The History of Woman Suffrage Volume V Part 28

We welcome you in the name of the pioneers in the education of women, of those who gave us the first Medical College for Women, Ann Preston, Emily Cleveland, Hannah Longsh.o.r.e, whose daughter is here today--our honorary president, Lucretia L. Blankenburg, wife of the chief executive of this city, to whose eloquent words of welcome you have just listened; in the name of the first president of our State a.s.sociation, of whom the poet Whittier wrote: "The way to make the world anew is just to grow as Mary Grew." We welcome you in the name of our national president, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, who, although a citizen of the world, comes back to her Pennsylvania home to get fresh strength and courage.

Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, a national officer, made a graceful response for the a.s.sociation. Fraternal greetings were given by Mrs. Ba.r.s.els, from the Pennsylvania Woman's Christian Temperance Union; by Mrs.

Branstetter of Oklahoma from the National Socialist Party; by Mrs.

Campbell McIvor of Toronto from the Canadian Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation and later by Miss Leonora O'Reilly from the New York Women's Trade Union League.

Miss Laura Clay, chairman of the Membership Committee, announced the admission of nine new societies to the National a.s.sociation. There were 308 delegates in attendance. Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, corresponding secretary and chairman of the Literature Committee, said in the course of her report:

We are often asked at headquarters and by mail what the national headquarters is for and what it does. The briefest answer that can be given is that we furnish ammunition for the suffrage fight. The ammunition is of many sorts, from money, leaflets and b.u.t.tons to historical data, slide lectures and advice on organization.... One decided advantage in making headquarters more useful to visitors has been the enlargement of the main office. A part.i.tion was removed which gave us a large, light room where all our publications are accessible for consultation or purchase, all the chief suffrage periodicals of the world are on file, the gallery of eminent suffragists is on exhibition and all the various kinds of supplies, like b.u.t.tons, pennants, posters, etc., are shown. It serves as reference library as well, for beside the History of Woman Suffrage, the Life of Susan B.

Anthony and the bound volumes of the _Woman's Journal_, there is a collection of books on interests allied to suffrage, which have been selected and approved by the board. These are also on sale.... During the summer of 1912 a questionnaire was sent to the States and the answers tabulated and printed in a folder showing conclusively the status of each regarding headquarters, press, membership, finance, political district, legislative and Congressional work. There is an increasing demand for suffrage facts rather than for suffrage argument. It was in response to this demand that it became necessary to appoint an editor for the literature department. Fully half of the publications needed revising and bringing up to date and new compilations of data were urgently needed. Mrs. Frances Maule Bjorkman, a trained newspaper and magazine writer, was chosen and has filled the position admirably.

Mrs. Dennett gave a detailed account of the pamphlets, speeches, leaflets, plays, magazine articles, etc., published by the a.s.sociation--250 kinds of printed matter--and said:

We have published over 3,000,000 pieces of literature in this year and our total receipts from literature and supplies have been $13,000, or $746 over the cost of the printing and purchase.

Our record month was September, when our receipts were more than the entire receipts for the whole year of 1909. If we count our unsold stock and our uncollected bills as a.s.sets, we have a net gain for the year of $3,578. About $700 worth of literature has been sold in the office, the remainder having been ordered by mail.

Through the courtesy of the Illinois a.s.sociation and the generosity of Miss Addams and Miss Breckinridge, who paid for the rent and service, a sub-station for the supply of literature was established at the Chicago headquarters in April. The sales at this western branch have been $1,924. It would seem well worth while to continue this service for western customers. Also for their benefit Mrs. McCormick made a gift of a sample copy of every one of our new publications to the presidents of State a.s.sociations in eighteen of the western States, as a means of bringing them in closer touch with the national office.... Aside from our own literature we have been grateful for a very serviceable congressional doc.u.ment, thousands of which have been distributed in the last few months, the speech of Congressman Edward T. Taylor of Colorado. It proved a successful and timely campaign doc.u.ment and we are indebted not only to Mr. Taylor but to a most efficient volunteer worker in Washington--Mrs. Helen H.

