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[Illustration: DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW.

Vice-President-at-Large of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association 1892-1904 and President 1904-1915.]



THE HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE

Edited by

IDA HUSTED HARPER

Illustrated with Copperplate and Photogravure Engravings

In Six Volumes

VOLUME V

1900-1920


AFTER SEVENTY YEARS CAME THE VICTORY







National American Woman Suffrage Association

Copyright, 1922, by
National American Woman Suffrage Association




PREFACE


The History of Woman Suffrage is comprised in six volumes averaging
about one thousand pages each, of which the two just finished are the
last. While it is primarily a history of this great movement in the
United States it covers to some degree that of the whole world. The
chapter on Great Britain was prepared for Volume VI by Mrs. Millicent
Garrett Fawcett, leader of the movement there for half a century. The
accounts of the gaining of woman suffrage in other countries come from
the highest authorities. Their contest was short compared to that in
the two oldest countries on the globe with a constitutional form of
government--the United States and Great Britain--and in the former it
began nearly twenty years earlier than in the latter. The effort of
women in the "greatest republic on earth" to obtain a voice in its
government began in 1848 and ended in complete victory in 1920. In
Great Britain it is not yet entirely accomplished, although in all her
colonies except South Africa women vote on the same terms as men.

Doubtless other histories of this world wide movement will be written
but at present the student will find himself largely confined to these
six volumes. This is especially true of the United States and many of
the documents of the earliest period would have been lost for all time
if they had not been preserved in the first three volumes. These also
contain much information which does not exist elsewhere regarding the
struggle of women for other rights besides that of the franchise. That
the materials were collected and cared for until they could be
utilized was due to Miss Susan B. Anthony's appreciation of their
value. The story of the trials and tribulations of preparing those
volumes during ten years is told in Volume II, page 612, and in the
Preface of Volume IV. They were written and edited principally by Miss
Anthony and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and covered the history from
the beginning of the century to 1884. The writers expected when they
began in 1877 to bring out one small volume, perhaps only a large
pamphlet. When these three huge volumes were finished they still had
enough material for a fourth, which never was used.

Miss Anthony continued her habit of preserving the records and in
1900, when at the age of 80 she resigned the presidency of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association, she immediately
commenced preparations for another volume of the History. She called
to her assistance Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, who had recently finished
her Biography, and in her home in Rochester, N. Y., they spent the
next two years on the book, Mrs. Stanton, who was 85 years old, taking
the keenest interest in the work.[1] When the manuscript was completed
hundreds of pages had to be eliminated in order to bring it within the
compass of one volume of 1,144 pages.

Miss Anthony then said: "Twenty years from now another volume will be
written and it will record universal suffrage for women by a Federal
Amendment." Her prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. She put upon
younger women the duty of collecting and preserving the records and
this was done in some degree by officers of the association. In 1917,
after the legacy of Mrs. Frank Leslie had been received by Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt, president of the association, she formed the Leslie
Suffrage Commission and established a Bureau of Suffrage Education,
one feature of which was a research department. Here under the
direction of an expert an immense amount of material was collected
from many sources and arranged for use. After the strenuous work for a
Federal Suffrage Amendment had brought it very near, Mrs. Catt turned
her attention to the publishing of the last volume of the History of
Woman Suffrage while the resources of the large national headquarters
in New York and the archives of the research bureau were available,
and she requested Mrs. Harper to prepare it. The work was begun Jan 2,
1919, and it was to be entirely completed in eighteen months. No
account had been taken of the enormous growth of the suffrage
movement. It had entered every State in the Union and it extended
around the world. It was occupying the attention of Parliaments and
Legislatures. In the United States conventions had multiplied and
campaigns had increased in number; it had become a national issue with
a center in every State and defeats and victories were of constant
record.

To select from the mass of material, to preserve the most important,
to condense, to verify, was an almost impossible task. A comparison
will illustrate the difference between the work required on Volume IV
and that on the present volumes. The Minutes of the national
convention in 1901 filled 130 pages of large type; those of the
convention of 1919 filled 320 pages, many of small type; reports of
congressional hearings increased in proportion. Of the State chapters,
describing all the work that had been done before 1901, 29 contained
less than 8 pages, 18 of these less than 5 and 7 less than 3; only 6
had over 14 pages. For Volume VI not more than half a dozen State
writers sent manuscript for less than 14 and the rest ranged from 20
to 95 pages. The report on Canada in Volume IV occupied 3-1/2 pages;
in this volume it fills 18. The chapter on Woman Suffrage in Europe
outside of Great Britain found plenty of room in 4 pages; in this one
it requires 32.

The very full reports of the national suffrage conventions, the
congressional documents, the files of the _Woman's Journal_ and the
_Woman Citizen_ and the newspapers furnished a wealth of material on
the general status of the question in the United States. It was,
however, the evolution of the movement in the States that gave it
national strength and compelled the action by Congress which always
was the ultimate goal. The attempt to give the story of every State,
in many of which no records had been kept or those which had were lost
or destroyed; the difficulty in getting correct dates and proper names
upset all calculations on the amount of material and length of time.
As a result the time lengthened to three and a half years and the one
volume expanded into two, with enough excellent matter eliminated to
have made a third. In each of these chapters will be found a complete
history of the effort to secure the franchise by means of the State
constitution, also the part taken to obtain the Federal Amendment and
the action of the Legislature in ratifying this amendment.

The accounts of the annual conventions of the National American
Suffrage Association demonstrate as nothing else could do the
commanding force of that organization, for fifty years the foundation
and bulwark of the movement. The hearings before committees of every
Congress indicate the never ceasing effort to obtain an amendment to
the Federal Constitution and the extracts from the speeches show the
logic, the justice and the patriotism of the arguments made in its
behalf. The delay of that body in responding will be something for
future generations to marvel at. In Chapter XX will be found the full
history of this amendment by which all women were enfranchised.

In one chapter is a graphic account of the effort for half a century
to get a woman suffrage "plank" into the national platforms of the
political parties and its success in 1916, with one for the Federal
Amendment in 1920. A chapter is devoted to the forming of the National
League of Woman Voters after the women of the United States had become
a part of the electorate. All questions as to the part taken in the
war of 1914-1918 by the women who were working for their
enfranchisement are conclusively answered in the chapter on War
Service of Organized Suffragists. In one chapter will be found an
account of other organizations besides the National American
Association that worked to obtain the vote for women and of those that
worked against it. A full description is given of the organizing of
the International Woman Suffrage Alliance and its congresses in the
various cities of Europe.

Volumes V and VI take up the history of the contest in the United
States from the beginning of the present century to Aug. 26, 1920,
when Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby proclaimed that the 19th
Amendment, submitted by Congress on June 4, 1919, had been ratified by
the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States and was now a part of
the National Constitution. This ended a movement for political liberty
which had continued without cessation for over seventy years. The
story closes with uncounted millions of women in all parts of the
world possessing the same voice as men in their government and
enjoying the same rights as citizens.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, pages 1210, 1256, 1269.
Placing in libraries, 1279 to 1282. Bequeathed to National Suffrage
Association, History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V, page 205.




TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. PAGE

FOUNDING OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION                                       3

    Work of the National American Woman Suffrage Association for an
    amendment to the Federal Constitution, to State constitutions and
    for other reforms--Annual convention in Minneapolis in 1901--Mrs.
    Stanton's address on the Church, the Bible and Woman
    Suffrage--Miss Anthony's and others' opinions--President's address
    of Mrs. Catt on obstacles--Dr. Shaw's vice-president's address on
    Anti-suffragists--Plan for national work--Miss Anthony's report on
    work with Congress--Protest against "regulated vice" in
    Manila--New York _Sun_ and Woman Suffrage--Discriminating against
    women in government departments--A tribute to the national
    suffrage conventions.


CHAPTER II.

THE NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1902                              23

     Meeting in Washington, D.C., of committee to form an
     International Woman Suffrage Alliance--Greeting of Clara Barton
     to foreign delegates--Letters from Norway and Germany--Response
     of Mrs. Friedland of Russia--Mrs. Catt's president's address on
     World Progress leading to the International Alliance--Mrs.
     Stanton's address on Educated Suffrage--Miss Anthony's
     introduction of Pioneers--Addresses on The New Woman and The New
     Man--Women in New York municipal election--Miss Anthony's 82d
     birthday--Mr. Blackwell on Presidential suffrage for
     women--Hearings before committees of Congress--Addresses of
     Norwegian and Australian delegates before Senate Committee--Dr.
     Shaw's plea for a committee to investigate conditions in Equal
     Suffrage States--Speeches of Russian, Swedish and English
     delegates--Mrs. Catt's insistence on a Congressional Committee to
     investigate the working of woman suffrage where it exists.


CHAPTER III.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1903                                  55

     Very successful meeting in New Orleans--Description of
     _Picayune_--Ovation to Miss Anthony and Mrs. Caroline E.
     Merrick--Dr. Shaw's response--Mrs. Catt's president's
     address--_Times Democrat_ brings up Negro Question, official
     board of the association states its position--Visit to colored
     women's club--Reports of officers--Presidential suffrage for
     women--Mrs. Colby's report on Industrial Problems relating to
     Women and Children--Addresses of Dr. Henry Dixon Bruns, M. J.
     Sanders, president of Progressive Union--Memorial service for
     Mrs. Stanton--Speeches on Educational Qualification for
     voting--"Dorothy Dix" on The Woman with the Broom--Address of
     Edwin Merrick--Belle Kearney on Woman Suffrage to insure White
     Supremacy--Tribute to Misses Kate and Jean Gordon.


CHAPTER IV.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1904                                  86

     Letter of greeting to the convention in Washington from Mrs.
     Florence Fenwick Miller, suffrage leader in Great
     Britain--Delegates appointed to International Alliance meeting in
     Berlin--Mrs. Catt's president's address on an Educational
     Requirement for the Suffrage--Address of Mrs. Watson Lister of
     Australia--Charlotte Perkins Gilman's biological plea for woman
     suffrage--Report from new headquarters--Addresses on Women and
     Philanthropy by the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer and Dr. Samuel J.
     Barrows--Mrs. Mead on Peace and Mrs. Nathan on The Wage Earner
     and the Ballot--Miss Anthony's 84th birthday--A Colorado Jubilee,
     speeches by Governor Alva Adams, Mrs. Grenfell and Mrs.
     Meredith--Mrs. Terrell asks for moral support of colored
     women--Declaration of Principles adopted--Mrs. Catt Resigns the
     Presidency, tributes--Hearings before Congressional
     Committees--Distinguished testimony from Colorado--Mrs. Catt's
     strong appeal for a report even if adverse.


CHAPTER V.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1905                                 117

     The convention in Portland, Ore., first held in the
     West--Enthusiastic welcome and great hospitality--Miss Anthony
     speaks of her visit in 1871--Speech of Jefferson Myers, president
     of the Exposition--Mrs. Duniway on the Pioneers--Dr. Shaw's
     president's address, answers ex-President Cleveland and Cardinal
     Gibbons--Committee appointed to interview President
     Roosevelt--Protest to committee of Congress against statehood
     constitution for Oklahoma and other Territories--Fine work of
     Press Committee--Woman's Day at Exposition--Unveiling of
     Sacajawea statue--Convention adopts Initiative and
     Referendum--Decision to have an amendment campaign in
     Oregon--Tribute to Mr. Blackwell--Mrs. Catt's noble
     address--Memorial resolutions for eminent members--Speeches by
     prominent politicians.


CHAPTER VI.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1906                                 151

     The convention held in Baltimore one of the most notable--Miss
     Anthony, Julia Ward Howe and Clara Barton on the
     platform--Welcome by Governor Warfield and Collector of the Port
     Stone--Dr. Shaw scores President Roosevelt's reference to Women
     in Industry in his message to Congress--Ridicules Cardinal
     Gibbons' and Dr. Lyman Abbott's recent pronouncements on woman
     suffrage--Organization of College Women's League--Florence Kelley
     speaks on Child Labor--College Women's Evening--Women professors
     from five large colleges speak--Week of hospitality by Miss Mary
     E. Garrett--Speeches on Women in Municipal Government by Wm.
     Dudley Foulke, Frederick C. Howe, Rudolph Blankenburg, Jane
     Addams--Miss Anthony speaks her last words to a national suffrage
     convention--Mrs. Howe's farewell address--President Thomas and
     Miss Garrett decide to raise large fund for woman
     suffrage--Delegates go to Washington for hearings before
     Congressional Committees--Miss Anthony's 86th birthday
     celebrated--Her last words on the public platform.


CHAPTER VII.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1907                                 193

     Bishop Fallows welcomes convention to Chicago--Professor
     Breckinridge on Municipal Housekeeping--Florence Kelley on
     same--Mary McDowell, Anna Nicholes and others on Workingwomen's
     Need of a Vote--Addresses by Professor C. R. Henderson, Hon.
     Oliver W. Stewart--Memorials and service for Miss
     Anthony--Organizations for Woman Suffrage--Farewell letter of
     Mary Anthony--Rabbi Hirsch on woman suffrage--Near victories in
     many States.


CHAPTER VIII.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1908                                 213

     Celebrates 40th anniversary in Buffalo--Emily Howland on Spirit
     of '48--Kate Gordon describes interview with President
     Roosevelt--Widespread work of national headquarters--Program of
     1848 convention--Responses to its Resolutions by Mrs. Gilman,
     Miss Blackwell, Mrs. Blatch, the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane and
     others--The Scriptures and St. Paul analyzed by Judith Hyams
     Douglas--Discussion on the Social Evil led by the Rev. Anna
     Garlin Spencer--College Women's Evening; addresses by Dr. M.
     Carey Thomas, Professor Frances Squire Potter, Professor
     Breckinridge and others--Mrs. Kelley on Laws for Women and Wage
     Earners--Stirring speech by Jean Gordon, factory inspector--Maude
     Miner on Night Courts for women--Mrs. William C. Gannett on
     Woman's Duty--Katharine Reed Balentine on Disfranchised
     Influence--Mrs. Philip Snowden describes English situation--Legal
     Phases of Disfranchisement by Harriette Johnson Wood--Progress
     since 1848--Mrs. Catt's inspiring address.


CHAPTER IX.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1909                                 243

     Annual meeting held in Seattle--Delightful journey across
     continent--Reception in Spokane--Mrs. Villard tells of opening
     of Northern Pacific R. R.--Welcomed to Seattle by
     Mayor--Elizabeth J. Hauser's report of headquarters work--Mrs.
     Belmont's offer of headquarters in New York City--Mrs. Mead urges
     association to work for Peace--Professor Potter's address on
     College Women and Democracy--Mr. Blackwell's last suffrage
     convention--Mrs. Avery reports on National Association's petition
     to Congress--Mary E. Craigie tells of suffrage work with the
     churches--Professor Potter elected corresponding
     secretary--Political work for suffrage before elections urged,
     Illinois cited--Suffrage Day at the Exposition.


CHAPTER X.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1910                                 266

     Convention returns to Washington after six years--President Taft
     makes speech of welcome--Delegates show displeasure--Exchange of
     letters between national officers and the President--Official
     resolution of regret--Comment of _Woman's Journal_--Report of
     association's vast work from New York headquarters--Great
     Petition officially received by Congress--Mrs. Upton resigns as
     treasurer--Memorial addresses for Mr. Blackwell and Wm. Lloyd
     Garrison--Alice Paul on "militant" suffrage in Great
     Britain--"Dorothy Dix" on The Real Reason why Women can not
     Vote--Max Eastman on Democracy and Woman--Mrs. Harper's report as
     chairman of National Press Committee--Hearings before Committees
     of Congress; speeches by Dr. Shaw, Mrs. McCulloch, Eveline Gano
     of New York on teachers' need of the vote; Dr. Anna E. Blount of
     Chicago on professional women's need; Minnie J. Reynolds on
     writers signing petitions--U. S. Senator Shafroth's notable
     speech to Senate Committee--House Committee: Mrs. Raymond Robins,
     Elizabeth Schauss, factory inspector; Laura J. Graddick of a
     District Labor Union and Florence Kelley argue for the working
     women's need of vote--Speeches of Mrs. Upton and Laura Clay.


CHAPTER XI.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1911                                 310

     Convention in Louisville, Ky., celebrates victories in Washington
     and California--Welcomed by Laura Clay--Mr. Braly tells of
     California campaign--Mary Ware Dennett, new corresponding
     secretary, reports world wide work--Caroline Reilly, new
     chairman, describes press work in 41 States--Jane Addams, on
     College League's Evening shows what women might accomplish with
     the franchise--Dr. Thomas what the suffrage means to college
     women--Dr. Harvey W. Wiley speaks on Women's Influence in Public
     Affairs--Katharine Dexter McCormick on Effect of Suffrage Work on
     Women themselves--Mrs. McCulloch on Equal Guardianship
     Laws--Church needs Woman Suffrage--Mrs. Desha Breckinridge
     discusses Prospect for Woman Suffrage in the South--Mrs.
     Pankhurst receives ovation.


CHAPTER XII.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1912                                 332

     Three victories celebrated at convention in Philadelphia,
     suffrage gained in Oregon, Arizona and Kansas--Welcomed by Mayor
     Blankenburg--Rally in Independence Square--Reports show wonderful
     progress--An Evening by Men's Suffrage League--Discussion on
     officers of the association taking part in political
     campaigns--Great meeting in Metropolitan Opera House, speeches by
     Julia Lathrop, Miss Addams and Dr. Burghardt DuBois--On last
     evening addresses by Bishop Darlington, Baroness von Suttner and
     Mrs. Catt--Hearings before Congressional Committees, Dr. Shaw and
     Miss Addams presiding--Speeches on Senate side by James Lees
     Laidlaw, president of Men's League; Jean Nelson Penfield,
     speaking for women in civic work; Elsie Cole Phillips and
     Caroline A. Lowe for the wage-earning women--On the House side,
     Representatives Raker, Taylor, Lafferty and Berger; Mary E.
     McDowell, Ida Husted Harper--Colloquy with committee--Ella C.
     Brehaut speaks for anti-suffrage women.


CHAPTER XIII.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1913                                 364

     Convention opened in Washington Sunday afternoon with mass
     meeting--Women's trade unions represented by speakers--Victories
     in Illinois and Alaska--Dr. Shaw's account of Democratic National
     convention in Baltimore--President Wilson urged to put woman
     suffrage in his Message--He receives a delegation--Report of
     year's work for the Federal Amendment by Alice Paul, chairman of
     association's Congressional Committee--Objection to Congressional
     Union--New Congressional Committee appointed--Vote on Federal
     Amendment in Senate--Three days' hearings by House Committee on
     Rules on appeal for a Committee on Woman Suffrage, Dr. Shaw
     presiding--Speeches by Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Gardener, Mrs. Harper,
     Jane Addams, Mrs. Breckinridge, Mary R. Beard and Representative
     Raker--Women's Anti-Suffrage Associations out in force--In
     rebuttal Miss Blackwell, Mrs. McCulloch and Mrs.
     Mondell--Representative Mondell closes--Rules Committee refuses
     the appeal.


CHAPTER XIV.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1914                                 398

     Convention met in House of Representatives at Nashville, welcomed
     by Mayor Howse--Dr. Shaw eulogizes Southern women--Governor
     Hooper welcomes to State--Anne Martin tells of victory in Nevada,
     Jeannette Rankin in Montana--National Association's work in
     campaigns--Dr. Shaw on the War--Tribute of convention to
     her--Address by U. S. Senator Luke Lea--Heated controversy over
     Shafroth Federal Amendment--Defense by Ruth Hanna
     McCormick--Antoinette Funk before Judiciary Committee--Her
     "brief" for amendment--Her report of the campaigns--Miss Clay's
     and Mrs. Bennett's bill--Committee Hearings: speakers, Mrs. Funk,
     Mrs. Colby, Mrs. Beard, Crystal Eastman Benedict, Dr. Cora Smith
     King, Mrs. Gardener--National Anti-Suffrage Association headed by
     Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, with array of men and women speakers.


CHAPTER XV.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1915                                 439

     At the convention in Washington defeats and victories to
     consider--First vote in House on Federal Amendment--President
     Wilson receives delegates--All reports show progress--Dr. Shaw
     refuses to stand for reelection--Her farewell address--Beautiful
     ceremonies--Mrs. Catt elected--Ethel M. Smith's report on
     political work--Congressmen card-indexed--Ruth Hanna McCormick on
     first House vote--Shafroth Amendment dropped--Conference with
     Congressional Union, its policy of fighting party in power
     condemned--Hearing before friendly Senate Suffrage
     Committee--House Committee controversies with "antis" and
     Congressional Union--Men "antis" grilled.


CHAPTER XVI.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1916                                 480

     Great meeting in Atlantic City--President Wilson attends and
     announces his allegiance--His address--Dr. Shaw responds--Mrs.
     Catt on State campaigns--Shall association work for Federal and
     State amendments?--Mrs. Catt sounds key-note in speech on The
     Crisis--Mrs. Dudley, Mrs. Cotnam and Mrs. Valentine represent
     South--The "golden flier"--Sharp debate on endorsing
     candidates--Speeches of Owen Lovejoy, Julia Lathrop and Katherine
     Bement Davis--Important report of Mrs. Roessing on work in
     Congress; woman suffrage planks in national conventions at
     Chicago and St. Louis; interviewing presidential candidates;
     revised plan for work of association--Dr. Shaw on Americanism and
     the Flag.


CHAPTER XVII.

_National Suffrage Convention of 1917_                               513


     Convention in Washington under war conditions--Distinguished
     reception committee--Delegates interview their Congressmen;
     Association pledges loyalty to Government; its officers in
     service--New York victory celebrated--Secretary Lane brings
     President Wilson's greetings--Mrs. Catt's great address to
     Congress--Maud Wood Park's full report of work with Congress--New
     Washington headquarters--Report of Leslie Bureau of Suffrage
     Education--Speech of Secretary of War Baker--Dr. Shaw on Woman's
     Committee of Council of National Defense--Miss Hay on New York's
     Socialist vote--"Suffrage Schools" begun--Last Hearing before
     Senate Committee.


CHAPTER XVIII.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1918-1919                            550


     Convention of 1918 first ever omitted--War conditions--Many
     suffrage gains--Jubilee Convention in St. Louis in 1919--Mrs.
     Catt calls for League of Women Voters--Mrs. Shuler's secretary's
     report of greatest year's work, State campaigns, war service,
     work with Congress--Missouri Legislature gives Presidential
     suffrage--Mrs. Park's report on congressional work--Votes in
     House and Senate--President Wilson asks Congress for woman
     suffrage--Tributes to Pioneers--League of Women Voters
     formed--Work with Editors--Non-partisanship reaffirmed--In
     Washington: Hearing before new Committee on Woman Suffrage--Dr.
     Shaw on association's war record--Mrs. Catt's survey of
     situation; urges committee to talk with President--Ex-Senator
     Bailey's anti-suffrage speech--Mrs. Catt and Mrs. Park
     answer--Last suffrage hearing.


CHAPTER XIX.

NATIONAL SUFFRAGE CONVENTION OF 1920                                 594


     Call to convention in Chicago the last--Mrs. Catt's Jubilee
     speech--Executive Council's recommendations--Mrs. Shuler's,
     secretary's report of year's gains and losses, work in southern
     States, great effort for Ratification--Mrs. Rogers' last
     treasurer's report--Smithsonian Institution gives space for
     suffrage mementoes--Memorial meeting for Dr. Shaw, college
     foundations--Miss Anthony's centennial celebrated--League of
     Women Voters perfected.


CHAPTER XX.

STORY OF FEDERAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT                                  618

     The "war amendments" discriminate against women--National
     Association formed for Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment--Women
     vote under the 14th--Supreme Court decides against them--Fifty
     years' struggle with Congress for woman suffrage
     amendment--Hearings before committees--Stubborn opposition--Votes
     and defeats--Support of parties finally gained--Planks in their
     platforms--Amendment submitted to Legislatures--Strenuous efforts
     for ratification--Victory at last.


CHAPTER XXI.

VARIOUS WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATIONS                                  656

     Federal Suffrage Association--U. S. Elections Bill--College
     Women's League--Friends' Equal Rights Association--Mississippi
     Valley Conferences--Southern Women's Conference--International
     and National Men's Leagues--National Woman's Party--Women's
     Anti-Suffrage Association--Man Suffrage Association.


CHAPTER XXII.

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS                                               683

     Formed in St. Louis--Mrs. Catt outlines its work--Its eight
     departments presented--Perfected and officers elected at
     Chicago--Reports from department chairmen--Laws for women
     demanded--Citizenship Schools--League asks planks in national
     political conventions--Visits presidential candidates.


CHAPTER XXIII.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTIONS                           702

     Long struggle for planks in national platforms--Refused for
     nearly fifty years--Woman suffrage by State action approved in
     1916--Federal Amendment endorsed in 1920--Graphic story of
     opposition.


CHAPTER XXIV.

WAR SERVICE OF ORGANIZED SUFFRAGISTS                                 720

     Mrs. Catt calls Executive Council of One Hundred to
     Washington--It sends letter to President Wilson offering services
     of National American Association--Organizes four departments of
     work--Mass meeting held, Secretary of War Baker speaks--President
     expresses approval of the association's work--Woman's Committee
     of Government Council of National Defense formed, Dr. Shaw
     appointed chairman, Mrs. Catt and other leading suffragists made
     members--Reports of department heads at National Suffrage
     convention--Report of association's Oversea Hospitals, their
     important work--Anti-suffrage women attack suffrage
     leaders--After Armistice Mrs. Catt calls meeting in New York,
     which requests President Wilson to appoint women delegates to
     Peace Conference in Paris--Woman's Committee of National Defense
     ends work--Secretary Baker's tribute to Dr. Shaw.


APPENDIX

APPENDIX                                                             741

     Moncure D. Conway's address at Mrs. Stanton's funeral--Miss
     Anthony's last letter to her--National American Association's
     Declaration of Principles--Memorial building in Rochester for
     Miss Anthony--Speech of Mrs. Catt at Senate hearing in 1910--Same
     in 1915--Review of Shafroth Federal Suffrage Amendment--Different
     National headquarters--Bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie--Memorial
     tributes to Dr. Shaw--Present Status of National American
     Association.


Contents of Illustrations added by Bank of Wisdom.

  Pioneers of Woman Suffrage                                  172+
  Court House of Warren, Ohio & Home of Susan B. Anthony      336+
  A Lecture in Banquet Hall of Suffrage Headquarters          526+
  National Suffrage Headquarters in Washington                632+




INTRODUCTION


A voice in the Government under which one lives is absolutely
necessary to personal liberty and the right of a whole people to a
voice in their Government is the first requisite for a free country.
There must be government by a constitution made with the consent and
help of the people which guarantees this right. It is only within the
last century and a half that a constitutional form of government has
been secured by any countries and in the most of those where it now
exists, not excepting the United States, it was won through war and
bloodshed. Largely for this reason its principal advantage was
monopolized by men, who made and carried on war, and who held that
such government must be maintained by physical force and only those
should have a voice in it who could fight for it if necessary. There
were many other reasons why those who had thus secured their right to
a vote should use their new power to withhold it from women, which was
done in every country. Women then had to begin their own contest for
what by the law of justice was theirs as much as men's when government
by constitution was established.

Their struggle lasted for nearly three-quarters of a century in the
United States and half a century in Great Britain, the two largest
constitutional governments, and a shorter time in other countries, but
it was a peaceful revolution. Not a drop of blood was spilled and
toward the end of it, when in Great Britain the only "militancy"
occurred, its leaders gave the strictest orders that human life must
be held sacred. Although at the last the women of Central Europe were
enfranchised as the result of war it was not of their making and their
part in it was not on the battlefield. This was the most unequal
contest that ever was waged, for one side had to fight without
weapons. It was held against women that they were not educated, but
the doors of all institutions of learning were closed against them;
that they were not taxpayers, although money-earning occupations were
barred to them and if married they were not allowed to own property.
They were kept in subjection by authority of the Scriptures and were
not permitted to expound them from the woman's point of view, and they
were prevented from pleading their cause on the public platform. When
they had largely overcome these handicaps they found themselves facing
a political fight without political power.

The long story of the early period of this contest will be found in
the preceding volumes of this History and it is one without parallel.
No class of men ever strove seventy or even fifty years for the
suffrage. In every other reform which had to be won through
legislative bodies those who were working for it had the power of the
vote over these bodies. In the Introduction to Volume IV is an
extended review of the helpless position of woman when in 1848 the
first demand for equality of rights was made and her gradual emergence
from its bondage. No sudden revolution could have gained it but only
the slow processes of evolution. The founding of the public school
system with its high schools, from which girls could not be excluded,
solved the question of their education and inevitably led to the
opening of the colleges. In the causes of temperance and anti-slavery
women made their way to the platform and remained to speak for their
own. During the Civil War they entered by thousands the places vacated
by men and retained them partly from necessity and partly from choice.

One step led to another; business opportunities increased; women
accumulated property; Legislatures were compelled to revise the laws
and the church was obliged to liberalize its interpretation of the
Scriptures. Women began to organize; their missionary and charity
societies prepared the way to clubs for self-improvement; these in
turn broadened into civic organizations whose public work carried them
to city councils and State Legislatures, where they found themselves
in the midst of politics and wholly without influence. Thus they were
led into the movement for the suffrage. It was only a few of the clear
thinkers, the far seeing, who realized at the beginning that the
principal cause of women's inferior position and helplessness lay in
their disfranchisement and until they could be made to see it they
were a dead weight on the movement. Men fully understood the power
that the vote would place in the hands of women, with a lessening of
their own, and in the mass they did not intend to concede it.

The pioneers in the movement for the rights of women, of which the
suffrage was only one, contested every inch of ground and little by
little the old prejudice weakened, public sentiment was educated,
barriers were broken down and women pressed forward. At the opening of
the present century, while they had not obtained entire equality of
rights, their status had been completely transformed in most respects
and they were prepared to get what was lacking. None of these gains,
however, had required the permission of the masses of men but only of
selected groups, boards of trustees, committees, legislators. It was
when women found that with all their rights they were at tremendous
disadvantage without political influence and asked for the suffrage
that they learned the difficulty of changing constitutions. They found
that either National or State constitutions had to be amended and in
the latter case the consent of a majority of all men was necessary. In
Volume VI the attempt to obtain the vote through State action is
described in 48 chapters and their reading is recommended to those who
insisted that this was the way women should be enfranchised. Fifty-six
strenuous campaigns were conducted, with their heavy demands on time,
strength and money, and as a result 13 States gave suffrage to women!
Wyoming and Utah entered the Union with it in their constitutions.
Compare this result with the proclamation of the adoption of a Federal
Amendment, which in a moment and a sentence conferred the complete
franchise on the women of all the other States.

The leaders recognized this advantage and the National Suffrage
Association was formed for the express purpose of securing a Federal
Amendment in 1869, as soon as it was learned through the
enfranchisement of negro men that this method was possible. A short
experience with Congress convinced them that there would have to be
some demonstration of woman suffrage in the States before they could
hope for Federal action and therefore they carried on the work along
both lines. The question had to be presented purely as one of abstract
justice without appeal to the special interests of any party, but from
1890 to 1896 woman suffrage had been placed in the constitutions of
four States and there was hope that it was now on the way to general
success. From this time, however, such idealism in politics as may
have existed in the United States gradually disappeared. The
Republican party was in complete control of the Government at
Washington and was largely dominated by the great financial interests
of the country, and this was also practically the situation in the
majority of the States. The campaign fund controlled the elections and
the largest contributors to this fund were the corporations, which had
secured immense power, and the liquor interests, which had become a
dominant force in State and national politics, without regard to
party. Both of these supreme influences were implacably opposed to
suffrage for women; the corporations because it would vastly increase
the votes of the working classes, the liquor interests because they
were fully aware of the hostility of women to their business and
everything connected with it.

This was the situation faced by those who were striving for the
enfranchisement of women. Congress was stone deaf to their pleadings
and arguments and from 1894 to 1913 its committees utterly ignored the
question. When a Legislature was persuaded to submit an amendment to
the State constitution to the decision of the voters it met the big
campaign fund of the employers of labor and the thoroughly organized
forces of the liquor interests, which appealed not only to the many
lines of business connected with the traffic but to the people who for
personal reasons favored the saloons and their collateral branches of
gambling, wine rooms, etc. They were a valuable adjunct to both
political parties. The suffragists met these powerful opponents
without money and without votes. A reading of the State chapters will
demonstrate these facts. From 1896 for fourteen years not one State
enfranchised its women.

These were years, however, of marvelous development in the status of
women, which every year brought nearer their political recognition.
Girls outnumbered boys in the high schools; women crowded the
colleges and almost monopolized the teaching in the public schools.
Their organizations increased in size until they numbered millions and
stretched across the seas. In 1904 the International Woman Suffrage
Alliance was formed which soon encircled the globe. This year the
International Council of Women, the largest organized body of women in
existence, formed a standing committee on woman suffrage with branches
in every country. In 1914 the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the
largest organization in the United States, declared for woman suffrage
and this was preceded or followed by a similar declaration by every
State Federation. National associations of women for whatever purpose,
with almost no exceptions, demanded the franchise as an aid to their
objects, until the stock objection that women do not want to vote was
silenced. Women who opposed the movement became alarmed and undertook
to organize in opposition, thereby exposing their weakness. Their
organization was largely confined to a small group of eastern States
and developed no strength west of the Allegheny mountains. Its leaders
were for the most part connected with corporate interests and did not
believe in universal suffrage for men. There was no evidence that they
exercised any considerable influence in Congress or in any State where
a vote was taken on granting the franchise to women.

An outstanding feature of the present century has been the entrance of
women into the industrial field, following the work which under modern
conditions was taken from the homes to the factories. Thus without
their volition they became the competitors of men in practically every
field of labor. Unorganized and without the protection of a vote they
were underpaid and a menace to working men. In self-defense,
therefore, the labor unions were compelled to demand the ballot for
women. They were followed by other organizations of men until hundreds
were on record as favoring woman suffrage. Men trying to bring about
civic or political reforms in the old parties or through new ones and
feeling their weakness turned to women with their great organizations
but soon realized their inefficiency without political power. The old
objections were losing their force. The lessening size of families and
the removal of the old time household tasks from the home left women
with a great deal of leisure which they were utilizing in countless
ways that took them out into the world, so that there was no longer
any weight in the charge that the suffrage would cause women to
forsake their domestic duties for public life. Women of means began
coming into the movement for the suffrage and relieving the financial
stringency which had constantly limited the activities of the
organized work. The opening of large national headquarters in New
York, the great news center of the country, in 1909, marked a distinct
advance in the movement which was immediately apparent throughout the
country. The friendly attitude of the metropolitan papers extended to
the press at large. Following the example of England, parades and
processions and various picturesque features were introduced in New
York and other large cities which gave the syndicates and motion
pictures material and interested the public. Woman suffrage became a
topic of general discussion and women flocked into the suffrage
organizations.

Politicians took notice but they remained cold. This political
question had not yet entered politics. The leaders of the National
Suffrage Association strengthened its lines and established its
outposts in every State, but they still made their appeals to
unyielding committees of Congress. The Republican "machine" was in
absolute control and woman suffrage had long been under its wheels
with other reform measures. Then came in 1909-10 the "insurgency" in
its own ranks led by members from the western States, and in those
States the voters repudiated the railroad and lumber and other
corporate interests and instituted a new régime. One of its first acts
was the submission of a woman suffrage amendment in the State of
Washington and with a free election and a fair count it was carried in
every county and received a majority of more than two to one. The
revolt extended to California, whose Legislature sent an amendment to
the voters in 1911 after having persistently refused to do so for the
past 15 years, and here again there was victory at the polls. With the
gaining of this old and influential State the extension of the
movement to the Mississippi was assured.

The insurgency in the Republican party resulted in a division at the
national convention in 1912 and the forming of the Progressive party
headed by Theodore Roosevelt. The Resolutions Committee of the regular
party gave the suffragists seven minutes to present their claims and
ignored them. The new party needed a fresh, live issue and found it in
woman suffrage, which was made a plank in its platform. The leaders of
the National Suffrage Association were required by its constitution to
remain non-partisan and with one exception did so, but thousands of
women rallied to the standard of the new party. As most of them were
disfranchised they brought little voting strength but the other
parties were forced to admit them and for the first time they gained a
foothold in politics. The division in Republican ranks resulted in
putting into power the Democratic party, with an unfavorable record on
woman suffrage and a President who was opposed to it, but "votes for
women" was now a national political issue.

When the suffrage leaders went to the new Congress for a Federal
Amendment they met a Senate Committee every member but one of which
was in favor of it. The vote in the Senate on March 14, 1914, resulted
in a majority but not the required two-thirds, and it was a majority
of Republicans. The history of the struggle for this amendment for the
next six years, through Democratic and Republican administrations,
will be found in Chapter XX. Speaker Champ Clark was a steadfast
friend. In 1914 William Jennings Bryan declared for it and thenceforth
spoke for it many times. In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson announced
his conversion to woman suffrage and in 1918 to the Federal Amendment
and never wavered in his loyalty, rendering every assistance in his
power. His record will be found in these volumes. In 1916, after
Justice Charles Evans Hughes was nominated by the Republicans for the
presidency, he announced his adherence to the Federal Amendment, being
in advance of his party. This year the Republican and Democratic
national platforms for the first time contained a plank in favor of
woman suffrage but by State and not Federal action. A remarkable
feature of the progress of this amendment in Congress was the increase
of its advocates among members from the South, who for the most part
believed it to be an interference with the State's rights. In 1887,
when the first vote was taken in the Senate not one southern member
voted for it. On the second occasion in 1914 Senators Lea of
Tennessee, Ransdell of Louisiana, Sheppard of Texas, Ashurst of
Arizona and Owen of Oklahoma voted in favor. In 1919 on the final
vote, if Arizona, New Mexico and Delaware are included, 17 Senators
from southern States cast their ballots for the Federal Amendment, and
four from northern States who did so were born in the South. It
received the votes of 75 Representatives from southern States. The
women of every southern State suffrage association worked for this
amendment, believing that it was hopeless to expect their
enfranchisement from State action, and the above members took the same
view. It received a large Republican majority in Senate and House.

While this contest was in progress many events were taking place which
had an influence on it. The movement for woman suffrage was
progressing in Europe but when the war broke out in 1914, involving
all countries, it was thought that all advance was lost. On the
contrary the splendid service of the women obtained the franchise for
them in Great Britain, The Netherlands and other countries, and at the
close of the war the revolution in the Central countries resulted in
the suffrage for men and women alike. The war work of Canadian women
brought full enfranchisement to them. When the United States entered
the war the patriotic response of the women to every demand of the
Government and the magnificent service they rendered swept away
forever the objection to their voting because they could not do
military duty.

Stimulated by the action of Washington and California other western
States gave suffrage to their women and its practical working
effectually disproved every charge that had been made against it. At
the close of 1915 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt became president of the
National Association and bringing to bear her great executive and
organizing ability she re-formed it along the lines followed by the
political parties, created a large, active working force and prepared
for intensive State and national campaigns. Soon afterwards she
received a legacy of almost a million dollars from Mrs. Frank Leslie
to be used for promoting the cause of woman suffrage and thus she was
equipped for carrying the movement to certain victory.

In 1917 the voters of New York State by an immense majority gave the
full suffrage to women, guaranteeing probably 45 votes in Congress for
the Federal Amendment. In 1917 and 1918 the great "drive" was made on
the Legislatures to give women the right to vote for Presidential
electors and this was done in 14 States, granting this important
privilege to millions of women. In several States the Legislature
added the franchise for municipal and county officers. In 1917 the
Legislature of Arkansas gave them the right to vote at all Primary
elections and in 1918 that of Texas conferred the same, which is
equivalent to the full suffrage, as the primaries decide the
elections. By 1918 in 15 States women had equal suffrage with men
through amendment of their constitutions.[2]

In January, 1918, the Federal Prohibition Amendment went into effect,
putting an end to the powerful opposition of the liquor interests to
woman suffrage. All political parties were committed to the Federal
Amendment. In January, 1918, it passed the Lower House of Congress but
the opposition of two Senators and finally of one prevented its
submission. Meanwhile the Democratic administration of eight years had
been succeeded by a Republican. This party during 44 years in power
had refused to enfranchise women but now it atoned for the wrong and
with the help of Democratic members the Amendment was submitted to the
Legislatures on June 4, 1919. Nearly all had adjourned for two years
and if women were to vote at the next presidential election special
sessions would be necessary. One of the most noteworthy political
feats on record was that of the president of the National Suffrage
Association, with the assistance of others, in managing to have the
Governors of the various States call these sessions. It is told in the
State chapters with the dramatic ending in Tennessee.

The certificate was delivered to Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby
at 4 o'clock in the morning on August 26, 1920, and at 9 he issued the
official proclamation that the 19th Amendment having been duly
ratified by 36 State Legislatures "has become valid to all intents and
purposes as a part of the Constitution of the United States." It reads
as follows:

"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
sex.

"Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation."

[Illustration: Signature (Eda Husted Harper.)]


FOOTNOTES:

[2] It is worthy of note that these fifteen States offer the only
instance in the world where the voters themselves granted the complete
suffrage to women. Those of British Columbia, Can., gave the
Provincial franchise but had not the power to give it for Dominion
elections. In all countries both the State and National suffrage was
conferred by a simple majority vote of their Parliaments. The U. S.
Congress had not this authority but a two-thirds majority of each
House was necessary to send it to the 48 Legislatures for final
decision. The Federal Suffrage Amendment had to be passed upon by
about 6,000 legislators.




THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION

FOREWORD


The National Woman Suffrage Association was organized in New York
City, May 15, 1869, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton president and Susan B.
Anthony chairman of executive committee. [History of Woman Suffrage,
Volume II, page 400.] It held annual conventions for the next half
century, always in Washington, D.C., until 1895, after which date they
were taken in alternate years to other cities, meeting in the national
capital during the first session of each Congress. The object of the
association from its beginning was to obtain an amendment to the
Federal Constitution which would confer full, universal suffrage on
the women of the United States, and its work for amending the
constitutions of the States to enfranchise their women was undertaken
as one means to achieve this main purpose. The American Woman Suffrage
Association was organized in Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 24, 1869, with
Henry Ward Beecher president and Lucy Stone chairman of executive
committee, principally for action through the States, and it also held
annual conventions. [Volume II, page 756.] In 1890 the two united in
Washington under the name National American Woman Suffrage Association
[Volume IV, page 164], and the work was continued by both methods.
Full reports of conventions may be found in preceding volumes of the
History of Woman Suffrage, the list ending in Volume IV with that of
1900. This convention was especially distinguished by the public
celebration of the 80th birthday of Susan B. Anthony and her
retirement from the presidency of the association which she had helped
to found and in which she had continuously held official position, and
by the election of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt as her successor.[3]

The assertion is frequently made that the enfranchisement of women was
due to a natural evolution of public sentiment. A reading of the
following chapters, which give the history of the work of the National
American Woman Suffrage Association, will show how largely the
creation of this sentiment was due to this organization to which all
the State associations were auxiliary. It represented the organized
movement during half a century to secure the vote for women--a
struggle such as was never made by men for this right in any country
in the world. It was the only large organization for this purpose that
ever existed in the United States and its efforts never ceased in the
more than fifty years. At each annual convention some advance was
recorded. These chapters show that, while the principal object of the
association was a Federal Amendment, it gave valuable assistance to
every campaign for the amendment of State constitutions and that it
was responsible for the granting of the Presidential franchise, which
was so important a factor in gaining the final victory. The reports of
its officers each year show the large amount of money raised and
expended, the hundreds of thousands of letters written, the millions
of pieces of literature circulated, the thousands of meetings held,
the many workers in the field. The committee reports and the
resolutions adopted show that all reforms vital to the welfare of
women and children and many of a wider scope were included in the work
of the association. The names of the speakers at the national
conventions and at the hearings before the committees of Congress
during all these years prove that this cause was championed by the
leaders among the men and women of their generation. Such quotations
from their speeches as space has permitted show that in eloquence,
logic and strength they were unsurpassed and that their arguments were
unanswerable.

If this volume contained only the first nineteen chapters the reader
could not fail to be convinced that principally to the efforts of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association the women of the United
States owe their enfranchisement, but it shows too that in the
forty-eight auxiliary States they also fought their own hard battles.


FOOTNOTES:

[3] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, Chapters XX and XXI.




CHAPTER I.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1901.


The Thirty-third annual convention opened on the afternoon of May 30,
1901, in the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, with the new
president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair, and continued
through June 4, with 144 delegates from twenty-six States present.[4]

Miss Anthony was present at this Minneapolis convention, alert and
vigorous but happy to relinquish her official duties to one in whose
ability and judgment she had implicit confidence; and the rest of the
official board were there ready to give the same allegiance and
loyalty to the new chief which they had rendered for many years to the
supreme leader. The _Minneapolis Journal_ said: "The formal opening of
the suffrage convention yesterday afternoon was an impressive affair.
Among the national officers seated on the platform were women who saw
the first dawn of the suffrage movement, those who came into its fold
midway of its life and those whose earnest endeavors are of more
recent record. Among the first was the most honored member of the
body, Miss Susan B. Anthony, and among the latter is the president,
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. When the delegates rose and the Rev. Olympia
Brown of Wisconsin stepped to the front of the platform and turned
her face heavenward, saying, "In the name of liberty, Our Father, we
thank thee," the impression even upon an unbeliever must have been
that of entire consecration and one was reminded of when the early
Christians met and consulted, fought and endured for the faith that
was in them."

Although this was the first convention in many years over which Miss
Anthony had not presided she was the first to speak, as Mrs. Catt at
once presented her to the audience. With the loyalty which had
characterized her life Miss Anthony first read a letter from the
honorary president, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, then in her 86th
year, which she prefaced by saying: "It is fitting that I should read
this greeting from her, as I have stood by Mrs. Stanton's side for
fifty years." The letter urged the same vigorous work in the church
for woman's emancipation as had been kept up in the States and said:
"The canon law, with all the subtle influences that grow out of it, is
more responsible for woman's slavery today than the civil code. With
the progressive legislation of the last half century we have an
interest in tracing the lessons taught to women in the churches to
their true origin and a right to demand from our theologians the same
full and free discussion in the church that we have had in the State,
as the time has fully come for women to be heard in the ecclesiastical
councils of the nation. To this end I suggest that committees and
delegates from all our State and national associations visit the
clergy in their several localities and assemblies to press on their
consideration the true position of woman as a factor in Christian
civilization."

Press reports of Mrs. Stanton's paper were as follows:

     "Woman today, as ever, supplies the enthusiasm that sustains the
     church and she has a right in turn to ask that the church sustain
     her in this struggle for liberty and take some decided action
     with reference to this momentous and far-reaching movement. It
     matters little that here and there some clergyman advocates our
     cause on our platform, so long as no religious organization has
     yet recognized our demand as a principle of justice. Discussion
     is rarely held in their councils but it is generally treated as a
     speculative, sentimental question unworthy of serious
     consideration. Neither would it be sufficient if they gave their
     adhesion to the demand for political equality, so long as by
     scriptural teachings they perpetuate our racial and religious
     subordination." Mrs. Stanton would demand that an expurgated
     Bible be read in churches. "Such parables as refer to woman as
     'the author of sin,' 'an inferior,' 'a subject,' 'a weaker
     vessel,'" she says, "should be relegated to the ancient
     mythologies as mere allegories, having no application whatever to
     the womanhood of this generation. It is not civil nor political
     power that holds the Mormon woman in polygamy, the Turkish woman
     in the harem, the American woman as a subordinate everywhere. The
     central falsehood from which all these different forms of slavery
     spring is the doctrine of original sin and woman as a medium for
     the machinations of Satan, its author. The greatest block today
     in the way of woman's emancipation is the church, the canon law,
     the Bible and the priesthood. Canon Charles Kingsley said not
     long ago: 'This will never be a good world for woman till the
     last remnant of canon law is stricken from the face of the
     earth.'"[5]

After finishing Mrs. Stanton's letter Miss Anthony presented her own
greeting, in the course of which she said:

"If the divine law visits the sins of the parents upon the children,
equally so does it transmit to them the virtues of the parents.
Therefore if it is through woman's ignorant subjection to man's
appetites and passions that the life current of the race is corrupted,
then must it be through her intelligent emancipation that it shall be
purified and her children rise up and call her blessed.... I am a full
and firm believer in the revelation that it is through woman the race
is to be redeemed. For this reason I ask for her immediate and
unconditional emancipation from all political, industrial, social and
religious subjection. It is said, 'Men are what their mothers made
them,' but I say that to hold mothers responsible for the characters
of their sons while denying to them any control over the surroundings
of the sons' lives is worse than mockery, it is cruelty.
Responsibilities grow out of rights and powers. Therefore before
mothers can rightfully be held responsible for the vices and crimes,
for the general demoralization of society, they must possess all
possible rights and powers to control the conditions and
circumstances of their own and their children's lives."

The audience then listened with keen appreciation to the president's
address, during which she said: "If I were asked what are the great
obstacles to the speedy enfranchisement of women I should answer:
There are three; the first is militarism, which once dominated the
entire thought of the world and made its history. Although its old
power is gone and its influence upon public thought grows constantly
less, it still molds the opinions of millions of people and holds them
to the old ideals of force in government and headship in the family.
The second obstacle is the unconscious, unmeasured influence upon the
estimate in which women as a whole are held that emanates from that
most debasing of our evil institutions, prostitution.... The third
great cause is the inertia in the growth of democracy which has come
as a reaction following the aggressive movements that with possibly
ill-advised haste enfranchised the foreigner, the negro and the
Indian. Perilous conditions, seeming to follow from the introduction
into the body politic of vast numbers of irresponsible citizens, have
made the nation timid. These three influences, born of centuries of
tradition, shape every opinion of the opponents of woman suffrage. Not
an objection, argument or excuse can be urged against the movement
which may not be traced to one of these causes."

At the close of Mrs. Catt's address Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Denver
presented her with a handsome gavel in behalf of the suffrage
association of Colorado. The gavel was made of Colorado silver and the
settings and engravings of Colorado gold. In one side was a Colorado
amethyst, and the Colorado flower, the columbine, was burned into the
gavel by a Colorado girl. Mrs. Bradford said she wished Mrs. Catt the
good luck said to follow the possessor of an amethyst, who "shall
speak the right word at the right time." She presented it as an
expression of gratitude for her aid in their successful suffrage
campaign of 1893. "We are apt to attribute everything good in Colorado
to woman suffrage," said Mrs. Catt in response, "but in my secret mind
I think much of it is due to the progressiveness of the Colorado men.
They must be better than other men or they would not have enfranchised
their women. I cannot love Colorado any better than I do but I shall
always value this gavel as a precious souvenir of that wonderful
campaign."

In her report as vice-president at large the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw
said regarding her many suffrage speeches during the year: "The
manager of a bureau lately said to me: 'If you would only give up for
a time the two reforms in which you are most interested, woman
suffrage and prohibition, you could earn enough money on the regular
lecture platform in a few years to live on for the rest of your life.'
Any woman who does not live for unselfish service is a useless
cumberer of the earth. I would rather be known as an advocate of equal
suffrage and starve than to speak every night on the best-paying
platforms in the United States and ignore it."

The first evening of the convention was opened with prayer by the Rev.
Marion H. Shutter.[6] The audience was far beyond the seating capacity
of the large church and in presenting the official speakers Mrs. Catt
said: "This is a great contrast to the early days when we did not use
to be welcomed because we were not welcome. Now we are welcomed
wherever we go but not often, as here, by the representative of a
whole State." Governor Samuel R. Van Sant gave a hearty western
greeting, which, he said, he wanted to make as cordial as he could
express it and as broad as the State he lived in. He made this point
among others: "You are doing a splendid work and the reason you do not
get the ballot sooner is because you do not convert your own sex. I
know for I have been a member of the Legislature. If you wanted to
vote as much as you want other things you would go there and block the
legislators so they couldn't get to their seats." Mayor Albert A. Ames
extended the welcome of the city and declared his belief in woman
suffrage. Former Mayor William Henry Eustis ended his address in
behalf of the Commercial Club and Board of Trade by saying:
"Commercial bodies are temporary but a great movement like this is
eternal." Former Mayor James Gray, representing the press, assured
them of its coöperation and said that from a dozen to twenty women
were doing important work on the papers of the city. Mrs. Maud C.
Stockwell, president of the State Suffrage Association, welcomed them
to "the hearts of the women of Minneapolis."

Dr. Shaw closed the evening with a stirring address on An Invisible
Foe, in which she referred to the many refusals they had had from the
anti-suffrage leaders to come to the convention and debate the
question. She accused them of wearing a khaki-colored uniform to
conceal themselves from the foe and declared they were always careful
to make their attacks when the enemy was not present, saying: "The
anti-suffragists are not fighting woman suffrage, they are fighting
the ideals of democracy and leaning toward an aristocracy. Take note
of the words they use to designate the people, 'mob,' 'hordes,' etc.
They look at the people as not only incapable and ignorant now but so
for all time and they never learn that in the heart of every
individual in the mob lie the forces which make for martyrs or for
brutes." "From point to point through long and close argument the
brilliant speaker moved with lightning velocity," said a press report.
"She called up the anti-suffrage arguments made by the Rev. Samuel G.
Smith of St. Paul, in his recent series of sermons on women, and
laughed to scorn their plea for 'the days of chivalry,' which, she
said, were a man's protection of his own women against other men.
Woman must work out God's ideal of what a woman should be and she
cannot do it until she is absolutely free as man is free."

Mrs. Catt brought to the presidency a definite belief that Congress
would not submit a Federal Suffrage Amendment nor would important
States be gained on referendum until national and State officers and
workers were better trained for the work required. The increasing
evidence of a united and politically experienced opposition as
manifested in legislative action and referendum results had convinced
her that the cause would never be won unless its campaigns were
equipped, guided and conducted by women fully aware of the nature of
opposition tactics and prepared to meet every maneuver of the enemy by
an equally telling counteraction. She had been appointed by Miss
Anthony chairman of a Plan of Work Committee at the convention of 1895
and assembling the practical workers they agreed upon recommendations
which proved a turning point in the association's policy. These were
presented to that convention and adopted. A Committee on Organization
was established with Mrs. Catt as chairman and contrary to the usual
custom the convention voted that she be made a member of the National
Board. For the last five years her committee had held conferences in
connection with each convention which discussed and adopted plans for
more efficient work. As president, she now determined to link more
closely the work of national and State auxiliary organizations and in
the pursuance of this aim and as ex-officio chairman of the convention
program committee, she appointed the Executive Committee (consisting
of the Board of Officers, the president and one member from each
auxiliary State) to be the Committee on Plan of Work. For two entire
days preceding this convention the Executive Committee had discussed
methods of procedure, as presented by the Board of Officers, who had
prepared these recommendations at a mid-year meeting held in Miss
Anthony's home at Rochester in August.

The convention accepted the report which included the following: (1)
Organization. That organization be continually the first aim of each
State auxiliary as the certain key to success; that each State keep at
least one organizer employed and endeavor to establish a county
organization in each county or at least to form an organization in
each county seat and at four other points; that organization work be
done among women wage earners and that definite work be undertaken to
win the endorsement and cooperation of other associations, chiefly the
General Federation of Women's Clubs and the National Education
Association. (2) Legislation. That each auxiliary State association
appeal to Congress to submit to the Legislatures a 16th Amendment to
the Federal constitution prohibiting the disfranchisement of U. S.
citizens on account of sex; that the plan initiated by Miss Anthony be
continued, namely, that all kinds of national and State conventions be
asked to pass resolutions in favor of this amendment, to be sent to
Congress; that State societies also ask their Legislatures to pass
resolutions in favor of a 16th Amendment, these also to be sent to
Congress; that auxiliaries whose States offer a reasonable possibility
of a successful referendum try to secure the submission of State
suffrage amendments to the voters, with assurance of national
cooperation; that auxiliaries whose State constitutions present
obstacles to such procedure work to secure statutory suffrage, such as
School, Municipal or Presidential; that auxiliaries not strong enough
to attempt a campaign work for the removal of legal discriminations
against women and attempt to secure co-guardianship of children, equal
property rights, the raising of the age of consent, the appointment of
police matrons, etc.; that a leaflet be prepared by Mrs. Laura M.
Johns advising best methods for successful legislative work. To carry
out this plan the Committees on Congressional Work, Presidential
Suffrage and Civil Rights found their work for the year. (3) Press.
Recommendations were made for rendering this department of work more
efficient in the States; enrollment of persons believing in woman
suffrage to be continued in order to secure evidence of the strength
of general favorable sentiment; the literature of the association to
include a plan of work for local clubs.

Work conferences were interspersed during the convention; one on
Organization presided over by Miss Mary Garrett Hay; one by Mrs.
Priscilla D. Hackstaff, chairman Enrollment Committee; one by Mrs.
Babcock, chairman Press Committee. A chart showing the date of the
opening of the Legislature in each State; the provision for amending
its constitution; the suffrage and initiative and referendum laws and
all other information bearing upon the technical procedure of securing
the vote State by State was carefully drawn by the Organization
Committee. With this in hand each State was given its legislative
task. It was voted to urge the auxiliaries of Kansas, Indiana, New
York, Washington and South Dakota to ask for submission of State
constitutional amendments. It was voted that the corresponding
secretary be elected with the understanding that she would serve at
the national headquarters and be paid a salary.

The Executive Committee at a preliminary meeting repeated the
resolution of the preceding year against the official regulation of
vice in Manila, which was under United States control. It closed: "We
protest in the name of American womanhood and we believe that this
represents also the opinion of the best American manhood.[7] This
resolution was unanimously adopted by the delegates after strong
addresses, and Miss Anthony, Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Avery and Miss
Blackwell were deputized to ask a hearing and present it to the
American Medical Association meeting in St. Paul at this time. That
body allowed them ten minutes to state their earnest wish that it
would endorse the resolution but it took no action.

Miss Anthony had consented to act as chairman of the Congressional
Committee and her report was heard with deep interest. Her work during
the year was upon two distinct lines, the old familiar petition to
Congress to pass the 16th Amendment granting full suffrage to women,
and another brought about by new conditions--a petition that the word
"male" should not be inserted in the electoral clause of the
constitutions proposed by Congress for Hawaii and Porto Rico. These
petitions were secured from every State and Territory, a tremendous
work, and were laid before the members of Congress from each State.
The most interesting petition for the amendment was from Wyoming,
where one sheet was signed by every State officer, several U. S.
officials and other prominent citizens. They had signed in duplicate
several petitions and thus Miss Anthony had an autograph copy with
her. The work of securing this petition was done chiefly by Mrs.
Joseph M. Cary, wife of the Senator. Miss Anthony was chairman also of
the Committee on Convention Resolutions and believed strongly that to
present the question of woman suffrage to conventions of various kinds
and secure resolutions from them was an efficacious means of
propaganda. Her interesting report for 1900 made at this time will be
found in full in the History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 439.

In introducing Mr. Blackwell (Mass.), Mrs. Catt said: "The woman
suffrage movement has known many women who have devoted their lives
and energies to it. I know of only one man. Years ago when Lucy Stone
was a sweet and beautiful girl he heard her speak and afterwards
proposed to her to form a marriage partnership. When she said that
this might prevent her from doing the large work she wanted to do for
equal rights he promised to help her in it and loyally and faithfully
all through their married life he did so, as constantly and earnestly
as Lucy Stone herself; and even after her death he continues to give
his time, his money and his effort to the same end. I am glad to
introduce Henry B. Blackwell." Mr. Blackwell was the pioneer in urging
the suffragists of every State to try to obtain from their Legislature
a law giving them a vote for presidential electors. Their authority
for this action was conferred by the National Constitution in Article
2, Section 2: "Each State shall appoint in such manner as the
Legislature thereof may direct a number of electors equal to the whole
number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be
entitled in the Congress." His comprehensive report made to this and
other conventions was an unanswerable argument in favor of the right
of a Legislature to confer this vote on women and eventually it was
widely recognized.

The treasurer, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (O.), reported the total
receipts of the year $22,522. Mrs. Catt stated the needs of the
association for the coming year and under the skilful management of
Miss Hay subscriptions of $5,000 were soon obtained. On motion of Dr.
Shaw a vote of thanks was given to Miss Hay for her "able and
efficient work in securing these pledges." The report for the Federal
Suffrage Committee was given by Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett (Ky.)[8]

The corresponding secretary, Mrs. Avery of Philadelphia, made the
report of the great bazaar which had been held before the Christmas
holidays in Madison Square Garden, New York City, and netted about
$8,500. It was accompanied by the carefully prepared report of its
treasurer, Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff of Brooklyn. An exact duplicate
of a beautiful vase three feet high which had been presented to
Admiral Dewey by the citizens of Wheeling, West Virginia, at a cost of
$250, with the exception that his face on it was replaced by Miss
Anthony's, was presented to the bazaar by Mrs. Fannie J. Wheat of that
city. As no "chances" were allowed at suffrage fairs it was purchased
by subscriptions and presented to Miss Anthony.[9]

A letter to Miss Blackwell from Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, then past 80
years of age, expressing her regret at not being able to attend the
convention, closed: "It is not for lack of interest in our great cause
or indifference to the dear western women with whom I was associated
so many years ago and who, like myself, have grown gray in the work
for women.... God bless you all and give you an ennobling season
together, harmonious and uplifting in its results. Remember me in love
to the old friends and pledge my affectionate regard to the new
friends with whom I will try to keep step here on the Massachusetts
coast. Yours with a thousand good wishes." A telegram of greeting was
sent to Mrs. Stanton and others to Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey of New
Jersey, Mrs. Jane H. Spofford of Maine and Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway
of Oregon, all pioneer workers for the cause. Miss Laura Clay (Ky.)
gave a strong, logical address on Counterparts, "the dualism of the
race," in which she said:

     Any social system founded on a theory designed for the elevation
     of one sex alone, regardless of the other, is altogether false
     and delusive to the expectations built upon it, for the human
     race is dual and heredity keeps the stock common from which both
     men and women spring. Since the common stock is improved and
     invigorated by the acquired qualities of individuals, without
     regard to sex, it is to the advantage of both that all
     possibilities of development shall be extended to both sexes. In
     animals acquired qualities can be imparted to the stock only by
     parenthood; in the human family they are imparted even more
     widely and permanently through the influence of ideas. All that
     woman has lost by social systems which denied to her education
     and the free expression of her genius in literature, art or
     statesmanship, has been lost to man also, because it has
     diminished the inheritable riches of the nature from which he
     draws his existence. He has been less, though unhampered by the
     shackles which bound her, because she was less. The world is not
     more called upon to rejoice in the triumphs of his genius in
     freedom than to mourn over the wasted possibilities of hers in
     bonds....

     The forward movement of either sex is possible only when the
     other moves also and the obstacles to progress exist in the
     attitude of both sexes to it, not in that of one alone. So in
     this woman suffrage movement we have learned that the apathy of
     women to their own political freedom is as great an obstacle to
     our success as the unwillingness of men to grant our claims. It
     is of the same importance to us to educate women out of their
     indifference as it is to educate men out of their unwillingness.
     If it should happen that this education shall come to women
     first, they will never need the argument of force to induce men
     to remove the legal obstacles, for men and women cannot long
     think unlike on any subject.

One of the most interesting reports was that of the Press Committee,
made by its efficient chairman, Mrs. Elnora Monroe Babcock (N. Y.).
Illustrating its work she said: "About 50,000 suffrage articles have
been sent out from the press headquarters since our last annual
convention; 2,400 of these were specials; 5,155 articles and items
advertising the Bazaar; many articles on prominent women were
furnished to illustrated papers and newspaper syndicates; a page of
plate matter was issued every six weeks and seven large press
associations were supplied with occasional articles." The names of
State chairmen were given and the number of papers they supplied--New
York, 500; Pennsylvania, 336; Iowa, 237; Massachusetts, 97; Indiana,
91; Illinois, 85; Ohio, 63, etc. Mrs. Babcock asked for a vote of
thanks, which was unanimous, to Paul Dana, proprietor and editor of
the New York _Sun_, for having given during the past two and a half
years and for still giving two columns of its Sunday issue to an
article by Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, an unprecedented concession by a
great metropolitan paper. Miss Anthony added her words of praise to
Mr. Dana and to the department which she herself had been largely
instrumental in securing.[10]

One of the most popular addresses of the convention was made by Mrs.
Ellis Meredith of Denver--The Menace of Podunk--a clever satire
showing that narrow partisanship and dishonest politics were to be
found alike in New York and Podunk, Indiana.

     Podunk is the place where the country is nothing, the caucus
     everything; where patriotism languishes and party spirit runs
     riot. It is the centre of intelligence where they hold back the
     returns until advices are received from headquarters as to how
     many votes are needed. The Podunkians believe it is a good thing
     to have a strong man at the head of the ticket, not because they
     care about electing strong men but because by putting a good
     nominee at the head of the ballot it is possible they may be able
     to pull through the seven saloon keepers and three professional
     politicians who go to make up the rest of the ticket.... But
     there lives in Podunk another class that is a greater menace to
     the life of the nation, the noble army of Pharisees. They have
     read Bryce's American Commonwealth and have an intellectual
     understanding of the theory and form of our government but they
     do not know what ward they live in, they are vague as to the
     district, have never met their Congressman and do not know a
     primary from a kettle drum....

     The politician and the shirk of Podunk are the creatures who are
     doing their noble best to blot out the words of Lincoln and make
     it possible for the government he died to save to perish from the
     earth. And between these two evils the least apparent is the most
     real. The man who votes more than once is nearer right than the
     man who refuses to vote at all. The activity of the repeater in
     the pool of politics may be wholly pernicious but is no worse
     than the stagnation caused by the inertia of his self-righteous
     brother. The republic has less to fear from her illiterate and
     venal voters than from those who, knowing her peril, refuse to
     come to the rescue.

The resolutions were presented by Mr. Blackwell, who, at conventions
almost without number, served as chairman of this important committee,
and the first ones set forth the political status of the women in the
year 1901 as follows:

"We congratulate the women of America upon the measure of success
already attained--school suffrage in twenty-two States and
Territories; municipal suffrage in Kansas; suffrage on questions of
taxation in Iowa, Montana, Louisiana and New York; full suffrage in
Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho--States containing more than a
million inhabitants, with eight Senators and nine Representatives in
Congress elected in part by the votes of women.

"We rejoice in important gains during the past year; the extension of
suffrage upon questions of taxation to 200,000 women in the towns and
villages of New York and to the tax-paying women of Norway; the voting
of women for the first time for members of Parliament in West
Australia; the almost unanimous refusal of the Kansas Legislature to
repeal municipal woman suffrage and the acquittal in Denver of the
only woman ever charged with fraudulent voting."

A tribute was paid to the tried and true friends of woman suffrage who
had died during the year, many of them veterans in the cause: Sarah
Anthony Burtis, aged 90, secretary of the first Woman's Rights
Convention in 1848 when adjourned to Rochester, N.Y.; Charles K.
Whipple, aged 91, for many years secretary of the Massachusetts and
New England Woman Suffrage Associations; Zerelda G. Wallace of
Indiana, the "mother" of "Ben Hur"; Paulina Gerry, the Rev. Cyrus
Bartol, Carrie Anders, Dr. Salome Merritt, Matilda Goddard and Mary
Shannon of Massachusetts; Mary J. Clay of Kentucky; Eliza J. Patrick
of Missouri; Fanny C. Wooley and Nettie Laub Romans of Iowa; Eliza
Scudder Fenton, the widow of New York's war governor; Charlotte A.
Cleveland and Henry Villard of New York; John Hooker of Connecticut;
Giles F. Stebbins and George Willard of Michigan; Ruth C. Dennison, D.
C., Theron Nye of Nebraska; Elizabeth Coit of Ohio; Major Niles
Meriwether of Tennessee; M. B. Castle of Illinois; John Bidwell of
California; Wendell Phillips Garrison of New Jersey.

On the evening when Miss Anthony presided she introduced to the
audience with tender words Mrs. Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia, as
one of the few left who attended the first Woman's Rights Convention
at Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1848; Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborne of Auburn,
N. Y., niece of Lucretia Mott and daughter of Martha Wright, two of
the four women who called that convention; Miss Emily Howland, a
devoted pioneer of Sherwood, N. Y.; the Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine,
second woman to be ordained as minister; Mrs. Ellen Sulley Fray, a
pioneer of Toledo, O., and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, wife of a Chief
Justice of Louisiana, who organized the first suffrage club in New
Orleans.

Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, who had been the corresponding secretary of
the association for twenty-one years, had insisted that she should be
allowed to resign from the office. A pleasant incident not on the
program took place one morning during the convention when Miss Anthony
came to the front of the platform and said: "I have in my hand a
thousand dollars for Rachel Foster Avery. It has been contributed
without her knowledge by about four hundred different persons; most of
you are on the list. I asked for this testimonial because I felt that
you would all rejoice to show your appreciation of her long and
faithful services and her great liberality to the cause. I should
never have been able to carry on the work of the society as its
president for so many years but for her able coöperation. She thinks
she cannot talk but we know that she can work. She has done the
drudgery of this association for more than twenty years and I hope the
woman who will be chosen in her place, whoever she may be, will be as
consecrated and free from all self-seeking."

Miss Kate M. Gordon, president of the Era Club of New Orleans, was
almost unanimously elected as corresponding secretary. The only other
change in the official board was the retirement of Mrs. Catharine
Waugh McCulloch as second auditor and the election of Dr. Cora Smith
Eaton in her place. In referring later to Dr. Eaton, Mr. Blackwell
said: "In my attendance upon thirty-three successive annual national
conventions I have never seen one with such complete and faithful
preparation by the local committee and such abundant and cordial
welcome.... It seemed natural to recognize the generous hospitality
thus extended to the convention by the people of Minnesota by choosing
Dr. Eaton of Minneapolis, chairman of this local committee, as one of
the auditors for the coming year."[11]

A closely reasoned address on the Ethics of Suffrage was made by Louis
F. Post of Chicago, in the course of which he said:

     Suffrage is a right, not a privilege. That it is a right of every
     individual is the only basis for women's demanding it. If it is
     not a right but a privilege that may be granted to men and
     withheld from women, be granted to the white and withheld from
     the black, be given to those who have red hair and kept from
     those with black hair; if it may be rightfully given to the
     millionaire and kept from the day laborer; rightfully extended to
     those who can read and withheld from those who cannot, or to
     those with a college education and from those who have only a
     common-school education--if these are the only bases on which
     women claim a share in government, then the fundamental argument
     for woman suffrage disappears.

     Reason back far enough on the privilege line of argument and you
     soon come to that fetish of tradition, the divine right of kings.
     So if you cannot put your claim on any better ground than
     privilege you would better not go on.... Being a right, it is
     also a duty. He who has a right to maintain has a duty to
     perform. This is the firm rock upon which woman suffrage must
     rest. It must be demanded because women are members of the
     community, because they have common interests in the common
     property and affairs of the community; in a word, they have
     rights in the community and duties toward it which are the same
     as the rights and duties of every other sane person of mature age
     who keeps out of the penitentiary.

An unexpected pleasure was a brief address by Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi,
a veteran suffragist and prominent physician of New York, who was
attending the convention of the American Medical Association. She
based her argument for equal suffrage on the injustice practiced
toward women physicians when they seek the opportunity for hospital
practice. Mrs. F. W. Hunt, wife of the Governor of Idaho, testified to
the good results of woman suffrage in that State for the past five
years. Others who gave addresses were the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis
(Wis.), The Feminine Doctor in Society; Mrs. Lydia Phillips Williams,
president of the Minnesota Federation of Clubs, Growth and Greetings;
Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert (Ill.), For the Sake of the Child; Miss
Frances Griffin (Ala.), A Southern Tour; the Rev. Olympia Brown
(Wis.), The Tabooed Trio; Mrs. Annie L. Digges (Kas.), The Duty of the
Hour; Miss Laura A. Gregg (Neb.), Who Will Defend the Flag?; the Rev.
Celia Parker Woolley (Ill.), Woman's Worth in the Community; the
Rev. William B. Riley (Minn.), Woman's Rights and Political
Righteousness.[12]

An inadequate newspaper account of the very able address of Miss Gail
Laughlin (N. Y.), on The Industrial Laggard, said:

     Miss Laughlin described the nineteenth as the industrial century
     of which the factory was a notable product and co-operation the
     spirit. Men were trained to do one thing well and by division of
     labor the maximum result was attained with the minimum
     expenditure of labor and capital. This principal of division of
     labor has been applied everywhere except in the household, the
     field which especially concerns women. Household labor is outside
     the current of industrial progress. It is not even recognized as
     an industrial problem because it is not a wealth-producing
     industry. Students of economics will sometime understand that the
     industries which consume wealth should receive attention as well
     as those which produce it. Business principles are not applied to
     the domestic service problem. There are no business hours. The
     person is hired, not the labor. One woman described the
     situation: "If you have a girl, you want her, no matter at what
     time." There is no standard of work and the result is confusion
     worse confounded. The servant's goings-out and comings-in are
     watched and she has no hours to herself. Is it any wonder that so
     many women prefer to go into factory life at less pay but where
     they can have some hours of their own?

The report of the Committee on Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs.
Laura M. Johns (Kans.), chairman, showed that it had been in
correspondence with many State associations which were working for the
repeal of bad laws and the enactment of good ones; for raising the age
of consent; for child-labor bills; for women physicians in State
institutions; for women on school boards and in high educational
positions and for many other civil and legal measures. Mrs. Clara
Bewick Colby's report on Industrial Problems affecting Women and
Children showed much diligent research into the discriminations
against women in the business and educational world and gave many
flagrant instances. "In Government positions," she said, "this was
clearly due to their lack of a vote."

     The Government departments at Washington are almost entirely
     governed by politics and women are greatly discriminated against,
     notwithstanding civil service rules. The report of A. R. Severn,
     chief examiner for the Civil Service Commission, shows that
     during the last ten years less than ten per cent. of the women
     who have passed the examinations have been appointed, while more
     than 25 per cent. of the men who passed obtained positions. To
     prevent the possibility of women obtaining high-class positions
     the examinations for these are not open to women. Of the 58
     employments for which examinations were held, women were admitted
     to only 22. The per cent. of women employed of those who had
     passed was 13 in 1898; 6 per cent. in 1899, and lower in 1900,
     not a woman being appointed to a clerk's position from the
     waiting list. The Post Office Department in the last year sent
     out an order that women should not be made distributing clerks
     wherever it was possible to appoint men.... Legislation for the
     protection of children has been defeated in Georgia, Alabama and
     South Carolina. In the factories of Birmingham, it is stated,
     children of six and seven are obliged to be at work by 5:30 a.m.
     and to work twelve hours daily, attending spindles for ten cents
     a day. Jane Addams says she knows from personal observations that
     in certain States the conditions of child labor are as bad as
     they were in England half a century ago. In the great cotton
     mills at Columbia, S. C., she found a little girl scarcely five
     years old doing night work thirteen hours at a stretch, for three
     days in the week.

Sunday afternoon the Rev. Olympia Brown gave the convention
sermon--The Forward March--in the First Baptist Church, with scripture
reading by Mrs. Catt, prayer by the Rev. Margaret T. Olmstead, hymns
by the Rev. Kate Hughes and the Rev. Mrs. Woolley; responsive reading
by the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw preached in
the Church of the Redeemer in the morning and Louis F. Post in the
evening. Dr. Shaw preached in the evening at the Hennepin Avenue
Methodist Church; Miss Laura Clay spoke at the Central Baptist; Dr.
Frances Woods at the first Unitarian; Miss Laura Gregg at Plymouth;
Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford at the Wesley Methodist in the morning and
the Rev. Olympia Brown in the evening; Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert
in the Chicago Avenue Baptist; the Rev. Margaret F. Olmstead at All
Souls; the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis at Tuttle Universalist; Mrs. Mariana
W. Chapman at the Friends' Church; Miss Ella Moffatt at the
Bloomington Avenue Methodist, and Mr. and Miss Blackwell at the
Trinity Methodist.

An official letter was sent by request to the Constitutional
Convention of Alabama asking for a woman suffrage clause. An
invitation to hold a conference in Baltimore was accepted.
Arrangements were made to have a National Suffrage Conference
September 9, 10, in Buffalo, N. Y., during the Pan-American
Exposition. It was decided also to accept an invitation from the
Inter-State and West Indian Exposition Board to hold a conference
during the Exposition in Charleston, S. C. Official invitations were
received from various public bodies to hold the next convention in
Washington, Atlantic City, Milwaukee and New Orleans.

The president made the closing address to a large audience on the last
evening, a keen, analytical review of the demand for woman suffrage.
"Its fundamental principle," she said, "is that 'all governments
derive their just power from the consent of the governed.' It is the
argument that has enfranchised men everywhere at all times and it is
the one which will enfranchise women." As it was extemporaneous no
adequate report can be given.

Nothing was left undone by this hospitable city for the success and
pleasure of the convention. Very favorable reports and commendatory
editorials were given by the newspapers. An excellent program by the
best musical talent was furnished at each session under the direction
of Mrs. Cleone Daniels Bergren. An evening reception in honor of the
national officers, to which eight hundred invitations were sent, took
place in the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Gregory. The
Business Woman's Club, Martha Scott Anderson, president, gave an
afternoon reception in its rooms, the invitations reading: "The club
desires to show in a measure its appreciation of the labor by the
members of the National Suffrage Association in behalf of women."
Trolley rides through the handsome suburbs and a visit to the big
flouring mills were among the diversions.[13]

This chapter has tried to picture the first convention of the National
American Suffrage Association in the new century, typical of many
which preceded and followed. If it and other chapters seem
overburdened with personal mention it must be remembered that it is a
precious privilege to those who assisted in this great movement, and
to their descendants, to have their names thus preserved in history.
In the biography of Susan B. Anthony (page 1246) may be found the
following tribute to these conventions, which were held annually for
over fifty years.

     It can be said without fear of contradiction that the National
     Suffrage Conventions will go down in history as the most notable
     held by women during the present age, excepting, of course, those
     of an international nature. The lofty character of their demands,
     the courage, ability and earnestness of their speakers, the
     unswerving fidelity to one central idea, give them a dominating
     position which they will hold for all time. They are pervaded by
     a remarkable spirit of democracy and fraternity. Those who come
     to scoff remain--not to pray but to have a good time. The
     reporters are all converted during the first two or three
     meetings and become members of the family. The delegates never
     wait for an introduction to each other; all have come together on
     the same mission and that is a sufficient guarantee. Nobody can
     remember afterwards what her neighbor wore and this proves that
     all were well dressed. The meetings are so systematic and
     business-like that one never feels she has wasted a minute. If
     points of serious difference arise they are taken up and settled
     by the Business Committee, out of sight of the public, but in all
     matters directly connected with the association every delegate
     has a voice and vote.

     These are trained and disciplined women. There is nothing
     hysterical, nothing fanatical about them. They are animated by
     the most serious and determined purpose, and, in order to effect
     this, all sectarian bias, all political preference, all fads and
     hobbies in any direction are rigidly barred. Woman suffrage--that
     is the sole object. The offices all represent hard work and no
     salary, therefore no unseemly scramble takes place to secure
     them, and the association has the most profound confidence in its
     National Board. Every dollar subscribed has a definite channel
     designated for its expenditure and so there is no big treasury
     fund to quarrel over. There is always a sufficient number of
     experienced members to hold the younger and more impulsive
     recruits in check. Being one of the oldest women's organizations
     in existence it has accumulated a large store of wisdom and
     judgment. Even where people disapprove its purposes they cannot
     fail to respect its dignified, orderly methods.


FOOTNOTES:

[4] Part of Call: The first years of the new century are destined to
witness the most strenuous and intense struggle of the movement.
Iniquity has become afraid of the votes of women. Vice and immorality
are consequently organized in opposition, while conservative morality
stands shoulder to shoulder with them, blind to the nature of the
illicit partnership. Believers in this cause are legion, but many,
satisfied that victory will come without their help, do nothing. We
are approaching the climax of the great contest and every friend is
needed. If the final victory is long in coming, the responsibility
rests with those who believe but who do not act.

                         ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, } Honorary Presidents.
                         SUSAN B. ANTHONY,       }
                         CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.
                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-president.
                         RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, Corresponding Secretary.
                         ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.
                         HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
                         LAURA CLAY,                 } Auditors.
                         CATHARINE WAUGH MCCULLOCH,  }

[5] Miss Anthony had entreated Mrs. Stanton to send instead of this
letter to the convention one of her grand, old-time arguments for
woman suffrage but she refused, saying the time was past for these and
the church must be recognized as the greatest of obstacles to its
success. Miss Anthony felt that it would arouse criticism and
prejudice at the very beginning but declared that no matter what the
effect she would give what would probably be Mrs. Stanton's last
message. A number of the officers and delegates were interviewed for
the press and none was found who fully agreed with Mrs. Stanton's
views. The Rev. Olympia Brown and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw believed
the obstacles to be in the false interpretation of the Scriptures and
its application to women. The Methodist General Conference had this
year admitted women delegates.

[6] Invocations were pronounced at different sessions by the resident
ministers, C. B. Mitchell, George F. Holt and Martin D. Hardin, and by
the visiting ministers, Alice Ball Loomis, Celia Parker Woolley, Kate
Hughes and Margaret T. Olmstead.

[7] WHEREAS, Judge William Howard Taft and the Philippine
Commissioners in a telegram to Secretary Root dated January 17, 1901,
affirm that ever since November, 1898, the military authorities in
Manila have subjected women of bad character to "certified
examination," and General MacArthur in his recent report does not deny
this but defends it; and whereas the Hawaiian government has taken
similar action; therefore

RESOLVED, That we earnestly protest against the introduction of the
European system of State-regulated vice in the new possessions of the
United States for the following reasons:

1. To subject women of bad character to regular examinations and
furnish them with official health certificates is contrary to good
morals and must impress both our soldiers and the natives as giving
official sanction to vice.

2. It is a violation of justice to apply to vicious women compulsory
medical measures that are not applied to vicious men.

3. Official regulation of vice, while it lowers the moral tone of the
community, everywhere fails to protect the public health.

Examples were given from Paris, garrison towns of England and
Switzerland, and St. Louis, the only city in the United States that
had ever tried the system.

[8] The question of giving to women a vote for Representatives by an
Act of Congress is considered in Chapter I, Volume IV, History of
Woman Suffrage.

[9] Among the donations which brought in the largest sums were the
locomobile from Mr. and Mrs. A.L. Barber of New York; the Kansas
consignment of fine flour and butter secured by Miss Helen Kimber of
that State; the carload of hogs from Iowa farmers obtained by Mrs.
Eleanor Stockman of Mason City; the handsomely dressed doll from Mrs.
William McKinley and a fine oil painting by the noted landscape
painter, William Keith of California.

[10] At Miss Anthony's request Mrs. Harper had sent her a letter to
read to the convention giving some details as to the scope of the
_Sun_ articles, in which she said: "I consider the success of this
department due above all else to the fact that it deals with current
events. Its text each Sunday is taken from the occurrences of the
preceding week as they relate to women.... Letters of commendation and
of criticism have been received from all parts of the United States
and from London, Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Dresden, Zurich and Rome
and from Melbourne. Among the writers are bishops and ministers,
publishers, educators, authors, college presidents, physicians,
women's societies, workingmen's organizations and scores of men and
women in the private walks of life. One article brought twenty-five
pages of legal cap from lawyers in New York and Brooklyn. It is a
noteworthy fact that it is the first metropolitan daily paper to make
a woman suffrage department a regular feature."

The articles were published until the autumn of 1903, almost five
years. Mr. Dana then sold the paper and it went under the control of
William A. Laffan, an anti-suffragist, who discontinued them.

[11] Other local chairmen were Irma Winchell Stacy, Mrs. A. T.
Anderson, J. Bryan Bushnell, Dr. Margaret Koch, Mrs. James Harnden,
Mrs. H. A. Tuttle, Mrs. Marion D. Shutter, Lora C. Little, Nellie
Keyes, Mrs. Sanford Niles, Martha Scott Anderson, Josie A. Wanous,
Gracia L. Jenks, Dr. Corene J. Bissonette, Mrs. Stockwell and Mrs.
Gregory.

[12] Among those who took part in conferences and on committees were
Helen Rand Tindall (D. C.); Annie R. Wood (Cal.); Ellen Powell
Thompson (D. C.); Mariana W. Chapman, Lila K. Willets and Florence
Gregory (N. Y.); Clara Bright and Jean Gordon (La.); Etta Dann
(Mont.); Emily B. Ketcham and Maud Starker (Mich.); Maude I. Matthews
(N. D.); Eleanor M. Hall (O.); Helen Kimber (Kas.); Eleanor C.
Stockman, Dr. Frances Woods and Dollie R. Bradley (Ia.); Emily S.
Richards (Utah); Bertha G. Wade (Ind.); Clara A. Young (Neb.); Evelyn
H. Belden (Ia.); Addie N. Johnson (Mo.); Mrs. E. A. Brown (Minn.);
Cornelia Cary (Brooklyn); Ida Porter Boyer (Penn.). Valuable reports
were made by all of the State presidents.

[13] At the close of the convention twenty-seven of the visitors made
a trip in a special car to Yellowstone Park, which was arranged by
Mrs. Catt and Miss Hay. They had a most interesting time which was
graphically described by Miss Blackwell in the _Woman's Journal_ of
June 22. It also published some of the humorous poems written en route
by the gay excursionists.




CHAPTER II.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1902.


The association held its Thirty-fourth annual convention, which was
especially distinguished by the presence of visitors from other lands,
in the First Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C., Feb. 12-18,
1902.[14] There was special significance in this meeting place, as the
pastor of the church for many years was the Rev. Byron Sutherland,[15]
who from its pulpit had more than once denounced woman suffrage and
its advocates; but it was now under the liberal ministry of the Rev.
T. DeWitt Talmage, their strong and valued advocate. The Washington
_Post_ said: "More than a thousand visitors were present yesterday
afternoon at the first session of the National American Suffrage
Convention and the first International Woman Suffrage Conference.
Perhaps no other meeting of its kind ever has occasioned as much
interest on the part of Washington women generally.[16] The large
audience room was packed to the doors ... and it has been arranged to
hold overflow meetings in the church parlors." The platform was banked
with flowers over which waved the flags of thirty nations, lent by
Miss Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross, to whom they had been
presented by representatives of each individual nation. Above them all
hung the "suffrage flag" with four golden stars on its blue ground for
the four States where women were fully enfranchised--Wyoming,
Colorado, Utah and Idaho. The president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, was
in the chair.

This convention will be ever memorable because under its auspices the
First International Woman Suffrage Conference was held which resulted
later in the founding of the International Alliance. The proceedings
of this conference are described in the chapter devoted to the
Alliance. Ten countries were represented and their delegates took part
in the convention, which was welcomed on the opening afternoon by the
Hon. Henry B. F. McFarland, president of the board of commissioners of
the District of Columbia. He addressed the delegates as "stockholders
in the national capital" and said: "Personally I welcome not only you
but your cause. In common, I believe, with the majority of intelligent
men I think you have won your case on the argument. Equal suffrage is
equal justice and there is no reason why such women as you should be
classed in the States with idiots and criminals." Mrs. May Wright
Sewall, who was to greet the foreign guests in the name of the
International Council of Women, of which she was president, was
detained until later. Mrs. Catt with words of highest eulogy
introduced Miss Barton, who said:

     Madam President, Ladies and Delegates: Among many honors which
     from time to time have been tendered me by my generous country
     people, not one has been more appreciated than the privilege of
     giving this word of public welcome to the honored delegation of
     women present with us.

     Ladies of Europe, if a hundred tongues were mine they could not
     speak the glad welcome in our hearts. It is an epoch in the
     history of the world that your coming marks. For the first time
     within the written history of mankind have the women of the
     nations left their homes and assembled in council to declare the
     position of women before the world, bringing to national and
     international view the injustice and the folly of the barriers
     which ignorance has created and tradition fostered and preserved
     through the unthinking ages until they came to be held not only
     as a part of the natural laws and rights of man but as the
     immutable decrees of Divinity itself.... If woman alone had
     suffered under these mistaken traditions, if she could have borne
     the evil by herself, it would have been less pitiful, but her
     brother man, in the laws he created and ignorantly worshipped,
     has suffered with her. He has lost her highest help; he has
     crippled the intelligence he needed; he has belittled the very
     source of his own being and dwarfed the image of his Maker.

     Ladies, there is a propriety in your crossing the seas to hold
     the first council in America, for it was in this new untrammeled
     land of freedom, free birth, free thought and free speech that
     the first outspoken notes were given, the first concerted action
     taken toward the release of woman, the enlightenment of man as a
     lawmaker, and the attention of the world directed to the
     injustice, unwisdom and folly of the code under which it lived.
     It was here that the first hard blows were struck. It was here
     the paths were marked out that have been trodden with bleeding
     feet for half a century, until at length the blows no longer
     rebound and the hands of the grateful, loving womanhood of the
     world struggle for a place to scatter roses in the paths which
     erstwhile were flint and thorns; and an admiring world of women
     and men alike breathe in tones of respect, gratitude and love the
     names of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

     Miss Anthony, I am glad to stand beside you while I tell these
     women from the other side of the world who has brought them here.
     This, ladies of Europe, is your great prototype--this the woman
     who has trodden the trackless fields of the pioneer till the
     thorns are buried in roses; this, the woman who has lived to hear
     the hisses turn to dulcet strains of music; the woman who has
     dared to plead for every good cause under heaven, who opened her
     door to the fleeing slave and claimed the outcast for a brother;
     the woman beloved of her own country and honored in all
     countries.

     Although a slow lesson to learn it has always proved that the
     grandeur of a nation was shown by the respect paid to woman. The
     brightest garlands of Spain, linked with immortelles, twine about
     the name of Isabella. The highest glory of England today is not
     that she placed her crown on the brow of her trusted and beloved
     new monarch, a man whom the nations of the earth welcome to their
     galaxy of rulers, but that she lays her mantle of fifty years'
     rule through war and peace and progress such as never was known
     before, upon the grave of a woman--that mantle on which no stain
     has ever rested and on which the sunlight of happiness is
     shadowed and dimmed only by the tears of a sorrowing nation, as
     it is reverently borne to its honored rest. England, thank God
     you had no Salic law! America has none, and, Miss Anthony, the
     path which you have trodden through these oft painful years leads
     to that goal; and, though your eyes will have opened upon the
     blessed light of the heaven beyond, verily there may be some
     standing here who shall not taste death until these things come.

     Ladies and Delegates: In the name of the noble leader who has
     called you, we welcome you. In the name of our country, its great
     institutions of learning and equal privileges to all, we welcome
     you. In the name of the brotherhood of man, we welcome you. In
     the name of our never-forgotten pioneers, a Mott, a Stone, a
     Gage, a Griffing, a Garrison, a May, a Foster, a Douglass, a
     Phillips, we reverently welcome you. In the name of God and
     humanity, in the name of the angels of earth and the angels of
     heaven, we welcome you to our shores, to our halls, to our homes
     and to our hearts.

Miss Susan B. Anthony, honorary president of the association, who was
next presented and enthusiastically received, closed her brief welcome
by saying that Mrs. Stanton and herself conceived the idea of holding
an International Suffrage Conference in 1883 when they were in Europe
but the time was too early for it, and now, twenty years later,
European women had come as delegates to one in the United States and
henceforth the women of the two countries would go forward together in
this cause. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large, referred to
the fact that she was born in England and transplanted to America, and
said: "While you are divided from us by geographical lines, which are
imaginary, and by a language which is not the same, you have not come
to an alien people or land. In the realm of the heart, in the domain
of mind, there are no geographical lines dividing the nations. You
come to us as members of one family. You come that we may all stand
on one plane of freedom. I wish we could take you to our four 'star
States' where women vote. We mean to give you of our best but we
expect to get from you much more than we give. You will show us that
those who speak English are not the only ones whose hearts are alive
to the great flame of liberty."

The national corresponding secretary, Miss Kate Gordon, read a
telegram from Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen, leader of the suffrage
movement in Canada: "Greetings and best wishes from your sisters
across the line"; a cablegram from Christiana: "Success to your work,
from the National Woman Suffrage Association of Norway." A letter was
read by the delegate from Norway, Mrs. Gudrun Drewsen, from the
president of the association, Miss Gina Krog, which said in part: "The
woman suffrage movement! I know of no movement, no cause that is at
the same time so national and so international. The victory now gained
in Norway, municipal suffrage and eligibility to municipal office for
a great many women, will no doubt in time influence every home in our
country; but we could not have won this victory without receiving
impulses from other civilized nations. We are indeed indebted to men
and women in several European countries for the privileges which we
now possess, but from no other country in the world have we received
the inspiration in our work which we have had from the United States;
to no women in the world are we so indebted as to the women of this
country. Those great and noble pioneers and their fervent
struggle--how they have inspired us and awakened our enthusiasm! That
assiduous work, year after year--how it has strengthened our hands!
That glorious example, those results attained in your country--how we
have brought them before our legislators to awaken their sense of
justice! I sincerely wish that the news of the victory achieved in our
country may prove an impetus to you in your work. To be assured of
this would give us the great satisfaction of feeling that at all
events a small fraction of our great debt to you was paid."

Miss Gordon read a letter from the Federation of Progressive Women's
Societies in Germany which declared that its first and foremost object
was to secure for German women full political rights and continued:
"We watch with especial interest and sympathy the effort of those who
persistently and courageously work for the full citizenship of women.
The women of the United States have, in this struggle, set a noble
example to the women of Europe. In Germany we recall with tender
veneration such names as Lucy Stone, Frances Willard, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw and Susan B. Anthony. The women of
Germany are without political rights. It is far easier to fight for
equality and freedom in a young country, like the United States, than
in an old civilization, cumbered with traditions--a country that looks
back on a history of many centuries, that only a few decades ago
fought its way through severe conflicts and painful changes to
political unity and is now slowly growing into responsibilities which
social and political problems impose on a modern State."

"The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Tasmania sends hearty
greetings and trusts that the International Suffrage Conference may be
successful and that it will bring nearer that day when man and woman
shall sit 'side by side, full summed in all their powers,'" was the
message signed by Jessie S. Rooke, its president, which was given by
Miss Anna Gordon, president of the W. C. T. U. of the United States.
The response to the addresses of welcome was made by Madame Sofja
Levovna Friedland of Russia, who said in beautiful English:

     I am a loyal daughter of a friendly country, who thanks you for
     your welcome and brings greetings from her distant home. Russia
     and the United States have been friends for many a year and are
     friends today, proven friends, who have stood by each other in
     the hour of need. In 1863 the French ambassador at the court of
     St. Petersburg laid before the Czar the proposition of Napoleon
     III, to interfere in your civil war for the purpose of
     perpetuating the division between the North and the South. After
     listening to this bold proposal of the French Emperor, Czar
     Alexander, the man who had freed twenty-five million slaves in
     one stroke of his pen, replied: "Tell your Emperor that the
     United States is our friend and tell him also that it has the
     same right to maintain a republican form of government as we have
     to choose a monarchy. Tell him also that he must keep his hands
     off and not meddle in its affairs for I will not allow anyone to
     interfere on the other side of the Atlantic. He who strikes my
     friend, strikes me." This answer in diplomatic language went the
     same day to Paris and soon after Russian battleships arrived in
     the harbors of New York and San Francisco. There are still men
     and women who remember them. They used to wonder why the Russian
     men-of-war were lying peacefully in American waters. President
     Lincoln could have given the answer, for in a private message
     from the Czar he had been assured of the friendship of the great
     Eastern Empire. He knew that the commanders of the Russian ships
     had secret orders to act in case of necessity.

     But the American people have done more, for there came a morning
     when the glorious winter sun of Russia greeted the Star-Spangled
     Banner, when American ships landed on Russian shores ready to
     protect us from a more cruel enemy--hunger. The cry of distress
     from our famine-stricken villages had found an echo in American
     hearts and the ships which came did not bear government orders,
     they bore the tokens of love from one brother to another; they
     brought us wheat and corn to feed our people.

Madame Friedland told of the visit of the Grand Duke Alexis to this
country and of the poem read by Oliver Wendell Holmes at a banquet
given in his honor, and closed: "Thus an American poet has expressed
the feelings of his countrymen and women. God bless the United States!
Long life to President Roosevelt and prosperity to you all! In the
days to come and the years to follow may our two great nations stand
side by side in harmony and peace. May the Star-Spangled Banner and
the Russian Double Eagle soar aloft, not on battlefields, not against
any nation, but for a brotherhood of men in the federation of the
world." The opening session ended with the president's address by Mrs.
Catt, in the course of which she said:

     In ready response to growing intelligence and individualism the
     principle of self-government has been planted in every civilized
     nation of the world. Before the force of this onward movement the
     most cherished ideals of conservatism have fallen. Out of the
     ashes of the old, phoenix-like has arisen a new institution,
     vigorous and strong, yea, one which will endure as long as men
     occupy the earth. The little band of Americans who initiated the
     modern movement would never have predicted that within a century
     "Taxation of men without representation is tyranny" would have
     been written into the fundamental law of all the monarchies of
     Europe except Russia and Turkey and that even there
     self-government would obtain in the municipalities. The most
     optimistic seer among them would not have prophesied that
     Mongolian Japan, then tightly shutting her gates against the
     commerce of the world and jealously guarding her ancient customs,
     would before the century closed have welcomed Western
     civilization and established universal suffrage for its men. He
     would not have dreamed that every inch of the great continent of
     South America, then chiefly an unexplored region over which bands
     of savages roved at will, would be covered by written
     constitutions guaranteeing self-government to men inspired by
     Declarations of Independence similar to that of this country;
     that the settlements in Mexico and Central America and many
     islands of the ocean would grow into republics, and least of all
     that the island continent of Australia, with its associates of
     New Zealand and Tasmania, then unexplored wildernesses, would
     become great democracies where self-government would be carried
     on with such enthusiasm, fervor and wisdom that they would give
     lessons in methods and principles to all the rest of the
     world....

     Hard upon the track of the man suffrage movement presses the
     movement for woman suffrage, a logical step onward. It has come
     as inevitably and naturally as the flower unfolds from the bud or
     the fruit develops from the flower. Why should woman suffrage not
     come? Men throughout the world hold their suffrage by the
     guarantee of the two principles of liberty and for these reasons
     only: One, "Taxation without representation is tyranny"; who
     dares deny it? And are not women taxed? The other, "Governments
     derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." How
     simple and unanswerable that petition of justice!... Woman
     suffrage must meet precisely the same objections which have been
     urged against man suffrage and in addition it must combat
     sex-prejudice, a prejudice against the rights, liberties and
     opportunities of women.

Mrs. Catt closed her address with these words: "Yet before the
attainment of equal rights for men and women there will be years of
struggle and disappointment. We of a younger generation have taken up
the work where our noble and consecrated pioneers left it. We in turn
are enlisted for life and generations yet unborn will take up the work
where we lay it down. So through centuries if need be the education
will continue, until a regenerated race of men and women who are equal
before God and man shall control the destinies of the earth. It will
be the proud duty of the new International Alliance, if one shall be
formed, to extend its helping hand to the women of every nation and
every people and its completed duty will not have been performed until
the last vestige of the old obedience of one human being to another
shall have been destroyed."

The presence of the foreign visitors and the greetings from abroad
made an original and pleasing variation of the usual program at
national conventions. The Evening with the Pioneers opened with the
singing by the audience of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, written by
one of them, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, led by another, John Hutchinson, a
member of the famous family of singers, who the day before had
celebrated his 90th birthday. Miss Anthony presided and the Washington
_Times_ said that she "was greeted with a storm of applause, the
convention rising as one woman and with waving handkerchiefs cheering
her to the echo for several minutes." The Loyal Legion of Women
through its president gave her an armful of red roses and in accepting
them she observed smilingly: "I can only say what I have often said in
late years--it is much pleasanter to be pelted with roses than stones!
The National Suffrage Association stands like a Mother Church with her
arms wide open to those who want to come in and we are especially glad
to receive loyal women."[17]

Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller, a member of the London School Board for
nine years, brought greetings from Mrs. Priscilla Bright McLaren, 87
years old, of whom Miss Anthony said: "She is an elder sister of John
and Jacob Bright. John was the great champion of manhood suffrage but
Jacob was still greater, for he was a champion of suffrage for women
also. Mrs. McLaren sent a loving and appreciative message to "the dear
American women who have so steadfastly held up the banner of woman
suffrage and especially to the octogenarians, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony," and closed it with a Christmas poem. Miss
Anthony recalled her last visit to Mrs. McLaren in Edinburgh three
years before and said: "I wish you could see how beautiful she looked
as she lay on the bed in her pretty white cap and blue dressing sack.
She is an inspiration to the women of Great Britain and she has been
to me."

Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.), gave a greeting from Mrs. Stanton,
in her 87th year, and read her paper on Educated Suffrage.[18] In this
able and scholarly document Mrs. Stanton said:

     The proposition to demand of immigrants a reading and writing
     qualification on landing strikes me as arbitrary and equally
     detrimental to our mutual interests. The danger is not in their
     landing and living in this country but in their speedy appearance
     at the ballot-box, there becoming an impoverished and ignorant
     balance of power in the hands of wily politicians. While we
     should not allow our country to be a dumping-ground for the
     refuse population of the old world, still we should welcome all
     hardy, common-sense laborers here, as we have plenty of room and
     work for them.... The one demand I would make for this class is
     that they should not become a part of our ruling power until they
     can read and write the English language intelligently and
     understand the principles of republican government.... To prevent
     the thousands of immigrants daily landing on our shores from
     marching from the steerage to the polls the national Government
     should prohibit the States from allowing them to vote in less
     than five years and not then unless the applicant can read and
     write the English language.... To this end, Congress should enact
     a law for "educated suffrage" for our native-born as well as
     foreign rulers, alike ignorant of our institutions. With free
     schools and compulsory education, no one has an excuse for not
     understanding the language of the country. As women are governed
     by a "male aristocracy" we are doubly interested in having our
     rulers able at least to read and write.

     The popular objection to woman suffrage is that it would "double
     the ignorant vote." The patent answer to this is, abolish the
     ignorant vote. Our legislators have this power in their own
     hands. There have been various restrictions in the past for men.
     We are willing to abide by the same for women, provided the
     insurmountable qualification of sex be forever removed....
     Surely, when we compel all classes to learn to read and write and
     thus open to themselves the door of knowledge not by force but by
     the promise of a privilege all intelligent citizens enjoy, we are
     benefactors, not tyrants. To stimulate them to climb the first
     rounds of the ladder that they may reach the divine heights where
     they shall be as gods, knowing good and evil, by withholding the
     citizen's right to vote for a few years will be a blessing to
     them as well as to the State....

Mrs. Stanton had made her last address in person to a national
convention in 1892, when she resigned the presidency of the
association--that incomparable essay on The Solitude of Self--but she
never had failed to send her annual battle cry. The one to this
convention, which began the fulfilment of her dream of a world-wide
movement for woman suffrage, was written with all her old-time logic
and forceful argument and it proved to be her last, as her long and
valuable life was ended the next November.

Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (O.) read the paper of Mrs. Caroline
Hallowell Miller (Md.), detained at the last moment, on Why We Come
Again, in which she explained why the suffragists would continue to
come to Washington and haunt Congress until their object, a Federal
Amendment, had been attained. The humor for which Mrs. Miller, a staid
"Quaker," was noted sparkled in its sentences although she protested
that she was entirely serious. Miss Anthony introduced Henry B.
Blackwell (Mass.) with the quaint remark: "He was the husband of Lucy
Stone; I don't think he can quite represent her but he will do the
best he can!" Mr. Blackwell briefly reviewed the agitation for women
suffrage during the first half of the 19th century. He told of meeting
Lucy Stone in 1850 and being so charmed he advised his elder brother
to make her acquaintance; of hearing her address a Massachusetts
constitutional convention in 1852 with William Lloyd Garrison and
Wendell Phillips; of making his own first suffrage speech in
Cleveland, O., in 1853 and of his marriage in 1855. In presenting the
next speaker Miss Anthony said: "Mr. Blackwell alluded to his brother,
who did not marry Lucy but Antoinette--the Rev. Antoinette Brown
Blackwell, the first ordained woman minister--who will now address
you." Her paper on Chivalry was a clear analysis of the changed ideas
of this word, touching with sarcasm on that of the days when the
effort for the rights of women began, a chivalry which gave the person
and property of the wife, the guardianship of the children, all her
legal privileges, to the husband. She traced the evolution from the
early privations of the pioneer suffragists to the honors that are now
showered upon them and drew a striking contrast between "the dying old
chivalry, which made itself the sole umpire of the benefits to be
granted, and the increasing new chivalry, which consults the
beneficiaries themselves as to their needs and desires."

Miss Anthony then introduced the first woman ordained by the
Universalist Church, the Rev. Olympia Brown, who struck the keynote
of her address in saying: "When we are vexed by the seeming
irrationality of some of our Congressmen, may we not explain it as due
to the fact that they are thinking of the kind of men who elected
them? The United States debars intelligent American women from voting
and says to the riffraff of Europe, 'Come over and help govern us.' It
is an experiment which no other country in the world ever did make and
no other ever will make and I predict that it will be a failure. It
will be necessary to call in the aid of the intelligent American women
and soon or late this will be done."

Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of the noted Abolitionist,
Gerrit Smith, was asked to rise and Miss Anthony paid glowing tribute
to him and to many men and women who had stood by the cause of woman
suffrage in its early days. The audience were pleased to enjoy once
more her informal and unique method of presiding, as glancing over the
audience she singled out veteran suffragists who had come to hear and
not to speak, calling them by name with some reminiscent comment. Her
eye fell upon William H. Bright, who sponsored the bill in the
Legislature of Wyoming which gave the first equal suffrage ever
granted anywhere to women. In answering the demand of the audience for
a speech he told how Mrs. Esther Morris had come from New York State
to Wyoming in 1867 and how she and his wife had persuaded him to
prepare the bill, which was passed by a Democratic Legislature and
signed by a Republican Governor. In response to a general request Miss
Anthony told the story, of which audiences never seemed to tire, of
that historic occasion when she broke all precedents by addressing a
Teachers' Convention in 1853. This interesting session closed with the
singing of Auld Lang Syne led by the venerable John Hutchinson.

During a morning session Miss Gordon made her report as corresponding
secretary, saying that although it covered only the seven months since
the last convention it showed that 6,500 letters had been sent out
from the headquarters during this period. In 1895, when Mrs. Catt
became chairman of the Organization Committee, she had established
headquarters for her work in one little room in the New York _World_
building, that was really an annex of her husband's offices, and
begun the publication of a Bulletin, which was the organ of the
committee. In 1897 it became the organ of the National Association and
had now expanded into a quarterly paper called _Progress_, which was
edited by Alice Stone Blackwell, Ellis Meredith and Laura Gregg. A
preliminary edition of 100,000 had been sent out from the
headquarters, the expense borne by Boston women, and later 16,000
copies of the October and 20,000 of the January editions had gone to
the 14,000 newspapers of the country, to members of Congress and
others. A monthly series of Political Equality Leaflets was also
commenced and a Course of Study for Clubs and individuals was
established for which a dozen or more books were published. These two
valuable features were carried on without any expense to the
association, as they paid for themselves.

Miss Gordon described the National Conference held in Charleston, S.
C., February 3-4, at the invitation of the board of the Inter-State
and West Indian Exposition; told of the conference in Baltimore[19]
and said of the one in Buffalo: "The far-reaching effect and impetus
given to the woman's movement by the Congress of Women held in
connection with the Chicago Exposition, determined the Business
Committee's acceptance of an invitation to hold a National Conference
during the Pan-American Exposition. Too late did we learn that the
invitation extended included no responsibility whatever upon the
Exposition to further the success of the conference. Buffalo did not
represent an organized center and after several fruitless attempts to
form a local committee, the headquarters realized that every little
detail essential to success must be attended to by the board. From all
sides reports of the most discouraging nature were received as to the
absolute failure attending all conferences there but nevertheless we
started a vigorous correspondence and for five preceding weeks every
Sunday paper in Buffalo was supplied with matter from headquarters. To
make a long story short, September 9-10 witnessed our conference well
attended, with the night sessions crowded and success acknowledged on
all sides, even though we labored under the disadvantage of its being
held during the season of sorrow and distress in that city while
President McKinley's life hovered in the valley of the shadow of
death."

Miss Gordon said that during the year Mrs. Catt had made a tour of
nine States and taken part in forty meetings. Referring to the efforts
made to have a woman suffrage clause put into new constitutions that
were being framed in several States she said: "The clause which lived
twenty-four hours in the Alabama Constitution, granting to taxpaying
women owning $500 worth of property the suffrage on questions of
bonded indebtedness, was killed by a disease peculiar to the genus
homo known as chivalry. In the case in point, the diagnosis revealed
that the fairest, purest and brightest jewels that ever shone under
the brilliant rays of God's shining sun would be immeasurably lowered
by voting upon questions relating to the taxation of their own
property. Yet, under the vagaries of this disease, this same
convention conferred on husbands the right to vote on their wives'
property. This is the same character of chivalry which gives the wages
of the brightest, fairest jewels to the husband, which makes
impossible equal pay for equal work and which classes the jewels with
the idiots, insane and criminals in that and other States."

The program was so crowded with attractions that it left no time for
the usual conferences on work and campaigns, so they were placed at
9:30 a.m. As they had been so largely attended by visitors the
preceding year as to call forth a rule from the Board of Officers that
thereafter delegates only should be permitted to attend them, this was
not disastrous. Early morning conferences therefore were held on
Organization and Press and two others took the form of State
presidents' councils. The Plan of Work recommended again by the
Executive Committee and adopted by the convention urged work in
Congressional districts for the 16th Amendment; an attempt to secure
tax-paying suffrage; more resolutions by national and State
conventions; a campaign to secure suffrage speakers at Chautauqua
assemblies and State and county fairs; prizes for essays on woman
suffrage in schools and colleges; circulating suffrage libraries and
the general use of a suffrage stamp on letters.

Two novel evening programs were devoted to The New Woman and The New
Man, the first with the following speakers: Mrs. Helen Adelaide Shaw
of Boston; Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer of New Orleans, known far and wide
as "Dorothy Dix," said to receive the highest salary of any woman
journalist; Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, a prominent physician and surgeon of
Minneapolis; Miss Gail Laughlin (N. Y.) who had taken the highest
honors in the Law Class of Cornell University; the Rev. Ida C. Hultin,
a successful Unitarian minister of Boston. Miss Margaret Haley of
Chicago, who led the great fight of the Teachers' Federation of that
city to compel the big corporations to pay their taxes in order that
the public schools should not be crippled for lack of funds, could not
be present because of a crisis in the legal proceedings. Each of the
women representing the four professions of law, medicine, theology and
journalism, in addresses scintillating with humor, reviewed the early
prejudices which had been overcome, told of the large number of women
who had entered the field when the opportunity came but showed that
they could never have an even chance until there was complete
obliteration of sex prejudice. Little idea of their interest could be
obtained from fragmentary paragraphs.

The house was crowded to hear about The New Man,[20] represented first
on the program by Oswald Garrison Villard, grandson of William Lloyd
Garrison and owner and editor of the New York _Evening Post_, who gave
a spirited and effective account of Women in the New York Municipal
Campaign. This was the first in which women ever had taken a
prominent part and it had attracted wide attention, a revolt against
Tammany corruption under Richard Croker. Mr. Villard told of the
remarkable work done by the Women's Municipal League under direction
of the Citizen's Union for the election of Seth Low as Mayor and a
reform ticket. He paid a sarcastic tribute to the assistance of the
women anti-suffragists. "To have been really consistent," he said,
"they should have urged upon their more emancipated sisters that
woman's sphere is the home and any steps that lead beyond it tend in
the long run to the destruction both of the home and of the eternal
feminine." He closed by declaring that "the Titanic struggle between
right and wrong in the great cities can not be won without the
cooperation of that half of the nation's citizens in whose hearts are
ever found the truest ideals of family and society, of city life and
State life and of national existence." At its conclusion Mrs. Catt
said: "And yet after Mr. Low was elected Mayor of Greater New York a
large number of the women who had helped him win the victory urged him
to appoint some women on the school board and he refused. So we must
suppose that he is willing to have women pull the chestnuts out of the
fire for men but is not willing to give them a share of the
chestnuts."

A feature of the evening was the scholarly address of the Hon. William
Dudley Foulke (Ind.), president of the U. S. Civil Service Commission.
He objected to being classed as a "new man," since long ago he was for
several years president of the American Suffrage Association. "Men
would not be satisfied with indirect influence," he declared and
continued: "It is often said that woman suffrage is just but that
there is no need of it, because women have no interests separate from
those of men. That argument was used to me only lately by an eminent
political economist. I said: 'Suppose a railroad runs through a town
and a woman owns a large property in that town and yet cannot vote on
the question of raising a subsidy; are her interests necessarily the
same as those of every man in the town?' My friends, that case is
universal. Suppose a widow is trying to bring up her son in the
principles of morality and a saloon is opened on the corner opposite
her home. I do not speak as an advocate of prohibition but I do say
that the interest of the mother is different from that of the man who
sells liquor. Or suppose she is bringing up a daughter; she has a
sacred right to protect that daughter from a libertine. Her interest
is certainly different from that of the tempter.... We do not realize
what an immense waste there is in denying woman entrance to political
life. She ought to have free access to anything she is qualified to do
and where she is not qualified she will drop out."

John S. Crosby, a prominent Democratic leader of New York, made a
thorough analysis of the functions of the State and the Government,
showed the utter fallacy of constituting men the governing and women
the governed class and closed as follows: "Attempt to prove that
woman's claim to the right of suffrage is as valid as any that man can
make would be like trying to demonstrate the truth of a self-evident
proposition.... We ask the ballot for woman not merely because she has
a right to it but quite as much because it is her duty to exercise
that right. The irresistible power of that all-embracing organization,
the State, holds you and me and all that are dear to us as its
helpless and often hopeless subjects. The combined wisdom of all of us
would be none too great for its intelligent administration and we
demand for our own sake and for the sake of those that shall come
after us that the wisdom of woman shall be included; not only that her
delicate, intuitional sense of justice shall leaven the lump of public
opinion but that her deft hand shall help to knead it into the bread
of righteous law. We ask as one of the rights that government is bound
to secure that in the administration of its power it shall make use of
the fullest wisdom of the whole people; that the entire popular brain
and social conscience shall take cognizance of and be responsible for
all acts of government. Not until then shall we see true democracy;
not until then shall we indeed have a government of the people, by the
people and for the people."

The next day was one always commemorated by suffragists--the birthday
of Susan B. Anthony--this time the 82nd. The _Woman's Journal_ began
its account: "As Miss Anthony sat at breakfast on February 15, with
one of the jars of delicious cream before her that were sent her
daily by the president of the Maryland Woman Suffrage Association, she
was unexpectedly surrounded by the foreign delegates in a body. A
birthday greeting drawn up and signed by them was read aloud by Mrs.
Florence Fenwick Miller of England, while the rest, grouped behind
her, bent forward listening with attentive faces--a pretty picture.
Among the gifts which she received during the afternoon session were a
canoe full of flowers from 'one of the girls' with a poem; a handsome
feather boa from Mrs. Swift and Mrs. Sperry of California; a cup made
from the wood of the floor under the table on which the Declaration of
Independence was signed, presented in the name of Mrs. General Geddes;
a bouquet of red roses from Prof. Theodosia Ammons of Colorado
Agricultural College; potted plants from the Swedish and Norwegian
delegates; over $500 from Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard, Miss Emily
Howland, Mrs. Kenyon, Mrs. W. W. Trimble, Miss Nettie Lovisa White,
Mrs. William M. Ivins and other friends; also quantities of fruit and
flowers. The address was as follows:

     We, the undersigned, Foreign Delegates to the first International
     Woman Suffrage Congress, gladly take the opportunity of your 82nd
     birthday to express to you our love and reverence, our gratitude
     for your lifelong work for women, and are rejoicing that you have
     lived to see such great steps onward made by the world at large
     in the direction in which you led at first under such prejudice.
     Praying that you may enjoy years of health, cheered by every
     fresh advance, we remain, your loving friends,

     Florence Fenwick Miller, England; Sofja Levovna Friedland,
     Russia; Carolina Holman Huidobro, Chili; Gudrun Drewsen, Norway;
     Vida Goldstein, Australia; Emmy Evald, Sweden; Antonie Stolle,
     Germany.

[Later the foreign delegates gave Mrs. Catt a handsomely engraved
silver card case.]

The Washington _Times_ said of the occasion:

     The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw presented a large basket of fruit from
     some of the principal suffrage workers with these touching words:
     "Miss Anthony, you have been more than a leader to us of your own
     country, more than a teacher, more than a counselor, you have
     been our beloved friend. Take this with our love for you, dear,
     dear friend." This completed Miss Anthony's conquest and she
     almost broke down. There has been very little emotionalism in
     this convention but for some minutes there was ample proof all
     over the hall that being delegates to a suffrage convention had
     not made any woman forget how to cry. Mrs. Catt finally came to
     Miss Anthony's rescue in a little speech full of tender
     appreciation: "The greatest thing about Miss Anthony to my mind
     is her utter unselfishness and lack of self-consciousness. As we
     came up the aisle the other night and the audience broke into a
     thunder of applause for her whom all love, Miss Anthony looked
     about to see what caused it and then asked: 'What are they
     applauding for?' She credits all attentions to herself as for the
     cause and it is dearer to her than life. Last night at an hour
     when all respectable women suffragists should have been in bed,
     the treasurer and I put our heads together and decided that we
     would ask all of you to give a present to the association on Miss
     Anthony's birthday instead of giving it to her. We know her well
     enough to be sure this is what she would like best."

Miss Mary Garrett Hay, the champion money raiser, then made the appeal
to the audience, who quickly responded with over $5,000 and she
received an appreciative vote of thanks from the convention. Mrs.
Harriet Taylor Upton, the treasurer, reported the receipts of the
preceding year as $13,581, with a carefully itemized and audited
statement.

Among the most interesting and valuable features of all national
conventions are the reports of the work in the various States and yet
because of the large number it is impossible to give specific mention
or quotations. They were varied on this occasion by the reports from
foreign countries--Venezuela, Chili, Japan, China, Australia, New
Zealand, the Philippines, Porto Rico, Canada, Great Britain, Norway,
Sweden, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and
France. These had been obtained at the request of Mrs. Catt from
ambassadors, consuls or persons appointed by them and represented
months of labor. Several evenings were largely devoted to addresses by
delegates from other countries; one by Public School Inspector James
L. Hughes, Toronto; the English Woman in Politics, Florence Fenwick
Miller; the Australian Woman in Politics, Vida Goldstein; Women in
South American Republics, Carolina Huidobro; Women in Porto Rico,
Resident Commissioner Federico Degetau; Women in the Philippines,
Harriet Potter Nourse; Deborah, Emmy Evald, Sweden; Women in Egypt and
Jerusalem, Lydia von Finkelstein Mountford; Women in Turkey, Florence
Fensham, Dean of American College for Girls in Constantinople; Women
in Germany, Antoine Stolle.

When the report for Porto Rico was made Miss Shaw supplemented it with
a graphic account of a trip to the West Indies with Mrs. Lydia Avery
Coonley Ward of Chicago, which she had just finished, telling of the
position of women, the marriage laws, etc. The work of the National
Council of Women was presented by the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer (R.
I.); the report of the affiliated Friends' Equal Rights Association by
Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman (N. Y.), its president.

The Sunday afternoon services in the church were conducted by the Rev.
Anna Garlin Spencer, assisted by the Rev. Olympia Brown and the Rev.
Anna Howard Shaw.[21] Mrs. Spencer first defined the ideal of womanly
character held by the older poets and philosophers, quoting Milton's
line describing Adam and Eve: "He for God only; she for God in him,"
and the expression used by the hard, old father of Tennyson's
"Princess": "Man to command and woman to obey." She then expressed the
modern ideal as that of devotion to the same essentials but different
in expression. "Woman is not called to a new kingdom but to a larger
occupancy of that which has been hers from the beginning. The woman
with the child in her arms was the beginning of the family; the hearth
fire and the altar fire grew from this; the elder child teaching the
younger was the beginning of the school. We are making over all these
inherited traditions and inherited tendencies and socializing them....
The ideal woman is no longer a far-away Madonna with her feet on the
clouds; she is as divine but she is human. What means the humanizing
of religion and the passing of harsh, old creeds but that a greater,
more human, more womanly influence is felt in all the relations of
life."

Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee on Presidential suffrage,
said in his report: "This is the open door for woman suffrage in every
State in the Union. Any Legislature at any session by a majority vote
of both Houses, either separately or in joint session, without any
change of State constitution, can empower women to help select the
presidential electors on the same terms as male citizens. The power is
absolute and unqualified. Let women in every State petition their
Legislature to enable women to take part in this most important form
of suffrage known to the American people. It is objected to our demand
for woman suffrage that women do not want it and will not exercise it
if granted. This is now the only method of testing women's wish to
take part in their government. If by a general exercise of the right
they show their public spirit, the Legislature by submitting an
amendment to the State constitution can afterwards extend suffrage to
its citizens in State and local elections. This step will be the most
conservative way of procedure. The control will remain, as now, in the
hands of a Legislature elected by men alone. If it prove
unsatisfactory to the men of the State any subsequent Legislature can
repeal the law."

A report of the International Suffrage Conference, which had been in
progress during the convention, and the forming of a committee to
further permanent organization, was made by its secretary, Miss
Goldstein, and the convention voted that the National American Woman
Suffrage Association should cooperate with this committee. The
nominations for office were made as usual by secret ballot and as
usual were so nearly unanimous that the secretary was instructed to
cast the vote. The only change in the present board was the election
of Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, for many years prominent in the work in
Iowa, as second auditor in place of Dr. Eaton, whose professional
duties required all her time. Invitations for the next convention were
received from Niagara Falls, Detroit, St. Louis, Denver, Baltimore and
New Orleans. The Board of Trade, the Era Club and the Progressive
Union united in the one from New Orleans, which was accepted and
cordial thanks returned for the others.

The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the
committee, rejoiced in the suffrage already gained and the securing in
the past year of laws in various States giving equal guardianship of
their children to mothers and increased property rights to wives.
They called the attention of the Civil Service Commission to
discriminations made against women and emphasized the protest of the
preceding year against government regulation of vice in the
Philippines. Later at an executive meeting of the board a vigorous set
of resolutions was prepared, stating that the reports of Governor
William H. Taft and General McArthur admitted and defended "certified
examinations of women" in the new possessions of the United States. It
showed at length the results of government regulation in other
countries which had caused it to be abandoned and declared that "such
things ought not to be permitted under the American flag."[22]

Mrs. Colby's report on Industrial Problems Relating to Women cited as
one example of discrimination: "An effort is now being made in
Congress to do away with the annual sick leave of employees, because,
it is claimed, women take so much advantage of it. Investigation
shows, however, that the per cent. of sick leave is highest in the
Inter-State Commerce Commission, where not a woman is employed--twelve
per cent.--and only seven per cent. in the Agricultural Department,
where a very large number are employed." She gave numerous instances
of unfairness against women on the civil service lists, said that
women wage earners must find a forum on the suffrage platform where
they can plead their cause and carefully analyze the industrial
problems especially affecting women. Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, chairman
of the Press Committee, gave a comprehensive report stating that while
50,000 news stories and articles had been sent to the papers in 1900
the number had increased to 175,000 during the last year and there was
reason to believe that three-fourths of them had been used. The
largest city papers freely accepted the articles.

Former U. S. Senator Henry W. Blair of New Hampshire came in for one
session and was called to the platform for a speech. He was much loved
by the suffragists, as he had been one of the strongest champions of
woman suffrage during his many years in the Senate and had brought the
Federal Amendment to a vote on Jan. 25, 1887. (History of Woman
Suffrage, Volume IV, chapter VI.) Letters of affectionate greeting
were sent to the pioneers and veteran workers, Mrs. Stanton, Isabella
Beecher Hooker, Mary S. Anthony, Jane H. Spofford, Sallie Clay
Bennett, Caroline Hallowell Miller and Abigail S. Duniway. The deaths
among the older and more prominent members during the year had been
many and fifty were mentioned in the memorial resolutions.

The notable social features of the week were the afternoon receptions
given by Mrs. Julia Langdon Barber at her beautiful home, Belmont, and
by Mrs. John B. Henderson at Boundary Castle, the latter followed the
next day by a dinner for the officers of the association and the
delegates from abroad. Both of these well-known Washington hostesses
were early suffragists and had often extended the hospitality of their
spacious homes to the individual leaders and to the conventions.

A very interesting address was given on the last evening by Madame
Friedland on Russian Women of Past Centuries. U. S. Senator Thomas M.
Patterson of Colorado presented a vigorous and convincing endorsement
of the practical working of woman suffrage in that State for the past
nineteen years and its benefits to women and to civic life. U. S.
Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, always a strong and loyal
supporter of suffrage for women, was on the platform. Dr. Shaw,
introduced by Mrs. Catt as "the Demosthenes of the movement,"
delivered for the first time her impressive speech, The Power of an
Incentive, in which she showed how laws, customs and lack of
opportunity took away the incentive for great work from the life of
women. Until they can have the same that inspires men, she said, they
never can rise to their highest capabilities. No adequate reports of
any of these addresses exist.

The audience waited to hear from Miss Anthony, who was thus described
by a writer present: "The picture that Miss Anthony made during the
evening was one which the delegates will carry away with them to keep.
She wore a black satin gown with a handsome point lace fichu and
draped over her shoulders a soft, white shawl, while close by was a
large jar of lavender hyacinths. Her expressive face reflected every
mood of the evening and it now spoke pride, satisfaction and sorrow.
She told of the joy and gratification she felt in the wonderful galaxy
of women at the convention and the progress of her loved cause, and
when she voiced the wish that she might be with them at the next
convention her words were almost lost in a whirlwind of applause."

Mrs. Catt in closing with a brief address one of the most noteworthy
conventions on record, called attention to what had been the key-note
of her speech before the House Judiciary Committee and said: "We have
asked of Congress the most reasonable thing a great cause ever
demanded--an investigation of conditions in the equal suffrage
States--and on its results we rest our case."

Under the heading Impressions of a Non-combatant a writer in the
Washington _Times_ gave the following opinion:

     If there is one convention among the many Washington has seen
     which may be called unique, it is that of the National Suffrage
     Association. There is nothing like it in the world. There is only
     one Susan B. Anthony and there is practically only one suffrage
     fight.... In the old days the power of an idea was the only thing
     that could have waked up an interest and held the suffragists
     together. It took faith and zeal and lots of other things to be a
     believer in woman suffrage then. Now it only takes executive
     ability and vim and a general interest in public affairs.... The
     problems discussed were almost purely legal and economic, dealing
     with the suffrage question proper, the wages of women and their
     occupations. There was very little empty rhetoric but a good deal
     of fun. In short, there are two extra senses with which most of
     the delegates seem to be provided--common sense and a sense of
     humor--excellent substitutes for emotion when it comes to
     practical affairs. If the association ever loses the idealism
     which is still its backbone it will be a political machine of
     much power; it seems likely to be for the present a decided force
     in the direction of civic reform.

       *       *       *       *       *

For a quarter of a century during the first session of each Congress
committees of Senate and House had given a hearing to representatives
of the National Suffrage Association to present arguments for the
submission of an amendment to the Federal Constitution which would
enfranchise women, and at an earlier date to advocate other suffrage
measures. Because of the distinguished speakers from abroad the
hearings at this time were of unusual interest. The convention
adjourned for them on the morning of February 18 and the Senate and
House Committee rooms were crowded.

All the members of the Senate Committee were present--Augustus O.
Bacon (Ga.) chairman; James H. Berry (Ark.); George P. Wetmore (R.
I.); Thomas R. Bard (Calif.); John H. Mitchell (Ore.). Miss Susan B.
Anthony, honorary president of the association, presided and said:

     Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, this is the
     seventeenth Congress that has been addressed by the women of this
     nation, which means that we have been coming to Congress
     thirty-four years. Once, in 1887, the Senate brought the measure
     to a discussion and vote and defeated it by 34 to 16, with 26 not
     wishing to go on record. We ask for a 16th Amendment because it
     is much easier to persuade the members of a Legislature to ratify
     this amendment than it is to get the whole three million or six
     million, as the case may be, of the rank and file of the men of
     the State to vote for woman suffrage. We think we are of as much
     importance as the Filipinos, Porto Ricans, Hawaiians, Cubans and
     all of the different sorts of men that you are carefully
     considering. The six hundred teachers sent over to the
     Philippines are a thousand times better entitled to vote than are
     the men who go there to make money. The women of the islands are
     quite as well qualified to govern and have charge of affairs as
     are the men. I do not propose to talk. I am simply here to
     introduce those who are to address you.

Miss Anthony then presented Miss Harriet May Mills (N. Y.), who spoke
from the standpoint of tax paying women, who in the towns and villages
alone of her State paid taxes on over $5,000,000 worth of property;
Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, president of the Pennsylvania Suffrage
Association, who showed the connection between politics and conditions
in Philadelphia; the Rev. Olympia Brown, president of the Wisconsin
association, who pointed out the need of both the reason and the
intuition in the country to govern it wisely. Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman,
president of the New York association, called for a Federal Amendment
to enfranchise women because of the principles on which this
Government was founded. Miss Gail Laughlin, a graduate of Wellesley
College and Cornell University Law School, made a strong argument on
the effect enfranchisement would have on woman's economic independence
and greater efficiency. Mrs. Jennie A. Brown, of Minneapolis, told of
the unlimited opportunities allowed to the women of the great
northwest which were largely counteracted by their political
restrictions. Mrs. Mary Wood Swift of California, president of the
National Council of Women, declared that the countless thousands of
the educated, developed women of today were fully equal to the
responsibilities of citizenship. Mrs. Lucy Hobart Day, president of
the Maine association, demonstrated the inferior and unfortunate
position of disfranchised women. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, editor of
the _Woman's Journal_ (Boston), indicated how every step of the
progress of women had been opposed by the same objections now made to
woman suffrage and submitted these objections and the answers to them
in a convincing statement which filled ten pages of the printed report
of the hearing.

Miss Anthony introduced Mrs. Gudrun Drewsen, one of the foreign
delegates to the convention, who said in part: "Norwegian women look
back to the 25th of May, 1901, as a day of great victory, for on that
day a bill was passed in our Parliament which granted Municipal
suffrage to all women paying taxes on a certain limited income, about
$100 a year, or whose husbands paid on such income. This law has
thoroughly changed the position of the married woman and from having
always been a minor she has suddenly become of age. It may be of
interest to you of the United States, who can show so many tax paying
women without any right to vote, to know that we were not able to get
our Parliament interested in tax paying woman suffrage until the bill
included wives also. The immediate result of this law has been the
election of several women to important municipal positions; for
instance, members of the common council in the capital; members of the
board of aldermen; at one place chief assessor. Women may serve on
juries and grand juries and have been appointed members of special
congressional commissions. Several women doctors have been appointed
in public institutions, on boards of health as experts for the
Government, etc. Matrons have been employed at prisons where women
are and special prisons for women in charge of a matron have been
established. On the whole we begin to see the glory of the rising sun
which will give us in a little while the bright, clear day."

Miss Vida Goldstein, a delegate from Australia, began her address: "I
am very proud that I have come here from a country where the woman
suffrage movement has made such rapid strides. The note was first
struck in America and yet women today are struggling here for what we
have had in Australia for years, and we have proved all the statements
and arguments against woman suffrage to be utterly without foundation.
It seems incredible to us that the women here have not even the School
and Municipal suffrage except in a very few States. We have had this
for over forty years and we have never heard a word against it. It is
simply taken as a matter of course that the women should vote. They
say that as soon as women get this privilege they are going to lose
the chivalrous attentions of men. Let me assure you that a woman has
not the slightest conception of what chivalry means until she gets a
vote...." Miss Goldstein told of woman suffrage in New Zealand and
produced the highest testimony as to its good results in both
countries.

In closing the hearing Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national vice president,
said in part:

     Our association desires you not only to report the resolution for
     this amendment favorably but to recommend the appointment of a
     committee to investigate this subject. Years ago when our women
     came before you we had nothing but theory to give you, what we
     believed would be the good results of woman suffrage if it were
     granted. The opponents had their theories and they stated the
     evils they believed would follow. The theory of one person is as
     good as that of another until it has been put to the test, but
     after that both sides must lay aside all theory and stand or fall
     upon facts. In four States women have the full suffrage. For more
     than thirty years they have been exercising it in Wyoming equally
     with men; in Colorado for nine years and in Utah and Idaho for
     six years. We do believe that from six to thirty years is long
     enough time to measure its effect. What we would like better than
     anything else is that Congress should appoint a committee of
     investigation, and that such a committee should investigate the
     result of woman suffrage in the States where it has already been
     granted.... So sure are we its report would be favorable that we
     are perfectly willing to stake our future on it. While we do not
     claim that only good would come from woman suffrage, we do
     believe that among all the people of a community or of a nation
     there are more good men and women than there are bad men and
     women, and that when we unite the good men and good women they
     will be able to carry measures for the general welfare and we
     will have better laws and conditions.

       *       *       *       *       *

At the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Representative
John J. Jenkins, in the chair, expressed regret that George W. Ray of
New York, the chairman, was unavoidably absent and said: "He is very
much in sympathy with what the ladies desire to say this morning--much
more so than the present occupant of the chair." Mrs. Carrie Chapman
Catt, president of the National American Suffrage Association, who had
charge of the hearing, said: "Mr. Chairman, we have just been holding
an International Woman Suffrage Conference in the city of Washington,
eight nations having sent official delegates from woman suffrage
organizations, and several others have cooperated through
correspondence, and we have invited representatives of these nations
to come to you this morning and present some facts concerning the
practical operation of suffrage in countries other than our own. Our
first speaker will be Miss Vida Goldstein of Australia." Miss
Goldstein gave in substance the address which will be found in the
report of the Senate hearing, after which Mrs. Catt said: "Although I
have been a resident and taxpayer in four different States and able to
qualify as a voter I have never been permitted any suffrage whatever.
I now have the privilege of introducing a Russian woman who has been a
voter in her country ever since she was 21." Madame Friedland said in
part:

     Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: In a country like
     Russia, with an absolute government, there is but little suffrage
     for either men or women but the little there is is equally shared
     by both. We do not, of course, vote for Czars; neither do we vote
     for Governors but the municipal officers are elected by the votes
     of the real estate owners regardless of sex. The woman, however,
     does not vote in person but transfers her vote to her husband,
     her son or her son-in-law and in case these are unable to vote
     for her she has the right to delegate her vote to an outsider. He
     simply has the proxy and votes as the woman dictates.

     Russia, whose political institutions are the least liberal in
     Europe, has the most liberal laws in regard to the civil capacity
     of her women. Every woman, married or single, if she is of age,
     enjoys complete civil capacity. Marriage does not in any way
     change the rights of husband and wife over the property they
     possess or may acquire. The husband has no legal right whatever
     over the property of his wife and she is by no means under his
     guardianship. This may account for the fact that we have less
     divorce than in many other countries. We have different laws for
     the different social classes. A nobleman will pay his taxes
     according to the law for the nobility, while his wife may be a
     commoner and have to pay hers according to the laws for the
     commoners, but both are taxpayers and consequently both are
     voters. It is quite a common thing to see a woman of the people,
     a peasant woman, take her place and often her husband's place, as
     he has a right to delegate his vote to her at elections, and she
     may also take it at county meetings and assemblies of every kind.
     Lately the government of the peasantry have made an effort to
     deprive the women of the right to hold office but the Senate has
     prevented them on the ground that if women share the hard
     struggle for existence with the men, as they do in our remote
     rural districts, they must also share the privileges. Gentlemen,
     I hope I have your sympathy with the ideas practiced in my
     country for our women.

Mrs. Catt said of her next speaker: "It is eminently proper that a
woman of Sweden should address you, where women have voted longer than
anywhere else in the world."

     Mrs. Emmy Evald. I stand before this legislative power of America
     representing a country where women have voted since the 18th
     century, sanctioned in 1736 by the King. The men gave suffrage to
     the women without their requesting it, because they believed that
     taxation without representation is tyranny. The taxpayer's vote
     is irrespective of sex. Women vote for every office for which
     their brothers do and on the same terms, except for the first
     chamber of the Riksdag. They have the Municipal and School
     suffrage, votes for the provincial representatives and thus
     indirectly for members of the House of Lords.

     Women are admitted to the postal service on equal salaries with
     men. In the railway service, which is controlled by the
     Government, women have ever since 1860 been employed in the
     controlling office and ticket department and in the telegraph and
     telephone service, which are owned by the Government. In 1809
     women were given the rights of inheritance and in the same year
     equal matrimonial rights. The colleges and universities are open
     to them and they receive degrees the same as men. All professions
     are open except the clerical. Women teachers are pensioned
     equally with men. Tax paying women have voted in church matters
     since 1736. Every woman is taxed in the Lutheran Church in
     America but has no vote and the women blame the Americans because
     the clergy educated here imbibed the false spirit of liberty and
     justice.

     You can not trust the ballot into the hands of women teachers in
     the public schools but you give it to men who can not read or
     write. You can not trust the ballot to women who are controlling
     millions of money and helping support the country but you give it
     to loafers and vagabonds who know nothing, have nothing and
     represent nothing. You can not trust the ballot in the hands of
     women who are the wives and daughters of your heroes but you give
     it to those who are willing to sell it for a glass of beer and
     you trust it in the hands of anarchists. Oh, men, let justice
     speak and may the public weal demand that this disfranchisement
     of the noble American women shall be stopped.

Mrs. Catt then introduced to the committee Miss Isabel Campbell,
daughter of former Governor Campbell of Wyoming, who in 1869 signed
the bill which enfranchised the women of the Territory; Prof.
Theodosia Ammons of the Colorado University of Agriculture and Mrs.
Ida M. Weaver, a resident of Idaho. Each gave a comprehensive report
of the practical working of woman suffrage in her State; the large
proportion of women who voted; their appointment on boards and
election to offices; the result in improved polling places, better
candidates and cleaner politics; higher pay for working women; the
advantages to the community; the comradeship between men and women and
the general satisfaction of the people with the experiment. Their
reports as a whole offered unimpeachable testimony in favor of the
enfranchisement of women.

Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller in her address said:

     I have been asked to direct especially my attention to the
     position of women in England. I hope you, as members of a
     republic, will be ashamed to hear that the monarchy of England
     gives its women citizens a great many rights which you deny to
     yours, that we have had those rights for so many years that
     nobody talks about them. When I am asked to give you testimony as
     to the smooth working of the women's vote in all local affairs, I
     am at a loss to know what to say, because it runs along so easily
     and naturally, so like breathing the air in a thoroughly healthy
     state of the lungs, that there is absolutely nothing to be said.
     Men and women vote on equal terms and the woman's vote is as much
     a matter of course as the man's.

     The local government of England is divided among a number of
     different bodies. We have the school boards, established in 1870,
     which have managed the elementary education of the country, now
     compulsory and free. They spend very large sums of the taxpayers'
     money and for them every woman who pays taxes has a vote. Any
     woman whom the electors choose is entitled to take a seat on
     them. There are at present not only hundreds of thousands of
     women voting for the school boards but there are 276 women
     sitting as representatives upon those of England alone. I myself
     have for nine years been a member of the school board of London,
     sitting for one of the great divisions called Hackney, which has
     60,000 voters. My election committee was composed of men and
     women. Men worked for me very hard indeed!... The next great
     local governing bodies are the boards of guardians of the poor.
     These bodies spend annually about $127,000,000, which they raise
     from the taxpayers, men and women. These are huge organizations.
     Many of the workhouses contain over 1,000 persons; besides which,
     outside relief in money or food or medical aid is given. Every
     woman who is a taxpayer can vote for a member of these boards.
     Women are eligible to sit on them the same as men. There are
     nearly 1,000 women on the boards.

     Women may vote for the municipalities, for the town councils. I
     can not offer you any illustration of how the women's vote has
     improved them for the simple reason that when those councils were
     instituted in 1869 the Parliament of a monarchy was sufficiently
     large-minded to perceive that women ought to vote for them; that
     they have to pay their taxes and where a woman stands at the head
     of a household she is not only equally entitled to representation
     in regard to the spending of her money but also she is as much
     concerned with the work that the councils have to do as any man.
     This was so obviously just that women were given the right to
     vote on them and have exercised that right ever since.... The
     women vote as fully as the men do.

     We have district, parish and county councils, which have to a
     considerable extent the moral and the intellectual government of
     the cities under them, licensing of places of amusement, public
     parks, technical education for young people over school age and
     so on. The building of homes for the poor, the oversight of
     lunatic asylums and matters of that kind, they have under their
     authority. These were established in 1884 and the women who had
     voted so well for many years for school boards and town councils
     of course were given the right to vote for the new county
     councils.

Mrs. Miller went fully into the work of women on borough and county
councils and closed her valuable address by saying: "Gentlemen, the
work of women in English public life has not only been unattended with
any mischief but has been a great force for service and benefit.
Surely American men can trust their sisters as our men have for the
past generation trusted us, to their own as well as our advantage."

In closing the hearing to which the committee gave the strictest
attention, Mrs. Catt said in part:

     I have a favor to ask of this committee in an official capacity;
     it is something we have never asked before.... We have brought to
     you testimonials of the success of woman suffrage in operation
     throughout the world and I think that if any man among you were
     called to stand before a committee and give in five or ten
     minutes some proof of the favorable results of man suffrage, he
     would find it a very difficult thing to do. What I now ask in
     behalf of our association is that this committee will request the
     House of Representatives to appoint a commission to investigate
     the results of woman suffrage in operation. This has never been
     done....

     We ask you in the interest of fairness to see that this
     commission is appointed to investigate woman suffrage in exactly
     the same spirit it would use if it were investigating man
     suffrage in Cuba. We ask you to chase down to its lair every
     single charge and objection that has been made and if when an
     honest commission has made an honest investigation you discover
     that woman suffrage has proved a good thing, if you find that it
     has proved as beneficial to women as man suffrage has proved to
     men, then we shall expect that another Judiciary Committee will
     give a favorable report and ask Congress to submit a 16th
     Amendment. And if you discover that it is not a good thing, then
     I promise you in behalf of our association that we will turn our
     guns into those States and see that it is made a good thing; for
     never so long as there are women who are educated, women who
     think for themselves, will they rest content until they have the
     only weapon that governments can give them for defending liberty
     and pursuit of happiness. We stand before you as citizens of the
     United States, qualified, intelligent, taxpaying women, who
     demand for ourselves the same right to make the Government under
     which we live that has been given to men.

No commission was appointed, no report was made by Senate or House
Committee and there were no definite results of such appeals as never
had been made by men for the franchise in this or any other country.


FOOTNOTES:

[14] Part of Call: An International Woman Suffrage Conference will be
held in connection with this annual convention, to which suffrage
associations of fourteen countries have been invited to send
delegates.

The principles which for a century have stood as the guarantee of
political liberty to American men, "Taxation without representation is
tyranny," and "Governments derive their just powers from the consent
of the governed," can no longer be claimed as belonging to the United
States alone for they have been adopted by all civilized nations. The
steadily increasing acceptance of the belief that self-government is
the highest form of government has revolutionized the popular thought
of the world within the last fifty years. During that period all newly
established governments have been fashioned after the model of a
Republic; while in most European nations and their colonies the
suffrage has been so largely extended that the mere skeleton of a
monarchy remains.

Logical thinkers the world over have been led in consequence to ask:
Are not women equally capable with men of self-government? What
necessary qualification fits men for the exercise of this sacred right
which is not likewise possessed by women? Are they less intelligent?
The statistics of schools, colleges and educational bureaus answer
"No." Are they less moral, peaceful and law-abiding than men? The
statistics of churches, police courts and penitentiaries answer "No."
Are they less public spirited and patriotic than men? The labors of
millions of organized women in noble reforms, in helpful charities and
wise philanthropies answer "No." ...

An International Woman Suffrage Conference for the exchange of
greetings, reports and methods forms a natural milestone on the march
of progress. All persons believing that the fundamental principles of
self-government contained in the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution of the United States apply to women as well as to men,
are invited to visit the convention and to unite in welcome to our
foreign guests.

                         ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, }
                         SUSAN B. ANTHONY,       } Honorary Presidents.
                         CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.
                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-President-at-Large.
                         KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.
                         ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.
                         HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
                         LAURA CLAY,       }
                         CORA SMITH EATON, } Auditors.

[15] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page 543.

[16] "February could be appropriately marked on the calendar as
woman's month at the national capital. For many years one or more
national bodies of women have met in Washington some time in February.
This year an unusually large number are assembling. On February 17,
the day before the National Suffrage Convention ends, the Continental
Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution will open to
continue five days. The fourth triennial of the National Council of
Women of the United States will begin on February 19 and extend over
the 25th. The National Congress of Mothers will convene February 25
and be in session until the 28th."

[17] The following pioneer workers for woman suffrage were seated on
the platform, their ages averaging more than 75 years: Mrs. Virginia
Clay Clopton, Ala.; A. E. Gridley, the Hon. Simon Wolf, Mrs. S. E.
Wall, Mrs. Olive Logan, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Dr. A. D. Mayo, Miss
Eliza Titus Ward, D. C.; Mrs. Mary B. Trimble, Ky.; Mrs. Caroline E.
Merrick, La.; Mrs. Helen Coffin Beedy, Dr. Abbie M. Fulton, Mrs.
Charlotte Thomas, Me.; Mrs. Harriet Jackson, Md.; Mrs. William Lloyd
Garrison, Mass.; Mrs. Helen P. Jenkins, Mrs. Emily B. Ketcham, Mich.;
Mrs. Phoebe Wright, N. J.; Mrs. H. E. Burger, Miss Mary Anthony, Mrs.
Elizabeth Smith Miller, N. Y.; Mrs. Harriet B. Stanton, O.; Dr. Jane
V. Meyers, Mrs. G. M. S. P. Jones, Dr. Agnes Kemp, John K. Wildman,
Dr. and Mrs. C. Newlin Pierce, Penn.; Mrs. Virginia D. Young, S. C.;
Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells, Utah; Miss Laura Moore, Vt.; Mrs. M. H. Grove,
W. Va.

[18] Miss Anthony had objected strongly to Mrs. Stanton's letter to
the convention of 1901 criticising the church, and she did not approve
of demanding an educational requirement for the suffrage when women
would have to obtain it by consent of men of all classes. Mrs.
Stanton's letter, therefore, was sent for Mrs. Colby to read, who was
in sympathy with its sentiment.

[19] The Charleston conference was held in the Assembly Room of the
Woman's Building, welcomed by Mayor Smyth, Mrs. S. C. Simons,
president of the women's department, and Mrs. Virginia D. Young in
behalf of the State Press Association. Mrs. Catt responded and later
Mr. Blackwell made an address. Among the speakers here and in German
Artillery Hall was the Hon. R. R. Hemphill (S. C.), always a staunch
advocate of woman suffrage. An afternoon reception was given by the
Woman's Board. The _News and Courier_ and other papers had long and
excellent reports.

The Baltimore conference was held a few days later in the main
auditorium of the Central Y. M. C. A. Hall, with the Rev. Anna Howard
Shaw presiding. It was welcomed by Dr. E. O. Janney of Johns Hopkins
Medical School, and the national speakers were Miss Laura Clay,
president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association; Dr. Cora Smith
Eaton, Judge J. G. Flenner of Idaho; the Rev. Olympia Brown, Mrs.
Colby, Miss Gordon and Mr. and Miss Blackwell.

[20] A Washington paper said: "There were a good many men in the
audience and they did not look much as they do in the comic papers.
The suffragists' husbands in caricature are consumptive, cadaverous,
insignificant mortals, trailing around in the wake of rambunctious and
overwhelming wives; but most of the men who mixed themselves up with
this convention looked as if they could not very easily have been
dragged there if they had not wanted to come. Some of them were six
feet tall and broad in proportion and none of them looked as if they
had been in the habit of asking their wives for permission to think.
They did not act like cats in a strange garret either but as if they
were having the time of their lives. No wonder; when a man does make
up his mind to come out for woman suffrage he can depend upon it he is
going to be appreciated."

[21] Besides the women ministers mentioned in this chapter sessions
were opened by the Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, the Rev. John Van
Schaick, Jr., the Rev. Alexander Kent and the Rev. Donald C. McLeod,
all of Washington.

The excellent musical program was in charge of Miss Etta Maddox of
Baltimore. She was a graduated lawyer but the courts of Maryland had
refused her permission to practice, as contrary to law. After the
convention she was accompanied to Baltimore by Miss Laura Clay, Mrs.
J. Ellen Foster, an attorney of Iowa; Miss Gail Laughlin, a New York
lawyer; Dr. Cora Smith Eaton and Mr. Blackwell. The Judiciary
Committee of the State Senate granted a hearing conducted by Miss
Maddox. By the end of March both Senate and House had passed a bill
giving women the right to practice law.

[22] Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Upton and Miss Blackwell were made
a committee to present the matter to President Roosevelt. Protests
arose from all parts of the country and before they had time to call
on him he declared himself opposed to "regulated vice." The dispatches
of March 22 announced that a general order signed by Secretary Root
had gone from the War Department to Manila that no more "certificates"
would be issued but that soldiers as well as women would be inspected
and cases of disease would be sent to the hospital.




CHAPTER III.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1903.


In 1903 the National American Suffrage Association for the second time
took its annual convention to a southern State and held it in New
Orleans, March 15-25, in Athenaeum Hall.[23] The _Woman's Journal_
said: "To the northern delegates there was something almost magical in
the sudden change from snowdrifts and nipping winds to balmy air and a
temperature like June. The delicious climate of Louisiana in spring
has not been exaggerated and it seems wonderful to find roses in bloom
in March, the wistaria vines in a cloud of purple blossom and the
grass an emerald green.... The delegates were enthusiastic over the
quaint houses surrounded by palms, bananas and great live oaks, a
pleasing novelty to most of them."

The hostess of the convention was the Era Club, the largest
organization of women in the city, its title--ERA--cleverly concealing
Equal Rights Association. It was founded in 1896; Miss Kate Gordon,
the present secretary of the National Association, was formerly its
president and her sister, Miss Jean M. Gordon, now filled that office.
On the first afternoon the spacious and beautiful home of Mrs. Reuben
Bush, prominent in club and civic work, was opened for the club to
entertain the officers, delegates and a large number of invited
guests. Sunday evening all were received informally in the charming
home of Misses Kate, Fanny and Jean Gordon.

The excellent convention program was prepared by Miss Kate Gordon. The
first evening session was opened with prayer by the Right Reverend
Davis Sessums, Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, who said in the course
of it: "Prosper, we beseech thee, the deliberations of this
association whose representatives are here assembled and direct and
rule their judgment and actions in all things to the furtherance of
truth and justice, so that their work may be an abiding work and
contribute to the growth of true religion and civilization, to the
happiness of homes and to the advancement of Thy Kingdom."

The _Picayune_ thus described the occasion: "In the presence of a
magnificent audience that packed the Athenæum to its utmost capacity,
the thirty-fifth annual convention of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association was formally opened last night, with the
president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair. Seldom perhaps in
its history has the association received such a greeting, for the
audience was not only deeply interested and sympathetic but it was
representative of the finest culture in the city and State.
Distinguished jurists, physicians and teachers, staid men of business
and leaders in many lines united with women of the highest social
standing in giving the convention a hearty and earnest welcome. Many
were no doubt attracted by the memory of the former visits of Miss
Susan B. Anthony and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and the remarkable
personality of the pioneer suffrage workers, but whether they came
from pure interest in these famous leaders or deep sympathy with the
cause, all were generous in giving to both the credit and applause
they justly deserved....

Mayor Paul Capdeville, who was to welcome the convention, was ill and
this was very acceptably done by "Tom" Richardson, secretary of the
Progressive Union, an important commercial body of 1,600 members that
had joined in the invitation for it to come to New Orleans and
contributed the rent of the Athenæum. He expressed his pleasure at
being associated with the suffragists of the city, "who had never
neglected any opportunity to promote its best interests," and said:
"No other class of our citizens have done it so much good." He was
followed by the Hon. Edgar H. Farrar, an eminent lawyer, author of the
Drainage and Sewerage plan, who told of the valuable assistance of
women in the strenuous fight against the State lottery ten years
before and described the splendid work of the women since the
constitutional convention of 1898 had given them taxpayers' suffrage.
Miss Gordon read a poem of welcome by Mrs. Grace G. Watts and gave the
Era Club's welcome and then Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who was presiding,
introduced Miss Anthony to respond. The _Picayune_ said in its report:

     Seated upon the platform was Miss Susan B. Anthony, the woman who
     for two-score years stood the brunt of ridicule, sarcasm and
     cartooning and never once was deterred from the course that she
     fully believed to be the just and true one. Of the great leaders
     in this movement she alone remains.... Spanning a distance of
     forty years stood at her side Mrs. Catt, the younger woman who
     has taken up the battle, and grouped around were earnest young
     girls and middle-aged women fired with her enthusiasm and looking
     up to her with a reverence that was very beautiful and a most
     gracious tribute from youth to old age. When Miss Jean Gordon
     advanced to present her with a great cluster of Maréchal Neil
     roses and took her so sweetly by the hand and in the name of the
     young women of today and of the Era Club thanked her for the
     battles she had fought, the scene was most touching, representing
     as it did the two extremes of the suffrage workers, those of
     half-a-century ago and those of today.

     There was another there, a woman who has been very near to the
     hearts of New Orleans people, who has never been aggressive in
     her advocacy of the cause but whose quiet approval, whose
     earnest sympathy, whose expenditure of time and money and whose
     high social standing gave to it a strength even in those early
     days that one of less ability and social position and more
     pronounced opposition could not have secured. Mrs. Caroline E.
     Merrick, the pioneer suffragist of Louisiana and the lifelong
     friend of Miss Anthony, came in for her share of the honors of
     the evening. With equal grace and tenderness Miss Gordon advanced
     to her and offered her too the fragrant expressions of more
     youthful workers. For a moment Miss Anthony and Mrs. Merrick
     stood together, and the audience, rising to its feet in a great
     wave of enthusiasm, waved handkerchiefs and fans in greeting.
     Perhaps that precious hour of triumph, away down here in this old
     southern State, as she stands nearing the border land of another
     world, recompensed the great pioneer for much that she had borne
     when life was young and audiences, as she said, less sympathetic.
     Mrs. Merrick's remarks, also, touched a deep chord and roused the
     audience to a state of earnest sympathy.

Miss Anthony told of her visit to New Orleans in 1884 during the
Centennial Exposition, when she was the guest of Mrs. Merrick, and
spoke of Mrs. Eliza J. Nicholson, owner and editor of the _Picayune_,
paying a tribute to her and to the gifted writer, "Catharine Cole," of
its editorial staff, both now passed from earth. In Dr. Shaw's
eloquent response to the greetings she said: "Nothing has given me
greater hope for women and has made me prouder of women than the
splendid reserve power shown by southern womanhood for the last
twenty-five years. When your hearthstones were left desolate and your
bravest and strongest had gone forth never to come back, your women,
who had been cared for as no other women ever were cared for, who were
uneducated to toil, unacquainted with business requirements, averse to
them by instinct and tradition--when they had to face the world they
went out uncomplaining and worked with sublime heroism.... I am glad
to come among you southern women and to say that you have been an
inspiration to the women of the North and to whole world. The
daughters of those women of twenty-five years ago are the ones who
have made this splendid convention possible. Over our country now
there floats only one flag but that is a flag for women as well as
men. If there are any men who ought to have faith in women and in
their power to dare and do it is southern men, who owe so much to
southern women."

Mrs. Catt then gave her president's address of which an extended
press notice said: "Never was there a more masterly exposition of a
theme, never a more earnest or cogent argument. A distinguished
Justice of the Supreme Court who was present remarked to the writer:
'I have heard many men but not one who can compare with Mrs. Catt in
eloquence and logical power.' So the entire audience felt and at the
close of her magnificent discourse she was the recipient of an ovation
that came spontaneously from their hearts. The scene presented in the
Athenæum was indeed a remarkable one." The address was not written and
no essential part of it can be reproduced from fragmentary newspaper
reports.

A discordant note in the harmony was struck by the _Times-Democrat_,
which, in a long editorial, Woman Suffrage and the South, assailed the
association because of its attitude on the race question. The board of
officers immediately prepared a signed statement which said in part:

     The association as such has no view on this subject. Like every
     other national association it is made up of persons of all shades
     of opinion on the race question and on all other questions except
     those relating to its particular object. The northern and western
     members hold the views on the race question that are customary in
     their sections; the southern members hold the views that are
     customary in the South. The doctrine of State's rights is
     recognized in the national body and each auxiliary State
     association arranges its own affairs in accordance with its own
     ideas and in harmony with the customs of its own section.
     Individual members in addresses made outside of the National
     Association are of course free to express their views on all
     sorts of extraneous questions but they speak for themselves as
     individuals and not for the association....

     The National American Woman Suffrage Association is seeking to do
     away with the requirement of a sex qualification for suffrage.
     What other qualifications shall be asked for it leaves to each
     State. The southern women most active in it have always in their
     own State emphasized the fact that granting suffrage to women who
     can read and write and who pay taxes would insure white supremacy
     without resorting to any methods of doubtful constitutionality.
     The Louisiana association asks for the ballot for educated and
     taxpaying women only and its officers believe that in this lies
     "the only permanent and honorable solution of the race question."
     ...

     The suffrage associations of the northern and western States ask
     for the ballot for all women, though Maine and several other
     States have lately asked for it with an educational or tax
     qualification. To advise southern women to beware of lending
     "sympathy or support" to the National Association because its
     auxiliary societies in the northern States hold the usual views
     of northerners on the color question is as irrelevant as to
     advise them to beware of the National Woman's Christian
     Temperance Union because in the northern and western States it
     draws no color line; or to beware of the General Federation of
     Women's Clubs because the State Federations of the North and West
     do not draw it; or to beware of Christianity because the churches
     in the North and West do not draw it....

The _Times-Democrat_ published this letter in full and endeavored by
its press reports afterwards to atone for its blunder. It had been
feared that trouble over this question would arise but no other paper
referred to it. The _Picayune_, _Item_ and _States_ were most generous
with space and complimentary in expression throughout the
convention.[24]

The reports at the executive sessions were possibly of more interest
to the delegates than the public addresses. Miss Gordon in her
secretary's report spoke of the 12,000 or 13,000 letters which had
been sent out since the last convention, many of them made necessary
by the International Conference of the preceding year, and of the
ending of its proceedings. To the 14,000 newspapers on the list to
receive the quarterly _Progress_ the names of legislators in various
States had been added, and to the latter leaflets attractively
prepared by Miss Blackwell also were sent. She described the new
suffrage postage stamp, a college girl in cap and gown holding a
tablet inscribed: "In Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho women vote on
the same terms as men," to offset the prevailing ignorance of this
fact. Resolutions endorsing woman suffrage had been secured from the
National Grange, the American Federation of Labor and a number of
large labor unions. For the first time in the history of the National
Education Association, three-fourths of whose members are women, a
woman had been invited to address their annual convention and the one
selected was the president of the National American Suffrage
Association. Mrs. Catt was cordially received by them in July at
Minneapolis.

Four of the five morning sessions were given over completely to Work
Conferences. The usual ones on Organization and Press were held with
Miss Mary Garrett Hay and Mrs. Elnora Babcock respectively presiding.
The conference on Enrollment gave way to one on Literature, Dr. Mary
D. Hussey presiding, and a new one on Legislation was added. A
president's and a delegates' conference completed the list. The Plan
of Work again presented by the Executive Committee emphasized the line
of action adopted in the first year of Mrs. Catt's presidency and
urged that the States endeavor to secure recommendations of their
Legislatures asking the submission of a 16th Amendment; that special
efforts be made to secure the appointment of a Commission to
investigate the working of full suffrage in States where it now
exists; that correspondence be taken up vigorously with all members of
Congress giving them the arguments in favor of a Federal Amendment and
of a Commission on Investigation; that the association aim to double
its membership the coming year and that a catalogue of woman suffrage
literature be prepared for libraries.

Only $3,000 in pledges were called for and $3,200 were quickly
subscribed.[25] The treasurer, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, announced
receipts during the year of $18,310 with a balance of $6,183 now in
the treasury. "New York has always been the largest contributor and
paid the largest auxiliary fee," she said, "and it never has any aid
from the national treasury. Its temper is always sweet and its
methods always business-like but to be sure it has always been blessed
by having one of its citizens as national president. This year,
however, Massachusetts has won the place at the head of the list."
Mrs. Catt reported for the Congressional Committee that Congress had
entirely ignored the urgent appeals of last year for a committee to
investigate the effects of woman suffrage in the equal franchise
States. Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett (Ky.) made her usual strong plea for
an effort to secure from Congress Federal suffrage or the right to
vote for members of Senate and House Representatives. For many years
Mrs. Bennett, as chairman of the committee, had appealed to the
association for action but while it considered that the measure would
be perfectly valid it believed it to be hopeless of attainment.
[History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 6.] Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock
(N. Y.), chairman of the Press Committee, made a comprehensive report
of the constantly increasing favorable comment of the newspapers. Mrs.
Boyer, chairman for Pennsylvania, had placed 5,700 suffrage articles
and the chairmen of various other States had a proportionate record.
Miss Blackwell gave as a recipe for finding favor with editors: "Make
your articles short; make them newsy; don't denounce the men." Mrs.
Priscilla D. Hackstaff (N. Y.), chairman of the Enrollment Committee,
reported a good start on the nation-wide enrollment of men and women
who believe in woman suffrage.

Henry B. Blackwell, chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee,
urged the southern women to petition their Legislatures, seven of
which would meet during the year, to give women the right to vote for
presidential electors. "The choice of President and Vice-president of
the United States," he said, "is the most important form of suffrage
exercised by an American citizen.... The King of England and the
Emperor of Germany are practically possessed of no greater political
power than our President during his official term," and he continued:

     Here then is an open door to equal suffrage. Once let the women
     of any State take their equal part in this great national
     election and their complete equality is assured. Without change
     of State or Federal Constitution, without ratification by the
     individual voters, a simple majority of both houses of any
     Legislature at any time in any State can confer upon women
     citizens this magnificent privilege, which will carry with it a
     certainty of speedy future concessions of all minor rights and
     privileges. It is amazing that no concerted effort has been made
     until recently to secure this right, so easily obtained and of so
     much transcendent importance. Especially is it strange that in
     States where iron-bound constitutional restrictions forbid any
     exercise whatever of local or municipal woman suffrage and where
     the social conditions make an amendment of State constitution
     almost impossible, suffragists allow year after year to elapse
     without any effort to get the only practical thing possible,
     action by the State Legislature conferring Presidential suffrage
     on women. Suffrage in school or municipal elections cannot give
     us a full and fair test of the value of equal suffrage or of
     woman's willingness to participate. Suffrage in State elections
     cannot be had without amendment of State constitutions, always
     difficult and usually impossible of attainment in the face of
     organized opposition. Why not then avail ourselves of this
     unique, this providential opportunity?

Among other committees reporting was that on Church work, Miss Laura
De Merritte (Me.) chairman, and her recommendations were adopted that
the committee on National Sunday School lessons be asked to prepare
one each year on the rights and duties of women citizens; that
ministers of all denominations be urged to preach one sermon each year
on this topic; that all women's missionary societies be requested to
make it a part of their regular program at their annual conventions
and that a place be sought on the program of national conventions of
the Epworth League and Christian Endeavor Societies to present the
question of woman's enfranchisement. The valuable report of the
Committee on Industrial Problems Relating to Women and Children by the
chairman, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.) said: "Everyone can recall
instances of discrimination against women by factories, business
firms, school boards and municipalities, making it plain that women
are at a disadvantage as non-voting members of the community. As a
recent fact in regard to the government I would cite the order by
Postmaster-General Payne that a woman employee must give up her
position if she marries." The report continued:

     Nearly all the appointments in the departments obtained last year
     by women were as printers' assistants at a small salary. Not a
     woman has been selected by the Pension Office in six years. In
     1902 twenty-seven women were chosen as typewriters and
     stenographers and 114 men. The Civil Service Commissioners are
     compelled by law to keep separate lists of men and women who have
     passed examinations and must certify to the appointing officers
     from either list as specified by the heads of the bureaus, so
     that it is quite possible for these to keep women out and fill
     the places with voters. Commissioner W. D. Foulke not long ago
     called the attention of the chiefs of bureaus to the fact that by
     taking from the men's list down to the lowest point of
     eligibility, while women who passed with a rank of 90 and over
     were not chosen, the Government was not getting the skilled labor
     to which it was entitled.

     The continued defeat of child labor protection laws in some of
     the southern States and the conditions of children working in the
     mines of Pennsylvania, as shown in testimony before the Coal
     Strike Commission, show the need of woman's help in shaping
     social economics and her powerlessness without the ballot.... How
     can we get hold of the wage-earning women in mass and convince
     them that from their own selfish and personal standpoint, if from
     no other, they should join the ranks of those that are working
     for the ballot? Talented speakers from the ranks of wage-earners
     have thrilled audiences with their impetuous oratory but there
     has been no general rally of working women to secure the ballot
     for themselves....

     How can we stimulate in women of wealth and opportunity, whose
     influence would be invaluable and whose support might give the
     movement the financial backing it needs, a consciousness of the
     solidarity of human interests, so they will see that from an
     impersonal, unselfish standpoint, if they have no personal need,
     they are under the most commanding obligation to add their
     strength to ours to make better conditions for working women? We
     might despair of reaching either the overworked, underpaid and
     unresponsive wage-earner, or the indifferent, irresponsible and
     almost inaccessible woman of fortune, were it not that all along
     the social line we are linked by one common possession, our
     womanhood, which, when awakened, is the Divine Motherhood and it
     is to this we must appeal.

Miss Anthony presided at the Friday evening public meeting, which was
opened with prayer by the Rev. Gilbert Dobbs, who said: "We invoke Thy
divine blessing, O God, upon this assembly and we rejoice that Thou
hast always opened the way for Thy consecrated servants--women--to do
well from the time of Miriam and of Deborah to the present. While not
often has the call been to women to don armor and press on to battle,
yet it may be that Thou hast reserved them for the battle of ballots,
in which they can secure victory for all moral good and aid in the
overthrow of every organized vice and infamy, so that there shall be a
higher type of public morals and nobler methods of government."

Mrs. Bennett spoke in her humorous and inimitable way on The Authority
of Women to Preach the Gospel of Christ in Public Places. Mrs. Rachel
Foster Avery (Penn.) under the title What's in a Name? told of the
efforts that were being made by the conservative women of Philadelphia
to reform municipal conditions through Civic Betterment Clubs, not by
the ballot in the hands of women but through the men voters. "Yet,
after all," she said, "are not these clubs doing good work for woman
suffrage under another name? For as these earnest but conservative
women find themselves in contact with life at so many new points they
are getting so used to all the things which go to make up that awful
bugaboo, 'politics,' that they will soon begin to realize that
politics affects for good or evil all the things which touch the daily
lives of every one of them. After awhile, perhaps sooner than most of
us think, they will join the ranks of the wiser women who are now
suffragists and who know that they want the vote and why they want
it."

Miss Frances Griffin (Ala.) kept the audience in a gale of laughter
from the first to the last of her speech, which began: "My address is
put down on the program as 'A Song or a Sermon.' It is going to be
neither, I have changed my mind. Mrs. Catt's address last night
furnished argument enough to lie three feet deep all over Louisiana
for three years."

The talented young lawyer, Miss Gail Laughlin (Me.), gave an address
entitled The Open Door, during which she said:

     Suffrage is not the ultimate end but it is the golden door of
     opportunity. Through the open door of suffrage the mother may
     follow her child and still guard him after he passes the
     threshold of home, and through it she can extend a helping hand
     to mothers whose children toil in the mills of Alabama, the
     factories of the eastern States and the sweat-shops of New York.
     Through this door the protected women of the world may go out to
     bind up the wounds of those who have fallen in the battle of
     life.... The old-fashioned Chinese man thought his wife was not
     beautiful unless she had little feet on which she could not walk.
     Some of the young Chinese are learning that it is pleasanter for
     a man to have a wife who can walk by his side. Formerly men
     thought it desirable that a woman's mind should be cramped. The
     modern man is beginning to find that it is more satisfactory to
     have for a wife a woman whose mind can keep pace with his.... It
     is more womanly and dignified for women to sit in legislative
     halls than to stand around the lobbies.... This exclusion of
     woman from the government today is a relic of the dark ages when
     they were regarded as appendages to men and it was even doubted
     if they had a soul. Men and women must rise or fall together and
     travel the pathway of life side by side. We shall not attain to
     the heights of freedom unless we have free mothers as well as
     free fathers, free daughters as well as free sons.

One of the notable addresses of the convention was that of the eminent
physician, Dr. Henry Dixon Bruns--a lifelong advocate of woman
suffrage--on Liberty, Male and Female, a part of which was as follows:

     I can conceive of but one watchword for a free people. It is
     written between the lines of our own constitution and underlies
     the institutions of every liberal government: "Equal rights and
     opportunities for all; special privileges to none," understanding
     by this that the Government shall protect all in the enjoyment of
     their natural rights--life, liberty and the pursuit of
     happiness--and that all who measure up to a certain standard
     shall have a voice in shaping the policy and choosing the agents
     of the government under which they live. I can imagine none
     better than that now accepted by a majority, I believe, of the
     American people, namely, evidence of intelligence and the
     possession of a certain degree of education and of character
     evidenced by the acquirement of a modicum of property and the
     payment of a minimum tax. It was for regulation of the full
     suffrage in this manner that I contended in our constitutional
     convention of 1898, to wit: the admission to the franchise of all
     women possessing these qualifications. I still believe that this
     would have afforded the best solution of our peculiar
     difficulties and have spared us the un-American subterfuge of
     "mother tongue" and "grandfather" clause. If a vote could have
     been taken immediately after the notable address made by your
     distinguished president before the convention, I feel confident
     that women would have been admitted to the suffrage in this
     State....

     Keep ever in your mind that the professional politician is your
     implacable enemy. To him an election is not a process for
     ascertaining the will of the majority but a battle to be won by
     any strategy whose maneuvers do not end within the walls of a
     penitentiary. He knows that yours would be an uninfluenceable
     vote, that you do not loaf on street corners or spend your time
     in barrooms and he could not "get at" you; therefore he will
     never consent to your enfranchisement until compelled by the
     gathering force of public opinion; then, as usual, he will
     probably undergo a sudden change of heart and be found in the
     forefront of your line of battle.... Do not rely upon wise and
     eloquent appeals to Legislatures and conventions. It is in the
     campaigns for the election of the legislative bodies that you
     should marshal your forces and use to the full the all-sufficient
     influence with which your antagonists credit you. Secure the
     election of men who do not give up to party all that was meant
     for mankind and your pleas are not so likely to be heard in vain.

The nomination and election of officers, both by secret ballot, were
almost unanimous and no change was made. A cordial letter was received
from Miss Clara Barton. Fraternal greetings from the Baltimore Yearly
Meeting of Friends (Quakers) were given by Mrs. Mary Bentley Thomas
(Md.); from the Supreme Hive of the Ladies of the Maccabees, the
largest business organization of women in the world, by Mrs. Emma S.
Olds, (O.); and from the Central Socialist Club of Indiana. The report
from the Friends' Equal Rights Association, an affiliated society, was
made by its president, Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman (N. Y.). In the report
for New York by its president, Mrs. Ella Hawley Crosset, she called
attention to the completion of the Fourth Volume of the History of
Woman Suffrage by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper. During the
convention word was received that the Territorial Legislature of
Arizona had given full suffrage to women but before they had time to
rejoice a second telegram announced that the Governor had vetoed it!

The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee,
and adopted, rejoiced over the extension of national suffrage to all
the women of the newly federated Australian States; noted the granting
to Kansas women of the right to vote on issuing bonds for public
improvement and of an equal guardianship law in Massachusetts;
protested against "the recent action of the Cincinnati board of health
in introducing without legal warrant the European system of
sanctioning the social evil ... the object of a strong and growing
opposition wherever it prevails and favored the settlement of all
national and international controversies by arbitration and
disapproved of war as a relic of barbarism." Mrs. May Wright Sewall
(Ind.), president of the International Council of Women, who had come
to New Orleans to attend the executive meeting of the National Council
of the United States, as chairman of the International Committee on
Peace and Arbitration, spoke earnestly in favor of this resolution.
Miss Nettie Lovisa White (D. C.) was appointed a delegate to represent
the association at the Council meeting.

The Saturday evening public session, with Mrs. Catt presiding, was
opened with prayer by the Rev. R. Wilkinson, in which he said:
"Almighty God, Thou hast always been pleased with consecration. We
pray Thee to look down upon these people gathered here--the women
whose lives have been devoted to a great cause. Send forth Thy light
so that they may achieve still more for Thee. In this work, men and
women, animated with a noble purpose, are combining their forces to
bring about the reign of righteousness and when that comes it will
take all that both can do to eradicate the great evils which men have
already wrought.... God bless this organization and may the
realization of its hopes be not far off! God bless the women engaged
in this work! God knows that if this city has in any way been lifted
up, it has been through the efforts of noble women. God bless them! We
want to feel that men and women are actuated by righteousness and are
working together to bring about its social and political
regeneration."

Dr. Cora Smith Eaton (Minn.) thus began her address, Westward Ho: "The
geologists tell us that Louisiana and her sister State Mississippi are
built up of the particles of earth brought down by the great river
through the Mississippi valley," and after a picturesque description
she said: "Coming from the source of this river, travelling 1,500
miles to its mouth, I find myself still on my native soil and I feel
at home; so all who have joined me on the way down the valley claim
kinship with you of New Orleans." She then paid tribute to the State
and its people and closed: "O, men of the South, your saviour is the
southern woman! Put into her hand the ballot of full enfranchisement,
like that you carry in your own hand on election day. Her interests
are identical with your own and she will hold your ideals sacred even
more loyally than you do yourselves." Mr. Blackwell gave one of his
customary logical and carefully reasoned addresses on Domestic
Imperialism.

The Rev. Marie Jenney (Iowa) discussed the question Why Women do Not
Vote. She compared them to some wild ducks that were born in a
farmyard and as they were stepping timidly about the farmer said:
"Them ducks can fly, they can fly miles, but they don't know it." "One
reason why women do not vote," she said, "is the entire
self-effacement of many, and another is the kindness of many men.
These are lovely traits but they may be misapplied. Women sometimes
efface themselves to an extent that is bad for their men as well as
themselves, and men out of mistaken kindness shield their women from
responsibilities that it would be better for them to have." Mrs.
Virginia D. Young (S. C.), owner, manager and editor of a weekly paper
in Fairfax, announced her speech From the Most Conservative State, but
she did not say, as she might have done, that she had leavened the
State with woman suffrage sentiment. Her address was bubbling over
with the humor which seems inherent with Southern women.

The Sunday services were held at 4 o'clock in the Athenæum, which was
crowded. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw gave the sermon from the text:
"Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." The Rev.
Kate Hughes and the Rev. Marie Jenney assisted in the services. That
morning the latter had preached in the Unitarian church and Mr. and
Miss Blackwell had spoken in the handsome Temple Sinai to a cultured
Jewish audience by invitation of Rabbi Max Heller. A fine musical
service was arranged by Cantor Julius Braunfels. The next day they
received from the Council of Jewish Women a large bouquet of bride
roses and red carnations. Miss Blackwell spoke on A Righteous Reform
and Mr. Blackwell on A Modern Deborah. He paid a splendid tribute to
the Jewish race and declared that "the Hebrew history as recorded in
the Old Testament has been the principal source of our nobler
conception of woman's nature and destiny." He spoke of the prophetess
Miriam, of the daughters of Zelophehad, described the great work of
Deborah and said: "If, therefore, Divine Providence, for the guidance
of mankind, selected a married woman to be the supreme judge, the
supreme executive, the commander-in-chief of the army; to lead the
chosen people in war and peace, to rescue the nation from enslavement
and to rule over it in peace and prosperity for forty years, may we
not hope that He will raise up in your race modern Deborahs to
cooperate with the men of their race in the redemption of American
democracy from political corruption and misrule?"

The interest did not diminish during the eight evening sessions. In
his invocation Monday night the Rev. Wallace T. Palmer said: "O Lord,
we account it a high honor and privilege to take part in this grand
work.... May those who are to speak tonight speak for Thy glory and
honor."[26] Dr. Shaw presided Monday and thus introduced the first
speaker: "Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago is an attorney and
the wife of an attorney. The sign on the door is 'McCulloch and
McCulloch.' My interest in the firm dates from the time when I
performed the ceremony that united them for life." Mrs. McCulloch
began her address on Woman's Privileges by saying: "One of the
principal reasons why women do not obtain the ballot is because there
is rooted in the popular mind the notion that now the laws in all
respects are so favorable to women and grant them such great
privileges that they would gain nothing more by a vote but instead
might lose these privileges. A careful investigation of laws relating
to women's property, earnings, rights of action, eligibility to paying
positions, selection of family home, guardianship of children and many
others where women's interests are involved shows that these so-called
privileges usually give women less than men enjoy in the same States
and that the vote in their own hands is the only assurance of equal
privilege." After referring to the laws in other States Mrs. McCulloch
made a thorough analysis of those relating to women in Louisiana,
showing them to be archaic and unjust and wholly without special
privileges.

The address of M. J. Sanders, president of the Progressive Union, was
enthusiastically received as representing the best thought of advanced
Southern men. He said in beginning: "I believe my own state of mind on
the woman suffrage question when I attended your first public meeting
last Thursday evening represented fairly the average male opinion in
this city--one of moderate ignorance and considerable indifference.
Since listening to the addresses here I have had my ignorance largely
dispelled and my indifference dissipated, I hope forever. It has been
my lot to attend meetings all over the country but never in my life
have I heard such eloquence, such logic and such glorious oratory as
in this hall during this convention. A cause that can bring forth
such talent and devotion must have in it a great truth.... I have come
now to see that the franchise is not an end but a means to an end;
that the object of these women is not merely to escape injustice done
to themselves but to be able to take part in the great work of reform
which is calling for the best energies of the nation. I have seen
sufficient of the women who are working in this fight for suffrage to
believe that hand-in-hand with earnest men, as co-workers and equals,
in no way subordinate, they can furnish brains and power to remove a
vast load of the iniquities and inequalities of life and even in our
generation lift this country to a plane of civilization wherein the
masses shall have a chance for happiness and freedom."

In explaining the absence of Dr. Julia Holmes Smith of Chicago Dr.
Shaw said: "She is detained because of illness of her husband and like
a good wife she puts him first and the convention second." Mrs.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (N. Y.) spoke on the Duties of Today,
outlining her address by saying: "The strongest feeling of most women
is the sense of duty. The reason they do not see the practicability
and immediate need of suffrage is because they do not see the duty of
it. There is a gradual development of the sense of duty. The first
duty that we recognize is that of self-preservation--our duty to
ourselves. Then comes duty to our own, to our family, to those dear to
us, before which duty to self must and does go down unfailingly. These
two duties to one's self and to one's family are the foundation but
they are the beginning of life, not the end of it. Next comes social
duty.... In America we rank high in personal and family virtues but
not in public virtues. Our great need is for the deep and broad civic
virtues...."

An interesting symposium took place one afternoon on The Need of Women
in Municipal Politics, with the following speakers: Mrs. Marie Louise
Graham (La.), City Politics is but a Broader Housekeeping; Mrs. Carrie
E. Kent (D. C.), The Home--the Ballot the Only Weapon for its Defence;
the Rev. Kate Hughes (Ill.), Justice Dictates, Expediency Confirms;
Dr. Sarah M. Siewers (O.), Men's and Women's Votes the Only True Basis
of Reform; Miss Laura E. Gregg (Kans.), The Stepping Stone to a Yet
Untried System of Government; Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg (Penn.),
Municipal Corruption under the Present System a National Disgrace.
Each topic was treated in a keen, incisive manner. Miss Gregg
described the practical benefit that the women's municipal vote had
been to Kansas. Dr. Siewers gave a dramatic illustration of the need
of women's votes in her own city of Cincinnati, which applied with
equal force to all cities. Mrs. Blankenburg emphasized all that had
been said by an account of conditions in Philadelphia, saying:

     Franchises worth millions of dollars are given away to the
     faithful. Contracts are let to those who will divide with high
     officials; they are granted to the highest "responsive" and not
     to the lowest "responsible" bidder. Merchants of vice are
     licensed and protected. The police are ordered to be blind when
     they should see keenest. Nearly every office has its price. Even
     school teachers are blackmailed and forced to pay for their
     appointment and civil service fades before political influence.
     The assessors' lists are padded by tens of thousands of dollars
     and majorities are returned to keep the "machine" and the party
     it represents in power, regardless of the actual vote cast....
     The cry of the reformer is, "We must waken the better element to
     save our cities. We must make honesty and morality the supreme
     question in our politics." Who represents these if not women?...
     Let us for the moment think of a great city where the mothers
     have a voice in the laws which are designed to protect the
     children and the interests of the home. Imagine the burdens of
     city housekeeping being shared with the women who by training are
     expert housekeepers. Picture a council meeting composed of
     fathers and mothers discussing ordinances to promote honesty and
     virtue, prevent vice and extinguish corruption. When this time
     comes, we shall have less municipal depravity and shall prove to
     the world that our experiment in democracy is not a failure.

Dr. Augusta Stowe-Gullen, a prominent physician of Toronto and an
early suffragist, who had come as a fraternal delegate from the
Canadian Association, spoke of the excellent results of the School and
Municipal vote in the hands of women. "We have better officials," she
said, "and therefore less dishonesty but the greatest gain has been in
the educative and broadening effect on women and men. The polls, which
used to be even in old stables, are now in the school houses and the
general tone of elections has been improved." Later Dr. Stowe-Gullen
gave a long and thoughtful address at an evening session on The
Evolution of Government.

The Memorial Service on March 21 was opened with prayer by the Rev.
Marie Jenney and the singing of "The Lord is my shepherd," by Miss
Gordon. Mrs. Catt, who presided, paid eloquent tribute to those who
had died during the year, among them Mrs. Esther Morris, to whom the
women of Wyoming were principally indebted for the suffrage in 1869;
to the Hon. Thomas B. Reed of Maine, one of the most distinguished
Speakers of the lower House of Congress and always a staunch supporter
of woman suffrage; to Madame Sophie Levovna Friedland, delegate from
Russia to the International Woman Suffrage Conference the preceding
year, who died soon after returning home; to Dr. Hannah Longshore, the
first woman physician in Philadelphia, and told of the bitter
opposition she had to overcome, adding: "She gave to the Pennsylvania
Association its splendid president, her daughter, Mrs. Blankenburg."
Mrs. Catt spoke also of Mrs. Cornelia Collins Hussey of New Jersey and
her boundless generosity, saying: "Often and often she sent a hundred
dollars to our treasury with a note: 'I have just sold a piece of real
estate and I want to give a part of the proceeds to the suffrage
cause.'" Miss Blackwell added to the tribute: "A quiet woman of Quaker
blood, never seeking office or prominence, she came to the relief of
our distressed officers on innumerable occasions. She once told me
that there were many who could write and speak for equal suffrage but
that the Lord seemed to have given her only one talent, that of making
money, and she meant to use it for the cause.... She was a great
believer in preaching the gospel of reform through the printed page
and she and her daughter, Dr. Mary D. Hussey, who was like-minded with
her, have sent out probably more equal suffrage literature than any
other two women in the United States. She placed the _Woman's Journal_
in a great number of college reading-rooms and sent it far and wide.
During the thirty-three years that the paper has been published--and
published always at a financial loss--she has been one of its most
steadfast and generous friends."[27]

"The palm of victory has come this year to Elizabeth Cady Stanton,"
said Mrs. Catt, "but though she has gone it is still our privilege to
have her friend and co-worker, Susan B. Anthony, and I echo the
prayer of every heart that she may be here till all women are
enfranchised." Miss Anthony was most affectionately greeted and said:
"I feel indeed as if a part of my life had gone. Mrs. Stanton always
said that when the parting came she wanted me to go first, so that she
might write my eulogy. I am not a 'word-artist,' as she was, and I can
not give hers in fitting terms." She read from the last volume of the
History of Woman Suffrage extracts from her great speeches and related
a number of instances showing her characteristics. Dr. Shaw then began
a eulogy, which can only be marred in quoting from memory, by saying:
"Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and Lucy Stone held up the standard of
truth and when they were urged to lower it in order to suit the ideas
of the world they answered: 'We will not lower our standard to the
level of your world; bring the world up to the standard.' ... I shall
always be thankful that I lived in the present age and knew these
women who never quailed in the face of danger. The side of Mrs.
Stanton that I like best to think of is her home life, her family
affections and her friendships. I was once a guest for several days in
the same house with her and other leaders and she was so vivacious, so
fresh, so full of joy of life that it was delightful to be with her.
She was so witty that no one wanted to leave the room a minute for
fear of losing something she might say. I used to love to see her
after she took a nap; though so advanced in years she would always
awaken with a look of wonder and pleasure like a child just gazing out
upon life."[28]

Tributes also were paid to Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer of Massachusetts;
Mrs. Thomas M. Patterson of Colorado; the Hon. Albert H. Horton of
Kansas; Mrs. Addie M. Johnson of Missouri; Miss Anna C. Mott of Ohio;
the Hon. Lester H. Humphrey and Mrs. Hannah L. Howland of New York;
Dr. Marie Zakrzewska of Massachusetts and other workers in the cause.
Mrs. Gilman closed the services by reading her beautiful memorial
poem, In Honor, written for the occasion.

A unique feature of the convention which lightened its serious tone
was Dr. Shaw's "question box," into which any one might drop a
question and at intervals she would take them out and answer them on
the spur of the moment to the delight of her audience. "If women
voted," was one of them, "would they not have to sit on juries?" "Many
women would be glad of a chance to sit on anything," she answered with
a smile. "There are women who stand up and wash six days in the week
at 75 cents a day who would like to take a vacation and sit on a jury
at $1.50. Some women would like to sit on a jury at the trial of the
sharks that live by corrupting boys and girls. It would be easier for
a woman to sit on a jury and send to the penitentiary the men who are
trying to ruin her boy than to be always watching the boy." Another
question was: "Have not men a better right to the suffrage because
they have to support the family?" She answered: "It is fallacy to say
that the men support the women. The men by their industry provide the
raw material and the women by their industry turn it into clothing and
nourishment. When my father sent home a barrel of flour my mother did
not lead us eight youngsters up to that barrel of raw flour at
mealtime and say, 'Children, here is your dinner.' When he bought a
bolt of cloth she did not take that bolt of cloth and wind it around
us and say, 'Children, here are the clothes your father has sent you.'
The woman has always done her full share of supporting the family. In
the South under the old régime she bore more than an equal part of the
care, for the planter could hire an overseer for the plantation work
but the wife could not hire one for the work of the house."

Notwithstanding the utmost care and tact on the part of those who had
the convention in charge the "color question" kept cropping out.
Finally Dr. Shaw said: "Here is a query that has been dropped in the
box again and again and now I am asked if I am afraid to answer it:
'Will not woman suffrage make the black woman the political equal of
the white woman and does not political equality mean social equality?'
If it does then the men by keeping both white and black women
disfranchised have already established social equality!" The question
was not asked again.

One of the able addresses during the convention was that of Mrs. Hala
Hammond Butt, president of the Mississippi Suffrage Association,
entitled, Restricted Suffrage from a Southern Point of View. After
referring to the man's all-mastering desire for liberty from the early
history of the race the speaker said: "Did women not share with men
this craving for freedom, then would they justly be reckoned as
unnatural and unworthy members of the human family, but the same red
blood pulses in our veins as in yours, fathers, sons, brothers; we are
alive to the same impulses, our souls are kindled by the same
aspirations as are yours. Why should this, our ambition, be held in
leash by the same bond that holds the ignorant, the illiterate, the
vicious, the irresponsible in the human economy? What does the idea of
government imply? The crystallized sentiments of an intelligent
people? Then do we meet it with but half a truth."

The speaker denounced with much severity the 14th and 15th Amendments
and said that by the restrictive educational qualifications now so
generally adopted in the southern States the spirit of the amendments
had been practically set at naught. "It was born of the instinct of
self-preservation," she said, but she deplored the political crimes it
made possible and continued: "There is an undercurrent of thought that
recognizes in its true proportions the value of an educated suffrage
to the South, a restriction based not upon color, race or previous
condition of servitude, not upon sex, not upon the question of taxable
property, but its sole requirement is the ability to perform worthily
the functions of citizenship. This is the only honorable solution of
those questions that are vexing not only the body political but the
body social of this Southern country."

Mrs. Butt's speech was one of a symposium on the question: Would an
educational qualification for all voters tend to the growth of
civilization and facilitate good government? Mrs. Hackstaff discussed
The Relation which Government Bears to Civilization, saying: "The
government which will increase social and individual development most
is the best. Progress depends on whether the government will give the
opportunity for such development. The one that serves the people best
is the one that strengthens them by letting them take part in it."
Mrs. Eleanor C. Stockman (Iowa) spoke strongly on Suffrage a Human
Right, not a Privilege; Mrs. Clara B. Arthur (Mich.) on A
Disfranchised Class a Menace to Self Government; Mrs. Mary Wood Swift
(Calif.) on Abolishment of Illiteracy, Its Ultimate Influence. After
calling attention to "the mass of ignorant immigrants who almost go
from the steerage to the polls"; to the enfranchisement of the
half-civilized Indian; to that of paupers, delinquents and defectives,
she said:

     All this great mass of ignorance goes into the electoral hopper
     and the marvel is that no worse quality of grist is turned out.
     It is true that the chief political schemers are by no means
     illiterate but it is upon illiteracy in the mass that they must
     depend to carry out their plans. An ignorant voter may be an
     honest one but unless he is intelligent enough to study public
     questions for himself he is an easy prey for the political
     sharper. It is beyond the power of the pen to portray what a
     magnificent government would be possible with an educated
     electorate. The idea can be approximated only when we consider
     how much we have been able to accomplish even with all the
     inefficiency, vice and ignorance which are permitted to express
     their will at the polls.

     It is because we have a noble ideal for the future of our
     government that we make our demand for woman suffrage. We point
     to the official statistics for proof that there are more white
     women in the United States than colored men and women together;
     that there are more American-born women than foreign-born men and
     women combined; that women form only one-eleventh of the
     criminals in the jails and penitentiaries; that they compose more
     than two-thirds of the church membership, and that the percentage
     of illiteracy is very much less among women than among men.
     Therefore we urge that this large proportion of patriotism,
     temperance, morality, religion and intelligence may be allowed to
     impress itself upon the government through the medium of the
     ballot-box.

Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer substituted for her own address on Universal
Suffrage a Pretence a paper sent by Rudolph Blankenburg, one of
Philadelphia's most distinguished citizens, entitled: Not Sex but
Intelligence, in which he said:

     That universal suffrage--an arrant misnomer--has fallen short of
     its well-meant original purpose is beyond dispute. We see its
     baneful effect in municipal, State and national government. The
     unparalleled political corruption in most of our large cities,
     the narrowness of public men in State and nation, whose horizon
     is bounded by the limits of their home districts or their own
     sordid purposes, regardless of public interests, find their
     culmination in the highest legislative body of our land. They
     crowd seats of mental giants and honored statesmen of former days
     with golden pigmies or political highwaymen of recent growth and
     can be directly traced to our defective franchise system. It
     permits the vote of the intelligent, law-abiding, industrious
     and public-spirited to be overcome by that of the ignorant,
     vicious, purchasable, lazy and indifferent. The ranks of the
     latter are largely reinforced by the "stay-at-homes," who are a
     permanent menace to good government.... Thinking people agree
     that some qualification should be exacted from all voters. The
     absurdity of the intelligent, tax paying but disfranchised woman
     being governed by the vote of the illiterate, shiftless loafer or
     pauper would be laughable were it not so serious. An educational
     qualification should be a paramount requisite....

Mr. Blankenburg gave statistics of the illiterates in the United
States and said: "An educational qualification, wisely considered,
would within a few years entirely obliterate the whole mass of this
species of undesirable voters. The right of suffrage can not and
should not be taken from those who at present legally enjoy it. All
women of legal age with the proposed educational requirements should
be enfranchised without delay but laws should be enacted demanding
that all citizens, men and women alike, presenting themselves to cast
their ballot after 1910 must be able to read and write. If the women
suffragists will base their claim to vote upon the broad ground of
good government and not demand suffrage for the ignorant woman because
it is exercised by the ignorant man, they will make ten friends where
they now have one."

The audience had the northern and the southern point of view on
Educated Suffrage. Mrs. Gilman, who spoke on whether it would serve
the best interests of the laboring classes, was alone in objecting to
it. "Will exclusion from the suffrage educate and improve the
illiterate masses more quickly than the use of it?" she asked. "We
shall educate them sooner if we dread their votes and this is our work
in common." A great deal of sentiment was developed in favor of an
educational requirement for the suffrage and an informal rising vote
showed only five opposed, but most of the officers were absent. This
vote was due largely to the southern delegates and to the arguments
which had been made for its necessity in this section of the country.
The policy of the association had always been and continued to be to
ask and work only for the removal of the sex qualification.

One of the most popular speakers was Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer, known
far and wide as "Dorothy Dix," whose home was in New Orleans. Her
address, quaintly entitled The Woman with the Broom, filled more than
four columns of the _Woman's Journal_ and an adequate idea of its wise
philosophy illuminated with the sparkling wit for which she was
renowned cannot be conveyed by quotations. "A few years ago," she
said, "a famous poet roused the compassion of the world by portraying
the tragedy of hopeless toil by the Man with the Hoe. He might have
found nearer home a better illustration of the work that is never
done, that has no inspiration to lighten it and looks for no
appreciation to glorify it, in the Woman with a Broom." "She is
understudy to a perpetual motion machine," was one of her epigrams.
She referred to the many successful business and professional women at
the convention and said:

     But I am not here to speak for the wage-earning woman, she can
     speak for herself. My plea is not for justice for her but for the
     domestic woman--the woman who is the mainstay of the world, who
     is back of every great enterprise and who makes possible the
     achievements of men--the woman behind the broom, who is the
     hardest-worked and worst-paid laborer on the face of the
     earth....

     Of the housekeeper we demand a universal genius. We don't expect
     that our doctor shall be a good lawyer or our lawyer understand
     medicine; we don't expect a preacher to know about stocks or a
     stockbroker to have a soul; but we think the woman who is at the
     head of a family is a rank failure unless she is a pretty good
     doctor and trained nurse and dressmaker and financier. She must
     be able to settle disputes among the children with the inflexible
     impartiality of a Supreme Justice; she must be a Spurgeon in
     expounding the Bible to simple souls and leading them to heaven;
     she must be a greater surgeon than Dr. Lorenz, for she must know
     how to kiss a hurt and make it well; she must be a Russell Sage
     in petticoats, who can make $1 do the work of $2, and when she
     gets through combining all of these nerve-wrecking professions we
     don't think that she has done a thing but enjoy herself. It is
     only when something happens to the housekeeper we realize that
     she is the kingpin who holds the universe together.

"Every injustice is the prolific mother of wrongs," said Mrs. Gilmer,
"and the fact that the woman with the broom is neither sufficiently
appreciated nor decently paid brings its own train of evils. It is at
the bottom of the distaste girls have for domestic pursuits and the
frantic mania of women for seeking some kind of a 'career.'" She thus
concluded:

     Always, always it is the frantic cry for financial independence,
     the demand of the worker for her wage; the futile, bitter protest
     of the woman with the broom against the injustice of taking her
     work without pay. Men will say that in supporting their wives, in
     furnishing them with houses and food and clothes, they are giving
     the women as much money as they could ever hope to earn by any
     other profession. I grant it; but between the independent
     wage-earner and the one who is given his keep for his services is
     the difference between the free-born and the chattel.... The
     present state of affairs brings about a disastrous condition in
     the woman's world of labor, so that the woman wage-earner must
     not only compete with the man worker but with the domestic woman
     who has her home and clothes supplied her and who does things on
     the side in order to get a little money that she may spend as she
     pleases.... When men grow just enough to abandon the idea that
     keeping house and doing the family sewing and rearing children is
     a "snap" and not a profession; when they grow broad enough to
     realize that the woman with the broom is a laborer just as much
     worthy of her hire as a typewriter, we shall have fewer women
     yearning to go out into the world and earn a few dollars of
     spending money.

Edwin Merrick, the son of a Chief Justice of Louisiana and Mrs.
Caroline E. Merrick, its pioneer suffragist, began his address on A
Political Anomaly by referring to the distinguished women he had been
privileged to meet in his home. He spoke of the constitution drawn up
on the Mayflower to give equal liberty to all without the slightest
conception of what true liberty really meant, and of the larger
conception of it which was imbedded in the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution of the United States. "But," he said, "while the
words were there, slavery still existed and the people of the Union
were slowly led to see the handwriting on the wall and slavery had to
go. Had the great leader of his day, Abraham Lincoln, been preserved
to help shape the destinies of this country, what followed would not
have happened." He then spoke of the crime of enfranchising "a horde
of ignorant negro men when at that time there were nearly 4,000,000
intelligent white women keenly alive to the interests of their country
to whom the ballot was denied." He sketched the steady degeneration of
national and State politics and exposed the conditions in Louisiana.
He showed how the reforms that had been accomplished had been largely
aided by women and concluded:

     If we concede that women have any moral strength, and it has been
     conceded from the time whereof the memory of man runneth not to
     the contrary, I now ask the question: Is there any one place in
     the universe where moral strength and moral character are more
     needed than in modern politics under a republican form of
     government? In some of our western States we have already seen
     what the women can do and the day will come when they will vote
     with us just as they read with us, talk with us, ride with us and
     consult with us. The most important object of our Government is
     education. The most important part of education is the education
     of the young. The most important factor in education of the young
     is woman's influence, and when it comes to saying who shall
     decide upon the proper laws for the education of children, the
     women of Louisiana or the intelligent wiseacres who have in this
     State emasculated civil service, massacred the Australian ballot
     and assaulted with intent to kill each and every measure which
     looks to the improvement of the State, we give our answer in no
     uncertain terms.

Miss Mary N. Chase, president of the New Hampshire Suffrage
Association, made an earnest plea for the enfranchisement of women,
"the natural guardians and protectors of the home. It will strengthen
their minds and broaden their intellects and render them more fit for
its government," she said, "and until women join with men in
exercising the sacred right of the franchise we cannot hope for the
dawn of the kingdom of God on the earth." A letter was read from Mrs.
Harriot Stanton Blatch urging that for a year the organization should
be used nationally and locally to pursue and punish political
corruption. "The women in our association," she said, "are trained to
political action; we have had long experience in self-control; defeat
has taught us its lessons of poise; devotion to a great principle has
given us a faith almost religious in its optimism." The men were
taking no concerted action to protect the republic against this
menace, she thought, and the task seemed to be left to the women.

The formal address of Dr. Shaw on The Modern Democratic Ideal made a
profound impression but no record of it exists except in newspaper
clippings. She began by saying: "It is impossible to discuss the woman
question without discussing also the man question. What is fundamental
to one is fundamental to the other. It is argued by some that on
account of the difference in characteristics between men and women it
is the man who ought to govern. They are mistaken. It is now
recognized that the best and noblest men and women are those in whom
the different characteristics of each sex are most harmoniously
blended. The modern democratic ideal illustrates this fact. It is
greatly different from the ancient democratic ideal, as neither Plato
nor Aristotle nor Dante had a place in their ideals for the common
people, but when the French Revolution startled the world with the
idea of human rights, of natural rights common to all, there sprang
into life the conception of the same ideal among the men of our own
country." Dr. Shaw traced the progress of democratic ideals in this
country from the early days of the republic when property and not
manhood constituted the prerequisite for representation. She spoke in
glowing terms of the pure democracy of Thomas Jefferson, who extended
its privileges to the great masses of the people. "This ideal has been
growing," she said, "it will never stop growing, developing, widening
and changing and it must ultimately extend to women citizens the same
rights in the government that men have. This is the 20th century idea
of democracy."

The address of Miss Belle Kearney, Mississippi's famous orator, was a
leading feature of the last evening's program--The South and Woman
Suffrage. It began with a comprehensive review of the part the South
had had in the development of the nation from its earliest days.
"During the seventy-one years reaching from Washington's
administration to that of Lincoln," she said, "the United States was
practically under the domination of southern thought and leadership."
She showed the record southern leaders had made in the wars; she
traced the progress of slavery, which began alike in the North and
South but proved unnecessary in the former, and told of the enormous
struggle for white supremacy which had been placed on the South by the
enfranchisement of the negro. "The present suffrage laws in the
southern States are only temporary measures for protection," she said.
"The enfranchisement of women will have to be effected and an
educational and property qualification for the ballot be made to apply
without discrimination to both sexes and both races." The address
closed as follows:

     The enfranchisement of women would insure immediate and durable
     white supremacy, honestly attained, for upon unquestioned
     authority it is stated that in every southern State but one there
     are more educated women than all the illiterate voters, white
     and black, native and foreign, combined. As you probably know, of
     all the women in the South who can read and write, ten out of
     every eleven are white. When it comes to the proportion of
     property between the races, that of the white outweighs that of
     the black immeasurably. The South is slow to grasp the great fact
     that the enfranchisement of women would settle the race question
     in politics. The civilization of the North is threatened by the
     influx of foreigners with their imported customs; by the greed of
     monopolistic wealth and the unrest among the working classes; by
     the strength of the liquor traffic and encroachments upon
     religious belief. Some day the North will be compelled to look to
     the South for redemption from those evils on account of the
     purity of its Anglo-Saxon blood, the simplicity of its social and
     economic structure, the great advance in prohibitory law and the
     maintenance of the sanctity of its faith, which has been kept
     inviolate. Just as surely as the North will be forced to turn to
     the South for the nation's salvation, just so surely will the
     South be compelled to look to its Anglo-Saxon women as the medium
     through which to retain the supremacy of the white race over the
     African.

Miss Kearney's speech was enthusiastically received and at its end
Mrs. Catt said she had been getting many letters from persons
hesitating to join the association lest it should admit clubs of
colored people. "We recognize States' rights," she said, "and
Louisiana has the right to regulate the membership of its own
association, but it has not the right to regulate that of
Massachusetts or vice versa," and she continued: "We are all of us apt
to be arrogant on the score of our Anglo-Saxon blood but we must
remember that ages ago the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons were regarded
as so low and embruted that the Romans refused to have them for
slaves. The Anglo-Saxon is the dominant race today but things may
change. The race that will be dominant through the ages will be the
one that proves itself the most worthy.... Miss Kearney is right in
saying that the race problem is the problem of the whole country and
not that of the South alone. The responsibility for it is partly ours
but if the North shipped slaves to the South and sold them, remember
that the North has sent some money since then into the South to help
undo part of the wrong that it did to you and to them. Let us try to
get nearer together and to understand each other's ideas on the race
question and solve it together."

Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.), who was introduced to the audience as "a
very unpopular woman with the anti-suffragists," did not prove to be
so with her audience, as in her brief address she charmed every one
with her beauty and womanliness and convinced by her delicate wit and
keen logic. The last address was made by the Rev. Ida C. Hultin
(Mass.), an eloquent summing up of the arguments for woman suffrage,
given with a dignity of manner and sweetness of words which thoroughly
eliminated any unpleasant feelings that might have been created and
diffused a spirit of forgiveness and consecration.

At the conclusion of the program, Mrs. Upton came forward and in the
name of the officers of the association presented to Miss Kate Gordon
a handsome loving cup with the injunction to "handle it carefully as
it is filled to the brim with love"; and to Miss Jean Gordon a large
bouquet of roses, "in appreciation of the perfect arrangements that
had been made for the convention." The _Picayune_ said: "The two
sisters stood side by side on the stage, a picture of feminine
loveliness and grace. They tried to speak but their hearts were too
full and Miss Kate could only express in a few words their thanks for
these tokens of affection and esteem."

All the expenses of the convention had been met by the citizens and
the collections had more than paid the travelling expenses of the
officers. Nothing had been left undone for the entertainment of the
visitors. The New Orleans Street Railway Company gave a trip of
several hours in special cars, taking them to Audubon Park and
Horticultural Hall, through the handsome residence sections, to the
Esplanade, City Park and famous cemeteries. They visited the Howard
and Fisk libraries, the Southern Yacht Club, the Exposition and the
antiquarian shops. An unusual experience was the boat trip on the
Mississippi, tendered by the Progressive Union. On a fine sunshiny
morning the several hundred visitors assembled in the palm garden of
the St. Charles Hotel, walked to the rooms of the Union and from there
to the steamer Alice. They crossed to Algiers, passed the French
quarter with the Ursuline Convent, the Stuyvesant Docks, the historic
houses and monuments, and saw the great Naval Docks, the large sugar
plantations with their big live oaks and magnolias, the immense sugar
and oil refineries and met a fleet of huge ocean steamers. Lunch was
served on board and the occasion was most interesting, especially to
the delegates from the North.

Although this was the longest suffrage convention ever held and the
sessions were crowded, the people wanted more. The Progressive Union
arranged for meetings Thursday night, to be addressed by Mrs. Catt on
The Home and the Municipality, and Friday night by Dr. Shaw on The
Fate of Republics. The Athenæum Hall, seating 1,200, was overflowing
and as many were gathered on the outside. It was a ten days never to
be forgotten by the visitors or the residents, and the convention
undoubtedly gave a decided impetus to favorable sentiment for woman
suffrage in that section of the South.


FOOTNOTES:

[23] Part of Call: The association goes to New Orleans in response to
an invitation from the Progressive Union, the Era Club of women and
many prominent individuals. It is especially appropriate that the
advocates of this important reform should assemble in Louisiana in
honor of the action taken by this State in 1898, when its
constitutional convention incorporated a clause giving to tax-paying
women a vote on all questions of taxation submitted to the electors;
and in commemoration of the splendid use they made of this privilege
at the election held to secure to New Orleans the completion of its
drainage and the establishment of a sewerage system and free water
supply....

Never in the fifty years of this movement have its advocates had such
a victory to record as was achieved in Australia in June, 1902, when
almost the first act of Parliament of the new Federation of States was
to confer the full national suffrage with the right to a seat in the
Parliament on all qualified women of the entire commonwealth. This one
act enfranchised about 800,000. These added to those of New Zealand
and of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho, it will be found that
1,125,000 English-speaking women are at the present time in possession
of the complete suffrage and all except those of Wyoming have been
enfranchised within the past ten years. By adding to these the women
of Great Britain and Ireland, who have all except the Parliamentary
vote, those of Kansas with Municipal, of Louisiana, Montana, and New
York with the Tax-payers' and of over one-half of the States with the
school ballot, the 1,125,000 will be multiplied several times....

It is, therefore, with courage and hope inspired by the glorious
promise of the new century for greater material and moral progress in
all directions than the world has ever known, that the advocates of
this measure, which ultimately will affect the destinies of the whole
American people, are called in convention to review the labor of the
past year, to plan that of the future, to strengthen the old
comradeship and greet new workers and friends.

                         SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President.
                         CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.
                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-President-at-Large.
                         KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.
                         ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.
                         HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
                         LAURA CLAY,         }
                         MARY J. COGGESHALL, } Auditors.

[24] The colored women had some excellent organizations in New
Orleans, the most notable being the Phyllis Wheatley Club, which in
addition to its literary and social features maintained a training
school for nurses, a kindergarten and a night school. It invited Miss
Anthony, Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller to address it
and they were accompanied by "Dorothy Dix," the well-known writer, a
New Orleans woman. In the large assemblage were some of the teachers
from the four colleges for colored students--Methodist,
Congregational, Baptist and the State. "Dorothy Dix" said in her brief
address that no woman in the city was more respected or had more
influence than Mrs. Sylvanie Williams, the club's president, and gave
several instances to illustrate it. After the addresses Mrs. Williams
presented Miss Anthony with a large bouquet tied with yellow satin
ribbon and said: "Flowers in their beauty and sweetness may represent
the womanhood of the world. Some flowers are fragile and delicate,
some strong and hardy, some are carefully guarded and cherished,
others are roughly treated and trodden under foot. These last are the
colored women. They have a crown of thorns continually pressed upon
their brow, yet they are advancing and sometimes you find them further
on than you would have expected. When women like you, Miss Anthony,
come to see us and speak to us it helps us to believe in the
Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, and at least for the
time being in the sympathy of woman."

[25] The important decision was made at this convention to remove the
headquarters on May 1 from New York to Warren, O., the home of the
national treasurer, Mrs. Upton. The burden of having charge of them
had borne heavily upon Mrs. Catt for the past three years and it grew
more difficult as each year she had to spend more time in field work.
Miss Gordon, the corresponding secretary, wished to remain in New
Orleans because of her mother's failing health and it was necessary to
have a national officer in charge. Mrs. Upton consented reluctantly to
assume the responsibility and only on the assurance of Miss Elizabeth
Hauser, a capable executive, that she would manage the details of the
office. The arrangement was to be temporary but it continued for six
years.

[26] Quotations are given from each of the opening prayers because
each of them endorsed woman suffrage.

[27] Mrs. Hussey left a bequest of $10,000 to the National American
Woman Suffrage Association.

[28] For appreciations of Mrs. Stanton see Appendix.




CHAPTER IV.

THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1904.


The Thirty-sixth annual convention opened the afternoon of Feb. 11,
1904, in National Rifles' Armory Hall, Washington, D. C., and closed
the evening of the 17th.[29] There was a good attendance of delegates
from thirty States and the audiences were large and appreciative. Mrs.
Carrie Chapman Catt, the president, was in the chair at the opening
session. The delegates were welcomed by Mrs. Carrie E. Kent in behalf
of the District Equal Suffrage Association and the response was made
by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large, who began by saying:
"If the women here welcome us after we have been coming for thirty
years it must be because we deserve it; the men welcome us because in
the District they are in the same disfranchised condition as we are."
A cordial letter of greeting was read from Samuel Gompers, president
of the American Federation of Labor, whose headquarters were in
Washington.

Greetings were received from Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller of London,
whose letter commenced: "Beloved Friends: As president of the British
National Committee of the International Woman Suffrage Committee, I
write to send you greetings from English, Scotch, Irish and Welsh
fellow-workers in the woman's cause. It seems but a short time since
the convention of 1902, which I attended as the delegate appointed by
the British United Women's Suffrage Societies and also of the Scottish
National Society. The admiration and affection that the ability, the
earnestness and sincerity, the sisterliness and the sweetness of
temper and manners of the American suffragists then aroused in me, are
unabated at this moment." She told of the progress that had been made
by the various societies toward uniting in an International Woman
Suffrage Alliance, gave a glowing forecast of the ultimate triumph of
their common cause and ended: "With admiring and abiding love for
America's grand women, the suffrage leaders." The convention sent an
official answer. Mrs. Mary Bentley Thomas (Md.) read an interesting
paper, Our Four Friends, compiled from the answers by the Governors of
Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho to a letter from Miss Anthony asking
for a summary of the results of woman suffrage after a trial of from
eight to thirty-five years. A Declaration of Principles, which had
been prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell and
Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, was read by Mrs. Harper and adopted by the
convention as expressing the sentiment of the association. [See
Appendix, chapter IV.] Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery (Penn.) and Dr. Shaw
were appointed delegates to the International Suffrage Conference at
Berlin in June in addition to the International Suffrage Committee
from the United States, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Lucretia L.
Blankenburg (Penn.), with three others yet to be selected.

In her report as corresponding secretary Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.)
told of the interest which the convention of the preceding year in New
Orleans had awakened in the South and of the generous donation of a
month of Dr. Shaw's valuable time which she had given to a Southern
tour. This included the State Agricultural, State Normal and State
Industrial Colleges of Louisiana and various places in Texas,
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. "While it might be said
of her addresses, 'She came, she spoke, she conquered,'" declared
Miss Gordon, "it was clearly shown that the South was not ready for
organization." Miss Gordon said of attending the National Conference
of Charities and Corrections as a State delegate appointed by the
Governor of Louisiana: "I found that resolutions of endorsement were
contrary to the policy of the conference, yet, except in our own
organization, I have never met such a unanimity of opinion upon the
justice of woman suffrage as well as upon the expediency of the
woman's vote to secure intelligent and preventive legislation as a
remedy for the many evils they were seeking to combat."

The program for the first evening included short addresses by the
general officers and in opening the meeting Mrs. Catt said: "You will
all be disappointed not to have the promised addresses from Miss
Anthony and Mrs. Upton. It has been suggested that I might say that
Miss Anthony has been unavoidably detained but I can't see why I
should not tell the truth. Miss Anthony is out in society tonight. She
was invited by President and Mrs. Roosevelt to the Army and Navy
reception at the White House and Mrs. Upton is with her.[30] Our
vice-president-at-large will speak to you on What Cheer?"

Dr. Shaw said that once when she was travelling about the prairies of
Iowa she met a woman who was always referring to her home town "What
Cheer," and when she was asked to give a title to her address she
could think of nothing better. She continued: "There are no problems
so difficult to understand as those of our own time, because of the
lack of perspective. The arrogant and insistent and noisy things press
to the front and the silent and eternal fall into the rear. But as
time passes it is as when we climb a mountain--we gradually rise to
where we can see over the foothills and everything appears in its
proper place and proportion. Out of the present, its arrogant
militarism, its sordid commercialism and worship of gold, is there
anything to give us cheer and hope for tomorrow? There never was
greater reason for hope for humanity. Underlying all the tumult and
disorder of our time is one grand, golden thought, that of the human
brotherhood of the world. There never was a democracy comparable to
ours, faulty as it is and hopeless as it appears to some. Though the
ideal does not seem to impress itself upon the world, yet in the
silence it is there.... Today is the best this world has ever seen.
Tomorrow will be still better."

Miss Gordon spoke on A Sustaining Faith, showing that from labor, from
all forms of social service and from countless sources was converging
the demand for the reform which the suffrage association was seeking.
Miss Blackwell (Mass.) talked briefly as always but clearly and
convincingly on The New Woman. Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) began her address
on Dimes: "As an auditor I have been going over our treasurer's books.
Usually such books are mere debits and credits but in ours those stiff
rows of figures tell many beautiful things--the sacrifices of the poor
and the generosity of the rich--but best of all are the 'dimes'
because they are the dues paid to the association. They bear the
figure of Liberty and they stand for it.... These dimes are inspiring,
for they represent our membership when we gather here from the four
corners of the nation. Therefore I rejoice over these thousands and
thousands, each with a human heart behind it."

"No woman has a record of greater faithfulness in this cause," Mrs.
Catt said in introducing Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, who began her
remarks on Precedents by saying: "I come from Iowa where things are
very different from those in this beautiful capital. We do not see
Senators and Representatives on every hand but we have lent to
Washington, Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, Secretary of the Treasury
Shaw, Speaker of the House Henderson and also Mrs. Catt to lead the
suffrage clans."

The evening closed with Mrs. Catt's presidential address, the full
report of which filled eleven columns of the _Woman's Journal_. The
subject was the vital necessity of an educational qualification for
the use of the ballot in a country which opens its gates to
immigration from the whole world. Little idea of its logic and
virility can be conveyed by detached quotations. Referring to the
necessity for enfranchising women she said: "Despite the fact that
education even yet is not so generally advocated for girls as for boys
among our foreign and ignorant classes of society, the census of 1900
reveals that between the ages of ten and twenty-one, representing
school years, there are 117,362 more illiterate males than females. If
men and women had been entitled to the franchise upon equal terms in
1900, the political parties, which always make their appeals to the
young man just turned twenty-one to cast his first vote for 'the party
of right and progress,' would of necessity have made the same appeal
to young women, but they would have appealed to 20,000 fewer
illiterates among the women than the men of from twenty-one to
twenty-four. If the same conditions continue for the next twenty
years--that is, if there is no restriction in the suffrage for men and
women still remain disfranchised, and if the proportionate increase of
women over men in the output of our public schools continues, we shall
witness the curious spectacle of the illiterate sex governing the
literate sex."

Mrs. Catt did not, however, attribute all the evils of universal
suffrage to the ignorant vote but said: "It may be that an
investigation would reveal the fact that a very important source of
difficulty is to be found in the failure of intelligent men to
exercise their citizenship. If this proves true it may be found
necessary to turn a leaf backward in our history and adopt the plan in
vogue in some of the New England colonies which made voting
compulsory, and it may be found feasible to demand of every voter who
absents himself on election day an excuse for his absence, and when he
has absented himself without good excuse for a definite number
of elections, he may be made to suffer the punishment of
disfranchisement...." She called attention to the record that at the
last presidential election more than 7,000,000 men over twenty-one
years of age did not vote and asked: "What is to be done about it? Are
qualified women citizens to wait in patience until influences now
unseen shall sweep away the difficulties and restore the lost
enthusiasm for democracy? Or shall they attempt to determine causes,
apply remedies and clear the way for their own enfranchisement? That
is our problem. For myself, I will say I prefer not to wait. I prefer
to do my part, small as it must be, in the great task of the removal
of the obstructions which clog the wheels of the onward movement of
popular government."

The convention was especially fortunate in having among its speakers a
charming and gifted young woman, Mrs. A. Watson Lister of Melbourne,
Australia, a country whose first national Parliament had two years
before conferred on women full suffrage and eligibility to all
offices. She showed a remarkable knowledge of laws and conditions
affecting women and was thoroughly informed on every phase of the
suffrage movement. The second evening she spoke on Woman's Vote in
Australia to an audience that was not willing to have her stop, saying
in part:

     Australia does lead the world in democratic government, a
     government by the whole people, women as well as men, but we
     realize the great debt that we owe to your brave pioneer women.
     We are reaping the harvest which they planted. To us the names of
     Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are
     household words. It seems strange to me to be asked to come here
     to tell you anything about suffrage, for with us the American
     woman has been supposed to know and have everything.

     Australia is as large as the United States and women have
     national and municipal suffrage and in four of our six States
     they have State suffrage--South and West Australia, New South
     Wales and Tasmania. In Victoria and Queensland they do not yet
     possess it. When the six States became federated it was provided
     that federal suffrage throughout Australia should be on the same
     basis as State suffrage where it was the most liberal. South and
     West Australia had it in full, so the women obtained it
     throughout Australia in national elections. There was so little
     opposition or discussion, it was regarded so completely as an
     accepted fact and foregone conclusion, that most women did not
     even know the measure had passed. It was not an experiment, as
     our men had seen its working in South and West Australia for
     years and also in New Zealand, which is the most democratic and
     best governed country in the world.

     In Australia women are eligible to all offices, even that of
     Prime Minister. At the last elections five stood for Parliament.
     Miss Vida Goldstein was a candidate in Victoria. Although both
     our large newspapers ignored her meetings she got 51,000 votes,
     while the man highest got about 100,000. Not one of the five
     women came out at the bottom of the poll....

     After we had worked for years with members of Parliament for
     various reforms without avail because we had no votes, you can
     not imagine the difference the vote makes. When we held meetings
     to advocate public measures that women wanted, we used to have to
     go out into the highways and hedges and compel the members of
     Parliament to come in; now the difficulty is to keep them out. I
     have seen seven Senators at one small meeting. A prominent man
     who, by an oversight, was not invited to the one held to welcome
     Miss Goldstein on her return from the United States was decidedly
     offended. Chivalry has not been destroyed but increased. On the
     platform at one of our meetings the secretary happened to drop
     her pencil and I saw the Premier and several members of
     Parliament scrambling to pick it up. A woman is never allowed to
     stand in a street car in Australia....

A good deal of light was shed on the inside history of the organized
anti-suffrage movement, which if turned on in other countries would
disclose a similar situation. "Our Anti-Suffrage Association," she
said, "died three months after it was born. It was formed by two of
our leading manufacturers, who hid behind their daughters. They had
plenty of money, took a large office on a main street, employed
several paid secretaries and spent more in three months than we had
done in all our years of work. They paid little boys and girls to
circulate their petition and got many signatures under false
pretences.... Much was made of their petition though it was not half
as large as ours. The daughters of these manufacturers drove up in
their carriages to their fathers' factories at the lunch hour and made
the working girls sign their petition."

A scholarly review of Morley's Life of Gladstone was given by Mrs.
Harriot Stanton Blatch (Eng.). Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman turned A
New Light on the Woman Question, saying:

     My subject is a scientific theory as to the origin and relation
     of the eternal duo. It was started by our greatest living
     sociologist, Lester Ward--the explanation of the order in which
     the sexes were developed. What is it that this suffrage movement
     has had to meet, as it has plowed along up hill for fifty years,
     with its tremendous battery of arguments which it discharges into
     thin air? What it has to overcome is not an argument but a
     feeling, which rests at bottom on the idea expressed in the "rib
     story." As a parable this fairly represents the old belief that
     man was created first, that he was the race, was "it," and that
     woman was created, as modern jokers put it, for "Adams Express
     Company." The poet expressed the same idea when he called woman
     "God's last, best gift to man." ... Ward gives the biological
     facts. In the evolution of species the earliest periods were the
     longest. During ages of the world's history, while animal life
     was slowly evolving, the female was the larger, stronger and more
     representative creature; the male was small, often a parasite,
     told off for the sole purpose of reproduction. By natural
     selection, the female choosing always the best male, the male
     was gradually developed until he became bigger and stronger than
     the female. For a time natural selection continued to work, the
     males competing for the favor of the female. Then the male
     reduced the female to subjection. It occurred to him that it was
     easier to fight one little female once and subjugate her than to
     fight a lot of big males over and over.

     The feminine ideal with many is the bee-hive--lots of honey, lots
     of young ones and nothing else. It was necessary that the male
     should become dominant for a time if the race was to progress.
     Now women are ceasing to be subjugated and we are approaching a
     state of equal rights. It was through a free motherhood and the
     female's constant selection of the best mate that she brought
     into the world power and brain enough to enable man to do what he
     has done. That free motherhood, reinstated, choosing always the
     best and refusing anything less, will bring us a higher humanity
     than we have yet known.

