The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony Volume II Part 36

Miss Anthony visited also various towns throughout the central part of the State and along the coast, speaking in wigwams, halls, churches, schoolhouses and the open air, taking trains at all hours, travelling through heat and dust, wind and cold; and there was never a word of complaint during all the long campaign. She was always ready to go, always on time, always full of cheer and hope.

The first week in June she went to Portland to attend the Woman's Congress, Abigail Scott Duniway, president. Its officers were among the prominent women of the city, and she was royally received. She spoke a number of times during the nine sessions and was handsomely treated by the press. Sarah B. Cooper joined her here, on her way home from the National Federation of Clubs at Louisville, Ky. A number of receptions were given in their honor, among them one by the Woman's Club. There was an elaborate luncheon at "the Curtis;" and a reception was tendered by the managers of the Woman's Union. No effort was spared to make their visit in everyday delightful. Miss Anthony lectured in the opera house at Seattle under the auspices of the Woman's Century Club, and a reception was given by her hostess, Mrs. Kate Turner Holmes. Many inducements were offered for her to extend the visit, but she was desirous of returning to the field of work in California at the earliest possible moment and was absent only nine days.

Miss Anthony was invited by both Republican and Populist managers to address their ratification meetings in San Francisco, and received an ovation from the great audiences representing the two parties. One wing of the Democrats held their ratification meeting after night in the open air and of course she was not invited to speak, but the other wing extended a cordial invitation and she addressed them in Metropolitan Temple, receiving an enthusiastic greeting. The suffrage women themselves held a second ma.s.s meeting September 10, according to the Call, "amid a mighty outburst of popular enthusiasm, the like of which has seldom if ever been seen at a political meeting held in this city."

Here again the part taken by prominent men from all political parties demonstrated the non-partisan character of the woman's campaign. This was Mrs. Catt's first appearance before a California audience and the papers said: "As she and the other ladies delivered their clear-cut, logical speeches, cheers rent the air and handkerchiefs and hats were waved with overmastering enthusiasm."

And so the months went by, with their cares and pleasures, their hopes and fears, their elation and depression. In her letters to her sister, Miss Anthony wrote: "Sometimes I have a homesick hour and feel as if I must leave all and rush back to my own hearthstone, but then I pull myself together and resolve to go through to the end." A similar campaign was in progress in Idaho and Mrs. Catt was there in August at the request of that State board, to represent the national a.s.sociation.

They were very anxious that Miss Anthony should come also, but to their many letters she replied:

I should love dearly to go to Boise at once, as you request, and I should have been in Idaho during the last two months had it been possible for one human being to be in two places at the same time.... I learn that the men who believe in suffrage in your State, object to an open demand for party endors.e.m.e.nt, but prefer a "still hunt." I have seen this tried before, but our opponents always can make a stiller hunt. Our only hope of success lies in open, free and full discussions through the newspapers and political party speakers.... Won't it be a magnificent feather in our cap if we get both California and Idaho into the fold this year? How beautiful the blue field will look with two more stars--five little gold stars! Remember that the woman suffrage stars are gold, not silver. Not that I think gold is better than silver, but it is a different color from the forty-five on the regular flag.[121]

There were, of course, some misrepresentations, both intentional and unintentional, of Miss Anthony's att.i.tude. The fact of her speaking on the platforms of all political parties was something which many people could not comprehend, and the party organs could not refrain from twisting her remarks a little bit in the direction of their doctrines; then would come a storm of protests from the other side, and she would have to explain what she actually said. Thus, with the reporters constantly at her elbow, the public watching every utterance and the politicians on the alert to discover what party she and her fellow-workers really did favor, she lived indeed for many months in "the fierce light that beats upon a throne."

"O, that I had you by my side; what a team we would make!" she often wrote to Mrs. Stanton, who answered: "I read all the papers you send and watch closely the progress of the campaign. I feel at times as if I should fly to your help. We are the only cla.s.s in history that has been left to fight its battles alone, unaided by the ruling powers. White labor and the freed black men had their champions, but where are ours?"

In June the National Republican Convention was held at St. Louis. Miss Anthony could not make the long journey but she sent the following resolution and asked its adoption: "The Republican Party in national convention a.s.sembled hereby recommends that Congress shall submit an amendment to the Federal Const.i.tution providing that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of s.e.x."

