the National Association has not been spectacular. Your committee
had not been on duty long before they realized that many members
had been irritated by the too-frequent calls of suffragists and
by the inconsiderate demands on their time. As our last national
convention was held at the opening session of this Congress,
delegations of suffragists used the opportunity to call on their
Senators and Representatives. Considering the strain of work of
Congress during the past months and the fact that the men had
already been interviewed by State delegations or representatives,
we did not encourage further visits to the Capitol. In Washington
such visits, like pageants and other spectacular forms of
activity, have been overdone. There was nothing to be gained and
probably something to be lost by them.
Your committee wishes to express its appreciation of the
cooperation of many Senators and members of the House. Our
friends have often gone out of their way to assist us and not
once has any one refused a request for help. They have made
speeches on the floor at our suggestion, taken polls for us, held
conferences, arranged interviews, provided us with documents and
extended all the official courtesies within their power. While we
have not secured action we are not discouraged in the least. Even
the most radical opponents acknowledge that our movement has
grown tremendously this year. We have achieved recognition of the
justice of our principle by the political parties and we have
with us in our Federal fight the great majority of the leaders of
thought and action who believe in suffrage at all. By a
continuation of sane methods, sound tactics, coordination and
concentration we shall soon accomplish the submission of the
Federal Amendment.
Your chairman becomes more convinced each day that one of the
next steps necessary to nationalize our work and to secure
Federal action is the removal of the national headquarters to
Washington. She feels it to be her clear duty frankly to state
to the convention her conviction on this point. It is her
judgment, based upon her own observation this year and a study of
the past work on the Federal Amendment, that it will not pass
until the national headquarters are in Washington and the
National Board as well as the Congressional Committee is in a
position to gives its direct attention to the work on this
amendment.
A lobby in Washington for special educational purposes may be a
good thing but you will have to do special educational and
political work in the States if your committee is to achieve
political action to the point of a two-thirds vote on the
amendment. We appreciate that support has been given to it by
many suffragists and a number of State chairmen and presidents
but there has not been the intensive, persistent, determined
congressional activity in the States which there must be before
the amendment can be passed and ratified. Your committee has done
its utmost, I believe, but it can no more put the Federal
Amendment through Congress without your activity in the States
than a State committee can achieve success without activity in
the counties. Activity on the part of a small number of local
Washington suffragists is not a sufficient backing for the work
of the Congressional Committee. If you propose to secure the
Federal Amendment you must work just as hard in the States as you
expect it to work in Washington. Without a doubt we can secure
the Federal Amendment if the women of this country
enthusiastically want their enfranchisement that way....
The friendliness of members of Congress toward the National
Association and their continued respect for the suffrage movement
in this country have been maintained by the dignity, poise and
ability of the national lobby. In the many years of my connection
with various kinds of organizations I have never served any in
which there was more frankness, unity and good fellowship than in
the National Board and the National Congressional Committee. That
such harmony exists is due to our great president, to whom each
is more indebted than all of us together can express. Her visits
to Washington did for us what nothing and no one else could do.
It was my duty and pleasure always to accompany her to the
Capitol, and the unfailing impression of nobility, directness and
power which she left upon the men was a joy to witness.
I can not close this report without acknowledging my personal
debt to that co-officer who is not on our committee, Miss Hannah
J. Patterson. It is but fair to say that had we not had her
assistance at hazardous moments the suffrage planks would not be
in the two national platforms today. Food, sleep, rest, pleasure,
all were day after day given up by this most self-sacrificing
officer. She it was who kept with one other [Mrs. Roessing] the
lonely vigil the night of June 6 at the door of the Republican
Resolutions Committee while it debated for hours its
sub-committee's adverse report on the suffrage plank. The crisis
in our work for both the planks came in this sub-committee of
seven, for we knew that if we lost in Chicago there would be no
hope in St. Louis. At midnight that all-powerful sub-committee by
a vote of 5 to 4 turned down our plank and refused to permit
suffrage to be mentioned in the platform in any way. That
committee has seldom been reversed in all the history of the
party. When later Senator Borah, also sleepless and hungry, came
to us in one of those agonizing moments when decision must be
made at once, when we could not reach our president or our board,
it was Miss Patterson who made the decision that won the
plank.[106]
A comprehensive plan of work was adopted with the following principal
features:
Federal Work: The National Board shall continue a lobby in
Washington until the Federal Amendment shall be submitted; the
matter of removing headquarters to Washington shall be left to
the judgment of the Board; it shall conduct a nation-wide
campaign of agitation, education, organization and publicity in
support of the amendment, which shall include the following: a
million-dollar fund for the campaign from Oct. 1, 1916, to Oct.
1, 1917; a monthly propaganda demonstration simultaneously
conducted throughout the nation; at least four campaign directors
and 200 organizers in the field and a vigorous, thorough
organization in every State; a nationalized scheme for education
through literature; national suffrage schools; a speakers'
bureau; innumerable activities for agitation and publicity; a
national press bureau and a national publicity council with
departments in each State; a national committee to extend
suffrage propaganda among non-English-speaking races.
State Work: A Council of the representatives of States shall meet
in executive session in connection with each annual national
convention to hear reports as to the status of each campaign
State and to fix upon States which shall be recommended to go
forward with campaigns.
No State association shall ask the Legislature for the submission
of a State constitutional amendment or for the submission of the
question by initiative or by a referred law until such Council or
the National Board has had the opportunity to investigate
conditions and to give consent.
Any State which proceeds to a referendum campaign without
securing this consent shall be prepared to finance its own
campaign without help from the National Board.
Any State which has secured the consent of the National Board to
proceed with a campaign shall have its cooperation to the fullest
extent of its powers.
As soon as possible experienced campaign managers shall be
trained for the work and shall be supplied to a campaign State to
work under the direction of the National Board in cooperation
with the State board.
States willing to contribute to campaigns in other States should
do so by the advice of the National Board, who should be informed
as to conditions, and the money so contributed should be passed
through the national treasury.
The rule that the National Board shall do nothing in States
without the consent of the State shall be repealed.
The organization, press work, literature distributed and general
activity of the States shall be standardized and regular reports
on all of these departments shall be made to the National Board
in order that advice and help may be rendered when most needed.
This Board shall have the authority to nationalize the suffrage
movement by unifying the work as far as is possible.
Any States not desiring to work for the Federal Amendment may
remain members of the National Association provided they do not
work actively against it.
Dr. Shaw presided over the last evening session of the convention and
three of the strongest speeches during the convention were made by the
Hon. Herbert Parsons, New York member of the Republican National
Committee; Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston (Me.), Superintendent of
Franchise of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and
Raymond Robins, a national leader of progressive thought. The
convention ended with a mass meeting Sunday afternoon in the New Nixon
Theater with Mrs. Catt presiding. Rabbi Henry M. Fisher of Atlantic
City gave the invocation and inspiring addresses were made by Mrs.
David F. Simpson (Minn.) and the Rev. Effie McCollum Jones (Ia.). Dr.
Shaw closed her address with a beautiful delineation of Americanism,
saying at its close:
What is Americanism? Every one has a different answer. Some
people say it is never to submit to the dictation of a King.
Others say Americanism is the pride of liberty and the defence of
an insult to the flag with their gore. When some half-developed
person tramples on that flag, we should be ready to pour out the
blood of the nation, they say. But do we not sit in silence when
that flag waves over living conditions which should be an insult
to all patriotism? Why do we care more about our flag than any
other flag? Why, when we have been travelling and seeing others,
does the sight of the American flag bring tears to our eyes and
warmth to our hearts? Is it not because it is a symbol of the
hopes and aspirations of the men and women of the whole world?
They say Americanism is the love of liberty, but men died for
that and women gave their lives for it thousands of years before
America was known. Others say it is the love of justice but the
whole world is filled with that, no one country loves it more
than another. Human love, sacrifice and sympathy have been
manifested in the history of the world since the beginning of
time. The American sees in Americanism just what he wants to see.
He looks over the world and finds every good thing and calls it
his own--justice, liberty, humanity, patriotism. It is not
Americanism but humanism. There is only one thing we can claim in
higher degree than the other nations--opportunity is the word
which means true Americanism.
The anti-suffragists have said that when women have the vote they
will have less time for charity and philanthropy. They are
right--when we have the vote there will be less need for charity
and philanthropy. The highest ideal of a republic is not a long
bread line nor a soup kitchen but such opportunity that the
people can buy their own bread and make their own soup.
Opportunity must be for all, men and women alike, and the peoples
of every nationality. Americanism does not mean militarism. The
greatest need of Americans is not military preparedness nor
changed economic conditions but a baptism of the spirit, higher
religious ideals, deeper tolerance and sympathy. The human heart
must be in accord with the Divine heart if America is to mean
more than other countries, and, if we are to be what our mothers
and fathers aspired to be, we must all be a part of the
Government.
At 5 o'clock Mrs. Catt spoke the closing words and declared the
convention adjourned.
FOOTNOTES:
[104] Call: Our cause has been endorsed in the platforms of every
political party. In order to determine how most expeditiously to press
these newly won advantages to final victory this convention is called.
Women workers in every rank of life and in every branch of service in
increasing numbers are appealing for relief from the political
handicap of disfranchisement.... Unmistakably the crisis of our
movement has been reached. A significant and startling fact is urging
American women to increased activity in their campaign for the vote.
Across our borders three large Canadian provinces have granted
universal suffrage to their women within the year. In every thinking
American woman's mind the question is revolving: Had our forefathers
tolerated the oppressions of autocratic George the Third and remained
under the British flag would the women of the United States today,
like their Canadian sisters, have found their political emancipation
under the more democratic George the Fifth? American men are neither
lacking in national pride nor approval of democracy and must in
support of their convictions hasten the enfranchisement of women. To
plan for the final steps which will lead to the inevitable
establishment of nation-wide suffrage for the women of our land is the
specific purpose of the Atlantic City Convention.
ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Honorary President.
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.
JENNIE BRADLEY ROESSING, First Vice-President.
KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, Second Vice-President.
ESTHER G. OGDEN, Third Vice-President.
HANNAH J. PATTERSON, Corresponding Secretary.
MARY FOULKE MORRISON, Recording Secretary.
EMMA WINNER ROGERS, Treasurer.
HELEN GUTHRIE MILLER, }
PATTIE RUFFNER JACOBS, } Auditors.
[105] On June 1, a short time before the meeting of Republican and
Democratic National Conventions, twenty-nine members of the Lower
House of Congress from States where women vote, who wished the
conventions to put woman suffrage in their platforms, had a hearing
before the House Judiciary Committee. The Representatives, both
Democratic and Republican, who made brief arguments for the Federal
Amendment were: Ariz., Carl Hayden; Cal., Denver S. Church, Charles H.
Randall, William Kettner, John E. Raker; Colo., Benjamin C. Hilliard,
Edward Keating, Edward T. Taylor; Ills., James T. McDermott, Adolph J.
Sabath, James McAndrews, Frank H. Buchanan, Thomas Gallagher, Clyde H.
Tavenner, Claudius U. Stone, Henry T. Rainey, Martin D. Foster,
William Elza Williams (a member of the Judiciary Committee); Kans.,
Joseph Taggart (also a member), Dudley Doolittle, Guy T. Helvering,
John R. Connelly, Jouett Shouse, William A. Ayres; Mont., John M.
Evans, Tom Stout; Utah, James H. Mays; Wash., C. C. Dill.
Judge Raker acted as chairman and the remarkably strong presentation
called out many questions from the anti-suffrage members of the
Judiciary Committee.
[106] Senator Borah told them that the plank the National Suffrage
Board had submitted, endorsing a Federal Amendment, was absolutely
impossible but one could be obtained declaring for woman suffrage by
State action. They accepted it, which was a wise thing to do, as had
the Republican platform not favored woman suffrage _per se_ the
Democratic platform, adopted the following week, would not have done
so.
CHAPTER XVII.
NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1917.
The Forty-ninth National Suffrage Convention, which met in Poli's
Theater at Washington Dec. 12-15, 1917, was held under the most
difficult conditions that ever had been faced in the long history of
these annual gatherings. Always heretofore they had been comfortable,
happy times, when the delegates came from far and wide to exchange
greetings, report progress and plan the future work for a cause to
which many of them were giving their entire time and effort. Now great
changes had taken place, as the Call for the convention indicated.
Since last we met the all-engulfing World War has drawn our own
country into its maelstrom and ominous clouds rest over the
earth, obscuring the vision and oppressing the souls of mankind,
yet out of the confusion and chaos of strife there has developed
a stronger promise of the triumph of democracy than the world has
ever known. Every allied nation has announced that it is fighting
for this and our own President has declared that "we are fighting
for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to
have a voice in their own government." New Russia has answered
the call; Great Britain has pledged full suffrage for women and
the measure has already passed the House of Commons by the
enormous majority of seven to one. Canada, too, has responded
with five newly enfranchised provinces; France is waiting only to
drive the foe from her soil to give her women political liberty.
