History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 5/Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVIII.
NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1918-1919.
For the first time since it was founded in 1869 the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1918 omitted its annual convention. Suffragists were accustomed to strenuous effort but this year strained to the last ounce the strength of all engaged in national work. The Congressional Committee could not secure the respite of a single day and were summoning women from all parts of the country for service in Washington and demanding extra work from them at home, telegrams, letters, influence from the constituencies, etc. There was a vote Jan. 10, 1918, in the Lower House and a continual pressure from that moment to get a vote in the Senate, which did not come till October and was adverse. Then the committee pushed on without stopping Mrs. Shuler, the corresponding secretary, had been in the Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma campaigns all summer and was exhausted. The three States were carried for suffrage and when the election was over all the forces were used to obtain Presidential suffrage in the big legislative year beginning January, 1919. It was a question of pressing forward to victory or stopping to prepare for and hold a convention and lose the opportunities for gains in Congress.
During the first ten months of 1918 the vast conflict in Europe had gone steadily on; the United States had sent over millions of soldiers and other millions were in training camps on this side of the ocean; transportation was blocked; the advanced cost of living had brought distress to many households; thousands of families were in mourning, and everywhere suffragists were devoting time and strength to those heavy burdens of war which always fall on women. By November 1, when it would have been necessary to issue the call for a convention, there was no prospect of a change in these hard conditions, and when on November 11 the Armistice was suddenly declared no one was interested in anything but the end of the war and its world-wide aftermath.[1] During the dark days of 1918, however, there had come a tremendous advance in the status of woman suffrage. The magnificent way in which women had met the demands of war, their patriotic service, their loyalty to the Government, had swept away the old-time objections to their enfranchisement and fully established their right to full equality in all the privileges of citizenship. Early in the winter the Lower House of Congress by a two-thirds vote declared in favor of submitting to the Legislatures an amendment to the Federal Constitution, the object for which the National Suffrage Association had been formed, and the Parliament of Great Britain had fully enfranchised the majority of its women. In the spring the Canadian Parliament conferred full Dominion suffrage on women. Before and after the Armistice the nations of Europe that had overthrown their Emperors and Kings gave women equal voting rights with men. In November at their State elections, Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma gave complete suffrage to women. The U. S. Senate was still holding out by a majority of two against submitting the Federal Amendment but it was almost universally recognized that the seventy years' struggle for woman suffrage in this country was nearing the end.
With the opening of the year 1919 the progress was evident by the addition of seven more States to those whose Legislatures had granted the Presidential franchise to women; that of Tennessee included Municipal suffrage and that of Texas had given Primary suffrage the preceding year. The situation now seemed to require an early convention of the National Association and the time was especially opportune, as this year marked the 50th anniversary of its founding. A Call was issued, therefore, for a Jubilee Convention to be held in March, fifteen months after the one of 1917. As it was the intention to launch the organization of Women Voters it was decided to meet in the central part of the country and the invitation of St. Louis was accepted.[2]
The Report of the annual convention of 1901, with which this volume begins, filled 130 printed pages; the Report of 1919 filled 322, which makes a complete account of its proceedings impracticable. Their character had been changing from year to year and at this convention it was almost transformed. At the public evening meetings there were no longer eloquent pleas and arguments for the ballot and the daytime sessions were not devoted to discussions of the many phases of the work. Now there was business and political consideration of the best and quickest methods of bringing the movement to an end and the most effective use that could be made of the suffrage already so largely won. It was a little difficult for some of the older workers to accustom themselves to the change, which deprived the convention of its old-time crusading, consecrated spirit, but the younger ones were full of ardor and enthusiasm over the limitless opportunities that were nearly within their grasp.
On Sunday evening the national officers and directors held an informal reception in the Hotel Statler for the delegates and all the sessions were held in this hotel, with the two evening mass meetings in the Odeon Theater. The convention opened Monday evening, March 24, with the president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who was an ordained Methodist minister, pronounced the invocation and the community singing at this and all sessions was led by Mrs. W. D. Steele of St. Louis.[3] The Mayor, Henry W. Kiel, extended a cordial welcome to the city and pledged his earnest support of woman suffrage. Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, president of the Missouri suffrage association, gave the welcome from the State. Mrs. B. Morrison Fuller, president of the Daughters of Pioneers, brought their greeting and referred to a convention held in St. Louis in 1872, introducing three ladies who were present at that time.
Dr. Shaw, honorary president, took the chair and presented Mrs. Catt. Her address, The Nation Calls, was a strong appeal for an organization of Women Voters to be formed in the States where they were enfranchised. The plan was outlined and she asked: "Shall the women voters go forward doing their work as free women in the great world while the non-free women ire left to struggle on alone toward liberty unattained?" She showed how powerful an influence such a coordinated body could wield and among its primary objects she pointed out the Federal Suffrage Amendment, corrections in the present laws and true democracy for the world. She named nine vital needs of the Government at the present time, to which the proposed organization could contribute—compulsory education, English the national language, education of adults, higher qualifications for citizenship, direct citizenship for women and not through marriage, compulsory lessons in citizenship through foreign language papers, oath of allegiance as qualification for citizenship, schools of citizenship in every city ward and rural district and an educational requirement for voting.
This comprehensive and convincing address is given in part in the chapter on The League of Women Voters, by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary. It showed beyond question the great work that awaited the action of women endowed with political power and it swept away all doubts of the necessity for this new organization to which Mrs. Catt and her committee had given so much time and thought. Throughout the convention the League was the dominating feature, meetings being held daily to discuss its organization, constitution, objects, methods, officers, etc.
At the close of Mrs. Catt's address Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee, with a group of sixteen women from as many southern States came to the platform and with eloquent words presented her and Dr. Shaw with large framed parchments on which President Wilson's appeal to the Senate for the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment Sept. 30, 1918, was beautifully wrought in illuminated letters by the artist Scapecchi. At Mrs. Catt's request Dr. Shaw made the response for both of them.
Tuesday morning the convention was cordially welcomed to the city by Mrs. George Gellhorn, president of the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League and chairman of local arrangements. There were present 329 delegates, seventeen officers and three chairmen of standing committees. The chair announced that because of the crowded program the separate reports of officers and committee chairmen, which always had been read to the conventions, would be replaced with a general report of the year's work by Mrs. Shuler, chairman of Campaigns and Surveys. This report was a remarkably comprehensive survey of the varied work of the association. After recounting the gains in the States she said:
The work of the last fifteen months has been accomplished under most trying and difficult conditions. Many women under the allurement of war work dropped suffrage work altogether, and could not be persuaded that it was necessary at this time; others were unable to endure the criticism that they would be "slackers" if they did anything besides war work; still others thought if they did this well that men, "seeing their good works" would "reward them openly" with the ballot.
