L. MONTANA.[354]
In August, 1883, Miss Frances E. Willard, national president, came to Montana and formed a Territorial Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Butte. At this time Miss Willard in her speeches, and the union in its adoption of a franchise department, made the initiative effort to obtain suffrage for the women of Montana. This organization has been here, as elsewhere, a great educative force for its members, training them in parliamentary law, broadening their ideas and preparing them for citizenship. Out of its ranks have come the Rev. Alice S. N. Barnes, Mesdames Laura E. Howey, Delia A. Kellogg, Mary A. Wylie, Martha Rolfe Plassman, Anna A. Walker and many other earnest advocates of the ballot for women. Within the past five or six years a number of professional and business women have joined the suffrage forces and to-day they compose a majority of the active leaders.
No attempt was made to organize the State until Mrs. Emma Smith De Voe was sent by the National Association in 1895. She visited most of the prominent towns and formed clubs or committees. The first State convention was called at Helena in September of this year by the suffrage association of that city, Miss Sarepta Sanders, president, and Mrs. Kellogg, secretary. It was assisted by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, to whose eloquent addresses was due the great impetus the cause received at this time.[355]
Mrs. De Voe again visited the State in the spring of 1896. The annual meeting took place at Butte in November. Mrs. Harriet P. Sanders, wife of Senator Sanders, having declined re-election, was unanimously made honorary president, and Mrs. Ella Knowles Haskell succeeded her in the presidency. Nearly 300 members were reported.
A large and successful convention met at Helena in November, 1897, when a State central committee was appointed, with Mrs. Haskell as chairman and members in nearly every county. Madame F. Rowena Medini was made president, but she left the State before her year of office had expired and Dr. Mary B. Atwater filled her place. No convention being held in 1897 or 1898 she acted as president until that of October, 1899, when Dr. Maria M. Dean was elected. Mrs. Chapman Catt was present.
To Mrs. P. A. Dann of Great Falls, a contemporary of Miss Susan B. Anthony, too much honor can not be given for her years of service and financial help. U. S. Senator Wilbur F. Sanders has been a loyal friend. Foremost among the early workers for woman suffrage in Montana was Mrs. Clara L. McAdow, whose energy and business talent made the Spotted Horse, a mine owned by herself and husband, a valuable property.
In July, 1889, Henry B. Blackwell, corresponding secretary of the American W. S. A., came to Montana to present the question to the Constitutional Convention. His address was received with warm applause but the convention refused to adopt a woman suffrage amendment by 34 yeas, 29 nays. A resolution was presented that the Legislature might extend the franchise to women whenever it should be deemed expedient, thus putting the matter out of the hands of its proverbial enemies. The measure had able champions in B. F. Carpenter, W. M. Bickford, J. E. Rickards, Hiram Knowles, P. W. McAdow, J. A. Callaway, Peter Breen, T. E. Collins, W. A. Burleigh, W. R. Ramsdell, Francis E. Sargeant, William A. Clark (now U. S. Senator), its president, and others. Prominent among those opposed were Martin Maginnis and Allen Joy. It was lost by a tie vote, July 30. A proposal to submit the question separately to the electors was defeated by the same vote, August 12. The constitution conferred School Suffrage, which women already possessed under Territorial government, and gave to taxpaying women a vote on questions of taxation.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: In 1895 women secured an enactment that the commissioners of any county, at the request of a certain number of petitioners, must call a special election for a vote on licensing the sale of liquor. A two-thirds vote is necessary to prohibit this. Women themselves can neither petition nor vote on the question.
This year a bill was introduced by Representative John S. Huseby for a constitutional amendment granting suffrage to women. It was passed in the House, 45 yeas, 12 nays; indefinitely postponed in the Senate by a "rising vote," 14 yeas, 4 nays.
In 1897 a systematic effort was made to secure a bill for this amendment. Mrs. Ella Knowles Haskell, chairman of the State central committee, invaded the legislative halls with an able corps of assistants from the W. S. A. Petitions signed by about 3,000 citizens were presented, and it looked for a time as if the bill might pass. It was debated in the House and attracted much attention from the press, but lacked five votes of the required two-thirds majority. It was not acted upon in the Senate.
In 1899 Dr. Mary B. Atwater, then president of the State Association, with other officers and members, succeeded in having a Suffrage Amendment Bill introduced. Some excellent work was done, but the measure was lost in Committee of the Whole.
Dower is retained but curtesy abolished. If there is only one child, or the lawful issue of one child, the surviving husband or wife receives one-half of the entire estate, real and personal; if there is more than one child, or one child and the lawful issue of one or more deceased children, the survivor receives one-third. If there is no issue living the survivor takes one-half of the whole unless there is neither father, mother, brother, sister nor their descendants, when the widow or widower takes it all.
The wife may mortgage or convey her separate property without the husband's signature. He may do this but can not impair her dower right to one-third.
A married woman may act as executor, administrator or guardian. She may also sue and be sued and make contracts in her own name.
A married woman can control her earnings by becoming a sole trader through the necessary legal process. She thus makes herself responsible for the maintenance of her children.
The father, if living, or if not, the mother, while she remains unmarried and if suitable, is entitled to the guardianship of minor children. In case of divorce, other things being equal, if the child be of tender years, it is given to the mother, and if of an age to require education and preparation for business, then to the father.
By the code of 1895 the husband is required to furnish support for the family as far as he is able, and the wife must help if necessary. Her personal property is subject to debts incurred for family expenses. Even though divorce be denied, the court may award maintenance to wife and children.
Montana is one of three States which make 18 years the legal age for the marriage of girls. In all others it ranges from 12 to 16 years.
In 1887, on petition of women, the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 15 years, and in 1895 to 16. The penalty is imprisonment not less than five years.
SUFFRAGE: Women may vote for school trustees on the same terms as men, but not for other school officers. They had this privilege under Territorial government. Those possessing property may vote also on all questions submitted to taxpayers. These privileges were incorporated in the first State constitution.
OFFICE HOLDING: Women may serve as county superintendents or hold any school district office.
In 1884 there were two women county superintendents; now every county in the State has a woman in this office. The superintendent of the Helena schools is a woman. The Rev. Alice S. N. Barnes held the position of school trustee as early as 1888. Dr. Maria M. Dean has been elected three times in succession as a trustee in Helena. She is chairman of the board and has been influential in many progressive measures.
Women have served on library boards and been city librarians. Miss Lou Guthrie has been for a number of years librarian of the State Law Library, and Mrs. Laura E. Howey fills this position in the State Historical Library.
There has been a woman on the State Board of Charities since its organization in 1893, Mrs. Howey, Mrs. M. S. Cummins and Mrs. Lewis Penwell having been successively elected.
Dr. Mary B. Atwater has been for over three years chairman of the Board of Health of Helena.
Women served as notaries public until a ruling of Attorney-General C. B. Nolan (1901) declared this illegal.
In 1892, the first year the Populist party put a ticket in the field, it nominated Miss Ella Knowles for the office of Attorney-General. She made a spirited campaign, addressing more than eighty audiences, and alone organized some fourteen counties, being the first Populist to speak in them. She ran 5,000 votes ahead of her ticket, in a State which casts only about 50,000. The contest was so close that it was three weeks before it was decided who had been elected; but when the votes came in from the outlying precincts, where she was unknown, it was found that her Republican opponent, H. J. Haskell, had a majority. Miss Knowles was then appointed Assistant Attorney-General, an office which she filled for four years to the eminent satisfaction of the people. During this time she married her rival.
OCCUPATIONS: No occupation is now legally forbidden to women. Mainly through the efforts of Mrs. Haskell, a bill was passed by the Legislature of 1889 which gave women the right to practice law. The Rev. Alice S. N. Barnes was ordained in the Congregational Church in 1896, and has preached regularly ever since. In 1889 she was chosen as moderator at the Conference of the Congregational Churches of Montana, at Helena.
EDUCATION: The educational advantages for women are the same as those accorded men. All institutions of learning--the State University, the Agricultural College, even the School of Mines--are open to both sexes.
In the public schools there are 201 men and 885 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $69.28; of the women, $48.61.
* * * * *
Montana women were awarded seven medals at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. Their botanical exhibit was one of the most notable at the exposition. It was artistically arranged by Mrs. Jennie H. Moore, the flowers being all scientifically labeled and properly classified. Of the $100,000 appropriated to the use of the State Commission, the men assigned $10,000 to the women for their department, exercising no supervision over them. At the close of the exposition they brought back $2,800, which they turned into the State treasury, and $3,000 worth of furniture, which they presented to various State institutions.
In 1894 there was an exciting contest over removing the location of the permanent capital and some fear that Helena would lose it. A number of her leading women, in a special car provided by the Northern Pacific R. R., visited the prominent towns in Eastern Montana, speaking and working in the interest of their city and undoubtedly gaining many votes for Helena, which was selected instead of the rival, Anaconda.
In 1896 Mrs. Haskell was made a delegate to the Populist convention of Lewis and Clarke County, which met in Helena, and also to the Populist State and National Conventions. She took a prominent part in their proceedings, and was instrumental in securing a woman suffrage plank in the Populist State platform after a hard fight on the floor of the convention. At the Populist convention in St. Louis that year she was chosen a member of the National Committee.
In the autumn of 1900 a number of prominent women of Helena appeared as representatives of the suffragists before the Lewis and Clarke County Conventions, and before the State conventions--Republican, Democrat and Populist--asking that they insert a plank in their platforms recommending the submission of the question of woman suffrage to the voters. Only the Populists adopted it. The ladies also attended the State conventions of the three parties with the same resolution; but the Populists alone indorsed it, "demanding" suffrage for women.
One of the important factors in this movement is the Woman's Relief Corps, an organization which has grown in strength during the last decade and is making its members staunch patriots and woman suffragists. It has had an educative influence equal to that of the W. C. T. U. but on different lines. Women are actively identified with lodges and clubs, many of the latter being members of the General Federation of Women's Clubs.
FOOTNOTES:
[354] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Mary Long Alderson of Helena, one of the first officers of the State Woman Suffrage Association.
[355] Officers elected: President, Mrs. Harriet P. Sanders; vice-president, Mrs. Martha Rolfe Plassman; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Delia A. Kellogg; recording secretary, Mrs. Mary Long Alderson; treasurer, Dr. Mary B. Atwater; auditors, Mrs. Martha E. Dunckel and Mrs. Hiram Knowles; delegate-at-large, Mrs. Mary A. Wylie. Dr. Atwater has been elected to the same office at each succeeding convention.
LI. NEBRASKA.[356]
After the defeat of the constitutional amendment to confer the suffrage, which was submitted to the voters of Nebraska in 1882, the women were not discouraged, but continued to hold their State conventions as usual. That of 1884 took place at York, in January, and was welcomed by Mayor Harlan.
On Jan. 16, 17, 1885, the annual meeting was held at Lincoln. Mrs. Ada M. Bittenbender was the principal speaker, and the convention was specially favored with music by the noted singer of ante-bellum days, James G. Clark. Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, editor of the Woman's Tribune, was elected president.
The convention of 1886 met at Madison, August 18, 19, and was addressed by Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon of New Orleans.
On Jan. 6-8, 1887, the convention assembled in the Hall of Representatives in Lincoln. It was fortunate in having Miss Susan B. Anthony, who was enthusiastically received by large audiences. The chancellor postponed the opening lecture of the university course so that the students might hear her address. Mrs. Saxon again rendered valuable assistance.
The convention of 1888 met in the opera house at Omaha, December 3, 4, memorable in being honored by the presence of the two great leaders, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, president, and Miss Susan B. Anthony, vice-president-at-large of the National Association. A reception was held at Hotel Paxton, and short speeches were made by prominent men. A notable feature was the exhibit of the rolls containing the names of 12,000 Nebraska men and women asking for equal suffrage.
The convention for 1889 took place in May, at Kearney, James Clement Ambrose being among the speakers.
Fremont claimed the tenth annual meeting, Nov. 12, 1890, Miss Anthony, and Mrs. Julia B. Nelson of Minnesota stopping off to attend it on their return from several months' campaigning in South Dakota.
The convention of 1891 was held at Hastings in October, and that of 1892 at Pender, July 1, 2. In 1893 all efforts were concentrated on the work done at the World's Fair in Chicago, and the raising of money to assist the Colorado campaign, and the convention was omitted.
Miss Anthony, now national president, also attended the meeting of 1894, in Beatrice, November 7, 8. This time she was on her way home from a campaign in Kansas for a suffrage amendment, to which the Nebraska association had contributed liberally. A telegram announcing its defeat was handed her on the platform, just as she was about to begin her speech, and no one who was present ever will forget her touching account of the efforts which had been made in various States for this measure during the past twenty-seven years. The delegates were welcomed by Mayor Schultz.
David City was selected for the next convention, Oct. 30, 31, 1895; and that of 1896 was enjoyed at the summer session of the Long Pine Chautauqua Assembly. Mrs. Colby had spent two months lecturing throughout the State and preparing for this meeting. Money was raised for the Idaho suffrage campaign, then in progress. Mrs. Colby and Miss Elizabeth Abbott addressed the Resolution Committee of the Populist State convention, asking for a woman suffrage plank.
The meeting of 1897, at Lincoln, September 30, was assisted by Mrs. Ida Crouch Hazlett, a lecturer and organizer from Denver, who was engaged for State work.
In October, 1898, the convention was held in Omaha during the executive meeting of the National Council of Women, which enabled it to have addresses by Miss Anthony, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large of the National Association, Mrs. Adelaide Ballard of Iowa, and other prominent speakers. Mrs. Colby declining to stand for re-election, after sixteen years' service, Mrs. Mary Smith Hayward was the choice of the association. One hundred dollars were sent to South Dakota for amendment campaign work.
In October, 1899, the National W. S. A. sent eight organizers into the State to hold a series of forty-nine county conventions; 250 meetings were held, 18 county organizations effected and 38 local clubs formed. The canvass ended in an enthusiastic convention in the capitol building at Lincoln, with Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, the Rev. Ida C. Hultin of Illinois, Mrs. Evelyn H. Belden of Iowa, Miss Laura A. Gregg of Kansas and Miss Mary G. Hay of New York, among the speakers. State headquarters were opened at Omaha with Miss Gregg in charge. Her work has been so effective that it has been necessary to employ assistants to send out press articles, arrange for lectures, etc.
In 1900 a very successful annual meeting took place in Blair, October 23, 24, with a representation almost double that of the previous year and an elaborate program. Mrs. Chapman Catt was again present, there was much enthusiasm and it was resolved to continue the efforts to create a public sentiment which would insure a woman suffrage clause in the new State constitution which is expected in the near future.[357]
Among the many flourishing local societies may be mentioned that of Table Rock, which is so strong an influence in the community that the need of any other club for literary or public work is not felt. It holds an annual banquet to which husbands and friends are invited, and the husbands, in turn, under the name of the H. H. (Happy Husband) Club give a reception to the suffragists, managing it entirely themselves.
The society at Chadron, under the inspiration of Mrs. Hayward, is one of the most active, and has sent money to assist campaigns in other States. A canvass of the town in February, 1901, showed that 96 per cent. of the women wanted full suffrage.
Mrs. Colby organized a Club in Lincoln which has done excellent service under the leadership of Dr. Inez C. Philbrick.
Suffrage headquarters have been established at the Chautauquas held at Long Pine, Beatrice, Salem and Crete, and various Woman's Days have been held under the auspices of the State Association, at which speakers of national reputation have made addresses. Anthony and Stanton Birthdays have been largely observed by the suffrage clubs.
The history of the Nebraska work for the past sixteen years is interwoven with that of the president, Mrs. Colby, who has given her life and money freely to the cause. At a convention in Grand Island in May, 1883, it was voted to establish a suffrage paper at Beatrice, for which the State association was to be financially responsible, and Mrs. Colby was made editor. A year later, when the executive committee withdrew from the arrangement, she herself assumed the entire burden, and has edited and published the Woman's Tribune to the present time. In 1888 she issued the paper in Washington, D. C., during the sessions of the International Woman's Council and the National W. S. A., publishing eight editions in the two weeks, four of sixteen and four of twelve pages, each averaging daily 12,500 copies. A few years afterwards the office was permanently removed to Washington. As long as Mrs. Colby was a resident of Nebraska she stood at the head of every phase of the movement to obtain equal rights for women. Miss Mary Fairbrother, editor and proprietor of the Woman's Weekly, has made her paper a valuable ally.
Miss Helen M. Goff, a lawyer, acted as corresponding secretary of the State Association for many years, speaking for the cause in political campaigns, holding a suffrage booth at State fairs, and working in the Legislature for suffrage bills.[358]
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: In 1887 a bill for Municipal Suffrage was introduced by Senator Snell of Fairbury, and by Representative Cole of Juniata. Mrs. Colby had secured 3,000 signatures for this measure, and with Mrs. Jennie F. Holmes, president of the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union, worked all winter to secure its passage.[359]
In 1893 three bills were introduced into the Legislature relating to suffrage for women, and one asking for a law providing for police matrons in cities of 25,000 or more inhabitants. Miss Goff remained at the capital all winter looking after these bills. Mrs. Colby, representing the State W. S. A., and Mrs. Zara A. Wilson the State W. C. T. U., had charge of the Bill for Municipal Suffrage. J. F. Kessler introduced this in the House and worked for it. It was defeated by 35 ayes, 48 noes.
The bill for Full Suffrage was introduced into the House by G. C. Lingenfelter, and championed by W. F. Porter (now Secretary of State) and others. It was defeated by 42 ayes, 47 noes. The Populist members supported this, but considered that Municipal Suffrage discriminated against women in the country. The bill for extended School Suffrage was introduced too late to reach a vote. The Police Matron Bill was carried.
In 1895 the W. S. A. decided to do no legislative work except to second the efforts of the W. C. T. U. to have the "age of protection" for girls raised to 18 years; and to secure a resolution asking Congress to submit a woman suffrage amendment to the Federal Constitution. The latter measure was not acted upon; the former was successful.
In 1897 bills were introduced for the Federal Amendment, for Municipal Suffrage, to allow women property holders to vote on issuing bonds, and to make the right of the surviving husband or wife equal in the family estate. Both branches of the Legislature invited Mrs. Colby to address them. Immediately afterward the House Judiciary Committee approved an amendment to the State constitution, striking out the word "male," but this was defeated later in the session. The other bills were not reported from the committees.
In 1899 a hearing was granted to a committee from the suffrage association urging a resolution asking Congress to submit a woman suffrage amendment to the State Legislatures, and such a measure was reported to the House but not adopted.
Dower and curtesy both obtain. A widow is entitled to the life use of one-third of the real estate. In case the husband die without a will, after the payment of all debts, charges, etc., she may have household furniture to the value of $250 and other personal property not exceeding $200. If any residue remains she is entitled to the same share that a child receives. If there is no issue living, a widow takes the use for life of the entire estate, both real and personal. If there is no kindred of the husband, the widow comes into absolute possession. If a wife die, leaving no issue, the husband has the life use of all her real estate. If she leave children by a former husband they are entitled to all of the estate which did not come to her as a gift from her surviving husband. If she leave issue by the latter only, or by both, then the widower has a life interest in one-third of her real estate. After the payment of her debts her personal property is distributed in the same way as her real estate.
The wife can mortgage or sell her real estate without the husband's signature and without regard to his curtesy. He can do the same with his separate property but subject to her dower. Both must join in an incumbrance or sale of the homestead.
A married woman may control her own property and wages and carry on business in her own name.
Father and mother have equal guardianship and custody of minor children. (1895.)
The husband is expected to furnish suitable maintenance according to his own ideas. The property which belonged to the wife before marriage can be levied on for the husband's debts for necessaries furnished the family if he have no property.
The mother is not "next of kin" and can not sue for damages to a minor child. In 1900 a child of thirteen was injured by a locomotive, and the Judge held that the father and not the mother was entitled to bring suit, although she had a divorce years before and had brought up the child without any assistance from him.
If a divorce is granted for the wife's adultery "the husband may hold such of her personal estate as the court may term just and reasonable." If she secure a divorce on account of his adultery, "the court may restore to her the whole, or such part as may seem just, of her own property which she had at marriage. If this is insufficient for the support of herself and her children the court may decree alimony from the husband's estate."
The "age of protection" for girls was raised in 1885 from 10 to 12 years; in 1887 from 12 to 15; in 1895 from 15 to 18. The penalty is imprisonment in the penitentiary not more than twenty nor less than three years, but the law provides that if such "female child is over 15 and previously unchaste" this penalty shall not be inflicted. For such the law offers no protection. Nor shall there be conviction for the crime against a child of any age without other evidence than her own testimony. (1895.)
SUFFRAGE: In 1869 School Suffrage was conferred on women. In 1875 the Legislature repealed this law except for widows and spinsters. In 1881 it was again changed, and women since then have voted in school district matters on the same terms as men; i. e., if parents of children of school age or assessed on property real or personal they may vote at all elections pertaining to schools. They can not, however, vote for State or county superintendents or county supervisors (commissioners). As the last named levy the taxes, and the other two are the most important officers connected with the schools, it will be seen that women are deprived of the most valuable school vote. All efforts, however, to secure an extension of the school franchise have resulted in failure.
As it requires a majority of the highest number of votes cast at an election to carry an amendment, it is useless to ask the Legislature to submit one conferring Full Suffrage upon women.
OFFICE HOLDING: There is nothing in the State constitution or the statutes making women ineligible to any elective office except membership in the Legislature.
