NEW YORK.[122]
New York was the cradle of the movement for woman suffrage not only in
this State but in the world, for here in 1848 was held the first
Women's Rights Convention in all history. Except during the Civil War
there was no year after 1850 when one or more such conventions did not
take place until 1920, when all the women of the United States were
enfranchised by an amendment to the National Constitution. This State
was the home of the two great leaders for half a century--Elizabeth
Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The first appeal ever made to a
Legislature for woman suffrage was made by these two women in 1854 and
there was never a year afterwards when this appeal was not made by the
women of New York except during the Civil War. The State Woman
Suffrage Association was organized in 1869 and its work never ceased.
Notwithstanding this record no suffrage for women had ever been
obtained in this State, except a fragment of a School franchise for
those in villages and country districts, up to 1901, when this chapter
begins.
The cause had gradually gained in strength, however, and a factor
which had strong influence was the splendid cooperation of many other
organizations. The president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union
often spoke at the suffrage conventions and legislative hearings and
the superintendent of franchise, Dr. Lavinia R. Davis, sent out
thousands of suffrage leaflets and appeals to the women of the local
unions every year. The State Grange, with its membership approaching
100,000, passed favorable resolutions many times and gave the
president and vice-president of the suffrage association, who were
members, opportunities to speak at its meetings. The State Federation
of Labor granted the vice-president time for an address at its
convention in Troy as early as 1908 and thereafter endorsed the
suffrage bills and sent speakers to the hearings on them. Women from
labor unions spoke at conventions of the State Suffrage Association,
which had a Committee on Industrial Work. The Western New York
Federation of Women's Clubs, under the leadership of Mrs. Nettie
Rogers Shuler of Buffalo, its president, was the first federation to
admit suffrage clubs and a suffrage resolution was passed at its
convention in 1909, at which time it had 35,000 members.
The annual conventions of the State association always were held in
October. The thirty-third in the long series met at Oswego in the
Presbyterian Church in 1901 and was welcomed by Mayor A. M. Hall.
Addresses were made by Miss Susan B. Anthony, honorary president of
the National American Woman Suffrage Association; Dr. Anna Howard
Shaw, its vice-president-at-large; Alice Stone Blackwell, its
recording secretary; Harriet May Mills and Julie R. Jenney of
Syracuse. A memorial service was held for one of the pioneers,
Charlotte A. Cleveland of Wyoming county, Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf,
former State president, and Mrs. Ella Hawley Crossett, vice-president,
offering testimonials of her ability and helpfulness. She left the
association a legacy of $2,000, the first it ever had received. Mrs.
Mariana W. Chapman, president since 1896, was re-elected.
The convention of 1902 was held in Buffalo at the Church of the
Messiah. The wife of the Mayor, Erastus Knight, represented him in
giving a welcome from the city. Owing to the illness of Mrs. Chapman,
Mrs. Crossett presided. She was elected president, after having served
four years as vice-president. Miss Mills was chosen for that office
and they served for the next eight years.
[Illustration: THE SUSAN B. ANTHONY MEMORIAL BUILDING
At Rochester (N. Y.) University.]
In 1903 the convention was held in the Presbyterial Church at
Hornellsville welcomed by Mayor C. F. Nelson and the Rev. Charles
Petty, pastor of the church. Mrs. Crossett responded and gave her
annual address, which showed much activity during the year. Miss
Mills, chairman of the State organization committee, said that she had
arranged for fifty-five meetings. Dr. Shaw had spoken in thirty
different counties, the president or vice-president accompanying her
and organizing clubs at many places. The chairmen of the standing
committees--Organization, Press, Legislative, Industries, Work Among
Children, Enrollment, School Suffrage--and also the county presidents
reported effective work. The addresses of Miss Anthony, Dr. Shaw and
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, national president, were highly appreciated
by large audiences. During the summer of 1903, as in many others, Miss
Anthony and Dr. Shaw attracted large gatherings at the Chautauqua and
Lily Dale Assemblies.
The convention of 1904 met at Auburn. Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborne,
daughter of Martha Wright and niece of Lucretia Mott, two of those who
had called the first Woman's Rights Convention, entertained the
officers and many chairmen in the annex of the hotel, a stenographer,
typewriter and every convenience being placed at their disposal. In
her own home she had as guests Miss Anthony, Dr. Shaw, Mrs. William
Lloyd Garrison (her sister), Emily Howland, Mrs. William C. Gannett,
Lucy E. Anthony and others. One evening her spacious house was thrown
open for the people of the city to meet the noted suffragists. The
convention was held in Music Hall, a gift of Mrs. Osborne to the city,
and her son, Thomas Mott Osborne, welcomed it as Mayor.
The old Political Equality Club of Rochester, of which Miss Mary S.
Anthony was president for many years, invited the convention for 1905.
To go to the home city of the Anthony sisters was indeed a pleasure.
They opened their house one afternoon for all who desired to take a
cup of tea with them. It was crowded and many expressed themselves as
feeling that they were on a sacred spot. A large number went to the
third story to see the rooms where Mrs. Ida Husted Harper spent
several years with Miss Anthony writing her biography and Volume IV of
the History of Woman Suffrage. A reception was given at Powers Hotel
attended by over 600 people. During the meetings Miss Anthony
introduced a number of women who had attended the first Woman's Rights
Convention, which adjourned from Seneca Falls to Rochester, Mary
Hallowell, Sarah Willis, Mary S. Anthony and Maria Wilder Depuy.
The convention was held in the Universalist Church. Mayor James G.
Cutler, who welcomed the delegates, spoke very highly of his "esteemed
fellow citizen, Susan B. Anthony" and presented her with a large
bouquet of American Beauty roses. Mrs. Crossett in her annual address
compared the convention held at Rochester in 1890, when there were but
seven local clubs in the State, with this one representing 100 local
and 31 county clubs. Elnora M. Babcock, press chairman, reported 500
papers in the State using articles favorable to woman suffrage.
The convention for 1906 met at Syracuse in the (Samuel J.) May
Memorial Church. Miss Anthony had passed away the preceding March.
Over the entrance door of the church was a large banner with the last
words of the beloved leader, "Failure is Impossible." The afternoon
meeting closed with tributes of reverence and appreciation by Mrs.
Osborne, Anne Fitzhugh Miller, Marie Jenney Howe, Mrs. Crossett, Miss
Mills and Dr. Shaw. Large audiences gathered for the evening meetings,
among the speakers being Mrs. Florence Kelley, Mrs. Henry Villard and
Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery. Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Avery spoke in the
University Chapel to the students.
The convention of 1907, which met in Geneva, received a warm welcome;
stores displayed the suffrage colors in their windows and many
citizens hung flags over their doorways. The gracious presence of Mrs.
Elizabeth Smith Miller and her daughter Anne, president of the Geneva
Political Equality Club, the largest in the State, made the convention
especially memorable. The delegates were invited to Lochland, the
Miller home on the lake, one afternoon where a memorial service was
held on the big porch, the place of many suffrage meetings, in memory
of Mary S. Anthony, who had died the preceding February. Affectionate
tributes were paid.[123] The convention was welcomed by Mayor Arthur
P. Rose, City Attorney W. Smith O'Brien, Miss Miller and Mrs.
Charlotte A. Baldridge, county president. Speakers were President
Langdon C. Stewardson of Hobart College and Professors F. P. Nash and
Nathaniel Schmidt of Cornell University.
The 40th State convention was held in 1908 in Buffalo, whose suffrage
club invited the National American Association to hold its convention
there the same week, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first
Woman's Rights Convention. For eight years Mrs. Richard Williams,
president of the club, had carried on the work in this city and had
built up an excellent organization. Mrs. George Howard Lewis and Mrs.
Dexter P. Rumsey were valuable members. Mrs. Lewis gave $10,000 to Dr.
Shaw for suffrage work. The State convention, which met two days
before the National, voted to have headquarters at Albany during the
legislative session. It also voted to continue the State headquarters
in Syracuse. Dr. Shaw had presented the suffrage question at the State
Federation of Women's Clubs; Miss Mills had addressed the World's
Temperance Congress; members had spoken before the resolution
committees of the political State conventions and before many
different organizations, institutions, etc. On May 26, 27, Mrs.
Stanton Blatch had arranged a meeting in Seneca Falls to commemorate
the 60th Anniversary of the first Women's Rights Convention, called by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and that noble band of women in 1848. Addresses
were made by their descendants and a number of the pioneer suffragists
and a bronze tablet was placed on the Wesleyan Methodist Church, where
the convention was held.
This year Mrs. Clarence Mackay became interested in the work for woman
suffrage and organized in New York an Equal Franchise League of which
she was president, with headquarters in the Metropolitan Tower. She
opened her house for lectures, interested a great many prominent and
influential people and also arranged a course of public lectures in
one of the theaters, which attracted large audiences. The papers gave
columns of space to her efforts and the movement received a great
impetus.
It had always been Miss Anthony's strong desire to have headquarters
in this large center from which news of all kinds was sent to the four
quarters of the globe. She realized the vast numbers of people who
could be reached and the great prestige which would be given to the
movement but even with her wonderful ability for getting money she
never could secure anywhere near enough to carry out this plan in the
city where everything must be done on a large scale to be successful.
The longed-for opportunity did not come in her lifetime but in 1909
Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont decided to take an active part in the work
for woman suffrage and inquired of the leaders what was the most
important thing to be done. They answered quickly: "Establish State
headquarters in New York City and also bring the National headquarters
here." With the executive ability for which she was noted Mrs. Belmont
at once rented the entire floor of a big new office building at 505
Fifth Avenue, corner of 42nd Street, and invited both associations to
take headquarters there for two years. They did so and the movement
received a strong impulse not only in New York but in the country at
large. The State association paid no rent and the national press
bureau was maintained by Mrs. Belmont.
While in New York City women of the highest character and ability had
sponsored the suffrage work it had not attracted the women who could
give it financial support. When Mrs. Mackay and Mrs. Belmont
identified themselves with it, opened their homes for lectures and
interested their friends public attention was aroused. The meetings
given in August by Mrs. Belmont at Marble House, Newport, which never
before had been opened to the public, received an immense amount of
space in the New York papers and those outside. The big headquarters
soon were thronged with women; magazines, syndicates and the daily
press had articles and pictures; mass meetings and parades followed
and thousands of women entered the suffrage ranks. At the end of two
years the State association was sufficiently well financed to maintain
its headquarters, which remained in New York until its work was
finished. Mrs. Belmont never lost her interest in the cause and
continued to make large contributions. In a few years Mrs. Mackay
turned her attention to other matters but her society was continued
under the presidency of Mrs. Howard Mansfield. In 1909, under the
direction of Mrs. Catt, its chairman, the Inter-Urban Council of
twenty societies became the Woman Suffrage Party and organization
along the lines of the political parties was begun.
The delegates came to the State convention at Troy in 1909 with high
hopes that with headquarters established in New York City the suffrage
work could be promoted as never before. It was held in the Y. M. C. A.
building and greeted by representatives of the Emma Willard
Association, City Federation of Women's Clubs, Daughters of the
American Revolution and Teachers' Association. Mayor E. P. Mann
extended an official welcome. Among the speakers was Professor Frances
Squire Potter, national corresponding secretary. Mrs. William M. Ivins
gave her impression of the suffrage movement in England and Miss
Carolyn Crossett spoke on the meeting of the International Woman
Suffrage Alliance in London, which she attended with Dr. Shaw. Not
since the constitutional convention in 1894 had so much work been
reported. The State president or vice-president had attended meetings
in 41 counties. All-day meetings were held in all the cities on the
Hudson River with excellent speakers, including Dr. Shaw. The
president, vice-president and corresponding secretary, Miss Alice
Williams, remained at Albany for three months, speaking and working in
the towns in the eastern part of the State. Three large
Self-Supporting Women's Suffrage Leagues joined the association.