The usual Work Conferences were held and the Executive Committee
presented the Plan of Work which was adopted. In addition to the usual
recommendations it urged that a Memorial Organization Fund be
established to perpetuate the memory of pioneers and that a legal
adviser for the association be appointed from its women lawyer
members. The morning meetings as always were given up to business and
reports of officers, chairmen of committees and field workers and the
afternoons to State reports. The latter, made for the most part by the
presidents, showed faithful work going on in every State and progress
in many. Miss Helen Kimber reported that the Legislature of Kansas had
added to the School franchise, which the women had possessed ever
since the State came into the Union, the right to vote on all public
expenditure of money for issuing of bonds, waterworks, sewerage,
libraries, etc. Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, office secretary, told of
the removal of the national headquarters from New York, where they had
first been established, to Warren, O., where they occupied two large
rooms on the lower floor of an old vine-covered family residence in
the heart of town. From here 35,000 pieces of literature had been sent
out and here had been printed 2,000 each of Lucy Stone and Mrs.
Stanton birthday souvenirs, a booklet to be used on Miss Anthony's
birthday; 10,000 suffrage stamps, Christmas blotters, etc., and 10,000
letters written. The subscription list of _Progress_ had been
increased from 950 to 4,000 and a weekly headquarters' letter had
been sent to the _Woman's Journal_. Resolutions for woman suffrage had
been obtained in international, national and a large number of State
conventions.

Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, the treasurer, reported the receipts,
$21,117, the largest in the history of the association. It contributed
$3,255 to the New Hampshire campaign. Neither Mrs. Upton nor any of
the national officers received a salary (except the secretary, who had
a nominal one), and in referring to the immense amount of unpaid work
done by them and by women in the different States, she said: "People
outside of the association often ask why it is that women can be found
who are willing to give their time to a work without recompense. We
can not answer such inquiries and yet we ourselves know that, through
this devotion to a just and holy cause, we rise to a higher plane, we
see with larger eyes, we feel the presence of the real self of our
fellow-worker. We can no more explain why this is so than we can
analyze 'mother love,' or the love of a daughter for a father but we
know it. It is for this reason your treasurer rejoices over the day
she was so placed, either by design or chance, and so blessed with
perfect health that she was able to serve in the cause of woman's
political freedom." Mrs. Upton referred to Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey's
bequest of $10,000 and that of Mrs. Henrietta M. Banker, from which
the association realized $3,000.

Detailed and valuable reports were made by the chairman of committees
on Presidential Suffrage, Federal Suffrage, Congressional Work, Civil
Rights, Church Work, Enrollment and others. Mrs. Catt reported for the
Committee on Literature. Mrs. Catt with Mrs. Blankenburg (Penn.), Mrs.
Lucy Hobart Day (Me.) and Mrs. Minola Graham Sexton (N. J.),
presidents of their State associations, presided over Work
Conferences. Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, in her report on Libraries and
Bibliography, brought to light the lax manner in which many State
libraries are conducted. In that of New Jersey no catalogue had been
printed for fifty years. In Montana the collection of books was
thirty-five years old and had never been catalogued or classified.
Various librarians reported no works on woman suffrage and women from
those States rose in the audience and said that they had themselves
presented the History of Woman Suffrage--four large volumes. Mrs.
Elnora M. Babcock (N. Y.), chairman of the Press Committee, reported
93,600 general articles sent out; 3,665 special articles, much plate
matter, many personal sketches, photographs, etc., and a number of new
papers added to her list.

Mrs. Maud Nathan read the report of Mrs. Florence Kelley, chairman of
the Committee on Industrial Problems Affecting Women and Children. As
executive secretary of the National Consumers' League Mrs. Kelley was
well qualified to speak and she gave an account of the labor laws in
the southern States affecting girls between 16 and 21, who are neither
children nor women, which was heartbreaking. Pennsylvania was equally
guilty but most of the northern States had improved their laws,
Illinois leading; in none, however, were they wholly adequate. She
urged the appointment of more women factory inspectors, who were now
employed in only eight States, and scored "the default of the
prosperous women of the country," saying: "It may be said that women
are not morally responsible for this unfortunate state of affairs,
since they do not make the laws, but the facts do not altogether
justify this excuse. The child-labor legislation which has been
achieved through the efforts of women during the past ten years shows
that women can do very much even without the ballot in the way of
securing legislation on behalf of women and children, and it remains
true that women buy the product of the work of women and children far
more than do men.... It is my hope that this great and influential
national suffrage organization may so influence public opinion that a
series of beneficent results will soon become visible."

An Evening with the Philanthropists was one of the most enjoyable
during the week. The Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, of whom Felix Adler,
head of the Ethical Culture Society of New York, was quoted as saying:
"She is the only woman with whom I would share my platform," was the
first speaker. In considering New Professions in Philanthropic Work
for Women, she said: "Charity is old but social science is new and it
is the uniting of the two that makes modern philanthropy and that is
what opens these new professions. Charity is supposed to come by
nature but the knowledge of how to deal with its problems does not.
Society is divided into three groups. First, the reformers--a group
never too large, often seemingly too small--who make the way for those
that come after. They are often like the artist whose daughter, being
asked if her father had been successful, answered that he was
'successful after he was dead.' Then comes the great group, the
'middle-of-the-road' people, who walk along, slowly developing,
supporting the churches and schools, holding today's standards and
ideals--the people who live in today and who make up the fabric of the
world. They are sometimes irritating but they hold what has been
gained and they gradually grow. Then there is a group behind, what the
French call the 'unfinished' infants--the defectives, the moral and
physical imbeciles, the backward and incompetent. We must study how to
reduce this social burden in an intelligent way. This has started a
new class of vocations as sacred as the ministry was of old."

A very convincing address was given by Dr. Samuel J. Barrows (Mass.),
secretary of the National Prison Reform Association, on Women and
Prison Reform. In referring to the progress of prison reform he said:
"In this array of apostles and prophets and expositors of the new
penology we find men and women standing side by side." He described
the work in this reform by eminent women in Europe and the United
States and concluded: "In the field of penology woman needs the ballot
as she needs it in other fields, not as an end but as a means, as an
instrument through which she can express her conviction, her
conscience, intelligence, sympathy and love. Questions in philanthropy
are more and more forcing themselves to the front in legislation.
Women are obliged to journey to the Legislature at every session to
instruct members and committees at legislative hearings. Some of these
days the public will think it absurd that women who are capable of
instructing men how to vote should not be allowed to vote themselves.
If police and prison records mean anything they mean that, considered
as law-abiding citizens, women are ten times as good as men. Why debar
the better and enfranchise the worse? In the field of commercial and
political competition, woman may demand the ballot as a right but in
the field of philanthropy and reform she needs it for the fulfillment
of her duties."

Mrs. Nathan, president of the New York Consumers' League, considered
the Wage Earner and the Ballot, her handsome presence, fine humor and
long experience rendering her an unusually attractive speaker. "The
opponents of our cause," she said, "whether they be of the fair sex or
the unfair sex, seem to think that we regard the extension of the
suffrage to women as a panacea for all evils in this world and the
next. No honest suffragist has ever taken that ground. I can not
endorse any such general or sweeping statement but I feel that my
experience in investigating the condition of women wage-earners
warrants the assertion that some of the evils from which they suffer
would not exist if the women had the right to place their votes in the
ballot-box." She compared the industrial and educational situation
where women voted with that of States where they did not and showed
how women were excluded from official positions because disfranchised,
giving conclusive instances of the discrimination in her own State. "I
feel that not only on account of the women wage-earners should women
be accorded the ballot," she said, "but also because they are very
largely the spenders of all family incomes and as such they have the
right to the assurance that what they buy is free from adulteration
and has been produced under clean, wholesome and humane conditions.
For this right the Consumers' League persistently contends but it can
be only partially successful, in my opinion, so long as it depends
entirely upon moral suasion, while manufacturers and merchants have
the voting power to hold in terror over its administration."

Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, president of the Massachusetts State Suffrage
Association and a leader in the movement for peace and arbitration,
was on the program to talk of Woman's Work for Peace. "I am not going
to speak of any philanthropy," she began, "but of something much more
far-reaching and radical, which will make three-fourths of our
philanthropy needless." She then made an impassioned plea for a world
organization of the forces that would conduce to peace. Representative
government was the first step, she said, and the establishment of a
World Court was the next. The achievement of an International Advisory
Congress might be the third. "A simultaneous effort must be made," she
declared, "to arrange arbitration treaties with every nation on earth,
referring all questions that cannot be settled by diplomacy to the
Hague Court. Questions of 'honor' must not be excluded. Carnegie well
said in his plea for this plan, 'No word has been so dishonored as the
word honor.' Such treaties and the use of the economic boycott upon
European enemies would be vastly more efficient than battleships to
keep the peace.... We need to convert the church. There are many of
our Christian ministers who believe they are living under the
dispensation of Joshua and not of Jesus."

At the conclusion of Mrs. Mead's address Mrs. Catt said: "Sometimes
the cause of peace and arbitration seems to me the greatest of all. To
help working women was the motive that determined me to devote my life
to obtaining woman suffrage. How hard it is that women must spend so
many years just to get the means with which to effect reforms! But we
who believe that behind them all is the ballot are chained to the work
for that until it is gained."

Religious services were conducted Sunday afternoon by the Rev. Mary A.
Safford of Des Moines, assisted by Dr. Shaw and the Rev. Marie Jenney
Howe. The subject of the sermon was The Goal of Life and the text:
"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God, and, if children, than heirs--heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ." "In the preaching of the Gospel of all nations,"
she said, "it has been recognized that in Christ there is neither Jew
nor Gentile; while in breaking the fetters of millions of slaves it
also has been recognized that in Him there is neither bond nor free.
The world still awaits the time when it will be proclaimed that in Him
there is neither male nor female."[31]

Monday, February 15, was Miss Anthony's 84th birthday and it was a
coincidence that on the morning of that day the convention should be
opened with prayer by the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, chaplain of the
Senate, a life-long opponent of woman suffrage. When he was invited to
come he asked definite assurance that it would not be interpreted that
he had changed his opinion.[32] The air of the hall was fragrant with
the flowers that had been sent in honor of the birthday, and, as the
usual tribute of the convention, it made its pledges of money for the
expenses of the coming year. Mrs. Upton asked for $4,000 and nearly
$5,000 were quickly subscribed.[33]

The preceding day Mrs. John B. Henderson had given a 12 o'clock
birthday breakfast for Miss Anthony at her handsome home, Boundary
Castle, attended by the national officers and a number of invited
guests. In the evening a social reunion for the officers, delegates
and speakers was held in the banquet room of the Shoreham Hotel, which
was the convention headquarters. On the afternoon of the birthday
President and Mrs. Roosevelt received the members of the convention
with much cordiality. From the White House they went to a reception
given by Miss Clara Barton in her interesting home at Glen Echo, near
Washington. The nearly five hundred visitors received a warm welcome
and enjoyed wandering through the unique house built of lumber left
after the Johnstown flood, unplastered and the walls draped with the
flags of many nations that had been presented to her by their rulers.
At urgent request Miss Barton brought forth the laces, jewels, medals
and decorations given to her by the dignitaries and crowned heads of
Europe for her distinguished services in behalf of the Red Cross,
such a collection, it was said, as no other woman possessed.

The convention was largely in the nature of a Colorado jubilee, as its
women ten years before had cast their first vote, having been
enfranchised in the autumn of 1893. The program for two evenings was
given up to men and women from that State under the heading, Colorado
Speaks for Itself, and it was most appropriate that Miss Anthony
should preside. In presenting her Mrs. Catt said: "This is Miss
Anthony's 84th birthday. We might have had a program filled with
tributes to her and no doubt you would all have enjoyed them but
instead we have what she will like better, a program to show, not that
woman suffrage would be a good thing but that it has been a good
thing. When Miss Anthony was born no woman in America could vote; no
woman in modern times had been a lawyer. Tonight our ushers are seven
women graduates of the Washington Law School, in the cap and gown
which used to be forbidden to women. But there is something else going
on tonight that is a more noteworthy celebration of her birthday. A
measure to grant suffrage to women is pending in Denmark with the
backing of the government and the women of that country have arranged
a great demonstration in favor of the bill and have fixed the date for
today because it is the birthday of Susan B. Anthony. Opponents of
woman suffrage pay almost their whole attention to Colorado, so we
have asked Colorado to come and talk for itself and it has responded
magnificently. All the speakers pay their own expenses and have come
this long way for the pleasure of saying a word for woman suffrage."

The Washington _Post_ commented, "Miss Anthony received an ovation and
it was delightful to see the pride with which she introduced the
speakers--a former Governor, a woman State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, chairmen of women's political committees and clubs, a
woman county superintendent." Mrs. Katharine Cook, president of the
Jane Jefferson Club, a Democratic organization of over a thousand
women, spoke on The Ideals We Cherish and strongly emphasized that
politics did not impair true womanliness or lower high ideals. "A
nation can be no more free or pure or beautiful than the homes of
which it is composed," she said. "Our country is but a greater home
and no mother whose love for her fireside is more than an instinct or
a sentiment can fail to see that the welfare of her home and family is
vitally connected with an unstained ballot and an honest government.
We women who believe in the right of suffrage and exercise it with the
utmost wisdom with which we are gifted, use it for the preservation
and defense and love of our homes ... and it is this spirit which is
needed at the polls."

An entirely different but equally effective note was struck by Mrs.
Ellis Meredith, a prominent journalist of Denver, who said during her
address on Colorado Women and Legislation:

     If I regarded the ballot merely as a right or a privilege or an
     end; a divine, far-off event toward which the whole creation
     moves and which, once attained, obviates its ever having to move
     afterward, I should say it does not make a bit of difference what
     we have done with it. If it is a right, who can question it? If
     it is a privilege, it is beyond question. If it is an end, it is
     achieved. But I do not regard it as any of these. To my mind the
     ballot is simply one of our many modern labor-saving inventions.
     It is the easiest way.... In the ten years that women have been
     voting in Colorado, I believe they have done at least five times
     as much as all the rest of the non-voting women in the United
     States together, and I base this modest claim upon the record of
     our statute books as compared with those of other States. Women
     stand relatively for the same thing everywhere and their first
     care is naturally and inevitably for the child. Whatever we have
     done, other women wish to do. In many States they have tried and
     failed. The difference is they are using stone-age methods while
     we have those of the 20th century."

     No one who knows anything about our laws will attempt to deny
     that women have revolutionized the attitude of our State toward
     the child. Two-thirds of their work has been for the children....
     These laws mean that in Colorado there are no children under 14
     out of school; we have no child beggars nor street musicians and
     no girls vending anything. We have the best child labor law in
     the world. We have the strictest laws for the prevention of the
     abuse, moral, mental or physical of children, of any country, and
     the best enforced, not merely in our cities but throughout the
     entire State. We have the strongest compulsory school law and the
     most enlightened law concerning delinquent children of any, save
     where our laws have been copied.... What we have done has not
     been for ourselves but for the very least of these. It has been
     not for our fading today but for the dawning tomorrow. We have
     gone to our legislators with new ideas and have set a little
     child in the midst of them, and they have not been unmindful of
     the heavenly vision.

Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Denver, president of the State Federation
of Women's Clubs and county superintendent of schools, began her
address, A Message to Garcia, by referring to the noted pamphlet of
that title by Elbert Hubbard, "which," she said, "was translated into
fourteen languages and called out a response from the hearts of the
civilized world, because it set forth the duty and necessity of doing
a thing yourself if you want it well done," and she made the
application: "The women of Colorado have learned by experience the
advantage of a direct vote over direct influence." She then told in a
graphic manner the vast amount of good work the Federation of Clubs
had been able to do through the power of the ballot and said: "During
the last Legislature a department of the federation had to sit one day
each week to confer with the many members who wanted its endorsement
for their bills. Clubwomen in non-suffrage States do not have this
experience. It is because we can carry the message to Garcia
ourselves." "Mrs. Catt helped to win our mountain republic for
suffrage," Mrs. Bradford said in conclusion, "and we women of Colorado
pledge ourselves to Susan B. Anthony to work until death to help get
it in other States."

Mrs. Isabella Churchill of Greeley spoke from the standpoint of the
women outside the cities. "To the women in the small towns and country
districts," she said, "it is a privilege and a pleasure to go to the
polls on election day with the men of their family and vote for the
candidates and measures they have had time to consider with care. In
such places the question next day is not, 'Did the election go
Democratic or Republican?' but 'Was it license or no license?' or else
concerning some candidate or issue that they believe of importance to
their community." Mrs. Helen Belford, chairman of the Women's State
Democratic Committee, devoted her address largely to the development
of the young women through the use of the ballot and the study of
political questions. Mrs. Ina Thompson, chairman of the Republican
Women's State Committee, gave a very interesting account of the way
campaigns are conducted by women.

Mrs. Helen Loring Grenfell, as State Superintendent of Education,
spoke with high authority and by her dignified and beautiful presence
no less than by her ability made a deep impression on all who heard
her. She pointed out that Colorado came into the Union in 1876 with
School suffrage for women and through this they had always been able
to keep the schools on a non-partisan basis. She showed that it paid
more per capita for public schools than any other State, leaving even
New York and Massachusetts behind; described its advanced position
from kindergartens to training schools and colleges, with especial
care in guarding the welfare of children, and continued:

     In the East we hear of "the question of coeducation." It is not a
     question west of the Mississippi River, it never has been, it
     never will be. The eastern arrangement seems to us merely a
     curious survival of antiquated ideas, a kind of sex-consciousness
     which we have lost sight of in our care for the human being....
     The place of State Superintendent has always been held by a woman
     since women became eligible. The first superintendent elected was
     a Republican, the second a Democrat, each holding the place for
     one term; the third, who is now serving her third term, was
     nominated as a Silver Republican but has really been elected and
     twice re-elected without regard to politics--an example of the
     independence of the vote where school affairs are concerned.
     There are 59 counties in Colorado and 33 of them, including most
     of those with the largest population, have women county
     superintendents....

     I have found Colorado women much like their sisters elsewhere
     save that they have a broader view of public affairs and they
     take naturally a more active interest in the world's work. They
     have learned to think and to say what they think simply and
     freely in gatherings where men and women meet to discuss the
     vital concerns of life. They have not forgotten that they are
     women but they have come to know that they are also human beings,
     and, like Terence, they find nothing that concerns humanity
     foreign to them. Surely had we not been faithful in the smaller
     things, we should not have had these large opportunities given to
     us.... I can not help thinking that my sisters elsewhere have
     lost something rare and precious from their lives through the
     lack of that complete citizenship which has been bestowed upon
     the women of Colorado, and I hope the day may be near when those
     sisters may be made man's equal under the law of the land as they
     have always been under the law of God.

The Hon. Isaac N. Stevens, a pronounced suffragist, who had the topic
After Ten Years, was detained elsewhere. The Hon. Alva Adams, who had
twice been Governor of the State, in his strong and comprehensive
speeches before the convention and the Judiciary Committee of the
House of Representatives, answered for all time the misrepresentations
in regard to woman suffrage in Colorado which for years had been
persistently made by the anti-suffragists, and he also answered
conclusively the many objections that had been conjured up. In the
convention he discussed it From the Colorado Point of View, beginning
as follows:

     Colorado does not go into mourning when a girl is born. Equal
     suffrage has not taken Colorado out of the Union. She stands an
     example of what a sovereign State should be--a model to those
     self-righteous States that preach equal rights in press, pulpit
     and forum and deny it in the law. The statue of Justice that
     crowns her city hall, court house and Capitol is not a lie. For
     the Capitol in Washington and in 41 States of the Union the
     figure of St. Paul would be more fitting than that of the Goddess
     of Liberty. Unfettered by tradition and prejudice Colorado has
     dared to do right. She has given to woman what Solomon gave to
     Sheba--"whatsoever she asked"--and has no regrets and no desire
     to recall the gift. After ten years of experience, equal suffrage
     needs neither apology nor defense. No harm has come to either
     woman, man or the State. Justice never harmed any one. If
     Colorado women were not angels before, the ballot has brought no
     wings. Suffrage has not elevated them, it has simply placed them
     where they belonged but it has raised the men who have dared to
     be just. Woman has not yet conquered iniquity nor has it
     conquered her. Suffrage is not a revolution, it is but a step and
     not the end of the journey....

     If women have not overthrown the entrenched political machines
     the failure is due to the so-called respectable Christian men.
     The women are ready but the men are chained to partisanship....
     No single disaster, no backward step in politics or family morals
     can be charged to woman suffrage. It has added nothing to the
     business of the divorce court, no family has been disrupted, no
     children neglected; but the prayers of hundreds of homeless
     children and orphans have invoked a benediction upon the voting
     women for the home and education that their influence has induced
     the State to provide. Suffrage has sent no girl astray but it has
     gathered many wanderers and turned their feet into paths of
     safety and built for them a model State home. Through the age of
     consent law many a seducer has ended his career in jail. The most
     efficient members of the State Board of Charities and Correction
     are women and this is true of other boards. Their influence has
     sent rays of light and hope into darkened cells and established
     reforms in asylums and prisons.

In answer to the continued charges that the people of the State would
like to repeal the law he said: "I have too high a regard, too sincere
a faith in Colorado manhood to believe that any of the men who
voluntarily conferred the ballot upon their wives, sisters and mothers
would now repeal that just act. Common sense refutes the statement
regarding women themselves. Not 75 per cent., not 10 per cent., not 1
per cent. would today vote to relinquish that which belongs to them.
It is not an American trait to give up rights.... I challenge any one
to find 100 intelligent women in Colorado who will voluntarily request
that the word 'male' be restored in the constitution and statutes of
the State. Many women may not go to the polls but the man who would
try to take away their right to do so would need a bombproof conning
tower. There will be no repeal, it stands for all time. There never
will be less than four woman suffrage States--there should be
forty-five.... Since 1876 school affairs have practically been in the
hands of women. They have voted at school elections, held the office
of superintendent in a majority of the counties and taught most of the
schools. In these twenty-eight years neither politics nor scandals
have impaired our public school system and in efficiency we challenge
comparison with any State in the Union. What the women have done for
our schools they can do for our civic government. They have introduced
conscience into educational affairs and they will do the same in city
and State. That is the fear of those who make politics a
profession...."

Henry B. Blackwell was introduced and spoke briefly of having gone to
Colorado in 1876 to assist in getting full suffrage for women into the
constitution for statehood, but it was left for the voters to decide.
Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with references to the successful
campaign of 1893, seventeen years later.

A resolution presented by Mrs. Mead was adopted urging Congress to
take the initial steps toward inviting the governments of the world to
establish an International Advisory Congress, and impressing upon
equal suffragists that they should create local public sentiment in
favor of arbitration treaties between the United States and all
countries with which it has diplomatic relations. On motion of Mrs.
Grenfell the convention endorsed the bill before Congress for a
national board of child and animal protection. It rejoiced in the
voting of 850,000 women in Australia and in the fact that woman
suffrage existed throughout 300,000 square miles of United States
territory and eight Senators and nine Representatives were sent to
Congress by votes of both men and women. Mrs. Mary Church Terrell (D.
C.), a highly educated woman, showing little trace of negro blood,
said: "A resolution asks you to stand up for children and animals; I
want you to stand up not only for children and animals but also for
negroes. You will never get suffrage until the sense of justice has
been so developed in men that they will give fair play to the colored
race. Much has been said about the purchasability of the negro vote.
They never sold their votes till they found that it made no difference
how they cast them. Then, being poor and ignorant and human, they
began to sell them, but soon after the Civil War I knew many efforts
to tempt them to do so which were not successful. My sisters of the
dominant race, stand up not only for the oppressed sex but also for
the oppressed race!"

Resolutions of regret were adopted for the death of many pioneer
suffragists during the year, among them Sarah Knox Goodrich of
California; Sarah Burger Stearns of Minnesota; Judge J. W. Kingman of
Iowa; Ellen Sully Fray of Ohio; Eliza Sproat Turner and Samuel Pennock
of Pennsylvania; Henrietta L. T. Wolcott, Lavina A. Hatch, Alice
Gordon Gulick, Richard P. Hallowell and the Hon. Henry S. Washburn of
Massachusetts. Telegrams of remembrance were sent to the veteran
workers, Mrs. Martha S. Root of Michigan and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick
of Louisiana, and a letter to Mrs. Ellen Powell Thompson of the
District. Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey of Kentucky, author of Republics
vs. Women, was introduced to the convention and showed how republics
disfranchised half of their citizens.

The Declaration of Principles, prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, Miss
Blackwell and Mrs. Harper remained a permanent platform of the
association.

Dr. Shaw made the delegates smile at one morning session after they
had sung "America" by moving that hereafter the line, "Our Father's
God to Thee," should be printed on their program, "Our Father, God, to
Thee." She said the preachers and poets had a habit of talking so
exclusively about "the God of our fathers" that there was danger of
forgetting that our mothers had any God! Mrs. Mary Wood Swift
(Calif.), its president, brought the greetings of the National Council
of Women. The report from the Friends Equal Rights Association, an
affiliated society, was made by Mrs. Anne W. Janney (Md). Fraternal
greetings were given by Mrs. Olive Pond Amies for the Pennsylvania W.
C. T. U.; by Mrs. Arabella Carter (Penn.) for the Universal Peace
Union, and by Mrs. Emma S. Olds (O.) for the Ladies of the Maccabees
of the World. Mrs. Catt warmly complimented this last organization for
its fine business principles and the high character of its leaders.
The association appointed as its legal adviser Mrs. Catharine Waugh
McCulloch, a prominent lawyer of Chicago, for years the superintendent
of legislative work for the Illinois Suffrage Association and part of
the time its president. It is needless to say that it was not a
salaried position. One morning Mrs. Catt called the "pioneers" to the
platform and presented them to the convention, among them Miss Mary S.
Anthony, who had attended the first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848,
of whom her sister always said: "She has looked after the home and
made it possible for me to do my work."

Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y., one of the early Abolitionists,
said in her few words of reminiscence: "I remember Lucy Stone holding
a series of meetings through New York State in my youth. My uncle came
home and reported that a young woman was lecturing and putting up her
own posters; that she was very bright and he was not sure but that she
was right and what she advocated would have to come. As I think of
those three great leaders, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Susan B. Anthony, I know what heroism is.... We women did not fully
realize at first that militarism was our greatest foe. We are always
told that women must not vote because they can not fight. I believe
they could--I see many women who have more fight in them than many
men.... Our cause came straight from the anti-slavery cause. All its
early advocates were also advocates of freeing the despised race in
bondage. Let us not forget them now. Neither a nation nor an
individual can be really free till all are free."

It had been known for some months that Mrs. Catt would not accept a
re-election to the presidency. For the past nine years she had given
her entire time to work for woman suffrage, speaking in many States,
attending conventions, serving as chairman of the Committee on
Organization for five years and as president for four years. During
this time she had had charge of the national headquarters and under
the combined strain found her health breaking. The first measure of
relief was the removal of the national headquarters to Warren, Ohio,
in May, 1904, where Mrs. Upton took it in charge, but this was not
sufficient and she announced her determination to retire from the
presidency, much to the regret of the association. The delegates
naturally turned to Dr. Shaw and urged the presidency upon her but she
was most reluctant to accept. It was an unsalaried position; she was
entirely dependent on her lectures and she felt that in the field she
could best serve the cause but she finally yielded to Miss Anthony's
earnest entreaties. She was almost unanimously elected and Mrs. Catt
consented to remain in official position as vice-president-at-large.
The convention adopted the following resolution: "We tender to our
retiring president our hearty thanks for her years of faithful and
efficient labor in behalf of our cause and for her self-sacrificing
devotion to its interests. We congratulate ourselves that we shall
continue to have her wise counsel and cooperation and we express our
earnest hope for her health and prosperity." No other change was made
except that Mrs. Coggeshall retired as second auditor and Dr. Cora
Smith Eaton again became a member of the board.

The _Evening Star_ had this description: "As the afternoon session was
about closing Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, retiring national president,
who has endeared herself to all by her gracious courtesy, her firm yet
gentle sway, presented to the convention its choice for her successor.
Miss Shaw was not as clear-eyed as usual when she faced the cheering
audience and her voice trembled and choked a little as she declared
she had accepted the office only to give Mrs. Catt a rest. As the
convention continued to applaud she said, trying to smile: 'Don't do
that or I shall surely cry!' The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw is probably the
first woman distinguished by having taken both theological and medical
degrees. She won her way into and through college by teaching and paid
for her theological training by preaching on Sundays.... After filling
one parish for seven years she found her widest opportunities in the
broad parish of the lecture field and is one of the ablest speakers on
the public platform."

Detroit sent an invitation for the next convention and Mrs. Richard
Williams of Buffalo, N. Y., presented one from that city with a
guarantee from the State Suffrage Association of $1,000 toward the
expenses. While these were appreciated the invitation from Portland,
Ore., was the choice. It was presented by Dr. Annice Jeffreys for the
association and by the Hon. Jefferson Myers in behalf of the Lewis and
Clark Exposition to be held in 1905, which the convention gave a
hearty endorsement.

The last evening found the large armory filled to the doors. Mrs.
Evelyn H. Belden (Ia.) made a delightful address on The Main Line,
which thoroughly disproved the assertion that women have no sense of
humor, as the audience testified by frequent laughter and applause.
Mrs. L. Annis Pound (Mich.) discussed the Problem of the Individual.
"A woman's value to society," she said, "will increase in direct ratio
as her value as an individual increases. Woman as the potential mother
of the race owes it to posterity to develop the noblest, strongest
type of individualism. She must be first a human being, a personality,
a member of society." Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, president of the National
Women's Republican Association, who had made political speeches from
ocean to ocean, told in a most entertaining manner of Campaigning in
Free States and paid a glowing tribute to the beneficial effects of
woman suffrage in the States where it existed.

Towards the end of the evening Mrs. Catt presented Miss Anthony and as
she came forward she brought Miss Barton with her and the audience
rose in heartfelt recognition of the two great leaders. "It seemed
unable quite fully to express its pleasure," said the _Evening Star_,
"and applauded again and again, as Miss Barton bowed and Miss Anthony
looked smilingly and benignly out over the enthusiastic crowds." She
expressed in words of affection and esteem her pleasure in appearing
on that platform with one who had stood by her from the beginning of
her work and Miss Barton responded in the same strain, giving then as
always her adherence to Miss Anthony and the cause of woman suffrage.

A national suffrage convention never seemed to be properly ended
unless Dr. Shaw made a speech at the close and for this one she chose
the subject, Woman without a Country, and with her matchless eloquence
described the position of women under the flag of a Government in
which they had no voice. Mrs. Catt spoke the president's inspiring
farewell words and the convention adjourned to meet next time in the
far northwest.

       *       *       *       *       *

The usual hearings were granted by the Senate and House Committees on
February 16 at 10:30 a.m. Miss Anthony presided at the Senate hearing
and the speakers in the Marble Room were Mrs. Watson Lister,
Australia; Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, England; Dr. Anna Howard Shaw
and Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, Pennsylvania; Miss Laura A. Gregg,
Nebraska; Miss Harriet May Mills, Miss Emily Howland, Mrs. Maud
Nathan, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, New
York. In introducing Mrs. Gilman Miss Anthony said quaintly: "This is
one of the Beecher tribe," referring to her relationship, and she said
of Dr. Shaw, the last speaker, "She will wind us up!" In telling of
the first congressional hearing on woman suffrage ever granted--in
1869--she said: "Of all those who spoke here then I am the only one
living today and I shall not be able to come much longer." Her words
were prophetic, as this was the last hearing she ever attended.

Each speaker considered the question from a different standpoint: Miss
Mills showed that the high schools everywhere were graduating more
girls than boys and women were increasing in the colleges at a higher
ratio than men and said: "If only you would fix an educational
qualification for the franchise we might hope to attain it." Mrs.
Swift described the great campaign that had been made by California
women for the suffrage in 1896 and yet they could not now even vote
for school officers and she told of the unjust laws for women. Mrs.
Boyer spoke for the millions of women wage-earners and declared that
the present form of government was a sex-aristocracy. Mrs. Gilman said
that to have intelligent men there must be educated mothers and that
America could be made greater but not out of little people. Mrs.
Harper reviewed the Senate hearings of the past, the favorable and
unfavorable reports and the many times when no reports were made and
said: "We represent no vested interests, no constituency: we cannot
help or harm you politically; we can only appeal to you in the name of
abstract justice."

Mrs. Blatch, American by birth, told of the feelings of women arriving
in this country by steamer and seeing the men land from the steerage
who would soon have the right of suffrage which was denied to women
born in the United States. Mrs. Watson Lister was introduced as
representing over 800,000 women voters in Australia and said in part:
"It seems very odd to me to come to America to speak on
self-government. In Australia woman suffrage is not an experiment but
a long experience and one effect has been to disprove all the things
that were said against it." Dr. Shaw spoke of the hardships women had
endured to make this country what it is and of the injustice of
denying them any voice in its government.

Miss Anthony closed by saying that she had appealed to committees of
seventeen Congresses and she urged that this one would make a
favorable report. Senator Mitchell of Oregon responded: "I introduced
this resolution for woman suffrage. I am earnestly in favor of
it--have been for many years--and if I live you will get a report. I
have been more instructed and interested by the magnificent speeches I
have heard today than by any in the Senate of the United States during
the twenty-one years I have attended it." Others expressed themselves
in the same strain. Senator Mitchell's own personal affairs, however,
soon became much involved and no report was made.

       *       *       *       *       *

Mrs. Catt conducted the hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the
House. Its chairman, Representative John J. Jenkins of Wisconsin, who
was presiding, made no secret of his hostility to woman suffrage but
some members of the committee were favorable. Colorado had been the
storm center of attack and defense for many years while Denver was the
only city of considerable size where women could vote. In opening the
hearing Mrs. Catt said: "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee:
Last year when we appeared before the committee to speak in behalf of
the bill asking the submission of the 16th Amendment we called
attention to the fact that Congress had appointed a great many
commissions for investigation of the conditions, political and
otherwise, of various classes of people, and inasmuch as we have come
here year after year claiming that woman suffrage had wrought none of
the ills which its enemies said it would and that it had brought many
benefits, we asked that Congress, through a commission, should
investigate it in the western States. You are aware that no such
commission resulted from our petition. When Mahomet commanded the
mountain to come to him and the mountain did not come he said: 'Then
Mahomet will go to the mountain.' We have therefore this year brought
Colorado to you and the speakers who will address you this morning are
all from that State."

The speeches largely followed the lines of those given before the
convention. Mrs. Katherine Cook showed the relation between the
women's vote and the home and family welfare. Mrs. Ellis Meredith,
introduced as on the editorial staff of the _Rocky Mountain News_ of
Denver, gave a summary of the excellent legislation that had been
effected since women began voting in 1894 and said: "I have read a
compilation of the laws in regard to the protection of children in
every State and I know that in no other have they such ample
protection and in no other are the laws so well enforced. This is
partly due to the fact that our Humane Society is a State institution
and has the free voluntary services of six hundred men and women
acting as agents over this big State of 104,000 square miles."
Answering questions she said: "In my district, one of the best, 571
women registered and 570 voted. There are as many men as women in the
district but only 235 voted. Men form 55 per cent. of our population
and women 45. Women cast over 43 per cent. of the total vote."

Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, president of the State Federation of Women's
Clubs, extended the account of the remarkable work it had accomplished
as described to the convention, a success, she said, due to the fact
that it represented a large body of well-informed voters. She
ridiculed the danger at the polling places. "Who are the evil
creatures we are supposed to meet there on election day? We vote in
the precinct in which we live and we meet our husbands, our brothers,
our sons.... In Colorado the environment in which the supreme right of
citizenship is performed has been improved to harmonize with the
improved character of the constituency."

Mrs. Helen Loring Grenfell was introduced by Mrs. Catt as "the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction now serving her third term, the
only successful candidate on her ticket at the last election." She
began by saying: "Gentlemen, this is a very peculiar position for a
Colorado woman. It seems just as strange to me as it would be to my
husband to be coming here before a body of women and saying: 'We men
ask from you equal rights under the Constitution of the United
States.'" After showing the interest felt in elections by women she
said: "I have been an office-holder, which has involved running for
office, and I think it is right for me to tell you a little of my
experiences. My campaigns have taken me through almost every county in
Colorado, the farming counties, the roughest mining communities, and
let me say to you that if there could be any more chivalry in the
States where you think it would be unchivalrous to let your women
vote, I would like to see it. I have met with the greatest courtesy
from men all over the State. I have been treated just as kindly, just
as politely by the men when I appeared as a political candidate as by
the men with whom I am associated in my school work, in my home and
society life. We have come to the time when we must feel that the word
chivalry belongs to the past. It is connected with a period when
woman's position before the law and in her home was far from a
desirable one; and so I believe you will not misunderstand me when I
say that if you will give us justice we feel that it will mean a great
deal more than chivalry ever did."

There had just been an exposition of fraud at the recent Congressional
election where Representative John F. Shafroth had been re-elected and
he at once resigned the office in order to disclaim all connection
with it. Nearly every speaker was interrogated about it by members of
the committee. Mrs. Grenfell answered, as did all of them: "The frauds
upon which this election was decided were committed in the city of
Denver alone and in the worst precincts in the city. We will admit
that they were committed. Is that a reason for considering that woman
suffrage is a mistake? I have heard reports from the cities of
Philadelphia and New York by which, if I should judge male suffrage,
I should say it was an utter failure in the States of Pennsylvania and
New York. We have tens of thousands of women voters in Colorado. We
have indictments out against many dishonest voters and with the utmost
searching they have found one woman who is charged with 'repeating' in
the election. Our State penitentiary has five women prisoners today
and 600 men. That surely cannot be used as an argument for woman
suffrage having injured the women, whatever it may have done to the
men."[34]

The committee were particularly interested in the speech of former
Governor Alva Adams, which gave much information on the voting of
women and called out many questions from the committee. Representative
Littlefield of Maine inquired: "What do you say, Governor, about Miss
McCracken's article in the _Outlook_?" and he answered: "I call it
infamous, to use the proper term. It was an absolute falsehood. It was
based upon no facts, because no decent women in Colorado would make
the statements that she quotes. She may have found one woman who would
say that they were using philanthropy and charity for political
purposes but to admit that the women of the State would do a thing of
that kind--would so debase themselves--would be an impeachment of the
decency and honesty of womankind everywhere. I am not prepared to make
that admission and the citizens of Colorado cannot make it. There are
100,000 honest women in the State who are voters and there are not
100 who will subscribe to the sentiments she gave voice to."[35]

Mrs. Catt closed the hearing with an earnest appeal for action, saying
in part:

     When the constitution of Colorado was first made in 1876 a
     provision was placed in it that at any time the Legislature might
     enfranchise the women by a referendum of a law to the voters.
     That was done in 1893 and it was passed by 6,000 majority. Last
     year an amendment to the constitution was submitted to the
     electors, now both men and women, concerning the qualifications
     for the vote and in it there was included, of course, the
     recognition of the enfranchisement of women quite as much as that
     of men, so that it was virtually a woman suffrage amendment. It
     received a majority of 35,000, showing certainly that after ten
     years of experience the people were willing to put woman suffrage
     in the constitution, where it became an integral part of it and
     permanent.

     When the American constitution was formulated it was the first of
     its kind and this was the first republic of its kind. Man
     suffrage was an experiment and it was considered universally a
     very doubtful one. We find overwhelming evidence that the
     thinkers of the world feared that if this republic should fail to
     live it would come to its end through the instability of the
     minds of men and that revolutionary thought would arise to
     overturn the Government. We find it in George Washington and
     Benjamin Franklin and all of our statesmen as well as those who
     were watching the experiment here so anxiously from across the
     sea. What was the result? The result was they made a constitution
     just as ironclad as they could, so as to prevent its amendment.
     They made it as difficult for the fundamental law of the nation
     to be changed as they knew how to do.... Those of us who wish to
     enter the political life, who believe that we have quite as good
     a right to express ourselves there as any man--what is our
     position? Within the last century there has been extension after
     extension of the suffrage, and every one has put suffrage for
     women further off....

     Do you not see that while in this country there are millions of
     people who believe in the enfranchisement of women, while there
     is more sentiment for it than in any other, yet we are restricted
     by this stone wall of constitutional limitations which was set at
     a time when a republican form of government was totally untried?
     Because of this we find ourselves distanced by monarchies and the
     women enfranchised in other lands are coming to us to express
     their pity and sympathy.... So I ask that you will this time make
     a report to the House of Representatives and if you do not
     believe that we are right, for Heaven's sake make an adverse
     report. Anything will be more satisfactory than the indifference
     with which we have been treated for many years. Do at least
     recognize that we have a cause, that there are women here whose
     hearts are aching because they see great movements to which they
     desire to give their help and yet they are chained down to work
     for the power that is not yet within their hands.... If you, Mr.
     Chairman, feel that you can not offer a favorable report because
     the majority of the committee is not favorable, then I beg of
     you, in behalf of the women of the United States, to show where
     you stand and to give an adverse report.

The Senate Committee presented the National Association with 10,000
and the House Committee with 15,000 copies of these hearings, which
they could use as a part of their propaganda literature. There was
not, however, enough political influence back of the appeals for the
submission of the Federal Amendment for woman suffrage to compel the
committees to make reports which would bring the subject before
Congress.


FOOTNOTES:

[29] Part of Call: In our own country the advocates of our cause know
no discouragement or disappointment. The seed planted by the pioneers
of the woman's rights movement is continuously bearing fruit in the
educational, industrial and social opportunities for the women of
today; these in turn presage the full harvest--political
enfranchisement. Under the stimulus of an educated intelligence and
awakened self-respect women daily grow more unwilling that their
opinions in government, the fundamental source of civilization, should
continue to be uncounted with those of the defective and criminal
classes of men.

In the industrial world organized labor is recognizing in the
underpaid services of women an enemy to economic prosperity and is
making common cause with woman's demand for the ballot with which to
protect her right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, avowed to
be inalienably hers by the Declaration of Independence. Time,
agitation, education and organization cannot fail to ripen these many
influences into a general belief in true democratic government of the
people, without distinctions in regard to sex.

                         SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President.
                         CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.
                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-President.
                         KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.
                         ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.
                         HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
                         LAURA CLAY,        } Auditors.
                         MARY J. COGGESHALL,}

[30] A ticket was sent with the invitation which took her carriage to
the private entrance and enabled her to avoid the crowd. She was
constantly surrounded by distinguished people and Miss Alice Roosevelt
left a party of friends, saying, "I must speak to Miss Anthony, she is
my father's special guest." The next day she told the convention in
her inimitable way that when she was presented to Mr. Roosevelt she
said: "Now, Mr. President, we don't intend to trouble you during the
campaign but after you are elected, then look out for us!"

[31] Clergymen who opened the various meetings with prayer were Dr.
Edward Everett Hale, chaplain of the U. S. Senate; the Rev. J. L.
Coudon, chaplain of the House of Representatives; the Reverends A. D.
Mayo, D.D.; S. M. Newman, D.D., of the First Congregational Church; U.
G. B. Pierce, All Souls Unitarian Church; John Van Schiack, Jr.,
Universalist Church; Alexander Kent, People's Church; the women
ministers at the convention, Anna Howard Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer,
Mary A. Safford, Marie Jenney Howe, and laywomen Laura Clay, Lucy
Hobart Day, Mrs. Clinton Smith, president District W. C. T. U. The
congregational singing was arranged and led by Miss Etta V. Maddox of
Baltimore and the evening musical programs were in charge of Herndon
Morsell and his pupils.

[32] The Washington _Post_ of that date contained an amusing little
incident. Miss Anthony came into the morning session while Mrs. Upton
was raising the money and the audience rose to their feet waving their
handkerchiefs. She was about to sit down on the front seat when Mrs.
Upton insisted she should come to the platform. "Must I do that?" she
said sotto voce. "I have on my travelling dress." "How we do put on
airs as we grow older," said Mrs. Upton jokingly, assisting her to the
platform. The applause continuing Miss Anthony smiled, reached out her
hand with a deprecating gesture and said: "There now, girls, that's
enough."

[33] The Washington _Times_ said: "Mrs. Upton is one of the most
popular women in the suffrage movement and her energy is a matter of
many years' history. If financial support is to be obtained from
States, societies or individuals there is no one more capable of
extracting generous subscriptions...." The _Star_ said: "Mrs. Upton
has served as treasurer many years. She is energetic, zealous,
tactful, possesses a remarkable insight of human nature and is greatly
admired. She is president of the Ohio Suffrage Association and member
of the Warren board of education. Before she became so engrossed in
suffrage she did a great deal of literary work. Her father, Ezra B.
Taylor, succeeded Garfield in Congress and she was with him during his
thirteen years in office. Miss Anthony always relied on him for advice
and assistance."

[34] There was a large amount of unimpeachable testimony that the
women had no part in these election frauds. Mr. Shafroth himself said:
"The frauds were committed in a bad part of Denver where few women
live. To represent them as characteristic of women's election methods
in Colorado is an outrage." A prominent Denver lawyer, who was then in
Washington, was interviewed on the subject and said: "That 'Exhibit
64' (relating to the alleged frauds by women) was not competent
evidence and would have been thrown out by any court. The woman who
accused herself and other women of cheating did not stay to be
cross-examined; she simply made her affidavit and 'skipped out.'
Everything tends to the belief that she was in the employ of the
opposite party."

The president of the League for Honest Elections in Denver, when
stating that about thirty arrests had been made in connection with the
frauds, said: "Of those arrested and bound over, only one is a woman.
We believe that she is the least guilty of all and whatever connection
she had with the election in her precinct was as the passive
instrument of the men in charge of the fraudulent work at that place.
Of the persons for whom warrants have been issued but not yet served,
only one is a woman. She was a clerk in one of the lower precincts and
we understand has left the city. I may say, as a result of my own
experience in connection with this League, I find that women have
practically nothing to do with fraudulent work."

[35] A Miss Elizabeth McCracken had been sent to Colorado by the
_Outlook_ to prepare an article on woman suffrage, which it published.
The statements in it were universally repudiated by the press and the
people of that State. Mrs. Grenfell said of it at this convention: "It
is as absurd to refute her assertions as to reply to Baron Munchausen
or to insist that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland never happened.
Such conditions as she describes do not exist in Colorado."




CHAPTER V.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1905.


Until 1905 the national suffrage conventions had never been held
further west than Des Moines, Ia. (1897), but this year the innovation
was made of going to the Pacific Coast for the Thirty-seventh annual
meeting, June 28-July 5,[36] at the invitation of the managers of the
Lewis and Clark Exposition held in Portland, Ore. It was a delightful
experience from the beginning, as the delegates from the East and
Middle West met in Chicago and had three special cars from there. The
Chicago Woman's Club gave a large reception in the afternoon of June
23 for Miss Anthony, the officers and delegates. They took the train
that night; Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt joined them in Iowa and others
along the way, as it sped westward. The newspapers had given it wide
publicity and they were greeted by suffragists at many places. The
Political Equality Club of Boone, Ia., brought large bouquets for Miss
Anthony, Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt, who made brief speeches from the rear
platform. The colored porter listened attentively and said: "Well,
that settles me; I am for woman suffrage," and afterwards diligently
circulated copies of the _Woman's Journal_ on the train. Another
ovation awaited them at Council Bluffs. The train waited half an hour
at Omaha and the women of the Political Equality Club, the W. C. T. U.
and the Woman's Club united in a demonstration. A platform had been
improvised and their presidents expressed a welcome to which responses
were made by Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, the Rev. Antoinette
Brown Blackwell, Miss Laura Clay and Mr. and Miss Blackwell, editors
of the _Woman's Journal_, while reporters were busy getting
interviews. They returned to the train laden with flowers, which they
distributed, sending buttonhole bouquets to the engineer, fireman and
all the crew.

The train was delayed two hours at Cheyenne and former U. S. Senator
Joseph M. Carey and his wife, staunch suffragists and old friends of
Miss Anthony, took her for a drive while the officers and delegates
walked about the pleasant little city and went to see the handsome
State House. Miss Blackwell wrote of the occasion: "Everything in
Wyoming was surrounded by a sort of halo. The sky seemed of a more
vivid blue, the grass of a brighter emerald than in the States where
women do not enjoy equal rights. The leaves of the many cottonwood
trees twinkled pleasantly in the clear sunlight, the air was fresh and
bracing and the snow mountains looked down upon the city like a
visible realization of ideals." The presence of the visitors soon
became known and an impromptu reception was held in the large waiting
room of the station, which was beautified by potted ferns and palms.

Sunday services were held on the train and during the week days
business meetings in the stateroom of Miss Anthony and Dr. Shaw. As
the journey neared the end the porter confided to Lucy E. Anthony, the
railroad secretary, who arranged the trip: "I ain't never travelled
with such a bunch of women before--they don't fuss with me and they
don't scrap with each other!" Monday morning they entered the
magnificent scenery along the Columbia River and at The Dalles were
met by Mrs. Duniway and a party of friends. By noon they had reached
the City of Roses and were comfortably settled in the Portland Hotel
and the hospitable homes of the city.

The convention, held in the First Congregational Church, was planned
for a very full program of ten days instead of the usual week.
Notwithstanding the Exposition was in progress and conventions were a
matter of daily occurrence, none of the national suffrage conventions
ever had fuller or more satisfactory reports. _Journal_, _Telegram_
and _Oregonian_ vied with each other and the Associated Press sent out
whatever was requested of it. _The Oregonian_ said of the first
executive session: "Room 618 in the Portland Hotel was the scene of a
notable gathering yesterday afternoon. Lawyers, doctors, ministers of
the gospel, lecturers of renown and expert auditors were in close
conference, mapping out a plan of campaign by which they will fight
for their rights in this land of the free and home of the brave. That
they have not had the rights accorded by the Declaration of
Independence to all American citizens they attribute to the fact that
they are women and it is to convince unseeing mankind that women who
are intelligent enough to obey laws are capable of helping frame them,
that the most profound and representative women of the country are
gathered here in the interests of equal suffrage." Miss Blackwell
presented this interesting picture in her letter to the _Woman's
Journal_.

     The convention has opened magnificently, with glorious sunshine,
     great audiences, full and friendly press reports and the
     suffragists of the Pacific Coast outdoing themselves in cordial
     hospitality. The beautiful city of Portland is so full of flowers
     at this season that the whole city might be thought to have
     decorated in honor of the coming of the national convention. As
     the yellow-ribboned delegates go through the streets they
     constantly utter exclamations of delight over the enormous roses,
     the curtains of dark blue clematis draping the verandas, the
     luxuriant masses of ivy and the majestic trees rising above the
     velvet lawns and casting their shade upon the many handsome
     residences.... Hospitable Oregonians send in presents to the
     officers of huge red and yellow apples and baskets of mammoth
     cherries nestling in their green leaves....

     The large gray stone church has its auditorium hung with American
     flags and bunting of the suffrage color; portraits of Lucy Stone
     and Susan B. Anthony stand back of the pulpit and along its front
     runs the word "progress" in large letters made of flowers.... A
     splendid bouquet of white lilies has just been sent to the
     convention as a greeting from the Oregon State Federation of
     Women's Clubs and another of rich red roses from the Portland
     Woman's Club, and the platform is imbedded in carnations from
     local florists. All sorts of organizations seem to vie with each
     other in welcoming their happy guests.

The convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. Elwin L. House,
pastor of the church. The president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was in the
chair and greetings were given from the Oregon Suffrage Association by
its president, Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe; the National Council of Women by
the president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift (Calif.), who called attention to
the fact that it was organized by suffragists; the National Woman's
Christian Temperance Union by Mrs. Lucia Faxon Additon; the National
Grange by Mrs. Clara H. Waldo, who said: "The basic principle of the
Grange is equal rights for men and women and it practices what it
preaches, all the offices being open to women." Greetings from the
National Federation of Labor were offered by Mrs. F. Ross; the Ladies
of the Maccabees by Mrs. Nellie H. Lambson; the Federation of Women's
Clubs by Mrs. Sarah A. Evans; the Forestry Association by Mrs. Arthur
H. Breyman; the Women's Henry George League by Dr. Mary H. Thompson,
the pioneer woman physician of Oregon. The National Conference of
Charities and Corrections, then in session in Portland, sent greetings
by Mrs. Lillie R. Trumbull, who said: "If woman suffrage means
anything it means the protection of children, therefore we march under
the same banner."

Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, the pioneer suffragist of the northwest,
presented to Dr. Shaw a gavel from the Oregon Historical Society with
a letter from its secretary, Dr. George H. Himes, describing the six
kinds of wood out of which it was made, each of important historical
value. It was accepted with thanks and used by her to preside over the
convention. A Centennial Ode, composed by Mrs. Duniway, was finely
read by Mrs. Sylvia W. McGuire. The response to all these greetings
was made by Miss Anthony, of whom the _Oregonian_ said: "The
appearance of Susan B. Anthony was the signal for a wild ovation. The
large audience rose to its feet and cheered the pioneer who has done
so much for the cause of equal suffrage and who is still the life of a
great work. At the close of the session men and women rushed forward,
eager to clasp her hand and pay homage to her. There are many famous
delegates present at this convention, women whose names are known in
every civilized nation on the globe, but none shines with the luster
which surrounds Miss Anthony." She began by recalling her visit in
1871, when Mrs. Duniway and she made a speaking tour of six weeks in
the State; the long stage rides over the corduroy roads, the prejudice
encountered but personal friendliness and large audiences everywhere,
and continued:

     I am delighted to see and hear in this church today the women
     representatives of so many organizations and it is in a measure
     compensation for the half-century of toil which it has been my
     duty and privilege to give to this our common cause. The sessions
     of this convention will be treated by the press of America
     exactly as it would treat any national gathering which was
     representative in character and had an object worthy of serious
     attention. The time of universal scorn for woman suffrage has
     passed and today we have strong and courageous champions among
     that sex the members of which fifty years ago regarded our
     proposals as part of an iconoclasm which threatened the very
     foundation of the social fabric.... Elizabeth Cady Stanton and I
     made our first fight for recognition of the right of women to
     speak in public and have organizations among themselves. You who
     are younger cannot realize the intensity of the opposition we
     encountered. To maintain our position we were compelled to attack
     and defy the deep-seated and ingrained prejudices bred into the
     very natures of men, and to some of them we were actually
     committing a sin against God and violating His laws. Gradually,
     however, the opposition has weakened until today we meet far less
     hostility to equal suffrage itself than then was manifested
     toward giving women the right of speaking in public and
     organizing for mutual advantage.

The opening exercises closed with an address by the Rev. Thomas L.
Eliot, a Unitarian minister, who with his wife had encouraged Miss
Anthony during that visit of 1871. He said his mother's great-aunt,
Abigail Adams, had probably uttered the first declaration for woman
suffrage on American soil, and paid a warm tribute to Mrs. Duniway's
long and earnest labors for this cause as he had seen them during his
thirty-seven years in Oregon.

At the insistence of Dr. Shaw Miss Anthony presided at the first
evening session. It was said that she had wielded the gavel at more
conventions than any other woman and she had presided over national
suffrage conventions for nearly forty years, but this proved to be the
last at which she filled that honored position. A press report said:
"Her voice is more vigorous than that of many a woman half her age and
she speaks with fluency and ease." The _Oregonian_ thus described her
appearance on this occasion: "A rare picture she made in the
high-backed oaken chair, her snowy hair puffed over her ears in
old-time fashion and the collar of rose point lace, which seems to
belong to dignified old age, forming a frame for her gentle but
determined face. When she rose to call the meeting to order she was
deluged with many beautiful floral tributes and drolly peering over
the heap of flowers she said: "Well, this is rather different from the
receptions I used to get fifty years ago. They threw things at me
then--but they were not roses--and there were not epithets enough in
Webster's Unabridged to fit my case. I am thankful for this change of
spirit which has come over the American people."

Governor George E. Chamberlain gave the welcome of the State,
declaring himself unequivocally and emphatically in favor of woman
suffrage and expressing the hope that Oregon was now ready to grant
it. T. C. Devlin extended the welcome of the city as proxy for the
Mayor, who addressed the convention later. The Hon. Jefferson Myers,
president of the State Commission for the Exposition, paid eloquent
tribute to Miss Anthony and her co-workers and said:

     I hope that you may yet live to see many victories for the
     principles which you have so nobly advocated in behalf of the
     women of our land. These principles are not new to the American
     people. There are many differences of opinion, but, after all the
     argument for and against, it hardly seems possible that any one
     who is entitled to the privilege which you request can afford to
     deny that privilege to his mother. There is no question but that
     the women of our land bear today as great, if not greater,
     burdens in the affairs of a good and honorable government than
     our men. The raising of the children, their education and
     protection from the vices of the world, are cares that mothers
     have which no man's responsibility equals....

     You are today among a citizenship on this coast that is very
     fair, broad-minded and ready to assist your cause whenever
     convinced that it will be an advantage and a betterment to our
     present government. If it is fairly placed before the voters of
     this commonwealth with a reasonable argument in its favor, there
     is no doubt in my mind of its success. We are the only State that
     has adopted the broad principle of government which permits the
     citizens of the commonwealth to prepare and vote its own
     legislation, by its own people, without aid or consent of any
     other power. I refer to the Initiative and Referendum.... I
     sometimes doubt whether this great western country would ever
     have had the Stars and Stripes without the influence of the
     American mother. Therefore my sympathies are with you in your
     cause and all others supported by the mothers of our government
     for the liberties of themselves and families.

Mrs. Duniway spoke on The Pioneers of the Northwest as one of them,
introduced by Miss Anthony as "the woman with whom I went gipsying
thirty-four years ago," and the audience grew enthusiastic at the
sight of these two brave veterans, the one 85 and the other 71. The
press commented: "Mrs. Duniway's talk will be remembered as one of the
best of the session. She said she had been electrified by the
Governor's speech and her own fairly scintillated with the result of
the shock. Her anecdotes were capital and her reminiscences of the
cabbage and rotten-egg days convulsed the audience." Mrs. Catt,
vice-president-at-large, responded to the greetings and expressed the
pleasure of the delegates at being in "this most beautiful city of the
United States and of the world." She spoke in highest praise of the
free, independent spirit of the West, quoting the man who said: "Out
here we don't ask who your grandfather was but everybody stands on his
own hypothenuse!"

Dr. Shaw was so impressed with the responsibility of her new office
that for the first time she wrote her president's address and it was
published in twelve columns of the _Woman's Journal_. A Portland paper
thus prepared the audience: "The event of the evening will be the
address of the president, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. She is easily the
best and foremost woman speaker in the world and in her appearance
Portland will enjoy a rare treat. Her eloquence is seldom equalled and
she is a woman of deep learning, a cogent reasoner and a brilliant
thinker.... She has wonderful magnetism and a rare voice of round,
rich tones and great carrying capacity. An unusual combination of
dignity and wit is hers and many brilliant remarks intersperse the
numbers on the program, keeping the audience in fine humor and
constant interest." After a glowing word-picture of the natural beauty
of Portland and Oregon Dr. Shaw turned her attention to Sacajawea, the
young Indian woman who guided Lewis and Clark through thousands of
miles of trackless wilderness on their expedition to the great
northwest.

     Others will speak of that brave band of immortals whose
     achievements your great Exposition commemorates, while we pay our
     tribute of honor and gratitude to the modest, unselfish, enduring
     little Shoshone squaw, who uncomplainingly trailed, canoed,
     climbed, slaved and starved with the men of the party, enduring
     all that they endured, with the addition of a helpless baby on
     her back. At a time in the weary march when the hearts of the
     leaders had well nigh fainted within them, when success or
     failure hung a mere chance in the balance, this woman came to
     their deliverance and pointed out to the captain the great Pass
     which led from the forks of the Three Rivers over the mountains.
     Then silently strapping her papoose upon her back she led the
     way, interpreting and making friendly overtures to powerful
     tribes of Indians, who but for her might at any moment have
     annihilated that brave band of intrepid souls.... The Pass
     through which she led the expedition has long borne the name of a
     French explorer who had not seen it until many years after
     Sacajawea had been gathered to her rest, but tardy
     acknowledgements of this heroine's services have at last been
     partially made. The U. S. Geological Survey has recently named
     one of the finest peaks in the Bridge range in Montana "Sacajawea
     Peak." ...

     Forerunner of civilization, great leader of men, patient and
     motherly woman, we bow our hearts to do you honor! Your tribe is
     fast disappearing from the land of your fathers. May we, the
     daughters of an alien race who slew your people and usurped your
     country, learn the lessons of calm endurance, of patient
     persistence and unfaltering courage exemplified in your life, in
     our efforts to lead men through the Pass of justice, which goes
     over the mountains of prejudice and conservatism to the broad
     land of the perfect freedom of a true republic; one in which men
     and women together shall in perfect equality solve the problems
     of a nation that knows no caste, no race, no sex in opportunity,
     in responsibility or in justice! May "the eternal womanly" ever
     lead us on!...

Referring to the convention and the delegates Dr. Shaw said:

     What does our coming mean to us, who gather in this 37th annual
     convention where sits the woman whose chair has never been
     vacant in all these years of hope deferred; whose heart has
     continually glowed with perennial youth; whose soul has burned
     with a vivid flame of love and freedom; whose brain has been the
     inspirer of herculean service; whose industry has never flagged;
     whose quenchless hope for humanity has carried us from victory to
     victory? May her spirit of devotion to freedom ever lead us on!

     It means fifty-seven years nearer to victory than when the first
     invincible band of pioneers of universal freedom met in that
     little church in Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1848. It means that in
     this body are women from four States of our Union already crowned
     with full citizenship; that delegates from more than two-score
     States have crossed the borderland of freedom, and that
     representatives from nearly every State and Territory are banded
     together in an unfaltering purpose to become politically free. It
     also means that more has been accomplished for the betterment of
     the condition of women, for their physical, economic,
     intellectual and religious emancipation, by these fifty-seven
     years of evolutionary progress, than by all the revolutions the
     world has known; and it means that in every civilized nation of
     the earth, more and more the most patriotic, the most
     law-abiding, the most intelligent and the most industrious people
     are coming to see the justice of our claim, that in a
     representative government "the people who bear the burdens and
     responsibilities should share its privileges also--not excepting
     women." ...

The recent attacks of Cardinal Gibbons and former President Cleveland,
who had protested against women taking part in the Government lest it
interfere with the home, she answered with keen analysis, saying in
part:

     The great fear that the participation of women in public affairs
     will impair the quality and character of home service is
     irrational and contrary to the tests of experience. Does an
     intelligent interest in the education of a child render a woman
     less a mother? Does the housekeeping instinct of woman,
     manifested in a desire for clean streets, pure water and
     unadulterated food, destroy her efficiency as a home-maker? Does
     a desire for an environment of moral and civic purity show
     neglect of the highest good of the family? It is the "men must
     fight and women must weep" theory of life which makes men fear
     that the larger service of women will impair the high ideal of
     home. The newer ideal that men must cease fighting and thus
     remove one prolific cause for women's weeping, and that they
     shall together build up a more perfect home and a more ideal
     government, is infinitely more sane and desirable. Participation
     in the larger and broader concerns of the State will increase
     instead of decrease the efficiency of government and tend to
     develop that self-control, that more perfect judgment which are
     wanting in much of the home training of today.

A comprehensive review was made of the great events in the world's
history during the past year and the work of the National American
Suffrage Association was described. "Whatever others may say or do,"
she declared, "our association must not accept any compromises. We
must guard against the reactionary spirit which marks the present time
and stand unfalteringly for the principle of perfect equality of
rights and opportunities for all.... Never was there a time when
heroic service was more needed--not the spectacular heroism marching
with flying banners and weapons of destruction but the quiet, earnest
heroism of men and women standing steadfastly by that which seems
right and rigidly adhering in daily intercourse to that sterling
honesty of purpose which ennobles character and develops the best in a
nation's life." This inspiring address, all of which was on the same
high level as the portions quoted, thus concluded:

     We are told that to assume that women will help purify political
     life and develop a more ideal government but proves us to be
     dreamers of dreams. Yes, we are in a goodly company of dreamers,
     of Confucius, of Buddha, of Jesus, of the English Commons
     fighting for the Magna Charta, of the Pilgrims, of the American
     Revolutionists, of the Anti-slavery men and women. The seers and
     leaders of all times have been dreamers. Every step of progress
     the world has made is the crystallization of a dream into
     reality. To look forward to a time when men shall be just, when
     "fair play and a square deal for all" will include women, when
     our republic shall in truth become what its dreamers have hoped
     it would be, a government "of the people, by the people and for
     the people,"--this _is_ a dream but it is a dream which we are
     helping to make real, and the result will come not alone because
     a vision has been revealed but by following it steadfastly to its
     fruition. The idealists dream and the dream is told, and the
     practical men listen and ponder and bring back the truth and
     apply it to human life, and progress and growth and higher human
     ideals come into being and so the world moves ever on.

During the several business sessions the following action was taken:
It was directed that a letter be sent to the President-elect, Theodore
Roosevelt, asking him to recommend the submission of a 16th Amendment
in his message to Congress; that as many organizations of women as
possible be secured to unite in urging him to do so, following the
methods employed by the Protest Committee (a committee appointed to
wait upon him to present this request); that the Banker, Starr,
Underwood and Green bequests amounting to $3,801 be appropriated for
campaign work in Oregon and the Territories. Miss Clay announced that
Miss Laura Bruce had bequeathed $5,000 to her in trust for the
National American Woman Suffrage Association.

The work conferences established by Mrs. Catt during her
administration were held with the following among the questions
discussed: Must we supplement our present form of organization to
achieve our "argument of numbers"? How can we best spread our ideas in
other organizations? The field in 1904 and 1905. Our request in 1904
for a plank in the national platforms. These conferences, which had
been a feature of the conventions for eight years, were dropped after
this one but many of the practical subjects formerly discussed in such
conferences were placed on the regular program. Mrs. Catharine Waugh
McCulloch presided at the conference on How can we nationalize our
request for a 16th Amendment? At its conclusion it was voted to refer
to the Business Committee the idea of asking the suffragists of the
four free States to instruct their Senators and Representatives in
Congress to move for the submission of a 16th Amendment. It was her
thought that all the State suffrage associations should send petitions
to their respective Congressmen asking for a 16th Amendment to the
National Constitution enfranchising women; that earnest efforts should
be made to have other organizations take similar action and every
means employed to bring the question before them.

The reports of the standing and special committees and those from the
various State presidents, which occupied the morning and afternoon
sessions, were excellent and valuable as usual. Miss Kate M. Gordon
(La.) in her corresponding secretary's report called attention to the
conspicuous triumph for woman suffrage when the great International
Council of Women, whose delegates represented practically the whole
civilized world, at its meeting in Berlin the preceding year
unanimously endorsed woman suffrage and appointed a standing committee
on Citizenship and Equal Rights, with Dr. Shaw as its chairman. She
read letters from the Governors of the four equal suffrage States
regretting their inability to be present for Woman's Day at the
Exposition and giving the strongest possible endorsement of the
practical working of woman suffrage.

The report of Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, headquarters secretary, of the
first year's work in its new home at Warren, O., was most interesting.
The letters sent out numbered 14,000 and included three during the
year to the president of every local club, giving information, plans
of work and encouragement. The bureau had over 1,200 individual
correspondents. Nearly 44,000 copies of _Progress_ went to newspapers,
public men, delegates to the political conventions and subscribers.
About 65,000 pieces of literature exclusive of _Progress_ were
distributed, going to every State and Territory, to Canada, England,
Holland and Australia. In addition thousands of booklets, political
equality leaflets and souvenirs of various kinds were sent forth as
propaganda. The report of Mrs. Catt, chairman of the Committee on
Literature, showed that it had provided 62,000 of these pieces and had
printed about 100,000 during the year. Miss Anthony had presented to
the association ten sets of the History of Woman Suffrage and eighty
copies of the new Volume IV to be sold, Miss Hauser said. Headquarters
were maintained at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. The
work inaugurated by Miss Anthony of securing resolutions for woman
suffrage from conventions of various kinds was successfully continued.
Fraternal delegates were sent to national conventions and the U. S.
National Council of Women had created a Committee on Political
Equality. Nineteen State organizations adopted resolutions endorsing
woman suffrage; fraternal delegates from suffrage associations were
sent to eighteen other State gatherings and the question was given a
hearing at six Territorial conventions; greetings were sent to three,
literature distributed in four and woman suffrage day observed in
three State gatherings. Add to these the 283 societies (not suffrage)
which reported adopting resolutions on the Statehood Protest and there
is positive knowledge that the question was before and received
favorable action from 339 societies in 1904. A full report was given
of the effort to obtain woman suffrage planks in the platforms of the
political parties, delegates from the association being sent to all.
[See Chapter XXIII.]

An outstanding feature of the year's achievements was what was known
as the Statehood Protest. At the beginning of the 58th Congress a bill
passed the Lower House providing for the admission to Statehood of
Oklahoma, Indian, Arizona and New Mexico Territories under the names
of Oklahoma and Arizona. It contained a clause saying that "the right
of suffrage should never be abridged except on account of illiteracy,
minority, _sex_, conviction of felony or mental condition." The
association's legal adviser, Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of
Chicago, was consulted by Mrs. Upton and Miss Hauser the preceding
June as to how the word "sex" could be eliminated. She took the matter
under consideration and laid her plan before the Business Committee in
September. It called for a nation-wide protest from women's
organizations and individuals. The committee approved but did not feel
able to make a sufficient appropriation. The report continued:

     When the result was communicated to Mrs. McCulloch by letter she
     answered post-haste: "We dare not let this work go undone. I will
     raise the money for it myself." The headquarters undertook to do
     the work. We appealed to the president or the corresponding
     secretary for directories of associations and as fast as names
     were secured copies of the circular letter of the Woman's Protest
     Committee, written by Miss Blackwell, were sent out. This letter
     was signed by twenty-six women, among them presidents of the
     following national organizations: Council of Women, Council of
     Jewish Women, Woman Suffrage Association, Teachers' Federation,
     Catholic Women's League, Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
     Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, Lutheran Women's
     League, Congress of Mothers, etc., and 34,000 were sent out with
     28,000 leaflets, "Why Women Should Protest." Perhaps no more
     spontaneous response was ever given to anything than to this
     letter. All sorts of societies, not of women only but of men and
     of men and women, protested. More than 400 reported their action
     to headquarters. The number of individuals who reported that they
     had written to Senator Albert J. Beveridge (Ind.), chairman of
     the Committee on Territories, and to their own Senators was so
     great that we could not keep a record. Newspapers the country
     over commented on the matter, hundreds of clippings on the
     subject sometimes being received in one mail.

     What was the result? Under date of Dec. 16, 1904, Senator
     Beveridge notified headquarters that the Senate Committee had
     unanimously voted to strike out the objectionable word "in
     accordance with your very reasonable request." It was a great
     victory and more than paid for the labor. Mrs. McCulloch was as
     good as her word and raised the money to defray all the expenses,
     giving $100 herself and securing from her friend and ours, Mrs.
     Elmina Springer of Chicago, $500; Mrs. Mary Wood Swift of
     California, president of the National Council of Women,
     contributed $50; our own president, Miss Shaw, gave $25 and there
     were some small contributions. The work was most economically
     done, the printing and envelopes costing $118, the postage over
     $300 and a balance was left.[37]

The report of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, showed
receipts for the year to be $14,662, including bequests of $4,237 from
Mrs. Henrietta L. Banker of New York and $500 from Mrs. Armilla J.
Starr of Michigan; $2,000 from Mrs. Charlotte A. Cleveland of New York
and $100 each from Mrs. Jonas Green of Virginia and Mrs. Helen J.
Underwood of California. The disbursements were $12,437. Miss Hauser
asked for the money for the next year's work and $4,614 were quickly
subscribed. A large number of $50 life memberships were taken. One
hundred one-dollar pledges were made in memory of Sacajawea. Mrs. Catt
guaranteed that Mrs. Upton and herself would raise $3,000 for the
Oregon campaign.

Henry B. Blackwell, chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee,
gave the welcome information that the U. S. Supreme Court through
Chief Justice Fuller had rendered a decision that "the power of every
State Legislature in the appointment of presidential electors is
plenary, exclusive and final." The report of Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer,
chairman of the Libraries Committee, was read by Mrs. Blankenburg and
showed that thus far a bibliography of 823 books, pamphlets, etc., on
woman suffrage had been compiled. One book bore the date of 1627.
Another had the title "No Female Suffrage; Theology, Logic, Anatomy,
Physiology and Philology United to Establish the Truism that Woman is
No Human Being." Mrs. Blankenburg went as fraternal delegate to the
convention of the National Libraries Association meeting in Portland
at this time and gave part of this report, which was received with
much interest and cooperation was promised.

The report of Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, chairman of the Press Committee,
was as complete and valuable as usual. It said that 80,000 general
suffrage articles had been sent out and 6,000 papers supplied by the
chairman and committee since the last convention. Each paper in
Portland had been furnished with personal sketches of every officer
and speaker connected with the convention and copies of all the
reports and speeches that could be obtained, as was customary wherever
a convention was held. In referring to special articles she said that
5,000 copies from members of the association and residents of Colorado
had been sent out in answer to the charges that woman suffrage was
responsible for the recent election frauds in that State, which seemed
to be made by every opponent who could wield a pen. Answers were
widely distributed to the report of the Mosely Educational Commission
sent here from Great Britain, and the Male Teachers' Association of
New York, to the effect that women should not be employed to teach
boys over ten years of age and that teaching was interfering with the
marriage of many women and keeping them from their proper place in the
world. The article of former President Grover Cleveland in the
_Ladies' Home Journal_ denouncing women's clubs and particularly
suffrage clubs had been almost universally commented on by the press
and required extensive attention. A reply to Cardinal Gibbons's
address to the women graduates of Trinity College, Washington, by Mrs.
Ida Husted Harper was sent to eighty metropolitan papers and hundreds
of shorter ones were scattered broadcast. The excellent work of the
various State press chairman was described.

One afternoon was devoted to a conference on How Can We Best Utilize
the Press? Mrs. Harper presided and nearly twenty speakers took part.
One of the Portland papers commented: "If the great political organs
of the United States knew how well these women have the tricks of the
trade at their fingers' ends they would employ special detectives to
watch for suffrage literature in disguise." Mr. Lathrop, editor of the
Portland _Journal_, said: "A newspaper man in his official capacity is
not an educator but a seller of news. One who would treat a suffrage
convention as a negligible quantity would lose his job. The question
is not how you can get matter about women into the papers but how you
can keep it out." Mrs. Florence Kelley added: "We all know to our
sorrow that women cannot keep out of the papers but the question is
how to get our subject in them in a way to promote it. I can recommend
the following method: Write something in editorial style just about as
you want it to appear and send it to the editor with a deprecatory
note to the effect that it is only raw material but perhaps it could
be whipped into an editorial by his able pen. The chances are that the
first time he is hard up for one he will use it--probably beheaded or
with the end off or the middle amputated to show that the editor is
editing, but it will be published."

Miss Anthony was asked for reminiscences of her famous paper, the
_Revolution_, published in New York in 1868-70. Mrs. Duniway gave an
interesting account of her paper, the _New Northwest_, begun in 1871
in Portland and continued for a number of years with the help of her
five young sons. She expressed her love for the _Woman's Journal_,
"the dear, reliable, old paper started by Lucy Stone and kept going by
the heroic efforts of her husband and daughter," and many joined in
this expression. Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.), editor of the
_Woman's Tribune_, told of the press conference at the International
Council of Women. Mrs. Julia B. Nelson (Minn.) and Miss Amanda Way
(Ind.) were among the veteran writers who spoke. Miss Blackwell gave
experienced advice and a number of younger women made brief but clever
suggestions.

An interesting part of the convention was Woman's Day at the
Exposition on June 30 and this day had been chosen for the dedication
of the statue of Sacajawea, the Indian woman who led the Lewis and
Clark Expedition thousands of miles through the wilderness unknown to
white men. It was thus described: "The statue, a beautiful creation in
bronze, was the work of Miss Alice Cooper of Denver, a pupil of Lorado
Taft, the figure full of buoyancy and animation, a shapely arm
suggestive of strength pointing to the distant sea, the face radiant,
the head thrown back, the eyes full of daring." The exercises were in
charge of the Order of Red Men and the Women's Sacajawea Association,
Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, president, and on the platform facing the statue
prominent members of the convention sat with President Goode, of the
Exposition, Mayor Lane and other dignitaries. Miss Anthony and Mrs.
Duniway spoke during the unveiling and presentation ceremonies and Dr.
Shaw pronounced the benediction. [See Oregon chapter.]

The afternoon session of the convention was held in Festival Hall on
the grounds and greetings were offered for organizations, including
the Young Woman's Christian Association by Mrs. L. E. Rockwell and
Women's Medical Association by Dr. Esther C. Pohl. Dr. Sarah A.
Kendall of Washington responded. The Los Angeles Suffrage Club sent a
greeting and Mrs. Helen Secor Tonjes brought one from the New York
City Equal Suffrage League. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman gave an
original poem. Mrs. Mabel Craft Deering, a graduate of California
State University and the Hastings Law School of San Francisco, read an
able paper on Coeducation. Its sentiments were strongly endorsed by
Professor William S. Giltner, president of Eminence College, Kentucky,
one of the earliest women's colleges, from its beginning in 1858 to
its close in 1894. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, under the title, Sowing
the Seed, gave an interesting account of the early trials of her
mother and two aunts, the pioneer doctors, Elizabeth and Emily
Blackwell. The Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, an aunt by marriage,
the pioneer woman minister, who was on the platform, said: "Ever since
I made my first suffrage speech in 1848 I have believed that the cause
of woman suffrage was the cause of religion and vice versa." Mrs. Maud
Wood Park read the eloquent address of Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead on The
Organization of the World.

Mrs. May Arkwright Hutton (Idaho), who spoke for the equal suffrage
States, gave this unique reminiscence of her early life in Ohio when
William McKinley, a young lawyer, after speaking in the town hall, was
a guest of her grandfather. She said in part: "Mr. McKinley carried
the lantern, leading me by the hand, while I led grandfather, we
little dreaming that the kindly young man guiding a child and an old,
blind man through the wintry night would some day guide the destiny
of the nation. On reaching home, I brought cider, apples and
doughnuts from the cellar that we might have what grandfather called a
'schold check' before going to bed. The fire roared in the wide
chimney place; grandfather sat in his armchair, Mr. McKinley opposite
and I on a low stool between them. They talked of the late war,
reconstruction and woman's rights. Then it was that I learned that
women were denied rights enjoyed by men. Mr. McKinley deplored the
fact and contended that woman was the intellectual equal of man and
should be his political equal. Patting my head he said: 'I believe
when this lassie grows up she will be a voter.'"

At the close of the session a reception for Miss Anthony and the
officers, speakers and delegates was given in the Oregon building by
its hostess, Dr. Annice Jeffreys (Mrs. Jefferson) Myers, assisted by
Mrs. Coe, the State president. The big reception hall and the parlors
were filled with visitors from all parts of the country. The
_Oregonian_ said: "When Miss Anthony, the honored guest, reached the
Oregon building the band played Auld Lang Syne and the crowds became
so dense that it was with difficulty Dr. Myers could escort her to the
parlors. Here she stood in line for more than an hour, women and men
pressing around her wanting just a word and they got it! She declared
that it did not make her nearly so tired as she used to feel when
nobody wanted to take her hand." In a letter to the _Woman's Journal_
Miss Blackwell said: "Both in the convention and at all the social
functions Miss Anthony has been the central figure, the object of
general admiration and affection. It is the strongest possible
contrast to the unpopularity and persecution of her early days. All
these attentions were most gratifying to the members of the
convention, who appreciated her courage and devotion in making this
long journey at the age of 85, and afterwards they were remembered
with especial pleasure because it was the last in which she was able
to take an active part."

The social courtesies during the convention were unbounded. The
Woman's Club gave a large evening reception in the rooms of the
Commercial Club and Mrs. Arthur H. Breyman, its president, opened her
handsome residence for an afternoon tea. Mrs. Coe gave a dinner party
of about thirty, her lovely home decorated in yellow flowers, the
suffrage color. Mrs. Hutton had a handsome dinner of thirty covers at
the Portland Hotel and the Ode which she had written and dedicated to
the convention was sung by Mrs. Alice Mason Barnett of San Francisco
here and at the convention. Private dinners and teas were of daily
occurrence and the drives around this beautiful city and its environs
were a never failing delight.

At one evening session C. E. S. Wood (Ore.) spoke on The Injustice of
Majority Rule in a cynical strain, believing that woman suffrage was
right but fearing it would not do as much good as its advocates hoped
for. Now suffrage meant "little stuffed men going to a little stuffed
ballot box" and he was afraid "women would take their place on the
chess board to be moved in the game by some power they did not see."
After he had finished Dr. Shaw observed: "I would rather be a little
stuffed woman having my own say than to be ruled by a little stuffed
man without my consent, and the only way we will cease to have little
stuffed men is for them to be born of free mothers."

Dr. Harriet B. Jones of Wheeling, W. Va., told of the unsuccessful
campaign to have Municipal suffrage for women included in its new
charter. "The anti-suffrage women of New York and Massachusetts," she
said," flooded the newspapers with literature and the heaviest
opposing vote came from the lowest and most ignorant sections of the
city." In answer to the request of the Wheeling women the National
Association had sent Miss Hauser to take charge of the campaign and
appropriated funds for it. A telegram to Dr. Shaw from Samuel Gompers,
president of the American Federation of Labor, was read, saying:
"Kindly convey fraternal greetings to the officers and delegates of
your convention and the earnest expression of our hope for the
enfranchisement and disenthrallment of women." A telegram of greeting
was received from Mrs. Frederick Schoff, president of the National
Congress of Mothers. One came from the National Suffrage Association
of Denmark.

Mrs. Harper gave an address under the subject Facing the Situation,
showing the satire of the disfranchisement of one-half the citizens in
a Government boasting of being founded on individual representation.
In closing she said: "Eastward the star of woman's empire takes its
way. She does not look for the star in the East but for the star in
the West. Her sun of political freedom rose not in the East but in the
West. It is to the strong, courageous and progressive men of the
western States that the women of this whole country are looking for
deliverance from the bondage of disfranchisement. It is these men who
must start this movement and give it such momentum that it will roll
irresistibly on to the very shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Today the
eyes of the whole country are on this beautiful and progressive State.
This magnificent Exposition has been a revelation of its splendid
powers. It is an anomaly, a contradiction, a reproach indeed that in
the midst of these wonderful achievements one-half of its citizens
should be in absolute political subjection, without voice or share in
affairs of State. Are you not ready now to wipe out that paltry 2,000
majority which five years ago voted to continue this unjust condition?
Would it not add the crowning glory to this greatest period in your
history if the free men of Oregon should decree that this shall be,
henceforth and forever, the land also of free women?" The Rev. J.
Burgette Short expressed regret that his church, the Methodist
Episcopal, had refused to ordain Dr. Shaw and said it was much poorer
in consequence. "You represent the brains of the world," he said to
the delegates, "and you have my hearty interest and support in your
work."

A noteworthy address was made by the Hon. W. S. U'Ren, known as "the
father of the Initiative and Referendum," which was then in its early
stages but had been adopted by Oregon and some other States. The
convention was much impressed by this innovation, as the suffragists
had long struggled against the refusal of Legislatures to submit their
question to the voters, and Mrs. Catt offered a resolution that "the
convention affirms its belief in the Initiative and Referendum as a
needed reform and a potent factor in the progress of true democracy."
It was enthusiastically received and later adopted by the convention,
contrary to the habit of the association to consider only subjects
relating directly to women and children.[38]

Under the pen name of Lucas Malet, Mrs. Mary St. Leger Harrison, a
daughter of Charles Kingsley who was a strong believer in woman
suffrage, had published an article in the London _Fortnightly Review_
attacking it and quoting President Roosevelt as an opponent. A long
resolution giving his favorable record for the past twenty-five years
on questions relating to women was presented and adopted, against the
judgment of many delegates. A committee was appointed to ask him for a
more definite expression on woman suffrage.[39]

Telegrams of greeting were sent to veterans in the cause--Mrs. Laura
de Force Gordon, Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent
of California; Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick of Louisiana; Mrs. Julia Ward
Howe, Col. T. W. Higginson, Mrs. Judith W. Smith of Massachusetts;
Mrs. Armenia S. White of New Hampshire; Miss Laura Moore of Vermont;
Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell of Iowa.

The Committee on Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs. Blankenburg,
chairman, reported that among measures the suffragists had worked for,
the child labor laws had been strengthened in New York, Pennsylvania
and California; the "age of consent" had been raised in Illinois and
Oregon; laws had been passed in several States requiring that women
should be appointed to public boards and women physicians to public
institutions, California leading. In Massachusetts a petition that
women might take part in nominating candidates for the school board,
for which they were allowed to vote, signed by 100,000 women, was
refused by the Legislature. School suffrage was granted to women in
the first class cities of Oklahoma.

Mrs. Mead, chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration seems to
outshine the preceding one but last night's was the one in Portland;
of the series of articles published in preparation for the
International Peace Congress in Boston in 1904 and the work she had
done in connection with it; of the many lectures given to universities
and clubs and of the arrangements to have the public schools observe
the anniversary of the first Hague Conference.

The _Oregonian_ said: "Each program given by the convention seems to
outshine the preceding one but last night's was the best thus far."
The speakers were Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, former president of the
Illinois Suffrage Association; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (N.
J.); Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall (Ia.); Miss Gail Laughlin (N. Y.); Judge
Stephen A. Lowell, one of Oregon's leading jurists. Judge Lowell
reviewed the political situation, the evils that had crept into the
Government and the remedies that had been tried and failed and he
summed up his conclusion by saying: "The reforms of the last century
have come from women. Man has few to his credit because he could not
measure them by the only standard he had mastered, that of the dollar.
Witness the movement for female education led by Mary Lyon, the birth
of the Red Cross in the work of Florence Nightingale, the institution
of modern prison methods under the inspiration of Elizabeth Fry and
the campaigns for temperance and social purity under the leadership of
Frances Willard. The electorate needs the inspiring influence of women
at the ballot box and the full mission of this republic to the world
will never be met until she is admitted there. Not color or creed or
sex but patriotic honesty must be the test of citizenship if the
republic lives."

Mrs. Stewart took up the objections made by many of the clergy to
woman suffrage and applied these to the ministers themselves. "They
should not vote," she said with fine sarcasm, "because like women they
are exempt from jury duty. They seldom go to war--some of them are too
old, others too delicate, some too near-sighted, some too far-sighted.
Ministers as a rule are not heavy tax-payers. Many of them do not want
to vote and do not use the vote they have. A preacher has not time to
vote. It might lead him to neglect his pastoral duties. Political
feeling often runs high and if he voted it might make quarrels in the
church. The minister has a potent indirect influence. He would be
contaminated by the corruption of politics. He is represented by his
male relations; they are not as good and pure as he is and are
probably immune from contamination by politics."

Mrs. Catt, who presided, in presenting the Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, one of
the first to make the fight for the right of women to speak in public,
said: "The combination of her sweet personality and her invincible
soul has won friends for woman suffrage wherever she has gone." Her
address on Suffrage and Education showed the evolution in woman's
work. "My grandmother taught me to spin," she said, "but the men have
relieved womankind from that task and as they have taken so many
industrial burdens off of our hands it is our duty to relieve them of
some of their burdens of State." Introducing Mrs. Coggeshall of Iowa
Mrs. Catt said: "When I get discouraged I think of her and for many a
year she has been one of my strongest inspirations." A Portland paper
commented: "Her snow-white hair and demure face give no indication of
the brilliant repartee and sharp argument of which she is capable." In
her Word from the Middle West she said: "Its women are determined to
have the ballot if they have to bear and raise the sons to give it to
them. This scheme is in active operation. I myself have raised
three--eighteen feet for woman suffrage--and others have done better.
No bugle can ever sound retreat for the women of the Middle West." The
_Oregonian_ said of Miss Laughlin's address:

     Her arguments are the straight, convincing kind that leave
     nothing for the other fellow to say. She comes to Oregon a lawyer
     of New York who is proudly boasted of, and justly, by her fellow
     workers as the woman who carried off the oratorical honors of
     Cornell and won for that institution the championship in
     intercollegiate debating contests.... In asking for a "Square
     Deal" Miss Laughlin said:

     "'A square deal for every man.' These words of President
     Roosevelt were more discussed during our last presidential
     campaign than was any party platform plank. The growing
     prominence of the doctrine of a square deal is of vital
     significance to us who stand for equal suffrage, as we ask only
     for this. It has been invoked chiefly against 'trusts.' We invoke
     the doctrine of a square deal against the greatest 'trust' in the
     world--the political trust--which is the most absolute monopoly
     because entrenched in law itself and because it is a monopoly of
     the greatest thing in the world, of liberty itself. The exclusion
     of women from participation in governmental affairs means the
     going to waste of a vast force, which, if utilized, would be a
     great power in the advance of civilization.... But there depends
     on the success of the equal suffrage movement something more
     valuable even than national prosperity and that is the
     preservation of human liberty. Now, as in 1860, 'the nation
     cannot remain half slave and half free,' and either women must be
     made free or men will lose the liberty which they enjoy."

Sunday services were conducted at 4:30 in the First Congregational
church by the Rev. Eleanor Gordon, pastor of the First Unitarian
church of Des Moines, Ia., assisted by Dr. Shaw and the Rev. Eliza
Tupper Wilkes of Los Angeles, with a special musical program. Miss
Gordon had filled the Unitarian pulpit in the morning, giving an
eloquent sermon on Revelations of God. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
had preached in the Congregational church in the morning and the Rev.
Mrs. Blackwell in the evening. Miss Laura Clay gave a Bible reading
and exposition in the Taylor Street Methodist Episcopal church in the
evening. The Rev. J. Whitcomb Brougher, pastor of the White Temple,
the large Baptist church, invited Miss Anthony to occupy its pulpit
and expound "any doctrine she had at heart." The _Oregonian_ said:
"She took him at his word and got in some of the best words for
suffrage that have been put before the Portland public. There was such
enthusiasm over the venerable founder and leader of the suffrage
movement that when she appeared on the rostrum the applause was as
vigorous as though it had not been Sunday and the place a church.
There was not room in the big Temple for another person to squeeze
past the doors." The papers quoted liberally from the sermons of all
and the Portland _Journal_ said: "Each preached to a congregation that
taxed the capacity of the church.... The welcome accorded the women
by the Portland pastors was sharply in contrast with the hostility
shown by the clergy when equal suffrage conventions began in the
middle of the last century.[40]

The Monday evening session was opened by Willis Duniway, who gave a
glowing appreciation of the work of the National American Suffrage
Association and said in the course of a strong speech that he wanted
to see woman suffrage because it was right and because he wanted the
brave pioneer women who had worked for it so long to get it before
they passed away. "I want my mother to vote," he declared amid
applause.[41] "The basis of safe and sane government is justice, which
has its roots in constitutional liberty and means equal rights and
opportunities.... I claim no right or privilege for myself that I
would not give to my mother, wife and sister and to every law-abiding
citizen." When he had finished his mother rose and said dryly: "That,
dear women from the north, east, south and west, is one of Mrs.
Duniway's poor, neglected children!"

Miss Mary N. Chase, president of the New Hampshire Association, spoke
convincingly on The Vital Question, taking as the keynote: "A republic
based on equal rights for all is not the dream of a fanatic but the
only sane form of government." I. N. Fleischner, who had just been
elected to the school board largely by the votes of women, assured the
convention of his approval and support of the measures it advocated
and said he hoped to see the women enjoying the full right of suffrage
in Oregon in the very near future.

Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary of the National Consumers'
League, spoke with deeper understanding than would be possible for any
other woman of The Young Bread-winner's Need. "We have in this
country," she said, "2,000,000 children under the age of sixteen who
are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven in the
cotton mills of Georgia, eight, nine and ten in the coal-breakers of
Pennsylvania and fourteen, fifteen and sixteen in more enlightened
States.... In some of the States children from six to thirteen may
legally be compelled to work the whole night of twelve hours," and she
described the heart-breaking conditions under which they toil. She
urged the need of woman's votes to destroy the great evil of child
labor and said: "We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our
enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the
children."

In introducing Mr. Blackwell, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, who was presiding,
said: "As we came across the continent what impressed me most was the
mountains. First came the foothills, then the high mountains and then
the grand, snow clad peaks. Some of us are like the foothills, just
raised a little above the women who have all the rights they want;
then come those on a higher level of public spirit and service, who
are like the mountains; and then the pioneers rising above all like
the snow covered peaks." Taking the ground that "the perpetuity of
republican institutions depends on the speedy extension of the
suffrage to women," Mr. Blackwell said in his sound, logical address:
"How can we reach the common sense of the plain people, without whose
approval success is impossible?... A purely masculine government does
not fully represent the people, the feminine qualities are lacking. It
is a maxim among political thinkers that 'every class that votes makes
itself felt in the government.' Women as a class differ more widely
from men than any one class of men differs from another. To give the
ballot to merchants and lawyers and deny it to farmers would be class
legislation, which is always unwise and unjust, but there is no class
legislation so complete as an aristocracy of sex. Men have qualities
in which they are superior to women; women have qualities in which
they are superior to men, both are needed. Women are less belligerent
than men, more peaceable, temperate, chaste, economical and
law-abiding, with a higher standard of morals and a deeper sense of
religious obligation, and these are the very qualities we need to add
to the aggressive and impulsive qualities of men."

The _Journal_ in commenting on this address said: "A venerable and
historical figure is that of Henry B. Blackwell, who in company with
his daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, is in attendance upon the
national suffrage convention. This snowy-haired, white-bearded
patriarch embodies in his voice, his presence, his interest in every
passing event, in his appreciation of every beauty of earth and sky,
in the shifting panorama of nature, the loyal spirit of freedom, the
true spirit of manhood that has dominated his passing years."[42]

A valuable report on Industrial Problems Relating to Women and
Children was made by Mrs. Kelley, chairman of the committee, which she
began by saying that during 1905 eleven States had improved their
Child Labor Laws or adopted new ones and in every State suffragists
had helped secure these laws. She said that wherever woman suffrage
was voted on its weakness proved to be among the wage-earners of the
cities and she urged that the association submit to the labor
organizations its bill in behalf of wage-earning women and children
with a view to close cooperation. To the workingmen woman suffrage
meant chiefly "prohibition" and an effort should be made to convince
them that it includes assistance in their own legislative measures.
Mrs. Kate S. Hilliard (Utah) answered the question, Will the Ballot
Solve the Industrial Problem? Wallace Nash spoke on the work of the
Christian Cooperative Federation. The leading address of the afternoon
was made by Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago on The Educational
Problem. "It is a strange anomaly in American public life," he said,
"that we have given our schools largely into the hands of women who
must teach history and patriotism but are not considered competent to
vote. I plead for the same education for boys and girls and I urge you
to take a deep interest in the public schools." He gave testimony to
the excellent legislative work women had done along many lines and
declared that "women pay taxes and do public service and hold up
before men the standard of righteousness and they ought to have a
vote," and closed by saying: "We need appeals to the heart and
conscience in our schools and a revival of conscience. We need a
standard of character and conscience and women can bring it into the
schools much better than men can. The woman, because she is a woman,
is less easily corrupted than the man who has forgotten that he had a
mother. If we must disfranchise somebody, it would better be many of
the men than the women."

At one meeting Judge Roger S. Greene, who was Chief Justice of the
Territory of Washington when the majority of the Supreme Court gave a
decision which took away the suffrage from women and who loyally tried
to preserve it for them, was invited to the platform and received an
ovation. At another time Judge William Galloway, a veteran suffragist,
was called before the convention, and after referring to his journey
to Oregon by ox-team in 1852 told of his conversion by Mrs. Duniway
when he was a member of the Legislature at the age of 21. National
conventions were of daily occurrence during the Exposition and a
number of them called for addresses by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw and other
suffrage speakers. At the evening session preceding the last Miss Mary
S. Anthony, 78 years old, read in a clear, strong voice the
Declaration of Sentiments adopted at the famous first Woman's Rights
Convention in 1848, which she had signed. The rest of the evening of
July 4 was given to what the _Woman's Journal_ spoke of as "Mrs.
Catt's noble address," The New Time, beginning:

     This is a glorious Fourth of July. In a hundred years the United
     States has grown into a mighty nation. This last has been a
     century of wonderful material development, but we celebrate not
     for this. July 4 commemorates the birth of a great idea. All over
     the world, wherever there is a band of revolutionists or of
     evolutionists, today they celebrate our Fourth. The idea existed
     in the world before but it was never expressed in clear,
     succinct, intelligible language until the American republic came
     into being.... Taxation without representation is tyranny, it
     always was tyranny, it always will be tyranny, and it makes no
     difference whether it be the taxation of black or white, rich or
     poor, high or low, man or woman.... The United States has lost
     its place as the leading exponent of democracy. Australia and New
     Zealand have out-Americanized America. Let us not forget that
     progress does not cease with the 20th century. We say our
     institutions are liberal and just. They may be liberal but they
     are not just for they are not derived from the consent of the
     governed. What is your own mental attitude toward progress? If
     you should meet a new idea in the dark, would you shy?
     Robespierre said that the only way to regenerate a nation was
     over a heap of dead bodies but in a republic the way to do it is
     over a heap of pure, white ballots.

"Mrs. Catt was awarded the Chautauqua salute when she appeared on the
platform," said the _Oregonian_, "and it was some minutes before the
former president of the association could proceed. She spoke
eloquently and at considerable length and in this assemblage of
remarkably bright women it was plain to be seen that she was a star of
the first magnitude." It was hard for the convention to accede to Mrs.
Catt's determination to retire from even the vice-presidency of the
association because of her continued ill health but they yielded
because this was so evident. Mrs. Florence Kelley was the choice for
this office and in accepting she said: "I was born into this cause. My
great-aunt, Sarah Pugh of Philadelphia, attended the meeting in London
which led to the first suffrage convention in 1848. My father, William
D. Kelley, spoke at the early Washington conventions for years." Dr.
Eaton was again obliged to give up the office of second auditor on
account of her professional duties and Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, who
had so successfully planned and managed the convention, was almost
unanimously elected. No other change was made in the board.

Among the excellent resolutions presented by the chairman of the
committee, Mr. Blackwell, were the following:

     Whereas, the children of today are the republic of the future;
     and whereas two million children today are bread-winners; and
     whereas the suffrage movement is deeply interested in the welfare
     of these children and suffragists are actively engaged in
     securing protection for them; and whereas working-men voters are
     also vitally interested in protection for the young
     bread-winners; therefore,

     Resolved, That it is desirable that our bills for civil rights
     and political rights, together with the bills for effective
     compulsory education and the proposal for prohibiting night work
     and establishing the eight-hour day for minors under eighteen
     years of age, be submitted to the organizations of labor and
     their cooperation secured.

     The frightful slaughter in the Far East shows the imperative need
     of enlisting in government the mother element now lacking;
     therefore we ask women to use their utmost efforts to secure the
     creation of courts of international arbitration which will make
     future warfare forever afterwards unnecessary.

     We protest against all attempts to deal with the social evil by
     applying to women of bad life any such penalties, restrictions or
     compulsory medical measures as are not applied equally to men of
     bad life; and we protest especially against any municipal action
     giving vice legal sanction and a practical license.... We
     recommend one moral standard for men and women.

The list of Memorial Resolutions was long and included many prominent
advocates of woman suffrage. Among those of California were Mrs.
Leland Stanford, Judge E. V. Spencer and the veteran workers, Mrs. E.
O. Smith and Sarah Burger Stearns, the latter formerly of Minnesota;
Jas. P. McKinney and Jas. B. Callanan of Iowa; Helen Coffin Beedy of
Maine. Twenty-two names were recorded from Massachusetts, among them
the Hon. George S. Boutwell, President Elmer H. Capen, of Tufts
College; the Hon. William Claflin, the Rev. George C. Lorimer, Mrs.
Ednah D. Cheney; Mrs. Martha E. Root, a Michigan pioneer; Grace Espey
Patton Cowles, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Montana. The Rev.
Augusta Chapin, D. D., Dr. Phoebe J. B. Waite, Bishop Huntington,
James W. Clarke, Dr. Cordelia A. Greene, were among the ten from New
York; Mayor Samuel M. Jones, among seven from Ohio. Five pioneers of
Pennsylvania had passed away, John K. Wildman, Richard P. White, Mrs.
Mary E. Haggart, Miss Matilda Hindman, Miss Anna Hallowell. Cyrus W.
Wyman of Vermont and Orra Langhorne of Virginia were other deceased
pioneers; also Mrs. Rebecca Moore and Mrs. Margaret Preston Tanner,
who were among the earliest workers in Great Britain.

Special resolutions were adopted for Mrs. Mary A. Livermore and U. S.
Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts; Col. Daniel R. Anthony of
Kansas; Mrs. Louisa Southworth of Ohio. The eloquent resolutions
prepared by Mr. Blackwell ended: "Never before in a single year have
we had to record the loss of so many faithful suffragists. Let the
pioneers who still survive close up their ranks and rejoice in the
accession of so many young and vigorous advocates, who will carry on
the work to a glorious consummation." The California delegation
presented the following resolution, which was enthusiastically
adopted: "Resolved, That we remember with the deepest gratitude the
one man who has stood steadfast at the helm, notwithstanding constant
ridicule and belittlement on the part of the press during the early
years of the work, unselfishly and unceasingly devoting his life to
the self-imposed task year after year, never faltering, never seeking
office or honors but always a worker; one who has grown gray in the
service--Henry B. Blackwell."

Invitations were received to hold the next convention in Washington,
Chicago and Baltimore. The by-law requiring that every alternate
convention must be held in Washington during the first session of
Congress was amended to read "may be held." The _Woman's Journal_
said: "Miss Anthony favored the change and Mr. Blackwell opposed
it--an amusing fact to those who remember how strongly he used to
advocate a movable annual convention and Miss Anthony a stationary one
in Washington. Evidently neither of them is so fossilized as to be
unable to see new light." The invitation of the Maryland Woman
Suffrage Association was accepted.

The dominant interest of the convention had been in a prospective
campaign for a woman suffrage amendment to the constitution of Oregon.
The Legislature had refused to submit it but under the Initiative and
Referendum law this could be done by petition. Public sentiment
throughout the State seemed to indicate that it was now ready to
enfranchise women and officials from the Governor down believed an
amendment could be carried. All the officers of the State Suffrage
Association had joined in the invitation to the National Association
to hold its convention of 1905 in Portland and inaugurate the campaign
and to assist it in every possible way. After the report of the State
vice-president, Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, had been read to the
convention of 1904 a resolution had been moved by Mrs. Catt, seconded
by Miss Anthony and unanimously adopted, that the association accept
this invitation and a pledge of $3,000 had been made. Throughout the
present convention the speeches of public officials and the pledges
made on every hand encouraged the members to feel that the association
should give all possible help in money and workers.[43]

The public was much impressed at the last session by the appearance on
the platform of four prominent politicians of the State representing
the different parties and this was generally regarded as the opening
of the campaign for woman suffrage. They were introduced by State
Senator Henry Waldo Coe, M. D., who spoke in highest praise of homes
and housekeepers as he had seen them in his practice and said: "The
woman who takes an interest in the affairs of her country has the
highest interest in her home, and the suffrage will not lessen her
fitness as wife and mother." He introduced Mayor Harry Lane as the
Democrat who carried a Republican city and who was the best mayor
Portland ever had. Mr. Lane declared that women were as much entitled
to the suffrage as men and that the enfranchisement of women would
tend to purify politics. Dr. Andrew C. Smith, a Republican, was
introduced as "the man who presented the names of thirteen women
physicians to the State Medical Association and got them admitted."
The press report said: "The prospective women voters were informed
that they saw before them the next Governor of Oregon." Dr. Smith
declared that he had been for woman suffrage twenty-five years and
that "the United States was guilty of a national sin in not giving
women equal rights." Thomas Burns, State Secretary of the Socialist
party, asserted that it was the only one which had a plank for woman
suffrage in its platform and the Socialists had fought for it all over
the world. "Men have made a failure of government," he said, "now let
the women try it." O. M. Jamison, of the Citizens' movement, said: "We
have found women the strongest factor in our work for reform and I
think 99 per cent. of us are for woman suffrage." B. Lee Paget, who
spoke for the Prohibitionists, declared himself an old convert to
woman suffrage and said: "I think intelligent women far better fitted
to vote on public measures than the majority of men who take part in
campaigns and are wholly ignorant of the issues."

L. F. Wilbur of Vermont told of its improved laws for women and
advancing public sentiment for woman suffrage and paid a glowing
tribute to the early work in that State of Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell
and Julia Ward Howe. Mrs. Maud Wood Park, president of the
Massachusetts College Women's Suffrage League, gave a scholarly
address on The Civic Responsibility of Women, which she began by
saying that the first "new woman" was from Boston--Anne Hutchinson.
Dr. Marie D. Equi, candidate for inspector of markets, spoke briefly
on the need of market inspection for which women were especially
fitted. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (N. Y.) in discussing Woman's
World said in part: "Ex-President Cleveland, after warning women
against the clubs which are leading them straight to the abyss of
suffrage, told us that 'the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand
that rules the world.' ... Is it true? The Indian woman rocks the
cradle; does she rule the world? The Chinese woman--the woman of the
harem--do they rule it? An amiable old gentleman in opening a suffrage
debate said: 'My wife rules me and if a woman can rule a man, why
should she care to rule the country?' He seemed to think he was equal
to the whole United States! Women have been taught that the home was
their sphere and men have claimed everything else for themselves. The
fact that women in the home have shut themselves away from the thought
and life of the world has done much to retard progress. We fill the
world with the children of 20th century A. D. fathers and 20th century
B. C. mothers."

Miss Blackwell lightened the proceedings with some of her clever
anecdotes with a suffrage moral, and Mrs. Gilman with several of her
brilliant poems. Mrs. Catt gave a concise review of the International
Woman Suffrage Alliance, formed at Berlin in 1904, and told of the
progress of woman suffrage in other countries. Greetings to all of
them were sent by the convention. Dr. Shaw gave an impressive
peroration to this interesting session by pointing out the
responsibility resting on the men and women of Oregon to carry to
success the campaign which they had now begun, and Miss Anthony closed
the convention with a fervent appeal to all to work for victory.

The delegates and visitors greatly enjoyed the Exposition, which had
such a setting as none ever had before, looking out on the dazzling
beauty of the snowclad peaks of Mt. Hood and the Olympic Range, and
now they had to select from the many opportunities for travel and
sight-seeing. The Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, Emily Howland, Mrs. Cartwright
of Portland and others from seventy to eighty years of age, took a
steamer for Alaska. Mr. and Miss Blackwell and others went to
Seattle, Vancouver and home through the magnificent scenery of the
Canadian Pacific Railroad. Mrs. Catt and another party returned east
by way of the Yellowstone Park. Dr. Cora Smith Eaton with a few daring
spirits went for a climb of Mt. Hood. Miss Anthony with a group of
friends started southward, stopping at Chico, California, for her to
dedicate a park of 2,000 acres, which Mrs. Annie K. Bidwell had
presented to the village. They went on to San Francisco where they
were joined by Dr. Shaw, who had remained in Portland for the Medical
Convention and spoken at several places en route. Here they were
beautifully entertained in the homes of the suffrage leaders, Mrs.
Mary Wood Swift, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, Mrs.
Emma Shafter Howard and others, and mass meetings crowded to the doors
were held in San Francisco and Oakland. From here they went to Los
Angeles for other meetings, except Dr. Shaw, who started eastward for
her round of Chautauqua engagements.


FOOTNOTES:

[36] Part of Call: A government of men and women--not by women alone,
not by men alone, but a government of men and women by men and women
for men and women--this is the aim and ideal of our association.

One hundred years ago Oregon was an untrodden wilderness. The
transformation of that primeval territory into prosperous communities
enjoying the highest degree of civilization could not have been
accomplished without the work of women. No restriction should be
placed upon energies and abilities so potent for good. The extension
of the right of suffrage would remove a handicap from the efforts of
women and give them an opportunity to work for the welfare of the
State. We do not claim that woman's voice in the government would at
once sound the death knell to all social and political evils but we do
believe that a government representing the interests and beliefs of
women and men would prove itself, and is proving itself where it now
exists, to be a better government than one which represents the
interests and beliefs of men alone.

The movement for the enfranchisement of women is based upon the
unchanging and unchangeable principles of human liberty, in accordance
with which successive classes of men have won the right of
self-government. On such a foundation ultimate victory is assured and
in truth is conceded even by those who oppose. The day is ever drawing
nearer when the nation will apply to women the principles which are
the very foundation of its existence; when on every election day there
will be re-affirmed the immortal truths of our Declaration of American
Independence. Then will this indeed be a just government, "deriving
its powers from the consent of the governed."

                         SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President.
                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                         CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Vice-president.
                         KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.
                         ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.
                         HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
                         LAURA CLAY,       }
                         CORA SMITH EATON, } Auditors.

[37] If this request was so "reasonable" why was the word "sex"
included in the first place? Although it was omitted from the Act of
Congress which admitted these Territories to Statehood under the names
of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, each one adopted a constitution
whose suffrage clause absolutely barred women and those constitutions
were approved by Congress. (See their special chapters.)

[38] In later years woman suffrage amendments were submitted to the
voters through the Initiative and Referendum after the Legislature had
refused to do it and were carried in Oregon and Arizona and defeated
in Nebraska and Missouri. Still later by this method the ratification
of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in Ohio by the Legislature was sent
to the voters after they had defeated the ratification of the
Prohibition Amendment. This was attempted in several other States and
both prohibitionists and suffragists were in great distress, which was
relieved by a decision of the U. S. Supreme Court that this action was
unconstitutional. They learned, however, that the Initiative and
Referendum has its harmful as well as its beneficial side.

[39] Miss Anthony and Mrs. Upton went to Washington in November, where
Mrs. Harper joined them, and on the 15th President Roosevelt received
them cordially and granted them a long interview. Miss Anthony was the
principal spokesman and made these requests: 1. To mention woman
suffrage in his speeches when practicable. 2. To put experienced women
on boards and commissions relating to such matters as they would be
competent to pass upon. 3. To recommend to Congress a special
committee to investigate the practical working of woman suffrage where
it exists. 4. To see that Congress should not discriminate against the
women of the Philippines as it had done against those of Hawaii. 5. To
say something that would help the approaching suffrage campaign in
Oregon. 6. To speak to the national suffrage convention in Baltimore
in February, as he did to the Mothers' Congress. 7. To recommend to
Congress a Federal Suffrage Amendment before he left the presidency.

These requests were given to him in typewritten form but President
Roosevelt did not comply with one of them and did not communicate
further with the committee who called upon him. For full account of
this occurrence see Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, page 1375.

[40] Different sessions were opened with prayer by Rabbi Stephen S.
Wise, Father Black and the Reverends Elwin L. House, H. M. Barden, E.
S. Muckley, J. Burgette Short, J. Whitcomb Brougher, E. Nelson Allen,
Edgar P. Hill, W. S. Gilbert, A. A. Morrison, T. L. Eliot, Asa Sleeth,
J. F. Ghormley, George Creswell Cressey, representing various
denominations. Nearly all of them pledged their support to the
suffrage movement. The fine musical programs throughout the convention
were in charge of Mrs. M. A. Dalton.

[41] Oregon gave suffrage to women in 1912 and Mrs. Duniway received
full recognition. See Oregon chapter.

[42] Mr. Blackwell, then 80 years old, used to rise early in the
morning and take a trolley ride of thirty or forty miles in various
directions to enjoy the beauties of nature. "Feeling unwilling to
return east without bathing in the Pacific," he said in one of his
letters, "and wishing to visit Astoria, the ancient American fur-post
so charmingly immortalized by Washington Irving, I left Portland after
the convention closed and had a beautiful voyage of nine hours down
the river to where it meets the ocean.... After an early morning
plunge into the big waves we chartered an auto and sped over the hard
sands to the fir-crowned cliffs."

[43] For results the following year see Oregon chapter.




CHAPTER VI.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1906.


The Thirty-eighth annual convention held in Baltimore Feb. 7-13, 1906,
was notable in several respects. It had gone into the very heart of
conservatism and a larger number of eminent men and women took part in
its proceedings than had ever before been represented on a single
program.[44] There were university presidents and professors, men and
women; office holders, men and women; representatives of other large
movements, men and women, and more distinguished women than had ever
before assembled in one convention. It was especially memorable
because of the presence on the platform together for the first and
only time of the three great pioneers, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton
and Julia Ward Howe, and never to be forgotten by suffragists as the
last ever attended by Miss Anthony. Here was sung the Battle Hymn of
the Republic in the presence of the woman who wrote it, Mrs. Howe;
and the Star Spangled Banner in the home of its author, Francis Scott
Key.

The meetings were held in the beautifully decorated Lyric Theater with
appreciative and enthusiastic audiences. The arrangements had been
made by the Maryland Suffrage Association and its president, Mrs. Emma
Maddox Funck. Ministers of nearly all denominations asked blessings on
the various sessions and the best musical talent in the city gave its
services. The papers were most generous with space and fair and
friendly in their reports. Through the influence and efforts of Dr. M.
Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, the remarkable
representation of Women's Colleges was secured. Baltimore's most
prominent woman, Miss Mary E. Garrett, was largely responsible for the
social prestige which is especially necessary to success in a southern
city. It was a convention long to be remembered by those who were so
fortunate as to be a part of it.

The convention opened on the afternoon of February 7 with Dr. Anna
Howard Shaw, president of the association, in the chair and was
welcomed by Mrs. Funck, who said in a graceful speech: "You have come
to the conservative South. Conservative--what a sweet-sounding word,
what an ark for the timid soul! So you must expect to find a good many
folks who mean well but who have not discarded their silver buckles
and ruffles, but nothing will more clearly indicate the development of
our people from provincialism and bigotry than their generosity of
spirit and kindly intent towards the gathering of our clans in this
convention. Most people have come to realize that to be a great nation
we must have that catholicity of spirit which embraces all ologies and
all isms.... From the suffrage pioneers we have learned the lessons of
fair play and equal rights."

Fraternal greetings were offered by Mrs. Albert L. Sioussat, president
of the State Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. Hattie Hull Troupe,
president of the Women's Twentieth Century Club of Baltimore; Mrs.
Rosa H. Goldenberg, president of the Maryland section Jewish Council
of Women, and Mrs. Mary R. Haslup, president of the Baltimore Woman's
Christian Temperance Union. As the vice-president of the association,
Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers of Oregon, who was to respond, had been
delayed en route. Dr. Shaw took her place, saying in answer to certain
of the greetings: "In all my experience I have observed that those
people are most likely to have their prayers answered who do
everything they can to help God answer them; so while we may try by
prayer to bring about the highest good not only in the State but in
education and philanthropy, we hope to add to our prayers the
citizen's power of the ballot.... We have never had a more generous
welcome or a warmer hospitality offered to us and we thank you with
all our heart. Whatever may happen while we are here, nothing can take
away from us the beauty of the sunshine and the kindliness of your
welcome."

The first evening session was opened with prayer by the Rev. John B.
Van Meter, dean of the Woman's College, Baltimore, and music by a
chorus of two hundred voices under the direction of William R. Hall.
Governor Edwin Warfield made an eloquent address in which he said: "A
man who would not extend a welcome to such a body of women would not
be worthy the name of Maryland, which we consider a synonym of
hospitality. Our doors are always wide open to friends and strangers,
especially strangers. We are delighted to have you here. While I may
not agree with all your teachings, I recognize one fact, that there
never has been assembled in Baltimore a convention composed of women
who have been more useful in this country and who have done more for
the uplift of humanity. It was proper for you to come to Maryland, a
State that was named for a woman, whose capital was named for a woman
and whose motto is 'Manly deeds and womanly words.'" He paid glowing
compliments to the splendid public service of Maryland women and said
he would not have been elected Governor but for their kindly
influence. He declared that he had been almost persuaded by the
charming words of Mrs. Howe and said his wife was a "convert" and he
"had been voting as a proxy for some time." He believed "the final
solution of the question would be a referendum to the women
themselves."

Dr. Shaw could not resist saying when she rose to introduce the next
speaker: "So many have told us, as the Governor has, about being
proxy-voters, that we think it is time they should be relieved of
that rôle and have an opportunity to do their own voting while we
women attend to ours." Mayor Timanus was indisposed and the welcome
for the city was given by the Hon. William F. Stone, Collector of the
Port. He vied with the Governor in the warmth of his greeting and his
splendid tributes to women and acknowledged his indebtedness for "all
that he was or expected to be to his sainted mother and beloved wife,"
but, like the Governor, he could not give his full sanction to woman
suffrage. When he had finished Dr. Shaw said with her winning smile
and melodious voice: "We have the testimony of Governor Warfield and
of Collector Stone that the best each has been able to accomplish has
been due to the influence of good women. Now if a good woman can
develop the best in an individual man, may not all the good women
together develop the best in a whole State? I am glad of this strong
point in favor of enfranchising women."

Miss Anthony was to have presided at this meeting and in referring to
her absence on account of illness Dr. Shaw said: "I am not taking Miss
Anthony's place this evening--there is only one Susan B. Anthony, but
it is also true that there is only one Clara Barton and but one Julia
Ward Howe and these grand women we have with us." Miss Barton, who, in
her soft plum-colored satin with fichu of white lace, her dark hair
parted smoothly over her forehead, did not seem over sixty although
she was eighty-four, was enthusiastically received and said in part:
"What greater honor and what greater embarrassment than to be asked to
take ever so small a step on a platform that Susan B. Anthony had
expected to tread. As I stand here tonight my thoughts go back to the
time when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Anthony were pioneers
struggling for this righteous cause. I think the greatest reforms, the
greatest progress ever made for any reforms in our country have been
along the lines on which they worked. Miss Anthony's has been a long
life. She has trod the thorny way, has walked through briars with
bleeding feet, but it is through a sweet and lovely way now and the
hearts of the whole country are with her. A few days ago some one said
to me that every woman should stand with bared head before Susan B.
Anthony. 'Yes,' I answered, 'and every man as well.' I would not
retract these words. I believe that man has benefited by her work as
much as woman. For ages he has been trying to carry the burden of
life's responsibilities alone and when he has the efficient help of
woman he will be grateful. Just now it is new and strange and men
cannot comprehend what it would mean but the change is not far away.
The nation is soon to have woman suffrage and it will be a glad and
proud day when it comes."

Mrs. Howe in the dignity of her eighty-seven years made a lovely
picture in a gown of mauve satin with a creamy lace scarf draped about
her head and shoulders. She was escorted to the front of the platform
by the Governor and said in her brief response: "Madam president and
you dear suffrage friends, and the rest of you who are going to become
suffrage friends before we leave this city, I give you thanks for this
friendly greeting. I am very, very glad to meet you all. I am not
going to preach a sermon but I have a text from the New Testament, a
question that the Lord asked when the crowd came to see him, 'What
came ye out to see? A reed shaken with the wind?' No, it was a prophet
that they came to see and hear. When you come to these suffrage
meetings you do not come to see reeds shaken by the wind. We do not
any of us claim to be prophets but you do come to hear a prophecy, a
very glad prophecy which some of us have believed in and followed for
years, and all the way of that following has been joyous and bright
though it has not been popular. I remember many years ago going with
Mrs. Livermore and Lucy Stone to a meeting in New England and the
report was sent out that 'three old crows were coming to disturb the
town with their croakings.' I can never forget that evening. When Mary
Livermore looked the audience over in her calm and dignified manner
they quieted down as if by magic. When reasonable measures are
proposed in a reasonable way there are always some people who will
respond and be convinced. We have no desire to put out of sight the
difficulties of government. When we talk about woman suffrage people
begin to remember how unsatisfactory manhood suffrage is, but I should
like to see what men would do if there was an attempt to take it away.
We might much improve it by bringing to it the feminine mind, which
in a way complements the masculine. I frankly believe that we have
half the intelligence and good sense of humanity and that it is quite
time we should express not only our sentiments but our determined will
to set our faces toward justice and right and to follow these through
the thorny wilderness if necessary--follow them straight, not to the
'bitter end,' for it will not be bitter but very sweet and I hope it
will come before my end comes."

For the second time Dr. Shaw had written her president's address but
although it was a statesmanlike document the audience missed the
spontaneity, the sparkle of wit, the flashes of eloquence that
distinguished her oratory above that of all others, and there was a
general demand that hereafter she should give them the spoken instead
of the written word. She complied and while it was a gain to the
audiences of her day and generation it was a great loss to posterity.
Even extended quotations can give little idea of this address which
filled over ten columns of the _Woman's Journal_.

     For the first time in the history of our association we meet to
     protest against the disenfranchisement of women in a State in
     which the first public demand for a part in the conduct of our
     government was made by a woman. It was in an impassioned appeal
     to your Assembly, that in 1647 Mistress Margaret Brent demanded
     "a part and voyce" as representative of the estate of her
     kinsman, Lord Baltimore, whose name your city bears. Here Mary
     Catherine Goddard published Baltimore's only newspaper through
     all the severe struggle of the Revolutionary War, and it is
     stated upon good authority that when Congress, then in session in
     Baltimore, sent out the official Declaration of Independence,
     with the names of the signers attached, it was published by
     official order in Miss Goddard's paper; that her name was on the
     sheet which was officially circulated throughout the country;
     but, although a memorial sheet was afterwards placed in the Court
     House, Miss Goddard's name was not left on it. This omission is
     but one of many evidences that in the compilation of the world's
     historic events it has been customary to overlook the part
     performed by women.

Dr. Shaw took up the section on Labor in President Roosevelt's recent
message to Congress in which he recommended a thorough investigation
of the condition of women in industry, saying: "There is an almost
complete dearth of data on which to base any trustworthy conclusions,"
and then drawing this one: "The introduction of women into industry
is working change and disturbance in the domestic and social life of
the nation; the decrease in marriage and especially in the birth-rate
have been coincident with it." Dr. Shaw's comment was in part:

     This is unquestionably true but it is also true that this has
     been coincident with the wider discovery of gold and the
     application of steam and electricity to mechanics ... and to draw
     sweeping and universal conclusions in regard to a matter upon
     which there is an "almost complete dearth of data" is never wise.
     Is it true that there is a lower birth-rate among working women
     than among those of the wealthy class? Are not the effects of
     over-work and long hours in the household as great as are those
     of the factory or the office? Is the birth-rate less among women
     who are engaged in the occupations unknown to women of the past?
     Or is the decline alike marked among those who are pursuing the
     ancient occupations but under different conditions?... If
     conditions surrounding their employment are such as to make it a
     "social question of the first importance" it is unfortunate the
     President had not seen that women should constitute at least a
     part of any commission authorized to investigate it.

     One can not but wish that with his expressed desire for "fair
     play" and his policy of "a square deal" it had occurred to the
     President that, if five million American women are employed in
     gainful occupations, every principle of justice would demand that
     they should be enfranchised to enable them to secure legislation
     for their own protection. In all governments a subject class is
     always at a disadvantage and at the mercy of the ruling class. It
     matters not whether its name be Empire, Kingdom or Republic,
     whether the rulers are one or many; and in a democracy there is
     no way known for any class to protect its interests or to be
     secure in its most sacred rights except through the power of the
     ballot....

There had been about this time in high places an outburst of attacks
on woman suffrage and predictions as to its dangerous possibilities.
Dr. Shaw referred to their authors as Oracles and said: "The great
difficulty is that when one Oracle claiming to be divinely inspired
has laid down a specific line of conduct which if implicitly followed
would lead to the proper development of woman, the happiness of man,
the good of the family and the well-being of the State, another Oracle
also divinely enlightened lays out a different path by which these
ends may be secured, and then another and another until poor women if
they should try to follow these self-appointed divine revealers would
not only have to be hydra-headed to see these devious paths but
hydra-footed to walk in them." Referring to Cardinal Gibbons, she
said:

     The Oracle of Baltimore tells us that the education and culture
     of women are good up to a certain point, no further, but he
     sagely fails to define the point, simply declaring that "too much
     education of the head is apt to cool the heart; the cultivation
     of the soul is too much neglected in the higher education; the
     head and the heart and the body should all be educated together;
     then they develop equally." There certainly can be no
     disagreement among us as to the latter statement but why is it
     more applicable to women than to men? The Oracle does not leave
     us in doubt as to his view, for in response to the question,
     "What do you think of the societies and club organizations which
     attract women so largely just now?" he replies: "A society like
     the Daughters of the American Revolution I heartily approve of,
     for it tends to foster patriotism and keep it alive, but other
     clubs of all kinds for women I strictly disapprove of."

     The Oracle of Princeton, ex-President Cleveland, who has gained
     the most notoriety for his heavy diatribes against women's clubs,
     also admits that there are a few societies which it might be well
     for women to encourage and keep alive--religious organizations
     and those which administer to the needs of the heathen in a
     foreign land. The Oracle of Brooklyn, Dr. Lyman Abbott, adds a
     few more to the list and includes philanthropic, reform and
     social clubs. Would it be unwomanly to ask why there should have
     been such wide divergence in the Divine Illumination which each
     Oracle received?

Dr. Shaw quoted from Mr. Roosevelt: "The President of the United
States does not absent himself from the country during the term of his
presidency, it is his domain. So should it be with woman; she is queen
of her empire and that empire is the home," and after reminding him
that the President's term lasts but four or eight years she asked:
"What do men mean by saying that women should remain contentedly in
their homes? They do not intend us to understand that we are never to
leave them, for they are frequently calling us forth when conditions
become so intolerable that even men can no longer endure them. Then
they call upon women to come out from the seclusion and protection of
their homes and aid them to 'save the city and the State.'" She
pointed out the difference between the time when the home was "a
protective and industrial center" and now when "the results of
electricity and steam have scattered the households," but in picturing
the advance that women had made in their own domain she said: "There
never was a time when there was as large a number of good
housekeepers and homemakers; when there was as much intelligence shown
in the scientific preparation of food; such knowledge of household
sanitation; such reverence for individual life; such painstaking study
of the needs and rights of childhood; when there was so much thought
given to the development of the finer and more permanent qualities of
character; when such good comradeship existed between children and
their parents; when marriage had so deep a spiritual and human meaning
as at the present time. The home ideal of today is the best the world
has yet known and it will continue to develop as larger freedom and
broader culture come to all who share in its life...."

The manner in which politics enters the modern home was pointed out
and the contempt which was shown for the political opinions of women
and then in a rousing appeal to women the speaker said: "A few days
since I was asked by a compiler of other people's thoughts to express
for him my opinion of the greatest need of American women and I
replied, 'self-respect.' ... The assumption that woman have neither
discernment nor judgment and that any man is superior in all the
qualities that make for strength, stability and sanity to any woman,
simply because he is a man and she is a woman, is still altogether too
common. The time has come when women must question themselves to learn
how far they are personally responsible for this almost universal
disrespect and then set about changing it."

Dr. Shaw told of the organization of the College Women's Equal
Suffrage League and asked: "Who can compute the loss sustained by our
country every year by the addition of unrestricted, ignorant and often
criminal male voters and the exclusion of the vast number of college
and high-school graduates through the disfranchisement of women? If
the stability of a government depends upon the morality and
intelligence of its voting citizens, how long can the foundations of
ours remain secure if we continue to enfranchise ignorance and vice
and disfranchise intelligence and virtue?" The action of Legislatures
in past years was depicted as "playing shuttlecock and battledore with
the amendment, passing it in one House to defeat it in another, in a
hypocritical desire to appear favorable and inspire us with hope in
order to retain the small amount of influence they think we possess,
and yet compelling us to begin the work all over again." After
reviewing the long struggle of American women for political freedom
she ended with an impassioned peroration of which only a portion can
be quoted:

     No class of men in any nation have ever been compelled to wage
     such an arduous and difficult struggle for their political
     freedom. Through the influence of the Democratic party, without
     an effort on their own behalf, white working men were
     enfranchised; and by an Act of Congress under Republican
     leadership the newly emancipated men slaves were protected in
     their right of suffrage. The same Act placed in the Constitution
     of the United States for the first time the word "male," which
     robbed women of the protection guaranteed to every other class of
     citizens in the most sacred right of citizenship--the right to a
     voice in the Government.

     Such is the boasted chivalry of the Land of Freedom, which has
     left its women to strive against tradition, prejudice,
     conservatism, self-interest, political power and in addition all
     the forces of corruption combined, to secure the privilege which
     was conferred upon vast numbers of men who never even demanded it
     and many of whom knew nothing of its significance after it was
     granted. I claim, and fear no contradiction, that the women of
     this land are better qualified to exercise the suffrage with
     intelligence, honesty and patriotism than were any other class of
     citizens in the world at the time when it was conferred upon
     them.

     Must women, unaided, continue the struggle for forty years longer
     until they have rounded out a century, assailing the bulwarks of
     prohibitive constitutions in the forty-one States yet to be won?
     Or will not some brave, consistent and freedom-loving President,
     recognizing the duty the Government owes to the disfranchised
     millions of patriotic women, recommend to Congress to submit an
     amendment to the Federal Constitution forbidding disfranchisement
     on account of sex? And will not the time speedily come when
     Congress, recognizing the great injustice which was inflicted
     upon the women of the land when by enfranchising a race of slave
     men they riveted the fetters of disfranchisement upon educated
     and patriotic women, redeem the nation from this stigma? It was
     the most ungrateful and unjust act ever perpetrated by a republic
     upon a class of citizens who had worked and sacrificed and
     suffered as did the women of this nation in the struggle of the
     Civil War only to be rewarded at its close by such unspeakable
     degradation as to be reduced to the plane of subjects to
     enfranchised slaves....

     I stand here tonight to say that we have never known defeat; we
     have never been vanquished. We have not always reached the goal
     toward which we have striven, but in the hour of our greatest
     disappointment we could always point to our battlefield and say:
     "There we fought our good fight, there we defended the principles
     for which our ancestors and yours laid down their lives; there
     is our battlefield for justice, equality and freedom. Where is
     yours?"

While the eminent speakers attracted the largest audiences that ever
had attended the conventions of the association, according to the
opinions of the older suffragists, the delegates themselves were
equally interested in the morning meetings devoted to the reports and
other business. The corresponding secretary, Miss Kate M. Gordon, a
keen student of politics and organization, in speaking of factors in
success, said: "There is great necessity for a personal acquaintance
between the leaders in our suffrage work in the States and the
prominent politicians in the States; the personal acquaintance also of
the editors and managers of our great public-opinion-forming
newspapers; a pleasant working relation in women's clubs and all
movements for better social conditions in our respective communities;
a more intimate acquaintance with the educational influences, the
teachers in our public schools and the college life of our
communities."

Miss Gordon made a special plea for cooperation in the efforts for
Child Labor legislation and she ended by saying: "But means and
methods for the future of our work pale into insignificance in the
need of the hour, which is Oregon. Funds for this campaign must be a
matter of conscience with every believer. In proportion to the
gratitude you feel for the comfortable position which women occupy
today, measure your contribution; no sacrifice can be too great at
this crucial moment in our onward history." Throughout the convention
the work in Oregon, where an amendment to the State constitution would
be voted on in November, was the uppermost thought. The treasurer made
a special appeal for funds; the chairman of the Press Committee told
of it; it was discussed and planned for in the business meetings and
different speakers referred in hopeful words to its probable success.

An amendment to the constitution abolishing proxies empowered to cast
the full vote to which the State was entitled and providing that
delegates present should cast only their own vote caused a spirited
discussion, with Mrs. Catt and eastern delegates in favor and Dr. Shaw
and western delegates opposed and was lost by a vote of 68 to 11. No
change of officers was made at this convention. Reports of Committees
on Libraries, Literature, Enrollment, Presidential Suffrage, etc.,
were presented by their chairmen. A lively discussion on the use of
the union label on literature, stationery, etc., resulted in an almost
unanimous decision to retain it. Very interesting reports of work in
the States were made by their respective presidents. Invitations for
the next convention were received from the Chamber of Commerce of
Wheeling, W. Va., the Chamber of Commerce, Bar Association and
Suffrage Club of Oklahoma City and the Commission for celebrating the
founding of Jamestown, Va.

Miss Antoinette Knowles (Cal.), chairman of the Committee on Church
Work, said that by standing for temperance many churches could be
obtained for meetings that would not be opened for those purely on
suffrage. She gave a list of orthodox churches which had been thus
secured; told of successful addresses she had made on the relation
between woman suffrage and temperance and urged the appointment of a
church committee in every State. The report of Miss Elizabeth J.
Hauser, headquarter's secretary, told of the usual large amount of
work, which included the distribution of 62,000 copies of the
quarterly publication, _Progress_; 106,753 pieces of literature and
many thousands of suffrage stamps, picture postals and souvenirs.
Speakers and fraternal delegates had been sent to a large number of
national conventions throughout the country and cordially received.
Many of these had adopted resolutions for woman suffrage including the
American Federation of Labor, National Association of Letter Carriers,
National Grange, National Council of Jewish Women, Supreme Commandery
Knights of Temperance, National Associations of Universalists and of
Spiritualists. The State conventions of various kinds that had
endorsed it were almost without number and excellent work had been
done at county fairs, granges, farmers' institutes, summer assemblies
and educational and religious societies. It was voted to make
_Progress_ the official organ of the association and issue it monthly.
The national headquarters in Warren, O., had been removed to a
spacious room on the ground floor of the county court house, formerly
used for a public library.

The chairman of the Press Committee, Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, made her
last report, as the press work was henceforth to be done at the
national headquarters with its excellent staff and facilities. For
twelve years Mrs. Babcock had carried on this work, which in her
capable hands had reached an immense volume and become a leading
feature of the National Association. She reported that over 5,000
papers were now using the material sent out from the press bureau and
that it was very difficult to respond to all the calls for it. In
answer to the second broadside of former President Cleveland in the
_Ladies' Home Journal_, which refused to publish anything from anybody
on the other side, 2,000 copies of articles by different persons and
1,000 of the excellent refutation by Representative John F. Shafroth
of Colorado had been distributed. The report stated that Mrs. Ida
Porter Boyer, the efficient chairman of Pennsylvania, had been sent by
the National Association to supervise the press work of the Oregon
campaign. It urged that grateful recognition should be shown to papers
that favor woman suffrage saying: "Editors are called upon for help
and are not thanked for the kindness and good they do nearly as much
as they should be." The convention gave Mrs. Babcock a rising vote of
thanks for her long and faithful work.

The Executive Committee recommended in its Plan of Work that the
States work for a uniform resolution in favor of a Sixteenth
Amendment; that they endeavor to secure Initiative and Referendum
laws; that in each Legislature measures be introduced for full
suffrage or for some form of suffrage; that efforts be continued to
obtain equalization of property and intestate laws, also
co-guardianship of children; that the working forces of the
association be concentrated where there are State campaigns for
suffrage; that each club organize one new one and each individual
member secure one more; that all present lines of work be continued
and extended; that there be a more systematic and liberal distribution
of literature; that hearings be obtained before all kinds of
organizations. It was voted that "the Board of Officers consider the
propriety of recommending all the States to make a concerted effort to
secure Presidential suffrage for women in the election of 1908." But
one work conference was held, that on Press, Miss Hauser presiding.
One of the most important conferences of the week was that of State
presidents, at which each told of the most effective work within the
year, and the discussion which followed gave much practical and
helpful information.

At the second afternoon session Dr. Shaw read a number of letters from
Governors of the equal suffrage and other States answering favorably
an appeal from the California Suffrage Association that they would
appoint one or more women to the national commission soon to meet to
consider uniform marriage and divorce laws. She had emphasized this
necessity in her president's address. The report of Mrs. Florence
Kelley, chairman of the Committee on Industrial Problems Affecting
Women and Children, was heard with deep interest and feeling. As
executive secretary of the National Consumers' League for many years
and a close student of labor conditions, she spoke with accurate
knowledge when she told of the employment of children. A Baltimore
woman in her welcome to the convention had said that Maryland women
were satisfied with what they could secure by petition without the
ballot, and Mrs. Kelley, referring with fine sarcasm to the "sadly
modest results of their petitions," said:

     Last night while we slept after our evening meeting there were in
     Maryland many hundred boys, only nominally fourteen years old,
     working all night in the glass-works; and here in Baltimore the
     smallest messenger boys I have ever seen in any city were
     perfectly free to work all night. No law was broken in either
     case, for the women of Maryland have not yet by their right of
     petition brought to the children of the State protection from
     working all night. Here in this city children must go to school
     until they are nominally twelve years old but outside of
     Baltimore and three other counties there is no limit whatever to
     the work of any child. Moreover, here in Baltimore where the law
     nominally applies children are free to work at any age if they
     have a dependent relative or if they are liable to become
     dependent themselves!

     It is five years since the first delegation of women went to
     Atlanta to ask for legislation on behalf of the working children
     of Georgia, carrying petitions with them, and they have gone in
     vain every year since. Each year the number of women joining in
     the protest has been greater and, alas, the number of little
     girls under ten years old, who work in Georgia cotton mills all
     night, has also been greater. The number of working children
     grows faster than the number of petitioning women.... In New
     York, where women can vote on school questions in the country
     only, not in the city, children five, six, seven and eight years
     old, who ought to be in the kindergarten and public schools, are
     working in cellars and garrets, under the sweating system, sewing
     on buttons and making artificial flowers. So many such children
     are not in the schools that no city administration in the last
     ten years has dared to make a school census; and we are striving
     in vain, (all the philanthropic bodies), to induce the present
     Tammany administration just to count the children of school age
     but they dare not reveal the extent to which they are failing to
     provide for them....

     We Americans do not rank among the enlightened nations when we
     are graded according to our care of our children. We have,
     according to the last census, 580,000 who cannot read or write,
     between the ages of ten and fourteen years, not immigrant but
     native-born children, and 570,000 of them are in States where the
     women do not even use their right of petition. We do not rank
     with England, Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland or the
     Scandinavian countries when we are measured by our care of our
     children, we rank with Russia. The same thing is true of our
     children at work. We have two millions of them earning their
     living under the age of sixteen years. Legislation of the States
     south of Maryland for the children is like the legislation of
     England in 1844.... Surely it behooves us to do something at once
     or what sort of citizens shall we have?

Miss Gertrude Barnum, secretary of the Women's National Trade Union
League, followed with an earnest address on Women as Wage Earners. She
began by saying that although this would be called a representative
audience, wage-earning women were not present. "A speaker should have
been chosen from their ranks," she said. "We have been preaching to
them, teaching them,'rescuing' them, doing almost everything for them
except knowing them and working with them for the good of our common
country. These women of the trade unions, who have already learned to
think and vote in them, would be a great addition, a great strength to
this movement. The working women have much more need of the ballot
than we of the so-called leisure class. We suffer from the insult of
its refusal; we are denied the privilege of performing our obligations
and we have as results things which we smart under. The working women
have not only these insults and privations but they have also the
knowledge that they are being destroyed, literally destroyed, body and
soul, by conditions which they cannot touch by law...." Miss Barnum
discussed "strikes," the "closed shop," conditions under which factory
women work, the domestic problem, the trade unions, and said: "I hope
that this body, which represents women from all over the country, will
take this matter back to their respective States and cities and try to
make the acquaintance of this great half of our population, the
working people. You must bring them to your conferences and
conventions and let them speak on your platform. They will speak much
better for themselves than you can get any one to speak for them...."

An animated discussion took place, many of the delegates asking
sympathetic questions. Mrs. Ella S. Stewart (Ill.) followed with a
delightfully caustic address on Some Fallacies; Our Privileges. The
reporters were so carried away by her "sweetness and beauty" that they
almost forgot to make notes of her speech, of which one of them said:
"She picked up Grover Cleveland, Lyman Abbott and other
anti-suffragists from the time of Samuel Johnson and figuratively spun
them around her finger, to the joy of the audience." In paying her
tribute to chivalry she said: "Of what benefit was the chivalry of the
knights toward their ladies of high degree to the thousands of peasant
women and wives of serfs hitched up with animals and working in the
fields? Of no more value now is the protection given to the wives and
daughters of the rich by men who are grinding down and taking
advantage of those of the poor. In Chicago women have no vote except
once in four years for a trustee of the State university, yet every
day if we try to take a street car we are overrun and trampled down by
men who get on the cars before they stop, and when we finally limp in
we see them comfortably seated reading the papers while we dangle from
the straps. We are crowded in stores and smoked in restaurants; in
fact the only place of late where I was not crowded was at the polls
when I went to cast my vote!"

Mrs. Mary E. Craigie (N. Y.) closed the session with a serious,
impressive address on Our Real Opposition; Ignorance and Vice, the
Silent Foe. She pointed out the "indirect alliance between the
anti-suffragists and the vicious elements, opponents of all reform,
fearful that if women vote good will prevail over evil." "The chief
foes of woman suffrage," she said, "are the saloon keepers, scum of
society, barred from fraternal organizations, social clubs and even
from some of the insurance societies."

The Biography of Miss Anthony contains this paragraph.[45]

     When Miss Anthony had visited President M. Carey Thomas, of Bryn
     Mawr College, and Miss Mary E. Garrett the last November she had
     talked of the approaching convention, expressed some anxiety as
     to its reception in so conservative a city and urged them to do
     what they could to make it creditable to the National Association
     and to Baltimore. They showed much interest, asked in what way
     they could be of most assistance and talked over various plans.
     Both belonged to old and prominent families in that city, Miss
     Garrett had the prestige of great wealth also, and Dr. Thomas of
     her position as president of one of the most eminent of Women's
     Colleges. Miss Anthony was desirous of having the program in some
     way illustrate distinctly the new type of womanhood--the College
     Woman--and eventually Dr. Thomas took entire charge of one
     evening devoted to this purpose, which will ever be memorable in
     the history of these conventions. A day or two after Miss
     Anthony's visit she received a letter from Miss Garrett saying:
     "I have decided--really I did so while we were talking about the
     convention at luncheon yesterday--that I must open my house in
     Baltimore for that week in order to have the great pleasure of
     entertaining you and Miss Shaw under my own roof and to do
     whatever I can to help you make the meeting a success."

At a good-bye reception given for Miss Anthony in Rochester the
evening before she left home for Baltimore she took cold and
immediately after reaching Miss Garrett's she became very ill and was
under the care of physicians and trained nurses. On the second night,
however, the College Evening for which elaborate preparations had been
made, she summoned the will power for which she had always been noted,
rose from her bed, put on a beautiful gown and went to the convention
hall. Quoting again from the Biography: "When she appeared on the
stage and the great audience realized that she actually was with them
their enthusiasm was unbounded. She was so white and frail as to seem
almost spiritual but on her sweet face was an expression of ineffable
happiness; and it was indeed one of the happiest moments of her life
for it typified the intellectual triumph of her cause."

The Baltimore _American_ thus began its account: "With the great
pioneer suffrage worker, Susan B. Anthony, on the platform, surrounded
by women noted in the college world for their brilliant attainments,
as well as those famed for social work and in other professions, and
with a large audience, the session of the woman suffrage convention
opened last evening in the Lyric Theater. If the veteran suffragist
thought of more than the pleasure of the event it must have been the
contrast of this occasion with the times past, when, unhonored and
unsung, she fought what must have often seemed a losing fight for
principles for which the presence of these women proclaimed
victory.... It had been announced as 'Colloge evening' but it might
just as well have been called 'Susan B. Anthony evening,' for, while
the addresses dealt with various phases of the woman question, all
evolved into one strong tribute to Miss Anthony."

The following remarkable program was carried out:

                             COLLEGE EVENING

                             February 8, 1906

                          _Presiding Officer_
     Ira Remsen, Ph.D., LL.D., _President of Johns Hopkins University_.

                               _Ushers_
     Students of the Woman's College of Baltimore in Academic Dress.

                              _Addresses_
     Mary E. Woolley, A.M., Litt.D., L.H.D., _President of Mount
         Holyoke College_.
     Lucy M. Salmon, A.M., _Professor of History_, _Vassar College_.
     Mary A. Jordan, A.M., _Professor of English_, _Smith College_.
     Mary W. Calkins, A.M., _Professor of Philosophy and Psychology_,
         _Wellesley College_.
     Eva Perry Moore, A.B., _Trustee Vassar College_; _President of
         the Association of Collegiate Alumnæ_ (_over three thousand
         college women_).
     Maud Wood Park, A.B. (_Radcliffe College_), _President of the
         Boston Branch of the Equal Suffrage League in Women's
         Colleges and Founder of the League_.
     M. Carey Thomas, Ph.D., LL.D., _President of Bryn Mawr College_.

     A tribute of gratitude from representatives of Women's Colleges.

     What has been accomplished for the higher education of women by
     Susan B. Anthony and other woman suffragists.

The statement is sometimes questioned that all of the advantages which
women enjoy today had their inception in the efforts of the pioneers
suffragists. The addresses made on this occasion by some of the most
distinguished women educators of the country certainly should sustain
this claim so far as the higher education is concerned. It seems a
sacrilege to use only brief quotations from these important
contributions to the literature of the movement for woman suffrage.

     PRESIDENT WOOLLEY: It will not be possible in the limited time
     given to the representatives of colleges for women to do more
     than suggest what has been accomplished for the higher education
     of women by Miss Anthony and other suffragists, but it is a
     pleasure to have this opportunity to add our tribute of
     appreciation....

     At a meeting called in 1851 at Seneca Falls, N. Y., to consider
     founding a People's College, Miss Anthony, Lucy Stone and Mrs.
     Elizabeth Cady Stanton were determined that the constitution and
     by-laws should be framed so as to admit women on the same terms
     as men and finally carried their point. The college, however,
     before it was fairly started was merged in Cornell University.
     Five years later Miss Anthony's lecture on "Co-education" brought
     that subject most forcibly to the attention of the public.... It
     was no part of Miss Anthony's plan to have work given to women
     for which they were not fitted but rather that they should be
     prepared to do well whatever they attempted. There were not to be
     two standards of efficiency, one for the man and another for the
     woman. "Think your best thoughts, speak your best words, do your
     best work, looking to your own conscience for approval," was her
     charge to women forty years ago.... The higher education of women
     should be added to the list of causes for which she and other
     women struggled. She has lived to see the work of her hands
     established in the gaining of educational and social rights for
     women which might well be called revolutionary, so momentous have
     been the changes....

     It seems almost inexplicable that changes surely as radical as
     giving to women the opportunity to vote should be accepted today
     as perfectly natural while the political right is still viewed
     somewhat askance.... The time will come when some of us will look
     back upon the arguments against the granting of the suffrage to
     women with as much incredulity as that with which we now read
     those against their education. Then shall it be said of the
     woman, who with gentleness and strength, courage and patience,
     has been unswerving in her allegiance to the aim which she had
     set before her, "Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her
     own works praise her in the gates."

     PROFESSOR SALMON: The personal experience will perhaps be
     pardoned if it is considered representative of the possibly
     changing attitude of other college women toward the subject. The
     natural stages in the development seem to have been, opposition,
     due to ignorance; rejection, due to conscientious disapproval;
     indifference, due to preoccupation in other lines of work;
     acceptance, due to appreciation of what the work for equal
     suffrage has accomplished. It has been a work positive rather
     than negative, active rather than destructive, and thus it is
     coming to appeal to the judgment and reason of college women.
     They are coming to realize that they have been taught by these
     pioneers, both by precept and example, to look at the essential
     things of life and to ignore the unessential and for this they
     are grateful....

     The college woman is beginning to wonder whether it is worth
     while to reckon the mint, anise and cummin while the weightier
     matters of the law are forgotten. For a larger outlook on life we
     are all indebted to Miss Anthony, to Mrs. Howe and to their
     colleagues. We are indebted to them in large measure for the
     educational opportunities of today. We are indebted to them for
     the theory, and in some places for the reality, of equal pay for
     men and women when the work performed is the same. We are
     indebted to them for making it possible for us to spend our lives
     in fruitful work rather than in idle tears. We are indebted to
     these pioneer women for the substitution of a positive creed for
     inertia and indifference. From them we also inherit the weighty
     responsibility of passing on to others, in degree if not in kind,
     all that we have received from them.

Professor Jordan, after considering the woman's college, said: "The
suffragists lent us Maria Mitchell and they felt severely the loss
they sustained in her increasing absorption in the class room and in
the requirements of modern scientific work. When we had taken Maria
Mitchell they turned to us in friendship, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Julia
Ward Howe, Miss Anthony, Miss Elizabeth Peabody, Mrs. Cady Stanton,
Lucy Stone, Mrs. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Lois Anna Green, Mary
Dame--and never failed to stir our minds with their urgent appeals for
our thoughtful consideration of the causes they presented and the
interest they took for granted. The last was their strong point. They
simply implicated us in whatever was good and true. Their enthusiasm
was infectious and we 'caught' it--to our own lasting spiritual
benefit.... I do not believe that I was over-fanciful when I used to
feel that Lucy Stone and you, Miss Anthony, looked at us as if you
would say, 'Make the best of your freedom for we have bought it with a
great price.'"

     PROFESSOR CALKINS: I wish to indicate this evening the definite
     form in which I think the gratitude of all college women might be
     expressed to Miss Anthony and to the other leaders of the equal
     suffrage movement for their service to the cause of women's
     education. In other words, I wish to ask what have these veteran
     equal suffrage leaders a right to expect from university and
     college students, and in particular from the students and
     graduates of our women's colleges?... Equal suffragists, if I may
     serve as interpreter, demand just this, that women trained to
     scientific method shall make equal suffrage an object of
     scientific analysis and logic and ask of college women that they
     cease being ignorant or indifferent on the question; that they
     adopt, if not an attitude of active leadership or of loyal
     support, at least a position of reasoned opposition or of
     intelligent hesitation between opposing arguments. To ask less
     than this really is an insult to a thinking person, man or
     woman.... The student trained to reach decisions in the light of
     logic and of history will be disposed to recognize that, in a
     democratic country governed as this is by the suffrage of its
     citizens and given over as this is to the principle and practice
     of educating women, a distinction based on difference of sex is
     artificial and illogical, and thus suspicious.... For myself, I
     believe that the probabilities favor woman suffrage.

     MRS. MOORE: The women of today may well feel that it is Miss
     Anthony who has made life possible to them; she has trodden the
     rough paths and by unwearied devotion has opened to them the
     professions and higher applied industries. Through her life's
     work they enjoy a hundred privileges denied them fifty years ago;
     from her devotion has grown a new order; her hand has helped to
     open every line of business to women. She has spoken at times to
     thousands of girls on the public duties of women.... Her life
     story must epitomize the victorious struggle of women for larger
     intellectual freedom in the last century.... The world does move.
     Those who are aware of the great and beneficent changes made in
     the laws relating to the rights of property, in the civil and
     industrial laws pertaining to women and children, may estimate
     the good accomplished by these pioneers.

     MRS. PARK: I suppose it is true that all through history
     individual women have been able, sometimes by cajolery, sometimes
     by personal charm, sometimes by force of character, to get for
     themselves privileges far greater than any that the most radical
     advocates of woman's rights have yet demanded. But in the case of
     Miss Anthony and the other early suffragists all that force of
     character was turned not to individual ends, not to getting large
     things for themselves, but to getting little gains, step by step,
     for the great mass of other women; not for the service of
     themselves but for the service of the sex and so of the whole
     human race.... The object of the College Women's League is to
     bring the question of equal suffrage to college women, to help
     them realize their debt to the women who have worked so hard for
     them and to make them understand that one of the ways to pay that
     debt is to fight the battle in the quarter of the field in which
     it is still unwon; in short, to make them feel the obligation of
     opportunity.

     PRESIDENT THOMAS: In the year 1903 there were in the United
     States 6,474 women studying in women's colleges and 24,863 women
     studying in co-educational colleges. If the annual rate of
     increase has continued the same, as it undoubtedly has, during
     the past three years, there are in college at the present time
     38,268 women students. Although there are in the United States
     nearly 1,800,000 less women than men, women already constitute
     considerably over one-third of the entire student body and are
     steadily gaining on men. This means that in another generation or
     two one-half of all the people who have been to college in the
     United States will be women; and, just as surely as the seasons
     of the year succeed one another or the law of gravitation works,
     just so surely will this great body of educated women wish to use
     their trained intelligence in making the towns, cities and States
     of their country better places for themselves and their children
     to live in; just so surely will the men with whom they have
     worked side by side in college classes claim and receive their
     aid in political as well as home life. The logic of events does
     not lie. It is unthinkable that women who have learned to act for
     themselves in college and have become awakened there to civic
     duties should not care for the ballot to enforce their wishes.

     [Illustration: PIONEERS OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

     ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. Born, 1815.

     LUCY STONE. Born, 1818.

     SUSAN B. ANTHONY. Born, 1820.

     LUCRETIA MOTT. Born, 1793.

     MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT Born, 1846.]

     The same is true of every woman's club and every individual woman
     who tries to obtain laws to save little children from working
     cruel hours in cotton mills or to open summer gardens for
     homeless little waifs on the streets of a great city. These
     women, too, are being irresistibly driven to desire equal
     suffrage for the sake of the wrongs they try to right.... It
     seems to me in the highest degree ungenerous for women like these
     in this audience, who are cared for and protected in every way,
     not to desire equal suffrage for the sake of other less fortunate
     women, and it is not only ungenerous but short-sighted of such
     women not to desire it for their own sakes. There is nothing
     dearer to women than the respect and reverence of their children
     and of the men they love. Yet every son who has grown up
     reverencing his mother's opinion must realize, when he reaches
     the age of twenty-one, with a shock from which he can never
     wholly recover, that in the most important civic and national
     affairs her opinion is not considered equal to his own....

     I confidently believe that equal suffrage is coming far more
     swiftly than most of us suspect. Educated, public-spirited women
     will soon refuse to be subjected to such humiliating conditions.
     Educated men will recoil in their turn from the sheer unreason of
     the position that the opinions and wishes of their wives and
     mothers are to be consulted upon every other question except the
     laws and government under which they and their husbands and
     children must live and die. Equal suffrage thus seems to me to be
     an inevitable and logical consequence of the higher education of
     women. And the higher education of women is, if possible, a still
     more inevitable result of the agitation of the early woman
     suffragists....

     We who are guiding this educational movement today owe the
     profoundest debt of gratitude to those early pioneers--Elizabeth
     Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and, above and beyond
     all, to Susan B. Anthony. Other women reformers, like other men
     reformers, have given part of their time and energy. She has
     given to the cause of women every year, every month, every day,
     every hour and every moment of her whole life and every dollar
     she could beg or earn, and she has earned thousands and begged
     thousands more.

Turning to the honored guest of the evening Dr. Thomas said:

     To most women it is given to have returned to them in double
     measure the love of the children they have nurtured. To you, Miss
     Anthony, belongs by right, as to no other woman in the world's
     history, the love and gratitude of all women in every country of
     the globe. We, your daughters in the spirit, rise up today and
     call you blessed.

     In those far-off days when our mothers' mothers sat contented in
     the darkness, you, our champion, sprang forth to battle for us,
     equipped and shining, inspired by a prophetic vision of the
     future like that of the apostles and martyrs, and the heat of
     your battle has lasted more than fifty years. Two generations of
     men lie between the time when, in the early fifties, you and Mrs.
     Stanton sat together in New York State, writing over the cradles
     of her babies those trumpet calls to freedom that began and
     carried forward the emancipation of women--and the day eighteen
     months ago when that great audience in Berlin rose to do you
     honor, thousands of women from every country in the civilized
     world, silent, with full eyes and lumps in their throats, because
     of what they owed to you. Of such as you were the lines of the
     poet Yeats written:

        "They shall be remembered forever,
        They shall be alive forever,
        They shall be speaking forever,
        The people shall hear them forever."

Miss Anthony was profoundly moved. This wonderful scene--the
magnificent audience in one of the oldest and most conservative of
cities; this group of the most distinguished women educators; the
president of one of the leading universities of the world in the
chair; the large number of college women in the audience, free,
independent, equipped for life's highest work--represented the
culmination of what she had striven for during half a century. Her
Biography gives this account: "After the applause had ended there was
a moment of intense silence and then, as Miss Anthony came forward,
the entire audience rose and greeted her with waving handkerchiefs,
while tears rolled down the cheeks of many who felt that she would
never be present at another convention. 'If any proof were needed of
the progress of the cause for which I have worked,' she said, in
clear, even tones, distinctly heard by all, 'it is here tonight. The
presence on the stage of these college women, and in the audience of
all those college girls who will some day be the nation's greatest
strength, will tell their own story to the world. They give the
highest joy and encouragement to me. I am not going to make a long
speech but only to say thank you and good night.' It was all she had
the strength to say but she never would publicly confess it."

Interesting State reports, conferences and addresses filled the
mornings, afternoons and evenings of this unparalleled week. The
Initiative and Referendum was presented by an acknowledged authority,
George H. Shibley of Washington, director of the department of
representative government in the bureau of economic research. He
congratulated the association on having endorsed the new experiment
that would rapidly further the woman suffrage cause, in which he had
long believed. The system of questioning candidates and publishing
their replies, developed by the Anti-Saloon League, was now being used
with great success, he said, by many organizations. He described the
carefully worked-out system in detail and declared that this, with the
Initiative and Referendum, would terminate "machine" rule in politics,
and whatever did this would promote the advance of woman suffrage. The
address called forth an animated discussion in which it was shown that
when women questioned a candidate they had no constituency back of
them to influence his answers.

A valuable conference was opened with a comprehensive paper by Mrs.
Mary Kenney O'Sullivan (Mass.), prominently identified with the
women's trade unions, on the best methods of securing from Congress
the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The question, if
each State should secure an endorsement from its Legislature of a
uniform resolution calling for this submission would it not influence
Congress and also compel favorable recommendation in the national
platforms of the dominant political parties, was unanimously answered
in the affirmative.

Miss Hauser, the new chairman, presided over the press conference,
which was opened with a paper by Miss Jane Campbell, a veteran
suffragist, president of the Philadelphia County Suffrage Club of 600
members, on The Unbiased Editor, which bristled with the humorous
sarcasm in which she was unsurpassed. She said in the course of it:
"As the result of close observation I may state that the calm,
judicial mind of the unbiased editor is never more in evidence than
when he bends his energies to a consideration of the woman
question--that is, the woman question in reference to politics. Then
he is on sure ground and he always is actuated by a desire to serve
the best interests of women. Does it come under his ken that a woman
has the temerity to suggest even in faint tones the advisability and
feasibility, the common sense and justice of being allowed to cast a
ballot, then the opportunity of the unbiased editor has come and the
rash claimant is admonished in fatherly, protecting tones to 'Remember
that only in the Home'--he always spells home with a capital in this
connection--'should a woman be in evidence.' He almost weeps when he
pictures the dire consequences that would inevitably result should
women enter the uncleanly pool of politics. Chivalry would become
extinct--chivalry being the guiding principle, according to the
unbiased editor, on which men act--and then would tired men no longer
give up their seats in trolley cars to masculine women and no longer
would they accord equal pay for equal work, as they chivalrously do
now!"

Turning her shafts on Mr. Bok, editor of the _Ladies' Home Journal_,
and ex-President Cleveland's articles in it, Miss Campbell evoked so
much laughter and applause that Miss Hauser became anxious as to the
effect on the representatives of the press who were there and called
on Mrs. Upton to calm the tempestuous waters, who offered some "golden
precepts" for dealing with editors, among them the following: "Keep
the paper fully informed of all suffrage news. If there is something
unpleasant in it and the reporter tells you that the editor and not
himself is responsible for it, smile and believe him. Take the
reporter into your confidence and let him absorb the impression that
you trust him implicitly. The result will be that you and your cause
will get the best of it. In a word, treat the newspaper reporter as
you would any other gentleman and in the long run you will profit by
it. If you are the press representative of your local organization try
to have from time to time items of news pertaining to matters other
than that of woman suffrage. Use the telephone lavishly and let your
home be a sort of stopping place for the reporter in his routine work.
When you present such an attitude toward the press the editors cannot
find it in their hearts to refuse if you want a little space for
yourself and your cause." The Baltimore _Evening Herald_ commented:
"From the foregoing it will be observed that in the dark and devious
avocation of working the unsophisticated editor, Mrs. Upton is truly a
past mistress, entitled to wear the regalia and jewels of the
superlative degree."

Mrs. May Arkwright Hutton of Idaho told of the excellent results of
woman suffrage on the politics of that State. Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead,
chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration, gave her usual
able report describing her extensive work during the past year, which
neither in this or any other year was exceeded by that of any one
individual. After her return from the International Peace Congress in
London she succeeded in having the presidents of the suffrage
associations in fifteen States appoint supervisors of peace work and
others were about to do so. The educational authorities in every State
had been requested to arrange celebrations for May 18, the anniversary
of the first Hague Conference, and she should notify the suffrage
clubs to do this. Equal suffragists will aid the cause of justice for
themselves in the nation by working also for justice between the
nations. The abolition of war will do more than anything else to make
women respected and influential. It will substitute moral force for
brute force, reason for passion and will forever remove one of the
most popular arguments against giving political power to those who are
incapable of military service."

Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows (Mass.), the well known writer on social and
economic subjects, took part in the symposium that followed. Miss
Alice Stone Blackwell presided over the conference on What the Home
Needs for its Protection--Women on Health Boards, School Boards and in
the Police Department, and these subjects were considered by Mrs.
Susan S. Fessenden (Mass.), Mrs. Upton and Mrs. Barrows. It closed
with a paper by the Rev. Marie Jenney Howe on Woman's Municipal Vote.

One of the most important evening sessions was devoted to the question
of Municipal Government, with Dr. William H. Welch, Professor of
Pathology in Johns Hopkins University, presiding. A leading feature
was the address of the Hon. Frederick C. Howe of Cleveland, O., The
City for the People. He reviewed the mismanagement and political
corruption of the large cities, "controlled by great financial
interests and yet filled with eager, energetic people, struggling to
organize a good democratic movement of humanity focused on a
democratic ideal." In voicing the hope for the future he said:

     There is an upward movement in all our cities. We are endeavoring
     to work out democracy and are doing amazingly well. When it is
     possible to organize the ideals of this new democratic movement
     it will be a city not for men alone but for men and women. It is
     business which has made our cities take the illogical position
     that women should not participate in municipal affairs as the
     chief corrective of the evils which underlie most of our
     municipal problems. I believe in woman suffrage not for women
     alone, not for men alone, but for the advantage of both men and
     women. Any community, any society, any State that excludes half
     of its members from participating in it is only half a State,
     only half a city, only half a community. So, you see, woman
     suffrage does not interest me so much because woman is a taxpayer
     or because of justice as because of democracy; because I believe
     in the fullest, freest, most responsible democracy that it is
     possible to create. The city of the people will be a man and
     woman city. It will elect its officials for other than party
     reasons and will keep men and women in office who give good
     service.

The Hon. Rudolph Blankenburg, Philadelphia's noted reformer, who was
to speak on Municipal Regeneration, was detained at home and his wife,
Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, president of the Pennsylvania Suffrage
Association, told of the big campaign of the preceding autumn for
better government in that city and the important part women had in it
and said: "The men claimed that the women helped them a great deal but
when the day came for the jubilation after the election, not a woman
was invited to sit on the platform or to take part in the jubilee,
except in the audience. In one of our suburbs the successful people
gave a banquet and they did condescend to invite the women who had
helped them win the election to sit in the gallery after the banquet
and hear the speeches.... We are to have an election very soon and
when I left home to come to this convention our city party was holding
meetings in churches and halls and parlors and the chairman of the
committee chided me for deserting my 'home work.' I told her that it
was a greater work to try to get the right to vote and increase my
influence."

The Hon. William Dudley Foulke, president of the National Civil
Service Commission, spoke informally on An Object Lesson in Municipal
Politics, describing the revolution of the citizens against the
corrupt government of his home city, Richmond, Ind., and the valuable
assistance rendered by the women, and, as always, demanding the
suffrage for them.

It was at this meeting that Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago,
made the address on The Modern City and the Municipal Franchise for
Women, which was thenceforth a part of the standard suffrage
literature. Quotations are wholly inadequate.

     It has been well said that the modern city is a stronghold of
     industrialism quite as the feudal city was a stronghold of
     militarism, but the modern cities fear no enemies and rivals from
     without and their problems of government are solely internal.
     Affairs for the most part are going badly in these great new
     centres, in which the quickly-congregated population has not yet
     learned to arrange its affairs satisfactorily. Unsanitary
     housing, poisonous sewage, contaminated water, infant mortality,
     the spread of contagion, adulterated food, impure milk,
     smoke-laden air, ill-ventilated factories, dangerous occupations,
     juvenile crime, unwholesome crowding, prostitution and
     drunkenness are the enemies which the modern cities must face and
     overcome, would they survive. Logically their electorate should
     be made up of those who can bear a valiant part in this arduous
     contest, those who in the past have at least attempted to care
     for children, to clean houses, to prepare foods, to isolate the
     family from moral dangers; those who have traditionally taken
     care of that side of life which inevitably becomes the subject of
     municipal consideration and control as soon as the population is
     congested. To test the elector's fitness to deal with this
     situation by his ability to bear arms is absurd. These problems
     must be solved, if they are solved at all, not from the military
     point of view, not even from the industrial point of view, but
     from a third, which is rapidly developing in all the great cities
     of the world--the human-welfare point of view....

     City housekeeping has failed partly because women, the
     traditional housekeepers, have not been consulted as to its
     multiform activities. The men have been carelessly indifferent to
     much of this civic housekeeping, as they have always been
     indifferent to the details of the household.... The very
     multifariousness and complexity of a city government demand the
     help of minds accustomed to detail and variety of work, to a
     sense of obligation for the health and welfare of young children
     and to a responsibility for the cleanliness and comfort of other
     people. Because all these things have traditionally been in the
     hands of women, if they take no part in them now they are not
     only missing the education which the natural participation in
     civic life would bring to them but they are losing what they have
     always had.

The Sunday afternoon service was held in the Lyric Theater, whose
capacity was taxed with an audience "representing every class of
society, every creed and no creed," according to the Baltimore papers.
It was preceded by a half-hour musical program by Edwin M. Shonert,
pianist, and Earl J. Pfonts, violinist. The Rev. Antoinette Brown
Blackwell made the opening prayer; the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw read the
Scripture lesson and gave the day's text: "Be strong and very
courageous; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy
God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." The Battle Hymn of the
Republic was beautifully read by the Rev. Olympia Brown and sung by
Miss Etta Maddox, the audience joining in the chorus. Mrs. Maud
Ballington Booth gave the principal address on the work of the
Volunteers of America for the men and women in prisons and after they
are discharged. At its beginning she said: "I have never before stood
on the platform with these leaders in the struggle for woman suffrage
but I sympathize with any movement whose motive is, like theirs, the
uplifting of humanity." Her beauty, her sweet voice and her rare
eloquence made a deep impression on the audience, who responded with a
generous collection for her Hope Halls. The meeting closed with the
congregational singing of America and the benediction by the Rev.
Marie Jenney Howe. All of the women ministers occupied the pulpits of
various churches in the morning or evening, and, according to the
reporter for the _News_, "astonished the large congregations which
assembled to do them honor with their facility of expression and the
soundness of their logic!"[46]

The resolutions offered by Henry B. Blackwell, chairman of the
committee, covered a wide and rather unusual range of subjects,
showing the broad scope of the work of the association and expressing
its pleasure at the world-wide indications of progress. Deep regret
was expressed for the death of the friends of the cause during the
year, among them George W. Catt of New York, husband of Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt; Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell of New York; Mrs. Jane H.
Spofford of Maine; Mrs. Caroline Hallowell Miller of Maryland; Mrs.
Sarah M. Perkins of Ohio; John K. Wildman of Pennsylvania, and Speaker
Frederick S. Nixon of the New York Legislature.

Fraternal greetings were brought from the Ladies of the Maccabees by
Mrs. Melva J. Caswell, State Commander of the District of Columbia,
Maryland and Delaware; from the National W. C. T. U., by Miss Marie C.
Brehm, president for Illinois, and from the American Purity Alliance
by its president, Dr. O. Edward Janney of Baltimore. A letter was read
by Mrs. Mary Bentley Thomas (Md.), from Governor Warfield expressing
his thanks for the opportunity of meeting so many distinguished women
and his enjoyment of the convention. Letters and telegrams were read.
A letter of greeting was sent to Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent, a veteran
suffragist of San Francisco, and letters to Miss Laura Clay and Mrs.
Harriet Taylor Upton, regretting their absence. A special vote of
appreciation was given to Dr. and Mrs. William Funck and a letter of
thanks was sent to Dr. Thomas and Miss Garrett for their part in the
unsurpassed success of the convention.

A comprehensive report of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance,
organized in Berlin in 1904, was given by its president, Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt, showing that "the agitation throughout Europe for a
broader democracy has naturally opened the way for the discussion of
woman suffrage and the subject is being considered as never before in
Europe." [See Chapter on the Alliance.] The Evening with Women in
History was opened by Mrs. Catt, who said: "One idea is the mainspring
of the opposition to woman suffrage--that women are by nature of the
inferior sex. Even Darwin, so scientific that he tried to see all
things fairly, entertained this unjust view. When women have had the
same inspiration and opportunity as men their work has been equal in
merit."

The program assuredly showed no inferiority of mental power. Mrs.
Belle de Rivera (N. Y.) depicted Women of Genius, quoting Sappho,
Margaret of Navarre, Vittoria Colonna, Angelica Kauffman and others
eminent in the annals of history. A newspaper report said of Mrs.
Oreola Williams Haskell (N. Y.): "The thoroughness of her address gave
the lie to any intimation of frivolity made by her youth and beauty,
the pink crêpe de chine dress and the giddy pink bow in her fluffy
brown hair." In discussing Women in Politics she said that, "even
though debarred from Parliaments and Congresses women will take part
in politics because political situations and public events vitally
affect their lives" and concluded:

     The student, remembering the laws that strove to make women
     nonentities, the tremendous force of adverse public opinion, the
     lack of training and preparation, must repudiate forever the
     usual query of the scoffer. "Why have there not been more eminent
     women?" and in amazement ask himself, "How does it happen that
     there have been any?" To those women who would do great things,
     who sigh for the old days, when the political queen ruled from
     the salon or the throne, we may say that today woman stands on
     the threshold of a broader and more real political life than she
     has ever known. In the future there may be no Sarah Jennings or
     Mme. de Maintenons, but when to the million-and-a-quarter of the
     women of our time, who in the United States, in Australia and in
     New Zealand are exercising the mighty power of the ballot as
     fully and freely as their brothers, we shall be able to add other
     enfranchised women of the world, we will have a mighty political
     sisterhood, free to realize their patriotic dreams and powerful
     to bring about better conditions for humanity.

Miss Campbell described in an able and interesting manner Women
Scholars of the Middle Ages. Miss Brehm pictured Heroes and Heroines.
Mrs. Maud Nathan, who had as a subject Women Warriors, according to
the reporter, "remarked as she took off her long white kids that she
could not handle it with gloves." Declaring that she did not approve
of war, she said that nevertheless whenever there was a fight for
municipal reform in New York she was in the thick of it. After showing
how women had led wars and fallen in battles she concluded:

     In the middle ages, when the electors were called upon to defend
     their cities at the point of the bayonet, we can understand why
     men considered that women should be debarred from the privilege
     of citizenship; but today our cities are not walled, our foes
     are not without the gates trying to scale the walls. The enemies
     are within, often found sitting in high places. Today citizens
     are called upon to fight, not warriors, but vice and corruption
     and low standards. Are not our mothers quite as capable as our
     fathers to wage warfare against these, the enemies in our midst?

     When I was in The Hague last summer I visited the only kind of
     battleground which any intelligent, progressive, self-respecting
     nation ought to show with pride.... There in the peaceful little
     House in the Wood national disputes are settled, not by
     sacrificing the lives of thousands of innocent, helpless young
     men, not by creating thousands of widows and orphans, but by
     threshing out all matters relating to the dispute in a rational,
     calm, judicial and honorable way.... It seemed to me that this
     20th century battleground, this quiet, peaceful House in the
     Wood, augured well for a new era, one in which our swords will
     indeed be turned into ploughshares and our spears into pruning
     hooks, and the angels of peace and righteousness will hover over
     us.

The social features of the convention were of an unusually interesting
character. The Garrett family mansion had been closed for the winter
but Miss Garrett opened it completely, invited as home guests Miss
Anthony, Mrs. Howe, Miss Addams, Dr. Thomas and other distinguished
visitors and gave a series of entertainments that conferred on the
convention a prestige which added much to its influence in that
conservative city. In order that its representative men and women
might meet the officers and delegates Miss Garrett had a luncheon and
dinner every day, the formal invitations reading: "To meet Miss Susan
B. Anthony and Governor and Mrs. Warfield"; "To meet Miss Anthony and
the speakers of the College Evening," etc.,--on each invitation Miss
Anthony's name preceding those of the other guests of honor. All of
the speakers on the College Women's evening were her house guests and
after the meeting she gave a large reception. To quote again from the
Biography: "No one present will ever forget the picture of Miss
Anthony and Mrs. Howe sitting side by side on a divan in the large bay
window, with a background of ferns and flowers. At their right stood
Miss Garrett and Dr. Thomas, at their left Dr. Shaw and the line of
eminent college women, with a beautiful perspective of conservatory
and art gallery.... There was nothing in the closing years of Miss
Anthony's life that offered such encouragement and hope as to see
women possessing the power of high intellectual ability, wealth and
social position taking up the cause which she had carried with patient
toil through poverty and obscurity to this plane of recognition."

While Miss Anthony was a guest in the home of Miss Garrett she and Dr.
Thomas asked her what was the greatest service they could render to
advance the movement for woman suffrage. She answered that the
strongest desire of her later years had been to raise a large fund for
the work, which was constantly impeded for the lack of money, but her
impaired health had prevented it. This need was frequently discussed
during the week, and before the convention closed they promised her
that they would try to find a number of women who, like themselves,
were unable to take an active part in working for woman suffrage but
sincerely believed in it, who would be willing to join together in
contributing $12,000 a year for the next five years to help support
the work and to show in this practical way their gratitude to Miss
Anthony and her associates and their faith in the cause.[47]

The officers, speakers and delegates accepted invitations of President
Remsen to visit Johns Hopkins University and received every possible
attention; to a special exhibit at the Maryland Historical Art
Gallery; to a handsome afternoon tea at the Arundel Club, welcomed by
its president, Mrs. William M. Ellicott; to a large reception by the
Baltimore Woman Suffrage Club and to other pleasant functions.

The report of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton called attention to the
receipts of $2,000 for 1893 and $12,150 during the past year, a period
of thirteen years during which she had been treasurer. "The fact that
nowadays the association always has funds," she said, "gives us a
standing with the bankers and business men which works largely to our
credit." She spoke of the bequests, which had been put at interest,
and told of persons who refused to contribute a dollar while they
remained unspent. It was the hope of the officers, she said, that they
could be used for campaigns and other emergencies and that
contributions should pay the running expenses, which was now nearly
accomplished. The disbursements during the year, including money
advanced for the Oregon campaign, had been $16,565, the amount above
receipts being taken from the bequests.

The College Women's meeting took place on Thursday and Miss Anthony
was unable to attend the convention the next day. "At the Saturday
morning session," the Biography relates, "Dr. Shaw expressed the great
regret of all at her enforced absence and their gratitude for the
excellent care she was receiving at the home of Miss Garrett; but when
the afternoon session opened, in she walked! She had learned that the
money was to be raised at this time and she knew she could help, so
she conquered her pain and came. When contributions were called for
she was first to respond and holding out a little purse she said: 'I
want to begin by giving you my purse. Just before I left Rochester my
friends gave me a birthday party and made me a present of eighty-six
dollars. I suppose they wanted me to do as I liked with the money and
I wish to send it to Oregon.'" Under this inspiration the pledges soon
reached $4,000. Afterwards Miss Anthony's seventeen five dollar gold
pieces were sold for $10 each, and later some of them for $25.

Miss Anthony was not able to leave the house for the next two days, to
her great sorrow. The leading feature of the Monday evening session
was to be an address by Mrs. Howe but she also was too ill to appear,
and realizing the intense disappointment this would be to the audience
Miss Anthony made another heroic effort and took her place on the
platform. The Rev. Herbert S. Bigelow came from Cincinnati to give an
address on The Power of an Idea, in which he said: "If the world were
never again to get another new idea, progress would be at an end....
The birth and growth and struggle and triumph of one great idea after
another--this is the story of human progress. For more than half a
century the men and women who championed the idea of woman suffrage
were made the butt of ridicule, yet in the light of history how
ridiculous are the enemies of this idea. Fifty years ago no American
college but Oberlin was open to women. Now a third of the college
students in the United States are women." Mrs. Fessenden of Boston
spoke eloquently on The Mount of Aspiration, and Mrs. Lydia A. Coonley
Ward of Chicago represented the strong, practical side in her address
on The Nearest Duty. Miss Alice Henry of Melbourne gave an interesting
account of woman suffrage in Australia, where women now possessed the
complete franchise, which had been followed by very advanced laws.

It was not supposed that Miss Anthony would be able to speak, but,
stimulated by the occasion and longing no doubt to say what she felt
might be her last words, she came forward near the close of the
meeting. A report of the occasion in the New York _Evening Post_ said:

     The entire house arose and the applause and cheers seemed to last
     for ten minutes. Miss Anthony looked at the splendid audience of
     men and women, many of them distinguished in their generation,
     with calm and dignified sadness. "This is a magnificent sight
     before me," she said slowly, "and these have been wonderful
     addresses and speeches I have listened to during the past week.
     Yet I have looked on many such audiences and in my lifetime I
     have listened to many such speakers, all testifying to the
     righteousness, the justice and the worthiness of the cause of
     woman suffrage. I never saw that great woman, Mary
     Wollstonecraft, but I have read her eloquent and unanswerable
     arguments in behalf of the liberty of womankind. I have met and
     known most of the progressive women who came after her--Lucretia
     Mott, the Grimké sisters, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone--a
     long galaxy of great women. I have heard them speak, saying in
     only slightly different phrases exactly what I heard these newer
     advocates of the cause say at these meetings. Those older women
     have gone on and most of those who worked with me in the early
     years have gone. I am here for a little time only and then my
     place will be filled as theirs was filled. The fight must not
     cease; you must see that it does not stop."

There were indeed Miss Anthony's last words to a woman suffrage
convention and they expressed the dominant thought which had directed
her own life--the fight must not stop!

The address of Mrs. Howe was read at a later session by her daughter,
Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, who expressed her mother's extreme
disappointment at not being able to be present in person and said:
"She regarded this convention as probably the last she should attend
and she hoped to clasp hands with many whom she has known in former
years and with many whom she has not known. She has heard with joy of
its success and sends you her affectionate greeting and glad
congratulations." In the course of this scholarly address Mrs. Howe
said:

     I can well recall the years in which I felt myself averse to the
     participation of women in political life. The feminine type
     appeared to me so precious, so indispensable to humanity, that I
     dreaded any enlargement of its functions lest something of its
     charm and real power should therein be lost. I have often felt as
     if some sudden and unlooked for revelation had been vouchsafed to
     me, for at my first real contact with the suffragists of, say,
     forty years ago, I was made to feel that womanhood is not only
     static but also much more dynamic, a power to move as well as a
     power to stay. True womanliness must grow and not diminish, in
     its larger and freer exercise. Whom did I see at that first
     suffrage meeting, first in my experience? Lucy Stone, sweet faced
     and silver voiced, the very embodiment of Goethe's "eternal
     feminine"; William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Thomas
     Wentworth Higginson, noble advocates of human freedom; Lucretia
     Mott, eloquent and beautiful in her holy old age. What did I
     hear? Doctrine which harmonized with my dearest aspirations,
     extending as it did the hope which I had supposed was for an
     elect and superior few to all the motherhood of the human race.
     The new teaching seemed to me to throw the door open for all
     women to come up higher, to live upon a higher plane of thought
     and to exercise in larger and more varied fields the talents,
     wonderful indeed, to which such limited scope had hitherto been
     allowed. I felt, too, that the new freedom brought with it an
     identity of interest which formed a bond of sisterhood and that
     the great force of cooperation would wonderfully aid the
     promotion of objects dear to all true women alike....

     I have sat in the little chapel in Bethlehem in which tradition
     places the birth of the Saviour. It seems fitting that it should
     be adorned with offerings of beautiful things but while I mused
     there a voice seemed to say to me, "Look abroad! This divine
     child is no more, he has grown to be a man and a deliverer. Go
     out into the world. Find his footsteps and follow them. Work, as
     he did, for the redemption of mankind. Suffer as he did, if need
     be, derision and obloquy. Make your protest against tyranny,
     meanness and injustice!"

     The weapon of Christian warfare is the ballot, which represents
     the peaceable assertion of conviction and will. Society
     everywhere is becoming converted to its use. Adopt it, oh, you
     women, with clean hands and a pure heart! Verify the best word
     written by the apostle; "In Christ Jesus there is neither bond
     nor free, neither male nor female, but a new creature," the
     harbinger of a new creation!

On the last evening Señorita Carolina Holman Huidobro told of The
Women of Chili and Argentina in the Peace Movement. Mrs. Mead spoke on
The World's Crisis, and, with an unsurpassed knowledge of her subject,
pointed out the vast responsibility of the United States in the cause
of Peace and Arbitration, saying in part: "Protected by two oceans,
with not a nation on the hemisphere that dares to attack her; with not
a nation in the world that is her enemy, rich and with endless
resources, this most fortunate nation is the one of all others to lead
the world out of the increasing intolerable bondage of armaments. If
the United States will take a strong position on gradual, proportional
disarmament the first step may be made toward it at the second Hague
conference soon to be held.... Of all women the suffragists should be
alert and well informed upon these momentous questions. Our battle cry
today must be 'Organize the world!' War will cease when concerted
action has removed the causes of war and not before."

Mrs. Pauline Steinem, an elected member of the Toledo (O.) school
board, showed convincingly the need for Women's Work on Boards of
Education. Miss Harriet May Mills (N. Y.) made a clear, logical
address on The Right of Way, and Mr. Blackwell (Mass.) discussed from
his knowledge of politics The Wooing of Electors.

In closing the convention Dr. Shaw expressed the hope that if it had
brought no other truth to the people of Baltimore it had shown that
women want the ballot as a means for accomplishing the things that
good men and women wish to accomplish. She made an earnest appeal for
a deeper interest in the highest things of life and more consecrated
work for all that contributes to the progress of humanity.

       *       *       *       *       *

In order to have the usual hearings before committees of Congress on
the submission of a woman suffrage amendment to the Federal
Constitution a large delegation went to Washington on February 14, the
next day after the convention closed, and the hearing was held the
morning of the 15th, Miss Anthony's birthday. She was not able to
attend, greatly to her own disappointment and that of the older
speakers, whose inspiration she had been for so long on these
occasions. She had arranged the first one ever held in 1869 and had
missed but two in thirty-seven years.

The hearing before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage took place
in the Marble Room, as usual, Senator Augustus O. Bacon of Georgia in
the chair and Dr. Shaw presiding. The speakers were Señorita Huidobro
of Chili; Mrs. Elizabeth D. Bacon, president of the Connecticut
Suffrage Association; Mrs. Mary Bentley Thomas (Md.); the Rev.
Antoinette Brown Blackwell (N. J.); Miss Anne Fitzhugh Miller (N. Y.);
Mrs. Upton, Mrs. Steinem and Mrs. Fessenden.

The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, the Hon. John J.
Jenkins (Wis.), chairman, was in charge of Mrs. Florence Kelley, first
vice-president of the association. Mrs. Blankenburg told of the
herculean efforts of over 2,000 women at the last November election of
Philadelphia. Mrs. Harriet A. Eager spoke of the work of a woman's
Committee of Moral Education in Boston where there was no law
prohibiting the circulation of any kind of literature. They went to
the Legislature for such a law with a petition from 32,000 of the
representative women of Massachusetts and stayed there six weeks
working for it only to have it refused. She told how the women of the
State petitioned fifty-five years for a law giving mothers equal
guardianship of their children and pointed out the helpless position
of women without political power.

Miss Kate M. Gordon of New Orleans, corresponding secretary of the
association, began: "My message this morning was particularly for the
southern members of the committee but I shall have to ask others
present to carry it to them, as I do not believe any of them are here
although seven are members." She protested against the attitude of
southern members of Congress toward woman suffrage and expressed the
deep resentment of southern women at their classification with the
disfranchised, saying that their men more than all others should feel
the responsibility of lifting them from their present humiliating
position. Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, president of the Illinois Suffrage
Association, based her argument on simple justice, and said in
conclusion: "Your power is absolute and your responsibility
correspondingly great. Humiliating as it is for me to beg for what is
mine from strangers, I would a thousand times rather be a defrauded
mendicant than to hold in my hand the rights, the destiny and the
happiness of millions of human beings and have the heart to deny their
just claims."

Mrs. Mary Kenney O'Sullivan (Mass.) spoke "as one representing
3,000,000 women who have been forced out of the home through
necessity," and said in the course of her strong speech: "I know that
the working women of this country are not receiving the highest wages
because they have not a vote. Right here in Washington, in your big
bindery of the Government, a trade to which I gave the larger part of
my life, the women who do equal work with the men do not receive equal
pay. The Government more than any other employer has taken advantage
of women of my class because they have not a vote.... The workmen,
more than any other men, even more than those who are supposed to be
statesmen, have seen the necessity for women to have a vote. Ever
since 1890 the convention of the American Federation of Labor has
unanimously adopted a resolution favoring woman suffrage. I do not
believe that any one will deny that the workingmen are the thinking
men of the country. I am asking you, in the name of the women I
represent at least, to do for us what our working brothers are trying
to do--give us our rights."

Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead said in the course of a long address: "The man
who talks about home today as if it still gave ample opportunity for
woman's productive activity as it once did, is talking about a
condition which is as obsolete as the conditions before we had
railroads and telegraphs. Woman's educational opportunities and
productive capacity are so altered as to require her political status
to be altered.... There is a class of women who do not need to earn
their living and have a large leisure. They are not idle, they are as
active as fireflies, but they are not obliged to be productive as
every human being should be.... They have more time than men to study
and to apply the principles of justice and mercy and to do that
preventive, educational work which is a better defense of country than
a squadron of battleships. The suffrage has done much to develop man;
the woman of leisure needs it to develop her; the working woman needs
it to obtain salutary conditions under which to earn her living; the
woman working for reforms needs it so as to accomplish in a year what
otherwise she may wait for twenty-five years of pleading and
'influence' to obtain."

Miss Alice Stone Blackwell began her address: "We are not here to ask
you to extend suffrage to women but to give to the State Legislatures
an opportunity to vote on it, and probably some practical
considerations should be offered to show that public sentiment has
arrived at a point where it seems to be timely and worth while that
this question should be submitted to them. We would like to convince
you that this is only right. If three-fourths of them are not prepared
to give us suffrage, we shall not get it. If three-fourths of them are
prepared, then public sentiment has arrived at a point where we ought
to have it." She reviewed the advance of the movement and said: "We
could keep this committee here until next week reading to them
testimony from representative men and women as to the good results of
woman suffrage where it is in operation." The unimpeachable testimony
which she then presented from the equal suffrage States filled several
pages of the printed record.

Introducing Mrs. Kelley, Chairman Jenkins had spoken of her father,
William D. Kelley, known as the Father of the House, and she said:

     It is quite true that my father, Judge Kelley of Pennsylvania,
     came to Congress in the year in which President Lincoln was first
     elected and for twenty-five years he patiently introduced at
     every session a resolution preliminary to a hearing for the woman
     suffragists. Through all that period of ridicule, when the
     hearings were not conducted so respectfully or in so friendly a
     manner as this one has been, he continued to introduce that
     resolution. In 1890 death removed him from the House of
     Representatives and I come here as the second generation. I
     assure you that I and the rest of the women throughout the
     country will come from generation to generation, just so long as
     it is necessary. Next year my oldest son will vote and that
     generation will take up the task on behalf of the enfranchisement
     of the women of this country.... Every time we come there is some
     gain to record, but, between the times, at least 1,000,000 new
     immigrants have come into this country who will have to be
     brought to the American way of thinking about women before they
     will vote to give the ballot to those who are born here and whose
     forefathers have asked that we be enfranchised.

     It is an ignominious way to treat us, to send us to the Chinaman
     in San Francisco, to the enfranchised Indians of other western
     States, to the negroes, Italians, Hungarians, Poles, Bohemians
     and innumerable Slavic immigrants in Pennsylvania and other
     mining States to obtain our right of suffrage. There yet remain
     forty-three States in which women are not enfranchised and it
     looks as if it might take us a hundred years, at the present rate
     of progress, before we can relieve you and your successors from
     these annual hearings. What we are asking today is that you shall
     take a short cut and not oblige our great-grandchildren to come
     here and ask for a Federal Amendment.

Although the women received courteous treatment and a respectful
hearing from both committees no report was made by either, and the
only advantage gained was that as usual thousands of franked copies of
the hearings were sent to the national suffrage headquarters to be
distributed throughout the States.

       *       *       *       *       *

For some time arrangements had been under way to celebrate the
birthday of Miss Anthony in the city where this had been so often done
and which she loved above all others. By carefully conserving her
strength she was able to attend the evening ceremonies in the Church
of Our Father (Universalist) where many suffrage conventions had been
held and where six years before, at the age of 80, she had resigned
the presidency and laid down the gavel for the last time. Letters of
congratulation were read from President Roosevelt, Vice-President
Fairbanks, members of Congress and other prominent men; from Mrs.
Russell Sage, Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker, Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick
and other eminent women, and from organizations in this and other
countries. Well known men and women brought their greetings in person.
To quote again from her Biography:

"On account of her extreme weakness it was not expected that Miss
Anthony would speak but at the close of the evening she seemed to feel
that she must say one last word, and rising, with a tender, spiritual
expression on her dear face, she stood beside Miss Shaw and explained
in a few touching words how the great work of the National
Association had been placed in her charge; turning to the other
national officers on the stage she reached out her hand to them and
expressed her appreciation of their loyal support, and then, realizing
that her strength was almost gone, she said: 'There have been others
also just as true and devoted to the cause--I wish I could name every
one--but with such women consecrating their lives'--here she paused
for an instant and seemed to be gazing into the future, then dropping
her arms to her side she finished her sentence--'failure is
impossible!' These were the last words Miss Anthony ever spoke in
public and from that moment they became the watchword of those who
accepted as their trust the work she laid down." One month later to
the day she was laid to rest with her loved ones.


FOOTNOTES:

[44] Part of Call: Never have we had so much cause to issue a
thanksgiving proclamation. Never has it been so easy to love our
enemies, for they have combined to fight for us in their courses.

The inevitable logic of events is with us. All over the world
intelligent women are interested in securing better protection for
their homes and their children.... They are called upon to take part
in civic affairs, and social and economic conditions force them into
the world's broad field of battle where there is no place for
non-combatants. The time has gone by for subterfuge and
indirection.... The American Republic settles its questions in the
light of day at the ballot box. No one, man or woman, has ever lost
influence by the possession of power. We do not ask the ballot simply
as a right, though if it be a right it cannot be rightfully denied us;
we do not ask it as a privilege, though if it be a privilege it must
be ours unless we admit the existence of a privileged class. We demand
it because it is a duty and one which no good citizen has a right to
shirk.

If you are indifferent come and be convinced. What we ask is not
revolutionary but is the reasonable and just demand of every being
living under a democratic form of government. If you are opposed, come
and let us reason together, consider our points of agreement and waive
for a moment those of difference.... Let us have the truth for
authority and we shall not need authority for truth....

                         SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President.
                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                         FLORENCE KELLEY, Vice-President-at-Large.
                         KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.
                         ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.
                         HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
                         LAURA CLAY,            } Auditors.
                         ANNICE JEFFREYS MYERS, }

[45] Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, by Ida Husted Harper, Volume
III, page 1383.

[46] The clergymen of the city gave cordial assistance to the
convention and among those who opened different sessions with prayer
were the Reverends Dr. Van Meter of the Woman's College; George
Scholl, D.D., Lutheran Church; Lloyd Coblentz, St. Paul's Reformed
Church; John Y. Dobbins, Grace M. E. Church; E. L. Watson, Harlem Park
M. E. Church; Alfred R. Hussey, First Independent Church; Peter
Ainslee, Christian Temple; Oliver Huckel, Associate Congregational
Church; Rabbi Adolf Guttmacher, Madison Avenue Temple; Marshall V.
McDuffie, North Avenue Baptist Church; Ezra K. Bell, First English
Lutheran Church; Edward W. Wroth, All Saints' Episcopal Church.

[47] Although Miss Anthony lived only one month longer every day was
made happy by the thought that those who would carry on the work would
have the great assistance of this fund. A committee was formed the
following summer with Miss Garrett as chairman and Dr. Thomas as
treasurer and the work of securing subscriptions was begun on Miss
Anthony's birthday the next year, 1907. By May 1 the $60,000 had been
subscribed and put at the disposal of the national board of officers.
The sum was completed by a subscription of $20,000 from "a friend" and
not until after the death of Mrs. Russell Sage, who had headed the
list with $5,000, was it known that she was the donor. Mrs. Sage had
made generous subscriptions at other times. The full list of donors
will be found in Miss Anthony's Biography, page 1401.




CHAPTER VII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1907.


The six preceding chapters have described at length and in detail the
annual conventions of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
in order to show that those who took part in them were the
representative women and men of the day. Their addresses, reports of
committees, resolutions adopted and other proceedings demonstrate the
wide scope of the activities of this organization, which from 1869 was
the foundation and the bulwark of the vast movement to obtain equality
of rights for women. The Thirty-ninth convention met in Music Hall,
Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Feb. 14-19, 1907, and received a cordial
welcome to the State of Lincoln, who in 1836 was almost the first
public man in the United States to declare in favor of suffrage for
women.[48] Lorado Taft's bust of Susan B. Anthony, its pedestal
draped in the Stars and Stripes, adorned the platform and a portrait
of Lucy Stone looked down on the speakers in serene benediction. The
national president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was in the chair and
addresses of welcome were made for Illinois by Mrs. Ella S. Stewart,
president of the State Equal Suffrage Association; for the churches by
the Right Rev. Samuel E. Fallows, Presiding Bishop of the Reformed
Episcopal Church; for the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union
by Mrs. Susanna M. D. Fry, its corresponding secretary. Mrs. Fannie J.
Fernald, president of the Maine Suffrage Association, and Mrs. Mary S.
Sperry, president of that of California, responded and in introducing
them Dr. Shaw said: "These responses from the Atlantic and the Pacific
Coasts represent greetings from all the women between them." The
presidents of the Chicago North Side, the South Side and the Evanston
Political Equality Clubs were presented and received with applause.
Bishop Fallows expressed the wish that what he should say could be
voiced by the ministers of all the churches in the land and said: "I
am proud that from the period of the Civil War and a little before,
when the cause of the emancipation of the slave was the foremost
question of the time and was only settled by the horrors of a long
struggle--from that time I espoused the cause of woman suffrage. I
hope there will be no need to fight for it as we fought during those
long years but at least there should be a war of words until women
have the power to deposit a ballot, until they have complete
enfranchisement. Your case is just; yours is a righteous cause. I
cannot help believing that the exercise of the suffrage by women is
necessary to the welfare and growth of the nation. Your cause stands
for the home; it stands for political purity, for civic righteousness,
for everything that is for the betterment of the State, and I should
be guilty of high treason to my deepest convictions if I did not bid a
hearty God-speed to your efforts until every State shall recognize the
equality of woman before the great law of civic redemption, as God has
recognized her right before the great law of human redemption."

The appointment of the usual committees was followed by a symposium on
Municipal Suffrage, at this time a vital issue in Chicago, as a
spirited campaign was in progress to secure a clause giving it to
women in the new city charter which a convention was preparing.[49]
Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin was to preside but she yielded to Mrs. Florence
Kelley, who had to leave the city, and later took Mrs. Kelley's place
in presiding over the symposium on Industrial Conditions. Professor
Sophonisba Breckinridge (Ky.), of Chicago University, gave an able
address on Municipal Housekeeping, saying in the course of it:

     In all the things that make the city a good place in which to
     work, the woman is as much concerned as any one. When it comes to
     the questions which affect women, she has of course a peculiar
     ability to speak, a peculiar responsibility and an obligation to
     assume every right necessary to carry out that responsibility. It
     is incumbent upon her to secure the power to move in the most
     direct way upon the obstacles which lie in her path in the
     controlling of conditions.... It is to the housekeeper that I
     want to call your attention, rather than to the working woman.
     She has to decide how she will use her time, energy and money to
     promote the life, health, comfort and welfare of her family. The
     little group must live in a house. If she resides in a city, it
     is a matter of concern what shall be the structure of it, whether
     made of material endangering the household or not; if in an
     apartment house, she is concerned in the regulations under which
     such houses are built and controlled, in the fire escapes, the
     sort of gas, the dimensions of the apartments, the order of the
     rooms, the plumbing, etc.

     It is obvious that today no woman can be a competent housekeeper
     unless she has an intelligent knowledge of these subjects. She
     must exercise a control over the ordinances and have something to
     say about the men who make these ordinances and who enforce them.
     She has not the power she needs as a housekeeper unless she feels
     that the officials of the city are as much responsible to her,
     although they are not chosen by her alone, as are the domestic
     servants whom she does select. Her collective responsibility is
     just as great as her individual responsibility.... Women cannot
     stop either at the bottom or the top by asking for Municipal
     suffrage. If woman is going to be a complete housekeeper she must
     be a member of a political group and that leads to the demand for
     Municipal, State and Federal suffrage.

Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.) told of the remarkable work the women of New
Orleans had been able to do with their taxpayers' right to vote on
matters of special taxation. "If the women of one part of the country
more than another need the suffrage," she declared, "it is those of
the South." The Chicago _Tribune_ commented: "As Miss Gordon sat down
all the women clapped, many waved handkerchiefs and the applause
continued several minutes." Mrs. Lilla Day Monroe described the
excellent effects of the Municipal suffrage enjoyed by all women in
Kansas, the only State where it existed in full. She called attention
to the fact that the next day, February 15, would be the 20th
anniversary of its granting by the Legislature. Miss Anna E. Nicholes
of Chicago spoke on The Ballot for Working Women, saying in part:

     The women who work in our city have a special claim to Municipal
     enfranchisement, inasmuch as they not only help create Chicago's
     wealth but are subject to the industrial conditions regulated by
     the city voters....

     Legislation is becoming more and more industrial in its aspect.
     Abating sweating and its evils, inspection of toilets, hygienic
     conditions in shops are now matters frequently controlled by our
     city fathers. Women are more and more coming into the industrial
     field. The 5,000,000 now gainfully employed in the United States
     represent one-fifth of the total number of wage-earners and this
     number are non-voters. This is a serious handicap to labor in its
     efforts to secure humane industrial legislation.... To these
     working women this matter of suffrage is an economic question--a
     bread-and-butter necessity. It is a fact, acknowledged by many
     large employers of labor and stated also by Carroll D. Wright in
     Government bulletins, that one of the leading reasons for the
     preference of women wage-earners to men is that they can be
     secured more cheaply. Employers are frank in acknowledging that
     the women work for less, that they are more reliable, more
     temperate, less inclined to strike and more faithful.

     It was quite as much for the industrial opportunity as for
     maintaining personal liberty that Lincoln insisted on the
     necessity of enfranchising the negroes. Such prominent economists
     as the Webbs of England, Carroll D. Wright and Richard T. Ely of
     our own country state that woman's lack of the ballot is one of
     the determining causes in placing her in the ranks of the cheap
     laborer with all its attending evils. So placed she becomes a
     menace in industry and drags down the wages of the men. At the
     last convention of the American Federation of Labor this
     necessity of the ballot for the working woman was recognized when
     the resolution was adopted stating that woman would never come
     into the full wage scale until she came into her full rights of
     citizenship.... To the large body of women in our city who have
     to shift for themselves as completely as men do Municipal
     suffrage would mean a higher rating industrially, a fairer
     compensation for their labor and more possible living conditions.

Mrs. Kelley, who, as executive secretary of the National Consumers'
League for years and before that as State Factory Inspector of
Illinois, had an unsurpassed knowledge of the conditions that affect
women and children, gave a scathing review of the failure of Congress
to enact protective laws and of the reactionary decisions of Supreme
Courts. "Do we ask what this has to do with Municipal suffrage?" she
inquired and answered:

     If we are not to be given power to help determine our own laws by
     electing men to Congress in the larger field of the republic; and
     if, one by one, the States are to repeal or annul the legislation
     that once gave some slender protection to women and youth, there
     remains at least the city. It should be our immediate demand that
     in all matters of the life of a city we shall have a word. The
     greatest numbers of working people are in the cities. If our
     boards of health, our school boards, our street-cleaning
     departments, our water boards--if all these local bodies which
     have most to do with the health of working people, as with the
     health of other people, in the great centers of population--can
     be given the additional stimulus which comes from the lively
     interest of women, (both those who support themselves and those
     who have more leisure), then a very large proportion of the
     working women can have more adequate care for life and health and
     the children will have education beyond that which we have as yet
     achieved.

     Does any one here believe that if the women had power to make
     themselves felt in the administration of school affairs we should
     have 80,000 children on half-time in New York City? Truly, if the
     mothers of these school children, as well as their fathers, spoke
     in the elections, the interest in the schools would be quite a
     different one. Does any one believe that if the women of this
     community could make themselves felt more effectively than by
     "persuasion," if they could make their will felt, we should have
     such a smoky sky as characterizes Chicago? Does any one believe
     that we should have to boil all the water before we dared to
     drink it? It would make a vast difference if women in American
     cities could enforce their will and conscience by the ballot
     instead of by the indefinitely slow work of persuasion.

The first evening was devoted to a more extended welcome and to the
president's address. On behalf of the city Dr. Howard S. Taylor
represented Mayor Edward F. Dunne and in an eloquent speech he
reviewed the various epochs in the country's history. "Take, for
instance," he said, "the first chapter, when the old Liberty Bell
clanged out to the world the doctrine that 'all men are created equal
and endowed with certain inalienable rights to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness, and to secure these rights governments are
established among men deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed.' There is no casuistry, however dextrous, that can take
woman out of that charter." He referred to pioneer days and the heavy
part borne by women and said: "But when the foundations had been
established and the pioneer fathers got down to writing the
constitutions they left the pioneer mothers out." He spoke of the time
in the '50's when "the Government invited the people from all over the
world to come and help us settle our political, social and commercial
questions but did not invite American mothers, sisters, wives and
daughters." "Then came the Civil War," he said, "and the large part
taken in it by women and when the war was over the Government made the
great army of emancipated slaves citizens and gave the men the ballot
but forgot the patriotic white women of the country." "I know," he
said in conclusion, "that if the women of Chicago and Illinois were
enfranchised the corruption of the city council and the Legislature
would be much less than it is. We should have a higher state of morals
among public men and better laws on the statute books."

When the speaker finished Dr. Shaw observed: "We ought to thank Mayor
Dunne for substituting a man like Dr. Taylor for himself." This
brought Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch to her feet to say: "Mayor
Dunne would have made just as good a suffrage speech as Dr. Taylor."
"I did not intend any reflection on the Mayor," answered Dr. Shaw with
a quiet smile, "but I think he showed excellent judgment."

The Chicago Woman's Club of over a thousand members, a recognized
force in the great city, sent its greetings through its president,
Mrs. Gertrude E. Blackwelder. Mrs. Minnie E. Watkins, as president of
the State Federation of Women's Clubs, gave a welcome in the name of
its membership of 294 clubs and told of the increasing growth of
suffrage sentiment among them. "Through the work of our Industrial,
Civil Service and Legislative Committees," she said, "we have learned
our need of the ballot." The Rev. Charles R. Henderson, Professor of
Sociology, an earnest suffragist, welcomed the convention, saying in
part:

     As I am to represent the University of Chicago, it will not do
     for me to make a speech on either side. No one person can
     represent the sentiments of four hundred men, who all the time
     are in an attitude of friendly hostility to anything that comes
     up. I think, however, there is one point of sympathy with us who
     are engaged in the work of investigation, trying to get beyond
     the frontier of present knowledge of all the sciences. It is
     this: As soon as anything comes to be in the possession of the
     majority, it loses interest for us; as long as there is something
     to do, we are interested in it. When the effort for woman
     suffrage is a thing of the past, then the people will take care
     of it. Our duty is to make the public sentiment and let some one
     else put it into legal form....

     They say that women cannot manage the great questions of
     government. That has yet to be submitted to the final scientific
     test of experiment. As a matter of fact, today the one highest,
     finest, noblest task of society, if not of government, is the
     task of education and the inculcation of religion and of ideals;
     and in this land, which in most respects leads all lands, woman
     has the first word in this matter, as hers is the strongest and
     the wisest word, and her influence, her thought and her character
     lead upward and on. I need not, in this presence, argue the
     question.

     I do not speak merely for the University of Chicago. I am proud
     to belong to a university of letters, a republic that has its
     branches in all parts of the civilized world. And I am glad that,
     from the time I started to learn to read, in my own education in
     this Middle West, from my childhood with my mother, through the
     church, the Sunday school, the elementary and secondary schools,
     the college and now the university, I have seen women side by
     side with men, sharing the same teaching and having the same
     teachers. That is what we stand for in the Middle West.... The
     foundation of our institutions throughout the West is this
     fundamental law, not to be changed, that if there is any
     advantage to be had, women shall have it now and forever.

Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, national recording secretary, and Miss
Jane Campbell, secretary of the Pennsylvania Association, responded.
The Hon. Oliver W. Stewart spoke on The Logic of Popular Government.
He pointed out that there has been a steady movement of mankind toward
government by the people for the people and said in part:

     In our own country we can see this growth clearly. Take the
     election of the President. There was at first no thought that the
     people should elect him but do you not see how quickly they
     assimilated the machinery which was provided? We have not changed
     the machinery but we have changed the spirit, so that instead of
     the electoral college deliberating and choosing a President, it
     is scarcely more than a stenographer to take the dictation of the
     public. The people have absorbed the power themselves, and you
     can write it as true that they do not surrender any power which
     they have acquired as the result of their own struggles. If any
     change should come it would be to give the people a more direct
     voice rather than a more indirect voice. Take the change in the
     convention system toward direct primaries. Do you not see how, in
     spite of politicians, the people have been writing direct primary
     laws? It is a part of the general movement toward popular
     government....

     There is a steady drift in this direction the world over and it
     would be an anomalous condition if that movement could exist and
     there could be at the same time a retrograde movement as to the
     rights of women.... I have grown philosophical with reference to
     the temporary defeats that we suffer. The thing to do is to
     commiserate those who bring about the defeats. I look at the
     black disgrace with which they will live in history who said they
     would die for their own rights and yet were tyrants enough to
     deny the rights of others.... The hour is quickly coming when the
     genius of our government, where it is true to itself, will have
     to give the ballot to womankind. May that day come speedily!

This was Dr. Shaw's 60th birthday and many pleasant references had
been made to it by the delegates. She began her president's address by
saying: "We have never before been more enthusiastic than today.
Victory has not come in the United States but we are not working for
ourselves alone. Wherever freedom comes to any woman that is our
victory and when the new constitution of Finland granted absolute
equality to its woman citizens, that was our victory." Municipal
suffrage had been given to the women of Natal, South Africa, she said:
"and now at the foot of Mt. Ararat, where the ark rested, the
Catholicos, or High Priest of that conservative people and religion,
the Armenians, has issued an edict that the women of the church shall
not only have a voice in the election of its officers but also shall
be eligible to official position." She referred to the recent defeat
of the suffrage amendment in Oregon and said: "All honor to those
37,000 men who voted for it; their descendants will not be ashamed of
their fathers' act. There are today organizations of Sons and
Daughters of the American Revolution and there will some day be one of
'Sons and Daughters of the Evolution of Women's Freedom,' but there
will never be one of the Tories who fought against that Revolution or
this Evolution," and she continued:

     This year I took for my motto those splendid words: "Truth loses
     many battles but always wins its war." We did not win save as
     those who fight for the truth are always the people who win.
     There never was, there never will be greater defeat in any human
     life than the victory which comes to the man or woman who is
     fighting against the truth, and there never can be a greater
     victory to any human soul than the fact that it is fighting for
     the truth, whether it wins or not.... This has been a year of
     victory in that more women have been enfranchised than in any
     preceding year. We have the largest membership that we have ever
     had. We come together in hope and in the firm determination that
     we will fight it out on this line if it takes all summer and all
     the summers of our life, and then the battle will not be finished
     unless the victory is absolutely won for all women.... While we
     have cause to rejoice we have also cause for sorrow. As an
     organization it has been the saddest year we have known or ever
     can know, for there has gone out from among us the visible
     presence of her who was our leader for over fifty years, and I
     have just come with others directly from the home in Rochester
     where we attended the funeral services of the dear sister Mary,
     who was the first of the two to enter the movement and was always
     the faithful co-worker and home-maker. Both have folded their
     hands in rest since our last convention. Each gave her whole life
     to the cause of woman and each in passing away left all she had
     to this cause. The sorrow is ours, the peace and the triumphal
     reward of loving service are theirs. I hope we shall spend no
     time in mourning and turning to the past but with our faces
     toward the future, strengthened by the inspiration we have
     received from our great leader, go on fighting her battle and
     God's battle until the complete victory is won.

With two exceptions this was the only national convention during the
thirty-nine years that had not been animated by the presence of Miss
Anthony and the second day--February 15, her 87th birthday--was
largely devoted to her.[50] There were three reports on Memorials. One
was presented by Mrs. May Wright Sewall (Ind.) for the Executive
Committee of the National Council of Women and contemplated a bust to
be executed in marble by the sculptor, Adelaide Johnson, who had made
the one in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. A second was presented
by Mrs. Mary T. Lewis Gannett of Rochester, N. Y., for an Anthony
Memorial Building for the women students of the university of that
city, who had been admitted largely through the effort of Miss
Anthony. [Life and Work, page 1221.] A third was for a $100,000
Memorial Fund for the work of the National American Association. The
report of the committee for this third fund, which was presented by
Mrs. Avery, stated that the nearness of success for woman suffrage now
depended on securing the money to do the necessary work of propaganda,
organization, publicity, etc., and that the most fitting memorial to
Miss Anthony would be a fund of not less than $100,000 to be used
exclusively for "the furtherance of the woman suffrage cause in the
United States in such amounts and for such purposes as the general
officers of the association shall from time to time deem best." It
also provided that the officers should be permitted to select eleven
women to act as trustees of this fund, six of whom should be from the
official board. This report was unanimously adopted. Mrs. Upton, the
national treasurer, at once appealed for pledges and the delegates
responded with about $24,000. The business committee of the
association elected as its six members Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Avery, Mrs.
Upton, Miss Blackwell, Miss Gordon and Miss Clay. Mrs. Henry Villard
of New York; Mrs. Pauline Agassiz Shaw of Boston and Miss Jane Addams
of Chicago were the only others selected.[51]

According to the custom for a number of years Miss Lucy E. Anthony was
requested to present in the name of the association framed portraits
of Miss Anthony to various institutions--in this instance to Hull
House and the Chicago Political Equality League. Telegrams were
received from the Mayor of Des Moines, Ia.; from the Utah Council of
Suffrage Women; from the Interurban Woman Suffrage Council of Greater
New York, saying they had observed the day by opening headquarters,
and from a number of other sources telling that the birthday was being
celebrated in ways that would have been pleasing to Miss Anthony.

The evening memorial services were beautiful and impressive. Mason
Slade at the organ rendered the great chorus--Guilmant;
Cantilene--Wheeldon; Marche Militaire--Schubert. The Rev. Mecca Marie
Varney of Chicago offered prayer. During the evening Miss Marie Ludwig
gave an exquisite harp solo and Mrs. Jennie F. W. Johnson sang with
deep feeling Tennyson's Crossing the Bar, a favorite poem of Miss
Anthony's. A telegram of greeting from the International Woman
Suffrage Alliance was sent through its president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman
Catt. A tribute of an intimate and loving nature was paid by Miss
Emily Howland of Sherwood, a friend of half a century, in which she
said: "The first time I ever met Miss Anthony was at an anti-slavery
meeting in my own shire town of Auburn, N. Y., which was broken up by
a mob and we took refuge with Mrs. Martha Wright, a sister of Lucretia
Mott." She spoke of Miss Anthony's "genius for friendship" and quoted
the lines: "The bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring."
Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery gave a number of instances during their
travel in Europe which showed Miss Anthony's strong humanitarianism.

Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams of Chicago paid touching tribute in
behalf of the colored people, in which she said: "My presence on this
platform shows that the gracious spirit of Miss Anthony still survives
in her followers.... When Miss Anthony took up the cause of women she
did not know them by their color, nationality, creed or birth, she
stood only for the emancipation of women from the thraldom of sex. She
became an invincible champion of anti-slavery. In the half century of
her unremitting struggle for liberty, more liberty, and complete
liberty for negro men and women in chains and for white women in their
helpless subjection to man's laws, she never wavered, never doubted,
never compromised. She held it to be mockery to ask man or woman to be
happy or contented if not free. She saw no substitute for liberty.
When slavery was overthrown and the work of reconstruction began she
was still unwearied and watchful. She had an intimate acquaintance
with the leading statesmen of the times. Her judgment and advice were
respected and heard in much of the legislation that gave a status of
citizenship to the millions of slaves set free."

The principal address was made by the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones of
Chicago, a devoted friend, with whose courageous and independent
spirit Miss Anthony had been in deep sympathy.[52] Tributes were paid
to other devoted adherents to the cause who had died during the year
and Henry B. Blackwell in closing his own said: "The workers pass on
but the work remains." Dr. Shaw took up the words, making them the
text of a beautiful memorial address, calling the long list one by
one, beginning with the Anthony sisters and Mrs. Isabella Beecher
Hooker and naming among the other veteran workers: Rosa L. Segur,
Ohio; Emily B. Ketcham, Michigan; the Hon. H. S. Greenleaf, Professor
Henry A. Ward, Eliza Thayer, Emogene Dewey and Mrs. James Sargent, New
York; Virginia Durant Young, South Carolina; Ellen Powell Thompson,
District of Columbia; Laura Moore, Vermont; Mrs. Henry W. Blair and
Mrs. Oliver Branch, New Hampshire; Susan W. Lippincott, New Jersey,
and many others.

The all-pervading spirit of the convention was that of carrying
forward Miss Anthony's work. The board of officers was re-elected
almost unanimously except that Dr. Jeffreys Myers, who wished to
retire as second auditor, was replaced by Mrs. Mary S. Sperry of San
Francisco. Mrs. Avery, for twenty-one years corresponding secretary,
had returned from a long sojourn in Europe and the desire was so
strong to have her on the board again that the office of second
vice-president was created. At Mrs. Florence Kelley's insistence she
was allowed to yield the first vice-presidency to Mrs. Avery and take
the second place as having less responsibility.

The report of the headquarters secretary, Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser,
told of the sending out of 19,000 letters and 182,264 pieces of
literature within the year. It gave the names of many eminent men and
women who were contributors to this literature, much of which first
appeared in prominent magazines and newspapers, and spoke of the
excellent propaganda work of _The Public_, edited by Louis F. Post. It
emphasized the important accession of the _North American Review_ and
the Harper publications, which had come under the management of
Colonel George Harvey. The report told of the bequest of Miss Anthony
to the National American Association of all the remaining bound
volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, which had been sent to the
headquarters and weighed ten tons.[53] Fifty sets had been sold during
the year. Files of the Reports of the national conventions from 1900
to 1906 inclusive had been placed in one hundred of the largest
libraries in the United States. The association arranged with Mrs.
Harper for the exclusive sale of the Life and Work of Susan B.
Anthony. The convention voted that _Progress_, edited by Mrs. Upton,
should be changed to a weekly and enlarged, and every suffrage club
was urged to subscribe for _Jus Suffragii_, the official paper of the
International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Thousands of copies of new and
valuable literature had been sold. After the press work was turned
over to the headquarters 1,200 copies of articles of national interest
were supplied each week to the fifty-eight State chairmen of the press
committee from July to January and 28,875 copies of 118 news items and
50 special articles were sent to prominent newspapers.

The important work with organizations and their conventions was not
neglected and during the past year they were asked specifically for a
resolution calling on Congress to submit a Federal Woman Suffrage
Amendment, with the following result:

     The American Federation of Labor at its annual meeting in
     Minneapolis covered this request in a series of carefully worded
     resolutions. Other important organizations which gave official
     endorsement within the year are the World's Woman's Christian
     Temperance Union, National Purity Conference, National Free
     Baptist Woman's Missionary Society, Spiritualists of the United
     States and Canada, Ladies of the Modern Maccabees, International
     Brotherhood of Bookbinders, International Brotherhood of
     Teamsters, Patrons of Husbandry, National Grange, and the United
     Mine Workers of America. To these we may add the fourteen other
     national organizations reported in previous years which have
     received fraternal delegates from our association or given formal
     endorsement, making a total of twenty-five large associations
     which responded favorably to our "convention resolutions"
     requests.

     For the first time the General Federation of Women's Clubs
     invited our president to take part in the program at the
     Biennial. Resolutions have been reported to headquarters from the
     State W. C. T. U.'s of seven States; the Letter Carriers'
     Associations of Illinois, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania; the
     State Granges of thirteen States; the State Federations of Labor
     of fifteen States. The Prohibitionists of eight States have had
     woman suffrage in their party platforms; the Socialists always
     declare for it and in California the Democrats, the Independence
     League and the Union Labor parties incorporated planks in their
     State platforms. The State Teachers' Associations of California
     and Illinois, the Sons of Temperance of Connecticut and Illinois,
     the Good Templars of Maine, the Congress of Mothers and the
     Federations of Women's Clubs of Illinois and New Hampshire are
     among other organizations which have acted favorably on some
     phase of the woman suffrage question.[54]

Saturday afternoon was devoted entirely to social affairs. They began
with a luncheon given at Hull House by Miss Jane Addams to officers,
delegates and alternates, after which the activities of this
remarkable institution were explained. Systematic sight-seeing was
carried out, groups of the guests being personally conducted to the
Field Columbian Museum, the Art Museum, the big department stores and
other points of interest. One group went to Chicago University, where
Dr. Shaw addressed the students of the Women's Union and the College
Girls' Suffrage Club. Afterwards they were entertained by the Dean of
Women, Miss Marian Talbot. In the evening the Chicago Woman's Club
gave a large reception, its president, Mrs. Blackwelder, and the
chairman of the Social Committee, Miss Clara Dixon, being assisted in
receiving by the officers of the association. Its handsome club rooms
in the Fine Arts Building were placed at the service of the delegates
throughout the convention.

Ministers of Chicago who opened the sessions with prayers were Dr. J.
A. Rondthaler of the Normal Park Presbyterian Church; Dr. Austin K. de
Blois of the First Baptist Church, and the Rev. Jean F. Loba of the
First Congregational Church, Evanston. A number of pulpits in the city
were filled by officers and delegates Sunday morning. The Studebaker
Theater was taken for the regular service of the convention in the
afternoon in order to accommodate the large audience. The Rev. Kate
Hughes of Chicago offered prayer. Dr. Shaw presided and read a message
from Miss Mary S. Anthony dictated a few days before her death, when
Miss Shaw asked her what word she would like to send to the
convention. It said in part:

     Until we, a so-called Christian nation, put into practice those
     principles of justice which we claim are the foundation of our
     national greatness, we cannot hope to inspire confidence in the
     people of the world in our lofty pretensions of freedom and fair
     play for all. The wrong which today outranks all others is the
     disfranchisement of the mothers of the race. So long as this
     injustice toward women continues, just so long will men fail to
     recognize justice in its application to each other. This one
     question puts all else into the background and until we can
     establish equality between men and women we shall never realize
     the full development of which manhood and womanhood are capable.
     Because I believe this so thoroughly I have given the best of
     myself and the best work of my life to help obtain political
     freedom for women, knowing that upon this rests the hope not only
     of the freedom of men but of the onward civilization of the
     world. I therefore urge upon the delegates and members of the
     National Association not to lose courage, no matter what befalls,
     but to work on in hope and faith, knowing well that the time of
     the coming of woman's political liberty depends largely upon the
     zeal and unwearying service of those who believe in its justice.

The Rev. Herbert S. Bigelow of Cincinnati in a strong address showed
the Value of the Ballot. Miss Addams told with much feeling of the
recent campaign for the Municipal franchise, the objections they had
to meet, the character of the opposition and how hard it was for women
to be patient.

Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch gave an able address under the title "Why Not?" a
study in Prejudice and Superstition, reviewing the objections to woman
suffrage and finding their origin in Orientalism, in the military
ideal, in political expediency. He ended his refutation of all of them
by saying: "All our American institutions will be protected and
benefited when we open the doors and give women, who never should
have been denied it, the right to govern themselves, to govern the
country in conjunction with men and to decide the issues that affect
their own interests. Men have had this right for themselves alone too
long. The day will come, my sisters, when the conscience of the world
will be aroused to such a degree that no one will dare question the
justice of your movement."

Many greetings were received through letters, telegrams and fraternal
delegates. Prof. John A. Scott, representing president A. M. Harris of
Northwestern University, Evanston, brought an invitation for speakers
to address the students and Miss Gordon and Miss Caroline Lexow
responded. In his greeting Professor Scott said: "I believe in woman
suffrage because I believe in the home.... I don't care a whit for the
argument that women with property should have a vote. Property will
always be represented and it does not so much matter whether the
property-holding women have a vote or not but it is of immense
importance to those women who work for their living. That they have no
representation is a great menace to those who are nominally free but
who must compete with slaves. Women are economic entities and they
should be represented. Labor without representation is as wrong as
taxation without representation."

E. M. Nockels, fraternal delegate from the American Federation of
Labor, addressed the convention and read a letter from its president,
Samuel Gompers, expressing the hope of universal suffrage for women.
Mrs. Emma S. Olds brought greetings from the Ladies of the Maccabees
of the World, and Mrs. Martin Barbe, the first vice-president, from
the National Council of Jewish Women. A letter from Mrs. Mary Wood
Swift (Calif.), president of the National Council of Women, gave its
fraternal greetings. A cordial letter was read from Mrs. Mary B. Clay
of Kentucky and telegrams from Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, Dr. Frances
Woods, Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer and the Canadian Woman Suffrage
Association. Telegrams of appreciation were sent to Julia Ward Howe,
Clara Barton, Caroline E. Merrick, Emily P. Collins, Col. T. W.
Higginson, Margaret W. Campbell, Judith W. Smith, Caroline M.
Severance, Emma J. Bartol, Armenia S. White, Elizabeth Smith Miller,
Ellen S. Sargent, Sarah L. Willis and Charlotte L. Pierce, all old
and beloved suffrage workers.

