XXVIII. CALIFORNIA.[162]…

XXVIII. CALIFORNIA.[162]

The first woman suffrage meeting on the Pacific Coast was held in San Francisco in May, 1869, and a State association was formed in January, 1870. From that date meetings were held regularly and a committee of women did faithful work at the Legislature every session, securing many changes in the laws to the advantage of women.[163]

At the annual meeting of the association in San Francisco in December, 1884, Mrs. Laura De Force Gordon succeeded Mrs. Clara S. Foltz as president and held the office for the next ten years. During this time she attended a number of national suffrage conventions in Washington and delivered addresses in many parts of the United States.

In the political campaign of 1888 Mrs. Gordon and Mrs. Foltz were employed as speakers by the Democratic Central Committee, and Miss Addie L. Ballou by the Republican. The Populist and the Labor parties selected women as delegates to their State conventions and placed them on their tickets for various offices. Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake of New York and Mrs. Marilla M. Ricker of New Hampshire visited the Pacific Coast and gave very acceptable lectures to the suffrage societies.

In 1889 Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent and Mrs. Sarah Knox Goodrich each subscribed $100 to send Mrs. Gordon to Washington Territory to aid the women there in securing the adoption of a suffrage amendment to the State constitution. She canvassed the State, contributing her services. The next year, through the efforts of these two ladies and their own contributions, over $1,000 were sent to South Dakota to assist the women in a similar attempt.

Suffrage meetings for various purposes were held in 1890, the largest being a grand rally at Metropolitan Temple, July 4, to celebrate the admission of Wyoming as a State with full suffrage for women, at which there were addresses by the Hon. T. V. Cator, the Rev. C. W. Wendte, James K. Barry, the Hon. P. Reddy, the Hon. Charles Summer, Mrs. Gordon and others. This year the State Grange and the Farmers' Alliance cordially indorsed woman suffrage at their conventions. The annual suffrage meeting was held in Washington Hall, San Francisco, September 26. Mrs. Gordon was appointed a committee to select her own assistants and have full charge of the legislative work during the winter.

In 1891 practically every organization of either men or women seemed to be permeated with the agitation for woman suffrage. Among the most effective speakers and writers were Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson, Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, Miss Agnes Manning, Miss Ina D. Coolbrith, Mme. A. L. Sorbier, Mrs. E. O. Smith and Mrs. Sara A. T. Lemmon.[164]

Many informal business meetings were held during the next two years in Mrs. Gordon's law office. The adoption of equal suffrage by Colorado in 1893 inspired the California women to renewed effort. An Equal Rights League was formed of experienced suffrage workers. This was followed by the Young Woman's Suffrage Club, Miss Fannie Lemme, president, which became very popular. The Political Equality Club of Alameda County was organized in April. The Portia Law Club, Mrs. Foltz, dean, occupied a prominent place. The Woman's Federation also was an active society.

In 1893 the Trans-Mississippi Congress met in San Francisco with five regularly accredited women delegates in attendance. A woman suffrage resolution was presented for their indorsement and eloquently advocated by Mrs. Mary Lynde Craig. It was bitterly contested but finally passed by 251 yeas, 211 nays, amidst cheers and the waving of hats.

In 1894 was held the great Midwinter Fair, and the Woman's Congress Auxiliary became an intellectual focus for gifted women. It culminated in the brilliant convocation which was in session in Golden Gate Hall, San Francisco, for a week in May. Its promoters were Mrs. John Vance Cheney, Mrs. Horace Davis, Mrs. Cooper, Miss Hattie Cooper, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, Mrs. Lovell White, Mrs. William A. Keith, Mrs. Tupper Wilkes, Mrs. Alice Moore McComas, Mrs. Gordon and others. Mrs. Irving M. Scott, president of Sorosis, received the Congress socially in her elegant home. A large reception was given also at the magnificent country residence of Mrs. Frank M. Smith in East Oakland.

The Congress was followed by a mass meeting under the auspices of the suffrage societies. The hall would scarcely hold the audiences, which were especially distinguished by the large number of men, and noted men were also among the speakers. The venerable Alfred Cridge of the Single Tax League created much interest by a practical illustration of proportional representation, the candidates for president and vice-president being Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the women doing the voting. Letters of regret at inability to be present but expressing sympathy with the object of the meeting were received from Gov. James H. Budd, President David Starr Jordan of Leland Stanford University, U. S. Senator Perkins, Supreme Judge McFarland, Judge James G. Maguire and others.

