A copy of this letter was sent to the president of the association and at its annual convention held in October it was read and a long discussion followed. A delegate thus reported it: "Only a few delegates agreed with her. Many women never having been in a campaign declared that victory was sure. The convention almost unanimously voted for the referendum and when the vote had been taken and the cheers had subsided, the grand sum of $500 was raised for the campaign...." Nevertheless the National Association at its next convention (still believing that the referendum would not be submitted until 1918), voted to back the Maine campaign, although against the judgment of Mrs. Catt.[69]

At the request of the Maine association the National Association made it possible for Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston to take the position of campaign manager. Through her extensive work for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union she was widely acquainted in church, club and suffrage circles, was experienced in campaigning and an eloquent speaker. In her report after the election she said: "Maine presented as difficult a field for the conducting of a suffrage campaign as has ever been faced by any group of suffragists in any part of the country. The referendum was submitted the very last of February and as the election came so early in September only about six months' time was given us for the campaign. Deducting from this time the months of April and May, on account of the almost impossible condition of the roads, and June with its heavy rains, there was left but little more than three months for active work. Early in the campaign our country entered the World War, and the whole thought and attention of the people were given to securing support for the Liberty Bonds, Red Cross, Navy League and other patriotic and preparedness work. This greatly handicapped us in the raising of finances and the creating of organization, the two foundations upon which the structure of a successful campaign must be built, and the two things which more than anything else the State of Maine needed, so far as the amendment was concerned."

A campaign committee was formed from members of organizations in the State in favor of suffrage, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Federation of Women's Clubs, Men's Suffrage League, Civic League, Referendum League, the Grange and the State Suffrage Association, and headquarters were established in Bangor. There were only fourteen suffrage societies in the State, not all active. Eleven of the sixteen counties had an organizer in charge for the last six weeks and 269 local committees were formed in the different towns but many of them were ineffectual, as they were made up of untrained women and the time was too short to train them. The argument for suffrage, however, was put before the voters very thoroughly. One hundred thousand were circularized with the convincing speeches of U. S. Senator Shafroth of Colorado and later with a leaflet Have You Heard the News? which carried the strong appeal of the suffrage gains over the entire world. House to house distribution of "fliers" was made in many communities. Altogether 1,500,000 leaflets were distributed, ten to every voter in the State. In hundreds of towns there was absolute ignorance on the subject. The clergy were circularized three times—over a thousand of them—the State Grange twice, committees of the political parties and members of the Legislature twice.

As soon as a committee was organized petition blanks were sent to it and in this short space of time the names of over 38,000 women of voting age asking for the suffrage were obtained, nearly all by volunteer canvassers. The names from each county were sent to the voters from that county and 100,000 received these lists. The petitions did a vast amount of educational work among the women and answered the men who insisted that the women did not want to vote.

The newspapers on the whole were favorable. Especial mention should be made of the valuable assistance continued throughout the campaign of the Lewiston Journal, Portland Argus, Kennebec Journal, Brunswick Record and Waldo County Herald. The Portland Express gave editorial support. The Bangor Commercial, owned and edited by John P. Bass, made a bitter fight against the amendment and refused generally to publish even letters on the other side. It would not publish President Wilson's letter even as a paid advertisement. From July 1 to September 10 Mrs. Rose L. Geyer, a member of the staff of the Woman Citizen, official organ of the National Suffrage Association, conducted the publicity work in connection with Miss Florence L. Nye, the State press chairman. On August 18 the Lewiston Journal issued a supplement for the State association, edited by Miss Helen N. Bates, of which 65,000 copies were distributed through twenty-two newspapers.

President Wilson sent a letter to Mrs. Livingston on September 4 appealing to Democratic voters as follows: "May I not express through you my very great interest in the equal suffrage campaign in Maine? The pledges of my party are very distinct in favor of granting the suffrage to women by State action and I would like to have the privilege of urging all Democrats to support a cause in which we all believe." On September 8 former President Roosevelt sent the following telegram addressed to the Campaign Committee: "I earnestly hope that as a matter of plain justice the people of Maine will vote 'yes' on woman suffrage."

The letter and telegram were put on the moving picture screens, which were also used in other ways for propaganda. The poster sent by the National Association and those printed by the Campaign Committee, fastened on trees, fences, windows and every available space, carried the message to all passers by. Mrs. Livingston said in her report: "We can not express too gratefully our appreciation of the value of the work accomplished by the experienced organizers sent to us by the National Association and by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island; of that of Mrs. Mary G. Canfield of Vermont, who gave her services for one month; and of the untiring and successful labors of Mrs. Augusta M. Hunt, who had charge of York and Cumberland counties."

The entire State was thoroughly covered by public meetings, over 500 being held during the last three months. It would be impossible to give the names of all who spoke at these meetings but among the more prominent were Governor Carl E. Milliken, U. S. Senator Bert Fernald, former Senator Charles F. Johnson, Representative Ira G. Hersey, former Representative Frank E. Guernsey; among the members of the Legislature and other influential men, former Attorney General W. R. Pattangall, Judge Robert Treat Whitehouse, Ralph O. Brewster, Frank W. Butler, Daniel A. Poling, the Rev. Arthur L. Weatherly. On July 23, 24, in Augusta, and July 25, 27, in Bangor, Mrs. Catt and Mrs. Shuler addressed mass meetings in the evenings and held conferences with the workers through the days. In September Mrs. Catt gave a week to speaking at public meetings in various cities. Other speakers were Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates, Dr. Lee Anna Starr, Mrs. Sara A. Gilson, Miss Emma L. McAlarney, Miss Anne E. Coughlin and the Misses Loitman. The members of the Men's League were active and helpful. The mass meetings were well attended and in all the cities and many of the towns street meetings were very successful. Mrs. Livingston travelled more than 20,000 miles in the State, delivered 150 addresses and raised over $4,000.

Not in any other State campaign had the women anti-suffragists taken so conspicuous a part. There was a society of considerable social prominence in Portland and the associations in Massachusetts and New York sent nearly twenty speakers and workers, all women except J. B. Maling of Colorado and Charles McLean of Iowa, whose utterances had more than once been repudiated by the men and women of their States. Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., president of the National Association, addressed parlor meetings. Toward the end of the campaign their numbers became much less, as they learned that the "machines" of both political parties expected to defeat the amendment.

The election took place Sept. 10, 1917, and the amendment received 38,838 noes, 20,684 ayes—lost by 18,154, the negative majority nearly two to one. About half as many men voted for it as the number of women who signed a petition for it. Mrs. Livingston gave as the principal reasons for the defeat: 1. Inherent conservatism and prejudice. 2. Resentment at the "picketing" of the White House by the "militant" suffragists. 3. Briefness of the campaign. 4. Inability because of lack of organization to reach the rural vote. 5. Reactionaries of both parties uniting in opposition.[70]

In her summing up Mrs. Livingston said: "Without the aid of the National American Association the campaign would have been impossible. The magnificent generosity with which it furnished speakers, organizers, posters and literature will make the women of Maine forever its debtors.[71]

At the convention of the State Association in September, 1917, in Augusta, Miss Mabel Connor was chosen president and at the conventions of 1918 in Lewiston and 1919 in Portland was re-elected. At the convention in October, 1918, having recovered somewhat from its defeat, the association voted to introduce a bill for the Presidential suffrage in the next Legislature in 1919. The Legislative Committee consisted of Mrs. Balentine, chairman; Miss Connor, Miss Bates, Mrs. Pattangall, Mrs. Cobb and Mrs. Guy P. Gannett, with Miss Lola Walker as executive secretary to the chairman.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The State Suffrage Association and the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union always worked for woman suffrage measures in the Legislature in cordial cooperation, beginning in 1887.

1901. Suffrage bills did not come out of committee.

1903. A bill was introduced for Municipal suffrage for tax-paying women by Representative George H. Allan of Portland. The Joint Standing Committee eliminated "taxpaying" and reported a bill giving Municipal suffrage to all women. The State Suffrage Association did an enormous amount of work in behalf of this bill, sending letters to 15,000 women representing 239 cities and towns who were paying taxes on approximately $25,000,000. Several thousand answers urging the bill were received, coming from every county and from 237 of the cities and towns. It was lost in the Senate by a tie and in the House by a vote of 110 noes, 29 ayes.

1905, 1907, 1909, no suffrage bills were reported out of committee.

1911. Four members of the Judiciary Committee made a minority report in favor of the suffrage measure and the House voted to substitute the minority report but the Senate refused to concur.

1913. A new resolve asking for submission of a suffrage amendment was drafted by George H. Allan and introduced in the Senate by Ira G. Hersey, which gave a vote of 23 ayes, 6 noes. In the House the vote was 89 ayes, 53 noes—only six more votes needed for the necessary two-thirds.

1915. A joint resolution to submit a full suffrage amendment passed the Senate by 26 ayes, 4 noes; the House vote by 88 ayes, 59 noes—ten more votes needed for the two-thirds. Introduced by Representative Lauren M. Sanborn.

1917. The resolution was adopted in the House February 21 by 112 ayes, 35 noes; unanimously adopted by the Senate February 22. In signing it the next day Governor Carl E. Milliken said to the suffrage leaders: "You have appealed to reason and not to prejudice. Your campaign has been a very fine example of what a campaign should be." The amendment was defeated at the polls in September.

1919. In March an Act granting women the right to vote for Presidential Electors, prepared by George H. Allan, was introduced in the Senate by Guy P. Gannett of Augusta and in the House by Percival P. Baxter of Portland. The joint committee by 8 to 2 reported "ought to pass." The hearing before the Judiciary Committee was called one of the best ever held. Lewis A. Burleigh of Augusta, editor of the Kennebec Journal, and Professor Frank E. Woodruff of Bowdoin College made the principal speeches. Telegrams were read from U. S. Senator Fernald and Representatives Ira G. Hersey, John A. Peters and Wallace H. White, Jr., urging the passage of the bill. The "antis" were present in force and made a hard fight. They were fully answered by Mrs. Nancy M. Schoonmaker of Connecticut. An effort was made to attach a clause to the bill referring it to the voters but it was thwarted, Senator Leroy R. Folsom of Norridgewock making a strong speech against it. In the House a still more determined effort was made to secure a referendum but it did not succeed. Speeches were made by Frederick W. Hinckley, Percival F. Baxter and Elisha W. Pike, legislators, and Mrs. Katharine Reed Balentine, chairman of the Legislative Committee, and Miss Mabel Connor, president of the State Suffrage Association. On February 26 the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 25 ayes, 6 noes. On March 19 it passed the House by 85 ayes, 54 noes.

