The History of Woman Suffrage Volume V Part 52

(5) That the Board of Officers so const.i.tuted shall have full charge of the remainder of the ratification campaign and all necessary legal proceedings and shall dispose of files, books, data, property and funds (if any remain) of the a.s.sociation subject to the further instruction of this convention. The Executive Council shall be subject to call by the Board of Officers if necessary;

(6) That the Board of Officers shall render a quarterly account of its procedure and an annual report of all funds in its possession duly audited by certified accountant, to the women who in February, 1920, compose its Executive Council. When its work is completed and its final report has been accepted by this council it may by formal resolution dissolve.[124]

A resolution was adopted regarding action in case of a referendum to the voters of ratification by a Legislature but later the U. S.

Supreme Court declared this unconst.i.tutional. Another urged the new league to make political education of the voters its first duty. The last resolution was as follows:

"We recommend that the League of Women Voters, now a section of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, be organized as a new and independent society, and that its auxiliaries, while retaining their relationship to the Board of Officers to be elected in this 51st convention in form, shall change their names, objects and const.i.tutions to conform to those of the National League of Women Voters and take up the plan of work to be adopted by its first congress."

Following the precedent of the last convention, in order to save time, all headquarters' activities were summed up in the report of the corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler. Much condensed the report was as follows:

In the greater glory of the Federal Amendment and the ratifications which are bringing about our ultimate victory we should not overlook the solid, constructive work of the past ten and a half months and those successes of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation and its branches in the various States, which made possible the Federal Amendment.

At our convention in St. Louis, March 24-29, 1919, when we met to counsel together for the future and to gird on our armor for the "one fight more--the last and the best," we celebrated the Missouri victory, the twenty-seventh State to give Presidential suffrage to women. Mrs. Catt, by resolution of the convention, immediately wrote to the legislators of Tennessee and Iowa urging pa.s.sage of a similar bill. Tennessee gave Presidential and Munic.i.p.al suffrage to women April 14 and Iowa Presidential suffrage on April 19, increasing the number of presidential electors for whom women may vote to 306 out of 531, the total in the United States.

Connecticut women made a magnificent campaign for Presidential suffrage, failing by only one vote in the Legislature. The strength displayed by the suffragists, the obtaining of 98,000 women's signatures and the dignity and ability shown under the leadership of Miss Katherine Ludington, so advanced suffrage in that State as to make the battle seem a victory rather than a defeat.

Munic.i.p.al suffrage was given by the Legislature to the women of Orlando, Fla., April 21, making sixteen towns in ten counties in that State where women have this right. An effort to secure a Primary suffrage bill for the entire State failed.

Suffrage in the Democratic munic.i.p.al primaries was granted by the local Democratic committee to the women of Atlanta, Ga., May 3, for one election.

In a referendum vote on a State amendment, May 24, 1919, full suffrage was defeated in Texas. The main causes were: The large number of men who were so confident of the success of the amendment that they did not take the trouble to go to the polls to vote for it; illegal changes in the numbering and position of the amendment on the ballots of the various counties; the absence from the State of about 200,000 soldiers; unfavorable weather conditions; the shortness of the time allowed for the campaign, and, chief of all, the organized opposition of the foreign-born and negro voters. The Texas suffragists won a clear-cut victory January 28 when the State Supreme Court upheld the decisions of the lower courts that the Primary suffrage bill was const.i.tutional....

On June 28 the women of Nebraska won a distinctive victory when the State Supreme Court held the Presidential and Munic.i.p.al suffrage act of 1917 to be const.i.tutional. The history of woman suffrage records no harder fought legal battle than this. They won another victory in the decision by Attorney General Clarence E. Davis that they had the right to help choose delegates to the national political party conventions. On February 12 the const.i.tutional convention voted to leave the word "male" out of the new const.i.tution.

In Tennessee the decision of the Court of Chancery, which declared the Presidential and Munic.i.p.al suffrage bill of 1918 unconst.i.tutional, has been reversed by the State Supreme Court....

