History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 4/Chapter 33
CHAPTER XXXIII.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.[1]
The women of the District of Columbia who desire the suffrage have a unique place among those of other localities. As the franchise for men even is not included in the privileges of citizenship, all are compelled to work circuitously through Congress in order to gain that which in the States is secured directly by the ballot. The suffrage societies stand in especially close relation to the National Association, as every year from 1869 until 1895, and each alternate year since, they have served as its hosts and arranged the many details of its delegate conventions. Being near, also, to the great legislative body of the nation they often serve as messengers and mediators between congressional committees and various State organizations of women.
The District, however, has its own vital problems to solve, and in these the suffrage association takes a prominent part. Since 1883, through its organized and persistent efforts, alone or in co-operation with other societies, many local reforms and improvements have been secured. These have been unusually difficult to obtain because subject to the dual authority of Congress and of the District Commissioners. Nevertheless, so systematically and harmoniously have the women worked that the entire personnel of the association's committees has often been changed during the long delays in the introduction of a bill, the lobbying for it and its final passage, without in the least imperiling its success.
The District society never has languished since its organization in 1868. Dr. Clara W. MacNaughton is now president and there are over one hundred active members.[2]
The Equal Suffrage Association of the District of Columbia is a separate body, corresponding to a State association, and is composed of delegates elected from the District society and the Junior Equal Suffrage Club. It was organized Dec. 2, 1898, and holds regular meetings. Mrs. Helen Rand Tindall is the president.[3]
The association made every possible effort to secure a bill to recompense Anna Ella Carroll for her services during the war. It has used its influence in favor of industrial schools and kindergartens in the public schools and has urged Congress to appropriate money for vacation schools. In 1895 it petitioned the national convention of the Knights of Labor, meeting in Washington, to adopt a resolution asking Congress to restore suffrage to the citizens of the District of Columbia with no distinction of sex. This was unanimously adopted without even the formality of referring to a committee. Delegates were sent to the International Congress of Women in Brussels in 1897.
In 1900, for the first time, the suffrage women of the District gave free entertainment to delegates to the national convention. Mrs. Ellen Powell Thompson was chairman of the committee and contributed largely to the success of that memorable convention, which ended with the celebration of Miss Susan B. Anthony's eightieth birthday and her retirement from the presidency of the National Association. Mrs. Thompson was especially active in securing the handsome gift of a purse of over $200, which was presented to her by the District society. Mrs. Julius C. Burrows assisted in many ways and through her influence the Corcoran Gallery of Art was opened to the brilliant reception given in honor of Miss Anthony.
Among many who openly espouse woman suffrage are ex-Gov. and Mrs. John W. Hoyt of Wyoming, now living in Washington, Mrs. John B. Henderson, Mrs. A. L. Barber, Mrs. Judith Ellen Foster, president of the Woman's Republican Association of the United States, and Miss Clara Barton, founder and president of the National Red Cross Society; to whom might be added hosts of others.
Legislative Action And Laws: The suffrage association has been largely instrumental in securing most of the District legislation in favor of women, as the records of the past twenty years will show. What is regarded as the most important . achievement of this nature since 1884 is the passage by Congress, in 1896, of the Married Woman's Property Rights Bill.
The removal of the disabilities of wives had been agitated for a number of years by the association. In 1893 a bill for this purpose, drafted by one of its members, Miss Emma M. Gillett, attorney-at-law, was passed by the Senate. When it reached the House it went through the usual stages, was tossed about from: one committee to another and deferred and delayed in the most exasperating manner. It was championed by Miss Gillett, however, with an unswerving courage and fidelity which never allowed it to be forgotten or neglected, and she was treated always with the utmost courtesy when appearing before congressional committees.
In 1894 Mrs. Ellen Spencer Mussey, always an ardent suffragist, as chairman of the committee on legislation for the District Federation of Women's Clubs, began a vigorous prosecution of this bill before Congress. Miss Gillett and Mrs. Mussey were ably assisted by Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Mrs. Lucia B. Blount, Mrs. M. E. Coues and Mrs. Mary S. Lockwood.