The favorable vote was obtained after six months of quiet, continuous and intensive political work by the Legislative Committee. Members of the Legislature worked for the success of the bill; the Governor supported it and the press was largely in favor.

The anti-suffragists immediately announced their proposal to bring the Presidential Suffrage Law before the voters under the initiative and referendum, upon petition of at least 10,000 legal voters filed within a specified time. The effort to secure these names lagged and without doubt would have been given up had it not been for Frank E. Mace, former State Forest Commissioner, who organized committees all over the State at the eleventh hour and petitions bearing 12,000 signatures were filed July 3, within 90 days after the Legislature adjourned, as required. As there was doubt about the constitutionality of this referendum, the State Supreme Court, on July 9, 1919, was requested by Governor Milliken to decide. On August 6 the Court rendered its decision that the Act came within the provisions of the initiative and referendum. As the petition did not ask for a special election the Governor sent out a proclamation for the referendum to be submitted at the next general election Sept. 13, 1920. The Federal Suffrage Amendment was declared to be adopted on August 26 but there was no way in which the referendum could legally be omitted from the ballot. Therefore on September 13 the women, already having full suffrage, went to the polls to vote on getting partial suffrage and the official count showed 88,080 ayes, 30,462 noes.

RATIFICATION. Governor Milliken called a special session of the Legislature for November, 1919. In his message he recommended the ratification of the Federal Amendment in the strongest possible manner, saying that if only one woman in Maine wanted to vote she should have the chance. The anti-suffrage forces of the entire country were concentrated on Maine at this time to prevent ratification and it was with the greatest difficulty that a movement to postpone action until the regular session was defeated. The amendment was ratified in the Senate on November 4 by 24 ayes, 5 noes; in the House on November 5 by 72 ayes, 68 noes. After the vote was taken an attempt to reconsider was made but was unsuccessful.

The same Legislative Committee of women that had charge of the Presidential bill had charge of the ratification.

* * * * *

At the annual convention of the State Suffrage Association in Portland in October, 1919, it was voted to hold a School for Citizenship at Bates College in August, 1920. Mrs. George M. Chase was made chairman of the Committee of Arrangements and the work was largely carried out by Miss Rosamond Connor, 100 women from many parts of the State attending and deriving much benefit. Mrs. Nancy M. Schoonmaker was the principal instructor. At a meeting of the association in Augusta on November 12 it was merged into the League of Women Voters with Miss Mabel Connor as chairman.

Suffrage work in Maine was carried on for many years in the face of the greatest obstacles but there was always a small group of devoted women willing to make any sacrifice for the cause, who carried the torch until another group could take it, and every step gained was fought for. The history would be incomplete without mention of the Portland Equal Franchise League, of which Mrs. Arthur L. Bates was president, which for many years was the backbone of the State association. The list of State officers who freely gave their services is too long to publish. Among other prominent workers not already mentioned were Dr. Jennie Fuller of Hartland; Mrs. Zenas Thompson and Miss Susan Clark of Portland; Mrs. Isabel Greenwood of Farmington; Miss Anna L. Dingley and Miss Alice Frost Lord, connected with the Lewiston Journal.[72]

Among the men not mentioned elsewhere, who advocated woman suffrage in the face of criticism and with no advantage to be gained, were Judge William Penn Whitehouse and Obadiah Gardner of Augusta; Leonard A. Pierce of Portland; L. B. Dessy of Bar Harbor; E. C. Reynolds of South Portland.

FOOTNOTES:

[68] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Caroline Colvin, Professor of History in the State University, Miss Helen N. Bates, president of the State Woman Suffrage Association, 1912-1916, and Miss Mabel Connor, president, 1917-1919.

[69] The above paragraphs have been copied for the sake of historical accuracy from an official report of the national corresponding secretary.—Ed.

[70] Mrs. Clarence Hale, State president of the anti-suffrage organization, issued the following: "The large majority vote cast against suffrage today must indicate, as did the great vote of Massachusetts in 1915, that the East is not in favor of the entrance of women into political life. The result should satisfy the suffragists for all time and they should now practice the principles of democracy and fairness, which they are so ready to preach, by refraining from further disputing the will of the people.... We can now return to give our services to the State and the nation in woman's normal way."

On November 7 the "East" spoke again when the voters of New York by a majority of 102,353 gave full suffrage to women.

[71] Besides paying the expenses of the suffrage school, the National Association paid the salary of Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston as campaign manager; the salary of Miss Lola Walker from February 10 to September 10; the salaries of eight other organizers who worked for varying periods and the expenses of four; for 120,000 Shafroth speeches; circularized 1,200 of the Protestant and Catholic clergy; prepared especially for Maine 125,000 baby fliers and 100,000 copies of Have You Heard? and furnished envelopes and stamps for them; 14,000 pieces of literature for advanced suffragists; 1,000 copies of Do You Know? to circularize the politicians; 400 each of thirteen different kinds of posters; 500 war measure fliers; 2,000 blue and yellow posters. The Leslie Commission contributed the services of Mrs. Geyer for press work from July 1 to September 10. This campaign cost the National Association $10,282 and the Leslie Commission $4,986, a total of $15,268.—Ed.

[72] Among the active workers in the Anti-Suffrage Association were Mesdames John F. A. Merrill, Morrill Hamlin and George S. Hobbs, all of Portland; Norman L. Bassett, John F. Hill, and Charles S. Hichborn, all of Augusta; George E. Bird, Yarmouth; Miss Elizabeth McKeen, Brunswick.

Among the men actively opposed were the Rev. E. E. Newbert, Benedict F. Maher, Samuel C. Manley, Charles S. Hichborn, all of Augusta; ex-Governor Oakley C. Curtis, of Portland; Governor-elect Frederick H. Parkhurst, of Bangor; U. S. Senator Hale, opposed but finally voted for the Federal Suffrage Amendment.



CHAPTER XIX.

MARYLAND. PART I.[73]

When the fourth volume of the History of Woman Suffrage closed in 1900 it left the Maryland association just eleven years old. Since 1894, when the Montgomery County and the Baltimore City Associations united, it has been represented by accredited delegates in every national convention. These thirty-one years of organized effort by no means represent all of the suffrage agitation in the State.[74]

As Baltimore is the only large city and contains more than half the population of the State it is not surprising that this city has been the real battleground of the movement. Twenty-five State conventions have been held here, continuing one or two days, and two State conferences of two days each. The first of the conferences was arranged by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the new national president, and held in Baltimore in 1900, at which time Miss Susan B. Anthony was the guest of honor and was presented with a purse of gold for her 80th birthday by the Maryland women. The second conference was held in 1902. The speakers at these conferences besides the national officers were Helen Morris Lewis of North Carolina, Annie L. Digges of Kansas, Clara Bewick Colby of Washington, D. C., Dr. Cora Smith Eaton of Minneapolis and Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago. The day sessions were devoted to business and discussions, followed by addresses in the evening. The State convention of 1901 met in the Friends' Meeting House; that of 1902 in Heptasophs Hall, with a bazar and supper; that of 1903 in the Friends' Meeting House. The local speakers were Dr. O. Edward Janney, R. Henry Holme, Lizzie York Case, Annie Davenport, Emma Maddox Funck and Mary Bentley Thomas. Out of town speakers were Mrs. Catt, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national vice-president at large; Harriet May Mills of New York and Emma M. Gillett, a lawyer of Washington, D. C. The convention of 1904 met in the Church of the Disciples. A supper was served between sessions and Dr. Shaw and the Rev. Peter Ainslie spoke to crowded houses at night.

The convention of 1905 was held in the Harlem Avenue Christian Church. Memorial services were held for George W. Catt, husband of the national president. The following departments of work were adopted: Peace and Arbitration, Church, Enrollment, Finance, Legislation and Press. Dr. Shaw spoke in the evening on The New Democratic Ideal. Invitations were given in 1904 and 1905 to the National American Suffrage Association to hold its annual convention in Baltimore. The second was accepted and the convention took place Feb. 7-13, 1906. Half of the $1,200 raised for it was given to the National Association. Most of the delegates were entertained in homes. The meetings were held in the Lyric Theater and the audiences at the evening sessions numbered from 1,500 to 3,000. The State association sent out 20,000 invitations. Music was provided for every session by the Charles M. Stieff Piano Company and clergymen came from various churches for the opening devotional services. Three men gave unlimited time and assistance to the work of the convention, Dr. J. William Funck, Dr. Janney and Charles H. Holton. As this was the native city of Miss Mary Garrett and Dr. M. Carey Thomas they united as hostesses of the association during the convention and thereafter became important factors in the national work.[75] This was the last convention attended by Miss Anthony, who died a month later. A memorial service was held in Baltimore, the following taking part: the Rev. Alexander Kent of Washington, Mary Badders Holton, Mrs. Funck, Mrs. Janney, Mrs. Holme and Miss Maddox. Music was furnished by the Cecilian quartette of women's voices.

The State convention of 1906 was held in the Friends' Meeting House, addressed by Ellen Spencer Mussey of Washington. In 1907 the convention met in Arundell Hall November 21 and in the Hampden Methodist Church the 22nd. The afternoon program included interesting talks by six Baltimore men—Henry White, Dr. Funck, Dr. Janney, R. Henry Holme, State Forester Albert M. Beasley and the Rev. B. A. Abbott, pastor of the Harlem Avenue Christian Church. A large number of fraternal delegates were present. The Rev. Ida C. Hultin of Boston spoke at both evening sessions.

In 1908 the annual meeting was held in McCoy Hall, Johns Hopkins University, with Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Maud Nathan of New York and Rachel Foster Avery of Philadelphia as speakers. Dr. Lewellys F. Barker presided at the evening meeting. In 1909 the convention took place in the Baltimore Business College, Nov. 23, 24, with Dr. Barton O. Aylesworth of Colorado and the Rev. John Roach Straton of the Seventh Baptist Church as the orators at the evening sessions. Memorial services were held for Henry B. Blackwell. A supper and bazar were pleasant features. In 1910 the convention was held in Osler Hall, Cathedral Street, with both sessions devoted to business. A noteworthy event of the year was the election of Miss Sarah Richmond, a pioneer suffragist, as president of the State Teachers' Association, the first woman to be accorded this honor in the fifty years of its existence. Prizes of $25 were offered for essays on woman suffrage by girls in the high school.

