ARKANSAS.[6]
There was little general suffrage activity in Arkansas before 1911;
perhaps the only specific work after 1900 was an occasional article
written by Mrs. Chester Jennings of Little Rock and published in
various papers in the State. She was called "the keeper of the light."
Arkansas was not affiliated with the National American Association
prior to 1913, there was only correspondence between individual
suffragists and national officers.
In January, 1911, the Political Equality League was organized in
Little Rock. This organization came about indirectly as a result of an
article written by Mrs. D. D. Terry of this city and published on the
front page of the _Arkansas Gazette_, the largest paper in the State.
It was in answer to a scathing criticism of women by another paper for
attending the trial of a child victim and was a demand that the
suffrage should be given to women.
Immediately following this occurrence Mrs. J. W. Markwell called a
public meeting in one of the Methodist churches to discuss this
question. She was chairman and Mrs. Rice, Mrs. Terry, Mrs. L. B.
Leigh, Mrs. Minnie Rutherford Fuller and members of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union and the College Women's Club, almost to a
unit suffragists, were among the prominent women present. They were
deeply stirred and as the Legislature was in session they asked for a
hearing. This was granted by the Judiciary Committee and they were
courteously received, as they stated their desire. They went from the
hearing into one of the committee rooms of the Capitol and decided to
form a woman suffrage society. The same women with a few others met in
the home of Mrs. Markwell that evening. Miss Julia McAlmont Warner
was made chairman and the following officers were elected: President,
Miss Mary Fletcher; vice-president, Mrs. W. P. Hutton; secretary, Mrs.
Jennings; treasurer, Miss Warner, and the name adopted was Woman's
Political Equality League. It started with $20 in the treasury--of
which $3 were paid by men--Dr. J. W. Markwell, Mr. Boyer and Clio
Harper.
The semi-monthly meetings were first held in the public library, one
in the afternoon, the other at night, so that working women, teachers
and men might attend. The president soon went to Europe and the work
passed into the capable hands of Mrs. Hutton. One of the most valuable
helpers was Rabbi L. Witt, who always attended and helped out many a
program. Leagues were formed in Hot Springs and Pine Bluff and these
were the only three prior to 1913 when a State association was
organized.
In October, 1913, Mrs. O. F. Ellington was elected president of the
Little Rock League. At that time it was holding its meetings in the
Chamber of Commerce and few people would climb two flights of stairs
to hear a subject discussed in which there was little interest, so the
executive board secured the parlors of the City Hall. If the women
could accomplish as much in the offices of the City Hall as they did
in the parlors no fair-minded person would have objected to their
occupancy. Important local, State and national affairs were studied
and discussed and prominent State and national speakers addressed that
eager body of women.
Under the auspices of the league the first national suffrage May day
was observed in Little Rock with speeches from the steps of the Old
State House. Seventy-five letters were sent out to prominent men in
the State, asking them to make five-minute speeches and after ten days
Dr. L. P. Gibson, the well-known physician, was the first to accept.
The next morning the _Arkansas Gazette_ told that Dr. Gibson of Little
Rock would be one of the speakers and then every man who could arrange
to be in town that day accepted his invitation. Among the women who
spoke were Mrs. George Pratho, Mrs. Fuller, Mrs. C. E. Rose, Mrs. T.
T. Cotnam, Miss Julia Warner, Miss Josephine Miller, Mrs. George E.
Cunningham, Mrs. Terry, Mrs. S. S. Wassel, Mrs. E. W. Gibb, Mrs. W.
G. Whipple, Mrs. A. Marinana. The intensely interested crowd stood two
hours and a half earnestly listening to these leading citizens asking
the right of suffrage for Arkansas women.
