The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 87

Nevertheless this was an advanced step which attracted the attention of the entire country. While in Wyoming women had Full Suffrage, it was a spa.r.s.ely settled Territory, with few newspapers and far removed from centers of political activity. Kansas was a battle-ground for politics, and great interest was felt in the new forces which had been called into action. From the first women very extensively took advantage of their new privilege. It was granted February 15 and the next munic.i.p.al election took place April 5, so there were only a few weeks in which to accustom them to the new idea, make them acquainted with the issues, settle the disputed points and give them a chance to register. The question was at once raised whether they could vote for justices of the peace and constables, and at a late hour Attorney-General S. B. Bradford gave his opinion that they could not do so, as these are towns.h.i.+p officers. This made separate ballot-boxes necessary and in many places these were not provided, so there was considerable misunderstanding and confusion. On election day a wind storm of unusual violence, even for that section of the country, raged all day. Through the influence of the Liquor Dealers' a.s.sociation, which had used every possible effort to defeat the suffrage bill, reporters were sent by a number of large papers in different cities, especially St. Louis, with orders to ridicule the voting of the women and minimize its effects. As a result the Eastern press was soon flooded with sensational and false reports.

An official and carefully prepared report of 112 pages was issued by Judge Francis G. Adams, secretary of the Kansas State Historical a.s.sociation, and Prof. William H. Carruth of the State University, giving the official returns from 253 cities. The total vote was 105,216; vote of men, 76,629; of women, 28,587. In a few of the very small cities there were no women's votes. In many of the second-cla.s.s cities more than one-half as many women as men voted. In Leavenworth, 3,967 ballots were cast by men, and 2,467 by women; in Lawrence, 1,437 by men, 1,050 by women. In Kansas City, Topeka and Fort Scott about one-fourth as many women as men voted. In these estimates it must be taken into consideration that there were many more men than women in the State. In 1890, three years later, the census report showed the excess of males to be about 100,000.

The pamphlet referred to contained 100 pages of extracts from the press of Kansas on the voting of women, and stated that these represented but a fraction of the comment. They varied as much as the individual opinions of men, some welcoming the new voters, some ridiculing and abusing, others referring to the movement as a foolish fad which would soon be dropped. The Republican and Prohibitionist papers almost universally paid the highest tribute to the influence of women on the election and a.s.sured them of every possible support in the future. The Democratic papers, with but few exceptions, scoffed at them and condemned woman suffrage. The immense majority of opinion was in favor of the new regime and was an unimpeachable answer to the objections and misrepresentations which found place in the press of all other parts of the country.

The interest of Kansas women in their political rights never has abated. The proportion of their vote varies in about the same ratio as that of men. Upon occasions when the character of candidates or the importance of the issue commands especial attention a great many go to the polls. Their chief interest, however, centers in questions which bear directly upon the education and welfare of their children, the environment of their homes and those of kindred nature. When issues involving these are presented they vote in large numbers.

There is always a larger munic.i.p.al vote in the uneven years when mayors are to be elected, and therefore a comparison is made in five prominent cities between the vote of 1887 and that of 1901 to show that in the fourteen years the interest of women in the suffrage has increased instead of diminished.

_Town._ _Year._ _Man-Vote._ _Woman-Vote._ Kansas City 1887 3,956 1,042 Kansas City 1901 8,900 4,582 Topeka 1887 4,580 1,049 Topeka 1901 7,338 5,335 Fort Scott 1887 1,273 425 Fort Scott 1901 1,969 1,270 Leavenworth 1887 3,967 2,467 Leavenworth 1901 5,590 3,018 Wichita 1887 3,312 2,984 Wichita 1901 ..... .....

It was impossible to obtain the vote of Wichita in 1901 but the registration was 6,546 men, 4,040 women, and out of these 10,586, there were 8,960 who voted. One of the most prominent lawyers in Wichita writes of this election: "The women fully maintained the ratio of the registration. The vote was small on account of inclement weather but I am sure that it kept away more men than women."

