The History of Woman Suffrage Volume V Part 66

While recognizing that our primary object is to secure the ballot for women citizens and that as an organization we are not wedded to one method of obtaining it but are willing to adopt any just plan which promises success, nevertheless until a better way is found we will seek to secure an amendment to the National Const.i.tution prohibiting disfranchis.e.m.e.nt on account of s.e.x, and at the same time will appeal to the States that by their action a sufficiently strong support may be given to the Federal Amendment to secure its adoption, unless it become unnecessary by action of the States themselves.... We must face the fact that large bodies of our new recruits know practically little of the history of the suffrage movement, of the long years of faithful devotion and the wise and statesmanlike service which have brought it to its present successful position. These recruits are attracted by new and spectacular methods, are impatient of delay and eagerly follow any scheme which promises to "get it quick." ... If we a.n.a.lyze the arguments set forth by these most ardent advocates of the Federal Const.i.tutional Amendment as the only means of securing immediate results and learn upon what they base their hopes of success, we shall see, as has been shown again and again, that every one of them has its source in the enfranchised States; that instead of State by State action being "wasteful, expensive and slow," it is the foundation of hope. This is the strongest argument in behalf of the wisdom of the founders of our movement, that they recognized the necessity that State and Federal action must go together.

ADDRESS OF MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT AT SENATE HEARING, DEC. 15, 1915.

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee:

Since our last appeal was made to your committee a vote has been taken in four Eastern States upon the question of amending their const.i.tutions for woman suffrage. The inaction of Congress in not submitting a Federal amendment naturally leads us to infer that members believe the proper method by which women may secure the vote is through the referendum. We found in those four States what has always been true whenever any cla.s.s of people have asked for any form of liberty and was best described by Macaulay when he said: "If a people are turbulent they are unfit for liberty; if they are quiet, they do not want it." We met a curious dilemma. On the one hand a great many men voted in the negative because women in Great Britain had made too emphatic a demand for the vote. Since they made that demand it is reported that 10,000,000 men have been killed, wounded or are missing through militant action, but all of that is held as naught compared with the burning of a few vacant buildings. Evidently the logic that these American men followed was: Since some turbulent women in another land are unfit to vote, no American woman shall vote.

There was no reasoning that could change the att.i.tude of those men. On the other hand the great majority of the men who voted against us, as well as the great majority of the members of Legislatures and Congress who oppose this movement, hold that women have given no signal that they want the vote. Between the horns of this amazing dilemma the Federal amendment and State suffrage seem to be caught fast.

So those of us who want to learn how to obtain the vote have naturally asked ourselves over and over again what kind of a demand can be made. We get nothing by "watchful waiting" and if we are turbulent we are p.r.o.nounced unfit to vote. We turned to history to learn "what kind of a demand the men of our own country made and determined to do what they had done. The census of 1910 reported 27,000,000 males over 21. Of these 9,500,000 are direct descendants of the population of 1800; 2,458,873 are negroes; 15,040,278 are aliens, naturalized or descendants of naturalized citizens since 1800. The last two cla.s.ses compose two-thirds of the male population over 21. The enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of negro men is such recent history that it is unnecessary to repeat here that they made no demand for the vote. The naturalization laws give citizenship to any man who chooses to make a residence of this country for five years and automatically every man who is a citizen becomes a voter in the State of his residence. In the 115 years since 1800 not one single foreigner has ever been asked whether he wanted the vote or whether he was fit for it--it has literally been thrust upon him. Two-thirds of our men of voting age today have not only made no demand for the vote but they have never been asked to give any evidence of capacity to use it intelligently.

We turned again to history to see how the men who lived in this country in 1800 got their votes. At that time 8 per cent. of the total population were voters in New York as compared with 25 per cent. now. There was a struggle in all the colonial States to broaden the suffrage. New York seemed always to have lagged behind the others and therefore it forms a good example. It was next to the last State to remove the land qualification and it was not a leader in the extension of the suffrage to any cla.s.s.