Such an array of victories gives us faith to believe that our own
Government will soon follow the example of other allied nations
and will also pledge votes to its women citizens as an earnest of
its sincerity that in truth we do fight for democracy. This is
our first national convention since our country entered the war.
We are faced with new problems and new issues and the nation is
realizing its dependence upon women as never before. It must be
made to realize also that, willingly as women are now serving,
they can serve still more efficiently when they shall have
received the full measure of citizenship. These facts must be
urged upon Congress and our Government must be convinced that the
time has come for the enfranchisement of women by means of an
amendment to the Federal Constitution.
Men and women who believe that the great question of world
democracy includes government of the people, by the people and
for the people in our country, are invited to attend our
convention and counsel with us on ways and means to attain this
object at the earliest possible moment.[107]
On account of the large rush of soldiers to the eastern coast and the
many other problems of transportation travelling had become very hard
and expensive but so greatly had the interest in suffrage increased
among women that nearly 600 delegates were present, the highest number
that had ever attended one of the conventions. They came through
weather below zero, snowstorms and washouts; trains from the far West
were thirty-six hours late; delegates from the South were in two
railroad wrecks. It was one of the coldest Decembers ever known and
the eastern part of the country had never before faced such a coal
famine, from various reasons. Washington was inundated with people,
the vast number who had suddenly been called into the service of the
Government, the soldiers and the members of their families who had
come to be with them to the last, and this city of only a few hundred
thousand inhabitants had neither sleeping nor eating accommodations
for all of them. The suffrage convention had been called before these
conditions were fully known and because of the necessity of bringing
pressure at once on Congress. The national suffrage headquarters were
now occupying a large private house and the officers were cared for
there but the delegates were obliged to scatter over the city wherever
they could find shelter, were always cold and some of the time not far
from hungry and prices were double what was expected. Notwithstanding
all these drawbacks the convention program was carried out and a large
amount of valuable work accomplished, tried and loyal suffragists
being accustomed to hardships and self-sacrifice.
The victory in New York State the preceding month had marked the
beginning of the end and the universal enfranchisement of women seemed
almost in sight. Even the intense excitement of the war had not
entirely overshadowed what had now became a national issue. Under the
auspices of Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, resident in Washington, an
Advisory Council was formed to act in an honorary capacity and extend
official recognition to the convention, Senators, Representatives,
Cabinet officers, Judges, clergymen and others prominent in the life
of the capital, with their wives and other women of their family,
cheerfully giving their names for this purpose.[108]
The evening before the convention opened a reception by invitation was
given in the ball room of the New Willard Hotel to Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt
and the other officers and the delegates, the following acting as
hostesses: Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo, Mrs. Newton D. Baker, Mrs.
Thomas W. Gregory, Mrs. Albert Sidney Burleson, Mrs. Josephus Daniels,
Mrs. Franklin K. Lane, Mrs. David F. Houston, Miss Agnes Hart Wilson,
Mrs. James R. Mann, Mrs. Philip Pitt Campbell. The first seven were
the wives and the eighth the daughter of the members of President
Wilson's Cabinet, only Mrs. Robert Lansing being absent, who, like her
husband, was an anti-suffragist. The last two were the wives of
prominent Representatives from Illinois and Kansas. Because of the war
the other social festivities that were usually so delightful a
feature of these annual meetings were omitted. Before the convention
opened Mrs. Gifford Pinchot, whose home was directly across from
"suffrage house," the national headquarters, entertained the officers
at luncheon.
The hearings before the committees of Congress which generally took
place during the convention, had been held in the spring at an extra
session and therefore Mrs. Catt had planned an effective ceremony for
this occasion at the Senate office building, the senior Senator from
each State where women were without a vote being requested to invite
to his office the congressional delegation from the State to receive
its women who were in attendance at the convention. There were thirty
of these gatherings and in many instances all the delegation were
present. Senators Penrose and Knox refused to call the Pennsylvania
members together. It is impossible to go into details but most of the
interviews were satisfactory, the women asking solely for votes in
favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, and it was said that
thirty-five were won for it. From fifty to one hundred women were in
many of the groups. To the Missouri delegation, headed by Mrs. Walter
McNab Miller, vice-president of the National Association, Speaker of
the House Champ Clark said: "If my vote is necessary to pass the
amendment I will cast it in favor," and the delegation was solid for
it except Representative Jacob E. Meeker. Senator Warren G. Harding
received the Ohio women, led by Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, State
president, and Mrs. Baker, wife of the Secretary of War, and later, he
voted for the amendment. A hundred women called on the Virginia
members and fifty on those of Alabama, without effect, but many of the
large groups of southern women did receive much encouragement from the
members from their States. President Wilson himself gave an audience
to the Arkansas women, whose Legislature had recently granted full
Primary suffrage and whose entire congressional delegation would vote
for the Federal Amendment. This was found to be the case in nearly all
of the northern and western States.
Forty-four States had sent delegates to the convention and from the
equal suffrage States of Montana and Wyoming came Mrs. Margaret
Hathaway and Mrs. Mary G. Bellamy, members of the Legislature; from
Colorado, Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, State Superintendent of Public
Instruction; from New Mexico, Mrs. W. E. Lindsay, wife of the
Governor, and from Kansas, Mrs. W. Y. Morgan, wife of the Lieutenant
Governor. Fraternal delegates were present from four countries. The
convention was opened Wednesday afternoon, December 12, with an
invocation by the honorary president of the association, the Rev. Anna
Howard Shaw. In her brief words of greeting Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
the president, who was in the chair, declared her firm conviction that
the American Congress would not allow this country to be outstripped
in the race toward the enfranchisement of women while the countries of
Europe were hastening to give woman suffrage as a part of that right
to self-government for which the world is fighting today, and said:
"For fifty years we have been allaying fears, meeting objections,
arguing, educating, until today there remain no fears, no objections
in connection with the question of woman suffrage that have not been
met and answered. The New York campaign may be said to have closed the
case. It carried the question forever out of the stage of argument and
into the stage of final surrender. As the women of the country
foregather for this convention nothing stands out more emphatically
than the new stress that has been laid on suffrage as a political
issue in the minds of women as in the minds of men. As such the
Federal Amendment must now be dealt with by Congress."
Mrs. Catt emphasized the necessity for active war work and introduced
Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, vice-president of the New York Suffrage
Association, who presented the "service flag" and said: "The National
American Suffrage Association's service flag, here unfurled--a field
of white with golden stars surrounded by a deep blue border--shows
thirteen stars for its first thirteen women serving at the front.
These stars represent women who have been connected with the
association or one of its State affiliations in official or
representative capacity. The total of suffragists in foreign service
numbers thousands."[109] The president accepted the flag on behalf of
the convention. Miss Hannah J. Patterson, an officer of the
Pennsylvania Association, presented the following resolution:
Whereas, The Executive Council of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association, assembled in executive session last
February, pledged the loyalty of the organization to the country
in event of war and forthwith placed a plan of intensive service
at the Government's command in view of the impending peril, and
Whereas, America since then has entered into the dread actuality
of war and is in greater need of woman's loyal service than our
readiest anticipation could visualize last February, and
Whereas, The suffragists of this organization are already in
compact formation as a second line of defense for husbands, sons,
fathers and brothers "somewhere in France," therefore, be it
Resolved, That we, delegates to the Forty-ninth annual convention
of the association, representing a membership of over 2,000,000
women, reaffirm this organization's unswerving loyalty to the
Government in this crisis, and, while struggling to secure the
right of self-government to the women of America, pledge anew our
intention gladly and zealously to continue those services of
which the Government has so freely availed itself in its war to
secure the right of self-government to the people of the world.
On request of Dr. Shaw a rising vote was taken and the resolution was
adopted with no dissenting vote.
The first evening meeting was devoted to the great victory in New
York, where an amendment to the State constitution giving full
suffrage to women had been carried at the November election by a
majority of 102,353. The following program was given in the presence
of a large and very enthusiastic audience, Mrs. Catt presiding:
Addresses: Mrs. Ella Crossett, former president New York State
Woman Suffrage Association, 1902-1910. Miss Harriet May Mills,
former president, 1910-1913.
Organization in New York State--Mrs. Raymond Brown, chairman.
Campaign district chairman, Mrs. F. J. Tone. Rural assembly
district leader, Mrs. Willis G. Mitchell. Election district
captain, Mrs. Frederick Edey.
From the Organization to the Voter--Mrs. Laidlaw.
Organization and Campaign Work in New York City--Miss Mary
Garrett Hay, chairman. Assembly district leader, Mrs. Charles L.
Tiffany. Election district captain, Mrs. Seymour Barrett.
State Departmental Work: Teachers--Miss Katharine D. Blake,
chairman. Industrial: Miss Rose Schneiderman, proxy for chairman.
Speakers in War Time--Mrs. Victor Morawetz, chairman of speakers'
bureau.
Financing a State Campaign--Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, treasurer.
Winning New York--Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, State president.
The many phases of this remarkable campaign, which won the State of
largest population and opened the way to certain victory in Congress,
were presented in a most interesting manner. In speaking of the big
city where the fight was actually won, Miss Hay, chairman of the
committee, said: "We won, first, because of a continuous campaign in
New York City begun eight years ago. On election day in 1915, about
midnight, when we knew the amendment had not carried, we decided to
have another campaign and began it the next day. Second, we won
because of organization along district political lines. No State
should ever go into a campaign unless the women are willing to
organize in this way and stick to it. It was not the five borough
leaders but the 2,080 precinct captains who carried the city. The
campaign represented an immense amount of work in many fields. There
were 11,085 meetings reported to the State officers and many that were
never reported. Women of all classes labored together. 'If you want to
reach the working men,' said Rose Schneiderman, 'remember that it is
the working women who can reach them.' The campaign cost $682,500.
This sum, which lasted for two years and covered the whole State, was
less than half the amount spent in three months in New York City that
year to elect a Mayor. The largest individual gift to the New York
City campaign was $10,000 from Mrs. Dorothy Whitney Straight. Most of
the money was given in small sums and represented innumerable
sacrifices."
The story of the campaign in Maine the preceding September was told by
the chairman of the campaign committee, Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston,
the next afternoon, and the reasons given for its almost inevitable
failure. [See Maine chapter.] A lively discussion took place on the
advisability of campaigns for Presidential suffrage and Mrs. Catt gave
the opinion that its legality when granted by a Legislature was
unquestioned but if by a referendum to the voters it would be
doubtful. The war work undertaken by the association was thoroughly
considered, with a general review of Women's War Service by Mrs.
Katharine Dexter McCormick, second vice-president. She sketched
briefly the appointment of a woman's branch of the Council of National
Defense and pointed out how the choice of Dr. Shaw for chairman had
brought the suffragists into even closer cooperation with the
Government if possible than would have resulted from their intense
patriotism.[110] Reports were made by the chairmen of the
association's four committees, as follows: Food Production--Mrs. Henry
Wade Rogers; Thrift--Mrs. Walter McNab Miller; Americanization--Mrs.
Frederick P. Bagley; Industrial Protection of Women--Miss Ethel M.
Smith. A Child Welfare Committee was added to the list.
Dr. Shaw presided at the evening session of the second day of the
convention and to this and other programs Mrs. Newton D. Baker
contributed her beautiful voice, with Mrs. Morgan Lewis Brett at the
piano. Mrs. Charles W. Fairfax and Paul Bleyden also sang most
acceptably and there was music by the Meyer-Davis orchestra. This
evening the speakers were the Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the
Interior; the Hon. Jeannette Rankin, first woman member of the
National House of Representatives, and Mrs. Catt, who gave her
president's address. The presence of Secretary Lane added much
prestige as well as political significance to the program, for it was
interpreted as an indication that President Wilson had advanced from a
belief in woman suffrage itself to an advocacy of the Federal
Amendment, which was the keynote of the convention. "I come to you
tonight," the Secretary said, "to bring a word of congratulation and
good will from the first man in the nation. Dr. Shaw spoke of always
being proud when she had some man back of her who could give
respectability to the cause. What greater honor can there be, what
greater pride can you feel, than in having behind you the man who is
not alone the President of the United States but also the foremost
leader of liberal thought throughout the world? It is to have with you
the conscience, the mind and the spirit of today and tomorrow." He
spoke of his own strong belief in the enfranchisement of women and the
necessity of establishing for every one an individuality entirely her
own, socially and politically. Only scattered newspaper references to
this strong speech are available.
