conveying his greetings and best wishes for the success of the Federal
Amendment. On motion of Dr. Shaw the convention sent to the President
an expression of its appreciation of his support. Mrs. Philip North
Moore, president of the National Council of Women, brought its
fraternal greetings. Others were received from far and wide.... On
motion of Mrs. Shuler a telegram of appreciation was sent to Mrs.
Helen H. Gardener of Washington, and on motion of Dr. Shaw one to Mrs.
Ida Husted Harper of New York. A message of sympathy in the loss of
her husband was sent to the veteran suffragist, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton
Harbert of Pasadena, formerly of Chicago. It was voted that letters
from the convention should be sent to the pioneers, Dr. Antoinette
Brown Blackwell, Miss Rhoda Palmer, Mrs. Charlotte Pierce, Miss Emily
Howland and Mrs. C. D. B. Mills.
During the convention the Legislature of Missouri passed the bill
giving Presidential suffrage to women by 21 to 12 in the Senate and
118 to 2 in the House. The convention sent a message of enthusiastic
appreciation. [For full account see Missouri chapter.] Miss Anna B.
Lawther, president of the Iowa Suffrage Association, requested the
National Association and the League of Women Voters to appeal to the
Legislature of that State to pass a similar bill. Mrs. Dudley of
Tennessee and Miss Mary Bulkley of Connecticut made the same request
for these States and it was granted for all three. Mrs. Frederick
Nathan (N. Y.) urged the suffragists to contribute to the Women's
Roosevelt Memorial Association. Mrs. Gellhorn's young daughter was
introduced as having recently organized a Junior Suffrage League in
St. Louis of thirty-two members. Mrs. Katharine Philips Edson (Cal.)
announced that though it had no regular suffrage organization,
Northern and Southern California each had telegraphed a contribution
of $500 to the work of the National Association.
The present policies of the association were endorsed. The reason
given for wishing the officers to hold over until the next annual
convention in 1920 was that the complete ratification of the Federal
Amendment by that time was considered certain and these officers would
be best fitted to close up the affairs of the association, which would
then be merged into the League of Woman Voters. From the list of
candidates the following eight directors were elected: Mrs. George
Gellhorn (Mo.); Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.); Mrs. C. H. Brooks
(Kans.); Mrs. Ben Hooper (Wis.); Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.);
Mrs. J. C. Cantrill (Ky.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. Y.); Mrs. George
A. Piersol (Penn.). Mrs. Brooks, Mrs. Livermore and Miss Ogden were
re-elected.
The afternoon session of Tuesday was devoted to suffrage war work,
with Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, chairman of the War Service
Department, presiding. At the meeting of the Executive Council of the
National Association in Washington, in February, 1917, just before the
United States entered the war, it formed a number of committees in
order that the suffragists throughout the country might do their
especial work for it under the same generalship as they were
accustomed to, and later chairmen of these committees were appointed
to organize and superintend State branches. At the present session of
the national convention these chairmen reported as follows: General
Survey of War Program, Mrs. McCormick (N. Y.); Food Production, Miss
Hilda Loines (N. Y.); Americanization, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley
(Mass.); Child Welfare, Mrs. Percy Pennybacker (Tex.); Industrial
Protection of Women, Mrs. Gifford Pinchot (D. C.); Food Conservation,
Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.); Oversea Hospitals Service, Mrs.
Charles L. Tiffany (N. Y.), chairman, and Mrs. Raymond Brown (N. Y.)
director general in France.
These reports are considered at length in Mrs. McCormick's chapter on
War Work of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and they
conclusively refuted the charge publicly made again and again by the
National Anti-Suffrage Association through its official organ and on
the platform that the suffragists were "slackers," unpatriotic,
pro-German and concerned only in getting the franchise for themselves.
This charge was frequently made by the editor of the paper and
president of the association, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., wife of
the Republican U. S. Senator from New York, also a strong opponent of
woman suffrage.
At the close of this very interesting session the convention enjoyed
an automobile ride to see the beautiful city and its environs,
tendered by the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League and under the auspices
of Mrs. Philip B. Fouke. The "inquiry dinner" in the banquet room of
the hotel in the evening, with Mrs. Catt presiding, carried out the
clever idea of trying to ascertain why American women could not obtain
their enfranchisement. The program was as follows: What is the matter
with the United States? Women want it! Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout
(Ills.); Men want it! the Rev. W. C. Bitting (Mo.); Political Parties
want it! Mrs. Emma Smith De Voe (Wash.); The Press wants it! Miss Rose
Young (N. Y.); The Old South wants it! Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs
(Ala.); Congress wants it! Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.); The
Legislatures want it! Mrs. T. T. Cotnam (Ark.); All other Countries
have it! Mrs. Guilford Dudley (Tenn.); Who doesn't want it! Mrs.
Harriet Taylor Upton (Ohio); Well then what is the matter? Mrs. Arthur
L. Livermore (N. Y.); Making it right next time! U. S. Senator Selden
P. Spencer (Mo.).
At one business session Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) argued that the time had
come to change the form of the Federal Suffrage Amendment to meet the
objections of the southern members of Congress. Discussion showed a
preponderance of sentiment in favor of the old amendment and the
convention so voted, but at the suggestion of Mrs. Park it empowered
the Congressional Committee to make any minor changes which might seem
advisable. At another session there was considerable talk of merging
the National American Association into the new organization of voters
and dropping its name at this convention, but Miss Hay carried the
delegates with her in urging that they retain the old name until they
celebrated Miss Anthony's one-hundredth birthday and were safely
through the ratification of the Federal Amendment. This decision was
especially pleasing to the older members for whom the name had many
endearing memories. Mrs. Catt announced that suffrage societies had
been formed in Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines and it was
voted to extend an official invitation to them to join the National
Association without payment of dues. Mrs. Catt called attention to the
increased educational value of the convention through the many
opportunities extended to the delegates for addressing bodies of
various kinds in the city. These included the churches, synagogues,
Ethical Society, public schools, Chamber of Commerce, Junior Chamber
of Commerce, City Club, Rotary Club, Town Club, Wednesday Club,
Women's Trade Union League and other organizations.
One of the leading features of the convention was the report of Mrs.
Maud Wood Park, chairman of the Congressional Committee, which gave a
complete summary of the status of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in
Congress from the time of the last convention to the present. This and
Mrs. Shuler's secretary's report offer so comprehensive a survey of
the important work of the National Association that a considerable
amount of space is devoted to them. The report of Mrs. Park filled
over thirty pages of the Handbook of the convention and was an
interesting account of the struggle of the past year and a half to
secure from Congress the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.
A large part of it will be found in the chapter devoted to that
amendment. It showed the work done at the national headquarters in New
York City and Washington and also in the States and gave an idea of
the tremendous effort which was necessary before the measure was sent
to the Legislatures for ratification. It told of the House Judiciary
Committee reporting the resolution on Dec. 11, 1917, "without
recommendation," after amending it so as to limit the time for
ratification to seven years, and of the determination of the opponents
to force a vote on it before the appointment of a Woman Suffrage
Committee for which the friends were striving. This committee was
announced, however, on December 13, 1917.
All the members but three of the committee were in favor of the
amendment. Chairman Raker introduced a new resolution omitting the
seven-year clause and the committee gave a five-days' hearing to the
National American Association, the National Woman's Party and the
Anti-Suffrage Association, January 3-7 inclusive. The committee made a
favorable report to the House on January 8. On the 9th twelve
Democratic members called by appointment on President Wilson, _who
advised the submission of the amendment_. Speaker Clark gave valuable
assistance, as did many prominent Democrats and Republicans both in
and out of Congress. A five-hours' debate took place in the House on
the afternoon of Jan. 10, 1918, and the vote resulted as follows:
In Favor Opposed
Republicans 165 33
Democrats 104 102
Miscellaneous 5 1
--- ---
274 136
This was a majority of less than one vote over the necessary
two-thirds.
Mrs. Park gave a graphic account of the struggle to secure a favorable
vote in the Senate. She described the influences brought to bear from
all possible sources; the conferences with committees and individuals;
the fixing and then postponing of days for a vote; the difficulty in
arranging "pairs"; the "filibustering" of the opponents, the
adjournments, the endless tactics for preventing a vote which for
years had been employed against this amendment. She described the
great five days' discussion in the Senate September 26-October 1; the
appeal to President Wilson for help and his magnificent response in
person on September 30 with its contemptuous treatment by the
opponents; the failure of the Republican leaders to supply the
thirty-three votes promised and of the Democrats to provide from their
ranks the thirty-fourth, which would complete the necessary
two-thirds, and she gave the summary of the result of the balloting on
October 1. Analyzed by parties and including pairs the vote stood:
Yes No
Democrats 30 22
Republicans 32 12
-- --
Total 62 34
The amendment was lost by two votes. This debate, printed in full in
the Congressional Record for those days, hands down to posterity the
noble effort of some members of the U. S. Senate to grant to women a
voice in the Government to which they were giving the most loyal and
devoted service in this hour when it was joining with other nations in
the greatest battle for democracy ever fought. It preserves also the
determination of other U. S. Senators to deny them this citizen's
right and to continue their disfranchised condition. The _Woman
Citizen_, official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association, in its issue of Oct. 5, 1918, gave a spirited account of
the proceedings of those momentous five days.
Mrs. Park took up the story after the defeat in the Senate and said in
part: "The election returns on Nov. 6, 1918, indicated that the
necessary two-thirds majority in the 66th Congress had been secured.
This belief was shared by prominent Democrats, who from that time on
spared no effort to make unfriendly Democratic Senators realize the
folly of their position in leaving the victory for a Republican
Congress. Only the stupidity of extreme conservatism or a thoroughly
provincial point of view can account for their failure to yield,
unless we are to suppose that more sinister forces were at work.... On
the eve of his sailing for Europe December 2 President Wilson included
in his address to a joint session of Congress another eloquent appeal
for the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment."[117] She
described the mass meeting of the suffrage war workers on December 8
at the National Theater in Washington arranged by Miss Mabel Willard
with the following program: Mrs. Catt, the national president, in the
chair; Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman Woman's Committee of National
Council of Defense; Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo, chairman National
Woman's Liberty Loan Committee; Mrs. Josephus Daniels, member National
War Work Council, Y. W. C. A.; Miss Jane Delano, director Department
of Nursing, American Red Cross; Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, representing
Community War Work and Women's Oversea Hospitals; Mrs. F. Louis Slade,
of Young Women's Department, Y. M. C. A.; Mrs. Raymond Robins,
president National Women's Trade Union League; Miss Hannah Black,
Munitions Worker. An overflow meeting was held and strong resolutions
for the amendment were adopted at both and sent to each Senator.
Resolutions calling on every Senator to vote for submission of the
amendment were adopted by twenty-five State Legislatures during
January and February, 1919, and the gaining of Presidential suffrage
in Vermont, Indiana and Wisconsin that winter increased hope. The
suffrage Democrats were desirous of taking one more vote before going
out of power. Mrs. Park's report said: "On petition of twenty-two
Senators, a Democratic caucus on suffrage was held on February 5, the
first since the United States entered the war. On a motion to adjourn,
the suffragists without proxies defeated the "antis," who voted
proxies, by 22 to 16. On a resolution recommending that the Democratic
Senators support the Federal Amendment, twenty-two voted in the
affirmative and when ten had voted in the negative, those ten were
allowed by Senator Thomas S. Martin (Va.), Democratic floor leader, to
withdraw their votes in order that he might declare that, as the vote
stood 22 to 0, a quorum had not voted and the resolution was lost!
This decision was, of course, most irregular and unfair but it
afforded a good illustration of the kind of tactics used by the
opponents.
"After the close of the morning business February 10, Senator Jones
moved to take up the amendment. An extremely strong speech in its
favor was made by the new Senator, William P. Pollock of South
Carolina. The only other speeches were by Senator Frelinghuysen (N.
J.), on the question of individual naturalization of women and by
Senator Gay (La.) in opposition to the amendment. The vote taken early
in the afternoon showed 55 in favor and 29 opposed. As on October 1,
all the members who were not present to vote were accounted for by
pairs, so that it stood practically 63 in favor to 33 opposed. In
other words the amendment was lost in the 65th Congress by one vote.