It had been the custom to disband during the summer months but the
summer of 1914 the Political Equality League opened a class for the
purpose of studying all the questions of the day and learning
something about speaking extemporaneously. In response to a call from
the president, Little Rock and Hot Springs sent representatives to a
conference held in the former city for the purpose of devising ways
and means of forming a State association. An organization committee
was formed of the following: Mrs. Ellington, Miss Fletcher, Miss Mary
House, Mrs. Rose, Mrs. Leigh, Mrs. Jennings, all of Little Rock; Miss
Adele Johnson of Hot Springs. In October the State Woman Suffrage
Association was formed in Little Rock at Hotel Marion, with six
leagues represented by the following presidents: Hot Springs, Miss
Mary Spargo; Pine Bluff, Mrs. L. K. Land; Augusta, Mrs. Rufus
Fitzhugh; Malvern, Mrs. Mary Jackson; Hardy, Mrs. S. A. Turner;
Fayetteville, Mrs. LeRoy Palmer. The officers elected were, President,
Mrs. Ellington; first vice-president, Mrs. Fuller, Magazine; second,
Mrs. N. F. Drake, Fayetteville; corresponding secretary, Mrs. P. J.
Henry, Hot Springs; recording secretary, Mrs. Cunningham, Little Rock;
treasurer, Mrs. Cotnam, Little Rock.
In October, 1915, the first annual meeting took place in Little Rock,
eleven counties being represented, and this board was re-elected. The
principal business of this convention was to lay plans for the
legislative work early in the following year.
In October, 1916, the second annual convention was held in Pine Bluff,
its principal work being to devise ways and means of raising money for
continuing the organization of the State. Mrs. Cotman presented a
feasible plan for raising money which was accepted by the convention.
New officers elected were second vice-president, Mrs. J. D. Head,
Texarkana; third vice-president, Mrs. J. H. Reynolds, Conway;
corresponding secretary, Mrs. Maud O. Clemmons; recording secretary,
Mrs. G. D. Henderson, both of Little Rock. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
president of the National American Suffrage Association, had come to
Little Rock in April and spoken most acceptably to a large audience.
She held a conference with the State officers and later the
association financed a two-months' campaign for organization. Miss
Gertrude Watkins and Miss Josephine Miller of Little Rock gave their
services for their expenses only and organized sixty committees.[7]
The new Primary law was almost equal to the full suffrage, as where
one party is so largely in the majority the primaries decide the
elections, and it gave a great impetus to the movement throughout the
country, especially in the southern States.
After the Primary bill passed the suffragists re-organized along the
lines of the State Democratic party. Where it had a State Central
Committee they had an Equal Suffrage State Central Committee and so on
through the organization. The object was to teach women how to work
through and with political parties but they were not fully
enfranchised and could not give up their suffrage organization,
therefore they held together on semi-political but non-partisan lines
until such time as they could go into the various parties.
At the close of Mrs. Ellington's administration in August, 1917,
seventy-eight papers in the State were handling news items each week.
Eighty-five organizations had been completed. The Primary bill had
been passed by the Legislature and thousands of women had assessed
themselves and paid their poll tax of one dollar a year preparatory to
voting in the spring elections. Under the law the assessor can put
this tax only on male citizens and the women in asking for the Primary
suffrage voluntarily assumed it, as no one can vote until it is paid.
This was held to be legal by Attorney General John D. Arbuckle.
Mrs. Ellington left Arkansas on August 1 and Mrs. Cotnam was elected
by the State Board to take charge of affairs. On November 28 she was
elected chairman of the State Suffrage Central Committee upon the
receipt of Mrs. Ellington's formal resignation. Mrs. Cotnam appeared
before the State Farmers' Union in August and secured a unanimous
endorsement of woman suffrage and in September at the meeting of its
executive committee she secured a resolution calling on Arkansas
Senators and Representatives to vote for the Federal Amendment. She
went to New York City in September to take part in the State suffrage
campaign. After six weeks she returned to Little Rock, where the great
victory won in New York was celebrated at a luncheon in the Marion
Hotel. Governor Charles H. Brough was a speaker and prophesied a
similar victory in Arkansas.
Dr. Shaw visited Arkansas for the first time on April 3, 1918, and
spoke to an immense audience. She came under the auspices of the
National Council of Defense, as chairman of the Woman's Committee, but
she won many friends for suffrage and the sincere admiration of all.