Gardener--who gave unstinted personal service in seeing that the doc.u.ments were obtained and franked when needed....

[Ill.u.s.tration: COURT HOUSE OF WARREN, OHIO

Headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation from 1903 to 1910--on the ground floor.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOME OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY IN ROCHESTER, N. Y.

Headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation until 1895.]

The convention accepted the recommendation of the board that it should issue a monthly bulletin of facts and figures to be sent to every paying member, thus establishing a real bond between the a.s.sociation and its thousands of members. The report of the Press Bureau by its chairman, Miss Caroline I. Reilly, showed remarkable progress in public sentiment as expressed by the newspapers. It said in part:

The winning of California last year wrought so complete a change in the work of the national press bureau that it was like taking up an entirely new branch. Before that victory our time was employed in furnishing suffrage arguments, replying to adverse editorials and letters published in the newspapers and writing syndicate articles. Now this department has resolved itself into a bureau of information, news being the one thing required. Each week we send to our mailing list 2,000 copies of the press bulletin, giving brief items relative to suffrage activities the world over. These go into every non-suffrage State in the Union, to Canada, Cuba and England, and the demand for them increases daily. Almost every mail brings letters from newspapers asking to be placed on the regular mailing list.... Since the winning of the four States on November 5, newspapers and press a.s.sociations from all over the United States have written us asking for help to establish woman suffrage departments. The time has come when our question is a paying one from a publicity point of view, ...

We now have twenty syndicates on our list and are no longer obliged to write the articles ourselves but simply furnish the information which their own writers work up. These syndicates are both national and international and cover all of this country as well as some foreign countries. An interesting thing happened last week, when the representative of a European press syndicate came and said that he had been sent to America for the sole purpose of reporting the woman movement in the United States, the subject being regarded a vital one by the press of Europe.

Special suffrage editions seem to be more popular than almost anything else and appeals come to us from all over the Union to help on them.... During the past year we have received and answered over 3,000 communications. The Italian papers have been on our mailing list for some time, also many French and Hebrew papers.... The editors and a.s.sociate editors of twelve Italian newspapers in New York are enrolled in the city suffrage organization.

Miss Alice Stone Blackwell made an extended report of the _Woman's Journal_ since it became the official organ of the National American a.s.sociation in June, 1910, and had been published under its auspices.

The expenses had increased and funds had not been supplied to meet them. Committees of conference were appointed and eventually the deficit was paid and the paper was returned to Miss Blackwell, who offered the free use of its columns to the a.s.sociation. The report of the treasurer, Miss Jessie Ashley, was not encouraging. Under the old regime the year always closed with a balance in the treasury but this indebtedness to the _Woman's Journal_ left the a.s.sociation $5,000 in debt.[74] As its work broadened the expense became heavier and the income although far larger than ever before was not sufficient. During the past year it had contributed $18,144 to campaigns in eight States.

A very large part of this amount was paid by Dr. Shaw from a fund given to her personally for the purpose by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw of Boston. At this time and later she gave to Dr. Shaw to be used for campaigns according to her judgment $30,000 and the name of the donor was not revealed until after her death in 1917.

The first evening of the convention was devoted to the president's address and the stories of the successful campaigns for suffrage amendments at the November elections, related by Mrs. William A.