Mobilization: The mobilization of our suffrage army came April 18, 1918, with the call for the Executive Council meeting at Indianapolis. At that time Mrs. Catt, our chief, plainly stated that there could be no "go it alone" campaigns but that provincial shackles must be dropped, nation-wide plans adopted and constructive cooperation from all branches assured. Her plans were accepted unanimously. On May 14 a bulletin was issued asking for a nation-wide protest campaign against further delay in passing the Federal Amendment. Resolutions were to be passed by State bodies and points given to be stressed at mass meetings and in publicity. Resolutions of protest were sent from the women of the Allied countries of Europe to the President of the United States; from National Republican and Democratic Committees; General Federation of Women's Clubs; National Women's Trade Union League; American Collegiate Alumnæ; American Nurses' Association; National Education Association; National Convention of Business Women; Woman's Christian Temperance Union; American Federation of Labor. Many States responded with resolutions from State political parties, press associations, churches, granges, labor and business organizations, political leaders and large numbers of citizens.
Our Fighting Units: From honorary president to the last director, every member of the board of the National Association had some part in war work. Our service flag representing suffrage officials of our branches carried twenty-five stars. Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick were conscripted for the Woman's Committee of the National Council of Defense; Mrs. Catt for the Liberty Loan's National List; Miss Hay, Mrs. Gardener and Mrs. Dudley for Congressional and Mrs. Brown for Oversea Hospitals work. Other members of the board were sent from time to time to various States on special missions.
Congressional Work: Mrs. Rogers went to New Jersey; Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Stilwell to Delaware and Mrs. Livermore to New Hampshire for work connected with the Federal Amendment. Mrs. Wilson attended the State suffrage conventions in Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and made a longer stay in Florida and Vermont. Mrs. Shuler went to the three campaign States twice, spending five weeks in South Dakota, holding a suffrage school there; five weeks in Michigan and nearly five months in Oklahoma, later going to West Virginia. Others who were sent by the National Association on special missions were Miss Louise Hall, Mrs. Fitzgerald, Mrs. Anna C. Tillinghast and Miss Eva Potter to New Hampshire; Miss Mabel Willard to Delaware; Mrs. Cunningham, Miss Marjorie Shuler and Mrs. Mary Grey Brewer to Florida, while Mrs. Brewer made a trip as special envoy to five of the western States. Our nineteen national organizers have been in twenty States. In eighteen part or all of the expenses have been borne by the National Association. At present we have ten organizers in the field.
To the one who has made our victories possible, our national and international president, Mrs. Catt, women owe a debt of gratitude that can never be paid. Her strength and sagacity, her unerring judgment and masterful leadership have acted as a stimulus and inspiration, not only to those of us who have been privileged to work at close range but also to the women of the entire world. Our national suffrage headquarters have been a place of peace and happiness because of her patience, good-nature and sympathy. Her battle for the past fifteen months has been with adverse conditions and reactionary forces, which are always the hardest to combat, but not once has her courage faltered or her strength of purpose failed.
Our Ammunition: At national headquarters in New York City our work is departmentalized and functions through the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education under three department heads: The Woman Citizen, Press Bureau and Research. These cooperate with a fourth department, the National Publishing Company, and all are so closely co-ordinated that they work as one.
The "Woman Citizen"—Our National Organ. (See special report.) As you will remember, the Leslie Commission took over the Press Bureau March, 1917, and since then has paid all of its expenses.
In order to keep our official machinery moving, there are about fifty people on the two floors at 171 Madison Avenue, New York.
Circularization: The "Woman Citizen" has been sent each week members of Congress and on thirty different occasions they receive literature prepared in the most tempting fashion for their instruction and edification. Mrs. Catt put into operation the plan for resolutions from the Legislatures calling upon the Senate to pass Federal Suffrage Amendment. These from twenty-four States read into the Congressional Record, and while they did not put Federal Amendment through they were effective as showing nation-wide urge for favorable action. The Legislatures themselves were circularized with excellent literature.
In February, 1918, a bulletin was sent to State presidents offering one or more traveling libraries of sixty-two volumes, the Leslie Commission to pay expenses to the State and its association to pay them within the State. A library could be held one year. Quantities of literature have been sent to the States for distribution while requests for special literature have received prompt attention.
The activity regarding the appointment of a woman or women on the Peace Commission originated in the national office and stirred the people of the entire country. On Dec. 8, 1918, the association held a meeting of war workers in the National Theatre in Washington, D. C., to protest against further delay in the Senate on the Federal Amendment. Twenty-seven delegates representing the association. attended the eight congresses held throughout the United States in the interest of the League of Nations.
Field Work. The resolution committing the National Association to an aggressive policy was passed at its convention of 1917. It read: "If the 65th Congress fails to submit the Federal Amendment before the next Congressional election the association shall select and enter into such a number of campaigns as will effect a change in both houses of Congress sufficient to insure its passage."
October came; the November elections were approaching; the 65th Congress had failed to pass the amendment. Probabilities had to be weighed which would produce the necessary two votes if possible and it was decided to enter the campaigns in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Delaware. The first two were at no time specially hopeful, as they were likely to poll Republican majorities and the Republican Senatorial candidates of both were against woman suffrage. However, as a result of the work done in New Jersey, Senator Baird fell much behind his ticket, while in New Hampshire the women and the advertising made so strong a case for the pro-suffrage candidate that for a day or two the result was in doubt, but it was finally declared that Moses had won by 1,200 votes.... The two most important and successful contests were in Massachusetts against the Republican Senator Weeks; in Delaware against the Democratic Senator Saulsbury....Under the sub-title "In the trenches" Mrs. Shuler told of the three great State campaigns of the year in Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma (described in the chapters for those States) and said:
Mrs. Shuler's fine report closed with an optimistic peroration on Seeing it Through. [See Handbook of convention.] The carefully audited report of the treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, showed almost incredible collections during a period when the war was making its endless calls for money. In part it was as follows: "The year 1918 has been a very remarkable one for the national suffrage treasury. The large demands of the war on every individual, both for money and work, seemed to forebode financial difficulties for us before the close of our fiscal year. Instead, the response to the needs of our treasury was never more fully met, both in the payment of pledges made at the last convention and in securing new pledges and donations. Early in the year the treasurer was asked to assume also the duties of treasurer of the association's Women's Oversea Hospitals Committee and this fund has passed regularly through the treasury, amounting in all to $133,339. The very generous and hearty response of the State suffrage associations to the demands of our Oversea Hospitals'-war work has been most gratifying and its financing has not diminished the regular income of the association.... About one-third of the association's income has been received from the State auxiliaries and two-thirds from individual donations. The receipts for suffrage work were $107,736; balance on hand $11,874." [The Leslie Commission contributed $20,000.]
