The Project Gutenberg eBook of The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V, by Ida Husted Harper

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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

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 [Pg iv]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[Pg v] 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 3½ 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.[Pg vi]

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.

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;[Pg xvi] 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[Pg xvii] 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[Pg xviii] 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[Pg xix] 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[Pg xx] 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 régime. 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[Pg xxi] 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[Pg xxii] 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[Pg xxiii] 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[Pg xxiv] 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.

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][Pg 2]

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.

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[Pg 4] 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."

"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[Pg 5] 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[Pg 6] 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[Pg 7] 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 coöperation and said that from a dozen to twenty women were[Pg 8] 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[Pg 9] 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[Pg 10] 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[Pg 11] 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[Pg 12] 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,[Pg 13] 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[Pg 14] 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][Pg 15]

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[Pg 16] 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[Pg 17] 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 coöperation. 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][Pg 18]

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.[Pg 19] 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[Pg 20] 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[Pg 21] 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][Pg 22]

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[Pg 24] 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[Pg 25] 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[Pg 26] 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.[Pg 27] 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[Pg 28] 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[Pg 29] 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, phœnix-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[Pg 30] 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[Pg 31] 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.[Pg 32] 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[Pg 33] 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[Pg 34] 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[Pg 35] 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[Pg 36] 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[Pg 37] 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[Pg 38] 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[Pg 39] 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[Pg 40] 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 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[Pg 41] 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,[Pg 42] 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."[Pg 43]

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[Pg 44] 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.[Pg 45]

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[Pg 46] 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[Pg 47] 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[Pg 48] 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[Pg 49] 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[Pg 50] 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.[Pg 51] 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.[Pg 52]

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.

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.[Pg 53] 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:[Pg 54]

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,	}	Honorary Presidents.
Susan B. Anthony,
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,	}	Auditors.
Cora Smith Eaton,

[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. Phœbe 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[Pg 56] 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 Athenæum 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.[Pg 57] 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 Athenæum. 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 Maréchal 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[Pg 58] 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[Pg 59] 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 Athenæum 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[Pg 60] 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[Pg 61] 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[Pg 62] 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[Pg 63] 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[Pg 64] 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."[Pg 65]

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[Pg 66] 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[Pg 67] 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,[Pg 68] 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[Pg 69] 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 Athenæum, 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:[Pg 70] "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[Pg 71] 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.[Pg 72] 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[Pg 73] 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,[Pg 74] 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[Pg 75] 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 régime 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[Pg 76] 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[Pg 77] 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,[Pg 78] 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[Pg 79] 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:[Pg 80]

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:[Pg 81]

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[Pg 82] 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[Pg 83] 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[Pg 84] 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[Pg 85] 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 Athenæum 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,	}	Auditors.
Mary J. Coggeshall,

[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[Pg 87] 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,[Pg 88] 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[Pg 89] 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[Pg 90] 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[Pg 91] 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[Pg 92] 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[Pg 93] 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'[Pg 94] 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[Pg 95] 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.[Pg 96] 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,[Pg 97] 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[Pg 98] 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[Pg 99] 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[Pg 100] 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[Pg 101] 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[Pg 102] 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[Pg 103] 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[Pg 104] 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[Pg 105] 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[Pg 106] 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[Pg 107] 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[Pg 108] 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[Pg 109] 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[Pg 110] 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."[Pg 111]

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[Pg 112] 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[Pg 113] 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[Pg 114] 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[Pg 115] honest women in the State who are voters and there are not 100 who will subscribe to the sentiments she gave voice to."[35]

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[Pg 116] 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[Pg 118] 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[Pg 119] 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....[Pg 120]

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[Pg 121] 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[Pg 122] 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[Pg 123] 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[Pg 124] 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!...

