WAR SERVICE OF ORGANIZED SUFFRAGISTS 720
Mrs. Catt calls Executive Council of One Hundred to
Washington--It sends letter to President Wilson offering services
of National American Association--Organizes four departments of
work--Mass meeting held, Secretary of War Baker speaks--President
expresses approval of the association's work--Woman's Committee
of Government Council of National Defense formed, Dr. Shaw
appointed chairman, Mrs. Catt and other leading suffragists made
members--Reports of department heads at National Suffrage
convention--Report of association's Oversea Hospitals, their
important work--Anti-suffrage women attack suffrage
leaders--After Armistice Mrs. Catt calls meeting in New York,
which requests President Wilson to appoint women delegates to
Peace Conference in Paris--Woman's Committee of National Defense
ends work--Secretary Baker's tribute to Dr. Shaw.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX 741
Moncure D. Conway's address at Mrs. Stanton's funeral--Miss
Anthony's last letter to her--National American Association's
Declaration of Principles--Memorial building in Rochester for
Miss Anthony--Speech of Mrs. Catt at Senate hearing in 1910--Same
in 1915--Review of Shafroth Federal Suffrage Amendment--Different
National headquarters--Bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie--Memorial
tributes to Dr. Shaw--Present Status of National American
Association.
Contents of Illustrations added by Bank of Wisdom.
Pioneers of Woman Suffrage 172+
Court House of Warren, Ohio & Home of Susan B. Anthony 336+
A Lecture in Banquet Hall of Suffrage Headquarters 526+
National Suffrage Headquarters in Washington 632+
INTRODUCTION
A voice in the Government under which one lives is absolutely
necessary to personal liberty and the right of a whole people to a
voice in their Government is the first requisite for a free country.
There must be government by a constitution made with the consent and
help of the people which guarantees this right. It is only within the
last century and a half that a constitutional form of government has
been secured by any countries and in the most of those where it now
exists, not excepting the United States, it was won through war and
bloodshed. Largely for this reason its principal advantage was
monopolized by men, who made and carried on war, and who held that
such government must be maintained by physical force and only those
should have a voice in it who could fight for it if necessary. There
were many other reasons why those who had thus secured their right to
a vote should use their new power to withhold it from women, which was
done in every country. Women then had to begin their own contest for
what by the law of justice was theirs as much as men's when government
by constitution was established.
Their struggle lasted for nearly three-quarters of a century in the
United States and half a century in Great Britain, the two largest
constitutional governments, and a shorter time in other countries, but
it was a peaceful revolution. Not a drop of blood was spilled and
toward the end of it, when in Great Britain the only "militancy"
occurred, its leaders gave the strictest orders that human life must
be held sacred. Although at the last the women of Central Europe were
enfranchised as the result of war it was not of their making and their
part in it was not on the battlefield. This was the most unequal
contest that ever was waged, for one side had to fight without
weapons. It was held against women that they were not educated, but
the doors of all institutions of learning were closed against them;
that they were not taxpayers, although money-earning occupations were
barred to them and if married they were not allowed to own property.
They were kept in subjection by authority of the Scriptures and were
not permitted to expound them from the woman's point of view, and they
were prevented from pleading their cause on the public platform. When
they had largely overcome these handicaps they found themselves facing
a political fight without political power.
The long story of the early period of this contest will be found in
the preceding volumes of this History and it is one without parallel.
No class of men ever strove seventy or even fifty years for the
suffrage. In every other reform which had to be won through
legislative bodies those who were working for it had the power of the
vote over these bodies. In the Introduction to Volume IV is an
extended review of the helpless position of woman when in 1848 the
first demand for equality of rights was made and her gradual emergence
from its bondage. No sudden revolution could have gained it but only
the slow processes of evolution. The founding of the public school
system with its high schools, from which girls could not be excluded,
solved the question of their education and inevitably led to the
opening of the colleges. In the causes of temperance and anti-slavery
women made their way to the platform and remained to speak for their
own. During the Civil War they entered by thousands the places vacated
by men and retained them partly from necessity and partly from choice.
One step led to another; business opportunities increased; women
accumulated property; Legislatures were compelled to revise the laws
and the church was obliged to liberalize its interpretation of the
Scriptures. Women began to organize; their missionary and charity
societies prepared the way to clubs for self-improvement; these in
turn broadened into civic organizations whose public work carried them
to city councils and State Legislatures, where they found themselves
in the midst of politics and wholly without influence. Thus they were
led into the movement for the suffrage. It was only a few of the clear
thinkers, the far seeing, who realized at the beginning that the
principal cause of women's inferior position and helplessness lay in
their disfranchisement and until they could be made to see it they
were a dead weight on the movement. Men fully understood the power
that the vote would place in the hands of women, with a lessening of
their own, and in the mass they did not intend to concede it.
The pioneers in the movement for the rights of women, of which the
suffrage was only one, contested every inch of ground and little by
little the old prejudice weakened, public sentiment was educated,
barriers were broken down and women pressed forward. At the opening of
the present century, while they had not obtained entire equality of
rights, their status had been completely transformed in most respects
and they were prepared to get what was lacking. None of these gains,
however, had required the permission of the masses of men but only of
selected groups, boards of trustees, committees, legislators. It was
when women found that with all their rights they were at tremendous
disadvantage without political influence and asked for the suffrage
that they learned the difficulty of changing constitutions. They found
that either National or State constitutions had to be amended and in
the latter case the consent of a majority of all men was necessary. In
Volume VI the attempt to obtain the vote through State action is
described in 48 chapters and their reading is recommended to those who
insisted that this was the way women should be enfranchised. Fifty-six
strenuous campaigns were conducted, with their heavy demands on time,
strength and money, and as a result 13 States gave suffrage to women!
Wyoming and Utah entered the Union with it in their constitutions.
Compare this result with the proclamation of the adoption of a Federal
Amendment, which in a moment and a sentence conferred the complete
franchise on the women of all the other States.
The leaders recognized this advantage and the National Suffrage
Association was formed for the express purpose of securing a Federal
Amendment in 1869, as soon as it was learned through the
enfranchisement of negro men that this method was possible. A short
experience with Congress convinced them that there would have to be
some demonstration of woman suffrage in the States before they could
hope for Federal action and therefore they carried on the work along
both lines. The question had to be presented purely as one of abstract
justice without appeal to the special interests of any party, but from
1890 to 1896 woman suffrage had been placed in the constitutions of
four States and there was hope that it was now on the way to general
success. From this time, however, such idealism in politics as may
have existed in the United States gradually disappeared. The
Republican party was in complete control of the Government at
Washington and was largely dominated by the great financial interests
of the country, and this was also practically the situation in the
majority of the States. The campaign fund controlled the elections and
the largest contributors to this fund were the corporations, which had
secured immense power, and the liquor interests, which had become a
dominant force in State and national politics, without regard to
party. Both of these supreme influences were implacably opposed to
suffrage for women; the corporations because it would vastly increase
the votes of the working classes, the liquor interests because they
were fully aware of the hostility of women to their business and
everything connected with it.
This was the situation faced by those who were striving for the
enfranchisement of women. Congress was stone deaf to their pleadings
and arguments and from 1894 to 1913 its committees utterly ignored the
question. When a Legislature was persuaded to submit an amendment to
the State constitution to the decision of the voters it met the big
campaign fund of the employers of labor and the thoroughly organized
forces of the liquor interests, which appealed not only to the many
lines of business connected with the traffic but to the people who for
personal reasons favored the saloons and their collateral branches of
gambling, wine rooms, etc. They were a valuable adjunct to both
political parties. The suffragists met these powerful opponents
without money and without votes. A reading of the State chapters will
demonstrate these facts. From 1896 for fourteen years not one State
enfranchised its women.
These were years, however, of marvelous development in the status of
women, which every year brought nearer their political recognition.
Girls outnumbered boys in the high schools; women crowded the
colleges and almost monopolized the teaching in the public schools.
Their organizations increased in size until they numbered millions and
stretched across the seas. In 1904 the International Woman Suffrage
Alliance was formed which soon encircled the globe. This year the
International Council of Women, the largest organized body of women in
existence, formed a standing committee on woman suffrage with branches
in every country. In 1914 the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the
largest organization in the United States, declared for woman suffrage
and this was preceded or followed by a similar declaration by every
State Federation. National associations of women for whatever purpose,
with almost no exceptions, demanded the franchise as an aid to their
objects, until the stock objection that women do not want to vote was
silenced. Women who opposed the movement became alarmed and undertook
to organize in opposition, thereby exposing their weakness. Their
organization was largely confined to a small group of eastern States
and developed no strength west of the Allegheny mountains. Its leaders
were for the most part connected with corporate interests and did not
believe in universal suffrage for men. There was no evidence that they
exercised any considerable influence in Congress or in any State where
a vote was taken on granting the franchise to women.
An outstanding feature of the present century has been the entrance of
women into the industrial field, following the work which under modern
conditions was taken from the homes to the factories. Thus without
their volition they became the competitors of men in practically every
field of labor. Unorganized and without the protection of a vote they
were underpaid and a menace to working men. In self-defense,
therefore, the labor unions were compelled to demand the ballot for
women. They were followed by other organizations of men until hundreds
were on record as favoring woman suffrage. Men trying to bring about
civic or political reforms in the old parties or through new ones and
feeling their weakness turned to women with their great organizations
but soon realized their inefficiency without political power. The old
objections were losing their force. The lessening size of families and
the removal of the old time household tasks from the home left women
with a great deal of leisure which they were utilizing in countless
ways that took them out into the world, so that there was no longer
any weight in the charge that the suffrage would cause women to
forsake their domestic duties for public life. Women of means began
coming into the movement for the suffrage and relieving the financial
stringency which had constantly limited the activities of the
organized work. The opening of large national headquarters in New
York, the great news center of the country, in 1909, marked a distinct
advance in the movement which was immediately apparent throughout the
country. The friendly attitude of the metropolitan papers extended to
the press at large. Following the example of England, parades and
processions and various picturesque features were introduced in New
York and other large cities which gave the syndicates and motion
pictures material and interested the public. Woman suffrage became a
topic of general discussion and women flocked into the suffrage
organizations.
Politicians took notice but they remained cold. This political
question had not yet entered politics. The leaders of the National
Suffrage Association strengthened its lines and established its
outposts in every State, but they still made their appeals to
unyielding committees of Congress. The Republican "machine" was in
absolute control and woman suffrage had long been under its wheels
with other reform measures. Then came in 1909-10 the "insurgency" in
its own ranks led by members from the western States, and in those
States the voters repudiated the railroad and lumber and other
corporate interests and instituted a new regime. One of its first acts
was the submission of a woman suffrage amendment in the State of
Washington and with a free election and a fair count it was carried in
every county and received a majority of more than two to one. The
revolt extended to California, whose Legislature sent an amendment to
the voters in 1911 after having persistently refused to do so for the
past 15 years, and here again there was victory at the polls. With the
gaining of this old and influential State the extension of the
movement to the Mississippi was assured.
The insurgency in the Republican party resulted in a division at the
national convention in 1912 and the forming of the Progressive party
headed by Theodore Roosevelt. The Resolutions Committee of the regular
party gave the suffragists seven minutes to present their claims and
ignored them. The new party needed a fresh, live issue and found it in
woman suffrage, which was made a plank in its platform. The leaders of
the National Suffrage Association were required by its constitution to
remain non-partisan and with one exception did so, but thousands of
women rallied to the standard of the new party. As most of them were
disfranchised they brought little voting strength but the other
parties were forced to admit them and for the first time they gained a
foothold in politics. The division in Republican ranks resulted in
putting into power the Democratic party, with an unfavorable record on
woman suffrage and a President who was opposed to it, but "votes for
women" was now a national political issue.
When the suffrage leaders went to the new Congress for a Federal
Amendment they met a Senate Committee every member but one of which
was in favor of it. The vote in the Senate on March 14, 1914, resulted
in a majority but not the required two-thirds, and it was a majority
of Republicans. The history of the struggle for this amendment for the
next six years, through Democratic and Republican administrations,
will be found in Chapter XX. Speaker Champ Clark was a steadfast
friend. In 1914 William Jennings Bryan declared for it and thenceforth
spoke for it many times. In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson announced
his conversion to woman suffrage and in 1918 to the Federal Amendment
and never wavered in his loyalty, rendering every assistance in his
power. His record will be found in these volumes. In 1916, after
Justice Charles Evans Hughes was nominated by the Republicans for the
presidency, he announced his adherence to the Federal Amendment, being
in advance of his party. This year the Republican and Democratic
national platforms for the first time contained a plank in favor of
woman suffrage but by State and not Federal action. A remarkable
feature of the progress of this amendment in Congress was the increase
of its advocates among members from the South, who for the most part
believed it to be an interference with the State's rights. In 1887,
when the first vote was taken in the Senate not one southern member
voted for it. On the second occasion in 1914 Senators Lea of
Tennessee, Ransdell of Louisiana, Sheppard of Texas, Ashurst of
Arizona and Owen of Oklahoma voted in favor. In 1919 on the final
vote, if Arizona, New Mexico and Delaware are included, 17 Senators
from southern States cast their ballots for the Federal Amendment, and
four from northern States who did so were born in the South. It
received the votes of 75 Representatives from southern States. The
women of every southern State suffrage association worked for this
amendment, believing that it was hopeless to expect their
enfranchisement from State action, and the above members took the same
view. It received a large Republican majority in Senate and House.