The responsibility for the defeat lies at the door of every man who
voted against it. Analyzed by parties and including pairs, the vote on
February 10, was:
Yes No
Democrats 30 21
Republicans 33 12
-- --
Total 63 33
"Thus the Democrats lost their last opportunity and on March 1 the
resolution for the amendment was again favorably reported by the Woman
Suffrage Committee of the Lower House to be acted upon by a
Republican Congress." In commenting on this result Mrs. Park said:
"While we are condemning the un-American stand of our opponents, we
should never lose sight of the hard work done by many of the Senators
who were our friends. There is not space here for the record of all
who helped us but special mention should be made of one, the Hon. John
F. Shafroth, who will not be present to vote when victory comes in the
next Congress. When our cause had only a handful of supporters in
public life, he, then a member of the House, helped Miss Anthony bring
the amendment forward, and from that time to the present his loyal and
devoted service never flagged. Chairman Jones, Senators Ransdell,
Hollis, Wesley Jones, Cummins and the other members of the Woman
Suffrage Committee worked in constant cooperation with your committee.
Among the others who were most frequently called on for help were
Senators Curtis, Smoot, Walsh, Pittman, Lenroot, McNary, Hollis and
Sheppard."
Mrs. Park spoke briefly of the hearing before the House Committee on
Woman Suffrage April 29 on the bill granting to the Legislature of
Hawaii the power to enfranchise its women. (See the chapter on
Territories.) This bill had passed the Senate in September, 1918. On
Jan. 3, it passed the House without a roll call.
Tribute to the association's Congressional Committee and other workers
in Washington was paid by Mrs. Park, who said:
During the past fifteen months there have been several changes in
the personnel of the committee, chief among them the resignation
in September, 1918, of Miss Ruth White, whose gratuitous service
as secretary had extended more than three years. She was
succeeded by Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, but just as her
marked gift for political work was making itself felt in
Washington, the submission of a constitutional amendment in Texas
made it necessary for her to return home in January, 1919. In
August, 1918, the National Board appointed as a special
congressional steering committee two women of widely known
political acumen and experience, Miss Mary Garrett Hay of New
York and Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Nashville, with Mrs. Catt and
Mrs. Park ex officio. In October Mrs. Frank Roessing, who had
been residing in Washington since the preceding April and thus
had been able to give help from time to time, sent in her
resignation. In November Miss Marjorie Shuler was added to the
committee as secretary in charge of publicity, a designation that
by no means expresses the varied duties which have fallen to her
lot or the extent to which she has proved of service. To Mrs.
Helen H. Gardener a new title, that of vice-chairman of the
Congressional Committee, has been recently given by the National
Board.... Her work can rarely be reported because of its
confidential nature, but this may truly be said, that whenever a
miracle has appeared to happen in our behalf, if the facts could
be told they would nearly always prove that Mrs. Gardener was the
worker of wonders....
Other members of the Congressional Committee who have been in
Washington for the whole or a part of the period covered by this
report are, in addition to its chairman, Miss Mabel Caldwell
Willard, chairman of the social activities; Mrs. George Bass and
Mrs. Medill McCormick, representing respectively the
organizations of Democratic and Republican women affiliated with
the national party committees; Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Mrs. C.
W. McClure and Mrs. William L. McPherson. No report of the
Washington headquarters would be complete without mention of the
help given in innumerable ways by our house manager, Mrs.
Elizabeth W. Walker, whose patience, tact and good judgment have
made comfortable living possible under the most trying
circumstances.
Members of the National Board who have been called on to assist
are first and foremost our honorary president, Dr. Shaw; Mrs.
Katharine Dexter McCormick and Mrs. Horace C. Stilwell of
Indiana. Upon Mrs. Catt, the national president, your committee
has constantly depended for advice and direction. Our misfortune
has been that we could not have her continually in Washington.
To these a list of names was added of those who assisted during long
or short periods. There was an account of the social uses of the
Washington headquarters. In January, February and March of 1918 Miss
Willard, with the help of Mrs. Louis Brownlow, arranged a series of
weekly teas on Wednesday afternoons. Among the hostesses, the guests
of honor and those serving at the table were some of the most
prominent women in Washington--wives of the members of the Cabinet,
Senators and Representatives. Social affairs were finally given up as
war relief work absorbed other interests. Under the direction of Mrs.
Brownlow, daughter of Representative Sims (Tenn.) and wife of the
Chief Commissioner for the District of Columbia, the Washington Equal
Franchise League established a Red Cross Branch at headquarters, where
valuable work was done by suffragists. Several entertainments for the
benefit of the Oversea Hospitals were given at the house and over
$1,000 raised.
At the close of this report the convention gave a rising vote of
thanks to Mrs. Park and a number of delegates paid special tribute to
the excellent work of the chairman and the committee. A discussion
which followed by Miss Katharine Ludington (Conn.); Mrs. Andreas
Ueland (Minn.); Miss Anna B. Lawther (Iowa); Mrs. Lila Mead Valentine
(Va.) and Mrs. Leslie Warner (Tenn.), under the head "And Now--What?"
was devoted to ways and means for carrying the Federal Amendment. A
number of conferences were held to consider various phases of the work
of the association which had become all-embracing. The one on How to
do Political Work for Suffrage was led by a past-master in it, Miss
Hay. One on How to use our Organization to Win was under the direction
of Mrs. Shuler. The conference of press workers was in charge of Miss
Young. Why We Did Not Win was told by Mrs. Lydia Wickliffe Holmes,
president of the Woman Suffrage Party of Louisiana, referring to the
defeat of the State suffrage amendment; Why We Did Win, by Mrs. Ben
Hooper, president of the Wisconsin association, describing the gaining
of the Presidential franchise. There were reports by the State
presidents of the work that had been done by women during the year
throughout the country for the war, for suffrage, for civic
improvement.
A report that was heard with the deepest interest was that of the
Oversea Hospitals in France, by Mrs. Raymond Brown, general director,
and Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, chairman of the committee. This had been
a very important part during the past two years of the work of the
association, which had raised $133,000 for its maintenance. [See the
chapter on War Work.]
When it had been arranged to hold the convention the last week in
March, 1919, it was supposed that the Federal Suffrage Amendment would
have been submitted by Congress by that time, as it had passed the
Lower House early in January. It seemed especially appropriate that
this jubilee convention could celebrate this event on the Fiftieth
Anniversary of the founding of the National Association for the sole
purpose of obtaining this amendment but to the keen disappointment of
its leaders and members two obdurate Senators had spoiled this
beautiful plan. Its success, however, was so universally conceded that
it was decided to hold the semi-centennial celebration and the
afternoon of March 26 was dedicated to this purpose and to the
honoring of the early leaders. Fifty Years of Ever Widening Empire was
the motto at the head of the program. The tribute to the Pioneers of
the National Association was paid by Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, for
twenty-one years from 1881 the corresponding secretary of the
association and closely associated with Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Stanton,
Miss Anthony and the other pioneers almost from her girlhood. To Miss
Anthony she was like a daughter and she gave a touching account of her
personal relations with these noble leaders. Miss Alice Stone
Blackwell drew from her stores of memory a wealth of incidents of the
lives of her parents and the eminent men and women who were associated
with them in founding the American Woman Suffrage Association, also
begun in 1869. A resolution offered by Mrs. Desha Breckinridge was
enthusiastically adopted--that "we owe an undying and inextinguishable
debt to Henry B. and Lucy Stone Blackwell for their great service in
behalf of suffrage for women but believe their greatest gift was their
daughter, who has kept us true to the trust which they committed to
the care of their followers."
Mrs. Catt, who always had an eye to the practical and who was on the
program to urge the members of the united associations to Finish the
Fight, soon yielded her time to Miss Hay, the noted money-raiser,
whose subject was, Make the Map White. In a very short time the
delegates had shown their appreciation of the pioneers by subscribing
$120,000, the whole amount of the "budget" for the work of the coming
year. Dr. Shaw then closed the afternoon's services with reminiscences
of her forty years' companionship with the workers in both
associations. "The suffragist who has not been mobbed," she said, "has
nothing really interesting to look back upon." She spoke of the last
national convention which Miss Anthony ever attended, in 1906 at
Baltimore, and how she had set her heart on a grand triumph for the
cause in that old, conservative city, describing how her hopes had
been realized in the most successful one from every point of view that
ever had been held. And then she told with exquisite pathos how one
month later Miss Anthony passed into eternal rest. Little did the
listeners think that the next annual convention would hold memorial
services for Dr. Shaw herself and for Mrs. Avery!
Throughout the week the meetings of the National Association
alternated with the conferences for organizing the enfranchised women
and the name officially decided on was League of Women Voters. A
constitution for it was adopted and Mrs. Charles H. Brooks of Kansas
was elected chairman. Mrs. Catt presented its first aims as outlined
in her annual address and with some additions they were adopted. The
addresses made by the chairmen of the war committees evinced
statesmanship of a high order. The entire proceedings of the
convention connected with this new organization are fully described in
Mrs. Shuler's chapter on the League of Women Voters. There could be no
greater contrast than between the firmness and authority of the
speakers on this program and the pleading and argument of just as able
women in earlier years for the opportunity and power to help in the
solution of great national problems.
The large Odeon Theater was crowded on the evening of March 27 by an
audience that heard with much interest the story of the recent
campaigns for full and Presidential suffrage as told in the following
program: The Indiana Irritation, Mrs. Richard E. Edwards; The Vermont
Vortex, Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson; The Nebraska Nightmare, Mrs. W. E.
Barkley; The South Dakota Sore Disasters, Mrs. John L. Pyle; The
Michigan Mystery, Mrs. Myron B. Vorce; The Oklahoma Ordeal, Mrs.
Nettie R. Shuler; The Texas Turmoil, Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham;
The Duty of Citizenship, Mrs. Raymond Robins; All Roads Lead to Rome,
Dr. Shaw.
The report of the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education, made by its
director, Miss Rose Young, filled eighteen pages of the printed
Handbook and covered a vast field of activity which included service
to 25,000 publications--2,500 dailies, 16,000 weeklies, 3,233
monthlies, a number issued fortnightly, quarterly, etc., and the large
syndicates and press associations. In addition were the mimeographed
news bulletins and the editorial service. An idea was given of the
varied character of the material sent out and the immense amount
furnished during the campaigns. A compliment was paid to the press
work of Mrs. Rose Geyer, "whose task it is to collect the news, State
by State, and distribute the parts of nation-wide interest through
weekly bulletins, and who has by direct personal correspondence of an
intimate and tactful kind trained State organization women to send in
reports of conventions, political and legislative situations,
candidates, etc." Many incidents were cited of important publicity,
special editions of papers and display advertising. Six pages were
devoted to the mission of the weekly official magazine, the _Woman
Citizen_, and the way it had been fulfilled. A tribute was paid to its
very able associate editor, Miss Mary Ogden White. The invaluable
service of the Research Bureau, under the expert direction of Mrs.
Mary Sumner Boyd, assisted by Miss Eleanor Garrison, was strongly set
forth.
Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, who conducted the editorial correspondence,
referred in her report to her full accounts in preceding years of the
wide correspondence with editors. "The scope of the department was
gradually enlarged," she said, "and many letters were sent to
prominent people in reference to their speeches, interviews in
newspapers and other public expressions. For instance, in the debates
on the Federal Amendment in the Senate, whenever a speaker showed lack
of correct information, a letter giving it was sent to him. Other
letters also were sent to Senators and usually received courteous
answers from themselves, not their secretaries." The report continued:
Several letters were written to Colonel Theodore Roosevelt urging
him to use his influence with the Republican leaders and always
were fully answered. A letter dictated and signed by him on
January 3, 1919, enclosed one he had just sent to Senator Moses
of New Hampshire, strongly urging him to cast his vote for the
Federal Suffrage Amendment on the 10th. I received it on January
4 and he died the night of the 5th.
Letters were sent to Chairman Hays and members of the National
Republican Committee and to different State chairmen on various
points connected with the suffrage amendment. The pamphlet on the
Difficulty of Amending State Constitutions, which was prepared
and sent to every Senator, was put into the Congressional Record
by Senator Shafroth, and a circular letter on the founding and
record of the National Woman's Party by Senator Thomas. Scores of
letters were sent out showing up the fallacies of the
Anti-suffragists during the year; others exposing the connection
of the German-American Alliance with the Antis; others giving
historic information and still others telling of gains in our
own and foreign countries.
