The History of Woman Suffrage Volume V Part 4

A feature of the evening was the scholarly address of the Hon. William Dudley Foulke (Ind.), president of the U. S. Civil Service Commission.

He objected to being cla.s.sed as a "new man," since long ago he was for several years president of the American Suffrage a.s.sociation. "Men would not be satisfied with indirect influence," he declared and continued: "It is often said that woman suffrage is just but that there is no need of it, because women have no interests separate from those of men. That argument was used to me only lately by an eminent political economist. I said: 'Suppose a railroad runs through a town and a woman owns a large property in that town and yet cannot vote on the question of raising a subsidy; are her interests necessarily the same as those of every man in the town?' My friends, that case is universal. Suppose a widow is trying to bring up her son in the principles of morality and a saloon is opened on the corner opposite her home. I do not speak as an advocate of prohibition but I do say that the interest of the mother is different from that of the man who sells liquor. Or suppose she is bringing up a daughter; she has a sacred right to protect that daughter from a libertine. Her interest is certainly different from that of the tempter.... We do not realize what an immense waste there is in denying woman entrance to political life. She ought to have free access to anything she is qualified to do and where she is not qualified she will drop out."

John S. Crosby, a prominent Democratic leader of New York, made a thorough a.n.a.lysis of the functions of the State and the Government, showed the utter fallacy of const.i.tuting men the governing and women the governed cla.s.s and closed as follows: "Attempt to prove that woman's claim to the right of suffrage is as valid as any that man can make would be like trying to demonstrate the truth of a self-evident proposition.... We ask the ballot for woman not merely because she has a right to it but quite as much because it is her duty to exercise that right. The irresistible power of that all-embracing organization, the State, holds you and me and all that are dear to us as its helpless and often hopeless subjects. The combined wisdom of all of us would be none too great for its intelligent administration and we demand for our own sake and for the sake of those that shall come after us that the wisdom of woman shall be included; not only that her delicate, intuitional sense of justice shall leaven the lump of public opinion but that her deft hand shall help to knead it into the bread of righteous law. We ask as one of the rights that government is bound to secure that in the administration of its power it shall make use of the fullest wisdom of the whole people; that the entire popular brain and social conscience shall take cognizance of and be responsible for all acts of government. Not until then shall we see true democracy; not until then shall we indeed have a government of the people, by the people and for the people."

The next day was one always commemorated by suffragists--the birthday of Susan B. Anthony--this time the 82nd. The _Woman's Journal_ began its account: "As Miss Anthony sat at breakfast on February 15, with one of the jars of delicious cream before her that were sent her daily by the president of the Maryland Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, she was unexpectedly surrounded by the foreign delegates in a body. A birthday greeting drawn up and signed by them was read aloud by Mrs.

Florence Fenwick Miller of England, while the rest, grouped behind her, bent forward listening with attentive faces--a pretty picture.

Among the gifts which she received during the afternoon session were a canoe full of flowers from 'one of the girls' with a poem; a handsome feather boa from Mrs. Swift and Mrs. Sperry of California; a cup made from the wood of the floor under the table on which the Declaration of Independence was signed, presented in the name of Mrs. General Geddes; a bouquet of red roses from Prof. Theodosia Ammons of Colorado Agricultural College; potted plants from the Swedish and Norwegian delegates; over $500 from Mrs. f.a.n.n.y Garrison Villard, Miss Emily Howland, Mrs. Kenyon, Mrs. W. W. Trimble, Miss Nettie Lovisa White, Mrs. William M. Ivins and other friends; also quant.i.ties of fruit and flowers. The address was as follows:

We, the undersigned, Foreign Delegates to the first International Woman Suffrage Congress, gladly take the opportunity of your 82nd birthday to express to you our love and reverence, our grat.i.tude for your lifelong work for women, and are rejoicing that you have lived to see such great steps onward made by the world at large in the direction in which you led at first under such prejudice.

Praying that you may enjoy years of health, cheered by every fresh advance, we remain, your loving friends,

Florence Fenwick Miller, England; Sofja Levovna Friedland, Russia; Carolina Holman Huidobro, Chili; Gudrun Drewsen, Norway; Vida Goldstein, Australia; Emmy Evald, Sweden; Antonie Stolle, Germany.