This year the State Association elected as its president Mrs. Nellie Holbrook Blinn, who had been an ardent worker in the cause for a number of years and a prominent speaker for the Republican party. Mrs. Annie K. Bidwell was made vice-president; Mrs. Hester A. Harland, recording secretary; Mrs. Emily Pitt Stevens, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Emma Gregory, treasurer. Meetings were held every fortnight in St. George's Hall. In a short time General Warfield, proprietor of the California Hotel, offered the society the use of its parlors, which was gladly accepted.

In August a reception was given in honor of the National Press Association, then holding a convention in San Francisco, at which addresses were made by Mayor Adolph Sutro, the Hon. Samuel Shortridge and others. During the autumn a number of large and enthusiastic meetings were held.

In May, 1895, Miss Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, president and vice-president of the National Association, arrived in San Francisco in response to a cordial invitation to assist in the Woman's Congress which opened on the 20th. No meetings ever held were more beautiful and inspiring than these, presided over by Mrs. Cooper.[165] The best speakers in the State, men and women, participated and every possible honor, public and social, was conferred upon the two Eastern guests.

After the congress they accepted invitations to speak in San Jose, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Riverside, Pomona and San Diego. The audiences everywhere were large and cordial and their pathway was literally strewn with flowers. They returned to San Francisco and again addressed great audiences in that city and Oakland. Miss Shaw accepted the invitation of the executive committee to be one of the orators at the Fourth of July celebration in Woodward's Pavilion.

On July 2, 3, these ladies met with the State Suffrage Convention in Golden Gate Hall. Under their wise counsel a board of officers was elected which proved acceptable to all the members of the association,[166] and a constitution was adopted which eliminated the causes of past contentions.

The State was now thoroughly aroused over the submission by the Legislature the preceding winter of an amendment conferring Full Suffrage on women, which was to be voted on the next year. Auxiliary societies were reported from Oakland, San Jose, Stockton, Los Angeles, Fresno and other places and 300 new members were enrolled. The big hall was crowded at the evening meetings and addresses were made by Mrs. Sargent, the new president, Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Cooper, Mrs. Craig, Mrs. Blinn and others.

The officers elected at this time continued through all the long and trying campaign of 1896, which is described further on. The amendment was defeated at the election of November 3. The State convention was called for November 5, 6, in order that the Eastern women might be present, as they were to leave on the 7th. A magnificent farewell meeting was held on the first evening in Metropolitan Temple, which was crowded from pit to dome. The Call declared, "It was more like the ratification of a victory than a rally after defeat;" and at the close of the convention said: "It furnished during its entire sessions an example of pluck and patience such as should forever quiet the calumny that women do not know how to govern themselves--that they become hysterical in the face of defeat."

The committee[167] reported a set of strong, courageous resolutions which were adopted with cheers. The last one declared: "While we accept the verdict of the election we do not regard it as final, but believing that our cause is just and must prevail, we will enter at once on a vigorous campaign which will end only when the ballot is placed in the hands of California women."

A systematic plan of work was adopted and, as Mrs. Sargent was about to leave for a year abroad, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift was elected president. Mrs. Goodrich and Mrs. Sargent were made honorary presidents. Twelve hundred dollars were raised to pay all outstanding campaign debts, and the convention closed with a good-bye reception to Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and the other ladies from the East.

The annual State meeting of 1897 was held in San Francisco, October 5, 6, with able addresses by the Rev. E. S. Chapman, Albert H. Elliott, a San Francisco attorney, Doctors Beecher and Bushnell, representing the women in their profession, Mrs. E. O. Smith and many others. Mrs. Swift was re-elected president and continued to serve until 1900.

The convention of 1898 also was held in San Francisco, October 4-6, and was made a jubilee meeting to celebrate the calling of the First Woman's Rights Convention in 1848.

In 1899 the annual State meeting, held in San Francisco November 7, 8, was greatly stimulated by the presence of Mrs. Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, and Miss Mary G. Hay, its secretary. Active societies were reported in many counties and a large amount of work done by the press committee of fourteen members, Mrs. Mary L. Wakeman Curtis, chairman. It was announced that the Susan B. Anthony Club would hold a public meeting in the audience room of the Century Club, February 15, to celebrate that lady's eightieth birthday, at which President Jordan and Albert H. Elliott would be the orators. Addresses were given by Miss Sarah Severance, Mrs. Julia S. Sanborn, Mrs. Mary McHenry (Wm. A.) Keith, Mrs. Smith, Miss Selina Solomons and Miss Clara M. Schlingheyde.

