The History of Woman Suffrage Volume VI Part 25

1905. There was a very large attendance at the Festival on May 10, with Mrs. Mead presiding. Professor Edward c.u.mmings was toastmaster, ex-Governor Garvin of Rhode Island and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt spoke and the Festival then resolved itself into a celebration of Mr.

Blackwell's 80th birthday (May 4), with the presentation of a silver pitcher from the State a.s.sociation and addresses by William Lloyd Garrison and Mrs. Livermore. She had insisted upon coming, although by no means able. She said, "Mr. Blackwell and I have worked together for nearly half a century; we have gone anywhere and everywhere for woman suffrage. This evening he has been doing his best to persuade me to go out to the Oregon convention. I can not say half that ought to be said of his character, his devoted service, his fraternal spirit." She died a few days later and there was profound sorrow for her loss.

At the meeting of the New England a.s.sociation on May 11 Miss Blackwell presided. Francis J. Garrison was elected treasurer. The State annual meeting was held at Holyoke, October 24, 25, in the Second Baptist Church and Mayor Nathan P. Avery gave the address of welcome. Miss Blackwell was made chairman of the board of directors; Mrs. Mead was elected president; Mrs. Schlesinger vice-president. The a.s.sociation took part in the celebration of the centennial of William Lloyd Garrison on December 10. He had been a life-long champion of equal rights for women and his last public speech was made at a suffrage hearing in the State House. There was a noteworthy memorial meeting for Mrs. Edna D. Cheney, long a pillar of the suffrage a.s.sociation and of the New England Hospital for Women and Children. Catherine Breshkovsky, "the little grandmother of the Russian revolution,"

visited Ma.s.sachusetts this year and addressed a number of meetings arranged by the suffragists, including a large one in Faneuil Hall.

The convention was held in October, 1906, at Lowell in the Trinitarian Congregational Church. Harriet A. Eager gave a stone from the pavement of the little church at Delft Haven in Holland, where the Pilgrims attended their last religious service before sailing for America and the a.s.sociation presented it to the Cape Cod Memorial a.s.sociation to be placed in the monument. The World's W. C. T. U. convention in Boston this month aroused much interest and enthusiasm. At the opening banquet Miss Blackwell gave the address of welcome in behalf of the women's organizations.

1907. The annual meeting took place in Worcester at Trinity Church.

Letters were read from Colonel Thomas W. Higginson and Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller, the only two survivors of the 89 men and women who signed the Call for the first National Woman's Rights Convention, held in Worcester in 1850; and a poem from the Rev. Antoinette L. Brown Blackwell, D. D., the only survivor of the speakers on that occasion.

Dr. Shaw gave an address and conducted a question box and there was a symposium on Why I am a Suffragist by five young women, one a grandniece and namesake of Margaret Fuller.

A noteworthy meeting was held on March 23, 1907, by the Boston Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation to consider "the indebtedness of women of collegiate and professional training to the leaders of the suffrage movement." Every woman's college in the State was represented, as well as law and medicine. Mrs. f.a.n.n.y B. Ames presided and college girls in cap and gown acted as ushers. The speakers were Mrs. Howe, Miss Georgia L. White, a.s.sistant Professor of Economics at Smith College; Professor Helen M. Searles of Mt. Holyoke; Dr. Emma Culbertson of the New England Hospital for Women and Children; Miss Emily Greene Balch, a.s.sociate Professor of Economics and Sociology at Wellesley; Miss Caroline J. Cooke, instructor in Commercial Law at Simmons, and Mrs.

Park of Radcliffe.

On August 13 suffragists from different parts of the State again made a pilgrimage to Lucy Stone's old home, West Brookfield, to celebrate her birthday. Mrs. Cobden Sanderson, a daughter of Richard Cobden, one of the "militant" English suffragettes, spoke at the women's colleges and elsewhere. The Boston a.s.sociation, in connection with the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, gave courses in citizenship, addressed by heads of State and city departments. Mrs. Fessenden conducted many cla.s.ses in Parliamentary practice (these were continued year after year), and there was a "suffrage day" in the woman's department of the great Food Fair.