In 1910 both the State association and the Woman Suffrage Party wrote
Chairman Timothy Woodruff of the Republican and Chairman John A. Dix
of the Democratic State Committees requesting a hearing at the
conventions. They were politely referred to the Resolutions
Committees. They went to the Republican convention at Saratoga
Springs, carrying their literature and the printed resolution which
they wished the committee to put in the platform: "We believe that the
question of woman suffrage has reached such a degree of importance
that the Legislature should submit an amendment for it to the voters
of the State." The committee allowed ten minutes; Mrs. Crossett
presided and presented Mrs. Mary Wood, national organizer of the
Republican women; Miss Mary Garrett Hay, a leader of the New York
Woman Suffrage Party and other able speakers but no attention was paid
to their request. This program was repeated at the Democratic
convention in Rochester with the same result, and this had been the
experience for years. At this time candidates all over the State were
being interviewed and women went to many county and city political
conventions asking for endorsement of equal suffrage, seldom with
success, although the politicians admitted that the time for acting
was not far off.
The convention met at Niagara Falls in October, 1910, in the
auditorium of the Shredded Wheat Biscuit Company, and was welcomed by
Mayor Peter Porter. Mrs. Crossett responded and gave her annual
address, which, she said, would be her last as president. Her home was
in Warsaw in the western part of the State and when headquarters in
New York City were given to the association she promised to make that
her home for one year but could not do so longer. Over 1,000 persons
had registered at the headquarters, she said, but these probably were
not over one-third of those who called. Most of them came for speakers
or help in some way; others came to volunteer assistance. Meetings had
been held in nearly every unorganized county and there were 37 county
societies. There were 155 clubs in the association, which had begun to
make the assembly district the unit in the State, as Mrs. Catt had
done in New York City. These clubs had held 695 public and 1,614 local
meetings. The State board had arranged for 241 public meetings making
2,550. The association had now a membership of 58,000.
Mrs. Belmont, who had rooms on the same floor with the State and
national associations, had formed eight clubs and given some of them
headquarters. The city had headquarters and altogether there were ten.
A Men's League had been organized. A Cooperative Service Club of over
100 business women was formed and met evenings at the State
headquarters. The association sponsored the work of securing names to
the National petition to Congress and they were tabulated at
headquarters. Greater New York women secured 24,114 names and there
were 72,086 signers in the State. A lecture bureau was established;
Miss Carolyn Crossett went over the State arranging meetings; Miss
Mills spoke in 28 counties. Dr. B. O. Aylesworth of Colorado
University was spending the summer in New York and gave over twenty
lectures for the association before clubs and public meetings. It
seemed as if every woman's club in New York City asked for speakers
and many of note were supplied. The association had published
thousands of pieces of literature and used thousands prepared by the
National.
It was in this flourishing condition that the State association passed
from the hands of Mrs. Crossett into those of her successor, Miss
Harriet May Mills, who had served with her as vice-president
throughout the preceding eight years. The other officers during this
period were Mrs. Shuler, Mary T. Sanford, Ada M. Hall, Ida A. Craft,
Isabel Howland, Alice Williams, Anna E. Merritt, Georgiana Potter,
Nicolas Shaw Fraser, Mrs. Ivins, Eliza Wright Osborne, Mariana W.
Chapman and Mrs. Villard. The lack of space prevents naming the
hundreds of women who gave unceasing service through these years when
faith and courage were required and there were no victories as a
reward. In all the cities of the State the local women arranged
courses of lectures with prominent speakers and kept suffrage
continually before the people through the press and in other ways. By
this quiet, persistent work of comparatively few women the foundation
was laid for the majorities in the many "up-State" counties when the
amendment came to a vote.
1910-1913.[124]
At the annual convention of the State Association held in Niagara
Falls, Oct. 18-21, 1910, the following officers were chosen:
President, Miss Mills; vice-president, Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore,
Yonkers; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Roxana B. Burrows, Andover;
recording secretary, Mrs. Nicolas Shaw Fraser, Geneseo; treasurer,
Mrs. Ivins, New York; auditors, Mrs. Osborne, Auburn, Mrs. Villard,
New York. During the three following years there were but few
changes.[125]
The convention of 1911 met in Ithaca; that of 1912 in Utica and that
of 1913 in Binghamton. This period was one of great activity, leading
to the submission of an amendment to the State constitution by the
Legislature in January, 1913, the object of the association for over
forty years. Its paying membership had steadily increased from 5,252
in October, 1910 to 8,139 in October, 1913, with over 50,000 enrolled
members in addition. New York was thus enabled to continue its record
of having the largest delegation each year in the national convention.
The receipts from membership were respectively $8,182, $11,836 and
$14,230, the gains in membership and money amounting to about 60 per
cent. The enrolled membership was finally adopted in place of the paid
individual membership through suffrage clubs. For fourteen years the
association maintained the _News Letter_, edited for ten years by Miss
Mills and afterwards by Mrs. Minnie Reynolds and Miss Cora E. Morlan
successively.
One part of the work which helped build up the association was the
great campaigns through the summers of 1911-12, covering the eastern,
northern and western counties and Long Island. Over 200 of these
open-air rallies were held and thousands of enrolled members as well
as new clubs and workers were secured. At the large Delhi meeting,
held as an exception in the opera house, Mrs. Henry White Cannon came
into the ranks, formed a strong organization and continued to be one
of the valued leaders. Mrs. Gertrude Nelson Andrews for two years
conducted classes in public speaking and knowledge of suffrage
principles at the New York headquarters. She also went out into the
State, rousing the women to the need of training themselves and others
to speak for the cause and prepared a valuable book for her students.
In 1911 the State headquarters were moved into a beautiful old mansion
at 180 Madison Avenue, just south of 34th Street in the heart of the
shopping district, where they remained during 1912-13. Through the
generosity of Mrs. Frances Lang, of whom they were leased, a
comparatively low rent was paid. The new quarters were opened with a
brilliant house-warming and in February a big State bazar and fair
were held to raise funds. The preceding year the association
celebrated Miss Anthony's birthday with a bazar in the roof garden of
the Hotel Astor, with articles contributed from all parts of the State
and several thousand dollars were realized. Never was this anniversary
on February 15 allowed to pass without a special observance. In 1913
it was celebrated by a reception at the Hotel Astor with speeches by
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Ida Husted
Harper, Miss Anthony's biographer, and others. A bust of the great
leader was unveiled by the sculptor, Mrs. Adelaide Johnson.
Contributions of $2,500 were made.
In May the State association united with all the suffrage societies of
New York (except the Women's Political Union, Mrs. Harriot Stanton
Blatch, president, which did not wish to take part), in a meeting and
pageant at the Metropolitan Opera House arranged by Mrs. Mansfield.
Former President Theodore Roosevelt and Dr. Shaw made notable
addresses to an enthusiastic audience which crowded the vast
amphitheater and the great prima donna, Madame Nordica, a strong
advocate of woman suffrage, sang magnificently. The pageant was
beautiful and was accompanied by an orchestra composed entirely of
women led by David Mannes. The association cooperated in a number of
big parades during these years, representatives coming from societies
throughout the State and from neighboring States. On the last Saturday
in May, 1910, there was a night procession down Fifth Avenue with Mrs.
James Lees Laidlaw as the efficient chairman of arrangements. One on
the first Saturday in May, 1911, will ever be remembered, all the
thousands of women dressed in white, headed by Mrs. C. O. Mailloux and
Miss Carolyn Fleming carrying the flag of the State association, white
satin with a heavy gold fringe and a golden wreath of laurel in the
center with the name and date of organization. The fund for it was
collected by Mrs. Ivins, the State treasurer, who gave so generously
of her money, time, thought and effort to strengthen the association
through the years of her service. At the head of the great parade the
first Saturday in May, 1912, marched the handsome and stately Mrs.
Herbert Carpenter, carrying the Stars and Stripes. Miss Portia Willis
as grand marshal, robed in white and mounted on a white horse, made a
picture never to be forgotten. These two led several processions. The
pioneers rode in handsomely decorated carriages. In these processions
tens of thousands of women were in line and they marched with many
bands from Washington Square to Central Park, a distance of several
miles. Delegates from Men's Suffrage Leagues walked with them. Half a
million people lined the streets, orderly and respectful.
In 1912 representatives of the association attended the State
conventions of all the parties and extended hearings were granted by
the Resolutions Committees. Their treatment was in great contrast to
that of earlier days when they could scarcely obtain five or ten
minutes before a committee. This year every party declared for woman
suffrage in its platform. It was a gratification to sit in the great
convention hall at Saratoga and hear the Hon. Horace White of
Syracuse, who throughout his long years in the State Senate had
constantly opposed the amendment, report in his capacity as chairman
of the Resolutions Committee that the Republican party favored a
speedy referendum on woman suffrage. Many dramatic features of
propaganda characterized these years, which marked the awakening of
the women of the entire State and brought into the ranks many
wide-awake, independent young women, who wanted to use aggressive and
spectacular methods, and these the older workers did not discourage.
Those that attracted the most attention were the suffrage "hikes," in
which Miss Rosalie Jones, a girl of wealth and position, was the
leading spirit. She sent a picturesque account of these "hikes," which
has had to be condensed for lack of space.
The idea originated with Rosalie Gardiner Jones, who began by
making a tour of Long Island, her summer home, in a little cart
drawn by one horse and decorated with suffrage flags and banners,
stopping at every village and town, giving out literature and
talking to the crowds that gathered. "If you once win the hearts
of the rural people you have them forever. That is why I decided
to organize a pilgrimage from New York City to Albany before the
opening of the legislative session, when it was hoped a woman
suffrage amendment would be submitted to the voters," she said.
Miss Jones recruited a small army of brave and devoted members,
of which she was the "General" and Miss Ida Craft of Brooklyn the
"Colonel" and the three others who walked every step to the end
of the journey were Miss Lavinia Dock--"little Doc Dock"--a
trained nurse, department editor of the _American Journal of
Nursing_ and author of The History of Nursing; Miss Sybil Wilbur
of Boston, biographer of Mary Baker Eddy, and Miss Katharine
Stiles of Brooklyn. They carried a message to Governor William
Sulzer expressing the earnest hope that his administration might
be distinguished by the speedy passage of the woman suffrage
amendment, signed by the presidents of the various New York
suffrage organizations, engraved on parchment and hand illumined
by Miss Jones. The "hike" began Monday morning, Dec. 16, 1912,
from the 242nd street subway station, where about 500 had
gathered, and about 200, including the newspaper correspondents,
started to walk.
From New York City to Albany there was left a trail of propaganda
among the many thousands of people who stopped at the cross roads
and villages to listen to the first word which had ever reached
them concerning woman suffrage, and many joined in and marched
for a few miles. The newspapers far and wide were filled with
pictures and stories. The march continued for thirteen days,
through sun and rain and snow over a distance of 170 miles,
including detours for special propaganda, and five pilgrims
walked into Albany at 4 p. m., December 28. Whistles blew, bells
rang, motor cars clanged their gongs, traffic paused, windows
were thrown up, stores and shops were deserted while Albany gazed
upon them, and large numbers escorted them to the steps of the
Capitol where they lifted their cry "Votes for Women." They were
received at the Executive Mansion on the 31st and "General
Rosalie" gave the message in behalf of the suffragists of New
York State. The newly-elected Governor answered: "All my life I
have believed in the right of women to exercise the franchise
with men as a matter of justice. I will do what I can to advance
their political rights and have already incorporated in my
Message advice to the legislators to pass the suffrage measure."
The "hike" had resulted in such tremendous advertising of woman
suffrage that another on a larger scale to Washington was
planned. "General" Jones and "Colonel" Craft were reinforced by
"little Corporal" Martha Klatschken of New York and a large
group, who were joined by others along the route. The "army" was
mustered in at the Hudson Terminal, New York, at 9 a. m. on
Lincoln's birthday, Feb. 12, 1913, and the start was made a
little later at Newark, N. J. Each marcher wore a picturesque
long brown woolen cape. The little yellow wagon with the good
horse "Meg," driven by Miss Elizabeth Freeman, was joined at
Philadelphia by Miss Marguerite Geist, with a little cart and
donkey, and she helped distribute the suffrage buttons, flags and
leaflets.