Especial interest was felt in the address of the young member of
Congress, Miss Jeannette Rankin. In speaking of the bill which she had
recently introduced to enable women to retain their nationality after
marriage she said: "We, who stand tonight so near victory after a
majestic struggle of seventy long years, must not forget that there
are other steps besides suffrage necessary to complete the political
enfranchisement of American women. We must not forget that the
self-respect of the American woman will not be redeemed until she is
regarded as a distinct and social entity, unhampered by the political
status of her husband or her father but with a status peculiarly her
own and accruing to her as an American citizen. She must be bound to
American obligations not through her husband's citizenship but
directly through her own."
Mrs. Catt's address had been announced as a Message to Congress and
was eagerly anticipated. Miss Rose Young, the enthusiastic editor of
_The Woman Citizen_, gave this vivid pen picture of the occasion:
When Mrs. Catt rose, the house rose with her. It was a crowded
house and everybody was aware that the message in Mrs. Catt's
hand was the vital message of the convention. Everybody wondered
what would be its main focus. Nobody quite understood why an
address to Congress should be delivered at a mass meeting. The
latter point the speaker quickly cleared up. Once before in
suffrage history, she said, there had been an address to
Congress. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had made
it. At this moment she was but doing over what they had done a
half-century ago. She would deliver her address to Congress from
that platform to that audience and leave it to the printed page
to carry the message on into the sacred halls themselves.
Then, with Senate and House visualized by the directness of her
appeal to them and by the sharp limning of her argument, she
pleaded for democracy, arraigned the obstructionists of the
Federal Suffrage Amendment, showed up the harsh inconsistencies,
the waste of time and energy and money asked of women in State
referenda, clarified the reasons for establishing suffrage by the
Federal route and brought the whole case into high relief by
resting the responsibility where it belongs--on the Congress of
the United States.
The speaker, never ornate in rhetoric or delivery, seemed to
withdraw her personality utterly, so that there was left only the
mental and spiritual content of her message. To hear her was like
listening to abstract thought, warmed by the fire of abstract
conviction. To see her was like looking at sheer marble,
flame-lit. Many an orator sways an audience's mind by emotional
appeal. Hers was the crowning achievement to sway an audience to
emotion by the symmetry and force of her appeal to its mind.
Again and again salvos of applause stopped her for a moment but
again and again the steady rhythm of her strong voice regained
control. At the end her grip on attention was so acute that a
little hush followed the last word.
The address consumed an hour and a half in delivery and made a
pamphlet of twenty-two pages when published. Up to the time the
Federal Amendment was ratified it was a part of the standard
literature of the National Association and thousands of copies were
circulated.[111] Among the subheads were these: The History of our
Country and the Theory of our Government; the Leadership of the United
States in World Democracy compels the Enfranchisement of its Own
Women; Three Reasons for the Federal Method; Three Objections
Answered. It was an absolutely conclusive argument and closed with a
ringing appeal for "the submission and ratification of the Federal
Suffrage Amendment in order that this nation may at the earliest
possible moment show to all the nations of the earth that its action
is consistent with its principles." Dr. Shaw, who never could forego a
little joke, had said in introducing Mrs. Catt: "I had long thought I
should be willing to die as soon as suffrage was won in New York; that
I never should be interested in politics or the making of tickets,
but five minutes after the midnight of November 6 I had picked my
ticket and now I don't want to die until it is elected." Here she
stopped and presented the speaker. After Mrs. Catt had finished Dr.
Shaw rose and looking at her with twinkling eyes said to the delighted
audience: "The head of my ticket!"
The mornings of the convention were devoted to routine business and to
the reports of the presidents of the States, most of whom were
present, and almost without exception they told of active work and a
great advance in public sentiment. It was such a time of rejoicing and
hopefulness as suffragists had never known. The chief and universal
interest, however, was centered in the action of Congress, as this had
always been the goal and it now seemed near at hand. Therefore the
report of the Congressional Committee, made through its chairman, Mrs.
Maud Wood Park, was heard with close attention. The outline presented
was as follows:
The duties of the present chairman began March 17, 1917, four
days before President Wilson called an extra session of Congress
to meet on April 2, a significant step toward the entrance of the
United States into the World War. Thus our work started at a time
of supreme importance in the history of our country and under
conditions full of new possibilities for the cause of woman
suffrage.
Mrs. Catt, keenly alive to the crisis in our national affairs,
foresaw that our people, with their idealism fired by thought of
increased freedom for the oppressed subjects of autocratic
governments, might be aroused to new consciousness of the flaw in
our own democracy. With this thought in mind, on the eve of the
opening of the extraordinary session, she sent out a summons to
the suffragists of the whole country to unite in a stupendous
appeal to Congress for the immediate submission of the Federal
Amendment.
The opening of the Sixty-fifth Congress was marked by another
circumstance of unusual interest, the seating of the first woman
member, the Hon. Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who made a speech
from the balcony of our headquarters on the morning of April 2
and was then escorted to the Capitol by Mrs. Catt and other
members of our association in a cavalcade of decorated motor
cars. The day which opened so happily for suffragists ended with
the President's message to Congress asking for the Declaration of
War.
In the Senate the resolution for our amendment was introduced in
behalf of our association by Senator Andrieus A. Jones of New
Mexico, the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Woman
Suffrage, the other members of which were Senators Owen of
Oklahoma; Ransdell of Louisiana; Hollis of New Hampshire;
Johnson of South Dakota; Jones of Washington; Nelson of
Minnesota; Cummins of Iowa and Johnson of California. Chairman
Jones, at our request, had secured the privilege of having his
resolution made number one on the calendar, but when it was
decided that the war resolution should be introduced immediately,
he tactfully yielded his place. Similar suffrage resolutions were
introduced by Senators Shafroth, Owen, Poindexter and Thompson.
In the House our resolution was introduced by Representative
Raker, on the Democratic side, and by Representative Rankin, on
the Republican side. Similar ones were introduced by
Representatives Mondell, Keating, Hayden and Taylor.
The War Resolution was adopted by the Senate April 4 and by the
House April 5. A few days later the Finance Committee of the
Senate informally recommended and leaders of both parties agreed
that only legislation included in the war program should be
considered during the extra session. The Democratic caucus of the
House passed a similar recommendation, which was acquiesced in by
the Republicans. It soon became clear to your committee that the
suffrage resolution would not be admitted under this rule, and a
total revision of plans had to be made. Three meetings were held
and it was the opinion of all that the aim should be to establish
and maintain friendly relations with both parties rather than to
arouse the antagonism of leaders whose support we must have if
our measure is to succeed, so it was recommended and the National
Board voted that our "drive" should be postponed until there was
a possibility of securing a vote on the Federal Amendment.
Happily, however, there were forms of work not prohibited by the
legislative program.
The Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage gave a hearing to our
association April 20 ... and on September 15, Chairman Jones made
a favorable report. The measure is now on the calendar of the
Senate. In the House, resolutions calling for the creation of a
Committee on Woman Suffrage had been introduced at the beginning
of the session by Representatives Raker, Keating and Hayden and
referred to the Committee on Rules.
Our first step was to get the approval of Speaker Clark, who gave
us cordial support. Later, to offset the fear on the part of
certain members of conflicting with President Wilson's
legislative program, a letter was sent, at Mrs. Helen H.
Gardener's request, to Chairman Edward Pou (N. C.), of the Rules
Committee, by the President himself, who stated that he thought
the creation of the committee "would be a very wise act of public
policy and also an act of fairness to the best women who are
engaged in the cause of woman suffrage." Then, through the
efforts of a working committee made up of the six members who had
introduced suffrage resolutions, a petition asking for the
creation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage, as called for in the
Raker resolution, was signed by all members from equal suffrage
States and by many of those from Presidential suffrage States and
from Primary suffrage Arkansas. This petition was presented to
the Rules Committee, which on May 18 granted a hearing on the
subject. On June 6, by a vote of 6 to 5, on motion of Mr.
Cantrill of Kentucky, a resolution calling for the creation of a
Committee on Woman Suffrage to consist of thirteen members, to
which all proposed action touching the subject should be
referred, was adopted, with an amendment, made by Mr. Lenroot of
Wisconsin, to the effect that the resolution should not be
reported to the House until the pending war legislation was out
of the way.
The report of the Rules Committee, therefore, was not brought
into the House until September 24, when the extremely active
opposition of Chairman Edwin Y. Webb (N. C.) and most of the
other members of the Judiciary Committee made a hard fight
inevitable. Thanks to the hearty support of Speaker Clark, the
good management of Chairman Pou and the help of loyal friends of
both parties in the House, as well as to the admirable work done
by our own State congressional chairmen, the report was adopted
by a vote of 180 yeas to 107 noes, with 3 answering present and
142 not voting. Of the favorable votes, 82 were from Democrats
and 96 from Republicans. Of the unfavorable votes, 74 were from
Democrats and 32 from Republicans. Of those not voting, 59 were
Democrats and 81 were Republicans. These facts show that the
measure was regarded, as we had hoped it would be, as strictly
non-partisan. The victory came so late in the session that the
appointment of the new committee was postponed until the present
session.
Referring to the housing of the Congressional Committee in the new
headquarters of the National Association in Washington Mrs. Park said:
To the preceding chairman, Mrs. Miller, fell the hard work of
finding new headquarters, moving the office and establishing the
house routine which has been continued under the efficient care
of our house manager, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Walker. The secretary of
the committee, Miss Ruth White, who has worked indefatigably in
the office since June, 1916, has had charge of the records of
members of Congress and of correspondence with our State
chairmen, besides lightening in numberless other ways the burdens
of your chairman. To a member of the committee, who is a
long-time resident of Washington, Mrs. Gardener, the association
is profoundly indebted for constant advice and help, as well as
for the most skillful handling of delicate and difficult
situations. She has been called the "Diplomatic Corps" of the
committee and the name in every good sense has been well won by
the important services which she has rendered. Another member of
the committee, a former chairman, Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, after
helping to start the legislative work last December, generously
came to our aid at busy seasons and took active charge of the
work from July 10 to September 12, during the absence of the
chairman. The management of the office and the Department of
Publicity have been in the hands of the executive secretary, Miss
Ethel M. Smith.
Social activities through the spring and early summer were in
charge of Miss Heloise Meyer, assisted by Mrs. J. Borden
Harriman. Miss Mabel Caldwell Willard has represented the
committee in undertakings involving the house as a center for
local work. These have included getting hostesses to receive
visitors at headquarters, supplying speakers for local meetings,
providing cooperation with the suffrage federation of the
District of Columbia for the daily afternoon teas, and looking
after hospitality for delegates to conventions meeting in
Washington. Among the organizations for which receptions have
been arranged are Daughters of the American Revolution,
Association of Collegiate Alumnae, Confederate Veterans, Sons of
Veterans, Daughters of the Confederacy, Congress of Mothers,
Parent-Teacher Associations and Farm and Garden Associations. Ten
of the fourteen members of the committee, in addition to the
executive secretary, have given highly valued service in
Washington during the last nine months. Other suffragists not
members have kindly devoted days or weeks to our work and the
local suffrage associations have been most cordial in their
response to our requests.
Any attempt to state our obligations to our national president
would be futile. Our high hope for the adoption of the Federal
Amendment by the 65th Congress is linked inseparably with our
faith in her leadership.
[Illustration: A LECTURE IN THE BANQUET HALL OF THE WASHINGTON
SUFFRAGE HEADQUARTERS.
Formerly occupied by the French Embassy.]
The report of Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.) first vice-president,
described a year of continuous work, almost from ocean to ocean,
speaking to State suffrage conventions, federations of women's clubs,
federations of labor, trade unions, universities, normal schools,
churches, meetings of all kinds and without number. In the two Dakotas
she spoke twenty-nine times. She referred to her visit to Jefferson
City, Mo., her luncheon with the wife of Governor Frederick D.
Gardner, the suffrage meeting "which put the State capital in a
ferment and caused the politicians to sit up and take notice" and the
Governor's declaration for woman suffrage. Mrs. Miller said of the
work during the five months when she was chairman of the Congressional
Committee:
After mature consideration the board decided that, for various
reasons, it was not wise to move the headquarters from New York
to Washington but that more spacious quarters should be found
than the office here where the efficient lobby work that had
already been done could be followed up and supplemented by a
social atmosphere. Finally we found our present home, a large
private mansion at 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, just off of Scott
Circle. It was taken for a term of eight months, the offices
moved at once and cards sent out to 2,000 people for a
housewarming before we had been there a week.