What does our coming mean to us, who gather in this 37th annual convention where sits the woman whose chair has never been vacant[Pg 125] 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[Pg 127] 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[Pg 128] 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[Pg 129] 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[Pg 130] 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[Pg 131] 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[Pg 132] 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[Pg 133] 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[Pg 134] 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[Pg 135] 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[Pg 136] 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][Pg 137]

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[Pg 138] 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[Pg 139] 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[Pg 140] 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[Pg 141] 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[Pg 142] 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[Pg 143] 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[Pg 144] 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[Pg 145] 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.[Pg 146]

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[Pg 147] 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[Pg 148] 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[Pg 149] 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,[Pg 150] 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,	}	Auditors.
Cora Smith Eaton,

[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[Pg 152] 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[Pg 153] 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[Pg 154] relieved of that rôle 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.'[Pg 155] 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[Pg 156] 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:[Pg 157] "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[Pg 158] 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[Pg 159] 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[Pg 160] 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[Pg 161] 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[Pg 162] 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,[Pg 163] 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[Pg 164] 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[Pg 165] 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[Pg 166] 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."[Pg 167]

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[Pg 168] 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."

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 Alumnæ (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[Pg 169] 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[Pg 170] 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[Pg 171] 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[Pg 172] 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.

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[Pg 173] 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.

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[Pg 174] 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.[Pg 175] 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[Pg 176] 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.[Pg 177] 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[Pg 178] 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[Pg 179] 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,[Pg 180] 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."[Pg 181]

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 crêpe 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[Pg 182] 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[Pg 183] 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,[Pg 184] 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[Pg 185] 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 Grimké 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[Pg 186] 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,[Pg 187] neither male nor female, but a new creature," the harbinger of a new creation!

On the last evening Señorita 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[Pg 188] 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 Señorita 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.[Pg 189] 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[Pg 190] 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[Pg 191] 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[Pg 192] 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[Pg 194] 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[Pg 195] 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[Pg 196] 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[Pg 198] 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[Pg 199] 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[Pg 200] 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:[Pg 201]

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[Pg 202] 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.[Pg 203] 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[Pg 204] 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[Pg 205] 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,[Pg 206] 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[Pg 207] 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[Pg 208] 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,[Pg 209] 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[Pg 210] 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;[Pg 211] 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,[Pg 212] 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,	}	Auditors.
Annice Jeffreys Myers,

[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[Pg 214] 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[Pg 215] 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[Pg 216] 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[Pg 217] 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?

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[Pg 219] 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[Pg 220] 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[Pg 221] 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[Pg 222] 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[Pg 223] 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[Pg 224] 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[Pg 225] 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[Pg 226] 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[Pg 227] 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.[Pg 228]

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[Pg 229] 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[Pg 230] 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[Pg 231] 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[Pg 232] 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[Pg 233] 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[Pg 234] 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[Pg 235] 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,[Pg 236] 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:[Pg 237]

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.[Pg 238] 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[Pg 239] 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[Pg 240] 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[Pg 241] 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[Pg 242] 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,	}	Auditors.
Mary Simpson Sperry,

[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[Pg 244] 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[Pg 245] 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....[Pg 246] 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[Pg 247] 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[Pg 248] 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[Pg 249] 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 Alumnæ 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[Pg 250] 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[Pg 251] 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."[Pg 252]

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[Pg 253] 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[Pg 254] 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[Pg 255] 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[Pg 256] 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."[Pg 258]

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[Pg 260] 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[Pg 261] 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[Pg 262] 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,[Pg 263] "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.' ...[Pg 264]

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.[Pg 265] 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 Kelly, 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[Pg 267] 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[Pg 268] 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[Pg 269] 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[Pg 270] 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.

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,[Pg 271] 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[Pg 272] 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:[Pg 273]

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[Pg 274] 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[Pg 275] 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[Pg 276] 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[Pg 277] 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[Pg 278] 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[Pg 279] 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[Pg 281] 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[Pg 282] 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.[Pg 283] 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,[Pg 284] "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[Pg 285] 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[Pg 286] 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[Pg 287] 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[Pg 288] 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.[Pg 289]

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[Pg 290] 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."[Pg 291]

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 résumé 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[Pg 292] 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[Pg 293] 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 12½ 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[Pg 294] 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?[Pg 295] 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[Pg 296] 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[Pg 297] 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[Pg 298] 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[Pg 299] and good government demand equal suffrage for all women."

