charles, 137. + + Kirby, U. S. Sen. William F, speaks for Fed. Amend, 645. + + Kitchin, U. S. Rep. Claude (N. C.), 584. + + Knowland, U. S. Rep. Joseph R, praises wom. suff. in Calif, 433. + + Knowles, Antoinette, 162. + + Knox, U. S. Sen. Philander Chase, 516. + + Kramers, Martina G. (Holland), 341. + + Krebs, Abbie A, 710. + + Krog, Gina (Norway), letter to intl. conf, 27. + + + L. + + Labor, + 93 unions endorse wom. suff. in 1907, 218; + St. Fedn. for it in Wash, 257; + organizations demand it, 281. + See American Federation of Labor. + + _Ladies' Home Journal_, + prints attacks on women's clubs and wom. suff, 131; + refuses to allow answers, 163; 175; + Barry's article on Colo, 314; + tries to find "antis" in Colo, 393. + + Lafferty, U. S. Rep. A. W. (Ore.), urges Fed. Suff. Amend, 357. + + La Follette, Fola, 326. + + La Follette, U. S. Sen. Robert M, + presents Fed. Amend. petition, natl suff. conv. thanks, 275; + Mrs. La Follette, 324; + Sen. and Mrs. receive delegates to natl. suff. conv, many in + official life present, 382; + Senator asks wom. suff. plank in natl. platform, 705. + + Laidlaw, James Lees, + presides at Men's Night, natl. suff. conv, 1912, 340; + at Senate hearing, expediency of wom. suff, 349; + presides Men's League, 1913, 377; + says anti-suffs. distrust democracy, 393; + presides, 1914, 407; + holds Dr. Shaw's annuity fund, 458; + pres. Natl. Men's Suff. League, 674. + + Laidlaw, Mrs. James Lees, + at natl. suff. conv, 1910, 290; + elected natl. auditor, 324; + responds to conv. greetings, 334; + speaks at Senate hearing, 347; + assists in ovation to Dr. Shaw, 457; + presents war service flag, 517; 519; + women's war work in N. Y, 533; 541; + at mem. service for Dr. Shaw, 611. + + Lamar, Mrs. Joseph R, 726. + + Lambson, Nellie H, 120. + + Lane, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. + with Mrs. Lane, 382; + on suff. platform, brings good will of Pres. Wilson to natl. conv. + and expresses his own belief in wom. suff, 520; + tribute to Dr. Shaw, 760. + + Lane, Mrs. Franklin K, 515. + + Langhorne, Orra, 146. + + Langston, J. Luther, 288. + + Lansing, Secretary of State Robert, opp. to wom. suff, 515; 708. + + Lansing, Mrs. Robert, opp. to wom. suff, 515. + + Larch-Miller, Aloysius, 607. + + Lathrop, Julia, + great speech at natl. suff. conv; + woman suff. inevitable step in march of society; + not a mad revolution; + working women's is not the ignorant vote; + women must vote to protect the family, 343-345; + asks wom. suff. for welfare of mother and child, 496, 499; + on recep. com. for natl. conv, 515; + speaks for ratif. of Fed. Amend, 606; + works for it, 650; + on child labor, 686; + report of Child Welfare Dept. during the war, 730. + + Laughlin, Gail, + on The Industrial Laggard, 19; 37; 42; + addresses Senate Com, 47; + praised, asks square deal for women, at natl. conv. of 1905, 139. + + Lawther, Anna B, 559; 568. + + Lea, U. S. Sen. Luke, + addresses natl. suff. conv, 1914, gives reasons for voting for Fed. + Suff. Amend; results in equal suff. States irrefutable argument; + scores "anti" women, 408; 627. + + League of Nations, + Natl. Suff. Assn. sends dele. to congresses, 557; + assn. favors, 575; + Dr. Shaw makes speaking tour for it with former Pres. Taft and Pres. + Lowell, 739-40. + + League to Enforce Peace, + memorial to Dr. Shaw, 607; + Dr. Shaw, mem. exec. com, speaks for, 758. + + League of Women Voters, + National, vi; + originated by Mrs. Catt, 541; + Call for, 552; + Mrs. Catt urges orgztn, shows necessity; + dominating feature of natl. suff. conv. in 1919, 553-4; + Natl. Assn. refuses to merge till Fed. Amend. is secured, 561; + name decided on, constitn. adopted, Mrs. Catt outlines aims, 570; + Natl. Exec. Council recommends; + $20,000 appropriated, 574; + formal orgztn, objects agreed upon, 576; + Call to first cong, 1919, 594; + lion's share of natl. suff. conv, 595; + Mrs. Shuler writes chapter on, 595; + Pres. Wilson sends best wishes, 599; + org. as independent society, auxiliaries of Natl. Assn. to join, + 601; + chairmen make western tour for ratif. of Fed. Amend, 606; + large fund raised, 609; + org. in States, 614; + orgztn. perfected, 617; + points of Mrs. Catt's address at orgztn. in 1919, its object and + plan of work, 683-4; + Dr. Shaw favors, 685; + officers, duties, eight depts, 685; + each discussed, 686; + plans adopted by board of Natl. Suff. Assn, chairmen elected, 687; + permanent orgztn. at natl. suff. conv. in Chicago in 1920, 668; + its cong. opens, officers elected, 689; + schools for citizenship arranged, 690; + purposes of league, 691; + censures U. S. Sen. Wadsworth, 692; + confs. and dinners, program of work, resolutions adopted, improved + legislation for women demanded; Cong. notified of action, 692-695; + program presented to natl. polit. convs. and Pres. candidates, + 699-701; + it forms large Congressl. Com, 701; + takes place of Natl. Suff. Assn. in the Intl. Alliance, 756. + See Chapter XXII for full account. + + Leckenby, Ellen S, 264. + + Legislatures, special sessions for ratifying Fed. Suff. Amend, xxiii. + + Leighty, Mrs. John R, 670. + + Lenroot, U. S. Sen. Irvine L, moves to report res. for Wom. Suff. Com, + 397; 548; 628; 645. + + Leonard, Gertrude Halliday, 444. + + Leser, Judge Oscar, + opp. Fed. Suff. Amend, bef. Senate Com; 548, + brings suit to test, 654; + same, 682. + + Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education, + reports of depts, 527-531; + founded by Mrs. Catt with bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie, 614. + + Leslie, Mrs. Frank, + legacy for wom. suff, iv, xxii; 527; 614; + great bequest to Mrs. Catt for wom. suff, terms of will, 755. + + Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, + organizes bureau of research, iv; + its work, 527; + contrib. to Natl. Assn, 542-558; + sends out travelling suff. libraries, 557; + assists League of Women Voters, 698; + incorporated, headqrs. in New York, 754-5; + Mrs. Catt's report, 756. + + Leupp, Constance, 395. + + Lewis and Clark Exposition, + entertains natl. suff. conv, 117; + woman's day, recep. to Miss Anthony and the conv, 132-3. + + Lewis, Mrs. George Howard, + entertains officers of Natl. and State Suff. Assns. and Coll. + League, 1908, 230; + presents $10,000 to Natl. Assn. in memory of Miss Anthony, 236; + conv. sends greetings, 1910, 288; + contrib. to assn, 315; + presents res. that natl. officers must be non-partisan, 342; + at Dr. Shaw's right hand when she resigns, contrib. salary of her + secy, 457-8; + tribute to Dr. Shaw and contrib. to memorial fund, 613. + + Lewis, Mrs. Lawrence, 366; 454; 675; 707. + + Lexow, Caroline, 208; 212; + speaks on coll. wom. eve, 227; 229; 233; 255; 283; 661. + + Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, 167; + Miss Anthony on "college women's evening" at Balto. conv, 173; + Miss Garrett's recep, 182; + large fund for suff. work, 183; + gives birthday money to Ore. campn, 184; + account of last birthday, 191; + accounts of death and funeral services, 204; 205; 218; 249; 335; + 359; + account of Mrs. Stanton's death, 742; + of Miss Anthony's effort for co-education in Roch. Univ, 744. + + Lindsey, Judge Ben, visits Roosevelt to urge wom. suff. in Prog. + Party platform, 706. + + Lindsey, Louise, gavel to Dr. Shaw, 398. + + Lindsey, Mrs. W. E, 517. + + Liquor interests, + hostility to wom. suff, xviii; + power ends, xxiii; 166; 206; 211; + power in politics, at bottom of opp. to wom. suff, 234; + fight on wom. suff. in Ore, 247; + work against in Ky, 388; + in Neb, S. Dak. and Mont, 420-1; + in Mich, 474; + work in Iowa, 486; + alliance with women "antis", 486; + opp. even Pres. suff. for women, 539. + + Littlefield. Paul, of Men's Anti-Suff. Com. (Penn.), 479. + + Littleford, Hon. William, pres. Ohio Men's League, 670. + + Littleton, U. S. Rep. Martin W. (N. Y.), + at Congressl. hearing, 361; + allies wom. suff. with Socialism, 362. + + Livermore, Mrs. Arthur L, + report for Literature Com, 1916, 493; + same, 1917, over 1,000,000 copies of pamphlets, speeches, etc, + distributed, 532; + directs suff. school, 539; 541; 556; 559; 561; 573; 756. + + Livermore, Mary A, letter to natl. suff. conv, 13; + memorial res. of Natl. Assn, 146; + Mrs. Howe's tribute to, 155. + + Livingston, Deborah Knox, speaks at natl. suff. conv, 511; + report on Maine campn, 520. + + Lobby, for Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, 635. + + Locke, Leon, 408. + + Lockwood, Belva A, 657. + + Lodge, U. S. Sen. Henry Cabot, + anti-Fed. Suff. Amend. res, 639; 703; + opp. wom. suff. plank in Repub. platform, 1916, 711. + + Loines, Hilda, + report as chmn. of assn's Food Production Com, 560; 730; + report on Women's Land Army during the war, 731. + + Long, ex-Secy, of Navy John D, + on Suff. Advisory Com, 258; + vice-pres. Men's Suff. League, 674. + + Long, Dr. Margaret, treas. Natl. Coll. Women's League, 229; 661. + + Longshore, Dr. Hannah, 73; 334. + + Loomis, Rev. Alice Ball, 18; 20. + + Lord. Mrs. M. B, 247. + + Lord, Rev. William R, 340. + + Lorimer, Rev. George C, 146. + + Louisville, Ky, entertains natl. suff. conv. in 1911, 310. + + Lovejoy, Dr. Owen R, shows need of wom. suff. in the cause of child + labor, 496, 500. + + Low, Seth, ignores women, 38. + + Lowe, Caroline A, 327; + speaks at hearing for 7,000,000 working women, denial of ballot + greatest injustice, 350. + + Lowell, Pres. A. Lawrence, Dr. Shaw joins on speaking tour for + League of Nations, 740; 757. + + Lowell, Josephine Shaw, 180; for wom. suff, 296. + + Lowell, Judge Stephen R, 138. + + Ludington, Katharine, + at natl. suff. conv, 568; + work in Conn, 602; 689. + + Luscomb, Florence, 326. + + + M. + + Mack, Judge Julian, 372. + + Mackay, Mrs. Clarence, on Advisory Com, 258. + + McAdoo, Secy, of the Treasury William G, + for Fed. Suff. Amend, 590; + on suff. platform, 724; + restores 8-hour day to women, 729. + + McAdoo, Mrs. William G, + on recep. com. for suff. conv, 515; + speaks at conv. on Liberty Loan, 533. + + McAfee, Effie L. D, 666. + + McAneny, Mrs. George, 613. + + McArthur, U. S. Rep. C. N. (Ore.), 549. + + McCall, Sarah J, bequest to Natl. Suff. Assn, 407. + + McClintock, Mary Ann, calls first Wom. Rights Conv, 219. + + McClung, Nellie, + tells of Canadian women's war work and how it brought suffrage, + 544; + in Minn, 669. + + McClure, S. S. and T. C, for wom. suff, 296. + + McCormack, Mrs. James M, 494. + + McCormick, Mrs. Cyrus H, 542. + + McCormick, Katharine Dexter, 286; + appt. to natl. board, address on broadening effects of suff. work, + 324; + sends gift of suff. literature to many States, 336; + pays Natl. Assn's deficit of $6,000 on _Woman's Journal_, 337; + treas. report for 1913, 372; 419; + elected vice-pres, 425; + organizes Volunteer Suff. League, 442; 454; + re-elected, 456; 484; + unique evening program, 488; 527; + re-elected, 541; + contrib. to Natl. Assn, 542; + on Wom. Com. of Natl. Defense, 555; + chmn. assn's War Service Dept, presides at meeting, 560; + refutes slanders of "antis", 560; + assists Congressl. Com, 567; + address at natl. conv, 597; + moves res. of gratitude to Pres. Wilson, 600; 608; 615; + writes chapter on war work of suffs. for History, 720; 724; 726-7; + 730; 737. + + McCormick, Mrs. Medill, + work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370; + offers res. to ask Pres. Wilson for interview on wom. suff. and is + on com, 374; + chmn. Natl. Congressl. Com, 381; + valuable service, estab. Woman's Independence Day, 404; 411; + report of Congressl. Com's. work for Fed. Suff. Amend; + reasons for introd. Shafroth Amend, and defense of it, 411-416, + 418; + report for Campn. Com, 418; + her com. assists Neb, 420; + re-apptd. chmn, 424; + elected natl. auditor; + produces play, Your Girl and Mine, 425; + contrib. to publicity work, 426; + bef. House Judic. Com, 427; + shows difference between Natl. Suff. Assn. and Congressl. Union, + 434; + presides at conf, 444; 450; + report as chmn. Congressl. Com, 452; 454; + report to Senate com, 465; + suff. work in Ills, 483; + resigns as chmn. Congressl. Com, 506; + moves for com. to confer with Red Cross War Council, is herself + appt, 540; 567; 627; 629; + sponsor for Shafroth Palmer Amend, 747-8. + + McCormick, Vance, for Fed. Suff. Amend, 638. + + McCracken, Elizabeth, 114-15; 391. + + McCulloch, Catharine Waugh, 17; on legal privileges of women, 70; + legal adviser to Natl. Assn, 107; + conducts protest against bill admitting new Territories with women + classed with insane, idiots and felons, 129; + legislative work, 262; + mem. tributes to Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Garrison, 278; + elected natl. vice-pres, 282-3; + report as legal adviser, rising vote of thanks, 286; 289; + at Senate hearing as justice of the peace, shows professional + women's demand for the vote, 292; + pays tribute to "family of Clay," tells of new chivalry, 312; 314; + 324; + report on mother's equal guardianship, 327; + early work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370; + presides at hearing bef. Com. on Rules, 392; 394; + offers res. of non-partisanship, 490; + on limited suff, 495; + on tour for ratif, 606; + works for Fed. Suff. Amend, 650; + org. Miss. Valley Conf, 667; + on Legal Status of Women, 686, 690, 697; + at