The History of Woman Suffrage Volume V Part 49

Elizabeth W. Walker, whose patience, tact and good judgment have made comfortable living possible under the most trying circ.u.mstances.

Members of the National Board who have been called on to a.s.sist are first and foremost our honorary president, Dr. Shaw; Mrs.

Katharine Dexter McCormick and Mrs. Horace C. Stilwell of Indiana. Upon Mrs. Catt, the national president, your committee has constantly depended for advice and direction. Our misfortune has been that we could not have her continually in Was.h.i.+ngton.

To these a list of names was added of those who a.s.sisted during long or short periods. There was an account of the social uses of the Was.h.i.+ngton headquarters. In January, February and March of 1918 Miss Willard, with the help of Mrs. Louis Brownlow, arranged a series of weekly teas on Wednesday afternoons. Among the hostesses, the guests of honor and those serving at the table were some of the most prominent women in Was.h.i.+ngton--wives of the members of the Cabinet, Senators and Representatives. Social affairs were finally given up as war relief work absorbed other interests. Under the direction of Mrs.

Brownlow, daughter of Representative Sims (Tenn.) and wife of the Chief Commissioner for the District of Columbia, the Was.h.i.+ngton Equal Franchise League established a Red Cross Branch at headquarters, where valuable work was done by suffragists. Several entertainments for the benefit of the Oversea Hospitals were given at the house and over $1,000 raised.

At the close of this report the convention gave a rising vote of thanks to Mrs. Park and a number of delegates paid special tribute to the excellent work of the chairman and the committee. A discussion which followed by Miss Katharine Ludington (Conn.); Mrs. Andreas Ueland (Minn.); Miss Anna B. Lawther (Iowa); Mrs. Lila Mead Valentine (Va.) and Mrs. Leslie Warner (Tenn.), under the head "And Now--What?"

was devoted to ways and means for carrying the Federal Amendment. A number of conferences were held to consider various phases of the work of the a.s.sociation which had become all-embracing. The one on How to do Political Work for Suffrage was led by a past-master in it, Miss Hay. One on How to use our Organization to Win was under the direction of Mrs. Shuler. The conference of press workers was in charge of Miss Young. Why We Did Not Win was told by Mrs. Lydia Wickliffe Holmes, president of the Woman Suffrage Party of Louisiana, referring to the defeat of the State suffrage amendment; Why We Did Win, by Mrs. Ben Hooper, president of the Wisconsin a.s.sociation, describing the gaining of the Presidential franchise. There were reports by the State presidents of the work that had been done by women during the year throughout the country for the war, for suffrage, for civic improvement.

A report that was heard with the deepest interest was that of the Oversea Hospitals in France, by Mrs. Raymond Brown, general director, and Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, chairman of the committee. This had been a very important part during the past two years of the work of the a.s.sociation, which had raised $133,000 for its maintenance. [See the chapter on War Work.]

When it had been arranged to hold the convention the last week in March, 1919, it was supposed that the Federal Suffrage Amendment would have been submitted by Congress by that time, as it had pa.s.sed the Lower House early in January. It seemed especially appropriate that this jubilee convention could celebrate this event on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of the National a.s.sociation for the sole purpose of obtaining this amendment but to the keen disappointment of its leaders and members two obdurate Senators had spoiled this beautiful plan. Its success, however, was so universally conceded that it was decided to hold the semi-centennial celebration and the afternoon of March 26 was dedicated to this purpose and to the honoring of the early leaders. Fifty Years of Ever Widening Empire was the motto at the head of the program. The tribute to the Pioneers of the National a.s.sociation was paid by Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, for twenty-one years from 1881 the corresponding secretary of the a.s.sociation and closely a.s.sociated with Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and the other pioneers almost from her girlhood. To Miss Anthony she was like a daughter and she gave a touching account of her personal relations with these n.o.ble leaders. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell drew from her stores of memory a wealth of incidents of the lives of her parents and the eminent men and women who were a.s.sociated with them in founding the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, also begun in 1869. A resolution offered by Mrs. Desha Breckinridge was enthusiastically adopted--that "we owe an undying and inextinguishable debt to Henry B. and Lucy Stone Blackwell for their great service in behalf of suffrage for women but believe their greatest gift was their daughter, who has kept us true to the trust which they committed to the care of their followers."

