The History of Woman Suffrage Volume VI Part 2

The new Primary law was almost equal to the full suffrage, as where one party is so largely in the majority the primaries decide the elections, and it gave a great impetus to the movement throughout the country, especially in the southern States.

After the Primary bill pa.s.sed the suffragists re-organized along the lines of the State Democratic party. Where it had a State Central Committee they had an Equal Suffrage State Central Committee and so on through the organization. The object was to teach women how to work through and with political parties but they were not fully enfranchised and could not give up their suffrage organization, therefore they held together on semi-political but non-partisan lines until such time as they could go into the various parties.

At the close of Mrs. Ellington's administration in August, 1917, seventy-eight papers in the State were handling news items each week.

Eighty-five organizations had been completed. The Primary bill had been pa.s.sed by the Legislature and thousands of women had a.s.sessed themselves and paid their poll tax of one dollar a year preparatory to voting in the spring elections. Under the law the a.s.sessor can put this tax only on male citizens and the women in asking for the Primary suffrage voluntarily a.s.sumed it, as no one can vote until it is paid.

This was held to be legal by Attorney General John D. Arbuckle.

Mrs. Ellington left Arkansas on August 1 and Mrs. Cotnam was elected by the State Board to take charge of affairs. On November 28 she was elected chairman of the State Suffrage Central Committee upon the receipt of Mrs. Ellington's formal resignation. Mrs. Cotnam appeared before the State Farmers' Union in August and secured a unanimous endors.e.m.e.nt of woman suffrage and in September at the meeting of its executive committee she secured a resolution calling on Arkansas Senators and Representatives to vote for the Federal Amendment. She went to New York City in September to take part in the State suffrage campaign. After six weeks she returned to Little Rock, where the great victory won in New York was celebrated at a luncheon in the Marion Hotel. Governor Charles H. Brough was a speaker and prophesied a similar victory in Arkansas.

Dr. Shaw visited Arkansas for the first time on April 3, 1918, and spoke to an immense audience. She came under the auspices of the National Council of Defense, as chairman of the Woman's Committee, but she won many friends for suffrage and the sincere admiration of all.

Active work to a.s.sure the writing of woman suffrage in the new State const.i.tution culminated at the first annual meeting of the Equal Suffrage Central Committee on April 2, 1918, when a close organization covering the State was perfected. At this meeting Mrs. Cotnam was re-elected chairman; Mrs. C. T. Drennen of Hot Springs first vice-chairman; Mrs. Stella Brizzolara of Fort Smith second vice-chairman; Mrs. Frank W. Gibb, secretary; Mrs. R. W. Walker of Little Rock, treasurer. The National American a.s.sociation contributed $1,675 to the campaign. The const.i.tutional convention met the first Monday in July and the suffrage clause was adopted on the third day of the session. Only one man spoke and finally voted against this clause but it was not acceptable to the majority until amended to make jury service for women optional. The suffragists were consulted and agreed because it was plain that a refusal might cause a long drawn out debate. The const.i.tution was defeated at a special election on Dec.

13, 1918, but it was generally conceded that the opposition caused by the suffrage amendment was negligible.

The first State-wide Primary election in which women had the right to vote was held in May, 1918; between 40,000 and 50,000 voted and all papers commented on the intelligence of the new electors. The State Democratic convention met in Little Rock on July 10 and for the first time women delegates were present from many counties. Fifty were seated and more were present in proportion to their representation than were men. They attended in force all minor committee meetings and controlled the action of some of these committees. The _Arkansas Gazette_ of July 11 commented: "It may safely be said that nothing was put over on them by the wily politicians. There wasn't a chance--not a chance in the world." There were women on the platform, the resolutions and all prominent committees. The suffrage plank, as written by the women, was unanimously adopted and for the first time a woman was elected member of the State Central Committee, Mrs.

Brizzolara. The one appointed as a member of the Democratic Women's National Committee was Mrs. Head, chairman of her congressional district for the suffrage organization.

On January 14 resolutions were introduced in the Senate by Senator Lee Cazort and the House by Representative J. D. Doyle, memorializing the Senate of the United States to submit the Federal Amendment. They pa.s.sed unanimously and later were read into the Congressional Record by Senator W. F. Kirby.

RATIFICATION. As soon as the Federal Amendment pa.s.sed, letters were sent to legislators asking them to agree to a call for a special session. In less than one week answers were received from a majority expressing willingness and even eagerness to hold the ratification session. Many offered to pay their own expenses and waive the regular per diem. With this support in hand a committee of fifty women went to the State House and asked Governor Brough to call a special session.