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[Pg 300] 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;[Pg 301] 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[Pg 302] 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[Pg 303] 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[Pg 304] 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[Pg 305] 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.[Pg 306]

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[Pg 307] 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[Pg 308] 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[Pg 309] 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 Kelly, Second Vice-President.
Frances Squire Potter, Corresponding Secretary.
Ella S. Stewart, Recording Secretary.
Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer.
Laura Clay,	}	Auditors.
Alice Stone Blackwell,

[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[Pg 311] 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[Pg 312] 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 Færie 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[Pg 313] 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[Pg 314] 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[Pg 316] 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[Pg 317] 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[Pg 318] 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[Pg 319] 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;[Pg 320] 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[Pg 321] 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[Pg 322] 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[Pg 323] 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.[Pg 324] 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[Pg 325] 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 résumé 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[Pg 326] 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[Pg 327] 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.[Pg 328] 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[Pg 329] 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[Pg 330] 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[Pg 331] 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,	}	Auditors.
Alice Stone Blackwell,

[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[Pg 333] 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:[Pg 334]

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.[Pg 335] 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.[Pg 336] 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....

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[Pg 337] 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 régime 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:[Pg 338]

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[Pg 339] 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[Pg 340] 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,[Pg 341] 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[Pg 342] 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[Pg 343] 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,"[Pg 344] 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[Pg 345] 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[Pg 346] 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;[Pg 347] 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[Pg 348] 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[Pg 349] 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[Pg 350] 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[Pg 351] 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[Pg 352] 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[Pg 353] 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[Pg 354] 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[Pg 355] 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....[Pg 356] 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[Pg 357] 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....[Pg 358]

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[Pg 359] 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[Pg 360] 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[Pg 361] 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[Pg 362] 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[Pg 363] 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[Pg 365] 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[Pg 366] 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[Pg 367] 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[Pg 368] 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[Pg 369] 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[Pg 370] 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[Pg 371] 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[Pg 372] 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.[Pg 373]

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[Pg 374] 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[Pg 375] 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[Pg 376] 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."[Pg 377]

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[Pg 378] 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:

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[Pg 379] 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.

Senate and House Joint Resolution Number One for Federal Amendment introduced in Congress April 7, 1913.[Pg 380]

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[Pg 381] 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[Pg 382] 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:[Pg 383] 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[Pg 384] 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[Pg 385] 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[Pg 386] 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[Pg 387] 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[Pg 388] 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[Pg 389] 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[Pg 391] 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.[Pg 392] 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[Pg 393] 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[Pg 394] 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[Pg 395] 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[Pg 396] 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[Pg 397] 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,	}	Auditors.
Louise DeKoven Bowen,

[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.[Pg 399] 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[Pg 400] 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[Pg 401] 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[Pg 402] 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[Pg 403] 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[Pg 404] 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[Pg 405] 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."[Pg 406]

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[Pg 408] 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[Pg 409] 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[Pg 410] 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.[Pg 411]

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.[Pg 412] 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[Pg 413] 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[Pg 414] 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[Pg 415] 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[Pg 416] 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.

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[Pg 417] 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[Pg 418] 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[Pg 419] 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[Pg 420] 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[Pg 421] 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[Pg 422] 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.[Pg 423]

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[Pg 424] 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[Pg 425] 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[Pg 426] 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[Pg 427] 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[Pg 428] 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[Pg 429] 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[Pg 430] 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 exposé 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[Pg 431] 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[Pg 432] 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[Pg 433] 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[Pg 434] 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[Pg 435] 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[Pg 436] 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[Pg 437] 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.[Pg 438] 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,	}	Auditors.
Louise DeKoven Bowen,

[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[Pg 440] 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[Pg 441] 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[Pg 442] 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[Pg 443] 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[Pg 445] 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[Pg 446] 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.

