The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 99

Ma.s.sachusetts has detailed laws regarding the employment of women, among them one restricting the hours of work in any mercantile establishment to fifty-eight in a week, except in retail stores during the month of December. Ten hours is a legal workday for women in general.

Separate houses of detention are required for women prisoners in cities of over 30,000.[326]

SUFFRAGE: The original charter of Ma.s.sachusetts in 1691 did not exclude women from voting. In 1780 the first const.i.tution prohibited them from voting except for certain officers. The new const.i.tution of 1820 limited the suffrage strictly to males.

In 1879 the Legislature enacted that a woman twenty-one years of age, who could give satisfactory evidence as to residence and who could stand the educational test (_i. e._, be able to read five lines of the const.i.tution and write her name), and who should give notice in writing to the a.s.sessors that she wished to be a.s.sessed a poll tax (two dollars) and should give in under oath a statement of her taxable property (which was not required of men, as they had the option of letting the a.s.sessors guess at the amount) should thereupon be a.s.sessed and should be ent.i.tled to register and vote for members of school boards.[327] In order to keep her name on the registration list this entire process had to be repeated every year, while a man's name once placed on the list was kept there without further effort on his part, and the payment of the same poll tax ent.i.tled him to full suffrage.

In 1881 the poll tax was reduced to fifty cents, and the law was changed so that women's names should remain on the registration list so long as they continued to reside and pay their taxes in the place where they were registered. Even now, however, it requires constant watchfulness on their part to have this done. In 1890 the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting was abolished for men, and in 1892 for women. Only a few weeks in each year were set apart when women might register until 1898, when it was enacted that the time of registration should be the same for both.

The School Suffrage includes only a vote for members of the school board and not for supervisors, appropriations or any questions connected with the public schools. Women are not authorized to attend caucuses or have any voice in nominations of school officers. As they were thus deprived of all voice in selecting candidates, an a.s.sociation, Independent Women Voters, was formed in Boston in 1889 by Mrs. Eliza Trask Hill, who served as president until 1896, when she removed from the city, and Mrs. Sarah J. Boyden has filled the office since then. This organization, which was entered at the registration office as a political party, holds a caucus in each ward between January 1 and April 1 every year and nominates candidates for the School Board. Such nomination by 100 or more legal voters ent.i.tles their names to be placed on the Australian ballot. Some of the nominees of the Independent Women Voters are often accepted by the regular parties, but even when this is refused they are sometimes elected over the Republican or Democratic candidates.

Because of the conditions attached and the small privilege granted it is remarkable that any considerable number of women should have voted during these past years. When School Suffrage was first granted, in 1879, only 934 women voted, and for the first seven years the average was only 940. Since then there has been a large increase of interest.

During the past seven years the number never has fallen below 5,000.

In 1898, 5,201 women voted; in 1899, 7,090; in 1900, 9,542; and this year (1901) there were 15,545 names on the register and 11,620 voted.

The highest number was reached in 1888, when under special circ.u.mstances 25,279 women were registered and 19,490 voted.

OFFICE HOLDING: Women have served as School Committee (trustees) since 1874. For some time previous to 1884 they could hold by appointment the offices of overseers of the poor, trustees of public libraries, school supervisors, members of the State Boards of Education and of Health, Lunacy and Charity, without special legislation. It was required that there should be women on the boards of the three State Primary and Reform Schools, State workhouse, State almshouse and Board of Prison Commissioners, and that certain managers and officers of the Reformatory Prison for Women at Sherborn should be women.

In 1884 a bill was pa.s.sed requiring the appointment of two women on the board of every Hospital for the Insane and one woman physician for each. In 1885 it was enacted that women might be a.s.sistant registers of deeds; in 1886 that they might be elected overseers of the poor. In 1887 a law was pa.s.sed requiring police matrons in all cities of 30,000 inhabitants or more. There had been matrons in Boston fifteen years.

In 1890 the Supreme Court decided that a woman could not act as notary public. In 1891 it was enacted that there should be women factory inspectors; in 1895 that a woman could be appointed a.s.sistant town or city clerk; in 1896 that county commissioners might appoint a woman clerk _pro tempore_!

The evolution of the Special Commissioner shows the laborious processes by which women make any gains in Ma.s.sachusetts. In 1883 a law was pa.s.sed that women attorneys could be appointed Special Commissioners to administer oaths, take depositions and acknowledge deeds. In 1889 it was amended to give Special Commissioners the same powers as justices of the peace in the above respects and also that of issuing summonses for witnesses. In 1896 it was provided that any woman over twenty-one, the same as any man, whether a lawyer or not, could be appointed commissioner; a change of name by marriage should terminate her commission but should not disqualify her for re-appointment. In 1898 the powers were extended to appointments of appraisers of estates. In 1899 the powers of the Special Commissioner were made coincident with those of justice of the peace, but the authority to perform the marriage ceremony was taken from justices generally and is now given to specified ones only.

