The History of Woman Suffrage Volume V Part 5

You can not trust the ballot into the hands of women teachers in the public schools but you give it to men who can not read or write. You can not trust the ballot to women who are controlling millions of money and helping support the country but you give it to loafers and vagabonds who know nothing, have nothing and represent nothing. You can not trust the ballot in the hands of women who are the wives and daughters of your heroes but you give it to those who are willing to sell it for a gla.s.s of beer and you trust it in the hands of anarchists. Oh, men, let justice speak and may the public weal demand that this disfranchis.e.m.e.nt of the n.o.ble American women shall be stopped.

Mrs. Catt then introduced to the committee Miss Isabel Campbell, daughter of former Governor Campbell of Wyoming, who in 1869 signed the bill which enfranchised the women of the Territory; Prof.

Theodosia Ammons of the Colorado University of Agriculture and Mrs.

Ida M. Weaver, a resident of Idaho. Each gave a comprehensive report of the practical working of woman suffrage in her State; the large proportion of women who voted; their appointment on boards and election to offices; the result in improved polling places, better candidates and cleaner politics; higher pay for working women; the advantages to the community; the comrades.h.i.+p between men and women and the general satisfaction of the people with the experiment. Their reports as a whole offered unimpeachable testimony in favor of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women.

Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller in her address said:

I have been asked to direct especially my attention to the position of women in England. I hope you, as members of a republic, will be ashamed to hear that the monarchy of England gives its women citizens a great many rights which you deny to yours, that we have had those rights for so many years that n.o.body talks about them. When I am asked to give you testimony as to the smooth working of the women's vote in all local affairs, I am at a loss to know what to say, because it runs along so easily and naturally, so like breathing the air in a thoroughly healthy state of the lungs, that there is absolutely nothing to be said.

Men and women vote on equal terms and the woman's vote is as much a matter of course as the man's.

The local government of England is divided among a number of different bodies. We have the school boards, established in 1870, which have managed the elementary education of the country, now compulsory and free. They spend very large sums of the taxpayers'

money and for them every woman who pays taxes has a vote. Any woman whom the electors choose is ent.i.tled to take a seat on them. There are at present not only hundreds of thousands of women voting for the school boards but there are 276 women sitting as representatives upon those of England alone. I myself have for nine years been a member of the school board of London, sitting for one of the great divisions called Hackney, which has 60,000 voters. My election committee was composed of men and women. Men worked for me very hard indeed!... The next great local governing bodies are the boards of guardians of the poor.

These bodies spend annually about $127,000,000, which they raise from the taxpayers, men and women. These are huge organizations.

Many of the workhouses contain over 1,000 persons; besides which, outside relief in money or food or medical aid is given. Every woman who is a taxpayer can vote for a member of these boards.

Women are eligible to sit on them the same as men. There are nearly 1,000 women on the boards.

Women may vote for the munic.i.p.alities, for the town councils. I can not offer you any ill.u.s.tration of how the women's vote has improved them for the simple reason that when those councils were inst.i.tuted in 1869 the Parliament of a monarchy was sufficiently large-minded to perceive that women ought to vote for them; that they have to pay their taxes and where a woman stands at the head of a household she is not only equally ent.i.tled to representation in regard to the spending of her money but also she is as much concerned with the work that the councils have to do as any man.

This was so obviously just that women were given the right to vote on them and have exercised that right ever since.... The women vote as fully as the men do.

We have district, parish and county councils, which have to a considerable extent the moral and the intellectual government of the cities under them, licensing of places of amus.e.m.e.nt, public parks, technical education for young people over school age and so on. The building of homes for the poor, the oversight of lunatic asylums and matters of that kind, they have under their authority. These were established in 1884 and the women who had voted so well for many years for school boards and town councils of course were given the right to vote for the new county councils.

Mrs. Miller went fully into the work of women on borough and county councils and closed her valuable address by saying: "Gentlemen, the work of women in English public life has not only been unattended with any mischief but has been a great force for service and benefit.

Surely American men can trust their sisters as our men have for the past generation trusted us, to their own as well as our advantage."

In closing the hearing to which the committee gave the strictest attention, Mrs. Catt said in part:

I have a favor to ask of this committee in an official capacity; it is something we have never asked before.... We have brought to you testimonials of the success of woman suffrage in operation throughout the world and I think that if any man among you were called to stand before a committee and give in five or ten minutes some proof of the favorable results of man suffrage, he would find it a very difficult thing to do. What I now ask in behalf of our a.s.sociation is that this committee will request the House of Representatives to appoint a commission to investigate the results of woman suffrage in operation. This has never been done....

