which was reached in regard to the representation of women in future
national conventions, this convention deciding that full sex equality
should be observed in its delegations and that the National Committee
hereafter should include one man and one woman from each State.
Thus the struggle begun in 1868 for the approval of woman suffrage by
the National Presidential Conventions of the political parties ended
with its complete endorsement by all of them in 1920.
FOOTNOTES:
[147] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Mary Garrett
Hay, second vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association.
[148] For a full account of the effort to obtain planks in the
national platforms from 1868 to 1900, inclusive, see Chapter XXIII,
Volume IV, History of Woman Suffrage.
[149] One evening during the convention the Maryland suffragists,
reinforced by others from surrounding cities, had a long and
handsomely equipped parade.
CHAPTER XXIV.
WAR SERVICE OF ORGANIZED SUFFRAGISTS.[150]
The response of the women of the United States to the call of their
country as it entered the World War was as vigorous and eager as had
been that of women of other more deeply involved nations. Although
American women had little opportunity for giving first line aid in
comparison with the women of the Allied countries they gave a second
or supporting line service in organization and conservation to which
they applied their full energy. These efforts brought them close in
spirit to the firing line long before the Stars and Stripes were
carried to Chateau Thierry and beyond.
It is the province of this chapter to review especially the work of
the organized suffragists in their loyalty to their government--a
government which from the first had refused to women all voice and
part in its proceedings. This work may best be examined under two
headings: 1. War Service of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association; 2. War Service of suffragists as a whole under the
direction of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense.
On Feb. 5, 1917, the president of the association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman
Catt, issued the following Call to its Executive Council of One
Hundred to meet in Washington on February 23-24 to confer upon the
approaching crisis in national affairs:
"To Members of the Executive Council:
"Our nation may be on the brink of war. To those who live in the
interior war may seem a long way off but in the East, where
public buildings, water works, forts, etc., are now under
military guard and where some of the regiments of the National
Guard have been called to duty, it comes as a sad realization
that our country is facing a far more serious crisis than most
of us have ever known. A few days may determine whether our
people are to be drawn into war at once or whether the break can
be patched up and the more tragic circumstances postponed or even
averted.
"If the worst comes, very serious problems confront us. Our
suffrage work would unquestionably come to a temporary
standstill. How shall we dispose of our headquarters, our
workers, our plans? How shall we hold our organization and
resources meanwhile, so that our movement will not lose its
prestige and place among the political issues of our country?
These are questions we must not leave to answer themselves. If we
are 'not the hammer, our cause will be the anvil.' Women not
connected with any particular movement are calling meetings in
order to pass pointless resolutions of the promised service of
women if required. The big question presents itself, shall
suffragists do the 'war work' which they will undoubtedly want to
do with other groups newly formed, thus running the risk of
disintegrating our organizations, or shall we use our
headquarters and our machinery for really helpful constructive
aid to our nation? The answer must be given _now_.
"Because this unexpected turn of public affairs creates an
unprecedented condition, the majority of the National Board
avails itself of the provision of the constitution which permits
the call of the Executive Council on a two weeks' notice. I
therefore issue this call to all Elected Officers, all
Presidents, all Auxiliaries, all State Members, (auxiliaries
which pay dues on a membership of 1500 or more are entitled to a
State member in addition to the president), and all Chairmen of
Standing and Special Committees to meet in Washington at the
National Suffrage Headquarters, 1626 Rhode Island Avenue,
February 23-25 inclusive, as per inclosed program. Each State is
urged to send its State Congressional Chairmen also to this
meeting...."
It was, therefore, for the Executive Council to decide what the
association could best do to help the Government in case of war. The
summons came as no surprise to the members of the National
Association, since for many months their eyes had been fixed on the
war-clouds gathering upon the horizon. It was evident that the United
States was about to enter the World War.
When this council met at the headquarters in Washington the national
officers submitted to it the draft of a Note that specified various
concrete ways in which, according to their ideas, the members of the
association might give aid to their country in an emergency. This
draft was discussed section by section and the motion then came to
adopt the Note as a whole. This called out the most important debate
of the two-days' meeting, remarkable for the kindly spirit and good
temper with which were set forth opposing views on a vital matter
concerning which public feeling ran high. The president gave an
opportunity to all "conscientious objectors" to come forward and
record their names as dissenting. Almost all who did so stated that
they believed women should give their assistance in case of war but
they feared that an offer of help to the Government made in advance
might tend to fan the war spirit and create a psychological impetus
towards war. Even this minority felt that the proposed services were
judiciously chosen, as they were such as would benefit the country
were it at war or at peace. The majority decision was that the
National Association should now abandon its unbroken custom of not
participating in any matters except those relating directly to woman
suffrage and that in view of the national emergency it should offer
its assistance to the Government of the United States and proceed to
organize for war service. The registered vote on such action was 63 to
13. As the attendance at the conference represented 36 States out of
the 45 in which the association had auxiliaries, it might be
considered as expressing an almost nation-wide conviction among the
members of the association. On February 24 the conference issued the
following Note:
"To the President and Government of the United States:
"We devoutly hope and pray that our country's crisis may be
passed without recourse to war. We declare our belief that the
settlement of international difficulties by bloodshed is unworthy
of the 20th Century, and also our confidence that our Government
is using every honorable means to avoid conflict. If, however,
our nation is drawn into the maelstrom, we stand ready to serve
our country with the zeal and consecration which should ever
characterize those who cherish high ideals of the duty and
obligation of citizenship. With no intention of laying aside our
constructive forward work to secure the vote for the womanhood of
this country as 'the right protective of all other rights,' we
offer our services in the event that they should be needed, and,
in so far as we are authorized, we pledge the loyal support of
our more than two million members. We make this offer now in
order to avoid waste of time and effort in an emergency; also,
that the executive ability, industry and devotion of our women,
trained through years of arduous endeavor, may be utilized, with
all other national resources, for the protection of our country
in its time of stress. We propose that a National Committee be
formed at once, composed of a representative from each national
organization of women willing to aid in war work, if the need
arises. The object shall be to establish a clearing house between
the Government and those organizations in order that service may
be rendered in the most expeditious manner. With this end in view
we recommend that each component organization list its resources
and report to this central committee concerning the definite work
it is prepared to do. To further the practical application of
this suggestion our association declares its willingness to
undertake the following departments of work:
"I. The Establishing of Employment Bureaus for Women.--Through
its local, State and national headquarters to register the names
and qualifications of women available for occupations which men
will leave to enter the army; to supply these women to employers
and to protect the work of such women.
"II. The increase of the Food Supply by the Training of Women for
Agricultural Work and by the Elimination of Waste. The aid of the
Department of Agriculture will be sought in planning systematic
courses for women to accomplish these purposes. The cultivation
by women of garden plots and vacant lots in cities will be
encouraged at the same time that the larger importance of regular
farming is urged.
"III. The Red Cross.--As the Red Cross, in which many of our
members are zealous workers, is already equipped to render
hospital, medical and general supply service, we offer our
organized service in other fields and we promise continued
cooperation with the Red Cross as needed.
"IV. Americanization.--A problem unknown to other lands will
become accentuated in the event of war. Within our borders are
eight millions of aliens, who by birth, tradition and training
will find it difficult, if not impossible, to understand the
causes which have led to this war. War invariably breeds
intolerance and hatred and will tend to arouse antagonisms
inimical to the best interests of the nation. With the desire to
minimize this danger, our association, extending as it does into
every precinct of our great cities and into the various counties
of the States, offers to conduct classes in school centers
wherein national allegiance shall be taught, emphasizing
tolerance, to the end that the Stars and Stripes shall wave over
a loyal and undivided people.
"V. Conference Committee.--In order to carry out our expressed
desire and purpose, a committee of three is hereby ordered
appointed to confer with the proper authorities of the
Government. If need arises, this committee shall be the
intermediary between the Government and our association."
Signed, Executive Council, National American Woman Suffrage
Association.
by Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president; Carrie Chapman Catt,
president; Helen Guthrie Miller, first vice-president; Katharine
Dexter McCormick, second vice-president; Esther G. Ogden, third
vice-president; Emma Winner Rogers, treasurer; Mrs. Thomas
Jefferson Smith, recording secretary; Nettie Rogers Shuler,
corresponding secretary; Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, first auditor;
Heloise Meyer, second auditor.
The conference ended on Saturday and on Sunday afternoon a public mass
meeting was held. Poli's Theater was filled by a representative
audience and on the platform were four members of the Cabinet:
Secretaries Baker, McAdoo, Daniels and Houston, with their wives; also
United States Senators, Representatives and many other prominent
people, including Miss Margaret Wilson, the daughter of the President.
The meeting was opened with an address by Mrs. Catt on The Impending
Crisis, expressing the hope that after the war there would arise a
truer democracy than ever known before and that the world would never
see another war. The Note to President Wilson was read by Mrs. Ida
Husted Harper and handed to Secretary of War Baker. In accepting it he
paid a tribute to the aspirations of women and expressed the belief
that at the close of the war the United States would take its place in
a concert of neutral nations and having practiced justice at home it
would have earned the right to help establish international justice.
Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton delighted the rather tense audience with her
inimitable humor and Dr. Shaw closed the meeting with one of her
strongest speeches. The addresses of Mrs. Catt and Dr. Shaw emphasized
not only the desire of women to do effective patriotic service in time
of stress but also their wish that a more civilized way than by the
waste and destructiveness of war might be found to settle
international disputes.
President Wilson immediately answered as follows:
"The Secretary of War has transmitted to me the Resolutions
presented to him at the meeting held on Sunday afternoon,
February 25, under the auspices of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association. I want to express my great and sincere
admiration of the action taken.
Cordially and sincerely yours, Woodrow Wilson."
On April 6, 1917, the United States declared that a state of war with
Germany existed. News of the severance of diplomatic relations
elicited a deep and reverberating response from the millions of
suffragists over the country. At the New York and Washington
headquarters of the National Association telephone calls and telegrams
were received all day, as State by State the suffrage organizations
proffered concerted action with the national on any program of
constructive service which it might decide to offer to the Government.
The National Suffrage Association at once commenced its war work on
the lines adopted at the Washington conference. This comprised
departments under four sections: Thrift; Food Production; Industrial
Protection of Women and Americanization. Branches of these four
sections had already been formed by all its State auxiliaries and
Mrs. McCormick, its second vice-president, had been appointed general
chairman of the War Service Department. In many States the president
of the suffrage association became chairman of the War Service
Committee. Thus the suffragists of the United States started their war
activities with as much vigor as they had been accustomed to put into
efforts for their own cause.
* * * * *
There had been created in August, 1916, by an Act of Congress, the
Council of National Defense, composed of the Secretaries of War, Navy,
Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor. This council was formed in
order that an emergency might not find the country without a central
agency to direct the mobilization of troops back of the regular army.
It was not an executive body; its function was to consider and advise.
By a wise provision of the Congressional Act the formation of
subordinate agencies was authorized and upon the declaration of war
advantage of this was quickly taken. Large fields of action were
mapped out and assigned to committees on which were appointed the
foremost men and women of the country. It was at once evident that the
women of the United States had a definite and powerful role to play in
the great war and the council decided that "for the purpose of
coordinating the women's preparedness movement a central body of woman
should be formed under the Council of National Defense." On April 19,
1917, the director, Secretary of War Baker, telegraphed to Dr. Anna
Howard Shaw that Secretary of the Interior Lane and he would like to
consult her in regard to important matters concerning the relations of
women to the council. She was on a lecture tour in the South but
arranged to meet with them in Washington on April 27. On April 21,
before the time for this meeting, the Council of National Defense
voted that a Woman's Committee be formed with the following personnel:
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Katharine Dexter
McCormick, Mrs. Josiah Evans Cowles, Mrs. Philip North Moore, Mrs.