The symposium on Industrial Conditions of Women and Children, with
Mrs. Henrotin presiding, occupied one afternoon. She pointed out the
revolution in the work of women by its being taken from the home into
the open market where they had to follow; described their handicaps,
the immense importance of their labor, the business ability that many
had developed, the property they had accumulated, the taxes they pay;
she said if they had a voice in deciding how these taxes should be
spent it would not only be a splendid thing for the city financially
but morally, and urged that they should have the power of the
suffrage. Graham Romeyn Taylor of Chicago paid high tribute to the
work of women's organizations in all movements for civic improvement
and described that of the Women's Clubs in Chicago; spoke of the
Consumer's League also and declared the Women's Trade Union League
most effective of all in bettering the condition of working women. He
predicted close cooperation between this League and the National
Suffrage Association. Miss Alice Henry of Australia spoke very
effectively from her knowledge of the conditions of labor in her own
country and the investigation she was making in the United States.
Miss Casey, president of the Chicago Working Women's Suffrage
Association, gave facts from personal knowledge showing their need of
the vote. James C. Kelliher, former president of the National Letter
Carriers' Association, spoke briefly and to the point. Miss Mary
McDowell of Chicago made the principal address entitled The Working
Women as a National Asset, in which she showed how little conception
Congress and the Courts had of the legislation needed in their behalf
and the sins of omission and commission that had resulted. In closing
she said:

     We need a body of facts so strong that the Judiciary will see the
     light. We need a body of facts that will teach housekeepers not
     to scorn these women because they can not get a cook. We need a
     body of facts to teach working men that this work of women is
     something which has come to stay. There are going to be more
     women earning their living in the future than in the past. These
     girls are pioneers in a movement that we do not yet quite
     understand. I do not believe that our Heavenly Father permits so
     large a movement as these five million women in one country
     earning their own living without there being in it something that
     is for the best.... As a means to our work we want the suffrage.
     We all get very tired of the woman question. I will discuss the
     human question with any one but I will not discuss the woman
     question, because I think that is past. If women are going into
     industry, if they are going to have their places of
     responsibility, then they must more and more meet the
     responsibility that their brothers have with whom they work. It
     is not fair to the working brother to let the girls come in and
     cut down the wages and have no sense of responsibility, no
     feeling of permanency. It is a very great danger. Therefore,
     working women should have the ballot to make them feel that they,
     too, are responsible citizens....

     All reverence to the work that the suffragists have done! We have
     always honored dear Miss Anthony and we all owe gratitude to you
     women who have been so long in this cause making a way for the
     rest of us. The working women are joining your ranks because they
     know that they must do so.

The report of the Congressional Committee, Mrs. Catt chairman, was
read by Mrs. Kelley. It said that after the excellent hearings before
the committees of Congress the preceding winter had no effect it was
decided to ask the cooperation of the General Federation of Women's
Clubs. This was done and its Industrial Advisory Board agreed to send
out a circular letter. The association's Congressional Committee
prepared one which the federation's board sent to 4,000 individual
clubs asking them to question the members of Congress from their
districts as to their opinion of a Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment
and the request was largely complied with. A resolution was adopted
that the association urge concerted action among the State auxiliaries
to secure the submission by Congress of a Sixteenth Amendment
forbidding disfranchisement on account of sex and that they be
recommended to make it a feature of their work to obtain from their
Legislatures a resolution in favor of such an amendment. A telegram of
greeting was sent to Mrs. Catt and she was appointed fraternal
delegate to the Peace Conference in New York in April.

Hard and conscientious work was shown in the reports of the chairmen
of all the committees: Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs. Lucretia L.
Blankenburg; Peace and Arbitration, Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead; Presidential
Suffrage, Henry B. Blackwell; Libraries, Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer;
Literature, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell; Enrollment, Mrs. Oreola
Williams Haskell; Membership, Miss Laura Clay, and others. Miss Clay
urged that the organization of the political parties be taken as a
model by the suffrage societies. As usual the State reports were among
the most interesting features of the convention, for they gave in
detail the nation-wide work that was being done for woman suffrage. At
this time that of Oklahoma, Mrs. Kate L. Biggars, president, had a
prominent place, as the association had been helping its women during
the past year in an effort to have the convention which was framing a
constitution for statehood put in a clause for woman suffrage. A corps
of able national workers was there for months while the most strenuous
work was done but the only result was the franchise on school matters.

The report on Oregon was read by the corresponding secretary, Miss
Gordon. The campaign there for a woman suffrage amendment to the State
constitution was possibly the most strenuous that had ever been made
for this purpose and the National Association had given more
assistance, financial and otherwise, than to any other, a number of
its officers going there in person. Among them were Miss Clay and Miss
Gordon, who made full reports.[55]

The report of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, showed
that the receipts of the association for 1906 had been $18,203 and it
had expended on the Oregon campaign $18,075, a sum equal to its year's
income. A portion of the money, however, was taken from the reserve
fund and $8,000 had been subscribed directly for this campaign by
individuals and States. The total disbursements for the year had been
$25,933. The power of the association to rise above defeat and its
courage and determination, so many times shown, were strikingly
illustrated on this occasion when the convention voted to raise a fund
of $100,000 and pledged $24,000 of this amount before it adjourned.

The Resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee,
covered a wide range of subjects, among them the following:

     In view of the fact that in only 14 of our States have married
     mothers any legal right to the custody, control and earnings of
     their minor children, we urge the women of the other States to
     work for laws giving to mothers equal rights with fathers.

     The traffic in women and girls which is carried on in the United
     States and in other countries is a heinous blot upon civilization
     and we demand of Congress and our State Legislatures that every
     possible step be taken to suppress the infamous traffic in this
     country.

     We urge upon Congress and State Legislatures the enactment of
     laws prohibiting the employment of children under 16 years of age
     in mines, stores or factories.

     We favor the adoption of State amendments establishing direct
     legislation by the voters through the initiative and referendum.

     Inasmuch as in the second Hague Peace Conference there will be
     offered the greatest opportunity in human history to lessen the
     burden of militarism, therefore we request the President of the
     United States to approve the recommendations for the action of
     that conference which were presented by the Inter-Parliamentary
     Union, to-wit: (1) An advisory world congress; (2) a general
     arbitration treaty; (3) the limitation of armaments; (4)
     protection of private property at sea in time of war; (5)
     investigation by an impartial commission of difficulties between
     nations before declaration of hostilities.

The convention at one evening session listened to interesting
addresses by Mrs. Mary E. Coggeshall, president of the Iowa Suffrage
Association, Then and Now; Professor Emma M. Perkins of Western
Reserve University (Ohio), Educational Ideals; Louis F. Post, editor
of _The Public_, The Denatured Woman. Mrs. Avery gave a much enjoyed
report of the Congress of the International Suffrage Alliance in
Copenhagen the preceding August. On the last evening addresses were
made by John Z. White of Chicago; Mrs. Upton on What Next? Miss Lexow
on The Place of Equal Suffrage in Higher Education. Dr. Shaw closed
the convention with a few eloquent words of encouragement, hope and
prophecy for the success of the cause to which they gladly gave to the
utmost their time, their labor and the best of everything they
possessed.

FOOTNOTES:

[48] Part of Call: The friends of equal rights will come together on
this occasion with an outlook even more than usually bright. During
the last year full suffrage has been granted to the women of Finland,
the greatest victory since full national suffrage was given to the
women of Federated Australia in 1902. Within the past year the
Municipal franchise has been given to women in Natal, South Africa;
national associations have been organized in Hungary, Italy and Russia
and the reports at the recent meeting of the International Alliance at
Copenhagen showed a remarkable increase in the agitation for woman
suffrage all over Europe. In England, out of the 670 members of the
present House of Commons, 420 are pledged to its support.

In the United States widely circulated newspapers and magazines
representing the most opposite political views have lately declared
for woman suffrage; the National Grange and the American Federation of
Labor have unanimously endorsed it. In Chicago 87 organizations with
an aggregate membership of 10,000 women have petitioned for a
Municipal suffrage clause in the new charter and the men and women
most prominent in the city's good works are supporting the plea.

Men and women are natural complements of one another. American
political life today is marked by executive force and business
ability, qualities in which men are strong, but it is often lacking in
conscience and humanity. These a larger infusion of the mother element
would supply. We believe that men and women in co-operation can
accomplish better work than either sex alone....

                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                         FLORENCE KELLEY, Vice-President-at-Large.
                         KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.
                         ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.
                         HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
                         LAURA CLAY,            }
                         ANNICE JEFFREYS MYERS, } Auditors.

[49] The proposition was defeated during the suffrage convention by a
tie, with the chairman, Milton J. Foreman, giving the deciding vote
against it. [See Illinois, Volume VI.]

[50] Miss Anthony helped arrange for the first National Woman Suffrage
Convention and it was held in Washington in January, 1869. From that
time to 1906 she missed but two of these annual meetings, when she was
speaking in the far West under the auspices of a lecture bureau, and
each time she sent the proceeds of a week's lectures as her
contribution.

[51] Through lack of initiative and effort the money for the bust was
never raised. For Mrs. Gannett's report and other matter about the
Memorial Building see the Appendix to this chapter. See also page 442,
Volume VI. Reports on the Memorial Fund were made to the convention
year after year. The intention at first was to create a fund and use
only the interest but immediate demands were so urgent that the money
subscribed was appropriated as needed and an audited account given by
the national treasurer at each annual convention.

[52] In the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony Chapter LXXIV begins:
"The death of no woman ever called forth so wide an editorial comment
as that of Miss Anthony, except possibly that of Queen Victoria, whose
years in public life numbered about the same. On the desk where this
is written are almost one thousand editorials, representing all the
papers of consequence in the United States and many in other
countries, and they form what may be accepted without reserve as the
consensus of thought in the early years of the twentieth century in
regard to Miss Anthony and the work she accomplished."

Over eighty pages of extracts from these editorials are given and
several memorial poems. A large number of magazines in this and other
countries contained sketches and articles from which quotations are
made. Tributes of her biographer were published in the April numbers
of the _Review of Reviews_ and the North American _Review_, and on the
week following her death in _Collier's_ and the New York
_Independent_.

In Chapter LXXI and following in the Biography are full accounts of
Miss Anthony's death and funeral services.

[53] By vote of the convention these volumes were to be presented to
the club or individual member under whose auspices a new club of not
less than twenty paid up members had been formed and remained in
active existence for not less than a year and was properly certified.
The following year the Executive Committee voted to place 300 sets in
public libraries.

[54] This work was continued year after year until the list became far
too large to publish. Not one organization, save a few connected with
the liquor business, ever adopted a resolution against woman suffrage
except the anti-suffrage societies themselves.

[55] One of the striking features of the recent national suffrage
convention in Chicago was the large number of very close votes on
woman suffrage bills that were announced from different States, all
taking place at about the same time. While the convention was in
session, the Chicago charter convention defeated woman suffrage by a
tie vote. The Nebraska delegates got word that it had been lost in
their Lower House by a vote of 47 to 46, with a tie in the Senate. In
the Oklahoma constitutional convention, where the gambling and liquor
forces as usual lined up against woman suffrage, it came so near
passing that a change of seven votes would have carried it. In the
West Virginia Legislature, where the last time it was smothered in
committee, the House vote this time stood 38 yeas to 24 nays. In South
Dakota the measure passed the Senate and came so near passing the
House that a change of seven votes would have carried it. In the
Minnesota House the vote showed a small majority for suffrage but not
the constitutional one required. All these close legislative votes
followed hard upon the remarkable vote in Vermont, where the suffrage
bill passed the House 130 to 25 and came so near passing the Senate
that a change of three votes would have carried it.--_Woman's
Journal._




CHAPTER VIII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1908.


The Fortieth annual convention, Oct. 15-21, 1908, celebrated a notable
event, as it was the 60th anniversary of the first Woman's Rights
Convention, that famous gathering of July 19-20, 1848, in Seneca
Falls, N. Y., the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The celebration was
appropriately held in Buffalo, the largest city in the western part of
the State, and was one of the most interesting and successful of the
organization's many conventions.[56] The evening before it opened the
president and directors of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy gave a large
reception to the officers, delegates, members and friends of the
association.

The convention met in the Young Men's Christian Association building
but this proved to be entirely too small for the evening sessions,
which were held in the large Central Presbyterian Church. The
excellent program was the work of Miss Kate Gordon, national
corresponding secretary, and the admirable arrangements were due to
Mrs. Richard Williams, president for the past eight years of the
Political Equality Club, with a corps of local helpers, but an
accident on the first day prevented her from welcoming the convention
or taking part in its proceedings. With the national president, Dr.
Anna Howard Shaw, in the chair, it was opened with prayer by the Rev.
Antoinette Brown Blackwell.[57] Mrs. Helen Z. M. Rodgers, a lawyer of
Buffalo, extended a welcome from women in the professions, who, she
said, "had only penetrated the ante-rooms and the annexes--the
teachers never able to reach the salaries paid to men; the doctors
shut out from the advantage of hospital positions; the lawyers allowed
to help interpret the laws but not to help make them." "To get much
further," she said, "we must be invested with full citizenship."

Mrs. John Miller Horton gave a cordial welcome for the City Federation
of Women's Clubs, of which she was president, and for the Buffalo
Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Niagara
Frontier Chapter of the Daughters of 1812 and the Nellie Custis Branch
of the Children of the Revolution, as regent of each of them. She
presented to Dr. Shaw a large cluster of American Beauty roses tied
with the blue and gold of the federation and the blue and white of the
D. A. R., which was accepted in the name of Susan B. Anthony and
reverently laid over her portrait that stood on an easel. Dr. Ida C.
Bender, president of the Women Teachers' Association, spoke earnestly
in behalf of "the army of teachers who are training the future
citizens of the republic," and Dr. Shaw commented: "Political
nonentities can hardly be expected to inspire a political entity with
enthusiasm."

The Western Federation of Women's Clubs gave its welcome through its
president, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, of whom the _Woman's Journal_
said: "She spoke with an accent of unaffected sincerity and
self-forgetfulness that recalled the spirit of the pioneers." She
referred with pride to the fact that this organization, with nearly
100 clubs and about 32,000 members, was the first Federation of
Women's Clubs to admit suffrage societies. Mrs. Lucretia L.
Blankenburg, president of the Pennsylvania Suffrage Association and
officer of the General Federation, brought its greeting, the first it
had ever sent to a national suffrage convention. Mrs. Frances W.
Graham, president of the New York State Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, gave its greeting and spoke of the close cooperation which had
always existed between the workers for temperance and suffrage. Dr.
Shaw asked that she would convey the cordial greetings and best wishes
of the association to the National W. C. T. U., to whose convention in
Denver she was en route. Mrs. Ella Hawley Crossett, for the sixth term
president of the New York State Suffrage Association, united with Dr.
Shaw in responding to the welcoming addresses and spoke with deep
feeling of the courage and persistence of the pioneers and of the
pride with which the State where the movement for woman suffrage had
its birth welcomed the convention to celebrate the event.

Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y., reformer, educator and
philanthropist, a co-worker and friend of the early suffragists, gave
a delightful address on The Spirit of 1848, "herself a living
embodiment of that spirit," in which she said:

     "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life
     for his friends!" These are the words that come to me as I essay
     to speak of the Spirit of '48! Was it not something of this love
     which inspired that immortal Declaration made at the Woman's
     Rights Convention on July 19-20, 1848? "This," says Mrs. Stanton
     in her autobiography, "was the initial step in the most momentous
     reform that has yet been launched upon the world--the first
     organized protest against the injustice which had brooded for
     ages over the character and destiny of one-half of the race. No
     words could express our astonishment on finding a few days
     afterward that what seemed to us so timely, so rational and so
     sacred should be a subject for sarcasm and ridicule in the entire
     press of the nation. The anti-slavery papers alone stood by us
     manfully."

     The Declaration had been signed by many, the audiences being
     large, but when pulpit and press ridiculed and reproved do we
     marvel that one by one the women withdrew their names and "joined
     the persecutors?" Much I fear that our own organization would
     shrivel to pitiful proportions if today submitted to the ordeal
     from which they recoiled. Indeed even Mrs. Stanton confessed that
     if she had had the slightest premonition of all that would
     follow this convention, she feared her courage would not have
     been equal to it. Fortunate ignorance, if she did not underrate
     her bravery, for she and a goodly number of the other signers
     were steadfast. They chose to side with truth and take the
     consequences.

Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery (Penn.), corresponding secretary of the
International Woman Suffrage Alliance, presented a long and valuable
report of its recent congress in Amsterdam. [See chapter on Alliance.]
The convention then adjourned for the reception given by Mrs. Horton,
whose handsome home on Delaware Avenue was decorated with American
Beauty roses, the dining room with yellow chrysanthemums. She was
assisted in receiving by Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Crossett and Mrs. Allison S.
Capwell, president of the Erie County Suffrage Association.

At the evening session Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller (N. Y.), presided,
daughter of Gerrit Smith, who was a staunch advocate of woman suffrage
from the time the movement for it began. Hundreds were turned away for
lack of room. The convention was officially welcomed to the city by
Mayor J. N. Adams and the welcome on the part of the State was
expressed by Senator Henry W. Hill, a consistent supporter of the
legislative work for suffrage. The principal feature of the evening
was the president's address of Dr. Shaw, of whom the report in the
Buffalo _Express_ said: "The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw has set a new
standard for womanhood. She is one of the most wonderful women of her
time, alert, watchful, magnetic, earnest, with a mind as quick for a
joke as for the truth. She points her arguments with epigrams and tips
the arrows of her persuasion with a jest.... Even the unbelievers are
carried away with her brilliancy, eloquence and mental grasp." There
was no adequate report of her address but she began by saying:

     We are scarcely able today to understand what those brave
     pioneers endured to secure the things which we accept as a matter
     of course. They started the greatest revolution the world has
     ever witnessed. During these last sixty years more changes have
     been wrought for the benefit of women, more opportunities for
     education have been secured and more all-round enlightenment than
     in the 6,000 years preceding. There are women who accept these
     advantages and the positions that have been obtained because of
     this early movement who have no conception of what it has meant
     to open the highways of progress for them. Some of those who
     oppose the suffrage say: "These things would have come; men would
     have given woman these opportunities as civilization advanced."
     Why did they not come sooner if men were so willing? Why should
     they have grown more in the last sixty years than in all the
     years before?... But the women in all this long time of struggle
     have not stood entirely alone. There have always been some men to
     stand by their side and they owed it to do so, for ever since the
     world began women have stood by men in their efforts to achieve
     the right. Never was there a great leader who had not some woman
     by his side. Woman was first at the cradle, last at the cross and
     first at the tomb. Women have stood shoulder to shoulder with men
     always in their efforts.... Some tell us that we have not made
     great progress. It is impossible to change the attitude of all
     the conflicting elements of humanity in three-score years. If
     Christianity in 1900 years, with the teaching of such a Leader,
     has not yet made Peace Congresses unnecessary, what can be
     expected of other reforms?

The secretary's report of Miss Gordon contributed this bit of history:

     At this junction of the work a question arising upon the
     advisability of securing a petition of a million signatures to
     present to President Roosevelt in order to influence a
     recommendation of suffrage for women in his annual message, a
     request was made that he receive at Oyster Bay a committee from
     our association. The President reasonably declined to have his
     vacation interrupted with committees but offered to receive our
     request in writing. Your secretary accordingly wrote him to the
     effect that we wished to know--before going to the labor and
     expense involved in securing such a petition--whether its
     influence would have any weight in leading him to recommend woman
     suffrage in his message. Courteously but emphatically came the
     reply that it would not, but at the same time extending an
     invitation for the National Association to appoint a committee to
     see him on his return to Washington. The committee appointed was
     composed of your national treasurer, Mrs. Upton, Mrs. Henry
     Dickson Bruns of New Orleans, Mrs. Katharine Reed Balentine of
     Maine and your corresponding secretary, and at the appointed time
     it was received by the President, who again reiterated his
     opinion on the absolute valuelessness of such a petition. In so
     doing he ignored what for the women of this republic is their
     only right--the right of petition. The interview was fruitful of
     no suggestion beyond the time-honored recommendation to "get
     another State." Women who worship as a fetish the power of this
     right to petition may well catalogue this fallacy with those
     other American fallacies that "taxation without representation is
     tyranny"; that "governments derive their just powers from the
     consent of the governed," and that the Government guarantees
     "equal rights for all and special privileges for none."

Miss Gordon told how the last convention had changed the plan for
forty years of holding the national convention in Washington during
the first session of a new Congress and therefore the corresponding
secretary had been obliged to arrange for representative women to go
there and have a hearing before the committees of Senate and House.
Mrs. Balentine, who was staying in Washington, and Miss Emma Gillett,
a lawyer of that city, took charge and hearings were granted March 3.
They lacked the inspiration of the presence of delegates from all
parts of the country and the convention lost the pleasure and benefit.

The Work Conferences were continued under the name of Round Table
Conferences. The subjects considered were: Increase of membership;
press work; 16th Amendment as a line of policy; finance; State
legislative methods. An organizers' symposium discussed "A comparison
of conditions today with those of ten years ago; the building of a
State association; the personal touch; preliminary arrangements for
meetings."

The usual comprehensive report was made by the headquarters secretary,
Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, who told of the vast amount of work done,
which included the sending out of 13,000 letters and 207,410 pieces of
literature, exclusive of matter for the press. _Progress_ had been
issued monthly, the Political Equality Leaflets and twenty other kinds
had been published and a card catalogue of 5,696 names completed; the
convention reports edited and distributed, the sales of the Life of
Miss Anthony and the History of Woman Suffrage looked after and an
endless amount of other work done. Miss Hauser told also of the
extensive effort with organizations. Ten great national associations
during 1907, twenty-four State associations and ninety-three labor
unions had passed resolutions for woman suffrage, and thus far in 1908
nine national and thirty-six important State associations had done so.
She gave an equally encouraging report of the work with the press,
which was done through committee chairmen in thirty-two States, who
had furnished thousands of articles to hundreds of newspapers. Part of
this material was local but the national headquarters had supplied
69,244 pages. Suitable matter had been sent to religious, educational
and other specialized papers and over a thousand letters to editors. A
long list was given of the leading magazines which had published
articles on woman suffrage by prominent writers during the year. The
reason was that things were happening in all parts of the world
directly related to this question.

Miss Hauser's report was accepted by a rising vote. She presided at
the Press Conference on how to secure the publication of woman
suffrage in country and in city papers; character of material; what is
the greatest need in press work; should "anti" articles be answered,
etc. Interesting addresses were made on Woman's Share in Productive
Industry by Mrs. Anna Cadogan Etz (N. Y.); A Square Deal, by Mrs.
Grace H. Ballantyne (Ia.); and one by Mrs. Clara B. Arthur, president
of the Michigan State Association, reviewing the extensive work that
had been done in its recent constitutional convention to secure a
woman suffrage clause. Henry B. Blackwell (Mass.) began his report on
Presidential Suffrage by saying: "It was the maxim of Napoleon
Bonaparte to concentrate his military forces upon the point in his
enemy's lines of the greatest importance and least resistance and by
so doing he conquered Europe. This point in the woman suffrage battle
is, under our form of government, the Presidential Suffrage, the vote
for presidential electors."

The great evening of the week was the one devoted to the Commemorative
Program in Honor of the 1848 Convention. This convention was called by
Mrs. Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann McClintock and Martha C.
Wright--the last three Friends, or Quakers--to consider a Declaration
of Sentiments and set of Resolutions which they had prepared and it
adopted both.[58] Those resolutions of sixty years ago were now
discussed by women who represented the two succeeding generations,
still in the midst of the contest which the women who began it
expected to see ended during their lifetime. The session was opened
with prayer by the Rev. Olympia Brown, a veteran suffragist, and the
presiding officer was Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborne (N. Y.), daughter of
Martha C. Wright and niece of Lucretia Mott. Each resolution was
presented and commented on in a brief, pungent speech, the speakers
including Mr. Blackwell, husband of Lucy Stone, both pioneers, and
another pioneer, the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first
ordained woman minister; Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Mrs.
Stanton; Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard, daughter of William Lloyd
Garrison, a pioneer; the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, an early leader in
Rhode Island, and Miss Laura Clay, at the head of the movement in
Kentucky almost from its beginning. Among the later generation were
the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane (Mich.), Miss Julie R. Jenney (N.
Y.), Mrs. Ella S. Stewart (Ill.), Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (N.
Y.) and Mrs. Judith Hyams Douglas (La.).

Of most of these addresses there is no printed record. Mrs. Gilman
commented on the resolution that "the laws which place woman in a
position inferior to that of man are contrary to the great precept of
nature," saying in part: "Woman has the same right to happiness and
justice as an individual that man has and as the mother of the race
she has more.... Women have a right to citizenship and to all that
citizenship implies, not only for their own sake but especially
because the world needs them. We have the masculine and the feminine
but above them both is the human, which has nothing to do with sex.
The argument for equal freedom and equal opportunities for women rests
not on the law of the worthy Mr. Blackstone but on the law of nature,
which is the law of God...."

Mrs. Blackwell said in response to the resolution that "as man accords
to woman moral superiority it is his pre-eminent duty to encourage her
to speak and teach in religious assemblies": "You cannot realize how
serious a thing it was to be a minister in early days when St. Paul
was taken literally. I know from personal experience that nearly all
the religious world in those days believed it to be a sin for a woman
to try to preach. My own mother urged me to become a foreign
missionary instead; she was willing to send her daughter away to other
lands rather than have her become a minister at home. At 18 I was
considered as well-fitted for college as the half dozen young men
among my schoolmates who were going to take a college course. At that
time Oberlin, O., was the only college that admitted women. When I
arrived there Lucy Stone had pretty well stirred up the whole
institution. I was warned against her in advance but we soon became
warm friends. One beautiful evening we walked out together and as we
stood in that glorious sunset I told her that I meant to be a
minister. She said: 'You can't do it; they will never let a woman be a
public teacher in the church.' ... One other woman and I graduated
from the theological school. For three years the authorities of the
school put our names into the catalogue with a star and then they
dropped us out and it took forty years to get us reinstated."

Mrs. Spencer said of the resolution that "the same transgressions
should be visited with equal severity on man and woman." "Of all the
notable pronunciamentos at Seneca Falls no resolutions shows a finer
spiritual audacity than this. A delicious flavor of transcendentalism
from beginning to end marks the phraseology. Like the Brook Farm
experiment the Seneca Falls Convention was the outcome of a great wave
of idealism sweeping over the world. It was seen in England and in
Europe. Germany was stirring things up and Italy was seething with
revolution. This new world was eager to put its idealism into
immediate practical living.... Women were looking after their woman's
share of it. They felt that it must be founded on spiritual ideas and
this was a spiritual Declaration of Independence. We honor these
pioneers because women who had been trained to follow and not to lead,
and taught that wives and mothers should buy their security at the
cost of a discarded fragment of their sex, dared to summon men to an
equal bar and to declare that in purity, as in justice, there is no
sex."

Mrs. Stewart treated with delicious wit and sarcasm the resolution of
protest against "the objection of indelicacy and impropriety which is
so often brought against women who address a public audience by those
who encourage their appearance in the theatre and the circus." Miss
Clay discussed with dignity and seriousness the resolution that
"equality of human rights necessarily follows identity in capabilities
and responsibilities." Mrs. Villard spoke of the great privilege of
being the daughter of a reformer and said: "The cause of woman is so
intimately connected with that of man that I think the men will be the
gainers by its triumph even more than women." Mrs. Douglas, a
brilliant young speaker from New Orleans, new to the suffrage
platform, took up the resolution, "Woman has too long rested
satisfied in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a
perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and
it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere which her great
Creator has assigned to her," and said in part:

     Only one thing can make me see the justness of woman being
     classed with the idiot, the insane and the criminal and that is,
     if she is willing, if she is satisfied to be so classed, if she
     is contented to remain in the circumscribed limits which corrupt
     customs and perverted application of the Scriptures have marked
     out for her. It is idiotic not to want one's liberty; it is
     insane not to value one's inalienable rights and it is criminal
     to neglect one's God-given responsibilities. God placed woman
     originally in the same sphere with man, with the same
     inspirations and aspirations, the same emotions and intellect and
     accountability.... The Chinamen for centuries have taken peculiar
     means for restricting women's activities by binding the feet of
     girl babies and yet there remains the significant fact that,
     after centuries of constraint, God continues to send the female
     child into the world with feet well formed, with a foundation as
     substantial to stand upon as that of the male child. As in this
     instance, so in all cases of restriction put upon women--they do
     not come from God but from man, beginning at birth.... For
     thousands of centuries woman has heard what sphere God wanted her
     to move in from men, God's self-ordained proxies. The thing for
     woman to do is to blaze the way of her sex so thoroughly that
     sixteen-year-old boys in the next generation will not dare ask a
     scholarly woman incredulously if she really thinks women have
     sense enough to vote. Woman can enter into the larger sphere her
     great Creator has assigned her only when she has an equal voice
     with man in forming public opinion, which crystalizes customs;
     only when her voice is heard in the pulpit, applying Scripture to
     man and woman equally, and when it is heard in the Legislature.
     Only then can be realized the full import of God's words when He
     said, "It is not well for man to be alone."

Mrs. Douglas analyzed without mercy the pronouncements of Paul
regarding women and said: "The pulpits may insist that Paul was
infallible but I prefer to believe that he was human and liable to
err." When she had finished Dr. Shaw remarked dryly: "I have often
thought that Paul was never equalled in his advice to wife, mother and
maiden aunt except by the present occupant of the Presidential chair"
[Roosevelt].

To Mrs. Blatch was given the privilege of speaking to the resolution
so strenuously insisted upon by her mother: "It is the duty of the
women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to
the elective franchise." In the course of an animated speech she said:

     Mrs. Stanton was quick to see and, what is greater, quick to
     seize the psychological moment, and in that July of 1848 she had
     not only the inspiration but the determination to grasp the
     opportunity to set forth a resolution asking "votes for women."
     How clear was her vision, how perfect her sense of balance!
     Property rights might be gained, rights of person protected,
     guardianship of children achieved, but without the ballot she saw
     all would be insecure. What was given today might be taken away
     tomorrow unless women themselves possessed the power to make or
     remake laws. Women are getting the sense of solidarity by being
     crowded together in the workshop; they are learning the lesson of
     fellowship. Brought side by side in the college and in the
     business world, they are beginning to learn that they have a
     common interest. They know now that they form a class. The
     anti-suffragist is the isolated woman, she is the belated product
     of the 18th century. She is not intentionally, viciously selfish,
     she has merely not developed into 20th century fellowship. She is
     unrelated to our democratic society of today.... How shallow, in
     the face of that idea of duty in fulfilling our obligations of
     citizenship, sound the words of Governor Hughes that "when women
     want the vote they will get it!" Want it? That is no measure of
     social need. It was death to the nation to have slavery within
     its bounds but no one advised waiting until the enslaved negroes
     wanted to be free before this dire disease should be cured. The
     State needs the attention of women, their thought, their service,
     and so it becomes the duty of all who have the best interests of
     the State at heart to seek to bind women to it in closest bonds
     of citizenship.

In response to Resolution Eleven that, being held morally responsible,
woman had therefore a right to express herself in public on all
questions of morals and religion, the Rev. Mrs. Crane began with fine
sarcasm: "To women has always unquestionably been allowed the being
good. They are called too good to enter the slimy pool of politics.
They are complimented often in the spirit of the man who said to his
wife: 'Angelina, you get up and make the fire; it will seem so much
warmer if laid by your fair hands!' To women is also conceded the
right to be religious and unfortunately it often happens that all the
religion a man has is in his wife's name. Ruskin said: 'If you don't
want the kingdom of heaven to come, don't pray for it but if you do
want it to come you must do more than pray for it.' Women must vote
as well as pray. Whoever is able to make peace in this distracted
world is the one who should be allowed to do it."

A full report of the work among the churches was made at a morning
meeting by Mrs. Lucy Hobart Day (Me.), chairman of the committee,
which showed that eighteen States had appointed branch committees.
These had organized suffrage circles in different churches, encouraged
debates among the young people, arranged meetings, distributed
literature, obtained hearings before many kinds of religious bodies,
secured resolutions and tried to have official recognition of women in
the churches. Ministers had been requested to preach sermons in favor
and many had done so, twenty-five in San Francisco alone. Mrs. Pauline
Steinem (Ohio), chairman of the Committee on Education, reported on
its efforts in organizing Mothers' and Parents' Clubs and working
through these for suffrage; putting pictures of the pioneers in
schools and securing the cooperation of the teachers for brief talks
about them; supplying books containing selections from suffrage
speeches, poems, etc., to be used in the schools. It was also proposed
to see that text books on history and civics are written with a proper
appreciation of the work of women.

Part of an afternoon was devoted to a discussion led by Dr. Rosalie
Slaughter Morton (N. Y.), delegated representative of Prince Morrow
and the American Society for Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis. In an
eloquent address she described the terrible devastation, especially
among women and children, from diseases which until lately had been
concealed and never mentioned. She attributed these conditions partly
to the fact that boys and girls were left in ignorance and this was
often because the mothers were ignorant. The chief cause of the wide
prevalence of these diseases was the double standard of morals, the
belief that a chaste life for a man is incompatible with health and
that the consequences of immorality end with themselves and will not
be transmitted. She urged women to unite in the demand for a higher
standard of morals among men. Mrs. Gilman spoke strongly on the
necessity for more vigorous measures for a quarantine of the infected
and health certificates for every marriage and she laid a large share
of the cause of immorality at the door of the economic dependence of
women. Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary of the National
Consumers' League, whose life was being spent in improving the
economic position of women, said: "How are we dealing with this
monstrous evil? Are we going to wait patiently and rear a whole
generation of children and grandchildren and trust to their gradual
increase in strength of character?" She told of the mothers who bring
up children in the best and wisest manner but the environment outside
the home, which they have no power to shape, nullifies all their
teaching. "That is a very slow way of dealing with a cancer," she
said. "Women have tried for forty years to get the power to have the
laws enforced and that is our greatest need today." A principal
feature of this important discussion was the strong, analytical
address of the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, in the course of which she
said:

     The formation of the New York Society for Sanitary and Moral
     Prophylaxis marked an important era. For the first time the
     physicians as a whole assumed a social duty to promote purity.
     They had done it as individuals, but this was the first instance
     of their banding themselves together on a moral as well as a
     sanitary plane to enlighten the public as to the causes of social
     disease.... Dr. Prince Morrow should be everlastingly honored by
     every woman.... I consider no woman guiltless, whether she lives
     in a suffrage State or not, if she does not hold herself
     responsible for guarding less fortunate women. Corrupt custom has
     rent the sacred, seamless robe of womanhood and cast out part of
     the women, abandoning them to degradation. We must learn to
     recognize the responsibility of pure women for the fallen women,
     of the woman whose circumstances have enabled her to stand, for
     the woman whom adverse conditions have borne down. We should
     oppose the sacrifice of womanhood, whether of an innocent girl
     sacrificed with pomp and ceremony in church, or of a poor waif in
     the street; and the great protection is the ability of young
     girls to earn their living by congenial labor. All the social
     purity societies do not equal the trade schools as a
     preventive....

     We must not look at this matter from only one point of view or
     say that we can do nothing about it until we are armed with the
     ballot. I am a suffragist but not "high church," I am a
     suffragist and something else. We ought to have the ballot, we
     are at a disadvantage in our work while we are deprived of it,
     but even without it we have great power. We must stamp out the
     traffic in womanhood, it is a survival of barbarism. Womanhood is
     a unit; no one woman can be an outcast without dire evil to
     family life. What caused the doctors to come together in a
     Society for Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis? It was because the
     evil done in dark places came back in injury to the family
     life.... We must make ourselves more terrible than an army with
     banners to despoilers of womanhood.... Men are no longer to be
     excused for writing in scarlet on their foreheads their
     incapacity for self-control. None of us is longer to be excused
     for cowardice and acquiescence in the sacrifice of womanhood. Not
     even that woman--vilest of all creatures on the face of the earth
     I do believe--the procuress, shall be beyond the pale of
     sympathy, for she is merely the product of the feeling on the
     part of men that they owe nothing to women or to themselves in
     the way of purity, and the feeling on the part of women that they
     have no right to demand of men what men demand of them. If women
     are going to amount to anything in government, they would better
     begin to practice here and now and band themselves together with
     noble men to bring about this reform.

Of equal interest with Pioneers' Evening and in striking contrast with
it was the College Evening. One commemorated the first efforts to
obtain a college education for women, the other the full fruition of
these efforts in the announcement of a National College Women's Equal
Suffrage League with branches in fifteen States. Dr. Shaw, possessing
three college degrees, opened the session, and the founder of the
League, Mrs. Maud Wood Park, a graduate of Radcliffe College,
presided. "With the exception of Oberlin and Antioch," she said, "not
one college was open to women before the organized movement for woman
suffrage began." She gave statistics of the large number now open to
them and said: "Such facts as these help us to understand the service
which the leaders of the suffrage movement performed for college women
and it is fitting that these should make public recognition of their
debt. It was with this idea of responsibility for benefits received
that the first branch of this League was formed in Massachusetts in
1900. The League realizes that the best way to pay our debt to the
noble women who toiled and suffered, who bore ridicule, insult and
privation, is for us in our turn to sow the seed of future
opportunities for women."

In introducing Dr. Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, dean of the Junior
Women's College of the University of Chicago, Mrs. Park said that she
had half the letters of the alphabet attached to her name representing
degrees. Dr. Breckinridge also paid a tribute of gratitude to the
National Suffrage Association and began her address: "My faith has
three articles. I believe it is the right and the duty of the
wage-earning woman to claim the ballot and to have her claim
recognized to participate in the political life of her community. Her
status as a worker depends in part upon it and only thus can she
protect the interests of her group. I believe it is the right and duty
of the wife and mother to claim the ballot, for as a housekeeper and
carer of her children she cannot do her work economically and
satisfactorily without it. It is easy to see why the wage-earning
women and the housekeepers need the ballot; but why should we, who do
not belong to either of those groups, want it? Every woman should want
it because tasks lie before the public so difficult that they can not
be fulfilled without the cooperation of all the trained minds in the
community, and these problems can be met only by collective action. We
want to get hold of the little device that moves the machinery."

Miss Caroline Lexow, president of the New York branch of the league, a
graduate of Barnard College, a part of Columbia University, "charmed
the audience with her girlish simplicity and with the tribute she paid
to the women who more than half a century ago sowed the seeds which
have yielded so rich a harvest for the women of today," to quote from
an enthusiastic reporter. Of another young speaker the Buffalo
_Express_ said: "To the front of the platform stepped a sweet-faced,
bright-eyed, rosy English girl, Miss Ray Costello, a graduate of
Newnham College, Cambridge University, who spoke on Equal Suffrage
among English University Women. She had captured her audience before
she started to describe the energetic work of the college women." "In
England as in the United States," Miss Costello said, "the pioneers in
the demand for higher education were also pioneers in the demand for
votes. When the action of the 'militant' suffragettes brought the
question into such prominence that the opponents began to state their
objections, the college women were aroused and became more and more
active, but as a whole they were in favor of peaceful rather than
militant tactics." She told also of the growth of favorable sentiment
in the men's colleges.

This was the first appearance at a national suffrage convention of
Mrs. Frances Squire Potter, professor of English in the University of
Minnesota, and her address on Women and the Vote was one of the ablest
ever given before this body which was accustomed to superior
addresses. Limited space forbids extended quotation:

     Louis XIV said an infamous thing when he declared: "I am the
     State," but he announced his position frankly. He was an autocrat
     and he said so. It was a more honest and therefore less harmful
     position than that of a majority of voters in our country today.
     Can it help but confuse and deteriorate one sex, trained to
     believe and call itself living in a democracy, to say silently
     year by year at the polls, "I am the State"? Can it help but
     confuse and deteriorate the other sex, similarly trained to
     acquiescence year after year in a national misrepresentation and
     a personal no-representation? This fundamental insincerity of our
     so-called democracy is as insidious an influence upon the minds
     and morals of our franchised men, our unfranchised women and our
     young Americans of both sexes, as hypocrisy is to a church member
     or spurious currency to a bank. It is to be remembered that the
     evils which are pointed out in our commonwealth today are not the
     evils of a democracy but of an amorphous something which is
     afraid to be a democracy. Whether the opposition to women's
     voting be honestly professed or whether it is concealed under
     chivalrous idolatry, distrust and skepticism are behind it....
     When pushed to the wall, objectors to woman suffrage now-a-days
     take refuge behind one of two platitudes: The first is used too
     often by women whose public activities ought logically to make
     them suffragists--the assertion that equal suffrage is bound to
     come in time but that at present there are more pressing needs.
     "Let us get the poor better housed and fed," these women say.
     "Let us get our schools improved and our cities cleaned up and
     then we shall have time to take up the cause of equal suffrage."
     Is not this a survival of that old vice of womankind,
     indirection?... The suffrage issue should not be put off but
     should be placed first, as making the other issues easier and
     more permanent....

     This brings me to the other platitude. How often we are told,
     "Women themselves do not want it; when they do it will be given
     to them." That is to say, when an overwhelming majority of women
     want what they ought to have, then they can have it. Extension of
     suffrage never has been granted on these terms. No great reform
     has gone through on these terms. In an enlightened State wanting
     is not considered a necessary condition to the granting of
     education or the extension of any privilege. Such a State confers
     it in order to create the desire; unenlightened States, like
     Turkey and Russia, hold off until revolution compels a reluctant,
     niggardly abdication of tyranny.... We have the conviction that
     that which has come in Finland and Australia, which is coming in
     Great Britain, will come in America, and there is a majesty in
     the sight of a great world-tide which has been gathering force
     through generations, which is rising steadily and irresistibly,
     that should paralyze any American Xerxes who thinks to stop it
     with humanly created restraints.

Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, received an
ovation. "The formation of this National College League," she said,
"indicates that college women will be ready to bear their part in the
stupendous social change of which the demand for woman suffrage is
only the outward symbol," and she continued:

     Sixty years ago all university studies and all the charmed world
     of scholarship were a man's world, in which women had no share.
     Now, although only one woman in one thousand goes to college even
     in the United States, where there are more college women than in
     any other country, the position of every individual woman in
     every part of the civilized world has been changed because this
     one thousandth per cent. have proved beyond the possibility of
     question that in intellect there is no sex, that the accumulated
     learning of our great past and of our still greater future is the
     inheritance of women also. Men have admitted women into
     intellectual comradeship and the opinions of educated women can
     no longer be ignored by educated men.... Women are one-half of
     the world, but until a century ago the world of music and
     painting and sculpture and literature and scholarship and science
     was a man's world. The world of trades and professions and work
     of all kinds was a man's world. Women lived a twilight life, a
     half-life apart, and looked out and saw men as shadows walking.
     Now women have won the right to higher education and to economic
     independence. The right to become citizens of the State is the
     next and inevitable consequence of education and work outside the
     home. We have gone so far; we must go farther. Why are we afraid?
     It is the next step forward on the path toward the sunrise--and
     the sun is rising over a new heaven and a new earth.

The National College Women's Equal Suffrage League was formally
organized as auxiliary to the National American Association, with Dr.
Thomas president, Miss Lexow secretary; Dr. Margaret Long, of Smith
College, treasurer; Mrs. Park chairman of the organization committee;
Dr. Breckinridge, Mrs. C. S. Woodward, adviser to women in the
University of Wisconsin, and Miss Frances W. McLean of the University
of California were among the vice-presidents. Three thousand dollars
were appropriated for its work the first year from the Anthony
Memorial Fund. The following day Mrs. George Howard Lewis gave a
beautiful luncheon at the Twentieth Century Club in honor of Dr. Shaw,
Dr. Thomas and the college women and it included the officials of the
national and State suffrage associations. The tables were decorated
with orchids and yellow chrysanthemums and there were corsage bouquets
of violets for the guests of honor.

The women ministers in attendance and some of the delegates spoke in
various churches Sunday morning. A departure was made from the usual
custom of holding religious services in the afternoon and they were
replaced by an industrial meeting. One of the city papers thus
introduced its account: "Any theatre after a packed house had better
advertise a woman's meeting with the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw presiding.
At the Star Theatre, where an industrial mass meeting was held under
the auspices of the National Suffrage Association yesterday afternoon,
when Dr. Shaw stepped to the front of the stage to call it to order,
men, as well as women, filled all the seats on the ground floor and
packed the galleries and boxes, while many stood during the entire
program and many more were turned away. It was the largest meeting in
the cause of equal suffrage that Buffalo has ever known. After prayer
by the Rev. Robert Freeman and a musical selection by the choir of the
First Unitarian Church, Dr. Shaw announced that the audience would
rise while Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic was sung. She
stood with bowed head as she listened. "Some one asked me this morning
if I am very happy," said Dr. Shaw, "and I said yes, for I have
everything in the world that is necessary to happiness, good faith,
good friends and all the work I can possibly do. I think God's
greatest blessing to the human race was when He sent man forth into
the world to earn his bread by the sweat of his face. I believe in
toil, in the dignity of labor, but I also believe in adequate
compensation for that toil."

The report of the committee on Industrial Problems Affecting Women and
Children was given by its chairman, Mrs. Kelley, executive secretary
of the National Consumers' League, in which she said: "In New York
woman can not be deprived of the sacred right to work all night in
factories on pain of dismissal. Such is the recent decision of the
Court of Appeals. On the other hand the same Court has within a week
held that the law is constitutional which restricts to eight hours the
work of men employed by the State, the county or the city. I wish the
women who think that 'persuasion' is all-sufficient might have our
experience in New York City; we worked for twelve years to get
inspectors who should look after the women and children in stores and
mercantile establishments. At last an act was passed by which
inspectors were to be appointed and for about a year and a half they
really inspected and looked after the children and young girls in the
stores. Then a great philanthropist, Nathan Straus, who was connected
with an establishment employing many young people, got himself
appointed, as he frankly said, in order to get the salaries of the
inspectors stricken out of the budget and to get sterilized milk put
into it. He got the salaries out and the sterilized milk in and then
he resigned. The next year his successor got the sterilized milk out
and there we were, back just where we had been at the beginning. We
had to set to work again and labor for years longer, petitioning all
the changing and kaleidoscopic officials who have to do with the
finances of New York; and one mayor said frankly to us--to the
Consumers' League: "Ladies, why do you keep on coming? You know you
will never get anything--there isn't a voter among you!..." Mrs.
Kelley said the Consumers' League had been investigating the condition
of girls working in stores, away from home, and she gave a
heartbreaking account of their destitution and semi-starvation. "Only
nineteen States protect grown women at all," she said. "I am very
tired of 'persuasion' and from this time on I mean to try other
methods."

Intense interest was manifested in the address entitled Noblesse
Oblige by Miss Jean Gordon, factory inspector for New Orleans, in
which she said in part:

     One of the strongest and truest criticisms brought against our
     American leisure class is that they are absolutely devoid of a
     proper appreciation of what is conveyed in the expression,
     "Noblesse Oblige." In no country in the world are there so many
     young women of education, wealth and leisure, free as the winds
     of heaven to do as they wish. In no country are there more
     interesting problems to be solved and one would think such work
     would appeal to this very class, especially as most of them are
     the daughters of men who by their large constructive minds have
     created conditions and opportunities and developed them into the
     great industries for which America is justly famous; and it would
     seem by the law of cross inheritance that these daughters would
     inherit some of the great creative ability of their fathers and
     fairly burn to apply their leisure and education to working out
     the social problems which are besetting more and more this great
     country. But unfortunately, with a few exceptions, they rest
     contented with playing the Lady Bountiful and their only
     appreciation of the spirit of Noblesse Oblige has been the old,
     aristocratic idea of charity....

     Think what it would mean to bring their trained minds and great
     wealth and leisure to the study of the economic conditions which
     are represented in the underpaid services and long hours of their
     less fortunate sisters in the mills and factories throughout this
     broad land! Think what it would mean if from the protection with
     which their wealth and position surround them they took their
     stand on the great question of the dual code of morality! Think
     what it would mean to the little children being stunted mentally
     and physically in our mills and factories, if these thousands of
     young women, many of them enjoying the wealth made out of these
     little human souls, refused to wear or buy anything made under
     any but decent living conditions! Think what it would mean if
     they decided that every child should have a seat in school, that
     every neighborhood should have a play-ground and a public bath!

     Too long the men and women of leisure and education in America
     have left the administration of our public affairs to fall into
     the hands of a class whose conception of the duties involved in
     public service is of the lowest order.... Instead of being
     regarded as only fitted for women of ordinary position and
     intellect, all offices such as superintendents of reformatories,
     matrons and women factory inspectors, should be filled by women
     of standing, education, refinement and independent means. Such
     women would be above the temptation of graft or the fear of
     losing their positions. They are on a social footing with the
     manufacturers and no mill or factory owner likes to meet the
     factory inspector at a reception or dining in the home of a
     mutual friend if he is trying to evade the law. American women of
     leisure must awaken to an appreciation of the democratic idea of
     Noblesse Oblige.

Mrs. Blatch was introduced as "president of the Self-Supporting
Women's Suffrage League and the only one in it who was not
self-supporting in the accepted sense of the term." "When I hear that
there are 5,000,000 working women in this country," said Dr. Shaw, "I
always take occasion to say that there are 18,000,000 but only
5,000,000 receive their wages." Mrs. Blatch traced the changes of the
years which have made it necessary for women to go out of the home to
earn their bread in factory, shop and mercantile establishments.
"Cooperation is the only way out of the present condition of the
working women," she asserted. "President Thomas said last night that
the gates of knowledge had swung wide open for women. They have not
done so for the working girls." She pointed out the many opportunities
for the boys to learn the trades which are denied to the girls. "There
is only one way to redress their wrongs and that is by the ballot,"
she declared, and in closing she said: "Of all the people who block
the progress of woman suffrage the worst are the women of wealth and
leisure who never knew a day's work and never felt a day's want, but
who selfishly stand in the way of those women who know what it means
to earn the bread they eat by the sternest toil and who, with a voice
in the Government, could better themselves in every way."

The last address was made by Dr. Shaw and even the cold, prosaic
official report of the convention said: "It was one of the greatest
speeches of the entire week." She began by telling of the immense
demonstration in London during the past summer when 10,000 women
marched through the streets to prove to the Government that women did
want to vote, and then she proceeded to tell why American women wanted
it and how they were determined to compel some action by the
Government. In the evening the officers held a reception for the
delegates, speakers and friends in the Lenox Hotel, convention
headquarters.

In the Monday afternoon symposium the stock objections to woman
suffrage were considered by Miss Lexow, Miss Laura Gregg (Kans.), Mrs.
William C. Gannett (N. Y.), Mrs. Kelley and Miss Maude E. Miner, a
probation officer in New York. Miss Miner said in answering the
objection to "the immoral vote": "Is the fact that immoral women would
have the vote a real objection? I do not believe that it is. In the
first place such women are a very small proportion of the whole. Fifty
to one hundred a night are brought into the night court but we see the
same faces over and over again. There are perhaps 5,000 such women in
New York City in a population of four million but there is less reason
against enfranchising the woman than for disfranchising some of the
men, as there are at least 4,000 men who are living wholly or in part
on these women's earnings.... I do not believe that all women who have
fallen would use their votes for evil. I have dealt with 250 of them
and I am often surprised to see how much sense of honor some of them
have and how intelligent they are. At present they are the slaves of
the saloon-keepers, and the Raines law hotels and the saloons are at
the root of the evil. We ought to do more to protect them from such a
life.... It seems to be women's work to deal with such problems and to
secure legislation along these lines and we can only do this by having
the ballot. With it we can do much more in the way of breaking up the
power of the saloon in politics, which is at the bottom of all."

Dr. Shaw was quickly on her feet to say that Miss Miner had touched
upon the vital spot in the whole suffrage movement; that the liquor
interests were at the bottom of the opposition to it and that in the
States where it had been defeated they were responsible. Mrs. Kelley
spoke for The Woman at the Bottom of the Heap, who had even greater
need of the ballot than her more fortunate sisters. Mrs. Gannett, wife
of the Unitarian minister, William C. Gannett of Rochester, N. Y.,
both loving friends of Miss Anthony, considered the assertion that
"women do not want to vote," saying in part:

     They tell us that women can bring better things to pass by
     indirect influence. Try to persuade any man that he will have
     more weight, more influence, if he gives up his vote, allies
     himself with no party and relies on influence to achieve his
     ends! By all means let us use to its utmost whatever influence we
     have, but in all justice do not ask us to be content with this.
     Facts show that a large body of earnest, responsible women do
     want the ballot, a body large enough to deserve very respectful
     hearing from our law-makers, but there certainly are many women
     who do not yet want to vote. We think they ought to want it; that
     women have no more right than men to accept and enjoy the
     protection and privileges of civilized government and shirk its
     duties and responsibilities. They say they do not thus shirk,
     that woman's sphere lies in a different place, and we answer:
     "This is true but only part of the truth." ... Municipal
     government belongs far more to woman's sphere than to man's, if
     we must choose between the two; it is home-making and
     housekeeping writ large, but just as the best home is that where
     father and mother together rule, so shall we have the better
     city, the better State, when men and women together counsel,
     together rule. No mother fulfills her whole mother duty in the
     sight of God who is not willing to do her service, to take her
     share of direct responsibility for the good of the whole. She can
     not fully care for her own without some care for all the children
     of the community. Her own, however guarded, are menaced so long
     as the least of these is exposed to pestilence or is robbed of
     his birthright of fresh air and sunshine.

     The hard struggle and toil of our honored pioneers was for
     Woman's Rights. We of the coming day must take up the cry of
     Woman's Duty. We live in the new age; new obligations are laid
     upon us. We must labor until no woman in the land shall be
     content to say, "I am not willing to pay the price I owe for the
     comfort and safety of my life"; until every woman shall be
     ashamed not to demand equal duties and equal responsibilities for
     the common weal; until none can be found of whom it can with
     truth be said, "They do not want to vote."

Miss Gregg discussed The Real Enemy, and, while endorsing all that had
been said, asserted that "this enemy is among our own sex." "It is not
the anti-suffragist," she said, "she is our unwilling ally, for when
there is danger that we might fall asleep she arouses us by buzzing
about our ears with her misrepresentations. It is not the indifferent
suffragist, she can be galvanized into life. Our real enemy is the
dead or dormant suffragist," and then she preached a stirring sermon
on the necessity for hard, incessant, faithful work by all who were
enlisted heart and soul in this cause.

Mrs. Upton, the treasurer, called attention to the mistaken idea
conveyed through the newspapers that the association had unlimited
funds. The report that it intended to raise $100,000 had been made to
read that it had raised it, and the Garrett-Thomas fund of $12,000 a
year had caused many to cease their subscriptions.[59] The new
opportunities for effective work caused larger demands for money than
ever before and the year 1907 had been the most anxious the board had
known. The expenditures had been larger than the receipts and most of
the balance that was in the treasury had been used. Even this strong
statement, backed by an appeal from Dr. Shaw, brought pledges only to
the amount of $3,600, a less amount than for years, the delegates,
many of small means, still feeling that their former subscriptions
were not necessary. Dr. Shaw then read to the convention a letter to
herself from Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo, who expressed the
pleasure of the New York State suffrage clubs that the 60th
anniversary of the first Woman's Rights Convention had been held in
this city, at Miss Anthony's expressed wish, and ended: "In memory of
Susan B. Anthony will you accept the enclosed check for $10,000 to be
used as the national officers deem best in the work, so dear to her
and to all true lovers of justice, for the enfranchisement of women?"
As she showed the enclosure Dr. Shaw said: "This is the largest check
I ever held in my hand." The convention rose in appreciation of Mrs.
Lewis's generous gift.

The report of Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, chairman of the Libraries
Committee, the result of a month's research in the Library of Congress
in Washington and another month in the Public Library of Boston, was
most interesting, as it dealt with old manuscripts and books on the
Rights of Women written in the 16th and 17th centuries. The valuable
report of Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, chairman of the Committee on
Legislation and Civil Rights, embodied those of presidents of
twenty-three State Suffrage Associations, covering school, labor,
factory and temperance laws, mercantile inspection, juvenile courts,
educational matters, protection of wives and many others relating to
the welfare of women and children, most of them showing advance.

The speakers at the Monday evening session were Miss Harriet Grim,
winner of the Springer prize for the best essay written by an Illinois
college student, who described "The Womanly Woman in Politics"; Mrs.
Katharine Reed Balentine (Me.), daughter of Thomas B. Reed, the famous
Speaker of the lower house of Congress and a staunch suffragist, and
the brilliant orator, Mrs. Philip Snowden of England. Mrs. Balentine
said in beginning her address that now women were voting in Russia she
had the courage to hope that they would sometime obtain the suffrage
in New York, Massachusetts and Maine, and continued in part:

     In England the last final argument, that women do not themselves
     want the franchise, has in the light of recent events become
     ridiculous. On June 13, 15,000 suffragists paraded through the
     streets of London and it is said that the woman suffrage meeting
     of June 21 was the largest public meeting ever held for any
     cause. Fifty thousand women have just stormed Parliament.... No
     one now doubts that the women of England want and intend to have
     votes. It is said that history repeats itself but this particular
     phenomenon--the world-wide claim of women to political equality
     with men--has never appeared before; it has no historic
     precedent....

     Does disfranchised influence, unsteadied by the responsibility of
     the ballot and the broadening experience of public service, make
     for the greatest good to the greatest number, which is the aim of
     true democracy? Can women, and do the average, every-day women in
     their present condition as subjects take a very lively interest
     in the real welfare of the State? Hardly, and are not men and
     children affected by this indifference? It could scarcely be
     otherwise. It may be said that average men, notwithstanding their
     possession of the ballot, are indifferent to the public weal, but
     are they not rendered doubly so by continually associating with a
     class that feels no allegiance to the State?... In the political
     subjection and consequent political ignorance and indifference of
     women, men are unconsciously forging their own fetters. They can
     not retain their rights unless they share them with women. This
     is the true significance of the woman suffrage movement
     throughout the world. It is a vast attempt at the establishing of
     real government by the people of republics which, being real,
     shall endure; and as such it is as much a movement for men's
     rights as for women's.

The "militant" suffrage movement in Great Britain, at this time in its
early stage, was attracting world-wide attention and Mrs. Snowden
devoted much of her address to explaining it, saying in part: "Our
methods may seem strange to you, for perhaps you do not fully
understand. We have the Municipal vote and have used it for many
years. Today an Englishwoman may vote for every official except a
member of Parliament; she may sit in every political body except the
Parliament and we are after that last right. We have 420 members out
of 670 of its members pledged to this reform. When the full suffrage
bill went to its second reading the votes stood three to one in favor.
We want that vote put through but it is the British Cabinet we must
get at to approve finally the act when it has passed the two Houses.
It is the Government we are trying to annoy. Our Government never
moves in any radical way until it is kicked. Sir Henry Campbell
Bannerman, when prime minister, advised the women to harass the
Government until they got what they wanted and that is just what we
are doing today. The Liberal Government, helped into power by at least
80,000 tax-paying women, promised to grant their rights. How have they
kept that promise?"

Speaking of the two "militant" societies Mrs. Snowden said: "Our
policy of aggressiveness has been justified by its results. When we
began almost every newspaper in England was against us. Now, with one
exception, the _Times_, the London papers are all for us. The
'militancy' thus far has consisted chiefly in 'heckling' speakers;
assembling before the House of Commons in large numbers; getting into
the gallery and into public meetings and calling out 'Votes for Women'
and breaking windows in government buildings, a time-honored English
custom of showing disapproval. Many suffragists in the United States,
knowing the contemptuous manner in which those of Great Britain and
Ireland have been treated by the Government, have felt a good deal of
sympathy with these measures." At this convention and the one
preceding sympathy was expressed by Dr. Shaw and others and
resolutions to this effect were adopted.

One of the Buffalo papers said in regard to the election of officers:
"If the way the women vote at the national convention may be taken as
a criterion of what they will do when they gain the ballot, there will
be very little electioneering. Yesterday's election was characterized
by entire absence of wire-pulling. The balloting was done quickly and
there was no contest for any office, the women voting as they wished
and only a few scattered ballots going for particular friends of
voters. The election of the president, first vice-president,
corresponding secretary and treasurer was unanimous and the others so
nearly so that there was no question of result by the time half the
ballots had been counted." Mrs. Sperry retired from the office of
second vice-president and Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, president of the
Illinois suffrage association, was chosen in her place.

The paper on Some Legal Phases of the Disfranchisement of Women by
Mrs. Harriette Johnston Wood, a New York lawyer, was regarded as so
important that it was ordered to be printed for circulation. She
quoted from Federal and State constitutions and court decisions to
prove that "if properly construed the laws specify the rights and
privileges of 'persons' and no distinction is made as to 'sex' in
provisions relating to the elective franchise." She encouraged women
to try to register for voting and qualify for jury service and urged
that bills be presented to legislative bodies covering the following
points: First, that citizens shall equally enjoy all civil and
political rights and privileges; second, that in the selection of
jurors no discrimination shall be made against citizens on account of
sex; third, that representation be based on the electorate and that
non-voters be non-taxpayers; fourth, that husband and wife have equal
right in each other's property; fifth, equal rights in the property of
a child; sixth, in case of separation, equal rights to the custody of
the children. A visit to the Albright Art Gallery and an automobile
ride along the lake front, through Delaware Park and the many handsome
avenues of the city, was a much-enjoyed part of this afternoon's
program.

At one evening session Miss Grace H. Ballantyne, attorney in the noted
City Hall case at Des Moines, Iowa, gave a spirited account of the way
in which the women's right to vote on issuing bonds was sustained.
Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey (Ky.), who had resided some years in
England, compared the condition of women in that country and the
United States to the disadvantage of the latter, "where," she said,
"the women did not profit by the Declaration of Independence but on
the contrary lost when the colonies were supplanted by the republic.
In this they discover that a republic may endure as a political
institution to the end of time without conferring recognition, honors
or power on women; that it can exist as an oligarchy of sex, and they
say: 'Why should we be loyal to this government?' Thus through women
republicanism itself is imperiled and I tell you that if an amendment
is not added to the National Constitution giving women the power to
vote, this republic, within the living generation, will find that
prophecy, 'Woman is the rock upon which our Ship of State is to
founder,' will be fulfilled."

As chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration Mrs. Lucia Ames
Mead gave a report of its many activities. In 1907 she had attended a
plenary session at The Hague Peace Conference, which she described in
glowing terms, and she went as a delegate in September to an
International Peace Conference in Munich. In July, 1908, she went to
one in London, where Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood of Washington, D. C.,
presented a paper on the Central American Peace Congress, held in that
city, and the recently established Arbitration Court, which formed the
basis of three resolutions adopted by the congress. She told of the
new society, the American School Peace League to improve the teaching
of history and in every way promote international fraternity, sympathy
and justice.

During business meetings the following were among the recommendations
adopted: To recommend to States to continue a systematic and
specialized distribution of literature; to secure and present to
Congress at an early date a petition asking for a 16th Amendment
enfranchising women, the chair to appoint a committee to superintend
this work; to try to obtain the appointment of a U. S. Senate
Committee on Woman Suffrage favorable to it; to send letters
simultaneously to the President of the United States in advance of the
time for writing his message, followed by telegrams one week preceding
the opening of Congress, expressing the wishes of women for the
ballot; to ask their Legislatures for some form of suffrage and follow
up this request with systematic legislative work; to urge that States
having any form of partial suffrage take measures to secure the
largest possible use of it by women. It was decided to appropriate
$125 for two months' work in South Dakota to ascertain conditions with
a view to the submission of a State amendment.

The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee,
reviewed the wonderful progress made by women since the first
convention whose 60th anniversary they were celebrating. They told of
the progress of suffrage, as outlined in the Call for the convention,
and said: "When that first convention met, one college in the United
States admitted women; now hundreds do so. Then there was not a single
woman physician or ordained minister or lawyer; now there are 7,000
women physicians and surgeons, 3,000 ordained ministers and 1,000
lawyers. Then only a few poorly-paid employments were open to women;
now they are in more than three hundred occupations and comprise 80
per cent. of our school teachers. Then there were scarcely any
organizations of women; now such organizations are numbered by
thousands. Then the few women who dared to speak in public, even on
philanthropic questions, were overwhelmingly condemned by public
opinion; now the women most opposed to woman suffrage travel about the
country making speeches to prove that a woman's only place is at home.
Then a married woman in most of our States could not control her own
person, property or earnings; now in most of them these laws have been
largely amended or repealed and it is only in regard to the ballot
that the fiction of woman's perpetual minority is still kept up."

Mrs. Catt's powerful address was entitled The Battle to the Strong but
nothing is preserved except newspaper clippings. She ended by saying:
"In all history there has been no event fraught with more importance
for the generations to follow than the present uprising of the women
of the world.... Every struggle helps and no movement for right, for
reform in this country or in England but has made the woman's movement
easier in every other land. We have brought the countries of the world
very close together in the last few years. Papers and cables and
telegraph spread the news almost instantly to the centres of the earth
and then to the obscure corners, so that the women of other nations
know what the women here are doing and what they are doing in every
other part of the world.... The suffrage campaign in England has
become the kind of fanaticism that caused the American Revolution.
These women are no longer reformers, they are rebels, and they are
going to win.... Woman's hour has struck at last and all along the
line there is a mobilization of the woman's army ready for service. We
are going forward with flags flying to win. If you are not for us you
are against us. Justice for the women of the world is coming. This is
to be a battle to the strong--strong in faith, strong in courage,
strong in conviction. Women of America, stand up for the citizenship
of our own country and let the world know we are not ashamed of the
Declaration of Independence!"

A newspaper account said: "And then Anna Howard Shaw stepped forward,
the light of a great purpose shining in her eyes. 'Our International
president has asked for recruits,' she said. 'Never have we had so
many as now.' She spoke of the immense gains to the suffrage cause
within the last few months in America and of the suffrage pioneers and
their sufferings, and ended: 'The path has been blazed for us and they
have shown us the way. Who shall say that our triumph is to be long
delayed? It is the hour for us to rally. We have enlisted for the war.
Ninety days? No; for the war! We may not win every battle but we shall
win the war. Happy they who are the burden-bearers in a great fight!
Happy is any man or woman who is called by the Giver of all to serve
Him in the cause of humanity! Friends, come with us and we will do you
good; but whether you come or not we are going, and when we enter the
promised land of freedom we will try to be just and to show that we
understand what freedom is, what the law is. 'God grant us law in
liberty and liberty in law!'"


FOOTNOTES:

[56] Part of Call: Since we met last in convention women in Norway
have won full suffrage; tax-paying women in Iceland have been granted
a vote and made eligible as municipal councillors; Municipal suffrage
has been given to women in Denmark and they now vote for all officers
except members of Parliament; women in Sweden, who already had the
Municipal vote, have been made eligible to municipal offices; a proxy
in the election of the Douma has been conferred on women of property
in Russia. In Great Britain, where they have long possessed Municipal
suffrage, women have been made eligible as mayors, county, borough and
town councillors and their heroic struggle for Parliamentary suffrage
is attracting the attention of the world.

In our own country during the past year, 175,000 women of Michigan
appealed for full suffrage to its constitutional convention and a
partial franchise was given; in Oregon women obtained the submission
of a constitutional amendment for suffrage to a referendum vote.
Though no large victories were won the advocates of equal suffrage
have never felt more hopeful, as public sentiment is in closer
sympathy with them than ever before. Five hundred associations of men,
organized for other purposes and numbering millions of voters, have
officially declared for woman suffrage; only one, the organized liquor
traffic, has made a record of unremitting hostility to it and the
domination of the saloon in politics has wrested many victories from
our grasp....

We cordially invite all men and women who have faith in the principles
of the American government and love liberty and justice to meet with
us in convention in Buffalo.

                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                         RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, First Vice-President.
                         FLORENCE KELLY, Second Vice-President.
                         KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.
                         ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.
                         HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
                         LAURA CLAY,         }
                         MARY SIMPSON SPERRY,} Auditors.

[57] Other ministers who officiated at different times were the
Reverends Anna Howard Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer and Olympia Brown of
the convention, and the Reverends Richard W. Boynton, Robert Freeman,
L. O. Williams, E. H. Dickinson and F. Hyatt Smith of Buffalo.

[58] For full account see History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page
67.

[59] This fund had been raised primarily to pay salaries to officers
who now had to devote their whole time to the increased work of the
association and who had hitherto for the most part given their service
gratuitously. Dr. Shaw received $3,500; the secretary $1,000, the
treasurer $1,000. This left $6,500 for other purposes each year.




CHAPTER IX.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1909.


The invitation to hold the Forty-first annual convention of the
association in Seattle was accepted for two special reasons. The
Washington Legislature had submitted a woman suffrage amendment to be
voted on in 1910; similar action had been taken by the Legislatures of
Oregon and South Dakota, and a convention on the Pacific Coast would
attract western people and create sentiment in favor of these
amendments. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in progress during the
summer, by causing reduced railroad rates, would enable those of the
east and middle west to attend the convention and visit this beautiful
section of the country.[60] The date fixed was July 1-6.

The eastern delegates assembled in Chicago on June 25 to take the
"suffrage special" train for Seattle and a reception was given to
them at Hotel Stratford by the Chicago suffragists. At St. Paul the
next morning ex-Senator S. A. Stockwell and Mrs. Stockwell, president
of the Minnesota Association, with a delegation of suffragists, met
them at the station and escorted them to the Woman's Exchange, where a
delicious breakfast was served on tables adorned with golden iris and
ferns. Many club officials were there and brief addresses were made by
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Florence Kelley, Miss Laura Clay, Mrs.
Fanny Garrison Villard, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Miss Alice
Stone Blackwell, Miss Kate M. Gordon and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton.
Mrs. Villard recalled a visit she had made there twenty-six years
before with her husband, Henry Villard, who had just completed the
Northern Pacific Railroad and his train was making a kind of triumphal
tour across the continent. "St. Paul welcomed him with a procession
ten miles long," she said, "and Minneapolis, determined not to be
outdone, got up one fifteen miles long. It gives me joy to remember
that not only my father, William Lloyd Garrison, but also my good
German-born husband believed in equal rights for women."

The train sped through the Great Northwest and continuous business
meetings were held by the board of officers in what was usually the
smoking car until the next stop was made at Spokane, Washington. Here
the Chamber of Commerce had appropriated $500 for their entertainment.
They were presented with buttons and badges and taken in automobiles
through the beautiful residence district, the handsome grounds of the
three colleges and to the picturesque Falls. Then they saw the fine
exhibits in the Chamber of Commerce and were taken to the Amateur
Athletic Club, whose facilities for rest and recreation were placed at
their disposal. An elaborate banquet followed with Mrs. May Arkwright
Hutton, president of the Spokane Equal Suffrage Club, presiding. Mrs.
Emma Smith De Voe, president of the State Suffrage Association,
welcomed them to Washington, and Mayor N. S. Pratt to the city. "I
have welcomed many organizations to Spokane," he said, "but none with
so much pleasure as this. My belief in equal suffrage is no new
conviction; I have voted for it twice and hope soon to do so again.
The coming of equal rights for women is the inevitable result of
progress and enlightenment." He presented Dr. Shaw with a gavel made
of wood from the four suffrage States bound together with a band of
Idaho silver and expressed the hope that when she used it to open the
convention in Seattle the sound would be like "the shot heard round
the world."

The account in the _Woman's Journal_ said: "Dr. Shaw, in returning
thanks, said: 'It is an apt simile, for the blow will be struck on the
Pacific Coast and it needs to be heard to the Atlantic and not only
from the west to the east but from the north to the south. I hope it
will be answered by men who, having known themselves what freedom is,
wish to give women the benefits of it also. The only man who can be in
any way excused for wanting to withhold freedom from women is the man
who is himself a slave.' She recalled the times when the suffragists
were offered not banquets but abuse and compared them to the pioneer
days of clearing the forest. She closed with a beautiful tribute to
the pioneer mothers and called upon the men to pay their debt to them
next November."

Mrs. Villard, recalling here also her visit of more than a quarter of
a century before, said in part: "Never could I have believed that such
changes could have been wrought since that historic train. Then there
was nothing at Spokane but Indians and cowboys and the beautiful
Falls. I am glad you want women to share the full life of the city.
'The woman's cause is man's.' This movement is as wide as the world
and will benefit men as well as women. I have come on this trip
largely because I like to connect my husband's name not merely with
the building of a great railroad but also with the cause of justice to
women in which he believed. I wish greater and greater prosperity to
Spokane but with her material prosperity let her not forget the larger
things which must go hand in hand with it if cities are not to perish
from the earth."

Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Portland, Ore., the renowned suffrage
pioneer of the northwest, was enthusiastically received and in the
course of her interesting reminiscences said: "I remember when 'Old
Oregon' comprised most of the Pacific Northwest. At that time I was
living in a log cabin engaged in the very domestic occupation of
raising a large family of small children.... On my first visit to
Spokane I came by stage from Walla Walla. It went bumping and
careening over the rocks and the one hotel of the village had not
accommodations for the three or four passengers. They made up
improvised beds for us on slats and all the food we had for several
days was bread and sugar, but I enjoyed it for after such a journey
anything tasted good. There was only one little hall in the town and I
was importuned by Captain Wilkinson of Portland to speak. So I hired
the hall for Sunday and he advised me to offer it to a clergyman there
for the afternoon service. I did so and asked him to announce after
his sermon that my meeting would be held in the evening. He accepted
the use of the hall but failed to give the notice. When I asked him
about it he said: 'Do you think I would notice a woman's meeting?' But
we had a good one and almost everybody in Spokane subscribed for my
paper, the _New Northwest_. The next time I came here was to celebrate
the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad. I had the honor of
writing a poem for the occasion and reading it in that little hall and
Henry Villard wrote me a letter about it."

A large evening meeting was held in the First Methodist Church with
Mrs. LaReine Baker presiding. Henry B. Blackwell and Prof. Frances
Squire Potter were among the national speakers. A tired lot of
travellers but happy over their cordial welcome took the night train.
Next day they stopped for a brief time at North Yakima and Ellensburg
and spoke from the rear platform to the crowds awaiting them. Women,
girls and children dressed in white greeted them with banners, songs
and quantities of the lovely roses for which that section is noted and
with fancy baskets of the wonderful cherries and apples. During
several hours spent in Tacoma they had the famous ride around the city
in special trolley cars, supper at sunset on the veranda of a hotel
overlooking the beautiful Puget Sound and a walk through the
magnificent park.

The never to be forgotten convention in Seattle was preceded by an
evening reception on June 30 in Lincoln Hotel, given by the State
suffrage association, whose former president, Mrs. Homer M. Hill,
extended its welcome to the delegates. Dr. Shaw, the national
president, called the convention to order the next afternoon in the
large Plymouth Congregational Church and the audience sang The March
of the Mothers. Mrs. Margaret B. Platt brought the greetings of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, pointing out that "there are
wrongs which can never be righted until woman holds in her hand the
ballot, symbol of the power to right them." In introducing Mrs. M. B.
Lord to speak for the Grange, Dr. Shaw said she herself was a member
of it. Mrs. Lord said in part: "From the first of it women came into
our organization on a perfect equality and for forty years the Grange
has carried on an education for woman suffrage. It was the proudest
moment of my life when I got a resolution for it through the New York
State Grange. Here in Washington it has increased three-fold in five
years and always passes a resolution in favor of suffrage for women."
Mrs. De Voe gave a big-hearted welcome from the State and Mrs. Mary S.
Sperry, president of the California suffrage association, made a
gracious response. By a rising vote the convention sent a message of
warm regard to Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of New York, the former
national president, and regret that she was not able to be present.
Dr. Shaw spoke of the "masterly way" in which she had presided at the
meeting of the International Suffrage Alliance in London in May, "her
power and dignity commanding universal respect," and told of the
message of greeting from Queen Maud of Norway and other incidents of
the congress.

Leaving more formal ceremonies for the evening the convention
proceeded to business and listened to the report of the corresponding
secretary, Miss Gordon (La.). In referring to the specialized
literature which had been sent out, she spoke of the letter of the
Brewers' and Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association, so widely
circulated during the recent Oregon Suffrage campaign, calling the
attention of all retailers in the State to the necessity of defeating
the amendment, and to the postal instructing them how to mark their
ballot, with a return card signifying their willingness. This had been
put into an "exhibit" by Miss Blackwell and her Literature Committee
and Miss Gordon urged that clergymen of all denominations should be
circularized with it. She said: "I believe the association should not
be dissuaded from this undertaking because of the amount of work and
its costliness. The burden of responsibility rests upon us to prove
with such evidence that the worst enemy of the church and the most
active enemy of woman suffrage is a mutual foe, the 'organized liquor
and vice power.' If in the face of such direct evidence
representatives of the church still allow prejudice, ignorance or
indifference to woman suffrage to influence them, then they knowingly
become the common allies of this power."

Miss Gordon gave instances to show the great change taking place in
the attitude of the public toward woman suffrage and said the present
difficulty was to utilize the opportunities which presented
themselves. She urged more concentrated effort from the national
headquarters and a substantial appropriation to enable the chairmen of
the standing committees to carry on their work; also that they should
be elected instead of appointed and be members of the official board,
and she concluded: "It is earnestly recommended that suffragists take
steps to politicalize their methods. The primaries, affording in many
States an opportunity for women to secure the nominations of favorable
candidates; active interest in defeating the election of those opposed
to suffrage; the questioning of candidates, etc., are all instances
where intelligent interest and activity on the part of suffragists
will educate the public far more effectively than debates, lectures
and literature--to see that women are determined to take an active
part in so-called politics, so intimately associated for weal or woe
in their lives."

The reports of the headquarters secretary and national press chairman,
Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser (Ohio) were read by Mrs. Upton. The first in
speaking of the increased demands on the headquarters began: "In no
previous presidential campaign in the United States were the views of
candidates on the enfranchisement of women ever so generally commented
on by the press. Perhaps never before did candidates consider the
question of sufficient importance to have any opinion upon it. Never
before did the newspaper interviewer put to every possible
personage--politician or preacher, writer or speaker, inventor or
explorer, captain of industry, social worker, actor, prize-fighter,
maid, matron, widow--the burning query, 'What about votes for women?'"
She told of about 30,000 letters having been sent out and an average
of nearly 1,000 pieces of literature a day, as many in the first half
of the present year as in all of 1908. The Book Department, in charge
of Miss Caroline I. Reilly, reported that the sales of the Life and
Work of Susan B. Anthony had amounted to $800; 200 sets of the History
of Woman Suffrage had been placed in the libraries of the leading
colleges and universities; 100 copies of the Reports of the last two
national conventions had been put into the libraries which keep the
file.

The delegates to the presidential nominating conventions had been
appealed to by letter for a suffrage plank in the platform but without
result. The Independence Party convention in Chicago voted it down.
The usual work had been done in international and national conventions
and many had adopted favorable resolutions, among them those of the
International Bricklayers' and Stone Masons' Union meeting in Detroit;
the International Cotton Spinners' Union in Boston and the Woman's
National Trade Union League in that city: the National Council of
Women and the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. The United Mine
Workers of America, meeting at Indianapolis, passed the woman suffrage
resolution by unanimous vote and sent to the headquarters 500 copies
of it, which were promptly mailed to members of Congress. The American
Federation of Labor, representing 2,000,000 members, at its convention
in Denver, followed its long established custom of passing this
resolution. Dr. Shaw attended the National Conference of Charities and
Corrections: Mrs. Julia Ward Howe was received as a fraternal delegate
from the National American Suffrage Association by the General
Federation of Women's Clubs at its biennial in Boston; Mrs. Stockwell
by the convention of the American Library Association; Mrs. Sperry and
Mrs. Alice L. Park of California, by the Nurses Associated Alumnæ of
the United States; Mrs. Coryell by the American Baptist Home
Missionary Society, and the association had representatives at many
other conventions. "To summarize, 29 national associations have
endorsed woman suffrage; 14 others have taken action on some phase of
the question; 20 State Federations of Labor, 16 State Granges and
seven State Letter Carriers' Associations have endorsed it. Some of
the States have carried on a very active propaganda in this
direction, securing endorsements from hundreds of local organizations
representing labor unions, educational and religious societies,
Farmers' Institutes, etc."

In the press report Miss Hauser said that 43,000 copies of _Progress_
had been sent out and 52,095 pages of material representing 190
different subjects had been distributed, including 1,262 copies of
Mrs. Catt's address to the International Suffrage Alliance. She told
of the special articles, of the full pages, of the personal work with
editors--a report of remarkable accomplishment, filling eight printed
pages of the Minutes. In concluding she said: "The day of old methods
has gone by and if new methods are to be successfully developed there
must be for press chairman a woman who is not only acquainted with the
philosophy and history of the woman suffrage movement but who is
possessed of the newspaper instinct and the ability to make friends
readily. Nothing but press work should be expected of her and she
should be enabled to get in touch with the controlling forces in the
newspaper world." This report was supplemented with that of Miss
Blackwell, chairman of the Committee on Literature.

As the headquarters were soon to be removed from Warren, Ohio, and
Miss Hauser had resigned as secretary, this was the last of her
excellent reports and the convention sent her a letter of thanks and
appreciation for her admirable work. Dr. Shaw said of her: "There
never was a woman who gave more consecrated service; she dreamed of
woman suffrage by night and toiled for it by day." [Afterward Miss
Hauser went to the headquarters in New York as vice-chairman of the
National Press Committee.]

In the evening Mayor John F. Miller welcomed the convention and
congratulated the association on the personnel of its members in
Washington. "This has been a pioneer State in the woman's rights
movement," he said. "In 1854 Arthur Denny introduced a woman suffrage
bill in the Territorial Legislature. In 1878 the civil disabilities of
married women were removed and this was the first State west of the
Rocky Mountains to say that a wife's property should be her own. Women
here have all the rights of men except to vote and hold office. I do
not know whether woman suffrage will bring in everything good and
abolish everything evil but if it will by all means let us have it."
He closed with a tribute to the mothers in the State.

In an eloquent response Mrs. Villard reminded the Mayor that if a
cause is just the consequences following in its path need not be
feared and said: "I was early taught by my father that moral principle
in vigorous exercise is irresistible. It has an immortal essence. It
may disappear for a time but it can no more be trod out of existence
by the iron foot of time or the ponderous march of iniquity than
matter can be annihilated. It lives somewhere, somehow, and rises
again in renovated strength. The women of this country who are
advocating the cause of woman suffrage are animated by a great moral
principle. They are armed with a spiritual weapon of finest caliber
and one that is sure to win." She told of the great reception given in
1883 to her husband and his guests when they reached Seattle for the
opening of the railroad after its completion; of his response and that
of the Hon. Carl Schurz. She described an address made by a young
girl, the daughter of Professor Powell of the university, the entire
expenses of which Mr. Villard had paid for several years, in which she
said he would be remembered more for what he had done for education
than for the building of the railroad. "In the retrospect of time,"
said Mrs. Villard, "I can see her, sweetly modest and gracious,
standing as it were with outstretched arms inviting the women who are
gathered here today to come and help make the State of Washington
free." Then in an appeal for the pending suffrage amendment she said:
"Many tributes of respect and admiration have been paid to my noble
companion in the great northwest, which are carefully cherished by me
and my children, but I crave one more and it is this--that Mr.
Villard's keen sense of justice and fair play for women shall find
echo in the hearts of the men of Washington, to whose extraordinary
development he gave such powerful impetus, so that in November, 1910,
they will proclaim with loud accord that the women of Washington are
no longer bond but free, no longer disfranchised but regenerated and
disenthralled, equal partners in the unending struggle of the human
race for nobler laws and higher moral standards."

The evening session closed with the president's address of Dr. Shaw,
which the _Woman's Journal_ described as "inimitable" but not a
paragraph of it can be found after the lapse of years. Her speeches
always were inspired by the occasion and only a stenographic report
could give an adequate idea of them. Miss Anthony mourned because this
was not made and others often spoke of it but Dr. Shaw herself was
indifferent. There were pressing demands for money and the endless
details of these meetings absorbed the time and strength of those who
might otherwise have attended to it.

Mrs. Upton in her report as treasurer made a stirring appeal in which
she said: "The most important question before this convention is that
of money. A grave responsibility rests upon the shoulders of each
delegate. She should know how much money we have had in the last year,
where it went and why. More than this, she should decide for herself
how money for the coming year shall be disbursed and suggest ways of
raising the same. No delegate ought to quiet her conscience with the
thought that the judgment of the general officers is the best
judgment. Each State has entrusted into the hands of its delegates
precious business and the responsibility is great and cannot honestly
be disregarded. In the long ago we worked until our money gave out.
Now, as the beginning of the end of our work is in sight, demands for
money are many and if business rules are followed they must be met.
The small self-sacrifices must be continued and larger ways of
obtaining money created. We are all shouting for a fifth star on our
suffrage flag but we must remember that no star was ever placed upon
any flag without cost, without sacrifice. Our fifth star will find its
place because we explain to voters what a fifth star really means.
These voters will not come to us; we must go to them. To go anywhere
costs money. To go to the voters of a large and thinly populated State
means much money. Shall we be content with four stars or shall we
provide the means to get a fifth?"

The total receipts of the past year were $15,420; disbursements,
$14,480. She told of the many ways in which the money was being
used--over $2,000 added to several other thousands spent in field work
in Oklahoma for the next year's amendment campaign; $3,000 to the
College League; headquarters' expenses, literature, posters, etc. Part
of the money came from the Anthony Memorial Fund, part from the fund
raised by Dr. Thomas and Miss Garrett, the rest from individual
subscriptions. The convention, which was not a large one, subscribed
over $3,000. The following recommendations of the Business Committee
were adopted by the convention: Appropriations shall be made for
educational, church and petition work; financial aid shall not be
given to States having campaigns on hand unless there be perfect
harmony within the ranks of the workers of those States; an organizer
shall be sent to Arizona to prepare the Territory for constitutional
or legislative work and a campaign organizer to South Dakota.

There was much interest in the question of returning the national
headquarters to New York City. It was long the desire of Miss Anthony
to do this on a scale befitting so large a city and so important a
cause and the funds had never been available. Mrs. Oliver H. P.
Belmont, who had lately come into the suffrage movement, had taken the
entire twentieth floor of a new office building for two years and
invited the New York State Suffrage Association to occupy a part of
it. She now extended an invitation to the National Association to use
for this period as many rooms as it needed and she would pay the
difference in the rent between these and the headquarters at Warren,
O. In addition she would maintain the press bureau. The advantages of
this great newspaper and magazine center were recognized by the
general officers, executive committee and delegates, the offer was
gladly accepted and a rising vote of thanks was sent to Mrs. Belmont.

Miss Perle Penfield (Texas) read the report of Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead,
chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration. She told of the
tenth anniversary this year of The Hague Conference, which was
attended by representatives of forty-six instead of twenty-six nations
and had made various international agreements that would lessen the
likelihood of war. She spoke of attending the second National Peace
Congress in Chicago in May, at which all the women who took part were
suffragists. Mrs. Mead referred to having spoken eighty-six times
during the year. In pointing out the work that should be done in the
United States for peace she said:

     A great campaign of education is needed in the schools and
     colleges, in the press and pulpit and in every organization of
     men and women that stands for progress. Pre-eminently among
     women's organizations, the National American Woman Suffrage
     Association, which opposes the injustice of refusing the ballot
     to women, should stand against the grossest of all injustices
     which leaves innocent women widowed and children orphaned by war,
     and which in time of peace diverts nearly two-thirds of the
     federal revenue from constructive work to payment for past wars
     and preparation for future wars. Thus far this association has
     been so absorbed in its direct methods of advancing suffrage that
     it has not perhaps sufficiently realized the power of many
     agencies that are furthering its cause by indirect means. I
     firmly believe that substituting statesmanship for battleship
     will do more to remove the electoral injustices that still
     prevent our being a democracy than any direct means used to
     obtain woman suffrage, important and necessary as these are.
     Women, though hating war, quite as frequently as men are deluded
     by the plea that peace can be ensured only by huge armaments. It
     is a question whether woman suffrage would greatly lessen the
     vote for these supposed preventives of war, but there is no
     question that more reliance on reason and less on force would
     exalt respect for woman and would remove the objection that
     woman's physical inferiority has anything to do with suffrage.

Several delegates expressed the need and the right of mothers to
strive to prevent war. Mrs. Duniway, Mrs. Philena Everett Johnson and
Mrs. DeVoe spoke on the pending amendment campaigns in their
respective States of Oregon, South Dakota and Washington. Mrs. Clara
Bewick Colby's subject was the American Situation vs. the English
Situation and she described the conditions in England which caused the
"suffragette" or "militant" movement. Mrs. Florence Kelley, chairman
of the Industrial Committee, spoke on the Wage Earning Woman and the
Ballot. "Because of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in
the Oregon case," she said, "fourteen State Legislatures in the past
year have considered bills for shortening the workday for women and
six have enacted laws for it. South Carolina has taken a step backward
by changing the hours from ten to twelve. Child labor is constantly
increasing in spite of our efforts. I have seen the evolution of
modern industry and it has meant the sacrifice of thousands of young
lives." At the close of the afternoon session the delegates enjoyed
an automobile ride of many miles amidst scenery which many who had
travelled widely declared was unsurpassed in the whole world.

The most brilliant session of the convention probably was that of the
College Women's Evening, with Dr. Shaw presiding. Miss Caroline Lexow
(N. Y.), secretary of the College Women's League, spoke of its
remarkable growth since its organization the preceding year and said
that it now had twenty-four branches in as many States and twenty-five
chapters in as many colleges. She called attention to the fact that no
College Anti-Suffrage Association had ever been formed and said that
college women remembered the words of one of the pioneers: "Make the
best use you can of your freedom for we have bought it at a great
price." Mrs. Eva Emery Dye (Ore.) gave an able address on College
Women in Civic Life. The Law and the Woman was the subject considered
by Miss Adella M. Parker, a popular lawyer, president of the
Washington College League. "I have been looking for years," she said,
"to find any legislation that does not affect women, from a tariff on
gloves to a declaration of war. The great problems which face the
human race demand the genius of both men and women to solve them. The
law needs women quite as much as women need the law." The closing
address on College Women and Democracy by Frances Squire Potter,
professor of English at the University of Minnesota, was a masterly
review of the relation of college women to the life of the present,
and later it was printed by the College League as a part of its
literature. In the course of it she said:

     The admission of women began with Oberlin, Ohio, in 1833, then a
     provincial institution, religious in its purpose and one where
     the boys and girls did the work. From that time on the West was
     committed to the co-educational State university. The influence
     set back eastward and women demanded admittance successively in
     this college and that college. It is to be remembered that they
     did not go in naturally and pleasantly but at the point of the
     sword and to the sound of the trumpet. And to-day the segregated
     college life of the East illustrates the "last entrenchments of
     the middle ages." Those monasteries and nunneries of learning
     crown the hilltops from Boston to Washington and "watch the star
     of intellectual empire westward take its way." ... Following upon
     the democratization of the university we now see rising a tide
     which is as inevitable as was that first movement, which will
     bear the college woman, as it bears the college man, out of the
     fostering shelter of the college hall into the great welter of
     life, of full citizenship.... Since the colleges of America
     opened to women, nothing so vital to the nourishment of this
     spirit has happened as the formation of the College Equal
     Suffrage League.... There are certain definite things for which a
     college woman registers herself in joining this league. First, a
     direct return to the country of the energy which it has trained.
     A woman's whole education to-day is toward direct results. She
     has been educated away from the old indirect ideal of the
     boarding-school. There she was taught to be a persuasive
     ornament, now she is taught to be an individual mind, will and
     conscience and to use these in acting herself. I hold that there
     is no more graphic illustration of inconsistent waste than the
     spectacle of a college-trained woman falsifying her entire
     education by shying away from suffrage.... The time has gone by
     when a college woman can be allowed to be noncommittal on this
     subject. If she has not thought about equal suffrage she must do
     so now, exactly as persons of intelligence were compelled to
     think about slavery in the time of Garrison, or about the
     reformation in the time of Martin Luther. To those who try to get
     out of it it is not unfitting to quote Thomas Huxley's famous
     sentence: "He who will not reason is a bigot; he who dare not
     reason is a coward; he who can not reason is a fool." ...

     It devolves upon the college woman more than upon any other one
     type to face and conquer a retarding tendency which is becoming
     marked in this country. I refer to the anti-feminization
     movement. Dr. Stanley Hall has given voice to it in education;
     Dr. Lyman Abbott quavers about it in religion; the committee on
     tariff revision is an example of it in politics. When women sent
     a petition to the committee against raising the duties on certain
     necessities of life of which they were the chief consumers, the
     chairman said: "It doesn't make any difference whether these
     women send in a petition signed by 500 or 5,000 names, they will
     receive no consideration. Let them talk things over in their
     clubs and other organizations; this will occupy them and do no
     one any harm; but it will not affect the tariff." On the same day
     the committee accorded a deferential hearing to a deputation of
     lumbermen.... This discrimination against woman, the vague
     feeling that she has been allowed to get on too fast, to get out
     of control, that she has slipped into too large activities while
     the good man slept, has come upon us at the very time when
     Scandinavia and Germany and England are getting rid of their
     simian chivalry. It is notorious that America, which once was the
     progressive nation, has been for a generation in a comatose state
     in the matter of social ideas. It is high time that our college
     women should stand solid against the blind superstition, whose
     mother is fear and whose father is egoism, that women can not be
     trusted in public affairs....

The report of Mr. Blackwell on Presidential suffrage was accepted by a
rising vote and his report as chairman of the Committee on Resolutions
was adopted, as usual, without change.[61] For many years he had
served as chairman of these committees. His constitutional argument
for the right of Legislatures to grant women a vote for presidential
electors always stood unchallenged and his faith that they would do
this was eventually justified. One of the founders of the American
Suffrage Association in 1869, he had not during forty years missed
attending a national suffrage convention, first with his wife, Lucy
Stone, and later with his daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell. He had
never seemed in better health and spirits than at this one in Seattle
but two months later, on September 7, he died at the age of 84, a
great loss to the cause of woman suffrage. (Memorials in next
chapter.)

The Legislative Evening was in charge of the State suffrage
association, Mrs. De Voe in the chair, and it was the intention to
have those members of the Legislature who were principally responsible
for submitting the amendment address the convention but an extra
session at that time spoiled this program. The Hon. Alonzo Wardell
spoke for Charles R. Case, president of the State Federation of Labor,
which was strongly in favor of the amendment, he said, and had votes
enough to carry it if the members would go to the polls. Mrs. Lord
represented the Grange, which she said could be depended on for an
affirmative vote. Miss Parker gave a graphic description of the
"illegal and dishonorable methods" by which the vote was taken away
from the women while Washington was a Territory.[62] Mrs. John Moore
of Tacoma read a powerful scene from The Spanish Gypsy by George
Eliot. After a lively collection speech by Mrs. Upton, Dr. Shaw closed
the evening with a mirth-provoking "question box."

At an afternoon session Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery read the report of
the National Committee on the Petition to Congress. It had been the
plan of Mrs. Catt, as presented and adopted at the convention of 1908,
to have one final petition to Congress for the submission of the
Federal Amendment and she had consented to take the chairmanship
temporarily. Headquarters had been opened in the Martha Washington,
the woman's hotel in New York City, where the headquarters of the
Interurban Woman Suffrage Council, of which Mrs. Catt was chairman,
were located. Here she and Miss Mary Garrett Hay spent many months
from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m., assisted by Miss Minnie J. Reynolds, who did
press work and correspondence with the States. Mrs. Priscilla D.
Hackstaff of Brooklyn, a former Missourian, took charge of the work in
that State from these headquarters and there was an energetic
volunteer sub-committee of New York suffragists. The report continued:

     "The Governors of the four enfranchised States served on an
     honorary Advisory Committee, as did the following men and women:
     Anna Howard Shaw, Clara Barton, Julia Ward Howe, William Lloyd
     Garrison, William Dudley Foulke, Jane Addams, Mary E. Garrett,
     Sarah Platt Decker, the Hon. John D. Long, Samuel Gompers,
     Colonel George Harvey, Rabbi Charles Fleischer (Mass.), Dr.
     Josiah Strong, Edward T. Devine, John Mitchell, Judge Ben
     Lindsey, Mrs. Clarence Mackay, Lillian M. Hollister, Mary Lowe
     Dickinson, Mrs. Bourke Cockran and Cynthia Westover Alden.

     When Mrs. Catt left for London in March, 1909, in the interests
     of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, the work came to
     me. At that time upwards of 10,000 letters had been written and
     100,000 petitions distributed and twenty-three State
     organizations were collecting, counting, pasting and classifying
     the lists. Since then five other States have gone to work.
     Letters were written to all the newspapers in the four equal
     suffrage States asking the insertion of a coupon petition and
     these coupons brought in the names of many friends who could not
     otherwise be reached and who were enthusiastic workers for the
     petition. Others to the _Age of Reason_ and _Wilshire's Magazine_
     brought hundreds of willing workers. Letters were sent in every
     direction, friends stirred up, reminded of their task and
     requested to send names of others who would work. Every sheet
     that came in was searched for names of possible friends who might
     circulate the petitions. Between March 1 and July 1, 1909, nearly
     2,000 letters were written and 45,000 blanks distributed....

Later the work was removed to Washington and headquarters established
there to finish the petition by 1910.

The report of Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg (Penn.), chairman of the
Committee on Civil Rights, showed the usual painstaking year's work.
Her letters to all the State presidents for information had brought
answers from twenty-two and eleven of these showed advanced
legislation for women and children. In some of them it was amended
labor laws or new ones; in others for a Juvenile Court, for improving
the position of teachers, for the advantage of children in the public
schools, for property rights of wives. Maine reported nearly a dozen
such new laws. Minnesota was in the lead with thirty Acts of the
Legislature.

Mrs. Mary E. Craigie (N. Y.), chairman of the Committee on Church
Work, introduced her excellent report by saying: "President Taft
recently said in a public address: 'Christianity and the spirit of
Christianity are the only basis for the hope of modern civilization
and the growth of popular self-government.' ... Women are to-day and
always have been the mainstay and chief support of the churches and
the leaders in all great moral reforms; yet as a disfranchised class
they are powerless to aid in bringing about any reforms that depend
upon legislative or governmental action and the church is thereby
deprived of more than two-thirds of its power to help extend civic
righteousness throughout the land. Now that there is a world-wide
movement among women to demand the political power to do their part in
the world's work, they have a right to ask and to receive from
ministers and from all Christian people support and help in working
for this greatest of all reforms." ... Mrs. Craigie told of addressing
the ministerial association of Canada at Toronto, where fifteen
minutes had been allotted to her but by unanimous insistence she was
obliged to keep on for an hour. An interesting discussion followed,
after which an endorsement of the principle of woman suffrage was
unanimously voted. She spoke at a meeting of the Dominion Temperance
Alliance, where there were 600 delegates, many of them clergymen, and
a resolution by the chairman endorsing the woman suffrage bill then
before the Provincial Legislature was carried without a dissenting
vote. Reports were included of the good work accomplished by the
members of her committee in the various States.

The usual Sunday afternoon convention meeting was held in the
auditorium on the Exposition grounds, under the auspices of this
church committee, with a large audience who listened to an able
presentation of The Sacred Duties and Obligations of Citizenship. Dr.
Shaw presided and the speakers were the Rev. C. Lyng Hansen, Mrs.
Craigie, Professor Potter and Miss Janet Richards. Mrs. Kelley spoke
in the First Christian Church, Mrs. Eva Emery Dye in the Second Avenue
Congregational Church and the Rev. Mary G. Andrews preached for the
Universalists on The Freedom of Truth. At the First Methodist
Protestant Church, Miss Laura Clay talked on Christian Citizenship in
the morning and Dr. Shaw preached in the evening. Mrs. Charlotte
Perkins Gilman spoke at the Boylston Avenue Unitarian Church in the
morning and Mrs. Gilman and Mrs. Pauline Steinem at a patriotic
service in Plymouth Church in the evening. Mr. Blackwell and Mrs.
Steinem spoke in the Jewish synagogue.[63] In the evening the officers
of the association were "at home" to the members of the convention and
friends at the Lincoln Hotel.

The election of officers took place Monday morning. At Miss
Blackwell's request she was permitted to retire from the office of
recording secretary, which she had filled for twenty years, and the
convention gave her a rising vote of thanks for her most efficient
service. Her complete and satisfactory reports of the national
conventions in her paper, the _Woman's Journal_, had formed a standard
record that nowhere else could be found. She exchanged places with
Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, second auditor, and was thus retained on the
board. The remainder of the officers were re-elected but Miss Gordon,
the corresponding secretary, stated that with the removal of the
headquarters to New York and the increased work which would follow,
this officer should be there all the time, which was impossible for
her. Professor Potter was the unanimous choice of the convention, and,
after communicating with the university and securing a leave of
absense for two years, she accepted the office. Her assistant and
friend, Professor Mary Gray Peck, accepted the office of headquarters
secretary. Both were prominent in the College Suffrage League in that
State. The convention by a rising vote expressed its appreciation of
the excellent work Miss Gordon had done, "and for the still greater
work that she will yet do," added Dr. Shaw.

It was voted to change the name of the Business Committee to the
Official Board and to add Mrs. Catt, the only ex-president, to this
board. Urgent invitations were received from Governor Robert S. Vessey
of South Dakota and the Mayor and Chamber of Commerce of Sioux Falls
to hold the convention of 1910 there, as an amendment was to be voted
on in the autumn. Dr. Shaw commented: "Governor Vessey is a man who
has convictions and is not afraid to stand by them. I am grateful that
he dares to do this while he is in office." A delegate spoke of the
appointment of a woman for the first time to an office in her State
and immediately delegates from other States gave the same announcement
until it was necessary to stop the flood. Miss Penfield, one of a
number of national organizers who were kept constantly in the field,
told of having worked in six States in the past six months. In
Pennsylvania she visited thirty-five small towns, holding parlor
meetings, which she advocated as leading to the formation of suffrage
clubs. In Kentucky she addressed fifteen colleges and schools. Mrs.
Ida Porter Boyer (Penn.), Miss Mary N. Chase (N. H.) and Miss Laura
Gregg (Kans.) gave experiences in field work.

Mrs. Villard presided Monday evening and in introducing Mr. Blackwell,
whom the audience rose to greet, she said: "It is a pleasure for me to
pay also a tribute to the loveliness of his wife, Lucy Stone. To my
childish vision she was a type of perpetual sunshine." Mr. Blackwell
gave the opinion of a man of long observation and experience on How to
Get Votes for Women. Mrs. Craigie spoke on Citizenship--What Is It?
Mrs. Stewart relieved Mrs. Upton of her usual task of taking a
collection and among her witty remarks was one on Bartholdi's statue
of Liberty. "The real goddesses of Liberty in this country do not
spend a large amount of time standing on pedestals in public places;
they use their torches to startle the bats in political cellars."
Referring to the ignoring of women's work in the histories she said:
"When I was a child and studied about the Pilgrim Fathers I supposed
they were all bachelors, as I never found a word about their wives."
Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's topic was Masculine, Feminine and
Human, discussed with her usual keen analysis and illuminated with her
pungent epigrams.

A spirited symposium took place on Pre-Election Methods, led by Mrs.
Stewart, who outlined the work done in Illinois, where it had been
reduced to a system. "We find candidates much less tractable after
election than before," she said, "although we always send literature
and letters to the members-elect and subscribe for the _Woman's
Journal_ for them. We are now strong enough in some districts for
pre-election work to elect our friends and defeat our enemies. Mrs.
Catharine Waugh McCulloch sent a circular letter to every member of
the last Legislature, with questions as to his attitude on woman
suffrage and from the answers she compiled a leaflet recommending the
election of the men who promised to vote for our measures. She sent
this to every paper in Illinois and distributed it as widely as
possible among the women's clubs and women at large. She did the same
with our Congressmen. Not one of the legislators who promised to vote
for our bill voted against it. Our most important measure was lost in
the Senate by a majority of only one vote. Eight of the Senators who
voted against it are up for re-election and we shall do our best to
keep them from going back. Illinois has printed for several years a
Roll of Honor of the legislators who have voted right on our bills."

The discussion showed a general opinion that it was high time for
action of this kind. Mrs. Kelley asked: "Why not do prenomination
work?" and Dr. Shaw said: "I do not know a political method when I see
it and I haven't an ounce of political sense but I do believe heartily
in this sort of work." Led by Mrs. Ella Hawley Crossett, president of
the New York association, "Should there be concentration on one bill
or work for several"? was discussed. Miss Gordon said: "Ask for
everything in sight and you will get a little." Mrs. Cornelia Telford
Jewett, editor of the _Union Signal_, brought a fraternal greeting
from the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union and when she said
that most of the criticism she received was that she gave the readers
too much suffrage, Dr. Shaw remarked in her jovial way: "They would
get more if I could write, as Mrs. Jewett has often asked me for
articles."

Among the symposiums and round table conferences in the morning and
afternoon sessions were those on "How to make existing suffrage
sentiment politically effective," Miss Clay presiding; "The tariff in
its relation to women," and "Taxation without representation is
tyranny in 1909 as much as in 1776," Mrs. Villard presiding in place
of Mrs. DeVoe, who was ill; "Parents' organizations, their value in
creating public sentiment," and "The self-government plan in our
public schools as an aid in preparing the coming generations for woman
suffrage," Mrs. B. W. Dawley (Ohio), presiding. The report of the
Committee on Education, presented by its chairman, Mrs. Steinem, said
that the principal work of the half-year had been to carry out the
resolutions adopted at the Buffalo convention to investigate the text
books on History and Civics used in the public schools and she had
secured a valuable expression of opinion through letters sent to 400
superintendents of schools and twenty-six school book publishing
houses. Some of them quoted the names of Betsy Ross, Molly Pitcher,
Martha Washington and Dolly Madison to show that women were not
neglected in the text books. Many declared they had given the subject
no thought but were open to conviction. In summing up Mrs. Steinem
expressed the belief that this lack of recognition of woman's
influence in history was not so much the result of intention as of the
masculine point of view which has dominated civilization. "The
impression conveyed by our text books," she said, "is that this world
has been made by men and for men and the ideals they are putting forth
are colored by masculine thought.... Our text books on Civics do not
show the slightest appreciation of the significance of the 'woman's
movement.' ...

On the closing night Miss Richards, the noted lecturer of Washington,
D. C., made a delightfully clever and sparkling speech on Sex
Antagonism, Why and What is the Cure? Professor Potter gave a second
splendid address and Dr. Shaw's eloquent farewell sent the audience
home in an exalted mood.

The excellent arrangements for the convention and the entertainment of
the officers and delegates had been made with much care and judgment
by the State association and the Seattle society, which appropriated
$1,000 for the purpose.[64] The surpassing beauty of the city and the
Exposition was an unceasing delight. Miss Blackwell said in her
description in the _Woman's Journal_: "The splendid setting of the
convention was a constant pleasure--the tall firs, the beautiful water
and picturesque mountains. Large bunches of sweet peas and of the
enormous roses never seen but on the Pacific coast were constantly
being handed up to the president and speakers in the course of the
convention by the pretty little pages. All the delegates agreed that
the display of flowers on the grounds was more beautiful than they had
seen at any previous Exposition. Some of the delegates from the
Atlantic coast said it was worth coming across the continent just to
see this flower garden."

The always-to-be-remembered feature of the week was Suffrage Day at
the Exposition, arranged by its officials for the day following the
convention. To quote again from Miss Blackwell:

     In the morning on arriving at the Exposition we found above the
     gate a big banner with the inscription, "Woman Suffrage Day."
     Every person entering the grounds was presented with a special
     button and a green-ribbon badge representing the Equal Suffrage
     Association of Washington, the Evergreen State. High in the air
     over the grounds floated a large "Votes for Women" kite. All the
     toy balloons sold on the grounds that day were stamped with the
     words "Votes for Women" and many of the delegates bought them and
     went around with them hovering over their heads like Japanese
     lanterns--yellow, red, white or green but predominantly green. At
     the morning meeting in the great auditorium there was fine music
     by the Exposition band, with addresses of welcome from J. E.
     Chilberg, president; Louis W. Buckley, director of ceremonies and
     special events, and R. W. Raymond, assistant director, and brief
     speeches by Dr. Shaw, Miss Gordon, Mrs. Upton, Miss Blackwell,
     Mrs. Stewart, Miss Clay, Mrs. Kelley, Mrs. Gilman and Professor
     Potter.... After the morning exercises, the national officers
     were taken to the Education building and treated to an excellent
     lunch cooked and served by the domestic science class of the high
     school.

     In the afternoon there was a reception in the magnificent room
     occupying the ground floor of the Washington State building with
     more addresses of welcome by prominent men connected with the
     Exposition and more short speeches by the visitors. Later in the
     afternoon there was another reception at the Idaho building by
     the Idaho and Utah women with more refreshments served by
     motherly matrons and pretty girls. The day closed with a
     "daylight dinner" given by the Washington Equal Suffrage
     Association at The Firs, the headquarters of the Young Women's
     Christian Association. Hundreds of suffragists sat down to the
     table within the building and on the large veranda looking off
     over a delightful prospect and there were many appreciative
     speeches. It was long after nightfall when the happy gathering
     broke up and the visitors then had a chance to see the fairy-like
     spectacle of the Exposition by night, with every building
     outlined in electric lights, the pools shimmering, the fountain
     gleaming and a series of cascades coming down in foam, with
     electric lights of different colors glowing through each
     waterfall.


FOOTNOTES:

[60] Part of Call: In entering upon the fifth decade of its work for
the enfranchisement of women in the United States, the National
American Woman Suffrage Association invites all those to share in its
councils who believe that the help of women is needed by the
Government. It is a grave mistake of statesmanship to continue to
ignore the wisdom of the thousands of our women citizens, who, fitted
by education and home interests, are anxious to help solve the many
and vital problems upon which our country's future safety and
prosperity depend....

During the year 1908 our cause won four solid victories. Michigan gave
taxpaying women a vote on questions of local taxation and the granting
of franchises; Denmark gave women who are taxpayers or wives of
taxpayers a vote for all officers but members of Parliament; Belgium
gave women engaged in trade a vote for the Conseils des Prudhommes;
and Victoria in Australia gave full State suffrage to all women. The
legislative hearings in New York, Massachusetts and Nebraska have
called out unprecedented crowds showing the growth of popular
interest.... The Legislatures of Oregon, Washington and South Dakota
have voted to submit the question of woman suffrage to the electors in
1910. The workers for woman's political freedom have great cause for
rejoicing.

                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                         RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, First Vice-President.
                         FLORENCE KELLEY, Second Vice-President.
                         KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.
                         ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.
                         HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
                         LAURA CLAY,      } Auditors.
                         ELLA S. STEWART, }

The Call ended with the touching poem of the young Southern poet, Mrs.
Olive Tilford Dargan, "The Lord of little children to the sleeping
mothers spoke."

[61] The resolutions declared the movement for woman suffrage to be
but a part of the great struggle for human liberty; called for the
enactment of initiative and referendum laws; equal pay for women and
men in public and private employment; uniform State laws against child
labor and for compulsory education; more industrial training for boys
and girls in the public schools; more strenuous effort against the
white slave traffic. They demanded that the United States should take
the lead in an international movement for the limitation of armaments.
A cordial vote of thanks was given for the hospitality and courtesies
of the city and the people of Seattle.

[62] See History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 1096.

[63] The ministers of Seattle who opened the various sessions with
prayer were: Doctors A. Norman Ward, Protestant Methodist; Thomas E.
Elliott, Queen Anne Methodist; George Robert Cairns, Temple Baptist;
Edward Lincoln Smith, Pilgrim Congregational; Sydney Strong, Queen
Anne Congregational; the Reverends J. D. O. Powers, Unitarian; W. H.
W. Rees, First Methodist Episcopal; W. A. Major, Bethany Presbyterian;
Joseph L. Garvin, First Christian; C. Lyng Hanson, Scandinavian
Methodist; F. O. Iverson, Norwegian Lutheran; P. Nelson, Norwegian
Congregational Missionary.

[64] Committee: Mrs. DeVoe, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, Mrs. Bessie J.
Savage, Miss Adella M. Parker, Dr. Sarah A. Kendall, Mrs. Ellen S.
Lockenby and a small army of assistants.




CHAPTER X.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1910.


As a national convention had not been held in Washington since 1904
the suffragists were pleased to return to that city with the
Forty-second in the long list, which was held April 14-19, 1910.[65]
Three special cars were filled by delegates from New York City alone.
It had become very difficult to get a suitable place for conventions
in the national capital and the experiment was made of holding this
one in the large ball room of the Arlington Hotel, which proved
entirely inadequate for the audiences. The convention was called to
order on the first afternoon by the national president, Dr. Anna
Howard Shaw, and welcomed by the president of the District of Columbia
suffrage association, Miss Harriette J. Hifton, and the president of
the District branch of the College Equal Suffrage League, Miss Mabel
Foster. The response for the National Association was made by Miss
Laura Clay of Kentucky, one of its officers.

The report of the Committee on Church Work was read by its chairman,
Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, who gave a record of the accomplishments of her
committees in the various States and said: "The moral awakening of the
churches to a need for more united efforts along lines of social and
moral reform carries with it a great responsibility for women, who,
representing two-thirds of the numerical power of the churches, are in
their present disfranchised condition negative factors in those
broader fields of activity which now constitute church work. Women are
beginning to realize that they are wasting their efforts and energies
in trying to effect moral and social reforms dependent upon
legislative action or law enforcement and they are asking: 'Shall we
go on with the farce of attacking the constantly growing evils of
intemperance, immorality and crime which menace our homes, our
children and society at large, knowing that our efforts are useless
and futile, or shall we take a stand which will show that we are in
earnest and demand the weapon of the ballot which is necessary before
we can do our part as Christian citizens in advancing the kingdom of
God on earth?'"

The excellent report of the new headquarters secretary, Professor Mary
Gray Peck, filled ten pages of the printed Minutes and in addition to
the large collection of statistics contained many useful suggestions.
Like all of the reports from the headquarters it showed the great
advantage of having them in a large center. Referring to the
literature department she said: "Local chairmen should see that tables
with suffrage literature are placed in all church and charitable
bazaars as far as possible and that our papers may be subscribed for
at all subscription agencies; also that our publications are on the
shelves and on file in the public libraries throughout the State. One
of the things Mrs. Pankhurst said when she was looking over our
work-room was: 'Don't give away your publications. We found we got rid
of much more when we sold and now we give away nothing.' We have
always given away ours with considerable freedom and been glad to have
them read at our expense but at the low figure we put on them we could
draw the gratis line closer without impairing our popularity.... The
average daily output of literature since the opening of headquarters
in New York--and this does not include the orders which continued to
be filled in Warren--has been 2,742 pieces, or a growth of more than
25 per cent. over the average of last year. Our cash sales from
January 1 to April 1 have amounted to $938, or an average of $312 per
month as against the average of $89 per month for 1908-9. That is, our
cash sales for the past three months are three and a half times
greater than they were at the same time last year."

"The propagandist part of the correspondence," said Miss Peck, "soon
makes a wise woman of the headquarters secretary. The time for general
argument and abstract appeal has largely gone by. The call now is for
statistics, laws, definite citations, instances of industrial
conditions, legal status of women and children, etc.... The State
organizations could do no more valuable service in aiding our
efficiency as an information agency than by each getting out a
condensed and reliable bulletin of State laws relating to women and
children; and also by collecting data as to the property held
and taxes paid by women, with illustrative instances where
disfranchisement has forced these taxpayers to submit to injustice and
unfair discrimination." She told of the increasing call for woman
suffrage literature from public libraries to meet the demand and urged
the encouragement of debates, saying: "If the State organizations
would make a persistent effort to have suffrage debated in the schools
and if they advertised the national headquarters as prepared to
furnish a volume of debate material for thirty cents, suffrage would
receive continuous advertising at no financial expense to us, nor
would the good to the movement cease with the debate. Get the young
people interested and you catch the mothers. Also by keeping a card
register of the young debaters, the State organization would have the
names and addresses of an ever-growing list of oncoming citizens
interested in the subject. Debaters are a good deal cheaper than
organizers. The State University of Wisconsin is sending out through
its university extension department our suffrage literature in
travelling libraries to meet the demand in the public schools for
debate material. I believe most State universities would be glad to do
the same for us. Many universities and colleges have discussed
suffrage the past winter, notably Dartmouth, Williams and Brown in
their annual intercollegiate debate, Yale in the inter-class debate,
the University of Texas against Tulane University of Louisiana, and
Stanford will debate with Berkeley, April 16." Miss Peck made many
other valuable suggestions from the trained viewpoint of a university
woman.

Representative A. W. Rucker was introduced as a proxy for the Colorado
association and gave its report with a warm personal endorsement of
equal suffrage as it had existed in his State for seventeen years. The
convention greeted with enthusiasm the mother of U. S. Senator Robert
L. Owen of Oklahoma, who said she could not make a speech but would
send her son to do so that evening.

Although national suffrage conventions had been held in Washington
since 1869 no official recognition ever had been asked for or given by
the President of the United States. The leaders thought that now the
movement was of sufficient size and importance to justify them in
inviting President Taft to give simply an address of welcome. The
invitation was sent with the statement that its acceptance would not
be regarded as committing him to an advocacy of woman suffrage and it
was accepted with this understanding, although Mrs. Elihu Root
presented a request from the Anti-Suffrage Association that he would
not accept it. The entire country was interested and on the opening
evening, when he was to speak, the auditorium was crowded and lines of
people reached to the street. President Taft came in with his escort
while Dr. Shaw was in the midst of her annual address but she stopped
instantly and welcomed him to the platform. The audience arose and
with applause and waving of handkerchiefs remained standing until he
was seated. At one point in his brief address there was apparently a
slight hissing in the back part of the room. The President paused; Dr.
Shaw sprang to her feet exclaiming, "Oh, my children!" and the
audience, which was excited and amazed, instantly became quiet and
listened respectfully to the rest of his speech, but as he left the
room, after shaking hands with Dr. Shaw, a few remained seated. As
this incident attracted nation-wide comment and much criticism it
seems advisable to publish the proceedings in full. The address was as
follows:

     I am not entirely certain that I ought to have come tonight, but
     your committee who invited me assured me that I should be welcome
     even if I did not support all the views which were here advanced.
     I considered that this movement represented a sufficient part of
     the intelligence of the community to justify my coming here and
     welcoming you to Washington. The difficulty I expect to encounter
     is this--at least it is a difficulty that occurs to me as I judge
     my own feelings in causes in which I have an intense interest--to
     wit: that I am always a good deal more impatient with those who
     only go half-way with me than with those who actually oppose me.
     Now when I was sixteen years old and was graduated from the
     Woodward High School in Cincinnati, I took for my subject "Woman
     Suffrage" and I was as strong an advocate of it as any member of
     this convention. I had read Mills's "Subjection of Women"; my
     father was a woman suffragist and so at that time I was orthodox
     but in the actual political experience which I have had I have
     modified my views somewhat.

     In the first place popular representative government we approve
     and support because on the whole every class, that is, every set
     of individuals who are similarly situated in the community, who
     are intelligent enough to know what their own interests are, are
     better qualified to determine how those interests shall be cared
     for and preserved than any other class, however altruistic that
     class may be; but I call your attention to two qualifications in
     that statement. One is that the class should be intelligent
     enough to know its own interests. The theory that Hottentots or
     any other uneducated, altogether unintelligent class is fitted
     for self-government at once or to take part in government is a
     theory that I wholly dissent from--but this qualification is not
     applicable here. The other qualification to which I call your
     attention is that the class should as a whole care enough to look
     after its interests, to take part as a whole in the exercise of
     political power if it is conferred. Now if it does not care
     enough for this, then it seems to me that the danger is, if the
     power is conferred, that it may be exercised by that part of the
     class least desirable as political constituents and be neglected
     by many of those who are intelligent and patriotic and would be
     most desirable as members of the electorate.

It was at this point the supposed hissing occurred and the President
continued:

     Now, my dear ladies, you must show yourselves equal to
     self-government by exercising, in listening to opposing
     arguments, that degree of restraint without which self-government
     is impossible. If I could be sure that women as a class in the
     community, including all the intelligent women most desirable as
     political constituents, would exercise the franchise, I should
     be in favor of it. At present there is considerable doubt upon
     that point. In certain of the States which have tried it woman
     suffrage has not been a failure. It has not made, I think, any
     substantial difference in politics. I think it is perhaps
     possible to say that its adoption has shown an improvement in the
     body politic, but it has been tested only in those States where
     population is sparse and where the problem of entrusting such
     power to women in the concentrated population of large cities is
     not presented. For this reason, if you will permit me to say so,
     my impression is that the task before you in securing what you
     think ought to be granted in respect to the political rights of
     women is not in convincing men but it is in convincing the
     majority of your own class of the wisdom of extending the
     suffrage to them and of their duty to exercise it.

     Now that is my confession of faith. I am glad to welcome you
     here. I am glad to welcome an intelligent body of women, earnest
     in the discussion of politics, earnest in the question of good
     government and earnest and high-minded in the cause they are
     pursuing, even if I disagree with them, not in principle but in
     the application of it to the present situation. More than this I
     ought not to say and I hope you will not deem me ungracious in
     saying as much as I have said, but I came here at the invitation
     of your committee with the understanding as to what I might say
     and that I should not subscribe to all the principles that you
     are here to advocate. I congratulate you on coming to Washington,
     this most beautiful of cities, to hold your convention. I trust
     that it may result in everything that you hope for and I am sure
     that the coming together of honest, intelligent and earnest women
     like these cannot but be productive of good.

Some persons thought that the hissing was done by one or more
delegates from the equal suffrage States because of the aspersion cast
on the class of women who were likely to vote. Others believed there
was no hissing but that it was merely an exclamation of "hush" because
of the noise caused by the moving of loose chairs, many in the back
part of the room standing up on them to get a better view. It was,
however, a matter of great concern and regret on the part of the
national officers, who met early the next morning and framed the
following resolution:

     WHEREAS the President of the United States in welcoming the
     Forty-second Annual Convention of the National American Woman
     Suffrage Association has taken the historic position of being the
     first incumbent of his office to recognize officially our
     determination to secure a complete democracy, thereby testifying
     his conviction as to its power and growth, and WHEREAS his
     seriousness, honesty and friendliness converted what might have
     been an empty form into an official courtesy, historic alike for
     him and for us,

     THEREFORE be it resolved that we convey to President William H.
     Taft the thanks and appreciation of this convention for his
     welcome, assuring him at the same time that the patriotism and
     public spirit of the women of America intend to make themselves
     directly felt in the government of which he is the honored head
     and that at no distant date.

This was adopted at the morning's session of the convention by a
unanimous rising vote. At the opening of the afternoon session Dr.
Shaw said: "I think one of the saddest hours that I have ever spent in
connection with one of our national conventions I spent last night
after the occurrence of an incident here for which none of the
officers of this association bears the least responsibility and we
trust none of the delegates needs to bear any of it, when there was a
dissent made to an utterance of President Taft. It seemed to us a most
unwise and ungracious act and we feel the keenest possible regret over
it. Because of this the Official Board has prepared a letter to the
President expressing our regret that the occurrence should have taken
place, whether by a member of this body or by a visitor. It is
impossible to control a great public audience individually and an
organization is not responsible for everything which takes place in
its public meetings. While I do not think our organization as a body
is at all responsible for what took place last night I feel that,
since the President was our guest, it is our duty to express our very
deep regret for the incident. I ask, therefore, that, without
discussion and without further speech, there shall be concurrence on
the part of the convention with the Official Board in sending a letter
of regret to the President."

The convention agreed to this instantly with but one dissenting and it
was ascertained that she was not only not a delegate but not a member
of the association. This justified the general opinion that if there
had been any hissing the night before it was done by some of the large
number of outsiders in the audience. The letter signed by Professor
Frances Squire Potter, as corresponding secretary, read as follows:

     To President William Howard Taft,

     My dear Mr. President:

     The enclosed resolution, introduced by the Committee on
     Convention Resolutions, was passed unanimously by the National
     American Woman Suffrage Association today at the opening of its
     morning session. I am instructed by the unanimous vote of the
     Official Board and of the delegates now assembled to send you
     with the resolution this official communication.

     The official board and delegates were but a small part of the
     very large gathering to hear your greeting last evening but as
     the representatives of the association these delegates feel great
     sorrow that any one present, either a member or an outsider,
     should have interrupted your address by an expression of personal
     feeling, and they herewith disclaim responsibility for such
     interruption and ask your acceptance of this expression of regret
     in the spirit in which it is given.

The letter was sent in the afternoon by messenger across Lafayette
Square, which separated the Arlington from the White House, and the
next morning the following answer was received:

                                   The White House,
                                   Washington, April 16, 1910.

     My dear Mrs. Potter:

     I beg to acknowledge your favor of April 15. I unite with you in
     regretting the incident occurring during my address to which your
     letter refers. I regret it not because of any personal feeling,
     for I have none on the subject at all, but only because much more
     significance has been given to it than it deserves and because it
     may be used in an unfair way to embarrass the leaders of your
     movement.

     I thank the association for the kindly and cordial tone of the
     resolutions transmitted and hope that the feature of Thursday
     night's meeting, which you describe as having given your
     association much sorrow, may soon be entirely forgotten.

                         Sincerely yours,
                                             William H. Taft.

This closed the incident as far as it could be closed but there was a
great deal of sympathy with the sentiment expressed by Miss Alice
Stone Blackwell in the _Woman's Journal_: "It was known that while the
President was not an anti-suffragist he was not a strong suffragist
and might not even be wholly with us. It was, therefore, not expected
that he would at the convention 'come out for suffrage.' Indeed, he
was not invited to make an address but simply to extend to the
convention the welcome of the national capital, not because he was a
suffragist but because the convention thought that it was
representative enough and of sufficient size and standing in the
country to warrant asking the President to do this one thing. He could
have declined the invitation and no one would have been offended. He
could have said he was an anti-suffragist. He could have tactfully
omitted his opinion and confined his time to greetings and welcome as
Chief Executive to the convention as a large organization of the women
of the nation. At the point where the supposed hissing occurred, it
was as if the speaker had struck those women in the face with a whip.
Even those who most resented the President's remarks regretted the
expression of open disapproval in such a manner, but, to a person,
the audience felt that he had been untactful, and, however
unintentionally, had implied an odious comparison; that he had not
sufficiently considered this great body of the picked women of the
land to choose his language in addressing them."

The President's address was preceded by one given by Professor Potter
on The Making of Democracy, which had seldom been equalled in its
statesmanlike qualities. This was followed by a powerful argument on
Why Women Should Have the Suffrage, by Senator Robert L. Owen (Okla.),
one of the ablest speakers in the U. S. Senate and always an
uncompromising supporter of the political rights of women.

At an afternoon session Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery (Penn.), who had
succeeded Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt as chairman of the Committee on
Petition to Congress, took up the report where it had ended at the
last convention. She said that, in addition to the 100,000 petitions
and 5,000 individual letters sent from New York under Mrs. Catt's
supervision, there had gone out from the headquarters after they had
been removed to Washington and placed in charge of Mrs. Rachel Brill
Ezekiel, 60,000 more petitions, 11,000 more letters and 1,185 postals
with appeals. "The petition," she said, "has been a means of
introducing suffrage into thousands of households and hundreds of
meetings of all kinds in which the subject had not before been
mentioned. Even women's clubs have had to listen to suffrage when
brought to them by eager seekers after signatures. It has given to
many people who have never before done anything for suffrage an
opportunity. In some cases whole neighborhoods have been reached
through the work of a single energetic woman willing to go from house
to house circulating the petition and leaving literature with families
where she found little or no sympathy for our movement. All letters
sent out from petition headquarters enclosed suffrage leaflets and
carried to thousands of men and women the first suffrage literature
they had seen." All this vast work had cost only $4,555, of which Mrs.
Catt had contributed $1,000. The most strenuous effort had not
succeeded in getting the return of all the petitions in time for the
convention but those at hand contained 404,825 names.[66]

The arrangements for the parade which was to carry the petitions to
Congress were in the hands of Miss Mary Garrett Hay. Mrs. Helen H.
Gardener obtained the use of fifty cars from interested residents of
Washington and these were handsomely adorned with the flag of the
United States and suffrage banners. The official report said: "The
most picturesque incident of the convention was the long line of fifty
decorated automobiles which bore the petitions and delegates of each
State from the Hotel Arlington to the Capitol, where the petitions
were personally delivered to the various Senators and Representatives
who were to present them to Congress. The large piles of rolled
petitions, the respect of the people who lined the streets, the
courtesy of the Congressmen and the crowds which watched the
presentation in Senate and House were all impressive. Senator
LaFollette brought instant silence when, presenting his share of the
petitions, he said, "I hope the time will come when this great body of
intelligent people will not find it necessary to petition for that
which ought to be accorded as a right in a country of equal
opportunities."

At the afternoon session a vote of thanks was given to Senator
LaFollette and all the Senators and Representatives who presented the
petitions. Deep appreciation was expressed of the labor of Mrs. Catt
in connection with the petitions and regret that she was not able to
be present at the Capitol. This was the last of the hundreds of
thousands of petitions to Congress for the submission of a National
Amendment to enfranchise women which began in 1866.[67]

Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton in her treasurer's report said the past year
had been an unusually hard one financially not because of adversity
but because of prosperity. Formerly the States had sent their money to
the national treasury to be used as the Official Board thought best,
but now there were so many campaigns and new lines of work in various
States that they wanted to disburse their own money. This was
encouraging but hard on the national work. Few were the years between
1899 and 1908 when some legacy was not received, as Miss Anthony never
missed an opportunity to urge women to make such bequests. After her
death Miss Mary Anthony followed her example but since both had passed
away little had been done in this direction. The total receipts for
1909 were $21,466, and the general disbursements $19,814. With the
headquarters in New York more money had been received but more also
had to be spent. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont furnished the offices of
the Press Committee, paid their rent, the salaries of three workers
and all other expenses connected with it. Mrs. William M. Ivins of New
York City and Mrs. Mary Ely Parsons of Rye, N. Y., furnished Dr.
Shaw's office.

In closing Mrs. Upton said that the duties of the headquarters and of
the treasurer's office had been so closely connected that up to this
time it had been difficult to separate them. In fact from the time she
was elected to date she had always done some work properly belonging
to headquarters. From the first a clerk was supplied to her and she
was so situated that she could do this and was more than willing to.
She had edited twelve reports of annual conventions and was editor and
manager of _Progress_ for seven years. She told how letters and
requests continued to come to her after the headquarters went to New
York and she was obliged to employ another clerk, whose salary she
herself paid. In closing she said: "Since 1893 your treasurer has
received and disbursed more than $275,000 and she wishes the
treasurer for the coming year could have that full amount for the next
twelve months' work." The convention accepted the report with a rising
vote of thanks for her many years of continuous service.

The general subscriptions at the convention, including those for the
South Dakota campaign, were $4,363. Mrs. Belmont continued her pledge
of $600 a month. The association had various funds to draw from, which
were supplied by contributions. It was voted to appropriate $150 a
month for six and a half months' work in Oklahoma if the amendment was
to go to the voters in November.

Memorial services were held on the morning of April 15 for two
distinguished members of the association, Henry B. Blackwell, who had
died Sept. 7, 1909, and William Lloyd Garrison, five days later. On
the program was an extract from a speech made by Mr. Blackwell at a
national Woman's Rights Convention in Cleveland, O., in 1853: "The
interests of the sexes are inseparably connected and in the elevation
of the one lies the salvation of the other. Therefore, I claim a part
in this last and grandest movement of the ages, for whatever concerns
woman concerns the race." Affectionate and beautiful tributes to Mr.
Blackwell's nearly fifty years' devotion to the cause of woman
suffrage were paid by those who had known him long and intimately,
which are partially quoted here.

     Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard: I have ever regarded Mr. Blackwell
     as a many-sided reformer, one whose most distinguished claim to
     remembrance consists in the fact that no other man has devoted so
     much of his life to the task of securing the enfranchisement of
     women. Only those who have read the _Woman's Journal_ regularly
     and depended on it for an accurate record of the slow but steady
     march of progress of this great movement can fully realize the
     enormous amount of editorial work contributed to it by him during
     the past forty years. The combination of superior intellectual
     powers with tenderest sympathies formed a rare equipment for
     success in his chosen field of usefulness. In truth his advocacy
     of the woman's cause was marked by such zeal and enthusiasm that
     one not knowing the initials "H. B. B." stood for a man might
     quite naturally have believed that only a woman could own them.
     Fortunately he was possessed of the sunniest possible temperament
     and blessed with an unusual sense of humor which enabled him to
     see things in their true proportions and make light of obstacles
     in his path. The many and varied tributes that have been paid to
     his memory all dwell upon his intense love of justice which led
     him to wage war against oppression wherever he found it.... It
     was my good fortune to be present at the celebration of Mr.
     Blackwell's eightieth birthday in Faneuil Hall in Boston. With
     great clarity of vision he defined the duty of the hour and said:
     "But we can not afford to be a mutual admiration society, there
     is still work to do." ... With what patience, fortitude and true
     courage he and Lucy Stone, his wife, played their part in the
     face of ridicule and opprobrium is now a matter of history. Women
     who today live a freer life because of their labors and those of
     their coadjutors must offer to their memory the highest meed of
     praise.

     Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch: Lives consecrated to great
     reforms, particularly to the advancement of a reform to
     emancipate women, teach us that the age of chivalry is not past.
     These great men whom we honor to-day were not, like the knights
     of old, inspired by the love of some one woman whom they desired
     to possess, but they strove for justice for those they loved best
     and for us too, who were their friends, and for millions of women
     they never knew. Their far-reaching chivalry was one of the most
     important elements in the characters of Mr. Blackwell and Mr.
     Garrison. Both of them were unusually fortunate in the women who
     were their nearest and dearest. Mr. Blackwell's sister Elizabeth
     was the first woman physician in the United States; his
     sister-in-law, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first ordained
     minister; his wife, Lucy Stone, one of the sweetest and truest of
     the pioneer suffrage lecturers.

     Mr. Garrison was not old enough to be related to so many
     pioneers, except through his illustrious father, but his wife's
     devotion to the suffrage work, his sister's unfaltering activity
     and his association from boyhood with Boston's brilliant coterie
     of renowned women, might well have influenced him to have a
     higher regard and deeper respect for all their sex.... Mr.
     Blackwell and Mr. Garrison, in their beautiful family lives, are
     particularly illustrious examples that woman suffrage will not
     break up the home. Many long years did these pairs of married
     friends work together for our cause....

     To-day we sorrow for the loss of these men but not without hope,
     for there are other men coming forward to take up the work they
     have dropped. We women who are here to-day do not represent
     merely ourselves and the tens of thousands of other suffrage
     women but we are backed by the sympathy, the active encouragement
     and the money of our husbands, our brothers, our fathers, and
     many of us have chivalrous sons. More even than sympathy they now
     give, as some are giving themselves for service. One of Mr.
     Blackwell's last letters to me related to securing a large
     membership among men, and our Men's Suffrage Leagues, now
     springing up in all large cities, might well name themselves for
     him.... Go forward, men, with the spirit of Blackwell and
     Garrison!

Mrs. McCulloch paid a beautiful tribute to the human side of Mr.
Blackwell's character, his love of nature and his companionship with
children.

     Miss Jane Campbell: I need not enter into the details of the
     life, public or private, of Mr. Blackwell. They are written in
     letters of gold in the annals of the suffrage movement from the
     moment when in the beautiful, unselfish ardor of youth, with his
     wife, the silver-tongued Lucy Stone, he entered upon a career of
     patient, unflagging devotion to the cause of woman's rights....
     It evinced a high and noble spirit, a great courage, for any man
     to espouse an almost universally ridiculed cause, as did Mr.
     Blackwell; possibly greater courage than even a woman,
     conservative and timid if not by nature yet made so by education,
     showed when she emerged from her awed subjection and ventured to
     demand her equal share of privileges as well as of disabilities.
     The woman had the burning sense of injustice to arouse her, the
     indignation caused by her calm relegation to the position of an
     inferior to inspire her with courage to fight for freedom, but a
     man, a man like Mr. Blackwell, had no such bitter sense of
     personal wrong to impel him. He entered the contest not for
     himself, for he had no wrongs to redress, but his great soul saw
     that woman had and he devoted life, means, energy, talents to
     redress them. It is a rarely high, unselfish record of a noble
     life that he has left for the admiration and example of other
     men.... He was one of the most eloquent, forceful and logical
     speakers we have ever had on our platform, with his fine,
     resounding voice giving clear expression to his logical thinking,
     and he was a ready and forceful writer....

     Miss Anne Fitzhugh Miller: It was always a joy to meet Mr.
     Blackwell for there was never any picking up of broken threads of
     our spinning or knitting or weaving of good comradeship, which at
     once continued as if no absence had intervened. I felt at home
     with him always, he was a man after my own heart, direct,
     decided, accurate, devoted to high ideals, and yet he possessed
     an elasticity of nature which made him the most comfortable of
     comrades. His sense of humor and his love of fun made the best of
     good times for those who were fortunate enough to share his merry
     moods.... It was always a delight to hear him speak. The sound of
     his voice rested and refreshed and the soundness of his thought
     inspired confidence and admiration. His half-century of
     continuous and absolute devotion to the cause of woman suffrage
     gives Mr. Blackwell a unique position in history. All women owe
     him a debt of gratitude which they can best pay by renewed
     devotion to the cause to which he dedicated his life. In the
     truest and broadest sense he was and should be remembered as a
     "Brother of Women."

Dr. Shaw added her own fine appreciation of the two men and speaking
from almost a lifetime of acquaintance with Mr. Garrison gave a
glowing eulogy of his noble character, lofty convictions and fearless
courage, a worthy son of a great father. Among other prominent friends
of woman suffrage who had passed away during the year, recorded in the
memorial resolutions, were Justice Brewer, of the U. S. Supreme Court;
Dr. Borden P. Bowne, head of the department of philosophy and dean of
the graduate school in Boston University; Judge Charles B. Waite and
Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson of Chicago; Charles Sprague Smith,
director of Cooper Institute, New York, and many devoted workers in
the various States.

At one interesting evening session Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey (Ky.)
spoke on Republics versus Women, the title of her book; Mrs. Meta L.
Stern on Woman Suffrage from a Socialist's Point of View; Miss Alice
Paul on The English Situation. Mrs. Catt's subject was Caught in a
Snare and the convention voted to have it printed for circulation. As
Miss Alice Stone Blackwell was ill at home, missing the annual
convention for the first time, the readers of the _Woman's Journal_
were deprived of her usual comprehensive reports and abstracts of the
speeches where the manuscript was not available. That of Miss Paul was
published in full. She had recently returned from London, where she
had been a member of Mrs. Pankhurst's organization, had been sent to
prison, had gone on a "hunger strike" and been forcibly fed, and she
felt the situation keenly. A part of her speech was as follows:

     As we gather here as suffragists, our hearts naturally go out to
     those women at the storm-center of our movement--to those women
     in Great Britain who are having a struggle such as women have
     never had in any other land. The violent criticism, the
     suppression and distortion of facts from which they have suffered
     at the hands of the politically-inspired press of their own
     country have made it difficult for one on this side to gain any
     true conception of their movement....

     The essence of the campaign of the suffragettes is opposition to
     the Government. The country seems willing that the vote be
     extended to women. This last Parliament showed its willingness by
     passing their franchise bill through its second reading by a
     three-to-one majority, but the Government, that little group
     which controls legislation, would not let it become law. It is
     not a war of women against men, for the men are helping loyally,
     but a war of men and women together against the politicians at
     the head, who because of their own political interests seem
     afraid to enfranchise women. The suffragettes have gone with
     petitions to the head of the Government, as our representatives
     will go in a few days to the authorities in Washington. Here they
     will be received with courtesy, but Mr. Asquith has never since
     he has been Prime Minister received a deputation of women on this
     question of their suffrage. Each time he curtly refuses to see
     them and orders the police to drive them away or arrest them.
     Thirteen times the deputations of one society alone have been
     arrested....

     The Earl of Lytton said the other day that more violence had been
     done by the men during the three weeks of the recent election
     than by the women during their entire agitation. Such action on
     the part of voters is wrong for they have a constitutional way,
     through the ballot, of redressing their grievances, but on the
     part of a disfranchised class, after half a century's trial has
     proved all their methods to be of no avail, a protest such as
     these women have made seems entirely right. We are so close at
     hand that perhaps we hardly realize the full significance of
     their movement. The greatest drama that is being enacted in the
     world today, it seems to me, is the battle of the British women.
     When historians can look back from the perspective of a century
     or two I think they will say that this talk of dreadnaughts and
     budgets and House of Lords was after all of but little moment and
     that the great event of world significance in Great Britain early
     in the century was the magnificent struggle for political freedom
     on the part of her women.

The comprehensive report of the corresponding secretary, Professor
Potter, filled ten pages of the printed Minutes and was a complete
summary of the year's work and that which should be done. Names were
given of about forty associations which had passed resolutions for
woman suffrage during the year, preceded usually by discussion. These
included Federations of Labor, Granges, Temperance Societies,
Federations of Women's Clubs, religious bodies and labor
organizations. Among the last were the International Typographical
Union, International Chair Workers, Amalgamated Association of Street
and Electric Railway Employees, American Federation of Labor, National
Women's Trade Union League and many others. She called attention to
the fact that in many instances the endorsement was unanimous and that
the labor resolutions were stronger than ever before, using the phrase
"our intention to secure woman suffrage." The Pennsylvania Federation
said: "In selecting candidates for political office we will endeavor
to secure men who are committed to a belief in the right of women to
vote."

Professor Potter emphasized the need of research experts to bring the
statistics up to date, as it was now impossible to answer the requests
for information from the best type of those asking it, university
graduates working for higher degrees, men and women writing articles,
books, plays, etc. She reported the beginning of a card catalogue of
subjects and the progress made toward carrying out the instructions of
the Seattle convention that the national headquarters undertake a
handbook of Federal and State Laws for Women and a bibliography. She
described the character of the thousands of letters sent out, covering
work for prize essays, poster campaigns, mass meetings, "settlement"
work, appointments of women, newspaper and magazine publicity and
especially organization along political lines. As she had been asked
to act as field lecturer as well as corresponding secretary she
reported fifty-four lectures given, not only at State suffrage
conventions but before men's leagues, press clubs, labor meetings,
churches, universities, etc.

The convention showed by a rising vote its full appreciation of this
report, which was the first and last given by Professor Potter as
corresponding secretary. Differences in regard to administration had
arisen which proved to be irreconcilable and she had declined to stand
for re-election. The Official Board was divided in opinion and this
led to several changes in its personnel. Dr. Shaw was re-elected
president; Mrs. Avery, first vice-president; Mrs. Stewart, second
vice-president; Mrs. Upton, treasurer; Miss Clay and Miss Blackwell,
first and second auditors. Mrs. Florence Kelley declined re-nomination
as second vice-president and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch was
elected. Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett (Mass.) was chosen for corresponding
secretary. Later in the convention Mrs. Avery and Mrs. Upton gave in
their resignations, which the delegates refused to accept and then
both announced that their offices would be vacant in one month. Mrs.
Upton had been treasurer of the association since 1893 and the
delegates were most reluctant to let her go. By action of the
Executive Committee Mrs. McCulloch was advanced to the office of first
vice-president; Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.) was made second
vice-president and Miss Jessie Ashley (N. Y.), treasurer.

The National College Equal Suffrage League held business sessions
Saturday forenoon and afternoon with its president, Dr. M. Carey
Thomas of Bryn Mawr presiding, and a luncheon was given for its
delegates. Miss Caroline Lexow made the annual report. At the evening
meeting of the convention Mrs. Alice Duer Miller (N. Y.), representing
the Equal Franchise Society, of which Mrs. Clarence Mackay was
president, spoke on The Sisterhood of Women, saying in part: "We have
plenty of work to do but it is not that, it is not the organization,
the growth of membership and the spread of theories that make me
confident of success. It is the extraordinary spirit that animates the
women who are working for suffrage, the sense of comradeship and
community among them, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, old and
young, mothers and daughters. We have been taught to admire the 18th
century because it did so much to dissolve class distinctions. It
broke down some of the barriers, not between man and woman, but
between groups of men, for within groups men have always had this
spirit of comradeship, and oh, how they have valued it! They did not
get it in domestic relations, however happy; or in friendships,
however warm. They got it, or rather they found a field in which to
exercise it, in the impersonal activities of their lives, in their
crusades, guilds, colleges, labor unions and clubs. But between women
the barriers have been of a more serious type. They have been
segregated not only class by class but individual by individual and
house by house. Now these barriers too are dissolving. Women are
finding an expression for their sense of comradeship, for their
impersonal loyalty to their own sex; they are waking up to the fact
that a sense of equality is more thrilling to those who have the right
stuff in them than any sense of superiority could ever have been."

Miss Harriet E. Grim of Wisconsin University described The Call of the
New Age to College Women. Miss Juliet Stuart Poyntz, president of
Barnard chapter of the College League, discussed Education and Social
Progress. Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer, "Dorothy Dix," in an address on
The Real Reason why Women cannot Vote, gave a delightful imitation of
the voice and words of a wise old negro, "Mirandy," from which the
following is quoted:

     Yassum, dat's de trouble wid women down to dis very day. Dey
     ain't got no backbone. Of a rib dey was made an' a rib dey has
     stayed an' nobody ain't got no right to expect nothin' else from
     'em. Hit's becaze woman was made out of man's rib--an' from de
     way she acts hit looks lak she was made out of a floatin' rib at
     dat--an' man was left wid all his backbone, dat he has got de
     comeuppance over woman. Dat's de reason we women sets down an'
     cries when we ought to git up an' heave brickbats. What's de
     reason dat we women can't vote, an' ain't got no say-so 'bout
     makin' de laws dat bosses us? Ain't we got de right on our side?
     Yassir, but we'se got no backbone in us to just retch out an'
     grab dat ballot.

     Dere ain't nobody 'sputing dat we'se got to scrape up de money to
     pay de tax collector, even if we does have to get down into a
     skirt pocket for hit insted of pants' pocket, an' our belongin'
     to de angel sect ain't gwine to keep us out of jail if we gits in
     a fight wid anodder lady or we swipes a ruffled petticote off de
     clothesline next do'. Fudermo', when de meat trust puts up de
     price of po'k chops, hits de woman dat has to squeeze de eagle on
     de dollar ontel hit holler a little louder an' pare de potato
     peelin's a little thinner. An' dat makes us women jest a-achin'
     to have a finger in dat government pie an' see if we can't put a
     little mo' sweetnin' in hit, an' make hit a little lighter so dat
     hit won't get so heavy an' ondigestible on de stomachs of dem
     what ain't millionaires.

     Yassir, we'se jest a-honin' for de franchise an' we might have
     had hit any time dese last forty years ef we'd had enough
     backbone to riz up an' fit one good fight for hit, but instead of
     dat we set around a-holdin' our hands an' all we'se done is to
     say in a meek voice: "Please, sir, I don't lak to trouble you but
     ef you'd kindly pass me de ballot hit sho'ly would be agreeable
     to me." An' instead of givin' hit to us, men has kinder winked
     one eye at de odder an' said: "Lawd, she don't want hit or else
     she's make a row about hit. Dat's de way we men did. We didn't go
     after de right to vote wid our pink tea manners on."

     Yassir, dat's de true word, an' you listen to me--de day dat
     women spunks up an' rolls up dere sleeves an' says to dere
     husband dat dey ain't a-gwine to do no' mo' cookin' in his house,
     nor darnin' of socks, nor patchin' of britches untel dere is some
     female votin', why dat day de ballot will be fetched home to
     women on a silver platter. All dat stands between women an'
     suffrage is de lack of a spinal colum.

An able address was given by Henry Wilbur, as representative of the
Friends' Equal Rights Association. Max Eastman, assistant professor
in Columbia University, representing the New York Men's League for
Woman Suffrage, of which he was secretary, taking the broad subject
Democracy and Women, said in the course of his speech:

     The democratic hypothesis is that a State is good not when it
     conforms to some abstract eternal ideal of what a State ought to
     be, as the Greeks thought, but when it conforms to the interests
     of particular concrete individuals, namely, its citizens, all of
     them that are in mental and moral health; and that the way to
     find out their interests is not to sit on a throne or a bench and
     think about it but to go and ask them.... Barring this question
     of democracy, I think the political arguments for woman suffrage
     are not the main ones. The great thing to my mind is not that
     women will improve politics but that politics will develop women.
     The political act, the nature it demands and the recognition it
     attracts, will alter the character and status of women in society
     to the benefit of themselves, their husbands, their children and
     their homes. Upon this ground we can stand and declare that it is
     of high and immediate importance to all humanity not only that we
     give those women the vote who want it but that we rouse those who
     do not know enough to want it to a better appreciation of the
     great age in which they have the good fortune to live. Whatever
     else we may say for the industrial era we can say this, that it
     has made possible and actual the physical, social, moral and
     intellectual emancipation of women....

     The other day I had a letter from a man who said he wouldn't join
     my society because he feared I was "striking a blow at the
     family, which is the cornerstone of society." Well, I am not much
     of an authority on matrimony but that sort of language sounds to
     me like a hysterical outcry from a person whose family is already
     tottering. It is at least certain that a great many of these
     cornerstones of society are tottering, and why? Because there
     dwell in them triviality and vacuity, which prepare the way of
     the devil. Who can think that intellectual divergence,
     disagreement upon great public questions, would disrupt a family
     worth holding together? On the contrary, nothing save a community
     of great interests--whether in agreement or disagreement--can
     revive a fading romance. A high and equal comradeship is the one
     thing that can save those families which are the tottering
     cornerstones of society. A greater service of the developed woman
     to the State, however, will be her service in motherhood.... And
     yet to hear the sacredness of motherhood advanced as a reason why
     women should not become public-spirited and effectual, you would
     think this nation had no greater hope than to rear in innocence a
     generation of grown-up babies. Keep your mothers in a state of
     invalid remoteness from life and who shall arm the young with
     intelligent virtue? To educate a child is to lead him out into
     the world of experience. It is not to bring him in virgin
     innocence to the front door and say, "Now run on and be a good
     child!" A million lives wrecked at the very off-go can bear
     witness to the failure of this method.

Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch (N. Y.) presided at a symposium on Open
Air Meetings, which were then being much discussed, and they were
advocated by Miss Ray Costello of England; Mrs. Katherine Dexter
McCormick (Mass.), Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald (Mass.) and Mrs. Helen
LaReine Baker (Wash.). Mrs. Blatch announced a practical demonstration
that afternoon at the corner of Seventh Street and Pennsylvania
Avenue. Mrs. Catt presided over a conference on Political District
Organization as demonstrated in New York City. An afternoon meeting
was devoted to an Industrial Program arranged by Mrs. Myra Strawn
Hartshorne of Chicago. Conditions affecting Women as Workers and as
Wives and Mothers of Workers were graphically described by Miss Rose
Schneiderman (N. Y.), president of the Cap Makers' Union. The
Consequences to Motherhood and Womanhood, as demonstrated by the White
Slave Traffic, were strikingly pictured by Mrs. Raymond Robins
(Ills.), president of the National Women's Trade Union League. A
private conference, Mrs. Mary Hutcheson Page (Mass.) presiding,
discussed the necessity for defeating anti-suffrage candidates for
Congress and Legislatures. Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary
of the National Consumers' League, brought greetings from the Southern
Conference on Woman and Child Labor, which she had just attended, with
a special one from Miss Jean Gordon (La.), and made a striking
address. Dr. Anna Mercy, president of the first suffrage club on the
East Side of New York, gave practical experiences. Miss Nettie A.
Podell and Miss Bertha Ryshpan, representing the Political Equality
League, of which Mrs. Belmont was president, told of its gratifying
experiments with Political Settlements in New York City. The session
closed with a stirring address by Charles Edward Russell on
Self-Defense or the Demand for Political Action.

Mrs. Pauline Steinem (Ohio) reported the usual active and efficient
work of her Committee on Education, urging among other valuable
methods the organization of Mothers' and Parents' Clubs in connection
with all public schools. Mrs. McCulloch gave her report as Legal
Adviser, which combined sound sense with sparkling humor. She showed
how much money had been lost to the association because those who
intended to leave bequests to it delayed making their wills. She urged
the women to study the statutes of their States relating to women and
said that, while she had been glad to contribute her services as legal
adviser and would not accept a salary, the association should employ a
competent lawyer who could stay at the national headquarters and give
her entire time to compiling the laws for women and giving legal
information. The convention Minutes say: "A rising vote of thanks was
given to Mrs. McCulloch for her magnificent work as legal adviser for
many years." Miss Gordon presented the plan for raising the Susan B.
Anthony Memorial Fund; Mrs. Alice C. Dewey (N. Y.), the report on
Bibliography; Dr. Mary D. Hussey (N. J.), on Enrollment. Miss
Elizabeth J. Hauser read the report of Mrs. Ida Husted Harper,
chairman of the National Press Committee, which said in part:

     My strong belief that New York offered the greatest and most
     promising field in the world for suffrage press work has been
     abundantly sustained. The national press bureau was opened about
     the middle of September, soon after the national headquarters
     were moved to this city, with a private reception to the
     representatives of every newspaper in the city, to whom its
     objects and hopes were stated. From that day the most of the men
     and women reporters have been its unfailing friends. A number of
     the women have not missed coming a single day and most of them
     are ardent suffragists and anxious to help the cause in every
     possible way. Back of reporters have been the interest and
     support of city and managing editors. In the nearly seven months
     there have not been half-a-dozen really opposing editorials and
     there have been many of a favorable and helpful character. Every
     day sixteen papers of New York City have been examined by some
     member of the bureau and the clippings carefully filed. These,
     during the past five months, have comprised over 3,000 articles
     on woman suffrage, ranging in length from a paragraph to a page.

     During these five months there have been received from one news
     service bureau 10,800 clippings on woman suffrage from papers
     outside of New York City. Included in these are 2,311 editorials.
     All of these were read, sorted and filed. (See exhibit.) The
     number of magazine articles on woman suffrage as noted in
     _Progress_ during this period has been about one hundred. It is
     doubtful if there was such a record in all the preceding ten
     years combined.

     In years past there has been great rejoicing when one of the
     large syndicates would accept an article on woman suffrage. From
     the time the press bureau was established in New York,
     practically every one of any consequence in the United States
     has urgently requested articles and used all that could be
     furnished. From one to a dozen articles each, with a great many
     photographs, have been sent to the Associated Press, United
     Press, Laffan Bureau and National News Syndicate of New York;
     Western Newspaper Union, Chicago; Newspaper Enterprise
     Association, Cleveland; North-American Press Syndicate, Grand
     Rapids; over 100 short items to the American Press Association.
     There has been scarcely a limit to the requests for suffrage
     matter from influential papers in all parts of the country....
     Once a month I have supplied an article on the work in the United
     States for _Jus Suffragii_, the international paper published in
     Rotterdam.... I have also edited _Progress_....

     Before closing, I want to express my deep appreciation of the
     generosity of Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, through which the press
     bureau has this splendid opportunity for work. Every comfort and
     facility have been provided and every request cheerfully granted.
     Mrs. Belmont never attempts, because of her financial assistance,
     to exercise any supervision over the bureau. It is now well
     established; it enjoys the confidence of the press and the public
     and the opportunities that lie before it cannot be measured in
     extent and importance.

During the convention many prominent visitors were introduced to the
audiences, among them Miss Mary Johnston, who had taken a leading part
in organizing the State Suffrage Association of Virginia, and its
president, Mrs. Lila Meade Valentine; Mrs. Elizabeth Upham Yates, the
new president of Rhode Island; J. H. Braly, president of the Men's
League of California; J. Luther Langston, secretary and treasurer of
the Oklahoma Federation of Labor, and Daniel R. Anthony, M. C., of
Kansas. Many greetings were received including one from the Finnish
Temperance organizations through Miss Maggie Walz of Michigan and
others from Mrs. Caroline M. Severance and Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton
Harbert, pioneer suffragists now living in California. Greetings were
sent to Miss Clara Barton of Washington, D. C.; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe
of Boston; Miss Blackwell; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of
Elizabeth, N. J.; Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo; Mrs. Eliza
Wright Osborne of Auburn, N. Y.; Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller of
Geneva, N. Y., all pioneers in suffrage work, and to Mrs. Belmont in
New York. A vote of thanks was extended to Miss Belle Bennett (Ky.),
president of the Southern Home Mission, for her strong efforts to
secure the admission of women to the General Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church South.

Through the effort of the District Equal Suffrage Association the
spacious Belasco Theater had been secured for the Sunday afternoon
meeting. Dr. Shaw presided and Rabbi Abram Simon offered prayer.[68] A
large audience listened to forceful addresses by Miss Beatrice Forbes
Robertson, Miss Laura Clay, Miss Harriet May Mills, Mrs. Ella S.
Stewart and Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In the evening the officers
of the association received the delegates, speakers and members of the
convention in the parlors of the Arlington.

One of the most valuable reports given at the convention was that of
Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, chairman of the Standing Committee on Peace and
Arbitration. The events of a few years later caused the delegates to
remember with renewed interest the extended work and fervent appeals
of Mrs. Mead and her associates for settling the world's disputes by
peaceful methods. On this occasion she made a special plea to those
who were working for the enfranchisement of women.

Professor Potter, Mr. Blackwell's successor as chairman of the
committee, presented a set of strong resolutions, international as
well as national in character, which were adopted without discussion.

A subject which received much attention was the offer of Miss
Blackwell to make the _Woman's Journal_ the official organ of the
association. It needed the help of the paper and since the death of
her father she needed some one to share the responsibility of its
publication. Miss Clay, Mrs. McCulloch, Mrs. Dennett and Miss Mary
Garrett of Baltimore were appointed to plan the business details. An
agreement was made for one year, Miss Blackwell to continue as editor
without salary but the association to employ a business manager and
such other help as she required.

A noteworthy program marked the last evening of the convention, which
opened with a powerful address by Raymond Robins on The Worker, the
Law and the Courts. It was to be followed by a consideration of
Scientific Propaganda in Practical Politics, with the Literature
discussed by Mrs. Hartshorne but she was ill and Professor Potter
took her place. Plans for activity in behalf of changes of law and its
administration that will benefit women and children in particular and
society in general were presented by Miss Grace Strachan, president of
the New York Federation of Teachers. Special plans in behalf of woman
suffrage were submitted by Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw (N. Y.). Dr. Shaw,
who presided, called attention to the hearings before the committees
of Senate and House the next morning and closed the convention with
one of her characteristic speeches which sent the audience home happy
and ready for the battle.

The dominant note of the convention was the intention henceforth to
enter the field of politics. The New York _Evening Post_ said in its
account: "The audiences at all the meetings were too large for the
capacity of the room and at the Sunday night public gathering hundreds
had to be turned away. Without exception State delegations reported
that the work of the next year would consist of active effort along
political lines, the organization of woman suffrage 'parties' with
membership comprising men and women. Delegations would interview
candidates and voters in regard to their suffrage opinions; conduct
open-air meetings throughout the summer and be on duty at the polls
during elections."

The _Woman's Journal_ said in its summing up: "The personnel of the
delegates and speakers was such as to inspire the most hostile, the
most conservative and the most despondent student of human nature.
When an observer reflected that these delegates represented thousands
of women in each State who believe in equal suffrage, and that the
speakers and leaders of the convention voiced the thoughts, hopes and
aspirations of suffragists the world over, he could not help being
stirred profoundly with the conviction not only that equal rights are
inevitable in the near future but also with the compelling faith that
the world is truly marching on in the very best sense and that it can
never again be quite as dark a place to live in as it has been. A
notable feature was the absolute conviction with which these
representatives of the people speak and the unmistakable determination
to win a speedy victory."

The "hearings" before committees of Senate and House took place on the
historic date, April 19, when in 1776 "the shot was fired which was
heard around the world" proclaiming the birth of a republic founded on
the right of every individual to represent himself by his ballot!
Heretofore they had been held in the Marble Room of the Senate
Building and the room of the House Judiciary Committee, which could
accommodate only a very limited number of the delegates and none of
the public. The splendid new office buildings of the two Houses of
Congress were now finished and in the spacious rooms assigned for the
hearings all of the delegates found seats and many others, although a
long line of the disappointed extended down the corridor.

The members of the Senate Committee were Alexander S. Clay (Ga.),
chairman; Senators Joseph F. Johnston (Ala.), Elmer J. Burkett (Neb.),
George Peabody Wetmore (R. I.), Albert J. Beveridge (Ind.). All were
present except Senator Beveridge. Dr. Shaw presided and before
introducing the speakers gave a résumé of the petitions which had just
been presented to the Congress, called attention to the names of many
eminent men and women who had signed them and said: "Believing that
the first republic in the world, founded upon the principle of
self-government with 'equal rights for all and special privileges for
none,' should be among the leaders and not the laggards in this great
world movement, your petitioners pray this honorable body to submit to
the Legislatures of the several States for ratification an amendment
to the Federal Constitution which will enable American women to vote."
She continued:

     It is not revolutionary on our part to ask a share in our
     Government. We are demanding it because it is in accord with
     American ideals and absolutely essential to the establishment of
     true democracy. A democratic form of government is right or it is
     not right--it is either right that the people should be
     self-governed or that they should not. If it is not right, then
     we ought to know it; the whole people ought to know it. If it is
     right, then the whole people ought to have equal opportunities in
     self-government. It is not that we women wish to dictate in
     regard to men or that we assume any superior ability for
     government, any superior wisdom, but it is that we do assume that
     whether we are wise or not, whether we have a grasp of all the
     affairs of state or not, whether we are earning and producing
     equally with men or not, we are human beings and as a part of
     the Government we should have at least a chance to exercise
     whatever powers we possess equally with all other citizens. It is
     because we believe that this Government should be true to its
     fundamental principles that we make these demands.

     Some one asked Wendell Phillips if Christianity were not a
     failure and he replied, "It has not yet been tried." So we can
     say in regard to democracy. We hear the cry everywhere that
     democracy is a failure. A speaker in New York said that our
     democracy was the laughing stock of all the civilized nations of
     the world. It is the laughing stock because of the failure of
     this democracy to dare to be democratic. We have never tried
     universal suffrage but if that which we have is a failure the
     cure for it is not to restrict it but to extend it, because no
     class of men is able to represent another class and it is much
     truer that no class nor all classes of men are capable of
     representing any class or all classes of women. Believing this,
     we have come as citizens of the United States to this Mecca of
     all the people for more than forty years and we are ready to come
     for as many years more as may be necessary until our plea is
     granted.

Dr. Shaw then said: "I desire to introduce speakers from the
professions and lines of work represented in our petitions: Mrs.
Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago, who has been a practicing lawyer
for twenty-four years and was recently re-elected to the office of
justice of the peace."

     Mrs. McCulloch. There may be a woman school-teacher somewhere who
     does not want to vote that may be satisfied to receive only 75
     per cent. as much as men teachers and to have no chance at highly
     paid superintendencies. There may be a mother who does not want
     equality at the ballot box nor in the guardianship of her
     children. There may be some factory girl who so earnestly
     believes it right to receive less wages than men do that she
     never wants the ballot to help her get equal pay for equal work.
     It may be that there is some woman paying heavy taxes--heavier
     than the equally wealthy man next door--who is happy to be taxed
     without being represented. It may be that some woman
     civil-service employee at Washington or in the State has for a
     long time been at the top of the list of those who are eligible
     for promotion and has seen men below her on the list
     requisitioned for places with large salaries and approves of this
     and enjoys being discriminated against because she is not a
     voter. There may be some woman physician who does not want to
     vote and who observes uncomplainingly that all remunerative
     political offices to which physicians are eligible on city or
     State boards of health or in public hospitals are filled by men.
     There may be a nurse so busy saving life that she has not
     realized the foolishness of her disfranchisement on the ground
     that she was never a soldier to destroy life. There may be some
     young woman in railroad office, stenographer, bookkeeper or
     clerk, who meekly approves an order for the discharge of all
     women employees for the ostensible reason that they marry too
     soon but for the real reason that they do not vote.

     There may be a woman in any of these varied employments who is so
     convinced of her own inferiority that she does not want the
     ballot but to the credit of the women lawyers it may be said that
     almost every one does want to vote and can tell several reasons
     why. A woman may in this century go through a law college the
     only woman in her class without discomfort. She opens those
     sacred law books as easily and learns as readily as do the men
     and passes as good an examination. She sees her young men
     classmates rise to great distinction in the service of the State.
     She may count among them, as I can, city attorneys, State
     attorneys, civil-service commissioners, Judges of high degree,
     Senators and Governors. It will be impossible to prove to her
     that she, who in law school fed on the same mental diet as did
     these now renowned political leaders, is too ignorant to vote for
     them or against them or that the quality of her brain forbids her
     understanding of the great problems her law classmates are now
     solving....

Dr. Shaw: The next speaker will be Miss Eveline Gano, a teacher of
history in one of the high schools of New York City, who will speak on
behalf of the teachers of the country.

     Miss Gano. If the woman teacher's need of the ballot is a
     debatable question then another very natural question arises: Do
     men teachers need the ballot?... I am asked to speak particularly
     of women who have made teaching a profession. In 1870, 41 per
     cent. of the teachers in the United States were men; 21 per cent.
     to-day are men. In large cities the number of women teachers is
     still greater in proportion. In New York only 12-1/2 per cent. of
     the 17,000 teachers are men. According to the last census there
     are 17,000,000 children in the United States who should be in
     elementary schools. Approximately 90 per cent. are taught almost
     entirely by women. In New York City only seven per cent. of the
     600,000 children in the public schools ever enter grades higher
     than the elementary; in western cities a few more. Practically
     all of the schooling that 90 citizens out of 100 ever get they
     receive from the hands and hearts and minds of women. Whatever
     this great number of future citizens knows of citizenship and
     correct standards of morals and industry they have learned from
     the mothers and the women teachers. The very foundations of law
     and equity and justice are in the hands of women who are in the
     eyes of the law but wards and dependents. If these women teachers
     and mothers had a keener sense of their responsibilities by
     actual participation in civic life, what might be the results in
     even one decade? Who is to blame if they do not have the keener
     sense?

     One of the greatest problems facing this republic has been
     turned over to women teachers--that of coping with the foreign
     born and their children. Who can estimate the value of this great
     constructive work, the creation of American citizens out of the
     varied materials that are landed on our shores? And who can
     estimate the quickening force and the gain in appreciation and
     respect for law and order, if the mothers and the teachers of
     these children were considered worthy of the principles which
     they are asked to inculcate? Thousands of these women teachers
     are college graduates with fine training and all are women of
     more than average intelligence. They are not only bread winners
     but very often they are the heads of families which they have
     inherited. They are caring for and educating younger brothers and
     sisters, nieces and nephews, and providing for aged fathers and
     mothers. It has been said that the men of each class will protect
     the women of each class. Witness the men teachers of New York
     City, who in 1900 secured a State law that gave to themselves
     salaries from 30 per cent. to 100 per cent. higher than to women
     doing the same grade of work. A woman teacher in the elementary
     schools must work nine years in order to receive the salary that
     the man teacher begins with. She may and often does supervise
     men, because of having passed a difficult examination, and
     receive $800 a year less than the men whom she supervises. A
     woman principal receives $1,000 less than a man principal in the
     same grade of work, having the very same qualifications. Governor
     Hughes has characterized these discriminations against women as
     "glaring and gross inequalities," but in spite of the efforts of
     15,000 women teachers for the last four years the inequalities
     still continue. It is rather easy to see the value of the ballot
     to the men teachers of the city of New York....

     As citizens under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the
     United States, we claim the honored and inherited right to
     petition our Government or either branch thereof for a redress of
     grievances that very plainly exist because of the present legal
     status of women in 41 States of the Union. We ask that our
     petition, which is signed by hundreds of thousands of law-abiding
     citizens, shall receive serious and courteous attention. We well
     know that when a petition of such great consequence to millions
     of citizens is not so considered the foundation of republican
     government is attacked and weakened where it should be supported
     and strengthened.

Dr. Shaw: I present now Dr. Anna E. Blount, a physician from Chicago,
who will speak in behalf of the medical practitioners.

     Dr. Blount. In my city there are 500 women doctors; in my State
     there are 750; in the United States in 1900 there were 7,399.
     These women doctors know the womanhood of the country perhaps
     more intimately than any other class of women know it. I have
     talked with many of them and I have yet to find one who does not
     believe in woman suffrage. The Woman's Medical Club in Chicago
     has joined the suffrage association. Why do we want the ballot?
     Partly our reasons are personal to our own profession and partly
     they are the same that move the whole mass of mankind to ask for
     suffrage today. Some of our personal reasons are these: As women
     we are excluded from most of the well-paid positions for
     physicians. We know that the dependent womanhood of the country
     needs our care; from time to time we hear grewsome tales from the
     insane asylums and the pauper institutions of wrongs done the
     women because there is no woman doctor there to protect them.
     Little children in my own State have gone through a life of
     degradation owing to the fact that there was no woman doctor in
     charge of them in the public institutions. The best paid
     positions are political jobs and no woman can get one. Another
     reason why, as physicians, we want the ballot is that at present
     we need police protection. We need a city that is well lighted
     and safe for women, as we are obliged to go out at all hours of
     the night. A few years ago the hunters of women became unusually
     active and several respectable women were in the early hours of
     the evening hunted to their death and murdered. We were told at
     that time by the commissioner of police that it would be well for
     all the respectable women of the city to remain indoors after 8
     o'clock in the evening unless they were escorted by a gentleman!
     Imagine when the telephone rings for a woman doctor to attend
     some critical case that she shall be required either to get a
     male escort or remain at home! This is also true of nurses and
     many others....

     I do not think that men can grow to be the best men when they are
     in constant association with a subject class. I ask you gentlemen
     of the United States Senate, for the sake of womanhood, but most
     of all for the sake of manhood, to report this resolution out of
     the committee, and to ask the Senate of the United States to give
     the women of this country, so far as in its power, the right of
     suffrage.

Dr. Shaw: "I present a lawyer, Mrs. Ellen Spencer Mussey, but she will
speak in the capacity of a college woman." After giving her experience
in trying to secure better laws for women in the District of Columbia,
Mrs. Mussey told of her visits to Norway and Sweden, where as attorney
for a legation she had every opportunity to attend the Parliaments,
meet the statesmen and leading women and hear their universal
testimony in favor of the experiment in woman suffrage. In closing she
stated that as chairman of the legislative committee of the General
Federation of Women's Clubs she had received reports from hundreds of
them regretting their lack of power to obtain legislation and their
need of representation on boards of education and of public
institutions. Dr. Shaw then introduced Miss Minnie J. Reynolds of New
Jersey, formerly of Colorado, who had supervised the petition of the
writers.

     Miss Reynolds. This attempt to canvass the writers of the United
     States is absurdly inadequate and fragmentary. It was the unpaid
     work of women, each of whom had her own occupation in life, in
     such spare time as they could get during the year. These writers
     represent only twenty-one States. Others, including such great
     States as New York, Michigan and Wisconsin, sent in huge rolls of
     names without a classification. I am speaking for 1,870 writers.
     The first name is that of William Dean Howells, the "dean of
     American letters," perhaps more truly representative of American
     literature than any other living person. The second name is that
     of John Bigelow, ex-ambassador to France, ex-secretary-of-state
     of New York, and author of some twenty scholarly books. On this
     list are the names of men and women known to every reader of
     American literature and to every reader of the periodical press.
     The petition blanks were sent to them by mail and if they did not
     wish to sign they had only to drop them in the waste-basket. A
     number of publicists have signed, among them Melville E. Stone,
     head of the Associated Press, and six of his editors; S. S. and
     T. C. McClure, publishers of the McClure's Magazine; the editors
     of Everybody's, the Independent, the Public, Philistine,
     Delineator, Designer, New Idea, Harper's Bazar, La Follette's
     Magazine, the Springfield Republican: editors of Current
     Literature, Philadelphia Record, Cincinnati Commercial Tribune,
     New York Herald, New York Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore
     American, Minneapolis News, Cincinnati Post and numerous other
     newspapers over the country. These publications reach millions of
     readers.

     There are on this list the names of many persons who, although
     authors or magazine writers, are still more distinguished in
     other lines of work, as William James and George Herbert Palmer
     of Harvard; Graham Taylor and Shailer Matthews of the University
     of Chicago; Simon N. Patten of the University of Pennsylvania;
     and other professors from the universities of Harvard, Chicago,
     Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Cornell and Columbia, and from Oberlin,
     Vassar and Wellesley. The great families of Hawthorne, Chanler
     and Beecher are represented by living descendants who are
     carrying on the literary traditions which must ever be associated
     with those names. The late Richard Watson Gilder, editor of the
     Century, published a tribute to Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi after her
     death. In this he said in substance that the American women who
     had most conspicuously united rare intelligence with rare
     goodness were Josephine Shaw Lowell, founder of the New York
     Charity Organization; Alice Freeman Palmer, president of
     Wellesley College, and Dr. Jacobi. Mr. Gilder was an
     anti-suffragist. The three women whom he thus placed at the
     pinnacle of American womanhood were all strong suffragists.

     The women whose names are on this list represent brains and
     character; they represent that element of American womanhood
     which is winning its own way successfully in the great world of
     competition and strenuous endeavor; influencing the minds and
     molding the public opinion of the country through their books and
     through the press. There may be those among you, gentlemen, who
     are opposed to suffrage, but I am sure there is not one who would
     not be glad to know that his daughter was a woman of this type if
     it so happened that he was obliged to leave her unprovided for.
     There is one girl, Jean Webster, who made $4,000 on one book the
     year she left college. There is one woman, Mary Johnston, who was
     paid $20,000 in advance royalties on one book before a word of it
     was printed. A number of distinguished writers had signed the
     general petition before the writers' blank had reached them,
     among them Mark Twain, Booth Tarkington, Ernest Thompson Seton,
     Julia Ward Howe, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mary Wilkins Freeman
     and Ellen Glasgow.

Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, former corresponding secretary of the
National Suffrage Association, in speaking of the petition told of one
containing 10,000 names which had been gathered in Indiana years ago
and presented to the Legislature by Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace, often
referred to as the mother pictured in "Ben Hur." It was treated with
the utmost contempt, one member saying, "These 10,000 women have about
as much influence as that many mice." This experience sent that
eloquent woman to the suffrage platform for the rest of her life. Mrs.
Avery urged the committee to give a favorable report on this great
petition as the first step toward making the influence of the
thousands of women who had signed it of more value than that of so
many mice. [For the address of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of
the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, see Appendix for this
chapter.]

U. S. Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, a consistent supporter of
woman suffrage from the very beginning of the movement for it in his
State twenty years before, made an address to the committee which was
printed in a pamphlet of seven pages and made a part of the propaganda
of the National Association. Limited space permits only brief
extracts, which give little idea of its compelling arguments.

     An eminent writer has said that all powers of government are
     either delegated or assumed; that all not delegated are assumed
     and all assumed powers are usurpations. The powers of government
     by men over women are not delegated, because the women never
     delegated such powers to men. They are assumed then and, as all
     assumed powers are usurpations, the exercise of the powers of
     government by men over women is usurpation. How can those who
     refuse to give women the right to vote reconcile their opinion
     with the form of government in which they believe? What right
     have I to make all the laws which shall govern not only myself
     but also my wife, sister and mother, without giving to them any
     voice in determining the justice or wisdom of those laws? It can
     only be on the assertion of an assumed or usurped right--that
     which we have condemned as not the source of rightful power. We
     all remember Lincoln's declaration that "when the white man
     governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs
     himself and also governs another man, that is despotism." The
     exercise of any power of government not emanating from the
     consent of the governed, therefore, is despotism. After men by an
     assumption of power have attached the elective franchise to
     themselves, is it a just answer to the demand of women to say
     that men have concluded that "suffrage is a privilege which
     attaches neither to man nor to woman by nature?" Have we
     forgotten the cry of our forefathers which stirred the blood of
     every patriotic American, that "taxation without representation
     is tyranny?" Why is it tyranny to men but not to women? Is it
     sufficient to say that "they are not the only persons taxed as
     property holders from whom the ballot is withheld," when the only
     other persons from whom it is permanently withheld are lunatics,
     idiots and criminals? How would men like such reasoning applied
     to themselves?...

     Deprive any class or nationality of men of the elective franchise
     and the detrimental effect would be felt immediately. Their
     petitions for legislation would no longer receive prompt and
     careful consideration and if the proposed legislation conflicted
     with conditions favorable to a class of voters it would be almost
     impossible to get a legislator or Congressman even to introduce
     such a measure. The equal suffrage advocates have appeared before
     a committee of the House of Representatives at Washington every
     session for a great many years, begging for a favorable report.
     If persons representing one-tenth as many voters had made an
     appeal for some important legislation affecting their rights,
     don't we know that those same Congressmen would almost have
     fought with each other for the privilege of writing a favorable
     report?

Governor Shafroth quoted election statistics which showed conclusively
that women in Colorado voted in about the same proportion as men and
he gave a long list of progressive laws which had been enacted through
the support of women. He declared that in no respect had the ideals of
womanhood been lowered and closed by saying: "The highest
considerations of justice and good government demand equal suffrage
for all women."

Dr. Shaw in closing the hearing said in part:

     I have in my hand a document which was today sent, I believe, to
     every Senator and Representative, signed by the ladies
     representing societies opposed to the further extension of the
     suffrage to women. Of those which purport to be State societies,
     three at least are merely local clubs in cities. These ladies
     have petitioned this honorable body and the House of
     Representatives not to grant the appeal of the women who have
     come here with this very large petition on the ground that it
     would be an interference on your part with the rights which the
     States have reserved to themselves, if you were to submit an
     amendment to the Federal Constitution giving full suffrage to
     women.... I see by this document that the great danger with which
     you are threatened if you do this unjust thing is that you admit
     into the body politic a vast non-fighting horde of people, a most
     dangerous class. Man suffrage is a method adopted, it says, for
     the peaceful attainment of the will of the majority, to which the
     minority must submit.

     If there is anything which must appeal to every sense of justice,
     it is the struggle of the industrial world to get out from under
     the domineering, military power. The age in which we live is no
     longer a militant age. Today it is not so much the question of
     which nation can produce the greatest number of soldiers as of
     which can produce the greatest number of things the world needs
     to buy. It is a problem of industry and into this problem women,
     either by force or by desire, have come.... In olden times women
     could control the hours of their labor and the conditions
     affecting their health and the health of their families; they
     could regulate the price of the product which they themselves
     produced in the home but since men have taken from it the
     industries, the necessity for women to protect themselves in the
     workshop, in the sweatshop, in the factory has come about.
     Wherever man has taken woman's work the woman must follow it and
     she must have the same method of protecting herself which man
     must have and there is no other means save through the ballot....

     We have been over forty years, a longer period than the children
     of Israel wandered through the wilderness, coming to this Capitol
     pleading for this recognition of the principle that the
     Government derives its just powers from the consent of the
     governed. Mr. Chairman, we ask that you report our resolution
     favorably if you can but unfavorably if you must; that you report
     one way or the other, so that the Senate may have the chance to
     consider it.

The Chairman: "In behalf of the committee I desire to thank the ladies
for the splendid arguments they have made and to say that we
appreciate them most heartily. It is my intention to call the
committee together at a very early date and we will give a careful
and intelligent consideration to this measure, and, I hope, make a
report on it."

Notwithstanding this promise no further attention was paid to these
logical and eloquent appeals or to the immense petition, and no report
whatever was made by the committee.

       *       *       *       *       *

All but four of the members of the House Judiciary Committee were
present, including the chairman, Richard Wayne Parker (N. J.), a
remarkable attendance, and they showed much interest.[69] Mrs.
Florence Kelley, second vice-president of the National Suffrage
Association, was in charge of the speakers and the hearing was opened
by Representative A. W. Rucker (Col.), who had introduced the
resolution for the Federal Amendment, as also had Representative F. W.
Mondell (Wyo.). Mrs. Kelley called attention to the petition of
404,823 names, saying: "Among those who have signed the petition are
sixteen Governors, a large number of Mayors and many State, county and
city officials; many of the best-known instructors and writers on
political economy and many presidents of colleges and universities. It
includes the names of many Judges of Supreme Courts and among them the
Chief Justice and Associate Justice of Hawaii. It contains a long list
of the names of persons engaged in various trades and from those in
the thirty-three States which are classified are 7,515 professional
people, lawyers, doctors, clergymen and others; also 52,603 listed as
home keepers."

Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald (Mass.) said in part: "I come here to speak
for those 52,000 home makers who signed the petition to Congress
asking for equal political rights in this democracy.... To ask woman
under our modern industrial conditions to care adequately for her home
and family without a right to share in the making of the laws and the
electing of all those officers who are to enforce the laws is like
asking people to make bricks without straw. It cannot be done. We must
remember that in the early days of this country a family was
practically self-supporting and independent of the rest of the
community; a man and a woman working together could provide for their
family all that was necessary for their sustenance; meats, vegetables,
grains, milk, eggs, butter, cheese, all were home products. They
provided their own lighting and controlled their own water supply. The
women spun the thread, wove the cloth, dyed it and made the garments.
In every way, if it was necessary, the family could maintain its
existence independent of the cooperation of society except in the one
matter of defense from violence. None of this is true today." Mrs.
Fitzgerald took up the questions of food, drink and clothing as
supplied at the present time and showed the great need that women
should have a voice in the legislation that controls their production.

It had been announced that all of the arguments would be made along
industrial lines. Arthur E. Holder, of the legislative committee of
the American Federation of Labor, presented for the record a series of
the very positive resolutions for woman suffrage which had been
adopted by that body at its annual conventions beginning with 1904 and
read the one passed at Toronto in 1909: "The best interests of labor
require the admission of women to full citizenship as a matter of
justice to them and as a necessary step toward insuring and raising
the scale of wages for all." He closed a strong speech by saying: "We
want the right of representation for all the people, women as well as
men. Women have been disfranchised in our country long enough and we
now ask for that measure which will constitutionally grant the right
to vote to the women of our land. We believe that women ought to be
free agents, free selectors, free voters. The law is no respecter of
persons. Women cannot shirk their responsibility because they are
women; neither should they be longer denied their normal citizenship
rights and privileges because they are women."

In a most convincing address Mrs. Elizabeth Schauss, factory inspector
of Ohio, said:

     It seems almost superfluous that we should come here pleading for
     the vote when we know it is the only thing which will give the
     wage-earning woman the protection that she needs and should have,
     as to-day she has absolutely no chance beside her brother.
     Although she gives the same quality and the same amount of work
     yet she can not command the same wage, and why? Simply because
     she is not a recognized citizen by virtue of the ballot. If you
     would go into the factories, the mills, the mercantile
     establishments and meet these women and learn from them the
     indignities to which they ofttimes are subjected in order that
     they may retain their places you would not wait for any one to
     come here and argue the question with you. You would see for
     yourselves that the only remedy is to grant to them that same
     protection that you give to every man over 21 years of age. The
     girl so employed submits in a way to these things because she is
     thinking of the time when her factory days will be over, when she
     will make a home for husband and children, and God forbid that
     the time shall ever come that our girls will lose sight of this,
     their greatest vocation! But before they are competent to take
     charge of the home in every sense of the word, before they can
     give to their children all that these should have, they must
     themselves be placed upon a basis of equality with their
     husbands....

     Why should I, a tax-paying woman, be denied the right by casting
     my ballot to say how these taxes that I am paying shall be
     expended? In the light of progress and of American civilization,
     we know this cannot continue. We have great things at stake in
     our children. We are trying to take away that shadow which rests
     upon these United States, the shadow of child labor. It will not
     be done until the mothers have the right to speak for their
     children through the ballot. We are looking for the day when we
     shall be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with our men and
     share with them the burdens and responsibilities of this greatest
     nation and be able to hold up our heads and say: "We are on an
     equal footing because we have men in the United States who
     recognize equality of rights."

Mrs. Raymond Robins, thoroughly qualified to speak on this question,
said in part: "I have the great honor and privilege of representing,
as president of the National Women's Trade Union League, something
like 75,000 organized working women, and I believe all through our
country as well as through all the world there is a growing
recognition of the cost of our modern industrial conditions to women.
These are such that in many thousands of instances the motherhood of
our girls has to be forfeited. No one knows except those who have made
a very intimate and careful study of the present cost of social and
industrial conditions how great that cost is. When we demanded in
Illinois the limiting of the working hours for women to ten a day,
many of our women physicians brought forward facts of great value
showing the tremendous physical danger to girls of overwork. At
present a very interesting and valuable investigation is going on,
led by some of our woman physicians, showing the evil result on the
second generation of these industrial conditions.... These facts are
of national importance and it is because right there is the crux of
the entire situation that we women are working for the ballot, for the
sake of protecting the womanhood and motherhood of our 6,000,000
working women, I think half of them under 21 years of age...."

Mrs. Robins gave a number of special instances and in answer to the
question how the ballot would remedy these evils, she said: "The
women, an unorganized group, get together and take collective action
and they find themselves not fighting their industrial battles in the
economic field but in the political field and the weapons that are
constantly used against them with the greatest success are political
weapons. The power of the police and of the courts is used against
them in many instances and whenever they try to meet that expression
of political power, they are handicapped because there is no force in
their hands to help change it...."

In the course of a speech punctuated with lively questions and answers
Mrs. Upton said: "I represent the industry of wifehood and
housekeeping. I spent many of my childhood days in the room of this
committee, my father having been a member of the Judiciary Committee
for thirteen years and chairman for several years. He was the only one
who ever reported a bill favorably for woman suffrage.... I want to
ask you to report against us if you will not report for us. Just tell
the world that we must not vote because we cannot fight, because it
will destroy the home, anything you please, but break your long years
of silence. Is it fair for you _not_ to tell us why you are opposed to
us? Women are not fools; on the contrary, they are very intelligent
people and sure to be enfranchised before long. If this committee does
not help some other will; it is going to be done and it is for you to
decide whether your daughters will be able to say years from now, 'My
father was one of the men who helped get woman suffrage!' While men of
this country have been running after dollars at a terrific rate in
recent years women have been studying and preparing themselves in
clubs and all sorts of organizations for this right, so that they will
be the most intelligent class--if you call them a class--that was
ever enfranchised in all history. Are you afraid of intelligence? All
we ask is to let the mother heart, the home element, be expressed in
the government.... I beg of you to let all the world know _why_ the
women of the United States, who by hundreds of thousands have
petitioned you to submit this amendment, ought not have at least this
request considered and a report on it made."

Miss Laura J. Graddick, representing a labor union in the District of
Columbia, said during an able and earnest address:

     They say that politics is too corrupt for woman to enter the
     field as a voter but does she not live under a Government
     dominated by politics? Shame on the manhood of our country that
     our government housekeeping is so administered that woman can not
     come in contact with it and escape contamination.... If our
     Government is built on moral law it should be clean enough for a
     woman to have a voice in it. We assure you there are no better
     house-cleaners than women and the above statement certainly
     indicates the need of women in politics. There is no great cry on
     the part of men because of the contaminating influences which
     woman meets in the business and industrial world. They are not
     keeping her out of the various vocations of life because of the
     evil which she might encounter. Are not sweat-shop conditions and
     overwork and underpaid work evils far more destructive to the
     physical, mental and moral welfare of women than any condition in
     which suffrage might place them? Because of the great economic
     and political changes of the last century the working woman of
     to-day is entitled to the same rights accorded the working man in
     the political world. These changes have taken her from the home
     and brought her into business and industrial life, where she has
     become more and more man's equal and competitor, leaving behind
     those conditions which so long made her dependent upon him. This
     has not been of her choosing. Men, in their pursuit of wealth,
     have taken the work formerly done in the home, from the spinning
     and weaving even down to the baking and laundering, and massed it
     in great factories and shops. Instead of woman taking man's work,
     it is the reverse and he has appropriated to himself what was
     long supposed to be hers. Woman finds that what was formerly with
     her a work of love is now done under new conditions and strange
     environments.

     This experience in the outside world is educating her, for she is
     studying conditions. She sees that she is forced to compete with
     those who have full political rights while she herself is a
     political nonentity. She finds that she must contend with and
     protect herself against conditions which are more often political
     than economic, thus forcing upon her the conviction that she too
     is entitled to be a voter. She sees that politics, business and
     industrial life generally are so united that one affects the
     other and that since she is a factor in two she should be granted
     the rights and privileges of the third. Think of the number of
     women wage-earners in this country who are without political
     representation, there being no men in the family, and at present
     laws all made without a woman's point of view!... The working
     woman does not ask for the ballot as a panacea for all her ills.
     She knows that it carries with it responsibilities but all that
     it is to man it will be and even more to woman. Let her remain
     man's inferior politically and unjust discriminations against her
     as a wage-earner will continue, but let her become his equal
     politically and she will then be in a position to demand equal
     pay for equal work.

In a speech of deep feeling Miss Laura Clay, president of the Kentucky
Suffrage Association, said in part: "Gentlemen, when I hear our women
making the pleas that they have made, brought up, as I have been, to
believe that the manhood of the United States is the grandest in the
world, I ask, 'Shall we not find any members of Congress except those
who say, 'Can you not get some one else to protect you? Go to your
States, go anywhere but do not come to us?' It has been said to me
when I have spoken for childhood, 'You have no child?' And I have
answered: 'No, I have no child, but just as surely as men in the order
of nature are the protectors of womanhood, so surely in the order of
nature women are the protectors of childhood. I would dishonor my
womanhood to say that I will not do what I can for a child because I
have none and I hope the time will never come when women must be
ashamed of men because they are not willing to sacrifice something to
take this action for women.' Think of it! Must we crawl on our knees
to ask you for that which we feel we have a right to demand? You
should see that every protection which every lifting hand that it is
possible for manhood to offer to womanhood should be extended and your
position gives you a great opportunity. I urge that, as far as your
official power extends, you will show that the manhood of the United
States responds to the pleas of the womanhood of the United States."

The closing address of Mrs. Kelley and the many questions it called
for from the committee with her answers filled nearly twelve pages of
the printed report of the hearing. A small part only can find space
here.

     Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, it is sixty years last month since my
     father, Judge William D. Kelley, became a member of the House of
     Representatives and in those days it took a great deal of courage
     for a man to do what he did year after year--introduce this
     resolution which you are considering to-day. He did it partly, I
     think, out of chivalrous regard for Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton
     and the few brave women who fifty years ago patiently came before
     your predecessors; but very much more he introduced that
     resolution because he believed it was essentially just. He saw in
     those days the beginnings of the industrial change in the midst
     of which we now live and they appalled him. He saw how difficult
     it had been for his widowed mother to get an education for
     himself and his sisters, and how infinitely difficult life was
     for the whole great class of women, not only widows but those who
     by the circumstances of our changing industries had been forced
     out into the industrial market. He believed they ought to have
     the same power to protect their own interests as had been given
     to the American workingman and which he helped give to the
     negro....

     Women now do not count in our communities at all in proportion to
     the responsibilities which they carry. One of the gentlemen has
     asked: "What is the relation of all this labor talk to the
     ballot?" I will give you some examples: I was for four years the
     head of the factory inspectors of Illinois. During that time we
     had an eight-hour law enacted for the protection of women and
     children employed in manufacturing industries. The Supreme Court
     held that it was contrary to the constitutions of the State and
     of the United States for women to be deprived of the right to
     work twenty-four hours whenever it suited the convenience of the
     employers. The court said--and it took 9,000 words to say
     it--that women could not be deprived of working unlimited hours,
     because they were citizens, although it said the term
     "citizenship" was limited; the Court said they could not be
     allowed to work underground in mines; they could not be allowed
     to work out their taxes on the roads, as farmers do; they could
     not be called to the militia; they could not vote except for
     school committees and once in four years for the trustees of the
     State University, but, with those minor deductions, they were
     citizens and could not be deprived of the freedom of contract.

     The Supreme Court of the United States has proclaimed that the
     Judges of Illinois guessed wrong on that occasion, that it is not
     contrary to the Constitution of the United States to limit the
     working hours of women but that it is the obvious duty of every
     Legislature to do this in the interest of public health and
     morals. A year ago, largely through the efforts of Mrs. Robins,
     the Legislature tried it again and passed this time a ten-hour
     law for women. A Judge was found who held that it was a
     legitimate object for an injunction and he enjoined my successor,
     the present factory inspector, and the prosecuting attorney from
     enforcing this law. To-day under that injunction the women are
     again free to work twenty-four hours, as they do one day in the
     week quite regularly in the laundries in Chicago, and to work
     sixteen hours a day as they do in the stores during the Christmas
     rush, and as they do in the box factories and candy factories.
     Yet the women of Illinois have not had one word to say as to the
     personnel of these courts which decide what is a matter of life
     and death for every woman who is rushed into her grave by work in
     the laundries and other sweat shops of that State.

Mrs. Kelley gave some tragic instances of occurrences during her eight
years in Hull House with Miss Jane Addams, where the working of women
overtime caused death and permanent invalidism, and continued:

     During the fifteen years since that Illinois court so decided,
     the miners who work underground in sixteen States, from Missouri
     to Nevada and from Montana to Texas and Arizona, have been able
     to change the constitutions of their States so that they work but
     eight hours a day. They are voters, they have power, they have
     intelligence and organization; they obtained from the Supreme
     Court of the United States the famous decision of Holden vs.
     Hardy, in which it held that it is not only the right but the
     duty of the State to restrict the hours of those who work
     underground. In Illinois the women must have unlimited hours
     because they are not voting citizens....

     For twelve years a body of influential women of New York City
     appeared before the board of estimate and apportionment to ask
     for the pitiable sum of $18,000 to be appropriated to pay the
     salaries of eighteen inspectors to look after the welfare of
     60,000 women and girls in retail stores but we never got it. One
     candid friend, Mayor Van Wyck, in listening to our plea, told us
     the whole trouble. Said he: "Ladies, why do you waste your time
     year after year in coming before us and asking for this
     appropriation? You have not a voter in your constituency and you
     know it and we know it and you know we know it," and they never
     did give it to us....

A spirited discussion ensued here between Representative Robert L.
Henry (Tex.) and Mrs. Kelley as to whether Congress has the power to
coerce a State through a Federal Amendment into giving women the right
to vote. Representative Edwin Y. Webb (N. C.) asked if the majority of
women wanted to vote and she answered that there was not the slightest
doubt of it, that as reasoning beings women could not help desiring a
full share in the Government under which they live. Representative
Goebel (O.) said that at any time man might be called on to uphold the
laws and the Constitution and asked: "Do you think that woman is
physically and temperamentally fitted to give any return to the
Government for any privilege she might have in the exercise of her
right as a citizen?" Mrs. Kelley answered: "Yes, I think we have
always done it. We pay taxes, we teach the children to obey the laws,
we fill their hearts with patriotism, but the principal thing is that
we furnish the army at the risk of our own lives. Every time an army
has been called for in the United States it has been the sons of
American women on the whole who have carried the weapons and every son
has been born at the risk of his mother's life. Her service is a very
much greater contribution than the two or three years of the son's
carrying a gun or perhaps dying of typhoid fever while in the
service."

Miss Clay could not keep silent but asked if they realized how much
the order of society depended on the teaching and the restraining
influence of women, on their power to maintain decency of life, not
alone by their presence but also by their high ideals of law and
society. "When they are recognized as voting citizens," she said,
"their idea of civic duty will reach a still higher point and they
will have power to see that it is enforced." Members of the committee
began to bring forward the stock misrepresentations about the voting
of women in Colorado, which called Mr. Rucker to his feet with
statistics to show that women voted in quite as large a proportion as
men; that, instead of men's controlling the women's votes, women often
controlled the men's; that in the hundreds of cases of election frauds
only one or two women had been implicated; that less than 15 per cent.
of the so-called "ostracized" women go to the polls.

In closing Chairman Parker said: "I wish to render the thanks of the
committee for this large and representative audience, which is almost
an American Congress. I am all the more pleased and interested to find
such strong presentations by those whom I might call, possibly without
offense, 'Daughters of the American Congress,' two of whom claim an
acquaintance with this committee that goes back at least as far as any
of us. I wish to offer all of you our thanks for the earnest
consideration that you seem to have given to the great problems,
industrial and social, as well as those of the family, which confront
us all, and in comparison with which the political powers and actions
of this country are but as nothing. Those who think and work for the
good of the family, the home, the workshop, the farm and the school
are those to whom the American Congress always owes its thanks."

       *       *       *       *       *

Although the speakers who addressed these committees represented the
very highest of American womanhood; although it was conceded that
their arguments had never been exceeded in logic, directness and
force; although there was no doubt that they represented a large
proportion of the women of the country in the homes, colleges,
professions and trades, yet this committee, like that of the Senate,
ignored the petitions and the hearing completely and made no report
whatever, either favorable or unfavorable.


FOOTNOTES:

[65] Part of Call: During the past year women have voted for the first
time in Norway at a Parliamentary election, for the first time in
Denmark at the Municipal elections, for the first time in Victoria at
an election for the State Parliament. This year a woman has been
nominated as a member of the Municipal Council in Paris, a woman is
filling the office of Mayor in one English city and a number are
serving as aldermen in others. In our own country women are voting for
the first time in Michigan on questions of local taxation, while in
Washington, Oregon, South Dakota and Oklahoma, suffrage amendments to
the State constitutions are pending. From Chicago, radiating north,
east, south and west, there is going out an influence which is making
the social settlements centers of political influence. In Spokane, New
York and Baltimore, political settlements are under way. From one of
the great press centers of the world, New York City, suffrage
propaganda is travelling through all civilized countries, and in its
New York headquarters the National American Woman Suffrage Association
is receiving news of an unprecedented rising suffrage sentiment from
men and women belonging to all the great nations of the earth.

Our cause is universal, its majesty is intrinsic, its logic is
unanswerable, its success is sure. Let the women of America come
together in this year 1910 consecrated anew to the superb hope for
humanity which lies in a full democracy.

                       ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                       RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, First Vice-President.
                       FLORENCE KELLEY, Second Vice-President.
                       FRANCES SQUIRE POTTER, Corresponding Secretary.
                       ELLA S. STEWART, Recording Secretary.
                       HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.
                       LAURA CLAY,            }
                       ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, } Auditors.

[66] Mrs. Catt's original plan required each State to tabulate the
signers according to their lines of work but this was not fully
carried out. Miss Minnie J. Reynolds, in charge of the Writer's
Section, published a long and interesting report in the _Woman's
Journal_. Simply the names of distinguished writers, men and women,
who had signed, filled a solid column and yet she said: "The work on
this section was absurdly fragmentary. In the city of Washington Miss
Nettie Lovisa White had obtained the names of sixty, including the
most prominent newspaper correspondents."

[67] See History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II, page 91.

[68] Washington ministers who opened various sessions with prayer were
the Reverends U. G. B. Pierce, Samuel H. Woodrow, John Van Schaick and
William I. McKenney.

[69] Names of committee: Present--Representatives Sterling, Moon,
Diekema, Goebel, Denby, Howland, Nye, Clayton, Henry, Brantley, Webb
and Carlin; absent--Terrell, Reid, Malby, Higgins.




CHAPTER XI.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1911.


The national convention which met in Louisville, Ky., Oct. 19-25,
1911, might well be called a "jubilee" meeting, for it celebrated two
of the most important victories yet won for woman suffrage in the
United States--the adoption of State amendments by a majority of the
voters in Washington in November, 1910, and in California in October,
1911, giving the same franchise rights to women as possessed by
men.[70] The sessions were held in the large De Molay Commandery Hall
but it was far too small for the evening audiences. This was a new
experience for Louisville but it rose finely to the occasion. A
message to the _Woman's Journal_ said: "Enthusiasm for equal suffrage
runs high in Louisville this week as women from all parts of the
country throng its spacious streets morning, afternoon and evening for
the annual convention.... Altogether it is a most inspiring and
encouraging convention and we are daily excited with news of the good
prospects of more campaign States and more victories in the very near
future.... We all have votes-for-women tags on our baggage, yellow
badges and pins, California poppies and six-star buttons on our
dresses and coats and dainty votes for women butterflies on our
shoulders, and as we go about in dozens or scores or hundreds the
onlookers receive the fitting psychological impression and we find
them thinking of us as victors and conquerors."

The opening of this convention, with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, the
national president, in the chair, was a proud moment for Miss Laura
Clay, who was one of the organizers of the Kentucky Equal Rights
Association in 1888 and had been continually its president. In her
address of greeting she said:

     We welcome you with hearts tender with the remembrance of the
     past, when two of the great historic figures which have made this
     convention possible gave their labors to Kentucky. In the early
     fifties, Lucy Stone, in the vigor and freshness of her lovely
     youth and enthusiasm for high ideals, spoke in the cities and
     towns on both sides of the Ohio River; and in 1881 she held in
     Louisville a convention of the American Woman Suffrage
     Association. She established the _Woman's Journal_, which is now
     edited, with all the noble moral principles and polished literary
     ability which have characterized it throughout, by her daughter,
     Alice Stone Blackwell, who is with us today. In 1879 that other
     heroic woman, Susan B. Anthony, made a tour through central
     Kentucky and left an enduring monument of her visit in the Equal
     Rights Association of Richmond, Madison County, which has had the
     longest continuous existence of any woman suffrage society in the
     State....

     We welcome you with hearts strong with hope for the future. The
     glorious victories that we have had inspire us and in all the
     harbingers of hope we see none greater than the Men's Leagues for
     Woman Suffrage. These prove to us that the men of our country are
     preparing to extend equal political rights to women, who, since
     the time when this vast continent was a wilderness, have stood
     side by side with them in the heroic labors which have made it
     blossom like the rose with the fairest civilization the world has
     ever known. In the great International Alliance Congress at
     Stockholm men of many nations formed themselves into a Suffrage
     League, and the Men's League of California did grand service in
     the glorious victory in their State. This noble land extends from
     California across the continent to Virginia where the latest
     league of men has just been formed. We see in this generous
     cooperation of the men of our nation a better exposition of the
     legend on Kentucky's shield, "United we stand, divided we fall,"
     when man and woman shall clasp hands and become a truer
     realization of the vision of the poet and the patriot.

Mrs. Patty Blackburn Semple, president of the Louisville Woman's Club,
in offering its welcome, said: "When the Woman's Club was organized
three subjects were tabooed--religion, politics and woman suffrage. We
kept to the resolution for awhile but gradually we found that our
efforts in behalf of civic improvements and the correcting of
outrageous abuses were handicapped at every turn by politics. Last
year an appeal came to the Woman's Club--to the women of
Louisville--to take our schools out of politics. It was a gigantic
fight but we won. As the climax of our struggle we spent the greater
part of election day at the polls and I think at the close of that day
every one of us had exhausted all the joys of 'indirect influence,'
which is supposed to satisfy every craving of the female heart. Our
club will be twenty-one years old in November, and--we want to vote!
We will make you most heartily welcome and most of us will also
welcome the principles for which you stand."

Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.), first vice-president of the
National Association, in responding said: "Now we know definitely that
all the things we have heard about Kentucky are true; we have met her
brave women and handsome colonels. While we remember all the tradition
of the past we live in the present. Kentucky is proud of what her men
named Clay have done in the past but it is a pleasure to us to know
that today when Kentucky wants anything done she appeals to a woman
who is either Clay by name or Clay by blood." Another chivalry is
coming into the world besides that felt by a strong man for a
beautiful woman. It is that felt by strong women for their weaker and
less fortunate sisters. It is the chivalry foreshadowed by Spenser in
The Færie Queene, in Britomart, the noble knight, herself a woman, who
rescued Amoretta and devoted herself to the help of all weak and
helpless women."

Assistant District Attorney Omar E. Garwood of Denver, a founder and
the secretary of the Men's Defense League, to refute the
misrepresentations of the practical working of woman suffrage in
Colorado, was introduced and outlined its work. Mrs. Alexander Pope
Humphrey was presented and gave a cordial invitation to a reception
for the convention at her home, Truecastle, at the close of the
afternoon session, which was as cordially accepted. Mrs. Ben Hardin
Helm, a sister of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, was greeted and expressed her
sympathy with the work of the association.

After these pleasant ceremonies at the morning session the convention
immediately proceeded to business and listened to the reports from the
various committees. That of the new corresponding secretary, Mrs. Mary
Ware Dennett, gave a graphic illustration of the rapid increase in the
size and scope of the work in her department. After describing the
demands from almost every State and saying that the correspondence had
doubled during the past year while the output of literature had
tripled, she continued:

     The correspondence with Canada has been very interesting and has
     steadily increased and we have sent a good deal of literature to
     British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia. Literature and letters
     have gone to Switzerland, Finland and even Japan, in answer to
     requests, the Japanese correspondent being in the midst of
     writing a book on the rights of women, because, as he quaintly
     put it, he believed there was "undoubtedly a truth in it." We
     have a steadily increasing stream of requests for suitable
     programs for study clubs, also a sudden spurt of requests for
     suffrage speakers from the Federation of Women's Clubs. The
     example of the last Biennial, when woman suffrage appeared for
     the first time on the official program of the Federation, has
     precipitated almost an epidemic of suffrage meetings in the State
     federations and local clubs.

     The Official Board of the association has made a serious
     recommendation to the State officers to push the plan of
     political district organization as the best and most systematic
     and reliable way of preparing for the submission of a suffrage
     amendment. A leaflet giving the details of the plan has been
     published and widely distributed and it has been accepted as
     scheduled or in modified form in ten States, in most of which the
     name Woman Suffrage Party has been adopted, following the example
     of New York City, which was the first to adapt the enrollment
     work long ago established by the National Association to the
     needs of modern political action.... The National office prepared
     reports of the work of the association for the meeting of the U.
     S. National Council of Women and for the congress of the
     International Suffrage Alliance in Stockholm. We have established
     an exchange of propaganda with the International Shop in London.
     At the suggestion of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt we have cooperated
     with the Women's Enfranchisement League of Cape Colony, South
     Africa, by asking a large number of American women writers to
     send copies of their books to an exhibition and sale there of
     women's work.

     Since our last convention there have been two annual meetings of
     the House of Governors, the first in Kentucky, at which Miss
     Laura Clay obtained a hearing and presented our cause in a most
     admirable address; the second in New Jersey, at which a hearing
     was obtained for Dr. Shaw, who was accorded every courtesy and
     received with heartiest enthusiasm by the Governors and
     afterwards by their wives. In Kentucky Governor Wilson was
     largely instrumental in securing the hearing; in New Jersey,
     although the governor is also a Wilson, he is unfortunately an
     "anti," but by the efforts of Governor Shafroth of Colorado, a
     place on the program was made for Dr. Shaw.

     Two valuable compilations have been made, one showing how many
     times and when and what sort of suffrage bills have been
     introduced into Legislatures in the last ten years, and the other
     showing the exact procedure necessary for amending the
     constitutions of the various States. Under the direction of Mrs.
     Catharine Waugh McCulloch, our legal adviser, a series of
     questions on the legal status of women has been printed and sent
     with letters to the various States. The returns will be published
     in pamphlet form. At the suggestion of Miss Clay, letters were
     sent to all members of Congress urging their effort to include
     women as electors in the bill providing for the direct election
     of U. S. Senators. Copies of _Hampton's Magazine_ for April were
     sent to special lists of people in Wisconsin, Kansas and
     California, which contained Mrs. Rheta Childe Dorr's article on
     Colorado Women Voters.

     We have published 30,000 copies of the "What to Do" leaflet,
     which have been sent out gratis, some States applying for 3,000
     at once; California sent for 10,000 and evidently learned "What
     to Do" effectively. We issued 45,000 of the little convention
     seals and the supply has hardly held out. The drawing for the
     seal was the contribution of Miss Charlotte Shetter of New
     Jersey. Through the equally generous cooperation of Mrs. Helen
     Hoy Greeley of New York we have been able to give free of charge
     for use on letters 13,000 "suffrage stamps." Another bit of
     cooperation in both labor and money was that between headquarters
     and Mrs. Raymond Brown, president of the Woman Suffrage Study
     Club, who with members of her association addressed and sent to
     about a thousand presidents of suffrage clubs all over the
     country two copies of Miss Blackwell's striking editorial in
     answer to Richard Barry's slanderous statements about Colorado,
     together with a note asking each president to send one copy to
     the editor of the _Ladies' Home Journal_, in which Barry's
     article had appeared, with her own personal protest, and the
     other to the editor of some paper in her vicinity. The result was
     a perfect avalanche of protests to the editor of the unfortunate
     magazine.

The treasurer's report was divided between Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton,
who had resigned the office, and Miss Jessie Ashley, her successor,
and it showed the receipts from all sources, January, 1910, to
January, 1911, to have been $43,844; the disbursements, $34,838.
Pledges were made at this convention to the amount of $12,251,
including $1,000 from Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo; $1,000 from
Mrs. Donald Hooker of Baltimore, and $3,000 by Dr. Shaw from a
contributor not named.

Miss Agnes E. Ryan, business manager of the _Woman's Journal_,
reported the many changes made in the paper during the year since it
became the official organ of the association and the removal of its
offices from Beacon Street to 585 Bolyston Street in the building with
the Massachusetts and Boston woman suffrage associations and the New
England Woman's Club. The advertising had increased from $256 a year
to $852 and the circulation from 4,000 to nearly 15,000. The methods
by which the increase had been obtained were described. The contract
with the association was renewed.

Miss Caroline I. Reilly gave her first report as chairman of the Press
Committee in the course of which she said:

     The annual reports of the National Press Bureau formerly made by
     Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, who so long and ably conducted this
     department, had reached so high a standard and the foundation
     laid by her was so substantial and solid that it was possible for
     us to meet the new conditions and increased volume of work with
     systematic and business-like methods. Then came Mrs. Ida Husted
     Harper, with her literary ability and historical knowledge, to
     open a new field for suffrage propaganda through the magazines,
     the great syndicates and Sunday papers in the large cities. Thus
     you will see that when the present chairman took charge of the
     bureau it had been so splendidly developed by her predecessors
     that she found only hard work and plenty of it.

     During the eighteen months since the last convention the records
     show that we have written 5,584 letters. We are in constant
     receipt of letters from all over the world written in various
     languages, the majority containing inquiries regarding suffrage
     methods in this country and what has been accomplished by our
     enfranchised women.... We have furnished material for one hundred
     magazine articles, which have appeared in various periodicals....
     Our list of newspaper syndicates has increased to nine, some of
     which are international, and since the last convention we have
     furnished them 1,314 articles, many by special request. Every
     one of these syndicates asked for detailed accounts of this
     convention, together with personal sketches of the officers and
     speakers. The Associated Press has sent out suffrage news as
     occasion warranted and has solicited our cooperation.... Last
     December we resumed the weekly press bulletin and since then we
     have mailed 31,200. These weekly items are regularly mailed to
     press chairmen and newspapers in forty-one States, also to
     Canada, Alaska and Cuba, and every day brings requests for more.
     A number of monthly pamphlets issued by women's clubs use them.
     Papers devoted to the labor movement publish them regularly and
     very often give helpful suggestions. The bureau is impressed with
     the fact that in future the farm papers should receive serious
     consideration.... One of these, with a circulation of nearly
     400,000 has offered us space for suffrage articles to be supplied
     regularly and this work should be carefully looked after,
     especially in agricultural States like Kansas and Wisconsin,
     where campaigns are now in progress.

     We have responded to fifty requests from schools and colleges for
     information to be utilized in debates, lectures and school
     magazines.... The records show that we have replied to 1,214
     adverse editorials and letters in papers from Maine to California
     and secured space in New York City papers for 2,163 notices and
     articles without any charge to us. We have received and read
     62,519 clippings gathered for us by the press clipping bureau,
     9,163 of them cut from New York papers alone. Representatives of
     newspapers and magazines from the following countries have come
     to us for material: Australia, Finland, Alaska, France, Germany,
     England, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Wales, Denmark, Russia, Italy,
     Mexico, Spain, Holland, Hawaii, South America and Canada, as well
     as from nearly every State in the Union. A number of Sunday
     papers in the large cities are devoting weekly space to suffrage
     departments, beginning by publishing the press items and
     gradually expanding.... Some of the more serious magazines have
     recently solicited our cooperation, notably the _Literary Digest_
     and the _American Review of Reviews_, whose political editor
     called personally a few days ago and requested that we send him
     regularly such suffrage news as we may have at hand, that the
     items may be embodied in reports of the world's political news.
     Another important feature of the work of the bureau consists in
     furnishing material to press chairmen and others to be used in
     answering attacks on suffrage in their local papers.

Miss Reilly complimented the work of the press chairmen in the States,
speaking especially of Mrs. D. D. Terry of Little Rock, who furnished
material to seventy-five papers in Arkansas and to a syndicate
reaching the weekly papers of the southwest.

A conference was held in the afternoon on the Proper Function of the
National Association, led by Dr. M. Carey Thomas of Bryn Mawr and Dr.
Anna E. Blount of Chicago. The first evening of the convention was
designated as Jubilee Night and Dr. Shaw said in beginning her
president's address: "The eighteen months which have elapsed since our
last convention have been permeated with suffrage activity. Never in
an equal length of time has there been such rapid progress in the
enlistment of recruits and the development of active service. By an
aggressive out-of-door campaign the message has been carried to a not
unwilling people. Never was there a more signal example of manly
loyalty to womanhood than in the three-to-one vote for woman suffrage
in Washington in 1910. Following close upon it comes the signal
victory of California, where as never before were the friends and foes
of woman's freedom so equally lined up. Wherever vice, corruption and
cupidity held sway, there the vote for woman suffrage was weak.
Wherever refinement, education, industry and self-respecting manhood
and womanhood dwelt, there the vote in favor of women was strong.
These are the battles in this war for justice which have been
victorious. Others have been and are being fought at the present time
with equal courage."

Graphic accounts were given of the successful campaign in Washington,
where the amendment was carried in every county, by Mrs. Caroline M.
Smith of Seattle, Mrs. E. A. Shores of Tacoma and Mrs. May Arkwright
Hutton of Spokane; and of the one in California by Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe
Watson, president of the State Suffrage Association, and J. H. Braly,
president of the Political Equality League. Later Miss Frances Wills
of Los Angeles; Miss Florence Dwight of Pasadena; Mrs. Mary E.
Ringrose, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry of San Francisco, former State
president, and Mrs. Rose French were introduced. Mrs. Watson in an
eloquent address showed how their success was the culmination of the
campaign of 1896 and the result of the years of hard and constant work
between that time and the present.

When Mr. Braly began speaking he presented, the association with the
State flag of California, saying: "The grizzly bear is the king of all
American beasts. On the flag, you see, he has a beautiful golden star
above his head--the star of hope that brought our Pilgrim fathers
across the sea finally coming to rest over the Golden State. There
that star of hope and progress and freedom hung for more than sixty
years, until Oct. 10, 1911, when it flamed forth with a wondrous
brilliancy and started all the bells of heaven ringing." He predicted
that Oregon, Arizona and Nevada would soon follow the example of
California and said: "Then the star will cross the Rocky Mountains and
in will come the States of the Middle West!" Continuing the story the
speaker said:

     In January, 1910, the last meeting of the last suffrage society
     in Southern California was held in the parlor of the Angeles
     Hotel in the city of Los Angeles. The women were discouraged and
     dispirited. I rode home alone in my car, my heart weeping and
     praying a prayer ten miles long, that being the distance to my
     home in Pasadena. That night I had a vision. I saw in panorama a
     future glory of my beloved State. I saw well-kept cities and
     churches filled with devout worshippers; I saw thousands of
     bright-faced, happy children going to clean schoolhouses and
     romping and laughing in their playgrounds. I saw, oh, so many
     sweet and happy homes! I saw no saloons, no drunken men, no
     places of vice. I saw men and women, husbands and wives, going up
     to the ballot booths, laughing and chatting as they went and
     placing their ballots in the boxes. Everything seemed beautiful.
     The vision passed and I said to myself, "There it is--the women
     of California will have the ballot and the blessings and glory
     will follow."

     Now we come to the beginning of the movement that has had much to
     do in the enfranchisement of the women of California. I trust you
     will entirely lose sight of the speaker and see only the great
     cause away out in the West. A man sat in his room one night with
     pencil and paper before him. He began to write names of big men
     who ought to take an interest in the pending suffrage campaign.
     He wrote down about one hundred names and the next day started
     out alone to see them. Then followed two months of patient,
     personal work and about seventy good men and true had signed the
     league membership form, which read as follows: "The undersigned
     hereby associate themselves together under the name and style of
     the Political Equality League of California for the purpose of
     securing political equality and suffrage without distinction on
     account of sex." On April 5, 1910, they met around a banquet
     table and organized the league. Then followed earnest,
     enthusiastic, impromptu speaking by many of the members....

Mr. Braly told of going to Washington to the national convention,
visiting suffrage headquarters in New York and returning home in June,
when "immediately the league's Board of Governors, consisting of nine
men, met and proceeded to add to it nine splendid women. Headquarters
were fitted up and business began." He described the vigorous work of
their Legislative Committee with the result that every member from the
nine southern counties went to the Legislature pledged to vote for
submitting a suffrage amendment.

Saturday morning was partly occupied by a conference on How to Reach
the Uninterested, in which fifteen members from as many States took an
animated part; and by one on Propaganda, led by Mrs. Grace Gallatin
Seton (Conn.) and Miss Mary Winsor (Penn.). Throughout all the daytime
sessions valuable and interesting reports on the work in the different
States were read. The proposed new constitution was vigorously
discussed whenever the time permitted. The delegation from Illinois
came with a request that the national headquarters be removed to
Chicago but the convention decided to have them remain in New York.

The College Equal Suffrage League held a business meeting in the
Seelbach Hotel at ten o'clock followed by a luncheon for college and
professional women. The president of the League, Dr. M. Carey Thomas,
president of Bryn Mawr College, was toast mistress and Dr. Shaw and
Miss Jane Addams were guests of honor. One especially enjoyable
feature was Miss Anita C. Whitney's account of the excellent work done
by the College League of California in the recent campaign. [For all
the above California reports see chapter for that State in Volume VI.]

The report of the National Congressional Committee by its chairman,
Miss Emma M. Gillett, a lawyer of Washington, D. C., showed a decided
advance in political work over all preceding years. She had placed on
her committee Mrs. Upton, Mrs. Elizabeth King Ellicott (Md.), Miss
Mary Gray Peck (N. Y.), Mrs. Katharine Reed Balentine (Me. and Cal.)
and Miss Belle Kearney (Miss.). State presidents were invited to
cooperate and lists of the nominees for Congress in their States were
sent to them. The Democratic National Committee furnished the names of
its nominees; the Republican National Committee practically refused to
do so. Letters asking their opinion on woman suffrage were sent to 378
Democratic and 293 Republican candidates; 135 of the former and 88 of
the latter answered; 93 Democrats and 65 Republicans were in favor of
full or partial suffrage for women; 13 of the former and one of the
latter were opposed; 29 and 23 non-committal. The letters received
were almost without exception of a pleasant nature. The District
Suffrage Association paid a stenographer and rent of headquarters for
the work of sixteen months. Contributions of only $214 were received
for it, $100 from U. S. Senator Isaac Stevenson of Wisconsin.

The report on official endorsements of conventions showed the usual
large number, political, religious, agricultural, labor, etc. Mrs.
Dennett estimated that such endorsements had now been given by
organizations representing 26,000,000 members.

Mrs. Pauline Steinem, chairman of the Committee on Education, reported
sub-committees in sixteen States working for suitable text books,
encouraging the placing of women on school boards, organizing mothers'
and parents' clubs, offering prizes for essays on woman suffrage,
encouraging methods of self-government in schools, etc. The chairman
for New Jersey announced that Governor Woodrow Wilson approved of
School suffrage and that State Senator Joseph S. Frelinghuysen,
president of the State Board of Education, recommended it in his last
report.

College Women's Evening, as always, attracted one of the largest
audiences of the week. In the course of an address on What Women Might
Accomplish with the Franchise, Miss Jane Addams said:

     Sydney Webb points out that while the wages of British working
     men have increased from 50 to 100 per cent. during the past sixty
     years the wages of working women have remained stationary. The
     exclusion from all political rights of five million working women
     in England is not only a source of industrial weakness and
     poverty to themselves but a danger to English industry. Working
     women can not hope to hold their own in industrial matters where
     their interests may clash with those of their enfranchised fellow
     workers or employers. They must force an entrance into the ranks
     of responsible citizens, in whose hands lies the solution to the
     problems which are at present convulsing the industrial world.

     Much of the new demand for political enfranchisement arises from
     a passionate desire to reform the unsatisfactory and degrading
     social conditions which are responsible for so much wrong doing.
     The fate of all the unfortunate, the suffering, the criminal, is
     daily forced upon woman's attention in painful and intimate ways.
     It is inevitable that humanitarian women should wish to vote
     concerning all the regulations of public charities which have to
     do with the care of dependent children and the Juvenile Courts,
     pensions to mothers in distress, care of the aged poor, care of
     the homeless, conditions of jails and penitentiaries, gradual
     elimination of the social evil, extended care of young girls,
     suppression of gambling, regulation of billboard advertising and
     other things.

     Perhaps the woman who leads the domestic life is more in need of
     the franchise than any other. One could easily name the
     regulations of the State that define her status in the community.
     Among them are laws regulating marriage and divorce, defining the
     legitimacy of children, defining married women's property rights,
     exemption and homestead laws which protect her when her husband
     is bankrupt. Then there are the laws regulating her functions as
     mother to her children.

Dr. Thomas, who presided, spoke on What Woman Suffrage Means to
College Women. Only fragmentary newspaper reports are available but
she said in beginning: "We are entering an age of social
reconstruction and general betterment and no class today are spending
more of their strength and energy to eradicate the wrongs which have
resulted from a defective system that denies woman her rights, than
the class of women who have received a college education. These
efforts, however, amount to little as long as the franchise is denied
compared to what is in the reach of possibility. Our efforts have been
rewarded to a great extent but until woman has come into her own and
is recognized and treated as a citizen of the State on an equal
footing with man, our work will continue to be a mere scratching on
the surface. Between 30 and 40 per cent. of the college women today
are supporting themselves. It is the educated woman who is making the
fight for equality and our hope lies in education, the education of
both men and women."

