In the House the honor of introducing the resolution was accorded to Mrs. Haskell, Representative from Pierce county, who made a strong speech favoring its adoption. Not one vote was cast against it. By special resolution Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe, referred to as "the mother of suffrage" in the State, was invited to a seat on the right of Speaker Adams, with Governor Hart on the left. A special committee was appointed to escort her and she took her seat amid loud cheers. She was asked to address the House and said in part:

I am proud of the Legislature of Washington because of this patriotic act and I thank you in the name of our forefathers, who first proclaimed that "taxation without representation is tyranny" and that government without consent is unjust.... I thank you in the name of the early suffrage workers who have passed on to their beautiful reward. I thank you in the name of the women of the United States of today who will, I trust, use their new political freedom wisely and well. I thank you in the name of the children who will come after us; they will have a better, broader and nobler heritage than was ours. And I personally thank you from the depths of my heart. God bless you every one!

Twelve minutes after the resolution reached the Senate it had been passed by another unanimous vote. During the proceedings Mrs. Homer M. Hill sat beside President Carlyon and was invited to address the members. Described as "a tiny figure whose white hair was scarcely on a level with the top of the Speaker's desk," she expressed the emotions of the older suffragists as they witnessed the adoption of the resolution. She thanked them in the name also of the W. C. T. U., and thanked the leaders in the cause of labor and of many other organizations, as well as the leaders of both parties. "Washington has led the victorious crusade for the Pacific Coast States," she said. "May we always appreciate what it means to live in a State whose men themselves gave this right to women!"

* * * * *

[LAWS. A complete digest of the laws relating especially to the interests of women and children and to moral questions enacted during the first decade of the present century was prepared for this chapter by Judge Reah M. Whitehead of Seattle. This was supplemented by an abstract of fifty-eight statutes of a similar nature enacted during the last decade, prepared by attorneys Adella M. Parker of Seattle and Bernice A. Sapp of Olympia. They largely cover the field of modern liberal legislation but can not be given because of the decision to omit the laws in all the State chapters for lack of space. The results on questions related to prohibition submitted to the electors, with women voting, are significant: Statute for State-wide prohibition submitted in 1914: ayes, 189,840; noes, 171,208; statute submitted in 1916 permitting hotels to sell liquor: ayes, 48,354; noes, 262,390; statute authorizing manufacture, sale and export of 4 per cent. beer: ayes, 98,843; noes, 245,399.]

FOOTNOTES:

[196] The History is indebted for this chapter to Dr. Cora Smith King, assisted by Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe, Dr. Sarah A. Kendall, Mrs. Homer M. Hill, and others. Valuable assistance in editing the manuscript was rendered by Judson King, writer and lecturer, Secretary of the National Popular Government League, Washington, D. C.

[197] Following is a complete list of the officers of the State Association who served during the campaign of 1910: President, Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe, Melmont; vice-presidents: Mrs. Bessie I. Savage, Seattle; Mrs. Jennie Jewett, White Salmon; Mrs. John Q. Mason, Tacoma; Mrs. Alice M. Grover, Spokane; Mrs. Anna E. Goodwin, Columbia (now Mrs. Yungbluth); treasurer, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, Seattle (now Dr. King); corresponding secretary, Mrs. Ellen S. Leckenby, Seattle; headquarters secretary, Miss Mabel Fontron, Seattle (now Mrs. Paul Rewman); auditors, Miss Bernice A. Sapp, Olympia, Dr. Anna W. Scott, West Seattle, Dr. N. Jolidon Croake, Tacoma, Mrs. H. J. McGregor, Tacoma; trustees, Dr. Sarah A. Kendall, Seattle, Mrs. Georgia B. Smith, Anacortes, Mrs. B. B. Lord, Olympia; chairmen of standing committees: Church Work, Mrs. C. M. Miller, Seattle; Letter Writers, Mrs. Lucie F. Isaacs, Walla Walla; Literature, Mrs. E. M. Wardall, West Seattle; Labor Unions, Dr. Luema G. Johnson, Tacoma; Publication, Miss Linda Jennings, LaConner; Finance, Mrs. H. D. Wright, Seattle; Headquarters, Miss Mary G. O'Meara, Seattle (now Mrs. Otway Pardee); Advisory, Mrs. Amos Brown, West Seattle; Library, Mrs. Dora W. Cryderman, Bellingham; Precincts, Mrs. Silvia A. Hunsicker, Seattle; Petitions, Mrs. Roy Welch, Kelso; Educational, Mrs. Margaret Heyes Hall, Vancouver; Member of National Executive Committee, Miss Adella M. Parker, Seattle; Historian, Miss Ida Agnes Baker, Bellingham.

[198] Other officers of the Franchise Society were: Assistants, Mrs. Edward P. Fick and Mrs. D. L. Carmichael; corresponding secretary, Mrs. F. S. Bash; recording secretary, Mrs. W. T. Perkins; treasurer, Mrs. E. M. Rininger; financial secretary, Mrs. Phebe A. Ryan. Others who worked without pay were: Miss Martha Gruening of New York and Miss Jeannette Rankin of Montana. Mrs. George A. Smith, president of the Alki Point Suffrage Club of Seattle, worked independently but cooperated with the society in many ways. The society employed Mrs. Rose Aschermann, Mrs. Ethel Stalford, Charles E. Cline, Vaughn Ellis and John Gray of Washington.

[199] During the year following the winning of the franchise Mrs. Hanna published her paper under the name of The New Citizen. Miss Parker published twelve numbers of a monthly paper called The Western Woman Voter, from the files of which much valuable data has been gleaned for this chapter.

[200] The member was Dr. Cora Smith King.—Ed.

[201] Among eastern contributors were Henry B. and Alice Stone Blackwell, Mass., $250; Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Lesser, California, $100; Mrs. H. E. Flansburg, New York, $100; Miss Janet Richards, Washington, D. C., $100; the Rev. Olympia Brown, Wisconsin, $25. The National American Woman Suffrage Association contributed direct to Mrs. DeVoe for traveling expenses to June, 1909, inclusive, $900. At this time, seventeen months before the amendment was submitted, through differences arising between the national and State organizations, all national support was withdrawn. Among those contributing from the East to Mrs. Hill's society through Miss Margaret W. Bayne of Kirkland, who went there to raise money, her own trip being financed by Mrs. E. M. Rininger of Seattle, were: Mrs. Henry Villard, New York, $200; Mrs. Susan Look Avery, Kentucky, $250; Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller and Miss Anne Fitzhugh Miller, New York, $300; Mrs. Kemeys, New York, $100; Mrs. Alfred Lewis, New York, $50; Mrs. Raymond Robins, Illinois, $50; Misses Isabel and Emily Howland, New York, $20; Mrs. Sarah L. Willis, New York, $20; Mrs. Isabella B. Hooker, Conn., $25; Equal Suffrage Association, Mass., $100; Mrs. H. S. Luscomb, Mass., $100; "A Friend," $200.

The net contribution of the National to the State Association during the campaign, deducting the expense of entertaining the 1909 national convention, was about $30.



CHAPTER XLVII.

WEST VIRGINIA.[202]

In 1895 when the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association was organized through the effort of the National American Association, with Mrs. Jessie G. Manley president, nine clubs were formed in the northern part of the State but only those in Fairmont and Wheeling remained in existence after 1900. The first president of the Fairmont Club was the mother of Mrs. Manley, Mrs. Margaret J. Grove, who with her sisters, Mrs. Corilla E. Shearer and Miss Ellen D. Harn, all still living, aged 89, 90 and 92, led in the early suffrage work in the State, and Mrs. Mary Reed of Fairmont also was a pioneer. Little public work was done until an active suffrage movement was inaugurated in Virginia and in 1912 Miss Mary Johnston came to Charleston and organized a club. One was formed in Morgantown and these four constituted the State association until the amendment campaign of 1916.

The following have served as State presidents: Mrs. Beulah Boyd Ritchie, 1900-1903; Mrs. M. Anna Hall, 1904; Mrs. Anne M. Southern, 1905; Dr. Harriet B. Jones, 1906; Mrs. May Hornbrook, 1907-1910; Mrs. Allie Haymond, 1911-1912; Miss Margaret McKinney, 1913; Mrs. J. Gale Ebert, 1914-1915; Mrs. Lenna Lowe Yost, 1916; Mrs. John L. Ruhl, 1917-1920.[203] Annual meetings were held as follows: 1900, December 1, Fairmont; 1904, August 11, Moundsville; 1905, October 27, Fairmont; 1906, October 26, Wheeling; 1907, November 8, Wheeling; 1908, October 29, Fairmont; 1909, October 30, Wheeling; 1911, October 27, Fairmont; 1913, October 24, Wheeling. During these years practically all that was done was to have speakers of note from time to time and a resolution for woman suffrage introduced in the Legislature whenever possible.