During five months Miss Meyer and I made 300 calls, organized a
Junior Suffrage League, planned for publicity "stunts," such as
the dedication of the Susan B. Anthony room, the presentation of
a flag by Pennsylvania, a poster exhibit, celebration of the
North Dakota victory and the mid-lenten bazaar. Much of the work
was of the sort that would be impossible to tabulate, but the
effect of the whole in making the National Association well known
in Washington and able to work effectively from there has proved
the wisdom of the expenditure for the headquarters.
The latter part of February the so-called War Council was called,
a meeting of the association's Executive Committee of One
Hundred, and planning for that and the mass meeting on Sunday
kept us all busy for several weeks. This Council decided that the
suffragists should undertake certain definite forms of war work
and the chairmanship of the division of the Elimination of Waste
was given to me.... Summing up the year I have attended six State
meetings, spoken 200 times in 15 States, written 3,000 letters
and travelled 13,000 miles.
All of Friday was given to symposiums on different phases of this
movement, grouped as follows: What my State will do for the Federal
Amendment. Should We Work for Woman Suffrage in War Time? What Good
Will Woman Suffrage Do Our Country? What is the Best Thing it Has Done
for my State? What Can the Enfranchised Women Do to Secure Suffrage
for the Women of the Entire Nation? Twenty-five women, most of them
State presidents, took part in these valuable discussions.
Mrs. McCormick related how her work as chairman of the national Press
Committee had been taken over by the press department of the Leslie
Bureau of Education when it was organized the preceding March and a
merger committee appointed consisting of Miss Rose Young and Mrs. Ida
Husted Harper of the Leslie Commission, and Mrs. Shuler and herself of
the association.[112] The report of the Leslie Bureau filled over
thirty pages of fine print as submitted by Miss Young, director, who
said in beginning:
By January of 1917 it had become apparent that the National
Association had an increasingly direct and comprehensive part to
play in State and Federal campaigns through its Press department
as one of its various points of contact with the suffrage field.
To inaugurate news and feature propaganda and information
services that would be live wires of connection between 171
Madison Avenue and the State affiliations all over the country
and the Capitol at Washington and the public press was the
immediate prospect of the then Press department.... Its
accumulated task included not only the conduct of its federal
political campaign at Washington, not only its definite program
of State propaganda and organization for constitutional amendment
campaigns, it had on its hands as well the great "drive" for
Presidential suffrage that had been initiated.
By spring Mrs. Catt's custodianship of the Leslie funds had been
determined by court decision and plans that she had been
mothering since 1915 could be put into execution. Those plans had
for their central detail the founding of a bureau for the
promotion of the woman suffrage cause through the education of
the public to the point of seeing it as essential to democracy,
and in March the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education was
organized for that purpose. From the beginning the outstanding
feature of the work was its size, and the outstanding need was to
get it housed and departmentalized, with department heads and an
adequate clerical staff. This done, the bureau, with a staff of
twenty-four, swarmed out over the whole 15th floor, besides two
small rooms on the 14th floor. It now includes six departments,
counting the Magazine Department, which is an everlasting story
by itself.
Miss Young told of merging the _Woman's Journal_, the _Woman Voter_
and the _National Suffrage News_ in the _Woman Citizen_, for which
2,000 subscriptions were taken at this convention. The report included
those of Mrs. Harper, chairman of editorial correspondence; Mrs. Mary
Sumner Boyd, of the research bureau; Miss Mary Ogden White, feature
and general news department; Mrs. Rose Lawless Geyer, field press
work. There was also a report of the Washington press bureau after the
headquarters there were opened, at first in charge of Mrs. Gertrude C.
Mosshart, afterwards of Miss Ethel M. Smith. The latter told of the
unexcelled opportunities in that city for the distribution of news
through the more than 200 special correspondents of the large
newspapers and the bureaus of all the great press associations and
syndicates. News had to be fresh and well written and 450 copies of
each of her "stories" distributed. About half of them were sent to
State press chairmen, presidents and others.
Mrs. Harper's work was almost wholly with editors, watching the
editorials, which now came in literally by hundreds every day. Her
report of three closely printed pages said in part:
When an editorial was friendly a letter of thanks has been sent
expressing the hope that the paper would contain many such
editorials. When one made a strong appeal for woman suffrage the
editor has had a letter expressing the deep appreciation of all
at headquarters and saying that it would unquestionably affect
public sentiment in his city and State. In many instances, even
in the largest papers, there have been mistakes in facts and
figures, as the question has not been a national issue long
enough for editors to become thoroughly informed, and these have
been corrected as tactfully as possible. Often carefully selected
literature, suited to the editor's point of view, has been
enclosed--to Western editors arguments in favor of a Federal
Amendment; to Southern editors statements on the good effects of
woman suffrage in the Western States; to Eastern editors a good
deal of both. Where an editorial has been directly hostile an
argument has been taken up with the editor, supported by
unimpeachable testimony. When the editor has been implacable I
have frequently written to suffragists in his city to learn what
were the influences behind the paper, and usually have found they
were such as gave the editor no chance to express his own
opinions, but even those papers have almost invariably published
my letters.
During the year letters were written to over 2,000 editors in the
United States and several in Canada and the returns through the
clipping bureaus indicated that a large majority were published. The
report said: "I wish there were space to give concrete instances of
the results of this year's experiment. Editors have written that,
while for years their paper had supported woman suffrage, this was the
first time they ever had come in touch with the national organization
or known that their work was being recognized outside of their own
locality. Many who were wavering have been persuaded to come out
definitely in favor; this has been especially noticeable in the South.
In a number of cases papers which condemned a Federal Amendment have
been helped to see its necessity, and this in the South as well as the
North...." As an example of the many special articles it continued:
When the "picketing" began in Washington last January, almost
every newspaper in the United States held the entire suffrage
movement responsible for it. At once 250 letters were sent in
answer to editorials of this nature, stating that the National
American Association organized in 1869, had been always strictly
non-partisan and non-militant; that it represented about 98 per
cent. of the enrolled suffragists of the United States; that all
the suffrage which the women possessed to-day was due to its
efforts and those of its State auxiliaries, and that Dr. Shaw,
its honorary president, and Mrs. Catt, its president, strongly
condemned the "picketing." The letter urged the newspapers in
their comment on it to make a clear distinction between the two
organizations. In countless instances this request was complied
with but at the time of the Russian banner episode of the
"pickets" before the White House another flood of more than 1,000
editorials poured into the national headquarters, many of them
crediting it to the whole cause. A second letter more emphatic
than the first was sent to 350 of the largest newspapers in the
country, enclosing Mrs. Catt's protest against the "picketing."
These had the desired effect and practically all of the papers
thereafter, except those hostile to woman suffrage, exonerated
the National Association from any part in it.
An argument for the Federal Suffrage Amendment and asking support for
it was sent to a carefully selected list of 2,000 editors the month
before the first vote was taken in Congress. Over 500 individual
letters were sent, for the most part to prominent persons, called out
by some expression of theirs, which almost without exception were
cordially answered. A long letter to the International Suffrage News
each month had been part of the work of this department.
Miss White's report on publicity should be reproduced in full, as it
convincingly showed why all of a sudden the newspapers of the country
were flooded with matter on woman suffrage. Not until the Leslie
bequest became available had the National Association been possessed
of the funds to do the publicity work necessary to the success of a
great movement. She told how the very first "stories" sent out
describing the granting of Presidential suffrage in the winter of 1917
brought back returns of about half-a-million words. The story of the
Maine campaign returned 79 columns in 145 papers and Mrs. Catt's
speeches, 50,000 words. Her protest against the "antis" charge of
disloyalty against the suffragists instantly brought a return of 16
columns in 40 metropolitan papers. Feminism in Japan, a story written
in the bureau around a little Japanese suffragist, was sent out by
syndicate to a circulation of 10,000,000. The War Service of the
National Suffrage Association was told in 15,000 words and the first
instalment came back in over 500 newspapers and 400,000 words. The
papers gave 680,000 words to the story of the Woman's Committee of
National Defense. These figures might be continued indefinitely. Plate
matter was furnished to 500 papers in sixteen States in May, and the
bulletins of facts, statistics and propaganda issued during the nine
months would make a book of 25,000 words.
The report of Mrs. Geyer, a trained journalist, was equally valuable.
A part of her work had been to organize a press committee in every
State, arrange for the collection of news and put it in proper form
for the bulletins, the plate service, the _Woman Citizen_ or wherever
it was needed and make a roster of the principal newspapers and their
position on woman suffrage. She had managed in person the press work
for the Maine campaign, the Mississippi Valley Conference in Columbus,
O., and the present national convention.
Mrs. Boyd's painstaking, scholarly and efficient report on the service
rendered by the Data department showed the vast amount of time and
labor necessary to collect accurate data and how unreliable is much
that exists. This was especially the case in regard to woman suffrage,
which, when compiled from current sources and returned to the various
States for verification, always required much correction. The report
told of 350 letters sent to county clerks in the equal suffrage States
for trustworthy information as to the proportion of women who voted,
with most gratifying response. Many such investigations were made of
women in office, laws relating to women, suffrage and labor
legislation, women's war record, an infinite variety of subjects.
Thousands of newspaper clippings were tabulated and a roomful of
carefully labelled files testified to the unremitting work of the
bureau. Twenty State libraries and some others were supplied during
the year with the books issued by the National Suffrage Publishing
Company and its pamphlets were widely distributed.
Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman Suffrage
Publishing Company, made an interesting report and showed how suffrage
victories, the thing the company was working for, meant its financial
loss, for as soon as a State had won the vote it ceased to order
literature. The tremendous demands of the campaigns of 1915 and 1916
had enabled the company to pay a three per cent. dividend but the
entrance of the United States into the war, causing a general
lessening of suffrage work, would create a deficit for the present
year. For the New York campaign of 1917 the company furnished
10,081,267 pieces of literature, all promptly paid for. Miss Ogden
gave an amusing account of how the company was "bankrupted" trying to
supply "suffrage maps" up to date, for as soon as a lot was published
another State would give Presidential or Municipal suffrage and then
the demand would come for maps with the new State "white," and
thousands of the others would have to be "scrapped."
The chairman of the Literature Committee, Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore,
said that for the first time finances had been available for
publishing a well-indexed catalogue with the publications grouped
under more than twenty headings. These included efficiency booklets,
suffrage arguments, answers to opponents, Federal Amendment
literature, State reports, etc. Some of these publications were in
book form, including Mrs. Catt's volume on the Federal Amendment, Mrs.
Annie G. Porritt's Laws Affecting Women and Children and Miss Martha
Stapler's Woman Suffrage Year Book. A number of pamphlets were printed
in lots of 100,000, and 700,000 copies of the amendment speech of
Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado before the Senate.
The report of the Art Publicity Committee was made by its chairman,
Mrs. Ernest Thompson Seton, and related principally to the poster
competition, which closed with the exhibition at the national suffrage
headquarters in January. About 100 posters were submitted and $500 in
prizes awarded. Afterwards the prize winners and a selection from the
others, about thirty in all, were sent to the Washington suffrage
headquarters for display and then around to various cities which had
asked for them.
One of the largest evening meetings was that devoted to American
Women's War Service, with Mrs. Catt presiding. The first speaker was
Secretary of War Newton G. Baker and a few detached paragraphs can
give little idea of his eloquent address:
I sometimes ask myself what does this war mean to women? War
always means to women sorrow and sacrifice and a mission of mercy
but one of the large, redeeming hopes of this particular
struggle is that it will bring a broadening of liberty to women.
This war is waged for democracy. Democracy is never an
accomplished thing, it is always a process of growth, an endless
series of advances. President Wilson has called it a rule of
action. It is a rule that adapts conduct to environment. What was
called a democracy in Greece was a small privileged class ruling
over slaves. The members of the ruling class had certain
democratic relations with one another. There was no more of real
democracy in Rome. The first constitutional convention of the
French Revolution had a very restricted electoral system with a
property qualification. It was so with our own government in 1776
and 1789. It was a rule of conduct adapted to the environment of
that time....
The whole environment has changed. In 1789 we might quite
possibly have defined ourselves as a democracy, although women
did not vote, but not now. We speak of this as a war for
democracy. Women are making sacrifices just like men. The
activities of women in aid of the war are a necessary part of it.
If all the women were to stop their work tonight we should have
to withdraw from the war, at least temporarily, until we could
entirely readjust ourselves. One of the things this war is
bringing home to us is that men and women are essentially
partners in an industrial civilization, and by the end of the war
the women will be recognized as partners.
When the Secretary finished Dr. Shaw said: "May we not send a message
to President Wilson and say: 'Mr. President, as you came to our
convention a year ago to fight with us, so we come now to fight with
you. As you have kept your pledge of loyalty to us, so we shall keep
our pledge to you. We are with you in this world struggle.'" The
convention enthusiastically endorsed the message. Other speakers were
Mrs. McAdoo and Mrs. Bass--Financing the War; Miss Martha Van
Rensselaer, department of Home Economics, Cornell University--Food and
the War; Miss Jane Delano--The Red Cross and the War; Mrs. Laidlaw,
Mrs. Louis F. Slade--Women's War Service in New York; Dr. Shaw,
chairman Woman's Committee of the National Council of Defense. Mrs.