Thousands of people were gathered at Newark to see the start of
this "army of the Hudson," which now was known as the "army of
the Potomac," and hundreds marched with them the first day. After
this about a hundred fell in at each town and marched to the next
one. Alphonse Major and Edward Van Wyck were the advance agents
who arranged for the meetings and the stopping places for the
night. They were constantly attended by the press correspondents,
at one time forty-five of them with their cameras, besides the
magazine writers. The Mayors of the places along the route would
send delegations to meet them and escort them to the town hall,
where the speech-making would begin. At Wilmington, Del., the
city council declared a half-holiday; the Mayor and officials met
them at the edge of town and escorted them to the town hall,
which was crowded, and they were obliged also to hold street
meetings for hours. They reached Philadelphia at 7 o'clock Sunday
evening, where the streets had been packed for hours awaiting
them, and it was only by holding street corner meetings on the
way that they could get to the hotel.
The Princeton University students had been roaming around all the
afternoon waiting for them, as there were a number of young
college boys and girls with them, and the speakers held the crowd
of boys for several hours. The next day a delegation of students
walked with them for miles. At all of the other university towns
they were received with the same enthusiasm. At the University of
Pennsylvania they were detained hours for speeches in the
grounds. At Baltimore they were received by Cardinal Gibbons in
his mansion, an extraordinary courtesy, as they were not
Catholics.
The "hikers" reached Hyattsville, four miles from Washington, the
evening of February 27 and spent the night there. The next
morning, escorted by a delegation of suffragists from the city,
they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. The streets had been
thronged for several hours with a cosmopolitan crowd, from the
highest to the lowest. At the headquarters of the Congressional
Committee of the National American Suffrage Association, across
from the Treasury building, "General" Jones was presented with
flowers and disbanded her army. Fourteen had walked the entire
distance from New York--295 miles with some detours--and two had
walked from Philadelphia.[126]
A message to President Taft, similar to the one which had been
sent by the New York officers to Governor Sulzer, had been
entrusted by the board of the National Suffrage Association to
the pilgrims, who expected to march in a body to the White House
to deliver it. Before they reached Washington they were notified
that the board itself would present it to the incoming President
Wilson at a later date. Miss Florence Allen, the well known Ohio
lawyer, who had been marching for several days, returned to New
York, to try to obtain the recall of this decision but was
unsuccessful. Afterwards the board informed "General" Jones that
they would go together to the White House but all had separated,
the psychological moment had passed and the message was never
presented.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The legislature of New York meets annually and
from 1854 to 1917 a woman suffrage measure was presented only to be
rejected, with two exceptions. The first was in 1880, when the
Legislature undertook to give women the right to vote at school
meetings, but the law was ineffective and this great privilege was
confined to women in villages and country districts. The charters of
a number of third class cities granted School suffrage to women and
some of them included the right to vote on special appropriations for
those who paid taxes. This was the situation at the beginning of the
century.[127]
1901. When Theodore Roosevelt was Governor he advised the suffragists
to drop the effort for a constitutional amendment awhile and work for
something the Legislature could grant without a referendum to the
voters. For five years, therefore, they tried to get some form of
partial suffrage that could be obtained without amending the
constitution. The total result was a law in 1901 giving to taxpaying
women in the towns and villages a vote on propositions to raise money
by special tax assessment, which was signed by Governor Benjamin F.
Odell. Miss Susan B. Anthony considered this of little value but it
covered about 1,800 places and when she saw the interest aroused in
the women by even this small concession she came to think that it was
worth while. In 1910 a legislative enactment increased this privilege
to a vote on the issuing of bonds.
During the legislative sessions of 1902-3-4-5 the effort was
concentrated on a bill to give a vote on special taxation to taxpaying
women in all third class cities--those having less than 50,000
inhabitants. Mrs. Mary H. Loines of Brooklyn was chairman of the
committee, as she had been since 1898. The special champions of the
bill were Senators Leslie B. Humphrey, H. S. Ambler, John Raines;
Representatives Otto Kelsey, George H. Smith, Louis C. Bedell, E. W.
Ham. Among the strongest opponents were Senators Edgar Truman
Brackett, George A. Davis, Thomas F. Grady and Nevada M. Stranahan.
Governors Odell and Frank M. Higgins recommended it and Speaker
Frederick S. Nixon urged it. Committee hearings were granted at every
session and among its advocates were Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
national president, Mrs. Crossett and Miss Harriet May Mills, State
president and vice-president; Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, Mrs.
Margaret Chanler Aldrich, Mrs. Mary E. Craigie and Miss Anne Fitzhugh
Miller. Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, president of the Anti-Suffrage
Association, and Mrs. George Phillips, secretary, spoke in opposition.
During these four years neither House voted on the bill and it was
seldom reported by the committees.
In 1906 after consulting with Miss Anthony, the State leaders decided
to return to the original effort for the submission to the voters of
an amendment to the State constitution, which was presented by Senator
Henry W. Hill of Buffalo and Representative E. C. Dowling of Brooklyn.
Mrs. Henry Villard, Mrs. John K. Howe and Mrs. Helen Z. M. Rodgers
were among the suffrage speakers and Mrs. Winslow W. Crannell was
added to the "antis." No committee reports were made. The taxpayers'
bill was also presented in 1906 and 1907 with no results of six years'
work.
Thenceforth the resolution for the constitutional amendment was
introduced every year, in 1908 by Senator Percy Hooker of LeRoy. The
club women had now become interested and the legislators were deluged
with letters and literature. Miss Mary Garrett Hay, Miss Helen Varick
Boswell and Mrs. Harry Hastings headed the large delegation from New
York City for the hearing. Mrs. Crossett informed the Judiciary
Committee that during the past year woman suffrage had been officially
endorsed by the New York City Federation of Labor with 250,000
members; State Grange with 75,000; New York City Federation of Women's
Clubs with 35,000; Woman's Christian Temperance Union with 30,000 and
many other organizations. F. A. Byrne spoke for the City Central Labor
Union. Mrs. Francis M. Scott represented the Anti-Suffrage
Association. Morris Hilquit and Mrs. Meta Stern spoke independently
for the Socialists, making a strong appeal for the amendment. The
Senate took no action and Speaker James W. Wadsworth, Jr., was able to
defeat any consideration by the Lower House. During the following
summer mass meetings were held in every city on the Hudson River
addressed by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, now president of the National
Suffrage Association, and other noted speakers and a vast amount of
work was done in the State.
In the Legislature of 1909 Senator Hill and Representative Frederick
R. Toombs introduced the resolution. At the hearing the Assembly
Chamber was filled to overflowing. Mrs. Villard, chairman of the
Legislative Committee, presided.[128] People stood four hours
listening to the speeches and returned to a suffrage mass meeting at
night. Mrs. William Force Scott and Miss Margaret Doane Gardner spoke
for the "antis." Mrs. Crossett asked of the committee: "Does it mean
nothing to you that 40,000 women in this State are organized to secure
the franchise; that a few years ago 600,000 people signed the petition
for woman suffrage to the constitutional convention; that associations
formed for other purposes representing hundreds of thousands of
members have endorsed it?" Mrs. Graham, president of the State W. C.
T. U.; Mrs. John Winters Brannan and Mrs. Pearce Bailey, representing
the Equal Franchise Society; Miss Mills, speaking for the State
League; Leonora O'Reilly, presenting the resolution of the Women's
Trade Union League of New York for the amendment; Mrs. Dexter F.
Rumsey, speaking for Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, president of the
Western New York Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. Lillie Devereux
Blake, a pioneer suffragist, president of the Legislative League; Mrs.
Florence Kelley, executive secretary of the Consumers' League; Mrs.
George Howard Lewis of Buffalo, a well known philanthropist; Mrs. Maud
Nathan, president of the New York Consumers' League; Mrs. Rodgers and
Mrs. Gabrielle Mulliner, lawyers--all urged the legislators to submit
the question to the voters. Dr. Shaw held the audience spellbound
until 6 o'clock. John Spargo, the well known socialist, spoke
independently with much power, demanding the vote especially for
working women. The use of the Assembly Chamber was granted for an
evening suffrage meeting which attracted a large audience. The
Legislature took no action.[129]
Members of the large legislative committee met weekly during the
session of 1910 at the State headquarters in New York to assist in
promoting the work. All the workers as usual contributed their
services. Mrs. Crossett and Miss Mills remained in Albany. A notable
meeting was held there at Harmanus-Bleecker Hall, with excellent
speakers. The boxes were filled with prominent women, who had invited
many of the State officials as guests; seats were sent to all the
members of the Legislature, most of whom were present, and the house
with a capacity of 2,000 was crowded. Mrs. Clarence Mackay defrayed
most of the expenses. On January 22 Governor Charles E. Hughes granted
a hearing to George Foster Peabody, Oswald Garrison Villard, Mrs. Ella
H. Boole, Mrs. Villard, Mrs. Crossett, Mrs. Frederick R. Hazard and
Miss Anne F. Miller, who urged him to recommend the submission of an
amendment. He seemed much impressed by the statements made but they
had no effect. The hearing on March 9 broke all records. The Assembly
Chamber was filled to the utmost and surging crowds outside tried to
get in. Members of both Houses stood for hours listening to the
speeches. Jesse R. Phillips, chairman of the Assembly Judiciary
Committee, presided. The suffrage speakers were headed by the eminent
lawyer, Samuel Untermeyer. The anti-suffragists had a long list,
including Mrs. Henry M. Stimson, wife of a New York Baptist minister,
and Mrs. William P. Northrup of Buffalo. Both Judiciary Committees
refused to let the resolution come before the two Houses, admitting
that it would be carried if they did.
The most thorough preparation was made for the session of 1911 by all
the suffrage societies. The Assembly committee refused to report and
on May 10 Representative Spielberg, who had charge, moved to request
it to do so. The vote was 38 in favor to 90 against his motion. On
May 15 the Senate Judiciary Committee by 6 to 2 reported in favor but
not until July 12 was the vote taken in the Senate and the measure was
lost by a vote of 14 ayes, 17 noes.
In 1912 a remarkable hearing was held in a crowded Assembly Chamber.
Senator Stillwell, a member of the Judiciary Committee, again
introduced the amendment resolution and its chairman, Senator Bayne,
was a staunch friend but after the committee had reported it favorably
the Senate could not be moved. In the Assembly, on the final day of
the session, for the first time since 1895 and the second time on
record, the resolution was adopted. Just as it was about to be taken
to the Senate for action, Representative Cuvellier of New York blocked
further progress by moving to reconsider the vote and lay the
resolution on the table. This was carried by a vote of 69 to 6 and
doubtless had been prearranged.
By 1913 the sentiment in favor of letting the voters pass on the
question had become too strong to be resisted. Mrs. Katharine Gavit of
Albany, representing the Cooperative Legislative Committee, had charge
of the resolution. On January 6, the opening day, a delegation from
all the suffrage societies sat in the Senate Chamber and heard it
introduced by Senator Wagner, the Democratic floor leader, who said
that, while not personally in favor of it he was willing to sponsor it
because his party had endorsed it in their platform, and it was
favorably reported. In the Assembly it was promptly introduced by A.
J. Levy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The form of the proposed
amendment had been changed from that of all preceding years, which had
intended simply to take the word "male" from the suffrage clause of
the constitution. As alien women could secure citizenship through
marriage and would thus immediately become voters it provided that
they must first live in the country five years. The Senate struck out
this naturalization clause; in the Assembly the Democratic members
wanted it, the Republicans objected to it. On January 20 the Assembly
passed the measure without it. The Senate put back the clause and
passed it January 23 by 40 ayes, two noes--McCue and Frawley of New
York--and returned it to the Assembly, which passed it four days later
by 128 ayes, 5 noes. The resolution had still to pass another
Legislature two years later but this was the beginning of the end for
which two generations of women had worked and waited.
[LAWS. A complete digest of the laws relating to women and children
during the first twenty years of the century was prepared for this
chapter by Miss Kathryn H. Starbuck, attorney and counsellor at law in
Saratoga Springs. It comprises about 3,600 words and includes laws
relating to property, marriage, guardianship, domestic relations, etc.
Much regret is felt that the exigencies of space compel the omission
of the laws in all the State chapters. Miss Starbuck gave also
valuable information on office holding and occupations, which had to
be omitted for the same reason.]
NEW YORK CITY CAMPAIGNS.[130]
The story of the growth of the woman suffrage movement in Greater New
York is one of the most interesting chapters in the history of this
cause, for while it advanced slowly for many years, it rose in 1915
and 1917 to a height never attained elsewhere and culminated in two
campaigns that in number of adherents and comprehensive work were
never equaled.