During the first year I wrote to over 2,000 editors in the United
States and Canada. At the end of that time, and after the New
York victory, so many were in favor of woman suffrage itself that
during 1918 the work was very largely concentrated on the Federal
Amendment. In the two months from November, 1917, to January,
1918, when the vote was taken in the House of Representatives,
2,600 circular letters containing an argument for this amendment
went out from this department to the principal newspapers of the
United States and in addition 100 special articles were sent to
the largest papers. After that vote was taken this record was
kept up to obtain favorable action by the Senate and a second and
different circular argument was sent to 2,000 papers. A carefully
selected list of several hundred southern newspapers was
furnished to Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, to which he sent
franked copies of his excellent speech on this amendment.
An open letter to Senator Baird was supplied to all the principal
papers of New Jersey; one to Senator Benet to those of South
Carolina; one to Senator Shields to Tennessee papers. A letter
showing the attitude of the National Association toward organized
labor went to a considerable number of labor papers in the
various States. During the week following the failure to vote on
the Federal Amendment in May, 250 letters and articles in regard
to it were sent out from this department. Most of them enclosed
printed or typed suffrage literature, some of Mrs. Catt's
editorials and articles, and some from other sources, including
my printed pamphlet on the Federal Amendment. Altogether nearly
8,000 letters and articles went out from this department.
Several pamphlets also were prepared and an article of about
2,000 words was furnished every month to the _International
Suffrage News_ in London, with many clippings for its files. A
number of letters and clippings also were sent to Mrs. Fawcett,
the national president of Great Britain, keeping her informed on
the progress of the movement in the United States, of which she
was very appreciative, and letters of information were written to
other countries.
By the end of 1918 from 300 to 500 editorials on woman suffrage
were received every month and it was as much a subject of comment
in the newspapers as any political issue of the day. The old-time
attacks were almost entirely absent; the editorials showed
knowledge and discrimination; fully nine-tenths of the northern
newspapers advocated not only woman suffrage but the Federal
Amendment, while in every southern State some leading papers were
in favor of enfranchising women and a few approved of its being
done through this amendment. This editorial department of the
Leslie Bureau might venture to claim some share in the evolution
of editorial opinion, to which, of course, many causes
contributed. While the need for its work was by no means at an
end, another task yet remained for the bureau to see
accomplished.
Mrs. Harper then stated that it was the wish of both the Leslie
Commission and the Board of the National Association that the final
volume of the History of Woman Suffrage should be written while the
excellent facilities of the headquarters were available. Because of
her experience in writing Volume IV this work was entrusted to her and
the editorial department, therefore, was discontinued and the History
begun in January, 1919.
The report of the Washington Press Bureau was made by its secretary,
Miss Marjorie Shuler, dating from the preceding November and it stated
that weekly press articles had been furnished to the big news
services, the 200 newspaper correspondents in Washington, the papers
of that city and many outside; State presidents, Congressional and
press chairmen, in addition to a certain daily service; feature
articles and Washington letters to the _Woman Citizen_. Material for
favorable editorials was sent out through the Washington
correspondents and 244 friendly to the policy of the National
Association were received with only 12 opposed. The social activities
at the Washington headquarters furnished good local publicity.
In the report of Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman
Suffrage Publishing Co., she called attention to the almost
insuperable difficulties of the publishing business during the past
eighteen months through the high cost of production, deterioration of
materials and uncertainties of transportation. With all these
handicaps the company had printed 5,000,000 pieces of literature for
the association and 1,000,000 for its own stock. It had filled orders
from Great Britain, Canada, South America, Mexico, Porto Rico and the
Philippines. She told of prominent visitors from foreign countries who
expressed much surprise at the variety and extent of the literature
and took samples home with them for translation. Mrs. Arthur L.
Livermore, chairman of the Literature Committee, gave a list of the
new publications which filled two printed pages and told of a notable
group of booklets dealing with patriotic subjects; a large amount of
special literature to facilitate the passage of the Federal Amendment;
maps, folders, booklets and posters.
The following recommendations were made by the Executive Council and
adopted by the convention:
1. That the N. A. W. S. A. continue to support and endorse the
Federal Amendment which has been before Congress for the past
forty years. 2. That the next convention be in the nature of a
centennial celebration of the birthday of Susan B. Anthony and be
held in February, 1920. 3. That the Board of Officers be asked to
serve until that date, thus confining the election of officers at
this convention to Directors only. 4. That the budget for 1919 be
adopted as presented by Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, the
treasurer--$120,000 if the Voters' League is formed and $100,000
if it is not formed. 5. That the six War Service Committees
appointed at the last convention be discontinued with the
exception of the Oversea Hospitals Committee, which shall be
discontinued at the conclusion of its work, and those on
Americanization and Industrial Protection of Women, which shall
be continued. 6. That the post-convention board be requested to
reappoint Mrs. Maud Wood Park as chairman of the Congressional
Committee and extend to her a vote of appreciation of her
services. 7. That the Board of Directors shall have authority to
enter any State to carry on work without the authority of that
State, if necessary. 8. That the policy of the association in
regard to referendum campaigns be affirmed. 9. That an
organization of women voters be formed. 10. That the constitution
when amended and made satisfactory to the needs of the
association be substituted for the present constitution; that,
with this end in view, the Chair be instructed to appoint a
committee of five women from enfranchised States and five from
the Executive Council to whom the constitution shall be
referred.[118]
It was recommended that the following resolution be adopted "in view
of the fact that a request had been made for a new definition of
'non-partisan' in relation to the National Association as at present
constituted or as it may be constituted": "Resolved, That the N. A. W.
S. A. shall not affiliate with any political party or endorse the
platform of any party or support or oppose any political candidates
unless such action shall be recommended by the Board of Directors in
order to achieve the ends and purposes of this organization as set
forth in its constitution. Nothing in this resolution shall be
construed to limit the liberty of action of any member or officer of
this association to join or serve the party of her choice in any
capacity whatsoever as an individual."
Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, chairman of the committee, offered
fourteen resolutions, the last which were acted upon by
representatives of the National American Suffrage Association, the
first having been presented in 1869. They illustrate the wide scope
of women's interests considered by that body. After full discussion
the following, which are somewhat condensed, were among those adopted:
Whereas, women may now vote for President in twenty-six States of
the Union, and for all elective officers in England, Scotland,
Ireland, Canada and throughout the largest part of Europe; our
eastern and southern States are now the only communities in the
English-speaking world in which women are still debarred from
self-government; our nation has just emerged from a war waged in
the name of making the world safe for democracy and ought in
consistency to establish real democracy at home; and every
political party in the United States has endorsed woman suffrage
in its national platform; therefore be it
Resolved, that we call upon the 66th Congress to submit the
Constitutional Amendment for nation-wide woman suffrage to the
States at the earliest possible moment.
Whereas, one-fourth of the men examined for the army were unable
to read English or to write letters home to their families, be it
Resolved, that we urge the establishment at Washington of a
national department of education with a Secretary of Education in
the Cabinet.
Resolved, that this association earnestly favors a League of
Nations to secure world-wide peace based upon the immutable
principles of justice.
Resolved, that we protest against the unfair treatment of
professional women by the United States authorities in declining
the services of women physicians, surgeons and dentists in the
recent war, thus compelling loyal, patriotic women to serve under
the flag of a foreign government. We recommend that in future our
Government recognize the fitness of accepting the services of
professional women for work for which their training and
experience have qualified them.
Resolved, That we urge our Government to bring about the prompt
redress of all legitimate grievances, as the removal of the sense
of injustice is the surest safeguard against revolution by
violence.
Whereas, the Woman in Industry Service of the U. S. Department of
Labor was established as a result of the war emergency,
Resolved, that we call upon Congress to establish this service as
a permanent Women's Bureau in the U. S. Department of Labor with
adequate funds for the continuance and extension of its work.
Resolved, that we ask the U. S. Government in its next census to
classify definitely the unpaid women housekeepers as homemakers,
thus recognizing their important service to the nation.
Resolved, that we call upon Congress to give military rank to
army nurses.
Resolved, that we tender to our national president, Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt, our deep appreciation of her sagacity, good
judgment, fairness and indefatigable devotion to the cause of
equal rights, and we pledge our best efforts to carry out her
wise and far-reaching plans for ultimate victory.
The last evening of the convention was given to a second mass meeting
at the Odeon Theater with Dr. Shaw presiding and a notable program.
The first speaker was Miss Helen Fraser of Great Britain, who had been
making a tour of the United States in the interest of the women's war
hospital work of that country. She was announced on the program as
"Great Britain's foremost speaker," and she eloquently pictured Women
and the Future. The Hon. Henry J. Allen, Governor of Kansas, stirred
the audience to enthusiasm with an address on Woman's Place in War and
Peace. Mrs. Catt's splendid closing speech on Looking Forward ended a
convention whose keynote throughout had been "progress"; a farewell to
the past years of toil and disappointment, a preparation for the
future work of women under better conditions than had ever before
existed. A spirit of hope, courage and unlimited expectation pervaded
the army of younger women, who were soon to take up the great work
committed to their care.
On Saturday three important meetings took place. In the morning was
the formal organization of the League of Women Voters, election of
officers, appointment of committees and adoption of a program; also
the final business session of the convention to harmonize the work of
the National Association and that of the league. In the afternoon the
two bodies met in joint session to discuss the question of how voting
and non-voting women might best cooperate and the three following
objects were agreed upon: (1) To secure the vote for all the women of
the nation in the shortest possible time; (2) to obtain the vote for
women in all civilized countries; (3) to carry out the legislative
program of the new organization.
Thus ended the perfectly managed Jubilee Convention, probably the most
important and far-reaching in the long history of the National
Association.
HEARING ON THE FEDERAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT BEFORE THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE OF THE 65TH
CONGRESS, JAN. 3-7, 1918.
There was no longer any necessity for a hearing before the Senate
Committee on Woman Suffrage, as it had unanimously reported in favor
of the Federal Amendment. The suffrage leaders were profoundly
thankful that they would never again have to address a hostile
Judiciary Committee of the Lower House, which not in all the years had
permitted the amendment to come before the Representatives for
discussion, and which had now under pressure reported it out but
"without recommendation." A new era had dawned and a Committee on
Woman Suffrage had been formed, whose chairman, Judge John E. Raker of
California, by advice of Speaker Clark, had introduced another
resolution for the submission of the amendment which was sent to this
committee and it desired to have a hearing.[119] This began Jan. 3,
1918, and in opening it the chairman said: "We have determined to hear
first the National American Suffrage Association and then the Woman's
Party. There seem to be a few opponents--a few men--and they will be
given an opportunity to be heard, as well as Mrs. Wadsworth and her
organization." This hearing extended through four days and the
stenographic report filled 330 closely printed pages. It was the last
of the committee hearings on a Federal Suffrage Amendment which began
in 1878 and had been held during every Congress since that date. If an
investigator of this subject has time to read only one document it
should be the report of this hearing.
The committee was composed of seven Democrats and six Republicans and
it was well known that all but three--Saunders, Clark and
Meeker--would report in favor of submitting the amendment. The
National Suffrage Association was represented the first day by its
honorary president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw; its president, Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt; the chairman of its Congressional Committee, Mrs. Maud
Wood Park; Mrs. Rosalie Loew Whitney, an able lawyer of New York;
Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee, a vice-president of the
association; Mrs. Henry Ware Allen, a prominent suffragist and war
worker of Kansas. Their speeches were among the strongest ever made at
a hearing. Those of the opponents show the character of their
objections up to the very end of the long contest. Dr. Shaw's address
was especially notable for two reasons: it was devoted largely to the
work of women in the war, which was now at its height, and it was the
last one before a congressional committee by this eloquent woman, who
had been coming to the Capitol for almost thirty years in behalf of
the amendment, as she died the following year. She was introduced as
having been appointed by the Secretary of War chairman of the Woman's
Committee of National Defense and as such the head of the war work of
women throughout the country. Dr. Shaw began by referring to the new
line of attack which was now being made on suffragists as pro-Germans
and pacifists but scattered quotations can give small idea of the
strength and beauty of her answers to these charges. Regarding the one
of pacifism she said:
We grant that we are in favor of peace; we grant that we have a
large sympathy for the sufferings of humanity, but we also claim
to be possessed of intelligence and knowledge and these have
convinced us that there could be nothing more disastrous to the
human race than a peace at this time, which would lead to greater
suffering than a continuation of the war. Therefore, because we
love peace and because we have large sympathy for human
sufferings, we are opposed to anything that will bring a peace
which does not forever and forever make it impossible that such
sufferings shall again be inflicted on the world, and the women
of all countries take that stand with us. We have only to face
the present situation to know that any charges that women as a
whole are not courageous, are not patriotic, are not devoted to
the highest interests of their country are wholly false.... Even
before war was declared the National American Woman Suffrage
Association met in convention in this city and was the first
organized body of women to formulate a definite line of action
and present to the President and the Government a plan which
would be followed by its more than 2,000,000 members, provided
hostilities went so far that war should be declared. The
President accepted our services, and not only did he accept them
but the devotion of the suffragists to the welfare of the country
was so uniformly recognized that when the Government decided upon
war and upon the necessity for organizing the woman-power of the
nation, it called upon the leaders of this association and
appointed them on a committee for co-ordinating the war work of
women throughout the United States. Can it for a moment be
supposed that the men in whose charge the great interests of our
nation rested would have called upon women whom they did not know
to be thoroughly endowed with patriotic devotion and loyalty to
their country for such a service at such a time?
