The History of Woman Suffrage Volume VI Part 15

The Legislative Council sent out 75,000 registration cards. Munic.i.p.al authorities had appointed women to places of trust. The Suffrage Board formulated a plan for the study of citizenship, of the United States and State const.i.tutions, methods of voting, etc., which has since been on the program of study for the local societies.

In July, 1917, Mrs. Noland and Mrs. Ray were again asked to speak at the annual meeting of the Munic.i.p.al League and the following was adopted with enthusiasm: "Resolved; That the Munic.i.p.al League of Indiana does hereby recommend full and equal suffrage for women in both State and nation."

By a vote of the local societies it was decided not to call a convention during the war, as every woman was engaged in war work, but monthly board meetings were held in different towns in 1917 and 1918, keeping the busy women in touch with suffrage work. During the Legislature of 1919 other organizations seemed desirous of pushing the suffrage work and the a.s.sociation voted to give them a free hand. It a.s.sisted the effort for the ratification of the Federal Amendment by sending letters and having resolutions pa.s.sed by organizations. It has at this time (1920) 29 affiliated societies, 500 dues-paying members and over 6,000 non-dues-paying members.

INDIANA. PART II.[46]

During the early years of the present century there was no definite campaign for suffrage in Indiana but the partial success of repeated efforts to influence the General a.s.sembly to pa.s.s various suffrage bills showed a large body of interested if unorganized favorable opinion. The State had never been entirely organized but there were several centers where flourishing a.s.sociations kept up interest. In 1901 the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation under the presidency of Mrs.

Bertha G. Wade of Indianapolis engaged chiefly in legislative work but it gradually ceased effort. There were attempts toward its re-organization in the following years, a.s.sisted by the National a.s.sociation, but interest proved to be not sufficiently keen or widespread.

The Indianapolis Equal Suffrage Society, organized in 1878 under the direction of Mrs. May Wright Sewall, had never suspended activities.

Dr. Amelia R. Keller was its president in 1909 and in order to stimulate interest and give an outlet for the energy of its members, a.s.sisted by Mrs. Grace Julian Clarke, Mrs. Felix T. McWhirter, Mrs.

John F. Barnhill, Mrs. W. T. Barnes, Mrs. Winfield Scott Johnson and Dr. Rebecca Rogers George, she formed the Women's School League on October 1, "to elect a woman to the school board and improve the schools of Indianapolis." Dr. Keller was made president and the other officers were, vice-presidents, Dr. George and Mrs. McWhirter; secretary, Mrs. Julia C. Henderson; treasurer, Miss Harriet n.o.ble; directors, Mrs. Clarke, Mrs. Barnhill, Mrs. Arthur B. Grover, Mrs.

Johnson, Mrs. Linton A. c.o.x, Mrs. Laura Kregelo, Mrs. Edgar A.

Perkins, Dr. Mary A. Spink, Miss Belle O'Hair and Miss Tarquinia Voss.

Many of these names become familiar in the later records of suffrage work.

The first part of the league's program succeeded and a woman was elected to the school board of Indianapolis. At the same time the women of Terre Haute, where under a new law the school board was elective, made a like attempt through the Woman's Club and the local suffrage society and were also successful. These were the only places where school boards were elective. Many women showed themselves eager to work for a woman on the school board who were indifferent to the larger aspects of suffrage. It was soon clear, however, that the schools could not stand alone in munic.i.p.al affairs but where boards were not elected it would be necessary to vote for Mayor and councilmen to influence school conditions, therefore on April 21, 1911, the organization dropped the word "school" from its t.i.tle and became the Woman's Franchise League of Indiana. Dr. Keller continued as president and a.s.sociated with her as officers were Mrs. Meredith Nicholson and Mrs. McWhirter, vice presidents; Mrs. Henderson, secretary; Mrs. Barnhill, treasurer.