Although they are not allowed to vote for county superintendents there are at present sixteen women filling this office, eight of them serving a second term and three a third, while nineteen are superintendents or principals of schools. A woman was candidate on the Fusion ticket for regent of the State University; another has been registrar since the university opened, and one is at present recorder.
Mrs. Ada M. Bittenbender was candidate for Supreme Judge.
A woman is deputy State auditor. Women are serving or have served as postmasters and as clerks in both houses of the Legislature, clerk of the State library and member of the State examining committee of education. Miss Mary Fairbrother was proof-reader in the House in 1899. Miss Helen M. Goff is assistant reporter in the State department of the Judiciary. Women act as notaries public.
The W. S. A. and W. C. T. U. secured a bill requiring the appointment of women physicians at three State insane asylums. There are matrons at all of the State institutions for the blind, feeble-minded, etc., and also at the Girls' Industrial School, although the superintendent is always a man. The Milford Industrial School has a woman physician, a woman superintendent and a board of five women visitors. At the Home for the Friendless all the officers and employees are required to be women and there is a board of women visitors.
All cities of 25,000 or more are required to appoint police matrons at $50 per month. This includes only Omaha and Lincoln.
A woman is Secretary of the Board of Trade in Omaha and official agent for the Humane Society with police powers.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. A woman is president of one bank and vice-president of another. Among the many in newspaper work, an Indian, Mrs. Susette La F. Tibbles, is prominent.
EDUCATION: All institutions of learning are open to women. In the public schools there are 2,038 men and 7,154 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $45.05, of the women, $36.56.
* * * * *
The Prohibition party always puts a suffrage plank in its State platform and women candidates on its ticket, even for the office of Lieutenant-Governor, but it polls so small a vote that this can be only complimentary. The Populist and Republican parties have indorsed equal suffrage at county conventions and elected women on their tickets. Women go as delegates to the Prohibition and Populist conventions. One of the strongest of the State organizations is the Woman's Relief Corps.
FOOTNOTES:
[356] The History is indebted for the material for this chapter to Mrs. Mary Smith Hayward of Chadron, former president of the State Woman Suffrage Association.
[357] The present officers of the association are: President, Mrs. Clara A. Young; vice-president, Mrs. Amanda J. Marble; corresponding secretary, Miss Nelly E. Taylor; recording secretary, Mrs. Ida L. Denny; treasurer, Mrs. K. W. Sutherland; auditors, Mrs. Mary Smith Hayward and Mrs. Getty W. Drury.
[358] Other names which appear from time to time as doing good work for this cause are the Hon. J. D. Ream, M. H. Marble, J. W. Dundas, Mesdames A. J. Marble, Susanna A. Kendall, Irene Hernandez, Miriam Baird Buck, Lucy Merwin, Vannessa Goff, Maria C. Arter, Mary E. McMenemy, F. C. Norris, M. A. Van Middlesworth, M. A. Cotton, Misses Viola Kaufman and Edna Naylor.
[359] Mrs. Colby gives this interesting bit of description: "Our husbands were both in the Senate. We had apartments in the same house, where, hobnobbing over our partnership housekeeping, we planned our public work. Our husbands each had a spell of sickness at the same time, and while our functions of State presidency were temporarily exchanged for those of nursing, our enemies took advantage of us and killed that bill, on the very day, February 15, that Gov. John A. Martin signed the bill under which the women of Kansas have ever since enjoyed the municipal ballot."
LII. NEVADA.[360]
The question of equal political rights for women always has been a subject of discussion in Nevada. Through the efforts of Miss Hannah K. Clapp and a few other women a suffrage bill was passed by the Senate in 1883, but was defeated in the House. Miss Mary Babcock was one of the most efficient of these early workers. Many party leaders, whenever opportunity permitted, have referred to the justice of enfranchising the women who with the men braved the dangers and endured the hardships of pioneer life, and are equally interested in the material development and political well-being of the State. After the organization of the Nevada Woman's Christian Temperance Union the superintendent of the franchise department distributed literature, brought up the topic at public meetings, urged it as a subject of debate in clubs and schools and thus secured a steady gain in suffrage sentiment.
The first step toward associated effort was taken by the women of Austin, Nov. 30, 1894, in forming the Lucy Stone Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage League. One or two others were organized that year, and a general agitation was begun through press and petition work by the suffragists in every community.
In the spring of 1895 the visit of Miss Susan B. Anthony, president of the National Association, and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large, who were on their way to California, created such widespread enthusiasm that a new impetus was given to the movement. A little later Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe of Illinois was sent by the National Association to canvass the State with the help of the local workers. As a result a convention was held at Reno, October 29, 30. Mrs. DeVoe and Mrs. Frances A. Williamson were the principal speakers, and the ten minutes' addresses by the delegates from various counties were very clever and acceptable. A State Equal Suffrage Association was formed with Mrs. Williamson as president; Miss Clapp and Dr. Eliza Cook, vice-presidents; Fannie Weller, corresponding secretary; Phoebe Stanton Marshall, recording secretary; Elda A. Orr, treasurer; Kate A. Martin and Alice Ede, auditors; Annie Warren, press work; Mary A. Boyd, State Fair work; Emma B. Blossom, superintendent of literature; Marcella Rinkle, member national executive committee.
The president, who was also chairman of the legislative work committee, was in the lecture field four months. She had to act as her own advance agent, but during this time she spoke in every city and town in the State and organized numerous clubs. Her meetings were well attended, and great interest was manifested. The second convention was held at Reno, Sept. 24, 1896, with every county represented. Mrs. Elda A. Orr was elected president and Mrs. Williamson, State organizer and lecturer. Mrs. Orr has ever since been continued as president, and to no one person in Nevada is the cause of woman suffrage so much indebted for hospitality, financial aid and valuable work.
The public meeting called on November 9 to greet Miss Anthony and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, was very successful. Miss Anthony gave a resume of the exciting campaign just closed in California, and made an object lesson of its critical points which greatly amused the audience. Mrs. Chapman Catt followed in an able argument on woman suffrage as the best and safest means to secure and maintain good government.
In order to give the movement a more pronounced individuality Mrs. Williamson and her daughter, M. Laura Williamson, founded the Nevada Citizen, a monthly paper devoted to the social, civil and industrial advancement of women. They edited and managed it, publishing it at their own risk, and it received a liberal patronage. After a successful existence of two years, business called both from the State and it was discontinued.
In 1897 Mrs. Williamson again canvassed the various counties, and the most prominent men and women were found willing to give the measure their indorsement. The third annual meeting was held at Carson City, October 30, with delegates from most of the counties. The numerous greetings from leading politicians showed an increasing interest in this question. Mrs. Orr and Mrs. Williamson were both re-elected. The former made an able address, and Mrs. Frances Folsom gave a general review of the laws relating to the property rights of women in the different States.
The fourth convention was postponed till the meeting of the Legislature in the winter of 1899, in order that the speakers might appear before that body with their arguments for the submission of a woman suffrage amendment to the voters.[361]
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: In 1895 a bill was introduced in the House by Henry H. Beck, to amend the State constitution by eliminating the word "male" from before the word "citizen" wherever it occurs. All amendment bills have to pass two successive Legislatures and then be submitted to the voters. The Rev. Mila Tupper Maynard and Mrs. Frances A. Williamson managed the legislative work this year. The former made an eloquent address before the Legislature in joint assembly. An exciting debate followed in the House, but the bill was defeated by six votes. About ten days later it was introduced in the Senate by Dr. William Comins, who supported it with an able speech. It was strongly opposed but finally passed by a two-thirds vote. Toward the close of the session it was reconsidered in the House, and after a spirited debate was passed by four votes.
In 1897 the legislative work was conducted by Mrs. Williamson. She read a brief of the constitutional grounds on which women claim the right of suffrage before the Judiciary Committees of both Houses, and addressed the Legislature in joint assembly.[362] This year the bill for a constitutional amendment was introduced in the Senate by Dr. Comins. The Judiciary Committee recommended its passage, and after a lively debate it received a two-thirds vote. Later on the bill was presented in the House by Frank Norcross. It was held in committee and delayed in every possible way, but finally was brought up in joint assembly. A stubborn debate followed, in which the advocates made an able defense, but it was defeated by a tie vote. A motion to reconsider it was defeated also.
In 1899 the Constitutional Amendment Bill again passed the Senate by the usual two-thirds vote, and was defeated again in the House by the usual small vote.
Governors Colcord, Jones and Sadler recommended in their biennial messages to the Legislature that the proposed suffrage amendment to the State constitution be submitted to the voters.[363] The Reno Gazette and Wadsworth Dispatch merit special mention for the able manner in which they have advocated the suffrage movement.
A married woman may control her separate property if a list of it is filed with the county recorder, but unless it is kept constantly inventoried and recorded it becomes community property.
The community property, both real and personal, which includes all accumulated after marriage, is under absolute control of the husband, and at the death of the wife all of it belongs to him without administration. On the death of the husband the wife is entitled to one-half of it. If he die leaving no will and no children, she may claim all of it after she has secured the payment of debts to the satisfaction of creditors. The inheritance of separate property is the same for both, and either may claim a life interest in a homestead not exceeding $5,000 in value.
To become a sole trader a woman must comply with certain legal conditions. Her earnings are considered by law to belong to her if her husband has allowed her to appropriate them to her own use, when they are regarded as a gift from him to her.
A married woman may sue and be sued and make contracts in her own name.
The father is the legal guardian of the children and may appoint one by will. If this is not done, the mother, if suitable, is the guardian while she remains unmarried.
The husband is required to furnish the necessaries of life to the family; but there is no penalty for failure to do so, except that where the neglect has been continued for one year, when it could have been avoided by ordinary industry, the wife is entitled to a divorce.
In 1889 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 12 to 14 years. The penalty is imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of not less than five years, which may extend for life.
SUFFRAGE: Women possess no form of suffrage.
OFFICE HOLDING: Women are not eligible to any elective or appointive offices except those of county school superintendents and school trustees. There are serving at present one county superintendent and fifteen trustees.
Women act as clerks in State, county and city offices. They can not serve as notaries public.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. A number are carrying on mining, and have had mines patented in their own names.
EDUCATION: Women are admitted to all educational institutions on the same terms as men.
In the public schools there are 40 men and 274 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $101; of the women, $61.50.
FOOTNOTES:
[360] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Frances A. Williamson, first president of the State Equal Suffrage Association.
[361] Among those who have filled the various offices are: Vice presidents, Margaret Campbell and Susan Humphreys, corresponding secretaries, May Gill and Catharine Shaw; auditors, A. A. Rattan, Mary Cowen and Laura A. Huffines; superintendent of press work, Margaret Furlong; superintendent of literature, Hester Tate; members national executive committee, Caroline B. Norcross and Elizabeth Webster.
Prominent among the active suffragists, besides those already mentioned, are Sadie Bath, Lettie Richards, Martha J. Wright, Gerty Grey, Annie Ronnow, Emma Hilp, Mary Haslett, Mamie Dickey, Edith Jenkins, Louisa Loschenkohl, Clara Dooley, Mary Bonner, Eliza Timlin and Josie Marsh.
[362] Mrs. Williamson was assisted by Elda A. Orr, Elizabeth Webster, Mary Alt, Mary A. Boyd, Jane Frazer, Kate A. Martin, Elizabeth Evans, Marcella Rinkle, Susan Humphreys, Sara Reynolds, Frances Folsom, Emma B. Blossom and others, whose womanly and dignified work was complimented by the legislative body and the public in general.
[363] Among the members of both Houses who from time to time have championed this question and favored all legislation for the advancement of women are Messrs. Bell, Birchfield, Coryell, Denton, Ernest, Garrard, Gregooich, Haines, Julien, Kaiser, Lord, Mante, Martin, Marshall, McHardy, McNaughton, McCone, Murphy, Richards, Skagg, Vanderleith and Williamson.
LIII. NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire has been rich in distinguished citizens who believed in woman suffrage. Ex-United States Senator Henry W. Blair always has been one of its most devoted advocates, and his successor, Dr. Jacob H. Gallinger, is no less a staunch friend. The names of both for many years have stood as vice-presidents of the State Association. From 1868 the Hon. Nathaniel P. and Mrs. Armenia S. White were the pillars of the movement and there was an efficient organization. His death in 1880 and her advancing years deprived it of active leadership and, while the sentiment throughout the State continued strong, there was little organized work. Mrs. White was president for many years and afterwards was made honorary president. Parker Pillsbury was for a long time vice-president and later the Hon. Oliver Branch. Mrs. Jacob H. Ela and Mrs. Bessie Bisbee Hunt served several years as chairmen of the executive committee.[364] Many petitions for suffrage were circulated and sent to the Legislature and money was raised for the National Association. The Grange and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union have been valuable allies.
On June 29, 30, 1887, a convention was held in Concord and arrangements made for a systematic canvass of the State.
On Jan. 10, 1889, Mrs. White and other officers of the State Association were granted a hearing by the Constitutional Convention then in session. They presented petitions and made a plea that the State constitution be amended so as to prohibit political distinctions on account of sex. The special committee reported "inexpedient to legislate" and their report was adopted.
A State meeting was held in Concord, Dec. 14, 1892, a full board of officers was elected and it was voted to become auxiliary to the National American Association and to remain auxiliary to the New England Association.
On Jan. 10, 1895, the New England W. S. A. held a convention in Nashua with Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Henry B. Blackwell and Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, editors of the Woman's Journal, Boston, as speakers. The day after its close the annual business meeting of the New Hampshire Association was held and was addressed by Miss Blackwell. On November 8 it called a meeting at the same place for the transaction of some special business.
On Jan. 10, 1896, and on Feb. 24, 1897, the annual meetings were held in Nashua, the latter addressed by Miss Blackwell. Mrs. Marilla M. Ricker, a former officer of the society but now practicing law in Washington, D.C., was candidate for U. S. Minister to Colombia, and New Hampshire was one of six States which petitioned for her appointment. Ex-Senator Blair exerted himself in her behalf, but it is hardly necessary to say that she was not appointed.
The desire for a more effective organization had grown so strong that in November, 1900, Mrs. Susan S. Fessenden of Boston was sent into the State by the New England Association and spent two weeks, forming clubs in Concord, Newport, Littleton, Andover and North Conway, and preparing for societies in Nashua and Manchester.
In the autumn of 1901 Miss Mary N. Chase of Andover spent a month organizing local societies. A convention was called for December 16, 17, in Manchester, at which ten towns were represented. The meetings were held in the City Hall, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National Association, was introduced to a fine audience the first evening by Cyrus H. Little, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Addresses were made also by Mr. and Miss Blackwell. A strong official board was elected[365] and an effort will be made to educate public sentiment to demand a woman suffrage clause from the convention to revise the State constitution, which is likely to be held within a short time. On the evening of December 17 Mrs. Chapman Catt spoke in Concord, the State capital.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: The suffrage association has been petitioning the Legislature since 1870. That year it secured a law allowing women to serve on school boards. In 1878 it obtained School Suffrage for women.
In 1885 it presented a petition, signed by several thousand citizens, asking the Full Franchise for women, and was given "leave to withdraw."
In 1887 a bill conferring Municipal Suffrage and permitting women to hold all municipal offices was presented with a petition signed by 2,500 citizens. A hearing was granted by the committee on July 6 and 300 persons were present. On the 13th it was favorably reported in the House, but August 6, it was defeated by 87 ayes, 148 noes. This year the House raised the "age of protection" for girls from 10 to 14 years but the Senate amended to 13 years.
In 1889 the bill for Municipal Suffrage was again introduced, sent to the Judiciary Committee and referred to the next session as "unfinished business."
In 1891 the petitions for this bill contained 3,000 signatures, and Mr. Angell of Derry also introduced a bill for suffrage for tax-paying women, but neither was acted upon. This experience was repeated in 1893.
In 1895, after a hearing had been granted to the women, the bill was reported favorably by the Judiciary Committee and passed a second reading in the House, but a third was refused. D. C. Remick and M. Lyford were earnest in their support of the measure. This year the "age of protection" for girls was raised to 16, but the bill was vetoed by Gov. Busiel who claimed that it was not properly framed.
Dower and curtesy both obtain. The widow is entitled to a life interest in one-third of the real estate and a homestead right of $500, and if she waive the provisions of the will in her favor she may have, after the payment of debts, one-third of the personal property if issue survive; if not, one-half. If she waive its provisions and release her dower and homestead right, she may have, after all debts and expenses of administration are paid, one-third of the real estate absolutely if issue by her survive, and, if not, one-half, and the same amount of personal property. The widower is entitled to a life interest in all the wife's real estate, and a homestead right of $500, and if he waive the provisions of her will in his favor, the same amount of her personal property as she would receive of his. If he release his curtesy and homestead right he is entitled to the same amount of her real estate as she would have of his.
A married woman retains control of her separate property. She can mortgage or convey it without the husband's joinder but can not bar his curtesy of life use of the whole or his homestead right; nor can she deprive him of these by will. The husband has the same privileges, subject to her dower.
A married woman may carry on business in her own name. She may sue and be sued and make contracts. Her earnings are her sole and separate property. She can not become surety for her husband.
The father is the legal guardian but if he is insane or has given cause for divorce the court may award the minor children to the mother. The judge of probate may appoint a guardian, when necessary, to have care of the persons and property of minor children, and it may be either the father or mother.
If the husband refuse to provide for his family he may be prosecuted in criminal form. If he is insane or has given cause for divorce the court may award support out of his property.
The common law making 12 years the legal age for a girl to marry has been retained by special statute.
The "age of protection" for girls is 13 years with a penalty of imprisonment not exceeding thirty years, but no minimum punishment named.
SUFFRAGE: Since 1878 women, possessing the same qualifications required of men, that is, residence in the district three months preceding the election, are entitled to vote for members of the school board and for appropriations of money. There are no county superintendents, and the State Superintendent of Instruction is appointed by the Governor and Council. The city ordinances of Manchester, Franklin and Nashua prohibit women from this suffrage, but they may vote in Concord, the capital.
New Hampshire was the first State in New England to give School Suffrage to women.
OFFICE HOLDING: Women are eligible to all elective or appointive School offices except where it is forbidden by special charters. They are not eligible to any other elective office.
A number are serving on School Boards. They may sit on State Boards which are appointed by the Governor. They have done so only on the Board of Charities and Corrections and on that of the State Normal School.
There is no law requiring women physicians in any State institutions, or police matrons in any city. One has been appointed in Manchester.
Women may act as notaries public.
OCCUPATIONS: On July 25, 1889, Chief Justice Charles Doe of the Supreme Court delivered the opinion that women may become members of the bar and practice in all the courts. No occupation or profession is legally forbidden. Ten hours are made a working day.
EDUCATION: The old college of Dartmouth at Hanover is for men only. The State Agricultural College at Durham admits both sexes.
In the public schools there are 256 men and 2,714 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $69.75; of the women $40.59.
FOOTNOTES:
[364] Among other officers since 1884 are: Presidents, Mrs. E. J. C. Gilbert and Miss Josephine F. Hall; vice-presidents, Judge J. W. Fellows, Gen. Elbert Wheeler, the Rev. Enoch Powell, Mrs. Martha E. Powell, John Scales, Mesdames C. A. Quimby, Caroline R. Wendell, N. H. Knox, Marilla H. Ricker, M. L. Griffin, Fanny W. Sawyer and Mary Powers Filley; corresponding secretaries, Mrs. Jacob H. Ela, Mrs. Maria D. Adams; recording secretary, the Rev. H. B. Smith; treasurers, Mesdames A. W. Hobbs, C. R. Meloon, Uranie E. Bowers and Miss Abbie E. McIntyre; auditor, Mrs. C. R. Pease; executive committee, Mrs. Mary E. H. Dow and Mrs. (Dr.) Tucker.
[365] President, Miss Mary N. Chase; vice-president, Mrs. Elizabeth B. Hunt; secretary, Miss Mary E. Quimby; treasurer, the Rev. Angelo Hall; auditors, Miss C. R. Wendell and the Hon. Sherman E. Burroughs.
LIV. NEW JERSEY.[366]
Although many local suffrage meetings had been held in New Jersey prior to 1867, in that year a State Society was organized by Lucy Stone, which met regularly in various cities until she removed to Massachusetts a few years afterwards, when the association and its branches gradually suspended, except the one at Vineland, with Mrs. Anna M. Warden as president. Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey, Mrs. Katherine H. Browning, Mrs. Warden and others continued to represent the State as vice-presidents at the national conventions.
In 1890 Dr. Mary D. Hussey, who had been a member of the old society, invited a number of active suffragists to unite in forming a new State association. Eleven responded and, at the residence of Mrs. Charlotte N. Enslin, in Orange, February 5, a constitution was adopted, Judge John Whitehead elected president and Dr. Hussey secretary and treasurer.[367]
In 1891 the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell became president; Mrs. Amelia Dickinson Pope was elected in 1892; and in 1893 Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, daughter of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, accepted the presidency.
The first public meeting of the association was held at Orange, March 4, 1893, where Mrs. Clara C. Hoffman of Missouri, gave an address. The first auxiliary society formed was that of Essex County, with forty members, Mrs. Jennie D. De Witt, president. Five other State meetings were held and the membership trebled. Among the lecturers were Aaron M. Powell, Mrs. Blackwell, Mrs. S. M. Perkins of Ohio, and the president. A number of clergymen gave sermons on suffrage, 14,000 pages of literature were circulated in seventeen of the twenty-one counties, and the Woman's Column was sent to 200 persons at the expense of Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey. The women's vote at school meetings greatly increased and a number were elected trustees. The annual convention was held at Newark in November.