The platform committee labored and this is what it brought forth: "The Republican party is mindful of the rights and interests of women.

Protection of American industries includes equal opportunities, equal pay for equal work, and protection to the home. We favor the admission of women to wider spheres of usefulness, and welcome their co-operation in rescuing the country from Democratic mismanagement and Populist misrule."

Miss Anthony's indignation, anger and contempt when she read this resolution can not be put into words. It required the combined efforts of those who were nearest her to prevent the expression of her opinion in reply to the many reporters and letters wanting to know how she regarded this plank. "You must not offend the Republicans and injure our amendment," they argued, and she would acquiesce and subside. Then, after thinking it over, she would again burst forth and declare the women of the country should not be compelled to submit to this insult without a protest from her. "Women want the suffrage as a sword to smite down Democratic and Populist misrule. Infamous!" she exclaimed again and again. "That climaxes all the outrages ever offered to women in the history of political platforms." To Mrs. Stanton she wrote: "O, that you were young and strong and free, and could fire off of the planet such ineffable slush as is being s...o...b..red over our cause!" But she held her peace, and all the brainy women who were conducting this great campaign kept silent, although there was not one of them who did not feel exactly like Miss Anthony in regard to this plank. Nor was there a woman in the country, who was able to comprehend the resolution, that did not regard it as an insult and feel that she would prefer never again to have women mentioned in a national platform if the men who should make it had no higher conception of justice than this.

On October 11, Miss Anthony started on a southern tour, speaking first at San Luis Obispo to an audience which crowded the hall. From here to Santa Barbara, through the courtesy of Superintendent Johnson, of the narrow gauge railroad, the train was stopped at every station for a ten-minute address. At some places a stage had been extemporized, at others she spoke from the rear platform of the car. Her coming had been announced and, even in those rather thinly settled regions, there would be as many as a thousand people gathered at the station. When she concluded, quant.i.ties of flowers would be thrown in her pathway and the platform literally banked with them.[122] After a stage ride of forty miles she received an enthusiastic welcome at Santa Barbara, where she was the guest of Dr. Ida Stambach. The ovation was continued at all the towns visited in the southern part of the State.

A little flurry had been caused early in the campaign by the announcement that the National W. C. T. U. Convention would be held in San Francisco during the autumn of 1896. Miss Anthony had written Miss Willard that she thought this would be very injudicious. She then had agreed to postpone it until after the election, and Miss Anthony again had objected, saying:

I am glad you think it will be possible to postpone your convention to November; but, you see, even to do that all California will be full of your advertis.e.m.e.nts, and the papers all telling how the W.

C. T. U. is going to bring its convention to San Francisco immediately after the women have the right to vote, so as to educate them to destroy the wine-growing and brandy-distilling business; in other words, that it is going to start in the first thing to ruin what today is the one means of livelihood for immense numbers of ranchmen throughout the State. So, I hope--nay, I beseech that you will withdraw the convention altogether from California for this year. I have had letters from the amendment campaign committee, and every one of them deplores the coming of the convention....

Now, my dear, hold your convention any place but in a State where we are trying to persuade every license man, every wine-grower, every drinker and every one who does not believe in prohibition, as well as every one who does, to vote "yes" on the woman suffrage question. If you only will do this, I am sure you will do the most effective work in the power of any mortal to secure the end we all so much desire.

Miss Willard replied in a cordial letter that she had not the slightest wish to antagonize her or the suffrage movement and would use her influence to have the place of the convention changed. To Mrs. B.

Sturtevant Peet, president of the California W. C. T. U., who was somewhat in doubt as to the necessity for such change, Miss Anthony wrote:

What you say of the good influence of your national convention in San Francisco is true so far as concerns the actual Prohibition men; but we must consider those who are making their daily bread out of the manufacture as well as the sale of liquors. There are many excellent men in California who are not total abstainers, but who believe in wine as the people of Italy and France believe in it; and I think that, in waging our campaign, we should be careful not to run against the prejudices or the pecuniary interests of that cla.s.s. As I have said before, if it were a Prohibition amendment which was pending I should think it exceedingly unwise to run that campaign under the banner of woman suffrage. The average human mind is incapable of taking in more than one idea at a time.

