IOWA.[50]
The Iowa Equal Suffrage Association was still conducting in 1901 the
campaign of education begun when it was organized in 1870, as fully
described in Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage. It seemed at
times a deadly dull process and there rose bolder spirits occasionally
who suggested more vigorous and spectacular means of bringing the
cause to the attention of the general public and of focusing the
suffrage sentiment, which evidently existed, on the members of the
Legislatures and putting them into a more genial attitude toward
submitting a State constitutional amendment, which seemed in those
years the only method of attaining the longed-for goal. Women,
however, are conservative and the Iowa laws on the whole were not
oppressive enough to stir the average woman to active propaganda for a
share in making and administering them. Therefore the association
proceeded along the beaten path--by way of education, aided by social
and economic evolution, from which not even the most non-progressive
woman can protect herself, much less protect her daughters. The
association never missed an annual meeting and the women elected each
year to carry on its work were those who knew that the cause might be
delayed but could not be permanently defeated.
The convention of 1901 was held in November at Waterloo and Mrs.
Adelaide Ballard was elected president, having previously served two
terms. The conventions of 1902, 1903 and 1904 took place in October in
Des Moines, Boone and Sheldon, and Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall was each
year elected president, having held the office two years at earlier
dates. The annual meeting of 1905 was held in November at Panora; that
of 1906 in September at Ida Grove, and Bertha A. Wilcox was each year
elected president.
The conventions of 1907 and 1908 took place in October at Des Moines
and Boone and the Rev. Eleanor E. Gordon was at each elected
president. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association, who was present at the Boone convention,
had just returned from England and was accompanied by two young
English women who had campaigned for suffrage there and who took part
in the convention. She had marched in a parade in London and was very
desirous that parades should be held here. After much urging from her
and the president, and with great trepidation and many misgivings on
the part of the members, a procession was formed and marched through
the principal streets on October 29. The Boone _Daily News_ said: "The
members of the Equal Suffrage Association in convention, scores of the
local women interested in the movement and the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union united in a monster parade through the main streets.
The Wilder-Yeoman Band led with the Rev. Eleanor Gordon, president,
Mrs. Coggeshall, honorary president, Mrs. Julia Clark Hallam, Dr. Shaw
of Philadelphia and the Misses Rendell and Costelloe of London next in
the procession. From every viewpoint it was a success." This was the
first or one of the first suffrage parades to be held in the United
States and it required much courage to take part in it. The crowd
which lined the sidewalks was most respectful and when Dr. Shaw and
the English visitors spoke from an automobile there was enthusiastic
response.
In 1909 at the State convention held in Des Moines Mrs. Hallam was
made president. In 1910, at the convention in Corydon, Mrs. Harriet B.
Evans was elected to this position. The report of the corresponding
secretary, Mrs. Lona I. Robinson, was similar to those that had been
made in many preceding years and that continued to be made for several
following years. It showed that hundreds of letters were sent to the
officers of local clubs, asking them to interview the candidates for
the Legislature on their attitude towards woman suffrage; to sign the
petitions to Congress for a Federal Amendment, which were sent to
them; to strengthen their organization; to increase their propaganda
work, for which quantities of literature were furnished. The report
showed the activities of the State officers, meetings arranged,
addresses made and legislative work done.
At the annual meeting in October, 1911, at Perry, the Rev. Mary A.
Safford became president. This year the _Woman's Standard_, a monthly
newspaper published since 1886 by the association, was discontinued,
as there was an ever-increasing opportunity for suffrage news and
arguments in the newspapers of the State. On Dec. 22, 1911, Mrs.
Coggeshall, who had been the inspiration and leader of the State
suffrage work since its beginning and part of the time an officer of
the National Suffrage Association, passed away. She was the link
between those who began the movement and those who finished it.
Whatever the later workers in Iowa had done had been as a candle flame
lighted from the torch of her faith and devotion. She was a friend of
Susan B. Anthony, of Lucy Stone and of many of the other veterans. Her
delightful home was open to every suffragist of high or low
degree--there were no degrees to her if a woman was a suffragist. She
showed her faith in the cause not only by her gifts, her hospitality
and her unceasing activity during her life but also by bequests of
$5,000 to the State association and $10,000 to the National
Association. The former was used, as she would have wished it to be,
in the amendment campaign of 1916 and the National Association
returned a large part of its bequest for use at this time.
In October, 1912, the convention was held in Des Moines and the Rev.