This he agreed to do and set the date for July 28. While the suffragists were never in doubt of ratification they were genuinely surprised to find a few real enemies in the House and to hear some of the moss-grown arguments of 1911. The Senate ratified by a vote of 29 to two and the House by 74 to 15. Henry Ponder of Lawrence county introduced the resolution in the Senate and said he believed his children would be prouder of that act of his than of anything else he might ever do. An identical resolution was introduced in the House by Representatives Riggs, Joe Joiner, Carl Held, Neil Bohlinger and J.

D. Doyle. The Senate resolution pa.s.sed first and went over to the House. The two Senators who voted against it were W. L. Ward, Lee county, and W. H. Latimer, Sevier county. Many women came from over the State to this special session and filled the galleries.

On Dec. 3, 1919, at the second annual meeting the Equal Suffrage Central Committee was merged into a State League of Women Voters and Mrs. Cotnam was elected chairman.

While the suffragists were working for the vote they confined their organized effort to that one measure but it is significant that the same Legislature that pa.s.sed the Primary bill, gave women the right to practice law and provided for a Girls' Industrial School; that of 1915 removed all legal disabilities of married women.

Miss Josephine Miller and Miss Gertrude Watkins of Little Rock are on the staff of national organizers and Mrs. Cotnam has served as instructor in suffrage schools and also as a speaker in twenty States.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION: 1911. In January Representatives Grant of Newport and Whittington of Hot Springs introduced an equal suffrage resolution in the House. It was not initiated by the suffragists and apparently not introduced to advance woman suffrage, as it was said to contain a "joker." Nevertheless, when it became known that the bill had been introduced they appealed to Representative Hearst of Fayetteville, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, for a hearing. On the day and hour that it had been promised Mrs. Chester Jennings, Mrs. J. W.

Markwell, Miss Julia Warner, Mrs. Rutherford Fuller and Mrs. D. D.

Terry went to the Capitol but were unable to find either Mr. Hearst or his committee. On March 11, however, the committee met at the Marion Hotel, as it was customary to hold committee meetings at night in the hotel, and a hearing was granted to the women. Miss Olive Gatlin (now Mrs. Leigh) and Mrs. Fuller made excellent speeches which seemed to make an impression. Later the suffrage resolution was reported to the House and received six favorable votes.

1913. House joint resolution giving women the right to vote was introduced by Robert Martin. This year the suffragists had a most successful hearing before the House Committee on Const.i.tutional Amendments. The president of the Senate, W. K. Oldham, Lonoke; Judge W. L. Moose, Morrillton, and Rabbi L. Witt, Little Rock, made eloquent pleas in addition to those of the women. The committee reported the resolution favorably and the vote was 35 for, 55 against.

Between the two Legislatures the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation was formed and its influence was immediately felt in political circles.

1915. Senator George W. Garrett, Okolona, introduced a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the const.i.tution giving women full suffrage and it pa.s.sed by 23 to 12. The House called a night session for the third reading. A resolution signed by Representatives Yearger of Chico county, Dunlap of Phillips and Wilson of Jefferson to allow a representative of the Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation ten minutes in which to present the reasons for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women pa.s.sed and Mrs. Cotnam was introduced, the first woman ever given the privilege of the floor. The vote was 51 in favor, 18 opposed, with 31 absent. The amendment failed to get on the ballot, as under the Arkansas law only three amendments could be submitted at one election and the next morning before this one could be properly recorded the Federation of Labor had filed an initiated amendment with the Secretary of State and that for suffrage became the fourth. The suffragists tried to get the Federation of Labor to withdraw their amendment, which had no chance of being adopted, but were unsuccessful and it did fail at the general election.

1917. On January 11 Representative John A. Riggs of Hot Springs introduced a joint resolution for the amendment, signed by himself, C.

B. Andrews of Nevada county, Stephen P. Meador of Clark and Carl W.

Held of Sebastian. Mrs. Ellington, president of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation, explained to them that it had entered into an agreement with all other State a.s.sociations at the last national suffrage convention not to go into a referendum campaign without the consent of the National Board, if they expected financial a.s.sistance from that organization, and the resolution was withdrawn. On February 7 Representative Riggs introduced what was known as the Primary Bill, which in brief was as follows: "An Act to provide that women may vote in all primary elections: From and after the pa.s.sage of this act and subject to all the provisions of the laws of this State as to age, residence, citizenship, payment of poll taxes and otherwise regulating the manner and form of holding the same, but especially exempt from every disqualification, direct or indirect, on account of s.e.x, every woman shall have the right to vote at any primary election held under the laws of this State."