[Later the foreign delegates gave Mrs. Catt a handsomely engraved silver card case.]

The Washington _Times_ said of the occasion:

The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw presented a large basket of fruit from some of the princ.i.p.al suffrage workers with these touching words: "Miss Anthony, you have been more than a leader to us of your own country, more than a teacher, more than a counselor, you have been our beloved friend. Take this with our love for you, dear, dear friend." This completed Miss Anthony's conquest and she almost broke down. There has been very little emotionalism in this convention but for some minutes there was ample proof all over the hall that being delegates to a suffrage convention had not made any woman forget how to cry. Mrs. Catt finally came to Miss Anthony's rescue in a little speech full of tender appreciation: "The greatest thing about Miss Anthony to my mind is her utter unselfishness and lack of self-consciousness. As we came up the aisle the other night and the audience broke into a thunder of applause for her whom all love, Miss Anthony looked about to see what caused it and then asked: 'What are they applauding for?' She credits all attentions to herself as for the cause and it is dearer to her than life. Last night at an hour when all respectable women suffragists should have been in bed, the treasurer and I put our heads together and decided that we would ask all of you to give a present to the a.s.sociation on Miss Anthony's birthday instead of giving it to her. We know her well enough to be sure this is what she would like best."

Miss Mary Garrett Hay, the champion money raiser, then made the appeal to the audience, who quickly responded with over $5,000 and she received an appreciative vote of thanks from the convention. Mrs.

Harriet Taylor Upton, the treasurer, reported the receipts of the preceding year as $13,581, with a carefully itemized and audited statement.

Among the most interesting and valuable features of all national conventions are the reports of the work in the various States and yet because of the large number it is impossible to give specific mention or quotations. They were varied on this occasion by the reports from foreign countries--Venezuela, Chili, j.a.pan, China, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Porto Rico, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and France. These had been obtained at the request of Mrs. Catt from amba.s.sadors, consuls or persons appointed by them and represented months of labor. Several evenings were largely devoted to addresses by delegates from other countries; one by Public School Inspector James L. Hughes, Toronto; the English Woman in Politics, Florence Fenwick Miller; the Australian Woman in Politics, Vida Goldstein; Women in South American Republics, Carolina Huidobro; Women in Porto Rico, Resident Commissioner Federico Degetau; Women in the Philippines, Harriet Potter Nourse; Deborah, Emmy Evald, Sweden; Women in Egypt and Jerusalem, Lydia von Finkelstein Mountford; Women in Turkey, Florence Fensham, Dean of American College for Girls in Constantinople; Women in Germany, Antoine Stolle.

When the report for Porto Rico was made Miss Shaw supplemented it with a graphic account of a trip to the West Indies with Mrs. Lydia Avery c.o.o.nley Ward of Chicago, which she had just finished, telling of the position of women, the marriage laws, etc. The work of the National Council of Women was presented by the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer (R.

I.); the report of the affiliated Friends' Equal Rights a.s.sociation by Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman (N. Y.), its president.

The Sunday afternoon services in the church were conducted by the Rev.

Anna Garlin Spencer, a.s.sisted by the Rev. Olympia Brown and the Rev.

Anna Howard Shaw.[21] Mrs. Spencer first defined the ideal of womanly character held by the older poets and philosophers, quoting Milton's line describing Adam and Eve: "He for G.o.d only; she for G.o.d in him,"

and the expression used by the hard, old father of Tennyson's "Princess": "Man to command and woman to obey." She then expressed the modern ideal as that of devotion to the same essentials but different in expression. "Woman is not called to a new kingdom but to a larger occupancy of that which has been hers from the beginning. The woman with the child in her arms was the beginning of the family; the hearth fire and the altar fire grew from this; the elder child teaching the younger was the beginning of the school. We are making over all these inherited traditions and inherited tendencies and socializing them....

The ideal woman is no longer a far-away Madonna with her feet on the clouds; she is as divine but she is human. What means the humanizing of religion and the pa.s.sing of harsh, old creeds but that a greater, more human, more womanly influence is felt in all the relations of life."

Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee on Presidential suffrage, said in his report: "This is the open door for woman suffrage in every State in the Union. Any Legislature at any session by a majority vote of both Houses, either separately or in joint session, without any change of State const.i.tution, can empower women to help select the presidential electors on the same terms as male citizens. The power is absolute and unqualified. Let women in every State pet.i.tion their Legislature to enable women to take part in this most important form of suffrage known to the American people. It is objected to our demand for woman suffrage that women do not want it and will not exercise it if granted. This is now the only method of testing women's wish to take part in their government. If by a general exercise of the right they show their public spirit, the Legislature by submitting an amendment to the State const.i.tution can afterwards extend suffrage to its citizens in State and local elections. This step will be the most conservative way of procedure. The control will remain, as now, in the hands of a Legislature elected by men alone. If it prove unsatisfactory to the men of the State any subsequent Legislature can repeal the law."

A report of the International Suffrage Conference, which had been in progress during the convention, and the forming of a committee to further permanent organization, was made by its secretary, Miss Goldstein, and the convention voted that the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation should cooperate with this committee. The nominations for office were made as usual by secret ballot and as usual were so nearly unanimous that the secretary was instructed to cast the vote. The only change in the present board was the election of Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, for many years prominent in the work in Iowa, as second auditor in place of Dr. Eaton, whose professional duties required all her time. Invitations for the next convention were received from Niagara Falls, Detroit, St. Louis, Denver, Baltimore and New Orleans. The Board of Trade, the Era Club and the Progressive Union united in the one from New Orleans, which was accepted and cordial thanks returned for the others.

The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee, rejoiced in the suffrage already gained and the securing in the past year of laws in various States giving equal guardianship of their children to mothers and increased property rights to wives.

They called the attention of the Civil Service Commission to discriminations made against women and emphasized the protest of the preceding year against government regulation of vice in the Philippines. Later at an executive meeting of the board a vigorous set of resolutions was prepared, stating that the reports of Governor William H. Taft and General McArthur admitted and defended "certified examinations of women" in the new possessions of the United States. It showed at length the results of government regulation in other countries which had caused it to be abandoned and declared that "such things ought not to be permitted under the American flag."[22]

Mrs. Colby's report on Industrial Problems Relating to Women cited as one example of discrimination: "An effort is now being made in Congress to do away with the annual sick leave of employees, because, it is claimed, women take so much advantage of it. Investigation shows, however, that the per cent. of sick leave is highest in the Inter-State Commerce Commission, where not a woman is employed--twelve per cent.--and only seven per cent. in the Agricultural Department, where a very large number are employed." She gave numerous instances of unfairness against women on the civil service lists, said that women wage earners must find a forum on the suffrage platform where they can plead their cause and carefully a.n.a.lyze the industrial problems especially affecting women. Mrs. Elnora M. Babc.o.c.k, chairman of the Press Committee, gave a comprehensive report stating that while 50,000 news stories and articles had been sent to the papers in 1900 the number had increased to 175,000 during the last year and there was reason to believe that three-fourths of them had been used. The largest city papers freely accepted the articles.

Former U. S. Senator Henry W. Blair of New Hampshire came in for one session and was called to the platform for a speech. He was much loved by the suffragists, as he had been one of the strongest champions of woman suffrage during his many years in the Senate and had brought the Federal Amendment to a vote on Jan. 25, 1887. (History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, chapter VI.) Letters of affectionate greeting were sent to the pioneers and veteran workers, Mrs. Stanton, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Mary S. Anthony, Jane H. Spofford, Sallie Clay Bennett, Caroline Hallowell Miller and Abigail S. Duniway. The deaths among the older and more prominent members during the year had been many and fifty were mentioned in the memorial resolutions.

The notable social features of the week were the afternoon receptions given by Mrs. Julia Langdon Barber at her beautiful home, Belmont, and by Mrs. John B. Henderson at Boundary Castle, the latter followed the next day by a dinner for the officers of the a.s.sociation and the delegates from abroad. Both of these well-known Washington hostesses were early suffragists and had often extended the hospitality of their s.p.a.cious homes to the individual leaders and to the conventions.