Antoinette Funk, Miss Ida Tarbell, Miss Maude Wetmore, Mrs. Joseph R.
Lamar. Later Miss Agnes Nestor and Miss Hannah J. Patterson were
added. Of the eleven members of the committee all were prominent
suffragists except Miss Tarbell, Mrs. Lamar and Miss Wetmore, who
were well-known "antis." It was learned that the names had been
carefully considered by the council. Dr. Shaw was designated as
chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense
and asked to hold a meeting in Washington at the earliest possible
date. Its headquarters were opened in this city and the members
accepted their appointments as a call by the Government to the service
of the country.
* * * * *
In December, 1917, the 49th annual convention of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association was held at Washington. The chairman of its
War Service Department, Mrs. McCormick, described the combination of
efforts desirable between its branches and those of the Woman's
Committee of the Council of National Defense, saying that such a
combination was essential to efficient war-service by the women of the
country. Comprehensive reports were made of the activities of the four
sections by their chairmen which may be read in full in the Handbook
of the association for 1917 and space can be used here only for the
briefest summaries.
(1) Thrift and Elimination of Waste. The chairman, Mrs. Walter McNab
Miller, first vice-president of the association, said in part: "After
consultation with Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Vrooman and the
heads of Economics and Extension Departments and the Children's
Bureau, a letter was sent to each State suffrage president outlining
the plan of work and asking that a chairman be appointed to inaugurate
and carry out the Thrift program. Food conservation was the subject
stressed, for the experience of the European countries made it of
prime importance. It is a matter of interest that the original food
outline sent out in April contained all the suggestions afterwards
insisted upon by Mr. Hoover, and the outline on Clothing contained the
same advice as was later given out by the Woman's Committee of the
Council of National Defense. The response from the southern States was
especially gratifying. I have spoken 100 times for Thrift, travelled
6,000 miles, sent out 144 form letters and written 100 individual
letters. Reports from States where Thrift Committees have been at work
show constantly increasing interest and the gradual adoption of a
definite line of effort."
(2) Food Production. The chairman, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer
of the association, after speaking of the cooperation received from
the Department of Agriculture, said in part: "We appealed to all State
suffrage presidents to appoint chairmen and encourage their local
leagues to cooperate in every way possible in increasing the food
supply and a splendid response came. We urged the importance of
enlisting women to undertake practical gardening or farming and to
provide training for women to this end. We urged the opening in every
State of two or three Farm Employment Bureaus for women through which
graduates of Agricultural Colleges and others with less training could
be placed on farms, and farmers who were progressive enough to want
women's help could be reasonably sure of securing it. We arranged with
the largest overalls company in the United States to design and put
out a suitable farm uniform for women, which was extensively sold and
used.... The reports at the end of the season testified to the
millions of gardens worked by suffragists, to the thousands who helped
on farms or went to farm training schools, to canning kitchens and
home canning on a scale hitherto unthought-of."
(3) Industrial Protection of Women. The chairman, Miss Ethel M. Smith,
said in part:
"This committee was created by the National Suffrage Board to
secure women workers to fill the places of men called for
military service and it promised to 'protect the work of such
women.' A letter was sent to five hundred Chambers of Commerce
over Mrs. Catt's signature, asking for their cooperation in
behalf of women workers against the danger of excessive overtime
and underpay. The slogan of 'Equal Pay for Equal Work' was
utilized and vigilance committees were planned for each State to
note the conditions in industrial localities and report back to
Washington. The questions of equal pay for equal work and equal
opportunity for women were then taken up with the Government
departments, which have been quite as unfair to women employees
as have private firms. The scale of pay is notoriously less than
for men, and women have been excluded from the civil service
examinations for many positions which they are well equipped to
fill. We therefore sent a letter to the Departments of War,
Navy, State and Commerce where the discrimination had been
proved, asking whether they would not modify their regulations to
give women equal chances with men, and, now that men were needed
for the army, give women the clerical positions in preference to
men. We published these letters and received favorable replies
from all but the State Department." Miss Smith told of the
discovery that women in the Bureau of Engraving, under the
Treasury Department, were working twelve hours a day seven days
in the week; of the protest of her committee sent through Mrs.
Catt to Secretary McAdoo and of his order restoring the
eight-hour day and removing all cause of complaint."
(4) Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley, said that
her first act was to secure three wise and experienced suffragists to
form with her a central committee, Mrs. Shuler, corresponding
secretary of the National Suffrage Association; Mrs. Robert S. Huse of
New Jersey, and Mrs. Winona Osborn Pinkham, executive secretary of the
Boston Equal Suffrage Association. A plan for Americanization work was
printed in the _Woman Citizen_, June 30, 1917, and was sent to each
State president with a letter asking for the appointment of a State
chairman. Mrs. Bagley's thorough resume of the work of her committee
filled eleven pages of the printed convention report and among the
various branches described were recruiting in the foreign tenement
quarters for attendance at the public schools; securing cooperation
with foreign leaders and with existing agencies for Americanization
work; enlisting the cooperation of employers in providing school
facilities for employees; teaching English in the homes where the
women had not been able to attend school and aiding in the carrying on
of the day school for immigrant women now established in the North End
of Boston. She told of two new departments, Americanization for rural
districts and citizenship classes for women voters. She urged, not
only the necessity of schools for adult foreigners but the
desirability of good ones that would hold their attention and she made
a special plea for the immigrant women. She also called attention to
the imperative need for teaching patriotism.
The plan of work recommended by the Executive Council and adopted by
this convention provided that the association during 1918 should
continue the four departments and add the Woman's Hospital Unit in
France and Child Welfare; that these six departments be placed under
the direction of a committee, the chairman of which should be a member
of the national suffrage board; that each State suffrage auxiliary be
asked to establish a War Service Committee, composed of chairmen of
the above sections, with an additional one on Liberty Bonds. This
Committee of Eight was to direct the war work for each State in
cooperation with the State division of the Woman's Committee, Council
of National Defense. The Land Army Section was added in the spring of
1918 and took the place of the Food Production section. The name of
the Thrift section was changed to that of Food Conservation; Miss
Hilda Loines became its chairman and its work was combined as closely
as possible with the similar section in the Woman's National Defense
Committee directed by Mrs. McCormick.
* * * * *
The National Suffrage Association held no convention in 1918 but it
met in March, 1919, at St. Louis for its 50th Anniversary. The
Armistice had been declared and the final reports of the association's
war activities were rendered. In that of the War Service Department
the chairman, Mrs. McCormick, stated that the reason the reports did
not cover all six of its sections but only Land Army, Americanization
and Oversea Hospitals was that the other sections, after the
convention of 1917, were merged with the similar sections of the
Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense. Detailed statements
regarding Food Conservation and Industrial Protection for women in
which the suffrage committees took so large a part, may be found in
the reports of the Government Agriculture and Labor Departments. The
Child Welfare Department was combined with that of the Woman's
National Defense Committee and both were put under the guidance of
Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of the Children's Bureau of the United
States Department of Labor. Miss Lathrop made an address to the
convention in St. Louis on this subject which was published in full in
its Handbook for 1919.
In the section Industrial Protection of Women Mrs. Gifford Pinchot
had followed Miss Ethel M. Smith as chairman and in a brief report
told how nominal the function of her committee had recently become,
owing to the fact that all agencies working in this field had been
consolidated under the direction of the U. S. Department of Labor.
Before this amalgamation three interesting lines of effort had been
carried forward by this committee: An attempt was made to secure a
representation of women on the War Labor Board, which did not succeed;
action was taken against the decision of this board in dismissing
women street car conductors in Cleveland, O., and the committee's
position was upheld; an unsuccessful effort was made through Mr.
Gompers to have women appointed on the committee of labor delegates
who went abroad to confer with the labor representatives of other
countries during the Peace Conference.
Land Army. Miss Hilda Loines, chairman, said in part:
"The training of women for agricultural work as a war necessity
was early foreseen by the National Suffrage Association and was
made a part of its program of war service. Early in the spring of
1917 a number of organizations undertook to register and place
women who could and would do agricultural labor. Bureaus were
opened for their registry and field workers were sent out to
secure promises of employment from the farmers. This was
difficult at first but as the season wore on and there were no
men to cultivate the crops and pick the fruit the farmers in
desperation turned to the women. During the spring and summer of
1918 the Woman's Land Army was organized in thirty States, and
about 15,000 women were placed on the land, 10,000 in units and
5,000 in emergency groups. The majority of these women had had no
previous experience and most of them could receive little
training but they did practically every kind of farm labor,
ploughing, planting, cultivating and harvesting. They cut,
stacked and loaded hay, corn and rye and filled the silos; worked
on big western farms and orchards, dairy farms, truck farms,
private estates and home gardens; did poultry work, beekeeping
and teaming; learned to handle tractors, harvesters and other
farm machinery. Their efficiency is best proved by the change of
attitude from skepticism to enthusiastic appreciation on the part
of the farmers for whom they worked."
Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Bagley, continued her report of
the preceding year of the work in connection with the Councils of
Defense of the several States "by means of the local machinery of the
various suffrage organizations." She urged the teaching of English to
aliens as the first step in Americanization, with emphasis on the
point that the immigrant women must not be left out. "This
Americanization is a function peculiarly appropriate to suffragists,"
she said, "as a woman married to an alien must herself forever remain
an alien unless her husband becomes a citizen, and as the States
enfranchise women hundreds of thousands will still be left without the
vote. Every married alien whom suffragists help to take out
naturalization papers means not only a vote for him but also for his
wife.
During the convention in December, 1917, the plan for Oversea
Hospitals was presented to the delegates by Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany of
New York, at the request of Mrs. Catt, the national president, to whom
the matter had been suggested by the action of the Scottish Suffrage
Societies in sending to France in 1914 the Scottish Women's Hospitals,
units managed and staffed entirely by women, and was accepted. Mrs.
Tiffany was made chairman of the Hospital Committee and Mrs. Raymond
Brown director of the work in France. At the convention of March,
1919, in St. Louis, Mrs. Brown made a full report, from which the
following is an extract.
"At its convention in 1917 the National Suffrage Association, as
part of its war work, agreed to support a hospital unit in France
and undertook to raise $125,000 for its maintenance for a year.
This unit was already in process of organization by a group of
women physicians of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children
and was to be composed entirely of women. Since the U. S.
Government does not accept women in its Medical Reserve Corps,
and at that time neither it nor the Red Cross was sending women
surgeons for service abroad, the unit was offered to the French
Government, which accepted it by cable. The first group of the
unit sailed on Feb. 17, 1918, and expected to establish a
hospital for refugees in the devastated area. Before they could
be installed the villages to which they had been assigned were
taken in a new drive by the Germans and about half the group,
headed by Dr. Caroline Finley, was suddenly called upon for
hospital service within the war zone. The hospital to which they
were assigned was evacuated before they could reach it and they
were finally placed in Chateau Ognon, a few miles north of Senlis
on the road to Compiegne.
"Soon after the first group was sent into the war zone, the
French Government asked the remainder of the unit to go to the
Department of Landes in the south of France in order to establish
there a hospital for refugees. The Germans were still advancing
and as the refugees poured into the south the government was
trying to build villages of barracks for them. When Dr. Alice
Gregory with a group of fifteen women, including a carpenter,
plumber, chemist and chauffeur, reached Labouheyre, early in
April, a site had still to be found for the hospital and the
buildings were still to be built, furnished and equipped. The
barracks were erected in due time by the government; the
equipment was the gift of the American Red Cross; the planning,
directing purchasing and installing were done by our women. Dr.