A State convention of the league was held in Indianapolis April 12, 1912, and one took place annually after that date, always in the capital. At this convention Dr. Martha Griffiths of Crawfordsville and Dr. Adah McMahon of Lafayette were added to the directors. This year the league affiliated with the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.[47] By May, 1916, there were sixty branch leagues and 3,000 members; in May, 1919, there were 300 branches and 16,000 members. Dr. Keller continued as president until the convention of 1917, when Mrs. Richard E. Edwards of Peru was elected and served two years. At the convention of 1919 Miss Helen Benbridge of Terre Haute was chosen. The Franchise League was exceedingly fortunate in its three presidents, who gave the most of their time, thought and effort to its demands without salary. Dr. Keller organized it largely through the force of her own personality and was able to gather around her other strong and determined women through whom the idea of suffrage was carried out into the State. Mrs. Edwards took up the work of more intensive organization of the State outside of Indianapolis and succeeded, with Miss Benbridge as State organizer, in multiplying the branch leagues and the members by five. Miss Benbridge's work as president was that of consolidating these gains and directing the women in the use of the vote which they thought they had won. The list is too long to be given of those who deserve special mention for years of devoted service.

From the spring of 1917 to the autumn of 1918 the members of force and character were drawn upon for war service and the league suffered the temporary loss of some of its best workers, who were filling executive positions in the many war agencies. Of the directorate Miss Adah Bush worked first in Washington with the Woman's Council of National Defense and later went to France with the Young Women's Christian a.s.sociation; Mrs. Fred McCulloch was State chairman of Liberty Loans; Dr. McMahon went to France on the staff of the Women's Oversea Hospitals; Mrs. Henderson was chairman of the "four minute speakers"

who at their own expense went over the State speaking for Liberty Loans, Red Cross, etc.

Under the able direction of Miss Benbridge the league continued to increase until there were but four counties in which it had no representation. The changed status of members from suffrage workers to voters necessitated a different sort of activity. Organizers were still employed to some extent and suffrage propaganda used in the more remote counties but the stress was laid upon teaching women to use the vote intelligently and appreciate the power it gives. A Citizenship School of the nature of a Normal School was held in Indianapolis in October and women from all over the State attended a five days'

session and heard talks on the nature and various functions of the government and the duties of citizens, by men and women who were experts in their various lines. They took back to their own towns the inspiration received and these schools were carried on quite generally. The State Superintendent of Education sent out a bulletin asking the teachers to give their aid and recommending that the public schools be used for this work. A monograph ent.i.tled An Aid to the Citizen in Indiana was prepared by Miss Martha Block of Terre Haute and published by the league. This movement to train the new voters commanded the respect of educators and several professors in educational inst.i.tutions offered their services as teachers in the schools of citizenship.

The convention of April, 1920, was the end of the Franchise League.

With the near ratification of the Federal Amendment work for suffrage seemed to be finished in Indiana. As a Presidential suffrage bill had been pa.s.sed by the General a.s.sembly the women of the State were already partial voters, so the league disbanded and in its place was formed the State League of Women Voters, with Mrs. A. H. Beardsley of Elkhart as president. The branches became auxiliaries and the leaders realized that the task of getting the vote was nearly accomplished--that of using it had just begun.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 1901. Through the efforts of the Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation a resolution for an amendment to the State const.i.tution to strike out the word "male" in the suffrage section was introduced. In the Senate it was buried in committee. In the House it received a vote of 49 ayes, 33 noes--a two-thirds majority being necessary. Later it was reconsidered and pa.s.sed by a vote of 52 to 32. This vote was also reconsidered and the amendment laid on the table.

1907. Munic.i.p.al suffrage bill was defeated by the Senate.

1911. A similar measure was reported favorably out of committees but lost in the Lower House by 41 ayes, 48 noes, and no action was taken by the Senate.

1913. A resolution to submit a woman suffrage amendment was held up in committees. The Senate pa.s.sed a School suffrage bill by 27 ayes, 10 noes, but there was no action in the House.