The Brooklyn Woman Suffrage Association was formed May 13, 1869, and
the New York City Society in 1870. From this time various
organizations came into permanent existence until in 1903 there were
fifteen devoted to suffrage propaganda. In Manhattan (New York City)
and Brooklyn these were bound together by county organizations but in
order to unite all the suffragists in cooperative work the Interurban
Woman Suffrage Council was formed in 1903 at the Brooklyn home of a
pioneer, Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff, with the President of the Kings
County Political Equality League, Mrs. Martha Williams, presiding. The
Interurban began with a roster of five which gradually increased to
twenty affiliated societies, with an associate membership besides of
150 women. Under the able leadership of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
chairman, it established headquarters in the Martha Washington Hotel,
New York City, Feb. 15, 1907, with a secretary, Miss Fannie Chafin,
in charge, and maintained committees on organization, literature,
legislative work, press and lectures; formed clubs, held mass meetings
and systematically distributed literature. The Council was the first
suffrage organization in New York City to interview Assemblymen and
Senators on woman suffrage and it called the first representative
convention held in the big metropolis.
The Woman Suffrage Party of Greater New York was launched by this
Council at Carnegie Hall, October 29, 1909, modelled after that of the
two dominant political parties. Its first convention with 804
delegates and 200 alternates constituted the largest delegate suffrage
body ever assembled in New York State. The new party announced that it
would have a leader for each of the 63 assembly districts of the city
and a captain for each of the 2,127 election districts, these and
their assistant officers to be supervised by a borough chairman and
other officers in each borough, the entire force to be directed by a
city chairman assisted by city officers and a board of directors. Mrs.
Catt, with whom the idea of the Party originated, and her co-workers
believed that by reaching into every election district to influence
its voters, they would bring suffrage close to the people and
eventually influence parties and legislators through public opinion.
The population of Greater New York was 4,700,000 and the new party had
a task of colossal proportions. It had to appeal to native Americans
of all classes and conditions and to thousands of foreign born. It
sent its forces to local political conventions; held mass meetings;
issued thousands of leaflets in many languages; conducted street
meetings, parades, plays, lectures, suffrage schools; gave
entertainments and teas; sent appeals to churches and all kinds of
organizations and to individual leaders; brought pressure on
legislators through their constituents and obtained wide publicity in
newspapers and magazines. It succeeded in all its efforts and
increased its membership from 20,000 in 1910 to over 500,000 in 1917.
In 1915, at the beginning of the great campaign for a suffrage
amendment to the State constitution, which had been submitted by the
Legislature, the State was divided into twelve campaign districts.
Greater New York was made the first and under the leadership of Miss
Mary Garrett Hay, who since 1912 had served as chairman, the City
Woman Suffrage Party plunged into strenuous work, holding conventions,
sending out organizers, raising $50,000 as a campaign fund, setting a
specific task for each month of 1915 up to Election Day, and forming
its own committees with chairmen as follows: Industrial, Miss Leonora
O'Reilly; The Woman Voter, Mrs. Thomas B. Wells; Speakers' Bureau,
Mrs. Mabel Russell; Congressional, Mrs. Lillian Griffin; the French,
Mrs. Anna Ross Weeks; the German, Miss Catherine Dreier; the Press,
Mrs. Oreola Williams Haskell; Ways and Means, Mrs. John B. McCutcheon.
The City Party began the intensive work of the campaign in January,
1915, when a swift pace was set for the succeeding months by having 60
district conventions, 170 canvassing suppers, four mass meetings, 27
canvassing conferences and a convention in Carnegie Hall. It was
decided to canvass all of the 661,164 registered voters and hundreds
of women spent long hours toiling up and down tenement stairs, going
from shop to shop, visiting innumerable factories, calling at hundreds
of city and suburban homes, covering the rural districts, the big
department stores and the immense office buildings with their
thousands of occupants. It was estimated that 60 per cent of the
enrolled voters received these personal appeals. The membership of the
party was increased by 60,535 women secured as members by canvassers.
The following is a brief summing up of the activities of the ten
months' campaign.[131]
Voters canvassed (60 per cent of those enrolled) 396,698
Women canvassed 60,535
Voters circularized 826,796
Party membership increased from 151,688 to 212,223
Watchers and pickets furnished for the polls 3,151
Numbers of leaflets printed and distributed 2,883,264
Money expended from the City treasury $25,579
Number of outdoor meetings 5,225
Number of indoor meetings (district) 660
Number of mass meetings 93
Political meetings addressed by Congressmen,
Assemblymen and Constitutional Convention
delegates 25
Total number of meetings 6,003
Night speaking in theaters 60
Theater Week (Miner's and Keith's) 2
Speeches and suffrage slides in movie theaters 150
Concerts (indoor, 10, outdoor, 3) 13
Suffrage booths in bazaars 6
Number of Headquarters (Borough 4, Districts, 20) 24
Campaign vans (drawn by horses 6, decorated autos 6,
district autos 4), vehicles in constant use 16
Papers served regularly with news (English and foreign) 80
Suffrage editions of papers prepared 2
Special articles on suffrage 150
Sermons preached by request just before election 64
A _Weekly News Bulletin_ (for papers and workers) and the _Woman
Voter_ (a weekly magazine) issued; many unique features like
stories, verses, etc.; hundreds of ministers circularized and
speakers sent to address congregations; the endorsements of all
city officials and of many prominent people and big organizations
secured.
In order to accomplish the work indicated by this table a large number
of expert canvassers, speakers, executives and clerical workers were
required. Mrs. Catt as State Campaign chairman was a great driving
force and an inspiration that never failed, and Miss Hay in directing
the party forces and raising the money showed remarkable ability.
Associated with her were capable officials--Mrs. Margaret Chandler
Aldrich, Mrs. Wells, Mrs. Martha Wentworth Suffren, Mrs. Robert
McGregor, Mrs. Cornelia K. Hood, Mrs. Marie Jenney Howe, Mrs. Joseph
Fitch, Mrs. A. J. Newbury, and the tireless borough chairmen, Mrs.
James Lees Laidlaw, Manhattan; Mrs. H. Edward Dreier, Brooklyn; Mrs.
Henrietta Speke Seeley, Bronx; Mrs. Alfred J. Eno, Queens, and Mrs.
William G. Willcox, Richmond.
The spectacular activities of the campaign caught and held public
attention. Various classes of men were complimented by giving them
"suffrage days." The appeal to the firemen took the form of an
automobile demonstration, open air speaking along the line of march of
their annual parade and a ten dollar gold piece given to one of their
number who made a daring rescue of a yellow-sashed dummy--a suffrage
lady. A circular letter was sent to 800 firemen requesting their help
for all suffragists. "Barbers' Day" produced ten columns of copy in
leading New York dailies. Letters were sent in advance to 400 barbers
informing them that on a certain day the suffragists would call upon
them. The visits were made in autos decorated with barbers' poles and
laden with maps and posters to hang up in the shops and then open air
meetings were held out in front. Street cleaners on the day of the
"White Wings" parade were given souvenirs of tiny brooms and suffrage
leaflets and addressed from automobiles. A whole week was given to the
street car men who numbered 240,000. Suffrage speeches were given at
the car barns and leaflets and a "car barn" poster distributed.
Forty-five banks and trust companies were treated to a "raid" made by
suffrage depositors, who gave out literature and held open meetings
afterward. Brokers were reached through two days in Wall Street where
the suffragists entered in triumphal style, flags flying, bugles
playing. Speeches were made, souvenirs distributed and a luncheon held
in a "suffrage" restaurant. The second day hundreds of colored
balloons were sent up to typify "the suffragists' hopes ascending."
Workers in the subway excavations were visited with Irish banners and
shamrock fliers; Turkish, Armenian, French, German and Italian
restaurants were canvassed as were the laborers on the docks, in
vessels and in public markets.
A conspicuous occasion was the Night of the Interurban Council Fires,
when on high bluffs in the different boroughs huge bonfires were
lighted, fireworks and balloons sent up, while music, speeches and
transparencies emphasized the fact that woman's evolution from the
campfire of the savage into a new era was commemorated. Twenty-eight
parades were a feature of the open air demonstrations. There were
besides numbers of torchlight rallies; street dances on the lower East
Side; Irish, Syrian, Italian and Polish block parties; outdoor
concerts, among them a big one in Madison Square, where a full
orchestra played, opera singers sang and eminent orators spoke; open
air religious services with the moral and religious aspects of
suffrage discussed; a fête held in beautiful Dyckman Glen; flying
squadrons of speakers whirling in autos from the Battery to the Bronx;
an "interstate meet" on the streets where suffragists of
Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York participated. Ninety original
features arranged on a big scale with many minor ones brought great
publicity to the cause and the suffragists ended their campaign
valiantly with sixty speakers talking continuously in Columbus Circle
for twenty-six hours.
On the night of November 2, election day, officers, leaders, workers,
members of the Party and many prominent men and women gathered at City
headquarters in East 34th Street to receive the returns, Mrs. Catt and
Miss Hay at either end of a long table. At first optimism prevailed as
the early returns seemed to indicate victory but as adverse reports
came in by the hundreds all hopes were destroyed. The fighting spirits
of the leaders then rose high. Speeches were made by Dr. Anna Howard
Shaw, Mrs. Catt, Miss Hay, Dr. Katherine Bement Davis, Mrs. Laidlaw
and others, and, though many workers wept openly, the gathering took
on the character of an embattled host ready for the next conflict.
After midnight many of the women joined a group from the State
headquarters and in a public square held an outdoor rally which they
called the beginning of the new campaign.
The vote was as follows:
For Against Lost by
Manhattan Borough 88,886 117,610 28,724
Brooklyn Borough 87,402 121,679 34,277
Bronx Borough 34,307 40,991 6,684
Richmond Borough 6,108 7,469 1,361
Queens Borough 21,395 33,104 11,709
Total opposed, 320,853; in favor, 238,098; adverse majority, 82,755.
Two days after the election the City Party united with the National
Association in a mass meeting at Cooper Union, where speeches were
made and $100,000 pledged for a new campaign fund. The spirit of the
members was shown in the words of a leader who wrote: "We know that we
have gained over half a million voters in the State, that we have many
new workers, have learned valuable lessons and with the knowledge
obtained and undiminished courage we are again in the field of
action." In December and January the usual district and borough
conventions for the election of officers and then the city convention
were held. At the latter the resolution adopted showed a change from
the oldtime pleading: "We demand the re-submission of the woman
suffrage amendment in 1917. We insist that the Judiciary Committee
shall present a favorable report without delay and that the bill shall
come to an early vote." Much legislative work was necessary to obtain
re-submission, for which the City Party worked incessantly until the
amendment was re-submitted by the Legislatures of 1916 and 1917 and
preparations were again made for a great campaign.
* * * * *
The campaign of 1915 had been one of the highways, and of spectacular
display. That of 1917 was of the byways, of quiet, intensive work
reaching every group of citizens. The campaign was launched at a
meeting in Aeolian Hall, March 29, where the addresses of Mrs. Catt
and Miss Hay aroused true campaign fervor, the former saying: "Some
foreign countries have given the franchise to women for their war
work; we ask it that our women may feel they have been recognized as
assets of the nation before it calls on them for war work."
The suffragists offered their services to the Government, even before
it declared war; the State Party to the Governor, the City Party to
the Mayor. The later said in a resolution adopted February 5: "We
place at the disposal of the Mayor of this city for any service he may
require our full organization of over 200,000 women, thoroughly
organized and trained and with headquarters in every borough." The
mass of the members stood solidly behind this offer. A War Service
Committee was appointed with Mrs. F. Louis Slade as its chairman and
it accomplished work that was not exceeded, if indeed equalled, in any
city of the United States. Nine other committees were also appointed.