Marie Formad was finally put in charge. Later, at the request of
the French Service de Sante, a 300-bed hospital unit for gas
cases was organized by the Women's Oversea Hospitals and was
started on its way from America to France. This was the first
hospital unit exclusively for gas cases and had a personnel
solely of women. Its principal group in Lorraine cared for 19,307
cases in three months."
The Oversea Hospitals service was divided and sent from point to point
to answer the many demands of war, having charge of hospitals and
treating tens of thousands of cases. "With the signing of the
Armistice," Mrs. Brown's report said, "the great problem in France
became the care of refugees and repatriates, who were returning at the
rate of thousands a day, most of them utterly destitute and in need of
medical care, to homes in many cases completely destroyed." The
hospital and dispensary service was therefore continued. Dr. Finley
and her group were sent to Germany and here met the returned prisoners
of war, who were in desperate condition.
"The work of the Oversea Hospitals has been handled with great
economy," the report said, "and has cost less than was anticipated,
both because of the large amount of volunteer work and because the
units in French military hospitals received French rations. The State
suffrage organizations have contributed most generously." A list was
furnished of the trucks and ambulances given by the women's
organizations in the United States. "The total number of women sent to
France with the hospitals was seventy-four, who came from all parts of
the United States. Several of the doctors received the French
equivalent of a commission; three obtained the Croix de Guerre and two
were decorated with the Medaille d'Honneur."
The report of Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer of the National
Association, given at the convention, stated that funds for the
hospitals service to the amount of $133,340 had passed through her
hands. Their disbursement, carefully audited, is published in the
Handbook of the association for 1918, page 111.
At the annual convention of the National Suffrage Association held in
Chicago, in February, 1920, the report of Mrs. Rogers stated that
Oversea Hospitals funds to the amount of $178,000 had passed through
the treasury and a balance of $35,000 remained. (See Handbook, page
116.) The question of the disposition of this balance was put to the
convention, which voted that it be divided equally between the work in
France of the Women's Oversea Hospitals and the American Hospital for
French Wounded in Rheims. Mrs. Tiffany, chairman of the committee, and
Mrs. Brown, director in France, made a final report to the convention,
stating that the work in France was continued until September 1, 1919,
in order to care for the French disabled soldiers, and to maintain
hospitals, dental clinics, dispensaries, ambulances, motor cars, etc.
Such work proceeded in connection with the American Fund for French
Wounded. The principal group was transferred from Lorraine to Rheims
in April, with Dr. Marie Lefort still in charge. On September 1, with
its mission finished, the hospital and all its equipment were
presented to the American Fund for French Wounded. The Mayor sent a
letter to Dr. Lefort which said in part: "The Municipality of Rheims
would like to express to you and the Women's Oversea Hospitals its
profound gratitude for the splendid assistance you have given our
population. France and the city of Rheims are deeply moved." The full
equipment of the smaller hospital groups was given to the French
government for its own hospital service. Dr. Caroline Finley returned
to the U. S. in August, still a Lieutenant in the French Army. The
Prince of Wales, who was in New York, invited her on board H. M. S.
_Renown_, where he conferred on her the Order of the British Empire in
recognition of her work at Metz, where British prisoners stricken with
influenza were cared for as they arrived from German prison-camps.
This ends the story of the Women's Oversea Hospitals, for which the
National Suffrage Association willingly raised nearly $200,000 at the
crisis in its own fifty-year movement. Desks for suffrage work were
vacant over all the country while their occupants were cheerfully
giving their best service to the demands of the war. For the vast
majority this took the forms indicated by the above committee reports.
In addition there were the activities of money-raising; caring for
children and other dependents; safeguarding public health; the usual
tasks of nursing and other Red Cross work; the distribution of food
administration pledge cards, the organizing of food committees in all
townships under the direction of district captains, with "clean-up"
days and "elimination of waste" days in counties; canning
demonstrations throughout communities; alloting and directing garden
plots; holding normal training schools to teach gardening; making
collections for the Red Cross and other war funds, with countless
other activities. Liberty Bonds in the second, third and fourth
campaigns to the amount of one-fourth of the total sales were disposed
of through the National Suffrage Association, its State branches and
women throughout the country.
* * * * *
While the suffragists were devoting themselves to war-service they did
not lay down arms for their own cause, which had reached a stage where
further delay was impossible. There was a general tacit understanding
that, while the war needs of their country were and should be
uppermost, their hands must never relinquish the suffrage throttle,
and the double tasks of war work and suffrage work were undertaken in
a fine spirit of devotion to both. Nevertheless, the anti-suffrage
women seized upon the occasion to accuse them of disloyalty,
pacifism, pro-Germanism and of placing the interests of woman suffrage
above those of the nation! These attacks were repeatedly made in the
press and on the platform, Mrs. Catt, the president of the National
Association, being especially the victim. At times they grew so
virulent that it became necessary to answer them through the
newspapers.
Her letters were published with headlines and widely quoted. One of
these letters, under date of Oct. 2, 1917, addressed to Mrs. Margaret
C. Robinson of Cambridge, Mass., chairman of the press committee of
the National Anti-Suffrage Association, began: "My attention has been
called to the fact that you are circulating by public letter and
bulletin various statements that impugn my loyalty as an American and
thereby put in jeopardy my good name and reputation. These assertions
are made by you either with wilful intent to injure my name and
standing in the community or without having made an effort to
establish their proof. I hereby set forth the facts which have been
distorted by you into untruths, either by contrary statements or by
implications." It ended: "In the name of our common womanhood, I ask
you to meet the suffrage issue fairly and squarely, and I warn you
that for personal attacks tending to injure my name or those of my
fellow-workers, you will be held responsible."
Another letter dated Nov. 1, 1917, addressed by Mrs. Catt to Mrs.
James W. Wadsworth, Jr., president of the Anti-Suffrage Association;
Mrs. Robinson and Miss Alice Hill Chittenden, president of the New
York State Anti-Suffrage Association, took up and refuted the charges
saying: "To every single and collective insinuation, implication or
direct charge, published or spoken in any place at any time by
professional anti-suffrage campaigners, which has conveyed the
impression that I or any other officially responsible leader of the
National Suffrage Association has by word or deed been disloyal to our
country, I make complete and absolute denial here and now." It said in
closing: "In this connection I wish to call your attention to the fact
that the late John Hay, the father of the president of the National
Association of Anti-suffragists, had his own experiences with people
who challenged his loyalty and 'cursed me,' he says, 'for being the
tool of England.' In May, 1898, when our country was at war with
Spain, John Hay actually had the temerity to draft a peace project,
although he knew, so he said, that he 'would be lucky if he escaped
lynching for it.' Are you willing to apply to Mrs. Wadsworth's father
the chain of alleged reasoning that you apply to me, and, because of
his great faith in and hope for peace, call him a traitor to his
country?"
These letters had no effect on the abuse and misrepresentation of the
suffragists but the charges were continued by the leaders of the
"antis" until after the close of the war. There can be no doubt that
the splendid war work of the suffragists was a principal factor in the
submission and ratification of the Federal Amendment. Their instant
and universal response in New York to the call of the Government, and
later the actual conscription of all women over sixteen years of age
by the Governor, proved that not only were women capable of war
service but actually liable for it. These facts were largely
responsible for the big majority vote cast by the men for woman
suffrage in November, 1917, and the action of this great State paved
the way for the success of the Federal Amendment in Congress.
It is impossible in this brief space to set forth the achievements of
the Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense, whose chairman,
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was honorary president of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association and had been for eleven years its
president; two of whose members, Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick, were
now its president and vice-president, while five of the remaining
eight were prominent suffragists. Its accomplishments were on so large
a scale and embodied so much important detail that only a full review
could do them justice. The facts attested to the work of an
organization which built up branches in forty-eight States comprising
18,000 component units and capable in at least one instance of
reaching as many as 82,000 women in a single State. The reader is
referred to the excellent account by Mrs. Emily Newell Blair--The
Woman's Committee, United States Council of National Defense, an
interpretative report. (Government Printing Office.)
From the time Dr. Shaw called the first meeting, May 2, 1917, to the
middle of March, 1919, the committee labored unceasingly to perform
its great task. On New Year's Day, 1918, a telegram to Dr. Shaw from
Queen Mary expressed the "thanks of the women of the British Empire
for the inspiring words of encouragement and assurance from the
Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense of America."
On Nov. 11, 1918, the Armistice was signed and on the 18th
representatives of New York organizations of women met in the
ball-room of the Hotel McAlpin at the call of Mrs. Catt. The second
vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, presided and Mrs. Catt offered
the following resolution:
"Whereas, the great war just ended has been a partnership of all
the people of all belligerent countries composing two vast
armies, one of soldiers in the trenches and one of civilians who
formed a second line of defense to supply the needs of the
fighters, thus making it possible to fight; and whereas, the war
could not have been carried to a victorious conclusion without
the aid of women in civilian activities, as is shown by the
testimony of men in high authority in every belligerent land; and
whereas, all truly civilized, intelligent people now wish to make
a final end of war and to organize the forces of civilization so
as to make future war impossible; and whereas, women compose half
of society with very special and peculiar interests to be
conserved and protected--all too frequently overlooked by
men--therefore
Resolved, that we urge the President of the United States to give
women adequate representation on the United States delegation to
the Peace Conference to meet in Paris. We urge him to select
women whose broad experience and sympathies render them competent
to support and defend every point which bears upon the
establishment of liberty for all the peoples of the world and
especially upon the proper protection of women and children in
peace and war. We urge him to select women who may be relied upon
to uphold free representative institutions, based upon the will
of the people in every land in which independence is established,
in order that democratic institutions may make an end of war."
No attention was paid to this resolution by the President or the
Government and no women were appointed on the Peace delegation as a
recognition of their work and sacrifice.
The Woman's Committee gradually closed up its affairs and at a
meeting on Feb. 12, 1919, Dr. Shaw was instructed to write to the
Secretary of War that it believed its work to be at an end and
tendered its resignation to take effect when, in the judgment of his
Council, its services should no longer be required. This resignation
was accepted by President Wilson on February 27 with a splendid
tribute to the work of the committee. The announcement was formally
made on March 15, and the committee passed out of existence.[151] Two
of its members, the chairman and the resident director, Miss Hannah J.
Patterson, received from the Government in May the distinguished
service medal.
Secretary of War Newton D. Baker in a Foreword to Mrs. Blair's report
said: "The chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of
National Defense from the beginning was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw--ripened
by a long life devoted intensely to the advocacy of great causes;
cheered and heartened by recent victories for the greatest cause for
which she had fought in her long and unusual life; loved and honored
by her sex as their leader and by men as a citizen combining in a rare
degree high qualities of intellect, force of character and persuasive
eloquence in speech. She and her committee wrought a work the like of
which had never been seen before, and her reward was to see its
success and then to be caught up as she was engaged in another high
and fierce conflict into which she threw herself when hostilities
ceased in order that this great work might be but a helpful part of a
greater thing in the hope and history of mankind.... The Woman's
Committee was the leader of the women of America. It informed and
broadened the minds of women everywhere, and with no thought of
propaganda it made an argument by producing results. The Council of
National Defense fades out of this work and the Woman's Committee
looms large--and yet larger still is the American woman...."