Dr. Shaw presided over the Sunday afternoon meeting at which four
notable addresses were made. Miss Mary Johnston's subject was Wanted,
an Architect, and in eloquent words she showed how woman might be
developed physically, mentally and spiritually, with the conclusion:
"She can do what she wills and now the thing above all others to be
desired is that she wills to act. The time has passed when
indifference on her part will be tolerated. Women must rouse
themselves to action, the crying needs of the hour demand it. With the
ballot in our hands and with the will to produce better conditions our
achievements will be unsurpassed." Professor Sophonisba Breckinridge,
dean of the Junior College of Women in Chicago University, considered
with keen analysis woman suffrage in its relation to the interests of
the wage-earning woman. The Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane (Mich.)
presented A New Phase of Home Rule for Cities, saying in conclusion:
"Politics at its best is a noble profession in which we earnestly
desire to engage. Woman's age-long experience in home-making and
mothering of children has fitted her for politics just as well as have
man's activities in trade fitted him."

Dr. Shaw introduced Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Chief of the Government
Bureau of Chemistry, as "the man who is trying to get us women a fair
chance to live," and he jokingly answered that in view of the swift
advance of the woman suffrage movement it was a question whether men
would continue to have a chance to live. His topic was Woman's
Influence in Public Affairs, "which," he said, "are the summing up of
private affairs." In his address he said:

     I am not a newcomer myself. My first suffrage address was made in
     1877. I believe it is almost useless to work on us old folks. The
     reforms in our politics and ethics must begin with the children.
     Educate them to the right and justice of woman suffrage even
     before they are born. Instill the idea in them at school; see
     that they get the proper kind of an education. Women have done
     wonders in securing our splendid system of public schools....
     Women have intellect enough and some to spare. What we want is
     more ethics. A sense of justice and right is just as important to
     this country as intellectual strength. Women have the instinct of
     right. I have never known an organized body of women to be on the
     wrong side of a public question, although as individuals women
     sometimes get the wrong point of view, just as men are prone to
     do. I want equal suffrage because it is right. I want it also
     because it would have a great effect on woman's influence in
     public affairs and would help powerfully to get the right thing
     done. The very fact that woman had the vote would be a
     restraining and elevating influence. The women have been a tower
     of strength to every official in this country who has tried to do
     his duty. Take the question of pure food: I could tell you by the
     hour of the support that I have had from women and women's
     organizations. I should despair if I thought that the women did
     not stand for pure food.

     We have in this country problems which I almost fear to face.
     Among them is the great problem of the relation between the
     wage-earner and the capitalist; that of the distribution of the
     necessities of life; that of the congestion in the cities and
     depopulation of the country districts. These and many others will
     take all the wisdom and sympathetic insight of men and women
     together to solve them. I am glad that men are to have the help
     of women. They are just entering on their career of greater
     usefulness in public affairs. With the ballot in their hands they
     will be endowed with a power much stronger than they have ever
     had before and they will wield it, I am sure, on the side of
     right and justice.

Sunday evening the officers of the association were "at home" to
delegates, speakers and friends in the parlors of the Hotel Seelbach.

Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who, to the great happiness of suffragists
on several continents, had entirely recovered her health, was now
making a trip around the world in the interest of the International
Woman Suffrage Alliance, of which she was president. At one session a
letter from her was read, dated at Kimberly, South Africa, which was
enthusiastically received. It said in part:

     At the very moment that you will be planning the work for the
     sixty-third year of the American suffrage campaign, the
     suffragists of this new-east of all nations will be sitting in
     their first national convention at Durban, the metropolis of
     Natal. The movement here is young but is wholly unlike the
     beginnings of the campaigns in England and America, for our
     revered pioneers fought their battle against the prejudice and
     intolerance of their time for the women of the whole world. These
     women are beginning at the very point where we of the older
     movements find ourselves today. The old-time arguments are not
     heard and here, as everywhere, expediency and political advantage
     are the causes of opposition.

     No two cities could be more unlike than Louisville and Durban.
     The latter lies in a tropical country with its buildings buried
     in masses of luxuriant and brilliant flora, all unfamiliar to
     American eyes. The delegates will look out upon the placid waters
     of the Indian Ocean and will ride to and fro from their meetings
     in rickshas drawn by Zulus in the most fantastic dress
     imaginable, the chief feature being long horns bound upon the
     head. In Louisville it will be autumn, in Natal it will be
     spring. Yet, dissimilar as are the scenes of these two
     conventions, the women composing them will be actuated by the
     same motives, inspired by the same hopes and working to the same
     end. The rebellion fomented in that little Seneca Falls
     convention has overspread the wide earth and from the frigid
     lands above the North Polar Circle to the most southerly point of
     the Southern Temperate Zone, the mothers of our race are
     listening to the new call to duty which these new times are
     uttering. It is glorious to be a suffragist today, with all the
     hard times behind us and certain victory before.

     May wisdom guide us to do the right thing; may love unite us; may
     charity temper our differences and may we never forget the
     obligations we owe the blessed pathfinders of our movement who
     made the present position of our cause possible!

The election resulted in several changes in the board of officers. Dr.
Shaw was re-elected. Mrs. McCulloch declined to stand for re-election
as first vice-president and Miss Gordon as second and Miss Addams and
Professor Breckinridge were chosen. For corresponding secretary Mrs.
Dennett was re-elected. Mrs. Stewart withdrew as recording secretary
and Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald (Mass.) was elected. Miss Ashley was
re-elected treasurer. Mrs. Robert M. LaFollette was elected first
auditor and Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw (N. Y.) second. Later Mrs.
LaFollette declined to serve and Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick was
appointed by the board.

In all preceding conventions there had been such unanimity in the
choice of officers that the secretary had been able to cast the
informal ballot for the election. This new division of sentiment was
frequently illustrated during the meetings and indicated that an
element had come into the movement, which, as usual with newcomers,
wanted a change to accord with its ideas. This was particularly
noticeable in the discussion of the proposed new constitution but the
differences of opinion were peaceably adjusted by compromise.

After the election Mrs. McCormick, who had recently come into close
touch with the National Association, spoke on the Effect of Suffrage
Work on Women Themselves, saying in part: "So much attention has been
given to the growth and development of the movement for woman suffrage
that the effect on the women themselves has been lost sight of or has
been little considered but today it is becoming clear that the cause
of suffrage is more valuable to the individual woman than she is to
the cause. The reason is that this movement has the great though
silent force of evolution behind it, impelling it slowly forward;
whereas the individual is largely dependent for her development on her
own powers and especially on those expressions of life with which she
brings herself into contact. The woman suffrage movement offers the
broadest field for contact with life. It offers cooperation of the
most effective kind with others; it offers responsibility in the life
of the community and the nation; it offers opportunity for the most
varied and far-reaching service. To come into contact with this
movement means to some individuals to enter a larger world of thought
than they had known before; to others it means approaching the same
world in a more real and effective way. To all it gives a wider
horizon in the recognition of one fact--that the broadest human aims
and the highest human ideals are an integral part of the lives of
women."

The report of the Committee on Church Work by its chairman, Mrs. Mary
E. Craigie, (N. Y.) began: "It is estimated that there is in the
United States a total church membership of 34,517,317 persons. It
would mean a great deal to the woman suffrage cause if this great
organized force, representing the most thoughtful and influential men
and women of every community, could be brought to endorse it and work
for it. The experiences of this committee seem to prove that in the
transition taking place in the world of religious thought this is the
most propitious time to obtain such support." She gave a résumé of the
splendid work that had been done by the branch committees in the
various States, the religious gatherings that had been addressed,
often resulting in the adoption of a resolution for woman suffrage,
and the hundreds of letters sent to ministers asking for sermons
favorable to the cause, which were many times complied with. She
closed by saying: "It needs neither figures nor argument to establish
the fact that church attendance and church worship are in a condition
of decline. It is a critical period in the history of the church,
which is changing from the exercise of power to the employment of
influence, and the appeals that are coming to the churches are for
service from the men and women who are their real strength. The church
is not appreciating the resources that are lying dormant, when
two-thirds of its membership--the women--are left powerless to carry
on the moral and social reform work, because, as a disfranchised class
having no political status, they are not counted as a potential
force."

Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates (R. I.), chairman, made the report on
Presidential suffrage. The report of the Committee on Peace and
Arbitration, Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead (Mass.), chairman, spoke of the Ginn
Endowment of a million dollars for the World's Peace Foundation and of
Mr. Carnegie's great gift of ten million dollars, creating a fund to
secure the peace of the world. It told of the vast work that was being
done for peace by the women in the various States and said: "The world
for the first time has seen the head of a great government declare
that all questions between nations can be peacefully settled.
President Taft's noble effort to secure treaties with other nations,
to ensure arbitration between them of every justiciable question,
should command the gratitude of every patriotic woman. I had hoped to
felicitate you on the ratification of these treaties by the necessary
two-thirds of the Senate, but in chagrin and disappointment I must
instead appeal to you to endeavor instantly to create such public
sentiment as shall result in December in the acceptance of the
treaties without amendment. If they are thus ratified they will be
secured not only with Great Britain and France but certainly Germany,
and I have no doubt Japan and most other nations will agree to
identical treaties."

Miss Florence H. Luscomb (Mass.) gave an interesting report of the
Sixth Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held in
Stockholm in June, 1911. [See chapter on the Alliance.] Mrs. Agnes M.
Jenks, proxy for the president of the New Hampshire association, asked
assistance in getting a clause for woman suffrage in the new
constitution to be made for that State. Conferences were held
throughout the week on legislative work, district organization,
publicity, raising money and other branches of the vast activities of
the association. The convention Monday afternoon adjourned early in
order that the members might enjoy the hospitality of the Woman's Club
of Louisville at a "tea" in their attractive rooms, and at another
time take the beautiful Riverside Drive. One evening was devoted to
light entertainment with two suffrage monologues by Miss Marjorie
Benton Cooke; a suffrage slide talk by Mrs. Fitzgerald; a clever
speech portraying the results if women voted, by Miss Inez Milholland
(N. Y.) and the sparkling play, How the Vote Was Won, read by Miss
Fola La Folette. A striking address was given one afternoon by Mrs. T.
P. O'Connor, an American woman but long a resident of England and
Ireland, who took for her subject, Let Our Watchword be Unity.

One of the most valuable contributions to the convention was Mrs.
McCulloch's report as Legal Adviser. This was the result of a list of
forty-four questions sent to presidents of State suffrage
associations, Woman's Christian Temperance Unions, Federations of
Clubs and leading lawyers, followed up by many letters. One of these
questions related to the guardianship of children, of which she said:

     The subject of the guardianship of children could have been
     treated a century ago in a few words. The father of the
     legitimate child was his sole guardian and the mother had no
     authority or right concerning their child except such as the
     husband gratuitously allowed her. She had, however, all the
     duties which the husband might put upon her. This meant that the
     husband decided about the children's food, clothing, medicine,
     school, church, home, associates, punishments, pleasures and
     tasks and that he alone could apprentice a child, could give him
     for adoption and control his wages. Many mothers were kept in
     happy ignorance of such unjust laws because their husbands
     voluntarily yielded to them much of the authority over the
     children but this was not so in all families and many mothers
     took cases to Supreme Courts, protesting against the absolute
     paternal power. When mothers learned what this sole guardianship
     meant they urged legal changes. Our present guardianship laws,
     very few alike, show how women, each group alone in their own
     States, have struggled to mitigate the severest evils of sole
     fatherly guardianship, especially of the child's person. This to
     mothers was more important than the guardianship of the child's
     property.

     Perhaps the greatest suffering came from the father's power to
     deed or to bequeath the guardianship to a stranger and away from
     the mother. Most of the States now allow a surviving mother the
     sole guardianship of the child's person with certain conditions.
     Six States have not yet thus limited the father's power and in
     those where the guardianship is not specifically granted to the
     surviving mother, the father's sole power of guardianship covers
     his child even if yet unborn.

The report gave a thorough digest of these guardianship laws filling
eight printed pages and this and Mrs. McCulloch's digest of other laws
were printed in the _Woman's Journal_ and the Handbook of the
convention.

Miss Alice Henry presented greetings from the National Womens' Trade
Union League; Miss Caroline Lowe from the Women's National Committee
of the Socialist Party; Mrs. A. M. Harrison from the State Federation
of Woman's Clubs; Mrs. Charles Campbell of Toronto from the Canadian
Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. W. S. Stubbs, wife of the Governor,
and Mrs. William A. Johnston, wife of the Chief Justice and president
of the State Suffrage Association, from Kansas. A letter of love and
good wishes with regrets for her absence was ordered sent to Mrs. Catt
and one of affectionate sympathy to Mrs. Susan Look Avery (Ky.) for
the death of her son, which prevented her attendance. During the
convention Mrs. Lida Calvert Obenchain, author of Aunt Jane of
Kentucky, and Miss Eleanor Breckenridge, president of the Texas
Suffrage Association, were introduced and said a few words. A telegram
of greeting was read from Mrs. Caroline Meriwether Goodlett, a founder
of the Daughters of the Confederacy.

The resolutions were presented by the chairman, Miss Bertha Coover,
corresponding secretary of the Ohio Suffrage Association, the
committee as usual consisting of one member from each State
delegation. They urged the ratification of the Arbitration Treaties in
the form desired by President Taft; expressed sympathy with Finland in
its struggle for liberty; endorsed the proposed Federal Amendment for
the election of U. S. Senators by popular vote and demanded that women
should have part in this vote; endorsed the campaign for pure food and
drugs; called for the same moral standard for men and women and the
same legal penalties for those who transgress the moral law; asked the
Government to erect a colossal statue of Peace at the entrance to the
Panama Canal, and there were others on minor points. Greetings and
appreciation were sent to "the justice-loving men of Washington and
California, whose example will be an inspiration to the men of other
States." Memorial resolutions were adopted for prominent suffragists
who had died during the year, among them Thomas Wentworth Higginson,
Dr. Emily Blackwell, Ellen C. Sargent, William A. Keith, the artist;
Samuel Walter Foss, the poet; Lillian M. Hollister, Elizabeth Smith
Miller, Eliza Wright Osborne and Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers.

There was a long resolution of thanks for the courtesy and hospitality
received in Louisville, which included the clergymen who opened the
sessions with prayer, the musicians, who gave their services, the
press committees, the hostesses and others.[71]

On the last evening with a large audience present Mrs. Desha
Breckinridge spoke on The Prospect for Woman Suffrage in the South.
"Although Kentuckians are wont to boast that within these borders is
the purest Anglo-Saxon blood now existing, the spirit of their
ancestors has departed," she said, and continued:

     Since 1838 Kentucky has retrograded. An effort to obtain School
     suffrage for a larger class of women has brought about a
     reactionary measure. Kentucky women at present have no greater
     political rights than the women of Turkey--for we have none at
     all--but the action of certain male politicians in defeating the
     School suffrage measure in the last two Legislatures has really
     been of advantage to the movement. It has put not only women but
     the progressive men of the State into fighting trim.... The
     opposition of the non-progressive element has made of this "scrap
     of suffrage" a live, political issue. It is likely to be carried
     in the next Legislature by the determination of the better men of
     the State even more than of the women, and the fight made against
     it has gone far to convince both that the full franchise should
     be granted to women. The action of the Democratic party, when
     leadership in it is resumed by the best element, shows a
     realization that the wishes of the women of the State are to be
     reckoned with and that the friendship of the women, which may be
     gained by so simple an act of justice in their favor, is a
     political asset of no small importance. It is quite possible that
     the party in Kentucky and throughout the South may eventually
     realize that by advocating and securing suffrage for women it may
     bind to itself for many years to come, through a sense of
     gratitude and loyalty, a large number of women voters, just as
     the Republican party since the emancipation of the negro has had
     without effort the unquestioning loyalty of thousands of negro
     voters; although the women would never vote so solidly as do the
     negroes, because they would represent a much more thoughtful and
     independent body....

After showing what had been the results in the South from admitting a
great body of illiterate voters she said:

     A conference of southern women suffragists at Memphis a few years
     ago, in asking for woman suffrage with an educational
     qualification, pointed out that there were over 600,000 more
     white women in the southern States than there were negroes, men
     and women combined. If the literate women of the South were
     enfranchised it would insure an immense preponderance of the
     Anglo-Saxon over the African, of the literate over the
     illiterate, and would make legitimate limitation of the male
     suffrage to the literate easily possible....

     Conditions of life in the South have made and kept Southerners
     individualists. The southern man believes that he should
     personally protect his women folk and he does it. He is only now
     slowly realizing that, with the coming of the cotton mills and
     other manufactories and with the growth of the cities, there has
     developed a great body of women, young girls and children who
     either have no men folk to protect them or whose men folk,
     because of ignorance and economic weakness, are not able to
     protect them against the greed and rapacity of employers or of
     vicious men. It is a shock to the pride of southern chivalry to
     find that women are less protected by the laws in their most
     sacred possessions in the southern States than in any other
     section of the Union; that the States which protect their women
     most effectively are those in which women have been longest a
     part of the electorate....

     In the community business of caring for the sick, the incurable,
     the aged, the orphaned, the deficient and the helpless, women of
     the South bear already so important a part that to withdraw them
     from public affairs would mean sudden and widespread calamity.
     Women in the South are in politics, in the higher conception of
     the word. "Politics," says Bernard Shaw, "is not something apart
     from the home and the babies--it is home and the babies." Women
     have long since gotten into politics in the South in the sense
     that they have labored for the passage and enforcement of
     legislation in the interest of public health, the betterment of
     schools and the protection of womanhood and childhood--for the
     preservation, in short, "of home and the babies."

Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England, received an ovation when she rose
to speak and soon disarmed prejudice by her dignified and womanly
manner. She began by pointing out the fallacy that the women of the
United States had so many rights and privileges that they did not need
the suffrage and in proof she quoted existing laws and conditions that
called loudly for a change. She then took up the situation in Great
Britain and explained how many years the women had tried to get the
franchise by constitutional methods only to be deceived and spurned by
the Government. She told how at last a small handful of them started a
revolution; how they had grown into an army; how they had suffered
imprisonment and brutality; how the suffrage bill had again and again
passed the second reading by immense majorities and the Government had
refused to let it come to a final vote. "We asked Prime Minister
Asquith to give us a time for this," she said. "For eight long hours
in a heavy frost some of the finest women in England stood at the
entrance to the House of Commons and waited humbly with petitions in
their hands for their rulers and masters to condescend to receive them
but the House adjourned while they stood there. The next day, while
they waited again, there was an assault by the police, acting under
instructions, that I do not like to dwell upon outside of my own
country."

Dr. Shaw made the closing address, eloquent with hope and courage for
the future and, as always, the final blessing at the convention as the
benediction is at church.

In summing up the week the _Woman's Journal_ said: "Only those who
attended our national convention at Louisville can understand how
really wonderful it was. For hospitality, for good management, for
beautiful cooperation and self-effacement, the Kentucky women set a
standard that will long be remembered and will be very hard to equal
in the future. It made hard work easy and all work a joy. The
gratitude of the National Association is theirs forever. They gave
much to us, did we give anything to them? Here we can only say we
trust that we did and accept with confidence what one of the State's
great women said many times: 'This convention has done wonders for
Kentucky; it has surpassed my hopes.'"


FOOTNOTES:

[70] Part of Call: Within the year the State of Washington has
completed its work of fully enfranchising its adult citizens. Before
the convention assembles, California will no doubt have accepted the
idea of true democracy. We also rejoice because the Legislatures of
Kansas, Wisconsin, Oregon and Nevada have voted to submit the question
to their electors. Many States, however, still refuse to allow the
voters to pass upon the question of giving political independence to
women. Since the purpose of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association is "to secure the right to vote to women citizens of the
United States," we have called this national convention of
suffragists. From every State will come delegates, who will bring with
them the growing spirit of rebellion against injustice....

We call upon every public-spirited woman to come and help devise
methods of carrying on the fight, to strengthen the fire of revolt, to
show by overwhelming numbers and determined earnestness that women
will no longer be satisfied to be treated with political contempt by
the legislators who are supposed to represent them.... Do your part to
inspire our workers with courage, determination, fervor and
consecration; to arouse them to put forth their full strength, even to
the utmost sacrifice, to obtain universal recognition of the truth
that every adult citizen should have a voice in the government of a
free country.

                       ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                       CATHARINE WAUGH MCCULLOCH, First Vice-President.
                       KATE M. GORDON, Second Vice-President.
                       MARY WARE DENNETT, Corresponding Secretary.
                       ELLA S. STEWART, Recording Secretary.
                       JESSIE ASHLEY, Treasurer.
                       LAURA CLAY,            }
                       ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, }Auditors.

[71] Of the press the _Woman's Journal_ said: "The Louisville papers
gave the convention full and fair reports and the _Herald_ and _Times_
had editorials declaring woman suffrage to be inevitable. Colonel
Henry Watterson in the _Courier-Journal_ struggled between a sincere
desire to be courteous and hospitable to a convention of distinguished
women meeting in his city and an equally sincere belief that woman
suffrage would be a bad thing. A rousing editorial in favor of it
appeared in Desha Breckinridge's paper, the _Lexington Leader_.




CHAPTER XII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1912.


The Forty-fourth annual convention, which met in Witherspoon Building,
Philadelphia, Nov. 21-26, 1912, celebrated three important victories.
At the general election in the early part of the month, Oregon,
Arizona and Kansas had amended their constitutions and conferred equal
suffrage on women by large majority votes and the result in Michigan
was still in doubt. It was the sentiment of the country that the
eastward sweep of the movement was now fully under way. There was a
new and vibrant tone in the Call and in the speeches and
proceedings.[72] The _Woman's Journal_ said in its account: "Another
new feature was the enormous crowds that turned out at the convention.
Evening after evening, in conservative Philadelphia, ten or a dozen
overflow meetings had to be held for the benefit of the people who
could not possibly get into the hall. At the Thanksgiving service on
Sunday afternoon, not only was the great Metropolitan Opera House
filled to its capacity but for blocks the street outside was jammed
with a seething crowd, eager to hear the illustrious speakers. It
looked more like an inauguration than like an old-fashioned suffrage
meeting."

There was a great out-door rally in Independence Square at the
beginning, such as had been witnessed many times on this historic spot
conducted by men but never before in the hands of women. Miss
Elizabeth Freeman was manager of this meeting, assisted by Miss Jane
Campbell, the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane, Mrs. Camilla von Klenze,
Mrs. Teresa Crowley and Miss Florence Allen. From five platforms over
forty well-known speakers demanded that the principles of the
Declaration of Independence signed in the ancient hall close by should
be applied to women and that the old bell should ring out liberty for
all and not for half the people. Mrs. Otis Skinner read the Women's
Declaration of Rights, which had been written by Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage in 1876 and
presented at the great centennial celebration in that very square,[73]
and a little ceremony was held in honor of Mrs. Charlotte Pierce of
Philadelphia, the only one then living who had signed it, with a
remembrance presented by Mrs. Anna Anthony Bacon.

The convention was noteworthy for the large number of distinguished
speakers on its program. On the opening afternoon, after a moment of
silent prayer in memory of Lucretia Mott, the welcome of the city was
extended by the widely-known "reform" Mayor Rudolph Blankenburg, who
pointed out the vast field of municipal work for women and expressed
his firm conviction of their need for the suffrage. He was followed
with a greeting by Mrs. Blankenburg, a former president of the State
Suffrage Association. Its formal welcome to the delegates was given by
the president, Mrs. Ellen H. Price, who said in part: "We hope that
you will feel at home in Pennsylvania, for the idea that has called
this organization into being--that divine passion for human
rights--actuated the great founder of our Commonwealth in setting up
his 'holy experiment in government.'" After regretting that a State
founded on so broad a conception had not applied it to women Mrs.
Price said:

     We welcome you in the name of William Penn, who, antedating the
     Declaration of Independence by nearly a century, enunciated in
     his Frame of Government the truth that the States of today are
     coming very rapidly to acknowledge: "Any Government is free to
     the people under it when the laws rule and the people are a party
     to those laws; anything more than this (and anything less) is
     oligarchy and confusion." We welcome you in the name of our only
     woman Governor, Hannah Penn, who, as we are told, for six years
     managed the affairs of the infant colony wisely and well.

     We welcome you in the name of the patriots who placed on our
     Liberty Bell the injunction, "Proclaim Liberty throughout the
     Land to all the Inhabitants Thereof"; in the name of those
     ancestors of ours (yours and mine) who here gave up their lives
     in that struggle to establish the principle that "taxation
     without representation is tyranny" for a nation; in the name of
     those uncompromising agitators who delivered their message of
     liberty even at the risk of life itself, till the shackles fell
     from a race enslaved; in the name of Lucretia Mott, that gentle,
     that queenly champion of the downtrodden and oppressed, that
     inspired preacher whose motto, "Truth for Authority, not
     Authority for Truth," should be the watchword of every soul that
     seeks for freedom.

     We welcome you in the name of the pioneers in the education of
     women, of those who gave us the first Medical College for Women,
     Ann Preston, Emily Cleveland, Hannah Longshore, whose daughter is
     here today--our honorary president, Lucretia L. Blankenburg, wife
     of the chief executive of this city, to whose eloquent words of
     welcome you have just listened; in the name of the first
     president of our State association, of whom the poet Whittier
     wrote: "The way to make the world anew is just to grow as Mary
     Grew." We welcome you in the name of our national president, the
     Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, who, although a citizen of the world,
     comes back to her Pennsylvania home to get fresh strength and
     courage.

Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, a national officer, made a graceful response
for the association. Fraternal greetings were given by Mrs. Barsels,
from the Pennsylvania Woman's Christian Temperance Union; by Mrs.
Branstetter of Oklahoma from the National Socialist Party; by Mrs.
Campbell McIvor of Toronto from the Canadian Woman Suffrage
Association and later by Miss Leonora O'Reilly from the New York
Women's Trade Union League.

Miss Laura Clay, chairman of the Membership Committee, announced the
admission of nine new societies to the National Association. There
were 308 delegates in attendance. Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett,
corresponding secretary and chairman of the Literature Committee, said
in the course of her report:

     We are often asked at headquarters and by mail what the national
     headquarters is for and what it does. The briefest answer that
     can be given is that we furnish ammunition for the suffrage
     fight. The ammunition is of many sorts, from money, leaflets and
     buttons to historical data, slide lectures and advice on
     organization.... One decided advantage in making headquarters
     more useful to visitors has been the enlargement of the main
     office. A partition was removed which gave us a large, light room
     where all our publications are accessible for consultation or
     purchase, all the chief suffrage periodicals of the world are on
     file, the gallery of eminent suffragists is on exhibition and all
     the various kinds of supplies, like buttons, pennants, posters,
     etc., are shown. It serves as reference library as well, for
     beside the History of Woman Suffrage, the Life of Susan B.
     Anthony and the bound volumes of the _Woman's Journal_, there is
     a collection of books on interests allied to suffrage, which have
     been selected and approved by the board. These are also on
     sale.... During the summer of 1912 a questionnaire was sent to
     the States and the answers tabulated and printed in a folder
     showing conclusively the status of each regarding headquarters,
     press, membership, finance, political district, legislative and
     Congressional work. There is an increasing demand for suffrage
     facts rather than for suffrage argument. It was in response to
     this demand that it became necessary to appoint an editor for the
     literature department. Fully half of the publications needed
     revising and bringing up to date and new compilations of data
     were urgently needed. Mrs. Frances Maule Bjorkman, a trained
     newspaper and magazine writer, was chosen and has filled the
     position admirably.

Mrs. Dennett gave a detailed account of the pamphlets, speeches,
leaflets, plays, magazine articles, etc., published by the
association--250 kinds of printed matter--and said:

     We have published over 3,000,000 pieces of literature in this
     year and our total receipts from literature and supplies have
     been $13,000, or $746 over the cost of the printing and purchase.
     Our record month was September, when our receipts were more than
     the entire receipts for the whole year of 1909. If we count our
     unsold stock and our uncollected bills as assets, we have a net
     gain for the year of $3,578. About $700 worth of literature has
     been sold in the office, the remainder having been ordered by
     mail.

     Through the courtesy of the Illinois association and the
     generosity of Miss Addams and Miss Breckinridge, who paid for the
     rent and service, a sub-station for the supply of literature was
     established at the Chicago headquarters in April. The sales at
     this western branch have been $1,924. It would seem well worth
     while to continue this service for western customers. Also for
     their benefit Mrs. McCormick made a gift of a sample copy of
     every one of our new publications to the presidents of State
     associations in eighteen of the western States, as a means of
     bringing them in closer touch with the national office.... Aside
     from our own literature we have been grateful for a very
     serviceable congressional document, thousands of which have been
     distributed in the last few months, the speech of Congressman
     Edward T. Taylor of Colorado. It proved a successful and timely
     campaign document and we are indebted not only to Mr. Taylor but
     to a most efficient volunteer worker in Washington--Mrs. Helen H.
     Gardener--who gave unstinted personal service in seeing that the
     documents were obtained and franked when needed....

[Illustration: COURT HOUSE OF WARREN, OHIO

Headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from
1903 to 1910--on the ground floor.]

[Illustration: HOME OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY IN ROCHESTER, N. Y.

Headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association until
1895.]

The convention accepted the recommendation of the board that it should
issue a monthly bulletin of facts and figures to be sent to every
paying member, thus establishing a real bond between the association
and its thousands of members. The report of the Press Bureau by its
chairman, Miss Caroline I. Reilly, showed remarkable progress in
public sentiment as expressed by the newspapers. It said in part:

     The winning of California last year wrought so complete a change
     in the work of the national press bureau that it was like taking
     up an entirely new branch. Before that victory our time was
     employed in furnishing suffrage arguments, replying to adverse
     editorials and letters published in the newspapers and writing
     syndicate articles. Now this department has resolved itself into
     a bureau of information, news being the one thing required. Each
     week we send to our mailing list 2,000 copies of the press
     bulletin, giving brief items relative to suffrage activities the
     world over. These go into every non-suffrage State in the Union,
     to Canada, Cuba and England, and the demand for them increases
     daily. Almost every mail brings letters from newspapers asking to
     be placed on the regular mailing list.... Since the winning of
     the four States on November 5, newspapers and press associations
     from all over the United States have written us asking for help
     to establish woman suffrage departments. The time has come when
     our question is a paying one from a publicity point of view, ...

     We now have twenty syndicates on our list and are no longer
     obliged to write the articles ourselves but simply furnish the
     information which their own writers work up. These syndicates are
     both national and international and cover all of this country as
     well as some foreign countries. An interesting thing happened
     last week, when the representative of a European press syndicate
     came and said that he had been sent to America for the sole
     purpose of reporting the woman movement in the United States, the
     subject being regarded a vital one by the press of Europe.
     Special suffrage editions seem to be more popular than almost
     anything else and appeals come to us from all over the Union to
     help on them.... During the past year we have received and
     answered over 3,000 communications. The Italian papers have been
     on our mailing list for some time, also many French and Hebrew
     papers.... The editors and associate editors of twelve Italian
     newspapers in New York are enrolled in the city suffrage
     organization.

Miss Alice Stone Blackwell made an extended report of the _Woman's
Journal_ since it became the official organ of the National American
Association in June, 1910, and had been published under its auspices.
The expenses had increased and funds had not been supplied to meet
them. Committees of conference were appointed and eventually the
deficit was paid and the paper was returned to Miss Blackwell, who
offered the free use of its columns to the association. The report of
the treasurer, Miss Jessie Ashley, was not encouraging. Under the old
régime the year always closed with a balance in the treasury but this
indebtedness to the _Woman's Journal_ left the association $5,000 in
debt.[74] As its work broadened the expense became heavier and the
income although far larger than ever before was not sufficient. During
the past year it had contributed $18,144 to campaigns in eight States.
A very large part of this amount was paid by Dr. Shaw from a fund
given to her personally for the purpose by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw of
Boston. At this time and later she gave to Dr. Shaw to be used for
campaigns according to her judgment $30,000 and the name of the donor
was not revealed until after her death in 1917.

The first evening of the convention was devoted to the president's
address and the stories of the successful campaigns for suffrage
amendments at the November elections, related by Mrs. William A.
Johnston and Miss Helen N. Eaker for Kansas and Mrs. M. L. T. Hidden
for Oregon. No one being present from Arizona Dr. Shaw told of the
victory there. Mrs. Clara B. Arthur and Mrs. Huntley Russell described
the situation in Michigan, where the indications were that the
amendment would be lost by fraudulent returns. Dr. Shaw's speech, as
usual, was neither written nor stenographically reported but this
floating paragraph was found in a newspaper:

     In all times men have entertained loftier theories of living than
     they have been able to formulate into practical experience. We
     Americans call our government a republic but it is not a republic
     and never has been one. A republic is not a government in which
     one-half of the people make the laws for all of the people. At
     first the government was a hierarchy in which only male church
     members could vote. In the process of evolution the qualification
     of church membership was removed and the word "taxpayer"
     substituted. Later that word was stricken out and all white men
     could vote. Then followed the erasure of the word "white" and now
     all male citizens have the ballot. The next measure is obvious
     and it is not a revolutionary one but the logical step in the
     evolution of our government. I believe thoroughly in democracy,
     the extension of the franchise to all men, for all have a right
     to a voice in the making of the laws that govern them, and no
     nation has a right to place before any of its people an
     insuperable barrier to self-government. We would make no outcry
     against an educational standard, the necessary age limit, a
     certain term of residence in any place--in fact there is no
     regulation women would object to that applied to all citizens
     equally. I make no criticism of the policy of the country in
     giving all men the ballot. The men are all right so far as they
     go--- but they go only half way. The United States has subjected
     its women to the greatest political humiliation ever imposed upon
     the women of any nation. German women are governed by German men;
     French women by French men, etc., but American women are ruled by
     the men of every country and race in the world.... I do not
     belong to any political party and I have too much self-respect to
     ally myself with any party until my opinion is of enough
     importance to be counted at the polls.

The delegates heard reports from the chairmen of various
committees--Ways and Means, Dr. M. Carey Thomas; Enrollment, Mrs. Jean
Nelson Penfield; Presidential Suffrage, Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates;
Laws for Women, Miss Mary Rutter Towle (D. C.). Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead
made her usual comprehensive report as chairman of the Peace and
Arbitration Committee. Mrs. Mary E. Craigie in her report of seven
printed pages on the extensive and successful efforts of her Committee
on Church Work told of a circular letter that had been sent to
thousands of clergymen throughout the country asking for a special
sermon in support of woman suffrage on Mothers' Day. It pointed out
that in the vast moral and social reform work of the churches their
women members are denied the weapon of Christian welfare, the ballot,
while the forces of evil are fully enfranchised and the influence of
the churches is thus essentially weakened.

Mrs. William Kent, in her report as chairman of the Congressional
Committee, said that it had not been necessary to request members to
introduce a resolution for a Federal Suffrage Amendment as six were
offered by as many Representatives of their own volition. Senator
Works of her own State of California had been glad to present it. She
told of the "hearings" before the committees of the two Houses on
March 13, when the National Association sent representatives to
Washington. The preceding day a reception for the speakers was given
in her home and many of the guests became interested who had been
indifferent. In May the Congressional Committee sent out cards for a
"suffrage tea" in her house to the wives of Senators and
Representatives; many were present and interesting addresses were
made.

Among the resolutions submitted by the chairman of the committee, Mrs.
Raymond Brown, and adopted were the following:

     We reaffirm that our one object and purpose is the
     enfranchisement of the women of our country.

     We call upon all our members to rejoice at the winning of the
     School vote by the women of Kentucky and at the full
     enfranchisement of four more States, Kansas, Oregon, Arizona and
     Michigan[75]; and in the fact that at the last election the
     electoral vote of women fully enfranchised was nearly doubled,
     and to rejoice that all the political parties are now obliged to
     reckon with the growing power of the woman vote; and be it
     resolved

     That this association believes in the settlement of all disputes
     and difficulties, national and international, by arbitration and
     judicial methods and not by war.

     That we commend the action of those State Federations of Women's
     Clubs which have founded departments for the study of political
     economy and we congratulate those clubs which have endorsed our
     movement to gain the ballot for all women.

     That we deeply deplore the exploiting of the children of this
     country in our labor markets to the detriment and danger of
     coming generations; that we commend the action of Congress in the
     creation of a National Children's Bureau and President Taft's
     appointment of a woman, Miss Julia Lathrop, as head of the
     bureau.

     That we commend the efforts of our National Government to end
     the white slave traffic; that we urge the passage in our States
     of more stringent laws for the protection of women; that we
     demand the same standard of morals for men and women and the same
     penalties for transgressors; that we call upon women everywhere
     to awake to the dangers of the social evil and to hasten the day
     when women shall vote and when commercialized vice shall be
     exterminated.

A unique feature of the convention was Men's Night, with James Lees
Laidlaw of New York, president of the National Men's League for Woman
Suffrage of 20,000 members, in the chair and all the speeches made by
men. Miss Blackwell said editorially in the _Woman's Journal_: "From
the very beginning of the equal rights movement courageous and
justice-loving men have stood by the women and have been invaluable
allies in the long fight that is now nearing its triumph but never
before have been actually organized to work for the cause. Men old and
young, men of the most diverse professions, parties and creeds, spoke
with equal earnestness in behalf of equal rights for women." The
speakers were the Hon. Frederick C. Howe, Judge Dimner Beeber,
president of the Pennsylvania League; A. S. G. Taylor of the
Connecticut League; Joseph Fels, the Single Tax leader; Julian Kennedy
of Pittsburgh; George Foster Peabody of New York; the Rev. Wm. R. Lord
of Massachusetts; Jesse Lynch Williams, J. H. Braly of California and
Reginald Wright Kauffman. The last named, whose recently published
book, The House of Bondage, had aroused the country on the "white
slave traffic," discussed this question as perhaps it never before had
been presented in public and he found a sympathetic audience.

The Rev. James Grattan Mythen, of the Prince of Peace Church,
Walbrook, Md., made a strong demand for the influence of women in the
electorate, in which he said: "Whatever wrongs the law allows must not
be laid entirely at the door of paid public servants whom by the
franchise we employ to do our public will. Where there are criminals
in public office they represent criminals. They represent the active
criminals whose debased ballots put them in office, and they represent
the passive criminals whose ballot was not cast to keep them out!
'That ye did it not' merits as great a condemnation as 'That ye did
it.' What is needed in politics is the reassertion of the moral
ideal, and as men we know that this moral ideal has been, is now and
always will be the possession of womankind. For this reason men ought
to demand that women come into the body politic and bring with them
the same moral standard that they hold for themselves in the home, in
the Church, in the hospitals, in the great reform movements which are
voiced by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and all other
endeavors for righteousness that are always championed by women."

This was not the time and place arranged for taking a collection but
the enthusiasm was so great that Mr. Fels started the ball rolling and
$2,000 were quickly subscribed. Later at the regular collection the
amount was increased to $6,908. Among the largest pledges were those
of Miss Kate Gleason of Rochester, N.Y., for $1,200; Mrs. Oliver H.P.
Belmont, $1,000; Mrs. Bowen of Chicago, $600; New York State
Association, $600; Pennsylvania State Association, $500; Miss Emily
Howland, $300. The treasurer, Miss Ashley, stated that the receipts
from April 1 to November 1 had been $55,197.

Dr. Shaw had telegraphed the congratulations of the association to the
Governors of the four victorious States and telegrams of greetings to
the convention were read from Governors Oswald West of Oregon; George
P. Hunt of Arizona; W.R. Stubbs of Kansas; and Chase S. Osborn of
Michigan. Greetings were received from Miss Martina G. Kramers of
Holland, editor of the international suffrage paper; the U.S. National
Council of Women, and from Mrs. Champ Clark and her sister, Mrs. Annie
Pitzer of Colorado, sent through Miss Nettie Lovisa White of
Washington. Telegrams of congratulation were sent to the State
presidents, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon and Mrs. Frances W.
Munds of Arizona, and of sympathy to the Rev. Olympia Brown and Miss
Ada L. James for the defeat in Wisconsin.

It was voted to continue the national headquarters in New York. There
was a flurry of discussion over a proposed amendment to the
constitution changing the present method of voting, which allowed the
delegates present to cast the entire number of votes to which the
State was entitled by its paid membership. The convention finally
adopted the amendment that hereafter the delegates present should
cast only their individual votes. The election resulted in a change of
but two officers. Professor Breckinridge and Miss Ashley did not stand
for re-election and Miss Anita Whitney of California was chosen for
second vice-president and Mrs. Louise De Koven Bowen of Chicago for
second auditor.

A serious controversy arose during the convention in regard to the
deviation of some of the national officers from the time-honored
custom of non-partisanship. It had always been the unwritten but
carefully observed law of the association that no member of the board
should advocate or work for any political party. Mrs. George Howard
Lewis, a veteran suffragist of Buffalo, N.Y., sent a resolution to the
convention declaring that officers of the association must remain
non-partisan and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper presented it and led the
contest for it. Dr. Shaw announced before it was discussed that the
board recommended that it should not pass.

Women had taken a larger part in the political campaign which had just
ended than ever before and one of the officers and many of the
delegates present had spoken and worked for the Progressive party
because of the suffrage plank in its platform. Other members had done
the same for the Socialist and Prohibition parties for a like reason.
As a result, while the resolution had some warm support it was
defeated by a vote of ten to one, although it applied only to the
officers and left individual members free. The consequences of this
vote soon began to be realized by the board and the delegates and in
the official resolutions was one which said: "The National American
Suffrage Association reaffirms the position for which it always has
stood, of being an absolutely non-partisan, non-sectarian body." When
asked for an interpretation the officers answered that "the
association must not declare officially for any political party."[76]

One of the most enjoyable evenings of the convention was the one in
charge of the National College Equal Suffrage League, the program
consisting of a debate between groups of clever speakers, each
with one or more university degrees, half of them posing as
anti-suffragists, with Dr. Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College and
of the league, in the chair. A suffrage meeting which touched high
water mark was that of Sunday afternoon, when the immense opera house
was filled to overflowing and literally thousands stood on the outside
in the intense cold and listened to speakers who were hastily sent out
to address them. Dr. Shaw presided. The meeting was opened with prayer
by the Rt. Rev. Philip Mercer Rhinelander and the music was rendered
by the choir, under its director, Samuel J. Riegel, with the audience
joining. An eloquent address was given, the Democracy of Sex and
Color, by Dr. W.E. Burghardt Du Bois, and one by Miss Addams on the
Communion of the Ballot, the necessity for cooperative work by men and
women, in which she said: "Take a still graver subject. Everywhere
vice regulation is coming up for government action. The white slave
traffic is international and it goes on from city to city. I ask you,
in the name of common sense, is it safe or wise or sane to entrust to
men alone the dealing with this age-long evil? Our laws are superior
to those of most European countries. In England, because women have
been obliged to appeal to the pity of men against these evils, (for
the appeal to chivalry seems to have fallen), there is a disposition
to divide into two camps, men in one and women in the other. Any sex
antagonism thus engendered arises because these grave moral questions
have not been taken up by men and women together. By debarring women
from suffrage, we are failing to bring to bear on these questions that
vast moral energy which dwells in women.... Whenever there is a great
moral awakening it is followed by an extension of the movement for
women's rights. The first wave came with the anti-slavery agitation;
the second with the prohibition movement and Frances Willard, and now
there is coming all over the world this irresistible movement of
government to take up great social and industrial questions."

The very fine address of Miss Julia Lathrop, Chief of the National
Children's Bureau, on Woman Suffrage and Child Welfare filled over
five columns of the _Woman's Journal_ and contained a sufficient
argument for the enfranchisement of women if no other ever had been or
should be made. "My purpose," she began, "is to show that woman
suffrage is a natural and inevitable step in the march of society
forward; that instead of being incompatible with child welfare it
leads toward it and is indeed the next great service to be rendered
for the welfare and ennoblement of the home. A little more than
one-third of all the people in this country, something over 29,500,000
in actual numbers, are children under the age of fifteen--that is,
still in a state of tutelage; and it is of unbounded importance that
nothing be done by the rest of us which will injure this budding
growth. So it is right to judge in large measure any proposed change
in our social fabric by its probable effect on that dependent third of
the race to whom we are pledged, for whose succession it is the work
of this generation to prepare. What we propose is to give universal
suffrage to women."

Answering the question, "Do we propose a mad revolution?" she traced
the development in the position of woman, every step of which was
condemned at the time as a dangerous innovation. "It was a revolution
when women were given equal property rights over their goods and equal
rights over their children," she said. "We must blush that there are
States in this country where that revolution is still to be
accomplished. I have heard an old Illinois lawyer describe the early
efforts to secure equal property rights for women in that State and
the constant objection that such laws would destroy the family, that
there could be no harmony unless the ownership were all in one person
and that person the man. It was feared then, as now, that women would
become tyrannical and unbearable if they were allowed too much
independence. Do children suffer because their mothers own property?"
She pointed out the necessity for woman's political influence on
humanitarian movements and said: "Suffrage for women is not the final
word in human freedom but it is the next step in the onward march,
because it is the next step in equalizing the rights and balancing the
duties of the two types of individuals who make up the human race."

Miss Lathrop showed the need of legislation for all social reforms and
how the experience of women beginning with domestic duties carried
them forward to a sense of their obligations in community life and a
fitness for it. Referring to the uneducated women she said: "The
ignorant vote is not the working vote. Working women in great
organized factories have been having, since they began that work, an
education for the suffrage. They are not the ignorant voters nor are
wives of workingmen; at least, they know in part what they need to
safeguard themselves and their homes. The ignorant vote is the
complacent, blind vote of men and of the feminine 'influence' that
moves them, which disregards the real problems of setting safe and
wholesome standards of life and labor and education and spends its
strength in looking backward, insisting upon precedents without seeing
that, good and enduring as they may be, all precedents must be daily
retranslated into the setting of today. "Women must vote for their own
souls' good," she said, "and they must vote to protect the family. The
newer conception of the family is one which depends upon giving to
both parents the fullest expression on all those matters of common
concern."

The address closed with a fine peroration--Pass on the Torch! In the
evening the officers of the association gave a largely attended
reception to delegates and friends in the banquet hall of Hotel
Walton.

The closing night of the convention was one long to be remembered.
There was the same vast, eager audience: Dr. Shaw presided and on the
platform was the distinguished Apostle of Peace, winner of the Nobel
prize, Baroness Bertha von Suttner, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, just
returned from a two-years' trip around the world. The meeting was
opened by the Rt. Rev. James Henry Darlington, bishop of central
Pennsylvania, whose brief address was of great value to the cause. He
congratulated the American people on the fact that four more States
had been added to the ever-growing list of those which had given the
suffrage to women and he called upon all observers to notice that no
State which had once voted in woman suffrage had ever voted it out.
Once in use, local opposition to it ceased by reason of the
self-evident good results. He offered congratulations to those who
were humble privates in the ranks and to the famous and brave leaders
who organized the victories. "As the Elizabethan and Victorian eras
are the most distinguished for philanthropic, literary and economic
advancement in the whole history of Great Britain, though the Kings
were many and the Queens were few in the long line," he said, "so no
man need be ashamed to follow feminine leadership when it means
advancement in every good word and work," and he offered
congratulations to little children of the future generations of this
and all lands. "When our anti-suffrage sisters throw aside their
complacency and selfish ease," he said, "to strive side by side with
men to formulate and pass necessary laws to protect and develop the
bodies, minds and souls of our present little children and all that
are to come through the passing centuries, then will dawn a new day
for humanity."

Brief addresses were made by Mrs. Blankenburg, Miss Jane Campbell and
Professor Breckinridge of Chicago University. Miss Crystal Eastman
gave a graphic account of why the amendment failed in Wisconsin and
Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, State president, told in her inimitable way
of the campaign that failed in Ohio. Baroness von Suttner made a
magnificent plea for the peace of the world and asked for the
enfranchisement of women as an absolutely necessary factor in it. The
dominant note of Mrs. Catt's speech was the great need for political
power in the hands of women to combat the social evil, which she had
found intrenched in the governments of every country. These last two
addresses, which carried thrilling conviction to every heart, were
made without notes and not published.

       *       *       *       *       *

From the early days of the National Suffrage Association its
representatives had appeared before committees of every Congress to
ask for the submission of an amendment to the Federal Constitution and
during many years this "hearing" took place when the annual convention
met in Washington. As it was to be held elsewhere this year and at a
time when the Congress was not in session a delegation of speakers had
gone before the committees the preceding March by arrangement of Mrs.
William Kent, chairman of the association's Congressional Committee.

At the hearing before a joint committee of the Senate Judiciary and
Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage March 13 six of the members were
present: Senators Overman (N. C.), chairman; Brandegee (Conn.);
Bourne (Ore.); Brown (Neb.); Johnston (Ala.); Wetmore (R. I.). Senator
John D. Works of California, who had introduced the resolution in the
Senate, presented Dr. Anna Howard Shaw as "one of the best known and
most distinguished of those connected with the movement for the
enfranchisement of women." As she took charge of the hearing she said
in part:

     Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee, this is the
     forty-third year that the women suffragists have been represented
     by delegations appointed by the national body to speak in behalf
     of resolutions which have been introduced to eliminate from the
     Constitution of the United States in effect the word "male," to
     eliminate all disqualifications for suffrage on account of sex.
     The desire of our association is not so much to put on record the
     opinions of this committee in regard to woman suffrage as to
     plead with it to give a favorable report, so that the question
     can come before the Congress, be discussed on its merits and then
     submitted to the various States for ratification. The Federal
     Constitution guarantees to every State a republican form of
     government--that is, a government in which the laws are enacted
     by representatives elected by the people--and we claim that it
     has violated its own principle in refusing to protect women in
     their right to select their representatives, so we are asking for
     no more than that the Constitution shall be carried out by the U.
     S. Government. As the president of the National Suffrage
     Association, I stand here in the place of a woman who gave sixty
     years of her life in advocacy of that grand principle for which
     so many of our ancestors died, Miss Susan B. Anthony. There is
     not a woman here today who was at the first hearing, nor a woman
     alive today who was among those that struggled in the beginning
     for this fundamental right of every citizen. I now introduce Mrs.
     Susan Walker Fitzgerald of Massachusetts. It has been said that
     women cannot fight. Mrs. Fitzgerald's father was an Admiral of
     the Navy and if she can not fight her father could.

Mrs. Fitzgerald spoke at length in the interest of the home and the
family, showing the evolution that had taken place until now "the
Government touches upon every phase of our home life and largely
dictates its conditions while at the same time the woman is held
responsible for them and is working with her hands tied behind her
back and she asks the vote in order to do her woman's work better."
Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw of New York spoke beautifully of the desire of
the mothers of the rising generation that their daughters should not
have to enter the hard struggle for the suffrage and pictured the need
for the highest development of the womanly character. Mrs. Elsie Cole
Phillips of Wisconsin showed the standpoint of the so-called working
classes, saying in part:

     The right to vote is based primarily on the democratic theory of
     government. "The just powers of government are derived from the
     consent of the governed." What does that mean? Does it not mean
     that there is no class so wise, so benevolent that it is fitted
     to govern any other class? Does it not mean that in order to have
     a democratic government every adult in the community must have an
     opportunity to express his opinion as to how he wishes to be
     governed and to have that opinion counted? A vote is in the last
     analysis an expression of a need--either a personal need known to
     one as an individual as it can be known to no one else, or an
     expression of a need of those in whom we are
     interested--sister-women or children, for instance. The moment
     that one admits this concept of the ballot that moment
     practically all of the anti-suffrage argument is done away
     with.... Is it to strengthen the hands of the strong? Oh, no; it
     is to put into the hands of the weak a weapon of self-protection.
     And who are the weak? Those who are economically
     handicapped--first of all the working classes in their struggle
     for better conditions of life and labor. And who among the
     workers are the weak? Wherever the men have suffered, the women
     have suffered more.

     But I would also like to point out to you how this affects the
     homekeeping woman, the wife and mother, of the working class,
     aside from the wage-earning woman. Consider the woman at home who
     must make both ends meet on a small income. Who better than she
     knows whether or not the cost of living advances more rapidly
     than the wage does? Is not that a true statement in the most
     practical form of the problem of the tariff? And who better than
     she knows what the needs of the workers are in the factories?
     Take the tenement-house woman, the wife and mother who is
     struggling to bring up a family under conditions which constantly
     make for evil. Who, better than the mother who has tried to bring
     up six or seven children in one room in a dark tenement house,
     knows the needs of a proper building? Who better than the mother
     who sees her boy and her girl playing in the streets knows the
     need of playgrounds? Who better than a mother knows what it means
     to a child's life--which you men demand that she as a wife and a
     mother shall care for especially--who, better than she, knows the
     cruel pressure that comes to that child from too early labor in
     what the U. S. census report calls "gainful occupations"?

     There is a practical wisdom that comes out of the pressure of
     life and an educational force in life itself which very often is
     more efficient than that which comes through textbooks of
     college.... The ignorant vote that is going to come in when women
     are enfranchised is that of the leisure-class woman, who has no
     responsibilities and knows nothing of what life means to the rest
     of the world, who has absolutely no civic or social
     intelligence. But, fortunately for us, she is a small percentage
     of the women of this land, and fortunately for the land there is
     no such rapid means of education for her as to give her the
     ballot and let her for the first time feel responsibilities....

     Now the time has come when the home and the State are one. Every
     act, every duty of the mother in the home is affected by
     something the State does or does not do, and the only way in
     which we are ever going to have our national housekeeping and our
     national child-rearing done as it should be is by bringing into
     the councils of the State the wisdom of women.

James Lees Laidlaw of New York was introduced as president of the
National Men's League for Woman Suffrage and after stating that such
leagues were being organized throughout the country he spoke of the
great change that had taken place in the status of women and said:

     Most important of all is the change of woman's position in
     industrial, commercial and educational fields. We are all
     familiar with the exodus of millions of women from the home into
     the mill and the factory. Today they may enter freely into
     business either as principal or employee. I was astonished to
     hear reported at a recent meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in
     New York that in the commercial high schools of that city, where
     a business education is given, 85 per cent. of the pupils are
     girls. We have today a great body of intelligent citizens with
     many interests in the Government besides their primary interests
     as mothers and home-keepers. If men are not going to take the
     next logical step they have made a great mistake in going thus
     far. Why give women property rights if we give them no rights in
     making the laws governing the control and disposition of their
     property and no vote as to who shall have the spending of tax
     money? Why give women the right to go into business or trades,
     either as employees or employers, without the right to control
     the conditions surrounding their business or trades? Why train
     women to be better mothers and better housekeepers and refuse
     them the right to say what laws shall be passed to protect their
     children and homes? Why train women to be teachers, lawyers,
     doctors and scientists and say to them: "Now you have assumed new
     responsibilities, go out into the world and compete with men,"
     and then handicap them by depriving them of political expression?
     Women now have the opportunity for equal mental development with
     men. Is it right or is it politically expedient that we should
     not avail ourselves of their special knowledge concerning those
     matters which vitally affect the human race?...

Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association
and member of the national board, contrasted the old academic plea for
the ballot with the modern demand for it to meet the present
intensely utilitarian age and continued: "Today we know that the
ballot is just a machine. In fact it impresses us as being something
like the long-distance telephone which we in this scientific age have
grown accustomed to use. We go into the polling booth and call up
central (the Government) and when we get the connection we deliver our
message with accuracy and speed and then we go about our business.
Women have been encouraged during the past to have opinions about
governmental matters and there is no denying that we do have opinions.
If we could submit to you today the list of bills which the
Federations of Women's Clubs of the various States have endorsed and
for which they are working you would know that women have a large
civic conscience and an intelligent appreciation of the measures which
affect both women and the homes. They have been encouraged to have
these opinions but to try to influence legislation only in indirect
ways. Today, being practical and scientific, we are asking ourselves
all the time why should we be limited to expressing our opinion on
governmental affairs in our women's clubs? Why should we breathe them
only in the prayer meeting or in the parlors of our friends? Why not
directly into the governmental ear--the ballot box? Why do we not go
into that long-distance telephone booth, get connection with central,
and then know that our message has been delivered in the only place
where it is recorded. The Government makes no record whatever of the
opinions which we express in our women's clubs and our prayer
meetings."

Mrs. Caroline A. Lowe of Kansas City, Mo., spoke in behalf of the
7,000,000 wage-earning women of the United States from the standpoint
of one who had earned her living since she was eighteen and declared
that to them the need of the ballot was a vital one. She gave
heart-breaking proofs of this fact and said:

     From the standpoint of wages received we wage earners know it to
     be almost universal that the men in the industries receive twice
     the amount granted to us although we may be doing the same work.
     We work side by side with our brothers; we are children of the
     same parents, reared in the same homes, educated in the same
     schools, ride to and fro on the same early morning and late
     evening cars, work together the same number of hours in the same
     shops and we have equal need of food, clothing and shelter. But
     at 21 years of age our brothers are given a powerful weapon for
     self-defense, a larger means for growth and self-expression. We
     working women, because we find our sex not a source of strength
     but a source of weakness and a greater opportunity for
     exploitation, have even greater need of this weapon which is
     denied to us. Is there any justice underlying such a condition?

     What of the working girl and her employer? Why is the ballot
     given to him while it is denied to us? Is it for the protection
     of his property that he may have a voice in the governing of his
     wealth, of his stocks and bonds and merchandise? The wealth of
     the working woman is far more precious to the welfare of the
     State. From nature's raw products the working class can readily
     replace all of the material wealth owned by the employing class
     but the wealth of the working woman is the wealth of flesh and
     blood, of all her physical, mental and spiritual powers. It is
     not only the wealth of today but that of future generations which
     is being bartered away so cheaply. Have we no right to a voice in
     the disposal of our wealth, the greatest that the world
     possesses, the priceless wealth of its womanhood? Is it not the
     cruelest injustice that the man whose material wealth is a source
     of strength and protection to him and of power over us should be
     given the additional advantage of an even greater weapon which he
     can use to perpetuate our condition of helpless subjection?...
     The industrial basis of the life of the woman has changed and the
     political superstructure must be adjusted to conform to it. This
     industrial change has given to woman a larger horizon, a greater
     freedom of action in the industrial world. Greater freedom and
     larger expression are at hand for her in the political life. The
     time is ripe for the extension of the franchise to women.

     We do not come before you to beg of you the granting of any
     favor. We present to you a glorious opportunity to place
     yourselves abreast of the current of this great evolutionary
     movement.

Mrs. Donald Hooker of Baltimore gave striking instances of the
conditions in that State regarding the social evil, of the hundreds of
virtuous girls who every year are forced into a life of shame, of the
thousands of children who die because mothers have no voice in making
laws for their protection. "There was never a great act of injustice,"
she said, "that was not paid for in human life and happiness. A great
act of injustice is being perpetrated by denying women the right to
vote."

Miss Leonora O'Reilly, a leader among the working women of New York,
made an impassioned plea that carried conviction. "I have been a
wage-earner since I was thirteen," she said, "and I know whereof I
speak. I want to make you realize the lives of hundreds of girls I
have seen go down in this struggle for bread. We working women want
the ballot as our right. You say it is not a right but a privilege.
Then we demand it as a privilege. All women ought to have it,
wage-earning women must have it." After plainer speaking than the
committee had ever heard from a woman she concluded: "You may tell us
that our place is in the home. There are 8,000,000 of us in these
United States who must go out of it to earn our daily bread and we
come to tell you that while we are working in the mills, the mines,
the factories and the mercantile houses we have not the protection
that we should have. You have been making laws for us and the laws you
have made have not been good for us. Year after year working women
have gone to the Legislature in every State and have tried to tell
their story of need in the same old way. They have gone believing in
the strength of the big brother, believing that the big brother could
do for them what they should, as citizens, do for themselves. They
have seen time after time the power of the big interests come behind
the big brother and say to him, 'If you grant the request of these
working women you die politically.'

"It is because the working women have seen this that they now demand
the ballot. In New York and in every other State, we plead for shorter
hours. When the legislators learn that women today in every industry
are being overspeeded and overworked, most of them would, if they
dared, vote protective legislation. Why do they neglect the women? We
answer, because those who have the votes have the power to take the
legislator's political ladder away from him, a power that we, who have
no votes, do not have.... While the doors of the colleges have been
opened to the fortunate women of our country, only one woman in a
thousand goes into our colleges, while one woman in five must go into
industry to earn her living. And it is for the protection of this one
woman in every five that I speak...."

Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield, chairman of the Woman Suffrage Party of New
York numbering 60,000 members, said in part:

     In the few moments given me I will confine myself to the handicap
     women have found disfranchisement to be in social-service work.
     It is supposed by many that because our so-called leisure women
     have been able to do so much apparently good community betterment
     work without the ballot we do not need it. I should like to ask
     you to remember that the important thing is not that women
     succeed in this kind of work but that where they do succeed it is
     at tremendous and needless expenditure of energy and vital
     strength and at the cost of dignity and self-respect.

     The dominant thought in the world today is that of conservation;
     the tendency of the whole business world is toward economy. How
     to lessen the cost of production; how to improve the machinery of
     business so as to reduce friction--these are the questions that
     are being asked not only in the business world but in the affairs
     of state. No intelligent man in this scientific day would try to
     do anything by an indirect and wasteful method if he could
     accomplish his purpose by a direct and economic method. Even the
     bricklayer is taught how to handle his bricks so that the best
     results may be secured at the least possible expenditure of time
     and energy. Women alone seem to represent a great body of energy,
     vitality and talent which is unconserved, unutilized and
     recklessly wasted. If a man wants reforms he goes armed with a
     vote to the ballot box and even to the Legislature with that
     power of the vote behind him; but if women want these things they
     are asked to take the long, questionable, roundabout route of
     personal influence, of petition, of indirection. Women have
     accomplished a great deal in this way but it has required a long
     time.... Take, for instance, one class of work--the establishment
     of manual training, domestic science, open-air schools, school
     gardens and playgrounds--all once just "women's notions" but now
     established institutions. Women have had to found and finance and
     demonstrate them before municipalities would have anything to do
     with them, but when city or State adopts these institutions the
     management is immediately and entirely taken out of the hands of
     women and placed in the hands of men....

     Among thinking women there is a growing consciousness of being
     cut off, shut out from the civic life in which they have an equal
     stake with men. We ask you to recognize that the time is here for
     you to submit an amendment to the States for ratification which
     will give women the influence and power of the suffrage.

In closing Dr. Shaw asked that her association might have some printed
copies for distribution and was assured that it might have fifteen or
twenty thousand if it desired them. She also urged that the committee
would report the resolution to the Senate for discussion and as a
third request said: "We are told that men are afraid to grant women
suffrage lest fearful results should come to the Government and to the
women. We have asked for years that Congress would appoint a committee
to investigate its practical working in the States where it
exists--there are now six of them--and we are entirely willing to risk
our case on that investigation. We feel that its results would be
such that we would not have to come here much longer and take up your
time with our arguments on the subject."

Franklin W. Collins of Nebraska spoke in opposition, presenting his
case in a series of over fifty questions but not attempting to answer
any of them. Among the questions were these: If woman by her ballot
should plunge the country into war, would she not be in honor bound to
fight by the side of man? Will the ballot in the hands of women pour
oil on the troubled domestic waters? Has not this movement a strong
tendency to encourage the exodus from the land of bondage, otherwise
known as matrimony and motherhood? Is it not true that every
free-lover, socialist, communist and anarchist the country over is
openly in favor of female suffrage?

The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage sent from its
bureau in New York a letter of "earnest protest" against the amendment
signed by its president, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge. Its auxiliary in the
District of Columbia sent another of greater length signed by its
chairman, Mrs. Grace Duffield Goodwin, which not only protested
against a Federal Amendment but against the granting of woman suffrage
by any method.

       *       *       *       *       *

Six members of the House of Representatives had introduced the
resolution for a Federal Suffrage Amendment--Raker of California;
Lafferty of Oregon; Mondell of Wyoming; Berger of Wisconsin; and
Taylor and Rucker of Colorado. The hearing before the Judiciary
Committee proved to be of unusual interest. Sixteen of this large
committee of twenty-one were present and a reason given for the
absence of the others. They were an imposing array as they sat in a
semi-circle on a raised platform. The chairman, Judge Henry D. Clayton
of Alabama, treated the speakers as if they were his personal guests,
assured them of all the time they desired and at the close of the
hearing was photographed with Miss Addams and Mrs. Harper. Instead of
listening in a perfunctory way the members of the committee showed
much interest and asked many questions. Miss Jane Addams, first
vice-president of the National American Suffrage Association, presided
and in presenting her with words of highest praise Representative
Taylor said that all who had introduced the resolution would be
pleased to speak in support of it at any time and that personally he
wished to put in the record a statement of the results of woman
suffrage in Colorado during the past eighteen years with a brief
mention of 150 of the wisest, most humane and progressive laws in the
country for the protection of home and the betterment of society,
which the women of Colorado had caused to be put upon its statute
books.

Miss Addams called the attention of the committee to the fact that
more than a million women would be eligible to vote for the President
of the United States in November. She named the countries where women
could vote, saying: "America, far from being in the lead in the
universal application of the principle that every adult is entitled to
the ballot, is fast falling behind the rest of the world," and
continued:

     As I have been engaged for a good many years in various
     philanthropic undertakings, perhaps you will permit me, for only
     a few moments, to speak from my experience. A good many women
     with whom I have been associated have initiated and carried
     forward philanthropic enterprises which were later taken over by
     the city and thereupon the women have been shut out from the
     opportunity to do the self-same work which they had done up to
     that time. In Chicago the women for many years supported school
     nurses who took care of the children, made them comfortable and
     kept them from truancy. When the nurses were taken over by the
     health department of the city the same women who had given them
     their support and management were excluded from doing anything
     more, and I think Chicago will bear me out when I say that the
     nurses are not now doing as good work as they did before this
     happened. I could also use the illustration of the probation
     officers who are attached to the juvenile court. For a number of
     years women selected and supported these probation officers.
     Later, when the same officers, paid the same salary, were taken
     over by the county and paid from the county funds, the women who
     had been responsible for the initiation and beginning of the
     probation system and for the early management of the officers,
     had no more to do with them and at the present moment the
     juvenile court has fallen behind its former position in the
     juvenile courts of the world. I think the fair-minded men of
     Chicago will admit that it was a disaster when the women were
     disqualified by their lack of the franchise to care for it. The
     juvenile court has to do largely with delinquent and dependent
     children and there is no doubt that on the whole women can deal
     with such cases better than men because their natural interests
     lie in that direction. I could give you many other examples....
     So it seems fair to say that if women are to keep on with the
     work which they have done since the beginning of the world--to
     continue with their humanitarian efforts which are so rapidly
     being taken over into the Government, and which when thus taken
     over are often not properly administered, women themselves must
     have the franchise....

Introducing Representative Raker Miss Addams said smilingly that while
the women speakers were allowed ten minutes the men were to have but
five. Judge Raker of California referred to the fact that he had
pledged himself to this Federal Amendment when he was first a
candidate for Congress eight years before and said: "This matter, as
it appears to me, has passed beyond the question of sentiment; it has
passed beyond the question of advisability; it has passed beyond the
question of whether or not women ought to participate in the vote for
the benefit of the home or the benefit of the State. As I view it it
is a clean-cut question of absolute right and upon that assumption I
base my argument--that we today are depriving one-half of the
intelligence, one-half of the ability of this republic from
participating in public affairs and that from the economic standpoint
of better laws, better homes, better government in the country, the
city, the State and the nation, we need our wives', our sisters' and
our mothers' votes and assistance."

"May I introduce one of my own fellow townswomen, Miss Mary E.
McDowell," said Miss Addams, "who has had what I may call a
distressing life in the stockyards district of Chicago for many years,
and she will tell you what she thinks of the franchise for women."
Miss McDowell said in part:

     We are all together very human, it seems to me, both men and
     women, and it is because we are human, because this is a human
     proposition and not a woman proposition, that I am glad to speak
     for it and believe in it so firmly. Giving the vote to women is
     not simply a woman's question, it has to do with the man, the
     child and the home. Women have always worked but within much less
     than a century millions of women and girls have been thrust out
     of the home into a man-made world of industry and commerce. We
     know that in the United States over 5,500,000, according to the
     census of 1900, are bread winners.... Do we not see that the
     working women must be given every safeguard that workingmen have
     and now as they stand side by side with men in the factory and
     shop they must stand with them politically? The ballot may be but
     a small bit of the machinery that is to lift the mass of
     wage-earning women up to a higher plane of self-respect and
     self-protection but will it not add the balance of power so much
     needed by the workingmen in their struggle for protective
     legislation, which will in the end be shared by the women? Today
     women are cheap, unskilled labor and will be until organization
     and technical training and the responsibility of the vote in
     their hands develop a consciousness of their social value....

     The vote and all that it implies will awaken this sense of value.
     It will give to the wage-earning woman a new status in industry,
     for men will help to educate her when she is a political as well
     as an industrial co-worker. As man gave strength to the
     developing of the institution of the home so woman must be given
     the opportunity to help man humanize the State. This can be done
     only when she has the ballot and shares the responsibility.

Representative A. W. Lafferty of Oregon said in his brief five
minutes: "I believe it is not only practicable but that it would be
profitable to the United States to extend equal suffrage to men and
women. We have had here this morning a practical demonstration of the
ability of the women of this country to participate intelligently in
the discussion of public questions. I think that we could not make a
mistake in placing the ballot in the hand that rocks the cradle.
Having only the best interests of this republic at heart, I believe it
would be a good thing if fifty of the mothers of this country were in
the House of Representatives today and I wish that at least
twenty-five of them were in the Senate. You should consider, as
lawyers, as statesmen and as historians that in the history of the
civilized world in monarchies women have participated in the
Government; it is a shame that in a republic like ours, the best form
of government that has ever yet been established, women can not, under
the present law, actively participate in it."

The address which Representative Edward T. Taylor put into the
_Congressional Record_ on this occasion was also printed in a pamphlet
of forty pages and until the end of the movement for woman suffrage
was a standard document for distribution by the National Association.
He said in the introduction:

     I want to recite in a plain, conversational way some of my
     personal experiences and individual observations extending over a
     period of thirty years of public life, during nearly nineteen
     years of which we have had equal suffrage in Colorado....

     When I came to Congress I did not realize and I have not yet been
     able fully to understand the deep-seated prejudice, bias and even
     vindictiveness against woman suffrage and the astounding amount
     of misinformation there is everywhere here in the East concerning
     its practical operation. I have been equally amazed and indignant
     at the many brazen assertions I have seen in the papers and heard
     that are perfectly absurd and without the slightest foundation in
     fact, and I have had many heated discussions on the subject
     during the past three years. When I hear men and women who have
     never spent a week and most of them not an hour in an equal
     suffrage State attempt to discuss the subject from the standpoint
     of their own preconceived prejudices and idle impressions, I feel
     like saying: "May the Lord forgive them for they know not what
     they do." Let me say to them and to my colleagues in the House
     that it will not be ten years before the women of this country
     from the Pacific to the Atlantic will have the just and equal
     rights of American citizenship.[77]

     Since coming here I have been frequently asked by friends what we
     think of woman suffrage in Colorado, and when I tell them that it
     is an unqualified success and that I doubt if even five per cent.
     of the people of the State would vote to repeal it, they ask me
     what it has accomplished. I believe it is generally conceded by
     enlightened people that the laws of a State are a true index of
     its degree of civilization. I will, therefore, give a brief
     catalogue of some of the most important of the 150 legislative
     measures that have been either introduced by the women or at the
     request of the various women's organizations and enacted into
     law.

Then followed under the head of different years, beginning with 1893,
that in which women were enfranchised, a roster of Colorado's
unequalled laws. These were followed by a complete analysis of the
practical working of woman suffrage during the past eighteen years,
with comprehensive answers to all the stereotyped questions and
objections.

Several who had addressed the Senate Committee came over to the House
office building and spoke to the Judiciary Committee. Mrs. William
Kent, wife of a Representative from California, was introduced by Miss
Addams as one who was not a member of the House but was eligible. In
the course of a winning speech she said: "The United States is
committed to a democratic form of government, a government by the
people. Those who do not believe in the ideals of democracy are the
only ones who can consistently oppose woman suffrage. The hope of
democracy is in education. There is food for thought in the fact that
the early education of all the citizens is now administered by a class
who have no vote.... Our recent California Legislature when it
submitted the amendments which were to be referred to the voters on
October 10 did a very sensible and intelligent thing. Speeches for and
against each one of these amendments were published in a little
pamphlet which was sent to every voter. One man--and he was a good
man, too--who argued against woman suffrage said that women should not
descend into the dirty mire of politics, that the vote would be of no
value to them. In the same speech he said that the women should teach
their sons the sacred duties of citizens and to hold the ballot as the
most precious inheritance of every American boy. Can we really bring
up our sons with a clear sense of the civic responsibility which we
ourselves have not? We believe that our children need what we shall
learn in becoming voters and that the State needs what we have learned
in being mothers and home makers."

"May I present next," said Miss Addams, "Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, of
New York? She has been before other Congressional committees with Miss
Susan B. Anthony, who for so many years came here to present this
cause. Mrs. Harper has written a history of the equal suffrage
movement and a very fine biography of Miss Anthony and it is with
special pleasure that I present her. She will make the constitutional
argument."

Mrs. Harper said in beginning: "This argument shall be based entirely
on the Federal Constitution and the only authorities cited will be the
utterances of two Presidents of the United States within the past
month." She then quoted from speeches of President Taft and former
President Roosevelt extolling the Constitution as guaranteeing
self-government to all the people with the right to change it when
this seems necessary, and she showed the utter fallacy of this
statement when applied to women. In closing she said: "Forty-three
years in asking Congress for this amendment of the Federal
Constitution to enfranchise women they have followed an entirely legal
and constitutional method of procedure, which has been so absolutely
barren of results that in the past nineteen years the committees have
made no report whatever, either favorable or unfavorable. How much
longer do you expect women to treat with respect National and State
constitutions and legislative bodies that stand thus an impenetrable
barrier between them and their rights as citizens of the United
States?" A long colloquy followed which began:

     The Chairman: The committee will be very glad to have you extend
     your remarks to answer a question propounded by Mr. Littleton
     awhile ago. I wish to say that this committee, during my service
     on it, has always been met with this proposition when this
     amendment was proposed, that the States already have the
     authority to confer suffrage upon women, and, therefore, why is
     it necessary for women to wait for an amendment to the Federal
     Constitution when they can now go to the States and obtain this
     right to vote, just as the women of California did last year?

     Mrs. Harper: Mr. Chairman, the women are not waiting; they are
     keeping right on with their efforts to get the suffrage from the
     States. They began in 1867 with their State campaigns and have
     continued them ever since, but in sending the women to the States
     you require them to make forty-eight campaigns and to go to the
     individual electors to get permission to vote. After the Civil
     War the Republican party with all its power and with only the
     northern States voting, was never able to get the suffrage for
     the negroes. The leaders went to State after State, even to
     Kansas, with its record for freeing the negroes, and every State
     turned down the proposition to give them suffrage. I doubt if the
     individual voters of many States would give the suffrage to any
     new class, even of men. The capitalists would not let the working
     people vote if they could help it, and the working people would
     not let the capitalists vote; Catholics would not enfranchise the
     Protestants and the Protestants would not give the vote to
     Catholics. You impose upon us an intolerable condition when you
     send us to the individual voters. What man on this committee
     would like to submit his electoral rights to the voters of New
     York City, for instance, representing as they do every
     nationality in the world? If we could secure this amendment to
     the Federal Constitution, then we could deal with the
     Legislatures, with the selected men in each State, instead of the
     great conglomerate of voters that we have in this country, such
     as does not exist in any other.

     The Chairman: But if one of these suffrage resolutions should be
     favorably reported and both Houses of Congress should pass it of
     course it would be referred to the States and then before it
     became a law it would have to have their approval.

     Mrs. Harper: Only of the Legislatures, not the individual voters.

     The Chairman: You use an expression which a member of the
     committee has asked me to have you explain--"conglomerate of
     voters," which you said does not exist elsewhere. The desire is
     to know to whom you refer.

     Mrs. Harper: I mean no disrespect to the great body of electors
     in the United States but in every other country the voters are
     the people of its own nationality. In no other would the question
     have to go to the nationalities of the whole world as it would in
     our country. For instance, we have to submit our question to the
     negro and to the Indian men, when we go to the individual voters,
     and to the native-born Chinese and to all those men from southern
     Europe who are trained in the idea of woman's inferiority. You
     put upon us conditions which are not put upon women anywhere in
     the world outside the United States.

     Mr. Littleton (N. Y.): You would have to convince every
     legislator of the fact that this amendment to the National
     Constitution ought to be adopted. If you could convince the
     Legislatures of three-fourths of the States you could get
     three-fourths of them to grant the suffrage itself.

     Mrs. Harper: They could only grant it to the extent of sending us
     to the individual voters, while if this amendment were submitted
     by Congress and the Legislatures endorsed it we would never have
     to deal with the individual voters. We would not have to convince
     every legislator but only a majority.

     Mr. Higgins (Conn.): In other words, as I understand you, you
     have more confidence in the Legislatures than in the composite
     citizenship.

     Mrs. Harper: The composite male citizenship, you mean. We
     suppose, of course, that the Legislatures represent the picked
     men of the community, its intelligence, its judgment, the best
     that the country has. That is the supposition.

     The Chairman: That supposition applies to Congress also, does it?

     Mrs. Harper: In a larger degree.

Representative Victor L. Berger of Wisconsin, who was out of the city,
sent a statement which Miss Addams requested Mrs. Elsie Cole Phillips
of Wisconsin to read to the committee. It said in part:

     Woman suffrage is a necessity from both a political and an
     economic standpoint. We can never have democratic rule until we
     let the women vote. We can never have real freedom until the
     women are free. Women are now citizens in all but the main
     expression of citizenship--the exercise of the vote. They need
     this power to round out and complete their citizenship.... In
     political matters they have much the same interests that we men
     have. In State and national issues their interests differ little,
     if at all, from ours. In municipal questions they have an even
     greater interest than we have. All the complex questions of
     housing, schooling, policing, sanitation and kindred matters are
     peculiarly the interests of women as the home makers and the
     rearers of children. Women need and must have the ballot by which
     to protect their interests in these political and administrative
     questions.

     The economic argument for woman suffrage is yet stronger.
     Economics plays an increasingly important part in the lives of
     us all and political power is absolutely necessary to obtain for
     women the possibility of decent conditions of living. The low pay
     and the hard conditions of working women are largely due to their
     disenfranchisement. Skilled women who do the same work as men for
     lower pay could enforce, with the ballot, an equal wage rate.

     The ideal woman of the man of past generations (and especially of
     the Germans) was the housewife, the woman who could wash, cook,
     scrub, knit stockings, make dresses for herself and her children
     and take good care of the house. That ideal has become
     impossible. Those good old days, if ever they were good, are gone
     forever.... Moreover, then the woman was supported by her father
     first and later by her husband. The situation is entirely
     different now. The woman has to go to work often when she is no
     more than fourteen years old. She surely has to go to work
     sometime if she belongs to the working class. She must make her
     own living in the factory, the store, the office, the schoolroom.
     She must work to support herself and often her family. The
     economic basis of the life of woman has changed and therefore the
     basis of the argument that she should not vote because she ought
     to stay at home and take care of her family has been destroyed.
     She cannot stay at home whether she wants to or not. She has
     acquired the economic functions of the man and she ought also to
     acquire the franchise.

Mr. Berger called attention to the fact that "the Socialist party ever
since its origin had been steadfastly for woman suffrage and put this
demand of prime importance in all its platforms everywhere."
Representative Littleton made a persistent effort to ally woman
suffrage with Socialism, saying that he "had noticed the identity
during the past two years" and Mrs. Harper answered: "I wish to remind
Mr. Littleton that the Socialist party is the only one which declares
for woman suffrage and thereby gives women an opportunity to come out
and stand by it. The Democratic and Republican parties do not stand
for woman suffrage and that is why there seem to be more Socialist
women than Republican or Democratic women. If the two old parties will
declare for woman suffrage, then the women in general will show their
colors."

Miss Ella C. Brehaut, member of the executive committee of the
District Anti-Suffrage Association, stated that she also represented
the National organization and when questioned by Representative
Sterling as to the size of its membership answered: "It is too new for
us to know the figures." Miss Brehaut's address filled six printed
pages of the stenographic report and was an attempt to refute all the
favorable arguments that had been made and to show that not only were
the suffrage leaders Socialists but "free lovers" as well.
"Conservative women can see nothing but danger in woman suffrage," she
concluded. Mrs. Julia T. Waterman, of the District association, sent
to be put in the report a statement which filled ten pages of fine
print, a full summary of the objections to woman suffrage as expressed
in speeches, articles and documents of various kinds, with quotations
from prominent opponents in the United States and Great Britain. It
was a very complete presentation of the question.

Miss Addams in closing urged the appointment of a commission by
Congress to make a thorough investigation in the States where woman
suffrage was established and the chairman answered that "the committee
would probably wish to take this matter under advisement in executive
session." She thanked him for their courtesy and asked if the National
Suffrage Association might have 10,000 copies of the hearing for
distribution. This request was cheerfully granted by the committee and
the chairman offered to "frank" them as a public document. [Later the
committee increased the number to 16,000.]

Apparently the matter never was considered, as no report, favorable or
unfavorable, ever was made by either committee. In so far as bringing
the Federal Amendment before Senate or House for action was concerned
the hearings might as well never have taken place, but 26,000 franked
copies of the splendid arguments before the two committees went forth
to accomplish the mission of educating public sentiment.


FOOTNOTES:

[72] Part of Call: This convention has big problems confronting it,
interesting, stimulating problems coincident with the tremendous
expansion of our government, problems worthy the indomitable mettle of
suffrage workers; but in spite of hard work, this week will be a gala
week, a compensation for all the hard, dull, gray work during the past
year and a stimulus for still harder work during the year to come....

Let us listen to our fellow workers, and, listening and sympathizing
with the unselfish labor being carried on everywhere, pledge ourselves
to a flaming loyalty to suffrage and suffragists that will burn away
all dross of dissension, all barriers to united effort. Let us come
with high resolve that we will never waver in our effort to obtain the
right to stand side by side with the men of this country in the mortal
struggle that shall bid perish from this land political corruption,
privilege, prostitution, the industrial slavery of men, women and
children and all exploitation of humanity.

Let us come together, in this autumn of 1912, this unprecedented year
of suffrage, consecrating ourselves anew on this, the greatest of all
battlegrounds for democracy, the United States of America.

                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                         JANE ADDAMS, First Vice-President.
                         SOPHONISBA BRECKINRIDGE, Second Vice-President.
                         MARY WARE DENNETT, Corresponding Secretary.
                         SUSAN W. FITZGERALD, Recording Secretary.
                         JESSIE ASHLEY, Treasurer.
                         KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, }Auditors.
                         HARRIET BURTON LAIDLAW,     }
                         ALICE STONE BLACKWELL,
                                      Editor of the _Woman's Journal_.

[73] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III, page 31.

[74] Later the total deficit of $6,000 was paid by Mrs. Katharine
Dexter McCormick of Boston, an officer of the National Association.

[75] It was supposed at this time that the suffrage amendment had been
carried in Michigan but the final returns indicated its defeat,
apparently due to fraudulent voting and counting.

[76] It is a noteworthy fact that although woman suffrage was a
leading issue in the presidential campaign of 1916 no officer of the
National American Suffrage Association took any public part in it,
although the platform of each of the parties contained a plank
endorsing woman suffrage.

[77] It was eight and a half years.




CHAPTER XIII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1913.


The Forty-fifth annual convention of the National American Suffrage
Association met in Washington, November 29-December 5, 1913, in
response to the Call of the Official Board.[78] The first day and
evening were given to meetings of the board and committees, so that
the convention really opened with a mass meeting in Columbia Theater
Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock and it was cordially welcomed by
District Commissioner Newman. Dr. Shaw presided and a large and
interested audience heard addresses by Miss Jane Addams, State Senator
Helen Ring Robinson of Colorado, Miss Margaret Hinchey, a laundry
worker, and Miss Rose Winslow, a stocking weaver of New York; Miss
Mary Anderson, member of the executive board of the National Boot and
Shoemakers' Union, and others. It was a comparatively new thing to
have women wage-earners on the woman suffrage platform and their
speeches made a deep impression, as that of Miss Hinchey, for
instance, who said in part:

     When we went to Albany to ask for votes one member of the
     Legislature told us that a woman's place was at home. Another
     said he had too much respect and admiration for women to see them
     at the polls. Another went back to Ancient Rome and told a story
     about Cornelia and her jewels--her children. Yet in the laundries
     women were working seventeen and eighteen hours a day, standing
     over heavy machines for $3 and $3.50 a week. Six dollars a week
     is the average wage of working women in the United States. How
     can a woman live an honorable life on such a sum? Is it any
     wonder that so many of our little sisters are in the gutter? When
     we strike for more pay we are clubbed by the police and by thugs
     hired by our employers, and in the courts our word is not taken
     and we are sent to prison. This is the respect and admiration
     shown to working girls in practice. I want to tell you about
     Cornelia as we find her case today. The agent of the Child Labor
     Society made an investigation in the tenements and found mothers
     with their small children sitting and standing around
     them--standing when they were too small to see the top of the
     table otherwise. They were working by a kerosene lamp and
     breathing its odor and they were all making artificial
     forget-me-nots. It takes 1,620 pieces of material to make a gross
     of forget-me-nots and the profit is only a few cents.

     Four years ago 30,000 shirtwaist girls went on strike and when we
     went to Mayor McClellan to ask permission for them to have a
     parade he said: "Thirty thousand women are of no account to me."
     If they had been 30,000 women with votes would he have said that?
     We have in New York 14,000 women over sixty-five years old who
     must work or starve. What is done with them when their bones give
     out and they cannot work any more? The police gather them up and
     you may then see in jail, scrubbing hard, rough concrete floors
     that make their knees bleed--women who have committed no crime
     but being old and poor. Don't take my word for it but send a
     committee to Blackwell's Island or the Tombs and see for
     yourselves. We have a few Old Ladies' Homes but with most of them
     it would take a piece of red tape as long as from here to New
     York to get in. Give us a square deal so that we may take care of
     ourselves.

Miss Addams devoted her address to the great change that was taking
place in the conception of politics. She called attention to the
practical investigations which were being made in the education of
children, in immigration, in criminology, in industrial conditions,
and said: "This whole new social work can be translated into political
action, and, with this, politics will be transformed and women will
naturally have a share in it." She called attention to the pioneer
days in various countries where women bore a full part in their
hardships and to the revolutions in older countries where women fought
by the side of the men, "and yet," she said, "when popular governments
are established, women for considerations of expediency are left
out.... But in the final program for social problems men and women
will solve them together with ballots in the hands of both." Senator
Robinson gave a keen and comprehensive account of Women as
Legislators. The officers of the association held the usual Sunday
evening reception to delegates and friends at Hotel Bellevue.

The 456 delegates, the largest number ever present at a convention,
representing 34 States, were officially greeted Monday afternoon by
Mrs. Nina Allender, president of the District of Columbia Association,
and Miss Alice Paul, chairman of the National Congressional Committee.
Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, president of the Alabama Suffrage
Association, responded in behalf of the national body. The excellent
arrangements for the convention had been made by the new Congressional
Committee: Miss Paul, chairman; Miss Lucy Burns, Mrs. Mary Beard, Mrs.
Lawrence Lewis and Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict, who raised the funds
for all its expenses, including those of the national officers, and
secured hospitality for the delegates. The report of the corresponding
secretary, Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, described the granting of woman
suffrage by the Territorial Legislature of Alaska the preceding
January and said: "The bulk of suffrage legislation this year is quite
unprecedented. Bills were introduced in twenty-five Legislatures and
in the U. S. Congress; bills were passed by ten Legislatures and
received record-breaking votes in seven others, and for the second
time in history there has been a favorable report from the Woman
Suffrage Committee of the U. S. Senate. It continued:

     There are three suffrage decisions on record for the year just
     passed--victory in Alaska and Illinois by act of the Legislature
     and temporary defeat in Michigan by vote of the electorate. There
     are four actual campaign States where the amendment will be
     submitted to the voters next autumn, Nevada (where the bill has
     passed two Legislatures), Montana, North and South Dakota; and
     there are three other States where initiative petitions are now
     in circulation and if the requisite number of signers is secured
     the amendment will be submitted next autumn, Ohio, Nebraska and
     Missouri. Then there are three half-way campaign States where the
     amendment has passed one Legislature and must pass again, in
     which case the decision will be made by the voters in 1915--New
     York, Pennsylvania and Iowa, in the first two of which the
     amendment has the very promising advantage of having been
     endorsed by all parties.

     The full number of twelve delegates and twelve alternates went
     from the National Association to the Congress of the
     International Alliance in Budapest last June, and there were many
     more applicants.... During the year the national president, Dr.
     Shaw, has spoken at many large meetings in New Hampshire,
     Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Missouri,
     Kansas, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut and
     Michigan. She also spoke in England, Holland, Germany, Austria
     and Hungary.

     A mass meeting was held under the auspices of the association in
     Carnegie Hall, New York, where the international president, Mrs.
     Catt, and all but one of the national officers made addresses.
     Every ticket was sold and a good sum of money was raised. The
     headquarters cooperated with the New York local societies in the
     big suffrage benefit at the Metropolitan Opera House the night
     before the May parade, where a beautiful pageant was given and
     Theodore Roosevelt spoke. There was a capacity audience and many
     people were turned away. The headquarters have taken part so far
     as possible in all the suffrage parades; that of March 3, in
     Washington; those of May and November in New York and Brooklyn;
     that of October in Newark, New Jersey. The association was
     represented at the annual meeting of the House of Governors in
     Richmond, Va., last December by Mrs. Lila Mead Valentine, the
     State president, and Miss Mary Johnston, whose admirable speech
     was published in pamphlet form by our literature department.

     The association has cooperated as fully as was possible with the
     Congressional Committee in all its most creditable year's work.
     This committee is unique in that its original members volunteered
     to give their services and to raise all the funds for the work
     themselves. Their singlemindedness and devotion have been
     remarkable and the whole movement in the country has been
     wonderfully furthered by the series of important events which
     have taken place in Washington, beginning with the great parade
     the day before the inauguration of the President. Several of the
     national officers have made special trips to Washington to assist
     at these various events--the March parade, the Senate hearing,
     the April 7th deputation to Congress, the July 31st Senate
     demonstration and the Conference of Women Voters in August. An
     automobile trip was made from headquarters the last week in July,
     with outdoor meetings held all the way to Washington, to join the
     other "pilgrims" who came from all over the country. Mrs. Rheta
     Childe Dorr, Miss Helen Todd, Mrs. Frances Maule Bjorkman and the
     corresponding secretary were the speakers for the trip.

     Petitions to Congress were circulated, special letters on behalf
     of the association were sent to the members of the Senate
     Committee before the report was made, and to the Rules Committee
     urging the appointment of a Woman Suffrage Committee for the
     House. Miss Elinor Byrns, assisted by another lawyer, Miss Helen
     Ranlett, has made a chart of the legislation in the suffrage
     States since the women have been enfranchised. A collection of
     all the State constitutions has been made with the sections
     bearing on amendments and the qualifications for voting marked
     and indexed.

     The following telegram was sent by the National Board April 4 to
     Premier Asquith: "We urge that the British Government frankly
     acknowledge its responsibility for the present intolerable
     situation and remove it by introducing immediately an emergency
     franchise measure."

The report of Miss Byrns, chairman of the Press Committee, which
filled eight printed pages, showed the usual vast amount of press
work, as described in other chapters. "There now exists," she said, "a
most remarkable and unprecedented demand for information about
suffragists and suffrage events. We are 'news' as we have never been
before. Moreover, we are not only amusing and sometimes picturesque
but we are of real intellectual and political interest." Mrs.
Bjorkman, editor and secretary of the Literature Committee, devoted a
full report of ten pages to the recent and widely varied publications
of the association, to the vastly increasing demands for these, which
could not be entirely met, and to the pressing need for a properly
equipped research bureau. The report of Miss Jeannette Rankin (Mont.),
field secretary, told of a year of unremitting work under four heads:
legislative, visiting of States, work with the Congressional Committee
and special work in campaign States. Delaware, Florida, Tennessee,
Alabama, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota were visited. She
travelled by automobile from Montana to Washington City with petitions
for the Federal Amendment, stopping at thirty-three places for
meetings, and two weeks were given to interviewing Senators. Among the
campaign States three weeks were spent in Saginaw, Michigan;
organizing the city into wards and precincts; five in North Dakota and
the rest of the time in Montana, organizing, arranging work at State
and county fairs, visiting State Central Committees and State
Federations of Women's Clubs.

Among the recommendations presented from the board and adopted were
two of prime importance: 1. That in order that the convention may give
its support to the Federal Amendment before Congress, it shall
instruct the affiliated organizations to carry on as active a campaign
as possible in their respective States and to see that all candidates
for Congress be pledged to woman suffrage before the next election. 2.
That the convention endorse the Suffrage School as a method of work
and the National Association offer to organize and send out a
traveling school when requested by six or more States, provided they
agree to share the expense. To the Official Board was referred the
question of appointing a committee to devise and put into operation a
scheme for establishing more definite connection between the
enfranchised women of the States and the National Association.

After all the years of patient effort to persuade Legislatures to
grant Presidential suffrage to women under the inspiration of Henry B.
Blackwell, chairman of the committee, his successor, Miss Elizabeth
Upham Yates, could announce the first success and she emphasized the
important bearing which this and others would have on securing a
Federal Amendment. Her report said:

     The extraordinary victory in Illinois has emphasized the fact,
     not duly apprehended hitherto, that State Legislatures have power
     to grant Presidential suffrage to women. No man derives his right
     to vote for presidential electors from the constitution of his
     State but the U. S. Constitution delegates the power and duty to
     qualify citizens to vote for them to the Legislatures, in the
     first section of Article II, in these words: "Each State shall
     appoint in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct a
     number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators and
     Representatives to which the State may be entitled in Congress."
     Probably U.S. Senator George F. Hoar was the first to discover
     that this power given to Legislatures involved the possibility of
     the enfranchisement of women for presidential electors.

     The conspicuous position that women suddenly attained in American
     politics in 1912 was due to the fact that in six States women
     were able to determine the choice of thirty-seven presidential
     electors. The large interests involved in a presidential
     administration, among which are 300,000 offices of honor and
     emolument, cause keen political concern from the fact that women
     voters may hold the balance of power in a close election. The
     whole number of electoral votes in the nine States where women
     now have full suffrage is fifty-four. These were attained by
     campaigns for constitutional amendments that involved vast outlay
     of time and treasure. Simply by act of Legislature, Illinois has
     added twenty-nine to the list, an increase of over thirty-three
     per cent., thus bringing an incalculable influence and power into
     the arena of national politics....

Mrs. Mary E. Craigie made her usual report of the excellent work done
by her Church Committee. She gave a list of the Catholic clergy who
had declared in favor of woman suffrage and told of the cordial assent
by those of other denominations to include it in their sermons on
Mother's Day. She named some of the many questions of social reform to
which pulpits were freely opened--temperance, child labor, pure food,
the white slave traffic and others--and asked: "Why does not woman
suffrage, the reform that would bring two-thirds more power to all
such movements, receive the same cooperation and support from the
churches? The answer plainly is: Because of the apathy of women in
demanding it."

The changing character of the national suffrage conventions is
illustrated by the reports in the _Woman's Journal_, whose editors had
for a generation collected and preserved in its pages the unsurpassed
addresses which had delighted audiences and inspired workers. As the
practical work of the association increased and spread throughout the
different States, more and more of the time of the conventions had to
be given to reports and details of business and the number of speeches
constantly lessened. The first evening of the convention was devoted
to the victory in Illinois, with delightful addresses by Mrs.
Catharine Waugh McCulloch, long the State president, who twenty years
before had discovered the loophole in the Illinois constitution by
which the Legislature itself could grant a large measure of suffrage
to women and had tried to obtain the law that had just been gained; by
Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, another president, who had carried on this work;
and by Mesdames Ruth Hanna McCormick, Grace Wilbur Trout, Antoinette
Funk and Elizabeth K. Booth, the famous quartette of younger workers,
who had finally succeeded with a progressive Legislature. As there was
no representative from far-off Alaska, Dr. Shaw told how its
Legislature had given full suffrage to women. [See Illinois and Alaska
chapters.] Miss Lucy Burns gave a clear analysis of the situation in
regard to the Federal Suffrage Amendment and the evening closed with
one of Dr. Shaw's piquant addresses, which began: "I know the
objections to woman suffrage but I have never met any one who
pretended to know any reasons against it," and she closed with a flash
of the humor for which she was noted:

     By some objectors women are supposed to be unfit to vote because
     they are hysterical and emotional and of course men would not
     like to have emotion enter into a political campaign. They want
     to cut out all emotion and so they would like to cut us out. I
     had heard so much about our emotionalism that I went to the last
     Democratic national convention, held at Baltimore, to observe the
     calm repose of the male politicians. I saw some men take a
     picture of one gentleman whom they wanted elected and it was so
     big they had to walk sidewise as they carried it forward; they
     were followed by hundreds of other men screaming and yelling,
     shouting and singing the "Houn' Dawg"; then, when there was a
     lull, another set of men would start forward under another man's
     picture, not to be outdone by the "Houn' Dawg" melody, whooping
     and howling still louder. I saw men jump up on the seats and
     throw their hats in the air and shout: "What's the matter with
     Champ Clark?" Then, when those hats came down, other men would
     kick them back into the air, shouting at the top of their voices:
     "He's all right!!" Then I heard others howling for "Underwood,
     Underwood, first, last and all the time!!" No hysteria about
     it--just patriotic loyalty, splendid manly devotion to principle.
     And so they went on and on until 5 o'clock in the morning--the
     whole night long. I saw men jump up on their seats and jump down
     again and run around in a ring. I saw two men run towards another
     man to hug him both at once and they split his coat up the middle
     of his back and sent him spinning around like a wheel. All this
     with the perfect poise of the legal male mind in politics!

     I have been to many women's conventions in my day but I never saw
     a woman leap up on a chair and take off her bonnet and toss it up
     in the air and shout: "What's the matter with" somebody. I never
     saw a woman knock another woman's bonnet off her head as she
     screamed: "She's all right!" I never heard a body of women
     whooping and yelling for five minutes when somebody's name was
     mentioned in the convention. But we are willing to admit that we
     are emotional. I have actually seen women stand up and wave their
     handkerchiefs. I have even seen them take hold of hands and sing,
     "Blest be the tie that binds." Nobody denies that women are
     excitable. Still, when I hear how emotional and how excitable we
     are, I cannot help seeing in my mind's eye the fine repose and
     dignity of this Baltimore and other political conventions I have
     attended!

One evening session was devoted to Women and Children and the Courts.
Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen of Chicago presided and made a stirring plea for
better conditions in the courts of the large cities. She told of the
outrageous treatment of women and urged the need of women police,
women judges and women jurors. "From the time of the arrest of a woman
to the final disposition of her case," Mrs. Bowen said, "she is
handicapped by being in charge of and surrounded by men, who cannot be
expected to be as understanding and considerate as those of her own
sex. The police stations in most of our cities are not fit for human
beings." Judge of the Juvenile Court Julian Mack of Chicago described
its methods and their results; and Justice Harry Olsen of the Court of
Domestic Relations and the Court of Morals, gave an illuminating
address on its functions and their results; Miss Maude Miner of New
York spoke from experience of the Women's Night Court and the Work of
a Probation Officer. The delegates were deeply moved and determined to
investigate and improve the conditions in their own localities.

There had for some time been need of revising the constitution to meet
new requirements and a revision committee had been appointed the
preceding year with Mrs. Catt chairman, but as she had been in Europe
her place had been taken by Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees (Conn.), who was
assisted by attorneys Helen Hoy Greeley and Jessie Ashley. The
discussion was as long and earnest as if the fate of nations were
involved but the principal changes adopted concerned representation,
dues, assessments, methods of election and similar details. The report
of Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, treasurer, showed the total
receipts of the year to be $42,723; disbursements, $42,542; balance on
hand from preceding year, $2,874. A carefully prepared "budget" of
$42,000 was presented to the convention and quickly oversubscribed.
The legal adviser, Miss Mary Rutter Towle (D. C.), reported two
lawsuits in progress to secure legacies that had been left the
association, the usual fate that attended similar bequests. The
literature had become so large a feature that it was decided to form a
company to publish it. Mrs. Raymond Brown, president of the New York
State Suffrage Association, proposed a corporation with a capital
stock of $50,000, of which $26,000 should be held by the National
American Association, the rest sold at $10 a share. The first $10,000
were at once subscribed and later the Woman Suffrage Publishing
Company was organized with Mrs. Cyrus W. Field president.

The election took place under the new primary system and required two
days for completion. The only change was the electing of Mrs. Desha
Breckinridge second and Miss Ruutz-Rees third vice-presidents. The
majorities for most of the officers were very large. The report of the
delegates to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Budapest was
made by Mrs. Anna O. Weeks (N. Y.). The demand for congressional
documents, hearings, speeches, etc., had become so extensive that Mrs.
Helen H. Gardener (D. C.) had been appointed to report in regard to it
and she shed a good deal of light on the subject. She showed that some
documents are free for distribution and some have to be paid for.
Hearings are usually limited to a small number but the committee
strains a point for those on woman suffrage and prints about 10,000,
which may be had without charge. If a member is kind enough to "frank"
them nothing else must be put in the envelope under penalty of a $300
fine. If more are wanted they must be ordered in 5,000 lots and a
member can get a reduced rate, but, while he is always willing to pay
the Government for printing his speech, those who want it for their
own purposes should send the money for it. The speech of
Representative Edward T. Taylor of Colorado in 1912 was cited as an
example, of which the suffragists circulated 300,000 copies.

The resolutions presented by Mrs. Helen Brewster Owens (N. Y.),
chairman, were brief and to the point. They called on the Senate to
pass immediately the joint resolution proposing an amendment to the
National Constitution, which had been favorably reported; they urged
President Wilson to adopt the submission of this amendment as an
administration measure and to recommend it in his Message; they urged
the Rules Committee of the House of Representatives to report
favorably the proposition to create a Committee on Woman Suffrage; and
they demanded legislation by Congress to protect the nationality of
American women who married aliens.

Strong pressure had been made on the President to mention woman
suffrage in his Message, his first to a regular session of Congress,
but it was delivered on Tuesday, December 2, with no reference
whatever to the subject. At the meeting of the convention that evening
Dr. Shaw said with the manifest approval of the audience: "President
Wilson had the opportunity of speaking a word which might ultimately
lead to the enfranchisement of a large part of the citizens of the
United States. Even Lincoln, who by a word freed a race, had not such
an opportunity to release from bonds one-half of the human family. I
feel that I must make this statement as broad as it is for the reason
that we at Budapest this year realized as never before that womankind
throughout the world looked to this country to blaze the way for the
extension of universal suffrage in every quarter of the globe.
President Wilson has missed the one thing that might have made it
possible for him never to be forgotten. I am saying this on behalf of
myself and my fellow officers."

The next morning Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick, a clever politician like
her father, Mark Hanna, offered the following motion: "Since President
Wilson omitted all mention of woman suffrage in his Message yesterday,
and since he has announced that he will send several other messages to
Congress outlining the measures which the administration will support,
I move that this convention wait upon the President in order to lay
before him the importance of the woman suffrage question and urge him
to make it an administration measure and to send immediately to
Congress the recommendation that it proceed with this measure before
any other. I also move that a committee of two be appointed to make
the arrangements with the President." The motion was unanimously
carried and the Chair appointed Mrs. McCormick (Ills.) and Mrs.
Breckinridge (Ky.) to arrange for the interview and for a committee of
fifty-five, representing all the associations auxiliary to the
National, to wait upon the President at his pleasure. To finish the
story here--he expressed entire willingness to receive them but was
not well enough to do so during the convention. Nearly a hundred of
the delegates waited until the next Monday, December 8, when they met
in the rooms of their Congressional Committee, a few blocks from the
White House and marched two by two to the executive offices,
attracting much attention, as this was the first time a President had
ever received a woman suffrage delegation officially.[79] He met them
cordially and gave them as much time as they desired. Dr. Shaw spoke
as follows:

     As president of the National Suffrage Association I have come
     with this delegation, authorized by the association, to present
     to you the object for which we are organized--to secure equal
     suffrage for the women citizens of the United States. We have
     made these pilgrimages to Washington for many, many years and
     committees have received us with graciousness and have listened
     to our arguments, but the difficulty is that they have not
     permitted our claims to come before Congress, so that body itself
     might act upon them. Our wish is that we may have a national
     constitutional amendment, enfranchising the women citizens and
     preventing the States from depriving them of representation in
     the Government. Since the Judiciary Committee has not reported
     our measure for many years and has not given the House an
     opportunity to discuss it we have asked that a special committee
     shall be appointed to consider it. The Senate some years ago did
     appoint a special committee and our question has been referred to
     it. We have appeared before it this year and it has again
     reported favorably. We hope that the administration of which you
     are the head may use its influence to bring the matter before the
     Senate and House.

     We ask your assistance in one of two ways or in any other way
     which may appeal to your judgment: First of all that you shall
     send a special message to Congress to submit to the Legislatures
     of the States an amendment to the National Constitution
     enfranchising women citizens of the United States; if, however,
     this does not appeal to you, we ask that you will use the
     administration's influence on the Rules Committee to recommend
     the appointment in the Lower House of a committee corresponding
     with the Suffrage Committee in the Upper House, one which will
     have leisure to consider our subject and report on it.

     We appeal to you in behalf of the women citizens of the country.
     Many of them have cast their ballots for the President already
     and have an influence in the Government; many are very eager to
     take an equal part and they appreciate the just manner in which
     since your administration began you have weighed public
     questions. Recognizing your splendid stand on the liberties and
     rights of the people, we appeal to you because we believe you
     will bring to ours that same spirit of justice which you have
     manifested toward other great issues.

The President gave close attention and in his answer seemed to weigh
every word carefully:

     I want you ladies, if I can make it clear to you, to realize just
     what my present situation is. Whenever I walk abroad I realize
     that I am not a free man; I am under arrest. I am so carefully
     and admirably guarded that I have not even the privilege of
     walking the streets alone. That is, as it were, typical of my
     present transference--from being an individual, free to express
     his mind on any and every subject, to being an official of a
     great government and incidentally, or so it falls out under the
     system of government, the spokesman of a party. I set myself this
     very strict rule when I was Governor of New Jersey and have
     followed and shall follow it as President--that I am not at
     liberty to urge upon Congress in messages policies which have not
     had the organic consideration of those for whom I am spokesman.
     In other words I have not yet presented to any Legislature my
     private views on any subject and I never shall, because I
     conceive it to be part of the whole process of government that I
     shall be spokesman for somebody, not for myself. To speak for
     myself would be an impertinence. When I speak for myself I am an
     individual; when I am spokesman of an organic body, I am a
     representative. For that reason, you see, I am by my own
     principles shut out, in the language of the street, from
     "starting anything." I have to confine myself to those things
     which have been embodied as promises to the people at an
     election. That is the strict rule I set for myself.

     I want to say that with regard to all other matters I am not only
     glad to be consulted by my colleagues in the two Houses but I
     hope they will often pay me the compliment of consulting me when
     they want to know my opinion on any subject. One member of the
     Rules Committee did come to me and ask me what I thought about
     this suggestion of yours of appointing a Special Committee for
     the consideration of woman suffrage and I told him that I thought
     it was a proper thing to do. So that, so far as my personal
     advice has been asked by a single member of the committee it has
     been given to that effect. I wanted to tell you this to show that
     I am strictly living up to my principles. When my private opinion
     is asked by those who are cooperating with me, I am most glad to
     give it, but I am not at liberty until I speak for somebody
     besides myself to urge legislation upon the Congress.

The following conversation then took place: "May I ask you a
question?" said Dr. Shaw. "Since we are not members of any political
party, who is going to speak for us--there is no one to speak for
us----" "I realize that," interjected the President, "----unless we
speak for ourselves?" "And you do that very admirably," rejoined Mr.
Wilson. A general laugh broke up the somewhat solemn occasion and as
the delegates went away Dr. Shaw said exultingly: "He is in favor of a
House Woman Suffrage Committee and that was our chief object in coming
to see him."

An interesting evening's program had been prepared under the auspices
of the National Men's League for Woman Suffrage with addresses by
seven or eight Senators and Representatives, all staunch supporters of
the "cause," but all were prevented from coming by one reason or
another except Representatives J. W. Bryan of Washington and Victor
Murdock of Kansas. They made up for all failures, however, by their
strong arguments. James Lees Laidlaw of New York, president of the
league, gave a dignified, earnest address and the Hon. Gifford Pinchot
made a logical and unanswerable demand for the enfranchisement of
women because of the nation's great need for their votes.

An excellent report was presented at this time by Miss Alice Paul,
chairman of the Congressional Committee. From the founding of the
National Association in 1869 prominent representatives had appeared
before committees of every Congress and during many winters Miss Susan
B. Anthony had remained in Washington until she obtained a report from
these committees, but after she ceased to do this, although the
hearings were still granted, nobody made it an especial business to
see that the committees made reports and so none was made and action
by Congress seemed very remote. In 1910, when the movement entered a
new era, the association appointed a special Congressional Committee
to look after this matter. By the time of the convention of 1911 the
two great victories in Washington and California had been gained and
the prospect of a Federal Amendment began to grow brighter. A large
committee was appointed consisting chiefly of the wives of Senators
and Representatives with Mrs. William Kent (Calif.) chairman. No
busier women could have been selected and beyond making excellent
arrangements for the hearings, the committee was not active. In 1912,
when Kansas, Oregon and Arizona enfranchised women, the whole country
awoke to the fact that the turning point had been reached and
universal woman suffrage through an amendment to the Federal
Constitution was inevitable.

At this time Miss Paul and Miss Burns returned from England, where
they had been studying and doing social welfare work and had been
caught in the maelstrom of the "militant" suffrage movement, then at
its height. Both had taken part in demonstrations before the House of
Commons and been sent to prison and they came back to the United
States filled with zeal to inaugurate a campaign of "militancy" here.
The idea was coldly received by the suffrage leaders and they modified
it to the extent of asking the National Association to cooperate in
organizing a great suffrage parade to take place in Washington the day
before the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. Dr. Shaw had seen and taken
part in such parades in London and was favorably inclined to the
project. She put Miss Paul at the head of the Congressional Committee
with power to choose the other members to organize the parade, with
the proviso that they must themselves raise all the money for it but
they could have the authority of the National Association letterheads.
Headquarters were opened in a basement on F Street near the New
Willard Hotel in Washington. They displayed astonishing executive
ability, gathered about them a small army of women and during the next
twelve months raised $27,378, the larger part of it in Washington and
most of the remainder in Philadelphia. The parade was long, beautiful
and impressive, women from many States participating. The report of
the Congressional Committee presented to the convention by Miss Paul
slightly condensed, read as follows:

Work for Federal Amendment:

     Headquarters were opened in Washington, Jan. 2, 1913.

     Hearings were arranged before the Woman Suffrage Committee of the
     Senate; before the Rules Committee of the House, when members of
     the National Council of Women Voters were the speakers; before
     the Rules Committee during the present convention.

     Processions: March 3, when from 8,000 to 10,000 women
     participated; April 7, when women from congressional districts
     went to Congress with petitions and resolutions; July 31, when an
     automobile procession met the "pilgrims" at the end of their
     "hike" and escorted them through the streets of Washington to the
     Senate. This procession was headed by an automobile in which rode
     several of the Suffrage Committee of the Senate.

     Pilgrimages coming from all parts of the country and extending
     over the month of July were organized, about twelve. These all
     ended in Washington on July 31, when approximately 200,000
     signatures to petitions were presented to the Senate.

     Deputations: Three deputations to the President were organized
     immediately preceding the calling of the special session of
     Congress in order to ask him to give the administration support
     to the suffrage amendment during the special session. One of
     these was from the National Association, one from the College
     Suffrage League and one from the National Council of Women
     Voters. On November 17 a fourth deputation, composed of
     seventy-three women from New Jersey, was sent to the President to
     urge him to take up the amendment during the regular session of
     Congress.

     Local arrangements were made for the conventions of the National
     Council of Women Voters and the convention of the National
     American Woman Suffrage Association.

     A campaign under a salaried organizer was conducted through the
     resort regions of New Jersey, Long Island and Rhode Island during
     July, August and September; and one through New Jersey, Delaware
     and Maryland during July. A month's campaign was carried on in
     North Carolina. On September 1 permanent headquarters were opened
     in Wilmington in charge of a salaried organizer and since that
     time a vigorous campaign has been carried on in Delaware in the
     attempt to influence the attitude of the Senators and
     Representatives from that State.

     A salaried press chairman has been employed throughout the year,
     who has furnished daily press copy to the local papers, to the
     Washington correspondents of the various papers throughout the
     country and to all of the telegraphic bureaus in Washington.
     Approximately 120,000 pieces of literature have been printed and
     distributed. A weekly paper under the editorship of Mrs. Rheta
     Childe Dorr was established on November 15. This now has a paid
     circulation of about 1,200 and is self-supporting from its
     advertisements.

     A Men's League was organized, General Anson Mills, U. S. A.,
     being the temporary and Dr. Harvey W. Wiley the permanent
     chairman. A large number of Congressmen are members.

     Eight theater meetings, exclusive of those during this
     convention, have been held in Washington. Smaller meetings both
     indoor and out have been held almost daily and frequently as many
     as five or ten a day. A tableau was presented on the Treasury
     steps at the time of the suffrage procession of March 3 under the
     direction of Miss Hazel Mackaye. A suffrage play was given, also
     two banquets, a reception and a luncheon, and a benefit and a
     luncheon were given for the purpose of raising funds.

     A delegation in two special cars went to New York for the
     procession of May 3. An even larger delegation went to Baltimore
     for the procession of May 31. The play given in Washington was
     reproduced in Baltimore for the benefit of one of the suffrage
     societies there. A week's campaign was conducted in the four
     southern counties of Maryland prior to the primary election, at
     the request of one of the State's societies.

     The Congressional Union was formed during the latter part of
     April and now numbers over a thousand members.

Congressional Work.

     Senate and House Joint Resolution Number One for Federal
     Amendment introduced in Congress April 7, 1913.

     Woman Suffrage Committee of Senate voted on May 14 to report the
     resolution favorably and did so unanimously, one not voting. On
     July 31 twenty-two Senators spoke in favor of the resolution and
     three against it. On September 18 Senator Andrieus Jones (N. M.)
     spoke in favor and asked for immediate action. On the same day
     Senator Henry F. Ashurst (Ariz.) announced on the floor of the
     Senate that he would press the measure to a vote at the earliest
     possible moment.

     Three resolutions were introduced in the House for the creation
     of a Woman Suffrage Committee and referred to the Rules Committee
     and are still before it.

     The amendment resolution is awaiting third reading in the Senate
     and is before the Judiciary Committee of the House.

The action of the Senate was due to the fact that under the new
administration a committee had been appointed which was favorable to
woman suffrage instead of one opposed as heretofore, with a chairman,
Senator Charles S. Thomas of Colorado, who had helped the women of his
own State to secure the suffrage twenty years before. The resolutions
in the Lower House were introduced by old and tried friends and the
association's new Congressional Committee had arranged hearings,
brought pressure to bear on members and not permitted them to forget
or ignore the question. Miss Agnes E. Ryan, business manager of the
_Woman's Journal_, said in her account: "The convention received the
report with enthusiastic applause, giving three cheers and rising to
its feet to show its appreciation."

This report was signed by Miss Paul as "chairman of the Congressional
Committee and president of the Congressional Union" and she said at
the beginning that it was impossible to separate the work of the two.
At its conclusion Mrs. Catt moved that the part of the report as from
the Congressional Committee be accepted, which was done by the
convention. She then asked what was the relation between the two and
why, if this was a regular committee of the National American
Association, no appropriation had been made for its work during the
coming year and why there was no statement in the treasurer's report
of its expenditures during the past year. It developed that the
committee had raised and expended its own funds, which had not passed
through the national treasury, and that the Congressional Union was a
society formed the preceding April to assist the work of the
committee. It was moved by Mrs. Catt and carried that the convention
request the Official Board to continue the Congressional Committee and
to cooperate with it in such a way as to remove further causes of
embarrassment to the association. The motion was amended that the
board should appropriate what money could be spared for the work of
this committee.[80]

The movement for woman suffrage was now so plainly centering in
Congress, which had been the goal for over forty years, that there was
a widespread feeling that the national headquarters should be
established in Washington. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, a delegate from
New York, through whose generosity it had been possible to take them
to that city in 1909, offered a motion that they now be removed to
Washington. She had given notice of this action the preceding day and
the opponents were prepared. A motion to lay it on the table was
quickly made and all discussion cut off. The opposition of the
national officers was so apparent that many delegates hesitated to
express their convictions for the affirmative but nevertheless the
vote stood 134 ayes, and 169 noes.

The National Association had now so many auxiliaries and so much work
was being done in all the States that the day sessions were largely
consumed in hearing reports from them and the usual conferences and
symposiums were almost crowded off the program. For the first time
Hawaii took her place among the auxiliaries, a suffrage society having
been formed there during the year. At one of the morning sessions U.
S. Senator Moses E. Clapp of Minnesota was presented to the convention
and extended a pressing invitation to hold its next meeting in St.
Paul. Later this invitation was repeated in a cordial invitation from
Governor Adolph O. Eberhard. At another morning session Representative
Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee addressed the convention and invited it
to meet in Chattanooga the next year. The last evening there was not
standing room in the large theater. Miss Harriet May Mills, president
of the New York State Suffrage Association, took for her subject A
Prophecy Fulfilled and gave convincing reasons for believing that the
successful end of the long contest was near. Mrs. Katharine Houghton
Hepburn made a strong arraignment of Commercialized Vice, using her
own city of Hartford, Conn., for an example. Mrs. Catt gave the last
address, a comprehensive review of the advanced position that had been
attained by women and the great responsibilities it had brought. Dr.
Shaw, who presided, spoke the final inspiring words.

A delightful ending of the week was the reception the last afternoon
in the hospitable home of Senator and Mrs. Robert M. LaFollette. Three
members of the Cabinet were among the guests, Secretaries Lane,
Houston and Daniels. Those in the receiving line were: Senator and
Mrs. LaFollette, Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt; also Mrs. Franklin K. Lane,
Mrs. Josephus Daniels, Mrs. Albert Sidney Burleson, Mrs. David
Franklin Houston, Mrs. Miles Poindexter, Mrs. Reed Smoot, Mrs. Victor
Murdock, Mrs. Wm. L. LaFollette, Mrs. J. W. Bryan, Mrs. John E. Raker,
Mrs. James A. Frear, Mrs. Henry T. Rainey, Mrs. Albert B. Cummins,
Mrs. John D. Works and Mrs. William Kent, all members of the Cabinet
and Congressional circles, and the husbands of most of them were
present. To the older members of the association it recalled the
conventions of olden times when even the wives of members of Congress,
with a few rare exceptions, feared to attend the social functions lest
it might injure the political status of their husbands.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Senate committee of the Sixty-third Congress had already granted
three hearings on woman suffrage during its extra session: on April
10, 1913, to representatives of the Anti-Suffrage Association; on
April 21 to those of the Federal Women's Equality Association and on
April 26 to those of the National American Suffrage Association. This
new committee, which the advocates of the Federal Suffrage Amendment
will always remember with deep appreciation for its firm and favorable
action, consisted of the following Senators: Charles S. Thomas
(Colo.), chairman; Robert L. Owen (Okla.); Henry F. Ashurst (Ariz.);
Joseph E. Ransdell (La.); Henry P. Hollis (N. H.); George Sutherland
(Utah); Wesley L. Jones (Wash.); Moses E. Clapp (Minn.); Thomas B.
Catron (N. M.). The last named was an opponent of woman suffrage by
any method and was the only member who did not sign the favorable
report. Senator Ransdell at first said that he had an open mind but he
soon placed himself on the suffrage side, signed the report and later
voted several times in favor of the amendment.

The immediate object of the National American Association at the
present moment was to secure a Committee on Woman Suffrage in the
Lower House such as had long existed in the Senate. A resolution to
create such a committee had been introduced April 7 by Edward T.
Taylor (Colo.) and referred to the Committee on Rules. The hearing at
the regular session during this convention, therefore, was before this
committee, which would have to recommend the Woman Suffrage Committee
to the House, and it was set for 10:30 A.M., December 3. As soon as
the application was made the National Anti-Suffrage Association also
asked to be heard, and Chairman Henry, who was opposed to the proposed
new committee and to woman suffrage, announced that he proposed to
allow both sides all the time they wanted. The leaders of the National
Suffrage Association stated that they would ask for only the usual two
hours and would not discuss the general question of woman suffrage but
only the need of a special committee. Their arguments were concluded
at the morning session. The "antis" began after luncheon with massed
forces and talked the entire afternoon and all of the next day and
part of the third, covering the whole subject of woman suffrage, with
the appointment of the committee only one feature of it. Several of
their men speakers consumed nearly an hour each and were repeatedly
requested by the chairman to face the committee instead of the
audience, which filled the largest room in the House office building.
The first morning all of the committee were present but they gradually
dwindled until during the latter part of the "antis'" arguments only
two or three were in their seats, not including the chairman[81]. Only
limited extracts of the speeches are possible. Dr. Shaw presided and
said:

     Our purpose in coming before you this morning is not to make any
     attempt whatever to convert the members of the Rules Committee,
     if they should need converting, to the democratic principle of
     the right of the people to have a voice in their own government.
     It is to ask you to appoint a committee in the House on woman
     suffrage, which corresponds with the one in the Senate, in order
     that we may have hearings before a committee which is not so
     burdened with other business as is the Committee on the
     Judiciary.... It seems to the women of the United States that a
     question of so much importance that the parliaments of Europe
     feel under obligations to discuss and act upon it, is at least of
     sufficient importance in this great republic of ours for the
     committee which has it under consideration to take time for a
     report. Year after year we have asked the Judiciary Committee not
     that they should believe in woman suffrage or express any opinion
     on it but only to report the measure either favorably or
     unfavorably so as to bring it before the House, in order that the
     representatives of the men of this country might be able to
     consider it, but thus far it has been impossible to secure any
     sort of a report....

Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.), after showing that woman suffrage was
a mere side issue with the Judiciary Committee and that it would be
busier than ever the coming session, said: "Those of us who live here
and have known Congress from our childhood know that an outside matter
has less chance to get any real consideration by such a committee
under such conditions than the proverbial rich man has of entering the
kingdom of heaven." She pointed out that over one-fifth of the Senate
and one-seventh of the House were elected by the votes of women and
continued:

     You will remember that there is a committee on Indian Affairs.
     Are the Indians more important than the women of America? They
     did not always have a special committee, they used to be a mere
     incident, as we now are. They used to be under the War
     Department and so long as this was the case nobody ever doubted
     for an instant that the "only good Indian was a dead
     Indian"--just as under the incidental administration of the
     Judiciary Committee it is not doubted by some that the only good
     woman is a voteless woman. When the Indians secured a committee
     of their own they began to get schools, lands in severalty and
     the general status of human beings.... It became the duty of that
     committee to investigate the real conditions, the needs, the
     grievances and the best methods of promoting the interests of the
     Indians. That was the beginning of the end of Indian wars; the
     first hope of a possibility--previously sneered at--of making
     real and useful citizens of this race of men who now have
     Representatives in Congress. It was precisely the same with our
     island possessions, only in this case we had profited by our
     experience with Indian and labor problems, and it did not take so
     long to realize that a committee whose duty it should be to
     utilize, develop and conserve the best interests of these new
     charges of our Government and to develop them toward citizenship
     as rapidly as possible was the safe and sane method of
     procedure....

     We want such a committee on woman suffrage in the House. We do
     not ask you to appoint a partisan committee but only one
     open-minded and honest, which will really investigate and
     understand the question, its workings where it is in effect--a
     committee which will not accept wild statements as facts, which
     will hear and weigh that which comes from the side of progress
     and change as well as that which is static or reactionary.... The
     recommendation that we have such a committee does not in any way
     commit you to the adoption of a belief in the principle of
     self-government for women. This is not much to ask and it is not
     much to give, nor will it be needed for very many more years.

Mrs. Ida Husted Harper was introduced as one of the authors of the
four-volume History of Woman Suffrage and the biographer of Susan B.
Anthony and began: "This is not the time or place to enter into an
argument on the merits or demerits of woman suffrage and we shall use
the valuable hours you have so graciously accorded us simply to ask
that you will give us a committee of our very own, before which we may
feel that we have a right to discuss this question. In making this
request we ask you to decide, first, whether the issue of woman
suffrage is sufficiently national in its character to justify a
special committee for its consideration; second, whether it has been
so fairly treated by the committee which has had it in charge for
forty-four years that another is not necessary; and, third, whether
justice requires that it should come under the jurisdiction of
Congress."

The national status of the woman suffrage movement was sketched and
then the question asked: "Has the treatment of this subject by the
committee to which it has always been referred been such as to warrant
a continuance of this custom?" which she answered by saying:

     The National Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1869 for
     the express purpose of obtaining an amendment to the Federal
     Constitution. Its representatives went before the congressional
     committees that year and have continued to do so at each new
     Congress since that time, never having been refused a hearing. At
     the beginning of 1882 both Senate and House created special Woman
     Suffrage Committees. The Senate has continuously maintained this
     committee, but in 1884 the House declined to renew it by a vote
     of 124 nays, 85 yeas; 112 not voting. The debate was long and
     heated and almost wholly on the question of woman suffrage
     itself. Thenceforth the women appeared before the House Judiciary
     Committee, which, although busy and overworked, had always a good
     representation present and was respectful and often cordial.

     The ablest women this country has produced have appeared before
     this committee.... Repeatedly the eminent members of this
     Judiciary Committee have said that no hearings before them were
     conducted with such dignity and ability as those of the advocates
     of woman suffrage. And what is the result? Six reports in
     forty-four years and five of these unfavorable! Does the record
     end here? No; for there has been no report of any kind since
     1894. For the last twenty years the women of this nation have
     made an annual pilgrimage to Washington to plead their cause
     before a committee which has forgotten their existence as soon as
     they were out of sight.... Gentlemen of the Committee on Rules,
     will you not give to women a committee of their own that will not
     ignore them for half a century?...

     The entire status of woman has changed since the Federal
     Constitution was framed, and ethical and social questions have
     entered into politics which could not have been foreseen. It is
     inevitable that this Constitution must occasionally be amended to
     meet new conditions, while leaving its fundamental and vital
     provisions undisturbed. The advocates of woman suffrage believe
     that it should now be changed so as to give a voice in
     governmental affairs to a half of the people which has become an
     important factor in the public life of the nation. By the only
     means now available the half which possesses the ballot has the
     absolute authority over its further extension and no ruling class
     likes to divide its power. State rights are desirable to a very
     large extent when all the people of the State have a voice, but
     it is not in harmony with the spirit of our republic that one
     half of the citizens of a State should have complete power over
     the political liberty of the other half.

Instance after instance was given from different States showing how
this power had been abused after the women had struggled long and
heroically for even a partial franchise and the speaker concluded:
"Women have been defeated over twenty times in the strongest campaigns
they were able to make for full-suffrage amendments to State
constitutions. From 1896 to 1910 they were not once successful.
Sometimes they were sold out by the party 'machines' at the last
moment; sometimes they were counted out after they had really secured
a majority; but, whatever the reason, they lost. The victories of the
last three years may be cited as evidence that henceforth they will
succeed. Those victories were largely due to political conditions
which do not exist in many other States and against them must be set
the crushing defeats these same years in Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan,
where the woman suffrage amendment was fought by every vicious
interest which menaces the body politic...."

Miss Jane Addams was presented by Dr. Shaw as one who did not need to
be introduced to any civilized being, "not because of any political
agitation by her but for the service she has rendered humanity, one
which is distinctly woman's service, and she long ago came to realize
that it was impossible to do this work as it should be done unless she
and the women associated with her had the ballot." Miss Addams
referred to a committee hearing once before when she was able to give
but one precedent for the jurisdiction of Congress over the
franchise--the 15th Amendment--but now, she said, she could give nine
more. She cited the case of the Indians, the Confederate soldiers,
foreigners who fought in the Civil War, naturalized foreigners,
Federal prisoners, American women marrying aliens, election of U. S.
Senators, etc. Each point brought questions or objections from the
committee and the discussion was very interesting.

Members of the committee asked Dr. Shaw if the association would be
willing to have the matter of a Federal Suffrage Amendment referred to
the Committee on Election of President, Vice-President and
Representatives in Congress but after consultation with members of her
board it was decided to stand for a special committee. Mrs. Desha
Breckinridge was introduced as the great granddaughter of Henry Clay
and in the course of a speech worthy of her ancestry she recalled the
early history of Kentucky, the part of her grandfather in preserving
the Union, the fact that the State had not maintained its prestige
and that if this was to be regained the women must be permitted to
help and said:

     I do not feel that I am doing any injustice to the men of my
     State in asking this Federal Amendment, in asking the help of the
     Congress of the United States. Some years ago, after we had
     worked for our School-suffrage law at three sessions of the
     Legislature and had at last gotten it past the House and up to
     the Senate, only three days before adjournment a letter was sent
     to the members by the German-American Alliance, calling upon the
     men of Kentucky to protect the homes and womanhood of the State
     by defeating it and saying that the Alliance believed the home
     was the sphere for women. When we investigated we found that the
     German-American Alliance was the brewers' alliance, with
     headquarters at Louisville.... I would suggest to the men of this
     committee, who I understand are mostly southern, that if they
     object to having the suffrage for women forced upon them by the
     U. S. Government, there is still time in which they may go home
     and get it for their women in the States.

Representative John E. Raker (Calif.), speaking with a full knowledge
of the inner machinery of Congress, brushed aside all objections,
showed that it was the custom to appoint special committees for
special subjects, stood up against the heckling of the Rules Committee
and put the necessity for this desired committee beyond argument. Dr.
Shaw joined him in refuting the reiterated charge that the suffragists
would insist on having it composed entirely of their supporters. Mrs.
Mary Beard (N. Y.) addressed the committee as Democrats and from the
standpoint of party expediency with such a knowledge of politics as
they never had met in a woman. She said in a scathing arraignment:

     This committee is composed of thirteen men and seven constitute
     the deciding vote on our appeal for the Woman Suffrage Committee.
     These seven belong to the majority, the Democratic party. One of
     them comes from a partial suffrage State, Illinois, and another
     from a campaign State, New York, where the Legislature has
     declared in favor of submitting this question to the voters. I
     shall, therefore, limit my examination to the remaining five
     gentlemen whose point of view will in all probability decide the
     women's destiny in the House of Representatives at least for the
     moment. These five all represent one section of the country and
     my analysis of them is made in the hope that they will take a
     national point of view and help us obliterate sectional feeling.
     Who are you that hesitate to promote, if you do not actually
     obstruct this Federal Amendment? In looking over various public
     records I find that the honored chairman of this committee holds
     his strategic position as a result of the will expressed at the
     polls of 7,623 men. Opposite his name should be written: "No
     opposition." Another of the five comes here through the vote of
     13,906 men. Another is sent by the very small group of 6,474 men,
     and the remaining two represent respectively 18,000 and 16,000
     men. The total vote behind all five of these gentlemen is 63,570.
     These 63,570 voters, therefore, have the decision of this
     momentous question....

     You know the fight that you Democratic men put up against the
     combination by the Committee on Rules under the leadership of
     Speaker Cannon and you led that fight against the domination of
     the committee over the House. You are today in this same position
     of political power. Can you consistently oppose now the things
     for which you fought so bitterly a short time ago? We know how
     rapidly you have appointed committees when changed economic
     conditions demanded it. I have here the report of the Committee
     on the Judiciary for the special session, showing what work it
     did, how many sittings it held, which proves conclusively that it
     has not time for the consideration of our question....

This part of the hearing closed with the address of Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt, who was introduced as president of the International
Woman Suffrage Alliance, representing the organized womanhood of
twenty-six nations. She said in the course of her address:

     A few weeks ago a dispatch was sent out from Washington, saying
     that the Judiciary Committee for the next year was going to be
     more overworked than ever before. It was accompanied by a letter
     from the President to Mr. Clayton, begging him to continue as
     chairman of that committee and to withdraw from his candidacy for
     the Senate from Alabama because this committee was going to do
     more work than it had ever been required to do before. He called
     attention to the fact that the Ways and Means Committee had been
     obliged to work day and night, sometimes spending the whole night
     on their particular business, and he warned Mr. Clayton that this
     might be the expectation of the Judiciary Committee in this
     coming Congress. When this committee has only worked during the
     day, we suffragists have not been able to get the attention which
     we think our cause demands and with this additional work it is
     quite impossible to expect more attention than we have had in the
     past. Since the suggestion was offered that possibly our business
     might go before the Elections Committee, the information has come
     that the President's plan for presidential primary legislation
     will make this committee also a very busy one this coming
     session.... We pride ourselves on our democracy, but while the
     Judiciary Committee has been refusing to report our measure and
     bring it before the House for discussion the question of woman
     suffrage has been considered by the Imperial Parliaments of
     twelve European countries. This has been done in fact within the
     past two years.

Mrs. Catt gave particulars from each and said the only ones where it
had not been discussed were those of Germany, Austria, Turkey and the
United States. This assertion stung the committee and Representative
Hardwick (Ga.) asked if there was not the wide difference that in this
country State laws reached the suffrage while in others the Parliament
regulated the vote, and she answered: "Of course there is that
difference but I wish to add my opinion to that of Miss Addams, that
while the States have the right to extend the vote it is the most
outrageously unfair process through which any class of unenfranchised
citizens of any land have ever been called upon to obtain their
enfranchisement and that is the reason why we come to Congress. The
overwhelming majority of the men of this country have not secured
their suffrage by any vote at the polls in the States. The only class
that I have ever been able to find in our history so enfranchised are
the working men in the original thirteen colonies, and they got the
vote by the process long ago when the population was exceedingly
small. There are more men today voting on the basis of their
citizenship under naturalization than for any other reason and yet our
State constitutions compel us to go to these men and ask our vote at
their hands. They say whether the women who have been born and bred
here and educated in our schools shall have the vote. We believe we
have the right to have our question considered by Congress and that is
why we ask for a special committee."

A spirited discussion followed in which the 15th Amendment played a
part and Mr. Hardwick said all the women had to do in order to vote
was to add the word "sex" to it and Dr. Shaw answered: "This would
require a constitutional amendment and what we are asking is such an
amendment to our National Constitution, which shall forbid the States
to deprive women citizens of the right which it grants to every man
born in the United States and to every man imported from any country
under the light of the sun. No nation has subjected its women to the
humiliating position occupied by those of this nation today. There is
no race which is not represented in the citizenship of this country
and these citizens are made the governing power which determines the
destinies of our women. While women are disfranchised in Germany, yet
German women are governed by German men; French women are governed by
Frenchmen; in all the nations of Europe where women are disfranchised
it is by the men of their own nation but in the United States men of
every race may go to the polls and vote that American-born women may
not have a voice in their own government. Therefore we claim that it
is the business of the Government to protect women citizens in this
right of suffrage as it protects men citizens, and we ask for this
committee because we believe that if our question can be brought
before Congress and discussed freely, it will be submitted to the
Legislatures and decided favorably."

Two anti-suffrage associations were represented, the National, headed
by its president, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge of New York, and the Guidon
Club, headed by its president, Mrs. William Force Scott of New York.
Mrs. Dodge presented as speakers Miss Alice Hill Chittenden and Miss
Minnie Bronson (N. Y.), Mrs. Robert Garrett (Md.), Miss Emily P.
Bissell (Del.), Mrs. A. J. George (Mass.), Miss Annie Bock (Calif.),
Mrs. O. D. Oliphant (N. J.), Miss Ella Dorsey (D. C.), Mrs. R. C.
Talbot and Miss Lucy Price (O.), Miss Eliza Armstrong, Miss Emmeline
Pitt and Miss Julia Harding (Penn.), Miss Alice Edith Abell, president
"Wage-earners' Anti-Suffrage League" (N. Y.); Everett P. Wheeler and
Charles L. Underhill, representing the Men's Anti-Suffrage Leagues of
New York and of Massachusetts. Letters were read from Miss Elizabeth
McCracken (Mass.) and Arthur Pyle (Minn.). Mrs. Scott introduced as
speakers Dr. and Mrs. Rossiter Johnson and John C. Ten Eyck of New
York. Representative J. Thomas Heflin (Ala.) spoke over an hour on his
own initiative.

As the anti-suffragists had entirely disregarded the agreement to
confine the hearing to the purpose of obtaining a special committee
and had covered the whole field of woman suffrage itself, the
Committee on Rules willingly granted time for a rebuttal. Miss Alice
Stone Blackwell (Mass.), editor of the _Woman's Journal_, was selected
as the principal speaker because of her extensive knowledge of the
subject and another large audience assembled for the fifth time, both
suffragists and opponents. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.)
presided and Miss Blackwell said in beginning:

     Gentlemen of the committee, it is difficult in a short time to
     review the arguments that have been made during nine or ten
     hours, therefore I shall take up only the most important points.
     The argument has been made over and over that you ought not
     appoint this committee because there is not a sufficient public
     demand and because the number of women who oppose suffrage is
     greater than the number who favor it. It is an actual fact that
     we represent a very much larger number. The opponents say that
     only 8 per cent. of the women of this country favor suffrage.
     They have no authority for this, nobody knows how many there are,
     but it is a fact that less than one per cent. of the women of the
     United States have expressed any objection to equal suffrage. The
     anti-suffragists claim to be organized in seventeen States. The
     suffragists are organized in forty-seven; the only State without
     an organization is New Mexico. The anti-suffrage movement
     maintains only three periodicals--two monthlies and one
     quarterly. The suffrage movement maintains seven weekly papers,
     one fortnightly and four or five monthlies.

     In every State where petitions for suffrage and remonstrances
     against it have been sent to the Legislature, the petitioners
     have always outnumbered the remonstrants and generally by 50 or
     100 to one. At the time of the last New York constitutional
     convention as far back as 1894 the suffragists obtained more than
     300,000 individual signatures to their petitions. Suppose only
     one-half of those were women, that would make 150,000. At the
     same time the anti-suffragists obtained only 15,000, men and
     women. In Chicago, a few years ago, 104 organizations, with an
     aggregate membership of more than 100,000 women, petitioned for a
     municipal woman-suffrage clause in the new city charter, while
     only one small organization of women petitioned against it ...

     One of the opposing speakers claimed that the majority of the
     grangers were opposed to suffrage. The National Grange passes a
     strong resolution in favor of woman suffrage every year and a
     long list of State granges have done the same. Individual working
     women have appeared before this committee and have said that they
     believed that the majority of working women were opposed to
     suffrage, but all the great organizations of working men and
     working women have repeatedly passed strong resolutions in favor
     of it.

     We have been told that all kinds of terrible things will happen
     if suffrage is granted. With the exception of Illinois, every
     State that has adopted it borders directly upon some State which
     has it. If, as has been claimed here, homes were broken up and
     made desolate, if husbands found that their wives were neglecting
     their home duties and their children, it is not likely that
     suffrage would spread from the State which first adopted it to
     one adjoining State after another. You have had one California
     woman here who claimed that woman suffrage there does not work
     well. California adopted the initiative and referendum at the
     same time with woman suffrage. The "antis" immediately started an
     initiative petition for the repeal of woman suffrage. They said
     that 80 per cent. of the women of California were opposed to it
     and that they would repeal it. Both men and women were eligible
     to sign the repeal petitions; but out of the 1,591,783 men and
     women they failed to get the 32,000 signatures necessary. It has
     been asserted that the women in all the equal suffrage States
     would like to repeal it. In any one of these States they could
     repeal it if they wished to. A great effort was made by the
     editor of the _Ladies' Home Journal_ to find Colorado women who
     would express themselves against it and the fact that he wanted
     adverse opinions was widely announced in the papers. Out of the
     more than 200,000 women he succeeded in finding only nineteen who
     said they did not think much of woman suffrage and of these three
     said it had not done any harm.

     A few years ago Mrs. Julia Ward Howe took a census of all the
     ministers of four leading denominations in the four oldest
     suffrage States--Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho--and of all
     the editors, asking them whether the results of woman suffrage
     were good or bad. She received 624 answers, of which 62 were
     unfavorable, 46 undecided and 516 in favor. The answers from the
     editors were favorable more than 8 to 1: those from the Episcopal
     clergymen more than 2 to 1; from the Baptist, 7 to 1; from the
     Congregationalists about 8 to 1; from the Methodists more than 10
     to 1; and from the Presbyterians more than 11 to 1.

Miss Blackwell disproved thoroughly the charges made by the opposition
disparaging to the laws for working women in the equal suffrage States
and many other charges, giving full proof of the accuracy of her
statements. The committee asked her many questions and gave her leave
to print as much of her argument as she wished. Her carefully prepared
data filled thirty-five pages of fine print in the published hearing.

James Lees Laidlaw (N. Y.), president of the National Men's League for
Woman Suffrage, showed that the attitude of the opponents expressed a
distrust of democracy. He refuted many of their assertions, among them
the one that U. S. Senator John D. Works (Calif.) had declared woman
suffrage a failure in that State. He read a letter received from the
Senator the preceding day as follows: "I did not make any statement
anywhere that woman suffrage in California has proved a failure. Such
a news item was sent out over the country but it was entirely without
foundation and was based on a false headline in a newspaper not borne
out by the quotation from my speech even in that paper. You may say
for me that the statement is wholly without foundation and that woman
suffrage has not proved to be a failure in my State."

Mrs. McCulloch referred to the "poor, misguided working girl" among
the "antis" who said wage-earning women didn't want the vote and asked
Miss Rose Winslow, a prominent working woman, to read the resolution
demanding the suffrage which was passed by the National Women's Trade
Union League. She did so and in a few sentences scored one of the
flowery anti-suffrage speakers, saying: "I have not had any choice as
to whether I should walk on the Bowery or on Fifth Avenue, because I
walk nowhere in the sunshine. I am one of the millions of women who
work in the shadow of these women of whom men speak as though they are
the only ones in the country, in order that they may parade the avenue
in all the beauty and glory of everything brought from all over the
world for their decoration, but I do not come with merely my personal
opinion and experience. I have the opinion of the organized working
women of America in convention assembled. These women represent all
the trades that women work at in the United States and they have
passed this resolution demanding the ballot without a dissenting
vote."

Mrs. Emma S. South, wife of former Representative Oliver South of
Illinois, said the opponents had given alleged facts that would
require weeks of investigation to prove or disprove. She answered
their favorite assertion that women had more influence without the
vote by convincing illustrations of what the women of Chicago had been
able to accomplish with even their partial suffrage, retaining Mrs.
Ella Flagg Young as superintendent of schools, for instance. She
showed how in the appointment of the new school board the fact that
their power had been doubled and trebled by the recently granted
Municipal vote was manifest. Mrs. William Kent, after showing why the
women of California had asked for the ballot, gave her time to Miss
Helen Todd, who said in the course of an impassioned speech: "My
conversion to suffrage came through six years of work as factory
inspector in Illinois. I have always thought that the reason there
could be such a thing as women 'antis' was simply that the screen of
ignorance and the comfort and protection of home were so thrown
around them that they never had to face the realities.... No one can
go, as I have gone, through the factories of a great State and see the
suffering just of the children and not want the women who create human
life to have the power to protect that life."

Mrs. Ella S. Stewart (Ills.), Mrs. John Rogers, Jr. (N. Y.), Mrs.
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (Conn.), Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer (Penn.) and
Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (O.) spoke briefly but strongly and an
effective letter was read from Miss Constance Leupp (D. C.). The women
present from the South were deeply incensed at the long, opposing
speech of Representative Heflin, who claimed to represent the women of
that section, and he was severely answered by Mrs. Pattie Ruffner
Jacobs, Mrs. Oscar Hundley and Mrs. Felix Baldwin of his own State;
Mrs. S. D. Meehan of Louisiana; Mrs. L. Crozier French and Miss
Catharine J. Wester of Tennessee and Mrs. Lulu Loveland Shepherd of
Utah, formerly of Tennessee. Mrs. Harper cited the three classes
enfranchised since the founding of the Government, the working men,
the negroes and the Indians, and said: "There was never any question
as to whether they would improve things or hurt things; now, in the
President's Message, he asks you to bring in the Porto Rican men. Are
you going to do this because you think they are needed in the
electorate and because they will make conditions better? We women are
the only class who have ever asked for suffrage in this country to
whom all these objections have been made and in regard to whom all
these fears have been expressed. There is not a class of voters in the
United States today which has lifted one finger to get the ballot, yet
the women of this country have been struggling sixty-five years for
the right to a voice in the Government. You must admit that they are
the best-equipped class that have ever asked this privilege and yet
you have kept them out. All we ask of you is to make it a little less
hard than it has been by giving us a committee from whom we can get
some consideration."

Mrs. Frank W. Mondell, wife of the Representative from Wyoming, said
in the course of a very comprehensive address: "We do not desire to
base our request for the appointment of a Committee on Woman Suffrage
solely on the proposition that the subject is one of greater
importance than those included within the jurisdiction of many
committees of the House but rather on the ground that it has never, so
far as my recollection and information go, failed to provide by
general or special committee for the study and consideration of any
vitally important question that has arisen in the growth and
development of the nation." A review of the different committees was
made and she concluded: "We do not ask or expect a committee
constituted to represent our views but we ask for one whose special
duty it shall be to consider the question. We feel that we are only
asking the House of Representatives to follow its usual rule and
procedure."

Mr. Mondell closed the hearing with a sarcastic review of the
objections made by the opponents during which he said: "I had the
privilege and pleasure of listening to the exceedingly strong and
forceful argument in favor of woman suffrage made this morning by the
gentleman from Alabama, or was it intended for an argument against it?
I think, taking it as a whole, that it was the most conclusive
argument I have ever heard in favor of it.... We have a committee
whose business it is to inquire how much further we should extend the
franchise to the little brown brother over in the Philippines, some
six or seven millions of him, and the President considers that a
sufficiently important matter to refer to it in his Message. I hope it
was through forgetfulness and not deliberate intent that he seemed to
fail to realize that it is of vastly less importance than the question
of granting the franchise to the mothers, wives and sisters among the
95,000,000 of the folks here in the United States." Mr. Mondell
ridiculed the sentimental effusion of Mr. Heflin and his solicitude
lest the harmony of family life might be disturbed and said: "If the
testimony of one who speaks from experience is worth while I can say
with full realization that it is a sweeping statement: In twenty-seven
years' wide knowledge of a people where woman suffrage prevails I have
never known a solitary case where a difference of political opinion
resulted in family quarrels or misunderstanding, not a single one....
Are we to understand that men elsewhere--in Alabama, for instance--are
less considerate than with us and that they would make trouble if
their women folks did not vote as they wanted them to?... The exercise
of the franchise is a privilege and a right but above and beyond the
question of right or privilege stands the fact that as time goes on
and we are attempting to meet wisely the multitude of questions that
arise in government, many of them social and economic, we need the
assistance of the best half of mankind."

       *       *       *       *       *

The Rules Committee met January 24, 1914, with eight of the fourteen
members present and Mr. Lenroot moved to report favorably the
resolution for a Woman Suffrage Committee. Representatives Foster
(Ills.), Campbell (Kans.) and Kelly (Penn.) joined him;
Representatives Hardwick (Ga.), Pou (N. C.), Cantrill (Ky.) and
Garrett (Tenn.) opposed. Mr. Lenroot then moved to report it without
recommendation and there was a tie vote. Enough signatures were
secured for the calling of a Democratic caucus on February 3 but just
before it convened a meeting of Democrats was held in the office of
Representative Oscar J. Underwood (Ala.) and it was decided by a vote
of 123 to 55 that suffrage was a State and not a Federal question and
no further action on a special committee was taken.


FOOTNOTES:

[78] Call: For the forty-fifth time in its history the National
American Woman Suffrage Association summons its members together in
council. By thus assembling, one more united step toward the final
emancipation of the women of this country is made practicable.... To
the wise and courageous, to those not fearful of the changes demanded
by the vital needs of growing humanity, this Call will have two
meanings: first, it will speak of loyalty to work and to comrade
workers; of large undertakings worthily begun and to be worthily
finished; of the stimulus of difficulty; of joy in the exercise of
talents and strength; of the self-control and ability required for
cooperation.

Second, it will express--like other summons of women to women
throughout the ages--the need not alone for counsel and comfort but
also for the preservation of all they hold most high--for that to
which they gladly give their lives. It will speak of the struggle for
development which individual women have made; of the opportunities
they have won for each other; of the unequivocal demand for the best,
to which the few have led the many....

To you who grasp the underlying meaning of this struggle; to you who
know yourselves akin to those who have preceded and to those who will
follow; to you who are daily making this ideal a reality, this Call is
sent.

                       ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                       JANE ADDAMS, Vice-President.
                       CHARLOTTE ANITA WHITNEY, Second Vice-President.
                       MARY WARE DENNETT, Executive Secretary.
                       SUSAN WALKER FITZGERALD, Recording Secretary.
                       KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, Treasurer.
                       HARRIET BURTON LAIDLAW,}
                       LOUISE DEKOVEN BOWEN,  } Auditors

[79] The first delegation received by President Wilson after his
inauguration was a group of eight or ten suffragists. It was arranged
by Miss Alice Paul, chairman of the Congressional Committee of the
National Suffrage Association. They stated their case in a few words
and quoted freely from his book, The New Freedom. The President was
very courteous but his attitude was one of amused curiosity.

[80] When the board met after the convention it was disclosed that the
Congressional Union, instead of being merely a local society to assist
the committee in its efforts with Congress, as Miss Paul had said, was
a national organization to work for the Federal Amendment. That is, it
was to duplicate the work which the National Association had been
formed to do in 1869 and had brought to its present advanced stage.
The association's letterheads had been used for this purpose and
persons from all parts of the country had sent their names and money,
many supposing they were assisting the National Association. Miss Paul
had been obtaining names for membership in the Union during all the
sessions of the convention. The board decided that there must be
complete separation of the work of the committee and the Union; that
the same person could not be at the head of both and that the plans of
the Union must be regularly submitted to the Board. Miss Paul refused
to accept these conditions and she was at once relieved from the
chairmanship of the Congressional Committee and the other members
resigned. The Union was continued as a separate organization. Another
committee was appointed by the National American Association
consisting of Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick, chairman; Mrs. Antoinette
Funk, Mrs. Sherman Booth, all of Illinois, Mrs. Desha Breckinridge
(Ky.), Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.), Mrs. H. Edward Dreier (N. Y.),
Mrs. James Tucker (Calif.). Headquarters were opened in the Munsey
Building, Washington, with the Illinois women in charge.

[81] Hubert L. Henry (Tex.), Chairman; Edward W. Pou (N. C.); Thomas
W. Hardwick (Ga.); Finis J. Garrett (Tenn.); Martin D. Foster (Ills.);
James C. Cantrill (Ky.); Henry W. Goldfogle (N. Y.); Philip P.
Campbell (Kans.); Irvine L. Lenroot (Wis.); Edwin A. Merritt, Jr. (N.
Y.); M. Clyde Kelly (Penn.).




CHAPTER XIV.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1914.


The Forty-sixth annual convention of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association had the honor and privilege of holding its
sessions in Representatives' Hall at the State Capitol in Nashville,
Tenn., Nov. 12-17, 1914.[82] Dr. Anna Howard Shaw was in the chair and
it was officially and cordially welcomed in the name of the city by
Mayor Hilary Howse; of the State Suffrage Association by its
president, Mrs. L. Crozier-French, and of the Nashville Equal Suffrage
League by the president, Mrs. Guilford Dudley. As Dr. Shaw rose to
respond she was presented by Miss Louise Lindsey, vice-regent of the
Ladies' Hermitage Association, with a gavel made from the wood of a
hickory tree planted by General Jackson at the Hermitage, his home.
She spoke of memories which made Nashville dear to the whole country;
referred to the merry barbecue which had been held for their
entertainment the preceding day "at the old mansion of that great
Democrat, Andrew Jackson," and continued:

     When his Honor the Mayor spoke of the hope that if women entered
     into the political life of our country conditions would be made
     better, I forgot the North and turned back in memory to the great
     South, where no stronger argument in favor of our cause can be
     found than the women themselves. It is not the men who have made
     this nation what it is, it is the men and the women, and in no
     part of it have women contributed more than in the South. When we
     look back over its past history; when we see the land barren, the
     desolation everywhere; when we see the homes left destitute and
     the women prostrate by the graves of their dead; when we realize
     that the men were nearly all swept away--we know that the power
     which kept the South steadfast, which held the homes together,
     which cherished the traditions, which made the South what it is
     today was the loyalty, the patriotism, the unconquerable courage
     and the devotion of Southern women in that hour of darkness and
     despair. Had it not been for the new spirit of action born of the
     necessity of the times in the character of Southern women to
     inspire Southern men with hope and courage, desolation would
     still be over the South. They evolved from within themselves a
     power which no one knows that women possess until some hour of
     extreme trial calls it forth. Never has there been a test of
     human endurance and wisdom to which women have not responded and
     become the inspiration and the strength of manhood. If any women
     of this nation have ever bought their freedom and paid a dear
     price for it, it is the women of the Southland.

     I cannot see how any man who calls himself a Democrat can fail to
     recognize that the fundamental principle of democracy is the
     right of the citizen to a voice in the government under which
     that citizen lives; much less can I understand how any southern
     man can look unmoved into the face of southern women knowing that
     they are branded as no other body of intelligent people in this
     country are--by disfranchisement--that they are deprived of that
     one symbol of power which elevates the citizens of a democracy
     out of the class of the defective and unfit. The only way men can
     redeem themselves, the only way they can be honest American
     citizens and Democrats is to stand by the fundamental principle
     of democracy--that "Governments derive their just powers from the
     consent of the governed"--"governed" women as well as "governed"
     men. When Nashville and Tennessee and the South and the North and
     the East and the West shall stand on this basic principle of just
     government, then we shall have a republic, a government of the
     people, by the people and for the people.

At the close of the address this resolution was enthusiastically
adopted: "The National American Woman Suffrage Association in
convention assembled hereby expresses its heartfelt thanks and deep
appreciation to our national president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, for her
devoted and unremitting work for woman suffrage and for this
association during the past year; for her splendid services in the
campaigns which did so much to lead to victory two States; for her
willingness to stand for re-election in order that she may lead us to
new victories in the coming year."

Greetings were brought from the recently formed National Suffrage
Association of Canada by Miss Ida E. Campbell, who said that although
it was only eight months old it represented many affiliated societies
in all the Provinces. She spoke of the splendid war work that was
being done by women and said: "Our national president, Mrs. L. A.
Hamilton of Toronto, is at the head of the relief work in that city
and the feeling is general that the patriotic activities of the
suffragists are doing much to enhance the cause of woman suffrage in
the eyes of the Canadian public.[83] May we now express the hope that
when the war is over we may welcome many of our American sisters to
what we have been looking forward to--our first Canadian National
Suffrage Convention. Canada salutes you." Greetings were read from the
Colorado State Federation of Women's Clubs and were presented from the
Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference by its president, Miss Kate
M. Gordon (La.).

The large hall was crowded at the first evening meeting and the
convention was formally welcomed by Governor B. W. Hooper, who said in
the course of his address:

     It is highly appropriate that your progressive movement should
     unfurl its banners in this, the most progressive State in the
     South. Our people are not swift in their pursuit of strange
     doctrines, but they are as a rule open to conviction and tolerant
     of differences of opinion. Whatever may be our views of the
     necessity and efficacy of woman suffrage most of us have sense
     enough to know that it is surely coming in every State in the
     republic.... When it comes to Tennessee I trust that there will
     be no faltering compromise, giving only the limited right to vote
     in the election of certain classes of officials. The suffrage, if
     granted at all, should not be grudgingly given but should be the
     complete and comprehensive right to participate in all elections.
     When suffrage comes to the women of Tennessee I shall derive one
     substantial pleasure from it if I am still living, the joy and
     exultation of my little daughter, who has been a pronounced and
     persistent suffragist since she was nine years old. She has taken
     a keen and intelligent interest in all of my struggles, has
     rejoiced in the hour of my victory and wept in the hour of my
     defeat. She is the connecting link between me and the woman
     suffrage cause.

     In behalf of all the good people of Tennessee, I extend greetings
     to your great association and express the hope that your sojourn
     in the historic Volunteer State may be filled with pleasure and
     profit to each and every member of your convention.

The Governor's daughter was introduced to the convention and it
settled itself in anticipation of the stories of the campaigns for
woman suffrage amendments which had ended with the general election
the preceding week, in some of them with victory, in others with
defeat. Miss Anne Martin, president of the Nevada Suffrage
Association, was heartily applauded as she told of the triumph in her
State, saying:

     The suffrage victory in Nevada means not only a solid equal
     suffrage West and another step toward equal suffrage for the
     United States but a triumph for better government in Nevada. It
     is the most "male" State in America, perhaps in the world. The
     census of 1910 shows that there are two men to every woman. Law,
     custom, social life are more nearly man-made than those of any
     other country; consequently Nevada needs the help of her women to
     modify law, custom and social life, the help of those women whose
     pioneer mothers stood shoulder to shoulder with the men in
     building up a great commonwealth out of a wilderness. Owing to
     the transitory character of many of the industries, such as the
     construction of irrigation works, railway construction and
     mining, there are nearly three times as many unattached men
     living outside of home influences as there are married women in
     the State.

     The male population is over 50 per cent. transient; the
     population of women is only 20 per cent. transient, as they have
     permanent occupations on the farms and in the schools. The
     argument of the anti-suffragists that "the women do not want it"
     was answered by a house-to-house canvass throughout the counties
     of the State. In many of them at least 90 per cent. of the women
     enrolled themselves in favor of equal suffrage and their
     signatures are on file at the headquarters of the Nevada Equal
     Franchise Society. The fact that out of a voting population of
     only 20,000 a majority of 3,400 votes was cast to give women the
     franchise shows not only that men all over the State were just
     and fair-minded but that they must have instinctively felt the
     need of women's help....

The story of victory for Montana was related by Miss Mary Stewart, as
the president, Miss Jeannette Rankin, had been detained to prevent a
tampering with the election returns, but she afterwards arrived and
was enthusiastically welcomed. Mrs. Clara Darrow, president of the
North Dakota association, gave an account of how the amendment had
been lost in that State through political tricks. Mrs. Draper Smith,
president of the Nebraska association, gave a report on the loss of
that State and paid tribute to William Jennings Bryan, who had made
sixteen strong speeches for it. Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, president of
the Missouri association, told of the effort through the hot summer to
get the necessary 38,000 signatures to an initiative petition, after
the Legislature had refused to submit the amendment, and the tactics
used to defeat it at the polls. Her mention of the name of Champ
Clark, Speaker of the National House of Representatives, who had
recently declared for woman suffrage, was applauded. As Mrs. Harriet
Taylor Upton, president of the Ohio Suffrage Association, was not at
the convention, the loss of the amendment in that State was described
by Mrs. Myron Vorce. [See State chapters.]

The evening closed with the president's address. The report said: Dr.
Shaw declared she had some sympathy for the anti-suffragists, as they
were bound to lose. "When the campaign for woman suffrage was begun,"
she said, "the 'antis' had all of the earth and the suffragists had
only hope of heaven but now many nations of the world and half of the
United States have been converted to the cause of votes for women."
She ridiculed the arguments of the anti-suffragists and said: "Until
you grant the right of a vote to all persons, you haven't a
democracy--you have an aristocracy and the worst of all--an
aristocracy of sex. Soon the divine right of sex here will be as
obsolete as the divine right of Kings in Europe." Answering the
argument that if women have the ballot they ought also to have the
musket, Dr. Shaw said in telling of the sufferings of the women during
the war: "It is said that 300,000 of the flower of Europe's manhood
have been killed in the last nine weeks of the war. I can't grasp the
thought of that many dead men but I can look into the face of one dead
soldier and know that he had a mother. If this woman had escaped death
at childbirth she had watched over him day by day until she had to
look up into the eyes of her boy. And then that boy was called by his
country and soon he was dead--he was in the happy peace of glory and
she was facing the empty years of agony. Then they ask what a woman
knows about war!... The very flower of a country perishes in a war,
leaving the maimed and diseased to father the children of future
generations. Women ought to have the ballot during war and during
peace, for we know that if they had had it in all countries this war
would not have occurred."

The report of Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, corresponding and executive
secretary, covered much of the work of the National Association during
1914, which was more extensive probably than in any preceding year in
its history. It said in part:

     This year has completely broken all records in the number of
     campaign States--seven in all. In four of them--Nevada, Montana,
     North and South Dakota--the amendment was submitted by
     legislative act; in three--Nebraska, Missouri and Ohio--by
     initiative petition. It is noteworthy that in all of the last the
     suffragists consider the work of securing the requisite number of
     signatures, although it was exceedingly arduous, an invaluable
     asset to the campaign, each signer being practically guaranteed
     to vote right on the amendment itself. In Ohio, Nevada, Montana
     and South Dakota, only a simple majority vote on the amendment is
     necessary to pass it, but in Nebraska 35 per cent. of all the
     votes cast at the election is required and in North Dakota and
     Missouri a majority of all the votes cast.

     The year 1914 has been what suffragists call an "off year," since
     most of the State Legislatures meet biennially in the odd years.
     Nevertheless, what acts of Legislatures there have been are of
     the greatest significance. Those of Massachusetts and New Jersey
     submitted the suffrage amendment by overwhelming votes and in
     both States the suffragists are confident of the approval of the
     1915 Legislatures, which is necessary before final submission to
     the voters. An amendment was introduced into the Legislatures of
     eight others. The national legislative record shows that never
     before has the Congressional atmosphere been so thoroughly
     permeated with woman suffrage. The anxiety of some members of
     Congress to show that they stood right with their constituents on
     the question and the agility of others in side-stepping every
     possible necessity for meeting the issue, have unerringly
     indicated that they all recognize the fact that the time has come
     when national politics must reckon with woman suffrage.

     All through the year there has been the most hearty cooperation
     between national headquarters and the Washington and Chicago
     offices of our Congressional Committee.... It is impossible to
     mention this committee without expressing on behalf of the
     officers of the association a most thorough appreciation of the
     service of its chairman, Mrs. Medill McCormick, who has not only
     given money generously to the work but has added what is more
     valuable still--steady, hard, personal labor, coupled with an
     indefatigable good humor, frequently under most trying
     circumstances....

The new State associations formed and the many suffrage organizations
applying for affiliated or auxiliary membership were named and an
account was given of the large sums of money, the vast amount of
literature and the many workers supplied to the seven State campaigns
of the year. These facts and the other activities of the association
were related in part as follows:

     Miss Harriet Grim of Wisconsin was sent by request to North
     Dakota to cover the series of Chautauqua meetings in June and
     July. Miss Katharine Devereux Blake of New York offered her
     services for only expenses for a month of campaign work in July.
     Hurried arrangements were made by telegram and as the promptest,
     most urgent pleas came from Montana, it won her, although later
     she did some work in North Dakota also. Miss Shaw's special fund
     was the backing which provided for both tours. Miss Blake made
     the wonderful record of obtaining from the collections at her
     meetings enough to cover all her travelling and living expenses.
     Miss Shaw's fund,[84] which has often seemed like the miraculous
     pitcher, also provided part of the expense of sending Mrs. Jennie
     Wells Wentworth to Ohio and Mrs. Laura Gregg Cannon to Nevada.
     Miss Addams has contributed several weeks of campaigning and Dr.
     Shaw herself has made an itinerary, giving ten days to each of
     the campaign States, starting August 27 and ending with Election
     Day....

     Another noteworthy feature of the year's work was the
     establishment of Woman's Independence Day on the first Saturday
     of May, initiated by Mrs. McCormick and phenomenally successful.
     There was a wonderful response to the ringing call sent out by
     the National Board to all the suffragists of the country to meet
     together in every city and town at a given time and sing a
     suffrage hymn, declare their faith, pass a resolution and have a
     speech. A woman's version of the Declaration of Independence was
     prepared for the occasion and President Wilson was asked by Dr.
     Shaw to proclaim the day a legal holiday to be celebrated in
     recognition of the right and necessity that the women of the
     United States should become citizens in fact as well as in name.
     The President did not heed Dr. Shaw's request but the women of
     the country did. Not a State was silent, not even the equal
     suffrage States, and many added parades and other events to the
     regular program.

The story was told of the National Junior Suffrage Corps to enroll the
young people, the idea of Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees (Conn.); of the
large amount of Congressional documents distributed, among them 1,000
copies of the speech of Senator Henry F. Ashurst (Ariz.) before the
Senate on the Federal Amendment, presented by him; the travelling
schools organized; lists prepared of many thousand active members and
an infinite variety of details. Mrs. Dennett had severed her
connection with the association the preceding September after four
years' invaluable service.

Mrs. Dennett made also the report of the Literature Committee, whose
duties had now been merged in the National Woman Suffrage Publishing
Co. The latter reported through its chairman, Mrs. Cyrus W. Field. The
greatly needed Data Department had been established under the
cooperation of Miss Elinor Byrns, chairman also of the Press
Department; Mrs. Frances Maule Bjorkman and Mrs. Dennett. The
volunteer services of Miss Helen Raulett, like Miss Byrns a lawyer,
had been obtained, and while its great need and possibilities had been
demonstrated it was evident that it must be put on a paid, business
basis to be effective. Miss Byrns gave an interesting account of the
ramifications of the Press and Publicity Department and its important
accomplishments. "In my opinion," she said, "it is almost impossible
to have suffrage news given out successfully by any one who is not an
earnest suffragist. Knowledge of publicity does not make up for the
lack of conviction and enthusiasm," and she gave this instance: "A few
months ago a writer for one of the New York newspapers--the worst
'anti' paper we have--telephoned me, saying, 'I have been told to
write an editorial on the menace of woman suffrage. Can you help me?'
I said, 'Yes, I can prove to you that the majority of the presidential
electors in 1916 may represent equal suffrage States and that in all
probability every political party will have to endorse woman suffrage
before that time. What could be worse than that?' He agreed with me
and his editorial based on the facts Dr. Shaw and I gave him has been
a most successful campaign document for us."

Among other valuable suggestions Miss Byrns said: "While there are
some editors who give us space because they have to--that is because
we are always doing something 'different' and making news which cannot
be ignored--there are perhaps even more who have a real interest in
the suffrage movement and are therefore eager to give us all the space
which the business department of their paper permits. And, by the way,
one of the most valuable kinds of press work is that which can be done
by every suffragist individually. Newspaper and magazine offices are
most sensitive to the praise and blame of readers. Suffrage
departments are sometimes stopped because no readers write their
approval. Individual newspaper policies, belittling or perverting the
suffrage issue, are sometimes persisted in because no readers write
their disapproval. It is discouraging to an editor when a reader
writes a letter complaining of one opposing news item or one cartoon
although she has ignored everything which has been printed in favor of
suffrage."

Miss Jane Thompson, field secretary, told of the 8,000 miles she had
travelled in the campaign States since early in April; of her
experiences pleasant and unpleasant; of the excellent opportunities it
had afforded of establishing thorough understanding and cordial
relations between the National Association and the States. She spoke
of the long and arduous work of the national president and presented
the following expression of loyalty and appreciation from those who
had conducted the campaigns in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota,
Montana and Nevada:

     To Dr. Anna Howard Shaw:

     When service of the highest type has been faithfully and loyally
     rendered it is the pleasure of those most benefited by that
     service to express, though inadequately, their deep appreciation.
     We, the representatives of the Campaign States, feel that to you
     we owe much for the splendid way in which you and your Executive
     Board stood by us in our efforts, but even more do we appreciate
     your personal labor, your untiring, beautiful spirit. Always
     ready to meet whatever situation arose, regardless of fatigue,
     you encouraged the believers, braced up the uncertain and
     converted the unbelieving. Your service, in our estimation, is
     invaluable and cannot be dispensed with.

The legal adviser announced the settlement at last of the bequest of
Mrs. Sarah J. McCall of Ohio, including 100 shares of Cincinnati
Street Railway stock, worth from $5,000 to $6,000, and $705 interest;
also the receipt of a legacy of $4,750, after the inheritance tax was
paid, from former U. S. Senator Thomas W. Palmer of Michigan.

Miss Elizabeth Yates said in her report on Presidential suffrage: "The
favorable decision the past year by the Supreme Court of Illinois
leaves no room for any further contention regarding its
constitutionality. It can be granted by any Legislature by a bare
majority vote and this can be obtained by many States that could not
secure the large vote necessary to submit a constitutional amendment
for full suffrage." She strongly urged that any State contemplating a
campaign for full suffrage should first secure the Presidential
franchise. In her usual excellent report on Church Work, Mrs. Mary E.
Craigie told of her visits to the Methodist Ministerial Associations
of Atlanta, Tampa and New Orleans with most gratifying results, as a
friendly spirit towards woman suffrage was developed and the last
named recommended the General Conference to give laity rights to
women. In cooperation with Dr. Nina Wilson Dewey, her chairman for
Iowa, arrangements were made during the Mississippi Valley Conference
in Des Moines with the clergymen of eighteen Protestant churches to
have their pulpits filled at some service on Sunday by women delegates
and the combined audiences by actual count numbered 6,000. Four
thousand copies of the annual letter asking for a mention of the need
of women's influence in State affairs in their Mothers' Day sermons
were sent to as many clergymen.

One of the most valuable sessions was Voters' Evening, under the
auspices of the National Men's League, with its president, James Lees
Laidlaw (N. Y.) in the chair. The opening address was made by U. S.
Senator Luke Lea (Tenn.), who received a great ovation when he began
and the audience rose with cheers and waving handkerchiefs when he
finished. He said in the course of his speech:

     I am embarrassed by not knowing how to address this distinguished
     audience.... Much as I regret it I must address you as "my
     disfranchised friends," who, in spite of your learning, your
     cultivation and your intelligence, under our enlightened and
     progressive civilization occupy the same political plane as
     insane persons, idiots, infants and others laboring under
     disabilities. To say I regret to be forced to address you thus is
     no mere lip service, contradictory of real sentiment and
     conviction, for I was one of the three Southern Senators who were
     sufficiently impressed with the absolute necessity of woman
     suffrage to step beyond the sacred portals of State rights and
     vote for the amendment to the constitution of the United States,
     removing from the electoral franchise the limitation of sex, and
     I am glad to have an opportunity to express the reasons for my
     faith.

     These two twofold: First, the wholesome effect upon our
     Government of extending the privilege of voting to women; and
     second, the far-reaching results upon womanhood of granting this
     right. The first reason is justified by the statement which will
     be conceded by all, even the "antis," that an overwhelming
     majority of women are good rather than bad and have the highest
     ideals of government and politics. Therefore, to give the right
     to vote to this class is to increase overwhelmingly the number of
     good voters and to multiply the number of citizens with these
     highest ideals.

     In answer to this, some "anti," who, by her opposition to woman
     suffrage, pleads guilty to the threadbare charge that women have
     not sufficient intelligence to vote, comes forward and says: "But
     the good women won't vote; only the bad women will exercise the
     privilege." This argument is answered by the contrary experience
     in States where women vote. If woman suffrage only increased the
     number of bad voters, then instead of spreading like a prairie
     fire from coast to coast it would be repealed in the States where
     it was originally tried as an experiment. The results in the
     States where the franchise has been granted are an absolute and
     irrefutable argument in favor of national woman suffrage. In
     these States it has removed the polling places from the dives to
     the churches and has opened more schools and closed more saloons
     than all other political movements combined. The ideals of
     government and the standard of right and wrong by which public
     officials are measured have been raised without lowering one iota
     the standard of motherhood, of wifehood and of womanhood, a
     standard of which every woman is proud and which every man
     reverences and worships....

Other speakers were President H. S. Barker of the University of
Kentucky; R. A. McDowell (Ky.), the Hon. Leon Locke (La.), Miss S.
Grace Nicholes of Chicago, and Charles T. Hallinan, vice-president of
the league. A branch of the Men's National League was formed during
the convention by about thirty prominent men, with John Bell Keble,
dean of the Vanderbilt Law School, as temporary chairman.

Delegates to these national conventions now felt less need of
oratorical eloquence and more of practical knowledge of the work which
was under way that they might carry back with them to their own
States. One evening was profitably spent in listening to short
speeches by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell on the work of the National
Association; Mrs. Antoinette Funk on that of the Congressional
Committee; Mrs. Raymond Brown, president of the New York association,
on the unusual and spectacular campaign now under way in that State;
Miss Hannah J. Patterson on the preparatory campaign in Pennsylvania;
Mrs. Maud Wood Park, secretary of the Boston Equal Suffrage
Association, and Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley on the coming campaign in
Massachusetts; Mrs. Lillian J. Feickert, president of the State
association, on that of New Jersey. In all of these States amendments
had been submitted for 1915. Miss Rankin told the welcome story of the
Montana victory.

The mass meeting on Sunday afternoon was one of the largest ever
assembled in Ryman Auditorium, all the standing room occupied and many
turned from the doors. The audience represented every station in life
and the large number of men was noticeable. Dr. Shaw presided and paid
a splendid tribute to the people of Nashville. Miss Jane Addams took
for a text her visit to the historic home of Andrew Jackson, which,
she said, had caused her to think of the great part the men of the
South had in shaping the policies of the early government of the
States, and how Chief Justice John Marshall, a southern man, had
welded them together into an unconquerable whole. She referred to the
way in which women had borne their part and asked why the men were so
progressive in those early days and yet so reactionary now, when women
asked that they should make another experiment in popular government.
Miss Rose Schneiderman, president of the New York City Women's Trade
Union, spoke on the Industrial Woman's Need of the Vote, telling of
the 800,000 working women in New York State, the low wages of many,
the unjust conditions. "Do you talk of chivalry?" she exclaimed. "We
women who work will tell you that we have no chivalry shown us in
industry and we will also tell you that we go home with half the wages
that men get. These same men who tell us we are angels send vice
commissioners to investigate why girls go wrong. I should think a
glance at the pay-roll would give them the answer."

Miss Rosika Schwimmer of Budapest, who had come with a petition to
President Wilson from the women of fifteen countries that were at war
to use his influence to bring about peace, made an eloquent and
impassioned address. A storm of applause greeted her appeal to the men
of this country to avoid the catastrophe of war in the future by
granting the vote to women, who would always use it for peace. Mrs.
Desha Breckinridge, president of the Kentucky Equal Rights
Association, one of the most brilliant and forceful of the suffrage
speakers, took for a subject The South Needs her Women. "Do not call
upon the women of the South to help you solve your cotton problems
while you are using up the children of women in the cotton mills," she
said. "Women must have the ballot to cope with all the hard conditions
of life. When we think of war and patriotism we think of men. We
forget the little army of women that always follow in the wake of the
big armies and brave the bullets and the fearful conditions of warfare
that they may become ministering angels on the battlefields; the
Florence Nightingales who undergo the hardships to nurse the wounded.
We are also likely to forget the large army that stays behind, the
women on whom the hardships of war fall heavily, those who must endure
the sorrow and waiting. Is it fair to say woman shall have no part in
the every-day affairs of life when she must bear so much in war?"

The program closed with an address by Mrs. Kate Waller Barrett on The
Attitude toward Woman Suffrage of the International Council of Women,
of which she was an officer. She described its quinquennial meeting in
Rome the preceding May, shortly before the breaking out of the war,
and said the desire for the suffrage was the connecting link between
the women of all nations. She declared that the safety of the country
depended on women's having a vote in the administration of all that
concerned the welfare of men as well as of women and children. In the
evening the officers, delegates and visitors were entertained by Mrs.
Benjamin F. Wilson at her beautiful home, Wilmor Manor.

This convention of 1914 will be always noted for the long controversy
over what was known as the Shafroth National Suffrage Amendment. It
occupied all or a part of several sessions and the _Woman's Journal_
said: "The greatest emphasis of the convention was laid on the work in
Congress; this was true even to the extent of cutting short discussion
of State methods. The story of the year's work in the different States
for both full and Presidential suffrage had to be abruptly dismissed."
A new Congressional Committee had been appointed on January 1,
consisting of Mrs. Medill McCormick, Mrs. Antoinette Funk and Mrs.
Sherman M. Booth, of Illinois, Mrs. Breckinridge (Ky.), Mrs. Mary C.
C. Bradford (Colo.); Mrs. John Tucker (Cal.); Mrs. Edward Dreier (N.
Y.); Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.). Mrs. Dreier resigned; Mrs.
Gardener was largely prevented from serving by illness and absence.
Other members were too far away for active work and the headquarters
in Washington were in charge of the three comparatively young,
energetic women from Illinois, who had shown such remarkable political
acumen in getting the Presidential suffrage bill through the
Legislature of that State and were leaders in the Progressive party.
The remarkable report of the committee's work presented by the
chairman, Mrs. McCormick, including her report as chairman of the
Campaign Committee, filled 45 pages of the printed Handbook of the
convention. It contained a full account of the action on woman
suffrage in both houses of the 63rd Congress, names and votes of
members, committee hearings, Senate debate, record of speeches,
statistics and information such as was never before presented to a
suffrage convention, and showed an amount of committee work
accomplished almost equal to that which had been done in all preceding
sessions of Congress combined.[85] It was clear that for the first
time the attempt to secure action by Congress on woman suffrage was
being made in political fashion, which was the proper way, but
unfortunately it showed also that the Federal Amendment, which had
been the principal object of the National Association for the past
forty-four years, was in danger of being replaced with one of a
totally different character. Space can be given for only enough of
Mrs. McCormick's exceedingly clever presentation of this proposed
amendment to make the matter fully understood.

     I assumed the responsibility as chairman early in January, 1914,
     and after opening our headquarters in the Munsey Building at
     Washington, D. C., divided the committee's work into three
     departments--Lobby, Publicity and Organization. The lobby and
     publicity were continued from the Washington office and an
     organization office was opened in Chicago during the latter part
     of January, as it was decided that Chicago was much better
     situated geographically to carry on the program of this
     department.

     As Congress was in session it was necessary for us to concentrate
     our attention on our lobby at the Capitol and to determine as
     quickly as possible both our policy to be adopted and the wisest
     method of legislative procedure. In order to facilitate this work
     Mrs. Booth and I joined Mrs. Funk in Washington, and, dividing
     our duties, we proceeded to investigate the temper of Congress.
     What was known in the present Congress as the Bristow-Mondell
     resolution had been reported out favorably by the Standing
     Committee on Suffrage in the Senate and, if we desired, could be
     placed as unfinished business on the calendar, which would result
     in a discussion terminating in a vote.

     The situation in the House of Representatives was not so
     favorable. It has no suffrage committee and the Mondell amendment
     was in the Judiciary. As that committee was composed of men if
     not actually opposed at least indifferent there did not seem to
     be any immediate chance of action. We discovered very soon,
     however, that the Congressional Union was circulating a petition
     among the Democrats requesting them to caucus on the subject of
     establishing a Suffrage Standing Committee. The members of your
     Congressional Committee felt this to be a great mistake. It gave
     the Democratic party a splendid opportunity to commit themselves
     as opposed to woman suffrage, using their State's rights doctrine
     as a reason for their action. We discussed it with the members of
     the Congressional Union, who were convinced they were right in
     putting the Democratic party on record for or against suffrage,
     and it developed during our discussion that their policy of
     holding this party responsible, as the party in power, was to be
     put into action at once and announced as soon as the Democrats
     had voted in caucus. Knowing that this policy was diametrically
     opposed to that of the National Association, which has always
     been non-partisan--to hold the individual and not the party
     responsible--we tried desperately hard to block the petition and
     avoid the Democratic caucus at that time, but as the
     Congressional Union had a lobby of forty women against our three,
     it was impossible for us to head it off. The party caucused and
     not only voted against a Standing Committee on Suffrage but Mr.
     Heflin of Alabama amended the resolution before the caucus so
     that the members were enabled to vote on February 3 by 123 to 55
     that woman suffrage was a question to be determined by the States
     and not by the national government.

     It was now necessary for us to make a complete canvass of both
     Houses of Congress, to tabulate the records of the men, in so far
     as we were able to secure the information, and to determine at
     the earliest possible moment whether or not it was advisable to
     bring the Bristow amendment to a vote in the Senate.... My first
     call was on Senator Borah of Idaho, who is a personal friend, a
     suffragist, and has the advantage of being a progressive
     Republican from an equal suffrage State. "I cannot vote for this
     amendment," he said, "and want you to understand my reasons for
     taking such a stand. I do not believe the suffragists realize
     what they are doing to the women of the South if they force upon
     them universal suffrage before they are ready for it. The race
     question is one of the most serious before the country today and
     the women must help solve it before they can take on greater
     responsibilities. I am also a strong conservationist and
     entertain a State's rights attitude of mind on both these
     questions."

Mrs. McCormick then called on Senator Burton of Ohio, whom she
described as "a reactionary Republican"; Senator Johnson of Maine and
Senator Saulsbury of Delaware, "strong States' rights Democrats," and
she gathered the impression that the new amendment which her
Congressional Committee had in mind would have a better chance than
the original, to which the Congressional Union had given the name
Susan B. Anthony Amendment. The following men agreed to serve on the
Advisory Committee in the Senate: Borah of Idaho; Bristow of Kansas;
Shafroth and Thomas of Colorado; Owen of Oklahoma; Clapp of Minnesota;
Smoot of Utah; Kern of Indiana; Lea of Tennessee and Ashurst of
Arizona. "They unanimously agreed with us," she said, "that it would
be of great educational value to have the question brought up before
the Senate during the present session, as there had never been a
debate on the question of woman suffrage in Congress."[86]

Mrs. McCormick told how the amendment had been put on the calendar as
unfinished business and discussed daily at 2 o'clock for ten days
until the vote was taken March 19, 1914, when it received 35 ayes, 34
noes, a majority but not the necessary two-thirds. A change of 11
votes would have carried it and more than half of the absentees were
known to be in favor but these facts did not give her any faith in the
amendment. "During the canvassing of the Senate," she said, "we were
more and more impressed with the necessity of meeting the State's
rights argument and felt more and more keenly the barrier of the State
constitutions in advancing our cause. An analysis of these
constitutions proved most illuminating and in arguing with the
Senators upon this point they constantly reiterated the general idea
of submitting this question, as well as other big national questions,
to the decision of the people. We also discovered at this time that
there were seven or eight different amendments before Congress on the
woman suffrage question. For example, there is a bill giving us the
right to vote for Presidential electors. There is another bill giving
us the right to vote for Senators and Congressmen, etc....[87] A
general canvass of the Lower House and also the action of the
Democratic caucus convinced us in an even more pronounced way that we
are blocked by the State's rights doctrine." The report continued:

     It was at this time that Mrs. Funk, Mrs. Booth and myself
     interpreted our duty as a committee to mean that we were
     appointed not only for the purpose of national propaganda and for
     the promotion of the Bristow amendment but that our duty was a
     more extensive one and required us to meet whatever political
     emergency might arise during our term of office. We, therefore,
     set about to originate a new form of amendment to the U. S.
     Constitution which would meet the State's rights argument, if
     such a thing were possible. As Mrs. Funk is a lawyer, Mrs. Booth
     and I agreed that it was most important for her to draw up such
     an amendment. This was done; it was submitted to several lawyers,
     to our Advisory Committees of Senate and House; to an able
     constitutional lawyer in Washington, to Judge William J. Calhoun,
     of Chicago, a lawyer of international reputation, and to Judge
     Hiram Gilbert, one of the best constitutional lawyers in
     Illinois. We accepted Judge Gilbert's rewording and then sent it
     on to the Progressive party's legislative bureau in New York,
     where it was endorsed by their corps of lawyers, who draft all
     their bills.

     The amendment was at this time discussed with our Advisory
     Committee in the Senate and met not only with their approval as
     an amendment but they considered it a very shrewd political move
     on the part of our organization. At the next meeting of the
     National Suffrage Board I presented the amendment, and, after
     nearly two months' consideration and discussion with some of the
     leading suffragists of the country, they voted _unanimously_
     endorsing it and instructing us to have it introduced whenever we
     thought it advisable. This action was taken by the National Board
     about two weeks before the vote came up in the Senate. Not
     wishing in any way to interfere with the Bristow amendment, we
     did not discuss even the idea of this one with any other member
     of Congress excepting of course our Advisory Committees.[88]

Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, at the request of Mrs.
McCormick's committee, introduced the new measure, which took his
name, and it was favorably reported to the Senate by Senator Owen of
Oklahoma in May. At this Nashville convention it was for the first
time brought before the association. In her report Mrs. McCormick thus
described the hearing which had been held before the House Judiciary
Committee March 3:

     The hearing was just at the time of the big blizzard and our
     speakers were stormbound, so that when we appeared before the
     committee there were only Mrs. Funk, Mrs. Booth and myself to
     represent the National Association, and, as Mrs. Booth was not
     prepared to speak and I was chairman for the time given our
     committee, it left Mrs. Funk as our only speaker. We had
     discussed the night before the hearing the possible phases of the
     suffrage question Mrs. Funk could use in her speech that would be
     new to the Judiciary Committee. As an organization we have been
     conducting hearings before this committee for over forty years,
     and, as many of its members have served several terms, they are
     as familiar as we are with the suffrage arguments. We, therefore,
     decided to be perfectly frank with the committee and draw to
     their attention the fact that they possessed the power, if they
     wished to exercise it, to suggest to Congress some other form of
     legislation than had been presented to them. Mrs. Funk made this
     statement to them and said that in interviewing the members of
     the Judiciary Committee individually we found that they were
     convinced that woman suffrage was a question which was growing so
     rapidly throughout the country that it would only be a short time
     before the women would succeed in gaining their political
     freedom, but that as a committee, and because there was a
     majority of Democrats on it, they did not feel that they were
     able to report the Mondell amendment in any form.[89]

Mrs. McCormick then called on Mrs. Funk to present the Shafroth-Palmer
Amendment, which had been introduced in the House by A. Mitchell
Palmer (Penn.), and the argument for it. The amendment read as
follows:

     Whenever any number of legal voters of any State to a number
     exceeding 8 per cent. of the number of legal voters at the last
     preceding general election held in such State, shall petition for
     the submission to the legal voters of said State of the question
     whether women shall have equal rights with men in respect to
     voting at all elections to be held in such State, such question
     shall be so submitted, and if a majority of the legal voters of
     the State voting on the question shall vote in favor of granting
     to women such equal rights, the same shall thereupon be deemed
     established, anything in the constitution or laws of such State
     to the contrary notwithstanding.

In beginning her carefully prepared "brief" Mrs. Funk said:

     This amendment to the U. S. Constitution must pass both branches
     of the national Congress by a two-thirds vote and be ratified by
     a majority vote of three-fourths of the State Legislatures before
     it becomes a law. So far it is identical with the Bristow-Mondell
     amendment. The difference between the two is that after the
     latter amendment has passed three-fourths of the State
     Legislatures it completely enfranchises the women. The
     Shafroth-Palmer amendment, after it has passed three-fourths of
     the State Legislatures, enables 8 per cent. of the voters of a
     State to bring the suffrage question up for the consideration of
     the voters at the next general election. Such a petition may be
     filed at any time, not only once but indefinitely, until suffrage
     is won, and a majority of those voting on the question is
     sufficient to carry the measure. In other words, every State
     where the women are not at present enfranchised may be a campaign
     State every year. If the male voters are obliged to hear the
     woman suffrage question agitated and discussed at a perennial
     campaign, how long will it be before, in desperation and
     self-defense, they will vote in favor of it?

     Now, why is the Shafroth-Palmer amendment easier to pass Congress
     than the Bristow-Mondell amendment? First of all it shifts the
     responsibility of actually enfranchising the women from the
     Senators and Representatives to the people of their respective
     States. Second, the State's rights doctrine is the one objection
     raised to every federal issue that comes before Congress. It is
     primarily the greatest obstacle to federal legislation on any
     subject and is recognized as a valid objection by the members of
     Congress and particularly those from the North, who feel that
     they owe to the members of the South the justice of refraining
     from interference in matters vital to the South....

     Third, the Democratic party is committed to the initiative and
     referendum but not to woman suffrage.... The President has
     endorsed the initiative and referendum and has fully convinced
     himself of its merit.... We are asking the Democratic party to
     give us, the women of the country, the initiative and referendum
     on the question of whether or not we shall be allowed to vote,
     and no State can have this question forced upon it or even
     settled until a majority of the voters of the State cast their
     ballots in favor of it.

The difficulties connected with the old amendment both in Congress and
in many States were described and the case of New York was cited among
others:

     If the matter of suffrage is submitted to the State of New York
     in 1915 and does not carry, under the New York constitution it
     cannot again be submitted for two years. Meantime all the energy
     that should be expended in directly educating the people must
     again be wasted trying to get a majority vote in two successive
     Legislatures. It is the opinion of one of the great suffrage
     leaders in New York, as expressed to me, that if the amendment
     does not carry in 1915 the people will not have an opportunity to
     vote upon it for another fifteen or twenty years.[90]

     The early passage of the Shafroth-Palmer amendment would
     eliminate the State constitutional barrier and leave for the
     State organization only the work of ratification of this
     amendment, which only requires a majority vote in both branches
     of the Legislature. Again the legislator is able to shift the
     responsibility to the voters of his State. He is not voting
     directly on the question himself--only to submit the question to
     the people. You can readily see that here again this amendment
     is easier to ratify in the Legislatures than the Bristow-Mondell
     would be, because in the ratification of the latter the
     legislators are practically casting the final vote on the
     enfranchisement of the women all over the country.... The
     simultaneous consideration of suffrage in every State at the same
     time would give overwhelming accumulative impetus to the movement
     and would increase suffrage activity inestimably. The fact that
     the national Congress had taken any action whatsoever in regard
     to the suffrage question would stamp it as a national issue, and
     I very much doubt whether the Democratic and Republican parties
     would be able to decline to put a suffrage plank in their
     national platforms.

This ended Mrs. Funk's statement and Mrs. McCormick continued: "In
dividing up the work of the lobby Mrs. Sherman undertook to card
catalogue Congress by the same method which she used so successfully
in the Illinois Legislature and a list of members was prepared who
should be defeated on their record in Congress. Arthur Dunn, who had
been a Washington newspaper correspondent for thirty years, was put at
the head of the publicity bureau and proved to be of inestimable value
because of his personal acquaintance with every member of Congress."
Charles T. Hallinan, also an experienced newspaper man, had been made
chairman of the press bureau and in his report to the convention told
of the introduction of the latest methods of publicity work and the
signal success they had achieved. A Chicago office had been opened for
organization and a system established of thorough congressional
district work, a detailed account of which filled half a dozen pages
of the printed Minutes. Miss Lillie Glenn and Miss Lavinia Engle had
been appointed field organizers and a number of States were canvassed,
speeches made indoors and out in scores of counties, women's societies
visited and many suffrage clubs formed. Every kind of transportation
was used, from muleback to automobiles, and many hardships were
encountered. The report closed with several pages of valuable
suggestions for what would be a thorough political campaign if carried
out. Mrs. McCormick also gave an interesting report of her
chairmanship of another committee, saying:

     Early in the summer of 1914 Mrs. Desha Breckinridge advanced the
     valuable idea of a special campaign committee to be appointed by
     the National Board for the purpose of giving aid to the campaign
     States by establishing a speakers' bureau for their benefit and
     devising means for raising necessary funds, which the National
     Board approved. My indorsement would have been less enthusiastic
     could I have foreseen that I would be selected as chairman. A
     special finance committee was appointed, Mrs. Stanley McCormick,
     chairman; Miss Addams, treasurer, and I, secretary. Miss Ethel M.
     Smith, of Washington, D. C., spent her vacation establishing a
     speakers' bureau in the Chicago headquarters and it has been
     conducted by Mrs. Josephine Conger-Kanecko. As many national
     speakers have been routed through the campaign States as our
     finances would permit. We were faced with the discouraging fact
     that to do really active campaign service we would need a fund of
     not less than $50,000 and we had less than $13,000. We collected
     and distributed in cash a less amount than would be used on the
     campaign of a city alderman in an off year.

     The plan of self-sacrifice day had been suggested to Mrs.
     Breckinridge by a Wisconsin suffragist and adopted by the
     National Board and a general appeal went out to the women of
     America to sacrifice something in aid of suffrage and contribute
     the amount to the general fund for use in the campaign States.
     [$9,854 were realized.] Mrs. Funk, while walking through the
     Capitol one day, observed a bride with much gold jewelry in
     evidence and expressed the wish that a little of the gold used
     for personal ornament might find its way into a treasure chest to
     be sold for the campaign States and so the idea of the "melting
     pot" was suggested.... The plan was endorsed and put into
     operation as follows: A carefully selected list of names of women
     was taken from among the various suffrage organizations,
     colleges, churches, etc. These women received a letter asking for
     a contribution to the melting pot and further urging them to
     accept a sub-committeeship, making themselves responsible for
     soliciting from at least six people a contribution and keeping
     track of this group until their possibilities had been exhausted.
     The names of these persons were carefully scanned by the general
     committee and two or three out of each group of six were asked to
     go at the head of a further sub-committee and so something not
     unlike an endless chain was created. Although this was put into
     effect hastily and during the intense heat of a Washington
     summer, it was an enormous success and now at the close of the
     campaign contributions are still coming in and we consider that
     the top soil of melting pot possibilities has not been scratched.
     [$2,732 were realized.]

Mrs. Funk's report of her campaign work was an excellent showing of
the situation which the suffragists faced in State campaigns and had
done from the beginning:

     From the time I left Washington August 25, until I returned to
     Chicago October 27, I covered approximately 8,000 miles. After
     speaking three days in Indiana, where the suffragists were
     straining every nerve to secure a constitutional convention, I
     spent two days in Chicago and then started into the western
     States. My first three days were spent in Omaha, and, although my
     original itinerary contemplated my coming to Nebraska for the
     last ten days of the campaign, this was afterwards changed and I
     went back to Montana a second time, so my observations regarding
     Nebraska refer to Omaha alone. Here existed an almost
     unbelievable condition of opposition. The brewers had come openly
     into the field against us and the brewing interests are connected
     with many of the big financial ventures in that city. Bankers,
     merchants, tailors and other business men whose wives were in
     suffrage were brazenly warned that the brewing deposits would be
     withdrawn from banks, that patronage would be taken away from
     merchants and tradespeople--even doctors were threatened with the
     loss of their clientele if their wives continued actively in the
     campaign. The result was a paralysis of action among many women
     who would naturally have been leaders and supporters of the work.
     Mrs. Draper Smith was doing all that was humanly possible under
     the circumstances to stem the tide of opposition, but money for
     publicity and organizing and many speakers seemed to be a
     necessity. Upon my report to Mrs. McCormick all extra aid
     possible was given.

     My trip to South Dakota was interesting in the extreme. It and
     North Dakota are agricultural States, the cities are small and
     far apart, the villages are scattered over vast areas. By far the
     larger percentage of population dwells in the country on farms
     and ranches. The two Dakotas are almost pioneer States even now,
     but they present the highest degree of educational advantage and
     of general literacy perhaps in the whole United States. Their
     laws are generally good and for that reason there appears to be
     much apathy on the part of both men and women regarding suffrage.
     The States are prosperous and the people have not felt to any
     extent the pinch of wrong political conditions. The great problem
     was to reach the people and make them think, as when they think
     at all upon the subject they are apt to think right. I am
     convinced that whatever the vote against the suffrage amendment
     may have been in North Dakota it was the result of indifference
     and lack of special information and not to any extent real
     opposition.

     I believed from what I could learn in South Dakota the liquor
     interests were making their last fight for State control and
     about the time I arrived Mrs. Pyle had ascertained that a large
     amount of money was being used to subsidize the State press, and
     simultaneously the literary efforts of the anti-suffragists,
     which have appeared throughout the press during the last year,
     came out in the leading papers, and anti-suffrage ladies at $100
     a week and expenses appeared on the platform of the principal
     towns and cities. During my campaign there I spoke wherever
     possible out-of-doors, even though meetings were arranged for me
     in halls, courthouses and churches. I found that the small
     audiences which would assemble in these places were made up of
     women and men already interested and that the uninstructed voter
     would only listen when you caught him on the street. I spent the
     week of the State fair at Huron with Mrs. Pyle and witnessed a
     wonderful demonstration of activity. As high as 50,000 people a
     day were in attendance and the grounds were covered with our
     yellow banners. Every prize-winning animal, every racing sulky,
     automobile and motorcycle carried our pennants. Twenty thousand
     yellow badges were given away in one day. The squaws from the
     reservation did their native dances waving suffrage banners, and
     the snake charmer on the midway carried a Votes for Women pennant
     while an enormous serpent coiled around her body. I spoke during
     the fair four and five times a day and held street meetings
     downtown in the evening. When not thus engaged I assisted Mrs.
     Pyle and her committee in distributing thousands of pieces of
     literature and was amazed at the eagerness of the people to
     receive them. We investigated the fair grounds to see how much
     was thrown away and found almost none.

     In North Dakota Mrs. Darrow had asked me to go into the untilled
     suffrage field. In many places they had never heard a suffrage
     address nor had a suffrage meeting ever been held. I zigzagged
     across from the southeast to the northwest corners and in Minot
     was arrested for making a street speech. There was no law that I
     could discover against my speaking in the street and I was
     convinced and am still that it was the result of the petty
     tyranny of town officials unfavorable to women. A fine of $5
     imposed upon me by the justice of the peace was remitted by him.
     I spent twelve days in Montana, travelling about 2,000 miles, and
     found more general interest than in any other State. With 118,000
     voters scattered over the third largest State in the Union, with
     many contending elements, with an acute labor situation, with the
     political control of the State vested very largely in one great
     corporation, there was plenty to occupy the attention of a
     suffragist worker. Miss Rankin's organization work had been
     carried to a high degree of efficiency by the most strenuous
     endeavor on her part. The Amalgamated Copper Company, striving to
     defeat the workmen's compensation act, had joined hands with the
     liquor interests, working to defeat woman suffrage, and had put
     on the petticoat and bonnet of the organized female
     anti-suffragists. I spoke to thousands of people all over the
     State, and while on the surface all appeared well, there was an
     undertow of fierce opposition that could be felt but that can not
     be estimated until the votes are counted. [The State was carried
     by 3,714.]

     Nevada was like a story in a book--a big, little State, with
     80,000 inhabitants and 18,000 voters, and so thoroughly was it
     organized by Miss Martin that I believe she could address every
     voter by his first name. I felt like a fifth wheel. All the work
     appeared to be finished and hung aside to season by the time I
     arrived and I was in the unenviable position of being sandwiched
     between Dr. Shaw, who had just preceded me, and Miss Addams, who
     immediately followed me. I went over the desert, however, and
     into mines, and spoke in butchers' homes and at meetings that
     wound up with a supper and a dance and came away with the
     certainty that Miss Martin had two or three thousand votes tucked
     away in her inside pocket. [The State was carried by 3,678.] On
     this trip I learned of hundreds of thousands of pieces of
     literature sent out by our entertaining friend, the Hon. Tom
     Heflin of Alabama. I know now why it was that all last winter he
     jumped up in Congress every few minutes and read into the
     Congressional Record something about the horror of women voting.
     He had a long business head and he was thriftily saving postage
     on anti-suffrage literature in the interest of the "society
     opposed," of the liquor interests, of organized crime and of all
     those forces that have taken arms against us.

The convention was deeply appreciative of the arduous and extensive
work that has been done by the Congressional Committee but there was
intense dissatisfaction with the so-called Shafroth Amendment, which
had been freely discussed in the _Woman's Journal_ for the last eight
or nine months.[91] The debate in the convention consumed several
sessions and more bitterness was shown than ever before at one of
these annual meetings. The Official Board having endorsed the
amendment felt obliged to stand by it, but to most of those delegates
who had been in the movement for years it meant the abandonment of the
object for which the association had been formed and for which all the
founders, the pioneer workers and those down to the present day, had
devoted their best efforts. Dr. Shaw was the only member of the board
who had been many years connected with the association, and, while her
judgment was opposed to the new amendment, she yielded to the earnest
pleas of her younger colleagues and the optimistic members of the
Congressional Committee that it should have a fair trial. Miss
Blackwell, editor of the _Woman's Journal_, strongly endorsed it and
gave it the support of her paper in many long, earnest editorials. She
also granted columns of space to vigorous arguments on both sides by
suffragists throughout the country.[92] The question had been before
the State associations for the last seven or eight months.

Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, corresponding secretary of the National
American Association, wrote to the State presidents the first week in
May, 1914: "Strange as it may seem, we find that quite a number of the
members of our association have gotten the impression that the
introduction of the Shafroth amendment means the abandoning of the old
amendment which has been introduced into Congress for forty years or
more, and which, as you know, has now been re-introduced and at this
session will be called the Bristow-Mondell amendment. Nothing could be
further from the truth. The reason for the introduction of the
Shafroth amendment is to hasten the day when the passage of the
Bristow-Mondell amendment will become a possibility.... Both
amendments are before Congress but only the new one stands any chance
of being acted upon before adjournment.[93] We stand by the old one as
a matter of principle; we push for the new one as a matter of
immediate practical politics and to further the passage of the old
one." Mrs. Dennett also vigorously advocated the new amendment in the
_Woman's Journal_.

At the opening of the second session of the convention devoted to the
subject Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch moved that the Shafroth amendment
be not proceeded with in the next Congress and it was seconded.
Instantly Mrs. Raymond Brown, president of the New York State
Association, offered as a substitute resolution: "It is the sense of
this convention that the policy of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association shall be to support by every means within its
power, in the future as in the past, the amendment known as the Susan
B. Anthony amendment; and further that we support such other
legislation as the National Board may authorize and initiate to the
end that the Susan B. Anthony resolution become a law."[94] After the
discussion had lasted for hours, with the administration supporting
this resolution, a motion to strike out the words "and further" and
all that followed was lost and it was carried by a vote of 194 to
100.[95]

The next day an informal conference was held at which Miss Laura Clay
and Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett explained a bill for Federal Suffrage,
which they, with others, had long advocated, to enable women to vote
for U. S. Senators and Representatives. Congress had the power to
enact such a law by a simple majority vote of both houses. The
association for many years had had a standing committee on the
subject, which was finally dropped because it was believed that the
law could not possibly be obtained. It found much favor at this
convention, which instructed the Congressional Committee to
"investigate and promote the right of women to vote for U. S.
Senators, Representatives and Presidential Electors through action of
Congress."

There was spirited discussion of the Congressional Committee's plan
for "blacklisting" candidates for Congress whose record on woman
suffrage was objectionable and it finally resulted in the passing of a
resolution that this could be done only when approved by the majority
of the societies in the State concerned. It was decided that the
Congressional Committee should send out information and suggestions
for congressional work but that the State associations should
determine how this material should be used and that when the majority
of them in a State could not agree upon some plan of cooperation the
Congressional Committee should not work in said State.

The feeling aroused by the discussion of the Shafroth amendment was
manifested in the election, where 315 delegates were entitled to vote
and 283 votes were cast. Dr. Shaw received 192 for president and the
rest were blank, as even delegates who opposed this amendment would
not vote against her. Miss Jane Addams declined to serve longer as
vice-president and reluctantly consented to her election as honorary
vice-president but resigned before the close of the convention, as she
felt that she could not be responsible for actions in which she had
practically no part. Mrs. Desha Breckinridge of Kentucky was
re-elected second vice-president without opposition but resigned soon
afterwards, although not because of any disagreement with the policy
of the board. Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick of New York received 173
votes for first vice-president and Miss Jean Gordon of New Orleans
107. Dr. Katharine Bement Davis of New York was made third
vice-president without opposition, nor was there any to Mrs. Orton H.
Clark of Michigan for corresponding secretary. For recording secretary
Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald of Massachusetts received 166 votes and Miss
Anne Martin of Nevada 115. Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers of New York was
almost unanimously chosen for treasurer and Mrs. Walter McNab Miller
of Missouri for first auditor. For second auditor Mrs. Medill
McCormick of Chicago received 177 votes and Miss Zona Gale of New York
103. Later Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Mississippi was appointed
in place of Mrs. Breckinridge. The new board finally included only two
members of the old one besides Dr. Shaw--Mrs. McCormick and Mrs.
Fitzgerald.

The present convention was declared by resolution to have been "one of
the greatest and most delightful meetings in the history of the
organization," and a long list of thanks was extended "to the city of
Nashville for its broad and generous hospitality and for special
courtesies." The Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association gave a dinner,
with Mrs. L. Crozier French, its president, as toast-mistress; the
Women's Press Club had a luncheon for the visiting press
representatives and the College Women's League one for its delegates.
It was a relief from the tension of the week to have the last evening
of the convention devoted to entertainment. Miss Zona Gale read a
charming unpublished story, Friendship Village; a musical program was
given by the Fiske Jubilee Singers and the convention closed with a
remarkable moving picture play, Your Girl and Mine, an offering to the
association by Mrs. Medill McCormick.[96]

The treasurer's report showed receipts for the year of $67,312 and
expenditures $59,232. In addition a special fund for the "campaign"
States had been subscribed of $12,586, of which $11,020 had been
spent. Mrs. Medill McCormick had made a personal contribution of
$6,217 to the publicity work of the Washington and Chicago
headquarters. Pledges of $7,500 were made by the convention.

The committee of which Mrs. Frances E. Burns (Mich.) was chairman
reported resolutions that urged the U. S. Senate and House of
Representatives to take up at once the amendments now pending in
Congress for the enfranchisement of women; demanded equal pay for
equal work and legislation to protect the nationality of American
women who married foreigners. They re-affirmed the association's past
policy of non-partisanship and declared that "the National American
Woman Suffrage Association is absolutely opposed to holding any
political party responsible for the opinions and acts of its
individual members, or holding any individual public official or
candidate responsible for the action of his party majority on the
question of woman suffrage." Of the European war now in its fourth
month, the resolutions said:

     WHEREAS: It is our conviction that had the women of the countries
     of Europe, with their deep instinct of motherhood and desire for
     the conservation of life, possessed a voice in the councils of
     their governments, this deplorable war would never have been
     allowed to occur; therefore, be it

     RESOLVED: That the National American Woman Suffrage Association,
     in convention assembled, does hereby affirm the obligation of
     peace and good will toward all men and further demands the
     inclusion of women in the government of nations of which they are
     a part, whose citizens they bear and rear and whose peace their
     political liberty would help to secure and maintain.

     RESOLVED: That we commend the efforts of President Wilson to
     obtain peace. Sympathizing deeply with the plea of the women of
     fifteen nations, we ask the President of the United States and
     the representatives of all the other neutral nations to use their
     best endeavors to bring about a lasting peace founded upon
     democracy and world-wide disarmament.

       *       *       *       *       *

As the national convention for 1914 would meet in Nashville it was
necessary to have a special delegation attend the "hearing" in
Washington which always was held at the first session of a new
Congress. The officers of the Congressional Union arranged for one
before the House Judiciary Committee for March 3, and, as it was not
likely that a second would be granted, Mrs. Medill McCormick, Mrs.
Antoinette Funk and Mrs. Sherman Booth represented the National
American Association at this one, as members of its Congressional
Committee. Mrs. Funk was the speaker and the main points of her
address are included in Mrs. McCormick's report in this chapter. In
effect it prepared the way for the new measure afterwards called the
Shafroth Amendment and she began by saying: "Ours is the oldest
national suffrage association in the United States. It has been in
existence over fifty years and comprises a membership of 462,000
enrolled women in the non-suffrage States. In addition to these I
speak this morning in behalf of the 4,000,000 women voters in the ten
equal suffrage States." Further on she said: "Gentlemen, the dearest
wish of our hearts would be fulfilled if you would enfranchise the
women. I know pretty much whether you are going to or not and you know
that I know." The committee asked her a number of questions and she
concluded: "We feel that this question could at least safely go to the
people. It might be submitted by petition of the voters. In addition
let me make this point along the line of the States' rights argument:
You see, a Legislature _per se_ has no right; it is nothing; it has no
privilege--the privilege is all in the people themselves, and you
could not say it would be contrary to the rights of the people in the
State to take down an obstacle that was built up in front of them. So,
in view of the action of the Democratic caucus in the House, we think
you can at least do this much for us; you can take down this
obstacle--State Legislatures."

The Federal Women's Equality Association also had asked for a portion
of the time and its corresponding secretary, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby
of Washington and Portland, Ore., had charge of it. Although this
association was organized twelve years before for the special purpose
of obtaining a bill enabling women to vote for Senators and
Representatives, it sponsored in the present Congress the same measure
which the old association had introduced for the past thirty-five
years and on this occasion its speakers discussed only the amendment.
Mrs. Colby introduced first Representative Frank W. Mondell of
Wyoming, who always was ready to champion the cause of woman suffrage
for every organization. He made the point among others that "as State
after State grants the franchise to women the condition is reached
where its denial in other States deprives American citizens of a
sacred right if they have moved from one commonwealth to another."
"Our Federal Union," he said, "will be more firmly cemented the nearer
we come to the point where qualifications for this right of
citizenship are the same in all States." In Mrs. Colby's comprehensive
address she said:

     It may be news to some of you that we have had 12 reports on the
     woman suffrage amendment from committees of Congress. In 1869 the
     first hearing was given on woman suffrage and from that time to
     the present every Congress has had one....

     Never were there such splendid women in the records of time as
     those who have stood for the rights of their sex and the rights
     of humanity.... All those women passed on without being allowed
     to enter the promised land and for every one of them one hundred
     sprang up for whom the doors of opportunity and education had
     been opened by the efforts of those pioneer women. Now these also
     are coming to gray hairs and weariness, but for every one of
     these hundreds there are a thousand of the 20th century insisting
     that this question shall be settled now and not be passed on to
     the children of tomorrow to hamper and limit them, to exhaust and
     consume their energy and ability.

     I was present at the last hearing where Mrs. Stanton spoke before
     a Judiciary Committee, and she said: "I have stood before this
     committee for thirty years, may I be allowed to sit now?" ...
     Miss Anthony before a committee in 1884 said: "This method of
     settling the matter by the Legislatures is just as much in the
     line of State's rights as is that of the popular vote. The one
     question before you is: Will you insist that a majority of the
     individual men of every State must be converted before its women
     shall have the power to vote, or will you allow the matter to be
     settled by the representative men in the Legislatures of the
     several States? We are not appealing from the States to the
     nation. We are appealing to the States, but to the picked men of
     those States instead of to the masses." She used to say when John
     Morrissey, champion of the prize ring, was in the New York
     Legislature, that it was bad enough to go and ask him to give her
     her birthright but it was infinitely worse to go down into the
     slums and ask his constituents....

Mrs. Colby closed with an extract from one of Mrs. Stanton's eloquent
speeches before the Judiciary Committee and submitted a valuable
summary of Congressional hearings and reports on woman suffrage from
1869 to 1914.

Mrs. Glendower Evans of Boston presided over the hearing for the
Congressional Union and introduced as the first speaker Mrs. Crystal
Eastman Benedict (N. Y.) who said in part:

     When we go to the voters of a campaign State to ask them to vote
     "yes" on a woman suffrage amendment, we go as petitioners with
     smiles and arguments and unwearied patience. We tell them over
     and over again the same well established truths; that it is the
     essence of democracy that all classes of people should have the
     power of protection in their own hands; that women are people and
     that they have special interests which need representation in
     politics; that where women have the right to vote they vote in
     the same proportion as men; that on the whole their influence in
     government has been decidedly good and absolutely no evils can be
     traced to that influence. In short, we reason and plead with
     them, try to touch their sense of honor, their sense of justice,
     their reason, whatever noble human quality they possess.

     That is one way of getting woman suffrage in the United States, a
     long, laborious and very costly way. We have now achieved it in
     nine States and are a political power, and the time has come for
     us to compel this great reform by the simple, direct, American
     method of amending the Federal Constitution. Our argument is not
     one of justice or democracy or fair play--it is one of political
     expediency. Our plea is simply that you look at the little
     suffrage map. That triumphant, threatening army of white States
     crowding rapidly eastward toward the center of population is the
     sum and substance of our argument. It represents 4,000,000 women
     voters. Do you want to put yourselves in the very delicate
     position of going to those women next fall for endorsement and
     re-election after having refused even to report a woman suffrage
     amendment out of committee for discussion on the floor of the
     House?

     You might say, "Why do you select this Democratic administration
     for your demand? This is the first time in eighteen years that
     this party has been in control of the Government. We are doing
     our best to give the people what they want; we are trying to live
     up to our platform pledges; we think we are doing pretty well.
     Why persist in embarrassing us with this very troublesome
     question?" ... I answer that if this Congress adjourns without
     taking action on the woman suffrage amendment it will be because
     the party deliberately dodged the issue. Every woman voter will
     know this and we have faith that the woman voter will stand by
     us. You will go to her and say: "We have lowered the tariff; we
     have made new banking laws; we have avoided war with Mexico," and
     she will say: "It is true you have done these things, but you
     have done a great injustice to my sister in this nearby State.
     She asked for a fundamental democratic right, a right which I
     possess and which you are asking me to exercise in your favor.
     It was in your power to extend this right to her and you refused,
     and after this you come to me and ask me for my vote, but I shall
     show you that we stand together on this question, my sister and
     I."

Several of the committee made caustic remarks about trying to hold the
Democrats responsible after the Republicans had ignored them during
all the past years. Mrs. Evans then introduced Mary (Mrs. Charles R.)
Beard, wife of the well-known professor in Columbia University. Her
address in the stenographic report of the hearing filled seven closely
printed pages, an able review of the Democratic party's record in
regard to Federal legislation. It was the most complete exposé of the
fallacy of the Democratic contention that this party stood for State's
rights as opposed to Federal rights ever made at a hearing in behalf
of woman suffrage and is most inadequately represented by quotations.
In the course of it she said:

     Did Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, founders of the
     Democratic party, rend the air with cries of State's rights
     against Federal usurpation when the Federalists chartered the
     first United States bank in 1791, and when the Federalist Court,
     under the leadership of John Marshall, rendered one ringing
     nationalist decision after another upholding the rights of the
     nation against the claims of the States? Jefferson, as President,
     acquired the Louisiana Territory in what he admitted was an open
     violation of the Federal Constitution; and the same James Madison
     who opposed the Federalist bank in 1790 as a violation of the
     Constitution and State rights, cheerfully signed the bill
     rechartering that bank when it became useful to the fiscal
     interests of the Democratic party. Jefferson was ready to nullify
     the alien and sedition laws and the Constitution of the United
     States in the Kentucky resolutions of 1798. The very Federalists
     who fought him in that day and denounced him as a traitor and
     nullifier lived to proclaim and practice doctrines of
     nullification in behalf of State's rights during the War of 1812.

     In the administration of Jefferson the Federal Government began
     the construction of the great national road without any express
     authority from the Constitution and notwithstanding the fact that
     the construction of highways was admittedly a State matter.... On
     August 24, 1912, the Congress of the United States, then
     controlled by the Democratic party, voted $5,000,000 for the
     construction of experimental and rural-delivery routes and to aid
     the States in highway construction. From high in the councils of
     that party we now have the advocacy of national ownership of
     railways, telegraph and telephone lines.

     In the early days of the republic the Democratic party protested
     even in armed insurrection in Pennsylvania against the
     inquisitorial excise tax, which, to use the language of that
     day, "penetrated a sphere of taxation reserved to the State."
     Today this party has placed upon the statute books the most
     inquisitorial tax ever laid in the history of our country by the
     act of April 9, 1912--a tax on white phosphorus matches, not for
     the purpose of raising revenues, for which the taxing power is
     conferred, but admittedly for the purpose of destroying an
     industry which it could not touch otherwise. The match industry
     was found to be injurious to a few hundred workingmen, women and
     children. The Democratic party wisely and justly cast to the four
     winds all talk about the rights of States, made the match
     business a national affair and destroyed its dangerous features.
     Men and women all over the country rose up and pronounced it a
     noble achievement. Republicans joined with the Democrats in
     claiming the honor of that great humane service.

     I have not yet finished with this tattered shibboleth. The State
     had the right to nullify Federal law in 1798, so Jefferson taught
     and Kentucky practiced. Half a century elapsed; the State of
     Wisconsin, rock-ribbed Republican, nullified the fugitive slave
     law and in its pronunciamento of nullification quoted the very
     words which Jefferson used in 1798. A Democratic Supreme Court at
     Washington, presided over by Chief Justice Taney, the arch
     apostle of State rights, answered Wisconsin in the very language
     of the Federalists of 1798, whom Jefferson despised and
     condemned: "The Constitution and laws of the United States are
     supreme, and the Supreme Court is the only and final arbiter of
     disputes between the State and National Governments."

     A few more years elapsed. South Carolina declared the right of
     the State to nullify and Wisconsin answered on the field of
     battle: "The Constitution and laws of the National Government are
     supreme, so help us God!" ... At the close of that ever to be
     regretted war the nation wrote into the Constitution the 14th and
     15th Amendments, their fundamental principle that the suffrage is
     a national matter. Those amendments were intended to establish
     forever adult male suffrage....

Mrs. Beard then presented for the record a thorough synopsis of the
proceedings in relation to the franchise of the convention that framed
the U. S. Constitution, which showed, she declared, that it would have
made a national suffrage qualification if the members could have
agreed on one. "In all the great federations of the world," she said,
"Germany, Canada, Australia, suffrage is regarded as a national
question," and continued: "If respect for the great and wise who have
viewed suffrage as a national matter did not compel us so to regard
it, the plain dictates of common sense would do so. We are all ruled
by the laws made by Congress, from Maine to California; we must all
obey them equally whether we like them or not. We are taxed under
them; we travel according to rules laid down by the Interstate
Commerce Commission under the Interstate Commerce law; the remaining
national resources are to be conserved by Congress; whether we have
peace or war depends upon Congress. Is it of no concern who compose
Congress, who vote for members of Congress and for the President?"

It was shown by Mrs. Beard how closely national and State policies
were interwoven; that the submission of this amendment would take it
to the State Legislatures for a final decision; how with woman
suffrage in nine States there was a much greater demand for it than
there was for the one changing the method of electing U. S. Senators;
how the plank in the national platform adopted in Baltimore exempting
American ships in coastwise trade from Panama canal tolls was now
before the Democrats in Congress for repudiation; how another plank
demanded State action on presidential primaries and President Wilson
called for a national law. Now a Democratic Congress refused to submit
a national suffrage amendment because the platform did not ask for it!
She concluded: "No, gentlemen, you can not answer us by shaking in our
faces that tatterdemalion of a State's rights scarecrow.... It is a
travesty upon our reasoning faculties to suppose that we can not put
two and two together. It is underestimating our strength and our
financial resources to suppose that we can not place these plain facts
in the hands of 15,000,000 voters, including over 3,000,000 women. To
take away from the States the right to determine how Presidential
electors shall be chosen is upholding the Constitution and the
previous rights of the States; but to submit to the States an
amendment permitting them to decide for themselves whether they want
woman suffrage for the nation is a violent usurpation of State's
rights! We can not follow your logic."

Dr. Cora Smith King of Seattle, who had so large a part in obtaining
equal suffrage in Washington, said:

     I am a voter like yourselves; I am eligible to become a member of
     Congress, like any one of you. However, I do not stand before you
     as one voter only but to remind you that there are nearly
     4,000,000 women voters in the United States today. I represent
     an organization called the National Council of Women Voters,
     organized in every one of the States where women vote on equal
     terms with men. These States, as you know, are Wyoming, Colorado,
     Utah, Idaho, Washington, California, Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona.
     There are three objects of the Council: One is to educate
     ourselves in the exercise of our citizenship; the second is to
     aid in our own States where we vote in putting upon the statute
     books laws beneficial to men and women, children and the home;
     and our third object is the one which brings me here this
     morning--to aid in the further extension of suffrage to women.

     The members of your committee from the latest equal suffrage
     States will bear me out in saying that there are thousands of
     women voters who have not yet made their party alignment. I
     desire to call attention to these many thousands who have only
     recently won the battle which they have fought so earnestly--as I
     have done from the time that I attained my majority and have not
     yet forgotten what it cost--and who have their ears attuned to
     the plea of their sisters in the other States. I remind you,
     gentlemen, that they may not prove unheeding when requested to
     vote for the men who are favorable to the further extension of
     suffrage. I trust that this present committee will not justify
     the charge of being a graveyard for many suffrage bills. I warn
     you that ghosts may walk.

Mrs. William Kent, wife of Representative Kent of California, spoke
briefly, telling how the suffrage societies there became civic leagues
after the vote was won and stood solidly back of seventeen bills
relating to the welfare of the State and the home and the influence
they were able to exert because of having the franchise. She urged the
committee to submit the amendment and spare women the further drudgery
of State campaigns and assured them that the women would not stop
until the last one was enfranchised. Representative Joseph R. Knowland
of California gave earnest testimony in favor of the practical working
of woman suffrage in that State saying: "For years we heard the same
arguments against equal rights for women as we hear today but we have
tried it and many who were most bitterly opposed are now glad that
California has given the franchise to women. It has proved an
unqualified success. What I desire to impress upon this committee is
that even though you may oppose the amendment it is your duty to
report it in order that every member of the House may have an
opportunity to register his vote for or against it."

Mrs. Donald Hooker of Baltimore pointed out the injustice of
permitting women to vote in California, for instance, and holding them
disfranchised when they crossed the State boundary line, and asked the
committee to put themselves in the place of citizens so discriminated
against. Mrs. Evans closed the hearing in an interesting speech but as
she could not resist eulogizing President Wilson she was assailed by a
storm of questions and remarks from the Republican members of the
committee as to his attitude on woman suffrage, while her support of
the Democratic party brought protests from the members of the
Congressional Union.

Mrs. McCormick closed for her side by saying: "Mr. Chairman, I simply
want to clear up what may be a little confused in your mind in regard
to the difference in the policy in the two organizations represented
here today. I represent the National American Woman Suffrage
Association, and, as we have stated over and over again, it has
enrolled more than 462,000 women, organized in every non-suffrage
State in the country. Our policy, which is adopted by our annual
convention, is strictly non-partisan. We do not hold any party
responsible for the passage of this amendment. We are organizing all
over the country, using the congressional district as our limit, in
order to educate the constituents of you gentlemen in regard to the
great need to enfranchise women and we do not hold the policy which is
adopted by the smaller organization, the Congressional Union."

This brought the members of the Judiciary Committee into action again
and they persisted in knowing the size of the Congressional Union
until Mrs. Benedict answered: "Our immediate membership is not our
strong point." Mr. Webb of North Carolina repeated the question why
the Republican party, which was in power sixteen years, was not held
responsible for not reporting the amendment and she replied that it
was not until after the elections of 1912 that the women were in a
position to hold any party responsible.