1915. A Presidential suffrage bill pa.s.sed in the Senate by 37 ayes, 3 noes, was held up in the House.

1917. This year will long be remembered by suffrage workers as one of triumphs and defeats. The legislative session was a continued triumph and showed that public opinion was in favor of granting political rights to women. A great help was the agitation for a new const.i.tution. The present const.i.tution was adopted in 1851. An early court decision that an amendment in order to carry must have a majority of all the votes cast at the election made amending it a practical impossibility and for a long time there had been a widespread demand for a new one for the sake of many needed reforms.

The suffragists joined the agitation for it, as this seemed the only way to get the vote by State action.

The General a.s.sembly of 1917 was carefully selected to pa.s.s the Prohibition Amendment and was known to be favorable to the calling of a const.i.tutional convention. While the suffragists placed their hope in a new const.i.tution yet in order to leave no means untried the Legislative Council of Women was formed at the suggestion of Mrs.

Grace Julian Clarke, composed of representatives of eight or ten State organizations, of which the Women's Franchise League was one. Mrs.

Felix T. McWhirter was made president and it was decided to present a Presidential and Munic.i.p.al suffrage bill similar to the one pa.s.sed by the Illinois Legislature in 1913 and sustained by the courts.

The Council had quarters in the State House granted by the Governor; the Women's Franchise League immediately established a bureau there by his consent with Mrs. John F. Barnhill and Miss Alma Sickler in charge and all the women labored diligently for the success of the measure.

The work over the State was necessarily done largely by the Franchise League, as it had the local societies necessary. The Council secured the aid of Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, a lawyer of Chicago, who had been closely identified with the Illinois law. For the first time in the history of Indiana's struggle for equal suffrage there was active opposition by women. Nineteen, all of Indianapolis, appealed to the Senate Committee on Rights and Privileges, which had the bill in charge, for a hearing in order to protest.[48] This was granted but it resulted in an enthusiastic suffrage meeting. The "nineteen," who a.s.serted that they spoke for 90 per cent. of unorganized women in Indiana, were represented by Mrs. Lucius B. Swift, Miss Minnie Bronson, secretary of the National Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation, and Charles McLean of Iowa, who was in its employ. Mrs. McCulloch, Meredith Nicholson, Mrs. Edward Franklin White, now president of the Council, former Mayor Charles A. Bookwalter and a number of others spoke for the bill.

The calendar of suffrage events in the Legislature of 1917 was as follows: On January 23 the bill for a const.i.tutional convention pa.s.sed the House by 87 ayes, 10 noes; on the 31st it pa.s.sed the Senate by 34 ayes, 14 noes, and on February 1 was signed by Governor James P.

Goodrich. On February 8 the Presidential-Munic.i.p.al suffrage bill pa.s.sed the Senate by 32 ayes, 16 noes. It also provided that women could vote for delegates to the const.i.tutional convention, were eligible to election as delegates and could vote on the adoption of the proposed new const.i.tution. On the 22nd it pa.s.sed the House by 67 ayes, 24 noes, and was signed by the Governor. The Legislature also voted to submit a full suffrage amendment to the electors.

Although it was early apparent that these laws would be carried into the courts preparations were at once made by the women for registering. The Franchise League opened booths in the shopping districts in the cities and urged the women in the country to go to the court house and register when in town. They sent out women notaries with blanks to register the women.[49] In Vigo county, of which Terre Haute is the county seat, 12,000 registered, more than the average number of men who usually voted at elections. In all parts of the State the registration of women was very large and the women were studying political questions and showing much interest in their new duties.

Meanwhile the action of the Legislature was taken into the courts. On June 25 Judge W. W. Thornton of the Marion County (Indianapolis) Superior Court gave a decision that the Legislature had no authority to call for an election of delegates to a const.i.tutional convention and no right to grant to women the privilege of voting for such delegates or any const.i.tution which might be submitted to the voters.

The case was at once appealed to the State Supreme Court, which on July 13 sustained the decision. Chief Justice Erwin wrote the opinion and Justices Spencer, Harvey and Myers concurred. Justice M. B. Lairy filed a dissenting opinion. There was a wide difference of opinion among the lawyers of the State.