Miss Safford was re-elected president. By this time new methods of
propaganda were being used. During the State Fair the City Council of
Suffrage Clubs in Des Moines arranged for the photoplay Votes for
Women to be shown in a river front park near a band stand where
nightly concerts were given and literally thousands of people had
their first education in suffrage through the speeches made there.
The State convention met in October, 1913, in Boone and Miss Flora
Dunlap was made president. An automobile trip crossing the State
twice, with open air meetings in thirty towns, had been undertaken in
September. Governor George W. Clark and Harvey Ingham, editor of the
Des Moines _Register_, a long time supporter of woman suffrage, spoke
at the first meeting and other prominent men, officials, editors and
clergymen, joined the party for one or more days. Two reporters from
Des Moines newspapers went with it and there was excellent publicity.
Mrs. P. J. Mills of Des Moines managed the trip and accompanied the
party with her car, Miss Evangeline Prouty, daughter of an Iowa member
of Congress, acting as chauffeur. Miss Dunlap also made the entire two
weeks' journey, while other workers joined for briefer periods. J. R.
Hanna, Mayor of Des Moines, wrote the Mayors of all towns in which
meetings were scheduled asking the courtesies of the city for the
party, and this, with the Governor's opening speech, gave a helpful
official sanction.
The annual meeting took place in October, 1914, at Des Moines and Miss
Dunlap was re-elected president. In March the Mississippi Valley
Conference, with many interesting delegates, had been held in that
city and made a very favorable impression. Miss Jane Addams and Mrs.
Harriet Taylor Upton, president of the Ohio Suffrage Association, had
spoken at a Sunday afternoon mass meeting in the largest theater. When
the convention met at Des Moines in October, 1915, a woman suffrage
amendment to the State constitution had at last been submitted by the
Legislature to be passed upon by the voters in June, 1916. Miss Dunlap
was again re-elected and arrangements were perfected for continuing
the vigorous campaign already under way. By the time the association
held its convention at Waterloo in September, 1916, the amendment had
been defeated but nevertheless the meeting was large and enthusiastic.
Miss Anna B. Lawther was elected president and arrangements were made
for securing as soon as possible the re-submission of the amendment.
The convention of 1917 met in October at Des Moines and Miss Lawther
was re-elected. The country was now in the midst of war, and, like
patriotic women everywhere, Iowa suffragists turned all their
attention to helping win it. Miss Lawther served on a special
committee appointed by the Governor to organize the women of the State
for war activities. Every woman on the suffrage board filled an
important position in the various State war organizations and every
county chairman and local member was active in the work of her
community. The women worked long, full days for the war and far into
the night for suffrage.
When the State convention met at Cedar Rapids in September, 1918, the
women were still immersed in war work. Meanwhile the Lower House of
Congress had voted to submit the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment and
for some months the efforts of the association had been centered on
this amendment. It had secured pledges from all the Iowa
representatives in Congress to vote for it except Harry E. Hull, who
voted against it. In June a "suffrage school" had been held in Penn
College, Oskaloosa, for the express purpose of educating women in the
need of this amendment and the necessity of educating State
legislators to the point where it would be ratified as soon as it was
submitted. Miss Lawther was again re-elected but resigned the next
June and Mrs. James E. Devitt, the vice-president, filled the office.
In 1919 the association was in the thick of the struggle to obtain
from the Legislature Primary and Presidential suffrage. The former was
defeated; the latter passed both houses in April. The Federal
Amendment was ratified by the Legislature July 2.
The work of the Equal Suffrage Association seemed finished. The half
century of agitation, education and evolution was completed. The 48th
and last annual convention was held Oct. 2, 1919, in Boone, which had
been its hostess many times, and the association was happily dissolved
by unanimous vote. The State League of Women Voters was at once
organized with Miss Flora Dunlap, chairman, and the old workers faced
the new task of making political suffrage for women the privilege and
blessing they always had believed it would prove to be.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION. A resolution to submit to the voters a woman
suffrage amendment to the State constitution was introduced in every
General Assembly beginning with 1870. In the early years petitions
were sent, the number of signatures rising from 8,000 in 1884 to
100,000 in 1900, but after that time they were almost entirely given
up, as they had no effect. The resolution was introduced according to
custom in the Legislature of 1902. Also according to custom, not
always so carefully observed, the Senate passed the resolution by 28
to 16, this being the Senate's year for this courtesy, and the House
accepted the report recommending indefinite postponement.