Repub. Natl. Conv, 703; + objects to Shafroth Palmer Amend, 747; + helps revise constn. of Natl. Suff. Assn, 756. + + McDowell, Mary E, on The Workingwomen as a Natl. Asset, tribute to + Miss Anthony and suffs, 209-10; + ballot will give wage-earning women new status in industry, 356-7; 690. + + McDowell, R. A, 408. + + McFarland, Henry B. F, 24; 515. + + McGehee, Mrs. Edward, 400. + + McIvor, Mrs. Campbell (Canada), 334; 501. + + McKeller, U. S. Sen. Kenneth, invites natl. suff. conv. to + Chattanooga, 382; 643. + + McKinley, Pres. William, for wom. suff. when a youth, 133. + + McKinley, Mrs. William, gives doll for suff. bazaar, 13. + + McLaren, Priscilla Bright, 31. + + McLean, Frances W, 229. + + McNaughton, Dr. Clara W, 435; 658. + + Macy, Mrs. V. Everit, 542. + + Maddox, Etta, obtains admis. of women to the bar in Md, 42; 98; 179. + + Mahoney, Nonie, 541. + + Malone, Collector of the Port Dudley Field, on natl. suff. platform, + plea for wom. suff, says women would vote for "preparedness," Mrs. + Catt and Dr. Shaw object, 459-60; + bef. Senate com, 548. + + Manila, natl. suff. assn. protests against "regulated" vice in, 10. + + Mann, U. S. Rep. James R. (Ills.), votes for Fed. Amend, 637; chmn. + Com. on Wom. Suff, 644. + + Mann, Mrs. James R, 515. + + Manning, Rev. William P, 682. + + Mansfeldt, Lieut. Col. W. A. E. (Holland), 674. + + Maps, difficulty with suff. maps, 532. + + Marbury, William L, brings suit to test Fed. Suff. Amend, 654; + same, 682. + + Marshall, Vice-pres. Thomas R, 646; + tribute to Dr. Shaw, 760. + + Martha Washington Hotel, 258. + + Martin, Anne, tells natl. conv. of successful suff. campn. in Nev, + 401; + work in Nev, 421; 425; 454; + presides at Senate hearing of Congressl. Union, 466; + same, 547; 549; + at last suff. hearing, 585; 675; + chmn. Natl. Wom. Party, 676; + at natl. Repub. conv, 710. + + Martin, U. S. Sen. Thomas S, unfairness in Dem. caucus on Fed. Suff. + Amend, 565; + same, 642. + + Marvel, Lulu H, natl. suff. conv. thanks, 501. + + Mathews, Dean Lois K. (Wis. Univ.), 664. + + Matthews, J. N, opp. wom. suff, 437. + + Matthews, Prof. Shailer, for wom. suff, 296. + + Maud, Queen of Norway, 247. + + Mead, Edwin D, 674. + + Mead, Lucia Ames, pleads for world orgztn. for peace, 97; 105; 133; + work for peace, 138; + same, 176; + responsibility of U. S. for Peace and Arbitration, 187; + all classes of women need the suffrage, 189; 210; + report on Peace conferences; Amer. School Peace League, 240; + urges Natl. Suff. Assn. to work for peace, 253; 289; + tells of great peace funds and endowments and "Pres. Taft's noble + efforts to secure treaties," 326; 338. + + Meehan, Mrs. S. D, 395. + + Meeker, U. S. Rep. Jacob E. (Mo.), 516. + + Memorials, to pioneer suffs. at natl. conv, 1901, 16; + to Miss Anthony, 201-2; 569; 615. + + Men's Leagues for Woman Suffrage, International and National, Mr. + Blackwell's interest in, 278; + in Calif, 288; + from Calif. to Va, 311; + in U. S, has an evening at natl. suff. conv. in 1912, 340; + in 1913, 377; + in 1914, 407; + league formed in Tenn, 408; + chapter on, 673. + + Meredith, Ellis, address on Menace of Podunk, 15; + edits _Progress_, 35; + on effect of wom. suff. in Colo, 101; 112; 585; + improved election laws, 686; + at Repub. Natl. Conv, 710. + + Merrick, Caroline E, 17; + pioneer suff. of La, shares honors with Miss Anthony, 58; 80; 106; + 137; 191; 208. + + Merrick, Edwin, need of wom. suff, 80. + + Meyer, Heloise, elected to Natl. Bd, 501; + in war service, 517; 526-7; + retires from office, 541; 724. + + Michigan, gives women taxpayers a vote, 243; + wom. suff. amend. defeated by fraud, 339; + other reasons, 474; + gives suff. to women, 550; + Natl. Assn. assists campn, 557. + + Milholland, Inez, 326. + + "Militancy," in Gt. Brit, xv; + Mrs. Snowden justifies, 237-8; + Dr. Shaw and natl. suff. conv. sympathize, 238; + Alice Paul's account, 280; + Mrs. Pankhurst says women stood 8 hrs. at entrance of House of + Commons; assault of police, 330-1. + + Miller, Alice Duer, Sisterhood of Women, 283; 502. + + Miller, Anne Fitzhugh, 188; + tribute to Mr. Blackwell, 279. + + Miller, Caroline Hallowell, 33; 45; 180. + + Miller, Elizabeth Smith, 34; 60; 208; 288; + memorial, 328. + + Miller, Florence Fenwick, at intl. conf. in Washtn, 31; 40-1; + addresses House com. on official and polit. status of women in Gt. + Brit, 52; 87. + + Miller, Mayor John F. (Seattle), wom. suff. record of Wash, 250. + + Miller, Mrs. John O, presents suff. flag from Penn. assn. to Natl, + 501; + chmn. com. on Dr. Shaw's mem. fund, 613. + + Miller, Mrs. Walter McNab, tells of suff. petition in Mo, 402; + elected to Natl. Bd, 425; 456; + report of extensive field work, 483; 485; 516; + reports for assn's war com. on Thrift, 520; + work as chmn. of Congressl. Com; + spoke 200 times in 15 States, wrote 3,000 letters, travelled + 13,000 miles; + work at Washtn. headqrs, 526-7; + welcomes natl. suff. conv. to St. Louis, 553; + report on Food Conservation, 1918, 560; + at Anthony celebr, 615; 724; + work on Thrift Com, 727. + + Mills, Mrs. C. D. B, 559. + + Mills, Harriet May, addresses Senate com, 47; + same, 110; + speaks at natl. suff. conv, 187; + same, 289; + same, 382; + on N. Y. campn, 518. + + Miner, Maude E, no danger in immoral women's vote, 233; 372. + + Minor, Judge Francis, urges women to vote under 14th Amend, 622; + carries case to U. S. Sup. Ct, 623; + wants Cong. to enable women to vote for its members, 657. + + Minor, Mrs. Francis, tries to vote under 14th Amend, 623. + + Mississippi Valley Conference, members opp. Shafroth Amend, 422; + orgztn, great need of, valuable work, 667-671. + + Mitchell, John, 288. + + Mitchell, U. S. Sen. John A, 111. + + Mitchell, Mrs. Willis G, 519. + + Mondell, U. S. Rep. Frank W. (Wyo.), introd. Fed. Suff. Amend, 1910, + 300; + testimony for equal suff. in Wyo, criticises Pres. Wilson for not + referring to wom. suff. in message, calls for special suff. com, + 396; + speaks for Amend. bef. House Judic. Com, 428; 449; + natl. suff. conv. thanks for assistance, 450-1; + introd. Fed. Amend, 1917, 524; + speaks for Wom. Suff. Com, 548; + speaks for Fed. Amend, 629; + on Wom. Suff. Com, 634; + majority leader, 644. + + Mondell, Mrs. Frank W, 396. + + Monroe, Lilla Day, 196. + + Montana, successful suff. campn, 401, 409; + liquor interests and copper company opp. Wom. Suff. Amend, Miss + Rankin's work, 421; + Repub. and Dem. women's vote, 584; + gives wom. suff, 625. + + Moore, Laura, 137; 204. + + Moore, Mrs. Philip North (Eva Perry), pays tribute to Miss Anthony + and other suff. pioneers, 171; 540; 558; 726. + + Morawetz, Mrs. Victor, in N. Y. campn, 519. + + Morgan, Laura Puffer, 442; 430. + + Morgan, Mrs. Raymond B, 664. + + Morgan, Mrs. W. Y, 495; 517. + + Mormonism, attack on in anti-suff. speech, Sen. Sutherland protests; + its part in wom, suff, 467-8. + + Morris, Esther, 34; 73. + + Morrisson, Mrs. James W, elected natl. rec. secy, 456; + work for suff. parade in Chicago during Repub. Natl. Conv, tribute + to Mrs. Medill McCormick, 482; 485; 501. + + Morton, Dr. Rosalie Slaughter, urges higher moral standard for men, + 224. + + Moses, U. S. Sen. George H, Roosevelt urges to vote for Fed. Amend, + 571. + + Moss, U. S. Rep. Hunter H. (W. Va.), votes for Fed. Suff. Amend, 631. + + Mosshart, Gertrude C, 528. + + Mott, Anna C, 74. + + Mott, Lucretia, 185; 219; + "the inspired preacher," 333-4; + reminis. of, 569; + calls first Woman's Rights Conv, 618; + at first one in Washtn, 621; 664. + + Mountford, Lydia von Finkelstein, 41. + + Moylan, Penn, home of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, 740. + + Munds, Frances W, 341. + + Municipal Suffrage, plan of work for, 10; + Jane Addams shows women's need of, 178; + campn. for, 194; + Prof. Sophonisba Breckinridge urges; its value in New Orleans, 195; + Anna E. Nicholas shows need of, 196; + defeated in Chicago by charter conv, 195; + Miss Addams tells of, 207; + in Kans, 196; + in New Orleans, 195-6; + women's petitions for in Chicago, 392; + granted in Tenn, 551; + in Fla. and Atlanta, 602; + in Vt, 632. + + Municipal Work, women's, in New York, 38; + in Phila, 177. + + Murdock, U. S. Rep. Victor (Kans.), 377. + + Mussey, Ellen Spencer, 205. + + Myers, Dr. Annice Jeffreys, 134; 145; 147; 152; 204; + memorial, 328. + + Myers, Jefferson, 109; + pays tribute to Miss Anthony, her co-workers and their cause, 122. + + Mythen, Rev. James Grattan, 340. + + + N + + Names, distinguished list on receiving com. for natl. suff. conv. of + 1915, 515; + those in war service, 517. + + Nashville, entertains natl. suff. conv. of 1914 in Representatives' + Hall, welcomed by Mayor Hilary Howse, 398. + + Nathan, Maud, 95; + on the Wage Earner and the Ballot, 96; 110; + on Women Warriors, 181; 559. + + National American Woman Suffrage Association, efforts for planks in + natl. polit. convs, see Planks; + work for Fed. Amend, xvii; + orgztn. of two branches and their union, objects and work, 1, 2; + its convs, Congressl. hearings, money raised, nation-wide efforts + and their result, chapters I to XIX inclusive; + list of officers, first page of each; + business women's tribute, 21; + calls intl. suff. conf, 24; + conv. protests against "regulated" vice in Philippines, appts. com. + to see Pres. Roosevelt, who declares against it and War Dept. + stops it, 44; + attacked on "race question" states its neutral position, 59; + plan of work for 1903, 61; + assists campns. in Ore, 147; + S. Dak, 240; + Okla, 252; + Ariz, S. Dak, 253; + passes res. of non-partisanship, 343; + membership and petitions compared with anti-suff's, 392; + permeated with new life in 1915, great accession of young women, + 441; + repudiates Shafroth Palmer Amend; resolves to work only for + original Fed. Amend, 452; + cooperation with Congressl. Union found impossible, 454; + elects Mrs. Catt pres, 455-6; + ovation to Dr. Shaw, 457; + demand for Fed. Amend, 460; + work of 63 St. auxiliaries; attacks no party, 464; + Dr. Shaw shows diff. bet. it and Congressl. Union, 471; + debate at Atlantic City conv. on its future policy, 486; + Dr. Shaw urges no change, 487; + Mrs. Catt takes same view, 501; + nation-wide plan of work, 510; + Call for conv. of 1917 demands Fed. Amend. from Cong, 513; + officers in war service, 517; + Exec. Council pledges loyalty and service to Govt, 518, 527; + decides to enter polit. campns, 542; + celebrates 50th anniv, 551; + no conv. in 1918; + conf. of Exec. Council at Indpls; Call for natl. conv. in 1919; + changed character of convs, 552; + nation-wide work for Fed. Amend, 554-557; + campns. against anti-suff. candidates for Cong, 557; + gives $30,720 to suff. campns. in Mich, S. Dak. and Okla, 558; + natl. conv. vetoes proposal to merge assn. in League of Women Voters + till Fed. Amend. is secured, 561; + Pioneers' evening, 569; + recommendations of Natl. Exec. Council for 1919, 574; + first organized body of women to offer services to Govt. for war; + attitude toward peace, 578; + Chicago entertains last natl. suff. conv. and first cong. of League + of Women Voters, 594; + Jubilee conv. to celebr. end of its work, 594; + Exec. Council program for future action, 596; + thanks Governors who called spec. sessions to ratify amend, 600; + program adopted by conv. assn. shall "move toward dissolution," 600; + auxiliaries will join League of Women Voters, 601; + large assistance to southern States, 603; + Mrs. Shuler's tribute to, 607; + presents honor rolls to early workers, 616; + meets with League of Women Voters, 617; + assn. was formed for amending Fed. Constitn, 622; + united with American Assn, 622; + works against election of anti-suff. Senators, 641; + assists League of Women Voters, 698; + effort for wom. suff. planks in natl. polit. platforms, 702; + calls on Res. Com. of Natl. Repub. Conv. in 1920 to secure final + ratif. of Fed. Suff. Amend, 718; + war service to Govt. during the war, 720 et seq; + Pres. Wilson approves, 725; + its officers and members on Woman's Com. of Council of Natl. + Defense, 726; + action on Shafroth Palmer Amend, in 1914 and 1915, 750; + reasons for continuing after suff. was gained, new constitn. made, + officers elected, principal object to remove legal and civil + discriminations against women, present status, 755-757; + Official Bd. issues Mem. for Dr. Shaw, 759. + + National Council of Women Voters, 42; + res. for wom. suff. in 1909, 249; + greetings to natl. suff. conv, 341; + in Washtn, 379, 626. + + Nationality of wives, Miss Rankin's bill for, 521. + + National Junior Suffrage Corps, 405. + + National Press Bureau, reports, Mrs. Babcock, chmn, 1901, 14; + 1905, 131; + 1906, 163. + Miss Hauser, chmn, 1907, 204; + 1908, 218; + 1909, 250. + Mrs. Harper, chmn, 1910, 287. + Miss Reilly, chmn, 1911, 315; + 1912, 336. + Miss Byrns, chmn, 1913, 368; + 1914, 405. + Mr. Hallinan, chmn, 1915, 482. + Mr. Heaslip, chmn, 1916, 494. + Mrs. McCormick, chmn, 1917, 527. + Mrs. Harper, 528. + Miss Young, chmn, 1918, 1919, 570; + Mrs. Harper, 571. + At Washtn. headqrs, Miss Shuler, chmn, 1918, 1919, 573. + + National Woman Suffrage Conventions, described in first 19 chapters; + tribute to, 46; + descrip. by _Woman's Journal_, 290. + Changed character of, 552; + see Conventions. + + National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co, organized, 