The one we want to get into the heads of the voters this year is woman's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt, and we must pull every string with every possible individual man and cla.s.s of men to secure their votes for this amendment. We should be extremely careful to base all our arguments upon the right of every individual to have his or her opinion counted at the ballot-box, whether it is in accordance with ours or not. Therefore, the amendment must not be urged as a measure for temperance, social purity, or any other reform, but simply as a measure to give to women the right to vote yea or nay on each and all of them. I want every woman in California to work for the amendment, but I want her to work in the name of suffrage, not of prohibition.

The national convention was withdrawn entirely from California, and the W. C. T. U. women, in most places, worked under the one banner of the suffrage amendment during the campaign. In proof that there was no feeling on the part of the leaders against Miss Anthony, it may be stated that she received official invitations to be present at the birthday celebration of Mrs. Peet, in April; to address the State W. C.

T. U. Convention at Petaluma, in October; to attend the National Convention at St. Louis in November; and to join in the farewell reception to Miss Willard in New York on the eve of her departure for Europe.

The managers of the woman's campaign supposed of course that the endors.e.m.e.nt by the Populist and Republican State Conventions meant not only that the speakers of those parties would advocate the suffrage plank just as they did the others in their respective platforms, but that they also would permit the women themselves to speak for it in their political meetings. When they applied to Mr. Wardall and the other members of the Populist Central Committee, the schedule was promptly furnished and they were a.s.sured that their speakers would be welcomed.

When they applied to the Republican Central Committee, to their amazement, they were put off with an evasive answer. Meanwhile they had Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Catt and other speakers waiting for engagements and did not dare make dates ahead lest it might interfere with the big Republican rallies which they wished them to address. Again and again they went to the Republican Central Committee and asked for the schedule of their meetings and the privilege of sending their speakers to them. Finally, after weeks of anxious waiting, the chairman, Major Frank McLaughlin, sent a letter to the suffrage headquarters saying in effect: "The committee had decided not to grant this privilege; in the language used at one time by Miss Anthony, it meant 'too many bonnets at their meetings,' and they wished to reach the voters."

He added that they were at liberty to make any arrangements they chose with the county chairmen. This meant, of course, that they must ascertain the name and address of every county chairman in the State, watch the papers for the announcements of meetings, hold their speakers in reserve, and beg the privilege of having them heard. All this, when the endors.e.m.e.nt of the suffrage amendment was the first plank in the Republican platform unanimously adopted by the State convention! There was nothing, however, except to make the best of it; but when they attempted to arrange with the county chairmen, they found Major McLaughlin had written them not to allow the women speakers on their platforms! While many of them refused to obey his orders, he had practically destroyed the best opportunity for reaching the people.

The Republican State Convention had enthusiastically adopted a resolution declaring for "the free coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1." When the National Convention met in St. Louis soon afterwards it adopted a gold standard plank, and there they were! The Populists and Democrats who agreed on a financial plank saw here an opportunity and, in many counties, effected a fusion and held their meetings together.

This, of course, nullified the permission given the women to put speakers on the Populist platform, since the Democrats, as a party, were opposed to woman suffrage, and there they were! If they attempted to hold simply suffrage meetings, they could get only audiences of women, because all the men were in attendance at the political rallies. So the only thing left was for the women in every city and town in the State, whenever a political ma.s.s meeting was advertised, to go to the managers and humbly beg to have one of their speakers on the platform.

This was not often refused, and it was just as easy to get this permission from Democrats as from Republicans. The former felt that if the amendment should carry they would not object to a little of the credit, and they soon found also that the women were a drawing card.

Whenever there was a purely Populist meeting, a conspicuous place and all the time desired were given to the women, but at Republican, Democratic or Fusion meetings, they always were placed at the end of the program and allowed only five or, at most, ten minutes. In order simply to get this little word, the women speakers would make long journeys and sit on the platform until every long-winded male orator had finished his speech, and until they were ready to drop from their chairs. But the audience waited for them, no matter how late, and never failed to receive them with the wildest enthusiasm. Many times when the managers would have been willing to sandwich them between other speakers, the latter would object, saying the people would go home as soon as the women had finished!