This decision did not affect the limited suffrage law, which gave women the right to vote for (1) Presidential electors; (2) all State officers not expressly named in the const.i.tution, including Attorney General and Judges of the Appellate, Superior, Criminal, Probate and Juvenile Courts; (3) all city, township and county officers not named in the const.i.tution. The law was referred to as nine-tenths suffrage.

Action was brought in the Superior Court of Marion county for a decision on this law. The Court gave an adverse decision but it embraced definitely only the Munic.i.p.al suffrage. On October 26 the Supreme Court upheld this decision concerning Munic.i.p.al suffrage and implied that the entire Act was invalid. The counsel for the suffragists, including some of the foremost lawyers in the State, with Eli Stansbury, Attorney General, and Mrs. McCulloch, presented masterly arguments. The decision of the Supreme Court was condemned by many besides the suffragists. The hearing was not held before a full bench and the decision was not unanimous, Judge Lawson J. Harvey handing down a dissenting opinion, so that two men virtually decided this momentous question.

By Jan. 1, 1919 the Federal Suffrage Amendment had pa.s.sed the Lower House of Congress and was pending in the Senate and the first act of this year's Legislature, convened in joint session before either House had organized, was to adopt a resolution with but one opposing vote calling on the U. S. Senate to submit the amendment, which was signed by the Governor and forwarded to Washington.

There still remained from the legislation of 1917 the amendment to the State const.i.tution, which in order to be submitted to the voters had to be pa.s.sed also by the a.s.sembly of 1919. The result of the election of 1918 in the State had been an overwhelmingly Republican victory.

Since the party had the Governor and a majority of both branches of the a.s.sembly, it wished to put through a program of legislation that called for amending the const.i.tution and the leaders requested the women to withdraw the suffrage amendment, as while one was pending another could not be introduced. Feeling that withdrawal with a friendly majority was better than defeat and enmity, the board of the Franchise League consented. One of the rewards for this sacrifice, which meant a delay of two years in presenting a State amendment to the voters, was the Presidential suffrage bill, which pa.s.sed on February 6 with six dissenting votes out of a membership of 150. Three of these were in the Senate, Erskine of Evansville, Haggerty of South Bend and Kline of Huntington; three in the House, Sambor, Bidaman and O'Neal, the last two from Terre Haute, Sambor from Indiana Harbor. The vote to submit an amendment was unanimous in both Houses.

RATIFICATION. When the U. S. Senate finally voted on June 4 to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment the Legislature of 1919 had adjourned.

The question of ratification was of course uppermost in the minds of the leaders of the Franchise League and there would be no regular session until 1921. Governor Goodrich came to the rescue by promising to call a special session, probably in August or September of the present year, and sent out an invitation to other Governors of States similarly situated to join him in securing enough special sessions to ratify the amendment at an early date. The Governor of Indiana has power to call a special session but can not restrict its action. Owing to internal affairs of the State which developed the Governor postponed indefinitely calling the session, a.s.suring the suffragists, however, that it should be held in time for them to vote at the general election of 1920. Finally after repeated importunities he announced on December 30 that he would call the special session for Jan. 15, 1920, if a two-thirds majority of the Legislature would agree to consider only ratification.

Although both political parties had declared in favor of ratifying the amendment yet the women were expected to secure these pledges and it was no small task but it seemed to be the only way. The suffragists looked to the Franchise League for action and it a.s.sumed the burden.

Miss Helen Benbridge, its efficient president, soon made the politicians see the wisdom of a special session. Under her skillful management letters from the Governor were sent immediately to all the legislators enclosing this agreement: "I hereby pledge myself to attend a special session of the General a.s.sembly limited to the ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment and to vote for adjournment immediately afterwards."