The constitutional amendment campaign in the neighboring State of New York had a very favorable effect on public opinion in New Jersey during 1894. In addition to the usual meetings a memorial service in honor of Lucy Stone was held in Peddie Memorial Church, Newark, one of the largest churches in the State, with more than 2,000 people present, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore being the chief speaker. Another meeting was held in Orange, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe making the principal address.
A sunflower lunch was given to raise funds for the campaign in Kansas and $200 were sent, of which half was contributed by Mrs. Hussey. Among the vast amount of literature circulated were 1,000 copies of suffrage papers. The State convention was held as usual in Newark, November 24. This year the Populist party declared for woman suffrage in its State convention. The Knights of Labor also have indorsed it.
In 1895, before entering upon the three years' campaign for the restoration of School Suffrage, which had been declared unconstitutional the previous year, the association presented to the Legislature petitions signed by about 1,000 persons, asking for the restoration of full suffrage to the women of New Jersey, which had been taken away in 1807. This was done not with any expectation of success but in order to place the association on record as having demanded this right. In the new measure for School Suffrage they begged that it might include the women of towns and cities instead of merely country districts, according to the law of 1887, but this was refused.
Mrs. Anna B. S. Pond arranged a course of lectures for the benefit of the School Suffrage fund and, with a souvenir, $100 were raised. A handsome suffrage flag was presented to the association by Miss Martha B. Haines, recording secretary.
Four meetings of the State association were held in Newark, and one in Plainfield during the year, and lectures were given by Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake of New York, Mrs. Annie L. Diggs of Kansas, Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee. The fifth convention assembled in the chapel of Trinity (Episcopal) Church, Elizabeth, November 29. Mrs. Ella B. Carter, chairman on press work, stated that many leading papers were advocating the restoring of School Suffrage. Mrs. Harriet L. Coolidge, chairman of the School Suffrage Committee, reported that about fifty women had held the office of trustee since 1873, when this right was given, that twelve more were still serving despite the Supreme Court decision, and that women had voted in school meetings in almost every county.
The School Suffrage Resolution passed the Legislature, but as it had to be approved by two successive Legislatures before it could be submitted to the voters, it was necessary to agitate the subject so the law-makers might see that the people really desired the passage of this measure, and the winter of 1896 was devoted to this purpose. A new circular setting forth the success it had previously been was circulated in connection with the petition. As the president was unable to attend the session of the Legislature, Miss Mary Philbrook, chairman of the Committee on Laws, took charge of the measure, which in March was passed for the second time without opposition. It was decided, however, to have certain other proposed amendments to the constitution altered, and that for School Suffrage was kept back with the others, as the constitution can be amended only once in five years.
In the spring circulars were sent to 300 newspapers to be published, urging women to attend school meetings and to exercise the scrap of franchise still left to them--a vote on appropriations.[368] New Jersey sent $150 to the National Association and $50 to California for its campaign this year, in addition to the money spent on State work. The annual meeting was held in Orange, Nov. 27, 1896. A vote of thanks was tendered Miss Jane Campbell of Philadelphia for her generous gift of 300 copies of "Woman's Progress" containing an account of suffrage in New Jersey by Mrs. Hall.
The signatures to the petition were increased to over 7,000 in 1897, and the Legislature passed the resolution for the School Suffrage Amendment for the third time, in March. The association at once began active work to influence the voters. Meetings were held in halls, churches and parlors in all parts of the State and many articles were published explaining the scope of the amendment. The State Federation of Women's Clubs, the Granges, Working Girls' Societies, Daughters of Liberty, the Ladies of the G. A. R., the Junior Order of American Mechanics and other organizations gave cordial indorsement. Mrs. Hall delivered three addresses on this subject before the State Federation of Clubs; Mrs. Emily E. Williamson, afterwards its president, also made a strong speech, urging the members to work for the amendment, and paid for 5,000 of the Appeals which were sent out. The W. C. T. U. rendered every possible assistance in securing signers for the petitions and educating public sentiment.
During the summer an extensive correspondence was carried on with prominent people including the State board of education, State, county and city superintendents of public instruction, etc. They were asked to sign An Appeal to the Friends of Education which clearly set forth the advantages of the proposed amendment. Having obtained the one hundred influential signatures desired the document was widely distributed to the press. Copies were sent to many organizations of men and women, and also to the clergy, with the request that they would use their influence with their congregations. A number did so, but probably many were afraid to speak on this subject lest they injure the chances of the Anti-Gambling Amendment to the constitution, which was to be voted on at the same time. The school authorities strongly indorsed the amendment and related the benefit which School Suffrage for women had been within their experience. Extracts from these letters, including one from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Hon. Charles J. Baxter, thanking the association for work in its behalf, were widely published.
The Republican State Executive Committee and some county committees indorsed the amendment. Efforts were made to have it presented at the many meetings which were held in behalf of the Anti-Race Track Amendment, but they were not always successful. Through an unavoidable circumstance the press work fell principally on the president. The corresponding secretary, Dr. Hussey, gave an immense amount of labor, devoting the whole summer to the work of the campaign. Mrs. Angell rendered most efficient service, a part of it the sending of a letter to nearly every minister in the State. Mrs. L. H. Rowan was chairman of the finance committee but so sure were the friends of success that only $150 were expended.
The special election was held Sept. 28, 1897, and the result was a great disappointment. The School Suffrage Amendment, to which it was generally supposed there would be practically no opposition, was defeated--65,021 ayes, 75,170 noes. The adverse vote came almost entirely from the cities where the actual experiment never had been made. The country districts, where women had exercised School Suffrage, understood its workings and voted for the amendment. The Germans in particular opposed it, and it was said that they and many other voters understood it to give complete suffrage to women. As it was printed in full on the ballot itself, the carelessness and indifference of the average voter were thus made painfully apparent.
The labor was not altogether wasted, however, as through it the people were brought to understand that women still had a partial vote at school meetings. (See Suffrage.) For instance the women of Cranford, where a new schoolhouse was badly needed, were told by their town counsel that they had lost the ballot, but the president of the suffrage association informed them of the error of this learned gentleman, and they came out and voted, the campaign being conducted by the Village Improvement Association, a club composed of women. The majority in favor of the new schoolhouse was only seven. The opposition called a second meeting and reversed this decision. The women circulated petitions and compelled the school board to call a third meeting where they won the day. It was voted to erect one new building to cost $24,700 and another on the south side to cost nearly $11,000.
This same year, in South Orange, two unsuccessful attempts were made to get an appropriation to build a much-needed High School. The men finally decided to call upon the women for help. Nearly 500 attended the meeting, and the $25,000 appropriation was carried by an overwhelming majority. The school at Westfield and two new High School buildings at Asbury Park and Atlantic Highlands were built because of the women's vote. Manual training was introduced into the Vineland schools through the zeal of women. A report from Moorestown says: "The year that women first began to vote at school meetings marks a decided revival of intelligent interest in our public schools." In Scotch Plains, where the meetings were held in the public school building, a holiday afterwards had always been necessary in order to clean it. With the advent of the feminine voters, expectoration and peanut shells ceased to decorate the floors, and the children were able to attend school the next day as usual. The Women's Educational Association introduced manual training into the public schools of East Orange.[369]
A number of meetings of the State association were held during 1897, and among the speakers were Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford and Mrs. Ellis Meredith of Colorado, Mrs. Celia B. Whitehead and Miss Laura E. Holmes. The annual convention took place at Wissner Hall, Newark, November 30.
Three State meetings were held in 1898, the conference of the National Board co-operating with the State association, taking the place of the convention. This was held May 6, 7, at Orange, and was the strong feature of the year. Through the efforts of the local committee, Mrs. Minola Graham Sexton, chairman, a large attendance was secured. Among the speakers were the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large of the National Association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman, president of the New York State Association, and a number of State women. New Jersey contributed this year $648 to the Organization Committee of the National, most of which went to the Oklahoma campaign. The largest contributions were from Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey, $450; Moorestown League (Miss S. W. Lippincott) $50; collections at Orange, $41; Essex County, $40; Mrs. A. Van Winkle, $20.
The annual meeting was held at Camden, Nov. 29, 1898. Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, corresponding secretary of the National Association, and Miss Jane Campbell, president of the Philadelphia county association, were the afternoon speakers, Mrs. Bradford making the principal address of the evening. The New Jersey Legal Aid Association was formed this year in Newark, Dr. Hussey taking an active part. The first president was Miss Cecilia Gaines, who was succeeded by Mrs. Stewart Hartshorn. Its object is to give legal assistance to those unable to pay for it, and especially to women. All its officers are women, and a woman attorney is employed. Up to the present time (1901) it has had applications from 700 persons.
Two meetings of the State Association were held in 1899. A contribution of $220 was made to the National Organization Committee. At the annual meeting, held November 28, at Jersey City, Major Z. K. Pangborn, editor of the Journal, made an address at the evening session. The principal speaker was Mrs. Percy Widdrington of London, who gave an account of woman suffrage and its good practical results in England.
Resolutions of deep regret for the death of Aaron M. Powell, editor of The Philanthropist, were adopted.
The State Association held two meetings during 1900, and did a great deal of work in preparation for the National Suffrage Bazar. Dr. Hussey was made chairman of the Bazar Committee, while Mrs. Sexton arranged the ten musical entertainments which were given during the Bazar. The tenth annual convention was held at Moorestown, November 13, 14. There was a large attendance, including many men. The new national president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, was the principal speaker. Others were Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, president of the Pennsylvania Association; Mrs. Mary V. Grice, president of the State Congress of Mothers; Mrs. Catharine B. Lippincott, representing the Grange, and Mrs. Hall, who spoke on the American Woman in the American Home.
Mrs. Hall, who had been president during the whole period of active life of the association, declined re-election. She did so with the greatest reluctance, but felt that the increasing pressure of work made it important that some one with more leisure at her disposal should fill the office. Mrs. Sexton was elected president.[370]
Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey is the largest contributor in New Jersey to the suffrage cause in general. Since many of her donations have been made to the National Association directly, not passing through the hands of the State treasurer, they can not be computed here, nor does she herself know their full amount. She has given also most liberally to State work and her contributions run well up into the thousands. A number of New Jersey women have been made life members of the National Association by her. She is a member of its organization committee.[371]
In early days Mrs. Theresa Walling Seabrook stood almost alone in the W. C. T. U. in her advocacy of woman suffrage and it required ten years of effort to secure a franchise department, of which she was made the first superintendent. For many years, however, this organization has been an active and helpful force and undoubtedly has made numerous converts, besides securing valuable legislation. The Grange has been always a faithful ally of the woman suffrage cause.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: On Feb. 13, 1884, a special committee of the Assembly granted a hearing on the petition of Mrs. Celia B. Whitehead and 220 others, asking the restoration of the right of Full Suffrage which had been unconstitutionally taken away from women in 1807. (See Suffrage.) Henry B. Blackwell and the Rev. Phoebe A. Hanaford of Massachusetts and Mrs. Theresa Walling Seabrook presented the question. They asked also for School Suffrage. The committee reported favorably on both measures. The former reached a vote and was defeated by 24 yeas, 27 nays.
In 1887 Dr. William M. Baird, Speaker of the Assembly, had a bill introduced conferring School Suffrage on women in villages and country districts, and advocated it from the floor. It passed unanimously, March 23, not on its merits but because the Speaker wanted it. It was passed by the Senate March 31, by 15 yeas, 2 nays, and signed April 8, by Gov. Robert S. Green.
This year Aaron M. Powell and the Rev. A. H. Lewis secured a law raising the "age of protection" for girls from 10 to 16.
In 1894 the courts decided that the law granting School Suffrage to women was unconstitutional and that an amendment to the constitution would be necessary to enable them to exercise it. The suffrage association immediately took steps to secure a resolution submitting this amendment to the electors, as previously described. In 1895 it was introduced in the Senate by Foster M. Voorhees (now Governor) and passed in June by 13 yeas, 2 nays. It passed the Assembly by 36 yeas, one nay. It had to be acted upon by two Legislatures. In March, 1896, it passed the Senate unanimously; and the Assembly by 57 yeas, one nay. A technicality required it to pass the third Legislature, which it did in March, 1897--Senate, 15 yeas, 1 nay; Assembly, 42 yeas, 5 nays.
In April, 1894, it was enacted that women might be notaries.
In March, 1895, a bill was secured making women eligible to appointment as Commissioners of Deeds, after having failed in 1891, '92 and '94, and Miss Mary M. Steele was appointed.
In 1896 Miss Mary Philbrook, an attorney, with the help of the suffrage officials, secured a bill making women eligible as Masters in Chancery and was herself the first one appointed.
This year the State Teachers' Association secured a law permitting a Teachers' Retirement Fund to be created, which, with some amendments in 1899, enables a teacher after twenty years' service, if incapacitated for further work, to receive from $250 to $600 per annum. Some improvement also was made in the property laws for women.
In April, 1898, through the efforts of the Federation of Women's Clubs, a law was passed and an appropriation made for State Traveling Libraries.
Dower and curtesy obtain. The widow is entitled to a life use of one-third of the real estate and, if there is a child or children, to one-third of the personal property absolutely; if there are no children, to one-half of it. The remainder of the real and personal estate goes to the husband's kindred. "The widow may remain in the mansion house of her husband free of rent until dower is assigned." The widower is entitled to the life use of all the wife's real estate, and if there is no will, to all her personal property without administration. She may, however, dispose of all of it by will as she pleases. She can not by will deprive the husband of his curtesy in real estate, except by order of the Court of Chancery when she is living separate from him. She can not encumber or dispose of her separate estate without his joinder. He can mortgage or convey his real estate without her joinder but it is subject to her dower. Her separate property is liable for her debts but not for those of her husband.
Since 1895 a married woman may contract as if unmarried, and sue and be sued in her own name as to property, but for personal injuries the husband must join. She can not become surety.
Since 1896 she may carry on business in her own name, her earnings and wages are her separate property, and her deposits in savings banks are free from the control of her husband.
The father is the legal guardian of the persons and estates of minor children. At his death the mother becomes guardian. In case of separation with no misconduct on the part of either, the mother has the preference until the child is seven years old, after which the rights are equal. Provision is made for the access of the mother to infant children. On the death of the one to whom the child is assigned it is subject to the order of the court.
The husband must furnish such support as will maintain the wife in the position in which he has placed her by marriage. If he refuse he must give bonds or go to jail. The wife must contribute to the support of the family if the husband is unable.
The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years in 1887. The penalty is a fine not exceeding $1,000 or imprisonment at hard labor not exceeding fifteen years, or both. No minimum penalty is named.
No girl under fourteen shall be employed in a factory, and no children under fourteen shall be employed in any workshop or factory over ten hours a day or sixty hours a week. The failure of employers to provide seats for female employes beside a work bench or counter shall be punished as a misdemeanor.
SUFFRAGE: New Jersey is the first State in which a woman ever cast a ballot. The constitution adopted July 2, 1776, conferred the franchise on "all inhabitants worth $250, etc." In 1790 a revision of the election law used the words "he or she," thus giving legislative sanction to a construction of the constitution which placed women in the electorate. While the records show that women did vote for various officers, including President of the United States and members of the Legislature, yet in those days of almost absolute male supremacy, when it was not customary for women to own even $250 worth of property and all they possessed became the husband's at marriage, it is not to be supposed that very many could avail themselves of the privilege. Enough did so, however, to make them a factor in the fierce political contentions which soon arose, and to gain the enmity of politicians. In 1807 the Legislature passed an arbitrary act limiting the suffrage to "white male citizens." This was clearly a usurpation of authority, as the constitution could be changed only by action of the voters. Nevertheless, men were in power and women were no longer permitted to exercise the franchise.
In 1844 a convention framed a new constitution in which the suffrage was restricted to "white males," and only men were allowed to vote on its adoption. Women were still electors according to the existing constitution, and yet they were not permitted to vote for delegates to this convention nor for the ratification of the new constitution. No Supreme Court could have rendered any other decision than that this was illegally adopted.
For exactly eighty years women were deprived of any franchise. During the last twenty of this period they made repeated efforts to vote and presented numerous petitions to the Legislature to have their ancient right restored. In 1887 this body enacted that women might vote at school meetings (i. e. in villages and country districts) for trustees, bonds, appropriations, etc.
In 1893 a law was enacted giving the right to vote for Road Commissioner to "all freeholders." An election was very soon contested at Englewood, and in June, 1894, the Supreme Court decided that the act was illegal because "it is not competent for the Legislature to enlarge or diminish the class of voters comprehended within the constitutional definition." [The court had forgotten about that Legislature of 1807.]
This gave the opportunity for those who were opposed to women's exercising the School Suffrage. At a special election for school trustees held in Vineland, July 27, 1894, the women were forcibly prevented from depositing their ballots. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction was appealed to and he directed the county superintendent to appoint a board of trustees, as the election from which the women were excluded was illegal. This was done on the advice of the Attorney-General, who held that the constitution by empowering the Legislature to "provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free public schools," gave it the power to confer on women the right to vote at school meetings for school officers.
Without following the details it is only necessary to relate that the Supreme Court declared that "the State constitution says, 'Every male citizen, etc., shall be entitled to vote for all officers that are now or may be hereafter elective by the people' (!) and school trustees are elective officers within this provision, therefore the Act allowing women to vote for them is unconstitutional."
Women had been voting for these officers seven years under this Act, and always for the benefit of the schools, according to the almost universal testimony of educational authorities. It now became necessary, in order to continue this privilege, to obtain an amendment to the constitution. The story of the three years' effort made by the State Suffrage Association for this purpose is related earlier in the chapter. Since this had to be made they begged that the amendment might include School Suffrage for the women in towns and cities also, but this was refused. And yet even a proposition to restore School Suffrage to those of villages and rural districts, when submitted to the voters, was defeated at the election on Sept. 28, 1897, by 65,029 yeas, 75,170 nays, over 10,000 majority.
While the Supreme Court decision took away the vote for trustees it did not interfere with the right of women in villages and country districts to vote on questions of bonds and appropriations for the building of schoolhouses and other school purposes, and that is the amount of suffrage now possessed by women in New Jersey. When the school laws were revised in 1900 this fragment was carefully guarded and provision made for furnishing two boxes, one in which the men might put their vote on all school matters, and the other where women might put theirs on the ones above specified.
OFFICE HOLDING: In 1873 a law was passed that "no person hereafter shall be eligible to the office of school trustee unless he or she can read and write," and women were authorized to serve when duly elected. In 1894, when the School Suffrage was taken away by the Supreme Court, thirty-two were holding the office and the decision did not abrogate this right. They have continued to be elected and twenty-seven are serving at the present time. At Englewood, in 1899, Miss Adaline Sterling was president of the board. Women are not eligible as State or county superintendents.
Four of the nine trustees of the State Industrial School for Girls are women, and a woman physician is employed when one is needed.
Dr. Mary J. Dunlop has been superintendent and medical director of the State Institution for Feeble-Minded Women since 1886, and three of the seven managers are women.
There are no women physicians in any other State institution and no law requiring them. In most of the hospitals there are training schools for nurses with women superintendents.
The State Board of Children's Guardians has a woman chairman of the executive committee, and a woman attorney.
The State Charities Aid Association has seven women on the Board of Managers, including the general secretary. Women sit on the boards of the State School for Deaf Mutes, the Home for Waifs and those of some county asylums. Most of the almshouses have matrons in the female department but there are no women on the boards of management.
A matron and three assistants are in charge of the women in the penitentiary and there is a matron at the jails of most cities. In some of them police matrons have been appointed, but no law requires this.
In the State Hospital at Trenton over eighty women are employed, including four supervisors, a librarian, stenographers, nurses, etc.
In the State Home for Boys there are over twenty women, including principal of school, teachers, matrons, typewriters, etc.
There are women on a number of Public Library Boards, and one, at least, acts as treasurer. The head librarian and all the assistants of the Plainfield public library are women. Sixty of the ninety-nine public libraries in the State employ women librarians, and five are served by volunteers. Most of the assistants in all cities are women.
Women act as masters in chancery, commissioners of deeds and notaries public, and one at least has served as district clerk.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. Admission to the bar having been denied to Miss Mary Philbrook, in 1894, solely on account of her sex, she requested a hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the Legislature of 1895, which was addressed by Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, president of the State Suffrage Association, Mrs. Carrie Burnham Kilgore, a lawyer of Philadelphia, and Miss Philbrook herself. Soon afterward a law was enacted making women eligible to examination for admission to the bar, which, in June, was passed successfully by Miss Philbrook, who thus became the first woman lawyer. There are now eight. In 1899, Miss Mary G. Potter of the New York Bar, Miss Philbrook of the New Jersey Bar, and Dr. Mary D. Hussey of the New York University Law School, called a meeting of women attorneys at East Orange. A committee was appointed which organized the Women Lawyers' Club in New York, on June 24, with members in both States.
There are about one hundred women physicians in the State, seventy-five allopathic and the rest belonging to other schools. They are members of most of the county medical societies, which makes them members of the State Medical Society. Dr. Sarah F. Mackintosh was the first woman admitted to a county society (Passaic) in 1871. Dr. Frances S. Janney was elected president of the Burlington County Medical Society in 1900, the first to receive such an honor. The first meeting of women physicians took place in Atlantic City, June, 1900, when those of the State gave a reception to those from other States who were attending the convention of the American Medical Association. The Medical Club of Newark, the first organization of women physicians, was formed the next November, with seventeen charter members from Newark and its vicinity, Dr. Katherine Porter of Orange, president.