A very interesting address was given on the last evening by Madame Friedland on Russian Women of Past Centuries. U. S. Senator Thomas M.

Patterson of Colorado presented a vigorous and convincing endors.e.m.e.nt of the practical working of woman suffrage in that State for the past nineteen years and its benefits to women and to civic life. U. S.

Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, always a strong and loyal supporter of suffrage for women, was on the platform. Dr. Shaw, introduced by Mrs. Catt as "the Demosthenes of the movement,"

delivered for the first time her impressive speech, The Power of an Incentive, in which she showed how laws, customs and lack of opportunity took away the incentive for great work from the life of women. Until they can have the same that inspires men, she said, they never can rise to their highest capabilities. No adequate reports of any of these addresses exist.

The audience waited to hear from Miss Anthony, who was thus described by a writer present: "The picture that Miss Anthony made during the evening was one which the delegates will carry away with them to keep.

She wore a black satin gown with a handsome point lace fichu and draped over her shoulders a soft, white shawl, while close by was a large jar of lavender hyacinths. Her expressive face reflected every mood of the evening and it now spoke pride, satisfaction and sorrow.

She told of the joy and gratification she felt in the wonderful galaxy of women at the convention and the progress of her loved cause, and when she voiced the wish that she might be with them at the next convention her words were almost lost in a whirlwind of applause."

Mrs. Catt in closing with a brief address one of the most noteworthy conventions on record, called attention to what had been the key-note of her speech before the House Judiciary Committee and said: "We have asked of Congress the most reasonable thing a great cause ever demanded--an investigation of conditions in the equal suffrage States--and on its results we rest our case."

Under the heading Impressions of a Non-combatant a writer in the Washington _Times_ gave the following opinion:

If there is one convention among the many Washington has seen which may be called unique, it is that of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation. There is nothing like it in the world. There is only one Susan B. Anthony and there is practically only one suffrage fight.... In the old days the power of an idea was the only thing that could have waked up an interest and held the suffragists together. It took faith and zeal and lots of other things to be a believer in woman suffrage then. Now it only takes executive ability and vim and a general interest in public affairs.... The problems discussed were almost purely legal and economic, dealing with the suffrage question proper, the wages of women and their occupations. There was very little empty rhetoric but a good deal of fun. In short, there are two extra senses with which most of the delegates seem to be provided--common sense and a sense of humor--excellent subst.i.tutes for emotion when it comes to practical affairs. If the a.s.sociation ever loses the idealism which is still its backbone it will be a political machine of much power; it seems likely to be for the present a decided force in the direction of civic reform.

For a quarter of a century during the first session of each Congress committees of Senate and House had given a hearing to representatives of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation to present arguments for the submission of an amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution which would enfranchise women, and at an earlier date to advocate other suffrage measures. Because of the distinguished speakers from abroad the hearings at this time were of unusual interest. The convention adjourned for them on the morning of February 18 and the Senate and House Committee rooms were crowded.

All the members of the Senate Committee were present--Augustus O.

Bacon (Ga.) chairman; James H. Berry (Ark.); George P. Wetmore (R.

I.); Thomas R. Bard (Calif.); John H. Mitch.e.l.l (Ore.). Miss Susan B.

Anthony, honorary president of the a.s.sociation, presided and said:

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, this is the seventeenth Congress that has been addressed by the women of this nation, which means that we have been coming to Congress thirty-four years. Once, in 1887, the Senate brought the measure to a discussion and vote and defeated it by 34 to 16, with 26 not wishing to go on record. We ask for a 16th Amendment because it is much easier to persuade the members of a Legislature to ratify this amendment than it is to get the whole three million or six million, as the case may be, of the rank and file of the men of the State to vote for woman suffrage. We think we are of as much importance as the Filipinos, Porto Ricans, Hawaiians, Cubans and all of the different sorts of men that you are carefully considering. The six hundred teachers sent over to the Philippines are a thousand times better ent.i.tled to vote than are the men who go there to make money. The women of the islands are quite as well qualified to govern and have charge of affairs as are the men. I do not propose to talk. I am simply here to introduce those who are to address you.