Mrs. Catt, who always had an eye to the practical and who was on the program to urge the members of the united a.s.sociations to Finish the Fight, soon yielded her time to Miss Hay, the noted money-raiser, whose subject was, Make the Map White. In a very short time the delegates had shown their appreciation of the pioneers by subscribing $120,000, the whole amount of the "budget" for the work of the coming year. Dr. Shaw then closed the afternoon's services with reminiscences of her forty years' companions.h.i.+p with the workers in both a.s.sociations. "The suffragist who has not been mobbed," she said, "has nothing really interesting to look back upon." She spoke of the last national convention which Miss Anthony ever attended, in 1906 at Baltimore, and how she had set her heart on a grand triumph for the cause in that old, conservative city, describing how her hopes had been realized in the most successful one from every point of view that ever had been held. And then she told with exquisite pathos how one month later Miss Anthony pa.s.sed into eternal rest. Little did the listeners think that the next annual convention would hold memorial services for Dr. Shaw herself and for Mrs. Avery!

Throughout the week the meetings of the National a.s.sociation alternated with the conferences for organizing the enfranchised women and the name officially decided on was League of Women Voters. A const.i.tution for it was adopted and Mrs. Charles H. Brooks of Kansas was elected chairman. Mrs. Catt presented its first aims as outlined in her annual address and with some additions they were adopted. The addresses made by the chairmen of the war committees evinced statesmans.h.i.+p of a high order. The entire proceedings of the convention connected with this new organization are fully described in Mrs. Shuler's chapter on the League of Women Voters. There could be no greater contrast than between the firmness and authority of the speakers on this program and the pleading and argument of just as able women in earlier years for the opportunity and power to help in the solution of great national problems.

The large Odeon Theater was crowded on the evening of March 27 by an audience that heard with much interest the story of the recent campaigns for full and Presidential suffrage as told in the following program: The Indiana Irritation, Mrs. Richard E. Edwards; The Vermont Vortex, Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson; The Nebraska Nightmare, Mrs. W. E.

Barkley; The South Dakota Sore Disasters, Mrs. John L. Pyle; The Michigan Mystery, Mrs. Myron B. Vorce; The Oklahoma Ordeal, Mrs.

Nettie R. Shuler; The Texas Turmoil, Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham; The Duty of Citizens.h.i.+p, Mrs. Raymond Robins; All Roads Lead to Rome, Dr. Shaw.

The report of the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education, made by its director, Miss Rose Young, filled eighteen pages of the printed Handbook and covered a vast field of activity which included service to 25,000 publications--2,500 dailies, 16,000 weeklies, 3,233 monthlies, a number issued fortnightly, quarterly, etc., and the large syndicates and press a.s.sociations. In addition were the mimeographed news bulletins and the editorial service. An idea was given of the varied character of the material sent out and the immense amount furnished during the campaigns. A compliment was paid to the press work of Mrs. Rose Geyer, "whose task it is to collect the news, State by State, and distribute the parts of nation-wide interest through weekly bulletins, and who has by direct personal correspondence of an intimate and tactful kind trained State organization women to send in reports of conventions, political and legislative situations, candidates, etc." Many incidents were cited of important publicity, special editions of papers and display advertising. Six pages were devoted to the mission of the weekly official magazine, the _Woman Citizen_, and the way it had been fulfilled. A tribute was paid to its very able a.s.sociate editor, Miss Mary Ogden White. The invaluable service of the Research Bureau, under the expert direction of Mrs.

Mary Sumner Boyd, a.s.sisted by Miss Eleanor Garrison, was strongly set forth.

Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, who conducted the editorial correspondence, referred in her report to her full accounts in preceding years of the wide correspondence with editors. "The scope of the department was gradually enlarged," she said, "and many letters were sent to prominent people in reference to their speeches, interviews in newspapers and other public expressions. For instance, in the debates on the Federal Amendment in the Senate, whenever a speaker showed lack of correct information, a letter giving it was sent to him. Other letters also were sent to Senators and usually received courteous answers from themselves, not their secretaries." The report continued:

Several letters were written to Colonel Theodore Roosevelt urging him to use his influence with the Republican leaders and always were fully answered. A letter dictated and signed by him on January 3, 1919, enclosed one he had just sent to Senator Moses of New Hamps.h.i.+re, strongly urging him to cast his vote for the Federal Suffrage Amendment on the 10th. I received it on January 4 and he died the night of the 5th.

Letters were sent to Chairman Hays and members of the National Republican Committee and to different State chairmen on various points connected with the suffrage amendment. The pamphlet on the Difficulty of Amending State Const.i.tutions, which was prepared and sent to every Senator, was put into the Congressional Record by Senator Shafroth, and a circular letter on the founding and record of the National Woman's Party by Senator Thomas. Scores of letters were sent out showing up the fallacies of the Anti-suffragists during the year; others exposing the connection of the German-American Alliance with the Antis; others giving historic information and still others telling of gains in our own and foreign countries.