It was the earnest desire of Dr. Shaw and the suffragists that she
might now give her important services to the Federal Suffrage
Amendment, which was at a critical stage, but this hope could not be
realized. Former President Taft and President Lowell of Harvard
University, both of whom had done valuable work for the Peace Treaty
and the League of Nations, were starting in May, 1919, on a speaking
tour to advocate the League in fifteen States and they urged Dr. Shaw
to cancel all other engagements and join them on this tour. For two
years she had been giving her time and labor without price and now she
had commenced again to fill her own lecture dates. She was going later
to Spain as the guest of Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr
College, for a well-earned and much-needed rest, but at this call
everything was given up willingly and cheerfully to continue her
service to her country. As the tour was arranged, every night was to
be spent on a sleeping car and Dr. Shaw was to speak only once in
twenty-four hours. She could not, however, resist the pleading of
people in different cities and at Indianapolis she filled eight
engagements of various kinds in one day. The following day at
Springfield, Ills., she succumbed to her old foe, pneumonia. She
received every possible care in the hospital and after two weeks
recovered sufficiently to make the journey to her home at Moylan,
Pennsylvania. She had, however, put too great a strain on her vital
forces and died July 2, at the age of seventy-two.
* * * * *
Whatever may have been the unthinking verdict passed upon suffragists
and their activities prior to the World War, it was thereafter widely
acknowledged that in the national crisis they played a leading role in
the support and defense of the nation. While it is a matter for regret
that their war record cannot be chronicled as fully and definitely as
can their work for suffrage, nevertheless, even a casual examination
will show that it was a heroic one and none the less so because it was
frequently merged, through far-sighted efficiency, in the war-service
of all American women, of which it formed a distinguished part.
FOOTNOTES:
[150] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Katharine
Dexter McCormick, first vice-president of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association and general chairman of its War Service
Department.
[151] It was a question long and seriously discussed whether this vast
organization should be wholly dissolved or whether it should be
continued in the various States for civic and humanitarian purposes.
Dr. Shaw was strongly in favor of preserving it and her earnest appeal
will be found in Mrs. Blair's Report, page 137.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III.
THE DEATH OF MRS. STANTON.
From the address of an old and valued friend, the Rev. Moncure D.
Conway of Virginia, who was many years at the head of the Ethical
Culture Society of London, at the funeral of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in
her home in New York City, Oct. 28, 1902.
A lighthouse on the human coast is fallen. To vast multitudes the
name Elizabeth Cady Stanton does not mean so much a person as a
standard inscribed with great principles. Roses will grow out of
her ashes; individual characters will give a resurrection to her
soul and genius, but the immortality she has achieved is that of
her long and magnificent services to every cause of justice and
reason. Beginning her career amid ridicule and obloquy, all the
worth she put into her life has not only been returned to her
personally in the love and friendship which have surrounded her
and made life happy even to her last day, but has been returned
to her tenfold in the successes of her cause.
Could I utter to her my farewell I would say: Revered and beloved
friend, you pass to your rest after a brave and beautiful life;
you have journeyed by a path of unsullied light. If ever there
shall be established in America a republic--a Constitution and
Government free from all caste and privilege, whether of color,
creed or sex--its founders will be discovered not in those who
purchased by their valor and blood mere independence of territory
in which a government allied with slavery was founded, but among
those who, while faithful to heart and home, toiled unweariedly
for an ideal civilization.
A few touching words were spoken by the Rev. Antoinette Brown
Blackwell, a contemporary in the early days of the movement for woman
suffrage. At Woodlawn Cemetery the committal to earth was pronounced
by the Rev. Phoebe A. Hanaford, another companion in the long contest.
* * * * *
MISS ANTHONY'S LAST BIRTHDAY LETTER TO MRS. STANTON, WRITTEN A FEW
DAYS BEFORE HER SUDDEN DEATH.
My Dear Mrs. Stanton:--
I shall indeed be happy to spend with you November 12, the day on
which you round out your four-score and seven, over four years
ahead of me, but in age as in all else I follow you closely. It
is fifty-one years since first we met and we have been busy
through every one of them, stirring up the world to recognize the
rights of women. The older we grow the more keenly we feel the
humiliation of disfranchisement and the more vividly we realize
its disadvantages in every department of life and most of all in
the labor market.
We little dreamed when we began this contest, optimistic with the
hope and buoyancy of youth, that half a century later we would be
compelled to leave the finish of the battle to another generation
of women. But our hearts are filled with joy to know that they
enter upon this task equipped with a college education, with
business experience, with the fully admitted right to speak in
public--all of which were denied to women fifty years ago. They
have practically but one point to gain--the suffrage; we had all.
These strong, courageous, capable young women will take our place
and complete our work. There is an army of them where we were
but a handful. Ancient prejudice has become so softened, public
sentiment so liberalized and women have so thoroughly
demonstrated their ability as to leave not a shadow of doubt that
they will carry our cause to victory.
And we, dear, old friend, shall move on to the next sphere of
existence--higher and larger, we cannot fail to believe, and one
where women will not be placed in an inferior position but will
be welcomed on a plane of perfect intellectual and spiritual
equality.
Ever lovingly yours,
Susan B. Anthony.
Practically every magazine in the United States contained an article
about Mrs. Stanton and her great work and there was scarcely a
newspaper that did not have an editorial. An extended account, with
tributes from Miss Anthony, will be found in her Life and Work,
Chapter LXI.
In the _Review of Reviews_ for December, 1902, appeared an
appreciation from the writer of these volumes.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV.
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES.
The following Declaration of Principles, prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr.
Shaw, Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Harper, was adopted by the convention of
the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1904.
When our forefathers gained the victory in a seven years' war to
establish the principle that representation should go hand in
hand with taxation, they marked a new epoch in the history of
man; but though our foremothers bore an equal part in that long
conflict its triumph brought to them no added rights and through
all the following century and a quarter, taxation without
representation has been continuously imposed on women by as great
tyranny as King George exercised over the American colonists.
So long as no married woman was permitted to own property and all
women were barred from the money-making occupations this
discrimination did not seem so invidious; but to-day the
situation is without a parallel. The women of the United States
now pay taxes on real and personal estate valued at billions of
dollars. In a number of individual States their holdings amount
to many millions. Everywhere they are accumulating property. In
hundreds of places they form one-third of the taxpayers, with the
number constantly increasing, and yet they are absolutely without
representation in the affairs of the nation, of the State, even
of the community in which they live and pay taxes. We enter our
protest against this injustice and we demand that the immortal
principles established by the War of the Revolution shall be
applied equally to women and men citizens.
As our new republic passed into a higher stage of development the
gross inequality became apparent of giving representation to
capital and denying it to labor; therefore the right of suffrage
was extended to the workingman. Now we demand for the 4,000,000
wage-earning women of our country the same protection of the
ballot as is possessed by the wage-earning men.
The founders took an even broader view of human rights when they
declared that government could justly derive its powers only from
the consent of the governed, and for 125 years this grand
assertion was regarded as a corner-stone of the republic, with
scarcely a recognition of the fact that one-half of the citizens
were as completely governed without their consent as were the
people of any absolute monarchy in existence. It was only when
our government was extended over alien races in foreign countries
that our people awoke to the meaning of the principles of the
Declaration of Independence. In response to its provisions, the
Congress of the United States hastened to invest with the power
of consent the men of this new territory, but committed the
flagrant injustice of withholding it from the women. We demand
that the ballot shall be extended to the women of our foreign
possessions on the same terms as to the men. Furthermore, we
demand that the women of the United States shall no longer suffer
the degradation of being held not so competent to exercise the
suffrage as a Filipino, a Hawaiian or a Porto Rican man.
The remaining Territories within the United States are insisting
upon admission into the Union on the ground that their citizens
desire "the right to select their own governing officials, choose
their own judges, name those who are to make their laws and levy,
collect, and disburse their taxes." These are just and
commendable desires but we demand that their women shall have
full recognition as citizens when these Territories are admitted
and that their constitutions shall secure to women precisely the
same rights as to men.
When our government was founded the rudiments of education were
thought sufficient for women, since their entire time was
absorbed in the multitude of household duties. Now the number of
girls graduated by the high schools greatly exceeds the number of
boys in every State and the percentage of women students in the
colleges is vastly larger than that of men. Meantime most of the
domestic industries have been taken from the home to the factory
and hundreds of thousands of women have followed them there,
while the more highly trained have entered the professions and
other avenues of skilled labor. We demand that under this new
regime, and in view of these changed conditions in which she is
so important a factor woman shall have a voice and a vote in the
solution of their innumerable problems.
The laws of practically every State provide that the husband
shall select the place of residence for the family, and if the
wife refuse to abide by his choice she forfeits her right to
support and her refusal shall be regarded as desertion. We
protest against the recent decision of the courts which has added
to this injustice by requiring the wife also to accept for
herself the citizenship preferred by her husband, thus compelling
a woman born in the United States to lose her nationality if her
husband choose to declare his allegiance to a foreign country.
As women form two-thirds of the church membership of the entire
nation; as they constitute but one-eleventh of the convicted
criminals; as they are rapidly becoming the educated class and as
the salvation of our government depends upon a moral,
law-abiding, educated electorate, we demand for the sake of its
integrity and permanence that women be made a part of its voting
body.
In brief, we demand that all constitutional and legal barriers
shall be removed which deny to women any individual right or
personal freedom which is granted to man. This we ask in the name
of a democratic and a republican government, which, its
constitution declares, was formed "to establish justice and
secure the blessings of liberty."
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII.
THE ANTHONY MEMORIAL BUILDING IN ROCHESTER, N.Y.
Shortly after the death of Susan B. Anthony a group of her co-workers
and other friends in Rochester set out to raise a fund for the purpose
of erecting, as a memorial to her, a building for the use of women
students at the University of Rochester. This seemed to them
especially fitting, as Miss Anthony had been intensely interested and
very active in the raising of the Co-education Fund which admitted
women students to the University in 1900.[152] Endorsement of this
plan and the use of their names were given by her sister, Mary S.
Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and many well known women throughout
this country and several from over-seas.
A Memorial Association was formed with an executive committee of
Rochester women[153] but very little organized committee work was
done. Suffragists were by this time too busy with the growing
intensity of their own campaigns and said, truly enough, that Miss
Anthony would much rather they would spend their time and money for
the cause. However, an appeal was issued, coupon books were scattered
among many women's organizations and individuals and the chairman of
the committee addressed her personal appeal to every club and
conference that would give her a hearing.
The largest single gift was from Miss Anthony's old friend Mrs. Sarah
L. Willis of Rochester, $5,250. Mrs. Susan Look Avery of Louisville,
Ky., gave $1,199. Of nine gifts of $1,000 each, five were from
Rochester women--Miss Mary S. Anthony, Mrs. Hannah M. Byam, Mrs. Mary
H. Hallowell, Miss Ada Howe Kent and Miss Frances Baker. The other
$1,000 gifts were from Mrs. Emma J. Bartol, George and Mary A. Burnham
of Philadelphia; John C. Haynes of Boston; Mrs. Lydia Coonley Ward of
Chicago. Among many interesting gifts may be noted one from the women
of The Netherlands and one from the Portia Suffrage Club of New
Orleans. Women students at the college made class gifts from time to
time but the fund grew slowly. After eight years it had reached
$27,475. At this point the college authorities offered to complete the
amount necessary for the building as planned, if the committee would
turn over its money, which it gladly did. The cost was $58,763, the
balance, which came to $31,288, being paid from the Co-education Fund
raised by and for the women in 1900.