Johnston and Miss Helen N. Eaker for Kansas and Mrs. M. L. T. Hidden for Oregon. No one being present from Arizona Dr. Shaw told of the victory there. Mrs. Clara B. Arthur and Mrs. Huntley Russell described the situation in Michigan, where the indications were that the amendment would be lost by fraudulent returns. Dr. Shaw's speech, as usual, was neither written nor stenographically reported but this floating paragraph was found in a newspaper:

In all times men have entertained loftier theories of living than they have been able to formulate into practical experience. We Americans call our government a republic but it is not a republic and never has been one. A republic is not a government in which one-half of the people make the laws for all of the people. At first the government was a hierarchy in which only male church members could vote. In the process of evolution the qualification of church membership was removed and the word "taxpayer"

subst.i.tuted. Later that word was stricken out and all white men could vote. Then followed the erasure of the word "white" and now all male citizens have the ballot. The next measure is obvious and it is not a revolutionary one but the logical step in the evolution of our government. I believe thoroughly in democracy, the extension of the franchise to all men, for all have a right to a voice in the making of the laws that govern them, and no nation has a right to place before any of its people an insuperable barrier to self-government. We would make no outcry against an educational standard, the necessary age limit, a certain term of residence in any place--in fact there is no regulation women would object to that applied to all citizens equally. I make no criticism of the policy of the country in giving all men the ballot. The men are all right so far as they go--- but they go only half way. The United States has subjected its women to the greatest political humiliation ever imposed upon the women of any nation. German women are governed by German men; French women by French men, etc., but American women are ruled by the men of every country and race in the world.... I do not belong to any political party and I have too much self-respect to ally myself with any party until my opinion is of enough importance to be counted at the polls.

The delegates heard reports from the chairmen of various committees--Ways and Means, Dr. M. Carey Thomas; Enrollment, Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield; Presidential Suffrage, Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates; Laws for Women, Miss Mary Rutter Towle (D. C.). Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead made her usual comprehensive report as chairman of the Peace and Arbitration Committee. Mrs. Mary E. Craigie in her report of seven printed pages on the extensive and successful efforts of her Committee on Church Work told of a circular letter that had been sent to thousands of clergymen throughout the country asking for a special sermon in support of woman suffrage on Mothers' Day. It pointed out that in the vast moral and social reform work of the churches their women members are denied the weapon of Christian welfare, the ballot, while the forces of evil are fully enfranchised and the influence of the churches is thus essentially weakened.

Mrs. William Kent, in her report as chairman of the Congressional Committee, said that it had not been necessary to request members to introduce a resolution for a Federal Suffrage Amendment as six were offered by as many Representatives of their own volition. Senator Works of her own State of California had been glad to present it. She told of the "hearings" before the committees of the two Houses on March 13, when the National a.s.sociation sent representatives to Washington. The preceding day a reception for the speakers was given in her home and many of the guests became interested who had been indifferent. In May the Congressional Committee sent out cards for a "suffrage tea" in her house to the wives of Senators and Representatives; many were present and interesting addresses were made.

Among the resolutions submitted by the chairman of the committee, Mrs.

Raymond Brown, and adopted were the following:

We reaffirm that our one object and purpose is the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of the women of our country.

We call upon all our members to rejoice at the winning of the School vote by the women of Kentucky and at the full enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of four more States, Kansas, Oregon, Arizona and Michigan[75]; and in the fact that at the last election the electoral vote of women fully enfranchised was nearly doubled, and to rejoice that all the political parties are now obliged to reckon with the growing power of the woman vote; and be it resolved

That this a.s.sociation believes in the settlement of all disputes and difficulties, national and international, by arbitration and judicial methods and not by war.

That we commend the action of those State Federations of Women's Clubs which have founded departments for the study of political economy and we congratulate those clubs which have endorsed our movement to gain the ballot for all women.

That we deeply deplore the exploiting of the children of this country in our labor markets to the detriment and danger of coming generations; that we commend the action of Congress in the creation of a National Children's Bureau and President Taft's appointment of a woman, Miss Julia Lathrop, as head of the bureau.

That we commend the efforts of our National Government to end the white slave traffic; that we urge the pa.s.sage in our States of more stringent laws for the protection of women; that we demand the same standard of morals for men and women and the same penalties for transgressors; that we call upon women everywhere to awake to the dangers of the social evil and to hasten the day when women shall vote and when commercialized vice shall be exterminated.