Women can not be justices of the peace. They may be appointed by the State to take acknowledgments of deeds but not to perform the marriage ceremony unless regularly ordained ministers.

Women at present are serving on State Boards as follows: Commissioners of Prisons, Charity and Free Public Library--two each; trustees of Insane Hospitals at Danvers, Northampton, Taunton, Worcester and Medfield--two each, and at Westborough, three; School for Feeble-minded, one; Hospital for Epileptics, two; for Dipsomaniacs and Inebriates, one; Hospital Cottages for Children, one; State Hospital and State Farm, two; Lyman and Industrial Schools, two.

It has been impossible to ascertain the number of women serving as School Trustees later than 1898. Then the records showed 194 on boards in 138 towns, but, as in many cases only the initials of the prefixes to the names were given, this is probably an underestimate. Women serve on the boards of public libraries.

Women are found in the following official positions in Boston: trustees of public inst.i.tutions, two; of children's inst.i.tutions, three; of insane hospitals, two; of bath departments, two; overseers of the poor, two; city conveyancer in law department, one; Superior Court stenographer, one; probation officers, two; chief matron House of Detention, one; supervisor of schools, one; members of school committee, four.

OCCUPATIONS: Ma.s.sachusetts claims the first woman who ever practiced medicine in the United States--Dr. Harriot K. Hunt, who studied with her father and began in 1835, long before a medical college in the country was open to women. In 1881 Lelia J. Robinson applied for admission to the bar in Boston and the Supreme Court decided a woman to be ineligible. The Legislature of 1892 enacted that women should be admitted to the practice of law. No professions or occupations are now legally forbidden to them.

EDUCATION: One of the first seminaries for women in the United States was Mt. Holyoke at South Hadley, Ma.s.s., now a college with 550 students; the largest college for women in the world is Smith at Northampton, with 1,131 students; one that ranks among the four highest in existence, Wellesley, has 819; Radcliffe at Cambridge, has 407. The requirements of admission and the examinations are the same for Radcliffe as for Harvard and the courses of instruction are identical. The teaching is done by members of the Harvard faculty, over one hundred of them. All degrees must be approved by the President and Fellows of Harvard, the diplomas are countersigned by the President and bear the University seal. Nevertheless Radcliffe is not recognized as having any official connection with the ancient university. A number of graduate courses in Harvard are open to women but without degrees.

Boston University, with 1,430 students, is co-educational in all its departments, including law, medicine and theology. The same is true of the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology and the State Agricultural College. There has been no distinction of s.e.x in Tufts College (Univers.) since 1892; or in Clark University (post-graduate) in Worcester, since 1900. The College of Physicians and Surgeons and Tufts Colleges of Medicine and Surgery, in Boston, admit women. They are excluded from Andover Theological Seminary (Cong'l), Newton Theological Inst.i.tute (Baptist), Amherst College, Williams College and Worcester Polytechnic Inst.i.tute.

In the public schools there are 1,197 men and 12,205 women teachers.

The average monthly salary of the men is $136.23; of the women, $51.41. Omitting the High School salaries, the average amount paid to men per month is $130.09; to women, $49.61. In some counties over one-half as much is paid to women teachers as to men, but in Ess.e.x County the monthly ratio is $127.82 to men, and $47.17 to women, and in Suffolk County $200.07 to men and $63.44, or less than one-third, to women. Boston has 215 men teachers at an average monthly salary of $213.61; and 1,762 women at an average of $69.68. In no other State is the discrepancy so great in the salary of men and women teachers.

The women's clubs of Ma.s.sachusetts are as the sands of the sea. Of these 169, with a membership of 21,451, belong to the State Federation. The New England Woman's Club was organized in 1868, the same year as Sorosis in New York and about one month earlier. These two are generally spoken of as the pioneers of women's clubs as they exist to-day.

THE NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE a.s.sOCIATION OF Ma.s.sACHUSETTS.[328]

When the third volume of the History of Woman Suffrage closed in 1885 it left this a.s.sociation three years old, with Mrs. Harriette Robinson Shattuck, president, Dr. Salome Merritt, vice-president, and thirteen other vice-presidents who represented the same number of counties. To these leaders and others it seemed necessary that Ma.s.sachusetts should have this society in order to give a support to the officers and the methods of the National Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, which they were not receiving from the State society, at that time auxiliary to the American a.s.sociation. In those three years conventions had been held in some twenty cities.

Mrs. Harriet M. Emerson was then engaged in preparing pet.i.tions, to which she secured many signers, asking for "a statute to enable a widow who desires it, to become on reasonable terms a co-executor with those appointed by her husband's will." For several years she spent much time on this work and had the help of many of the best citizens of Boston. It was ably presented at each session of the Legislature, but no action was taken.[329]

Mrs. Harriet H. Robinson, the corresponding secretary, has published Ma.s.sachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement, The New Pandora, a woman's play, Capt. Mary Miller, etc.; Mrs. Shattuck, The Woman's Manual of Parliamentary Law, Advanced Rules for Large a.s.semblies.