372; 405; 481; + report, 1917, over 10,000,000 pieces of suff. literature printed, + 532; + 1918, 6,000,000 pieces, 573; + total, 50,000,000; + see Ogden, Esther G. + + National Woman's Party, see Congressional Union. + + Nebraska, liquor interests in suff. campn, 420; + Pres. and Munic. suff. declared legal and "male" left out of new + constitn, 602. + + Negroes, "race question" injected at natl. suff. conv. in New Orleans, + Official Board responds, 59; + delegates address Phyllis Wheatley Club; its president gives flowers + to Miss Anthony with touching words, 60; + Dr. Shaw settles color questions, 75; 77; 80; + Mrs. Catt says each State must decide, 83; + Mrs. Terrill pleads for negroes, 105; + Miss Anthony champions cause, 203; + danger of vote in South discussed, 580; + men enfranchised by Fed. Amend, 746; + after Civil War, 751. + + Nelson, Pres. Frank (Minn. Coll.), 669. + + Nelson, U. S. Rep. John M. (Wis.), 709. + + Nelson, Julia B, 132. + + Nelson, U. S. Sen. Knute, 323. + + Nestor, Agnes, 726. + + Nevada, story of successful campn, 401. + + New Jersey, sends wom. suff. deputn. to Pres. Wilson, 379; + fraudulent vote on wom. suff, 630. + + New Orleans, entertains natl. suff. conv, 55-6; + delightful entertainment, 84. + + _News Letter_, published by Natl. Assn, 442. + + New York, gives suff. to women, xxiii; + discriminates against women teachers, 294; + adoption of State amend. decides suff. question, 517; + natl. conv. devotes evening to victory, story of great campn.; + cost $682,500, 518-19; + women's war service, 533; + statistics of vote on wom. suff. amend, 537; + great value of, 634; + Mrs. Catt describes campn, 753. + + Nicholes, Anna E, women's need of Munic. suff, 196. + + Nicholes, S. Grace, 408. + + Nicholson, Eliza J, ed. of _Picayune_, 58. + + Nightingale, Florence, for wom, suff, 461. + + Nixon, Frederick S, 180. + + Non Partisanship, natl. suff. conv. 1912, defeats res. for and then + passes one, 342-3; + Natl. Amer. Assn. opposed to holding party in power responsible for + wom. suff, 412, 426; + members of Congressl. Union give reasons for, Dems. object, 429-30; + Natl. Suff. Assn. stands for non partisanship, 434; 461; 464; 471; + reaffirmed at natl. conv, 1916, 490; + at conv. 1919, 574. + + Northrop, Dr. Cyrus, 669. + + Norway, wom. suff. and women in office, 48. + + Nugent, James R, 713. + + + O + + Obenchain, Lida Calvert, 328. + + Oberlin College, 220; 226; 255. + + O'Connor, Mrs. T. P, 326. + + Odenheimer, Cordelia R. P, Pres. Genl. Daughters of Confederacy, 515. + + Officers, women, effect of Fed. Suff. Amend, iv; + in Norway, 48; + in Australia, 91, 292. + + Ogden, Esther G, elected natl. vice-pres, 456; + tells of Natl. Suff. Pub. Co. and little "golden flier," 481-2; + reports for Natl. Suff. Pub. Co, 532; 541; 559; 573; + final report of Natl. Suff. Pub. Co, 614; 716; 724. + + Ohio, effort to ratify Fed. Suff. Amend, 649; 652. + + Oklahoma, Natl. Assn. assists effort for wom. suff, 211; + first suff. campn, 252, 277; + second, 557; + successful, 641. + + Olds, Emma S, 67; 107; 208. + + Oleson, Mrs. Peter, 610. + + Oliphant, Mrs. O. D, 391; 437; 477. + + Olmstead, Rev. Margaret T, 18; 20. + + Olsen, Justice Harry, 372. + + O'Neil, Mrs. David M, 668. + + Oregon, polit. leaders urge suff. campn; Natl. Assn. agrees to assist, + 147; + Dr. Shaw points out responsibility of Ore. men and women, 149; + assn. helps, 161; + appeal for campn. funds at natl. suff. conv, 161; + generous response, Miss Anthony gives her birthday money, 184; + defeat of amend, 200; + work of Natl. Assn, 211; 254; + majority vote for amend, 1912, 332; 337. + + O'Reilly, Leonora, 334; + bef. Senate Com; demand of working women for the ballot, 351. + + Organizations, large number endorse wom. suff, 1906, 162; + none oppose, 205; + in 1908, 218; + in 1909, 249; + in 1910, 281. + + Organizations of Women, efforts for better laws, iv. + + Organizers, 225 employed in 1917, instructed by Mrs. Catt, work done, + 539; + in 1918, work in 20 States, 556-7; + list of in 1919, Mrs. Shuler praises, 603. + + Osborn, Gov. Chase S. (Mich.), greets natl. suff. conv, 341. + + Osborne, Eliza Wright, 219; 288; + memorial, 328. + + O'Shaughnessy, U. S. Rep. George F. (R. I.), 549. + + O'Sullivan, Mary Kenney, 174; + asks suff. for working women, injustice of Govt, 189. + + Oversea Hospitals, Women's, Natl. Suff. Assn. maintains, 558; 568; + 574; + Assn's. fund for, 608; + final report, 613; + report of Mrs. Tiffany and Mrs. Brown, its directors, at natl. conv. + of 1919, valuable work in France, recognition by French Govt, + 732-735; + financial report of Mrs. Rogers, natl. treas, 734. + + Owen, U. S. Sen. Robert L, natl. suff. conv. greets mother, 269; + his powerful argument for wom. suff, 274; 323; 383; 501; 504; 627; + 709. + + Owens, Helen Brewster, 373. + + + P + + Page, Mary Hutcheson, conf. on polit. work, 286. + + Palmer, Atty. Gen. A. Mitchell, 654. + + Palmer, Alice Freeman, 74; + for wom. suff, 296. + + Palmer, Prof. George Herbert, 296. + + Palmer, U. S. Sen. Thomas W, bequest to Natl. Suff. Assn, 407. + + Pankhurst, Emmeline, advises U. S. suff. headqrs. to sell not give + literature, 267; + receives ovation at natl. suff. conv.; + explains revolution of women in Gt. Brit, 330. + + Parades, begun in U. S, xx; + in London, 233; + in Gt. Brit, 237; + with Fed. Amend, petit, in Washtn, 275; + in New York and Washtn, 1913, 367; + in Washtn. bef. inauguration, 378-9; + in New York, 470; + in Chicago during Repub. Natl. Conv, 482-3; + "walkless parade," in St. Louis at Dem. Natl. Conv, 483; + in Chicago, 484; + of British women during the war, 534; + in Washtn, 625; + New York, 626; + Washtn, 632; + Men's Leagues march, 674; + in Balto, 708; + rainy day parade in Chicago in 1916, 710; + the "walk-less" in St. Louis, 712. + + Park, Alice L, 249. + + Park, Maud Wood, natl. suff. conv, 1903, 83; 133; 148; + at conv. in Balto, unselfishness of suff. leaders, duty of college + women to assist their work, 168; 171; + describes Coll. Wom. Suff. League, 226; 229; + on Mass, campn, 409; 444; + report for Congressl. Com, 1917, 523; + presides at hearing bef. Rules Com, 549; 561; + report as chmn. of Congressl. Com, 1919, 562-567; + tribute to helpful Senators; names them, 566; + praise for members of Congressl. Com, names them, 566; + conv. gives rising vote of thanks and dele, speak words of praise, + 567-8; + re-elected, 574; + at last suff. hearing, 577; + excellent speech, 590; 604; 632; + Congressl. Com. report, 633; + tribute to Pres. Wilson, 640; + org. Coll. Wom. Suff. League, 660-1; 664; + chmn. Natl. League of Women Voters, 689; 701; + bef. Repub. Natl. Com, 717. + + Parker, Adella M, 255; 257; 264. + + Parker, U. S. Rep. Richard Wayne (N. J.), chmn. at suff. hearing, 300; + compliments speakers, makes no report, 309. + + Parker, Dr. Valeria, on tour for ratif, 606; 650; + on social hygiene, 686, 690, 696. + + Parsons, Elsie Clews, 661. + + Parsons, National Committeeman Herbert, 511. + + Parsons, Mary Ely, furnishes Dr. Shaw's office, 276. + + Patten, Dr. Simon N, 296. + + Patterson, Hannah J, report on Penn. campn, 409; + on how to organize, 444; 450; + elected natl. vice-pres, 456; + natl. cor. secy's, report, 1916, 481; 485; 501; 503; + tribute from chmn. Congressl. Com, 509; + on Woman's Com. of Council of Natl. Defense, 726; + receives distinguished service medal, 739. + + Patterson, U. S. Sen. Thomas M, addresses natl. suff. conv, 45. + + Patterson, Mrs. Thomas M, 74. + + Paul, Alice, tells of "militancy" in Gt. Brit, 280; + chmn. Congressl. Com, 366; + arranges for Pres. Wilson to receive wom. suff. deputation, 374; + takes part in English "militant" movement, sent to prison; wants + to start one in U. S. but idea frowned upon by Dr. Shaw, who + appoints her chmn. Congressl. Com. to organize parade in Washtn.; + shows much exec. ability; makes com. report to natl. conv, 377-381; + forms Congressl. Union, is chmn.; Mrs. Catt makes inquiries, 379-80; + Natl. Suff. Bd. will not permit her to act as chmn. of both and she + is deposed from Congressl. Com.; remains head of Union, 381; + has it fight Dem. party, 454-5; + presides at hearing bef. House Com.; members attack her for trying + to defeat Dems, who were friends of wom. suff; she defends this + action, 474-5; + asks chairman Webb what will be in Dem. platform, 476; + heads Congressl. Com, 625; + org. Congressl. Union, 675; + reorganized as Natl. Woman's Party, 1917, Miss Paul chmn, 676; + 678-9. + + Peabody, George Foster, on wom. suff. platform, 340; + holds Dr. Shaw's annuity fund, 458. + + Peace and Arbitration, Natl. Suff. Assn. favors, 67; + Mrs. Mead and Mrs. Catt appeal for, 97-8; + responsibility of U. S. for, 187; + natl. suff. conv. endorses recommendation of Inter Parliamentary + Union, 212; 240; + Mrs. Mead calls on Natl. Amer. Suff. Assn. to assist educatl, work + for it, 254; + Pres. Taft's effort for treaties, 326; 328; + natl. suff conv. in 1914 demands women should have a voice, commends + Pres. Wilson's effort for peace, 426; + assn's. attitude during the war, 578; + Dr. Shaw's demand for world peace, 759. + + Peck, Prof. Mary Gray, elected natl headqrs. secy, 261; + gives report of new headqrs, value of New York center, increased + demand for literature, large sales, valuable suggestions, 267-9; + on Congressl. Com, 319. + + Pendleton, Pres. Ellen F, 663. + + Penfield, Jean Nelson, 338; + bef. Senate com, women's need of ballot in social service work, 352; + on tour for ratif, 606; same, 650. + + Penfield, Perle, 253; 261. + + Penn, Hannah, only woman Governor, 334. + + Penn, William, Govt. free only when people make laws, 334. + + Pennybacker, Mrs. Percy V, report on Child Welfare, 560; 687; 690; 697. + + Penrose, U. S. Sen. Boies, refuses to see suff. dele, 516; + opp. to suff. plank in Repub. natl. platform, 711. + + Perkins, Prof. Emma M, 212. + + Perkins, Mrs. Roger G, 494. + + Perkins, Mrs. S.M.C, 656. + + Petersen, Florence Bennett, 669-70. + + Petition of National American Suffrage Association for Federal + Amendment, list of com, immense work, 258; + report on vast work, Mrs. Catt's contrib. signatures of writers; + automobile parade to Capitol to present; vote of thanks to + members from natl. suff. conv, 1910; + last petition, 274-5; + distinguished signers, 300; + in 1913, 368; + 200,000 names presented to Senate, 378; + those of suffs. and "antis" compared, 392; + first to Cong, for worn, suff, 619; + first for 16th Amend, 623; + great petition 1913, 626; + for Wom. Suff. Com, 633; + to senate for Fed. Amend, 638; + initiative petit, of 38,000 in Mo, 402; + 98,000 Conn, women petit. Legis. for Pres. suff, 602; + 11,000 in Del. to U.S. Senate for Fed. Amend, 638; + treatment of petitions in Mass, 188. + + Phelan, U. S. Sen. James D, 645. + + Philadelphia, municipal corruption, need of women's votes, 65, 72; + ignoring of women's civic work, 177; + entertains natl. suff. conv. of 1912, overflow meetings, 332; + great rally in Independence Square, 333. + + Philippines, wom. suff. soc. formed, 561. + + Phillips, Elsie Cole, at Senate hearing; + need of the ballot by wives and mothers of working classes; + theirs not the ignorant vote, 348; 361. + + "Picketing," work of natl. Press Bureau to counteract; + Mrs. Catt and Dr. Shaw condemn, editorials on, 529-30. + + Pierce, Charlotte, 16; 209; + sole survivor of first Woman's Rights Convention, 333; 559; + natl. conv. sends letter, 1920, 610. + + Pierce, Katherine, 685. + + Pierce, Rev. U. G. B, 459; 515. + + Pinchot, Gifford, shows nation's need of women's vote, 377. + + Pinchot, Mrs. Gifford, entertains Natl. Bd, 516; + report on Industrial Protection of Women, 560; 731. + + Pinkham, Winona Osborne, 729. + + Pioneers, at natl. conv. '02, 31; + suff. luncheon at natl. conv. in Chicago, 615. + + Pittman, U. S. Sen. Key, 713. + + Pitzer, Annie, 341. + + Planks, for Woman Suffrage, efforts to obtain in platforms of polit. + parties; Repub. and Dem. endorse suff. in 1916 but not Fed. Amend.; + efforts at State convs, 504-5; + Natl. Assn's. effort to secure from natl. Pres. convs, in 1904, 702; + in 1908, 703; + in 1912, 704-8; + in 1916, 509, 708; + in 1920, 715. + See Chapter XXIII. + + Plan of work, for 1901, 10; + for 1906, 163; + for 1909, 240; + for 1917, 510. + + Platt, Margaret B, 247. + + Plummer, Mary R, 667. + + Podell, Nettie A, 286. + + Pohl, Dr. Esther Lovejoy, 133. + + Poindexter, U. S. Sen. Miles, 638. + + Poindexter, Mrs. Miles, 382. + + Polk, Gov. Joseph K. (Mo.), 668. + + Pollock, U. S. Sen. William P, speaks for Fed. Suff. Amend, 565, 642; + copies of speech sent to southern States, 603; + tries to obtain needed vote, 641; 647. + + Pomerene, U.S. Sen. Atlee, refuses to represent his State on Fed. + Suff. Amend, 598. + + Pomeroy, U. S. Sen. S. C, offers first res. for Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, + in 1868, 621. + + Porritt, Annie G, Laws Affecting Women and Children, 494; 532. + + Portland, Ore, entertains natl. suff. conv, 117; + Mrs. Duniway and others meet the delegates, cordial welcome from + press and people, 119. + + Porto Rico, Natl. Assn. asks wom. suff. for, 11; + suff. soc. formed, 561. + + Post, Louis F, on Ethics of Suffrage, 18; 20; 205; 