The History of Woman Suffrage Volume VI Part 27

Consequently a bill was filed calling for another referendum like the one in 1895 which would have no effect after it was taken. The Executive Board of the State a.s.sociation protested against it but the situation looked extremely dark. Levi H. Greenwood, President of the Senate, and Grafton D. Cushing, Speaker of the House, were bitter opponents of woman suffrage and on the Committee on Const.i.tutional Amendments there was only one avowed friend, Lewis H. Sullivan of Dorchester. The a.s.sociation's Legislative Committee worked strenuously to pledge votes against the bill. A visit to every editor in the city by Mrs. Page and Mrs. Crowley enlisted them against it and the numerous editorials that followed were sent day by day to the legislators: The bill's support dwindled, and on April 18 it was defeated in the House by 117 to 73, although the Speaker left the chair for the only time that session to argue in favor of it.

At the hearing on the submission of the const.i.tutional amendment, Louis D. Brandeis, ex-Congressman Samuel L. Powers, Joseph Walker and Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard spoke in favor and letters were read from Samuel W. McCall, afterwards Republican Governor; Charles Sumner Bird, the Progressive leader, and Thomas W. Riley, an influential Democrat. For the first time since 1895 woman suffrage commanded a majority in the House, the vote standing ayes, 144, noes, 88, but this was not the necessary two-thirds and the Legislative Committee consented that it might be voted down in the Senate, provided the "straw" vote bill was defeated at the same time.

It now seemed practically certain that the amendment would pa.s.s the next Legislature. In the fall of 1913 the Boston Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation defeated Walter R. Meins of the 21st Suffolk District; the Legislative Committee of the State a.s.sociation defeated Representatives Butler of Lowell and Underhill of Somerville at the primaries, and Bliss of Malden and Greenwood, president of the Senate, at the election. This being the first time for many years that a Democrat had been returned from Greenwood's district, his defeat caused a sensation.

In 1914 the Progressive party, the State Federation of Labor, the Socialists and the State Suffrage a.s.sociation all introduced suffrage measures. The Progressive and Democratic parties had planks in their platforms recommending the submission of the const.i.tutional amendment to the voters and Governor Walsh was in favor of it. The suffragists were unable to get a plank in the Republican platform. For reasons of political expediency, Mrs. Crowley turned over the conduct of the hearing to John Weaver Sherman, representing the State Federation of Labor. There were speeches in favor by Guy A. Ham, chairman of the Resolutions Committee of the State Republican convention; Henry Sterling, representing the American Federation of Labor; Mrs. William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., Mrs. Pinkham and Mrs. Katherine Lent Stevenson, president of the W. C. T. U. Letters were read from ex-Governor Bates and Sherman K. Whipple, Republican and Democratic leaders. The Women's Political Equality Union had speakers from the Textile Workers' Union of Boston and the unions of the telephone operators, candy-makers and street-car men. The debate in the House was successfully led by Sanford Bates, chairman of the Committee on Const.i.tutional Amendments.

The resolution to submit the amendment pa.s.sed by 168 to 39 in the House and 34 to 2 in the Senate, commanding the required two-thirds for the first time, but it had to pa.s.s a succeeding Legislature.

In 1915 the legislative work was less onerous and the amendment pa.s.sed the House by 193 to 33, the Senate by 33 to 3 and was signed by Governor Walsh, who presented the pen to Mrs. Crowley. His signature was not necessary but he wished to show his approval.

Under the Corrupt Practices Act a political committee, so-called, of at least five men, had to be formed to handle the funds of any group that spent more than $20 to carry or defeat a const.i.tutional amendment. A bill was pa.s.sed which allowed women to form the committee in the case of the equal suffrage amendment and the following were named: Miss Blackwell, chairman; Mrs. Blanche Ames, treasurer; Mrs.

Crowley, Mrs. Leonard and Miss Foley. The strenuous campaign and the defeat of the amendment after a struggle of more than half a century to have it submitted, have been described.

In 1916 no suffrage bill of any kind was presented to the Legislature by the State a.s.sociation but it turned its attention to congressional work. This was skilfully conducted by Mrs. Grace A. Johnson, chairman; members of Congress were interviewed, letters and telegrams sent to the Congressional Judiciary Committee and delegates to the National party conventions were urged to support suffrage planks. When these planks were secured in the national platforms of all parties during the summer the victory was celebrated with a ma.s.s meeting in Faneuil Hall.

In 1917 Ma.s.sachusetts held a Const.i.tutional Convention. The Act calling it, in describing those to whom its recommendations should be submitted for ratification, used the word "people." A bill drawn by Mrs. Crowley was filed in the Legislature by the State Suffrage a.s.sociation asking that women be considered people within the meaning of this Act. The Senate asked the opinion of the State Supreme Court as to its const.i.tutionality and she filed a brief. The Supreme Court decided adversely and in view of the rapid advance of the Federal Suffrage Amendment the a.s.sociation decided that no State amendment should be submitted by the convention.