During the first year I wrote to over 2,000 editors in the United States and Canada. At the end of that time, and after the New York victory, so many were in favor of woman suffrage itself that during 1918 the work was very largely concentrated on the Federal Amendment. In the two months from November, 1917, to January, 1918, when the vote was taken in the House of Representatives, 2,600 circular letters containing an argument for this amendment went out from this department to the princ.i.p.al newspapers of the United States and in addition 100 special articles were sent to the largest papers. After that vote was taken this record was kept up to obtain favorable action by the Senate and a second and different circular argument was sent to 2,000 papers. A carefully selected list of several hundred southern newspapers was furnished to Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, to which he sent franked copies of his excellent speech on this amendment.

An open letter to Senator Baird was supplied to all the princ.i.p.al papers of New Jersey; one to Senator Benet to those of South Carolina; one to Senator s.h.i.+elds to Tennessee papers. A letter showing the att.i.tude of the National a.s.sociation toward organized labor went to a considerable number of labor papers in the various States. During the week following the failure to vote on the Federal Amendment in May, 250 letters and articles in regard to it were sent out from this department. Most of them enclosed printed or typed suffrage literature, some of Mrs. Catt's editorials and articles, and some from other sources, including my printed pamphlet on the Federal Amendment. Altogether nearly 8,000 letters and articles went out from this department.

Several pamphlets also were prepared and an article of about 2,000 words was furnished every month to the _International Suffrage News_ in London, with many clippings for its files. A number of letters and clippings also were sent to Mrs. Fawcett, the national president of Great Britain, keeping her informed on the progress of the movement in the United States, of which she was very appreciative, and letters of information were written to other countries.

By the end of 1918 from 300 to 500 editorials on woman suffrage were received every month and it was as much a subject of comment in the newspapers as any political issue of the day. The old-time attacks were almost entirely absent; the editorials showed knowledge and discrimination; fully nine-tenths of the northern newspapers advocated not only woman suffrage but the Federal Amendment, while in every southern State some leading papers were in favor of enfranchising women and a few approved of its being done through this amendment. This editorial department of the Leslie Bureau might venture to claim some share in the evolution of editorial opinion, to which, of course, many causes contributed. While the need for its work was by no means at an end, another task yet remained for the bureau to see accomplished.

Mrs. Harper then stated that it was the wish of both the Leslie Commission and the Board of the National a.s.sociation that the final volume of the History of Woman Suffrage should be written while the excellent facilities of the headquarters were available. Because of her experience in writing Volume IV this work was entrusted to her and the editorial department, therefore, was discontinued and the History begun in January, 1919.

The report of the Was.h.i.+ngton Press Bureau was made by its secretary, Miss Marjorie Shuler, dating from the preceding November and it stated that weekly press articles had been furnished to the big news services, the 200 newspaper correspondents in Was.h.i.+ngton, the papers of that city and many outside; State presidents, Congressional and press chairmen, in addition to a certain daily service; feature articles and Was.h.i.+ngton letters to the _Woman Citizen_. Material for favorable editorials was sent out through the Was.h.i.+ngton correspondents and 244 friendly to the policy of the National a.s.sociation were received with only 12 opposed. The social activities at the Was.h.i.+ngton headquarters furnished good local publicity.

In the report of Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman Suffrage Publis.h.i.+ng Co., she called attention to the almost insuperable difficulties of the publis.h.i.+ng business during the past eighteen months through the high cost of production, deterioration of materials and uncertainties of transportation. With all these handicaps the company had printed 5,000,000 pieces of literature for the a.s.sociation and 1,000,000 for its own stock. It had filled orders from Great Britain, Canada, South America, Mexico, Porto Rico and the Philippines. She told of prominent visitors from foreign countries who expressed much surprise at the variety and extent of the literature and took samples home with them for translation. Mrs. Arthur L.

Livermore, chairman of the Literature Committee, gave a list of the new publications which filled two printed pages and told of a notable group of booklets dealing with patriotic subjects; a large amount of special literature to facilitate the pa.s.sage of the Federal Amendment; maps, folders, booklets and posters.