A unique feature of the convention was Men's Night, with James Lees Laidlaw of New York, president of the National Men's League for Woman Suffrage of 20,000 members, in the chair and all the speeches made by men. Miss Blackwell said editorially in the _Woman's Journal_: "From the very beginning of the equal rights movement courageous and justice-loving men have stood by the women and have been invaluable allies in the long fight that is now nearing its triumph but never before have been actually organized to work for the cause. Men old and young, men of the most diverse professions, parties and creeds, spoke with equal earnestness in behalf of equal rights for women." The speakers were the Hon. Frederick C. Howe, Judge Dimner Beeber, president of the Pennsylvania League; A. S. G. Taylor of the Connecticut League; Joseph Fels, the Single Tax leader; Julian Kennedy of Pittsburgh; George Foster Peabody of New York; the Rev. Wm. R. Lord of Ma.s.sachusetts; Jesse Lynch Williams, J. H. Braly of California and Reginald Wright Kauffman. The last named, whose recently published book, The House of Bondage, had aroused the country on the "white slave traffic," discussed this question as perhaps it never before had been presented in public and he found a sympathetic audience.

The Rev. James Grattan Mythen, of the Prince of Peace Church, Walbrook, Md., made a strong demand for the influence of women in the electorate, in which he said: "Whatever wrongs the law allows must not be laid entirely at the door of paid public servants whom by the franchise we employ to do our public will. Where there are criminals in public office they represent criminals. They represent the active criminals whose debased ballots put them in office, and they represent the pa.s.sive criminals whose ballot was not cast to keep them out!

'That ye did it not' merits as great a condemnation as 'That ye did it.' What is needed in politics is the rea.s.sertion of the moral ideal, and as men we know that this moral ideal has been, is now and always will be the possession of womankind. For this reason men ought to demand that women come into the body politic and bring with them the same moral standard that they hold for themselves in the home, in the Church, in the hospitals, in the great reform movements which are voiced by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and all other endeavors for righteousness that are always championed by women."

This was not the time and place arranged for taking a collection but the enthusiasm was so great that Mr. Fels started the ball rolling and $2,000 were quickly subscribed. Later at the regular collection the amount was increased to $6,908. Among the largest pledges were those of Miss Kate Gleason of Rochester, N.Y., for $1,200; Mrs. Oliver H.P.

Belmont, $1,000; Mrs. Bowen of Chicago, $600; New York State a.s.sociation, $600; Pennsylvania State a.s.sociation, $500; Miss Emily Howland, $300. The treasurer, Miss Ashley, stated that the receipts from April 1 to November 1 had been $55,197.

Dr. Shaw had telegraphed the congratulations of the a.s.sociation to the Governors of the four victorious States and telegrams of greetings to the convention were read from Governors Oswald West of Oregon; George P. Hunt of Arizona; W.R. Stubbs of Kansas; and Chase S. Osborn of Michigan. Greetings were received from Miss Martina G. Kramers of Holland, editor of the international suffrage paper; the U.S. National Council of Women, and from Mrs. Champ Clark and her sister, Mrs. Annie Pitzer of Colorado, sent through Miss Nettie Lovisa White of Washington. Telegrams of congratulation were sent to the State presidents, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon and Mrs. Frances W.

Munds of Arizona, and of sympathy to the Rev. Olympia Brown and Miss Ada L. James for the defeat in Wisconsin.

It was voted to continue the national headquarters in New York. There was a flurry of discussion over a proposed amendment to the const.i.tution changing the present method of voting, which allowed the delegates present to cast the entire number of votes to which the State was ent.i.tled by its paid membership. The convention finally adopted the amendment that hereafter the delegates present should cast only their individual votes. The election resulted in a change of but two officers. Professor Breckinridge and Miss Ashley did not stand for re-election and Miss Anita Whitney of California was chosen for second vice-president and Mrs. Louise De Koven Bowen of Chicago for second auditor.

