History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 4/Chapter 37
CHAPTER XXXVII.
ILLINOIS.[1]
The Illinois Equal Suffrage Association has had only four presidents in the past sixteen years. Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert retired from this office at the annual meeting of Sept. 25, 1884, and was succeeded by Mrs. Mary E. Holmes, who served until the autumn of 1889, when Mrs. Harbert again filled the presidency for one year. At the convention of 1890 Mrs. Holmes was re-elected, and held office until her resignation in 1897. In May of this year, Mrs. Julia Mills Dunn was elected. In 1899 Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch was made president, and in 1900 Mrs. Harbert resumed the position for one year. The other officers elected were: Vice-president, Dr. Julia Holmes Smith; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Mary Munn; recording secretary, Miss S. Grace Nicholas; treasurer, the Rev. Kate Hughes; chairman executive committee, Mrs. Elmina E. Springer.
As the work is divided into districts and counties, and as there are twenty-two districts and 102 counties partially organized, it will not be possible to name in this chapter the hundreds of quiet but very efficient workers, men and women, or to tell of their unselfish devotion, shown often in the face of fierce opposition.
The association has held a State convention each year, except 1893, the vear of tne Columbian Exposition in Chicago, when it was decided instead to attend the World's Congress of Representative Women, which met in May.[2] At many of these meetings national officers were present, among them Susan B. thony and Lucy Stone, and the halls were seldom large enough to accommodate the crowds in attendance. There have been also district and county conventions every year, while Fourth of July celebrations, county fairs and Chautauqua assemblies have been utilized to disseminate suffrage sentiment.
In 1888 Senator Miles B. Castle, Judge C. B. Waite, Mrs. Dunn and Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, the last-named from Indiana, held suffrage conferences in various cities. Later in this and the following year, similar meetings were held in a number of other places by the Illinois workers, with the assistance of Mrs. Gougar and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw.
In 1891 occurred a series of conventions which extended over six weeks and was conducted by Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace of Indiana and Mrs. McCulloch. In November Mrs. Holmes made a two-weeks' lecturing trip.
In 1892 and '93 Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe canvassed the State, speaking in nearly fifty towns and cities, and raising enough money to defray all expenses and put a handsome amount in the treasury for legislative work.
In March, 1893, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, made a lecture tour of the central and southern part of Illinois.
In 1897 the National Association held a series of meetings in Illinois with Miss Mary G. Hay of New York, Mrs. Jennie Hutchins, Mrs. Leonora Beck, as managers, and Mrs. Dunn and the Rev. Ida C. Hultin as speakers. During the summer Mrs. Dunn, with Mrs. Martha A. B. Conine of Colorado lectured in numerous cities; and in November the national officers held a conference in Chicago, in which Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw, president and vice-president of the National Association, Mrs. Chapman Catt and also many local workers participated.
In 1898 Miss Lena Morrow made speeches for the State association and spent a month lecturing before labor organizations. She secured suffrage resolutions from unions representing a membership of 25,000.
Mrs. McCulloch gave the month of June, 1890, to canvassing South Dakota in the interest of the suffrage amendment there; and in the fall of 1898 Mrs. Dunn and Miss Morrow were sent to that State to assist in its second campaign for one month, at the expense of the Illinois association. Miss Morrow worked also in the amendment campaign of 1900 in Oregon for two-and-one-half months, a portion of her expenses being contributed by Illinois suffragists.
The Chicago Political Equality League was organized by Miss Ellen A. Martin, who was at its head for many years.
Legislative Action And Laws: In 1891, at the request of the State E. S. A., a joint resolution was presented to the Legislature for an amendment to the constitution enfranchising women. This was championed in the House by George W. Curtis and brought to a vote. It received 54 votes, a majority of those cast but not a constitutional majority, which is one over one-half of the whole membership. Charles Bogardus managed the bill in the Senate, but was not able to secure a vote upon it. The hard work for this Amendment Bill, however, paved the way for the passage of the School Suffrage Bill later in the session.