At one election it is recorded the vote of women exceeded that of men in one second-cla.s.s and three third-cla.s.s cities. In one instance all but two of the women of Cimarron cast their ballots. In Lincoln for several years women have polled 46 per cent. of the entire vote. The percentage of males in the State by the census of 1900 was 52.3.

The question frequently is asked why, with the ballot in their hands, women do not compel the enforcement of the prohibitory law, as it is generally supposed that Munic.i.p.al Suffrage carries with it the right to vote for all city officials. The same year that women were enfranchised, the Legislature, for whom women do not vote, pa.s.sed a law authorizing the Governor, for whom women do not vote, to appoint a Board of Police Commissioners for each city of the first cla.s.s, with power to appoint the police judge, city marshal and police, and have absolute control of the organization, government and discipline of the police force and of all station-houses, city prisons, etc. Temperance men and women strongly urged this measure as they believed the Governor would have stamina enough to select commissioners who would enforce the prohibitory law. This board was abolished at the special session of the Legislature in 1897, as it was made a scapegoat for city and county officers who were too cowardly or too unfriendly to enforce the liquor ordinances, and it did not effect the hoped-for reforms.

In 1898 City Courts were established. By uniting the towns.h.i.+ps with cities and giving these courts jurisdiction over State and county cases, to relieve the congested condition of State courts, women are deprived of a vote for their officers. The exercise of the Munic.i.p.al Franchise at present is as follows:

MEN VOTE FOR WOMEN VOTE FOR Mayor, Mayor, Councilmen, Councilmen, School Board, School Board, City Attorney, City Attorney, City Treasurer, City Treasurer, City Clerk, City Clerk.

Judge of City Court, Clerk of City Court, APPOINTED BY MAYOR Marshal of City Court, Police Judge, Two Justices of the Peace, City Marshal, Two Constables. Chief of Police.

In cities of less than 30,000 the Police Judge is elected and women may vote for this officer. In the smallest places the City Marshal is also Chief of Police.

It will be seen that even for the Police Court in the largest cities women have only an indirect vote through the Mayor's appointments. In all the cities and towns liquor sellers when convicted here simply take an appeal to a higher court over which women have no jurisdiction. They have no vote for sheriff, county attorney or any county officer. These facts may in a measure answer the question why women are helpless to enforce the prohibitory law or any other to which they are opposed.

Nevertheless even this small amount of suffrage has been of much benefit to the women and to the cities. As the years go by the general average of the woman-vote is larger. Munic.i.p.al voting has developed a stronger sense of civic responsibility among women; it has completely demolished the old stock objections and has familiarized men with the presence of women at the polls. Without question a higher level in the conduct of city affairs has resulted. It may, however, well be questioned as to whether Munic.i.p.al Suffrage has not militated against the full enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women. Politicians have been annoyed by interference with their schemes. Men have learned that women command influence in politics, and the party machine has become hostile to further extension of woman's opportunity and power to demand cleaner morals and n.o.bler standards.[277]

Judge S. S. King, Commissioner of Elections at Kansas City, has given the suffrage question much thought, and he has gleaned from the figures of his official records some interesting facts. Alluding to the mooted question of what cla.s.s of women vote he says:

The opponents of woman suffrage insist that the lower cla.s.ses freely exercise the franchise, while the higher cla.s.ses generally refrain from voting. As women in registering usually give their vocation as "housekeeper" it is impossible to learn from that record what particular ledge of the social strata they stand upon, therefore, in order to locate them as to trades, business, etc., I give them the positions occupied by their husbands and fathers. I take the 17th voting precinct of Kansas City as a typical one. It is about an average in voting population of white and colored men and women and in the diversified industries. The 149 white women who registered in this precinct, as indicated by the vocations of their husbands, fathers, etc., would be cla.s.sified thus:

The trades (all cla.s.ses of skilled labor), 32; the professions, 26; merchants (all manner of dealers), 16; laborers (unskilled), 15; clerks, 10; public officers, 8; bankers and brokers, 7; railroad employes, 7; salesmen, 5; contractors, 2; foremen, 2; paymaster, 1; uncla.s.sified, 16. Thus, if the opponents of woman suffrage use the term "lower cla.s.ses" according to some ill-defined rule of elite society, the example given above would be a complete refutation. If by "lower cla.s.ses" they mean the immoral and dissolute, the refutation appears to be still more complete, for the woman electorate in the 17th precinct is particularly free from those elements.