The directions of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation for congressional work were carried out. Federal Amendment meetings were held, thousands of letters sent to members of Congress from their districts and about 500 telegrams sent just before the vote was taken in 1918. The amendment lacked but one vote of pa.s.sing the U. S. Senate and it became necessary to defeat at least one among the anti-suffrage Senators who were coming up for re-election, so it was decided to defeat Senator John W. Weeks in Ma.s.sachusetts. His reactionary record was spread before the Republican voters by 370,000 circulars and advertis.e.m.e.nts in Republican papers. A special campaign among the working men was made by members of the Women's Trade Union League, under the leadership of Miss Mabel Gillespie, and among the Jewish voters, who were normally Republican, under the leadership of Mrs.

Joseph Fels and Mrs. Lillian E. deHaas of New York. The great popularity of President Wilson at this time was of a.s.sistance and also that of the Democratic candidate for the Senate, ex-Governor Walsh. A special letter was sent to every listed member of the State a.s.sociation asking that at least one vote be secured against Mr.

Weeks, with a spirited appeal by Mrs. Ames, who belonged to a prominent Republican family. Mr. Walsh was elected by about 20,000 majority, the first Democratic U. S. Senator from Ma.s.sachusetts since the Civil War.

The Congressional Committee, Mrs. Ames, chairman, sent more than 5,000 letters and telegrams asking suffragists in the State to write and telegraph the Ma.s.sachusetts Senators and members of Congress to vote for the Federal Amendment. Concentrated work was done upon three doubtful Representatives, one of whom was secured, Carter of Needham.

This proved most fortunate as the House gave exactly the two-thirds vote.

The work done in 1918 on the great pet.i.tion for the Federal Amendment was very successful despite the influenza epidemic. In Worcester, Springfield, Pittsfield and North Adams women signed numbering more than 51 per cent. of the men's last vote for President and in Boston 62,000 names were secured or 60 per cent. of that vote. The anti-suffragists in twenty-four years had acc.u.mulated only a little over 40,000 signatures in the whole State, according to their own figures. In less than one year the suffragists obtained 70,792 in the above cities and over 100,000 in the State.

RATIFICATION. When the Federal Amendment was submitted by Congress on June 4, 1919, the Legislative Committee of the State a.s.sociation, Mrs.

Anna C. M. Tillinghast, chairman, was expanded into a Ratification Committee. It had already polled the Legislature, which was in session. A hearing was held before the Federal Relations Committee conducted by Mrs. Tillinghast for the suffragists and by Mrs. Henry Preston White for the "antis," who asked for a referendum to the voters in place of ratification. The suffrage speakers were Frank B.

Hall, chairman of the Republican State Committee; Joseph Walker, Progressive Republican; Josiah Quincy, Democrat, Joseph Walsh, Democrat, of the Senate; Mrs. Bird, Mrs. FitzGerald, Mrs. Pinkham, who presented a pet.i.tion of 135,000 names from representative sections of the Commonwealth; Mrs. Mary Thompson, representing the working women; Miss Margaret Foley, a prominent Catholic; a representative of the State W. C. T. U.; Charles J. Hodgson, legislative agent for the American Federation of Labor. The speakers for the Woman's Party were Mrs. Morey, Miss Betty Gram, Michael O'Leary, chairman of the Democratic State Committee, and Mrs. Louise Sykes. On the anti-suffrage side sixteen women representing the sixteen congressional districts told of their vote against suffrage in 1915.

Miss Blackwell spoke in reb.u.t.tal for the suffragists, Miss Charlotte Rowe of Yonkers, N. Y., for the "antis." B. Loring Young, Republican floor leader in the House, acted as chairman of the suffrage Steering Committee in the House and Joseph Knox in the Senate. The committee reported in favor of ratification with two dissenting.

The debate in the House on June 25 was notable, about fifteen members speaking on each side. An amendment calling for a referendum was defeated by 166 to 67 and ratification carried by 185 ayes to 47 noes. The Senate ratified by 34 ayes, 5 noes. Ma.s.sachusetts was the eighth State to ratify. Mrs. Tillinghast expressed especial grat.i.tude for the a.s.sistance given by Governor Calvin Coolidge, Lieutenant Governor Channing M. c.o.x, Edwin T. McKnight, President of the Senate, Joseph E. Warner, Speaker of the House, B. Loring Young, Republican, and William H. McDonnell, Democratic floor leader, Leland Powers of the House, Joseph Knox of the Senate and the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic State committees.

After women had been enfranchised the State and the Boston suffrage a.s.sociations conducted citizenship schools in every county to instruct them in their new duties.