212. + + Potter, Eva, 556. + + Potter, Prof. Frances Squire, + Women and the Vote, speech on coll. women's eve, 228; + at Spokane, 246; + masterly speech on Coll. Women and Democracy, 255-6; 260; + elected natl. cor. secy, 261; 265; + sends letter of regret from Natl. Suff. Bd. to Pres. Taft, 272; + address on The Making of Democracy, 274; + natl. cor. secy's, report, conv. gives rising vote, declines + re-election, 381-3; + on Res. Com, 289; 290. + + Pou, U. S. Rep. Edward W. (N. C.), + chmn. Rules Com, 524; 548; 628; 633; + for Wom. Suff. Com, 634-5. + + Pound, L. Annice, 109. + + Poyntz, Juliet Stuart, 283. + + Pratt, Mayor N. S, welcomes suff. dele, to Spokane, 244. + + Presidential Conventions, treatment of wom. suff, see Chapter XXIII. + + Presidential Suffrage, + natl. assn's. early work for, 2, 11; + Mr. Blackwell's argument for, 12; + right of Legis. to grant, 43; + great value of, 62; + Chief Justice Fuller's decision, 130; + line of least resistance, 219; + gained in Ills. and other States, power it gives women; + first suggested by U. S. Sen. Hoar, 369-70; + Ills. Sup. Ct. declares legality, 407; + Natl. Exec. Council strongly endorses, 452; + bills introduced in 1916, 495; + Mrs. Catt declares grant by Legis. legal, 520; + great "drive" for begun, 528; + Natl. Assn. works for, victories gained, 539; + great gains in 1918, 550-1; + Mo. Legis. grants during natl. suff. conv; + appeals to conv. from Iowa, Tenn. and Conn, to ask their Legis. + for it, 559; + 98,000 women ask for in Conn, 602; + granted in many States, 602, 632, 643; + effect on personnel of Cong, 643. + + Price, Ellen H. E, welcomes natl. suff. conv. to Phila, 33-4; 666. + + Price, Lucy J, 391; 467; 476; 548; 585. + + Primary Suffrage, + in Texas, 551; + in Ark, 632; + in Texas, 641. + + Prince of Wales, decorates Amer. woman doctor for war service, 735. + See Finley. + + _Progress_, + natl. suff. organ, begun, 35; + wide circulation, 60; + 62,000 distrib, made a monthly, 162; + changed to weekly, 205. + + Progressive Party, + adopts worn, suff, xxi; + women assist, 1912, 342; + Natl. Conv. declares for Fed. Suff. Amend, 480; + for worn, suff, 625; + formed in Chicago, adopts worn, suff, women flock into it, 705-707; + strong woman suffrage plank, 714. + + Prohibition, Federal Amendment adopted, xxiii; + vote for compared with vote for Suff. Amend, 449; + submitted by Cong; + suffs. see State's rights advocates voting for it, 537. + + Prohibition Party, + wom. suff. in platform, 206; + women assist, 1912, 342; + Natl. Conv. declares for Fed. Suff. Amend, 480; + accepts League of Women Voters' planks, 700; + always for wom, suff, 702; 714. + + Proxies, natl, suff. conv. 1912, abolishes their voting, 341. + + Publishing Company, Woman Suffrage; see Natl. Wom. Suff. Pub. Co. + + Pyle, Mrs. John L, + work in S. Dak, 420-1; + describes successful campn, 494; 570; 669; + offers res. against U. S. Sen. Wadsworth in natl. suff. conv, 692. + + + Q + + Queen Mary, cables Dr. Shaw thanks of British women to Woman's Com. of + Council of Natl. Defense, 738. + + Queen Maud, of Norway, 247. + + + R + + Race Problem, + Natl. Suff. Assn. declares its neutral position, 59; + Mrs. Catt says each State must decide it, 83; + U. S. Sen. Borah's opinion, 413. + See Negroes. + + Rainey, Mrs. Henry T, 382. + + Raker, U. S. Rep. John E. (Calif.), + wom. suff. clean cut question of right, 356; + demands Com. on Wom. Suff. in Lower House, 388; + at hearing in 1916, 504-5; + introd. Fed. Amend, and res. for Wom. Suff. Com, 1917, 524; 548; + introd. new res. for Fed. Suff. Amend, 562; + presides at hearing, 577; + interviews Pres. Wilson, 583; 628; + chmn. new Com. on Wom. Suff, 634-5-6; + for Fed. Elections Bill, 658. + + Raker, Mrs. John E, 382. + + Rankin, Jeannette, + report as field secy, 368; + tells of Montana victory, 409; + on Congressl. Com, 451; + as U. S. Rep. addresses suff. conv, 520-1; + tells of her bill for nationality of wives, 521; + speaks at natl. suff. headqrs. in Washtn, 523; + introd. Fed. Suff. Amend, 524; + urges it at Senate hearing, 546; 548; + grills anti-suff. speaker, 584; + vote against war, 585; + first wom. Representative, speaks at suff. headqrs. and escorted to + Capitol, 632; 633; + opens debate on Fed. Amend, 636. + + Ranlett, Helen, 368; 405. + + Ransdell, U. S. Sen. Joseph E, + on Wom. Suff. Com, 383; + votes for Fed. Amend, 627. + + Ratification of Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment, + Mrs. Catt's plans and work for; + sends representatives to Governors, 649-650; + effort for spec, sessions of Legis, New York and Kans. lead; + Mrs. Catt heads deputation to western States, 650; + action of southern section; + Conn, and Vt, 651; + great fight in Tenn, Mrs. Catt leads, Pres. Wilson assists, 652; + Maine and Ohio try referendum, U. S. Sup. Ct. decision, final + victory, Amend, proclaimed, 652; + Conn, then ratifies and later Vt, 653; + appeals to courts, 653-655. + See St. chapters in Vol. VI near end of each. + Fight on by Men's Anti-Suff. Assn. in Conn, Md, W. Va, and Tenn, + 681-2. + + Ratifications of Federal Amendment, partial list, 606. + + Red Cross, 535; + natl. suff. conv. asks that women be represented on its War Council; + women do much of its work, plan of worn, nurses in army hospitals + orig. with a woman and first military hospital was estab. by a + woman; com. appointed to confer with Red Cross, 540; + branch in natl. suff. headqrs, 567. + + Reed, U. S. Sen. James A, 638; 645. + + Reed, Speaker Thomas B, 73; + for wom. suff. 236. + + Reid, Mrs. Ogden Mills, 519. + + Reilley, Mrs. Eugene, 490. + + Reilly, Caroline I, 249; + report of Natl. Press Bureau for 1911; its work extends around + the globe, 315; + for 1912, 20 syndicates on list, 2,000 copies of press bulletin + sent weekly to every State and many countries, spec, editions + for papers prepared, 3,000 letters answered during year, 336; 604. + + Remsen, Pres. Ira, presides at coll. wom. suff. evening, in Balto, + 168; + invites natl. suff. conv. to visit Johns Hopkins, 183. + + Reports on Federal Suffrage Amendment, + Senate and House Coms, urged to report, 299, 303, 309; + refuse, 1912, 363; + from coms, of Cong, 624; + favorable from Senate, 626, 633; + few reports from House, 627; + from House Com. on Rules, 628; + from House Judic, 631; + from House Wom. Suff. Com. 635. + + Republican National Committee refuses to give natl. suff. com. list of + its candidates for Cong, 319; + receives suff. speakers, 440; + natl. suff. conv. thanks chmn. for help with Fed. Amend, 610; + effort for amend, 636-638; + Mrs. Catt thanks, 648; + work for ratification, 651-2; + in 1920 sends out appeal for it, 715. + + Republican National Conventions, + one in 1916 declares for wom. suff, 480; + refuses plank for Fed. Amend, but endorse wom. suff, 505; + struggle over plank, 509-10; + action on League of Women Voters' planks, 700; + on wom. suff. planks in 1904, 702; + in 1908, 703; + in 1912, 704; + great struggle in 1916, names of friends and foes, State's rights + plank, 710-712; + in 1920, Natl. Suff. Assn. demands ratif. of Fed. Amend, presents + plank, Res. Com. evades, 716-17; + women ask representation in party, partially conceded, 717. + + Republican Party, + attitude toward wom. suff, xviii, xx; + adopts plank, xxi; + vote in Cong, xxii, xxiii; + record on Fed. Suff. Amend, 430; + why was it not held responsible, 434; + record of members of Cong, on Fed. Suff. Amend, 474-5; + vote of members of Cong, on Wom. Suff. Com, 525; + vote of members of Cong, on Fed. Amend, 563, 565; + members in Cong, responsible for delay of Amend, 598; + promise Amend, 620; + do not assist, 625; + vote in Cong, on Fed. Amend, Senate, 624, 627; + Lower House, 629, 636; + Senate, 640, 642; + House, 644; + Senate, 646. + See 647-8-9. + Res. of Senators, 639; + party makes first declaration for State's rights in wom. suff. + plank, 1916, 711. + + Resolutions, + adopted by natl. suff. conv. of 1901, 15; + of 1902, 43; + 1903, 67; + of 1904, 105; + of 1905, 136, 145-6; + of 1906, 179; + of 1907, 212; + of 1908, 240; + of 1909, 257; + of 1911, 328; + of 1912, 339; + of 1913, 373; + of 1914, 425-6; + of 1915, sacredness of home and marriage, 461; + of 1916, 502; + of 1917, loyalty and service to the Govt, 518; + Cong. urged to submit Fed. Suff. Amend. as a War measure; + rejoicing over many important victories; + support for war measures of Govt; + equal pay for equal work, 543; + of 1919, 574-5; + of 1920, 600-1. + + Resolutions for Woman Suffrage by various organizations, 128. + + Reynolds, Minnie J, work on natl. suff. petit, 258; + secures writers' names, 275; + gives eminent list at Senate hearing, 295-297. + + Rhees, Pres. Rush, speaks of Anthony Mem. Bldg, 744. + + Rhinelander, Rt. Rev. Philip Mercer, 343. + + Richards, Janet, 260, 264; + bef. House Judic. Com, 434; + on recep. com, 1917, 515. + + Richardson, A. Madely, 611. + + Richardson, Nell, 6,000 mile motor suff. trip, 481. + + Richardson, "Tom", welcomes natl. suff. conv. to New Orleans, 57. + + Ringrose, Mary E, 317. + + Riordan, U. S. Rep, Daniel J. (N. Y.), 548; 645. + + Roberts, Gov. Albert H, + helps ratif. in Tenn, 652; + Dem. Natl. Com. urges to call spec. session for ratif, 717. + + Robertson, Beatrice Forbes, 289. + + Robins, Raymond, 289; 511. + + Robins, Mrs. Raymond, + pres. Natl. Wom. Trade Union League, on White Slave Traffic, 286; + appeals for vote in name of the league, 302; 306; + res. that suffs. support only candidates favoring Fed. Amend, stirs + up Atlantic City conv, 489; + asks ballot for women wage earners, 496, 499; 564; 570; + chmn. Women in Industry Com, 686, 692. + + Robinson, State Sen. Helen Ring (Colo.), 366. + + Robinson, Margaret C, accused by Mrs. Catt of making false assertions + against her during the war, 736. + + Rochester University, mem. bldg. for Miss Anthony, 200-1. + + Rodgers, Helen Z. M, 214. + + Roessing, Mrs. Frank M, + tells of Penn. campn, 444; 450; + elected natl. vice-pres, 456; 485; 501; + appt. chmn. Congressl. Comm, 506; + report of work, 503-511; + aids Congressl. Com, 525; 566; + work at Repub. Natl. Conv, 710. + + Rogers, Mrs. Henry Wade, + elected natl. treas, 425; + report, large receipts, 441; + re-elected, 456; + report for 1916, receipts, $81,869; + obligations to "finance com. of fifty," 482-3; + report as chmn. for war com. on Food Production, 520; + re-elected, treas. report for 1917, comparison with early days, + 541; 555; + report for 1918, receipts, $107,736; + Oversea Hospitals' fund, $133,339, 558; + report, receipts from 1914 to 1920; + with Oversea Hospitals' fund, $612,000, 608; + seven years of gratuitous service, 609; + at Repub. Natl. Conv, 716; 724; + report of funds for Women's Oversea Hospitals during the war, 734. + + Rogers, Mrs. John, 395. + + Roosevelt, Alice, greets Miss Anthony, 88. + + Roosevelt, President Theodore, xxi; + invites Miss Anthony to White House, 88; + receives natl. suff. conv, 99; + it asks him to recommend Fed. Suff. Amend, 126; + Miss Anthony presents list of requests, all ignored, 137; + birthday letter to Miss Anthony, 191; + suff. com. interviews, he says a petition would have no effect on + him, 217; 222; + says people have a right to change Natl. Constitn, 359; + speaks for wom. suff, in Metrop. Opera House, New York, 367; + urges U. S. Sen. Moses to vote for Fed. Suff. Amend, 571; + favors Amend, 579; + favors wom. suff. plank in Progressive platform, 625; + speaks for it, 626; + urges Fed. Suff. Amend, 634, 636; + at Natl. Repub. Conv, 1912, 705; + forms Progressive Party; its res. com. substitutes another for his + wom. suff. plank, 706; + he accepts and speaks for it, 707; + while Pres, he refused all appeals, 706. + + Roosevelt, Jr, Mrs. Theodore, 442. + + Root, Mrs. Elihu, advises Pres. Taft not to welcome natl. suff. conv, + 269. + + Root, Martha S, 106; 146. + + Rowe, Charlotte, amazing "anti" speech, 592. + + Rucker, U. S. Rep. A. W, + speaks for Colo, at suff. conv, 269; + introd. Fed. Suff. Amend, 300; + women's vote in Colo, 308; 354. + + Rumely, Edward A, 548. + + Russia, + loyal to U. S, 28; + legal and polit. status of women, 50; 213. + + Ruutz-Rees, Caroline, 372; + elected natl. vice-pres, 373; + org. Junior Suff. Corps, 405; + chmn. Com. on Literature, compiles some of Dr. Shaw's speeches, 447; + bef. Senate com, 464; + bef. House com, 472; + at mem. service for Dr. Shaw, 611. + + Ryan, Agnes E, 315; 380. + + Ryerson, Mrs. Arthur, 542. + + Ryshpan, Bertha, 286. + + + S + + Sacajawea, statue dedicated, 132. + + Safford, Rev. Mary A, 98; 541; 553. + + Sage, Mrs. Russell, contributions to suff. work, 183, 191. + + St. Louis, entertains Jubilee Conv. of Natl. Suff. Assn, 552; + report fills 322 pages. + + Salmon, Prof. Lucy M, college women's debt to suff. pioneers, address + at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 168-9; 663. + + Sanders, M. J, shows need of wom. suff, 70. + + Sanford, Prof. Maria L, 617; 669. + + Sargent, U. S. Sen. A. A, first to present Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, 623. + + Sargent, Ellen Clark (Mrs. A. A.), 137; + entertains suff. leaders, 150; 180; 208; + memorial, 328. + + Sargent, Mrs. James, 204. + + Savage, Bessie J, 264. + + Savage, Clara, 442. + + Schall, U. S. Rep. Thomas D. (Minn.), 