At the convention of 1911 in Heptasophs Hall the California victory of October 11 was celebrated with a banquet attended by 400 men and women, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood of Washington presiding. The meeting on the next evening was addressed by Miss A. Maud Royden of London on The Economic, Spiritual and Religious Aspect of Woman Suffrage. During the year a leaflet had been issued entitled Opinions of Representative Men of Maryland on Woman Suffrage, through Miss Mary B. Dixon, chairman of publicity, and 600 suffrage posters were placed in the counties. In Baltimore they were made into double faced placards and men were employed to carry them through the business sections. Suffrage petitions and resolutions had been endorsed by the State Federation of Labor, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Ladies of the Maccabees, Grange and Jewish Council of Women.

The convention of 1912 was held in the Baltimore Business College, the afternoon devoted to discussions of plans of work, reports, etc., followed by a supper and bazar. A report was given of the organization of a Men's League for Woman Suffrage by Dr. Donald R. Hooker, Dr. Funck, Dr. Janney, the Rev. James Gratten Mythen, Dr. Warren Lewis, Jacob M. Moses, S. Johnson Poe, Frank F. Ramey and William F. Cochran. In the evening there was a debate on the enfranchisement of women by the boys of the Polytechnic Institute, Samuel M. North, a member of the faculty and a pioneer suffragist, presiding. At the convention of 1913 the twenty-fourth anniversary of the State association was celebrated in Veteran Corps Hall with a supper, dance and addresses by Laura Clay of Kentucky, Clara Bewick Colby of Washington, Ella S. Stewart of Illinois and Lucy Burns of New York. The convention of 1914 was held in the Royal Arcanum Building. The speakers were Mrs. Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin, Mrs. Nathan of New York, Mrs. Louis F. Post of Illinois and Mr. Western Star. It was reported that at the great suffrage parade held the preceding March in Washington Maryland had the largest delegation.

The business session of 1915 was held in the W. C. T. U. Building and the evening session in the Universalist Church, whose pastor, the Rev. C. Clifton Clark, spoke on the pro-suffrage side. This year a union of all the organizations in the State was effected under the name of the Woman Suffrage Party of Maryland. Mrs. Funck was elected president and served two years.

The annual meeting of 1916 was held on the lawn at the home of Elizabeth Bruce Gwynn; that of 1917 on the grounds of the Young Woman's Christian Association; in 1918 at Tolchester Beach and in 1919 at the home of Evelyn Albaugh Timanus. The workers during these years always were volunteers, who served without financial compensation. The association is indebted for the past ten years to Mary Elizabeth Ward for all stenographic work and to Margaret A. Maddox for most of the publicity work.

Among those who have represented their counties in State conventions are the following: Montgomery county, Mary Bentley Thomas, Sarah Miller, Rebecca Miller, Mary E. Moore, Mary Magruder; Baltimore county, Elizabeth Herring, Josephine E. Smith, Julia F. Abbott, Anna S. Abbott, Ella Warfield, Kate Vanhorn, Mrs. Charles Weed, Mrs. James Green, Mary C. Raspe, Ethel C. Crosby; Harford, Annie H. Hoskins, Lydia Reckord, Eliza Edell; Carroll, Maggie Mehring; Cecil, Alice Coale Simpers; Somerset, Florence Hoge; Caroline, Miss Eliza Messenger; Anne Arundel, Mrs. Wilhelmina Nichols; Howard, Miss Elizabeth B. Wilson.

BALTIMORE CITY CLUB. For more than twenty years this club averaged from four to twenty public meetings annually in theaters, churches and suffrage headquarters. Scores of business and executive meetings were held and sociables, suppers, lawn fetes, banquets, excursions and bazars were given. The club opened the first headquarters in 1902 at 107 West Franklin Street, one of the city's noted thoroughfares. In 1908 they were established on North Gilmore Street, West Baltimore, and in 1912 on the corner of Baltimore and Carey Streets. At both localities the plate glass windows were decorated with pictures of suffrage leaders, cartoons, platforms of political parties and literature; afternoon tea was served and public meetings held at night. It also inaugurated Sunday afternoon meetings which became very popular and it was responsible for bringing to Baltimore many men and women of national and international distinction. The first English "militant" to speak in Baltimore was Mrs. Annie Cobden Sanderson, on My Experience in an English Jail, in January, 1908, in the Christian Temple, the Rev. Peter Ainslie, the pastor, introducing the speaker, who made a profound impression. Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst came next, speaking in Osler Hall on Ideal Democracy, followed by Sylvia Pankhurst and Mrs. Philip Snowden, the latter speaking at the Seventh Baptist Church, the pastor presiding.

In 1909 at a mass meeting one Sunday afternoon in the Lyric Theater an audience of over 2,000 was present, more than half of them men, with Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Florence Kelley the speakers; Judge Jacob M. Moses of the Juvenile Court presided and a number of men of distinction were seated on the platform. Mrs. Catt spoke at a mass meeting in the Academy of Music in March, 1913, at which Miss Eliza H. Lord of Washington, D. C., presided and Senator William E. Borah of Idaho was a guest. Other Sunday afternoon meetings were held in Ford's, Albaugh's, the Garden and the New Theaters with well known speakers. Baltimore clergymen assisting at these meetings, besides those already mentioned, were the Rev. Dr. Frank M. Ellis and the Rev. Dr. J. W. Wills; the Reverends Kingman Handy, Henry Wharton and W. H. Baylor of the Baptist Church; George Scholl and Thomas Beadenkoph of the Lutheran Synod; Richard W. Hogue and George W. Dame of the Episcopal, E. L. Hubbard of the Methodist and Wynne Jones of the Highlandtown Presbyterian Churches.

Through the State Woman Suffrage Association and the Baltimore City Club much educational work was done from 1900 to 1910 in the way of public and parlor meetings. The pictures of suffrage leaders were placed in the public schools. The History of Woman Suffrage and the Life of Susan B. Anthony were given to public libraries. Boys and girls were trained for suffrage debates and prizes given for essays. Subscriptions were solicited for Progress and the Woman's Journal; press work was pushed; opportunities were sought to speak before all kinds of organizations and there was a wide distribution of suffrage literature. Handsomely engrossed resolutions were presented in 1902 to Senator Jacob M. Moses in appreciation of his having introduced the bill in the Legislature to permit women to practice law in Maryland; and to Miss Maddox, the first to be admitted to the bar, a gold pin bearing the State coat-of-arms as an expression of esteem for her onerous work in securing its passage.

In 1906 and thereafter by specially appointed committees suffrage planks were requested in the platforms of the political parties but with no success. In 1907 a delegation appeared before the State Federation of Labor asking for its endorsement of woman suffrage, which was refused.

For 1908 the slogan was, Convert the public school teachers. To this end a mass meeting was held in Baltimore with Miss Grace C. Strachan, a district superintendent of the public schools of New York; the Rev. Olympia Brown of Wisconsin and Mrs. Emma Smith Devoe of the State of Washington as speakers. Mrs. Funck attended tri-county conventions of teachers, speaking on woman suffrage and distributing 5,000 leaflets. Three women attended the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee of Congress in the interest of the Federal Amendment, Mrs. Funck addressing the committee. Independence Day was observed by a parade and street speaking by Mrs. Colby, Mrs. Timanus and others.

In 1911 the first debate on woman suffrage took place before the Men's Club of the Harlem Park Methodist Church, Mrs. Funck taking the affirmative side against two members of the Anti-Suffrage Society, Mrs. Francis T. Redwood and Mrs. Haslup Adams. The following year another debate was held at the State Normal School by the pupils. In both instances the affirmative won.

In 1914 a large suffrage bazar was held under the auspices of all the clubs in the Fifth Regiment Armory with good financial results. This year the association entered the political arena, the logical culmination of previous years of work. Legislation and Publicity was the slogan. It specialized in ward work, besieged legislative and political leaders with telegrams and letters, visited their offices and homes, watched at the polls, worked to defeat anti-suffrage candidates; addressed shop and factory employees, spoke on street corners and at county fairs, made use of suffrage posters and unique advertisements and had parades.

The State Woman Suffrage Association has had but two presidents, Mary Bentley Thomas of Ednor, 1894-1904 and Emma Maddox Funck, 1904-1920. The latter was president of the Baltimore City Society 1897-1920. Others who served as State officers ten years and more were Mary Badders Holton, Evelyn Albaugh Timanus, Etta H. Maddox, Anne Webb (Mrs. O. Edward) Janney, Pauline W. Holme, Mary Young Taylor, Edna Annette Beveridge, Nellie C. Cromwell, Florence E. Barnes, Mary E. Moore, Margaret Smythe Clark and Annie H. Hoskins. Space will not permit the names of the many women who were loyal and helpful during these years. Women were not left entirely alone to fight the battle and many men besides those mentioned assisted and encouraged.

The Maryland Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was organized in Baltimore in 1911, opening its first headquarters in North Charles Street with Mrs. N. C. Talbott as executive secretary. Later there was some organization in the counties. The members through public meetings, legislative hearings and distribution of literature vigorously carried on their opposition to women's enfranchisement. The society was affiliated with the National Anti-Suffrage Association and was organized for the purpose of fighting the movement to enfranchise women by both Federal and State amendments. The presidents were Mrs. John Redwood, Mrs. Oscar Leser, Mrs. Rufus Gibbs and Mrs. Robert Garrett, the last named serving until after the Federal Amendment was adopted. Other women active in opposition were Mrs. Michael Wild, Mrs. Rosalie Strauss, Mrs. W. P. E. Wyse, Mrs. P. Lea Thom, Mrs. Coyle Haslup Adams, Mrs. George A. Frick and Mrs. William L. Marbury. This association gave substantial aid in money and other ways to the Maryland legislators who went to Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee to work against the ratification of the Federal Amendment by their Legislatures.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The Maryland Woman Suffrage Association in connection with its suffrage activities worked in the Legislature for other progressive measures, among them the use of the public schools for social centers; equal pay for equal service; appointment of women on boards of education and on all public institutions; the abolition of capital punishment; initiative and referendum; co-education; abolition of child labor.

1906. Legislators declined to introduce any suffrage measure and treated the request as a joke.

1907. A special committee appointed by the Legislature to revise the election laws was asked that the word "male" be stricken out. No attention was paid to the request.