McAdoo, daughter of President Wilson and wife of the Secretary of the
Treasury, said that she was a resident of New York State and a voter
and that women were making a great fight for democracy but the thought
which should now be first in the minds of all of them was how to win
the war. She described briefly her work as chairman of the Women's
Committee of the Liberty Loan and told of its wonderful success in
raising millions of dollars. Mrs. Bass, the only woman member of the
War Savings Committee, added an earnest appeal to women to help
finance the war, and the other speakers on their several topics raised
the meeting to a high level of patriotic enthusiasm. In a stirring
address Dr. Shaw showed what the country expected of women at this
critical time, saying:
We talk of the army in the field as one and the army at home as
another. We are not two armies; we are one--absolutely one
army--and we must work together. Unless the army at home does its
duty faithfully, the army in the field will be unable to carry to
a victorious end this war which you and I believe is the great
war that shall bring to the world the thing that is nearest our
hearts--democracy, that "those who submit to authority shall have
a voice in the government" and that when they have that voice
peace shall reign among the nations of men.
The United States Government, learning from the weaknesses and
the mistakes of the governments across the sea, immediately after
declaring war on Germany knew that it was wise to mobilize not
only the man power of the nation but the woman power. It took
Great Britain a long time to learn that--more than a year--and it
was not until 50,000 women paraded the streets of London with
banners saying, "Put us to work," that it dawned upon the British
government that women could be mobilized and made serviceable in
the war. And what is the result? It has been discovered that men
and women alike have within them great reserve power, great
forces which are called out by emergencies and the demands of a
time like this.
Dr. Shaw described the forming of the Woman's Committee of the Council
of National Defense by the Government and her selection as its
chairman. She said she had no idea what the committee was expected to
do, so she went to the Secretary of the Navy to find out, and
continued: "I learned that the Woman's Committee was to be the channel
through which the orders of the various departments of the Government
concerning women's war work were to reach the womanhood of the
country; that it was to conserve and coordinate all the women's
societies in the United States which were doing war work in order to
prevent duplication and useless effort. This was very necessary, not
because our women are not patriotic but because they are so patriotic
that every blessed woman in the country was writing Washington, or her
organization was writing for her, asking the Government what she could
do for the war and of course the Government did not know; it has not
yet the least idea of what women can do."
An amusing picture was given of men supervising a department of the
Red Cross where women were knitting, making comfort bags, etc. She
showed how for the past forty years women in their clubs and societies
had been going through the necessary evolution, "until today," she
said, "they are a mobilized army ready to serve the country in
whatever capacity they are needed. So when the Council of National
Defense laid upon the Woman's Committee the responsibility of calling
them together to mobilize women's war work, we knew exactly how to do
it.... It is not a question of whether we will act or not, the
Government has said we _must_ act; it is an order as much as it is an
order that men shall go and fight in the trenches. It is an order of
the Government that the women's war work of the country shall be
coordinated, that women shall keep their organizations intact, that
they shall get together under directed heads. I said to the gentlemen
here in Washington, when at first they feared our women might not be
willing to cooperate: 'If you put before them an incentive big enough,
if you appeal to them as a part of the Government's life, not as a
by-product of creation or a kindergarten but as a great human, living
energy, ready to serve the country, they will respond as readily as
the men.'"
We must remember that more and more sacrifices are going to be
demanded but I want to say to you women, do not meekly sit down
and make all the sacrifices and demand nothing in return. It is
not that you want pay but we all want an equally balanced
sacrifice. The Government is asking us to conserve food while it
is allowing carload after carload to rot on the side tracks of
railroad stations and great elevators of grain to be consumed by
fire for lack of proper protection. If we must eat Indian meal in
order to save wheat, then the men must protect the grain
elevators and see that the wheat is saved. We must demand that
there shall be conservation all along the line. I had a letter
the other day giving me a fearful scorching because of a speech I
made in which I said that we women have Mr. Hoover looking into
our refrigerators, examining our bread to see what kind of
materials we are using, telling us what extravagant creatures we
are, that we waste millions of money every year, waste food and
all that sort of thing, and yet while we are asked to have
meatless days and wheatless days, I have never yet seen a demand
for a smokeless day! They are asking through the newspapers that
we women shall dance, play bridge, have charades, sing and do
everything under the sun to raise money to buy tobacco for the
men in the trenches, while the men who want us to do this have a
cigar in their mouth at the time they are asking it! I said that
if men want the soldiers to have tobacco, let them have smokeless
days and furnish it! If they would conserve one single cigar a
day and send it to the men in the trenches the soldiers would
have all they would need and the men at home would be a great
deal better off. If we have to eat rye flour to send wheat across
the sea they must stop smoking to send smokes across the sea.
There is no end to the things that women are asked to do. I know
this is true because I have read the newspapers for the last six
months to get my duty before me. The first thing we are asked to
do is to provide the enthusiasm, inspiration and patriotism to
make men want to fight, and we are to send them away with a
smile! That is not much to ask of a mother! We are to maintain a
perfect calm after we have furnished all this inspiration and
enthusiasm, "keep the home fires burning," keep the home sweet
and peaceful and happy, keep society on a level, look after
business, buy enough but not too much and wear some of our old
clothes but not all of them or what would happen to the
merchants?... We are going to rise as women always have risen to
the supreme height of patriotic service....
The Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense now asks
for your cooperation, that we may be what the Government would
have us be, soldiers at home, defending the interests of the
home, while the men are fighting with the gallant Allies who are
laying down their lives that this world may be a safe place and
that men and women may know the meaning of democracy, which is
that we are one great family of God. That, and that only, is the
ideal of democracy for which our flag stands.
The National Anti-Suffrage Association took this time to hold its one
day's annual convention in a Washington hotel and re-elect for
president Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., wife of the New York Senator,
and elect as secretary Mrs. Robert Lansing, wife of the Secretary of
State. Mrs. Wadsworth at this time sent to the members of Congress and
circulated widely a pamphlet entitled Consider the Facts, in which she
charged the suffragists with being pacifists and Socialists and
asserted that the recent New York victory was due to the Socialist
vote. Miss Mary Garrett Hay, who was chairman of the campaign
committee in New York City, where the victory was won, expressed her
opinion from the platform in this fashion:
Senator Wadsworth and his wife announced that they weren't going
to give any entertainments till the war was over, nevertheless
they are dining tonight the Senators and Representatives who are
opposed to the Federal Amendment. So I thought I would signalize
the occasion by answering the circular Mrs. Wadsworth has sent
broadcast asking people to "consider a few facts about the woman
suffrage victory in New York." Here are some other facts to
consider:
There were only three assembly districts in Manhattan where the
suffrage amendment did not poll over a thousand more votes than
the Socialists polled. Even in these three suffrage got an
average of 600 more votes than the Socialist candidate got. In
the 4th district suffrage had the advantage of the Socialists by
551 votes; in the 6th it got 600 more votes than Socialism got;
in the 8th it got 656 more. In the 12th, a typical district,
where the Socialists got only 1,822 votes, suffrage got 5,480. In
my own district, the 9th, suffrage and Fusion ran almost neck and
neck, suffrage polling 5,911, Fusion, 5,578; the Socialists
polled only 977. In Brooklyn the 14th, 19th and 23rd assembly
districts are accounted the Socialists' strongholds. In all three
suffrage ran ahead of Socialism. In the 14th suffrage polled a
"yes" vote of 4,052, the Socialists 3,142; in the 19th suffrage
polled 3,608, the Socialists 3,037; in the 23rd suffrage polled
5,060, the Socialists 3,992.
Considering the suffrage vote in Greater New York in comparison
with the vote for Mayor, suffrage polled a "yes" vote of 335,959,
the Socialist candidate only 142,178. The Fusion candidate polled
149,307; the Republican, 53,678; the Democratic, the successful
one, 207,282. Suffrage, therefore, polled 38,677 more affirmative
votes than did the successful candidate. No candidate for Mayor
was in the class with the amendment, though all were for
suffrage.
Others prominent in the suffrage movement, both men and women, made
indignant protest against Mrs. Wadsworth's accusation and pointed to
the splendid organized work of the National Suffrage Association in
cooperation with the Government from the very beginning of the war.
During this week of the convention the Federal Prohibition Amendment
made its triumphant passage through the House, having already passed
the Senate, and the suffragists saw the bitterest opponents of their
amendment on the ground of State's rights throw this doctrine to the
winds in their determination to put through the one for prohibition.
They felt that the adoption of that amendment opened wide the way for
the passing of the one for suffrage in the near future and this was
the view generally taken by the public. Another event in this
remarkable week was the creation and appointment of a Woman Suffrage
Committee in the House of Representatives, for which the association
had been so long and earnestly striving. This was done against the
vigorous opposition of the Judiciary Committee, which for the past
forty years had prevented the question of woman suffrage from coming
before the House for a vote. At this time it reported the Federal
Amendment "without recommendation" and tried to prevent its being
referred to the new committee.
The report of the corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler, for
1917, continued the story of the immense amount of work that had been
done at and through the national headquarters, beginning immediately
after the great impetus of the Atlantic City convention. A nation-wide
campaign was instituted under the three heads set forth by Susan B.
Anthony at the beginning of the movement--Agitate, Educate, Organize.
It was decided to center the effort even more than ever before on the
Federal Amendment and a wide call was sent out for universal
demonstrations in its favor, where a resolution for it would be
adopted. Twenty-six States responded, New York leading with 101 such
meetings. These were followed by visits to State political conventions
to secure endorsements, which met with considerable success, and
candidates for Congress were interviewed in most of the States. There
was advertising in the street cars of Washington during the sessions
of Congress. Carefully selected literature was distributed by the
hundreds of thousands of copies to the clergy, the politicians, the
business men, the rural population; no class was overlooked.
Questionnaires were sent to the equal suffrage States for information
which was compiled in pamphlets. The first experiment in "suffrage
schools," which proved so successful that they were made a permanent
feature of the work, was thus described:
It was the general of our suffrage army, Mrs. Catt, "the
country's greatest expert in efficient suffrage methods," who
first saw the need of suffrage schools and put them into effect
in New York State. She knew the value of systematic training and
realized that our failure many times had not alone been due to
the fact that numbers of women would not work but that those who
were willing were untrained and inefficient. It was at first
proposed to charge for instruction in the schools but this plan
had to be abandoned and the National Association assumed most of
the financial obligation.
Our first school was held in Baltimore in December, 1916. The
manager was Mrs. Livermore, the instructors herself, Mrs. Wilson
and Mrs. Geyer. The second was in Portland, Me., January 8-20,
1917. The nineteen schools were all under the direction of the
organization department. They began with Maryland and extended
through fourteen of the southern and middle-west States, closing
March 30 in Detroit, Mich. Three instructors, Mrs. Halsey Wilson,
Mrs. Cotnam and Miss Doughty, taught Suffrage History and
Argument, Organization, Publicity and Press, Money Raising,
Parliamentary Law. The chairman of organization, Mrs. Shuler,
taught Organization, Parliamentary Law and Money Raising in the
Portland school and in the last five schools of the series.
Mrs. Shuler referred to the war work of the association, which is
described elsewhere, and told of the wide field that had been covered
by organizers, who had reached the number of 225 during the year, many
of them employed by the States. The organization work was classified
and standardized. A conference of organizers met in New York where
they were instructed by Mrs. Catt, and a pamphlet, the A. B. C. of
Organization, was prepared by Mrs. Shuler. As an example of the work
done, nine organizers reported 385 meetings in eleven weeks in 25
States and organization effected in 178 towns. The report told of the
work done from the headquarters for the Presidential suffrage that had
been obtained in various States and in campaigns.
The report of the Committee on Presidential Suffrage was of especial
interest, as for the first time in all the years, with one exception,
there were victories to record. This report had been made annually by
Henry B. Blackwell, editor of _The Woman's Journal_ until his death in
1910, but although he had implicit faith in the possibility of this
partial franchise he did not live to see its first success in Illinois
in 1913. Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates (R. I.) followed him in the
chairmanship but met with an accident which caused her to relinquish
it to Mrs. Robert S. Huse. She believed the granting of this form of
the franchise helped the cause of full suffrage and through a
questionnaire to the different States she had collected much
information as to the best method of handling such bills. All wrote
that the anti-suffragists were supported in their opposition to them
by the liquor interests.