LAWS. [The very complete digest of the legislation of the past twenty years in relation to women and children, especially to those in the industries, prepared by Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley, attorney at law, and filling nine typewritten pages, has to be omitted for lack of s.p.a.ce.]

FOOTNOTES:

[79] The History is indebted for the first part of this chapter to Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, an officer of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation from 1890 to 1912 inclusive; president of the New England Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation from 1911, and president of the Ma.s.sachusetts Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation almost continuously from 1909 to 1920; and for the second part of the chapter to Mrs. Teresa A.

Crowley, chairman of the Legislative Committee of the State a.s.sociation from 1909 for many years.

[80] Later presidents were Mrs. Page, Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley, Mrs.

Robert Gould Shaw and Mrs. J. Malcolm Forbes. When Mrs. Park was called to Washington to become national congressional chairman in 1916 Mrs. Wenona Osborne Pinkham succeeded her as executive secretary.

[81] At the annual meeting of the M. A. O. F. E. S. W. on May 1, officers were elected as follows: President, Mrs. G. Howland Shaw; vice-presidents, Mrs. J. H. Coolidge, Miss Anna L. Dawes, Mrs. Charles D. Homans, Miss Agnes Irwin, Mrs. Henry M. Whitney; corresponding secretary, Miss L. C. Post; recording secretary. Miss Elizabeth Johnson; treasurer, Mrs. James M. Codman; executive committee, the officers and Miss Sarah H. Crocker, Mrs. Gorham Dana, Mrs. Charles Eliot Guild, Miss Katherine E. Guild, Miss Elizabeth H. Houghton, Miss Sarah E. Hunt, Mrs. Francis C. Lowell, Mrs. J. H. Millet, Mrs. B. L.

Robinson, Mrs. R. H. Saltonstall, Miss E. P. Sohier and Mrs. Henry M.

Thompson.

[82] Additional speakers through the summer were Miss Margaret Foley, Miss Gertrude Y. Cliff, Miss Edith M. Haynes, Mrs. Marion Craig Wentworth, Miss Florence Lus...o...b.. Miss Katherine Tyng, Miss Alfretta McClure and Miss Rosa Heinzen, the last four college girls.

[83] Much help was given for years by the steady financial support of Mrs. R. D. Evans, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw and Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw. The last named paid the rent of the suffrage headquarters during many years and her heirs continued this a.s.sistance for some time after her death in 1917.

[84] Many of the same persons appeared at these hearings year after year. Among those not mentioned who spoke for suffrage between 1900 and 1910 were Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, Henry B. Blackwell, the Rev.

Charles G. Ames, Mrs. f.a.n.n.y B. Ames, Miss Sarah Cone Bryant, the Rev.

Charles F. Dole, Mrs. Anna Christy Fall, Mrs. Helen Campbell, Miss Mary Ware Allen, Miss Eva Channing, Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz, Miss Lillian Freeman Clarke, Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott, Frank B. Sanborn, Mrs.

Eliza R. Whiting, Mrs. Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, Mrs. A. Watson Lister, of Australia; ex Governor John D. Long. Letters in favor were read from Professor Borden P. Bowne, of Boston University, U. S. Senator George F. h.o.a.r, ex Governor George S. Boutwell, Dr. J. L. Withrow of Park Street Church, Congressman Samuel W. McCall, Professor W. O.

Crosby of the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology, Mrs. Sarah Platt Decker, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs. May Alden Ward, president of the State Federation, Mrs. F. N. Shiek, president of the Wyoming Federation, and Judge Lindsey of the Denver Juvenile Court.

Among those who spoke in opposition were Professor William T. Sedgwick of the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology and Mrs. Sedgwick, Mrs A.

J. George, Mrs. Barrett Wendell, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Foxcroft and Dr.

Lyman Abbott of New York. A number of women spoke every year who opposed the suffrage because it would take women into public life.

[85] The suggestion to get out a record-breaking crowd was made by Representative Norman H. White of Brookline, the first man for some years to lead a serious fight in the Legislature for woman suffrage.

The work of getting it out was engineered by Mrs. Crowley, Mrs. Page and Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, who also arranged the great procession at the hearing of the following year.

[86] Among the speakers at the overflow meetings on the steps were the Misses Rendell and Costello, Miss Foley, Mrs. George F. Lowell, Mr.

Blackwell, Mrs. Fitzgerald, John Golden and Franklin H. Wentworth. At the overflow meeting on the Common Mrs. Fitzgerald presided and Dr.

Shaw was the chief speaker. A great meeting in Faneuil Hall had been addressed by Dr. Shaw and others the night before.

CHAPTER XXI.