1910. The resolution for submitting an amendment was framed by Etta H. Maddox, introduced by Delegate William Harry Paire, the Republican floor leader, and referred to the Committee on Constitutional Amendments. The hearing was held in the House of Delegates at Annapolis on February 24 before the committee and an audience that taxed the chamber's capacity. Miss Maddox presided and introduced the speakers—Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National Suffrage Association; the Rev. John Roach Straton, the Rev. Peter Ainslie, Attorney John Grill, Dr. Flora Pollack, Mrs. Mary Badders Holton, Mrs. Funck, the Rev. Olympia Brown of Wisconsin, Dr. J. William Funck and Miss Belle Kearney of Mississippi. An evening meeting also was held in the same place in the interest of the amendment. On March 24 Carville D. Benson of Baltimore county moved to lay it on the table which was done by a vote of 61 ayes, 18 noes. No action was taken by the Senate.

1912. All the suffrage societies united in asking for the submission of a State amendment for full suffrage. Their best speakers appeared before the committees. A petition was presented to both Houses, signed by 30,000 voters, but it polled only 22 affirmative votes in the House. Soon after a limited suffrage bill, sponsored by the Equal Suffrage League, failed by a vote of 16 noes, 9 ayes in the Senate.

1914. The amendment resolution was introduced in the House by Charles H. McNab of Harford county and in the Senate by William Holmead of Prince George county. It was supported by all the suffrage societies, and ably advocated but lost by 34 ayes, 60 noes in the House and defeated in the Senate. A resolution introduced in the Senate asking for the full suffrage for women with an educational and property qualification, endorsed only by the Equal Suffrage League, failed to get a hearing. One in the Senate requiring a literacy test only was not reported.

1916. The constitutional amendment for full suffrage was introduced in the House by Lloyd Wilkinson (Democrat) of Baltimore and in the Senate by Sydney Mudd (Republican) of Charles county and strongly supported. House vote was 36 ayes, 64 noes. The Senate committee reported favorably and the vote stood 17 ayes, 7 noes, William F. Chesley the only Republican who voted no. The lobbyists were Mrs. Hooker, Mrs. Dora Ogle, Mrs. Robert Moss, Miss Lucy Branham, Miss Maddox, Miss Gwendolyn Willis, the Rev. Olympia Brown, Mrs. Charles E. Ellicott, Mrs. Ross Thompson, Miss Emma Weber, Mrs. William H. Maloy, Mrs. Calvin Gabriel, Mrs. Timanus, Mrs. Howard Schwartz, Mrs. Funck. This was the last time a State amendment was asked for.

1917. At the special session a bill for Presidential suffrage, supported by the State association and the Just Government League, passed the Senate by a vote of 18 ayes, 6 noes, after a joint hearing held in the State House, where the outside speakers, were Dudley Field Malone, U. S. Senator Shafroth and Representative Jeannette Rankin. In the House it failed by a vote of 41 ayes, 56 noes.

1918. The Presidential suffrage bill received in the House 42 ayes, 53 noes; in the Senate 12 ayes, 13 noes.

RATIFICATION. For twenty-five years the women of Maryland tried to get some form of suffrage from their Legislature without success and it is not surprising that they felt obliged to look to a Federal Amendment for their enfranchisement. The delegation in Congress was divided on its submission, Senator Joseph I. France (Republican) voting in favor and Senator John Walter Smith (Democrat) in opposition; two Representatives in favor and five in opposition. After it had been sent to the Legislatures for ratification in June, 1919, pressure was brought to bear on Governor Emerson C. Harrington to call a special session, as it was reported that a majority in favor might be secured. U. S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer urged it in a letter July 10, saying: "Pennsylvania has already ratified and it will be a service to our party if a Democratic State like Maryland will promptly follow suit." The Governor advised waiting till the regular session as "this Legislature was not elected with the question of this amendment before the people."

The regular session convened Jan 7, 1920, and Albert Cabell Ritchie had been elected Governor. Mrs. William Milnes Maloy was chairman of the Suffrage Campaign Committee and Mrs. Robert Moss of the legislative work in Annapolis, and the committee was composed of prominent suffragists from all the societies. A mass meeting took place on January 20 in the State Armory at Annapolis, with addresses by U. S. Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee, State Senator Oliver Metzerott and Mrs. Donald R. Hooker. State Senator George Q. Bartlett read letters from Senator France advocating ratification. Many members of the Legislature were seated on the platform. At the close of the meeting Mrs. Maloy offered a resolution in favor of ratification, which was carried by a large majority.

On Friday, February 6, Governor Ritchie submitted the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment to the General Assembly. Senator Metzerott (Republican) introduced a resolution for ratification in the Senate and Representative Cobourn (Democrat) in the House. It was sent to the Senate Committee on Federal Relations, Senator Grason, chairman; to the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments, Mr. Roberts chairman. A hearing was set for February 11 but on being informed that most of the suffrage leaders would be in Chicago attending the national suffrage convention at that time and that others of their speakers could not be present, Senator Grason said that, with Mr. Robert's consent, the hearing would be postponed until the 18th.

The suffragists heard no more and great was the surprise of those of the committee who were left to find on returning to Annapolis February 10, when the session reconvened, that Mr. Roberts absolutely refused to delay and the hearing would take place on February 11. A hasty canvass of his committee showed that a majority was in favor of deferring it until the 18th, so the suffragists returned to their homes. The next morning the Baltimore papers announced that it would be held that day. The suffragists learned that the preceding night Speaker Tydings had transferred the suffrage amendment from the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, which was favorable to it, and had put it into the Committee on Federal Relations, which was hostile! There were of course no members of the suffrage committee present at the hearing. Mrs. Rufus Gibbs, president of the State Anti-Suffrage Association, urged the defeat of ratification. William F. Marbury made a strong argument against it. Senator Legg of Queen Anne's, who had announced that he "would do just what Governor Ritchie desired," spoke against it. Delegates Cobourn, Shartzer, Curry and the minority floor leader, Vernon Simmons, explained how the suffragists had been deceived and made an earnest plea for fair play.

It had been intended to bring the measure to a vote immediately but the feeling against this was so intense that it was finally set for the 17th. The suffragists demanded a hearing but the House committee refused it and made an adverse report on the resolution to ratify. The Senate committee granted one for the morning of the 17th. Long before the hour set suffragists from many places began to gather. At 10:30 the larger delegations arrived, heralded by Farson's band, and marched straight into the State House. Their number was so large that Chairman Grason adjourned from the committee room to the Senate Chamber. Mrs. Hooker presented resolutions and petitions for ratification from organizations representing over 125,000 residents of Maryland. They were from many State labor associations, patriotic societies, the Grange, Federation of Women's Clubs, Women's Trade Union League, Teachers' Association, Graduate Nurses, Goucher College Alumnae, clubs for every conceivable purpose. She was followed by Mrs. Edward Shoemaker, chairman of the women's State branch of the National Council of Defense, who made an eloquent appeal for the proposed amendment. Judge J. Harry Covington, member of Congress, gave a strong legal and political argument, answering that of Mr. Marbury. Mrs. Henry Zollinger represented the Women's Anti-Suffrage Association and Judge Oscar Leser spoke in opposition. The Hon. Thomas Parran summed up for the suffragists.

At twelve o'clock the suffragists went to the reception room of the Governor, who announced that he wished to give them all the time that they desired to present their case. The speakers were Mrs. Sydney M. Cone, Mrs. Shoemaker, Miss Kate McLane, prominent in war work; Mrs. Robert Moss, Guion Miller representing the Society of Friends; Mrs. Robert H. Walker, the college women; Miss Hunt, the nurses; Miss Mary Dubrau, the eastern shore. The Governor, answering, said that the ratification was a question for the Legislature alone to determine; that the platform on which he ran pledged the Democratic party against it and that he could not ask the legislators to repudiate the platform. Mrs. Hooker in vigorous language held him wholly responsible for the action they took on it.

In the afternoon Representatives Cobourn, McBride, Shartzer, Demarco, Jones and Gambrill spoke for ratification. The vote stood 64 noes, 36 ayes. The same afternoon Senators Metzerott, Gibson, Bartlett and Robins earnestly urged ratification; Senators J. Frank Parran, McIntosh and Legg spoke against it. The vote stood 18 noes, 9 ayes, seven Republicans and two Democrats. In the House 32 of the 45 Republicans and 4 of the 56 Democrats voted in favor.

Undaunted by their defeat the suffragists gathered in front of the State House and with colors flying and band playing martial airs marched two by two around the Capitol, receiving many cheers and good wishes from the spectators. A brief meeting was then held at which resolutions of appreciation were passed for all the brave men who had fought so valiantly for democracy.

Committees of both Houses had reported a resolution of definite rejection, which the Senate passed, and a delegation of women from the Anti-Suffrage Association, headed by Mrs. Gibbs, carried it to Washington and presented it to the Acting Secretary of State, serving formal notice that "the State of Maryland denies the lawful right and power of Congress to propose the amendment for woman suffrage and the validity of such an amendment as part of the Federal Constitution even if ratified by three-fourths of the States."

The Maryland Legislature was by no means satisfied with its demonstration of State's rights in defeating the ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment but it undertook to interfere with the rights of other States. On February 24 the House of Delegates voted by 54 to 44 for a joint resolution to send a delegation of seven anti-suffrage members to West Virginia to urge its General Assembly to follow the course of Maryland in rejecting the amendment. This was adopted by the Senate with little delay and three of its members were appointed to accompany four selected by the House. The next day two resolutions drawn up by Mr. Marbury were introduced in the Legislature. One was to "repeal, rescind and recall the resolutions ratifying the so-called Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States." The other authorized and requested the Governor to call on the national government, in behalf of the State of Maryland, to "have the so-called Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act declared null and void." The reason for his opposition to woman suffrage was clearly apparent.

On March 30 by a vote of 20 ayes, 7 noes, the Senate passed a joint resolution introduced by George Arnold Frick authorizing and directing the Attorney General of Maryland to bring suit or suits to prevent the Secretary of State of the United States from proclaiming the Federal Amendment prior to the holding of a referendum thereon in certain States, and to test the validity, should the same be ratified by the elected Legislatures of three-fourths of the States. This also passed in the House. The opponents thought that now they had spiked every gun but in September it was discovered that the vote on ratification had been pigeonholed instead of being sent by the Governor to the Secretary of State in Washington. Immediately there was hustling to bring it again before the two Houses and on September 22 it was rejected in the Senate by a vote of 17 to 8 and in the House by 51 to 42, nearly a month after the Federal Amendment had been proclaimed!