At this time married women had no legal right to hold property, and in most respects the District laws remained about as arbitrary as they were in the reign of King Charles II. A mother had no right by law to her own child, the father having legal sanction to dispose of the offspring even before it was born. At the time this committee was urging Congress to pass the bill, the public was horrified by a notorious case in the courts of the District in which a profligate father, who had never done anything to benefit his children, had disposed of them by will, debarring the mother from their custody and control. This cruelty and injustice was an object-lesson which especially evoked the sympathy of Congress.
The bill finally passed both Houses, was approved by President William McKinley, and became a law June 1, 1896. At a special meeting, held June 11, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood presented the association with an engrossed copy of the new law, and the women held a jubilee to celebrate their victory.
The law provides that the real, personal or mixed property which shall come to a woman by descent, purchase, gift, etc., shall be and remain her sole and separate property, notwithstanding her marriage, and shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband or be liable for his debts.
A married woman may bargain, sell and convey her real and personal property, enter into any contract, sue and be sued the same as a married man.
A married woman may carry on any business or enter any profession, by herself or with others, and the proceeds shall be her separate property and may be invested in her own name.
The law also provides that the father and mother shall be equal guardians of their children, and that the survivor may by last will and testament appoint a guardian.
The husband, if he have property, is required by a recent decision to furnish his family with reasonable support; otherwise there is no penalty for failure to do so.
Dower and curtesy obtain. The widow's dower is one-third for life of the real estate, and one-third of the personal estate absolutely if there is a child or descendant of any living. If there is no issue or descendant of any, but father, mother, brother, sister or descendants of these, the widow has one-half the personal estate. If none of these, the widow may have all of the personal estate, and all of the real estate if there is no kindred whatever. A widower, if his wife has borne a living child, is entitled to the use of one-third of her real estate for life, and one-third of her personal property. If there are no heirs, lineal or collateral, he takes the whole estate absolutely.
The "age of protection" for girls was raised in 1889 from 12 to 16 years. The penalty is, for the first offense imprisonment at hard labor in the penitentiary not more than fifteen years, and for each subsequent offense not more than thirty years. No minimum penalty is fixed.
Suffrage: Since the Territorial government was abolished and male citizens disfranchised, in 1874, there have been numerous petitions to Congress for the ballot by both men and women, but no action has been taken by that body.
Office Holding: Through the early '80's Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Mrs. Jane H. Spofford and others worked unceasingly for the placing of matrons at the jail and police stations. One was appointed in 1884, and, during the sixteen years since, a matron has been secured for the jail and three for the ten police stations, largely through the efforts of the suffragists and especially of Mrs. Ellen Powell Thompson, president of the District Association. The women have had the hearty support of Major Richard Sylvester, Chief of Police.
In 1892 an act was passed for a Board of Guardians for Dependent Children, of which at least three of the nine members must be women.
Principally to the efforts of Mrs. Sara A. Spencer, with the help of other members of the association, is due the bill providing for a Girl's Reform School, in 1892. The board of managers has always been composed of men, but there are a woman superintendent and a woman physician.
Mrs. Lockwood and Mrs. Elizabeth A. Russell worked long and arduously to secure a House of Detention and also a special carriage and a special court for the women and children arrested. To Major Sylvester above all others, however, belongs the credit of securing this House of Detention. Senator James McMillan of Michigan, chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, framed the bill and it was finally transformed into law. This house was opened in the summer of 1900. A Lieutenant of Police and three matrons have charge, under supervision of the Chief.
Mrs. Marilla M. Ricker was made notary public and master in chancery in 1885, and Miss Emma M. Gillett soon afterward. They secured the legislation necessary for women to hold the latter office. There are at present four or five women masters in chancery and twenty women notaries in the District.
It required six years of agitation and effort on the part of the suffrage association before women were allowed to serve as members on the Board of Public School Education. The principal movers in this work were Dr. Clara W. MacNaughton, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Helen Rand Tindall, Mrs. Lockwood and Mrs. Caroline E. Kent. During this time the bill passed through many vicissitudes and its friends became discouraged, but in 1894 Dr. MacNaughton went to work with a strong determination to secure its passage. Great assistance was rendered by Senator McMillan and the Hon. Edwin F. Uhl, at that time Assistant Secretary of State. The bill was finally passed just before Congress adjourned for that year. The school board, which has charge of both white and colored schools, consists of five members, each with a salary of $500 a year. Mrs. Mary C. Terrill (colored) served five years and resigned. She was succeeded by Mrs. Betty G. Francis (colored). Mrs. Mary Hope West (white) is the other woman member. A woman is serving as assistant superintendent of the public schools, receiving $2,500 per annum; and a woman is employed as assistant secretary of the Board of Education.
