The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 125

The a.s.sociation was not satisfied with a board of such limited powers and in 1874 it memorialized the Legislature for an Act requiring that women, in the proportion of at least three out of seven, should be placed on the State Board of Charities and Correction, with equal powers in all particulars. This pet.i.tion was presented for three years successively and special hearings granted to its advocates, but at last was definitely refused. In 1891, however, two inst.i.tutions, the State Home and School for Dependent Children and the Rhode Island School for the Deaf, were placed in charge of boards of control, to be appointed by the Governor, to report to the Legislature and to exercise full powers of supervision and management, "at least three of whom shall be women."

In 1878 a meeting was held by the a.s.sociation to consider the need of good and wise women in all places where unfortunate women are in confinement, and the matter of placing police matrons in stations was discussed. Agitation followed and the W. C. T. U., under the enthusiastic lead of Mrs. J. K. Barney, adopted the matter as a special work, the W. S. A. aiding in all possible ways. In March, 1881, the first police matron in the country (it is believed) was appointed in Providence and installed as a regular officer. From this beginning the movement spread until in 1893 an Act was pa.s.sed by the General a.s.sembly, without a dissenting voice, requiring police matrons in all cities, the nominations in each to be recommended by twenty women residents in good standing.

The first agitation for women probation officers was started in a meeting of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation in 1892. The W. C. T. U. and the leaders in rescue mission work in Providence continued the movement, and in 1898 a woman was appointed in Providence to that office, with equal powers of the man probation officer, to be responsible for women who are released on parole.

In 1893 an Act was pa.s.sed as the result of a determined movement lasting several years, in which the suffrage a.s.sociation shared, although the princ.i.p.al leaders were the labor reform organizations of the State and the Council of Women of Rhode Island (to which body the W. S. A. was auxiliary). It raised the legal age of the child-worker from ten to twelve years, provided for sanitary conditions and moral safeguards in shops and factories, and for the appointment of two factory and shop inspectors, "one of whom shall be a woman," to secure its enforcement. The man and woman inspector were made exactly equal in power, responsibility and salary, instead of the woman being, as in most States, a deputy or special inspector. Mrs. f.a.n.n.y Purdy Palmer was chosen for this position.

Appointive offices which women have held recently, or are holding, are a.s.sistant clerk of the Supreme Court and Court of Common Pleas; stenographer for same; clerk to State Commissioner of Public Schools; clerk to State Auditor and Insurance Commissioner; as superintendent of State Reform School for Girls, and as jailer in Kent county.

No woman has ever applied to serve as notary public, but doubtless it would not be considered legal.

OCCUPATIONS: No occupation or profession is forbidden to women, but a test is soon to be made as to whether they will be admitted to the bar. Women are prohibited from contracting to work more than ten hours a day. They can bind themselves to be apprentices till the age of eighteen, men until twenty-one.

EDUCATION: Rhode Island contains only one university--Brown--founded in 1764. In 1883 Miss Helen McGill and Miss Annie S. Peck, college graduates, addressed a meeting at Providence on the higher education of women. Arnold B. Chace was requested at this time to report at the next regular meeting of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation the prospects for the admission of women to Brown University, as he was treasurer of the university corporation. At a later meeting the Rev. Ezekiel Gilman Robinson, then president of the university, by request addressed the a.s.sociation and declared his views, saying in substance that he was not in favor of their admission, especially in the undergraduate departments, as the discipline required by young men and women was quite different and all social questions would be complicated by the presence of the latter.

After much discussion at other meetings it was decided to form a committee, representing several organizations interested in the advancement of women, to work more definitely in this direction. On Feb. 20, 1886, a number of ladies a.s.sembled at the home of Mrs. Rachel Fry, a prominent member of the suffrage a.s.sociation, and, after discussion and advice from Mr. Chace, appointed a committee.[432]

Three days later it met at the home of Mrs. R. A. Peckham, organized and elected Miss Sarah E. Doyle chairman and Mrs. f.a.n.n.y Purdy Palmer secretary. It met again March 14, to hear reports on the conferences of the members with professors of the university, and the result showed a considerable number of them in favor of the project. To influence public opinion the committee published statistics showing that thirty young women of Rhode Island were attending colleges outside the State, and argued that most of these who now were "exiles"

would gladly receive the higher education at home.

The movement was accelerated by the act of four young girls, Elizabeth Hoyt, Henrietta R. Palmer, Emma L. Meader and Helen Gregory, who took by permission the cla.s.sical course in the Providence High School, at that time limited to boys; and in 1887 addressed a pet.i.tion prepared by David Hoyt, the princ.i.p.al, to the president of the university, urging that when their preparation was complete they might be allowed to share the educational privileges of Brown. They received a discouraging response and all turned to other colleges.

Up to this time friends on the faculty and in the corporation of the university were working up a scheme for the unofficial entrance of women and their instruction in the cla.s.s-rooms, and the committee had engaged itself with the practical details connected with this plan.