A Men's Anti-Suffrage Association had been formed under the name of the Maryland League for State Defense and a suit was brought by its board of managers. This was called the case of Leser vs. Garnett, Judge Leser and his associate lawyers representing this League, Mr. Garnett representing the Board of Registry of the 7th Precinct of the 11th Ward of Baltimore. On Oct. 12, 1920, Judge Leser challenged the registration there of Cecilia S. Waters (white) and Mary D. Randolph (colored) in order to test the validity of what the "antis" called the "alleged" 19th Amendment. The plea was that it exceeded the amending power of Article V in the Federal Constitution and that it was not legally ratified by 36 States. The States arraigned as having illegally ratified were West Virginia and Missouri. The case came before the court of common pleas, Judge Heuisler presiding. Besides Mr. Marbury the attorneys for the petitioners were Thomas Cadwalader, Senator Frick and Everett P. Wheeler of New York. The defendants were represented by George M. Brady, Roger Howell, Jacob M. Moses and Assistant Attorney General Lindsay C. Spencer. The case occupied four full days and the petitioners lost. Judge Heuisler ruled that the power to amend the Constitution of the United States granted by the Fifth Article thereof is without limit except as to the words, "equal suffrage in the Senate." He added: "The court is further of the opinion from all the exhibits and other evidence submitted that there was due, legal and proper ratification of the amendment by the required number of State Legislatures." Mr. Wheeler contended that three-fourths of the States had not legally ratified, to which the Court answered: "There was one legal and proper ratification of the amendment by the required number of State Legislatures."

The case was carried up to the State Court of Appeals and argued on April 7. On June 28 the Judge affirmed the decision of the lower court. The case was then taken to the U. S. Supreme Court, which gave a decision adverse to all these claims and established the validity of the Federal Suffrage Amendment beyond all further controversy.

MARYLAND. PART II.[76]

The Woman Suffrage League of Maryland was organized Feb. 27, 1917, in Baltimore at a meeting called with the approval of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs. J. Ross Thompson of Garrett Park was elected president and served for two years. The league started with a sustaining membership of 1,400, including organizations in Baltimore and thirteen counties. By 1920 the city was organized by congressional districts and some of these by wards; twenty of the twenty-three counties had organizations, some of them strong branch leagues, others merely small groups with a chairman.

The history of the league must be traced through its mother, the Equal Suffrage League of Baltimore, back to the Mary A. Livermore League, a society of Friends, which had been founded in 1905 with Mrs. Edward O. Janney as president. In the spring of 1909 this league, in order to broaden its scope, became the Equal Suffrage League of Baltimore. Mrs. Elisabeth King Ellicott was elected president and filled this office with wisdom and rare executive ability until her death in May, 1914. The league, as a branch of the State Suffrage Association, sent Miss Julia Rogers as a delegate to the national convention held in Seattle in 1909. This year a mass meeting was held in McCoy Hall, Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Thayer of the Medical School presiding. Miss Ethel Arnold of England was the speaker and made many converts.

In 1910 the league had a bill introduced in the Legislature giving Municipal suffrage to "every bona fide resident of the city of Baltimore, male or female, 21 years of age.... (a) If such person is qualified to vote for members of the House of Delegates; or (b) can read or write from dictation any paragraph of more than five lines in the State constitution; or (c) is assessed with property in said city to the amount of $300 and has paid taxes thereon for at least two years preceding the election...." The league was fortunate in securing as attorney Judge Jacob M. Moses of the Juvenile Court. He conducted a hearing on February 16 in the House of Delegates attended by both branches of the Legislature. Six hundred women and men went on a special train to Annapolis, carrying a petition for the bill representing 173,000 names. The speakers were Dr. Howard Kelly of Johns Hopkins, president of the Men's League; Dr. Mary Sherwood of the medical department; Judge Moses, Mrs. Ellicott, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper of New York, Miss Janet Richards of Washington, Misses Julia Rogers, Mary E. Lent, Ellen La Mott and Sarah Brookes. The House committee reported eight to one in favor. The advocates in the House were Robert H. Carr, who introduced the bill, H. Pairo, R. F. Beacham and Mr. Henderson. It received 67 noes, 24 ayes and did not come before the Senate. Three other woman suffrage bills were defeated this session.

In 1909-1910 Mrs. Donald R. Hooker, chairman of the Lecture Committee, was instrumental in securing many noted speakers for public meetings. In 1910 she formed the Just Government League of Maryland, which was affiliated with the National Association for six years. Miss Lent was president two years and then Mrs. Hooker continuously.

In 1910 a field secretary was engaged by the Equal Suffrage League, ward organization progressed and money was raised through rummage sales, lawn fetes, suppers at headquarters, etc. In 1911 the New Voter was started, a lively suffrage paper, with Miss Anne Wagner as editor-in-chief. A committee was appointed, with Mrs. Charles E. Ellicott chairman, to investigate methods in the Criminal Court of conducting trials when young girls were witnesses in cases of assault, etc. This committee attended trials and employed a woman to keep records of cases and decisions. Later it had the first woman probation officer appointed and paid her salary until 1916, when Mayor Preston agreed to its payment by the city temporarily.

The State Equal Franchise League was founded in 1911 and became auxiliary to the National American Association. Mrs. Elisabeth King Ellicott was the president for two years and she was succeeded by Mrs. W. J. Brown, who was president for one year. The affiliated societies were the Equal Suffrage League of Baltimore, Woman Suffrage Club of Montgomery county, Just Franchise League of Talbot county, Junior Suffrage League of Walbrook, College Suffrage League of Frederick, Equal Franchise Leagues of Thurmont and Emmitsburg, Junior Suffrage League of Bryn Mawr School and Political Equality League of Baltimore county. It joined in the work of the other associations for various bills in the Legislature until 1914, when it disbanded, and, the constitution of the National Association now permitting the direct affiliation of any suffrage society numbering 200 members, the Equal Suffrage League of Baltimore became a direct auxiliary. In May, 1914, it met with a great loss in the death of Mrs. Ellicott, who had organized and held it firm for the non-partisan, non-political, educational principles of the National Association. She left $25,000 in the hands of trustees, the interest to be used by the league until equal suffrage had been obtained in Maryland. Mrs. Charles E. Ellicott then became president and successfully continued the work. The extensive development of the Children's Playground Association under her leadership is well known throughout the State.[77]

The Woman Suffrage League of Maryland was formed in February, 1917, and the Baltimore City Committee took the active place of the Equal Suffrage League, which became a funding body to carry out the bequest of Mrs. Ellicott, with Miss Caroline Roberts as president, whose unwearying and ceaseless service had been for years an inspiration to her fellow workers. Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, chairman of Campaigns and Surveys for the National Association, went to Baltimore this month, meeting there Miss Emma MacAlarney and Miss Eleanor Furman, two of the national organizers, and planning a speaking and organization route. The organizers remained in Maryland two months and were very successful in interesting new groups of people all over the State, who joined the new Woman Suffrage League. Later Miss Alice Hunt, a national organizer, took up this work for four weeks. The total cost to the National Association was over $600.

In the spring of 1917 a Suffrage School was held in Baltimore by the league to which all were invited. The National Association sent some of its best teachers, among them Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore, Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson and Mrs. Shuler, members of its official board. The climax of the week was a parade, street speeches and a mass meeting, at which Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, national president, was the principal speaker. An outcome of the school was the printing in Maryland newspapers of the suffrage literature supplied by the National Association.

When the United States entered the World War Mrs. Ellicott, president of the league, was appointed by the Governor a State member of the Woman's Council of National Defense and the league cooperated in all of the departments of war work created by the National Suffrage Association. A Red Cross Circle was established in its headquarters and it entered actively into the sale of Liberty Bonds. Its war work brought into it many new members.

In the work for ratification of the Federal Amendment the League joined the other suffrage societies in the headquarters at Annapolis and in public meetings, house to house canvass, interviews with legislators and the other work of a vigorous campaign. The officers were: Mrs. Ellicott, president; Mrs. Edward Shoemaker, Mrs. William Milnes Maloy and Mrs. Sidney Cone, vice-presidents; Miss Julia Rogers and Mrs. Robert Moss, corresponding and recording secretaries; Mrs. Frank Ramey, treasurer; Mrs. George Crawford and Mrs. William Silver, auditors.

The officers of the Equal Suffrage League of Baltimore were Miss Caroline Roberts, president; Miss Clara T. Waite, vice-president; Mrs. William Chatard, secretary; Miss Mary Claire O'Brien, treasurer: with eight directors.[78]

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. This has been described. A Ratification Committee of Men was formed in 1919 with N. Winslow Williams chairman, De Courcy W. Thom vice-chairman, Arthur K. Taylor secretary, Donald R. Hooker, treasurer. Prominent members of the Allied Building Trades Council, Carpenters' Union and other labor organizations were on the committee and every county had a chairman. In Allegany it was Francis J. Drum, president of the Maryland and D. C. Federation of Labor; in Baltimore county B. John Black, master of the State Grange. In other counties it was a member of Congress or the Legislature or a Judge or some one of influence.

FOOTNOTES:

[73] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Emma Maddox Funck, president of the Baltimore Suffrage Club twenty-five years and of the State Woman Suffrage Association eighteen years.

[74] Dr. William Tindall, of Washington, has the records to prove that in 1838, when the people of Georgetown voted on a proposal to withdraw from the State of Maryland, 63 women cast their ballots. As early as 1867, through the efforts of Lavinia C. Dundore, a large equal rights society of men and women was organized in Baltimore, which continued until 1874 and was represented in the national conventions by its president, Mrs. Dundore. A Baltimore paper of April 4, 1870, says: "A petition, asking for the right of suffrage and political justice, was presented to the House of Delegates, signed by Eliza S. White, Lavinia C. Dundore, Ellen M. Harris and 150 other ladies. It was referred to the Committee on Federal Relations."

[75] For full account of the convention see Chapter VI, Volume V.

[76] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Clara Turnbull Waite, vice-president of the Equal Suffrage League of Baltimore.