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[Pg 447] 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[Pg 448] 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[Pg 449] 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[Pg 450] 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,[Pg 451] 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[Pg 452] 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[Pg 453] 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:[Pg 454]

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[Pg 455] 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[Pg 456] 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[Pg 457] 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[Pg 458] 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[Pg 459] 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[Pg 460] 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[Pg 461] 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.[Pg 462]

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[Pg 463] 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[Pg 464] 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[Pg 466] 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[Pg 467] 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[Pg 468] 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,[Pg 469] 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.

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[Pg 470] 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,[Pg 471] 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 résumé 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[Pg 473] 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.[Pg 474] 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[Pg 475] 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[Pg 476] 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.[Pg 477] 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[Pg 478] 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[Pg 479] $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][Pg 481] 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[Pg 482] 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[Pg 483] 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[Pg 484] 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[Pg 485] 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[Pg 486] 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[Pg 487] 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[Pg 488] 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[Pg 489] 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[Pg 490] 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[Pg 491] 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[Pg 492] 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[Pg 493] 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[Pg 494] 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[Pg 495] 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[Pg 496] 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[Pg 497] 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[Pg 498] 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[Pg 499] 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[Pg 500] 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.

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[Pg 502] 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[Pg 503] 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[Pg 504] 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[Pg 505] 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[Pg 506] 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[Pg 508] 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.[Pg 509] 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[Pg 510] 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]

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.[Pg 511]

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[Pg 512] 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,	}	Auditors.
Pattie Ruffner Jacobs,

[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[Pg 514] 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[Pg 515] 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[Pg 516] 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[Pg 517] 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[Pg 518] 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.[Pg 519]

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."[Pg 520]

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[Pg 521] 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[Pg 522] 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,[Pg 523] 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[Pg 524] 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[Pg 525] 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[Pg 526] 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 Alumnæ, 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.

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[Pg 527] 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[Pg 528] 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[Pg 529] 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[Pg 530] 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[Pg 531] 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[Pg 532] 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[Pg 533] 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[Pg 534] 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[Pg 535] 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[Pg 536] 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[Pg 537] 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[Pg 538] 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.[Pg 539]

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[Pg 540] 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[Pg 541] 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[Pg 542] 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[Pg 543] 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[Pg 544] 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[Pg 545] 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[Pg 546] 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[Pg 547] 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[Pg 548] 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 résumé 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;[Pg 549] 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[Pg 551] 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[Pg 552] 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[Pg 553] 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[Pg 554] 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,[Pg 555] 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 Alumnæ; 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.[Pg 556] 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[Pg 557] 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.[Pg 558] 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.[Pg 559] 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.);[Pg 560] 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.[Pg 561] 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,[Pg 562] 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:[Pg 563]

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:

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,[Pg 564] 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[Pg 565] 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:

"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[Pg 566] 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[Pg 567] 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[Pg 568] 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[Pg 569] 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[Pg 570] 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.[Pg 571] 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[Pg 572] 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:[Pg 574]

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[Pg 575] 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[Pg 576] 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.[Pg 577]

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[Pg 578] 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[Pg 579] 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[Pg 580] 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[Pg 581] 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[Pg 582] 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[Pg 583] 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[Pg 584] 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[Pg 585] 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.[Pg 586]

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[Pg 587] 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[Pg 588] 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[Pg 589] 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[Pg 590] 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[Pg 591] 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."[Pg 592]

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[Pg 593] 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:

"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[Pg 595] 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[Pg 596] 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?

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[Pg 597] 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![Pg 598]

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.

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[Pg 599] 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[Pg 600] 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;[Pg 601]

(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[Pg 602] 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....[Pg 603]

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[Pg 604] 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)[Pg 605] 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[Pg 606] 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[Pg 607] 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."

[Pg 608]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."