This bill had been prepared by the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and was introduced into the Senate by T. C. MacMillan. Although there were many more petitions asking for the amendment than for School Suffrage, their combined influence, with Senator MacMillan's earnest work, was sufficient to pass this bill through the Senate by 29 ayes, 4 noes. At the closing hour of the last session in the House, Dr. H. M. Moore, one of the members of a third party that finally had assisted the Democrats to elect John M. Palmer as United States Senator, made an urgent plea that something should be done for the women; and because of his eloquence, or the gratitude of the Democrats, or the keen sense of justice among all the members, the Senate School Suffrage Bill was passed by 83 ayes, 43 noes.
As it was the general impression that women had received the full School Franchise by this bill, they proceeded to vote on bonds, location of buildings and various other matters pertaining to the schools, and also for county superintendents. The bill was obscurely worded, and it has taken four decisions of the Supreme Court of Illinois to decide just the points which it covered and the limits to which it might be constitutionally extended. As it now stands, under this law women can vote only for candidates for such school offices as have been created by the Legislature. (See Suffrage.)
However, this bill was useful in securing from the Supreme Court the ruling that the Legislature had power to regulate the suffrage concerning all positions created by itself. Heretofore the weight of judicial opinion had been the other way; that no change whatever could be made in the suffrage except by constitutional amendment.[3]
During the session of 1893 R. W. Coon secured the passage in the Senate of a Township Suffrage Bill prepared by the State association. Its members argued that if school offices not named in the constitution are creations of the Legislature, so are most of the township offices and therefore it has power to grant women the suffrage for these. This bill was accompanied by a petition of 12,000 names. Senator Bogardus made a spirited report on these, extolling the character of the signers, whose standing he had ascertained from the senators of their districts. It passed the Senate by 26 votes, a constitutional majority. In the House the committee reported it favorably, many members pledged themselves to its support, and it went through the second reading safely; but just when expectation ran highest, it was referred back to the committee and smothered.
In this same Legislature a bill to repeal the School Suffrage Law was defeated in the House, less than 40 of the 153 members voting aye. It was not brought to a vote in the Senate.
In 1895 Senator Coon introduced the Township Bill again, but owing to absentees it received only 23 votes, 26 being necessary to pass it. Fearing that a majority of the members of the House were pledged to vote for it, the chairman of the committee to which it was referred made a sub-committee of three notorious opponents who took care that it never was reported.
In 1897 Senator G. W. Monroe took charge of the State association's measures. Bills for Township and Bond Suffrage, and for suffrage for certain city, county and township officers and for Presidential electors, were introduced by him but failed to pass.
In the special session of 1898 only such matters could be considered as were named by Gov. John R. Tanner in calling it. The State association petitioned him to include woman suffrage in the list, but he did not grant the request. One of the subjects named was taxation. The association prepared a bill to exempt the property of women from taxation until they were allowed to vote. All the metropolitan papers were interested in or amused by this bill, and gave it considerable publicity, but it was not acted upon.
In 1899 the three bills championed by Senator Monroe in 1897 were managed by Senator Isaac H. Hamilton. He forced two of them to a vote, but neither received a majority.
During all this time Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, a practicing lawyer of Chicago, auditor of the National Association and former president of the State E. S. A., was the very efficient legislative superintendent. She pressed the bills with a force which almost brought success by its own momentum, and yet by her good judgment and fair methods kept the respect of legislators who were bitterly opposed to her measures.*
Sometimes the hearings on these bills occurred in the Senate Chamber or the House of Representatives. One of the most noteworthy was in 1895, when about twenty women, representing many different localities, societies and nationalities, made clever five-minute speeches.
The State association has sent the Woman's Journal, the Woman's Column and other suffrage literature to members of the Legislature for months at a time. Petitions always have accompanied the bills. Added to those presented in 1899 were resolutions adopted by various Chicago labor organizations of men, representing a membership of 25,000. The petitions of the State association generally have exceeded all those presented for all other measures.[4]
"During these years various suffrage bills were introduced by other organizations. The school board of Winnetka had one to give women a right to vote on all matters relating to schools; the W. C. T. U. one for a constitutional amendment; and members of the Legislature occasionally on their own responsibility introduced bills.