In 1740 the British Parliament disqualified the Catholics for naturalization in this country. That enactment had been preceded in several of the States by their definite disfranchis.e.m.e.nt. In 1699 they were disfranchised by an Act of the a.s.sembly of New York. Although the writers on the early franchise say that Jews were not permitted to vote anywhere in this country in 1701, as they certainly were not in England, yet occasionally they apparently did so. In New York that year there was a definite enactment disfranchising them. In 1737 the a.s.sembly pa.s.sed another disfranchising Act. Catholics and Jews were disfranchised in most States. It is interesting to learn how they became enfranchised. One would naturally suppose that together or separately they would make some great demand for political equality with Protestants but there is no record that they did. I find that the reason why our country became so liberal to them was not because there was any demand on their part and not because there was any special advocacy of their enfranchis.e.m.e.nt by statesmen. It was due to the fact that in the Revolution, Great Britain, having difficulty with the American colonies on the south side of the St. Lawrence River, did as every belligerent country does and tried to hold Canada by granting her favors. In order to make the Canadian colonies secure against revolution the British Parliament, which had previously disfranchised the Catholics and the Jews, now extended a vote to them. The American Const.i.tution makers could not do less than Great Britain had done, and so in every one of the thirteen States they were guaranteed political equality with Protestants.

The next great movement was the elimination of the land qualification and on this we find that history is practically silent. In Connecticut and Rhode Island a small pet.i.tion was presented to the a.s.sembly asking for its removal. In New York in the const.i.tutional convention of 1821 when some members advocated its removal others asked, "Where is the demand? Who wants to vote that has no land?" The answer was that there had been some meetings in New York in behalf of removing this qualification. No one of them had seen such a meeting but some members had heard that a few had been held in the central districts of the State.

This const.i.tutes the entire demand that has been made by the men of our country for the vote.

In contrast we may ask what have women done? Again I may say that New York is a fair example because it is the largest of the States in population and has the second city in size in the world and occupies perhaps the most important position in any land in which a suffrage referendum has been taken. Women held during the six months prior to the election in 1915, 10,300 meetings. They printed and circulated 7,500,000 leaflets or three-and-a-half for every voter. These leaflets weighed more than twenty tons. They had 770 treasuries in the State among the different groups doing suffrage work and every bookkeeper except two was a volunteer.

Women by the thousands contributed to the funds of that campaign, in one group 12,000 public school teachers. On election day 6,330 women watched at the polls from 5:45 in the morning until after the vote was counted. I was on duty myself from 5:30 until midnight. There were 2,500 campaign officers in the State who gave their time without pay. The publicity features were more numerous and unique than any campaign of men or women had ever had. They culminated in a parade in New York City which was organized without any effort to secure women outside the city to partic.i.p.ate in it, yet 20,000 marched through Fifth Avenue to give some idea of the size of their demand for the vote.

What was the result? If we take the last announcement from the board of elections the suffrage amendment received 535,000 votes--2,000 more than the total vote of the nine States where women now have suffrage through a referendum. It was not submitted in Wyoming, Utah or Illinois. Yet New York suffragists did not win because the opponents outvoted them. How did this happen? Why did not such evidence of a demand win the vote?

Because the unscrupulous men of the State worked and voted against woman suffrage, aided and abetted by the weakminded and illiterate, who are permitted a vote in New York. In Rochester the male inmates of the almshouse and rescue home were taken out to vote against the amendment. Men too drunk to sign their own names voted all over the State, for drunkards may vote in New York. In many of the polling places the women watchers reported that throughout the entire day not one came to vote who did not have to be a.s.sisted; they did not know enough to cast their own vote.

Those are some of the conditions women must overcome in a referendum. One can eventually be carried even in New York but we believe we have made all the sacrifices which a just Government ought to expect of us. Even the Federal Amendment is difficult enough, with the ratification of 36 Legislatures required, but we may at least appeal to a higher cla.s.s of men. We were obliged to make our campaign in twenty-four different languages.... It is too unfair and humiliating treatment of American women to compel us to appeal to the men of all nations of the earth for the vote which has been so freely and cheaply given to them. We believe we ought to have the benefit of the method provided by the Federal Const.i.tution.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XVII.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE a.s.sOCIATION.