The a.s.sociation of Collegiate Alumnae celebrated its quarter centennial in Boston November 5-9, which brought many distinguished suffragists from other States. In 1872 the New England Women's Club had given a reception for the only three college women then in this city. In 1907 this a.s.sociation had 3,147 members, several hundred of them in Boston alone. At the Whittier Centennial celebration at Amesbury on December 17 the poet's championship of equal rights for women was recalled with his work for other reforms. The Boston Federation of Suffrage Societies was organized by the a.s.sociation for Good Government. The State Federation of Labor and the State Letter Carriers' a.s.sociation endorsed woman suffrage.

The Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sociation Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women changed its organ _The Remonstrance_ from an annual to a quarterly and sent out a copy broadcast. The suffragists followed with an answer. The _Woman's Journal_ pointed out that the M. A. O. F.

E. S. W., according to its own official reports, had sold $40.86 worth of literature in 1905, $13.50 worth in 1906 and $12.30 worth in 1907, and that in 1906 the total receipts were $2,907, of which $2,018 were expended on salaries.[81]

1908. The State annual meeting was held in Boston October 27, 28. Mrs.

Mead presided and Mrs. Ethel Snowden of England was the chief speaker.

There was a reception to Mrs. Howe, with addresses by Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott, Mrs. Carota Von Koch of Sweden and Mrs. Howe. Miss Jane Addams gave suffrage lectures this year at Radcliffe, Smith, Mt.

Holyoke and Wellesley colleges and Boston University, arranged by the College Equal Suffrage League, with large audiences and much enthusiasm. Mrs. Snowden spoke for the State a.s.sociation at Faneuil Hall and a reception was given by the College and Boston suffrage a.s.sociations. Another large suffrage meeting in Faneuil Hall was addressed by Professor Charles Zueblin. Mrs. Park and Mrs. Eager held a series of meetings in Berkshire county, arousing much interest. At the suffrage booth in the Boston Food Fair, in charge of the Newton League, 6,255 names were added to the enrollment. The a.s.sociation by this time had more than 100 local branches. This year 145 labor unions endorsed equal suffrage. The a.s.sociation carried on a "poster campaign," putting up posters in towns and at county fairs. Mrs.

FitzGerald composed the inscriptions and Mrs. George F. Lowell with a group of friends put them up. At the Biennial of the General Federation of Women's Clubs held in Boston every mention of suffrage was cheered and no one got such an ovation as Mrs. Howe, the fraternal delegate from the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.

1909. The College Equal Suffrage League of Ma.s.sachusetts attained a membership of 320 this year and a suffrage club was formed at Radcliffe College. At the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology any notices put up by the suffragists were at once torn down. The State annual convention was held in Boston October 22, 23, with the evening meeting in Tremont Temple, and Miss Blackwell was elected president.

For the first time the report of the Legislative Committee was given by Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley, who continued to be its chairman for years.

Ex-Governor Long presided at a memorial meeting for Henry B.

Blackwell, with addresses by Edwin D. Mead, Julia Ward Howe, the Rev.

Charles G. Ames, Professor Sumichrast, Moses H. Gulesian, Francis J.

Garrison, James H. Stark of the Victorian Club, Meyer Bloomfield and Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows. Mr. Blackwell was called by Mrs. Catt "one of the world's most heroic men." He was the only man of large abilities who devoted his life to securing equal rights for women. In his youth a reward of $10,000 was offered for his head at a public meeting in the South because of his leading part in the rescue of a young slave girl. He made his first speech for woman's rights at a suffrage convention in Cleveland in 1853. Two years later he married Lucy Stone. She had meant never to marry but to devote herself wholly to the women's cause but he promised to devote himself to the same cause.

