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 Alumnae, 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.

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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 role 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.

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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 resume 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.

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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 Compiegne.

"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.

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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.

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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 role 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.