Dr. Shaw told of the loyalty of women in other countries and quoted
from the tributes of their distinguished men, such men as Mr. Asquith,
Lloyd George, Lord Derby and General Joffre to the services of these
women and in our own country of General Pershing and scores of others.
She told of how the Canadian Government gave the suffrage to women and
how they voted for conscription; of the splendid courage of the men of
Australia and New Zealand, born of enfranchised mothers. She said that
in ten of the eleven western States which filled their quota of
volunteers before any eastern State had done so, there was equal
suffrage. She referred to the eminent supporters of the Federal
Suffrage Amendment, beginning with President Wilson and his Cabinet
and Theodore Roosevelt; asked if these men were pro-Germans and
pacifists and matched them with equally loyal women. In conclusion she
said:
To fail to ask for the suffrage amendment at this time would be
treason to the fundamental cause for which we, as a nation, have
entered the war. President Wilson has declared that "we are at
war because of that which is dearest to our hearts--democracy;
that those who submit to authority shall have a voice in the
Government." If this is the basic reason for entering the war,
then for those of us who have striven for this amendment and for
our freedom and for democracy to yield today, to withdraw from
the battle, would be to desert the men in the trenches and leave
them to fight alone across the sea not only for democracy for the
world but also for our own country.... The time of reconstruction
will come and when it comes many women will have to be both
father and mother to fatherless children, and these mothers and
their children will have no representatives in this Government
unless it is through the mothers who have given everything that
it might be saved and democracy might be secured.... No men
better than those of the South know what it owes to southern
women and shall those men stand in the way of freedom for the
women who gave everything to retain for our country the very best
of southern traditions--shall they plead in vain for the freedom
of their daughters? What is true of the women of the South is
true of the women of the North.... We are today a united people
with one flag and one country because the women are worthy of
their men, and we plead because we are a part of the people, a
part of the Government which claims to be a democracy, and in
order that this country may stand clean-handed before the nations
of the world.
The speech of Mrs. Whitney, analyzing the vote on the suffrage
amendment which was carried in New York State the preceding November
was a complete statistical refutation of the charge made by the
anti-suffragists that the favorable vote was due to Socialists and
pro-Germans. A letter was read from Secretary of War Newton D. Baker,
saying that speaking personally and not officially he favored the
submission of the amendment. Telegrams urging it were received from
well-known women in the southern States and Mrs. Catt read editorials
strongly favoring it from a number of southern newspapers. Mrs. George
Bass, head of the Democratic Women's National Committee, protested
against the circulation in the Capitol which was being made by the
"antis" of President Wilson's declaration made in 1914, "I believe
this is a matter to be fought out in the individual States," because
in 1916 he addressed the National Suffrage Convention in Atlantic
City, saying: "I have come to fight with you ... and in the end we
shall not differ as to methods."
Mrs. Dudley represented the women of the South, saying in the course
of her address:
What has happened to the State's rights doctrine? Recently the
Federal Constitution has been twice amended and that under a
Democratic administration. While the child labor bill and
eight-hour bill are not amendments, they are really open to the
same objections because they impose upon a State laws to which it
has not given consent. These bills were proposed in one House or
both by southern Democrats; Federal prohibition was proposed in
both Houses by southern Democrats and passed by the votes of
others. So it appears that the theory of State's rights is only
invoked when women plead at the bar of justice for that voice in
their Government to which all those who submit to authority are
entitled. Now, as to the negro problem. We southern women feel
that the time has come to lay once and for all this old, old
ghost that stalks through the halls of Congress. It is a phantom
as applied to woman suffrage. In fifteen States south of the
Mason and Dixon line there are over a million more white women
than negro men and women combined. There are only two States in
which the negro race predominates, South Carolina and
Mississippi. In the former the percentage is 55.2, but there a
voter must read and write and own and pay taxes on $300 worth of
property. In Mississippi the percentage is 56.2 but there also
they impose an educational qualification. In the eight years
since these figures were estimated by the Government this
percentage has greatly decreased, so that South Carolina claims
that there is now no preponderance of negroes. In the other four
States also in the so-called "black belt" an educational test is
imposed upon the voters. In addition to all this we must consider
that during the last decade the negro population has increased 11
per cent and the white population 22 per cent. Furthermore, in
the past year alone 75,000 negroes have gone from one southern
State to the north, and 73,000 have gone from three other
southern States to one northern State alone. So it appears that
we must transfer part of our rather hysterical anxieties with
regard to the southern negro vote to some other States.
Mrs. Allen spoke from the standpoint of one who had lived many years
in a State where women voted and asked the question: "Can you
gentlemen not think what it means to women to know that their men are
so chivalrous and have such a belief in their integrity and their
intelligence that they are willing to make them their equal partners
politically? Can you not see that under such conditions men and women
are firmer friends; that husbands and wives are closer together and
that all of the family relations are better because the adults of all
the families are equally interested in city, State and national
affairs?" She told how on the battlefield and in the hospitals in
France could be heard in all languages the one cry, "mother," and she
ended with the plea: "Our world is weary and wounded and sick and if
you will listen in the silence of the night you will hear the same
cry; the world is calling for the mother voice in its councils and in
its activities."
The afternoon was devoted to the address of Mrs. Catt, which, with the
questions of the committee and her answers, filled twenty-five pages
of the printed report. For four decades the distinguished presidents
of the National Suffrage Association had made their arguments and
pleadings before committees of Congress--Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Miss Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, and then Mrs. Catt for
eight years. This was the last time it would ever be necessary and the
first time before a House committee which intended to report in favor.
The changed character of her speaking was shown in her opening
sentence: "The time of argument on woman suffrage has gone by. The
controversy has been waged over a greater part of the civilized world
for the last fifty years, with the result that many nations have
capitulated and woman suffrage is now established under many flags.
That it is still pending in the Congress of the United States is a
disgrace to our country and a reflection on the intelligence and
progress of our people." She illustrated how the doctrine of State's
rights had been ignored by the southern members in their fight for
prohibition, led by Mr. Webb of North Carolina, who as chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee had also led the opposition to woman
suffrage on this same ground. She proved by editorial quotations from
southern papers the changing attitude on this point.
The vast number of American men who would be in the army in France at
the time of the next election was pointed out and the question was
asked: "When the election comes who will do the voting? Every
'slacker' has a vote; every newly-made citizen; every pro-German
who cannot be trusted with any kind of war service; every
peace-at-any-price man; every conscientious objector and even the
alien enemy. It is a risk, a danger, to a nation like ours to send
millions of loyal men out of the country and not replace their votes
by those of the loyal women left at home." In referring to the "negro
problem" in the South Mrs. Catt said:
In talking with some of the members of Congress we have learned
that an idea prevails throughout the South that the colored women
are more intelligent, ambitious and energetic than the men, and
that while it is easy enough to keep the men from exercising too
much ambition in the matter of politics, it will not be easy to
control the women. When talking with these same men about the
white women of the South, I have never known an exception to the
rule that they have finally rested their case upon the statement
that the women of the South do not want the vote anyway and if
they did they would only vote as their husbands do. To say that
means what? That the women of the South in the estimate of those
men are too weak-minded to have an opinion of their own; it means
that they have no independence of character; it means that they
have been reduced so far to nonentity that they will only echo
their husbands' opinions. Is living in the homes of the white men
of the South so degrading to the character of the white women
that they really cannot be trusted to have an honest conviction
of their own, but that living in the South outside of those homes
renders women more ambitious and more intelligent than the men?
Do these men realize that they are saying almost in the same
breath that the colored woman is superior to the colored man but
that the white woman is the inferior of the white man? Or is it
possible that the climate of the South produces a stronger
"female of the species" than male, and that the men of the South
are afraid of both the white and the black women?
Detached quotations give a most inadequate idea of this masterly
address which embodied the complete case for the advocates of the
Federal Amendment. Toward its close Mrs. Catt, in speaking of the
assertion of the "antis" that President Wilson was opposed to the
Federal Suffrage Amendment, made this significant answer: "I request
you, Mr. Chairman, to ask Mr. Wilson for a conference and go to it
taking Democrats and Republicans and say: 'Mr. President, are you or
are you not for this Federal Amendment?' Then you will know. I trust
that you will do this and that, if then it is possible to make a
public statement, you will do so." Afterwards it was apparent that she
knew of Mr. Wilson's complete change of opinion and his intention to
support the amendment. On January 9 Mr. Raker and eleven other members
of the Lower House held a conference with the President and he urged
the submission of the amendment.
At the continuation of the hearing on January 4 the American
Constitutional League, formed after the suffrage amendment was adopted
in New York out of the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association, was
represented by the chairman of its executive committee, Everett P.
Wheeler, a lawyer of New York City, and by one of its members
introduced as "Dr. Lucian Howe of Buffalo, a very eminent surgeon, a
Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine and the Royal Academy of
Surgeons." The two men occupied the entire day, Mr. Wheeler about
two-thirds of it, but the committee consumed a good deal of this time
by a running fire of questions not far from "heckling." Mr. Wheeler
offered for insertion in the _Record_ a page and a half of finely
printed statistics compiled by the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association to
prove that the laws for women and children were not so good in equal
suffrage States as in those where women could not vote.
The session of January 5 began with the reading of another sheaf of
urgent telegrams from women of the southern States and petitions for
the amendment signed by a long list of southern women. The first
speaker was Mrs. L. A. Hamilton, president of the National Equal
Franchise Association of Canada and president also of the Women's
Union Government League of Toronto, who was thoroughly informed on the
granting of Provincial and Dominion suffrage and able to answer
convincingly all the questions of the committee. The hearing was then
turned over to the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage,
with its president, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., in charge. I am much
pleased by the personnel of this committee," she said, "because both
the Republican Speaker, Mr. Gillett, and the Democratic floor leader,
Mr. Kitchin, promised us that, unlike the suffrage committee in the
Senate, this one would have a fair representation of 'antis.' I find
we have been given two out of thirteen. Of course we think that a
perfectly fair ratio, as we have always felt that one 'anti' was worth
about five suffragists, but we did not suppose you would admit it."
"That is about the ratio that exists in the House," observed Mr.
Blanton, of the committee. "We will know more about that when we vote
in the House," answered Mr. Clark, member from Florida. "I am going to
give you the privilege this morning of hearing from my general staff,"
said Mrs. Wadsworth, "and I will have some of my officers of the line
here Monday. I want to introduce Miss Minnie Bronson, our general
secretary." The second speaker was Mr. Eichelberger, who presented
elaborate charts and figures to show that woman suffrage was carried
in New York by the Socialists. To the question of Chairman Raker,
"This is nothing more or less than a compilation of figures as an idea
of your own, to show what certain votes could do or certain figures
would do, isn't it?" he answered: "Yes, absolutely, that is the idea."
At one point Miss Jeannette Rankin of the committee asked: "Are you
the gentleman who compiled some figures on the Democratic and
Republican women's vote in Montana last year?" "I think so," was the
answer. "Where did you get your figures?" "From the official election
report." "How could you tell a Democratic woman's vote from a
Republican woman's vote?" "Well, that part of it was estimation!" The
statements of Mr. Eichelberger and the questions of the committee
filled twenty-four pages of the stenographic report and with Miss
Bronson's address consumed one session.
The hearing in the afternoon was given to the National Woman's Party,
in charge of its vice-chairman, Miss Anne Martin of Nevada. Mrs.
William Kent of California introduced the speakers--Mrs. Richard
Wainwright, Mrs. Townsend Scott, Miss Ernestine Evans, Mrs. Francis J.