This form of suffrage is unique and deserves some explanation. William Hodges, a.s.sociate Justice of the Court of Civil Appeals, Texarkana, Texas, suggested the idea to Senator O. S. Lattimore of Fort Worth, who formulated the bill of which the Arkansas bill is substantially a copy. The Texas Legislature defeated it. Mr. Riggs wired for a copy of the bill, had a similar one drawn and submitted it to U. S. Senator Kirby and a number of prominent lawyers, all of whom were unanimous in the belief that it was const.i.tutional. Justice Hodges said, "I have felt deep interest in the suffrage question for several years and the idea of permitting women to partic.i.p.ate in Primary elections occurred to me casually as I was thinking of how to meet the stubborn opposition offered in the Texas Legislature to the submission of an amendment to the const.i.tution."[8] Mr. Riggs said his eagerness to pa.s.s a suffrage bill was to do justice to the women of Arkansas and to keep a promise to his mother that if he ever was elected to the Legislature he would introduce and work for one.

The Legislature of 1917 was soon discovered to be a progressive a.s.sembly and gave promise of success for the bill. Mrs. Ellington decided the time had come to adopt business methods in the suffrage lobby and undertook with Mr. Riggs the whole responsibility of guiding this bill on its eventful journey through the House and Senate. The suffragists held themselves in readiness to do any special work needed, which they did quietly and effectively, seeing legislators when necessary, but the Legislature was not hara.s.sed by a large and conspicuous lobby.[9]

Sufficient pledges were secured in both House and Senate before the bill was allowed to come even to a test vote. Judge Josiah Hardage, Arkadelphia, a.s.sisted by W. J. Waggoner of Lonoke and James A. Choate of Floyd, led the opposition in the House and conducted the bitterest fight waged during the session. Sixteen men stood solidly with them in all parliamentary tactics in hopes of killing the bill. Nineteen men could delay it but they were destined to defeat when 78 men, led by the astute floor leader, J. O. Johnson of Sebastian county, were determined that it should pa.s.s. After several hours' debate the House pa.s.sed the bill February 15 by 71 ayes, 19 noes, 10 absent.

When the bill came up in the Senate Walker Smith of Magnolia led the opposition, although several days before he had promised Mrs. Head and Mrs. Ellington to vote for it. Senator Houston Emory of Hot Springs guided it to a successful vote on February 27--17 ayes, 15 noes.

Senators George F. Brown of Rison, George W. Garrett of Okolona, H. L.

Ponder of Walnut Ridge, J. S. Utley of Benton and R. Hill Caruth of Warren aided materially in pa.s.sing the bill. The first time during the session that every man in the Senate was in his seat to vote was when the Primary bill came up. Two Senators unalterably opposed to woman suffrage had been expelled for bribery and this made its success possible.

The Senate slightly amended the bill and returned it to the House, which accepted it March 6. Never did a man serve the cause of suffrage more loyally or more efficiently than John A. Riggs and the women of Arkansas owe him a lasting debt of grat.i.tude. Governor Brough signed the bill in the evening at a public meeting amid great enthusiasm.

The Legislature met Jan. 13, 1919, after thousands of women had voted at the Primary election. Not one member had been asked to present a resolution proposing a const.i.tutional amendment for woman suffrage. In fact the women were following closely the advice of the National a.s.sociation and were ardently hoping to avoid a State campaign. They were reckoning from past experiences but times had changed.

Twenty-five men came ready to propose a full suffrage amendment; Representative Riggs, the father of the Primary bill, was the first man on the floor after the House was organized and his bill got first place on the calendar. It pa.s.sed the Senate January 30 by 27 to one, and the House February 3 by 73 to three. In November it went to the voters and was defeated. It received the largest favorable vote of any of the amendments submitted but not a majority of the largest number cast at the election, as required by the const.i.tution. The women had felt certain that this would be impossible. In August, 1920, full suffrage was conferred by the Federal Amendment.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. O. F. Ellington, president of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, 1914-1917, and Mrs.

T. T. Cotnam, State treasurer during these years and chairman of the State Suffrage Central Committee from 1917.

[7] The following officers were elected: Chairman, Mrs. Ellington; secretary, Mrs. Gibb, Little Rock. Finance Committee: Chairman, Mrs.

Cotnam; Mrs. C. C. Cate, Jonesboro; Mrs. Land, Mrs. William Ells, Texarkana; Mrs. W. H. Connell, Hot Springs. Committee that framed const.i.tution: Mrs. Fuller, Magazine; Mrs. Head, Mrs. Blaisdell, Hot Springs; Congressional chairman, Mrs. Ada Roussans, Jonesboro; Mrs.

Fitzhugh, Mrs. H. E. Morrow, Mrs. Head, Mrs. W. L. Moose, Mrs.

Drennan, Mrs. Garland Street, district chairmen.

[8] In June, 1912, Miss Kate Gordon offered a Primary bill as a subst.i.tute for the const.i.tutional amendment in the Louisiana Legislature, but it never came out of committee. Miss Gordon said: "The idea came to me as a solution of the woman suffrage question in a flash and it struck me as a good one. The Primary idea was mine as early as 1912."

