The History of Woman Suffrage Volume V Part 10

The speeches largely followed the lines of those given before the convention. Mrs. Katherine Cook showed the relation between the women's vote and the home and family welfare. Mrs. Ellis Meredith, introduced as on the editorial staff of the _Rocky Mountain News_ of Denver, gave a summary of the excellent legislation that had been effected since women began voting in 1894 and said: "I have read a compilation of the laws in regard to the protection of children in every State and I know that in no other have they such ample protection and in no other are the laws so well enforced. This is partly due to the fact that our Humane Society is a State inst.i.tution and has the free voluntary services of six hundred men and women acting as agents over this big State of 104,000 square miles."

Answering questions she said: "In my district, one of the best, 571 women registered and 570 voted. There are as many men as women in the district but only 235 voted. Men form 55 per cent. of our population and women 45. Women cast over 43 per cent. of the total vote."

Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, extended the account of the remarkable work it had accomplished as described to the convention, a success, she said, due to the fact that it represented a large body of well-informed voters. She ridiculed the danger at the polling places. "Who are the evil creatures we are supposed to meet there on election day? We vote in the precinct in which we live and we meet our husbands, our brothers, our sons.... In Colorado the environment in which the supreme right of citizens.h.i.+p is performed has been improved to harmonize with the improved character of the const.i.tuency."

Mrs. Helen Loring Grenfell was introduced by Mrs. Catt as "the State Superintendent of Public Instruction now serving her third term, the only successful candidate on her ticket at the last election." She began by saying: "Gentlemen, this is a very peculiar position for a Colorado woman. It seems just as strange to me as it would be to my husband to be coming here before a body of women and saying: 'We men ask from you equal rights under the Const.i.tution of the United States.'" After showing the interest felt in elections by women she said: "I have been an office-holder, which has involved running for office, and I think it is right for me to tell you a little of my experiences. My campaigns have taken me through almost every county in Colorado, the farming counties, the roughest mining communities, and let me say to you that if there could be any more chivalry in the States where you think it would be unchivalrous to let your women vote, I would like to see it. I have met with the greatest courtesy from men all over the State. I have been treated just as kindly, just as politely by the men when I appeared as a political candidate as by the men with whom I am a.s.sociated in my school work, in my home and society life. We have come to the time when we must feel that the word chivalry belongs to the past. It is connected with a period when woman's position before the law and in her home was far from a desirable one; and so I believe you will not misunderstand me when I say that if you will give us justice we feel that it will mean a great deal more than chivalry ever did."

There had just been an exposition of fraud at the recent Congressional election where Representative John F. Shafroth had been re-elected and he at once resigned the office in order to disclaim all connection with it. Nearly every speaker was interrogated about it by members of the committee. Mrs. Grenfell answered, as did all of them: "The frauds upon which this election was decided were committed in the city of Denver alone and in the worst precincts in the city. We will admit that they were committed. Is that a reason for considering that woman suffrage is a mistake? I have heard reports from the cities of Philadelphia and New York by which, if I should judge male suffrage, I should say it was an utter failure in the States of Pennsylvania and New York. We have tens of thousands of women voters in Colorado. We have indictments out against many dishonest voters and with the utmost searching they have found one woman who is charged with 'repeating' in the election. Our State penitentiary has five women prisoners today and 600 men. That surely cannot be used as an argument for woman suffrage having injured the women, whatever it may have done to the men."[34]

The committee were particularly interested in the speech of former Governor Alva Adams, which gave much information on the voting of women and called out many questions from the committee. Representative Littlefield of Maine inquired: "What do you say, Governor, about Miss McCracken's article in the _Outlook_?" and he answered: "I call it infamous, to use the proper term. It was an absolute falsehood. It was based upon no facts, because no decent women in Colorado would make the statements that she quotes. She may have found one woman who would say that they were using philanthropy and charity for political purposes but to admit that the women of the State would do a thing of that kind--would so debase themselves--would be an impeachment of the decency and honesty of womankind everywhere. I am not prepared to make that admission and the citizens of Colorado cannot make it. There are 100,000 honest women in the State who are voters and there are not 100 who will subscribe to the sentiments she gave voice to."[35]

Mrs. Catt closed the hearing with an earnest appeal for action, saying in part:

When the const.i.tution of Colorado was first made in 1876 a provision was placed in it that at any time the Legislature might enfranchise the women by a referendum of a law to the voters.