While this contest was in progress many events were taking place which
had an influence on it. The movement for woman suffrage was
progressing in Europe but when the war broke out in 1914, involving
all countries, it was thought that all advance was lost. On the
contrary the splendid service of the women obtained the franchise for
them in Great Britain, The Netherlands and other countries, and at the
close of the war the revolution in the Central countries resulted in
the suffrage for men and women alike. The war work of Canadian women
brought full enfranchisement to them. When the United States entered
the war the patriotic response of the women to every demand of the
Government and the magnificent service they rendered swept away
forever the objection to their voting because they could not do
military duty.
Stimulated by the action of Washington and California other western
States gave suffrage to their women and its practical working
effectually disproved every charge that had been made against it. At
the close of 1915 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt became president of the
National Association and bringing to bear her great executive and
organizing ability she re-formed it along the lines followed by the
political parties, created a large, active working force and prepared
for intensive State and national campaigns. Soon afterwards she
received a legacy of almost a million dollars from Mrs. Frank Leslie
to be used for promoting the cause of woman suffrage and thus she was
equipped for carrying the movement to certain victory.
In 1917 the voters of New York State by an immense majority gave the
full suffrage to women, guaranteeing probably 45 votes in Congress for
the Federal Amendment. In 1917 and 1918 the great "drive" was made on
the Legislatures to give women the right to vote for Presidential
electors and this was done in 14 States, granting this important
privilege to millions of women. In several States the Legislature
added the franchise for municipal and county officers. In 1917 the
Legislature of Arkansas gave them the right to vote at all Primary
elections and in 1918 that of Texas conferred the same, which is
equivalent to the full suffrage, as the primaries decide the
elections. By 1918 in 15 States women had equal suffrage with men
through amendment of their constitutions.[2]
In January, 1918, the Federal Prohibition Amendment went into effect,
putting an end to the powerful opposition of the liquor interests to
woman suffrage. All political parties were committed to the Federal
Amendment. In January, 1918, it passed the Lower House of Congress but
the opposition of two Senators and finally of one prevented its
submission. Meanwhile the Democratic administration of eight years had
been succeeded by a Republican. This party during 44 years in power
had refused to enfranchise women but now it atoned for the wrong and
with the help of Democratic members the Amendment was submitted to the
Legislatures on June 4, 1919. Nearly all had adjourned for two years
and if women were to vote at the next presidential election special
sessions would be necessary. One of the most noteworthy political
feats on record was that of the president of the National Suffrage
Association, with the assistance of others, in managing to have the
Governors of the various States call these sessions. It is told in the
State chapters with the dramatic ending in Tennessee.
The certificate was delivered to Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby
at 4 o'clock in the morning on August 26, 1920, and at 9 he issued the
official proclamation that the 19th Amendment having been duly
ratified by 36 State Legislatures "has become valid to all intents and
purposes as a part of the Constitution of the United States." It reads
as follows:
"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of
sex.
"Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation."
[Illustration: Signature (Eda Husted Harper.)]
FOOTNOTES:
[2] It is worthy of note that these fifteen States offer the only
instance in the world where the voters themselves granted the complete
suffrage to women. Those of British Columbia, Can., gave the
Provincial franchise but had not the power to give it for Dominion
elections. In all countries both the State and National suffrage was
conferred by a simple majority vote of their Parliaments. The U. S.
Congress had not this authority but a two-thirds majority of each
House was necessary to send it to the 48 Legislatures for final
decision. The Federal Suffrage Amendment had to be passed upon by
about 6,000 legislators.
THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION
FOREWORD
The National Woman Suffrage Association was organized in New York
City, May 15, 1869, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton president and Susan B.
Anthony chairman of executive committee. [History of Woman Suffrage,
Volume II, page 400.] It held annual conventions for the next half
century, always in Washington, D.C., until 1895, after which date they
were taken in alternate years to other cities, meeting in the national
capital during the first session of each Congress. The object of the
association from its beginning was to obtain an amendment to the
Federal Constitution which would confer full, universal suffrage on
the women of the United States, and its work for amending the
constitutions of the States to enfranchise their women was undertaken
as one means to achieve this main purpose. The American Woman Suffrage
Association was organized in Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 24, 1869, with
Henry Ward Beecher president and Lucy Stone chairman of executive
committee, principally for action through the States, and it also held
annual conventions. [Volume II, page 756.] In 1890 the two united in
Washington under the name National American Woman Suffrage Association
[Volume IV, page 164], and the work was continued by both methods.
Full reports of conventions may be found in preceding volumes of the
History of Woman Suffrage, the list ending in Volume IV with that of
1900. This convention was especially distinguished by the public
celebration of the 80th birthday of Susan B. Anthony and her
retirement from the presidency of the association which she had helped
to found and in which she had continuously held official position, and
by the election of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt as her successor.[3]
The assertion is frequently made that the enfranchisement of women was
due to a natural evolution of public sentiment. A reading of the
following chapters, which give the history of the work of the National
American Woman Suffrage Association, will show how largely the
creation of this sentiment was due to this organization to which all
the State associations were auxiliary. It represented the organized
movement during half a century to secure the vote for women--a
struggle such as was never made by men for this right in any country
in the world. It was the only large organization for this purpose that
ever existed in the United States and its efforts never ceased in the
more than fifty years. At each annual convention some advance was
recorded. These chapters show that, while the principal object of the
association was a Federal Amendment, it gave valuable assistance to
every campaign for the amendment of State constitutions and that it
was responsible for the granting of the Presidential franchise, which
was so important a factor in gaining the final victory. The reports of
its officers each year show the large amount of money raised and
expended, the hundreds of thousands of letters written, the millions
of pieces of literature circulated, the thousands of meetings held,
the many workers in the field. The committee reports and the
resolutions adopted show that all reforms vital to the welfare of
women and children and many of a wider scope were included in the work
of the association. The names of the speakers at the national
conventions and at the hearings before the committees of Congress
during all these years prove that this cause was championed by the
leaders among the men and women of their generation. Such quotations
from their speeches as space has permitted show that in eloquence,
logic and strength they were unsurpassed and that their arguments were
unanswerable.
If this volume contained only the first nineteen chapters the reader
could not fail to be convinced that principally to the efforts of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association the women of the United
States owe their enfranchisement, but it shows too that in the
forty-eight auxiliary States they also fought their own hard battles.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, Chapters XX and XXI.
CHAPTER I.
THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1901.
The Thirty-third annual convention opened on the afternoon of May 30,
1901, in the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, with the new
president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair, and continued
through June 4, with 144 delegates from twenty-six States present.[4]
Miss Anthony was present at this Minneapolis convention, alert and
vigorous but happy to relinquish her official duties to one in whose
ability and judgment she had implicit confidence; and the rest of the
official board were there ready to give the same allegiance and
loyalty to the new chief which they had rendered for many years to the
supreme leader. The _Minneapolis Journal_ said: "The formal opening of
the suffrage convention yesterday afternoon was an impressive affair.
Among the national officers seated on the platform were women who saw
the first dawn of the suffrage movement, those who came into its fold
midway of its life and those whose earnest endeavors are of more
recent record. Among the first was the most honored member of the
body, Miss Susan B. Anthony, and among the latter is the president,
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. When the delegates rose and the Rev. Olympia
Brown of Wisconsin stepped to the front of the platform and turned
her face heavenward, saying, "In the name of liberty, Our Father, we
thank thee," the impression even upon an unbeliever must have been
that of entire consecration and one was reminded of when the early
Christians met and consulted, fought and endured for the faith that
was in them."
Although this was the first convention in many years over which Miss
Anthony had not presided she was the first to speak, as Mrs. Catt at
once presented her to the audience. With the loyalty which had
characterized her life Miss Anthony first read a letter from the
honorary president, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, then in her 86th
year, which she prefaced by saying: "It is fitting that I should read
this greeting from her, as I have stood by Mrs. Stanton's side for
fifty years." The letter urged the same vigorous work in the church
for woman's emancipation as had been kept up in the States and said:
"The canon law, with all the subtle influences that grow out of it, is
more responsible for woman's slavery today than the civil code. With
the progressive legislation of the last half century we have an
interest in tracing the lessons taught to women in the churches to
their true origin and a right to demand from our theologians the same
full and free discussion in the church that we have had in the State,
as the time has fully come for women to be heard in the ecclesiastical
councils of the nation. To this end I suggest that committees and
delegates from all our State and national associations visit the
clergy in their several localities and assemblies to press on their
consideration the true position of woman as a factor in Christian
civilization."
Press reports of Mrs. Stanton's paper were as follows:
"Woman today, as ever, supplies the enthusiasm that sustains the
church and she has a right in turn to ask that the church sustain
her in this struggle for liberty and take some decided action
with reference to this momentous and far-reaching movement. It
matters little that here and there some clergyman advocates our
cause on our platform, so long as no religious organization has
yet recognized our demand as a principle of justice. Discussion
is rarely held in their councils but it is generally treated as a
speculative, sentimental question unworthy of serious
consideration. Neither would it be sufficient if they gave their
adhesion to the demand for political equality, so long as by
scriptural teachings they perpetuate our racial and religious
subordination." Mrs. Stanton would demand that an expurgated
Bible be read in churches. "Such parables as refer to woman as
'the author of sin,' 'an inferior,' 'a subject,' 'a weaker
vessel,'" she says, "should be relegated to the ancient
mythologies as mere allegories, having no application whatever to
the womanhood of this generation. It is not civil nor political
power that holds the Mormon woman in polygamy, the Turkish woman
in the harem, the American woman as a subordinate everywhere. The
central falsehood from which all these different forms of slavery
spring is the doctrine of original sin and woman as a medium for
the machinations of Satan, its author. The greatest block today
in the way of woman's emancipation is the church, the canon law,
the Bible and the priesthood. Canon Charles Kingsley said not
long ago: 'This will never be a good world for woman till the
last remnant of canon law is stricken from the face of the
earth.'"[5]
After finishing Mrs. Stanton's letter Miss Anthony presented her own
greeting, in the course of which she said:
"If the divine law visits the sins of the parents upon the children,
equally so does it transmit to them the virtues of the parents.
Therefore if it is through woman's ignorant subjection to man's
appetites and passions that the life current of the race is corrupted,
then must it be through her intelligent emancipation that it shall be
purified and her children rise up and call her blessed.... I am a full
and firm believer in the revelation that it is through woman the race
is to be redeemed. For this reason I ask for her immediate and
unconditional emancipation from all political, industrial, social and
religious subjection. It is said, 'Men are what their mothers made
them,' but I say that to hold mothers responsible for the characters
of their sons while denying to them any control over the surroundings
of the sons' lives is worse than mockery, it is cruelty.
Responsibilities grow out of rights and powers. Therefore before
mothers can rightfully be held responsible for the vices and crimes,
for the general demoralization of society, they must possess all
possible rights and powers to control the conditions and
circumstances of their own and their children's lives."
The audience then listened with keen appreciation to the president's
address, during which she said: "If I were asked what are the great
obstacles to the speedy enfranchisement of women I should answer:
There are three; the first is militarism, which once dominated the
entire thought of the world and made its history. Although its old
power is gone and its influence upon public thought grows constantly
less, it still molds the opinions of millions of people and holds them
to the old ideals of force in government and headship in the family.
The second obstacle is the unconscious, unmeasured influence upon the
estimate in which women as a whole are held that emanates from that
most debasing of our evil institutions, prostitution.... The third
great cause is the inertia in the growth of democracy which has come
as a reaction following the aggressive movements that with possibly
ill-advised haste enfranchised the foreigner, the negro and the
Indian. Perilous conditions, seeming to follow from the introduction
into the body politic of vast numbers of irresponsible citizens, have
made the nation timid. These three influences, born of centuries of
tradition, shape every opinion of the opponents of woman suffrage. Not
an objection, argument or excuse can be urged against the movement
which may not be traced to one of these causes."