Heney, Miss Elizabeth Gram, Miss Maud Younger, Mrs. Adeline Atwater,
Mrs. Ellis Meredith.
Monday morning the hearing of the Anti-Suffrage Association was
resumed, Mrs. Wadsworth presiding and speaking at length, saying: "We
never have and never will ask a man to vote with us against his
conscience but the men we do blame are those spineless opportunists
who for political expediency or because they are too lazy to fight are
preparing to surrender their principles for the sake of a dishonorable
and, we believe, a temporary peace." Mrs. Edwin Ford followed and then
Miss Lucy Price. Her remarks and the committee's questions filled
fourteen pages of the report. About fifty telegrams opposing the
amendment were received, nearly half of them from men and all from
Massachusetts. One purported to represent 250 women of Wellesley and
another 1,000 of New Bedford. Henry A. Wise Wood was introduced as
president of the Aero Club of America. During his speech he declared
that "this was no time to unman the Government by this foolhardy
jeopardizing of the rights of both sexes"; that "one wonders at the
spectacle of strong, masculine personalities urging at such an hour
the demasculinization of Government--the dilution with the qualities
of the cow, of the qualities of the bull upon which all the herd
safety must depend"; that "this from now on is a man's job--the job of
the fighting, the dominating, not the denatured, the womanlike man."
Referring to Miss Rankin's vote against war he said: "I do not think
she cried; I was speaking of the real woman, the woman that men love."
He also said that during his campaign for "preparedness" he discovered
that "the woman suffrage movement was hopelessly given over to
pacifism in its extreme socialistic form." In closing he said that
"for any sentimental or political reason it is a damnable thing that
we should weaken ourselves by bringing into the war the woman, who has
never been permitted in the war tents of any strong, virile dominating
nation." This speech was made Jan. 7, 1918, after nearly a year's
experience in the United States of the war work done by women.
At this hearing the opponents made their supreme effort, knowing that
it was their last chance, and they brought to Washington one of the
South's most noted orators, former U. S. Senator Joseph W. Bailey, of
Texas. He began by saying: "I shall confine my speech entirely to the
political aspect of the question, leaving these very intelligent women
to explain the effect of suffrage on their sex and on our homes," but
he got to the latter phase of it long before he had finished. He
believed that under the Federal Constitution the right to control the
suffrage belonged absolutely to the States but he said: "I am opposed
to women voting anywhere except in their own societies; I would let
them vote there but nowhere else in this country.... No free
government should deny suffrage to any class entitled to it and no
free government should extend suffrage to any class not entitled to
it, for the ultimate success or failure of every free government will
depend upon the average intelligence and patriotism of the electorate.
I hope to show that as a matter of political justice and political
safety women should not be allowed to vote...."
Giving other reasons why women should not be allowed to vote, he said:
"The two most important personal duties of citizenship are military
service and sheriff's service, neither of which is a woman capable of
performing." Reminded by the chairman that there were many places
where women then were performing the duty of sheriff, constable,
marshal and police, he answered: "They may be playing at them but they
are not really performing them. If an outlaw is to be arrested are you
going to order a woman to get a gun and come with you? If you did she
would sit down and cry, and she ought to keep on crying until her
husband hunts you up and makes you apologize for insulting his
wife.... A woman who is able to perform a sheriff's duty is not fit to
be a mother because no woman who bears arms ought to bear children....
We agree, I think, that the women of this country will never go into
our armies as soldiers or be required to serve on the sheriff's posse
comitatus. That being true I hardly think they have the right to make
the laws under which you and I must perform those services." The
chairman asked: "When the men go to front with the cartridges and guns
the women assisted in making are the latter not participating in the
war the same as men?" He answered: "They are doing their part and it
may be just as essential as the man's, for if there is not somebody
here to provide the ammunition the guns would be useless, but it is
not military service."
The war had been in progress three and a half years when these
assertions were made and the whole world knew the part that women had
taken in it.
"The third personal duty of citizenship is jury service," Mr. Bailey
said, "and while women are physically capable of performing that
service there are reasons, natural, moral and domestic, which render
them wholly unfit for it.... We go to the court house for stern,
unyielding justice. Will women help our courts to better administer
justice? They will not. Nobody is qualified to decide any case until
they have heard all the testimony on both sides but the average woman
would make up her mind before the plaintiff had concluded his
testimony." The awful consequences of "sending women with strange men
into the jury room to discuss testimony which a sensible mother would
not talk over with her grown daughter" were declared to be that
"modesty for which we reverence women would disappear from among
them." "Who will care for the children during the mother's absence?...
They tell me they will require the unmarried women to act as jurors.
There will be enough of them, for marrying will become a lost habit in
our country if we apply ourselves much longer to this business of
making women like men." Mr. Bailey appeared not to know that women had
been serving on juries for from twenty to forty years in the western
States where they were enfranchised.
"Will women vote intelligently? Can they do it? What time will a woman
have to prepare herself for these new duties of citizenship? Will she
take it from her home and husband or from her church and children or
from her charities and social pleasures? She must take it from one or
all of them and will she make herself or the world better by doing
so?" Mr. Bailey asked. He said he wished that "every woman in the land
was fortunate enough to have servants to do their work"; deplored "the
unfortunate situation of eighty per cent. of the good women whose hard
lot it is to toil from sunup to sundown" and inquired: "Do you think
when they have done all this they will have time and strength to learn
something about their duties as a citizen?" Asked if he did not think
a woman ought to have something to say about the laws that concern the
education and disposition of her children, he answered: "If she cannot
trust that to the father of her children I pity her." "How about the
women who have lost their husbands?" asked a member of the committee.
"If they have neither father nor son nor brother to provide for them
the public will do so," Mr. Bailey replied. In pointing out how
favorable "man-made laws" are to women he said: "In my State, where
women have never voted and where I sincerely trust they never will,
the law gives to the wife as her separate property everything she owns
at the time of her marriage and everything she may afterwards acquire
by gift, devise or descent," but he omitted to say that all of it
passes under the absolute control of the husband and that the wages
she earns belong to him.
Further on he said: "We must have two sexes and if the women insist on
becoming men I suppose the men must refine themselves into women.... I
dread the effect of this woman's movement upon civilization because I
know what happened to the Roman republic when women attained their
full rights. They married without going to church and were divorced
without going to court." After having discussed widows' pensions, the
double standard of morals, divorce, alimony and various other matters
in carrying out his promise at the beginning to confine his remarks
"entirely to the political aspect of the question" he reached the
subject of women's smoking. He summed up his opinion of this by
saying: "If it were a question between their smoking and their voting
and they would promise to stay at home and smoke I would say let them
smoke." In this connection he said: "A single standard of conduct for
men and women is an iridescent dream. We cannot pay women a higher
tribute than to insist that their behavior shall be more circumspect
than ours."
Finally Mr. Blanton of Texas, a member of the committee, having
obtained Mr. Bailey's assent that the right of petition is the most
sacred right of the people and that legislators should give it careful
consideration, said: "I have here a very extensive petition from your
State signed by prominent citizens of the leading cities urging
Congress to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment and I notice from
Houston, your city, the following: He then read a long list of bank
presidents, judges, editors, college professors, the Mayor and other
city officials, officers of labor unions, and, in addition, the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, Attorney General, District Attorney and
other State officials, and pressed Mr. Bailey to admit their high
character and standing. He did so but said: "I would not vote for this
amendment if a majority of my constituents asked me to do so."
An undue amount of space is given to the address of Mr. Bailey because
he had been selected by the anti-suffragists as the strongest speaker
for their side in the entire country and it embodied their views as
these had been presented ever since the suffrage movement began. He
was thoroughly representative of the opposition, and the officers and
members of the women's Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage who were
present applauded his remarks from beginning to end. He made this
speech Jan. 7, 1918, and the following March the Texas Legislature by
a large majority gave Primary suffrage to women for all officers from
President of the United States down the list and the bill was
immediately signed by the Governor. The primaries decide the election
in that State.[120]
The committee received petitions asking their favorable action on the
amendment from the Texas State Federation of Women's Clubs and those
of Houston and other cities; from women's clubs of many kinds in Waco
representing 2,000 members; from women's organizations all over the
State and from individuals, the number reaching thousands. There was
the same outpouring from the other southern States, although it was
the principal argument of the opposition that the vote was being
forced on southern women. There was also a remarkable expression from
southern men. Seventy-five pages of these petitions were printed in
the official report of this hearing. As the sentiment in the northern
States was now so largely in favor it was considered unnecessary for
them to send petitions, although many did so. There were presented to
the committee a message from the Governor of every equal suffrage
State urging the immediate submission of the amendment and strong
letters to this effect from Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and
Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo, Southerners and
Democrats. None of this pressure was necessary to influence it but the
leaders of the National Suffrage Association arranged this
demonstration in order to show that favorable action by the committee
would be fully sustained by the sentiment of the country, and as an
answer to the charge that "a small, insistent lobby was forcing the
amendment through Congress." The anti-suffragists did not present one
communication of any kind from any State except Massachusetts.
The valuable space in this volume could not be better used perhaps
than for the closing speeches of Mrs. Park, chairman of the
association's Congressional Committee, and Mrs. Catt, its president. A
greater contrast can scarcely be imagined than that between their
statesmanlike quality and the rambling, inconsequential, prejudiced
character of Mr. Bailey's. "After the eloquent address of the last
speaker," began Mrs. Park with delicious satire, "I sympathize with
the committee and the audience who will have to return to the plain
subject of the Federal Amendment for Woman Suffrage.... I think those
who have been listening to all of these hearings will agree that the
opponents have made many interesting statements but have given
comparatively few facts." Saying that Mrs. Catt would reply to Mr.
Bailey's speech she answered the points in the others with a keenness
and clearness that no lawyer could have exceeded and met with dignity
and acumen the questions of the opponents on the committee. She was
not once disconcerted or unable to reply convincingly and always with
a disarming courtesy but she did not deviate from her subject or allow
the questioners to do so.
Mrs. Catt's answer to Mr. Bailey's speech, which filled twenty-five
pages of the stenographic report, occupied seven pages and there was
not a superfluous word. She began by calling attention to the
petitions as a whole from the southern States, printed copies of which
were furnished to each member of the committee. They included the
names of over a thousand prominent men, among them two and a half
pages of Mayors; the Governors of Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida and
many other State officials. She said that as she listened to Mr.
Bailey's speech she was reminded of the declaration of a president of
Harvard College, who asserted that without question there were witches
and it was the duty of all good people to hunt them out, but
twenty-five years later every intelligent man knew there had never
been such a thing as a witch. A man once wrote a book to prove that a
steamship could never cross the ocean and the book was brought to
America by the first one that crossed. Daniel Webster made a speech
against admitting as a State one of the western Territories because
its members of Congress after their election would not be able to
reach Washington until the session was over. "These men lacked
vision," she said, "and so does the last speaker. He does not know
what has been happening in the world." She referred to the vast
changes in the industrial life of women since the days of the mother
of Washington and the wife of Jefferson, whom he had used as models
for those of the present day, and said: "It is my pleasure to inform
him that I myself am that which he regrets--a voter--and I would
rather have my vote as a protector than the reverence even of the
gentleman from Texas."
Mrs. Catt continued: "The speech to which we have listened has been
interesting because it has seemed to be a chapter from a book that was
written long ago. The week before the war began it was my privilege,
sitting in the balcony of the House of Commons, to look down upon the
bald head of Mr. Asquith while he made a speech against woman
suffrage. 'I am unalterably opposed to woman suffrage because Great
Britain is a mighty empire and it will always be necessary to defend
it by military power and what do women know about war?' he asked.
Three years later he humbly confessed before the world that when a
nation like Great Britain goes to war, and such a war as this one,
which calls for every ounce of power the nation can offer in its
defense, men and women make equal sacrifices and therefore it is not a
man's job but it is a man's and a woman's job and they are doing it
together. So the Premier demanded woman suffrage and voted for it in
the House of Commons. Remembering Mr. Asquith, I think there is hope
for Mr. Bailey."
Mrs. Catt pictured eloquently the marvelous work being done by women
in Great Britain in the munitions factories, the railway service, the
dockyards, and also in our own and all countries; she described the
heroic sacrifices of the nurses; she told how the women of Canada and
New Zealand had voted for conscription and how in all countries the
women were backing their men in the war. "It is declared that American
women cannot carry a gun," she said. "Why that is the kind of talk we
heard forty years ago and Mr. Bailey's speech is just that much behind
the times.... I am sorry for any man who has stood still while the
world has moved on."