EDUCATION: Princeton University is closed to women, and so are Princeton Theological Seminary (Presb.), Drew Theological Seminary (Meth. Epis.) and Rutgers College (Dutch Reformed). There is no college for women in New Jersey. The State Normal School is co-educational.
In the public schools there are 833 men and 5,806 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $86.21; of the women $48.12. In Plainfield the principals of all the public schools, except the High School, are women. This is due to the fact that the city superintendent from 1881 to 1892 was a woman, Miss Julia Buckley (afterwards dean of the woman's department of Chicago University), and the custom established by her has been continued.
* * * * *
New Jersey has so many associations of women that they have acted as a bar against the formation of suffrage clubs, women feeling that they had already too many meetings to attend. The State Federation of Women's Clubs has been an active and progressive force. It secured State Traveling Libraries; and if the Palisades are preserved from destruction, as now seems likely, this will be due to its earnest efforts. It was influential, in 1899, in having the kindergarten made a part of the public school system. It also has a town improvement department, with numerous branches. Several of its auxiliary clubs have founded public libraries, and some of them have conducted campaigns to put women on the school board. Other clubs have supported kindergartens and arranged free lectures for the public.
FOOTNOTES:
[366] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Florence Howe Hall of Plainfield, president of the State Woman Suffrage Association for the past eight years, and to Dr. Mary D. Hussey of East Orange, its founder and corresponding secretary.
[367] The others present were Mesdames Phebe C. Wright, Alice C. Angell, Sarah A. McClees, Caroline Ross Graham, Katherine H. Browning, Anna M. Warden, Mrs. Minola Graham Sexton, Mrs. Emma L. Blackwell.
[368] The sending of this yearly circular to the press, shortly before the time of the annual school meeting, has been continued under the special charge of the president.
[369] East Orange also had from 1894 to 1900 a school committee consisting of ten women elected every year at the annual school meeting--a sort of auxiliary association which did good work. In 1900 it became a city, and the school officers are now elected at the polls where women can not vote.
[370] The remaining officers elected were: Vice-president, Mrs. W. J. Pullen; corresponding secretary, Dr. Mary D. Hussey; recording secretary, Miss J. H. Morris; treasurer, Mrs. Anna B. Jeffery; auditor, Mrs. Mary C. Bassett.
The other officers who have served during the past ten years are: Vice-presidents, Mrs. Katherine H. Browning, Mrs. Margaret C. Campfield, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Mrs. Harriet Lincoln Coolidge; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Charlotte C. R. Smith; recording secretaries, Miss Martha B. Haines, Mrs. Emma L. Blackwell, Mrs. Alice C. Angell, Miss Mary Philbrook; treasurers, Mrs. Charlotte N. Enslin, Dr. Mary D. Hussey, Mrs. Stephen R. Krom; auditors, Aaron M. Powell, Miss Susan W. Lippincott, Mrs. J. M. Pullen; chairmen press committee, Anna B. S. Pond, Dr. Florence de Hart.
[371] Among many others who have served faithfully as local presidents and in other ways are Dr. Ella Prentiss Upham, Mrs. Maria H. Eaton, Mrs. Samuel R. Huntington, Mrs. Madge S. MacClary, Mrs. Sarah S. Culver, Miss M. Louise Watts.
LV. NEW MEXICO.[372]
At the Constitutional Convention held in 1888 an effort was made to secure equal political rights for women, but it received little support. In September, 1893, Mrs. E. M. Marble visited Albuquerque and organized a suffrage club with Mrs. G. W. Granger as president. In December, 1895, Mrs. Laura M. Johns, president of the Kansas E. S. A. and national organizer, spent a few days in New Mexico, on the way to and from Arizona, and formed several clubs.
In 1896 Mrs. Julia B. Nelson, president of the Minnesota W. S. A., began work in the Territory under the auspices of the National Association, her first address being delivered at Raton, April 1, and her last May 12, at the same place. Her mission was to discover the suffragists, make converts, arrange for a Territorial convention and effect an organization auxiliary to the national.[373] As a result a convention was held at Albuquerque, April 28, 29, conducted by Mrs. Johns and Mrs. Nelson. A Territorial association was formed and the following officers were elected: President, Mrs. J. D. Perkins; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Alice P. Hadley; recording secretary, Miss Clara Cummings; treasurer, Mrs. Martha C. Raynolds.
In 1897 and 1898 no conventions were held, on account of the absence of several of the officers from the Territory. Through the efforts of Mrs. Hadley (herself prevented by physical infirmity), H. B. Fergusson, delegate to Congress for New Mexico, represented the Territory and made a speech in the convention of the National Association at Washington in 1898.
In November, 1899, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, and Miss Mary G. Hay, secretary, spent one day in Santa Fe with George H. and Mrs. Catherine P. Wallace. Mr. Wallace was secretary of the Territory, and in their home, the historic old Palacio, forty people gathered to hear Mrs. Chapman Catt lecture. She made an hour's address, after which there was an interesting discussion. As a result, a meeting was called for December 19, and the Territorial association was reorganized with the following officers: President, Mrs. Wallace; vice-president, Mrs. Hadley; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Esther B. Thomas; recording secretary, Mrs. Anna Van Schick; treasurer, Miss Mary Morrison; member national executive committee, Mrs. Ellen J. Palen. Several vice-presidents were named and twenty-five members enrolled.[374]
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: On Feb. 10, 1893, a bill was passed in the Lower House declaring the right of female citizens to vote at elections and hold offices relating to public schools and public education. It was not acted upon by the Senate. In 1895 this bill was defeated.
In 1899 a bill was introduced by Representative McIntosh of San Juan County (near the Colorado line), on request of his constituents, for the extension of School Suffrage to women. This received the favorable votes of one-third of the Lower House, but did not reach the Senate.
A law was passed April 2, 1884, defining the rights of the married woman. It secured to her the control of property owned by her at the time of marriage and of wages earned afterward, made her not liable for her husband's debts and gave her the same power to make contracts, wills, etc., as was possessed by him. The law at present is as follows:
Curtesy still obtains. One-half of the community property goes to the wife whether the husband dies testate or intestate. In addition to this she is entitled to one-fourth of the rest of his estate, "provided this deduction shall only be made when said property amounts to $5,000, and the heirs be not descendants; although it may exceed this sum in the absence of the latter. Also from the property of the wife the fourth shall be deducted as the marital right of the husband, and upon the same conditions, should the husband without this aid remain poor." If there are no legitimate children surviving, the widow or widower shall be heir to all the acquired property of the marriage community.
By act of 1897, a mortgage not executed by the wife shall in no wise affect the homestead rights of the wife or family.
By act of 1899: "The signature or consent of the wife shall not be necessary or requisite in any conveyance, incumbrance or alienation of real property owned by the husband, whether such property became his before or during coverture; but the right to make such conveyance or create such incumbrance shall exist in the husband to the same extent as though he were unmarried."[375]
The father is the legal guardian of the minor children.
The husband is not required by law to support the family.
In 1887 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 14 years, with penalty of imprisonment not less than five nor more than twenty years.
SUFFRAGE: Women have no form of suffrage.
OFFICE HOLDING: In 1899 a bill passed for appropriations, etc., for the Deaf and Dumb Asylum recommended the appointment of two women on the Board of (five) Trustees. The appointments were duly made and confirmed.
Women serve as members of county school examining boards.
The new office of supervising teacher of the Government Indian Pueblo Schools has been filled by Miss Mary E. Dissett.
Women are special masters in court, notaries public, court and legislative stenographers in Spanish and English and census enumerators. In the last two administrations a woman has acted as private secretary to the Governor.
A woman has been appointed commissioner for New Mexico to take testimony in Indian depredation claims.
At a Territorial Irrigation Convention, in 1900, one woman was a duly elected delegate, taking part in the discussions, etc.
OCCUPATIONS: All professions and occupations are open to women. They conduct ranches and engage in mining. In Santa Fe the Woman's Board of Trade, an incorporated body, has so ably conducted the work for charities and for civic improvements as to arouse a sentiment that women might well be intrusted with educational and more extended municipal affairs. In Las Cruces an organization of women is doing a similar work.
EDUCATION: All educational institutions are open to both sexes, and degrees are conferred alike upon men and women. The Territorial University at Albuquerque, the Las Vegas Normal University and others have women on their faculties.
At the meeting of the Territorial Educational Association in December, 1899, a council was formed composed of twenty-five members, both women and men. At its first meeting, in September, 1900, a resolution in favor of School Suffrage for women was unanimously adopted.
In the public schools there are (approximately) 390 men and 316 women teachers. The average salaries are not obtainable.
* * * * *
The call to arms for the Spanish-American War brought men to the different recruiting posts in New Mexico, but no provision for them had been made by the government. The women of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Las Vegas and other towns quickly organized Soldiers' Aid Societies and raised funds to feed and care for them, till the companies were mustered in and came under Uncle Sam's charge.
At the Territorial Democratic Convention in Albuquerque, April, 1900, the following was included in the platform: "It is our belief that women should be granted an equal voice and position with men in all matters pertaining to our public schools."
The native Spanish-Americans have great reverence for their elders. Among a few of the old Don families where the eldest member living is a senora, so greatly are her wishes and opinions respected that the entire community will vote as she dictates; the politician has only to secure her allegiance and he is sure of the vote in her precinct. The suffrage bills which have been presented to the Legislature have not been opposed by the Spanish-American members, but by the Anglo-Saxons.
FOOTNOTES:
[372] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Catherine P. Wallace of Santa Fe, president of the Territorial Suffrage Association. While Mr. Wallace was consul-general to Australia, in 1890, she visited New Zealand and assisted the women there in their successful effort for the franchise. When this subject was before the Australian Parliament at Melbourne, she furnished the Premier with the debate in the United States Congress on the admission of Wyoming, and with other documents.
[373] Mrs. Nelson visited Raton, Blossburg, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Springer, Las Vegas, Watrous, Wagon Mound, Socorro, San Marcial, Las Cruces, Deming, Silver City, Hillsboro and Kingston, giving two or three lectures at each place and leaving a club in many.
[374] Among the best known of the advocates are Mrs. M. J. Borden, Professor and Mrs. Hiram Hadley of the Agricultural College, President and Mrs. C. L. Herrick and Miss Catherine Fields, all of the Territorial University; Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson Raynolds, Judge and Mrs. McFie, Col. and Mrs. I. H. Elliott and Secretary George H. Wallace.
[375] This law was repealed by the Legislature of 1901, and it was made impossible for either husband or wife to convey real property without the signature of the other.
LVI. NEW YORK.[376]
The State of New York, home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, may be justly described as the great battle-ground for the rights of women, a title which will not be denied by any who have read the preceding three volumes of this History. The first Woman's Rights Convention in the world was called at Seneca Falls in 1848.[377] New York was also a pioneer in beginning a reform of the old English Common Law, so barbarous in its treatment of women. And yet, with all the splendid work which has been done, the State has been slow indeed in granting absolute justice. At the commencement of the new century, however, the legal and educational rights of women are very generally conceded, but their political rights are still largely denied. Except during the Civil War, there has not been a year since 1851 when one or more conventions have not been held to demand these rights, and when a committee of women has not visited the Legislature to secure the necessary action. A State association was formed in 1869.
The convention of 1884 met in the Common Council Chamber at Albany, March 11, 12, with the usual large attendance of delegates from all parts of the State, and the evening sessions so crowded that an overflow meeting was held in Geological Hall. Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake, the president, was in the chair and addresses were made by Mesdames Matilda Joslyn Gage, Mary Seymour Howell, Caroline Gilkey Rogers and Henrica Iliohan; and by Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert of Illinois and Mrs. Helen M. Gougar of Indiana, who had come from the national convention in Washington. On the way to Albany a large reception had been tendered to them at the Hoffman House in New York. On March 13 a hearing was held in the Assembly Chamber before the Judiciary Committee on the bill for Full Suffrage for women. The room was filled and strong speeches were made by all of the above women. Gov. Grover Cleveland gave a courteous reception to the delegates.
In 1885 the convention took place in Steinway Hall, New York, February 12, 13, all the counties being represented by delegate or letter. The speakers were Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mrs. Gage, Mrs. Howell, Mrs. Rogers and the Rev. Dr. Charles H. Eaton and Mrs. Delia S. Parnell (mother of Charles Stewart Parnell). On the evening of the 12th a large reception to Mrs. Stanton was given at the Murray Hill Hotel.
The convention of 1886 met in Masonic Hall, New York, March 23, 24. Addresses were made by Miss Susan B. Anthony, James Redpath, Mesdames Blake, Howell, Rogers and Iliohan, Gov. John W. Hoyt of Wyoming and Mrs. Margaret Moore of Ireland. A reception was tendered to Dr. Clemence S. Lozier at the Park Avenue Hotel.
In the fall an interesting observance was arranged by the State Suffrage Association when the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, given to the American nation by France, was unveiled on October 28. There was a great excursion down the bay to witness this ceremony and the association chartered a boat which was filled with friends of the cause. A place was secured in the line between two of the great warships, and, while the cannon thundered a salute to the majestic female figure which embodied Freedom, speeches were made on the suffrage boat by Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Margaret Parker of England, Mrs. Harriette R. Shattuck of Massachusetts, Mrs. Gage, Mrs. Howell and others.
The convention met again in New York at Masonic Hall, April 21, 22, 1887, and was addressed by Madame Clara Neymann, Rabbi Gustave Gottheil, Mrs. Florence McCabe, Mrs. Gage, Mrs. Howell, Dr. Lozier and others.
In 1888 the annual meeting assembled at the same place, March 22, 23. It was attended by the many delegates who had come from European countries to the International Congress of Women about to be held in Washington, D. C. Among the speakers were Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg of Finland and Mrs. Ashton Dilke, Mrs. Alice Scatcherd and Mrs. Zadel Barnes Gustafson of England. On the evening preceding the opening of the convention a large reception was given to these foreign ladies at the Park Avenue Hotel.
The State convention was held in Rochester, Dec. 16, 17, 1890, in the First Universalist Church. Its distinguishing feature was the reception given in the Chamber of Commerce to Miss Susan B. Anthony by her fellow townsmen, as a welcome home from her long and hard campaign in South Dakota. The large rooms were handsomely decorated and over 600 people were present during the evening, including President David Jayne Hill and a number of the faculty of Rochester University, several members of Congress and many men of prominence.
The speakers at the convention were Miss Mary F. Eastman of Boston, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Howell and Miss Anthony. Mrs. Blake positively declined a re-election, having served eleven consecutive years, and Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf was elected president. During Mrs. Blake's presidency she had many times canvassed New York and had extended her lecture tours into various other States, going as far west as California.
Henceforth, in addition to annual conventions, the association adopted the plan of holding mid-year executive meetings in various cities for the transaction of business, with public sessions in the evenings addressed by the best speakers.
In 1891 the convention met in Auburn, November 10, 11, the audiences crowding the opera house on both evenings. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Greenleaf, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Howell and Miss Shaw were the speakers, with an address of welcome from Mrs. J. Mary Pearson. Reports showed that the membership had doubled in the last year, and that Woman's Day had been observed at many fairs, resulting in the forming of county organizations. A resolution was adopted urging the Legislature to appoint some women on the State Board of Managers for the Columbian Exposition in 1893. The convention closed with a reception at the elegant home of Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborne, niece of Lucretia Mott and daughter of Martha C. Wright, two of those who called the first Woman's Rights Convention.
Syracuse was selected for the annual meeting of 1892, November 15-17. Miss Anthony, president of the National Association, was in attendance, and the opera house was filled at all the sessions. Mrs. Martha T. Henderson, vice-president-at-large, who had been appointed to represent the State, was delegated to arrange for the noon-day suffrage meetings during the Columbian Exposition. Mrs. Greenleaf's address reviewed the great debate which had taken place at the New York Chautauqua Assembly the preceding August, between the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw and the Rev. J. M. Buckley, editor of the Christian Advocate, and emphasized the evident sympathy of the immense audience with the side of the question presented by the former. Suffrage Day had been observed at the Cassadaga Lake Assembly with an address by Miss Anthony, and also at the State Fair. The association was congratulated on the fact that there had been a further extension of School Suffrage during the year.
All interest centered in the approaching convention to revise the constitution of the State, through which it was hoped a woman suffrage amendment would be obtained. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Howell had been appointed to address the Legislature, which they had done in April of this year, for the purpose of securing women delegates to this convention, that was to be held in 1893, but eventually was deferred one year. Committees were appointed which visited the political State conventions the following summer, asking a declaration in their platforms for this amendment, but were unsuccessful.
The annual meeting of 1893 was held at Brooklyn, in Long Island Historical Hall, Nov. 13-16. It was welcomed by Mrs. Mariana Wright Chapman, president of the Brooklyn suffrage society. The plan of work was perfected, which had been prepared by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton, for an active canvass of the State in behalf of a plank in the approaching Constitutional Convention. Addresses were made by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Henry B. Blackwell of Boston, Miss Anthony, the Rev. Miss Shaw, national vice-president-at-large; Mrs. Ella A. Boole, Aaron M. Powell, Gen. C. T. Christiansen, Mrs. Anna C. Field, Mrs. Emma Bourne, Mrs. Blake and others. Among the resolutions adopted was the following:
The thanks of this association are due to Gov. Roswell P. Flower for his recognition of woman's ability in the appointment to a State office of our national president, Susan B. Anthony, viz: as one of the Board of Managers of the State Industrial School at Rochester.
The great campaign of 1894, undertaken to secure a clause for woman suffrage in the revised State constitution, will be considered further on in this chapter.
The annual convention met in Ithaca, Nov. 12-14, 1894, the opera house being filled with the usual large audiences. It was welcomed by Mayor Clinton D. Bouton and President Jacob Gould Schurmann of Cornell University. Miss Anthony was present and a galaxy of eloquent New York women made addresses.
Newburgh entertained the convention Nov. 8-12, 1895. The speakers were Miss Anthony, Dr. Edward McGlynn, Miss Elizabeth Burrill Curtis, daughter of George William Curtis; Miss Arria S. Huntington, daughter of Bishop Frederick D. Huntington; Miss Margaret Livingston Chanler, Madame Neymann, Mrs. Maude S. Humphrey, Mrs. Chapman, Mrs. Cornelia K. Hood, Miss Julie Jenney, Mrs. Boole, Mrs. Annie E. P. Searing, Mrs. M. R. Almy, Miss Harriette A. Keyser, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Howell, the Rev. Miss Shaw and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee. Miss Anthony was especially stirred by a previous speech which reflected on the dress, manners and social standing of the pioneers in the movement for the rights of women, and which felicitated the present advocates on their great superiority in these respects. She named the pioneers, one by one, paid warm tribute to their beautiful personality and commanding ability and asked where a woman could be found in all the present generation to excel, if, indeed, to equal them.
The delegates enjoyed visits to the many interesting places in the neighborhood, including West Point and Vassar College. A beautiful reception was given by Mrs. C. S. Jenkins. It was supposed that the disappointment of the previous year in failing to secure an amendment from the Constitutional Convention would result in a falling off in membership, but instead this was found to be considerably augmented. At the close of the convention the delegates went to New York to attend Mrs. Stanton's eightieth birthday reception at the Metropolitan Opera House.
The convention of 1896 was held in Rochester, November 18, 19, with more delegates present than ever before. It was preceded by a reception on the evening of the 17th, where the guests were delighted to greet Miss Anthony and her little band, who had arrived that morning from their arduous field of labor in the California amendment campaign. The welcome for the city was extended by Mayor George Warner. Many of the speakers of the previous year were present, with the addition of the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first ordained woman minister, and the noted colored woman of anti-slavery days, Harriet Tubman. The press chairman, Mrs. Elnora Monroe Babcock, reported that, instead of the 135 newspapers of the year before, 253 in the State were now using suffrage matter regularly furnished by her committee.
On the Friday night succeeding the convention a banquet was given in honor of Miss Anthony, with over 200 guests. Mrs. Mary Lewis Gannett was toastmistress and Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw made interesting addresses.
Mrs. Greenleaf, who had done such heroic work during the past six years and sustained the association on so high a plane, felt obliged to decline a re-election, and Mrs. Mariana Wright Chapman was unanimously chosen for her place. Mrs. Greenleaf was appointed fraternal delegate to the annual meeting of the State Grange, and Mrs. Howell to the State Labor Convention, and both were cordially received. The Grange had on several occasions declared for woman suffrage.
Geneva extended a welcome to the convention Nov. 3-5, 1897, and successful meetings were held in Collins Hall and the opera house. The speakers from abroad and many delegates were entertained at the handsome home of Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of Gerrit Smith. Added to the usual list were Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, recording secretary of the National Association; the Rev. Annis Ford Eastman, Mrs. Gannett, Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, and Miss M. F. Blaine, Charles Hemiup, W. Smith O'Brien, the Rev. Remick and Dr. William H. Jordan of Geneva. A pleasant event of the year had been the carving of Miss Anthony's face on the stairway of the magnificent new Capitol building at Albany, by order of George W. Aldridge, State superintendent of public works.