At the close of Mrs. Catt's address Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Denver
presented her with a handsome gavel in behalf of the suffrage
association of Colorado. The gavel was made of Colorado silver and the
settings and engravings of Colorado gold. In one side was a Colorado
amethyst, and the Colorado flower, the columbine, was burned into the
gavel by a Colorado girl. Mrs. Bradford said she wished Mrs. Catt the
good luck said to follow the possessor of an amethyst, who "shall
speak the right word at the right time." She presented it as an
expression of gratitude for her aid in their successful suffrage
campaign of 1893. "We are apt to attribute everything good in Colorado
to woman suffrage," said Mrs. Catt in response, "but in my secret mind
I think much of it is due to the progressiveness of the Colorado men.
They must be better than other men or they would not have enfranchised
their women. I cannot love Colorado any better than I do but I shall
always value this gavel as a precious souvenir of that wonderful
campaign."
In her report as vice-president at large the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw
said regarding her many suffrage speeches during the year: "The
manager of a bureau lately said to me: 'If you would only give up for
a time the two reforms in which you are most interested, woman
suffrage and prohibition, you could earn enough money on the regular
lecture platform in a few years to live on for the rest of your life.'
Any woman who does not live for unselfish service is a useless
cumberer of the earth. I would rather be known as an advocate of equal
suffrage and starve than to speak every night on the best-paying
platforms in the United States and ignore it."
The first evening of the convention was opened with prayer by the Rev.
Marion H. Shutter.[6] The audience was far beyond the seating capacity
of the large church and in presenting the official speakers Mrs. Catt
said: "This is a great contrast to the early days when we did not use
to be welcomed because we were not welcome. Now we are welcomed
wherever we go but not often, as here, by the representative of a
whole State." Governor Samuel R. Van Sant gave a hearty western
greeting, which, he said, he wanted to make as cordial as he could
express it and as broad as the State he lived in. He made this point
among others: "You are doing a splendid work and the reason you do not
get the ballot sooner is because you do not convert your own sex. I
know for I have been a member of the Legislature. If you wanted to
vote as much as you want other things you would go there and block the
legislators so they couldn't get to their seats." Mayor Albert A. Ames
extended the welcome of the city and declared his belief in woman
suffrage. Former Mayor William Henry Eustis ended his address in
behalf of the Commercial Club and Board of Trade by saying:
"Commercial bodies are temporary but a great movement like this is
eternal." Former Mayor James Gray, representing the press, assured
them of its cooperation and said that from a dozen to twenty women
were doing important work on the papers of the city. Mrs. Maud C.
Stockwell, president of the State Suffrage Association, welcomed them
to "the hearts of the women of Minneapolis."
Dr. Shaw closed the evening with a stirring address on An Invisible
Foe, in which she referred to the many refusals they had had from the
anti-suffrage leaders to come to the convention and debate the
question. She accused them of wearing a khaki-colored uniform to
conceal themselves from the foe and declared they were always careful
to make their attacks when the enemy was not present, saying: "The
anti-suffragists are not fighting woman suffrage, they are fighting
the ideals of democracy and leaning toward an aristocracy. Take note
of the words they use to designate the people, 'mob,' 'hordes,' etc.
They look at the people as not only incapable and ignorant now but so
for all time and they never learn that in the heart of every
individual in the mob lie the forces which make for martyrs or for
brutes." "From point to point through long and close argument the
brilliant speaker moved with lightning velocity," said a press report.
"She called up the anti-suffrage arguments made by the Rev. Samuel G.
Smith of St. Paul, in his recent series of sermons on women, and
laughed to scorn their plea for 'the days of chivalry,' which, she
said, were a man's protection of his own women against other men.
Woman must work out God's ideal of what a woman should be and she
cannot do it until she is absolutely free as man is free."
Mrs. Catt brought to the presidency a definite belief that Congress
would not submit a Federal Suffrage Amendment nor would important
States be gained on referendum until national and State officers and
workers were better trained for the work required. The increasing
evidence of a united and politically experienced opposition as
manifested in legislative action and referendum results had convinced
her that the cause would never be won unless its campaigns were
equipped, guided and conducted by women fully aware of the nature of
opposition tactics and prepared to meet every maneuver of the enemy by
an equally telling counteraction. She had been appointed by Miss
Anthony chairman of a Plan of Work Committee at the convention of 1895
and assembling the practical workers they agreed upon recommendations
which proved a turning point in the association's policy. These were
presented to that convention and adopted. A Committee on Organization
was established with Mrs. Catt as chairman and contrary to the usual
custom the convention voted that she be made a member of the National
Board. For the last five years her committee had held conferences in
connection with each convention which discussed and adopted plans for
more efficient work. As president, she now determined to link more
closely the work of national and State auxiliary organizations and in
the pursuance of this aim and as ex-officio chairman of the convention
program committee, she appointed the Executive Committee (consisting
of the Board of Officers, the president and one member from each
auxiliary State) to be the Committee on Plan of Work. For two entire
days preceding this convention the Executive Committee had discussed
methods of procedure, as presented by the Board of Officers, who had
prepared these recommendations at a mid-year meeting held in Miss
Anthony's home at Rochester in August.
The convention accepted the report which included the following: (1)
Organization. That organization be continually the first aim of each
State auxiliary as the certain key to success; that each State keep at
least one organizer employed and endeavor to establish a county
organization in each county or at least to form an organization in
each county seat and at four other points; that organization work be
done among women wage earners and that definite work be undertaken to
win the endorsement and cooperation of other associations, chiefly the
General Federation of Women's Clubs and the National Education
Association. (2) Legislation. That each auxiliary State association
appeal to Congress to submit to the Legislatures a 16th Amendment to
the Federal constitution prohibiting the disfranchisement of U. S.
citizens on account of sex; that the plan initiated by Miss Anthony be
continued, namely, that all kinds of national and State conventions be
asked to pass resolutions in favor of this amendment, to be sent to
Congress; that State societies also ask their Legislatures to pass
resolutions in favor of a 16th Amendment, these also to be sent to
Congress; that auxiliaries whose States offer a reasonable possibility
of a successful referendum try to secure the submission of State
suffrage amendments to the voters, with assurance of national
cooperation; that auxiliaries whose State constitutions present
obstacles to such procedure work to secure statutory suffrage, such as
School, Municipal or Presidential; that auxiliaries not strong enough
to attempt a campaign work for the removal of legal discriminations
against women and attempt to secure co-guardianship of children, equal
property rights, the raising of the age of consent, the appointment of
police matrons, etc.; that a leaflet be prepared by Mrs. Laura M.
Johns advising best methods for successful legislative work. To carry
out this plan the Committees on Congressional Work, Presidential
Suffrage and Civil Rights found their work for the year. (3) Press.
Recommendations were made for rendering this department of work more
efficient in the States; enrollment of persons believing in woman
suffrage to be continued in order to secure evidence of the strength
of general favorable sentiment; the literature of the association to
include a plan of work for local clubs.
Work conferences were interspersed during the convention; one on
Organization presided over by Miss Mary Garrett Hay; one by Mrs.
Priscilla D. Hackstaff, chairman Enrollment Committee; one by Mrs.
Babcock, chairman Press Committee. A chart showing the date of the
opening of the Legislature in each State; the provision for amending
its constitution; the suffrage and initiative and referendum laws and
all other information bearing upon the technical procedure of securing
the vote State by State was carefully drawn by the Organization
Committee. With this in hand each State was given its legislative
task. It was voted to urge the auxiliaries of Kansas, Indiana, New
York, Washington and South Dakota to ask for submission of State
constitutional amendments. It was voted that the corresponding
secretary be elected with the understanding that she would serve at
the national headquarters and be paid a salary.
The Executive Committee at a preliminary meeting repeated the
resolution of the preceding year against the official regulation of
vice in Manila, which was under United States control. It closed: "We
protest in the name of American womanhood and we believe that this
represents also the opinion of the best American manhood.[7] This
resolution was unanimously adopted by the delegates after strong
addresses, and Miss Anthony, Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Avery and Miss
Blackwell were deputized to ask a hearing and present it to the
American Medical Association meeting in St. Paul at this time. That
body allowed them ten minutes to state their earnest wish that it
would endorse the resolution but it took no action.
Miss Anthony had consented to act as chairman of the Congressional
Committee and her report was heard with deep interest. Her work during
the year was upon two distinct lines, the old familiar petition to
Congress to pass the 16th Amendment granting full suffrage to women,
and another brought about by new conditions--a petition that the word
"male" should not be inserted in the electoral clause of the
constitutions proposed by Congress for Hawaii and Porto Rico. These
petitions were secured from every State and Territory, a tremendous
work, and were laid before the members of Congress from each State.
The most interesting petition for the amendment was from Wyoming,
where one sheet was signed by every State officer, several U. S.
officials and other prominent citizens. They had signed in duplicate
several petitions and thus Miss Anthony had an autograph copy with
her. The work of securing this petition was done chiefly by Mrs.
Joseph M. Cary, wife of the Senator. Miss Anthony was chairman also of
the Committee on Convention Resolutions and believed strongly that to
present the question of woman suffrage to conventions of various kinds
and secure resolutions from them was an efficacious means of
propaganda. Her interesting report for 1900 made at this time will be
found in full in the History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 439.
In introducing Mr. Blackwell (Mass.), Mrs. Catt said: "The woman
suffrage movement has known many women who have devoted their lives
and energies to it. I know of only one man. Years ago when Lucy Stone
was a sweet and beautiful girl he heard her speak and afterwards
proposed to her to form a marriage partnership. When she said that
this might prevent her from doing the large work she wanted to do for
equal rights he promised to help her in it and loyally and faithfully
all through their married life he did so, as constantly and earnestly
as Lucy Stone herself; and even after her death he continues to give
his time, his money and his effort to the same end. I am glad to
introduce Henry B. Blackwell." Mr. Blackwell was the pioneer in urging
the suffragists of every State to try to obtain from their Legislature
a law giving them a vote for presidential electors. Their authority
for this action was conferred by the National Constitution in Article
2, Section 2: "Each State shall appoint in such manner as the
Legislature thereof may direct a number of electors equal to the whole
number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be
entitled in the Congress." His comprehensive report made to this and
other conventions was an unanswerable argument in favor of the right
of a Legislature to confer this vote on women and eventually it was
widely recognized.
The treasurer, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (O.), reported the total
receipts of the year $22,522. Mrs. Catt stated the needs of the
association for the coming year and under the skilful management of
Miss Hay subscriptions of $5,000 were soon obtained. On motion of Dr.
Shaw a vote of thanks was given to Miss Hay for her "able and
efficient work in securing these pledges." The report for the Federal
Suffrage Committee was given by Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett (Ky.)[8]
The corresponding secretary, Mrs. Avery of Philadelphia, made the
report of the great bazaar which had been held before the Christmas
holidays in Madison Square Garden, New York City, and netted about
$8,500. It was accompanied by the carefully prepared report of its
treasurer, Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff of Brooklyn. An exact duplicate
of a beautiful vase three feet high which had been presented to
Admiral Dewey by the citizens of Wheeling, West Virginia, at a cost of
$250, with the exception that his face on it was replaced by Miss
Anthony's, was presented to the bazaar by Mrs. Fannie J. Wheat of that
city. As no "chances" were allowed at suffrage fairs it was purchased
by subscriptions and presented to Miss Anthony.[9]
A letter to Miss Blackwell from Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, then past 80
years of age, expressing her regret at not being able to attend the
convention, closed: "It is not for lack of interest in our great cause
or indifference to the dear western women with whom I was associated
so many years ago and who, like myself, have grown gray in the work
for women.... God bless you all and give you an ennobling season
together, harmonious and uplifting in its results. Remember me in love
to the old friends and pledge my affectionate regard to the new
friends with whom I will try to keep step here on the Massachusetts
coast. Yours with a thousand good wishes." A telegram of greeting was
sent to Mrs. Stanton and others to Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey of New
Jersey, Mrs. Jane H. Spofford of Maine and Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway
of Oregon, all pioneer workers for the cause. Miss Laura Clay (Ky.)
gave a strong, logical address on Counterparts, "the dualism of the
race," in which she said:
Any social system founded on a theory designed for the elevation
of one sex alone, regardless of the other, is altogether false
and delusive to the expectations built upon it, for the human
race is dual and heredity keeps the stock common from which both
men and women spring. Since the common stock is improved and
invigorated by the acquired qualities of individuals, without
regard to sex, it is to the advantage of both that all
possibilities of development shall be extended to both sexes. In
animals acquired qualities can be imparted to the stock only by
parenthood; in the human family they are imparted even more
widely and permanently through the influence of ideas. All that
woman has lost by social systems which denied to her education
and the free expression of her genius in literature, art or
statesmanship, has been lost to man also, because it has
diminished the inheritable riches of the nature from which he
draws his existence. He has been less, though unhampered by the
shackles which bound her, because she was less. The world is not
more called upon to rejoice in the triumphs of his genius in
freedom than to mourn over the wasted possibilities of hers in
bonds....