During a discussion of the war work of women Mrs. F. Louis Slade of
New York moved (adopted) that as so large a share of the work of the
Red Cross is done by women, the association request that women be
given adequate representation on the War Council of the American Red
Cross. Miss Yates suggested that Clara Barton's name be introduced
into Mrs. Slade's resolution. Dr. Shaw spoke of the far-reaching
importance of the work Clara Barton had accomplished and of the
unworthy manner in which it had been treated. Mrs. L. H. Engle (Md.)
suggested that the Red Cross be reminded that the plan of having women
nurses in army hospitals had originated with a woman and that the
first military hospital in the world had been established by a woman.
Mrs. Medill McCormick moved that the Chair appoint a committee of
three to confer with the Executive Committee of the American Red
Cross. The Chair appointed Mrs. McCormick as chairman, Mrs. Slade and
Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College.
Mrs. Catt read telegrams from Governor W. P. Hobby of Texas, the
Houston _Chronicle_, the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor inviting
the association to hold the next convention in that city; also "a
telegram from the Mayor of Dallas, Texas, inviting it to meet there.
Fraternal delegates cordially received by the convention were Mrs.
Flora MacDonald Denison, honorary president of the Canadian Suffrage
Association, and Mrs. Philip Moore, president of the National Council
of Women. Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery was presented by Dr. Shaw as having
been corresponding secretary of the association for twenty-one years
and was warmly greeted. Mrs. Frances C. Axtel was introduced as a
former member of the Legislature in Washington, now chairman of the U.
S. Employees' Compensation Commission. Mrs. Margaret Hathaway, a
member of the Montana Legislature, addressed the convention. The Rev.
Olympia Brown told of the memorial of Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, which
she had prepared, and asked the delegates to see that copies were
placed in libraries. Mrs. Catt paid high tribute to Mrs. Brown's many
years of work for woman suffrage. The Rev. James Shera Montgomery, of
the Fourth M. E. Church, and the Rev. Henry N. Couden, Chaplain of the
House of Representatives, pronounced the invocation at the opening of
two sessions.
The elections of the association were models of fairness with no
unnecessary waste of time. Mrs. Catt received all the votes cast for
president but three. All of the other officers but one had only from
10 to 27 opposing votes. Five members of the old board retired at
their own wish, one of them, Miss Meyer, being in the war service in
France. Mrs. McCormick, Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Shuler were re-elected.
The new members were Miss Mary Garrett Hay (N. Y.), second
vice-president; Mrs. Guilford Dudley (Tenn.) third; Mrs. Raymond Brown
(N. Y.) fourth and Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.) fifth; Mrs. Halsey
Wilson (N. Y.) recording secretary. The convention had voted to drop
the two auditors from the list of officers and substitute two
vice-presidents. A board of directors was elected for the first time,
in the order of the votes received as follows: Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw
(N. Y.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. Y.); Mrs. Nonie Mahoney (Tex.); Mrs.
Horace C. Stilwell (Ind.); Dr. Mary A. Safford (Fla.); Mrs. T. T.
Cotnam (Ark.); Mrs. Charles H. Brooks (Kans.); Mrs. Arthur L.
Livermore (N. Y.).
In place of a flowery speech of acceptance Mrs. Catt laid out more and
still more work and outlined a plan of organization for uniting the
women of the enfranchised States in an association which should be
auxiliary to the National American. Each State association would upon
enfranchisement automatically become a member of this organization
with an elected working committee of five persons, these State
committees to be finally united in a central body to be known as the
National League of Women Voters. [Handbook of convention, page 48.]
Besides the obvious advantages, she suggested that such an
organization would provide a way for recently enfranchised States to
maintain intact their suffrage associations for the benefit of work on
the Federal Amendment.[113]
One of the most vital reports was that of the treasurer, Mrs. Henry
Wade Rogers. It was a remarkable story especially to those who
remembered the time when the receipts of the association for the whole
year did not exceed $2,000, laboriously collected by Miss Anthony,
with possibly a little assistance, in subscriptions of from $5 to $10
with one of $50 regarded as high water mark. The report began: "Our
fiscal year closed October 31 with a balance of $11,985 in the
treasury and in addition to this our books showed investments of
$19,061, the interest of which we have received during the year." The
feeling of many suffragists that they wished to use all their money
for war work retarded contributions but the example of the National
Association was pointed out, which undertook a widespread war service,
as the treasury had proved, but did not leave its legitimate suffrage
work undone. Mrs. Rogers, whose gratuitous services as treasurer had
proved of the highest value to the association, told of the help of
her committee of forty-two members in the various States and presented
her report carefully audited by expert accountants. It showed
expenditures for the year of $803,729. This covered the expenses of
the two headquarters, congressional work, State campaigns, publicity
and organization throughout the United States. Mrs. Catt's plan to
raise a million dollar fund for 1917 had met a generous response and
had not lacked a great deal of fulfilment. Pledges to the amount of
$120,000 were made for the coming year, the Leslie Commission leading
with $15,000, Mrs. William Thaw, Jr., of Pittsburgh subscribed
$12,000; Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw of Boston, $5,000; Mrs. Katharine
Dexter McCormick, $2,000; Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Joseph Fels, Mrs. V. Everit
Macy of New York; Mrs. Wirt Dexter of Boston; Mrs. Arthur Ryerson,
Mrs. Cyrus H. McCormick of Chicago, $1,000 each.
The plan of work for the coming year provided for concentration on
securing the submission of the Federal Amendment and the following was
adopted: "If the Sixty-fifth Congress fails to submit the Federal
Amendment before the next congressional election this association
shall select and enter into such a number of senatorial and
congressional campaigns as will effect a change in both Houses of
Congress sufficient to insure its passage. The selection of candidates
to be opposed is to be left to the Executive Board and to the boards
of the States in question. Our opposition to individual candidates
shall not be based on party considerations, and loyalty to the Federal
Amendment shall not take precedence over loyalty to the country."
It was resolved that a compact of State associations willing and
ready to conduct such campaigns should be formed. It was directed that
the six departments of war work should be continued and that each
State association should be asked to establish a War Service Committee
composed of a chairman and the chairmen of these departments, with an
additional one for Liberty Loans, and that this committee cooperate
with the State divisions of the Woman's Committee of National Defense.
In addition to the resolution of loyalty to the Government at the
beginning of the convention the following, submitted by the committee,
Miss Blackwell chairman, were among those adopted:
Whereas, the war is demanding from women unprecedented labor and
sacrifices and women by millions are responding with utmost
loyalty and devotion; and
Whereas, Abraham Lincoln, writing of woman suffrage, declared
that all should share the privileges of the government who assist
in bearing its burdens; and
Whereas, it is important to a country in war even more than in
peace that all its loyal citizens should be equipped with the
most up-to-date tools; therefore be it
Resolved, that we urge Congress, as a war measure, to submit to
the States an amendment to the United States Constitution
providing for the nation-wide enfranchisement of women.
That we rejoice this year in the most important victories yet won
in the history of the cause. Since January 1, 1917, women have
received full suffrage in New York, practically full suffrage in
Arkansas, Presidential suffrage in Rhode Island, Michigan and
Indiana, Presidential and Municipal suffrage in Nebraska and
North Dakota, statewide Municipal suffrage in Vermont, local
Municipal suffrage in seven cities of Ohio, Florida and Tennessee
and nation-wide suffrage in Canada and Russia; while the British
House of Commons has gone on record in favor of full suffrage for
women by a vote of seven to one.
That we pledge our unswerving loyalty to our country and the
continuance of our aid in patriotic service to help make the
world safe for democracy both at home and abroad.
That we pledge our unqualified support to the campaign for the
sale of the War Savings Certificates and Thrift Stamps and urge
our members to aid it in every way....
That we urge the establishment of the economic principle of equal
pay for equal work as vital to the welfare of the nation....
That an American-born woman should not lose her nationality by
marrying a foreigner and we urge a change of the law in this
respect.
A resolution of gratitude to the memory of the many earnest workers
for woman suffrage who had passed away during the year was adopted
and letters of greeting were sent to the pioneers still living. A
message of love and admiration was sent to Mrs. Catherine Breshkovsky,
"the grandmother of the Russian Revolution." "Cordial and grateful
appreciation for the inestimable service of the press," was voted.
The program for the last evening was devoted to Women's War Service
Abroad. Miss Helen Fraser, representing Great Britain, was here on a
special mission from its Government to tell what its women were doing.
The audience was deeply moved by her simple but thrilling recital of
the unparalleled sacrifices of the women of Great Britain and its
colonies. Madame Simon pictured in eloquent language how the war had
strengthened the devotion of France to America, not only through the
unequalled assistance of this Government in money and soldiers but
also through the sympathy and help of the American women. Miss C. M.
Bouimistrow, a member of the Russian Relief Council, spoke of the warm
feeling of that country for the United States and the bond between
them created by the war in which they had a common enemy. Mrs. Nellie
McClung, a leader of the Canadian suffragists, described what the war
had meant to the women of the Dominion, and, as the _Woman Citizen_
said in its account, "kept her hearers wavering between laughter and
tears as she hid her own emotion behind a veil of stoicism and humor."
The convention ended with a mass meeting at the theater on Sunday
afternoon at three o'clock with a notable audience such as can
assemble only in Washington. Mrs. Catt presided. Mrs. McClung told
enthusiastically the story of How Suffrage Came to the Women of Canada
in 1916 and 1917, and Miss Fraser related how the work of women during
the war had made it impossible for the British Government longer to
deny them the franchise, that now only awaited the assent of the House
of Lords, which was near at hand. It was always left to Dr. Shaw to
finish the program. One who had attended many suffrage conventions
said of her at this time: "As ever, Dr. Shaw's oratory was a marked
feature of the week's proceedings. Sometimes she was the able advocate
of loyalty to the country; sometimes she rose to heights of
supplication for an applied democracy which shall include women;
sometimes the mischief that is in her bubbled and sparkled to the
surface."
Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with ringing words of inspiration, with a
call for more and better work than had ever been done before and with
a prophecy that the long-awaited victory was almost won. This
convention, which had been held under such unfavorable auspices,
proved to have been one of the best in way of accomplishment, and,
although the papers were overflowing with news of the war, they came
to the national suffrage press bureau from 44 States with excellent
accounts of the convention; there were over 300 illustrated "stories"
and it was estimated that it had received half a million words of
"publicity."
* * * * *
It had been customary to have a hearing on the Federal Suffrage
Amendment before the committees of every new Congress and this year an
extra session had been called in the spring. As the question of a
special Committee on Woman Suffrage in the Lower House was under
consideration no hearing before its Judiciary Committee was asked for
but a hearing took place before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage
April 20. This was largely a matter of routine as the entire committee
was ready to report favorably the resolution for the amendment.
Chairman Jones announced that the entire forenoon had been set apart
for the hearing, which would be in charge of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs.
Catt said: "The Senate Committee of Woman Suffrage was established in
1883. Thirty-four years have passed since then and seventeen
Congresses. We confidently believe that we are appearing before the
last of these committees and that it will be your immortal fame, Mr.
Chairman, to present the last report for woman suffrage to the United
States Senate." With words of highest praise she introduced Senator
John F. Shafroth of Colorado, "who has been our staunch and unfailing
friend through trial and adversity."
Senator Shafroth answered conclusively from the twenty-four years'
experience of his State the stock objections to woman suffrage, which
he declared to be "simply another step in the evolution of government
which has been going on since the dawn of civilization." He asked to
have printed as part of his speech two chapters of Mrs. Catt's new
book Woman Suffrage by Constitutional Amendment, which was so ordered.
Senator Kendrick of Wyoming, former Governor, gave his experience of
woman suffrage in that State for thirty-eight years. He declared that
the early settlers were of the type of the Revolutionary Fathers and
gladly gave to woman any right they claimed. He testified to the help
he had received from them "in the promotion of every piece of
progressive legislation" and said: "If for no other reason than the
forces that are fighting woman suffrage, every decent man ought to
line up in favor of it." He closed as follows: "Here and now I want to
give this Constitutional Amendment my unqualified endorsement. No
State that has adopted woman suffrage has ever even considered a plan
to get along without it. It is soon realized that the votes of women
are not for sale at any price, and, while they align themselves with
the different parties, one thing is always and preeminently true--they
never fail to put principle above partisanship and patriotism above
patronage." Senator William Howard Thompson of Kansas sketched the
steady progress of woman suffrage in his State, told of its beneficent
results and submitted a comprehensive address which he had made before
the Senate in 1914.