Women sit on the Hospital Boards and those of Public Charities. It never has been possible to secure the appointment of women physicians at any of the hospitals or asylums.
As women are admitted to the various Government Departments there naturally would be more of them holding office in the District of Columbia than in all the States combined. The relative number of men and women employed is as follows:
LEGISLATIVE.
| Male. | Female. | |
| Senate, officers and employes | 382 | 3 |
| House of Representatives, officers and employes | 272 | |
| Capitol Police | 65 | |
| Library of Congress | 216 | 151 |
| United States Botanic Garden | 28 | |
| 963 | 154 |
| EXECUTIVE. | ||
| Executive Office | 28 | |
| State Department | 92 | 17 |
| Treasury Department | 3,234 | 2,313 |
| War Department[4] | 2,411 | 300 |
| Navy Department[5] | 2,992 | 85 |
| Postoffice Department | 812 | 237 |
| Interior Department | 4,810 | 2,862 |
| Department of Justice | 191 | 21 |
| Department of Agriculture | 650 | 332 |
| Government Printing Office | 2,623 | 1,068 |
| Department of Labor | 74 | 10 |
| Fish Commission | 55 | 12 |
| Interstate Commerce Commission | 133 | |
| Civil Service Commission | 55 | 6 |
| Industrial Commission | 10 | 7 |
| Smithsonian Institution | 320 | 39 |
| Bureau of American Republics | 13 | 9 |
| Local Postoffices in District | 606 | 22 |
| 19,109 | 7,430 | |
| JUDICIAL. | ||
| Supreme Court of the United States | 12 | |
| Court of Claims | 25 | 2 |
| 37 | 2 | |
| SUMMARY. | ||
| 20,109 | 7,496 | |
Whether the number of women is increasing or decreasing is a disputed question. The Civil Service alone enables them to hold their places or to secure new ones against the tremendous pressure for the offices which is brought upon the appointing powers by the men who form the voting constituency of the country. Chiefs of the Divisions rarely call for a woman on the Civil Service list of eligibles.
Few women fill the highly salaried positions. One woman receives $2,500 as Portuguese translator; one, working in the U. S. Land Office at Lander, Wyoming, receives the same. One secured a $2,250 position in the Federal Postoffice Department but was soon reduced to an $1,800 place and her own given to a man. The salaries of women in general range from $900 to $1,600, not more than fifty receiving the latter sum, while many hundreds of men clerks receive $1,800. Clerkships under Civil Service rules are supposed to pay the same to men and women, but the latter rarely secure the better-paid ones. There are a large number of positions graded above clerkships and paying from $2,000 to $3,000 a year to which women are practically never appointed.
Occupations: No professions or occupations are forbidden to women. Two of the pioneer women physicians in the United States made name and fame in Washington—Dr. Caroline B. Winslow and Dr. Susan A. Edson—the latter the attending physician during the last illness of President James A. Garfield.
Education: Howard University, for white and colored students, is the only one which graduates women in medicine. In all of its ten departments, including law, it is co-educational. Columbian University (Baptist) opens its literary departments to women but excludes them from those of law and medicine, which are its strongest departments.[6] They were admitted to the Medical School in 1884, but excluded in 1892 on the ground that the university could not afford to have professors for separate classes and that the buildings were too small for the increased number of students.
Mrs. Ellen S. Mussey and Miss Emma M. Gillett, in 1896, established the Washington College of Law for the legal education of women. Mrs. Mussey has been the dean since its organization and is the only woman dean of a law school in the country. The Hon. Edward F. Bingham, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the District, is president of the board of trustees, and leading members of the bar have used their influence to make the college a success. The curriculum is the same as obtains in the leading institutions. There are several men among the students. Mrs. Mussey is counsel for the Red Cross Society.
The American University (Methodist Episcopal), now being organized for post-graduate work, is to be co-educational.
The great Catholic Universities, here, as everywhere, are closed to women. Trinity College for Women (Roman Catholic) was dedicated Nov. 22, 1900. The necessity for this college became apparent from their many applications to enter the universities for men. It is the first institution founded by this church for the higher education of women such as is provided by the largest of the women's colleges in the United States. There are in the public schools 155 men and 1,004 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $94.48; of the women, $64.31.
