History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 6/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.[1]
While the women in the District of Columbia rejoiced with those in the States over the successful end of the long, hard fight for the Federal Suffrage Amendment their joy was tempered by the fact that they still had before them a struggle for an amendment which would enfranchise the residents of the District — one really for equal suffrage, men and women alike being without the vote. The Congress itself now has entire jurisdiction, each branch appointing a committee for the purpose.
The district is a municipal corporation, administered by a Board of three commissioners, two of whom are appointed by the President of the United States from civil life, confirmed by the Senate, the third being detailed by him from the engineer corps of the army. The argument for the citizen's franchise is that representation in Congress for the residents of the District would only give them a voice in the governing body without impairing the "exclusive jurisdiction" given to Congress by the National Constitution. It has a population greater than six of the States and pays taxes in excess of twenty-two States — each of which has two Senators and Representatives based on its population. Local self-government also is advocated by some residents but the majority are behind the movement to obtain representation in Congress and the vote for presidential electors. From the time this matter was first agitated the woman suffrage association of the District has insisted that women should have the same rights granted to men.
Although the suffragists of the District had no hope of enfranchisement from the Federal Amendment, nevertheless their interest in the cause never flagged and they gave freely of their time and money to aid the movement for it. From 1869 to 1895 they assisted every year the convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association in Washington, and afterwards whenever it was held in this city. Its great celebration of Miss Susan B. Anthony's 80th birthday in February, 1900, gave a new impetus to the cause. The various societies had been organized in 1898 into the District of Columbia State Equal Suffrage Assocation, corresponding to those in the various States. The old parent society formed in 1868 and the first Junior Club were augmented by the Political Study Club organized in 1900, to study the origin, growth and government of cities and later agitating the question of placing women on boards of charities, schools, etc.; by the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Club, organized in 1901, to take up the study of general taxation, methods of carrying on the public schools, tariff, finance and city government; by the College Equal Suffrage League, organized in 1909 and doing excellent work, and in 1916 by the Anthony League, organized in 1911 primarily for suffrage, but taking up civic affairs. The Woman Suffrage Council was formed from these societies in 1914 to aid the Congressional Committee of the National Association at its branch headquarters in Washington. The name was afterwards changed to Equal Franchise League when it was decided to keep the organization intact for the purpose of working for suffrage in the district. Mrs. Glenna Smith Tinnin was the first chairman, followed by Mrs. George A. Mosshart and Mrs. Louis Brownlow.
The D. C. State Association held regular meetings about four times a year and some special sessions. It kept the woman suffrage sentiment active and was responsible for a great deal of progressive work. The following served as presidents: Mrs. Helen Rand Tindall, 1898; Mrs. Ellen Powell Thompson, 1899; Mrs. Carrie E. Kent, 1900; Mrs. Tindall, 1901; Mrs. Kent, 1902-3; Mrs. Mary L. Talbott, 1904-5; Mrs. Jessie Waite Wright, 1906-7-8; Miss Harriette J. J. Hifton, 1909-10; Mrs. Le Droit Barber, 1911; Miss Florence Etheridge, 1912; Mrs. Nina E. Allender, 1913; Mrs. Kent, 1914; Miss Mary O'Toole, 1915 to 1920.[2]
A number of prominent women in the District were officers of the local suffrage clubs and worked under their auspices, being connected through them with the D. C. State Association. A part of the program of the latter in 1904-5 was a study of Fisk's Civil Government of the United States, Laws affecting Women and Children, taxation and other subjects of public interest. There was also discussion of bills before Congress of special interest to women and the association supported those for the protection of neglected and delinquent children, compulsory education and restriction of child labor. A bill to raise the salaries of public school teachers was strongly pressed. Among those especially active were Mrs. Ellen Spencer Mussey, Dr. Emily Young O'Brien and Mrs. Alice Stern Gitterman. Through their efforts two truant officers were appointed, one white and one colored. During this period the work was being done which led to the establishment of a Juvenile Court with one probation officer, Mrs. Charles Darwin. In 1906 and 1907 the suffragists were active in agitating for women on the Board of Education and succeeded in having two white women and one colored woman appointed, as well as thirty women supervisors of the public playgrounds. In 1908, also as a direct result of the efforts of Mrs. Helen Rand Tindall and other members of the association, two public comfort stations were built at a cost of $35,000, with bath, rest rooms and all sanitary conveniences, the first in
the city. The association and the College Equal Suffrage League sent representatives to a hearing before the Commissioners to ask that if a referendum on the excise question should be taken women should have a vote as well as men. In 1909 the association assisted in the petition work of the national organization and paid the secretary who was in charge of their headquarters in Washington for keeping them open evenings. Under the auspices of the association lectures were given by Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and Mrs. Ethel Snowdon of England.