Mrs. Frances Dilopoulo spoke for a moment. Miss Janet Richards (D. C.)
called the attention of the committee to the etymology of the word
democracy--_demos_, people; _kratein_, to rule--rule of the
people--and asked: "If women must pay taxes and must abide by the
law, how can the suffrage be denied to them in a true democracy?" She
spoke of her personal study of the question in Finland and the
Scandinavian countries where women are enfranchised. Dr. Clara W.
McNaughton (D. C.), vice-president of the Federal Women's Equality
Association, in closing stated that they had a tent on the field of
Gettysburg during its 50th anniversary and found the old soldiers
almost to a man in favor of woman suffrage. Mrs. Evans filed a
carefully prepared paper, State versus Federal Action on Woman
Suffrage. Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.), officially connected with
the National American Association, submitted to the committees a
comprehensive "brief" on the case which said in part:

     In a published statement yesterday the Secretary of State,
     William Jennings Bryan, used these simple, direct, easily
     understood words: "All believers in a republic accept the
     doctrine that the government must derive its just powers from the
     consent of the governed and the President gives every legitimate
     encouragement to those who represent this idea while he
     discourages those who attempt to overthrow or ignore the
     principles of popular government."

     I am sure that all of us hope and want to believe that this
     latest pronouncement given out officially as from the leading
     Cabinet officer was intended to be accepted at home as well as
     abroad as literally and absolutely true and not a mere bit of
     spectacular oratory. But if it is true, then not one of you
     gentlemen who has it in his heart to oppose woman suffrage is a
     believer in our form of government; not one of you is loyal to
     the flag; not one of you is a true American. You do not allow us
     women to give our consent, yet we are governed. You are not
     sitting in Congress justly and Mr. Bryan and the President do not
     believe that you are--none of you except those who are from woman
     suffrage States--or else that official statement is mere oratory
     for foreign consumption. He says that the President discourages
     those who attempt to overthrow or even to "ignore" this principle
     of popular government. We are more than glad to believe that Mr.
     Bryan is correct in this plain statement, for then we will know
     that a number of you will receive a good deal of "discouragement"
     at the hands of the President, and that those of you who stand
     with us and vote for us will receive your sure reward from him,
     in that "every legitimate encouragement" will be yours, and also,
     incidentally, ours. We need it, we think it is overdue. Up to the
     present time we have not felt that either the President or the
     Secretary of State quite fully realized that there is a good deal
     of belated encouragement due us and quite a limitless supply of
     discouragement due those who try "to overthrow or ignore" all
     semblance of a belief in the right of women to give their consent
     to their own government. I am glad to have so high an authority
     that the good time is not only coming but that it has at last
     arrived--and through the Democratic party!

     Again, in this simple, plain, seemingly frank statement of the
     Secretary of State, he says: ... "Nothing will be encouraged away
     from home that is forbidden here." Yet, away from home, he says,
     the fixed foreign policy is that "the people shall have such
     officers as they desire," and that these officers must have "the
     consent of the governed." That is precisely what we women demand.
     Are the Mexican peons more to our Government than are the women
     of America? If the Mexican officials must be disciplined, unless
     they are ready to admit that "the consent of the governed must be
     obtained" before there can be a legitimate government which we
     can recognize, how it is possible for you and for the President
     and for the State Department absolutely to ignore or refuse the
     same ethical and political principle here at home for one-half of
     all the people, who form what you call and hold up to the world
     as a republic?

     No one who lives, who ever lived, who ever will live understands
     or really accepts and believes in a republic which denies to
     women the right of consent by their ballots to that government.
     Such a position is unthinkable and the time has come when an
     aristocracy of sex must give place to a real republic or the
     absurdity of the position, as it exists, will make us the
     laughing stock of the world. Let us either stop our pretence
     before the nations of the earth of being a republic and having
     "equality before the law" or else let us become the republic that
     we pretend to be.

This concluded the hearing for the suffrage associations and as the
"antis" also had asked for one they occupied the afternoon. Mrs.
Arthur M. Dodge, the president of the National Association Opposed to
Woman Suffrage, said in opening the discussion: "We begin to hear from
all over the country a very decided demand for help. The women are
beginning to be frightened. They are frightened at exactly the same
sort of thing by which the suffragists try to frighten you
men--noise--so that in many States women are beginning to organize for
the first time against suffrage. We are here today rather against our
wishes. We did not want to bother you men again because the matter has
been pretty well settled for this session of Congress at least. But
the suffragists had demanded a hearing of you gentlemen, and so we
asked you to hear us, and you have very courteously extended to us
that privilege. We are here to represent the majority of women still
quiet but not going to be quiet very much longer...." Mrs. Dodge made
an analysis of the number of enfranchised women to show that the
parties had nothing to fear and said in closing: "I wish to say that
the suffragists who make these threats are not representing the women
of the country. It is the women of the country whom we try to
represent and we have tried for several years against the noisy,
insistent and persistent demands of a group."

The other women speakers were Mrs. Henry White, member of the
executive committee of the Massachusetts Association; Miss Alice Hill
Chittenden, president of the New York Association; Miss Marjorie
Dorman, secretary of the Women Wage-earners' Anti-Suffrage League of
New York City[97]; Mrs. O. D. Oliphant of New Jersey, who was not able
to reach Washington but whose paper on Feminism was put into the
report; Miss Minnie Bronson, secretary of the National Association.
Miss Bronson's address, which was largely statistical, called out many
questions from the suffrage members of the committee. She said the
association had approximately 100,000 members.[98]

The first of the men speakers against the amendment was J.N. Matthews
(N. J.) who began by saying it would be difficult for him to put aside
his Democratic partisanship even for a moment. He was soon involved in
a wrangle with the committee which occupied over half of the space
filled by his speech in the report. This was true also of the speech
of Representative Thomas J. Heflin (Ala.), which ended with a long
poem entitled The Only Regeneration, beginning: "There's no earthly
use in prating of eugenics' saving grace." Mrs. Dodge had scored the
suffragists for having more than one association but delegates from
three of the "antis" were present at this hearing, the Guidon Society
of New York City, represented by a New York lawyer, John R. Don
Passos, who stated that he represented also the Man Suffrage
Association. He filed a "brief" of its president, Everett P. Wheeler,
a Democratic New York lawyer, entitled Home Rule. As was the case with
the other men speakers most of his time was taken up by the "heckling"
of the committee and his answers. In the latter he said that woman
suffrage sooner or later would have a tendency to destroy the home,
hurt the social and moral standard of women and "convert them into
beasts."

Dr. Mary Walker spoke ten minutes at her own request, scoring the
suffragists and saying that women already had the right to vote under
the National Constitution. Mrs. Evans closed the hearing.


FOOTNOTES:

[82] Part of Call: Our task will be to formulate judgment on those
great issues of the day which nearly concern women; to choose the
leaders who during the coming year are to guide the fortunes of our
cause; and finally, to deliberate how the whole national body may on
the one hand best give aid and succor to the States working for their
own enfranchisement and on the other press for federal action in
behalf of the women of the nation at large....

Since the last convention met all the horror of a great war has fallen
upon the civilized world. The hearts of thousands of women have been
torn by the death and wounds of those they bore, of those they love,
yet never has their will and power to help been greater, never man's
need of such help been more clearly seen. We, who are spared the
anguish of war, well understand that as weight is given in the world's
affairs to the voice of women, moved as men are not by all the tragic
waste of battles, the chances of such slaughter must perpetually
diminish. Now is the time when all things point to the violence that
rules the world, now is the very time to press our claim to a share in
the guidance of our country's fortunes, to urge that woman's vision
must second and ratify that of man. Let us then in convention
assembled kindle with the thought that, as we consider methods for the
political enfranchisement of our sex, our wider purpose is to free
women and to enable their conception of life in all its aspects to
find expression.... Let us set a fresh seal upon the great new loyalty
of woman to woman; let our response be felt in the deep tide of
fellowship and understanding among all women which today is rising
around the world.

                         ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                         JANE ADDAMS, First Vice-President.
                         MADELINE BRECKINRIDGE, Second Vice-President.
                         CAROLINE RUUTZ-REES, Third Vice-President.
                         SUSAN WALKER FITZGERALD, Recording Secretary.
                         KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, Treasurer.
                         HARRIET BURTON LAIDLAW,}
                         LOUISE DEKOVEN BOWEN,  } Auditors.

[83] Complete, universal suffrage was conferred by the Parliament in
1917.

[84] For a number of years Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw of Boston gave Dr. Shaw
a fund for campaign work.

[85] A portion of this report is in the chapter on the Federal
Suffrage Amendment.

[86] The Federal Suffrage Amendment had been thoroughly debated and
voted on in the Senate in 1887; the question of woman suffrage itself
discussed in 1866, 1881-3-4-5-6 in the Senate; at great length in the
Lower House in 1883 and 1890 and briefly in both houses at other
times.

[87] Instead of seven or eight amendments there was only one and never
had been but one--the old, original amendment introduced by Senator A.
A. Sargent (Calif.) in 1878. There was and long had been one "bill"
advocated, the one to give women so-called "federal" suffrage, the
right to vote for Senators and Representatives, but it had never been
reported out of committee. There was no bill before Congress to give
women the right to vote for Presidential electors and there was no
other bill proposed. It was of course the "State's rights argument"
that had been the continuous barrier to the Federal Suffrage Amendment
ever since it was first introduced but the favorable attitude of a
majority of the Senators showed how much progress had been made in
meeting that argument.

[88] On the contrary at a public hearing before the Judiciary
Committee of the Lower House on March 3, Mrs. Funk referred several
times to such an amendment and stated that she represented an
association of 462,000 women. She intimated that she knew the old
amendment could not pass and that another might be introduced, which,
it was hoped, would be more acceptable. The vote was not taken in the
Senate till March 19. Meanwhile the newspapers gave to the suffragists
of the country their first knowledge of the new amendment and vigorous
protests soon followed, especially from the older leaders of the
movement. _The Woman's Journal_ of March 28 said editorially: "It is
felt by many that before the Congressional Committee introduced a
wholly new measure, which had never been sanctioned or even considered
by the National Association, it ought to have been submitted to the
National Executive Council."

As soon as the Senate had voted on the original amendment, Senator
Bristow, at the request of the Congressional Union, re-introduced it,
and it was reported favorably April 7, Senator Thomas B. Catron of New
Mexico alone dissenting. Senator Bristow in re-introducing it said of
the Shafroth measure: "It is more of a national initiative and
referendum amendment than a woman suffrage amendment. I prefer that
the question of woman suffrage rest directly upon its own merits and
be not involved with the initiative and referendum."

[89] This amendment had been reported by the Judiciary Committee on
the 9th of May preceding this report "without recommendation" and a
strong effort was being made by its supporters to bring it before the
House for debate. The Rules Committee sent it to the House on December
12, 1914.

[90] The proposed State amendment failed in New York in 1915, was
submitted again by the Legislatures of 1916 and 1917, voted on in
November, 1917, and adopted by an immense majority.

[91] The first week in the preceding April the Mississippi Valley
Conference, composed of the Middle and some of the Western and
Southern States, met in Des Moines and thirty-five prominent delegates
signed a telegram to the Official Board of the National American
Association, asking it "to instruct its Congressional Committee not to
push the Shafroth Amendment nor ask for its report from the Senate
Committee"; also "to ask the Senate Committee not to report this
amendment until so requested by the national suffrage convention."
This was not official action but they signed as individuals, among
them the presidents of the Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio and Louisiana State associations and officers from other
States.

[92] Some of the arguments may be found in the Appendix. An
examination of the file of the _Journal_ will show that ninety-nine
per cent. of the writers were opposed to the amendment.

[93] The old amendment had been voted on in the Senate March 19 and
obtained a majority but not the required two-thirds. It had been
reported without recommendation by the House Judiciary, which had not
acted on the new one. The latter had been introduced in the Senate and
the former re-introduced.

[94] The original measure had always been called the Sixteenth
Amendment until the adoption of the Income Tax and Direct Election of
Senators Amendments in 1913. The Congressional Union, organized that
year, gave it the name Susan B. Anthony Amendment and for awhile it
was thus referred to by some members of the National American
Association. The relatives and friends of Mrs. Stanton rightly
objected to this name, as she had been equally associated with it from
the beginning, and all the pioneer workers had been its staunch
supporters. The old association soon adopted the title, Federal
Suffrage Amendment.

[95] At the first board meeting after the convention Mrs. McCormick
was re-appointed chairman of the Congressional Committee with power to
select its other members and Mrs. Funk was re-appointed vice-chairman.

[96] Mrs. McCormick spent a large amount of time and money on this
play, hoping it would yield a good revenue to the association, but the
arrangement with the Film Corporation proved impossible and it finally
had to be abandoned.

[97] The most persistent efforts of the suffragists never succeeded in
locating this league.

[98] At the request of the committee the exact figures were furnished
later and showed a membership of 105,000, of whom 85,600 lived in the
five non-suffrage States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania. Of the remaining 19,400 the non-suffrage
States of New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Ohio had 11,500; Virginia,
2,100, and 6,500 were divided among other non-suffrage States and the
District of Columbia. Not one member was reported from States where
the franchise had been given to women, although it was a stock
argument of the "antis" that it had been forced on them and they would
gladly get rid of it.




CHAPTER XV.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1915.


The Forty-seventh annual convention of the association was held Dec.
14-19, 1915, in Washington, the scene of many which had preceded it,
with 546 accredited delegates, the largest number on record. The one
of the preceding year had left many of the members in a pessimistic
frame of mind but this had entirely disappeared and never were there
so much hope and optimism.[99] The Federal Amendment had for the first
time been debated and voted on in the House of Representatives,
receiving 204 noes, 174 ayes, a satisfactory result for the first
trial. Although in November, 1915, four of the most populous
States--Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania--had
defeated suffrage amendments yet a million-and-a-quarter of men had
voted in favor. These were all Republican States and yet had given a
larger vote for woman suffrage than for the Republican presidential
candidate the preceding year. Over 42 per cent. of the votes in New
York and over 46 per cent. in Pennsylvania were affirmative and the
press of the country, instead of sounding the "death knell" as usual
after defeats, predicted victory at the next trial. In October the
cause had received its most important accession when President Wilson
and seven of the ten members of his Cabinet declared in favor of woman
suffrage; and in November the President had gone to his home in
Princeton, N. J., on election day to cast his vote for the pending
State amendment.

An honorary committee of arrangements for the convention had been
formed in Washington which included many of the most prominent women
officially and socially, headed by Miss Margaret Wilson, the
President's eldest daughter. Republican and Democratic National
Committees had cordially received suffrage speakers. The first measure
to be introduced in both Houses of the new Congress was the resolution
for the Federal Suffrage Amendment, with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw,
president of the National American Suffrage Association, sitting on
the Speaker's bench by invitation of Speaker and Mrs. Champ Clark. The
convention opened Tuesday morning and at five o'clock in the afternoon
the delegates were received by President Wilson in the White House.
They walked the few short blocks from the convention headquarters in
the New Willard Hotel to the White House and the line reached from the
street through the corridors to the East Room. After each had had a
hearty handshake Dr. Shaw expressed the gratitude of all suffragists,
not for his vote, which was a duty, but for his reasons, to which the
widest publicity had been given. She said the women felt encouraged to
ask for two things: first, his influence in obtaining the submission
of the Federal Amendment by Congress at the present session; second,
if that failed, his influence in securing a plank for woman suffrage
in his party's national platform. The latter he answered to their
great joy by saying that he had it under consideration. He looked at
his hand a little ruefully and said: "You ladies have a strong grip."
"Yes," she responded, "we hold on."

The most striking contrast between this and other conventions was
seen in the program. For more than two-score years the evening
sessions and often those of the afternoon had been given up to
addresses by prominent men and women and attended by large general
audiences. In this way the seed was sowed and public sentiment created
and people in the cities which invited the convention looked forward
to an intellectual feast. This year it was felt that the general
public needed no further education on this subject; the association
had become a business organization and the woman suffrage question one
of practical politics. Therefore but one mass meeting was held, that
of Sunday afternoon, and the entire week was devoted to State reports,
conferences, committee meetings, plans of work, campaigns and
discussion of details. These were extremely interesting and valuable
for the delegates but not for the newspapers or the public.

The entire tenth floor of the New Willard Hotel was utilized for
convention purposes and the full meetings were held in the large ball
room, which had been beautifully decorated under the artistic
direction of Mrs. Glenna Tinnin, with flags, banners and delicate,
symbolic draperies. The large number of young women was noticeable and
the association seemed permeated with new life. "Old men and women for
council and young ones for work," said Dr. Shaw smilingly, as she
opened the convention. "The history that has been made by this
organization is due to the toil and consecration of the women of the
country during past years, and, while I am happy to see so many new
faces, my heart warms when my eyes greet one of the veterans. So in
welcoming you I say, All hail to the new and thank God for the old!"

The convention plunged at once into reports. That of Mrs. Henry Wade
Rogers, the treasurer, showed receipts during the past year of $51,265
and disbursements of $42,396, among them $12,000 for State campaigns.
A large and active finance committee had been formed and thousands of
appeals for money distributed. At this convention $50,000 were pledged
for the work of the coming year and the convention showed fullest
confidence in the new treasurer, who said in presenting her report:
"This has been a most interesting and beautiful year of activity for
the National Association. The officers and assistants at the
headquarters have worked in perfect harmony. You have all, dear
presidents and members of the sixty-three affiliated associations,
been most kind to your new treasurer and she has deeply appreciated
your forbearance."

The report of a temporary organization, the Volunteer League, was
given by its director, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick. Its purpose
was to interest suffragists who were not connected with the
association and President Mary E. Woolley of Mt. Holyoke College, Mrs.
Robert Gould Shaw, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and Mrs. Winston
Churchill accepted places on the board. Letters were sent out,
avoiding the active workers, and over $2,000 were turned into the
treasury. The legal adviser, Miss Mary Rutter Towle, reported a final
accounting of the estate of Mrs. Lila Sabin Buckley of Kansas and the
association received the net amount of $9,551 on a compromise. The
legacy of $10,000 by Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall of Iowa would be paid in
a few months.

Charles T. Hallinan, as chairman, made a detailed report of the newly
organized Publicity Department. Miss Clara Savage, of the New York
_Evening Post_, was made chairman of the Press Bureau and Mrs. Laura
Puffer Morgan of Washington, D. C., a member of the Congressional
Committee, took charge of its publicity. Mrs. Ernest Thompson Seton
accepted the chairmanship of a special finance committee which did
heroic work. The _News Letter_, an enlarged bulletin of information
and discussion in regard to the activities of the association, had
already more than a thousand subscriptions and went to 116 weekly farm
papers, 99 weekly labor papers and 120 press chairmen and suffrage
editors. The report told of the successful publicity work for Dr. Shaw
and other speakers, and said: "I prize especially my relationship with
Dr. Shaw, whose courage, humor and zest, whose whole heroic
personality, have made this a stimulating and memorable year." An
amusing account was given of the effort "to accommodate the routine
activities of the organization to the demand of the press for
something new or sensational, which made great demands upon the
originality, initiative and judgment of both the board and the
publicity department," but it was managed about four times a week. The
Sunday papers "drew heavily upon the ingenuity of the publicity
department; special or feature stories were sent to special
localities; for instance those that would appeal to the Southerners to
the papers of the South, others to those of the West, and others were
prepared for the syndicates and press associations." Of a new and
important feature of the work Mr. Hallinan said: "The need of a
competent Data Department for the National Association was early
recognized but it seemed a difficult thing to manage on the budget
provided by the convention. It was finally decided that owing to the
pressure of the campaigns the money must be found somehow and it was.
In September the department was established on a temporary basis with
Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, formerly associate editor of _The Survey_, in
charge. She was admirably equipped for research work and soon got into
usable shape the valuable records of the national headquarters.
Sometimes the pressure upon the department for facts, including
'answers to antis,' was tremendous but there were few requests for
information which were not answered by mail or telegraph within 24 or
48 hours."

Mrs. Boyd's own full report of her first year's work was heard with
much interest and satisfaction. In it she said:

     The opponents of woman suffrage have by their criticisms made it
     cover the whole field of human affairs, so it is not surprising
     that the inquiries by correspondents of this department have
     ranged from the moral standard of women to a request for
     assistance in righting a personal wrong. Others come under main
     headings of the progress of woman suffrage, both partial and
     complete; the standing of women under the laws; the effect of
     voting women on the character of legislation; the part they take
     in political life and its reaction on their lives and characters;
     statistics and facts in regard to the makeup of the population of
     the various States; details in regard to State constitutions,
     election laws and methods of voting on woman suffrage in the
     various States.... What has become of late "stock"
     anti-criticisms of some effects of the ballot has been thoroughly
     investigated and "stock" answers prepared. Facts and figures from
     official sources have been gathered to disprove the claim of
     enforced jury duty, excessive cost of elections, lowered birth
     rates and increased divorce rates in suffrage States. The results
     of these studies have been surprisingly favorable to the suffrage
     position, showing that in such criticisms the "antis" have been
     ridiculously in the wrong. They have only been able to use this
     line of argument at all because the suffragists have had no one
     free to take the time to answer them once and for all with the
     facts.

At an important afternoon conference Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who had
been chairman of the New York Campaign Committee during the effort for
a State amendment, made the opening address on The Revelations of
Recent Campaigns which shed a great deal of light on the causes of
defeat. She was followed by Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, who, as president
of the Pennsylvania association, had charge of the campaign in that
State, and Mrs. Gertrude Halliday Leonard, who was a leading factor in
the one in Massachusetts, both presenting constructive plans for those
of the future. Mrs. Raymond Brown, Mrs. Lillian Feickert, Mrs. Harriet
Taylor Upton and Mrs. Draper Smith, presidents of the New York, New
Jersey, Ohio and Nebraska associations, described the Need and Use of
Campaign Organization. Miss Mary Garrett Hay, chairman of the New York
City Campaign Committee, and Miss Hannah J. Patterson, chairman of the
Woman Suffrage Party of Pennsylvania, told from practical experience
How to Organize for a Campaign. The conference was continued through
the evening, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, president of the
Massachusetts association, speaking on the Production and Use of
Campaign Literature; Mrs. John D. Davenport (Penn.) telling How to
Raise Campaign Funds in the County and Mrs. Mina Van Winkle (N. J.)
and Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.) how to do so in the city. Mrs. Teresa
A. Crowley (Mass.) discussed the Political Work of Campaigns. Another
afternoon was devoted to a general conference of State presidents and
delegates on the subject of Future Campaigns. It was recognized that
these were henceforth to be of frequent occurrence and the association
must be better prepared for their demands.

Mrs. Medill McCormick presided at the evening conference on Federal
Legislation and the speeches of all the delegates clearly showed that
they considered the work for the Federal Amendment paramount to all
else and the States won for suffrage simply as stepping stones to this
supreme achievement. Senator John F. Shafroth was on the platform and
answered conclusively many of the anti-suffrage misrepresentations as
to the effect of woman suffrage in Colorado. Every hour of days and
evenings was given to conferences, committee meetings, reports from
committees and States and the practical preparations for entering
upon what all felt was the last stage of the long contest. The
overshadowing event of the convention was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw's
retirement from the presidency, which she had held eleven years. The
delegates were not unprepared, as she had announced her intention in
the following brief letter published in the _Woman's Journal_ Nov. 27,
1915:

     During the last year I have been increasingly conscious of the
     growing response to the spoken word on behalf of this cause of
     ours. Because of the unparalleled large audiences drawn to our
     standard everywhere, I have become convinced that my highest
     service to the suffrage movement can best be given if I am
     relieved of the exacting duties of the presidency so that I may
     be free to engage in campaign work, since each year brings its
     quota of campaign States. Therefore, after careful consideration,
     I have decided not to stand for re-election to the office of
     president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. I
     have deferred making this announcement until the campaigns were
     ended, but now that it is time to consider the work for the
     coming year, I feel it my duty to do so.

The president's address of Dr. Shaw had long been the leading feature
of the conventions but this year it was heard with deeper interest
than ever before, if this were possible. Because every word was
significant she had written it and as it afterwards appeared in
pamphlet form it filled fourteen closely printed pages. It was a
masterly treatment of woman suffrage in its relation to many of the
great problems of the day and it seems a sacrilege to attempt to
convey by detached quotations an idea of its power and beauty. A large
part of it will be found in the Appendix to this chapter. She set
forth in the strongest possible words the necessity of a Federal
Amendment but said:

     There is not a single reason given upon which to base a hope for
     congressional action that does not rest upon the power and
     influence to be derived from the equal suffrage States, which
     power was secured by the slow but effective method of winning
     State by State. If all our past and present successes in Congress
     are due to the influence of enfranchised States, is it not safe
     to assume that the future power must come from the same source
     until it is sufficiently strong to insure a reasonable prospect
     of national legislation? To transform this hope into fulfillment
     we must follow several lines of campaign, each of which is
     essential to success: 1. By continuing the appeal which for
     thirty-seven years without cessation the National Association
     has made upon Congress to submit to the State Legislatures an
     amendment enfranchising women and by using every just means
     within our power to secure action upon it. 2. By Congressional
     District organization, such as has been set in motion by our
     National Congressional Committee and which has proved so
     successful during the past year. 3. By the organization of
     enfranchised women, who, through direct political activity in
     their own States and within their own political parties may
     become efficient factors in national conventions and in Congress.
     4. By increasing the number of equal suffrage States through
     referring a State amendment to the voters.

The delegates were deeply moved by Dr. Shaw's closing words:

     In laying down my responsibility as your president, there is one
     subject upon which I wish to speak and I ask your patient
     indulgence. If I were asked what has been the cause of most if
     not all of the difficulties which have arisen in our work, I
     would reply, a failure to recognize the obligations which loyalty
     demands of the members of an association to its officers and to
     its own expressed will. It is unquestionably the duty of the
     members of an organization, when, after in convention assembled
     certain measures are voted and certain duties laid upon its
     officers, to uphold the officers in the performance of those
     duties and to aid in every reasonable way to carry out the will
     of the association as expressed by the convention. It is the duty
     also of every officer or committee to carry out the will of the
     association unless conditions subsequently arise to make this
     injurious to its best interests.... Without loyalty, cooperation
     and friendly, helpful support in her work no officer can
     successfully perform her duty or worthily serve the best
     interests of the association. I earnestly appeal to the members
     of this body to give the incoming Board of Officers the loyalty
     and helpful support which will greatly lighten their arduous task
     of serving our cause and bringing it to final victory.

     In saying farewell to you as your president I find it impossible
     to express my high appreciation and gratitude for your loyal
     support, your unfailing kindness, your patience with my mistakes
     and especially the affectionate regard you have shown me through
     all these years of toil and achievement together. The memory of
     your sacrifices for our cause, your devotion to our association
     and your unwearied patience in disappointment and delay will give
     to the remaining years of my life its crowning joy of happy
     memories.

The _Woman's Journal_ said in its report: "On the table was a large
bouquet of roses from Speaker and Mrs. Champ Clark. When Dr. Shaw had
finished and received a great ovation, she said: 'My life has been one
of the happiest a woman ever lived. From the depths of my heart I
thank you. You have done more for me than I have ever done for you.'
She unfastened a little pin on the front of her grey velvet gown and
held it up for all to see, saying: 'This is Miss Anthony's flag, which
she gave me just before she died. It was the gift of Wyoming women and
had four tiny diamonds on it for the four equal suffrage States; now
it has thirteen. Who says "suffrage is going and not coming"? We have
as many stars now as there were original States when the government
began.'" It was voted unanimously that the thanks of the convention be
extended to the president for her noble address and that it be ordered
printed. The tribute of the delegates came later in the week.

The report of the Committee on Literature was made by its chairman,
Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees, showing the usual careful selection of
valuable matter for publication. Two important compilations she had
made herself--Ten Extempore Answers to Questions by Dr. Shaw and
extracts from a number of her speeches, gleaned from scattered
reports; also an eloquent address made at Birmingham, Ala., the
preceding April. So little from Dr. Shaw existed in printed form that
these were very welcome. She urged the necessity for a library
covering the field of women's affairs, well catalogued and open to the
public. Miss Lavinia Engle's report as Field Secretary showed active
work, speaking and organizing in Alabama, West Virginia, New Jersey
and New York. Mrs. Funk's report as chairman of the Campaign and
Survey Committee described a vast amount of work before the New Jersey
campaign opened, including a series of twenty meetings addressed by
Senators and Representatives and a number of prominent women, and
others continuously through the summer with State and national
speakers. Dr. Shaw spoke at thirty of these meetings.

In closing her report Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates, chairman of the
Committee on Presidential Suffrage, said: "In addition to the
beneficent consequences of women's vote in State and municipal
affairs, the number of votes in the electoral college that may be
determined by their ballots is of paramount political significance. By
their votes in twelve States, which have 91 presidential electors,
they might decide the presidency. Of these 91 electoral votes 62 come
from the States where constitutional amendments enfranchising women
have been obtained after repeated campaigns of inestimable cost and
exhaustive effort, while 29, nearly a third of the whole, were secured
simply by an act of the Illinois Legislature in giving the electoral
vote to women. Is it not good political tactics to proceed along the
lines of least resistance and bring our energies to bear upon
Legislatures for the measure most potent and at the same time most
easily procured?"

Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, who, as chairman of the Church Work Committee,
had given such valuable service for years, told of the excellent work
of her State branches, especially that of New Jersey during the recent
campaign, whose chairman, Mrs. Mabel Farraday, had sent out hundreds
of letters with literature to the clergymen and reached thousands of
people at Ocean Grove and Asbury Park. She told of the encouragement
she had received in her month of preparatory work for the approaching
West Virginia campaign; the Ministerial Association of Wheeling had
invited her to address them and expressed a desire to help it; several
pastors turned over their regular meetings to her; the largest
Methodist church in the State, at Moundsville, holding a week of big
meetings, invited her to fill one entire evening with an address on
the Federal Suffrage Amendment. "More and more I am led to believe,"
she said in closing, "that the most important work before the
suffragists today is church work, especially the organizing of the
Catholic women, that they will make their demands so emphatic the
church will see the wisdom of supporting the movement. The church work
is non-sectarian but it should also be omni-sectarian and our efforts
should be extended to include all churches and religious sects."

The Congressional Committee had placed two departments of its work in
charge of Miss Ethel M. Smith, whose comprehensive report showed
beyond question their great value:

     When the Congressional Committee was reorganized after the
     Nashville convention two departments were given into my charge,
     the congressional district organization work and the office
     catalogue of information concerning members of Congress. The
     Congressional plan, which had been launched but a year before,
     had been adopted in many of the States but not in all. My first
     step, therefore, was to urge by correspondence with the
     presidents that this machinery be established or completed in
     every State. On December 12 came the test as to how well this
     had been done. The Rules Committee of the House reported the
     Mondell amendment, which was to come to a vote January 12. I
     wrote or telegraphed at once to every congressional chairman or
     State president asking her to bring to bear all possible pressure
     upon the individual members of Congress from her State. Those
     States which had established this machinery were able at once to
     send the call to the respective district chairmen and so on down
     the line; the other States responded through their existing
     machinery and the result was that thousands of letters and
     telegrams poured into the offices of the Congressmen during the
     four weeks. Meantime our lobby was busy interviewing the members
     and the latest expressions obtained in each case were wired back
     to the States, whose chairmen responded again.

     This interchange and cooperation were so effective that
     Congressmen themselves complimented our "team work." But the real
     proof of its value came after the vote was taken, when by
     checking with our office records of the individual Congressmen we
     found that many uncertain, noncommittal or almost unfriendly
     members' attitude had so changed that they voted yes on the
     amendment. Such a result could not fail to show, if proof had
     been necessary, that the greatest need as well as the greatest
     opportunity in national suffrage work for the future lay in
     furthering to the last degree of completeness and efficiency the
     organization of every State by congressional districts....

     At a distance from Washington it is difficult to know and easy to
     lose sight of what a Representative does or stands for, so I
     prepared special reports to the State congressional chairmen
     whenever opportunity occurred. The first, and a most interesting
     one, came when the vote was taken in the House on the National
     Prohibition Amendment Dec. 22, 1914. This was just three weeks
     before the vote on our own amendment and our catalogue showed a
     large number of Congressmen who opposed us on the ground of
     State's rights. The National Prohibition Amendment is obviously
     as direct an assumption by the Federal Government of rights now
     reposing in the States as could possibly be devised. I,
     therefore, checked off the names of the State's rights
     Congressmen who voted for it but probably would not vote for
     national suffrage, and sent the list to our respective State
     chairmen, urging that they call these Representatives' attention
     to this inconsistency. It has been reported to me that this
     argument proved effective with several of them and it is a fact
     that after the suffrage vote was taken a number of the names on
     our first list had to be removed because those men had voted
     "aye" on suffrage. Seventy-two, however, in the final count,
     voted _for_ the National Prohibition Amendment but _against_
     ours....

     In June I devised a special congressional district campaign which
     would reach the members of Congress before they left their homes
     to go to Washington. This was intended to impress them with the
     strength of the suffrage sentiment in their districts and thus
     deprive them of a favorite excuse for not voting for our
     amendment. The plan called for congressional district meetings
     all over the country on or about November 16 in every district
     where the Representative was not already pledged to the Federal
     Amendment. The call was sent to every congressional district
     chairman and it requested that every local suffrage league send
     as many delegates as possible to the meeting which would be held
     in the city where the Senator or Representative lived. It was
     urged that they be invited to attend the meetings and to speak
     and that resolutions be adopted asking them to vote for the
     amendment. It was a part of the plan to send these resolutions
     also to the State Central Committees of the Republican and
     Democratic parties, asking for suffrage planks on the State and
     national platforms.... We received most cordial and widespread
     cooperation in this work. I believe we can say that practically
     every Senator and Representative returned to Washington this
     session with the knowledge that behind him at home is an
     organized demand for his favorable vote on the Federal Amendment.

The usual pleasant social features of these conventions had been
eliminated and the only relaxation for the delegates was one large
evening reception in the New Willard Hotel. The National College Equal
Suffrage League held its annual luncheon on the 18th at the New Ebbitt
Hotel, Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, presiding.
The guests were 225 women graduates of various colleges and the topic
of all the speeches was, "How to advance women suffrage by making
friends instead of enemies." The speakers included Dr. Shaw, Mrs.
Charles L. Tiffany, Mrs. Raymond Brown, Mrs. Medill McCormick, Miss
Florence Stiles, Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, Miss Hannah J. Patterson,
Mrs. Elizabeth Puffer Howes and Mrs. Laura Puffer Morgan.

The convention sent a telegram of sympathy in her illness to Miss Jane
Addams. A special vote of thanks was tendered to Senators Charles S.
Thomas and John F. Shafroth and to Representative Edward T. Taylor,
all of Colorado, and to Representative Frank W. Mondell of Wyoming for
the very great assistance they had given to the Congressional
Committee. A cordial invitation came from the Chicago suffrage
headquarters for the delegates to accept its hospitality during the
National Republican Convention in June, 1916. Invitations for the next
convention were received from St. Louis, Little Rock and Atlantic
City.

Mrs. Medill McCormick, chairman of the Congressional Committee,
introduced Mrs. Antoinette Funk, its vice chairman, who told of the
strong and successful effort made to have the Committee on Rules
ignore the adverse action of the Democratic caucus and send the
resolution to the Lower House for action after the Judiciary Committee
had reported it without recommendation. The date finally set for the
debate in the House was Jan. 12, 1915. Her report was in part as
follows:

     From the moment the resolution was reported by the Judiciary
     Committee the energies of the Congressional Committee were
     directed toward the end of bringing out as large a favorable vote
     as was humanly possible and all the members of the committee then
     resident in Washington undertook some portion of the task. The
     leaders of both sides of the House, Mr. Mondell for the
     Republicans and Mr. Taylor for the Democrats, gave us their
     heartiest support. Through them and through the courtesy of the
     Speaker of the House, Mr. Champ Clark, we learned what members
     would be recognized for speeches, and each man who had asked for
     time or who had been asked to speak because of his locality or
     for other reasons was interviewed. Our cooperation in the matter
     of gathering up suffrage data and material was offered and freely
     accepted. All suffrage literature known to us was brought in
     large quantities into our office and assorted into sets bearing
     upon the situation of the different Congressmen according to
     their locality, political faith, etc. Every man known to be
     favorable to us was urged to be in his seat on January 12 and
     those of our friends who, we learned, would be unavoidably kept
     away from Washington were written and telegraphed to arrange for
     favorable pairs.

     Some time before the vote was taken the Congressional Committee
     reported to the National Board that our minimum vote would be
     168. In fact, 174 favorable votes were cast and 11 favorable
     pairs were registered. The negative votes were 204....

The favorable speeches of the Congressmen were put in form for the
campaign States and over a million and a half were circulated. The
report continued:

     The amendment having been voted on in both Houses and direct work
     in its behalf being definitely closed for that session the
     Congressional Committee was increased by Miss Jeannette Rankin,
     who, together with the vice-chairman, discussed with members of
     the House and Senate the Shafroth amendment, then pending. No
     effort was made to bring this measure forward for a vote but the
     work of presenting the idea of a _national initiative_ upon the
     proposition of suffrage for the consideration of the members of
     Congress was considered worth while. By many who disapproved of a
     National Suffrage Amendment, this was regarded as a practical
     method of overcoming such obstacles as the State constitutions
     had erected, thus making their amending easy and practicable.

     The Nashville convention had endorsed the Federal Elections Bill
     and instructed the Board to advance it in every way possible. The
     bill had been introduced in Congress through the Federal Society
     represented by Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby and we consulted with her
     as to the manner in which the National might be of greatest
     assistance. It was extremely difficult to get favorable
     consideration for it by individual Congressmen but the committee
     recommends that it should receive the endorsement and support of
     the National Association, although in its judgment it is a
     measure that cannot be successfully concluded at an early date.

Mrs. McCormick reported in person on the use made by the committee of
the record of members of Congress. It was again voted that the plans
of the committee should be carried out in a State only when all its
societies were agreed but when they were not the Congressional
Committee should not work there. It also seemed to be the opinion of
the convention that States which were considering a campaign should
first consult the Survey Committee and show whether or not they were
prepared for it, and if the committee advised against it and they
persisted they should not expect any assistance from the National
Association. Miss Laura Clay was requested to explain the Federal
Elections Bill, which would enable women to vote for Senators and
Representatives, and would require only a majority vote of each house
for its adoption. Miss Clay was enthusiastically received and the
convention again requested the Board to take up this bill and press
its claims on Congress. Later the Executive Council passed a
resolution to do all in its power for Presidential suffrage.

At a morning session of the convention on December 18 a motion was
passed that "last year's action in regard to the Shafroth Amendment be
rescinded." The following motion was then carried: "The National
American Woman Suffrage Association re-endorses the Susan B. Anthony
Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, for which it has been working
forty-five years, and no other amendment of the U. S. Constitution
dealing with National Woman Suffrage shall be introduced by it during
the coming year." The Minutes of the convention (page 43) say: "Miss
Shaw asked as a matter of personal privilege that she be permitted to
make a statement to the association with regard to her attitude on
the Shafroth Amendment to the effect that she had been opposed to its
adoption and had voted against it but that when the Board by majority
vote adopted it she supported the Board in its decision; that the
longer she studied the question the more she approved of it but that
she felt the mistake made was in trying to work for it before the
women of the association had become informed as to its value and had
learned to believe in it." This was the end of the so-called Shafroth
Amendment, which had threatened to carry the old association on the
rocks. [See Chapter XIV.]

Another problem came before this convention--the policy of the
recently formed Congressional Union to adopt the method of the
"militant" branch of the English suffragists and hold the party in
power responsible for the failure to submit the Federal Suffrage
Amendment. They had gone into the equal suffrage States during the
congressional campaign of 1914 and fought the re-election of some of
the staunchest friends of this amendment, Senator Thomas of Colorado,
for instance, chairman of the Senate Committee which had reported it
favorably and a lifelong suffragist. The press and public not knowing
the difference between the two organizations were holding the National
American Association responsible and protests were coming from all
over the country. Some of the younger members, who did not know the
history and traditions of the old association, thought that there
should be cooperation between the two bodies. Both had lobbyists
actively working at the Capitol, members of Congress were confused and
there was a considerable feeling that some plan for united action
should be found. Miss Zona Gale, the writer, offered the following
motion, which was carried without objection: "Realizing that all
suffragists have a common cause at heart and that difference of
methods is inevitable, it is moved that an efficiency commission
consisting of five members be appointed by the Chair to confer with
representatives of the Congressional Union in order to bring about
cooperation with the maximum of efficiency for the successful passage
of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment at this session of Congress." The
Handbook of the convention (page 155) has the following:

     In accordance with the action of the convention, on the motion of
     Miss Zona Gale, the president of the National American Woman
     Suffrage Association appointed a committee of five consisting of
     Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of New York; Mrs. Medill McCormick of
     Illinois; Mrs. Stanley McCormick of Massachusetts; Mrs.
     Antoinette Funk of Illinois and Miss Hannah J. Patterson of
     Pennsylvania, to confer with a similar committee from the
     Congressional Union on the question of cooperation in
     congressional action. These committees met at the New Willard on
     December 17, Miss Alice Paul, Miss Lucy Burns, Mrs. Lawrence
     Lewis, Miss Anne Martin and Mrs. Gilson Gardner being present as
     representatives of the Congressional Union, all but Mrs. Lewis
     (Penn.) of the District of Columbia.

     Its representatives made two suggestions: (1) That the
     Congressional Union should affiliate with the National American
     Woman Suffrage Association. (2) That in any event frequent
     meetings for consultation should be held between the legislative
     committees of the two in order to secure more united action.

     In the discussion of these suggestions it developed that at this
     time the Congressional Union has no election policy and that its
     future policy must depend on political situations. The Union
     declares itself to be non-partisan according to its constitution,
     which pledges its members to support suffrage regardless of the
     interests of any national political parties. At this point the
     report of the joint conference ends.

     The committee of five representing the National American
     Association recommends that no affiliation shall take place
     because it was made quite clear that the Congressional Union does
     not denounce nor pledge itself not to resume what we term its
     anti-party policy and what they designate as their election
     policy; also because it is their intention, as announced by them,
     to organize in all States in the Union for congressional work,
     thus duplicating organizations already existing. Your committee
     further recommends that the incoming board of officers give their
     serious consideration to the suggestion of conferences with a
     view to securing more united action in the lobby work in
     Washington.

At the conference Mrs. Catt explained to Miss Paul that the
association could not accept as an affiliated society one which was
likely to defy its policy held since its foundation in 1869, which was
neither to support nor oppose any political party, nor to work for or
against any candidate except as to his attitude toward woman suffrage.
Miss Paul would give no guarantee that the Congressional Union would
observe this policy. It was thought that some way of dividing the
lobby work might be found but in a short time the Union announced its
program of fighting the candidates of the Democratic party without
any reference to their position on the Federal Amendment or their
record on woman suffrage. They offered as a reason that as the
Democratic party was in control of the Government it should have the
Federal Amendment submitted. There never was a time when the Democrats
had the necessary two-thirds of the members of each house of Congress,
but enough of them favored it so that it could have been carried if
enough of the Republicans had voted for it. It was plainly evident
that it would require the support of both parties. The policy of the
Congressional Union, put into action throughout the presidential
campaign of 1916, made any cooperation impossible.

When in 1904 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt had been obliged to resign the
presidency on account of impaired health it was most reluctantly
accepted by Dr. Shaw and only because Miss Anthony so earnestly
impressed it on her as a duty. She felt that her own great mission was
on the platform rather than in executive office and she preferred it;
besides there was no salary attached to the office and she was
dependent for her livelihood on her own efforts. Miss Anthony, Mrs.
Catt and others overcame all her objections and for eleven years she
had made almost superhuman efforts to fulfil her executive duties and
keep in the field a large part of the time, speaking from ocean to
ocean, from lakes to gulf, and every few years in European countries.
She was in constant demand and could hardly refuse an appeal. Only a
fine constitution and supreme will power enabled her to endure the
strain, and with it all her fund of humor was never exhausted and her
courage never faltered. There was a feeling, however, among some
members of the association that the movement had reached a stage when
she was more than ever needed to address the immense audiences which
everywhere now were hungry to hear the doctrines of woman suffrage;
and they felt also that the situation at present demanded an executive
at the head of the association who could give practically her entire
time to the vast demands for administrative work.

Dr. Shaw had but one regret at laying down the heavy double burden,
which was that it was placed in her hands by Miss Anthony in her last
hour with the charge not to give it up until the final victory was
won. She knew, however, that Miss Anthony would be satisfied if Mrs.
Catt, an unsurpassed executive and organizer, would take it, and such
was the sentiment of a large majority of the delegates, but this she
positively refused to do. She was president of the International
Suffrage Alliance, which had branches in twenty-six countries, and as
most of them were in the very midst of the World War the United States
had to assume the entire responsibility of maintaining the London
headquarters and the official paper. New York State had decided to go
immediately into another amendment campaign and she had again assumed
the chairmanship and was pledged to the work. For several days she
resisted all pleadings until finally the ground was completely taken
out from under her feet. First, a few wealthy women guaranteed a fund
of $5,000 for the year's expenses of the International Alliance to
relieve her of that care. Then a number of delegates went to the New
York delegation of over fifty and labored with them to release her
from the chairmanship of the campaign committee, which, after an
exciting caucus, they reluctantly consented to do at a great
sacrifice, and finally the convention went to her in a body and laid
the fruits of their efforts at her feet and she surrendered.

At the primaries 45 votes were cast for Mrs. Mina C. Van Winkle (N.
J.) principally by members of the Congressional Union who were in some
of the State delegations, but she withdrew her name. For other
officers the opposition that had been manifesting itself for several
years recorded from 41 to 77 votes out of 546, except that Mrs. Susan
W. Fitzgerald (Mass.) received 118 for recording secretary and Dr.
Katharine Bement Davis 141 for third vice-president but withdrew her
name. Others of the present board did not stand for re-election. Mrs.
Henry Wade Rogers was unanimously re-elected treasurer. The following
officers were elected: Mrs. Catt unanimously; Mrs. Frank M. Roessing
(Penn.), first vice-president; Mrs. Katherine Dexter McCormick
(Mass.), second; Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. J.), third; Miss Hannah J.
Patterson (Penn.), corresponding secretary; Mrs. James W. Morrison
(Ills.), recording secretary; Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.), first
auditor; Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Ala.), second. Dr. Shaw came in
from the hearing before the Judiciary Committee as the balloting was
about to begin, and as she took the chair she asked from the
convention the privilege of casting the first vote for Mrs. Catt, "the
woman who from the beginning has been my choice, the one who more than
any other I long to see occupy the position of your president."

The afternoon session was a beautiful and memorable occasion.
Delegates knew there was "something in the air" when they entered the
ante-room and were asked to help themselves from the great quantities
of flowers on the tables and when they saw a uniformed brass band in
one end of the convention hall. Dr. Shaw was in the chair and at her
right and left were Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo and Mrs. Henry
Villard of New York, lovely, white-haired veterans in the cause.
Gathered about her on the platform were those who had been her nearest
associates during the many years of her presidency. The meeting was
called to order and Mrs. Raymond Brown on behalf of the New York
delegation presented a resolution of thanks to Dr. Shaw for the 204
speeches made by her during the past year in that State and asked
unanimous consent of the convention for the adoption of a new by-law
to the constitution making her Honorary President of the association
with a seat on the Board.

As the delegates answered with a rising vote the band broke forth with
patriotic airs and from a side room entered the national officers
followed by the State presidents and chairmen of standing committees.
Dr. Thomas, president of the National College League, bore a golden
laurel wreath on a blue velvet cushion and each of the officers a
large cornucopia filled with yellow blossoms. Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw
carried a long garland of flowers and the presidents had huge
bouquets. The procession marched entirely around the room with the
band playing and the audience singing. Dr. Thomas presented the laurel
wreath to Dr. Shaw "as a symbol of the triumphant work she had done
for the cause which the blue and gold represent." Mrs. Laidlaw placed
the garland about her neck saying, "With these flowers we bind thee to
us forever." The presidents came forward and laid their bouquets at
her feet until they were banked as high as the arms of her chair and
then all grouped themselves around her. As she rose to speak the
whole audience sprang to their feet and commenced to shower her with
roses until she was almost lost to sight. Dr. Shaw was very pale and
her voice faltered in spite of her effort to control it but with the
old smile she said: "Men say women are too emotional to vote but when
we compare our emotions here today to theirs at political conventions
I prefer our kind. If this resolution means that I can still work for
suffrage I accept it gratefully and thank you for the opportunity but
under no consideration would I accept merely an honorary office. The
flowers are beautiful and I shall remember this hour as long as I live
but what will make my heart glad all my life is the love I know the
members of this association have for me."

"The storm of roses ended in a rainbow with a pot of gold at its end,"
said the report in the New York _Tribune_, "for President Thomas came
forward and announced that an annuity had been raised which would give
Dr. Shaw an income of $3,200 as long as she lived. 'This is in order'
she said, 'that you may work for suffrage every day without stopping
to think of finances, and every mill in the $30,000 represents a heart
you have won or a mind you have converted to woman suffrage.' To this
gift Mrs. Lewis added $1,500 to pay a year's salary to a secretary."
"I have always wanted to know how it feels to be a millionaire and now
I know," responded Dr. Shaw. "I cannot think what to say except that
I'm very happy."[100] The delegates cheered and the band played and
when the tumult ceased she turned to where Mrs. Catt sat at the very
back of the platform looking pale as herself and by no means so happy,
and taking her hand led her forward and presented her as the new
president of the association. Again there was a scene of great
enthusiasm and when it ceased Mrs. Catt said: "When I came to this
convention I had no more idea of accepting the presidency of this
association than I had of taking a trip to Kamtchatka. I will do my
best but because I am an unwilling victim and because you all know it
I think I have a right to exact a pledge from you--that if you have
any fault to find with my conduct or that of the Board you will bring
your complaint first to us. I ask all of you to work harder the coming
year than you have ever worked before. I cannot be otherwise than
deeply touched by the confidence you have placed in me. I promise you
to do my best not to disappoint you." The convention clearly
demonstrated its joy over her election and received cordially the new
officers as they were introduced.

Miss Margaret Wilson was among those who showered Dr. Shaw with
flowers on Friday afternoon and she sat on the platform at the mass
meeting in Poli's Theater on Sunday afternoon. Secretary of the
Interior Lane, Senators Moses E. Clapp of Minnesota and Shafroth of
Colorado and many other officials and prominent men and women had
seats on the platform and a large audience was present. The Rev. U. G.
B. Pierce, of All Souls Unitarian Church, gave the invocation. Dr.
Shaw was in the chair and the speakers were Dudley Field Malone,
Collector of the Port of New York; Dr. Katharine Bement Davis,
Commissioner of Corrections of New York City, and Mrs. Catt. Dr. Davis
spoke with marked effect on the Reasonableness of Woman Suffrage. Mr.
Malone traced the extension of suffrage from the earliest to the
present time and showed that in seeking the right to vote American
women were asking nothing new. He spoke of "the million women in New
York State who have to go into the shop, the factory and the market
place each day to earn a living and support a home" and demanded the
vote for these women as a matter of justice. He scorned the idea of
woman's inferiority to man and said: "It is desirable to place in the
electorate every mature individual of brains, character, intelligence
and love of country to perpetuate American traditions and the American
idea of democracy. America today, facing the world problems of
infinite difficulty and variety, needs every element of moral force
and influence in the electorate which she can summon to her service,
for it may be that our country will be called upon before the world to
redeem the pledges made in behalf of democracy itself. The right of
suffrage involves the question of justice; the exercise of suffrage
raises it to one of ethics. The question before the men of the
country is, Should the women have the suffrage and if they get it how
will they use it?"

Here Mr. Malone could not resist the temptation to predict that the
vast majority would vote for military "preparedness," a burning
question at this time. This roused Mrs. Catt's resentment both because
it was contrary to her belief and because it was contrary to the
custom of the association to discuss political subjects. She largely
abandoned the rousing suffrage speech she intended to make in order
that Mr. Malone's assertion might not go out over the country with the
sanction of the association and said in beginning: "Behind
preparedness is a bigger thing--the right to maintain peace. Unless
this country carries a militant peace policy into the court of
nations, nobody will, and if we do not take a firm stand we ourselves
will soon be at war. It has been made clear to me in the last few
months that men are too belligerent to be trusted alone with
governments. The world needs woman's restraining hand. Man's instinct
has been militant since primitive times when it was his job to do the
hunting and fighting and woman's to do the work. Woman's instinct has
been to conserve and protect life. It is much easier to fight than to
make peace. We women would not allow our country to be made the door
mat for other nations but we would find a way to settle disputes
without killing fathers, husbands and sons."

Dr. Shaw sustained firmly the position of Mrs. Catt, obtained a big
collection and sent the people home in a peaceful frame of mind by her
closing speech.

Toward the close of the convention the following resolutions were
presented by the committee, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, chairman, and
adopted:

     WHEREAS, women already have the ballot in twelve States of the
     Union and one Territory and in seven foreign countries, and the
     trend of civilization the world over is toward enlarged rights
     for women; therefore, be it

     RESOLVED, That the National American Woman Suffrage Association,
     in convention assembled, again calls upon Congress to submit to
     the States the Constitutional Amendment providing for nation-wide
     suffrage for women.

     We rejoice in the recent granting of full suffrage to women in
     Denmark and Iceland; Municipal suffrage in South Africa and an
     enlarged local suffrage in the provinces of Canada and the States
     of our Union....

     We express our heartfelt sympathy with the women of all countries
     now suffering through the war and our earnest wish for the speedy
     establishment of peace with justice. Since women must bear their
     full share of all the burdens and sufferings of war they ought in
     fairness to have a share in choosing those in high places who
     settle the question of war or peace.

     The heroic work done for the sick and wounded by the women of
     every land shows them to be worthy of the ballot, their right to
     which Florence Nightingale declared to be an axiom, and their
     plea for which has been endorsed almost unanimously by the
     International Council of Nurses representing nine nations.

     The association reaffirms that its policy is non-partisan and
     non-sectarian, opposing no political party as such and opposing
     no candidate because of his party affiliations but judging every
     candidate by his own attitude and record.

     We believe the home is the foundation of the State; we believe in
     the sacredness of the marriage relationship, and further, we
     believe that the ballot in the hands of women will strengthen the
     power of the home and sustain the sacredness and dignity of
     marriage; we denounce as gross slander statements made by the
     enemies of woman suffrage that its advocates as a class entertain
     opinions to the contrary.

     The thanks and appreciation of the association are tendered to
     its retiring president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, for her long and
     arduous service to this cause, her many labors and hardships and
     her innumerable and powerful addresses, which have won adherents
     to woman suffrage not only throughout the United States but in
     foreign lands.

     We highly appreciate President Wilson's action in declaring in
     favor of the principle of equal suffrage and in stating his
     belief in the good results to be expected from its adoption.

       *       *       *       *       *

As the resolution to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment to the
State Legislatures for ratification had been lost in the Senate and
House of the 63rd Congress it was necessary to begin again with the
64th. Usually the hearings before the committees of the two Houses
were held at the same time and the convention adjourned so the
delegates might be present but at this time the one for the National
American Association before the Senate was set for the morning of
December 15 and the one before the House for the following day. It
adjourned for the first one but as the second promised to be long
drawn out only a delegation went with Dr. Shaw and she returned to the
convention after she had made the opening speech.

At the Senate hearings the chairman, Senator Charles S. Thomas (Col.),
presided and members present were Senators Hollis (N. H.); Clapp
(Minn.); Sutherland (Utah); Catron (N. M.); Jones (Wash.). The other
members, Senators Owen (Okla.) and Johnson (S. Dak.), were suffragists
and probably were out of town. Senator Catron was the only opponent.
Senator Ransdell was added to the committee the second day. On the
third day only Senators Hollis, Clapp, Sutherland and Jones attended.
The time was divided among the representatives of the National
Association, the Congressional Union and the National Anti-Suffrage
Association, the first taking from 10 to 12 o'clock Wednesday; the
second from 10 to 11:30 Thursday; the third from 2 to 3:15 Monday. The
joint resolution for the amendment had been introduced by Senators
Thomas and Sutherland.

On the first day Chairman Thomas said: "This meeting of the Senate
Committee on Woman Suffrage is called at the instance of the National
Association of which Dr. Anna Howard Shaw is the honored president.
The hearing will be conducted under the auspices of that association
and by her direction. Dr. Shaw, we will be glad to hear you now." Dr.
Shaw said in part:

     For thirty-seven years this amendment has been introduced and
     re-introduced into the Congress by members who have been
     favorable to our movement, or who have believed in the justice
     and right of citizens to petition Congress and have that petition
     heard. Last year we were permitted to address your body and we
     rejoiced in the fact that a committee, which from the time of its
     creation usually had been indifferent toward our subject, had now
     been appointed with Senator Thomas, who from the very beginning
     had seen the justice of the demand for woman suffrage, at the
     head. This committee gave us great courage and hope, which were
     fully justified in the fact that for the first time in twenty
     years our resolution was reported out of committee and acted upon
     in the Senate, receiving a majority vote but not the necessary
     two-thirds. We come again with the same measure and again we
     appeal to this committee, in the same terms as for all the past
     years, for the women citizens of the United States who at every
     call have responded as readily as the men in doing their duty and
     serving their country. More and more the demand is being made by
     ever-increasing groups of women that they shall directly share in
     the Government of which they form a part. So we come to you today
     with the same old measure but we come with greater hope than
     ever before because we realize that back of you there are now in
     many of the States constituencies of women.

Dr. Shaw introduced Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs of Alabama, who quoted
from distinguished southern members of Congress on State's rights and
asked that these sentiments be applied to the National Amendment for
Woman Suffrage, saying in part:

     If this amendment is adopted it in no wise regulates or
     interferes with any existing qualification for voting (except
     sex) which the various State constitutions now exact. It leaves
     all others to be determined by the various States through their
     constitutional agencies. It is a fallacy to contend that to
     prohibit discrimination on account of sex would involve the race
     problem. The actual application of the principle in the South
     would be to enfranchise a very large number of white women and
     the same sort of negro women as of negro men now permitted to
     exercise the privilege....

     However much these chivalrous gentlemen may wish it were so, that
     southern women might truly be called roses and lilies which toil
     not, they must know that their compliments do not provide equal
     pay for equal service, which obtains in all the woman suffrage
     States and that their flowers of speech do not help us secure a
     co-guardianship law, which every suffrage State has and which is
     non-existent in all southern States. The pedestal platitude
     appeals less and less to the intelligence of southern women, who
     are learning in increasing numbers that the assertion that they
     are too good, too noble, too pure to vote, in reality brands them
     as incompetents. It cannot be sugarcoated into any other
     significance as long as we remain classed with idiots, criminals
     and some of the negro men who also are disfranchised. As things
     stand in the South an incentive is held out to the negro man to
     become educated that he may meet the tests; to practice industry
     and frugality and acquire property to meet the taxpaying
     qualification; but no such incentive is held out to the white
     women, who meet the insuperable barrier of sex at every turn
     which might lead to progress....

     We women of the South today, while proud of our past do not live
     in it. We wish to be proud of our present that we may look
     forward with confidence to our future. We know that sectionalism
     should have no place in our hearts or lives. This demand for
     suffrage is not sectional, it has its adherents in every State
     and in almost every town in every State. There is little or no
     organized opposition in my part of the country but there are many
     thousands of fine, thoughtful, forward-looking southern women
     banded together seeking the removal of this last badge of
     incompetency. For them there is no North or South but one great
     nation, the interest of whose women is the same. We realize that
     we are not different or better, we southern women, than the women
     in Montana, Illinois, Maine or Massachusetts but are just human
     beings as they are. We are not queens but political and
     industrial serfs. We are not angels but our better natures, our
     higher selves are becoming aroused by the needs of our common
     humanity with a solidarity of purpose, a keenness of vision
     unmarred by selfish motives.

Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees, head of the Rosemary School for Girls in
Greenwich, Conn., described the work of the National Suffrage
Association and its sixty-three auxiliaries in the many State
campaigns and the long effort for a Federal Amendment and said in
closing: "In its propaganda and campaigns the association has steadily
maintained a non-partisan attitude, endeavoring so far as it had power
to help the friends of suffrage and considering as antagonistic only
its opponents. It does not hold its friends responsible for the
failure of their party to pass its measures. It never forgets that it
may have to look for help in amending the State constitutions to the
adherents of a party unfriendly to a Federal Amendment. It believes in
educating the public until the demand for the enfranchisement of women
becomes so strong as to be irresistible. The enormous change of
opinion in that public within a few years inspires the association to
hope for the speedy conclusion of its labors."

Mrs. George Bass, the well-known suffrage and political worker of
Chicago, said in the course of her remarks:

     Women want the ballot because they need it in their business--the
     business of being a woman--in the business that began when the
     first man and the first woman commenced housekeeping in a cave.

     The duties of the man and the woman differentiated themselves at
     that time and they have been differentiated ever since. The woman
     as mother became the first artisan because she had to clothe the
     children. She became the first doctor because she had to treat
     the ills that came to those children of hers and to the man who
     lived by her side. She had to invent tools; she was the first
     farmer. Man and his duties and his responsibilities have been the
     same from that time to this. He brought in to her the slain
     animal which she transmuted into food and changed into clothing.
     He was the protector, and the first government that grew up about
     that first home considered only the problems of offense and
     defense. As the governments of the world became more stable, as
     they developed, they still centered about war, offense and
     defense.... Woman still is the mother of the race but what of the
     home? It has become socialized and the spinning wheel is in the
     attic and millions of women are standing at the great looms of
     this country. The women are in the shops, the factories, the
     offices, everywhere that modern industrialism is extending
     itself. The school has been socialized and the children are by
     the thousands in the schools.

Mrs. Bass then strikingly illustrated how the business of being a
woman now took women to legislative bodies in the interest of the
State's dependent children, of the women in the industries, of the
so-called fallen women, and showed how fatally handicapped all were
without the power of the ballot.

Mrs. Medill McCormick, chairman of the Congressional Committee of the
association, sent a comprehensive report of the vast work it had done
in district organization throughout the States and the evident
influence this had exerted on Congress. Dr. Shaw introduced Mrs.
Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International Woman Suffrage
Alliance, who made the principal address, a searching and
comprehensive review of the methods by which men had obtained the
ballot compared to those which had been used by women and showed the
many requirements made of the latter which were entirely omitted in
the case of men. She took the four recent campaigns in Massachusetts,
New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as the basis of her masterly
address, which will be found in the Appendix of this chapter. At the
end of it she said: "It was twenty-two years ago that I had the
privilege and pleasure of standing upon the same platform with the
chairman of this committee when he made an eloquent appeal to the
citizens of Colorado for the women there and many said that his speech
turned the tide and gave women the vote. I hope that he and every
member will not only make a favorable report but will do more--will
follow that report on the floor of the Senate and work for it and
immortalize themselves while freeing us from the humiliation and the
burden of this struggle."

The hearing was closed by Dr. Shaw with a strong and convincing
argument to show that "if nothing entered into the life of the homes
of this nation except what came through State action it might be said
that only the State should decide who should vote but since the women
are as much affected by the acts of Congress as are the men, this
becomes a national question." She drew a striking picture of
conditions among the nations of Europe where the war was raging; of
how "women in our own country every morning scanned the papers to see
whether we were nearer with the rising sun than we were with the
setting sun of the day before to connections with the Old World which
will plunge us into the war." She took up the questions of tariff and
of prohibition, asked if women should not have a vote on these and the
other great national issues before the country and concluded: "I only
wish that the woman whose name is so closely associated with this
amendment--Susan B. Anthony--might have lived to see this committee as
it exists today instead of having passed away before it was composed
of members of the character of those before whom we now come to
present our cause."

       *       *       *       *       *

At the hearing of the Congressional Union the following day, Senator
Thomas, chairman of the committee, was present but refused to preside,
as the leaders of the Union had gone to Colorado during the recent
campaign and spoken and worked, though unsuccessfully, against his
re-election. Senator Sutherland took the chair. It was conducted by
the vice-president of the Union, Miss Anne Martin. "One of our chief
purposes in asking this hearing," she said, "is to bring before you
not only the ethical importance but the political urgency of settling
this question of national suffrage for women. At present the thought
and strength of large numbers of them throughout the country are
absorbed by this campaign to secure fundamental justice, which
prevents their giving assistance in matters vitally affecting the
interests of the men, women and children of the nation." There would
be five-minute speeches, she said, until the last half hour, which
would be divided between the envoys of the women voters' convention in
San Francisco during the past summer.[101]

Most of the speeches were crisp and clever and well fortified with
facts and figures to prove the advantage of a Federal Amendment over
State amendments in securing universal woman suffrage. The two
"envoys" were Miss Frances Jolliffe and Mrs. Sara Bard Field of
California, who started in an automobile from the grounds of the
Exposition in San Francisco to motor to Washington to present to
Congress a petition which had been collected during the Fair and to do
propaganda work on the way. The former made only part of the trip in
the car but Mrs. Field completed the entire 3,000 miles. Both made
excellent addresses.

       *       *       *       *       *

Senator Hollis occupied the chair at the hearing of the National
Anti-Suffrage Association December 20. Its president, Mrs. Arthur M.
Dodge, introduced the speakers, saying: "We appear before you to urge
that you do not report this resolution to the Senate because we
believe very earnestly that it is a question which should be taken to
the States to be voted on by the electorates and not submitted to the
Legislatures." Mrs. M. C. Talbot, secretary of the Maryland
Anti-Suffrage Association, read a paper prepared by the Hon. John W.
Foster, a strong argument against a Federal Amendment but without a
word of opposition to the granting of woman suffrage by the States.
The other speakers were Miss Florence H. Hall, publicity chairman of
the Pennsylvania Association; Mrs. George P. White, a member of its
executive board; Miss Lucy J. Price, secretary of the Cleveland, O.,
branch; Mrs. A. J. George (Mass.), executive secretary of the National
Congressional Committee. They were trained speakers and their side of
the question was well presented. It was heard by the Senate Committee
without interruption except on one point. Miss Hall said: "On waves of
Populism, Mormonism, insurgency and Socialism ten States have been
added to the pioneer State of Wyoming and are recognizing the suffrage
flag." When she had finished the following colloquy took place:

     Senator Sutherland. I do not ordinarily like to inject anything
     into these hearings, but one statement has been made by the last
     speaker which I do not think I ought to let go without making a
     suggestion in regard to it. If I understood her correctly she
     insists that Mormonism has had something to do with the granting
     of woman suffrage in the ten States in which it has been granted.
     I want to say that in California, Oregon, Washington and Kansas,
     taking those four States which are the largest in which suffrage
     has been granted, the Mormon population and Mormon vote are
     practically negligible.

     Miss Hall. I did not base it on that. I said Mormonism, Populism,
     Socialism and insurgency brought suffrage along with them.

     Senator Sutherland. There is only one State in all of these, so
     far as I know, where Mormons are in the majority and that is in
     my own State of Utah. There are comparatively few in Colorado,
     probably not more than a thousand altogether in the entire
     population, and their numbers are practically negligible in the
     other States.

     Miss Hall. How about Idaho? Forty per cent. there.

     Senator Sutherland. I think perhaps there are twenty-five per
     cent. There are probably 400 or 500 in the State of Nevada. In
     Arizona I do not know just what the percentage is but there are a
     number of Mormon voters there.

     Miss Hall. I would refer the committee to Senator Cannon's recent
     letter on that question, where he names eleven States----

     Senator Sutherland (interposing). I know that claim has been made
     but I undertake to say that it is utterly without foundation. I
     speak in regard to this matter with just as much knowledge as Mr.
     Cannon or anybody else.

     Senator Jones. It is without foundation, so far as the State of
     Washington is concerned.

     Senator Sutherland. While I am not a member of the Mormon Church
     and never have been, I have lived in that section practically all
     my life and it is not correct to say that such a situation as has
     been described prevails in those States.

     Miss Hall. I thought I had pretty good authority for making that
     statement and I think I could produce the evidence to show it.

     Senator Sutherland. I would be surprised if you could produce any
     evidence whatever to substantiate that statement.

Mrs. George, who spoke last, came to the rescue of Miss Hall and this
dialogue occurred:

     Mrs. George. I am confident that the speaker only meant to imply
     that woman suffrage has always been a radical movement and that
     where Mormonism did exist it helped on suffrage....

     Senator Sutherland. As a matter of fact, the Mormon Church and
     the Mormon people are not radical. They are conservative and in
     some instances almost ultra conservative....

     Mrs. George. They may be conservative along certain lines but we
     do look upon the Mormon Church as advocating certain social
     measures which seem to us radical.

     Senator Sutherland. I will grant you that in the past there have
     been some things that you and I would not agree with, but from a
     very careful observation of events I can say to you with perfect
     confidence in the truth of what I say, that that sort of thing
     has passed away.

     Mrs. George. May I say un-American, if you object to the word
     "radical"?

     Senator Sutherland. I object to the word "un-American" much more
     strongly because the Mormon people are not un-American. They are
     good citizens, among the best in this country.

Mrs. George concluded her address to the committee with these words:
"These are grave times. Questions of international relationships, of
preparedness, of the national defense, of finance, are vexing the
wisest minds. Is it a time to further the propaganda of this new crop
of hyphenated Americans--Suffrage-Americans--who place their
propaganda above every need of the country?"

       *       *       *       *       *

With the women of eleven States now eligible to vote for all
candidates at the general election of 1916 and the large number in
Illinois possessing the Presidential franchise woman suffrage had
become a leading issue. Most of the House Judiciary Committee of
twenty-one members, including the chairman, Edwin Y. Webb of North
Carolina, an immovable opponent, were present at the hearing on
December 16 and they faced sixteen speakers for the Federal Amendment
and twelve opposed. Three hours were granted to the former, divided
between the National American Association and the Congressional Union,
and two hours to the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage.
Dr. Shaw opened the hearing by referring to the thirty-seven years
that had seen the leaders of her association pleading with Congress
for favorable action on this amendment and introduced Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt, president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance,
comprising twenty-six nations.

Mrs. Catt said in part:

     Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee, I fear that the
     hearings before this Judiciary Committee have become in the eyes
     and understanding of many of the members a rather perfunctory
     affair which you have to endure. May I remind you that since the
     last hearing something new has happened in the United States and
     that is that more than a million men have voted for woman
     suffrage in four of the most conservative States of the East? I
     consider that that big vote presents to this committee a mandate
     for action which was never presented before. There are those,
     doubtless, who will say that this is a question of State rights.
     I have been studying Congressmen for a good many years and I have
     discovered that when a man believes in woman suffrage it is a
     national question and when he does not believe in it he says it
     is a question for the States....

Mrs. Catt told of the prominent educator who was sent from Belgium to
investigate the working of woman suffrage in the United States and
after he had made a visit to the States where it existed he summed up
the result by saying: "I am convinced in favor in my mind but my heart
is still opposed." "There are members of this committee," she said,
"who are governed by their hearts instead of their heads," and she
continued:

     Gentlemen, this movement has grown bigger and stronger as the
     years have passed by until today millions of women are asking in
     all the States for the vote. The president of Cornell University,
     Dr. Schurman, said that his reason for now aggressively
     advocating woman suffrage was because he had discovered in
     studying history that it was never good for a government to have
     a restless and dissatisfied class; he had made up his mind that
     the women of the nation did think that they had a grievance,
     whether they had or not, and he believed that a government was
     stronger and safer when grievances were relieved.

     A few days before the election in order to show that the women
     wanted to vote there was a parade in New York City and 20,000
     marched up Fifth Avenue, among them a great number of public
     school teachers of the city, 12,000 of whom had contributed to
     our campaign funds. These women deal with the most difficult
     problems; they are teaching all that the new-coming people know
     of citizenship and they were asking their own share in that
     citizenship. A man whose name is known to every one of you was
     sitting at the window of a clubhouse watching the women pass hour
     after hour until at last this great group of teachers, sixteen
     abreast, marched by with their banners. He looked out upon them
     and do you think he said, "I am convinced that the women of New
     York do want to vote and I will help them?" That is what an
     honorable American citizen, an open-minded man, would have said.
     Instead he exclaimed: "My God! I never realized what a menace the
     woman suffrage movement is to this country; we have got to do
     something next Tuesday to keep the women from getting the vote."

     There is not a man on this committee or in this House who can
     produce a single argument against woman suffrage that will hold
     water, and the thing that is rousing the women of this land
     continually and making them realize that our Government visits
     upon us a daily injustice is that the doors of our ports are left
     wide open and the men of all the nations on earth are permitted
     to enter and receive the franchise. In New York City women must
     ask for it in twenty-four languages....

Walter M. Chandler of New York City, a member of the committee, asked
Mrs. Catt if she thought a Representative should vote against the
mandate of his district, which in his case had given a majority of
2,000 against a State amendment in November, although he himself had
spoken and voted for it. A spirited dialogue followed which filled
several pages of the printed report, Mrs. Catt insisting that he
should stand by the broad principle of justice and Mr. Chandler
equally insistent that he must represent his constituents. As Dr. Shaw
rose to return to the convention Mr. Carlin of Virginia said: "Dr.
Shaw, would you mind explaining to this committee the essential
difference between this organization known as the National Woman
Suffrage Association and the Congressional Union? There is a great
deal of confusion among the members of the committee as to just what
is the difference between them," and she answered:

     It is, perhaps, like two different political parties, which
     believe in different procedure. The National Woman Suffrage
     Association has two fundamental ideas--to secure the suffrage
     through State and national constitutions--and we appeal both to
     Congress and to the States. The Congressional Union, as I
     understand it, appeals only to the Congress. Another essential
     difference is that the policy of the Union is to hold the party
     in power responsible for the acts of Congress, whether they are
     acts of that party by itself or of the whole Congress. They
     follow a partisan method of attacking the political party in
     power, whether the members of it are friendly to the
     woman-suffrage movement or not. For instance, Senator Thomas of
     Colorado, Senator Chamberlain of Oregon and other Senators and
     Representatives who have always been favorable to our movement
     and have aided us all the way along, have been attacked by this
     Union not because of their personal attitude toward our question
     but because of the attitude of their party. The National Suffrage
     Association pursues a non-partisan method, attacking no political
     party. If we could defeat a member of any political party who
     persistently opposed our measure we would do it, whether in the
     Republican or the Democratic or any other, but would never hold
     any party responsible for the acts of its individual members.

Many other questions were asked, the committee seeming incredulous
that suffragists would fight the re-election of their friends. The
next speaker was Miss Alice Stone Blackwell whose address consisted in
a solid array of facts and figures that were absolutely unanswerable.
As the daughter of Lucy Stone and editor of the _Woman's Journal_ from
girlhood she was fortified beyond all others with information as to
the progress of woman suffrage; the connection of the liquor interests
with its many defeats; the statistics of the votes that had been taken
and all phases of the subject. Mrs. Harriet Stokes Thompson, an
educator and social worker of Chicago, said in part:

     I wish to make my appeal this morning to both your intellect and
     your sympathies when I speak to you in behalf of the nine million
     women who are out today assuming their part in the industrial
     world. These women who are working in the shops and factories
     have simply followed the evolution of industry. It is not that
     they have entered into man's work at all, because they are doing
     what they formerly did in their homes, and I am asking today that
     you give to them power to protect themselves. Those girls working
     there now are the mothers of the generation to come and that they
     may be well protected in their hours of labor, in the conditions
     under which they work, that they may become mothers of healthy
     children in the future, we are asking that they may speak with
     authority through legislative chambers.... I wish to appeal to
     you, too, for another large group of women, the teachers of the
     United States. I myself am one of those who stand before the
     children of this great nation day after day. The teachers should
     be made citizens in order that they may keep both the letter and
     the spirit of this democratic country in their teachings. I have
     lived in my own State to know the difference in the spirit with
     which you teach citizenship when you yourself are a citizen. A
     slave cannot teach freedom, cannot comprehend the spirit of
     freedom; neither can a woman who is not a citizen comprehend the
     spirit of true citizenship. The teachers of Illinois since they
     were enfranchised have come to their work with a new life, a new
     zest and a new responsibility and we expect to send the boys out
     with a finer appreciation of what it means to render public
     service to a whole community and not a fraction of it. We also
     recognize the fact that our men are feeling that in every good
     work which they undertake a great help has been given to them.

Mrs. George Bass, whose address is quoted in the report of the Senate
hearing in this chapter, gave a valuable résumé of the civic and legal
reforms which already the women of Illinois had been able to
accomplish with their votes and answered a number of questions. Miss
Ruutz-Rees spoke along the lines of her speech before the Senate
Committee, as did Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, who made a strong appeal
in the name of southern women for the Federal Amendment. She was
subjected to a crossfire of questions from the southern members and
Chairman Webb asked the question which many times afterwards came back
to plague him: "Do you not think that as soon as you have a big enough
majority of women in Alabama who want suffrage you will get it from
the State and that you ought not come here bothering Congress about
something that it should not, under our form of government, take
jurisdiction of?" She answered: "I am very regretful that you have
been bothered." During the questions and answers that followed Mrs.
Jacobs brought forward the unjust laws of South Carolina and Alabama
for working women and for all women and said: "The southern man still
prefers to think of the southern women as the sheltered, protected
beings he would like to have them and he does not realize that now
they are the exploited class." Representatives Whaley of South
Carolina and Tribble of Georgia denied her statements and afterwards
put into the Record statistics attempting to disprove them.

In the paper presented by Mrs. Medill McCormick, chairman of the
Congressional Committee, she showed the excellent work that had been
done by its branches organized in the congressional districts; the
pressure on members of Congress by their constituents; the favorable
resolutions that had been passed by organizations and meetings
representing hundreds of thousands and closed: "I wonder whether you
gentlemen of the committee have computed the number of votes that are
now behind the woman suffrage movement in this country? I do not mean
the votes of women in the equal suffrage States alone, I mean the
popular voting strength as shown at the polls all over the country.
Nearly 1,250,000 votes were cast for woman suffrage in New York,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts this fall. Nearly 800,000
were cast in Ohio, Missouri, the Dakotas and Nebraska last fall,
besides the popular vote of the equal suffrage States and Illinois.
The total of these figures from twenty-one States is 6,400,000--that
is, 191,000 more than were cast for President Wilson in forty-eight
States. Would Congress fail to recognize such voting strength upon any
other issue?

       *       *       *       *       *

The rest of the time was given to the Congressional Union, its
chairman, Miss Alice Paul, presiding. The speakers were Mrs. Andreas
Ueland, president of the Minnesota Suffrage Association; Miss Mabel
Vernon of Nevada; Mrs. Jennie Law Hardy, an Australian residing in
Michigan; Mrs. Florence Bayard Hilles of Delaware; Miss Helen Todd,
Miss Frances Jolliffe and Mrs. Sara Bard Field of California. The
first two speakers proceeded without interruption but when Mrs. Hardy
said that by marrying in the United States she found herself
disfranchised, the committee woke up. After questioning her on this
point Mr. Steele of Pennsylvania asked her how she accounted for the
large defeat the second time the suffrage amendment was submitted in
Michigan and she answered: "I account for it partly by the fact that
this was the only State having a campaign that year and the whole
opposition was centered there. The liquor interests themselves
admitted that they spent a million dollars to defeat it."

The address of Mrs. Hilles also brought out a flood of questions,
which, with the answers made by Miss Paul, filled four printed pages
of the official report. They began with requests for information about
the difficulties of amending State constitutions but soon centered on
the campaign of the Union against the Democrats in 1914 and this line
was followed throughout the rest of the hearing, the Federal Amendment
being largely lost sight of. The members showed deep personal
resentment. For example:

     Mr. Taggart (Kan.). Your organization spent a lot of time and
     money trying to defeat men on this committee that you are now
     before, did it not?

     Miss Paul. We went out into the suffrage States and told the
     women voters what was done to the suffrage amendment by the last
     Congress.

     Mr. Taggart. We have before us a joint suffrage resolution by Mr.
     Taylor of Colorado. You tried to defeat him, did you not?

     Miss Paul. The suffrage amendment was not brought to a vote in
     the House until after we went to the West.

     Mr. Taggart. You tried to defeat the man in the House who
     presented this resolution which you are having hearings for, did
     you not?

     Miss Paul. What we did was to go to the Rules Committee, a
     Democratic committee, to ask that this measure be reported out
     and brought to a vote; when the committee had refused to do this
     we went out into the suffrage States of the West and told the
     women voters how the bill was being blocked at Washington. As
     soon as we did that they stopped blocking and the bill was
     brought up before the House for the first time in history.

     Mr. Taggart. That was after the election?

     Miss Paul. Yes.

     Mr. Taggart. You are aware that more Democrats voted for it than
     men of any other party?

     Miss Paul. We are aware that the Democrats met in caucus and
     decided that woman suffrage should not be brought up in the House
     and after we went out into the West they brought it up. We went
     out to tell the women voters about the way some of their
     Representatives were treating the matter.

     Mr. Taggart. And with this result--that in the suffrage State of
     Colorado Senator Thomas, a Democrat, was re-elected to succeed
     himself; in the suffrage State of Arizona, Senator Smith, a
     Democrat, was re-elected to succeed himself; in the suffrage
     State of California a Democrat was elected to succeed a
     Republican; in the suffrage State of Washington the House was
     reinforced by one Democrat, and in the suffrage State of Utah and
     in the suffrage State of Kansas Democrats were elected to
     reinforce the party. One Democrat only, Mr. Seldomridge of
     Colorado, was defeated, for the reason, he says, that his
     district has been gerrymandered; nevertheless, he came and voted
     for the amendment on the floor of the House. Why should you take
     such an interest in defeating Democratic Congressmen and
     Senators?

Miss Paul persisted that all the favorable action taken by Congress
after the election of 1914 was because they campaigned against the
Democrats, ignoring the fact that Nevada and Montana had enfranchised
their women at that election and public sentiment was veering so
rapidly in favor of woman suffrage as to compel both parties to regard
it as a political issue. After the opening sentences of Miss Todd's
speech it became a heated dialogue between her and the members of the
committee.

Miss Paul said in introducing Miss Frances Jolliffe: "She is a strong
Democrat who campaigned for President Wilson and Senator Phelan and is
one of the envoys sent by the women's convention in San Francisco, at
which there were present 10,000 people who bade her 'Godspeed' on this
journey."[102] The beginning of her speech was as follows: "I am here
as a messenger from the women voters of the West. Perhaps first I
should offer my apologies to the minority for appearing at all; for,
gentlemen, I did my level best to defeat the Republican candidate for
the Senate last year and I think I did a good deal to defeat him when
I went before the women and told them they could not send back----"

Mr. Volstead spoke quickly saying: "Will you pardon me an
interruption? Was that the pay you gave the Republicans for giving you
almost as many votes in the House as the Democrats gave you, and that
despite the fact that the Democrats had a two-thirds majority in the
House? That is, less than one-half of the vote in favor of your
proposition came from the Democrats and more than five out of every
six who voted against it were Democrats." The controversy kept up and
when Mrs. Sara Bard Field, the other "envoy," commenced her speech she
begged that she might finish it without interruption. Toward the
close, however, the hearing became a free-for-all debating society,
the discussion filling seven pages of the official report. Miss Paul's
closing remarks caused the debate to be continued through another six
pages. "Can you tell me what will be in the platform of the Democratic
party in 1916?" she asked Chairman Webb. "I can tell you one plank
that will not be in it and that is a plank in favor of woman
suffrage," he answered. The retorts of the women were clever but both
Republican and Democratic members of the committee were very much out
of humor and not in a very good frame of mind to make a favorable
report.

       *       *       *       *       *

The hearing of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage
followed immediately. Its president, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, said in
opening their hearing: "We have come here today to ask you as a
committee not to report this bill favorably to the House, because we
consider that, in the first place, it is a question of State's rights.
In the second place we consider that the women, as represented by
their men--good, bad and indifferent, honest or venal--should be heard
through the men who represent them at the present time and whom the
majority of women are still perfectly willing to have represent them."
She then showed how much larger the majorities were which had voted
against woman suffrage than for it. The speakers were Miss Emily P.
Bissell of Delaware; Mrs. O. D. Oliphant of the New Jersey
association; Mrs. James Wells of the Texas association; Miss Lucy J.
Price of the Cleveland branch; Mrs. A. J. George of the Massachusetts
association. The Judiciary Committee was in an argumentative mood and
began with Mrs. Dodge as follows:

     Mr. Dyer (Mo.). What is the position of your organization with
     reference to the question of whether or not women should have the
     right to vote at all? Are you in favor of women voting?

     Mrs. Dodge. We are in opposition to woman suffrage generally. We
     have never opposed women voting in school matters; we think that
     is a perfectly legitimate line for them to vote upon. The only
     trouble is they do not vote upon those questions where
     authorized; only two per cent. of them do so.

     Mr. Dyer. That is as far as you want them to go?

     Mrs. Dodge. Yes; that is a perfectly legitimate line for them, we
     have always taken that position from the first, but that does not
     mean that women are to be drawn into politics and government and
     we only draw the line at their taking part in politics and
     government.

     Mr. Dyer. I understand your position is that you favor submitting
     this question to the States directly.

     Mrs. Dodge. Yes. We have always rather inclined to the idea that
     it should be submitted to the women themselves.[103] ...

     Mr. Taggart. Would you say that it was just to require a woman to
     pay the income tax demanded by the government and then deny her
     the right to any voice as to who should be the Representative
     that voted that tax on her?

     Mrs. Dodge. I certainly should. I have paid taxes in five States
     myself. I feel that I am entirely protected--that is what the tax
     is for. I think that taxpaying men are just as capable of taking
     care of my rights as of their own and I feel that I am justified
     in saying that the men can quite as well look after that which
     ought to be and is their business as I can.

Mr. Taggart asked: "Why should the women of Kansas have the vote when
it is denied to those of other States who need it as much or more?"
Mrs. Dodge answered: "We think the men in Kansas did not quite know
what they were doing when they gave it to women and a great many
thousands of women there wish they had not done so." "You are then
opposed to having a State grant suffrage to its own women?" he asked.
"Not at all," she replied. "Then why do you say the men did not know
what they were about?" "I do not know whether a majority or a minority
of the voters desired it," she said. "Well, it was a very large
majority and I have never heard a regret expressed in the State that
it was done," responded Mr. Taggart.

Mrs. Oliphant was held up because after saying that the women did not
want the suffrage she argued against a Federal Amendment because if
the women got it it would be very difficult to repeal it. Mr. Graham
(Penn.) rushed to her relief by saying: "The line of thought is that
20 States, holding a minority of the population of the United States
might pass this National Amendment over the protest of the larger
States with the greater population." His attention was called by one
of the committee to the fact that it would require 36 States. Mrs.
Wells kept reminding the committee that she was an inexperienced
speaker and knew nothing about politics but said: "I am a Catholic and
a Democrat. I claim no knowledge of northern women but I cannot
understand how southern women--I speak for them--can so far forget the
memory of Thomas Jefferson and State's rights as to insist on having a
minority of men in Congress pass this constitutional amendment against
our desire." She was reminded that it required two-thirds of each
House. She then told of opposing a suffrage resolution in the Texas
Legislature some years before but neglected to tell of opposing one
for prohibition also. Asked if women did not vote at school elections
in Texas she answered: "I do not know because I know nothing about
politics."

Miss Price was a shrewd speaker and guarded her position but before
she had finished the members of the committee themselves were making
speeches for or against woman suffrage. The speech of Mrs. George of
Massachusetts with its statistics filled fifteen closely printed pages
of the stenographic report. It was an argument for State's rights
which would have done credit to the most extreme southerner and she
protected her defenses against the volley of questions that were kept
up until time for the committee to adjourn.

The anti-suffragists had wisely refrained this year from bringing any
of their male advocates but the latter did not intend to be left out
and they obtained a hearing six weeks later on February 1. Franklin
Carter, secretary of the Man Suffrage Association of New York City,
told the committee he could "get through in half an hour," which was
granted. He consumed over an hour, the official report showing that
after the first few sentences there were not more than three or four
without an interruption from the committee and the "heckling"
continued through seventeen interesting printed pages. Mr. Carter, who
said he received a salary of $100 a month and had expended between
$6,000 and $7,000 during the recent New York amendment campaign, was
at last obliged to submit what he had to say in the form of a "brief,"
which filled six closely printed pages. He was followed by Paul
Littlefield representing the Men's Campaign Committee of the
Pennsylvania Women's Anti-Suffrage Association. His experience was
more disconcerting than that of Mr. Carter, who had freely stated the
expenditures of his association and his own salary while Mr.
Littlefield refused any information on these and other points. He
brought a message from Mrs. Horace Brock, president of the
association, saying: "The women of our State trust the men to
legislate wisely and justly for them, and the ideas of chivalry which
have existed for a thousand years are the great bulwark surrounding
and protecting women, upon which, because of their lack of physical
strength, they must rely for safety and happiness." His grilling
filled twelve printed pages of the report. Mr. Stone asked permission
to get a "brief" from the chairman of the Massachusetts Man Suffrage
Association, Robert Turner, which would clear up many matters. His own
recollection was that the expenditures of that association in the 1915
campaign were $54,000. Mr. Littlefield then relented and said that the
Pennsylvania men's committee spent $20,000 on the campaign. Mr.
Turner's "brief" of 5,000 words was afterwards submitted but did not
mention expenditures.


FOOTNOTES:

[99] Call: In the long years of work for equal suffrage none has been
so crowded with self-sacrificing labor for the cause as this one and
no year so significant of its early ultimate triumph. As we issue this
Call four great campaigns for equal suffrage are in progress in four
eastern States. Thousands of women are working with voice and pen and
tens of thousands are contributing in time and money to win political
freedom for women in these States. Other States are rapidly preparing
for active campaigns in 1916. At the same time the National
Association is putting forth the strongest efforts to win nation-wide
suffrage through the passage of its historic Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States.

We shall come together at this, our forty-seventh annual convention,
larger in numbers, more united in spirit and effort, more assured of
early success than ever before....and, with renewed zeal and
inspiration, rejoicing that the long struggle for the new freedom for
women is nearing an end. Public opinion for equal suffrage has
increased a hundredfold in this fateful year. It seems borne in upon
the most conservative that it is only a matter of time when
nation-wide political freedom will be granted to women as an
inevitable outcome of our democracy and the last step in the great
experiment of self-government....

                    ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.
                    KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, First Vice-President.
                    NELLIE NUGENT SOMERVILLE, Second Vice-President.
                    KATHARINE BEMENT DAVIS, Third Vice-President.
                    NELLIE SAWYER CLARK, Corresponding Secretary.
                    SUSAN WALKER FITZGERALD, Recording Secretary.
                    EMMA WINNER ROGERS, Treasurer.
                    HELEN GUTHRIE MILLER,} Auditors.
                    RUTH HANNA MCCORMICK,}

[100] Although Dr. Shaw was but sixty-eight years old and in perfect
health she afterwards asked the custodians of this fund--George Foster
Peabody, James Lees Laidlaw and Norman de R. Whitehouse, New York
bankers--to hold it in trust, paying her only the annuity each year
and giving her the right to dispose of it at her death in some way to
advance the cause of woman suffrage, which was done.

[101] The speakers were Mrs. William Spencer Murray, secretary of the
Women's Political Union of Connecticut; Mrs. Annie G. Porritt, press
chairman of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. Dana
Durand of Minnesota; Miss Julia Hurlburt, vice-chairman of the Women's
Political Union of New Jersey; Mrs. Agnes Jenks, president of the
Rhode Island W. S. A.; Mrs. Alden H. Potter, chairman of the
Congressional Union in Minnesota; Mrs. Glendower Evans, member of the
Minimum Wage Commission of Massachusetts; Mrs. R. H. Ashbaugh,
president of the Michigan Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. James
Rector, vice-chairman of the C. U. of Ohio; Mrs. Cyrus Mead of the
Ohio C. U.

[102] The automobile started from the Exposition and there were
possibly more than that many people on the grounds. As its departure
had been widely advertised and was made a spectacular event a large
crowd was at the gate.

[103] For the last twenty years the members of the Anti-Suffrage
Association had appeared regularly before committees of Legislatures
in various States to oppose the submission of the question to the
voters, picturing the injury it would be to the community and to the
women. They had never in any State made the slightest effort to have
it submitted to women themselves. The School suffrage was granted in
most of the States before they had any organization but they went
before a committee in the New York Legislature to oppose women on
school boards.




CHAPTER XVI.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1916.


The year 1916 marked a turning point in the sixty-year-old struggle
for woman suffrage. Large delegations of women had attended the
Republican and Democratic National Conventions during the summer and
for the first time each of them had put into its platform an
unequivocal declaration in favor of suffrage for women; the
Progressive, Socialist and Prohibition platforms contained similar
planks, the last three declaring for a Federal Amendment. It had
become one of the leading political issues of the day and a subject of
nation-wide interest. The president of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, quickly recognized the
situation and saw that its official action must not be deferred until
the usual time for its annual convention which would be after the
presidential elections, therefore the Board of Officers issued a call
for an Emergency Convention to meet in Atlantic City, N. J., Sept.
4-10, 1916.[104] The members throughout the country were much
surprised but welcomed the opportunity to visit this beautiful ocean
resort. The headquarters were in the famous Hotel Marlborough-Blenheim
and after the first day the sessions were held in the large New Nixon
Theater on the Board Walk.

After two days of executive meetings the Forty-eighth annual
convention opened the morning of September 6 in the handsome St.
Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, granted by the trustees and pastor,
with an invocation by the latter, the Rev. A. H. Lucas. Mayor Harry
Backarach gave a cordial address of welcome, ending by presenting to
Mrs. Catt, who was in the chair, a huge "key to the city and to our
hearts" tied with ribbons of blue and gold, the colors of the
association. Members of the Board made their official reports at this
and other meetings and all were valuable and interesting but space
permits only a brief mention of most of them. Miss Hannah J. Patterson
(Penn.), corresponding secretary and chairman of organization, told of
the division of the national work into six departments with a national
officer at the head of each and of moving the national headquarters
from 505 Fifth Avenue, corner of 42nd Street, New York, where they had
been since 1909, into much larger offices at 171 Madison Avenue,
corner of 33rd Street. An entire floor was rented with 3,800 square
feet of space, nearly 1,000 more than in the old location. The
Publishing Company took part of this, the association retaining ten
rooms. Miss Patterson told of the thorough organization work being
done under fourteen organizers, who had covered twelve States. She
spoke of the need of training schools for organizers and told of the
value of combining all departments, data, literature, publishing,
organizing, etc., under headquarters management.

Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. J.), third vice-president and head of the
Publishing Company, told of doing field work in Colorado and
California to interest their women in the demonstrations which were
being planned for the political conventions. She spoke of the large
correspondence in connection with the trip of the little "golden
flier," saying:

     This tour was undertaken by Miss Alice Burke and Miss Nell
     Richardson, who left New York April 6 to make a circuit of the
     United States in the interest of the National Association and the
     cause of suffrage. The Saxon Motor Company donated the car, while
     the association arranged for entertainment for Miss Burke and
     Miss Richardson along the route and for expenses over and above
     the collections taken at their meetings, of which they have held
     one a day in the closely settled States. They reached San
     Francisco early in June and are now on their way east. From each
     State through which they have passed we have had appreciative
     letters of their endurance and courage as automobilists and of
     their worth as public speakers. They have suffered actual
     privations crossing the desert and more recently in the Bad Lands
     of the northwest. They were on the Mexican border during the
     raids and their car had to be pulled out of rivers during the
     floods; their courage has never faltered and they have given
     another proof of the well-known fact that you can't discourage a
     suffragist. They set out to make a circuit of the United States
     with the same determination that we all have set out to win our
     enfranchisement and they will not give up until the circuit is
     made. So far nineteen States have been included in the itinerary
     and it is planned to cover six more. The newspaper publicity has
     been nation-wide....

Later Miss Ogden made her report for the National Woman Suffrage
Publishing Company. "We exist," she said, "for two purposes--to serve
the suffrage cause throughout the country and to prove that we can
serve that cause and also develop a successful business." She spoke of
the devoted office staff, under the business manager, Miss Anna De
Baun, who had made personal sacrifices again and again when necessary.

The report of the recording secretary, Mrs. Mary Foulke Morrisson
(Ills.), to whom had been entrusted the organization of the great
parade of suffragists during the National Republican Convention in
Chicago and especially its financing, stated that $6,699 had been
raised by the State and Chicago Equal Suffrage Associations; $200 by
the Chicago Political Equality League and some hundreds of dollars by
local leagues and individuals. She paid high tribute to the unwearying
work of Mrs. Medill McCormick, who, speaking and organizing in the
city and outlying towns "won the support of whole sections of the
community that had hitherto been utterly indifferent." Mrs. Morrisson
herself had spoken fifty times in the interest of the parade in
Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Iowa and the Mississippi Valley Conference.

The report of the national treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, was
received with much appreciation of her money-getting ability and
satisfactory accounting. The total receipts for the year were $81,863
and the close of the fiscal year found a balance on hand of $8,869.
The largest contributions had been $500 each from the State
associations of Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. The National College Equal Suffrage League gave $450.
The expenditures in round numbers were: Headquarters, including
salaries, expenses of conventions, etc., $16,531; publicity, $9,096;
National Congressional Committee, $4,676; publishing _News Letter_,
$982; contributions to campaigns, $21,131; demonstrations,
organization, etc., $20,000.

In commenting Mrs. Rogers said: "Nothing to my mind indicates so
vividly the progress of equal suffrage as the comparative ease with
which the largest budget in the history of the National Association
was pledged and most of it paid by August 25, and the fact that an
excess of that budget amounting to many thousands of dollars has been
raised three months before the usual convention date. 'Money talks'
and it is saying this year: 'No cause in which I could be used appeals
to me as does this fundamental one of enfranchising women, of opening
the door to let them enter and help to make a more Christian
civilization.' Literally we have had only to ask and it has been given
unto us. Scores and hundreds of women in sending their generous gifts
have said: 'Would that my check were ten times as large!' The
wonderful spirit of kindliness and ardent desire to cooperate have
touched the treasurer's heart deeply and made the work of the passing
year a real joy. I am confident that all necessary funds for suffrage
expenditures--national, State and local--can be raised, even to a
million dollars, if more systematic work is done on the financial side
in the States...." Mrs. Rogers outlined the business methods that
should be used and expressed her obligations to her committee of fifty
on finance for their helpful support.

Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.), first auditor, in the report of her
field work told of days, weeks and months spent in visiting cities
from New York to St. Louis, holding conferences and meetings and
writing hundreds of letters to raise money and arrange for the
demonstration to be held in St. Louis during the Democratic National
Convention--the "walkless parade," to which the Missouri Suffrage
Association contributed nearly $2,000. She attended State suffrage and
political conventions and the biennial of the General Federation of
Women's Clubs in New York. "And then came Chicago," the report said,
"with its exciting surge, its march in the rain and its near-victory
plank, followed by St. Louis with its 'golden lane' of suffragists and
a plank a little less pleasing; another trip to Indianapolis with our
Chief--and the most momentous June in suffrage history was over." The
report told of the journey to Cheyenne to attend the Council of Women
Voters; the addresses of the present Democratic Governor Kendrick and
the former Republican Governor and U. S. Senator Carey; the two days
at the State University in Laramie, "the guest of one of the
best-known suffragists in the State, Professor Grace Raymond Hebard";
the visit in Denver, "asking questions and being interviewed." "All of
this," she said, "sent me back firmly convinced that the western women
want to help us in our battle and only wait for a definite program of
work."

The second auditor, Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Ala.), in the report
of her field work showed an equally full schedule. She had been
present at every board meeting but one, of which she was notified too
late; as a member of the Congressional Committee had assisted with the
lobby work in Washington; had attended a three-days' State conference
in Nashville and spoken three times; the Mississippi State convention
and spoken twice; spoken in Savannah and Asheville and at the May-day
celebration of the Nashville League; attended the Chicago and St.
Louis demonstrations and spent the intervening times in raising the
money to meet her pledge of $2,000 for her State to the National
Association.

Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, chairman of the Press Department,
stated that this was largely a nominal position, as the practical work
was done by professionals and would be related in the report from the
Publicity department. The reports of the national officers were
concluded by that of Mrs. Catt, chairman of the Campaign and Survey
Committee, a new feature of the association. It began: "For the
purpose of making a survey of suffrage conditions throughout the
nation, either an officer of the National Board or some person or
persons representing the Board have visited nearly every State in the
Union. I have myself visited twenty-three States; Miss Hauser and Miss
Walker visited nine enfranchised States; Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Jacobs,
Mrs. Morrisson and Mrs. Rogers have each visited several; Mrs.
Roessing and Miss Patterson have made a number of trips to West
Virginia. Our chief motive was to learn conditions. To corroborate our
impressions questionnaires were sent to all the State associations in
January and again in July. As a result of the information obtained the
National Board is convinced that our movement has reached a crisis
which if recognized will open the way to a speedy and final victory."

Mrs. Catt expressed the belief that in the future a better
understanding between national and State boards would be possible and
spoke of the visits of herself and other national officers to West
Virginia and South Dakota, where woman suffrage amendments would be
voted on in November. She then took up the case of Iowa, where one had
been defeated the past June, and made an analysis of a situation which
had existed here and in nearly all States where defeats had taken
place as follows:

     When the present Board came into office, Iowa was in campaign and
     but a few months remained for work. In January I met with the
     State Board and we counselled together concerning the needs of
     the campaign; later I met with it on three different occasions
     and gave one month to speaking in the State. The National Board
     contributed $5,000 to the campaign from the legacy of Mary J.
     Coggeshall of Iowa and gave one organizer from January 1 until
     the vote was taken. It also sent speakers and workers toward the
     end of the campaign. The various States contributed generously
     through the national treasury.

     The campaign came up splendidly at the last. Men, I believe,
     supported it more earnestly than they have done in other States.
     One of the best press bureaus any State has had, under the
     direction of Mrs. Rose Lawless Geyer, was at work for some
     months. The able president, Miss Flora Dunlap, gave all her time
     and ability. There were many brilliant forays which were truly
     effective, but nothing could overcome a weakness which has
     appeared in every campaign and that is the inability of
     newly-formed, untrained committees to put speakers and workers to
     the best use. It will be the case in every campaign that, near
     the end, weak spots must be reinforced by outside experienced
     workers. Another difficulty was that money-raising was left to
     the close of the campaign when all the efforts of workers were
     demanded by other duties. This has been the trouble in most
     States. The lesson we must learn is that at the beginning a
     money-raising plan must be formed and carried out and pledges
     must be made to cover the major portion of the cost before the
     real campaign is begun. Toward the close there are many things
     which ought to be done but are left undone for want of money.
     State committees grow timid because they do not see the money in
     sight and naturally trim their budgets to the point which renders
     defeat inevitable.

     Iowa, like every other State, showed opposition from the "wets,"
     tricks of politicians and the rounding up of every drunkard and
     outcast to vote against the amendment. The unprecedented result
     was that 35,000 more votes were cast on the suffrage proposition
     than on the Governor. This could only have been brought about by
     inducements of some sort which were made to the lowest elements
     of the population. This story differs in coloring and detail with
     each campaign but varies little as to general fact. It must be
     borne in mind and our campaigns must be so good that these
     purchasable and controllable elements will be outvoted.

     A number of men worked against the amendment in Iowa and men are
     working at this time in South Dakota and West Virginia. Who
     employs or pays these men we have never been able to discover.
     Their ordinary method is to secure strictly private meetings of
     men only, where they spread the basest of untruths. All past
     campaigns point to the necessity of waging those of the future
     with a distinct understanding that the worst elements of the
     population will be lined up by this unscrupulous, well-supported,
     combined opposition of men and of women. The women appeal to the
     respectable elements of the community; the men make little
     pretense in this direction. There is a sure alliance between the
     two.

The first public session was held Thursday afternoon and the delegates
looked forward with keen enjoyment to the "three-cornered debate" on
what had become a paramount question. Mrs. Catt was in the chair. Each
leader was to have ten minutes and her second five minutes to speak in
the affirmative only; when the six had presented their arguments there
was to be free discussion from the floor, and, after all who had
wished had spoken, each leader would have ten minutes to answer the
opposition to her point of view. The program was as follows:

Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association drop work on
the Federal Amendment and confine its activities to State legislation?
Leader, Miss Laura Clay, Kentucky; second, Miss Kate Gordon,
Louisiana.

Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association drop work for
State Referenda and concentrate on the Federal Amendment? Leader, Mrs.
Ida Husted Harper, New York; second, Mrs. Glendower Evans,
Massachusetts.

Shall the present policy of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association to work for woman suffrage "by appropriate National and
State legislation" be continued? Leader, Mrs. Raymond Brown, New York;
second, Miss Florence Allen, Ohio.

The alternative amendments to the constitution will then be put: I. To
strike out the words "National and." II. To strike out the words "and
State." If both are lost, the constitution will remain as it is and
the National American Woman Suffrage Association will stand pledged to
both Federal and State campaigns.

The speakers presented their arguments with great earnestness; the
discussion was vigorously carried on and the rebuttals were made with
much spirit. By request the honorary president, Dr. Shaw, who was
sitting on the platform, closed the debate and she strongly urged that
there should be no change in the policy of the association. The
convention voted overwhelmingly in favor of continuing to work for
both National and State constitutional amendments, nearly all of the
southern delegates joining in this vote. Mrs. Harper then rose to a
question of personal privilege and said that she should consider it a
great calamity for the association to discontinue its work for State
amendments and that she only took the opposite side at the urgent
request of Mrs. Catt, with the promise that she should be permitted to
make this explanation. Mrs. Evans made a similar statement and the
audience, which had been mystified by their position, had a hearty
laugh. This debate and the vote of the convention restored the
association to its position of standing for the original Federal
Suffrage Amendment and working for amendments of State constitutions
as a means to this end.

In the evening a brilliant reception for the officers and delegates
was given in the large drawing-room of the Marlborough-Blenheim by the
Atlantic City Woman Suffrage Club and the New Jersey State
Association.

The convention was opened in the New Nixon Theater Thursday morning
with prayer by the Rev. Thomas J. Cross, pastor of the Chelsea Baptist
Church, and much routine business was disposed of. The constitution
was changed so as to exclude from membership all organizations not in
harmony with the policy of the association and the term of the
officers was extended from one to two years. A unique program was
carried out in the afternoon under the direction of the second
vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick--The Handicapped
States, a Concrete Lesson in Constitutions. The States whose
constitutions practically could not be amended were grouped under
these heads: The Impossibles; The Insuperables; The Inexecutables; The
Improbables; The Indubitables; The Inexcusables; The Irreproachables.
Each group was represented by one or more women who quoted from the
constitutions. It was intended as an object lesson to show the
necessity for a Federal Amendment.

At 3:30 Mrs. Catt began her president's address before an audience
that filled the large theater and listened with intense interest until
the last word was spoken at five o'clock. It was a masterly review of
the movement for woman suffrage and a program for the work now
necessary to bring it to a successful end. The opening sentences were
as follows:

     I have taken for my subject, "The Crisis," because I believe that
     a crisis has come in our movement which, if recognized and the
     opportunity seized with vigor, enthusiasm and will, means the
     final victory of our great cause in the very near future. I am
     aware that some suffragists do not share in this belief; they see
     no signs nor symptoms today which were not present yesterday; no
     manifestations in the year 1916 which differ significantly from
     those in the year 1910. To them, the movement has been a steady,
     normal growth from the beginning and must so continue until the
     end. I can only defend my claim with the plea that it is better
     to imagine a crisis where none exists than to fail to recognize
     one when it comes, for a crisis is a culmination of events which
     calls for new considerations and new decisions. A failure to
     answer the call may mean an opportunity lost, a possible victory
     postponed....

This address, coming at the moment when woman suffrage was accepted as
inevitable by the President of the United States and all the political
parties, was regarded as the key-note of the beginning of a campaign
which would end in victory. In pamphlet form it was used as a highly
valued campaign document.

Mrs. Catt showed the impossibility of securing suffrage for all the
women of the country by the State method and pointed out that the
Federal Amendment was the one and only way. "Our cause has been caught
in a snarl of constitutional obstructions and inadequate election
laws," she said, after drawing upon her own experience to show the
hazards of State referenda, and we have a right to appeal to our
Congress to extricate it from this tangle. If there is any chivalry
left this is the time for it to come forward and do an act of simple
justice. In my judgment the women of this land not only have the right
to sit on the steps of Congress until it acts but it is their
self-respecting duty to insist upon their enfranchisement by that
route.... Were there never another convert made there are suffragists
enough in this country, if combined, to make so irresistible a driving
force that victory might be seized at once. How can it be done? By a
simple change of mental attitude. If you are to seize the victory,
that change must take place in this hall, here and now. The crisis is
here, but if the call goes unheeded, if our women think it means the
vote without a struggle, if they think other women can and will pay
the price of their emancipation, the hour may pass and our political
liberty may not be won.... The character of a man is measured by his
will. The same is true of a movement. Then _will_ to be free." The
address made a deep impression and was accepted as a call to arms.

Throughout the convention open-air meetings were held on the Boardwalk
addressed by popular suffrage speakers and thousands in the great
crowds that throng this noted thoroughfare were interested listeners.
The Friday morning session was enlivened by a resolution offered by
Mrs. Raymond Robins, which said that this Emergency Convention had
been called to plan for the final steps which would lead to
nation-wide enfranchisement of women; that the method of amending
State constitutions meant long delay; that many national candidates in
all parties had declared in favor of a Federal Amendment, and
therefore the delegates in this convention urged that in the present
campaign suffragists should support for national office only those
candidates who pledged their support to this amendment. The delegates
quickly recognized that this meant to endorse Judge Charles Evans
Hughes for president, although President Wilson was to address the
convention that evening. Party feeling ran high but still stronger
was the determination of the convention that the association should
not depart from its policy of absolute non-partisanship. Motions were
made and amendments offered and the discussion raged for two hours.
Dr. Shaw spoke strongly against the resolution and finally it was
defeated by a large majority. Later Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of
Chicago offered a resolution which after several amendments read: "We
re-affirm our non-partisan attitude concerning national political
parties but this policy does not preclude the right of any member to
work against any candidate who opposes woman suffrage, nor shall it
refer to the personal attitude of enfranchised women." This was
carried enthusiastically. A resolution by Mrs. J. Claude Bedford
(Penn.) for a vigorous publicity campaign to make clear the
association's non-partisan policy was passed.

There had been such marked increase of public opinion in favor of
woman suffrage in the southern States and so many of their able women
had come into the association that a "Dixie evening" had been
arranged. Mrs. Catt presided and the following program was presented:
Master Words--Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, president Texas Woman
Suffrage Association; Kentucky and Her Constitution--Mrs. Thomas
Jefferson Smith, president Kentucky Equal Rights Association; The
Evolution of Woman--Mrs. Eugene Reilley, vice-president General
Federation of Women's Clubs and vice-president North Carolina Woman
Suffrage Association; Progress of Today and Traditions of
Yesterday--Mrs. Edward McGehee, president Mississippi Federation of
Women's Clubs; For Woman Herself--Mrs. Lila Mead Valentine, president
Virginia Equal Suffrage League; The Southern Temperament as Related to
Woman Suffrage--Mrs. Guilford Dudley, president Tennessee Equal
Suffrage Association, Inc.; Real Americanism--Mrs. T. T. Cotnam,
vice-president Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association. Southern women
have a natural gift of oratory and the audience was delightfully
entertained. But three of these addresses were published and space can
be given only to brief extracts.

"There is in America today," Mrs. Cotnam said, "a large class of
people who are restless and dissatisfied and are smarting under the
injustice of being governed without their consent. This is a class
with the blood of the Pilgrim mothers in their veins--of those who
cheerfully endured untold hardships as the price of liberty; a class
with the blood of the Revolutionary fathers in their veins--of those
who gave their lives that their children might be free; a class who
are the rightful joint heirs with all the people of the United States
of the heritage of freedom but whose inheritance after 140 years is
still kept 'in trust.'" She referred to the anxiety of Congress "to
make the Filipinos a self-governing people after only a few years of
American tutelage while 140 years have not been enough to equip
American women for self-government," and said: "Political leaders say
America is 'the waymark of all people seeking liberty' and yet
one-half of the American people have never known liberty. They promise
justice to the oppressed of every land who are seeking refuge and
practice injustice against one-half of those whose homes have always
been here. Every citizen of the United States is jealous of her
standing among the nations and just now each political party is
claiming to be the only worthy custodian of national honor. It is with
amazement we read the arraignment of one party by another and note
that in no instance have they taken each other to task for injustice
to American women which violates the fundamental principle of
democracy, 'Equal rights for all, special privileges to none.' ...
Americanism--it stands for the recognition of the equality of men and
women before the law of man as they are equal before the law of God.
Americanism--it stands for truth triumphant. Americanism--it will find
its full realization when men and women meet upon a plane of equal
rights with a united desire to maintain peace, to guard the nation's
honor, to advance prosperity and to secure the happiness of the
people."

"We are a race of dreamers in the South by choice and because of
climatic conditions," said Mrs. Guilford Dudley in an eloquent
address. After a keenly sarcastic comparison between southern chivalry
and the unjust laws for women, and the observation that "the only
business a southern girl is taught is the business of hearts," she
said:

     As long as it was a question of woman's rights; as long as the
     fight had any appearance of being against man; as long as there
     seemed to be a vestige of sex antagonism, the southern woman
     stood with her back turned squarely toward the cause. She
     wouldn't even turn around to look at it, she would have none of
     it, but when she awoke slowly to a social consciousness, when
     eyes and brain were at last free, after a terrible reconstruction
     period, to look out upon the world as a whole; when she found
     particularly among the more fortunate classes that her leisure
     had come to mean laziness; when she realized that through the
     changed conditions of modern life so much of her work had been
     taken out of the home, leaving her to choose between following it
     into the world or remaining idle; when with a clearer vision she
     saw that her help in governmental affairs, especially where they
     touched her own interests, was much needed--right about face she
     turned and said to the southern man: "I don't wish to usurp your
     place in government but it is time I had my own. I don't complain
     of the way you have conducted your part of the business but my
     part has been either badly managed or not managed at all. In the
     past you have not shown yourself averse to accepting my help in
     very serious matters; my courage and fortitude and wisdom you
     have continually praised. Now that there is a closer connection
     between the government and the home than ever before in the
     history of the world, I ask that you will let me help you."

Mrs. Dudley described the effect of the demand for woman suffrage on
the politicians, on the men who feared they would be "reformed," on
the sentimentalists, and then she paid tribute to the broad-minded,
justice-loving men who encouraged the women in their new aspirations
and concluded: "So you see not only the southern woman but the
southern man is now awake and present conditions strongly indicate
that before another year has passed we will have some form of suffrage
for the woman of Tennessee.... We have had a vision--a vision of a
time when a woman's home will be the whole wide world, her children
all those whose feet are bare and her sisters all who need a helping
hand; a vision of a new knighthood, a new chivalry, when men will not
only fight for women but for the rights of women."

The plea of Mrs. Valentine for a higher womanhood should be given in
full but an idea at least can be gained by a quotation:

     If I were asked to give one reason above all others for
     advocating the enfranchisement of women I should unhesitatingly
     reply, "The necessity for the complete development of woman as a
     prerequisite for the highest development of the race." Just so
     long as woman remains under guardianship, as if she were a minor
     or an incompetent--just so long as she passively accepts at the
     hands of men conditions, usages, laws, as if they were decrees of
     Providence--just so long as she is deprived of the educative
     responsibilities of self-government--by just so much does she
     fall short of complete development as a human being and retard
     the progress of the race. We are the children of our mothers as
     well as of our fathers and we inherit the defects as well as the
     perfections of both. Many a man goes down in his business--is a
     "failure in life," as the phrase goes--because he is the son of
     an undeveloped mother and, like her, is lacking in independence,
     in initiative, in ability to seize upon golden opportunities. Yet
     she was trained to passivity, to submission, to the obliteration
     of whatever personality she may have possessed. What more could
     we expect of her son? Imagine for a moment the effect upon men
     had they from infancy been subjected to the narrowing, ossifying
     processes applied to women for centuries!

     Happily for the race, however, the great majority of women are
     waking from the sleep of centuries, are eagerly stretching out
     their hands for the key that is to open wide the door of larger
     opportunity. Happily, too, the forward-looking men of today are
     seeing the vision of womanhood released from the old-world
     thraldom. In rapidly increasing numbers they are welcoming the
     new woman, in whom they find not only the wife and mother more
     fully equipped for her task but a comrade of congenial tastes,
     keenly interested in the outside world and capable of taking her
     place beside the husband, whether in peace or war, wherever her
     country calls.... The suffrage movement is a world-wide protest
     against the mental subjection of woman. Therein lies its vital
     importance. It strikes deep into the core of life. It is a basic,
     fundamental reform, for it is releasing for the service of the
     State the unused natural resources dormant in womanhood; it is
     transforming the dependent woman into woman enfranchised that she
     may the more perfectly fulfill her destiny as the mother of the
     race.

The morning and afternoon sessions were crowded with reports,
conferences and business of various kinds in which the delegates were
keenly interested. Mrs. Grace Thompson Seton, chairman of the Art
Publicity Committee, gave an interesting account of its work, told of
the prizes that had been offered for posters and slogans and the
cooperation of men and women prominent in the literary, artistic and
social world; of the "teas" given at the national headquarters,
bringing many who had never visited them before: of the beautiful
banners and costumes designed for the suffrage parades and other
features of this somewhat neglected side of the work for woman
suffrage. The chairman of the Literature Committee, Mrs. Arthur L.
Livermore, submitted a comprehensive report of the systematizing of
that department, the classifying and cataloguing and the endeavor to
ascertain and meet the varied demands. A Suffrage Study Outline, a
Blue Book Suffrage School and Mrs. Annie G. Porritt's Laws Relating
to Women and Children had been published; literature for the rural
districts, for the home, for campaigns, placards, fliers and an
endless number of novelties.

It would be impossible to give in a few paragraphs even an idea of the
carefully prepared report of Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, the skilled head
of the Data Department, which filled eight printed pages. It told of
the progress that had been made in organizing the department, the wide
scope of the collections and the increasing demand for information
from many sources. It would be equally difficult to do justice to the
sixteen printed pages of the report of Charles T. Heaslip, national
publicity director. He had organized a publicity council, which thus
far had members in twenty-six States. His full knowledge of the large
syndicates had enabled him to keep the subject before the public
throughout the country; he had made wide use of photographs, cartoons,
posters and moving pictures. Hundreds of papers on the route of the
"golden flier" had been supplied with pictures and stories. He had
gone to Iowa to assist in the campaign there and he described also the
large amount of publicity work done at the time the suffragists were
making their national demonstrations during the presidential
conventions in Chicago and St. Louis. He showed how victory could be
hastened by thorough publicity work in every State from Maine to
California. Later the Chair announced the receipt of a letter from the
press, signed by representatives of nineteen newspapers at the
convention, expressing their thanks to Mr. Heaslip and their hearty
appreciation of his services, without which they could not have
handled its press work in a satisfactory manner.

Under the topic How and Where to Drive the Entering Wedge, Miss
Florence Allen of Ohio told of the openings offered by amending city
charters for woman suffrage and Mrs. Roger G. Perkins described the
successful campaign in East Cleveland for this purpose. The recent
campaigns in West Virginia and South Dakota were discussed by the
State presidents, Mrs. Ellis A. Yost and Mrs. John L. Pyle; that of
Iowa by Mrs. Geyer, publicity director, and the work in Tennessee for
a constitutional convention by Mrs. James M. McCormack, State
president. The chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee, Mrs.
Robert S. Huse (N. J.), reported that bills had been introduced in the
Legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Kentucky and Rhode Island,
public hearings being granted by the first three, but no vote was
taken.

Is Limited Suffrage Worth While? was answered by Mrs. George Bass
(Ills.) who declared it to be "a positive influence for good"; it was
called by Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout (Ills.) "a step toward full
suffrage"; by Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (Ohio) "a help to other
States." Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch described "the chances opened
by the Illinois law." It was the consensus of opinion that partial
suffrage was quite worth striving for. This was directly opposed to
that heretofore held by the association but in the past only a
Municipal vote had been asked for and Kansas alone had granted it.
Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) made a strong presentation of the Elections
Bill, which would permit women to vote for members of Congress. What
Kansas Thinks about Woman Suffrage was graphically told by Mrs. W. Y.
Morgan, president of the State association. Help from the West was
promised by Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe (Wash.), president of the National
Council of Women Voters.

The climax of the convention came on the evening of September 8 with
the address of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. Only
once before had a President appeared before a national suffrage
convention--when William Howard Taft made a ten-minute speech of
welcome to Washington in 1910 but without committing himself to the
movement. When the present convention was called, after the
endorsement of woman suffrage by the national conventions of all
parties, the two leading candidates for President were invited to
address it. Judge Hughes, who had declared in favor of the Federal
Suffrage Amendment, answered that he would be too far away on a
speaking tour to reach Atlantic City. President Wilson wrote that he
would endeavor to arrange his itinerary so as to be present. Later he
announced that he would come and would remain throughout the evening.
Undoubtedly he never before faced such an audience. The greatest care
had been taken to exclude all but delegates and invited guests and
from the stage of the theater to the back stretched tier after tier
of white-robed women, while the boxes were filled with prominent
people, mostly women. As he came from the street to the stage with
Mrs. Wilson, also gowned in white, he passed through a lane of
suffragists, one from each State, designated by banners, with broad
sashes of blue and gold across their breasts. He was accompanied by
Private Secretary Tumulty and several distinguished men and the entire
stage behind the decorations of palms and other plants was surrounded
by a cordon of the secret service. Forty-three large newspapers
throughout the country were represented at the reporters' table.

The President had asked to speak last and he listened with much
interest to a program of noted public workers as follows: Why Women
Need the Vote. The Call of the Working Woman for the Protection of the
Woman's Vote--Mrs. Raymond Robins, president of National Women's
Trades Union League. Mothers in Politics--Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of
National Children's Bureau. A Necessary Safeguard to Public
Morals--Dr. Katharine Bement Davis, Chief of Parole Commission, New
York City. Working Children--Dr. Owen R. Lovejoy, general secretary of
National Child Labor Committee. Each speaker emphasized the necessity
for the enfranchisement of women as a means for the nation's highest
welfare. Mrs. Catt was in the chair and introduced the President, who
said with much earnestness and sincerity:

     Madam President, Ladies of the Association: I have found it a
     real privilege to be here tonight and to listen to the addresses
     which you have heard. Though you may not all of you believe it, I
     would a great deal rather hear somebody else speak than speak
     myself, but I would feel that I was omitting a duty if I did not
     address you tonight and say some of the things that have been in
     my thoughts as I realized the approach of this evening and the
     duty that would fall upon me.

     The astonishing thing about the movement which you represent is
     not that it has grown so slowly but that it has grown so rapidly.
     No doubt for those who have been a long time in the struggle,
     like your honored president, it seems a long and arduous path
     that has been trodden, but when you think of the cumulating force
     of the movement in recent decades you must agree with me that it
     is one of the most astonishing tides in modern history. Two
     generations ago--no doubt Madam President will agree with me in
     saying this--it was a handful of women who were fighting for
     this cause; now it is a great multitude of women who are fighting
     for it. There are some interesting historical connections which I
     should like to attempt to point out to you.

     One of the most striking facts about the history of the United
     States is that at the outset it was a lawyers' history. Almost
     all of the questions to which America addressed itself, say a
     hundred years ago, were legal questions; were questions of
     methods, not questions of what you were going to do with your
     government but questions of how you were going to constitute your
     government; how you were going to balance the powers of the State
     and the Federal government; how you were going to balance the
     claims of property against the processes of liberty; how you were
     going to make up your government so as to balance the parts
     against each other, so that the Legislature would check the
     Executive and the Executive the Legislature. The idea of
     government when the United States became a nation was a
     mechanical conception and the mechanical conception which
     underlay it was the Newtonian theory of the universe. If you take
     up the Federalist you see that some parts of it read like a
     treatise on government. They speak of the centrifugal and
     centripetal forces and locate the President somewhere in a
     rotating system. The whole thing is a calculation of power and
     adjustment of parts. There was a time when nobody but a lawyer
     could know enough to run the government of the United States....

     And then something happened. A great question arose in this
     country which, though complicated with legal elements, was at
     bottom a human question and nothing but a question of humanity.
     That was the slavery question, and is it not significant that it
     was then, and then for the first time, that women became
     prominent in politics in America? Not many women--those prominent
     in that day are so few that you can almost name them over in a
     brief catalogue--but, nevertheless, they then began to play a
     part not only in writing but in public speech, which was a very
     novel part for women to play in America; and after the Civil War
     had settled some of what seemed to be the most difficult legal
     questions of our system the life of the nation began not only to
     unfold but to accumulate.

     Life in the United States was a comparatively simple matter at
     the time of the Civil War. There was none of that underground
     struggle which is now so manifest to those who look only a little
     way beneath the surface. Stories such as Dr. Davis has told
     tonight were uncommon in those simpler days. The pressure of low
     wages, the agony of obscure and unremunerated toil did not exist
     in America in anything like the same proportions as they exist
     now. And as our life has unfolded and accumulated, as the
     contacts of it have become hot, as the populations have assembled
     in the cities and the cool spaces of the country have been
     supplemented by feverish urban areas, the whole nature of our
     political questions has been altered. They have ceased to be
     legal questions. They have more and more become social
     questions, questions with regard to the relations of human beings
     to one another, not merely their legal relations but their moral
     and spiritual relations to one another.

     This has been most characteristic of American life in the last
     few decades, and as these questions have assumed greater and
     greater prominence the movement which this association represents
     has gathered cumulative force, so that when anybody asks himself,
     What does this gathering force mean? if he knows anything about
     the history of the country he knows that it means something
     _which has not only come to stay but has come with conquering
     power_.

     I get a little impatient sometimes about the discussion of the
     channels and methods by which it is to prevail. _It is going to
     prevail_ and that is a very superficial and ignorant view of it
     which attributes it to mere social unrest. It is not merely
     because women are discontented, it is because they have seen
     visions of duty, and that is something that we not only can not
     resist but if we be true Americans we do not wish to resist.
     Because America took its origin in visions of the human spirit,
     in aspirations for the deepest sort of liberty of the mind and
     heart, and, as visions of that sort come to the sight of those
     who are spiritually minded America comes more and more into its
     birthright and into the perfection of its development; so that
     what we have to realize is that in dealing with forces of this
     sort we are dealing with the substance of life itself.

     I have felt as I sat here tonight the wholesome contagion of the
     occasion. Almost every other time that I ever visited Atlantic
     City I came to fight somebody. I hardly know how to conduct
     myself when _I have not come to fight anybody but with somebody_.

     I have come to suggest among other things that when the forces of
     nature are working steadily and the tide is rising to meet the
     moon, you need not be afraid that it will not come to its flood.
     We feel the tide; we rejoice in the strength of it, and _we shall
     not quarrel in the long run as to the method of it_, because,
     when you are working with masses of men and organized bodies of
     opinion, you have got to carry the organized body along. The
     whole art and practice of government consist not in moving
     individuals but in moving masses. It is all very well to run
     ahead and beckon, but, after all, you have got to wait for them
     to follow. I have not come to ask you to be patient, because you
     have been, but I have come to congratulate you that there has
     been a force behind you that will beyond any peradventure be
     triumphant and for which you can afford a little while to wait.

When President Wilson had finished amid enthusiastic applause Mrs.
Catt asked Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president, to respond. She
was much moved by the occasion and taking the last sentence of the
address for a text she eloquently told how women had already worked
and waited for more than three score years. "We have waited long
enough for the vote, we want it now," she exclaimed, and then turning
to the President with her irresistible smile she finished, "and we
want it to come in your administration!" He smiled and bowed and the
whole audience rose in a sea of waving handkerchiefs as he took his
departure. The President of the United States had said: "Your cause is
going to prevail; I have come to fight with you; we shall not quarrel
as to the method!"

The other speeches of the evening were all of a high order. Mrs.
Robins, as always, made an unanswerable argument for giving women wage
earners the protection of the ballot. "In the Children's Bureau," Miss
Lathrop said, "we have come to see the close connection between the
welfare of mother and child. Because we are so concerned for the
children we asked a physician to take those vast, mysterious volumes
of the census and look up the facts about the mortality of mothers.
Last year in the United States more than 15,000 women lost their lives
carrying on the life of the race. The death rate from other things,
such as typhoid and diphtheria, has been cut in half but between 1900
and 1913 maternal mortality was not lessened but seemingly increased;
yet this waste of life is just as preventable as those diseases, for
medical science has shown that with proper care the dangers of
childbirth can be made very small. Just as fast as women are allowed a
voice in public affairs it is their duty to see that no mother and
child shall perish for lack of care. Every country should have a
mother and child welfare center. When a memorial was lately proposed
for a woman who had died in the war, a well-known man said: 'We can
enfranchise her sex in tribute to the valor which she proved that it
possessed.' It is not too much to give suffrage to women in tribute to
the 15,000 who are dying every year in this great duty and service;
yet we do not ask the ballot for women as a reward but because, as a
duty and a service, we ought to ask for it...."

"Woman suffrage is needed in the interest of good morals," was the
keynote of Dr. Davis's address, who said:

     You cannot legislate righteousness into the human heart but you
     can reduce to a minimum the temptations that are offered to
     youth. To a large extent you can stop commercialized vice and the
     manufacture of criminals. I am not one of those who think that
     the millenium will come soon after women get the vote, but I
     believe that women will take an unusual interest in the effort to
     clean up vicious conditions, because all down the ages women have
     paid the price of vice and crime.

     I do not believe that at heart a man is any worse than a woman,
     but all through the centuries he has been taught that he may do
     some things which a woman may not. It is only of late that we
     have begun to fight these things in the open and you cannot
     successfully fight any evil in the dark. For sixteen years my
     work has brought me in contact with this peculiar phase of public
     morals and I know whereof I speak. Public morals are corrupted
     because woman's point of view has no representation. We have laws
     to regulate these things but they are man-made and the public
     sentiment behind them which should govern their enforcement has
     grown up through the ages and it is the sentiment of men only.
     The laws are not equal nor equally enforced. If you doubt it you
     have only to go into the night court and you will see woman after
     woman convicted on the word of a policeman only, while in order
     to convict a man you have to pile evidence on evidence. I think
     this inequality of treatment will not cease till women get a
     vote.

In a very convincing address Dr. Lovejoy said:

     The past month has been memorable in the history of child labor
     reform in America. A three-years' campaign culminated last Friday
     in the signing of a bill by President Wilson which excludes from
     the facilities of interstate commerce the exploiters of child
     labor. It has been estimated that 150,000 children who now bow
     under the yoke of excessive toil will be able to straighten up
     and look heaven in the face when this law begins to operate on
     the first of next September. In signing the bill the President
     said: "I want to say that with real emotion I sign this bill,
     because I know how long the struggle has been to secure
     legislation of this sort and what it is going to mean to the
     health and vigor of this country and also to the happiness of
     those whom it affects. It is with genuine pride that I play my
     part in completing legislation."

     I am convinced that we need the voice of the church, the school,
     the home, in making and enforcing laws to protect working
     children, and, since half the adult population of our American
     homes are women, since approximately 75 per cent. of the church
     members are women, since 90 per cent. of the school teachers are
     women and since every moral and educational enterprise in the
     country is represented in about the same proportion, cold logic
     forces us to the conclusion that we need women in politics. Of
     10,000 members of the National Child Labor Committee, 6,400 are
     women. Some of the experiences we have had with men in
     Legislatures in response to the appeal of mothers for the
     protection of working children have forced me to the conclusion
     that in this protection the participation of women in the
     law-making of the State is vital.

The primary nominations and elections were held with voting machines
and when the result was announced it was found that all the old board
was nominated with the exception of Mrs. Roessing, Miss Patterson and
Mrs. Morrisson, who declined to stand for re-election. Their places
were filled with Mrs. Frank J. Shuler (N. Y.), corresponding
secretary; Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith (Ky.), recording secretary and
Miss Heloise Meyer (Mass.), first auditor. As there were no other
candidates the secretary was unanimously requested by the convention
to cast its vote. This was a remarkable record for 543 delegates. A
national suffrage flag was adopted, the gift of Pennsylvania--a yellow
field with fringed edges, in the center a circle of eleven blue stars
representing the equal suffrage States enclosing an eagle on the wing
holding the globe in its talons. Mrs. J. O. Miller in behalf of the
president made an eloquent presentation.

Miss Clay moved a resolution on her Elections Bill that the convention
endeavor to protect women citizens in their right to vote for U. S.
Senators and Representatives and with this object in view endorse this
bill introduced by Senator Robert L. Owen (Okla.). This motion was
carried. Mrs. Catt stated that the resolution of Mrs. Sallie Clay
Bennett (Ky.) was similar and this also was passed. A large number of
letters and telegrams were read from eminent men and women and from
societies of many kinds. Mrs. Catt stated that in not one had it been
suggested that the association lessen its activities for the Federal
Amendment. The convention then adopted a resolution instructing the
Congressional Committee "to concentrate all its resources on a
determined effort to carry this amendment through the next session of
Congress."

Invitations for the next convention were received from nine States.
Greetings were sent to three of the original surviving pioneers, the
Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of New Jersey; Mrs. Judith W. Smith of
Massachusetts and Miss Emily Howland of New York. The delegates were
introduced who brought greetings from the National Equal Franchise
Union of Canada, and Mrs. Campbell McIvor responded. A special vote of
thanks was given to Miss Mary Garrett Hay and Miss Lulu H. Marvel,
chairman of the General Committee of Arrangements, for their perfect
management of President Wilson's visit to the convention. Among those
submitted by the Committee on Resolutions, Mrs. Alice Duer Miller (N.
Y.), chairman, and adopted were the following:

     Whereas, all political parties in their national platforms have
     endorsed the principle of woman suffrage, be it

     Resolved, That the National American Woman Suffrage Association
     in convention assembled calls upon Congress to submit to the
     States the Constitutional Amendment providing nation-wide
     suffrage for women.

     Whereas, the Democratic and Republican parties in endorsing the
     principle of woman suffrage have specially recognized the right
     of the States to settle the question for themselves, we call upon
     these parties in the States where amendment campaigns are in
     progress to take immediate action to obtain the enfranchisement
     of women, and in other States to take such action as the suffrage
     organizations deem expedient.

     Whereas, honest elections are vital to good government in this
     country and to the decisions in the campaigns for woman suffrage;
     and

     Whereas, public records of all funds used in political campaigns
     will benefit our movement in that they will bring to light its
     real opponents, therefore

     Resolved, That this convention urges the passage by Congress and
     the States of a thorough and comprehensive Corrupt Practices Act
     providing effectual punishment for offenders.

     That in recognition of Miss Clara Barton's lifelong support of
     woman suffrage, as well as her service to the country in founding
     the American Red Cross and standing at its head for more than a
     quarter of a century, this association endorses the bill recently
     introduced in Congress providing for an appropriation of $1,000
     to place a suitable memorial to Miss Barton in the Red Cross
     Building now being constructed in the city of Washington.

     That we express our profound sympathy with the women in the
     countries now at war and our sense of the advance that has been
     made in the cause of all women by the devotion, ability and
     courage with which those women have risen to the new demands on
     them.

     That we express our deep appreciation of the great honor the
     President of the United States has done the women of the country
     by coming to Atlantic City especially to address this convention.

Rejoicing was expressed over the many victories during the year, the
endorsement by large organizations--the General Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, the Anti-Saloon League, the Women's Relief
Corps and others; a plank for woman suffrage in all national party
platforms; a favorable declaration by all presidential candidates and
for the first time the sanction of the President of the United States.
The report of Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, chairman of the National
Congressional Committee, gave so complete an account of the situation
at the time the great "drive" for the Federal Amendment was begun that
it is largely reproduced.

     At the opening of the 64th Congress in December, 1915, several
     political leaders interested in the progress of social and
     economic legislation stated that 1916 would be a lean year in
     Congress for such movements. It was pointed out that particularly
     in the Senate some of the most reactionary men had been returned
     at the preceding election. It is also a presidential election
     year and neither of the great parties is willing to take one
     unnecessary step which in its judgment may tend to add to the
     number of its adversaries or to its vulnerable points in some
     particular section of the country. All of the 435 members of the
     House and one-third of the Senators come up for re-election in
     November of this year--they, too, are shy and sensitive. Some
     legislation, notably child labor after it had been endorsed by
     the National Democratic platform, successfully ran the gauntlet
     but not so our Federal Suffrage Amendment. It is with keen regret
     your committee reports that it has not had action in either the
     Senate or House of Representatives.

     In the Senate the resolution was introduced Dec. 7, 1915, by
     Senators Sutherland, Thomas and Thompson of Kansas and referred
     to the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage. This committee
     reported favorably resolution No. 1, introduced by Senator
     Sutherland. The written report made from the committee by Senator
     Thomas is one of the best pieces of literature on the subject and
     copies were mailed to every State president and State chairman of
     congressional work. Since that early date our measure has been on
     the calendar. It has come to the top a number of times but at the
     request of suffrage Senators has been held until a more
     auspicious hour.

     As the National Association was desirous of having a vote on the
     measure at this session, your committee began to work to that end
     immediately after receiving specific instructions from the Board
     June 17, 1916. The meaning of the suffrage planks in the
     Republican and Democratic platforms was disputed by some men in
     both parties. The leaders stated that the planks were silent as
     to the Federal Amendment and thus left men free to vote on the
     amendment as each decided. In order to ascertain the
     interpretation which would be given by members of Congress it was
     determined to push for a vote in the Senate. On June 27 Mrs.
     Catt, Miss Hannah J. Patterson, corresponding secretary of the
     National Suffrage Association, Mrs. Antoinette Funk,
     vice-chairman of the committee, Miss Hay and the chairman held an
     informal conference with the Senators of the enfranchised States
     in the office of Senator Shafroth to secure their assistance. As
     unanimous consent is required for the consideration of such a
     measure, the Senators agreed that if we would have the vote taken
     without debate it would probably be possible, since this would
     not consume the time of the Senate. We believed that this was
     best in order to make sure of the vote. On July 22 Senator Thomas
     wrote to every Senator asking whether he would consent to a vote
     being taken without debate. He informed us that on both the
     Republican and Democratic sides there were men who would not give
     such consent, some stating that they had been asked by certain
     suffragists of the other organization not to consent. After the
     endorsement of the Federal Amendment by Judge Hughes, the
     candidate for President, frequent remarks were made in the Senate
     on it by members of both parties. Senator Clark (Republican) of
     Wyoming and Senator Pittman (Democrat) of Nevada were among those
     who urged action at this session but finally in August Senator
     Thomas gave up the effort.

The unfair treatment of the amendment resolution in the House
Judiciary Committee and its final suppression by Chairman Edwin Y.
Webb (N. C.) were described in full and the unsuccessful efforts, led
by Mrs. Catt, to obtain action on it. [See Chapter on Federal
Amendment.] The report continued:

     Federal Elections Bill: On December 6 Representative Raker
     introduced at the request of the Federal Suffrage Association a
     bill to protect the rights of women citizens of the United States
     to register and vote for Senators and members of the House. The
     bill was referred to the Committee on the Election of the
     President, Vice-President and Representatives in Congress and has
     not yet been reported out. On December 10 this same bill was
     introduced by Senator Lane of Oregon, referred to the Committee
     on Woman Suffrage and is still there.

     United States Elections Bill: The United States Elections Bill,
     introduced by Senator Owen at the request of Miss Laura Clay on
     February 3, aims also to secure to women the right to vote for
     Senators and Representatives in Congress. Miss Clay says it is
     simply a declaratory act; that it does not permit Congress to
     specify qualifications of voters and therefore does not involve
     the issue of State's rights. This bill was referred to the
     Committee on Privileges and Elections, where it remains. Your
     committee assisted the suffragists in the District of Columbia in
     the effort for a bill enabling it to elect a delegate to the
     Lower House....

            *       *       *       *       *

     Planks:[105] For some time prior to June your committee used
     every opportunity with Senators and Representatives to further
     the work of securing suffrage planks in the Republican and
     Democratic national platforms. Its chairman was put in charge of
     drafting for submission to Mrs. Catt the planks which were to be
     offered to the two conventions on behalf of the National
     Association. Its members who went to Chicago and St. Louis
     concentrated their efforts on the planks. The two demonstrations
     of women planned and supervised by the National Board were the
     culmination of the campaign on behalf of these planks. In
     cooperation with your Congressional Committee, many State
     delegations of women who came for the demonstrations did special
     eleventh-hour work with the delegates to the conventions.

     Your committee regrets that the planks in the two dominant
     national party platforms, since they mention method at all, do
     not specifically endorse Federal action, but they will be of
     great value in the States and progress there will help the
     Federal work. Every man in Congress is keenly alive to the
     strength of our movement in his district and State. For that
     reason we urged the women of each State to secure planks in the
     State platforms endorsing the principle of woman suffrage. As a
     last resort, if they could not secure a separate plank in their
     State platforms, we asked them to make sure that each State
     convention endorsed its party's national platform, that the plank
     might in this way have the equivalent of a State endorsement.

     With the final yielding of the two dominant parties to the
     justice of woman suffrage all are now on record in favor of the
     principle; all except the Republican and Democratic endorse the
     Federal Amendment. Republicans have been strengthened in their
     advocacy of Federal action by Judge Hughes' personal endorsement
     of the amendment. Your committee must sound a note of warning
     here against over-confidence. Some too zealous suffragists,
     including one suffrage organ, state quite seriously,
     notwithstanding the fact that their attention has been called to
     their error, that "the Republican party has specifically declared
     for the Federal Suffrage Amendment." Alas! it has done no such
     thing. It has not done one bit more than the Democratic party.
     The personal endorsement of the Republican candidate for
     President can not properly be construed as party endorsement.
     Those of us who have had some years of experience have witnessed
     the worming and screwing, fallacy and treachery exhibited by
     members of a party after their leading candidate has endorsed a
     particular measure. We know that we can not hold the party
     responsible for one man's utterances made after the platform had
     been adopted by the party convention and accepted by the party
     candidate.

     Committee: Mrs. Medill McCormick was unable to continue as
     chairman of the Congressional Committee and the present chairman
     was appointed by the National Board in January, 1916, immediately
     went to Washington and lived there eight months, until the
     opening of this convention. During the entire term of this
     session of Congress this committee has had some representatives
     on duty at the Washington headquarters every moment. The service
     of each member has not been continuous but has varied from a week
     to three months in length. In addition to the chairman, the
     committee consisted of Mrs. Funk of Illinois; Miss Hay of New
     York; Mrs. Jacobs of Alabama; Mrs. Cotnam of Arkansas; Mrs. C. S.
     McClure of Michigan; Mrs. Valentine of Virginia; Miss Martha
     Norris of Ohio; Mrs. Elizabeth Higgins Sullivan of Nebraska and
     Miss Ruth White of Missouri.

     Mrs. Funk resigned March 14 to take up other work and in July
     Miss White was appointed secretary and has done much special
     work. Because of the amount of travel involved only two meetings
     of the full committee have been held, on March 2 and September 4.
     Every plan for congressional work has been submitted to the
     National Board or to the national president for approval.

     Revision of Work: At the beginning of the present year the work
     of the National Association was revised and departmentalized, the
     organization branch was separated from the congressional work,
     made a distinct department, placed under another head and
     operated from the New York office. This division was advisable,
     since each task is big enough by itself. The only disadvantage
     resulted from the distance between the bases of operation of the
     two departments--one of the paramount reasons for the removal of
     all the headquarters to Washington.... The work of the committee
     in 1916 consisted of the supervision and direction of all
     activity connected with the Federal Amendment, including lobby
     work at the Capitol; the stimulating of congressional activity in
     the States; the cataloguing of information concerning Senators
     and Representatives; the assembling and filing of all information
     specifically relating to the Federal Amendment in Congress and in
     the States; the issuing of newspaper articles; the handling of
     the large correspondence.

     Headquarters: The chairman had been on duty only a short time
     when the necessity for removing national headquarters to
     Washington was deeply impressed upon her--so deeply that she made
     a special trip to New York to labor with the national officers
     there to this end but was unsuccessful. The headquarters of the
     Congressional Committee at the opening of this session consisted
     of two rooms in the Munsey Building at Washington too diminutive
     to hold even our furniture, to say nothing of our workers. On
     February 19 it moved to two larger rooms in the same building.

A summary of the correspondence, etc., was given and the report said
of the lobby work:

     All the direct work with Senators and Congressmen is a time as
     well as brain consuming process. Usually it means tramping up and
     down the long stone corridors, hour after hour, in order to find
     one man in his office. Then he may be having a committee meeting
     or a previous engagement or emergency business and you are
     invited to come some other day. Perhaps you have waited an hour
     before you are sure that he can not see you. It is not uncommon
     for the members of our lobby to state that they have made as many
     as six, eight or ten calls before they succeeded in reaching a
     man. Speaking from my own knowledge, I have wasted hours at the
     Capitol trying to see men who would not make appointments. I have
     called eighteen times to see one man and have not seen him yet!
     He is the Representative from my own district. We carried the
     district for suffrage in Pennsylvania last year but I am told
     that he does not want to vote for the Federal Amendment. It is,
     of course, possible to interview members by calling them out of
     the session but this method is uncertain and not very successful,
     since they feel hurried and interviews in a public reception room
     are seldom satisfactory.

     The latest piece of work done by the committee is the
     interviewing by letter of all congressional candidates who will
     stand for election in November. This has been done in cooperation
     with the State associations which have been urged to institute
     vigorous interviewing in the congressional districts.

     Presidential Interviewing: The presidential candidates of the two
     parties whose platforms do not endorse the Federal Amendment have
     been interviewed in person. On July 17 Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw and
     Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, president of the New York suffrage
     association, called on Judge Hughes in New York and had a long
     and satisfactory conversation. He told them that in his speech of
     acceptance he could not endorse the Federal Amendment because
     this was the accepting of the party's nomination and of its
     platform, which had not mentioned it. He said, however, that he
     believed in it and that soon after his speech of acceptance he
     would announce his personal advocacy of the amendment. He asked
     them to hold this information in confidence, which of course they
     did. His public statement of August 1 was therefore no surprise
     to them but was nevertheless most gratifying.

     On August 1 Mrs. Catt and your chairman called on President
     Wilson in Washington. He reiterated his belief that woman
     suffrage should come by State action. We presented the arguments
     in behalf of the Federal Amendment but he remained unconvinced.
     He is a fair and openminded man and your representatives have by
     no means given up hope of proving to him the justice and
     advisability of the amendment.

     Conferences: At the last national convention a special committee
     recommended that the Board of Officers should consider the
     suggestion of conferences between the Congressional Committee of
     the National Association and the Legislative Committee of the
     Congressional Union, with a view to securing more united action
     in the lobby work in Washington. Nine such conferences were
     held--one in January, three in February, three in March, one in
     June, one in July. Your chairman was present at each and Miss
     Anne Martin, representing the Union, was present at each. At some
     of them each organization had additional representatives. Mrs.
     Catt attended two and our corresponding secretary, Miss
     Patterson, attended one. The subject was the time at which action
     on the Federal Amendment should be secured in both branches of
     Congress. When on July 20 it was found that the National
     Committee wished to obtain a vote in the Senate before
     adjournment and the Congressional Union wished to postpone it the
     conferences came to an end. It is the unanimous judgment of your
     committee that they were of no value to the work on the
     amendment.

     General: The congressional work done in Washington this year by
     the National Association has not been spectacular. Your committee
     had not been on duty long before they realized that many members
     had been irritated by the too-frequent calls of suffragists and
     by the inconsiderate demands on their time. As our last national
     convention was held at the opening session of this Congress,
     delegations of suffragists used the opportunity to call on their
     Senators and Representatives. Considering the strain of work of
     Congress during the past months and the fact that the men had
     already been interviewed by State delegations or representatives,
     we did not encourage further visits to the Capitol. In Washington
     such visits, like pageants and other spectacular forms of
     activity, have been overdone. There was nothing to be gained and
     probably something to be lost by them.

     Your committee wishes to express its appreciation of the
     cooperation of many Senators and members of the House. Our
     friends have often gone out of their way to assist us and not
     once has any one refused a request for help. They have made
     speeches on the floor at our suggestion, taken polls for us, held
     conferences, arranged interviews, provided us with documents and
     extended all the official courtesies within their power. While we
     have not secured action we are not discouraged in the least. Even
     the most radical opponents acknowledge that our movement has
     grown tremendously this year. We have achieved recognition of the
     justice of our principle by the political parties and we have
     with us in our Federal fight the great majority of the leaders of
     thought and action who believe in suffrage at all. By a
     continuation of sane methods, sound tactics, coordination and
     concentration we shall soon accomplish the submission of the
     Federal Amendment.

     Your chairman becomes more convinced each day that one of the
     next steps necessary to nationalize our work and to secure
     Federal action is the removal of the national headquarters to
     Washington. She feels it to be her clear duty frankly to state
     to the convention her conviction on this point. It is her
     judgment, based upon her own observation this year and a study of
     the past work on the Federal Amendment, that it will not pass
     until the national headquarters are in Washington and the
     National Board as well as the Congressional Committee is in a
     position to gives its direct attention to the work on this
     amendment.

     A lobby in Washington for special educational purposes may be a
     good thing but you will have to do special educational and
     political work in the States if your committee is to achieve
     political action to the point of a two-thirds vote on the
     amendment. We appreciate that support has been given to it by
     many suffragists and a number of State chairmen and presidents
     but there has not been the intensive, persistent, determined
     congressional activity in the States which there must be before
     the amendment can be passed and ratified. Your committee has done
     its utmost, I believe, but it can no more put the Federal
     Amendment through Congress without your activity in the States
     than a State committee can achieve success without activity in
     the counties. Activity on the part of a small number of local
     Washington suffragists is not a sufficient backing for the work
     of the Congressional Committee. If you propose to secure the
     Federal Amendment you must work just as hard in the States as you
     expect it to work in Washington. Without a doubt we can secure
     the Federal Amendment if the women of this country
     enthusiastically want their enfranchisement that way....

     The friendliness of members of Congress toward the National
     Association and their continued respect for the suffrage movement
     in this country have been maintained by the dignity, poise and
     ability of the national lobby. In the many years of my connection
     with various kinds of organizations I have never served any in
     which there was more frankness, unity and good fellowship than in
     the National Board and the National Congressional Committee. That
     such harmony exists is due to our great president, to whom each
     is more indebted than all of us together can express. Her visits
     to Washington did for us what nothing and no one else could do.
     It was my duty and pleasure always to accompany her to the
     Capitol, and the unfailing impression of nobility, directness and
     power which she left upon the men was a joy to witness.

     I can not close this report without acknowledging my personal
     debt to that co-officer who is not on our committee, Miss Hannah
     J. Patterson. It is but fair to say that had we not had her
     assistance at hazardous moments the suffrage planks would not be
     in the two national platforms today. Food, sleep, rest, pleasure,
     all were day after day given up by this most self-sacrificing
     officer. She it was who kept with one other [Mrs. Roessing] the
     lonely vigil the night of June 6 at the door of the Republican
     Resolutions Committee while it debated for hours its
     sub-committee's adverse report on the suffrage plank. The crisis
     in our work for both the planks came in this sub-committee of
     seven, for we knew that if we lost in Chicago there would be no
     hope in St. Louis. At midnight that all-powerful sub-committee by
     a vote of 5 to 4 turned down our plank and refused to permit
     suffrage to be mentioned in the platform in any way. That
     committee has seldom been reversed in all the history of the
     party. When later Senator Borah, also sleepless and hungry, came
     to us in one of those agonizing moments when decision must be
     made at once, when we could not reach our president or our board,
     it was Miss Patterson who made the decision that won the
     plank.[106]

A comprehensive plan of work was adopted with the following principal
features:

     Federal Work: The National Board shall continue a lobby in
     Washington until the Federal Amendment shall be submitted; the
     matter of removing headquarters to Washington shall be left to
     the judgment of the Board; it shall conduct a nation-wide
     campaign of agitation, education, organization and publicity in
     support of the amendment, which shall include the following: a
     million-dollar fund for the campaign from Oct. 1, 1916, to Oct.
     1, 1917; a monthly propaganda demonstration simultaneously
     conducted throughout the nation; at least four campaign directors
     and 200 organizers in the field and a vigorous, thorough
     organization in every State; a nationalized scheme for education
     through literature; national suffrage schools; a speakers'
     bureau; innumerable activities for agitation and publicity; a
     national press bureau and a national publicity council with
     departments in each State; a national committee to extend
     suffrage propaganda among non-English-speaking races.

     State Work: A Council of the representatives of States shall meet
     in executive session in connection with each annual national
     convention to hear reports as to the status of each campaign
     State and to fix upon States which shall be recommended to go
     forward with campaigns.

     No State association shall ask the Legislature for the submission
     of a State constitutional amendment or for the submission of the
     question by initiative or by a referred law until such Council or
     the National Board has had the opportunity to investigate
     conditions and to give consent.

     Any State which proceeds to a referendum campaign without
     securing this consent shall be prepared to finance its own
     campaign without help from the National Board.

     Any State which has secured the consent of the National Board to
     proceed with a campaign shall have its cooperation to the fullest
     extent of its powers.

     As soon as possible experienced campaign managers shall be
     trained for the work and shall be supplied to a campaign State to
     work under the direction of the National Board in cooperation
     with the State board.

     States willing to contribute to campaigns in other States should
     do so by the advice of the National Board, who should be informed
     as to conditions, and the money so contributed should be passed
     through the national treasury.

     The rule that the National Board shall do nothing in States
     without the consent of the State shall be repealed.

     The organization, press work, literature distributed and general
     activity of the States shall be standardized and regular reports
     on all of these departments shall be made to the National Board
     in order that advice and help may be rendered when most needed.

     This Board shall have the authority to nationalize the suffrage
     movement by unifying the work as far as is possible.

     Any States not desiring to work for the Federal Amendment may
     remain members of the National Association provided they do not
     work actively against it.

Dr. Shaw presided over the last evening session of the convention and
three of the strongest speeches during the convention were made by the
Hon. Herbert Parsons, New York member of the Republican National
Committee; Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston (Me.), Superintendent of
Franchise of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and
Raymond Robins, a national leader of progressive thought. The
convention ended with a mass meeting Sunday afternoon in the New Nixon
Theater with Mrs. Catt presiding. Rabbi Henry M. Fisher of Atlantic
City gave the invocation and inspiring addresses were made by Mrs.
David F. Simpson (Minn.) and the Rev. Effie McCollum Jones (Ia.). Dr.
Shaw closed her address with a beautiful delineation of Americanism,
saying at its close:

     What is Americanism? Every one has a different answer. Some
     people say it is never to submit to the dictation of a King.
     Others say Americanism is the pride of liberty and the defence of
     an insult to the flag with their gore. When some half-developed
     person tramples on that flag, we should be ready to pour out the
     blood of the nation, they say. But do we not sit in silence when
     that flag waves over living conditions which should be an insult
     to all patriotism? Why do we care more about our flag than any
     other flag? Why, when we have been travelling and seeing others,
     does the sight of the American flag bring tears to our eyes and
     warmth to our hearts? Is it not because it is a symbol of the
     hopes and aspirations of the men and women of the whole world?
     They say Americanism is the love of liberty, but men died for
     that and women gave their lives for it thousands of years before
     America was known. Others say it is the love of justice but the
     whole world is filled with that, no one country loves it more
     than another. Human love, sacrifice and sympathy have been
     manifested in the history of the world since the beginning of
     time. The American sees in Americanism just what he wants to see.
     He looks over the world and finds every good thing and calls it
     his own--justice, liberty, humanity, patriotism. It is not
     Americanism but humanism. There is only one thing we can claim in
     higher degree than the other nations--opportunity is the word
     which means true Americanism.

     The anti-suffragists have said that when women have the vote they
     will have less time for charity and philanthropy. They are
     right--when we have the vote there will be less need for charity
     and philanthropy. The highest ideal of a republic is not a long
     bread line nor a soup kitchen but such opportunity that the
     people can buy their own bread and make their own soup.
     Opportunity must be for all, men and women alike, and the peoples
     of every nationality. Americanism does not mean militarism. The
     greatest need of Americans is not military preparedness nor
     changed economic conditions but a baptism of the spirit, higher
     religious ideals, deeper tolerance and sympathy. The human heart
     must be in accord with the Divine heart if America is to mean
     more than other countries, and, if we are to be what our mothers
     and fathers aspired to be, we must all be a part of the
     Government.

At 5 o'clock Mrs. Catt spoke the closing words and declared the
convention adjourned.


FOOTNOTES:

[104] Call: Our cause has been endorsed in the platforms of every
political party. In order to determine how most expeditiously to press
these newly won advantages to final victory this convention is called.
Women workers in every rank of life and in every branch of service in
increasing numbers are appealing for relief from the political
handicap of disfranchisement.... Unmistakably the crisis of our
movement has been reached. A significant and startling fact is urging
American women to increased activity in their campaign for the vote.
Across our borders three large Canadian provinces have granted
universal suffrage to their women within the year. In every thinking
American woman's mind the question is revolving: Had our forefathers
tolerated the oppressions of autocratic George the Third and remained
under the British flag would the women of the United States today,
like their Canadian sisters, have found their political emancipation
under the more democratic George the Fifth? American men are neither
lacking in national pride nor approval of democracy and must in
support of their convictions hasten the enfranchisement of women. To
plan for the final steps which will lead to the inevitable
establishment of nation-wide suffrage for the women of our land is the
specific purpose of the Atlantic City Convention.

                    ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Honorary President.
                    CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.
                    JENNIE BRADLEY ROESSING, First Vice-President.
                    KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, Second Vice-President.
                    ESTHER G. OGDEN, Third Vice-President.
                    HANNAH J. PATTERSON, Corresponding Secretary.
                    MARY FOULKE MORRISON, Recording Secretary.
                    EMMA WINNER ROGERS, Treasurer.
                    HELEN GUTHRIE MILLER,  }
                    PATTIE RUFFNER JACOBS, } Auditors.

[105] On June 1, a short time before the meeting of Republican and
Democratic National Conventions, twenty-nine members of the Lower
House of Congress from States where women vote, who wished the
conventions to put woman suffrage in their platforms, had a hearing
before the House Judiciary Committee. The Representatives, both
Democratic and Republican, who made brief arguments for the Federal
Amendment were: Ariz., Carl Hayden; Cal., Denver S. Church, Charles H.
Randall, William Kettner, John E. Raker; Colo., Benjamin C. Hilliard,
Edward Keating, Edward T. Taylor; Ills., James T. McDermott, Adolph J.
Sabath, James McAndrews, Frank H. Buchanan, Thomas Gallagher, Clyde H.
Tavenner, Claudius U. Stone, Henry T. Rainey, Martin D. Foster,
William Elza Williams (a member of the Judiciary Committee); Kans.,
Joseph Taggart (also a member), Dudley Doolittle, Guy T. Helvering,
John R. Connelly, Jouett Shouse, William A. Ayres; Mont., John M.
Evans, Tom Stout; Utah, James H. Mays; Wash., C. C. Dill.

Judge Raker acted as chairman and the remarkably strong presentation
called out many questions from the anti-suffrage members of the
Judiciary Committee.

[106] Senator Borah told them that the plank the National Suffrage
Board had submitted, endorsing a Federal Amendment, was absolutely
impossible but one could be obtained declaring for woman suffrage by
State action. They accepted it, which was a wise thing to do, as had
the Republican platform not favored woman suffrage _per se_ the
Democratic platform, adopted the following week, would not have done
so.




CHAPTER XVII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1917.


The Forty-ninth National Suffrage Convention, which met in Poli's
Theater at Washington Dec. 12-15, 1917, was held under the most
difficult conditions that ever had been faced in the long history of
these annual gatherings. Always heretofore they had been comfortable,
happy times, when the delegates came from far and wide to exchange
greetings, report progress and plan the future work for a cause to
which many of them were giving their entire time and effort. Now great
changes had taken place, as the Call for the convention indicated.

     Since last we met the all-engulfing World War has drawn our own
     country into its maelstrom and ominous clouds rest over the
     earth, obscuring the vision and oppressing the souls of mankind,
     yet out of the confusion and chaos of strife there has developed
     a stronger promise of the triumph of democracy than the world has
     ever known. Every allied nation has announced that it is fighting
     for this and our own President has declared that "we are fighting
     for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to
     have a voice in their own government." New Russia has answered
     the call; Great Britain has pledged full suffrage for women and
     the measure has already passed the House of Commons by the
     enormous majority of seven to one. Canada, too, has responded
     with five newly enfranchised provinces; France is waiting only to
     drive the foe from her soil to give her women political liberty.

     Such an array of victories gives us faith to believe that our own
     Government will soon follow the example of other allied nations
     and will also pledge votes to its women citizens as an earnest of
     its sincerity that in truth we do fight for democracy. This is
     our first national convention since our country entered the war.
     We are faced with new problems and new issues and the nation is
     realizing its dependence upon women as never before. It must be
     made to realize also that, willingly as women are now serving,
     they can serve still more efficiently when they shall have
     received the full measure of citizenship. These facts must be
     urged upon Congress and our Government must be convinced that the
     time has come for the enfranchisement of women by means of an
     amendment to the Federal Constitution.

     Men and women who believe that the great question of world
     democracy includes government of the people, by the people and
     for the people in our country, are invited to attend our
     convention and counsel with us on ways and means to attain this
     object at the earliest possible moment.[107]

On account of the large rush of soldiers to the eastern coast and the
many other problems of transportation travelling had become very hard
and expensive but so greatly had the interest in suffrage increased
among women that nearly 600 delegates were present, the highest number
that had ever attended one of the conventions. They came through
weather below zero, snowstorms and washouts; trains from the far West
were thirty-six hours late; delegates from the South were in two
railroad wrecks. It was one of the coldest Decembers ever known and
the eastern part of the country had never before faced such a coal
famine, from various reasons. Washington was inundated with people,
the vast number who had suddenly been called into the service of the
Government, the soldiers and the members of their families who had
come to be with them to the last, and this city of only a few hundred
thousand inhabitants had neither sleeping nor eating accommodations
for all of them. The suffrage convention had been called before these
conditions were fully known and because of the necessity of bringing
pressure at once on Congress. The national suffrage headquarters were
now occupying a large private house and the officers were cared for
there but the delegates were obliged to scatter over the city wherever
they could find shelter, were always cold and some of the time not far
from hungry and prices were double what was expected. Notwithstanding
all these drawbacks the convention program was carried out and a large
amount of valuable work accomplished, tried and loyal suffragists
being accustomed to hardships and self-sacrifice.

The victory in New York State the preceding month had marked the
beginning of the end and the universal enfranchisement of women seemed
almost in sight. Even the intense excitement of the war had not
entirely overshadowed what had now became a national issue. Under the
auspices of Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, resident in Washington, an
Advisory Council was formed to act in an honorary capacity and extend
official recognition to the convention, Senators, Representatives,
Cabinet officers, Judges, clergymen and others prominent in the life
of the capital, with their wives and other women of their family,
cheerfully giving their names for this purpose.[108]

The evening before the convention opened a reception by invitation was
given in the ball room of the New Willard Hotel to Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt
and the other officers and the delegates, the following acting as
hostesses: Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo, Mrs. Newton D. Baker, Mrs.
Thomas W. Gregory, Mrs. Albert Sidney Burleson, Mrs. Josephus Daniels,
Mrs. Franklin K. Lane, Mrs. David F. Houston, Miss Agnes Hart Wilson,
Mrs. James R. Mann, Mrs. Philip Pitt Campbell. The first seven were
the wives and the eighth the daughter of the members of President
Wilson's Cabinet, only Mrs. Robert Lansing being absent, who, like her
husband, was an anti-suffragist. The last two were the wives of
prominent Representatives from Illinois and Kansas. Because of the war
the other social festivities that were usually so delightful a
feature of these annual meetings were omitted. Before the convention
opened Mrs. Gifford Pinchot, whose home was directly across from
"suffrage house," the national headquarters, entertained the officers
at luncheon.

The hearings before the committees of Congress which generally took
place during the convention, had been held in the spring at an extra
session and therefore Mrs. Catt had planned an effective ceremony for
this occasion at the Senate office building, the senior Senator from
each State where women were without a vote being requested to invite
to his office the congressional delegation from the State to receive
its women who were in attendance at the convention. There were thirty
of these gatherings and in many instances all the delegation were
present. Senators Penrose and Knox refused to call the Pennsylvania
members together. It is impossible to go into details but most of the
interviews were satisfactory, the women asking solely for votes in
favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, and it was said that
thirty-five were won for it. From fifty to one hundred women were in
many of the groups. To the Missouri delegation, headed by Mrs. Walter
McNab Miller, vice-president of the National Association, Speaker of
the House Champ Clark said: "If my vote is necessary to pass the
amendment I will cast it in favor," and the delegation was solid for
it except Representative Jacob E. Meeker. Senator Warren G. Harding
received the Ohio women, led by Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, State
president, and Mrs. Baker, wife of the Secretary of War, and later, he
voted for the amendment. A hundred women called on the Virginia
members and fifty on those of Alabama, without effect, but many of the
large groups of southern women did receive much encouragement from the
members from their States. President Wilson himself gave an audience
to the Arkansas women, whose Legislature had recently granted full
Primary suffrage and whose entire congressional delegation would vote
for the Federal Amendment. This was found to be the case in nearly all
of the northern and western States.

Forty-four States had sent delegates to the convention and from the
equal suffrage States of Montana and Wyoming came Mrs. Margaret
Hathaway and Mrs. Mary G. Bellamy, members of the Legislature; from
Colorado, Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, State Superintendent of Public
Instruction; from New Mexico, Mrs. W. E. Lindsay, wife of the
Governor, and from Kansas, Mrs. W. Y. Morgan, wife of the Lieutenant
Governor. Fraternal delegates were present from four countries. The
convention was opened Wednesday afternoon, December 12, with an
invocation by the honorary president of the association, the Rev. Anna
Howard Shaw. In her brief words of greeting Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
the president, who was in the chair, declared her firm conviction that
the American Congress would not allow this country to be outstripped
in the race toward the enfranchisement of women while the countries of
Europe were hastening to give woman suffrage as a part of that right
to self-government for which the world is fighting today, and said:
"For fifty years we have been allaying fears, meeting objections,
arguing, educating, until today there remain no fears, no objections
in connection with the question of woman suffrage that have not been
met and answered. The New York campaign may be said to have closed the
case. It carried the question forever out of the stage of argument and
into the stage of final surrender. As the women of the country
foregather for this convention nothing stands out more emphatically
than the new stress that has been laid on suffrage as a political
issue in the minds of women as in the minds of men. As such the
Federal Amendment must now be dealt with by Congress."

Mrs. Catt emphasized the necessity for active war work and introduced
Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, vice-president of the New York Suffrage
Association, who presented the "service flag" and said: "The National
American Suffrage Association's service flag, here unfurled--a field
of white with golden stars surrounded by a deep blue border--shows
thirteen stars for its first thirteen women serving at the front.
These stars represent women who have been connected with the
association or one of its State affiliations in official or
representative capacity. The total of suffragists in foreign service
numbers thousands."[109] The president accepted the flag on behalf of
the convention. Miss Hannah J. Patterson, an officer of the
Pennsylvania Association, presented the following resolution:

     Whereas, The Executive Council of the National American Woman
     Suffrage Association, assembled in executive session last
     February, pledged the loyalty of the organization to the country
     in event of war and forthwith placed a plan of intensive service
     at the Government's command in view of the impending peril, and

     Whereas, America since then has entered into the dread actuality
     of war and is in greater need of woman's loyal service than our
     readiest anticipation could visualize last February, and

     Whereas, The suffragists of this organization are already in
     compact formation as a second line of defense for husbands, sons,
     fathers and brothers "somewhere in France," therefore, be it

     Resolved, That we, delegates to the Forty-ninth annual convention
     of the association, representing a membership of over 2,000,000
     women, reaffirm this organization's unswerving loyalty to the
     Government in this crisis, and, while struggling to secure the
     right of self-government to the women of America, pledge anew our
     intention gladly and zealously to continue those services of
     which the Government has so freely availed itself in its war to
     secure the right of self-government to the people of the world.

On request of Dr. Shaw a rising vote was taken and the resolution was
adopted with no dissenting vote.

The first evening meeting was devoted to the great victory in New
York, where an amendment to the State constitution giving full
suffrage to women had been carried at the November election by a
majority of 102,353. The following program was given in the presence
of a large and very enthusiastic audience, Mrs. Catt presiding:

     Addresses: Mrs. Ella Crossett, former president New York State
     Woman Suffrage Association, 1902-1910. Miss Harriet May Mills,
     former president, 1910-1913.

     Organization in New York State--Mrs. Raymond Brown, chairman.
     Campaign district chairman, Mrs. F. J. Tone. Rural assembly
     district leader, Mrs. Willis G. Mitchell. Election district
     captain, Mrs. Frederick Edey.

     From the Organization to the Voter--Mrs. Laidlaw.

     Organization and Campaign Work in New York City--Miss Mary
     Garrett Hay, chairman. Assembly district leader, Mrs. Charles L.
     Tiffany. Election district captain, Mrs. Seymour Barrett.

     State Departmental Work: Teachers--Miss Katharine D. Blake,
     chairman. Industrial: Miss Rose Schneiderman, proxy for chairman.

     Speakers in War Time--Mrs. Victor Morawetz, chairman of speakers'
     bureau.

     Financing a State Campaign--Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, treasurer.

     Winning New York--Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, State president.

The many phases of this remarkable campaign, which won the State of
largest population and opened the way to certain victory in Congress,
were presented in a most interesting manner. In speaking of the big
city where the fight was actually won, Miss Hay, chairman of the
committee, said: "We won, first, because of a continuous campaign in
New York City begun eight years ago. On election day in 1915, about
midnight, when we knew the amendment had not carried, we decided to
have another campaign and began it the next day. Second, we won
because of organization along district political lines. No State
should ever go into a campaign unless the women are willing to
organize in this way and stick to it. It was not the five borough
leaders but the 2,080 precinct captains who carried the city. The
campaign represented an immense amount of work in many fields. There
were 11,085 meetings reported to the State officers and many that were
never reported. Women of all classes labored together. 'If you want to
reach the working men,' said Rose Schneiderman, 'remember that it is
the working women who can reach them.' The campaign cost $682,500.
This sum, which lasted for two years and covered the whole State, was
less than half the amount spent in three months in New York City that
year to elect a Mayor. The largest individual gift to the New York
City campaign was $10,000 from Mrs. Dorothy Whitney Straight. Most of
the money was given in small sums and represented innumerable
sacrifices."

The story of the campaign in Maine the preceding September was told by
the chairman of the campaign committee, Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston,
the next afternoon, and the reasons given for its almost inevitable
failure. [See Maine chapter.] A lively discussion took place on the
advisability of campaigns for Presidential suffrage and Mrs. Catt gave
the opinion that its legality when granted by a Legislature was
unquestioned but if by a referendum to the voters it would be
doubtful. The war work undertaken by the association was thoroughly
considered, with a general review of Women's War Service by Mrs.
Katharine Dexter McCormick, second vice-president. She sketched
briefly the appointment of a woman's branch of the Council of National
Defense and pointed out how the choice of Dr. Shaw for chairman had
brought the suffragists into even closer cooperation with the
Government if possible than would have resulted from their intense
patriotism.[110] Reports were made by the chairmen of the
association's four committees, as follows: Food Production--Mrs. Henry
Wade Rogers; Thrift--Mrs. Walter McNab Miller; Americanization--Mrs.
Frederick P. Bagley; Industrial Protection of Women--Miss Ethel M.
Smith. A Child Welfare Committee was added to the list.

Dr. Shaw presided at the evening session of the second day of the
convention and to this and other programs Mrs. Newton D. Baker
contributed her beautiful voice, with Mrs. Morgan Lewis Brett at the
piano. Mrs. Charles W. Fairfax and Paul Bleyden also sang most
acceptably and there was music by the Meyer-Davis orchestra. This
evening the speakers were the Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the
Interior; the Hon. Jeannette Rankin, first woman member of the
National House of Representatives, and Mrs. Catt, who gave her
president's address. The presence of Secretary Lane added much
prestige as well as political significance to the program, for it was
interpreted as an indication that President Wilson had advanced from a
belief in woman suffrage itself to an advocacy of the Federal
Amendment, which was the keynote of the convention. "I come to you
tonight," the Secretary said, "to bring a word of congratulation and
good will from the first man in the nation. Dr. Shaw spoke of always
being proud when she had some man back of her who could give
respectability to the cause. What greater honor can there be, what
greater pride can you feel, than in having behind you the man who is
not alone the President of the United States but also the foremost
leader of liberal thought throughout the world? It is to have with you
the conscience, the mind and the spirit of today and tomorrow." He
spoke of his own strong belief in the enfranchisement of women and the
necessity of establishing for every one an individuality entirely her
own, socially and politically. Only scattered newspaper references to
this strong speech are available.

Especial interest was felt in the address of the young member of
Congress, Miss Jeannette Rankin. In speaking of the bill which she had
recently introduced to enable women to retain their nationality after
marriage she said: "We, who stand tonight so near victory after a
majestic struggle of seventy long years, must not forget that there
are other steps besides suffrage necessary to complete the political
enfranchisement of American women. We must not forget that the
self-respect of the American woman will not be redeemed until she is
regarded as a distinct and social entity, unhampered by the political
status of her husband or her father but with a status peculiarly her
own and accruing to her as an American citizen. She must be bound to
American obligations not through her husband's citizenship but
directly through her own."

Mrs. Catt's address had been announced as a Message to Congress and
was eagerly anticipated. Miss Rose Young, the enthusiastic editor of
_The Woman Citizen_, gave this vivid pen picture of the occasion:

     When Mrs. Catt rose, the house rose with her. It was a crowded
     house and everybody was aware that the message in Mrs. Catt's
     hand was the vital message of the convention. Everybody wondered
     what would be its main focus. Nobody quite understood why an
     address to Congress should be delivered at a mass meeting. The
     latter point the speaker quickly cleared up. Once before in
     suffrage history, she said, there had been an address to
     Congress. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had made
     it. At this moment she was but doing over what they had done a
     half-century ago. She would deliver her address to Congress from
     that platform to that audience and leave it to the printed page
     to carry the message on into the sacred halls themselves.

     Then, with Senate and House visualized by the directness of her
     appeal to them and by the sharp limning of her argument, she
     pleaded for democracy, arraigned the obstructionists of the
     Federal Suffrage Amendment, showed up the harsh inconsistencies,
     the waste of time and energy and money asked of women in State
     referenda, clarified the reasons for establishing suffrage by the
     Federal route and brought the whole case into high relief by
     resting the responsibility where it belongs--on the Congress of
     the United States.

     The speaker, never ornate in rhetoric or delivery, seemed to
     withdraw her personality utterly, so that there was left only the
     mental and spiritual content of her message. To hear her was like
     listening to abstract thought, warmed by the fire of abstract
     conviction. To see her was like looking at sheer marble,
     flame-lit. Many an orator sways an audience's mind by emotional
     appeal. Hers was the crowning achievement to sway an audience to
     emotion by the symmetry and force of her appeal to its mind.
     Again and again salvos of applause stopped her for a moment but
     again and again the steady rhythm of her strong voice regained
     control. At the end her grip on attention was so acute that a
     little hush followed the last word.

The address consumed an hour and a half in delivery and made a
pamphlet of twenty-two pages when published. Up to the time the
Federal Amendment was ratified it was a part of the standard
literature of the National Association and thousands of copies were
circulated.[111] Among the subheads were these: The History of our
Country and the Theory of our Government; the Leadership of the United
States in World Democracy compels the Enfranchisement of its Own
Women; Three Reasons for the Federal Method; Three Objections
Answered. It was an absolutely conclusive argument and closed with a
ringing appeal for "the submission and ratification of the Federal
Suffrage Amendment in order that this nation may at the earliest
possible moment show to all the nations of the earth that its action
is consistent with its principles." Dr. Shaw, who never could forego a
little joke, had said in introducing Mrs. Catt: "I had long thought I
should be willing to die as soon as suffrage was won in New York; that
I never should be interested in politics or the making of tickets,
but five minutes after the midnight of November 6 I had picked my
ticket and now I don't want to die until it is elected." Here she
stopped and presented the speaker. After Mrs. Catt had finished Dr.
Shaw rose and looking at her with twinkling eyes said to the delighted
audience: "The head of my ticket!"

The mornings of the convention were devoted to routine business and to
the reports of the presidents of the States, most of whom were
present, and almost without exception they told of active work and a
great advance in public sentiment. It was such a time of rejoicing and
hopefulness as suffragists had never known. The chief and universal
interest, however, was centered in the action of Congress, as this had
always been the goal and it now seemed near at hand. Therefore the
report of the Congressional Committee, made through its chairman, Mrs.
Maud Wood Park, was heard with close attention. The outline presented
was as follows:

     The duties of the present chairman began March 17, 1917, four
     days before President Wilson called an extra session of Congress
     to meet on April 2, a significant step toward the entrance of the
     United States into the World War. Thus our work started at a time
     of supreme importance in the history of our country and under
     conditions full of new possibilities for the cause of woman
     suffrage.

     Mrs. Catt, keenly alive to the crisis in our national affairs,
     foresaw that our people, with their idealism fired by thought of
     increased freedom for the oppressed subjects of autocratic
     governments, might be aroused to new consciousness of the flaw in
     our own democracy. With this thought in mind, on the eve of the
     opening of the extraordinary session, she sent out a summons to
     the suffragists of the whole country to unite in a stupendous
     appeal to Congress for the immediate submission of the Federal
     Amendment.

     The opening of the Sixty-fifth Congress was marked by another
     circumstance of unusual interest, the seating of the first woman
     member, the Hon. Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who made a speech
     from the balcony of our headquarters on the morning of April 2
     and was then escorted to the Capitol by Mrs. Catt and other
     members of our association in a cavalcade of decorated motor
     cars. The day which opened so happily for suffragists ended with
     the President's message to Congress asking for the Declaration of
     War.

     In the Senate the resolution for our amendment was introduced in
     behalf of our association by Senator Andrieus A. Jones of New
     Mexico, the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Woman
     Suffrage, the other members of which were Senators Owen of
     Oklahoma; Ransdell of Louisiana; Hollis of New Hampshire;
     Johnson of South Dakota; Jones of Washington; Nelson of
     Minnesota; Cummins of Iowa and Johnson of California. Chairman
     Jones, at our request, had secured the privilege of having his
     resolution made number one on the calendar, but when it was
     decided that the war resolution should be introduced immediately,
     he tactfully yielded his place. Similar suffrage resolutions were
     introduced by Senators Shafroth, Owen, Poindexter and Thompson.

     In the House our resolution was introduced by Representative
     Raker, on the Democratic side, and by Representative Rankin, on
     the Republican side. Similar ones were introduced by
     Representatives Mondell, Keating, Hayden and Taylor.

     The War Resolution was adopted by the Senate April 4 and by the
     House April 5. A few days later the Finance Committee of the
     Senate informally recommended and leaders of both parties agreed
     that only legislation included in the war program should be
     considered during the extra session. The Democratic caucus of the
     House passed a similar recommendation, which was acquiesced in by
     the Republicans. It soon became clear to your committee that the
     suffrage resolution would not be admitted under this rule, and a
     total revision of plans had to be made. Three meetings were held
     and it was the opinion of all that the aim should be to establish
     and maintain friendly relations with both parties rather than to
     arouse the antagonism of leaders whose support we must have if
     our measure is to succeed, so it was recommended and the National
     Board voted that our "drive" should be postponed until there was
     a possibility of securing a vote on the Federal Amendment.
     Happily, however, there were forms of work not prohibited by the
     legislative program.

     The Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage gave a hearing to our
     association April 20 ... and on September 15, Chairman Jones made
     a favorable report. The measure is now on the calendar of the
     Senate. In the House, resolutions calling for the creation of a
     Committee on Woman Suffrage had been introduced at the beginning
     of the session by Representatives Raker, Keating and Hayden and
     referred to the Committee on Rules.

     Our first step was to get the approval of Speaker Clark, who gave
     us cordial support. Later, to offset the fear on the part of
     certain members of conflicting with President Wilson's
     legislative program, a letter was sent, at Mrs. Helen H.
     Gardener's request, to Chairman Edward Pou (N. C.), of the Rules
     Committee, by the President himself, who stated that he thought
     the creation of the committee "would be a very wise act of public
     policy and also an act of fairness to the best women who are
     engaged in the cause of woman suffrage." Then, through the
     efforts of a working committee made up of the six members who had
     introduced suffrage resolutions, a petition asking for the
     creation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage, as called for in the
     Raker resolution, was signed by all members from equal suffrage
     States and by many of those from Presidential suffrage States and
     from Primary suffrage Arkansas. This petition was presented to
     the Rules Committee, which on May 18 granted a hearing on the
     subject. On June 6, by a vote of 6 to 5, on motion of Mr.
     Cantrill of Kentucky, a resolution calling for the creation of a
     Committee on Woman Suffrage to consist of thirteen members, to
     which all proposed action touching the subject should be
     referred, was adopted, with an amendment, made by Mr. Lenroot of
     Wisconsin, to the effect that the resolution should not be
     reported to the House until the pending war legislation was out
     of the way.

     The report of the Rules Committee, therefore, was not brought
     into the House until September 24, when the extremely active
     opposition of Chairman Edwin Y. Webb (N. C.) and most of the
     other members of the Judiciary Committee made a hard fight
     inevitable. Thanks to the hearty support of Speaker Clark, the
     good management of Chairman Pou and the help of loyal friends of
     both parties in the House, as well as to the admirable work done
     by our own State congressional chairmen, the report was adopted
     by a vote of 180 yeas to 107 noes, with 3 answering present and
     142 not voting. Of the favorable votes, 82 were from Democrats
     and 96 from Republicans. Of the unfavorable votes, 74 were from
     Democrats and 32 from Republicans. Of those not voting, 59 were
     Democrats and 81 were Republicans. These facts show that the
     measure was regarded, as we had hoped it would be, as strictly
     non-partisan. The victory came so late in the session that the
     appointment of the new committee was postponed until the present
     session.

Referring to the housing of the Congressional Committee in the new
headquarters of the National Association in Washington Mrs. Park said:

     To the preceding chairman, Mrs. Miller, fell the hard work of
     finding new headquarters, moving the office and establishing the
     house routine which has been continued under the efficient care
     of our house manager, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Walker. The secretary of
     the committee, Miss Ruth White, who has worked indefatigably in
     the office since June, 1916, has had charge of the records of
     members of Congress and of correspondence with our State
     chairmen, besides lightening in numberless other ways the burdens
     of your chairman. To a member of the committee, who is a
     long-time resident of Washington, Mrs. Gardener, the association
     is profoundly indebted for constant advice and help, as well as
     for the most skillful handling of delicate and difficult
     situations. She has been called the "Diplomatic Corps" of the
     committee and the name in every good sense has been well won by
     the important services which she has rendered. Another member of
     the committee, a former chairman, Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, after
     helping to start the legislative work last December, generously
     came to our aid at busy seasons and took active charge of the
     work from July 10 to September 12, during the absence of the
     chairman. The management of the office and the Department of
     Publicity have been in the hands of the executive secretary, Miss
     Ethel M. Smith.

     Social activities through the spring and early summer were in
     charge of Miss Heloise Meyer, assisted by Mrs. J. Borden
     Harriman. Miss Mabel Caldwell Willard has represented the
     committee in undertakings involving the house as a center for
     local work. These have included getting hostesses to receive
     visitors at headquarters, supplying speakers for local meetings,
     providing cooperation with the suffrage federation of the
     District of Columbia for the daily afternoon teas, and looking
     after hospitality for delegates to conventions meeting in
     Washington. Among the organizations for which receptions have
     been arranged are Daughters of the American Revolution,
     Association of Collegiate Alumnæ, Confederate Veterans, Sons of
     Veterans, Daughters of the Confederacy, Congress of Mothers,
     Parent-Teacher Associations and Farm and Garden Associations. Ten
     of the fourteen members of the committee, in addition to the
     executive secretary, have given highly valued service in
     Washington during the last nine months. Other suffragists not
     members have kindly devoted days or weeks to our work and the
     local suffrage associations have been most cordial in their
     response to our requests.

     Any attempt to state our obligations to our national president
     would be futile. Our high hope for the adoption of the Federal
     Amendment by the 65th Congress is linked inseparably with our
     faith in her leadership.

[Illustration: A LECTURE IN THE BANQUET HALL OF THE WASHINGTON
SUFFRAGE HEADQUARTERS.

Formerly occupied by the French Embassy.]

The report of Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.) first vice-president,
described a year of continuous work, almost from ocean to ocean,
speaking to State suffrage conventions, federations of women's clubs,
federations of labor, trade unions, universities, normal schools,
churches, meetings of all kinds and without number. In the two Dakotas
she spoke twenty-nine times. She referred to her visit to Jefferson
City, Mo., her luncheon with the wife of Governor Frederick D.
Gardner, the suffrage meeting "which put the State capital in a
ferment and caused the politicians to sit up and take notice" and the
Governor's declaration for woman suffrage. Mrs. Miller said of the
work during the five months when she was chairman of the Congressional
Committee:

     After mature consideration the board decided that, for various
     reasons, it was not wise to move the headquarters from New York
     to Washington but that more spacious quarters should be found
     than the office here where the efficient lobby work that had
     already been done could be followed up and supplemented by a
     social atmosphere. Finally we found our present home, a large
     private mansion at 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, just off of Scott
     Circle. It was taken for a term of eight months, the offices
     moved at once and cards sent out to 2,000 people for a
     housewarming before we had been there a week.

     During five months Miss Meyer and I made 300 calls, organized a
     Junior Suffrage League, planned for publicity "stunts," such as
     the dedication of the Susan B. Anthony room, the presentation of
     a flag by Pennsylvania, a poster exhibit, celebration of the
     North Dakota victory and the mid-lenten bazaar. Much of the work
     was of the sort that would be impossible to tabulate, but the
     effect of the whole in making the National Association well known
     in Washington and able to work effectively from there has proved
     the wisdom of the expenditure for the headquarters.

     The latter part of February the so-called War Council was called,
     a meeting of the association's Executive Committee of One
     Hundred, and planning for that and the mass meeting on Sunday
     kept us all busy for several weeks. This Council decided that the
     suffragists should undertake certain definite forms of war work
     and the chairmanship of the division of the Elimination of Waste
     was given to me.... Summing up the year I have attended six State
     meetings, spoken 200 times in 15 States, written 3,000 letters
     and travelled 13,000 miles.

All of Friday was given to symposiums on different phases of this
movement, grouped as follows: What my State will do for the Federal
Amendment. Should We Work for Woman Suffrage in War Time? What Good
Will Woman Suffrage Do Our Country? What is the Best Thing it Has Done
for my State? What Can the Enfranchised Women Do to Secure Suffrage
for the Women of the Entire Nation? Twenty-five women, most of them
State presidents, took part in these valuable discussions.

Mrs. McCormick related how her work as chairman of the national Press
Committee had been taken over by the press department of the Leslie
Bureau of Education when it was organized the preceding March and a
merger committee appointed consisting of Miss Rose Young and Mrs. Ida
Husted Harper of the Leslie Commission, and Mrs. Shuler and herself of
the association.[112] The report of the Leslie Bureau filled over
thirty pages of fine print as submitted by Miss Young, director, who
said in beginning:

     By January of 1917 it had become apparent that the National
     Association had an increasingly direct and comprehensive part to
     play in State and Federal campaigns through its Press department
     as one of its various points of contact with the suffrage field.
     To inaugurate news and feature propaganda and information
     services that would be live wires of connection between 171
     Madison Avenue and the State affiliations all over the country
     and the Capitol at Washington and the public press was the
     immediate prospect of the then Press department.... Its
     accumulated task included not only the conduct of its federal
     political campaign at Washington, not only its definite program
     of State propaganda and organization for constitutional amendment
     campaigns, it had on its hands as well the great "drive" for
     Presidential suffrage that had been initiated.

     By spring Mrs. Catt's custodianship of the Leslie funds had been
     determined by court decision and plans that she had been
     mothering since 1915 could be put into execution. Those plans had
     for their central detail the founding of a bureau for the
     promotion of the woman suffrage cause through the education of
     the public to the point of seeing it as essential to democracy,
     and in March the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education was
     organized for that purpose. From the beginning the outstanding
     feature of the work was its size, and the outstanding need was to
     get it housed and departmentalized, with department heads and an
     adequate clerical staff. This done, the bureau, with a staff of
     twenty-four, swarmed out over the whole 15th floor, besides two
     small rooms on the 14th floor. It now includes six departments,
     counting the Magazine Department, which is an everlasting story
     by itself.

Miss Young told of merging the _Woman's Journal_, the _Woman Voter_
and the _National Suffrage News_ in the _Woman Citizen_, for which
2,000 subscriptions were taken at this convention. The report included
those of Mrs. Harper, chairman of editorial correspondence; Mrs. Mary
Sumner Boyd, of the research bureau; Miss Mary Ogden White, feature
and general news department; Mrs. Rose Lawless Geyer, field press
work. There was also a report of the Washington press bureau after the
headquarters there were opened, at first in charge of Mrs. Gertrude C.
Mosshart, afterwards of Miss Ethel M. Smith. The latter told of the
unexcelled opportunities in that city for the distribution of news
through the more than 200 special correspondents of the large
newspapers and the bureaus of all the great press associations and
syndicates. News had to be fresh and well written and 450 copies of
each of her "stories" distributed. About half of them were sent to
State press chairmen, presidents and others.

Mrs. Harper's work was almost wholly with editors, watching the
editorials, which now came in literally by hundreds every day. Her
report of three closely printed pages said in part:

     When an editorial was friendly a letter of thanks has been sent
     expressing the hope that the paper would contain many such
     editorials. When one made a strong appeal for woman suffrage the
     editor has had a letter expressing the deep appreciation of all
     at headquarters and saying that it would unquestionably affect
     public sentiment in his city and State. In many instances, even
     in the largest papers, there have been mistakes in facts and
     figures, as the question has not been a national issue long
     enough for editors to become thoroughly informed, and these have
     been corrected as tactfully as possible. Often carefully selected
     literature, suited to the editor's point of view, has been
     enclosed--to Western editors arguments in favor of a Federal
     Amendment; to Southern editors statements on the good effects of
     woman suffrage in the Western States; to Eastern editors a good
     deal of both. Where an editorial has been directly hostile an
     argument has been taken up with the editor, supported by
     unimpeachable testimony. When the editor has been implacable I
     have frequently written to suffragists in his city to learn what
     were the influences behind the paper, and usually have found they
     were such as gave the editor no chance to express his own
     opinions, but even those papers have almost invariably published
     my letters.

During the year letters were written to over 2,000 editors in the
United States and several in Canada and the returns through the
clipping bureaus indicated that a large majority were published. The
report said: "I wish there were space to give concrete instances of
the results of this year's experiment. Editors have written that,
while for years their paper had supported woman suffrage, this was the
first time they ever had come in touch with the national organization
or known that their work was being recognized outside of their own
locality. Many who were wavering have been persuaded to come out
definitely in favor; this has been especially noticeable in the South.
In a number of cases papers which condemned a Federal Amendment have
been helped to see its necessity, and this in the South as well as the
North...." As an example of the many special articles it continued:

     When the "picketing" began in Washington last January, almost
     every newspaper in the United States held the entire suffrage
     movement responsible for it. At once 250 letters were sent in
     answer to editorials of this nature, stating that the National
     American Association organized in 1869, had been always strictly
     non-partisan and non-militant; that it represented about 98 per
     cent. of the enrolled suffragists of the United States; that all
     the suffrage which the women possessed to-day was due to its
     efforts and those of its State auxiliaries, and that Dr. Shaw,
     its honorary president, and Mrs. Catt, its president, strongly
     condemned the "picketing." The letter urged the newspapers in
     their comment on it to make a clear distinction between the two
     organizations. In countless instances this request was complied
     with but at the time of the Russian banner episode of the
     "pickets" before the White House another flood of more than 1,000
     editorials poured into the national headquarters, many of them
     crediting it to the whole cause. A second letter more emphatic
     than the first was sent to 350 of the largest newspapers in the
     country, enclosing Mrs. Catt's protest against the "picketing."
     These had the desired effect and practically all of the papers
     thereafter, except those hostile to woman suffrage, exonerated
     the National Association from any part in it.

An argument for the Federal Suffrage Amendment and asking support for
it was sent to a carefully selected list of 2,000 editors the month
before the first vote was taken in Congress. Over 500 individual
letters were sent, for the most part to prominent persons, called out
by some expression of theirs, which almost without exception were
cordially answered. A long letter to the International Suffrage News
each month had been part of the work of this department.

Miss White's report on publicity should be reproduced in full, as it
convincingly showed why all of a sudden the newspapers of the country
were flooded with matter on woman suffrage. Not until the Leslie
bequest became available had the National Association been possessed
of the funds to do the publicity work necessary to the success of a
great movement. She told how the very first "stories" sent out
describing the granting of Presidential suffrage in the winter of 1917
brought back returns of about half-a-million words. The story of the
Maine campaign returned 79 columns in 145 papers and Mrs. Catt's
speeches, 50,000 words. Her protest against the "antis" charge of
disloyalty against the suffragists instantly brought a return of 16
columns in 40 metropolitan papers. Feminism in Japan, a story written
in the bureau around a little Japanese suffragist, was sent out by
syndicate to a circulation of 10,000,000. The War Service of the
National Suffrage Association was told in 15,000 words and the first
instalment came back in over 500 newspapers and 400,000 words. The
papers gave 680,000 words to the story of the Woman's Committee of
National Defense. These figures might be continued indefinitely. Plate
matter was furnished to 500 papers in sixteen States in May, and the
bulletins of facts, statistics and propaganda issued during the nine
months would make a book of 25,000 words.

The report of Mrs. Geyer, a trained journalist, was equally valuable.
A part of her work had been to organize a press committee in every
State, arrange for the collection of news and put it in proper form
for the bulletins, the plate service, the _Woman Citizen_ or wherever
it was needed and make a roster of the principal newspapers and their
position on woman suffrage. She had managed in person the press work
for the Maine campaign, the Mississippi Valley Conference in Columbus,
O., and the present national convention.

Mrs. Boyd's painstaking, scholarly and efficient report on the service
rendered by the Data department showed the vast amount of time and
labor necessary to collect accurate data and how unreliable is much
that exists. This was especially the case in regard to woman suffrage,
which, when compiled from current sources and returned to the various
States for verification, always required much correction. The report
told of 350 letters sent to county clerks in the equal suffrage States
for trustworthy information as to the proportion of women who voted,
with most gratifying response. Many such investigations were made of
women in office, laws relating to women, suffrage and labor
legislation, women's war record, an infinite variety of subjects.
Thousands of newspaper clippings were tabulated and a roomful of
carefully labelled files testified to the unremitting work of the
bureau. Twenty State libraries and some others were supplied during
the year with the books issued by the National Suffrage Publishing
Company and its pamphlets were widely distributed.

Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman Suffrage
Publishing Company, made an interesting report and showed how suffrage
victories, the thing the company was working for, meant its financial
loss, for as soon as a State had won the vote it ceased to order
literature. The tremendous demands of the campaigns of 1915 and 1916
had enabled the company to pay a three per cent. dividend but the
entrance of the United States into the war, causing a general
lessening of suffrage work, would create a deficit for the present
year. For the New York campaign of 1917 the company furnished
10,081,267 pieces of literature, all promptly paid for. Miss Ogden
gave an amusing account of how the company was "bankrupted" trying to
supply "suffrage maps" up to date, for as soon as a lot was published
another State would give Presidential or Municipal suffrage and then
the demand would come for maps with the new State "white," and
thousands of the others would have to be "scrapped."

The chairman of the Literature Committee, Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore,
said that for the first time finances had been available for
publishing a well-indexed catalogue with the publications grouped
under more than twenty headings. These included efficiency booklets,
suffrage arguments, answers to opponents, Federal Amendment
literature, State reports, etc. Some of these publications were in
book form, including Mrs. Catt's volume on the Federal Amendment, Mrs.
Annie G. Porritt's Laws Affecting Women and Children and Miss Martha
Stapler's Woman Suffrage Year Book. A number of pamphlets were printed
in lots of 100,000, and 700,000 copies of the amendment speech of
Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado before the Senate.

The report of the Art Publicity Committee was made by its chairman,
Mrs. Ernest Thompson Seton, and related principally to the poster
competition, which closed with the exhibition at the national suffrage
headquarters in January. About 100 posters were submitted and $500 in
prizes awarded. Afterwards the prize winners and a selection from the
others, about thirty in all, were sent to the Washington suffrage
headquarters for display and then around to various cities which had
asked for them.

One of the largest evening meetings was that devoted to American
Women's War Service, with Mrs. Catt presiding. The first speaker was
Secretary of War Newton G. Baker and a few detached paragraphs can
give little idea of his eloquent address:

     I sometimes ask myself what does this war mean to women? War
     always means to women sorrow and sacrifice and a mission of mercy
     but one of the large, redeeming hopes of this particular
     struggle is that it will bring a broadening of liberty to women.
     This war is waged for democracy. Democracy is never an
     accomplished thing, it is always a process of growth, an endless
     series of advances. President Wilson has called it a rule of
     action. It is a rule that adapts conduct to environment. What was
     called a democracy in Greece was a small privileged class ruling
     over slaves. The members of the ruling class had certain
     democratic relations with one another. There was no more of real
     democracy in Rome. The first constitutional convention of the
     French Revolution had a very restricted electoral system with a
     property qualification. It was so with our own government in 1776
     and 1789. It was a rule of conduct adapted to the environment of
     that time....

     The whole environment has changed. In 1789 we might quite
     possibly have defined ourselves as a democracy, although women
     did not vote, but not now. We speak of this as a war for
     democracy. Women are making sacrifices just like men. The
     activities of women in aid of the war are a necessary part of it.
     If all the women were to stop their work tonight we should have
     to withdraw from the war, at least temporarily, until we could
     entirely readjust ourselves. One of the things this war is
     bringing home to us is that men and women are essentially
     partners in an industrial civilization, and by the end of the war
     the women will be recognized as partners.

When the Secretary finished Dr. Shaw said: "May we not send a message
to President Wilson and say: 'Mr. President, as you came to our
convention a year ago to fight with us, so we come now to fight with
you. As you have kept your pledge of loyalty to us, so we shall keep
our pledge to you. We are with you in this world struggle.'" The
convention enthusiastically endorsed the message. Other speakers were
Mrs. McAdoo and Mrs. Bass--Financing the War; Miss Martha Van
Rensselaer, department of Home Economics, Cornell University--Food and
the War; Miss Jane Delano--The Red Cross and the War; Mrs. Laidlaw,
Mrs. Louis F. Slade--Women's War Service in New York; Dr. Shaw,
chairman Woman's Committee of the National Council of Defense. Mrs.
McAdoo, daughter of President Wilson and wife of the Secretary of the
Treasury, said that she was a resident of New York State and a voter
and that women were making a great fight for democracy but the thought
which should now be first in the minds of all of them was how to win
the war. She described briefly her work as chairman of the Women's
Committee of the Liberty Loan and told of its wonderful success in
raising millions of dollars. Mrs. Bass, the only woman member of the
War Savings Committee, added an earnest appeal to women to help
finance the war, and the other speakers on their several topics raised
the meeting to a high level of patriotic enthusiasm. In a stirring
address Dr. Shaw showed what the country expected of women at this
critical time, saying:

     We talk of the army in the field as one and the army at home as
     another. We are not two armies; we are one--absolutely one
     army--and we must work together. Unless the army at home does its
     duty faithfully, the army in the field will be unable to carry to
     a victorious end this war which you and I believe is the great
     war that shall bring to the world the thing that is nearest our
     hearts--democracy, that "those who submit to authority shall have
     a voice in the government" and that when they have that voice
     peace shall reign among the nations of men.

     The United States Government, learning from the weaknesses and
     the mistakes of the governments across the sea, immediately after
     declaring war on Germany knew that it was wise to mobilize not
     only the man power of the nation but the woman power. It took
     Great Britain a long time to learn that--more than a year--and it
     was not until 50,000 women paraded the streets of London with
     banners saying, "Put us to work," that it dawned upon the British
     government that women could be mobilized and made serviceable in
     the war. And what is the result? It has been discovered that men
     and women alike have within them great reserve power, great
     forces which are called out by emergencies and the demands of a
     time like this.

Dr. Shaw described the forming of the Woman's Committee of the Council
of National Defense by the Government and her selection as its
chairman. She said she had no idea what the committee was expected to
do, so she went to the Secretary of the Navy to find out, and
continued: "I learned that the Woman's Committee was to be the channel
through which the orders of the various departments of the Government
concerning women's war work were to reach the womanhood of the
country; that it was to conserve and coordinate all the women's
societies in the United States which were doing war work in order to
prevent duplication and useless effort. This was very necessary, not
because our women are not patriotic but because they are so patriotic
that every blessed woman in the country was writing Washington, or her
organization was writing for her, asking the Government what she could
do for the war and of course the Government did not know; it has not
yet the least idea of what women can do."

An amusing picture was given of men supervising a department of the
Red Cross where women were knitting, making comfort bags, etc. She
showed how for the past forty years women in their clubs and societies
had been going through the necessary evolution, "until today," she
said, "they are a mobilized army ready to serve the country in
whatever capacity they are needed. So when the Council of National
Defense laid upon the Woman's Committee the responsibility of calling
them together to mobilize women's war work, we knew exactly how to do
it.... It is not a question of whether we will act or not, the
Government has said we _must_ act; it is an order as much as it is an
order that men shall go and fight in the trenches. It is an order of
the Government that the women's war work of the country shall be
coordinated, that women shall keep their organizations intact, that
they shall get together under directed heads. I said to the gentlemen
here in Washington, when at first they feared our women might not be
willing to cooperate: 'If you put before them an incentive big enough,
if you appeal to them as a part of the Government's life, not as a
by-product of creation or a kindergarten but as a great human, living
energy, ready to serve the country, they will respond as readily as
the men.'"

     We must remember that more and more sacrifices are going to be
     demanded but I want to say to you women, do not meekly sit down
     and make all the sacrifices and demand nothing in return. It is
     not that you want pay but we all want an equally balanced
     sacrifice. The Government is asking us to conserve food while it
     is allowing carload after carload to rot on the side tracks of
     railroad stations and great elevators of grain to be consumed by
     fire for lack of proper protection. If we must eat Indian meal in
     order to save wheat, then the men must protect the grain
     elevators and see that the wheat is saved. We must demand that
     there shall be conservation all along the line. I had a letter
     the other day giving me a fearful scorching because of a speech I
     made in which I said that we women have Mr. Hoover looking into
     our refrigerators, examining our bread to see what kind of
     materials we are using, telling us what extravagant creatures we
     are, that we waste millions of money every year, waste food and
     all that sort of thing, and yet while we are asked to have
     meatless days and wheatless days, I have never yet seen a demand
     for a smokeless day! They are asking through the newspapers that
     we women shall dance, play bridge, have charades, sing and do
     everything under the sun to raise money to buy tobacco for the
     men in the trenches, while the men who want us to do this have a
     cigar in their mouth at the time they are asking it! I said that
     if men want the soldiers to have tobacco, let them have smokeless
     days and furnish it! If they would conserve one single cigar a
     day and send it to the men in the trenches the soldiers would
     have all they would need and the men at home would be a great
     deal better off. If we have to eat rye flour to send wheat across
     the sea they must stop smoking to send smokes across the sea.

     There is no end to the things that women are asked to do. I know
     this is true because I have read the newspapers for the last six
     months to get my duty before me. The first thing we are asked to
     do is to provide the enthusiasm, inspiration and patriotism to
     make men want to fight, and we are to send them away with a
     smile! That is not much to ask of a mother! We are to maintain a
     perfect calm after we have furnished all this inspiration and
     enthusiasm, "keep the home fires burning," keep the home sweet
     and peaceful and happy, keep society on a level, look after
     business, buy enough but not too much and wear some of our old
     clothes but not all of them or what would happen to the
     merchants?... We are going to rise as women always have risen to
     the supreme height of patriotic service....

     The Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense now asks
     for your cooperation, that we may be what the Government would
     have us be, soldiers at home, defending the interests of the
     home, while the men are fighting with the gallant Allies who are
     laying down their lives that this world may be a safe place and
     that men and women may know the meaning of democracy, which is
     that we are one great family of God. That, and that only, is the
     ideal of democracy for which our flag stands.

The National Anti-Suffrage Association took this time to hold its one
day's annual convention in a Washington hotel and re-elect for
president Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., wife of the New York Senator,
and elect as secretary Mrs. Robert Lansing, wife of the Secretary of
State. Mrs. Wadsworth at this time sent to the members of Congress and
circulated widely a pamphlet entitled Consider the Facts, in which she
charged the suffragists with being pacifists and Socialists and
asserted that the recent New York victory was due to the Socialist
vote. Miss Mary Garrett Hay, who was chairman of the campaign
committee in New York City, where the victory was won, expressed her
opinion from the platform in this fashion:

     Senator Wadsworth and his wife announced that they weren't going
     to give any entertainments till the war was over, nevertheless
     they are dining tonight the Senators and Representatives who are
     opposed to the Federal Amendment. So I thought I would signalize
     the occasion by answering the circular Mrs. Wadsworth has sent
     broadcast asking people to "consider a few facts about the woman
     suffrage victory in New York." Here are some other facts to
     consider:

     There were only three assembly districts in Manhattan where the
     suffrage amendment did not poll over a thousand more votes than
     the Socialists polled. Even in these three suffrage got an
     average of 600 more votes than the Socialist candidate got. In
     the 4th district suffrage had the advantage of the Socialists by
     551 votes; in the 6th it got 600 more votes than Socialism got;
     in the 8th it got 656 more. In the 12th, a typical district,
     where the Socialists got only 1,822 votes, suffrage got 5,480. In
     my own district, the 9th, suffrage and Fusion ran almost neck and
     neck, suffrage polling 5,911, Fusion, 5,578; the Socialists
     polled only 977. In Brooklyn the 14th, 19th and 23rd assembly
     districts are accounted the Socialists' strongholds. In all three
     suffrage ran ahead of Socialism. In the 14th suffrage polled a
     "yes" vote of 4,052, the Socialists 3,142; in the 19th suffrage
     polled 3,608, the Socialists 3,037; in the 23rd suffrage polled
     5,060, the Socialists 3,992.

     Considering the suffrage vote in Greater New York in comparison
     with the vote for Mayor, suffrage polled a "yes" vote of 335,959,
     the Socialist candidate only 142,178. The Fusion candidate polled
     149,307; the Republican, 53,678; the Democratic, the successful
     one, 207,282. Suffrage, therefore, polled 38,677 more affirmative
     votes than did the successful candidate. No candidate for Mayor
     was in the class with the amendment, though all were for
     suffrage.

Others prominent in the suffrage movement, both men and women, made
indignant protest against Mrs. Wadsworth's accusation and pointed to
the splendid organized work of the National Suffrage Association in
cooperation with the Government from the very beginning of the war.

During this week of the convention the Federal Prohibition Amendment
made its triumphant passage through the House, having already passed
the Senate, and the suffragists saw the bitterest opponents of their
amendment on the ground of State's rights throw this doctrine to the
winds in their determination to put through the one for prohibition.
They felt that the adoption of that amendment opened wide the way for
the passing of the one for suffrage in the near future and this was
the view generally taken by the public. Another event in this
remarkable week was the creation and appointment of a Woman Suffrage
Committee in the House of Representatives, for which the association
had been so long and earnestly striving. This was done against the
vigorous opposition of the Judiciary Committee, which for the past
forty years had prevented the question of woman suffrage from coming
before the House for a vote. At this time it reported the Federal
Amendment "without recommendation" and tried to prevent its being
referred to the new committee.

The report of the corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler, for
1917, continued the story of the immense amount of work that had been
done at and through the national headquarters, beginning immediately
after the great impetus of the Atlantic City convention. A nation-wide
campaign was instituted under the three heads set forth by Susan B.
Anthony at the beginning of the movement--Agitate, Educate, Organize.
It was decided to center the effort even more than ever before on the
Federal Amendment and a wide call was sent out for universal
demonstrations in its favor, where a resolution for it would be
adopted. Twenty-six States responded, New York leading with 101 such
meetings. These were followed by visits to State political conventions
to secure endorsements, which met with considerable success, and
candidates for Congress were interviewed in most of the States. There
was advertising in the street cars of Washington during the sessions
of Congress. Carefully selected literature was distributed by the
hundreds of thousands of copies to the clergy, the politicians, the
business men, the rural population; no class was overlooked.
Questionnaires were sent to the equal suffrage States for information
which was compiled in pamphlets. The first experiment in "suffrage
schools," which proved so successful that they were made a permanent
feature of the work, was thus described:

     It was the general of our suffrage army, Mrs. Catt, "the
     country's greatest expert in efficient suffrage methods," who
     first saw the need of suffrage schools and put them into effect
     in New York State. She knew the value of systematic training and
     realized that our failure many times had not alone been due to
     the fact that numbers of women would not work but that those who
     were willing were untrained and inefficient. It was at first
     proposed to charge for instruction in the schools but this plan
     had to be abandoned and the National Association assumed most of
     the financial obligation.

     Our first school was held in Baltimore in December, 1916. The
     manager was Mrs. Livermore, the instructors herself, Mrs. Wilson
     and Mrs. Geyer. The second was in Portland, Me., January 8-20,
     1917. The nineteen schools were all under the direction of the
     organization department. They began with Maryland and extended
     through fourteen of the southern and middle-west States, closing
     March 30 in Detroit, Mich. Three instructors, Mrs. Halsey Wilson,
     Mrs. Cotnam and Miss Doughty, taught Suffrage History and
     Argument, Organization, Publicity and Press, Money Raising,
     Parliamentary Law. The chairman of organization, Mrs. Shuler,
     taught Organization, Parliamentary Law and Money Raising in the
     Portland school and in the last five schools of the series.

Mrs. Shuler referred to the war work of the association, which is
described elsewhere, and told of the wide field that had been covered
by organizers, who had reached the number of 225 during the year, many
of them employed by the States. The organization work was classified
and standardized. A conference of organizers met in New York where
they were instructed by Mrs. Catt, and a pamphlet, the A. B. C. of
Organization, was prepared by Mrs. Shuler. As an example of the work
done, nine organizers reported 385 meetings in eleven weeks in 25
States and organization effected in 178 towns. The report told of the
work done from the headquarters for the Presidential suffrage that had
been obtained in various States and in campaigns.

The report of the Committee on Presidential Suffrage was of especial
interest, as for the first time in all the years, with one exception,
there were victories to record. This report had been made annually by
Henry B. Blackwell, editor of _The Woman's Journal_ until his death in
1910, but although he had implicit faith in the possibility of this
partial franchise he did not live to see its first success in Illinois
in 1913. Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates (R. I.) followed him in the
chairmanship but met with an accident which caused her to relinquish
it to Mrs. Robert S. Huse. She believed the granting of this form of
the franchise helped the cause of full suffrage and through a
questionnaire to the different States she had collected much
information as to the best method of handling such bills. All wrote
that the anti-suffragists were supported in their opposition to them
by the liquor interests.

During a discussion of the war work of women Mrs. F. Louis Slade of
New York moved (adopted) that as so large a share of the work of the
Red Cross is done by women, the association request that women be
given adequate representation on the War Council of the American Red
Cross. Miss Yates suggested that Clara Barton's name be introduced
into Mrs. Slade's resolution. Dr. Shaw spoke of the far-reaching
importance of the work Clara Barton had accomplished and of the
unworthy manner in which it had been treated. Mrs. L. H. Engle (Md.)
suggested that the Red Cross be reminded that the plan of having women
nurses in army hospitals had originated with a woman and that the
first military hospital in the world had been established by a woman.
Mrs. Medill McCormick moved that the Chair appoint a committee of
three to confer with the Executive Committee of the American Red
Cross. The Chair appointed Mrs. McCormick as chairman, Mrs. Slade and
Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College.

Mrs. Catt read telegrams from Governor W. P. Hobby of Texas, the
Houston _Chronicle_, the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor inviting
the association to hold the next convention in that city; also "a
telegram from the Mayor of Dallas, Texas, inviting it to meet there.
Fraternal delegates cordially received by the convention were Mrs.
Flora MacDonald Denison, honorary president of the Canadian Suffrage
Association, and Mrs. Philip Moore, president of the National Council
of Women. Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery was presented by Dr. Shaw as having
been corresponding secretary of the association for twenty-one years
and was warmly greeted. Mrs. Frances C. Axtel was introduced as a
former member of the Legislature in Washington, now chairman of the U.
S. Employees' Compensation Commission. Mrs. Margaret Hathaway, a
member of the Montana Legislature, addressed the convention. The Rev.
Olympia Brown told of the memorial of Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, which
she had prepared, and asked the delegates to see that copies were
placed in libraries. Mrs. Catt paid high tribute to Mrs. Brown's many
years of work for woman suffrage. The Rev. James Shera Montgomery, of
the Fourth M. E. Church, and the Rev. Henry N. Couden, Chaplain of the
House of Representatives, pronounced the invocation at the opening of
two sessions.

The elections of the association were models of fairness with no
unnecessary waste of time. Mrs. Catt received all the votes cast for
president but three. All of the other officers but one had only from
10 to 27 opposing votes. Five members of the old board retired at
their own wish, one of them, Miss Meyer, being in the war service in
France. Mrs. McCormick, Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Shuler were re-elected.
The new members were Miss Mary Garrett Hay (N. Y.), second
vice-president; Mrs. Guilford Dudley (Tenn.) third; Mrs. Raymond Brown
(N. Y.) fourth and Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.) fifth; Mrs. Halsey
Wilson (N. Y.) recording secretary. The convention had voted to drop
the two auditors from the list of officers and substitute two
vice-presidents. A board of directors was elected for the first time,
in the order of the votes received as follows: Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw
(N. Y.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. Y.); Mrs. Nonie Mahoney (Tex.); Mrs.
Horace C. Stilwell (Ind.); Dr. Mary A. Safford (Fla.); Mrs. T. T.
Cotnam (Ark.); Mrs. Charles H. Brooks (Kans.); Mrs. Arthur L.
Livermore (N. Y.).

In place of a flowery speech of acceptance Mrs. Catt laid out more and
still more work and outlined a plan of organization for uniting the
women of the enfranchised States in an association which should be
auxiliary to the National American. Each State association would upon
enfranchisement automatically become a member of this organization
with an elected working committee of five persons, these State
committees to be finally united in a central body to be known as the
National League of Women Voters. [Handbook of convention, page 48.]
Besides the obvious advantages, she suggested that such an
organization would provide a way for recently enfranchised States to
maintain intact their suffrage associations for the benefit of work on
the Federal Amendment.[113]

One of the most vital reports was that of the treasurer, Mrs. Henry
Wade Rogers. It was a remarkable story especially to those who
remembered the time when the receipts of the association for the whole
year did not exceed $2,000, laboriously collected by Miss Anthony,
with possibly a little assistance, in subscriptions of from $5 to $10
with one of $50 regarded as high water mark. The report began: "Our
fiscal year closed October 31 with a balance of $11,985 in the
treasury and in addition to this our books showed investments of
$19,061, the interest of which we have received during the year." The
feeling of many suffragists that they wished to use all their money
for war work retarded contributions but the example of the National
Association was pointed out, which undertook a widespread war service,
as the treasury had proved, but did not leave its legitimate suffrage
work undone. Mrs. Rogers, whose gratuitous services as treasurer had
proved of the highest value to the association, told of the help of
her committee of forty-two members in the various States and presented
her report carefully audited by expert accountants. It showed
expenditures for the year of $803,729. This covered the expenses of
the two headquarters, congressional work, State campaigns, publicity
and organization throughout the United States. Mrs. Catt's plan to
raise a million dollar fund for 1917 had met a generous response and
had not lacked a great deal of fulfilment. Pledges to the amount of
$120,000 were made for the coming year, the Leslie Commission leading
with $15,000, Mrs. William Thaw, Jr., of Pittsburgh subscribed
$12,000; Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw of Boston, $5,000; Mrs. Katharine
Dexter McCormick, $2,000; Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Joseph Fels, Mrs. V. Everit
Macy of New York; Mrs. Wirt Dexter of Boston; Mrs. Arthur Ryerson,
Mrs. Cyrus H. McCormick of Chicago, $1,000 each.

The plan of work for the coming year provided for concentration on
securing the submission of the Federal Amendment and the following was
adopted: "If the Sixty-fifth Congress fails to submit the Federal
Amendment before the next congressional election this association
shall select and enter into such a number of senatorial and
congressional campaigns as will effect a change in both Houses of
Congress sufficient to insure its passage. The selection of candidates
to be opposed is to be left to the Executive Board and to the boards
of the States in question. Our opposition to individual candidates
shall not be based on party considerations, and loyalty to the Federal
Amendment shall not take precedence over loyalty to the country."

It was resolved that a compact of State associations willing and
ready to conduct such campaigns should be formed. It was directed that
the six departments of war work should be continued and that each
State association should be asked to establish a War Service Committee
composed of a chairman and the chairmen of these departments, with an
additional one for Liberty Loans, and that this committee cooperate
with the State divisions of the Woman's Committee of National Defense.

In addition to the resolution of loyalty to the Government at the
beginning of the convention the following, submitted by the committee,
Miss Blackwell chairman, were among those adopted:

     Whereas, the war is demanding from women unprecedented labor and
     sacrifices and women by millions are responding with utmost
     loyalty and devotion; and

     Whereas, Abraham Lincoln, writing of woman suffrage, declared
     that all should share the privileges of the government who assist
     in bearing its burdens; and

     Whereas, it is important to a country in war even more than in
     peace that all its loyal citizens should be equipped with the
     most up-to-date tools; therefore be it

     Resolved, that we urge Congress, as a war measure, to submit to
     the States an amendment to the United States Constitution
     providing for the nation-wide enfranchisement of women.

     That we rejoice this year in the most important victories yet won
     in the history of the cause. Since January 1, 1917, women have
     received full suffrage in New York, practically full suffrage in
     Arkansas, Presidential suffrage in Rhode Island, Michigan and
     Indiana, Presidential and Municipal suffrage in Nebraska and
     North Dakota, statewide Municipal suffrage in Vermont, local
     Municipal suffrage in seven cities of Ohio, Florida and Tennessee
     and nation-wide suffrage in Canada and Russia; while the British
     House of Commons has gone on record in favor of full suffrage for
     women by a vote of seven to one.

     That we pledge our unswerving loyalty to our country and the
     continuance of our aid in patriotic service to help make the
     world safe for democracy both at home and abroad.

     That we pledge our unqualified support to the campaign for the
     sale of the War Savings Certificates and Thrift Stamps and urge
     our members to aid it in every way....

     That we urge the establishment of the economic principle of equal
     pay for equal work as vital to the welfare of the nation....

     That an American-born woman should not lose her nationality by
     marrying a foreigner and we urge a change of the law in this
     respect.

A resolution of gratitude to the memory of the many earnest workers
for woman suffrage who had passed away during the year was adopted
and letters of greeting were sent to the pioneers still living. A
message of love and admiration was sent to Mrs. Catherine Breshkovsky,
"the grandmother of the Russian Revolution." "Cordial and grateful
appreciation for the inestimable service of the press," was voted.

The program for the last evening was devoted to Women's War Service
Abroad. Miss Helen Fraser, representing Great Britain, was here on a
special mission from its Government to tell what its women were doing.
The audience was deeply moved by her simple but thrilling recital of
the unparalleled sacrifices of the women of Great Britain and its
colonies. Madame Simon pictured in eloquent language how the war had
strengthened the devotion of France to America, not only through the
unequalled assistance of this Government in money and soldiers but
also through the sympathy and help of the American women. Miss C. M.
Bouimistrow, a member of the Russian Relief Council, spoke of the warm
feeling of that country for the United States and the bond between
them created by the war in which they had a common enemy. Mrs. Nellie
McClung, a leader of the Canadian suffragists, described what the war
had meant to the women of the Dominion, and, as the _Woman Citizen_
said in its account, "kept her hearers wavering between laughter and
tears as she hid her own emotion behind a veil of stoicism and humor."

The convention ended with a mass meeting at the theater on Sunday
afternoon at three o'clock with a notable audience such as can
assemble only in Washington. Mrs. Catt presided. Mrs. McClung told
enthusiastically the story of How Suffrage Came to the Women of Canada
in 1916 and 1917, and Miss Fraser related how the work of women during
the war had made it impossible for the British Government longer to
deny them the franchise, that now only awaited the assent of the House
of Lords, which was near at hand. It was always left to Dr. Shaw to
finish the program. One who had attended many suffrage conventions
said of her at this time: "As ever, Dr. Shaw's oratory was a marked
feature of the week's proceedings. Sometimes she was the able advocate
of loyalty to the country; sometimes she rose to heights of
supplication for an applied democracy which shall include women;
sometimes the mischief that is in her bubbled and sparkled to the
surface."

Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with ringing words of inspiration, with a
call for more and better work than had ever been done before and with
a prophecy that the long-awaited victory was almost won. This
convention, which had been held under such unfavorable auspices,
proved to have been one of the best in way of accomplishment, and,
although the papers were overflowing with news of the war, they came
to the national suffrage press bureau from 44 States with excellent
accounts of the convention; there were over 300 illustrated "stories"
and it was estimated that it had received half a million words of
"publicity."

       *       *       *       *       *

It had been customary to have a hearing on the Federal Suffrage
Amendment before the committees of every new Congress and this year an
extra session had been called in the spring. As the question of a
special Committee on Woman Suffrage in the Lower House was under
consideration no hearing before its Judiciary Committee was asked for
but a hearing took place before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage
April 20. This was largely a matter of routine as the entire committee
was ready to report favorably the resolution for the amendment.
Chairman Jones announced that the entire forenoon had been set apart
for the hearing, which would be in charge of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs.
Catt said: "The Senate Committee of Woman Suffrage was established in
1883. Thirty-four years have passed since then and seventeen
Congresses. We confidently believe that we are appearing before the
last of these committees and that it will be your immortal fame, Mr.
Chairman, to present the last report for woman suffrage to the United
States Senate." With words of highest praise she introduced Senator
John F. Shafroth of Colorado, "who has been our staunch and unfailing
friend through trial and adversity."