A serious controversy arose during the convention in regard to the deviation of some of the national officers from the time-honored custom of non-partisanship. It had always been the unwritten but carefully observed law of the a.s.sociation that no member of the board should advocate or work for any political party. Mrs. George Howard Lewis, a veteran suffragist of Buffalo, N.Y., sent a resolution to the convention declaring that officers of the a.s.sociation must remain non-partisan and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper presented it and led the contest for it. Dr. Shaw announced before it was discussed that the board recommended that it should not pa.s.s.

Women had taken a larger part in the political campaign which had just ended than ever before and one of the officers and many of the delegates present had spoken and worked for the Progressive party because of the suffrage plank in its platform. Other members had done the same for the Socialist and Prohibition parties for a like reason.

As a result, while the resolution had some warm support it was defeated by a vote of ten to one, although it applied only to the officers and left individual members free. The consequences of this vote soon began to be realized by the board and the delegates and in the official resolutions was one which said: "The National American Suffrage a.s.sociation reaffirms the position for which it always has stood, of being an absolutely non-partisan, non-sectarian body." When asked for an interpretation the officers answered that "the a.s.sociation must not declare officially for any political party."[76]

One of the most enjoyable evenings of the convention was the one in charge of the National College Equal Suffrage League, the program consisting of a debate between groups of clever speakers, each with one or more university degrees, half of them posing as anti-suffragists, with Dr. Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College and of the league, in the chair. A suffrage meeting which touched high water mark was that of Sunday afternoon, when the immense opera house was filled to overflowing and literally thousands stood on the outside in the intense cold and listened to speakers who were hastily sent out to address them. Dr. Shaw presided. The meeting was opened with prayer by the Rt. Rev. Philip Mercer Rhinelander and the music was rendered by the choir, under its director, Samuel J. Riegel, with the audience joining. An eloquent address was given, the Democracy of s.e.x and Color, by Dr. W.E. Burghardt Du Bois, and one by Miss Addams on the Communion of the Ballot, the necessity for cooperative work by men and women, in which she said: "Take a still graver subject. Everywhere vice regulation is coming up for government action. The white slave traffic is international and it goes on from city to city. I ask you, in the name of common sense, is it safe or wise or sane to entrust to men alone the dealing with this age-long evil? Our laws are superior to those of most European countries. In England, because women have been obliged to appeal to the pity of men against these evils, (for the appeal to chivalry seems to have fallen), there is a disposition to divide into two camps, men in one and women in the other. Any s.e.x antagonism thus engendered arises because these grave moral questions have not been taken up by men and women together. By debarring women from suffrage, we are failing to bring to bear on these questions that vast moral energy which dwells in women.... Whenever there is a great moral awakening it is followed by an extension of the movement for women's rights. The first wave came with the anti-slavery agitation; the second with the prohibition movement and Frances Willard, and now there is coming all over the world this irresistible movement of government to take up great social and industrial questions."

The very fine address of Miss Julia Lathrop, Chief of the National Children's Bureau, on Woman Suffrage and Child Welfare filled over five columns of the _Woman's Journal_ and contained a sufficient argument for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women if no other ever had been or should be made. "My purpose," she began, "is to show that woman suffrage is a natural and inevitable step in the march of society forward; that instead of being incompatible with child welfare it leads toward it and is indeed the next great service to be rendered for the welfare and enn.o.blement of the home. A little more than one-third of all the people in this country, something over 29,500,000 in actual numbers, are children under the age of fifteen--that is, still in a state of tutelage; and it is of unbounded importance that nothing be done by the rest of us which will injure this budding growth. So it is right to judge in large measure any proposed change in our social fabric by its probable effect on that dependent third of the race to whom we are pledged, for whose succession it is the work of this generation to prepare. What we propose is to give universal suffrage to women."