As the campaign wore on it became a fight for life with the political parties. The Call, which had come out so valiantly for woman suffrage, had been struck in a vital part, i.e., in the counting-room, by the opponents of this measure, who withdrew valuable advertising and in every possible way sought to injure the paper. Its support was used by the other wing of the Republican party to create a prejudice against the candidates it advocated; the princ.i.p.al stockholders were not friendly to the amendment; as the organ of the Central Committee it was deprived of independent action. So it was not surprising that, long before the close of the campaign, the great fight which the Call agreed to make had dwindled to an occasional skirmish when the pleading of the women grew too strong to be resisted.

Almost without exception the Republican orators were silent on the question of woman suffrage, even those who personally favored it. The women wrote them, interviewed them and begged them to advocate the first plank in their platform as they did all the rest, and occasionally when they would go in a body and sit on the front seats to watch the speaker, he would say a few mild words in favor of the amendment, but there were several of the Democrats who did as much. Some of the Populists advocated it, but the most prominent, who always before had spoken for it, went through the entire campaign without so much as a mention, in order to secure Democratic support. When Thomas B. Reed came into the State, at the very end of the campaign, the women felt sure of an ally, as he had long been a p.r.o.nounced advocate, but he did not so much as refer to the question in his tour of the State, although they bombarded him with letters which would have impressed a heart of stone. At the last grand rally in Oakland, the day before election, with Miss Anthony on one side of him and Miss Shaw on the other, he did say that he "knew of no more reason why a woman should not vote than why a man should not"--but the battle then was already lost.

Up to within a few weeks of election, in spite of all the drawbacks, it looked as if the amendment would win. The general sentiment throughout the State seemed to be in favor. The mere mention of the subject at any meeting was received with the greatest enthusiasm. Almost every delegate body which a.s.sembled in convention during that summer adopted a resolution of endors.e.m.e.nt; this was true of most of the church conferences, the teachers' inst.i.tutes, the State Grange and farmers'

inst.i.tutes, the Chautauqua a.s.semblies and countless others. And still the women watched and waited! There was one element more powerful than all these combined, which had not yet shown its hand. It never had failed in any State to fight woman suffrage to the death, and there was no reason to believe it would not kill it in California.

Ten days before election the fatal blow came. The representatives of the Liquor Dealers' League met in San Francisco and resolved "to take such steps as were necessary to protect their interests." The political leaders, the candidates, the rank and file of the voters recognized the handwriting on the wall. From that moment the fate of the amendment was sealed. The women had determined, from the beginning of the campaign, that they would give the liquor business no excuse to say its interests were threatened, and therefore the temperance question had been kept out of the discussion as had the religious, the tariff and the financial questions. They took the sensible view that it had no more place than these in the demand for women's right to vote as they pleased on all subjects. Therefore the action of the liquor dealers had no justification in anything which the women had said or done. It simply showed that they considered woman suffrage a dangerous foe. The following letter, signed by the wholesale liquor firms of San Francisco, was sent to the saloon-keepers, hotel proprietors, druggists and grocers throughout the State:

At the election to be held on November 3, Const.i.tutional Amendment No. Six, which gives the right to vote to women, will be voted on.

It is to your interest and ours to vote against this amendment. We request and urge you to vote and work against it and do all you can to defeat it.

See your neighbor in the same line of business as yourself, and have him be with you in this matter.

The men in the slums of San Francisco were taken in squads and, with sample ballots, were taught how to put the cross against the suffrage amendment and a.s.sured that if it carried there never would be another gla.s.s of beer sold in the city. When the chairman of the press committee went to a prominent editor, who was opposed to woman suffrage and knew that these things were being done, and asked if there were no way by which some suffrage literature could be given to those men so that they might see there was no ground for these threats, he said: "Most of them can not read and if they could the whiskey men would never allow a page of it to get into their hands." In what way the liquor dealers worked upon the political parties, it is not necessary to speculate. The methods were not new and are pretty well understood. They control tens of thousands of votes not only in California but in every State, which they can deliver to either of the great parties that does their bidding and regards their interests.

