The History of Woman Suffrage Volume VI Part 43

On the night of November 2, election day, officers, leaders, workers, members of the Party and many prominent men and women gathered at City headquarters in East 34th Street to receive the returns, Mrs. Catt and Miss Hay at either end of a long table. At first optimism prevailed as the early returns seemed to indicate victory but as adverse reports came in by the hundreds all hopes were destroyed. The fighting spirits of the leaders then rose high. Speeches were made by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Catt, Miss Hay, Dr. Katherine Bement Davis, Mrs. Laidlaw and others, and, though many workers wept openly, the gathering took on the character of an embattled host ready for the next conflict.

After midnight many of the women joined a group from the State headquarters and in a public square held an outdoor rally which they called the beginning of the new campaign.

The vote was as follows:

For Against Lost by Manhattan Borough 88,886 117,610 28,724 Brooklyn Borough 87,402 121,679 34,277 Bronx Borough 34,307 40,991 6,684 Richmond Borough 6,108 7,469 1,361 Queens Borough 21,395 33,104 11,709

Total opposed, 320,853; in favor, 238,098; adverse majority, 82,755.

Two days after the election the City Party united with the National a.s.sociation in a ma.s.s meeting at Cooper Union, where speeches were made and $100,000 pledged for a new campaign fund. The spirit of the members was shown in the words of a leader who wrote: "We know that we have gained over half a million voters in the State, that we have many new workers, have learned valuable lessons and with the knowledge obtained and undiminished courage we are again in the field of action." In December and January the usual district and borough conventions for the election of officers and then the city convention were held. At the latter the resolution adopted showed a change from the oldtime pleading: "We demand the re-submission of the woman suffrage amendment in 1917. We insist that the Judiciary Committee shall present a favorable report without delay and that the bill shall come to an early vote." Much legislative work was necessary to obtain re-submission, for which the City Party worked incessantly until the amendment was re-submitted by the Legislatures of 1916 and 1917 and preparations were again made for a great campaign.

The campaign of 1915 had been one of the highways, and of spectacular display. That of 1917 was of the byways, of quiet, intensive work reaching every group of citizens. The campaign was launched at a meeting in Aeolian Hall, March 29, where the addresses of Mrs. Catt and Miss Hay aroused true campaign fervor, the former saying: "Some foreign countries have given the franchise to women for their war work; we ask it that our women may feel they have been recognized as a.s.sets of the nation before it calls on them for war work."

The suffragists offered their services to the Government, even before it declared war; the State Party to the Governor, the City Party to the Mayor. The later said in a resolution adopted February 5: "We place at the disposal of the Mayor of this city for any service he may require our full organization of over 200,000 women, thoroughly organized and trained and with headquarters in every borough." The ma.s.s of the members stood solidly behind this offer. A War Service Committee was appointed with Mrs. F. Louis Slade as its chairman and it accomplished work that was not exceeded, if indeed equalled, in any city of the United States. Nine other committees were also appointed.

The leading features of the campaign of 1917 were the war work and the enrolling of women. In 1916 when Mrs. Catt started a canva.s.s to obtain a million signatures of women to a pet.i.tion to answer the argument, "Women do not want to vote," the City Party took as its share the securing of 514,555 in Greater New York. This accomplished, the signatures mounted on big placards were placed on exhibition at Party headquarters, now in East 38th Street, and a little ceremony was arranged during which Mayor John Purroy Mitchel and other prominent men made commendatory speeches. Debarred from outdoor meetings during the summer of 1916 on account of an epidemic and during the summer of 1917 because of war conditions, the following was nevertheless accomplished:

Meetings 2,085 Leaflets distributed 5,196,884 Money expended $151,438 Canva.s.sed and enrolled women 514,555 Women secured to watch at polls 5,000 Campaign headquarters maintained 40 Newspapers (English and foreign) served daily 153 Suffrage editions and pages edited 10 Special suffrage articles 200 Other suffrage articles and interviews 400 Posters placed in shop windows 2,000

Maintained Letter Writing Committee to send letters to the press; issued Weekly News Bulletin; printed suffrage news in papers in ten languages; circularized all churches and business men in 75 per cent of the 2,060 election districts; conducted hundreds of watchers' schools; exhibited suffrage movies in hundreds of clubs, churches and settlements; had series of suppers and conferences for working-women; held captains' rally at the Waldorf-Astoria and a patriotic rally at Carnegie Hall; gave a series of suffrage study courses; raised funds at sacrifice sales, entertainments, lectures, etc.; sent speakers to hundreds of Labor Union meetings; held four pre-election ma.s.s meetings and as a wind-up to the campaign staged eight hours of continuous speaking by 40 men and women at Columbus Circle.