Active work to assure the writing of woman suffrage in the new State
constitution culminated at the first annual meeting of the Equal
Suffrage Central Committee on April 2, 1918, when a close organization
covering the State was perfected. At this meeting Mrs. Cotnam was
re-elected chairman; Mrs. C. T. Drennen of Hot Springs first
vice-chairman; Mrs. Stella Brizzolara of Fort Smith second
vice-chairman; Mrs. Frank W. Gibb, secretary; Mrs. R. W. Walker of
Little Rock, treasurer. The National American Association contributed
$1,675 to the campaign. The constitutional convention met the first
Monday in July and the suffrage clause was adopted on the third day of
the session. Only one man spoke and finally voted against this clause
but it was not acceptable to the majority until amended to make jury
service for women optional. The suffragists were consulted and agreed
because it was plain that a refusal might cause a long drawn out
debate. The constitution was defeated at a special election on Dec.
13, 1918, but it was generally conceded that the opposition caused by
the suffrage amendment was negligible.
The first State-wide Primary election in which women had the right to
vote was held in May, 1918; between 40,000 and 50,000 voted and all
papers commented on the intelligence of the new electors. The State
Democratic convention met in Little Rock on July 10 and for the first
time women delegates were present from many counties. Fifty were
seated and more were present in proportion to their representation
than were men. They attended in force all minor committee meetings and
controlled the action of some of these committees. The _Arkansas
Gazette_ of July 11 commented: "It may safely be said that nothing was
put over on them by the wily politicians. There wasn't a chance--not a
chance in the world." There were women on the platform, the
resolutions and all prominent committees. The suffrage plank, as
written by the women, was unanimously adopted and for the first time a
woman was elected member of the State Central Committee, Mrs.
Brizzolara. The one appointed as a member of the Democratic Women's
National Committee was Mrs. Head, chairman of her congressional
district for the suffrage organization.
On January 14 resolutions were introduced in the Senate by Senator Lee
Cazort and the House by Representative J. D. Doyle, memorializing the
Senate of the United States to submit the Federal Amendment. They
passed unanimously and later were read into the Congressional Record
by Senator W. F. Kirby.
RATIFICATION. As soon as the Federal Amendment passed, letters were
sent to legislators asking them to agree to a call for a special
session. In less than one week answers were received from a majority
expressing willingness and even eagerness to hold the ratification
session. Many offered to pay their own expenses and waive the regular
per diem. With this support in hand a committee of fifty women went to
the State House and asked Governor Brough to call a special session.
This he agreed to do and set the date for July 28. While the
suffragists were never in doubt of ratification they were genuinely
surprised to find a few real enemies in the House and to hear some of
the moss-grown arguments of 1911. The Senate ratified by a vote of 29
to two and the House by 74 to 15. Henry Ponder of Lawrence county
introduced the resolution in the Senate and said he believed his
children would be prouder of that act of his than of anything else he
might ever do. An identical resolution was introduced in the House by
Representatives Riggs, Joe Joiner, Carl Held, Neil Bohlinger and J.
D. Doyle. The Senate resolution passed first and went over to the
House. The two Senators who voted against it were W. L. Ward, Lee
county, and W. H. Latimer, Sevier county. Many women came from over
the State to this special session and filled the galleries.
On Dec. 3, 1919, at the second annual meeting the Equal Suffrage
Central Committee was merged into a State League of Women Voters and
Mrs. Cotnam was elected chairman.
While the suffragists were working for the vote they confined their
organized effort to that one measure but it is significant that the
same Legislature that passed the Primary bill, gave women the right to
practice law and provided for a Girls' Industrial School; that of 1915
removed all legal disabilities of married women.
Miss Josephine Miller and Miss Gertrude Watkins of Little Rock are on
the staff of national organizers and Mrs. Cotnam has served as
instructor in suffrage schools and also as a speaker in twenty States.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION: 1911. In January Representatives Grant of Newport
and Whittington of Hot Springs introduced an equal suffrage resolution
in the House. It was not initiated by the suffragists and apparently
not introduced to advance woman suffrage, as it was said to contain a
"joker." Nevertheless, when it became known that the bill had been
introduced they appealed to Representative Hearst of Fayetteville,
chairman of the Judiciary Committee, for a hearing. On the day and
hour that it had been promised Mrs. Chester Jennings, Mrs. J. W.