On February 13 the suffrage committee of the const.i.tutional convention then in session in Illinois voted unanimously to strike "male" out of the new const.i.tution.

We began the year 1918 with nineteen organizers, but as the legislative work came to occupy the place of chief importance most of the States expressed a preference for the services of their own women and it became necessary to reduce the national staff.[125]

During the winter of 1918-1919 a series of conferences was offered to the southern States but for various reasons not accepted. At the St. Louis convention in March, 1919, Mrs. Catt requested the southern representatives to outline the definite help desired from the National a.s.sociation and their requests were accepted by the board at its post-convention meeting as follows: The National to give (a) one speaker or organizer to each State for two months; (b) a suffrage school to each; (c) one thousand copies of Senator Pollock's speech to each. This help from the National was conditional upon the promise of the southern States (a) that each State would furnish one of its own workers to be under the instruction of the national worker and to continue in charge after her departure; (b) that it would establish and maintain a speakers' bureau; (c) that it would begin the pet.i.tion campaign. By October the a.s.sociation had fulfilled its promise of an organizer for two months to Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee and had arranged to send organizers to Kentucky, Delaware and Mississippi when those States were ready for them. Later, because of ratification, it gave additional help, sending Mrs. McMahon to Delaware, Mrs.

Cunningham, Miss Watkins and Miss Peshakova to Mississippi; Miss Pidgeon, Miss Miller and Mrs. McMahon to Alabama, where a splendid campaign for ratification was directed by Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, State suffrage president.

Not only were the promised copies of Senator Pollock's speech sent but an additional 10,000 pieces of literature were given to Maryland, North Carolina and Delaware; 5,000 to Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida; 36,000 to West Virginia and 51,000 to Mississippi. In place of the suffrage schools a series of conferences was agreed to by the southern States. Three speakers were selected with great care and an outline for the trip was submitted to the States. Some responded that they could not arrange satisfactory conferences, others that they could not make dates to fit the itinerary, two did not reply in time and two did not respond at all. Since speakers could not be sent at such great cost for small, unsatisfactory meetings or on an incomplete itinerary, we were reluctantly forced to cancel the conferences.

With regard to the work which the southern States agreed to do, only one State met the provision to provide a worker of its own under the direction of the national organizer to take charge after her departure. None of the States established a speakers'

bureau. Three States started the pet.i.tion campaign but none finished it.

FEDERAL AMENDMENT. We were confident of victory for the amendment in 1919 in the 66th Congress. The House pa.s.sed it May 21 by an affirmative vote of 304, a majority of 42 votes, and June 4 the Senate by a vote of 56 to 25. The pa.s.sage of this amendment introduced in Congress over forty years ago by the National Suffrage a.s.sociation closed a long and interesting chapter of the movement. The completion of that part of our work made it no longer necessary for us to maintain a Washington headquarters.

Accordingly June 30, 1919, the doors of the Suffrage House, 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, were closed after having received cabinet members, senators, congressmen, distinguished persons from this and foreign countries, thousands of American men and women and those active suffragists who were called to Washington from time to time to a.s.sist in the work of the congressional committee.

Mrs. Maud Wood Park, to whose indefatigable energy, honesty of purpose and action and infinite tact we owe much, led the way to victory for the amendment. Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, whose diplomatic abilities made her the constant adviser of the committee, Miss Marjorie Shuler, chief of publicity, Miss Mabel Willard in charge of social affairs, Miss Caroline I. Reilly and Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, secretaries, formed the personnel of the Congressional Committee at the time of victory.

During the months preceding the pa.s.sage of the Federal Amendment the National a.s.sociation had carried not only the burden of the actual amendment campaign but had planned and carried out the preparatory work for ratification. Legislatures had been polled, Governors interviewed on the subject of special sessions and organization and publicity built up, looking forward to the final ratification battle. The presidential suffrage campaigns and the resolutions calling upon Congress to pa.s.s the suffrage amendment, which the National a.s.sociation had secured in State Legislatures, were all part of the ratification strategy, a test of the suffrage sentiment in the current Legislatures as well as an impelling force on Congress to pa.s.s the amendment.