In 1904 a new city charter was prepared for Wheeling and an effort was made to have it provide for a municipal vote for women. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national president, gave a week to speaking in the city and Miss Kate Gordon, national corresponding secretary, spent three weeks there, addressing many organizations. The question was submitted to the voters with the charter but on a separate ballot. Both were lost, the suffrage amendment by 1,600. More votes were cast on it than on the charter itself.

In 1910 an amendment to the State constitution permitting women to be appointed notaries public, clerks of county courts, probation officers and members of boards of State institutions went to the voters. The State Bar Association also had an amendment and kindly printed the literature for the former and sent it out with theirs. It received the larger number of votes—44,168 ayes, 45,044 noes—and was lost by only 876.

With the submission to the voters by the Legislature of 1915 of an amendment to the constitution conferring full suffrage activity was stimulated. Miss Ida Craft of New York, in cooperation with the women of Charleston, held a suffrage school there January 28-February 3 and at that time Mrs. J. E. Cannady, vice-president of its Equal Suffrage League, obtained permission from Governor Henry D. Hatfield to put the "suffrage map" in the lobby of the Capitol. Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, chairman of church work for the National Association, addressed the Woman's Club of Parkersburg April 5 and afterwards spoke in many cities and towns through arrangement by Dr. Jones, as did Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton of Warren and Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser of Girard, Ohio. In May Mrs. Ebert of Parkersburg, president of the State association, addressed a letter to the clergymen urging them to use as a text on Mothers' Day, May 9, The Need of Mothers' Influence in the State, and Dr. Jones sent a questionnaire to 150 editors, receiving answers favoring suffrage from 53. Mrs. Desha Breckinridge, president of the Kentucky Equal Suffrage Association, spent a week in the State speaking and Miss Craft, who kept her promise to return in May, organized many new suffrage groups, as did Mrs. Wesley Martin Stoner of Washington, who campaigned principally in the mining towns. In the summer a Men's Advisory Committee with Judge J. C. McWhorter as chairman was appointed by the State board; the State Educational Association in convention endorsed woman suffrage; and after an address by Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston of Maine, who was on a tour of the State, the Methodist Episcopal Conference passed a favorable resolution. Later on Governor's Day at Middlebourne with thousands of people present Mrs. Ebert spoke with Governor Hatfield, both making appeals for votes for women. At the annual Fall Festival at Huntington a suffrage float designed by Mrs. E. C. Venable was in the parade. At Parkersburg suffragists addressed an immense crowd at Barnum and Bailey's circus.

In October the number of small subscribers was increased by "dollar day," when many persons sacrificed or earned a dollar and gave it to the association. Window displays were arranged in many cities with especially elaborate ones in Wheeling, Parkersburg and Huntington. At the State convention held in Huntington Nov. 16, 1915, a "budget" of $25,000 was authorized, $5,000 of which was quickly subscribed by the delegates, Dr. Irene Bullard of Charleston and Mrs. Helen Brandeburg of Huntington pledging $1,000 each for their branches. Mrs. Frank Roessing of Pittsburgh, national first vice-president, who was one of the speakers, pledged $400 for the Pennsylvania association. For the first time there was an automobile parade.

In January, 1916, Mrs. Ebert resigned and Mrs. Yost, first vice-president, succeeded her, soon afterwards opening headquarters in her own home in Morgantown. These demanded practically every hour of her time from 6 in the morning until 11 at night throughout the ten months' campaign. Because of the illness of Dr. Bullard, chairman of literature, that department was moved to Morgantown and placed in charge of Mrs. P. C. McBee, with Lillie Hagans assisting. About $2,000 were invested in literature. Over 200,000 congressional speeches were sent to the voters. In the last days of the campaign personal appeals were mailed to those in half of the 55 counties and 10,000 posters were sent out by this bureau to be used on election day. Through a publicity department opened February 25, with Frank C. Dudley at the head, the 200 newspapers of the State were served with news bulletins. He also edited a special edition of the Wheeling Intelligencer in June. In September the National Association sent Mrs. Rose L. Geyer of Iowa, who had conducted the publicity in its campaign this year. During the last month bulletins were supplied to all daily papers; 110 newspapers were provided with free plate service; many anti-suffrage articles were answered; much copy was given to local newspapers about public meetings held by the speakers and organizers; newspaper advertisements were furnished to all rural papers the week before election; every city organization carried a conspicuous advertisement in the daily papers; hundreds of two-page supplements were furnished the last week. The majority of the newspapers were editorially in favor of the amendment.

In January the State association put two organizers in the field, Miss Marie Ames and Miss Eudora Ramsey, the salary of the latter paid by the Allegheny county suffrage society of Pennsylvania, and the National Association placed two, Miss Lavinia Engle and Miss Katherine B. Mills. An appeal in March for more help brought Miss Hannah J. Patterson, its corresponding secretary and chairman of organization. In making her report to the National Board on April 5 she recommended that headquarters be established in the business district of Morgantown; additional office assistance be sent to relieve the president; ten organizers be secured and so distributed that there would be one in every group of five or six counties; and a representative of the National Association visit the State each month in order to keep in close touch with the work. As the "budget" called for $16,000 the National Board voted to give $5,000 providing the State association would raise $11,000. The headquarters were moved at once and furnished by friends. Later when they became too small the Board of Trade rooms were placed at the disposal of the suffragists through the kindness of E. M. Grant. From time to time organizers were sent to the State until there were twenty-eight and 400 organizations were formed. To relieve the president, Miss Alice Curtis of Iowa was sent as executive secretary, remaining until the end of the campaign. Miss Patterson made three trips to the State. Mrs. Catt made one with her, meeting with the State board August 3, 4, in Clarksburg, to hold a workers' conference, which considered publicity, money raising, organization and election day methods. A "budget" of $14,948 to cover the last four-and-a-quarter months of the campaign was adopted.

A "flying squadron" of prominent West Virginia men and women speakers was sent in groups to thirty points. They were Dr. Joseph A. Bennett of Sistersville; C. Burgess Taylor of Wheeling; the Hon. Charles E. Carrigan of Moundsville; Judge McWhorter and J. M. N. Downes of Buckhannon; Howard L. Swisher of Morgantown; the Hon. Tracy L. Jeffords and the Hon. B. Randolph Bias of Williamson; Mrs. Frank N. Mann of Huntington; Mrs. Flora Williams of Wheeling, soloist. Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs of Alabama and Mrs. Nellie McClung of Canada joined the squadron and spoke at several points. Among others of influence who filled many speaking engagements and met their own expenses were Mrs. Henry M. Russell and Rabbi H. Silver of Wheeling; Milliard F. Snider and the Hon. Harvey W. Harmar of Clarksburg; Judge Frank Cox and ex-Governor Glasscock of Morgantown. Judge McWhorter made about 25 addresses. Uncounted numbers of women throughout the State freely gave their time and work. About 1,500 meetings were arranged by the headquarters staff exclusive of those in charge of local women. Mrs. Catt spoke to mass meetings at Clarksburg, Morgantown and Fairmont and at the hearing before the Democratic State convention; Mrs. Antoinette Funk of Chicago before the Republican State convention. Favorable suffrage planks were placed in the platforms of both parties and the candidates for Governor declared publicly for the amendment.

Dr. Shaw made thirteen addresses in cities of over 5,000 inhabitants, contributing her services and expenses with the condition that the collections at her meetings go into the State treasury. Miss Katharine Devereux Blake, principal of a New York City school, addressed Teachers' Institutes three weeks without charge, the State paying her expenses. Mrs. Jacobs gave a two weeks' speaking tour and paid her own expenses. Other speakers from outside the State were Mrs. Forbes Robertson Hale, Mrs. T. T. Cotnam of Arkansas; Dr. Effie McCollum Jones of Iowa; Mrs. Anna Ross Weeks and Miss Emma L. McAlarney of New York; Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham of Texas and Mrs. McClung. Dr. Harriet B. Jones spoke throughout the campaign.

The National Association paid the salary or expenses or both of the outside speakers and twenty of the organizers.[204] It paid also for 200,000 Congressional speeches; circularized and sent the Woman's Journal for four months to 1,600 clergymen; furnished suffrage posters and a Ford car and paid for election advertising in all the rural newspapers. It sent Mr. Heaslip, its own chairman of publicity, for the last days of the campaign. Financial assistance came also from the Massachusetts association. The State was left with a deficit of $3,740. During the campaign the National Association had sent in cash $5,257. Afterwards, to reduce the deficit, it sent money for the salary of one organizer and expenses of another beside $1,000 in cash. Later the Leslie Suffrage Commission paid a bill of $540 to the Publishing Company for literature ordered from June to November by the State and $2,000 in cash which cleared up the deficit. According to the State report the campaign cost the State organization about $9,000. It cost the National Association and Leslie Commission over $17,000.