He was the unpaid secretary of the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation for twenty years, of the Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sociation for thirty years and of the New England a.s.sociation for nearly forty years. He traveled all over the country organizing suffrage societies, getting up conventions and addressing Legislatures. He attended the Republican national conventions year after year trying to get a suffrage plank and in 1872 secured a mild one in the national platform and a strong one in that of Ma.s.sachusetts. He took part in const.i.tutional amendment campaigns in Kansas, Vermont, Colorado, Michigan, Rhode Island and South Dakota. In 1889, when Washington, Montana and North Dakota were about to enter the Union as States, he attended the const.i.tutional convention of each to urge equal suffrage. He was an editor of the _Woman's Journal_ from its founding in 1870 till his death. An able writer, an eloquent speaker, he was widely beloved for his kindness, humor and geniality.

Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the "militant" suffragettes of England, visited Boston this year. She was met at the station by the suffragists with automobiles and flags and was taken through the streets to the headquarters--Boston's first suffrage procession--and later addressed in Tremont Temple a huge audience, critical at first, highly enthusiastic at the close. A reception was given by prominent suffragists to Miss Ethel M. Arnold of England, and there were lectures by her and Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman; a series of "pet.i.tion teas" and meetings addressed by Dr. Shaw, Miss Leonora O'Reilly, a labor leader of New York; Judge Ben Lindsey of Denver; Charles Edward Russell, the Rev. Thomas Cuthbert Hall; and by Mrs.

Snowden, Dr. Stanton Coit and the Misses Rendell and Costello, all of England.

In June the first of the open-air meetings that later became so important a feature of the campaign was held on the Common at Bedford.

The speakers were Mrs. FitzGerald, Mrs. Leonora S. Little, Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick and Mrs. Crowley. The attendance was small; people were shy at first of seeming to countenance such an innovation but the crowds grew as the meetings continued and it was found to be the best if not the only way to reach the ma.s.s of voters. A summer campaign of 97 open-air meetings was held, the speakers traveling mainly by trolley, covering a large part of the State and reaching about 25,000 persons.[82] Suffrage b.u.t.tons and literature were distributed, posters put up, and sometimes mammoth kites flown to advertise the meetings. Mrs. H. S. Lus...o...b..had presented a kite big enough to hold up a banner six feet wide by forty deep. The campaigners were resourceful. At Nantasket, when forbidden to speak on the beach, they went into the water with their Votes for Women banner and spoke from the sea to the audience on the sh.o.r.e.

1910. Among the speakers at the Festival in May were Mrs. Frances Squire Potter, former Professor of English at the University of Minnesota; Professor Max Eastman of Columbia University, secretary of the New York Men's League for Woman Suffrage, and Professor Henry S.

Nash of the Episcopal Theological School. At the State annual meeting in Lowell, October 27, 28, Philip Snowden, M. P., of England was a speaker. In connection with the convention Mrs. Park spoke before the Woman's Club; Rabbi Fleischer before the Board of Trade; Miss Alice Carpenter at the Congregational Church in Tewksbury; four factory meetings were held; the suffrage slides were exhibited twelve times at the Merrimac Theater; Miss Foley and Miss Anne Withington addressed seven trade unions; 27,000 fliers were distributed and four street meetings held.

An eight-weeks' summer campaign of open-air meetings was conducted through the great industrial cities of eastern Ma.s.sachusetts, with from four to six regular and occasional special speakers. Three Englishwomen, Miss Margaret G. Bondfield, Miss M. M. A. Ward and Miss Emily Gardner, reinforced the American speakers, Miss Foley, Mrs.

FitzGerald, Mrs. Glendower Evans, Miss Emily Pierson of Connecticut, and others. In each city, besides the outdoor meetings, there was some special feature; in two, garden parties; in Brockton, the women joined the circus parade, driving in a decorated team and giving out fliers.