The introduction of Kindergartens into the public schools received the assistance of all the women's societies in the District. In 1898 a bill passed Congress appropriating $15,000 with which to make the experiment. This proving successful an annual appropriation of $25,000 was made.[7]
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Mrs. Clinton Smith, president, has secured the suppression of liquor selling in the cafe of the new Library of Congress, and a large number of most beneficent measures. In December, 1900, the national convention of the W. C. T. U. was held in Washington and among the strongest resolutions adopted were those declaring for woman suffrage and the abolishment of the army canteen. A bill for the latter purpose passed the House while the convention was in session, and soon afterwards passed the Senate. The District Federation of Women's Clubs includes eleven affiliated organizations comprising nearly four thousand women. Mrs. Julius C. Burrows (Mich.) is among the most prominent of the many women engaged in philanthropic work. Largely under her direction the Training School for Nurses connected with the Garfield Memorial Hospital has become one of the best in the country. Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby has long owned and published the Woman's Tribune. Mrs. Mary S. Lockwood for a number of years has edited the American Magazine, the official organ of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood is associate editor of The Peacemaker.
Dr. Anita Newcombe McGee was the first woman in the United States commissioned as surgeon, with the rank of lieutenant and the privilege of wearing shoulder straps. She examined most of the women nurses who volunteered their services in Cuba and the Philippines.
All of the women mentioned above are members of the suffrage association, and those engaged in public work of all kinds are, almost without exception, advocates of woman suffrage.
During the Spanish-American War the women of the District, including the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the District Federation of Women’s Clubs, united in their services. Pleasant headquarters were opened in different localities. Mrs. Judith Ellen Foster, Mrs. James B. Tanner and many other loyal Red Cross women answered the call of Clara Barton, and assisted daily through the long, hot summer of 1898 in contributing to the comfort of the soldiers when passing through Washington or while stationed at Camp Alger; and also in sending supplies for the comfort of those at the front. There were no castes, creeds or factions in this great work of patriotism.
- ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Florence Adele Chase, for number of years on the editorial staff of a daily paper at Grand Rapids, Mich., now on the edi torial force in the Division of Publications of the Agricultural Department at Washlagton, the only woman who has held the position.
- ↑ The presidents since 1884 have been Mrs. Ruth G. Denison, Dr. Susan A. Edson, Mrs. Ella M. S. Marble, Mrs. Mary L. Bennett, Mrs. Mary Powell Davis, Mrs. Ellen Powell Thompson, Miss Cora La Matyr Thomas and Mrs. Helen Rand Tindall. On March 18, 1901, the association was incorporated by Clara W. MacNaughton, Mary L. Talbott, Ellen Powell Thompson, Helen Rand Tindall, Clara Bewick Colby, Kate W. Burt, Sara A. Haslett, Caroline E. Kent and Belva A. Lockwood, "to secure for women citizens of the United States the full rights of citizenship; to build a clubhouse for women; and to collect funds for appropriate memorials to the memory of women who have performed meritorious work for the enfranchisement of women and the good of humanity."
- ↑ The Junior Equal Suffrage Club is probably the first organization of young people to become affiliated with the National Association. It was founded Jan. 24, 1895, by three girls in the Central High School, Anna Kemball, Alice Stearns and Edith Maddren. Young men comprise about one-third of its membership and join in its proceedings and discussions.
- ↑ Not including 71 officers of the U. S. Army on duty at the War Department
- ↑ Not including 37 officers U. S. Navy and 4 officers U. S. Marine Corps on duty at Navy Department.
- ↑ In 1901 women graduates were admitted as special students to lecture courses in the graduate department, known as the National School of Jurisprudence and Diplomacy, by a special vote of the trustees in each case, but no general rule has been made.
- ↑ The Senate committee included Senators Allison, Cullom, Gorman, Quay and Cockrell. When Mrs. Mussey appeared before them to ask for a new appropriation, after the trial had proved a success, she stated that she was about to ask something for that which is the most precious to every woman's heart a little child. The Senators at once declared that a little child was also the dearest thing on earth to a man's heart, and unanimously recommended the appropriation.