It is extremely rare to find a prominent man in Kansas, except certain politicians, who openly opposes woman suffrage. With a very few exceptions the most eminent cordially advocate it, including a large number of ministers, lawyers and editors. It would require a chapter simply to catalogue the names of well-known men and women who are heartily in favor of it. Had Kansas men voted their convictions, Kansas women would long since have been enfranchised, but political partisans.h.i.+p has been stronger than the sense of justice.

FOOTNOTES:

[263] The History is indebted for this chapter princ.i.p.ally to Mrs.

Annie L. Diggs of Topeka, State Librarian and former president of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation. The editors are also under obligations to Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Salina and Mrs. Anna C. Wait of Lincoln, former presidents.

[264] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, p. 191.

[265] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, Chap. L.

[266] At this meeting, on motion of Mrs. Johns, the yellow ribbon was adopted as the suffrage badge, in honor of the sunflower, the State flower of Kansas, the one which follows the wheel track and the plough, as woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt should follow civilization. It was afterwards adopted by the National a.s.sociation in recognition of Kansas, then the most progressive State in regard to women. Those of a cla.s.sical bent accepted it because yellow among the ancients signified wisdom.

[267] Secretary, May Belleville Brown; treasurer, Elizabeth F.

Hopkins; Mrs. S. A. Thurston, Mrs. L. B. Smith, Alma B. Stryker, Eliza McLallin, Bina A. Otis, Helen L. Kimber, Sallie F. Toler, Annie L.

Diggs; from the National a.s.sociation, Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the organization committee, Rachel Foster Avery and Alice Stone Blackwell, corresponding and recording secretaries.

[268] Now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Kansas.

[269] Of Mrs. Diggs' speech Mrs. Johns writes: "It was one of the most masterly arguments I ever heard. At one point she said: 'The great majority of you declare that woman suffrage is right, (a roar of 'yes,' 'yes,' went up), and yet you oppose this plank. Are you afraid to do right?' Her reply to the flimsy objections of the chairman, P.

P. Elder, was simply unanswerable. She cut the ground from under his feet, and his confusion and rout were so complete that he stood utterly confounded. That small woman with her truth and eloquence had slain the Goliath of the opposition!"

[270] The following speakers and organizers were placed at fairs, Chautauqua a.s.semblies, picnics, teachers' inst.i.tutes and in distinctive suffrage meetings: James Clement Ambrose (Ills.), Theresa Jenkins (Wyo.), Elizabeth Upham Yates (Me.), Clara C. Hoffman (Mo.); Mrs. Johns, J. B. Johns, the Revs. Eugenia and C. H. St. John, Mary G.

Haines, Luella R. Kraybill, Helen L. Kimber, Laura A. Gregg, Lizzie E.

Smith, Ella W. Brown, Naomi Anderson, Eva Corning, Ella Bartlett, Alma B. Stryker, Olive I. Royce, Caroline L. Denton, Mrs. Diggs, May Belleville Brown, J. Willis Gleed, Thomas L. Bond, the Rev. Granville Lowther, Prof. W. H. Carruth and Mayor Harrison of Topeka.

During the autumn Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe (Ills.), and Mrs. Julia B.

Nelson (Minn.), made addresses for one month; Mrs. Rachel L. Child (Ia.) spoke and organized for two months.

[271] Returns were received from 71 out of the 105 counties, covering 714 of the 2,100 voting precincts. These returns were carefully tabulated by Mrs. Thurston, acting secretary of the amendment campaign committee. The result showed that of Republicans _voting on the proposition_, 38-1/2 per cent. voted _for_; of Populists, 54 per cent.; of Democrats, 14 per cent.; of Prohibitionists, 88 per cent.

Of the entire vote of the Republican party for its ticket, 22 per cent. were silent on the amendment; of the entire vote of the People's party, 22 per cent.; of the Democratic, 28 per cent.; of the Prohibition, 24 per cent.