The forward movement of either sex is possible only when the
other moves also and the obstacles to progress exist in the
attitude of both sexes to it, not in that of one alone. So in
this woman suffrage movement we have learned that the apathy of
women to their own political freedom is as great an obstacle to
our success as the unwillingness of men to grant our claims. It
is of the same importance to us to educate women out of their
indifference as it is to educate men out of their unwillingness.
If it should happen that this education shall come to women
first, they will never need the argument of force to induce men
to remove the legal obstacles, for men and women cannot long
think unlike on any subject.
One of the most interesting reports was that of the Press Committee,
made by its efficient chairman, Mrs. Elnora Monroe Babcock (N. Y.).
Illustrating its work she said: "About 50,000 suffrage articles have
been sent out from the press headquarters since our last annual
convention; 2,400 of these were specials; 5,155 articles and items
advertising the Bazaar; many articles on prominent women were
furnished to illustrated papers and newspaper syndicates; a page of
plate matter was issued every six weeks and seven large press
associations were supplied with occasional articles." The names of
State chairmen were given and the number of papers they supplied--New
York, 500; Pennsylvania, 336; Iowa, 237; Massachusetts, 97; Indiana,
91; Illinois, 85; Ohio, 63, etc. Mrs. Babcock asked for a vote of
thanks, which was unanimous, to Paul Dana, proprietor and editor of
the New York _Sun_, for having given during the past two and a half
years and for still giving two columns of its Sunday issue to an
article by Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, an unprecedented concession by a
great metropolitan paper. Miss Anthony added her words of praise to
Mr. Dana and to the department which she herself had been largely
instrumental in securing.[10]
One of the most popular addresses of the convention was made by Mrs.
Ellis Meredith of Denver--The Menace of Podunk--a clever satire
showing that narrow partisanship and dishonest politics were to be
found alike in New York and Podunk, Indiana.
Podunk is the place where the country is nothing, the caucus
everything; where patriotism languishes and party spirit runs
riot. It is the centre of intelligence where they hold back the
returns until advices are received from headquarters as to how
many votes are needed. The Podunkians believe it is a good thing
to have a strong man at the head of the ticket, not because they
care about electing strong men but because by putting a good
nominee at the head of the ballot it is possible they may be able
to pull through the seven saloon keepers and three professional
politicians who go to make up the rest of the ticket.... But
there lives in Podunk another class that is a greater menace to
the life of the nation, the noble army of Pharisees. They have
read Bryce's American Commonwealth and have an intellectual
understanding of the theory and form of our government but they
do not know what ward they live in, they are vague as to the
district, have never met their Congressman and do not know a
primary from a kettle drum....
The politician and the shirk of Podunk are the creatures who are
doing their noble best to blot out the words of Lincoln and make
it possible for the government he died to save to perish from the
earth. And between these two evils the least apparent is the most
real. The man who votes more than once is nearer right than the
man who refuses to vote at all. The activity of the repeater in
the pool of politics may be wholly pernicious but is no worse
than the stagnation caused by the inertia of his self-righteous
brother. The republic has less to fear from her illiterate and
venal voters than from those who, knowing her peril, refuse to
come to the rescue.
The resolutions were presented by Mr. Blackwell, who, at conventions
almost without number, served as chairman of this important committee,
and the first ones set forth the political status of the women in the
year 1901 as follows:
"We congratulate the women of America upon the measure of success
already attained--school suffrage in twenty-two States and
Territories; municipal suffrage in Kansas; suffrage on questions of
taxation in Iowa, Montana, Louisiana and New York; full suffrage in
Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho--States containing more than a
million inhabitants, with eight Senators and nine Representatives in
Congress elected in part by the votes of women.
"We rejoice in important gains during the past year; the extension of
suffrage upon questions of taxation to 200,000 women in the towns and
villages of New York and to the tax-paying women of Norway; the voting
of women for the first time for members of Parliament in West
Australia; the almost unanimous refusal of the Kansas Legislature to
repeal municipal woman suffrage and the acquittal in Denver of the
only woman ever charged with fraudulent voting."
A tribute was paid to the tried and true friends of woman suffrage who
had died during the year, many of them veterans in the cause: Sarah
Anthony Burtis, aged 90, secretary of the first Woman's Rights
Convention in 1848 when adjourned to Rochester, N.Y.; Charles K.
Whipple, aged 91, for many years secretary of the Massachusetts and
New England Woman Suffrage Associations; Zerelda G. Wallace of
Indiana, the "mother" of "Ben Hur"; Paulina Gerry, the Rev. Cyrus
Bartol, Carrie Anders, Dr. Salome Merritt, Matilda Goddard and Mary
Shannon of Massachusetts; Mary J. Clay of Kentucky; Eliza J. Patrick
of Missouri; Fanny C. Wooley and Nettie Laub Romans of Iowa; Eliza
Scudder Fenton, the widow of New York's war governor; Charlotte A.
Cleveland and Henry Villard of New York; John Hooker of Connecticut;
Giles F. Stebbins and George Willard of Michigan; Ruth C. Dennison, D.
C., Theron Nye of Nebraska; Elizabeth Coit of Ohio; Major Niles
Meriwether of Tennessee; M. B. Castle of Illinois; John Bidwell of
California; Wendell Phillips Garrison of New Jersey.
On the evening when Miss Anthony presided she introduced to the
audience with tender words Mrs. Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia, as
one of the few left who attended the first Woman's Rights Convention
at Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1848; Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborne of Auburn,
N. Y., niece of Lucretia Mott and daughter of Martha Wright, two of
the four women who called that convention; Miss Emily Howland, a
devoted pioneer of Sherwood, N. Y.; the Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine,
second woman to be ordained as minister; Mrs. Ellen Sulley Fray, a
pioneer of Toledo, O., and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, wife of a Chief
Justice of Louisiana, who organized the first suffrage club in New
Orleans.
Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, who had been the corresponding secretary of
the association for twenty-one years, had insisted that she should be
allowed to resign from the office. A pleasant incident not on the
program took place one morning during the convention when Miss Anthony
came to the front of the platform and said: "I have in my hand a
thousand dollars for Rachel Foster Avery. It has been contributed
without her knowledge by about four hundred different persons; most of
you are on the list. I asked for this testimonial because I felt that
you would all rejoice to show your appreciation of her long and
faithful services and her great liberality to the cause. I should
never have been able to carry on the work of the society as its
president for so many years but for her able cooperation. She thinks
she cannot talk but we know that she can work. She has done the
drudgery of this association for more than twenty years and I hope the
woman who will be chosen in her place, whoever she may be, will be as
consecrated and free from all self-seeking."
Miss Kate M. Gordon, president of the Era Club of New Orleans, was
almost unanimously elected as corresponding secretary. The only other
change in the official board was the retirement of Mrs. Catharine
Waugh McCulloch as second auditor and the election of Dr. Cora Smith
Eaton in her place. In referring later to Dr. Eaton, Mr. Blackwell
said: "In my attendance upon thirty-three successive annual national
conventions I have never seen one with such complete and faithful
preparation by the local committee and such abundant and cordial
welcome.... It seemed natural to recognize the generous hospitality
thus extended to the convention by the people of Minnesota by choosing
Dr. Eaton of Minneapolis, chairman of this local committee, as one of
the auditors for the coming year."[11]
A closely reasoned address on the Ethics of Suffrage was made by Louis
F. Post of Chicago, in the course of which he said:
Suffrage is a right, not a privilege. That it is a right of every
individual is the only basis for women's demanding it. If it is
not a right but a privilege that may be granted to men and
withheld from women, be granted to the white and withheld from
the black, be given to those who have red hair and kept from
those with black hair; if it may be rightfully given to the
millionaire and kept from the day laborer; rightfully extended to
those who can read and withheld from those who cannot, or to
those with a college education and from those who have only a
common-school education--if these are the only bases on which
women claim a share in government, then the fundamental argument
for woman suffrage disappears.
Reason back far enough on the privilege line of argument and you
soon come to that fetish of tradition, the divine right of kings.
So if you cannot put your claim on any better ground than
privilege you would better not go on.... Being a right, it is
also a duty. He who has a right to maintain has a duty to
perform. This is the firm rock upon which woman suffrage must
rest. It must be demanded because women are members of the
community, because they have common interests in the common
property and affairs of the community; in a word, they have
rights in the community and duties toward it which are the same
as the rights and duties of every other sane person of mature age
who keeps out of the penitentiary.
An unexpected pleasure was a brief address by Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi,
a veteran suffragist and prominent physician of New York, who was
attending the convention of the American Medical Association. She
based her argument for equal suffrage on the injustice practiced
toward women physicians when they seek the opportunity for hospital
practice. Mrs. F. W. Hunt, wife of the Governor of Idaho, testified to
the good results of woman suffrage in that State for the past five
years. Others who gave addresses were the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis
(Wis.), The Feminine Doctor in Society; Mrs. Lydia Phillips Williams,
president of the Minnesota Federation of Clubs, Growth and Greetings;
Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert (Ill.), For the Sake of the Child; Miss
Frances Griffin (Ala.), A Southern Tour; the Rev. Olympia Brown
(Wis.), The Tabooed Trio; Mrs. Annie L. Digges (Kas.), The Duty of the
Hour; Miss Laura A. Gregg (Neb.), Who Will Defend the Flag?; the Rev.
Celia Parker Woolley (Ill.), Woman's Worth in the Community; the
Rev. William B. Riley (Minn.), Woman's Rights and Political
Righteousness.[12]
An inadequate newspaper account of the very able address of Miss Gail
Laughlin (N. Y.), on The Industrial Laggard, said:
Miss Laughlin described the nineteenth as the industrial century
of which the factory was a notable product and co-operation the
spirit. Men were trained to do one thing well and by division of
labor the maximum result was attained with the minimum
expenditure of labor and capital. This principal of division of
labor has been applied everywhere except in the household, the
field which especially concerns women. Household labor is outside
the current of industrial progress. It is not even recognized as
an industrial problem because it is not a wealth-producing
industry. Students of economics will sometime understand that the
industries which consume wealth should receive attention as well
as those which produce it. Business principles are not applied to
the domestic service problem. There are no business hours. The
person is hired, not the labor. One woman described the
situation: "If you have a girl, you want her, no matter at what
time." There is no standard of work and the result is confusion
worse confounded. The servant's goings-out and comings-in are
watched and she has no hours to herself. Is it any wonder that so
many women prefer to go into factory life at less pay but where
they can have some hours of their own?
The report of the Committee on Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs.
Laura M. Johns (Kans.), chairman, showed that it had been in
correspondence with many State associations which were working for the
repeal of bad laws and the enactment of good ones; for raising the age
of consent; for child-labor bills; for women physicians in State
institutions; for women on school boards and in high educational
positions and for many other civil and legal measures. Mrs. Clara
Bewick Colby's report on Industrial Problems affecting Women and
Children showed much diligent research into the discriminations
against women in the business and educational world and gave many
flagrant instances. "In Government positions," she said, "this was
clearly due to their lack of a vote."
The Government departments at Washington are almost entirely
governed by politics and women are greatly discriminated against,
notwithstanding civil service rules. The report of A. R. Severn,
chief examiner for the Civil Service Commission, shows that
during the last ten years less than ten per cent. of the women
who have passed the examinations have been appointed, while more
than 25 per cent. of the men who passed obtained positions. To
prevent the possibility of women obtaining high-class positions
the examinations for these are not open to women. Of the 58
employments for which examinations were held, women were admitted
to only 22. The per cent. of women employed of those who had
passed was 13 in 1898; 6 per cent. in 1899, and lower in 1900,
not a woman being appointed to a clerk's position from the
waiting list. The Post Office Department in the last year sent
out an order that women should not be made distributing clerks
wherever it was possible to appoint men.... Legislation for the
protection of children has been defeated in Georgia, Alabama and
South Carolina. In the factories of Birmingham, it is stated,
children of six and seven are obliged to be at work by 5:30 a.m.
and to work twelve hours daily, attending spindles for ten cents
a day. Jane Addams says she knows from personal observations that
in certain States the conditions of child labor are as bad as
they were in England half a century ago. In the great cotton
mills at Columbia, S. C., she found a little girl scarcely five
years old doing night work thirteen hours at a stretch, for three
days in the week.
Sunday afternoon the Rev. Olympia Brown gave the convention
sermon--The Forward March--in the First Baptist Church, with scripture
reading by Mrs. Catt, prayer by the Rev. Margaret T. Olmstead, hymns
by the Rev. Kate Hughes and the Rev. Mrs. Woolley; responsive reading
by the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw preached in
the Church of the Redeemer in the morning and Louis F. Post in the
evening. Dr. Shaw preached in the evening at the Hennepin Avenue
Methodist Church; Miss Laura Clay spoke at the Central Baptist; Dr.