In Fall River they got two popular stores to wrap a colored flier in every parcel. In Taunton they had an evening band concert on the Common, accompanied with red fire and speeches. In Lawrence Miss Foley made a balloon ascension and showered down rainbow literature upon an eager crowd. Several times the women spoke from the vaudeville stage and showed colored lantern slides. They spoke in parks and pleasure resorts and outside the factories as well as in the streets and at one Yiddish and one French meeting. They held 200 meetings and talked to about 60,000 persons. Afterwards they held outdoor meetings in and about Boston and sent an automobile of speakers and literature to the Aviation Meet. A fall campaign of open-air speaking followed. Mrs.

Park came home from a tour around the world and lectured on the women of different countries. Mrs. A. Watson-Lister of Australia and Mrs.

Dora B. Montefiore of England addressed a number of meetings.

A week of meetings took place in Springfield, State speakers cooperating with the local suffragists, among them Mrs. Henry Phillips, president of the suffrage league; Mrs. McDuffie and Mr.

Myrick, publisher of the "Farm and Home" and "Good Housekeeping."

Headquarters were opened in a vacant store with daily meetings and teas; addresses were given before the Board of Trade, the teachers, the Woman's, the Mothers', the Socialist and the College Clubs, the Y.

M. C. A. training school and other groups; colored slides of suffrage events were shown and prominent local women opened their homes for social affairs. Much interest was aroused and permanent Springfield headquarters were opened soon afterwards. Boston started to organize by wards and invitations were printed in various languages. The first meeting, in Ward 8, arranged by Mrs. Leonard, was attended by nearly 1,000 women and there were speeches in English and Yiddish. A cla.s.s to train suffrage speakers was started. A suffrage club was organized in the College of Liberal Arts of Boston University. The suffragists sent Alfred H. Brown to help the campaign in the State of Washington.

The general sorrow for the death of Julia Ward Howe on October 17 brought support to the suffrage movement. In her later years people had revered her as they revered the flag and all her great influence had been placed unreservedly at the service of this cause. A large memorial meeting was held in Faneuil Hall on December 16.

1911. The State convention was held in Boston October 27, 28, the evening meeting at Tremont Temple addressed by Dr. Shaw and Professor Edward Howard Griggs. The Boston a.s.sociation raised $1,100 for the campaigns in Oregon, Kansas, Wisconsin and Michigan and gave Mrs.

Park's services to Ohio and Michigan. A Men's League for Woman Suffrage was organized at Harvard University under the presidency of A. S. Olmstead. At the meeting of the New England a.s.sociation Miss Blackwell was elected president. Mrs. Howe had held the office twenty-six years.

Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, one of the few surviving pioneers, pa.s.sed away this year. He had been a champion of women's rights for more than sixty years. When a young minister he spoke for the cause.

He signed the Call for the First National Woman's Rights Convention in 1850. He married Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell in 1855 and prefixed an approving foreword to their published protest against the inequalities of the marriage laws. He took part in organizing the American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, was its president for a year and an officer in the New England and Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sociations until his death. For years he was a great power as a lecturer and writer and addressed suffrage conventions in many States. Beginning with 1870 he contributed a long series of brilliant editorials to the _Woman's Journal_. He wrote four books on the woman question and gave 1,000 books about women to the Boston Public Library. The founder of Smith College said she was led to leave her fortune for that purpose by reading his article, Ought Women Learn the Alphabet?

1912. The State annual meeting was held in Boston, October 11, with an unusually large attendance from western Ma.s.sachusetts. In 1913 it met in Boston May 27, 28. The executive secretary, Mrs. Marion Booth Kelley, reported that 111 indoor meetings and 45 outdoor meetings had been held in the past six months. It was voted to have a suffrage parade in Boston the following spring. There was much doubt of the propriety of this but when a rising vote of the women present was taken to see how many would march almost the whole convention rose.

1914. The State annual meeting was held in Boston May 1 and 2, and again in 1915 on May 13-15. The latter opened with a brilliant banquet at the Hotel Somerset, attended by about 800. Mrs. Park presided and among the speakers were ex-Governor Ba.s.s of New Hampshire, ex-Governor Foss of Ma.s.sachusetts, Dr. Hugh Cabot and Mrs. Judith W. Smith, aged 93. Suffrage clubs were reported at Wellesley, Smith and Mt. Holyoke Colleges, the last formed largely through Miss Mildred Blodgett, a.s.sistant professor of geology. A band concert and a ma.s.s meeting on the Common closed the convention.