In 1904 the resolution was defeated in the House and did not emerge
from the Senate committee. In 1906 this program was repeated. The
meeting of the Legislature was now changed to the odd years and in
1907 the above program was reversed. After this year the members
omitted even the customary graciousness of an understanding that one
body would pass it and the other kill it, thus keeping the women
friendly and dividing the responsibility for the defeat, and both
Houses in 1909 rejected it.
In 1911 the Senate treated the resolution in a most contemptuous
manner by voting to strike out the enacting clause and then passing
it. This was the last time it was defeated. The tide was changing and
even the most confirmed opponents knew that it was a rising and not a
falling tide. Fortunately most of the active workers who sat through
that humiliating experience lived to see the men who were responsible
for it either retired entirely from public life or so changed in
sentiment as to claim a place among those who "always believed in
woman suffrage."
The neighboring State of Kansas fully enfranchised its women in 1912,
as did several other western States, and favorable pressure was
growing very strong. In 1913 the resolution to submit the amendment
passed in the House on February 20 by a vote of 81 to 26 and in the
Senate on March 7 by a vote of 31 to 15. The deadlock was broken and
every suffragist rejoiced.
The resolution had to pass two Legislatures and in July, 1914, the
Republican State convention strongly urged the next one to pass it. In
1915 this was done, by the Senate on February 12 by a vote of 38 to
11, and by the House on the 23rd by one of 84 to 19. The date for the
referendum to the voters was set at the time of the primary elections,
June 5, 1916, over three years from the time the resolution was first
passed. After forty-five years thus far had the workers for woman
suffrage arrived.
* * * * *
The activities of the State association were at once turned to the
education of the voters. It had been long thought by both State and
national leaders that if the amendment could be brought before them
they would give a large majority for it. Probably no State ever went
into a campaign under more favorable auspices and until the last few
weeks it seemed that victory was certain and the women had learned
that it was not entirely a State matter but one of national interest.
The national president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, gave six weeks of
time to the campaign and liberal contributions of money, as she
considered Iowa her State, having spent a large part of her life
there. The honorary president, Dr. Shaw, other national officers,
State presidents and men and women suffragists from many other States
rendered valuable help in time, money and service of all sorts. Large
numbers of Iowa women who had never helped before now did effective
work. The long-time suffragists devoted themselves wholly to the
campaign. Many Iowa men gave great assistance. A Men's League for
Woman Suffrage, John H. Denison, president, was organized with
headquarters at Des Moines and branches in all the large cities, forty
altogether. These leagues not only assisted with counsel but raised
funds, placed speakers and helped get out the vote. O. G. Geyer was
the executive secretary and the State offices of the League adjoined
those of the State Suffrage Association. There were the closest
cooperation and the greatest harmony in the work of the two
organizations. An unusually well-conducted press campaign was carried
on with Mrs. Rose Lawless Geyer at the head of the press department
and she and Miss Alice B. Curtis, executive secretary, gave long hours
and invaluable service to the campaign. Five-sixths of the newspapers
not only used plate matter and a weekly press letter but supported the
cause editorially and some of them refused the paid advertising of the
"antis."
Dr. Effie McCollum Jones was finance secretary; Miss Mabel Lodge was
the first organizer in the field and there is a long list of men and
women whose names deserve mention for the abundant time and unstinted
devotion they gave to the campaign. In some of the counties along the
Mississippi River, where the situation was the most difficult, were
strong groups of men and women workers. Miss Anna B. Lawther of
Dubuque headed one of the most active and the record of the river
counties would have been even blacker than it was but for the
herculean work that they did. In Keokuk, the most southern city on the
river, this was so effective that it alone was a white spot in the
long, black line when the election returns came in. Each of the
eleven Congressional districts had an organizer in charge from January
until election day. In every one of the ninety counties there was
organization. Nine-tenths of them opened headquarters from one to
three months before the end of the campaign and 2,000 precinct workers
were enrolled. The whole State was covered by auto-trips in the last
month. Approximately 5,000,000 pieces of literature were distributed,
much of it especially printed to meet local needs and the false
statements circulated by the opposition. One cent postage for one
circularization of the voters of Iowa cost $5,000.
As suffragists throughout the nation gave their help, so the opponents
outside the State tried to defeat the amendment. The women's National
Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage sent a number
of its paid workers and a considerable sum of money into the State.
There was a small anti-suffrage organization in Iowa during the
campaign affiliated with this national association, with branches in
Des Moines, Davenport, Clinton, Sioux City and a few other places.