Only the merest outline of this convincing address is given but before
its conclusion Mr. Bailey had deliberately insulted Mrs. Catt by
leaving the room. Mrs. Wadsworth, when asked if she wished her side to
be heard in rebuttal, introduced Miss Charlotte E. Rowe of Yonkers, N.
Y., who made a vigorous plea for saving the home, children and
womanhood and declared woman suffrage would lead to Socialism. During
the course of her speech she said, according to the official
stenographic report: "If working girls and women in colleges will
study cooking and sewing and domestic science and hygiene, or simple
rules of health and how to care for the sick and the fine and
beautiful art of home making, it will be much better for them and
better for the country than if they spend their time parading up the
avenue of a crowded city and praying that they may some day, somehow,
become policemen or boiler-makers side by side with men.... I say to
you that it has remained for this self-sufficient 20th century to have
produced a womanhood which would stand--even a small proportion of
it--in legislative halls and say that they are doing more in this
great and terrible war than the men are doing.... Gentlemen, if I were
a married woman and my husband was a feminist and on the first Tuesday
after the first Monday in November he said to me, 'Come, walk by me so
as to strengthen and sustain me as I go to the polls,' I would say to
him, 'Look here, Mabel, here is the key of the flat; I am going home
to father.' I would advise men and women suffragists--and especially
those suffragist men who need their wives to strengthen and sustain
them on election day--I would advise them to go to the cellar and
check over the laundry."
This last hearing on the Federal Suffrage Amendment closed on January
7 and the following day the committee made a favorable report to the
House of Representatives. By consent of the Committee on Rules the
10th was set for the debate and vote and on that day the House by a
two-thirds majority voted to submit the amendment to the State
Legislatures.
FOOTNOTES:
[114] Although there was no national convention in 1918 Mrs. Catt
called a conference of the Executive Council, consisting of the
national officers, chairmen of standing and special committees and
State presidents, at Indianapolis, April 18th and 19th. It was in
effect a convention except for the presence of elected delegates and
forty-five States were represented, including many of the South. They
were entertained by the Indiana Women's Franchise League, welcomed by
Governor Goodrich and Mayor Jewett and were guests at many brilliant
social functions. A full program of daytime plans for work and
committee reports and of evening addresses was carried out. The
visitors were able to attend meetings of the Indiana State Suffrage
Convention and the League of Women Voters.
[115] Call: The National American Woman Suffrage Association calls its
State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to meet in annual
convention at St. Louis, Statler Hotel, March 24 to March 29, 1919,
inclusive.
In 1869, Wyoming led the world by the grant of full suffrage to its
women. The convention will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this
event. In 1869, the National and the American Woman Suffrage
Associations were organized--to be combined twenty years later into
the National American. The convention will celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of the founding of the organization which without a pause
has carried forward the effort to secure the enfranchisement of women.
As a fitting memorial to a half-century of progress the association
invites the women voters of the fifteen full suffrage States to attend
this anniversary and there to join their forces in a League of Women
Voters, one of whose objects shall be to speed the suffrage campaign
in our own and other countries.
The convention will express its pleasure with suitable ceremonials
that since last we met the women of England, Scotland, Ireland and
Wales, Canada and Germany have received the vote, but it will make
searching inquiry into the mysterious causes which deny patriotic,
qualified women of our Republic a voice in their own government while
those of monarchies and erstwhile monarchies are honored with
political equality. Suffrage delegates, women voters, there is need of
more serious counsel than in any preceding year. It is not you but the
nation that has been dishonored by the failure of the 65th Congress to
pass the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Let us inquire together; let us
act together.
CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.
ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Honorary President.
KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, First Vice-President.
MARY GARRETT HAY, Second Vice-President.
ANNE DALLAS DUDLEY, Third Vice-President.
GERTRUDE FOSTER BROWN, Fourth Vice-President.
HELEN H. GARDENER, Fifth Vice-president.
NETTIE ROGERS SHULER, Corresponding Secretary.
JUSTINA LEAVITT WILSON, Recording Secretary.
EMMA WINNER ROGERS, Treasurer.
[116] Ministers who opened the different sessions with prayer were
Mary J. Safford, of Iowa; Dr. Ivan Lee Holt, Rabbi Samuel Thurman, Dr.
G. Nussman and the Rev. Father Russell J. Wilbur; at the meetings in
the Odeon, Dr. J. W. Mclvor and Dean Carrol Davis, all of St. Louis.
[117] From the address of President Wilson:
And what shall we say of the women?... Their contribution to the great
result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new luster to the annals
of American womanhood. The least tribute we can pay them is to make
them the equals of men in political rights as they have proved
themselves their equals in every field of practical work they have
entered, whether for themselves or for their country. These great days
of completed achievements would be sadly marred were we to omit that
act of justice.
[118] For action of this committee see Appendix for Chapter XIX.
[119] Names of Committee: John E. Raker, California, chairman; Edward
W. Saunders, Virginia; Frank Clark, Florida; Benjamin C. Hilliard,
Colorado; James H. Mays, Utah; Christopher D. Sullivan, New York;
Thomas L. Blanton, Texas; Jeannette Rankin, Montana; Frank W. Mondell,
Wyoming; William H. Carter, Massachusetts; Edward C. Little, Kansas;
Richard N. Elliott, Indiana; Jacob E. Meeker, Missouri.
[120] In the summer of 1920, Mr. Bailey, who had been living in New
York City ever since he resigned from the Senate, returned to Texas
and made the race for Governor to "rescue" the State from woman
suffrage, prohibition and other progressive measures which had made
great headway since he left it. He was badly defeated for the
nomination, with women voting.
CHAPTER XIX.
NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1920.
The official report of the Fifty-first convention, in 1920, was
entitled Victory Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association and First Congress of the League of Women Voters and the
Call was as follows:
"Suffragists, hear this last call to a suffrage convention!
"The officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
hereby call the State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to
meet in annual convention at Chicago, Congress Hotel, February 12th to
18th, inclusive. In other days our members and friends have been
summoned to annual conventions to disseminate the propaganda for their
common cause, to cheer and encourage each other, to strengthen their
organized influence, to counsel as to ways and means of insuring
further progress. At this time they are called to rejoice that the
struggle is over, the aim achieved and the women of the nation about
to enter into the enjoyment of their hard-earned political liberty. Of
all the conventions held within the past fifty-one years, this will
prove the most momentous. Few people live to see the actual and final
realization of hopes to which they have devoted their lives. That
privilege is ours.
"Turning to the past let us review the incidents of our long struggle
together before they are laid away with other buried memories. Let us
honor our pioneers. Let us tell the world of the ever-buoyant hope,
born of the assurance of the justice and inevitability of our cause,
which has given our army of workers the unswerving courage and
determination that at last have overcome every obstacle and attained
their aim. Come and let us together express the joy which only those
can feel who have suffered for a cause.
"Turning to the future, let us inquire together how best we can now
serve our beloved nation. Let us ask what political parties want of
us and we of them. Come one and all and unitedly make this last
suffrage convention a glad memory to you, a heritage for your children
and your children's children and a benefaction to our nation.[121]"
The seven days of the convention were divided between the National
Association and the League of Women Voters, the latter having the
lion's share as a new organization requiring much time and attention.
All of February 12 was given to the meetings of its committees, with
dinners for all delegates and a program of speakers at the Auditorium,
Morrison and La Salle Hotels in the evening. All matters relating to
the league are considered in the chapter on the League of Women Voters
by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary. The addresses
at the convention, with the exception of those on Miss Anthony's one
hundredth birthday and the memorial meeting for Dr. Shaw, were given
under the auspices of the league and the Resolutions were prepared by
its committee.
The convention of the National Association began February 13 but the
two preceding days had been occupied by almost continuous business
sessions of the officers and board of directors. Mrs. Grace Wilbur
Trout, State president, was chairman of the local committee of
arrangements of nearly forty women of Chicago, Evanston and suburban
towns for this largest national suffrage convention ever held and the
arrangements had never been surpassed. Nothing was forgotten which
could contribute to the success or pleasure of the convention. A
hostess was appointed for each State to make its delegates acquainted
and contribute to their comfort. There were present 546 delegates, a
large number of alternates and thousands of visitors, while for the
audiences at the public meetings there was not even standing
room.[122]
At the morning session on the 13th, with Mrs. Catt presiding, the
following program was presented by the Executive Council for the
consideration of the delegates and was discussed at this and other
business sessions:
1. Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association dissolve
when the last task concerning the extension of suffrage to women is
completed?
2. Shall it recommend its members to join the League of Women Voters?
3. Shall this be the last suffrage convention held under its auspices?
If not, when shall the next be called?
4. If this is to be the last convention, shall a Board of Officers be
elected at this convention to serve until all tasks are completed? If
this is done, to whom shall such a board render its final report and
by whom shall it be officially discharged?
5. If dissolution is determined upon, what disposition shall be made
of (a) the files of data; (b) the property; (c) the funds, if any
remain?
6. In the event that the association shall be dissolved what agency
shall become the auxiliary of the International Woman Suffrage
Alliance?
7. What plan for the intensive education of new women voters is
possible and shall it be recommended that the League of Women Voters
take up this work or shall it be conducted under the National American
Woman Suffrage Association?
At the beginning of the afternoon session Mrs. Catt said that for
twenty-eight years the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw had opened the national
conventions with prayer and she asked that in memory of her the
delegates rise and join in silent prayer. They did so and many were
in tears. The Rev. Herbert L. Willet then offered the invocation. Mrs.
Trout, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association, cordially
welcomed the delegates to Chicago. The greeting from the Canadian
Woman Suffrage Association was brought by its president, Dr. Margaret
Gordon. Mrs. Catt made a gracious response and resigning the chair to
the first vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, gave a
brief address, reserving a longer one for the League of Women Voters.
She said in part:
When we met at St. Louis a year ago in the 50th annual convention
of our association, we knew that the end of our long struggle was
near. We comprehended in a new sense the truth of Victor Hugo's
sage epigram: "There is one thing more powerful than Kings and
Armies--the idea whose time has come to move." We knew that the
time for our idea was here, and as State after State has joined
the list of the ratified we have seen our idea, our cause, move
forward dramatically, majestically into its appropriate place as
part of the constitution of our nation. We have not yet the
official proclamation announcing that our amendment has been
ratified by the necessary thirty-six States, but thirty-one have
done so and another will ratify before we adjourn; three
Governors have promised special sessions very soon and two more
Legislatures will ratify when called together. There is no power
on this earth that can do more than delay by a trifle the final
enfranchisement of women.
The enemies of progress and liberty never surrender and never
die. Ever since the days of cave-men they have stood ready with
their sledge hammers to strike any liberal idea on the head
whenever it appeared. They are still active, hysterically active,
over our amendment; still imagining, as their progenitors for
thousands of years have done, that a fly sitting on a wheel may
command it to revolve no more and it will obey. They are running
about from State to State, a few women and a few paid men. They
dash to Washington to hold hurried consultations with senatorial
friends and away to carry out instructions.... It does not
matter. Suffragists were never dismayed when they were a tiny
group and all the world was against them. What care they now when
all the world is with them? March on, suffragists, the victory is
yours! The trail has been long and winding; the struggle has been
tedious and wearying; you have made sacrifices and received many
hard knocks; be joyful to-day. Our final victory is due, is
inevitable, is almost here. Let us celebrate to-day, and when the
proclamation comes I beg you to celebrate the occasion with some
form of joyous demonstration in your own home State. Two
armistice days made a joyous ending of the war. Let two
ratification days, one a National and one a State day, make a
happy ending of the denial of political freedom to women!
Our amendment was submitted June 4, 1919, and to-day, eight
months and eight days later, it has been ratified by thirty-one
States. No other amendment made such a record but the time is not
the significant part of the story. Of the thirty-one
ratifications twenty-four have taken place in _special sessions_.
These mean extra cost to the State, opportunity for other
legislation and the chance of political intrigue for or against
the Governor who calls them. These obstacles have been difficult
to overcome, far more difficult than most of you will ever know,
and in a few instances well-nigh insurmountable, but the point to
emphasize to-day is that they _were_ overcome. As a whole the
ratifications have moved forward in splendid triumphal
procession. There have been many inspiring incidents of daring
and clever moves on the part of suffragists to speed the campaign
and there have been many incidents of courage, nobility of
purpose and proud scorn of the pettiness of political enemies on
the part of Governors, legislators and men friends. On the other
hand there have been tricks, chicanery and misrepresentation, but
let us forget them all. Victors can afford to be generous.