The vote on November 7 was 63,540 in favor; 161,607 against; opposing majority of 98,000, the largest ever given against woman suffrage. Only two out of the fifty-five counties carried, Brooke and Hancock, industrial districts situated in the extreme northern part of the State. Brooke county had the lowest per cent. of illiteracy—two per cent. while it was eight and three-tenths per cent. in the State at large. The "wet" vote of Wheeling, Huntington and Charleston proved a decisive factor in defeating the amendment. Another element working toward the suffrage defeat was the use made by the opposition of the negro question. They told the negroes that the white women would take the vote away from them and also establish a "Jim-Crow" system and they told the white women that the negro women outnumbered them and would get the balance of power. There is a large colored vote in the State. A really big campaign was conducted and while the size of the opposition vote was appalling, one must consider that it was the first attempt. The election methods in some places were reprehensible.

The State convention was held at Fairmont, Nov. 20, 1917, and there was a determination to hold together for future effort. In 1918 there was no convention, the women being absorbed in war work. By 1919 another great struggle was ahead, as it was evident that the Federal Suffrage Amendment would soon be sent to the Legislatures by Congress.

Following the plan of the National Association Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, national corresponding secretary and chairman of organization, went to Charleston on Jan. 7, 1919, to meet the State board to discuss plans for ratification. The officers present were Mrs. Ruhl, president; Mrs. Yost, member of the National Executive Committee, and Mrs. Edward S. Romine of Wheeling, chairman of the Congressional Committee. They stated that there was little organization, no funds and that help must be given by the National Association. Mrs. Shuler remained two weeks and with these three officers and Miss Edna Annette Beveridge interviewed and polled members of the Legislature. Acting for the association Mrs. Shuler divided the State and assigned the districts to three national organizers, Miss Beveridge, who remained three-and-a-half months; Mrs. Augusta Hughston and Miss Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, six weeks each, the National Association paying salary and expenses and furnishing literature and printed petitions to members of the Legislature. Suffrage societies were revived, public officials, editors and ministers interviewed and much work was done.

On April 2, 3, a large and enthusiastic State convention was held in Charleston at the Kanawha Hotel. Coming directly from the convention of the National Association at St. Louis, Mrs. Catt, the president, who had asked for a "working" conference with the State board, spoke on the Federal Amendment at the afternoon session and to a mass meeting in the Young Men's Christian Association Hall in the evening. She was accompanied by Mrs. Shuler, who spoke at a dinner in the Ruffner Hotel presided over by Mrs. Woodson T. Wills, vice-president of the West Virginia Federation of Women's Clubs, and addressed by prominent men and women of the State and by Miss Marjorie Shuler, national director of field publicity, who had conducted a conference at the afternoon session.

RATIFICATION. The Federal Amendment was submitted by Congress June 4, and the pressing work for the State association was to secure its ratification by the Legislature. Mrs. Ellis A. Yost was made chairman of the Ratification Committee, whose other members were Mrs. Ruhl, Mrs. Ebert, Mrs. H. D. Rummel, Miss Mary Wilson, Miss Margaret McKinney and Mrs. Romine. An Advisory Board was formed of 150 of as influential men as there were in the State, judges, lawyers, bankers, officials, presidents and professors of colleges, editors, clergymen, presidents of the State Federation of Labor and other organizations; and the most prominent women in educational, civic and club work. This list was printed on the campaign stationery. The last of December Governor John J. Cornwell received a letter from Mrs. Catt urging him to call a special session in January. He was known to favor ratification and he had been kept informed by the members of the suffrage association and the W. C. T. U., who had polled the legislators and found a majority in favor.

The Democratic Governor called the Republican Legislature in special session for Friday, February 27, 1920. President Wilson telegraphed members of the Senate: "May I not urge upon you the importance to the whole country of the prompt ratification of the suffrage amendment and express the hope that you will find it possible to lend your aid to this end?" Both the Democratic and Republican National Committees joined in urging ratification, as did the entire State delegation in Congress, who had voted for submitting the amendment. The resolution was introduced and by the rules went over for one day. All looked promising when suddenly its advocates found themselves in a torrent of opposition, due to the injection of the fight that was being made for the governorship and interference from outside the State. The Maryland Legislature sent a committee to urge its rejection and anti-suffrage leaders from all over the country made their appearance. The vote was taken on Wednesday and stood 47 ayes, 40 noes in the House. The vote was 14 to 14 in the Senate. A motion to reconsider was lost by the same vote. In the meantime Senator Jesse A. Bloch, who was in California, telegraphed: "Just received notice of special session. Am in favor of ratification. Please arrange a pair for me." This was refused by the opponents with jeers. Secretary of State Houston G. Young immediately got into communication with him on the long distance telephone and he agreed to make a race across the continent for Charleston.

Then came the struggle to hold the lines intact until his arrival. The situation was most critical because a motion in the Lower House to reconsider had been laid on the table and could be called up at any time. Many members were anxious to go home and there was difficulty in keeping enough present at roll call to defeat hostile attacks. The tie in the Senate held fast, however, as Senator Bloch sped across the country. The day he reached Chicago the opposition resorted to its most desperate expedient by producing a former Senator, A. R. Montgomery, who about eight months before had resigned his seat, saying that he was leaving the State, and later had moved to Illinois. There was documentary evidence that he had given up his residence. He demanded of Governor Cornwell to return his letter of resignation. The Governor refused and he then appeared in the Senate that afternoon and offered to vote. President Sinsel promptly ruled that he was not a member. On an appeal from this ruling he was sustained by a tie vote and the case was referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections.

When Senator Bloch reached Chicago he found that not only a special train but also an airship were awaiting him.[205] He chose the train and made the trip with a speed that was said to have broken all records. He arrived on March 10 and took his seat in the Senate amid cheers from crowded galleries. The corridors were thronged and even the floor of the Senate was crowded with guests, many of them women. Then followed a most dramatic debate of several hours, as each side tried to get the advantage. Montgomery was not permitted to take his seat and at 6 o'clock in the afternoon the vote was taken—16 ayes, 13 noes, one opponent changing his vote when he saw the resolution would pass.

After the Senate vote a second was secured in the House by the opponents of the motion to reconsider, which resulted in a larger favorable majority than the first.

Harvey W. Harmer of Clarksburg, who had charge of the resolution in the Senate and W. S. John of Morgantown in the House, deserve the warmest gratitude of the women. It was not an ordinary vote that the members gave but one which stood the test for days and against the most determined opposition. Too much praise can not be given to Governor Cornwell for calling the special session and for unyieldingly standing by the cause. The Democratic State chairman, C. L. Shaver, although unable to be present, gave splendid help. The men outside the Legislature who gave their time unstintedly, and were present, cooperating with the Ratification Committee of the Equal Suffrage Association, were State chairman of the Republican Committee, W. E. Baker; Secretary of State Young, former Minister to Venezuela; Elliott Northcott, mayor of Charleston; ex-Governor A. B. White; U. S. Senator Howard Sutherland; Major John Bond; National Republican Committeeman Virgil L. Highland; Congressman M. M. Neely; Mayor Hall and Jesse B. Sullivan, a prominent newspaper correspondent. The best legal and editorial assistance was given generously by the Hon. Fred O. Blue, the Hon. Clyde B. Johnson and former U. S. Senator W. E. Chilton. Boyd Jarrell, editor of the Huntington Herald Dispatch, was constantly on the firing line.

The chairman of the Ratification Committee had a herculean task during these strenuous days and after they were over a letter of appreciation of her services was sent to Mrs. Catt, the national president, which closed: "The opposing elements combined tended to create for Mrs. Yost what at first seemed to be a situation impossible of solution, but with rare tact and a soundness of judgment that we have seldom seen equalled her leadership has brought about a complete victory. As supporters of suffrage we are sending you this without Mrs. Yost's knowledge and simply that at least some part of the credit due her may be given." This was signed by Chas. A. Sinsel, president State Senate; Grant P. Hall, Mayor of Charleston; W. E. Chilton, former U. S. Senator; Houston C. Young, Secretary of State; Albert B. White, former Governor; W. E. Baker, chairman Republican State Committee; J. S. Darst, Auditor of State.

The president of the State Association, Mrs. Ruhl, was present throughout the sessions, as were members of the State committee, Mrs. Ebert, Mrs. Rummel, Miss McKinney, Mrs. Romine, Mrs. Thomas Peadro, Mrs. Mann, Mrs. Allie B. Haymond, Mrs. O. S. McKinney, Mrs. Kemble White, Mrs. William G. Brown and Mrs. Olandus West. The cost of organizers and literature in the ratification campaign to the National Association was about $2,300, in addition to the State association's expenses.