In 1910 at a hearing granted to the National Association by the Judiciary Committee of Congress the District-was represented by Miss Emma M. Gillett and Mrs. Katharine Reed Balentine, who overheard one of its members say that if the women really wanted suffrage they should do something more than come up there to make speeches so as to have them cheaply printed and mailed without postage. Miss Gillett, who soon afterwards was made chairman of the National Congressional Committee, was so stimulated by this remark that at her request the D. C. State Association raised $100 and she herself contributed $100 and used the fund to circularize every candidate for Congress in the 1910 campaign. She appealed through the Woman's Journal for contributions, but only $14 were received. The circular asked seven searching questions covering all forms of woman suffrage. The answers were tabulated and sent out by the Associated Press. [See Chapter X, Volume V.]
President Seth Low, of the National Civic Federation, called a conference in Washington Jan. 17-19, 1910, of delegates to be appointed by the Governors of States and "presidents of commercial, agricultural, manufacturing, labor, financial, professional and other bodies national in extent." The program was to include discussions of "public health, pure food regulations, uniform divorce law and discrimination against married women as to the control of their children and property." The suffragists asked the Commissioners to appoint women among the twelve delegates to represent the District, but this was not done. Mr. Low in answering Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt's criticism that women delegates had not been invited, said it had not occurred to him that women would be interested but that he would place the name of the National Suffrage Association on the list for future calls of a. like character.
This year the clergymen of Washington were circularized to ascertain their position on woman suffrage and the great field of usefulness it would offer for women in moral and social reforms was pointed out. Miss Hifton and Miss Anna C. Kelton (afterwards Mrs. Harvey W. Wiley) took charge of this work and the 129 letters they sent received only eight answers, five in favor, two non-committal, one opposed. For the first time permission was obtained from the school board to post notices of the national suffrage convention in the school buildings, Miss Anna MacLaren arranging for it.
In I9g11 representatives of the association addressed many conventions in Washington and asked that resolutions favoring suffrage for women be passed. They were not successful but presented their cause. In 1912-13 the suffragists were busy among other things in agitating the question of having a woman as Juvenile Court Judge. President Taft practically promised the appointment, but the male incumbent was allowed to hold over another year. A meeting of women lawyers was held and a committee appointed to call on Attorney General Wickersham to urge the name of Mrs. Ellen Spencer Mussey, then Dean of the Washington College of Law. She was endorsed by several thousand men and women, over six hundred of whom were teachers in the public schools and familiar with Mrs. Mussey's excellent work on the Board of Education, but no woman was appointed. (In 1918 Miss Kathryn Sellers, president of the College Women's Equal Suffrage League, was appointed by President Wilson.)
On March 3, the day before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, for the first time women marched on Pennsylvania Avenue. The parade was arranged by the Congressional Committee of the National Association, of which Miss Alice Paul was chairman. Objection being made by Superintendent of Police Sylvester to giving a permit, the women appealed to the Senate Committee for the District on the ground that as citizens and tax-payers they had the right to use the avenue, and a joint resolution was passed by Congress granting it. Adequate police protection, however, was not given, indeed some of the police themselves hooted and jeered with the mob which attacked the paraders. Doubtless it was composed of persons who had come from outside to the inauguration. It took three hours to march the mile from the Peace Monument to the Treasury, where tableaux were given on the steps. Finally it was necessary to call the troops from Fort Myer. The Senate ordered an investigation and the Police Superintendent resigned. It was said that this parade won thousands of friends for the cause of woman suffrage.