It is absurd, however, to attribute the defeat of the suffrage amendment wholly to the liquor dealers, or to the densely ignorant, or to the foreigners. In the wealthiest and most aristocratic wards of San Francisco and Oakland, where there were none of these, the proportion of votes against the amendment was just as great as it was in the slum wards of the two cities. Those respectable, law-abiding citizens who cast their ballots against the amendment, thereby voted to continue the power of the above mentioned cla.s.ses.

For weeks before the election, the most frantic efforts were made by the politicians to register new voters and colonize them in the wards where they would be most needed.[123] Columns of appeals were issued in all the newspapers to get the vast numbers of lately arrived immigrants to come to the city hall and register. Men were sent around ringing big bells and calling upon them to do this, and interpreters were employed to explain that it would not cost them a cent. Finally the registry books were carried to the parks and other places where these men were employed, in order to secure their names.

Meanwhile the intelligent, order-loving, sober and industrious women of the State were making such efforts as never were made by any cla.s.s of men, to secure this same privilege of placing in the ballot-box and having counted their opinions on questions relating to the public welfare;--opinions, one would think, that ought to be considered of as much value to the State as those which such strenuous attempts were being made to obtain. It seems, however, that intelligence, morality and thrift must wait the pleasure of ignorance, vice and idleness.

During the months of the early spring, through the efforts of a few women who worked without pay and used only their spare moments, the names of nearly 30,000 women were secured to a pet.i.tion asking for the suffrage. This, of course, represented only a fraction of those which might have been obtained by continued effort, but a pet.i.tion signed by even 30,000 men would have been considered worthy of attention. The vast majority of women have no money of their own and those who work for wages, as a rule, receive but a pittance, and yet there were raised in California for this amendment campaign almost $19,000, and the amount contributed by men was so small as not to be worth mentioning. The financial success was due very largely to the State treasurer, Mrs.

Austin Sperry. She not only made a donation of $500, but borrowed from the bank on her personal note, when necessary, and signed blank checks to be used when the treasury was empty and repaid when outstanding pledges were collected. Mrs. Phoebe Hearst headed the list with $1,000.

Mrs. Stanford gave almost as much in railroad transportation to the speakers and organizers. The next largest contributor was Mrs. Knox Goodrich, of San Jose, who for nearly thirty years had stood in California a faithful advocate of woman suffrage, giving time, money and influence. She added to her past donations nearly $500 for this campaign. Mrs. Sargent's munificence has been mentioned. A few women subscribed $100 each, but all the rest was given in sums ranging down to a few cents.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sarah L. Knox Goodrich (Signed: "Sarah L. Knox Goodrich")]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Autograph: "regard with deep respect your heroic life and entire devotion to the cause you have consecrated it to. Yours very sincerely. Phebe A. Hearst."]

The true record of these contributions would wring the heart of every man in the State. A large photograph of Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw was given for every $2 pledge, and many poor seamstresses and washerwomen fulfilled their pledges in twenty-five cent installments, coming eight times with their mite. Often when there was not enough money on hand at headquarters to buy a postage stamp, there would come a timid knock at the door and a poorly dressed woman would enter with a quarter or half-dollar, saying, "I have done without tea this week to bring you this money;" or a poor little clerk would say, "I made a piece of fancy work evenings and sold it for this dollar." Many a woman who worked hard ten hours a day to earn her bread, would come to headquarters and carry home a great armload of circulars to fold and address after night. And there were teachers and stenographers and other workingwomen who went without a winter cloak in order to give the money to this movement for freedom. This pathetic story ought to be written in full and given to every man who eases his conscience by saying, "The majority of women do not want to vote;" and to every well-fed, well-clothed woman who declares in her selfish ease, "I have all the rights I want."

Knowing that if the suffrage amendment were placed first or last among the six which were to be voted on, it would be a target for those who could not read, the ladies wrote to the Secretary of State asking that it be placed in the middle of the list. He answered, June 26: "It shall be as you request and the suffrage amendment be third in order as certified by me to the various county clerks." When the tickets were printed, however, it was placed at the end of the list and thus necessarily at the end of the whole ticket, making it a conspicuous mark. The explanation given was that Governor Budd had directed the amendments to be placed on the ballot in the same order as they had appeared in his proclamation. As this had not been issued until July 20, a month after the official request of the ladies had been granted, one must conclude there was a mistake somewhere. The results were exactly what had been feared. In San Francisco alone hundreds of ballots were cast on which there was only one cross and that against the amendment; not even the presidential electors voted for.