There has been no distinction between husband and wife in the laws of inheritance since 1873. The surviving wife or husband is endowed of a third part of all the real estate of which the other dies possessed. If either die without a will, leaving a surviving child or children, or descendants of such, the survivor receives, in addition, one-third of the personal estate absolutely. If, however, there are no lineal descendants, the widow or widower receives absolutely one-half of the real estate and the whole of the personal estate. If there are no descendants and no kindred, the whole estate goes to the surviving widow or widower.
A married woman has held her property in her own name since 1861. She has been entitled to engage in business, control her earnings, sue and be sued and make contracts since 1869.
Until 1901 the father was entitled to the care of the persons and education of the minor children. In 1898 Mrs. McCulloch published, in the form of a story called Mr. Lex, a résumé of the terrible injustice and cruelty possible under this law; and also pointed out the same possibilities in the administration of other laws which seem entirely fair to the casual observer. It was widely reviewed by the Chicago press and aroused much interest. In the winter of 1901 a bill was passed by the Legislature giving fathers and mothers equal guardianship and custody of their minor children. Mrs. McCulloch, representing the State E. S. A., had charge of this bill. A copy of her book, Mr. Lex, was sent to every member, as well as the full facts from every State which had such a law as the one proposed. She also obtained the indorsement of numerous organizations and influential persons, and had many individual letters written to members. All this simply to give mothers equal guardianship with fathers of their own children!
Mrs. McCulloch was ably assisted by the Rev. Kate Hughes. The bill passed by the large vote of 34 ayes, 8 noes, in the Senate; 119 ayes, one no, in the House. It was signed by Gov. Richard Yates on May 18. The wife is entitled to support suited to her condition in life. The husband is entitled to the same support out of her individual property. They are jointly liable for family expenses. Failure
to support the wife and children under twelve years of age is a misdemeanor, and may be punished by a fine of not less than $100 or more than $500, or imprisonment in the county jail, house of correction or workhouse not less than one month nor more than twelve months, or both such fine and imprisonment. The wife may sue for separate maintenance without divorce.
The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 14 years in 1887, but it never has been possible to have this age extended. The penalty is imprisonment in the penitentiary for from one year to life.
In 1893 Mrs. Florence Kelley and Miss Mary Kenney, aided by the women's and men's labor organizations of Chicago and by many women's clubs, secured a Factory Inspection Law. It contained a prohibition against the employment of a woman over eight hours daily in any factory or workshop, but this section was declared unconstitutional because it was a restriction upon the right to contract.
Suffrage: The Legislature which adjourned in 1891 left the School Suffrage Law obscure, incomplete and with no provisions to carry out its intentions. In many cases the women had to provide their own ballots and ballot-boxes. To the credit of the large majority of the judges of election it can be said that they accepted the votes of the women with no certainty that they were acting legally or would be sustained by future decisions. In a number of instances, however, in the more ignorant parts of the State, the votes were insolently refused.
In the country and unincorporated towns, in villages and small cities, where the school boards are elected by the people, there are a number of officers for whom women may vote;[5] but in places like Chicago, where the board is appointed by the mayor, the only vote they have is for three trustees of the State University every two years.
In the summer and fall of 1893 the officers of the State association agitated the question of asking, for the nomination of a woman as one of these trustees, and in March, 1894, the convention in Danville approved this suggestion. The auxiliary societies were urged to use all their influence to have delegates from their counties to the State political conventions instructed to vote for a woman candidate. Later in the spring several of the suffrage officers and prominent women of Chicago appeared before the Republican State Central Committee, and the same day visited the Republican State Editorial Association, asking their influence to secure the nomination of a woman for trustee. Letters were sent to 200 leading politicians of different parties giving reasons why such action should be taken and asking for their co-operation. Personal appeals were made to the editors of the Chicago dailies for their influence.