Referring to the cost of special sessions, Mrs. Catt said:
If the Governor is a Republican tell him that had it not been
that two Republican Senators, Borah of Idaho and Wadsworth of New
York, refused to represent their States as indicated by votes at
the polls, resolutions by their Legislatures and planks in their
party platforms, the suffrage amendment would have passed the
65th Congress. It then would have come into the regular sessions
of forty-two Legislatures with more than thirty-six pledged to
ratify and without a cent of extra cost to any State! When a
Republican Governor calls an extra session in order to ratify he
merely atones for the conduct of two members of his own party.
They, not he, are to blame that it became necessary. If the
Governor is Democratic say that had it not been for two northern
Democratic Senators, Pomerene of Ohio and Hitchcock of Nebraska,
who refused to represent their States on the question as
indicated by their Legislatures and platforms, Congress would
have sent the amendment to the 1919 Legislatures and it would
have cost the States nothing. The Democratic Governor who calls a
special session only makes honorable amends for the
misrepresentation of members of his own party....
We should be more than glad and grateful to-day, we should be
proud--proud that our fifty-one years of organized endeavor have
been clean, constructive, conscientious. Our association never
resorted to lies, innuendoes, misrepresentation. It never accused
its opponents of being free lovers, pro-Germans and Bolsheviki.
It marched forward even when its forces were most disorganized by
disaster. It always met argument with argument, honest objection
with proof of error. In fifty years it never failed to send its
representatives to plead our cause before every national
political convention, although they went knowing that the
prejudice they would meet was impregnable and the response would
be ridicule and condemnation. It went to the rescue of every
State campaign for half a century with such forces as it could
command, even when realizing that there was no hope. In every
corner it sowed the seeds of justice and trusted to time to bring
the harvest. It has aided boys in high school with debates and
later heard their votes of "yes" in Legislatures. Reporters
assigned to our Washington conventions long, long ago, took their
places at the press table on the first day with contempt and
ridicule in their hearts but went out the last day won to our
cause and later became editors of newspapers and spoke to
thousands in our behalf. Girls came to our meetings, listened and
accepted, and later as mature women became intrepid leaders.
In all the years this association has never paid a national
lobbyist, and, so far as I know, no State has paid a legislative
lobbyist. During the fifty years it has rarely had a salaried
officer and even if so she has been paid less than her earning
capacity elsewhere. It has been an army of volunteers who have
estimated no sacrifice too great, no service too difficult.
Mrs. Catt enumerated some of the immortal pioneer suffragists and
said: "How small seems the service of the rest of us by comparison,
yet how glad and proud we have been to give it. Ours has been a cause
to live for, a cause to die for if need be. It has been a movement
with a soul, a dauntless, unconquerable soul ever leading onward.
Women came, served and passed on but others took their places.... How
I pity the women who have had no share in the exaltation and the
discipline of our army of workers! How I pity those who have not felt
the grip of the oneness of women struggling, serving, suffering,
sacrificing for the righteousness of woman's emancipation! Oh, women,
be glad today and let your voices ring out the gladness in your
hearts! There will never come another day like this. Let joy be
unconfined and let it speak so clearly that its echo will be heard
around the world and find its way into the soul of every woman of
every race who is yearning for opportunity and liberty still
denied...."
After this inspiring address the convention was turned into a
jollification meeting for a considerable time until the delegates were
tired out by their enthusiasm and composed themselves to receive a
telegram of greeting from President Woodrow Wilson addressed to Mrs.
Catt: "Permit me to congratulate your association upon the fact that
its great work is so near its triumphant end and that you can now
merge it into a League of Women Voters to carry on the development of
good citizenship and real democracy; and to wish for the new
organization the same wise leadership and success." On motion of Mrs.
McCormick it was voted that "the gratitude of the convention be
expressed to the President for his constant cooperation and help, with
deep regret for his illness." On motion of Miss Mary Garrett Hay,
second vice-president, the convention authorized a letter of
appreciation to be sent to the Governors of States that had ratified
the Federal Amendment and telegrams to those who had not called
special sessions strongly urging them to do so.[123] This was made
especially emphatic to Governor Louis F. Hart of Washington, the only
equal suffrage State which had not ratified. [The session was called
and the Legislature ratified unanimously March 22, leaving but one
more to be gained.]
At the evening session the Recommendations were considered as
presented by the Executive Council, which consisted of the president
of the association, officers, board of directors, chairmen of standing
and special committees, presidents of affiliated organizations and one
representative of each society which paid dues on 1,500 or more
members. After discussion and some amendment they were adopted as
follows:
Whereas, The sole object of many years' endeavor by the National
American Woman Suffrage Association has been "to secure the vote
to the women citizens of the United States by appropriate
national and State legislation" and that object is about to be
attained, and
Whereas, The association must naturally dissolve or take up new
lines of work when the last suffrage task has been completed,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the association shall assume no new lines of work
and shall move toward dissolution by the following process:
(1) That a Board of Officers shall be elected at this convention,
as usual, to serve two years (if necessary) in accordance with
the provisions of the constitution;
(2) That the eight directors elected at the 50th annual
convention, and whose term of office does not expire until March,
1921, shall be asked to serve until the term of elected officers
shall expire;
(3) That any vacancy or vacancies occurring in the list of
directors shall be filled by election at this convention;
(4) That all vacancies in the Board of Directors occurring after
this convention shall be filled by majority vote of the board;
(5) That the Board of Officers so constituted shall have full
charge of the remainder of the ratification campaign and all
necessary legal proceedings and shall dispose of files, books,
data, property and funds (if any remain) of the association
subject to the further instruction of this convention. The
Executive Council shall be subject to call by the Board of
Officers if necessary;
(6) That the Board of Officers shall render a quarterly account
of its procedure and an annual report of all funds in its
possession duly audited by certified accountant, to the women who
in February, 1920, compose its Executive Council. When its work
is completed and its final report has been accepted by this
council it may by formal resolution dissolve.[124]
A resolution was adopted regarding action in case of a referendum to
the voters of ratification by a Legislature but later the U. S.
Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional. Another urged the new
league to make political education of the voters its first duty. The
last resolution was as follows:
"We recommend that the League of Women Voters, now a section of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association, be organized as a new
and independent society, and that its auxiliaries, while retaining
their relationship to the Board of Officers to be elected in this 51st
convention in form, shall change their names, objects and
constitutions to conform to those of the National League of Women
Voters and take up the plan of work to be adopted by its first
congress."
Following the precedent of the last convention, in order to save time,
all headquarters' activities were summed up in the report of the
corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler. Much condensed the
report was as follows:
In the greater glory of the Federal Amendment and the
ratifications which are bringing about our ultimate victory we
should not overlook the solid, constructive work of the past ten
and a half months and those successes of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association and its branches in the various
States, which made possible the Federal Amendment.
At our convention in St. Louis, March 24-29, 1919, when we met to
counsel together for the future and to gird on our armor for the
"one fight more--the last and the best," we celebrated the
Missouri victory, the twenty-seventh State to give Presidential
suffrage to women. Mrs. Catt, by resolution of the convention,
immediately wrote to the legislators of Tennessee and Iowa urging
passage of a similar bill. Tennessee gave Presidential and
Municipal suffrage to women April 14 and Iowa Presidential
suffrage on April 19, increasing the number of presidential
electors for whom women may vote to 306 out of 531, the total in
the United States.
Connecticut women made a magnificent campaign for Presidential
suffrage, failing by only one vote in the Legislature. The
strength displayed by the suffragists, the obtaining of 98,000
women's signatures and the dignity and ability shown under the
leadership of Miss Katherine Ludington, so advanced suffrage in
that State as to make the battle seem a victory rather than a
defeat.
Municipal suffrage was given by the Legislature to the women of
Orlando, Fla., April 21, making sixteen towns in ten counties in
that State where women have this right. An effort to secure a
Primary suffrage bill for the entire State failed.
Suffrage in the Democratic municipal primaries was granted by the
local Democratic committee to the women of Atlanta, Ga., May 3,
for one election.
In a referendum vote on a State amendment, May 24, 1919, full
suffrage was defeated in Texas. The main causes were: The large
number of men who were so confident of the success of the
amendment that they did not take the trouble to go to the polls
to vote for it; illegal changes in the numbering and position of
the amendment on the ballots of the various counties; the absence
from the State of about 200,000 soldiers; unfavorable weather
conditions; the shortness of the time allowed for the campaign,
and, chief of all, the organized opposition of the foreign-born
and negro voters. The Texas suffragists won a clear-cut victory
January 28 when the State Supreme Court upheld the decisions of
the lower courts that the Primary suffrage bill was
constitutional....
On June 28 the women of Nebraska won a distinctive victory when
the State Supreme Court held the Presidential and Municipal
suffrage act of 1917 to be constitutional. The history of woman
suffrage records no harder fought legal battle than this. They
won another victory in the decision by Attorney General Clarence
E. Davis that they had the right to help choose delegates to the
national political party conventions. On February 12 the
constitutional convention voted to leave the word "male" out of
the new constitution.
In Tennessee the decision of the Court of Chancery, which
declared the Presidential and Municipal suffrage bill of 1918
unconstitutional, has been reversed by the State Supreme
Court....
On February 13 the suffrage committee of the constitutional
convention then in session in Illinois voted unanimously to
strike "male" out of the new constitution.
We began the year 1918 with nineteen organizers, but as the
legislative work came to occupy the place of chief importance
most of the States expressed a preference for the services of
their own women and it became necessary to reduce the national
staff.[125]
During the winter of 1918-1919 a series of conferences was
offered to the southern States but for various reasons not
accepted. At the St. Louis convention in March, 1919, Mrs. Catt
requested the southern representatives to outline the definite
help desired from the National Association and their requests
were accepted by the board at its post-convention meeting as
follows: The National to give (a) one speaker or organizer to
each State for two months; (b) a suffrage school to each; (c) one
thousand copies of Senator Pollock's speech to each. This help
from the National was conditional upon the promise of the
southern States (a) that each State would furnish one of its own
workers to be under the instruction of the national worker and to
continue in charge after her departure; (b) that it would
establish and maintain a speakers' bureau; (c) that it would
begin the petition campaign. By October the association had
fulfilled its promise of an organizer for two months to Virginia,
West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama and Tennessee and had arranged to send
organizers to Kentucky, Delaware and Mississippi when those
States were ready for them. Later, because of ratification, it
gave additional help, sending Mrs. McMahon to Delaware, Mrs.
Cunningham, Miss Watkins and Miss Peshakova to Mississippi; Miss
Pidgeon, Miss Miller and Mrs. McMahon to Alabama, where a
splendid campaign for ratification was directed by Mrs. Pattie
Ruffner Jacobs, State suffrage president.
Not only were the promised copies of Senator Pollock's speech
sent but an additional 10,000 pieces of literature were given to
Maryland, North Carolina and Delaware; 5,000 to Virginia, South
Carolina, Georgia and Florida; 36,000 to West Virginia and 51,000
to Mississippi. In place of the suffrage schools a series of
conferences was agreed to by the southern States. Three speakers
were selected with great care and an outline for the trip was
submitted to the States. Some responded that they could not
arrange satisfactory conferences, others that they could not make
dates to fit the itinerary, two did not reply in time and two
did not respond at all. Since speakers could not be sent at such
great cost for small, unsatisfactory meetings or on an incomplete
itinerary, we were reluctantly forced to cancel the conferences.
With regard to the work which the southern States agreed to do,
only one State met the provision to provide a worker of its own
under the direction of the national organizer to take charge
after her departure. None of the States established a speakers'
bureau. Three States started the petition campaign but none
finished it.
FEDERAL AMENDMENT. We were confident of victory for the amendment
in 1919 in the 66th Congress. The House passed it May 21 by an
affirmative vote of 304, a majority of 42 votes, and June 4 the
Senate by a vote of 56 to 25. The passage of this amendment
introduced in Congress over forty years ago by the National
Suffrage Association closed a long and interesting chapter of the
movement. The completion of that part of our work made it no
longer necessary for us to maintain a Washington headquarters.