On Sept. 30, 1920, the State association became the League of Women Voters and Mrs. John L. Ruhl was elected chairman.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 1901. A bill for Presidential suffrage, drawn by George E. Boyd, Sr., was introduced in the House by Henry C. Hervey and seconded by S. G. Smith of Wheeling. It was rejected by a vote of 31 to 25, Speaker Wilson voting against it. The bill was introduced in the Senate by Nelson Whittaker of Wheeling. U. S. Senator Stephen B. Elkins commanded it to be tabled and this was done.

1903. A bill for Presidential suffrage was defeated.

1905. A resolution introduced in the Senate by Samuel Montgomery to submit a suffrage amendment to the State Constitution received two votes.

1907. Dr. A. J. Mitchell introduced a resolution for an amendment in the house; Z. J. Forman in the Senate. Senator Robert Hazlett arranged a legislative hearing at which every seat was occupied, with people sitting on the steps and sides of the platform and the large space in the back part of the room filled with men standing. Dr. Harriet B. Jones made a short address and was followed by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National Suffrage Association, in an eloquent plea. The vote in the Senate was 10 ayes, 13 noes; in the House, 26 ayes, 48 noes.

1913. A resolution to submit a State amendment was introduced in the House January 28 by M. K. Duty and later at his request Delegate Ellis A. Yost took charge of it. Through the generosity of the Hon. William Seymour Edwards, Miss Mary Johnston was brought to Charleston by its suffrage association and addressed the Legislature, which assembled in the House Chamber. She also spoke to a large audience in the Burlew Theater. The resolution came up on February 15; the hall was crowded with interested spectators and stirring speeches were made by the members. On the final roll call, to the dismay of its supporters, it did not poll the necessary two-thirds. On motion of Delegate Yost the announcement of the vote was postponed till Monday, the 17th, and every possible effort was made to bring in absent members but as the final vote was being taken it was seen that it lacked one. At the request of Governor Hatfield Delegate Hartley changed his vote and it was carried by the needed 58, Speaker Taylor George voting for it. The resolution was introduced in the Senate by N. G. Keim of Elkins and supported by able speakers but it was lost on February 20 by 14 noes, 16 ayes, 20 being necessary.

1915. On January 26 the resolution for a State amendment was submitted by 26 ayes, 3 noes in the Senate and 76 ayes, 8 noes in the House, to be voted on in November, 1916.

FOOTNOTES:

[202] The History is indebted for this chapter to Dr. Harriet B. Jones, officially identified with the movement for woman suffrage in the State since its beginning about thirty years ago, and to Lenna Lowe (Mrs. Ellis A.) Yost, chairman of the Ratification Committee; also to the records of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

[203] Women who have been most prominent in the work not already mentioned are: Miss Jennie Wilson, Mrs. Annie C. Boyd, Mrs. Henry O. Ott, Miss Elizabeth Cummins, Miss Anne Cummins, Miss Florence Hoge, Mrs. Virginia Hoge Kendall and Mrs. Edward W. Hazlett of Wheeling; Mrs. I. N. Smith, Mrs. Harold Ritz and Mrs. A. M. Finney of Charleston; Miss Harriet Schroeder of Grafton.

[204] The organizers, who often were speakers also, not elsewhere mentioned, were Misses Adella Potter, Eleanor Furman, Alice Riggs Hunt, Lola Walker, Josephine Casey, Lola Trax, Grace Cole, Eleanor Raoul, Mrs. C. E. Martin, Mrs. W. J. Cambron, Mrs. Elizabeth Sullivan, Dr. Harriet B. Dilla and others. Miss Ramsey and Miss Raoul gave the use of their cars. Miss Gertrude Watkins and Miss Gertrude Miller of Arkansas donated their services from July 17, the State paying their expenses. The Philadelphia County Society sent Miss Mabel Dorr for two-and-a-half months as its contribution. Miss Alma B. Sasse of Missouri gave her services for over two months, the State paying her expenses.

[205] It was kept a secret at the time who was responsible for this arrangement but later it was found to be Captain Victor Heinze of Cincinnati, who had charge of the National Republican headquarters in Chicago.



CHAPTER XLVIII.

WISCONSIN.[206]

Woman suffrage history in Wisconsin from 1900 to 1920 naturally divides itself into three sections, the first including the ten years preceding the submission of the referendum measure by the Legislature in 1911; the second the two years of the referendum campaign and the third the succeeding seven years to 1920.

The work of the State Woman Suffrage Association, which was organized in 1869, continued in the 20th century, as in the 19th, through organization, public meetings, annual conventions, the publication of the Wisconsin Citizen. The conventions of the first decade, which always took place in the autumn, were held as follows: 1901, Brodhead; 1902, Madison; 1903, Platteville; 1904, Janesville; 1905, Milwaukee; 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, Madison; 1911, Racine. The Rev. Olympia Brown, who had been elected president in 1883, continued to serve in that capacity with undiminished vigor and ability, having been elected every year, until the end of 1912. Besides her other services she gave hundreds of addresses on woman suffrage, speaking in nearly every city in the State.[207]

The publication of the Wisconsin Citizen, established in 1887, was continued in spite of limited finances. Its first editor was Martha Parker Dingee from Boston, a niece of Theodore Parker, who gave her services for seven years. After that the editors were Mrs. Helen H. Charlton, Miss Lena V. Newman and Mrs. Youmans. After 1914 it was published at Waukesha, before that at Brodhead, and was discontinued in 1917. Notable speakers from outside the State at conventions of the first decade were Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, the Rev. Florence Buck, the Rev. Marion Murdock, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Miss Jane Addams and Dr. Julia Holmes Smith.

The association for some time supported a State organizer, the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis, and later Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe for two seasons. In 1902 headquarters were established at Madison, the capital, in a little room in the State House, for the distribution of literature, and here was kept a register of men and women who believed in woman suffrage. In 1907 the Rev. Mrs. Brown prepared a bulletin for the legislators, giving the statistics of woman suffrage in the United States and other countries.

In 1908 Mrs. Maud Wood Park came to Wisconsin and spoke to women students of five colleges, arrangements having been previously made by Mrs. Brown, who took part in some of the meetings, and College Women's Suffrage Leagues were organized. Mrs. Brown prepared a pamphlet, Why the Church Should Demand the Ballot for Women, which was widely distributed. Near the end of 1909 the State association was asked to circulate the national petition to Congress for the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Blanks were sent all over the State to schools, libraries and other public institutions and to individuals. The members took up the matter with enthusiasm and worked faithfully. The association did all that could be done in the six weeks allowed and about 18,000 names were signed, 5,000 of them in Racine. Mrs. Wentworth, over eighty years of age, canvassed portions of the city and obtained 1,000 names.

During this whole decade resolutions and petitions were sent to Congress and at every session of the Legislature suffrage measures were introduced. Mrs. Jessie M. Luther was chairman of the Legislative Committee during this period, an unrecognized and unpaid lobbyist, but by her skilful work, in which at times she was assisted by Mrs. Nellie Donaldson and others, she kept the Legislature in advance of the people of the State.

In 1911 the Legislature submitted to the voters a statutory law giving full suffrage to women, as it had authority to do. Influences from outside the State led to the organization of the Political Equality League, of which Miss Ada L. James was president and Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict from New York was made campaign manager. The campaign of 1911-1912, therefore, was carried on by two organizations, the State association and this league, working separately, although effort was made to correlate their activities by forming a cooperative committee representing both societies, of which Miss Gwendolen Brown Willis was chairman. The National American Woman Suffrage Association, through its president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, contributed $100 per month salary for an organizer and speaker, Miss Harriet Grim, and gave further assistance to both organizations.[208]

Both associations employed field organizers, arranged meetings, provided speakers, distributed literature and made active effort to interest as far as possible organizations and individuals in the cause. The State association had headquarters in the Majestic Building and later in the Goldsmith Building in Milwaukee. The League had offices first in the Wells Building and later in the Colby-Abbott Building in that city. A bulletin of suffrage news was sent each week to the 600 newspapers in the State by Mrs. Youmans, who was press manager.

The campaign opened with a big rally in Racine June 1, 1912. The Rev. Olympia Brown, State president, continued her speaking tours without cessation and was assisted by prominent outside speakers, including Mrs. May Wright Sewall, Mrs. Colby, Dr. and Mrs. William Funck of Baltimore, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery and Mrs. Clara V. Laddey, who addressed the Germans. Miss Willis arranged a course of lectures in Milwaukee for Miss Jane Addams, Louis F. Post, Dr. Sophonisba Breckinridge of Chicago University, and Mrs. Catherine Waugh McCulloch.[209]

The Political Equality League believed enthusiastically in street meetings and arranged many of them in Milwaukee and other cities. Under the same auspices several automobile tours swept the State, one of them having an itinerary through the southwestern counties, Miss James, Mrs. B. C. Gudden, Miss Grim and Miss Mabel Judd the speakers. The noted air pilot, Beachy, scattered suffrage fliers from the airship which he took up into the clouds at the State Fair in Milwaukee. The State association had a large tent on the grounds, in front of which there were a platform for speakers, where addresses were made every day, and a counter covered with literature and books. The two societies conducted Votes for Women tours up the Wolf and Fox Rivers, which were important features of the campaign. They traveled in a little steamer, stopping at landings and speaking and giving out literature. The association also held outdoor meetings at lunchtime before the factories and wherever it seemed best. The league formed two allied societies, the Men's League for Woman Suffrage, of which the late H. A. J. Upham was president, and a league for colored people, Miss Carrie Horton, president.