A message to the convention from President Wilson was received conveying his greetings and best-wishes for the success of the Federal Amendment. On motion of Dr. Shaw the convention sent to the President an expression of its appreciation of his support. Mrs. Philip North Moore, president of the National Council of Women, brought its fraternal greetings. Others were received from far and wide.... On motion of Mrs. Shuler a telegram of appreciation was sent to Mrs. Helen H. Gardener of Washington, and on motion of Dr. Shaw one to Mrs. Ida Husted Harper of New York. A message of sympathy in the loss of her husband was sent to the veteran suffragist, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert of Pasadena, formerly of Chicago. It was voted that letters from the convention should be sent to the pioneers, Dr. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Miss Rhoda Palmer, Mrs. Charlotte Pierce, Miss Emily Howland and Mrs. C. D. B. Mills.
During the convention the Legislature of Missouri passed the bill giving Presidential suffrage to women by 21 to 12 in the Senate and 118 to 2 in the House. The convention sent a message of enthusiastic appreciation. [For full account see Missouri chapter.] Miss Anna B. Lawther, president of the Iowa Suffrage Association, requested the National Association and the League of Women Voters to appeal to the Legislature of that State to pass a similar bill. Mrs. Dudley of Tennessee and Miss Mary Bulkley of Connecticut made the same request for these States and it was granted for all three. Mrs. Frederick Nathan (N. Y.) urged the suffragists to contribute to the Women's Roosevelt Memorial Association. Mrs. Gellhorn's young daughter was introduced as having recently organized a Junior Suffrage League in St. Louis of thirty-two members. Mrs. Katharine Philips Edson (Cal.) announced that though it had no regular suffrage organization, Northern and Southern California each had telegraphed a contribution of $500 to the work of the National Association.
The present policies of the association were endorsed. The reason given for wishing the officers to hold over until the next annual convention in 1920 was that the complete ratification of the Federal Amendment by that time was considered certain and these officers would be best fitted to close up the affairs of the association, which would then be merged into the League of Woman Voters. From the list of candidates the following eight directors were elected: Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.); Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.); Mrs. C. H. Brooks (Kans.); Mrs. Ben Hooper (Wis.); Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.); Mrs. J. C. Cantrill (Ky.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N.Y.); Mrs. George A. Piersol (Penn.). Mrs. Brooks, Mrs. Livermore and Miss Ogden were re-elected.
The afternoon session of Tuesday was devoted to suffrage war work, with Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, chairman of the War Service Department, presiding. At the meeting of the Executive Council of the National Association in Washington, in February, 1917, just before the United States entered the war, it formed a number of committees in order that the suffragists throughout the country might do their especial work for it under the same generalship as they were accustomed to, and later chairmen of these committees were appointed to organize and superintend State branches. At the present session of the national convention these chairmen reported as follows: General Survey of War Program, Mrs. McCormick (N. Y.); Food Production, Miss Hilda Loines (N. Y.); Americanization, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley (Mass.); Child Welfare, Mrs. Percy Pennybacker (Tex.); Industrial Protection of Women, Mrs. Gifford Pinchot (D. C.); Food Conservation, Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.); Oversea Hospitals Service, Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany (N. Y.), chairman, and Mrs. Raymond Brown (N. Y.) director general in France.
These reports are considered at length in Mrs. McCormick's chapter on War Work of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and they conclusively refuted the charge publicly made again and again by the National Anti-Suffrage Association through its official organ and on the platform that the suffragists were "slackers," unpatriotic, pro-German and concerned only in getting the franchise for themselves. This charge was frequently made by the editor of the paper and president of the association, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., wife of the Republican U. S. Senator from New York, also a strong opponent of woman suffrage.
At the close of this very interesting session the convention enjoyed an automobile ride to see the beautiful city and its environs, tendered by the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League and under the auspices of Mrs. Philip B. Fouke. The "inquiry dinner" in the banquet room of the hotel in the evening, with Mrs. Catt presiding, carried out the clever idea of trying to ascertain why American women could not obtain their enfranchisement. The program was as follows: What is the matter with the United States? Women want it! Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout (Ills.); Men want it! the Rev. W. C. Bitting (Mo.); Political Parties want it! Mrs. Emma Smith De Voe (Wash.); The Press wants it! Miss Rose Young (N. Y.); The Old South wants it! Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Ala.); Congress wants it! Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.); The Legislatures want it! Mrs. T. T. Cotnam (Ark.); All other Countries have it! Mrs. Guilford Dudley (Tenn.); Who doesn't want it! Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (Ohio); Well then what is the matter? Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.); Making it right next time! U. S. Senator Selden P. Spencer (Mo.).
At one business session Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) argued that the time had come to change the form of the Federal Suffrage Amendment to meet the objections of the southern members of Congress. Discussion showed a preponderance of sentiment in favor of the old amendment and the convention so voted, but at the suggestion of Mrs. Park it empowered the Congressional Committee to make any minor changes which might seem advisable. At another session there was considerable talk of merging the National American Association into the new organization of voters and dropping its name at this convention, but Miss Hay carried the delegates with her in urging that they retain the old name until they celebrated Miss Anthony's one-hundredth birthday and were safely through the ratification of the Federal Amendment. This decision was especially pleasing to the older members for whom the name had many endearing memories. Mrs. Catt announced that suffrage societies had been formed in Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines and it was voted to extend an official invitation to them to join the National Association without payment of dues. Mrs. Catt called attention to the increased educational value of the convention through the Many opportunities extended to the delegates for addressing bodies of various kinds in the city. These included the churches, Synagogues, Ethical Society, public schools, Chamber of Commerce, Junior Chamber of Commerce, City Club, Rotary Club, Town Club, Wednesday Club, Women's Trade Union League and other organizations.
One of the leading features of the convention was the report of Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman of the Congressional Committee, which gave a complete summary of the status of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in Congress from the time of the last convention to the present. This and Mrs. Shuler's secretary's report offer so comprehensive a survey of the important— work of the National Association that a considerable amount of space is devoted to them. The report of Mrs. Park filled over thirty pages of the Handbook of the convention and was an interesting account of the struggle of the past year and a half to secure from Congress the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. A large part of it will be found in the chapter devoted to that amendment. It showed the work done at the national headquarters in New York City and Washington and also in the States and gave an idea of the tremendous effort which was necessary before the measure was sent to the Legislatures for ratification. It told of the House Judiciary Committee reporting the resolution on Dec. 11, 1917, "without recommendation," after amending it so as to limit the time for ratification to seven years, and of the determination of the opponents.to force a vote on it before the appointment of a Woman Suffrage Committee for which the friends were striving. This committee was announced, however, on December 13, 1917.