[9] Most of the women whose names are mentioned in this chapter, with the addition of Mrs. John P. Ahmand, Mrs. De Mott Henderson and Miss Jennie De Neler, did valuable legislative work during this and other sessions.

CHAPTER IV.

CALIFORNIA.[10]

The first ten years of the new century--Woman's Century--were years of laborious effort in California to educate the public mind and familiarize it with the idea of "votes for women." At the beginning of the second decade the State had given them the complete suffrage and at its close the women of the entire nation were enfranchised by an amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution.

A resubmission of the question in California could not be expected for several years after the defeat of a const.i.tutional amendment in 1896, although no subsequent Legislature met without discussing the subject and voting on some phase of it. The liquor interests continued a persistent opposition but the suffrage a.s.sociation had a powerful ally in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, with its franchise department and its well organized army of workers, and, although somewhat discouraged for a few years, held its annual convention and reorganization was gradually effected. The State convention of 1900 met December 14, 15, in Golden Gate Hall, San Francisco, with the president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, in the chair. A resolution was adopted commending the former State president, Ellen Clark (Mrs. Aaron A.) Sargent, for inst.i.tuting suit against the tax collector for the return of her taxes paid in San Francisco under written protest. [See Volume IV, page 504.] The members were urged to file a protest when paying taxes because they had no representation. It was declared that the time was opportune for organized effort to have the Legislature again submit an amendment to the voters. A vote of thanks was given to Miss Clara Schlingheyde for her success in obtaining donations for the national suffrage bazaar in New York and appreciation expressed for the generous response of California people, especially for the donation of William Keith, the artist, of his picture, Spring in the Napa Valley. Mrs. Swift having served four years as president declined to hold the office longer and Mrs. Mary S. Sperry retired as treasurer after serving seven years. The following board was elected: Honorary presidents, Mrs. Sargent of San Francisco and Mrs. Ellen Knox Goodrich of San Jose; president, Mrs. Annie R. Wood, Alameda; first, second and third vice-presidents, Mrs. Lovell White, San Francisco, Mrs. E. O.

Smith, San Jose, Mrs. Annie K. Bidwell, Chico; corresponding secretary, Miss Carrie Whelan, Oakland; recording secretary, Mrs.

Dorothy Harnden; treasurer, Miss Schlingheyde, both of San Francisco; auditors, Mrs. A. K. Spero and Mrs. Keith.

A visit in 1901 from Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Suffrage a.s.sociation, greatly encouraged the clubs.

Acting upon her urgent request, Mrs. Keith revived the Berkeley club, which soon doubled its membership and with the Oakland and Alameda clubs became a strong influence. There were three clubs in San Francisco and an active organization in Santa Clara county, made up of San Jose, Palo Alto and other clubs. Mrs. May Wright Sewall, president of the International Council of Women, came for an extended course of lectures in the interest of women's advancement. Women's organizations urged many changes in the unjust community property law, the W. C. T.

U., the Women's Parliament of Southern California and the State Suffrage a.s.sociation sending representatives to plead with the legislators. A School suffrage bill pa.s.sed the House and was defeated by only seven votes in the Senate and there was constant agitation.

The State convention this year was held at San Francisco in Yosemite Hall, Native Sons' Building, October 18, 19, with a large number of delegates and an interesting program. Executive board meetings had been held throughout the year and it was reported that eighty papers were publishing suffrage matter sent them. Mrs. Leland Stanford in an interview in the San Francisco _Examiner_ had declared herself in favor of woman suffrage and a letter of appreciation was sent to her.

The annual convention met October 24, 25, 1902, in Century Hall, San Francisco, with a large attendance and many excellent speakers, among them Dr. David Starr Jordan, president of Stanford University, and B.

Fay Mills, the noted revivalist. Greetings were read from Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, the national treasurer, and Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, the loved pioneer, now in her 83rd year, who had come from the East to Los Angeles over twenty years before.

The reports showed that the board had been in constant communication with the national officers; an organizer, Mrs. Florence Stoddard, had been engaged; the treasury receipts were increasing; eighteen new clubs were recorded and there was general progress. Miss Vida Goldstein, a prominent suffrage leader of Australia, had been the guest of the a.s.sociation and a letter was sent to the Woman's Council of Australia, expressing grat.i.tude for the a.s.sistance she had been in the United States. Australia's recent enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of her 800,000 women with eligibility to the national Parliament had given great encouragement to those of California. Mrs. Sperry was persuaded to take the presidency.[11] An interesting event reported was a suffrage meeting of the Sierra Club of mountain lovers one summer evening in King's River Canyon, where it was encamped. In the audience of over two hundred prominent men and women were Professor Joseph Le Conte, John Muir, William Keith, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, head of the U. S.

biological department and Dr. Gannett, of the geological department.

The State convention of 1903 met in Golden Gate Hall, San Francisco, November 18, 19. Among the addresses of welcome was one by the Rev.