On April 28, 29, 1898, the fortieth anniversary of the first Woman's Rights Convention was held in Rochester. This city also had entertained that convention which had adjourned in Seneca Falls to hold a session here. The anniversary proceedings took place afternoons and evenings in the Central Presbyterian church with a fine corps of speakers.[378]
On Nov. 8-11, 1898, the annual meeting was held in the court house at Hudson. It was welcomed by the mayor, Richard A. M. Deeley, for the city and by Mrs. Mary Holsapple for the local suffrage club. An address of greeting also was given by Judge Levi S. Longley, and the Hudson Club extended its courtesies. A letter from Mrs. Stanton was read by her daughter, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch of England, who also made an address. Many of the strong speakers were present who have been frequently mentioned in connection with these State conventions. The treasurer reported receipts for the year $3,220.
Chautauqua County invited the convention of 1899 to Dunkirk, November 1-3, and entertained it royally. There was a reception on the first evening, and a luncheon was given every day to the delegates who wished to remain at the hall between sessions. Both day and evening meetings were large and enthusiastic, the former held at the Woman's Union, the latter in Academy Hall. Mayor Alexander Williams welcomed the convention for the city, and Mrs. Ellen Cheney for the county in a witty poem, Mrs. Chapman responding. Stirring addresses were made by the Hon. F. S. Nixon and Dr. J. T. Williams. Miss Anthony was present, with many of the old speakers and several new ones, among them Mrs. Carrie E. S. Twing.
The last annual meeting of the century convened at Glens Falls, Oct. 29-Nov. 1, 1900, in Ordway Hall. Addresses of welcome were made by the Hon. Addison B. Colvin and the president of the Warren County association, Mrs. Susie M. Bain. Mrs. Chapman Catt, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Boole, president State Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Mrs. Chapman, Mrs. Howell and Miss Harriet May Mills were among the principal speakers. A notable feature was the presence of many bright and enthusiastic young workers. Pledges of support were made for the national bazar to be held the next month in New York.
Among the resolutions adopted was one congratulating Miss Anthony upon her success in raising the last of the $50,000 fund which was to open the doors of Rochester University to women.
In addition to this long array of conventions without a break, the mid-year executive meetings in various cities have been of almost equal interest. At nearly every one of these State conventions Miss Anthony has assisted with her inspiring presence and strong words of counsel. To many of them Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, not able to come in person, has sent ringing letters of encouragement, for which the affectionate greetings of the delegates have been returned. New York has the largest membership of any State in the Union and pays the largest amount of money into the national treasury each year, not alone in auxiliary dues, but in private subscriptions.
The State association has had but three presidents in over twenty years: Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake, 1879-1890; Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf, 1890-1896; Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman, 1896 and still serving. Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage was continuously in office from the time a State association first existed.[379]
With active work in progress for so many years, and with suffrage organizations in the counties and towns throughout all of this large State, it would be impossible to make personal mention of even a small fraction of those who have aided the movement. The hundreds who have furnished the money and the thousands who have served in a quiet way through all the years would require a separate chapter.[380]
It would be equally impossible to describe the efforts made from year to year, the meetings held, the memorials presented to political conventions, the debates, the parliamentary drills, the lecture courses, the millions of pages of literature distributed, the struggles to place women on the school boards, the special efforts of the standing committees on legislation, press, industries, work among children, etc. It is far more difficult to write the history of a State where so much has been done than where the tale may be quickly told. No State is better organized for suffrage work.[381] There is no doubt that a strong sentiment exists outside of New York City in favor of the enfranchisement of women. However, with the adverse influence always exerted by a great metropolis, it is impossible to foretell when this will be accomplished.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT: The history of the struggle of a comparatively few women to secure a clause for equal suffrage in the State constitution, when it was revised in 1894, told in the fewest possible words, is as follows:[382]
As early as 1887 Gov. David B. Hill, at the earnest request of the State Suffrage Association, had recommended that women should have a representation in the convention which would frame this revision. Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake, Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell and Mrs. Caroline Gilkey Rogers addressed a joint committee of the Legislature urging that women delegates should be permitted to sit in this convention. Mrs. Blake also prepared a strong written appeal which was sent to every member. Gov. Roswell P. Flower in his message in 1892 made a similar recommendation. Again Miss Anthony, Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Howell made a plea for women, this time before the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
The original bill provided for a certain number of delegates to be appointed by the Governor, among these four to represent the Prohibitionists, three the Labor Party and three the Woman Suffrage Association. The power of the Governor to appoint was afterwards declared unconstitutional. A bill allowing three women delegates passed the Assembly, but was defeated in the Senate. The act which finally was secured provided that all the delegates should be elected, and that there should be two representatives each for the Prohibition, Labor and Socialist parties. None was granted to the Suffragists; but the law said: "The electors may elect any citizen of the State above the age of twenty-one years."
The following was then sent to each of the political party conventions, through properly accredited delegates:
Among other duties incumbent upon the members of your honorable body is that of nominating delegates-at-large to the convention called for the revision of the State constitution. As women are eligible to these positions we offer you the names of three who have been selected by the executive board of the State W. S. A. as their choice of delegates for that convention, with the hope that you will accept them as candidates of your own.
The names presented were those of Miss Anthony, Mrs. Howell and Miss Emily Howland, the last a large taxpayer and an excellent business woman. The ladies were courteously listened to by the Democrats, and refused an opportunity to speak by the Republicans. Similar efforts were made in district conventions.
Both Republicans and Democrats, however, refused to nominate any women, the compensation of $10 per day, in addition to the political power conferred, making the positions entirely too valuable to give to a disfranchised class. The name of even Susan B. Anthony was declined by the Republicans of her district. The Democrats of that district, who were in a hopeless minority, made the one exception in the whole State and nominated Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf, who ran some votes ahead of the rest of the ticket.
Every effort was now directed toward obtaining a clause in the new constitution, as there was little doubt that if this could be done it would be adopted with the rest of that instrument. An eloquent appeal was issued to all the friends of liberty throughout the State, urging them to assist in securing this measure of justice to women. A campaign was carefully planned with an ability which would have been creditable to experienced political managers, and $10,000 were raised and expended with the most rigid economy.[383]
To save rent headquarters were established in Miss Anthony's own home in Rochester, which soon became a beehive of industry, and the work increased until practically every room was pressed into service. The president of the State association and campaign committee, Mrs. Greenleaf, and the corresponding secretary, Miss Mary S. Anthony, gave practically every hour of their time for six months to this great effort. The postoffice daily sent mail sacks to the house, which were filled with petitions and other documents and set out on the porch for collection.
Miss Anthony herself, at the age of seventy-four, spoke in every one of the sixty counties of the State, contributing her services and expenses. This series of mass meetings was managed by Miss Harriet May Mills and Miss Mary G. Hay. The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw spoke at forty of these, and Mrs. Howell at a large number. The entire management of New York City was put into the hands of Mrs. Blake, while the campaign for Brooklyn was conducted by Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt made thirty-eight speeches in these two cities and vicinity. Mrs. Stanton, from her home in New York, sent many strong articles to the metropolitan press, which were copied throughout the State. Mrs. Martha R. Almy. State vice-president, was an active worker.
Women of social influence in this city, who never had shown any public interest in the question, opened headquarters at Sherry's, held meetings and secured signatures to a suffrage petition. The leaders of this branch were Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, Mrs. Joseph H. Choate, Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, Mrs. J. Warren Goddard, Mrs. Robert Abbe, Mrs. Henry M. Sanders and Miss Adele M. Fielde. Among those who signed the petition were Chauncey M. Depew, Russell Sage, Frederick Coudert, the Rev. Heber Newton, the Rev. W. S. Rainsford, Bishop Henry C. Potter, Rabbi Gustave Gottheil, John D. Rockefeller, Robert J. Ingersoll and William Dean Howells.
One of the surprises of the campaign was the organization in Albany of a small body of women calling themselves "remonstrants," under the leadership of the Episcopal bishop, William Croswell Doane, and Mrs. John V. L. Pruyn. Another branch was organized in New York City by Mrs. Francis M. Scott, and one in Brooklyn with Mrs. Lyman Abbott at the head and the support of her husband's paper, The Outlook.
The suffrage forces circulated 5,000 petitions and secured 332,148 individual signatures, about half of them women (including 36,000 collected by the W. C. T. U.) and memorials from labor organizations and Granges, bringing the total, in round numbers, to 600,000.[384] The "remonstrants" obtained only 15,000 signatures, yet at that time and ever afterwards many of the newspapers insisted that the vast preponderance of sentiment among men and women was opposed to equal suffrage.
A part of the work was to collect statistics showing the amount of property on which taxes were paid by women. It was impossible to obtain these in New York City, but in three-fifths of the towns and cities outside it was found to be $348,177,107. In Brooklyn women paid one-fourth of all the taxes. The drudgery of preparing these tax lists and recounting and labeling all the petitions was done chiefly by Miss Isabel Howland.
During the convention an office and a reception room in the Capitol were granted for the use of the women. On May 24 Miss Anthony and Mrs. Greenleaf addressed the Suffrage Committee of the Constitutional Convention in the Assembly Chamber of the Capitol at Albany. A large crowd was present, including the committee and most of the delegates. Mrs. Greenleaf's remarks were brief but forcible, and Miss Anthony spoke earnestly for three-quarters of an hour, seeming to have the full sympathy of her audience.
The women of New York City were accorded a hearing on May 31, and strong arguments were made by Dr. Jacobi, Miss Margaret Livingstone Chanler, Mrs. Blake and Miss Harriette A. Keyser. On June 7 the Suffrage Committee was addressed by representative women, in five-minute speeches, from all of the Senatorial districts outside of New York City.[385] Mrs. Greenleaf presided at all these meetings.[386]
The final hearing was accorded June 28, when U. S. Senator Joseph M. Carey, who had come from Wyoming by invitation for this purpose, made a most convincing argument based on the practical experience of his own State for twenty-five years. He was followed by Mrs. Howell and Mrs. Mary T. Burt, president of the State W. C. T. U.
All of these addresses in favor of recognizing woman's right to the franchise were valueless except for the creation of public sentiment and as a matter of history, for the chairman of the convention, the Hon. Joseph H. Choate, had appointed a Suffrage Committee the large majority of whom were known anti-suffragists, and he was reported to have said before the convention met that the amendment should not be placed in the constitution. The committee made an adverse report, which was discussed by the convention on the evenings of August 8 and 15, with the Assembly Chamber crowded at each session.[387] The advocates of adopting a woman suffrage plank were led by the Hon. Edward Lauterbach and the opponents by Mr. Root and William P. Goodelle, chairman of the Suffrage Committee.[388]
While the ballot was being taken Mr. Choate went on the floor among the delegates, and himself gave the last vote against the amendment. The ballot resulted--in favor of the amendment, 58; opposed, 98.
Even though a defeat, this was a decided advance over the Constitutional Convention of 1867, when there were but 19 ayes and 125 noes. Then less than one-seventh, this time more than one-third of the members were in favor of the enfranchisement of women.
The following month Miss Anthony and Mr. Lauterbach addressed the Committee on Resolutions of the State Republican Convention, and Miss Anthony and Mrs. Blake that of the Democratic, asking for a recognition of woman suffrage in their platforms, but both ignored the request.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION: Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Susan B. Anthony were the pioneers in legislative work for woman suffrage, the former making her first speech before a committee--in behalf of property rights--as early as 1845, and continuing her appeals for the various rights of women during twenty-five years, after which her addresses were given usually before the committees of the United States Congress. Miss Anthony made her first appearance in Albany in 1853, and her last one before a committee there in 1897. She devoted her strongest efforts to the Legislature of her own State until the demands of national work became so great as to absorb most of her time, and then she, too, transferred her appeals to the legislative body of the United States, although assisting always the work in New York.
Meanwhile other competent laborers had come into the field. In 1873 Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake began her legislative work, and for twenty-five years there were few bills in the interests of women under consideration at Albany which were not managed by her, with an able corps of assistants, chief among whom was Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell.
For fifty years there is an almost unbroken record of the efforts of women to secure equality of rights from the Legislature of New York, and they have succeeded to the extent that now, with the exception of the statute providing for dower and curtesy, but few serious discriminations exist against women in the laws, although the injustice of disfranchisement has been mitigated in only a slight degree.
When the Legislature assembled on Jan. 1, 1884, Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Howell were at hand to further the interests of the pending bill "to prohibit disfranchisement on account of sex." On March 13 a hearing was held in the Assembly Chamber before the Judiciary Committee and a large audience. The speakers were Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert of Illinois and Mrs. Helen M. Gougar of Indiana, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Howell and Mrs. Caroline Gilkey Rogers. On May 8, after an exciting debate, the bill was defeated--57 ayes, 62 noes.
The bill of 1885 was drawn by Mrs. Blake and was accompanied by a strong written argument, with many court decisions to show that it was within the power of the Legislature itself to protect all citizens from disfranchisement. This was presented by Gen. James W. Husted, speaker of the House. Two hearings were given in the Assembly Chamber, at which addresses were made by Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Howell, Mrs. Rogers and Gov. John W. Hoyt of Wyoming.
The bill was debated April 7. General Husted, Mayor James Haggerty and Dr. J. T. Williams spoke in favor; Gen. N. M. Curtis and Kidder Scott in opposition. The vote stood 57 ayes, 56 noes, but a constitutional majority was lacking.
During the summer Mrs. Blake spoke in almost every district whose member had voted against the measure.
In 1886 a bill for Municipal Suffrage only was presented, drawn by Augustus Levy and introduced in the Senate by George Z. Erwin, in the House by Speaker Husted. On February 10 a hearing took place in the Assembly Chamber. Mrs. Blake presided and the speakers were Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage, Mrs. Howell, Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Annie Jenness Miller. On March 2 the Senate gave a hearing to Mr. Levy and James Redpath. The campaign this winter was one of the most vigorous ever made. Besides the executive officers of the State association, who were in Albany some days of every week, much help was secured by the occasional visits of prominent women and the numerous letters of influential people from all parts of the State. On the night of the final vote the Assembly Chamber was filled by friends of the measure and many officials were present, including the Lieutenant-Governor and the Attorney-General. As this bill would give women only the right to vote in municipal affairs, it had many supporters who would not have favored full suffrage. The debate was long and earnest, Mr. Erwin, General Husted, Mr. Longley of Brooklyn, Mr. Freligh of Ulster and others speaking in favor, and General Curtis, William F. Sheehan and others in opposition. The roll-call was taken in great excitement, and the ayes went up until their number reached 65, the constitutional majority. A round of applause broke out, but in an instant two men arose and changed their votes from the affirmative to the negative, so that on the final call the vote stood, 63 ayes, 52 noes.
This winter another law was enacted to remove all doubts as to the constitutionality of the one of 1880, which conferred School Suffrage on women in villages and country districts. Representative Charles Sprague introduced a bill making mothers and fathers joint guardians of their children, but it was defeated.
In 1887 Mrs. Howell drew up the Municipal Suffrage Bill, which was introduced by Senator Erwin. She spent ten days personally interviewing every senator until she had the promise of the twenty votes which were given the bill on its final passage, seventeen being necessary. There were but nine noes.
After the clerk had read the bill in the Assembly, Speaker Husted said: "If there is no objection this bill will go at once to the third reading." Wm. F. Sheehan, the leading opponent of woman suffrage, was asleep at the time and so it was thus ordered. Mrs. Howell continued her efforts, but the measure was defeated--48 ayes, 68 noes--by a moneyed influence from New York City, after nearly enough votes to carry it had been promised.
A bill providing police matrons in cities, with the exception of New York and Brooklyn, was secured from this Legislature. It had been passed in 1882, but not signed by Gov. Alonzo B. Cornell; passed again in the Assembly in 1883, but defeated in the Senate by the Police Department of New York City. The bill was finally secured by the Woman's Prison Association, but it was not made mandatory and no attention was paid to it by the city authorities.
A bill was presented this year to relieve women from the death penalty, on the ground that since they had not the full privileges of men they should not suffer equal punishment. The measure was ably supported, but failed to pass.
In 1888 the Municipal Suffrage Bill was presented in the Senate by Charles Coggeshall, and in the Assembly by Danforth E. Ainsworth. A hearing in the Senate Chamber on February 15 was addressed by Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Rogers and the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer of Rhode Island. The bill was lost in the Senate by a tie vote, 15 ayes, 15 noes; in the House by 48 ayes, 61 noes.
Laws were enacted at this session providing that there shall be women physicians in all State insane asylums where women are patients; and also that there shall be at least one woman trustee in all public institutions where women are placed as patients, paupers or criminals.
In 1889 the Municipal Suffrage Bill was again presented in the Assembly by Mr. Ainsworth, but it was lost by 56 ayes, 43 noes, not a constitutional majority.
In 1890 the Municipal Suffrage Bill was presented by Speaker Husted, but was defeated by 47 ayes, 52 noes.
In 1891 no legislative work was attempted beyond the efforts toward securing a representation of women in the Constitutional Convention, which it was supposed would be held at an early date.
In 1892 an act was passed to enable women to vote for County School Commissioners, which received the signature of Gov. Roswell P. Flower.
This year a Police Matron Bill was obtained which was made mandatory in cities of 100,000 and over. This bill had been passed several times before and vetoed, but it finally obtained the Governor's signature. Even then the Police Commissioners of New York refused to appoint matrons until the matter was taken up by the Woman Suffrage League of that city. This was the end of a ten years' struggle on the part of women to secure police matrons in all cities. Most active among the leaders were Mrs. Mary T. Burt, Mrs. Abby Hopper Gibbons and Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, backed by the W. C. T. U., the Prison Reform, the Suffrage and various other philanthropic and religious societies.
In 1892 Hamilton Willcox, who had worked untiringly in the Legislature for many years, had a bill introduced in the Assembly to give a vote to self-supporting women. It was referred to the Judiciary Committee, but met with general disfavor. Mrs. Howell being in the Assembly Chamber with friends one evening, three of its members invited her to go to their committee room and draw up a bill for Full Suffrage, telling her they would report it favorably in place of the Working Woman's Bill. This she did and the new bill was at once reported. The next week she gave every moment to working with the members for it, aided by General Husted, Mr. Willcox and William Sulzer. On Friday morning, one week from the day the bill was reported, it came to the final vote and passed by 70 ayes, only 65 being required for the constitutional majority. Excitement ran high at this success and ten minutes were given for congratulations to Mrs. Howell by friends and foes alike. The Monday following she carried the bill from the Engrossing Committee to the Senate. Only three days of the session were left and the committee held no more meetings, so she saw separately each member of the Judiciary Committee and all gave a vote in favor of considering the bill. Mr. Sheehan was now Lieutenant-Governor and presiding officer of the Senate and would allow no courtesies to Mrs. Howell, but one senator, Charles E. Walker, arranged for her to see every member, and she secured the promise of 18 votes, 17 being required. On Thursday evening, although Senator Cornelius R. Parsons made many attempts to secure recognition, the bill was not allowed to come before the Senate. There was every reason to believe Governor Flower would have signed it.[389]
In 1893 Mrs. Cornelia H. Cary worked for a bill providing that on all boards of education one person out of five should be a woman, but it failed to pass. The measure making fathers and mothers joint guardians of their children, so often urged, became a law this year chiefly through the efforts of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union of Buffalo, which had been hampered constantly in its efforts to care for helpless children by the interference of worthless fathers.[390]
A law also was enacted, championed by Col. George C. Webster, giving to a married woman the right to make a valid will without her husband's consent.
The season of 1894 was given wholly to the work of securing a woman suffrage amendment in the revised State constitution.
In 1895 Mrs. Martha R. Almy, as chairman of the Legislative Committee, began work in Albany early in January and was absent but one legislative day from that time until May. She was assisted by Mrs. Helen G. Ecob, and their effort was to secure a resolution to amend the constitution by striking out the word "male." In order to submit such an amendment in New York, a resolution must be passed by two successive Legislatures.
Judge Charles Z. Lincoln, the legal adviser of Gov. Levi P. Morton, drew up the resolution and it was introduced January 22 in the Assembly by Fred S. Nixon, and in the Senate by Cuthbert W. Pound. It was favorably reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee early in the session. The chairman of the Assembly Committee, Aaron B. Gardenier, was very hostile, and after every effort to get a report had been exhausted, Mr. Nixon and Mrs. Almy made a personal appeal to the committee and were successful. On March 14 six men brought in the mammoth petition for woman suffrage which had been presented to the Constitutional Convention the previous year. The resolution was passed by 80 ayes, 31 noes. This was a remarkable action for the first Legislature after the great defeat in the Constitutional Convention only a few months before.
When the measure came to the Senate it was moved by Senator Pound to substitute Mr. Nixon's resolution for his own, as they were identical. But Amasa J. Parker[391] objected in order to make it run the gauntlet of the Senate Committee again, and this gave the anti-suffragists an opportunity to oppose it. He then asked for a hearing for Bishop William Croswell Doane and others before the State Judiciary Committee, of which he was a member, which Chairman Edmond O'Connor granted. The committee met but once a week, and twice the hearing was postponed to accommodate the opposition. The second time, as no one appeared against the resolution, it was again reported favorably. Just after this had been done Mr. Parker appeared and objected, and the chairman agreed to recall it and give the opposition one more chance. On April 10, the time appointed for the hearing, Bishop Doane sent a letter declining the honor of appearing, but a delegation from New York City came up, and Mrs. Francis M. Scott and Prof. Monroe Smith of Columbia University addressed the committee opposing the measure. Mrs. Almy and Mrs. Mary H. Hunt replied in its behalf. For the third time the resolution was reported favorably by the Senate Committee, and April 18 the vote was taken. Senators Pound, Coggeshall and Bradley spoke in favor, and Jacob H. Cantor in opposition. It was carried by 20 ayes, 5 noes.