There were 247,454 votes cast on the suffrage amendment; 110,355 for; 137,099 against; defeated by 26,734. The majority against in San Francisco was 23,772; in Alameda county, comprising Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley, 3,627; total, 27,399-665 votes more than the whole majority cast against the amendment. Berkeley gave a majority in favor, so in reality it was defeated by the vote of San Francisco, Oakland and Alameda.[124] Alameda is the banner Republican county and gave a good majority for the Republican ticket. There never had been a hope of carrying San Francisco for the amendment, but the result in Alameda county was a most unpleasant surprise, as the voters were princ.i.p.ally Republicans and Populists, both of whom were pledged in the strongest possible manner in their county conventions to support the amendment, and every newspaper in the county had declared in favor of it. The fact remains, however, that a change of 13,400 votes in the entire State would have carried the amendment; and proves beyond question that, if sufficient organization work had been done, this might have been accomplished in spite of the combined efforts of the liquor dealers and the political bosses.

Near midnight of election day, a touching sight might have been witnessed on a certain street in San Francisco: two women over seventy years of age, one the beloved wife of a man whom California had selected as its representative in the United States Senate and whom the government had sent as its minister to the court of Germany; the other a woman universally admitted to be the peer of any man in the country in statesmanship and knowledge of public affairs--Mrs. A. A. Sargent and Susan B. Anthony. In the darkness of night, arm in arm, they went down the street, peering into the windows of the rough little booths where the judges and clerks of the election were counting votes. The rooms were black with tobacco smoke and in one they saw a man fall off his chair too drunk to finish the count. They listened to the oaths and jeers as the votes were announced against the suffrage amendment, to which they had given almost their lives. Then in the darkness they crept silently home, mournfully realizing that women must wait for another and better generation of men to give them the longed-for freedom.

The next morning when Miss Anthony came down to breakfast she found a group in the Sargent library reading the news of the election, and all looked at her in sorrowing sympathy. She stood still in the center of the room for a moment and then said sadly: "I don't care for myself, I am used to defeat, but these dear California women who have worked so hard, how can they bear it?"

Miss Anthony not only had donated her own services but had paid her secretary's salary of $75 per month and permitted her to give her entire time to the State headquarters for seven months, while she herself attended to the drudgery of her immense correspondence whenever she could get a spare hour. Even at the small sum of $25 for a regular speech, she would have contributed over $3,000 to this campaign, in addition to the scores of little parlor and club addresses. She gave her services freely and willingly and did not regret them, but often said that the California campaign was the most harmonious and satisfactory of any in which she ever was engaged. There was not the slightest friction between herself and the State a.s.sociation or State headquarters, and most of those prominent in the work were of such refinement and n.o.bility of character that it was a pleasure to be a.s.sociated with them. Not a day pa.s.sed that she did not receive some token of affection from the women of the State. The Sargent home was filled with the flowers and baskets and boxes of fresh and dried fruits, etc., which were sent to her.[125]

On November 5, two days after the election, a large body of California women met in Golden Gate Hall to hold the annual State Suffrage Convention. Miss Anthony and all the national officers remained to help.

There was not a trace of defeat or disappointment; all were brave, cheerful and ready to go to work again. Twelve hundred dollars were raised to settle all outstanding bills and the campaign closed without a dollar of indebtedness. As Mrs. Sargent was going abroad, a worthy presidential successor was elected, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, wife of John F. Swift, minister to j.a.pan, a fine presiding officer, a lady of much culture, travel and social prestige, who had rendered valuable service throughout the campaign. The next evening the suffrage forces held a grand rally in Metropolitan Temple. Every seat in that fine auditorium was occupied and the aisles were crowded. It was not a meeting of the adherents of a lost cause, but of one which had suffered only temporary defeat. Miss Anthony presided and was given a true California ovation and, as her voice rang out with all its old-time vigor, there was not one in that vast audience but hoped she might return to lead her hosts to victory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Autograph: "Yours with Love, Mary Wood Swift"]