This year the Congressional Union was organized to work in the District and the States solely for the Federal Suffrage Amendment, with Miss Paul chairman, Miss Lucy Burns, Mrs. Crystal Eastman, Mrs. Mary Beard and Mrs. Lawrence Lewis the other officers. It had its own headquarters and was not affiliated with the National American Association.
In 1914 the suffragists protested again, this time to the Chamber of Commerce, against a constitutional amendment sponsored by it to enfranchise the residents of the District, because it did not definitely state that women should be included. This protest was also taken up in the Federation of Women's Clubs through the auxiliaries of the State Suffrage Association, which were affiliated with it. During 1915 and 1916 suffragists addressed all the civic bodies in Washington on the necessity of including women in any measure looking to the enfranchisement of the residents of the District. As a result of this continuous agitation a compromise was reached to hold the question in abeyance until a constitutional amendment was passed enabling Congress to grant suffrage to the District. The association as usual participated in commemorating the birthdays of Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony and placed wreaths on the bust of Lincoln in the rotunda of the Capitol. It joined in the contest with the school board which tried to exclude married women as teachers.
During the closing years of the long campaign for woman suffrage street meetings were held. Among those who helped in this work were Mrs. Frank Hiram Snell, Miss Florence F. Stiles, Miss Elizabeth Eggert, Miss O'Toole and Miss Sellers. Receptions were given to the "yellow flier," the automobile sent across the continent by the National Association, and to the "prairie schooner," the car sent by the Just Government League of Maryland to tour its southern counties. Miss O'Toole travelled with the 'schooner' two weeks, speaking several times a day. A delegation from the College League met it at the District line and a procession acompanied it into the city under police escort. In the evening a public reception was given at the Washington College of Law. From 1916 the association assisted the National Association at its new headquarters, 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, by serving tea afternoons and raising money through bazaars, rummage sales, card parties, etc.
During 1918 all the suffrage societies in the District devoted their energies to war work and co-operated in every possible way with the Woman's Committee of National Defense, whose headquarters were in Washington, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw chairman. They rejoiced in the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment by Congress in 1919 and its ratification in 1920, although notwithstanding their many years of loyalty and assistance to the National Association they could receive no benefit from the victory.
More women hold office in Washingon than in any city in the world because of their very extensive employment by the National Government. When Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage was written in 1900 an official statement gave the total number of government employees in the District as 20,109 men, 7,496 women, a total of 27,600. At the request of Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, a vice-president of the National Woman Suffrage Association and a member of the U. S. Civil Service Commission, the following information was sent in 1920 to be used in this volume, by the president of the commission, Martin A. Morrison:
It is believed that the proportion of women to men in the entire service did not change materially until the beginning of the war. When the United States entered the war, there were approximately 38,000 employees in the executive civil service in the District of Columbia, approximately two-fifths of them women. The force was increased by 80,000 during the war, of whom approximately 75 per cent were women. The force has now been reduced to about 90,000, of whom approximately 50,000 are women. The proportion of women is being constantly reduced by the return of former soldiers and sailors to civilian employment, who are allowed preference under the law. The Federal Civil Service outside the District of Columbia increased by approximately 280,000 during the war period, possibly one-third of this increase made up of women. That force numbers now about 550,000 as compared with 450,000 before the war and it seems safe to say that twenty per cent. are women.
These positions are open to any who pass the civil service examinations but the chiefs of the bureaus and departments are appointed by the President, and Secretaries of Departments, and they have always been men. Men have succeeded also in getting the highly paid positions under civil service.No law excludes women from the District offices. There are, of course, no elections. Some officials are appointed by the President, some by the Commissioners, and the Supreme Court of the District appoints the Board of Education, three of whose members must be women. In 1920 President Wilson appointed Miss Kathryn Sellers, a member of the District bar, to be Judge of the Juvenile Court. This was largely due to the efforts of Justice William Hitz, of the District Supreme Court. The President appointed also Mrs. Clara Sears Taylor a member of the Rent Commission, created to consider rent problems growing out of the war, and Miss Mabel T. Boardman as Commissioner of the District. The Commissioners appointed two women trustees of the public library. Formerly it was necessary to make an effort to get women on the boards of charities, hospitals, etc., but now such places are seeking the women. Within the past ten years many women graduates of the law schools have been appointed as law clerks in various departments, War Risk, Treasury, especially the income and customs divisions, and in the Solicitor's office for the State Department. The Interior Department appointed Miss Florence Etheridge, at one time president of the D. C. State Equal Suffrage Association, probate attorney for the Cherokee Indians. Miss Marie K. Saunders was the first woman appointed patent examiner, as the result of a competitive examination, and she has been advanced until the next step is that of principal examiner. Women hold important positions as secretaries of committees at the Capitol.