1916. At the State annual meeting in Boston May 18, 19, dues were abolished and provision made for organizing the State along political party lines, as recommended by the National a.s.sociation. Mrs. B. F.

Pitman of Brookline gave a large reception. The treasurer reported receipts of $67,232, expenditures of $63,483.[83]

1917. At the annual State meeting on May 10 resolutions were adopted calling upon the 125,000 enrolled members to "show their patriotism by doing their utmost to help their country and the world," especially along the five lines recommended by the National Suffrage a.s.sociation; urging nation-wide prohibition as a war measure and commending the efforts to minimize moral dangers at the training camps; protesting against "any attempt to lower educational standards or to weaken the laws safeguarding the workers, especially women and children," because of the war emergency. The Twentieth Century Club rooms were crowded at the New England Conference and Festival. Miss Blackwell presided. A greeting from the National a.s.sociation was brought by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, its corresponding secretary, and speakers were present from all the New England States. Pledges and a collection were taken for the Maine campaign and it was voted to give $2,000, a bequest from Miss Marian Shannon, to the National a.s.sociation, to help it.

1918. At the winter business meeting held in Fitchburg February 26 Mrs. Pitman reported that more than $30,000 had been raised by the a.s.sociation for war work. The State annual meeting in Boston on May 24, 25 was crowded and exciting. A resolution pledging the a.s.sociation's support to the country in the war was pa.s.sed by acclamation, and it responded to the request of Mrs. Catt, president of the National American Suffrage a.s.sociation, to follow its program of war work. The convention voted with enthusiasm to take up the circulation of the national pet.i.tions for the Federal Amendment and also to give $600 to the National a.s.sociation to finance an organizer in Oklahoma, where a suffrage campaign was in progress and the Ma.s.sachusetts "antis" were financing the opposition. In the evening a magnificent meeting was held in the Opera House with Mrs. Grace A.

Johnson presiding and addresses by Mrs. Catt and Dr. Shaw. The collection of $1,124 was given to the Red Cross.

On August 13 the State and Boston a.s.sociations celebrated the centenary of Lucy Stone's birth by a luncheon at the Hotel Somerset, Mrs. Charles Sumner Bird presiding, with addresses by ex-Governor Walsh, the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, D. D., 93 years of age; Mrs. Judith W. Smith, almost 97; Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott. Letters and telegrams of appreciation were received from President Wilson's secretary in his behalf; from Theodore Roosevelt, ex-Governor McCall, Mrs. Catt, Mayor Andrew James Peters of Boston and many others. The fall meeting was held in Boston November 30, when Miss Mary Garrett Hay, national vice-president, spoke on the national suffrage situation and there were addresses by heads of civic and philanthropic organizations.

1919. The mid-winter meeting was held in Worcester February 15 and eight young girls presented to Miss Blackwell the national pet.i.tion bearing 16,434 names, many more than the quota for this city. The State meeting was held May 21, 22, in Boston. While it was in session the news came that the Federal Suffrage Amendment had pa.s.sed the U. S.

House of Representatives. This called out great enthusiasm and it was voted to telegraph Mrs. Maud Wood Park: "Three cheers for our Congressional Chairman! Very proud that Mrs. Park is a Ma.s.sachusetts woman!" The following Sunday the Boston a.s.sociation held a meeting in Tremont Theater to rejoice, with Samuel L. Powers, a prominent Republican lawyer, presiding, and addresses by Mrs. Park, Joseph Conry, a prominent Democrat, and Secretary of State Langtry for Governor Coolidge.