We had hoped that from this point the State a.s.sociations would undertake their own campaigns and to that end Mrs. Catt issued a bulletin May 24 telling each one just what steps to take. She stated that the National a.s.sociation would immediately ask Governors of all equal suffrage States to call sessions and would circularize all the Legislatures. She called upon the State a.s.sociations to (1) circularize their legislators with the news of the final victory; (2) send deputations to secure the pledge of the vote of each legislator for ratification; (3) begin a statewide campaign through the press, pet.i.tions, literature and meetings to secure their own special sessions. It soon became apparent that the States as a whole were not carrying out these plans and instead of promises of special sessions excuses came from the men with the endors.e.m.e.nt of the women themselves. It was evident that the national office in New York must be in command.

During the following weeks up to the present time the days and nights have been filled with intensive effort. Never before have the members of the national force, the board, the office force of forty persons in the national headquarters, the Leslie Commission, the publicity department, the _Woman Citizen_ and the Publishing Company worked with so little sparing of themselves and with such absolute concentration upon the matter in hand, still carrying on citizenship preparation, organization and all the routine work but always giving Ratification the right of way.

It was Mrs. Catt who sounded the rallying call, who mapped out every step of the way, who did the work of a dozen women herself and cheered the rest on. No one will ever know the full story of her ingenious plans which brought about the ratification and in some States even the women think it was easily won because they do not know of the efforts put forth from the national office.

As soon as the amendment had pa.s.sed the Senate, Mrs. Catt kept the agreement made by her in the bulletin and sent telegrams to the Governors of full suffrage States, asking for special sessions, and to Legislatures then in session asking for ratification. With the cooperation of the suffrage a.s.sociations, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan ratified on June 10, in six days after the amendment was submitted by Congress. Kansas and New York ratified in special session and Ohio in regular session on June 16. Pennsylvania ratified on June 24, its blackness wiped off the map. The change of black Ma.s.sachusetts to the ratified white on June 25 gave another big impetus to the campaign. Texas distinguished itself by ratifying on June 28. This made nine ratifications in nineteen days!

Mrs. Catt had previously asked the presidents of State suffrage a.s.sociations to interview their Governors regarding special sessions and she had sent personal letters to them and to members of the Legislatures enclosing facts concerning the Federal Amendment. As a result the Governors of Nebraska, Indiana and Minnesota sent letters and telegrams to twenty-two other Governors asking them to call special sessions.

To carry the appeal to the West, two commissions were sent out the last of July, Mrs. John Glover South of Kentucky and Miss Shuler of New York to the Republican States; Mrs. Cunningham of Texas and Mrs. Hooper of Wisconsin to the Democratic States.

After a tour of the States and visits to the Governors they went to Salt Lake City for the Governors' Conference. Their reports revealed the fact that women in the enfranchised States had been absorbed into the political parties, and, with their suffrage campaign organizations practically dissolved, were in no position to determine or carry out independent political action. The replies of the Governors--that "the women of _my_ State have the suffrage, it will not help us, the cost of a special session is too great, ill-advised legislation might be considered"--revealed an even more deplorable fact, that both men and women in those States were bounded in thought by their State lines and did not have a national point of view on national issues.

From the first Mrs. Catt had believed that the strategy of ratification demanded rapid action by the western full suffrage States, the partial suffrage States falling into line and the last fight coming in the eastern States where women had not yet become political factors. Therefore the Governors of the fully enfranchised States were wired as soon as the Federal Amendment pa.s.sed. Those of Kansas and New York responded at once with special sessions on June 16. Then came an ominous pause. No far western States had yet ratified. What mysterious cause delayed them?

Ratifications came in Iowa July 2; Missouri July 3; Arkansas July 28; Montana July 30; Nebraska August 2; Minnesota September 8; New Hampshire September 10; Utah September 30. Another ominous pause, with Montana and Utah the only far western States yet heard from.