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.[Pg 609] 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][Pg 610]

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[Pg 611] 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[Pg 613] 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[Pg 614] 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.[Pg 615] 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. [Pg 616]
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[Pg 617] 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 Alumnæ; 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 alumnæ 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 alumnæ 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[Pg 619] 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,[Pg 620] 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[Pg 621] 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[Pg 622] 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[Pg 623] 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[Pg 624] 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,[Pg 625] 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 régime 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.[Pg 626] 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[Pg 627] 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[Pg 628] 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[Pg 629] (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[Pg 630] 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 42½ 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[Pg 631] 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[Pg 632] 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[Pg 633] (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[Pg 634] 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[Pg 635] 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[Pg 636] 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.

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:

[Pg 637]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[Pg 638] 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[Pg 639] (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[Pg 640] 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:

[Pg 641]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[Pg 642] 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,[Pg 643] 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[Pg 644] 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:

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[Pg 645] 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[Pg 646] 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:

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.[Pg 647]

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[Pg 648] 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[Pg 649] 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,[Pg 650] 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[Pg 651] 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[Pg 652] 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[Pg 653] 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[Pg 654] 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[Pg 655] 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,[Pg 657] 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[Pg 658] 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,[Pg 659] 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.

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[Pg 660] 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[Pg 661] 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[Pg 662] 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,[Pg 663] 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 Alumnæ, 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 Alumnæ 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[Pg 665] 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,[Pg 666] 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[Pg 667] 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,[Pg 668] 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[Pg 669] 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[Pg 670] 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[Pg 671] 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[Pg 672] 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[Pg 673] 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.

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[Pg 674] 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[Pg 675] 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[Pg 676] 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.[Pg 677]

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[Pg 678] 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[Pg 679] 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.[Pg 680]

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[Pg 681] 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.[Pg 682] 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 Alumnæ.

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[Pg 684] 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[Pg 685] 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[Pg 686] 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[Pg 687] 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.[Pg 688]

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 Alumnæ, 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[Pg 689] 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[Pg 690] 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[Pg 691] 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[Pg 692] 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 manœuvering 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[Pg 693] 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[Pg 694] 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[Pg 695] 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[Pg 696] 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[Pg 697] 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.[Pg 698] 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.

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[Pg 699] 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[Pg 700] 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[Pg 701] 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 Alumnæ, 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[Pg 703] 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.[Pg 704]

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.[Pg 705] 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[Pg 706] 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[Pg 707] 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.[Pg 709] 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[Pg 710] 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,[Pg 711] 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[Pg 712] 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[Pg 713] 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:[Pg 714] "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[Pg 715] 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[Pg 717] 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[Pg 718] 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. 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[Pg 719] 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[Pg 721] 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[Pg 722] 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,[Pg 723] 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[Pg 724] 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[Pg 725] 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.

"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.[Pg 726] 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 rôle 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,[Pg 727] 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."[Pg 728]

(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[Pg 729] 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 résumé 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[Pg 730] 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[Pg 731] 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.

"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[Pg 733] 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 Compiègne.

"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,[Pg 734] 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[Pg 735] 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[Pg 736] 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[Pg 737] 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[Pg 738] 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[Pg 739] 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[Pg 740] 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 rôle 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[Pg 742] 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[Pg 743] 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 régime, 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[Pg 744] 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 Alumnæ 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 alumnæ 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:[Pg 745] "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,[Pg 746] 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.[Pg 747]

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[Pg 748] 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[Pg 749] 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.[Pg 750]

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[Pg 751] 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[Pg 752] 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[Pg 753] 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[Pg 754] 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[Pg 755] 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[Pg 756] 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[Pg 757] 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[Pg 758] 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[Pg 759] 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:[Pg 760]

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[Pg 761] 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[Pg 762] 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[Pg 763] 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.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE, VOLUME V***

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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+

	In Favor	Opposed
Republicans	165	33
Democrats	104	102
Miscellaneous	5	1
	274	136

BALCONY OF THE NATIONAL SUFFRAGE HEADQUARTERS IN WASHINGTON.
Mrs. Helen H. Gardener,	Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,	Mrs. Maud Wood Park.