[77] Additional names of women who held office or were prominent in work of the Equal Suffrage League of Baltimore or the State Equal Franchise League of Maryland are Drs. Fannie Hoopes, Lillian Welsh, Mary Sherwood, Florence Sabin, Claribel Cone, Nellie Mark; Mesdames Pauline Holme, George Lamb, S. Johnson Poe, J. Williams Lord, Frank Ramey, C. C. Heath, George H. Wright, J. H. Webb-Peploe, Jacob M. Moses, Mary N. Parry and W. W. Emmart; Misses Mary Bartlett Dixon, Elisabeth Gilman, A. Page Reid, Henrietta Norris, Romaine McIlvaine and Emma Weber.

[78] Among these directors, active members of the city committee, chairmen of standing committees and devoted workers not elsewhere mentioned were Mesdames Edwin Rouse, Jr., chairman of the city committee; Caleb Athey, Harvey Bickel, C. C. Peffer, J. W. Putts, John Parker, A. Morris Carey, C. C. Heath; Esther Moses and Esther Katz.



CHAPTER XX.

MASSACHUSETTS.[79]

From the beginning of the present century the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, organized in 1870, steadily gained in membership year after year. Its annual conventions for many years were held in Boston in January and those of the New England Woman Suffrage Association in May, when the two united in a great Festival, which generally took place in Faneuil Hall. The day sessions usually were held in the rooms of the New England Women's Club, the evening sessions in some large place, in 1901 at Faneuil Hall.

At the State annual meeting Jan. 23, 1901, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, who had been president since 1893, presided and among the speakers were Mrs. Helen Campbell, the Rev. Charles W. Wendte, Dr. Emily B. Ryder and the Rev. Ida C. Hultin. Mrs. Livermore was re-elected and Mrs. Maud Wood Park succeeded Miss Alice Stone Blackwell as chairman of the State Board of Directors. The office of president had always been mainly honorary and the actual work was done by the chairman of this board. The other officers chosen were Henry B. Blackwell, corresponding secretary; William Lloyd Garrison, treasurer; Miss Eva Channing, clerk; Miss Amanda M. Lougee, Richard P. Hallowell, auditors; Mrs. Judith W. Smith, member National Executive Committee. There was a long list of distinguished vice-presidents. Mr. Blackwell had been secretary for over twenty years and was re-elected.

At the Festival on May 22, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe presided, Miss Sarah Cone Bryant was toastmistress and there were addresses by William M. Salter, the Hon. William Dudley Foulke and others of note. On May 23 at the annual meeting of the New England Association, organized in November, 1868, reports were made from the New England States, and addresses by the Rev. Florence Kollock Crooker, Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows, Mrs. Inez Haynes Gillmore and others. Mrs. Howe, who had been its president since 1893, was re-elected, with a board composed of eminent men and women.

During the year the State association sent out 1,246 press articles, circulated many thousand pages of literature and printed several leaflets. It held well-attended fortnightly meetings at its headquarters, No. 3 Park Street, and gave a brilliant reception in honor of Mrs. Livermore's 80th birthday. It compiled a list of about forty persons ready to give addresses on suffrage and sent a speaker free to every woman's club or other organization willing to hear the subject presented. It held ten public meetings and sent out 11,000 circulars to increase the women's registration and school vote in Boston. Many addresses under its auspices were given by Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz, Professor Anna May Soule of Mt. Holyoke and Senorita Carolina Holman Huidobro of Chile. Massachusetts contributed four-fifths of the money given to the Oregon campaign of 1900 from outside that State, and the Massachusetts booth (named the Lucy Stone booth) at the National Suffrage Bazar that year took in more money than that of any other State except New York. The College Equal Suffrage League's prize of $100, for the best essay in favor of suffrage by a college student, was won by Ava M. Stoddard of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The above is a sample of the activities carried on year after year by the association during the first decade of the century.

In 1901 the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government was organized through the efforts of Mrs. Mary Hutcheson Page, with Pauline Agassiz (Mrs. Quincy A.) Shaw as president, Mrs. Fanny B. Ames, chairman of Executive Committee, and Mrs. Park as executive secretary.[80] It continued to be a power in the State till suffrage was won and aimed to devote itself not only to suffrage but to all activities in which women could be especially useful to the community.

The National Woman Suffrage Association of Massachusetts, a smaller organization, disbanded in 1901 after nearly twenty years of existence. Mrs. Sarah A. P. Dickerman was acting president, Miss Lavina A. Hatch secretary. It had held eleven monthly meetings during the past year, done congressional work and contributed to the Susan B. Anthony table at the national bazar in New York.

1902. At the annual meeting on January 23, Mrs. Park presided and a work conference was substituted for the usual public meeting. The Festival was held on May 28 with the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer presiding. Other speakers were the Rev. Dr. James H. Ecob, Professor John Graham Brooks, the Rev. Ida C. Hultin, Colonel T. W. Higginson and the Rev. Charles F. Dole. Miss Vida Goldstein of Australia addressed a number of meetings this year. An enrollment of suffragists was begun. There was an increase of women's registration for the school vote in fourteen cities, in Boston of about 5,000. An investigation of the tax records by Mr. Blackwell showed that in Boston alone 18,500 women paid taxes on several hundred million dollars' worth of property.

1903. At the annual meeting of the State association on January 13, Mrs. Shaw and Mrs. Park presided. Mrs. Livermore was made honorary president and Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead president, Mrs. Mary Schlesinger, vice-president; Miss Harriet E. Turner, corresponding secretary; William Lloyd Garrison, treasurer; Mrs. Otto B. Cole, clerk; Mr. Blackwell, member of the National Executive Committee. Mrs. Page, chairman of the Organization Committee, reported that forty towns had been visited. There were speeches by Mrs. Livermore and Mrs. Enid Stacy Widdrington of England. Miss Blackwell presided at the New England annual meeting May 27 and the Rev. Charles G. Ames at the Festival the next day. On August 13 Lucy Stone's birthday anniversary was celebrated by a pilgrimage to the old farm house near West Brookfield where she was born. About 400 persons gathered from various States, even California being represented. Her niece, Mrs. Phebe Stone Beeman, president of the Warren Political Equality Club, presided and there were addresses by Mrs. Livermore, Mr. Blackwell, the Rev. Mary A. Safford and others. The beautiful weather and the beautiful scenery combined with the beautiful memories to make it a memorable occasion. Mrs. Livermore wrote afterwards: "It was greater and grander than any public day, not specially devoted to religion, that I have ever known. The hill was a Mount of Transfiguration, the faces of the people shone."

The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw addressed a series of meetings throughout the State. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Park, Mrs. Diaz, Mrs. Esther F. Boland, Miss Bryant and George H. Page spoke repeatedly for the association. Work conferences were held in various counties and equal rights plays by Mr. Page were performed for the benefit of the cause. The State headquarters were moved from Park Street to a house at No. 6 Marlboro Street, the use of which was given by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw. Massachusetts this year contributed more money to the National Association than did any other State. The time of the State annual meeting was changed to October and it began to be held outside of Boston, a second one for this year in the Newtons, October 29 and 30. It opened with a reception by the Newton League at the Hunnewell Club House, where Mrs. Electa N. L. Walton presided and Mayor Weeks of Newton and the Hon. Samuel L. Powers gave addresses of welcome. The following day at West Newton Mrs. Livermore presided, the Hon. Gorman D. Gilman gave the address of welcome and Mrs. Florence Kelley and Dr. Shaw spoke. The Enrollment Committee reported obtaining 11,169 signatures. A resolution of tribute was passed to Miss Harriet E. Turner, who retired after 21 years' devoted service at headquarters, where she had suggested some of the most successful lines of work. Mrs. Page was chosen as chairman of the State board, Mrs. Susan S. Fessenden succeeding her later in the year.

1904. The Festival was held on May 10, Mrs. Howe presiding. The speakers were Judge Edward E. Reynolds of Portland, Maine, the Rev. Florence Kollock Crooker of Michigan, Frank K. Foster of the State Federation of Labor, Mrs. Livermore, Professor George E. Gardner of the Boston University Law School, Mrs. May Alden Ward, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, Mr. Blackwell and Mrs. Mead. The State meeting was held at Attleboro, October 21, in the Opera House, with the usual list of well known speakers. The International Peace Congress, held in Boston this year, gave an impetus to the movement. The men from abroad were much impressed by the American women. Other notable events were the celebration by the State W. C. T. U. of the quarter centennial of the granting of School suffrage and a conference of women ministers of different denominations, called by Mrs. Howe. There was a Suffrage Day at the big Mechanics' Fair in Boston, with addresses by Miss Jane Addams, Miss Sheriff Bain of New Zealand and W. P. Byles of England. A library of books bearing on the woman question was started at headquarters with a fund given by Miss M. F. Munroe in memory of Mary Lowell Stone.

1905. There was a very large attendance at the Festival on May 10, with Mrs. Mead presiding. Professor Edward Cummings was toastmaster, ex-Governor Garvin of Rhode Island and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt spoke and the Festival then resolved itself into a celebration of Mr. Blackwell's 80th birthday (May 4), with the presentation of a silver pitcher from the State association and addresses by William Lloyd Garrison and Mrs. Livermore. She had insisted upon coming, although by no means able. She said, "Mr. Blackwell and I have worked together for nearly half a century; we have gone anywhere and everywhere for woman suffrage. This evening he has been doing his best to persuade me to go out to the Oregon convention. I can not say half that ought to be said of his character, his devoted service, his fraternal spirit." She died a few days later and there was profound sorrow for her loss.

At the meeting of the New England Association on May 11 Miss Blackwell presided. Francis J. Garrison was elected treasurer. The State annual meeting was held at Holyoke, October 24, 25, in the Second Baptist Church and Mayor Nathan P. Avery gave the address of welcome. Miss Blackwell was made chairman of the board of directors; Mrs. Mead was elected president; Mrs. Schlesinger vice-president. The association took part in the celebration of the centennial of William Lloyd Garrison on December 10. He had been a life-long champion of equal rights for women and his last public speech was made at a suffrage hearing in the State House. There was a noteworthy memorial meeting for Mrs. Edna D. Cheney, long a pillar of the suffrage association and of the New England Hospital for Women and Children. Catherine Breshkovsky, "the little grandmother of the Russian revolution," visited Massachusetts this year and addressed a number of meetings arranged by the suffragists, including a large one in Faneuil Hall.

The convention was held in October, 1906, at Lowell in the Trinitarian Congregational Church. Harriet A. Eager gave a stone from the pavement of the little church at Delft Haven in Holland, where the Pilgrims attended their last religious service before sailing for America and the association presented it to the Cape Cod Memorial Association to be placed in the monument. The World's W. C. T. U. convention in Boston this month aroused much interest and enthusiasm. At the opening banquet Miss Blackwell gave the address of welcome in behalf of the women's organizations.

1907. The annual meeting took place in Worcester at Trinity Church. Letters were read from Colonel Thomas W. Higginson and Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller, the only two survivors of the 89 men and women who signed the Call for the first National Woman's Rights Convention, held in Worcester in 1850; and a poem from the Rev. Antoinette L. Brown Blackwell, D. D., the only survivor of the speakers on that occasion. Dr. Shaw gave an address and conducted a question box and there was a symposium on Why I am a Suffragist by five young women, one a grandniece and namesake of Margaret Fuller.

A noteworthy meeting was held on March 23, 1907, by the Boston Equal Suffrage Association to consider "the indebtedness of women of collegiate and professional training to the leaders of the suffrage movement." Every woman's college in the State was represented, as well as law and medicine. Mrs. Fanny B. Ames presided and college girls in cap and gown acted as ushers. The speakers were Mrs. Howe, Miss Georgia L. White, Assistant Professor of Economics at Smith College; Professor Helen M. Searles of Mt. Holyoke; Dr. Emma Culbertson of the New England Hospital for Women and Children; Miss Emily Greene Balch, Associate Professor of Economics and Sociology at Wellesley; Miss Caroline J. Cooke, instructor in Commercial Law at Simmons, and Mrs. Park of Radcliffe.

On August 13 suffragists from different parts of the State again made a pilgrimage to Lucy Stone's old home, West Brookfield, to celebrate her birthday. Mrs. Cobden Sanderson, a daughter of Richard Cobden, one of the "militant" English suffragettes, spoke at the women's colleges and elsewhere. The Boston association, in connection with the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, gave courses in citizenship, addressed by heads of State and city departments. Mrs. Fessenden conducted many classes in Parliamentary practice (these were continued year after year), and there was a "suffrage day" in the woman's department of the great Food Fair.

The Association of Collegiate Alumnae celebrated its quarter centennial in Boston November 5-9, which brought many distinguished suffragists from other States. In 1872 the New England Women's Club had given a reception for the only three college women then in this city. In 1907 this association had 3,147 members, several hundred of them in Boston alone. At the Whittier Centennial celebration at Amesbury on December 17 the poet's championship of equal rights for women was recalled with his work for other reforms. The Boston Federation of Suffrage Societies was organized by the Association for Good Government. The State Federation of Labor and the State Letter Carriers' Association endorsed woman suffrage.

The Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women changed its organ The Remonstrance from an annual to a quarterly and sent out a copy broadcast. The suffragists followed with an answer. The Woman's Journal pointed out that the M. A. O. F. E. S. W., according to its own official reports, had sold $40.86 worth of literature in 1905, $13.50 worth in 1906 and $12.30 worth in 1907, and that in 1906 the total receipts were $2,907, of which $2,018 were expended on salaries.[81]

1908. The State annual meeting was held in Boston October 27, 28. Mrs. Mead presided and Mrs. Ethel Snowden of England was the chief speaker. There was a reception to Mrs. Howe, with addresses by Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott, Mrs. Carota Von Koch of Sweden and Mrs. Howe. Miss Jane Addams gave suffrage lectures this year at Radcliffe, Smith, Mt. Holyoke and Wellesley colleges and Boston University, arranged by the College Equal Suffrage League, with large audiences and much enthusiasm. Mrs. Snowden spoke for the State association at Faneuil Hall and a reception was given by the College and Boston suffrage associations. Another large suffrage meeting in Faneuil Hall was addressed by Professor Charles Zueblin. Mrs. Park and Mrs. Eager held a series of meetings in Berkshire county, arousing much interest. At the suffrage booth in the Boston Food Fair, in charge of the Newton League, 6,255 names were added to the enrollment. The association by this time had more than 100 local branches. This year 145 labor unions endorsed equal suffrage. The association carried on a "poster campaign," putting up posters in towns and at county fairs. Mrs. FitzGerald composed the inscriptions and Mrs. George F. Lowell with a group of friends put them up. At the Biennial of the General Federation of Women's Clubs held in Boston every mention of suffrage was cheered and no one got such an ovation as Mrs. Howe, the fraternal delegate from the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

1909. The College Equal Suffrage League of Massachusetts attained a membership of 320 this year and a suffrage club was formed at Radcliffe College. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology any notices put up by the suffragists were at once torn down. The State annual convention was held in Boston October 22, 23, with the evening meeting in Tremont Temple, and Miss Blackwell was elected president. For the first time the report of the Legislative Committee was given by Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley, who continued to be its chairman for years.

Ex-Governor Long presided at a memorial meeting for Henry B. Blackwell, with addresses by Edwin D. Mead, Julia Ward Howe, the Rev. Charles G. Ames, Professor Sumichrast, Moses H. Gulesian, Francis J. Garrison, James H. Stark of the Victorian Club, Meyer Bloomfield and Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows. Mr. Blackwell was called by Mrs. Catt "one of the world's most heroic men." He was the only man of large abilities who devoted his life to securing equal rights for women. In his youth a reward of $10,000 was offered for his head at a public meeting in the South because of his leading part in the rescue of a young slave girl. He made his first speech for woman's rights at a suffrage convention in Cleveland in 1853. Two years later he married Lucy Stone. She had meant never to marry but to devote herself wholly to the women's cause but he promised to devote himself to the same cause. He was the unpaid secretary of the American Woman Suffrage Association for twenty years, of the Massachusetts association for thirty years and of the New England association for nearly forty years. He traveled all over the country organizing suffrage societies, getting up conventions and addressing Legislatures. He attended the Republican national conventions year after year trying to get a suffrage plank and in 1872 secured a mild one in the national platform and a strong one in that of Massachusetts. He took part in constitutional amendment campaigns in Kansas, Vermont, Colorado, Michigan, Rhode Island and South Dakota. In 1889, when Washington, Montana and North Dakota were about to enter the Union as States, he attended the constitutional convention of each to urge equal suffrage. He was an editor of the Woman's Journal from its founding in 1870 till his death. An able writer, an eloquent speaker, he was widely beloved for his kindness, humor and geniality.

Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the "militant" suffragettes of England, visited Boston this year. She was met at the station by the suffragists with automobiles and flags and was taken through the streets to the headquarters—Boston's first suffrage procession—and later addressed in Tremont Temple a huge audience, critical at first, highly enthusiastic at the close. A reception was given by prominent suffragists to Miss Ethel M. Arnold of England, and there were lectures by her and Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman; a series of "petition teas" and meetings addressed by Dr. Shaw, Miss Leonora O'Reilly, a labor leader of New York; Judge Ben Lindsey of Denver; Charles Edward Russell, the Rev. Thomas Cuthbert Hall; and by Mrs. Snowden, Dr. Stanton Coit and the Misses Rendell and Costello, all of England.

In June the first of the open-air meetings that later became so important a feature of the campaign was held on the Common at Bedford. The speakers were Mrs. FitzGerald, Mrs. Leonora S. Little, Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick and Mrs. Crowley. The attendance was small; people were shy at first of seeming to countenance such an innovation but the crowds grew as the meetings continued and it was found to be the best if not the only way to reach the mass of voters. A summer campaign of 97 open-air meetings was held, the speakers traveling mainly by trolley, covering a large part of the State and reaching about 25,000 persons.[82] Suffrage buttons and literature were distributed, posters put up, and sometimes mammoth kites flown to advertise the meetings. Mrs. H. S. Luscomb had presented a kite big enough to hold up a banner six feet wide by forty deep. The campaigners were resourceful. At Nantasket, when forbidden to speak on the beach, they went into the water with their Votes for Women banner and spoke from the sea to the audience on the shore.

1910. Among the speakers at the Festival in May were Mrs. Frances Squire Potter, former Professor of English at the University of Minnesota; Professor Max Eastman of Columbia University, secretary of the New York Men's League for Woman Suffrage, and Professor Henry S. Nash of the Episcopal Theological School. At the State annual meeting in Lowell, October 27, 28, Philip Snowden, M. P., of England was a speaker. In connection with the convention Mrs. Park spoke before the Woman's Club; Rabbi Fleischer before the Board of Trade; Miss Alice Carpenter at the Congregational Church in Tewksbury; four factory meetings were held; the suffrage slides were exhibited twelve times at the Merrimac Theater; Miss Foley and Miss Anne Withington addressed seven trade unions; 27,000 fliers were distributed and four street meetings held.

An eight-weeks' summer campaign of open-air meetings was conducted through the great industrial cities of eastern Massachusetts, with from four to six regular and occasional special speakers. Three Englishwomen, Miss Margaret G. Bondfield, Miss M. M. A. Ward and Miss Emily Gardner, reinforced the American speakers, Miss Foley, Mrs. FitzGerald, Mrs. Glendower Evans, Miss Emily Pierson of Connecticut, and others. In each city, besides the outdoor meetings, there was some special feature; in two, garden parties; in Brockton, the women joined the circus parade, driving in a decorated team and giving out fliers. In Fall River they got two popular stores to wrap a colored flier in every parcel. In Taunton they had an evening band concert on the Common, accompanied with red fire and speeches. In Lawrence Miss Foley made a balloon ascension and showered down rainbow literature upon an eager crowd. Several times the women spoke from the vaudeville stage and showed colored lantern slides. They spoke in parks and pleasure resorts and outside the factories as well as in the streets and at one Yiddish and one French meeting. They held 200 meetings and talked to about 60,000 persons. Afterwards they held outdoor meetings in and about Boston and sent an automobile of speakers and literature to the Aviation Meet. A fall campaign of open-air speaking followed. Mrs. Park came home from a tour around the world and lectured on the women of different countries. Mrs. A. Watson-Lister of Australia and Mrs. Dora B. Montefiore of England addressed a number of meetings.