The committee listened with much interest to the first woman member of
Congress, Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who reviewed the
almost insurmountable difficulties of amending many State
constitutions for woman suffrage and made an earnest plea for the
Federal Amendment. Senator Charles S. Thomas of Colorado, who for the
past twenty-five years had been a consistent and never failing friend
of woman suffrage, said in beginning: "I learned this lesson in my
early manhood by reading the addresses of and listening to such
advocates as Susan B. Anthony," and he summed up his strong speech by
saying: "The matter is simply one of abstract and of concrete justice.
We cannot preach universal suffrage unless we practice it and we can
never practice it while fifty per cent. of our population is
disfranchised." Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, to whom the women of his
State could always look for help in this and every other good cause,
said in his brief remarks: "I have for many years watched the work and
the sacrifices by many of the best women of this country to bring this
question before the people and convince them of its justice and
righteousness and I have gloried with them in every victory they have
won. Nothing on earth will stop it. The country will not much longer
tolerate it that a woman shall have the privilege of voting in one
State and upon moving into another be disfranchised."
Mrs. Catt stated that Senators Chamberlain of Oregon and Johnson of
California, were not able to be present and asked that the favorable
speeches they would have made be put in the Congressional Record,
which was granted. Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana made a thorough
analysis of the attitude of the Federal Constitution toward suffrage
and its gradual extension and declared that it was now "the duty of
the government to see that every one of its citizens was assured of
this fundamental right." The hearing was closed by Mrs. Catt with a
comprehensive review of the status of woman suffrage throughout the
world and the naming of the many countries where it prevailed. She
pointed out that Great Britain and her colonies had recognized the
political rights of women as the United States had never done, and,
now that they were to be called on for the supreme sacrifices of the
war, the British Government was granting them the franchise, which our
own Government was still withholding. "This fact," she said, "has
saddened the lives of women, it has dimmed their vision of American
ideals and lowered their respect for our Government. The tremendous
capacity of women for constructive work, for upbuilding the best in
civilization and for enthusiastic patriotism has been crushed. In
consequence this greatest force for good has been minimized and the
entire nation is the loser." Senator Walsh's and Mrs. Catt's speeches
were printed in a separate pamphlet and circulated by the thousands.
On April 26 the Senate Committee granted a hearing to that branch of
the suffrage movement called the National Woman's Party. Miss Anne
Martin, its vice-chairman, presided and able speeches were made by
Mrs. Mary Ritter Beard and Mrs. Rheta Childe Dorr of New York; Mrs.
Richard F. Wainwright of the District; Miss Madeline Z. Doty and Miss
Ernestine Evans, war correspondents; Miss Alice Carpenter, chairman of
the New York Women's Navy League; Miss Rankin and Dudley Field Malone,
collector of the port of New York. On May 3 the National Anti-Suffrage
Association claimed a hearing. Its president, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge,
introduced the president of the New York branch, the wife of U. S.
Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., who presided. The speakers were Miss
Minnie Bronson, national secretary; Miss Lucy Price of Ohio; Judge
Oscar Leser of Maryland and Mrs. A. J. George of Massachusetts. Their
speeches, which fill twenty pages of the printed report, comprise a
full resume of the arguments against the enfranchisement of women and
will be read with curiosity by future students of this question. On
May 15, at the request of the National Woman's Party, the committee
granted a supplementary hearing at which the speakers were J. A. H.
Hopkins of New Jersey, representing the new Progressive party being
organized; John Spargo of Vermont, representing the Socialist Party;
Virgil Henshaw, national chairman of the Prohibition party and Miss
Mabel Vernon. They gave to the committee copies of a "memorial" which
they had presented to President Wilson urging immediate action by
Congress. It was signed also by former Governor David I. Walsh of
Massachusetts for the Progressive Democrats and Edward A. Rumely for
the Progressive Republicans. The pamphlet of these four hearings, of
which the Senate Committee furnished 10,000 copies, was widely used
for propaganda.
A hearing was held on May 18 before the Committee on Rules of the
Lower House, with the entire membership present: Representatives
Edward W. Pou, N. C.; chairman; James C. Cantrill, Ky.; Martin D.
Foster, Ills.; Finis J. Garrett, Tenn.; "Pat" Harrison, Miss.; M.
Clyde Kelly, Penn.; Irvine L. Lenroot, Wis.; Daniel J. Riordan, N. Y.;
Thomas D. Schall, Minn.; Bertrand H. Snell, N. Y.; William R. Wood,
Ind. Its purpose was to urge favorable report for a Committee on Woman
Suffrage. The speakers for the National American Suffrage Association
were Judge Raker, Representatives Jeannette Rankin of Montana; Edward
T. Taylor of Colorado; Frank W. Mondell of Wyoming and Edward Keating
of Colorado; Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman, and Mrs. Helen H.
Gardener, member of the association's Congressional Committee. The
speakers for the National Woman's Party were Miss Martin, Miss Maud
Younger, Mrs. Wainwright, Miss Vernon, Representatives George F.
O'Shaughnessy of Rhode Island; C. N. McArthur of Oregon; Carl Hayden
of Arizona. On December 13 a Committee on Woman Suffrage was
appointed.
FOOTNOTES:
[107] Signed: Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president; Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt, president; Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, Mrs. Stanley
McCormick and Miss Esther G. Ogden, vice-presidents; Mrs. Frank J.
Shuler, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith,
recording secretary; Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer; Mrs. Pattie
Ruffner Jacobs, auditor; Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman Congressional
Committee; Miss Rose Young, chairman of Press; Mrs. Arthur L.
Livermore, chairman of Literature.
[108] On the list were: All the members of the Cabinet except
Secretary of State Lansing; nineteen U.S. Senators and fourteen
prominent Representatives; Speaker Champ Clark; U.S. Commissioner of
Education Philander P. Claxton; Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
Carl Vrooman; Justices of the Supreme Court of the District Wendell P.
Stafford and Frederick L. Siddons; Secretary to the President Joseph
P. Tumulty; Commissioners of the District Louis Brownlow and W. Gwynn
Gardiner; former Commissioners Henry F. MacFarland and Simon Wolf;
Major Raymond S. Pullman, Chief of Police; Resident Commissioner and
Mme. Jaime De Veyra (Philippine Islands); Resident Commissioner Felix
C. Davila (Porto Rico); John Barrett, director of the Pan-American
Union; Major-General W. C. Gorgas; the Reverends U. G. B. Pierce,
Henry N. Couden, chaplain of the House of Representatives; James Shera
Montgomery, Rabbi Abram Simon, John Van Schaick, president of the
School Board; Theodore Noyes, editor of the _Evening Star_; Arthur
Brisbane, the _Times_; C. T. Brainerd, the Washington _Herald_; W. P.
Spurgeon, the Washington _Post_; Gilbert Grosvenor, editor of the
_National Geographic Magazine_; J. Leftwich Sinclair, president, and
Thomas Grant, secretary of the Washington Chamber of Commerce; Dr.
Harry A. Garfield, president Williams College and director Fuel
Administration for the United States; Edward P. Costigan, U. S. Tariff
Commission; Frank A. Vanderlip, V. Everit Macy, on War Boards; Samuel
Gompers, president American Federation of Labor; Alexander Graham
Bell; Gifford Pinchot; Dr. Ryan Devereux; General Julian S. Carr,
commander-in-chief United Confederate Veterans.
Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of the Children's Bureau; Mrs. Mary C. C.
Bradford, president, and Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, secretary National
Education Association; Mrs. George Thacher Guernsey, president-general
Daughters of the American Revolution; Mrs. Cordelia R. P. Odenheimer,
president-general Daughters of the Confederacy; Miss Janet Richards;
Mrs. Charles Boughton Wood; Mrs. Blaine Beale; Mrs. Ellis Meredith;
Mrs. Christian Hemmick; Mrs. Herbert C. Hoover; Mrs. A. Garrison
McClintock.
[109] The names of the thirteen were given as follows: Miss Heloise
Meyer of Massachusetts, first auditor of the association, scheduled
for canteen work in France. Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, member of the
Congressional Committee of the association, now on governmental
assignment in Europe. Miss Irene C. Boyd, of the New York Suffrage
Party, serving in a United States base hospital with the American
Expeditionary Forces in France. Dr. Esther Pohl-Lovejoy of Portland,
Ore., serving with the party sent by the "Fund for French Wounded."
Miss Mary W. Dewson, chairman of legislative committee of the
Massachusetts Suffrage Association, social worker in France at the
call of Major Grayson M. P. Murphy. Miss Lodovine LeMoyne, publicity
chairman of the Fall River Equal Suffrage League, serving in a United
States base hospital with the American Expeditionary Forces in France.
Miss Elizabeth G. Bissell, corresponding secretary of the Iowa Equal
Suffrage Association in the French Red Cross canteen. Miss Susan P.
Ryerson, former corresponding secretary Chicago Equal Suffrage
Association, now bacteriological expert attached to base hospital in
France. Miss Lucile Atcherson, of the Ohio association, serving as
secretary to Miss Anne Morgan in her relief work in France. To these
nine will be added the names of the four doctors leading the New York
Infirmary Hospital Unit, which is now seeking the support and
authorization of the National Suffrage Association--Caroline Finley,
Mary Lee Edwards, Anna Von Sholly and Alice Gregory.
[110] See Mrs. McCormick's complete account in the last chapter on The
War Work of Organized Suffragists prepared for this volume.
[111] This Address to Congress in handsome pamphlet form was presented
to every member in person by the various women of the association's
Congressional Committee. After the Federal Amendment was submitted by
Congress it was revised, printed under the title An Address to
Legislatures, and through the mail or by the State suffrage workers
was put into the hands of every one of the 6,000 members of the
forty-eight State Legislatures.
[112] For information regarding the bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie see
Appendix.
[113] This organization, originated by Mrs. Catt even to the name, was
effected at the national convention in St. Louis, March, 1919.
CHAPTER XVIII.
NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1918-1919.
For the first time since it was founded in 1869 the National American
Woman Suffrage Association in 1918 omitted its annual convention.
Suffragists were accustomed to strenuous effort but this year strained
to the last ounce the strength of all engaged in national work. The
Congressional Committee could not secure the respite of a single day
and were summoning women from all parts of the country for service in
Washington and demanding extra work from them at home, telegrams,
letters, influence from the constituencies, etc. There was a vote Jan.
10, 1918, in the Lower House and a continual pressure from that moment
to get a vote in the Senate, which did not come till October and was
adverse. Then the committee pushed on without stopping. Mrs. Shuler,
the corresponding secretary, had been in the Michigan, South Dakota
and Oklahoma campaigns all summer and was exhausted. The three States
were carried for suffrage and when the election was over all the
forces were used to obtain Presidential suffrage in the big
legislative year beginning January, 1919. It was a question of
pressing forward to victory or stopping to prepare for and hold a
convention and lose the opportunities for gains in Congress.
During the first ten months of 1918 the vast conflict in Europe had
gone steadily on; the United States had sent over millions of soldiers
and other millions were in training camps on this side of the ocean;
transportation was blocked; the advanced cost of living had brought
distress to many households; thousands of families were in mourning,
and everywhere suffragists were devoting time and strength to those
heavy burdens of war which always fall on women. By November 1, when
it would have been necessary to issue the call for a convention, there
was no prospect of a change in these hard conditions, and when on
November 11 the Armistice was suddenly declared no one was interested
in anything but the end of the war and its world-wide aftermath.[114]
During the dark days of 1918, however, there had come a tremendous
advance in the status of woman suffrage. The magnificent way in which
women had met the demands of war, their patriotic service, their
loyalty to the Government, had swept away the old-time objections to
their enfranchisement and fully established their right to full
equality in all the privileges of citizenship. Early in the winter the
Lower House of Congress by a two-thirds vote declared in favor of
submitting to the Legislatures an amendment to the Federal
Constitution, the object for which the National Suffrage Association
had been formed, and the Parliament of Great Britain had fully
enfranchised the majority of its women. In the spring the Canadian
Parliament conferred full Dominion suffrage on women. Before and after
the Armistice the nations of Europe that had overthrown their Emperors
and Kings gave women equal voting rights with men. In November at
their State elections, Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma gave
complete suffrage to women. The U. S. Senate was still holding out by
a majority of two against submitting the Federal Amendment but it was
almost universally recognized that the seventy years' struggle for
woman suffrage in this country was nearing the end.