In the fall of 1914 the college girls took possession of the handsome
gray stone building, bearing on its face, cut in stone, "Anthony
Memorial." It contains a well-equipped gymnasium, a lunch room and
four parlors for the social life of the students and the use of the
Alumnae Association. The possession of this building and Catherine
Strong Hall, the two connected by a cloistered walk, has added greatly
to the enjoyment and convenience of the women students. Miss Eddy's
half-length portrait of Miss Anthony hangs over the chimney-piece in
the largest parlor and these rooms furnish a homelike place for their
smaller social gatherings: larger affairs, such as the alumnae dinner,
are held in the gymnasium. "Miss Anthony would certainly rejoice if
she could look in on some February 15th and see the girls
commemorating her birthday, as they do in some way every year," Mrs.
Gannett writes in sending information for this account.
Dr. Rush Rhees, president of the university, who has sent for this
volume a picture of the Memorial Building and some additional
information, says: "The building is in constant use and is a great
contribution to the comfort, health and pleasure of our women
students."
Friends of Miss Anthony gave a scholarship for women in her name and
Miss Mary S. Anthony gave the money for one in her own name. The
university has seven other scholarships for women.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X.
STATEMENT BY MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT AT SENATE HEARING IN 1910
Although the Constitution of the United States in section 2 of Article
I seems to have relegated authority over the extension of the suffrage
to the various States, yet, curiously, few men in the United States
possess the suffrage because they or the class to which they belong
have secured their right to it by State action. The first voters were
those who possessed the right under the original charters granted by
the mother country and as the restrictions were many, including
religious tests in most of the colonies and property qualifications in
all, the number of actual voters was exceedingly small. When it became
necessary at the close of the Revolution to form a federation for the
"common defense" and the promotion of the "general welfare," it was
obvious that citizenship must be made national. To do this it became
clearly necessary that religious tests must be abandoned, since
Catholic Maryland, Quaker Pennsylvania and Congregational
Massachusetts could be united under a common citizenship by no other
method. The elimination of the religious test enfranchised a large
number of men and this without a struggle or any movement in their
behalf.
In 1790 the first naturalization law was passed by Congress. Under the
Articles of Confederation citizenship had belonged to the States but
since it was apparent that it must now be national, a compromise was
made between the old idea of State's rights and the new idea of
Federal union. Each of the original States had its representatives in
the convention which drafted the Federal Constitution and by common
consent it was there planned that citizenship should carry with it the
right to vote, although this was to be put into the State
constitutions and not into the National. These delegates, influencing
their own States in the forming of their constitutions, easily brought
this about and without any movement on the part of those who were to
be naturalized. This common understanding in the National
Constitutional Convention and the Naturalization Act of Congress in
1790 certainly enfranchised somewhere between three-fourths and
four-fifths of all men in the United States at this time.
The population of the colonies at the time of the Revolution was two
and a half millions and even though all men had been voters the number
could not have been more than seven or eight hundred thousand. By the
census of 1900 there were 21,000,000 men of voting age in the United
States. The Act, therefore, of the U. S. Government virtually
enfranchised millions upon millions of men. Generations then unborn
have come into the right of the suffrage in this country under that
Act and men of every nationality have availed themselves of its
privileges to become voting citizens. Although, technically speaking,
enfranchisement of the foreign-born was extended by the States, yet in
reality it is obvious that the real granting of this privilege came
from Congress itself. The thirteen original States retained their
property qualifications after the formation of the Union and these
were removed by State amendments. This extension of the suffrage was
made in most cases many years ago, when the electorate was very small
in numbers.
The history of the enfranchisement of the negro is well known. States
attempted it by amending their constitutions but in no case was this
accomplished. Congress undertook to secure it by national amendment
and although this was ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the
State Legislatures yet it must be remembered that all the southern
States were virtually coerced into giving their consent.... The
Indians were enfranchised by Acts of Congress.
The evolution of man suffrage in the United States shows that but one
class received their votes by direct State action--the nonproperty
holders. They found political parties and statesmen to advocate their
cause and their enfranchisement was made easy by State constitutional
action.
In the 120 years of our national life no class of men have been forced
to organize a movement in behalf of their enfranchisement; they have
offered no petition or plea or even given sign that the extension of
suffrage to them would be acceptable. Yet American women, who have
conducted a persistent, intelligent movement for a half-century, which
has grown stronger and stronger with the years, appealing for their
own enfranchisement and supported now by a petition of 400,000
citizens of the United States are told that it is unnecessary to
consider their plea since all women do not want to vote!
Gentlemen, is it not manifestly unfair to demand of women a test which
has never been made in the case of men in this or any other country?
Is it not true that the attitude of the Government toward an
unenfranchised class of men has ever been that the vote is a privilege
to be extended and it is optional with the citizen whether or not he
shall use it? If any proof is needed it can be found in the fact that
the U. S. Government has no record whatever of the number who have
been naturalized in this country. It has no record of the number of
Indians who have accepted its offer of the vote as a reward for taking
up land in severalty. Manifestly the Government, as represented by
Congress and the State Legislatures, considers it entirely unnecessary
to know whether men who have had the suffrage "thrust upon them" use
it or not, but imperative that women must not only demand it in very
large numbers but give guaranty that they will use it, before its
extension shall be made to them.
Is it not likewise unfair to compel women to seek their
enfranchisement by methods infinitely more difficult than those by
means of which any man in this country has secured his right to a
vote? Ordinary fair play should compel every believer in democracy and
individual liberty, no matter what are his views on woman suffrage, to
grant to women the easiest process of enfranchisement and that is the
submission of a Federal Amendment.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIV.
THE SHAFROTH-PALMER WOMAN SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT.
In 1914 the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association, of which Mrs. Medill McCormick was chairman and
Mrs. Antoinette Funk vice-chairman, caused to be introduced in
Congress, with the sanction of the National Board, a Federal Amendment
for woman suffrage radically different from the one for which the
association had been working since 1869. It was named for its
introducers in Senate and House. The merits of the proposed amendment,
as stated by Mrs. Funk, which are given in condensed form in Chapter
XIV, will be found in full in the published Handbook or Minutes of the
national suffrage convention of this year. Specimens of the objections
made as published in the _Woman's Journal_ are given herewith:
Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.), a lawyer: Senator
Shafroth's new suffrage amendment may do good by keeping
law-makers discussing woman suffrage but as a practical method of
securing it has serious defects. It is open to all the States'
rights objections raised against our Susan B. Anthony
amendment,[154] for it goes further and proposes a universal
method of amending 48 State constitutions. State law-makers and
Judges and even State voters from the North as well as the South
will resent such dictation as an unwarrantable interference. The
Initiative and Referendum scheme will have its own enemies, who
will fear that this way may be an entering wedge for more
Initiative and Referendum amendments to be pushed into State
constitutions.
The amendment is, however, too indefinitely framed to be
workable. No officer is named to whom the petitions should go; no
officer is obligated to submit the question; no method of
authenticating the petitions is prescribed and no time for voting
is fixed. The United States has no facilities of its own for
conducting any such elections or punishing State or county
officers who may not volunteer to do the work. The Congressional
Committee would better keep this amendment in committee rather
than let the country know the great objection there is to it on
the part of our constituency....
* * * * *
Mrs. M. Tascan Bennett (Conn.): The three principal objections to
the new amendment appear to be as follows: It divides suffragists
all over the country. The Anthony Amendment has had the support
since 1869 of the annual conventions, where the members of the
National Association have their one opportunity to direct its
work. The Shafroth Amendment furnishes an excellent excuse to
Congress for taking no action on the Anthony Amendment. It might
well appear as a happy way to dispose of the whole question of
woman suffrage by foisting responsibility for it back on the
States where it already is.... It defeats what I consider to be
the unanswerable advantage of the Anthony Amendment, whose
ratification by the required three-fourths of the States will
force the remaining one-fourth into line. The southern States,
for whose special benefit the Shafroth Amendment appears to have
been conceived, will undoubtedly be many years in accepting woman
suffrage. With this new amendment ratified, they can still hold
it back within their borders as long as they cling to their
prejudices.
* * * * *
George H. Wright, M.D. (Conn.): The greatest objection is that,
if passed, this amendment would throw the whole suffrage campaign
into chaos. At present when we have carried one State we stop
worrying about that State. The women cannot again be
disfranchised except by an amendment to the State constitution,
which would first have to pass a Legislature elected by the whole
people. No such Legislature would dare to pass such a bill; the
members who voted for it would accomplish nothing and would at
once be ousted by their outraged women constituents. But under
the Shafroth Amendment 8 per cent. of the voters could force a
referendum on the question at any time.... Also a large part of
the effort and money now used to gain new victories would be
spent in defending what we had already won.
* * * * *
The Rev. Olympia Brown (Wis.), a pioneer suffragist: The passage
of the Shafroth Amendment is spoken of several times in the
explanations and arguments for it as being an "endorsement of
woman suffrage by Congress." "Federal sanction," it is said,
"would dignify the movement." This is another misnomer. There is
no "indorsement" by Congress and no "federal sanction" about it.
There is not even a hint that Congress favors woman suffrage. The
amendment merely provides for the Initiative and Referendum in
the States.
The _Woman's Journal_ lately called attention to the statement
twice made that "the effect of the amendment, if ratified, would
be the same as if every State in the Union had passed a suffrage
amendment." This is a most singular assertion. If every State
adopted a suffrage amendment our work would be done. Again: "The
passage of this resolution would have the same effect over the
United States as if any other suffrage amendment had passed."
Surely anyone can see that if the Anthony Amendment had been
passed by Congress the effect would be entirely different from
that produced by the passage of one merely giving the Initiative
and Referendum to the States. And again: "If ratified, this
amendment would have the same effect in every State as if a
suffrage amendment had already passed its Legislature." Even this
is untrue. If any Legislature had submitted a suffrage amendment,
the subject would at once go to the men to be voted on but by
this method there must be a petition signed by 8 per cent. of the
voters....
One thing, however, seems to be ignored by all. When once an
amendment to the Federal Constitution is passed and ratified by
three-fourths of the Legislatures it becomes a part of the
Constitution and is fixed for all time. No amendment has ever yet
been repealed but it would be difficult, if not impossible, to
secure another amendment on the same subject, especially one
providing for a course of action entirely different from the
former.
Therefore, this Shafroth Amendment, if passed, will place an
impassable barrier to future Congressional action in behalf of
woman suffrage. It simply refers the matter to the States. As a
reason for passing it, it is claimed that we cannot secure the
submission of the original amendment. Perhaps not today or during
this session of Congress; possibly not during this
administration, but with the wonderful progress of our cause, the
spread of the recognition of the rights of women and the "new
doctrine of freedom," the demand for it will be overwhelming and
it will be gained at no distant day.
* * * * *
Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, historian of the suffrage movement: In
behalf of many loyal and experienced suffragists I wish to enter
two strong protests--one against the resolution which has been
presented in the U. S. Senate by Senator Shafroth of Colorado, by
request of Mrs. Medill McCormick and Mrs. Antoinette Funk; the
other against their statement made to Congress that they speak
for the 642,000 members of the National American Suffrage
Association in offering this resolution.
The Congressional Committee, of which they are chairman and
vice-chairman, was appointed, according to the understanding of
the convention which met in Washington last fall, to work for the
submission by Congress of the Federal Amendment for which the
association has stood sponsor forty-five years. It was organized
in 1869 for the express purpose of securing this amendment: "The
right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of sex." No other ever has been considered by the
association.