Mrs. Simon Casady of Des Moines was State president. John P. Irish, a
former resident, came from California under its auspices to work
against the amendment but the press department widely circulated his
favorable declarations for woman suffrage in early years and reprinted
his editorials written during the Civil War, in which his disloyalty
to Lincoln and to the Union was shown. He was much disturbed by this
publicity concerning his past and soon left the State. The women's
anti-suffrage association did no particular harm but the forces of
evil with which it was allied did great damage and in the end defeated
the amendment. Iowa women had believed that their men were free from
entanglements with these forces but they learned that no State line
bars out the elements which work against democracy and the influence
of women in government.
In spite of these opposing forces the amendment would have won but for
political complications which arose during the last few weeks of the
campaign. It became necessary for the Republican party to sacrifice
woman suffrage to its "wet" candidate for Governor, as it felt sure
that he could not be elected in November if the vote should be given
to women in June. A prominent supporter said openly: "We had to do it
in self-defense."
The special election and the primary election were held on June 5,
1916, and after several days of waiting the final returns showed that
the amendment was defeated--ayes, 162,683; noes, 173,024--lost by
10,341 votes.
The adverse vote was almost entirely in the counties along the
Mississippi River. They were in revolt against the State prohibition
law and there was constant evasion of it and agitation for its repeal.
Naturally those opposed to prohibition were also opposed to woman
suffrage. The vote in these counties was large enough to overcome the
vote in the central and western counties where the sentiment was
generally "dry." Des Moines, the capital and largest city in the
State, voted in favor; Sioux City, the second largest, recorded a
small adverse vote; Council Bluffs on the western border returned a
favorable majority; Keokuk on the river in the southeastern corner of
the State was carried, but all the other cities on the eastern border
voted "wet." The river counties of Dubuque, Scott and Clinton gave
9,383 of the 10,341 adverse majority. They were the stronghold for the
commercial liquor interests of the State. The Republican candidate for
Governor received a majority of 126,754 and this party could easily
have carried the amendment.
It was evident that there were many irregularities in the election and
the board of the State Suffrage Association conferred with competent
attorneys but after much consultation it was decided that it would not
be practical to contest it. The defeat of the amendment was a serious
disappointment to the temperance forces and the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union determined to have the returns canvassed and if
possible discover the cause. The election proceedings and officials
returns were investigated in 44 counties and the report in affidavit
form consisted of 200 closely typewritten pages. The Des Moines
_Register_ of Oct. 15, 1916, said of this report:
The investigation revealed several strange conditions. The
records in the Secretary of State's office disclose that there
were 29,341 more votes cast on the equal suffrage amendment than
the total cast for all candidates for Governor by all parties.
The canvass in these 44 counties, however, shows that there were
13,609 more names listed as voting, as shown by the poll books,
than there were suffrage ballots. Add to this the 2,289 votes
where certain precincts show more votes on the amendment than
names recorded in the poll books and altogether 15,898 more names
are found on the poll books than there were ballots cast on woman
suffrage. If this proportion is maintained in the other
fifty-five counties, there would be approximately 30,000 more
voters listed than there were votes on the amendment. The
question the investigator raises is: "Did 60,000 men go to the
polls and fail to vote a primary ballot, and did 30,000 of these
fail to vote on the amendment? Did 30,000 go to the polls and
fail to vote for anybody or anything?"
The W. C. T. U. can draw but one conclusion from this condition,
namely, that they were defrauded out of their right to the
ballot.
The investigators found that in the 44 counties ... 4,743
ballots, shown to have been cast by the list of voters, are
absolutely unaccounted for.... In 15 counties it was found that
in certain precincts 2,239 more ballots were certified than there
were names on the list of voters.... In 15 counties there were
8,067 more ballots on the amendment than there were voters
checked as having voted.
In 30 counties where the combination poll books were used no
voter was checked as having voted, but the certificates show that
55,107 votes were cast on the amendment. In 27 cities canvassed,
a total disregard or ignorance of the registration laws in nearly
all precincts appears and in many of these the violations are
most flagrant.
The law requires that the judges and clerks of election shall
make out a certificate showing the total number of votes cast,
the number voting "yes" or "no" or "rejected." A total of 9,320
votes in these counties are not properly certified to and the
"true return" is not signed in many instances by any of the
clerks or judges and in others not by all. In this class 27,362
votes were affected. In six counties certificates properly signed
by the clerks and judges had been changed by a different hand and
in some cases several different precincts had been changed by the
same hand....