Miss Anthony then presented Miss Harriet May Mills (N. Y.), who spoke from the standpoint of tax paying women, who in the towns and villages alone of her State paid taxes on over $5,000,000 worth of property; Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, president of the Pennsylvania Suffrage a.s.sociation, who showed the connection between politics and conditions in Philadelphia; the Rev. Olympia Brown, president of the Wisconsin a.s.sociation, who pointed out the need of both the reason and the intuition in the country to govern it wisely. Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman, president of the New York a.s.sociation, called for a Federal Amendment to enfranchise women because of the principles on which this Government was founded. Miss Gail Laughlin, a graduate of Wellesley College and Cornell University Law School, made a strong argument on the effect enfranchis.e.m.e.nt would have on woman's economic independence and greater efficiency. Mrs. Jennie A. Brown, of Minneapolis, told of the unlimited opportunities allowed to the women of the great northwest which were largely counteracted by their political restrictions. Mrs. Mary Wood Swift of California, president of the National Council of Women, declared that the countless thousands of the educated, developed women of today were fully equal to the responsibilities of citizenship. Mrs. Lucy Hobart Day, president of the Maine a.s.sociation, demonstrated the inferior and unfortunate position of disfranchised women. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, editor of the _Woman's Journal_ (Boston), indicated how every step of the progress of women had been opposed by the same objections now made to woman suffrage and submitted these objections and the answers to them in a convincing statement which filled ten pages of the printed report of the hearing.

Miss Anthony introduced Mrs. Gudrun Drewsen, one of the foreign delegates to the convention, who said in part: "Norwegian women look back to the 25th of May, 1901, as a day of great victory, for on that day a bill was pa.s.sed in our Parliament which granted Munic.i.p.al suffrage to all women paying taxes on a certain limited income, about $100 a year, or whose husbands paid on such income. This law has thoroughly changed the position of the married woman and from having always been a minor she has suddenly become of age. It may be of interest to you of the United States, who can show so many tax paying women without any right to vote, to know that we were not able to get our Parliament interested in tax paying woman suffrage until the bill included wives also. The immediate result of this law has been the election of several women to important munic.i.p.al positions; for instance, members of the common council in the capital; members of the board of aldermen; at one place chief a.s.sessor. Women may serve on juries and grand juries and have been appointed members of special congressional commissions. Several women doctors have been appointed in public inst.i.tutions, on boards of health as experts for the Government, etc. Matrons have been employed at prisons where women are and special prisons for women in charge of a matron have been established. On the whole we begin to see the glory of the rising sun which will give us in a little while the bright, clear day."

Miss Vida Goldstein, a delegate from Australia, began her address: "I am very proud that I have come here from a country where the woman suffrage movement has made such rapid strides. The note was first struck in America and yet women today are struggling here for what we have had in Australia for years, and we have proved all the statements and arguments against woman suffrage to be utterly without foundation.

It seems incredible to us that the women here have not even the School and Munic.i.p.al suffrage except in a very few States. We have had this for over forty years and we have never heard a word against it. It is simply taken as a matter of course that the women should vote. They say that as soon as women get this privilege they are going to lose the chivalrous attentions of men. Let me a.s.sure you that a woman has not the slightest conception of what chivalry means until she gets a vote...." Miss Goldstein told of woman suffrage in New Zealand and produced the highest testimony as to its good results in both countries.

In closing the hearing Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national vice president, said in part:

Our a.s.sociation desires you not only to report the resolution for this amendment favorably but to recommend the appointment of a committee to investigate this subject. Years ago when our women came before you we had nothing but theory to give you, what we believed would be the good results of woman suffrage if it were granted. The opponents had their theories and they stated the evils they believed would follow. The theory of one person is as good as that of another until it has been put to the test, but after that both sides must lay aside all theory and stand or fall upon facts. In four States women have the full suffrage. For more than thirty years they have been exercising it in Wyoming equally with men; in Colorado for nine years and in Utah and Idaho for six years. We do believe that from six to thirty years is long enough time to measure its effect. What we would like better than anything else is that Congress should appoint a committee of investigation, and that such a committee should investigate the result of woman suffrage in the States where it has already been granted.... So sure are we its report would be favorable that we are perfectly willing to stake our future on it. While we do not claim that only good would come from woman suffrage, we do believe that among all the people of a community or of a nation there are more good men and women than there are bad men and women, and that when we unite the good men and good women they will be able to carry measures for the general welfare and we will have better laws and conditions.