The Party leaders had to meet attacks and misrepresentations from the Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation, whose national and State headquarters were in New York City. The Party had also to combat the actions of the "militant" suffragists, whose headquarters were in Washington and whose picketing of the White House and attacks on President Wilson and other public men displeased many people who did not discriminate between the large constructive branch of the suffrage movement and the small radical branch. The Party leaders had often publicly to repudiate the "militant" tactics. In the parade of Oct. 28, 1917, the Party exhibited placards which read: "We are opposed to Picketing the White House. We stand by the Country and the President."

During the campaign, Miss Hay had a.s.sociated with her on the executive board, Mrs. Slade, Mrs. Aldrich, Mrs. George Notman, Miss Annie Doughty, Mrs. F. Robertson-Jones, Mrs. Wells, Miss Adaline W.

Sterling, Mrs. Herbert Lee Pratt, Mrs. Charles E. Simonson, Dr.

Katherine B. Davis, Miss Eliza McDonald, Mrs. Alice P. Hutchins, Mrs.

Louis Welzmiller. Borough chairmen who a.s.sisted were Mrs. John Humphrey Watkins, Manhattan; Mrs. Dreier, Brooklyn; Mrs. Daniel Appleton Palmer, Bronx; Mrs. David B. Rodger, Queens; Mrs. Wilc.o.x, Richmond.

On the evening of November 6, election day, the City Party headquarters were crowded with people waiting for the returns. Mrs.

Catt, Miss Hay, Mrs. Laidlaw and other leaders were present. Mr.

Laidlaw and Judge Wadhams were "keeping the count." Walter Damrosch and other prominent men came in. From the beginning the returns were encouraging and as the evening wore on and victory was a.s.sured, the room rang with cheers and applause and there were many jubilant speeches.

The election brought a great surprise, for the big city, whose adverse vote suffragists had always predicted would have to be outbalanced by upstate districts, won the victory, the latter not helping but actually pulling down its splendid majority. The final vote in Greater New York read:

_Majority_ _Yes_ _No_ _in Favor_ New York County 129,412 89,124 40,288 Kings (Brooklyn) 129,601 92,315 37,286 Bronx 52,660 36,346 16,314 Richmond 7,868 5,224 2,644 Queens 34,125 26,794 7,331 ------- ------- ------- Total 353,666 249,803 103,863

Upstate districts, 349,463 ayes; 350,973 noes, lost by 1,510.

Majority in the State as a whole, 102,353.

Immediately opponents made the charge that suffrage won in the City because of the pro-German, pacifist and Socialist vote. An a.n.a.lysis showed that in many districts where the Germans and Socialists predominated there was not as great a suffrage majority as in Republican or Democratic districts; that some of the conservative residential sections were more favorable than radical districts and that the soldiers in the field had voted for suffrage in the ratio of two to one.

Those who were best informed attributed the victory to many causes--to the support of voters in all the parties; to the help of the labor unions; to recognition of women's war work; to the example set by European countries in enfranchising their women; to the endors.e.m.e.nt of prominent men and strong organizations. Most of all, however, it was due to the originality, the dauntless energy, the thorough organization methods and the ceaseless campaigning of the suffrage workers, who in winning the great Empire State not only secured the vote for New York women but made the big commonwealth an important a.s.set in the final struggle for the Federal Suffrage Amendment.

THE TWO STATE CAMPAIGNS.[132]

At the 45th convention of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation held in Binghamton Oct. 14-17, 1913, Miss Harriet May Mills declined to stand for re-election to the presidency. The following officers were elected: President, Mrs. Raymond Brown, New York City; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Henry W. Cannon, Delhi; recording secretary, Mrs.

Nicolas Shaw Fraser, Geneseo; treasurer, Mrs. Edward M. Childs, New York City; directors; Miss Mills, Syracuse; Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore, Yonkers; Mrs. Helen Probst Abbott, Rochester; Mrs. Dexter P. Rumsey, Buffalo; Mrs. George W. Topliff, Binghamton; Mrs. Luther Mott, Oswego; Mrs. Chanler Aldrich, Tarrytown.