548. + + Schauss, Elizabeth, shows working women's need of suff, 302. + + Schneiderman, Rose, 286; + no chivalry to working women, 409; 519. + + Schoff, Mrs. Frederick, 135. + + Schools for citizenship, under League of Women Voters, 688, 690, + 698-9. + + Schwimmer, Rosika (Hungary), + brings petition for peace to Pres. Wilson and says wom. suff. + would do away with war, 410; + at Miss. Valley Conf, 669. + + Scott, Mrs. Francis M, 679. + + Scott, Prof. John A, invites suff. conv. to visit Northwestern Univ, + 208. + + Scott, Mrs. Townsend, 585. + + Scott, Mrs. William Force, 391. + + Seattle, entertains natl. suff. conv. of 1909, 243; + receives vote of thanks, 257. + + Semple, Patty Blackburn, tells of "indirect influence," 312. + + Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage, 380; + grants six hearings in 1913, names of com, 382-3. + + Seneca Falls, has first Woman's Rights Conv, 213; 618. + + Seton, Ernest Thompson, for wom. suff, 297. + + Seton, Mrs. Ernest Thompson, 319; + report of Art Publicity Com, 403; 442; + arr. display of suff. posters, 532. + + Severance, Caroline M, pioneer suff, 137; 208; 288. + + Sewall, May Wright, 24; + speaks for Peace and Arbitration, 67; + for memorial bust of Miss Anthony, 201-2; + founder Intl. Council of Women, 658. + + Sexton, Minola Graham, 94. + + Shafroth, U. S. Sen. John F, + addresses natl. suff. conv, 45; + answers Pres. Cleveland's anti-suff. article, 163; + bef. Senate com. in 1910, men have usurped suff. rights, 297-8; + arr. hearing for Dr. Shaw bef. House of Governors, 314; + introd. Shafroth Suff. Amend, 415; + answers misrepresentations on wom. suff. in Colo, 444; + natl. suff. conv. thanks for assistance, 450; + on suff. platform, 459; + has conf. of Senators on wom, suff, 503; + 700,000 copies Amend, speech circulated, 532; + Mrs. Catt introd. to Senate com. as an "unfailing friend" of wom. + suff; he declares it to be "simply another step in the evolution + of govt," 545; + tribute of chmn. Congressl. Com, 566; 571; + speech for Fed. Suff. Amend, 633; 648. + + Shafroth-Palmer National Woman Suffrage Amendment, + full story of, 411-418, 422-424, 427; + drawn up and submitted to lawyers and Senators, introd. by Sen. + Shafroth and Rep. Palmer, 414-416; + Official Bd. approves it, text of, 416; + its merits presented to conv. by Mrs. Funk; refers to at hearing + bef. Judic. Com; U. S. Sen. Bristow calls it a national + initiative and referendum; _Woman's Journal_ says it should have + been submitted to Natl. Exec. Council, 416-418; + strong protest at Miss. Valley Conf, 422; + great dissatisfaction among suffs; + Official Bd. stands by it; + discussion at natl. conv; + Miss Blackwell supports it, 422-3; + will hasten day of Fed. Amend, 423; + Mrs. Blatch objects, res. adopted, 423; + effect on election of officers, 424; + Mrs. Funk calls it natl. initiative; Congressl. Com. works for, 451; + natl. suff. conv. 1915, rescinds last year's action; passes res. + that Natl. Amer. Assn. will work only for old Fed. Amend; Dr. Shaw + explains her action; end of Amend, 452-3; + letters on it in _Woman's Journal_, 747-750. + + Shaw, Dr. Anna Howard, + at natl. conv. in 1901, would rather starve than give up wom. suff, + 7; + on chivalry, scores "antis," 8; + appeal against "regulated" vice, 11; 12; 20; + welcomes intl. suff. conf, 26; + at Balto. conv, 35; + on Miss Anthony's birthday, 40; + speech on Power of an Incentive, 45; + addresses Senate com. and urges Cong. to investigate practical + working of wom. suff, 49; + at natl. suff. conv. in New Orleans, 57; + responds to greetings, tribute to southern women, 58; + preaches Sunday sermon, 69; + presides at meetings, 70-1; + tribute to Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and Lucy Stone, 74; + lively answers to question box, 74; + on The Modern Democratic Ideal, 81; + on Fate of Republics, 85; + at natl. conv. of 1904, 86; + prepares Decl. of Principles; + dele, to Berlin conf; + makes southern tour, 87; + optimistic view of wom. suff, 89; 98; + on hymn, America, 106; + elected pres. of Natl. Assn; + Mrs. Catt presents, tribute of Washtn, _Star_, 108; + speaks on Woman without a Country, 109; + recep. en route to Portland conv, 118; + presides at conv, Ore. Hist. Society presents gavel, 120; + gives first written address, pen picture of, 123; + pays tribute to Sacajawea, 124; + extols work of suffs, 125; + answers criticisms of Cardinal Gibbons and ex-Pres. Cleveland, 125; + describes great "dreamers" of the past, 126; + chmn. of suff. com. of Intl. Council of Women, 127; 130; 135; 140; + on Ore. suff. campn, 149; + cordial recep. in Calif, 150; + opens natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 152; + responds to greetings, says people must help God to answer their + prayers, 153; + replies to Gov. Warfield, time women ceased to be proxy voters, + 153-4; + introd. Mrs. Howe and Miss Barton, 154; + gives written address, hearers protest, 156; + criticises Pres. Roosevelt's statement that women in industry + decreases marriage, 157; + that woman's domain is home, 158; + has fun with the "oracles," Cardinal Gibbons, ex-Pres. Cleveland + and Dr. Lyman Abbott, 157-8; + women need self-respect; scores Legislatures, loss to country by + women's disfranchisement, 159; + great injustice from time of Civil War; when will Pres. and Cong. + act, 160; + would continue proxy votes at convs, 161; + asks for women on Natl. Divorce Commissn, 164; + guests of Miss Garrett at Balto. conv, 167; + conducts Sunday services, 179; 184; + closes conv. with appeal for consecrated work, 187; + presides at Senate hearing, 188; + Miss Anthony places the work in her charge, 191; + presides over natl. suff. conv. of '07, 194; + president's address, rejoices over victories; never will be orgztn. + of Tories; farewell tribute to Miss Anthony and her sister, + 200, 204; + on mem. fund com, 202; + tribute to suff. pioneers, 204; + addresses Chicago Univ. girls, 206; + reads last message of Mary Anthony, 207; + closes conv. with hopeful words, 212; + presides at natl, conv. of 1908, flowers presented, comment on + teachers, 214; + sends suff. assn's. greetings to Natl. W. C. T. U, 215; + president's address on revolution of the pioneers; + tribute of Buffalo _Express_, 216; + opens coll. evening, 226; + Mrs. George Howard Lewis gives luncheon at 20th Century Club, 230; + presides at Sunday service, personal notice, believes in dignity of + labor, 230; + women work but do not receive wages, 232; + tells of parade in London, 233; + rec. first salary as Pres, 235; + rec. Mrs. Lewis's gift to Natl. Assn, 236; + sympathy with Brit, "militants," 238; + eloquent peroration, 242; + at St. Paul, 244; + presented with gavel at Spokane, says blow for wom. suff. will be + struck on Pacific coast, 244; + opens suff. conv. at Seattle, pays tribute to Mrs. Catt, 246-7; + is member of Grange, 247; 249; + no stenographic report of speeches, 252; + "question box," 257; 258; + Sunday services, 260; + thanks Miss Gordon, compliments Gov. Vessey, 261; + does not know politics, 262; 263; + closing speech, 264; + at Expos, on suff. day, 264; + opens natl. conv. of 1910, 266; + presiding when Pres. Taft makes address of welcome, distressed at + apparent hissing, expresses regret in the conv, sends letter to + the President in name of Official Bd, 269, 272-3; + tributes to Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Garrison, 280; + re-elected pres, 282; + presides at Sunday meeting, 289; + closes conv. 290; + presides at Senate hearing, tells of great petit, says democracy + never has been tried; introd. speakers; scores women "antis"; + begs for a report, 291-299; + opens natl. conv. in Louisville, 311; + gives $3,000 from unknown contrib, 315; + president's address; tribute to men of Wash, and Calif, 317; + guest of honor Coll. Women's Suff. League, 319; + presides at Sunday afternoon meeting, introd. noted speakers, 321; + re-elected, 324; + closing address, "eloquent with hope," 331; + "citizen of the world," 334; + large fund for campns. received from Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw, 337; + president's address, "American women are ruled by the men of every + country in the world," 338; + sends congrat. of Natl. Assn. to Governors of States with suff. + victories, who respond, 341; + presides at great Sunday meeting in Phila, 343; 345; + at Senate hearing, 1912, 347; + begs the com. to bring a Fed. Suff. Amend, bef. the Senate and to + appoint a com. to investigate its working in equal suff. States, + 353; + speaks in 13 States and 5 countries of Europe in 1913, 367; + president's address at natl. conv; has heard objections against wom. + suff. but no reasons; women too emotional; compares last Pres. + conv. in Balto. with natl. convs. of women, 370-1; + criticizes Pres. Wilson for ignoring wom. suff. in his first + message, 373-4; + recd. by him and presents case for suffs, 375; + appoints Alice Paul head of Congressl. Com, 378; + closes conv, 382; + presides at hearing for a Wom. Suff. Com, 384; 387; + says suffs. would not ask partisan com, 388; + business of the Govt. to protect women in their right to vote, 391; + presides at natl. conv. in Nashville, presented with gavel from tree + planted by Andrew Jackson, 398; + pays tribute to southern women, calls on southern men to give them + the ballot, 399; + conv. passes res. of appreciation for her "splendid services" of + past year and willingness to stand for re-election, 400; + president's address, divine right of Kings soon obsolete; with wom. + suff. war could be averted, 402; + asks Pres. Wilson to proclaim Women's Independence Day, 402; + uses her campn. fund, her long itinerary, 404; + rec. testimonial from organizers, 406; + tribute to people of Nashville, 409; + agrees to Shafroth-Palmer Amend, 422; + re-elected, 1914, 424; + sits on Speaker's bench at opening of Cong; recd, by Pres. Wilson, + asks him to use his influence for a Fed. Suff. Amend, and plank + in Dem. natl. platform, 440; + welcomes new workers, thanks God for old, 441; + tribute of publicity chmn, 442; + decides to retire from presidency, states reasons in _Woman's + Journal_, 445; + president's address, leading' feature of convs; outlines future work + of assn, 445; + shows need of loyalty and co-operation bet. officers and members; + receives ovation, 446; + shows Miss Anthony's pin from Wyoming women; conv. orders address + printed, 447; + compilation of her speeches made; speaks 30 times in N. J. campn, + 447; + 204 in N. Y, 457; + addresses Coll. League, 450; + attitude on Shafroth Amend, opposed but yields to Official Bd, + thinks it was introd. too soon, 450-1; + accepted presidency of Natl. Assn. in 1904 only because urged by + Miss Anthony; compelled to give it up by other duties, wants + Mrs. Catt for her successor, 455-6; + votes for her and pays tribute, 457; + natl. suff. conv. releases Dr. Shaw with beautiful ceremonies, + elects her hon. pres. and friends present her with annuity, 457-8; + she responds and introd. Mrs. Catt, 458; + presides at mass meeting Sunday, 459-60; + appreciation and thanks of Natl. Assn, 461; + presides at Senate hearing, 462; + takes up world questions and asks for woman's vote on them; tribute + to com, 465-6; + at House hearing asked to state diff. between Natl Suff. Assn. + and Congressl. Union and does so, 471; + urges no change in policy of Natl. Am. Assn, 487; + stands for non partisanship, 490; + responds to Pres. Wilson's address to natl. suff. conv, "women + want suff, now," 498; + presides over last evening session; closes address with a definition + of Americanism and tribute to the flag, 511; + reception with wives of Cabinet at suff. conv. 1917, 515; + opens convention with invocation, 517; + moves rising vote on pledge of war service to Govt, 518; + appointed by Govt. as chmn. of Woman's Com. of Council of National + Defense, 520; + presides at evening session, 520; + nominates Mrs. Catt for office, 522-3; + condemns "picketing", 530; + proposes message of loyalty and support to Pres. Wilson, which conv. + sends, 533; + speech on women and war, 534-6; + women the army at home; must not make all the sacrifices; should be + "smokeless" days; describes Woman's Com. of Natl. Defense, 536; + speaks of injustice to Clara Barton; presents Mrs. Avery, 540; + tribute to her oratory, 544; + invocation at opening of natl. conv. 1919; + presents Mrs. Catt, 553; + southern dele. give illuminated testimonial and she responds, 554; + moves a res. of thanks to Pres. Wilson, 558; 559; + assistance to Congressl. Com, 567; + at Pioneer's evening gives reminis. of Miss Anthony, 569-70; + presides on last evening, 576; + at last suff. hearing, 577; + speech shows Govt's recognition of loyalty of Natl. Suff. Assn, 578; + other countries recognize women's service by giving suff, 579; + eminent supporters of Fed. Suff. Amend; to fail to ask it would be + treason, 579; 581; + opened natl. convs. with prayer 28 yrs, 596; + tribute of Mrs. Shuler, memorial booklet by Natl. Bd; her last + speech, What the War Meant to Women, 607; + memorial service at natl. suff. conv, program, tribute of N. Y. + _Times_, 611; + Mrs. Catt's eulogy, beautiful comparison, 612; + devotion to cause of wom. suff; nearest and