Then came the most important work of all—securing the indorsement of the Cook County conventions. Previous to that of the Republicans Mrs. McCulloch interviewed leading members of the county committee and received an invitation to present the matter to the convention, which she did, representing both the State E. S. A. and the Woman's Club of Chicago. Mrs. Elmina D. Springer also made an address. They were invited to meet the resolutions committee, were treated with great courtesy, and the resolution asking that delegates to the State convention be instructed to vote as a unit for the nomination of a woman for University trustee, was adopted.
The Chicago Woman's Club sent fifty women to the Cook County Democratic Convention and secured the same pledge.
Committees were then appointed to manage this question in the State conventions of the parties. Just a few days before the first (Democratic), the attorney-general, who was a Democrat, gave the opinion that women could not legally vote for trustees or be trustees, and published it widely in the Chicago press. Mrs. McCulloch followed him with a carefully prepared brief which also was given to the press. This new difficulty made it imperative for her to attend the Democratic State Convention to present her view of the disputed legal point, and this she did with marked success. Whenever any of the delegates said, "Why, haven't you read Maloney's opinion that a woman can not hold the office or vote for trustee?" she would answer, "Yes, but haven't you read my opinion that she can?" She addressed the entire convention, and the nomination of Dr. Julia Holmes Smith was made unanimously. The other political parties then had to follow with the nomination of a woman or fall behind the Democrats in chivalry.
As the Chicago Woman's Club sent a strong representation to the Republican convention, and as pledges already had been secured from the delegates, the committee appointed by the suffrage association did not deem it necessary to attend. Mrs. Lucy L. Flower was nominated by this body.
The Prohibitionists nominated two women, one of them the secretary of the Illinois E. S. A., Prof. Rena Michaels Atchison.
This recognition from the different parties so encouraged the women that in 1894 they voted enthusiastically throughout the State, especially in Chicago where the candidates were well known. Before the election, however, a difficulty arose from an unexpected quarter. The men composing the Board of University Trustees became alarmed, and employed an attorney who gave an opinion that women neither could vote for trustees nor be elected to the office. He rushed into print; Mrs. McCulloch, who might have been worn to shreds by this time, patiently answered the young man, and "the women went right on voting."
Professor Atchison had the compliment of receiving about 3,000 votes more than the men on the same ticket as herself, and Dr. Smith likewise ran ahead of her ticket.[6] Mrs. Flower was the successful candidate, also leading the nominees of her party.
The Republican women organized by appointing a State Central Committee, and placed upon it a woman from each congressional district.[7] The Democratic women formed a Cornelia Club which worked for the interest of their party's nominee.
Office Holding: A statute of Illinois (1873) provides that no person shall be debarred from any occupation, profession or employment (except the military), on account of sex, and that this shall not be construed to affect the eligibility of any person to an elective office.[8]
The following have served as trustees of the State University: Mrs. Lucy L. Flower, Dr. Julia Holmes Smith, Mrs. Mary Turner Carriel, Mrs. Alice Asbury Abbott, Mrs. Carrie Thomas Alexander. The term of office is six years.
Women are eligible to all school offices (1873) and large numbers have served as county superintendents, members of city boards of education and directors of district schools. All the principal cities now have women on their school boards. In Chicago there are two at the present time. Ten counties have women for superintendents.
Miss Cora B. Hirtzell was appointed as assistant by C. S. Thornton, corporation counsel of Chicago, and served during his whole term of office.
Miss Mary M. Bartelme was appointed by Gov. John R. Tanner Public Guardian of Cook County, and is the only woman in the United States to fill such a position. Her duties are to look after the persons of minors and their small estates, when no one else will take the guardianship, and she has over 200 children under her care. She received the highest commendation from Judge Christian C. Kohlsaat, formerly of the Probate Court, and continues to hold office under his successor.
A decision of the Supreme Court permits a woman to be Master in Chancery, but only one ever was appointed.
Women may be official court reporters, but only two have been appointed. The office of a Judge being elective he naturally feels obliged to give these places to voters.
Women have been notaries public for over twenty years.