When this committee opened its headquarters in Washington the
National Board asked contributions for its support through the
_Woman's Journal_, saying: "The speedy submission of this Federal
Amendment is of vital concern to every suffragist." Later it
announced: "The Washington office will be occupied largely with
the political end of the Federal Amendment campaign, while a
Chicago office will specialize in the work of organizing the
congressional districts of the United States in cooperation with
the various State associations." All this, of course, was for the
old, original amendment. No experienced suffragist expected it to
receive the necessary two-thirds vote this session, but, as it
had been reported favorably to the Senate, the desire was to have
it brought to a discussion; to secure as large a vote as possible
and to ascertain which members were friends and which were
enemies. In spite of most unfavorable conditions this was
accomplished and the amendment received a majority. There were no
more negative votes than when it was acted upon in 1887 by the
Senate and over twice as many favorable votes. The opposition was
based almost entirely on the doctrine of State's rights, as was
to be expected; but three Southern Senators voted in the
affirmative. Before another session of Congress several more
States are certain to be carried for woman suffrage, thus
insuring more votes for this Federal Amendment. The defeat of
suffrage bills in a number of Legislatures in the South is
converting the women of that section to the necessity of action
by Congress. Just at the most favorable moment in the entire
history of this amendment, the committee having it in charge
suddenly throws it on the dust heap; has another introduced of a
radically different character, and announces to the public that
this is done with the sanction of the National Board and that it
represents the sentiment of the 642,000 members of the National
American Association!... In behalf of countless members of this
association, I protest against this high-handed action. I insist
that the National Board exceeded its prerogatives when it
sanctioned so radical and complete a change in the time-honored
policy of the association without first bringing it before a
national convention and giving the delegates a chance to pass
upon it. The proposed amendment seems undesirable from every
point of view....
These and all protests were answered by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell,
editor of the _Woman's Journal_, generally recognized as high
authority by the suffragists of the country. Throughout the months of
controversy she kept up a vigorous defense and advocacy of the
Shafroth Amendment, saying: "The old amendment has not been dropped
and many of us believe that the new amendment will pave the way for
the passage of the old one. Most of the suffragists are much attached
to the old nation-wide amendment. If any proposal should be made at
the next national convention to drop it the proposal could hardly
carry, or, if it did, the resulting dissatisfaction would greatly
weaken the National Association, but at present nothing of the sort is
proposed." She did, however, say in mild criticism:
The National Board has authority to decide questions that come up
in the interim between the national conventions. On the other
hand it has never before had to pass upon anything so important
as committing the association to the advocacy of a wholly new
amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It would probably have been
the part of wisdom to get a vote of the National Executive
Council. This would not have taken long and would have saved
considerable hard feeling and perplexity. The approval of the
majority of the Council could probably have been had, for there
is no earthly ground for objecting to the Shafroth Amendment when
it is thoroughly understood. It merely furnishes a short cut to
amendments in the States--a method which any State could use or
not as it chose. Supposing the Shafroth Amendment to have passed
Congress and been ratified, if the suffragists of any State
preferred the old way of amending their State constitution, it
would still be open. The Shafroth Amendment would lay no
compulsion upon any State; it would only take snags out of the
way of amendments in those States where the snags are now very
thick.
Feeling on this subject is more acute than it needs to be because
the suffrage atmosphere just now is highly charged with
electricity. The Shafroth Amendment is a first-rate little
amendment and the sooner it passes the better.
The National Convention at Nashville in November, 1914, after many
hours of heated discussion, finally adopted a resolution that it
should be the policy of the association to "support by every means
within its power the Anthony Amendment and to support such other
legislation as the National Board might authorize to the end that the
Anthony resolution should become law." (Minutes, p. 26.) At the
convention of December, 1915, in Washington it was voted that the last
year's action in regard to the Shafroth Amendment be rescinded; that
the association re-indorse the Anthony Amendment and that no other be
introduced by it during the coming year. (Minutes, page 43.) This
ended the matter for all time.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XV.
FROM ADDRESS OF DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW WHEN RESIGNING THE PRESIDENCY OF
THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, DEC. 15, 1915.
After a brief sketch of the condition of the world after a year and a
half of the war in Europe, the address continued:
As an association we are confronted through the eternal law of
progress by changes in our methods such as we have not met since
the union of the two national societies in 1890. Our enlarged and
expanding status as an association, the new and varied duties
which devolve upon us and the innumerable demands increasing with
the accumulation of means and workers call for a new kind of
service in leadership. Political necessity has supplanted the
reform epoch; the reapers of the harvest have replaced the
ploughman and seed sower, each equally needed in the process of
the cultivation and the development of an ideal as in the harvest
of the land. When this movement began its pioneers were
reformers, people who saw a vision and dreamed dreams of the time
when all mankind should be free and all human beings have an
equal opportunity under the law. Other reformers became possessed
by it, and, following it in the spirit of Him who cried, "I was
not disobedient to the Heavenly vision," they went forth
proclaiming it to the world, knowing that misunderstanding,
misrepresentation and persecution would combine to make the task
difficult. It was not that they sought persecution but that they
loved justice and freedom more than escape from it--these
pioneers of the greatest political reform which history recounts.
Year after year the task has been carried forward until the time
has come when "new occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient
good uncouth," and the idealist and the reformer are supplanted
in our movement by the politician. Our cause has passed beyond
the stage of academic discussion and has entered the realm of
practical politics. The time has come when our organized
machinery must be political in its character and work along
political lines directed by political leaders....
The United States is looked upon as being the most powerful
neutral nation, which with its high human ideal is the best
equipped to present its good offices in mediation between the
warring nations of the East, but is this true? What better
preparation could it make than by removing from within its own
borders the very cause which led to the present barbarous
conditions across the sea?... How can the United States, in any
spirit of a truly great nation, offer its services as mediator
when it is following the same line of action towards its own
people? How can it plead for justice in the East when it denies
this to its own women? How can it claim that written agreements
between nations are binding when it violates the fundamental
principles of its own National Constitution which declare that
"the right of the citizen to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or any State," and for forty-five years
Congress has turned a deaf ear to the appeal of our own citizens
for protection under this law? Is it true that the United States
Constitution too is but a "scrap of paper" to be repudiated at
will? If, as a mediator of justice, we hold out our hands to lift
other nations from the abyss into which injustice has plunged
them, they must be clean hands. Our words must ring true....
Many appeals will be made to our association to abandon its one
purpose of securing votes for women and turn its attention and
organized machinery to the real or imaginary dangers which beset
us as a nation, but let us never for a moment forget the specious
promises and assurances that were given to the pioneers, who,
when the Civil War took place, gave up their associated work and
turned their efforts to its demand in the belief that when the
war was over the country would recognize their patriotic services
and the dependence of the nation upon women in war as in peace
and reward them with the ballot, the crowning symbol of
citizenship. But instead of recognizing their service and
rewarding the loyal women, the cry went forth: "This is the
negroes' hour. Let the women wait"--and they are still waiting.
As they wait they are not blind to the fact that this nation did
what no other nation has ever done, when it voluntarily made its
former slaves the sovereign rulers of its loyal and patriotic
women.
The greatest service suffragists can render their country and
through it the whole world at this time, is to teach it that
there is no sex in love of individual liberty and to stand
without faltering by their demand for justice and equality of
political rights for men and women.
Dr. Shaw impressed upon the workers, especially the younger ones, not
to be discouraged at what seemed slow progress and said:
It has been the privilege of your president to participate
actively in twenty-four out of twenty-seven State campaigns; in
the New Hampshire constitutional convention campaign, the
Wheeling municipal campaign and directly though not actively in
all the others except that of Illinois. The vote cast upon the
amendments but inadequately expresses the expanding sentiment in
behalf of woman suffrage and it needs only consecrated,
persistent, systematic service to reach the goal and complete the
task begun by the pioneers of 1848 and led by Susan B. Anthony
until her death in 1906. While we accept as our motto her last
public utterance, "Failure is impossible," we must also remember
her prophetic words, uttered just before she laid down her life
work: "There is nothing which can ultimately prevent the triumph
of our cause but the time of its coming depends largely upon the
loyalty and devotion of those who believe in it." ...
While recognizing that our primary object is to secure the ballot
for women citizens and that as an organization we are not wedded
to one method of obtaining it but are willing to adopt any just
plan which promises success, nevertheless until a better way is
found we will seek to secure an amendment to the National
Constitution prohibiting disfranchisement on account of sex, and
at the same time will appeal to the States that by their action a
sufficiently strong support may be given to the Federal Amendment
to secure its adoption, unless it become unnecessary by action of
the States themselves.... We must face the fact that large bodies
of our new recruits know practically little of the history of the
suffrage movement, of the long years of faithful devotion and the
wise and statesmanlike service which have brought it to its
present successful position. These recruits are attracted by new
and spectacular methods, are impatient of delay and eagerly
follow any scheme which promises to "get it quick." ... If we
analyze the arguments set forth by these most ardent advocates of
the Federal Constitutional Amendment as the only means of
securing immediate results and learn upon what they base their
hopes of success, we shall see, as has been shown again and
again, that every one of them has its source in the enfranchised
States; that instead of State by State action being "wasteful,
expensive and slow," it is the foundation of hope. This is the
strongest argument in behalf of the wisdom of the founders of
our movement, that they recognized the necessity that State and
Federal action must go together.
ADDRESS OF MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT AT SENATE HEARING, DEC. 15, 1915.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee:
Since our last appeal was made to your committee a vote has been
taken in four Eastern States upon the question of amending their
constitutions for woman suffrage. The inaction of Congress in not
submitting a Federal amendment naturally leads us to infer that
members believe the proper method by which women may secure the
vote is through the referendum. We found in those four States
what has always been true whenever any class of people have asked
for any form of liberty and was best described by Macaulay when
he said: "If a people are turbulent they are unfit for liberty;
if they are quiet, they do not want it." We met a curious
dilemma. On the one hand a great many men voted in the negative
because women in Great Britain had made too emphatic a demand for
the vote. Since they made that demand it is reported that
10,000,000 men have been killed, wounded or are missing through
militant action, but all of that is held as naught compared with
the burning of a few vacant buildings. Evidently the logic that
these American men followed was: Since some turbulent women in
another land are unfit to vote, no American woman shall vote.
There was no reasoning that could change the attitude of those
men. On the other hand the great majority of the men who voted
against us, as well as the great majority of the members of
Legislatures and Congress who oppose this movement, hold that
women have given no signal that they want the vote. Between the
horns of this amazing dilemma the Federal amendment and State
suffrage seem to be caught fast.
So those of us who want to learn how to obtain the vote have
naturally asked ourselves over and over again what kind of a
demand can be made. We get nothing by "watchful waiting" and if
we are turbulent we are pronounced unfit to vote. We turned to
history to learn "what kind of a demand the men of our own
country made and determined to do what they had done. The census
of 1910 reported 27,000,000 males over 21. Of these 9,500,000 are
direct descendants of the population of 1800; 2,458,873 are
negroes; 15,040,278 are aliens, naturalized or descendants of
naturalized citizens since 1800. The last two classes compose
two-thirds of the male population over 21. The enfranchisement of
negro men is such recent history that it is unnecessary to repeat
here that they made no demand for the vote. The naturalization
laws give citizenship to any man who chooses to make a residence
of this country for five years and automatically every man who is
a citizen becomes a voter in the State of his residence. In the
115 years since 1800 not one single foreigner has ever been asked
whether he wanted the vote or whether he was fit for it--it has
literally been thrust upon him. Two-thirds of our men of voting
age today have not only made no demand for the vote but they have
never been asked to give any evidence of capacity to use it
intelligently.