The leading features of the campaign of 1917 were the war work and the
enrolling of women. In 1916 when Mrs. Catt started a canvass to obtain
a million signatures of women to a petition to answer the argument,
"Women do not want to vote," the City Party took as its share the
securing of 514,555 in Greater New York. This accomplished, the
signatures mounted on big placards were placed on exhibition at Party
headquarters, now in East 38th Street, and a little ceremony was
arranged during which Mayor John Purroy Mitchel and other prominent
men made commendatory speeches. Debarred from outdoor meetings during
the summer of 1916 on account of an epidemic and during the summer of
1917 because of war conditions, the following was nevertheless
accomplished:
Meetings 2,085
Leaflets distributed 5,196,884
Money expended $151,438
Canvassed and enrolled women 514,555
Women secured to watch at polls 5,000
Campaign headquarters maintained 40
Newspapers (English and foreign) served daily 153
Suffrage editions and pages edited 10
Special suffrage articles 200
Other suffrage articles and interviews 400
Posters placed in shop windows 2,000
Maintained Letter Writing Committee to send letters to the press;
issued Weekly News Bulletin; printed suffrage news in papers in
ten languages; circularized all churches and business men in 75
per cent of the 2,060 election districts; conducted hundreds of
watchers' schools; exhibited suffrage movies in hundreds of
clubs, churches and settlements; had series of suppers and
conferences for working-women; held captains' rally at the
Waldorf-Astoria and a patriotic rally at Carnegie Hall; gave a
series of suffrage study courses; raised funds at sacrifice
sales, entertainments, lectures, etc.; sent speakers to hundreds
of Labor Union meetings; held four pre-election mass meetings and
as a wind-up to the campaign staged eight hours of continuous
speaking by 40 men and women at Columbus Circle.
The Party leaders had to meet attacks and misrepresentations from the
Anti-Suffrage Association, whose national and State headquarters were
in New York City. The Party had also to combat the actions of the
"militant" suffragists, whose headquarters were in Washington and
whose picketing of the White House and attacks on President Wilson and
other public men displeased many people who did not discriminate
between the large constructive branch of the suffrage movement and the
small radical branch. The Party leaders had often publicly to
repudiate the "militant" tactics. In the parade of Oct. 28, 1917, the
Party exhibited placards which read: "We are opposed to Picketing the
White House. We stand by the Country and the President."
During the campaign, Miss Hay had associated with her on the executive
board, Mrs. Slade, Mrs. Aldrich, Mrs. George Notman, Miss Annie
Doughty, Mrs. F. Robertson-Jones, Mrs. Wells, Miss Adaline W.
Sterling, Mrs. Herbert Lee Pratt, Mrs. Charles E. Simonson, Dr.
Katherine B. Davis, Miss Eliza McDonald, Mrs. Alice P. Hutchins, Mrs.
Louis Welzmiller. Borough chairmen who assisted were Mrs. John
Humphrey Watkins, Manhattan; Mrs. Dreier, Brooklyn; Mrs. Daniel
Appleton Palmer, Bronx; Mrs. David B. Rodger, Queens; Mrs. Wilcox,
Richmond.
On the evening of November 6, election day, the City Party
headquarters were crowded with people waiting for the returns. Mrs.
Catt, Miss Hay, Mrs. Laidlaw and other leaders were present. Mr.
Laidlaw and Judge Wadhams were "keeping the count." Walter Damrosch
and other prominent men came in. From the beginning the returns were
encouraging and as the evening wore on and victory was assured, the
room rang with cheers and applause and there were many jubilant
speeches.
The election brought a great surprise, for the big city, whose adverse
vote suffragists had always predicted would have to be outbalanced by
upstate districts, won the victory, the latter not helping but
actually pulling down its splendid majority. The final vote in Greater
New York read:
_Majority_
_Yes_ _No_ _in Favor_
New York County 129,412 89,124 40,288
Kings (Brooklyn) 129,601 92,315 37,286
Bronx 52,660 36,346 16,314
Richmond 7,868 5,224 2,644
Queens 34,125 26,794 7,331
------- ------- -------
Total 353,666 249,803 103,863
Upstate districts, 349,463 ayes; 350,973 noes, lost by 1,510.
Majority in the State as a whole, 102,353.
Immediately opponents made the charge that suffrage won in the City
because of the pro-German, pacifist and Socialist vote. An analysis
showed that in many districts where the Germans and Socialists
predominated there was not as great a suffrage majority as in
Republican or Democratic districts; that some of the conservative
residential sections were more favorable than radical districts and
that the soldiers in the field had voted for suffrage in the ratio of
two to one.
Those who were best informed attributed the victory to many causes--to
the support of voters in all the parties; to the help of the labor
unions; to recognition of women's war work; to the example set by
European countries in enfranchising their women; to the endorsement of
prominent men and strong organizations. Most of all, however, it was
due to the originality, the dauntless energy, the thorough
organization methods and the ceaseless campaigning of the suffrage
workers, who in winning the great Empire State not only secured the
vote for New York women but made the big commonwealth an important
asset in the final struggle for the Federal Suffrage Amendment.
THE TWO STATE CAMPAIGNS.[132]
At the 45th convention of the State Woman Suffrage Association held in
Binghamton Oct. 14-17, 1913, Miss Harriet May Mills declined to stand
for re-election to the presidency. The following officers were
elected: President, Mrs. Raymond Brown, New York City; corresponding
secretary, Mrs. Henry W. Cannon, Delhi; recording secretary, Mrs.
Nicolas Shaw Fraser, Geneseo; treasurer, Mrs. Edward M. Childs, New
York City; directors; Miss Mills, Syracuse; Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore,
Yonkers; Mrs. Helen Probst Abbott, Rochester; Mrs. Dexter P. Rumsey,
Buffalo; Mrs. George W. Topliff, Binghamton; Mrs. Luther Mott, Oswego;
Mrs. Chanler Aldrich, Tarrytown.
This convention had before it work of the gravest importance. The
submission of a woman suffrage amendment had passed one Legislature
and it was almost certain that it would pass a second and be voted on
at the fall election of 1915. New York was recognized as an immensely
difficult State to win. It contained great areas of sparsely settled
country and also many large cities. It had a foreign born population
of 2,500,000 in a total of 9,000,000. The political "machines" of both
Republican and Democratic parties were well intrenched and there was
no doubt that the powerful influence of both would be used to the
utmost against a woman suffrage amendment. Party leaders might allow
it to go through the Legislature because confident of their ability to
defeat it at the polls. The vital problem for the suffragists was how
to organize and unite all the friendly forces.
While the State Suffrage Association was the one which was organized
most extensively there were other important societies. For some years
the Women's Political Union, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch president,
had carried on an effective campaign. The Woman Suffrage Party, a
large group, existed principally in New York City, organized by
assembly districts. The Men's League for Woman Suffrage comprised a
considerable number of influential men, now under the presidency of
James Lees Laidlaw. The College Equal Suffrage League, Mrs. Charles L.
Tiffany, president, was an active body of young women. The Equal
Franchise Society, organized originally among the society women of New
York City by Mrs. Clarence Mackay had Mrs. Howard Mansfield as
president and had helped make the movement "fashionable." This was the
case with Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont's Political Equality League.
On April 15, 1913, Miss Mills had invited representatives of these
organizations to a conference at the State headquarters in New York to
consider concerted action at which Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt was urged
to become chairman of a State Campaign Committee composed of their
presidents. Before accepting, Mrs. Catt, in order to learn conditions
in the State, sent out a questionnaire to county presidents and
assembly district leaders asking their opinion as to the prospect of
success. Of the forty-two who answered twelve believed that their
counties might be carried for the amendment if enough work was done;
sixteen thought it doubtful, no matter how much work was done, and
fourteen were certain they could not be carried under any conditions.
Not a single county believed it could organize or finance its own
work. In spite of the discouraging situation, Mrs. Catt on her return
in the autumn from the meeting in Budapest of the International Woman
Suffrage Alliance, of which she was president, accepted the
chairmanship on the condition that $20,000 should be raised for the
work. The Empire State Committee organized November 11 was composed of
Mrs. Raymond Brown, representing the State Association; Miss Mary
Garrett Hay, the Woman Suffrage Party of New York City; Mrs.
Mansfield, the Equal Franchise Society; Mrs. Tiffany, the College
League and Mr. Laidlaw, the Men's League, with the following chairmen:
Miss Rose Young, Press; Mrs. Warner M. Leeds, Finance; Mrs. Norman
deR. Whitehouse, Publicity; Mrs. John W. Alexander, Art; Mrs.
Mansfield, Literature.[133]
For convenience of work the State was divided into twelve campaign
districts, whose chairmen were, 1st, Miss Hay, New York City; 2nd,
Mrs. Brown, Bellport, Long Island; 3rd, Miss Leila Stott, Albany; 4th,
Mrs. Frank Paddock, Malone; 5th, Mrs. L. O. McDaniel, succeeded by
Miss Mills, Syracuse; 6th, Mrs. Helen B. Owens, Ithaca; 7th, Mrs.
Alice C. Clement, Rochester; 8th, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, Buffalo;
9th, Mrs. Carl Osterheld, Yonkers; 10th, Mrs. Gordon Norrie,
Staatsburg; 11th, Miss Evanetta Hare, succeeded by Mrs. George Notman,
Keene Valley; 12th, Miss Lucy C. Watson, Utica. Under all of these
chairmen came the 150 assembly district leaders and under these the
5,524 election district captains. From the first it was realized that
organization was the keynote to success and that to be effective it
must extend into every polling precinct of the State. Mrs. Catt had no
superior in organizing ability. The plan followed the lines of the
political parties and was already in use by the Woman Suffrage Party
of New York City, which she had founded.
In January, 1914, Campaign District Conferences and Schools of Method
were held, followed by a convention and mass meetings in every county.
During the year twenty-eight paid organizers were constantly at work.
Mrs. Catt herself visited fifty of the up-state counties. The annual
State convention October 12-16, was preceded by a state-wide motor car
pilgrimage. On every highway was a procession of cars stopping along
the route for street meetings and converging in Rochester for the
convention. There was little change in officers. Three vice-presidents
were added, Mrs. Alfred E. Lewis of Geneva, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs.
Notman. Mrs. Cannon was succeeded as corresponding secretary by Miss
Marion May of New York. Mrs. Abbott and Mrs. Shuler were added to the
board of directors. A comprehensive program of work for 1914-15, laid
out by Mrs. Catt, gave a definite task for each month and included
raising a $150,000 campaign fund, each district being assigned a
proportion; school for suffrage workers, special suffrage edition of a
newspaper in every county, automobile campaign, work at county fairs
and a house to house canvass to enroll the names of women who wanted
the suffrage. Mrs. Catt's plan also included parades in all the large
cities and schools in every county to train watchers for the polls.
As was expected the resolution for the suffrage amendment was passed
by the Legislature of 1915, the vote to be taken on the day of the
regular election, November 2. Forty paid organizers were kept in the
field and a convention was held again in each county. By autumn each
of the 150 assembly districts was organized and in addition there were
565 clubs and 183 campaign committees. About 2,500 women held official
positions, serving without pay. It was estimated that about 200,000
women worked in some capacity in this campaign. Twelve thousand New
York City public school teachers formed a branch under Katharine
Devereux Blake as chairman. Each paid fifty cents dues and many gave
their summer vacation to work for the amendment.
The Equal Franchise Society, in charge of the literature, printed
7,230,000 leaflets, requiring twenty tons of paper; 657,200 booklets,
one full set sent to every political leader in the State; 592,000
Congressional hearings and individual speeches were mailed to voters;
149,533 posters were put up and 1,000,000 suffrage buttons were used;
200,000 cards of matches with "Vote Yes on the Suffrage Amendment" on
the back were distributed and 35,000 fans carrying the suffrage map.
The value of street speaking had long since been learned. A woman
speaking from an automobile or a soap box or steps, while she might
begin by addressing a few children would usually draw a crowd of men
of the kind who could never be gotten inside a hall, and these men
were voters. The effect of these outdoor meetings was soon seen all
over the State in the rapidly changing sentiment of the man in the
street. During the six months preceding the election 10,325 meetings
were recorded besides the countless ones not reported. Mass meetings
were held in 124 different cities, sixteen in New York, with U. S.
Senators and Representatives and other prominent speakers. The week
before election in New York, Buffalo, Rochester and other large cities
Marathon speeches were made continuously throughout the twenty-four
hours, with listening crowds even during the small hours of the night.