An extended series of mass meetings was held in many cities addressed by prominent speakers, who came from outside the State to assist, among whom were Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe Watson, Miss Addams, Mrs. Beatrice Forbes Robertson, Mrs. Emily Montague Bishop, Professor Charles Zueblin, Max Eastman, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery; the Countess of Warwick and Miss Sylvia Pankhurst of England; Miss Inez Milholland, Mrs. Maud C. Nathan, Mrs. Glendower Evans, Baroness von Suttner (Austria), Mrs. Alice Duer Miller, Mrs. Florence Kelley, Rabbi Emil Hirschberg, Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout, Mrs. Henrietta C. Lyman, Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, Dr. Anna E. Blount, the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, Mrs. Clara Neymann, who addressed the Germans, and Dr. Shaw.

There is no adequate record of that campaign in existence. Mrs. Luther was State historian and in the habit of keeping carefully all programs, calls for meetings, reports and other material necessary for history, which were preserved at the Capitol and were destroyed when it was burned. The Political Equality League raised and expended $10,000 and the State association $5,000, as reported to the Secretary of State. Nearly as much more was expended by individual members and by other organizations. Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Benedict arranged a mass meeting in New York which netted $2,700.

The determined hostility of the liquor interests to woman suffrage was unmistakably shown during the campaign by the official organ of the State Retail Liquor Dealers' Protective Association, called "Progress." For months preceding the election it was filled with objections, innuendo and abuse in prose, verse and pictures, all designed to impress the reader with the absurdity and danger of giving the vote to women. It appealed to the farmers and to every class of people connected in any way with the manufacture and sale of beer, saying in headlines: "Give the Ballot to Woman and Industry goes to Smash." "It means the Loss of Vast Sums to Manufacturer, Dealer and Workingmen," and this was kept up to the end.

An unprecedented vote was cast on the woman suffrage proposition at the election November 4, 1912: for, 135,736; against, 227,054; lost by 91,318. Each of the three constitutional amendments voted on at the time received barely a fifth of the vote cast on this measure. Of the 71 counties but 14 were carried for suffrage, Douglas county in the extreme northwest on Lake Superior had the best record, a majority of 1,000. Milwaukee county, including the city, gave 20,445 votes for and 40,029 votes against. The referendum was placed on a pink ballot, used only for this purpose, which unquestionably increased the majority against it, as even the most illiterate could stamp it with a "no." The defeat was conceded to have been due to an insufficiency of general education on woman suffrage and of organization, the large foreign population and the widespread belief that it would help largely to bring prohibition.

Three days after the election officers of the Political Equality League sent to officers of the State association a letter proposing a union of the two under a new name and on condition that the president of neither should be made president of the new one. The latter was in favor of the union but insisted that the old historic name, Wisconsin Suffrage Association, should be retained, which was done. Miss Lutie E. Stearns was chosen its president at its annual convention to serve until the union was effected. There were ultimatums and counter-ultimatums and finally a call for a joint convention to be held in Madison Feb. 4, 5, 1913, was issued by Miss Zona Gale, vice-president of the association, and Miss James, president of the League. Here the union was duly effected; the Rev. Olympia Brown was elected honorary president, Mrs. Henry M. Youmans president and the other officers were divided between the two societies.

The suffrage work henceforth was conducted under the same president and the same policy. The first year of the new regime, the organization had no headquarters and paid no salaries, the officers doing their correspondence with their own hands. The next year an office was opened in Madison and Miss Alice Curtis was installed as executive secretary. It was difficult to do effective work so far away from the president and the office was removed to Waukesha, her residence, with Miss Curtis and later Mrs. Helen Haight in charge. In October, 1916, it was removed to Milwaukee, and, with the county association, headquarters were opened at 428 Jefferson Street, where they remained, with Mrs. Ruth Hamilton as office secretary.[210]

The great increase of sentiment favorable to woman suffrage throughout the country was plainly seen in Wisconsin and it was evident that a wide campaign of education must be undertaken. A "suffrage school" held in Madison in June, 1914, was very successful. Sixty-six women enrolled for the full course and hundreds of men and women attended the special lectures. The "faculty" of the school included the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, members of the faculty of the State University and other well known men and women. Social Forces, a topical outline with bibliography, published this year by the Education Committee, Mrs. A. S. Quackenbush, chairman, was especially designed for the instruction of women, first, in existing conditions, and second, in the various movements made to improve them. Copies were purchased by universities, organizations and individuals all over the United States. Wisconsin Legislators and the Home was a valuable pamphlet compiled by Miss James following the legislative session of 1913, giving the records of all members on the bills of especial interest to women which came up that year. Wisconsin Legislation, Topics for Discussion, was prepared in 1915 by Mrs. J. W. McMullein Turner for the use of the legislative and educational committees.

Miss James served as legislative chairman in 1913; Mrs. Ben Hooper in 1915; Mrs. Joseph Jastrow in 1917; Mrs. Hooper again in 1919. She was also for several years congressional chairman. Regular press service was continued during the last decade, a weekly letter being sent to 100 newspapers. Mrs. Youmans had charge of all publicity during her presidency. Mrs. Gudden supplied suffrage letters regularly to several German papers and due to her ability they were always published.

In March, 1916, a Congressional Conference was held in Milwaukee with Mrs. Catt, the national president, as the chief speaker. In June at the time of the Republican National Convention in Chicago the association sent to the great suffrage parade an impressive contingent, accompanied by a G. A. R. drum corps. This year it gave $500 to the Iowa campaign and among its members who assisted there and in campaigns in other States were Mrs. Hooper, Mrs. Haight, Miss Curtis, Mrs. Maud McCreery, Miss Edna Wright and Mrs. Youmans.

On Oct. 14, 1917, a branch of the National Woman's Party was formed in the home of Mrs. Victor Berger and became active. There were two anti-suffrage societies of women, one in Milwaukee and one in Madison, and together they formed a so-called State association, of which Mrs. C. E. Estabrook was president and Mrs. Francis Day an active member. They provided speakers for legislative hearings and signed their names to newspaper articles sent them from the East but were of slight importance. The State petition work was stopped by the epidemic of influenza in the autumn of 1918 and after the first of the next year the apparent favorable attitude of the Legislature made it unnecessary, but already in forty counties the names of 5,800 men and 20,000 women had been obtained. Self-denial Day was originated by Miss Harriet Bain of Wisconsin and adopted by the National Association. The fund in this State was over $400.

The State association was prompt to organize for war work and formed all the committees recommended by the National American Suffrage Association. Many suffrage leaders served as leaders of the war work in their communities. The president was on the Woman's Committee of the State Council of Defense and State chairman for Americanization. The association sent $1,590 for the Oversea Hospitals financed by the National Association.

The relations of the State with the National Association have been very cordial. It has sent a large delegation to each of the national conventions and paid its quota for the support of national work, about $1,500 in 1919.

In February, 1919, the Legislature gave Presidential suffrage to women and the submission of the Federal Amendment was near at hand. The last meeting of the State association, a Good Citizenship convention, was held in Milwaukee Oct. 29-Nov. 1. The program was devoted to the intelligent and patriotic use of the ballot. Mrs. Nancy M. Schoonmaker came from Connecticut to give six lectures on Citizenship for Women. A plan was adopted for publishing a Citizenship Manual and engaging a traveling representative to teach good citizenship to groups of women throughout the State. The convention provided that the association should automatically cease to exist as soon as the Federal Amendment was ratified, in any case not later than March 1, 1920, and should be replaced by a State League of Women Voters. This took place on February 20 and Mrs. Ben Hooper was elected chairman.[211]

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 1901. Provision was made for separate ballot boxes for women, making fully operative the School Suffrage Law of 1885.

1903. A Municipal suffrage bill received a small vote. A full suffrage measure introduced in the Assembly by David Evans was lost by only one and had a large vote in the Senate.