The following recommendations were made by the Executive Council and adopted by the convention:

1. That the N. A. W. S. A. continue to support and endorse the Federal Amendment which has been before Congress for the past forty years. 2. That the next convention be in the nature of a centennial celebration of the birthday of Susan B. Anthony and be held in February, 1920. 3. That the Board of Officers be asked to serve until that date, thus confining the election of officers at this convention to Directors only. 4. That the budget for 1919 be adopted as presented by Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, the treasurer--$120,000 if the Voters' League is formed and $100,000 if it is not formed. 5. That the six War Service Committees appointed at the last convention be discontinued with the exception of the Oversea Hospitals Committee, which shall be discontinued at the conclusion of its work, and those on Americanization and Industrial Protection of Women, which shall be continued. 6. That the post-convention board be requested to reappoint Mrs. Maud Wood Park as chairman of the Congressional Committee and extend to her a vote of appreciation of her services. 7. That the Board of Directors shall have authority to enter any State to carry on work without the authority of that State, if necessary. 8. That the policy of the a.s.sociation in regard to referendum campaigns be affirmed. 9. That an organization of women voters be formed. 10. That the const.i.tution when amended and made satisfactory to the needs of the a.s.sociation be subst.i.tuted for the present const.i.tution; that, with this end in view, the Chair be instructed to appoint a committee of five women from enfranchised States and five from the Executive Council to whom the const.i.tution shall be referred.[118]

It was recommended that the following resolution be adopted "in view of the fact that a request had been made for a new definition of 'non-partisan' in relation to the National a.s.sociation as at present const.i.tuted or as it may be const.i.tuted": "Resolved, That the N. A. W.

S. A. shall not affiliate with any political party or endorse the platform of any party or support or oppose any political candidates unless such action shall be recommended by the Board of Directors in order to achieve the ends and purposes of this organization as set forth in its const.i.tution. Nothing in this resolution shall be construed to limit the liberty of action of any member or officer of this a.s.sociation to join or serve the party of her choice in any capacity whatsoever as an individual."

Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, chairman of the committee, offered fourteen resolutions, the last which were acted upon by representatives of the National American Suffrage a.s.sociation, the first having been presented in 1869. They ill.u.s.trate the wide scope of women's interests considered by that body. After full discussion the following, which are somewhat condensed, were among those adopted:

Whereas, women may now vote for President in twenty-six States of the Union, and for all elective officers in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and throughout the largest part of Europe; our eastern and southern States are now the only communities in the English-speaking world in which women are still debarred from self-government; our nation has just emerged from a war waged in the name of making the world safe for democracy and ought in consistency to establish real democracy at home; and every political party in the United States has endorsed woman suffrage in its national platform; therefore be it

Resolved, that we call upon the 66th Congress to submit the Const.i.tutional Amendment for nation-wide woman suffrage to the States at the earliest possible moment.

Whereas, one-fourth of the men examined for the army were unable to read English or to write letters home to their families, be it

Resolved, that we urge the establishment at Was.h.i.+ngton of a national department of education with a Secretary of Education in the Cabinet.

Resolved, that this a.s.sociation earnestly favors a League of Nations to secure world-wide peace based upon the immutable principles of justice.

Resolved, that we protest against the unfair treatment of professional women by the United States authorities in declining the services of women physicians, surgeons and dentists in the recent war, thus compelling loyal, patriotic women to serve under the flag of a foreign government. We recommend that in future our Government recognize the fitness of accepting the services of professional women for work for which their training and experience have qualified them.

Resolved, That we urge our Government to bring about the prompt redress of all legitimate grievances, as the removal of the sense of injustice is the surest safeguard against revolution by violence.

Whereas, the Woman in Industry Service of the U. S. Department of Labor was established as a result of the war emergency,

Resolved, that we call upon Congress to establish this service as a permanent Women's Bureau in the U. S. Department of Labor with adequate funds for the continuance and extension of its work.

Resolved, that we ask the U. S. Government in its next census to cla.s.sify definitely the unpaid women housekeepers as homemakers, thus recognizing their important service to the nation.

Resolved, that we call upon Congress to give military rank to army nurses.

Resolved, that we tender to our national president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, our deep appreciation of her sagacity, good judgment, fairness and indefatigable devotion to the cause of equal rights, and we pledge our best efforts to carry out her wise and far-reaching plans for ultimate victory.

The last evening of the convention was given to a second ma.s.s meeting at the Odeon Theater with Dr. Shaw presiding and a notable program.

The first speaker was Miss Helen Fraser of Great Britain, who had been making a tour of the United States in the interest of the women's war hospital work of that country. She was announced on the program as "Great Britain's foremost speaker," and she eloquently pictured Women and the Future. The Hon. Henry J. Allen, Governor of Kansas, stirred the audience to enthusiasm with an address on Woman's Place in War and Peace. Mrs. Catt's splendid closing speech on Looking Forward ended a convention whose keynote throughout had been "progress"; a farewell to the past years of toil and disappointment, a preparation for the future work of women under better conditions than had ever before existed. A spirit of hope, courage and unlimited expectation pervaded the army of younger women, who were soon to take up the great work committed to their care.