Miss Kate O'Connor was deputy clerk of Winnebago County for ten years, and Miss Rose Beatson was deputy county treasurer. Mrs. A. T. Ames was deputy sheriff of Boone County.
Frequently the position of State Librarian has been filled by a woman, and of late years that of postmaster in the House and the Senate. The librarian of the Southern Normal University at Carbondale is a woman. Women have served as presidents of library boards in various places.
Women sit on the Board of Directors of the Illinois Farmers' Institute. One of the State Commissioners of Public Charities was a woman; but she resigned because of the introduction of politics into the board. A woman has served on the State Board of Health.
The Home for Juvenile Female Offenders was established in 1893. It is under the control of five trustees, two of whom are women. The superintendent also is a woman.
The Soldiers' Widows' Home was established by a law of 1895, which provided that of the five trustees three should be women and members of the State Woman's Relief Corps. The entire board is now composed of women.
Chicago has three women deputy factory inspectors, and formerly had a chief inspector, Mrs. Florence Kelley, who served four years with great ability.
Miss Jane Addams of Hull House was appointed garbage inspector of the nineteenth ward of Chicago by Mayor George B. Swift. She served one year and was succeeded by Miss Amanda Johnson, also a resident of Hull House. Under their care this ward, which had been one of the most neglected in the city, became famous for cleanliness and order.
Volunteer associations of women in Chicago did so much in this direction that some of their members finally took the civil service examinations for garbage inspectors or contractors and several received official positions. Among the most prominent of these is Mrs. A. Emmagene Paul, who superintends a large force of men in the first ward of Chicago. As this is a downtown ward it is one of the hardest in the city to keep clean, but she performs the work to the satisfaction of all except "gang", politicians, who have made every possible effort to have Mayor Carter Harrison remove her.
Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer of Chicago was appointed United States Commissioner at the Paris Exposition of 1900 by President McKinley, the only woman distinguished by any government with so important a position. Miss Addams was appointed a member of the Jury of International Awards, Department of Social Economics, for the same exposition. Her election as vice-president of this jury made her eligible to membership in the Group Jury, on which she also served. This was a distinction conferred upon no other woman.
Occupations: All occupations were opened to women by a statute of 1873, which declared also that they should not be required to work on streets or roads or serve upon juries.
They were not allowed to practice law until 1872, Mrs. Myra W. Bradwell having been the first to make application in 1869.[9] Since that time ninety women have been admitted to the bar. Among those who have done noteworthy work is the daughter of Judge and Mrs. Bradwell, Mrs. Bessie Bradwell Helmer, who was chief editor of twenty volumes of the Appellate Court Reports and, since the death of her mother, has been president of the Chicago Legal News Company, which issues the principal law publications of the State.
Mrs. Catharine V. Waite published the Chicago Law Times for two years; Mrs. Marietta B. R. Shay wrote The Student’s Guide to Common Law Pleading; and Miss Ellen A. Martin organized the National Woman Lawyer’s League, and is its secretary. Women are members of the State and the Chicago Bar Associations and of the Chicago Law Institute.
The World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, opened large fields of usefulness and power to women. Those of Illinois were especially conspicuous in the wonderful work done by their sex during this World’s Fair. Its Board of Lady Managers was appointed under an Act of Congress to represent the special interests of women at the exposition, and Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer was elected president. Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin of Chicago was vice-president and active superintendent of the Woman’s Branch of the World’s Congress Auxiliary.
A complete official report of nearly 1,000 pages of the Congress of Representative Women, the greatest assemblage of women which ever had been held up to this date, was prepared by the Chairman of the Organization Committee, Mrs. May Wright Sewall of Indianapolis, who made several trips abroad in the interest of the Congress. To her great executive capacity and untiring efforts for three years, with those added of its secretary, Mrs. Rachel-Foster Avery of Philadelphia, and the splendid cooperation of the committee of Chicago women—Miss Frances E. Willard, Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson, Dr. Julia Holmes Smith, Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert and Mrs. William Thayer Brown—is due the fact that this Congress was the most conspicuous success of any held during the Exposition, with the exception of the Parliament of Religions. It convened May 15, 1893, and continued one week, during which eighty-one meetings were held in the different rooms of the Art Palace. Twenty-seven countries and 126 organizations were represented by 528 delegates. According to official estimate the total attendance exceeded 150,000.[10]
Education: The law colleges never have been closed to women. Union College of Law was the first in the United States to graduate a woman, Mrs. Ada H. Kepley, in 1870.