Markwell, Miss Julia Warner, Mrs. Rutherford Fuller and Mrs. D. D.
Terry went to the Capitol but were unable to find either Mr. Hearst or
his committee. On March 11, however, the committee met at the Marion
Hotel, as it was customary to hold committee meetings at night in the
hotel, and a hearing was granted to the women. Miss Olive Gatlin (now
Mrs. Leigh) and Mrs. Fuller made excellent speeches which seemed to
make an impression. Later the suffrage resolution was reported to the
House and received six favorable votes.
1913. House joint resolution giving women the right to vote was
introduced by Robert Martin. This year the suffragists had a most
successful hearing before the House Committee on Constitutional
Amendments. The president of the Senate, W. K. Oldham, Lonoke; Judge
W. L. Moose, Morrillton, and Rabbi L. Witt, Little Rock, made eloquent
pleas in addition to those of the women. The committee reported the
resolution favorably and the vote was 35 for, 55 against.
Between the two Legislatures the State Woman Suffrage Association was
formed and its influence was immediately felt in political circles.
1915. Senator George W. Garrett, Okolona, introduced a joint
resolution proposing an amendment to the constitution giving women
full suffrage and it passed by 23 to 12. The House called a night
session for the third reading. A resolution signed by Representatives
Yearger of Chico county, Dunlap of Phillips and Wilson of Jefferson to
allow a representative of the Woman Suffrage Association ten minutes
in which to present the reasons for the enfranchisement of women
passed and Mrs. Cotnam was introduced, the first woman ever given the
privilege of the floor. The vote was 51 in favor, 18 opposed, with 31
absent. The amendment failed to get on the ballot, as under the
Arkansas law only three amendments could be submitted at one election
and the next morning before this one could be properly recorded the
Federation of Labor had filed an initiated amendment with the
Secretary of State and that for suffrage became the fourth. The
suffragists tried to get the Federation of Labor to withdraw their
amendment, which had no chance of being adopted, but were unsuccessful
and it did fail at the general election.
1917. On January 11 Representative John A. Riggs of Hot Springs
introduced a joint resolution for the amendment, signed by himself, C.
B. Andrews of Nevada county, Stephen P. Meador of Clark and Carl W.
Held of Sebastian. Mrs. Ellington, president of the State Suffrage
Association, explained to them that it had entered into an agreement
with all other State associations at the last national suffrage
convention not to go into a referendum campaign without the consent of
the National Board, if they expected financial assistance from that
organization, and the resolution was withdrawn. On February 7
Representative Riggs introduced what was known as the Primary Bill,
which in brief was as follows: "An Act to provide that women may vote
in all primary elections: From and after the passage of this act and
subject to all the provisions of the laws of this State as to age,
residence, citizenship, payment of poll taxes and otherwise regulating
the manner and form of holding the same, but especially exempt from
every disqualification, direct or indirect, on account of sex, every
woman shall have the right to vote at any primary election held under
the laws of this State."
This form of suffrage is unique and deserves some explanation. William
Hodges, Associate Justice of the Court of Civil Appeals, Texarkana,
Texas, suggested the idea to Senator O. S. Lattimore of Fort Worth,
who formulated the bill of which the Arkansas bill is substantially a
copy. The Texas Legislature defeated it. Mr. Riggs wired for a copy of
the bill, had a similar one drawn and submitted it to U. S. Senator
Kirby and a number of prominent lawyers, all of whom were unanimous in
the belief that it was constitutional. Justice Hodges said, "I have
felt deep interest in the suffrage question for several years and the
idea of permitting women to participate in Primary elections occurred
to me casually as I was thinking of how to meet the stubborn
opposition offered in the Texas Legislature to the submission of an
amendment to the constitution."[8] Mr. Riggs said his eagerness to
pass a suffrage bill was to do justice to the women of Arkansas and to
keep a promise to his mother that if he ever was elected to the
Legislature he would introduce and work for one.