Suffrage speeches were given in moving picture shows and vaudeville
theaters and a suffrage motion picture play was produced. Flying
squadrons of trained workers would go into a city, make a canvass,
hold street meetings, attract public attention and stimulate newspaper
activity.
A remarkable piece of work was done by a Press and Publicity Council
of one hundred women in New York City organized by Mrs. Whitehouse.
They established personal acquaintance with the editors and owners of
the fifteen daily papers; answered the anti-suffrage letters
published; communicated with the editors of 683 trade journals, 21
religious papers, 126 foreign language papers and many others--893 in
all--and offered them exclusive articles; they suggested special
features for magazines and planned suffrage covers; they secured space
for a suffrage calendar in every daily paper. This council placed
suffrage slides in moving picture houses and suffrage posters in the
lobbies of theaters; and had a page advertisement of suffrage in every
theater program. Comedians were asked to make references to suffrage
in their plays and jokes were collected for them and appropriate lines
suggested.
A sub-committee of writers was organized which assembled material for
special suffrage editions of papers, wrote suffrage articles and made
suggestions for stories. The Art Committee illustrated the special
editions and made cartoons. They held an exhibit of suffrage posters
with prizes and raised money through an exhibition and sale of the
work of women painters and sculptors. A new suffrage game was invented
and installed at Coney Island. They supplied the posters for $70,000
worth of advertising space on billboards and street cars which was
contributed by the owners during the final weeks of the campaign. They
organized and managed the suffrage banner parade, the largest which
had yet taken place.
Among the other publicity "stunts" of the council were suffrage
baseball games, a Fourth of July celebration at the Statue of Liberty
and Telephone and Telegraph Day, when the wires carried suffrage
messages to politicians, judges, editors, clergymen, governors,
mayors, etc., all of these "stunts" receiving a large amount of
newspaper publicity. The most effective was the One Day Strike, to
answer the argument used by the "antis" that "woman's place was in the
home" by asking all women to stay at home for only one day. The
suggestion was never intended to be carried out and did not go further
than a letter sent by Mrs. Whitehouse to the presidents of women's
clubs and some other organizations, asking them to come to a meeting
to consider the plan, copies of which were sent to the newspapers. The
effect was extraordinary. Department stores, telephone company
managers, employers of all kinds of women's labor, hospitals and
schools, protested loudly against the crippling of public service, the
loss of profits and the disruption of business which would result from
even one day's absence of women from their public places. Editorial
writers devoted columns to denouncing the proposal. Suffrage leaders
were bitterly criticized for even suggesting such a public calamity.
The favorite argument of the "antis" was answered for all time.
At the very end of the campaign the anti-suffragists began to
advertise extensively in the subway and on the elevated roads in New
York City but the firm that controlled this space refused to accept
any advertising from the suffragists. Woman's wit, however, was equal
to the emergency. For the three days preceding the election one
hundred women gave their time to riding on elevated and subway trains
holding up large placards on which were printed answers to the "anti"
advertisements. The public understood and treated the women with much
courtesy.
It is difficult to give even the barest outline of the work of the
Press Bureau, at first under the management of Mrs. Haryot Holt Dey
and later of Miss Rose Young, with a volunteer force of 214 press
chairmen over the State. There were 2,136 publications in the State,
211 dailies, 1,117 weeklies, 628 monthlies, and 180 foreign
publications printed in twenty-five languages. To the weeklies a
bulletin from the central bureau went regularly; 3,036 shipments were
made of pages of plate matter. The American Press Association and the
Western Newspaper Union for many weeks sent out columns of suffrage
news with their regular service for the patent inside page used by
country papers. The bureau furnished material for debates and answered
attacks against suffrage. The support given by the newspapers was of
great value. Of the fifteen dailies of New York City ten were
pro-suffrage, while the rural press was overwhelmingly in favor. Most
of the papers of the larger cities up-state were opposed, although
there were notable exceptions.
There were several high water marks. On Nov. 6, 1914, just a year
before the election, at a mass meeting which packed Carnegie Hall,
$115,000 were pledged, the largest sum ever raised at a suffrage
meeting, a visible proof of the great increase in favorable sentiment
since the campaign had begun a year ago, when the $20,000 which Mrs.
Catt wanted as the original guarantee seemed almost impossible of
attainment. In May, 1915, a luncheon attended by 1,400 people pledged
$50,000. On October 23, ten days before election, there occurred in
New York City the largest parade ever organized in the United States
for suffrage, called the "banner parade" because of the multitude of
flags and banners which characterized it, only those for suffrage
being permitted. There were 33,783 women who marched up Fifth Avenue,
past a crowd of spectators which was record-breaking, taking from 2
o'clock in the afternoon until long after dark. The rear was brought
up by scores of motor cars gaily decorated with Chinese lanterns and
after darkness fell the avenue was a solid mass of moving colored
lights. There seemed no end to the women who were determined to win
the vote and a multitude of men seemed to be ready to grant it.
On Nov. 2, 1915, the vote took place. Every preparation had been made
and every precaution taken, as far as the strength of the organization
would permit, to secure a fair election and an honest count. A law had
been obtained which permitted women to act as watchers at any election
on woman suffrage, which proved an important safeguard. Wherever
possible, watchers were provided for the polling places all over the
State. The result of the election was: For the suffrage amendment,
553,348; against, 748,332; adverse majority 194,984.
The disappointment was almost crushing. Although the task of
persuading the huge cosmopolitan population of New York State to grant
equality to women had been recognized as being almost superhuman, the
work done had been so colossal that it would have been impossible not
to hope for success. Mrs. Catt had planned and seen carried out a
masterly campaign never before approached anywhere in the history of
suffrage. The devotion and self-sacrifice of thousands of women were
beyond praise but there were not enough of them. If every county and
every town had raised its proportion of the funds and done its share
of the work, the amendment might have been carried, but this first
campaign laid the foundation for the victory that the next one would
bring.
This was the largest vote ever polled for suffrage at any
election--553,348 out of a vote of 1,300,880, being 42-1/2 per cent.
The vote in the State outside of New York City was 427,479 noes,
315,250 ayes, opposing majority, 112,229; in this city 320,853 noes,
238,098 ayes, opposing majority 82,755; total opposed, 194,984. The
amendment received a larger favorable vote than the Republican party
polled at the Presidential election of 1912, which was 455,428. In
1914 this party swept the State and it could have carried the suffrage
amendment in 1915.
SECOND NEW YORK CAMPAIGN.
With 42-1/2 per cent. of the vote cast in November, 1915, in favor of
the woman suffrage amendment the leaders were eager to start a new
campaign at once and take advantage of the momentum already gained.
Two nights after election the campaign was started at a mass meeting
in Cooper Union, New York City, where $100,000 were pledged amid
boundless enthusiasm. The reorganization of the State took place
immediately, at the annual convention held in this city, November
30-December 2, and all the societies that had cooperated in the Empire
State Campaign Committee became consolidated under the name of the
State Woman Suffrage Party, into which the old State association was
merged. The demand was so overwhelming that Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
who had led the two years' fight so magnificently, should continue to
be leader, that she was obliged to accept the chairmanship.
The other officers elected were Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, Mrs.
James Lees Laidlaw, Mrs. Henry W. Cannon, first, second and third
vice-chairmen; Mrs. Michael M. Van Beuren and Miss Alice Morgan
Wright, secretaries; Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, treasurer; Mrs. Raymond
Brown, Mrs. Dexter P. Rumsey, Miss Harriet May Mills and Mrs. Arthur
L. Livermore, directors. A few weeks later the convention of the
National Association called Mrs. Catt even more insistently to accept
its presidency and Mrs. Whitehouse became chairman and therefore the
leader of the new campaign. Mrs. Catt headed the list of directors;
Mrs. Laidlaw was made chairman of legislative work and Mrs. Brown of
organization.
The next State convention was held in Albany, Nov. 16-23, 1916, and
the same officers were elected except that Mrs. Charles Noel Edge
succeeded Mrs. Van Beuren as secretary. The chairmen of the twelve
campaign districts were continued with the following changes: Second,
Mrs. Frederick Edey, Bellport; fourth, Mrs. Robert D. Ford, Canton;
fifth, Mrs. William F. Canough, Syracuse; sixth, Miss Lillian Huffcut,
Binghamton; eighth, Mrs. Frank J. Tone, Niagara Falls; ninth, Mrs.
Frank A. Vanderlip, Scarborough.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The determination to enter immediately into
another campaign met with much opposition, even from many suffragists.
The Legislature had submitted the amendment in 1915 confident that it
would be overwhelmingly defeated but the ability and persistence of
the women and the big vote secured made the opponents afraid to take
another chance. That it was finally forced through both Houses was
due, first, to the brilliant legislative work of Mrs. Whitehouse and
Mrs. Laidlaw, assisted by Mrs. Helen Leavitt, chairman of legislative
work for the Albany district; second, to the extraordinary support
given by the organizations throughout the State, through delegations,
mass meetings, letters and telegrams, 6,000 from the 9th district
alone. The Men's League gave invaluable help.
The resolution was introduced in both branches on Jan. 10, 1916. The
fight centered in the Senate and had as determined opponents Senator
Elon F. Brown, floor leader of the Republicans, and Senator Walters,
Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The Democratic
minority gave it a lukewarm support. Every subterfuge was directed
against it. Finally it was reported out of the Assembly Judiciary
Committee February 15 by a vote of 11 to one and then there was a
standstill. The Senate Judiciary Committee constantly postponed
action. At last 500 women came to the Capitol on March 14 to urge
immediate action and the resolution was adopted in the Assembly that
day by 109 ayes to 30 noes.
The Senate Committee had promised that it would report that same day,
and at 2 p. m. it went into executive session and the suffrage leaders
camped outside the door. That evening a suffrage ball was to take
place in Madison Square Garden, New York City, which they were to
open, and the last train that would reach there in time left Albany at
6 o'clock. The Committee knew this but hour after hour went by without
word from it. After time for the train a friendly Senator appeared and
announced that it had adjourned sometime before without taking action
and had gone out the back way in order to escape from the waiting
watchers! Taking the next train and arriving in New York at 10 o'clock
at night the suffragists drove direct to Madison Square Garden. As
they approached it they saw great throngs outside storming the doors,
which had been closed by the police as it was dangerously crowded.
They succeeded in getting in and were greeted by cheers as they led
the grand march, which had been awaiting their arrival. At midnight
Mrs. Whitehouse and Mrs. Laidlaw took the sleeper back to Albany and
were on hand at the opening of the session the next morning. Such
undaunted spirit caught the public imagination and the newspapers did
it full justice, with big headlines and columns of copy, but still the
bill did not pass.
The final pressure which put the amendment through was a clever bit of
strategy due to Mrs. Whitehouse. In answer to her appeal editorials
appeared in newspapers throughout the State saying that no group of
men in Albany had the right to strangle the amendment or refuse the
voters the privilege of passing on it. On March 22 the Senate
Committee reported the resolution by 11 ayes, one no. On April 10 it
passed the Senate by 33 ayes, 10 noes.
In 1917 the amendment was passed again to go to the voters at the
regular election November 6. The State Woman Suffrage Party
strengthened its organization with the goal of a captain for every
polling precinct, each with a committee of ten women to look after
the individual voters. Larger cities had a chairman and board of
officers combined with the assembly and election district
organization. In Buffalo, Mrs. Thew Wright headed a capable board; in
Rochester one was led by Mrs. Alice Clement, later by Mrs. Henry G.
Danforth; in Syracuse by Mrs. Mary Hyde Andrews; in Utica by Miss Lucy
C. Watson. By the end of the campaign, in addition to volunteers, 88
trained organizers were at work in the 57 counties outside of Greater
New York. The National Suffrage Association contributed four of its
best workers and paid their salaries. Connecticut, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and some of the southern
and western States sent valuable workers.
Early in 1917 the entire organization was well developed and suffrage
work was at its height when it was suddenly stopped short by the
entrance of the United States into the World War. At once everything
else became of secondary importance. The Suffrage Party, like all
organizations of women, was eager to serve the country and seized the
first opportunity, which came with the order from Governor Charles S.