Some of the medical schools are still bitterly opposed to admitting women. All the homeopathic colleges are open to them with the exception of the Chicago Homeopathic. At Harvey Medical College about half the students are women, and several of the full professorships are filled by them. Hahnemann College admits them but has no woman professor or instructor. In 1899 Dr. Julia Holmes Smith was elected dean of the National Medical College (Homeopathic) with no dissenting vote, and in 1900 she was re-elected. She is the only woman dean of a medical institution composed of both sexes. Women are received in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is the medical department of the State University. Rush College, one of the largest of the allopathic institutions, has just been opened to them. All of the colleges named above are in Chicago. Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson was the first woman admitted to the American Medical Association.
The theological schools generally are closed to women. They are admitted to the full courses of the Garrett Biblical Institute of the Northwestern University. Lombard University gives them the full privileges of its Divinity School (Universalist). In 1898 the Chicago Union Theological Seminary (Congregationalist) opened its doors to them. They may also enter the theological department of Chicago University, but its circular of information says: "Women students receive no encouragement to become ministers."
The State University and all of the other large universities and colleges in Illinois are open to women, although some of the minor institutions are still closed.
There are in the public schools 6,973 men and 18,974 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $60.42; of the women, $53.27. In the Chicago schools women receive the same pay as men for the same work, but the highly salaried positions are largely monopolized by men.
An incident which has no parallel deserves a place on these pages. In Chicago it was long the custom, whenever retrenchment of taxes became necessary, to cut down the salaries of the school teachers. In 1899 they could not get even what was legally due to them, and in 1900 the same condition prevailed.
Various reasons were given for the shortage of funds, but two of the teachers, Miss Margaret Haley and Miss Catharine Goggin, obtained information that the reason of the deficit was that some of the largest corporations in the State were not assessed for taxes. Without any backing they began an investigation. When proof positive was secured, through a long search of official records, they laid the case before the Teachers' Federation of 4,000 members, who authorized them to prosecute it to the end and supplied the necessary funds.
They went before the Board of Equalization with proofs that hundreds of millions of dollars of corporation property was not assessed for taxation; but the board refused absolutely to act. Then they filed a mandamus to compel it to do so, and brought the matter into the courts. Every legal, political and financial influence that could be secured in the State was used to fight these courageous women. 'They carried the case through the lower courts and into the Supreme Court, which confirmed their contention that these corporations should be taxed. (Oct. 24, 1901.)
The Union Traction Company and the Chicago Consolidated Traction Company, two of the greatest corporations which for years had been avoiding their legal taxes, applied to the United States Circuit Court for an injunction to restrain the State Board of Equalization from assessing them. They invoked the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, which says that private property shall not be taken without due process of law. The injunction was refused.
This decision will increase the 'revenues of Chicago not less than $5,000,000 a year, unless some scheme is evolved for circumventing the law, which has not been enforced up to this time. (July, 1902.)
During the campaign of 1900 both Republican and Democratic clubs of women were formed. The Democratic Club of Chicago announced that it would be permanent, and at all times would oppose every legislative and congressional candidate who should be unfavorable to woman suffrage.
The Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs has been a great educator. It was organized in 1894, and is composed of 225 clubs with a membership of 20,000. The Chicago Woman's Club is one of the largest in the United States and does a vast amount of practical work.
Miss Frances E. Willard belonged to Illinois as well as to the world, and it was through her powerful influence that the great organization of the W. C. T. U. was first swung into line for the enfranchisement of women. By voice and pen she aided this cause for over twenty years.