During the early years of the movement for woman suffrage the headquarters were in the home of Miss Susan B. Anthony, in Rochester, N. Y. In 1890 her strong desire to have a center for work and social features in Washington was fulfilled by the National a.s.sociation's renting two large rooms in the club house of Wimodaughsis, a newly formed stock company of women for having cla.s.ses and lectures on art, science, literature and domestic and political economy, with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw president. It did not prove to be permanent, however, and in two years the a.s.sociation had to give up the rooms and the work went back to Rochester, where much of it had continued to be done.

In October, 1895, when Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt became chairman of the Organization Committee, she opened headquarters in one room of her husband's offices in the _World_ Building, New York City. At the same time Miss Anthony, with a gift of $1,000 from Mrs. Louisa Southworth of Cleveland, had Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, national corresponding secretary, open headquarters in Philadelphia, with Miss Nicolas Shaw as secretary. Both acts were endorsed by the Business Committee of the a.s.sociation. At the next convention Mrs. Avery recommended that the Philadelphia headquarters be removed to those of New York. This was done April 1, 1897; two large rooms were rented in the _World_ Building and all the work of the a.s.sociation except the treasurer's and the convention business was transacted here. For six years the national headquarters, in charge of Mrs. Catt, remained in New York.

In May, 1903, they were removed to Warren, Ohio, near Cleveland, and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, took charge of them, with Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, executive secretary. Here they were beautifully housed, first in the parlors of an old mansion and later on the ground floor of the county court house where formerly was the public library. In 1909, partly through the contribution of Mrs.

Oliver H. P. Belmont, they were returned to New York City and with the New York State a.s.sociation occupied the entire seventeenth floor of a large, new office building, 505 Fifth Avenue, corner of 42nd Street.

When Mrs. Catt again became president the work of the a.s.sociation had outgrown even these commodious headquarters and in January, 1916, the fourteenth floor, with much more s.p.a.ce, was taken in an office building at 171 Madison Avenue, corner of 33rd Street. In March, 1917, the Leslie Commission opened its Bureau of Suffrage Education in this building and the two organizations occupied two floors with a staff of fifty persons. On May 1, 1920, their work was concentrated on one floor, as the great task of securing complete, universal suffrage for the women of the United States was almost finished.

Branch Headquarters: In January, 1914, branch headquarters were opened in the Munsey Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington for the work of the a.s.sociation's Congressional Committee. They continued there until the effort to obtain a Federal Amendment became of such magnitude as to require a great deal more room and in December, 1916, a large house was taken at 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, just off of Scott Circle [see page 632]. This was occupied by the committee, national officers, the lobbyists and other workers until July, 1919, when the amendment had been submitted by Congress.

The first headquarters in a business building in 1895 had been rented for $15 a month; the last year's rent for the headquarters in New York and Washington was $17,500.

BEQUEST OF MRS. FRANK LESLIE.

Mrs. Frank Leslie, long at the head of the Leslie publications in New York City, died Sept. 18, 1914, leaving a will which made the following provisions:

All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, whatsoever and wheresoever situate, whereof I may be seized or possessed, or to which I may be in any manner ent.i.tled at the time of my death, including the amount of any legacies hereinbefore given which may for any reason lapse or fail, I do give, devise and bequeath unto my friend, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of the city of New York. It is my expectation and wish that she turn all of my said residuary estate into cash, and apply the whole thereof as she shall think most advisable to the furtherance of the cause of Women's Suffrage, to which she has so worthily devoted so many years of her life, and that she shall make suitable provision, so that in case of her death any balance thereof remaining unexpended may be applied and expended in the same way; but this expression of my wish and expectation is not to be taken as creating any trust or as limiting or affecting the character of the gift to her, which I intend to be absolute and unrestricted.

Mrs. Leslie had previously made two wills of a similar character. The estate was appraised at $1,800,000 in stocks, bonds and real estate.

There was an immense inheritance tax to be paid and hara.s.sing litigation was at once begun and continued. It was not until the winter of 1917 that the executors commenced a distribution of the funds. Mrs. Catt incorporated the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, which has received and expended all monies realized from the estate.