This convention had before it work of the gravest importance. The submission of a woman suffrage amendment had pa.s.sed one Legislature and it was almost certain that it would pa.s.s a second and be voted on at the fall election of 1915. New York was recognized as an immensely difficult State to win. It contained great areas of spa.r.s.ely settled country and also many large cities. It had a foreign born population of 2,500,000 in a total of 9,000,000. The political "machines" of both Republican and Democratic parties were well intrenched and there was no doubt that the powerful influence of both would be used to the utmost against a woman suffrage amendment. Party leaders might allow it to go through the Legislature because confident of their ability to defeat it at the polls. The vital problem for the suffragists was how to organize and unite all the friendly forces.

While the State Suffrage a.s.sociation was the one which was organized most extensively there were other important societies. For some years the Women's Political Union, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch president, had carried on an effective campaign. The Woman Suffrage Party, a large group, existed princ.i.p.ally in New York City, organized by a.s.sembly districts. The Men's League for Woman Suffrage comprised a considerable number of influential men, now under the presidency of James Lees Laidlaw. The College Equal Suffrage League, Mrs. Charles L.

Tiffany, president, was an active body of young women. The Equal Franchise Society, organized originally among the society women of New York City by Mrs. Clarence Mackay had Mrs. Howard Mansfield as president and had helped make the movement "fashionable." This was the case with Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont's Political Equality League.

On April 15, 1913, Miss Mills had invited representatives of these organizations to a conference at the State headquarters in New York to consider concerted action at which Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt was urged to become chairman of a State Campaign Committee composed of their presidents. Before accepting, Mrs. Catt, in order to learn conditions in the State, sent out a questionnaire to county presidents and a.s.sembly district leaders asking their opinion as to the prospect of success. Of the forty-two who answered twelve believed that their counties might be carried for the amendment if enough work was done; sixteen thought it doubtful, no matter how much work was done, and fourteen were certain they could not be carried under any conditions.

Not a single county believed it could organize or finance its own work. In spite of the discouraging situation, Mrs. Catt on her return in the autumn from the meeting in Budapest of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, of which she was president, accepted the chairmanship on the condition that $20,000 should be raised for the work. The Empire State Committee organized November 11 was composed of Mrs. Raymond Brown, representing the State a.s.sociation; Miss Mary Garrett Hay, the Woman Suffrage Party of New York City; Mrs.

Mansfield, the Equal Franchise Society; Mrs. Tiffany, the College League and Mr. Laidlaw, the Men's League, with the following chairmen: Miss Rose Young, Press; Mrs. Warner M. Leeds, Finance; Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, Publicity; Mrs. John W. Alexander, Art; Mrs.

Mansfield, Literature.[133]

For convenience of work the State was divided into twelve campaign districts, whose chairmen were, 1st, Miss Hay, New York City; 2nd, Mrs. Brown, Bellport, Long Island; 3rd, Miss Leila Stott, Albany; 4th, Mrs. Frank Paddock, Malone; 5th, Mrs. L. O. McDaniel, succeeded by Miss Mills, Syracuse; 6th, Mrs. Helen B. Owens, Ithaca; 7th, Mrs.

Alice C. Clement, Rochester; 8th, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, Buffalo; 9th, Mrs. Carl Osterheld, Yonkers; 10th, Mrs. Gordon Norrie, Staatsburg; 11th, Miss Evanetta Hare, succeeded by Mrs. George Notman, Keene Valley; 12th, Miss Lucy C. Watson, Utica. Under all of these chairmen came the 150 a.s.sembly district leaders and under these the 5,524 election district captains. From the first it was realized that organization was the keynote to success and that to be effective it must extend into every polling precinct of the State. Mrs. Catt had no superior in organizing ability. The plan followed the lines of the political parties and was already in use by the Woman Suffrage Party of New York City, which she had founded.

In January, 1914, Campaign District Conferences and Schools of Method were held, followed by a convention and ma.s.s meetings in every county.

During the year twenty-eight paid organizers were constantly at work.

Mrs. Catt herself visited fifty of the up-state counties. The annual State convention October 12-16, was preceded by a state-wide motor car pilgrimage. On every highway was a procession of cars stopping along the route for street meetings and converging in Rochester for the convention. There was little change in officers. Three vice-presidents were added, Mrs. Alfred E. Lewis of Geneva, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs.

Notman. Mrs. Cannon was succeeded as corresponding secretary by Miss Marion May of New York. Mrs. Abbott and Mrs. Shuler were added to the board of directors. A comprehensive program of work for 1914-15, laid out by Mrs. Catt, gave a definite task for each month and included raising a $150,000 campaign fund, each district being a.s.signed a proportion; school for suffrage workers, special suffrage edition of a newspaper in every county, automobile campaign, work at county fairs and a house to house canva.s.s to enroll the names of women who wanted the suffrage. Mrs. Catt's plan also included parades in all the large cities and schools in every county to train watchers for the polls.

As was expected the resolution for the suffrage amendment was pa.s.sed by the Legislature of 1915, the vote to be taken on the day of the regular election, November 2. Forty paid organizers were kept in the field and a convention was held again in each county. By autumn each of the 150 a.s.sembly districts was organized and in addition there were 565 clubs and 183 campaign committees. About 2,500 women held official positions, serving without pay. It was estimated that about 200,000 women worked in some capacity in this campaign. Twelve thousand New York City public school teachers formed a branch under Katharine Devereux Blake as chairman. Each paid fifty cents dues and many gave their summer vacation to work for the amendment.

The Equal Franchise Society, in charge of the literature, printed 7,230,000 leaflets, requiring twenty tons of paper; 657,200 booklets, one full set sent to every political leader in the State; 592,000 Congressional hearings and individual speeches were mailed to voters; 149,533 posters were put up and 1,000,000 suffrage b.u.t.tons were used; 200,000 cards of matches with "Vote Yes on the Suffrage Amendment" on the back were distributed and 35,000 fans carrying the suffrage map.

The value of street speaking had long since been learned. A woman speaking from an automobile or a soap box or steps, while she might begin by addressing a few children would usually draw a crowd of men of the kind who could never be gotten inside a hall, and these men were voters. The effect of these outdoor meetings was soon seen all over the State in the rapidly changing sentiment of the man in the street. During the six months preceding the election 10,325 meetings were recorded besides the countless ones not reported. Ma.s.s meetings were held in 124 different cities, sixteen in New York, with U. S.

Senators and Representatives and other prominent speakers. The week before election in New York, Buffalo, Rochester and other large cities Marathon speeches were made continuously throughout the twenty-four hours, with listening crowds even during the small hours of the night.

Suffrage speeches were given in moving picture shows and vaudeville theaters and a suffrage motion picture play was produced. Flying squadrons of trained workers would go into a city, make a canva.s.s, hold street meetings, attract public attention and stimulate newspaper activity.

A remarkable piece of work was done by a Press and Publicity Council of one hundred women in New York City organized by Mrs. Whitehouse.

They established personal acquaintance with the editors and owners of the fifteen daily papers; answered the anti-suffrage letters published; communicated with the editors of 683 trade journals, 21 religious papers, 126 foreign language papers and many others--893 in all--and offered them exclusive articles; they suggested special features for magazines and planned suffrage covers; they secured s.p.a.ce for a suffrage calendar in every daily paper. This council placed suffrage slides in moving picture houses and suffrage posters in the lobbies of theaters; and had a page advertis.e.m.e.nt of suffrage in every theater program. Comedians were asked to make references to suffrage in their plays and jokes were collected for them and appropriate lines suggested.

A sub-committee of writers was organized which a.s.sembled material for special suffrage editions of papers, wrote suffrage articles and made suggestions for stories. The Art Committee ill.u.s.trated the special editions and made cartoons. They held an exhibit of suffrage posters with prizes and raised money through an exhibition and sale of the work of women painters and sculptors. A new suffrage game was invented and installed at Coney Island. They supplied the posters for $70,000 worth of advertising s.p.a.ce on billboards and street cars which was contributed by the owners during the final weeks of the campaign. They organized and managed the suffrage banner parade, the largest which had yet taken place.

Among the other publicity "stunts" of the council were suffrage baseball games, a Fourth of July celebration at the Statue of Liberty and Telephone and Telegraph Day, when the wires carried suffrage messages to politicians, judges, editors, clergymen, governors, mayors, etc., all of these "stunts" receiving a large amount of newspaper publicity. The most effective was the One Day Strike, to answer the argument used by the "antis" that "woman's place was in the home" by asking all women to stay at home for only one day. The suggestion was never intended to be carried out and did not go further than a letter sent by Mrs. Whitehouse to the presidents of women's clubs and some other organizations, asking them to come to a meeting to consider the plan, copies of which were sent to the newspapers. The effect was extraordinary. Department stores, telephone company managers, employers of all kinds of women's labor, hospitals and schools, protested loudly against the crippling of public service, the loss of profits and the disruption of business which would result from even one day's absence of women from their public places. Editorial writers devoted columns to denouncing the proposal. Suffrage leaders were bitterly criticized for even suggesting such a public calamity.

The favorite argument of the "antis" was answered for all time.

At the very end of the campaign the anti-suffragists began to advertise extensively in the subway and on the elevated roads in New York City but the firm that controlled this s.p.a.ce refused to accept any advertising from the suffragists. Woman's wit, however, was equal to the emergency. For the three days preceding the election one hundred women gave their time to riding on elevated and subway trains holding up large placards on which were printed answers to the "anti"

advertis.e.m.e.nts. The public understood and treated the women with much courtesy.

It is difficult to give even the barest outline of the work of the Press Bureau, at first under the management of Mrs. Haryot Holt Dey and later of Miss Rose Young, with a volunteer force of 214 press chairmen over the State. There were 2,136 publications in the State, 211 dailies, 1,117 weeklies, 628 monthlies, and 180 foreign publications printed in twenty-five languages. To the weeklies a bulletin from the central bureau went regularly; 3,036 shipments were made of pages of plate matter. The American Press a.s.sociation and the Western Newspaper Union for many weeks sent out columns of suffrage news with their regular service for the patent inside page used by country papers. The bureau furnished material for debates and answered attacks against suffrage. The support given by the newspapers was of great value. Of the fifteen dailies of New York City ten were pro-suffrage, while the rural press was overwhelmingly in favor. Most of the papers of the larger cities up-state were opposed, although there were notable exceptions.

There were several high water marks. On Nov. 6, 1914, just a year before the election, at a ma.s.s meeting which packed Carnegie Hall, $115,000 were pledged, the largest sum ever raised at a suffrage meeting, a visible proof of the great increase in favorable sentiment since the campaign had begun a year ago, when the $20,000 which Mrs.

Catt wanted as the original guarantee seemed almost impossible of attainment. In May, 1915, a luncheon attended by 1,400 people pledged $50,000. On October 23, ten days before election, there occurred in New York City the largest parade ever organized in the United States for suffrage, called the "banner parade" because of the mult.i.tude of flags and banners which characterized it, only those for suffrage being permitted. There were 33,783 women who marched up Fifth Avenue, past a crowd of spectators which was record-breaking, taking from 2 o'clock in the afternoon until long after dark. The rear was brought up by scores of motor cars gaily decorated with Chinese lanterns and after darkness fell the avenue was a solid ma.s.s of moving colored lights. There seemed no end to the women who were determined to win the vote and a mult.i.tude of men seemed to be ready to grant it.

On Nov. 2, 1915, the vote took place. Every preparation had been made and every precaution taken, as far as the strength of the organization would permit, to secure a fair election and an honest count. A law had been obtained which permitted women to act as watchers at any election on woman suffrage, which proved an important safeguard. Wherever possible, watchers were provided for the polling places all over the State. The result of the election was: For the suffrage amendment, 553,348; against, 748,332; adverse majority 194,984.

The disappointment was almost crushing. Although the task of persuading the huge cosmopolitan population of New York State to grant equality to women had been recognized as being almost superhuman, the work done had been so colossal that it would have been impossible not to hope for success. Mrs. Catt had planned and seen carried out a masterly campaign never before approached anywhere in the history of suffrage. The devotion and self-sacrifice of thousands of women were beyond praise but there were not enough of them. If every county and every town had raised its proportion of the funds and done its share of the work, the amendment might have been carried, but this first campaign laid the foundation for the victory that the next one would bring.

This was the largest vote ever polled for suffrage at any election--553,348 out of a vote of 1,300,880, being 42-1/2 per cent.

The vote in the State outside of New York City was 427,479 noes, 315,250 ayes, opposing majority, 112,229; in this city 320,853 noes, 238,098 ayes, opposing majority 82,755; total opposed, 194,984. The amendment received a larger favorable vote than the Republican party polled at the Presidential election of 1912, which was 455,428. In 1914 this party swept the State and it could have carried the suffrage amendment in 1915.