Among other staunch supporters are Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley-Ward, whose home and purse and pen are used for the benefit of woman suffrage; and her mother, Mrs. Susan Look Avery, who speaks and writes with the vigor of youth, although eighty-three years of age. Mrs. Emily M. Gross is one of the large contributors. . f
Senator Miles B. Castle was chairman of the Illinois E. S. A. executive committee for Over twenty years, and edited and published the State organ, the Suffragist, for five years, supplying the deficit from his own pocket. The Rev. C. C. Harrah, now of Iowa, did valiant service for many years as chairman of the State advisory committee. He sent his leaflet, Jesus Christ the Emancipator of Woman, at his own expense to hundreds of ministers throughout the country, and it is still in use by the National Association.
Mrs. Eva Munson Smith, vice-president of the State association, published a volume entitled Woman in Sacred Song, which contains poems written by 830, and 150 musical compositions by 50 different women. Mrs. Carrie Ashton Johnson, secretary, compiled a popular Suffrage Dime Speaker. Miss Mary H. Krout, for ten years connected with the Inter-Ocean, never has failed to use her influence in favor of woman suffrage. Mrs. Fannie H. Rastall gave her services as editor-in-chief of the Woman's Forum for several years.
Sixteen years ago but one paper in Illinois had a woman's department; now this is a feature of all, and 161 are regularly publishing suffrage matter furnished by the State press bureau.
- ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Mary E. Holmes of Chicago, who has been officially connected with the State Equal Suffrage Association since 1884.
- ↑ State conventions have been held as follows: Watseka, 1884; Geneseo, 1885; Sandwich, 1886; Galva, 1887; Rockford, 1888; Joliet, 1889; Moline, 1890; Kewanee, 1891; Aurora, 1892; Chicago (World's Fair), 1893; Danville, 1894; Decatur, 1895; Harvey, 1896; Waukegan, 1897; Springfield, 1898; Barry, 1899. The twenty-seventh annual meeting took place in Edgewater, Oct. n, it, 1900.
- ↑ Among the officers for whom the Legislature has the power to allow women to vote are Presidential electors, members of the State Board of Equalization, clerk of the Appellate Court, county collector, county surveyor, members of the Board of Assessors, sanitary district trustees, members of the Board of Review, all officers of cities, villages and towns (except police magistrates), supervisor, town clerk, assessor, collector and highway commissioner. The Legislature has power also to permit women to vote on general questions submitted to the electors, besides voting in all annual and special town meetings.
- ↑ In 1891 an anti-suffrage petition, signed by twelve persons, aroused some interest on account of its novelty. In later Legislatures their petitions do not seem to have appeared, but some of those twelve signers can be found composing the Chicago Anti-Suffrage Society of the present day.
- ↑ In April, 1891, fifteen women of Lombard voted at the municipal election under a special charter which gave the franchise to citizens over twenty-one years of age. The judges were about to refuse the votes, but Miss Ellen A. Martin, of the law firm of Perry & Martin in Chicago, argued the legal points so conclusively that they were accepted. No one has contested that election, and the women have established their right to vote.
- ↑ Although Dr. Smith was defeated she was really the first woman who served as trustee of the State University, for Gov. John P. Altgeld appointed her to fill a member's unexpired term and she took her seat one month before Mrs. Flower, serving eighteen months. At the next election her name was again placed on the Democratic ticket, which was again defeated.
- ↑ They continued to hold delegate conventions every two years to nominate a woman for trustee, until the Primary Election Law, recently passed, provided that delegates to nominating conventions must be elected at the polls.
- ↑ During the Legislature of 1873 a Joint Special Committee was appointed to revise the laws. Through the heroic efforts of Miles B. Castle in the Senate and Judge James B. Bradwell in the House, with the assistance of the veteran law professor and reviser of statutes, the Hon. Harvey B. Hurd, a most liberal legislation for women, in all directions possible at that time, was secured.
- ↑ See History Woman Suffrage, Vol. II, p. 601.
- ↑ Mrs. Sewall's report will be found in most public libraries. A graphic account of this Congress is contained in the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Chap. XLI. See also present volume of this History, Chap. XIV.