1905. A Municipal suffrage bill was passed by the Assembly; not acted upon by the Senate.

1909. A bill for a referendum to the voters passed in the Senate; defeated in the Assembly by a vote of 53 to 34.

1911. The session opened promisingly. David G. James introduced in the Senate and J. H. Kamper in the Assembly a measure providing full suffrage for Wisconsin women contingent upon the approval of a majority of the voters at the general election in November, 1912. Miss Mary Swain Wagner was the only registered lobbyist but other suffragists, notably Miss James, Mrs. George W. Peckham, Mrs. Nellie Donaldson and Mrs. Luther, worked for the measure. At a joint hearing thirteen speakers, including several from outside the State, spoke in favor of the bill and one lone Assemblyman, Carl Dorner, spoke in opposition. It passed the Senate March 31 by a vote of 16 to 4, and the Assembly April 26 by a vote of 69 to 29, and was signed by Governor Francis E. McGovern on the ground that it was a problem which should be solved by the voters. This measure was not, as generally assumed, an amendment to the constitution but was a law, the constitution providing that suffrage might be extended by statute but this must be ratified by a majority of the voters at a general election. It was defeated in 1912.

1913. Paradoxical as it may seem, legislators now became more friendly. The Legislature of 1913 passed by a large majority in both Houses another referendum bill introduced by Senator Robert Glenn but it was vetoed by Governor McGovern on the ground that the voters should not be asked so soon to pass upon a measure which they had just defeated.

1915. Three measures were introduced in 1915, one by Senator Glenn and Assemblyman W. C. Bradley, providing for full suffrage by State-wide referendum; one by Senator George E. Scott and Assemblyman H. M. Laursen, providing for Presidential suffrage by action of the Legislature, and one by Senator A. Pearce Tompkins and Assemblyman Axel Johnson to permit to counties local option in the matter of enfranchising their women. Only the first was seriously considered and this was defeated in the Assembly by a vote of 49 to 41. A representative of the German-American Alliance appeared against it at the hearing and at several later sessions.

1917. A referendum measure was introduced by Senator George B. Skogmo and Assemblyman James Hanson and was killed in the Assembly by a vote of 47 to 40.

1918. Meanwhile the tide was perceptibly turning and at the State political conventions held in September, 1918, all parties adopted planks favoring the enfranchisement of women. What was known as "the woman suffrage session" followed.

1919. Resolution urging the U. S. Senate to submit a Federal Suffrage Amendment: Assembly 75 for, 14 against; Senate 23 for, 4 against. Presidential suffrage bill granting to women the right to vote for presidential electors: Assembly 80 for, 8 against; Senate 25 for, one against. Law extending the right of suffrage to women subject to a referendum, passed without an aye and no vote in both Houses. It was repealed after ratification of the Federal Amendment made it unnecessary.

RATIFICATION. The Federal Suffrage Amendment was submitted by Congress on June 4, 1919. The Wisconsin Legislature ratified it about 11 o'clock in the morning on June 10, with one negative vote in the Senate, two in the House. A special messenger, former Senator David G. James (the father of Ada L. James), started for Washington on the first train carrying the certificate from the Governor and he brought back a statement from J. A. Tonner, Chief of the Bureau of Rolls and Library, Department of State, that "the certified copy of the ratification resolution by the Legislature of Wisconsin is the first which has been received." The Illinois Legislature ratified an hour earlier but owing to a technical error it had to ratify a second time. The two U. S. Senators LaFollette and Lenroot and eight of the eleven Representatives from Wisconsin voted for the Federal Amendment on its final passage through Congress.

FOOTNOTES:

[206] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Theodora W. Youmans, president of the State Woman Suffrage Association from 1913 until its work was finished in 1920.

[207] The following were the officers for the first twelve years: Vice-presidents: Mrs. Jessie M. Luther, Mrs. Madge Waters, Mrs. Laura James, Vida James, Mrs. E. C. Priddle, Miss Linda Rhodes; corresponding secretaries: Miss Lucinda Lake, Mrs. Margaret Geddes, Mrs. Emma Geddes, Miss Lena Newman, Mrs. B. Ostrander, Mrs. Nellie K. Donaldson; recording secretaries: Miss Marion W. Hamilton, Miss Emma Graham, Mrs. Ethel Irish, Miss W. von Bruenchenhein; treasurers: Mrs. Dora Putnam, Mrs. Lydia Woodward, Mrs. F. H. Derrick, Mrs. A. B. Sprague, Mrs. B. Ostrander, Gwendolen Brown Willis; chairmen Executive Committee: Ellen A. Rose, Mrs. Etta Gardner, Mrs. Kate Rindlaub.

[208] Near the end of the campaign Miss Mary Swain Wagner from New York organized the American Suffragettes, a short-lived society, with Miss Martha Heide as president, and it arranged a mass meeting in Milwaukee with Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England as the principal speaker.

[209] A unique automobile tour was made by Mrs. McCulloch and her husband, Frank McCulloch, both prominent lawyers in Chicago, and their four children, who devoted their annual vacation in the summer of 1912 to a tour through Wisconsin, the eldest son driving a big car, Mr. and Mrs. McCulloch making suffrage speeches at designated points and the three younger children enjoying the outing.

[210] After 1913 annual conventions were held as follows: 1914, Milwaukee, speakers at evening meeting, Mrs. Pethick Lawrence of England and Rosika Schwimmer of Hungary; 1915, Milwaukee; 1916 (postponed to January, 1917, at the time of the legislative session), Madison; 1917, Milwaukee, Mrs. Nellie McClung of Canada speaker; 1918, no convention because of the war.

[211] The officials from 1913, not already mentioned, were as follows: Vice-presidents: Miss Zona Gale, Dr. Jean M. Cooke, Mrs. Wm. Preston Leek, Mrs. Victor Berger, Mrs. Isaac Witter, Mrs. Frank Thanhouser, Miss Harriet F. Bain; corresponding secretaries: Mrs. W. M. Waters, Mrs. Joseph Jastrow, Mrs. James L. Foley, Mrs. Glen Turner, Mrs. Charles H. Mott, Mrs. H. F. Shadbolt; recording secretaries: Mrs. H. M. Holton, Mrs. A. J. Rogers; treasurers, Miss E. E. Robinson, Mrs. Harvey J. Frame; auditors: Miss Gwendolyn B. Willis, Miss M. V. Brown, Mrs. Louis Fuller Hobbins, Miss Amy Comstock, Mrs. A. W. Schorger, Mrs. H. A. J. Upham, Mrs. Sarah H. Van Dusen. Mrs. A. J. Birkhauser.



CHAPTER XLIX.

WYOMING.[212]

Wyoming was the pioneer Territory and the pioneer State to give full suffrage to women. It is an interesting fact that the women did not find it necessary to have a Territorial or State Suffrage Association, or even a convention except the one during the campaign for Statehood in 1889-90. This rare situation is explained by the fact that universal suffrage came to the women in the newly organized Territory in 1869 without any general demand for it but through the efforts of a very few progressive men and women. [History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 994.] When the Constitutional Convention was preparing for Statehood in 1889, holding its sessions in Cheyenne, the women of the Territory held a convention there in order to pass resolutions asking that the constitution should contain an article granting to the women a continuation of the right of suffrage which they had possessed for twenty years. This was granted and both men and women voted on the constitution, which was adopted by a three-fourths majority of the votes cast. The fact that there was no women's association for suffrage or for political purposes was at times a serious handicap to women of other States, who were not able to appeal to an organized body for an endorsement of woman suffrage or related subjects.

In 1901 and at subsequent dates by joint resolution of both Houses of the Legislature a strong appeal was sent to Congress to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment. On Feb. 14, 1919, a joint resolution was passed and signed by Governor Robert D. Carey commemorating the granting of woman suffrage in Wyoming, Dec. 10, 1869, by making this date each year Wyoming Day, "to be observed by appropriate exercises commemorative of the history of the Commonwealth and the lives and work of its pioneers."

At a State convention in Laramie Nov. 9-11, 1919, with Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the national president, as guest of honor, a branch of the National League of Women Voters was organized, with Mrs. Cyrus Beard as State chairman. At Casper, Oct. 2, 1920, it was re-organized by Mrs. James Paige, regional director, with Mrs. C. W. Crouter as State chairman.

RATIFICATION. Governor Robert D. Carey called a special session of the Legislature for Jan. 26, 1920, to ratify the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The vote was unanimous in each House, and, after it was finished and had received the Governor's signature, Mrs. Theresa Jenkins of Cheyenne, a faithful supporter of woman suffrage in Wyoming for fifty years, thanked the members and the Governor for their action in behalf of the women of the State, the United States and the world.

* * * * *

The decree that laws must be omitted for lack of space bars out the many statutes in the interests of women and children which are Wyoming's especial pride.