Many other instances were given of incompetence and dishonesty beyond
question, but, notwithstanding this positive evidence, the legal
requirements and restrictions were such as made any effort for a
recount or another election of no avail.[51]
* * * * *
A conference of the suffrage leaders was held in Des Moines the next
month after the election. Every one was sad but no one was resigned
and those who had worked the hardest and sacrificed the most were the
first to renew their pledges for further effort. It was decided that
while their forces were well organized they should at once begin
another campaign. The half-century-old resolution was presented to the
General Assembly of 1917, and, though there were arguments that the
voters had just spoken and that the question ought not again be
submitted in so brief a time, the resolution passed by a vote of 35
ayes, 13 noes in the Senate and 85 ayes, 20 noes in the House.
The women continued their work for the second vote, which must be
given by the Legislature of 1919. When it convened the discovery was
made that the Secretary of State, William S. Allen, did not publish
notice of the passage of the resolution the first time, as required by
law and it had to be voted on again as if the first time. It passed
with but one dissenting voice in each House but the second vote could
not be taken till 1921.
A bill for Primary suffrage passed the Lower House in 1919 by 86 ayes,
15 noes, but met with great opposition in the Senate even from men
posing as friends of woman suffrage. In a one-party State, as Iowa had
been for many years, the dominant party hardly could feel that its
supremacy would be threatened by women's votes in the primary, but, as
one speaker naïvely disclosed in the debate, the "machine" might be
thrown entirely out of gear. "Why," said he dramatically to the
listening Senate, "the Republican party would be in hopeless
confusion. Nobody could tell in advance what candidate the women might
nominate in the primary!" The bill was postponed by 31 ayes, 17 noes.
The next step was to have a bill introduced to give women a vote for
Presidential electors. One of the contributing factors to its success
was the ever-increasing number of victories for similar bills in other
States, particularly the recent victory in Missouri, which had
completed the circle of "white" States surrounding Iowa. One of the
features of the debate in the Senate was the reading of a letter from
John T. Adams, vice-chairman of the National Republican Committee,
heretofore an anti-suffragist, by Senator Eugene Schaffter, the
sponsor of the bill, in which he impressed upon the Republicans the
political urgency of granting the Presidential franchise to women.
After a hard campaign by the Legislative Committee of the State
Suffrage Association, with Mrs. Frank W. Dodson of Des Moines as
chairman, the Iowa legislators joined the procession and on April 4,
1919, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 38 ayes, 8 noes, the
House following on April 19 with a vote of 84 ayes, 2 noes.
RATIFICATION. When the Federal Amendment went to the last vote in
Congress, the Iowa delegation maintained its record on each vote
that had been taken, both Senators and ten of the eleven
Representatives--all but Harry E. Hull--casting their votes in the
affirmative. Immediately Mrs. Devitt of Oskaloosa, acting president,
and Mrs. Fred B. Crowley of Des Moines, corresponding secretary of the
State association, requested Governor William L. Harding to call a
special session of the Legislature to ratify it. It met on July 2 in
special session for this sole purpose. Men and women had made their
way early to the Capitol, filling the galleries and the rear of the
chambers. The legislators, too, were apparently as happy as boys, with
a new idea of real democracy in Iowa. It seemed like a gathering of
great-hearted, honest-of-purpose men who were eager to do an act of
justice. The joyous expressions of these men, who had taken hot, dusty
rides on day trains from their farms and stores in the scorching July
weather to come and cast their votes for ratification, assured the
women of victory. It was a wonderful moment. After a joint session at
10 a. m., to hear the reading of the Governor's message, by 11:40 the
vote had been taken in both Houses. Every Senator but two was present
and was recorded in the affirmative; the vote in the House was 96
ayes, 5 noes; E. H. Knickerbocker, Linn county; T. J. O'Donnell,
Dubuque; C. A. Quick and George A. Smith, Clinton; W. H. Vance,
Madison. Senators J. D. Buser of Conesville and D. W. Kimberly of
Davenport were absent. The former had voted against Presidential
suffrage and the latter had not voted.
An informal luncheon followed in one of the Des Moines tea rooms which
had often housed the suffragists in times of desolation and it was
turned into a jollification meeting. Three former State presidents and
other women spoke and there were many present for whom the occasion
meant the fulfillment of an idea to which they had given years of
devoted service.
FOOTNOTES:
[50] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Flora Dunlap,
president of the State Equal Suffrage Association 1913-1915 and
chairman of the League of Women Voters.
[51] Space is given to this report because it is a fair illustration
of the conditions under which woman suffrage amendments were defeated
again and again in different States.