A week of meetings took place in Springfield, State speakers cooperating with the local suffragists, among them Mrs. Henry Phillips, president of the suffrage league; Mrs. McDuffie and Mr. Myrick, publisher of the "Farm and Home" and "Good Housekeeping." Headquarters were opened in a vacant store with daily meetings and teas; addresses were given before the Board of Trade, the teachers, the Woman's, the Mothers', the Socialist and the College Clubs, the Y. M. C. A. training school and other groups; colored slides of suffrage events were shown and prominent local women opened their homes for social affairs. Much interest was aroused and permanent Springfield headquarters were opened soon afterwards. Boston started to organize by wards and invitations were printed in various languages. The first meeting, in Ward 8, arranged by Mrs. Leonard, was attended by nearly 1,000 women and there were speeches in English and Yiddish. A class to train suffrage speakers was started. A suffrage club was organized in the College of Liberal Arts of Boston University. The suffragists sent Alfred H. Brown to help the campaign in the State of Washington.

The general sorrow for the death of Julia Ward Howe on October 17 brought support to the suffrage movement. In her later years people had revered her as they revered the flag and all her great influence had been placed unreservedly at the service of this cause. A large memorial meeting was held in Faneuil Hall on December 16.

1911. The State convention was held in Boston October 27, 28, the evening meeting at Tremont Temple addressed by Dr. Shaw and Professor Edward Howard Griggs. The Boston association raised $1,100 for the campaigns in Oregon, Kansas, Wisconsin and Michigan and gave Mrs. Park's services to Ohio and Michigan. A Men's League for Woman Suffrage was organized at Harvard University under the presidency of A. S. Olmstead. At the meeting of the New England Association Miss Blackwell was elected president. Mrs. Howe had held the office twenty-six years.

Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, one of the few surviving pioneers, passed away this year. He had been a champion of women's rights for more than sixty years. When a young minister he spoke for the cause. He signed the Call for the First National Woman's Rights Convention in 1850. He married Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell in 1855 and prefixed an approving foreword to their published protest against the inequalities of the marriage laws. He took part in organizing the American Woman Suffrage Association, was its president for a year and an officer in the New England and Massachusetts associations until his death. For years he was a great power as a lecturer and writer and addressed suffrage conventions in many States. Beginning with 1870 he contributed a long series of brilliant editorials to the Woman's Journal. He wrote four books on the woman question and gave 1,000 books about women to the Boston Public Library. The founder of Smith College said she was led to leave her fortune for that purpose by reading his article, Ought Women Learn the Alphabet?

1912. The State annual meeting was held in Boston, October 11, with an unusually large attendance from western Massachusetts. In 1913 it met in Boston May 27, 28. The executive secretary, Mrs. Marion Booth Kelley, reported that 111 indoor meetings and 45 outdoor meetings had been held in the past six months. It was voted to have a suffrage parade in Boston the following spring. There was much doubt of the propriety of this but when a rising vote of the women present was taken to see how many would march almost the whole convention rose.

1914. The State annual meeting was held in Boston May 1 and 2, and again in 1915 on May 13-15. The latter opened with a brilliant banquet at the Hotel Somerset, attended by about 800. Mrs. Park presided and among the speakers were ex-Governor Bass of New Hampshire, ex-Governor Foss of Massachusetts, Dr. Hugh Cabot and Mrs. Judith W. Smith, aged 93. Suffrage clubs were reported at Wellesley, Smith and Mt. Holyoke Colleges, the last formed largely through Miss Mildred Blodgett, assistant professor of geology. A band concert and a mass meeting on the Common closed the convention.

1916. At the State annual meeting in Boston May 18, 19, dues were abolished and provision made for organizing the State along political party lines, as recommended by the National Association. Mrs. B. F. Pitman of Brookline gave a large reception. The treasurer reported receipts of $67,232, expenditures of $63,483.[83]

1917. At the annual State meeting on May 10 resolutions were adopted calling upon the 125,000 enrolled members to "show their patriotism by doing their utmost to help their country and the world," especially along the five lines recommended by the National Suffrage Association; urging nation-wide prohibition as a war measure and commending the efforts to minimize moral dangers at the training camps; protesting against "any attempt to lower educational standards or to weaken the laws safeguarding the workers, especially women and children," because of the war emergency. The Twentieth Century Club rooms were crowded at the New England Conference and Festival. Miss Blackwell presided. A greeting from the National Association was brought by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, its corresponding secretary, and speakers were present from all the New England States. Pledges and a collection were taken for the Maine campaign and it was voted to give $2,000, a bequest from Miss Marian Shannon, to the National Association, to help it.

1918. At the winter business meeting held in Fitchburg February 26 Mrs. Pitman reported that more than $30,000 had been raised by the association for war work. The State annual meeting in Boston on May 24, 25 was crowded and exciting. A resolution pledging the association's support to the country in the war was passed by acclamation, and it responded to the request of Mrs. Catt, president of the National American Suffrage Association, to follow its program of war work. The convention voted with enthusiasm to take up the circulation of the national petitions for the Federal Amendment and also to give $600 to the National Association to finance an organizer in Oklahoma, where a suffrage campaign was in progress and the Massachusetts "antis" were financing the opposition. In the evening a magnificent meeting was held in the Opera House with Mrs. Grace A. Johnson presiding and addresses by Mrs. Catt and Dr. Shaw. The collection of $1,124 was given to the Red Cross.

On August 13 the State and Boston associations celebrated the centenary of Lucy Stone's birth by a luncheon at the Hotel Somerset, Mrs. Charles Sumner Bird presiding, with addresses by ex-Governor Walsh, the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, D. D., 93 years of age; Mrs. Judith W. Smith, almost 97; Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott. Letters and telegrams of appreciation were received from President Wilson's secretary in his behalf; from Theodore Roosevelt, ex-Governor McCall, Mrs. Catt, Mayor Andrew James Peters of Boston and many others. The fall meeting was held in Boston November 30, when Miss Mary Garrett Hay, national vice-president, spoke on the national suffrage situation and there were addresses by heads of civic and philanthropic organizations.

1919. The mid-winter meeting was held in Worcester February 15 and eight young girls presented to Miss Blackwell the national petition bearing 16,434 names, many more than the quota for this city. The State meeting was held May 21, 22, in Boston. While it was in session the news came that the Federal Suffrage Amendment had passed the U. S. House of Representatives. This called out great enthusiasm and it was voted to telegraph Mrs. Maud Wood Park: "Three cheers for our Congressional Chairman! Very proud that Mrs. Park is a Massachusetts woman!" The following Sunday the Boston association held a meeting in Tremont Theater to rejoice, with Samuel L. Powers, a prominent Republican lawyer, presiding, and addresses by Mrs. Park, Joseph Conry, a prominent Democrat, and Secretary of State Langtry for Governor Coolidge.

1920. The annual meeting was again held in Boston, May 27, 28, Mrs. Bird presiding. She stated that it was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Julia Ward Howe, to whose work for suffrage and other good causes a heart-felt tribute was paid. Mrs. Bird presented Miss Blackwell with a laurel wreath as representing the pioneers and as having been at the head of the association when victory was won. As the complete ratification was almost at hand it was voted to take legal steps to dissolve the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. Later it was decided, in accordance with the policy of the National Association, to continue it as a skeleton organization with the same officers until all possible need for it should be over. The State League of Women Voters was organized, with Mrs. George R. Fearing, Jr., as chairman and Miss Blackwell as honorary president, the delegates and members of the association enrolling in the new society. The New England Woman Suffrage Association never formally disbanded but simply ceased to meet.

From 1910 onward what had tended most to increase membership was the formation of the Woman Suffrage Party to work as the State association, with a non-dues-paying membership of men and women, similar to the political parties, having district leaders, precinct captains and ward chairmen, strictly non-partisan and solely to promote woman suffrage. The first chairman was Mrs. Gertrude Halladay Leonard. A convention was held in Faneuil Hall on March 5, 1912, at which time twenty-three of the twenty-six Boston wards had been organized, also Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, Newton and many other cities and towns. The membership was 25,000 and by the referendum campaign in 1915 it had advanced to about 250,000.

This change in the type of organization was indicative of a change in the whole suffrage movement. It was recognized that more widely diffused education on the subject was needed and that suffrage must become a political issue. The suffrage leagues were changed into political district organizations; the parlor meeting gave place to the outdoor meeting; State headquarters were moved from No. 6 Marlboro Street, a residential section, to 585 Boylston Street in a business building, and local societies were kept in touch. Every effort was made to reach labor unions and other organizations of men with speakers and educational propaganda and to carry information to the man in the street, who often had never heard of the Woman Suffrage Association. The executive board met every two weeks and later every week or oftener. Mrs. Page, its chairman, was followed in 1911 by Mrs. Marion Booth Kelley; in 1912 by Mrs. Gertrude B. Newell, and in May, 1913, Mrs. Leonard was elected and served to October, 1917. Upon her resignation Mrs. Grace A. Johnson was chosen, who was succeeded by Mrs. Charles Sumner Bird.

In 1912 a new State organization, called the Political Equality Union, was formed, with Miss Mabel Gillespie as chairman, Mrs. FitzGerald as secretary and Dr. Lily Burbank as treasurer, which made a special effort to reach the labor men and women. As the vote on the constitutional amendment approached, in order that there might be no overlapping, ten per cent. of the State was assigned as a field for the work of the Union and the rest for that of the State association. The two cooperated in legislative work. The Union disbanded in November, 1916, advising its members to join the State association.

CAMPAIGN. Through the campaign year of 1914, preceding the vote on a constitutional amendment, which had been submitted by the Legislature, the association kept five salaried speakers continually in the field, besides numerous volunteers. On the list of the speakers' bureau there were 125 women and 76 men. The State and the Boston headquarters had a large office force, and in the field were nine organizers, giving full or half time. The State College Equal Suffrage League handled the retail literature for the association and took charge of the office hospitality. The Equal Franchise Committee, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw, president, had an important part in the campaign. The Men's League for Woman Suffrage was reorganized with Oakes Ames as president and Joseph Kelley as secretary. The Harvard Men's League cooperated in many ways. The use of one of the University Halls for a speech by Mrs. Pankhurst was refused to it, much to the chagrin of liberal-minded graduates and undergraduates, but she held a very successful meeting in a nearby hall. The use of a hall was refused also for Mrs. Florence Kelley, although she had spoken at Harvard on other subjects. In order to avoid further trouble the Harvard Corporation voted that thereafter no woman should be allowed to lecture in the college halls except by its special invitation. This rule was abandoned later and Miss Helen Todd of California spoke on suffrage in Emerson Hall before a large audience.