On Feb. 4, 1889, this somewhat informal committee organized an a.s.sociation and adopted a const.i.tution which declared its object, "to secure the educational privileges of Brown University for women on the same terms offered to men." Of the thirty-two original signers to this const.i.tution eighteen were members of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation and the number included the president, two vice-presidents, secretary, treasurer and four members of the executive committee. The same officers were continued.

Prof. Benjamin Franklin Clarke was from the first an earnest supporter of the claims of the women, and worked within the faculty as Arnold B.

Chace did in the corporation. When in 1889 Elisha Benjamin Andrews (who as professor had in 1887 indorsed the woman suffrage amendment) became the president of the university, the cause of the higher education of women took a great leap forward. In October, 1891, the Women's College connected with Brown University was established and a small building hired for its home. Six young women, among them the now distinguished president of Mount Holyoke College, Miss Mary Woolley, entered the cla.s.s rooms. The results of the next ten years are thus summed up in the official year-book for 1901:

The Women's College was founded in October, 1891. At first only the privileges of university examinations and certificates of proficiency were granted. In June, 1892, all the university degrees and the graduate courses were opened. In November, 1897, the inst.i.tution was accepted by the corporation and officially designated the Women's College of Brown University. The immediate charge, subject to the direction of the president, was placed in the hands of a dean. All instruction was required to be given by members of the university faculty. Pembroke Hall, which was built by the Rhode Island Society for the Collegiate Education of Women, was formally transferred to the university in October, 1897, and was accepted as the recitation hall of the Women's College.

The record of the admission of women to this ancient university is part of the history of the Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, because all the initial movements were taken by that body, the society which continued the work was separated from the a.s.sociation only for purposes of practical efficiency, and the first principle on which the movement proceeded was that of absolute equality in educational opportunity, which is the corollary of political democracy. With its actual opening to women, however, other elements of leadership a.s.sumed control and have secured later results.

On Jan. 16, 1892, the original a.s.sociation having practically secured its object, the money in the treasury was turned over to the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, and from that body finally found its way to a scholarship fund for the Women's College, and the a.s.sociation disbanded. Later the need for raising funds to meet the requirement for buildings and endowments led to the reorganization of the work, and the present Rhode Island Society for the Collegiate Education of Women was formed. Miss Doyle was elected the president of this new a.s.sociation, as she had been of the old. At the dedication of Pembroke Hall, which the efforts of this later society had secured, the early history (especially the connection of the Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation with the work) was not dwelt upon, but the facts should have permanent record to furnish one more proof that woman suffrage societies have started great collateral movements, which, when they are fully successful, often forget or do not know the "mother that bore them."[433]

It was not until 1893 that the full cla.s.sical course of the Providence High School, preparatory for the university, was officially thrown open to girls, although a few had previously attended. Now all departments, including the manual training, are open alike to both s.e.xes, and there are no distinctions anywhere in the public schools.

In these there are 207 men and 1,706 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $103.74; of the women, $51. Only one other State (Ma.s.s.) shows so great a discrepancy.

The a.s.sociation of Collegiate Alumnae has an active branch in Rhode Island. Seventeen clubs representing 1,436 members belong to the State Federation. The Local Council of Women, which is auxiliary to the National Council, has a membership, by delegate representation, of thirty-two of the leading educational, church, philanthropic and reformatory societies of Providence and of the State. About one-half of these have men as well as women for members, but all are represented in the Council by women. This body has done many important things, having taken the most active part in securing Factory and Shop Inspection; initiated the formation of the Providence Society for Organizing Charity; started the movement for a Consumers' League and launched that a.s.sociation; and is now at work to secure a State inst.i.tution for the care and training of the Feeble-Minded. The Council holds from six to ten private meetings in the year, at least two public meetings, and an annual public Peace Celebration in conjunction with the Peace Committee of the International Council of Women.

FOOTNOTES:

[422] The History is indebted for this chapter to the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer of Providence, vice-president-at-large of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.

[423] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, p. 340.

[424] The annual meeting in October, 1895, celebrated the completion of a quarter of a century's service on the part of Mrs. Elizabeth Buffum Chace as president of the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation. Letters from absent friends were read expressing their high appreciation of her life-long service in the cause of humankind as well as womankind. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mr. William Lloyd Garrison and Miss Mary F. Eastman attended to speak for the cause, and to testify their love for Mrs. Chace. The Hon. E. L. Freeman, ex-Gov.

John W. Davis and others of the State also spoke words of great respect. The a.s.sociation honored itself by once more electing Mrs.

Chace its chief officer, although she had expressed a strong desire to retire from the position as she felt that the burden of the work should be borne by younger shoulders. [Annual Report to National Suffrage Convention.

[425] Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Julia Ward Howe, Rowland Hazard, Phebe Jackson, Susan Sisson, Sarah Helen Whitman, Elizabeth K.

Churchill, Abraham Payne, Sarah T. Wilbour, Charlotte A. Jenckes, George L. Clarke, Francis C. Frost, Susan R. Harris, Augustus Woodbury and many others of the best known and most useful citizens.

[426] Others were Mrs. M. M. Brewster, Mrs. Mary C. Peckham, Mrs.