On Sat.u.r.day three important meetings took place. In the morning was the formal organization of the League of Women Voters, election of officers, appointment of committees and adoption of a program; also the final business session of the convention to harmonize the work of the National a.s.sociation and that of the league. In the afternoon the two bodies met in joint session to discuss the question of how voting and non-voting women might best cooperate and the three following objects were agreed upon: (1) To secure the vote for all the women of the nation in the shortest possible time; (2) to obtain the vote for women in all civilized countries; (3) to carry out the legislative program of the new organization.

Thus ended the perfectly managed Jubilee Convention, probably the most important and far-reaching in the long history of the National a.s.sociation.

HEARING ON THE FEDERAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT BEFORE THE

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE OF THE 65TH

CONGRESS, JAN. 3-7, 1918.

There was no longer any necessity for a hearing before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage, as it had unanimously reported in favor of the Federal Amendment. The suffrage leaders were profoundly thankful that they would never again have to address a hostile Judiciary Committee of the Lower House, which not in all the years had permitted the amendment to come before the Representatives for discussion, and which had now under pressure reported it out but "without recommendation." A new era had dawned and a Committee on Woman Suffrage had been formed, whose chairman, Judge John E. Raker of California, by advice of Speaker Clark, had introduced another resolution for the submission of the amendment which was sent to this committee and it desired to have a hearing.[119] This began Jan. 3, 1918, and in opening it the chairman said: "We have determined to hear first the National American Suffrage a.s.sociation and then the Woman's Party. There seem to be a few opponents--a few men--and they will be given an opportunity to be heard, as well as Mrs. Wadsworth and her organization." This hearing extended through four days and the stenographic report filled 330 closely printed pages. It was the last of the committee hearings on a Federal Suffrage Amendment which began in 1878 and had been held during every Congress since that date. If an investigator of this subject has time to read only one doc.u.ment it should be the report of this hearing.

The committee was composed of seven Democrats and six Republicans and it was well known that all but three--Saunders, Clark and Meeker--would report in favor of submitting the amendment. The National Suffrage a.s.sociation was represented the first day by its honorary president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw; its president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt; the chairman of its Congressional Committee, Mrs. Maud Wood Park; Mrs. Rosalie Loew Whitney, an able lawyer of New York; Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee, a vice-president of the a.s.sociation; Mrs. Henry Ware Allen, a prominent suffragist and war worker of Kansas. Their speeches were among the strongest ever made at a hearing. Those of the opponents show the character of their objections up to the very end of the long contest. Dr. Shaw's address was especially notable for two reasons: it was devoted largely to the work of women in the war, which was now at its height, and it was the last one before a congressional committee by this eloquent woman, who had been coming to the Capitol for almost thirty years in behalf of the amendment, as she died the following year. She was introduced as having been appointed by the Secretary of War chairman of the Woman's Committee of National Defense and as such the head of the war work of women throughout the country. Dr. Shaw began by referring to the new line of attack which was now being made on suffragists as pro-Germans and pacifists but scattered quotations can give small idea of the strength and beauty of her answers to these charges. Regarding the one of pacifism she said:

We grant that we are in favor of peace; we grant that we have a large sympathy for the sufferings of humanity, but we also claim to be possessed of intelligence and knowledge and these have convinced us that there could be nothing more disastrous to the human race than a peace at this time, which would lead to greater suffering than a continuation of the war. Therefore, because we love peace and because we have large sympathy for human sufferings, we are opposed to anything that will bring a peace which does not forever and forever make it impossible that such sufferings shall again be inflicted on the world, and the women of all countries take that stand with us. We have only to face the present situation to know that any charges that women as a whole are not courageous, are not patriotic, are not devoted to the highest interests of their country are wholly false.... Even before war was declared the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation met in convention in this city and was the first organized body of women to formulate a definite line of action and present to the President and the Government a plan which would be followed by its more than 2,000,000 members, provided hostilities went so far that war should be declared. The President accepted our services, and not only did he accept them but the devotion of the suffragists to the welfare of the country was so uniformly recognized that when the Government decided upon war and upon the necessity for organizing the woman-power of the nation, it called upon the leaders of this a.s.sociation and appointed them on a committee for co-ordinating the war work of women throughout the United States. Can it for a moment be supposed that the men in whose charge the great interests of our nation rested would have called upon women whom they did not know to be thoroughly endowed with patriotic devotion and loyalty to their country for such a service at such a time?