dearest to Miss Anthony; + great power of oratory, 612; + work for her country; two college foundations estab. as memorials; + her college degrees. Autobiography, Story of a Pioneer, 613; + her tribute to Miss Anthony, 615; + Pres. Wilson congratulates, 634; + vice-pres. Coll. Equal Suff. League, 663; + favors League of Women Voters, 685; + appeals to Dem. natl. conv. in 1908, 704; + in 1912, 707; 724; + on women's attitude toward war, 725; + Govt. appoints her chmn. Woman's Com. of Council of Natl. Defense, + 726-7; + her work, 737; + telegram from Queen Mary, 738; + tribute by Secy. of War Baker; receives distinguished service medal, + 739; + closes work of Woman's Com. but thinks it should be continued for + civic work, 739; + goes on speaking tour in behalf of League of Nations with former + Pres. Taft and Pres. Lowell, 739; + overworks and dies before it is finished, 740. + Appendix, approves Anthony Mem. Bldg, 744, 754; + address on resigning presidency of Natl. Amer. Assn; U. S. Govt. + violates its own principles in refusing suff. to women, 750; + assn. must not be swerved from its purpose, new recruits want + spectacular methods, State action is the foundation, 751; + on tour for League of Nations; nation mourns death, 757-8; + tribute to Amer. flag; women traitors to democracy not to demand + suff; receives disting. service medal; accepts it for service + of all women; on Exec. Com. of League to Enforce Peace; it + circulates her last speech, 758; + "out of this war must come world peace; American flag means hope for + the world; mothers will not endure war; will of the people must + prevent it," 759; + memorial of Natl. Suff. Bd; tributes of Pres. Wilson, Vice-pres. + Marshall, former Pres. Taft, Director Grosvenor B. Clarkson, Secy. + of the Interior Lane, Mrs. Henry Fawcett, Lady Aberdeen, Elizabeth + C. Carter, Natl. and Intl. Assns, 760-1. + + Shaw, Helen Adelaide, 36. + + Shaw, Nicolas, 754. + + Shaw, Mrs. Quincy A. (Pauline Agassiz), 202; + gives fund for campn. work, 404. + + Shaw, Mrs. Robert Gould, 442; + contrib. to wom. suff, 542. + + Shepherd, Lulu Loveland, 395. + + Sheppard, U. S. Sen. Morris, speech for Fed. Amend, 572; + votes for it, 627; 646. + + Shetter, Charlotte, designs seal, 314. + + Shibley, George H, 174. + + Shores, Mrs. E. A, 317. + + Shortt, Rev. J. Burgette, 136. + + Shuler, Marjorie, natl. chmn. of Publicity, in Fla, 556; + in Okla. campn, 558; + on Congressl. Com, 566; + report of Washtn. suff. press bureau, 573; + on Congressl. Com, 604; + on commissn. to West, 605-6; + same, 650; + welcomed in Washtn, 652. + + Shuler, Nettie Rogers, pres. Western New York Fed. of Wom. Clubs, + welcomes natl. conv, 214; + elected natl. cor. secy, 501; 527; + report for 1917; tells of universal demonstrations for Fed. Amend, + vast distrib. of literature, suff. schools, work of 225 organizers + instructed by Mrs. Catt, 538-9; + work for Pres. suff, 539; + re-elected, 541; + campns. in western States, 550; + valuable report for Com. of Campaigns and Surveys, 554-558; + in campn. States, 556; 562; 568; 570; + chapter for Hist, on League of Women Voters, 595, 683; + sends letter of thanks to Governors for Natl. Assn, 600; + report for 1919, most important year in history of assn, 601-608; + lines of work indexed under respective heads; great "drive" for + ratif; of Fed. Amend. from natl. headqrs, under Mrs. Catt's + direction, 604-607; + renders homage to her, 608; + tribute to Natl. Suff. Assn, 607; + chmn. Citizenship Schools Com, 690; + at Natl. Repub. Conv, 716; 724; + helps revise constn. of Natl. Assn, 756. + + Siewers, Dr. Sarah M, 71. + + Simkovitch, Mary M. K, 705. + + Simpson, Mrs. David, 511. + + Sims, U. S. Rep. Thetus W. (Tenn.), 637. + + Sioussat, Mrs. Albert L, 152. + + Skinner. Mrs. Otis, 333. + + Slade, Mrs. Louis F, women's war service in N. Y, 533; + offers res. for women on Red Cross War Council, 539-40; + New York's apology for U. S. Sen. Wadsworth, 610; 689. + + Smith, Gov. Alfred E. (N. Y.), calls spec, session to ratify Fed. + Suff. Amend, 650; + welcomes Mrs. Catt from Tenn. campn, 652. + + Smith, Caroline M, 317. + + Smith, Charles Sprague, 280. + + Smith, Mrs. Draper, tells of defeat in Neb, 402; + campn. work, 420; 444. + + Smith, U. S. Sen. Ellison D, 713. + + Smith, Ethel M, estab. natl. speakers' bureau, 419; + work on Congressl. Com, 448; + report on Indust. Protect. of Women, 520; + chmn. of publicity, 526, 528; + report on Protect. of Women in Government service, 728. + + Smith, U. S. Sen. Hoke, 645. + + Smith, Judith W, 137; 208; 501. + + Smith, Dr. Julia Holmes, 617. + + Smith, Mrs. Thomas Jefferson, speaks at natl. conv, 490; + elected to Natl. Bd, 501; 724. + + Smithsonian Institution, gives space for suff. exhibit; list of + articles including historic table on which Call for first Woman's + Rights Conv. was written; story of, 609. + + Smoot, U. S. Sen. Reed, "glories in every victory for wom. suff," 546; + speaks at Senate hearing, 633; + for wom. suff. plank in Repub. platform, 711. + + Smoot, Mrs. Reed, 382. + + Snell, U. S. Rep. Bertrand H. (N. Y.), 548. + + Snowden, Mrs. Philip, situation in Brit. Parl, defends "militancy," + 236-238. + + Social Evil, natl. suff. conv. protests against "regulated" vice in + Manila, and Hawaii, 10; + again; govt. "regulation" in Philippines stopped by War Dept, 44; + conv. protests against it in Cincinnati, 67; + protests against legal sanction, 146; + calls for suppression of white slave traffic, 212; + discussion of social evil, 224-226; + position of Natl. Suff. Assn, 340; + Miss Addams shows necessity for women to deal with, 343; + Mrs. Catt demands polit. power in the hands of women to deal with, + 346. + + Socialist Party, for wom. suff, 206; + the only one, 362; + Rep. Berger at House hearing, 361-2; + Natl. conv. declares for Fed. Suff. Amend, 480; + statistics of vote in N. Y. suff. amend, campn, 537; + did not carry N. Y, 580; + "antis" say they did, 584; + always advocate wom. suff, 702; + plank in platform, 714. + + Somerville, Nellie Nugent, natl. vice-pres, 425; 671. + + South, members of Cong, vote for Fed. Suff. Amend, women work for it, + xxii; + attitude toward wom. suff, 88; + see Chap. III; + child labor laws, 95; + resentment of southern women against attitude of southern members of + Cong. on wom. suff, 188; + Dr. Shaw pays tribute to the women, says it is duty of southern men + to give them suff, 399; + Jane Addams speaks of the men, 409; + attitude of women toward suff, 463; + want Fed. Suff. Amend, 473; + at natl. suff. conv, speakers demand wom. suff, 490-3; + position of members of Cong. on Fed. Suff. Amend, 516; + press sentiment changes, 529; + southern dele. to natl. suff. conv. present testimonials to Mrs. + Catt and Dr. Shaw, 554; + shall southern men stand in the way, 579; + Mrs. Dudley says State's rights doctrine a fallacy; negro vote + discussed, 580; + many petitions for Fed. Suff. Amend, 583; + from Texas, 588-9; + from other southern States, 589-90; + Natl. Assn. gives large assistance for wom. suff. but States fail in + their part, 603; + vote in Cong. for Fed. Suff. Amend, 637; + same, 641-647. + + South Africa, iii. + + South Dakota, Natl. Assn. helps campns, 240; 254; 277; + liquor interests in suff. campn. 1913, 420; + in 1918, 557; + gives worn, suff, 641. + + South, Mrs. John G, on commissn. for ratif. to West, 605; 650. + + South, Mrs. Oliver, 394. + + Southworth, Louisa, 146; + contrib. to suff. headqrs, 754. + + Southern Woman Suffrage Conference, reason for, organization, + officers, plan of campn, 671; + Mrs. Belmont finances, headqrs, paper started, 673; + with State's rights plank in Dem. natl. platform conf. is + discontinued, 673. + + Spargo, John, at suff. hearing, 548. + + Spencer, Rev. Anna Garlin, conv. sermon in 1902, 43; + Felix Adler's tribute, 95; + conv. sermon in 1908, 214; + first woman's rights conv. result of wave of idealism, 221; + strong speech on social evil, 225. + + Spencer, U. S. Sen. Selden P, speaks at suff. conv, 561. + + Sperry, Mary S, birthday gift to Miss Anthony in 1902, 40; + entertains suff. leaders, 150; + pres. Calif, suff. assn, responds to greetings, 1907, 194; + elected to Natl. Bd, 204; 238; + responds to greetings at Portland conv, 347; 249; + at Louisville conv, 317; + signs appeal to natl. Repub. conv, 1904, 704. + + Spofford, Jane H, 13; 45; + mem. res. for, 180. + + Spokane, entertains dele. to natl. suff. conv, 244-246. + + Springer, Elmina, 130. + + Stanford, Mrs. Leland, mem. res. for, 146. + + Stanley, U. S. Sen. A. O, 713. + + Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, work for Hist, of Wom. Suff, iii; + pres. natl. suff. assn, 1; 13; + letter on Church and Wom. Suff, 4, 5; + Clara Barton's tribute, 25; + had first idea of intl. suff. conf, 26; + on Educated Suff, 32; + last address to natl. suff. conv, 33; 45; + tributes of Miss Anthony and Dr. Shaw, 74; + early fight for wom. suff, 121; + tributes from college women at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 169-173; + for admission of women to Cornell Univ, 169; 185; 213; + on first Wom. Rights Conv, 1848, 215; + signs Call for it, 219; + at early wom. suff. hearings, 306; + writes Women's Decl. of Rights, 1876, 333; + bef. House Judic. Com, 428; + address to Cong. in 1866, 521; + mem. evening at natl. suff. conv, 569; + at suff. hearings, 581; + calls first woman's rights conv. and first after Civil War, 1866, + prepares Memorial to Cong. 618; + at first suff. conv. in Washtn, 621; + deserts Amer. Equal Rights Assn, forms Natl. Suff. Assn, made pres, + 621-2; + address at funeral by the Rev. Moncure D. Conway; + farewell words by women ministers; + Miss Anthony's last birthday letter to; + extended tributes in the press, 741-3. + + Stapler, Martha, prepares Wom. Suff. Year Book, 332. + + Statehood Protest, Natl. Suff. Assn. heads protest against bill for + admitting new Territories classing women with insane, idiots and + felons, 129, 130. + + State's Rights, this argument against wom. suff. demolished by history + of Dem. party; a continuous record of Fed. control, 430-432; + all nations but U. S. regard suff. as a natl. matter, 431; + fallacy shown in vote for Fed. Prohib. Amend, 449; + vote for this Amend, 537; + a "phantom" in South, 580; + Repub. natl. conv. declares for, 711; + most men in U. S. recd. suff. from Govt, not States, 745-6. + + States, six more grant wom. suff, 708-9, 715. + + Stearns, Sarah Burger, 146. + + Steele, Mrs. W. D, 553. + + Steinem, Pauline, 187-8; + educatl. suff. work, 224; 260; + women neglected in histories, 263; + chmn. Com. on Education, 286; + valuable work, 320. + + Stern, Meta L, 280. + + Stevens, Isaac N, 103. + + Stevenson, U. S. Sen. Isaac, 320. + + Stevenson, Dr. Sarah Hackett, 280. + + Stewart, Ella S, reviews clergy's objection to wom. suff, 138; + scores ex-Pres. Cleveland and Dr. Abbott, ridicules so-called + chivalry, 166; + at Congressl. hearing, 189; + welcomes natl. conv. to Chicago, 194; 220-1; + elected natl. vice-pres, 238; 260; + witty remarks, 261-2; 265; + re-elected, 282; 289; 324; + at Senate hearing, 349; + work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370; + at House hearing, 395; + org. Miss. Valley Conf, 667-8. + + Stewart, Oliver W, 199. + + Stiles, Florence, 450. + + Stilwell, Mrs. Horace C, director Natl. Assn, 541; + assists Congressl. Com, 567. + + Stockman, Eleanor C, 76. + + Stockwell, Maud C. (Mrs. S. A.), welcomes natl. suff. conv. to + Minneapolis, 8; + meets dele, to Seattle conv, 244; 249; 668. + + Stockwell, S. A, 244. + + Stolle, Antonie, 40-1. + + Stone, Rev. John Timothy, D. D, officiates at mem. service for Dr. + Shaw, 611. + + Stone, Lucinda H, 656. + + Stone, Lucy, 1; + marriage, 12, 33; + Dr. Shaw's tribute, 74; + great leader, 107; 148; + Mrs. Howe tells of, 155; 185; + tributes from college women at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 160-172; + for admis. of women to Cornell Univ, 169; 194; + days at Oberlin Coll, 220; + tribute of Mrs. Villard, 261; + of Mrs. McCulloch, 278; 279; + visit to Ky. in early '50's, 311; + natl. suff. conv. passes res. of indebtedness, 569; 622; 664. + + Stone, Melville E, for wom. suff, 296. + + Stone, Collector of Port William F, welcomes natl. suff. conv, 154. + + Stone, U. S. Sen. William J, for wom. suff. plank in Dem. natl. + platform, 713. + + Stoner, Mrs. Wesley Martin, 672. + + Stowe-Gullen, Dr. Augusta (Canada), 27; 72. + + Strachan, Grace C, 290. + + Straight, Dorothy Whitney, contrib. to N. Y. campn, 519. + + Strong, Dr. Josiah, 258. + + Stubbs, Gov. W. R. (Kans.), greetings to natl. suff. conv, 341. + + Stubbs, Mrs. W. R, 328. + + Suffrage Schools, originated by Mrs. Catt, 538; + large number in 1917, 539; + Natl. Amer. Assn. endorses, 368; + in S. Dak, 556-7. + + Sun, N. Y, suff. dept. under Paul Dana, 14. + + Susan B. Anthony Amendment, 413; + Natl. Assn. endorses; Stanton family and others object to name, 423; + assn. re-endorses, 452; 747. + + Sutherland, U. S. Sen. George, 383; + at Senate hearing, 462, 466; + objects to attack on Mormons in anti-suff. speech, 467-8; + introd. res. for Fed. Suff. Amend, 503; 630; 711. + + Sutton, Lucy, 666. + + Swanson, U. S. Sen. Claude A, 645. + + Sweden, legal and polit. status of women, 51; 213. + + Swift, Mary