Another member, Mrs. Sara A. Underwood, has done valuable work on the newspapers of Boston, New York and other cities, and before the Legislature. The writings of Mrs. Evaleen L. Mason are well known.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

HARRIET MAY MILLS.

Syracuse, N. Y.

FLORENCE HOWE HALL.

Plainfield, N. J.

REV. ANNA GARLIN SPENCER.

Providence, R. I.

LUCRETIA L. BLANKENBURG.

Philadelphia, Pa.

LAVINA A. HATCH.

E. Pembroke, Ma.s.s.

In 1888 certain historical text-books which were objected to by the Roman Catholics were removed from the schools and replaced by others.

This caused great excitement, over 25,000 women registered to vote, and for two successive years helped to defeat all the Catholic candidates for the school board and to elect a number of women. The members of this a.s.sociation maintained the non-partisan side and opposed the extremists who urged that Catholics should be excluded from the board, thus depriving it of some of its most experienced and faithful men.

In April, 1888, the a.s.sociation applied for a charter and became the first incorporated body of woman suffragists in the State. In December a pet.i.tion was sent to Congress asking for an amendment to the United States Const.i.tution prohibiting disfranchis.e.m.e.nt on account of s.e.x.

In 1889 a pet.i.tion from this a.s.sociation was introduced in the Legislature to require a.s.sessors to ask at every house whether there are women there who wish to be a.s.sessed a poll tax. A pet.i.tion was also sent in for a law providing that one-third of the membership of the school committee consist of women. These were presented by Mr.

Barker of Malden.

At the eighth annual meeting in May, 1890, C. W. Ernst gave an instructive address on political topics.

In October, 1891, a special meeting was called to discuss the question of discontinuing auxiliaryship to the National-American a.s.sociation, and continuing work as an independent organization. After a full discussion the vote resulted in remaining auxiliary, only one opposed.

In March, 1892, a plan was laid before the a.s.sociation by Dr. Merritt for action in the various cities and towns of the State to secure the nomination in caucuses of such senators and representatives only as would declare themselves in favor of woman suffrage. A committee was formed to confer with other organizations, and at the next meeting it reported that the Boston Suffrage League, Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick, president, had approved the plan and called a meeting where nine wards were represented and a compact signed. In May this agreement was adopted by the Suffolk County Committee, who were to work in Boston while the a.s.sociation was to manage outside counties.

One thousand copies were printed and circulated but the final results showed not enough interest to make the measure a success.

At this time Mrs. Shattuck resigned the presidency, "being engaged in work more imperative," and Mrs. Robinson gave up her office of corresponding secretary. At the October meeting Miss Hatch was elected a member of the executive committee of the National a.s.sociation for the Columbian Exposition. Mrs. Sarah A. P. d.i.c.kerman acted as president during the remainder of the year. Valuable discussions were held on State and National Banks, Should the Governor Exercise the Veto Power? Shall Immigration Be Restricted? Which Would Benefit Boston Most, License or No License? and other timely questions.

In January, 1893, it was voted to pet.i.tion the Legislature that women be allowed to vote on a const.i.tutional amendment affecting their property rights. A special effort was made in pet.i.tion work both for Congress and the Legislature. In one small village where forty-two signatures were obtained, only four persons refused to sign. In May Dr. Merritt was unanimously elected president of the a.s.sociation, and remained in office until her death in 1900. At this meeting a statement was made that in Ma.s.sachusetts there were from 105,000 to 110,000 families with widows or single women as heads, not represented by one vote. In December a committee was appointed to confer with the legislative committee of the State School Suffrage a.s.sociation to secure an extension of the time (then only two or three days) which was allotted to the registration of women.

At the legislative hearing in January, 1894, pet.i.tions were presented by this a.s.sociation from seven counties, covering twenty-one towns. At this date 186 women were reported as holding office, eleven being district superintendents of schools. The following May the registration laws were so changed that women have since had the same time as men in which to register. Under the present law, the a.s.sessors in their regular rounds are required to take the names of women voters having the same residence as on a previous voting list. These are then entered on the register for the ensuing campaign without further trouble.

In September, 1895, a special meeting was called to decide how best to help the work for the referendum which had been submitted by the Legislature in order to ascertain how many women desired to vote.

Twenty-five dollars were appropriated toward defraying the expenses of the State committee appointed to conduct this campaign.

In 1896 much time was spent on measures helpful to women and children.

One of these was to secure the early closing of stores, the result being that through the entire summer all the princ.i.p.al stores in Boston were closed at 5 P. M. every day, and on Sat.u.r.days at 12 M., as they have been each summer since.