When the resolution went to the Revision Committee it was found that in one section there was a period where there should have been a comma. Mrs. Almy was obliged to remain two weeks and get an amendment through both Houses to correct this error. Finally the resolution was declared perfect, and was ordered published throughout the State, etc. Then it was discovered that the word "resident" was used instead of "citizen," and the entire work of the winter was void. As it is not required that copies of original bills shall be preserved, the responsibility for the mistake never can be located.
The Senate of 1896, by a change in the term of office, was to sit three years instead of two; and a concurrent resolution, in order to pass two successive Legislatures, would have to be deferred still another year, so no work was attempted.
On Jan. 4, 1897, when the Legislature assembled, every member found on his desk a personally addressed letter appealing for the right of women citizens to representation, signed by all the officers of the State Suffrage Association and by the presidents of all the local societies. The resolution asking for a suffrage amendment was introduced in the Senate by Joseph Mullen, in the Assembly by W. W. Armstrong, and was referred to the Judiciary Committees. Repeated interviews by Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman, Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, chairman of the legislative committee, and other members were not sufficient to secure a favorable vote even from the committees, as they were frightened by the action of the preceding Legislature.
The New York Society Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women was at work on the spot, and every legislator received a letter urging him not to consider any kind of a bill for woman suffrage. Finally a hearing was appointed by the Senate Committee for March 24. In the midst of a snowstorm, all the way from Rochester came the National president, Miss Anthony; from New York City, the State president, Mrs. Chapman; the chairman of the national organization committee, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt; Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and Miss Elizabeth Burrill Curtis; from Syracuse, Miss Harriet May Mills; and in Albany already were Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Almy, Mrs. Julia D. Sheppard and a number of local suffragists. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Chapman Catt and Miss Mills addressed the committee. As the delegation withdrew one senator said to another: "I do not know what is to become of us men when such women as these come up to the Legislature." Nevertheless the resolution was not reported by the committee.
Under the auspices of a Civic Union of all the boroughs of the proposed "Greater New York," an active campaign was carried on during this winter to secure various advantages for women under the new charter, but it met with no especial success.
In 1898 Mrs. Mary Hilliard Loines was chairman of the legislative committee, and Mrs. Florence Dangerfield Potter, a graduate of Cornell and of the New York University Law School, acted as attorney. The Suffrage Amendment Resolution was introduced the first week of the session by Representative Otto Kelsey, a steadfast friend of woman suffrage. The usual number of letters was sent throughout the State to secure co-operation and a hearing was given March 2 in the Assembly library. The speakers introduced by Mrs. Loines were Mrs. Chapman, Miss Mills, Mrs. Craigie, Miss Margaret Livingstone Chanler and Mrs. Martha A. B. Conine, a member of the Colorado Legislature. The Rev. William Brundage of Albany spoke forcibly in favor of the amendment. No opponents were present. Although the chairman and some members of the committee were in favor, it was learned that the majority were opposed, so a vote was not pressed. The Senate committee being the same as the previous year, it was thought not worth while to introduce the resolution into that body.
In 1899 the legislative work differed from that of the years directly preceding, the executive committee having decided that it might be wiser to ask for some form of suffrage which the Legislature itself could grant without submitting the question to the voters. The following bills were authorized:
1: To make it obligatory to appoint at least one woman on school boards in those cities, about forty-six in all, where the office is appointive.
2: To amend the village law, making it obligatory that in all charters where a special vote of tax-payers is required on municipal improvements or the raising or distribution of taxes, women properly qualified shall vote on the same basis as men.
A great many letters had been sent to Gov. Theodore Roosevelt, then newly elected, asking him to recognize the rights of women in his inaugural address, which he did by calling the attention of the Legislature to "the desirability of gradually extending the sphere in which the suffrage can be exercised by women." These two bills, therefore, were sent to him for approval and he appointed an interview at Albany with a committee from the State association. Mrs. Loines, Mrs. Blake, Miss Mills, Miss Mary Lyman Storrs and Mrs. Nellie F. Matheson went with the State president to this interview, and the Governor cordially indorsed the bills.
Letters were sent to the legislators and also to the presidents of the county suffrage societies, asking them to influence their representatives. The bill for the Taxpayers' Suffrage was introduced into the Assembly by Mr. Kelsey. That good work was done was evident by the vote--98 ayes, 9 noes.
But the battle was with the Senate, where the bill was introduced by W. W. Armstrong. On February 22 a hearing was given in the Senate Chamber before the Judiciary Committee. Suffragists and opponents were there in force. The latter were represented by Mesdames Arthur M. Dodge, W. Winslow Crannell and Rossiter Johnson. The State president introduced the suffrage speakers, Miss Chanler, Mrs. Blake and Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, the last being qualified from residence to testify to the good effect of this kind of suffrage in England. Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller, Miss Anne Fitzhugh Miller and others were present. Owing largely to the influence of Elon R. Brown the committee brought in an adverse report.[392] Senator Armstrong moved to disagree and the vote, thus called for, in the Senate stood 21 ayes, 24 noes--a vote on the report, not on the bill, but it put the Senate on record.
The Bill for Women on Appointed Boards of Education, which had been changed under protest of the suffragists to "one-third of the members of the board" from "at least one woman," was voted on April 19. In the Assembly it received 59 ayes, 23 noes; but 76 was the constitutional majority, so Senate action was useless. It was bitterly opposed by many prominent school officers.
In 1900 the Legislature made a glaring exhibition of the position in which a non-voting class can be placed. Early in the session a resolution was offered on the motion of Senator Thomas F. Grady of New York City, "that it is not expedient or advisable to attempt at this session any changes in the constitution in regard to woman suffrage." It passed by 26 ayes, 17 noes. Let it be said, for the honor of the State, that there were senators who protested indignantly against such trampling upon the rights of the people. Several who voted in favor of this resolution afterwards voted for the suffrage bill.
The Bill for Woman Suffrage on Tax Questions was introduced the very next day by Senator Armstrong. Soon afterward it was presented in the Assembly by Mr. Kelsey. On March 22 it passed with only two negative votes--John Hill Morgan of Brooklyn and James B. McEwan of Albany. When this bill came to the Senate there were so many before it that April 4 its friends moved to take it up out of order by suspension of rules. Senators Armstrong, Coggeshall and Lester H. Humphrey spoke in favor, Senator Grady against. The vote in favor was 23 ayes, 19 noes (nine of these from New York City), but twenty-six votes were necessary to suspend. The situation, however, was more encouraging than the year before. The legislative committee of the State W. S. A. this year consisted of Mesdames Loines, Blake, Matheson, Priscilla D. Hackstaff and Ella Hawley Crossett.
In 1901 the committee was composed of Mesdames Loines, Hackstaff, Craigie, Jean Brooks Greenleaf and Lucy P. Allen. All efforts were centered on the bill to give taxpaying women the right to vote on questions of taxation. A conference with Governor Odell showed his friendliness to the bill and disclosed the fact that he had used his influence to amend the charter of his own city of Newburg to give this privilege to women.
Speaker Nixon, in his opening address, referred to the bill as a measure of justice which he hoped would be introduced every year until it became a law. Mr. Kelsey for the third time constituted himself its champion, and worked earnestly for its success. Letters poured in from all parts of the State, the W. C. T. U. co-operated cordially, and hearings were granted by House and Senate committees. The bill passed the Assembly February 26 by 83 ayes, 29 noes. Of the latter 18 were from New York City. Of the 38 absent or not voting 22 were from that city.
In the Senate the bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee as usual. On March 20 a hearing before this committee was arranged for those in favor and opposed. It was conducted by Mrs. Loines for the suffragists, who were represented by Mrs. Chapman, Miss Chanler, a large taxpayer in Dutchess County, and Miss Alice Stone Blackwell of Boston, but a taxpayer in New York. Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge was at the head of the eighteen women who came from the anti-suffrage society to protest against taxpaying women being granted a representation on questions of taxation. The other speakers were Mrs. Rossiter Johnson of New York City, Mrs. Crannell of Albany, and Mrs. William Putnam of Groton who read a paper written by Mrs. Charles Wetmore. The first took the ground that the bill was unconstitutional. The second protested against the attempt "to force widows, spinsters and married women to vote against their will." The third begged the members of the Senate Committee "not to be hoodwinked into believing this was not a suffrage measure," and assured them that "many of the members had pledged themselves to vote for it without recognizing that it was a suffrage bill." She also said: "For the last fifty years, while the suffragists have been wasting their strength in the effort to get the ballot, we, and women like us, have been quietly going ahead and gaining for women the rights they now enjoy in regard to education, property and the professions. The suffragists had nothing to do with it."
The friends of the bill in the Senate tried in vain to obtain a report from the Judiciary Committee, the chairman, Edgar Truman Brackett, being opposed to the bill. Finally, on April 11, Senator Humphrey moved "to discharge the committee from further consideration," which was carried by 22 ayes, 20 noes. On April 19 it was brought to a vote and passed by 27 ayes, 14 noes, 8 of the latter from New York City. Mr. Grady was absent.
The bill was signed by Gov. Benjamin F. Odell, April 24, 1901. It was generally understood that U. S. Senator Thomas C. Platt was in favor of the measure. Judge Charles Z. Lincoln, chairman of the Statutory Revision Committee, gave most valuable assistance.
The effect of this bill was far greater than had been anticipated, because of the importance of New York as a State. Before six months had passed women in considerable numbers had voted in a dozen different places. Although it applied only to towns and villages, these numbered about 1,800. What was of more importance, the principle had been recognized. There was scarcely a newspaper in the United States that did not contain an editorial upon the subject, which in the vast majority of cases declared the law to be just.
LAWS: Dower and curtesy obtain. If the husband die without a will the widow is entitled to the life use of one-third of the real estate and, after the payment of the debts, to one-third of the personal estate absolutely. If there are no children she may have one-half of the latter--stocks, cash, furniture, pictures, silver, clothing, etc.--and the other half goes to the husband's relatives, even down to nephews and nieces. The widow may, however, have the whole if it does not exceed $2,000. If it exceed that amount, $2,000 may be added to her half. If there are no relatives of the husband she may have all the personal property. If there has been a living child the widower has a life interest in all the wife's estate. If there have been no children he takes all the personal property absolutely, and her real estate goes to her next of kin. If there is a child living he has one-third of the personal property absolutely.
The husband is liable for the wife's debts before marriage to the extent of any property acquired from her by ante-nuptial agreement. She holds her separate property, however acquired, free from any control of the husband and from all liability for his debts. She can live on her own real estate, and forbid her husband entering upon it.
Either husband or wife can make a will without the knowledge or consent of the other, the latter disposing of all her separate property, the former of all but the wife's life interest in one-third of the real estate. The law provides, however, that no person having husband, wife, child or parent can bequeath over one-half of his property, after payment of debts, to any institution, association or corporation.
The wife can mortgage or convey her real and personal estate without the husband's signature. He may do this with his personal property but not with his real estate.
A married woman may carry on any trade or business and perform any labor or services on her own account, and her earnings are her sole and separate property. She may sue and be sued as if unmarried, and may maintain an action in her own name and the proceeds of such action will be her separate property.[393]
She may contract as if unmarried and she and her separate estate are liable. A woman engaged in business can not be arrested for a debt fraudulently contracted. All women enjoy certain exemptions from the sale of their property under execution which in the case of men are granted only to householders--that is, a man who provides for a family.
The husband's creditors have no claim to a life insurance unless the annual premiums have exceeded $500; and it is also exempt from execution for the wife's debts.
Common Law marriages are legal, requiring neither license nor ceremony, and 14 years is the legal age for the girl.[394]
Absolute divorce is granted only for adultery. In case of either absolute or limited divorce the husband may be required to pay alimony to the wife during her life, even if she should marry again.
Every married woman is joint guardian of her children with her husband, having equal powers, rights and duties in regard to them, and on the death of either parent the survivor continues guardian. (1893.)
A husband is required to support his wife commensurately with his means and her station in the community, without regard to the extent of her individual property. If he fail to do this or if he abandon his family he may be arrested and compelled to give security that he will provide for them and will indemnify the town, city or county against their becoming a charge upon the public within one year. Failing, he may be sent to prison or penitentiary for not less than six months' hard labor, or until he gives such bond, but none of this is obligatory on the court.
In 1887 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years, and it was made optional with the court to impose less than the existing penalty of ten years' imprisonment. A few years afterward it was proposed to reduce the age to 12 years. Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, in behalf of the W. C. T. U., went before the Judiciary Committee and said: "I represent 21,000 women and any man who dares to vote for this measure will be marked and held up to scorn. We are terribly in earnest." The matter was dropped. In 1895 the age was raised from 16 to 18, with a penalty for first degree of not more than twenty years' imprisonment; for second degree, not more than ten. No minimum penalty is named. Trials may be held privately, and it is the testimony of the various protective associations of women that it is almost impossible to secure convictions.
The laws contain many provisions for the benefit of female employes; among them one that if any employer in New York City fail to pay wages due up to $50, none of his property is exempt from execution and he may be imprisoned without bail.
SUFFRAGE: In 1880 a law was enacted by the Legislature declaring that "no person shall be deemed ineligible to serve as any school officer, or to vote at any school meeting, by reason of sex, who has the other qualifications now required by law."
It was the undoubted intention to give School Suffrage to all women by this law, but at once Attorney-General Hamilton Ward rendered a decision that it did not apply to cities but only to places where separate "school meetings" were held, mainly country districts and villages.
In 1881 another attempt was made by the Legislature to confer School Suffrage on all women by striking out the word "male" in an old statute of 1864, but as it failed to amend the very portion of the law which referred to School Commissioners, this left the condition unchanged.
In 1886 the Legislature tried it again by enlarging the qualifications of voters, but as the words "school district" were used it did not succeed in giving the suffrage to any women except those who already possessed it.
In 1892 the Legislature once more came boldly to the rescue, and undertook to enact that women should have a vote for District School Commissioners, which would bring under its provisions all the women of the State. The Act read: "All persons without regard to sex, who are eligible to the office of School Commissioner, and have the other qualifications required by law, shall have the right to vote for School Commissioner."
As the Act of 1880 had said specifically that "no person shall be deemed ineligible to serve as any school officer by reason of sex," this seemed to settle the question. The Act further provided that "All persons so entitled to vote for School Commissioner shall be registered as provided by law for those who vote for county officers, and whenever School Commissioners are to be elected it shall be the duty of the county clerk to prepare a ballot to be used exclusively by those who, by reason of sex, can vote only for School Commissioner."
This Act went into effect in April, 1893, and in the autumn Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage registered in Manlius, Onondaga County. Immediately the board of inspectors were requested to remove her name from the registry. They refused and application was made to the Supreme Court to strike off her name, on the sole contention that she was not a lawful voter on account of her sex. The application was granted on the ground that the Act conferring upon women the right to vote for School Commissioner was unconstitutional. The inspectors obeyed the order. Mrs. Gage appealed to the General Term, where the order was affirmed, and then she carried her case to the Court of Appeals. The decision here was in brief that a School Commissioner is a county officer, and that by the State constitution only male citizens may vote for such officers. The decision closed by saying: "A Constitutional Convention may take away the barrier which excludes the claimed right of the appellant, but until that is done we must enforce the law as it stands."[395]
Thus after twenty years of time, four acts of the Legislature and three decisions of the highest courts, the School Suffrage for women is still confined exclusively to those of the villages and country districts. The law condensed reads as follows:
Every person of full age residing in any school district, etc., who owns or hires real property in such district liable to taxation for school purposes; and every such resident who is the parent of a child who shall have attended the school in said district for a period of at least eight weeks within one year preceding such school meeting; and every such person, not being the parent, who shall have permanently residing with him or her a child of school age, etc.; and every such resident and citizen as aforesaid, who owns any personal property, assessed on the last preceding assessment-roll of the town, exceeding $50 in value, exclusive of such as is exempt from execution, and no other, shall be entitled to vote at any school meeting held in such district, for all school district officers and upon all matters which may be brought before said meeting. No person shall be deemed ineligible to vote at any such school district meeting, by reason of sex, who has one or more of the other qualifications required by this section.[396]
This was the only suffrage granted to women until 1901, when the following was enacted by the Legislature:
A woman who possesses the qualifications to vote for village or town officers, except the qualification of sex, and who is the owner of property in the town or village assessed upon the last preceding assessment-roll thereof, is entitled to vote upon a proposition to raise money by tax or assessment.
This law is believed to include about 1,800 places. The bill for it was managed by a committee of the State Suffrage Association in three successive Legislatures.
By the city charters of eleven of the thirty-six third-class cities--Amsterdam, Cohoes, Corning, Geneva, Ithaca, Jamestown, Newburg, Niagara Falls, North Tonawanda, Oswego and Watertown, taxpaying women have a vote on special appropriations. Hornellsville also conferred this privilege but it was declared illegal by the corporation council, because the word "resident" was used instead of "citizen."
OFFICE HOLDING: By a statute of 1880 women are eligible for any school office. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is elected by the Legislature. Instead of county superintendents, as in most States, New York has District Commissioners. A district may comprise either a part or the whole of a county, but no city may form any part of it. At present ten women are serving as District Commissioners. A considerable number sit on the school boards of cities and villages but no exact record is kept. In Greater New York thirty women serve as school inspectors; there are also four supervisors in the departments of sewing, cooking, kitchen-garden and physical culture, at salaries ranging from $2,000 to $2,500.
The same law which enables women to serve as District School Commissioners makes them eligible to all district offices, including those of trustee, collector, treasurer and librarian, as the law in prescribing qualification, omits the word "male."[397]
Women also are eligible to the office of village clerk. They serve as notaries public, clerks of the Surrogate Court and deputy tax collectors. Miss Christine Ross of New York City is a certified public accountant and auditor.
Most cities have police matrons. Sixty fill this position in Greater New York at a salary of $1,000 per annum.
Women are employed as city physicians in several places. The law requires one woman physician in each State hospital for the insane and eleven are at present employed, leaving only the State Homeopathic Hospital at Gowanda[398] and the Manhattan Hospital on Long Island without one.
One woman trustee is required on the board of every State institution where women are placed as patients, paupers or criminals, but this is not strictly obeyed. A list of the boards of eleven hospitals shows twelve women and sixty-five men, but four have no women members. Two women are on the board of Craig Colony of Epileptics; three on that of the Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded.
The following are serving as State officials: On State Board of Charities of twelve commissioners, one woman, with thirteen employed in different departments at from $480 to $1,400 per annum; State Superintendent Woman's Relief Corps, at $1,500; two State hospital accountants at $1,400, three at $700; principal of House of Refuge for Women at Hudson, $1,200; superintendent Western House of Refuge, $1,200; five in Commission of Lunacy Department, $700 to $1,400; fourteen in the State Library, $50 to $175 per month; seven in Administrative Department of the Board of Regents of the University of New York, and thirteen in the College and High School Departments (not teachers), $720 to $1,200 per annum; ten in Home Education Department, $50 to $150 per month; in the Department of Public Instruction, five confidential clerks at from $900 to $2,000; in Bureau of Examinations seven women at $900 (men in same positions receive $1,800); in State Museum one woman at $600; in Training Class Bureau two women clerks at $900; three women in office of Secretary of State at $900; one index clerk in Bureau of Charitable Institutions at $1,050; one in State Comptroller's office at $1,050; one examiner for Civil Service Commission at $900 (men receive $1,400 for same work), and three stenographers at $600 to $900; two State's prison stenographers at $1,000; a Bertillon indexer, $1,200; one clerk for Commission of Labor, $1,200; one for Free Employment Bureau, $900; under Superintendent of Insurance, five women, $1,200 to $1,400; in office of State Architect three, $626 to $900; in Bureau of Records two clerks, $1,200; thirteen women are Factory Inspectors or employes in that department, $600 to $1,500; twelve in the service of Commissioner of Excise, $720 to $1,080.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. Several are presidents of banks, a number are brokers, many are directors of corporations and there are women managers of countless enterprises.
EDUCATION: The two great universities, Cornell at Ithaca and Columbia in New York City, admit women to all departments and grant them the full degrees. In Cornell they recite in the same classes with the men students, and have the additional advantage of a residential hall on the campus. There are no women on the faculty. Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, has been a member of the board of trustees for several years. The women undergraduates of Columbia have class-rooms and residence in Barnard, an independent corporation but an affiliated college, its dean having the same relation to Columbia as the heads of all the other colleges. The faculty is composed partly of the regular Columbia staff and partly of special professors, among whom are a number of women. The seniors attend certain courses in philosophy and science in the regular university classes, and all of these are open to post graduates. The University of New York, situated in and near the city, is co-educational in its post-graduate courses and in its Departments of Law, Pedagogy and Commerce. Its Law Department is celebrated for the prominent women it has graduated. Pratt Institute of Brooklyn is open to both sexes alike.
The Universities of Syracuse and Rochester are co-educational. The latter was opened in 1900 through the efforts of the women of the city in raising a fund of $50,000. The project would have failed, however, had it not been for the assistance of Miss Anthony. On the morning of the day when the limit would expire which had been fixed by the trustees for the raising of this sum, $8,000 were still lacking. Every possible source had been exhausted and in despair the women appealed to Miss Anthony, who already had collected and turned over a considerable amount. She set out with the wonderful determination which always has characterized her, and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon she went before the board of trustees with the full quota in checks and pledges, making herself responsible for the last $2,500.
Union Theological Seminary of New York City (Presbyterian) is one of the very few orthodox institutions of this kind which admit women.