With the opening of the year 1919 the progress was evident by the
addition of seven more States to those whose Legislatures had granted
the Presidential franchise to women; that of Tennessee included
Municipal suffrage and that of Texas had given Primary suffrage the
preceding year. The situation now seemed to require an early
convention of the National Association and the time was especially
opportune, as this year marked the 50th anniversary of its founding. A
Call was issued, therefore, for a Jubilee Convention to be held in
March, fifteen months after the one of 1917. As it was the intention
to launch the organization of Women Voters it was decided to meet in
the central part of the country and the invitation of St. Louis was
accepted.[115]
The Report of the annual convention of 1901, with which this volume
begins, filled 130 printed pages; the Report of 1919 filled 322, which
makes a complete account of its proceedings impracticable. Their
character had been changing from year to year and at this convention
it was almost transformed. At the public evening meetings there were
no longer eloquent pleas and arguments for the ballot and the daytime
sessions were not devoted to discussions of the many phases of the
work. Now there was business and political consideration of the best
and quickest methods of bringing the movement to an end and the most
effective use that could be made of the suffrage already so largely
won. It was a little difficult for some of the older workers to
accustom themselves to the change, which deprived the convention of
its old-time crusading, consecrated spirit, but the younger ones were
full of ardor and enthusiasm over the limitless opportunities that
were nearly within their grasp.
On Sunday evening the national officers and directors held an informal
reception in the Hotel Statler for the delegates and all the sessions
were held in this hotel, with the two evening mass meetings in the
Odeon Theater. The convention opened Monday evening, March 24, with
the president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair. Dr. Anna Howard
Shaw, who was an ordained Methodist minister, pronounced the
invocation and the community singing at this and all sessions was led
by Mrs. W.D. Steele of St. Louis.[116] The Mayor, Henry W. Kiel,
extended a cordial welcome to the city and pledged his earnest support
of woman suffrage. Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, president of the Missouri
suffrage association, gave the welcome from the State. Mrs. B.
Morrison Fuller, president of the Daughters of Pioneers, brought their
greeting and referred to a convention held in St. Louis in 1872,
introducing three ladies who were present at that time.
Dr. Shaw, honorary president, took the chair and presented Mrs. Catt.
Her address, The Nation Calls, was a strong appeal for an organization
of Women Voters to be formed in the States where they were
enfranchised. The plan was outlined and she asked: "Shall the women
voters go forward doing their work as free women in the great world
while the non-free women are left to struggle on alone toward liberty
unattained?" She showed how powerful an influence such a coordinated
body could wield and among its primary objects she pointed out the
Federal Suffrage Amendment, corrections in the present laws and true
democracy for the world. She named nine vital needs of the Government
at the present time, to which the proposed organization could
contribute--compulsory education, English the national language,
education of adults, higher qualifications for citizenship, direct
citizenship for women and not through marriage, compulsory lessons in
citizenship through foreign language papers, oath of allegiance as
qualification for citizenship, schools of citizenship in every city
ward and rural district and an educational requirement for voting.
This comprehensive and convincing address is given in part in the
chapter on The League of Women Voters, by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler,
corresponding secretary. It showed beyond question the great work that
awaited the action of women endowed with political power and it swept
away all doubts of the necessity for this new organization to which
Mrs. Catt and her committee had given so much time and thought.
Throughout the convention the League was the dominating feature,
meetings being held daily to discuss its organization, constitution,
objects, methods, officers, etc.
At the close of Mrs. Catt's address Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee,
with a group of sixteen women from as many southern States came to the
platform and with eloquent words presented her and Dr. Shaw with large
framed parchments on which President Wilson's appeal to the Senate for
the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment Sept. 30, 1918, was
beautifully wrought in illuminated letters by the artist Scapecchi. At
Mrs. Catt's request Dr. Shaw made the response for both of them.
Tuesday morning the convention was cordially welcomed to the city by
Mrs. George Gellhorn, president of the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League
and chairman of local arrangements. There were present 329 delegates,
seventeen officers and three chairmen of standing committees. The
chair announced that because of the crowded program the separate
reports of officers and committee chairmen, which always had been read
to the conventions, would be replaced with a general report of the
year's work by Mrs. Shuler, chairman of Campaigns and Surveys. This
report was a remarkably comprehensive survey of the varied work of the
association. After recounting the gains in the States she said:
Our question is now political. The past year has seen suffrage by
Federal Amendment endorsed by twenty-one Democratic and twenty
Republican State conventions; by all those of the minor parties
and by many State Central Committees, while many others have
approved the principle of equal suffrage by a large vote. In
July, 1918, our second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay,
was made chairman of the platform committee at the State
Republican conference in Saratoga, N. Y., a distinct suffrage
victory, inasmuch as the men realized that in thus signally
honoring her they were honoring the woman, who, by her work in
winning the suffrage campaign in New York City, had made possible
the victory in the State. Miss Hay has since been made a member
of the Republican State Executive Committee and chairman of the
Executive Committee Woman's Division of the Republican National
Committee.
The work of the last fifteen months has been accomplished under
most trying and difficult conditions. Many women under the
allurement of war work dropped suffrage work altogether, and
could not be persuaded that it was necessary at this time; others
were unable to endure the criticism that they would be "slackers"
if they did anything besides war work; still others thought if
they did this well that men, "seeing their good works" would
"reward them openly" with the ballot.
Mobilization: The mobilization of our suffrage army came April
18, 1918, with the call for the Executive Council meeting at
Indianapolis. At that time Mrs. Catt, our chief, plainly stated
that there could be no "go it alone" campaigns but that
provincial shackles must be dropped, nation-wide plans adopted
and constructive cooperation from all branches assured. Her plans
were accepted unanimously. On May 14 a bulletin was issued asking
for a nation-wide protest campaign against further delay in
passing the Federal Amendment. Resolutions were to be passed by
State bodies and points given to be stressed at mass meetings and
in publicity. Resolutions of protest were sent from the women of
the Allied countries of Europe to the President of the United
States; from National Republican and Democratic Committees;
General Federation of Women's Clubs; National Women's Trade Union
League; American Collegiate Alumnae; American Nurses' Association;
National Education Association; National Convention of Business
Women; Woman's Christian Temperance Union; American Federation of
Labor. Many States responded with resolutions from State
political parties, press associations, churches, granges, labor
and business organizations, political leaders and large numbers
of citizens.
Our Fighting Units: From honorary president to the last director,
every member of the board of the National Association had some
part in war work. Our service flag representing suffrage
officials of our branches carried twenty-five stars. Dr. Shaw,
Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick were conscripted for the Woman's
Committee of the National Council of Defense; Mrs. Catt for the
Liberty Loan's National List; Miss Hay, Mrs. Gardener and Mrs.
Dudley for Congressional and Mrs. Brown for Oversea Hospitals
work. Other members of the board were sent from time to time to
various States on special missions.
Congressional Work: Mrs. Rogers went to New Jersey; Mrs. Wilson
and Mrs. Stilwell to Delaware and Mrs. Livermore to New Hampshire
for work connected with the Federal Amendment. Mrs. Wilson
attended the State suffrage conventions in Maine, Rhode Island,
New Hampshire and made a longer stay in Florida and Vermont. Mrs.
Shuler went to the three campaign States twice, spending five
weeks in South Dakota, holding a suffrage school there; five
weeks in Michigan and nearly five months in Oklahoma, later going
to West Virginia. Others who were sent by the National
Association on special missions were Miss Louise Hall, Mrs.
Fitzgerald, Mrs. Anna C. Tillinghast and Miss Eva Potter to New
Hampshire; Miss Mabel Willard to Delaware; Mrs. Cunningham, Miss
Marjorie Shuler and Mrs. Mary Grey Brewer to Florida, while Mrs.
Brewer made a trip as special envoy to five of the western
States. Our nineteen national organizers have been in twenty
States. In eighteen part or all of the expenses have been borne
by the National Association. At present we have ten organizers in
the field.
To the one who has made our victories possible, our national and
international president, Mrs. Catt, women owe a debt of gratitude
that can never be paid. Her strength and sagacity, her unerring
judgment and masterful leadership have acted as a stimulus and
inspiration, not only to those of us who have been privileged to
work at close range but also to the women of the entire world.
Our national suffrage headquarters have been a place of peace and
happiness because of her patience, good-nature and sympathy. Her
battle for the past fifteen months has been with adverse
conditions and reactionary forces, which are always the hardest
to combat, but not once has her courage faltered or her strength
of purpose failed.
Our Ammunition: At national headquarters in New York City our
work is departmentalized and functions through the Leslie Bureau
of Suffrage Education under three department heads: The _Woman
Citizen_, Press Bureau and Research. These cooperate with a
fourth department, the National Publishing Company, and all are
so closely co-ordinated that they work as one.
The _Woman Citizen_--Our National Organ. (See special report.) As
you will remember, the Leslie Commission took over the Press
Bureau March, 1917, and since then has paid all of its expenses.
In order to keep our official machinery moving, there are about
fifty people on the two floors at 171 Madison Avenue, New York.
Circularization: The _Woman Citizen_ has been sent each week to
members of Congress and on thirty different occasions they
received literature prepared in the most tempting fashion for
their instruction and edification. Mrs. Catt put into operation
the plan for resolutions from the Legislatures calling upon the
Senate to pass the Federal Suffrage Amendment. These from
twenty-four States were read into the Congressional Record, and
while they did not put the Federal Amendment through they were
effective as showing the nation-wide urge for favorable action.
The Legislatures themselves were circularized with excellent
literature.
In February, 1918, a bulletin was sent to State presidents
offering one or more traveling libraries of sixty-two volumes,
the Leslie Commission to pay expenses to the State and its
association to pay them within the State. A library could be held
one year. Quantities of literature have been sent to the States
for distribution while requests for special literature have
received prompt attention.
The activity regarding the appointment of a woman or women on the
Peace Commission originated in the national office and stirred
the people of the entire country. On Dec. 8, 1918, the
association held a meeting of war workers in the National Theatre
in Washington, D. C., to protest against further delay in the
Senate on the Federal Amendment. Twenty-seven delegates
representing the association attended the eight congresses held
throughout the United States in the interest of the League of
Nations.
Field Work. The resolution committing the National Association to
an aggressive policy was passed at its convention of 1917. It
read: "If the 65th Congress fails to submit the Federal Amendment
before the next Congressional election the association shall
select and enter into such a number of campaigns as will effect a
change in both houses of Congress sufficient to insure its
passage."
October came; the November elections were approaching; the 65th
Congress had failed to pass the amendment. Probabilities had to
be weighed which would produce the necessary two votes if
possible and it was decided to enter the campaigns in New
Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Delaware. The first two
were at no time specially hopeful, as they were likely to poll
Republican majorities and the Republican Senatorial candidates of
both were against woman suffrage. However, as a result of the
work done in New Jersey, Senator Baird fell much behind his
ticket, while in New Hampshire the women and the advertising made
so strong a case for the pro-suffrage candidate that for a day or
two the result was in doubt, but it was finally declared that
Moses had won by 1,200 votes.... The two most important and
successful contests were in Massachusetts against the Republican
Senator Weeks; in Delaware against the Democratic Senator
Saulsbury....
Under the sub-title "In the trenches" Mrs. Shuler told of the three
great State campaigns of the year in Michigan, South Dakota and
Oklahoma (described in the chapters for those States) and said:
The National Association gave to these States eighteen
organizers, all of whom rendered valuable service. It gave plate
matter at a cost of $4,600; 100,000 posters, 1,528,000 pieces of
literature, eighteen street banners and 50,000 buttons. It gave
to South Dakota a "suffrage school," June 3-20, sessions in the
daytime in seven cities and street meetings in ten of the nearby
towns in the evenings. The sending of Miss Marjorie Shuler as
press chairman to Oklahoma enabled it to issue 126,000 copies of
a suffrage supplement and supply 300 papers with weekly
bulletins, information service and two half-pages of plate. These
three campaigns cost the association $30,720. This was the
financial cost, but the immense output of time and energy by the
women cannot be computed. It is safe to say that all of them as
they emerged from this trench warfare again questioned the
advisability of trying to secure suffrage by the State route.
Mrs. Shuler's fine report closed with an optimistic peroration on
Seeing it Through. [See Handbook of convention.]
The carefully audited report of the treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers,
showed almost incredible collections during a period when the war was
making its endless calls for money. In part it was as follows: "The
year 1918 has been a very remarkable one for the national suffrage
treasury. The large demands of the war on every individual, both for
money and work, seemed to forebode financial difficulties for us
before the close of our fiscal year. Instead, the response to the
needs of our treasury was never more fully met, both in the payment of
pledges made at the last convention and in securing new pledges and
donations. Early in the year the treasurer was asked to assume also
the duties of treasurer of the association's Women's Oversea Hospitals
Committee and this fund has passed regularly through the treasury,
amounting in all to $133,339. The very generous and hearty response of
the State suffrage associations to the demands of our Oversea
Hospitals' war work has been most gratifying and its financing has not
diminished the regular income of the association.... About one-third
of the association's income has been received from the State
auxiliaries and two-thirds from individual donations. The receipts for
suffrage work were $107,736; balance on hand $11,874." [The Leslie
Commission contributed $20,000.]