We ask you in the interest of fairness to see that this commission is appointed to investigate woman suffrage in exactly the same spirit it would use if it were investigating man suffrage in Cuba. We ask you to chase down to its lair every single charge and objection that has been made and if when an honest commission has made an honest investigation you discover that woman suffrage has proved a good thing, if you find that it has proved as beneficial to women as man suffrage has proved to men, then we shall expect that another Judiciary Committee will give a favorable report and ask Congress to submit a 16th Amendment. And if you discover that it is not a good thing, then I promise you in behalf of our a.s.sociation that we will turn our guns into those States and see that it is made a good thing; for never so long as there are women who are educated, women who think for themselves, will they rest content until they have the only weapon that governments can give them for defending liberty and pursuit of happiness. We stand before you as citizens of the United States, qualified, intelligent, taxpaying women, who demand for ourselves the same right to make the Government under which we live that has been given to men.

No commission was appointed, no report was made by Senate or House Committee and there were no definite results of such appeals as never had been made by men for the franchise in this or any other country.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Part of Call: An International Woman Suffrage Conference will be held in connection with this annual convention, to which suffrage a.s.sociations of fourteen countries have been invited to send delegates.

The principles which for a century have stood as the guarantee of political liberty to American men, "Taxation without representation is tyranny," and "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed," can no longer be claimed as belonging to the United States alone for they have been adopted by all civilized nations. The steadily increasing acceptance of the belief that self-government is the highest form of government has revolutionized the popular thought of the world within the last fifty years. During that period all newly established governments have been fas.h.i.+oned after the model of a Republic; while in most European nations and their colonies the suffrage has been so largely extended that the mere skeleton of a monarchy remains.

Logical thinkers the world over have been led in consequence to ask: Are not women equally capable with men of self-government? What necessary qualification fits men for the exercise of this sacred right which is not likewise possessed by women? Are they less intelligent?

The statistics of schools, colleges and educational bureaus answer "No." Are they less moral, peaceful and law-abiding than men? The statistics of churches, police courts and penitentiaries answer "No."

Are they less public spirited and patriotic than men? The labors of millions of organized women in n.o.ble reforms, in helpful charities and wise philanthropies answer "No." ...

An International Woman Suffrage Conference for the exchange of greetings, reports and methods forms a natural milestone on the march of progress. All persons believing that the fundamental principles of self-government contained in the Declaration of Independence and the Const.i.tution of the United States apply to women as well as to men, are invited to visit the convention and to unite in welcome to our foreign guests.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, } SUSAN B. ANTHONY, } Honorary Presidents.

CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.

ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-President-at-Large.

KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.

HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.

LAURA CLAY, } CORA SMITH EATON, } Auditors.

[15] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page 543.

[16] "February could be appropriately marked on the calendar as woman's month at the national capital. For many years one or more national bodies of women have met in Was.h.i.+ngton some time in February.

This year an unusually large number are a.s.sembling. On February 17, the day before the National Suffrage Convention ends, the Continental Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution will open to continue five days. The fourth triennial of the National Council of Women of the United States will begin on February 19 and extend over the 25th. The National Congress of Mothers will convene February 25 and be in session until the 28th."

[17] The following pioneer workers for woman suffrage were seated on the platform, their ages averaging more than 75 years: Mrs. Virginia Clay Clopton, Ala.; A. E. Gridley, the Hon. Simon Wolf, Mrs. S. E.

Wall, Mrs. Olive Logan, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Dr. A. D. Mayo, Miss Eliza t.i.tus Ward, D. C.; Mrs. Mary B. Trimble, Ky.; Mrs. Caroline E.

Merrick, La.; Mrs. Helen Coffin Beedy, Dr. Abbie M. Fulton, Mrs.

Charlotte Thomas, Me.; Mrs. Harriet Jackson, Md.; Mrs. William Lloyd Garrison, Ma.s.s.; Mrs. Helen P. Jenkins, Mrs. Emily B. Ketcham, Mich.; Mrs. Phoebe Wright, N. J.; Mrs. H. E. Burger, Miss Mary Anthony, Mrs.

Elizabeth Smith Miller, N. Y.; Mrs. Harriet B. Stanton, O.; Dr. Jane V. Meyers, Mrs. G. M. S. P. Jones, Dr. Agnes Kemp, John K. Wildman, Dr. and Mrs. C. Newlin Pierce, Penn.; Mrs. Virginia D. Young, S. C.; Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells, Utah; Miss Laura Moore, Vt.; Mrs. M. H. Grove, W. Va.

[18] Miss Anthony had objected strongly to Mrs. Stanton's letter to the convention of 1901 criticising the church, and she did not approve of demanding an educational requirement for the suffrage when women would have to obtain it by consent of men of all cla.s.ses. Mrs.