Frances Woods at the first Unitarian; Miss Laura Gregg at Plymouth;
Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford at the Wesley Methodist in the morning and
the Rev. Olympia Brown in the evening; Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert
in the Chicago Avenue Baptist; the Rev. Margaret F. Olmstead at All
Souls; the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis at Tuttle Universalist; Mrs. Mariana
W. Chapman at the Friends' Church; Miss Ella Moffatt at the
Bloomington Avenue Methodist, and Mr. and Miss Blackwell at the
Trinity Methodist.
An official letter was sent by request to the Constitutional
Convention of Alabama asking for a woman suffrage clause. An
invitation to hold a conference in Baltimore was accepted.
Arrangements were made to have a National Suffrage Conference
September 9, 10, in Buffalo, N. Y., during the Pan-American
Exposition. It was decided also to accept an invitation from the
Inter-State and West Indian Exposition Board to hold a conference
during the Exposition in Charleston, S. C. Official invitations were
received from various public bodies to hold the next convention in
Washington, Atlantic City, Milwaukee and New Orleans.
The president made the closing address to a large audience on the last
evening, a keen, analytical review of the demand for woman suffrage.
"Its fundamental principle," she said, "is that 'all governments
derive their just power from the consent of the governed.' It is the
argument that has enfranchised men everywhere at all times and it is
the one which will enfranchise women." As it was extemporaneous no
adequate report can be given.
Nothing was left undone by this hospitable city for the success and
pleasure of the convention. Very favorable reports and commendatory
editorials were given by the newspapers. An excellent program by the
best musical talent was furnished at each session under the direction
of Mrs. Cleone Daniels Bergren. An evening reception in honor of the
national officers, to which eight hundred invitations were sent, took
place in the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Gregory. The
Business Woman's Club, Martha Scott Anderson, president, gave an
afternoon reception in its rooms, the invitations reading: "The club
desires to show in a measure its appreciation of the labor by the
members of the National Suffrage Association in behalf of women."
Trolley rides through the handsome suburbs and a visit to the big
flouring mills were among the diversions.[13]
This chapter has tried to picture the first convention of the National
American Suffrage Association in the new century, typical of many
which preceded and followed. If it and other chapters seem
overburdened with personal mention it must be remembered that it is a
precious privilege to those who assisted in this great movement, and
to their descendants, to have their names thus preserved in history.
In the biography of Susan B. Anthony (page 1246) may be found the
following tribute to these conventions, which were held annually for
over fifty years.
It can be said without fear of contradiction that the National
Suffrage Conventions will go down in history as the most notable
held by women during the present age, excepting, of course, those
of an international nature. The lofty character of their demands,
the courage, ability and earnestness of their speakers, the
unswerving fidelity to one central idea, give them a dominating
position which they will hold for all time. They are pervaded by
a remarkable spirit of democracy and fraternity. Those who come
to scoff remain--not to pray but to have a good time. The
reporters are all converted during the first two or three
meetings and become members of the family. The delegates never
wait for an introduction to each other; all have come together on
the same mission and that is a sufficient guarantee. Nobody can
remember afterwards what her neighbor wore and this proves that
all were well dressed. The meetings are so systematic and
business-like that one never feels she has wasted a minute. If
points of serious difference arise they are taken up and settled
by the Business Committee, out of sight of the public, but in all
matters directly connected with the association every delegate
has a voice and vote.
These are trained and disciplined women. There is nothing
hysterical, nothing fanatical about them. They are animated by
the most serious and determined purpose, and, in order to effect
this, all sectarian bias, all political preference, all fads and
hobbies in any direction are rigidly barred. Woman suffrage--that
is the sole object. The offices all represent hard work and no
salary, therefore no unseemly scramble takes place to secure
them, and the association has the most profound confidence in its
National Board. Every dollar subscribed has a definite channel
designated for its expenditure and so there is no big treasury
fund to quarrel over. There is always a sufficient number of
experienced members to hold the younger and more impulsive
recruits in check. Being one of the oldest women's organizations
in existence it has accumulated a large store of wisdom and
judgment. Even where people disapprove its purposes they cannot
fail to respect its dignified, orderly methods.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Part of Call: The first years of the new century are destined to
witness the most strenuous and intense struggle of the movement.
Iniquity has become afraid of the votes of women. Vice and immorality
are consequently organized in opposition, while conservative morality
stands shoulder to shoulder with them, blind to the nature of the
illicit partnership. Believers in this cause are legion, but many,
satisfied that victory will come without their help, do nothing. We
are approaching the climax of the great contest and every friend is
needed. If the final victory is long in coming, the responsibility
rests with those who believe but who do not act.
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, } Honorary Presidents.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, }
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.
ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-president.
RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, Corresponding Secretary.
ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.
HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
LAURA CLAY, } Auditors.
CATHARINE WAUGH MCCULLOCH, }
[5] Miss Anthony had entreated Mrs. Stanton to send instead of this
letter to the convention one of her grand, old-time arguments for
woman suffrage but she refused, saying the time was past for these and
the church must be recognized as the greatest of obstacles to its
success. Miss Anthony felt that it would arouse criticism and
prejudice at the very beginning but declared that no matter what the
effect she would give what would probably be Mrs. Stanton's last
message. A number of the officers and delegates were interviewed for
the press and none was found who fully agreed with Mrs. Stanton's
views. The Rev. Olympia Brown and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw believed
the obstacles to be in the false interpretation of the Scriptures and
its application to women. The Methodist General Conference had this
year admitted women delegates.
[6] Invocations were pronounced at different sessions by the resident
ministers, C. B. Mitchell, George F. Holt and Martin D. Hardin, and by
the visiting ministers, Alice Ball Loomis, Celia Parker Woolley, Kate
Hughes and Margaret T. Olmstead.
[7] WHEREAS, Judge William Howard Taft and the Philippine
Commissioners in a telegram to Secretary Root dated January 17, 1901,
affirm that ever since November, 1898, the military authorities in
Manila have subjected women of bad character to "certified
examination," and General MacArthur in his recent report does not deny
this but defends it; and whereas the Hawaiian government has taken
similar action; therefore
RESOLVED, That we earnestly protest against the introduction of the
European system of State-regulated vice in the new possessions of the
United States for the following reasons:
1. To subject women of bad character to regular examinations and
furnish them with official health certificates is contrary to good
morals and must impress both our soldiers and the natives as giving
official sanction to vice.
2. It is a violation of justice to apply to vicious women compulsory
medical measures that are not applied to vicious men.
3. Official regulation of vice, while it lowers the moral tone of the
community, everywhere fails to protect the public health.
Examples were given from Paris, garrison towns of England and
Switzerland, and St. Louis, the only city in the United States that
had ever tried the system.
[8] The question of giving to women a vote for Representatives by an
Act of Congress is considered in Chapter I, Volume IV, History of
Woman Suffrage.
[9] Among the donations which brought in the largest sums were the
locomobile from Mr. and Mrs. A.L. Barber of New York; the Kansas
consignment of fine flour and butter secured by Miss Helen Kimber of
that State; the carload of hogs from Iowa farmers obtained by Mrs.
Eleanor Stockman of Mason City; the handsomely dressed doll from Mrs.
William McKinley and a fine oil painting by the noted landscape
painter, William Keith of California.
[10] At Miss Anthony's request Mrs. Harper had sent her a letter to
read to the convention giving some details as to the scope of the
_Sun_ articles, in which she said: "I consider the success of this
department due above all else to the fact that it deals with current
events. Its text each Sunday is taken from the occurrences of the
preceding week as they relate to women.... Letters of commendation and
of criticism have been received from all parts of the United States
and from London, Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Dresden, Zurich and Rome
and from Melbourne. Among the writers are bishops and ministers,
publishers, educators, authors, college presidents, physicians,
women's societies, workingmen's organizations and scores of men and
women in the private walks of life. One article brought twenty-five
pages of legal cap from lawyers in New York and Brooklyn. It is a
noteworthy fact that it is the first metropolitan daily paper to make
a woman suffrage department a regular feature."
The articles were published until the autumn of 1903, almost five
years. Mr. Dana then sold the paper and it went under the control of
William A. Laffan, an anti-suffragist, who discontinued them.
[11] Other local chairmen were Irma Winchell Stacy, Mrs. A. T.
Anderson, J. Bryan Bushnell, Dr. Margaret Koch, Mrs. James Harnden,
Mrs. H. A. Tuttle, Mrs. Marion D. Shutter, Lora C. Little, Nellie
Keyes, Mrs. Sanford Niles, Martha Scott Anderson, Josie A. Wanous,
Gracia L. Jenks, Dr. Corene J. Bissonette, Mrs. Stockwell and Mrs.
Gregory.
[12] Among those who took part in conferences and on committees were
Helen Rand Tindall (D. C.); Annie R. Wood (Cal.); Ellen Powell
Thompson (D. C.); Mariana W. Chapman, Lila K. Willets and Florence
Gregory (N. Y.); Clara Bright and Jean Gordon (La.); Etta Dann
(Mont.); Emily B. Ketcham and Maud Starker (Mich.); Maude I. Matthews
(N. D.); Eleanor M. Hall (O.); Helen Kimber (Kas.); Eleanor C.
Stockman, Dr. Frances Woods and Dollie R. Bradley (Ia.); Emily S.
Richards (Utah); Bertha G. Wade (Ind.); Clara A. Young (Neb.); Evelyn
H. Belden (Ia.); Addie N. Johnson (Mo.); Mrs. E. A. Brown (Minn.);
Cornelia Cary (Brooklyn); Ida Porter Boyer (Penn.). Valuable reports
were made by all of the State presidents.
[13] At the close of the convention twenty-seven of the visitors made
a trip in a special car to Yellowstone Park, which was arranged by
Mrs. Catt and Miss Hay. They had a most interesting time which was
graphically described by Miss Blackwell in the _Woman's Journal_ of
June 22. It also published some of the humorous poems written en route
by the gay excursionists.
CHAPTER II.
THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1902.
The association held its Thirty-fourth annual convention, which was
especially distinguished by the presence of visitors from other lands,
in the First Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C., Feb. 12-18,
1902.[14] There was special significance in this meeting place, as the
pastor of the church for many years was the Rev. Byron Sutherland,[15]
who from its pulpit had more than once denounced woman suffrage and
its advocates; but it was now under the liberal ministry of the Rev.
T. DeWitt Talmage, their strong and valued advocate. The Washington
_Post_ said: "More than a thousand visitors were present yesterday
afternoon at the first session of the National American Suffrage
Convention and the first International Woman Suffrage Conference.
Perhaps no other meeting of its kind ever has occasioned as much
interest on the part of Washington women generally.[16] The large
audience room was packed to the doors ... and it has been arranged to
hold overflow meetings in the church parlors." The platform was banked
with flowers over which waved the flags of thirty nations, lent by
Miss Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross, to whom they had been
presented by representatives of each individual nation. Above them all
hung the "suffrage flag" with four golden stars on its blue ground for
the four States where women were fully enfranchised--Wyoming,
Colorado, Utah and Idaho. The president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, was
in the chair.
This convention will be ever memorable because under its auspices the
First International Woman Suffrage Conference was held which resulted
later in the founding of the International Alliance. The proceedings
of this conference are described in the chapter devoted to the
Alliance. Ten countries were represented and their delegates took part
in the convention, which was welcomed on the opening afternoon by the
Hon. Henry B. F. McFarland, president of the board of commissioners of
the District of Columbia. He addressed the delegates as "stockholders
in the national capital" and said: "Personally I welcome not only you
but your cause. In common, I believe, with the majority of intelligent
men I think you have won your case on the argument. Equal suffrage is
equal justice and there is no reason why such women as you should be
classed in the States with idiots and criminals." Mrs. May Wright
Sewall, who was to greet the foreign guests in the name of the
International Council of Women, of which she was president, was
detained until later. Mrs. Catt with words of highest eulogy
introduced Miss Barton, who said:
Madam President, Ladies and Delegates: Among many honors which
from time to time have been tendered me by my generous country
people, not one has been more appreciated than the privilege of
giving this word of public welcome to the honored delegation of
women present with us.
Ladies of Europe, if a hundred tongues were mine they could not
speak the glad welcome in our hearts. It is an epoch in the
history of the world that your coming marks. For the first time
within the written history of mankind have the women of the
nations left their homes and assembled in council to declare the
position of women before the world, bringing to national and
international view the injustice and the folly of the barriers
which ignorance has created and tradition fostered and preserved
through the unthinking ages until they came to be held not only
as a part of the natural laws and rights of man but as the
immutable decrees of Divinity itself.... If woman alone had
suffered under these mistaken traditions, if she could have borne
the evil by herself, it would have been less pitiful, but her
brother man, in the laws he created and ignorantly worshipped,
has suffered with her. He has lost her highest help; he has
crippled the intelligence he needed; he has belittled the very
source of his own being and dwarfed the image of his Maker.