Wood, birthday gift to Miss Anthony, 1902, 40; + speaks at natl. suff. conv. in New Orleans, 76; + pres. Natl. Council of Women; brings its greetings to natl. conv. + 1904, 106; + bef. Senate com, 110; + brings greetings in 1905, 120; 130; + entertains suff. leaders, 150; + greetings, 1907, 208. + + + T + + Taft, Gov. Genl. William Howard, on social evil in Philippines, 11; + same, 44. + + Taft, President William Howard, accepts invitation to welcome natl. + suff. conv; + while speaking sound like hissing heard; + Dr. Shaw's distress, 269; + text of speech, 271; + officers of Natl. Assn. frame a res. of appreciation of his welcome + to conv, which delegates endorse and send with letter expressing + sorrow at the incident; the President returns a cordial answer, + 272-3; + _Woman's Journal_ says he should have welcomed conv. without + declaring his opinions, 273; + peace treaties, 326, 328; + appoints Miss Lathrop head of Children's Bureau, 339; + says Fed. Constn. guarantees self-govt, 359; 495; + nominated in 1912, 705; + not ready for wom. suff, 708; + Dr. Shaw joins on speaking tour for League of Nations, 739, 757; + his tribute to her, 760. + + Taggart, U. S. Rep. Joseph (Kans.), at House hearing, scores + Congressl. Union, 474; + quizzes "antis", 477. + + Talbot, Dean Marion, 206. + + Talbot, Mrs. M. C, 467. + + Talbot, Mrs. R. C, 391. + + Talmage, Rev. T. De Witt, for wom. suff, 23. + + Tarbell, Ida M, 736. + + Tarkington, Booth, for worn, suff, 297. + + Tasmania, 28. + + Taylor, A. S. G, 340. + + Taylor, U. S. Rep. Edward T, presents record of wom. suff. in Colo, + calls it unqualified success, women back of 150 good laws, valuable + campn. document, 355, 357, 373; + natl. suff. conv. thanks for assistance, 450-1; + Congressl. Union tries to defeat, 474; + introd. Fed. Suff. Amend, 1917, 524; + for Wom. Suff. Com, 548; + same, 628-9. + + Taylor, U. S. Rep. Ezra B. (Ohio), 99. + + Taylor, Graham Romeyn, 209; 296. + + Taylor, Dr. Howard S, 197. + + Ten Eyck, John C, 391. + + Tennessee, grants Pres. and Munic. suff. to women, 602; + Legis. gives final ratif. of Fed. Suff. Amend, 652; + Speaker and opposing members carry case to Washtn, 653. + + Terrell, Mary Church, pleads for negroes, 105. + + Terry, Mrs. D. D, 316. + + Testimony in favor of wom. suff. from Governors, 87; + from Colo, 100-105, 112-115, 127. + + Texas, officials invite natl. suff. conv, 540; + prominent citizens petition for Fed. Suff. Amend; + Legis. gives Primary suff. to women, 588-9; + defeats St. wom. suff. amend; court declares Primary suff. legal, + 602. + + Thaw, Mrs. William, Jr, 542. + + Thomas, U. S. Sen. Charles S, friendly chmn. of Senate Com. on Wom. + Suff, 380; + his re-election opposed by Congressl. Union, 453; + presides at Senate com. hearing; + Dr. Shaw's tribute, 462; + Mrs. Catt's, 465; + refuses to preside at Congressl. Union hearing, 466; + re-elected, 476; + reports Fed. Suff. Amend, from com, 503; + effort for a vote, 504; + "never failing friend of wom. suff," urges Fed. Amend, 546; 626; + 630; 632. + + Thomas, Pres. M. Carey of Bryn Mawr, arr. College Women's evening at + natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 152, 167; + her own strong speech, shows increase of women in colleges, their + inevitable demand for suff, their gratitude to early leaders, 171-2; + splendid tribute to Miss Anthony, 172; + conv. sends letter of thanks, 180; + assists Miss Garrett in hospitality, 182; + with Miss Garrett raises large fund for suff. work, 183; + declares in intellect no sex; + elected pres. Natl. Coll. Wom. Equal Suff. League, 229; 230; 233; + 283; 316; + presides over Coll. League, 319; + says coll. women's work for social reconstruction amounts to little + without franchise, 321; 338; + presides at college women's evening at natl. conv. 1912, 343; + same, 1915, 450; + presents Dr. Shaw with laurel wreath, 457; + on com. to confer with Red Cross War Council, 540; + speaks for Fed. Suff. Amend, 630; + work for Coll. League, contrib. to, 661-664; + invites Dr. Shaw for trip to Spain, 757. + + Thomas, Mary Bentley, 67; 87; 180; 188; 666. + + Thompson, Ellen Powell, 106; 204. + + Thompson, Harriet Stokes, appeals to House com. for working girls, + future mothers of the race and teachers who train citizens, 472. + + Thompson, Jane, field secy, presents testimonial of organizers to Dr. + Shaw, 406. + + Thompson, Dr. Mary H, 120. + + Thompson, U. S. Sen. William Howard, bef. Senate com, tells beneficent + results of wom. suff. in Kans, 546, 548; 630; 633; 638. + + Tiffany, Mrs. Charles L, 450; + in N. Y. campn, 519; 564; + report on Oversea Hospitals, 560, 568, 614; + work for Hospitals, 732. + + Tillinghast, Anna C, 556. + + Tinnin, Glenna, 441. + + Todd, Helen, motor suff. trip, 367; + bef. Com. on Rules, 394; + bef. House com, 473; + heated dialogue, 475; + at Repub. Natl. Conv, 705. + + Tone, Mrs. F. J, in N. Y. campn, 519. + + Tours, pilgrimages to Washtn, 378; + the "golden flier," motor suff. trip from New York to San Francisco, + 481. + + Towle, Mary Rutter, report as legal adviser to assn, 338, 372, 442. + + Treadwell, Harriet Taylor, at Anthony celebr, 615. + + Troupe, Hattie Hull, 152. + + Trout, Grace Wilbur, + work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370; + on limited suff, 495; 561; + chmn. com. of arr. for natl. suff. conv, 595; + welcomes dele, 597; + at Repub. natl. conv, 710. + + Trumbull, Lillie R, 120. + + Tucker, Mrs. James, 381. + + Tumulty, Joseph P, 515. + + Turner, Robert, of Mass. Anti-Suff. Assn, 479. + + Twain, Mark, for wom. suff, 297. + + + U + + Ueland, Mrs. Andreas, + bef. House com. 473; 568; + arr. Miss. Valley Conf, 669-70; 689. + + Underhill, Charles L, 391. + + Underwood, U. S. Rep. Oscar (Ala.), 397; + as U. S. Senator, 628; 640; 645. + + United Mine Workers of America, 249. + + United States Elections Bill to permit women to vote for members of + Cong, 504, 659; + Natl. Suff. Assn. and Southern Women's Conf. favor, 660. + See Federal Elections Bill. + + Upton, Harriet Taylor, + treas. report at natl. conv. of 1901, 12; 41; 44; + accepts charge of suff. headqrs, 61; + presents testimonials to the Misses Gordon, 84; 88; + work as natl. treas, love for suff. cause, 94; + tribute of Washtn. _Post_, 99; 129; + report, 1005, 130; + has interview with Pres. Roosevelt, 137; + how to deal with newspapers, 175; 176; + report for 1906, 183; + bef. Senate com, 188; + on Anthony mem. com, 202; + report for 1907, 211; 212; + interviews Pres. Roosevelt, 217; + report for 1908; + salaries paid for first time, 235; 244; 248; + treas. report for 1909, where the money went, 252; 257; + report for 1910; + legacies recd, work as treas. for 17 yrs; + ed. of _Progress_ 7 yrs; + conv. thanks, 276-7; + re-elected, resigns, 282; + bef. House com, urges that the mother heart and home element be + expressed in Govt, 303; 315; + on Congressl. Com, 319; 346; + bef. House com, 395; 402; 444; + on limited suff, 495; 516; 561; + speaks at Anthony celebr, 615; + in Tenn. ratif. campn, 652; 669; + res. against U. S. Sen. Wadsworth, 692; + at Repub. natl. conv, 1904, 703-4; 754; + elected director of Natl. Amer. Assn, 756. + + U'Ren, W. S, father of Initiative and Referendum, 136. + + + V + + Valentine, Lila Meade, + pres. Va. suff. assn, 288; + speaks to House of Governors, 367; + asks suff. for development of woman and the race, 492-3; + on Congressl. Com, 506; 568. + + Vanderlip, Frank A, on recep. com. for natl. suff. conv, 515. + + Van Klenze, Camilla, 333. + + Van Rensselaer, Prof. Martha (Cornell), Financing the War, 533. + + Van Sant, Gov. Samuel R. (Minn.), 7. + + Van Winkle, Mina, 444; 456. + + Van Wyck, Mayor Robert A. (New York), women without a vote waste time + appealing to legislators, 307. + + Varney, Rev. Mecca Marie, 203. + + Vermont, struggle for ratif. of Fed. Amend, 651, 653. + + Vernon, Mabel, bef. House com, 473; 549. + + Vessey, Gov. Robert S. (S. Dak.), 261. + + Victoria (Australia), gives women State vote, 243. + + Victory Convention of National American Woman Suffrage Association in + Chicago to celebr. end of its work; + Call, 594; + largest ever held, 595; + list of frat. dele, 506; + festivities, 610. + + Villard, Fanny Garrison (Mrs. Henry), 40; + on Anthony Fund Com, 202; 220-1; + at natl. suff. conv, 1908, 220; + at St. Paul, recalls visit with her husband when N.P. R.R. was + completed, 244; + same at Spokane, 245; + at Seattle, his devotion to wom. suff. and education, 251; + she appeals for wom. suff, 251; + tribute to Lucy Stone, 261; 263; + mem. tribute to Mr. Blackwell and Lucy Stone, 277; + by Dr. Shaw's side when she resigns natl. presidency, 457. + + Villard, Henry, 244-5; 251. + + Villard, Oswald Garrison, 37-8. + + Vincent, Dr. George E, declares for wom. suff, 670. + + Volunteer League, eminent officers, 442. + + Von Suttner, Baroness Bertha, plea for peace of world and wom. suff. + as necessary factor, 345-6. + + Vorce, Mrs. Myron, 402; 570. + + + W + + Wadsworth, U. S. Sen. James W, 560; + refuses to represent his State on Fed. Suff. Amend, 598; 645; + censured by Natl. League of Women Voters, 692; + opp. wom. suff. plank, 1916, 711. + + Wadsworth, Mrs. James W, + re-elected pres. Natl. Anti-Suff. Assn; during natl. suff. conv. + issues circular in Washtn. saying suffs. are pacifists and + Socialists and the N. Y. victory was due to latter; Mary Garrett + Hay answers, 536-7; + at Senate com. hearing, 548; + calls suffs. pro-Germans and "slackers," 560; + at last suff. hearing, 577; + introd. her "staff", 584; + scores members of Cong. who favor Fed. Suff. Amend, 585; 592; 679; + Mrs. Catt resents her attacks during the war, refers to her father, + John Hay, 736-7. + + Wainwright, Mrs. Richard, bef. coms. of Cong, 547, 549, 585; 675. + + Waite, Judge Charles B, 280; 656. + + Wald, Lillian D, 705. + + Waldo, Clara H, 120. + + Walker, Elizabeth Wheeler, 525; 567; 607. + + Walker, Dr. Mary, 438. + + Walker, Speaker Seth (Tenn.), + opp. Fed. Amend, 653; + goes to Washtn. and Conn, to prevent, 682. + + Wallace, Zerelda G, suff. petit. scorned, 297. + + Walsh, U. S. Sen. David I, + for Fed. Suff. Amend, 548; + voted for it, 641. + + Walsh, U. S. Sen. Thomas J, + bef. Senate com, "duty of Govt. to see that every citizen is assured + of fundamental right of suff"; speech widely circulated, 547; + same, 633; 645; + for wom. suff. plank in Dem. platform, 713. + + Ward, Lester F, on development of sexes, 92. + + Ward, Lydia Avery Coonley, 42; 185. + + Warfield, Gov. Edwin (Md.), + welcomes natl. suff. conv, pays tribute to suffs, 153; + later sends letter of appreciation, 180; 182. + + Warner, Mrs. Leslie, speaks at natl. suff. conv, 568. + + Warren, Ohio, natl. suff. headqrs, removed to, 61, 93. + + War Service of Women in Europe, + natl. conv. devotes evening to it, speakers from various countries, + 544; + of suffs. in the Civil War, 618. + + War Work of Organized Suffragists, vi, xxii; + in Canada, 400; 410; + in U. S, officers of suff. assns. in service; + Mrs. Catt urges necessity for war work, 517; + Exec. Council of Natl. Assn. pledges loyalty and service to the + Govt, 518; + four depts. of work, 520; + war work of suffs. reviewed by Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick; "Dr. + Shaw's appt. as chmn. of Woman's Com. of Council of National + Defense has made cooperation with Govt. closer", 520; + Natl. Assn. plans more depts. of war work, reaffirms loyalty to Govt + and support of its war measures, 543; + all officers of Natl. Assn. in service, 555; + Oversea Hospitals, 558, 568; + mass meeting in Washtn, 564; + reports of War Coms, 1918, Mrs. McCormick's chapter on, refutes + charges of "antis", 560; 574; + Natl. Assn. first organized body of women to offer services to Govt; + President accepts and calls upon suff. leaders to cooperate, 578; + patriotism where women vote, 579; + see Chap. XXIV, 720; + Mrs. Catt calls Exec. Council of Natl. Assn. to Washtn, 720; + board of officers submits plan for aiding the Govt, which is + discussed and adopted, 722; + depts. of work, 723; + mass meeting held and plan sent to Pres. Wilson by Secy. of War + Baker; he expresses approval and assn. begins its work, 724-5; + Dr. Shaw, its hon. pres, appt. by Council of Natl. Defense chmn. + of Woman's Com, which is named, 726-7; + assn. makes Mrs. McCormick genl. chmn. of its War Service Dept, + reports of heads to natl. suff. conv. of 1917, 727-730; + to conv. of 1919, 730-732; + report of Oversea Hospitals, 732-734; + to conv. of 1920, 734-5; + women's war work in N. Y. obtains the suff. for them, 737; + work of suits, on Woman's Com. of Council of Natl. Defense, 737; + its work ended, Secy. Baker's tribute, 739; + heroic record, 740. + + Washington City, entertains natl. suff. conv. of 1904, 86; + of 1910, 266; + of 1913, 364; + of 1915, 439; + of 1917, under war conditions, 513; + distinguished recep. com, 515. + + Washington, State, wom. suff. amend, carried, xx; + how women were disfranchised when Territory, 257; + adopts constitl. amend, for wom. suff, 310; + Dr. Shaw's comment; + reports from State officers, 317; + natl. conv. sends greetings, 328; 625. + + Waterman, Julia T, opp. wom. suff, 363. + + Watson, Elizabeth Lowe, tells of Calif. victory, 317. + + Watson, U. S. Sen. James E, chmn. Senate