The Board of Commissioners appoint the Superintendent of Police and under Major Raymond J. Pullman a Woman's Bureau was established in 1918, after several women had been serving on the force. Mrs. Marian C. Spingarn was made director. When she left Washington the following year Mrs. Mina C. Van Winkle was appointed and continues to hold the position. To give her power she was made Detective Sergeant and in 1920 was promoted to a Lieutenancy, so that she might legally be in command of a precinct where the Woman's Bureau is on the first floor of the house of detention and the preventive and protective work for women and children is directed. The functions of this bureau are very wide and very important and the work of the women police covers the entire city.
The national appointments of women have attracted the attention not only of this but of other countries. They began in 1912 with the selection of Miss Julia C. Lathrop of Hull House, Chicago, by President Taft as Chief of the newly created Federal Children's Bureau, which position she still holds (1920). President Wilson appointed Mrs. Frances C. Axtell in 1916 a member of the Federal Employees' Compensation Commission; in 1920 Mrs. Helen H. Gardener a member of the Civil Service Commission; Mrs. Annette A. Adams, U. S. Attorney in San Francisco, Assistant Attorney General; Miss Mary Anderson, chief of the Women's Division of the Department of Labor.
- ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Mary O'Toole, attorney and counsellor at law, president of the District of Columbia State Equal Suffrage Association from 1915 to 1920, when the Federal Amendment was ratified. Appointed Judge of the Municipal Court by President Harding, Aug. 4, 1921.
- ↑ Vice-presidents: Justice Wendell P. Stafford, Commissioner Henry B. F. McFarland, Dr. William Tindall, Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, Mrs. Harvey W. Wiley, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Mrs. Philander P. Claxton, Mrs, Wesley, M. Stoner, Mrs. Anna E. Hendley, Miss Helen Jamison, Miss Gertrude Metcalf, Miss Catharine L. Fleming, Miss Annie Goebel, Miss Bertha A. Yoder, Mrs, C. C. Farrar, Dr. Margaret S. Potter, Mrs. Monroe Hopkins, Mrs. Caleb Miller, Mrs. Henry Churchill Cooke, Mrs. Ruth B. Hensey, Mrs. George Eastment. There were few years when Dr. and Mrs. Tindall did not occupy some official position.
Corresponding Secretaries: Miss Henrietta Morrison, Mrs, B. B. Cheshire, Mrs. Jennie L. Monroe, Mrs. L. M. Coope, Mrs. Ida Finley McCrille, Miss Lavinia H. Engle, Miss Abbie R. Knapp, Miss Helen M. Calkins, Francis Scott, Mrs. Rachel Ezekiel, Mrs. Edna V. Bryan.
Recording Secretaries: Miss Emma M. Gillett (8 years), Miss Mary H. Williams, Mrs. Jeannette M. Bradley, Miss Josephine Mason, Mrs. Sarah Newman, Mrs. Louis Ottenberg.
Treasurers: Mrs, Kate Ward Burt (5 years), W. G. Steward, Mrs. Alice P. Rand. Mrs. Kent served in some official capacity from 1898 until] her death in 1918.
Auditors: George A. Warren, Miss Edith Harris, William Lee, Mrs. R. G. Whiting, Mrs. F. M. Gregory, Mrs. Jessica Penn Hunter, Miss Audrey Goss, Mrs. L. Aveihle, Miss Alice Jenkins, Mrs. Jeanne F. Brackett, Mrs. Sarah Beall, Mrs. Frank Pyle. Many of the above named also filled other offices.
Among the names which appear in the records of the years as chairmen of committees, in addition to many of the above, are those of Miss Helen Varick Boswell, Dr. Clara McNaughton, Miss Nettie Lovisa White, Mrs. Katharine Reed Balentine and Miss Abby T. Nicholls.