Stanton's letter, therefore, was sent for Mrs. Colby to read, who was in sympathy with its sentiment.

[19] The Charleston conference was held in the a.s.sembly Room of the Woman's Building, welcomed by Mayor Smyth, Mrs. S. C. Simons, president of the women's department, and Mrs. Virginia D. Young in behalf of the State Press a.s.sociation. Mrs. Catt responded and later Mr. Blackwell made an address. Among the speakers here and in German Artillery Hall was the Hon. R. R. Hemphill (S. C.), always a staunch advocate of woman suffrage. An afternoon reception was given by the Woman's Board. The _News and Courier_ and other papers had long and excellent reports.

The Baltimore conference was held a few days later in the main auditorium of the Central Y. M. C. A. Hall, with the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw presiding. It was welcomed by Dr. E. O. Janney of Johns Hopkins Medical School, and the national speakers were Miss Laura Clay, president of the Kentucky Equal Rights a.s.sociation; Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, Judge J. G. Flenner of Idaho; the Rev. Olympia Brown, Mrs.

Colby, Miss Gordon and Mr. and Miss Blackwell.

[20] A Was.h.i.+ngton paper said: "There were a good many men in the audience and they did not look much as they do in the comic papers.

The suffragists' husbands in caricature are consumptive, cadaverous, insignificant mortals, trailing around in the wake of rambunctious and overwhelming wives; but most of the men who mixed themselves up with this convention looked as if they could not very easily have been dragged there if they had not wanted to come. Some of them were six feet tall and broad in proportion and none of them looked as if they had been in the habit of asking their wives for permission to think.

They did not act like cats in a strange garret either but as if they were having the time of their lives. No wonder; when a man does make up his mind to come out for woman suffrage he can depend upon it he is going to be appreciated."

[21] Besides the women ministers mentioned in this chapter sessions were opened by the Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, the Rev. John Van Schaick, Jr., the Rev. Alexander Kent and the Rev. Donald C. McLeod, all of Was.h.i.+ngton.

The excellent musical program was in charge of Miss Etta Maddox of Baltimore. She was a graduated lawyer but the courts of Maryland had refused her permission to practice, as contrary to law. After the convention she was accompanied to Baltimore by Miss Laura Clay, Mrs.

J. Ellen Foster, an attorney of Iowa; Miss Gail Laughlin, a New York lawyer; Dr. Cora Smith Eaton and Mr. Blackwell. The Judiciary Committee of the State Senate granted a hearing conducted by Miss Maddox. By the end of March both Senate and House had pa.s.sed a bill giving women the right to practice law.

[22] Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Upton and Miss Blackwell were made a committee to present the matter to President Roosevelt. Protests arose from all parts of the country and before they had time to call on him he declared himself opposed to "regulated vice." The dispatches of March 22 announced that a general order signed by Secretary Root had gone from the War Department to Manila that no more "certificates"

would be issued but that soldiers as well as women would be inspected and cases of disease would be sent to the hospital.

CHAPTER III.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1903.

In 1903 the National American Suffrage a.s.sociation for the second time took its annual convention to a southern State and held it in New Orleans, March 15-25, in Athenaeum Hall.[23] The _Woman's Journal_ said: "To the northern delegates there was something almost magical in the sudden change from snowdrifts and nipping winds to balmy air and a temperature like June. The delicious climate of Louisiana in spring has not been exaggerated and it seems wonderful to find roses in bloom in March, the wistaria vines in a cloud of purple blossom and the gra.s.s an emerald green.... The delegates were enthusiastic over the quaint houses surrounded by palms, bananas and great live oaks, a pleasing novelty to most of them."

The hostess of the convention was the Era Club, the largest organization of women in the city, its t.i.tle--ERA--cleverly concealing Equal Rights a.s.sociation. It was founded in 1896; Miss Kate Gordon, the present secretary of the National a.s.sociation, was formerly its president and her sister, Miss Jean M. Gordon, now filled that office.

On the first afternoon the s.p.a.cious and beautiful home of Mrs. Reuben Bush, prominent in club and civic work, was opened for the club to entertain the officers, delegates and a large number of invited guests. Sunday evening all were received informally in the charming home of Misses Kate, f.a.n.n.y and Jean Gordon.

The excellent convention program was prepared by Miss Kate Gordon. The first evening session was opened with prayer by the Right Reverend Davis Sessums, Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, who said in the course of it: "Prosper, we beseech thee, the deliberations of this a.s.sociation whose representatives are here a.s.sembled and direct and rule their judgment and actions in all things to the furtherance of truth and justice, so that their work may be an abiding work and contribute to the growth of true religion and civilization, to the happiness of homes and to the advancement of Thy Kingdom."