On October 23 Mrs. Catt opened a "drive" for ratification through sixteen conferences in twelve States, all but two with equal suffrage. She was accompanied by two chairmen of the League of Women Voters, Dr. Valeria Parker of the Committee of Social Hygiene, and Mrs. Edward P. Costigan of the Committee on Food Supply and Demand, with Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield speaking for the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Shuler for that on Child Welfare. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Julia Lathrop, chairman of the Child Welfare Committee, spoke at one of the conferences and Miss Jessie Haver subst.i.tuted for Mrs. Costigan during the latter part of the trip. Mrs. Catt's address--Wake Up America--was an appeal for special sessions to ratify in those States where there were to be no regular sessions until 1921 and an appeal to both men and women to use their votes for a better America. Ratifications in North Dakota December 1; South Dakota December 4; Colorado December 12; Oregon January 12; Nevada February 7--were in answer to those stirring appeals. California ratified November 1; Maine November 5; Rhode Island and Kentucky January 6; Indiana January 16. Following soon New Jersey ratified by regular session February 9. Idaho by special session February 11; Arizona February 12. The special session is called in New Mexico February 16 and in Oklahoma February 23. [Both ratified.]

In the story of our ratification campaign there occurs often the name of our second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, whose work for the National a.s.sociation has always been valuable but who has made her greatest contribution in work for the pa.s.sage of the Federal Amendment in the campaign to secure special sessions and the overwhelming number of ratifications in Republican States.

Mrs. Shuler told of the Oversea Hospitals, which are considered in another chapter. She gave an eloquent tribute to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and spoke of the beautiful memorial booklet prepared by a committee of officers of the National a.s.sociation, who distributed 5,000 copies. It also aided in circulating 10,000 copies of her last speech--What the War Meant to Women--prepared as a memorial by the League to Enforce Peace. She spoke tenderly of the death of Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, corresponding secretary of the National a.s.sociation twenty-one years; of that of Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler Walker, who presided so charmingly over the headquarters in Washington, and of Miss Aloysius Larch-Miller, who as secretary of the committee on ratification in Oklahoma sacrificed her life through her work for it. Reference was made to the contributory work of the National Board in stabilizing the League of Women Voters; to the Citizenship Schools and Travelling Libraries, and the very complete report closed with a testimonial to the immeasurable value of the national organization which read in part:

Our State suffrage a.s.sociations welded into a great chain have made the National a.s.sociation. Our members have been one in heart, one in hope, one in purpose. We have held the same standards, the same ideals. When the way has seemed long and dark and the goal of our efforts afar off, we have supported, cheered and encouraged each other. We have rejoiced over even the smallest victory and have never been a downhearted group. The suffrage spirit has ever buoyed us up and carried us on even when the road was the steepest and the obstructions seemed almost insurmountable. These experiences could not have been realized through fifty-one years without "lengthening the cords and strengthening the stakes of friendship" but more--the result has been a liberal training, a greater belief in each other and more confidence in the merits of our cause.

While the value of any movement depends upon the success with which its practical details are worked out, yet in the final a.n.a.lysis the idealism of a movement is the mainspring of its vitality.

"The spirit stands behind the deed, In holy thought the dream must start And every cause that moves the world Was born within a single heart."

So to-day we render homage to our great leader, Mrs. Catt, whose hand has guided and whose genius has vitalized our movement. She has given to a world of women her love, her faith. She has dreamed a dream and then with prophetic vision and undaunted courage led the way to victory and the consummation of that dream.

The exquisite poem, "Oh, Dreamer of Dreams," was quoted and the report ended: "Year after year at national conventions women have agreed to 'carry on'. How well this has been done the records prove. All who have shared in the service and sacrifice which were necessary to bring about the great victory which we are here to celebrate will be glad that they were given and rejoice that they helped in putting to flight the powers of darkness."