Rowena P. B. Tingley, Miss Charlotte R. Hoswell, Mrs. Anna E. Aldrich and Mrs. Martha Knowles.

[427] Present board: President Mrs. A. C. Dewing; first vice-president, Mrs. Thomas W. Chase; second vice-president, Mrs.

Ellen M. Bolles; third vice-president, Mrs. Charlotte B. Wilbour; secretary, Mrs. Annie M. Griffin; treasurer, Mrs. Mary K. Wood; auditors, Mrs. O. I. Angell, Mrs. Elizabeth Ormsbee; honorary vice-presidents, the Hon. H. B. Metcalf, Dr. L. F. C. Garvin and Arnold B. Chace.

[428] The officers were: President, Mrs. Chace; vice-presidents, Mr.

Hinckley, Arnold B. Chace, Phebe Jackson, Mary O. Arnold and Julia Ward Howe; acting secretary, Mrs. Anna E. Aldrich; treasurer, Mrs.

Mary K. Wood; executive committee, Mrs. S. E. H. Doyle, Miss Sarah J.

Eddy, Mesdames Aldrich, f.a.n.n.y Purdy Palmer, C. P. Norton, Louisa A.

Bowen, Elizabeth C. Hinckley, Susan C. Kenyon, Mary E. Bliss, Frances S. Bailey and S. R. Alexander, from whom the campaign committee was selected.

[429] Occasional addresses were made by Gen. Thomas W. Chace, Col. J.

C. Wyman, Judge R. C. Pitman, Dr. L. F. C. Garvin, the Revs. H. C.

Westwood, Augustus Woodbury, H. I. Cushman, N. H. Harriman, Thomas R.

Slicer, O. H. Still, J. H. Larry; Messrs. Olney Arnold, Augustine Jones, R. F. Trevellick, Ralph Beaumont, John O'Keefe and others.

[430] Dr. Helen C. Putnam represented the physicians, Mrs. Mary Frost Evans the editors, Miss Sarah E. Doyle the teachers, Mrs. Mary A.

Babc.o.c.k and Mrs. A. B. E. Jackson the W. C. T. U., Mrs. L. G. C.

Knickerbocker and Mrs. S. M. Aldrich women in private life, while the W. S. A. contributed Mrs. J. S. French, Mrs. A. C. Dewing and Mrs.

Ellen M. Bolles. Edwin C. Pierce and Rabbi David Blaustein, members of the a.s.sociation, also spoke in favor of suffrage for women.

[431] The right to be appointed by the court was given to married women by Act of 1902.

[432] Mrs. Francis W. G.o.ddard, Miss Sarah E. Doyle, princ.i.p.al of the Girls' High School of Providence; Mrs. M. M. Brewster, president of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union; Mrs. f.a.n.n.y Purdy Palmer and Mrs. R. A. Peckham, representing the State Suffrage a.s.sociation; Mrs. Augustine Jones, representing the Friends' School, and Mrs. M. E.

Tucker.

[433] The Suffrage a.s.sociation has held one meeting in Pembroke Hall, however, which was presided over by its acting president and at which the daughter of Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, spoke upon "The Political Position of Women in England," and the use of Sayles Hall of Brown University was freely granted for a series of meetings under the auspices of the W. S. A. devoted to a presentation of "Woman's Contribution to the Progress of the World." These were addressed by Abba Goold Woolson, Mary A. Livermore, Lillie Devereux Blake, Lillie Chace Wyman, Alice Stone Blackwell, Mary F. Eastman, Prof. Katherine Hanscom and the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer.

In October, 1901, Miss Susan B. Anthony addressed the students and was enthusiastically received.

CHAPTER LXIII.

SOUTH CAROLINA.[434]

In 1890 Mrs. Virginia Durant Young being on a visit to Mrs. Adelaide Viola Neblett at Greenville, these two did so inspire each other that then and there they held a suffrage conference with Mrs. S. Odie Sirrene, Mrs. Mary Putnam Gridley and others, and pledged themselves to work for woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt in South Carolina.

Mrs. Young made a suffrage address to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Beaufort in 1891, and later spoke on the subject by invitation at Lexington and in the Baptist church at Marion. She eventually succeeded in forming a State a.s.sociation of 250 men and women who believed in equal rights, and interested themselves in circulating literature on this question. Its officers for 1900 are Mrs. Young, president; Mrs. Mary P. Prentiss, vice-president; Miss Harriet B. Manville, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Gridley, treasurer.

In 1895 Miss Susan B. Anthony, president of the National a.s.sociation, Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake of New York, and Mrs. Ellen Battelle Dietrick of Ma.s.sachusetts, made addresses at various places, on their way home from the national convention in Atlanta. In April of this year Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky, Miss Helen Morris Lewis of North Carolina, and Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine, with Mrs. Young and Mrs. Neblett, began a suffrage campaign at Greenville. They went thence to Spartanburg, Columbia and Charleston. Here the party divided, Miss Clay and Mrs. Young going to Georgetown, Florence, Marion, Latta, Darlington, Timmonsville and Sumter. Later Mrs.