The State is distinguished by having in Vassar the first of the great colleges for women which offer a course of study approximating that of the best universities. It was founded in 1861. Over 700 students are in attendance.
Besides seven large co-educational institutions there are eight or ten smaller ones for boys alone and several for girls alone.
In the public schools there are 5,405 men and 28,587 women teachers; in New York City 1,263 men and 10,949 women. The average annual salary for teachers in the cities outside of New York is $597; in that city, which employs one-third of the whole number, $1,035. The average annual salary in the commissioner districts is $322.49. There are women in Greater New York receiving $2,500; there are hundreds in the State receiving one-tenth of that sum. So far as it has been possible to secure an estimate there is fully as much discrepancy between men's and women's salaries for the same work as in other States.
* * * * *
The women of Greater New York take a prominent part in political campaigns. There are seven or eight Women's Republican Clubs, a Health Protective Association and a Woman's Municipal League which were active in 1897 when Seth Low, president of Columbia College, was candidate for mayor on the Reform ticket.[399] There is also a flourishing Ladies' Democratic Club.
A unique observance is the annual Pilgrim Mothers' Dinner at the renowned Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. This was instituted in December, 1892, by the New York City Suffrage League, Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake, president, in memory of those noble women, who are apt to be overlooked at the celebrations in honor of the Pilgrim Fathers.
New York divides with Massachusetts the honor of forming the first Woman's Club--Sorosis, in 1868--and it continues foremost among the States in the size and influence of its organizations of women. Over 200, part of them suffrage societies, belong to the Federation of Clubs, and these represent only a portion of the whole number. There are eighty auxiliaries to the State Suffrage Association.
FOOTNOTES:
[376] The History is indebted for the material for this chapter to Mrs. Mariana Wright Chapman of Brooklyn, Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf of Rochester, and Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake of New York, the presidents of the State Woman Suffrage Association during the past twenty years.
[377] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, p. 67.
[378] Those making addresses were Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Chapman Catt, Mrs. Gannett, Mrs. Searing, Rabbi Max Landsberg, the Hon. Charles S. Baker, the Hon. John Van Voorhis, the Rev. H. Clay Peeples, the Rev. Ward Platt, the Rev. H. H. Stebbins, the Rev. J. W. A. Stewart and Prof. S. A. Lattimore, acting president of the Rochester University.
Addresses of welcome: Miss Mary S. Anthony for the City Political Equality Club, the Rev. W. C. Gannett for the church that welcomed the first convention, Mrs. Jean Brooks Greenleaf for the State association.
The committee of arrangements were Mesdames S. A. West, Amy E. T. Searing, J. G. Maurer, S. C. Blackall, Florence D. Alexander, Mary L. Gannett, D. L. Kittredge, Emma B. Sweet, A. B. Taylor, D. L. Johnson, F. B. Van Hoesen; Misses Jessie Post, Frances Alexander; Messrs. C. G. Alexander and Joseph Bloss.
[379] The others who have held office since 1883 are as follows: Mary S. Anthony, Martha R. Almy, Elnora Monroe Babcock, Henrietta M. Banker, Ella Hawley Crossett, Hannah B. Clark, Elizabeth Burrell Curtis, Everline R. Clark, Charlotte F. Daley, Margaret H. Esselstyne, Mrs. Hannah L. Howland, Emily Howland, Isabel Howland, Cornelia K. Hood, Maude S. Humphrey, Mary Seymour Howell, Priscilla Dudley Hackstaff, Ada M. Hall, Martha H. Henderson, Helen M. Loder, Anne F. Miller, Jennie McAdams, Harriet May Mills, Clara Neymann, Eliza Wright Osborne, Mary J. Pearson, Helen C. Peckham, Mary Thayer Sanford, Kate Stoneman, Kate S. Thompson, Emily S. Van Biele, Emilie J. Wakeman.
[380] Aside from those elsewhere mentioned, the names which seem to occur most often in looking over the records are those of Dr. Sarah L. Cushing, Dr. Cordelia A. Greene, Zobedia Alleman, Abigail A. Allen, Kornelia T. Andrews, Amanda Alley, Mary E. Bagg, Charlotte A. Cleveland, Ida K. Church, Susan Dixwell, Eliza B. Gifford, Esther Herman, Ella S. Hammond, Mary Bush Hitchcock, Belle S. Holden, Mary H. Hallowell, Emeline Hicks, Mary N. Hubbard, Marie R. Jenney, Rhody J. Kenyon, Lucy S. Pierce, Harriet M. Rathbun, Martha J. H. Stebbins, Julia D. Sheppard, Chloe A. Sisson, Delia C. Taylor.
[381] Much of the credit for the excellent organization is due to Miss Harriet May Mills, State organizer, daughter of C. D. B. Mills of anti-slavery record. Miss Mills is a graduate of Cornell University, and is devoting her youth and education entirely to the cause of woman suffrage.
[382] The story of this canvass, the largest and most systematic which ever has been made for such a purpose, is given in full in "Record of the New York Campaign of 1894," a pamphlet of 250 pages, issued by the State association in 1895, and placed in many libraries throughout the country. It is given also, with many personal touches, in the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Chap. XLII.
[383] From treasurer's report: Emily Howland generously contributed $1,200. That staunch friend, Sarah L. Willis of Rochester gave $720. Abby L. Pettengill of Chautauqua County, $220. Mr. and Mrs. H. S. Greenleaf of Rochester, $200. General C. T. Christiansen of Brooklyn began the contributions of $100, of which there were eight others from our own State--Semantha V. Lapham, Ebenezer Butterick, Mrs. H. S. Holden, Marian Skidmore, Hannah L. Howland, Cornelia H. Cary, Mr. and Mrs. James Sargent; Mrs. Louisa Southworth of Ohio.
[384] One who was a witness gives this description:
"There were no more dramatic scenes during the convention than those afforded by the presenting of the petitions. The names were enrolled on pages of uniform size and arranged in volumes, each labeled and tied with a wide yellow ribbon and bearing the card of the member who was to present it. At the opening of the sessions, when memorials were called for, he would rise and say: 'Mr. President, I have the honor to present a memorial from Mary Smith and 17,117 others (for example), residents of ---- county, asking that the word 'male' be stricken from the Constitution.' Often one after another would present a bundle of petitions until it would seem as though the entire morning would be thus consumed. They were all taken by pages and heaped up on the secretary's table, where they made an imposing appearance. Later they were stacked on shelves in a large committee room.
"Mrs. Burt, the president of the W. C. T. U., brought in the petitions of her society all at once, many great rolls of paper tied with white ribbon. A colored porter took them down the aisle on a wheelbarrow."
[385] Mesdames Cornelia K. Hood, Cornelia H. Cary, Mariana W. Chapman, Mary E. Craigie, Cora Sebury, Martha R. Almy, A. E. P. Searing, Elinor Ecob Morse, Marcia C. Powell, Helen G. Ecob, Susie M. Bain, Carrie E. S. Twing, Clara Neymann, Selina S. Merchant, Henrietta M. Banker, Maude S. Humphrey, Mary Lewis Gannett; Dr. Sarah H. Morris; Misses Arria S. Huntington, Emily Howland, Elizabeth Burrill Curtis.
[386] A hearing, on June 14, was given to the "Antis," as the press dubbed the remonstrants. Their petition against being allowed the suffrage was presented by the Hon. Elihu Root, and the speeches were made by Francis M. Scott, the Rev. Clarence A. Walworth, the Hon. Matthew Hale and J. Newton Fiero. Letters were read from the Hon. Abram S. Hewitt and Austin Abbott.
[387] Among the earnest advocates of the suffrage article were Judges Titus and Blake of New York, Judge Towns of Brooklyn, Judge Moore of Plattsburg, Messrs. Lincoln, Church and McKinstry of Chautauqua, Maybee of Sullivan, Cornwall of Yates, Powell of Kings, Cassidy of Schuyler, Kerwin of Albany, Phipps of Queens, Fraser of Washington, Arnold of Dutchess, Bigelow and Campbell of New York, Roche of Troy.
Speeches in opposition were made by Messrs. McClure, Goeller and Platzek of New York, Fuller of Chenango, Griswold of Greene, Mereness of Lewis, Sullivan of Erie, Lester of Saratoga, Hirshberg of Newburg, Kellogg of Oneonta, Mantanye of Cortland, Cookinham of Utica.
[388] Members of committee in favor of woman suffrage clause: Edward Lauterbach, Mirabeau Lamar Towns, Vasco P. Abbott, John Bigelow, Gideon J. Tucker. Opposed: William P. Goodelle, Henry J. Cookinham, John F. Parkhurst, Henry W. Hill, D. Gerry Wellington, John W. O'Brien, Henry W. Wiggins, Thomas G. Alvord, David McClure, De Lancy Nicoll, John A. Deady, William H. Cochran.
[389] In the work for other bills Mrs. Howell was assisted by Miss Kate Stoneman, New York's first woman lawyer, Mrs. Sarah A. Le Boeuf, Mrs. Joan Cole and Miss Winnie, all of Albany. George Rogers Howell, assistant and also State librarian, aided his wife in every way. As a State officer for many years he had strong influence and it always was used for woman's political freedom. During these years Mrs. Howell, as president of the Albany Political Equality Club, conducted many public meetings in the Senate Chamber of the historic old Capitol building until it was torn down. Legislators and State officers came each Tuesday night to hear the suffrage speeches.
[390] In 1860, after ten years of persistent effort by Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and other pioneer workers, who had gathered up thousands of petitions and besieged the Legislature, session after session, a law was secured giving father and mother joint guardianship. In 1862, so quietly that the women were not aware of it, the Legislature repealed this law and again vested the guardianship solely in the father. Although repeated efforts were afterwards made to have the mother's right restored, this was not done for thirty years.
[391] Senator Parker is a brother of Mrs. J. V. L. Pruyn, who organized the first anti-suffrage society in the State, at Albany.
[392] In Senator Brown's own city of Watertown, over 50 per cent. of the women had just voted to bond the city for a new High School, the press giving them full credit for it, but he persistently opposed this bill.
[393] It was not supposed that this right could be questioned, but in 1901, in New York City, a woman who was supporting her children by washing while her husband was in the hospital, was thrown from a trolley car with her baby in her arms and injured so that she could not work. She brought suit against the Street Railway Company before a municipal court, and was awarded $147.50. The company appealed to the Supreme Court and Justice David Leaventritt reversed the decision, saying in his opinion, "At Common Law the husband was absolutely entitled to the earnings of his wife, and neither the Enabling Act of 1860 nor the broader one of 1864 has affected the right, unless the service and earnings were rendered and received expressly upon her sole and separate account." Afterwards in explanation he said that the woman had not made it clear in her suit that she was working for herself and not performing service for her husband.
In 1902 a law was passed securing absolutely to married women their own earnings and the right to sue for damages by loss of wages in case of personal injury.
[394] In 1901 an attempt was made to correct this evil, and a ridiculous law was passed and duly signed by Governor Odell providing that a couple may become husband and wife by signing an agreement before witnesses, but in order to make this legal it must be recorded within six months. If at the end of this time it has not been recorded both are free to marry somebody else. If the fourteen year old wife should not know of this legal requirement she may find herself abandoned without redress.
[395] This decision covers many pages with hair-splitting definitions, tracing the laws governing School Commissioners back to 1843, and summing up with the following unintentional satire.
"The Constitution, in Article 2, Section 1, prescribes the qualifications of voters 'for all officers that now are or hereafter may be elected by the people,' and confines the franchise specifically to 'male citizens.' The office of School Commissioner was one thereafter made 'elective by the people,' through the operation of the alternative given by Article 10, Section 2, which provides that 'all officers whose offices may hereafter be created by law shall be elected by the people or appointed as the Legislature may direct.' That is, in such cases, it may choose between election and appointment and in the latter event may dictate the authority and mode of appointment. The Legislature chose that the office should be elective, and, becoming such, it fell within the scope and terms of the constitutional provisions applicable to elections by the people."
[396] By the charters of the third class cities of Auburn, Geneva, Hornellsville, Jamestown, Norwich, Union Springs and Watertown women have School Suffrage on the same terms as men. The city of Kingston is divided into several common and union free school districts and women are authorized to vote.
[397] For legal opinion see Appendix for New York.
[398] In 1902 the hospital at Gowanda, the largest of the kind in the State, placed a woman on its staff as specialist in gynecology.
[399] In 1901, when Mr. Low was again a candidate and was elected, these clubs were a prominent factor in the campaign. They arranged meetings, addressed large audiences, raised $30,000 and circulated 1,000,000 pieces of literature. Their work was commended by the press of the whole United States and much credit was given them for the success of the Reform ticket. When the Board of Education of forty-six members was appointed by Mayor Low, various societies petitioned him to give women a representation upon it, but he declined to do so.
LVII. NORTH CAROLINA.[400]
The only attempt at suffrage organization in North Carolina was made by Miss Helen Morris Lewis, Nov. 21, 1894. A meeting was called at the court house in Asheville and attended by a large audience, which was addressed by Miss Lewis and Miss Floride Cunningham. Thomas W. Patton, mayor of the city, made a stirring speech in favor of giving the ballot to women. At his residence the next day a society was formed with a membership of forty-five men and women; president, Miss Morris; vice-president, T. C. Westall; secretary, Mrs. Eleanor Johnstone Coffin; treasurer, Mayor Patton. The next mayor of Asheville, Theodore F. Davidson, also advocated woman suffrage.
In 1895 addresses were made in various cities by Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky and Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine, who had been attending the national convention in Atlanta.
Later on Miss Frances E. Willard, president of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and Miss Belle Kearney, a noted lecturer from Mississippi, aroused considerable enthusiasm in various places by pleas for woman suffrage in their temperance addresses. Miss Lewis has spoken in a number of towns and at the State Normal School. No organized work has been done, however, and but little public interest is felt.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: Early in February, 1895, as a result of the suffrage meeting held in Asheville, a bill was presented in the Legislature to place women on school boards. Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake of New York, a native of North Carolina, addressed the legislators in its behalf and upon the rights of women. The bill provoked a hot discussion but was defeated. It is impossible to obtain a record of the vote.
In 1897 a bill to permit women to serve as notaries public was defeated in the House on the ground that it would be unconstitutional, as this is a State office. The same year a bill providing for the appointment of women physicians in the State insane asylums was referred to a committee and never reported.
Bills also have been presented for full suffrage and suffrage for tax-paying women, but none has been acted upon. Several Acts have been passed prohibiting employers from working women in the chain gangs on the public roads in different counties.[401]
The most unjust discriminations against women in the property laws were removed by the Constitutional Convention of 1868. Since then a married woman may acquire and hold real estate and have the enjoyment of its income and profits in her own separate right, and she may dispose of it by will subject to the husband's curtesy (the life use of the whole); but she can not sell any of it without his consent. The husband can not sell his real estate so as to cut off the dower of the wife (the life use of one-third) without her consent.
The code of 1883 stipulates that if the husband receives the income of the wife's separate property and she offers no objection, he can not be made liable to account for his use of it for more than one year previous to the date of the complaint or of her death. By an act of 1889, the husband is required to list the property of the wife "in his control."
Both dower and curtesy obtain. If there are neither descendants nor kindred the widow is heir of the entire estate. If there are not more than two children, and the husband die without a will, one-third of the personal property goes to the widow; if there are more than two children, she shares equally with them; if there be no child or legal representative of a deceased child, one-half goes to the widow, the other half to the kindred of the husband. If a wife die without a will, the widower has a life estate in her real property, if there has been issue born alive, and all of her personal property absolutely, subject to her debts.
A homestead to the value of $1,000 is exempt from sale during widowhood unless the widow have one in her own right.
The wife is not bound by contract unless the husband joins in writing. In actions against her he must be served with the suit.
The wife can not be a sole trader without the husband's written and recorded consent, unless living apart from him under legal divorce or separation, or unless he is an idiot or a lunatic, or has abandoned her or maliciously turned her out of doors. She controls even her wages only under these circumstances.
The divorce laws make the discrimination against women that while the husband can secure a divorce for one act of adultery on the part of the wife, she can secure one from him on this ground only if he separates from her and lives openly in adultery.
The father is the legal guardian of the persons and education of the minor children, and may appoint a guardian by will even for one unborn. The court appoints the guardian for the estate.
Wilful neglect by the husband to provide adequate support for the wife and children is a misdemeanor.
The "age of protection" for girls still remains 10 years, with a penalty of death. Over 10 and under 14 the crime is a misdemeanor, punishable with fine or imprisonment in the penitentiary at discretion of the court, if the child has been previously chaste.
SUFFRAGE: Women possess no form of suffrage.
OFFICE HOLDING: By the State constitution only those entitled to vote are eligible to office. Women are thus barred from every elective and appointive office, even that of notary public.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. They are admitted to the State Medical Society and made chairmen of various sections. There has been a revolution of public sentiment during the past twenty years in regard to women in wage-earning occupations. What formerly would have caused ostracism is now regarded as proper and commendable.
EDUCATION: In 1897 the post-graduate work of the State University was opened to women. The undergraduate departments are still closed to them. Other institutions are about equally divided among co-educational, for boys only and for girls only. The State Normal and Industrial School for Girls (white) and the Agricultural and Mechanical College for Boys (colored), both at Greensborough, offer excellent opportunities. There are four other universities and colleges for colored students.
In the public schools there are 4,127 men and 4,077 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $25.07; of the women, $22.24.
FOOTNOTES:
[400] The History is indebted for most of the information in this chapter to Mrs. Sarah A. Russell of Wilmington, the wife of Gov. Daniel L. Russell.
[401] In 1901 a bill, supported by a petition largely signed by women, which provided for a reformatory for youthful criminals where they might be separated from the old and hardened, was introduced in the Legislature but never was brought to a vote.
LVIII. OHIO.[402]
The second Woman's Rights Convention ever held took place at Salem, Ohio, in April, 1850, and such meetings were continued at intervals until the beginning of the Civil War. After the war a State association was formed, but the records of its existence are not available. In the early summer of 1884 Mrs. Rachel S. A. Janney, whose husband was president of the State Agricultural College (now the State University), called a convention in Columbus, at which Mrs. Rosa L. Segur, Mrs. Ellen Sully Fray, Mr. and Mrs. O. G. Peters, Mrs. Elizabeth Coit and family, Mrs. Ammon of Cleveland, and other well-known advocates were present. So few were in attendance, however, that it was thought best not to organize permanently, but Judge Ezra B. Taylor of Warren was chosen president and Mrs. Frances M. Casement, vice-president. Judge Taylor, in declining because of Congressional duties, expressed sympathy and interest in the movement. He was a member of the Judiciary Committee of the U. S. House of Representatives for thirteen years, and through his influence when chairman, in 1890, a majority report in favor of a Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution to enfranchise women was submitted to the House for the first and last time.
Mrs. Casement did very efficient work, especially in the northern part of the State, and as a result a large and enthusiastic meeting was held at Painesville, her home, in May, 1885, and a State association regularly organized. On the list of officers were placed three persons who through all these years have made the enfranchisement of women their paramount work--Mrs. Casement, Mrs. Segur of Toledo and Mrs. Coit of Columbus. Mrs. Casement, who was made president, always has given generously of time and money and is still a member of the executive committee. Mrs. Segur, who was elected corresponding secretary, also continues her activity. She does much press work and is one of the main supports of the Toledo W. S. A., which has held regular monthly meetings since its organization in 1869. Mrs. Coit was chosen treasurer and held the office fourteen years, during which she seldom missed a convention or an executive meeting. In 1900 she was made honorary president without one dissenting vote.[403]
In addition to the State conventions from two to five executive committee meetings have been held yearly since 1885. Before the adoption of the biennial sessions of the Legislature, there were usually conferences at Columbus in midwinter to influence legislation, and different members remained there for weeks. Mrs. Sarah C. Schrader, Mrs. Martha H. Elwell and Mrs. Louisa Southworth rendered especially valuable service in such matters.
Mrs. Southworth, in her home at Cleveland, also had charge of the systematic enrollment of persons indorsing woman suffrage, which has been very effective in answering the objection that women do not want to vote. This was begun in 1888, when she was made national superintendent of enrollment, as she was a thorough advocate of this method of petition. Bills for woman suffrage introduced into the Legislature need the backing of many names, and in this way more can be added each year. The blanks are headed: "We believe that women should vote on equal terms with men;" and an effort is made to keep the names of men and women separate. The original lists are carefully preserved, but typewritten copies for reference are made and classified according to towns, counties and Congressional districts, pains being taken each year not to register duplicates. The entire expenses, amounting to several thousand dollars, have been borne by Mrs. Southworth. All of the canvassers have contributed their services.[404]
Good educational work has been done through Woman's Day at colleges, camp meetings and county fairs. A memorable occasion was that of the Centennial Celebration of the city of Cleveland in 1896. One day was devoted to the consideration of the advancement of woman in philanthropy, education, domestic science, etc. Although the speakers had been requested not to touch upon the question of her political enfranchisement, three women indirectly mentioned it and these received the heartiest applause of any brought out in the course of a whole day of able speechmaking. One of them was not permitted to retire until she acknowledged in a graceful word or two the enthusiasm of the audience. The committee having charge of this celebration asked a woman in each township on the Western Reserve to gather facts in regard to its early women, and over 200 granted the request. These papers when published made four volumes of valuable information respecting the pioneer women of this famous section of Ohio.
In 1896 the Rev. Henrietta G. Moore, a Universalist minister of Springfield, and Miss Laura A. Gregg of Kansas, visited seventeen towns and cities in the interest of the State W. S. A. and formed numerous organizations.