Whitman for a military census of all the men and women of the State
over 21 years of age. Entire responsibility for organizing and
carrying on this work in several counties was given to the party. From
April to August the suffrage campaign was almost entirely suspended
while its leaders took a prominent part in war activities. It was only
about three months before election that the suffrage issue again
became dominant. The amendment must come before the voters at the
November election. With the United States engaged in a World War for
democracy it seemed impossible to allow democracy to be defeated at
home, and therefore it was decided that the suffrage campaign must be
carried on.
In spite of some opposition Mrs. Whitehouse called a State conference
at Saratoga the end of August. Besides the distraction caused by the
war other difficulties had arisen. The White House at Washington had
been "picketed" by the National Woman's Party and the President burned
in effigy as a protest because the Federal Suffrage Amendment had not
been submitted by Congress. The press was filled with the story and
the public was indignant. Because the country was at war and the
President burdened with heavy responsibilities, reproaches of
disloyalty and pro-Germanism were hurled at suffragists in general.
The officers of the National Association had repeatedly condemned the
"militancy" and repudiated all responsibility for it but to the public
generally all suffragists looked alike and people did not at first
recognize the difference between the small group of "pickets" and the
great suffrage organization of almost countless numbers. New York
workers were very resentful because a direct appeal to suspend the
"picketing" until after the election was refused by the leaders of the
Woman's Party. The Saratoga conference adopted a resolution of
disapproval.
At a mass meeting in New York soon afterwards Governor Whitman, Mayor
Mitchel and other prominent men spoke most encouragingly, but on
September 10 a suffrage amendment was defeated in Maine by a vote of
two to one and this had a disastrous effect on the New York situation.
It discouraged the workers and many newspapers which had been
friendly, anticipating a similar defeat in New York, became hostile in
tone; also because of the pressure of war news, the papers were almost
closed to suffrage matter. Mass meetings which formerly were crowded
were now so poorly attended that many had to be abandoned.
In order to help the chances of the amendment President Wilson on
October 25 received a delegation of one hundred of the most prominent
women of the Party, headed by Mrs. Whitehouse. He expressed his
appreciation of the war work of women and his thorough belief that
they should have the suffrage, praising the New York campaign and
saying: "I am very glad to add my voice to those which are urging the
people of your State to set a great example by voting for woman
suffrage. It would be a pleasure if I might utter that advice in their
presence, but, as I am bound too close to my duties here to make that
possible, I am glad to ask you to convey that message to them...."
This address was published far and wide and had a marked effect on the
voters. Later the President wrote Mrs. Catt that he hoped no voter in
New York would be influenced by anything the so-called "pickets" had
done in Washington. The suffrage meetings were soon again crowded. On
October 27 the final parade took place in New York City. The
signatures of 1,014,000 women citizens of the State, of voting age,
asking for suffrage had been obtained. Those from up-State were pasted
on huge cardboards and carried in the parade by delegations from the
various counties. Those from the city were placed in 62 huge ballot
boxes, one for each assembly district, with the number of them on the
outside, and carried by the "captains" of the districts and their
helpers.
The largest registration of men voters in the State was 1,942,000;
there were nearly 100,000 more men than women of voting age and many
more men than women were naturalized, therefore it was evident that
1,014,000 signatures represented a good majority of women eligible to
vote. This enormous piece of work was done almost entirely by
volunteers. For many months women in every county went from door to
door, preaching suffrage, asking wives to talk to their husbands about
it and leaving literature. The effect of this personal education was
undoubtedly great and the petition influenced public opinion.
The propaganda carried on by the Educational section under Mrs. Howard
Mansfield was enormous, including training schools, travelling
libraries and 8,000 sets of correspondence courses sent out. Women
were trained in watchers' schools for work at the polls and 15,000
leaflets of instructions were furnished. Over 11,000,000 pieces of
literature, 7 million posters and nearly 200,000 suffrage novelties
were used, in addition to the 5,000,000 pieces used in New York City.
The Industrial Section, under Miss Mary E. Dreier, president of the
Women's Trade Union League, made effective appeals to organized labor.
A series of letters setting forth the conditions under which women
work and their relation to the vote were distributed at factory doors
as men left for home during the last fifteen weeks of the campaign.
Organizers and speakers from their own ranks, men and women, spoke at
trade union meetings, in factories and on the street. The State
Federation of Labor endorsed the work and the Women's Trade Union
League gave constant help. The Church Section, under Miss Adella
Potter, was very successful in its appeal with specially prepared
literature and the churches were an active force.
Every registered voter was circularized at least once and many twice.
Special letters and literature were prepared for picked groups of men,
198,538 letters in all, and speakers were sent to the military camps
where this was permitted. The Speakers' Bureau, conducted by Mrs.
Victor Morawetz, had 150 speakers on its lists and a record of 2,015
speakers placed in the State. Besides these more than 7,000 meetings
were arranged independently. In New York City 58 speakers held 2,085
meetings, a total of 11,100. Senators and Representatives from the
equal suffrage States were to speak in the closing days of the
campaign but the war held Congress constantly in session and most of
the other prominent men who had promised to speak were prevented by
service for the Government.
The Publicity Section, under Mrs. John Blair, advertised the amendment
in every way that human ingenuity could devise. Huge street banners
exhorting men to vote for suffrage hung across the most crowded
streets in New York and in all the large cities. Every kind of
advertising medium was used, billboards, street cars, subway and
elevated cars and stations, railroad cars and stations; large electric
signs and painted illuminated signs flashed weeks before election, the
slogan most often used being, "1,014,000 Women ask you to Vote for
Woman Suffrage November 6."
For the last two weeks a great campaign of newspaper advertising was
carried on. There appeared almost daily in 728 morning and evening
papers, including many in foreign languages, pages of suffrage
argument, and as a result the news columns began to be filled again
with suffrage. The Press Bureau, Miss Rose Young, director, assisted
by local press chairmen, continued as in the first campaign but with
an increased output, news bulletins, editorial matter, special
articles, material for special editions, photographs, newspaper cuts,
statements from one hundred leading New York City and State men
headed, Why I am for Woman Suffrage, etc. About 20,000 columns of free
plate material were provided for the newspapers.
It would be impossible to give the total cost of the campaign with
accuracy. As far as possible each district supported its own work. The
central State treasury spent $413,353; New York City, $151,504; the
counties outside of the city $127,296; a total of $692,153, besides
the large amount spent locally. The raising of the central State funds
was the work of the treasurer, Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, assisted by Mrs.
Whitehouse. A budget was prepared to which a group of prominent men,
including several bankers, gave their endorsement, and, armed with
their letter and helped by them in making appointments, Mrs. Reid and
Mrs. Whitehouse called on one man and woman after another of a
carefully selected list, solicited contributions, and many large
amounts were given by persons who had not before been brought in touch
with suffrage work. New York City led with $183,387; Yonkers came next
with $41,748 and Buffalo with $30,163.
The supreme test of the organization came on election day. It was
hoped to cover every polling space with women watchers and probably
about 80 per cent. of the total number of election districts of the
State were so covered. A total of 6,330 women served, many being on
duty from 5 a. m. till midnight.
On election night all over the State suffrage headquarters were open
and victory seemed in the air. Bulletin boards in New York City showed
the amendment winning in every borough and wires from up-State gave
encouraging reports. The State headquarters, an entire floor of the
large office building at 303 Fifth Avenue, New York, and the city
headquarters were thronged with happy crowds. Before midnight it
seemed certain that the four years of continuous campaign had resulted
in final victory for New York State, the stronghold of opposition, the
key to a Federal Suffrage Amendment because of its large
representation and power in Congress. When the complete returns came
in it was found that suffrage had lost up-State by 1,510 votes and
that it was New York City which carried the amendment by its majority
of 103,863, which reduced by 1,510 left a total majority of 102,353.
There were some evidences of fraud but the change of sentiment in
favor of suffrage was State-wide, and every county showed a gain. The
cities gave a better vote than the rural communities. The greatest
overturn was in Buffalo which changed an adverse majority of 10,822 in
1915 to a favorable one of 4,560 in 1917! The saloons of this city
displayed placards, "Vote No on Woman Suffrage," some putting them on
the outside of the building. Albany, in spite of the fight against the
amendment made by the Barnes "machine," although lost, registered a
gain of nearly fifty per cent. Rochester, which was lost, was
dominated by George W. Aldrich, the Republican leader, and Monroe and
adjoining counties were also influenced by their newspapers, which
nearly all were anti-suffrage. In Livingston county, the home of
Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., and his wife, who was president of
the National Anti-Suffrage Association, his influence was so strong
and his financial hold on the county so powerful that even men who
were in sympathy with woman suffrage were afraid to vote for it. This
influence materially reduced the favorable vote in adjoining counties.
There were several bitter local "wet" and "dry" fights that were very
bad for the suffrage vote.
The Republican Governor, Charles S. Whitman, spoke for the amendment.
Herbert Parsons, the Republican National Committeeman for New York,
and many individual Republicans gave valuable help but the "machine"
all over the State did everything possible to defeat the amendment. A
week before election, when their object was clearly apparent, the
chairman of the Republican State Committee was requested by the women
to write an official letter to its members reminding them of the
endorsement given by the Republican party at its State convention. He
refused to write it except as an individual and not as State chairman.
In Rochester an anti-suffrage poster was kept on display in Republican
headquarters. Among prominent members of the party who used their
influence in opposition were Elihu Root, Henry L. Stimson and George
Wickersham.
The two great figures of the suffrage movement, Mrs. Catt and Dr.
Shaw, gave royally to the campaign. Even after Mrs. Catt became
president of the National Association, she remained on the State Board
of Directors and was a constant help and inspiration. Dr. Shaw
contributed many weeks of speech making to the first campaign and
almost as many to the second, although her time in 1917 was much
occupied as chairman of the Woman's Division of the National Council
of Defense. It would be impossible to give the names of the thousands
of women who rendered devoted service during these campaigns and it
would be equally impossible to mention the names of the men who
helped. Behind many a woman who worked there was a man aiding and
sustaining her with money and personal sacrifice. "Suffrage husbands"
became a title of distinction.
Mrs. Whitehouse said in reviewing the causes of the failure of the
first campaign, "We worked like amateurs." Such a charge could not be
brought in the second, for the suffragists became an army of seasoned
veterans, quick to understand and to obey orders, giving suffrage
precedence over everything else except patriotic work. The amendment
as adopted gave complete suffrage to women on the same terms as
exercised by men and provided that "a citizen by marriage shall have
been an inhabitant of the United States for five years." This simply
required the same term of residence for wives as for unmarried women
and all men.
* * * * *
From 1910 to 1917 the Men's League for Woman Suffrage was an
influential factor in the movement in New York. It was believed to be
the first of the kind and the idea was said to have originated with
Max Eastman, a young professor in Columbia University, but in a sketch
of the league by him in _The Trend_ in 1913 he said that in 1909, when
he went to consult Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of the New York
_Evening Post_, he found that Mr. Villard had received a letter from
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association, asking him to organize such a league; that he
had conferred with Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and they had "agreed to share
the ignominy" if some one would undertake the organizing. This was
done by Mr. Eastman, who, armed with letters of introduction by Mr.
Villard, succeeded in getting the names of twelve men of civic
influence. Using these names he sent out several thousand letters to
such men over the State and finally obtained twenty-five members. In
November, 1910, the first meeting was held at the New York City Club
and officers were elected. By good fortune George Foster Peabody was
one of the earliest members, a Georgian by birth and one of New
York's prominent bankers and financiers. He consented to serve as
president and with this prestige many members were secured. "The
league owed its pecuniary life to him," said Mr. Eastman, "and a great
part of its early standing before the public."
After the first year the league was equally fortunate in having James
Lees Laidlaw, another New York banker and man of affairs, take the
presidency. He retained it for the next six years, and when the
National Men's League was formed he consented to serve also as its
president until the contest for woman suffrage was finished, giving
active and constant assistance. Mr. Eastman was secretary of the New
York League for a year or more, assisted by Ward Melville, and was
succeeded by Robert Cameron Beadle, general manager of the U. S.
Stoker Corporation. He gave valuable and continuous service to the
league until just before the campaign of 1917, when the pressure of
business required his time and he became vice-president and George
Creel ably filled the office of secretary during that strenuous
period.