Wom. Suff. Com, 645-6; + at Natl. Repub. Conv. 1920, 717. + + Watson-Lister, Mrs. A, tells of wom. suff. in Australia, 91, 111. + + Watterson, Col. Henry, 329. + + Way, Amanda, 132. + + Weaver, Ida M, 52. + + Webb, U. S. Rep. Edwin Y. (N. C.), 307; 434; + chmn. Judic. Com, 469; + tells suffs. they should not come "bothering" Congress, 472; + says there will be no wom. suff. plank in Dem. platform, 476; + tries to prevent Wom. Suff. Com, 525; + suppresses report on Fed. Amend, 504; + unfair treatment of res, 631, 633, 635. + + Webster, Jean, for wom. suff, 297. + + Weeks, Anna O, 373. + + Welch, Prof. Lillian, 663. + + Weld, Louis D. (Swift and Co.), addresses League of Women Voters, 695. + + Wells, Mrs. James B, 476; + amuses House com, 478. + + Wentworth, Jennie Wells, 404. + + West, Gov. Oswald (Ore.), greetings to natl. suff. conv, 341. + + Wester, Catharine J, 395. + + Western New York Federation of Women's Clubs, first to admit suff. + societies, 214. + + Wetmore, Maude, 726. + + Wheat, Fannie J, vase to Miss Anthony, 13. + + Wheeler, Everett P, bef. Com. on Rules, 391; 438; + at last suff. hearing, 583; + brings suit against Fed. Suff. Amend, 654; + org. Men's Anti-Suff. Assns. in N. Y, Tenn, and Maryland, conducts + cases in court, 680-682. + + White, Armenia S, 137; 208. + + White, Natl. Dem. Chmn. George, Mrs. Catt thanks in name of Natl. + Amer. Suff. Assn. for his own and party's support of Fed. Suff. + Amend, 648. + + White, Mrs. George P, 467. + + White, Mrs. Henry, 437. + + White, Mary Ogden, 528; + report on natl. publicity, returns reach millions of words; + instances given, 530; + work on _Woman Citizen_, 571; 614. + + White, Nettie Lovisa, 40; 67; + secures names to Fed. Amend, petition, 275; 341. + + White, Ruth, 506; + natl. exec, secy, 525; + resigns, 566. + + Whitehouse, Norman deR, 458. + + Whitehouse, Mrs. Norman deR, interviews Pres. candidate Hughes, 507; + on N. Y. campn, 519. + + Whitney, Charlotte Anita, tells of Coll. Women's League in Calif, + campn, 319; + elected natl. vice-pres, 342; + work in Calif, 662. + + Whitney, Mrs. Henry M, 678. + + Whitney, Rosalie Loew, at last suff. hearing, 578, 580. + + Wickersham, George W, 680; 682. + + Wilbur, Henry, 284. + + Wildman, John K, 146. + + Wiley, Dr. Harvey W, address at natl. suff. conv, 1911, 322-3. + + Wilkes, Rev. Eliza Tupper, 140. + + Willard, Mabel Caldwell, at natl. suff. headqrs, 526; + work in Del, 556-7; 604. + + Willcox, William R, chmn. Repub. Natl. Com, 636. + + Williams, Charl, 652. + + Williams, Fannie Barrier, offers tribute of colored people to Miss + Anthony, 203. + + Williams, Jesse Lynch, 340. + + Williams, U. S. Sen. John Sharp, 640; 713. + + Williams, Mrs. Richard, 108; 214. + + Williams, Sylvanie, addresses Miss Anthony, 60. + + Willis, Gwendolen Brown, 668. + + Willis, Sarah L, 209. + + Wills, M. Frances, 317. + + Wilson, Agnes Hart, 515. + + Wilson, Mrs. Benjamin F, entertains natl. suff. conv. 410. + + Wilson, Mrs. Halsey W, instructs suff. schools, 539; + elected natl. rec. secy, 541; 556; 570; + at ratif. banquet, 610; 689. + + Wilson, Margaret, on hon. com. for natl. suff. conv, 440; + showers Dr. Shaw with flowers, sits on suff. platform, 459; + at suff. meeting in Washtn, 724. + + Wilson, Gov. Woodrow (N. J.), approves of School suff. for women, 320. + + Wilson, Pres. Woodrow, + converted to wom. suff, xxi; + first delegation recd. is a group of suffs; they quote from his book + The New Freedom, 374; + urged by natl. suff. conv. to make Fed. Suff. Amend. administration + measure and recommend it in his message; he pays no attention; Dr. + Shaw and conv. resent; make appt. to call on him; he receives + them, first President to do so, 373-4; + Dr. Shaw presents their case, tells how Cong. has ignored them, asks + him to send spec. message and recom. a Wom. Suff. Com. in Lower + House; he answers that he cannot speak as an individual but only + as directed by his party but he favors the Wom. Suff. Com; + delegation pleased, 374-5; 378; + asked to proclaim Women's Independence Day, 404; + Miss Schwimmer brings petition for peace, 410; + favors initiative and referendum, 417; + Natl. Suff. Assn. commands effort for peace, 426; 434; + with seven of his Cabinet declares for wom. suff; + votes in N. J. for amend; + receives natl. suff. conv; + says he is thinking of suff. plank in Dem. platform, 440; + natl. conv. expresses appreciation of his declaration for wom. suff, + 461; + it received more votes at last election than he did, 473; 475; + 488-9; + addresses natl. suff. conv. in 1916; scene in theater, 495-6; + listens to other speakers; + Mrs. Catt introduces; + text of speech, 496; + pictures the evolution of the Govt, says movement for wom. suff. has + come with conquering power and will prevail; he has come to fight + with its advocates and they will not quarrel as to method, 496-498; + Dr. Shaw tells him women want it in his administration and he smiles + and bows, 498-9; + signs Natl. Child Labor Law "with pride and pleasure," 500; + suff. leaders urge him to endorse Fed. Amend, but he declines, 507; + sends congrat. to natl. suff. conv; + has reached a belief in Fed. Amend, 520; + calls extra session of Cong. asks for declaration of war, 523; + says creation of Com. on Wom. Suff. would be very wise act, 524; + "democracy a rule of action," 533; + Dr. Shaw proposes message of loyalty and support which conv. sends, + 533; + chairmen of four minor parties petition for Fed. Suff. Amend, 548; + sends best wishes for Fed. Amend, to natl. suff. conv; it returns + appreciation of his support, 558; + Dem. members call on him; he advises submission of Fed. Suff. Amend, + 562; + appeals to Senate in person, 563; + makes second appeal, 564; + accepts services of Natl. Suff. Assn. for war, 578; + favors Fed. Amend, 579; + anti-suffs. misuse his declaration on wom. suff, 580; + members of House com. interview and he urges it, 583; + sends best wishes to League of Women Voters, 599; + natl. conv. expresses gratitude, 600; + inaugurated, receives four deputns. for wom. suff, 626; + favors it, 630; + favors Wom. Suff. Com, 633; 634; + declares for Fed. Suff. Amend, 635; + Dem. women confer with, 639; + appeals to Senate, 640; + second appeal, 640; + cables from Paris, 642-3; + calls spec. session of Cong, 644; + Mrs. Catt pays tribute for his support of Fed. Suff. Amend, 648; + assists ratif. in Tenn; sends message to jubilee suff. meeting, 652; + on wom. suff. in 1912 and 1915, 708; + suggests wom. suff. plank in 1916, 713-14; + explains it; does not disapprove Fed. Amend, 714; + Natl. Amer. Wom. Suff. Assn. offers its services for war work, 722; + he expresses appreciation, 725; + women ask representn. at Peace Conf, 738; + he pays tribute to Woman's Com. of Council of Natl. Defense, 739; + Dr. Shaw answers his declaration that U. S. wants nothing material + out of the war, 759; + tribute to Dr. Shaw after her death, 760; + with Mrs. Wilson sends sympathy and flowers, 760; + address to U. S. Senate urging submission of Fed. Suff. Amend; "wom. + suff. necessary to prosecution of the war and trust of other + peoples," 761-763. + + Winslow, Rose, 364; + brings to natl. conv. res. for suff. of Natl. Wom. Trade Union + League, 394. + + Winsor, Mary, 319. + + Wise, Rabbi Stephen S, 141. + + Wollstonecraft, Mary, 185. + + _Woman Citizen_, _Woman's Journal_ and other papers merged in, 528; + work for Fed. Amend, 556; + acct. of Senate debate on Fed. Suff. Amend, 563; + "service indispensable," 614; 698. + + Woman Suffrage, status in 1901, 16. + + Woman Suffrage Committee, + gives five days' hearing on Fed. Suff. Amend, reports favorably, + 562; + again, 565. + + Woman Suffrage Party, name widely adopted, 313. + + Woman Suffrage Publishing Co, Natl, final report, printed and distrib. + 50,000,000 pieces of literature, 614. + See Ogden, Esther G. + + Woman's Christian Temperance Union, + State of Tasmania sends greetings to natl. suff. conv, 28; + World's, endorses wom. suff, 205; + action of States, 206; + close cooperation with suff. assns, 215; 247; + many references. + + Woman's Committee of Council of National Defense, + Govt. appoints Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman, 520; + she describes its duties, asks cooperation of Natl. Suff. Assn, + 534-536; + further acct, other members, 726-7; 730; + great work, 737; + its duties ended, Secy, of War Baker's tribute, 739. + + _Woman's Journal_, 39; + on natl. conv. in New Orleans, 55; 73; 79; 89; + accounts of suff. conv. in Portland, 118-19; + compliments to, 132; + tribute to Miss Anthony, 134; + comment on change of heart of Miss Anthony and Mr. Blackwell, 147; + report on wom. suff. in Legislatures, 211; + Miss Blackwell's work on, 260; + account of expos, at Seattle and suff. day, 264; + criticises Pres. Taft's speech to natl. suff. conv, 373; + Mr. Blackwell's work on paper, 277; + Miss Blackwell offers to make it offic. organ of Natl. Amer. Assn, + which accepts, 289; + descrip. of natl. suff. convs, 290; + founder and editors, 311; + first report under auspices of Natl. Amer. Assn, 315; + high praise for Ky. women, 331; + bound vols. at natl. suff. headqrs, 335; + deficit under control of Natl. Assn, paid by Mrs. McCormick and + paper returned to Miss Blackwell, 337; + says Shafroth Amend, should have been submitted to Natl. Exec. + Council but supports it, 415, 422; + merged in _Woman Citizen_, 528; 667. + + Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Foundation in Preventive + Medicine, mem. to Dr. Shaw, 613. + + Woman's Rights Convention, first, 16; + 60th anniv. celebr, 213; + Mrs. Stanton's and Miss Howland's descriptions, 215; + program of meeting, 219. + + Women's Trade Union League, Natl. res. for wom. suff, 394. + + Wood, C. E. S, 135. + + Wood, Harriette Johnson, 238. + + Wood, Henry A. Wise, at last suff. hearing, "voting a man's job," 585. + + Wood, U. S. Rep. William R. (Ind.), 548. + + Woods, Dr. Frances, 20; 208. + + Woodward, Mrs. C. S, 229. + + Woolley, Rev. Celia Parker, 18; 20; 703. + + Woolley, Pres. Mary E, at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, shows + indebtedness of higher education of women to suff. leaders, tribute + to Miss Anthony, plea for wom, suff, 168-9; 442; + signs Call for Natl. Coll. Wom. Suff. League, 661; + an officer, 663. + + Woolsey, Kate Trimble, 239. + + Working women, laws for, 95; + need of vote, 97; 143; + suff. movement needs, 165-6; + their need of vote, injustice of Govt, 189; 209; + their need of suff, 210; + conditions in New York, 231; + duty of women of leisure, 233; + Congressl. suff. hearing devoted to, 301; 302; 304; + Miss Lathrop says theirs would not be the ignorant vote, 345; + their case presented at natl. suff. conv, 348, 350-2; 356; 357; 361; + on natl. wom. suff. platform, 1913, the ballot and a square deal + demanded, 364-5; + their large orgztns. want suff, 392; + laws for in equal suff. States, 393; + they demand the vote, 394; + no chivalry for, 409; 472; + they only can reach working men, 519. + + Works, U. S. Sen. John D, 339; 347. + + Works, Mrs. John D, 383. + + Wright, Carroll D, for wom. suff, 196. + + Wright, Dr. George H, objects to Shafroth Amend, 747. + + Wright, Martha C, + in anti-slavery days, 203; + calls first Wom. Rights Conv, 219. + + Writers and editors, eminent list sign petit, for wom. suff, 296-7. + + Wyoming, + first to give wom. suff, 34; + effect of, 52; 624. + + + Y + + Yates, Elizabeth Upham, + pres. R. I. assn, 288; + report on Pres. suff, 325, 338; + shows value of Pres. suff. already gained, 447; 539-40. + + Yellowstone Park, delegates visit, 21. + + Yost, Mrs. Ellis A, describes W. Va. suff. campn, 494. + + Youmans, Mrs. Henry, at Anthony celebr, 615. + + Young, Ella Flagg, 394; 515. + + Young, Rose, + describes Mrs. Catt's address to Cong, 521; + report of _Woman Citizen_ and Leslie Bureau of Educatn. in 1917; + founded with Mrs. Frank Leslie fund under six depts, 527-8; 561; + report in 1919, vast field of activity described, 570; + in 1920, 614; + arranges tableaux at last suff. conv, 617; 716. + + Young, Virginia Durant, 35; 69; 204. + + Younger, Maud, + at Rules Com. hearing, 549; + at Wom. Suff. Com. hearing, 585. + + + Z + + Zakrzewska, Dr. Marie, 74. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +The transcriber made the following changes to the text to correct +obvious errors: + + 1. p. 98 February 15, **illegible text** Anthony's 84th birthday --> + February 15, was Miss Anthony's 84th birthday + 2. p. 102 applicaation --> application + 3. p. 175 pertainng --> pertaining + 4. p. 191 suffrange --> suffrage + 5. p. 297 this chapter. --> this chapter.] + 6. p. 415 we though --> we thought + 7. p. 457 wth --> with + 8. p. 457 triumpant --> triumphant + 9. p. 668 Misissippi --> Mississippi + 10. p. 717 Gellborn --> Gellhorn + 11. p. 756 acordance --> accordance + 12. p. 765 Punctuation in Index standardized + 13. p. 790 Cingressl. --> Congressl. + 14. p. 812 U'Rea --> U'Ren + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE, +VOLUME V*** + + +******* This file should be named 29878.txt or 29878.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/8/7/29878 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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