They were a large factor in the legitimate expenditures for obtaining the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment from Congress and its ratification by 36 State Legislatures. They were also of great a.s.sistance in the campaigns of the last years to secure the amendments of State const.i.tutions, which required organizers, speakers, printing, postage, etc. Contributions have been made to women's struggle for the franchise in other countries.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIX.

PRESENT STATUS OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE a.s.sOCIATION, ORGANIZED IN 1869.

Acting on the plan adopted at the last convention of the National American a.s.sociation at Chicago in February, 1920, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president, issued a call for a meeting of the Executive Council in Hotel Statler at the time of the second annual convention of the National League of Women Voters in Cleveland, Ohio. The meeting took place at 10 a. m., April 13, 1921, Mrs. Catt in the chair. She made a report of the receipts and disburs.e.m.e.nts of the Leslie Fund, saying that as soon as the estate was finally settled she would render a detailed statement. She said there were reasons why the a.s.sociation should not at this time be dissolved and gave them as follows:

(1) Legal attacks on the Federal Amendment are still pending and there are attempts to secure submission of a repeal to the voters. The a.s.sociation must remain till no further efforts are made to invalidate the amendment.

(2) The necessity of some authority to give advice and to help our dependencies where suffrage campaigns are pending.

(3) Several bequests, delayed because estates are not settled, also require the continuation of the a.s.sociation.

The Chair stated that the incorporation does not expire till 1940.

Conventions of elected delegates are no longer feasible and, therefore, continuation without conventions should be provided for in an amended const.i.tution, such amendments to be confirmed by the Executive Council.

It was unanimously agreed that the a.s.sociation be continued and on motion of Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, attorney, of Chicago, it was voted that the Chair appoint two other members of the Council to co-operate with her in revising the const.i.tution in accordance with the new arrangement. She appointed Mrs. McCulloch and Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, the corresponding secretary of the a.s.sociation.

The report of the national treasurer from Jan. 1, 1920, to March 31, 1921, showed that $12,451 had been used for the expenses connected with the ratification in eleven difficult States; the headquarters had been maintained; legal fees paid; the expenses of the Chicago convention met; deficit of the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co.

paid; printing and other bills settled, and a balance of $3,534 remained in the treasury.

The General Officers had been re-elected in Chicago to serve until the end. At the present meeting the Directors, whose term of office had expired, were re-elected to serve continuously, except Mrs. Arthur L.

Livermore, whose resignation was accepted and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton was chosen to fill the vacancy. It was voted that the League of Women Voters be asked to take the place of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation as auxiliary to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance; also that the a.s.sociation no longer continue as auxiliary of the National Council of Women of the United States.

Brief remarks were made by delegates present and enthusiastic appreciation was expressed of the action of the Tennessee Legislature in giving the 36th ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.

Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with advice to the delegates to put their State records, literature, etc., into libraries for preservation and she urged the necessity of the best training for their new responsibilities, reminding them that the duty would always rest on women to conserve civilization.

The committee, consisting of Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Shuler and Mrs.

McCulloch, recommended the adoption of an abridged const.i.tution with the elimination of all the by-laws and articles of the old one which were now unnecessary. The Board could incur no financial obligations beyond the a.s.sets in their hands; they could fill vacancies caused by death or resignation as heretofore; adopt such rules for their meetings as they deemed proper and amend the const.i.tution by a two-thirds vote. The Board should continue to consist of nine officers and eight directors, with the power to summon the Executive Council.

This Council should comprise the Board and the presidents and executive members of State auxiliaries as they existed in 1920. The name of the a.s.sociation would be retained.

The abridged const.i.tution was sent to every member of the Council to be voted on.

The Executive Council was called to meet at the headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation in New York at 10:30 a.m., June 22, 1921, for final action on the new const.i.tution. Mrs.

Catt presided and Mrs. Lewis J. c.o.x, State executive member from Indiana, acted as secretary. It was voted that the following sentence be added to the objects of the a.s.sociation: "To remove as far as it is possible all discriminations against women on account of s.e.x."

Sixty-six of the eighty-two members of the Council having voted in the affirmative and none in the negative the const.i.tution was declared to be legally adopted.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIX.

DEATH OF DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW.