The History of Woman Suffrage Volume VI Part 44

SECOND NEW YORK CAMPAIGN.

With 42-1/2 per cent. of the vote cast in November, 1915, in favor of the woman suffrage amendment the leaders were eager to start a new campaign at once and take advantage of the momentum already gained.

Two nights after election the campaign was started at a ma.s.s meeting in Cooper Union, New York City, where $100,000 were pledged amid boundless enthusiasm. The reorganization of the State took place immediately, at the annual convention held in this city, November 30-December 2, and all the societies that had cooperated in the Empire State Campaign Committee became consolidated under the name of the State Woman Suffrage Party, into which the old State a.s.sociation was merged. The demand was so overwhelming that Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who had led the two years' fight so magnificently, should continue to be leader, that she was obliged to accept the chairmanship.

The other officers elected were Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, Mrs.

James Lees Laidlaw, Mrs. Henry W. Cannon, first, second and third vice-chairmen; Mrs. Michael M. Van Beuren and Miss Alice Morgan Wright, secretaries; Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, treasurer; Mrs. Raymond Brown, Mrs. Dexter P. Rumsey, Miss Harriet May Mills and Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore, directors. A few weeks later the convention of the National a.s.sociation called Mrs. Catt even more insistently to accept its presidency and Mrs. Whitehouse became chairman and therefore the leader of the new campaign. Mrs. Catt headed the list of directors; Mrs. Laidlaw was made chairman of legislative work and Mrs. Brown of organization.

The next State convention was held in Albany, Nov. 16-23, 1916, and the same officers were elected except that Mrs. Charles Noel Edge succeeded Mrs. Van Beuren as secretary. The chairmen of the twelve campaign districts were continued with the following changes: Second, Mrs. Frederick Edey, Bellport; fourth, Mrs. Robert D. Ford, Canton; fifth, Mrs. William F. Canough, Syracuse; sixth, Miss Lillian Huffcut, Binghamton; eighth, Mrs. Frank J. Tone, Niagara Falls; ninth, Mrs.

Frank A. Vanderlip, Scarborough.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The determination to enter immediately into another campaign met with much opposition, even from many suffragists.

The Legislature had submitted the amendment in 1915 confident that it would be overwhelmingly defeated but the ability and persistence of the women and the big vote secured made the opponents afraid to take another chance. That it was finally forced through both Houses was due, first, to the brilliant legislative work of Mrs. Whitehouse and Mrs. Laidlaw, a.s.sisted by Mrs. Helen Leavitt, chairman of legislative work for the Albany district; second, to the extraordinary support given by the organizations throughout the State, through delegations, ma.s.s meetings, letters and telegrams, 6,000 from the 9th district alone. The Men's League gave invaluable help.

The resolution was introduced in both branches on Jan. 10, 1916. The fight centered in the Senate and had as determined opponents Senator Elon F. Brown, floor leader of the Republicans, and Senator Walters, Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The Democratic minority gave it a lukewarm support. Every subterfuge was directed against it. Finally it was reported out of the a.s.sembly Judiciary Committee February 15 by a vote of 11 to one and then there was a standstill. The Senate Judiciary Committee constantly postponed action. At last 500 women came to the Capitol on March 14 to urge immediate action and the resolution was adopted in the a.s.sembly that day by 109 ayes to 30 noes.

The Senate Committee had promised that it would report that same day, and at 2 p. m. it went into executive session and the suffrage leaders camped outside the door. That evening a suffrage ball was to take place in Madison Square Garden, New York City, which they were to open, and the last train that would reach there in time left Albany at 6 o'clock. The Committee knew this but hour after hour went by without word from it. After time for the train a friendly Senator appeared and announced that it had adjourned sometime before without taking action and had gone out the back way in order to escape from the waiting watchers! Taking the next train and arriving in New York at 10 o'clock at night the suffragists drove direct to Madison Square Garden. As they approached it they saw great throngs outside storming the doors, which had been closed by the police as it was dangerously crowded.

They succeeded in getting in and were greeted by cheers as they led the grand march, which had been awaiting their arrival. At midnight Mrs. Whitehouse and Mrs. Laidlaw took the sleeper back to Albany and were on hand at the opening of the session the next morning. Such undaunted spirit caught the public imagination and the newspapers did it full justice, with big headlines and columns of copy, but still the bill did not pa.s.s.

The final pressure which put the amendment through was a clever bit of strategy due to Mrs. Whitehouse. In answer to her appeal editorials appeared in newspapers throughout the State saying that no group of men in Albany had the right to strangle the amendment or refuse the voters the privilege of pa.s.sing on it. On March 22 the Senate Committee reported the resolution by 11 ayes, one no. On April 10 it pa.s.sed the Senate by 33 ayes, 10 noes.

In 1917 the amendment was pa.s.sed again to go to the voters at the regular election November 6. The State Woman Suffrage Party strengthened its organization with the goal of a captain for every polling precinct, each with a committee of ten women to look after the individual voters. Larger cities had a chairman and board of officers combined with the a.s.sembly and election district organization. In Buffalo, Mrs. Thew Wright headed a capable board; in Rochester one was led by Mrs. Alice Clement, later by Mrs. Henry G.

Danforth; in Syracuse by Mrs. Mary Hyde Andrews; in Utica by Miss Lucy C. Watson. By the end of the campaign, in addition to volunteers, 88 trained organizers were at work in the 57 counties outside of Greater New York. The National Suffrage a.s.sociation contributed four of its best workers and paid their salaries. Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ma.s.sachusetts, New Hampshire and some of the southern and western States sent valuable workers.

Early in 1917 the entire organization was well developed and suffrage work was at its height when it was suddenly stopped short by the entrance of the United States into the World War. At once everything else became of secondary importance. The Suffrage Party, like all organizations of women, was eager to serve the country and seized the first opportunity, which came with the order from Governor Charles S.

Whitman for a military census of all the men and women of the State over 21 years of age. Entire responsibility for organizing and carrying on this work in several counties was given to the party. From April to August the suffrage campaign was almost entirely suspended while its leaders took a prominent part in war activities. It was only about three months before election that the suffrage issue again became dominant. The amendment must come before the voters at the November election. With the United States engaged in a World War for democracy it seemed impossible to allow democracy to be defeated at home, and therefore it was decided that the suffrage campaign must be carried on.

In spite of some opposition Mrs. Whitehouse called a State conference at Saratoga the end of August. Besides the distraction caused by the war other difficulties had arisen. The White House at Washington had been "picketed" by the National Woman's Party and the President burned in effigy as a protest because the Federal Suffrage Amendment had not been submitted by Congress. The press was filled with the story and the public was indignant. Because the country was at war and the President burdened with heavy responsibilities, reproaches of disloyalty and pro-Germanism were hurled at suffragists in general.

The officers of the National a.s.sociation had repeatedly condemned the "militancy" and repudiated all responsibility for it but to the public generally all suffragists looked alike and people did not at first recognize the difference between the small group of "pickets" and the great suffrage organization of almost countless numbers. New York workers were very resentful because a direct appeal to suspend the "picketing" until after the election was refused by the leaders of the Woman's Party. The Saratoga conference adopted a resolution of disapproval.

At a ma.s.s meeting in New York soon afterwards Governor Whitman, Mayor Mitchel and other prominent men spoke most encouragingly, but on September 10 a suffrage amendment was defeated in Maine by a vote of two to one and this had a disastrous effect on the New York situation.

It discouraged the workers and many newspapers which had been friendly, antic.i.p.ating a similar defeat in New York, became hostile in tone; also because of the pressure of war news, the papers were almost closed to suffrage matter. Ma.s.s meetings which formerly were crowded were now so poorly attended that many had to be abandoned.

In order to help the chances of the amendment President Wilson on October 25 received a delegation of one hundred of the most prominent women of the Party, headed by Mrs. Whitehouse. He expressed his appreciation of the war work of women and his thorough belief that they should have the suffrage, praising the New York campaign and saying: "I am very glad to add my voice to those which are urging the people of your State to set a great example by voting for woman suffrage. It would be a pleasure if I might utter that advice in their presence, but, as I am bound too close to my duties here to make that possible, I am glad to ask you to convey that message to them...."

This address was published far and wide and had a marked effect on the voters. Later the President wrote Mrs. Catt that he hoped no voter in New York would be influenced by anything the so-called "pickets" had done in Washington. The suffrage meetings were soon again crowded. On October 27 the final parade took place in New York City. The signatures of 1,014,000 women citizens of the State, of voting age, asking for suffrage had been obtained. Those from up-State were pasted on huge cardboards and carried in the parade by delegations from the various counties. Those from the city were placed in 62 huge ballot boxes, one for each a.s.sembly district, with the number of them on the outside, and carried by the "captains" of the districts and their helpers.

The largest registration of men voters in the State was 1,942,000; there were nearly 100,000 more men than women of voting age and many more men than women were naturalized, therefore it was evident that 1,014,000 signatures represented a good majority of women eligible to vote. This enormous piece of work was done almost entirely by volunteers. For many months women in every county went from door to door, preaching suffrage, asking wives to talk to their husbands about it and leaving literature. The effect of this personal education was undoubtedly great and the pet.i.tion influenced public opinion.

The propaganda carried on by the Educational section under Mrs. Howard Mansfield was enormous, including training schools, travelling libraries and 8,000 sets of correspondence courses sent out. Women were trained in watchers' schools for work at the polls and 15,000 leaflets of instructions were furnished. Over 11,000,000 pieces of literature, 7 million posters and nearly 200,000 suffrage novelties were used, in addition to the 5,000,000 pieces used in New York City.

The Industrial Section, under Miss Mary E. Dreier, president of the Women's Trade Union League, made effective appeals to organized labor.

A series of letters setting forth the conditions under which women work and their relation to the vote were distributed at factory doors as men left for home during the last fifteen weeks of the campaign.

Organizers and speakers from their own ranks, men and women, spoke at trade union meetings, in factories and on the street. The State Federation of Labor endorsed the work and the Women's Trade Union League gave constant help. The Church Section, under Miss Adella Potter, was very successful in its appeal with specially prepared literature and the churches were an active force.

Every registered voter was circularized at least once and many twice.

Special letters and literature were prepared for picked groups of men, 198,538 letters in all, and speakers were sent to the military camps where this was permitted. The Speakers' Bureau, conducted by Mrs.

Victor Morawetz, had 150 speakers on its lists and a record of 2,015 speakers placed in the State. Besides these more than 7,000 meetings were arranged independently. In New York City 58 speakers held 2,085 meetings, a total of 11,100. Senators and Representatives from the equal suffrage States were to speak in the closing days of the campaign but the war held Congress constantly in session and most of the other prominent men who had promised to speak were prevented by service for the Government.

The Publicity Section, under Mrs. John Blair, advertised the amendment in every way that human ingenuity could devise. Huge street banners exhorting men to vote for suffrage hung across the most crowded streets in New York and in all the large cities. Every kind of advertising medium was used, billboards, street cars, subway and elevated cars and stations, railroad cars and stations; large electric signs and painted illuminated signs flashed weeks before election, the slogan most often used being, "1,014,000 Women ask you to Vote for Woman Suffrage November 6."

For the last two weeks a great campaign of newspaper advertising was carried on. There appeared almost daily in 728 morning and evening papers, including many in foreign languages, pages of suffrage argument, and as a result the news columns began to be filled again with suffrage. The Press Bureau, Miss Rose Young, director, a.s.sisted by local press chairmen, continued as in the first campaign but with an increased output, news bulletins, editorial matter, special articles, material for special editions, photographs, newspaper cuts, statements from one hundred leading New York City and State men headed, Why I am for Woman Suffrage, etc. About 20,000 columns of free plate material were provided for the newspapers.

It would be impossible to give the total cost of the campaign with accuracy. As far as possible each district supported its own work. The central State treasury spent $413,353; New York City, $151,504; the counties outside of the city $127,296; a total of $692,153, besides the large amount spent locally. The raising of the central State funds was the work of the treasurer, Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, a.s.sisted by Mrs.

Whitehouse. A budget was prepared to which a group of prominent men, including several bankers, gave their endors.e.m.e.nt, and, armed with their letter and helped by them in making appointments, Mrs. Reid and Mrs. Whitehouse called on one man and woman after another of a carefully selected list, solicited contributions, and many large amounts were given by persons who had not before been brought in touch with suffrage work. New York City led with $183,387; Yonkers came next with $41,748 and Buffalo with $30,163.

The supreme test of the organization came on election day. It was hoped to cover every polling s.p.a.ce with women watchers and probably about 80 per cent. of the total number of election districts of the State were so covered. A total of 6,330 women served, many being on duty from 5 a. m. till midnight.

On election night all over the State suffrage headquarters were open and victory seemed in the air. Bulletin boards in New York City showed the amendment winning in every borough and wires from up-State gave encouraging reports. The State headquarters, an entire floor of the large office building at 303 Fifth Avenue, New York, and the city headquarters were thronged with happy crowds. Before midnight it seemed certain that the four years of continuous campaign had resulted in final victory for New York State, the stronghold of opposition, the key to a Federal Suffrage Amendment because of its large representation and power in Congress. When the complete returns came in it was found that suffrage had lost up-State by 1,510 votes and that it was New York City which carried the amendment by its majority of 103,863, which reduced by 1,510 left a total majority of 102,353.

There were some evidences of fraud but the change of sentiment in favor of suffrage was State-wide, and every county showed a gain. The cities gave a better vote than the rural communities. The greatest overturn was in Buffalo which changed an adverse majority of 10,822 in 1915 to a favorable one of 4,560 in 1917! The saloons of this city displayed placards, "Vote No on Woman Suffrage," some putting them on the outside of the building. Albany, in spite of the fight against the amendment made by the Barnes "machine," although lost, registered a gain of nearly fifty per cent. Rochester, which was lost, was dominated by George W. Aldrich, the Republican leader, and Monroe and adjoining counties were also influenced by their newspapers, which nearly all were anti-suffrage. In Livingston county, the home of Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., and his wife, who was president of the National Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation, his influence was so strong and his financial hold on the county so powerful that even men who were in sympathy with woman suffrage were afraid to vote for it. This influence materially reduced the favorable vote in adjoining counties.

There were several bitter local "wet" and "dry" fights that were very bad for the suffrage vote.

The Republican Governor, Charles S. Whitman, spoke for the amendment.

Herbert Parsons, the Republican National Committeeman for New York, and many individual Republicans gave valuable help but the "machine"

all over the State did everything possible to defeat the amendment. A week before election, when their object was clearly apparent, the chairman of the Republican State Committee was requested by the women to write an official letter to its members reminding them of the endors.e.m.e.nt given by the Republican party at its State convention. He refused to write it except as an individual and not as State chairman.

In Rochester an anti-suffrage poster was kept on display in Republican headquarters. Among prominent members of the party who used their influence in opposition were Elihu Root, Henry L. Stimson and George Wickersham.

The two great figures of the suffrage movement, Mrs. Catt and Dr.

Shaw, gave royally to the campaign. Even after Mrs. Catt became president of the National a.s.sociation, she remained on the State Board of Directors and was a constant help and inspiration. Dr. Shaw contributed many weeks of speech making to the first campaign and almost as many to the second, although her time in 1917 was much occupied as chairman of the Woman's Division of the National Council of Defense. It would be impossible to give the names of the thousands of women who rendered devoted service during these campaigns and it would be equally impossible to mention the names of the men who helped. Behind many a woman who worked there was a man aiding and sustaining her with money and personal sacrifice. "Suffrage husbands"

became a t.i.tle of distinction.

Mrs. Whitehouse said in reviewing the causes of the failure of the first campaign, "We worked like amateurs." Such a charge could not be brought in the second, for the suffragists became an army of seasoned veterans, quick to understand and to obey orders, giving suffrage precedence over everything else except patriotic work. The amendment as adopted gave complete suffrage to women on the same terms as exercised by men and provided that "a citizen by marriage shall have been an inhabitant of the United States for five years." This simply required the same term of residence for wives as for unmarried women and all men.

From 1910 to 1917 the Men's League for Woman Suffrage was an influential factor in the movement in New York. It was believed to be the first of the kind and the idea was said to have originated with Max Eastman, a young professor in Columbia University, but in a sketch of the league by him in _The Trend_ in 1913 he said that in 1909, when he went to consult Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of the New York _Evening Post_, he found that Mr. Villard had received a letter from Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, asking him to organize such a league; that he had conferred with Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and they had "agreed to share the ignominy" if some one would undertake the organizing. This was done by Mr. Eastman, who, armed with letters of introduction by Mr.

Villard, succeeded in getting the names of twelve men of civic influence. Using these names he sent out several thousand letters to such men over the State and finally obtained twenty-five members. In November, 1910, the first meeting was held at the New York City Club and officers were elected. By good fortune George Foster Peabody was one of the earliest members, a Georgian by birth and one of New York's prominent bankers and financiers. He consented to serve as president and with this prestige many members were secured. "The league owed its pecuniary life to him," said Mr. Eastman, "and a great part of its early standing before the public."

After the first year the league was equally fortunate in having James Lees Laidlaw, another New York banker and man of affairs, take the presidency. He retained it for the next six years, and when the National Men's League was formed he consented to serve also as its president until the contest for woman suffrage was finished, giving active and constant a.s.sistance. Mr. Eastman was secretary of the New York League for a year or more, a.s.sisted by Ward Melville, and was succeeded by Robert Cameron Beadle, general manager of the U. S.

Stoker Corporation. He gave valuable and continuous service to the league until just before the campaign of 1917, when the pressure of business required his time and he became vice-president and George Creel ably filled the office of secretary during that strenuous period.

In 1910 the league took part in the first big suffrage parade and no act of men during the whole history of woman suffrage required more courage than that of the 87 who marched up Fifth Avenue on that occasion, jeered by the crowds that lined the sidewalks. It was a body of representative citizens, led by Mr. Peabody, Mr. Laidlaw and Mr.

Villard. The league became a large organization, enrolling among its members such men as Governor Charles S. Whitman, Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, Frank A. Vanderlip, Colonel George Harvey, William M. Ivins, Dr. Simon Flexner, Professor John Dewey, Hamilton Holt, William Dean Howells, John Mitch.e.l.l, Charles Sprague Smith, Samuel Untermeyer, Herbert Parsons, President Schurman of Cornell University, President McCracken of Va.s.sar College and many Judges, public officials and others of note. In the suffrage parade of 1912 the league four abreast extended five blocks along Fifth Avenue. Under its auspices ma.s.s meetings were held, district rallies, public dinners with 600 guests, b.a.l.l.s and theatrical performances, and campaign activities of various kinds were carried on. Men's leagues were formed in many States. The _Woman Voter_ of October, 1912, published in New York City, issued a special league number, with sketches, pictures, etc.

The Women's Political Union, which under the name of the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women was formed in New York City in the autumn of 1906 by Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, was an active force for many years. Its object was to bring to suffrage the strength of women engaged in wage-earning occupations and under its aegis trade-union women first pleaded their cause before a legislative committee on Feb.

6, 1907. That spring the league held two suffrage ma.s.s meetings, the first for many years in Cooper Union, and the following year Carnegie Hall was for the first time invaded by woman suffrage with a meeting in honor of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the English "militant" suffragists.

The league sent over 300 women to Albany by special train on Feb. 19, 1908, to a hearing on a woman suffrage amendment. The same year it started open air meetings throughout the State. On election day in 1909 the Union distributed literature at the polls and five members tested the right of women to act as watchers. It made the innovation of interviewing candidates and pledging them to vote, if elected, for the submission of a suffrage amendment to the electors.

In 1910 the Union organized in New York the first suffrage foot parade of 400 women, and other larger ones afterwards. In September it began a vigorous campaign against Artemus Ward, Republican candidate for re-election to the a.s.sembly in a banner Republican district in New York City, because of his hostility to the suffrage amendment.

Pedestrians could not go a block in the district without hearing a soap box orator trying to defeat him. The night before election eighty-six out-door meetings were held. Although it could not defeat him his former majority of 2,276 was reduced to 190. In 1911 it engineered campaigns against Cuvillier in Manhattan and Carrew in Brooklyn for the same reason, distributing over 100,000 pieces of literature in opposing the latter, who had an adverse majority of over 2,000.

In 1911 the Union took 400 women to Albany and in 1912 the largest suffrage delegation which had ever gone there. They practically compelled consideration of the suffrage resolution and after its defeat campaigned against the enemies, ending the political careers of some of them. Before election day the files of the Union contained signed pledges from every candidate for the Legislature in 45 of the 51 Senate districts and in 85 of the 150 a.s.sembly districts. On Jan.

23, 1913, the Senate voted 40 to 2 for the amendment and on the 27th the a.s.sembly concurred with but five adverse votes. On May 3, the Union organized a parade of victory in New York City.

During the great campaign of 1915 the Union was constantly evolving new features to draw attention to the amendment. It closed its activities with a luncheon of a thousand covers at the Hotel Astor just before election day in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. After the defeat it amalgamated with the Congressional Union, abandoned State work and centered its efforts on an amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution. Throughout its existence Mrs. Blatch was president, Elizabeth Ellsworth Cook, vice-president, Marcia Townsend, treasurer, Eunice Dana Brannan, chairman of finance, Nora Stanton Blatch, editor of the _Women's Political World_, the organ of the society; Caroline Lexow, field secretary and Alberta Hill and Florence Maule Cooley, executive secretaries. [Information furnished by Mrs. Blatch.]