The pioneer member of the Legislature was Mrs. Mary Godat Bellamy of Laramie, elected to the Lower House in 1911. She had been a teacher in the public schools of the city and county superintendent. She was very active in her duties and was instrumental in having a number of excellent bills become laws. Among these were bills for an adequate appropriation to employ a State humane officer for child and animal protection; to establish an industrial institution for male convicts twenty-five years old or under, as at that time 85 per cent. of those in the penitentiary were under twenty-one; an eight-hour day for women and children who worked in factories, laundries and industrial places; a grant to the State University of a permanent annual revenue. She helped to kill a bill to repeal an existing law which prohibited liquor being sold in places that were not incorporated, as mining and lumber camps. Mrs. Bellamy said later: "While the men were courteous yet no woman must expect that when it comes to gaining a point a man is going to make an exception because his colleague is a woman."

In the Legislature of 1913 two women Representatives had seats—Mrs. Anna Miller of Laramie, a mother of six grown children, three of whom were graduated from the State University, and Miss Nettie Truax of Sundance, a school teacher and at one time county superintendent. Mrs. Miller was a successful merchant and at the time of her election was at the head of a large drygoods establishment. She succeeded her son in the Legislature. Miss Truax was made chairman of the important Committee on Education. In 1915 Mrs. Morna Wood, also of Sundance, was elected to the Lower House. She introduced a bill, which became a law, for the protection and regulation of child employment. During this session a bill in the direction of easy divorce came before the House and Mrs. Wood made a strong speech condemning it and appealing for loyal support of her protest in the interests of the home and the children. Nothing further was heard of the bill. While women may not have taken a large place as lawmakers they have had an active and effective interest in many excellent laws.

The following women have been elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Miss Estelle Reel, 1894-1898; Miss Rose A. Bird, 1910-1914; Miss Edith K. O. Clark, 1914-1918; Mrs. Katharine A. Morton, 1918-1922. This is the most highly paid office occupied by a woman, the salary being the same as that of the Secretary of State, State Auditor and State Treasurer. By virtue of her office the Superintendent is a member of the State Boards of Pardons, Charities and Reforms, Land Commissioners, School Land Commissioners and Education, with power to appoint all members of the last board, which elects the State Commissioner of Education. At present all the counties have women county superintendents of schools, not an unusual situation. They also hold other county offices and as in all States as soon as the suffrage is granted are eligible to all official positions.

The largest woman's organization is the Federation of Clubs, with a membership of 4,000, a democratic body which has been able to do much for the State in legislation, education and reform. The women of Wyoming have been very conservative with the ballot and have never used radical means to accomplish their aims. No woman's ticket has ever been offered.

All institutions of learning are co-educational. Since 1891 there has been but a short interval when women have not been on the Board of Trustees of the State University. Grace Raymond Hebard was the first, serving thirteen years. For eighteen years, 1891-1908, a woman was secretary, acting also as financial agent, buying for the institution and paying the bills. In February, 1913, Mrs. Mary B. David of Douglas was appointed trustee by the Governor and displayed such unusual ability as an executive that later she was unanimously elected by the Board as its president, serving from September, 1917, to February, 1919, when she removed from the State. During her administration more important matters than ever before were brought to the Board for its consideration and solution—questions of land leases and oil grants, rents and royalties involving millions of dollars. The efficient, intelligent and impartial way in which Mrs. David handled these matters, of course in conjunction with the other members, won for her from the Board and the parties involved the strongest commendation. At one time a woman was seriously thought of for president of the university but she refused to consider it. At present (1920) two of the four most highly paid professors are women at the head of the combined departments of Psychology and Philosophy and of Political Economy and Sociology. There are five women on the Faculty, receiving the same compensation as the men holding equal positions. Women are full professors in History, English and Home Economics. The professor of Elementary Education and supervisor of the training school is a woman and the Dean of Women ranks as a full professor. With the assistant professors there are fourteen women on the Faculty.

On June 12, 1921, this university gave its first honorary degree and very appropriately to a woman. With beautiful ceremonies the degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred on Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance.

FOOTNOTES:

[212] The History is indebted for this chapter to Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, professor of Political Economy and Sociology in the State University of Wyoming.



CHAPTER L.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THE TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE PHILIPPINES.

ALASKA.[213]

When the bill was before Congress in 1912 to make Alaska a Territory of the United States an amendment was added on motion of Representative Frank W. Mondell of Wyoming to give its Legislature full power to enfranchise women. This was accepted by the House without objection. Afterwards the official board of the National American Woman Suffrage Association gladly responded to the request of Arthur G. Stroup of Sitka, one of the Territorial Representatives, who intended to introduce a bill for the purpose, to send up some suitable literature. The board also asked women in Seattle, former residents of Alaska, to write to the members of the new Legislature.

Woman suffrage in Alaska possesses the unique record of being granted without any solicitation whatever from the residents. It is not known that a suffrage club ever existed in the Territory; it is quite certain that prior to the convening of the first Territorial Legislature in Juneau in 1913 no suffrage campaigning whatever had been carried on, yet two members, coming from towns not less than 1,500 miles apart, brought drafts for an equal suffrage bill. House Bill No. 2, "An Act to extend the elective franchise to the women in the Territory of Alaska," was the first to pass both Houses—7 Senators and 15 Representatives—and the vote on it was unanimous, Senator Elwood Brunner of Nome, the only member who had expressed himself as unfavorable, having had the good sense or caution to absent himself during roll call. This was also the first bill to be approved by the Governor, J. F. A. Strong, on March 21, 1913, and the Act became effective ninety days thereafter. It declared the elective franchise extended to such women as had the qualifications required of male electors.

The Alaska Code had permitted women to vote only at School elections. The new law gave them the privilege of voting for the officers in incorporated towns and cities; for members of the Territorial Legislature and for Territorial Delegate to Congress.

It is estimated that there is a white population of 30,000 of whom between 5,000 and 6,000 are women. Probably not 500 native women are voters. Indian men have a vote if they have "severed tribal relations," which is interpreted to mean that if an Indian moves to a white man's town or lives on a creek or in a camp in such a way that the missions or the marshals think he has left his tribe, he can vote. Indian women have a vote if they marry white men who have a vote; if they are unmarried and have "severed tribal relations"; if they are married to an Indian who has "severed tribal relations." The original code said definitely that Juries should be drawn from the male citizens and it has never been changed. With this exception the rights of men and women are the same.

Two other bills of importance passed by the first Legislature provided for the compulsory education of white children and for Juvenile Courts to look after dependent children and create a Board of Children's Guardians. This board consists of the District Judge and U. S. Marshal in each judicial division, together with one woman appointed by the Governor, thus creating four such boards in the Territory, one for each division.

The interest of Alaska women in questions affecting local or Territorial conditions is intense and their efforts effective, as their work in the prohibition campaign of 1916 proved. This was essentially a woman's campaign, so well handled that at the plebiscite held at the time of the general election in November, 1916, the vote was about two to one in favor of prohibition. As a result, Congress enacted the Bone Dry Prohibition law for the Territory Feb. 14, 1917. It is believed that about three-fourths of the qualified women vote but there is no means of knowing. The percentage of illiteracy among white women is negligible and the young native women taught at the Government and mission schools can read and write.

The women of Alaska did their share in all kinds of war work, for conservation, bond drives, Red Cross and kindred activities. On account of the vast distances and small means of transportation any general cooperation is impossible. There are two daily papers in Fairbanks with a wide circulation over the entire district, which is larger than Texas. The organizing for Red Cross work had to be largely done through these papers but in a few months there were about 600 knitters, practically all the women in the district, and thirty organizations in the mining camps, many of these having only two or three women. In Fairbanks, by means of dances, card parties, sales, etc., $8,000 were raised just to buy wool, besides all the funds and "drives."

The interest of Alaskan women in such public questions as affect women elsewhere is that of the spectator rather than of the worker. When legislation on housing and tenement laws, protection of factory workers, prevention of child labor and like problems becomes necessary they will not be lacking in interest or energy.

HAWAII.

The Organic Act under which the Territories of the United States were created said that at the first election persons with specified qualifications should be entitled to vote and at subsequent elections such persons as the Territorial Legislature might designate. It was under this Act that Wyoming and Utah enfranchised their women in 1869 and 1870 and Washington in 1883.