Accordingly June 30, 1919, the doors of the Suffrage House, 1626
Rhode Island Avenue, were closed after having received cabinet
members, senators, congressmen, distinguished persons from this
and foreign countries, thousands of American men and women and
those active suffragists who were called to Washington from time
to time to assist in the work of the congressional committee.
Mrs. Maud Wood Park, to whose indefatigable energy, honesty of
purpose and action and infinite tact we owe much, led the way to
victory for the amendment. Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, whose
diplomatic abilities made her the constant adviser of the
committee, Miss Marjorie Shuler, chief of publicity, Miss Mabel
Willard in charge of social affairs, Miss Caroline I. Reilly and
Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, secretaries, formed the personnel
of the Congressional Committee at the time of victory.
During the months preceding the passage of the Federal Amendment
the National Association had carried not only the burden of the
actual amendment campaign but had planned and carried out the
preparatory work for ratification. Legislatures had been polled,
Governors interviewed on the subject of special sessions and
organization and publicity built up, looking forward to the final
ratification battle. The presidential suffrage campaigns and the
resolutions calling upon Congress to pass the suffrage amendment,
which the National Association had secured in State Legislatures,
were all part of the ratification strategy, a test of the
suffrage sentiment in the current Legislatures as well as an
impelling force on Congress to pass the amendment.
We had hoped that from this point the State associations would
undertake their own campaigns and to that end Mrs. Catt issued a
bulletin May 24 telling each one just what steps to take. She
stated that the National Association would immediately ask
Governors of all equal suffrage States to call sessions and would
circularize all the Legislatures. She called upon the State
associations to (1) circularize their legislators with the news
of the final victory; (2) send deputations to secure the pledge
of the vote of each legislator for ratification; (3) begin a
statewide campaign through the press, petitions, literature and
meetings to secure their own special sessions. It soon became
apparent that the States as a whole were not carrying out these
plans and instead of promises of special sessions excuses came
from the men with the endorsement of the women themselves. It was
evident that the national office in New York must be in command.
During the following weeks up to the present time the days and
nights have been filled with intensive effort. Never before have
the members of the national force, the board, the office force of
forty persons in the national headquarters, the Leslie
Commission, the publicity department, the _Woman Citizen_ and the
Publishing Company worked with so little sparing of themselves
and with such absolute concentration upon the matter in hand,
still carrying on citizenship preparation, organization and all
the routine work but always giving Ratification the right of way.
It was Mrs. Catt who sounded the rallying call, who mapped out
every step of the way, who did the work of a dozen women herself
and cheered the rest on. No one will ever know the full story of
her ingenious plans which brought about the ratification and in
some States even the women think it was easily won because they
do not know of the efforts put forth from the national office.
As soon as the amendment had passed the Senate, Mrs. Catt kept
the agreement made by her in the bulletin and sent telegrams to
the Governors of full suffrage States, asking for special
sessions, and to Legislatures then in session asking for
ratification. With the cooperation of the suffrage associations,
Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan ratified on June 10, in six days
after the amendment was submitted by Congress. Kansas and New
York ratified in special session and Ohio in regular session on
June 16. Pennsylvania ratified on June 24, its blackness wiped
off the map. The change of black Massachusetts to the ratified
white on June 25 gave another big impetus to the campaign. Texas
distinguished itself by ratifying on June 28. This made nine
ratifications in nineteen days!
Mrs. Catt had previously asked the presidents of State suffrage
associations to interview their Governors regarding special
sessions and she had sent personal letters to them and to members
of the Legislatures enclosing facts concerning the Federal
Amendment. As a result the Governors of Nebraska, Indiana and
Minnesota sent letters and telegrams to twenty-two other
Governors asking them to call special sessions.
To carry the appeal to the West, two commissions were sent out
the last of July, Mrs. John Glover South of Kentucky and Miss
Shuler of New York to the Republican States; Mrs. Cunningham of
Texas and Mrs. Hooper of Wisconsin to the Democratic States.
After a tour of the States and visits to the Governors they went
to Salt Lake City for the Governors' Conference. Their reports
revealed the fact that women in the enfranchised States had been
absorbed into the political parties, and, with their suffrage
campaign organizations practically dissolved, were in no position
to determine or carry out independent political action. The
replies of the Governors--that "the women of _my_ State have the
suffrage, it will not help us, the cost of a special session is
too great, ill-advised legislation might be considered"--revealed
an even more deplorable fact, that both men and women in those
States were bounded in thought by their State lines and did not
have a national point of view on national issues.
From the first Mrs. Catt had believed that the strategy of
ratification demanded rapid action by the western full suffrage
States, the partial suffrage States falling into line and the
last fight coming in the eastern States where women had not yet
become political factors. Therefore the Governors of the fully
enfranchised States were wired as soon as the Federal Amendment
passed. Those of Kansas and New York responded at once with
special sessions on June 16. Then came an ominous pause. No far
western States had yet ratified. What mysterious cause delayed
them?
Ratifications came in Iowa July 2; Missouri July 3; Arkansas July
28; Montana July 30; Nebraska August 2; Minnesota September 8;
New Hampshire September 10; Utah September 30. Another ominous
pause, with Montana and Utah the only far western States yet
heard from.
On October 23 Mrs. Catt opened a "drive" for ratification through
sixteen conferences in twelve States, all but two with equal
suffrage. She was accompanied by two chairmen of the League of
Women Voters, Dr. Valeria Parker of the Committee of Social
Hygiene, and Mrs. Edward P. Costigan of the Committee on Food
Supply and Demand, with Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield speaking for
the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Shuler for that on
Child Welfare. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of the Committee on
Unification of Laws and Miss Julia Lathrop, chairman of the Child
Welfare Committee, spoke at one of the conferences and Miss
Jessie Haver substituted for Mrs. Costigan during the latter part
of the trip. Mrs. Catt's address--Wake Up America--was an appeal
for special sessions to ratify in those States where there were
to be no regular sessions until 1921 and an appeal to both men
and women to use their votes for a better America. Ratifications
in North Dakota December 1; South Dakota December 4; Colorado
December 12; Oregon January 12; Nevada February 7--were in answer
to those stirring appeals. California ratified November 1; Maine
November 5; Rhode Island and Kentucky January 6; Indiana January
16. Following soon New Jersey ratified by regular session
February 9. Idaho by special session February 11; Arizona
February 12. The special session is called in New Mexico February
16 and in Oklahoma February 23. [Both ratified.]
In the story of our ratification campaign there occurs often the
name of our second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, whose
work for the National Association has always been valuable but
who has made her greatest contribution in work for the passage of
the Federal Amendment in the campaign to secure special sessions
and the overwhelming number of ratifications in Republican
States.
Mrs. Shuler told of the Oversea Hospitals, which are considered in
another chapter. She gave an eloquent tribute to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw
and spoke of the beautiful memorial booklet prepared by a committee of
officers of the National Association, who distributed 5,000 copies. It
also aided in circulating 10,000 copies of her last speech--What the
War Meant to Women--prepared as a memorial by the League to Enforce
Peace. She spoke tenderly of the death of Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery,
corresponding secretary of the National Association twenty-one years;
of that of Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler Walker, who presided so charmingly
over the headquarters in Washington, and of Miss Aloysius
Larch-Miller, who as secretary of the committee on ratification in
Oklahoma sacrificed her life through her work for it. Reference was
made to the contributory work of the National Board in stabilizing the
League of Women Voters; to the Citizenship Schools and Travelling
Libraries, and the very complete report closed with a testimonial to
the immeasurable value of the national organization which read in
part:
Our State suffrage associations welded into a great chain have
made the National Association. Our members have been one in
heart, one in hope, one in purpose. We have held the same
standards, the same ideals. When the way has seemed long and dark
and the goal of our efforts afar off, we have supported, cheered
and encouraged each other. We have rejoiced over even the
smallest victory and have never been a downhearted group. The
suffrage spirit has ever buoyed us up and carried us on even when
the road was the steepest and the obstructions seemed almost
insurmountable. These experiences could not have been realized
through fifty-one years without "lengthening the cords and
strengthening the stakes of friendship" but more--the result has
been a liberal training, a greater belief in each other and more
confidence in the merits of our cause.
While the value of any movement depends upon the success with
which its practical details are worked out, yet in the final
analysis the idealism of a movement is the mainspring of its
vitality.
"The spirit stands behind the deed,
In holy thought the dream must start
And every cause that moves the world
Was born within a single heart."
So to-day we render homage to our great leader, Mrs. Catt, whose
hand has guided and whose genius has vitalized our movement. She
has given to a world of women her love, her faith. She has
dreamed a dream and then with prophetic vision and undaunted
courage led the way to victory and the consummation of that
dream.
The exquisite poem, "Oh, Dreamer of Dreams," was quoted and the report
ended: "Year after year at national conventions women have agreed to
'carry on'. How well this has been done the records prove. All who
have shared in the service and sacrifice which were necessary to bring
about the great victory which we are here to celebrate will be glad
that they were given and rejoice that they helped in putting to flight
the powers of darkness."
In the course of her report as national treasurer Mrs. Henry Wade
Rogers said:
It was in November, 1914, at the Nashville convention, that I was
elected treasurer of the National Suffrage Association. In
November, 1919, I completed my fifth year of service, these last
three months additional being by way of good measure. I succeeded
with trepidation Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick's very efficient
service. She and I are the only members on the present board who
were members in 1914.
In February, 1918, the duties of treasurer of the Women's Oversea
Hospitals were added to those of the association and the sum of
$178,000 has passed through the special treasury of the hospitals
to carry on the splendid war work undertaken by the National
Suffrage Association. A balance of about $35,000 remains in that
treasury, the use of which in some form of memorial this
convention will be asked to designate.[126]
The receipts of the treasury since I took office have been, for
1914-1915, $43,186; 1915-1916, $81,862; 1916-1917, $103,826;
1917-1918, $107,736; 1919-1920, $97,379; a total of $443,989.
Adding the fund raised for the Hospitals the total is $611,991.
Each year I have solicited funds for the National Association
from hundreds of suffragists, in addition to the large sums
pledged at the conventions, and have had always most generous
responses. In November and December, 1919, 38,000 letters were
sent out signed by the president and treasurer of the National
Suffrage Association asking for a ratification fund of $100,000.
Very gratifying returns have come from this appeal and are still
coming....
We come to this final convention of our National Association with
a balance in the treasury and it must be determined here whether
or not this sum is sufficient to finish the fight for nation-wide
suffrage. Because of your sympathy and generous cooperation I
have found the treasurership a real pleasure. The actual work has
been lightened by the faithful service of Miss Eleanor Bates,
accountant of the association since 1912. We cannot too
gratefully acknowledge also the devoted service of many others,
who, unheralded and unsung, have helped to make possible this
victory hour....
With this report were ten closely printed pages of perfectly kept and
audited accounts. They showed a balance of $10,905 in the treasury.
Mrs. Rogers continued the duties of her office at unanimous request
having given up to the present time about seven years of most
efficient service, spending days, weeks and months at the national
headquarters with no remuneration except the joy of helping the cause
of woman suffrage. At one session through the efforts of Miss Mary
Garrett Hay and Mrs. Raymond Brown, pledges of $44,500 were obtained
for the League of Women Voters, Miss Lucy E. Anthony making the first
contribution of $1,000 in memory of her aunt, Susan B. Anthony. The
Leslie Commission guaranteed $15,000 of this amount.
The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington had
during the year set apart a division of space for mementoes of
distinguished suffragists, and Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, through whose
efforts chiefly this concession had been secured, offered the
following resolution, which was unanimously adopted: "This convention
expresses to the Directors of the Smithsonian Institution profound
appreciation of this section devoted to the great women leaders of
liberty and civilization on the same broad basis accorded to men and
believes that this shrine will be an object of the reverence and
education of all womanhood.[127]
A resolution was adopted to send congratulatory and affectionate
letters to the pioneers, Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y.; the
Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of Elizabeth, N. J., and Mrs.
Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia. The Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine,
Wis., one of the few remaining pioneers, was guest of honor of the
convention and received especial attention throughout the week. A
telegram was sent to Mrs. Ida Husted Harper of New York in recognition
of her constant, untiring work on the last volumes of the History of
Woman Suffrage, still in progress. Very laudatory resolutions of
"sincere gratitude" were adopted and sent to Will H. Hays and Homer
Cummings, chairmen of the Republican and Democratic National
Committees, for their services in behalf of the Federal Suffrage
Amendment.