All the members but three of the committee were in favor of the amendment. Chairman Raker introduced a new resolution omitting the seven-year clause and the committee gave a five-days' hearing to the National American Association, the National Woman's Party and the Anti-Suffrage Association, January 3-7 inclusive. The committee made a favorable report to the House on January 8. On the 9th twelve Democratic members called by appointment on President Wilson, who advised submission of the amendment. Speaker Clark gave valuable assistance, as did many prominent Democrats and Republicans in and out of Congress. A five-hours' debate took place in the House on the afternoon of Jan. 10, 1918, and the vote resulted as follows:
| In Favor | Opposed | ||
| Republicans | 165 | 33 | |
| Democrats | 104 | 102 | |
| Miscellaneous | 5 | 1 | |
| 274 | 136 | ||
This was a majority of less than one vote over the necessary two-thirds.
Mrs. Park gave a graphic account of the struggle to secure a favorable vote in the Senate. She described the influences brought to bear from all possible sources; the conferences with committees and individuals; the fixing and then postponing of days for a vote; the difficulty in arranging "pairs"; the "filibustering' of the opponents, the adjournments, the endless tactics for preventing a vote which for years had been employed against this amendment. She described the great five days' discussion in the Senate September 26-October 1; the appeal to President Wilson for help and his magnificent response in person on September 30 with its contemptuous treatment by the opponents; the failure of the Republican leaders to supply the thirty-three votes promised and of the Democrats to provide from their ranks the thirty-fourth, which would complete the necessary two-thirds, and she gave the summary of the result of the balloting on October 1. Analyzed by parties and including pairs the vote stood:
| Yes | No | ||
| Democrats | 22 | 22 | |
| Republicans | 32 | 12 | |
| Total | 62 | 34 | |
The amendment was lost by two votes. This debate, printed in full in the Congressional Record for those days, hands down to posterity the noble effort of some members of the U. S. Senate to grant to women a voice in the Government to which they were giving the most loyal and devoted service in this hour when it was joining with other nations in the greatest battle for democracy ever fought. It preserves also the determination of other U. S. Senators to deny them this citizen's right and to continue their disfranchised condition. The "Woman Citizen", official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in its issue of Oct. 5, 1918, gave a spirited account of the proceedings of those momentous five days.
Mrs. Park took up the story after the defeat in the Senate and said in part: "The election returns on Nov. 6, 1918, indicated that the necessary two-thirds majority in the 66th Congress had been secured. This belief was shared by prominent Democrats, who from that time on spared no effort to make unfriendly Democratic Senators realize the folly of their position in leaving the victory for a Republican Congress. Only the stupidity of extreme conservatism or a thoroughly provincial point of view can account for their failure to yield, unless we are to suppose that more sinister forces were at work.... On the eve of his sailing for Europe December 2 President Wilson included in his address to a joint session of Congress another eloquent appeal for the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment."[4] She described the mass meeting of the suffrage war workers on December 8 at the National Theater in Washington arranged by Miss Mabel Willard with the following program: Mrs. Catt, the national president, in the chair; Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman Woman's Committee of National Council of Defense; Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo, chairman National Woman's Liberty Loan Committee; Mrs. Josephus Daniels, member National War Work Council, Y. W. C. A.; Miss Jane Delano, director Department of Nursing, American Red Cross; Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, representing Community War Work and Women's Oversea Hospitals; Mrs. F. Louis Slade, of Young Women's Department, Y. M. C. A.; Mrs. Raymond Robins, president National Women's Trade Union League; Miss Hannah Black, Munitions Worker. An overflow meeting was held and strong resolutions for the amendment were adopted at both and sent to each Senator.
Resolutions calling on every Senator to vote for submission of the amendment were adopted by twenty-five State Legislatures during January and February, 1919, and the gaining of Presidential suffrage in Vermont, Indiana and Wisconsin that winter increased hope. The suffrage Democrats were desirous of taking one more vote before going out of power. Mrs. Park's report said: "On petition of twenty-two Senators, a Democratic caucus on suffrage was held on February 5, the first since the United States entered the war. On a motion to adjourn, the suffragists without proxies defeated the "antis," who voted proxies, by 22 to 16. Ona resolution recommending that the Democratic Senators support the Federal Amendment, twenty-two voted in the affirmative and when ten had voted in the negative, those ten were allowed by Senator Thomas S. Martin (Va.), Democratic floor leader, to withdraw their votes in order that he might declare that, as the vote stood 22 to 0, a quorum had not voted and the resolution was lost! This decision was, of course, most irregular and unfair but it afforded a good illustration of the kind of tactics used by the opponents.
"After the close of the morning business February 10, Senator Jones moved to take up the amendment. An extremely strong speech in its favor was made by the new Senator, William P. Pollock of South Carolina. The only other speeches were by Senator Frelinghuysen (N. J.), on the question of individual naturalization of women and by Senator Gay (La.) in opposition to the amendment. The vote taken early in the afternoon showed 55 in favor and 29 opposed. As on October 1, all the members who were not present to vote were accounted for by pairs, so that it stood practically 63 in favor to 33 opposed. In other words the amendment was lost in the 65th Congress by one vote. The responsibility for the defeat lies at the door of every man who voted against it. Analyzed by parties and including pairs, the vote on February 10, was:
| Yes | No | |
| Democrat | 30 | 21 |
| Republicans | 33 | 12 |
| Total | 63 | 33 |
"Thus the Democrats lost their last opportunity and on March 1 the resolution for the amendment was again favorably reported by the Woman Suffrage Committee of the Lower House to be acted upon by a Republican Congress." In commenting on this result Mrs. Park said: "While we are condemning the un-American stand of our opponents, we should never lose sight of the hard work done by many of the Senators who were our friends. There is not space here for the record of all who helped us but special mention should be made of one, the Hon. John F. Shafroth, who will not be present to vote when victory comes in the next Congress. When our cause had only a handful of supporters in public life, he, then a member of the House, helped Miss Anthony bring the amendment forward, and from that time to the present his loyal and devoted service never flagged. Chairman Jones, Senators Ransdell, Hollis, Wesley Jones, Cummins and the other members of the Woman Suffrage Committee worked in constant cooperation with your committee. Among the others who were most frequently called on for help were Senators Curtis, Smoot, Walsh, Pittman, Lenroot, McNary, Hollis and Sheppard."
Mrs. Park spoke briefly of the hearing before the House Committee on Woman Suffrage April 29 on the bill granting to the Legislature of Hawaii the power to enfranchise its women. (See the chapter on Territories.) This bill had passed the Senate in September, 1918. On Jan. 3, it passed the House without a roll call.
Tribute to the association's Congressional Committee and other workers in Washington was paid by Mrs. Park, who said:
Other members of the Congressional Committee who have been in Washington for the whole or a part of the period covered by this report are, in addition to its chairman, Miss Mabel Caldwell Willard, chairman of the social activities; Mrs. George Bass and Mrs. Medill McCormick, representing respectively the organizations of Democratic and Republican women affiliated with the national party committees; Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Mrs. C. W. McClure and Mrs. William L. McPherson. No report of the Washington headquarters would be complete without mention of the help given in innumerable ways by our house manager, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Walker, whose patience, tact and good judgment have made comfortable living possible under the most trying circumstances.