The Legislature of 1917 was soon discovered to be a progressive
assembly and gave promise of success for the bill. Mrs. Ellington
decided the time had come to adopt business methods in the suffrage
lobby and undertook with Mr. Riggs the whole responsibility of guiding
this bill on its eventful journey through the House and Senate. The
suffragists held themselves in readiness to do any special work
needed, which they did quietly and effectively, seeing legislators
when necessary, but the Legislature was not harassed by a large and
conspicuous lobby.[9]
Sufficient pledges were secured in both House and Senate before the
bill was allowed to come even to a test vote. Judge Josiah Hardage,
Arkadelphia, assisted by W. J. Waggoner of Lonoke and James A. Choate
of Floyd, led the opposition in the House and conducted the bitterest
fight waged during the session. Sixteen men stood solidly with them in
all parliamentary tactics in hopes of killing the bill. Nineteen men
could delay it but they were destined to defeat when 78 men, led by
the astute floor leader, J. O. Johnson of Sebastian county, were
determined that it should pass. After several hours' debate the House
passed the bill February 15 by 71 ayes, 19 noes, 10 absent.
When the bill came up in the Senate Walker Smith of Magnolia led the
opposition, although several days before he had promised Mrs. Head and
Mrs. Ellington to vote for it. Senator Houston Emory of Hot Springs
guided it to a successful vote on February 27--17 ayes, 15 noes.
Senators George F. Brown of Rison, George W. Garrett of Okolona, H. L.
Ponder of Walnut Ridge, J. S. Utley of Benton and R. Hill Caruth of
Warren aided materially in passing the bill. The first time during the
session that every man in the Senate was in his seat to vote was when
the Primary bill came up. Two Senators unalterably opposed to woman
suffrage had been expelled for bribery and this made its success
possible.
The Senate slightly amended the bill and returned it to the House,
which accepted it March 6. Never did a man serve the cause of suffrage
more loyally or more efficiently than John A. Riggs and the women of
Arkansas owe him a lasting debt of gratitude. Governor Brough signed
the bill in the evening at a public meeting amid great enthusiasm.
The Legislature met Jan. 13, 1919, after thousands of women had voted
at the Primary election. Not one member had been asked to present a
resolution proposing a constitutional amendment for woman suffrage. In
fact the women were following closely the advice of the National
Association and were ardently hoping to avoid a State campaign. They
were reckoning from past experiences but times had changed.
Twenty-five men came ready to propose a full suffrage amendment;
Representative Riggs, the father of the Primary bill, was the first
man on the floor after the House was organized and his bill got first
place on the calendar. It passed the Senate January 30 by 27 to one,
and the House February 3 by 73 to three. In November it went to the
voters and was defeated. It received the largest favorable vote of any
of the amendments submitted but not a majority of the largest number
cast at the election, as required by the constitution. The women had
felt certain that this would be impossible. In August, 1920, full
suffrage was conferred by the Federal Amendment.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. O. F. Ellington,
president of the State Woman Suffrage Association, 1914-1917, and Mrs.
T. T. Cotnam, State treasurer during these years and chairman of the
State Suffrage Central Committee from 1917.
[7] The following officers were elected: Chairman, Mrs. Ellington;
secretary, Mrs. Gibb, Little Rock. Finance Committee: Chairman, Mrs.
Cotnam; Mrs. C. C. Cate, Jonesboro; Mrs. Land, Mrs. William Ells,
Texarkana; Mrs. W. H. Connell, Hot Springs. Committee that framed
constitution: Mrs. Fuller, Magazine; Mrs. Head, Mrs. Blaisdell, Hot
Springs; Congressional chairman, Mrs. Ada Roussans, Jonesboro; Mrs.
Fitzhugh, Mrs. H. E. Morrow, Mrs. Head, Mrs. W. L. Moose, Mrs.
Drennan, Mrs. Garland Street, district chairmen.
[8] In June, 1912, Miss Kate Gordon offered a Primary bill as a
substitute for the constitutional amendment in the Louisiana
Legislature, but it never came out of committee. Miss Gordon said:
"The idea came to me as a solution of the woman suffrage question in a
flash and it struck me as a good one. The Primary idea was mine as
early as 1912."
[9] Most of the women whose names are mentioned in this chapter, with
the addition of Mrs. John P. Ahmand, Mrs. De Mott Henderson and Miss
Jennie De Neler, did valuable legislative work during this and other
sessions.