Senator Shafroth answered conclusively from the twenty-four years'
experience of his State the stock objections to woman suffrage, which
he declared to be "simply another step in the evolution of government
which has been going on since the dawn of civilization." He asked to
have printed as part of his speech two chapters of Mrs. Catt's new
book Woman Suffrage by Constitutional Amendment, which was so ordered.
Senator Kendrick of Wyoming, former Governor, gave his experience of
woman suffrage in that State for thirty-eight years. He declared that
the early settlers were of the type of the Revolutionary Fathers and
gladly gave to woman any right they claimed. He testified to the help
he had received from them "in the promotion of every piece of
progressive legislation" and said: "If for no other reason than the
forces that are fighting woman suffrage, every decent man ought to
line up in favor of it." He closed as follows: "Here and now I want to
give this Constitutional Amendment my unqualified endorsement. No
State that has adopted woman suffrage has ever even considered a plan
to get along without it. It is soon realized that the votes of women
are not for sale at any price, and, while they align themselves with
the different parties, one thing is always and preeminently true--they
never fail to put principle above partisanship and patriotism above
patronage." Senator William Howard Thompson of Kansas sketched the
steady progress of woman suffrage in his State, told of its beneficent
results and submitted a comprehensive address which he had made before
the Senate in 1914.

The committee listened with much interest to the first woman member of
Congress, Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who reviewed the
almost insurmountable difficulties of amending many State
constitutions for woman suffrage and made an earnest plea for the
Federal Amendment. Senator Charles S. Thomas of Colorado, who for the
past twenty-five years had been a consistent and never failing friend
of woman suffrage, said in beginning: "I learned this lesson in my
early manhood by reading the addresses of and listening to such
advocates as Susan B. Anthony," and he summed up his strong speech by
saying: "The matter is simply one of abstract and of concrete justice.
We cannot preach universal suffrage unless we practice it and we can
never practice it while fifty per cent. of our population is
disfranchised." Senator Reed Smoot of Utah, to whom the women of his
State could always look for help in this and every other good cause,
said in his brief remarks: "I have for many years watched the work and
the sacrifices by many of the best women of this country to bring this
question before the people and convince them of its justice and
righteousness and I have gloried with them in every victory they have
won. Nothing on earth will stop it. The country will not much longer
tolerate it that a woman shall have the privilege of voting in one
State and upon moving into another be disfranchised."

Mrs. Catt stated that Senators Chamberlain of Oregon and Johnson of
California, were not able to be present and asked that the favorable
speeches they would have made be put in the Congressional Record,
which was granted. Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana made a thorough
analysis of the attitude of the Federal Constitution toward suffrage
and its gradual extension and declared that it was now "the duty of
the government to see that every one of its citizens was assured of
this fundamental right." The hearing was closed by Mrs. Catt with a
comprehensive review of the status of woman suffrage throughout the
world and the naming of the many countries where it prevailed. She
pointed out that Great Britain and her colonies had recognized the
political rights of women as the United States had never done, and,
now that they were to be called on for the supreme sacrifices of the
war, the British Government was granting them the franchise, which our
own Government was still withholding. "This fact," she said, "has
saddened the lives of women, it has dimmed their vision of American
ideals and lowered their respect for our Government. The tremendous
capacity of women for constructive work, for upbuilding the best in
civilization and for enthusiastic patriotism has been crushed. In
consequence this greatest force for good has been minimized and the
entire nation is the loser." Senator Walsh's and Mrs. Catt's speeches
were printed in a separate pamphlet and circulated by the thousands.

On April 26 the Senate Committee granted a hearing to that branch of
the suffrage movement called the National Woman's Party. Miss Anne
Martin, its vice-chairman, presided and able speeches were made by
Mrs. Mary Ritter Beard and Mrs. Rheta Childe Dorr of New York; Mrs.
Richard F. Wainwright of the District; Miss Madeline Z. Doty and Miss
Ernestine Evans, war correspondents; Miss Alice Carpenter, chairman of
the New York Women's Navy League; Miss Rankin and Dudley Field Malone,
collector of the port of New York. On May 3 the National Anti-Suffrage
Association claimed a hearing. Its president, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge,
introduced the president of the New York branch, the wife of U. S.
Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., who presided. The speakers were Miss
Minnie Bronson, national secretary; Miss Lucy Price of Ohio; Judge
Oscar Leser of Maryland and Mrs. A. J. George of Massachusetts. Their
speeches, which fill twenty pages of the printed report, comprise a
full résumé of the arguments against the enfranchisement of women and
will be read with curiosity by future students of this question. On
May 15, at the request of the National Woman's Party, the committee
granted a supplementary hearing at which the speakers were J. A. H.
Hopkins of New Jersey, representing the new Progressive party being
organized; John Spargo of Vermont, representing the Socialist Party;
Virgil Henshaw, national chairman of the Prohibition party and Miss
Mabel Vernon. They gave to the committee copies of a "memorial" which
they had presented to President Wilson urging immediate action by
Congress. It was signed also by former Governor David I. Walsh of
Massachusetts for the Progressive Democrats and Edward A. Rumely for
the Progressive Republicans. The pamphlet of these four hearings, of
which the Senate Committee furnished 10,000 copies, was widely used
for propaganda.

A hearing was held on May 18 before the Committee on Rules of the
Lower House, with the entire membership present: Representatives
Edward W. Pou, N. C.; chairman; James C. Cantrill, Ky.; Martin D.
Foster, Ills.; Finis J. Garrett, Tenn.; "Pat" Harrison, Miss.; M.
Clyde Kelly, Penn.; Irvine L. Lenroot, Wis.; Daniel J. Riordan, N. Y.;
Thomas D. Schall, Minn.; Bertrand H. Snell, N. Y.; William R. Wood,
Ind. Its purpose was to urge favorable report for a Committee on Woman
Suffrage. The speakers for the National American Suffrage Association
were Judge Raker, Representatives Jeannette Rankin of Montana; Edward
T. Taylor of Colorado; Frank W. Mondell of Wyoming and Edward Keating
of Colorado; Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman, and Mrs. Helen H.
Gardener, member of the association's Congressional Committee. The
speakers for the National Woman's Party were Miss Martin, Miss Maud
Younger, Mrs. Wainwright, Miss Vernon, Representatives George F.
O'Shaughnessy of Rhode Island; C. N. McArthur of Oregon; Carl Hayden
of Arizona. On December 13 a Committee on Woman Suffrage was
appointed.


FOOTNOTES:

[107] Signed: Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president; Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt, president; Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, Mrs. Stanley
McCormick and Miss Esther G. Ogden, vice-presidents; Mrs. Frank J.
Shuler, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith,
recording secretary; Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer; Mrs. Pattie
Ruffner Jacobs, auditor; Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman Congressional
Committee; Miss Rose Young, chairman of Press; Mrs. Arthur L.
Livermore, chairman of Literature.

[108] On the list were: All the members of the Cabinet except
Secretary of State Lansing; nineteen U.S. Senators and fourteen
prominent Representatives; Speaker Champ Clark; U.S. Commissioner of
Education Philander P. Claxton; Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
Carl Vrooman; Justices of the Supreme Court of the District Wendell P.
Stafford and Frederick L. Siddons; Secretary to the President Joseph
P. Tumulty; Commissioners of the District Louis Brownlow and W. Gwynn
Gardiner; former Commissioners Henry F. MacFarland and Simon Wolf;
Major Raymond S. Pullman, Chief of Police; Resident Commissioner and
Mme. Jaime De Veyra (Philippine Islands); Resident Commissioner Felix
C. Davila (Porto Rico); John Barrett, director of the Pan-American
Union; Major-General W. C. Gorgas; the Reverends U. G. B. Pierce,
Henry N. Couden, chaplain of the House of Representatives; James Shera
Montgomery, Rabbi Abram Simon, John Van Schaick, president of the
School Board; Theodore Noyes, editor of the _Evening Star_; Arthur
Brisbane, the _Times_; C. T. Brainerd, the Washington _Herald_; W. P.
Spurgeon, the Washington _Post_; Gilbert Grosvenor, editor of the
_National Geographic Magazine_; J. Leftwich Sinclair, president, and
Thomas Grant, secretary of the Washington Chamber of Commerce; Dr.
Harry A. Garfield, president Williams College and director Fuel
Administration for the United States; Edward P. Costigan, U. S. Tariff
Commission; Frank A. Vanderlip, V. Everit Macy, on War Boards; Samuel
Gompers, president American Federation of Labor; Alexander Graham
Bell; Gifford Pinchot; Dr. Ryan Devereux; General Julian S. Carr,
commander-in-chief United Confederate Veterans.

Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of the Children's Bureau; Mrs. Mary C. C.
Bradford, president, and Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, secretary National
Education Association; Mrs. George Thacher Guernsey, president-general
Daughters of the American Revolution; Mrs. Cordelia R. P. Odenheimer,
president-general Daughters of the Confederacy; Miss Janet Richards;
Mrs. Charles Boughton Wood; Mrs. Blaine Beale; Mrs. Ellis Meredith;
Mrs. Christian Hemmick; Mrs. Herbert C. Hoover; Mrs. A. Garrison
McClintock.

[109] The names of the thirteen were given as follows: Miss Heloise
Meyer of Massachusetts, first auditor of the association, scheduled
for canteen work in France. Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, member of the
Congressional Committee of the association, now on governmental
assignment in Europe. Miss Irene C. Boyd, of the New York Suffrage
Party, serving in a United States base hospital with the American
Expeditionary Forces in France. Dr. Esther Pohl-Lovejoy of Portland,
Ore., serving with the party sent by the "Fund for French Wounded."
Miss Mary W. Dewson, chairman of legislative committee of the
Massachusetts Suffrage Association, social worker in France at the
call of Major Grayson M. P. Murphy. Miss Lodovine LeMoyne, publicity
chairman of the Fall River Equal Suffrage League, serving in a United
States base hospital with the American Expeditionary Forces in France.
Miss Elizabeth G. Bissell, corresponding secretary of the Iowa Equal
Suffrage Association in the French Red Cross canteen. Miss Susan P.
Ryerson, former corresponding secretary Chicago Equal Suffrage
Association, now bacteriological expert attached to base hospital in
France. Miss Lucile Atcherson, of the Ohio association, serving as
secretary to Miss Anne Morgan in her relief work in France. To these
nine will be added the names of the four doctors leading the New York
Infirmary Hospital Unit, which is now seeking the support and
authorization of the National Suffrage Association--Caroline Finley,
Mary Lee Edwards, Anna Von Sholly and Alice Gregory.

[110] See Mrs. McCormick's complete account in the last chapter on The
War Work of Organized Suffragists prepared for this volume.

[111] This Address to Congress in handsome pamphlet form was presented
to every member in person by the various women of the association's
Congressional Committee. After the Federal Amendment was submitted by
Congress it was revised, printed under the title An Address to
Legislatures, and through the mail or by the State suffrage workers
was put into the hands of every one of the 6,000 members of the
forty-eight State Legislatures.

[112] For information regarding the bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie see
Appendix.

[113] This organization, originated by Mrs. Catt even to the name, was
effected at the national convention in St. Louis, March, 1919.




CHAPTER XVIII.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1918-1919.


For the first time since it was founded in 1869 the National American
Woman Suffrage Association in 1918 omitted its annual convention.
Suffragists were accustomed to strenuous effort but this year strained
to the last ounce the strength of all engaged in national work. The
Congressional Committee could not secure the respite of a single day
and were summoning women from all parts of the country for service in
Washington and demanding extra work from them at home, telegrams,
letters, influence from the constituencies, etc. There was a vote Jan.
10, 1918, in the Lower House and a continual pressure from that moment
to get a vote in the Senate, which did not come till October and was
adverse. Then the committee pushed on without stopping. Mrs. Shuler,
the corresponding secretary, had been in the Michigan, South Dakota
and Oklahoma campaigns all summer and was exhausted. The three States
were carried for suffrage and when the election was over all the
forces were used to obtain Presidential suffrage in the big
legislative year beginning January, 1919. It was a question of
pressing forward to victory or stopping to prepare for and hold a
convention and lose the opportunities for gains in Congress.

During the first ten months of 1918 the vast conflict in Europe had
gone steadily on; the United States had sent over millions of soldiers
and other millions were in training camps on this side of the ocean;
transportation was blocked; the advanced cost of living had brought
distress to many households; thousands of families were in mourning,
and everywhere suffragists were devoting time and strength to those
heavy burdens of war which always fall on women. By November 1, when
it would have been necessary to issue the call for a convention, there
was no prospect of a change in these hard conditions, and when on
November 11 the Armistice was suddenly declared no one was interested
in anything but the end of the war and its world-wide aftermath.[114]
During the dark days of 1918, however, there had come a tremendous
advance in the status of woman suffrage. The magnificent way in which
women had met the demands of war, their patriotic service, their
loyalty to the Government, had swept away the old-time objections to
their enfranchisement and fully established their right to full
equality in all the privileges of citizenship. Early in the winter the
Lower House of Congress by a two-thirds vote declared in favor of
submitting to the Legislatures an amendment to the Federal
Constitution, the object for which the National Suffrage Association
had been formed, and the Parliament of Great Britain had fully
enfranchised the majority of its women. In the spring the Canadian
Parliament conferred full Dominion suffrage on women. Before and after
the Armistice the nations of Europe that had overthrown their Emperors
and Kings gave women equal voting rights with men. In November at
their State elections, Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma gave
complete suffrage to women. The U. S. Senate was still holding out by
a majority of two against submitting the Federal Amendment but it was
almost universally recognized that the seventy years' struggle for
woman suffrage in this country was nearing the end.

With the opening of the year 1919 the progress was evident by the
addition of seven more States to those whose Legislatures had granted
the Presidential franchise to women; that of Tennessee included
Municipal suffrage and that of Texas had given Primary suffrage the
preceding year. The situation now seemed to require an early
convention of the National Association and the time was especially
opportune, as this year marked the 50th anniversary of its founding. A
Call was issued, therefore, for a Jubilee Convention to be held in
March, fifteen months after the one of 1917. As it was the intention
to launch the organization of Women Voters it was decided to meet in
the central part of the country and the invitation of St. Louis was
accepted.[115]

The Report of the annual convention of 1901, with which this volume
begins, filled 130 printed pages; the Report of 1919 filled 322, which
makes a complete account of its proceedings impracticable. Their
character had been changing from year to year and at this convention
it was almost transformed. At the public evening meetings there were
no longer eloquent pleas and arguments for the ballot and the daytime
sessions were not devoted to discussions of the many phases of the
work. Now there was business and political consideration of the best
and quickest methods of bringing the movement to an end and the most
effective use that could be made of the suffrage already so largely
won. It was a little difficult for some of the older workers to
accustom themselves to the change, which deprived the convention of
its old-time crusading, consecrated spirit, but the younger ones were
full of ardor and enthusiasm over the limitless opportunities that
were nearly within their grasp.

On Sunday evening the national officers and directors held an informal
reception in the Hotel Statler for the delegates and all the sessions
were held in this hotel, with the two evening mass meetings in the
Odeon Theater. The convention opened Monday evening, March 24, with
the president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair. Dr. Anna Howard
Shaw, who was an ordained Methodist minister, pronounced the
invocation and the community singing at this and all sessions was led
by Mrs. W.D. Steele of St. Louis.[116] The Mayor, Henry W. Kiel,
extended a cordial welcome to the city and pledged his earnest support
of woman suffrage. Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, president of the Missouri
suffrage association, gave the welcome from the State. Mrs. B.
Morrison Fuller, president of the Daughters of Pioneers, brought their
greeting and referred to a convention held in St. Louis in 1872,
introducing three ladies who were present at that time.

Dr. Shaw, honorary president, took the chair and presented Mrs. Catt.
Her address, The Nation Calls, was a strong appeal for an organization
of Women Voters to be formed in the States where they were
enfranchised. The plan was outlined and she asked: "Shall the women
voters go forward doing their work as free women in the great world
while the non-free women are left to struggle on alone toward liberty
unattained?" She showed how powerful an influence such a coordinated
body could wield and among its primary objects she pointed out the
Federal Suffrage Amendment, corrections in the present laws and true
democracy for the world. She named nine vital needs of the Government
at the present time, to which the proposed organization could
contribute--compulsory education, English the national language,
education of adults, higher qualifications for citizenship, direct
citizenship for women and not through marriage, compulsory lessons in
citizenship through foreign language papers, oath of allegiance as
qualification for citizenship, schools of citizenship in every city
ward and rural district and an educational requirement for voting.

This comprehensive and convincing address is given in part in the
chapter on The League of Women Voters, by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler,
corresponding secretary. It showed beyond question the great work that
awaited the action of women endowed with political power and it swept
away all doubts of the necessity for this new organization to which
Mrs. Catt and her committee had given so much time and thought.
Throughout the convention the League was the dominating feature,
meetings being held daily to discuss its organization, constitution,
objects, methods, officers, etc.

At the close of Mrs. Catt's address Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee,
with a group of sixteen women from as many southern States came to the
platform and with eloquent words presented her and Dr. Shaw with large
framed parchments on which President Wilson's appeal to the Senate for
the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment Sept. 30, 1918, was
beautifully wrought in illuminated letters by the artist Scapecchi. At
Mrs. Catt's request Dr. Shaw made the response for both of them.

Tuesday morning the convention was cordially welcomed to the city by
Mrs. George Gellhorn, president of the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League
and chairman of local arrangements. There were present 329 delegates,
seventeen officers and three chairmen of standing committees. The
chair announced that because of the crowded program the separate
reports of officers and committee chairmen, which always had been read
to the conventions, would be replaced with a general report of the
year's work by Mrs. Shuler, chairman of Campaigns and Surveys. This
report was a remarkably comprehensive survey of the varied work of the
association. After recounting the gains in the States she said:

     Our question is now political. The past year has seen suffrage by
     Federal Amendment endorsed by twenty-one Democratic and twenty
     Republican State conventions; by all those of the minor parties
     and by many State Central Committees, while many others have
     approved the principle of equal suffrage by a large vote. In
     July, 1918, our second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay,
     was made chairman of the platform committee at the State
     Republican conference in Saratoga, N. Y., a distinct suffrage
     victory, inasmuch as the men realized that in thus signally
     honoring her they were honoring the woman, who, by her work in
     winning the suffrage campaign in New York City, had made possible
     the victory in the State. Miss Hay has since been made a member
     of the Republican State Executive Committee and chairman of the
     Executive Committee Woman's Division of the Republican National
     Committee.

     The work of the last fifteen months has been accomplished under
     most trying and difficult conditions. Many women under the
     allurement of war work dropped suffrage work altogether, and
     could not be persuaded that it was necessary at this time; others
     were unable to endure the criticism that they would be "slackers"
     if they did anything besides war work; still others thought if
     they did this well that men, "seeing their good works" would
     "reward them openly" with the ballot.


     Mobilization: The mobilization of our suffrage army came April
     18, 1918, with the call for the Executive Council meeting at
     Indianapolis. At that time Mrs. Catt, our chief, plainly stated
     that there could be no "go it alone" campaigns but that
     provincial shackles must be dropped, nation-wide plans adopted
     and constructive cooperation from all branches assured. Her plans
     were accepted unanimously. On May 14 a bulletin was issued asking
     for a nation-wide protest campaign against further delay in
     passing the Federal Amendment. Resolutions were to be passed by
     State bodies and points given to be stressed at mass meetings and
     in publicity. Resolutions of protest were sent from the women of
     the Allied countries of Europe to the President of the United
     States; from National Republican and Democratic Committees;
     General Federation of Women's Clubs; National Women's Trade Union
     League; American Collegiate Alumnæ; American Nurses' Association;
     National Education Association; National Convention of Business
     Women; Woman's Christian Temperance Union; American Federation of
     Labor. Many States responded with resolutions from State
     political parties, press associations, churches, granges, labor
     and business organizations, political leaders and large numbers
     of citizens.


     Our Fighting Units: From honorary president to the last director,
     every member of the board of the National Association had some
     part in war work. Our service flag representing suffrage
     officials of our branches carried twenty-five stars. Dr. Shaw,
     Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick were conscripted for the Woman's
     Committee of the National Council of Defense; Mrs. Catt for the
     Liberty Loan's National List; Miss Hay, Mrs. Gardener and Mrs.
     Dudley for Congressional and Mrs. Brown for Oversea Hospitals
     work. Other members of the board were sent from time to time to
     various States on special missions.


     Congressional Work: Mrs. Rogers went to New Jersey; Mrs. Wilson
     and Mrs. Stilwell to Delaware and Mrs. Livermore to New Hampshire
     for work connected with the Federal Amendment. Mrs. Wilson
     attended the State suffrage conventions in Maine, Rhode Island,
     New Hampshire and made a longer stay in Florida and Vermont. Mrs.
     Shuler went to the three campaign States twice, spending five
     weeks in South Dakota, holding a suffrage school there; five
     weeks in Michigan and nearly five months in Oklahoma, later going
     to West Virginia. Others who were sent by the National
     Association on special missions were Miss Louise Hall, Mrs.
     Fitzgerald, Mrs. Anna C. Tillinghast and Miss Eva Potter to New
     Hampshire; Miss Mabel Willard to Delaware; Mrs. Cunningham, Miss
     Marjorie Shuler and Mrs. Mary Grey Brewer to Florida, while Mrs.
     Brewer made a trip as special envoy to five of the western
     States. Our nineteen national organizers have been in twenty
     States. In eighteen part or all of the expenses have been borne
     by the National Association. At present we have ten organizers in
     the field.

     To the one who has made our victories possible, our national and
     international president, Mrs. Catt, women owe a debt of gratitude
     that can never be paid. Her strength and sagacity, her unerring
     judgment and masterful leadership have acted as a stimulus and
     inspiration, not only to those of us who have been privileged to
     work at close range but also to the women of the entire world.
     Our national suffrage headquarters have been a place of peace and
     happiness because of her patience, good-nature and sympathy. Her
     battle for the past fifteen months has been with adverse
     conditions and reactionary forces, which are always the hardest
     to combat, but not once has her courage faltered or her strength
     of purpose failed.

     Our Ammunition: At national headquarters in New York City our
     work is departmentalized and functions through the Leslie Bureau
     of Suffrage Education under three department heads: The _Woman
     Citizen_, Press Bureau and Research. These cooperate with a
     fourth department, the National Publishing Company, and all are
     so closely co-ordinated that they work as one.

     The _Woman Citizen_--Our National Organ. (See special report.) As
     you will remember, the Leslie Commission took over the Press
     Bureau March, 1917, and since then has paid all of its expenses.

     In order to keep our official machinery moving, there are about
     fifty people on the two floors at 171 Madison Avenue, New York.

     Circularization: The _Woman Citizen_ has been sent each week to
     members of Congress and on thirty different occasions they
     received literature prepared in the most tempting fashion for
     their instruction and edification. Mrs. Catt put into operation
     the plan for resolutions from the Legislatures calling upon the
     Senate to pass the Federal Suffrage Amendment. These from
     twenty-four States were read into the Congressional Record, and
     while they did not put the Federal Amendment through they were
     effective as showing the nation-wide urge for favorable action.
     The Legislatures themselves were circularized with excellent
     literature.

     In February, 1918, a bulletin was sent to State presidents
     offering one or more traveling libraries of sixty-two volumes,
     the Leslie Commission to pay expenses to the State and its
     association to pay them within the State. A library could be held
     one year. Quantities of literature have been sent to the States
     for distribution while requests for special literature have
     received prompt attention.

     The activity regarding the appointment of a woman or women on the
     Peace Commission originated in the national office and stirred
     the people of the entire country. On Dec. 8, 1918, the
     association held a meeting of war workers in the National Theatre
     in Washington, D. C., to protest against further delay in the
     Senate on the Federal Amendment. Twenty-seven delegates
     representing the association attended the eight congresses held
     throughout the United States in the interest of the League of
     Nations.

     Field Work. The resolution committing the National Association to
     an aggressive policy was passed at its convention of 1917. It
     read: "If the 65th Congress fails to submit the Federal Amendment
     before the next Congressional election the association shall
     select and enter into such a number of campaigns as will effect a
     change in both houses of Congress sufficient to insure its
     passage."

     October came; the November elections were approaching; the 65th
     Congress had failed to pass the amendment. Probabilities had to
     be weighed which would produce the necessary two votes if
     possible and it was decided to enter the campaigns in New
     Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Delaware. The first two
     were at no time specially hopeful, as they were likely to poll
     Republican majorities and the Republican Senatorial candidates of
     both were against woman suffrage. However, as a result of the
     work done in New Jersey, Senator Baird fell much behind his
     ticket, while in New Hampshire the women and the advertising made
     so strong a case for the pro-suffrage candidate that for a day or
     two the result was in doubt, but it was finally declared that
     Moses had won by 1,200 votes.... The two most important and
     successful contests were in Massachusetts against the Republican
     Senator Weeks; in Delaware against the Democratic Senator
     Saulsbury....

Under the sub-title "In the trenches" Mrs. Shuler told of the three
great State campaigns of the year in Michigan, South Dakota and
Oklahoma (described in the chapters for those States) and said:

     The National Association gave to these States eighteen
     organizers, all of whom rendered valuable service. It gave plate
     matter at a cost of $4,600; 100,000 posters, 1,528,000 pieces of
     literature, eighteen street banners and 50,000 buttons. It gave
     to South Dakota a "suffrage school," June 3-20, sessions in the
     daytime in seven cities and street meetings in ten of the nearby
     towns in the evenings. The sending of Miss Marjorie Shuler as
     press chairman to Oklahoma enabled it to issue 126,000 copies of
     a suffrage supplement and supply 300 papers with weekly
     bulletins, information service and two half-pages of plate. These
     three campaigns cost the association $30,720. This was the
     financial cost, but the immense output of time and energy by the
     women cannot be computed. It is safe to say that all of them as
     they emerged from this trench warfare again questioned the
     advisability of trying to secure suffrage by the State route.

Mrs. Shuler's fine report closed with an optimistic peroration on
Seeing it Through. [See Handbook of convention.]

The carefully audited report of the treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers,
showed almost incredible collections during a period when the war was
making its endless calls for money. In part it was as follows: "The
year 1918 has been a very remarkable one for the national suffrage
treasury. The large demands of the war on every individual, both for
money and work, seemed to forebode financial difficulties for us
before the close of our fiscal year. Instead, the response to the
needs of our treasury was never more fully met, both in the payment of
pledges made at the last convention and in securing new pledges and
donations. Early in the year the treasurer was asked to assume also
the duties of treasurer of the association's Women's Oversea Hospitals
Committee and this fund has passed regularly through the treasury,
amounting in all to $133,339. The very generous and hearty response of
the State suffrage associations to the demands of our Oversea
Hospitals' war work has been most gratifying and its financing has not
diminished the regular income of the association.... About one-third
of the association's income has been received from the State
auxiliaries and two-thirds from individual donations. The receipts for
suffrage work were $107,736; balance on hand $11,874." [The Leslie
Commission contributed $20,000.]

A message to the convention from President Wilson was received
conveying his greetings and best wishes for the success of the Federal
Amendment. On motion of Dr. Shaw the convention sent to the President
an expression of its appreciation of his support. Mrs. Philip North
Moore, president of the National Council of Women, brought its
fraternal greetings. Others were received from far and wide.... On
motion of Mrs. Shuler a telegram of appreciation was sent to Mrs.
Helen H. Gardener of Washington, and on motion of Dr. Shaw one to Mrs.
Ida Husted Harper of New York. A message of sympathy in the loss of
her husband was sent to the veteran suffragist, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton
Harbert of Pasadena, formerly of Chicago. It was voted that letters
from the convention should be sent to the pioneers, Dr. Antoinette
Brown Blackwell, Miss Rhoda Palmer, Mrs. Charlotte Pierce, Miss Emily
Howland and Mrs. C. D. B. Mills.

During the convention the Legislature of Missouri passed the bill
giving Presidential suffrage to women by 21 to 12 in the Senate and
118 to 2 in the House. The convention sent a message of enthusiastic
appreciation. [For full account see Missouri chapter.] Miss Anna B.
Lawther, president of the Iowa Suffrage Association, requested the
National Association and the League of Women Voters to appeal to the
Legislature of that State to pass a similar bill. Mrs. Dudley of
Tennessee and Miss Mary Bulkley of Connecticut made the same request
for these States and it was granted for all three. Mrs. Frederick
Nathan (N. Y.) urged the suffragists to contribute to the Women's
Roosevelt Memorial Association. Mrs. Gellhorn's young daughter was
introduced as having recently organized a Junior Suffrage League in
St. Louis of thirty-two members. Mrs. Katharine Philips Edson (Cal.)
announced that though it had no regular suffrage organization,
Northern and Southern California each had telegraphed a contribution
of $500 to the work of the National Association.

The present policies of the association were endorsed. The reason
given for wishing the officers to hold over until the next annual
convention in 1920 was that the complete ratification of the Federal
Amendment by that time was considered certain and these officers would
be best fitted to close up the affairs of the association, which would
then be merged into the League of Woman Voters. From the list of
candidates the following eight directors were elected: Mrs. George
Gellhorn (Mo.); Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.); Mrs. C. H. Brooks
(Kans.); Mrs. Ben Hooper (Wis.); Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.);
Mrs. J. C. Cantrill (Ky.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. Y.); Mrs. George
A. Piersol (Penn.). Mrs. Brooks, Mrs. Livermore and Miss Ogden were
re-elected.

The afternoon session of Tuesday was devoted to suffrage war work,
with Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, chairman of the War Service
Department, presiding. At the meeting of the Executive Council of the
National Association in Washington, in February, 1917, just before the
United States entered the war, it formed a number of committees in
order that the suffragists throughout the country might do their
especial work for it under the same generalship as they were
accustomed to, and later chairmen of these committees were appointed
to organize and superintend State branches. At the present session of
the national convention these chairmen reported as follows: General
Survey of War Program, Mrs. McCormick (N. Y.); Food Production, Miss
Hilda Loines (N. Y.); Americanization, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley
(Mass.); Child Welfare, Mrs. Percy Pennybacker (Tex.); Industrial
Protection of Women, Mrs. Gifford Pinchot (D. C.); Food Conservation,
Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.); Oversea Hospitals Service, Mrs.
Charles L. Tiffany (N. Y.), chairman, and Mrs. Raymond Brown (N. Y.)
director general in France.

These reports are considered at length in Mrs. McCormick's chapter on
War Work of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and they
conclusively refuted the charge publicly made again and again by the
National Anti-Suffrage Association through its official organ and on
the platform that the suffragists were "slackers," unpatriotic,
pro-German and concerned only in getting the franchise for themselves.
This charge was frequently made by the editor of the paper and
president of the association, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., wife of
the Republican U. S. Senator from New York, also a strong opponent of
woman suffrage.

At the close of this very interesting session the convention enjoyed
an automobile ride to see the beautiful city and its environs,
tendered by the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League and under the auspices
of Mrs. Philip B. Fouke. The "inquiry dinner" in the banquet room of
the hotel in the evening, with Mrs. Catt presiding, carried out the
clever idea of trying to ascertain why American women could not obtain
their enfranchisement. The program was as follows: What is the matter
with the United States? Women want it! Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout
(Ills.); Men want it! the Rev. W. C. Bitting (Mo.); Political Parties
want it! Mrs. Emma Smith De Voe (Wash.); The Press wants it! Miss Rose
Young (N. Y.); The Old South wants it! Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs
(Ala.); Congress wants it! Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.); The
Legislatures want it! Mrs. T. T. Cotnam (Ark.); All other Countries
have it! Mrs. Guilford Dudley (Tenn.); Who doesn't want it! Mrs.
Harriet Taylor Upton (Ohio); Well then what is the matter? Mrs. Arthur
L. Livermore (N. Y.); Making it right next time! U. S. Senator Selden
P. Spencer (Mo.).

At one business session Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) argued that the time had
come to change the form of the Federal Suffrage Amendment to meet the
objections of the southern members of Congress. Discussion showed a
preponderance of sentiment in favor of the old amendment and the
convention so voted, but at the suggestion of Mrs. Park it empowered
the Congressional Committee to make any minor changes which might seem
advisable. At another session there was considerable talk of merging
the National American Association into the new organization of voters
and dropping its name at this convention, but Miss Hay carried the
delegates with her in urging that they retain the old name until they
celebrated Miss Anthony's one-hundredth birthday and were safely
through the ratification of the Federal Amendment. This decision was
especially pleasing to the older members for whom the name had many
endearing memories. Mrs. Catt announced that suffrage societies had
been formed in Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines and it was
voted to extend an official invitation to them to join the National
Association without payment of dues. Mrs. Catt called attention to the
increased educational value of the convention through the many
opportunities extended to the delegates for addressing bodies of
various kinds in the city. These included the churches, synagogues,
Ethical Society, public schools, Chamber of Commerce, Junior Chamber
of Commerce, City Club, Rotary Club, Town Club, Wednesday Club,
Women's Trade Union League and other organizations.

One of the leading features of the convention was the report of Mrs.
Maud Wood Park, chairman of the Congressional Committee, which gave a
complete summary of the status of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in
Congress from the time of the last convention to the present. This and
Mrs. Shuler's secretary's report offer so comprehensive a survey of
the important work of the National Association that a considerable
amount of space is devoted to them. The report of Mrs. Park filled
over thirty pages of the Handbook of the convention and was an
interesting account of the struggle of the past year and a half to
secure from Congress the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.
A large part of it will be found in the chapter devoted to that
amendment. It showed the work done at the national headquarters in New
York City and Washington and also in the States and gave an idea of
the tremendous effort which was necessary before the measure was sent
to the Legislatures for ratification. It told of the House Judiciary
Committee reporting the resolution on Dec. 11, 1917, "without
recommendation," after amending it so as to limit the time for
ratification to seven years, and of the determination of the opponents
to force a vote on it before the appointment of a Woman Suffrage
Committee for which the friends were striving. This committee was
announced, however, on December 13, 1917.

All the members but three of the committee were in favor of the
amendment. Chairman Raker introduced a new resolution omitting the
seven-year clause and the committee gave a five-days' hearing to the
National American Association, the National Woman's Party and the
Anti-Suffrage Association, January 3-7 inclusive. The committee made a
favorable report to the House on January 8. On the 9th twelve
Democratic members called by appointment on President Wilson, _who
advised the submission of the amendment_. Speaker Clark gave valuable
assistance, as did many prominent Democrats and Republicans both in
and out of Congress. A five-hours' debate took place in the House on
the afternoon of Jan. 10, 1918, and the vote resulted as follows:

                            In Favor  Opposed
  Republicans                  165       33
  Democrats                    104      102
  Miscellaneous                  5        1
                               ---      ---
                               274      136

This was a majority of less than one vote over the necessary
two-thirds.

Mrs. Park gave a graphic account of the struggle to secure a favorable
vote in the Senate. She described the influences brought to bear from
all possible sources; the conferences with committees and individuals;
the fixing and then postponing of days for a vote; the difficulty in
arranging "pairs"; the "filibustering" of the opponents, the
adjournments, the endless tactics for preventing a vote which for
years had been employed against this amendment. She described the
great five days' discussion in the Senate September 26-October 1; the
appeal to President Wilson for help and his magnificent response in
person on September 30 with its contemptuous treatment by the
opponents; the failure of the Republican leaders to supply the
thirty-three votes promised and of the Democrats to provide from their
ranks the thirty-fourth, which would complete the necessary
two-thirds, and she gave the summary of the result of the balloting on
October 1. Analyzed by parties and including pairs the vote stood:

                           Yes   No
  Democrats                 30   22
  Republicans               32   12
                            --   --
  Total                     62   34

The amendment was lost by two votes. This debate, printed in full in
the Congressional Record for those days, hands down to posterity the
noble effort of some members of the U. S. Senate to grant to women a
voice in the Government to which they were giving the most loyal and
devoted service in this hour when it was joining with other nations in
the greatest battle for democracy ever fought. It preserves also the
determination of other U. S. Senators to deny them this citizen's
right and to continue their disfranchised condition. The _Woman
Citizen_, official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association, in its issue of Oct. 5, 1918, gave a spirited account of
the proceedings of those momentous five days.

Mrs. Park took up the story after the defeat in the Senate and said in
part: "The election returns on Nov. 6, 1918, indicated that the
necessary two-thirds majority in the 66th Congress had been secured.
This belief was shared by prominent Democrats, who from that time on
spared no effort to make unfriendly Democratic Senators realize the
folly of their position in leaving the victory for a Republican
Congress. Only the stupidity of extreme conservatism or a thoroughly
provincial point of view can account for their failure to yield,
unless we are to suppose that more sinister forces were at work.... On
the eve of his sailing for Europe December 2 President Wilson included
in his address to a joint session of Congress another eloquent appeal
for the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment."[117] She
described the mass meeting of the suffrage war workers on December 8
at the National Theater in Washington arranged by Miss Mabel Willard
with the following program: Mrs. Catt, the national president, in the
chair; Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman Woman's Committee of National
Council of Defense; Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo, chairman National
Woman's Liberty Loan Committee; Mrs. Josephus Daniels, member National
War Work Council, Y. W. C. A.; Miss Jane Delano, director Department
of Nursing, American Red Cross; Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, representing
Community War Work and Women's Oversea Hospitals; Mrs. F. Louis Slade,
of Young Women's Department, Y. M. C. A.; Mrs. Raymond Robins,
president National Women's Trade Union League; Miss Hannah Black,
Munitions Worker. An overflow meeting was held and strong resolutions
for the amendment were adopted at both and sent to each Senator.

Resolutions calling on every Senator to vote for submission of the
amendment were adopted by twenty-five State Legislatures during
January and February, 1919, and the gaining of Presidential suffrage
in Vermont, Indiana and Wisconsin that winter increased hope. The
suffrage Democrats were desirous of taking one more vote before going
out of power. Mrs. Park's report said: "On petition of twenty-two
Senators, a Democratic caucus on suffrage was held on February 5, the
first since the United States entered the war. On a motion to adjourn,
the suffragists without proxies defeated the "antis," who voted
proxies, by 22 to 16. On a resolution recommending that the Democratic
Senators support the Federal Amendment, twenty-two voted in the
affirmative and when ten had voted in the negative, those ten were
allowed by Senator Thomas S. Martin (Va.), Democratic floor leader, to
withdraw their votes in order that he might declare that, as the vote
stood 22 to 0, a quorum had not voted and the resolution was lost!
This decision was, of course, most irregular and unfair but it
afforded a good illustration of the kind of tactics used by the
opponents.

"After the close of the morning business February 10, Senator Jones
moved to take up the amendment. An extremely strong speech in its
favor was made by the new Senator, William P. Pollock of South
Carolina. The only other speeches were by Senator Frelinghuysen (N.
J.), on the question of individual naturalization of women and by
Senator Gay (La.) in opposition to the amendment. The vote taken early
in the afternoon showed 55 in favor and 29 opposed. As on October 1,
all the members who were not present to vote were accounted for by
pairs, so that it stood practically 63 in favor to 33 opposed. In
other words the amendment was lost in the 65th Congress by one vote.
The responsibility for the defeat lies at the door of every man who
voted against it. Analyzed by parties and including pairs, the vote on
February 10, was:

                           Yes   No
  Democrats                 30   21
  Republicans               33   12
                            --   --
  Total                     63   33

"Thus the Democrats lost their last opportunity and on March 1 the
resolution for the amendment was again favorably reported by the Woman
Suffrage Committee of the Lower House to be acted upon by a
Republican Congress." In commenting on this result Mrs. Park said:
"While we are condemning the un-American stand of our opponents, we
should never lose sight of the hard work done by many of the Senators
who were our friends. There is not space here for the record of all
who helped us but special mention should be made of one, the Hon. John
F. Shafroth, who will not be present to vote when victory comes in the
next Congress. When our cause had only a handful of supporters in
public life, he, then a member of the House, helped Miss Anthony bring
the amendment forward, and from that time to the present his loyal and
devoted service never flagged. Chairman Jones, Senators Ransdell,
Hollis, Wesley Jones, Cummins and the other members of the Woman
Suffrage Committee worked in constant cooperation with your committee.
Among the others who were most frequently called on for help were
Senators Curtis, Smoot, Walsh, Pittman, Lenroot, McNary, Hollis and
Sheppard."

Mrs. Park spoke briefly of the hearing before the House Committee on
Woman Suffrage April 29 on the bill granting to the Legislature of
Hawaii the power to enfranchise its women. (See the chapter on
Territories.) This bill had passed the Senate in September, 1918. On
Jan. 3, it passed the House without a roll call.

Tribute to the association's Congressional Committee and other workers
in Washington was paid by Mrs. Park, who said:

     During the past fifteen months there have been several changes in
     the personnel of the committee, chief among them the resignation
     in September, 1918, of Miss Ruth White, whose gratuitous service
     as secretary had extended more than three years. She was
     succeeded by Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, but just as her
     marked gift for political work was making itself felt in
     Washington, the submission of a constitutional amendment in Texas
     made it necessary for her to return home in January, 1919. In
     August, 1918, the National Board appointed as a special
     congressional steering committee two women of widely known
     political acumen and experience, Miss Mary Garrett Hay of New
     York and Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Nashville, with Mrs. Catt and
     Mrs. Park ex officio. In October Mrs. Frank Roessing, who had
     been residing in Washington since the preceding April and thus
     had been able to give help from time to time, sent in her
     resignation. In November Miss Marjorie Shuler was added to the
     committee as secretary in charge of publicity, a designation that
     by no means expresses the varied duties which have fallen to her
     lot or the extent to which she has proved of service. To Mrs.
     Helen H. Gardener a new title, that of vice-chairman of the
     Congressional Committee, has been recently given by the National
     Board.... Her work can rarely be reported because of its
     confidential nature, but this may truly be said, that whenever a
     miracle has appeared to happen in our behalf, if the facts could
     be told they would nearly always prove that Mrs. Gardener was the
     worker of wonders....

     Other members of the Congressional Committee who have been in
     Washington for the whole or a part of the period covered by this
     report are, in addition to its chairman, Miss Mabel Caldwell
     Willard, chairman of the social activities; Mrs. George Bass and
     Mrs. Medill McCormick, representing respectively the
     organizations of Democratic and Republican women affiliated with
     the national party committees; Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Mrs. C.
     W. McClure and Mrs. William L. McPherson. No report of the
     Washington headquarters would be complete without mention of the
     help given in innumerable ways by our house manager, Mrs.
     Elizabeth W. Walker, whose patience, tact and good judgment have
     made comfortable living possible under the most trying
     circumstances.

     Members of the National Board who have been called on to assist
     are first and foremost our honorary president, Dr. Shaw; Mrs.
     Katharine Dexter McCormick and Mrs. Horace C. Stilwell of
     Indiana. Upon Mrs. Catt, the national president, your committee
     has constantly depended for advice and direction. Our misfortune
     has been that we could not have her continually in Washington.

To these a list of names was added of those who assisted during long
or short periods. There was an account of the social uses of the
Washington headquarters. In January, February and March of 1918 Miss
Willard, with the help of Mrs. Louis Brownlow, arranged a series of
weekly teas on Wednesday afternoons. Among the hostesses, the guests
of honor and those serving at the table were some of the most
prominent women in Washington--wives of the members of the Cabinet,
Senators and Representatives. Social affairs were finally given up as
war relief work absorbed other interests. Under the direction of Mrs.
Brownlow, daughter of Representative Sims (Tenn.) and wife of the
Chief Commissioner for the District of Columbia, the Washington Equal
Franchise League established a Red Cross Branch at headquarters, where
valuable work was done by suffragists. Several entertainments for the
benefit of the Oversea Hospitals were given at the house and over
$1,000 raised.

At the close of this report the convention gave a rising vote of
thanks to Mrs. Park and a number of delegates paid special tribute to
the excellent work of the chairman and the committee. A discussion
which followed by Miss Katharine Ludington (Conn.); Mrs. Andreas
Ueland (Minn.); Miss Anna B. Lawther (Iowa); Mrs. Lila Mead Valentine
(Va.) and Mrs. Leslie Warner (Tenn.), under the head "And Now--What?"
was devoted to ways and means for carrying the Federal Amendment. A
number of conferences were held to consider various phases of the work
of the association which had become all-embracing. The one on How to
do Political Work for Suffrage was led by a past-master in it, Miss
Hay. One on How to use our Organization to Win was under the direction
of Mrs. Shuler. The conference of press workers was in charge of Miss
Young. Why We Did Not Win was told by Mrs. Lydia Wickliffe Holmes,
president of the Woman Suffrage Party of Louisiana, referring to the
defeat of the State suffrage amendment; Why We Did Win, by Mrs. Ben
Hooper, president of the Wisconsin association, describing the gaining
of the Presidential franchise. There were reports by the State
presidents of the work that had been done by women during the year
throughout the country for the war, for suffrage, for civic
improvement.

A report that was heard with the deepest interest was that of the
Oversea Hospitals in France, by Mrs. Raymond Brown, general director,
and Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, chairman of the committee. This had been
a very important part during the past two years of the work of the
association, which had raised $133,000 for its maintenance. [See the
chapter on War Work.]

When it had been arranged to hold the convention the last week in
March, 1919, it was supposed that the Federal Suffrage Amendment would
have been submitted by Congress by that time, as it had passed the
Lower House early in January. It seemed especially appropriate that
this jubilee convention could celebrate this event on the Fiftieth
Anniversary of the founding of the National Association for the sole
purpose of obtaining this amendment but to the keen disappointment of
its leaders and members two obdurate Senators had spoiled this
beautiful plan. Its success, however, was so universally conceded that
it was decided to hold the semi-centennial celebration and the
afternoon of March 26 was dedicated to this purpose and to the
honoring of the early leaders. Fifty Years of Ever Widening Empire was
the motto at the head of the program. The tribute to the Pioneers of
the National Association was paid by Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, for
twenty-one years from 1881 the corresponding secretary of the
association and closely associated with Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Stanton,
Miss Anthony and the other pioneers almost from her girlhood. To Miss
Anthony she was like a daughter and she gave a touching account of her
personal relations with these noble leaders. Miss Alice Stone
Blackwell drew from her stores of memory a wealth of incidents of the
lives of her parents and the eminent men and women who were associated
with them in founding the American Woman Suffrage Association, also
begun in 1869. A resolution offered by Mrs. Desha Breckinridge was
enthusiastically adopted--that "we owe an undying and inextinguishable
debt to Henry B. and Lucy Stone Blackwell for their great service in
behalf of suffrage for women but believe their greatest gift was their
daughter, who has kept us true to the trust which they committed to
the care of their followers."

Mrs. Catt, who always had an eye to the practical and who was on the
program to urge the members of the united associations to Finish the
Fight, soon yielded her time to Miss Hay, the noted money-raiser,
whose subject was, Make the Map White. In a very short time the
delegates had shown their appreciation of the pioneers by subscribing
$120,000, the whole amount of the "budget" for the work of the coming
year. Dr. Shaw then closed the afternoon's services with reminiscences
of her forty years' companionship with the workers in both
associations. "The suffragist who has not been mobbed," she said, "has
nothing really interesting to look back upon." She spoke of the last
national convention which Miss Anthony ever attended, in 1906 at
Baltimore, and how she had set her heart on a grand triumph for the
cause in that old, conservative city, describing how her hopes had
been realized in the most successful one from every point of view that
ever had been held. And then she told with exquisite pathos how one
month later Miss Anthony passed into eternal rest. Little did the
listeners think that the next annual convention would hold memorial
services for Dr. Shaw herself and for Mrs. Avery!

Throughout the week the meetings of the National Association
alternated with the conferences for organizing the enfranchised women
and the name officially decided on was League of Women Voters. A
constitution for it was adopted and Mrs. Charles H. Brooks of Kansas
was elected chairman. Mrs. Catt presented its first aims as outlined
in her annual address and with some additions they were adopted. The
addresses made by the chairmen of the war committees evinced
statesmanship of a high order. The entire proceedings of the
convention connected with this new organization are fully described in
Mrs. Shuler's chapter on the League of Women Voters. There could be no
greater contrast than between the firmness and authority of the
speakers on this program and the pleading and argument of just as able
women in earlier years for the opportunity and power to help in the
solution of great national problems.

The large Odeon Theater was crowded on the evening of March 27 by an
audience that heard with much interest the story of the recent
campaigns for full and Presidential suffrage as told in the following
program: The Indiana Irritation, Mrs. Richard E. Edwards; The Vermont
Vortex, Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson; The Nebraska Nightmare, Mrs. W. E.
Barkley; The South Dakota Sore Disasters, Mrs. John L. Pyle; The
Michigan Mystery, Mrs. Myron B. Vorce; The Oklahoma Ordeal, Mrs.
Nettie R. Shuler; The Texas Turmoil, Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham;
The Duty of Citizenship, Mrs. Raymond Robins; All Roads Lead to Rome,
Dr. Shaw.

The report of the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education, made by its
director, Miss Rose Young, filled eighteen pages of the printed
Handbook and covered a vast field of activity which included service
to 25,000 publications--2,500 dailies, 16,000 weeklies, 3,233
monthlies, a number issued fortnightly, quarterly, etc., and the large
syndicates and press associations. In addition were the mimeographed
news bulletins and the editorial service. An idea was given of the
varied character of the material sent out and the immense amount
furnished during the campaigns. A compliment was paid to the press
work of Mrs. Rose Geyer, "whose task it is to collect the news, State
by State, and distribute the parts of nation-wide interest through
weekly bulletins, and who has by direct personal correspondence of an
intimate and tactful kind trained State organization women to send in
reports of conventions, political and legislative situations,
candidates, etc." Many incidents were cited of important publicity,
special editions of papers and display advertising. Six pages were
devoted to the mission of the weekly official magazine, the _Woman
Citizen_, and the way it had been fulfilled. A tribute was paid to its
very able associate editor, Miss Mary Ogden White. The invaluable
service of the Research Bureau, under the expert direction of Mrs.
Mary Sumner Boyd, assisted by Miss Eleanor Garrison, was strongly set
forth.

Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, who conducted the editorial correspondence,
referred in her report to her full accounts in preceding years of the
wide correspondence with editors. "The scope of the department was
gradually enlarged," she said, "and many letters were sent to
prominent people in reference to their speeches, interviews in
newspapers and other public expressions. For instance, in the debates
on the Federal Amendment in the Senate, whenever a speaker showed lack
of correct information, a letter giving it was sent to him. Other
letters also were sent to Senators and usually received courteous
answers from themselves, not their secretaries." The report continued:

     Several letters were written to Colonel Theodore Roosevelt urging
     him to use his influence with the Republican leaders and always
     were fully answered. A letter dictated and signed by him on
     January 3, 1919, enclosed one he had just sent to Senator Moses
     of New Hampshire, strongly urging him to cast his vote for the
     Federal Suffrage Amendment on the 10th. I received it on January
     4 and he died the night of the 5th.

     Letters were sent to Chairman Hays and members of the National
     Republican Committee and to different State chairmen on various
     points connected with the suffrage amendment. The pamphlet on the
     Difficulty of Amending State Constitutions, which was prepared
     and sent to every Senator, was put into the Congressional Record
     by Senator Shafroth, and a circular letter on the founding and
     record of the National Woman's Party by Senator Thomas. Scores of
     letters were sent out showing up the fallacies of the
     Anti-suffragists during the year; others exposing the connection
     of the German-American Alliance with the Antis; others giving
     historic information and still others telling of gains in our
     own and foreign countries.

     During the first year I wrote to over 2,000 editors in the United
     States and Canada. At the end of that time, and after the New
     York victory, so many were in favor of woman suffrage itself that
     during 1918 the work was very largely concentrated on the Federal
     Amendment. In the two months from November, 1917, to January,
     1918, when the vote was taken in the House of Representatives,
     2,600 circular letters containing an argument for this amendment
     went out from this department to the principal newspapers of the
     United States and in addition 100 special articles were sent to
     the largest papers. After that vote was taken this record was
     kept up to obtain favorable action by the Senate and a second and
     different circular argument was sent to 2,000 papers. A carefully
     selected list of several hundred southern newspapers was
     furnished to Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, to which he sent
     franked copies of his excellent speech on this amendment.

     An open letter to Senator Baird was supplied to all the principal
     papers of New Jersey; one to Senator Benet to those of South
     Carolina; one to Senator Shields to Tennessee papers. A letter
     showing the attitude of the National Association toward organized
     labor went to a considerable number of labor papers in the
     various States. During the week following the failure to vote on
     the Federal Amendment in May, 250 letters and articles in regard
     to it were sent out from this department. Most of them enclosed
     printed or typed suffrage literature, some of Mrs. Catt's
     editorials and articles, and some from other sources, including
     my printed pamphlet on the Federal Amendment. Altogether nearly
     8,000 letters and articles went out from this department.

     Several pamphlets also were prepared and an article of about
     2,000 words was furnished every month to the _International
     Suffrage News_ in London, with many clippings for its files. A
     number of letters and clippings also were sent to Mrs. Fawcett,
     the national president of Great Britain, keeping her informed on
     the progress of the movement in the United States, of which she
     was very appreciative, and letters of information were written to
     other countries.

     By the end of 1918 from 300 to 500 editorials on woman suffrage
     were received every month and it was as much a subject of comment
     in the newspapers as any political issue of the day. The old-time
     attacks were almost entirely absent; the editorials showed
     knowledge and discrimination; fully nine-tenths of the northern
     newspapers advocated not only woman suffrage but the Federal
     Amendment, while in every southern State some leading papers were
     in favor of enfranchising women and a few approved of its being
     done through this amendment. This editorial department of the
     Leslie Bureau might venture to claim some share in the evolution
     of editorial opinion, to which, of course, many causes
     contributed. While the need for its work was by no means at an
     end, another task yet remained for the bureau to see
     accomplished.

Mrs. Harper then stated that it was the wish of both the Leslie
Commission and the Board of the National Association that the final
volume of the History of Woman Suffrage should be written while the
excellent facilities of the headquarters were available. Because of
her experience in writing Volume IV this work was entrusted to her and
the editorial department, therefore, was discontinued and the History
begun in January, 1919.

The report of the Washington Press Bureau was made by its secretary,
Miss Marjorie Shuler, dating from the preceding November and it stated
that weekly press articles had been furnished to the big news
services, the 200 newspaper correspondents in Washington, the papers
of that city and many outside; State presidents, Congressional and
press chairmen, in addition to a certain daily service; feature
articles and Washington letters to the _Woman Citizen_. Material for
favorable editorials was sent out through the Washington
correspondents and 244 friendly to the policy of the National
Association were received with only 12 opposed. The social activities
at the Washington headquarters furnished good local publicity.

In the report of Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman
Suffrage Publishing Co., she called attention to the almost
insuperable difficulties of the publishing business during the past
eighteen months through the high cost of production, deterioration of
materials and uncertainties of transportation. With all these
handicaps the company had printed 5,000,000 pieces of literature for
the association and 1,000,000 for its own stock. It had filled orders
from Great Britain, Canada, South America, Mexico, Porto Rico and the
Philippines. She told of prominent visitors from foreign countries who
expressed much surprise at the variety and extent of the literature
and took samples home with them for translation. Mrs. Arthur L.
Livermore, chairman of the Literature Committee, gave a list of the
new publications which filled two printed pages and told of a notable
group of booklets dealing with patriotic subjects; a large amount of
special literature to facilitate the passage of the Federal Amendment;
maps, folders, booklets and posters.

The following recommendations were made by the Executive Council and
adopted by the convention:

     1. That the N. A. W. S. A. continue to support and endorse the
     Federal Amendment which has been before Congress for the past
     forty years. 2. That the next convention be in the nature of a
     centennial celebration of the birthday of Susan B. Anthony and be
     held in February, 1920. 3. That the Board of Officers be asked to
     serve until that date, thus confining the election of officers at
     this convention to Directors only. 4. That the budget for 1919 be
     adopted as presented by Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, the
     treasurer--$120,000 if the Voters' League is formed and $100,000
     if it is not formed. 5. That the six War Service Committees
     appointed at the last convention be discontinued with the
     exception of the Oversea Hospitals Committee, which shall be
     discontinued at the conclusion of its work, and those on
     Americanization and Industrial Protection of Women, which shall
     be continued. 6. That the post-convention board be requested to
     reappoint Mrs. Maud Wood Park as chairman of the Congressional
     Committee and extend to her a vote of appreciation of her
     services. 7. That the Board of Directors shall have authority to
     enter any State to carry on work without the authority of that
     State, if necessary. 8. That the policy of the association in
     regard to referendum campaigns be affirmed. 9. That an
     organization of women voters be formed. 10. That the constitution
     when amended and made satisfactory to the needs of the
     association be substituted for the present constitution; that,
     with this end in view, the Chair be instructed to appoint a
     committee of five women from enfranchised States and five from
     the Executive Council to whom the constitution shall be
     referred.[118]

It was recommended that the following resolution be adopted "in view
of the fact that a request had been made for a new definition of
'non-partisan' in relation to the National Association as at present
constituted or as it may be constituted": "Resolved, That the N. A. W.
S. A. shall not affiliate with any political party or endorse the
platform of any party or support or oppose any political candidates
unless such action shall be recommended by the Board of Directors in
order to achieve the ends and purposes of this organization as set
forth in its constitution. Nothing in this resolution shall be
construed to limit the liberty of action of any member or officer of
this association to join or serve the party of her choice in any
capacity whatsoever as an individual."

Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, chairman of the committee, offered
fourteen resolutions, the last which were acted upon by
representatives of the National American Suffrage Association, the
first having been presented in 1869. They illustrate the wide scope
of women's interests considered by that body. After full discussion
the following, which are somewhat condensed, were among those adopted:

     Whereas, women may now vote for President in twenty-six States of
     the Union, and for all elective officers in England, Scotland,
     Ireland, Canada and throughout the largest part of Europe; our
     eastern and southern States are now the only communities in the
     English-speaking world in which women are still debarred from
     self-government; our nation has just emerged from a war waged in
     the name of making the world safe for democracy and ought in
     consistency to establish real democracy at home; and every
     political party in the United States has endorsed woman suffrage
     in its national platform; therefore be it

     Resolved, that we call upon the 66th Congress to submit the
     Constitutional Amendment for nation-wide woman suffrage to the
     States at the earliest possible moment.

     Whereas, one-fourth of the men examined for the army were unable
     to read English or to write letters home to their families, be it

     Resolved, that we urge the establishment at Washington of a
     national department of education with a Secretary of Education in
     the Cabinet.

     Resolved, that this association earnestly favors a League of
     Nations to secure world-wide peace based upon the immutable
     principles of justice.

     Resolved, that we protest against the unfair treatment of
     professional women by the United States authorities in declining
     the services of women physicians, surgeons and dentists in the
     recent war, thus compelling loyal, patriotic women to serve under
     the flag of a foreign government. We recommend that in future our
     Government recognize the fitness of accepting the services of
     professional women for work for which their training and
     experience have qualified them.

     Resolved, That we urge our Government to bring about the prompt
     redress of all legitimate grievances, as the removal of the sense
     of injustice is the surest safeguard against revolution by
     violence.

     Whereas, the Woman in Industry Service of the U. S. Department of
     Labor was established as a result of the war emergency,

     Resolved, that we call upon Congress to establish this service as
     a permanent Women's Bureau in the U. S. Department of Labor with
     adequate funds for the continuance and extension of its work.

     Resolved, that we ask the U. S. Government in its next census to
     classify definitely the unpaid women housekeepers as homemakers,
     thus recognizing their important service to the nation.

     Resolved, that we call upon Congress to give military rank to
     army nurses.

     Resolved, that we tender to our national president, Mrs. Carrie
     Chapman Catt, our deep appreciation of her sagacity, good
     judgment, fairness and indefatigable devotion to the cause of
     equal rights, and we pledge our best efforts to carry out her
     wise and far-reaching plans for ultimate victory.

The last evening of the convention was given to a second mass meeting
at the Odeon Theater with Dr. Shaw presiding and a notable program.
The first speaker was Miss Helen Fraser of Great Britain, who had been
making a tour of the United States in the interest of the women's war
hospital work of that country. She was announced on the program as
"Great Britain's foremost speaker," and she eloquently pictured Women
and the Future. The Hon. Henry J. Allen, Governor of Kansas, stirred
the audience to enthusiasm with an address on Woman's Place in War and
Peace. Mrs. Catt's splendid closing speech on Looking Forward ended a
convention whose keynote throughout had been "progress"; a farewell to
the past years of toil and disappointment, a preparation for the
future work of women under better conditions than had ever before
existed. A spirit of hope, courage and unlimited expectation pervaded
the army of younger women, who were soon to take up the great work
committed to their care.

On Saturday three important meetings took place. In the morning was
the formal organization of the League of Women Voters, election of
officers, appointment of committees and adoption of a program; also
the final business session of the convention to harmonize the work of
the National Association and that of the league. In the afternoon the
two bodies met in joint session to discuss the question of how voting
and non-voting women might best cooperate and the three following
objects were agreed upon: (1) To secure the vote for all the women of
the nation in the shortest possible time; (2) to obtain the vote for
women in all civilized countries; (3) to carry out the legislative
program of the new organization.

Thus ended the perfectly managed Jubilee Convention, probably the most
important and far-reaching in the long history of the National
Association.


HEARING ON THE FEDERAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT BEFORE THE

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE OF THE 65TH

CONGRESS, JAN. 3-7, 1918.

There was no longer any necessity for a hearing before the Senate
Committee on Woman Suffrage, as it had unanimously reported in favor
of the Federal Amendment. The suffrage leaders were profoundly
thankful that they would never again have to address a hostile
Judiciary Committee of the Lower House, which not in all the years had
permitted the amendment to come before the Representatives for
discussion, and which had now under pressure reported it out but
"without recommendation." A new era had dawned and a Committee on
Woman Suffrage had been formed, whose chairman, Judge John E. Raker of
California, by advice of Speaker Clark, had introduced another
resolution for the submission of the amendment which was sent to this
committee and it desired to have a hearing.[119] This began Jan. 3,
1918, and in opening it the chairman said: "We have determined to hear
first the National American Suffrage Association and then the Woman's
Party. There seem to be a few opponents--a few men--and they will be
given an opportunity to be heard, as well as Mrs. Wadsworth and her
organization." This hearing extended through four days and the
stenographic report filled 330 closely printed pages. It was the last
of the committee hearings on a Federal Suffrage Amendment which began
in 1878 and had been held during every Congress since that date. If an
investigator of this subject has time to read only one document it
should be the report of this hearing.

The committee was composed of seven Democrats and six Republicans and
it was well known that all but three--Saunders, Clark and
Meeker--would report in favor of submitting the amendment. The
National Suffrage Association was represented the first day by its
honorary president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw; its president, Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt; the chairman of its Congressional Committee, Mrs. Maud
Wood Park; Mrs. Rosalie Loew Whitney, an able lawyer of New York;
Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee, a vice-president of the
association; Mrs. Henry Ware Allen, a prominent suffragist and war
worker of Kansas. Their speeches were among the strongest ever made at
a hearing. Those of the opponents show the character of their
objections up to the very end of the long contest. Dr. Shaw's address
was especially notable for two reasons: it was devoted largely to the
work of women in the war, which was now at its height, and it was the
last one before a congressional committee by this eloquent woman, who
had been coming to the Capitol for almost thirty years in behalf of
the amendment, as she died the following year. She was introduced as
having been appointed by the Secretary of War chairman of the Woman's
Committee of National Defense and as such the head of the war work of
women throughout the country. Dr. Shaw began by referring to the new
line of attack which was now being made on suffragists as pro-Germans
and pacifists but scattered quotations can give small idea of the
strength and beauty of her answers to these charges. Regarding the one
of pacifism she said:

     We grant that we are in favor of peace; we grant that we have a
     large sympathy for the sufferings of humanity, but we also claim
     to be possessed of intelligence and knowledge and these have
     convinced us that there could be nothing more disastrous to the
     human race than a peace at this time, which would lead to greater
     suffering than a continuation of the war. Therefore, because we
     love peace and because we have large sympathy for human
     sufferings, we are opposed to anything that will bring a peace
     which does not forever and forever make it impossible that such
     sufferings shall again be inflicted on the world, and the women
     of all countries take that stand with us. We have only to face
     the present situation to know that any charges that women as a
     whole are not courageous, are not patriotic, are not devoted to
     the highest interests of their country are wholly false.... Even
     before war was declared the National American Woman Suffrage
     Association met in convention in this city and was the first
     organized body of women to formulate a definite line of action
     and present to the President and the Government a plan which
     would be followed by its more than 2,000,000 members, provided
     hostilities went so far that war should be declared. The
     President accepted our services, and not only did he accept them
     but the devotion of the suffragists to the welfare of the country
     was so uniformly recognized that when the Government decided upon
     war and upon the necessity for organizing the woman-power of the
     nation, it called upon the leaders of this association and
     appointed them on a committee for co-ordinating the war work of
     women throughout the United States. Can it for a moment be
     supposed that the men in whose charge the great interests of our
     nation rested would have called upon women whom they did not know
     to be thoroughly endowed with patriotic devotion and loyalty to
     their country for such a service at such a time?

Dr. Shaw told of the loyalty of women in other countries and quoted
from the tributes of their distinguished men, such men as Mr. Asquith,
Lloyd George, Lord Derby and General Joffre to the services of these
women and in our own country of General Pershing and scores of others.
She told of how the Canadian Government gave the suffrage to women and
how they voted for conscription; of the splendid courage of the men of
Australia and New Zealand, born of enfranchised mothers. She said that
in ten of the eleven western States which filled their quota of
volunteers before any eastern State had done so, there was equal
suffrage. She referred to the eminent supporters of the Federal
Suffrage Amendment, beginning with President Wilson and his Cabinet
and Theodore Roosevelt; asked if these men were pro-Germans and
pacifists and matched them with equally loyal women. In conclusion she
said:

     To fail to ask for the suffrage amendment at this time would be
     treason to the fundamental cause for which we, as a nation, have
     entered the war. President Wilson has declared that "we are at
     war because of that which is dearest to our hearts--democracy;
     that those who submit to authority shall have a voice in the
     Government." If this is the basic reason for entering the war,
     then for those of us who have striven for this amendment and for
     our freedom and for democracy to yield today, to withdraw from
     the battle, would be to desert the men in the trenches and leave
     them to fight alone across the sea not only for democracy for the
     world but also for our own country.... The time of reconstruction
     will come and when it comes many women will have to be both
     father and mother to fatherless children, and these mothers and
     their children will have no representatives in this Government
     unless it is through the mothers who have given everything that
     it might be saved and democracy might be secured.... No men
     better than those of the South know what it owes to southern
     women and shall those men stand in the way of freedom for the
     women who gave everything to retain for our country the very best
     of southern traditions--shall they plead in vain for the freedom
     of their daughters? What is true of the women of the South is
     true of the women of the North.... We are today a united people
     with one flag and one country because the women are worthy of
     their men, and we plead because we are a part of the people, a
     part of the Government which claims to be a democracy, and in
     order that this country may stand clean-handed before the nations
     of the world.

The speech of Mrs. Whitney, analyzing the vote on the suffrage
amendment which was carried in New York State the preceding November
was a complete statistical refutation of the charge made by the
anti-suffragists that the favorable vote was due to Socialists and
pro-Germans. A letter was read from Secretary of War Newton D. Baker,
saying that speaking personally and not officially he favored the
submission of the amendment. Telegrams urging it were received from
well-known women in the southern States and Mrs. Catt read editorials
strongly favoring it from a number of southern newspapers. Mrs. George
Bass, head of the Democratic Women's National Committee, protested
against the circulation in the Capitol which was being made by the
"antis" of President Wilson's declaration made in 1914, "I believe
this is a matter to be fought out in the individual States," because
in 1916 he addressed the National Suffrage Convention in Atlantic
City, saying: "I have come to fight with you ... and in the end we
shall not differ as to methods."

Mrs. Dudley represented the women of the South, saying in the course
of her address:

     What has happened to the State's rights doctrine? Recently the
     Federal Constitution has been twice amended and that under a
     Democratic administration. While the child labor bill and
     eight-hour bill are not amendments, they are really open to the
     same objections because they impose upon a State laws to which it
     has not given consent. These bills were proposed in one House or
     both by southern Democrats; Federal prohibition was proposed in
     both Houses by southern Democrats and passed by the votes of
     others. So it appears that the theory of State's rights is only
     invoked when women plead at the bar of justice for that voice in
     their Government to which all those who submit to authority are
     entitled. Now, as to the negro problem. We southern women feel
     that the time has come to lay once and for all this old, old
     ghost that stalks through the halls of Congress. It is a phantom
     as applied to woman suffrage. In fifteen States south of the
     Mason and Dixon line there are over a million more white women
     than negro men and women combined. There are only two States in
     which the negro race predominates, South Carolina and
     Mississippi. In the former the percentage is 55.2, but there a
     voter must read and write and own and pay taxes on $300 worth of
     property. In Mississippi the percentage is 56.2 but there also
     they impose an educational qualification. In the eight years
     since these figures were estimated by the Government this
     percentage has greatly decreased, so that South Carolina claims
     that there is now no preponderance of negroes. In the other four
     States also in the so-called "black belt" an educational test is
     imposed upon the voters. In addition to all this we must consider
     that during the last decade the negro population has increased 11
     per cent and the white population 22 per cent. Furthermore, in
     the past year alone 75,000 negroes have gone from one southern
     State to the north, and 73,000 have gone from three other
     southern States to one northern State alone. So it appears that
     we must transfer part of our rather hysterical anxieties with
     regard to the southern negro vote to some other States.

Mrs. Allen spoke from the standpoint of one who had lived many years
in a State where women voted and asked the question: "Can you
gentlemen not think what it means to women to know that their men are
so chivalrous and have such a belief in their integrity and their
intelligence that they are willing to make them their equal partners
politically? Can you not see that under such conditions men and women
are firmer friends; that husbands and wives are closer together and
that all of the family relations are better because the adults of all
the families are equally interested in city, State and national
affairs?" She told how on the battlefield and in the hospitals in
France could be heard in all languages the one cry, "mother," and she
ended with the plea: "Our world is weary and wounded and sick and if
you will listen in the silence of the night you will hear the same
cry; the world is calling for the mother voice in its councils and in
its activities."

The afternoon was devoted to the address of Mrs. Catt, which, with the
questions of the committee and her answers, filled twenty-five pages
of the printed report. For four decades the distinguished presidents
of the National Suffrage Association had made their arguments and
pleadings before committees of Congress--Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Miss Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, and then Mrs. Catt for
eight years. This was the last time it would ever be necessary and the
first time before a House committee which intended to report in favor.
The changed character of her speaking was shown in her opening
sentence: "The time of argument on woman suffrage has gone by. The
controversy has been waged over a greater part of the civilized world
for the last fifty years, with the result that many nations have
capitulated and woman suffrage is now established under many flags.
That it is still pending in the Congress of the United States is a
disgrace to our country and a reflection on the intelligence and
progress of our people." She illustrated how the doctrine of State's
rights had been ignored by the southern members in their fight for
prohibition, led by Mr. Webb of North Carolina, who as chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee had also led the opposition to woman
suffrage on this same ground. She proved by editorial quotations from
southern papers the changing attitude on this point.

The vast number of American men who would be in the army in France at
the time of the next election was pointed out and the question was
asked: "When the election comes who will do the voting? Every
'slacker' has a vote; every newly-made citizen; every pro-German
who cannot be trusted with any kind of war service; every
peace-at-any-price man; every conscientious objector and even the
alien enemy. It is a risk, a danger, to a nation like ours to send
millions of loyal men out of the country and not replace their votes
by those of the loyal women left at home." In referring to the "negro
problem" in the South Mrs. Catt said:

     In talking with some of the members of Congress we have learned
     that an idea prevails throughout the South that the colored women
     are more intelligent, ambitious and energetic than the men, and
     that while it is easy enough to keep the men from exercising too
     much ambition in the matter of politics, it will not be easy to
     control the women. When talking with these same men about the
     white women of the South, I have never known an exception to the
     rule that they have finally rested their case upon the statement
     that the women of the South do not want the vote anyway and if
     they did they would only vote as their husbands do. To say that
     means what? That the women of the South in the estimate of those
     men are too weak-minded to have an opinion of their own; it means
     that they have no independence of character; it means that they
     have been reduced so far to nonentity that they will only echo
     their husbands' opinions. Is living in the homes of the white men
     of the South so degrading to the character of the white women
     that they really cannot be trusted to have an honest conviction
     of their own, but that living in the South outside of those homes
     renders women more ambitious and more intelligent than the men?
     Do these men realize that they are saying almost in the same
     breath that the colored woman is superior to the colored man but
     that the white woman is the inferior of the white man? Or is it
     possible that the climate of the South produces a stronger
     "female of the species" than male, and that the men of the South
     are afraid of both the white and the black women?

Detached quotations give a most inadequate idea of this masterly
address which embodied the complete case for the advocates of the
Federal Amendment. Toward its close Mrs. Catt, in speaking of the
assertion of the "antis" that President Wilson was opposed to the
Federal Suffrage Amendment, made this significant answer: "I request
you, Mr. Chairman, to ask Mr. Wilson for a conference and go to it
taking Democrats and Republicans and say: 'Mr. President, are you or
are you not for this Federal Amendment?' Then you will know. I trust
that you will do this and that, if then it is possible to make a
public statement, you will do so." Afterwards it was apparent that she
knew of Mr. Wilson's complete change of opinion and his intention to
support the amendment. On January 9 Mr. Raker and eleven other members
of the Lower House held a conference with the President and he urged
the submission of the amendment.

At the continuation of the hearing on January 4 the American
Constitutional League, formed after the suffrage amendment was adopted
in New York out of the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association, was
represented by the chairman of its executive committee, Everett P.
Wheeler, a lawyer of New York City, and by one of its members
introduced as "Dr. Lucian Howe of Buffalo, a very eminent surgeon, a
Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine and the Royal Academy of
Surgeons." The two men occupied the entire day, Mr. Wheeler about
two-thirds of it, but the committee consumed a good deal of this time
by a running fire of questions not far from "heckling." Mr. Wheeler
offered for insertion in the _Record_ a page and a half of finely
printed statistics compiled by the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association to
prove that the laws for women and children were not so good in equal
suffrage States as in those where women could not vote.

The session of January 5 began with the reading of another sheaf of
urgent telegrams from women of the southern States and petitions for
the amendment signed by a long list of southern women. The first
speaker was Mrs. L. A. Hamilton, president of the National Equal
Franchise Association of Canada and president also of the Women's
Union Government League of Toronto, who was thoroughly informed on the
granting of Provincial and Dominion suffrage and able to answer
convincingly all the questions of the committee. The hearing was then
turned over to the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage,
with its president, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., in charge. I am much
pleased by the personnel of this committee," she said, "because both
the Republican Speaker, Mr. Gillett, and the Democratic floor leader,
Mr. Kitchin, promised us that, unlike the suffrage committee in the
Senate, this one would have a fair representation of 'antis.' I find
we have been given two out of thirteen. Of course we think that a
perfectly fair ratio, as we have always felt that one 'anti' was worth
about five suffragists, but we did not suppose you would admit it."
"That is about the ratio that exists in the House," observed Mr.
Blanton, of the committee. "We will know more about that when we vote
in the House," answered Mr. Clark, member from Florida. "I am going to
give you the privilege this morning of hearing from my general staff,"
said Mrs. Wadsworth, "and I will have some of my officers of the line
here Monday. I want to introduce Miss Minnie Bronson, our general
secretary." The second speaker was Mr. Eichelberger, who presented
elaborate charts and figures to show that woman suffrage was carried
in New York by the Socialists. To the question of Chairman Raker,
"This is nothing more or less than a compilation of figures as an idea
of your own, to show what certain votes could do or certain figures
would do, isn't it?" he answered: "Yes, absolutely, that is the idea."
At one point Miss Jeannette Rankin of the committee asked: "Are you
the gentleman who compiled some figures on the Democratic and
Republican women's vote in Montana last year?" "I think so," was the
answer. "Where did you get your figures?" "From the official election
report." "How could you tell a Democratic woman's vote from a
Republican woman's vote?" "Well, that part of it was estimation!" The
statements of Mr. Eichelberger and the questions of the committee
filled twenty-four pages of the stenographic report and with Miss
Bronson's address consumed one session.

The hearing in the afternoon was given to the National Woman's Party,
in charge of its vice-chairman, Miss Anne Martin of Nevada. Mrs.
William Kent of California introduced the speakers--Mrs. Richard
Wainwright, Mrs. Townsend Scott, Miss Ernestine Evans, Mrs. Francis J.
Heney, Miss Elizabeth Gram, Miss Maud Younger, Mrs. Adeline Atwater,
Mrs. Ellis Meredith.

Monday morning the hearing of the Anti-Suffrage Association was
resumed, Mrs. Wadsworth presiding and speaking at length, saying: "We
never have and never will ask a man to vote with us against his
conscience but the men we do blame are those spineless opportunists
who for political expediency or because they are too lazy to fight are
preparing to surrender their principles for the sake of a dishonorable
and, we believe, a temporary peace." Mrs. Edwin Ford followed and then
Miss Lucy Price. Her remarks and the committee's questions filled
fourteen pages of the report. About fifty telegrams opposing the
amendment were received, nearly half of them from men and all from
Massachusetts. One purported to represent 250 women of Wellesley and
another 1,000 of New Bedford. Henry A. Wise Wood was introduced as
president of the Aero Club of America. During his speech he declared
that "this was no time to unman the Government by this foolhardy
jeopardizing of the rights of both sexes"; that "one wonders at the
spectacle of strong, masculine personalities urging at such an hour
the demasculinization of Government--the dilution with the qualities
of the cow, of the qualities of the bull upon which all the herd
safety must depend"; that "this from now on is a man's job--the job of
the fighting, the dominating, not the denatured, the womanlike man."
Referring to Miss Rankin's vote against war he said: "I do not think
she cried; I was speaking of the real woman, the woman that men love."
He also said that during his campaign for "preparedness" he discovered
that "the woman suffrage movement was hopelessly given over to
pacifism in its extreme socialistic form." In closing he said that
"for any sentimental or political reason it is a damnable thing that
we should weaken ourselves by bringing into the war the woman, who has
never been permitted in the war tents of any strong, virile dominating
nation." This speech was made Jan. 7, 1918, after nearly a year's
experience in the United States of the war work done by women.

At this hearing the opponents made their supreme effort, knowing that
it was their last chance, and they brought to Washington one of the
South's most noted orators, former U. S. Senator Joseph W. Bailey, of
Texas. He began by saying: "I shall confine my speech entirely to the
political aspect of the question, leaving these very intelligent women
to explain the effect of suffrage on their sex and on our homes," but
he got to the latter phase of it long before he had finished. He
believed that under the Federal Constitution the right to control the
suffrage belonged absolutely to the States but he said: "I am opposed
to women voting anywhere except in their own societies; I would let
them vote there but nowhere else in this country.... No free
government should deny suffrage to any class entitled to it and no
free government should extend suffrage to any class not entitled to
it, for the ultimate success or failure of every free government will
depend upon the average intelligence and patriotism of the electorate.
I hope to show that as a matter of political justice and political
safety women should not be allowed to vote...."

Giving other reasons why women should not be allowed to vote, he said:
"The two most important personal duties of citizenship are military
service and sheriff's service, neither of which is a woman capable of
performing." Reminded by the chairman that there were many places
where women then were performing the duty of sheriff, constable,
marshal and police, he answered: "They may be playing at them but they
are not really performing them. If an outlaw is to be arrested are you
going to order a woman to get a gun and come with you? If you did she
would sit down and cry, and she ought to keep on crying until her
husband hunts you up and makes you apologize for insulting his
wife.... A woman who is able to perform a sheriff's duty is not fit to
be a mother because no woman who bears arms ought to bear children....
We agree, I think, that the women of this country will never go into
our armies as soldiers or be required to serve on the sheriff's posse
comitatus. That being true I hardly think they have the right to make
the laws under which you and I must perform those services." The
chairman asked: "When the men go to front with the cartridges and guns
the women assisted in making are the latter not participating in the
war the same as men?" He answered: "They are doing their part and it
may be just as essential as the man's, for if there is not somebody
here to provide the ammunition the guns would be useless, but it is
not military service."

The war had been in progress three and a half years when these
assertions were made and the whole world knew the part that women had
taken in it.

"The third personal duty of citizenship is jury service," Mr. Bailey
said, "and while women are physically capable of performing that
service there are reasons, natural, moral and domestic, which render
them wholly unfit for it.... We go to the court house for stern,
unyielding justice. Will women help our courts to better administer
justice? They will not. Nobody is qualified to decide any case until
they have heard all the testimony on both sides but the average woman
would make up her mind before the plaintiff had concluded his
testimony." The awful consequences of "sending women with strange men
into the jury room to discuss testimony which a sensible mother would
not talk over with her grown daughter" were declared to be that
"modesty for which we reverence women would disappear from among
them." "Who will care for the children during the mother's absence?...
They tell me they will require the unmarried women to act as jurors.
There will be enough of them, for marrying will become a lost habit in
our country if we apply ourselves much longer to this business of
making women like men." Mr. Bailey appeared not to know that women had
been serving on juries for from twenty to forty years in the western
States where they were enfranchised.

"Will women vote intelligently? Can they do it? What time will a woman
have to prepare herself for these new duties of citizenship? Will she
take it from her home and husband or from her church and children or
from her charities and social pleasures? She must take it from one or
all of them and will she make herself or the world better by doing
so?" Mr. Bailey asked. He said he wished that "every woman in the land
was fortunate enough to have servants to do their work"; deplored "the
unfortunate situation of eighty per cent. of the good women whose hard
lot it is to toil from sunup to sundown" and inquired: "Do you think
when they have done all this they will have time and strength to learn
something about their duties as a citizen?" Asked if he did not think
a woman ought to have something to say about the laws that concern the
education and disposition of her children, he answered: "If she cannot
trust that to the father of her children I pity her." "How about the
women who have lost their husbands?" asked a member of the committee.
"If they have neither father nor son nor brother to provide for them
the public will do so," Mr. Bailey replied. In pointing out how
favorable "man-made laws" are to women he said: "In my State, where
women have never voted and where I sincerely trust they never will,
the law gives to the wife as her separate property everything she owns
at the time of her marriage and everything she may afterwards acquire
by gift, devise or descent," but he omitted to say that all of it
passes under the absolute control of the husband and that the wages
she earns belong to him.

Further on he said: "We must have two sexes and if the women insist on
becoming men I suppose the men must refine themselves into women.... I
dread the effect of this woman's movement upon civilization because I
know what happened to the Roman republic when women attained their
full rights. They married without going to church and were divorced
without going to court." After having discussed widows' pensions, the
double standard of morals, divorce, alimony and various other matters
in carrying out his promise at the beginning to confine his remarks
"entirely to the political aspect of the question" he reached the
subject of women's smoking. He summed up his opinion of this by
saying: "If it were a question between their smoking and their voting
and they would promise to stay at home and smoke I would say let them
smoke." In this connection he said: "A single standard of conduct for
men and women is an iridescent dream. We cannot pay women a higher
tribute than to insist that their behavior shall be more circumspect
than ours."

Finally Mr. Blanton of Texas, a member of the committee, having
obtained Mr. Bailey's assent that the right of petition is the most
sacred right of the people and that legislators should give it careful
consideration, said: "I have here a very extensive petition from your
State signed by prominent citizens of the leading cities urging
Congress to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment and I notice from
Houston, your city, the following: He then read a long list of bank
presidents, judges, editors, college professors, the Mayor and other
city officials, officers of labor unions, and, in addition, the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, Attorney General, District Attorney and
other State officials, and pressed Mr. Bailey to admit their high
character and standing. He did so but said: "I would not vote for this
amendment if a majority of my constituents asked me to do so."

An undue amount of space is given to the address of Mr. Bailey because
he had been selected by the anti-suffragists as the strongest speaker
for their side in the entire country and it embodied their views as
these had been presented ever since the suffrage movement began. He
was thoroughly representative of the opposition, and the officers and
members of the women's Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage who were
present applauded his remarks from beginning to end. He made this
speech Jan. 7, 1918, and the following March the Texas Legislature by
a large majority gave Primary suffrage to women for all officers from
President of the United States down the list and the bill was
immediately signed by the Governor. The primaries decide the election
in that State.[120]

The committee received petitions asking their favorable action on the
amendment from the Texas State Federation of Women's Clubs and those
of Houston and other cities; from women's clubs of many kinds in Waco
representing 2,000 members; from women's organizations all over the
State and from individuals, the number reaching thousands. There was
the same outpouring from the other southern States, although it was
the principal argument of the opposition that the vote was being
forced on southern women. There was also a remarkable expression from
southern men. Seventy-five pages of these petitions were printed in
the official report of this hearing. As the sentiment in the northern
States was now so largely in favor it was considered unnecessary for
them to send petitions, although many did so. There were presented to
the committee a message from the Governor of every equal suffrage
State urging the immediate submission of the amendment and strong
letters to this effect from Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and
Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo, Southerners and
Democrats. None of this pressure was necessary to influence it but the
leaders of the National Suffrage Association arranged this
demonstration in order to show that favorable action by the committee
would be fully sustained by the sentiment of the country, and as an
answer to the charge that "a small, insistent lobby was forcing the
amendment through Congress." The anti-suffragists did not present one
communication of any kind from any State except Massachusetts.

The valuable space in this volume could not be better used perhaps
than for the closing speeches of Mrs. Park, chairman of the
association's Congressional Committee, and Mrs. Catt, its president. A
greater contrast can scarcely be imagined than that between their
statesmanlike quality and the rambling, inconsequential, prejudiced
character of Mr. Bailey's. "After the eloquent address of the last
speaker," began Mrs. Park with delicious satire, "I sympathize with
the committee and the audience who will have to return to the plain
subject of the Federal Amendment for Woman Suffrage.... I think those
who have been listening to all of these hearings will agree that the
opponents have made many interesting statements but have given
comparatively few facts." Saying that Mrs. Catt would reply to Mr.
Bailey's speech she answered the points in the others with a keenness
and clearness that no lawyer could have exceeded and met with dignity
and acumen the questions of the opponents on the committee. She was
not once disconcerted or unable to reply convincingly and always with
a disarming courtesy but she did not deviate from her subject or allow
the questioners to do so.

Mrs. Catt's answer to Mr. Bailey's speech, which filled twenty-five
pages of the stenographic report, occupied seven pages and there was
not a superfluous word. She began by calling attention to the
petitions as a whole from the southern States, printed copies of which
were furnished to each member of the committee. They included the
names of over a thousand prominent men, among them two and a half
pages of Mayors; the Governors of Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida and
many other State officials. She said that as she listened to Mr.
Bailey's speech she was reminded of the declaration of a president of
Harvard College, who asserted that without question there were witches
and it was the duty of all good people to hunt them out, but
twenty-five years later every intelligent man knew there had never
been such a thing as a witch. A man once wrote a book to prove that a
steamship could never cross the ocean and the book was brought to
America by the first one that crossed. Daniel Webster made a speech
against admitting as a State one of the western Territories because
its members of Congress after their election would not be able to
reach Washington until the session was over. "These men lacked
vision," she said, "and so does the last speaker. He does not know
what has been happening in the world." She referred to the vast
changes in the industrial life of women since the days of the mother
of Washington and the wife of Jefferson, whom he had used as models
for those of the present day, and said: "It is my pleasure to inform
him that I myself am that which he regrets--a voter--and I would
rather have my vote as a protector than the reverence even of the
gentleman from Texas."

Mrs. Catt continued: "The speech to which we have listened has been
interesting because it has seemed to be a chapter from a book that was
written long ago. The week before the war began it was my privilege,
sitting in the balcony of the House of Commons, to look down upon the
bald head of Mr. Asquith while he made a speech against woman
suffrage. 'I am unalterably opposed to woman suffrage because Great
Britain is a mighty empire and it will always be necessary to defend
it by military power and what do women know about war?' he asked.
Three years later he humbly confessed before the world that when a
nation like Great Britain goes to war, and such a war as this one,
which calls for every ounce of power the nation can offer in its
defense, men and women make equal sacrifices and therefore it is not a
man's job but it is a man's and a woman's job and they are doing it
together. So the Premier demanded woman suffrage and voted for it in
the House of Commons. Remembering Mr. Asquith, I think there is hope
for Mr. Bailey."

Mrs. Catt pictured eloquently the marvelous work being done by women
in Great Britain in the munitions factories, the railway service, the
dockyards, and also in our own and all countries; she described the
heroic sacrifices of the nurses; she told how the women of Canada and
New Zealand had voted for conscription and how in all countries the
women were backing their men in the war. "It is declared that American
women cannot carry a gun," she said. "Why that is the kind of talk we
heard forty years ago and Mr. Bailey's speech is just that much behind
the times.... I am sorry for any man who has stood still while the
world has moved on."

Only the merest outline of this convincing address is given but before
its conclusion Mr. Bailey had deliberately insulted Mrs. Catt by
leaving the room. Mrs. Wadsworth, when asked if she wished her side to
be heard in rebuttal, introduced Miss Charlotte E. Rowe of Yonkers, N.
Y., who made a vigorous plea for saving the home, children and
womanhood and declared woman suffrage would lead to Socialism. During
the course of her speech she said, according to the official
stenographic report: "If working girls and women in colleges will
study cooking and sewing and domestic science and hygiene, or simple
rules of health and how to care for the sick and the fine and
beautiful art of home making, it will be much better for them and
better for the country than if they spend their time parading up the
avenue of a crowded city and praying that they may some day, somehow,
become policemen or boiler-makers side by side with men.... I say to
you that it has remained for this self-sufficient 20th century to have
produced a womanhood which would stand--even a small proportion of
it--in legislative halls and say that they are doing more in this
great and terrible war than the men are doing.... Gentlemen, if I were
a married woman and my husband was a feminist and on the first Tuesday
after the first Monday in November he said to me, 'Come, walk by me so
as to strengthen and sustain me as I go to the polls,' I would say to
him, 'Look here, Mabel, here is the key of the flat; I am going home
to father.' I would advise men and women suffragists--and especially
those suffragist men who need their wives to strengthen and sustain
them on election day--I would advise them to go to the cellar and
check over the laundry."

This last hearing on the Federal Suffrage Amendment closed on January
7 and the following day the committee made a favorable report to the
House of Representatives. By consent of the Committee on Rules the
10th was set for the debate and vote and on that day the House by a
two-thirds majority voted to submit the amendment to the State
Legislatures.


FOOTNOTES:

[114] Although there was no national convention in 1918 Mrs. Catt
called a conference of the Executive Council, consisting of the
national officers, chairmen of standing and special committees and
State presidents, at Indianapolis, April 18th and 19th. It was in
effect a convention except for the presence of elected delegates and
forty-five States were represented, including many of the South. They
were entertained by the Indiana Women's Franchise League, welcomed by
Governor Goodrich and Mayor Jewett and were guests at many brilliant
social functions. A full program of daytime plans for work and
committee reports and of evening addresses was carried out. The
visitors were able to attend meetings of the Indiana State Suffrage
Convention and the League of Women Voters.

[115] Call: The National American Woman Suffrage Association calls its
State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to meet in annual
convention at St. Louis, Statler Hotel, March 24 to March 29, 1919,
inclusive.

In 1869, Wyoming led the world by the grant of full suffrage to its
women. The convention will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this
event. In 1869, the National and the American Woman Suffrage
Associations were organized--to be combined twenty years later into
the National American. The convention will celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of the founding of the organization which without a pause
has carried forward the effort to secure the enfranchisement of women.
As a fitting memorial to a half-century of progress the association
invites the women voters of the fifteen full suffrage States to attend
this anniversary and there to join their forces in a League of Women
Voters, one of whose objects shall be to speed the suffrage campaign
in our own and other countries.

The convention will express its pleasure with suitable ceremonials
that since last we met the women of England, Scotland, Ireland and
Wales, Canada and Germany have received the vote, but it will make
searching inquiry into the mysterious causes which deny patriotic,
qualified women of our Republic a voice in their own government while
those of monarchies and erstwhile monarchies are honored with
political equality. Suffrage delegates, women voters, there is need of
more serious counsel than in any preceding year. It is not you but the
nation that has been dishonored by the failure of the 65th Congress to
pass the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Let us inquire together; let us
act together.

                    CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.
                    ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Honorary President.
                    KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, First Vice-President.
                    MARY GARRETT HAY, Second Vice-President.
                    ANNE DALLAS DUDLEY, Third Vice-President.
                    GERTRUDE FOSTER BROWN, Fourth Vice-President.
                    HELEN H. GARDENER, Fifth Vice-president.
                    NETTIE ROGERS SHULER, Corresponding Secretary.
                    JUSTINA LEAVITT WILSON, Recording Secretary.
                    EMMA WINNER ROGERS, Treasurer.

[116] Ministers who opened the different sessions with prayer were
Mary J. Safford, of Iowa; Dr. Ivan Lee Holt, Rabbi Samuel Thurman, Dr.
G. Nussman and the Rev. Father Russell J. Wilbur; at the meetings in
the Odeon, Dr. J. W. Mclvor and Dean Carrol Davis, all of St. Louis.

[117] From the address of President Wilson:

And what shall we say of the women?... Their contribution to the great
result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new luster to the annals
of American womanhood. The least tribute we can pay them is to make
them the equals of men in political rights as they have proved
themselves their equals in every field of practical work they have
entered, whether for themselves or for their country. These great days
of completed achievements would be sadly marred were we to omit that
act of justice.

[118] For action of this committee see Appendix for Chapter XIX.

[119] Names of Committee: John E. Raker, California, chairman; Edward
W. Saunders, Virginia; Frank Clark, Florida; Benjamin C. Hilliard,
Colorado; James H. Mays, Utah; Christopher D. Sullivan, New York;
Thomas L. Blanton, Texas; Jeannette Rankin, Montana; Frank W. Mondell,
Wyoming; William H. Carter, Massachusetts; Edward C. Little, Kansas;
Richard N. Elliott, Indiana; Jacob E. Meeker, Missouri.

[120] In the summer of 1920, Mr. Bailey, who had been living in New
York City ever since he resigned from the Senate, returned to Texas
and made the race for Governor to "rescue" the State from woman
suffrage, prohibition and other progressive measures which had made
great headway since he left it. He was badly defeated for the
nomination, with women voting.




CHAPTER XIX.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1920.


The official report of the Fifty-first convention, in 1920, was
entitled Victory Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association and First Congress of the League of Women Voters and the
Call was as follows:

"Suffragists, hear this last call to a suffrage convention!

"The officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
hereby call the State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to
meet in annual convention at Chicago, Congress Hotel, February 12th to
18th, inclusive. In other days our members and friends have been
summoned to annual conventions to disseminate the propaganda for their
common cause, to cheer and encourage each other, to strengthen their
organized influence, to counsel as to ways and means of insuring
further progress. At this time they are called to rejoice that the
struggle is over, the aim achieved and the women of the nation about
to enter into the enjoyment of their hard-earned political liberty. Of
all the conventions held within the past fifty-one years, this will
prove the most momentous. Few people live to see the actual and final
realization of hopes to which they have devoted their lives. That
privilege is ours.

"Turning to the past let us review the incidents of our long struggle
together before they are laid away with other buried memories. Let us
honor our pioneers. Let us tell the world of the ever-buoyant hope,
born of the assurance of the justice and inevitability of our cause,
which has given our army of workers the unswerving courage and
determination that at last have overcome every obstacle and attained
their aim. Come and let us together express the joy which only those
can feel who have suffered for a cause.

"Turning to the future, let us inquire together how best we can now
serve our beloved nation. Let us ask what political parties want of
us and we of them. Come one and all and unitedly make this last
suffrage convention a glad memory to you, a heritage for your children
and your children's children and a benefaction to our nation.[121]"

The seven days of the convention were divided between the National
Association and the League of Women Voters, the latter having the
lion's share as a new organization requiring much time and attention.
All of February 12 was given to the meetings of its committees, with
dinners for all delegates and a program of speakers at the Auditorium,
Morrison and La Salle Hotels in the evening. All matters relating to
the league are considered in the chapter on the League of Women Voters
by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary. The addresses
at the convention, with the exception of those on Miss Anthony's one
hundredth birthday and the memorial meeting for Dr. Shaw, were given
under the auspices of the league and the Resolutions were prepared by
its committee.

The convention of the National Association began February 13 but the
two preceding days had been occupied by almost continuous business
sessions of the officers and board of directors. Mrs. Grace Wilbur
Trout, State president, was chairman of the local committee of
arrangements of nearly forty women of Chicago, Evanston and suburban
towns for this largest national suffrage convention ever held and the
arrangements had never been surpassed. Nothing was forgotten which
could contribute to the success or pleasure of the convention. A
hostess was appointed for each State to make its delegates acquainted
and contribute to their comfort. There were present 546 delegates, a
large number of alternates and thousands of visitors, while for the
audiences at the public meetings there was not even standing
room.[122]

At the morning session on the 13th, with Mrs. Catt presiding, the
following program was presented by the Executive Council for the
consideration of the delegates and was discussed at this and other
business sessions:

1. Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association dissolve
when the last task concerning the extension of suffrage to women is
completed?

2. Shall it recommend its members to join the League of Women Voters?

3. Shall this be the last suffrage convention held under its auspices?
If not, when shall the next be called?

4. If this is to be the last convention, shall a Board of Officers be
elected at this convention to serve until all tasks are completed? If
this is done, to whom shall such a board render its final report and
by whom shall it be officially discharged?

5. If dissolution is determined upon, what disposition shall be made
of (a) the files of data; (b) the property; (c) the funds, if any
remain?

6. In the event that the association shall be dissolved what agency
shall become the auxiliary of the International Woman Suffrage
Alliance?

7. What plan for the intensive education of new women voters is
possible and shall it be recommended that the League of Women Voters
take up this work or shall it be conducted under the National American
Woman Suffrage Association?

At the beginning of the afternoon session Mrs. Catt said that for
twenty-eight years the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw had opened the national
conventions with prayer and she asked that in memory of her the
delegates rise and join in silent prayer. They did so and many were
in tears. The Rev. Herbert L. Willet then offered the invocation. Mrs.
Trout, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association, cordially
welcomed the delegates to Chicago. The greeting from the Canadian
Woman Suffrage Association was brought by its president, Dr. Margaret
Gordon. Mrs. Catt made a gracious response and resigning the chair to
the first vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, gave a
brief address, reserving a longer one for the League of Women Voters.
She said in part:

     When we met at St. Louis a year ago in the 50th annual convention
     of our association, we knew that the end of our long struggle was
     near. We comprehended in a new sense the truth of Victor Hugo's
     sage epigram: "There is one thing more powerful than Kings and
     Armies--the idea whose time has come to move." We knew that the
     time for our idea was here, and as State after State has joined
     the list of the ratified we have seen our idea, our cause, move
     forward dramatically, majestically into its appropriate place as
     part of the constitution of our nation. We have not yet the
     official proclamation announcing that our amendment has been
     ratified by the necessary thirty-six States, but thirty-one have
     done so and another will ratify before we adjourn; three
     Governors have promised special sessions very soon and two more
     Legislatures will ratify when called together. There is no power
     on this earth that can do more than delay by a trifle the final
     enfranchisement of women.

     The enemies of progress and liberty never surrender and never
     die. Ever since the days of cave-men they have stood ready with
     their sledge hammers to strike any liberal idea on the head
     whenever it appeared. They are still active, hysterically active,
     over our amendment; still imagining, as their progenitors for
     thousands of years have done, that a fly sitting on a wheel may
     command it to revolve no more and it will obey. They are running
     about from State to State, a few women and a few paid men. They
     dash to Washington to hold hurried consultations with senatorial
     friends and away to carry out instructions.... It does not
     matter. Suffragists were never dismayed when they were a tiny
     group and all the world was against them. What care they now when
     all the world is with them? March on, suffragists, the victory is
     yours! The trail has been long and winding; the struggle has been
     tedious and wearying; you have made sacrifices and received many
     hard knocks; be joyful to-day. Our final victory is due, is
     inevitable, is almost here. Let us celebrate to-day, and when the
     proclamation comes I beg you to celebrate the occasion with some
     form of joyous demonstration in your own home State. Two
     armistice days made a joyous ending of the war. Let two
     ratification days, one a National and one a State day, make a
     happy ending of the denial of political freedom to women!

     Our amendment was submitted June 4, 1919, and to-day, eight
     months and eight days later, it has been ratified by thirty-one
     States. No other amendment made such a record but the time is not
     the significant part of the story. Of the thirty-one
     ratifications twenty-four have taken place in _special sessions_.
     These mean extra cost to the State, opportunity for other
     legislation and the chance of political intrigue for or against
     the Governor who calls them. These obstacles have been difficult
     to overcome, far more difficult than most of you will ever know,
     and in a few instances well-nigh insurmountable, but the point to
     emphasize to-day is that they _were_ overcome. As a whole the
     ratifications have moved forward in splendid triumphal
     procession. There have been many inspiring incidents of daring
     and clever moves on the part of suffragists to speed the campaign
     and there have been many incidents of courage, nobility of
     purpose and proud scorn of the pettiness of political enemies on
     the part of Governors, legislators and men friends. On the other
     hand there have been tricks, chicanery and misrepresentation, but
     let us forget them all. Victors can afford to be generous.

Referring to the cost of special sessions, Mrs. Catt said:

     If the Governor is a Republican tell him that had it not been
     that two Republican Senators, Borah of Idaho and Wadsworth of New
     York, refused to represent their States as indicated by votes at
     the polls, resolutions by their Legislatures and planks in their
     party platforms, the suffrage amendment would have passed the
     65th Congress. It then would have come into the regular sessions
     of forty-two Legislatures with more than thirty-six pledged to
     ratify and without a cent of extra cost to any State! When a
     Republican Governor calls an extra session in order to ratify he
     merely atones for the conduct of two members of his own party.
     They, not he, are to blame that it became necessary. If the
     Governor is Democratic say that had it not been for two northern
     Democratic Senators, Pomerene of Ohio and Hitchcock of Nebraska,
     who refused to represent their States on the question as
     indicated by their Legislatures and platforms, Congress would
     have sent the amendment to the 1919 Legislatures and it would
     have cost the States nothing. The Democratic Governor who calls a
     special session only makes honorable amends for the
     misrepresentation of members of his own party....

     We should be more than glad and grateful to-day, we should be
     proud--proud that our fifty-one years of organized endeavor have
     been clean, constructive, conscientious. Our association never
     resorted to lies, innuendoes, misrepresentation. It never accused
     its opponents of being free lovers, pro-Germans and Bolsheviki.
     It marched forward even when its forces were most disorganized by
     disaster. It always met argument with argument, honest objection
     with proof of error. In fifty years it never failed to send its
     representatives to plead our cause before every national
     political convention, although they went knowing that the
     prejudice they would meet was impregnable and the response would
     be ridicule and condemnation. It went to the rescue of every
     State campaign for half a century with such forces as it could
     command, even when realizing that there was no hope. In every
     corner it sowed the seeds of justice and trusted to time to bring
     the harvest. It has aided boys in high school with debates and
     later heard their votes of "yes" in Legislatures. Reporters
     assigned to our Washington conventions long, long ago, took their
     places at the press table on the first day with contempt and
     ridicule in their hearts but went out the last day won to our
     cause and later became editors of newspapers and spoke to
     thousands in our behalf. Girls came to our meetings, listened and
     accepted, and later as mature women became intrepid leaders.

     In all the years this association has never paid a national
     lobbyist, and, so far as I know, no State has paid a legislative
     lobbyist. During the fifty years it has rarely had a salaried
     officer and even if so she has been paid less than her earning
     capacity elsewhere. It has been an army of volunteers who have
     estimated no sacrifice too great, no service too difficult.

Mrs. Catt enumerated some of the immortal pioneer suffragists and
said: "How small seems the service of the rest of us by comparison,
yet how glad and proud we have been to give it. Ours has been a cause
to live for, a cause to die for if need be. It has been a movement
with a soul, a dauntless, unconquerable soul ever leading onward.
Women came, served and passed on but others took their places.... How
I pity the women who have had no share in the exaltation and the
discipline of our army of workers! How I pity those who have not felt
the grip of the oneness of women struggling, serving, suffering,
sacrificing for the righteousness of woman's emancipation! Oh, women,
be glad today and let your voices ring out the gladness in your
hearts! There will never come another day like this. Let joy be
unconfined and let it speak so clearly that its echo will be heard
around the world and find its way into the soul of every woman of
every race who is yearning for opportunity and liberty still
denied...."

After this inspiring address the convention was turned into a
jollification meeting for a considerable time until the delegates were
tired out by their enthusiasm and composed themselves to receive a
telegram of greeting from President Woodrow Wilson addressed to Mrs.
Catt: "Permit me to congratulate your association upon the fact that
its great work is so near its triumphant end and that you can now
merge it into a League of Women Voters to carry on the development of
good citizenship and real democracy; and to wish for the new
organization the same wise leadership and success." On motion of Mrs.
McCormick it was voted that "the gratitude of the convention be
expressed to the President for his constant cooperation and help, with
deep regret for his illness." On motion of Miss Mary Garrett Hay,
second vice-president, the convention authorized a letter of
appreciation to be sent to the Governors of States that had ratified
the Federal Amendment and telegrams to those who had not called
special sessions strongly urging them to do so.[123] This was made
especially emphatic to Governor Louis F. Hart of Washington, the only
equal suffrage State which had not ratified. [The session was called
and the Legislature ratified unanimously March 22, leaving but one
more to be gained.]

At the evening session the Recommendations were considered as
presented by the Executive Council, which consisted of the president
of the association, officers, board of directors, chairmen of standing
and special committees, presidents of affiliated organizations and one
representative of each society which paid dues on 1,500 or more
members. After discussion and some amendment they were adopted as
follows:

     Whereas, The sole object of many years' endeavor by the National
     American Woman Suffrage Association has been "to secure the vote
     to the women citizens of the United States by appropriate
     national and State legislation" and that object is about to be
     attained, and

     Whereas, The association must naturally dissolve or take up new
     lines of work when the last suffrage task has been completed,
     therefore, be it

     Resolved, That the association shall assume no new lines of work
     and shall move toward dissolution by the following process:

     (1) That a Board of Officers shall be elected at this convention,
     as usual, to serve two years (if necessary) in accordance with
     the provisions of the constitution;

     (2) That the eight directors elected at the 50th annual
     convention, and whose term of office does not expire until March,
     1921, shall be asked to serve until the term of elected officers
     shall expire;

     (3) That any vacancy or vacancies occurring in the list of
     directors shall be filled by election at this convention;

     (4) That all vacancies in the Board of Directors occurring after
     this convention shall be filled by majority vote of the board;

     (5) That the Board of Officers so constituted shall have full
     charge of the remainder of the ratification campaign and all
     necessary legal proceedings and shall dispose of files, books,
     data, property and funds (if any remain) of the association
     subject to the further instruction of this convention. The
     Executive Council shall be subject to call by the Board of
     Officers if necessary;

     (6) That the Board of Officers shall render a quarterly account
     of its procedure and an annual report of all funds in its
     possession duly audited by certified accountant, to the women who
     in February, 1920, compose its Executive Council. When its work
     is completed and its final report has been accepted by this
     council it may by formal resolution dissolve.[124]

A resolution was adopted regarding action in case of a referendum to
the voters of ratification by a Legislature but later the U. S.
Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional. Another urged the new
league to make political education of the voters its first duty. The
last resolution was as follows:

"We recommend that the League of Women Voters, now a section of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association, be organized as a new
and independent society, and that its auxiliaries, while retaining
their relationship to the Board of Officers to be elected in this 51st
convention in form, shall change their names, objects and
constitutions to conform to those of the National League of Women
Voters and take up the plan of work to be adopted by its first
congress."

Following the precedent of the last convention, in order to save time,
all headquarters' activities were summed up in the report of the
corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler. Much condensed the
report was as follows:

     In the greater glory of the Federal Amendment and the
     ratifications which are bringing about our ultimate victory we
     should not overlook the solid, constructive work of the past ten
     and a half months and those successes of the National American
     Woman Suffrage Association and its branches in the various
     States, which made possible the Federal Amendment.

     At our convention in St. Louis, March 24-29, 1919, when we met to
     counsel together for the future and to gird on our armor for the
     "one fight more--the last and the best," we celebrated the
     Missouri victory, the twenty-seventh State to give Presidential
     suffrage to women. Mrs. Catt, by resolution of the convention,
     immediately wrote to the legislators of Tennessee and Iowa urging
     passage of a similar bill. Tennessee gave Presidential and
     Municipal suffrage to women April 14 and Iowa Presidential
     suffrage on April 19, increasing the number of presidential
     electors for whom women may vote to 306 out of 531, the total in
     the United States.

     Connecticut women made a magnificent campaign for Presidential
     suffrage, failing by only one vote in the Legislature. The
     strength displayed by the suffragists, the obtaining of 98,000
     women's signatures and the dignity and ability shown under the
     leadership of Miss Katherine Ludington, so advanced suffrage in
     that State as to make the battle seem a victory rather than a
     defeat.

     Municipal suffrage was given by the Legislature to the women of
     Orlando, Fla., April 21, making sixteen towns in ten counties in
     that State where women have this right. An effort to secure a
     Primary suffrage bill for the entire State failed.

     Suffrage in the Democratic municipal primaries was granted by the
     local Democratic committee to the women of Atlanta, Ga., May 3,
     for one election.

     In a referendum vote on a State amendment, May 24, 1919, full
     suffrage was defeated in Texas. The main causes were: The large
     number of men who were so confident of the success of the
     amendment that they did not take the trouble to go to the polls
     to vote for it; illegal changes in the numbering and position of
     the amendment on the ballots of the various counties; the absence
     from the State of about 200,000 soldiers; unfavorable weather
     conditions; the shortness of the time allowed for the campaign,
     and, chief of all, the organized opposition of the foreign-born
     and negro voters. The Texas suffragists won a clear-cut victory
     January 28 when the State Supreme Court upheld the decisions of
     the lower courts that the Primary suffrage bill was
     constitutional....

     On June 28 the women of Nebraska won a distinctive victory when
     the State Supreme Court held the Presidential and Municipal
     suffrage act of 1917 to be constitutional. The history of woman
     suffrage records no harder fought legal battle than this. They
     won another victory in the decision by Attorney General Clarence
     E. Davis that they had the right to help choose delegates to the
     national political party conventions. On February 12 the
     constitutional convention voted to leave the word "male" out of
     the new constitution.

     In Tennessee the decision of the Court of Chancery, which
     declared the Presidential and Municipal suffrage bill of 1918
     unconstitutional, has been reversed by the State Supreme
     Court....

     On February 13 the suffrage committee of the constitutional
     convention then in session in Illinois voted unanimously to
     strike "male" out of the new constitution.

     We began the year 1918 with nineteen organizers, but as the
     legislative work came to occupy the place of chief importance
     most of the States expressed a preference for the services of
     their own women and it became necessary to reduce the national
     staff.[125]

     During the winter of 1918-1919 a series of conferences was
     offered to the southern States but for various reasons not
     accepted. At the St. Louis convention in March, 1919, Mrs. Catt
     requested the southern representatives to outline the definite
     help desired from the National Association and their requests
     were accepted by the board at its post-convention meeting as
     follows: The National to give (a) one speaker or organizer to
     each State for two months; (b) a suffrage school to each; (c) one
     thousand copies of Senator Pollock's speech to each. This help
     from the National was conditional upon the promise of the
     southern States (a) that each State would furnish one of its own
     workers to be under the instruction of the national worker and to
     continue in charge after her departure; (b) that it would
     establish and maintain a speakers' bureau; (c) that it would
     begin the petition campaign. By October the association had
     fulfilled its promise of an organizer for two months to Virginia,
     West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia,
     Florida, Alabama and Tennessee and had arranged to send
     organizers to Kentucky, Delaware and Mississippi when those
     States were ready for them. Later, because of ratification, it
     gave additional help, sending Mrs. McMahon to Delaware, Mrs.
     Cunningham, Miss Watkins and Miss Peshakova to Mississippi; Miss
     Pidgeon, Miss Miller and Mrs. McMahon to Alabama, where a
     splendid campaign for ratification was directed by Mrs. Pattie
     Ruffner Jacobs, State suffrage president.

     Not only were the promised copies of Senator Pollock's speech
     sent but an additional 10,000 pieces of literature were given to
     Maryland, North Carolina and Delaware; 5,000 to Virginia, South
     Carolina, Georgia and Florida; 36,000 to West Virginia and 51,000
     to Mississippi. In place of the suffrage schools a series of
     conferences was agreed to by the southern States. Three speakers
     were selected with great care and an outline for the trip was
     submitted to the States. Some responded that they could not
     arrange satisfactory conferences, others that they could not make
     dates to fit the itinerary, two did not reply in time and two
     did not respond at all. Since speakers could not be sent at such
     great cost for small, unsatisfactory meetings or on an incomplete
     itinerary, we were reluctantly forced to cancel the conferences.
     With regard to the work which the southern States agreed to do,
     only one State met the provision to provide a worker of its own
     under the direction of the national organizer to take charge
     after her departure. None of the States established a speakers'
     bureau. Three States started the petition campaign but none
     finished it.

     FEDERAL AMENDMENT. We were confident of victory for the amendment
     in 1919 in the 66th Congress. The House passed it May 21 by an
     affirmative vote of 304, a majority of 42 votes, and June 4 the
     Senate by a vote of 56 to 25. The passage of this amendment
     introduced in Congress over forty years ago by the National
     Suffrage Association closed a long and interesting chapter of the
     movement. The completion of that part of our work made it no
     longer necessary for us to maintain a Washington headquarters.
     Accordingly June 30, 1919, the doors of the Suffrage House, 1626
     Rhode Island Avenue, were closed after having received cabinet
     members, senators, congressmen, distinguished persons from this
     and foreign countries, thousands of American men and women and
     those active suffragists who were called to Washington from time
     to time to assist in the work of the congressional committee.
     Mrs. Maud Wood Park, to whose indefatigable energy, honesty of
     purpose and action and infinite tact we owe much, led the way to
     victory for the amendment. Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, whose
     diplomatic abilities made her the constant adviser of the
     committee, Miss Marjorie Shuler, chief of publicity, Miss Mabel
     Willard in charge of social affairs, Miss Caroline I. Reilly and
     Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, secretaries, formed the personnel
     of the Congressional Committee at the time of victory.

     During the months preceding the passage of the Federal Amendment
     the National Association had carried not only the burden of the
     actual amendment campaign but had planned and carried out the
     preparatory work for ratification. Legislatures had been polled,
     Governors interviewed on the subject of special sessions and
     organization and publicity built up, looking forward to the final
     ratification battle. The presidential suffrage campaigns and the
     resolutions calling upon Congress to pass the suffrage amendment,
     which the National Association had secured in State Legislatures,
     were all part of the ratification strategy, a test of the
     suffrage sentiment in the current Legislatures as well as an
     impelling force on Congress to pass the amendment.

     We had hoped that from this point the State associations would
     undertake their own campaigns and to that end Mrs. Catt issued a
     bulletin May 24 telling each one just what steps to take. She
     stated that the National Association would immediately ask
     Governors of all equal suffrage States to call sessions and would
     circularize all the Legislatures. She called upon the State
     associations to (1) circularize their legislators with the news
     of the final victory; (2) send deputations to secure the pledge
     of the vote of each legislator for ratification; (3) begin a
     statewide campaign through the press, petitions, literature and
     meetings to secure their own special sessions. It soon became
     apparent that the States as a whole were not carrying out these
     plans and instead of promises of special sessions excuses came
     from the men with the endorsement of the women themselves. It was
     evident that the national office in New York must be in command.

     During the following weeks up to the present time the days and
     nights have been filled with intensive effort. Never before have
     the members of the national force, the board, the office force of
     forty persons in the national headquarters, the Leslie
     Commission, the publicity department, the _Woman Citizen_ and the
     Publishing Company worked with so little sparing of themselves
     and with such absolute concentration upon the matter in hand,
     still carrying on citizenship preparation, organization and all
     the routine work but always giving Ratification the right of way.
     It was Mrs. Catt who sounded the rallying call, who mapped out
     every step of the way, who did the work of a dozen women herself
     and cheered the rest on. No one will ever know the full story of
     her ingenious plans which brought about the ratification and in
     some States even the women think it was easily won because they
     do not know of the efforts put forth from the national office.

     As soon as the amendment had passed the Senate, Mrs. Catt kept
     the agreement made by her in the bulletin and sent telegrams to
     the Governors of full suffrage States, asking for special
     sessions, and to Legislatures then in session asking for
     ratification. With the cooperation of the suffrage associations,
     Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan ratified on June 10, in six days
     after the amendment was submitted by Congress. Kansas and New
     York ratified in special session and Ohio in regular session on
     June 16. Pennsylvania ratified on June 24, its blackness wiped
     off the map. The change of black Massachusetts to the ratified
     white on June 25 gave another big impetus to the campaign. Texas
     distinguished itself by ratifying on June 28. This made nine
     ratifications in nineteen days!

     Mrs. Catt had previously asked the presidents of State suffrage
     associations to interview their Governors regarding special
     sessions and she had sent personal letters to them and to members
     of the Legislatures enclosing facts concerning the Federal
     Amendment. As a result the Governors of Nebraska, Indiana and
     Minnesota sent letters and telegrams to twenty-two other
     Governors asking them to call special sessions.

     To carry the appeal to the West, two commissions were sent out
     the last of July, Mrs. John Glover South of Kentucky and Miss
     Shuler of New York to the Republican States; Mrs. Cunningham of
     Texas and Mrs. Hooper of Wisconsin to the Democratic States.
     After a tour of the States and visits to the Governors they went
     to Salt Lake City for the Governors' Conference. Their reports
     revealed the fact that women in the enfranchised States had been
     absorbed into the political parties, and, with their suffrage
     campaign organizations practically dissolved, were in no position
     to determine or carry out independent political action. The
     replies of the Governors--that "the women of _my_ State have the
     suffrage, it will not help us, the cost of a special session is
     too great, ill-advised legislation might be considered"--revealed
     an even more deplorable fact, that both men and women in those
     States were bounded in thought by their State lines and did not
     have a national point of view on national issues.

     From the first Mrs. Catt had believed that the strategy of
     ratification demanded rapid action by the western full suffrage
     States, the partial suffrage States falling into line and the
     last fight coming in the eastern States where women had not yet
     become political factors. Therefore the Governors of the fully
     enfranchised States were wired as soon as the Federal Amendment
     passed. Those of Kansas and New York responded at once with
     special sessions on June 16. Then came an ominous pause. No far
     western States had yet ratified. What mysterious cause delayed
     them?

     Ratifications came in Iowa July 2; Missouri July 3; Arkansas July
     28; Montana July 30; Nebraska August 2; Minnesota September 8;
     New Hampshire September 10; Utah September 30. Another ominous
     pause, with Montana and Utah the only far western States yet
     heard from.

     On October 23 Mrs. Catt opened a "drive" for ratification through
     sixteen conferences in twelve States, all but two with equal
     suffrage. She was accompanied by two chairmen of the League of
     Women Voters, Dr. Valeria Parker of the Committee of Social
     Hygiene, and Mrs. Edward P. Costigan of the Committee on Food
     Supply and Demand, with Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield speaking for
     the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Shuler for that on
     Child Welfare. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of the Committee on
     Unification of Laws and Miss Julia Lathrop, chairman of the Child
     Welfare Committee, spoke at one of the conferences and Miss
     Jessie Haver substituted for Mrs. Costigan during the latter part
     of the trip. Mrs. Catt's address--Wake Up America--was an appeal
     for special sessions to ratify in those States where there were
     to be no regular sessions until 1921 and an appeal to both men
     and women to use their votes for a better America. Ratifications
     in North Dakota December 1; South Dakota December 4; Colorado
     December 12; Oregon January 12; Nevada February 7--were in answer
     to those stirring appeals. California ratified November 1; Maine
     November 5; Rhode Island and Kentucky January 6; Indiana January
     16. Following soon New Jersey ratified by regular session
     February 9. Idaho by special session February 11; Arizona
     February 12. The special session is called in New Mexico February
     16 and in Oklahoma February 23. [Both ratified.]

     In the story of our ratification campaign there occurs often the
     name of our second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, whose
     work for the National Association has always been valuable but
     who has made her greatest contribution in work for the passage of
     the Federal Amendment in the campaign to secure special sessions
     and the overwhelming number of ratifications in Republican
     States.

Mrs. Shuler told of the Oversea Hospitals, which are considered in
another chapter. She gave an eloquent tribute to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw
and spoke of the beautiful memorial booklet prepared by a committee of
officers of the National Association, who distributed 5,000 copies. It
also aided in circulating 10,000 copies of her last speech--What the
War Meant to Women--prepared as a memorial by the League to Enforce
Peace. She spoke tenderly of the death of Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery,
corresponding secretary of the National Association twenty-one years;
of that of Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler Walker, who presided so charmingly
over the headquarters in Washington, and of Miss Aloysius
Larch-Miller, who as secretary of the committee on ratification in
Oklahoma sacrificed her life through her work for it. Reference was
made to the contributory work of the National Board in stabilizing the
League of Women Voters; to the Citizenship Schools and Travelling
Libraries, and the very complete report closed with a testimonial to
the immeasurable value of the national organization which read in
part:

     Our State suffrage associations welded into a great chain have
     made the National Association. Our members have been one in
     heart, one in hope, one in purpose. We have held the same
     standards, the same ideals. When the way has seemed long and dark
     and the goal of our efforts afar off, we have supported, cheered
     and encouraged each other. We have rejoiced over even the
     smallest victory and have never been a downhearted group. The
     suffrage spirit has ever buoyed us up and carried us on even when
     the road was the steepest and the obstructions seemed almost
     insurmountable. These experiences could not have been realized
     through fifty-one years without "lengthening the cords and
     strengthening the stakes of friendship" but more--the result has
     been a liberal training, a greater belief in each other and more
     confidence in the merits of our cause.

     While the value of any movement depends upon the success with
     which its practical details are worked out, yet in the final
     analysis the idealism of a movement is the mainspring of its
     vitality.

        "The spirit stands behind the deed,
        In holy thought the dream must start
        And every cause that moves the world
        Was born within a single heart."

     So to-day we render homage to our great leader, Mrs. Catt, whose
     hand has guided and whose genius has vitalized our movement. She
     has given to a world of women her love, her faith. She has
     dreamed a dream and then with prophetic vision and undaunted
     courage led the way to victory and the consummation of that
     dream.

The exquisite poem, "Oh, Dreamer of Dreams," was quoted and the report
ended: "Year after year at national conventions women have agreed to
'carry on'. How well this has been done the records prove. All who
have shared in the service and sacrifice which were necessary to bring
about the great victory which we are here to celebrate will be glad
that they were given and rejoice that they helped in putting to flight
the powers of darkness."

In the course of her report as national treasurer Mrs. Henry Wade
Rogers said:

     It was in November, 1914, at the Nashville convention, that I was
     elected treasurer of the National Suffrage Association. In
     November, 1919, I completed my fifth year of service, these last
     three months additional being by way of good measure. I succeeded
     with trepidation Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick's very efficient
     service. She and I are the only members on the present board who
     were members in 1914.

     In February, 1918, the duties of treasurer of the Women's Oversea
     Hospitals were added to those of the association and the sum of
     $178,000 has passed through the special treasury of the hospitals
     to carry on the splendid war work undertaken by the National
     Suffrage Association. A balance of about $35,000 remains in that
     treasury, the use of which in some form of memorial this
     convention will be asked to designate.[126]

     The receipts of the treasury since I took office have been, for
     1914-1915, $43,186; 1915-1916, $81,862; 1916-1917, $103,826;
     1917-1918, $107,736; 1919-1920, $97,379; a total of $443,989.
     Adding the fund raised for the Hospitals the total is $611,991.
     Each year I have solicited funds for the National Association
     from hundreds of suffragists, in addition to the large sums
     pledged at the conventions, and have had always most generous
     responses. In November and December, 1919, 38,000 letters were
     sent out signed by the president and treasurer of the National
     Suffrage Association asking for a ratification fund of $100,000.
     Very gratifying returns have come from this appeal and are still
     coming....

     We come to this final convention of our National Association with
     a balance in the treasury and it must be determined here whether
     or not this sum is sufficient to finish the fight for nation-wide
     suffrage. Because of your sympathy and generous cooperation I
     have found the treasurership a real pleasure. The actual work has
     been lightened by the faithful service of Miss Eleanor Bates,
     accountant of the association since 1912. We cannot too
     gratefully acknowledge also the devoted service of many others,
     who, unheralded and unsung, have helped to make possible this
     victory hour....

With this report were ten closely printed pages of perfectly kept and
audited accounts. They showed a balance of $10,905 in the treasury.
Mrs. Rogers continued the duties of her office at unanimous request
having given up to the present time about seven years of most
efficient service, spending days, weeks and months at the national
headquarters with no remuneration except the joy of helping the cause
of woman suffrage. At one session through the efforts of Miss Mary
Garrett Hay and Mrs. Raymond Brown, pledges of $44,500 were obtained
for the League of Women Voters, Miss Lucy E. Anthony making the first
contribution of $1,000 in memory of her aunt, Susan B. Anthony. The
Leslie Commission guaranteed $15,000 of this amount.

The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington had
during the year set apart a division of space for mementoes of
distinguished suffragists, and Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, through whose
efforts chiefly this concession had been secured, offered the
following resolution, which was unanimously adopted: "This convention
expresses to the Directors of the Smithsonian Institution profound
appreciation of this section devoted to the great women leaders of
liberty and civilization on the same broad basis accorded to men and
believes that this shrine will be an object of the reverence and
education of all womanhood.[127]

A resolution was adopted to send congratulatory and affectionate
letters to the pioneers, Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y.; the
Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of Elizabeth, N. J., and Mrs.
Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia. The Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine,
Wis., one of the few remaining pioneers, was guest of honor of the
convention and received especial attention throughout the week. A
telegram was sent to Mrs. Ida Husted Harper of New York in recognition
of her constant, untiring work on the last volumes of the History of
Woman Suffrage, still in progress. Very laudatory resolutions of
"sincere gratitude" were adopted and sent to Will H. Hays and Homer
Cummings, chairmen of the Republican and Democratic National
Committees, for their services in behalf of the Federal Suffrage
Amendment.

Five large rooms in the hotel were required for the 1,400 guests who
attended the "ratification banquet" the evening of February 14 and
there were almost as many disappointed women who could not obtain
seats. Mrs. Catt presided and the following program of sparkling
speeches was given: The Apology of New York [for re-election of U. S.
Senator Wadsworth], Mrs. F. Louis Slade; The Specials of the Middle
West, Mrs. Peter Olesen, Minnesota; Tradition vs. Justice, Mrs. Pattie
Jacobs, Alabama; By the Grace of Governors, Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard,
Wyoming; "All's Well That Ends Well," Mrs. T. T. Cotnam, Arkansas.
Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, "cheer leader," had prepared a program of
well-known songs cleverly adapted to suffrage and set to popular airs.

The culminating feature, arranged by Mrs. Richard E. Edwards, was a
living "ratification valentine." On the stage was disclosed a big
heart of silver and blue and in the opening appeared one after another
the faces of the presidents of the States whose Legislatures had
ratified and they recited caustic but good humored rhymes at the
expense of the women whose States were still in outer darkness. It was
a hilarious occasion greatly enjoyed by the younger suffragists and
those who had come late into the movement. Many memories were
awakened, however, in those older in years and service of the days
when conventions were largely a time of serious conferences and
impassioned appeal; a time when one banquet table was all sufficient
but those who gathered around it were very near and dear to each other
as they consecrated themselves anew to continue the work till the hour
of victory, which seemed very far ahead.

The 14th of February was the seventy-third birthday of Dr. Shaw, who
had died the preceding July 2, and the 15th was the one hundredth of
Susan B. Anthony, falling on Sunday this year, but it was arranged to
have the memorial services for Dr. Shaw on the afternoon of this day.
The following program was carried out:

                MEMORIAL TO DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW
                   Fourth Presbyterian Church
           Corner Lake Shore Drive and Delaware Place
           Dr. Stone, pastor of the church, presiding.
                  Sunday, February 15, 1921.

     "She was a genuine American with all the qualities which in
     fiction collect about that name but which are not so often seen
     in real life; an American with the measureless patience, the deep
     and gentle humor, the whimsical and tolerant philosophy and the
     dauntless courage, physical as well as moral, which we find most
     satisfyingly displayed in Lincoln, of all our heroes."--New York
     _Times_.

          Organ Prelude, "In Memoriam."
          Anthem by Choir, "How blest are they."
          Invocation.
          Anthem, "Crossing the bar."
          Scripture Lesson, Bishop Samuel Fallows, D.D., LL.D.
          Greetings and Communications, Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees.
          Address--Memory Pictures, Mrs. Florence Cotnam.
          Anthem--The Shepherds and Wise Men. (Composed for this
            occasion by Witter Bynner and A. Madely Richardson.)
          Address--The Courageous Leader, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw.
          Address--Reminiscences, Miss Jane Addams.
          Address--Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt.
          A Closing Word, Rev. John Timothy Stone, D.D., LL.D.
          The Last Farewell, Dr. Caroline Bartlett Crane.
          Hymn--"My Country 'Tis of Thee."
          Benediction.
          Choir Refrain.
          Organ Postlude--Toccata.

Eric Delamater, formerly director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
was the organist. It was a most impressive occasion with many
evidences of deep feeling, and, although it was a church service, the
audience responded with warm applause as Mrs. Catt closed her eulogy
with this beautiful comparison: "A significant ceremony is performed
each Easter in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. In the
wall that encloses the tomb of Christ there is an opening which on
Easter Sunday is surrounded by priests of the shrine carrying
unlighted candles. It is believed that the candles are touched into
flame by a holy fire emanating from Divinity through this opening.
Also provided with candles are the worshippers who throng the church,
the nearby receiving their light from the priests and passing it on
until every candle is aflame. Men nearest the door hasten to light the
candles of horsemen outside who speed away on the mission of
torchbearer to every home, so that by nightfall the candles on every
altar burn with a new brightness that has been transmitted from the
holy fire. Likewise the fire of inspiration, kindled in the great soul
of Anna Howard Shaw, touched into flame the zeal and courage of her
messengers, who in turn reached the homes throughout the nation with
her fervor and power."

       *       *       *       *       *

[Dr. Shaw had given forty-five years of consecrated devotion to the
cause of woman suffrage and this was the first national convention for
nearly thirty years without the inspiration of her presence. She first
met Miss Anthony at the International Council of Women in Washington
in 1888 and from that time gave her the deepest affection and truest
allegiance. While the years went by she became nearer and dearer to
Miss Anthony and was loved by her beyond all others. As an orator she
played upon the whole gamut of human emotions, lifting her audiences
to intellectual heights, touching their sentiment with her exquisite
pathos, convincing them with her keen logic and winning their hearts
with her irresistible humor. People not only admired but loved her,
and this was true not alone in the United States but in all parts of
the world, as she had addressed international congresses in most of
the large cities of Europe. She lived to see the submission by
Congress of the Federal Suffrage Amendment and to render most
valuable assistance to her country during the World War as chairman of
the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense, and she died
in its service.]

There was considerable discussion in the convention of a suitable
memorial to Dr. Shaw and finally a resolution was adopted that the
association establish an official joint memorial--at Bryn Mawr College
a Foundation in Politics and at the Woman's Medical College of
Pennsylvania a Foundation in Preventive Medicine--as a fitting
continuation of her life work;[128] that a committee be appointed to
carry out the project by appealing to the women throughout the country
and that this committee be incorporated and assume the financial
responsibility.[129] The Chair presented as the first donation towards
the fund a check of $1,000 sent by Mrs. George Howard Lewis of
Buffalo, in memory of Dr. Shaw on her birthday. The gift was
accompanied by an eloquent tribute from Mrs. Lewis, an intimate and
devoted friend of nearly twenty years, in which she gave beautiful
quotations from Dr. Shaw's letters and an extract from her charming
autobiography, The Story of a Pioneer.[130]

As had long been the custom the officers of the association gave an
informal reception to the delegates and friends on Sunday evening.
This took place in the Congress Hotel and they were assisted by the
local committee of arrangements.

The final report of the Oversea Hospitals maintained by the National
Association, as given by Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, chairman, and Mrs.
Raymond Brown, general director in France, is in the chapter on the
War Work of Organized Suffragists.

A brief report of the Leslie Bureau of Education was made by Miss
Young who said: "The Leslie Bureau was founded by Mrs. Catt in 1917,
as administratrix of the fortune left to her to promote the cause of
suffrage by Mrs. Frank Leslie. Mrs. Catt cherished the view that if
the public were thoroughly educated on the subject of suffrage it
would be wholly in favor of it. She proposed to set aside a large part
of the Leslie fund for use in channels of education. I was appointed
director of the bureau and departmentalized it under the following
heads: News, Field Work, Features, Research.... The _Woman Citizen_
was termed "an adventure in journalism." Miss Young was
editor-in-chief and business manager and Miss Mary Ogden White was
associate editor. "The great body of testimony shows," she said, "that
the service of the magazine has been at all times indispensable."

Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman Suffrage
Publishing Co., supplemented Mrs. Shuler's report of its dissolution,
paid a tribute to its board of directors and said: "In reviewing the
six years of the company's existence a few facts come to my mind which
I think may interest you. We have printed and distributed over
50,000,000 pieces of literature. Besides supplying suffrage material
to practically every State in the Union we have filled orders from
Switzerland, France, Italy, Great Britain, Norway, Canada, Philippine
Islands, Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, Argentina, China and Japan.
Recently we have been asked to send a complete line of our
publications to the new American Library in Rome, Italy, and nearly
every day we receive requests for pamphlets from libraries all over
the United States and from universities for their extension courses.
My correspondence and association with suffragists over the country
through the Publishing Company will ever be among the happiest
memories of my life."

Almost every State president submitted a report of vigorous work
either to secure the suffrage or where this had been done to organize
and put into operation a League of Women Voters. Never before in the
history of the National Association had so much interest and activity
been manifest in the States.

The Pioneer Suffrage Luncheon with Mrs. McCormick presiding brought
together many of the older workers, whose rejoicing over the final
victory after their long years of toil and sacrifice such as the
younger ones had never known, was lessened by the thought that this
was the last of the love feasts which they had shared together for
many decades. The response to the leading toast--What the Modern Woman
Owes to the Pioneers--was made by the Rev. Olympia Brown, now
eighty-four years old, whose excellent voice was not equalled among
any of the younger women. Songs, reminiscences and clever, informal
speeches contributed to a most delightful afternoon.

It had been a keen disappointment that the Jubilee Convention of the
preceding year--March, 1919--which marked the fiftieth anniversary of
the founding of the association, could not have celebrated the
submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment but this had to await a
new Congress. Now it was almost unendurable that this commemoration of
Miss Anthony's one hundredth birthday could not have been glorified by
the proclamation that this amendment was forever a part of the
National Constitution. However, by the time another month had rolled
by, this culmination of her life work awaited the ratification of only
one more Legislature and it was so universally recognized as near at
hand that this last meeting could appropriately be termed the Victory
Convention. Following is the program of the celebration of her
centenary:

     SUSAN B. ANTHONY CENTENARY CELEBRATION.

     "To me Susan B. Anthony was an unceasing inspiration--the torch
     that illumined my life. We went through some difficult times
     together--years when we fought hard for each inch of headway
     gained--but I found full compensation for every effort in the
     glory of working with her for the cause that was first in our
     hearts and in the happiness of being her trusted friend."--Anna
     Howard Shaw.

     MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1920, 2 p. m.

     What Happened in Ten Decades Briefly Told:

     1820-1830--The Age of Mobs and Eggs.
                Mrs. E. F. Feickert, president of New Jersey.

     1830-1840--The First School Suffrage.
                Mrs. Desha Breckenridge, president of Kentucky.

     1840-1850--The Dawn of Property Rights.
                Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, former president of
                Missouri.

     1850-1860--The First High School for Girls.
                Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, president of Massachusetts.

     1860-1870--The World's First Full Suffrage.
                Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, professor of Political
                Science, University of Wyoming.

     1870-1880--The Negro's Hour.
                Mrs. Henry Youmans, president of Wisconsin.

     1880-1890--The First Municipal Suffrage.
                Mrs. William A. Johnston, president of Kansas.

     1890-1900--Suffrage Spreads.
                Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, former press director of
                Pennsylvania.

     1900-1910--Ridicule Gives Way to Argument, Indifference to
                to Organization.
                Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, president of Ohio.

     1910-1920--The Portent of Victory.
                Mrs. Raymond Brown, national vice-president.

     Miss Anthony--An Appreciation, Mrs. Harriette Taylor Treadwell,
         member of the Illinois board.

     Miss Anthony--A Historical Recognition, Mrs. Helen H. Gardener,
         national vice-president.


     THE SUFFRAGE HONOR ROLL.

     "Undaunted by opposition brave spirits led on."

     PRESENTATION OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS BY THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN
     SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION to Pioneers, those who labored before 1880;
     Veterans, those who labored between 1880 and 1900; Honor Workers
     after 1900.

While Mrs. Catt was busy handing out the honor rolls to pioneers and
veterans with a few precious words to each, Mrs. Upton came suddenly
forward and laid a detaining hand on her arm. With tender
reminiscence, relieved by the sparkles of humor never absent from
whatever she said, she presented in the name of countless suffragists
an exquisite pin, a large star sapphire surrounded by diamonds and set
in platinum. It was the association's parting gift to its beloved
leader, whose usually perfect poise deserted her and she could not
acknowledge it. To her whispered appeal to Mrs. Upton to speak for
her, the latter laughingly answered that this was the first time she
ever was able to do something that Mrs. Catt could not.

The evening part of the celebration began with community singing,
William Griswold Smith, director, and was followed by an illustration
of Then and Now, Told in Pictures, under the management of Miss Young.
Down a wide flight of stairs came one picturesque figure after another
garbed to represent the passing years during the suffrage contest,
beginning with the middle of the last century, many clothed in the
actual garments worn at the period, and after crossing the stage they
took their seats in tiers, a lovely spectacle. At the last came the
Red Cross workers, the nurses, the motor corps and others in war
service. The picture ended with a gay group of debutantes in filmy
chiffon gowns to symbolize the present day of rejoicing. The triumphs
of women in the intellectual field were told in the program that
followed: Education--Professor Maria L. Sanford; Medicine--Dr. Julia
Holmes Smith; Law--Miss Florence Allen; Theology--the Rev. Olympia
Brown; Journalism--Miss Ethel M. Colson; Politics--Miss Mary Garrett
Hay.

Different sections of the League of Women Voters were in session day
and night perfecting the organization of this most significant
association of women ever attempted. The culmination of seventy years'
continuous effort was about to be reached in the complete and
universal enfranchisement of women and now a new generation, under the
guidance of the older workers who remained, was bravely taking up
another great task, that of bringing about cooperation among women in
the effective use of this supreme power for the highest welfare of the
State. On the last afternoon of the convention the National American
Woman Suffrage Association and the League of Women Voters held a joint
session for discussion of matters in which they had a mutual interest.
On the last evening, just before the beginning of the first session of
the School for Political Education in the Florentine Room, Mrs. Catt,
with suitable ceremony formally adjourned the Victory Convention, the
last of a series held for fifty years by the old association.


FOOTNOTES:

[121] Following are the officers of the association who were elected
at the convention in St. Louis in 1919 and re-elected in Chicago in
1920 to remain in office until the association should go out of
existence: President, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt; first vice-president,
Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick; second vice-president, Miss Mary
Garrett Hay; third vice-president, Mrs. Guilford Dudley; fourth
vice-president, Mrs. Raymond Brown; fifth vice-president, Mrs. Helen
H. Gardener; treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers; corresponding
secretary, Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler; recording secretary, Mrs. Halsey W.
Wilson. All were of New York City except Mrs. Dudley of Tennessee and
Mrs. Gardener of the District of Columbia. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who
had been president from 1904 to 1915 and honorary president
thereafter, had died July 2, 1919.

Directors: Mrs. Charles H. Brooks (Kans.); Mrs. J. C. Cantrill (Ky.);
Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.); Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.); Mrs. Ben
Hooper (Wis.); Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.); Miss Esther G. Ogden
(N. Y.); Mrs. George A. Piersol (Penn.).

[122] Fraternal delegates were present from the Association of
Collegiate Alumnæ; Florence Crittenden Mission; General Federation of
Women's Clubs; Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic; National
Board of the Young Women's Christian Association; National Congress of
Mothers; Parent Teachers' Association; National Council of Jewish
Women; National Council of Women; National Council of College Women;
National Women's Trade Union League; National Women's Association of
Commerce; National Women's Relief Corps; National Women's Relief
Society; State Federation of Women's Clubs; State Trade Union League;
Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Women's City Club; State League of
Women Voters; Womens' International League for Peace and Freedom.

[123] To Governors who called special sessions: "On behalf of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association meeting in its 51st
annual convention I am instructed to express its official appreciation
and gratitude to you for your assistance in ratifying the Federal
Suffrage Amendment. Woman suffrage will soon be a closed chapter in
the history of our country and we are confident that the pride and
satisfaction of every Governor and legislator who has aided the
ratification will increase as time goes on. We want you to know that
the women of the nation are truly grateful to you for your part in
their enfranchisement. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary.

[124] For account of meetings of the Board of Officers and Executive
Council in April and June, 1921, see Appendix for this chapter.

[125] The names of the organizers retained, all of whom gave most
effective service, were Mrs. Augusta Hughston, Miss Edna Annette
Beveridge, Mrs. Maria S, McMahon, Miss Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, Miss
Josephine Miller, Miss Lola Trax, Miss Edna Wright, Miss Marie Ames
and Miss Gertrude Watkins. Their organized work extended over Iowa,
Missouri, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee,
Kentucky, Delaware and New Hampshire. In addition to the regular force
Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham and Miss Liba Peshakova were sent to
Mississippi for two months. The work of the organizers is regarded as
the hardest and most difficult connected with a State campaign and
Mrs. Shuler paid high tribute to them.

[126] The final report of the Oversea Hospitals Committee is given in
the chapter on War Work of Organized Suffragists.

[127] In this space have been placed the little mahogany table on
which were written the Call for the first Woman's Rights Convention in
1848, the Declaration of Principles and the Resolutions; a portrait in
oil of Miss Anthony on her eightieth birthday; large framed
photographs of Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt; photographs of the signing of
the Federal Suffrage Amendment by Vice-president Marshall and Speaker
Gillett, the pens with which it was done and the pen with which
Secretary of State Colby signed the Proclamation that it was a part of
the National Constitution, and personal mementoes of Miss Anthony. The
table has special historical value. It stood for years in the parlor
of the McClintock family at Waterloo, N. Y., and was bequeathed to
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who, with Mrs. McClintock, Lucretia Mott
and her sister, Martha C. Wright, wrote the Call, etc. When Mrs.
Stanton died in New York City it stood at the head of her casket
holding the Biography of Susan B. Anthony and the History of Woman
Suffrage, of which Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony wrote the first three
volumes. The table was left to Miss Anthony and was in her home at
Rochester, N. Y., until her death, when it stood at the head of her
casket, bearing a floral tribute from the National American Woman
Suffrage Association. It then passed to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and was
in her home at Moylan, Penn., until the national suffrage headquarters
were opened in Washington December, 1916, when it was taken there. At
the time they were closed, after the Federal Suffrage Amendment had
been submitted by Congress, the table found a final haven in the
Smithsonian Institution.

[128] Dr. Shaw was a graduate of Albion College, Mich.; of the medical
department of Boston University and of its School of Theology. The
honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on her by Temple University,
Philadelphia.

[129] Mrs. John O. Miller, president of the Pennsylvania State
Suffrage Association, was appointed chairman of this committee, to
which six others were added and it was decided to raise $500,000 to be
divided between the two colleges. When Bryn Mawr was making its
"drive" for $2,000,000 in 1920 it included an appeal for $100,000 for
this chair in politics, which were subscribed. The Medical College
raised $30,000 for the chair in preventive medicine. The committee
hopes to have the full amount by Feb. 14, 1922.

Several months before, at the invitation of Dean Virginia C.
Gildersleeve, a meeting had been held at Barnard College, Columbia
University, to arrange for the Anna Howard Shaw Chair of American
Citizenship. It was addressed by President Nicholas Murray Butler, who
strongly favored it; by Dean Gildersleeve, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw and
other alumnæ and a committee formed to raise $100,000, of which amount
$4,000 were subscribed at that time. Mrs. George McAneny (a daughter
of Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi) was made chairman and the other members
were Barnard alumnæ and well-known workers for woman suffrage. The
convention was asked to endorse the project, which was done. The
committee expects soon to have the full amount. These lectures on
American Citizenship will not be confined to Barnard students but will
be offered to women in general.

[130] For accounts and tributes see Appendix for this chapter.




CHAPTER XX.

THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE.[131]


The first convention in all history to consider the Rights of Women
was called by Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and two others to
meet July 19, 20, 1848, at Seneca Falls in western New York, Mrs.
Stanton's home.[132] In 1851 the work was taken up by Susan B.
Anthony, destined to be its supreme leader for the next half century.
Meetings soon began to take place and societies to be formed in
various States, so that by 1861 there was a well-defined movement
toward woman suffrage. Large conventions were held annually in eastern
and western cities, in which the most prominent men and women
participated. The commencement of the Civil War ended all efforts for
this object and its leaders devoted themselves for the next five years
to the women's part of every war. In May, 1866, Mrs. Stanton and Miss
Anthony issued a call for the scattered forces to come together in
convention in New York City, and here began the movement for woman
suffrage which continued without a break for fifty-four years.

No large extension of the franchise had been made since the government
was founded except to the working men between 1820 and 1830 and this
had been accomplished by amending State constitutions. There had been
no thought of enfranchising women in any other way but now Congress,
for the purpose of giving the ballot to the recently freed negro men,
was about to submit an amendment to the National Constitution. This
convention was called to protest against "class legislation" and
demand that women should be included. It adopted a Memorial to
Congress, prepared by Mrs. Stanton, which contained a portion of
Charles Sumner's great speech, Equal Rights for All, and was a
complete statement of woman's right to the franchise. In Miss
Anthony's address she said: "Up to this hour we have looked only to
State action for recognition of our rights but now, by the results of
the war, the whole question of suffrage reverts to Congress and the
United States Constitution. The duty of Congress at this moment is to
declare what shall be the true basis of representation in a republican
form of government."

As soon as the intention to submit the 14th Amendment was announced
Miss Anthony and her co-workers began rolling up petitions to Congress
that it should provide for the enfranchisement of women and tens of
thousands of names had been sent to Washington. These petitions
represented the first effort ever made for an amendment to the Federal
Constitution for woman suffrage and the action of this convention
marked the first organized demand--May 10, 1866. At this time the
American Equal Rights Association was formed and the Woman's Rights
Society merged with it, as having a larger scope.[133]

The following month the 14th Amendment was submitted by Congress for
the ratification of the State Legislatures and it was declared adopted
by the necessary three-fourths in July, 1868. By this amendment the
status of citizenship was for the first time definitely
established--"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and
subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens." This plainly put
men and women on an exact equality as to citizenship. Then followed
the broad statement: "No State shall make or enforce any law which
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States." This also seemed to guarantee the equal rights of men and
women. It was the second section which aroused the advocates of
suffrage for women to vigorous protest:

     Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several
     States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole
     number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But
     when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors
     for President and Vice-President of the United States,
     Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers
     of a State or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied
     to the _male_ inhabitants of such State, being 21 years of age
     and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged except
     for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of
     representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which
     the number of such _male_ citizens shall bear to the whole number
     of _male_ citizens 21 years of age in such State.

Up to this time there was no mention of suffrage in the Federal
Constitution except the provision for electing members of the Lower
House of Congress but now for the first time it actually discriminated
against women by imposing a penalty on the States for preventing men
from voting but leaving them entirely free to prohibit women. When
even this penalty proved insufficient to protect negro men in their
attempts to vote, Congress in 1869 submitted a 15th Amendment which
was declared ratified the following year: "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 race, color or previous
condition of servitude."

Those who had been striving for two decades to obtain suffrage for
women protested by every means in their power against this second
discrimination. They implored and demanded that the word "sex" should
be included in this amendment, which would have forever settled the
question, just as the omission of the word "male" in the 14th
Amendment would have settled it. The most of the men who had stood by
them in their early struggles for the vote, when both were working
together for the freedom of the slaves, now sacrificed them rather
than imperil the political rights of the negro men. Some of the women
themselves were persuaded to abandon their opposition to these
amendments by the promise of the Republican leaders that as soon as
they were safely intrenched in the constitution another should be
placed there providing for woman suffrage. This promise they did not
try to keep and it remained unfulfilled over fifty years. Miss Anthony
and Mrs. Stanton were never for one moment deceived or silenced but in
their paper, _The Revolution_, they opposed these amendments as long
as they were pending.

       *       *       *       *       *

Although the protests were in vain the women had learned that they
might be relieved of the intolerable burden of having to obtain the
suffrage State by State through permission of a majority of the
individual voters. They had seen an entire class enfranchised through
the quicker and easier way of amending the Federal Constitution and
they determined to invoke this power in their own behalf. From the
office of _The Revolution_ in New York in the autumn of 1868 went out
thousands of petitions to be signed and sent to Congress for the
submission of an amendment to enfranchise women. Immediately after its
assembling in December, 1868, Senator S. C. Pomeroy of Kansas
introduced a resolution providing that "the basis of suffrage shall be
that of citizenship and all native or naturalized citizens shall enjoy
the same rights and privileges of the elective franchise but each
State shall determine the age, etc." A few days later Representative
George W. Julian of Indiana offered one in the House which declared:
"The right of suffrage shall be based on citizenship ... and all
citizens, native or naturalized, shall enjoy this right equally ...
without any distinction or discrimination founded on sex." These were
the first propositions ever made in Congress for woman suffrage by
National Amendment.

In order to impress Congress with the seriousness of the demand, a
woman's convention--the first of its kind to meet in the national
capital--was held in Washington in January, 1869. It continued several
days with large audiences and an array of eminent speakers, including
Lucretia Mott, Clara Barton, Mrs. Stanton, a number of men and Miss
Anthony, the moving spirit of the whole. In response Congress the next
month submitted the 15th Amendment with even a stronger discrimination
against women than the 14th contained.

       *       *       *       *       *

The annual gatherings of the Equal Rights Association had been growing
more and more stormy while the 14th and 15th Amendments were pending
and the point was reached where any criticism of them made by the
women was met by their advocates with hisses and denunciation. Finally
at the meeting of May 12, 1869, in New York City, with Mrs. Stanton
presiding, an attempt was made, led by Frederick Douglass, to force
through a resolution of endorsement. Miss Anthony opposed it in an
impassioned speech in which she said: "If you will not give the whole
loaf of justice to the entire people, then give it first to women, to
the most intelligent and capable of them at least.... If Mr. Douglass
had noticed who applauded when he said black men first and white women
afterwards, he would have seen that it was only the men."

The men succeeded in wresting the control of the convention from the
women, who then decided that the time had come for them to have their
own organization and endeavor to have the question of their
enfranchisement considered entirely on its own merits. Three days
later, at the Women's Bureau in East 23rd Street, where now the
Metropolitan Life Building stands, with representatives present from
nineteen States, the National Woman Suffrage Association was formed.
Mrs. Stanton was made president, Miss Anthony chairman of the
executive committee. One hundred women became members that evening and
here was begun the organized work for an Amendment to the Federal
Constitution to confer woman suffrage which was to continue without
ceasing for half a century.[134] Its constitution declared the object
of the association to be "to secure the ballot to the women of the
Nation on equal terms with men." On June 1 its executive board sent a
petition to Congress for "a 16th Amendment to be submitted to the
Legislatures of the States for ratification which shall secure to all
citizens the right of suffrage without distinction of sex."

Before the work for a 16th Amendment was fairly organized a number of
members of Congress and constitutional lawyers took the ground that
women were already enfranchised by the first clause of the 14th
Amendment. At the convention held in St. Louis in the autumn of 1869,
Francis Minor, a prominent lawyer of that city, presented this
position so convincingly that the newly formed National Association
conducted an active campaign in its favor for several years. In 1872
women tried to vote in a number of States and in a few of them were
successful. Miss Anthony's vote was accepted in Rochester, N. Y., and
later she was arrested, charged with a _crime_, tried by a Justice of
the U. S. Supreme Court and fined $100. The inspectors in St. Louis
refused to register Mrs. Francis Minor, she brought suit against
them, and her husband carried the case to the Supreme Court of the
United States (Minor vs. Happersett). He made an able and exhaustive
argument but an adverse decision was rendered March 29, 1875.[135]

The women then returned to the original demand for a 16th Amendment,
which indeed many of them, including Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton,
never had entirely abandoned. Beginning with 1869 Congressional
committees had granted hearings on woman suffrage every winter, even
though no resolution was before them. Under the auspices of the
National Association petitions by the tens of thousands continued to
pour into Congress, which were publicly presented. Finally on Jan. 10,
1878, Senator A. A. Sargent of California offered the following joint
resolution: "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 sex."

The Committee on Privileges and Elections granted a hearing which
consumed a part of two days, with the large Senate reception room
filled to overflowing and the corridors crowded. Extended hearings
were given also by the House Judiciary Committee and constitutional
arguments of the highest order were made by noted women in attendance
at the national suffrage convention. The Senate committee reported
adversely, however, and the House committee not at all. This took
place over forty years ago. Senator Sargent's amendment, which in
later years was sometimes called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, was
presented to every Congress during this period and hearings were
granted by committees of every one. The women who made their pleadings
and arguments simply to persuade these committees to give a favorable
report and bring the question before their respective Houses for
debate comprised the most distinguished this country had produced. It
is only by reading their addresses in the History of Woman Suffrage
that one can form an idea of their masterly exposition of laws and
constitution, their logic, strength and oftentimes deep pathos.

There are in the pages of history many detached speeches of rare
eloquence for the rights of man but nowhere else is there so long an
unbroken record of appeals for these rights--the rights of man and
woman. Again and again at the close of the suffrage hearings the
chairman and members of the committee said that none on other
questions equalled them in dignity and ability. From 1878 to 1896
there were five favorable majority reports from Senate committees, two
from House committees and four adverse reports. Thereafter, when Miss
Anthony no longer spent her winters in Washington and persisted in
having a report, none of any kind was made until the movement for
woman suffrage entered a new era in 1912. One significant event,
however, occurred during this time. Largely through the efforts of
Senator Henry W. Blair (Rep.) of New Hampshire, the resolution for a
16th Amendment was brought before the Senate. After a long and earnest
discussion the vote on Jan. 25, 1887, resulted in 16 ayes, all
Republican; 34 noes, eleven Republican, twenty-three Democratic;
twenty-six absent.[136]

       *       *       *       *       *

It early became apparent to the leaders of the movement that there
would have to be a good deal of favorable action by the States before
Congress would give serious consideration to this question and
therefore under the auspices of the National American Association,
they continuously helped with money and work the campaigns for
securing the suffrage by amendment of State constitutions. Miss
Anthony herself took part in eight such campaigns, only to see all of
them end in failure. Up to 1910 there had been at least twenty and
only two had been successful--Colorado, 1893; Idaho, 1896; Wyoming and
Utah had equal suffrage while Territories and came into the Union with
it in their constitutions, but all were sparsely settled States whose
influence on Congress was slight. Commercialism had become the
dominating force in politics and moral issues were crowded into the
background. Nevertheless in every direction was evidence of an
increasing public sentiment in favor of woman suffrage in the
accession of men and women of influence, in the large audiences
at the meetings, in the official endorsement of all kinds of
organizations--the Federation of Labor, the Grange and many others of
men, of women and of the two together, for educational, patriotic,
religious, civic and varied purposes almost without number. There was
not yet, however, any strong political influence back of this movement
which was so largely of a political nature.

In 1910 an insurgent movement developed in Congress and extended into
various States to throw off the party yoke and the domination of
"special interests" and adopt progressive measures. One of its first
fruits was the granting of suffrage to women by the voters in the
State of Washington. Under the same influence the women of California
were enfranchised in 1911, a far-reaching victory. In 1912 Oregon,
Arizona and the well populated State of Kansas adopted woman suffrage
by popular vote. In 1913 the new Legislature of Alaska granted it, and
that of Illinois gave all that was possible without a referendum to
the voters, including municipal, county and that for Presidential
electors. In 1914 Nevada and Montana completed the enfranchisement of
women in the western part of the United States, except in New Mexico.

The effect upon Congress of the addition of between three and four
million women to the electorate was immediately apparent. A woman
suffrage amendment to the Federal Constitution had suddenly become a
live question. A circumstance greatly in its favor was the shattering
of the traditional idea that the Federal Constitution must not be
further amended, by the adoption of two new Articles--for an income
tax and the election of U. S. Senators by the voters.

       *       *       *       *       *

In 1912 came the division in Republican ranks and the forming of the
Progressive party, headed by former President Theodore Roosevelt,
which made woman suffrage one of the principal planks in its platform,
and for the first time it took a place among the other political
issues. The Republican party so long in power was defeated. Woman
suffrage never had received any special assistance from this party
during its long régime but the entire situation had now changed. The
National Association appointed a Congressional Committee of young,
energetic women headed by Miss Alice Paul, a university graduate with
experience in civic work in this country and England. They arranged an
immense suffrage parade in which women from many States participated.
It took place in Washington March 3, 1913, the day before the
inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, and the new administration entered
into office with a broader idea of the strength of the movement than
its predecessor had possessed. An extra session was soon called and
Senate and House Resolution Number One, introduced April 7, was for a
Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment. The chairmanship of the new Senate
Committee on Woman Suffrage, instead of being filled as usual by an
opponent, was given to Senator Charles S. Thomas (Dem.) of Colorado,
always an ardent suffragist, and a friendly committee was
appointed--Robert L. Owen (Okla.); Henry F. Ashurst (Ariz.); Joseph E.
Ransdell (La.); Henry P. Hollis, (N. H.); George Sutherland (Utah);
Wesley L. Jones (Wash.); Moses E. Clapp (Minn.); Thomas B. Catron (N.
M.). There were now eighteen members of the Senate with women
constituents and several million women were eligible to vote, so that
it was possible to bring a pressure which had never before existed.
Many of the large newspapers were declaring that the time had come for
the submission of this amendment to the State Legislatures.

On May 3 a great suffrage procession took place in New York with a
mass meeting in the Metropolitan Opera House addressed by Colonel
Roosevelt, who made a ringing speech in favor of votes for women. On
June 13 the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage gave a unanimous
favorable report, Senator Catron, the only opponent, not voting. On
July 31 the resolution was discussed on the floor of the Senate,
twenty-two speaking in favor and three in opposition. It had been
referred to the Judiciary Committee in the Lower House, where
resolutions also were introduced for the creation of a Committee on
Woman Suffrage and referred to the Committee on Rules. During July
pilgrimages of women came from different parts of the country and on
the 31st a petition with 200,000 signatures was presented to the
Senate by 531 "pilgrims." Three deputations called on President Wilson
asking his support of the amendment, one from the National American
Association, one from the National College Equal Suffrage League and
one from the National Council of Women Voters, and in November a
fourth from his own State of New Jersey. Congress remained in session
all summer and mass suffrage meetings in theaters were held in
Washington. The large corps of newspaper correspondents were
constantly supplied with news. Countless suffrage meetings were held
in Maryland, Virginia and all the way up to New York and the members
were kept constantly informed of the activities in their own
districts. On September 18 Senator Ashurst announced on the floor of
the Senate that he would press the resolution to a vote at the
earliest possible moment and Senator Andrieus A. Jones of New Mexico
spoke in favor and asked for immediate action.

During the regular session in 1914 the resolution was discussed at
different times and many strong speeches in favor were made. The
Senate vote, which was taken on March 19, stood, ayes, 35; noes, 34;
lacking eleven of a necessary two-thirds majority. Twenty Republicans,
one Progressive and fourteen Democrats voted aye; twelve Republicans
and twenty-two Democrats voted no; ten Republicans and sixteen
Democrats were absent. For the first time southern Senators declared
in favor of giving suffrage to women by amending the National
Constitution--Senators Owen, Ransdell, Luke Lea of Tennessee and
Morris Sheppard of Texas voting in the affirmative.

For a trial vote this was considered satisfactory. The effort in the
Lower House was not so successful. Its Judiciary Committee had been
continuously opposed to allowing the amendment to reach the
Representatives, but two favorable majority reports having been made
in the thirty-six years during which the question had been before it
(1883, 1890). A larger Congressional Committee had been formed by the
National Suffrage Association, of which the chairman was Mrs. Ruth
Hanna McCormick, a daughter of former U. S. Senator Mark Hanna, who
had inherited her father's genius for constructive politics.
Headquarters were opened in the Munsey Building in Washington and the
work was divided into three departments--Lobby, Publicity and
Organization. Careful and systematic effort was made and it was
followed by the Senate vote recorded above. A record was compiled of
the votes of every member of Congress on prohibition, child labor and
various humanitarian and welfare measures and sent to the women in his
district for use in urging him to vote for the suffrage amendment.
Organizers were placed where needed to hold meetings and arrange for
chairmen of counties who would cooperate with the national committee
in bringing pressure on members from their own constituencies.

The Federal Amendment as usual was held up in the House Judiciary
Committee in 1914. The suffrage leaders had tried for years to get a
House Committee on Woman Suffrage, such as the Senate had. A
resolution for this purpose had been introduced by Representative
Edward T. Taylor of Colorado in April, 1913, referred to the Committee
on Rules, an extended hearing granted, but no action taken. Mrs.
McCormick's committee brought great pressure to bear and on Jan. 24,
1914, the question came before the Committee on Rules through a motion
by Representative Irvine L. Lenroot (Wis.) to make a favorable report.
Eight of the eleven members were present and Martin D. Foster (Ills.),
Philip P. Campbell (Kans.), and M. Clyde Kelly (Penn.) voted with Mr.
Lenroot; James C. Cantrill (Ky.), Finis J. Garrett (Tenn.), Edward W.
Pou (N. C.) and Thos. W. Hardwick (Ga.) voted in the negative, making
a tie. Two of the absent members were known to be favorable and a
Democratic caucus was called for February 3 to discuss the matter.
Just before it met the Democratic members of the Ways and Means
Committee, who constitute the ruling body of that party's membership,
met in the office of Representative Oscar W. Underwood (Ala.).
Representative John E. Raker (Cal.) offered a resolution for the
creation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage. Representative J. Thomas
Heflin (Ala.) moved a substitute: "Resolved, that it is the sense of
this caucus that woman suffrage is a State and not a Federal
question." It was carried by 123 ayes, 55 noes and further action
blocked.

The House Judiciary Committee, after granting a hearing to the
suffragists on March 3, 1914, voted to report the resolution for a
Federal Amendment "without recommendation." At a meeting of the Rules
Committee August 27 Representative Campbell moved that an opportunity
be given to the House to vote on submitting this amendment.
Representatives Pou, Garrett and Cantrill voted to adjourn; Campbell,
Kelly and Goldfogle (N. Y.) against it. Chairman Robert L. Henry
(Texas) gave the deciding vote to adjourn.[137]

During this year of 1914, while such heroic efforts were being made to
secure favorable action by Congress on a Federal Amendment and the
workers were being told that they should look to the States for the
suffrage, hard campaigns were carried on for this purpose in seven
States. In only two, and those the most sparsely settled--Montana and
Nevada--were they successful. Even these had their influence, however,
as they added four to the U. S. Senators who were elected partly by
the votes of women. The National Suffrage Association continued Mrs.
McCormick as chairman of its Congressional Committee and she increased
her forces. Although the Judiciary Committee had reported the
resolution for the Federal Amendment "without recommendation"
Representative Frank W. Mondell, who introduced it, and its other
friends were determined to have a vote on it and a reluctant consent
was obtained from the Committee on Rules. The Congressional Committee
directed its fullest energies toward obtaining as large an affirmative
vote as was possible. Through the courtesy of Speaker Champ Clark they
learned who would be the probable speakers and carefully assorted
literature was sent them. Thousands of letters and telegrams poured in
upon the members from their constituencies. Every available pressure
was used to obtain favorable votes and to have all the friends
present. Mr. Mondell, the Republican leader, and Mr. Taylor, the
Democratic, gave fullest support. The first debate on this amendment
in the House of Representatives took place on Jan. 12, 1915, and
lasted ten hours without intermission. At its conclusion the vote
resulted in 174 ayes, 88 Republicans and Progressives, 86 Democrats;
204 noes, 33 Republicans and 171 Democrats. The affirmative vote was
larger than expected. The suffragists had been thirty-seven years
trying to secure a vote in the Lower House and they felt that this was
the beginning which could have but one end.

Both the suffragists and the anti-suffragists now redoubled their
efforts. The four big campaigns of 1915 in Massachusetts New York,
New Jersey and Pennsylvania for suffrage amendments to their State
constitutions attracted the attention of the whole country. All failed
of success at the November election but the effects were not wholly
disastrous. The announcement by President Wilson and the majority of
his Cabinet that they were in favor of woman suffrage brought many
doubters into the fold. The two-thirds vote of Massachusetts in
opposition set that State aside as one in which women could only hope
to gain the suffrage through a Federal Amendment. In New Jersey in one
county alone thousands of votes were afterwards found to have been
cast illegally and there was colossal fraud throughout the State, yet
the law did not permit the question to be submitted again for five
years. In Pennsylvania the amendment polled over 46 per cent of the
whole vote cast on it and was defeated by the notoriously dishonest
election practices of Philadelphia, but by the law of that State it
could not be submitted again for four years. The facts thus disclosed
converted many people to a belief in the necessity for an amendment to
the National Constitution.

In New York the measure had received 42-1/2 per cent. of the vote cast
on it; in New Jersey 42 per cent. (by the returns), and the total vote
in the four States of a million and a quarter for the amendments was
indisputable evidence of the large sentiment for woman suffrage. The
immense cost of these campaigns in time, labor and money made it seem
more than ever necessary to bring about the short cut to the universal
enfranchisement of women through a Federal Amendment. The
Congressional Committee was strengthened and as Mrs. McCormick could
no longer act as chairman it was headed by Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, the
efficient president of the State association in the recent
Pennsylvania campaign. Resolutions for the amendment were presented to
the Senate on December 7 by Senators Thomas, Sutherland and Thompson
(Kans.). On Jan. 8, 1916, the favorable report was made by Senator
Thomas, a valuable document, widely circulated by the National
Association. This was the year of the Presidential campaign and there
was no time when the prospect for a majority vote seemed good enough
to take the risk. It was carefully considered after Judge Charles E.
Hughes, the Republican candidate for President, made his declaration
for the Federal Amendment but many members were absent and a vote was
not deemed advisable. The planks in the Republican and Democratic
national platforms demanding woman suffrage by State action deprived
it of political support.

The Judiciary Committee of the House, Edwin Y. Webb (N. C.), chairman,
added to its unpleasant reputation. Resolutions for the amendment were
introduced in December, 1915, by five members--Representatives
Mondell, Raker, Taylor, Keating of Colorado and Hayden of Arizona.
They were referred to a sub-committee which on Feb. 9, 1916, reported
one of them to the main committee "without recommendation." On the
15th it sent the resolution back to the sub-committee to hold until
the next December by a vote of 9, all Democrats, to 7, three Democrats
and four Republicans. As this was done when many were absent the
Congressional Committee undertook to have the Judiciary take up the
resolution again when the full committee could be present. It finally
agreed to do so on March 14. Twenty of the twenty-one members were
present, nine opponents and eleven friends, Hunter H. Moss of West
Virginia among the latter coming from a sick bed. A motion was made to
reconsider the action of February 15, which Chairman Webb ruled out of
order. A debate of an hour and a half followed and to relieve the
parliamentary tangle unanimous consent was given to act on the
amendment resolution March 28 at 10:30 a.m. Four members of the
National Association's Congressional Committee were on hand at that
time but the Judiciary went at once into executive session, which
barred them out. Instead of presenting the amendment resolution for
consideration, which was the chairman's duty when there was a special
order of business, he permitted a motion to postpone all
constitutional amendments indefinitely! Ten of the members present
were pledged to vote for a favorable report but Representative
Leonidas C. Dyer of Missouri defaulted and voted with the nine
opponents and no further action in 1916 was possible.

       *       *       *       *       *

With the whole country now aroused to the importance of the votes of
women in the election of a President the suffrage leaders saw the
opportune time for pushing a measure which they had long advocated,
namely, the granting to women by State Legislatures of the right to
vote for Presidential electors. That of Illinois had been persuaded
to do this in 1913; they had exercised it in 1916 and its
constitutionality had been established by the acceptance of the
State's vote in the Electoral College. As soon as the Legislatures of
the various States met in 1917 they received from the headquarters of
the National American Association in New York the opinion of Chief
Justice Walter Clark of North Carolina that the Federal Constitution
empowered Legislatures to determine who should vote for Presidential
electors, with the authorities and arguments to support it. The
presidents of the State suffrage associations affiliated with the
National were prepared to take up the matter at once with their
Legislatures and as a result those of North Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana,
Michigan, Ohio and Rhode Island conferred this vote on women during
the winter. That of Arkansas gave to women full suffrage in all
Primaries, equivalent to a vote in regular elections, and that of
Vermont gave the Municipal franchise. The following November came the
great victory in New York.

This was the situation when Congress met in December, 1917. Mrs.
Roessing could not serve longer as chairman of the Congressional
Committee and the National Association had appointed Mrs. Maud Wood
Park (Mass.), a founder and organizer of the National College Women's
Suffrage League, who had taken up the work in March. The association,
whose headquarters were in New York City, had enlarged its staff in
Washington and taken a large house for this committee and its work.
There on April 2 the first woman ever elected to Congress, Miss
Jeannette Rankin of Montana, was entertained at breakfast, made a
speech from an upper balcony and was escorted to the Capitol by Mrs.
Carrie Chapman Catt, national president, at the head of a cavalcade of
decorated automobiles, filled with suffragists. That day the President
asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. The
resolution for the Federal Suffrage Amendment was to have been the
first introduced in the Senate but the War Resolution took its place
and it became Number Two on the calendar. Senator Thomas had given up
the chairmanship of the Committee on Woman Suffrage and Senator
Andrieus A. Jones (N. M.) had been appointed. Senators Nelson
(Minn.), Johnson (S. D.) Cummins (Iowa) and Johnson (Cal.) had been
added to the committee and Senators Ashurst, Sutherland, Clapp and
Catron had retired.

In the House the resolution was introduced by Representatives Rankin,
Raker, Mondell, Taylor, Keating and Hayden. Both Houses agreed that
only legislation pertaining to the war program should be considered
during the extra session, which excluded the amendment, but there were
some forms of work not prohibited. On April 20 the Senate Committee
gave a hearing on it with Mrs. Catt in charge and very strong
addresses were made by her and by Senators Shafroth (Colo.), Kendrick
(Wyo.), Walsh (Mont.), Smoot (Utah), Thomas, Thompson and
Representative Rankin. Thousands of copies were franked and given to
the National Association for distribution. On September 15 Chairman
Jones made a unanimous favorable report to the Senate. In the House
efforts were concentrated on securing a Committee on Woman Suffrage,
resolutions for which had been introduced by Representatives Raker,
Hayden and Keating and referred to the Committee on Rules. Mrs. Park's
report said:

     Our first step was to get the approval of Speaker Clark, who gave
     us cordial support. Later, to offset the fear on the part of
     certain members of conflicting with President Wilson's
     legislative program, a letter was sent to Chairman Edward W. Pou
     (N. C.) of the Rules Committee by the President, who stated that
     he thought the creation of the committee "would be a very wise
     act of public policy and also an act of fairness to the best
     women who are engaged in the cause of woman suffrage."

     A petition asking for the creation of a Committee on Woman
     Suffrage was signed by all members from equal suffrage States and
     by many of those from Presidential suffrage States, and from
     Arkansas. This was presented to the Rules Committee, which, on
     May 18, granted a hearing. On June 6, by a vote of 6 to 5, on
     motion of Mr. Cantrill a resolution calling for the creation of a
     Committee on Woman Suffrage to consist of thirteen members, to
     which all proposed action touching the subject of woman suffrage
     should be referred, was adopted by the Rules Committee, with an
     amendment, made by Mr. Lenroot to the effect that the resolution
     should not be reported in the House until the pending war
     legislation was out of the way.

     The report of the Rules Committee, therefore, was not brought
     into the House until September 24, when the extremely active
     opposition of Chairman Webb and most of the other members of the
     Judiciary Committee made a hard fight inevitable. Thanks to the
     hearty support of Speaker Clark, the good management of Chairman
     Pou and the help of loyal friends of both parties in the House,
     as well as to the admirable work done by our own State
     congressional chairmen, the report was adopted by a vote of 180
     yeas to 107 nays, with 3 answering present and 142 not voting. Of
     the favorable votes, 82 were from Democrats and 96 from
     Republicans. Of the unfavorable votes, 74 were from Democrats and
     32 from Republicans. Of those not voting, 59 were Democrats and
     81 were Republicans. These facts show that the measure was
     regarded, as we had hoped that it would be, as strictly
     non-partisan. The victory came so late in the session that the
     appointment of the new committee was postponed until the present
     session.

At the November election in 1917 occurred the greatest victory for
woman suffrage ever achieved, when the voters of New York by a
majority of 102,353 declared in favor of an amendment to the State
constitution granting the complete franchise to women. This added 45
to the members of Congress elected partly by votes of women and
presumably obligated to support a Federal Amendment. Colonel Roosevelt
and other leading Republicans and Progressives were advocating it and
William Jennings Bryan headed the Democratic leaders in its favor.
President Wilson had not yet reached this point but he had
congratulated Mrs. Catt, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and the other leading
suffragists on every victory gained. Both Republican and Democratic
opponents now realized that it was inevitable and they could only hope
to postpone it. After strong efforts to prevent it the Committee on
Woman Suffrage was appointed in the House on December 13 with Judge
Raker (Cal.) chairman. Besides himself nine of the thirteen members
were openly in favor of submitting the amendment: Benjamin C. Hilliard
(Colo.); James H. Mays (Utah); Christopher D. Sullivan (N. Y.); Thomas
L. Blanton (Texas); Jeannette Rankin (Mont.); Frank W. Mondell (Wyo.);
William H. Carter (Mass.); Edward C. Little (Kans.); Richard N.
Elliott (Ind.). Three were opposed: Edward W. Saunders (Va.); Frank
Clark (Fla.); Jacob E. Meeker (Mo.).

The Judiciary refused to turn over the amendment resolution to the new
Committee but amended it by limiting to seven years the time in which
the Legislatures could ratify it, and reported it "without
recommendation" on December 11. Democratic floor leader Claude
Kitchin (N. C.) announced that it would come to a vote on the 17th. He
was strongly pressed to set a later date, as the required number of
votes were not yet assured, but the alternative was probably a long
postponement. Finally he consented to wait until January 10. At the
beginning of the session, through the initiative of Mrs. Park, a
"steering committee" of fifty-three friendly Republicans had been
brought together with an executive composed of Mr. Hayden chairman,
Mr. French (Ida.) secretary, Mr. Keating, Mr. McArthur (Ore.) and Mr.
Cantrill, who had now become an ally. During all of December the
National Suffrage Association had a large lobby of influential women
working daily at the Capitol with the members from their States. The
national suffrage convention met in Washington December 10-16, and,
following a plan of Mrs. Catt, the president, Senators from about
thirty States invited the Representatives to their offices to meet the
women from their States who were attending the convention and many
pledges of votes were obtained. In the meantime, at the suggestion of
Speaker Clark and Chairman Pou, Judge Raker introduced a new amendment
resolution, which went automatically to his own committee, where it
was in the hands of a strong friend instead of a bitter opponent as
was Mr. Webb.

The Committee on Woman Suffrage held hearings Jan. 3-7, 1918, for the
National Suffrage Association, the National Woman's Party and the
Anti-Suffrage Association.[138] On the 8th it reported favorably and
on the 9th the Committee on Rules voted to give to it instead of the
Judiciary Committee charge of the hearing.

Great efforts were made to secure the cooperation of Democratic and
Republican leaders. Letters of endorsement were given out by
Secretaries McAdoo, Daniels and Baker of the Cabinet among others of
influence. It was now understood that President Wilson had come to
favor the Federal Amendment but he had not yet spoken. Finally through
the mediation of Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, vice-president of the
National Suffrage Association, an appointment was made for Chairman
Raker and eleven Democratic Representatives to call on the President
January 9. After a conference he wrote with his own hand the
following statement to be made public: "The Woman Suffrage Committee
found that the President had not felt at liberty to volunteer his
advice to members of Congress in this important matter but when we
sought his advice he very frankly and earnestly advised us to vote for
the amendment as an act of right and justice to the women of the
country and of the world." This declaration had a marked effect on the
Democratic members and on the party outside.

[Illustration: BALCONY OF THE NATIONAL SUFFRAGE HEADQUARTERS IN
WASHINGTON.

  Mrs. Helen H. Gardener,
  Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
  Mrs. Maud Wood Park.]

On the Republican side, Colonel Roosevelt wrote a letter to Chairman
Willcox of the Republican National Committee, urging that the party do
everything possible for the amendment, and Mr. Willcox went more than
once to Washington to labor with Republican leaders in the House to
secure fuller party support for it. On the evening of January 9, a
meeting was called in the hope of securing caucus action. It could not
be had but the following very moderate resolution was adopted: "The
Republican conference of the House of Representatives recommends and
advises that the Republican members support the Federal Suffrage
Amendment in so far as they can do so consistently with their
convictions and the attitude of their constituents"!

Shortly after 12 o'clock on Jan. 10, 1918, with the galleries of the
House crowded, Representative Foster (Ills.) presented the rule,
which, when adopted, provided for the closing of debate at five
o'clock that afternoon and even division of time between supporters
and opponents. With Chairman Raker's consent the general debate was
opened by Miss Rankin and it continued until five o'clock, when
amendments were in order. One, offered by Representative Moores of
Indiana, providing for ratification by convention in the several
States instead of by the Legislatures, was defeated by a vote of 131
to 274. A second, by Representative Gard of Ohio, limiting the time
allowed for ratification by the States to seven years, was defeated by
a vote of 158 to 274.

Analyzed by parties and not including pairs, the vote on the joint
resolution for submitting the Federal Suffrage Amendment to the
Legislatures was as follows:

  Republicans       165 ayes,   33 noes
  Democrats         104   "    102  "
  Miscellaneous       5   "      1  "
                    ---        ---
                    274        136

This vote was a fraction less than one over the necessary two-thirds.
Twenty-three State delegations voted solidly for the amendment:
Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana,
Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire,
New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South
Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The delegations of only six
States voted solidly against it--Alabama, Delaware, Georgia,
Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina.

A number of men who voted favorably came to the Capitol at
considerable inconvenience to cast their votes. Republican Leader Mann
of Illinois at much personal risk came from a hospital in Baltimore.
He had not been present in Congress for months and his arrival shortly
before five o'clock caused great excitement in the chamber.
Representative Sims of Tennessee, who had broken his shoulder two days
before, refused to have it set until after the suffrage vote and
against the advice of his physician was on the floor for the
discussion and the vote. Representative Barnhart of Indiana was taken
from his bed in a hospital in Washington and stayed at the Capitol
just long enough to cast his vote. One of the New York Representatives
came immediately after the death of his wife, who had been an ardent
suffragist, and returned on the next train.

When it became apparent that the resolution had carried, the opponents
became very active on the floor attempting to persuade some member to
change his vote. They demanded a recapitulation but it stood the same
as the original vote. Speaker Clark had given his assurance that in
case of a tie he would vote in favor. Only one member broke his pledge
to the women. The most remarkable feature was that 56 of the
affirmative votes were from southern States.

The women were jubilant, as they believed the end of their long
struggle was near. It was not anticipated that there would be serious
difficulty in the Senate. Its committee had reported favorably and in
a short time promises were obtained for the needed two-thirds lacking
only three or four. There had been, however, an unprecedented series
of deaths in the Senate during the past few months which in the early
part of 1918 were increased to ten, seven of whom were pledged to
vote for the amendment. Some of the vacancies were filled by friends
and some by foes but there was a net loss to it of one. Nevertheless
no means were left untried to obtain help from individuals, committees
and organizations with influence.

Through the national headquarters in New York a petition signed by a
thousand men of nation wide reputation was obtained and presented to
the Senate. Among the most important favorable resolutions adopted
were those by the Democratic National Committee Feb. 11, 1918; by the
Republican National Committee February 12; by the Democratic
Congressional Committee June 4; by the model State platforms of the
Republican and Democratic parties in Indiana in May and June; by the
Republican Congressional Committee; by the General Federation of
Women's Clubs May 3; by the American Federation of Labor June 14. Will
H. Hays, newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee,
gave interviews in favor and worked diligently in many other ways for
its success, as did Vance McCormick, former chairman, and Homer
Cummings, present chairman of the National Democratic Committee, and
many other men conspicuous in public life.

It was finally decided to take a vote on May 10 but on the 9th so
serious a fight in opposition had developed that it was considered
best to postpone it. By June 27 the outlook was so favorable that the
amendment was brought before the Senate. Senators Poindexter (Wash.)
and Thompson (Kans.) spoke in favor, Brandegee (Conn.) in opposition.
A wrangle over "pairs" followed and Reed (Mo.) launched a
"filibuster." After he had spoken two hours Chairman Jones saw that
the situation was hopeless and withdrew his motion.

During the summer representatives of the National Association obtained
in Delaware a petition of over 11,000 to Senators Wolcott and
Saulsbury to support the amendment. Petitions poured in on other
opposing Senators and influence of many kinds was exerted. Only two
more votes were needed and it seemed important to put the amendment
through before the fall election. On August 24 a conference of
Republican Senators was held in Washington to elect a floor leader in
place of Senator Gallinger (N. H.), who had died, and it passed the
following resolution: "We shall insist upon the consideration of the
Federal Suffrage Amendment immediately after the disposition of the
pending unfinished business and upon a final vote at the earliest
possible moment, provided that this resolution shall not be construed
as in any way binding the action or vote of any member of the Senate
upon the merits of said suffrage amendment"!

The friends of the measure could have had "immediate consideration" at
almost any time during the past year. They could have had a vote on
May 10 had they considered that time favorable. Even on June 27 some
way might have been found to obtain it had there been a very great
desire to have it taken then. This conference resolution called upon
the Senate to vote on it and get it out of the way, no matter whether
it should be carried or defeated, and did not even give it the
prestige of a favorable endorsement. Here, as in the State's rights
plank put into the Republican national platform in 1916, one could
easily see the fine hand of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of
Massachusetts.

The way was now wide open for President Wilson to secure for the
Democratic party the credit for submitting the amendment, which the
suffrage leaders were quick to take advantage of. On September 18 a
delegation of Democratic women, members of the National American
Suffrage Association, had a conference with him to ask his help, which
he willingly promised. A few of the newly elected or appointed
Senators held out some hope and Chairman Jones gave notice that he
would call up the amendment on September 26, as it was most important
to get it through at this session, so as not to have it go back to the
House.

On August 26 a five days' debate in the Senate began and the report of
it in the _Congressional Record_ is a historic document which will
take its place with the debates on slavery before the Civil War. It
was soon apparent that three of the new Senators, who there was reason
to hope would vote in favor--Drew of New Hampshire, Baird of New
Jersey and Benet of South Carolina--were among the opponents and there
would be two less than a two-thirds majority. Every minute was filled
with the efforts to obtain these votes and finally an appeal was again
made to President Wilson. There was the greatest anxiety until it was
learned that he would take the unprecedented step of addressing the
Senate in person on the subject September 30. This was done to the joy
of its friends and the wrath of its enemies. Mrs. Park, chairman of
the Congressional Committee of the National Suffrage Association, said
in her report: "For a while our fears were at rest and Monday
afternoon when the words of that noble speech fell upon our ears it
seemed impossible that a third of the Senate could refuse the
never-to-be-forgotten plea.[139]

Scarcely had the door closed upon the President when Senator Underwood
took the floor for a prolonged State's rights argument against the
amendment. He was followed by others opposed and in favor, during
whose speeches the leaders of the opposition of both parties went
about among the members trying to counteract the influence of the
President's address.

The next day various amendments proposed were defeated; one by Senator
Williams (Miss.) to amend by making the resolution read: "The right of
_white_ citizens to vote shall not be denied, etc.," was laid on the
table by a vote of 61 to 22. One by Senator Frelinghuysen (N. J.),
denying the vote to "female persons who are not citizens otherwise
than by marriage" was also laid on the table by a vote of 53 to 33.
One by Senator Fletcher (Fla.) to strike out the words "or by any
State" so that the section would read: "The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States on account of sex," was laid on the table by a vote of 65 to
17.

The Senate vote Oct. 1, 1918, on the amendment itself, stood 54 in
favor to 30 against, or, including pairs, 62 in favor to 34 against,
two votes short of the needed two-thirds majority. Chairman Jones
changed his vote and moved reconsideration, which put the amendment
back in its old place on the calendar. Analyzed by parties and
including pairs the vote stood:

                 Yes     No
  Democrats       30     22
  Republicans     32     12
                  --     --
      Total       62     34

President Wilson on the eve of sailing for Europe to the Peace
Conference included in his address to a joint session of Congress
December 2 another eloquent appeal for the passage of the Federal
Suffrage Amendment.

It had become evident by the action of the 65th Congress that
something more efficacious than public opinion or pressure from high
sources was required to secure the needed two votes in the Senate. The
official board of the National Suffrage Association, therefore, for
the first time in its history decided to enter the political
campaigns. Those of New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and
Delaware were selected in the hope of defeating the Senatorial
candidates for re-election who had opposed the amendment and electing
those who would support it. It was necessary to use influence against
Republican candidates in three States and a Democratic candidate in
Delaware. Two of these efforts were successful and a Republican, J.
Heisler Ball, defeated the Democratic Senator Saulsbury of Delaware,
and a Democrat, David I. Walsh, defeated the Republican Senator Weeks
of Massachusetts. Both of the new members voted for the amendment in
the 66th Congress.

The election returns on November 6 indicated that the necessary
two-thirds majority in the 66th Congress had been secured. This belief
was shared by prominent Democrats, who from that time spared no effort
to make unfriendly Democratic Senators realize the folly of their
position in leaving the victory for the Republican Congress which had
been elected. At this election the voters of Michigan, South Dakota
and Oklahoma by large majorities fully enfranchised their women,
adding six Senators and twenty-four Representatives to the number
partly elected by the votes of women. Texas this year had given women
a vote at Primary elections, almost equal to the complete suffrage.
Resolutions were passed by twenty-five State Legislatures in January
and early February, 1919, calling upon the Senate to submit the
Federal Amendment. William P. Pollock of South Carolina, who had been
elected to succeed Senator Benet, was not only in favor of it but was
working to secure the one vote among the southern Senators which,
added to his own, would complete the two-thirds. A conference of
friendly Democratic Senators on February 2 decided that a vote must
be taken the following week if this party was to have the credit. The
next day the Senate Woman Suffrage Committee met and unanimously voted
to bring up the amendment on February 10. The reasons for the decision
were, first, that there was a chance to win and nothing to be lost by
recording the friends and enemies; second, that one man had been
gained since the last vote and there was a possibility that another
could be won. President Wilson cabled from Paris urging doubtful
Senators to vote in favor. William Jennings Bryan came to Washington
to intercede for it.

On petition of twenty-two Democratic Senators, a party caucus on
suffrage was held on February 5, but the enemies died hard. They
immediately made a motion to adjourn but the suffragists without
proxies defeated the "antis," who voted proxies, by 22 to 16. On a
resolution that the Democratic Senators support the Federal Suffrage
Amendment, twenty-two voted in the affirmative but when ten had voted
in the negative those ten were allowed by Senator Thomas S. Martin
(Va.), Democratic floor leader, to withdraw their votes in order that
he might declare that, as the vote stood 22 to 0, a quorum had not
voted!

After the close of the morning business on Feb. 10, 1919, Chairman
Jones moved to take up the amendment. An extremely strong speech in
its favor was made by Senator Pollock. The only other speeches were by
Senator Frelinghuysen on points of naturalization and by Edward J.
Gay, the new Senator from Louisiana, in opposition. The vote taken
early in the afternoon showed 55 in favor and 29 opposed. As on
October 1, all the members who were not present to vote were accounted
for by pairs, so that it stood practically 63 to 33. In other words
the amendment was lost in the 65th Congress by only one vote and the
individual responsibility for the defeat lay at the door of every
Senator who voted against it.

From the States west of the Mississippi River only three Senators
voted "no"--Borah of Idaho, Reed of Missouri and Hitchcock of
Nebraska.

Only three States--Alabama, Delaware and Georgia--cast all their votes
in both Senate and House against the amendment.

Twenty States cast all their votes in Senate and House in
favor--Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois,
Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, New Mexico,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and
Wyoming. In all of these women already had full or partial suffrage.

On February 17 Senator Wesley L. Jones of Washington re-introduced the
amendment in its old form, stating that he expected no action during
the present Congress. On the following day Senator Gay introduced an
amendment in which the right of enforcement was given to the various
States and Congress was excluded. On the 20th Senator Kenneth McKellar
of Tennessee introduced one requiring personal naturalization of alien
women. Senator Gay agreed to support an amendment introduced February
28 by Chairman Jones, giving the States the right to enforce the
amendment, but, in case of their failure to do so, permitting Congress
to enact appropriate legislation. Just before the close of the session
on March 3, a southern Democrat, in response to a cablegram from
President Wilson, consented to give the measure the lacking vote if it
could be brought up again but this the Republicans declined to permit.

       *       *       *       *       *

During this winter of 1919 the National American Association continued
the work of obtaining from the Legislatures Presidential suffrage for
women and to the list were added Maine, Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Iowa, Missouri and Tennessee, fourteen altogether. By May 1, adding
the States with this Presidential suffrage to the fifteen where women
had the complete franchise, it was estimated that about 15,500,000
would be able to "vote for the President" in the general election of
1920. They could vote for 306 of the 531 members of the Electoral
College, 40 more than half. About half of the above number would
exercise the full suffrage. Thirty-four Senators and 130
Representatives were now elected partly by women, including those from
Arkansas and Texas.

One-third of the Senate and all of the House of Representatives were
elected in November, 1918. Many of the old members were re-elected,
some friends and some enemies of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The
Republicans had a large majority and both parties wanted an early
vote on it. President Wilson made this possible by calling a special
session to meet May 19, 1919. Representative Frank W. Mondell (Wyo.)
was elected majority leader of the House and Representative James R.
Mann (Ills.) appointed chairman of the Committee on Woman Suffrage,
both Republicans. The resolution for the Federal Amendment was
introduced by six members on the opening day and on the 20th was
favorably reported by the committee and placed on the calendar for the
next day, even before the President's message was read, in which it
was recommended. On May 21, after two hours' discussion, it was passed
by 42 more than the needed two-thirds. The vote stood as follows:

                       In Favor   Opposed
  Republicans            200        19
  Democrats              102        70
  Miscellaneous            2         0
                         ---        --
                         304        89

Members from southern States cast 71 of the affirmative votes and four
from the North were born in the South. The Democrats polled 54 per
cent. of their voting strength for the amendment and the Republicans
polled 84 per cent. of theirs.

In all the great area west of the Mississippi River, excluding Texas
and Louisiana, only one vote in the lower house was cast against the
amendment--that of Representative H. E. Hull (Rep.), Iowa. In the
group of Middle States only five opposing votes were cast--two from
Wisconsin, one from Michigan, two from Ohio. The opposition centered
in the coast States from Louisiana to Maryland; aside from these the
largest opposing majorities were from Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
Twenty-six States--over half of the whole number--gave unanimous
support; thirteen had large favorable majorities; one was
tied--Maryland; five gave opposing majorities--Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia; only two cast a solid vote in
opposition--Mississippi and South Carolina.

These statistics did not indicate that "a few States were trying to
force this amendment on a vast unwilling majority of States," as the
opponents asserted. The increase from the majority of one in 1918 to
42 in 1919 is accounted for by the fact that at the congressional
election during the interim 117 new members were elected, of whom 103
voted for the amendment. As it had been an issue in the campaign they
represented the sentiment of their constituencies. Fifteen of the
former members who were re-elected changed from negative to
affirmative. From January, 1918, to June, 1919, not one member of
either House broke his promise to vote for the amendment except
Representative Daniel J. Riordan (Dem.) of New York, although many of
them were subjected to extreme pressure by the interests opposed to
it.

The resolution for the Amendment was introduced in the Senate May 23,
1919, by four members and half a dozen others expressed a wish to
present it. The new Committee on Woman Suffrage had not been appointed
and it was referred to the old one, whose chairman, Senator Jones,
asked unanimous consent to have it placed on the calendar at once.
Senators Underwood of Alabama; Hoke Smith of Georgia; Swanson of
Virginia; Reed of Missouri, Democrats; Borah of Idaho; Wadsworth of
New York, Republicans, and other opponents objected and it was delayed
several days. Meanwhile a new committee was appointed with Senator
James E. Watson (Rep.) of Indiana, as chairman. Finally on May 28 he
was able to report the resolution favorably, by unanimous vote of the
committee, and have it placed on the calendar for June 3.

The discussion was continued for two days, principally by the
opposition, the friends of the amendment having agreed to consume no
time except when necessary to correct misstatements. For this purpose
Senators Lenroot of Wisconsin and Walsh of Montana, Republicans, and
Thomas of Colorado, King of Utah, Kirby of Arkansas and Ashurst of
Arizona, Democrats, made brief speeches. Senators Wadsworth, Brandegee
(Rep.) of Connecticut and Borah; Underwood, Smith (Dem.) of South
Carolina and Reed, consumed the rest of the time, Reed speaking
several hours. Senator Underwood offered an amendment to have the
ratifications by conventions instead of Legislatures, and Senator
Phelan (Dem.) of California wanted to amend this by requiring them to
be called the first week in December. Senator Harrison (Dem.) of
Mississippi tried to have the word "white" inserted in the original
amendment. Senator Gay (Dem.) of Louisiana wished to amend by
providing that the States instead of the Congress should have power to
enforce it. All these amendments were defeated by large majorities.

The Senators knew that all this debate was a waste of time, as enough
votes were pledged to pass the amendment. Senator Watson opened and
closed it in a dozen sentences. The roll was called at 5 p. m. June 4,
and the vote was announced, 56 ayes, 25 noes. With the "pairs" that
had been arranged the entire 96 members of the Senate were recorded
and they stood as follows:

                    Ayes  Noes
  Republicans        40     9
  Democrats          26    21
                     --    --
  Total              66    30

The certificate to be sent to the Legislatures for ratification was
signed by President of the Senate Thomas R. Marshall (Ind.) and
Speaker of the House Frederick H. Gillett (Mass.) both unyielding
opponents of the amendment.

Thus ended the struggle for the submission to the Legislatures of an
amendment to the National Constitution to give complete universal
suffrage to women, which had been carried on without cessation for
almost exactly fifty years--a struggle which has no parallel in
history.

It is not possible to give in this limited space due recognition to
all the Senators and Representatives who during this long period stood
faithfully by this Federal Amendment, many of them at serious
political risk. This was especially true of those from the South. The
speech of Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, Aug. 5, 1918, was as
strong an argument as ever was made for the Federal Amendment. The
great corporate interests of the country, including the liquor
interests, which were the dominating force in politics, were
implacably opposed to woman suffrage and the women had no material
influence to counteract them. All the more honor is due, therefore, to
those members who loyally supported it in this long contest founded
upon abstract right, justice and democracy.


VOTE ON FEDERAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT IN THE U. S. SENATE, JUNE 4,
1919.

       _Republicans, Aye_                   _Democrats, Aye_

  Cal.                   Johnson      Ariz.                 { Ashurst
  Col.                    Phipps                            { Smith
  Del.                      Ball      Ark.                 { Kirby
  Ills.              { McCormick                           { Robinson
                     { Sherman        Cal.                     Phelan
  Ind.                  { New         Col.                     Thomas
                        { Watson      Ga.                      Harris
  Iowa                 { Cummins      Ida.                     Nugent
                       { Kenyon       Ky.                     Stanley
  Kans.                 { Capper      La.                    Ransdell
                        { Curtis      Mass.                     Walsh
  Me.                  { Fernald      Mont.                   { Myers
                       { Hale                                 { Walsh
  Md.                     France      Nev.                { Henderson
  Mich.               { Newberry                          {  Pittman
                      { Townsend      N. M.                     Jones
  Minn.                { Kellogg      Okla.                    { Gore
                       { Nelson                                { Owen
  Mo.                    Spencer      Ore.                Chamberlain
  Neb.                    Norris      R. I.                     Gerry
  N. H.                    Keyes      S. D.                   Johnson
  N. J.          { Edge               Tenn.                  McKellar
                 { Frelinghuysen      Tex.                { Culberson
  N. M.                     Fall                          { Sheppard
  N. Y.                   Calder      Utah                       King
  N. D.               { Gronna        Wyo.                   Kendrick
                      { McCumber
  Ohio                   Harding
  Ore.                    McNary
  R. I.                     Colt
  S. D.                 Sterling
  Utah                     Smoot
  Vt.                       Page
  Wash.             { Jones
                    { Poindexter
  W. Va.            { Elkins
                    { Sutherland
  Wis.              { LaFollette
                    { Lenroot
  Wyo.                    Warren
                        --------                             --------
  Total                       40      Total                        26

        _Republicans, No_                  _Democrats, No_

  Conn.              { Brandegee      Ala.                { Bankhead
                     { McLean                             { Underwood
  Ida.                     Borah      Del.                    Wolcott
  Mass.                    Lodge      Fla.                 { Fletcher
  N. H.                    Moses                           { Trammell
  N. Y.                Wadsworth      Ga.                       Smith
  Penn.                { Knox         Ky.                     Beckham
                       { Penrose      La.                         Gay
  Vt.                 Dillingham      Md.                       Smith
                                      Miss.                { Harrison
                                                           { Williams
                                      Mo.                        Reed
                                      Neb.                  Hitchcock
                                      N. C.                 { Overman
                                                            { Simmons
                                      Ohio                   Pomerene
                                      S. C.                   { Dial
                                                              { Smith
                                      Tenn.                   Shields
                                      Va.                      Martin
                                                              Swanson
                        --------                             --------
  Total                        9      Total                        21

Benet was appointed for a few months to succeed Senator Tillman and
voted against the amendment October 1. Pollock was elected to serve
until March and voted for it February 10. Dial was elected for the
full term beginning March 4. Senator Hale of Maine was the only
hold-over Senator who changed his position, voting "no" in October and
"aye" in June. The suffragists deeply regretted that Senator John F.
Shafroth of Colorado, an able and valued friend for the past
twenty-five years, was no longer a member of the Senate.

After the woman suffrage amendment had become a part of the
Constitution of the United States Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the
national president, prepared a complete summary of the several votes
on it in the two Houses of Congress according to the political parties
and sent it to Chairman Will H. Hays of the Republican National
Committee and Chairman George White of the Democratic. To the former
she said in part: "I take the occasion to express to you personally on
behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, our
grateful appreciation of your own faithful, consistent and always
sincere efforts to carry out the platforms of your party wherein they
referred to the enfranchisement of women. Ratification at this date
would not have been achieved without your conscientious and
understanding help. I wish also to express our gratitude to the
Republican party for its share in the final enfranchisement of the
women of the United States...."

To Mr. White Mrs. Catt said: "There is one important Democratic factor
which should be included in the record and that is the fearless and
able sponsorship of the amendment by the leader of your party, the
President of the United States.... He has never hesitated to let
members of his party know in every State that he favored
ratification.... His championship furnishes cause for pride to all
forward-looking Democrats, since his vision foresaw this now achieved
fact of the enfranchisement of the women of this country. On behalf of
the National American Woman Suffrage Association, I wish to thank you
and your party for its share in the completion of the task to which
our association set itself more than fifty years ago."

Mrs. Catt said in the course of her summing up: "Women owe much to
both political parties but to neither do they owe so much that they
need feel themselves obligated to support that party if conscience and
judgment dictate otherwise. Their political freedom at this time is
due to the tremendous sentiment and pressure produced by their own
unceasing activities over a period of three generations. Had either
party lived up to the high ideals of our nation and courageously taken
the stand for right and justice as against time-serving, vote-winning
policies of delay, women would have been enfranchised long ago.... If,
however, neither of the dominant parties has made as clean and
progressive a record as its admirers could have wished, there is no
question but that individual men of both parties have given heroic
service to the cause of woman suffrage and this has been true in every
State, those which ratified and those which rejected. Women should not
forget these men who have stepped in advance of the more slow moving
of their own constituents to help this great cause of political
freedom."


RATIFICATION.

Before this Federal Amendment could become effective it had to be
ratified by the Legislatures of thirty-six States, three-fourths of
the whole number. The plan by which Mrs. Catt, president of the
National American Suffrage Association, had expected ratification to
follow the submission immediately was that all of the western equal
suffrage States would ratify at once. To make certain that this would
be done a representative of the association was sent on a circuit of
these States while the amendment was still pending. She called on the
Governors and instructed the women as to the procedure when it was
submitted. If there had been the expected early vote this plan would
have succeeded but it was thwarted by the late submission. Had the
vote taken place even as late as February, 1919, the Legislatures
could have considered it, which was the principal reason why the
opponents prevented it. By June 4 most of them had adjourned not to
meet again for two years. A few, however, were still in session and of
these Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan ratified it within six days of
its submission and Pennsylvania and Massachusetts a little later. That
of Ohio had taken a recess until June 16 and ratified it on this date.

To obtain enough extra sessions, with all the expense, time and
trouble entailed, seemed a hopeless undertaking. Nevertheless,
scarcely had the Senate vote been announced when Mrs. Catt began
telegraphing to the Governors of many States a request that they would
call special sessions for the purpose of ratification. This was
favored by leaders in both political parties in order that it might be
completed in time for the women of the entire country to vote in the
general election of 1920.

Governors Alfred E. Smith (Dem.) of New York and Henry J. Allen (Rep.)
of Kansas were the first to call special sessions. They were followed
by a few others, some willingly, others under great pressure from the
women of their States. Even the Governors of some of the equal
suffrage States were hesitating for various reasons and vigorous
action seemed to be necessary. Under the auspices of the National
Association four women, Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham of Texas, Mrs.
John G. South of Kentucky, Mrs. Ben Hooper of Wisconsin and Miss
Marjorie Shuler of New York, were sent to these States in July. The
two Republican women visited Republican States and the two Democratic
women visited Democratic States, the four reaching Salt Lake City to
attend the National Conference of Governors. Despite their pledges of
extra sessions some of them still demurred, as special sessions were
not approved by the taxpayers. Two of these Governors, one Republican
and one Democratic, were threatened with impeachment proceedings
whenever the Legislature should meet. Others feared that matters
besides the ratification might come up.

The summer waned and the required number of special sessions were not
called, although letters and telegrams and every kind of influence
were being used. Finally Mrs. Catt herself headed a deputation
consisting of Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of the U. S. Children's
Bureau; Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield of New York; Dr. Valeria H. Parker
of Connecticut; Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Illinois, Mrs.
Edward P. Costigan of Colorado and Miss Shuler, who had continued
working in those western States. The Governors were again interviewed;
the situation was presented to the States through public meetings and
at last the desired pledges were secured. In Oregon the women agreed
to raise the money to pay for a special session. In Nevada, Wyoming
and South Dakota campaigns to persuade the members to attend at their
own expense were started and carried through. Altogether sixteen
conferences were held in twelve western States. While this campaign in
the West was under way the women of other States were hard at work to
obtain legislative action. Those of Indiana had the Herculean task of
collecting a petition of 86,000 names asking for a special session and
securing pledges from two-thirds of the Legislature to consider no
other business, before the Governor would call the session.

While this strenuous work was in progress, which continued into 1920,
the National Republican and Democratic Committees, Will H. Hays and
Homer S. Cummings, chairmen, used all of their great influence for
special sessions and for favorable action. Prominent politicians of
both parties lent their assistance. The successful efforts to secure
ratification planks in the national platforms of all the political
parties are described in Chapter XXIII. Every candidate for President
and Vice-president gave his full endorsement.

It was only necessary for thirteen Legislatures to hold out against
ratification to prevent the adoption of the amendment and those of the
nine southeastern States from Maryland to Louisiana were certain to do
this. All of them defeated it except that of Florida, which did not
vote on it. By March 22, 1920, thirty-five Legislatures had ratified,
leaving but four States from which to obtain the thirty-sixth and
final ratification. Delaware defeated it in June, leaving only
Tennessee, Connecticut and Vermont. A provision in the State
constitution of Tennessee prevented action by its Legislature. The
Republican Governors of Connecticut and Vermont refused absolutely to
call a special session. The former declared that there was no
emergency requiring it and was adamant to every argument. Mrs. Catt
and her Board then undertook another Herculean task of bringing to
Connecticut an influential woman from every State, and, cooperating
with those of Connecticut, a mass meeting was held in Hartford. After
this they divided into groups and held meetings in every city and
large town, ending the campaign with a visit to the Governor, at which
earnest pleas were made that he would call the Legislature to give the
final vote for ratification, as the women of the nation were waiting
for it. In Vermont, under the auspices of the National Board, 400
women of the State under most trying weather conditions met in
Montpelier and called on the Governor with pleadings and arguments for
a special session, through whose action the women of the whole country
would be enfranchised. Both Governors remained obdurate.

In the meantime the opponents had succeeded in Maine under its
Initiative and Referendum law in having the ratification submitted to
the voters and they threatened to take this action in all States
having this law. The Ohio Supreme Court sustained the legality of a
petition for a referendum and it was carried to the Supreme Court of
the United States--Hawk vs. the Secretary of the State of Ohio. Here
it was argued April 23, 1920. On June 1 the Court announced its
decision that the ratification of a Federal Amendment was not subject
to action by the voters.

This decision removed the obstacle that existed in Tennessee and its
Governor called a special session for August 9. Mrs. Catt took charge
of the campaign in person and the ratification was obtained in the
Senate on the 13th and the House on the 18th, in the latter with the
greatest difficulty. It called for assistance from President Wilson,
from both of the Presidential candidates, the National Committees of
both parties and many prominent men and women within and without the
State. A full account will be found in the Tennessee chapter. A vote
for reconsideration followed; enough members left the State to prevent
a quorum and it was not until the 24th that Governor Roberts could
forward the certificate of ratification to Secretary of State
Bainbridge Colby in Washington.[140] Here on August 26 he proclaimed
the 19th Amendment a part of the Federal Constitution. A body of the
Tennessee legislators, headed by Speaker of the House Seth Walker,
went immediately to Washington and undertook to obtain an injunction
on this action but it was refused by the court.

Although the ratification by the Tennessee Legislature was due to the
votes of both Democrats and Republicans the former claimed the credit.
The general election was close at hand in which all women could take
part and Republican leaders felt that some action was necessary.
Governor Marcus H. Holcomb of Connecticut called a special session of
the Legislature for September 14 and its first act was to ratify the
Federal Amendment by unanimous vote of the Senate and 216 to 11 in the
House. Owing to a technical question the ratification was repeated
September 21.[141]

The stories of these 37 ratifications are interesting--in some States
occasions of much pleasure accompanied by music and feasting; in
others strenuous contests which left some unpleasant memories. They
are described in each State chapter and the failures as well. Especial
reference should be made to those of States mentioned here and of
Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia,
Mississippi and Louisiana.

When the opponents could not prevent ratification they had recourse to
the law. The attempt to have a referendum to the voters has been
referred to. Efforts were made in many States to have the Attorney
Generals declare that the ratification was unconstitutional or that
further legislation by the States would be necessary, but they were
unavailing. In May, 1920, the official board of the National Woman
Suffrage Association retained former U. S. Supreme Court Justice
Charles Evans Hughes as counsel and his advice and his opinions widely
published proved to be of the greatest benefit. Although one of the
most eminent of lawyers his interest in woman suffrage was so great
that he never refused any appeal for assistance.

On July 7, 1920, before the 36th State had ratified, Charles S.
Fairchild, president of the American Constitutional League, formerly
the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association of New York, instituted injunction
proceedings in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia against
Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby and Attorney General A. Mitchell
Palmer. They sought to restrain the Secretary from proclaiming the
Federal Suffrage Amendment when it should receive the final
ratification and the Attorney General from doing anything to enforce
it. On July 13 the case for the Government was argued by Solicitor
General William L. Frierson and Assistant U. S. District Attorney
James B. Archer. Mr. Fairchild and the league were represented by
Everett P. Wheeler, a New York attorney and officer of the league. He
contended that under the U. S. Constitution Congress had no power to
submit the amendment and that various ratifications were illegal.
Justice Thomas J. Bailey dismissed the injunction proceedings on the
ground that neither Mr. Fairchild nor the league had sufficient
interest to entitle them to ask for an injunction and that the court
had no authority to go behind the action of the Legislatures in voting
for ratification. The case was taken to the District Court of Appeals.
On October 4 this court denied the injunction and dismissed the case
as "frivolous and brought for delay." It was then carried to the
Supreme Court of the United States.

Litigation was threatened in Tennessee. In Maryland a League for State
Defense was formed to defeat ratification. It succeeded in the
Maryland Legislature and had delegations of legislators sent to
Tennessee and West Virginia for the purpose, who were not successful.
On Oct. 30, 1920, this league brought a test case in the Court of
Common Pleas in Baltimore through Attorney William L. Marbury against
J. Mercer Garnett et al., constituting the Board of Registry, to
compel them to strike the names of two women from the registration
books. The suit was filed in the name of Oscar Leser, a former Judge,
who had long fought woman suffrage, and twenty members of the league,
on the following grounds: The alleged 19th Amendment is not authorized
by Article V of the U. S. Constitution; it was never legally ratified
by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States; (those of West
Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri were cited); it was rejected by the
Maryland Legislature. Everett P. Wheeler assisted in the trial just
before Christmas. The case was conducted for the State by Attorney
General J. Lindsay Spencer. Judge Heuisler gave an adverse decision on
Jan. 29, 1921. The case was taken to the Court of Appeals and set for
April 7. The decision of the lower court was sustained--that "the
power to amend the Constitution of the United States granted by
Article V is without limit except as to the words 'equal suffrage in
the Senate.' ... From all the exhibits and other evidence submitted
the court is of the opinion that there was due, legal and proper
ratification of the amendment by the required number of State
Legislatures."

This case also went to the U. S. Supreme Court and there both of them
rested. Meanwhile millions of women voted in the general election on
Nov. 2, 1920, and in the State and local elections which followed
through 1921, and the cases were almost forgotten. Finally in
February, 1922, the court heard the arguments, the Government
represented by Solicitor General James M. Beck. On the 27th it handed
down its decision on the two cases. It upheld the authority of
Congress under the Constitution of the United States to submit the
amendment; declared that "the validity of the 15th Amendment had been
recognized for half a century"; that "the Federal Constitution
transcends any limitations sought to be imposed by the State"; that
"the Secretary of State having issued the proclamation the amendment
had become a part of the National Constitution."

This was the decision of the highest legal authority, from which there
was no appeal.


FOOTNOTES:

[131] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Ida Husted
Harper, author of the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, and with Miss
Anthony of Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage, which ended
with 1900.

[132] For full account see History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page
67.

[133] Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Chapter XVI.

[134] The American Woman Suffrage Association was organized in
Cleveland, O., Nov. 25, 1869, with the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher,
president; Lucy Stone, chairman of the executive committee, to work
especially for amending State constitutions. The two bodies united in
February, 1890, under the name National American and the association
thenceforth worked vigorously by both methods.

[135] History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II, page 734.

[136] For full account see History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV,
Chapter VI.

[137] In 1913 and the years following strenuous work with members of
Congress was done by the Congressional Union, afterwards called the
National Woman's Party.

[138] For full report of this hearing see Chapter XVIII.

[139] For speech in full see Appendix for this chapter.

[140] As soon as the certificate was despatched Mrs. Catt left
Nashville, where she had been for six weeks, accompanied by Mrs.
Harriet Taylor Upton, vice-chairman of the National Republican
Executive Committee; Miss Charl Williams, vice-chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, and Miss Marjorie Shuler, the National
Association's chairman of publicity, who had been working with her
during this time. They went to Washington, called on the President and
Secretary of State and in the evening addressed an enthusiastic mass
meeting that filled the largest theater to overflowing. Secretary
Colby represented President Wilson, from whom he brought this message:

"Will you take the opportunity to say to my fellow citizens that I
deem it one of the greatest honors of my life that this great event,
the ratification of this amendment, should have occurred during the
period of my administration. Nothing has given me more pleasure than
the privilege that has been mine to do what I could to advance the
cause of ratification and to hasten the day when the womanhood of
America would be recognized by the nation on the equal footing of
citizenship that it deserves."

From Washington the women, joined by others, went to New York, where
Governor Alfred E. Smith was waiting at the station and said in
greeting Mrs. Catt: "I am here on behalf of the people of the State of
New York to convey congratulations to you on your great victory for
the motherhood of America." [See frontispiece Volume VI.]

[141] Vermont was thus left the only State, except those in the
so-called "black belt," which did not ratify the Federal Amendment and
its Legislature was ready to do so any day when Governor Percival W.
Clement would permit it to meet. It ratified unanimously in the Senate
and with three negative votes in the House when it met in regular
session in 1921.




CHAPTER XXI.

VARIOUS WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.


The National Woman Suffrage Association formed in New York City May
15, 1869, by pioneers in the movement from nineteen States was the
first of the kind in the world. [History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II,
page 400.] This was followed by the forming on November 24 at
Cleveland, O., of the American Woman Suffrage Association. [Same, page
576.] In 1890 these two were combined under the name National
American. [Volume IV, pages 164, 174.] For various reasons other
organizations came into existence, as the years passed, which had some
claim to being considered national, but this great united association
was the bulwark of the movement for woman suffrage from its beginning
to its end in 1920. It was always the official authority recognized by
Congress, State Legislatures, the press and the public, but all of the
others assisted, each in its own way and degree, and, except in the
case of one, the National Woman's Party, there was no antagonism among
them, as all were consecrated to a common cause, and followed similar
methods.


THE FEDERAL SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.

This association was organized on March 3rd and 10th, 1892, in the
lecture room of the Sherman House, Chicago, with the following
officers: President, the Hon. M. B. Castle, Sandwich, Ills.;
vice-president, the Rev. Olympia Brown, Racine, Wis.; secretary, Mrs.
A. J. Loomis, Chicago; treasurer, Mrs. S. M. C. Perkins, Cleveland, O.
Judge Charles B. Waite of Chicago; Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker of
Hartford, Conn.; Mrs. Lucinda H. Stone of Kalamazoo, Mich., and Mrs.
Lucia E. Blount of Washington, D. C., with many other prominent people
assisted. The object was to secure the passage of a Law by
Congress authorizing women to vote for members of the House of
Representatives, according to Sections 2 and 4, Article I of the
Federal Constitution, which gives Congress authority to change the
regulations made by the States for the election of these members. The
way for this organization had been prepared by articles in the _Forum_
and the _Arena_ by Judge Francis Minor of St. Louis, presenting the
arguments for this law. He quoted James Madison, who said at the time
Virginia adopted the National Constitution that "the power was given
to Congress to change the regulations made by the States in order to
protect the people. Should the people at any time be deprived of the
right of suffrage for any cause it was deemed proper that it should be
remedied by the general government." At the first meeting a memorial
was adopted asking Congress to enact this law, which later was
presented by Representative Clarence D. Clark of Wyoming. The officers
of the association were instructed to present a memorial to the
Republican national convention in Minneapolis that summer asking that
a plank approving this Federal suffrage be inserted in the platform.
The Rev. Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Perkins attended the convention, where
they were treated with marked courtesy and given prominent seats. They
secured a hearing and the presentation of the memorial in the
Committee on Resolutions. The papers of Minneapolis printed it in
full, which was something unusual at that time when woman suffrage was
scarcely recognized by the press. At the Columbian Exposition in 1893
a section in the Political Congress was assigned to the Federal
Association and a day appointed for its meetings. Two sessions were
held, addressed by prominent speakers and attended by large audiences.

Much propaganda work was done and efforts were made to form local
organizations. The subject was kept before the Republican and
Democratic parties by memorials presented to their national
conventions. In 1902 the society was reorganized as the Woman's
Federal Equality Association in order to include other interests of
women besides suffrage. It was hoped thus to enlist the cooperation of
those employed by the Government but this hope not being realized the
name was changed to the original. Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood had been
chosen president in 1902 and was followed in 1903 by the Rev. Olympia
Brown, who held the office until the end in 1920, Mrs. Lockwood
continuing as honorary president until her death. Mrs. Clara Bewick
Colby was chosen corresponding secretary in 1902 and devoted herself
to the interests of the association unceasingly until her death Sept.
7, 1916. No session of Congress was allowed to pass without the
presenting of a bill demanding the right of women to vote for federal
officers. These bills were referred to the Committee on Election of
President, Vice-President and Representatives in Congress. Usually
hearings were granted and arranged for with much care by Mrs. Colby,
who resided in Washington. They were very effective. Among the most
important was that of 1904, which attracted so much attention that the
committee appointed a second day to continue it and invited Mrs. Colby
to explain more fully the demand of the association. Another important
hearing was that of 1913, when the largest committee room was filled,
many standing outside. It began in the morning and was continued in
the evening, with the speakers nearly all members of Congress, a
remarkable circumstance at that time.

At the hearings of 1914, 1915 and 1916 Representative Burton L. French
of Idaho was a valuable speaker, as was Representative John E. Raker
of California. Mrs. Lockwood and other women took part at different
times, Mrs. Colby in all the hearings and the Rev. Mrs. Brown in most
of them. Dr. Clara McNaughton, the treasurer, rendered important
service in raising money and in other ways. At the great Gettysburg
celebration in 1913 she and Mrs. Anna Harmon represented the
association, obtaining signatures to petitions, circulating literature
and finding a wide sentiment for woman suffrage among the old
soldiers.

On July 11-13, 1915, the Federal Suffrage Association held a Congress
at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, over which the Rev.
Olympia Brown presided. Mrs. Colby went out some time before the
meeting and made the arrangements. Among the distinguished people who
took part were Mrs. May Wright Sewall, founder of the International
Council of Women, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, historian of woman suffrage
and biographer of Susan B. Anthony; Mrs. Adelaide Johnson, the noted
sculptor; the eminent Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe Watson of California; Mrs.
Emma Smith DeVoe of Tacoma, president of the National Council of Women
Voters, and Mrs. Mary G. Bellamy, former member of the Wyoming
Legislature. The most notable of the exercises was the fine pageant in
the Court of Abundance on the closing night. This court was a most
beautiful place for scenic display, the arrangement of the platform,
lights and decorations all contributing to make any function there an
enchanting scene. Mrs. Colby had prepared a comprehensive lecture on
Woman's Part in the Building of America, and, with the assistance of a
skilful specialist, Mrs. Andrea Hofer, had arranged a memorable
entertainment. She stood on the pedestal of a massive column while she
gave her lecture, which was illustrated by tableaus on the platform in
the presence of a large audience. The congress was continued at San
Diego with largely attended meetings.

The history of Federal Suffrage would not be complete without some
mention of the work of Miss Laura Clay and her sister, Mrs. Sarah Clay
Bennett, of Kentucky, who advocated the idea of Federal Suffrage even
before the forming of the association and long worked for a U. S.
Elections Bill. Miss Clay's maintenance of the Federal suffrage
principles, her writings and her strong personality were a guarantee
to many of the southern women that no infringement of the State's
rights idea was intended. By Aug. 26, 1920, the Federal Amendment had
been submitted by Congress and ratified. All the women of the United
States were fully enfranchised and the association had no longer any
reason for being.

                              [Prepared by the Rev. Olympia Brown.]


UNITED STATES ELECTIONS BILL.

From the time the National Woman Suffrage Association was organized to
secure the enfranchisement of women by amending the Federal
Constitution there were among its members those who did not favor this
method because it was contrary to the doctrine of State's rights. They
did, however, want Congress to provide that woman should vote for its
own Representatives, which could be done simply by a Law requiring
only a majority vote of each House. From the early 80's this group was
led by Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. Sarah Clay Bennett of Kentucky. There
was no doubt that Congress had authority over the election of its
Representatives, as was clearly shown in Article I, Section 2, which
prescribes the manner of their election and the qualifications of the
electors in the different States. Later it fixed a time for these
elections. This authority was conferred when, after the amendment was
adopted for the election of U. S. Senators by the voters, Congress
enacted that all who were qualified to vote for Representatives should
be eligible to vote for Senators. The leaders of the National American
Suffrage Association recognized the constitutionality of the bill and
for many years kept a standing committee on it but they did not
believe Congress ever would accept it. Its advocates claimed that if
members of Congress had women for their constituents they would soon
see that the States enfranchised them. The national leaders held that
if women could elect members of Congress it would not take them long
to compel the submission of a Federal Amendment and that the members
would not put this power into their hands. They held also that it
would be just as much a violation of the State's right to determine
its own voters as would the Federal Amendment itself. The Southern
Woman Suffrage Conference, or Association, however, had a committee to
further this U. S. Elections Bill.

At the annual convention of the National American Association in 1914
its Congressional Committee was instructed to include this bill in the
measures which it promoted. It was re-endorsed at the conventions of
1915 and 1916. Miss Clay went to Washington and lobbied for it with
all the prestige of her family back of her and with all her commanding
ability, supporting it by unanswerable argument. Members often
presented it in both Houses but it never was reported by a committee.


NATIONAL COLLEGE EQUAL SUFFRAGE LEAGUE.

While Miss Maud Wood of Boston was a senior in Radcliffe College her
attention was directed to woman suffrage by the efforts of its women
opponents in Cambridge to enlist the college girls on their side.
Later, hearing a speech in favor of it by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell,
she associated herself with the Massachusetts Suffrage Association,
spoke at its next annual convention and was drawn into its work. After
hearing and meeting Miss Susan B. Anthony she felt a deeper
obligation of service to the cause for which Miss Anthony and her
associates had sacrificed so much and she thought that college women
especially should pay their debt to those who had made their education
possible by helping them fight the battle for woman suffrage. In 1900,
with the help of Mrs. Inez Haynes Gillmore, also a Radcliffe student,
Miss Wood, now Mrs. Park, founded the Massachusetts College Equal
Suffrage League and steps were at once taken to form leagues in other
States. In 1906 the National American Woman Suffrage Association held
its annual convention in Baltimore and under the auspices of Dr. M.
Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr, there occurred that remarkable
"college women's evening," when before an audience that filled the
theater women professors from the largest Colleges for Women in the
United States paid their tributes to Miss Anthony and announced their
allegiance to her cause.