The Franchise League opened headquarters in Indianapolis and every pressure, political and other kinds, was brought to bear on the members and answers began to come in as early as January 4. It certainly was a surprise to the politicians when on the afternoon of January 13 Miss Benbridge was able to take to Governor Goodrich signed pledges from 35 Senators and 67 Representatives, a two-thirds majority in each House. The Governor at once issued a call for a special session on January 16, allowing two days for members to reach Indianapolis. That so many legislators were willing to lay aside party prejudice and meet for a non-partisan purpose speaks volumes for the personnel of the General a.s.sembly of 1919. Recognition is due especially to the Democratic members, as the Republicans were obeying the call of their chief but the Democrats, on the summons of a Republican Governor, laid aside their convictions and acted solely in the interest of the women of their State.

The a.s.sembly convened at 10 a. m. on Jan. 16, 1920, and more than a hundred suffrage workers from all parts of the State were present to see the fruition of their hopes. Miss Benbridge, president, and Mrs.

Edwards, past president of the league, sat on the rostrum in the Senate Chamber beside Lieutenant Governor Edgar D. Bush, and in the House beside Speaker Jesse Eschbach, while the vote was being taken.

The Senators enjoyed what was termed "the last wail" of the three anti-suffragists who voted no--Kline, Haggerty and Franklin McCray of Indianapolis. Forty-three votes were cast in favor. The resolution was then taken to the House, which had organized and was waiting, and, after suspension of the rules so that the three necessary readings might be had in one day, it was pa.s.sed by the unanimous vote of the 93 members present. It was signed at once by the presiding officers and at half past four of the same afternoon by Governor Goodrich, who wished in this way to show his agreement, though his signature was not legally necessary. Mrs. Goodrich, Miss Benbridge, many officers of the Franchise League and other interested suffragists witnessed the signing. With this act the long struggle for political rights for women which began in Indiana in the middle of the nineteenth century was finished.

A large and enthusiastic meeting of the board of the Franchise League was then held and there was general congratulation. Miss Benbridge, who presided, said: "The work that a.s.sured the special session and the result achieved was done, not by the little group of women in the Indianapolis headquarters, although their work was well done, but by the women over the State. Much credit for the success belongs to the Franchise League members everywhere, who have won the sentiment of their localities for woman suffrage."

FOOTNOTES:

[45] The History is indebted for this part of the chapter to Mrs. Anna Dunn Noland, president of the Stale Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation.

[46] The History is indebted for this part of the chapter to Mrs.

Lenore Hanna c.o.x, an officer of the Woman's Franchise League from its beginning in 1911 until its work was finished in 1920.

[47] From 1912-1919 the following women served as vice presidents, some for several terms: Mrs. Meredith Nicholson, Mrs. Felix T.

McWhirter, Mrs. Ovid B. Jameson, Mrs. John F. Barnhill, Mrs. Julia Fried Walker, Mrs. Isaac Born, all of Indianapolis; Mrs. Lenore Hanna c.o.x, Mrs. C. M. Curry, Miss Helen Benbridge, Mrs. Leon Stern, of Terre Haute; Mrs. Fred McCulloch, Mrs. Olaf Guldlin, of Fort Wayne; Mrs.

Horace Stilwell, Anderson; Mrs. R. M. Johnson, Franklin; Mrs. A. D.

Moffett, Elwood; Miss Adah E. Bush, Kentland; Mrs. A. H. Beardsley, Elkhart; Mrs. Charles J. Gill, Muncie; Mrs. Chester Evans, Bloomington; Miss Betsy Jewett Edwards, Shelbyville.

Mrs. Julia C. Henderson, secretary from 1912 to 1917, was succeeded by Miss Dora Bosart, both of Indianapolis; Mrs. John C. Morrison of Lafayette, and Mrs. Richard E. Edwards, of Peru.

Miss Harriet n.o.ble, the first treasurer, was succeeded by Misses Eldena and Sara Lauter, both of Indianapolis; Miss Adah E. Bush; Mrs.

Mindwell Crampton Wilson, Delphi; Mrs. Charles J. Gill.