In the course of her report as national treasurer Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers said:

It was in November, 1914, at the Nashville convention, that I was elected treasurer of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation. In November, 1919, I completed my fifth year of service, these last three months additional being by way of good measure. I succeeded with trepidation Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick's very efficient service. She and I are the only members on the present board who were members in 1914.

In February, 1918, the duties of treasurer of the Women's Oversea Hospitals were added to those of the a.s.sociation and the sum of $178,000 has pa.s.sed through the special treasury of the hospitals to carry on the splendid war work undertaken by the National Suffrage a.s.sociation. A balance of about $35,000 remains in that treasury, the use of which in some form of memorial this convention will be asked to designate.[126]

The receipts of the treasury since I took office have been, for 1914-1915, $43,186; 1915-1916, $81,862; 1916-1917, $103,826; 1917-1918, $107,736; 1919-1920, $97,379; a total of $443,989.

Adding the fund raised for the Hospitals the total is $611,991.

Each year I have solicited funds for the National a.s.sociation from hundreds of suffragists, in addition to the large sums pledged at the conventions, and have had always most generous responses. In November and December, 1919, 38,000 letters were sent out signed by the president and treasurer of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation asking for a ratification fund of $100,000.

Very gratifying returns have come from this appeal and are still coming....

We come to this final convention of our National a.s.sociation with a balance in the treasury and it must be determined here whether or not this sum is sufficient to finish the fight for nation-wide suffrage. Because of your sympathy and generous cooperation I have found the treasurership a real pleasure. The actual work has been lightened by the faithful service of Miss Eleanor Bates, accountant of the a.s.sociation since 1912. We cannot too gratefully acknowledge also the devoted service of many others, who, unheralded and unsung, have helped to make possible this victory hour....

With this report were ten closely printed pages of perfectly kept and audited accounts. They showed a balance of $10,905 in the treasury.

Mrs. Rogers continued the duties of her office at unanimous request having given up to the present time about seven years of most efficient service, spending days, weeks and months at the national headquarters with no remuneration except the joy of helping the cause of woman suffrage. At one session through the efforts of Miss Mary Garrett Hay and Mrs. Raymond Brown, pledges of $44,500 were obtained for the League of Women Voters, Miss Lucy E. Anthony making the first contribution of $1,000 in memory of her aunt, Susan B. Anthony. The Leslie Commission guaranteed $15,000 of this amount.

The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution in Washington had during the year set apart a division of s.p.a.ce for mementoes of distinguished suffragists, and Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, through whose efforts chiefly this concession had been secured, offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted: "This convention expresses to the Directors of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution profound appreciation of this section devoted to the great women leaders of liberty and civilization on the same broad basis accorded to men and believes that this shrine will be an object of the reverence and education of all womanhood.[127]

A resolution was adopted to send congratulatory and affectionate letters to the pioneers, Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y.; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of Elizabeth, N. J., and Mrs.

Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia. The Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine, Wis., one of the few remaining pioneers, was guest of honor of the convention and received especial attention throughout the week. A telegram was sent to Mrs. Ida Husted Harper of New York in recognition of her constant, untiring work on the last volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, still in progress. Very laudatory resolutions of "sincere grat.i.tude" were adopted and sent to Will H. Hays and Homer c.u.mmings, chairmen of the Republican and Democratic National Committees, for their services in behalf of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.

Five large rooms in the hotel were required for the 1,400 guests who attended the "ratification banquet" the evening of February 14 and there were almost as many disappointed women who could not obtain seats. Mrs. Catt presided and the following program of sparkling speeches was given: The Apology of New York [for re-election of U. S.

Senator Wadsworth], Mrs. F. Louis Slade; The Specials of the Middle West, Mrs. Peter Olesen, Minnesota; Tradition vs. Justice, Mrs. Pattie Jacobs, Alabama; By the Grace of Governors, Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, Wyoming; "All's Well That Ends Well," Mrs. T. T. Cotnam, Arkansas.

Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, "cheer leader," had prepared a program of well-known songs cleverly adapted to suffrage and set to popular airs.