That was done in 1893 and it was pa.s.sed by 6,000 majority. Last year an amendment to the const.i.tution was submitted to the electors, now both men and women, concerning the qualifications for the vote and in it there was included, of course, the recognition of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women quite as much as that of men, so that it was virtually a woman suffrage amendment. It received a majority of 35,000, showing certainly that after ten years of experience the people were willing to put woman suffrage in the const.i.tution, where it became an integral part of it and permanent.

When the American const.i.tution was formulated it was the first of its kind and this was the first republic of its kind. Man suffrage was an experiment and it was considered universally a very doubtful one. We find overwhelming evidence that the thinkers of the world feared that if this republic should fail to live it would come to its end through the instability of the minds of men and that revolutionary thought would arise to overturn the Government. We find it in George Was.h.i.+ngton and Benjamin Franklin and all of our statesmen as well as those who were watching the experiment here so anxiously from across the sea. What was the result? The result was they made a const.i.tution just as ironclad as they could, so as to prevent its amendment.

They made it as difficult for the fundamental law of the nation to be changed as they knew how to do.... Those of us who wish to enter the political life, who believe that we have quite as good a right to express ourselves there as any man--what is our position? Within the last century there has been extension after extension of the suffrage, and every one has put suffrage for women further off....

Do you not see that while in this country there are millions of people who believe in the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women, while there is more sentiment for it than in any other, yet we are restricted by this stone wall of const.i.tutional limitations which was set at a time when a republican form of government was totally untried?

Because of this we find ourselves distanced by monarchies and the women enfranchised in other lands are coming to us to express their pity and sympathy.... So I ask that you will this time make a report to the House of Representatives and if you do not believe that we are right, for Heaven's sake make an adverse report. Anything will be more satisfactory than the indifference with which we have been treated for many years. Do at least recognize that we have a cause, that there are women here whose hearts are aching because they see great movements to which they desire to give their help and yet they are chained down to work for the power that is not yet within their hands.... If you, Mr.

Chairman, feel that you can not offer a favorable report because the majority of the committee is not favorable, then I beg of you, in behalf of the women of the United States, to show where you stand and to give an adverse report.

The Senate Committee presented the National a.s.sociation with 10,000 and the House Committee with 15,000 copies of these hearings, which they could use as a part of their propaganda literature. There was not, however, enough political influence back of the appeals for the submission of the Federal Amendment for woman suffrage to compel the committees to make reports which would bring the subject before Congress.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] Part of Call: In our own country the advocates of our cause know no discouragement or disappointment. The seed planted by the pioneers of the woman's rights movement is continuously bearing fruit in the educational, industrial and social opportunities for the women of today; these in turn presage the full harvest--political enfranchis.e.m.e.nt. Under the stimulus of an educated intelligence and awakened self-respect women daily grow more unwilling that their opinions in government, the fundamental source of civilization, should continue to be uncounted with those of the defective and criminal cla.s.ses of men.

In the industrial world organized labor is recognizing in the underpaid services of women an enemy to economic prosperity and is making common cause with woman's demand for the ballot with which to protect her right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, avowed to be inalienably hers by the Declaration of Independence. Time, agitation, education and organization cannot fail to ripen these many influences into a general belief in true democratic government of the people, without distinctions in regard to s.e.x.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President.

CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.

ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-President.

KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.

HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.

LAURA CLAY, } Auditors.

MARY J. COGGESHALL,}

[30] A ticket was sent with the invitation which took her carriage to the private entrance and enabled her to avoid the crowd. She was constantly surrounded by distinguished people and Miss Alice Roosevelt left a party of friends, saying, "I must speak to Miss Anthony, she is my father's special guest." The next day she told the convention in her inimitable way that when she was presented to Mr. Roosevelt she said: "Now, Mr. President, we don't intend to trouble you during the campaign but after you are elected, then look out for us!"

[31] Clergymen who opened the various meetings with prayer were Dr.

Edward Everett Hale, chaplain of the U. S. Senate; the Rev. J. L.

Coudon, chaplain of the House of Representatives; the Reverends A. D.

Mayo, D.D.; S. M. Newman, D.D., of the First Congregational Church; U.