At the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Representative John J. Jenkins, in the chair, expressed regret that George W. Ray of New York, the chairman, was unavoidably absent and said: "He is very much in sympathy with what the ladies desire to say this morning--much more so than the present occupant of the chair." Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Suffrage a.s.sociation, who had charge of the hearing, said: "Mr. Chairman, we have just been holding an International Woman Suffrage Conference in the city of Washington, eight nations having sent official delegates from woman suffrage organizations, and several others have cooperated through correspondence, and we have invited representatives of these nations to come to you this morning and present some facts concerning the practical operation of suffrage in countries other than our own. Our first speaker will be Miss Vida Goldstein of Australia." Miss Goldstein gave in substance the address which will be found in the report of the Senate hearing, after which Mrs. Catt said: "Although I have been a resident and taxpayer in four different States and able to qualify as a voter I have never been permitted any suffrage whatever.

I now have the privilege of introducing a Russian woman who has been a voter in her country ever since she was 21." Madame Friedland said in part:

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: In a country like Russia, with an absolute government, there is but little suffrage for either men or women but the little there is is equally shared by both. We do not, of course, vote for Czars; neither do we vote for Governors but the munic.i.p.al officers are elected by the votes of the real estate owners regardless of s.e.x. The woman, however, does not vote in person but transfers her vote to her husband, her son or her son-in-law and in case these are unable to vote for her she has the right to delegate her vote to an outsider. He simply has the proxy and votes as the woman dictates.

Russia, whose political inst.i.tutions are the least liberal in Europe, has the most liberal laws in regard to the civil capacity of her women. Every woman, married or single, if she is of age, enjoys complete civil capacity. Marriage does not in any way change the rights of husband and wife over the property they possess or may acquire. The husband has no legal right whatever over the property of his wife and she is by no means under his guardianship. This may account for the fact that we have less divorce than in many other countries. We have different laws for the different social cla.s.ses. A n.o.bleman will pay his taxes according to the law for the n.o.bility, while his wife may be a commoner and have to pay hers according to the laws for the commoners, but both are taxpayers and consequently both are voters. It is quite a common thing to see a woman of the people, a peasant woman, take her place and often her husband's place, as he has a right to delegate his vote to her at elections, and she may also take it at county meetings and a.s.semblies of every kind.

Lately the government of the peasantry have made an effort to deprive the women of the right to hold office but the Senate has prevented them on the ground that if women share the hard struggle for existence with the men, as they do in our remote rural districts, they must also share the privileges. Gentlemen, I hope I have your sympathy with the ideas practiced in my country for our women.

Mrs. Catt said of her next speaker: "It is eminently proper that a woman of Sweden should address you, where women have voted longer than anywhere else in the world."

Mrs. Emmy Evald. I stand before this legislative power of America representing a country where women have voted since the 18th century, sanctioned in 1736 by the King. The men gave suffrage to the women without their requesting it, because they believed that taxation without representation is tyranny. The taxpayer's vote is irrespective of s.e.x. Women vote for every office for which their brothers do and on the same terms, except for the first chamber of the Riksdag. They have the Munic.i.p.al and School suffrage, votes for the provincial representatives and thus indirectly for members of the House of Lords.

Women are admitted to the postal service on equal salaries with men. In the railway service, which is controlled by the Government, women have ever since 1860 been employed in the controlling office and ticket department and in the telegraph and telephone service, which are owned by the Government. In 1809 women were given the rights of inheritance and in the same year equal matrimonial rights. The colleges and universities are open to them and they receive degrees the same as men. All professions are open except the clerical. Women teachers are pensioned equally with men. Tax paying women have voted in church matters since 1736. Every woman is taxed in the Lutheran Church in America but has no vote and the women blame the Americans because the clergy educated here imbibed the false spirit of liberty and justice.