Members of the National Board who have been called on to assist 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 Washington.To these a list of names was added of those who assisted during long or short periods. There was an account of the social uses of the Washington 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 Washington—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 Washington 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 association 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 association, 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 association, 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 passed 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 Association 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 Association was paid by Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, for twenty-one years from 1881 the corresponding secretary of the association and closely associated 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 noble 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 associated with them in founding the American Woman Suffrage Association, 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 associations 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' companionship with the workers in both associations. he 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 passed into al 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 Association alternated with the conferences for organizing the enfranchised women and the name officially decided on was League of Women Voters. A constitution 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 statesmanship 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 Citizenship, 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 associations. 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 associate editor, Miss Mary Ogden White. The invaluable service of the Research Bureau, under the expert direction of Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, assisted 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:
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 Constitutions, 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 principal 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 principal papers of New Jersey; one to Senator Benet to those of South Carolina; one to Senator Shields to Tennessee papers. A letter showing the attitude of the National Association 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 vet remained for the bureau to see accomplished.The report of the Washington 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 Washington, the papers of that city and many outside; State presidents, Congressional and press chairmen, in addition to a certain daily service; feature articles and Washington letters to the Woman Citizen. Material for favorable editorials was sent out through the Washington correspondents and 244 friendly to the policy of the National Association were received with only 12 opposed. The social activities at the Washington headquarters furnished good local publicity.
In the report of Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., she called attention to the almost insuperable difficulties of the publishing 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 association 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 passage of the Federal Amendment; maps, folders, booklets and posters.
The following recommendations were made by the Executive Council and adopted by the convention:
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 Association as at present constituted or as it may be constituted": '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 constitution. Nothing in this resolution shall be construed to limit the liberty of action of any member or officer of this association 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 Association, the first having been presented in 1869. They illustrate the wide scope of women's interests considered by that body. After full discussion the following, which are somewhat condensed, were among those adopted:
Resolved, that we call upon the 66th Congress to submit the Constitutional 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 Washington of a national department of education with a Secretary of Education in the Cabinet.
Resolved, that this association 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 classify 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 mass 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 Saturday 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 Association 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 Association.rights, and we pledge our best efforts to carry out her wise and far-reaching plans for ultimate victory. 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.[6] This began Jan. 3, 1918, and in opening it the chairman said: "We have determined to hear first the National American Suffrage Association 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 document 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 Association 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 association; 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:
Dr. Shaw told of the loyalty of women in other countries and quoted from the tributes of their distinguished men, such men as Mr. Asquith, Lloyd George, Lord Derby and General Joffre to the services of these women and in our own country of General Pershing and scores of others. She told of how the Canadian Government gave the suffrage to women and how they voted for conscription; of the splendid courage of the men of Australia and New Zealand, born of enfranchised mothers. She said that in ten of the eleven western States which filled their quota of volunteers before any eastern State had done so, there was equal suffrage. She referred to the eminent supporters of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, beginning with President Wilson and his Cabinet and Theodore Roosevelt; asked if these men were pro-Germans and pacifists and matched them with equally loyal women. In conclusion she said:
The speech of Mrs. Whitney, analyzing the vote on the suffrage amendment which was carried in New York State the preceding November was a complete statistical refutation of the charge made by the anti-suffragists that the favorable vote was due to Socialists and pro-Germans. A letter was read from Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, saying that speaking personally and not officially he favored the submission of the amendment. Telegrams urging it were received from well-known women in the southern States and Mrs. Catt read editorials strongly favoring it from a number of southern newspapers. Mrs. George B head of the Democratic Women's National Committee, protested against the circulation in the Capitol which was being made by the "antis" of President Wilson's declaration made in 1914, "I believe this is a matter to be fought out in the individual States," because in 1916 he addressed the National Suffrage Convention in Atlantic City, saying: "I have come to fight with you ... and in the end we shall not differ as to methods."
Mrs. Dudley represented the women of the South, saying in the course of her address:
Mrs. Allen spoke from the standpoint of one who had lived many years in a State where women voted and asked the question: "Can you gentlemen not think what it means to women to know that their men are so chivalrous and have such a belief in their integrity and their intelligence that they are willing to make them their equal partners politically? Can you not see that under such conditions men and women are firmer friends; that husbands and wives are closer together and that all of the family relations are better because the adults of all the families are equally interested in city, State and national affairs?' She told how on the battlefield and in the hospitals in France could be heard in all languages the one cry, "mother," and she ended with the plea: "Our world is weary and wounded and sick and if you will listen in the silence of the night you will hear the same cry; the world is calling for the mother voice in its councils and in its activities."
The afternoon was devoted to the address of Mrs. Catt, which, with the questions of the committee and her answers, filled twenty-five pages of the printed report. For four decades the distinguished presidents of the National Suffrage Association had made their arguments and pleadings before committees of Congress—Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Miss Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, and then Mrs. Catt for eight years. This was the last time it would ever be necessary and the first time before a House committee which intended to report in favor. The changed character of her speaking was shown in her opening sentence: "The time of argument on woman suffrage has gone The controversy has been waged over a greater part of the civilized world for the last fifty years, with the result that many nations have capitulated and woman suffrage is now established under many flags. That it is still pending in the Congress of the United States is a disgrace to our country and a reflection on the intelligence and progress of our people." She illustrated how the doctrine of State's rights had been ignored by the southern members in their fight for prohibition, led by Mr. Webb of North Carolina, who as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee had also led the opposition to woman suffrage on this same ground. She proved by editorial quotations from southern papers the changing attitude on this point.
The vast number of American men who would be in the army in France at the time of the next election was pointed out and the question was asked: "When the election comes who will do the voting? Every 'slacker' has a vote; every newly-made citizen; every pro-German who cannot be trusted with any kind of war service; every peace-at-any-price man; every conscientious objector and even the alien enemy. It is a risk, a danger, to a nation like ours to send millions of loyal men out of the country and not replace their votes by those of the loyal women left at home." In referring to the "negro problem" in the South Mrs. Catt said:
Detached quotations give a most inadequate idea of this masterly address which embodied the complete case for the advocates of the Federal Amendment. Toward its close Mrs. Catt, in speaking of the assertion of the "antis" that President Wilson was opposed to the Federal Suffrage Amendment, made this significant answer: "I request you, Mr. Chairman, to ask Mr. Wilson for a conference and go to it taking Democrats and Republicans and say: 'Mr. President, are you or are you not for this Federal Amendment?' Then you will know. I trust that you will do this and that, if then it is possible to make a public statement, you will do so." Afterwards it was apparent that she knew of Mr. Wilson's complete change of opinion and his intention to support the amendment. On January 9 Mr. Raker and eleven other members of the Lower House held a conference with the President and he urged the submission of the amendment.