In 1910 the league took part in the first big suffrage parade and no
act of men during the whole history of woman suffrage required more
courage than that of the 87 who marched up Fifth Avenue on that
occasion, jeered by the crowds that lined the sidewalks. It was a body
of representative citizens, led by Mr. Peabody, Mr. Laidlaw and Mr.
Villard. The league became a large organization, enrolling among its
members such men as Governor Charles S. Whitman, Mayor John Purroy
Mitchel, Frank A. Vanderlip, Colonel George Harvey, William M. Ivins,
Dr. Simon Flexner, Professor John Dewey, Hamilton Holt, William Dean
Howells, John Mitchell, Charles Sprague Smith, Samuel Untermeyer,
Herbert Parsons, President Schurman of Cornell University, President
McCracken of Vassar College and many Judges, public officials and
others of note. In the suffrage parade of 1912 the league four abreast
extended five blocks along Fifth Avenue. Under its auspices mass
meetings were held, district rallies, public dinners with 600 guests,
balls and theatrical performances, and campaign activities of various
kinds were carried on. Men's leagues were formed in many States. The
_Woman Voter_ of October, 1912, published in New York City, issued a
special league number, with sketches, pictures, etc.
The Women's Political Union, which under the name of the Equality
League of Self-Supporting Women was formed in New York City in the
autumn of 1906 by Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, was an active force for
many years. Its object was to bring to suffrage the strength of women
engaged in wage-earning occupations and under its aegis trade-union
women first pleaded their cause before a legislative committee on Feb.
6, 1907. That spring the league held two suffrage mass meetings, the
first for many years in Cooper Union, and the following year Carnegie
Hall was for the first time invaded by woman suffrage with a meeting
in honor of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the English
"militant" suffragists.
The league sent over 300 women to Albany by special train on Feb. 19,
1908, to a hearing on a woman suffrage amendment. The same year it
started open air meetings throughout the State. On election day in
1909 the Union distributed literature at the polls and five members
tested the right of women to act as watchers. It made the innovation
of interviewing candidates and pledging them to vote, if elected, for
the submission of a suffrage amendment to the electors.
In 1910 the Union organized in New York the first suffrage foot parade
of 400 women, and other larger ones afterwards. In September it began
a vigorous campaign against Artemus Ward, Republican candidate for
re-election to the Assembly in a banner Republican district in New
York City, because of his hostility to the suffrage amendment.
Pedestrians could not go a block in the district without hearing a
soap box orator trying to defeat him. The night before election
eighty-six out-door meetings were held. Although it could not defeat
him his former majority of 2,276 was reduced to 190. In 1911 it
engineered campaigns against Cuvillier in Manhattan and Carrew in
Brooklyn for the same reason, distributing over 100,000 pieces of
literature in opposing the latter, who had an adverse majority of over
2,000.
In 1911 the Union took 400 women to Albany and in 1912 the largest
suffrage delegation which had ever gone there. They practically
compelled consideration of the suffrage resolution and after its
defeat campaigned against the enemies, ending the political careers
of some of them. Before election day the files of the Union contained
signed pledges from every candidate for the Legislature in 45 of the
51 Senate districts and in 85 of the 150 Assembly districts. On Jan.
23, 1913, the Senate voted 40 to 2 for the amendment and on the 27th
the Assembly concurred with but five adverse votes. On May 3, the
Union organized a parade of victory in New York City.
During the great campaign of 1915 the Union was constantly evolving
new features to draw attention to the amendment. It closed its
activities with a luncheon of a thousand covers at the Hotel Astor
just before election day in honor of the 100th anniversary of the
birth of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. After the defeat it amalgamated with
the Congressional Union, abandoned State work and centered its efforts
on an amendment to the Federal Constitution. Throughout its existence
Mrs. Blatch was president, Elizabeth Ellsworth Cook, vice-president,
Marcia Townsend, treasurer, Eunice Dana Brannan, chairman of finance,
Nora Stanton Blatch, editor of the _Women's Political World_, the
organ of the society; Caroline Lexow, field secretary and Alberta Hill
and Florence Maule Cooley, executive secretaries. [Information
furnished by Mrs. Blatch.]
* * * * *
An important feature of the campaign in New York City and in other
parts of the State was the work of the St. Catherine Welfare
Association of Catholic women, organized by Miss Sara McPike,
executive secretary of the advertising department of a large
corporation, and Miss Winifred Sullivan, a lawyer. Its object was
better social and economic conditions for women and children and the
extension of the suffrage to women as a means to this end. Its leaders
and prominent members worked with the State and city suffrage
associations also but through their own they could carry the message
into the different sodalities and fraternal organizations of the
church and to its summer schools and conventions. Bishops and priests
were interviewed and a number of the latter were persuaded to speak at
the meetings held in twenty-six prominent parish school halls in New
York City. Ten meetings were held in Brooklyn and others in
surrounding towns.
Leaflets of opinions favorable to woman suffrage by the Catholic
clergy were prepared and widely circulated among priests, educators
and laymen. Space was secured in the Catholic press. Letters without
number were written. A delegation was received by Cardinal Gibbons in
Baltimore to explain the desire of its members for the vote. Many of
the clergy looked with favor on their work, which encouraged Catholic
women to take part in it, and 500 marched under the banner of the
association in the last suffrage parade in New York in October, 1917.
Miss McPike devoted every hour of her time outside of business hours
and gave $800 to the work of the association. Mrs. Mary C. Brown was a
generous contributor. Among the countless members who helped
unceasingly by writing, speaking and in many other ways were Elizabeth
Jordan, Janet Richards, Mrs. William A. Prendergast, Countess Mackin,
Mrs. Schuyler Warren, Sara H. Fahey, Mrs. William H. Yorke, Anne Sands
O'Shea, Catharine G. Hogan, Helen Haines, Aimee Hutchinson, Mary C.
Larkin, May H. Morey, Frances Gallogly, Annie Nolan, Rose and Fanny
Flannelly. The activities of the association were extended into
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other States.
* * * * *
The success of the suffrage amendment did not mean the disbanding of
the organization. At the 49th State convention, held in New York City,
Nov. 20-22, 1917, Mrs. Whitehouse was re-elected chairman, Mrs.
Laidlaw vice-chairman, and most of the old officers were retained. It
was decided to make the Federal Suffrage Amendment the chief object
and in order to work more effectively the State was organized by
Congressional districts, with the Assembly district organization
retained. Early in 1918 Mrs. Whitehouse, because of her remarkable
work in the suffrage campaign, was selected by the Government's
Committee on Public Information to go to Switzerland. Mrs. Laidlaw was
elected chairman at the convention and the name of the State Woman
Suffrage Party was changed to the State League of Women Voters. Even
before the war was ended an enormous work was begun throughout the
State, under Mrs. Laidlaw, toward the political training of the more
than a million women who had been enfranchised. This was continued
under Mrs. Frank A. Vanderlip, who was elected chairman of the State
League of Women Voters, officially formed April 8, 1919.
The Federal Suffrage Amendment was submitted by Congress June 4, 1919.
Senator William M. Calder voted in favor, Senator Wadsworth continuing
his opposition to the end. Of the Representatives, 35 voted in favor;
five were absent; three, Riordan of New York, Dunn of Rochester and
Sanders of Stafford, voted no.
RATIFICATION. The ratification of this amendment by the State
Legislatures became the pressing question and as most of them had
adjourned for two years it would be necessary to have this done by
special sessions if women were to vote in the November election of
1920. That of New York would meet in January, 1920, so there was no
need of haste, but Mrs. Catt at once took up the matter with Governor
Alfred E. Smith, pointing out the excellent effect on other States if
New York should have a special session for this purpose. Without
hesitation he issued the call on June 10, with a strong appeal for
ratification. The Legislature met on June 16 and immediately the
Assembly ratified by unanimous vote of 137. The resolution went at
once to the Senate, where Henry M. Sage made a speech against it and
asked to be excused from voting. It was then passed by unanimous vote,
the Legislature being in session less than a day.
FOOTNOTES:
[122] The History is indebted for this part of the chapter to Mrs.
Ella Hawley Crossett, president of the State Woman Suffrage
Association, 1902-1910.
[123] Mary Anthony left to Mrs. Crossett, Miss Mills and Isabel
Howland $1,000 to be used for State work as they thought best. The
interest for three years was given as prize money for the best essays
in the colleges of the State. When the headquarters were opened in New
York City some of the money helped to furnish them and the rest was
put in the State work the following year.
[124] The History is indebted for this part of the chapter to Miss
Harriet May Mills, vice-president of the State Woman Suffrage
Association, 1902-1910; president, 1910-1913.
[125] In 1911 Mrs. Livermore was succeeded by Mrs. William L. Colt,
who later resigned on account of illness and Mrs. Marie Jenney Howe
was unanimously elected. After the death of Mrs. Osborne, Mrs. Rumsey
of Buffalo was appointed second auditor. Mrs. Katharine Gavit of
Albany succeeded Mrs. Burrows and served to 1913. Mrs. Ivins resigned
in the winter of 1913 and Mrs. Maud Ingersoll Probasco of New York was
chosen for the remainder of the year.
[126] From New York: Misses Jones, Craft, Klatschken, Constance Leupp,
Phoebe Hawn, Minerva Crowell, Amalie Doetsch, Elizabeth Aldrich, Mrs.
George Wend and her son, Milton Wend, Mrs. George Boldt, Master Norman
Spreer, Ernest Stevens and A. C. Lemmon. From Philadelphia: Miss
Virginia Patache and Mrs. George Williams.
[127] Mrs. Ella Hawley Crossett, president of the State Suffrage
Association, sent a complete résumé of the legislative action from
1900 to 1913, comprising many thousand words, but the exigencies of
space compelled condensation to the bare details.
[128] The Legislative Committee was composed of Mrs. George Howard
Lewis, Miss Miller, Mrs. L. Cuyler, Mrs. Villard, Mrs. Harry S.
Hastings, Mrs. Craigie, Mrs. Rodgers, Miss Jenney. A Cooperating
Committee representing the entire State was of great assistance. Among
its members were Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Blatch, Mrs. Graham and Mrs. Shuler,
each president of a large organization of women; the Rev. Josiah
Strong, president American Institute of Social Science; Oswald
Garrison Villard, proprietor of the New York Evening Post; Dr.
Stewardson, president Hobart College; Professor Schmidt, of Cornell
University; Colonel A. S. Bacon, treasurer of the American Sabbath
Union; Edwin Markham, William G. Van Plank, Dr. John D. Peters, D.D.;
Florence Kelley, Elizabeth Burrill Curtis, Caroline Lexow, president
College Women's League; Mrs. Osborne and others.
[129] Among those added to the Cooperating Suffrage Committee during
this and the preceding year were Mrs. Belmont, president of the
Political Equality Suffrage Association; Mrs. Mackay, president of the
Equal Franchise Society; Jessie Ashley, president of the College Equal
Suffrage League; Mary E. Dreier, president of the Women's Trade Union
League; Anna Mercy, president of the East Side Equal Rights League;
Ella A. Boole, president State W. C. T. U.; George Foster Peabody,
president, and Max Eastman, secretary of the Men's League for Woman
Suffrage; Ida Husted Harper, chairman National Press Bureau; Mrs.
William C. Story, president State Federation of Women's Clubs; Lucy P.
Allen, president of the Washington county and Lucy P. Watson,
president of the Utica Political Equality Clubs; Mrs. William C.
Gannett, president of the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Association; Alice
Lewisohn, noted for her social work in New York, Dr. Charles F. Aked,
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and William M. Ivins.
[130] The History is indebted for this part of the chapter to Mrs.
Oreola Williams Haskell, former president of the Kings County
Political Equality League; head of the Press Bureau of the New York
City Woman Suffrage Party through the two campaigns, 1915-1917, and of
the League of Women Voters from its beginning until the present time.
[131] Extended space is given to the two New York campaigns because
they were the largest ever made and were used as a model by a number
of States in later years.--ED.
[132] The History is indebted for this part of the chapter to Mrs.
Raymond Brown, president of the State Woman Suffrage Association.
[133] Before the committee was fully organized Mrs. Blatch and the
Women's Political Union withdrew to carry on its work independently
and Mrs. Belmont with her Political Equality League also ceased
cooperation.