Ladies, there is a propriety in your crossing the seas to hold
the first council in America, for it was in this new untrammeled
land of freedom, free birth, free thought and free speech that
the first outspoken notes were given, the first concerted action
taken toward the release of woman, the enlightenment of man as a
lawmaker, and the attention of the world directed to the
injustice, unwisdom and folly of the code under which it lived.
It was here that the first hard blows were struck. It was here
the paths were marked out that have been trodden with bleeding
feet for half a century, until at length the blows no longer
rebound and the hands of the grateful, loving womanhood of the
world struggle for a place to scatter roses in the paths which
erstwhile were flint and thorns; and an admiring world of women
and men alike breathe in tones of respect, gratitude and love the
names of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
Miss Anthony, I am glad to stand beside you while I tell these
women from the other side of the world who has brought them here.
This, ladies of Europe, is your great prototype--this the woman
who has trodden the trackless fields of the pioneer till the
thorns are buried in roses; this, the woman who has lived to hear
the hisses turn to dulcet strains of music; the woman who has
dared to plead for every good cause under heaven, who opened her
door to the fleeing slave and claimed the outcast for a brother;
the woman beloved of her own country and honored in all
countries.
Although a slow lesson to learn it has always proved that the
grandeur of a nation was shown by the respect paid to woman. The
brightest garlands of Spain, linked with immortelles, twine about
the name of Isabella. The highest glory of England today is not
that she placed her crown on the brow of her trusted and beloved
new monarch, a man whom the nations of the earth welcome to their
galaxy of rulers, but that she lays her mantle of fifty years'
rule through war and peace and progress such as never was known
before, upon the grave of a woman--that mantle on which no stain
has ever rested and on which the sunlight of happiness is
shadowed and dimmed only by the tears of a sorrowing nation, as
it is reverently borne to its honored rest. England, thank God
you had no Salic law! America has none, and, Miss Anthony, the
path which you have trodden through these oft painful years leads
to that goal; and, though your eyes will have opened upon the
blessed light of the heaven beyond, verily there may be some
standing here who shall not taste death until these things come.
Ladies and Delegates: In the name of the noble leader who has
called you, we welcome you. In the name of our country, its great
institutions of learning and equal privileges to all, we welcome
you. In the name of the brotherhood of man, we welcome you. In
the name of our never-forgotten pioneers, a Mott, a Stone, a
Gage, a Griffing, a Garrison, a May, a Foster, a Douglass, a
Phillips, we reverently welcome you. In the name of God and
humanity, in the name of the angels of earth and the angels of
heaven, we welcome you to our shores, to our halls, to our homes
and to our hearts.
Miss Susan B. Anthony, honorary president of the association, who was
next presented and enthusiastically received, closed her brief welcome
by saying that Mrs. Stanton and herself conceived the idea of holding
an International Suffrage Conference in 1883 when they were in Europe
but the time was too early for it, and now, twenty years later,
European women had come as delegates to one in the United States and
henceforth the women of the two countries would go forward together in
this cause. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large, referred to
the fact that she was born in England and transplanted to America, and
said: "While you are divided from us by geographical lines, which are
imaginary, and by a language which is not the same, you have not come
to an alien people or land. In the realm of the heart, in the domain
of mind, there are no geographical lines dividing the nations. You
come to us as members of one family. You come that we may all stand
on one plane of freedom. I wish we could take you to our four 'star
States' where women vote. We mean to give you of our best but we
expect to get from you much more than we give. You will show us that
those who speak English are not the only ones whose hearts are alive
to the great flame of liberty."
The national corresponding secretary, Miss Kate Gordon, read a
telegram from Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen, leader of the suffrage
movement in Canada: "Greetings and best wishes from your sisters
across the line"; a cablegram from Christiana: "Success to your work,
from the National Woman Suffrage Association of Norway." A letter was
read by the delegate from Norway, Mrs. Gudrun Drewsen, from the
president of the association, Miss Gina Krog, which said in part: "The
woman suffrage movement! I know of no movement, no cause that is at
the same time so national and so international. The victory now gained
in Norway, municipal suffrage and eligibility to municipal office for
a great many women, will no doubt in time influence every home in our
country; but we could not have won this victory without receiving
impulses from other civilized nations. We are indeed indebted to men
and women in several European countries for the privileges which we
now possess, but from no other country in the world have we received
the inspiration in our work which we have had from the United States;
to no women in the world are we so indebted as to the women of this
country. Those great and noble pioneers and their fervent
struggle--how they have inspired us and awakened our enthusiasm! That
assiduous work, year after year--how it has strengthened our hands!
That glorious example, those results attained in your country--how we
have brought them before our legislators to awaken their sense of
justice! I sincerely wish that the news of the victory achieved in our
country may prove an impetus to you in your work. To be assured of
this would give us the great satisfaction of feeling that at all
events a small fraction of our great debt to you was paid."
Miss Gordon read a letter from the Federation of Progressive Women's
Societies in Germany which declared that its first and foremost object
was to secure for German women full political rights and continued:
"We watch with especial interest and sympathy the effort of those who
persistently and courageously work for the full citizenship of women.
The women of the United States have, in this struggle, set a noble
example to the women of Europe. In Germany we recall with tender
veneration such names as Lucy Stone, Frances Willard, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw and Susan B. Anthony. The women of
Germany are without political rights. It is far easier to fight for
equality and freedom in a young country, like the United States, than
in an old civilization, cumbered with traditions--a country that looks
back on a history of many centuries, that only a few decades ago
fought its way through severe conflicts and painful changes to
political unity and is now slowly growing into responsibilities which
social and political problems impose on a modern State."
"The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Tasmania sends hearty
greetings and trusts that the International Suffrage Conference may be
successful and that it will bring nearer that day when man and woman
shall sit 'side by side, full summed in all their powers,'" was the
message signed by Jessie S. Rooke, its president, which was given by
Miss Anna Gordon, president of the W. C. T. U. of the United States.
The response to the addresses of welcome was made by Madame Sofja
Levovna Friedland of Russia, who said in beautiful English:
I am a loyal daughter of a friendly country, who thanks you for
your welcome and brings greetings from her distant home. Russia
and the United States have been friends for many a year and are
friends today, proven friends, who have stood by each other in
the hour of need. In 1863 the French ambassador at the court of
St. Petersburg laid before the Czar the proposition of Napoleon
III, to interfere in your civil war for the purpose of
perpetuating the division between the North and the South. After
listening to this bold proposal of the French Emperor, Czar
Alexander, the man who had freed twenty-five million slaves in
one stroke of his pen, replied: "Tell your Emperor that the
United States is our friend and tell him also that it has the
same right to maintain a republican form of government as we have
to choose a monarchy. Tell him also that he must keep his hands
off and not meddle in its affairs for I will not allow anyone to
interfere on the other side of the Atlantic. He who strikes my
friend, strikes me." This answer in diplomatic language went the
same day to Paris and soon after Russian battleships arrived in
the harbors of New York and San Francisco. There are still men
and women who remember them. They used to wonder why the Russian
men-of-war were lying peacefully in American waters. President
Lincoln could have given the answer, for in a private message
from the Czar he had been assured of the friendship of the great
Eastern Empire. He knew that the commanders of the Russian ships
had secret orders to act in case of necessity.
But the American people have done more, for there came a morning
when the glorious winter sun of Russia greeted the Star-Spangled
Banner, when American ships landed on Russian shores ready to
protect us from a more cruel enemy--hunger. The cry of distress
from our famine-stricken villages had found an echo in American
hearts and the ships which came did not bear government orders,
they bore the tokens of love from one brother to another; they
brought us wheat and corn to feed our people.
Madame Friedland told of the visit of the Grand Duke Alexis to this
country and of the poem read by Oliver Wendell Holmes at a banquet
given in his honor, and closed: "Thus an American poet has expressed
the feelings of his countrymen and women. God bless the United States!
Long life to President Roosevelt and prosperity to you all! In the
days to come and the years to follow may our two great nations stand
side by side in harmony and peace. May the Star-Spangled Banner and
the Russian Double Eagle soar aloft, not on battlefields, not against
any nation, but for a brotherhood of men in the federation of the
world." The opening session ended with the president's address by Mrs.
Catt, in the course of which she said:
In ready response to growing intelligence and individualism the
principle of self-government has been planted in every civilized
nation of the world. Before the force of this onward movement the
most cherished ideals of conservatism have fallen. Out of the
ashes of the old, phoenix-like has arisen a new institution,
vigorous and strong, yea, one which will endure as long as men
occupy the earth. The little band of Americans who initiated the
modern movement would never have predicted that within a century
"Taxation of men without representation is tyranny" would have
been written into the fundamental law of all the monarchies of
Europe except Russia and Turkey and that even there
self-government would obtain in the municipalities. The most
optimistic seer among them would not have prophesied that
Mongolian Japan, then tightly shutting her gates against the
commerce of the world and jealously guarding her ancient customs,
would before the century closed have welcomed Western
civilization and established universal suffrage for its men. He
would not have dreamed that every inch of the great continent of
South America, then chiefly an unexplored region over which bands
of savages roved at will, would be covered by written
constitutions guaranteeing self-government to men inspired by
Declarations of Independence similar to that of this country;
that the settlements in Mexico and Central America and many
islands of the ocean would grow into republics, and least of all
that the island continent of Australia, with its associates of
New Zealand and Tasmania, then unexplored wildernesses, would
become great democracies where self-government would be carried
on with such enthusiasm, fervor and wisdom that they would give
lessons in methods and principles to all the rest of the
world....
Hard upon the track of the man suffrage movement presses the
movement for woman suffrage, a logical step onward. It has come
as inevitably and naturally as the flower unfolds from the bud or
the fruit develops from the flower. Why should woman suffrage not
come? Men throughout the world hold their suffrage by the
guarantee of the two principles of liberty and for these reasons
only: One, "Taxation without representation is tyranny"; who
dares deny it? And are not women taxed? The other, "Governments
derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." How
simple and unanswerable that petition of justice!... Woman
suffrage must meet precisely the same objections which have been
urged against man suffrage and in addition it must combat
sex-prejudice, a prejudice against the rights, liberties and
opportunities of women.
Mrs. Catt closed her address with these words: "Yet before the
attainment of equal rights for men and women there will be years of
struggle and disappointment. We of a younger generation have taken up
the work where our noble and consecrated pioneers left it. We in turn
are enlisted for life and generations yet unborn will take up the work
where we lay it down. So through centuries if need be the education
will continue, until a regenerated race of men and women who are equal
before God and man shall control the destinies of the earth. It will
be the proud duty of the new International Alliance, if one shall be
formed, to extend its helping hand to the women of every nation and
every people and its completed duty will not have been performed until
the last vestige of the old obedience of one human being to another
shall have been destroyed."
The presence of the foreign visitors and the greetings from abroad
made an original and pleasing variation of the usual program at
national conventions. The Evening with the Pioneers opened with the
singing by the audience of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, written by
one of them, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, led by another, John Hutchinson, a
member of the famous family of singers, who the day before had
celebrated his 90th birthday. Miss Anthony presided and the Washington
_Times_ said that she "was greeted with a storm of applause, the
convention rising as one woman and with waving handkerchiefs cheering
her to the echo for several minutes." The Loyal Legion of Women
through its president gave her an armful of red roses and in accepting
them she observed smilingly: "I can only say what I have often said in
late years--it is much pleasanter to be pelted with roses than stones!
The National Suffrage Association stands like a Mother Church with her
arms wide open to those who want to come in and we are especially glad
to receive loyal women."[17]
Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller, a member of the London School Board for
nine years, brought greetings from Mrs. Priscilla Bright McLaren, 87
years old, of whom Miss Anthony said: "She is an elder sister of John
and Jacob Bright. John was the great champion of manhood suffrage but
Jacob was still greater, for he was a champion of suffrage for women
also. Mrs. McLaren sent a loving and appreciative message to "the dear
American women who have so steadfastly held up the banner of woman
suffrage and especially to the octogenarians, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony," and closed it with a Christmas poem. Miss
Anthony recalled her last visit to Mrs. McLaren in Edinburgh three
years before and said: "I wish you could see how beautiful she looked
as she lay on the bed in her pretty white cap and blue dressing sack.
She is an inspiration to the women of Great Britain and she has been
to me."
Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.), gave a greeting from Mrs. Stanton,
in her 87th year, and read her paper on Educated Suffrage.[18] In this
able and scholarly document Mrs. Stanton said:
The proposition to demand of immigrants a reading and writing
qualification on landing strikes me as arbitrary and equally
detrimental to our mutual interests. The danger is not in their
landing and living in this country but in their speedy appearance
at the ballot-box, there becoming an impoverished and ignorant
balance of power in the hands of wily politicians. While we
should not allow our country to be a dumping-ground for the
refuse population of the old world, still we should welcome all
hardy, common-sense laborers here, as we have plenty of room and
work for them.... The one demand I would make for this class is
that they should not become a part of our ruling power until they
can read and write the English language intelligently and
understand the principles of republican government.... To prevent
the thousands of immigrants daily landing on our shores from
marching from the steerage to the polls the national Government
should prohibit the States from allowing them to vote in less
than five years and not then unless the applicant can read and
write the English language.... To this end, Congress should enact
a law for "educated suffrage" for our native-born as well as
foreign rulers, alike ignorant of our institutions. With free
schools and compulsory education, no one has an excuse for not
understanding the language of the country. As women are governed
by a "male aristocracy" we are doubly interested in having our
rulers able at least to read and write.
The popular objection to woman suffrage is that it would "double
the ignorant vote." The patent answer to this is, abolish the
ignorant vote. Our legislators have this power in their own
hands. There have been various restrictions in the past for men.
We are willing to abide by the same for women, provided the
insurmountable qualification of sex be forever removed....
Surely, when we compel all classes to learn to read and write and
thus open to themselves the door of knowledge not by force but by
the promise of a privilege all intelligent citizens enjoy, we are
benefactors, not tyrants. To stimulate them to climb the first
rounds of the ladder that they may reach the divine heights where
they shall be as gods, knowing good and evil, by withholding the
citizen's right to vote for a few years will be a blessing to
them as well as to the State....
Mrs. Stanton had made her last address in person to a national
convention in 1892, when she resigned the presidency of the
association--that incomparable essay on The Solitude of Self--but she
never had failed to send her annual battle cry. The one to this
convention, which began the fulfilment of her dream of a world-wide
movement for woman suffrage, was written with all her old-time logic
and forceful argument and it proved to be her last, as her long and
valuable life was ended the next November.
Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (O.) read the paper of Mrs. Caroline
Hallowell Miller (Md.), detained at the last moment, on Why We Come
Again, in which she explained why the suffragists would continue to
come to Washington and haunt Congress until their object, a Federal
Amendment, had been attained. The humor for which Mrs. Miller, a staid
"Quaker," was noted sparkled in its sentences although she protested
that she was entirely serious. Miss Anthony introduced Henry B.
Blackwell (Mass.) with the quaint remark: "He was the husband of Lucy
Stone; I don't think he can quite represent her but he will do the
best he can!" Mr. Blackwell briefly reviewed the agitation for women
suffrage during the first half of the 19th century. He told of meeting
Lucy Stone in 1850 and being so charmed he advised his elder brother
to make her acquaintance; of hearing her address a Massachusetts
constitutional convention in 1852 with William Lloyd Garrison and
Wendell Phillips; of making his own first suffrage speech in
Cleveland, O., in 1853 and of his marriage in 1855. In presenting the
next speaker Miss Anthony said: "Mr. Blackwell alluded to his brother,
who did not marry Lucy but Antoinette--the Rev. Antoinette Brown
Blackwell, the first ordained woman minister--who will now address
you." Her paper on Chivalry was a clear analysis of the changed ideas
of this word, touching with sarcasm on that of the days when the
effort for the rights of women began, a chivalry which gave the person
and property of the wife, the guardianship of the children, all her
legal privileges, to the husband. She traced the evolution from the
early privations of the pioneer suffragists to the honors that are now
showered upon them and drew a striking contrast between "the dying old
chivalry, which made itself the sole umpire of the benefits to be
granted, and the increasing new chivalry, which consults the
beneficiaries themselves as to their needs and desires."
Miss Anthony then introduced the first woman ordained by the
Universalist Church, the Rev. Olympia Brown, who struck the keynote
of her address in saying: "When we are vexed by the seeming
irrationality of some of our Congressmen, may we not explain it as due
to the fact that they are thinking of the kind of men who elected
them? The United States debars intelligent American women from voting
and says to the riffraff of Europe, 'Come over and help govern us.' It
is an experiment which no other country in the world ever did make and
no other ever will make and I predict that it will be a failure. It
will be necessary to call in the aid of the intelligent American women
and soon or late this will be done."
Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of the noted Abolitionist,
Gerrit Smith, was asked to rise and Miss Anthony paid glowing tribute
to him and to many men and women who had stood by the cause of woman
suffrage in its early days. The audience were pleased to enjoy once
more her informal and unique method of presiding, as glancing over the
audience she singled out veteran suffragists who had come to hear and
not to speak, calling them by name with some reminiscent comment. Her
eye fell upon William H. Bright, who sponsored the bill in the
Legislature of Wyoming which gave the first equal suffrage ever
granted anywhere to women. In answering the demand of the audience for
a speech he told how Mrs. Esther Morris had come from New York State
to Wyoming in 1867 and how she and his wife had persuaded him to
prepare the bill, which was passed by a Democratic Legislature and
signed by a Republican Governor. In response to a general request Miss
Anthony told the story, of which audiences never seemed to tire, of
that historic occasion when she broke all precedents by addressing a
Teachers' Convention in 1853. This interesting session closed with the
singing of Auld Lang Syne led by the venerable John Hutchinson.
During a morning session Miss Gordon made her report as corresponding
secretary, saying that although it covered only the seven months since
the last convention it showed that 6,500 letters had been sent out
from the headquarters during this period. In 1895, when Mrs. Catt
became chairman of the Organization Committee, she had established
headquarters for her work in one little room in the New York _World_
building, that was really an annex of her husband's offices, and
begun the publication of a Bulletin, which was the organ of the
committee. In 1897 it became the organ of the National Association and
had now expanded into a quarterly paper called _Progress_, which was
edited by Alice Stone Blackwell, Ellis Meredith and Laura Gregg. A
preliminary edition of 100,000 had been sent out from the
headquarters, the expense borne by Boston women, and later 16,000
copies of the October and 20,000 of the January editions had gone to
the 14,000 newspapers of the country, to members of Congress and
others. A monthly series of Political Equality Leaflets was also
commenced and a Course of Study for Clubs and individuals was
established for which a dozen or more books were published. These two
valuable features were carried on without any expense to the
association, as they paid for themselves.
Miss Gordon described the National Conference held in Charleston, S.
C., February 3-4, at the invitation of the board of the Inter-State
and West Indian Exposition; told of the conference in Baltimore[19]
and said of the one in Buffalo: "The far-reaching effect and impetus
given to the woman's movement by the Congress of Women held in
connection with the Chicago Exposition, determined the Business
Committee's acceptance of an invitation to hold a National Conference
during the Pan-American Exposition. Too late did we learn that the
invitation extended included no responsibility whatever upon the
Exposition to further the success of the conference. Buffalo did not
represent an organized center and after several fruitless attempts to
form a local committee, the headquarters realized that every little
detail essential to success must be attended to by the board. From all
sides reports of the most discouraging nature were received as to the
absolute failure attending all conferences there but nevertheless we
started a vigorous correspondence and for five preceding weeks every
Sunday paper in Buffalo was supplied with matter from headquarters. To
make a long story short, September 9-10 witnessed our conference well
attended, with the night sessions crowded and success acknowledged on
all sides, even though we labored under the disadvantage of its being
held during the season of sorrow and distress in that city while
President McKinley's life hovered in the valley of the shadow of
death."
Miss Gordon said that during the year Mrs. Catt had made a tour of
nine States and taken part in forty meetings. Referring to the efforts
made to have a woman suffrage clause put into new constitutions that
were being framed in several States she said: "The clause which lived
twenty-four hours in the Alabama Constitution, granting to taxpaying
women owning $500 worth of property the suffrage on questions of
bonded indebtedness, was killed by a disease peculiar to the genus
homo known as chivalry. In the case in point, the diagnosis revealed
that the fairest, purest and brightest jewels that ever shone under
the brilliant rays of God's shining sun would be immeasurably lowered
by voting upon questions relating to the taxation of their own
property. Yet, under the vagaries of this disease, this same
convention conferred on husbands the right to vote on their wives'
property. This is the same character of chivalry which gives the wages
of the brightest, fairest jewels to the husband, which makes
impossible equal pay for equal work and which classes the jewels with
the idiots, insane and criminals in that and other States."
The program was so crowded with attractions that it left no time for
the usual conferences on work and campaigns, so they were placed at
9:30 a.m. As they had been so largely attended by visitors the
preceding year as to call forth a rule from the Board of Officers that
thereafter delegates only should be permitted to attend them, this was
not disastrous. Early morning conferences therefore were held on
Organization and Press and two others took the form of State
presidents' councils. The Plan of Work recommended again by the
Executive Committee and adopted by the convention urged work in
Congressional districts for the 16th Amendment; an attempt to secure
tax-paying suffrage; more resolutions by national and State
conventions; a campaign to secure suffrage speakers at Chautauqua
assemblies and State and county fairs; prizes for essays on woman
suffrage in schools and colleges; circulating suffrage libraries and
the general use of a suffrage stamp on letters.
Two novel evening programs were devoted to The New Woman and The New
Man, the first with the following speakers: Mrs. Helen Adelaide Shaw
of Boston; Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer of New Orleans, known far and wide
as "Dorothy Dix," said to receive the highest salary of any woman
journalist; Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, a prominent physician and surgeon of
Minneapolis; Miss Gail Laughlin (N. Y.) who had taken the highest
honors in the Law Class of Cornell University; the Rev. Ida C. Hultin,
a successful Unitarian minister of Boston. Miss Margaret Haley of
Chicago, who led the great fight of the Teachers' Federation of that
city to compel the big corporations to pay their taxes in order that
the public schools should not be crippled for lack of funds, could not
be present because of a crisis in the legal proceedings. Each of the
women representing the four professions of law, medicine, theology and
journalism, in addresses scintillating with humor, reviewed the early
prejudices which had been overcome, told of the large number of women
who had entered the field when the opportunity came but showed that
they could never have an even chance until there was complete
obliteration of sex prejudice. Little idea of their interest could be
obtained from fragmentary paragraphs.
The house was crowded to hear about The New Man,[20] represented first
on the program by Oswald Garrison Villard, grandson of William Lloyd
Garrison and owner and editor of the New York _Evening Post_, who gave
a spirited and effective account of Women in the New York Municipal
Campaign. This was the first in which women ever had taken a
prominent part and it had attracted wide attention, a revolt against
Tammany corruption under Richard Croker. Mr. Villard told of the
remarkable work done by the Women's Municipal League under direction
of the Citizen's Union for the election of Seth Low as Mayor and a
reform ticket. He paid a sarcastic tribute to the assistance of the
women anti-suffragists. "To have been really consistent," he said,
"they should have urged upon their more emancipated sisters that
woman's sphere is the home and any steps that lead beyond it tend in
the long run to the destruction both of the home and of the eternal
feminine." He closed by declaring that "the Titanic struggle between
right and wrong in the great cities can not be won without the
cooperation of that half of the nation's citizens in whose hearts are
ever found the truest ideals of family and society, of city life and
State life and of national existence." At its conclusion Mrs. Catt
said: "And yet after Mr. Low was elected Mayor of Greater New York a
large number of the women who had helped him win the victory urged him
to appoint some women on the school board and he refused. So we must
suppose that he is willing to have women pull the chestnuts out of the
fire for men but is not willing to give them a share of the
chestnuts."
A feature of the evening was the scholarly address of the Hon. William
Dudley Foulke (Ind.), president of the U. S. Civil Service Commission.
He objected to being classed as a "new man," since long ago he was for
several years president of the American Suffrage Association. "Men
would not be satisfied with indirect influence," he declared and
continued: "It is often said that woman suffrage is just but that
there is no need of it, because women have no interests separate from
those of men. That argument was used to me only lately by an eminent
political economist. I said: 'Suppose a railroad runs through a town
and a woman owns a large property in that town and yet cannot vote on
the question of raising a subsidy; are her interests necessarily the
same as those of every man in the town?' My friends, that case is
universal. Suppose a widow is trying to bring up her son in the
principles of morality and a saloon is opened on the corner opposite
her home. I do not speak as an advocate of prohibition but I do say
that the interest of the mother is different from that of the man who
sells liquor. Or suppose she is bringing up a daughter; she has a
sacred right to protect that daughter from a libertine. Her interest
is certainly different from that of the tempter.... We do not realize
what an immense waste there is in denying woman entrance to political
life. She ought to have free access to anything she is qualified to do
and where she is not qualified she will drop out."