At the continuation of the hearing on January 4 the American Constitutional League, formed after the suffrage amendment was adopted in New York out of the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association, was represented by the chairman of its executive committee, Everett P. Wheeler, a lawyer of New York City, and by one of its members introduced as "Dr. Lucian Howe of Buffalo, a very eminent surgeon, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine and the Royal Academy of Surgeons." The two men occupied the entire day, Mr. Wheeler about two-thirds of it, but the committee consumed a good deal of this time by a running fire of questions not far from "heckling." Mr. Wheeler offered for insertion in the Record a page and a half of finely printed statistics compiled by the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association to prove that the laws for women and children were not so good in equal suffrage States as in those where women could not vote.
The session of January 5 began with the reading of another sheaf of urgent telegrams from women of the southern States and petitions for the amendment signed by a long list of southern women. The first speaker was Mrs. L. A. Hamilton, president of the National Equal Franchise Association of Canada and president also of the Women's Union Government League of Toronto, who was thoroughly informed on the granting of Provincial and Dominion suffrage and able to answer convincingly all the questions of the committee. The hearing was then turned over to the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, with its president, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., in charge. I am much pleased by the personnel of this committee," she said, "because both the Republican Speaker, Mr. Gillett, and the Democratic floor leader, Mr. Kitchin, promised us that, unlike the suffrage committee in the Senate, this one would have a fair representation of 'antis.' I find we have been given two out of thirteen. Of course we think that a perfectly fair ratio, as we have always felt that one 'anti' was worth about five suffragists, but we did not suppose you would admit it." "That is about the ratio that exists in the House," observed Mr. Blanton, of the committee. 'We will know more about that when we vote in the House," answered Mr. Clark, member from Florida. "I am going to give you the privilege this morning of hearing from my general staff," said Mrs. Wadsworth, "and I will have some of my officers of the line here Monday. I want to introduce Miss Minnie Bronson, our general secretary." The second speaker was Mr. Eichelberger, who presented elaborate charts and figures to show that woman suffrage was carried in New York by the Socialists. To the question of Chairman Raker, "This is nothing more or less than a compilation of figures as an idea of your own, to show what certain votes could do or certain figures would do, isn't it?" he answered: "Yes, absolutely, that is the idea." At one point Miss Jeannette Rankin of the committee asked: "Are you the gentleman who compiled some figures on the Democratic and Republican women's vote in Montana last year?" "I think so," was the answer. "Where did you get your figures?' "From the official election report." 'How could you tell a Democratic woman's vote from a Republican woman's vote?" "Well, that part of it was estimation!' The statements of Mr. Eichelberger and the questions of the committee filled twenty-four pages of the stenographic report and with Miss Bronson's address consumed one session.
The hearing in the afternoon was given to the National Woman's Party, in charge of its vice-chairman, Miss Anne Martin of Nevada. Mrs. William Kent of California introduced the speakers—Mrs. Richard Wainwright, Mrs. Townsend Scott, Miss Ernestine Evans, Mrs. Francis J. Heney, Miss Elizabeth Gram, Miss Maud Younger, Mrs. Adeline Atwater, Mrs. Ellis Meredith.
Monday morning the hearing of the Anti-Suffrage Association was resumed, Mrs. Wadsworth presiding and speaking at length, saying: "We never have and never will ask a man to vote with us against his conscience but the men we do blame are those spineless opportunists who for political expediency or because they are too lazy to fight are preparing to surrender their principles for the sake of a dishonorable and, we believe, a temporary peace." Mrs. Edwin Ford followed and then Miss Lucy Price. Her remarks and the committee's questions filled fourteen pages of the report. About fifty telegrams opposing the amendment were received, nearly half of them from men and all from Massachusetts. One purported to represent 250 women of Wellesley and another 1,000 of New Bedford. Henry A. Wise Wood was introduced as president of the Aero Club of America. During his speech he declared that "this was no time to unman the Government by this foolhardy jeopardizing of the rights of both sexes"; that "one wonders at the spectacle of strong, masculine personalities urging at such an hour the demasculinization of Government—the dilution with the qualities of the cow, of the qualities of the bull upon which all the herd safety must depend"; that "this from now on is a man's job—the job of the fighting, the dominating, not the denatured, the womanlike man." Referring to Miss Rankin's vote against war he said: "I do not think she cried; I was speaking of the real woman, the woman that men love." He also said that during his campaign for "preparedness" he discovered that "the woman suffrage movement was hopelessly given over to pacifism in its extreme socialistic form." In closing he said that "for any sentimental or political reason it is a damnable thing that we should weaken ourselves by bringing into the war the woman, who has never been permitted in the war tents of any strong, virile dominating nation." This speech was made Jan. 7, 1918, after nearly a year's experience in the United States of the war work done by women.
At this hearing the opponents made their supreme effort, knowing that it was their last chance, and they brought to Washington one of the South's most noted orators, former U. S. Senator Joseph W. Bailey, of Texas. He began by saying: "I shall confine my speech entirely to the political aspect of the question, leaving these very intelligent women to explain the effect of suffrage on their sex and on our homes," but he got to the latter phase of it long before he had finished. He believed that under the Federal Constitution the right to control the suffrage belonged absolutely to the States but he said: "I am opposed to women voting anywhere except in their own societies; I would let them vote there but nowhere else in this country.... No free government should deny suffrage to any class entitled to it and no free government should extend suffrage to any class not entitled to it, for the ultimate success or failure of every free government will depend upon the average intelligence and patriotism of the electorate. I hope to show that as a matter of political justice and political safety women should not be allowed to vote...."
Giving other reasons why women should not be allowed to vote, he said: "The two most important personal duties of citizenship are military service and sheriff's service, neither of which is a woman capable of performing." Reminded by the chairman that there were many places where women then were performing the duty of sheriff, constable, marshal and police, he answered: "They may be playing at them but they are not really performing them. If an outlaw is to be arrested are you going to order a wonian to get a gun and come with you? If you did she would sit down and cry, and she ought to keep on crying until her husband hunts you up and makes you apologize for insulting his wife.... A woman who is able to perform a sheriff's duty is not fit to be a mother because no woman who bears arms ought to bear children. . . .We agree, I think, that the women of this to serve on the sheriff's posse comitatus. That being true I hardly think they have the right to make the laws under which you and I must perform those services." The chairman asked: "When the men go to front with the cartridges and guns the women assisted in making are the latter not participating in the war the same as men?" He answered: "They are doing their part and it may be just as essential as the man's, for if there is not somebody here to provide the ammunition the guns would be useless, but it is not military service."
The war had been in progress three and a half years when these assertions were made and the whole world knew the part that women had taken in it.