It was decided at this meeting that there ought to be a national
association of college women, the first steps toward it were taken,
and Mrs. Park was appointed to organize leagues in the States. In 1908
a Call was sent out signed by Dr. Thomas, President Mary E. Woolley of
Mt. Holyoke College: Miss Mary E. Garrett, a founder of the Johns
Hopkins Medical School; Mrs. Elsie Clews Parsons, Ph.D. of Barnard
College; Miss Caroline E. Lexow (Barnard), president of the New York
College Equal Suffrage League, and Miss Florence Garvin of the Rhode
Island League, to meet for organization. The time and place selected
were during the annual convention of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association in Buffalo, N. Y., October 15-21. By this time
College Leagues had been formed in fifteen States extending across the
country to California. On October 17, in the beautiful club house of
the Woman's Twentieth Century Club, with delegates present from most
of these States, the National College League was organized with the
following officers: President, Dr. Thomas; Professor Sophonisba
Breckinridge of Chicago University at the head of a list of five
vice-presidents; secretary, Miss Lexow; treasurer, Dr. Margaret Long
(Smith) of Denver; Mrs. Park was made chairman of the organization
committee. The purpose of the league was announced to be "to promote
equal suffrage sentiment among college women and men both before and
after graduation." It became auxiliary to the National Association and
its annual conventions were to be held at the same time and place as
those of the association. In its early existence office space was
given in the national suffrage headquarters in New York City.

For the next nine years this National College League was a vital force
in the movement for woman suffrage. It soon had the largest voting
delegation at the national suffrage conventions except that of New
York. Dr. Thomas remained its president and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw its
honorary vice-president. Miss Martha Gruening and Miss Florence Allen
(now Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Cleveland, O.), were
secretaries, and from 1914 Mrs. Ethel Puffer Howes (Smith) of New York
City. Organizers were sent throughout the States to form new leagues
and lecturers of note were engaged to address league meetings. Among
the latter were Professor Frances Squire Potter of the University of
Minnesota; Dr. B. O. Aylesworth and Mrs. Helen Loring Grenfell, State
Superintendent of Public Instruction of Colorado; Mrs. Charlotte
Perkins Gilman of New York and Mrs. Philip Snowden of England. Dr.
Shaw spoke a number of times. In 1915 a lecture tour among the
colleges was arranged for Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst. Literature and
letters were sent to colleges and to graduates. In 1914, for instance,
twenty colleges in New York State were supplied and letters were sent
to a thousand graduates in New Jersey, campaigns being in progress in
those States. During the Iowa campaign in 1916 the colleges of that
State received 12,000 leaflets. Travelling libraries of twenty-five
volumes relating to suffrage were circulated among the colleges. The
most important achievement of an individual league was that in
California in 1911. Under the presidency of Miss Charlotte Anita
Whitney the work of the league of over a thousand members was a large
factor in the success of the campaign for a woman suffrage amendment.
In 1917, during the second New York campaign, Miss M. Louise Grant
(Columbia), under the auspices of the National and State leagues, made
forty-five speeches to arouse the college women, which contributed to
the victory for the suffrage amendment in November.

The gaining of the franchise in this influential State made a Federal
Amendment a certainty of the not distant future and in December the
following official notice was sent to the branches of the National
League:

     At the meeting of the annual council of the National College
     Equal Suffrage League, held at the New Ebbitt Hotel in
     Washington, D. C., on Dec. 15, 1917, it was unanimously voted on
     recommendation of the president and executive secretary to close
     its work and go out of existence. The delegates present, the
     officers, and many other suffragists who had been consulted were
     of the opinion that the objects for which the league was
     originally organized had been fully attained and that there was
     no reason for it to continue its work as a separate suffrage
     organization....

     At the time when the league began its work the subject of
     suffrage could scarcely be mentioned in gatherings of college
     students and college faculties and was forbidden even as a topic
     for discussion in the annual conventions of the Association of
     Collegiate Alumnæ, but in the nine years that have elapsed since
     then an overwhelming change of opinion has taken place. Many
     colleges in which it was planned to organize chapters have stated
     that there is no need for them, as practically all the members of
     their faculties and most of their students are already
     suffragists. At the last biennial convention of the Association
     of Collegiate Alumnæ held in Washington, D. C., in April, 1917,
     by a unanimous vote it not only reaffirmed its belief in woman
     suffrage but urged its members to win it for all American women
     by working for the Federal Amendment. In bringing about this
     revolution in educated opinion we are happy to believe that the
     National College Equal Suffrage League has played an important
     part....

     There are belonging to the National League 5,000 members enrolled
     in over fifty State leagues and chapters and it suggests that
     they become "Federal Amendment Suffrage Clubs" and arrange for
     speakers and student debates on the amendment.... Its officers
     wish to make an urgent appeal to all its leagues and chapters and
     to every one of its individual members to put their whole force
     behind the drive for this amendment.... We can perform no more
     patriotic service for our country or for the world than to win
     woman suffrage while we are working with all our might to win the
     war.[142]

This notice contained a statement that the small dues and special
gifts had never been sufficient to meet the expenses of the league and
said: "With the exception of $450 lent by one of its former officers
all the loans and debts of the National College League, amounting to
$6,686 were paid off by its president, who stated that in thus
financing its work during the past few years she believed she was
making the most valuable financial contribution that she could make to
the cause of woman suffrage."


FRIENDS' EQUAL RIGHTS ASSOCIATION.[143]

The Society of Friends always has held advanced views on the woman
question and was for a long time the only religious body which gave
women equal rights with men in the church. Women of this sect were
naturally leaders in the great movement for the emancipation of women
educationally, professionally and politically. Lucretia Mott stepped
forth almost alone at first but soon Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone
(both of Quaker ancestry) stood by her side, powerful in vision to see
and will to do and dedicated to their great task.

With such heritage comes unusual responsibility, and, feeling the
surge of this tremendous wave everywhere for human rights, the Society
of Friends at its Biennial or General Conference (liberal branch)
representing the seven Yearly Meetings of the United States and
Canada--Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and
Genesee (western New York and Canada)--held at Chautauqua, N. Y., 8th
month, 24th day, 1900, through the Union for Philanthropic Labor,
created a new department to be known as Women in Government and
recommended to the committees of the various Yearly Meetings that they
"should work in this direction." Before the adjournment of the
conference Mariana W. Chapman of Brooklyn was made superintendent of
the department and the name was changed to Equal Rights for Women.
This official action committed all the Yearly Meetings of this branch
of Friends to the endorsement of political rights for women.

Realizing the need for increased enthusiasm and active participation
in the imminent struggle for the enfranchisement of women, members of
the New York Yearly Meeting organized the State Friends' Equal Rights
Association, with annual membership dues to meet necessary expenses. A
definite list of members was thus made, who could be called upon when
opportunity for service occurred. At Westbury (Long Island) Quarterly
Meeting in 1901 a proposal was approved that this association should
ask to co-operate as an auxiliary with the National American Woman
Suffrage Association and at the following annual convention of that
body in Washington, D. C., it was represented by five delegates. In
December, 1902, Mrs. Chapman, president of the New York association,
addressed a meeting in Philadelphia and a branch was formed there,
which in less than three months numbered about 200 members, with Susan
W. Janney as president. The Baltimore Yearly Meeting quickly followed
with a paid-up membership of 85, which increased the following year to
114, with Elizabeth B. Passmore president.

In 1904 the entire dues-paying membership was over 500. The New York
association sent letters to members of the State Senate and Assembly
bearing on woman suffrage bills and was active in all State suffrage
campaigns. Much energy was devoted to public meetings and literature.
The Philadelphia and Baltimore associations worked mainly along
educational lines. This year the Baltimore branch sent out 4,000
leaflets--For Equal Rights. The Philadelphia association reorganized
in 1905, with an enrolled instead of a paid membership. Their Yearly
Meeting is a large body with a membership scattered over Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland....

The associations continued their work, holding meetings and "round
tables," especially at times of annual and biennial conferences, one
of the most effective of these meetings being held at Saratoga in
1914, addressed by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the
International Woman Suffrage Alliance. The subject was kept constantly
under consideration by the Society of Friends at large and in local
gatherings, such as monthly and quarterly meetings, where it was
brought up in regular order as one of the departments of philanthropic
labor or social service to be reported upon. Each branch held a
meeting at the time of its Yearly Meeting. A business meeting of the
whole association (branches and general membership) was always held at
the Biennial Conference of the seven Yearly Meetings. Usually a fine
speaker was engaged to address the conference at a public meeting
numbering from 800 to 1,500. The Superintendent of the Department for
Equal Rights in the General Conference was always the president of the
Friends' Equal Rights Association as a whole and made the contact
between the Society of Friends and the National American Woman
Suffrage Association.

In 1911 Mrs. Effie L. D. McAfee, a member of the New York branch, was
sent by the Friends' Equal Rights Association to the congress of the
International Alliance held at Stockholm, Sweden, where, in honor of a
sect so long identified with the cause of woman suffrage, she was
given a place on the program and filled it most acceptably. In 1916
the Philadelphia branch returned to the regular dues-paying basis,
with Rebecca Webb Holmes of Swarthmore as president. The New York
branch, notwithstanding the enfranchisement of the women of that State
in 1917, continued its organization in order to help the less
fortunate sisters, with P. Francena Maine as president. The Illinois
Yearly Meeting in 1919 added to the membership of the Friends' Equal
Rights Association.

The association usually has been represented at the annual conventions
of the N. A. W. S. A. Its presidents have been: Mrs. Chapman, New
York; Lucy Sutton, Baltimore; Mary Bentley Thomas, Ednor, Md.; Ellen
H. E. Price, Philadelphia; Anne Webb Janney, Baltimore. The specific
task of the association has been to get a clear utterance on woman
suffrage from the different Yearly Meetings, representing in total
membership about 20,000. Invariably they have endorsed the principle
and any pending legislation in favor. Affiliation with the National
Association has been deeply appreciated by its members, as to be an
integral part of one of the glorious world forces is a privilege not
to be lightly held.


THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY CONFERENCES.[144]

For half a dozen years toward the end of the long contest for the
enfranchisement of women--1912-1917 inclusive--an organization that
played a considerable part in it was the Mississippi Valley
Conference. From the time that the National Suffrage Association was
formed in 1869 to 1895 its annual conventions were held in Washington,
and from that date to 1912 nine of the seventeen were held in eastern
States. Because of the expense of travel the representation of western
women was very small compared to that of the eastern section of the
country. All the national presidents were from the East and in order
that the officers might attend board meetings and conferences most of
them were eastern women. Those of the West keenly realized the need of
greater opportunity of getting together, becoming acquainted,
developing leadership and planning their work, as all of the suffrage
campaigns at this time took place in the western States. This was felt
more especially by the women of the Middle West, as many of the States
in the far West had given the vote to their women.

Finally in 1912 the initiative was taken by a group of women in
Chicago, headed by Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, six years president of the
Illinois Suffrage Association; Miss Jane Addams, national vice
president, and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, a former State and
national officer, to form an organization in the central part of the
country that could hold occasional conferences. They asked the
presidents of the State associations in that section if they would
join in a call for a meeting in Chicago for this purpose and sixteen
responded in the affirmative. Mrs. Stewart, as chairman of the
committee, took charge of the arrangements, assisted by Mrs. Mary R.
Plummer, and prepared the program. The meeting took place in La Salle
Hotel, May 21-23, with the following States represented by women
prominent in the movement for woman suffrage: Illinois, Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska,
South Dakota, Mrs. Elvira Downey, president of the Illinois Suffrage
Association, presiding. There were three sessions daily with large
audiences and the _Woman's Journal_ said: "Every session was like a
great study class with teachers and students, questions, answers and
discussion. It was not an occasion for a display of oratory but a
practical and business-like conference." All phases of the work for
suffrage were considered and especially the management of campaigns,
which were now frequent. The third day a meeting was held in
Milwaukee, arranged by Miss Gwendolen Brown Willis. The great need and
value of such an organization was clearly apparent and the Mississippi
Valley Conference was organized with Mrs. Stewart president. There was
no constitution or fixed rules, it was simply decided to hold a
meeting the next year and a committee to arrange for it appointed:
Mrs. Stewart, chairman; Miss Kate Gordon of Louisiana and Mrs. Maud C.
Stockwell of Minnesota.

The second conference met in St. Louis April 2-4, 1913, in the
Buckingham Hotel, at the Call of nineteen State presidents. Mrs.
George Gellhorn, president of the Missouri association, had charge of
the arrangements, with a corps of committee chairmen. Mrs. Stewart
presided and the conference was welcomed by Mrs. David M. O'Neil. The
three daily sessions were crowded with eager, interested women. At one
evening mass meeting in the Sheldon Memorial Governor Joseph K. Folk
made an address. Miss Harriet E. Grim of Illinois was elected
president and Mrs. Gellhorn and Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, president
of the Alabama Suffrage Association, were appointed to assist her in
arranging for the next conference.

The third conference took place in Des Moines, Iowa, March 29-31,
1914, in the Savery Hotel, with the presidents of twenty State
Suffrage Associations among the delegates. It opened with a mass
meeting on Sunday afternoon in Berchel Theater and an overflow meeting
had to be held for the hundreds who could not gain admittance.
Governor George W. Clark, Miss Jane Addams, Rabbi Mannheimer, Miss
Dunlap and Mrs. Stewart were the speakers. In the morning and evening
most of the pulpits in the city were filled by delegates. The
conference was welcomed Monday by Miss Flora Dunlap, president of the
Iowa Suffrage Association and Mrs. Marie M. Carroll, president of the
Des Moines Woman's Club, and at the mass meeting in the evening by
Mayor James R. Hanna. Several hundred delegates were in attendance and
a valuable program of work occupied the sessions. Mrs. Harriet Taylor
Upton, president of the Ohio association, was elected president and
with Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. John Pyle, presidents of the Kentucky
and South Dakota Suffrage Associations, was appointed to arrange for
the next conference.

The fourth conference was held at Indianapolis, March 7-9, 1915, in
the Hotel Claypool, with Dr. Amelia R. Keller, president of the Equal
Franchise League, chairman of the committee of arrangements. It opened
with a mass meeting Sunday afternoon in Murat Theater, Dr. Keller
presiding. An address of welcome was made by James A. Ogden in behalf
of the Chamber of Commerce, to which Mrs. Upton responded. The
principal speaker was Rosika Schwimmer of Hungary, formerly an officer
of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Presidents and delegates
from twenty-two State Suffrage Associations carried out the usual
comprehensive program. Mrs. Florence Bennett Peterson of Chicago was
elected president, with Mrs. W. E. Barkley and Miss Annette Finnegan,
presidents of the Nebraska and Texas Suffrage Associations, to assist
in the plans for the next meeting.

The conference of 1916 met in Minneapolis, May 7-10, four days now
being none too long to carry out the important program of work. Mrs.
Andreas Ueland, president of the Minnesota Suffrage Association, was
chairman of the large committee of arrangements. The conference opened
with a mass meeting in the Auditorium Sunday afternoon, Mrs. Ueland
presiding. The invocation was pronounced by Dr. Cyrus Northrop,
president emeritus of the State University. The conference was
welcomed by Mayor Wallace G. Nye and Mrs. Peterson responded.
Professor Maria L. Sanford of the State University; president Frank
Nelson of Minnesota College; Mrs. Nellie McClung of Alberta, Can.;
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International Suffrage
Alliance and the National American Association, and others made
addresses. An evening mass meeting was held in St. Paul. At a banquet
attended by 500 guests Dr. George E. Vincent, president of the State
University, made his first declaration in favor of woman suffrage.
Twenty-six States were now members of the organization and nearly all
of those who took part at this time were prominent in the activities
of their various States. The _Woman's Journal_ said: "It was a
magnificent and glorified Work Conference." Mrs. Peterson was
continued as president and Mrs. Ueland and Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser of
the Ohio Suffrage Association were placed on her committee, the latter
to act as chairman for arranging the next conference.

The sixth annual meeting of what had now become an important factor in
the movement for woman suffrage took place at Columbus, O., May 12-14,
1917, in Hotel Deshler. At the Sunday afternoon mass meeting in
Memorial Hall, the Hon. William Littleford of Cincinnati, president of
the Ohio Men's League for Woman Suffrage, was in the chair and a
number of eminent men and women were on the platform. The speakers
were Governor James M. Cox and Mrs. Catt. The Governor strongly
endorsed the movement and pledged his support. Mrs. Catt gave a
masterly review of its progress throughout the world. Twenty-one
States were represented on the program. An important feature of this,
as of several preceding conferences, was the reports of what women had
been able to accomplish in the many States where they were now
enfranchised. Organization and political action in order to carry
State amendments formed the principal theme of discussion. Mrs. John
R. Leighty of Kansas was elected president with Mrs. Ueland and Mrs.
Grace Julian Clarke of Indianapolis on her committee to arrange for
the next conference. The shadow of war rested over the meeting, yet in
all the speeches was a note of victory for woman suffrage, which
evidently was not far distant.

It was planned to hold the next Conference in Sioux Falls, May 26-28,
1918, as South Dakota was in the midst of an amendment campaign, but
Mrs. Catt called the Executive Council of the National Association to
meet at Indianapolis during the Indiana State convention April 16-18,
to plan action on the Federal Amendment, which seemed near passing.
This required the attendance of its members from every State and as
many of them did not wish to spare the time and money for another
meeting so soon the conference was given up. In 1919 the convention of
the National Association was held in St. Louis and in 1920 in Chicago,
which made the conference unnecessary, and then the Federal Amendment
was ratified and the long contest was ended.


THE SOUTHERN WOMAN SUFFRAGE CONFERENCE.

The Southern Woman Suffrage Conference was formed as the result of a
Call sent out in 1913 by women of the southern States to the Governors
of those States to meet them in conference and prepare for the
extension of woman suffrage by State enactment rather than by Federal
Amendment. Women from every southern State signed the Call, although
in North and South Carolina and Florida not a vestige of suffrage
organization existed. Miss Kate Gordon, who inaugurated the
conference, felt impelled to begin some distinctly southern suffrage
movement when listening to the effort of the Speaker of the House of
Representatives in Louisiana, to secure the ratification of the Income
Tax Amendment upon the sole and only ground that it was a Democratic
party measure. To make woman suffrage a Democratic party measure
seemed then the logical field for immediate, intensive propaganda. The
Congressional Committee of the National American Association was
vitalizing into activity the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment. What
more logical from a political standpoint than for the southern
suffrage forces to advance with a flank movement in harmony with the
traditions and policies of the Democratic party?

In November, 1913, there assembled in New Orleans the organization
force of the Southern Conference, with representatives from almost all
of the southern States. The platform adopted was primarily for State's
Right Suffrage. Miss Gordon was elected president and Miss Laura Clay
of Kentucky vice-president; Mrs. John B. Parker of Louisiana
corresponding secretary; Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Mississippi
treasurer. The plan of campaign consisted of the establishment of
headquarters in New Orleans; the creating of an active press bureau
and the holding of conferences in the southern States, particularly
those where no suffrage organization existed. It was originally hoped
that the National Association would encourage with active support the
development of this specialized suffrage work but it refused any
financial assistance.

The founders undaunted pursued their own plan of financing, when
suddenly through the generosity of Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont of New
York the wheels were set in motion. Under caution that secrecy be
maintained, Mrs. Belmont, a southern born woman, attracted by the
practicability of the plan, endorsed it by sending a check for
$10,000. Later at a meeting of the conference in Chattanooga, Tenn.,
she said: "I plead guilty to so strong a desire for the political
emancipation of women that I am not at all particular as to how it
shall be granted. I have sworn allegiance to the National Amendment
for woman suffrage, while the Southern States Conference, of which I
am proud to be a member, holds rigidly to the principle of State's
rights. As a southerner I thoroughly understand the problems which
create this attitude and if that method proves effective I shall
gratefully accept the results."

In May, 1914, the headquarters were opened in New Orleans with Mrs.
Ida Porter Boyer of Pennsylvania as their secretary. Within three
months 1,000 southern newspapers were using the specially prepared
weekly editorials and fillers sent out. In October was launched the
_New Southern Citizen_, a monthly suffrage magazine, which made its
initial trip with a distinctively southern suffrage appeal. This
little arsenal of facts reached every legislator in the South prior to
the sessions of the Legislatures. Special bills endorsed by
suffragists or women were made the theme of weekly news articles,
which called out editorials by wholesale. To illustrate: When
Mississippi women were making an effort to secure an amendment to
enable women to serve on public boards, an enthusiastic Mississippian
wrote to the conference of the support given by local papers in their
editorials and general comments. Every word printed had been furnished
by the news bulletins from the conference headquarters.

The work of the Southern Conference would be incomplete without
special mention of the valuable services of Mrs. Wesley Martin Stoner
of Washington, D. C. Mrs. Stoner had been sent as the special
representative of the National Association's Congressional Committee
to make a survey of southern conditions, in the winter of 1913-14, and
reported that her observations led her to believe that the best
results would be obtained by a furtherance of the policies of the
Southern Conference and from that time she became a valued worker in
its ranks.

The conference felt that in a great measure its chief purpose had been
achieved when the Democratic party, in its national platform of 1916,
went on record for woman suffrage by State enactment. It kept up an
active organization throughout the South, however, until May, 1917,
when the war situation demanded caution in continuing a movement which
was costing over $600 a month. An additional reason for discontinuance
was that Miss Gordon, who had been donating all of her time to the
work, was obliged to give attention to her own business affairs.

                                   [Prepared by Miss Kate Gordon.]


INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL MEN'S LEAGUES FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

The National Men's League for Woman Suffrage in the United States was
the outgrowth of the State League in New York, formed in 1910, an
account of which is in the New York chapter. National Leagues were
afterwards formed in other countries. In Great Britain the Earl of
Lytton was president and among the vice-presidents were Earl Russell,
the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, Sir John Cockburn, K.C., M.G., Forbes
Robertson, Israel Zangwill and others of prominence in various fields.
At the time of the congress of the International Woman Suffrage
Alliance in Stockholm in the summer of 1911 delegates from these
national leagues held a convention there and formed an International
Men's League. The United States League was represented by Frederick
Nathan of New York. A second international convention of National
Men's Leagues took place in London in 1912, the sessions continuing
one week. The third convention occurred in Budapest in June, 1913,
when the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held its congress and
the delegates were warmly welcomed by the Men's League of Hungary. In
1914 came the World War. At the next congress of the Alliance, in
Geneva in 1920, the International Men's League was represented by a
fraternal delegate, Colonel William Mansfeldt, president of the
National League of The Netherlands.

The New York Men's League soon received requests for information from
far and wide and it was evident that such a league was needed in every
State. Correspondence followed and in 1911 Omar E. Garwood, Assistant
District Attorney of Colorado, came to New York. An association of
influential men had been formed in that State two years before to
refute the misrepresentations of the effects of woman suffrage and he
was interested in the New York Men's League. While here he assisted in
organizing a National League and consented to act as secretary. James
Lees Laidlaw, a banker and public-spirited man of New York City, who
was at the head of the State Men's League, was the unanimous choice
for president and continued in this office until the Federal Woman
Suffrage Amendment was ratified in 1920. In a comparatively short time
Men's Leagues were formed in California, Colorado, Connecticut,
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and
Virginia.

As the years went by leagues were formed in other States and were more
or less active in furthering the cause of woman suffrage according to
their leaders. Their officers assisted the campaigns in various
States, spoke at hearings by committees of Congress and sent
delegations to the conventions of the National American Suffrage
Association. Here an evening was always set apart for their meetings,
at which Mr. Laidlaw presided, and addresses were made by men well
known nationally and locally. A delegation from the National League
marched in the big suffrage parade in Washington March 3, 1913. In
every State the members were of so much prominence as to give much
prestige to the movement. For instance in Pennsylvania Judge Dimner
Beeber was president and the Right Reverend James H. Darlington a
leading member. In Massachusetts Edwin D. Mead was president; former
Secretary of the Navy John D. Long vice-president; John Graham Brooks
treasurer; Francis H. Garrison chairman of the executive committee. A
similar roster could be given in other States. In New York the most
eminent men in many lines were connected with the league. The leagues
remained in existence until their services were no longer needed.


THE NATIONAL WOMAN'S PARTY.

The National Woman's Party was organized in the spring of 1913 under
the name of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. Its original
purpose was to support the work of the Congressional Committee of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association and its officers were the
members of that committee: Miss Alice Paul (N. J.); Miss Crystal
Eastman (Wis.); Miss Lucy Burns (N. Y.); Mrs. Lawrence Lewis (Penn.);
Mrs. Mary Beard (N. Y.). In successive years names added to its
executive committee were those of Mesdames Oliver H. P. Belmont,
William Kent, Gilson Gardner, Donald R. Hooker, John Winters Brannan,
Harriot Stanton Blatch, Florence Bayard Hilles, J. A. H. Hopkins,
Thomas N. Hepburn, Richard Wainwright; Miss Elsie Hill, Miss Anne
Martin and others. A large advisory committee was formed.

The object of the Union was the same as that of the National
Association--to secure an amendment to the Federal Constitution which
would give universal woman suffrage. At the annual convention of the
association in December, 1913, a new Congressional Committee was
appointed and the Congressional Union became an independent
organization. Its headquarters were in Washington, D. C. It never was
regularly organized by States, districts, etc., although there were
branches in various States. The work was centralized in the Washington
headquarters and the forces were easily mobilized. The exact
membership probably was never known by anybody. It was a small but
very active organization and Miss Paul was the supreme head with no
restrictions. A great deal of initiative was allowed to the workers in
other parts of the country who were often governed by the exigencies
of the situation. After the first few years annual conventions were
held in Washington.

While the principal object of the National Association always was a
Federal Amendment, for which it worked unceasingly, it realized that
Congress would not submit one until a number of States had made the
experiment and their enfranchised women could bring political pressure
to bear on the members. Therefore the association campaigned in the
States for amendments to their constitutions. The Union did no work of
this kind but when it was organized nine States had granted full
suffrage to women, the time was ripe for a big "drive" for a Federal
Amendment and it could utilize this tremendous backing. Within the
next five years six more States were added to the list, including the
powerful one of New York. In addition the National Association,
cooperating with the women in the States, had secured in fourteen
others the right for their women to vote for Presidential electors.
The Federal Amendment was a certainty of a not distant future but
there was yet a great deal of work to do.

In carrying on this work, while the two organizations followed similar
lines in many respects there were some marked differences. The
National Association was strictly non-partisan, made no distinction of
parties, and followed only constitutional methods. The Congressional
Union held the majority party in Congress wholly responsible for the
success or failure of the Federal Amendment and undertook to prevent
the re-election of its members. In the Congressional elections of 1914
its representatives toured the States where women could vote and urged
them to defeat all Democratic candidates regardless of their attitude
toward woman suffrage. This policy was followed in subsequent
campaigns.

In 1915 the Union held a convention in San Francisco during the
Panama-Pacific Exposition and sent envoys across the country with a
petition to President Wilson and Congress collected at its
headquarters during the exposition. In 1916 it held a three days'
convention in Chicago during the National Republican convention and at
this time organized the National Woman's Party with the Federal
Suffrage Amendment as the only plank in its platform and a Campaign
Committee was formed with Miss Anne Martin of Nevada as chairman. At a
meeting in Washington in March, 1917, the name Congressional Union was
officially changed to National Woman's Party and Miss Paul was elected
chairman.

On Jan. 10, 1917, the Union began the "picketing" of the White House,
delegations of women with banners standing at the gates all day "as a
perpetual reminder to President Wilson that they held him responsible
for their disfranchisement." They stood there unmolested for three
months and then the United States entered the war. Conditions were no
longer normal, feeling was intense and there were protests from all
parts of the country against this demonstration in front of the home
of the President. In June the police began arresting them for
"obstructing the traffic" and during the next six months over 200 were
arrested representing many States. They refused to pay their fines in
the police court and were sent to the jail and workhouse for from
three days to seven months. These were unsanitary, they were roughly
treated, "hunger strikes" and forcible feeding followed, there was
public indignation and on November 28 President Wilson pardoned all of
them and the "picketing" was resumed. Congress delayed action on the
Federal Amendment and members of the Union held meetings in Lafayette
Square and burned the President's speeches. Later they burned them and
a paper effigy of the President on the sidewalk in front of the White
House. Arrests and imprisonments followed.

While these violent tactics were being followed the Union worked also
along legitimate lines, organized parades, lobbied in Congress,
attended committee hearings, went to political conventions,
interviewed candidates and worked unceasingly. When the amendment was
submitted for ratification it transferred its activities to the
Legislatures and the Presidential candidates.

After the Federal Amendment was proclaimed a convention was called to
meet in Washington Feb. 15-19, 1921, and decide whether the
organization should disband or continue its work until women stood on
the same legal, civil, and economic basis as men. The convention
decided on the latter course. The name was retained. Miss Paul
insisted upon retiring from office and Miss Elsie Hill, who had long
been an officer, was elected chairman. A large executive committee was
named, headed by Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont of New York. An impressive
ceremony took place in the rotunda of the Capitol on February 15, the
101st birthday of Susan B. Anthony, when the party presented to
Congress a marble group of Miss Anthony, Mrs. Stanton and Lucretia
Mott, the work of Mrs. Adelaide Johnson, with representatives of sixty
organizations of women taking part. It was officially accepted by
Congress.

The National Woman's Party will undertake to secure a Federal
Amendment removing all disabilities on account of sex or marriage and
will also have bills for this purpose introduced in State
Legislatures. In 1921 Mrs. Belmont, who had been the largest
contributor, gave $146,000 for the purchase of a historic mansion in
Washington to be used for permanent headquarters and for a national
political clubhouse for women. At a new election Mrs. Belmont was made
president; Miss Paul vice-president and Miss Hill chairman of the
executive committee.


ASSOCIATIONS OPPOSED TO WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

The first society of women opposed to the suffrage seems to have been
formed in Washington, D. C., in 1871, with the wife of General
Sherman, the wife of Admiral Dahlgren and Mrs. Almira Lincoln Phelps,
a sister of Miss Emma Willard, as officers. Their first public effort
on record was two letters to the Washington _Post_ published in 1876
and a memorial from Mrs. Dahlgren in 1878 to a Senate Committee which
was to grant a hearing to the suffragists on a Federal Amendment.

An Anti-Suffrage Committee was formed in Massachusetts in the early
'80's with Mrs. Charles D. Homans as chairman. About twenty prominent
women signed a remonstrance against a State suffrage amendment, which
was first presented to the Legislature in 1884 and each year
afterwards when there was a resolution before it for this purpose. An
Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women was
organized in Massachusetts in May, 1895, with Mrs. J. Elliott Cabot
president and Mrs. Charles E. Guild secretary; Laurence Minot,
treasurer. Executive Committee, chairman, Mrs. Henry M. Whitney. A
paper called the _Remonstrance_, started about 1890, was published
quarterly in Boston, edited for some years by Frank Foxcroft. It
ceased publication October, 1920, at which time Mrs. J. M. Codman was
editor.

In 1894, when a convention for revising the constitution of New York
State was held, Anti-Suffrage Committees were formed in Brooklyn,
April 18; in New York City, April 25; in Albany, April 28. These
committees combined to form the New York State Association Opposed to
Woman Suffrage on April 8, 1895, with Mrs. Francis M. Scott,
president. The other States in which there was an association or
committee in late years were as follows: Alabama, Connecticut,
Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan,
Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D. C., Wisconsin.

The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was organized in
New York City in November, 1911, with the following officers:
President, Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge; vice-presidents, Miss Mary A. Ames,
Boston, and Mrs. Horace Brock, Philadelphia; secretary, Mrs. William
B. Glover, Fairfield, Conn.; treasurer, Mrs. Robert Garrett,
Baltimore. Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., succeeded Mrs. Dodge in July,
1917, and was followed by Miss Mary G. Kilbreth in 1920. The aim of
the association was "to increase general interest in the opposition to
universal woman suffrage and to educate the public in the belief that
women can be more useful to the community without the ballot than if
affiliated with and influenced by party politics." It held mass
meetings during campaigns; sent delegates to hearings given by
committees of Congress on a Federal Suffrage Amendment and other
matters connected with national woman suffrage; also to Legislatures
to oppose State amendments; sent speakers and workers to States where
amendment campaigns were in progress and circulated vast quantities of
literature.

The national headquarters were in New York City at 37 West 39th St.
until 1918 when they were moved to Washington, D. C. Three papers were
published, the _Anti-Suffragist_ in Albany; the _Woman's Protest_ in
New York from May, 1912 to March 1, 1918, when it was succeeded by the
_Woman Patriot_, published in Washington.


THE MAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.

It is difficult to get statistics of the men's association to prevent
woman suffrage. Everett P. Wheeler, a prominent lawyer of New York
City, always the moving spirit of the association and its branches,
sent the following information:

"The Man Suffrage Association, opposed to political suffrage for
women, was organized in New York in 1913 at the request of the State
Woman's Anti-Suffrage Association. Its officers were: Everett P.
Wheeler, chairman; executive committee: Walter C. Childs, Arthur B.
Church, John R. DosPassos, Chas. S. Fairchild, Eugene D. Hawkins,
Henry W. Hayden, George Douglas Miller, Robert K. Prentice, Louis T.
Romaine, Herbert L. Satterlee, George W. Seligman, Prof. Munroe Smith,
Francis Lynde Stetson, John C. Ten Eyck, Gilbert M. Tucker, Dr.
Talcott Williams, George W. Wickersham.

"The association issued many pamphlets, briefs, legal arguments,
articles and speeches by prominent men, editorials, etc. The Case
Against Woman Suffrage, a pamphlet of 80 pages, was prepared as a
Manual for writers, lecturers and debaters and contained historical
sketches, statistics, opinions of men and women, bibliography, answers
to suffrage arguments--a mass of information from the viewpoint of
opponents.

"The association continued in existence until after the adoption of
the suffrage amendment to the State constitution of New York in
November, 1917. It was not national in scope but was in affiliation
with similar societies in other States. The name of the New Jersey
association was Men's Anti-Suffrage League and its principal officers
were: Colonel William Libbey, president; Edward Q. Keasbey,
vice-president; Walter C. Ellis, secretary; John C. Eisele, treasurer.
There was also an association in Maryland and other States.

"The name of the New York association was not changed but in November,
1917, a new one called the American Constitutional League, was formed.
The reason for the change was that the question so far as the
constitution of New York was concerned had been settled by vote and
agitation was being pressed with vigor in Congress for the proposal by
that body of a National Suffrage Amendment. This league is still in
existence (1920). It was active in opposing the adoption of the
Federal Amendment, was heard before committees of Congress and
afterwards before committees of the Legislatures opposing
ratification. It is national in its scope and has members in fifteen
States.

"When it was announced that the Legislature of West Virginia had
passed a resolution ratifying the Federal Amendment, the league
presented to Secretary of State Colby the evidence that it had not
been legally adopted. This evidence he declared he had no power to
consider but was bound by any certificate he might receive from the
Secretary of West Virginia. The league also urged upon him that under
the constitution of Tennessee, when the Legislature was called in
extra session it had no power to ratify the amendment. This evidence
he also declined to consider. Thereupon a suit was brought in the
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia to restrain him from issuing
the proclamation of ratification. The ground was taken that the
proposed amendment was not within the amending power of Article V of
the National Constitution; that its first ten amendments form a Bill
of Rights which can only be changed by the unanimous consent of all
the States. It was contended that it was essential to a republican
form of government that the States should have the right to regulate
and determine the qualifications for suffrage for the election of
their own officers and that the guarantee in the National Constitution
of a republican form of government would be violated if this amendment
should be held to be valid. The bill was dismissed in the Supreme
Court on several grounds, partly technical, and the decree was
affirmed in the District Court of Appeals apparently on the ground
that the proclamation of ratification was not final. An appeal from
this decree is now pending in the Supreme Court of the United States.
All this litigation has been conducted by the American Constitutional
League.

"The New York headquarters are in Mr. Wheeler's office in William
Street; the Washington headquarters are where the official
anti-suffrage organ, the _Woman Patriot_, is published. While the
declared object of the League is 'to protect the Federal Constitution
from further invasion' the only effort it has made is to defeat woman
suffrage. The Hon. Charles S. Fairchild, Secretary of the Treasury
under President Cleveland, is president; honorary vice-presidents, Dr.
Lyman Abbott, Francis Lynde Stetson, Herbert L. Satterlee, George W.
Wickersham, John C. Milburn, George W. Seligman, the Rev. Anson P.
Atterbury and Dr. William P. Manning; Mr. Wheeler, chairman of the
executive committee."

During the struggle to secure ratification of the Federal Suffrage
Amendment from the Tennessee Legislature in August, 1920, Mr. Wheeler
went to that State and a branch of the league was formed there. The
strongest possible fight against it was made. Chancellor Vertrees
wrote articles and delivered speeches against it. Professor G. W. Dyer
of Vanderbilt University; Frank P. Bond, a Nashville attorney, and
others made a speaking tour of the State. When Governor Roberts sent
the certificate of ratification to Secretary of State Colby, Speaker
of the House Seth M. Walker headed a delegation to Washington to
protest against its being accepted. Failing in this they went on to
Connecticut to try to prevent ratification by its Legislature.

In Maryland the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association took the name of
League for State Defense. Having defeated ratification in the
Legislature of that State a delegation went to the West Virginia
Legislature in a vain effort to prevent it there. After Maryland women
had voted in 1920, suit was brought in the Court of Common Pleas to
invalidate the action in the name of Judge Oscar Leser and twenty
members of the league's board of managers. Receiving an adverse
decision they carried the case to the Court of Appeals, which
sustained the decision. Mr. Wheeler and William L. Marbury, George
Arnold Frick and Thomas F. Cadwalader of Baltimore represented the
league. They carried the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it
remains at present.[145]


FOOTNOTES:

[142] The following were the officers of the National College Equal
Suffrage League at the time it disbanded: President, M. Carey Thomas,
president of Bryn Mawr College; First vice-president, Dr. Anna Howard
Shaw, honorary president of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association; vice-presidents: Mary E. Woolley, president of Mount
Holyoke College; Ellen F. Pendleton, president of Wellesley College;
Lucy M. Salmon, professor of history in Vassar College; Lillian Welch,
professor of physiology and hygiene in Goucher College (Baltimore);
Virginia C. Gildersleeve, dean of Barnard College (Columbia
University); Lois K. Mathews, dean of women in the University of
Wisconsin; Eva Johnston, dean of women in the University of Missouri;
Florence M. Fitch, dean of college women and professor of Biblical
literature, Oberlin College; Maud Wood Park, Boston; executive
secretary, Mrs. Ethel Puffer Howes, New York City; treasurer, Mrs.
Raymond B. Morgan, president Washington, D. C., Collegiate Alumnæ.

     ETHEL PUFFER HOWES,               M. CAREY THOMAS,
          Executive Secretary.                 President.

[143] The History is indebted for this sketch to Anne Webb (Mrs. O.
Edward) Janney, president of the Friends' Equal Rights Association and
superintendent of the department of equal rights of the Committee of
Philanthropic Labor of the Friends' General Conference.

[144] Detailed accounts of these conferences may be found in the
_Woman's Journal_ (Boston) of the dates following those on which they
were held.

[145] As this volume goes to press the U. S. Supreme Court on Feb. 27,
1922, rendered a unanimous adverse decision in both cases and declared
that the Federal Amendment had been legally ratified.




CHAPTER XXII.

THE LEAGUE OF WOMAN VOTERS.[146]


The League of Women Voters was first mentioned at the convention of
the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Washington, D. C.,
Dec. 12-15, 1917, when its president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
outlined a plan to unite the women of the equal suffrage States. She
suggested organization committees of five women in each, these
committees to be united in a central body known as the National League
of Women Voters. Upon the enfranchisement of its women each State
would automatically join the organization, which would provide a way
to retain suffrage associations for work on the Federal Amendment and
various reforms. It was voted that a committee be appointed to
undertake such a plan of organization. [Handbook of convention, page
48.]

The League of Women Voters was organized at the national convention in
St. Louis March 24-29, 1919, in commemoration of the Fiftieth
Anniversary of the first grant of suffrage on equal terms with men in
the world (in Wyoming) and the Fiftieth Anniversary of the
organization of the first National Woman Suffrage Association. Women
were eligible at this time to vote for President in twenty-eight
States. The submission of the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment was
promised by the Sixty-sixth Congress and early ratification was
assured, so that the object for which the association had labored
through half a century of arduous sacrifice and toil was nearly
attained. The natural question, therefore, was, Should the association
make plans to dissolve immediately upon ratification or was there
reason for continuance?

On the opening night of the convention Mrs. Catt answered this
question and gave the purpose and aims of the new organization in her
address The Nation Calls. She said in part:

     Every suffragist will hope for a memorial dedicated to the memory
     of our brave departed leaders, to the sacrifices they made for
     our cause, to the scores of victories won.... I venture to
     propose one whose benefits will bless our entire nation and bring
     happiness to the humblest of our citizens--the most natural, the
     most appropriate and the most patriotic memorial that could be
     suggested--a League of Women Voters to "finish the fight" and to
     aid in the reconstruction of the nation. What could be more
     natural than that women having attained their political
     independence should desire to give service in token of their
     gratitude? What could be more appropriate than that such women
     should do for the coming generation what those of a preceding did
     for them? What could be more patriotic than that these women
     should use their new freedom to make the country safer for their
     children and their children's children?

     Let us then raise up a League of Women Voters, the name and form
     of organization to be determined by the members themselves; a
     league that shall be non-partisan and non-sectarian and
     consecrated to three chief aims: 1. To use its influence to
     obtain the full enfranchisement of the women of every State in
     our own republic and to reach out across the seas in aid of the
     woman's struggle for her own in every land. 2. To remove the
     remaining legal discriminations against women in the codes and
     constitutions of the several States in order that the feet of
     coming women may find these stumbling blocks removed. 3. To make
     our democracy so safe for the nation and so safe for the world
     that every citizen may feel secure and great men will acknowledge
     the worthiness of the American republic to lead.

The following ten points covered by Mrs. Catt in her address were
adopted later as the first aims of the League of Women Voters and made
the plan of work for the Committee on American Citizenship: 1.
Compulsory education in every State for all children between six and
sixteen during nine months of each year. 2. Education of adults by
extension classes of the public schools. 3. English made the national
language by having it compulsory in all public and private schools
where courses in general education are conducted. 4. Higher
qualifications for citizenship and more sympathetic and impressive
ceremonials for naturalization. 5. Direct citizenship for women, not
through marriage, as a qualification for the vote. 6. Naturalization
for married women to be made possible. 7. Compulsory publication in
foreign language newspapers of lessons in citizenship. 8. Schools of
citizenship in conjunction with the public schools, a certificate from
such schools to be a qualification for naturalization and for the
vote. 9. An oath of allegiance to the United States to be one
qualification for the vote for every citizen native and foreign born.
10. An educational qualification for the vote in all States after a
definite date to be determined.

With Mrs. Catt in the chair and Miss Katharine Pierce of Oklahoma
secretary, after full discussion the League of Women Voters was
launched to replace the National American Woman Suffrage Association
when the work for which the latter was organized was fully
accomplished. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president of the
association, expressed herself as "whole-heartedly in favor of the
proposed action." [Handbook of convention, page 43.] Mrs. Charles H.
Brooks of Kansas was elected national chairman. The recommendations of
the sub-committees on organization plans, Mrs. Raymond Brown (N. Y.)
chairman, were adopted as follows: 1. The Council of the League of
Women Voters will consist of the presidents of the States having full,
Presidential or Primary suffrage and the chairmen of the Ratification
Committees in the seven States of Montana, Idaho, Washington,
Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and Wyoming--this Council to pass upon all
policies of the league and approve the legislative programs. 2. The
permanent chairman, who will also be chairman of the legislative
committee, will conduct correspondence, direct organization in
unorganized States and visit States with the view of stimulating
organization and clarifying the objects of the league, the work for
suffrage to remain in the National Congressional Committee and the
State Ratification Committees. 3. The State Leagues of Women Voters
will consist of individual members and organized committees with the
addition of associations already established which subscribe to the
principles of the league. At the regular State convention or at a
special State conference to be called the object of the league will be
set forth and each department presented, with publicity and
advertising to bring it to the attention of the public.

Eight departments each composed of a national chairman and one woman
from every State were recommended, the members of these departments
to become familiar with all laws on the subjects under consideration,
recommend legislative programs, prepare and issue literature on their
subjects and work in the States through the State committees. A
"budget" of $20,000 was recommended.

The program for the Women in Industry Committee presented by Mrs.
Raymond Robins (Ills.) was adopted. The greatest needs for Unification
and Improvement of Laws defining the Legal Status of Women were named
by Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.), such as joint guardianship
of children, marriage and divorce laws, property rights, industry,
civil service, morality, child welfare and elections. Education was
set forth as the best means to Social Morality and Social Hygiene by
Dr. Valeria Parker (Conn.). Miss Julia Lathrop (Washington, D. C.),
chief of the Federal Child Welfare Bureau, spoke on present needs,
saying: "Child labor and an educated community, child labor and modern
democracy cannot co-exist.... Time does not wait, the child lives or
dies. If he lives he takes up his life well or ill equipped, not as he
chooses but as we choose for him."

The following needed Improvements of Election Laws were named by Mrs.
Ellis Meredith (Colo.): _Federal_--A national amendment guaranteeing
women the franchise on the same terms as men; restricting the
franchise to those who are citizens; repealing the Act of 1907 which
disfranchises women marrying foreigners; an extension of the present
five-year time after which a foreigner becomes a full citizen by
virtue of having taken out two sets of papers and giving the oath of
allegiance. _State_--Adoption of the Australian ballot; reduction of
number of ballots printed to not more than 5 per cent. more than
registration; for "military" and "poll tax" substitution of "election
tax," to be remitted to persons voting and collected from those
failing to do so when not unavoidably prevented by illness; adoption
of absent voter law--Montana or Minnesota statutes recommended;
discontinuance of vehicles except for sick or feeble or crippled
persons; even division of Judges between major political parties,
examination required, more latitude in appointment and removal for
cause; election of judicial, legislative and educational officers at a
different time from that for national and State.

Miss Jessie R. Haver, legislative representative of the National
Consumers' League and executive secretary of the Consumers' League of
the District of Columbia, read a paper on The Government and the
Market Basket, after which she presented a resolution urging the
chairman of the Senate and House Interstate Commerce Committee to
re-introduce and pass the bill drafted by the Federal Trade Commission
in reference to the Packers' Trust.

During the convention sectional conferences were held on the
department subjects. Out of these conferences came many suggestions
and two resolutions were adopted: 1. That the League of Women Voters
supports the Federal Trade Commission in its efforts to secure
remedial legislation in the meat-packing industry. 2. That the
convention endorses the principle of federal aid to the States for the
removal of adult illiteracy and the Americanization of the adult
foreign born.

In June, 1919, the initial conference of the president, Mrs. Brooks,
and the committee chairmen of the League of Women Voters, was held at
the headquarters of the National Suffrage Association, 171 Madison
Avenue, New York City, and plans were made to render the league
effective throughout the United States.

       *       *       *       *       *

The record of the action of the Official Board of the National
American Woman Suffrage Association in 1919 on questions pertaining to
the League of Women Voters is as follows: In April it was voted that
the Americanization Committee and the Committee on Protection of Women
in Industry of the association be united with the committees of the
same name in the league. In May the following chairmen for new
committees were selected, subject to endorsement of the Council of the
league: Mrs. Edward P. Costigan, Washington, D. C., Food Supply and
Demand; Mrs. Jacob Baur (Ills.), Improvement of Election Laws and
Methods; Mrs. Percy V. Pennbacker (Tex.), Child Welfare. In July an
appropriation of $200 for each of the eight departments of the league
was made from the treasury of the association.

As the National Association was the convener of the first congress of
the League of Women Voters and there was no method of determining the
number of delegates that any league was entitled to, the Board on
December 30, in preparation for the approaching annual convention in
Chicago, adopted the following resolution: 1. That each State
auxiliary of the association be invited to secure for the league
congress, which would be held at the same time, one delegate from the
State Federation of Women's Clubs, one from the State Woman's
Christian Temperance Union and one from the State Women's Trade Union
League; and ten delegates at large from the national organizations of
each. 2. That invitations be extended to the following national
bodies, asking each to send ten delegates at large: Association of
Collegiate Alumnæ, International Child Welfare League, Ladies of the
Grand Army of the Republic, Ladies of the Maccabees, National Council
of Jewish Women, National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers'
Associations, Federation of College Women, Florence Crittenden
Mission, Women's Relief Corps, Women's Relief Society, Women's Benefit
Association of the Maccabees, Women's Department National Civic
Federation, United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Young Women's
Christian Association. 3. That each of the ten unorganized western
States be entitled to ten delegates to be secured by the chairman of
ratification.

At the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association
and the League of Women Voters in Chicago Feb. 12-18, 1920, there were
present 507 delegates, 102 alternates and 89 fraternal delegates.
Among the resolutions for dissolving the association recommended by
its Executive Council and adopted by vote of the delegates was the
following pertaining to the League of Women Voters:

_Citizenship_--Whereas, millions of women will become voters in 1920,
and, Whereas, the low standards of citizenship found in the present
electorate clearly indicate the need of education in the principles
and ideals of our Government and the methods of political procedure,
therefore be it resolved: 1. That the National League of Women Voters
be urged to make Political Education for the new women voters (but not
excluding men) its first duty for 1920. 2. That the nation-wide plan
shall include normal schools for citizenship in each State followed by
schools in each county. 3. That we urge the League of Women Voters to
make every effort to have the study of citizenship required in the
public schools of every State, beginning in the primary grades and
continuing through the upper grades, high schools, normal schools,
colleges and universities.

The recommendations were: 1. That the League of Women Voters, now a
section of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, be
organized as a new and independent society. 2. That the present State
auxiliaries of the association, while retaining their relationship in
form to the Board of Officers to be elected in this convention, shall
change their names, objects and constitutions to conform to those of
the league and take up the plan of work to be adopted in its first
congress.

At the opening session of the congress of the League of Women Voters
Saturday afternoon, February 14, Mrs. Brooks, the chairman, presiding,
Mrs. Catt was made permanent chairman and Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson
recording secretary for the convention. By vote of the convention the
chair named the following committees and chairmen: Constitution, Mrs.
Raymond Brown (N. Y.); Nominations, Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.);
Regions, Mrs. Andreas Ueland (Wis.). The constitution was adopted
defining the aims of the league--to foster education in citizenship;
to urge every woman to become an enrolled voter, but as an
organization the league not to be allied with or support any party.

Following are the officers elected for 1920-1921, the regional
division of States and the chairmen of departments: Directors at
Large--Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.), Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.),
Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Ala.). Board as Organized--Chairman, Mrs.
Park; vice-chairman, Mrs. Gellhorn; treasurer, Mrs. Edwards;
secretary, Mrs. Jacobs. Mrs. Catt was made honorary chairman by the
board.

Regional Directors--First Region: Miss Katharine Ludington
(Conn.)--Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and
Rhode Island. Second: Mrs. F. Louis Slade (N. Y.)--New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. Third: Miss Ella Dortch
(Tenn.)--Virginia, District of Columbia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and
Tennessee. Fourth: Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser (O.)--Michigan, Ohio,
Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Fifth: Mrs.
James Paige (Minn.)--Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Wyoming and Montana. Sixth: Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.)--Nebraska,
Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri.
Seventh: Mrs. C. B. Simmons (Ore.)--Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada,
Utah, Arizona and California.

Chairmen of Departments.--1. American Citizenship, Mrs. Frederick P.
Bagley, Boston; 2. Protection of Women in Industry, Miss Mary
McDowell, Chicago; 3. Child Welfare, Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, Austin
(Tex.); Social Hygiene, Dr. Valeria H. Parker, Hartford (Conn.); 5.
Unification of Laws Concerning Civil Status of Women, Mrs. Catharine
Waugh McCulloch, Chicago; 6. Improvement in Election Laws and Methods,
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, New York; 7. Food Supply and Demand, Mrs.
Edward P. Costigan, Washington, D. C.; 8. Research, Mrs. Mary Sumner
Boyd, New York.

The recommendations of the Committee on Plans for Citizenship Schools,
appointed by the National Suffrage Association, Mrs. Nettie Rogers
Shuler, chairman, were adopted as follows:

1. That a normal school be held in the most available large city in
each State, to which every county shall be asked to send one or more
representatives, the school to be open to all local people. 2. That no
State shall feel that it has approached the task of training for
citizenship which has not had at least one school in every county,
followed by schools in as many townships and wards as possible, with
the ultimate aim of reaching the women of every election district. 3.
That minimum requirement of a citizenship school should include (a)
the study of local, State and national government; (b) the technique
of voting and election laws; (c) organization and platform of
political parties; (d) the League of Women Voters--its aims, its
platforms, its plans of work. 4. That each State employ a director for
citizenship schools to be under the direction of the national director
of such schools. 5. That the States urge the assistance of State
universities through summer schools, extension departments and active
participation by professors from these departments to make the
teaching of citizenship of real benefit to the State. 6. That the
States invite the cooperation of local men who are experienced in
public affairs and that every agency, including that of publicity, be
employed which will tend to increased interest in the teaching of
citizenship. 7. That the States try to make the study of citizenship
compulsory in the public schools from the primary grades up.

The following resolutions were adopted: 1. That a copy of the
legislative program as selected by the Board of Directors shall be
submitted to all State presidents and presidents of national women's
organizations for approval, and that a deputation from the League of
Women Voters be sent to the conventions of two at least of the
dominant political parties to present this program to the delegates
and to chairmen of the Resolutions Committees if announced in advance,
leaders of these parties having been previously interviewed or
circularized. 2. That the recommendations of the standing committees
as accepted by the convention be referred to the Board of Directors of
the League of Women Voters; after consultation with the chairmen the
Board in turn to pass on its recommendations to the State chairmen
with the request that they use as many of them as possible. 3. That
resolutions relating to Federal legislation, after submission to the
National Board, be considered binding; that resolutions affecting
State legislation be considered recommendations to be submitted to
States. 4. That in order to create a better understanding of the
purposes of the League of Women Voters and its relation to other
national organizations of women, the directors of the league make the
purposes of the league exceedingly clear to local groups--namely, that
its function is for the purpose of fostering education in citizenship
and of supporting improved legislation; that as far as possible
organizations already existing and doing similar work be used and
asked to cooperate in the work of educating women to an understanding
of these purposes; that a Committee on Congressional Legislation be
created with headquarters in Washington and that in addition to a
chairman the committee be made up of a representative from each of
the great national organizations of women.

It was moved by Mrs. John L. Pyle (S. D.), seconded by Mrs. Harriet
Taylor Upton (O.) and carried by the convention that, Whereas, all
women citizens of the United States would today be fully enfranchised
had not James W. Wadsworth, Jr., misrepresented his State and his
party when continuously and repeatedly voting, working and
manoeuvering against the proposed 19th Amendment to the Federal
Constitution, be it Resolved, That we, representing the enfranchised
women of the country, extend to the women of New York our appreciation
and our help in their patriotic work of determining to send to the U.
S. Senate to succeed the said James W. Wadsworth, Jr., a modern-minded
Senator who will be capable of comprehending the great American
principles of freedom and democracy.

Before the convention opened there were eight conferences followed by
dinners presided over by the chairmen of the departments. The voting
members of each conference were the chairman and forty-eight State
members and representatives of other agencies doing the same work. The
purpose of each conference was to formulate a legislative program
combining the best judgment and experience of all workers for the same
cause. This program was presented to the convention of the League of
Women Voters for its consideration and after adoption it became the
platform to which the league was pledged. These conferences were open
to visitors without speaking or voting privileges.

The program as submitted by the chairmen, approved by the conferences
and amended and adopted by the convention was as follows: Women in
Industry, Mrs. Raymond Robins; recommendations presented by Miss Grace
Abbott (Ills.):

     I. We affirm our belief in the right of the workers to bargain
     collectively through trade unions and we regard the organization
     of working women as especially important because of the peculiar
     handicaps from which they suffer in the labor market.

     II. We call attention to the fact that it is still necessary for
     us to urge that wages should be paid on the basis of occupation
     and not on sex.

     III. We recommend to Congress and the Federal Government: 1. The
     establishment in the U. S. Department of Labor of a permanent
     Women's Bureau with a woman as chief and an appropriation
     adequate for the investigation of all matters pertaining to wage
     earning women and the determination of standards and policies
     which will promote their welfare, improve their working
     conditions and increase their efficiency. 2. The appointment of
     women in the Mediation and Conciliation Service of the U. S.
     Department of Labor and on any industrial commission or tribunal
     which may hereafter be created. 3. The establishment of a Joint
     Federal and State Employment Service with women's departments
     under the direction of technically qualified women. 4. The
     adoption of a national constitutional amendment giving to
     Congress the power to establish minimum labor standards and the
     enactment by Congress of a Child Labor Law extending the
     application of the present Federal child labor tax laws, raising
     the age minimum for general employment from 14 to 15 years and
     the age for employment at night to 18 years. 5. Recognizing the
     importance of a world-wide standardization of industry we favor
     the participation of the United States in the International Labor
     Conference and the appointment of a woman delegate to the next
     conference.

     IV. We recommend to the States legislative provision for: 1. The
     limitation of the hours of work for wage earning women in
     industrial undertakings to not more than 8 hours in any one day
     or 44 hours in any one week and the granting of one day's rest in
     seven. 2. The prohibition of night work for women in industrial
     undertakings. 3. The compulsory payment of a minimum wage to be
     fixed by a Minimum Wage Commission at an amount which will insure
     to the working woman a proper standard of health, comfort and
     efficiency. 4. Adequate appropriations for the enforcement of
     labor laws and the appointment of technically qualified women as
     factory inspectors and as heads of women in industry divisions in
     the State Factory Inspection Departments.

     V. We urge upon the Federal Board of Vocational Education and
     upon State and local Boards of Commissioners of Education the
     necessity of giving to girls and women full opportunity for
     education along industrial lines, and we further recommend the
     appointment of women familiar with the problems of women in
     industry as members and agents of the Federal Board of Vocational
     Education and of similar State and local Boards.

     VI. Recognizing that the Federal, State and Local Governments are
     the largest employers of labor in the United States, we urge (a)
     an actual merit system of appointment and promotion based on
     qualifications for the work to be performed, these qualifications
     to be determined in open competition, free from special privilege
     or preference of any kind and especially free from discrimination
     on the ground of sex; (b) A reclassification of the present
     Federal civil service upon this basis with a wage or salary scale
     determined by the skill and training required for the work to be
     performed and not on the basis of sex; (c) A minimum wage in
     Federal, State and local service which shall not be less than the
     cost of living as determined by official investigations; (d)
     Provisions for an equitable retirement system for superannuated
     public employees; (e) Enlarging of Federal and State Civil
     Service Commissions so as to include three groups in which men
     and women shall be equally represented; namely, representatives
     of the administrative officials, of the employees and of the
     general public, and (f) The delegating to such commissions of
     full power and responsibility for the maintenance of an
     impartial, non-political and efficient administration.

     VII. Finally this department recommends that the League of Women
     Voters shall keep in touch with the Women's Bureau of the U. S.
     Department of Labor securing information as to the success or
     failure of protective legislation in this and other countries, as
     to standards that are being discussed and adopted and as to the
     results of investigations that are made.

Upon motion of Miss Abbott, duly seconded, it was voted that the
following resolutions be adopted: "That the report of the Women in
Industry Department of the National League of Women Voters in its
entirety be officially transmitted by the secretary to the
congressional legislative bodies or committees thereof before which
legislation on the subject is now pending and to the administrative
officials who may have authority to act upon any of its
recommendations; that the article concerning the establishment on a
permanent basis of the Women's Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor
be telegraphed tonight to Representative James W. Good and Senator
Francis E. Warren, chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations
Committees in Congress, and to Senator William S. Kenyon and
Representative J. M. C. Smith, chairmen of the Senate and House
Committees on Labor before which this legislation is now pending; that
the whole of the article concerning the Federal civil service be
telegraphed tonight to Senator A. A. Jones, chairman of the Joint
Congressional Commission on Reclassification of the Federal Service;
to Senator Kenyon of the State Labor Committee; Senator Thomas
Sterling and Representative Frederick R. Lehbach, chairmen of the
Senate and House Committees on the Civil Service.

Food Supply and Demand, Mrs. Edward P. Costigan, chairman. Whereas, in
addition to the results of inflated currency due to the war, the high
cost of living in the United States is increased and the production of
necessary food supplies diminished by unduly restrictive private
control of the channels of commerce, markets and other distributing
facilities by large food organizations and combinations; and, Whereas,
if our civilization is to fulfil its promise, it is vital that
nourishing food be brought and kept within the reach of every home and
especially of all the growing children of the nation, be it

Resolved, First, that the principles and purposes of the
Kenyon-Kendrick-Anderson Bills now pending in Congress for the
regulation of the meat-packing industry be endorsed for prompt and
effective enactment into laws and that this declaration be brought to
the attention of the leading political parties in advance of an urgent
request for corresponding and unqualified platform pledges; Second,
that the Food Supply and Demand Committee be authorized to keep in
touch with the progress of the proposed legislation and to cooperate
with the National Consumers' League, the American Live Stock
Association, the Farmers' National Council and other organizations of
like policy in an effort to promote through legislation the
realization of such principles and purposes; furthermore, that the
committee be authorized to confer with the Department of Agriculture
in regard to the extension of its service, with a view to establishing
long-distance information to enable shippers and producers to know
daily the supplies and demands of the food market; Third, that the
early enactment of improved State and Federal Laws to prevent food
profiteering, waste and improper hoarding is urged and the strict
enforcement of all such present laws is demanded; Fourth, that the
various State Leagues of Women Voters are requested to consider the
advisability of establishing public markets, abattoirs, milk depots
and other terminal facilities; Fifth, that aid be extended to all
branches of the league in spreading knowledge of the methods and
benefits of legitimate cooperative associations and that endorsement
be given to suitable national and State legislation favoring their
organization and use.

The meat packers asked for a hearing and by vote of the convention ten
minutes were allowed them to present their case. This was done by
Louis D. Weld, manager of the commercial research department of Swift
and Company, Chicago, who said during his remarks: "I believe you
ladies are not prepared to pass on such a vital matter as this
proposed legislation; it is a mighty complicated and intricate
subject." A decided titter ran around the room. Women who had been
making a study of the question from the home side for a number of
years did not resent being told that they did not understand it but
they smiled at a man's coming to tell them so. To show that they were
fair, when he said that the packers did a great amount of good in
carrying food in time of war he was cheered. His argument had no
effect. After he had finished the league adopted the committee's
recommendations and passed the resolution against which the packers
had directed their efforts.

Social Hygiene, Dr. Valeria H. Parker, chairman. Resolutions
recommended and adopted on the abolition of commercialized
prostitution: (a) The abolition of all segregated or protected vice
districts and the elimination of houses used for vicious purposes. (b)
Punishment of frequenters of disorderly houses and penalization of the
payment of money for prostitution as well as its receipt. (c) Heavy
penalties for pimps, panderers, procurers and go-betweens. (d)
Prevention of solicitation in streets and public places by men and
women. (e) Elimination of system of petty fines and establishment of
indeterminate sentences. (f) Strict enforcement of laws against
alcohol and drug trades.

Drastic resolutions were passed for the control of venereal diseases,
applying alike to men and women. Those on delinquents, minors and
defectives were as follows: (a) Legal age of consent to be not less
than 18 and laws to include protection of boys under 18 as well as of
girls. (b) Trying cases involving sex offenses in chancery courts
instead of in criminal courts is advocated. (c) Mental examination and
diagnosis of all children, registration of abnormal cases, education
suited to their possibilities; supervision during and after school
age; custodial care for those unable to adjust to a normal
environment. (d) Reformatory farms for delinquent men and women ...
these institutions to have trained officers. (f) Women on governing
boards of all charitable and penal institutions; as probation and
parole officers; as State and local police; as protective officers; as
court officials, as jurors; as physicians in institutions for women
and on all State and local boards of health. The committee recommends
the establishment of local protective homes for girls in all the
larger cities, proper detention quarters for women awaiting trial and
separate detention quarters for juvenile offenders, as well as
Travelers' Aid agents at all large railroad stations and steamship
embarkation points.

Child Welfare--Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, chairman. The resolutions
adopted covered: 1. The endorsement of the Sheppard-Towner Bill for
the Public Protection of Maternity and Infancy; (2) of the principle
of a bill for physical education about to be introduced into Congress
to be administered by the Bureau of Education of the Department of the
Interior; (3) of an appropriation of $472,220 for the Children's
Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor; (4) of the Gard-Curtis Bill
for the regulation of child labor in the District of Columbia.

American Citizenship--Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley, chairman. Resolutions
provided for: 1. Compulsory education which shall include adequate
training in citizenship in every State for all children between six
and sixteen nine months of each year. 2. Education of adults by
extension classes of the public schools. 3. English made the basic
language of instruction in the common-school branches in all schools
public and private. 4. Specific qualifications for citizenship and
impressive ceremonials for naturalization. 5. Direct citizenship for
women, not through marriage, as a qualification for the vote. 6.
Naturalization for married women made possible, American women to
retain their citizenship after marriage to an alien. 7. Printed
citizenship instruction in the foreign languages for the use of the
foreign born, as a function of the Federal Government. 8. Schools of
citizenship in conjunction with the public schools, a certificate from
such schools to be a qualification for the educational test for
naturalization. 9. An educational qualification for the vote in all
States after a sufficient period of time and ample opportunity for
education have been allowed.

Laws Concerning the Legal Status of Women, Mrs. Catharine Waugh
McCulloch, chairman. Following resolutions presented and adopted: 1.
Independent citizenship for married women. 2. Equal interest of
spouses in each other's real estate. 3. The married woman's wages and
business under her sole control. 4. Just civil service laws in all
cities and States now under the spoils system; amendments to existing
civil service laws to enable men and women to have equal rights in
examinations and appointments. 5. Mothers' pensions with a minimum
amount adequate and definite; the maximum amount left to the
discretion of the administering court; the benefits of all such laws
extended to necessitous cases above the age specified in the law, at
the discretion of the administering body, and residence qualifications
required. 6. The minimum "age of consent" eighteen years. 7. Equal
guardianship by both parents of the persons and the property of
children, the Utah law being a model. 8. Legal workers should read a
book published by the Department of Labor entitled Illegitimacy Laws
of the United States. 9. A Court should be established having original
exclusive jurisdiction over all affairs pertaining to the child and
his interests. 10. The marriage age for women should be eighteen
years, for men twenty-one years. The State should require health
certificates before issuing marriage licenses. There should be Federal
legislation on marriage and divorce and statutes prohibiting the
evasion of marriage laws. 11. Laws should provide that women be
subject to jury service and the unit vote of jurors in civil cases
should be abolished. 12. Members of committees of the League of Women
Voters should not use their connection with the league to assist any
political party.

On February 17 Miss Mary Garrett Hay in an appeal for funds secured
pledges of $44,450. Of this sum the amount of $15,000 by the Leslie
Commission was offered by Mrs. Catt as follows:

(1) The _Woman Citizen_ as an organ of the league until Jan. 1, 1921,
at which time we believe that it should issue a Bulletin of its own.

(2) The full use of the publicity department of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association until May 1, 1920.

(3) The remainder for the use of the league during the year.

Following the convention Mrs. Catt conducted a School of Political
Education in the Auditorium of Recital Hall, in Chicago, February
19-24. Its aim was to train women already equipped with competent
knowledge of civil government and political science to teach new
voters the ideals of American Citizenship, the processes of
registering and casting a vote, the methods of making nominations and
platforms, the nature of political parties and the best ways of using
a vote to get what they want and to effect the general welfare of the
people. Mrs. Catt urged each State to hold a similar State school to
be followed by others in every election district, to carry the message
to every woman that good citizens not only register and vote but know
how to do so and why they do it; to set a standard of good citizenship
with an "irreducible minimum" of qualifications below which no person
can fall and lay claim to the title good citizen. It was planned to
give certificates of endorsement to those who passed 75 per cent. in
the examinations at the close.

A widespread demand arose for Citizenship Schools, requests coming
even from women who were indifferent or opposed to suffrage but who,
now that the vote was assured, were anxious to make good and
intelligent use of the ballot. Under the direction of Mrs. Gellhorn,
vice-chairman of the National League of Women Voters and chairman of
Organization, twenty-seven field directors were employed and schools
held in thirty-five States. Missouri had 102 schools, Nebraska 30,
Ohio 35. In sixteen States, the State universities cooperated with the
League of Women Voters in their citizenship work. Those of Iowa and
Virginia employed in their extension departments directors of
citizenship schools, who, responding to calls, went to various
localities and conducted courses in citizenship. That of Missouri put
in a required course for every freshman, with five hours' credit. A
normal training school was conducted in St. Louis in August and a
correspondence course of twelve lessons was issued and used by
forty-two States. In many cases these schools made a thorough study of
the fundamental principles of government.

In compliance with the instruction of the convention the Board of
Directors of the League of Women Voters at its post-convention meeting
in Chicago selected from the program recommended by the standing
committees the issues to be presented to the Resolution Committees of
the political parties with a request that they be adopted as planks in
the national platforms. Two of the Federal measures endorsed by the
League in Chicago--the bill for the Women's Bureau in the Department
of Labor and the Retirement Bill for Superannuated Public
Employees--were passed by Congress the following June and became law.
Twelve others were grouped into six planks and later condensed into a
single paragraph as follows:

"We urge Federal cooperation with the States in the protection of
infant life through infancy and maternity care; the prohibition of
child labor and adequate appropriation for the Children's Bureau; a
Federal Department of Education; joint Federal and State aid for the
removal of illiteracy and increase of teachers' salaries; instruction
in citizenship for both native and foreign born; increased Federal
support for vocational training in home economics and Federal
regulation of the marketing and distribution of food; full
representation of women on all commissions dealing with women's work
and women's interests; the establishment of a joint Federal and State
employment service with women's departments under the direction of
technically qualified women; a reclassification of the Federal Civil
Service free from discrimination on account of sex; continuance of
appropriations for public education in sex hygiene; Federal
legislation which shall insure that American-born women resident in
the United States but married to aliens shall retain American
citizenship and that the same process of naturalization shall be
required of alien women as is required of alien men."

Deputations from the Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters
presented this program to the Resolutions Committee of the Republican
party at its convention in Chicago; to that of the Democratic party in
San Francisco, and to the convention of the Farmer Labor party and the
Committee of Forty-eight held jointly in Chicago. The last named
included the following planks: Abolition of employment of children
under 16 years of age; a Federal Department of Education; Public
ownership and operation of stock yards, large abattoirs, cold-storage
and terminal warehouses; equal pay for equal work. Five of the planks
were included in the Republican platform: Prohibition of child labor
throughout the United States; instruction in citizenship for the youth
of the land; increased Federal support for vocational training in home
economics; equal pay for equal work; independent citizenship for
married women. The Democratic Resolutions Committee incorporated in
its platform all of the requests made by the League of Women Voters
except a Federal Department of Education. The Socialist Party held its
convention before the planks were sent out. The Prohibition Party
adopted the full program of the League of Women Voters.

One of the important steps taken in 1920 by the League of Women Voters
in support of its social welfare program was the presenting of these
platform planks to the Presidential candidates of the two major
parties for their approval. Its representatives with a deputation went
to Marion, O., the home of Senator Harding, Republican candidate,
October 1 and to Dayton, O., the home of Governor Cox, Democratic
candidate, the following day. Each promised assistance in the event of
his election.

At the call of Mrs. Park, chairman of the league, delegates
representing national organizations which collectively numbered about
10,000,000 women, met in Washington on November 22. These included the
National League of Women Voters, General Federation of Women's Clubs,
National Council of Women, the Women's Christian Temperance Union,
National Women's Trade Union League, National Consumers' League,
National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers' Associations,
Association of Collegiate Alumnæ, American Home Economics Association,
National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. They
formed a Woman's Joint Congressional Committee and endorsed the
largest constructive, legislative program ever adopted. It was
arranged that all organizations might participate to the limit of
their specific field of work and purposes and at the same time all
possibility was eliminated of any being involved in supporting a
measure or a principle outside of its scope or contrary to its
opinions.


FOOTNOTES:

[146] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Nettie Rogers
Shuler, corresponding secretary of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association.




CHAPTER XXIII.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN NATIONAL PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTIONS.[147]


The courage and patience of the woman suffrage leaders in their long
struggle for the ballot is nowhere more strongly evidenced than in
their continued appeals to the national political conventions to
recognize in their platforms woman's right to the franchise. These
distinguished women were received with an indifference that was
insulting until far into the 20th century. To two parties, the
Prohibition and the Socialist, it was never necessary to appeal. The
Prohibition party was organized in 1872 and from that time always
advocated woman suffrage in its national platform except in 1896, when
it had only a single plank, but this was supplemented by resolutions
favoring equal suffrage. The Socialist party, which came into
existence in 1901, declared for woman suffrage at the start and
thereafter made it a part of its active propaganda. All the minor
parties as a rule put planks for woman suffrage in their
platforms.[148]

Before the conventions in 1904 the board of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association secured full lists of delegates and
alternates of the two dominant parties--667 Republicans and 723
Democratic delegates; 495 Republican alternates and 384 Democratic, a
total of 2,269. To each a letter was sent directing his attention to a
memorial enclosed, signed by the officers of the association, an
urgent request for the insertion in the platform of the following
resolution: "Resolved, That we favor the submission by Congress to the
various State Legislatures of an amendment to the Federal Constitution
forbidding the disfranchisement of United States citizens on account
of sex."

The Republican convention met in Chicago June 21-23. The committee
appointed by the National Association consisted of Mrs. Harriet
Taylor Upton and Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser of Ohio, its treasurer and
headquarters secretary, and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago,
a former officer, who arranged the hearing. The beautiful rooms of the
Chicago Woman's Club were placed at their disposal, where they kept
open house, assisted by Mrs. Gertrude Blackwelder, president of the
Chicago Political League, Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin and other prominent
club women. Mrs. McCulloch went to the Auditorium Annex to ask the
Committee on Resolutions for a hearing. Senator Hopkins of Illinois
presented her to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, the chairman, and the
choice was given her of having it immediately or the next morning. She
chose the nearest hour and a little later returned with her committee.
Mrs. McCulloch introduced the speakers and made the closing argument.
Mrs. Upton, the Rev. Celia Parker Woolley and the Rev. Olympia Brown
addressed the committee. They were generously applauded, the suffrage
plank was referred to a sub-committee and buried.

The Democratic convention was held in St. Louis July 6-9 and Mrs.
Priscilla D. Hackstaff, an officer of the New York Suffrage
Association, secured a hearing before the Resolutions Committee. Mrs.
Louise L. Werth of St. Louis and Miss Kate M. Gordon of Louisiana
joined her on the opening day of the convention and at 8 o'clock the
evening of the 7th they appeared before the committee. Mrs. Hackstaff
argued on the ground of abstract justice and Miss Gordon from the
standpoint of expediency. The committee listened attentively and were
liberal with applause but the resolution never was heard from.

Undaunted by a failure which began in 1868 and had continued ever
since, the suffragists made their plans for 1908. The Republican
convention was again held in Chicago, June 16-20, and a committee of
eminent women presented the suffrage resolution--Miss Jane Addams,
Mrs. Henrotin, the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane, Miss Harriet Grim,
Mrs. Blackwelder and Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch. They were heard
politely but not the slightest attention was paid to their request.
Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, tried
to secure the adoption of a plank pledging the Republican party to
support a Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment but also was ignored.

When the Democratic party met in national convention in Denver July
7-11, all the delegates and alternates received an appeal which read:
"You are respectfully requested by the National American Woman
Suffrage Association to place the following plank in your platform:
'Resolved, That we favor the extension of the elective franchise to
the women of the United States by the States upon the same
qualifications as it is accorded to men.' We ask this in order that
our Government may live up to the principles upon which it was founded
and in order that the women in the homes and the industries may have
equal power with men to influence conditions affecting these
respective spheres of action. In making this demand for justice our
association calls your attention to the fact that more than 5,000,000
women who are occupied in the industries of the United States are
helpless to legislate upon the hours, conditions and remuneration for
their labor. We call your attention to the fact that through the
commercialized trend of legislation the children of our nation are
being sacrificed to a veritable Juggernaut--cheap labor--while this
same trend is wasting our mineral land and water resources, imperiling
thereby the inheritance of future generations. We call your attention
to the moral conditions menacing the youth of our country. Justice and
expediency demand that women be granted equal power with men to mould
the conditions directly affecting the industries, the resources and
the homes of the nation. We therefore appeal to the Democratic
convention assembled to name national standard bearers and to
determine national policies, to adopt in its platform a declaration
favoring the extension of the franchise to the women of the United
States."

This appeal was signed by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president, Kate M.
Gordon, Rachel Foster Avery, Alice Stone Blackwell, Harriet Taylor
Upton, Laura Clay and Mary S. Sperry, national officers. It received
no consideration whatever, but, although the suffragists did not know
it, this was the last year when the two powerful political parties of
the country could stand with a united front hostile to all progressive
movements. There was shortly to be brought to the assistance of such
movements strong forces which could not be resisted.

Early in 1912 President William Howard Taft and U. S. Senator Robert
M. La Follette announced their intention of trying to secure the
Republican nomination for the presidency and the press of the country
took up the burning question, "Will Roosevelt be a candidate for a
third term?" On February 25 he announced his candidacy and from then
until the date of the Republican national convention the public
interest was intense. The convention met in Chicago, June 16-20. Miss
Jane Addams, vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association, had arranged with a number of women to appear at a few
hours' notice before the Resolutions Committee but she could not give
even that, as she learned at 8:30 p.m. on the 19th that the committee
would meet at 9:30 in the Congress Hotel and she must appear at that
time. There was hastily mustered into service a small but
distinguished group of suffragists consisting of Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen
and Miss Mary Bartelme of Chicago; Professor Sophonisba Breckinridge
of Kentucky; Mrs. B. B. Mumford of Richmond, Va.; Miss Lillian D. Wald
and Mrs. Simkovitch of New York City; Miss Helen Todd of California;
Professor Freund of the Chicago University Law Faculty and a few
others. At ten o'clock the suffragists were admitted to the committee
room and greeted cordially by Governor Hadley of Missouri and
courteously by the chairman, Charles W. Fairbanks. Miss Addams was
told that she might have five minutes (later extended to seven) and
present one speaker. She introduced Mrs. Bowen, president of the
Juvenile Protective Association, who spoke earnestly four minutes,
leaving Miss Addams three to make the final plea. There were confusion
and noise in the room and the attention of the committee was
distracted. The platform contained no reference to woman suffrage.
Senator LaFollette presented his own platform to the convention in
which was a plank favoring the extension of suffrage to women but it
went down to defeat. Two days later the convention amid great
excitement nominated President Taft by a vote of 561 while Colonel
Roosevelt's vote was only 107. Directly after the convention adjourned
the delegates who favored Roosevelt assembled at Orchestra Hall and
nominated him in the name of the new Progressive party, Miss Addams
seconding the nomination.

Soon after Colonel Roosevelt announced his candidacy he was visited
by Judge "Ben" Lindsey of Denver, a representative of the progressive
element in politics, who pointed out to him the great assistance it
would be to his campaign for him to come out for woman suffrage.
Roosevelt, who was an astute politician, saw the advantage of
enlisting the help of women, who through their large organizations had
become a strong factor in public life. Judge Lindsay therefore was
authorized to announce that he would favor a woman suffrage plank in
the Progressive platform and Roosevelt confirmed it. This caused wide
excitement and the suffragists throughout the country began to rally
under the Roosevelt banner. He had always been theoretically in favor
but with many reservations and during his two terms as President he
had refused all appeals to endorse it in any way. When he went to
Chicago to the first convention of the Progressive party August 5 he
carried with him the draft of the platform and in it was a plank
favoring woman suffrage but calling for a nation-wide referendum of
the question to women themselves!

When this plank was submitted to the Resolutions Committee, on which
were such suffragists as Miss Addams, Judge Lindsay and U. S. Senator
Albert J. Beveridge, they vetoed it at once. It had already been
issued to the press in printed form and telegrams recalling it had to
be sent far and wide. The plank presented by the Resolutions Committee
and unanimously adopted by the convention read as follows: "The
Progressive party, believing that no people can justly claim to be a
true democracy which denies political rights on account of sex,
pledges itself to the task of securing equal suffrage to men and women
alike."

Many States sent women delegates and they were cordially welcomed. The
convention was marked by a deep, almost religious zeal, the delegates
breaking frequently into the singing of hymns of which Onward
Christian Soldiers was a favorite. Women took a prominent part in the
proceedings and woman suffrage was made one of the leading features.
Senator Beveridge referred to it at length in his speech, saying:
"Because women as much as men are a part of our economic and social
life, women as much as men should have the voting power to solve all
economic and social problems. Votes are theirs as a matter of natural
right alone; votes should be theirs as a matter of political wisdom
also."

Later in a glowing tribute Mr. Roosevelt said: "It is idle to argue
whether women can play their part in politics because in this
convention we have seen the accomplished fact, and, moreover, the
women who have actively participated in this work of launching the new
party represent all that we are most proud to associate with American
womanhood. My earnest hope is to see the Progressive party in all its
State and local divisions recognize this fact precisely as it has been
recognized at the national convention.... Workingwomen have the same
need to combine for protection that workingmen have; the ballot is as
necessary for one class as for the other; we do not believe that with
the two sexes there is identity of function but we do believe that
there should be equality of right and therefore we favor woman
suffrage." The Progressive party in State after State followed the
lead of the convention and women were welcomed into its deliberations.
From this time woman suffrage was one of the dominant political issues
throughout the country.

The Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore June 25-July 3.
The Baltimore suffragists applied on Thursday for a hearing before the
Resolutions Committee for Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and were informed that
the hearings had ended on Wednesday. Urged by the women the chairman,
John W. Kern of Indiana, finally consented to give a hearing that day,
although he said he had turned away hundreds of men who wanted
hearings, and he allotted five minutes to it. Mrs. W. J. Brown of
Baltimore, Mrs. Lawrence Lewis of Philadelphia and several others went
with Dr. Shaw but after a long wait only Mrs. Lewis and she were
admitted. With a strong, logical speech Dr. Shaw presented the
following resolution and asked that it be made a plank in the
platform:

     Whereas, The fundamental idea of a democracy is self-government,
     the right of citizens to choose their own representatives, to
     enact the laws by which they are governed, and whereas, this
     right can be secured only by the exercise of the suffrage,
     therefore,

     Resolved, That the ballot in the hand of every qualified citizen
     constitutes the true political status of the people and to
     deprive one-half of the people of the use of the ballot is to
     deny the first principle of a democratic government.

The committee was courteous and listened with marked attention,
William Jennings Bryan among them, but took no action on the
resolution.[149]

The convention nominated Woodrow Wilson, who had answered a question
from a chairman of the New York Woman Suffrage Party the preceding
winter, while Governor of New Jersey: "I can only say that my mind is
in the midst of the debate which it involves. I do not feel that I am
ready to utter my confident judgment as yet about it. I am honestly
trying to work my way toward a just conclusion." President Taft had
written in answer to a letter of inquiry from the secretary of the
Men's Suffrage League of New York: "I am willing to wait until there
shall be a substantial, not unanimous, but a substantial call from
that sex before the suffrage is extended."

As the result of the year's political work a summing up in December,
1912, showed a woman suffrage plank in the national platforms of the
Progressive, Socialist and Prohibition parties; a plank in the
platform of every party in New York State and in that of one or more
parties in many States. The Progressive party with woman suffrage as
one of its cardinal principles had polled 4,119,507 votes. Kansas,
Oregon and Arizona by popular vote had been added to the number of the
equal suffrage States. In 1914 these were increased by Montana and
Nevada, making eleven where women voted on the same terms as men. In
1913 Illinois granted a large amount of suffrage including a vote for
Presidential electors. In 1915 President Wilson and all his Cabinet,
except Secretary Lansing; Speaker Champ Clark and Mr. Bryan publicly
endorsed suffrage for women. Constitutional amendments were defeated
in four eastern States but they polled 1,234,470 favorable votes.

By 1916, the year of the Presidential nominating conventions, there
had been so vast an advance of public sentiment that the official
board of the National American Woman Suffrage Association was
encouraged to believe that its effort of nearly fifty years to obtain
woman suffrage planks in the national platforms of the Republican and
Democratic parties would be successful. Its president, Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt, in the letters sent to the delegates, who were
circularized three times, called attention to the great gains and the
existing status of the movement, adapting the appeal to each party.
Under her direction, as a preliminary to the conventions, favorable
opinions were obtained from many leading men who were to attend them,
similar to the following: Representative John M. Nelson of the House
Judiciary Committee said: "The endorsement of equal suffrage by either
of the two great parties would do more at this time to simplify the
question than any other one thing. It seems to me that in directing
their efforts toward securing this endorsement its advocates have
exhibited sound practical judgment and admirable political acumen." "I
am in favor of an endorsement in the Republican platform of the
principle of equal suffrage," said Senator Borah, a Republican
delegate. "I have no doubt there will be a plank offered to that
effect and it will receive my active support." U. S. Senator Owen on
the floor of the Senate declared: "This demand ought to be made by men
as well as by thinking, progressive women. I hope that all parties
will in the national conventions give their approval to this larger
measure of liberty to the better half of the human race." The
suffragists began preparations for two striking demonstrations during
the conventions.

The Republican convention took place in Chicago June 7-10. On the 6th
a mass meeting was held under the auspices of the association at the
Princess Theater. Speeches by Mrs. Catt and others roused the audience
to great enthusiasm and the following resolution was adopted: "We,
women from every State, gathered in national assembly, come to you in
the name of justice, liberty and equality to ask you to incorporate in
your platform a declaration favoring the extension of suffrage to the
only remaining class of unenfranchised citizens, the women of our
nation, and to urge you to give its protecting power and prestige to
the final struggle of women for political liberty. We are not asking
your endorsement of an untried theory but your recognition of a fact.
The men of eleven States and Alaska have already fully enfranchised
their women and Illinois has granted a large degree of suffrage,
including the Presidential vote. The women of five States have gained
the vote since 1912, your last convention, and have party affiliations
yet to make."

A parade of 25,000 women had been planned to show the strength of the
movement. A cold, heavy rain upset these plans but on June 7, 5,500
women (the others believing the demonstration would not be given)
braved the storm, gathered in Grant Park and marched to the Coliseum,
where the Republican Resolutions Committee was meeting. The Chicago
_Herald_ in describing that march said: "Over their heads surged a
vast sea of umbrellas extending two miles down the street; under their
feet swirled rivulets of water. Wind tore at their clothes and rain
drenched their faces but unhesitatingly they marched in unbroken
formation. Never before in the history of this city, probably of the
world, has there been so impressive a demonstration of consecration to
a cause." The first division reached the convention hall before five
o'clock. The committee had given a hearing to the suffragists and was
listening to the "antis." Just as Mrs. A. J. George of Brookline,
Mass., was asserting, "there is no widespread demand for woman
suffrage" hundreds of drenched and dripping women began to pour into
the hall, each woman's condition bearing silent witness to the
strength of her wish for the vote. Thousands of converts were made
among those who witnessed the courage and devotion of the women in
facing this storm.

The hearing took place before a sub-committee of the Resolutions
Committee and instead of seven minutes being allotted to it, as in
1912, representatives of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association had half an hour, the National Association Opposed to
Woman Suffrage the next half hour and the Congressional Union a final
half hour. Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Abbie A. Krebs of California, Mrs. Ellis
Meredith of Colorado, Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout of Illinois and Mrs.
Frank M. Roessing of Pennsylvania spoke for the National Suffrage
Association. They asked for the following resolution: "The Republican
party reaffirming its faith in government of the people, by the people
and for the people, as a measure of justice to one-half the adult
people of this country, favors the extension of the suffrage to
women." The speakers for the Congressional Union were Miss Anne
Martin, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch and Mrs. Sara Bard Field and they
asked for an endorsement of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The
"antis" were represented by their national president, Mrs. Arthur M.
Dodge, and national secretary, Miss Minnie Bronson; Miss Alice Hill
Chittenden, New York State president, and Mrs. George. They asked that
there should be no mention of woman suffrage.

The sub-committee reported against the adoption of a suffrage plank,
the vote standing five to four--Senators Lodge, Wadsworth, Oliver, and
Charles Hopkins Clark, editor of the Hartford (Conn.) _Courant_, and
former Representative Howland of Ohio opposed; Senators Borah,
Sutherland and Fall and Representative Madden of Illinois in favor.

The question was then taken up in the full Committee on Resolutions.
Senators Borah and Smoot led a vigorous fight for a plank; Senator
Marion Butler of North Carolina headed the opposition. The strongest
possible influence was brought to bear against it by the party
leaders, Senators W. Murray Crane and Henry Cabot Lodge of
Massachusetts; Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania and James W. Wadsworth,
Jr., of New York and Speaker Cannon of Illinois. Nevertheless it was
carried by 26 to 21. Within a half hour defeat was again threatened
when seven absent members of the committee came and asked for a
reconsideration. After repeated parleys it was reconsidered and
emerged as the last plank in the platform. The final vote was 35 to 11
but it was the result of a compromise, for it read: "The Republican
party, reaffirming its faith in government of the people, by the
people and for the people, as a measure of justice to one-half the
adult people of this country, favors the extension of the suffrage to
women but recognizes the right of each State to settle this question
for itself"!

For the first time this party declared for the doctrine of State's
rights, which was the chief obstacle in the way of the Federal
Amendment, the goal of the National Association for nearly fifty
years. Mrs. Catt knew that it would be utterly useless to ask for a
plank favoring this amendment and so she asked simply for a clear-cut
endorsement of the principle of woman suffrage. This was secured,
after women had been appealing to national Republican conventions
since 1868, and although it was weakened by the qualifying
declaration, she realized that an immense gain had been made. By the
press throughout the country the adoption of the plank was hailed as
"a victory of supreme importance," and as guaranteeing a suffrage
plank in the Democratic national platform, which could not have been
obtained without it. It was adopted by the convention without
opposition and with great enthusiasm.

The Democratic convention met in St. Louis June 14-16. The first day
the suffragists staged their "walkless parade," which the press
poetically called "the golden lane," as the 6,000 white-robed women
who formed a continuous lane from the convention headquarters in the
Jefferson Hotel to the Coliseum where the convention was held carried
yellow parasols and wore yellow satin sashes. They gave resplendent
color to the aisle through which hundreds of delegates walked to their
political councils. On the steps of the Art Museum the suffragists
presented a striking tableau showing Liberty, a symbolic figure
effectively garbed, surrounded by three groups of women, those in
black typifying the non-suffrage States; those in gray representing
the partial suffrage States; those in red, white and blue the States
where political equality prevailed. The suffragists had now no
difficulty in obtaining a hearing and plenty of time. Representatives
of the National American Association, the National Woman's Party, the
Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference and the National Association
Opposed to Woman Suffrage appeared before the sub-committee of the
Resolutions Committee.

The entire Resolutions Committee met in the evening of the 15th to
make the final draft of the platform. Although it was a foregone
conclusion that it would have to contain a woman suffrage plank the
enemies did not intend to concede it willingly. It was not reached
until 3 o'clock in the morning, when platform building was suspended
while a contest raged. The sleepy committeemen became wide awake and
their voices rose till they could be heard in the corridors and out
into the street. The unqualified endorsement of woman suffrage asked
for by the National Association was defeated by a vote of 24 to 20.
The approval of the Federal Amendment asked for by the National
Woman's Party was rejected by a vote of 40 to 4. The plea of the
"antis" not to mention the subject was defeated by 26 to 17. Finally
the committee fell back on what was said to have been President
Wilson's suggestion for a plank, which was adopted by 25 ayes, 20
noes. A minority report was immediately prepared by James Nugent of
New Jersey, Senator Smith of South Carolina, former Representative
Bartlett of Georgia, Stephen B. Fleming of Indiana, Governor Ferguson
of Texas and Governor Stanley of Kentucky, in opposition.

The Resolutions Committee adjourned at 7:15 a.m. and the convention
opened at 11. Senator William J. Stone of Missouri, chairman of the
Resolutions Committee, brought forward the platform but confessed that
he was too tired to read it, so Senators Hollis and Walsh took turns
at it and when the suffrage plank was reached it was greeted with
applause and cheers. Senator Stone moved the adoption of the platform
and Governor Ferguson was given thirty minutes to present the minority
report, which finally was signed by himself, Nugent, Bartlett and
Fleming. The resolution was supported by the chairman. The young
Nevada Senator, Key Pittman, handled the signers of the minority
report without gloves, showed up their unsavory records and stirred
the convention to a frenzy. Yells and catcalls on the floor were met
with the cheers of the women who filled the gallery and waved their
banners and yellow parasols. Again and again he was forced to stop
until Senator John Sharp Williams took the gavel and restored a
semblance of order. Senator Walsh of Montana made a powerful speech
from the standpoint of political expediency and pointed out that the
minority report was signed by only four of the fifty members of the
Resolutions Committee. Attempts were made to howl him down and in the
midst of the turmoil a terrific storm broke and flashes of lightning
and roars of thunder added to the excitement. At last the vote was
taken on the minority report and stood 888 noes, 181 ayes. That ended
the opposition.

Senator Stone had said to the delegates: "I may say that President
Wilson knows of this plank and deems it imperative to his success in
November that it be inserted in the platform." The plank, which was
adopted by a viva voce vote read as follows: "We favor the extension
of the franchise to the women of this country, State by State, on the
same terms as to the men." It transpired afterwards that President
Wilson had written it.

As soon as the convention adjourned Mrs. Catt, president of the
National Suffrage Association, who with the board of officers was
present, sent the following telegram to President Wilson: "Inasmuch as
Governor Ferguson of Texas and Senator Walsh of Montana made
diametrically opposite statements in the Democratic convention today
with regard to your attitude toward the suffrage plank adopted, we
apply to you directly to state your position on the plank and give
your precise interpretation of its meaning." To this message the
President replied on June 22: "I am very glad to make my position
about the suffrage plank clear to you, though I had not thought that
it was necessary to state again a position that I have repeatedly
stated with entire frankness. The plank received my entire approval
before its adoption and I shall support its principle with sincere
pleasure. I wish to join with my fellow Democrats in recommending to
the several States that they extend the suffrage to women upon the
same terms as to men." Later the President made it plain that the
Democratic plank was to be considered a distinct approval of the
suffrage movement and that it did not necessarily disapprove of a
Federal Amendment.

The general sentiment of the press was to the effect that as a result
of the endorsement of the national conventions woman suffrage went
before the country with its prestige immeasurably strengthened and
recognized as a great force to be reckoned with. The suffragists ended
their political convention campaign with planks in the platforms of
all the five parties, Republican, Democratic, Progressive,
Prohibitionist and Socialist. The Progressive party made its
declaration stronger than at its national convention in 1912, its
plank reading: "We believe that the women of the country, who share
with the men the burden of government in times of peace and make equal
sacrifice in times of war, should be given the full political right of
suffrage both by State and Federal action." It was adopted unanimously
and with great applause at the party's national convention in Chicago
June 7-10. The planks were taken by the suffragists as pledges that
the parties would help in a practical way to assist the movement in
the various States and nationally and this view was made plain to the
leaders and to the rank and file of the voters.

Results were soon apparent and between 1916 and 1920 the cause of
woman suffrage took immense strides forward. In 1917 New York State
gave the complete suffrage to women. In 1918 Michigan, South Dakota
and Oklahoma fully enfranchised them, increasing the number of equal
suffrage States to fifteen. In thirteen other States women obtained
the Presidential franchise and in two the vote in Primary elections.
The resolution for a Federal Amendment passed both Houses of Congress
in May and June, 1919, and was submitted to the State Legislatures for
ratification. By March 22, 1920, it had been ratified by 35, lacking
only one of the three-fourths required to make it a part of the
National Constitution. The women, therefore, approached the political
parties this year in quite a different frame of mind from that of the
past, feeling the strength of their position and realizing that where
they had formerly pleaded they could now demand. The burning question
of the hour was whether the 36th State would ratify in time to enable
the millions of women to vote in the Presidential elections in
November. The National Committees of the two dominant parties had
become ardently in favor of it. Through the influence of Republican
women suffragists, the committee of that party sent on June 1 to the
Republican Governors and legislators of Delaware, Connecticut and
Vermont the following appeal to ratify the Federal Amendment so that
the Republican party might have the credit of assisting women to win
their final battle and thus gain their gratitude and allegiance:

     Whereas, The Republican National Committee at its regular
     meetings has repeatedly endorsed woman suffrage and the 19th
     Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and has
     called upon the Congress to submit and the States to ratify such
     amendment; and, whereas, it still lacks ratification by a
     sufficient number of States to become a law, therefore be it

     Resolved, by the Republican National Committee that the 19th
     Amendment be and the same is hereby again endorsed by this
     committee, and such Republican States as have not already done so
     are now urged to take such action by their Governors and
     Legislatures as will assure its ratification and establish the
     right of equal suffrage at the earliest possible time.

When the Republican National Convention met in Chicago June 8-12 the
Resolutions Committee received the following memorial:

     The National American Woman Suffrage Association asks permission
     to place on record with the National Republican Convention its
     appreciation of the resolution of the National Republican
     Executive Committee on June 1.... It seems the spirit of fairness
     underlying the committee's action must commend it to every lover
     of liberty regardless of party and its political far-sightedness
     must be evident to every Republican desirous of party victory.

     Conceding to the committee's action its full and friendly
     significance, this association further asks permission to
     re-emphasize before this convention the fact that on the very eve
     of complete victory a deadlock supervenes in the ratification of
     this amendment and for that deadlock the Republican party must
     carry its full share of responsibility, since three States with
     Republican Legislatures remain on the unratified list. Republican
     leaders frequently point out that their party has insured a far
     larger proportion of ratifications than has the Democratic, and
     apparently count on this situation to accrue to its advantage.
     This position would be logical if the relative proportion between
     Republicans and Democrats were the essential thing but it is by
     no means the essential thing. The 36th State is the essential
     thing.

     Women who are waiting on that State for their right to vote in
     the Presidential elections of 1920 cannot rest satisfied with the
     assurance or the evidence that Republican leaders are doing all
     in their power to bring about ratification. Women who are going
     to vote the Republican ticket anyhow may be satisfied but they
     are not the women whose vote is important to the party. The
     important vote is the vote of the undecided woman who would just
     as soon be a Republican as a Democrat. That woman has not been
     convinced by the final Republican showing on ratification and she
     will not be convinced until the 36th State has ratified. This
     ratification is the only solution of the situation that can make
     actual what is so far a merely potential claim of the Republican
     party on the woman voter.

     The National American Woman Suffrage Association urges upon this
     convention the necessity for such action as will make inevitable
     and immediate the ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment
     by the 36th State.

This was signed by Mary Garrett Hay, acting president, in the absence
of Mrs. Catt in Europe; Gertrude Foster Brown, vice-president; Nettie
Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary; Emma Winner Rogers, treasurer;
Esther G. Ogden, director, and Rose Young, press chairman.

Miss Hay called a conference of the suffragists attending the
convention in Chicago and a plank was drawn up. Miss Hay, Mrs. Richard
Edwards, Mrs. Maud Wood Park, Mrs. George Gellhorn, Miss Ada Bush and
Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs constituted a committee to present this
plank to the Resolutions Committee of which Senator James E. Watson
(Ind.) was chairman. Miss Hay made the principal speech and Mrs.
Gellhorn and Miss Bush spoke briefly. A sub-committee of the
Resolutions Committee accepted the plank which was given out to the
press on June 10. It read:

     We welcome women into full participation in the affairs of
     government and the activities of the Republican party. We urge
     Republican Governors whose States have not yet acted upon the
     suffrage amendment to call immediately special sessions of their
     Legislatures for the purpose of ratifying said amendment, to the
     end that all the women of the nation of voting age may
     participate in the coming election, so important to the welfare
     of our country.

As soon as this appeared in the Chicago papers, members of the
Connecticut delegation rushed to leaders of the Platform Committee and
protested that it was a gross insult to their Governor, Marcus H.
Holcomb, and they wanted the wording changed. Accordingly the
offending sentence was revised and in the plank adopted by the
convention read: "We earnestly hope that Republican Legislatures in
States which have not yet acted upon the suffrage amendment will
ratify it, to the end that all the women of the nation of voting age
may participate in the election of 1920 so important to the welfare of
our country."

Republican women in attendance at the convention united in a demand
for a fifty-fifty recognition inside of the party. They asked for a
woman vice-chairman of the National Republican Committee and for men
and women to be represented on it in equal numbers. The Committee on
Rules, responding to this demand, changed the rules for representation
and provided that seven members be added to the National Executive
Committee, all to be women. With this concession the women had to be
content.

The Democratic National Convention met in San Francisco June 28-July
5. Prior to the convention the National Committee had yielded to the
pressure from the suffrage leaders and Democratic women and on May 30
sent out the following Call: "This committee calls upon the
Legislatures of the various States for special sessions, if necessary,
to ratify woman suffrage when the Constitutional Amendment is passed
by Congress, in order to enable women to vote at the Presidential
election in 1920." On June 26, after the amendment had been submitted
by Congress, the committee again gave its aid by sending the following
message to Governor Roberts of Tennessee:

     We most earnestly emphasize the extreme importance and urgency of
     an immediate meeting of your State Legislature for the purpose of
     ratifying the proposed 19th Amendment to the Federal
     Constitution. We trust that for the present all other legislative
     matters may, if necessary, be held in abeyance and that you will
     call an extra session for such brief duration as may be required
     to act favorably on the amendment. Tennessee occupies a position
     of peculiar and pivotal importance and one that enables her to
     render a service of incalculable value to the women of America.
     We confidently expect, therefore, that under your leadership and
     through the action of the Legislature of your State, the women of
     the nation may be given the privilege of voting in the coming
     Presidential election.

The National American Woman Suffrage Association appointed Mrs.
Mrs. Guilford Dudley, one of its vice-presidents, who was a
delegate-at-large from Tennessee to the convention and a member of the
Credentials Committee, to present the following plank to the
Resolutions Committee: "The Federal Suffrage Amendment, whose passage
in Congress was greatly furthered by the efforts of a Democratic
President, is one State short of the number required to make its
ratification effective. In two Republican States, Vermont and
Connecticut, where ratification could be at once achieved, Republican
Governors are refusing to call special sessions. In simple justice to
women, we, Democrats in national convention assembled, urge the
cooperation of Democratic Governors and legislators in North Carolina,
Tennessee, Florida and other Democratic States that have not ratified,
in a united effort to complete ratification by the addition of the
36th State in time for the women of America to participate in the
approaching elections."

The National Woman's Party through Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, its
publicity chairman, presented a plank through U. S. Senator Carter
Glass of the Resolutions Committee, which read: "The Democratic Party
endorses the proposed amendment to the U. S. Constitution
enfranchising women and calls upon all Democratic Governors of States
which have not yet ratified the amendment immediately to convene their
Legislatures so that they may act upon it and urges all Democratic
members of such Legislatures immediately to vote for the
amendment...."

The plank finally adopted by the convention read: "We endorse the
proposed 19th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States
granting equal suffrage to women. We congratulate the Legislatures of
35 States which have already ratified said amendment and we urge the
Democratic Governors and Legislatures of Tennessee, North Carolina and
Florida and such States as have not yet ratified it to unite in an
effort to complete the process of ratification and secure the 36th
State in time for all the women of the United States to participate in
the fall election. We commend the effective advocacy of the measure by
President Wilson."

The Democratic women achieved a victory also in the important decision
which was reached in regard to the representation of women in future
national conventions, this convention deciding that full sex equality
should be observed in its delegations and that the National Committee
hereafter should include one man and one woman from each State.

Thus the struggle begun in 1868 for the approval of woman suffrage by
the National Presidential Conventions of the political parties ended
with its complete endorsement by all of them in 1920.


FOOTNOTES:

[147] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Mary Garrett
Hay, second vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association.

[148] For a full account of the effort to obtain planks in the
national platforms from 1868 to 1900, inclusive, see Chapter XXIII,
Volume IV, History of Woman Suffrage.

[149] One evening during the convention the Maryland suffragists,
reinforced by others from surrounding cities, had a long and
handsomely equipped parade.




CHAPTER XXIV.

WAR SERVICE OF ORGANIZED SUFFRAGISTS.[150]


The response of the women of the United States to the call of their
country as it entered the World War was as vigorous and eager as had
been that of women of other more deeply involved nations. Although
American women had little opportunity for giving first line aid in
comparison with the women of the Allied countries they gave a second
or supporting line service in organization and conservation to which
they applied their full energy. These efforts brought them close in
spirit to the firing line long before the Stars and Stripes were
carried to Chateau Thierry and beyond.

It is the province of this chapter to review especially the work of
the organized suffragists in their loyalty to their government--a
government which from the first had refused to women all voice and
part in its proceedings. This work may best be examined under two
headings: 1. War Service of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association; 2. War Service of suffragists as a whole under the
direction of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense.

On Feb. 5, 1917, the president of the association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman
Catt, issued the following Call to its Executive Council of One
Hundred to meet in Washington on February 23-24 to confer upon the
approaching crisis in national affairs:

     "To Members of the Executive Council:

     "Our nation may be on the brink of war. To those who live in the
     interior war may seem a long way off but in the East, where
     public buildings, water works, forts, etc., are now under
     military guard and where some of the regiments of the National
     Guard have been called to duty, it comes as a sad realization
     that our country is facing a far more serious crisis than most
     of us have ever known. A few days may determine whether our
     people are to be drawn into war at once or whether the break can
     be patched up and the more tragic circumstances postponed or even
     averted.

     "If the worst comes, very serious problems confront us. Our
     suffrage work would unquestionably come to a temporary
     standstill. How shall we dispose of our headquarters, our
     workers, our plans? How shall we hold our organization and
     resources meanwhile, so that our movement will not lose its
     prestige and place among the political issues of our country?
     These are questions we must not leave to answer themselves. If we
     are 'not the hammer, our cause will be the anvil.' Women not
     connected with any particular movement are calling meetings in
     order to pass pointless resolutions of the promised service of
     women if required. The big question presents itself, shall
     suffragists do the 'war work' which they will undoubtedly want to
     do with other groups newly formed, thus running the risk of
     disintegrating our organizations, or shall we use our
     headquarters and our machinery for really helpful constructive
     aid to our nation? The answer must be given _now_.

     "Because this unexpected turn of public affairs creates an
     unprecedented condition, the majority of the National Board
     avails itself of the provision of the constitution which permits
     the call of the Executive Council on a two weeks' notice. I
     therefore issue this call to all Elected Officers, all
     Presidents, all Auxiliaries, all State Members, (auxiliaries
     which pay dues on a membership of 1500 or more are entitled to a
     State member in addition to the president), and all Chairmen of
     Standing and Special Committees to meet in Washington at the
     National Suffrage Headquarters, 1626 Rhode Island Avenue,
     February 23-25 inclusive, as per inclosed program. Each State is
     urged to send its State Congressional Chairmen also to this
     meeting...."

It was, therefore, for the Executive Council to decide what the
association could best do to help the Government in case of war. The
summons came as no surprise to the members of the National
Association, since for many months their eyes had been fixed on the
war-clouds gathering upon the horizon. It was evident that the United
States was about to enter the World War.

When this council met at the headquarters in Washington the national
officers submitted to it the draft of a Note that specified various
concrete ways in which, according to their ideas, the members of the
association might give aid to their country in an emergency. This
draft was discussed section by section and the motion then came to
adopt the Note as a whole. This called out the most important debate
of the two-days' meeting, remarkable for the kindly spirit and good
temper with which were set forth opposing views on a vital matter
concerning which public feeling ran high. The president gave an
opportunity to all "conscientious objectors" to come forward and
record their names as dissenting. Almost all who did so stated that
they believed women should give their assistance in case of war but
they feared that an offer of help to the Government made in advance
might tend to fan the war spirit and create a psychological impetus
towards war. Even this minority felt that the proposed services were
judiciously chosen, as they were such as would benefit the country
were it at war or at peace. The majority decision was that the
National Association should now abandon its unbroken custom of not
participating in any matters except those relating directly to woman
suffrage and that in view of the national emergency it should offer
its assistance to the Government of the United States and proceed to
organize for war service. The registered vote on such action was 63 to
13. As the attendance at the conference represented 36 States out of
the 45 in which the association had auxiliaries, it might be
considered as expressing an almost nation-wide conviction among the
members of the association. On February 24 the conference issued the
following Note:

     "To the President and Government of the United States:

     "We devoutly hope and pray that our country's crisis may be
     passed without recourse to war. We declare our belief that the
     settlement of international difficulties by bloodshed is unworthy
     of the 20th Century, and also our confidence that our Government
     is using every honorable means to avoid conflict. If, however,
     our nation is drawn into the maelstrom, we stand ready to serve
     our country with the zeal and consecration which should ever
     characterize those who cherish high ideals of the duty and
     obligation of citizenship. With no intention of laying aside our
     constructive forward work to secure the vote for the womanhood of
     this country as 'the right protective of all other rights,' we
     offer our services in the event that they should be needed, and,
     in so far as we are authorized, we pledge the loyal support of
     our more than two million members. We make this offer now in
     order to avoid waste of time and effort in an emergency; also,
     that the executive ability, industry and devotion of our women,
     trained through years of arduous endeavor, may be utilized, with
     all other national resources, for the protection of our country
     in its time of stress. We propose that a National Committee be
     formed at once, composed of a representative from each national
     organization of women willing to aid in war work, if the need
     arises. The object shall be to establish a clearing house between
     the Government and those organizations in order that service may
     be rendered in the most expeditious manner. With this end in view
     we recommend that each component organization list its resources
     and report to this central committee concerning the definite work
     it is prepared to do. To further the practical application of
     this suggestion our association declares its willingness to
     undertake the following departments of work:

     "I. The Establishing of Employment Bureaus for Women.--Through
     its local, State and national headquarters to register the names
     and qualifications of women available for occupations which men
     will leave to enter the army; to supply these women to employers
     and to protect the work of such women.

     "II. The increase of the Food Supply by the Training of Women for
     Agricultural Work and by the Elimination of Waste. The aid of the
     Department of Agriculture will be sought in planning systematic
     courses for women to accomplish these purposes. The cultivation
     by women of garden plots and vacant lots in cities will be
     encouraged at the same time that the larger importance of regular
     farming is urged.

     "III. The Red Cross.--As the Red Cross, in which many of our
     members are zealous workers, is already equipped to render
     hospital, medical and general supply service, we offer our
     organized service in other fields and we promise continued
     cooperation with the Red Cross as needed.

     "IV. Americanization.--A problem unknown to other lands will
     become accentuated in the event of war. Within our borders are
     eight millions of aliens, who by birth, tradition and training
     will find it difficult, if not impossible, to understand the
     causes which have led to this war. War invariably breeds
     intolerance and hatred and will tend to arouse antagonisms
     inimical to the best interests of the nation. With the desire to
     minimize this danger, our association, extending as it does into
     every precinct of our great cities and into the various counties
     of the States, offers to conduct classes in school centers
     wherein national allegiance shall be taught, emphasizing
     tolerance, to the end that the Stars and Stripes shall wave over
     a loyal and undivided people.

     "V. Conference Committee.--In order to carry out our expressed
     desire and purpose, a committee of three is hereby ordered
     appointed to confer with the proper authorities of the
     Government. If need arises, this committee shall be the
     intermediary between the Government and our association."


     Signed, Executive Council, National American Woman Suffrage
     Association.

     by Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president; Carrie Chapman Catt,
     president; Helen Guthrie Miller, first vice-president; Katharine
     Dexter McCormick, second vice-president; Esther G. Ogden, third
     vice-president; Emma Winner Rogers, treasurer; Mrs. Thomas
     Jefferson Smith, recording secretary; Nettie Rogers Shuler,
     corresponding secretary; Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, first auditor;
     Heloise Meyer, second auditor.

The conference ended on Saturday and on Sunday afternoon a public mass
meeting was held. Poli's Theater was filled by a representative
audience and on the platform were four members of the Cabinet:
Secretaries Baker, McAdoo, Daniels and Houston, with their wives; also
United States Senators, Representatives and many other prominent
people, including Miss Margaret Wilson, the daughter of the President.
The meeting was opened with an address by Mrs. Catt on The Impending
Crisis, expressing the hope that after the war there would arise a
truer democracy than ever known before and that the world would never
see another war. The Note to President Wilson was read by Mrs. Ida
Husted Harper and handed to Secretary of War Baker. In accepting it he
paid a tribute to the aspirations of women and expressed the belief
that at the close of the war the United States would take its place in
a concert of neutral nations and having practiced justice at home it
would have earned the right to help establish international justice.
Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton delighted the rather tense audience with her
inimitable humor and Dr. Shaw closed the meeting with one of her
strongest speeches. The addresses of Mrs. Catt and Dr. Shaw emphasized
not only the desire of women to do effective patriotic service in time
of stress but also their wish that a more civilized way than by the
waste and destructiveness of war might be found to settle
international disputes.

President Wilson immediately answered as follows:

     "The Secretary of War has transmitted to me the Resolutions
     presented to him at the meeting held on Sunday afternoon,
     February 25, under the auspices of the National American Woman
     Suffrage Association. I want to express my great and sincere
     admiration of the action taken.

                    Cordially and sincerely yours, Woodrow Wilson."

On April 6, 1917, the United States declared that a state of war with
Germany existed. News of the severance of diplomatic relations
elicited a deep and reverberating response from the millions of
suffragists over the country. At the New York and Washington
headquarters of the National Association telephone calls and telegrams
were received all day, as State by State the suffrage organizations
proffered concerted action with the national on any program of
constructive service which it might decide to offer to the Government.
The National Suffrage Association at once commenced its war work on
the lines adopted at the Washington conference. This comprised
departments under four sections: Thrift; Food Production; Industrial
Protection of Women and Americanization. Branches of these four
sections had already been formed by all its State auxiliaries and
Mrs. McCormick, its second vice-president, had been appointed general
chairman of the War Service Department. In many States the president
of the suffrage association became chairman of the War Service
Committee. Thus the suffragists of the United States started their war
activities with as much vigor as they had been accustomed to put into
efforts for their own cause.

       *       *       *       *       *

There had been created in August, 1916, by an Act of Congress, the
Council of National Defense, composed of the Secretaries of War, Navy,
Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor. This council was formed in
order that an emergency might not find the country without a central
agency to direct the mobilization of troops back of the regular army.
It was not an executive body; its function was to consider and advise.
By a wise provision of the Congressional Act the formation of
subordinate agencies was authorized and upon the declaration of war
advantage of this was quickly taken. Large fields of action were
mapped out and assigned to committees on which were appointed the
foremost men and women of the country. It was at once evident that the
women of the United States had a definite and powerful rôle to play in
the great war and the council decided that "for the purpose of
coordinating the women's preparedness movement a central body of woman
should be formed under the Council of National Defense." On April 19,
1917, the director, Secretary of War Baker, telegraphed to Dr. Anna
Howard Shaw that Secretary of the Interior Lane and he would like to
consult her in regard to important matters concerning the relations of
women to the council. She was on a lecture tour in the South but
arranged to meet with them in Washington on April 27. On April 21,
before the time for this meeting, the Council of National Defense
voted that a Woman's Committee be formed with the following personnel:
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Katharine Dexter
McCormick, Mrs. Josiah Evans Cowles, Mrs. Philip North Moore, Mrs.
Antoinette Funk, Miss Ida Tarbell, Miss Maude Wetmore, Mrs. Joseph R.
Lamar. Later Miss Agnes Nestor and Miss Hannah J. Patterson were
added. Of the eleven members of the committee all were prominent
suffragists except Miss Tarbell, Mrs. Lamar and Miss Wetmore, who
were well-known "antis." It was learned that the names had been
carefully considered by the council. Dr. Shaw was designated as
chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense
and asked to hold a meeting in Washington at the earliest possible
date. Its headquarters were opened in this city and the members
accepted their appointments as a call by the Government to the service
of the country.

       *       *       *       *       *

In December, 1917, the 49th annual convention of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association was held at Washington. The chairman of its
War Service Department, Mrs. McCormick, described the combination of
efforts desirable between its branches and those of the Woman's
Committee of the Council of National Defense, saying that such a
combination was essential to efficient war-service by the women of the
country. Comprehensive reports were made of the activities of the four
sections by their chairmen which may be read in full in the Handbook
of the association for 1917 and space can be used here only for the
briefest summaries.

(1) Thrift and Elimination of Waste. The chairman, Mrs. Walter McNab
Miller, first vice-president of the association, said in part: "After
consultation with Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Vrooman and the
heads of Economics and Extension Departments and the Children's
Bureau, a letter was sent to each State suffrage president outlining
the plan of work and asking that a chairman be appointed to inaugurate
and carry out the Thrift program. Food conservation was the subject
stressed, for the experience of the European countries made it of
prime importance. It is a matter of interest that the original food
outline sent out in April contained all the suggestions afterwards
insisted upon by Mr. Hoover, and the outline on Clothing contained the
same advice as was later given out by the Woman's Committee of the
Council of National Defense. The response from the southern States was
especially gratifying. I have spoken 100 times for Thrift, travelled
6,000 miles, sent out 144 form letters and written 100 individual
letters. Reports from States where Thrift Committees have been at work
show constantly increasing interest and the gradual adoption of a
definite line of effort."

(2) Food Production. The chairman, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer
of the association, after speaking of the cooperation received from
the Department of Agriculture, said in part: "We appealed to all State
suffrage presidents to appoint chairmen and encourage their local
leagues to cooperate in every way possible in increasing the food
supply and a splendid response came. We urged the importance of
enlisting women to undertake practical gardening or farming and to
provide training for women to this end. We urged the opening in every
State of two or three Farm Employment Bureaus for women through which
graduates of Agricultural Colleges and others with less training could
be placed on farms, and farmers who were progressive enough to want
women's help could be reasonably sure of securing it. We arranged with
the largest overalls company in the United States to design and put
out a suitable farm uniform for women, which was extensively sold and
used.... The reports at the end of the season testified to the
millions of gardens worked by suffragists, to the thousands who helped
on farms or went to farm training schools, to canning kitchens and
home canning on a scale hitherto unthought-of."

(3) Industrial Protection of Women. The chairman, Miss Ethel M. Smith,
said in part:

     "This committee was created by the National Suffrage Board to
     secure women workers to fill the places of men called for
     military service and it promised to 'protect the work of such
     women.' A letter was sent to five hundred Chambers of Commerce
     over Mrs. Catt's signature, asking for their cooperation in
     behalf of women workers against the danger of excessive overtime
     and underpay. The slogan of 'Equal Pay for Equal Work' was
     utilized and vigilance committees were planned for each State to
     note the conditions in industrial localities and report back to
     Washington. The questions of equal pay for equal work and equal
     opportunity for women were then taken up with the Government
     departments, which have been quite as unfair to women employees
     as have private firms. The scale of pay is notoriously less than
     for men, and women have been excluded from the civil service
     examinations for many positions which they are well equipped to
     fill. We therefore sent a letter to the Departments of War,
     Navy, State and Commerce where the discrimination had been
     proved, asking whether they would not modify their regulations to
     give women equal chances with men, and, now that men were needed
     for the army, give women the clerical positions in preference to
     men. We published these letters and received favorable replies
     from all but the State Department." Miss Smith told of the
     discovery that women in the Bureau of Engraving, under the
     Treasury Department, were working twelve hours a day seven days
     in the week; of the protest of her committee sent through Mrs.
     Catt to Secretary McAdoo and of his order restoring the
     eight-hour day and removing all cause of complaint."

(4) Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley, said that
her first act was to secure three wise and experienced suffragists to
form with her a central committee, Mrs. Shuler, corresponding
secretary of the National Suffrage Association; Mrs. Robert S. Huse of
New Jersey, and Mrs. Winona Osborn Pinkham, executive secretary of the
Boston Equal Suffrage Association. A plan for Americanization work was
printed in the _Woman Citizen_, June 30, 1917, and was sent to each
State president with a letter asking for the appointment of a State
chairman. Mrs. Bagley's thorough résumé of the work of her committee
filled eleven pages of the printed convention report and among the
various branches described were recruiting in the foreign tenement
quarters for attendance at the public schools; securing cooperation
with foreign leaders and with existing agencies for Americanization
work; enlisting the cooperation of employers in providing school
facilities for employees; teaching English in the homes where the
women had not been able to attend school and aiding in the carrying on
of the day school for immigrant women now established in the North End
of Boston. She told of two new departments, Americanization for rural
districts and citizenship classes for women voters. She urged, not
only the necessity of schools for adult foreigners but the
desirability of good ones that would hold their attention and she made
a special plea for the immigrant women. She also called attention to
the imperative need for teaching patriotism.

The plan of work recommended by the Executive Council and adopted by
this convention provided that the association during 1918 should
continue the four departments and add the Woman's Hospital Unit in
France and Child Welfare; that these six departments be placed under
the direction of a committee, the chairman of which should be a member
of the national suffrage board; that each State suffrage auxiliary be
asked to establish a War Service Committee, composed of chairmen of
the above sections, with an additional one on Liberty Bonds. This
Committee of Eight was to direct the war work for each State in
cooperation with the State division of the Woman's Committee, Council
of National Defense. The Land Army Section was added in the spring of
1918 and took the place of the Food Production section. The name of
the Thrift section was changed to that of Food Conservation; Miss
Hilda Loines became its chairman and its work was combined as closely
as possible with the similar section in the Woman's National Defense
Committee directed by Mrs. McCormick.

       *       *       *       *       *

The National Suffrage Association held no convention in 1918 but it
met in March, 1919, at St. Louis for its 50th Anniversary. The
Armistice had been declared and the final reports of the association's
war activities were rendered. In that of the War Service Department
the chairman, Mrs. McCormick, stated that the reason the reports did
not cover all six of its sections but only Land Army, Americanization
and Oversea Hospitals was that the other sections, after the
convention of 1917, were merged with the similar sections of the
Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense. Detailed statements
regarding Food Conservation and Industrial Protection for women in
which the suffrage committees took so large a part, may be found in
the reports of the Government Agriculture and Labor Departments. The
Child Welfare Department was combined with that of the Woman's
National Defense Committee and both were put under the guidance of
Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of the Children's Bureau of the United
States Department of Labor. Miss Lathrop made an address to the
convention in St. Louis on this subject which was published in full in
its Handbook for 1919.

In the section Industrial Protection of Women Mrs. Gifford Pinchot
had followed Miss Ethel M. Smith as chairman and in a brief report
told how nominal the function of her committee had recently become,
owing to the fact that all agencies working in this field had been
consolidated under the direction of the U. S. Department of Labor.
Before this amalgamation three interesting lines of effort had been
carried forward by this committee: An attempt was made to secure a
representation of women on the War Labor Board, which did not succeed;
action was taken against the decision of this board in dismissing
women street car conductors in Cleveland, O., and the committee's
position was upheld; an unsuccessful effort was made through Mr.
Gompers to have women appointed on the committee of labor delegates
who went abroad to confer with the labor representatives of other
countries during the Peace Conference.

Land Army. Miss Hilda Loines, chairman, said in part:

     "The training of women for agricultural work as a war necessity
     was early foreseen by the National Suffrage Association and was
     made a part of its program of war service. Early in the spring of
     1917 a number of organizations undertook to register and place
     women who could and would do agricultural labor. Bureaus were
     opened for their registry and field workers were sent out to
     secure promises of employment from the farmers. This was
     difficult at first but as the season wore on and there were no
     men to cultivate the crops and pick the fruit the farmers in
     desperation turned to the women. During the spring and summer of
     1918 the Woman's Land Army was organized in thirty States, and
     about 15,000 women were placed on the land, 10,000 in units and
     5,000 in emergency groups. The majority of these women had had no
     previous experience and most of them could receive little
     training but they did practically every kind of farm labor,
     ploughing, planting, cultivating and harvesting. They cut,
     stacked and loaded hay, corn and rye and filled the silos; worked
     on big western farms and orchards, dairy farms, truck farms,
     private estates and home gardens; did poultry work, beekeeping
     and teaming; learned to handle tractors, harvesters and other
     farm machinery. Their efficiency is best proved by the change of
     attitude from skepticism to enthusiastic appreciation on the part
     of the farmers for whom they worked."

Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Bagley, continued her report of
the preceding year of the work in connection with the Councils of
Defense of the several States "by means of the local machinery of the
various suffrage organizations." She urged the teaching of English to
aliens as the first step in Americanization, with emphasis on the
point that the immigrant women must not be left out. "This
Americanization is a function peculiarly appropriate to suffragists,"
she said, "as a woman married to an alien must herself forever remain
an alien unless her husband becomes a citizen, and as the States
enfranchise women hundreds of thousands will still be left without the
vote. Every married alien whom suffragists help to take out
naturalization papers means not only a vote for him but also for his
wife.

During the convention in December, 1917, the plan for Oversea
Hospitals was presented to the delegates by Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany of
New York, at the request of Mrs. Catt, the national president, to whom
the matter had been suggested by the action of the Scottish Suffrage
Societies in sending to France in 1914 the Scottish Women's Hospitals,
units managed and staffed entirely by women, and was accepted. Mrs.
Tiffany was made chairman of the Hospital Committee and Mrs. Raymond
Brown director of the work in France. At the convention of March,
1919, in St. Louis, Mrs. Brown made a full report, from which the
following is an extract.

     "At its convention in 1917 the National Suffrage Association, as
     part of its war work, agreed to support a hospital unit in France
     and undertook to raise $125,000 for its maintenance for a year.
     This unit was already in process of organization by a group of
     women physicians of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children
     and was to be composed entirely of women. Since the U. S.
     Government does not accept women in its Medical Reserve Corps,
     and at that time neither it nor the Red Cross was sending women
     surgeons for service abroad, the unit was offered to the French
     Government, which accepted it by cable. The first group of the
     unit sailed on Feb. 17, 1918, and expected to establish a
     hospital for refugees in the devastated area. Before they could
     be installed the villages to which they had been assigned were
     taken in a new drive by the Germans and about half the group,
     headed by Dr. Caroline Finley, was suddenly called upon for
     hospital service within the war zone. The hospital to which they
     were assigned was evacuated before they could reach it and they
     were finally placed in Chateau Ognon, a few miles north of Senlis
     on the road to Compiègne.

     "Soon after the first group was sent into the war zone, the
     French Government asked the remainder of the unit to go to the
     Department of Landes in the south of France in order to establish
     there a hospital for refugees. The Germans were still advancing
     and as the refugees poured into the south the government was
     trying to build villages of barracks for them. When Dr. Alice
     Gregory with a group of fifteen women, including a carpenter,
     plumber, chemist and chauffeur, reached Labouheyre, early in
     April, a site had still to be found for the hospital and the
     buildings were still to be built, furnished and equipped. The
     barracks were erected in due time by the government; the
     equipment was the gift of the American Red Cross; the planning,
     directing purchasing and installing were done by our women. Dr.
     Marie Formad was finally put in charge. Later, at the request of
     the French Service de Sante, a 300-bed hospital unit for gas
     cases was organized by the Women's Oversea Hospitals and was
     started on its way from America to France. This was the first
     hospital unit exclusively for gas cases and had a personnel
     solely of women. Its principal group in Lorraine cared for 19,307
     cases in three months."

The Oversea Hospitals service was divided and sent from point to point
to answer the many demands of war, having charge of hospitals and
treating tens of thousands of cases. "With the signing of the
Armistice," Mrs. Brown's report said, "the great problem in France
became the care of refugees and repatriates, who were returning at the
rate of thousands a day, most of them utterly destitute and in need of
medical care, to homes in many cases completely destroyed." The
hospital and dispensary service was therefore continued. Dr. Finley
and her group were sent to Germany and here met the returned prisoners
of war, who were in desperate condition.

"The work of the Oversea Hospitals has been handled with great
economy," the report said, "and has cost less than was anticipated,
both because of the large amount of volunteer work and because the
units in French military hospitals received French rations. The State
suffrage organizations have contributed most generously." A list was
furnished of the trucks and ambulances given by the women's
organizations in the United States. "The total number of women sent to
France with the hospitals was seventy-four, who came from all parts of
the United States. Several of the doctors received the French
equivalent of a commission; three obtained the Croix de Guerre and two
were decorated with the Medaille d'Honneur."

The report of Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer of the National
Association, given at the convention, stated that funds for the
hospitals service to the amount of $133,340 had passed through her
hands. Their disbursement, carefully audited, is published in the
Handbook of the association for 1918, page 111.

At the annual convention of the National Suffrage Association held in
Chicago, in February, 1920, the report of Mrs. Rogers stated that
Oversea Hospitals funds to the amount of $178,000 had passed through
the treasury and a balance of $35,000 remained. (See Handbook, page
116.) The question of the disposition of this balance was put to the
convention, which voted that it be divided equally between the work in
France of the Women's Oversea Hospitals and the American Hospital for
French Wounded in Rheims. Mrs. Tiffany, chairman of the committee, and
Mrs. Brown, director in France, made a final report to the convention,
stating that the work in France was continued until September 1, 1919,
in order to care for the French disabled soldiers, and to maintain
hospitals, dental clinics, dispensaries, ambulances, motor cars, etc.
Such work proceeded in connection with the American Fund for French
Wounded. The principal group was transferred from Lorraine to Rheims
in April, with Dr. Marie Lefort still in charge. On September 1, with
its mission finished, the hospital and all its equipment were
presented to the American Fund for French Wounded. The Mayor sent a
letter to Dr. Lefort which said in part: "The Municipality of Rheims
would like to express to you and the Women's Oversea Hospitals its
profound gratitude for the splendid assistance you have given our
population. France and the city of Rheims are deeply moved." The full
equipment of the smaller hospital groups was given to the French
government for its own hospital service. Dr. Caroline Finley returned
to the U. S. in August, still a Lieutenant in the French Army. The
Prince of Wales, who was in New York, invited her on board H. M. S.
_Renown_, where he conferred on her the Order of the British Empire in
recognition of her work at Metz, where British prisoners stricken with
influenza were cared for as they arrived from German prison-camps.

This ends the story of the Women's Oversea Hospitals, for which the
National Suffrage Association willingly raised nearly $200,000 at the
crisis in its own fifty-year movement. Desks for suffrage work were
vacant over all the country while their occupants were cheerfully
giving their best service to the demands of the war. For the vast
majority this took the forms indicated by the above committee reports.
In addition there were the activities of money-raising; caring for
children and other dependents; safeguarding public health; the usual
tasks of nursing and other Red Cross work; the distribution of food
administration pledge cards, the organizing of food committees in all
townships under the direction of district captains, with "clean-up"
days and "elimination of waste" days in counties; canning
demonstrations throughout communities; alloting and directing garden
plots; holding normal training schools to teach gardening; making
collections for the Red Cross and other war funds, with countless
other activities. Liberty Bonds in the second, third and fourth
campaigns to the amount of one-fourth of the total sales were disposed
of through the National Suffrage Association, its State branches and
women throughout the country.

       *       *       *       *       *

While the suffragists were devoting themselves to war-service they did
not lay down arms for their own cause, which had reached a stage where
further delay was impossible. There was a general tacit understanding
that, while the war needs of their country were and should be
uppermost, their hands must never relinquish the suffrage throttle,
and the double tasks of war work and suffrage work were undertaken in
a fine spirit of devotion to both. Nevertheless, the anti-suffrage
women seized upon the occasion to accuse them of disloyalty,
pacifism, pro-Germanism and of placing the interests of woman suffrage
above those of the nation! These attacks were repeatedly made in the
press and on the platform, Mrs. Catt, the president of the National
Association, being especially the victim. At times they grew so
virulent that it became necessary to answer them through the
newspapers.

Her letters were published with headlines and widely quoted. One of
these letters, under date of Oct. 2, 1917, addressed to Mrs. Margaret
C. Robinson of Cambridge, Mass., chairman of the press committee of
the National Anti-Suffrage Association, began: "My attention has been
called to the fact that you are circulating by public letter and
bulletin various statements that impugn my loyalty as an American and
thereby put in jeopardy my good name and reputation. These assertions
are made by you either with wilful intent to injure my name and
standing in the community or without having made an effort to
establish their proof. I hereby set forth the facts which have been
distorted by you into untruths, either by contrary statements or by
implications." It ended: "In the name of our common womanhood, I ask
you to meet the suffrage issue fairly and squarely, and I warn you
that for personal attacks tending to injure my name or those of my
fellow-workers, you will be held responsible."

Another letter dated Nov. 1, 1917, addressed by Mrs. Catt to Mrs.
James W. Wadsworth, Jr., president of the Anti-Suffrage Association;
Mrs. Robinson and Miss Alice Hill Chittenden, president of the New
York State Anti-Suffrage Association, took up and refuted the charges
saying: "To every single and collective insinuation, implication or
direct charge, published or spoken in any place at any time by
professional anti-suffrage campaigners, which has conveyed the
impression that I or any other officially responsible leader of the
National Suffrage Association has by word or deed been disloyal to our
country, I make complete and absolute denial here and now." It said in
closing: "In this connection I wish to call your attention to the fact
that the late John Hay, the father of the president of the National
Association of Anti-suffragists, had his own experiences with people
who challenged his loyalty and 'cursed me,' he says, 'for being the
tool of England.' In May, 1898, when our country was at war with
Spain, John Hay actually had the temerity to draft a peace project,
although he knew, so he said, that he 'would be lucky if he escaped
lynching for it.' Are you willing to apply to Mrs. Wadsworth's father
the chain of alleged reasoning that you apply to me, and, because of
his great faith in and hope for peace, call him a traitor to his
country?"

These letters had no effect on the abuse and misrepresentation of the
suffragists but the charges were continued by the leaders of the
"antis" until after the close of the war. There can be no doubt that
the splendid war work of the suffragists was a principal factor in the
submission and ratification of the Federal Amendment. Their instant
and universal response in New York to the call of the Government, and
later the actual conscription of all women over sixteen years of age
by the Governor, proved that not only were women capable of war
service but actually liable for it. These facts were largely
responsible for the big majority vote cast by the men for woman
suffrage in November, 1917, and the action of this great State paved
the way for the success of the Federal Amendment in Congress.

It is impossible in this brief space to set forth the achievements of
the Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense, whose chairman,
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was honorary president of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association and had been for eleven years its
president; two of whose members, Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick, were
now its president and vice-president, while five of the remaining
eight were prominent suffragists. Its accomplishments were on so large
a scale and embodied so much important detail that only a full review
could do them justice. The facts attested to the work of an
organization which built up branches in forty-eight States comprising
18,000 component units and capable in at least one instance of
reaching as many as 82,000 women in a single State. The reader is
referred to the excellent account by Mrs. Emily Newell Blair--The
Woman's Committee, United States Council of National Defense, an
interpretative report. (Government Printing Office.)

From the time Dr. Shaw called the first meeting, May 2, 1917, to the
middle of March, 1919, the committee labored unceasingly to perform
its great task. On New Year's Day, 1918, a telegram to Dr. Shaw from
Queen Mary expressed the "thanks of the women of the British Empire
for the inspiring words of encouragement and assurance from the
Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense of America."

On Nov. 11, 1918, the Armistice was signed and on the 18th
representatives of New York organizations of women met in the
ball-room of the Hotel McAlpin at the call of Mrs. Catt. The second
vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, presided and Mrs. Catt offered
the following resolution:

     "Whereas, the great war just ended has been a partnership of all
     the people of all belligerent countries composing two vast
     armies, one of soldiers in the trenches and one of civilians who
     formed a second line of defense to supply the needs of the
     fighters, thus making it possible to fight; and whereas, the war
     could not have been carried to a victorious conclusion without
     the aid of women in civilian activities, as is shown by the
     testimony of men in high authority in every belligerent land; and
     whereas, all truly civilized, intelligent people now wish to make
     a final end of war and to organize the forces of civilization so
     as to make future war impossible; and whereas, women compose half
     of society with very special and peculiar interests to be
     conserved and protected--all too frequently overlooked by
     men--therefore

     Resolved, that we urge the President of the United States to give
     women adequate representation on the United States delegation to
     the Peace Conference to meet in Paris. We urge him to select
     women whose broad experience and sympathies render them competent
     to support and defend every point which bears upon the
     establishment of liberty for all the peoples of the world and
     especially upon the proper protection of women and children in
     peace and war. We urge him to select women who may be relied upon
     to uphold free representative institutions, based upon the will
     of the people in every land in which independence is established,
     in order that democratic institutions may make an end of war."

No attention was paid to this resolution by the President or the
Government and no women were appointed on the Peace delegation as a
recognition of their work and sacrifice.

The Woman's Committee gradually closed up its affairs and at a
meeting on Feb. 12, 1919, Dr. Shaw was instructed to write to the
Secretary of War that it believed its work to be at an end and
tendered its resignation to take effect when, in the judgment of his
Council, its services should no longer be required. This resignation
was accepted by President Wilson on February 27 with a splendid
tribute to the work of the committee. The announcement was formally
made on March 15, and the committee passed out of existence.[151] Two
of its members, the chairman and the resident director, Miss Hannah J.
Patterson, received from the Government in May the distinguished
service medal.

Secretary of War Newton D. Baker in a Foreword to Mrs. Blair's report
said: "The chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of
National Defense from the beginning was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw--ripened
by a long life devoted intensely to the advocacy of great causes;
cheered and heartened by recent victories for the greatest cause for
which she had fought in her long and unusual life; loved and honored
by her sex as their leader and by men as a citizen combining in a rare
degree high qualities of intellect, force of character and persuasive
eloquence in speech. She and her committee wrought a work the like of
which had never been seen before, and her reward was to see its
success and then to be caught up as she was engaged in another high
and fierce conflict into which she threw herself when hostilities
ceased in order that this great work might be but a helpful part of a
greater thing in the hope and history of mankind.... The Woman's
Committee was the leader of the women of America. It informed and
broadened the minds of women everywhere, and with no thought of
propaganda it made an argument by producing results. The Council of
National Defense fades out of this work and the Woman's Committee
looms large--and yet larger still is the American woman...."

It was the earnest desire of Dr. Shaw and the suffragists that she
might now give her important services to the Federal Suffrage
Amendment, which was at a critical stage, but this hope could not be
realized. Former President Taft and President Lowell of Harvard
University, both of whom had done valuable work for the Peace Treaty
and the League of Nations, were starting in May, 1919, on a speaking
tour to advocate the League in fifteen States and they urged Dr. Shaw
to cancel all other engagements and join them on this tour. For two
years she had been giving her time and labor without price and now she
had commenced again to fill her own lecture dates. She was going later
to Spain as the guest of Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr
College, for a well-earned and much-needed rest, but at this call
everything was given up willingly and cheerfully to continue her
service to her country. As the tour was arranged, every night was to
be spent on a sleeping car and Dr. Shaw was to speak only once in
twenty-four hours. She could not, however, resist the pleading of
people in different cities and at Indianapolis she filled eight
engagements of various kinds in one day. The following day at
Springfield, Ills., she succumbed to her old foe, pneumonia. She
received every possible care in the hospital and after two weeks
recovered sufficiently to make the journey to her home at Moylan,
Pennsylvania. She had, however, put too great a strain on her vital
forces and died July 2, at the age of seventy-two.

       *       *       *       *       *

Whatever may have been the unthinking verdict passed upon suffragists
and their activities prior to the World War, it was thereafter widely
acknowledged that in the national crisis they played a leading rôle in
the support and defense of the nation. While it is a matter for regret
that their war record cannot be chronicled as fully and definitely as
can their work for suffrage, nevertheless, even a casual examination
will show that it was a heroic one and none the less so because it was
frequently merged, through far-sighted efficiency, in the war-service
of all American women, of which it formed a distinguished part.


FOOTNOTES:

[150] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Katharine
Dexter McCormick, first vice-president of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association and general chairman of its War Service
Department.

[151] It was a question long and seriously discussed whether this vast
organization should be wholly dissolved or whether it should be
continued in the various States for civic and humanitarian purposes.
Dr. Shaw was strongly in favor of preserving it and her earnest appeal
will be found in Mrs. Blair's Report, page 137.


APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III.

THE DEATH OF MRS. STANTON.

From the address of an old and valued friend, the Rev. Moncure D.
Conway of Virginia, who was many years at the head of the Ethical
Culture Society of London, at the funeral of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in
her home in New York City, Oct. 28, 1902.

     A lighthouse on the human coast is fallen. To vast multitudes the
     name Elizabeth Cady Stanton does not mean so much a person as a
     standard inscribed with great principles. Roses will grow out of
     her ashes; individual characters will give a resurrection to her
     soul and genius, but the immortality she has achieved is that of
     her long and magnificent services to every cause of justice and
     reason. Beginning her career amid ridicule and obloquy, all the
     worth she put into her life has not only been returned to her
     personally in the love and friendship which have surrounded her
     and made life happy even to her last day, but has been returned
     to her tenfold in the successes of her cause.

     Could I utter to her my farewell I would say: Revered and beloved
     friend, you pass to your rest after a brave and beautiful life;
     you have journeyed by a path of unsullied light. If ever there
     shall be established in America a republic--a Constitution and
     Government free from all caste and privilege, whether of color,
     creed or sex--its founders will be discovered not in those who
     purchased by their valor and blood mere independence of territory
     in which a government allied with slavery was founded, but among
     those who, while faithful to heart and home, toiled unweariedly
     for an ideal civilization.

A few touching words were spoken by the Rev. Antoinette Brown
Blackwell, a contemporary in the early days of the movement for woman
suffrage. At Woodlawn Cemetery the committal to earth was pronounced
by the Rev. Phoebe A. Hanaford, another companion in the long contest.

       *       *       *       *       *

MISS ANTHONY'S LAST BIRTHDAY LETTER TO MRS. STANTON, WRITTEN A FEW
DAYS BEFORE HER SUDDEN DEATH.

     My Dear Mrs. Stanton:--

     I shall indeed be happy to spend with you November 12, the day on
     which you round out your four-score and seven, over four years
     ahead of me, but in age as in all else I follow you closely. It
     is fifty-one years since first we met and we have been busy
     through every one of them, stirring up the world to recognize the
     rights of women. The older we grow the more keenly we feel the
     humiliation of disfranchisement and the more vividly we realize
     its disadvantages in every department of life and most of all in
     the labor market.

     We little dreamed when we began this contest, optimistic with the
     hope and buoyancy of youth, that half a century later we would be
     compelled to leave the finish of the battle to another generation
     of women. But our hearts are filled with joy to know that they
     enter upon this task equipped with a college education, with
     business experience, with the fully admitted right to speak in
     public--all of which were denied to women fifty years ago. They
     have practically but one point to gain--the suffrage; we had all.
     These strong, courageous, capable young women will take our place
     and complete our work. There is an army of them where we were
     but a handful. Ancient prejudice has become so softened, public
     sentiment so liberalized and women have so thoroughly
     demonstrated their ability as to leave not a shadow of doubt that
     they will carry our cause to victory.

     And we, dear, old friend, shall move on to the next sphere of
     existence--higher and larger, we cannot fail to believe, and one
     where women will not be placed in an inferior position but will
     be welcomed on a plane of perfect intellectual and spiritual
     equality.

                                   Ever lovingly yours,
                                              Susan B. Anthony.

Practically every magazine in the United States contained an article
about Mrs. Stanton and her great work and there was scarcely a
newspaper that did not have an editorial. An extended account, with
tributes from Miss Anthony, will be found in her Life and Work,
Chapter LXI.

In the _Review of Reviews_ for December, 1902, appeared an
appreciation from the writer of these volumes.


APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV.

DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES.

The following Declaration of Principles, prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr.
Shaw, Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Harper, was adopted by the convention of
the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1904.

     When our forefathers gained the victory in a seven years' war to
     establish the principle that representation should go hand in
     hand with taxation, they marked a new epoch in the history of
     man; but though our foremothers bore an equal part in that long
     conflict its triumph brought to them no added rights and through
     all the following century and a quarter, taxation without
     representation has been continuously imposed on women by as great
     tyranny as King George exercised over the American colonists.

     So long as no married woman was permitted to own property and all
     women were barred from the money-making occupations this
     discrimination did not seem so invidious; but to-day the
     situation is without a parallel. The women of the United States
     now pay taxes on real and personal estate valued at billions of
     dollars. In a number of individual States their holdings amount
     to many millions. Everywhere they are accumulating property. In
     hundreds of places they form one-third of the taxpayers, with the
     number constantly increasing, and yet they are absolutely without
     representation in the affairs of the nation, of the State, even
     of the community in which they live and pay taxes. We enter our
     protest against this injustice and we demand that the immortal
     principles established by the War of the Revolution shall be
     applied equally to women and men citizens.

     As our new republic passed into a higher stage of development the
     gross inequality became apparent of giving representation to
     capital and denying it to labor; therefore the right of suffrage
     was extended to the workingman. Now we demand for the 4,000,000
     wage-earning women of our country the same protection of the
     ballot as is possessed by the wage-earning men.

     The founders took an even broader view of human rights when they
     declared that government could justly derive its powers only from
     the consent of the governed, and for 125 years this grand
     assertion was regarded as a corner-stone of the republic, with
     scarcely a recognition of the fact that one-half of the citizens
     were as completely governed without their consent as were the
     people of any absolute monarchy in existence. It was only when
     our government was extended over alien races in foreign countries
     that our people awoke to the meaning of the principles of the
     Declaration of Independence. In response to its provisions, the
     Congress of the United States hastened to invest with the power
     of consent the men of this new territory, but committed the
     flagrant injustice of withholding it from the women. We demand
     that the ballot shall be extended to the women of our foreign
     possessions on the same terms as to the men. Furthermore, we
     demand that the women of the United States shall no longer suffer
     the degradation of being held not so competent to exercise the
     suffrage as a Filipino, a Hawaiian or a Porto Rican man.

     The remaining Territories within the United States are insisting
     upon admission into the Union on the ground that their citizens
     desire "the right to select their own governing officials, choose
     their own judges, name those who are to make their laws and levy,
     collect, and disburse their taxes." These are just and
     commendable desires but we demand that their women shall have
     full recognition as citizens when these Territories are admitted
     and that their constitutions shall secure to women precisely the
     same rights as to men.

     When our government was founded the rudiments of education were
     thought sufficient for women, since their entire time was
     absorbed in the multitude of household duties. Now the number of
     girls graduated by the high schools greatly exceeds the number of
     boys in every State and the percentage of women students in the
     colleges is vastly larger than that of men. Meantime most of the
     domestic industries have been taken from the home to the factory
     and hundreds of thousands of women have followed them there,
     while the more highly trained have entered the professions and
     other avenues of skilled labor. We demand that under this new
     régime, and in view of these changed conditions in which she is
     so important a factor woman shall have a voice and a vote in the
     solution of their innumerable problems.

     The laws of practically every State provide that the husband
     shall select the place of residence for the family, and if the
     wife refuse to abide by his choice she forfeits her right to
     support and her refusal shall be regarded as desertion. We
     protest against the recent decision of the courts which has added
     to this injustice by requiring the wife also to accept for
     herself the citizenship preferred by her husband, thus compelling
     a woman born in the United States to lose her nationality if her
     husband choose to declare his allegiance to a foreign country.

     As women form two-thirds of the church membership of the entire
     nation; as they constitute but one-eleventh of the convicted
     criminals; as they are rapidly becoming the educated class and as
     the salvation of our government depends upon a moral,
     law-abiding, educated electorate, we demand for the sake of its
     integrity and permanence that women be made a part of its voting
     body.

     In brief, we demand that all constitutional and legal barriers
     shall be removed which deny to women any individual right or
     personal freedom which is granted to man. This we ask in the name
     of a democratic and a republican government, which, its
     constitution declares, was formed "to establish justice and
     secure the blessings of liberty."


APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII.

THE ANTHONY MEMORIAL BUILDING IN ROCHESTER, N.Y.

Shortly after the death of Susan B. Anthony a group of her co-workers
and other friends in Rochester set out to raise a fund for the purpose
of erecting, as a memorial to her, a building for the use of women
students at the University of Rochester. This seemed to them
especially fitting, as Miss Anthony had been intensely interested and
very active in the raising of the Co-education Fund which admitted
women students to the University in 1900.[152] Endorsement of this
plan and the use of their names were given by her sister, Mary S.
Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and many well known women throughout
this country and several from over-seas.

A Memorial Association was formed with an executive committee of
Rochester women[153] but very little organized committee work was
done. Suffragists were by this time too busy with the growing
intensity of their own campaigns and said, truly enough, that Miss
Anthony would much rather they would spend their time and money for
the cause. However, an appeal was issued, coupon books were scattered
among many women's organizations and individuals and the chairman of
the committee addressed her personal appeal to every club and
conference that would give her a hearing.

The largest single gift was from Miss Anthony's old friend Mrs. Sarah
L. Willis of Rochester, $5,250. Mrs. Susan Look Avery of Louisville,
Ky., gave $1,199. Of nine gifts of $1,000 each, five were from
Rochester women--Miss Mary S. Anthony, Mrs. Hannah M. Byam, Mrs. Mary
H. Hallowell, Miss Ada Howe Kent and Miss Frances Baker. The other
$1,000 gifts were from Mrs. Emma J. Bartol, George and Mary A. Burnham
of Philadelphia; John C. Haynes of Boston; Mrs. Lydia Coonley Ward of
Chicago. Among many interesting gifts may be noted one from the women
of The Netherlands and one from the Portia Suffrage Club of New
Orleans. Women students at the college made class gifts from time to
time but the fund grew slowly. After eight years it had reached
$27,475. At this point the college authorities offered to complete the
amount necessary for the building as planned, if the committee would
turn over its money, which it gladly did. The cost was $58,763, the
balance, which came to $31,288, being paid from the Co-education Fund
raised by and for the women in 1900.

In the fall of 1914 the college girls took possession of the handsome
gray stone building, bearing on its face, cut in stone, "Anthony
Memorial." It contains a well-equipped gymnasium, a lunch room and
four parlors for the social life of the students and the use of the
Alumnæ Association. The possession of this building and Catherine
Strong Hall, the two connected by a cloistered walk, has added greatly
to the enjoyment and convenience of the women students. Miss Eddy's
half-length portrait of Miss Anthony hangs over the chimney-piece in
the largest parlor and these rooms furnish a homelike place for their
smaller social gatherings: larger affairs, such as the alumnæ dinner,
are held in the gymnasium. "Miss Anthony would certainly rejoice if
she could look in on some February 15th and see the girls
commemorating her birthday, as they do in some way every year," Mrs.
Gannett writes in sending information for this account.

Dr. Rush Rhees, president of the university, who has sent for this
volume a picture of the Memorial Building and some additional
information, says: "The building is in constant use and is a great
contribution to the comfort, health and pleasure of our women
students."

Friends of Miss Anthony gave a scholarship for women in her name and
Miss Mary S. Anthony gave the money for one in her own name. The
university has seven other scholarships for women.


APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X.

STATEMENT BY MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT AT SENATE HEARING IN 1910

Although the Constitution of the United States in section 2 of Article
I seems to have relegated authority over the extension of the suffrage
to the various States, yet, curiously, few men in the United States
possess the suffrage because they or the class to which they belong
have secured their right to it by State action. The first voters were
those who possessed the right under the original charters granted by
the mother country and as the restrictions were many, including
religious tests in most of the colonies and property qualifications in
all, the number of actual voters was exceedingly small. When it became
necessary at the close of the Revolution to form a federation for the
"common defense" and the promotion of the "general welfare," it was
obvious that citizenship must be made national. To do this it became
clearly necessary that religious tests must be abandoned, since
Catholic Maryland, Quaker Pennsylvania and Congregational
Massachusetts could be united under a common citizenship by no other
method. The elimination of the religious test enfranchised a large
number of men and this without a struggle or any movement in their
behalf.

In 1790 the first naturalization law was passed by Congress. Under the
Articles of Confederation citizenship had belonged to the States but
since it was apparent that it must now be national, a compromise was
made between the old idea of State's rights and the new idea of
Federal union. Each of the original States had its representatives in
the convention which drafted the Federal Constitution and by common
consent it was there planned that citizenship should carry with it the
right to vote, although this was to be put into the State
constitutions and not into the National. These delegates, influencing
their own States in the forming of their constitutions, easily brought
this about and without any movement on the part of those who were to
be naturalized. This common understanding in the National
Constitutional Convention and the Naturalization Act of Congress in
1790 certainly enfranchised somewhere between three-fourths and
four-fifths of all men in the United States at this time.

The population of the colonies at the time of the Revolution was two
and a half millions and even though all men had been voters the number
could not have been more than seven or eight hundred thousand. By the
census of 1900 there were 21,000,000 men of voting age in the United
States. The Act, therefore, of the U. S. Government virtually
enfranchised millions upon millions of men. Generations then unborn
have come into the right of the suffrage in this country under that
Act and men of every nationality have availed themselves of its
privileges to become voting citizens. Although, technically speaking,
enfranchisement of the foreign-born was extended by the States, yet in
reality it is obvious that the real granting of this privilege came
from Congress itself. The thirteen original States retained their
property qualifications after the formation of the Union and these
were removed by State amendments. This extension of the suffrage was
made in most cases many years ago, when the electorate was very small
in numbers.

The history of the enfranchisement of the negro is well known. States
attempted it by amending their constitutions but in no case was this
accomplished. Congress undertook to secure it by national amendment
and although this was ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the
State Legislatures yet it must be remembered that all the southern
States were virtually coerced into giving their consent.... The
Indians were enfranchised by Acts of Congress.

The evolution of man suffrage in the United States shows that but one
class received their votes by direct State action--the nonproperty
holders. They found political parties and statesmen to advocate their
cause and their enfranchisement was made easy by State constitutional
action.

In the 120 years of our national life no class of men have been forced
to organize a movement in behalf of their enfranchisement; they have
offered no petition or plea or even given sign that the extension of
suffrage to them would be acceptable. Yet American women, who have
conducted a persistent, intelligent movement for a half-century, which
has grown stronger and stronger with the years, appealing for their
own enfranchisement and supported now by a petition of 400,000
citizens of the United States are told that it is unnecessary to
consider their plea since all women do not want to vote!

Gentlemen, is it not manifestly unfair to demand of women a test which
has never been made in the case of men in this or any other country?
Is it not true that the attitude of the Government toward an
unenfranchised class of men has ever been that the vote is a privilege
to be extended and it is optional with the citizen whether or not he
shall use it? If any proof is needed it can be found in the fact that
the U. S. Government has no record whatever of the number who have
been naturalized in this country. It has no record of the number of
Indians who have accepted its offer of the vote as a reward for taking
up land in severalty. Manifestly the Government, as represented by
Congress and the State Legislatures, considers it entirely unnecessary
to know whether men who have had the suffrage "thrust upon them" use
it or not, but imperative that women must not only demand it in very
large numbers but give guaranty that they will use it, before its
extension shall be made to them.

Is it not likewise unfair to compel women to seek their
enfranchisement by methods infinitely more difficult than those by
means of which any man in this country has secured his right to a
vote? Ordinary fair play should compel every believer in democracy and
individual liberty, no matter what are his views on woman suffrage, to
grant to women the easiest process of enfranchisement and that is the
submission of a Federal Amendment.


APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIV.

THE SHAFROTH-PALMER WOMAN SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT.

In 1914 the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association, of which Mrs. Medill McCormick was chairman and
Mrs. Antoinette Funk vice-chairman, caused to be introduced in
Congress, with the sanction of the National Board, a Federal Amendment
for woman suffrage radically different from the one for which the
association had been working since 1869. It was named for its
introducers in Senate and House. The merits of the proposed amendment,
as stated by Mrs. Funk, which are given in condensed form in Chapter
XIV, will be found in full in the published Handbook or Minutes of the
national suffrage convention of this year. Specimens of the objections
made as published in the _Woman's Journal_ are given herewith:

     Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.), a lawyer: Senator
     Shafroth's new suffrage amendment may do good by keeping
     law-makers discussing woman suffrage but as a practical method of
     securing it has serious defects. It is open to all the States'
     rights objections raised against our Susan B. Anthony
     amendment,[154] for it goes further and proposes a universal
     method of amending 48 State constitutions. State law-makers and
     Judges and even State voters from the North as well as the South
     will resent such dictation as an unwarrantable interference. The
     Initiative and Referendum scheme will have its own enemies, who
     will fear that this way may be an entering wedge for more
     Initiative and Referendum amendments to be pushed into State
     constitutions.

     The amendment is, however, too indefinitely framed to be
     workable. No officer is named to whom the petitions should go; no
     officer is obligated to submit the question; no method of
     authenticating the petitions is prescribed and no time for voting
     is fixed. The United States has no facilities of its own for
     conducting any such elections or punishing State or county
     officers who may not volunteer to do the work. The Congressional
     Committee would better keep this amendment in committee rather
     than let the country know the great objection there is to it on
     the part of our constituency....

            *       *       *       *       *

     Mrs. M. Tascan Bennett (Conn.): The three principal objections to
     the new amendment appear to be as follows: It divides suffragists
     all over the country. The Anthony Amendment has had the support
     since 1869 of the annual conventions, where the members of the
     National Association have their one opportunity to direct its
     work. The Shafroth Amendment furnishes an excellent excuse to
     Congress for taking no action on the Anthony Amendment. It might
     well appear as a happy way to dispose of the whole question of
     woman suffrage by foisting responsibility for it back on the
     States where it already is.... It defeats what I consider to be
     the unanswerable advantage of the Anthony Amendment, whose
     ratification by the required three-fourths of the States will
     force the remaining one-fourth into line. The southern States,
     for whose special benefit the Shafroth Amendment appears to have
     been conceived, will undoubtedly be many years in accepting woman
     suffrage. With this new amendment ratified, they can still hold
     it back within their borders as long as they cling to their
     prejudices.

            *       *       *       *       *

     George H. Wright, M.D. (Conn.): The greatest objection is that,
     if passed, this amendment would throw the whole suffrage campaign
     into chaos. At present when we have carried one State we stop
     worrying about that State. The women cannot again be
     disfranchised except by an amendment to the State constitution,
     which would first have to pass a Legislature elected by the whole
     people. No such Legislature would dare to pass such a bill; the
     members who voted for it would accomplish nothing and would at
     once be ousted by their outraged women constituents. But under
     the Shafroth Amendment 8 per cent. of the voters could force a
     referendum on the question at any time.... Also a large part of
     the effort and money now used to gain new victories would be
     spent in defending what we had already won.

            *       *       *       *       *

     The Rev. Olympia Brown (Wis.), a pioneer suffragist: The passage
     of the Shafroth Amendment is spoken of several times in the
     explanations and arguments for it as being an "endorsement of
     woman suffrage by Congress." "Federal sanction," it is said,
     "would dignify the movement." This is another misnomer. There is
     no "indorsement" by Congress and no "federal sanction" about it.
     There is not even a hint that Congress favors woman suffrage. The
     amendment merely provides for the Initiative and Referendum in
     the States.

     The _Woman's Journal_ lately called attention to the statement
     twice made that "the effect of the amendment, if ratified, would
     be the same as if every State in the Union had passed a suffrage
     amendment." This is a most singular assertion. If every State
     adopted a suffrage amendment our work would be done. Again: "The
     passage of this resolution would have the same effect over the
     United States as if any other suffrage amendment had passed."
     Surely anyone can see that if the Anthony Amendment had been
     passed by Congress the effect would be entirely different from
     that produced by the passage of one merely giving the Initiative
     and Referendum to the States. And again: "If ratified, this
     amendment would have the same effect in every State as if a
     suffrage amendment had already passed its Legislature." Even this
     is untrue. If any Legislature had submitted a suffrage amendment,
     the subject would at once go to the men to be voted on but by
     this method there must be a petition signed by 8 per cent. of the
     voters....

     One thing, however, seems to be ignored by all. When once an
     amendment to the Federal Constitution is passed and ratified by
     three-fourths of the Legislatures it becomes a part of the
     Constitution and is fixed for all time. No amendment has ever yet
     been repealed but it would be difficult, if not impossible, to
     secure another amendment on the same subject, especially one
     providing for a course of action entirely different from the
     former.

     Therefore, this Shafroth Amendment, if passed, will place an
     impassable barrier to future Congressional action in behalf of
     woman suffrage. It simply refers the matter to the States. As a
     reason for passing it, it is claimed that we cannot secure the
     submission of the original amendment. Perhaps not today or during
     this session of Congress; possibly not during this
     administration, but with the wonderful progress of our cause, the
     spread of the recognition of the rights of women and the "new
     doctrine of freedom," the demand for it will be overwhelming and
     it will be gained at no distant day.

            *       *       *       *       *

     Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, historian of the suffrage movement: In
     behalf of many loyal and experienced suffragists I wish to enter
     two strong protests--one against the resolution which has been
     presented in the U. S. Senate by Senator Shafroth of Colorado, by
     request of Mrs. Medill McCormick and Mrs. Antoinette Funk; the
     other against their statement made to Congress that they speak
     for the 642,000 members of the National American Suffrage
     Association in offering this resolution.

     The Congressional Committee, of which they are chairman and
     vice-chairman, was appointed, according to the understanding of
     the convention which met in Washington last fall, to work for the
     submission by Congress of the Federal Amendment for which the
     association has stood sponsor forty-five years. It was organized
     in 1869 for the express purpose of securing this amendment: "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 sex." No other ever has been considered by the
     association.

     When this committee opened its headquarters in Washington the
     National Board asked contributions for its support through the
     _Woman's Journal_, saying: "The speedy submission of this Federal
     Amendment is of vital concern to every suffragist." Later it
     announced: "The Washington office will be occupied largely with
     the political end of the Federal Amendment campaign, while a
     Chicago office will specialize in the work of organizing the
     congressional districts of the United States in cooperation with
     the various State associations." All this, of course, was for the
     old, original amendment. No experienced suffragist expected it to
     receive the necessary two-thirds vote this session, but, as it
     had been reported favorably to the Senate, the desire was to have
     it brought to a discussion; to secure as large a vote as possible
     and to ascertain which members were friends and which were
     enemies. In spite of most unfavorable conditions this was
     accomplished and the amendment received a majority. There were no
     more negative votes than when it was acted upon in 1887 by the
     Senate and over twice as many favorable votes. The opposition was
     based almost entirely on the doctrine of State's rights, as was
     to be expected; but three Southern Senators voted in the
     affirmative. Before another session of Congress several more
     States are certain to be carried for woman suffrage, thus
     insuring more votes for this Federal Amendment. The defeat of
     suffrage bills in a number of Legislatures in the South is
     converting the women of that section to the necessity of action
     by Congress. Just at the most favorable moment in the entire
     history of this amendment, the committee having it in charge
     suddenly throws it on the dust heap; has another introduced of a
     radically different character, and announces to the public that
     this is done with the sanction of the National Board and that it
     represents the sentiment of the 642,000 members of the National
     American Association!... In behalf of countless members of this
     association, I protest against this high-handed action. I insist
     that the National Board exceeded its prerogatives when it
     sanctioned so radical and complete a change in the time-honored
     policy of the association without first bringing it before a
     national convention and giving the delegates a chance to pass
     upon it. The proposed amendment seems undesirable from every
     point of view....

These and all protests were answered by Miss Alice Stone Blackwell,
editor of the _Woman's Journal_, generally recognized as high
authority by the suffragists of the country. Throughout the months of
controversy she kept up a vigorous defense and advocacy of the
Shafroth Amendment, saying: "The old amendment has not been dropped
and many of us believe that the new amendment will pave the way for
the passage of the old one. Most of the suffragists are much attached
to the old nation-wide amendment. If any proposal should be made at
the next national convention to drop it the proposal could hardly
carry, or, if it did, the resulting dissatisfaction would greatly
weaken the National Association, but at present nothing of the sort is
proposed." She did, however, say in mild criticism:

     The National Board has authority to decide questions that come up
     in the interim between the national conventions. On the other
     hand it has never before had to pass upon anything so important
     as committing the association to the advocacy of a wholly new
     amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It would probably have been
     the part of wisdom to get a vote of the National Executive
     Council. This would not have taken long and would have saved
     considerable hard feeling and perplexity. The approval of the
     majority of the Council could probably have been had, for there
     is no earthly ground for objecting to the Shafroth Amendment when
     it is thoroughly understood. It merely furnishes a short cut to
     amendments in the States--a method which any State could use or
     not as it chose. Supposing the Shafroth Amendment to have passed
     Congress and been ratified, if the suffragists of any State
     preferred the old way of amending their State constitution, it
     would still be open. The Shafroth Amendment would lay no
     compulsion upon any State; it would only take snags out of the
     way of amendments in those States where the snags are now very
     thick.

     Feeling on this subject is more acute than it needs to be because
     the suffrage atmosphere just now is highly charged with
     electricity. The Shafroth Amendment is a first-rate little
     amendment and the sooner it passes the better.

The National Convention at Nashville in November, 1914, after many
hours of heated discussion, finally adopted a resolution that it
should be the policy of the association to "support by every means
within its power the Anthony Amendment and to support such other
legislation as the National Board might authorize to the end that the
Anthony resolution should become law." (Minutes, p. 26.) At the
convention of December, 1915, in Washington it was voted that the last
year's action in regard to the Shafroth Amendment be rescinded; that
the association re-indorse the Anthony Amendment and that no other be
introduced by it during the coming year. (Minutes, page 43.) This
ended the matter for all time.


APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XV.

FROM ADDRESS OF DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW WHEN RESIGNING THE PRESIDENCY OF
THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, DEC. 15, 1915.

After a brief sketch of the condition of the world after a year and a
half of the war in Europe, the address continued:

     As an association we are confronted through the eternal law of
     progress by changes in our methods such as we have not met since
     the union of the two national societies in 1890. Our enlarged and
     expanding status as an association, the new and varied duties
     which devolve upon us and the innumerable demands increasing with
     the accumulation of means and workers call for a new kind of
     service in leadership. Political necessity has supplanted the
     reform epoch; the reapers of the harvest have replaced the
     ploughman and seed sower, each equally needed in the process of
     the cultivation and the development of an ideal as in the harvest
     of the land. When this movement began its pioneers were
     reformers, people who saw a vision and dreamed dreams of the time
     when all mankind should be free and all human beings have an
     equal opportunity under the law. Other reformers became possessed
     by it, and, following it in the spirit of Him who cried, "I was
     not disobedient to the Heavenly vision," they went forth
     proclaiming it to the world, knowing that misunderstanding,
     misrepresentation and persecution would combine to make the task
     difficult. It was not that they sought persecution but that they
     loved justice and freedom more than escape from it--these
     pioneers of the greatest political reform which history recounts.
     Year after year the task has been carried forward until the time
     has come when "new occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient
     good uncouth," and the idealist and the reformer are supplanted
     in our movement by the politician. Our cause has passed beyond
     the stage of academic discussion and has entered the realm of
     practical politics. The time has come when our organized
     machinery must be political in its character and work along
     political lines directed by political leaders....

     The United States is looked upon as being the most powerful
     neutral nation, which with its high human ideal is the best
     equipped to present its good offices in mediation between the
     warring nations of the East, but is this true? What better
     preparation could it make than by removing from within its own
     borders the very cause which led to the present barbarous
     conditions across the sea?... How can the United States, in any
     spirit of a truly great nation, offer its services as mediator
     when it is following the same line of action towards its own
     people? How can it plead for justice in the East when it denies
     this to its own women? How can it claim that written agreements
     between nations are binding when it violates the fundamental
     principles of its own National Constitution which declare that
     "the right of the citizen to vote shall not be denied or abridged
     by the United States or any State," and for forty-five years
     Congress has turned a deaf ear to the appeal of our own citizens
     for protection under this law? Is it true that the United States
     Constitution too is but a "scrap of paper" to be repudiated at
     will? If, as a mediator of justice, we hold out our hands to lift
     other nations from the abyss into which injustice has plunged
     them, they must be clean hands. Our words must ring true....

     Many appeals will be made to our association to abandon its one
     purpose of securing votes for women and turn its attention and
     organized machinery to the real or imaginary dangers which beset
     us as a nation, but let us never for a moment forget the specious
     promises and assurances that were given to the pioneers, who,
     when the Civil War took place, gave up their associated work and
     turned their efforts to its demand in the belief that when the
     war was over the country would recognize their patriotic services
     and the dependence of the nation upon women in war as in peace
     and reward them with the ballot, the crowning symbol of
     citizenship. But instead of recognizing their service and
     rewarding the loyal women, the cry went forth: "This is the
     negroes' hour. Let the women wait"--and they are still waiting.
     As they wait they are not blind to the fact that this nation did
     what no other nation has ever done, when it voluntarily made its
     former slaves the sovereign rulers of its loyal and patriotic
     women.

     The greatest service suffragists can render their country and
     through it the whole world at this time, is to teach it that
     there is no sex in love of individual liberty and to stand
     without faltering by their demand for justice and equality of
     political rights for men and women.

Dr. Shaw impressed upon the workers, especially the younger ones, not
to be discouraged at what seemed slow progress and said:

     It has been the privilege of your president to participate
     actively in twenty-four out of twenty-seven State campaigns; in
     the New Hampshire constitutional convention campaign, the
     Wheeling municipal campaign and directly though not actively in
     all the others except that of Illinois. The vote cast upon the
     amendments but inadequately expresses the expanding sentiment in
     behalf of woman suffrage and it needs only consecrated,
     persistent, systematic service to reach the goal and complete the
     task begun by the pioneers of 1848 and led by Susan B. Anthony
     until her death in 1906. While we accept as our motto her last
     public utterance, "Failure is impossible," we must also remember
     her prophetic words, uttered just before she laid down her life
     work: "There is nothing which can ultimately prevent the triumph
     of our cause but the time of its coming depends largely upon the
     loyalty and devotion of those who believe in it." ...

     While recognizing that our primary object is to secure the ballot
     for women citizens and that as an organization we are not wedded
     to one method of obtaining it but are willing to adopt any just
     plan which promises success, nevertheless until a better way is
     found we will seek to secure an amendment to the National
     Constitution prohibiting disfranchisement on account of sex, and
     at the same time will appeal to the States that by their action a
     sufficiently strong support may be given to the Federal Amendment
     to secure its adoption, unless it become unnecessary by action of
     the States themselves.... We must face the fact that large bodies
     of our new recruits know practically little of the history of the
     suffrage movement, of the long years of faithful devotion and the
     wise and statesmanlike service which have brought it to its
     present successful position. These recruits are attracted by new
     and spectacular methods, are impatient of delay and eagerly
     follow any scheme which promises to "get it quick." ... If we
     analyze the arguments set forth by these most ardent advocates of
     the Federal Constitutional Amendment as the only means of
     securing immediate results and learn upon what they base their
     hopes of success, we shall see, as has been shown again and
     again, that every one of them has its source in the enfranchised
     States; that instead of State by State action being "wasteful,
     expensive and slow," it is the foundation of hope. This is the
     strongest argument in behalf of the wisdom of the founders of
     our movement, that they recognized the necessity that State and
     Federal action must go together.


ADDRESS OF MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT AT SENATE HEARING, DEC. 15, 1915.

     Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee:

     Since our last appeal was made to your committee a vote has been
     taken in four Eastern States upon the question of amending their
     constitutions for woman suffrage. The inaction of Congress in not
     submitting a Federal amendment naturally leads us to infer that
     members believe the proper method by which women may secure the
     vote is through the referendum. We found in those four States
     what has always been true whenever any class of people have asked
     for any form of liberty and was best described by Macaulay when
     he said: "If a people are turbulent they are unfit for liberty;
     if they are quiet, they do not want it." We met a curious
     dilemma. On the one hand a great many men voted in the negative
     because women in Great Britain had made too emphatic a demand for
     the vote. Since they made that demand it is reported that
     10,000,000 men have been killed, wounded or are missing through
     militant action, but all of that is held as naught compared with
     the burning of a few vacant buildings. Evidently the logic that
     these American men followed was: Since some turbulent women in
     another land are unfit to vote, no American woman shall vote.
     There was no reasoning that could change the attitude of those
     men. On the other hand the great majority of the men who voted
     against us, as well as the great majority of the members of
     Legislatures and Congress who oppose this movement, hold that
     women have given no signal that they want the vote. Between the
     horns of this amazing dilemma the Federal amendment and State
     suffrage seem to be caught fast.

     So those of us who want to learn how to obtain the vote have
     naturally asked ourselves over and over again what kind of a
     demand can be made. We get nothing by "watchful waiting" and if
     we are turbulent we are pronounced unfit to vote. We turned to
     history to learn "what kind of a demand the men of our own
     country made and determined to do what they had done. The census
     of 1910 reported 27,000,000 males over 21. Of these 9,500,000 are
     direct descendants of the population of 1800; 2,458,873 are
     negroes; 15,040,278 are aliens, naturalized or descendants of
     naturalized citizens since 1800. The last two classes compose
     two-thirds of the male population over 21. The enfranchisement of
     negro men is such recent history that it is unnecessary to repeat
     here that they made no demand for the vote. The naturalization
     laws give citizenship to any man who chooses to make a residence
     of this country for five years and automatically every man who is
     a citizen becomes a voter in the State of his residence. In the
     115 years since 1800 not one single foreigner has ever been asked
     whether he wanted the vote or whether he was fit for it--it has
     literally been thrust upon him. Two-thirds of our men of voting
     age today have not only made no demand for the vote but they have
     never been asked to give any evidence of capacity to use it
     intelligently.

     We turned again to history to see how the men who lived in this
     country in 1800 got their votes. At that time 8 per cent. of the
     total population were voters in New York as compared with 25 per
     cent. now. There was a struggle in all the colonial States to
     broaden the suffrage. New York seemed always to have lagged
     behind the others and therefore it forms a good example. It was
     next to the last State to remove the land qualification and it
     was not a leader in the extension of the suffrage to any class.

     In 1740 the British Parliament disqualified the Catholics for
     naturalization in this country. That enactment had been preceded
     in several of the States by their definite disfranchisement. In
     1699 they were disfranchised by an Act of the Assembly of New
     York. Although the writers on the early franchise say that Jews
     were not permitted to vote anywhere in this country in 1701, as
     they certainly were not in England, yet occasionally they
     apparently did so. In New York that year there was a definite
     enactment disfranchising them. In 1737 the Assembly passed
     another disfranchising Act. Catholics and Jews were disfranchised
     in most States. It is interesting to learn how they became
     enfranchised. One would naturally suppose that together or
     separately they would make some great demand for political
     equality with Protestants but there is no record that they did. I
     find that the reason why our country became so liberal to them
     was not because there was any demand on their part and not
     because there was any special advocacy of their enfranchisement
     by statesmen. It was due to the fact that in the Revolution,
     Great Britain, having difficulty with the American colonies on
     the south side of the St. Lawrence River, did as every
     belligerent country does and tried to hold Canada by granting her
     favors. In order to make the Canadian colonies secure against
     revolution the British Parliament, which had previously
     disfranchised the Catholics and the Jews, now extended a vote to
     them. The American Constitution makers could not do less than
     Great Britain had done, and so in every one of the thirteen
     States they were guaranteed political equality with Protestants.

     The next great movement was the elimination of the land
     qualification and on this we find that history is practically
     silent. In Connecticut and Rhode Island a small petition was
     presented to the Assembly asking for its removal. In New York in
     the constitutional convention of 1821 when some members advocated
     its removal others asked, "Where is the demand? Who wants to vote
     that has no land?" The answer was that there had been some
     meetings in New York in behalf of removing this qualification. No
     one of them had seen such a meeting but some members had heard
     that a few had been held in the central districts of the State.
     This constitutes the entire demand that has been made by the men
     of our country for the vote.

     In contrast we may ask what have women done? Again I may say that
     New York is a fair example because it is the largest of the
     States in population and has the second city in size in the world
     and occupies perhaps the most important position in any land in
     which a suffrage referendum has been taken. Women held during the
     six months prior to the election in 1915, 10,300 meetings. They
     printed and circulated 7,500,000 leaflets or three-and-a-half for
     every voter. These leaflets weighed more than twenty tons. They
     had 770 treasuries in the State among the different groups doing
     suffrage work and every bookkeeper except two was a volunteer.
     Women by the thousands contributed to the funds of that campaign,
     in one group 12,000 public school teachers. On election day 6,330
     women watched at the polls from 5:45 in the morning until after
     the vote was counted. I was on duty myself from 5:30 until
     midnight. There were 2,500 campaign officers in the State who
     gave their time without pay. The publicity features were more
     numerous and unique than any campaign of men or women had ever
     had. They culminated in a parade in New York City which was
     organized without any effort to secure women outside the city to
     participate in it, yet 20,000 marched through Fifth Avenue to
     give some idea of the size of their demand for the vote.

     What was the result? If we take the last announcement from the
     board of elections the suffrage amendment received 535,000
     votes--2,000 more than the total vote of the nine States where
     women now have suffrage through a referendum. It was not
     submitted in Wyoming, Utah or Illinois. Yet New York suffragists
     did not win because the opponents outvoted them. How did this
     happen? Why did not such evidence of a demand win the vote?
     Because the unscrupulous men of the State worked and voted
     against woman suffrage, aided and abetted by the weakminded and
     illiterate, who are permitted a vote in New York. In Rochester
     the male inmates of the almshouse and rescue home were taken out
     to vote against the amendment. Men too drunk to sign their own
     names voted all over the State, for drunkards may vote in New
     York. In many of the polling places the women watchers reported
     that throughout the entire day not one came to vote who did not
     have to be assisted; they did not know enough to cast their own
     vote.

     Those are some of the conditions women must overcome in a
     referendum. One can eventually be carried even in New York but we
     believe we have made all the sacrifices which a just Government
     ought to expect of us. Even the Federal Amendment is difficult
     enough, with the ratification of 36 Legislatures required, but we
     may at least appeal to a higher class of men. We were obliged to
     make our campaign in twenty-four different languages.... It is
     too unfair and humiliating treatment of American women to compel
     us to appeal to the men of all nations of the earth for the vote
     which has been so freely and cheaply given to them. We believe we
     ought to have the benefit of the method provided by the Federal
     Constitution.


APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XVII.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.

During the early years of the movement for woman suffrage the
headquarters were in the home of Miss Susan B. Anthony, in Rochester,
N. Y. In 1890 her strong desire to have a center for work and social
features in Washington was fulfilled by the National Association's
renting two large rooms in the club house of Wimodaughsis, a newly
formed stock company of women for having classes and lectures on art,
science, literature and domestic and political economy, with Dr. Anna
Howard Shaw president. It did not prove to be permanent, however, and
in two years the association had to give up the rooms and the work
went back to Rochester, where much of it had continued to be done.

In October, 1895, when Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt became chairman of the
Organization Committee, she opened headquarters in one room of her
husband's offices in the _World_ Building, New York City. At the same
time Miss Anthony, with a gift of $1,000 from Mrs. Louisa Southworth
of Cleveland, had Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, national corresponding
secretary, open headquarters in Philadelphia, with Miss Nicolas Shaw
as secretary. Both acts were endorsed by the Business Committee of the
association. At the next convention Mrs. Avery recommended that the
Philadelphia headquarters be removed to those of New York. This was
done April 1, 1897; two large rooms were rented in the _World_
Building and all the work of the association except the treasurer's
and the convention business was transacted here. For six years the
national headquarters, in charge of Mrs. Catt, remained in New York.
In May, 1903, they were removed to Warren, Ohio, near Cleveland, and
Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, took charge of them,
with Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, executive secretary. Here they were
beautifully housed, first in the parlors of an old mansion and later
on the ground floor of the county court house where formerly was the
public library. In 1909, partly through the contribution of Mrs.
Oliver H. P. Belmont, they were returned to New York City and with the
New York State Association occupied the entire seventeenth floor of a
large, new office building, 505 Fifth Avenue, corner of 42nd Street.
When Mrs. Catt again became president the work of the association had
outgrown even these commodious headquarters and in January, 1916, the
fourteenth floor, with much more space, was taken in an office
building at 171 Madison Avenue, corner of 33rd Street. In March, 1917,
the Leslie Commission opened its Bureau of Suffrage Education in this
building and the two organizations occupied two floors with a staff of
fifty persons. On May 1, 1920, their work was concentrated on one
floor, as the great task of securing complete, universal suffrage for
the women of the United States was almost finished.

Branch Headquarters: In January, 1914, branch headquarters were opened
in the Munsey Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington for the
work of the association's Congressional Committee. They continued
there until the effort to obtain a Federal Amendment became of such
magnitude as to require a great deal more room and in December, 1916,
a large house was taken at 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, just off of Scott
Circle [see page 632]. This was occupied by the committee, national
officers, the lobbyists and other workers until July, 1919, when the
amendment had been submitted by Congress.

The first headquarters in a business building in 1895 had been rented
for $15 a month; the last year's rent for the headquarters in New York
and Washington was $17,500.


BEQUEST OF MRS. FRANK LESLIE.

Mrs. Frank Leslie, long at the head of the Leslie publications in New
York City, died Sept. 18, 1914, leaving a will which made the
following provisions:

     All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, whatsoever and
     wheresoever situate, whereof I may be seized or possessed, or to
     which I may be in any manner entitled at the time of my death,
     including the amount of any legacies hereinbefore given which may
     for any reason lapse or fail, I do give, devise and bequeath unto
     my friend, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of the city of New York. It
     is my expectation and wish that she turn all of my said residuary
     estate into cash, and apply the whole thereof as she shall think
     most advisable to the furtherance of the cause of Women's
     Suffrage, to which she has so worthily devoted so many years of
     her life, and that she shall make suitable provision, so that in
     case of her death any balance thereof remaining unexpended may be
     applied and expended in the same way; but this expression of my
     wish and expectation is not to be taken as creating any trust or
     as limiting or affecting the character of the gift to her, which
     I intend to be absolute and unrestricted.

Mrs. Leslie had previously made two wills of a similar character. The
estate was appraised at $1,800,000 in stocks, bonds and real estate.
There was an immense inheritance tax to be paid and harassing
litigation was at once begun and continued. It was not until the
winter of 1917 that the executors commenced a distribution of the
funds. Mrs. Catt incorporated the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission,
which has received and expended all monies realized from the estate.
They were a large factor in the legitimate expenditures for obtaining
the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment from Congress and its
ratification by 36 State Legislatures. They were also of great
assistance in the campaigns of the last years to secure the amendments
of State constitutions, which required organizers, speakers, printing,
postage, etc. Contributions have been made to women's struggle for the
franchise in other countries.


APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIX.

PRESENT STATUS OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION,
ORGANIZED IN 1869.

Acting on the plan adopted at the last convention of the National
American Association at Chicago in February, 1920, Mrs. Carrie Chapman
Catt, president, issued a call for a meeting of the Executive Council
in Hotel Statler at the time of the second annual convention of the
National League of Women Voters in Cleveland, Ohio. The meeting took
place at 10 a. m., April 13, 1921, Mrs. Catt in the chair. She made a
report of the receipts and disbursements of the Leslie Fund, saying
that as soon as the estate was finally settled she would render a
detailed statement. She said there were reasons why the association
should not at this time be dissolved and gave them as follows:

(1) Legal attacks on the Federal Amendment are still pending and there
are attempts to secure submission of a repeal to the voters. The
association must remain till no further efforts are made to invalidate
the amendment.

(2) The necessity of some authority to give advice and to help our
dependencies where suffrage campaigns are pending.

(3) Several bequests, delayed because estates are not settled, also
require the continuation of the association.

The Chair stated that the incorporation does not expire till 1940.
Conventions of elected delegates are no longer feasible and,
therefore, continuation without conventions should be provided for in
an amended constitution, such amendments to be confirmed by the
Executive Council.

It was unanimously agreed that the association be continued and on
motion of Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, attorney, of Chicago, it was
voted that the Chair appoint two other members of the Council to
co-operate with her in revising the constitution in accordance with
the new arrangement. She appointed Mrs. McCulloch and Mrs. Nettie
Rogers Shuler, the corresponding secretary of the association.

The report of the national treasurer from Jan. 1, 1920, to March 31,
1921, showed that $12,451 had been used for the expenses connected
with the ratification in eleven difficult States; the headquarters had
been maintained; legal fees paid; the expenses of the Chicago
convention met; deficit of the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co.
paid; printing and other bills settled, and a balance of $3,534
remained in the treasury.

The General Officers had been re-elected in Chicago to serve until the
end. At the present meeting the Directors, whose term of office had
expired, were re-elected to serve continuously, except Mrs. Arthur L.
Livermore, whose resignation was accepted and Mrs. Harriet Taylor
Upton was chosen to fill the vacancy. It was voted that the League of
Women Voters be asked to take the place of the National Suffrage
Association as auxiliary to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance;
also that the association no longer continue as auxiliary of the
National Council of Women of the United States.

Brief remarks were made by delegates present and enthusiastic
appreciation was expressed of the action of the Tennessee Legislature
in giving the 36th ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.
Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with advice to the delegates to put their
State records, literature, etc., into libraries for preservation and
she urged the necessity of the best training for their new
responsibilities, reminding them that the duty would always rest on
women to conserve civilization.

       *       *       *       *       *

The committee, consisting of Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Shuler and Mrs.
McCulloch, recommended the adoption of an abridged constitution with
the elimination of all the by-laws and articles of the old one which
were now unnecessary. The Board could incur no financial obligations
beyond the assets in their hands; they could fill vacancies caused by
death or resignation as heretofore; adopt such rules for their
meetings as they deemed proper and amend the constitution by a
two-thirds vote. The Board should continue to consist of nine officers
and eight directors, with the power to summon the Executive Council.
This Council should comprise the Board and the presidents and
executive members of State auxiliaries as they existed in 1920. The
name of the association would be retained.

The abridged constitution was sent to every member of the Council to
be voted on.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Executive Council was called to meet at the headquarters of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association in New York at 10:30
a.m., June 22, 1921, for final action on the new constitution. Mrs.
Catt presided and Mrs. Lewis J. Cox, State executive member from
Indiana, acted as secretary. It was voted that the following sentence
be added to the objects of the association: "To remove as far as it is
possible all discriminations against women on account of sex."
Sixty-six of the eighty-two members of the Council having voted in the
affirmative and none in the negative the constitution was declared to
be legally adopted.


APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIX.

DEATH OF DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW.

It is literally true that a nation mourned the death of Anna Howard
Shaw. Having lectured from ocean to ocean for several decades she was
universally known and there were few newspapers which did not contain
a sympathetic editorial on her public and personal life. Telegrams
were received at her home from all parts of the world and the letters
were almost beyond counting. Friend and foe alike yielded to the
unsurpassed charm of her personality and the rare qualities of her
mind and heart.

In February, 1919, the Woman's Council of National Defense, of which
Dr. Shaw had been chairman since its beginning in April, 1917,
dissolved with its duties ended. For the past two years she had
practically given up her platform work for woman suffrage, then at its
most critical stage with the Federal Amendment pending. Now she had
made a large number of speaking engagements for the spring in its
behalf and had accepted the invitation of Dr. M. Carey Thomas,
president of Bryn Mawr College, to be her guest on a trip to Spain
afterwards. Everything was put aside when in May came an urgent
request from former President Taft and President Lowell, of Harvard
University, to join them in a speaking tour of fourteen States from
New Hampshire to Kansas to arouse sentiment in favor of the League of
Nations as a means of assuring peace forevermore. She was to speak but
once a day but she could not resist the appeals in the different
cities and it became four or five times a day. At Indianapolis she
made speeches, gave interviews, etc., eight times. The next day at
Springfield, Ill., she was stricken with pneumonia and was in the
hospital two weeks. By June 12 she was able to leave for her home in
Moylan, a residence suburb of Philadelphia, with her beloved friend
and companion, Lucy Anthony, who had gone to her and who wrote to
anxious friends: "She made the journey without even a rise of
temperature, found the house all bright with sunshine and flowers and
was the happiest person in the world to be at home again." She seemed
to recover entirely but on June 30 had a sudden relapse and died at 7
o'clock on the evening of July 2.


     DR. SHAW'S TRIBUTE TO THE AMERICAN FLAG, GIVEN MANY TIMES.

     "This is the American flag. It is a piece of bunting and why is
     it that, when it is surrounded by the flags of all other nations,
     your eyes and mine turn first toward it and there is a warmth at
     our hearts such as we do not feel when we gaze on any other flag?
     It is not because of the beauty of its colors, for the flags of
     England and France which hang beside it have the same colors. It
     is not because of its artistic beauty, for other flags are as
     artistic. It is because you and I see in that piece of bunting
     what we see in no other. It is not visible to the human eye but
     it is to the human soul.

     "We see in every stripe of red the blood which has been shed
     through the centuries by men and women who have sacrificed their
     lives for the idea of democracy; we see in every stripe of white
     the purity of the democratic ideal toward which all the world is
     tending, and in every star in its field of blue we see the hope
     of mankind that some day the democracy which that bit of bunting
     symbolizes shall permeate the lives of men and nations, and we
     love it because it enfolds our ideals of human freedom and
     justice."

            *       *       *       *       *

     In 1917. "It is because we love our country so much and because
     we are so anxious to give ourselves entirely to the great service
     of winning the war, that we want the freedom of American women
     now. We suffragists would be thrice traitors if at this time of
     the great struggle of the world for democracy we should fail to
     ask for the fundamental principles here which America is trying
     to help bring to other countries."

       *       *       *       *       *

When Dr. Shaw received the Distinguished Service Medal from Secretary
of War Baker she said: "I realize that in conferring upon me the
Distinguished Service Medal, the President and the Secretary of War
are not expressing their appreciation of what I as an individual have
done but of the collective service of the women of the county. As it
is impossible to decorate all women who have served equally with the
Chairman of the Woman's Committee, I have been chosen, and while I
appreciate the honor and am prouder to wear this decoration than to
receive any other recognition save my political freedom, which is the
first desire of a loyal American, I nevertheless look upon this as the
beginning of the recognition by the country of the service and loyalty
of women, and above all that the part women are called upon to take in
times of war is recognized as equally necessary in times of peace.
This departure on the part of the national government through the
President and Secretary of War gives the greater promise of the time
near at hand when every citizen of the United States will be esteemed
a government asset because of his or her loyalty and service rather
than because of sex."

       *       *       *       *       *

Dr. Shaw was a valued member of the executive committee of the League
to Enforce Peace, under whose auspices she was making the tour with
former President Taft and President Lowell of Harvard University, and
it sent her a transcript of her speech to revise for publication. This
she did on the last Sunday of her life and the committee prepared tens
of thousands of copies of it for circulation. It was entitled What the
War Meant to Women and mere extracts can give little idea of its
strength and beauty. After speaking of the Woman's Committee of the
Council of National Defense, the Peace Treaty and President Wilson's
declaration that the United States did not want any material advantage
out of the war, she ended:

     While Mr. Wilson declared we want nothing out of the war, I said
     in my own heart: "It may be that we want nothing material out of
     the war, but, oh, we want the biggest thing that has ever come to
     the world--we want Peace now and Peace forever." If we cannot get
     that peace out of this war what hope is there that it will ever
     come to humanity? Was there ever such a chance offered to the
     world before? Was there ever a time when the peoples of all
     nations looked towards America as they are looking to-day because
     of our unselfishness in our dealings with them during the war? We
     have not always been unselfish but we have been in this war.

     The war is over as far as the fighting is concerned but it is
     only begun as far as the life of the people is concerned. What
     would there be of inspiration to them to come back to their
     ruined homes and build up again their cities if within a few
     years the same thing could be repeated and homes destroyed and
     cities devastated, the people outraged and made slaves as they
     have been?

     Men and women, they are looking to us as the hope of the world
     and whenever I gaze on our flag, whenever I look on those stars
     on their field of blue and those stripes of red and white, I say
     to myself: "I do not wonder that when that flag went over the
     trenches and surmounted the barriers, the people of the world
     took heart of hope. It was then that they began to feel they
     could unite with us in some sort of security for the future. And
     that flag means so much to me. I never look on its stars but that
     I see in every star the hope that must stir the peoples of the
     old world when they think of us and the power we have of helping
     to lead them up to a place where they may hope for their children
     and for their children's children the things that have not come
     to them." ...

     We women, the mothers of the race, have given everything, have
     suffered everything, have sacrificed everything and we say to you
     now: "The time is come when we will no longer sit quietly by and
     bear and rear sons to die at the will of a few men. We will not
     endure it. We demand either that you shall do something to
     prevent war or that we shall be permitted to try to do something
     ourselves." Could there be any cowardice, could there be any
     injustice, could there be any wrong, greater than for men to
     refuse to hear the voice of a woman expressing the will of women
     at the peace table of the world and then not provide a way by
     which the women of the future shall not be robbed of their sons
     as the women of the past have been?

     To you men we look for support. We look for your support back of
     your Senators and from this day until the day when the League of
     Nations is accepted and ratified by the Senate of the United
     States, it should be the duty of every man and every woman to see
     that the Senators from their State know the will of the people;
     know that the people will that something shall be done, even
     though not perfect; that there shall be a beginning from which we
     shall construct something more perfect by and by; that the will
     of the people is that this League shall be accepted and that if,
     in the Senate of the United States, there are men so blinded by
     partisan desire for present advantage, so blinded by personal
     pique and narrowness of vision, that they cannot see the large
     problems which involve the nations of the world, then the people
     of the States must see to it that other men sit in the seats of
     the highest.


       *       *       *       *       *

In the beautiful Memorial issued by the Board of Directors of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association were affectionate
tributes from those who were officially associated with her for many
years. Among the many from eminent men and women which were reproduced
in the Memorial were the following:

     It was not my privilege to know Dr. Shaw until the later years of
     her life but I had the advantage then of seeing her in many
     lights. I saw her acting with such vigor and intelligence in the
     service of the Government, and, through the Government, of
     mankind, as to win my warmest admiration. I had already had
     occasion to see the extraordinary quality of her clear and
     effective mind and to know how powerful and persuasive an
     advocate she was. When the war came I saw her in action and she
     won my sincere admiration and homage.

                                   WOODROW WILSON,
                              President of the United States.

(President and Mrs. Wilson, who were on the way home from France, sent
a wireless message of sympathy and a handsome floral tribute from the
White House.)


     The world is infinitely poorer by the death of so great and good
     a woman.

                                   THOMAS R. MARSHALL,
                              Vice-President of the United States.


     Dr. Anna Howard Shaw was a member of the Executive Committee of
     the League to Enforce Peace. She was constant in her attendance,
     full of suggestion and earnest in support of the cause. It was my
     great pleasure to speak with her from many a platform in favor of
     the League and to enjoy the very great privilege of listening to
     her persuasive eloquence and her genial wit and humor, which she
     always used to enforce her arguments. She thought nothing of the
     sacrifice she had to make and was only intent upon the
     consummation of our purpose. She was a remarkable woman. I deeply
     regret her death. There were many avenues of great usefulness
     which a continuance of her life would have enabled her to pursue.
     Her going is a great loss to the community.

                                   WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT,
                              President of the League to Enforce Peace.


     I desire officially to pay tribute to the passing of Dr. Shaw.
     Aside from her epic contribution to the cause of progressive
     American womanhood it is in no sense perfunctory to say that
     whether in war time Washington, organizing and directing the
     eighteen thousand units of the Woman's Committee of National
     Defense, or with indomitable courage and power going up and down
     the country pleading great public causes relating to the war,
     this woman of seventy years was an inspiration to all of us.
     There was no one in American life who epitomized more finely
     Roosevelt's philosophy that in the public arena one must to the
     uttermost spend and be spent. It was a magnificent and enduring
     trail that Dr. Shaw blazed. Everywhere her endeavors had the
     impersonal and unselfish touch that marks the great protagonist
     of new ideals. She was a gallant and stirring figure in the
     history of this country and leaves the government of the United
     States distinctly in her debt.

                                 GROSVENOR B. CLARKSON,
                    Director United States Council National Defense.


     As a member of the Council of National Defense I wish to express
     my very sincere appreciation of the patriotic service that Dr.
     Shaw rendered during the past two years, the magnitude of which
     cannot be appreciated except by those intimately familiar with
     it. Her distinguished service medal was well earned.

                                         FRANKLIN K. LANE,
                                   Secretary of the Interior.


     I hardly know how to write you about the death of our dear Anna
     Howard Shaw. She has been such a tower of strength to our cause
     everywhere and now her place knows her no more! There is one
     comfort in that she lived long enough to know of the triumph of
     your cause in the passage of the Federal Amendment. She will be
     sorely missed and deeply mourned, first and foremost in America
     and Great Britain, but really all over the world, in every
     country where woman's cause is a living issue.

                              MILLICENT GARRETT FAWCETT,
                                           Honorary President,
                                   National Union of Societies for
                                   Equal Citizenship of Great Britain.


     My deepest sorrow and sympathy go out to the family of Dr. Shaw,
     to the National Council of Women of the United States and to the
     International Council and the Woman Suffrage Alliance. Her
     passing is indeed a great loss to the women of the whole world.

                                   ISHBEL ABERDEEN AND TEMAIR,
                              President International Council of Women.


     Truly all womanhood has lost a faithful friend.

                                    ELIZABETH C. CARTER,
                              President Northeastern Federation
                                 of Women's Clubs (colored).


Loving and appreciative tributes were sent from the officers of
National and International Associations in all parts of the world.


APPENDIX FOR CHAPTER XX.

APPEAL OF PRESIDENT WILSON TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES TO
SUBMIT THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE DELIVERED IN PERSON
SEPT. 30, 1918.


Gentlemen of the Senate: The unusual circumstances of a World War in
which we stand and are judged in the view not only of our own people
and our own consciences but also in the view of all nations and
peoples, will, I hope, justify in your thought, as it does in mine,
the message I have come to bring you.

I regard the concurrence of the Senate in the constitutional amendment
proposing the extension of the suffrage to women as vitally essential
to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we
are engaged. I have come to urge upon you the considerations which
have led me to that conclusion. It is not only my privilege, it is
also my duty to apprise you of every circumstance and element involved
in this momentous struggle which seems to me to affect its very
processes and its outcome. It is my duty to win the war and to ask you
to remove every obstacle that stands in the way of winning it.

I had assumed that the Senate would concur in the amendment, because
no disputable principle is involved but only a question of the method
by which the suffrage is to be now extended to women. There is and can
be no party issue involved in it. Both of our great national parties
are pledged, explicitly pledged, to equality of suffrage for the women
of the country.

Neither party, therefore, it seems to me, can justify hesitation as to
the method of obtaining it, can rightfully hesitate to substitute
Federal initiative for State initiative if the early adoption of this
measure is necessary to the successful prosecution of the war, and if
the method of State action proposed in the party platforms of 1916 is
impracticable within any reasonable length of time, if practical at
all. And its adoption is, in my judgment, clearly necessary to the
successful prosecution of the war and the successful realization of
the objects for which the war is being fought.

That judgment I take the liberty of urging upon you with solemn
earnestness for reasons which I shall state very frankly and which I
shall hope will seem as conclusive to you as they seem to me.

This is a people's war and the people's thinking constitutes its
atmosphere and morale, not the predilections of the drawing room or
the political considerations of the caucus. If we be indeed democrats
and wish to lead the world to democracy, we can ask other peoples to
accept in proof of our sincerity and our ability to lead them whither
they wish to be led, nothing less persuasive and convincing than our
actions.

Our professions will not suffice. Verification must be forthcoming
when verification is asked for. And in this case verification is asked
for--asked for in this particular matter. You ask by whom? Not through
diplomatic channels; not by foreign ministers; not by the intimations
of parliaments. It is asked for by the anxious, expectant, suffering
peoples with whom we are dealing and who are willing to put their
destinies in some measure in our hands, if they are sure that we wish
the same things that they do.

I do not speak by conjecture. It is not alone that the voices of
statesmen and of newspapers reach me, and that the voices of foolish
and intemperate agitators do not reach me at all. Through many, many
channels I have been made aware what the plain, struggling, workaday
folk are thinking, upon whom the chief terror and suffering of this
tragic war fall. They are looking to the great, powerful, famous
democracy of the West to lead them to the new day for which they have
so long waited; and they think, in their logical simplicity, that
democracy means that women shall play their part in affairs alongside
men and upon an equal footing with them.

If we reject measures like this, in ignorant defiance of what a new
age has brought forth, of what they have seen but we have not, they
will cease to believe in us; they will cease to follow or to trust us.
They have seen their own governments accept this interpretation of
democracy--seen old governments like that of Great Britain, which did
not profess to be democratic, promise readily and as of course this
justice to women, though they had before refused it; the strange
revelations of this war having made many things new and plain to
governments as well as to peoples.

Are we alone to refuse to learn the lesson? Are we alone to ask and
take the utmost that our women can give--service and sacrifice of
every kind--and still say we do not see what title that gives them to
stand by our side in the guidance of the affairs of their nation and
ours? We have made partners of the women in this war. Shall we admit
them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not
to a partnership of privilege and right? This war could not have been
fought, either by the other nations engaged or by America, if it had
not been for the services of the women--services rendered in every
sphere--not merely in the fields of efforts in which we have been
accustomed to see them work but wherever men have worked and upon the
very skirts and edges of the battle itself.

We shall not only be distrusted, but shall deserve to be distrusted
if we do not enfranchise women with the fullest possible
enfranchisement, as it is now certain that the other great free
nations will enfranchise them. We cannot isolate our thought or action
in such a matter from the thought of the rest of the world. We must
either conform or deliberately reject what they approve and resign the
leadership of liberal minds to others.

The women of America are too intelligent and too devoted to be
slackers whether you give or withhold this thing that is mere justice;
but I know the magic it will work in their thoughts and spirits if you
give it to them. I propose it as I would propose to admit soldiers to
the suffrage--the men fighting in the field of our liberties of the
world--were they excluded.

The tasks of the women lie at the very heart of the war and I know how
much stronger that heart will beat if you do this just thing and show
our women that you trust them as much as you in fact and of necessity
depend upon them.

I have said that the passage of this amendment is a vitally necessary
war measure and do you need further proof? Do you stand in need of the
trust of other peoples and of the trust of our own women? Is that
trust an asset or is it not? I tell you plainly, as the
commander-in-chief of our armies and of the gallant men in our fleets;
as the present spokesman of this people in our dealings with the men
and women throughout the world who are now our partners; as the
responsible head of a great government which stands and is questioned
day by day as to its purpose, its principles, its hope.... I tell you
plainly that this measure which I urge upon you is vital to the
winning of the war and to the energies alike of preparation and of
battle.

And not to the winning of the war only. It is vital to the right
solution of the great problems which we must settle, and settle
immediately, when the war is over. We shall need in our vision of
affairs, as we have never needed them before, the sympathy and insight
and clear moral instinct of the women of the world. The problems of
that time will strike to the roots of many things that we have
hitherto questioned, and I for one believe that our safety in those
questioning days, as well as our comprehension of matters that touch
society to the quick, will depend upon the direct and authoritative
participation of women in our counsels. We shall need their moral
sense to preserve what is right and fine and worthy in our system of
life as well as to discover just what it is that ought to be purified
and reformed. Without their counsellings we shall be only half wise.

That is my case. This is my appeal. Many may deny its validity, if
they choose, but no one can brush aside or answer the arguments upon
which it is based. The executive tasks of this war rest upon me. I ask
that you lighten them and place in my hands instruments, spiritual
instruments, which I have daily to apologize for not being able to
employ.


FOOTNOTES:

[152] See Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, page 1221 and following.

[153] Executive Committee: Mrs. Mary T. L. Gannett, chairman; Mrs.
Georgia F. Raynsford, first vice-chairman; Mrs. Helen B. Montgomery,
second; Mrs. William S. Little, third; Mrs. W. L. Howard, fourth; Mrs.
Henry G. Danforth, treasurer; Miss Jeannette W. Huntington, assistant;
Miss Charlotte P. Acer, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Emma B. Sweet,
assistant; Mrs. Adele R. Ingersoll, recording secretary. Security
Trust Co., Rochester, N.Y., Financial Agent.

A national committee of prominent women was formed.

[154] For the purpose of making a clear distinction between the two
amendments the name of Susan B. Anthony is permitted in this one
instance for the original Federal Amendment. It is not just to the
others who worked for it to give it this designation.




INDEX

Readers of this volume of the History of Woman Suffrage will be spared
some trouble in searching the index by noticing the arrangement of the
chapters as shown in the Table of Contents. The Introduction gives a
very brief outline of the movement for woman suffrage. The first 19
chapters contain accounts of the annual conventions of the National
American Association during the last twenty years chronologically
arranged, including the hearings before the committees of each
Congress. Enough extracts from speeches are included to show the line
of argument. The plans of work and the reports of committees indicate
the development from year to year. These chapters record the work for
a Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment, for which the association was
especially organized.

Chapter XX contains in condensed form the full story of the contest
for the Federal Suffrage Amendment. It is followed by chapters on
various suffrage associations; the League of Women Voters; Woman
Suffrage in National Presidential Conventions of the political parties
and the War Service of the Organized Suffragists. Each has practically
complete information on its particular subject, to which reference is
made in other chapters and indexed.

The activities in the States auxiliary to the National Association are
recorded in Volume VI, also accounts of the work in Great Britain and
other countries and the chapter on the International Woman Suffrage
Alliance.


  Abbot, Grace, 692-3.

  Abbott, Dr. Lyman, Dr. Shaw criticizes, 158; 256; 682.

  Aberdeen and Temair, Marchioness of, pres. Intl. Council of Women,
    tribute to Dr. Shaw, 761.

  Adams, Abigail, makes first decl. for wom. suff, 121.

  Adams, Gov. Alva, tribute to wom. suff. in Colorado, answers
    criticisms; State will never repeal, 103-105.

  Addams, Jane, on child labor, 20;
    noteworthy address on Municipal Franchise for Women, 178;
    guest of Miss Garrett, 182; 202;
    entertains natl. suff. conv. at Hull House, 206; 207; 258;
    guest of honor Coll. Wom. Suff. League, 319;
    working woman's need of vote, humanitarian woman's need, domestic
      woman's need, 320;
    elected first vice-pres. of Natl. Assn, 324;
    helps sub-station for suff. lit. in Chicago, 335;
    necessity for women to deal with social evil, 343;
    presides at suff. hearing 1912; says America falling behind rest of
      world; if women are to continue humanitarian efforts they must
      have the franchise, 354-356;
    urges a commssn. to investigate the equal suff. States and report,
      363;
    men and women must solve social problems together with ballots in
      the hands of both, 364-5;
    at hearing bef. House Com. on Rules, gives nine instances where
      Cong. controlled suff, 387;
    unfair process for wom. suff, 390;
    western campaigning, 404;
    at Nashville conv. refers to Andrew Jackson and Chief Justice
      Marshall, asks why southern men so progressive in their day
      and so reactionary now, 409; 419;
    resigns office, 424; 450;
    at mem. service for Dr. Shaw, 611; 613;
    org. Miss. Valley Conf, 667-8;
    at Repub. Natl. Conv, 1908, 703;
    bef. Repub. Res. Com. in 1912; seconds Roosevelt's nomination, 705;
    for wom. suff. plank in Progressive platform, 706.

  Additon, Lucia Faxon, 120.

  Advisory Committee on Woman Suffrage in Senate, 413-14;
    approves Shafroth Amend, 415.

  Alabama, peculiar chivalry, 36;
    hostility of members of Cong. to Fed. Suff. Amend, 516.

  Alaska, wom. suff. granted, 366, 370, 625.

  Alaska - Yukon - Pacific Exposition, 243;
    great beauty, suff. day, 264-5.

  Alden, Cynthia Westover, 258.

  Allen, Florence E, in Independence Square, 333;
    advises amending city charters for wom. suff, 494; 617; 662.

  Allen, Gov. Henry J. (Kans.), addresses suff. conv, 576;
    calls spec, session to ratify Fed. Amend, 650.

  Allen, Mrs. Henry Ware, at suff. hearing; world calls for mother
    voice, 578, 581.

  Allender, Nina, 366.

  Amalgamated Copper Co, works against wom. suff, 421.

  Amendments, State, failure of campaigns for, xvii;
    Natl. Assn. assists, xvii, 1, 2;
    difficulty of, xviii;
    requirements in different States; record of, 403;
    in New York, 417;
    defeated in 1915 in Mass, N. Y, Penn. and N. J, but reed, million
      and a quarter votes, 439;
    campaigns for must have consent of Natl. Bd, 510;
    carried in Mich, S. Dak. and Okla, 550;
    the campaigns, 557; 620; 630;
    foundation of Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, 751.

  American Constitutional League, at last suff. hearing, 583;
    tries to prevent proclaiming of Fed. Suff. Amend, 653;
    work against Amend, 680-682.

  American Equal Rights Association, formed, 619;
    women desert, 621-2.

  American Federation of Labor, endorses wom. suff, 205, 249;
    record of wom. suff. res, 301; 638.

  American Woman Suffrage Association, 38; 311;
    formed, 622.

  Americanization, Natl. Suff. Assn. works for, 724, 729, 732.

  Ames, Mayor Albert A, (Minneapolis), 7.

  Ammons, Prof. Theodosia, 52.

  Anderson, Martha Scott, 21.

  Anthony, U. S. Rep. Daniel R. (Kans.), 146; 288.

  Anthony, Lucy E, 118;
    gives $1,000 to League of Women Voters in memory of her aunt, Susan
      B, 609; 757.

  Anthony, Mary S, 45; 107;
    reads Decl. of Sentiments to conv, 144;
    death, 201;
    last message to suff. conv, 207; 276;
    assists memorial bldg. at Rochester University; scholarship, 744-5.

  Anthony Memorial Building at Rochester University, 201;
    names of exec. com; list of donors; Miss Anthony's work for
    admission of girls; they commemorate her birthday; Pres. Rhees
    calls bldg. great contribution, 743-745.

  Anthony, Susan B, work for Hist, of Wom. Suff, iii, iv, resigns as
    pres. of Natl. Amer. Suff. Assn, 1;
    at natl. conv. in Minneapolis, reads Mrs. Stanton's letter on church
      and wom. suff. and comments, 3-5; 9;
    appeal against "regulated" vice, 11;
    work on Congressl. Com, 11;
    vase presented, 13;
    interest in N. Y. Sun suff. dept, 14;
    presides and introduces pioneers, 16;
    extract from biography, 22;
    Clara Barton's tribute, 25;
    welcomes intl. suff. conf, had early idea of it, 26;
    presides at pioneer's meeting, 31;
    on eductl. qualif. for suff, 32;
    introd. Mr. Blackwell, 33;
    at teacher's conv, 34;
    82d birthday celebr. in Washtn, 39;
    lack of self-consciousness, 41;
    on com. to interview Pres. Roosevelt, 44;
    pen picture of on suff. platform, 45;
    at natl. suff. conv. in New Orleans, 57;
    tribute to Mrs. Merrick, 58;
    flowers presented from Phyllis Wheatly Club, 60;
    presides at conv, 64; 67;
    tribute to Mrs. Stanton, 73-4;
    writes to Govs. of equal suff. States, 87;
    dele. to intl. suff. conv. in Berlin, 87;
    attends White House reception, tells Pres. Roosevelt to expect the
      suffs;
      Alice Roosevelt greets, 88;
    84th birthday celebr. in Washtn, 98;
    incident, 99;
    Mrs. Catt's tribute, 100;
    presides on Colo, evening, 100;
    women pledge loyalty, 102; 107;
    tribute to Miss Barton, who responds, 109;
    presides at Senate hearing, says she has appealed to seventeen
      Congresses, urges a report for the last time, 110-11;
    recep. by Chicago Woman's Club and others en route to Portland,
      117-18;
    entertained by U.S. Sen. and Mrs. Carey in Cheyenne, 118;
    responds to greetings to natl. suff. conv, receives ovation, tells
      of Mrs. Stanton's and her visit to Ore. in '71 and early
      opposition, 120, 121;
    presides at first session, pen picture of, not always roses that
      were thrown, 122;
    introduces Mrs. Duniway, 123;
    tells of her paper, _The Revolution_, 132;
    speaks at unveiling of Sacajawea statue, 133;
    recep. on Expos. grounds, central figure, tribute of Miss
      Blackwell, 134;
    appeal to Pres. Roosevelt, 137;
    fills pulpit in Portland, 140;
    would not compel natl. suff. convs. to be held in Washtn, 147;
    for helping Ore. campaign, 147;
    fervent appeal, 149;
    dedicates park in Chico, cordial recep. in Calif, 150;
    attends her last suff. conv, 151;
    tribute of Clara Barton, 154;
    Pres. M. Carey Thomas and Miss Mary E. Garrett assure her of their
      interest in the natl. conv. in Baltimore, 167;
    guest of Miss Garrett, very ill but goes to conv. on college
      evening; warmly greeted; account of Baltimore _American_, great
      triumph, 167-8;
    tribute of women college presidents and professors, 168-173;
    supreme moment, her response, 173;
    Miss Garrett's social functions in her honor, 182;
    Dr. Thomas and Miss Garrett promise her to raise large fund for
      suff. work; her great happiness, 183;
    gives birthday money to Ore. campaign, 184;
    last words to a suff. conv, 185;
    not able to attend Congressl. hearing, 188;
    last birthday celebr. in Washtn, letters of congratulation, places
      work in Dr. Shaw's charge, pays tribute to the suff. workers,
      speaks last words in public, 191-2;
    Lorado Taft's bust of, 193;
    Dr. Shaw's farewell tribute, Miss Anthony never missed natl.
      suff. convs, 201;
    plans for memorials, 201-2;
    Mrs. Johnson's bust of; mem. bldg. in Rochester; mem. fund, 200-1;
    celebr. of birthday, 1907, mem. services, 202-4;
    favorite poem, 203;
    champion of colored race, 203;
    wide comment of press on her death, magazine articles, accounts of
      funeral, 204
    leaves Hist. of Wom. Suff. to Natl. Assn, 205; 214;
    Mrs. Lewis gives Natl. Assn. $10,000 in her memory, 236;
    wanted stenog. rept. of Dr. Shaw's speeches, 252;
    memorial fund, 253, 287;
    urged bequests for wom. suff, 276;
    at first wom. suff. hearings, 306;
    early visit to Ky, 311;
    writes Women's Decl. of Rights, 333;
    at Senate hearings, 347;
    secured reports from coms. of Cong, 377;
    argument for Fed. Suff. Amend. bef. Judic. Com, 428;
    urges Dr. Shaw to accept presidency;
      places duty in her hands but would be satisfied with Mrs. Catt,
      455-6;
    Dr. Shaw wishes she could know present Senate com, 466;
    address to Cong. in 1866, 521;
    Susan B. Anthony room at natl. suff. headquarters, 527;
    collections for assn. in early days, 541; 546; 561;
    U.S. Sen. Shafroth helped, 566;
    mem. meeting at natl. suff. conv, Dr. Shaw's and Mrs. Avery's
      reminis, 569;
    centennial to be celebr. by assn, 574;
    at suff. hearings, 581; 609; 611;
    first meets Dr. Shaw, 612;
    celebr. of 100th birthday by natl. suff. conv.;
      tribute of Dr. Shaw; program of exercises, 615-16;
    enters wom. suff. movement, calls first conv. after Civil War, 618;
    her first demand and work for Fed. Suff. Amend; opposes 14th and
      15th Amends, 619;
    in her paper, _The Revolution_, 620-1;
    arranges first conv. in Washtn, 621;
    scores Amer. Rights Assn, deserts it and forms Natl. Wom. Suff.
      Assn, 621-2;
    in eight campaigns, 624; 661; 664;
    last birthday letter to Mrs. Stanton, 741;
    work for admis. of girls to Rochester University; memorial bldg.
      for her, 743;
    her portrait over fireplace, birthday celebr. each year, 744;
    scholarship, 745;
    has natl. suff. headqrs. in Rochester, N. Y, till 1890;
      later in Washtn.; still later in Phila, then back to Rochester,
      754;
    last words, 751;
    see Susan B. Anthony Amend.

  Anti-Suffrage Associations, weakness of, xix;
    in Australia, 92;
    undeveloped women, 223; 235;
    Natl. Assn. asks Pres. Taft not to welcome suff. conv, 269;
    urges Cong. not to grant petition of suffs, 299;
    at Congressl. hearing in 1912, 354, 362-3;
    at hearing on appointmt. of Wom. Suff. Com, 383;
    Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge presides, list of speakers, 391;
    Natl. Assn. membership compared with that of Natl Suff. Assn, same
      with petitions, 392; 394;
    U.S. Sen. Lea answers, 408;
    work in Mont, 421;
    bef. House Judic. Com. to oppose Fed. Suff. Amend, 1914, 436;
    membership analyzed, 437;
    bef. Senate Com, 467;
    bef. House com, 476;
    com. "heckles" speakers, 467, 476;
    some male speakers appear, 478-9;
    expenditures of men's associations to defeat wom. suff. amends,
      in N. Y, Penn. and Mass, 478-9;
    alliance with liquor interests, 486;
    Natl. Assn. holds one day conv. in Washtn. hotel, re-elects Mrs.
      Wadsworth pres, makes Mrs. Lansing secy, 536;
    at Senate com. hearing, 1916, 548;
    at last suff. hearing, 1918, 577;
    misrepresents Pres. Wilson on Fed. Amend, 580;
    two members of men's assn. occupy whole day, 583;
    hearing continued, 584-589; 592;
    last efforts, 597; 635;
    first heard in Washtn, com. in Mass, assn. org. there, officers,
      _Remonstrance_ published, 678;
    coms. and assns. in N.Y. and other States, Natl. Assn. formed,
      officers, work, headqrs, papers published, 678;
    Men's assns. organized, officers, various branches, work, name
      changed, 680;
    oppose. Fed. Suff. Amend, in Cong. and ratif. by States;
      take cases to the courts, 681-2;
    at Rep. Natl. Conv. in 1912, 710;
      1916, 711;
    at Dem, 712;
    attack Mrs. Catt and other suffs, during the war, Mrs. Catt makes
      defense, 735-737.

  Arizona,
    Gov. Brodie vetoes Wom. Suff. Bill, 67;
    admission to Statehood, 129-30;
    Natl. Assn. helps suff. work, 253;
    gives majority vote for wom. suff, 332; 337; 625.

  Arkansas,
    gives Primary suff. to women, xxiii, 516;
    dele. to suff. conv. reed, by Pres. Wilson, 516.

  Armistice, effect on wom. suff, 551.

  Armstrong, Eliza, 391.

  Arthur, Clara B, 76; 219; 337.

  Ashley, Jessie,
    Natl. treas. report, 315;
    re-elected, 324;
    reports $55,200 receipts for 1912, 341; 342; 372.

  Ashurst, U. S. Sen. Henry F,
    urges wom. suff, 380;
    Senate speech, 405; 626-7;
    speaks for Fed. Amend, 645.

  Asquith, Prime Minister Herbert H. (Gt. Brit.), 281; 331.

  Atlantic City, entertains natl. suff. conv. in 1916, 480.

  Australia, grants natl. suff. to women, 55;
    Mrs. Watson-Lister describes, 91.

  Avery, Rachel Foster, 11; 12;
    testimonial to, 17; 44;
    on Phila. women in civic work, 65;
    chmn. Anthony mem. fund com, 202;
    tribute to Miss Anthony, 203;
    re-elected to Natl. Bd, 204; 216;
    report on natl. petit, for Fed. Suff. Amend, 258;
    vast work of petit, 274;
    resigns office, 282;
    urges fav. rept. on petit, 297; 540;
    reminis. of suff. pioneers, 569-70;
    21 years cor. secy. Natl. Assn, 607; 704;
    has charge of natl. suff. headqrs. in Phila, 754.

  Avery, Susan Look, 328.

  Axtel, Frances C, 540.


  B.

  Babcock, Elnora M, 10;
    work with press, 10; 14;
    natl. chmn. Press Com, gives rept, 44; 61-2; 95;
    wide work of natl. press dept, 131;
    makes last rept, efficient work, 163.

  Bacharach, Mayor Harry, presents key to Atlantic City to Mrs. Catt, 481.

  Bacon, Anna Anthony, 333.

  Bacon, Elizabeth D, 188.

  Bagley, Mrs. Frederick P, reports for natl. assn's, war com. on
    Americanization, 520; 560; 690;
    chmn. Amer. citizenship, 697;
    work for Americanization, 729, 732.

  Bailey, ex-U. S. Sen. Joseph W,
    star speaker for "antis" at last suff. hearing; women cannot perform
    sheriff's duties or jury or military service; have no time to vote;
    men can make laws for them; single standard of morals "iridescent
    dream"; flouts petitions from his constituents, 586-589;
    Mrs. Catt answers, 590;
    he leaves the room, 592;
    Texas women defeat for Governor, 589.

  Baker, Abby Scott, 718.

  Baker, La Reine, 246; 286.

  Baker, Secretary of War Newton D,
    addresses natl. suff. conv; the war will bring broadening of liberty
      to women, 532;
    favors Fed. Suff. Amend, 580;
    speaks at suff. meeting and carries message to Pres. Wilson, 724-5;
    tribute to Dr. Shaw and Woman's Com. Natl. Defense, 739;
    presents disting. service medal to Dr. Shaw, 758.

  Baker, Mrs. Newton D, 515-16;
    sings for natl. conv, 526.

  Baldwin, Mrs. Felix, 395.

  Balentine, Katharine Reed, 217-18;
    danger in women's disfranchisement, 237; 319.

  Ball, U. S. Sen. J. Heisler, 641.

  Ballantyne, Grace H, 219; 239.

  Baltimore, entertains natl. suff. conv, a noteworthy meeting, 151.

  Banker, Henrietta L, bequest to Natl. Assn, 130.

  Barber, Mrs. A. L, 13;
    receives conv, 45.

  Barker, Pres. H. S. (Ky. University), 408.

  Barkley, Edna M, 570; 669.

  Barnard College, Chair of Amer. Citizenship, mem. to Dr. Shaw, 613.

  Barnhart, U. S. Rep. Henry A. (Ind.), 637.

  Barnum, Gertrude, says suff. movement needs working women, 165.

  Barrett, Kate Waller,
    speaks for Intl. Council; safety of the country depends on women's
      having a vote, 410.

  Barrett, Mrs. Seymour, 519.

  Barrows, Isabel C, 176.