We turned again to history to see how the men who lived in this
country in 1800 got their votes. At that time 8 per cent. of the
total population were voters in New York as compared with 25 per
cent. now. There was a struggle in all the colonial States to
broaden the suffrage. New York seemed always to have lagged
behind the others and therefore it forms a good example. It was
next to the last State to remove the land qualification and it
was not a leader in the extension of the suffrage to any class.
In 1740 the British Parliament disqualified the Catholics for
naturalization in this country. That enactment had been preceded
in several of the States by their definite disfranchisement. In
1699 they were disfranchised by an Act of the Assembly of New
York. Although the writers on the early franchise say that Jews
were not permitted to vote anywhere in this country in 1701, as
they certainly were not in England, yet occasionally they
apparently did so. In New York that year there was a definite
enactment disfranchising them. In 1737 the Assembly passed
another disfranchising Act. Catholics and Jews were disfranchised
in most States. It is interesting to learn how they became
enfranchised. One would naturally suppose that together or
separately they would make some great demand for political
equality with Protestants but there is no record that they did. I
find that the reason why our country became so liberal to them
was not because there was any demand on their part and not
because there was any special advocacy of their enfranchisement
by statesmen. It was due to the fact that in the Revolution,
Great Britain, having difficulty with the American colonies on
the south side of the St. Lawrence River, did as every
belligerent country does and tried to hold Canada by granting her
favors. In order to make the Canadian colonies secure against
revolution the British Parliament, which had previously
disfranchised the Catholics and the Jews, now extended a vote to
them. The American Constitution makers could not do less than
Great Britain had done, and so in every one of the thirteen
States they were guaranteed political equality with Protestants.
The next great movement was the elimination of the land
qualification and on this we find that history is practically
silent. In Connecticut and Rhode Island a small petition was
presented to the Assembly asking for its removal. In New York in
the constitutional convention of 1821 when some members advocated
its removal others asked, "Where is the demand? Who wants to vote
that has no land?" The answer was that there had been some
meetings in New York in behalf of removing this qualification. No
one of them had seen such a meeting but some members had heard
that a few had been held in the central districts of the State.
This constitutes the entire demand that has been made by the men
of our country for the vote.
In contrast we may ask what have women done? Again I may say that
New York is a fair example because it is the largest of the
States in population and has the second city in size in the world
and occupies perhaps the most important position in any land in
which a suffrage referendum has been taken. Women held during the
six months prior to the election in 1915, 10,300 meetings. They
printed and circulated 7,500,000 leaflets or three-and-a-half for
every voter. These leaflets weighed more than twenty tons. They
had 770 treasuries in the State among the different groups doing
suffrage work and every bookkeeper except two was a volunteer.
Women by the thousands contributed to the funds of that campaign,
in one group 12,000 public school teachers. On election day 6,330
women watched at the polls from 5:45 in the morning until after
the vote was counted. I was on duty myself from 5:30 until
midnight. There were 2,500 campaign officers in the State who
gave their time without pay. The publicity features were more
numerous and unique than any campaign of men or women had ever
had. They culminated in a parade in New York City which was
organized without any effort to secure women outside the city to
participate in it, yet 20,000 marched through Fifth Avenue to
give some idea of the size of their demand for the vote.
What was the result? If we take the last announcement from the
board of elections the suffrage amendment received 535,000
votes--2,000 more than the total vote of the nine States where
women now have suffrage through a referendum. It was not
submitted in Wyoming, Utah or Illinois. Yet New York suffragists
did not win because the opponents outvoted them. How did this
happen? Why did not such evidence of a demand win the vote?
Because the unscrupulous men of the State worked and voted
against woman suffrage, aided and abetted by the weakminded and
illiterate, who are permitted a vote in New York. In Rochester
the male inmates of the almshouse and rescue home were taken out
to vote against the amendment. Men too drunk to sign their own
names voted all over the State, for drunkards may vote in New
York. In many of the polling places the women watchers reported
that throughout the entire day not one came to vote who did not
have to be assisted; they did not know enough to cast their own
vote.
Those are some of the conditions women must overcome in a
referendum. One can eventually be carried even in New York but we
believe we have made all the sacrifices which a just Government
ought to expect of us. Even the Federal Amendment is difficult
enough, with the ratification of 36 Legislatures required, but we
may at least appeal to a higher class of men. We were obliged to
make our campaign in twenty-four different languages.... It is
too unfair and humiliating treatment of American women to compel
us to appeal to the men of all nations of the earth for the vote
which has been so freely and cheaply given to them. We believe we
ought to have the benefit of the method provided by the Federal
Constitution.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XVII.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.
During the early years of the movement for woman suffrage the
headquarters were in the home of Miss Susan B. Anthony, in Rochester,
N. Y. In 1890 her strong desire to have a center for work and social
features in Washington was fulfilled by the National Association's
renting two large rooms in the club house of Wimodaughsis, a newly
formed stock company of women for having classes and lectures on art,
science, literature and domestic and political economy, with Dr. Anna
Howard Shaw president. It did not prove to be permanent, however, and
in two years the association had to give up the rooms and the work
went back to Rochester, where much of it had continued to be done.
In October, 1895, when Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt became chairman of the
Organization Committee, she opened headquarters in one room of her
husband's offices in the _World_ Building, New York City. At the same
time Miss Anthony, with a gift of $1,000 from Mrs. Louisa Southworth
of Cleveland, had Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, national corresponding
secretary, open headquarters in Philadelphia, with Miss Nicolas Shaw
as secretary. Both acts were endorsed by the Business Committee of the
association. At the next convention Mrs. Avery recommended that the
Philadelphia headquarters be removed to those of New York. This was
done April 1, 1897; two large rooms were rented in the _World_
Building and all the work of the association except the treasurer's
and the convention business was transacted here. For six years the
national headquarters, in charge of Mrs. Catt, remained in New York.
In May, 1903, they were removed to Warren, Ohio, near Cleveland, and
Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, took charge of them,
with Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, executive secretary. Here they were
beautifully housed, first in the parlors of an old mansion and later
on the ground floor of the county court house where formerly was the
public library. In 1909, partly through the contribution of Mrs.
Oliver H. P. Belmont, they were returned to New York City and with the
New York State Association occupied the entire seventeenth floor of a
large, new office building, 505 Fifth Avenue, corner of 42nd Street.
When Mrs. Catt again became president the work of the association had
outgrown even these commodious headquarters and in January, 1916, the
fourteenth floor, with much more space, was taken in an office
building at 171 Madison Avenue, corner of 33rd Street. In March, 1917,
the Leslie Commission opened its Bureau of Suffrage Education in this
building and the two organizations occupied two floors with a staff of
fifty persons. On May 1, 1920, their work was concentrated on one
floor, as the great task of securing complete, universal suffrage for
the women of the United States was almost finished.
Branch Headquarters: In January, 1914, branch headquarters were opened
in the Munsey Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington for the
work of the association's Congressional Committee. They continued
there until the effort to obtain a Federal Amendment became of such
magnitude as to require a great deal more room and in December, 1916,
a large house was taken at 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, just off of Scott
Circle [see page 632]. This was occupied by the committee, national
officers, the lobbyists and other workers until July, 1919, when the
amendment had been submitted by Congress.
The first headquarters in a business building in 1895 had been rented
for $15 a month; the last year's rent for the headquarters in New York
and Washington was $17,500.
BEQUEST OF MRS. FRANK LESLIE.
Mrs. Frank Leslie, long at the head of the Leslie publications in New
York City, died Sept. 18, 1914, leaving a will which made the
following provisions:
All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, whatsoever and
wheresoever situate, whereof I may be seized or possessed, or to
which I may be in any manner entitled at the time of my death,
including the amount of any legacies hereinbefore given which may
for any reason lapse or fail, I do give, devise and bequeath unto
my friend, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of the city of New York. It
is my expectation and wish that she turn all of my said residuary
estate into cash, and apply the whole thereof as she shall think
most advisable to the furtherance of the cause of Women's
Suffrage, to which she has so worthily devoted so many years of
her life, and that she shall make suitable provision, so that in
case of her death any balance thereof remaining unexpended may be
applied and expended in the same way; but this expression of my
wish and expectation is not to be taken as creating any trust or
as limiting or affecting the character of the gift to her, which
I intend to be absolute and unrestricted.
Mrs. Leslie had previously made two wills of a similar character. The
estate was appraised at $1,800,000 in stocks, bonds and real estate.
There was an immense inheritance tax to be paid and harassing
litigation was at once begun and continued. It was not until the
winter of 1917 that the executors commenced a distribution of the
funds. Mrs. Catt incorporated the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission,
which has received and expended all monies realized from the estate.
They were a large factor in the legitimate expenditures for obtaining
the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment from Congress and its
ratification by 36 State Legislatures. They were also of great
assistance in the campaigns of the last years to secure the amendments
of State constitutions, which required organizers, speakers, printing,
postage, etc. Contributions have been made to women's struggle for the
franchise in other countries.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIX.
PRESENT STATUS OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION,
ORGANIZED IN 1869.
Acting on the plan adopted at the last convention of the National
American Association at Chicago in February, 1920, Mrs. Carrie Chapman
Catt, president, issued a call for a meeting of the Executive Council
in Hotel Statler at the time of the second annual convention of the
National League of Women Voters in Cleveland, Ohio. The meeting took
place at 10 a. m., April 13, 1921, Mrs. Catt in the chair. She made a
report of the receipts and disbursements of the Leslie Fund, saying
that as soon as the estate was finally settled she would render a
detailed statement. She said there were reasons why the association
should not at this time be dissolved and gave them as follows:
(1) Legal attacks on the Federal Amendment are still pending and there
are attempts to secure submission of a repeal to the voters. The
association must remain till no further efforts are made to invalidate
the amendment.
(2) The necessity of some authority to give advice and to help our
dependencies where suffrage campaigns are pending.
(3) Several bequests, delayed because estates are not settled, also
require the continuation of the association.
The Chair stated that the incorporation does not expire till 1940.
Conventions of elected delegates are no longer feasible and,
therefore, continuation without conventions should be provided for in
an amended constitution, such amendments to be confirmed by the
Executive Council.
It was unanimously agreed that the association be continued and on
motion of Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, attorney, of Chicago, it was
voted that the Chair appoint two other members of the Council to
co-operate with her in revising the constitution in accordance with
the new arrangement. She appointed Mrs. McCulloch and Mrs. Nettie
Rogers Shuler, the corresponding secretary of the association.
The report of the national treasurer from Jan. 1, 1920, to March 31,
1921, showed that $12,451 had been used for the expenses connected
with the ratification in eleven difficult States; the headquarters had
been maintained; legal fees paid; the expenses of the Chicago
convention met; deficit of the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co.
paid; printing and other bills settled, and a balance of $3,534
remained in the treasury.
The General Officers had been re-elected in Chicago to serve until the
end. At the present meeting the Directors, whose term of office had
expired, were re-elected to serve continuously, except Mrs. Arthur L.
Livermore, whose resignation was accepted and Mrs. Harriet Taylor
Upton was chosen to fill the vacancy. It was voted that the League of
Women Voters be asked to take the place of the National Suffrage
Association as auxiliary to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance;
also that the association no longer continue as auxiliary of the
National Council of Women of the United States.
Brief remarks were made by delegates present and enthusiastic
appreciation was expressed of the action of the Tennessee Legislature
in giving the 36th ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.
Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with advice to the delegates to put their
State records, literature, etc., into libraries for preservation and
she urged the necessity of the best training for their new
responsibilities, reminding them that the duty would always rest on
women to conserve civilization.
* * * * *
The committee, consisting of Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Shuler and Mrs.
McCulloch, recommended the adoption of an abridged constitution with
the elimination of all the by-laws and articles of the old one which
were now unnecessary. The Board could incur no financial obligations
beyond the assets in their hands; they could fill vacancies caused by
death or resignation as heretofore; adopt such rules for their
meetings as they deemed proper and amend the constitution by a
two-thirds vote. The Board should continue to consist of nine officers
and eight directors, with the power to summon the Executive Council.
This Council should comprise the Board and the presidents and
executive members of State auxiliaries as they existed in 1920. The
name of the association would be retained.
The abridged constitution was sent to every member of the Council to
be voted on.
* * * * *
The Executive Council was called to meet at the headquarters of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association in New York at 10:30
a.m., June 22, 1921, for final action on the new constitution. Mrs.
Catt presided and Mrs. Lewis J. Cox, State executive member from
Indiana, acted as secretary. It was voted that the following sentence
be added to the objects of the association: "To remove as far as it is
possible all discriminations against women on account of sex."
Sixty-six of the eighty-two members of the Council having voted in the
affirmative and none in the negative the constitution was declared to
be legally adopted.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIX.
DEATH OF DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW.
It is literally true that a nation mourned the death of Anna Howard
Shaw. Having lectured from ocean to ocean for several decades she was
universally known and there were few newspapers which did not contain
a sympathetic editorial on her public and personal life. Telegrams
were received at her home from all parts of the world and the letters
were almost beyond counting. Friend and foe alike yielded to the
unsurpassed charm of her personality and the rare qualities of her
mind and heart.
In February, 1919, the Woman's Council of National Defense, of which
Dr. Shaw had been chairman since its beginning in April, 1917,
dissolved with its duties ended. For the past two years she had
practically given up her platform work for woman suffrage, then at its
most critical stage with the Federal Amendment pending. Now she had
made a large number of speaking engagements for the spring in its
behalf and had accepted the invitation of Dr. M. Carey Thomas,
president of Bryn Mawr College, to be her guest on a trip to Spain
afterwards. Everything was put aside when in May came an urgent
request from former President Taft and President Lowell, of Harvard
University, to join them in a speaking tour of fourteen States from
New Hampshire to Kansas to arouse sentiment in favor of the League of
Nations as a means of assuring peace forevermore. She was to speak but
once a day but she could not resist the appeals in the different
cities and it became four or five times a day. At Indianapolis she
made speeches, gave interviews, etc., eight times. The next day at
Springfield, Ill., she was stricken with pneumonia and was in the
hospital two weeks. By June 12 she was able to leave for her home in
Moylan, a residence suburb of Philadelphia, with her beloved friend
and companion, Lucy Anthony, who had gone to her and who wrote to
anxious friends: "She made the journey without even a rise of
temperature, found the house all bright with sunshine and flowers and
was the happiest person in the world to be at home again." She seemed
to recover entirely but on June 30 had a sudden relapse and died at 7
o'clock on the evening of July 2.
DR. SHAW'S TRIBUTE TO THE AMERICAN FLAG, GIVEN MANY TIMES.
"This is the American flag. It is a piece of bunting and why is
it that, when it is surrounded by the flags of all other nations,
your eyes and mine turn first toward it and there is a warmth at
our hearts such as we do not feel when we gaze on any other flag?
It is not because of the beauty of its colors, for the flags of
England and France which hang beside it have the same colors. It
is not because of its artistic beauty, for other flags are as
artistic. It is because you and I see in that piece of bunting
what we see in no other. It is not visible to the human eye but
it is to the human soul.
"We see in every stripe of red the blood which has been shed
through the centuries by men and women who have sacrificed their
lives for the idea of democracy; we see in every stripe of white
the purity of the democratic ideal toward which all the world is
tending, and in every star in its field of blue we see the hope
of mankind that some day the democracy which that bit of bunting
symbolizes shall permeate the lives of men and nations, and we
love it because it enfolds our ideals of human freedom and
justice."
* * * * *
In 1917. "It is because we love our country so much and because
we are so anxious to give ourselves entirely to the great service
of winning the war, that we want the freedom of American women
now. We suffragists would be thrice traitors if at this time of
the great struggle of the world for democracy we should fail to
ask for the fundamental principles here which America is trying
to help bring to other countries."
* * * * *
When Dr. Shaw received the Distinguished Service Medal from Secretary
of War Baker she said: "I realize that in conferring upon me the
Distinguished Service Medal, the President and the Secretary of War
are not expressing their appreciation of what I as an individual have
done but of the collective service of the women of the county. As it
is impossible to decorate all women who have served equally with the
Chairman of the Woman's Committee, I have been chosen, and while I
appreciate the honor and am prouder to wear this decoration than to
receive any other recognition save my political freedom, which is the
first desire of a loyal American, I nevertheless look upon this as the
beginning of the recognition by the country of the service and loyalty
of women, and above all that the part women are called upon to take in
times of war is recognized as equally necessary in times of peace.
This departure on the part of the national government through the
President and Secretary of War gives the greater promise of the time
near at hand when every citizen of the United States will be esteemed
a government asset because of his or her loyalty and service rather
than because of sex."
* * * * *
Dr. Shaw was a valued member of the executive committee of the League
to Enforce Peace, under whose auspices she was making the tour with
former President Taft and President Lowell of Harvard University, and
it sent her a transcript of her speech to revise for publication. This
she did on the last Sunday of her life and the committee prepared tens
of thousands of copies of it for circulation. It was entitled What the
War Meant to Women and mere extracts can give little idea of its
strength and beauty. After speaking of the Woman's Committee of the
Council of National Defense, the Peace Treaty and President Wilson's
declaration that the United States did not want any material advantage
out of the war, she ended:
While Mr. Wilson declared we want nothing out of the war, I said
in my own heart: "It may be that we want nothing material out of
the war, but, oh, we want the biggest thing that has ever come to
the world--we want Peace now and Peace forever." If we cannot get
that peace out of this war what hope is there that it will ever
come to humanity? Was there ever such a chance offered to the
world before? Was there ever a time when the peoples of all
nations looked towards America as they are looking to-day because
of our unselfishness in our dealings with them during the war? We
have not always been unselfish but we have been in this war.
The war is over as far as the fighting is concerned but it is
only begun as far as the life of the people is concerned. What
would there be of inspiration to them to come back to their
ruined homes and build up again their cities if within a few
years the same thing could be repeated and homes destroyed and
cities devastated, the people outraged and made slaves as they
have been?
Men and women, they are looking to us as the hope of the world
and whenever I gaze on our flag, whenever I look on those stars
on their field of blue and those stripes of red and white, I say
to myself: "I do not wonder that when that flag went over the
trenches and surmounted the barriers, the people of the world
took heart of hope. It was then that they began to feel they
could unite with us in some sort of security for the future. And
that flag means so much to me. I never look on its stars but that
I see in every star the hope that must stir the peoples of the
old world when they think of us and the power we have of helping
to lead them up to a place where they may hope for their children
and for their children's children the things that have not come
to them." ...
We women, the mothers of the race, have given everything, have
suffered everything, have sacrificed everything and we say to you
now: "The time is come when we will no longer sit quietly by and
bear and rear sons to die at the will of a few men. We will not
endure it. We demand either that you shall do something to
prevent war or that we shall be permitted to try to do something
ourselves." Could there be any cowardice, could there be any
injustice, could there be any wrong, greater than for men to
refuse to hear the voice of a woman expressing the will of women
at the peace table of the world and then not provide a way by
which the women of the future shall not be robbed of their sons
as the women of the past have been?
To you men we look for support. We look for your support back of
your Senators and from this day until the day when the League of
Nations is accepted and ratified by the Senate of the United
States, it should be the duty of every man and every woman to see
that the Senators from their State know the will of the people;
know that the people will that something shall be done, even
though not perfect; that there shall be a beginning from which we
shall construct something more perfect by and by; that the will
of the people is that this League shall be accepted and that if,
in the Senate of the United States, there are men so blinded by
partisan desire for present advantage, so blinded by personal
pique and narrowness of vision, that they cannot see the large
problems which involve the nations of the world, then the people
of the States must see to it that other men sit in the seats of
the highest.
* * * * *
In the beautiful Memorial issued by the Board of Directors of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association were affectionate
tributes from those who were officially associated with her for many
years. Among the many from eminent men and women which were reproduced
in the Memorial were the following:
It was not my privilege to know Dr. Shaw until the later years of
her life but I had the advantage then of seeing her in many
lights. I saw her acting with such vigor and intelligence in the
service of the Government, and, through the Government, of
mankind, as to win my warmest admiration. I had already had
occasion to see the extraordinary quality of her clear and
effective mind and to know how powerful and persuasive an
advocate she was. When the war came I saw her in action and she
won my sincere admiration and homage.
WOODROW WILSON,
President of the United States.
(President and Mrs. Wilson, who were on the way home from France, sent
a wireless message of sympathy and a handsome floral tribute from the
White House.)
The world is infinitely poorer by the death of so great and good
a woman.
THOMAS R. MARSHALL,
Vice-President of the United States.
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw was a member of the Executive Committee of
the League to Enforce Peace. She was constant in her attendance,
full of suggestion and earnest in support of the cause. It was my
great pleasure to speak with her from many a platform in favor of
the League and to enjoy the very great privilege of listening to
her persuasive eloquence and her genial wit and humor, which she
always used to enforce her arguments. She thought nothing of the
sacrifice she had to make and was only intent upon the
consummation of our purpose. She was a remarkable woman. I deeply
regret her death. There were many avenues of great usefulness
which a continuance of her life would have enabled her to pursue.
Her going is a great loss to the community.
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT,
President of the League to Enforce Peace.
I desire officially to pay tribute to the passing of Dr. Shaw.
Aside from her epic contribution to the cause of progressive
American womanhood it is in no sense perfunctory to say that
whether in war time Washington, organizing and directing the
eighteen thousand units of the Woman's Committee of National
Defense, or with indomitable courage and power going up and down
the country pleading great public causes relating to the war,
this woman of seventy years was an inspiration to all of us.
There was no one in American life who epitomized more finely
Roosevelt's philosophy that in the public arena one must to the
uttermost spend and be spent. It was a magnificent and enduring
trail that Dr. Shaw blazed. Everywhere her endeavors had the
impersonal and unselfish touch that marks the great protagonist
of new ideals. She was a gallant and stirring figure in the
history of this country and leaves the government of the United
States distinctly in her debt.
GROSVENOR B. CLARKSON,
Director United States Council National Defense.
As a member of the Council of National Defense I wish to express
my very sincere appreciation of the patriotic service that Dr.
Shaw rendered during the past two years, the magnitude of which
cannot be appreciated except by those intimately familiar with
it. Her distinguished service medal was well earned.
FRANKLIN K. LANE,
Secretary of the Interior.
I hardly know how to write you about the death of our dear Anna
Howard Shaw. She has been such a tower of strength to our cause
everywhere and now her place knows her no more! There is one
comfort in that she lived long enough to know of the triumph of
your cause in the passage of the Federal Amendment. She will be
sorely missed and deeply mourned, first and foremost in America
and Great Britain, but really all over the world, in every
country where woman's cause is a living issue.
MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT,
Honorary President,
National Union of Societies for
Equal Citizenship of Great Britain.