"The third personal duty of citizenship is jury service," Mr. Bailey said, "and while women are physically capable of performing that service there are reasons, natural, moral and domestic, which render them wholly unfit for it.... We go to the court house for stern, unyielding justice. Will women help our courts to better administer justice? They will not. Nobody is qualified to decide any case until they have heard all the testimony on both sides but the average woman would make up her mind before the plaintiff had concluded his testimony." The awful consequences of "sending women with strange men into the jury room to discuss testimony which a sensible mother would not talk over with her grown daughter were declared to be that "modesty for which we reverence women would disappear from among them." "Who will care for the children during the mother's absence?.... They tell me they will require the unmarried women to act as jurors. There will be enough of them, for marrying will become a lost habit in our country if we apply ourselves much longer to this business of making women like men." Mr. Bailey appeared not to know that women had been serving on juries for from twenty to forty years in the western States where they were enfranchised.
"Will women vote intelligently? Can they do it? What time will a woman have to prepare herself for these new duties of citizenship? Will she take it from her home and husband or from her church and children or from her charities and social pleasures? She must take it from one or all of them and will she make herself or the world better by doing so?" Mr. Bailey asked. He said he wished that "every woman in the land was fortunate enough to have servants to do their work"; deplored "the unfortunate situation of eighty per cent. of the good women whose hard lot it is to toil from sunup to sundown" and inquired: "Do you think when they have done all this they will have time and strength to learn something about their duties as a citizen?" Asked if he did not think a woman ought to have something to say about the laws that concern the education and disposition of her children, he answered: "If she cannot trust that to the father of her children I pity her." "How about the women who have lost their husbands?" asked a member of the committee. "If they have neither father nor son nor brother to provide for them the public will do so," Mr. Bailey replied. In pointing out how favorable "man-made laws" are to women he said: "In my State, where women have never voted and where I sincerely trust they never will, the law gives to the wife as her separate property everything she owns at the time of her marriage and everything she may afterwards acquire by gift, devise or descent,' but he omitted to say that all of it passes under the absolute control of the husband and that the wages she earns belong to him.
Further on he said: "We must have two sexes and if the women insist on becoming men I suppose the men must refine themselves into women.... I dread the effect of this woman's movement upon civilization because I know what happened to the Roman republic when women attained their full rights. They married without going to church and were divorced without going to court." After having discussed widows' pensions, the double standard of morals, divorce, alimony and various other matters in carrying out his promise at the beginning to confine his remarks "entirely to the political aspect of the question" he reached the subject of women's smoking. He summed up his opinion of this"
by saying: "If it were a question between their smoking and their voting and they would promise to stay at home and smoke I would say let them smoke." In this connection he said: "A single standard of conduct for men and women is an iridescent dream. We cannot pay women a higher tribute than to insist that their behavior shall be more circumspect than ours."
Finally Mr. Blanton of Texas, a member of the committee, having obtained Mr. Bailey's assent that the right of petition is the most sacred right of the people and that legislators should give it careful consideration, said: "I have here a very extensive petition from your State signed by prominent citizens of the leading cities urging Congress to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment and I notice from Houston, your city, the following: He then read a long list of bank presidents, judges, editors, college professors, the Mayor and other city officials, officers of labor unions, and, in addition, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Attorney General, District Attorney and other State officials, and pressed Mr. Bailey to admit their high character and standing. He did so but said: "I would not vote for this amendment if a majority of my constituents asked me to do so."
An undue amount of space is given to the address of Mr. Bailey because he had been selected by the anti-suffragists as the strongest speaker for their side in the entire country and it embodied their views as these had been presented ever since the suffrage movement began. He was thoroughly representative of the opposition, and the officers and members of the women's Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage who were present applauded his remarks from beginning to end. He made this speech Jan. 7, 1918, and the following March the Texas Legislature by a large majority gave Primary suffrage to women for all officers from President of the United States down the list and the bill was immediately signed by the Governor. The primaries decide the election in that State.[7]
The committee received petitions asking their favorable action on the amendment from the Texas State Federation of Women's Clubs and those of Houston and other cities; from women's clubs of many kinds in Waco representing 2,000 members; from women's organizations all over the State and from individuals, the number reaching thousands. There was the same outpouring from the other southern States, although it was the principal argument of the opposition that the vote was being forced on southern women. There was also a remarkable expression from southern men. Seventy-five pages of these petitions were printed in the official report of this hearing. As the sentiment in the northern States was now so largely in favor it was considered unnecessary for them to send petitions, although many did so. There were presented to the committee a message from the Governor of every equal suffrage State urging the immediate submission of the amendment and strong letters to this effect from Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo, Southerners and Democrats. None of this pressure was necessary to influence it but the leaders of the National Suffrage Association arranged this demonstration in order to show that favorable action by the committee would be— fully sustained by the sentiment of the country, and as an answer to the charge that "a small, insistent lobby was forcing the amendment through Congress." The anti-suffragists did not present one communication of any kind from any State except Massachusetts.
The valuable space in this volume could not be better used perhaps than for the closing speeches of Mrs. Park, chairman of the association's Congressional Committee, and Mrs. Catt, its president. A greater contrast can scarcely be imagined than that between their statesmanlike quality and the rambling, inconsequential, prejudiced character of Mr. Bailey's. "After the eloquent address of the last speaker," began Mrs. Park with delicious satire, "I sympathize with the committee and the audience who will have to return to the plain subject of the Federal Amendment for Woman Suffrage.... I think those who have been listening to all of these hearings will agree that the opponents have made many interesting statements but have given comparatively few facts." Saying that Mrs. Catt would reply to Mr. Bailey's speech she answered the points in the others with a keenness and clearness that no lawyer could have exceeded and met with dignity and acumen the questions of the opponents on the committee. She was not once disconcerted or unable to reply convincingly and always with a disarming courtesy but she did not deviate from her subject or allow the questioners to do so.
Mrs. Catt's answer to Mr. Bailey's speech, which filled twenty-five pages of the stenographic report, occupied seven pages and there was not a superfluous word. She began by calling attention to the petitions as a whole from the southern States, printed copies of which were furnished to each member of the committee. They included the names of over a thousand prominent men, among them two and a half pages of Mayors; the Governors of Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida and many other State officials. She said that as she listened to Mr. Bailey's speech she was reminded of the declaration of a president of Harvard College, who asserted that without question there were witches and it was the duty of all good people to hunt them out, but twenty-five years later every intelligent man knew there had never been such a thing as a witch. A man once wrote a book to prove that a steamship could never cross the ocean and the book was brought to America by the first one that crossed. Daniel Webster made a speech against admitting as a State one of the western Territories because its members of Congress after their election would not be able to reach Washington until the session was over. 'These men lacked vision," she said, "and so does the last speaker. He does not know what has been happening in the world." She referred to the vast changes in the industrial life of women since the days of the mother of Washington and the wife of Jefferson, whom he had used as models for those of the present day, and said: "It is my pleasure to inform him that I myself am that which he regrets—a voter—and I would rather have my vote as a protector than the reverence even of the gentleman from Texas."