  Barrows, Rev. Samuel J, 96.

  Bartol, Emma J, 208.

  Barton, Clara,
    at intl. suff. conv, address, 24, 25; 67;
    receives natl. suff. conv, 99;
    gives adherence to Miss Anthony, who responds, 109;
    at natl. suff. conv. in Baltimore, 151;
    pen picture of, tribute to Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony, wom. suff.
      near, 154; 208; 258; 288;
    Natl. Suff. Assn. endorses bill for mem. to her in Red Cross bldg.
      in Washtn, 502;
    Dr. Shaw speaks of unworthy treatment of her work, 540;
    at first suff. conv. in Washtn, 621.

  Bass, Mrs. George,
    bef. Senate com. shows women's work in the home, schools, factories,
      offices, philanthropies handicapped without the ballot, 464-5;
    bef. House com, 472;
    on limited suff, 495;
    urges women to help finance war, 533-4;
    on Congressl. Com, 567;
    protests against "antis'" use of Pres. Wilson's name, 580.

  Bates, Eleanor, 609.

  Baur, Mrs. Jacob, 687.

  Bazar, natl, in New York, 12, 13.

  Beard, Mary Ritter, 366;
    bef. Com. on Rules, shows small constituencies back of southern
      members; asks them not to abuse their power, 388;
    bef. House Judic. Com, demolishes State's rights argument against
      wom. suff; gives record of Dem. party, 430-432; 547; 675.

  Beck, Solicitor Genl. James M, 655.

  Bedford, Mrs. J. Claude, 490.

  Beeber, Judge Dimner, 340; 674.

  Beecher, Henry Ward, 1; 622.

  Belden, Evelyn H, 109.

  Belford, Helen, 102.

  Belgium, 243.

  Bellamy, Mary G, member Wyo. Legislature, 516; 568.

  Belmont, Mrs. Oliver H. P,
    offers to assist taking natl. suff. headqrs. to New York, conv.
      accepts and thanks, 253;
    maintains natl. suff. press dept, 276-7; 286;
    recog. of her support of press bureau, 288; 341;
    moves to take natl. suff. headqrs. from New York to Washtn, natl.
      officers oppose, 381;
    gives $10,000 to South. Wom. Conf, 672; 675;
    chmn. exec. com. Natl. Wom. Party, 677;
    gives it natl. headqrs, 678;
    contributes to Natl. Assn. headqrs, 754.

  Benedict, Crystal Eastman, 346; 366;
    bef. House Judic. Com, tells Dem. members their party will be held
      responsible for Fed. Suff. Amend; they object, 429-30; 675.

  Bennett, Belle, 288.

  Bennett, Mrs. M. Toscan, objections to Shafroth Palmer Amend, 747.

  Bennett, Sarah Clay,
    on Fed. Suff, 12; 45;
    urges a Fed. Elections Bill, 62, 65, 424; 501; 659.

  Berger, U. S. Rep. Victor L. (Wis.),
    wom. suff. necessary from polit. and economic standpoint; women who
      do the same work as men could enforce an equal wage rate, 361.

  Beveridge, U. S. Sen. Albert J, 129; 291;
    for wom. suff. plank in Progressive platform, 706-7.

  Bible, edicts on women are perverted by men, 222.

  Bidwell, Annie K, 150.

  Bigelow, Rev. Herbert S, 184; 207.

  Biggars, Kate L, 211.

  Bissell, Emily P, 391; 478.

  Bitting, Rev. W. C, 561.

  Bjorkman, Frances Maule, 335;
    report of Lit. Com, 368; 405.

  Black, Hannah, 564.

  Blackwelder, Gertrude, 198;
    pres. Chicago Woman's Club, receives Natl. Suff. conv, 206; 703.

  Blackwell, Alice Stone, 11; 13; 21;
    edits _Progress_, 35; 44;
    addresses Senate Com, 48; 60;
    how to please editors, 62;
    tribute to Mrs. Hussey, 73;
    prepares Decl. of Principles, 87;
    writes of Wyo, 118;
    of Portland conv, 119; 133;
    reminis. of mother and aunts Elizabeth and Emily, 133;
    tribute to Miss Anthony, 134; 149; 176;
    presents testimony from equal suff. States to coms. of Cong. 190;
      199; 202; 210; 244;
    makes "exhibit" of liquor dealers anti wom. suff. circular, 247;
      249; 257;
    retires as rec. secy. after 20 yrs; work on _Woman's Journal_,
       conv. thanks, 260;
    account of expos. and suff. day in Seattle, 264-5;
    comment on Pres. Taft's speech to natl. suff. conv, 273;
    misses conv. of 1910, 280; 282; 288;
    offers to make _Woman's Journal_ offic. organ of Natl. Assn;
      accepted, 289;
    edits _Woman's Journal_, 311;
    answer to Barry's article on Colo, 315;
    has to resume charge of _Woman's Journal_, 337;
    tribute to men, 340;
    refutes statements of "antis" at hearing bef. House Com. on Rules
      in 35 pages of fine print, complete answer, 391-393; 409;
    supports Shafroth Amend, 422; 444;
    presents resolutions, 460;
    addresses House com, 471;
    gives reminis. of pioneers, conv. pays tribute to her, 569;
    presents 14 resolutions, 574;
    at Anthony celebr, 615; 660; 704;
    defends Shafroth Palmer Amend, but criticises, 749.

  Blackwell, Antoinette Brown,
    on chivalry, 33; 118;
    at Portland conv, 133, 138;
    Mrs. Catt's tribute, 139; 140;
    goes to Alaska, 149; 179; 188; 214;
    tells of early days at Oberlin Coll, 220; 278; 288;
    natl. conv. sends greetings, 501, 559, 610;
    farewell words for Mrs. Stanton, 741.

  Blackwell, Dr. Elizabeth, 278.

  Blackwell, Dr. Emily, 328.

  Blackwell, Henry B,
    Mrs. Catt introd. to conv, refers to marriage;
    he urges effort for Pres. suff. for women, 12;
    presents resolutions, 15;
    tells of marriage, 33; 35; 42;
    reports on Pres. suff, argument for, 43;
    "the open door", 62; 67; 68;
    tribute to Deborah and the Jewish race, 69;
    work in Colo, 105; 118; 130;
    speaks against class govt.; Portland _Journal_ pays tribute, 142;
    physical vigor, 143;
    presents resolutions, 145-6;
    natl. conv. expresses appreciation, 146; 147; 148; 149;
    chmn. Res. Com, 179; 187;
    pays tribute to Miss Anthony, 203; 210; 212; 219;
    presents resolutions showing women's great progress, 240;
    at Spokane, 246;
    report on Pres. Suff. and resolutions, his last suff. conv, 257;
      260;
    audience rises to greet, 261;
    mem. service at natl. suff. conv. of 1910;
    tributes of Mrs. Villard, Mrs. McCulloch, Miss Campbell, Miss
      Miller and Dr. Shaw, 277-280;
    natl. suff. conv. passes resolution of indebtedness, 569.

  Blair, Emily Newell, writes history of Woman's Com. Council of Natl.
    Defense, 737, 739.

  Blair, U. S. Sen. Henry W, 45;
    secures first Senate vote on wom. suff, 624.

  Blake, Katharine Devereux,
    campaign work in West, 404;
    in N. Y, 519.

  Blankenburg, Lucretia L,
    addresses Senate Com, 47;
    shows need of women's votes in Phila, 72-3;
    dele. to Berlin suff. conf, 87; 92;
    report on laws for women, 137;
    on women's Phila. civic campaign and the way they were ignored,
      177; 188; 210;
    brings to suff. conv. greetings Genl. Fed. of Clubs, 215;
    report on legis. for women, 236;
    same, 259;
    greets natl. suff. conv. in Phila, 333-4.

  Blankenburg, Mayor Rudolph, on educatl. qualif. for suff, 77; 177;
    welcomes natl. suff. conv. to Phila, 333.

  Blanton, U. S. Rep. Thomas L. (Tex.), 584;
    presents petition for wom. suff, 588.

  Blatch, Harriot Stanton, 81; 92; 111; 220;
    speaks of Mrs. Stanton's clear vision, saw need of suff. for women,
      222-3;
    workingwomen's need of vote, 232;
    demonstrates out-door meetings, 286;
    objects to Shafroth Amend, 423; 675;
    at Repub. natl. convention of 1908, 703;
    of 1916, 711.

  Blount, Dr. Anna E, shows women doctors' need of suff, 294; 317.

  Blount, Lucia E, 656.

  Bock, Annie, 391.

  Booth, Elizabeth K, work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370; 381.

  Booth, Maud Ballington, addresses natl. suff. conv, 179.

  Booth, Mrs. Sherman M,
    on Congressl. Com, 411-12; 414-15;
    card catalogues membs. of Cong, 418;
    at hearing, 427.

  Borah, U. S. Sen. William E,
    opp. Fed. Suff. Amend, 413;
    effort for wom. suff. plank in Natl. Repub. platform, 510;
    refuses to represent his State on Fed. Amend, 598; 645;
    for wom. suff. plank in 1916, 709, 711.

  Boutwell, Gov. George S. (Mass.), 146.

  Bowen, Mrs. Joseph T, 341-2;
    shows need for women police, Judges and jurors, 705.

  Bowne, Prof. Borden P, 280.

  Boyd, Mary Sumner,
    report of natl. Research Bureau, 443;
    same, 494; 531;
    invaluable service, 571; 690.

  Boyer, Ida Porter, 62; 77;
    tells of lax system in libraries, 94; 110;
    makes bibliog. of wom. suff, 130;
    sent to help Ore. campaign, 163; 208; 210;
    rept. on libraries, 236; 261; 395;
    at Anthony celebr, 615;
    ed. _New Southern Citizen_, 672.

  Brackenridge, Eleanor, 328.

  Bradford, Mary C. C,
    presents gavel to Mrs. Catt, 6; 20;
    effect of wom. suff. in Colo, 102, 112; 208;
    on Congressl. Com, 411;
    pres. Natl. Educ. Assn, dele. natl. suff. conv, 515;
    same, St. Supt. of Educ, 517.

  Braly, J. H, 288;
    tells of Calif. victory and work of Polit. Equal. League;
    presents State flag to Natl. Assn, 317-319.

  Brandegee, U. S. Sen. Frank B, 638; 645.

  Brannan, Mrs. John Winters, 675.

  Breckinridge, Desha, 329.

  Breckinridge, Mrs. Desha,
    on Prospect of Woman Suffrage in the South; Dem. party may secure
    it; would insure preponderance of Anglo-Saxon over the African, 330;
    on. com. to ask Pres. Wilson for interview on wom. suff, 374; 381;
    at hearing bef. Com. on Rules, shows right of southern women to ask
      for Fed. Amend, 387;
    women's part in war justifies their demand, 410;
    on Congressl. Com, 411;
    suggests special campn. com, its members, 418-19-20; 425;
    speaks at Anthony celebr, 615.

  Breckinridge, Prof. Sophonisba,
    need of Munic. suff. for women, 195;
    all classes need ballot, 226; 229;
    addresses natl. suff. conv, 322;
    elected vice-pres, 324;
    helps sub-station for suff. lit. in Chicago, 335; 342; 346; 661; 705.

  Brehaut, Ella C, opp. wom. suff, 363.

  Brehm, Marie C, 180-1.

  Brent, Mistress Margaret, 156.

  Brewer, Justice U. S. Sup. Ct. David J, 280.

  Brewer, Mary Grey, 556.

  Breyman, Mrs. Arthur H, 120; 134.

  Bright, John and Jacob, 31.

  Bright, William H, 34.

  Bristow, U. S. Sen. Joseph L, on Shafroth Amend, 415.

  British Colonies, women vote in, 111.

  Brock, Mrs. Horace, 479; 679.

  Bronson, Minnie,
    secy. Natl. Anti-Suff. Assn, 391; 437; 548;
    at last suff. hearing, 584;
    at Natl. Repub. Conv, 711.

  Brooks, Mrs. Charles H, 541;
    director, Natl. Suff. Assn, 559;
    chmn. League of Women Voters, 570; 685; 687; 689.

  Brooks, John Graham, 674.

  Brougher, Rev. J. Whitcomb, 140.

  Brown, Jennie A, addresses Senate com, 48.

  Brown, Rev. Olympia,
    at natl. conv. in Minneapolis, 3; 17; 18;
    conv. sermon, 20;
    in Washtn, 33;
    in Baltimore, 35;
    addresses Sen. Com, 47; 179; 219; 341;
    prepares mem. to Mrs. Colby, 540;
    guest of honor at Jubilee conv, 610;
    speaks at Pioneer suff. luncheon, 615;
    on last evening, 617;
    heads Fed. Suff. Assn, 656-659;
    at Repub. Natl. Conv, 703;
    objections to Shafroth Palmer Amend, 748.

  Brown, Mrs. Raymond, 314; 339; 372;
    rept. on N. Y. campn, 409; 423; 444; 450;
    presents res. to make Dr. Shaw hon. pres, 457; 519;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 541; 555;
    rept. on Oversea Hospitals, 560, 568;
    raises fund for League of Women Voters, 609;
    Oversea Hospitals, 614;
    at Anthony celebr, 615; 685; 689; 716;
    full rept. of work of women's Oversea Hospitals during the war,
      732-734.

  Brownlow, Mrs. Louis, 567.

  Bruce, Laura, bequest to Natl. Assn, 127.

  Bruns, Dr. Henry Dixon, addresses natl. suff. conv, 66.

  Bryan, U. S. Rep. J. W. (Wash), 377.

  Bryan, Mrs. J. W, 382.

  Bryan, William Jennings,
    helps wom. suff, xxi;
    speaks for it in Neb, 402; 435;
    supports Fed. Suff. Amend, 634;
    same, 642;
    at Dem. Natl. conv. 1912, 708;
    endorses wom. suff. in 1915, 708.

  Bryn Mawr College Foundation in Politics, mem. to Dr. Shaw, 613.

  Buckley, Lila Sabin, bequest to Natl. Assn, 442.

  Buffalo, entertains natl. suff. conf. 1901, 35;
    same, 1908, 213.

  Bulkley, Mary, 559.

  Burke, Alice, 6,000 mile motor suff. trip, 481.

  Burleson, Mrs. Albert Sidney, 382; 515.

  Burnett, Frances Hodgson, for wom. suff, 297.

  Burns, Frances E, 426.

  Burns, Lucy, 364; 370; 377;
    in Eng. "militant" movement; on Natl. Congressl. Com, 377-8;
      resigns, 381; 454; 675.

  Bush, Ada, 717.

  Butler, U. S. Sen. Marion, 711.

  Butler, Pres. Nicholas Murray, 613.

  Butt, Hala Hammond, on restricted suff, 75.

  Bynner, Witter, 611.

  Byrns, Elinor, rept. of Natl. Press Com, 368;
    same, 405-6.


  C.

  Cabot, Mrs. J. Elliott, 678.

  Calhoun, Judge William J, on Shafroth Suff. Amend, 414.

  California,
    wom. suff. amend, carried, xx;
    same, 310;
    Dr. Shaw's comment; reports from State officials, 317;
    natl. conv. sends greetings, 328;
    anti-suff. petition fails, 398;
    contrib. to natl. suff. assn, 559; 625.

  Calkins, Prof. Mary W,
    at natl. suff. conv. in Balto; what leaders of movement have a right
      to ask of college women, 168, 170.

  Calls to convs. of Natl. Suff. Assn, at beginning of first 19 chapters.

  Campaigns and Surveys,
    Mrs. Shuler's rept.; great progress in polit. parties;  Mrs. Catt's
      plans for nation-wide Fed. Amend, campn. carried out; res. of
      protest against delay sent to Pres. Wilson from large orgztns. in
      this country and in Europe, 555;
    nearly every State visited by members of the Natl. Bd.; the work of
      the Press and Research bureaus, the bulletins and travelling
      libraries have extended over the country; resolutions have been
      put through Legislatures; polit. work has been done, 556-7.

  Campaigns, State,
    fund for, given by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw, 337;
    in 1912, 366, 368;
    Mrs. Catt shows usual weaknesses, 485;
    record of, 624;
    in New York Mrs. Catt describes, 753.

  Campbell, Ida E, invites ass'n. to Canada, 400.

  Campbell, Isabel, 52.

  Campbell, Jane,
    satire on The Unbiased Editor, takes Mr. Bok for example, 174;
      181; 199;
    mem. tribute to Mr. Blackwell and Lucy Stone, 279; 333; 346.

  Campbell, Margaret W, 137; 208.

  Campbell, U. S. Rep. Philip P. (Kans.), 628.

  Campbell, Mrs. Philip P, 515.

  Canada,
    sends message to natl. suff. conv.; its natl. assn. hopes to greet
      members in Canada, 400;
    Natl. Eq. Franchise Union sends greetings to  natl. suff. conv, 501;
    enfranchises women, 551;
    Natl. Suff. Assn. sends return greetings, 597.

  Cannon, Speaker Joseph G, 711.

  Cantrill, U.S. Rep. James C. (Ky.), offers res. for Wom. Suff. Com,
    525; 548; 628; 633; 635.

  Cantrill, Mrs. James C, 559.

  Capen, Pres. Elmer H. (Tufts Coll.), 146.

  Carey, U. S. Sen. Joseph M, addresses Council of Women Voters, 484.

  Carey, U. S. Sen. and Mrs. Joseph M, 118.

  Carey, Mrs. Joseph M, obtains suff. petit, 11.

  Carpenter, Alice, 548.

  Carter, Elizabeth C, pres. N. E. Fed. of Women's Clubs (colored),
    tribute to Dr. Shaw, 761.

  Carter, Franklin, secy, of N. Y. Anti-Suff. Assn, 478.

  Castle, M. B, 656.

  Catholics, how enfranchised, 752.

  Catron, U. S. Sen. Thomas B, 383; 626.

  Catt, Carrie Chapman,
    elected natl. pres, xxii, 1;
    secures special legis. sessions, xxiii;
    at natl. suff. conv. in Minneapolis, 1901, address on obstacles
      to wom. suff, gavel presented; plan of work for Fed. Amend,
      orgztn, 3-22;
    appeal against "regulated" vice, 11;
    introd. Mr. Blackwell, 12; 20;
    arr. trip to Yellowstone, 21;
    at natl. conv. in Washtn, 1902, first steps toward Intl. Alliance,
      24;
    introd. Clara Barton, 25;
    president's address, 29;
    presides over Congressl. hearing, 50;
    estab. natl. suff. headqrs. in New York, 34; 35;
    tour of States, 36;
    scores Seth Low, 38;
    card case presented, 40;
    on Miss Anthony's birthday, 41;
    obtains foreign reports, 41; 44;
    presides at Congressl. hearing, urges appoint. of a com. to
      investigate effects in equal suff. States, 46, 54;
    presides at natl. suff. conv. in New Orleans, 1903, 56-7;
    annual address, receives ovation, 59;
    work of natl. headqrs, 61;
    reports Cong. ignores appeals, 62; 65; 67;
    tributes to the dead, 73;
    says each State must decide race problem for itself, 83;
    lectures in New Orleans, 85;
    presides at natl. suff. conv. in Washtn. in 1904, 86;
    prepares Decl. of Principles, 87;
    dele. to Berlin intl. suff. conf, 87;
    tells of Miss Anthony's visit to White House, 88;
    pres. address, less illiteracy among women than men, would
      disfranchise for failure to vote, 90;
    presides over work conf, 94;
    speaks for peace and arbitration, 98;
    tribute on Miss Anthony's birthday, 100;
    work in Colo, 102, 105;
    compliments Ladies of the Maccabees, 107;
    resigns presidency of Natl. Assn, 107;
    its tribute; introd. Dr. Shaw; remains as vice-pres. at large, 108;
    presents Miss Anthony and Miss Barton, closes conv, 109-10;
    on success of wom. suff. in Colo, 115;
    urges House Judic. Com. to report on Fed. Suff. Amend, 116;
    recep. en route to Portland conv, 117, 118;
    responds to greetings to conv, 123;
    estab. "work conferences", 127;
    raises fund for Ore. campn, 130;
    presides at conv, tributes to speakers, 139;
    Fourth of July address, 144;
    tribute of _Oregonian_, 145;
    resigns vice-presidency, 145;
    for helping Ore. campn, 147;
    rept. on Intl. Suff. Alliance, 149, 150;
    would abolish proxy votes at conv. 161;
    rept. on Intl. Suff. Alliance;
      opens Evening with Women in History, says women are not the
      inferior sex, 180;
    brings Intl. Suff. Alliance greeting, 203;
    report as chmn. Congressl. Com, its work for Fed. Amend, 210;
    appoint. frat. dele. to Peace conf, 210;
    powerful speech, The Battle to the Strong, woman's hour has struck,
      241;
    Dr. Shaw pays tribute, natl. conv. in Seattle sends greetings, 247;
    work as chmn. of natl. petit. for Fed. Suff. Amend, 258;
    added to Official Bd, 261;
    work on Fed. Amend. petition, her contrib, conv. expresses
      appreciation, 274-5;
    address ordered printed, 280;
    on Polit. Dist. Orgztn, 286;
    address bef. Senate Com. 1910, most men in U.S. received suff. from
      Govt. not States, 297, 745;
    leaflet on What to Do, 314;
    sends letter from South Africa to natl. suff. conv, 1911; "suffs. of
      two countries are actuated by the same motives, inspired by the
      same hopes, working to the same end;" letter of good wishes sent
      her with regrets for absence, 328;
    home from trip around world, address at natl. suff. conv, 1912;
      need for polit. power in hands of women to combat social evil,
      345-6;
    speaks in Carnegie Hall, New York, 367; 372;
    inquires about Congressl. Union at natl. suff. conv. in 1913;
    has its report separated from that of Congressl. Com, 380-1;
    reviews advanced position of women and great responsibilities, 382;
    bef. House Com. on Rules asking for Wom. Suff. Com, says while
      Judic. Com. has been refusing to report a res. on wom. suff, 12
      European countries have considered it; has spirited discussion
        with Rep. Hardwick; says men have not had to ask other men for
        the vote, 389;
    tells of N. Y. amend. campn, 444;
    explains to Alice Paul why Natl. Suff. Assn, cannot coöperate with
      Congressl. Union, 454;
    had persuaded Dr. Shaw to accept natl. presidency in 1904, 455;
    Dr. Shaw wants her to take it in 1915; her duties as pres. of Intl.
       Alliance and chmn. of N.Y. campn. com. prevent; pressure from
       delegates forces her to yield; unanimously elected, 456;
    Dr. Shaw casts first vote with tribute, 456-7;
    Mrs. Catt asks loyalty of members who show joy over her election,
      458;
    addresses Washtn. mass meeting, resents Mr. Malone's assertion that
      women would vote for "preparedness" and declares they would settle
      disputes without war, 460;
    bef. Senate com. reviews way men got the vote, 465, (Appendix 745);
    account of four recent St. campns, tribute to Sen. Thomas, 465;
    presides at House hearing; says when a man believes in wom. suff.
      it is a natl. question and when he doesn't it is one for the
      States, 469;
    tells of great vote for wom. suff. during past year; parade in New
      York of 20,000 women, 12,000 public school teachers; in that city
      women must ask for it in 24 languages, there is no argument
      against it, 470;
    argues with Rep. Chandler whether a member should obey mandate of
      his district or broad principle of justice, 470-1;
    calls natl. suff. conv. to meet in Atlantic City, 1916, 480;
    mayor presents key to city, 481;
    report as chmn. of Campaign and Survey Com, had visited 23 States,
      members of the Natl. Bd. nearly all the others and questionnaires
      sent to all St. presidents; convinced crisis has been reached
      which if recognized will lead to speedy victory, 485;
    discusses recent Iowa campn.; shows its weaknesses, same as in all;
      lessons learned for future; methods of liquor interests and other
      "antis", alliance between them, 486;
    opens conv, 486;
    president's address on The Crisis, keynote of great campn, 488;
    declares Fed. Amend, only method; women must sit on steps of Cong.;
      a "call to arms," 489;
    introd. Pres. Wilson to natl. suff. conv, 496;
    asks Dr. Shaw to respond, 498;
    says no suggestion has been made to lessen work for Fed. Amend, 501;
    work with Cong, 503-4;
    for planks in party platforms, 505;
    calls on presidential candidates, 1916, 507;
    tribute from chmn. Natl. Congressl. Com, 509;
    presides over mass meeting Sunday afternoon, 511;
    closes the conv, 512;
    reception, with wives of Cabinet at suff. conv, 1917, 515;
    arr. for dele, to meet their Senators and Reps, 516;
    opens conv, thinks Cong. will not allow this country to be
      outstripped by Europe in giving suff. to women; urges necessity
      for war work, 517;
    presides at N. Y. victory meeting, 518;
    says Legis. can legally grant Pres. suff. to women, 520;
    president's address to Cong.; plea for Fed. Amend.; pen picture in
      _Woman Citizen_; in pamphlet form standard literature of Natl.
      Assn, 521-2;
    Dr. Shaw nominates her for office, 523;
    calls for nation-wide appeal for Fed. Amend, 523:
    escorts Hon. Jeannette Rankin to Capitol, 523;
    Mrs. Catt's tribute, 526;
    condemns "picketing", 530;
    presides at Amer. Women's War Serv. meeting in Washtn, 532;
    writes book on Fed. Amend, 532;
    originates suff. schools, 538;
    instructs organizers, 539;
    tribute to Rev. Olympia Brown, 540;
    re-elected pres, 541;
    first suggests League of Women Voters, 541;
    plan for million dollar fund, 541;
    contrib. to Natl. Assn, 542;
    closes conv. with "ringing words of inspiration," 545;
    presides at Senate hearing, April, 1917, believes it will be last,
      545;
    says action of Govt. in denying suff. has "saddened women's lives";
      thousands of copies circulated, 547;
    opens natl. suff. conv. 1919, gives president's address, The Nation
      Calls; outlines plan for Natl. League of Women Voters; names
      vital needs of Govt, 553;
    presented with illuminated testimonial by southern dele, 554;
    Govt. puts her on Woman's Com. of Natl. Defense and Liberty Loan
      Com, 555;
    carries for'd great campn. for Fed. Amend.; women of entire world
      owe thanks, 555-6;
    presides at "inquiry" dinner at St. Louis Conv, 561;
    announces suff. soc. in Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and Philippines,
      561;
    presides at meeting of suff. war workers, 564;
    work with Cong, 566;
    help to Congressl. Com, 567;
    urges dele. to conv. to "finish the fight," 569;
    outlines aims of League of Women Voters, 570;
    conv. adopts res. of apprec. and loyalty, 575;
    closing speech on Looking Forward, 576;
    at last suff. hearing, 577;
    reads testimony from South, 580; 581;
    address to com.; analyzes "negro problem"; scores attitude of
      southern members on Fed. Amend, 582;
    tells members of com. to have conf. with Pres. Wilson, 583;
    answers speech of ex-Sen. Bailey; he reminds her of pres. of Harvard
      who said there were witches and Daniel Webster who objected to
      admitting western States to  the Union; tells of Premier Asquith's
      change of views; heard such speeches 40 years ago; Mr. Bailey
      leaves room, 590-592;
    presides at last natl. suff. conv, 596;
    responds to greetings, gives president's address, says Fed. Amend.
      close at hand, 597;
    describes spec. sessions of Legis. to obtain; both Repubs. and Dems.
      responsible for delay; unsullied record of Natl. Suff. Assn.; its
      vast work, 598-9;
    pities those not in it;
      tribute to pioneers, 599;
    Pres. Wilson sends greetings, 599; 602;
    asks southern women to state help desired from Natl. Assn; granted,
      603;
    her immense work for Fed. Amend, 604;
    for ratification, having special sessions called, Legis. polled,
      commissns. of women sent, etc, 604-606;
    Mrs. Shuler's tribute, 605;
    western trip for Amend, 606;
    presides at ratif. banquet, 610;
    eulogy at Dr. Shaw's mem. service, 612;
    founds Leslie Bureau of Educatn, 614;
    gives honor rolls to early workers;
      suffs. present with diamond pin;
      asks Mrs. Upton to respond, 616;
    closes Victory conv. and opens School for Polit. Education, 617;
    escorts Rep. Jeannette Rankin to Capitol, 632;
    addresses Senate Com, 633;
    Pres. Wilson congratulates, 634; 635;
    Mrs. Catt sends to Repub. and Dem. Natl. chairmen a summary of votes
      on Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, thanking their parties and dividing the
      credit; tribute to Pres. Wilson, 648;
    says women are not bound to either party, 649;
    plans and works for ratification, 649 et seq. (See Ratification.)
    Mass meeting in Washtn. to greet Mrs. Catt and workers for ratif.
      in Tenn; Pres. Wilson sends message; Gov. Smith welcomes at
      railroad station in New York, 652;
    addresses Friends' Eq. Rights Assn, 665;
    Miss. Valley Conf. in Minnesota, 669;
      in Ohio, 670;
    calls Exec. Council meeting in Indpls, 670;
    launches League of Women Voters, 681-4-5; 689; 690;
    offers assistance of Leslie Commissn, 698;
    conducts school for polit. educatn, 698-9;
    sends letter to delegates of natl. pres. convs. in 1916;
      addresses mass meeting in Chicago, 709;
    marches in parade, 710;
    secures plank, 711;
    asks Pres. Wilson meaning of Dem. suff. plank, 714; 716;
    calls Exec. Council of Natl. Suff. Assn. to consider helping Govt.
      in war work, 720;
    speaks on Impending Crisis, deprecates war, 724;
    on Woman's Com. Natl. Defense, 726;
    asks equal pay for equal work, 728-9;
    resents attacks of anti-suffs. during the war and answers them,
      736-7;
    after war calls meeting and urges appt. of some women to Peace Conf;
      President and Govt. ignore them, 738;
    address before Senate com. in 1910, Federal Enfranchisement of Men,
      745;
    in 1915, progress of men's enfranchisement, different treatment of
      women, small effort by men; how Jews and Catholics obtained suff;
      land qualif. removed; immense effort of women; plea for Fed.
      Amend, 752-754;
    natl. suff. headqrs, under her presidency, 754-5;
    opens natl. suff. headqrs, in N. Y. City in 1905 and again in 1916;
      branch headqrs. in Washtn. in 1916, 754;
    calls Exec. Council to meet in Cleveland in 1921;
      later in New York, to arr. end of Natl. Amer. Wom. Suff. Assn,
        756-7.

  Catt, George W, 180.

  Chamberlain, Gov. George E. (Ore.),
    welcomes suff. conv, 122;
    as U. S. Senator, 547.

  Chandler, U. S. Rep. Walter M. (N. Y.), 470.

  Chapin, Rev. Augusta, 146.

  Chapman, Mariana W, 20; 42; 47; 67; 665.

  Charleston, S. C, wom. suff. conf, 35.

  Chase, Mary N, 81; 141; 261.

  Cheney, Ednah D, 146.

  Chicago, entertains natl. suff. conv. 1907, 193;
    women petit. for Munic. suff, 392;
    their power doubled when gained, 394;
    entertains natl. conv. 1920, 594.

  Child Labor, 20;
    Mrs. Kelley speaks on, 141, 143;
    Natl. Suff. Assn. calls for legislation, 145;
    Mrs. Kelley shows backwardness of U. S, 164;
    natl. suff. conv. protests against, 212;
    its end waits on wom. suff, 302;
    Dr. Lovejoy shows help of women in securing natl. law; need of women
      in politics, 500.

  Chittenden, Alice Hill, 391; 437; 711;
    Mrs. Catt refutes her attacks during the war, 736.

  Church and Woman Suffrage;
    Mrs. Stanton's views, Miss Anthony's, Dr. Shaw's, Olympia Brown's,
      4, 5.
    Ministers at natl. suff. convs. listed in each chapter; church work
      for wom. suff, 63; 162;
    in 1908, 224;
    women comprising two thirds of membership demand ballot, 267;
    effort to secure admission of women to M. E. Genl. Conf, South, 288;
    religious gatherings addressed on wom. suff. ministers asked to
      preach on it, 325;
    thousands asked to preach on it Mother's Day, 338;
    apathy of women for suff, clergy favor, 370;
    southern Ministerial Assns. friendly to wom, suff.; at Miss. Valley
      Conf. in Des Moines 18 pulpits filled by delegates; letters sent
      to 4,000 clergymen asking for wom. stiff, in sermons on Mother's
      Day, 407;
    work in N. J. and W. Va, 448;
    see Clergy.

  Churchill, Isabella, 102.

  Churchill, Mrs. Winston, 442.

  Citizenship Schools, 607; 690.

  Clapp, U. S. Sen. Moses E, invites natl. suff. conv. to St. Paul,
    382; 383;
    on suff. platform, 459; 626.

  Clark, Speaker Champ, helps wom. suff, xxi;
    name applauded at suff. conv, 402;
    invites Dr. Shaw to Speaker's bench, 440;
    assists Congressl. Com, 451; 515;
    promises vote for Fed. Amend, 516;
    supports creation of Com. on Wom. Suff, 524-5;
    assists in vote for Fed. Amend, 562;
    advises new res. for Amend, 577;
    assists Amend, 629, 633-4-5;
    promises vote for, 637;
    endorses wom. suff, 708.

  Clark, Mrs. Champ,
    greetings to natl. suff. conv, 341;
    sends flowers to, 446.

  Clark, U. S. Rep. Clarence D. (Wyo.), 657.

  Clark, U. S. Rep. Frank (Fla.), 384.

  Clark, Gov. George W. (Iowa), 668.

  Clark, Mrs. Orton H, 425.

  Clark, Chief Justice Walter, 632.

  Clarke, Grace Julian, 670.

  Clarkson, Director U. S. Council of Natl. Defense Grosvenor B, tribute
    to Dr. Shaw, 760.

  Clay, U. S. Sen. Alexander S, 291; 299.

  Clay, Laura, address to conv. 1901, 13; 20; 35; 42; 89; 98; 118; 127;
    140; 180; 202; 211; 220-1; 244; 260; 265;
    responds to welcome of natl. suff. conv, 267; 282; 289;
    every protection which manhood can offer to womanhood should be
      extended, 305;
    social order depends on women, 308;
    founder and pres. Ky. Eq. Rights Assn, welcomes natl. suff. conv.
      to Louisville; recalls visits of the pioneers, Lucy Stone and
      Susan B Anthony; pays tribute to Men's Leagues for Wom. Suff, 311;
    makes suff. address bef. House of Governors, 314;
    has Natl. Suff. Bd. ask members of Cong, to empower woman to vote
      for U. S. Senators, 314; 334;
    for Fed. Elect. Bill, 424;
    explains it, 452;
    debate on future work of Natl. Assn, 486;
    speaks on U. S. Elections Bill, 495;
    conv. endorses, 501; 504;
    wants form of Fed. Amend, changed, 561;
    work for Fed. Elections Bill, 659, 660, 669;
    vice-pres. South Wom. Conf, 671.

  Clay, Mary B, 208.

  Clayton, Judge Henry D,
    presides at House hearing on wom. suff, photographed, 354;
    asks questions, 360-1;
    promises consideration and offers to "frank" the hearing reports,
      363; 389.

  Clement, Gov. Percival W. (Vt.), 653.

  Clergy, in New Orleans endorse wom. suff, 56, 64, 68, 70;
    in Washtn, 98;
    objections reviewed, 138;
    changed attitude, 141;
    in Canada, 259;
    testimony in equal suff. States, 398.
    See names in footnotes of first 19 chapters of those officiating
      at natl. suff. convs.

  Cleveland, President Grover,
    Dr. Shaw answers, 125; 131;
    she criticizes article against women's clubs, 158;
    second against wom. suff, 163; 166; 175.

  Cockran, Mrs. Bourke, 258.

  Codman, Mrs. J. M, 679.

  Coe, Mrs. Henry Waldo, 120; 134.

  Coggeshall, Mary J, 43; 89;
    tributes to, 139; 212;
    bequest to Natl. Suff. Assn, 442;
    used for Iowa campn, 485.

  Colby, Secretary of State Bainbridge, proclaims Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend,
     vi; xxiii; 652;
    effort to enjoin, 653-4;
    brings message from Pres. Wilson to suff. mass meeting, 652;
    Men's Anti-Suff. Assn. tries to prevent proclaiming Amend, 681-2.

  Colby, Clara Bewick, Industrial Problems of Women, 19; 31; 35;
    shows Govt. and civil service unfair to women, 44;
    same, 63;
    ed. of _Woman's Tribune_, 132; 254;
    addresses House Judic. Com, describes past hearings, Mrs. Stanton's
      and Miss Anthony's speeches, 428;
    life work for Fed. Elections Bill, 452, 658;
    memorial to, 540.

  College Women's Equal Suffrage League, formed, 159;
    object of, 171;
    fully org. in 1908, evening at natl. suff. conv, 226, 229-30;
    at natl. suff. conv. of 1909, 255;
    of 1910, 283;
    of 1911, 319;
    has an evening at conv, noted speakers, 320-1;
    debate at natl. suff. conv. in 1912 bet. suffs. and pretended
      "antis", 342;
    in 1914, 425;
    in 1915, 450; 483;
    deputation calls on President, 626;
    sketch of; organization, officers, 661-2-3;
    great force for wom. suff, 662;
    results among college women, 663;
    Pres. M. Carey Thomas's contribution, league dissolves, 664.

  College Women's Evening at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 167;
    program of eminent speakers, 168;
    all tell of indebtedness to suff. leaders, 168-173;
    Miss Anthony's response, 173.

  Collins, Emily P, 208.

  Collins, Franklin W, anti-suff, 354.

  Colorado,
    effect of wom. suff, 52;
    eminent speakers testify as to wom. suff, 100-105;
    Gov. Adams, Mrs. Grenfell and others refute charges, 112-115;
    U. S. Sen. Shafroth on election frauds, 114;
    highest testimony exonerates women, 114;
    wom. suff. re-affirmed by large majority, 115;
    Sen. Shafroth testifies as to wom. suff, 298;
    Rep. Rucker, same, 308;
    Men's Defense League, 312;
    Mrs. Dorr's article, 314;
    Richard Barry's slanders in _Ladies Home Journal_;
      thousands of copies of Miss Blackwell's answer sent to editor by
        women with protest, 314;
    report on wom. suff. by Rep. Taylor, 355, 357;
    women satisfied with suff, 393;
    Sen. Shafroth answers charges against it, 444;
    State gives wom. suff, 624.

  Committee on Rules,
    natl. suff. conv. asks for an especial Com. on Wom. Suff, 373;
    grants a hearing in Dec, 1913, Dr. Shaw presides, "antis" out in
      force, 383;
    names of com, tie vote on reporting res, 397;
    grants a hearing 1917 and creates Wom. Suff. Com, 525, 548-9;
    names of Rules Com, 548;
    sets time for suff. debate in House, 593; 628;
    action of House Judic. Com, 631;
    Mrs. Park's report of Com. on Rules, 634-5.

  Committee on Woman Suffrage,
    the natl. conv. of 1913 makes strenuous effort for in Lower House;
      appeals to Pres. Wilson to recommend, he approves, 373-376;
    three res. for presented, 380;
    Rep. Edward T. Taylor's referred to Com. on Rules, which grants
      hearings; "antis" out in force, 383;
    names of com, 384;
    tie vote on reporting, 397;
    in 1917 Pres. Wilson approves; Speaker Clark supports; all members
      from equal suff. States sign petition, 524;
    Com. on Rules grants hearing; creates desired com.; vote on, 525;
    House Judic. Com. had prevented it for years, 537-8;
    hearing for bef. Com. on Rules, May, 1917, 548;
    com. appointed, 549;
    it gives 4 days' hearing on Fed. Amend.; names of com, 577;
    reports favorably to House, 593;
    effort for com. in Lower House, 626, defeated, 628;
    full report, Pres. Wilson favors, House votes for, 633;
    names of com, 634;
    Judic. Com. hostile, 634;
    friendly "steering" com. names, 635.

  Committees,
    of National American Woman Suffrage Association (special) for war
      work, 723, 725, 727, 730, 734;
    on State Councils of Natl. Defense, 726.

  Committees, Senate, on Wom. Suff, 626; 632; 642; 645.

  Conger-Kanecko, Josephine, 419.

  Congress, United States,
    deaf to appeals for wom. suff, xvii, xviii;
    converted, xxi;
    votes on Fed. Amend, xxiii;
    no power to give wom. suff, xxiii;
    committees urged by suff. leaders to appt. com. to investigate
      results of equal suff, 49, 54, 353;
    they refuse, 54, 62, 363;
    many members kind and helpful, 508;
    first petitioned for wom. suff, 618-19;
    submits 14th and 15th Amends, 619-20;
    receives first petition for 16th, 622-3;
    insurgency in, 625;
    no. of members elected by women, 643;
    James Madison says it has right to confer suff, 657.

  Congressional Committee of National American Woman Suffrage
    Association, Mrs. Catt reports for, 62;
    Emma M. Gillett's report; com. entered upon polit. work; letters
      sent to candidates for Cong. asking opinion on wom. suff.; dif.
      bet. Dems. and Repubs, 319;
    com. for 1913, tribute to by natl. cor. secy.; assn. coöperates,
     366-368;
    in 1910-11-12, Mrs. William Kent chmn, 377;
    declines to serve longer, Alice Paul appt.; report for 1913;
      hearings bef. Senate and House coms.; processions, pilgrimages,
      deputations to Pres. Wilson, State campns, press work, etc; fav.
      report from Senate com.; reasons for progress, new Congressl. Com.
      appt, names of, headqrs, 380-1;
    Washtn. and Chicago officers, Mrs. Medill McCormick's work,
      403-4; 409;
    com. for 1914, 411;
    protest against Congressl. Union's effort for Dem. caucus on forming
      Wom. Suff. Com, 412;
    members of Cong. canvassed, 413;
    Shafroth Amend. decided on, 414-15;
    attends hearing on the original amend, 415;
    its lobby, publicity and campn. work, 418-422;
    self-denial day, the "melting pot," 419;
    assists Neb, 421;
    natl. conv. appreciates its work, 422;
    on "blacklisting" candidates, 424;
    Ethel M. Smith's report; members of Cong. catalogued, pressure from
      women of home district to vote on Fed. Suff. Amend, checking up
      records, votes compared with those on Prohib. Amend.; work in
      Congressl. districts necessary to success, 448-450;
    Mrs. Funk's report, important work for vote on Fed. Amend.;
      for Shafroth Amend, 451;
    Mrs. McCormick's report, 452, 465;
    shows 6,500,000 votes cast for wom. suff. in 1915, 473;
    instructed by natl. conv. to concentrate forces on Fed. Amend, 501;
    report of work in 1916 by Mrs. Roessing, chmn, 503-511;
    effort for Fed. Amend. in Cong, fav. report from Senate Com.;
      Senators urged action, no vote taken, 503-4;
    unfair treatment by House Judic. Com, 504. (See pages to 511.)
    Names of Congressl. Com, headqrs, 506;
    its work divided into depts, lobby work, 506-7;
    report of Maud Wood Park, chmn, for 1917, 523-527;
    headqrs. in Washtn, Mrs. Miller's report, 526-7;
    report of Mrs. Park, 562-567;
    see ref. under Fed. Amend, 562;
    Mrs. Park praises members of com. and tells of their work; gives
      names, 566;
    at time of victory, 604;
    its work under Alice Paul, 625;
    under Ruth Hanna McCormick, 627-8;
    under Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, 630;
    under Maud Wood Park, 632;
    her report on effort for a Wom. Suff. Com. in House, 633; 671; 673;
    com. made up of many orgztns. under League of Women Voters, 701.

  _Congressional Record_, report of debate on Fed. Suff. Amend, 563.

  Congressional Union, (National Woman's Party),
    organized to assist Natl. Congressl. Com.; headqrs.; large work;
      first appears at natl. suff. conv. of 1913; Mrs. Catt will not
      recognize; proves to be orgztn. to duplicate work of Natl. Amer.
      Assn.; Natl. Bd. demands complete separation; it continues as
      independt. society, 380-1;
    urges Dems. in Cong. to caucus on forming Wom. Suff. Com.;
      disastrous result, decides on policy of fighting party in power,
      412; 415;
    names Fed. Amend. Susan B. Anthony, 423;
    arr. suff. hearing, 427;
    speakers urge Fed. Amend, 429-434;
    difference in policy from Natl. Amer. Assn, 434, 471;
    House Judic. Com. asks its size, 434;
    fights the party in power, opp. re-election of best friends of wom.
      suff; res. offered in natl. suff. conv. of 1915 for com. to secure
      cooperation with Natl. Assn, 453;
    each orgztn. appoints five; Union declines to change policy; will
      duplicate the work of Assn. in States; no affiliation possible,
      454;
    hope for dividing on lobby work given up, Union opens fight on Dem.
    party, 455;
    hearing bef. Senate com, 1915;
      list of speakers, 466-7;
    bef. House com, 473-476;
    com. "heckles" speakers, 474-476;
    result of its policy summed up, 475;
    hearings bef. Senate and House Coms, 547-549;
    account of orgztn. put in _Congressl. Record_, 571;
    at last suff. hearing, 577, 585;
    (Natl. Woman's Party) work with Congress, 629, 635; 656;
    organized by Alice Paul, officers, headqrs, object, 675;
    opp. party in power, convs. in San Francisco and Chicago, 676;
    "picketing" and "militancy," jail sentences, reorganizes, presents
      busts of pioneers to Cong, 677;
    seeks Fed. Amend. for civil rights of women, Mrs. Belmont presents
      headqrs. in Washtn, 678;
    at natl. Repub. conv. 1916, 710;
    at Dem. Natl. Conv, 719.

  Connecticut,
    98,000 women ask for Pres. suff. in vain, 602;
    ratif. of Fed. Amend, 653.

  Conventions, annual, of National American Woman Suffrage Association,
    in Minneapolis, 1901, 3;
    Washington, 23;
    New Orleans, 55;
    Washington, 86;
    Portland, Ore, 117;
    Baltimore, 151;
    Chicago, 193;
    Buffalo, 213;
    Seattle, 243;
    Washington, 266;
    Louisville, 310;
    Philadelphia, 332;
    Washington, 364;
    Nashville, 398;
    Washington, 439;
    Atlantic City, 480;
    Washington, 513;
    St. Louis, 550;
    Chicago (last), 594.
    Names of speakers given in each: chronologically arranged in first
     19 chapters; tribute to in Anthony Biography, 22.

  Conventions, Woman's Rights,
    first ever held, 618;
    first in Washtn, 621.

  Conway, Rev. Moncure D, funeral service for Mrs. Stanton, 741.

  Cooke, Katharine, 100; 112.

  Cooke, Marjorie Benton, 326.

  Coover, Bertha, 328.

  Costello, Ray (England), tribute of Buffalo _Express_, 227; 286.

  Costigan, Mrs. Edward P,
    on tour for ratif, 606; 650; 687; 690;
    assn's. chmn. Food Supply and Demand, 694.

  Cotnam, Mrs. T. T,
    shows injustice of Cong. to women, failure of America to stand by
      its ideals, 490-1;
    instructs suff. schools, 539; 541; 561; 610;
    at service for Dr. Shaw, 611.

  Coudon, Chaplain Henry N, 540.

  Council of Women Voters, 484; 495.

  Court decisions,
    on length of women's work day, 306-7;
    in Ills, St. Supreme Court upholds Pres. suff, 407;
    in Texas, Primary suff. for women constitutl, 602;
    in Tenn. and Neb. Pres. and Munic. constitl, 602;
    on Miss Anthony's voting under 14th Amend, 622;
    on Mrs. Minor's attempt, 623;
    on referendum of Fed. Amends, Ohio St. Sup. Ct, U. S. Sup. Ct, 652;
    to prevent ratif. and proclaiming of Amend in D. C. and Md, 654-5;
    U. S. Sup. Ct. decision, 655;
    in D. C. on Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, 681;
    in Md, on its ratif, 682;
    in U. S. Sup. Ct. on its validity, 682.

  Cowles, Commssr. Grace Espey Patton, 146.

  Cowles, Mrs. Josiah Evans, 726.

  Cox, Gov. James M. (Ohio),
    addresses wom. suff. conf, 670;
    as presidential candidate receives League of Women Voters, 701.

  Cox, Mrs. Lewis J, 757.

  Craigie, Mary E, chmn. church work,
    points out real opp. to wom. suff, 166:
    church work for wom. suff. in Canada, 259; 260-1;
    says church women are seeing need of suff, 267;
    church not appreciating the resources lying dormant with two-thirds
      of its membership disfranchised, 325; 338; 370;
    on church work in 1914, 407;
    church work most important to be done for wom. suff, must be
      non-sectarian and omni-sectarian, 448.

  Crane, Rev. Caroline Bartlett,
    women must vote as well as pray, 223;
    addresses natl. suff. conv. in 1911, "politics a noble profession
      in which women long to engage," 322; 333;
    at mem. service for Dr. Shaw, 611; 703.

  Crane, U. S. Sen. W. Murray, 711.

  Crosby, John S, 39.

  Crossett, Ella Hawley, 67;
    responds for New York, 215; 216; 262;
    on N. Y. campn, 518.

  Crowley, Teresa A, 333;
    on Mass. campn, 409; 444.

  Cuba, suff. soc. formed, 561.

  Cummings, Homer S, chmn. Dem. Natl. Com,
    natl. suff. conv. thanks for help with Fed. Amend, 610; 638;
    helps ratif. in Tenn, 651.

  Cummins, U. S. Sen. Albert B, 324.

  Cummins, Mrs. Albert B, 382.

  Cunningham, Minnie Fisher, 490; 556; 566; 570;
    on suff. commssn. to West, 605; 650.


  D.

  Dana, Paul, gives space in N. Y. _Sun_ for wom. suff, 14.

  Daniels, Secretary of the Navy Josephus, 382; 724.

  Daniels, Mrs. Josephus, 382; 515; 564.

  Dargan, Olive Tilford, 243.

  Darlington, Rt. Rev. James Henry, congratulates suffs. and scores
    "antis," 345; 674.

  Darrow, Clara L, tells of defeat in N. Dak, 402; 421.

  Data Department (Research Bureau), org. 1915, 443.

  Davenport, Mrs. John D, 444.

  Davis, Dr. Katharine Bement,
    elected natl. vice-pres, 425; 456; 459;
    asks wom. suff. in the interest of good morals, 496; 499.

  Day, Lucy Hobart, 48; 94; 98; 224.

  De Baun, Anna, with Natl. Suff. Pub. Co, 482.

  Deborah, 64; 69.

  Decker, Sarah Platt, 258.

  Declaration of Principles,
    presented to natl. conv. 1904, 87; 106;
    in full, reasons for demanding wom. suff, 742.

  Deering, Mabel Craft, 133.

  Delano, Jane, Red Cross and the War, 533.

  Delemater, Eric, organist at mem. service for Dr. Shaw, 612.

  De Merritte, Laura, 63.

  Democratic National Committee, gives natl. suff. com. list of its
    candidates for Cong, 319;
    receives suff. speakers, 440;
    natl. suff. conv. thanks chmn. for help with Fed. Amend, 610; 638;
     648; 651-2;
    urges Gov. Roberts to call spec. session of Tenn. Legis. to ratify
      Fed. Suff. Amend, 718.

  Democratic National Conventions, Dr. Shaw describes one in Balto, 371;
    in 1916 refuses plank for Fed. Amend. but endorses wom. suff,
      480; 505;
    action on wom. suff. planks in 1904, 703;
    in 1908, 704;
    in 1912, 707;
    great struggle in 1916, 710-12;
    in 1920 League of Women Voters' planks accepted, 701;
    women welcomed, strong Fed. Amend. plank adopted, full polit. recog.
      granted, 717-719.

  Democratic Party, hostile to wom. suff, adopts plank, xxi;
    vote in Cong, xxiii;
    members in Cong. caucus against Wom. Suff. Com, 397, 412;
    Senators for State's rights, 413-14;
    reasons for holding it responsible for Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, 429;
    early leaders ignored State's rights, 430;
    this argument against wom. suff. demolished by its own record,
      430-432;
    not strong enough in Cong. to submit Fed. Suff. Amend, 455;
    candidates for Cong. fought by Congressl. Union, 474;
    vote of members of Cong. on Wom. Suff. Com, 525;
    on Fed. Suff. Amend, 562-3, 565;
    folly in leaving victory to Repubs, 564;
    unfair caucus on Fed. Amend, 565, 642;
    members in Cong. responsible for delay of Fed. Suff. Amend, 598.

  Democratic Vote in Congress on Fed. Amend, 624, 627, 629, 636, 640,
    642, 644, 646;
    see 647-8-9.

  Denison, Flora MacDonald, 540.

  Denmark, greeting to suff. conv. in U. S, 135; 213; 243.

  Dennett, Mary Ware, elected natl. cor. secy, 282; 289;
    in report of 1911, tells of vast work of natl. suff. headqrs. in
      New York; pushed plan of polit. dist. orgztn; sent out tens of
      thousands of suff. stamps and seals and scores of thousands of
      leaflets; letters to members of Cong. to give women a vote in
      direct election of U.S. Senators, etc, 313;
      re-elected, 324;
    report for 1912; 3,000,000 pieces of literature published, 250 kinds
      of printed matter, reference library established, 335;
    report 1913, suff. bills passed by ten Legislatures; campns,
      parades, tours, petitions, mass meetings, work with Cong,
      delegations to Europe, 366-368;
    report for 1914; record of State amends, tribute to Mrs. Medill
      McCormick, nation-wide work of speakers and organizers, women's
      Independence Day, 403-5;
    resigns office, 405;
    supports Shafroth Amend, 423.

  De Rivera, Belle, 181.

  Devine, Edward T, 258.

  Devlin, T. C, 122.

  De Voe, Emma Smith, welcomes delegates to St. of Wash, 244; 247; 254;
    257; 263-4; 495; 561; 568.

  Dewey, Dr. Nina Wilson, 407.

  Dexter, Mrs. Wirt, 542.

  Dickinson, Mary Lowe, 258.

  "Dix, Dorothy," Elizabeth M. Gilmer, speaks to colored women's club,
     60;
    addresses conv. on The Woman with a Broom, 78;
    gives "Mirandy's Reason Why Women Can't Vote, No Backbone," 284.

  Dodge, Mrs. Arthur M, presides at hearing bef. Rules Com, opposes Wom.
    Suff. Com. in Lower House, 391;
    speaks bef. House Judic. Com. against Fed. Suff. Amend, 436-7;
    urges Senate com. not to report Amend, 467;
    tells House com. women are willing to be represented by men, 476;
    says her assn. believes women should have School suff. but not take
      part in politics and govt; question should be submitted to women;
      tax paying men can look after rights of tax paying women; men of
      Kans. didn't know what they were doing and women wish they hadn't
      suff, 477;
    is told these statements contrary to facts, 477;
    at Senate com. hearing, 548; 679;
    at Natl. Repub. Conv, 711.

  Dorman, Marjorie, 437.

  Dorr, Rheta Childe, article on Colorado Women Voters, 314; 367;
    edits wom. suff. paper, 379; 547.

  Dos Passos, John R, says suff. would convert women into beasts, 437-8.

  Doty, Madeline Z, 548.

  Douglas, Judith Hyams, restriction put upon women came from man not
    God, 220-2.

  Douglass, Frederick, 621.

  Downey, Elvira, 668.

  Dreier, Mrs. H. Edward, 381; 411.

  Drewsen, Mrs. Gudrun, 27: 40;
    addresses Senate com. on wom. suff. in Norway, 48.

  Du Bois, Dr. W. E. Burghardt, 343.

  Dudley, Mrs. Guilford,
    welcomes natl. suff. conv. to Nashville, 398;
    on changed attitude of southern women toward suff;
      now demand it, 491-2;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 541; 554-5; 559; 561; 566;
    at last suff. hearing, 578;
    repudiates State's rights doctrine as applied to wom. suff;
      discusses negro vote, 580.

  Duniway, Abigail Scott, 13; 45;
    meets delegates to Portland suff. conv, 119;
    writes ode, presents gavel to Dr. Shaw, 120;
    tour with Miss Anthony in '71, tribute to both, 121;
    makes fine address, 123;
    tells of her paper the _New Northwest_, tribute to _Woman's
      Journal_, 132;
    speaks at unveiling of Sacajawea statue, 133;
    son wants her to vote, she receives full recog, 141; 144;
    reminis. of pioneer suff. days in northwest, 245; 254; 341.

  Duniway, Willis, 141.

  Dunlap, Flora, 485; 668-9.

  Dunn, Arthur, 418.

  Dunne, Mayor and Gov. Edward F. (Ills.), 197-8.

  Dye, Eva Emery, 133; 255; 260.

  Dyer, U. S. Rep. Leonidas C. (Mo.), 631.


  E.

  Eager, Harriet A, 188.

  Eaker, Helen N, 337.

  Eastman, Max,
    on need of politics to develop women;
      will improve family life, 285.

  Eaton, Dr. Cora Smith,
    tribute to, 17; 35; 37; 42-3; 68;
    tribute to Pioneers, 142; 145; 150; 264;
    see King.

  Eberhard, Gov. Adolph O. (Minn.), 382.

  Eddy, Sarah J, portrait of Miss Anthony, 744.

  Edson, Katharine Philips, 559.

  Education, opportunities for women, iv.

  Educational Qualifications for Suffrage, 32, 66, 76;
    plea of Mrs. Swift, 77;
    argument of Mayor Rudolph Blankenburg, 77-8;
    Mrs. Gilman objects, 78;
    natl. suff. conv. votes in favor but not policy of assn, 78;
    Miss Kearney's demand for it, 82;
    Mrs. Catt approves, 89;
    Miss Mills for, 110.

  Edwards, Mrs. Richard E, 559; 570; 610; 689; 717.

  Eichelberger, J. S, at last suff. hearing; grilled by members of com,
    584.

  Election of Officers of National American Suffrage Association,
    in 1901, 17;
    in 1902, 43;
    in 1903, 67;
    in 1904, 107;
    in 1905, 145;
    in 1906, 161;
    in 1907, 204;
    in 1908, 238;
    in 1909, 260;
    in 1910, 282;
    in 1911, 324;
    in 1912, 342;
    in 1913, 373;
    in 1914, 424;
    in 1915, 456;
    in 1916, 501;
    in 1917, 540-1;
    in 1919, directors elected, 559,
      old board continued, 574;
    in 1920, 595, 600-1;
    list of officers at beginning of first 19 chapters;
    newspapers compliment election methods, 238.

  Eliot, Rev. Thomas L. and Mrs, 121.

  Ellicott, Mrs. William M, 183; 319.

  Ely, Richard T, for wom, suff, 196.

  Engle, Mrs. L. H, 540.

  Equal Guardianship, 327.

  Etz, Anna Cadogan, 219.

  Eustis, William Henry, 7.

  Evald, Emmy, 40-1;
    addresses House com. on status of women in Sweden, 51;
    urges wom. suff. in U. S, 52.

  Evans, Ernestine, 548; 585.

  Evans, Mrs. Glendower,
    bef. House Judic. Com, 429;
    closes hearing with eulogy of Pres. Wilson, stirs com, 434;
    bef. Senate com, 466;
    debate on future work of Natl. Assn, 487.

  Evans, Sarah A, 120.


  F.

  Fairbanks, Vice-President Charles W, 191; 705.

  Fairchild, Charles S, 653-4; 680; 682.

  Fall, U. S. Sen. Albert B, 711.

  Fallows, Bishop Samuel,
    espouses cause of wom. suff, 104;
    officiates at Dr. Shaw's mem. service, 611.

  Farmer Labor Party and Committee of 48 on League of Women Voters'
    planks, 700.

  Farraday, Mabel, 448.

  Farrar, Edgar H, 57.

  Fawcett, Millicent Garrett (Mrs. Henry), hon. pres. of British Natl.
    Union, writes chapter for History, iii;
    tribute to Dr. Shaw, 761.

  Federal Amendments,
    14th, defines citizenship, puts "male" in Natl. Constitution, 619;
    15th guarantees male suff, women protest, 620;
    women demand 16th, 622;
    try to vote under 14th, Miss Anthony arrested, 622;
    Mrs. Minor brings suit, 623;
    res. for 16th presented in Cong, first hearings granted, 623;
    reports of committees, first Senate vote, 624;
    for income tax and election of U. S. Senators, 625.

  Federal Elections Bill,
    natl. conv. approves, 424;
    introd. in Cong, Miss Clay explains, 452;
    natl. conv. endorses, 501; 504;
    see U. S. Elections Bill.

  Federal Enfranchisement of Men,
    natl. constl. conv. and naturalization act enfranchised most men in
      U. S. religious and property tests abolished, 745-6;
    congressl. action gave suff. to negro and Indian men; only women
    sent to States, 746.

  Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment,
    effect on laws for women and office holding, iv;
    natl. assn's. work for, vi, xvii, 1, 2;
    vote taken, xxii;
    submitted and 6,000 legislators vote for, xxiii;
    proclaimed, text of, xxiv;
    work described in full in first 20 chapters;
    plan of work for, 8;
    petitions for in 1913, 368;
    Natl. Assn's. work for, 369;
    Pres. Wilson urged to recommend, 373-376;
    great effort for in 1913, 378-380;
    Senate Com. reports favorably, 380;
    Dem. members of Cong. caucus against, 397;
    in danger of being replaced, 411;
    status in 1914 in Senate and House, 412-13;
    receives majority vote in Senate but not two-thirds;
      votes in the past, 413;
    re-introduced by Sen. Bristow, 415;
    hearing bef. House Com, 415, 426;
    Amend. reported, 417;
    sometimes called Susan B. Anthony Amend, 423.
    For arguments on see Congressl. Hearings and conv. speeches.
    Voted on first time in House of Representatives, 439;
    first measure introd. in Cong, in 1915, 440;
    Dr. Shaw asks Pres. Wilson to use his influence for, 440;
    conv. speeches show work for it paramount, 444;
    Com. on Rules reports it;
      pressure by women on members of Cong. from their districts, 449;
    natl. suff. conv. 1915, resolves to work only for original Fed.
      Amend, 452;
    strong demand for it, 460-1;
    lost in Senate and House, 1914-15, new hearings granted by
      committees, 461;
    southern women appeal for, 472;
    record of Dem. and Repub. members of Cong, 474-5;
    Prog. Prohib. and Soc. natl. convs. declare for, 480;
    debate at Atlantic City suff. conv. on continuing work for, 486;
    vote largely in favor, 487;
    object lesson in its necessity, 488;
    Mrs. Catt says only way to wom. suff, 489;
    natl. conv. resolves to concentrate all its resources on getting it
      through Cong, 501;
    Congressl. Com. report of great "drive" for, 503;
    members of Lower House from equal suff. States have hearing for bef.
      House Judic. Com, 504;
    nation-wide plan of work for, 510;
    conditions at end of 1917 favorable to, 514;
    delegates to natl. suff. conv. discuss it with their Senators and
      Representatives, many pledged, 516;
    Mrs. Catt says Cong. must deal with, 517;
    Pres. Wilson reaches a belief in, 520;
    Mrs. Catt's strong plea for, 520-1;
    issues nation-wide appeal, 523;
    her book on, 532;
    Mrs. Shuler reports work for all over the country, 538-9;
    Natl. Assn. will campaign against enemies in Cong, 542;
    Cong. urged to submit as a War measure, 543;
    hearings bef. coms. of Cong, 545-549;
    Lower House votes in favor, Senate defeats, 1918, 550-1;
    nation-wide campaign by Natl. Amer. Assn, 554-557;
    Pres. Wilson sends best wishes for, 558;
    change of form proposed, conv. refuses, 561;
    no merging of assn. till Fed. Amend, secured, 561;
    Mrs. Park's report, complete summary;
      House Judic. Com. tries to defeat;
      Pres. Wilson advises the Amend, 562;
    Wom. Suff. Com. appt. gives five days' hearing;
      Speaker Clark assists;
      five hours' debate, 562;
    vote in House; five days' discussion in Senate; Pres. Wilson's
      appeal in person; vote, Oct. 1918, 563, 761;
    second appeal from the President;
      vote in Feby, 1919, 565;
    twenty-five State Legislatures call for submission, 564;
    Dem. caucus opposes, 565;
    Natl. Assn. continues its efforts, 574;
    last hearing bef. com. of Cong, 577;
    Roosevelt and Pres. Wilson support;
      not to ask for it would be treason, 579;
    Pres. Wilson urges, 583;
    sentiment in South, 580, 582-3, 588-9, 590;
    four days' hearing ends; favorable report, debate in Lower House
      and vote to submit, 593;
    record of ratifications, 598;
    Governors called on by natl. suff. conv. for spec. sessions, 600;
    strenuous work for from natl. suff. headqrs. in New York and Washtn,
      under Mrs. Catt's supervision, 604;
    great "drive" for ratification, 604-606.
    Entire chapter on Amend, 618;
    first petitions for, 619;
    first resolutions for in Cong, 621;
    first vote in Senate, 1887, 624;
      discussed, 626;
    second vote, 1914, 627;
    first vote in Lower House, 629;
    struggle for second, 635;
      vote, 636-7;
    action of House Judic. Com, 627-8-9, 631;
    Senate com. gives hearing and makes favorable report, 633;
    difficulty in Senate, 637-8;
    1,000 prominent men petition for, 638;
    five days' debate, 639;
    vote, Oct. 1, 1918, 640;
    vote, Feb. 10, 1919; analyzed by States, 642;
    final vote in House, analyzed by States, 644;
    debate in Senate, final vote, signed by Vice-pres. and Speaker, 645-6;
    friends and foes, 641-646;
    table of votes, 647.
    See Ratification.
    Proclaimed by Secy. of State, 652;
    many law suits; U. S. Sup. Ct, decides in favor, 653-655;
    opp. by women's Anti-Suff. Assns, 679;
      by men's, 681-2;
    record of polit. natl. convs, 702-719;
    appeals for amend, in 1912, 709;
      at Repub. natl. conv, 1916, 711;
      at Dem, 712;
    great change, 715;
    endorsed by all parties at natl. convs, 1920, 714, 717, 718;
    indebtedness to bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie, 755;
    Pres. Wilson's address to Senate in its favor, 761.

  Federal Woman Suffrage Association,
    at hearings, 383, 427, 428;
    organized, officers, object, 656;
    memorializes Cong. and polit. convs;
      at Columbian Expos, 657;
    Congressl. hearings on bills, conv. in San Francisco, 678;
    Miss Clay's U. S. Elec. bill, 659.

  Federation of Women's Clubs,
    Genl. and State, endorse wom. suff, xix;
    Genl. Fedn. invites suff. speaker, 206;
    coöperates with Natl. Suff. Assn, 210;
    sends first greeting to natl. suff. conv, 215;
    causes "epidemic of suffrage meetings," 313;
    in States, bills show civic conscience, 350;
    Genl Fedn, 638.

  Feickert, Lillian J,
    on N. J. campn, 409; 444;
    at Anthony celebr, 615.

  Fels, Joseph, 340-1.

  Fels, Mrs. Joseph, 542.

  Fensham, Florence (Turkey), 42.

  Ferguson, Gov. James E. (Texas), 713.

  Fernald, Fannie J, 194.

  Fessenden, Susan, 176; 185; 188.

  Field, Mrs. Cyrus W, 372; 405.

  Field, Sara Bard,
    motors from San Francisco to Washtn. with suff. petition, 466-7;
    bef. House Judic. Com, 476;
    at natl. Repub. conv, 711.

  Finley, Dr. Caroline,
    work in women's Oversea Hospitals during the war, 733;
    decorated by Prince of Wales, 735.

  Finnegan, Annette, 669.

  Fitch, Dean Florence M, 664.

  FitzGerald, Susan Walker, 286;
    asks suff. for home makers, 300;
    elected natl. rec. secy, 324; 326;
    at Senate hearing, 347; 425; 456; 556.

  Flags,
    Miss Barton's at Intl. Suff. Conf.; the suff. flag, 24;
    Penn. suff. assn. presents one to Natl, 501;
    Dr. Shaw's tribute to flag of U. S, 511;
    "service" flag of assn, 517;
    Dr. Shaw's tribute to American, 758.

  Fleischer, Rabbi Charles, 258.

  Fleming, Stephen B, 713.

  Fletcher, U. S. Sen. Duncan U, 640.

  Formad, Dr. Marie (France), 733.

  Foss, Samuel Walter, 328.

  Foster, J. Ellen, 42; 109.

  Foster, Genl. John W, 467.

  Foster, Mabel, 266.

  Foster, U. S. Rep. Martin D. (Ills.), 548.

  Fouke, Mrs. Philip B, 560.

  Foulke, Commissr. William Dudley, 38; 64; 178; 258.

  Foxcroft, Frank, 678.

  Fray, Ellen Sully, 17; 106.

  Frazer, Helen, tells of British women's war work, which brought suff,
    544; 576.

  Freeman, Elizabeth, 333.

  Freeman, Mary Wilkins, for wom. suff, 297.

  Frelinghuysen, U. S. Sen. Joseph S, as St. Senator approves School
    suff. for women, 320; 565; 640.

  French, U. S. Rep. Burton L. (Ida.), 658.

  French, Mrs L. Crozier, 395;
    welcomes natl. suff. conv. to Nashville, 398; 425.

  French, Rose, 317.

  Friedland, Sofja Levovna, 28; 40; 45;
    addresses House com. on status of woman in Russia, 50; 73.

  Friends' Equal Rights Association, 42;
    orgztn. and work for wom. suff, 664-667.

  Frierson, Solicitor General William L, 654.

  Fry, Susannah M. D, 194.

  Fuller, Mrs. B. Morrison, 553.

  Fuller, Chief Justice Melville Weston, decision on appointment of
    presidential electors, 130.

  Funck, Emma Maddox, arranges for and welcomes natl. suff. conv. in
    Balto, 151;
    it passes vote of thanks, 180.

  Funck, Dr. William, 180.

  Funk, Antoinette, work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370; 381; 409;
    on Congressl. Com, 411;
    bef. House Judic. Com, refers to new Fed. Suff. Amend, 415-16;
    explains and defends Shafroth Amend, to natl. suff. conv, 416-418;
    report of campn. work in western States; found liquor interests
      active; travels 8,000 miles, 419-422;
    re-appointed vice chmn, 424;
    foreshadows new Fed. Amend, at Congressl. hearing, 427;
    chmn. Campn. and Survey Com, work in N. J. campn, 447;
    report for Congressl. Com, 451; 454; 503;
    resigns from com, 506; 726;
    sponsor for Shafroth Palmer Amend, 747-8.


  G

  Gage, Matilda Joslyn, writes Women's Declaration of Rights, 333.

  Gains, for wom. suff. in 1907, 213;
    in 1908, 243.

  Gale, Zona, 425;
    offers res. to unite work of Natl. Suff. Assn. and Congressl. Union,
      453-4.

  Gannett, Mrs. William C, chmn. com. for Anthony mem. bldg, 201-2;
    women's duty to want to vote, 234;
    work for bldg, 744.

  Gano, Eveline, shows disadvantage to teachers in having no vote,
    quotes New York, 293.

  Gardener, Helen H, arr. parade to carry Fed. Amend, petition to Cong,
    275;
    "unstinted personal service," 336;
    tells how to get Congressl. docs, 373; 381;
    urges appt. of Com. on Wom. Suff, 384;
    on Congressl. Com, 411;
    bef. House Judic. Com, quotes Bryan's declaration that Pres. Wilson
      insists the Govt. must derive just powers from consent of governed
      and applies it to women's demand for suff, 435-6;
    arr. for natl. suff. conv, 1917, 515;
    asks Pres. Wilson for letter on forming Com. on Wom. Suff, 524;
    called "diplomatic corps," 525;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 541;
    bef. Rules Com, 549;
    natl. suff. conv. sends greeting, 559;
    vice-chmn. Congressl. Com, 567; 604;
    secures space in Smithsonian Inst. for suff. exhibit; offers res. of
      thanks to Inst, 609;
    at Anthony celebr, 615; 635.

  Gardner, Gov. Frederick D. (Mo.), for wom. suff, 526.

  Gardner, Mrs. Gilson, 454; 675.

  Garrett, U. S. Rep. Finis J. (Tenn.), 548.

  Garrett, Mary E, entertainments for natl. suff. conv. in Balto,
    152-167;
    conv. sends letter of thanks, 180;
    invitations "to meet Miss Anthony," account of functions,
      distinguished women house guests, 182;
    with Dr. Thomas raises large fund for suff. work, 183, 258; 289; 661.

  Garrett, Mrs. Robert, 391; 679.

  Garrett-Thomas Suffrage Fund, 235, 253.

  Garrison, Eleanor, 571.

  Garrison, Francis J, 674.

  Garrison, William Lloyd, 244.

  Garrison, William Lloyd, Jr, 258;
    mem. service at natl. suff. conv, 1910;
      tributes of Dr. Shaw and Mrs. McCulloch, 277-280.

  Garvin, Florence, 661.

  Garwood, Omar E, 312;
    secy. Natl. Men's League, 674.

  Gay, U. S. Sen. Edward J, opp. Fed. Suff. Amend, 565; 642-3; 646.

  Gellhorn, Mrs. George, welcomes natl. suff. conv, 554; 559; 668; 689;
    690; 699; 717.

  George, Mrs. A. J, 391;
    in anti-suff. speech attacks Mormons, says suffs. place their cause
     above needs of country, 467-8;
    makes State's rights argument bef. House com, 478; 548; 710-11.

  German American Alliance, anti-suff. work in Ky, 388.

  Germany, venerates suff. pioneers, 28.

  Geyer, Rose Lawless, press work in Iowa campn, 485;
    report to natl. conv, 494; 528;
    report on natl. press work, 531;
    instructs suff. schools, 539;
    tribute to her work, 571.

  Gibbons, Cardinal, Dr. Shaw answers, 125;
    Mrs. Harper answers, 131;
    opp. women's societies, Dr. Shaw criticizes, 158.

  Gilbert, Judge Hiram, on Shafroth Suff. Amend, 414.

  Gilder, Richard Watson, 296.

  Gildersleeve, Dean Virginia C, 613; 663.

  Gillett, Emma M, 218;
    report as chmn. of Congressl. Com, 319.

  Gillett, Speaker Frederick H, 584; 646.

  Gillmore, Inez Haynes, 661.

  Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 71;
    mem. poem, 74;
    on educated suff, 78;
    describes Lester F. Ward's biolog. theory of the sexes, 92; 110;
     133; 140;
    on "hand that rocks the cradle," 149;
    woman's right to citizenship, 220;
    economic dependence cause of immorality, 224; 244; 260; 262; 265;
      289.

  Giltner, Prof. William S, 133.

  Glasgow, Ellen, for wom. suff, 297.

  Glass, U. S. Sen. Carter, 719.

  Gleason, Kate, 341.

  Goddard, Mary Catherine, Congress ignored her paper in days of
    Revolution, 156.

  Goldenberg, Rosa H, 152.

  Goldstein, Vida, 40-1; 43;
    addresses Senate com. on wom. suff, in Australia and New Zealand,
      49;
    candidate for Senate, 91.

  Gompers, Samuel, 86;
    greeting to suff. conv, 135; 208; 258; 703; 731.

  Goodlett, Caroline Meriwether, 328.

  Goodrich, Gov. James P. (Ind.), 551.

  Goodrich, Sarah Knox, 106.

  Gordon, Anna A, 28.

  Gordon, Rev. Eleanor, 140.

  Gordon, Jean, 56;
    welcomes Miss Anthony to New Orleans, 57;
    receives testimonial from natl. suff. conv, 84;
    address on duty of women of leisure to workingwomen, 231; 286; 425.

  Gordon, Kate M, elected natl. cor. secy, 17;
    report in 1902, chivalry in Ala, 34-36; 56;
    welcomes natl. suff. conv. to New Orleans, 57;
    report of year's work, 60; 61;
    receives loving cup, 84;
    tells of Dr. Shaw's southern tour attitude of South, 87-8; 89;
    report in 1905, 127;
    protests against southern members' attitude on wom. suff, 188;
    shows need of personal acquaintance of suff. leaders with editors,
      politicians, teachers, women's clubs; appeals for funds for Ore.
      campn, 161;
    tells of women's Munic. suff. in New Orleans, 195-6; 202; 208;
      211; 214;
    describes interview with Pres. Roosevelt, 217;
    arr. hearings, 217; 244;
    tells of liquor dealers' fight on wom. suff. in Ore, 247;
    urges suff. assn. to use polit. methods, 248;
    resigns as cor. secy, convention thanks, 260; 263-4;
    elected vice-pres, 283; 287; 324; 400;
    debate on future work of Natl. Assn, 486; 668;
    org. Southern Wom. Suff. Conf 671; 673;
    at Dem. natl. conv, 1912, 703-4.

  Gordon, Laura de Force, 137.

  Gordon, Dr. Margaret (Canada), 597.

  Graddick, Laura J, working women polit. nonentities forced to compete
    with those having full polit. rights, 304.

  Graham, Frances W, 215.

  Gram, Elizabeth, 585.

  Grand Army of Republic, for wom. suff, 435.

  Grange, National and State, endorses wom. suff, 206;
    always for it, Dr. Shaw a member, 247;
    Natl, 392.

  Grant, M. Louise, 662.

  Gray, James, 7.

  Great Britain, wom. suff. work not finished, iii; xxii;
    official and polit. status of women, 52;
    women made eligible to office, 213;
    women's demonstratn, "militancy," situation in Parliament, 237-8;
    "militant" movement, 281;
    enfranchises women, 551;
    chapter on in Vol. VI.

  Greeley, Helen Hoy, 314; 372.

  Greene, Judge Roger S, 144.

  Greenleaf, Halbert S, 204.

  Gregg, Laura, 18; 20; edits _Progress_, 35; 71; 110;
    indifferent women real enemy to equal suff, 235; 261; 404.

  Gregory, Dr. Alice, work in women's Oversea Hospitals during the war,
    733.

  Gregory, Mrs. Thomas W, 515.

  Grenfell, Helen Loring, describes effect of wom. suff. in Colo, 102;
    105;
    refutes charges against women, 113.

  Grew, Mary, 334.

  Griffin, Frances A, 65.

  Grim, Harriet, 236; 283; 404; 668; 703.

  Gruening, Martha, 662.

  Guernsey, Mrs. George Thatcher, pres. genl. D. A. R, 515.

  Guild, Mrs. Charles E, 678.

  Gulick, Alice Gordon, 106.


  H

  Hackstaff, Priscilla D, 10; 13; 62;
    work on natl. petit, 258; 703.

  Haggart, Dr. Mary E, 146.

  Hale, Rev. Edward Everett, 98.

  Hale, U. S. Sen. Frederick, 648.

  Haley, Margaret A, 37.

  Hall, Florence Howe (N. J.), speaks for her mother at conv. of 1906,
    185.

  Hall, Florence H. (Penn.),
    in anti-suff. speech attacks Mormonism;
      Sen. Sutherland objects, 467-8.

  Hall, Louise, 556.

  Hall, Dr. Stanley, 256.

  Hallinan, Charles T, 408; 418;
    report of Natl. Publicity Dept;
      tribute to Dr. Shaw;
      orgztn. of Data Dept, 442-3.

  Hamilton, Mrs. L. A. (Canada), 400;
    pres. natl. assn, 584.

  Hanaford, Rev. Phoebe A, last words for Mrs. Stanton, 741.

  Hanna, Mayor James R. (Des Moines), 669.

  Harbert, Elizabeth Boynton, 18; 20; 288; 559.

  Harding, U. S. Sen. Warren G,
    votes for Fed. Suff. Amend, 516;
    as Pres. candidate receives League of Women Voters, 701.

  Hardwick, U. S. Rep. Thomas W. (Ga.), 384;
    discussion with Mrs. Catt at com. hearing, 390.

  Hardy, Jennie Law, 473.

  Harmon, Mrs. Anna, 658.

  Harper, Ida Husted,
    tells of suff. dept. in N. Y. _Sun_, 14; 67;
    presents Decl. of Principles to natl. conv, 87;
    answers Cardinal Gibbons, 131;
    presides at press conf, 1905, 131;
    address, wom. suff. will come from the West, 135;
    has interview with Pres. Roosevelt, 137;
    articles on death of Miss Anthony, 204;
    report as chmn. of Natl. Press Com, immense increase of notice of
      wom. suff; appreciation of support of natl. press bureau by Mrs.
      Belmont, 287-8; 315;
    presents and supports res. that officers of Natl. Assn. must be
      non-partisan, 342; 354;
    bef. House Judic. Com, 1912, makes constitl. argument;
      quotes from Presidents Taft and Roosevelt;
      says women have been asking Cong. for Fed. Amend. 43 years;
      shows St. amends. practically impossible;
      no other country subjects women to this struggle;
      answers questions, 359-361-2;
    bef. House Com. on Rules;
      asks appoint. of Com. on Wom. Suff; shows treatment of res. for a
      Fed. Suff. Amend. by Judic. Coms. for over forty years; the
      defeats in St. campns; the need of a Fed. Amend, 385-387;
    no class of men in U. S. have lifted a finger to get suff. but women
      have struggled 65 yrs, 395;
    debate at Atlantic City conv. on future work of Natl. Assn, 487;
      527;
    editorial dept. Leslie Bureau of Education, describes work with
      editors, espec. for Fed. Amend; concrete results; many letters
      to editors on "picketing" and results; change in southern papers,
      528-530;
    natl. suff. conv. sends greeting, 559;
    second report of dept. in Leslie Bureau;
      letters to 2,000 editors; letters to and from ex-President
      Roosevelt; work for Fed. Amend; 8,000 letters sent; articles to
     _Intl. Suff. News_; change in character of editorials, 571-2;
    prepares to finish History of Wom. Suff, 573;
    conv. sends telegram of recog. for work on History, 610;
    writes chapter on Fed. Suff. Amend. for History, 618; 658;
    objections to Shafroth Palmer Amend, 748.

  Harriman, Mrs. J. Borden, in war service, 517; 526;
    on Congressl. Com, 567.

  Harrison, U. S. Rep. Pat (Miss.), 548;
    U. S. Sen, 645.

  Hart, Gov. Louis F. (Wash.), urged to call spec. session, 600.

  Hartshorne, Myra Strawn, 286; 289.

  Harvey, Col. George, 205; 258.

  Haslup, Mary R, 152.

  Haskell, Oreola Williams, 181; 211.

  Hatch, Lavina, 106.

  Hathaway, Margaret, member Mont. Legis, 516; 540.

  Hauser, Elizabeth J, shares work of natl. suff. headqrs. in 1903, 61;
    tells of work at conv. of 1904, 93;
    in 1905, vast amount of literature distrib. res. secured from
      convs, etc, 128;
    describes the Statehood Protest of 400 orgztns. of women to Senate
      com. against proposed bill for admitting new territories, 129;
      130; 135;
    in 1906, endorsement of orgztns, 162; 163-4;
    in 1907, describes vast work, 204-6;
    headqrs. secy's. report for 1908;
    thousands of articles furnished, hundreds of orgztns. endorse, 218;
    presides at press conf, 219;
    report for 1909, polit. work;
      many endorsements, widely extended press work;
      conv. thanks;
    goes to N. Y. headqrs, 248-250; 287; 315; 485; 670; 690;
    at Repub. Natl. Conv, 703; 754.

  Haver, Jessie R, on tour for ratif, 606; 687.

  Hawaii,
    Natl. Assn. asks wom. suff. for, 11;
    suff. soc. formed, 381, 561;
    action of Cong. on wom. suff, 566.

  Hawk, George, takes referendum on Fed. Amend, to U. S. Sup. Ct, 652.

  Hay, Secy. of State John, 736.

  Hay, Mary Garrett,
    at natl. conv, 1901, 10;
    conv. thanks, 12; 21;
    champion money raiser, 41;
    report on organization, 61;
    work on Fed. Amend. petition, 258;
    arr. parade to carry it to Cong, 275;
    tells how to organize, 444;
    natl. conv. thanks for arr. Pres. Wilson's visit, 501; 503;
    on Congressl. Com, 506;
    shows why New York campn. was won, 519;
    scores circular of Mrs. Wadsworth on New York victory;
      gives figures to show not due to Socialist vote, 536-7;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 541;
    Repub. party gives important positions, 554-5;
    does congressl. and war work, 555;
    wants name of Natl. Assn. retained, 561;
    on Congressl. steering com, 566; 568;
    raises "budget" for 1919, 569;
    offers res. to thank Governors who have called spec. sessions and
      urge others to do so, 600;
    great service in securing ratif. of Fed. Amend, 606;
    raises money for League of Women Voters, 609, 698;
    speaks on Women in Politics, 617;
    at Repub. natl. conv, 1920, calls conf. of suffs;
      they present plank to Res. Com, 716-17;
    presides at meeting for women on Peace conf, 738.

  Hayden, U. S. Rep. Carl (Ariz.), 524; 549.

  Hays, Will H, chmn. Natl. Repub. Com,
    natl. suff. conv. thanks for help with Fed. Amend, 610;
    work for it, 638;
    Mrs. Catt thanks in name of Natl. Amer. Suff. Assn. for his own and
      party's support of Fed. Suff. Amend, 648;
    helps in Tenn, 657.

  Headquarters, National Suffrage, in New York, xx; 34;
    removed to Warren, O, 61;
    important work described, 93;
    see Hauser;
    removed to New York, Mrs. Belmont assists financially, thanked by
      natl. conv, 253;
    Ills. dele. want them removed to Chicago, 319;
    Natl. conv. votes to retain in New York, 341;
    Mrs. Belmont offers res. to move to Washtn, 381;
    Mrs. Roessing urges it, 506, 508;
    Natl. Bd. decides not wise to move from New York but estab. branch
      in Washtn, activities, 525-527;
    closed, 604; 627; 632;
    summary, in Rochester, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Warren,
      O, and New York City, 754.

  Hearings, before Committees of Congress for quarter of a century, 46;
    in 1902, names of Senate com, Miss Anthony hon. pres. Natl. Suff.
      Assn. presides and pleads for a Fed. Suff. Amend; noted speakers,
      47;
    bef. House Judic. Com, Mrs. Catt introd. foreign speakers, 50;
    she and Dr. Shaw urge Cong. to appoint a com. to investigate results
      of wom. suff, 49; 53-4;
    in 1904 Miss Anthony presides at Senate hearing, her last; had
      appealed to 17 Congresses; Mrs. Watson-Lister tells of wom. suff.
       in Australia; a report promised, none made, 110-11;
    House Judic. Com, Mrs. Catt presides;
      urges a commsn. to investigate conditions in equal suff. States;
      Sen. Shafroth, Gov. Adams and eminent Colo. women speak, 111-116;
    in 1906, Miss Anthony, unable to attend; had missed but two hearings
      in 37 years; Dr. Shaw presided at Senate, Mrs. Florence Kelley at
      House; strong speeches but no report, 187-191;
    in 1908, hearing given but convention not in session, 218;
    in 1910, first in splendid new office bldgs;
      names of Senate com; Dr. Shaw presides, tells of great petition
      for Fed. Suff. Amend, just presented; introd. women speakers
      representing different professions, 291-8;
    closes with strong appeal for a report;
      the chairman promises one, 299;
      none ever made, 300;
    bef. House Judic. Com. in 1910;
      names of com;
      Mrs. Kelley presides, tells of great petition;
      many strong speeches along industrial lines, 300-309;
    in 1912, arr. by Mrs. William Kent, 339; 346-363;
    names of Senate com, 346;
    of House com, 354;
    in 1913, 382-397;
    bef. Com. on Rules in 1913, Dr. Shaw presides, asks for a spec. com.
       because Judiciary never reports suff. res, 384;
    bef. House Judic. Com, in 1914, 427;
    in 1915, bef. Senate, names of com, 462;
    House, 469;
    Representatives from equal suff. States bef. Judic. Com, list of, 504;
    bef. Senate com, 1917, entire forenoon given, 545;
    Apr. 26 to Natl. Wom. Party, 547;
    May 3 to Anti-Suff. Assn, 548;
    May 18 bef. Com. on Rules, 548;
    bef. Wom. Suff. Com. last ever held, 577;
    résumé, 624;
    Mrs. Park's report, 633; 635.

  Heaslip, Charles T, 494.

  Hebard, Dr. Grace Raymond, 484; 610;
    at Anthony celebr, 615.

  Heflin, U. S. Rep. J. Thomas (Ala.), at suff. hearing, 391;
    southern women incensed, 395;
    Rep. Mondell ridicules, 396;
    offers res. against Fed. Suff. Amend, 412;
    sends his anti-suff. speeches to western States, 422;
    quotes poetry against wom. suff, 437; 628.

  Helm, Mrs. Ben Hardin, 313.

  Hemphill, Robert R, 35.

  Henderson, Rev. Charles R, 198.

  Henderson, Mrs. John B, receives conv, 45; 99.

  Heney, Mrs. Francis J, 585.

  Henrotin, Ellen M, 195;
    asks ballot for working women, 209; 703.

  Henry, Alice, 185; 209; 327.

  Henry, U. S. Rep. Robert L. (Texas), 307;
    opposes sending Fed. Amend. to the House, 629.

  Henshaw, Virgil, at suff. hearing, 548.

  Hepburn, Mrs. Thomas N. (Katharine Houghton), 382; 675.

  Hidden, Mrs. M. L. T, 337.

  Hifton, Harriette J, 266.

  Higgins, U. S. Rep. Edwin W. (Conn.), at Congressl. hearing, 361.

  Higginson, Col. Thomas Wentworth, 137; 208; 328.

  "Hikes," headed by members of Senate Com. on Wom. Suff, 378.

  Hill, Elsie, 675; 677.

  Hill, Mrs. Homer M, 246.

  Hilles, Florence Bayard, bef. House com, 473-4; 675.

  Himes, Dr. George H, 120.

  Hinchey, Margaret, 364-5.

  Hindman, Matilda, 146.

  Hirsch, Rabbi Emil,
    appeal for wom. suff, 143;
    address in Chicago, 207.

  Histories, give no place to women, 263.

  History of Woman Suffrage, early vols;
    work of Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Harper; Mrs. Catt arranges
      for last two, labor in preparing, wide scope, their value, see
      Preface; 67; 74; 94;
    Miss Anthony bequeaths to Natl. Assn, its wide distribution, 205,
      218; 249; 335; 359;
    Mrs. Harper begins last vols, 573; 610;
    contain great speeches, 623.

  Hitchcock, U. S. Sen. Gilbert H, refuses to represent his State on
    Fed. Suff. Amend, 598.

  Hoar, U. S. Sen. George F, 146;
    first to suggest Pres. suff. for women, 369.

  Hobby, Gov. W. P. (Texas), invites natl. suff. conv, 540.

  Holcomb, Gov. Marcus H. (Conn.), 653; 717.

  Hollis, U. S. Sen. Henry P, 323; 383;
    at Senate hearing, 462; 467; 626.

  Hollister, Lillian M, 258; 328.

  Holmes, Lydia Wickliffe, 568.

  Hooker, Mrs. Donald,
    contrib. to Natl. Assn, 315;
    at Senate hearing, 351;
    bef. House Judic. Com, 433; 675.

  Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 45; 191; 204; 656.

  Hooper, Gov. Ben W. (Tenn.), addresses natl. suff. conv, 400.

  Hooper, Mrs. Ben (Wis.), 559; 568;
    on commissn. to West, 605; 650.

  Hoover, Mrs. Herbert C, 515.

  Hopkins, J. A. H, at suff. hearing, 548.

  Hopkins, Mrs. J. A. H, 675.

  Horton, Albert H, 74.

  Horton, Mrs. John Miller,
    presents greetings and flowers, 214;
    recep. to natl. suff. conv, 216.

  House of Governors in Ky. and N. J. hears suff. speeches by Miss Clay
    and Dr. Shaw, 314;
    Natl. Suff. Assn. represented in 1913, 367;
    suffs. received in 1919, 605.

  Houston, Secretary of Agriculture David Franklin and Mrs, 382; 724.

  Houston, Mrs. David Franklin, 515.

  Howard, Emma Shafter, 150.

  Howe, Frederick C, on The City for the People, 177; 340.

  Howe, Julia Ward, 31; 137; 148;
    at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 151;
    introd, by Dr. Shaw, 154;
    escorted by Governor, responds to greetings, speaks of Lucy Stone
      and Mrs. Livermore, 155;
    guest of Miss Garrett, 182;
    too ill to give address, read by her daughter, tells of conversion
      to wom, suff; speaks of the great leaders, plea for the ballot,
      184-5; 208; 230;
    suff. dele, to Genl. Fed. of Women's Clubs, 249; 258; 288; 297;
    gets testimony on wom. suff. from ministers and editors, 393.

  Howe, Dr. Lucian, at suff. hearing, 583.

  Howe, Marie Jenney, 98; 176; 179.
    See Jenney.

  Howells, William Dean, for wom. suff, 296.

  Howes, Elizabeth Puffer, 450.

  Howes, Ethel Puffer, 662; 664.

  Howland, Emily, 16; 40;
    tells of pioneers, 107; 110;
    at Anthony mem. meeting, 203;
    tells of first Wom. Rights Conv, 215; 341;
    natl. conv. sends greetings, 501; 559;
    conv. sends letter, 1920, 610.

  Howse, Mayor Hilary (Nashville), 398.

  Hughes, Gov. Charles Evans (N. Y.), 223;
    on teachers' salaries, 294;
    as Presidential candidate, 489;
    in favor of Fed. Suff. Amend, 495;
    personal but not party endorsement, 505;
    natl. suff. leaders interview, tells them he will endorse Fed.
      Amend, 507;
    declares for it, 630;
    counsel for Natl. Suff. Assn, 653.

  Hughes, James L. (Canada), 41.

  Hughes, Rev. Kate, 20; 69; 71; 207.

  Huidobro, Carolina Holman (Chili), 40-1; 186; 188.

  Hull, U. S. Rep. Harry E. (Iowa), 644.

  Hultin, Rev. Ida C, 37; 84.

  Humphrey, Mrs. Alexander Pope, 313.

  Hundley, Mrs. Oscar, 395.

  Hunt, Gov. George P. (Ariz.), greets natl. suff. conv, 341.

  Huntington, Bishop Daniel T, 146.

  Huse, Mrs. Robert S, 495; 539; 729.

  Hussey, Cornelia C, 13;
    contrib. to Natl. Suff. Assn, 73;
    bequest to assn, 94.

  Hussey, Dr. Mary D, 61; 73; 287.

  Hutchinson, John, 31; 34.

  Hutton, May Arkwright, tells anecdote of McKinley, 133;
    writes ode to suff, 135; 176;
    welcomes suff. dele, to Spokane, 244; 317.

  Huxley, Thomas H, 256.


  I

  Idaho, effect of wom. suff, 52.

  Indianapolis, entertains Natl. Exec. Council, 551.

  Indians, men enfranchised by Congress, 746.

  Industrial Problems, Govt. discriminates against women, 63;
    unpaid housework, 79.

  Industrial Program, 286;
    Congressl. hearings on, 300.

  Initiative and Referendum, endorsed by natl. suff. conv, adverse
    effect on suff. and prohib, 136-7;
    natl. conv. re-endorses, 212;
    again, 257;
    petit. to repeal wom. suff. in Calif, failed, 393;
    suff. campn. in Mo. and other States, 402-3;
    Shafroth Palmer Suff. Amend, called Natl. I. and R, 415, 451;
    Dem. party and Pres. Wilson in favor of, 417;
    on ratif. Fed. Suff. Amend, in Me; in Ohio, St. Sup. Ct. sustains;
      U. S. Sup. Ct. decides against, 652.

  International Council of Nurses of 9 nations endorses wom suff, 461.

  International Council of Women, forms wom. suff. com, xix; 25;
    estab. Standing Com. on Equal Rights, 127; 612.

  _International Suffrage News_, 530.

  International Woman Suffrage Alliance, vi;
    formed, xix;
    first conf. held in Washtn, 24;
    its duty, 30;
    intl. com. formed, 43;
    sends greeting to Natl. Assn, 203;
    Mrs. Catt's presiding, 247.
    See complete chapter on in Vol. VI.

  Iowa, Mrs. Catt discusses suff. campn, 485.

  Ivins, Mrs. William M, 40;
    furnishes Dr. Shaw's office, 276.


  J

  Jacobi, Dr. Mary Putnam, addresses suff. conv, 18; 296; 613.

  Jacobs, Pattie Ruffner, 366;
    answers Rep. Heflin, 395;
    elected to Natl. Bd. 456;
    at Senate hearing, shows attitude of southern women, proud of past
      but do not live in it; Fed. Suff. Amend, does not interfere with
      State's rights, 463;
    bef. House com. shows unjust laws for women in the South; members
      try to disprove, 472-3;
    report of extensive field work, 484; 506; 560-1; 610; 668-9; 717; 724.

  James, Ada L, 341.

  James, Prof. William, for wom. suff, 296.

  Janney, Dr. O. Edward, 35; 180.

  Janney, Mrs. O. Edward, 106; 664; 666.

  Jeffreys, Dr. Annice, 109.

  Jenks, Agnes M, 326;
    bef. Senate com, 466.

  Jenney, Julie R, 220.

  Jenney, Rev. Marie (Howe), 68-9; 73.

  Jewett, Cornelia Telford, 263.

  Jews, how enfranchised, 752.

  Johns, Laura M, 10;
    on Civil Rights, 19.

  Johnson, Addie M, 74.

  Johnson, Adelaide, makes bust of Miss Anthony, 201; 658.

  Johnson, U. S. Sen. Hiram W, 547.

  Johnson, Philena Everett, 254.

  Johnson, Dr. and Mrs. Rossiter, 391.

  Johnston, Dean Eva, 664.

  Johnston, Mary, 288; 297;
    addresses natl. suff. conv. in 1911, 321; 367.

  Johnston, Mrs. William A, 328;
    report of Kans. campn, 337;
    on Congressl. Com, 339;
    at Anthony celebr, 615.

  Jolliffe, Frances, 466;
    controversy with House com, 475.

  Jones, U. S. Sen. Andrieus A, speaks for wom. suff, 380;
    chmn. Senate Wom. Suff. Com, 523;
    makes favorable report, 524; 565; 627; 632-3; 638-9; 640; 642-3;
      645.

  Jones, Effie McCollum, 511.

  Jones, Dr. Harriet B, 135.

  Jones, Jenkin Lloyd, tribute to Miss Anthony, 203.

  Jones, U. S. Sen. Wesley L, 323; 383; 643.

  Jordan, Prof. Mary A, address at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, college
  women's tribute to suff. leaders, 168, 170.

  Jubilee Convention of National American Woman Suffrage Association in
    St. Louis, 551.

  Julian, U. S. Rep. George W. (Ind.), offers first res. for Fed. Wom.
    Suff, 621.

  Juries, women on, Dr. Shaw's idea, 75;
    ex-Senator Bailey's idea, 587.

  Jury service for women, iv.

  _Jus Suffragii_, _offic._ organ, Intl. Wom. Suff. Alliance, 205; 288.


  K

  Kauffman, Reginald Wright, 340.

  Kearney, Belle, on the South's Need of Woman Suffrage, 82; 319.

  Keating, U. S. Rep. Edward (Colo.), introd. Fed. Amend, and res. for
    Wom. Suff. Com, 1917, 524; 548.

  Keble, Dean John Bell, 408.

  Keil, Mayor Henry W. (St. Louis), 553.

  Keith, William, picture for suff. bazaar, 13;
    memorial, 328.

  Keller, Dr. Amelia, 669.

  Kelley, Florence, on labor laws for women and children, 95;
    comment on editors, 132;
    speaks on child labor, 141;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 145;
    gives facts on child labor, 164;
    presides at hearing, speaks of work for wom. suff. by her father,
      William D. Kelley, asks for Fed. Suff. Amend, 188, 190-1;
    shows need of Munic. suff. for women, 195, 197; 204;
    on the social evil, 225;
    describes struggle of Consumer's League for working women in New
      York, 230; 233-4; 244;
    Ore. decision on woman's work-day, 254; 260; 262; 265;
    declines re-election, 282; 286;
    presides at Judic. Com. hearing, discusses conflicting court
      decisions on labor laws for women, gives tragic instances, need of
      vote; women's war service, 300-308.

  Kelley, William D, 190;
    work in Cong. for wom. suff, 306.

  Kelly, U. S. Rep. M. Clyde (Penn.), 548.

  Kendall, Dr. Sarah A, 133, 264.

  Kendrick, Gov. John B, addresses Council of Women Voters, 484;
    as U. S. Senator bef. Senate Com. tribute to wom. suff. in Wyo.;
    endorsement of Fed. Amend, 546; 633.

  Kennedy, Julian, 340.

  Kent, Carrie E, 71;
    welcomes natl. suff. conv, 86.

  Kent, Mrs. William, report for Congressl. Com, 1912, 339;
    speaks of wom. suff. in Calif, 358;
    Congressl. Com. work, 377; 382; 394;
    urges House Judic. Com. to spare women drudgery of St. campns, 433;
      585; 675.

  Kern, Chairman Democratic National Convention John W, 707.

  Ketcham, Emily B, 204.

  Kilbreth, Mary, 679.

  Kimber, Helen, 93.

  King, Dr. Cora Smith, bef. House Judic. Com, 432;
    see Eaton.

  King, U. S. Sen. William H, 645.

  Kingsley, Charles, 137.

  Kirby, U. S. Sen. William F, speaks for Fed. Amend, 645.

  Kitchin, U. S. Rep. Claude (N. C.), 584.

  Knowland, U. S. Rep. Joseph R, praises wom. suff. in Calif, 433.

  Knowles, Antoinette, 162.

  Knox, U. S. Sen. Philander Chase, 516.

  Kramers, Martina G. (Holland), 341.

  Krebs, Abbie A, 710.

  Krog, Gina (Norway), letter to intl. conf, 27.


  L.

  Labor,
    93 unions endorse wom. suff. in 1907, 218;
    St. Fedn. for it in Wash, 257;
    organizations demand it, 281.
    See American Federation of Labor.

  _Ladies' Home Journal_,
    prints attacks on women's clubs and wom. suff, 131;
    refuses to allow answers, 163; 175;
    Barry's article on Colo, 314;
    tries to find "antis" in Colo, 393.

  Lafferty, U. S. Rep. A. W. (Ore.), urges Fed. Suff. Amend, 357.

  La Follette, Fola, 326.

  La Follette, U. S. Sen. Robert M,
    presents Fed. Amend. petition, natl suff. conv. thanks, 275;
    Mrs. La Follette, 324;
    Sen. and Mrs. receive delegates to natl. suff. conv, many in
      official life present, 382;
    Senator asks wom. suff. plank in natl. platform, 705.

  Laidlaw, James Lees,
    presides at Men's Night, natl. suff. conv, 1912, 340;
    at Senate hearing, expediency of wom. suff, 349;
    presides Men's League, 1913, 377;
    says anti-suffs. distrust democracy, 393;
    presides, 1914, 407;
    holds Dr. Shaw's annuity fund, 458;
    pres. Natl. Men's Suff. League, 674.

  Laidlaw, Mrs. James Lees,
    at natl. suff. conv, 1910, 290;
    elected natl. auditor, 324;
    responds to conv. greetings, 334;
    speaks at Senate hearing, 347;
    assists in ovation to Dr. Shaw, 457;
    presents war service flag, 517; 519;
    women's war work in N. Y, 533; 541;
    at mem. service for Dr. Shaw, 611.

  Lamar, Mrs. Joseph R, 726.

  Lambson, Nellie H, 120.

  Lane, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K.
    with Mrs. Lane, 382;
    on suff. platform, brings good will of Pres. Wilson to natl. conv.
    and expresses his own belief in wom. suff, 520;
    tribute to Dr. Shaw, 760.

  Lane, Mrs. Franklin K, 515.

  Langhorne, Orra, 146.

  Langston, J. Luther, 288.

  Lansing, Secretary of State Robert, opp. to wom. suff, 515; 708.

  Lansing, Mrs. Robert, opp. to wom. suff, 515.

  Larch-Miller, Aloysius, 607.

  Lathrop, Julia,
    great speech at natl. suff. conv;
      woman suff. inevitable step in march of society;
      not a mad revolution;
      working women's is not the ignorant vote;
      women must vote to protect the family, 343-345;
    asks wom. suff. for welfare of mother and child, 496, 499;
    on recep. com. for natl. conv, 515;
    speaks for ratif. of Fed. Amend, 606;
    works for it, 650;
    on child labor, 686;
    report of Child Welfare Dept. during the war, 730.

  Laughlin, Gail,
    on The Industrial Laggard, 19; 37; 42;
    addresses Senate Com, 47;
    praised, asks square deal for women, at natl. conv. of 1905, 139.

  Lawther, Anna B, 559; 568.

  Lea, U. S. Sen. Luke,
    addresses natl. suff. conv, 1914, gives reasons for voting for Fed.
     Suff. Amend; results in equal suff. States irrefutable argument;
     scores "anti" women, 408; 627.

  League of Nations,
    Natl. Suff. Assn. sends dele. to congresses, 557;
    assn. favors, 575;
    Dr. Shaw makes speaking tour for it with former Pres. Taft and Pres.
      Lowell, 739-40.

  League to Enforce Peace,
    memorial to Dr. Shaw, 607;
    Dr. Shaw, mem. exec. com, speaks for, 758.

  League of Women Voters,
    National, vi;
    originated by Mrs. Catt, 541;
    Call for, 552;
    Mrs. Catt urges orgztn, shows necessity;
      dominating feature of natl. suff. conv. in 1919, 553-4;
    Natl. Assn. refuses to merge till Fed. Amend. is secured, 561;
    name decided on, constitn. adopted, Mrs. Catt outlines aims, 570;
    Natl. Exec. Council recommends;
      $20,000 appropriated, 574;
    formal orgztn, objects agreed upon, 576;
    Call to first cong, 1919, 594;
    lion's share of natl. suff. conv, 595;
    Mrs. Shuler writes chapter on, 595;
    Pres. Wilson sends best wishes, 599;
    org. as independent society, auxiliaries of Natl. Assn. to join,
      601;
    chairmen make western tour for ratif. of Fed. Amend, 606;
    large fund raised, 609;
    org. in States, 614;
    orgztn. perfected, 617;
    points of Mrs. Catt's address at orgztn. in 1919, its object and
      plan of work, 683-4;
    Dr. Shaw favors, 685;
    officers, duties, eight depts, 685;
      each discussed, 686;
    plans adopted by board of Natl. Suff. Assn, chairmen elected, 687;
    permanent orgztn. at natl. suff. conv. in Chicago in 1920, 668;
    its cong. opens, officers elected, 689;
    schools for citizenship arranged, 690;
    purposes of league, 691;
    censures U. S. Sen. Wadsworth, 692;
    confs. and dinners, program of work, resolutions adopted, improved
      legislation for women demanded; Cong. notified of action, 692-695;
    program presented to natl. polit. convs. and Pres. candidates,
      699-701;
    it forms large Congressl. Com, 701;
    takes place of Natl. Suff. Assn. in the Intl. Alliance, 756.
    See Chapter XXII for full account.

  Leckenby, Ellen S, 264.

  Legislatures, special sessions for ratifying Fed. Suff. Amend, xxiii.

  Leighty, Mrs. John R, 670.

  Lenroot, U. S. Sen. Irvine L, moves to report res. for Wom. Suff. Com,
    397; 548; 628; 645.

  Leonard, Gertrude Halliday, 444.

  Leser, Judge Oscar,
    opp. Fed. Suff. Amend, bef. Senate Com; 548,
    brings suit to test, 654;
    same, 682.

  Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education,
    reports of depts, 527-531;
    founded by Mrs. Catt with bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie, 614.

  Leslie, Mrs. Frank,
    legacy for wom. suff, iv, xxii; 527; 614;
    great bequest to Mrs. Catt for wom. suff, terms of will, 755.

  Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission,
    organizes bureau of research, iv;
    its work, 527;
    contrib. to Natl. Assn, 542-558;
    sends out travelling suff. libraries, 557;
    assists League of Women Voters, 698;
    incorporated, headqrs. in New York, 754-5;
    Mrs. Catt's report, 756.

  Leupp, Constance, 395.

  Lewis and Clark Exposition,
    entertains natl. suff. conv, 117;
    woman's day, recep. to Miss Anthony and the conv, 132-3.

  Lewis, Mrs. George Howard,
    entertains officers of Natl. and State Suff. Assns. and Coll.
      League, 1908, 230;
    presents $10,000 to Natl. Assn. in memory of Miss Anthony, 236;
    conv. sends greetings, 1910, 288;
    contrib. to assn, 315;
    presents res. that natl. officers must be non-partisan, 342;
    at Dr. Shaw's right hand when she resigns, contrib. salary of her
      secy, 457-8;
    tribute to Dr. Shaw and contrib. to memorial fund, 613.

  Lewis, Mrs. Lawrence, 366; 454; 675; 707.

  Lexow, Caroline, 208; 212;
    speaks on coll. wom. eve, 227; 229; 233; 255; 283; 661.

  Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, 167;
    Miss Anthony on "college women's evening" at Balto. conv, 173;
    Miss Garrett's recep, 182;
    large fund for suff. work, 183;
    gives birthday money to Ore. campn, 184;
    account of last birthday, 191;
    accounts of death and funeral services, 204; 205; 218; 249; 335;
      359;
    account of Mrs. Stanton's death, 742;
    of Miss Anthony's effort for co-education in Roch. Univ, 744.

  Lindsey, Judge Ben, visits Roosevelt to urge wom. suff. in Prog.
    Party platform, 706.

  Lindsey, Louise, gavel to Dr. Shaw, 398.

  Lindsey, Mrs. W. E, 517.

  Liquor interests,
    hostility to wom. suff, xviii;
    power ends, xxiii; 166; 206; 211;
    power in politics, at bottom of opp. to wom. suff, 234;
    fight on wom. suff. in Ore, 247;
    work against in Ky, 388;
    in Neb, S. Dak. and Mont, 420-1;
    in Mich, 474;
    work in Iowa, 486;
    alliance with women "antis", 486;
    opp. even Pres. suff. for women, 539.

  Littlefield. Paul, of Men's Anti-Suff. Com. (Penn.), 479.

  Littleford, Hon. William, pres. Ohio Men's League, 670.

  Littleton, U. S. Rep. Martin W. (N. Y.),
    at Congressl. hearing, 361;
    allies wom. suff. with Socialism, 362.

  Livermore, Mrs. Arthur L,
    report for Literature Com, 1916, 493;
    same, 1917, over 1,000,000 copies of pamphlets, speeches, etc,
      distributed, 532;
    directs suff. school, 539; 541; 556; 559; 561; 573; 756.

  Livermore, Mary A, letter to natl. suff. conv, 13;
    memorial res. of Natl. Assn, 146;
    Mrs. Howe's tribute to, 155.

  Livingston, Deborah Knox, speaks at natl. suff. conv, 511;
    report on Maine campn, 520.

  Lobby, for Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, 635.

  Locke, Leon, 408.

  Lockwood, Belva A, 657.

  Lodge, U. S. Sen. Henry Cabot,
    anti-Fed. Suff. Amend. res, 639; 703;
    opp. wom. suff. plank in Repub. platform, 1916, 711.

  Loines, Hilda,
    report as chmn. of assn's Food Production Com, 560; 730;
    report on Women's Land Army during the war, 731.

  Long, ex-Secy, of Navy John D,
    on Suff. Advisory Com, 258;
    vice-pres. Men's Suff. League, 674.

  Long, Dr. Margaret, treas. Natl. Coll. Women's League, 229; 661.

  Longshore, Dr. Hannah, 73; 334.

  Loomis, Rev. Alice Ball, 18; 20.

  Lord. Mrs. M. B, 247.

  Lord, Rev. William R, 340.

  Lorimer, Rev. George C, 146.

  Louisville, Ky, entertains natl. suff. conv. in 1911, 310.

  Lovejoy, Dr. Owen R, shows need of wom. suff. in the cause of child
    labor, 496, 500.

  Low, Seth, ignores women, 38.

  Lowe, Caroline A, 327;
    speaks at hearing for 7,000,000 working women, denial of ballot
    greatest injustice, 350.

  Lowell, Pres. A. Lawrence, Dr. Shaw joins on speaking tour for
    League of Nations, 740; 757.

  Lowell, Josephine Shaw, 180; for wom. suff, 296.

  Lowell, Judge Stephen R, 138.

  Ludington, Katharine,
    at natl. suff. conv, 568;
    work in Conn, 602; 689.

  Luscomb, Florence, 326.


  M.

  Mack, Judge Julian, 372.

  Mackay, Mrs. Clarence, on Advisory Com, 258.

  McAdoo, Secy, of the Treasury William G,
    for Fed. Suff. Amend, 590;
    on suff. platform, 724;
    restores 8-hour day to women, 729.

  McAdoo, Mrs. William G,
    on recep. com. for suff. conv, 515;
    speaks at conv. on Liberty Loan, 533.

  McAfee, Effie L. D, 666.

  McAneny, Mrs. George, 613.

  McArthur, U. S. Rep. C. N. (Ore.), 549.

  McCall, Sarah J, bequest to Natl. Suff. Assn, 407.

  McClintock, Mary Ann, calls first Wom. Rights Conv, 219.

  McClung, Nellie,
    tells of Canadian women's war work and how it brought suffrage,
      544;
    in Minn, 669.

  McClure, S. S. and T. C, for wom. suff, 296.

  McCormack, Mrs. James M, 494.

  McCormick, Mrs. Cyrus H, 542.

  McCormick, Katharine Dexter, 286;
    appt. to natl. board, address on broadening effects of suff. work,
      324;
    sends gift of suff. literature to many States, 336;
    pays Natl. Assn's deficit of $6,000 on _Woman's Journal_, 337;
    treas. report for 1913, 372; 419;
    elected vice-pres, 425;
    organizes Volunteer Suff. League, 442; 454;
    re-elected, 456; 484;
    unique evening program, 488; 527;
    re-elected, 541;
    contrib. to Natl. Assn, 542;
    on Wom. Com. of Natl. Defense, 555;
    chmn. assn's War Service Dept, presides at meeting, 560;
    refutes slanders of "antis", 560;
    assists Congressl. Com, 567;
    address at natl. conv, 597;
    moves res. of gratitude to Pres. Wilson, 600; 608; 615;
    writes chapter on war work of suffs. for History, 720; 724; 726-7;
      730; 737.

  McCormick, Mrs. Medill,
    work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370;
    offers res. to ask Pres. Wilson for interview on wom. suff. and is
      on com, 374;
    chmn. Natl. Congressl. Com, 381;
    valuable service, estab. Woman's Independence Day, 404; 411;
    report of Congressl. Com's. work for Fed. Suff. Amend;
      reasons for introd. Shafroth Amend, and defense of it, 411-416,
      418;
    report for Campn. Com, 418;
    her com. assists Neb, 420;
    re-apptd. chmn, 424;
    elected natl. auditor;
      produces play, Your Girl and Mine, 425;
    contrib. to publicity work, 426;
    bef. House Judic. Com, 427;
    shows difference between Natl. Suff. Assn. and Congressl. Union,
      434;
    presides at conf, 444; 450;
    report as chmn. Congressl. Com, 452; 454;
    report to Senate com, 465;
    suff. work in Ills, 483;
    resigns as chmn. Congressl. Com, 506;
    moves for com. to confer with Red Cross War Council, is herself
      appt, 540; 567; 627; 629;
    sponsor for Shafroth Palmer Amend, 747-8.

  McCormick, Vance, for Fed. Suff. Amend, 638.

  McCracken, Elizabeth, 114-15; 391.

  McCulloch, Catharine Waugh, 17; on legal privileges of women, 70;
    legal adviser to Natl. Assn, 107;
    conducts protest against bill admitting new Territories with women
      classed with insane, idiots and felons, 129;
    legislative work, 262;
    mem. tributes to Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Garrison, 278;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 282-3;
    report as legal adviser, rising vote of thanks, 286; 289;
    at Senate hearing as justice of the peace, shows professional
      women's demand for the vote, 292;
    pays tribute to "family of Clay," tells of new chivalry, 312; 314;
      324;
    report on mother's equal guardianship, 327;
    early work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370;
    presides at hearing bef. Com. on Rules, 392; 394;
    offers res. of non-partisanship, 490;
    on limited suff, 495;
    on tour for ratif, 606;
    works for Fed. Suff. Amend, 650;
    org. Miss. Valley Conf, 667;
    on Legal Status of Women, 686, 690, 697;
    at Repub. Natl. Conv, 703;
    objects to Shafroth Palmer Amend, 747;
    helps revise constn. of Natl. Suff. Assn, 756.

  McDowell, Mary E, on The Workingwomen as a Natl. Asset, tribute to
     Miss Anthony and suffs, 209-10;
    ballot will give wage-earning women new status in industry, 356-7; 690.

  McDowell, R. A, 408.

  McFarland, Henry B. F, 24; 515.

  McGehee, Mrs. Edward, 400.

  McIvor, Mrs. Campbell (Canada), 334; 501.

  McKeller, U. S. Sen. Kenneth, invites natl. suff. conv. to
    Chattanooga, 382; 643.

  McKinley, Pres. William, for wom. suff. when a youth, 133.

  McKinley, Mrs. William, gives doll for suff. bazaar, 13.

  McLaren, Priscilla Bright, 31.

  McLean, Frances W, 229.

  McNaughton, Dr. Clara W, 435; 658.

  Macy, Mrs. V. Everit, 542.

  Maddox, Etta, obtains admis. of women to the bar in Md, 42; 98; 179.

  Mahoney, Nonie, 541.

  Malone, Collector of the Port Dudley Field, on natl. suff. platform,
    plea for wom. suff, says women would vote for "preparedness," Mrs.
    Catt and Dr. Shaw object, 459-60;
    bef. Senate com, 548.

  Manila, natl. suff. assn. protests against "regulated" vice in, 10.

  Mann, U. S. Rep. James R. (Ills.), votes for Fed. Amend, 637; chmn.
    Com. on Wom. Suff, 644.

  Mann, Mrs. James R, 515.

  Manning, Rev. William P, 682.

  Mansfeldt, Lieut. Col. W. A. E. (Holland), 674.

  Maps, difficulty with suff. maps, 532.

  Marbury, William L, brings suit to test Fed. Suff. Amend, 654;
    same, 682.

  Marshall, Vice-pres. Thomas R, 646;
    tribute to Dr. Shaw, 760.

  Martha Washington Hotel, 258.

  Martin, Anne, tells natl. conv. of successful suff. campn. in Nev,
    401;
    work in Nev, 421; 425; 454;
    presides at Senate hearing of Congressl. Union, 466;
    same, 547; 549;
    at last suff. hearing, 585; 675;
    chmn. Natl. Wom. Party, 676;
    at natl. Repub. conv, 710.

  Martin, U. S. Sen. Thomas S, unfairness in Dem. caucus on Fed. Suff.
    Amend, 565;
    same, 642.

  Marvel, Lulu H, natl. suff. conv. thanks, 501.

  Mathews, Dean Lois K. (Wis. Univ.), 664.

  Matthews, J. N, opp. wom. suff, 437.

  Matthews, Prof. Shailer, for wom. suff, 296.

  Maud, Queen of Norway, 247.

  Mead, Edwin D, 674.

  Mead, Lucia Ames, pleads for world orgztn. for peace, 97; 105; 133;
    work for peace, 138;
    same, 176;
    responsibility of U. S. for Peace and Arbitration, 187;
    all classes of women need the suffrage, 189; 210;
    report on Peace conferences; Amer. School Peace League, 240;
    urges Natl. Suff. Assn. to work for peace, 253; 289;
    tells of great peace funds and endowments and "Pres. Taft's noble
      efforts to secure treaties," 326; 338.

  Meehan, Mrs. S. D, 395.

  Meeker, U. S. Rep. Jacob E. (Mo.), 516.

  Memorials, to pioneer suffs. at natl. conv, 1901, 16;
    to Miss Anthony, 201-2; 569; 615.

  Men's Leagues for Woman Suffrage, International and National, Mr.
    Blackwell's interest in, 278;
    in Calif, 288;
    from Calif. to Va, 311;
    in U. S, has an evening at natl. suff. conv. in 1912, 340;
    in 1913, 377;
    in 1914, 407;
    league formed in Tenn, 408;
    chapter on, 673.

  Meredith, Ellis, address on Menace of Podunk, 15;
    edits _Progress_, 35;
    on effect of wom. suff. in Colo, 101; 112; 585;
    improved election laws, 686;
    at Repub. Natl. Conv, 710.

  Merrick, Caroline E, 17;
    pioneer suff. of La, shares honors with Miss Anthony, 58; 80; 106;
    137; 191; 208.

  Merrick, Edwin, need of wom. suff, 80.

  Meyer, Heloise, elected to Natl. Bd, 501;
    in war service, 517; 526-7;
    retires from office, 541; 724.

  Michigan, gives women taxpayers a vote, 243;
    wom. suff. amend. defeated by fraud, 339;
    other reasons, 474;
    gives suff. to women, 550;
    Natl. Assn. assists campn, 557.

  Milholland, Inez, 326.

  "Militancy," in Gt. Brit, xv;
    Mrs. Snowden justifies, 237-8;
    Dr. Shaw and natl. suff. conv. sympathize, 238;
    Alice Paul's account, 280;
    Mrs. Pankhurst says women stood 8 hrs. at entrance of House of
    Commons; assault of police, 330-1.

  Miller, Alice Duer, Sisterhood of Women, 283; 502.

  Miller, Anne Fitzhugh, 188;
    tribute to Mr. Blackwell, 279.

  Miller, Caroline Hallowell, 33; 45; 180.

  Miller, Elizabeth Smith, 34; 60; 208; 288;
    memorial, 328.

  Miller, Florence Fenwick, at intl. conf. in Washtn, 31; 40-1;
    addresses House com. on official and polit. status of women in Gt.
      Brit, 52; 87.

  Miller, Mayor John F. (Seattle), wom. suff. record of Wash, 250.

  Miller, Mrs. John O, presents suff. flag from Penn. assn. to Natl,
    501;
    chmn. com. on Dr. Shaw's mem. fund, 613.

  Miller, Mrs. Walter McNab, tells of suff. petition in Mo, 402;
    elected to Natl. Bd, 425; 456;
    report of extensive field work, 483; 485; 516;
    reports for assn's war com. on Thrift, 520;
    work as chmn. of Congressl. Com;
    spoke 200 times in 15 States, wrote 3,000 letters, travelled
      13,000 miles;
    work at Washtn. headqrs, 526-7;
    welcomes natl. suff. conv. to St. Louis, 553;
    report on Food Conservation, 1918, 560;
    at Anthony celebr, 615; 724;
    work on Thrift Com, 727.

  Mills, Mrs. C. D. B, 559.

  Mills, Harriet May, addresses Senate com, 47;
    same, 110;
    speaks at natl. suff. conv, 187;
    same, 289;
    same, 382;
    on N. Y. campn, 518.

  Miner, Maude E, no danger in immoral women's vote, 233; 372.

  Minor, Judge Francis, urges women to vote under 14th Amend, 622;
    carries case to U. S. Sup. Ct, 623;
    wants Cong. to enable women to vote for its members, 657.

  Minor, Mrs. Francis, tries to vote under 14th Amend, 623.

  Mississippi Valley Conference, members opp. Shafroth Amend, 422;
    orgztn, great need of, valuable work, 667-671.

  Mitchell, John, 288.

  Mitchell, U. S. Sen. John A, 111.

  Mitchell, Mrs. Willis G, 519.

  Mondell, U. S. Rep. Frank W. (Wyo.), introd. Fed. Suff. Amend, 1910,
    300;
    testimony for equal suff. in Wyo, criticises Pres. Wilson for not
      referring to wom. suff. in message, calls for special suff. com,
      396;
    speaks for Amend. bef. House Judic. Com, 428; 449;
    natl. suff. conv. thanks for assistance, 450-1;
    introd. Fed. Amend, 1917, 524;
    speaks for Wom. Suff. Com, 548;
    speaks for Fed. Amend, 629;
    on Wom. Suff. Com, 634;
    majority leader, 644.

  Mondell, Mrs. Frank W, 396.

  Monroe, Lilla Day, 196.

  Montana, successful suff. campn, 401, 409;
    liquor interests and copper company opp. Wom. Suff. Amend, Miss
      Rankin's work, 421;
    Repub. and Dem. women's vote, 584;
    gives wom. suff, 625.

  Moore, Laura, 137; 204.

  Moore, Mrs. Philip North (Eva Perry), pays tribute to Miss Anthony
    and other suff. pioneers, 171; 540; 558; 726.

  Morawetz, Mrs. Victor, in N. Y. campn, 519.

  Morgan, Laura Puffer, 442; 430.

  Morgan, Mrs. Raymond B, 664.

  Morgan, Mrs. W. Y, 495; 517.

  Mormonism, attack on in anti-suff. speech, Sen. Sutherland protests;
    its part in wom, suff, 467-8.

  Morris, Esther, 34; 73.

  Morrisson, Mrs. James W, elected natl. rec. secy, 456;
    work for suff. parade in Chicago during Repub. Natl. Conv, tribute
      to Mrs. Medill McCormick, 482; 485; 501.

  Morton, Dr. Rosalie Slaughter, urges higher moral standard for men,
    224.

  Moses, U. S. Sen. George H, Roosevelt urges to vote for Fed. Amend,
    571.

  Moss, U. S. Rep. Hunter H. (W. Va.), votes for Fed. Suff. Amend, 631.

  Mosshart, Gertrude C, 528.

  Mott, Anna C, 74.

  Mott, Lucretia, 185; 219;
    "the inspired preacher," 333-4;
    reminis. of, 569;
    calls first Woman's Rights Conv, 618;
    at first one in Washtn, 621; 664.

  Mountford, Lydia von Finkelstein, 41.

  Moylan, Penn, home of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, 740.

  Munds, Frances W, 341.

  Municipal Suffrage, plan of work for, 10;
    Jane Addams shows women's need of, 178;
    campn. for, 194;
    Prof. Sophonisba Breckinridge urges; its value in New Orleans, 195;
    Anna E. Nicholas shows need of, 196;
    defeated in Chicago by charter conv, 195;
    Miss Addams tells of, 207;
    in Kans, 196;
    in New Orleans, 195-6;
    women's petitions for in Chicago, 392;
    granted in Tenn, 551;
    in Fla. and Atlanta, 602;
    in Vt, 632.

  Municipal Work, women's, in New York, 38;
    in Phila, 177.

  Murdock, U. S. Rep. Victor (Kans.), 377.

  Mussey, Ellen Spencer, 205.

  Myers, Dr. Annice Jeffreys, 134; 145; 147; 152; 204;
    memorial, 328.

  Myers, Jefferson, 109;
    pays tribute to Miss Anthony, her co-workers and their cause, 122.

  Mythen, Rev. James Grattan, 340.


  N

  Names, distinguished list on receiving com. for natl. suff. conv. of
    1915, 515;
    those in war service, 517.

  Nashville, entertains natl. suff. conv. of 1914 in Representatives'
    Hall, welcomed by Mayor Hilary Howse, 398.

  Nathan, Maud, 95;
    on the Wage Earner and the Ballot, 96; 110;
    on Women Warriors, 181; 559.

  National American Woman Suffrage Association, efforts for planks in
    natl. polit. convs, see Planks;
    work for Fed. Amend, xvii;
    orgztn. of two branches and their union, objects and work, 1, 2;
    its convs, Congressl. hearings, money raised, nation-wide efforts
      and their result, chapters I to XIX inclusive;
    list of officers, first page of each;
    business women's tribute, 21;
    calls intl. suff. conf, 24;
    conv. protests against "regulated" vice in Philippines, appts. com.
      to see Pres. Roosevelt, who declares against it and War Dept.
      stops it, 44;
    attacked on "race question" states its neutral position, 59;
    plan of work for 1903, 61;
    assists campns. in Ore, 147;
      S. Dak, 240;
      Okla, 252;
      Ariz, S. Dak, 253;
    passes res. of non-partisanship, 343;
    membership and petitions compared with anti-suff's, 392;
    permeated with new life in 1915, great accession of young women,
      441;
    repudiates Shafroth Palmer Amend; resolves to work only for
      original Fed. Amend, 452;
    coöperation with Congressl. Union found impossible, 454;
    elects Mrs. Catt pres, 455-6;
    ovation to Dr. Shaw, 457;
    demand for Fed. Amend, 460;
    work of 63 St. auxiliaries; attacks no party, 464;
    Dr. Shaw shows diff. bet. it and Congressl. Union, 471;
    debate at Atlantic City conv. on its future policy, 486;
    Dr. Shaw urges no change, 487;
    Mrs. Catt takes same view, 501;
    nation-wide plan of work, 510;
    Call for conv. of 1917 demands Fed. Amend. from Cong, 513;
    officers in war service, 517;
    Exec. Council pledges loyalty and service to Govt, 518, 527;
    decides to enter polit. campns, 542;
    celebrates 50th anniv, 551;
    no conv. in 1918;
    conf. of Exec. Council at Indpls; Call for natl. conv. in 1919;
      changed character of convs, 552;
    nation-wide work for Fed. Amend, 554-557;
    campns. against anti-suff. candidates for Cong, 557;
    gives $30,720 to suff. campns. in Mich, S. Dak. and Okla, 558;
    natl. conv. vetoes proposal to merge assn. in League of Women Voters
      till Fed. Amend. is secured, 561;
    Pioneers' evening, 569;
    recommendations of Natl. Exec. Council for 1919, 574;
    first organized body of women to offer services to Govt. for war;
    attitude toward peace, 578;
    Chicago entertains last natl. suff. conv. and first cong. of League
      of Women Voters, 594;
    Jubilee conv. to celebr. end of its work, 594;
    Exec. Council program for future action, 596;
    thanks Governors who called spec. sessions to ratify amend, 600;
    program adopted by conv. assn. shall "move toward dissolution," 600;
    auxiliaries will join League of Women Voters, 601;
    large assistance to southern States, 603;
    Mrs. Shuler's tribute to, 607;
    presents honor rolls to early workers, 616;
    meets with League of Women Voters, 617;
    assn. was formed for amending Fed. Constitn, 622;
    united with American Assn, 622;
    works against election of anti-suff. Senators, 641;
    assists League of Women Voters, 698;
    effort for wom. suff. planks in natl. polit. platforms, 702;
    calls on Res. Com. of Natl. Repub. Conv. in 1920 to secure final
      ratif. of Fed. Suff. Amend, 718;
    war service to Govt. during the war, 720 et seq;
    Pres. Wilson approves, 725;
    its officers and members on Woman's Com. of Council of Natl.
      Defense, 726;
    action on Shafroth Palmer Amend, in 1914 and 1915, 750;
    reasons for continuing after suff. was gained, new constitn. made,
      officers elected, principal object to remove legal and civil
       discriminations against women, present status, 755-757;
    Official Bd. issues Mem. for Dr. Shaw, 759.

  National Council of Women Voters, 42;
    res. for wom. suff. in 1909, 249;
    greetings to natl. suff. conv, 341;
    in Washtn, 379, 626.

  Nationality of wives, Miss Rankin's bill for, 521.

  National Junior Suffrage Corps, 405.

  National Press Bureau, reports, Mrs. Babcock, chmn, 1901, 14;
    1905, 131;
    1906, 163.
    Miss Hauser, chmn, 1907, 204;
    1908, 218;
    1909, 250.
    Mrs. Harper, chmn, 1910, 287.
    Miss Reilly, chmn, 1911, 315;
    1912, 336.
    Miss Byrns, chmn, 1913, 368;
    1914, 405.
    Mr. Hallinan, chmn, 1915, 482.
    Mr. Heaslip, chmn, 1916, 494.
    Mrs. McCormick, chmn, 1917, 527.
    Mrs. Harper, 528.
    Miss Young, chmn, 1918, 1919, 570;
    Mrs. Harper, 571.
    At Washtn. headqrs, Miss Shuler, chmn, 1918, 1919, 573.

  National Woman Suffrage Conventions, described in first 19 chapters;
    tribute to, 46;
    descrip. by _Woman's Journal_, 290.
    Changed character of, 552;
    see Conventions.

  National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co, organized, 372; 405; 481;
    report, 1917, over 10,000,000 pieces of suff. literature printed,
      532;
    1918, 6,000,000 pieces, 573;
    total, 50,000,000;
    see Ogden, Esther G.

  National Woman's Party, see Congressional Union.

  Nebraska, liquor interests in suff. campn, 420;
    Pres. and Munic. suff. declared legal and "male" left out of new
      constitn, 602.

  Negroes, "race question" injected at natl. suff. conv. in New Orleans,
    Official Board responds, 59;
    delegates address Phyllis Wheatley Club; its president gives flowers
      to Miss Anthony with touching words, 60;
    Dr. Shaw settles color questions, 75; 77; 80;
    Mrs. Catt says each State must decide, 83;
    Mrs. Terrill pleads for negroes, 105;
    Miss Anthony champions cause, 203;
    danger of vote in South discussed, 580;
    men enfranchised by Fed. Amend, 746;
    after Civil War, 751.

  Nelson, Pres. Frank (Minn. Coll.), 669.

  Nelson, U. S. Rep. John M. (Wis.), 709.

  Nelson, Julia B, 132.

  Nelson, U. S. Sen. Knute, 323.

  Nestor, Agnes, 726.

  Nevada, story of successful campn, 401.

  New Jersey, sends wom. suff. deputn. to Pres. Wilson, 379;
    fraudulent vote on wom. suff, 630.

  New Orleans, entertains natl. suff. conv, 55-6;
    delightful entertainment, 84.

  _News Letter_, published by Natl. Assn, 442.

  New York, gives suff. to women, xxiii;
    discriminates against women teachers, 294;
    adoption of State amend. decides suff. question, 517;
    natl. conv. devotes evening to victory, story of great campn.;
    cost $682,500, 518-19;
    women's war service, 533;
    statistics of vote on wom. suff. amend, 537;
    great value of, 634;
    Mrs. Catt describes campn, 753.

  Nicholes, Anna E, women's need of Munic. suff, 196.

  Nicholes, S. Grace, 408.

  Nicholson, Eliza J, ed. of _Picayune_, 58.

  Nightingale, Florence, for wom, suff, 461.

  Nixon, Frederick S, 180.

  Non Partisanship, natl. suff. conv. 1912, defeats res. for and then
    passes one, 342-3;
    Natl. Amer. Assn. opposed to holding party in power responsible for
      wom. suff, 412, 426;
    members of Congressl. Union give reasons for, Dems. object, 429-30;
    Natl. Suff. Assn. stands for non partisanship, 434; 461; 464; 471;
    reaffirmed at natl. conv, 1916, 490;
    at conv. 1919, 574.

  Northrop, Dr. Cyrus, 669.

  Norway, wom. suff. and women in office, 48.

  Nugent, James R, 713.


  O

  Obenchain, Lida Calvert, 328.

  Oberlin College, 220; 226; 255.

  O'Connor, Mrs. T. P, 326.

  Odenheimer, Cordelia R. P, Pres. Genl. Daughters of Confederacy, 515.

  Officers, women, effect of Fed. Suff. Amend, iv;
    in Norway, 48;
    in Australia, 91, 292.

  Ogden, Esther G, elected natl. vice-pres, 456;
    tells of Natl. Suff. Pub. Co. and little "golden flier," 481-2;
    reports for Natl. Suff. Pub. Co, 532; 541; 559; 573;
    final report of Natl. Suff. Pub. Co, 614; 716; 724.

  Ohio, effort to ratify Fed. Suff. Amend, 649; 652.

  Oklahoma, Natl. Assn. assists effort for wom. suff, 211;
    first suff. campn, 252, 277;
    second, 557;
    successful, 641.

  Olds, Emma S, 67; 107; 208.

  Oleson, Mrs. Peter, 610.

  Oliphant, Mrs. O. D, 391; 437; 477.

  Olmstead, Rev. Margaret T, 18; 20.

  Olsen, Justice Harry, 372.

  O'Neil, Mrs. David M, 668.

  Oregon, polit. leaders urge suff. campn; Natl. Assn. agrees to assist,
    147;
    Dr. Shaw points out responsibility of Ore. men and women, 149;
    assn. helps, 161;
    appeal for campn. funds at natl. suff. conv, 161;
    generous response, Miss Anthony gives her birthday money, 184;
    defeat of amend, 200;
    work of Natl. Assn, 211; 254;
    majority vote for amend, 1912, 332; 337.

  O'Reilly, Leonora, 334;
    bef. Senate Com; demand of working women for the ballot, 351.

  Organizations, large number endorse wom. suff, 1906, 162;
    none oppose, 205;
    in 1908, 218;
    in 1909, 249;
    in 1910, 281.

  Organizations of Women, efforts for better laws, iv.

  Organizers, 225 employed in 1917, instructed by Mrs. Catt, work done,
    539;
    in 1918, work in 20 States, 556-7;
    list of in 1919, Mrs. Shuler praises, 603.

  Osborn, Gov. Chase S. (Mich.), greets natl. suff. conv, 341.

  Osborne, Eliza Wright, 219; 288;
    memorial, 328.

  O'Shaughnessy, U. S. Rep. George F. (R. I.), 549.

  O'Sullivan, Mary Kenney, 174;
    asks suff. for working women, injustice of Govt, 189.

  Oversea Hospitals, Women's, Natl. Suff. Assn. maintains, 558; 568;
    574;
    Assn's. fund for, 608;
    final report, 613;
    report of Mrs. Tiffany and Mrs. Brown, its directors, at natl. conv.
      of 1919, valuable work in France, recognition by French Govt,
      732-735;
    financial report of Mrs. Rogers, natl. treas, 734.

  Owen, U. S. Sen. Robert L, natl. suff. conv. greets mother, 269;
    his powerful argument for wom. suff, 274; 323; 383; 501; 504; 627;
    709.

  Owens, Helen Brewster, 373.


  P

  Page, Mary Hutcheson, conf. on polit. work, 286.

  Palmer, Atty. Gen. A. Mitchell, 654.

  Palmer, Alice Freeman, 74;
    for wom. suff, 296.

  Palmer, Prof. George Herbert, 296.

  Palmer, U. S. Sen. Thomas W, bequest to Natl. Suff. Assn, 407.

  Pankhurst, Emmeline, advises U. S. suff. headqrs. to sell not give
    literature, 267;
    receives ovation at natl. suff. conv.;
    explains revolution of women in Gt. Brit, 330.

  Parades, begun in U. S, xx;
    in London, 233;
    in Gt. Brit, 237;
    with Fed. Amend, petit, in Washtn, 275;
    in New York and Washtn, 1913, 367;
    in Washtn. bef. inauguration, 378-9;
    in New York, 470;
    in Chicago during Repub. Natl. Conv, 482-3;
    "walkless parade," in St. Louis at Dem. Natl. Conv, 483;
    in Chicago, 484;
    of British women during the war, 534;
    in Washtn, 625;
    New York, 626;
    Washtn, 632;
    Men's Leagues march, 674;
    in Balto, 708;
    rainy day parade in Chicago in 1916, 710;
    the "walk-less" in St. Louis, 712.

  Park, Alice L, 249.

  Park, Maud Wood, natl. suff. conv, 1903, 83; 133; 148;
    at conv. in Balto, unselfishness of suff. leaders, duty of college
      women to assist their work, 168; 171;
    describes Coll. Wom. Suff. League, 226; 229;
    on Mass, campn, 409; 444;
    report for Congressl. Com, 1917, 523;
    presides at hearing bef. Rules Com, 549; 561;
    report as chmn. of Congressl. Com, 1919, 562-567;
    tribute to helpful Senators; names them, 566;
    praise for members of Congressl. Com, names them, 566;
    conv. gives rising vote of thanks and dele, speak words of praise,
      567-8;
    re-elected, 574;
    at last suff. hearing, 577;
    excellent speech, 590; 604; 632;
    Congressl. Com. report, 633;
    tribute to Pres. Wilson, 640;
    org. Coll. Wom. Suff. League, 660-1; 664;
    chmn. Natl. League of Women Voters, 689; 701;
    bef. Repub. Natl. Com, 717.

  Parker, Adella M, 255; 257; 264.

  Parker, U. S. Rep. Richard Wayne (N. J.), chmn. at suff. hearing, 300;
    compliments speakers, makes no report, 309.

  Parker, Dr. Valeria, on tour for ratif, 606; 650;
    on social hygiene, 686, 690, 696.

  Parsons, Elsie Clews, 661.

  Parsons, National Committeeman Herbert, 511.

  Parsons, Mary Ely, furnishes Dr. Shaw's office, 276.

  Patten, Dr. Simon N, 296.

  Patterson, Hannah J, report on Penn. campn, 409;
    on how to organize, 444; 450;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 456;
    natl. cor. secy's, report, 1916, 481; 485; 501; 503;
    tribute from chmn. Congressl. Com, 509;
    on Woman's Com. of Council of Natl. Defense, 726;
    receives distinguished service medal, 739.

  Patterson, U. S. Sen. Thomas M, addresses natl. suff. conv, 45.

  Patterson, Mrs. Thomas M, 74.

  Paul, Alice, tells of "militancy" in Gt. Brit, 280;
    chmn. Congressl. Com, 366;
    arranges for Pres. Wilson to receive wom. suff. deputation, 374;
    takes part in English "militant" movement, sent to prison; wants
      to start one in U. S. but idea frowned upon by Dr. Shaw, who
      appoints her chmn. Congressl. Com. to organize parade in Washtn.;
    shows much exec. ability; makes com. report to natl. conv, 377-381;
    forms Congressl. Union, is chmn.; Mrs. Catt makes inquiries, 379-80;
    Natl. Suff. Bd. will not permit her to act as chmn. of both and she
      is deposed from Congressl. Com.; remains head of Union, 381;
    has it fight Dem. party, 454-5;
    presides at hearing bef. House Com.; members attack her for trying
      to defeat Dems, who were friends of wom. suff; she defends this
      action, 474-5;
    asks chairman Webb what will be in Dem. platform, 476;
    heads Congressl. Com, 625;
    org. Congressl. Union, 675;
    reorganized as Natl. Woman's Party, 1917, Miss Paul chmn, 676;
      678-9.

  Peabody, George Foster, on wom. suff. platform, 340;
    holds Dr. Shaw's annuity fund, 458.

  Peace and Arbitration, Natl. Suff. Assn. favors, 67;
    Mrs. Mead and Mrs. Catt appeal for, 97-8;
    responsibility of U. S. for, 187;
    natl. suff. conv. endorses recommendation of Inter Parliamentary
      Union, 212; 240;
    Mrs. Mead calls on Natl. Amer. Suff. Assn. to assist educatl, work
      for it, 254;
    Pres. Taft's effort for treaties, 326; 328;
    natl. suff conv. in 1914 demands women should have a voice, commends
      Pres. Wilson's effort for peace, 426;
    assn's. attitude during the war, 578;
    Dr. Shaw's demand for world peace, 759.

  Peck, Prof. Mary Gray, elected natl headqrs. secy, 261;
    gives report of new headqrs, value of New York center, increased
      demand for literature, large sales, valuable suggestions, 267-9;
    on Congressl. Com, 319.

  Pendleton, Pres. Ellen F, 663.

  Penfield, Jean Nelson, 338;
    bef. Senate com, women's need of ballot in social service work, 352;
    on tour for ratif, 606; same, 650.

  Penfield, Perle, 253; 261.

  Penn, Hannah, only woman Governor, 334.

  Penn, William, Govt. free only when people make laws, 334.

  Pennybacker, Mrs. Percy V, report on Child Welfare, 560; 687; 690; 697.

  Penrose, U. S. Sen. Boies, refuses to see suff. dele, 516;
    opp. to suff. plank in Repub. natl. platform, 711.

  Perkins, Prof. Emma M, 212.

  Perkins, Mrs. Roger G, 494.

  Perkins, Mrs. S.M.C, 656.

  Petersen, Florence Bennett, 669-70.

  Petition of National American Suffrage Association for Federal
    Amendment, list of com, immense work, 258;
    report on vast work, Mrs. Catt's contrib. signatures of writers;
      automobile parade to Capitol to present; vote of thanks to
      members from natl. suff. conv, 1910;
    last petition, 274-5;
    distinguished signers, 300;
    in 1913, 368;
    200,000 names presented to Senate, 378;
    those of suffs. and "antis" compared, 392;
    first to Cong, for worn, suff, 619;
    first for 16th Amend, 623;
    great petition 1913, 626;
    for Wom. Suff. Com, 633;
    to senate for Fed. Amend, 638;
    initiative petit, of 38,000 in Mo, 402;
    98,000 Conn, women petit. Legis. for Pres. suff, 602;
    11,000 in Del. to U.S. Senate for Fed. Amend, 638;
    treatment of petitions in Mass, 188.

  Phelan, U. S. Sen. James D, 645.

  Philadelphia, municipal corruption, need of women's votes, 65, 72;
    ignoring of women's civic work, 177;
    entertains natl. suff. conv. of 1912, overflow meetings, 332;
    great rally in Independence Square, 333.

  Philippines, wom. suff. soc. formed, 561.

  Phillips, Elsie Cole, at Senate hearing;
    need of the ballot by wives and mothers of working classes;
    theirs not the ignorant vote, 348; 361.

  "Picketing," work of natl. Press Bureau to counteract;
    Mrs. Catt and Dr. Shaw condemn, editorials on, 529-30.

  Pierce, Charlotte, 16; 209;
    sole survivor of first Woman's Rights Convention, 333; 559;
    natl. conv. sends letter, 1920, 610.

  Pierce, Katherine, 685.

  Pierce, Rev. U. G. B, 459; 515.

  Pinchot, Gifford, shows nation's need of women's vote, 377.

  Pinchot, Mrs. Gifford, entertains Natl. Bd, 516;
    report on Industrial Protection of Women, 560; 731.

  Pinkham, Winona Osborne, 729.

  Pioneers, at natl. conv. '02, 31;
    suff. luncheon at natl. conv. in Chicago, 615.

  Pittman, U. S. Sen. Key, 713.

  Pitzer, Annie, 341.

  Planks, for Woman Suffrage, efforts to obtain in platforms of polit.
    parties; Repub. and Dem. endorse suff. in 1916 but not Fed. Amend.;
      efforts at State convs, 504-5;
    Natl. Assn's. effort to secure from natl. Pres. convs, in 1904, 702;
    in 1908, 703;
    in 1912, 704-8;
    in 1916, 509, 708;
    in 1920, 715.
    See Chapter XXIII.

  Plan of work, for 1901, 10;
    for 1906, 163;
    for 1909, 240;
    for 1917, 510.

  Platt, Margaret B, 247.

  Plummer, Mary R, 667.

  Podell, Nettie A, 286.

  Pohl, Dr. Esther Lovejoy, 133.

  Poindexter, U. S. Sen. Miles, 638.

  Poindexter, Mrs. Miles, 382.

  Polk, Gov. Joseph K. (Mo.), 668.

  Pollock, U. S. Sen. William P, speaks for Fed. Suff. Amend, 565, 642;
    copies of speech sent to southern States, 603;
    tries to obtain needed vote, 641; 647.

  Pomerene, U.S. Sen. Atlee, refuses to represent his State on Fed.
    Suff. Amend, 598.

  Pomeroy, U. S. Sen. S. C, offers first res. for Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend,
    in 1868, 621.

  Porritt, Annie G, Laws Affecting Women and Children, 494; 532.

  Portland, Ore, entertains natl. suff. conv, 117;
    Mrs. Duniway and others meet the delegates, cordial welcome from
    press and people, 119.

  Porto Rico, Natl. Assn. asks wom. suff. for, 11;
    suff. soc. formed, 561.

  Post, Louis F, on Ethics of Suffrage, 18; 20; 205; 212.

  Potter, Eva, 556.

  Potter, Prof. Frances Squire,
    Women and the Vote, speech on coll. women's eve, 228;
    at Spokane, 246;
    masterly speech on Coll. Women and Democracy, 255-6; 260;
    elected natl. cor. secy, 261; 265;
    sends letter of regret from Natl. Suff. Bd. to Pres. Taft, 272;
    address on The Making of Democracy, 274;
    natl. cor. secy's, report, conv. gives rising vote, declines
      re-election, 381-3;
    on Res. Com, 289; 290.

  Pou, U. S. Rep. Edward W. (N. C.),
    chmn. Rules Com, 524; 548; 628; 633;
    for Wom. Suff. Com, 634-5.

  Pound, L. Annice, 109.

  Poyntz, Juliet Stuart, 283.

  Pratt, Mayor N. S, welcomes suff. dele, to Spokane, 244.

  Presidential Conventions, treatment of wom. suff, see Chapter XXIII.

  Presidential Suffrage,
    natl. assn's. early work for, 2, 11;
    Mr. Blackwell's argument for, 12;
    right of Legis. to grant, 43;
    great value of, 62;
    Chief Justice Fuller's decision, 130;
    line of least resistance, 219;
    gained in Ills. and other States, power it gives women;
      first suggested by U. S. Sen. Hoar, 369-70;
    Ills. Sup. Ct. declares legality, 407;
    Natl. Exec. Council strongly endorses, 452;
    bills introduced in 1916, 495;
    Mrs. Catt declares grant by Legis. legal, 520;
    great "drive" for begun, 528;
    Natl. Assn. works for, victories gained, 539;
    great gains in 1918, 550-1;
    Mo. Legis. grants during natl. suff. conv;
      appeals to conv. from Iowa, Tenn. and Conn, to ask their Legis.
      for it, 559;
    98,000 women ask for in Conn, 602;
    granted in many States, 602, 632, 643;
    effect on personnel of Cong, 643.

  Price, Ellen H. E, welcomes natl. suff. conv. to Phila, 33-4; 666.

  Price, Lucy J, 391; 467; 476; 548; 585.

  Primary Suffrage,
    in Texas, 551;
    in Ark, 632;
    in Texas, 641.

  Prince of Wales, decorates Amer. woman doctor for war service, 735.
    See Finley.

  _Progress_,
    natl. suff. organ, begun, 35;
    wide circulation, 60;
    62,000 distrib, made a monthly, 162;
    changed to weekly, 205.

  Progressive Party,
    adopts worn, suff, xxi;
    women assist, 1912, 342;
    Natl. Conv. declares for Fed. Suff. Amend, 480;
    for worn, suff, 625;
    formed in Chicago, adopts worn, suff, women flock into it, 705-707;
    strong woman suffrage plank, 714.

  Prohibition, Federal Amendment adopted, xxiii;
    vote for compared with vote for Suff. Amend, 449;
    submitted by Cong;
      suffs. see State's rights advocates voting for it, 537.

  Prohibition Party,
    wom. suff. in platform, 206;
    women assist, 1912, 342;
    Natl. Conv. declares for Fed. Suff. Amend, 480;
    accepts League of Women Voters' planks, 700;
    always for wom, suff, 702; 714.

  Proxies, natl, suff. conv. 1912, abolishes their voting, 341.

  Publishing Company, Woman Suffrage; see Natl. Wom. Suff. Pub. Co.

  Pyle, Mrs. John L,
    work in S. Dak, 420-1;
    describes successful campn, 494; 570; 669;
    offers res. against U. S. Sen. Wadsworth in natl. suff. conv, 692.


  Q

  Queen Mary, cables Dr. Shaw thanks of British women to Woman's Com. of
    Council of Natl. Defense, 738.

  Queen Maud, of Norway, 247.


  R

  Race Problem,
    Natl. Suff. Assn. declares its neutral position, 59;
    Mrs. Catt says each State must decide it, 83;
    U. S. Sen. Borah's opinion, 413.
    See Negroes.

  Rainey, Mrs. Henry T, 382.

  Raker, U. S. Rep. John E. (Calif.),
    wom. suff. clean cut question of right, 356;
    demands Com. on Wom. Suff. in Lower House, 388;
    at hearing in 1916, 504-5;
    introd. Fed. Amend, and res. for Wom. Suff. Com, 1917, 524; 548;
    introd. new res. for Fed. Suff. Amend, 562;
    presides at hearing, 577;
    interviews Pres. Wilson, 583; 628;
    chmn. new Com. on Wom. Suff, 634-5-6;
    for Fed. Elections Bill, 658.

  Raker, Mrs. John E, 382.

  Rankin, Jeannette,
    report as field secy, 368;
    tells of Montana victory, 409;
    on Congressl. Com, 451;
    as U. S. Rep. addresses suff. conv, 520-1;
    tells of her bill for nationality of wives, 521;
    speaks at natl. suff. headqrs. in Washtn, 523;
    introd. Fed. Suff. Amend, 524;
    urges it at Senate hearing, 546; 548;
    grills anti-suff. speaker, 584;
    vote against war, 585;
    first wom. Representative, speaks at suff. headqrs. and escorted to
      Capitol, 632; 633;
    opens debate on Fed. Amend, 636.

  Ranlett, Helen, 368; 405.

  Ransdell, U. S. Sen. Joseph E,
    on Wom. Suff. Com, 383;
    votes for Fed. Amend, 627.

  Ratification of Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment,
    Mrs. Catt's plans and work for;
      sends representatives to Governors, 649-650;
    effort for spec, sessions of Legis, New York and Kans. lead;
      Mrs. Catt heads deputation to western States, 650;
    action of southern section;
      Conn, and Vt, 651;
    great fight in Tenn, Mrs. Catt leads, Pres. Wilson assists, 652;
    Maine and Ohio try referendum, U. S. Sup. Ct. decision, final
      victory, Amend, proclaimed, 652;
    Conn, then ratifies and later Vt, 653;
    appeals to courts, 653-655.
    See St. chapters in Vol. VI near end of each.
    Fight on by Men's Anti-Suff. Assn. in Conn, Md, W. Va, and Tenn,
      681-2.

  Ratifications of Federal Amendment, partial list, 606.

  Red Cross, 535;
    natl. suff. conv. asks that women be represented on its War Council;
      women do much of its work, plan of worn, nurses in army hospitals
      orig. with a woman and first military hospital was estab. by a
      woman; com. appointed to confer with Red Cross, 540;
    branch in natl. suff. headqrs, 567.

  Reed, U. S. Sen. James A, 638; 645.

  Reed, Speaker Thomas B, 73;
    for wom. suff. 236.

  Reid, Mrs. Ogden Mills, 519.

  Reilley, Mrs. Eugene, 490.

  Reilly, Caroline I, 249;
    report of Natl. Press Bureau for 1911; its work extends around
      the globe, 315;
    for 1912, 20 syndicates on list, 2,000 copies of press bulletin
      sent weekly to every State and many countries, spec, editions
      for papers prepared, 3,000 letters answered during year, 336; 604.

  Remsen, Pres. Ira, presides at coll. wom. suff. evening, in Balto,
    168;
    invites natl. suff. conv. to visit Johns Hopkins, 183.

  Reports on Federal Suffrage Amendment,
    Senate and House Coms, urged to report, 299, 303, 309;
    refuse, 1912, 363;
    from coms, of Cong, 624;
    favorable from Senate, 626, 633;
    few reports from House, 627;
    from House Com. on Rules, 628;
    from House Judic, 631;
    from House Wom. Suff. Com. 635.

  Republican National Committee refuses to give natl. suff. com. list of
    its candidates for Cong, 319;
    receives suff. speakers, 440;
    natl. suff. conv. thanks chmn. for help with Fed. Amend, 610;
    effort for amend, 636-638;
    Mrs. Catt thanks, 648;
    work for ratification, 651-2;
    in 1920 sends out appeal for it, 715.

  Republican National Conventions,
    one in 1916 declares for wom. suff, 480;
    refuses plank for Fed. Amend, but endorse wom. suff, 505;
    struggle over plank, 509-10;
    action on League of Women Voters' planks, 700;
    on wom. suff. planks in 1904, 702;
    in 1908, 703;
    in 1912, 704;
    great struggle in 1916, names of friends and foes, State's rights
      plank, 710-712;
    in 1920, Natl. Suff. Assn. demands ratif. of Fed. Amend, presents
      plank, Res. Com. evades, 716-17;
    women ask representation in party, partially conceded, 717.

  Republican Party,
    attitude toward wom. suff, xviii, xx;
    adopts plank, xxi;
    vote in Cong, xxii, xxiii;
    record on Fed. Suff. Amend, 430;
    why was it not held responsible, 434;
    record of members of Cong, on Fed. Suff. Amend, 474-5;
    vote of members of Cong, on Wom. Suff. Com, 525;
    vote of members of Cong, on Fed. Amend, 563, 565;
    members in Cong, responsible for delay of Amend, 598;
    promise Amend, 620;
    do not assist, 625;
    vote in Cong, on Fed. Amend, Senate, 624, 627;
    Lower House, 629, 636;
    Senate, 640, 642;
    House, 644;
    Senate, 646.
    See 647-8-9.
    Res. of Senators, 639;
    party makes first declaration for State's rights in wom. suff.
      plank, 1916, 711.

  Resolutions,
    adopted by natl. suff. conv. of 1901, 15;
    of 1902, 43;
    1903, 67;
    of 1904, 105;
    of 1905, 136, 145-6;
    of 1906, 179;
    of 1907, 212;
    of 1908, 240;
    of 1909, 257;
    of 1911, 328;
    of 1912, 339;
    of 1913, 373;
    of 1914, 425-6;
    of 1915, sacredness of home and marriage, 461;
    of 1916, 502;
    of 1917, loyalty and service to the Govt, 518;
    Cong. urged to submit Fed. Suff. Amend. as a War measure;
      rejoicing over many important victories;
      support for war measures of Govt;
      equal pay for equal work, 543;
    of 1919, 574-5;
    of 1920, 600-1.

  Resolutions for Woman Suffrage by various organizations, 128.

  Reynolds, Minnie J, work on natl. suff. petit, 258;
    secures writers' names, 275;
    gives eminent list at Senate hearing, 295-297.

  Rhees, Pres. Rush, speaks of Anthony Mem. Bldg, 744.

  Rhinelander, Rt. Rev. Philip Mercer, 343.

  Richards, Janet, 260, 264;
    bef. House Judic. Com, 434;
    on recep. com, 1917, 515.

  Richardson, A. Madely, 611.

  Richardson, Nell, 6,000 mile motor suff. trip, 481.

  Richardson, "Tom", welcomes natl. suff. conv. to New Orleans, 57.

  Ringrose, Mary E, 317.

  Riordan, U. S. Rep, Daniel J. (N. Y.), 548; 645.

  Roberts, Gov. Albert H,
    helps ratif. in Tenn, 652;
    Dem. Natl. Com. urges to call spec. session for ratif, 717.

  Robertson, Beatrice Forbes, 289.

  Robins, Raymond, 289; 511.

  Robins, Mrs. Raymond,
    pres. Natl. Wom. Trade Union League, on White Slave Traffic, 286;
    appeals for vote in name of the league, 302; 306;
    res. that suffs. support only candidates favoring Fed. Amend, stirs
      up Atlantic City conv, 489;
    asks ballot for women wage earners, 496, 499; 564; 570;
    chmn. Women in Industry Com, 686, 692.

  Robinson, State Sen. Helen Ring (Colo.), 366.

  Robinson, Margaret C, accused by Mrs. Catt of making false assertions
    against her during the war, 736.

  Rochester University, mem. bldg. for Miss Anthony, 200-1.

  Rodgers, Helen Z. M, 214.

  Roessing, Mrs. Frank M,
    tells of Penn. campn, 444; 450;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 456; 485; 501;
    appt. chmn. Congressl. Comm, 506;
    report of work, 503-511;
    aids Congressl. Com, 525; 566;
    work at Repub. Natl. Conv, 710.

  Rogers, Mrs. Henry Wade,
    elected natl. treas, 425;
    report, large receipts, 441;
    re-elected, 456;
    report for 1916, receipts, $81,869;
      obligations to "finance com. of fifty," 482-3;
    report as chmn. for war com. on Food Production, 520;
    re-elected, treas. report for 1917, comparison with early days,
      541; 555;
    report for 1918, receipts, $107,736;
      Oversea Hospitals' fund, $133,339, 558;
    report, receipts from 1914 to 1920;
      with Oversea Hospitals' fund, $612,000, 608;
    seven years of gratuitous service, 609;
    at Repub. Natl. Conv, 716; 724;
    report of funds for Women's Oversea Hospitals during the war, 734.

  Rogers, Mrs. John, 395.

  Roosevelt, Alice, greets Miss Anthony, 88.

  Roosevelt, President Theodore, xxi;
    invites Miss Anthony to White House, 88;
    receives natl. suff. conv, 99;
    it asks him to recommend Fed. Suff. Amend, 126;
    Miss Anthony presents list of requests, all ignored, 137;
    birthday letter to Miss Anthony, 191;
    suff. com. interviews, he says a petition would have no effect on
      him, 217; 222;
    says people have a right to change Natl. Constitn, 359;
    speaks for wom. suff, in Metrop. Opera House, New York, 367;
    urges U. S. Sen. Moses to vote for Fed. Suff. Amend, 571;
    favors Amend, 579;
    favors wom. suff. plank in Progressive platform, 625;
    speaks for it, 626;
    urges Fed. Suff. Amend, 634, 636;
    at Natl. Repub. Conv, 1912, 705;
    forms Progressive Party; its res. com. substitutes another for his
      wom. suff. plank, 706;
    he accepts and speaks for it, 707;
    while Pres, he refused all appeals, 706.

  Roosevelt, Jr, Mrs. Theodore, 442.

  Root, Mrs. Elihu, advises Pres. Taft not to welcome natl. suff. conv,
    269.

  Root, Martha S, 106; 146.

  Rowe, Charlotte, amazing "anti" speech, 592.

  Rucker, U. S. Rep. A. W,
    speaks for Colo, at suff. conv, 269;
    introd. Fed. Suff. Amend, 300;
    women's vote in Colo, 308; 354.

  Rumely, Edward A, 548.

  Russia,
    loyal to U. S, 28;
    legal and polit. status of women, 50; 213.

  Ruutz-Rees, Caroline, 372;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 373;
    org. Junior Suff. Corps, 405;
    chmn. Com. on Literature, compiles some of Dr. Shaw's speeches, 447;
    bef. Senate com, 464;
    bef. House com, 472;
    at mem. service for Dr. Shaw, 611.

  Ryan, Agnes E, 315; 380.

  Ryerson, Mrs. Arthur, 542.

  Ryshpan, Bertha, 286.


  S

  Sacajawea, statue dedicated, 132.

  Safford, Rev. Mary A, 98; 541; 553.

  Sage, Mrs. Russell, contributions to suff. work, 183, 191.

  St. Louis, entertains Jubilee Conv. of Natl. Suff. Assn, 552;
    report fills 322 pages.

  Salmon, Prof. Lucy M, college women's debt to suff. pioneers, address
    at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 168-9; 663.

  Sanders, M. J, shows need of wom. suff, 70.

  Sanford, Prof. Maria L, 617; 669.

  Sargent, U. S. Sen. A. A, first to present Fed. Wom. Suff. Amend, 623.

  Sargent, Ellen Clark (Mrs. A. A.), 137;
    entertains suff. leaders, 150; 180; 208;
    memorial, 328.

  Sargent, Mrs. James, 204.

  Savage, Bessie J, 264.

  Savage, Clara, 442.

  Schall, U. S. Rep. Thomas D. (Minn.), 548.

  Schauss, Elizabeth, shows working women's need of suff, 302.

  Schneiderman, Rose, 286;
    no chivalry to working women, 409; 519.

  Schoff, Mrs. Frederick, 135.

  Schools for citizenship, under League of Women Voters, 688, 690,
    698-9.

  Schwimmer, Rosika (Hungary),
    brings petition for peace to Pres. Wilson and says wom. suff.
      would do away with war, 410;
    at Miss. Valley Conf, 669.

  Scott, Mrs. Francis M, 679.

  Scott, Prof. John A, invites suff. conv. to visit Northwestern Univ,
    208.

  Scott, Mrs. Townsend, 585.

  Scott, Mrs. William Force, 391.

  Seattle, entertains natl. suff. conv. of 1909, 243;
    receives vote of thanks, 257.

  Semple, Patty Blackburn, tells of "indirect influence," 312.

  Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage, 380;
    grants six hearings in 1913, names of com, 382-3.

  Seneca Falls, has first Woman's Rights Conv, 213; 618.

  Seton, Ernest Thompson, for wom. suff, 297.

  Seton, Mrs. Ernest Thompson, 319;
    report of Art Publicity Com, 403; 442;
    arr. display of suff. posters, 532.

  Severance, Caroline M, pioneer suff, 137; 208; 288.

  Sewall, May Wright, 24;
    speaks for Peace and Arbitration, 67;
    for memorial bust of Miss Anthony, 201-2;
    founder Intl. Council of Women, 658.

  Sexton, Minola Graham, 94.

  Shafroth, U. S. Sen. John F,
    addresses natl. suff. conv, 45;
    answers Pres. Cleveland's anti-suff. article, 163;
    bef. Senate com. in 1910, men have usurped suff. rights, 297-8;
    arr. hearing for Dr. Shaw bef. House of Governors, 314;
    introd. Shafroth Suff. Amend, 415;
    answers misrepresentations on wom. suff. in Colo, 444;
    natl. suff. conv. thanks for assistance, 450;
    on suff. platform, 459;
    has conf. of Senators on wom, suff, 503;
    700,000 copies Amend, speech circulated, 532;
    Mrs. Catt introd. to Senate com. as an "unfailing friend" of wom.
      suff; he declares it to be "simply another step in the evolution
      of govt," 545;
    tribute of chmn. Congressl. Com, 566; 571;
    speech for Fed. Suff. Amend, 633; 648.

  Shafroth-Palmer National Woman Suffrage Amendment,
    full story of, 411-418, 422-424, 427;
    drawn up and submitted to lawyers and Senators, introd. by Sen.
      Shafroth and Rep. Palmer, 414-416;
    Official Bd. approves it, text of, 416;
    its merits presented to conv. by Mrs. Funk; refers to at hearing
    bef. Judic. Com; U. S. Sen. Bristow calls it a national
    initiative and referendum; _Woman's Journal_ says it should have
    been submitted to Natl. Exec. Council, 416-418;
    strong protest at Miss. Valley Conf, 422;
    great dissatisfaction among suffs;
      Official Bd. stands by it;
      discussion at natl. conv;
      Miss Blackwell supports it, 422-3;
    will hasten day of Fed. Amend, 423;
    Mrs. Blatch objects, res. adopted, 423;
    effect on election of officers, 424;
    Mrs. Funk calls it natl. initiative; Congressl. Com. works for, 451;
    natl. suff. conv. 1915, rescinds last year's action; passes res.
      that Natl. Amer. Assn. will work only for old Fed. Amend; Dr. Shaw
      explains her action; end of Amend, 452-3;
    letters on it in _Woman's Journal_, 747-750.

  Shaw, Dr. Anna Howard,
    at natl. conv. in 1901, would rather starve than give up wom. suff,
      7;
    on chivalry, scores "antis," 8;
    appeal against "regulated" vice, 11; 12; 20;
    welcomes intl. suff. conf, 26;
    at Balto. conv, 35;
    on Miss Anthony's birthday, 40;
    speech on Power of an Incentive, 45;
    addresses Senate com. and urges Cong. to investigate practical
      working of wom. suff, 49;
    at natl. suff. conv. in New Orleans, 57;
    responds to greetings, tribute to southern women, 58;
    preaches Sunday sermon, 69;
    presides at meetings, 70-1;
    tribute to Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and Lucy Stone, 74;
    lively answers to question box, 74;
    on The Modern Democratic Ideal, 81;
    on Fate of Republics, 85;
    at natl. conv. of 1904, 86;
    prepares Decl. of Principles;
      dele, to Berlin conf;
      makes southern tour, 87;
    optimistic view of wom. suff, 89; 98;
    on hymn, America, 106;
    elected pres. of Natl. Assn;
      Mrs. Catt presents, tribute of Washtn, _Star_, 108;
    speaks on Woman without a Country, 109;
    recep. en route to Portland conv, 118;
    presides at conv, Ore. Hist. Society presents gavel, 120;
    gives first written address, pen picture of, 123;
    pays tribute to Sacajawea, 124;
    extols work of suffs, 125;
    answers criticisms of Cardinal Gibbons and ex-Pres. Cleveland, 125;
    describes great "dreamers" of the past, 126;
    chmn. of suff. com. of Intl. Council of Women, 127; 130; 135; 140;
    on Ore. suff. campn, 149;
    cordial recep. in Calif, 150;
    opens natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 152;
    responds to greetings, says people must help God to answer their
      prayers, 153;
    replies to Gov. Warfield, time women ceased to be proxy voters,
      153-4;
    introd. Mrs. Howe and Miss Barton, 154;
    gives written address, hearers protest, 156;
    criticises Pres. Roosevelt's statement that women in industry
      decreases marriage, 157;
    that woman's domain is home, 158;
    has fun with the "oracles," Cardinal Gibbons, ex-Pres. Cleveland
      and Dr. Lyman Abbott, 157-8;
    women need self-respect; scores Legislatures, loss to country by
      women's disfranchisement, 159;
    great injustice from time of Civil War; when will Pres. and Cong.
      act, 160;
    would continue proxy votes at convs, 161;
    asks for women on Natl. Divorce Commissn, 164;
    guests of Miss Garrett at Balto. conv, 167;
    conducts Sunday services, 179; 184;
    closes conv. with appeal for consecrated work, 187;
    presides at Senate hearing, 188;
    Miss Anthony places the work in her charge, 191;
    presides over natl. suff. conv. of '07, 194;
    president's address, rejoices over victories; never will be orgztn.
      of Tories; farewell tribute to Miss Anthony and her sister,
      200, 204;
    on mem. fund com, 202;
    tribute to suff. pioneers, 204;
    addresses Chicago Univ. girls, 206;
    reads last message of Mary Anthony, 207;
    closes conv. with hopeful words, 212;
    presides at natl, conv. of 1908, flowers presented, comment on
      teachers, 214;
    sends suff. assn's. greetings to Natl. W. C. T. U, 215;
    president's address on revolution of the pioneers;
      tribute of Buffalo _Express_, 216;
    opens coll. evening, 226;
    Mrs. George Howard Lewis gives luncheon at 20th Century Club, 230;
    presides at Sunday service, personal notice, believes in dignity of
      labor, 230;
    women work but do not receive wages, 232;
    tells of parade in London, 233;
    rec. first salary as Pres, 235;
    rec. Mrs. Lewis's gift to Natl. Assn, 236;
    sympathy with Brit, "militants," 238;
    eloquent peroration, 242;
    at St. Paul, 244;
    presented with gavel at Spokane, says blow for wom. suff. will be
      struck on Pacific coast, 244;
    opens suff. conv. at Seattle, pays tribute to Mrs. Catt, 246-7;
    is member of Grange, 247; 249;
    no stenographic report of speeches, 252;
    "question box," 257; 258;
    Sunday services, 260;
    thanks Miss Gordon, compliments Gov. Vessey, 261;
    does not know politics, 262; 263;
    closing speech, 264;
    at Expos, on suff. day, 264;
    opens natl. conv. of 1910, 266;
    presiding when Pres. Taft makes address of welcome, distressed at
      apparent hissing, expresses regret in the conv, sends letter to
      the President in name of Official Bd, 269, 272-3;
    tributes to Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Garrison, 280;
    re-elected pres, 282;
    presides at Sunday meeting, 289;
    closes conv. 290;
    presides at Senate hearing, tells of great petit, says democracy
      never has been tried; introd. speakers; scores women "antis";
      begs for a report, 291-299;
    opens natl. conv. in Louisville, 311;
    gives $3,000 from unknown contrib, 315;
    president's address; tribute to men of Wash, and Calif, 317;
    guest of honor Coll. Women's Suff. League, 319;
    presides at Sunday afternoon meeting, introd. noted speakers, 321;
    re-elected, 324;
    closing address, "eloquent with hope," 331;
    "citizen of the world," 334;
    large fund for campns. received from Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw, 337;
    president's address, "American women are ruled by the men of every
      country in the world," 338;
    sends congrat. of Natl. Assn. to Governors of States with suff.
      victories, who respond, 341;
    presides at great Sunday meeting in Phila, 343; 345;
    at Senate hearing, 1912, 347;
    begs the com. to bring a Fed. Suff. Amend, bef. the Senate and to
      appoint a com. to investigate its working in equal suff. States,
      353;
    speaks in 13 States and 5 countries of Europe in 1913, 367;
    president's address at natl. conv; has heard objections against wom.
      suff. but no reasons; women too emotional; compares last Pres.
     conv. in Balto. with natl. convs. of women, 370-1;
    criticizes Pres. Wilson for ignoring wom. suff. in his first
      message, 373-4;
    recd. by him and presents case for suffs, 375;
    appoints Alice Paul head of Congressl. Com, 378;
    closes conv, 382;
    presides at hearing for a Wom. Suff. Com, 384; 387;
    says suffs. would not ask partisan com, 388;
    business of the Govt. to protect women in their right to vote, 391;
    presides at natl. conv. in Nashville, presented with gavel from tree
      planted by Andrew Jackson, 398;
    pays tribute to southern women, calls on southern men to give them
      the ballot, 399;
    conv. passes res. of appreciation for her "splendid services" of
      past year and willingness to stand for re-election, 400;
    president's address, divine right of Kings soon obsolete; with wom.
      suff. war could be averted, 402;
    asks Pres. Wilson to proclaim Women's Independence Day, 402;
    uses her campn. fund, her long itinerary, 404;
    rec. testimonial from organizers, 406;
    tribute to people of Nashville, 409;
    agrees to Shafroth-Palmer Amend, 422;
    re-elected, 1914, 424;
    sits on Speaker's bench at opening of Cong; recd, by Pres. Wilson,
      asks him to use his influence for a Fed. Suff. Amend, and plank
      in Dem. natl. platform, 440;
    welcomes new workers, thanks God for old, 441;
    tribute of publicity chmn, 442;
    decides to retire from presidency, states reasons in _Woman's
      Journal_, 445;
    president's address, leading' feature of convs; outlines future work
      of assn, 445;
    shows need of loyalty and co-operation bet. officers and members;
      receives ovation, 446;
    shows Miss Anthony's pin from Wyoming women; conv. orders address
      printed, 447;
    compilation of her speeches made; speaks 30 times in N. J. campn,
      447;
    204 in N. Y, 457;
    addresses Coll. League, 450;
    attitude on Shafroth Amend, opposed but yields to Official Bd,
      thinks it was introd. too soon, 450-1;
    accepted presidency of Natl. Assn. in 1904 only because urged by
       Miss Anthony; compelled to give it up by other duties, wants
       Mrs. Catt for her successor, 455-6;
    votes for her and pays tribute, 457;
    natl. suff. conv. releases Dr. Shaw with beautiful ceremonies,
      elects her hon. pres. and friends present her with annuity, 457-8;
    she responds and introd. Mrs. Catt, 458;
    presides at mass meeting Sunday, 459-60;
    appreciation and thanks of Natl. Assn, 461;
    presides at Senate hearing, 462;
    takes up world questions and asks for woman's vote on them; tribute
       to com, 465-6;
    at House hearing asked to state diff. between Natl Suff. Assn.
      and Congressl. Union and does so, 471;
    urges no change in policy of Natl. Am. Assn, 487;
    stands for non partisanship, 490;
    responds to Pres. Wilson's address to natl. suff. conv, "women
      want suff, now," 498;
    presides over last evening session; closes address with a definition
      of Americanism and tribute to the flag, 511;
    reception with wives of Cabinet at suff. conv. 1917, 515;
    opens convention with invocation, 517;
    moves rising vote on pledge of war service to Govt, 518;
    appointed by Govt. as chmn. of Woman's Com. of Council of National
      Defense, 520;
    presides at evening session, 520;
    nominates Mrs. Catt for office, 522-3;
    condemns "picketing", 530;
    proposes message of loyalty and support to Pres. Wilson, which conv.
      sends, 533;
    speech on women and war, 534-6;
    women the army at home; must not make all the sacrifices; should be
      "smokeless" days; describes Woman's Com. of Natl. Defense, 536;
    speaks of injustice to Clara Barton; presents Mrs. Avery, 540;
    tribute to her oratory, 544;
    invocation at opening of natl. conv. 1919;
      presents Mrs. Catt, 553;
    southern dele. give illuminated testimonial and she responds, 554;
    moves a res. of thanks to Pres. Wilson, 558; 559;
    assistance to Congressl. Com, 567;
    at Pioneer's evening gives reminis. of Miss Anthony, 569-70;
    presides on last evening, 576;
    at last suff. hearing, 577;
    speech shows Govt's recognition of loyalty of Natl. Suff. Assn, 578;
    other countries recognize women's service by giving suff, 579;
    eminent supporters of Fed. Suff. Amend; to fail to ask it would be
      treason, 579; 581;
    opened natl. convs. with prayer 28 yrs, 596;
    tribute of Mrs. Shuler, memorial booklet by Natl. Bd; her last
      speech, What the War Meant to Women, 607;
    memorial service at natl. suff. conv, program, tribute of N. Y.
      _Times_, 611;
    Mrs. Catt's eulogy, beautiful comparison, 612;
    devotion to cause of wom. suff; nearest and dearest to Miss Anthony;
      great power of oratory, 612;
    work for her country; two college foundations estab. as memorials;
      her college degrees. Autobiography, Story of a Pioneer, 613;
    her tribute to Miss Anthony, 615;
    Pres. Wilson congratulates, 634;
    vice-pres. Coll. Equal Suff. League, 663;
    favors League of Women Voters, 685;
    appeals to Dem. natl. conv. in 1908, 704;
    in 1912, 707; 724;
    on women's attitude toward war, 725;
    Govt. appoints her chmn. Woman's Com. of Council of Natl. Defense,
      726-7;
    her work, 737;
    telegram from Queen Mary, 738;
    tribute by Secy. of War Baker; receives distinguished service medal,
     739;
    closes work of Woman's Com. but thinks it should be continued for
      civic work, 739;
    goes on speaking tour in behalf of League of Nations with former
      Pres. Taft and Pres. Lowell, 739;
    overworks and dies before it is finished, 740.
    Appendix, approves Anthony Mem. Bldg, 744, 754;
    address on resigning presidency of Natl. Amer. Assn; U. S. Govt.
      violates its own principles in refusing suff. to women, 750;
    assn. must not be swerved from its purpose, new recruits want
      spectacular methods, State action is the foundation, 751;
    on tour for League of Nations; nation mourns death, 757-8;
    tribute to Amer. flag; women traitors to democracy not to demand
      suff; receives disting. service medal; accepts it for service
      of all women; on Exec. Com. of League to Enforce Peace; it
      circulates her last speech, 758;
    "out of this war must come world peace; American flag means hope for
       the world; mothers will not endure war; will of the people must
       prevent it," 759;
    memorial of Natl. Suff. Bd; tributes of Pres. Wilson, Vice-pres.
      Marshall, former Pres. Taft, Director Grosvenor B. Clarkson, Secy.
      of the Interior Lane, Mrs. Henry Fawcett, Lady Aberdeen, Elizabeth
      C. Carter, Natl. and Intl. Assns, 760-1.

  Shaw, Helen Adelaide, 36.

  Shaw, Nicolas, 754.

  Shaw, Mrs. Quincy A. (Pauline Agassiz), 202;
    gives fund for campn. work, 404.

  Shaw, Mrs. Robert Gould, 442;
    contrib. to wom. suff, 542.

  Shepherd, Lulu Loveland, 395.

  Sheppard, U. S. Sen. Morris, speech for Fed. Amend, 572;
    votes for it, 627; 646.

  Shetter, Charlotte, designs seal, 314.

  Shibley, George H, 174.

  Shores, Mrs. E. A, 317.

  Shortt, Rev. J. Burgette, 136.

  Shuler, Marjorie, natl. chmn. of Publicity, in Fla, 556;
    in Okla. campn, 558;
    on Congressl. Com, 566;
    report of Washtn. suff. press bureau, 573;
    on Congressl. Com, 604;
    on commissn. to West, 605-6;
    same, 650;
    welcomed in Washtn, 652.

  Shuler, Nettie Rogers, pres. Western New York Fed. of Wom. Clubs,
    welcomes natl. conv, 214;
    elected natl. cor. secy, 501; 527;
    report for 1917; tells of universal demonstrations for Fed. Amend,
      vast distrib. of literature, suff. schools, work of 225 organizers
      instructed by Mrs. Catt, 538-9;
    work for Pres. suff, 539;
    re-elected, 541;
    campns. in western States, 550;
    valuable report for Com. of Campaigns and Surveys, 554-558;
    in campn. States, 556; 562; 568; 570;
    chapter for Hist, on League of Women Voters, 595, 683;
    sends letter of thanks to Governors for Natl. Assn, 600;
    report for 1919, most important year in history of assn, 601-608;
    lines of work indexed under respective heads; great "drive" for
      ratif; of Fed. Amend. from natl. headqrs, under Mrs. Catt's
      direction, 604-607;
    renders homage to her, 608;
    tribute to Natl. Suff. Assn, 607;
    chmn. Citizenship Schools Com, 690;
    at Natl. Repub. Conv, 716; 724;
    helps revise constn. of Natl. Assn, 756.

  Siewers, Dr. Sarah M, 71.

  Simkovitch, Mary M. K, 705.

  Simpson, Mrs. David, 511.

  Sims, U. S. Rep. Thetus W. (Tenn.), 637.

  Sioussat, Mrs. Albert L, 152.

  Skinner. Mrs. Otis, 333.

  Slade, Mrs. Louis F, women's war service in N. Y, 533;
    offers res. for women on Red Cross War Council, 539-40;
    New York's apology for U. S. Sen. Wadsworth, 610; 689.

  Smith, Gov. Alfred E. (N. Y.), calls spec, session to ratify Fed.
    Suff. Amend, 650;
    welcomes Mrs. Catt from Tenn. campn, 652.

  Smith, Caroline M, 317.

  Smith, Charles Sprague, 280.

  Smith, Mrs. Draper, tells of defeat in Neb, 402;
    campn. work, 420; 444.

  Smith, U. S. Sen. Ellison D, 713.

  Smith, Ethel M, estab. natl. speakers' bureau, 419;
    work on Congressl. Com, 448;
    report on Indust. Protect. of Women, 520;
    chmn. of publicity, 526, 528;
    report on Protect. of Women in Government service, 728.

  Smith, U. S. Sen. Hoke, 645.

  Smith, Judith W, 137; 208; 501.

  Smith, Dr. Julia Holmes, 617.

  Smith, Mrs. Thomas Jefferson, speaks at natl. conv, 490;
    elected to Natl. Bd, 501; 724.

  Smithsonian Institution, gives space for suff. exhibit; list of
    articles including historic table on which Call for first Woman's
    Rights Conv. was written; story of, 609.

  Smoot, U. S. Sen. Reed, "glories in every victory for wom. suff," 546;
    speaks at Senate hearing, 633;
    for wom. suff. plank in Repub. platform, 711.

  Smoot, Mrs. Reed, 382.

  Snell, U. S. Rep. Bertrand H. (N. Y.), 548.

  Snowden, Mrs. Philip, situation in Brit. Parl, defends "militancy,"
    236-238.

  Social Evil, natl. suff. conv. protests against "regulated" vice in
     Manila, and Hawaii, 10;
    again; govt. "regulation" in Philippines stopped by War Dept, 44;
    conv. protests against it in Cincinnati, 67;
    protests against legal sanction, 146;
    calls for suppression of white slave traffic, 212;
    discussion of social evil, 224-226;
    position of Natl. Suff. Assn, 340;
    Miss Addams shows necessity for women to deal with, 343;
    Mrs. Catt demands polit. power in the hands of women to deal with,
     346.

  Socialist Party, for wom. suff, 206;
    the only one, 362;
    Rep. Berger at House hearing, 361-2;
    Natl. conv. declares for Fed. Suff. Amend, 480;
    statistics of vote in N. Y. suff. amend, campn, 537;
    did not carry N. Y, 580;
    "antis" say they did, 584;
    always advocate wom. suff, 702;
    plank in platform, 714.

  Somerville, Nellie Nugent, natl. vice-pres, 425; 671.

  South, members of Cong, vote for Fed. Suff. Amend, women work for it,
    xxii;
    attitude toward wom. suff, 88;
    see Chap. III;
    child labor laws, 95;
    resentment of southern women against attitude of southern members of
      Cong. on wom. suff, 188;
    Dr. Shaw pays tribute to the women, says it is duty of southern men
      to give them suff, 399;
    Jane Addams speaks of the men, 409;
    attitude of women toward suff, 463;
    want Fed. Suff. Amend, 473;
    at natl. suff. conv, speakers demand wom. suff, 490-3;
    position of members of Cong. on Fed. Suff. Amend, 516;
    press sentiment changes, 529;
    southern dele. to natl. suff. conv. present testimonials to Mrs.
      Catt and Dr. Shaw, 554;
    shall southern men stand in the way, 579;
    Mrs. Dudley says State's rights doctrine a fallacy; negro vote
      discussed, 580;
    many petitions for Fed. Suff. Amend, 583;
    from Texas, 588-9;
    from other southern States, 589-90;
    Natl. Assn. gives large assistance for wom. suff. but States fail in
      their part, 603;
    vote in Cong. for Fed. Suff. Amend, 637;
    same, 641-647.

  South Africa, iii.

  South Dakota, Natl. Assn. helps campns, 240; 254; 277;
    liquor interests in suff. campn. 1913, 420;
    in 1918, 557;
    gives worn, suff, 641.

  South, Mrs. John G, on commissn. for ratif. to West, 605; 650.

  South, Mrs. Oliver, 394.

  Southworth, Louisa, 146;
    contrib. to suff. headqrs, 754.

  Southern Woman Suffrage Conference, reason for, organization,
    officers, plan of campn, 671;
    Mrs. Belmont finances, headqrs, paper started, 673;
    with State's rights plank in Dem. natl. platform conf. is
      discontinued, 673.

  Spargo, John, at suff. hearing, 548.

  Spencer, Rev. Anna Garlin, conv. sermon in 1902, 43;
    Felix Adler's tribute, 95;
    conv. sermon in 1908, 214;
    first woman's rights conv. result of wave of idealism, 221;
    strong speech on social evil, 225.

  Spencer, U. S. Sen. Selden P, speaks at suff. conv, 561.

  Sperry, Mary S, birthday gift to Miss Anthony in 1902, 40;
    entertains suff. leaders, 150;
    pres. Calif, suff. assn, responds to greetings, 1907, 194;
    elected to Natl. Bd, 204; 238;
    responds to greetings at Portland conv, 347; 249;
    at Louisville conv, 317;
    signs appeal to natl. Repub. conv, 1904, 704.

  Spofford, Jane H, 13; 45;
    mem. res. for, 180.

  Spokane, entertains dele. to natl. suff. conv, 244-246.

  Springer, Elmina, 130.

  Stanford, Mrs. Leland, mem. res. for, 146.

  Stanley, U. S. Sen. A. O, 713.

  Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, work for Hist, of Wom. Suff, iii;
    pres. natl. suff. assn, 1; 13;
    letter on Church and Wom. Suff, 4, 5;
    Clara Barton's tribute, 25;
    had first idea of intl. suff. conf, 26;
    on Educated Suff, 32;
    last address to natl. suff. conv, 33; 45;
    tributes of Miss Anthony and Dr. Shaw, 74;
    early fight for wom. suff, 121;
    tributes from college women at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 169-173;
    for admission of women to Cornell Univ, 169; 185; 213;
    on first Wom. Rights Conv, 1848, 215;
    signs Call for it, 219;
    at early wom. suff. hearings, 306;
    writes Women's Decl. of Rights, 1876, 333;
    bef. House Judic. Com, 428;
    address to Cong. in 1866, 521;
    mem. evening at natl. suff. conv, 569;
    at suff. hearings, 581;
    calls first woman's rights conv. and first after Civil War, 1866,
      prepares Memorial to Cong. 618;
    at first suff. conv. in Washtn, 621;
    deserts Amer. Equal Rights Assn, forms Natl. Suff. Assn, made pres,
      621-2;
    address at funeral by the Rev. Moncure D. Conway;
      farewell words by women ministers;
      Miss Anthony's last birthday letter to;
      extended tributes in the press, 741-3.

  Stapler, Martha, prepares Wom. Suff. Year Book, 332.

  Statehood Protest, Natl. Suff. Assn. heads protest against bill for
    admitting new Territories classing women with insane, idiots and
    felons, 129, 130.

  State's Rights, this argument against wom. suff. demolished by history
    of Dem. party; a continuous record of Fed. control, 430-432;
    all nations but U. S. regard suff. as a natl. matter, 431;
    fallacy shown in vote for Fed. Prohib. Amend, 449;
    vote for this Amend, 537;
    a "phantom" in South, 580;
    Repub. natl. conv. declares for, 711;
    most men in U. S. recd. suff. from Govt, not States, 745-6.

  States, six more grant wom. suff, 708-9, 715.

  Stearns, Sarah Burger, 146.

  Steele, Mrs. W. D, 553.

  Steinem, Pauline, 187-8;
    educatl. suff. work, 224; 260;
    women neglected in histories, 263;
    chmn. Com. on Education, 286;
    valuable work, 320.

  Stern, Meta L, 280.

  Stevens, Isaac N, 103.

  Stevenson, U. S. Sen. Isaac, 320.

  Stevenson, Dr. Sarah Hackett, 280.

  Stewart, Ella S, reviews clergy's objection to wom. suff, 138;
    scores ex-Pres. Cleveland and Dr. Abbott, ridicules so-called
      chivalry, 166;
    at Congressl. hearing, 189;
    welcomes natl. conv. to Chicago, 194; 220-1;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 238; 260;
    witty remarks, 261-2; 265;
    re-elected, 282; 289; 324;
    at Senate hearing, 349;
    work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370;
    at House hearing, 395;
    org. Miss. Valley Conf, 667-8.

  Stewart, Oliver W, 199.

  Stiles, Florence, 450.

  Stilwell, Mrs. Horace C, director Natl. Assn, 541;
    assists Congressl. Com, 567.

  Stockman, Eleanor C, 76.

  Stockwell, Maud C. (Mrs. S. A.), welcomes natl. suff. conv. to
     Minneapolis, 8;
    meets dele, to Seattle conv, 244; 249; 668.

  Stockwell, S. A, 244.

  Stolle, Antonie, 40-1.

  Stone, Rev. John Timothy, D. D, officiates at mem. service for Dr.
    Shaw, 611.

  Stone, Lucinda H, 656.

  Stone, Lucy, 1;
    marriage, 12, 33;
    Dr. Shaw's tribute, 74;
    great leader, 107; 148;
    Mrs. Howe tells of, 155; 185;
    tributes from college women at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 160-172;
    for admis. of women to Cornell Univ, 169; 194;
    days at Oberlin Coll, 220;
    tribute of Mrs. Villard, 261;
    of Mrs. McCulloch, 278; 279;
    visit to Ky. in early '50's, 311;
    natl. suff. conv. passes res. of indebtedness, 569; 622; 664.

  Stone, Melville E, for wom. suff, 296.

  Stone, Collector of Port William F, welcomes natl. suff. conv, 154.

  Stone, U. S. Sen. William J, for wom. suff. plank in Dem. natl.
    platform, 713.

  Stoner, Mrs. Wesley Martin, 672.

  Stowe-Gullen, Dr. Augusta (Canada), 27; 72.

  Strachan, Grace C, 290.

  Straight, Dorothy Whitney, contrib. to N. Y. campn, 519.

  Strong, Dr. Josiah, 258.

  Stubbs, Gov. W. R. (Kans.), greetings to natl. suff. conv, 341.

  Stubbs, Mrs. W. R, 328.

  Suffrage Schools, originated by Mrs. Catt, 538;
    large number in 1917, 539;
    Natl. Amer. Assn. endorses, 368;
    in S. Dak, 556-7.

  Sun, N. Y, suff. dept. under Paul Dana, 14.

  Susan B. Anthony Amendment, 413;
    Natl. Assn. endorses; Stanton family and others object to name, 423;
    assn. re-endorses, 452; 747.

  Sutherland, U. S. Sen. George, 383;
    at Senate hearing, 462, 466;
    objects to attack on Mormons in anti-suff. speech, 467-8;
    introd. res. for Fed. Suff. Amend, 503; 630; 711.

  Sutton, Lucy, 666.

  Swanson, U. S. Sen. Claude A, 645.

  Sweden, legal and polit. status of women, 51; 213.

  Swift, Mary Wood, birthday gift to Miss Anthony, 1902, 40;
    speaks at natl. suff. conv. in New Orleans, 76;
    pres. Natl. Council of Women; brings its greetings to natl. conv.
      1904, 106;
    bef. Senate com, 110;
    brings greetings in 1905, 120; 130;
    entertains suff. leaders, 150;
    greetings, 1907, 208.


  T

  Taft, Gov. Genl. William Howard, on social evil in Philippines, 11;
    same, 44.

  Taft, President William Howard, accepts invitation to welcome natl.
    suff. conv;
    while speaking sound like hissing heard;
      Dr. Shaw's distress, 269;
    text of speech, 271;
    officers of Natl. Assn. frame a res. of appreciation of his welcome
      to conv, which delegates endorse and send with letter expressing
      sorrow at the incident; the President returns a cordial answer,
      272-3;
    _Woman's Journal_ says he should have welcomed conv. without
      declaring his opinions, 273;
    peace treaties, 326, 328;
    appoints Miss Lathrop head of Children's Bureau, 339;
    says Fed. Constn. guarantees self-govt, 359; 495;
    nominated in 1912, 705;
    not ready for wom. suff, 708;
    Dr. Shaw joins on speaking tour for League of Nations, 739, 757;
    his tribute to her, 760.

  Taggart, U. S. Rep. Joseph (Kans.), at House hearing, scores
    Congressl. Union, 474;
    quizzes "antis", 477.

  Talbot, Dean Marion, 206.

  Talbot, Mrs. M. C, 467.

  Talbot, Mrs. R. C, 391.

  Talmage, Rev. T. De Witt, for wom. suff, 23.

  Tarbell, Ida M, 736.

  Tarkington, Booth, for worn, suff, 297.

  Tasmania, 28.

  Taylor, A. S. G, 340.

  Taylor, U. S. Rep. Edward T, presents record of wom. suff. in Colo,
    calls it unqualified success, women back of 150 good laws, valuable
    campn. document, 355, 357, 373;
    natl. suff. conv. thanks for assistance, 450-1;
    Congressl. Union tries to defeat, 474;
    introd. Fed. Suff. Amend, 1917, 524;
    for Wom. Suff. Com, 548;
    same, 628-9.

  Taylor, U. S. Rep. Ezra B. (Ohio), 99.

  Taylor, Graham Romeyn, 209; 296.

  Taylor, Dr. Howard S, 197.

  Ten Eyck, John C, 391.

  Tennessee, grants Pres. and Munic. suff. to women, 602;
    Legis. gives final ratif. of Fed. Suff. Amend, 652;
    Speaker and opposing members carry case to Washtn, 653.

  Terrell, Mary Church, pleads for negroes, 105.

  Terry, Mrs. D. D, 316.

  Testimony in favor of wom. suff. from Governors, 87;
    from Colo, 100-105, 112-115, 127.

  Texas, officials invite natl. suff. conv, 540;
    prominent citizens petition for Fed. Suff. Amend;
    Legis. gives Primary suff. to women, 588-9;
    defeats St. wom. suff. amend; court declares Primary suff. legal,
      602.

  Thaw, Mrs. William, Jr, 542.

  Thomas, U. S. Sen. Charles S, friendly chmn. of Senate Com. on Wom.
    Suff, 380;
    his re-election opposed by Congressl. Union, 453;
    presides at Senate com. hearing;
    Dr. Shaw's tribute, 462;
    Mrs. Catt's, 465;
    refuses to preside at Congressl. Union hearing, 466;
    re-elected, 476;
    reports Fed. Suff. Amend, from com, 503;
    effort for a vote, 504;
    "never failing friend of wom. suff," urges Fed. Amend, 546; 626;
      630; 632.

  Thomas, Pres. M. Carey of Bryn Mawr, arr. College Women's evening at
    natl. suff. conv. in Balto, 152, 167;
    her own strong speech, shows increase of women in colleges, their
      inevitable demand for suff, their gratitude to early leaders, 171-2;
    splendid tribute to Miss Anthony, 172;
    conv. sends letter of thanks, 180;
    assists Miss Garrett in hospitality, 182;
    with Miss Garrett raises large fund for suff. work, 183;
    declares in intellect no sex;
    elected pres. Natl. Coll. Wom. Equal Suff. League, 229; 230; 233;
      283; 316;
    presides over Coll. League, 319;
    says coll. women's work for social reconstruction amounts to little
      without franchise, 321; 338;
    presides at college women's evening at natl. conv. 1912, 343;
    same, 1915, 450;
    presents Dr. Shaw with laurel wreath, 457;
    on com. to confer with Red Cross War Council, 540;
    speaks for Fed. Suff. Amend, 630;
    work for Coll. League, contrib. to, 661-664;
    invites Dr. Shaw for trip to Spain, 757.

  Thomas, Mary Bentley, 67; 87; 180; 188; 666.

  Thompson, Ellen Powell, 106; 204.

  Thompson, Harriet Stokes, appeals to House com. for working girls,
    future mothers of the race and teachers who train citizens, 472.

  Thompson, Jane, field secy, presents testimonial of organizers to Dr.
    Shaw, 406.

  Thompson, Dr. Mary H, 120.

  Thompson, U. S. Sen. William Howard, bef. Senate com, tells beneficent
    results of wom. suff. in Kans, 546, 548; 630; 633; 638.

  Tiffany, Mrs. Charles L, 450;
    in N. Y. campn, 519; 564;
    report on Oversea Hospitals, 560, 568, 614;
    work for Hospitals, 732.

  Tillinghast, Anna C, 556.

  Tinnin, Glenna, 441.

  Todd, Helen, motor suff. trip, 367;
    bef. Com. on Rules, 394;
    bef. House com, 473;
    heated dialogue, 475;
    at Repub. Natl. Conv, 705.

  Tone, Mrs. F. J, in N. Y. campn, 519.

  Tours, pilgrimages to Washtn, 378;
    the "golden flier," motor suff. trip from New York to San Francisco,
    481.

  Towle, Mary Rutter, report as legal adviser to assn, 338, 372, 442.

  Treadwell, Harriet Taylor, at Anthony celebr, 615.

  Troupe, Hattie Hull, 152.

  Trout, Grace Wilbur,
    work for Pres. suff. in Ills, 370;
    on limited suff, 495; 561;
    chmn. com. of arr. for natl. suff. conv, 595;
    welcomes dele, 597;
    at Repub. natl. conv, 710.

  Trumbull, Lillie R, 120.

  Tucker, Mrs. James, 381.

  Tumulty, Joseph P, 515.

  Turner, Robert, of Mass. Anti-Suff. Assn, 479.

  Twain, Mark, for wom. suff, 297.


  U

  Ueland, Mrs. Andreas,
    bef. House com. 473; 568;
    arr. Miss. Valley Conf, 669-70; 689.

  Underhill, Charles L, 391.

  Underwood, U. S. Rep. Oscar (Ala.), 397;
    as U. S. Senator, 628; 640; 645.

  United Mine Workers of America, 249.

  United States Elections Bill to permit women to vote for members of
    Cong, 504, 659;
    Natl. Suff. Assn. and Southern Women's Conf. favor, 660.
    See Federal Elections Bill.

  Upton, Harriet Taylor,
    treas. report at natl. conv. of 1901, 12; 41; 44;
    accepts charge of suff. headqrs, 61;
    presents testimonials to the Misses Gordon, 84; 88;
    work as natl. treas, love for suff. cause, 94;
    tribute of Washtn. _Post_, 99; 129;
    report, 1005, 130;
    has interview with Pres. Roosevelt, 137;
    how to deal with newspapers, 175; 176;
    report for 1906, 183;
    bef. Senate com, 188;
    on Anthony mem. com, 202;
    report for 1907, 211; 212;
    interviews Pres. Roosevelt, 217;
    report for 1908;
    salaries paid for first time, 235; 244; 248;
    treas. report for 1909, where the money went, 252; 257;
    report for 1910;
      legacies recd, work as treas. for 17 yrs;
      ed. of _Progress_ 7 yrs;
      conv. thanks, 276-7;
    re-elected, resigns, 282;
    bef. House com, urges that the mother heart and home element be
      expressed in Govt, 303; 315;
    on Congressl. Com, 319; 346;
    bef. House com, 395; 402; 444;
    on limited suff, 495; 516; 561;
    speaks at Anthony celebr, 615;
    in Tenn. ratif. campn, 652; 669;
    res. against U. S. Sen. Wadsworth, 692;
    at Repub. natl. conv, 1904, 703-4; 754;
    elected director of Natl. Amer. Assn, 756.

  U'Ren, W. S, father of Initiative and Referendum, 136.


  V

  Valentine, Lila Meade,
    pres. Va. suff. assn, 288;
    speaks to House of Governors, 367;
    asks suff. for development of woman and the race, 492-3;
    on Congressl. Com, 506; 568.

  Vanderlip, Frank A, on recep. com. for natl. suff. conv, 515.

  Van Klenze, Camilla, 333.

  Van Rensselaer, Prof. Martha (Cornell), Financing the War, 533.

  Van Sant, Gov. Samuel R. (Minn.), 7.

  Van Winkle, Mina, 444; 456.

  Van Wyck, Mayor Robert A. (New York), women without a vote waste time
    appealing to legislators, 307.

  Varney, Rev. Mecca Marie, 203.

  Vermont, struggle for ratif. of Fed. Amend, 651, 653.

  Vernon, Mabel, bef. House com, 473; 549.

  Vessey, Gov. Robert S. (S. Dak.), 261.

  Victoria (Australia), gives women State vote, 243.

  Victory Convention of National American Woman Suffrage Association in
    Chicago to celebr. end of its work;
    Call, 594;
    largest ever held, 595;
    list of frat. dele, 506;
    festivities, 610.

  Villard, Fanny Garrison (Mrs. Henry), 40;
    on Anthony Fund Com, 202; 220-1;
    at natl. suff. conv, 1908, 220;
    at St. Paul, recalls visit with her husband when N.P. R.R. was
      completed, 244;
    same at Spokane, 245;
    at Seattle, his devotion to wom. suff. and education, 251;
    she appeals for wom. suff, 251;
    tribute to Lucy Stone, 261; 263;
    mem. tribute to Mr. Blackwell and Lucy Stone, 277;
    by Dr. Shaw's side when she resigns natl. presidency, 457.

  Villard, Henry, 244-5; 251.

  Villard, Oswald Garrison, 37-8.

  Vincent, Dr. George E, declares for wom. suff, 670.

  Volunteer League, eminent officers, 442.

  Von Suttner, Baroness Bertha, plea for peace of world and wom. suff.
    as necessary factor, 345-6.

  Vorce, Mrs. Myron, 402; 570.


  W

  Wadsworth, U. S. Sen. James W, 560;
    refuses to represent his State on Fed. Suff. Amend, 598; 645;
    censured by Natl. League of Women Voters, 692;
    opp. wom. suff. plank, 1916, 711.

  Wadsworth, Mrs. James W,
    re-elected pres. Natl. Anti-Suff. Assn; during natl. suff. conv.
      issues circular in Washtn. saying suffs. are pacifists and
      Socialists and the N. Y. victory was due to latter; Mary Garrett
      Hay answers, 536-7;
    at Senate com. hearing, 548;
    calls suffs. pro-Germans and "slackers," 560;
    at last suff. hearing, 577;
    introd. her "staff", 584;
    scores members of Cong. who favor Fed. Suff. Amend, 585; 592; 679;
    Mrs. Catt resents her attacks during the war, refers to her father,
      John Hay, 736-7.

  Wainwright, Mrs. Richard, bef. coms. of Cong, 547, 549, 585; 675.

  Waite, Judge Charles B, 280; 656.

  Wald, Lillian D, 705.

  Waldo, Clara H, 120.

  Walker, Elizabeth Wheeler, 525; 567; 607.

  Walker, Dr. Mary, 438.

  Walker, Speaker Seth (Tenn.),
    opp. Fed. Amend, 653;
    goes to Washtn. and Conn, to prevent, 682.

  Wallace, Zerelda G, suff. petit. scorned, 297.

  Walsh, U. S. Sen. David I,
    for Fed. Suff. Amend, 548;
    voted for it, 641.

  Walsh, U. S. Sen. Thomas J,
    bef. Senate com, "duty of Govt. to see that every citizen is assured
    of fundamental right of suff"; speech widely circulated, 547;
    same, 633; 645;
    for wom. suff. plank in Dem. platform, 713.

  Ward, Lester F, on development of sexes, 92.

  Ward, Lydia Avery Coonley, 42; 185.

  Warfield, Gov. Edwin (Md.),
    welcomes natl. suff. conv, pays tribute to suffs, 153;
    later sends letter of appreciation, 180; 182.

  Warner, Mrs. Leslie, speaks at natl. suff. conv, 568.

  Warren, Ohio, natl. suff. headqrs, removed to, 61, 93.

  War Service of Women in Europe,
    natl. conv. devotes evening to it, speakers from various countries,
      544;
    of suffs. in the Civil War, 618.

  War Work of Organized Suffragists, vi, xxii;
    in Canada, 400; 410;
    in U. S, officers of suff. assns. in service;
    Mrs. Catt urges necessity for war work, 517;
    Exec. Council of Natl. Assn. pledges loyalty and service to the
      Govt, 518;
    four depts. of work, 520;
    war work of suffs. reviewed by Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick; "Dr.
      Shaw's appt. as chmn. of Woman's Com. of Council of National
      Defense has made coöperation with Govt. closer", 520;
    Natl. Assn. plans more depts. of war work, reaffirms loyalty to Govt
      and support of its war measures, 543;
    all officers of Natl. Assn. in service, 555;
    Oversea Hospitals, 558, 568;
    mass meeting in Washtn, 564;
    reports of War Coms, 1918, Mrs. McCormick's chapter on, refutes
      charges of "antis", 560; 574;
    Natl. Assn. first organized body of women to offer services to Govt;
      President accepts and calls upon suff. leaders to coöperate, 578;
    patriotism where women vote, 579;
    see Chap. XXIV, 720;
    Mrs. Catt calls Exec. Council of Natl. Assn. to Washtn, 720;
    board of officers submits plan for aiding the Govt, which is
      discussed and adopted, 722;
    depts. of work, 723;
    mass meeting held and plan sent to Pres. Wilson by Secy. of War
      Baker; he expresses approval and assn. begins its work, 724-5;
    Dr. Shaw, its hon. pres, appt. by Council of Natl. Defense chmn.
      of Woman's Com, which is named, 726-7;
    assn. makes Mrs. McCormick genl. chmn. of its War Service Dept,
      reports of heads to natl. suff. conv. of 1917, 727-730;
    to conv. of 1919, 730-732;
    report of Oversea Hospitals, 732-734;
    to conv. of 1920, 734-5;
    women's war work in N. Y. obtains the suff. for them, 737;
    work of suits, on Woman's Com. of Council of Natl. Defense, 737;
    its work ended, Secy. Baker's tribute, 739;
    heroic record, 740.

  Washington City, entertains natl. suff. conv. of 1904, 86;
    of 1910, 266;
    of 1913, 364;
    of 1915, 439;
    of 1917, under war conditions, 513;
    distinguished recep. com, 515.

  Washington, State, wom. suff. amend, carried, xx;
    how women were disfranchised when Territory, 257;
    adopts constitl. amend, for wom. suff, 310;
    Dr. Shaw's comment;
      reports from State officers, 317;
    natl. conv. sends greetings, 328; 625.

  Waterman, Julia T, opp. wom. suff, 363.

  Watson, Elizabeth Lowe, tells of Calif. victory, 317.

  Watson, U. S. Sen. James E, chmn. Senate Wom. Suff. Com, 645-6;
    at Natl. Repub. Conv. 1920, 717.

  Watson-Lister, Mrs. A, tells of wom. suff. in Australia, 91, 111.

  Watterson, Col. Henry, 329.

  Way, Amanda, 132.

  Weaver, Ida M, 52.

  Webb, U. S. Rep. Edwin Y. (N. C.), 307; 434;
    chmn. Judic. Com, 469;
    tells suffs. they should not come "bothering" Congress, 472;
    says there will be no wom. suff. plank in Dem. platform, 476;
    tries to prevent Wom. Suff. Com, 525;
    suppresses report on Fed. Amend, 504;
    unfair treatment of res, 631, 633, 635.

  Webster, Jean, for wom. suff, 297.

  Weeks, Anna O, 373.

  Welch, Prof. Lillian, 663.

  Weld, Louis D. (Swift and Co.), addresses League of Women Voters, 695.

  Wells, Mrs. James B, 476;
    amuses House com, 478.

  Wentworth, Jennie Wells, 404.

  West, Gov. Oswald (Ore.), greetings to natl. suff. conv, 341.

  Wester, Catharine J, 395.

  Western New York Federation of Women's Clubs, first to admit suff.
    societies, 214.

  Wetmore, Maude, 726.

  Wheat, Fannie J, vase to Miss Anthony, 13.

  Wheeler, Everett P, bef. Com. on Rules, 391; 438;
    at last suff. hearing, 583;
    brings suit against Fed. Suff. Amend, 654;
    org. Men's Anti-Suff. Assns. in N. Y, Tenn, and Maryland, conducts
      cases in court, 680-682.

  White, Armenia S, 137; 208.

  White, Natl. Dem. Chmn. George, Mrs. Catt thanks in name of Natl.
    Amer. Suff. Assn. for his own and party's support of Fed. Suff.
    Amend, 648.

  White, Mrs. George P, 467.

  White, Mrs. Henry, 437.

  White, Mary Ogden, 528;
    report on natl. publicity, returns reach millions of words;
      instances given, 530;
    work on _Woman Citizen_, 571; 614.

  White, Nettie Lovisa, 40; 67;
    secures names to Fed. Amend, petition, 275; 341.

  White, Ruth, 506;
    natl. exec, secy, 525;
    resigns, 566.

  Whitehouse, Norman deR, 458.

  Whitehouse, Mrs. Norman deR, interviews Pres. candidate Hughes, 507;
    on N. Y. campn, 519.

  Whitney, Charlotte Anita, tells of Coll. Women's League in Calif,
    campn, 319;
    elected natl. vice-pres, 342;
    work in Calif, 662.

  Whitney, Mrs. Henry M, 678.

  Whitney, Rosalie Loew, at last suff. hearing, 578, 580.

  Wickersham, George W, 680; 682.

  Wilbur, Henry, 284.

  Wildman, John K, 146.

  Wiley, Dr. Harvey W, address at natl. suff. conv, 1911, 322-3.

  Wilkes, Rev. Eliza Tupper, 140.

  Willard, Mabel Caldwell, at natl. suff. headqrs, 526;
    work in Del, 556-7; 604.

  Willcox, William R, chmn. Repub. Natl. Com, 636.

  Williams, Charl, 652.

  Williams, Fannie Barrier, offers tribute of colored people to Miss
    Anthony, 203.

  Williams, Jesse Lynch, 340.

  Williams, U. S. Sen. John Sharp, 640; 713.

  Williams, Mrs. Richard, 108; 214.

  Williams, Sylvanie, addresses Miss Anthony, 60.

  Willis, Gwendolen Brown, 668.

  Willis, Sarah L, 209.

  Wills, M. Frances, 317.

  Wilson, Agnes Hart, 515.

  Wilson, Mrs. Benjamin F, entertains natl. suff. conv. 410.

  Wilson, Mrs. Halsey W, instructs suff. schools, 539;
    elected natl. rec. secy, 541; 556; 570;
    at ratif. banquet, 610; 689.

  Wilson, Margaret, on hon. com. for natl. suff. conv, 440;
    showers Dr. Shaw with flowers, sits on suff. platform, 459;
    at suff. meeting in Washtn, 724.

  Wilson, Gov. Woodrow (N. J.), approves of School suff. for women, 320.

  Wilson, Pres. Woodrow,
    converted to wom. suff, xxi;
    first delegation recd. is a group of suffs; they quote from his book
      The New Freedom, 374;
    urged by natl. suff. conv. to make Fed. Suff. Amend. administration
      measure and recommend it in his message; he pays no attention; Dr.
      Shaw and conv. resent; make appt. to call on him; he receives
      them, first President to do so, 373-4;
    Dr. Shaw presents their case, tells how Cong. has ignored them, asks
      him to send spec. message and recom. a Wom. Suff. Com. in Lower
      House; he answers that he cannot speak as an individual but only
      as directed by his party but he favors the Wom. Suff. Com;
      delegation pleased, 374-5; 378;
    asked to proclaim Women's Independence Day, 404;
    Miss Schwimmer brings petition for peace, 410;
    favors initiative and referendum, 417;
    Natl. Suff. Assn. commands effort for peace, 426; 434;
    with seven of his Cabinet declares for wom. suff;
      votes in N. J. for amend;
      receives natl. suff. conv;
      says he is thinking of suff. plank in Dem. platform, 440;
    natl. conv. expresses appreciation of his declaration for wom. suff,
      461;
    it received more votes at last election than he did, 473; 475;
      488-9;
    addresses natl. suff. conv. in 1916; scene in theater, 495-6;
    listens to other speakers;
      Mrs. Catt introduces;
      text of speech, 496;
    pictures the evolution of the Govt, says movement for wom. suff. has
      come with conquering power and will prevail; he has come to fight
      with its advocates and they will not quarrel as to method, 496-498;
    Dr. Shaw tells him women want it in his administration and he smiles
       and bows, 498-9;
    signs Natl. Child Labor Law "with pride and pleasure," 500;
    suff. leaders urge him to endorse Fed. Amend, but he declines, 507;
    sends congrat. to natl. suff. conv;
      has reached a belief in Fed. Amend, 520;
    calls extra session of Cong. asks for declaration of war, 523;
    says creation of Com. on Wom. Suff. would be very wise act, 524;
    "democracy a rule of action," 533;
    Dr. Shaw proposes message of loyalty and support which conv. sends,
     533;
    chairmen of four minor parties petition for Fed. Suff. Amend, 548;
    sends best wishes for Fed. Amend, to natl. suff. conv; it returns
      appreciation of his support, 558;
    Dem. members call on him; he advises submission of Fed. Suff. Amend,
      562;
    appeals to Senate in person, 563;
    makes second appeal, 564;
    accepts services of Natl. Suff. Assn. for war, 578;
    favors Fed. Amend, 579;
    anti-suffs. misuse his declaration on wom. suff, 580;
    members of House com. interview and he urges it, 583;
    sends best wishes to League of Women Voters, 599;
    natl. conv. expresses gratitude, 600;
    inaugurated, receives four deputns. for wom. suff, 626;
    favors it, 630;
    favors Wom. Suff. Com, 633; 634;
    declares for Fed. Suff. Amend, 635;
    Dem. women confer with, 639;
    appeals to Senate, 640;
    second appeal, 640;
    cables from Paris, 642-3;
    calls spec. session of Cong, 644;
    Mrs. Catt pays tribute for his support of Fed. Suff. Amend, 648;
    assists ratif. in Tenn; sends message to jubilee suff. meeting, 652;
    on wom. suff. in 1912 and 1915, 708;
    suggests wom. suff. plank in 1916, 713-14;
    explains it; does not disapprove Fed. Amend, 714;
    Natl. Amer. Wom. Suff. Assn. offers its services for war work, 722;
    he expresses appreciation, 725;
    women ask representn. at Peace Conf, 738;
    he pays tribute to Woman's Com. of Council of Natl. Defense, 739;
    Dr. Shaw answers his declaration that U. S. wants nothing material
      out of the war, 759;
    tribute to Dr. Shaw after her death, 760;
    with Mrs. Wilson sends sympathy and flowers, 760;
    address to U. S. Senate urging submission of Fed. Suff. Amend; "wom.
      suff. necessary to prosecution of the war and trust of other
      peoples," 761-763.

  Winslow, Rose, 364;
    brings to natl. conv. res. for suff. of Natl. Wom. Trade Union
    League, 394.

  Winsor, Mary, 319.

  Wise, Rabbi Stephen S, 141.

  Wollstonecraft, Mary, 185.

  _Woman Citizen_, _Woman's Journal_ and other papers merged in, 528;
    work for Fed. Amend, 556;
    acct. of Senate debate on Fed. Suff. Amend, 563;
    "service indispensable," 614; 698.

  Woman Suffrage, status in 1901, 16.

  Woman Suffrage Committee,
    gives five days' hearing on Fed. Suff. Amend, reports favorably,
      562;
    again, 565.

  Woman Suffrage Party, name widely adopted, 313.

  Woman Suffrage Publishing Co, Natl, final report, printed and distrib.
    50,000,000 pieces of literature, 614.
    See Ogden, Esther G.

  Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
    State of Tasmania sends greetings to natl. suff. conv, 28;
    World's, endorses wom. suff, 205;
    action of States, 206;
    close cooperation with suff. assns, 215; 247;
    many references.

  Woman's Committee of Council of National Defense,
    Govt. appoints Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman, 520;
    she describes its duties, asks cooperation of Natl. Suff. Assn,
      534-536;
    further acct, other members, 726-7; 730;
    great work, 737;
    its duties ended, Secy, of War Baker's tribute, 739.

  _Woman's Journal_, 39;
    on natl. conv. in New Orleans, 55; 73; 79; 89;
    accounts of suff. conv. in Portland, 118-19;
    compliments to, 132;
    tribute to Miss Anthony, 134;
    comment on change of heart of Miss Anthony and Mr. Blackwell, 147;
    report on wom. suff. in Legislatures, 211;
    Miss Blackwell's work on, 260;
    account of expos, at Seattle and suff. day, 264;
    criticises Pres. Taft's speech to natl. suff. conv, 373;
    Mr. Blackwell's work on paper, 277;
    Miss Blackwell offers to make it offic. organ of Natl. Amer. Assn,
      which accepts, 289;
    descrip. of natl. suff. convs, 290;
    founder and editors, 311;
    first report under auspices of Natl. Amer. Assn, 315;
    high praise for Ky. women, 331;
    bound vols. at natl. suff. headqrs, 335;
    deficit under control of Natl. Assn, paid by Mrs. McCormick and
      paper returned to Miss Blackwell, 337;
    says Shafroth Amend, should have been submitted to Natl. Exec.
      Council but supports it, 415, 422;
    merged in _Woman Citizen_, 528; 667.

  Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Foundation in Preventive
    Medicine, mem. to Dr. Shaw, 613.

  Woman's Rights Convention, first, 16;
    60th anniv. celebr, 213;
    Mrs. Stanton's and Miss Howland's descriptions, 215;
    program of meeting, 219.

  Women's Trade Union League, Natl. res. for wom. suff, 394.

  Wood, C. E. S, 135.

  Wood, Harriette Johnson, 238.

  Wood, Henry A. Wise, at last suff. hearing, "voting a man's job," 585.

  Wood, U. S. Rep. William R. (Ind.), 548.

  Woods, Dr. Frances, 20; 208.

  Woodward, Mrs. C. S, 229.

  Woolley, Rev. Celia Parker, 18; 20; 703.

  Woolley, Pres. Mary E, at natl. suff. conv. in Balto, shows
    indebtedness of higher education of women to suff. leaders, tribute
    to Miss Anthony, plea for wom, suff, 168-9; 442;
    signs Call for Natl. Coll. Wom. Suff. League, 661;
    an officer, 663.

  Woolsey, Kate Trimble, 239.

  Working women, laws for, 95;
    need of vote, 97; 143;
    suff. movement needs, 165-6;
    their need of vote, injustice of Govt, 189; 209;
    their need of suff, 210;
    conditions in New York, 231;
    duty of women of leisure, 233;
    Congressl. suff. hearing devoted to, 301; 302; 304;
    Miss Lathrop says theirs would not be the ignorant vote, 345;
    their case presented at natl. suff. conv, 348, 350-2; 356; 357; 361;
    on natl. wom. suff. platform, 1913, the ballot and a square deal
      demanded, 364-5;
    their large orgztns. want suff, 392;
    laws for in equal suff. States, 393;
    they demand the vote, 394;
    no chivalry for, 409; 472;
    they only can reach working men, 519.

  Works, U. S. Sen. John D, 339; 347.

  Works, Mrs. John D, 383.

  Wright, Carroll D, for wom. suff, 196.

  Wright, Dr. George H, objects to Shafroth Amend, 747.

  Wright, Martha C,
    in anti-slavery days, 203;
    calls first Wom. Rights Conv, 219.

  Writers and editors, eminent list sign petit, for wom. suff, 296-7.

  Wyoming,
    first to give wom. suff, 34;
    effect of, 52; 624.


  Y

  Yates, Elizabeth Upham,
    pres. R. I. assn, 288;
    report on Pres. suff, 325, 338;
    shows value of Pres. suff. already gained, 447; 539-40.

  Yellowstone Park, delegates visit, 21.

  Yost, Mrs. Ellis A, describes W. Va. suff. campn, 494.

  Youmans, Mrs. Henry, at Anthony celebr, 615.

  Young, Ella Flagg, 394; 515.

  Young, Rose,
    describes Mrs. Catt's address to Cong, 521;
    report of _Woman Citizen_ and Leslie Bureau of Educatn. in 1917;
      founded with Mrs. Frank Leslie fund under six depts, 527-8; 561;
    report in 1919, vast field of activity described, 570;
    in 1920, 614;
    arranges tableaux at last suff. conv, 617; 716.

  Young, Virginia Durant, 35; 69; 204.

  Younger, Maud,
    at Rules Com. hearing, 549;
    at Wom. Suff. Com. hearing, 585.


  Z

  Zakrzewska, Dr. Marie, 74.




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Transcriber's note:

The transcriber made the following changes to the text to correct
obvious errors:

   1. p. 98  February 15, **illegible text** Anthony's 84th birthday -->
             February 15, was Miss Anthony's 84th birthday
   2. p. 102 applicaation --> application
   3. p. 175 pertainng --> pertaining
   4. p. 191 suffrange --> suffrage
   5. p. 297 this chapter.  --> this chapter.]
   6. p. 415 we though --> we thought
   7. p. 457 wth --> with
   8. p. 457 triumpant --> triumphant
   9. p. 668 Misissippi --> Mississippi
  10. p. 717 Gellborn --> Gellhorn
  11. p. 756 acordance  --> accordance
  12. p. 765 Punctuation in Index standardized
  13. p. 790 Cingressl. --> Congressl.
  14. p. 812 U'Rea --> U'Ren