John S. Crosby, a prominent Democratic leader of New York, made a
thorough analysis of the functions of the State and the Government,
showed the utter fallacy of constituting men the governing and women
the governed class and closed as follows: "Attempt to prove that
woman's claim to the right of suffrage is as valid as any that man can
make would be like trying to demonstrate the truth of a self-evident
proposition.... We ask the ballot for woman not merely because she has
a right to it but quite as much because it is her duty to exercise
that right. The irresistible power of that all-embracing organization,
the State, holds you and me and all that are dear to us as its
helpless and often hopeless subjects. The combined wisdom of all of us
would be none too great for its intelligent administration and we
demand for our own sake and for the sake of those that shall come
after us that the wisdom of woman shall be included; not only that her
delicate, intuitional sense of justice shall leaven the lump of public
opinion but that her deft hand shall help to knead it into the bread
of righteous law. We ask as one of the rights that government is bound
to secure that in the administration of its power it shall make use of
the fullest wisdom of the whole people; that the entire popular brain
and social conscience shall take cognizance of and be responsible for
all acts of government. Not until then shall we see true democracy;
not until then shall we indeed have a government of the people, by the
people and for the people."
The next day was one always commemorated by suffragists--the birthday
of Susan B. Anthony--this time the 82nd. The _Woman's Journal_ began
its account: "As Miss Anthony sat at breakfast on February 15, with
one of the jars of delicious cream before her that were sent her
daily by the president of the Maryland Woman Suffrage Association, she
was unexpectedly surrounded by the foreign delegates in a body. A
birthday greeting drawn up and signed by them was read aloud by Mrs.
Florence Fenwick Miller of England, while the rest, grouped behind
her, bent forward listening with attentive faces--a pretty picture.
Among the gifts which she received during the afternoon session were a
canoe full of flowers from 'one of the girls' with a poem; a handsome
feather boa from Mrs. Swift and Mrs. Sperry of California; a cup made
from the wood of the floor under the table on which the Declaration of
Independence was signed, presented in the name of Mrs. General Geddes;
a bouquet of red roses from Prof. Theodosia Ammons of Colorado
Agricultural College; potted plants from the Swedish and Norwegian
delegates; over $500 from Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard, Miss Emily
Howland, Mrs. Kenyon, Mrs. W. W. Trimble, Miss Nettie Lovisa White,
Mrs. William M. Ivins and other friends; also quantities of fruit and
flowers. The address was as follows:
We, the undersigned, Foreign Delegates to the first International
Woman Suffrage Congress, gladly take the opportunity of your 82nd
birthday to express to you our love and reverence, our gratitude
for your lifelong work for women, and are rejoicing that you have
lived to see such great steps onward made by the world at large
in the direction in which you led at first under such prejudice.
Praying that you may enjoy years of health, cheered by every
fresh advance, we remain, your loving friends,
Florence Fenwick Miller, England; Sofja Levovna Friedland,
Russia; Carolina Holman Huidobro, Chili; Gudrun Drewsen, Norway;
Vida Goldstein, Australia; Emmy Evald, Sweden; Antonie Stolle,
Germany.
[Later the foreign delegates gave Mrs. Catt a handsomely engraved
silver card case.]
The Washington _Times_ said of the occasion:
The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw presented a large basket of fruit from
some of the principal suffrage workers with these touching words:
"Miss Anthony, you have been more than a leader to us of your own
country, more than a teacher, more than a counselor, you have
been our beloved friend. Take this with our love for you, dear,
dear friend." This completed Miss Anthony's conquest and she
almost broke down. There has been very little emotionalism in
this convention but for some minutes there was ample proof all
over the hall that being delegates to a suffrage convention had
not made any woman forget how to cry. Mrs. Catt finally came to
Miss Anthony's rescue in a little speech full of tender
appreciation: "The greatest thing about Miss Anthony to my mind
is her utter unselfishness and lack of self-consciousness. As we
came up the aisle the other night and the audience broke into a
thunder of applause for her whom all love, Miss Anthony looked
about to see what caused it and then asked: 'What are they
applauding for?' She credits all attentions to herself as for the
cause and it is dearer to her than life. Last night at an hour
when all respectable women suffragists should have been in bed,
the treasurer and I put our heads together and decided that we
would ask all of you to give a present to the association on Miss
Anthony's birthday instead of giving it to her. We know her well
enough to be sure this is what she would like best."
Miss Mary Garrett Hay, the champion money raiser, then made the appeal
to the audience, who quickly responded with over $5,000 and she
received an appreciative vote of thanks from the convention. Mrs.
Harriet Taylor Upton, the treasurer, reported the receipts of the
preceding year as $13,581, with a carefully itemized and audited
statement.
Among the most interesting and valuable features of all national
conventions are the reports of the work in the various States and yet
because of the large number it is impossible to give specific mention
or quotations. They were varied on this occasion by the reports from
foreign countries--Venezuela, Chili, Japan, China, Australia, New
Zealand, the Philippines, Porto Rico, Canada, Great Britain, Norway,
Sweden, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and
France. These had been obtained at the request of Mrs. Catt from
ambassadors, consuls or persons appointed by them and represented
months of labor. Several evenings were largely devoted to addresses by
delegates from other countries; one by Public School Inspector James
L. Hughes, Toronto; the English Woman in Politics, Florence Fenwick
Miller; the Australian Woman in Politics, Vida Goldstein; Women in
South American Republics, Carolina Huidobro; Women in Porto Rico,
Resident Commissioner Federico Degetau; Women in the Philippines,
Harriet Potter Nourse; Deborah, Emmy Evald, Sweden; Women in Egypt and
Jerusalem, Lydia von Finkelstein Mountford; Women in Turkey, Florence
Fensham, Dean of American College for Girls in Constantinople; Women
in Germany, Antoine Stolle.
When the report for Porto Rico was made Miss Shaw supplemented it with
a graphic account of a trip to the West Indies with Mrs. Lydia Avery
Coonley Ward of Chicago, which she had just finished, telling of the
position of women, the marriage laws, etc. The work of the National
Council of Women was presented by the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer (R.
I.); the report of the affiliated Friends' Equal Rights Association by
Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman (N. Y.), its president.
The Sunday afternoon services in the church were conducted by the Rev.
Anna Garlin Spencer, assisted by the Rev. Olympia Brown and the Rev.
Anna Howard Shaw.[21] Mrs. Spencer first defined the ideal of womanly
character held by the older poets and philosophers, quoting Milton's
line describing Adam and Eve: "He for God only; she for God in him,"
and the expression used by the hard, old father of Tennyson's
"Princess": "Man to command and woman to obey." She then expressed the
modern ideal as that of devotion to the same essentials but different
in expression. "Woman is not called to a new kingdom but to a larger
occupancy of that which has been hers from the beginning. The woman
with the child in her arms was the beginning of the family; the hearth
fire and the altar fire grew from this; the elder child teaching the
younger was the beginning of the school. We are making over all these
inherited traditions and inherited tendencies and socializing them....
The ideal woman is no longer a far-away Madonna with her feet on the
clouds; she is as divine but she is human. What means the humanizing
of religion and the passing of harsh, old creeds but that a greater,
more human, more womanly influence is felt in all the relations of
life."
Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee on Presidential suffrage,
said in his report: "This is the open door for woman suffrage in every
State in the Union. Any Legislature at any session by a majority vote
of both Houses, either separately or in joint session, without any
change of State constitution, can empower women to help select the
presidential electors on the same terms as male citizens. The power is
absolute and unqualified. Let women in every State petition their
Legislature to enable women to take part in this most important form
of suffrage known to the American people. It is objected to our demand
for woman suffrage that women do not want it and will not exercise it
if granted. This is now the only method of testing women's wish to
take part in their government. If by a general exercise of the right
they show their public spirit, the Legislature by submitting an
amendment to the State constitution can afterwards extend suffrage to
its citizens in State and local elections. This step will be the most
conservative way of procedure. The control will remain, as now, in the
hands of a Legislature elected by men alone. If it prove
unsatisfactory to the men of the State any subsequent Legislature can
repeal the law."
A report of the International Suffrage Conference, which had been in
progress during the convention, and the forming of a committee to
further permanent organization, was made by its secretary, Miss
Goldstein, and the convention voted that the National American Woman
Suffrage Association should cooperate with this committee. The
nominations for office were made as usual by secret ballot and as
usual were so nearly unanimous that the secretary was instructed to
cast the vote. The only change in the present board was the election
of Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, for many years prominent in the work in
Iowa, as second auditor in place of Dr. Eaton, whose professional
duties required all her time. Invitations for the next convention were
received from Niagara Falls, Detroit, St. Louis, Denver, Baltimore and
New Orleans. The Board of Trade, the Era Club and the Progressive
Union united in the one from New Orleans, which was accepted and
cordial thanks returned for the others.
The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the
committee, rejoiced in the suffrage already gained and the securing in
the past year of laws in various States giving equal guardianship of
their children to mothers and increased property rights to wives.
They called the attention of the Civil Service Commission to
discriminations made against women and emphasized the protest of the
preceding year against government regulation of vice in the
Philippines. Later at an executive meeting of the board a vigorous set
of resolutions was prepared, stating that the reports of Governor
William H. Taft and General McArthur admitted and defended "certified
examinations of women" in the new possessions of the United States. It
showed at length the results of government regulation in other
countries which had caused it to be abandoned and declared that "such
things ought not to be permitted under the American flag."[22]
Mrs. Colby's report on Industrial Problems Relating to Women cited as
one example of discrimination: "An effort is now being made in
Congress to do away with the annual sick leave of employees, because,
it is claimed, women take so much advantage of it. Investigation
shows, however, that the per cent. of sick leave is highest in the
Inter-State Commerce Commission, where not a woman is employed--twelve
per cent.--and only seven per cent. in the Agricultural Department,
where a very large number are employed." She gave numerous instances
of unfairness against women on the civil service lists, said that
women wage earners must find a forum on the suffrage platform where
they can plead their cause and carefully analyze the industrial
problems especially affecting women. Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, chairman
of the Press Committee, gave a comprehensive report stating that while
50,000 news stories and articles had been sent to the papers in 1900
the number had increased to 175,000 during the last year and there was
reason to believe that three-fourths of them had been used. The
largest city papers freely accepted the articles.
Former U. S. Senator Henry W. Blair of New Hampshire came in for one
session and was called to the platform for a speech. He was much loved
by the suffragists, as he had been one of the strongest champions of
woman suffrage during his many years in the Senate and had brought the
Federal Amendment to a vote on Jan. 25, 1887. (History of Woman
Suffrage, Volume IV, chapter VI.) Letters of affectionate greeting
were sent to the pioneers and veteran workers, Mrs. Stanton, Isabella
Beecher Hooker, Mary S. Anthony, Jane H. Spofford, Sallie Clay
Bennett, Caroline Hallowell Miller and Abigail S. Duniway. The deaths
among the older and more prominent members during the year had been
many and fifty were mentioned in the memorial resolutions.
The notable social features of the week were the afternoon receptions
given by Mrs. Julia Langdon Barber at her beautiful home, Belmont, and
by Mrs. John B. Henderson at Boundary Castle, the latter followed the
next day by a dinner for the officers of the association and the
delegates from abroad. Both of these well-known Washington hostesses
were early suffragists and had often extended the hospitality of their
spacious homes to the individual leaders and to the conventions.
A very interesting address was given on the last evening by Madame
Friedland on Russian Women of Past Centuries. U. S. Senator Thomas M.
Patterson of Colorado presented a vigorous and convincing endorsement
of the practical working of woman suffrage in that State for the past
nineteen years and its benefits to women and to civic life. U. S.
Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, always a strong and loyal
supporter of suffrage for women, was on the platform. Dr. Shaw,
introduced by Mrs. Catt as "the Demosthenes of the movement,"
delivered for the first time her impressive speech, The Power of an
Incentive, in which she showed how laws, customs and lack of
opportunity took away the incentive for great work from the life of
women. Until they can have the same that inspires men, she said, they
never can rise to their highest capabilities. No adequate reports of
any of these addresses exist.
The audience waited to hear from Miss Anthony, who was thus described
by a writer present: "The picture that Miss Anthony made during the
evening was one which the delegates will carry away with them to keep.
She wore a black satin gown with a handsome point lace fichu and
draped over her shoulders a soft, white shawl, while close by was a
large jar of lavender hyacinths. Her expressive face reflected every
mood of the evening and it now spoke pride, satisfaction and sorrow.
She told of the joy and gratification she felt in the wonderful galaxy
of women at the convention and the progress of her loved cause, and
when she voiced the wish that she might be with them at the next
convention her words were almost lost in a whirlwind of applause."
Mrs. Catt in closing with a brief address one of the most noteworthy
conventions on record, called attention to what had been the key-note
of her speech before the House Judiciary Committee and said: "We have
asked of Congress the most reasonable thing a great cause ever
demanded--an investigation of conditions in the equal suffrage
States--and on its results we rest our case."