G. B. Pierce, All Souls Unitarian Church; John Van Schiack, Jr., Universalist Church; Alexander Kent, People's Church; the women ministers at the convention, Anna Howard Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer, Mary A. Safford, Marie Jenney Howe, and laywomen Laura Clay, Lucy Hobart Day, Mrs. Clinton Smith, president District W. C. T. U. The congregational singing was arranged and led by Miss Etta V. Maddox of Baltimore and the evening musical programs were in charge of Herndon Morsell and his pupils.

[32] The Was.h.i.+ngton _Post_ of that date contained an amusing little incident. Miss Anthony came into the morning session while Mrs. Upton was raising the money and the audience rose to their feet waving their handkerchiefs. She was about to sit down on the front seat when Mrs.

Upton insisted she should come to the platform. "Must I do that?" she said sotto voce. "I have on my travelling dress." "How we do put on airs as we grow older," said Mrs. Upton jokingly, a.s.sisting her to the platform. The applause continuing Miss Anthony smiled, reached out her hand with a deprecating gesture and said: "There now, girls, that's enough."

[33] The Was.h.i.+ngton _Times_ said: "Mrs. Upton is one of the most popular women in the suffrage movement and her energy is a matter of many years' history. If financial support is to be obtained from States, societies or individuals there is no one more capable of extracting generous subscriptions...." The _Star_ said: "Mrs. Upton has served as treasurer many years. She is energetic, zealous, tactful, possesses a remarkable insight of human nature and is greatly admired. She is president of the Ohio Suffrage a.s.sociation and member of the Warren board of education. Before she became so engrossed in suffrage she did a great deal of literary work. Her father, Ezra B.

Taylor, succeeded Garfield in Congress and she was with him during his thirteen years in office. Miss Anthony always relied on him for advice and a.s.sistance."

[34] There was a large amount of unimpeachable testimony that the women had no part in these election frauds. Mr. Shafroth himself said: "The frauds were committed in a bad part of Denver where few women live. To represent them as characteristic of women's election methods in Colorado is an outrage." A prominent Denver lawyer, who was then in Was.h.i.+ngton, was interviewed on the subject and said: "That 'Exhibit 64' (relating to the alleged frauds by women) was not competent evidence and would have been thrown out by any court. The woman who accused herself and other women of cheating did not stay to be cross-examined; she simply made her affidavit and 'skipped out.'

Everything tends to the belief that she was in the employ of the opposite party."

The president of the League for Honest Elections in Denver, when stating that about thirty arrests had been made in connection with the frauds, said: "Of those arrested and bound over, only one is a woman.

We believe that she is the least guilty of all and whatever connection she had with the election in her precinct was as the pa.s.sive instrument of the men in charge of the fraudulent work at that place.

Of the persons for whom warrants have been issued but not yet served, only one is a woman. She was a clerk in one of the lower precincts and we understand has left the city. I may say, as a result of my own experience in connection with this League, I find that women have practically nothing to do with fraudulent work."

[35] A Miss Elizabeth McCracken had been sent to Colorado by the _Outlook_ to prepare an article on woman suffrage, which it published.

The statements in it were universally repudiated by the press and the people of that State. Mrs. Grenfell said of it at this convention: "It is as absurd to refute her a.s.sertions as to reply to Baron Munchausen or to insist that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland never happened.

Such conditions as she describes do not exist in Colorado."

CHAPTER V.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1905.

Until 1905 the national suffrage conventions had never been held further west than Des Moines, Ia. (1897), but this year the innovation was made of going to the Pacific Coast for the Thirty-seventh annual meeting, June 28-July 5,[36] at the invitation of the managers of the Lewis and Clark Exposition held in Portland, Ore. It was a delightful experience from the beginning, as the delegates from the East and Middle West met in Chicago and had three special cars from there. The Chicago Woman's Club gave a large reception in the afternoon of June 23 for Miss Anthony, the officers and delegates. They took the train that night; Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt joined them in Iowa and others along the way, as it sped westward. The newspapers had given it wide publicity and they were greeted by suffragists at many places. The Political Equality Club of Boone, Ia., brought large bouquets for Miss Anthony, Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt, who made brief speeches from the rear platform. The colored porter listened attentively and said: "Well, that settles me; I am for woman suffrage," and afterwards diligently circulated copies of the _Woman's Journal_ on the train. Another ovation awaited them at Council Bluffs. The train waited half an hour at Omaha and the women of the Political Equality Club, the W. C. T. U.

and the Woman's Club united in a demonstration. A platform had been improvised and their presidents expressed a welcome to which responses were made by Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Miss Laura Clay and Mr. and Miss Blackwell, editors of the _Woman's Journal_, while reporters were busy getting interviews. They returned to the train laden with flowers, which they distributed, sending b.u.t.tonhole bouquets to the engineer, fireman and all the crew.