MICHIGAN.[87]

The Michigan Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation is almost as old as any in the United State, having been organized in January, 1870, eight months after the National a.s.sociation was formed, and its work has been long and arduous. It has had triumphs and disappointments; gained partial suffrage at two periods and ended in a complete victory in 1918.

In 1900-1901 the princ.i.p.al efforts of the a.s.sociation, which consisted of 14 auxiliaries, were along educational lines. At the annual convention in 1902 a pet.i.tion was sent to President Theodore Roosevelt to recommend a woman suffrage amendment to the National Const.i.tution in his message to Congress, which was heartily endorsed by the National Grange then in session in Lansing. Little active work was being done with the Legislature but it is the pride of the suffragists that no Legislature ever convened which they did not memorialize and only two years pa.s.sed without a State convention--1912, and two were held in 1913; and 1917, when a congressional conference was held instead.[88] The presidents during these years were Mrs. Emily Burton Ketcham, Grand Rapids, 1901 (at intervals from 1892); Mrs. Martha E.

Snyder Root, Bay City, 1902-3; Mrs. Guilielma H. Barnum, Charlotte, 1904-6; Mrs. Clara B. Arthur, Detroit, 1906-1914; Mrs. Orton H. Clark, Kalamazoo, 1914-1918; Mrs. Belle Brotherton, Detroit, acting president, 1918; Mrs. Percy J. Farrell, Detroit, 1918-1919.

From 1902 to 1906 the work was largely confined to the preparing of public opinion for the probable revision of the State const.i.tution.

Legislatures refused to submit a woman suffrage amendment to the voters on the plea that a new const.i.tution would soon be in force. It was decided to make an intensive educational campaign, especially among the club women. To this end suffragists served on club committees working for legislative or civic ends, and the rebuffs of the measures urged by them finally resulted in the endors.e.m.e.nt of woman suffrage by the State Federation of Women's Clubs with 8,000 members, at Battle Creek in October, 1908.

In 1906 speakers were sent over the State for lectures and debates.

Prizes for suffrage essays were offered in high schools with material supplied. At county and State fairs, church bazars, picnics and meetings of various societies, literature was freely distributed. The _Woman's Journal_ was placed in all public libraries and small suffrage tracts kept in interurban waiting rooms and in rest rooms of churches, societies and dry-goods stores. Birthdays of pioneer suffragists were celebrated by special meetings, local clubs always responding to a call with so concrete an object. A committee of members in all parts of the State attended constantly to press work, sending in items of interest concerning the progress of women, educationally and politically, and answering attacks on woman suffrage.

This year the Supreme Court decided that Mrs. Merrie Hoover Abbott, who had been elected prosecuting attorney of Ogemaw county, could not serve because no woman was ent.i.tled to hold office. The a.s.sociation used this decision as a practical lesson on the position of women under the present const.i.tution. Finally the Legislature of 1907 arranged for a const.i.tutional convention. The annual convention of the a.s.sociation promptly met the situation by appointing a Const.i.tutional Revision Committee headed by Mrs. May Stocking Knaggs of Bay City, a former president, and each auxiliary was invited to appoint one woman to serve on an advisory committee. The purpose of this committee was to urge upon the convention the omission of the word "male" from the suffrage clause as a qualification for voting.

The Committee on Elective Franchise of the const.i.tutional convention reported unanimously in favor and on Jan 8. 1908, granted the suffragists a hearing in Representatives Hall. Ten societies cooperating with the State suffrage a.s.sociation were represented--the Grange, two organizations of the Maccabees, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, State Federation of Labor, Detroit Garment Workers, State Woman's Press a.s.sociation and several women's and farmers'

clubs. A pet.i.tion representing 225,000 names, 175,000 of individual women of voting age, was presented. The State president, Mrs. Clara B.

Arthur, introduced the speakers, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, a lawyer of Chicago, who made earnest addresses. The Governor came in to hear them. The women "antis" circulated a leaflet opposing the change. On January 29 the debate took place in the convention on the proposed revision, and, although not a voice had been raised in protest, the vote stood 38 ayes, 57 noes. Some members who voted "no" did so because they believed that the whole const.i.tution would be defeated at the polls if it proposed to enfranchise women. The hard work of the a.s.sociation was not, however, barren of results, for a clause was inserted in the new const.i.tution giving taxpaying women the right to vote on any public question relating to the public expenditure of money or the issuing of bonds.

[In 1915 the Legislature extended it to the granting of public franchises.]

In the spring Mrs. Arthur with Mrs. Maud Wood Park, organizer for the National College Suffrage League, formed branches in the colleges at Albion, Hillsdale, Olivet and Ann Arbor and among the collegiate alumnae in Detroit, of which Dr. Mary Thompson Stevens was made president. In June the fifty-six State delegates to the National Democratic convention were pet.i.tioned for a woman suffrage plank in the platform.