A conference of national and State officers, with several public meetings, was held at Toledo in the autumn of 1897, Mrs. Fray, president of Lucas County, making the arrangements. The following spring Mrs. Harriet Brown Stanton of Cincinnati did the preparatory work for a two days' meeting in that city, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the organization committee of the National Association, being the speakers.
In the spring of 1900 Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, president of the State association, visited fifteen principal towns preparing the way for organization, while in others plans were made by correspondence. Five persons participated in the campaign made later: Miss Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt as speakers, each contributing two weeks of time; Miss Harriet May Mills and Miss Mary G. Hay, of New York, national organizers; Mrs. Upton accompanying the party. The object was to ascertain suffrage sentiment and to organize the northwestern part of the State. The next work was done in the southern part, Ohio women making the arrangements and Dr. Frances Woods of Iowa acting as speaker and organizer. At the close of 1900 the State had twice as many members as the year before, with vastly increased interest and activity. This growth was due to many causes, not least among them being the work and inspiration of Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, who was corresponding secretary for five years, and for ten has scarcely missed a convention.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION: In 1888 the Legislature was asked to submit to the voters an amendment giving Full Suffrage to women. This measure was lost, and a Municipal Suffrage Bill met a like fate.
In 1889 a bill for Full Suffrage was defeated in the Senate by 19 ayes, 9 noes, a three-fifths majority being required.
In 1890 a similar bill was introduced in the House and discussed at length. It received 54 ayes, 47 noes, but not a constitutional majority.
In 1891 the Legislature was petitioned without result, and in 1892 and 1893 School Suffrage Bills were defeated by small majorities.
It was enacted in 1893 that mayors in cities of 10,000 inhabitants and upward shall furnish proper quarters for women and female children under arrest, and that these shall be out of sight of the rooms and cells where male prisoners are confined. The law further provides for the appointment of police matrons.
In 1894 a Municipal Suffrage Bill was introduced but was not reported from committee. This year, however, School Suffrage was granted to women.
To Mrs. Caroline McCullough Everhard and Mrs. Katherine B. Claypole, president and recording secretary of the State W. S. A., women are largely indebted for this law. Like all reform measures, it was preceded by many discouraging defeats. In 1892 a bill was introduced into the House by E. W. Doty, providing that women should vote for and serve as members of school boards. It was lost by seven votes, reconsidered in the adjourned session of 1893 and lost again by six votes. Another bill was introduced into the House in January, 1894, by Gustavus A. Wood, but was defeated by 47 ayes, 43 noes. Mrs. Everhard then made an earnest appeal to Senator William T. Clark to introduce the same bill. He promptly acceded and it passed the Senate on April 10 by 20 ayes, 6 noes. It was returned to the House and passed April 24 by 55 ayes, 26 noes, 11 not voting. Mr. Clark at once sent a telegram to the president of the association: "Woman suffrage bill a law; truth is mighty yet."
In 1894 the Legislature was asked to enact a law making women eligible as trustees of homes and asylums for women and children. The request was refused on the ground that the law would be declared unconstitutional because such trustees must be electors.
In 1896 Free Traveling Libraries were established.
In 1898 the Legislature provided that a woman could be a notary public. Two months later the law was declared unconstitutional, as notaries must be electors.
LAWS: In 1884 a law was enacted giving a married woman the right to sue and be sued and to proceed in various other matters as if unmarried. Her personal property and real estate were liable to judgment, but she was entitled to the benefits of all exemptions to heads of families.
In 1887 married women obtained absolute control of their own property. This act gave a wife the right to enter into any engagements or transactions with her husband, or any other person, to hold and dispose of real and personal property and to make contracts.
Dower was retained but curtesy abolished, except for a man married before 1887 and regarding property owned by his wife before that date. Either husband or wife on the death of the other is now entitled to one-third of the real estate for life. If either die without a will, and there are no children or their legal representatives living, all the real estate passes to the survivor, and the personal property subject to the debts. If there are children, or their legal representatives, the widow or widower is entitled to one-half of the first $400, and to one-third of the remainder subject to distribution. A homestead not exceeding $1,000 in value may be reserved for the widow.
In 1893 it was made legal for a married woman to act as guardian; and in 1894 as executor or administrator.
By the code of 1892 the father is legal guardian of the children and may appoint a guardian by will, even of one unborn. If he has abandoned the mother, she has custody.
The husband must support his wife and minor children by his property or labor, but if he is unable to do so, the wife must assist as far as she is able. The father or, when charged with maintenance thereof, the mother of a legitimate or illegitimate child under sixteen, who being able, either by reason of having means or by labor or earnings, shall neglect or refuse to provide such child with proper home, care, food and clothing; or, if said child is a legal inmate of the county or district children's home, shall refuse to pay the reasonable cost of its keeping, shall upon conviction be guilty of felony and punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not more than three years nor less than one, or in a county jail or workhouse at hard labor for not more than one year nor less than three months.
In 1887 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 12 years; in 1894 from 12 to 14; in 1896 from 14 to 16. The penalty is imprisonment not more than twenty nor less than three years.
SUFFRAGE: The law of 1894 permits women, on the same terms as men, to vote for members of the boards of education (trustees), but not for State Commissioner (superintendent) nor on any question of bonds or appropriations. There are no county commissioners in Ohio.
The history of this law, after it passed into the Revised Statutes, is as follows: In December, 1894, Mrs. Ida M. Earnhart of Columbus, whose husband, Senator M. B. Earnhart, had championed the bill, was one of the first women to register for voting at the school election to be held the next April. For the purpose of a test case a written request was made of the board of elections to strike her name from the list; they refused and suit was brought in the name of the State of Ohio against the board and Mrs. Earnhart. The case was argued in the Circuit Court of Franklin County in January, 1895. Mrs. Caroline McCullough Everhard, president of the State W. S. A., attended the hearing. Senators William T. Clark and M. B. Earnhart ably defended the law. On February 1 the decision was rendered by Judge J. G. Shauck, Judges Charles G. Shearer and Gilbert H. Stewart concurring in the opinion, which declared the law to be constitutional. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, where the decision of the lower court was sustained. This completed the victory which the State suffrage association had worked so hard to win. More than 30,000 women voted at the first election following. In the spring of 1902, 14,800 women registered in Cleveland and 80 per cent. voted.
Everything was quiet until the winter of 1898, when the activity of the suffragists was again called out by the introduction into the House of a bill by A. J. Hazlett to repeal the School Suffrage law. The board of elections of Cleveland had asked for this. Forthwith letters were sent to all the suffrage clubs by Mrs. Everhard, and requests were made to many prominent persons to use their influence against it. Protesting petitions were circulated and, with more than 40,000 names, were sent to the Legislature in a very short time. On Feb. 10, 1898, members of the legislative committee of the State W. S. A. appeared before the House Committee on Elections and spoke against the bill. Through courtesy to Mr. Hazlett, who was a member of this committee, it was reported back, but without recommendation, and when brought to a vote in the House it was overwhelmingly defeated--76 against repeal, 22 in favor.
OFFICE HOLDING: No woman can be elected or appointed to any office, with the exception of that of school trustee, as the statutes provide that all incumbents must be electors. The same law applies to the boards of all State institutions. It also prevents women from serving as notaries public.
They can act as deputies, since these are considered merely as clerks. The law specifies that women can be Probate Court deputies because minors are eligible to that office.
Women can not be State School Commissioners, and there is no office of county commissioner. They are serving acceptably on the school boards of various towns and cities, but no official record is anywhere kept of the exact number.[405]
A law of 1892 says: "In all asylums for the insane there shall be employed at least one female physician." There are eight such institutions in the State and at present only four have women physicians.
The same year it was made mandatory on every Judge of Common Pleas to appoint in his county a board of visitors consisting of three men and three women, whose duty it is to make periodical visits to the correctional and charitable institutions of the county and to act as guardians ad litem to delinquent children.
A law of 1893 requires police matrons in all cities of 10,000 inhabitants and over. They must be more than thirty years old, of good moral character and sound physical health, and must have the indorsement of at least ten women residents of good standing. Their salary is fixed at not less than two-thirds of the minimum salary paid to patrolmen in the same city, and they may serve for life unless they are discharged.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women.
EDUCATION: Oberlin was the first co-educational college in the United States (1833). Antioch was the second (1853). The State University and all other State institutions of learning always have been open to both sexes alike. Of the thirty-four colleges and universities twenty-seven are co-educational, five are for men and two for women. There are seventy-nine higher educational institutions other than colleges, such as academies, normal and business schools, theological seminaries, etc. Of these eight are for men, ten for women, fifty-nine co-educational and two without statistics.
In the public schools there are 10,556 men and 15,156 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $50; of the women, $40.
* * * * *
Ohio is one of the leading States in the number of women's clubs--289, with a membership of 10,300, being enrolled in the General Federation. It was principally through the efforts of this large body of women that a bill was passed in 1896 providing for Traveling Free Libraries and 900 are now in circulation, more than in any other State. It also was instrumental in securing a bill for the establishment of State Normal Schools in connection with Ohio and Miami Universities.
The Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati, which has more than a national reputation, is the result of the intelligence and well directed efforts of a woman--Mrs. Maria Longworth Nichols (now Mrs. Bellamy Storer). Inspired by the Japanese display at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876, she began experimenting with the clays of the Ohio valley and eventually developed the exquisite pottery which is found in every art museum and large private collection in the country, and whose manufacture employs a number of skilled artists.
FOOTNOTES:
[402] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton of Warren, treasurer of the National-American Woman Suffrage Association since 1892 and president of the State association.
[403] Presidents of the State association: Frances M. Casement, 1885-1888, Martha H. Elwell, 1888-1891, Caroline McCullough Everhard, 1891-1898, Harriet Brown Stanton, 1898-1899, Harriet Taylor Upton, 1899 and now serving.
State Conventions: Painesville, 1885, Toledo, 1886, Cleveland, 1887; Chillicothe, 1888, Akron, 1889, Massillon, 1890, Warren, 1891, Salem, 1892, Delaware, 1893, Cincinnati, 1894, Ashtabula, 1895, Alliance, 1897, Cincinnati, 1898, Akron, 1899, Athens, 1900. During the Presidential campaign of 1896, when William McKinley, a resident of Ohio, was a candidate, the excitement was so intense that it was thought wise to abandon the convention, which was to have been held in October at Springfield.
[404] When the State Suffrage Association decided to abandon this work, Mrs. Southworth was elected State superintendent of franchise by the W. C. T. U. and the enrollment was continued. At their national convention, in 1901, it showed 50,000 names and aroused great enthusiasm. Of these, 9,650 were collected in the four cities of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo; during the year 7,500 names had been added to the list. The system has been adopted by the unions in many States.
[405] Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, the author of this chapter, is now serving her second term on the board of education in Warren, O. In the spring of 1898 the local political equality club determined to have some women in this position and selected Mrs. Upton and Mrs. Carrie P. Harrington. Two vacancies having occurred, the board (which fills such vacancies) was asked to appoint them but refused. Their names therefore were presented to the Republican caucus in the spring of 1898. Instead of two candidates, as usual, there were four, as the two vacancies were to be filled for the remainder of the term. The board and the politicians still refused to recommend the women, so six names went before the caucus. The women were asked whether they wanted to run for the short term to fill the vacancies or for the full term of three years. They refused to say, but simply asked that their names should be considered. They had little hope of anything but to fill the vacancies, as the president and treasurer of the present board were candidates for the long term. The night of the caucus was very stormy, but the women of the city turned out in force and, with the assistance of the men, the two women were nominated for the long term. A Republican nomination is equivalent to an election in Warren.
The board was magnanimous, both ladies were placed on committees and most courteously treated. The next year Mrs. Upton was made chairman of the most important committee, that on supplies, buildings and grounds, which expends nine tenths of all the money used by the board. The other woman member was added to this committee when the new grammar school was begun in 1899. It is considered one of the best ventilated and best planned buildings in that part of the State.
In the spring of 1901 both were triumphantly re-elected. Mrs. Upton was continued as chairman of her committee, and Mrs. Harrington was made chairman of the next in importance, that on text books. [Eds.
LIX. OKLAHOMA.[406]
Oklahoma Territory was opened to settlement April 22, 1889, and its first woman's organization was the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, founded in Guthrie, March 10, 1890, by Mrs. Margaret O. Rhodes, under the direction of Miss Frances E. Willard. In the following April a convention was called at Oklahoma City, delegates coming from ten societies, and Mrs. Rhodes was elected president. In October, 1890, the first annual convention was held in Guthrie, the capital, Mrs. Alice Williams of Missouri being the principal speaker. The first Legislature was in session and she also addressed this body making a strong plea for legislation in favor of temperance and woman suffrage.
In 1895 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the organization committee of the National Suffrage Association, arranged for a lecturer to visit all the principal towns on the Rock Island and Santa Fe Railroads, and Miss Laura A. Gregg of Kansas was selected for this pioneer work. She came into the Territory the first week in October and lectured in twelve places, forming clubs. Her campaign closed at Guthrie where the first suffrage convention was held, November 11, 12, and an association organized. Miss Margaret Rees was elected president,[407] Mrs. J. R. Keaton, secretary, and Mrs. R. W. Southard, delegate to the national convention.
Mrs. Julia B. Nelson of Minnesota was sent into the Territory by the National Association for three months in May, 1896. She spoke in twenty-three towns, organizing a number of clubs, and on June 7, 8, closed her work with a mass meeting in Guthrie.
The third convention was held in Perry, Nov. 13, 14, 1897, Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Kansas being present as the chief speaker. Mrs. Celia Z. Titus was elected president; Margaret Rees, corresponding secretary; Sarah L. Bosworth, recording secretary; Eva A. Crosby, treasurer.
In September, 1898, Miss Mary G. Hay, organizer for the National Suffrage Association, arranged for a campaign, preparatory to asking the Legislature to grant woman suffrage, as in a Territory full suffrage can be given by legislative enactment. In October Mrs. Chapman Catt came on and meetings were held in the chief towns, where committees were appointed to look after petitions and other necessary work. This series of meetings closed November 6, 7, with the annual convention in Oklahoma City. Mrs. Rhodes was elected president, Mrs. Della Jenkins, vice-president, Miss Rees continued as secretary, Mrs. Minnie D. Storm made treasurer.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION: In the first Legislature, in 1890, specific work was begun for woman suffrage. When the law regarding the franchise was under discussion a petition was presented praying that it should read, "Every citizen of the age of 21 shall have a right to vote," instead of "every male citizen." A proposition for this was lost by three votes in the House and was not considered by the Council. School Suffrage was granted to women.
In 1897 a bill asking for the enfranchisement of women was prepared by Miss Margaret Rees and introduced in the House, where it was carried by a vote of 13 yeas, 9 nays, but was killed in the Council. Mrs. Johns, who had been sent by the National Association, labored most earnestly for the bill and won hundreds of friends for the cause by her wise council and able management.
After the suffrage convention in 1898, described above, Miss Hay returned to New York and Miss Laura A. Gregg was appointed by the National Association to co-operate with the Oklahoma women in securing the franchise from the Legislature of 1899. Their efforts and the results were thus related in the report to the National Suffrage Convention at Grand Rapids, Mich., in April, by Mrs. Chapman Catt, who had remained in Guthrie most of the winter looking after the interests of the bill with the discretion and ability for which she is distinguished:
Last November headquarters were opened in a business block at Guthrie, in charge of Miss Gregg, from which an active correspondence was conducted, resulting in a large petition and a constant accession of new recruits. There was a most thorough system of press work, nearly every newspaper in the Territory aiding the movement. The strongest and best men espoused our cause and the outlook seemed propitious. The Legislature convened the first week in January, but an unfortunate quarrel arose between it and the Governor which hindered legislation and compelled our campaign to drag throughout the entire sixty days' session. Miss Gregg continued her work at headquarters during the winter, and Miss Hay spent a month in Guthrie looking after the interests of our bill. It finally passed the house, 14 yeas, 10 nays, the week before the session was to close, and immediately the opposition concentrated its efforts on the Council. However, a majority were pledged to support our measure, and we felt little fear.
As soon as the news spread that the bill was through the House, a telegram was received by each member of the Council from the Albany (N. Y.) women remonstrants. These were not all phrased alike, but each asked the recipient: "What can be done to defeat the woman suffrage bill? Answer at our expense." At nearly the same moment, the chief agent of the Saloonkeepers' League, an association recently organized, as they claimed, "to protect our interests from unjust legislation," appeared upon the scene. Only a week remained of the legislative session. Whether this agent of the Oklahoma saloons came at the invitation of the Albany remonstrants, or the Albany remonstrants sent their telegrams offering assistance at the instigation of the Saloonkeepers' League, or whether their simultaneous appearance was by chance, I am unable to say. That they appeared together seems significant. If they work as distinct forces, a study in the vagaries of the human reason is presented in the motives offered to the public by these two organizations. The Albany remonstrants would protect the sweet womanly dignity of Oklahoma women from the debasing influence of politics. The Saloonkeepers' League would save the debasing influence of politics from the sweet womanly dignity of Oklahoma women. So these Albany women, who never fail to inform the public of their devotion to the church, join hands with the Oklahoma saloonkeepers, who never fail to declare that the church is a fanatical obstacle to personal liberty. A queer union it is, but some day the world will discover the mystery which has consummated it!
It so happened that in this Legislature there was a member who for thirty years, in a neighboring State, had been an avowed friend of suffrage. This was known to all Oklahoma, and even the enemies expected him to lead our forces in the Council. This man not only betrayed us, but headed the opposition in a filibustering effort to keep the bill from coming to a final vote and succeeded. Now, why did he fail us? Did he renounce the faith of a lifetime? No. Did the suffragists offend him? No; but even if they had done so a man of character does not change his views in a moment for a personal whim. Why, then, this change? Any member of the Legislature, for or against suffrage, if he would speak as frankly to others as he did to us, would tell you it was for money. Rumor was plentiful stating the amount and the donor. The saloons all over Oklahoma, with a remarkable unanimity of knowledge, boasted beforehand that the bill was killed and that this man was the instrument which they had used, and while they were boasting he was conferring with us and promising us his faithful support, hoping to conduct the filibustering so adroitly that we could not detect his hand in it....
To come to the main point, we had won the victory but a crime robbed us of it. Suffragists know how to bear defeats with fortitude, for each one is only a milestone showing the progress made on a journey, but a defeat by the defection of a friend is a new thing in the history of our movement.
Dr. Delos Walker of Oklahoma City was one of those who assisted in every way possible to give the ballot to the women of the Territory. Dr. C. F. McElwrath of Enid championed the bill in the House and secured its passage over the head of every opponent. The efforts of the women were supplemented also by those of Senator I. A. Gandey and Representative William H. Merten, both of Guthrie, and T. F. Hensley of El Reno, editor of the Democrat.
LAWS: Dower and curtesy do not obtain. If either husband or wife die without a will, leaving only one child or the lawful issue of one child, the survivor receives one-half of both real and personal property. If there is more than one child or one child and descendants of one or more deceased children, the widow or widower receives one-third of the estate. If there is no issue living the survivor receives one-half; and if there is neither issue, father, mother, brother nor sister, the survivor takes the whole estate. A homestead may be occupied by the widow or widower until otherwise disposed of according to law.
Husband or wife may mortgage or convey separate property without the consent of the other.
A married woman may sue and be sued and make contracts in her own name. She may carry on business as a sole trader and her earnings and wages are her sole and separate property.
The usual causes for divorce exist but only a 90 days' residence is required. A wife may sue for alimony without divorce. In cases where both parties are equally at fault the court may refuse divorce but provide for the custody and maintenance of children and equitable division of property.
The father is the legal guardian of the children. At his death the mother becomes the guardian, if a suitable person, but if she remarries the guardianship passes to the second husband.
The husband is expected to furnish a suitable support for the family, but no punishment is prescribed for a failure to do this.
No law existed for the protection of girls until 1890 when the age was made 14 years. In 1895 it was raised to 16 years. The penalty is first degree (under 14), imprisonment not less than ten years; second degree (under 16), not less than five years. In both cases the girl must have been "of previous chaste character."
SUFFRAGE: The first Territorial Legislature (1890) granted School Suffrage to the extent of a vote for trustees.
OFFICE HOLDING: Women may hold all school offices. Eleven of the twenty-three counties have women superintendents. They are not eligible to State offices but are not prohibited by law from any county offices. One woman is registrar of deeds and one is deputy U. S. marshal. There are at the present time about one hundred women notaries public.
OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. Ten hours is made a legal working day.
EDUCATION: All educational institutions are open alike to both sexes. In the public schools there are 914 men and 1,268 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $31.93; of the women, $26.20.
* * * * *
Thirty Federated Clubs in Oklahoma, with over 700 members, are taking up successfully a great variety of public work. Guthrie contains eight of these, with a membership of more than one hundred, and the library committee has succeeded in starting a library, which has now seven hundred volumes.
FOOTNOTES:
[406] The History is indebted for material for this chapter to Mrs. Margaret Olive Rhodes of Guthrie, president of the Territorial Woman Suffrage Association.
[407] Mrs. Rachel Rees Griffith and her two daughters are known as the Mothers of Equal Suffrage in Oklahoma. Miss Margaret was the first Territorial president, while no one has done more in the local club of Guthrie than Miss Rachel. Mrs. Griffith is nearly eighty years of age, but fully expects to live to see the women of Oklahoma enjoying the full franchise.