1920. The annual meeting was again held in Boston, May 27, 28, Mrs.

Bird presiding. She stated that it was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Julia Ward Howe, to whose work for suffrage and other good causes a heart-felt tribute was paid. Mrs. Bird presented Miss Blackwell with a laurel wreath as representing the pioneers and as having been at the head of the a.s.sociation when victory was won. As the complete ratification was almost at hand it was voted to take legal steps to dissolve the Ma.s.sachusetts Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation.

Later it was decided, in accordance with the policy of the National a.s.sociation, to continue it as a skeleton organization with the same officers until all possible need for it should be over. The State League of Women Voters was organized, with Mrs. George R. Fearing, Jr., as chairman and Miss Blackwell as honorary president, the delegates and members of the a.s.sociation enrolling in the new society.

The New England Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation never formally disbanded but simply ceased to meet.

From 1910 onward what had tended most to increase membership was the formation of the Woman Suffrage Party to work as the State a.s.sociation, with a non-dues-paying membership of men and women, similar to the political parties, having district leaders, precinct captains and ward chairmen, strictly non-partisan and solely to promote woman suffrage. The first chairman was Mrs. Gertrude Halladay Leonard. A convention was held in Faneuil Hall on March 5, 1912, at which time twenty-three of the twenty-six Boston wards had been organized, also Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, Newton and many other cities and towns. The membership was 25,000 and by the referendum campaign in 1915 it had advanced to about 250,000.

This change in the type of organization was indicative of a change in the whole suffrage movement. It was recognized that more widely diffused education on the subject was needed and that suffrage must become a political issue. The suffrage leagues were changed into political district organizations; the parlor meeting gave place to the outdoor meeting; State headquarters were moved from No. 6 Marlboro Street, a residential section, to 585 Boylston Street in a business building, and local societies were kept in touch. Every effort was made to reach labor unions and other organizations of men with speakers and educational propaganda and to carry information to the man in the street, who often had never heard of the Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation. The executive board met every two weeks and later every week or oftener. Mrs. Page, its chairman, was followed in 1911 by Mrs.

Marion Booth Kelley; in 1912 by Mrs. Gertrude B. Newell, and in May, 1913, Mrs. Leonard was elected and served to October, 1917. Upon her resignation Mrs. Grace A. Johnson was chosen, who was succeeded by Mrs. Charles Sumner Bird.

In 1912 a new State organization, called the Political Equality Union, was formed, with Miss Mabel Gillespie as chairman, Mrs. FitzGerald as secretary and Dr. Lily Burbank as treasurer, which made a special effort to reach the labor men and women. As the vote on the const.i.tutional amendment approached, in order that there might be no overlapping, ten per cent. of the State was a.s.signed as a field for the work of the Union and the rest for that of the State a.s.sociation.

The two cooperated in legislative work. The Union disbanded in November, 1916, advising its members to join the State a.s.sociation.

CAMPAIGN. Through the campaign year of 1914, preceding the vote on a const.i.tutional amendment, which had been submitted by the Legislature, the a.s.sociation kept five salaried speakers continually in the field, besides numerous volunteers. On the list of the speakers' bureau there were 125 women and 76 men. The State and the Boston headquarters had a large office force, and in the field were nine organizers, giving full or half time. The State College Equal Suffrage League handled the retail literature for the a.s.sociation and took charge of the office hospitality. The Equal Franchise Committee, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw, president, had an important part in the campaign. The Men's League for Woman Suffrage was reorganized with Oakes Ames as president and Joseph Kelley as secretary. The Harvard Men's League cooperated in many ways.

The use of one of the University Halls for a speech by Mrs. Pankhurst was refused to it, much to the chagrin of liberal-minded graduates and undergraduates, but she held a very successful meeting in a nearby hall. The use of a hall was refused also for Mrs. Florence Kelley, although she had spoken at Harvard on other subjects. In order to avoid further trouble the Harvard Corporation voted that thereafter no woman should be allowed to lecture in the college halls except by its special invitation. This rule was abandoned later and Miss Helen Todd of California spoke on suffrage in Emerson Hall before a large audience.

Other suffrage organizations sprang up or were enlarged, the Writers'