[272] Others who have held official position are vice-presidents, Mesdames J.K. Hudson, Sallie F. Toler, n.o.ble L. Prentis, Abbie A.

Welch, Fannie Bobbet and Emma Troudner; corresponding secretaries, Mrs. Priscilla Finley, Miss Sarah A. Brown, Dr. Nannie Stephens, Mrs.

Elizabeth F. Hopkins, Mrs. Ray Mclntyre, Mrs. B.B. Baird, Mrs. Alice G. Young; recording secretaries, Dr. Addie Kester, Mrs. Alice G. Bond, Prof. William H. Carruth, Mrs. M.M. Bowman, Mrs. Emma S. Albright, Miss Matie Toothaker; treasurers, Mrs. Martia L. Berry, Dr. C.E.

Tiffany, Mrs. Lucia O. Case, Mrs. Henrietta Stoddard Turner; auditors, Mrs. Emma S. Marshall, Mrs. S.A. Thurston; parliamentarians, Mesdames Ella W. Brown, Bina A. Otis, Luella R. Kraybill, Antoinette L.

Haskell; librarians, Mrs. May Belleville Brown, Dr. Emily Newcomb; State organizer, Miss Jennie Newby; superintendent press work, Mrs.

Nannie K. Garrett.

A number of these filled various offices and some of them bore the brunt of the work continuously for years. Other names which appear frequently are J. K. Hudson, editor Topeka _Capital_, Dr. Sarah C.

Hall, Mesdames M. E. De Geer, M. S. Woods, E. D. Garlick, E. A. Elder, L. B. Kellogg, Jennie Robb Maher, Miss Emma Harriman, the Rev. W. A.

Simkins, Judge Nathan Cree, Walter S. Wait, Sarah W. Rush, Dr. J. E.

Spaulding, Dr. F. M. W. Jackson, Henrietta B. Wall, Mrs. Lucy B.

Johnston, Miss Genevieve L. Hawley.

[273] Miss Susan B. Anthony was in the National Convention at Was.h.i.+ngton and this news was telegraphed her as a birthday greeting.

[274] Among the most influential workers for this bill during the three sessions of the Legislature, in addition to those mentioned, were Thomas L. Bond; Mesdames Bertha H. Ellsworth, Hetta P. Mansfield, Martia L. Berry, S. A. Thurston and Henrietta B. Wall; Misses Jennie Newby, Olive P. Bray and Amanda Way.

[275] Mrs. Johns says of this occasion: "If we had ever had any doubt that even our small moiety of the suffrage would strengthen our influence for righteousness, the effect of our protest at this time and the att.i.tude of the politicians toward us would have dispelled that doubt. We felt our power and it was a new thrill which we experienced."

[276] Among these were the following:

The relations of man and wife "are one and inseparable" as to the good to be derived from or the evil to be suffered by laws imposed, and the addition of woman suffrage will not better their condition, but is fraught with danger and evil to both s.e.xes and the well-being of society.

This privilege conferred will bring to every primary, caucus and election--to our jury rooms, the bench and the Legislature--the ambitious and designing women only, to engage in all the tricks, intrigues and cunning incident to corrupt political campaigns, only to lower the moral standing of their s.e.x; it invites and creates jealousies and scandals and jeopardizes their high moral standing; hurls women out from their central orb fixed by their Creator to an external place in the order of things. Promiscuous mingling with the rude and unscrupulous element around earnest and exciting elections tends to a familiarity that breeds contempt for the fair s.e.x deeply to be deplored.

The demand for female suffrage is largely confined to the ambitious office-seeking cla.s.s, possessing an insatiable desire for the forum, and when allowed will unfit this cla.s.s for all the duties of domestic life and transform them into politicians, and dangerous ones at that.

When the laws of nature shall so change the female organization as to make it possible for them to sing "ba.s.s" we shall then be quite willing for such a bill to become a law.

It is a grave mistake, an injury to both s.e.xes and the party, to add another "ism" to our political creed.