When in 1899 the Congress was preparing to admit Hawaii as a Territory the commission framed a constitution which specifically refused the privilege that had been granted to every other Territory of having its own Legislature decide who should vote after the first election, by inserting a clause that it "should not grant to ... any individual any special privilege or franchise without the approval of Congress." This constitution gave the suffrage to every masculine citizen of whatever nationality—Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese—who could read and write English or Hawaiian, and it repeatedly used the word "male" to bar women from having a vote or holding an office. The members of this commission were Senators John T. Morgan of Alabama and Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois; Representative Robert R. Hitt of Illinois; President Sanford B. Dole and Associate Justice Frear of Hawaii. Justice Frear said over his own signature that he and President Dole desired that the Legislature should have power to authorize woman suffrage but the rest of the commission would not permit it. Miss Susan B. Anthony president, and the Official Board of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, made vigorous objection to this abuse of power, sent a protest to every member of Congress and followed this with petitions officially signed by large associations but to no avail. The Act was approved by President William McKinley April 30, 1900.[214]

The women had always exercised great influence in political affairs and the people of Hawaii resented this discrimination but the U. S. Congress then and for years afterwards was adamant in its opposition to woman suffrage anywhere. After the women of Washington, California and Oregon were enfranchised in 1910-11-12 this resentment found expression among the women of Honolulu in 1912, when they called on Mrs. John W. Dorsett to help them organize a suffrage club. They learned in October that by good fortune Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, would stop there on her way home from a trip around the world and they arranged by wireless messages for her to address a mass meeting at the opera house the one evening she would be there. The audience was large and sympathetic and she learned that every legislative candidate at the approaching election had announced himself in favor of getting the vote for women. She met with the suffrage club and found its constitution modeled on the one recommended by the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She was in touch with the women afterwards and the interest was kept alive.

By 1915 the more thoughtful men of the Territory were beginning to feel that its women must be enfranchised. Both political parties declared in favor of asking the U. S. Congress for an Act giving the Hawaiian Legislature authority in this matter and that body itself passed a bill to this effect. This was taken to Washington by the Delegate from the Territory, J. K. Kalanianaole, who presented it but it received no attention. He presented it again in 1916, with a like result. Soon afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Pitman of Brookline, Mass., visited the Islands. Mr. Pitman was the son of a Hawaiian Chiefess and although he had not been there since childhood he was the person of the highest rank. Mrs. Pitman was prominent among the suffrage leaders in Massachusetts and was deeply interested in the situation in Hawaii. She attended the opening of the Legislature and conversed with nearly all the members, finding them to a man in favor of the bill, and the Legislature adopted strong resolutions calling upon Congress to sanction it. In answer to a request for her experience to use in this chapter she wrote:

It was on Jan. 30, 1917, that we arrived in Honolulu and on the 31st Madame Nakiuna, who was known as the Court historian, gave us a large reception at Laniakea. At this fete were all the women of the highest social circles in the Islands. Among them were Mrs. John W. Dorsett, Mrs. A. P. Taylor, Mrs. Castle-Coleman, Miss Mary Ermine Cross and others who had heard of my activities in "the cause" and importuned me to hold meetings to try to arouse a keener interest. I would have consented at once but for the fact that almost the first person I saw in this beautiful land was the field-secretary of the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Extension of Suffrage to Women. I had a feeling that if there was not already an anti-association here there would be one the moment I began any serious work and so I advised waiting, promising to do my best for them as soon as it seemed wise, and so, while I was indeed sorry that the serious illness of a relative obliged her to depart for home at a very early date, it was amusing to say the least that while she was sailing out of the harbor I was holding my first suffrage meeting in the home of Mrs. Dorsett. I held meetings on two successive days, one attended mostly by the middle class and the other by high caste Hawaiians and the "missionary set," which, perhaps, we might style their "400." My talk was in the form of a discussion and I was surprised and delighted at the fluency of all who spoke, their wide knowledge of world affairs and desire for the franchise. Many months had passed since the departure of Prince Kalanianaole and so they begged me to investigate as soon as I returned home. This I promised to do and wrote at once to Mrs. Catt all that I heard.

Mrs. Catt sent Mrs. Pitman's letter to Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman of the Congressional Committee of the National Suffrage Association and she took up the question with Senator John F. Shafroth, chairman of the Committee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico. The Delegate from Hawaii, who was deeply interested, welcomed this new force to assist in pushing the bill, which had simply been neglected. On May 21, 1917, he presented still another resolution from the Territorial Legislature asking for it and on June I Senator Shafroth introduced the following bill:

Be it enacted ... that the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii be, and it is hereby, vested with the power to provide that in all elections ... female citizens possessing the same qualifications as male citizens shall be entitled to vote.

SEC. 2. That the said Legislature is further hereby vested with the power to have submitted to the voters of the Territory the question of whether or not the female citizens shall be empowered to vote....

The bill was reported favorably by the committee and passed by the Senate without objection or even discussion on September 15. In the House it was referred to the Committee on Woman Suffrage, which set April 29, 1918, for a hearing. Delegate Kalanianaole had been called back to Honolulu by business but was represented by his secretary and there were present Mrs. Park, who presided, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president of the National Suffrage Association, and Mrs. Pitman, the principal speaker. Judge John E. Raker was chairman of the committee, which did not need any argument but was interested in asking many questions of Mrs. Pitman. At the close of the hearing the committee voted unanimously to make a favorable report. The bill was passed June 3 without a roll call. It was signed by President Wilson on the 13th.

The matter was now in the control of the Hawaiian Legislature, which received petitions from a number of organizations of women to exercise its power to confer the suffrage without a referendum to the voters. This was recommended by Governor C. J. McCarthy and early in the session of 1919 the Senate took this action and sent the bill to the House. This body under outside influence refused to endorse it but substituted a bill to send the question to the voters. The Senate would not accept it and both bills were deadlocked.

The women were then spurred to action; old suffrage clubs were revived; one was formed in Honolulu of the native high class women and what is known as the "missionary set," a very brilliant group. Mrs. Dorsett made a tour of all the Islands to arouse interest and on Mani, under the leadership of Mrs. Harry Baldwin, clubs were formed all over the island. A Hawaiian Suffrage Association was organized. At the next convention of the National Association a resolution was adopted that it be invited to become auxiliary without the payment of dues and the invitation was officially accepted with thanks.

The Federal Suffrage Amendment proclaimed by Secretary of State Colby Aug. 26, 1920, included the women of the Territories and it was thus that Hawaiian women became enfranchised. They voted in large numbers at the November elections that year.

THE PHILIPPINES.

The Philippine Islands came under the jurisdiction of the United States as a consequence of the Spanish-American war in 1898 and their government soon became an active question in Congress. There was a desire to permit their own people to participate in this to some extent and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, always on the watch tower, took immediate action toward having women included in any scheme of self-government. With the recent example before it of the most unjust discrimination against them in the admission of Hawaii as a Territory, the association under the presidency of Miss Susan B. Anthony petitioned the members of Congress to recognize the rights of women in whatever form of government was adopted. At its annual convention in 1899 impassioned speeches were made against taking away from Filipino women the position of superiority which they always had held under Spanish rule by giving the men political authority over them.

In 1900 Military Governor-General Otis ordered a re-organization of the municipalities. To decide who should have a vote in local affairs the Philippine Commission of the U. S. Senate summoned well informed persons and among them, in the spring of 1902, were Judge William H. Taft, Governor-General of the islands, and Archbishop Nozaleda, who had been connected with the Catholic church there for twenty-six years and archbishop since 1889. Both declared that the suffrage should be given to the women rather than to the men, the former saying: "The fact is that, not only among the Tagalogs but also among the Christian Filipinos, the woman is the active manager of the family, so if you expect to confer political power on the Filipinos it ought to be given to the women. Following is part of the Archbishop's statement. (Senate Document, p. 109.):

The woman is better than the man in every way—in intelligence, in virtue and in labor—and a great deal more economical. She is very much given to trade and trafficking. If any rights and privileges are to be granted to the natives, do not give them to the men but to the women.

Q. Then you think it would be much better to give the women the right to vote than the men?

A. O, much better. Why, even in the fields it is the women who do the work; the men go to the cock fights and gamble. The woman is the one who supports the man there, so every law of justice demands that in political life they should have the privilege over the men.

Notwithstanding this and other testimony of a similar nature the Commission framed a Code giving a Municipal or local franchise to certain classes of men and excluding all women, taking away from them the privileges they always had possessed. The men soon began demanding their own lawmaking body and in response Congress passed an Act to take effect Jan. 15, 1907, to provide for the holding of elections in the Islands for a Legislative Assembly. The Act limited the voters to "male persons 23 years of age or over," thus again putting up the barriers against women and including them in the list of the disqualified as listed—"insane, feeble-minded, rebels and traitors."

The U. S. Government did, however, give women to the same extent as men all educational advantages, which heretofore had been denied them and their progress was very rapid. In 1912 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, visited Manila on her trip around the world and was warmly received. A meeting was called at the Manila Hotel for August 15 and twelve women responded. After making an address she helped them form a club which they called Society for the Advancement of Women. Thirty attended the next meeting two weeks later and they took up active philanthropic work. In a little while most of the women of influence were members of it and it was re-organized as the Woman's Club of Manila. Its work extended in many directions and it became one of the city's leading institutions. Other clubs were formed and they joined the General Federation of Clubs in 1915. There are between 300 and 400 clubs in the Islands (1920).