Mrs. Catt continued: "The speech to which we have listened has been interesting because it has seemed to be a chapter from a book that was written long ago. The week before the war began it was my privilege, sitting in the balcony of the House of Commons, to look down upon the bald head of Mr. Asquith while he made a speech against woman suffrage. 'I am unalterably opposed to woman suffrage because Great Britain is a mighty empire and it will always be necessary to defend it by military power and what do women know about war?' he asked. Three years later he humbly confessed before the world that when a nation like Great Britain goes to war, and such a war as this one, which calls for every ounce of power the nation can offer in its defense, men and women make equal sacrifices and therefore it is not a man's job but it is a man's and a woman's job and they are doing it together. So the Premier demanded woman suffrage and voted for it in the House of Commons. Remembering Mr. Asquith, I think there is hope for Mr. Bailey."
Mrs. Catt pictured eloquently the marvelous work being done by women in Great Britain in the munitions factories, the railway service, the dockyards, and also in our own and all countries; she described the heroic sacrifices of the nurses; she told how the women of Canada and New Zealand had voted for conscription and how in all countries the women were backing their men in the war. "It is declared that American women cannot carry a gun," she said. "Why that is the kind of talk we heard forty years ago and Mr. Bailey's speech is just that much behind the times.... I am sorry for any man who has stood still while the world has moved on." Only the merest outline of this convincing address is given but before its conclusion Mr. Bailey had deliberately insulted Mrs. Catt by leaving the room. Mrs. Wads worth, when asked if she wished her side to be heard in rebuttal, introduced Miss Charlotte E. Rowe of Yonkers, N. Y., who made a vigorous plea for saving the home, children and womanhood and declared woman suffrage would lead to Socialism. During the course of her speech she said, according to the official stenographic report: "If working girls and women in colleges will study cooking and sewing and domestic science and hygiene, or simple rules of health and how to care for the sick and the fine and beautiful art of home making, it will be much better for them and better for the country than if they spend their time parading up the avenue of a crowded city and praying that they may some day, somehow, become police men or boiler-makers side by side with men.... I say to you that it has remained for this self-sufficient 2Oth century to have produced a womanhood which would stand even a small proportion of it in legislative halls and say that they are doing more in this great and terrible war than the men are doing.... Gentlemen, if I were a married woman and my husband was a feminist and on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November he said to me, 'Come, walk by me so as to strengthen and sustain me as I go to the polls,' I would say to him, 'Look here, Mabel, here is the key of the flat; I am going home to father.' I would advise men and women suffragists and especially those suffragist men who need their wives to strengthen and sustain them on election day—I would advise them to go to the cellar and check over the laundry."
This last hearing on the Federal Suffrage Amendment closed on January 7 and the following day the committee made a favorable report to the House of Representatives. By consent of the Committee on Rules the 10th was set for the debate and vote and on that day the House by a two-thirds majority voted to submit the amendment to the State Legislatures.
- ↑ Although there was no national convention in 1918 Mrs. Catt called a conference of the Executive Council, consisting of the national officers, chairmen of standing and special committees and State presidents, at Indianapolis, April 18th and 19th. It was in effect convention except for the presence of elected delegates and forty-five States were represented, including many of the South. They were entertained by the Indiana Women's Franchise League, welcomed by Governor Goodrich and Mayor Jewett and were guests at many brilliant social functions. A full program of daytime plans for work and committee ts and of evening addresses was carried out. The visitors were able to attend meetings of the Indiana State Suffrage Convention and the League of Women Voters.
- ↑ Call: The National American Woman Suffrage Association calls its State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to meet in annual convention at St. Louis, Statler Hotel, March 24 to March 29, 1919, inclusive.
In 1869, Wyoming led the world by the grant of full suffrage to its women. The convention will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this event. In 1869, the National and the American Woman Suffrage Associations were organized—to be combined twenty years later into the National American. The convention will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the organization which without a pause has carried forward the effort to secure the enfranchisement of women. As a fitting memorial to a half-century of progress the association invites the women voters of the fifteen full suffrage States to attend this anniversary and there to join their forces in a League of Women Voters, one of whose objects shall be to speed the suffrage campaign in our own and other countries.
The convention will express its pleasure with suitable ceremonials that since last we met the women of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Canada and Germany have received the vote, but it will make searching inquiry into the mysterious causes which deny patriotic, qualified women of our Republic a voice in their own government while those of monarchies and erstwhile monarchies are honored with political equality. Suffrage delegates, women voters, there is need of more serious counsel than in any preceding year. It is not you but the nation that has been dishonored by the failure of the 65th Congress to pass the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Let us inquire together; let us act together.
Carrie Chapman Catt, President. Anna Howard Shaw, Honorary President. Katherine Dexter McCormick, First Vice-President. Mary Garrett Hay, Second Vice-President. Anne Dallas Dudley, Third Vice-President. Gertrude Foster Brown, Fourth vice-President. Helen H. Gardener, Fifth Vice-President. Nettie Rogers Shuler, Corresponding Secretary. Justina Leavitt Wilson, Recording Secretary. Emma Wiener Rogers, Treasurer. - ↑ Ministers who opened the different sessions with prayer were Mary J. Safford, of Iowa; Dr. Ivan Lee Holt, Rabbi Samuel Thurman, Dr. G. Nussman and the Rev. Father Russel J. Wilbur; at the meetings in the Odeon, Dr. J. W. McIvor and Dean Carrol is, all of St. Louis.
- ↑ From the address of President Wilson: And what shall we say of the women?{{{2}}}Their contribution to the great result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new luster to the annals of American womanhood. The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in political rights as they have proved themselves their equals in every field of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for their country. These great days of completed achievements would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of justice.
- ↑ For action of this committee see Appendix for Chapter XIX.
- ↑ Names of Committee: John E. Raker, California, chairman; Edward W. Saunders, Virginia; Frank Clark, Florida; Benjamin C. Hilliard, Colorado; James H. Mays, Utah; Christopher D. Sullivan, New York; Thomas L. Blanton, Texas; Jeannette Rankin, Montana; Frank W. Mondell, Wyoming; William H. Carter, Massachusetts; Edward C. Little, Kansas; Richard N. Elliott, Indiana; Jacob E. Meeker, Missouri.
- ↑ In the summer of 1920, Mr. Bailey, who had been living in New York City ever since be resigned from the Senate, returned to Texas and made the race for Governor to "rescue" the State from woman suffrage, prohibition and other progressive measures which had made great headway since he left it. He was badly defeated for the nomination, with women voting.