The train was delayed two hours at Cheyenne and former U. S. Senator Joseph M. Carey and his wife, staunch suffragists and old friends of Miss Anthony, took her for a drive while the officers and delegates walked about the pleasant little city and went to see the handsome State House. Miss Blackwell wrote of the occasion: "Everything in Wyoming was surrounded by a sort of halo. The sky seemed of a more vivid blue, the gra.s.s of a brighter emerald than in the States where women do not enjoy equal rights. The leaves of the many cottonwood trees twinkled pleasantly in the clear sunlight, the air was fresh and bracing and the snow mountains looked down upon the city like a visible realization of ideals." The presence of the visitors soon became known and an impromptu reception was held in the large waiting room of the station, which was beautified by potted ferns and palms.

Sunday services were held on the train and during the week days business meetings in the stateroom of Miss Anthony and Dr. Shaw. As the journey neared the end the porter confided to Lucy E. Anthony, the railroad secretary, who arranged the trip: "I ain't never travelled with such a bunch of women before--they don't fuss with me and they don't sc.r.a.p with each other!" Monday morning they entered the magnificent scenery along the Columbia River and at The Dalles were met by Mrs. Duniway and a party of friends. By noon they had reached the City of Roses and were comfortably settled in the Portland Hotel and the hospitable homes of the city.

The convention, held in the First Congregational Church, was planned for a very full program of ten days instead of the usual week.

Notwithstanding the Exposition was in progress and conventions were a matter of daily occurrence, none of the national suffrage conventions ever had fuller or more satisfactory reports. _Journal_, _Telegram_ and _Oregonian_ vied with each other and the a.s.sociated Press sent out whatever was requested of it. _The Oregonian_ said of the first executive session: "Room 618 in the Portland Hotel was the scene of a notable gathering yesterday afternoon. Lawyers, doctors, ministers of the gospel, lecturers of renown and expert auditors were in close conference, mapping out a plan of campaign by which they will fight for their rights in this land of the free and home of the brave. That they have not had the rights accorded by the Declaration of Independence to all American citizens they attribute to the fact that they are women and it is to convince unseeing mankind that women who are intelligent enough to obey laws are capable of helping frame them, that the most profound and representative women of the country are gathered here in the interests of equal suffrage." Miss Blackwell presented this interesting picture in her letter to the _Woman's Journal_.

The convention has opened magnificently, with glorious suns.h.i.+ne, great audiences, full and friendly press reports and the suffragists of the Pacific Coast outdoing themselves in cordial hospitality. The beautiful city of Portland is so full of flowers at this season that the whole city might be thought to have decorated in honor of the coming of the national convention. As the yellow-ribboned delegates go through the streets they constantly utter exclamations of delight over the enormous roses, the curtains of dark blue clematis draping the verandas, the luxuriant ma.s.ses of ivy and the majestic trees rising above the velvet lawns and casting their shade upon the many handsome residences.... Hospitable Oregonians send in presents to the officers of huge red and yellow apples and baskets of mammoth cherries nestling in their green leaves....

The large gray stone church has its auditorium hung with American flags and bunting of the suffrage color; portraits of Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony stand back of the pulpit and along its front runs the word "progress" in large letters made of flowers.... A splendid bouquet of white lilies has just been sent to the convention as a greeting from the Oregon State Federation of Women's Clubs and another of rich red roses from the Portland Woman's Club, and the platform is imbedded in carnations from local florists. All sorts of organizations seem to vie with each other in welcoming their happy guests.

The convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. Elwin L. House, pastor of the church. The president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was in the chair and greetings were given from the Oregon Suffrage a.s.sociation by its president, Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe; the National Council of Women by the president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift (Calif.), who called attention to the fact that it was organized by suffragists; the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union by Mrs. Lucia Faxon Additon; the National Grange by Mrs. Clara H. Waldo, who said: "The basic principle of the Grange is equal rights for men and women and it practices what it preaches, all the offices being open to women." Greetings from the National Federation of Labor were offered by Mrs. F. Ross; the Ladies of the Maccabees by Mrs. Nellie H. Lambson; the Federation of Women's Clubs by Mrs. Sarah A. Evans; the Forestry a.s.sociation by Mrs. Arthur H. Breyman; the Women's Henry George League by Dr. Mary H. Thompson, the pioneer woman physician of Oregon. The National Conference of Charities and Corrections, then in session in Portland, sent greetings by Mrs. Lillie R. Trumbull, who said: "If woman suffrage means anything it means the protection of children, therefore we march under the same banner."

Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, the pioneer suffragist of the northwest, presented to Dr. Shaw a gavel from the Oregon Historical Society with a letter from its secretary, Dr. George H. Himes, describing the six kinds of wood out of which it was made, each of important historical value. It was accepted with thanks and used by her to preside over the convention. A Centennial Ode, composed by Mrs. Duniway, was finely read by Mrs. Sylvia W. McGuire. The response to all these greetings was made by Miss Anthony, of whom the _Oregonian_ said: "The appearance of Susan B. Anthony was the signal for a wild ovation. The large audience rose to its feet and cheered the pioneer who has done so much for the cause of equal suffrage and who is still the life of a great work. At the close of the session men and women rushed forward, eager to clasp her hand and pay homage to her. There are many famous delegates present at this convention, women whose names are known in every civilized nation on the globe, but none s.h.i.+nes with the l.u.s.ter which surrounds Miss Anthony." She began by recalling her visit in 1871, when Mrs. Duniway and she made a speaking tour of six weeks in the State; the long stage rides over the corduroy roads, the prejudice encountered but personal friendliness and large audiences everywhere, and continued:

I am delighted to see and hear in this church today the women representatives of so many organizations and it is in a measure compensation for the half-century of toil which it has been my duty and privilege to give to this our common cause. The sessions of this convention will be treated by the press of America exactly as it would treat any national gathering which was representative in character and had an object worthy of serious attention. The time of universal scorn for woman suffrage has pa.s.sed and today we have strong and courageous champions among that s.e.x the members of which fifty years ago regarded our proposals as part of an iconoclasm which threatened the very foundation of the social fabric.... Elizabeth Cady Stanton and I made our first fight for recognition of the right of women to speak in public and have organizations among themselves. You who are younger cannot realize the intensity of the opposition we encountered. To maintain our position we were compelled to attack and defy the deep-seated and ingrained prejudices bred into the very natures of men, and to some of them we were actually committing a sin against G.o.d and violating His laws. Gradually, however, the opposition has weakened until today we meet far less hostility to equal suffrage itself than then was manifested toward giving women the right of speaking in public and organizing for mutual advantage.

The opening exercises closed with an address by the Rev. Thomas L.

Eliot, a Unitarian minister, who with his wife had encouraged Miss Anthony during that visit of 1871. He said his mother's great-aunt, Abigail Adams, had probably uttered the first declaration for woman suffrage on American soil, and paid a warm tribute to Mrs. Duniway's long and earnest labors for this cause as he had seen them during his thirty-seven years in Oregon.

At the insistence of Dr. Shaw Miss Anthony presided at the first evening session. It was said that she had wielded the gavel at more conventions than any other woman and she had presided over national suffrage conventions for nearly forty years, but this proved to be the last at which she filled that honored position. A press report said: "Her voice is more vigorous than that of many a woman half her age and she speaks with fluency and ease." The _Oregonian_ thus described her appearance on this occasion: "A rare picture she made in the high-backed oaken chair, her snowy hair puffed over her ears in old-time fas.h.i.+on and the collar of rose point lace, which seems to belong to dignified old age, forming a frame for her gentle but determined face. When she rose to call the meeting to order she was deluged with many beautiful floral tributes and drolly peering over the heap of flowers she said: "Well, this is rather different from the receptions I used to get fifty years ago. They threw things at me then--but they were not roses--and there were not epithets enough in Webster's Unabridged to fit my case. I am thankful for this change of spirit which has come over the American people."