Answering the question, "Do we propose a mad revolution?" she traced the development in the position of woman, every step of which was condemned at the time as a dangerous innovation. "It was a revolution when women were given equal property rights over their goods and equal rights over their children," she said. "We must blush that there are States in this country where that revolution is still to be accomplished. I have heard an old Illinois lawyer describe the early efforts to secure equal property rights for women in that State and the constant objection that such laws would destroy the family, that there could be no harmony unless the ownership were all in one person and that person the man. It was feared then, as now, that women would become tyrannical and unbearable if they were allowed too much independence. Do children suffer because their mothers own property?"

She pointed out the necessity for woman's political influence on humanitarian movements and said: "Suffrage for women is not the final word in human freedom but it is the next step in the onward march, because it is the next step in equalizing the rights and balancing the duties of the two types of individuals who make up the human race."

Miss Lathrop showed the need of legislation for all social reforms and how the experience of women beginning with domestic duties carried them forward to a sense of their obligations in community life and a fitness for it. Referring to the uneducated women she said: "The ignorant vote is not the working vote. Working women in great organized factories have been having, since they began that work, an education for the suffrage. They are not the ignorant voters nor are wives of workingmen; at least, they know in part what they need to safeguard themselves and their homes. The ignorant vote is the complacent, blind vote of men and of the feminine 'influence' that moves them, which disregards the real problems of setting safe and wholesome standards of life and labor and education and spends its strength in looking backward, insisting upon precedents without seeing that, good and enduring as they may be, all precedents must be daily retranslated into the setting of today. "Women must vote for their own souls' good," she said, "and they must vote to protect the family. The newer conception of the family is one which depends upon giving to both parents the fullest expression on all those matters of common concern."

The address closed with a fine peroration--Pa.s.s on the Torch! In the evening the officers of the a.s.sociation gave a largely attended reception to delegates and friends in the banquet hall of Hotel Walton.

The closing night of the convention was one long to be remembered.

There was the same vast, eager audience: Dr. Shaw presided and on the platform was the distinguished Apostle of Peace, winner of the n.o.bel prize, Baroness Bertha von Suttner, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, just returned from a two-years' trip around the world. The meeting was opened by the Rt. Rev. James Henry Darlington, bishop of central Pennsylvania, whose brief address was of great value to the cause. He congratulated the American people on the fact that four more States had been added to the ever-growing list of those which had given the suffrage to women and he called upon all observers to notice that no State which had once voted in woman suffrage had ever voted it out.

Once in use, local opposition to it ceased by reason of the self-evident good results. He offered congratulations to those who were humble privates in the ranks and to the famous and brave leaders who organized the victories. "As the Elizabethan and Victorian eras are the most distinguished for philanthropic, literary and economic advancement in the whole history of Great Britain, though the Kings were many and the Queens were few in the long line," he said, "so no man need be ashamed to follow feminine leadership when it means advancement in every good word and work," and he offered congratulations to little children of the future generations of this and all lands. "When our anti-suffrage sisters throw aside their complacency and selfish ease," he said, "to strive side by side with men to formulate and pa.s.s necessary laws to protect and develop the bodies, minds and souls of our present little children and all that are to come through the pa.s.sing centuries, then will dawn a new day for humanity."

Brief addresses were made by Mrs. Blankenburg, Miss Jane Campbell and Professor Breckinridge of Chicago University. Miss Crystal Eastman gave a graphic account of why the amendment failed in Wisconsin and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, State president, told in her inimitable way of the campaign that failed in Ohio. Baroness von Suttner made a magnificent plea for the peace of the world and asked for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women as an absolutely necessary factor in it. The dominant note of Mrs. Catt's speech was the great need for political power in the hands of women to combat the social evil, which she had found intrenched in the governments of every country. These last two addresses, which carried thrilling conviction to every heart, were made without notes and not published.