Republicans	165	ayes,	33	noes
Democrats	104	"	102	"
Miscellaneous	5	"	1	"
	274		136

Republicans, Aye			Democrats, Aye

Cal.		Johnson	Ariz.	{	Ashurst
Col.		Phipps	Ariz.	{	Smith
Del.		Ball	Ark.	{	Kirby
Ills.	{	McCormick	Ark.	{	Robinson
Ills.	{	Sherman	Cal.		Phelan
Ind.	{	New	Col.		Thomas
Ind.	{	Watson	Ga.		Harris
Iowa	{	Cummins	Ida.		Nugent
Iowa	{	Kenyon	Ky.		Stanley
Kans.	{	Capper	La.		Ransdell
Kans.	{	Curtis	Mass.		Walsh
Me.	{	Fernald	Mont.	{	Myers
Me.	{	Hale	Mont.	{	Walsh
Md.		France	Nev.	{	Henderson
Mich.	{	Newberry	Nev.	{	Pittman
Mich.	{	Townsend	N. M.		Jones
Minn.	{	Kellogg	Okla.	{	Gore
Minn.	{	Nelson	Okla.	{	Owen
Mo.		Spencer	Ore.		Chamberlain
Neb.		Norris	R. I.		Gerry
N. H.		Keyes	S. D.		Johnson
N. J.	{	Edge	Tenn.		McKellar
N. J.	{	Frelinghuysen	Tex.	{	Culberson
N. M.		Fall	Tex.	{	Sheppard
N. Y.		Calder	Utah		King
N. D.	{	Gronna	Wyo.		Kendrick
N. D.	{	McCumber
Ohio		Harding
Ore.		McNary
R. I.		Colt
S. D.		Sterling
Utah		Smoot
Vt.		Page
Wash.	{	Jones
Wash.	{	Poindexter
W. Va.	{	Elkins
W. Va.	{	Sutherland
Wis.	{	LaFollette
Wis.	{	Lenroot
Wyo.		Warren

Total		40	Total		26

Republicans, No			Democrats, No

Conn.	{	Brandegee	Ala.	{	Bankhead
Conn.	{	McLean	Ala.	{	Underwood
Ida.		Borah	Del.		Wolcott
Mass.		Lodge	Fla.	{	Fletcher
N. H.		Moses	Fla.	{	Trammell
N. Y.		Wadsworth	Ga.		Smith
Penn.	{	Knox	Ky.		Beckham
Penn.	{	Penrose	La.		Gay
Vt.		Dillingham	Md.		Smith
			Miss.	{	Harrison
			Miss.	{	Williams
			Mo.		Reed
			Neb.		Hitchcock
			N. C.	{	Overman
			N. C.	{	Simmons
			Ohio		Pomerene
			S. C.	{	Dial
			S. C.	{	Smith
			Tenn.		Shields
			Va.	{	Martin
			Va.	{	Swanson

Total		9	Total		21

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V, Edited by Ida Husted Harper

E-text prepared by Richard J. Shiffer and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)

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

FOOTNOTES:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

FOOTNOTES:

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION

FOREWORD

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER I.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1901.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER II.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1902.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER III.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1903.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER IV.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1904.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER V.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1905.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER VI.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1906.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER VII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1907.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER VIII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1908.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER IX.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1909.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER X.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1910.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XI.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1911.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1912.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XIII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1913.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XIV.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1914.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XV.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1915.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XVI.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1916.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XVII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1917.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XVIII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1918-1919.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XIX.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1920.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XX.

THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE.[131]

RATIFICATION.

E-text prepared by Richard J. Shiffer
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)

THE HISTORY

of

Woman Suffrage.

ILLUSTRATED WITH COPPERPLATE AND PHOTOGRAVURE
ENGRAVINGS

Copyright, 1922, by
National American Woman Suffrage Association