On the evening of November 9 the convention was transferred to Oakland and every seat in the large Unitarian church was filled. Mrs. Chapman Catt was the speaker, introduced by the Rev. J. K. McLean. Mrs. Baldwin, president of the Alameda County society, Mrs. Swift and other prominent women occupied the beautifully decorated platform. During the afternoon a reception had been given in the artistic home of Mrs. Emma Shafter Howard.

The convention for 1900 was held in San Francisco as usual, December 14, 15. Mrs. Annie R. Wood was elected president.[168]

One of the largest auxiliary societies is that of Alameda County with a dozen branches. The presidents have been the Rev. J. K. McLean, Mrs. M. S. Haight, Mrs. Alice M. Stocker, Mrs. Isabel A. Baldwin, Mrs. H. J. D. Chapman and Mrs. Frances A. Williamson.[169]

The San Jose Club was formed for campaign work, Nov. 14, 1895, with fifty-four charter members. It has continued to hold weekly meetings under the presidency of Dr. Alida C. Avery.[170] There are a number of other efficient clubs in Northern California.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION: As early as 1868, and for many years afterwards, Mrs. Laura De Force Gordon addressed the Legislature in behalf of political rights for women, and from then until the present time there have been few sessions which have not had the question brought before them. A large number of legislators, lawyers and leading women have contended that the constitution of the State is so worded that it is within the power of the Legislature to confer the full franchise by statute, but bills for this purpose always have been defeated by a majority who hold that this can be done legally only by an amendment to the constitution adopted by the electors. Mrs. Nellie Holbrook Blinn has spent many winters at Sacramento in the interest of suffrage bills, and Mrs. Clara S. Foltz has frequently made legal arguments before joint committees. Beginning with 1891 Mrs. Sturtevant Peet, president of the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union, has remained through every legislative session representing that organization, with bills for temperance measures, suffrage and other matters of especial interest to women. During all of these years the suffrage bills before the Legislature have been reinforced by great petitions and hundreds of personal letters from the women of Southern California.

In 1889 Miss Sarah M. Severance, State Superintendent of Franchise for the W. C. T. U., went to Sacramento with a large petition asking for School Suffrage. Mrs. Gordon, a practicing lawyer, already had prepared three bills asking for Municipal and School Suffrage including the right to hold every educational office. All were reported favorably from the Senate committee. The first was passed, reconsidered and although again receiving a majority vote, had not the constitutional two-thirds. The School Suffrage Bill passed by 24 ayes, 7 noes. In the Assembly it received 36 ayes, 22 noes, not the required majority.

In 1891 a bill was presented to enfranchise women by statute. It was championed by Senators McGowan, Dargie and Simpson of the northern, and Carpenter and McComas of the southern part of the State. On February 7 a hearing was granted by the Judiciary Committee, and Mrs. Gordon gave a strong legal argument which was presented to the members as a "brief;" and addresses were made by Miss Severance, Mrs. Addie L. Ballou and Mrs. Emily Pitt Stevens. Before the vote was taken in the Legislature Mrs. Sturtevant Peet presented the great petition of the W. C. T. U. containing 15,000 names, and many were offered by senators from various counties. Individual appeals were sent by Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent, Mrs. Sarah Knox Goodrich, Dr. Alida C. Avery, Mrs. E. O. Smith and many other well-known women. The bill passed the Senate by 21 ayes, 17 noes. It had been delayed so long, however, that it was too late to reach the Assembly.

In 1894 the State Republican Convention adopted a plank as follows: "Believing that taxation without representation is against the principles of the Government we favor the extension of the right of suffrage to all citizens of the United States, both men and women."

The Legislature of 1895 was strongly Republican and the time seemed to be highly propitious for securing woman suffrage. To this end a number of influential women visited Sacramento. The first bill presented called for enfranchisement by special statute and was introduced and championed in the Assembly by Judge E. V. Spencer. On the afternoon of January 24 Mrs. Blinn and Mrs. Foltz addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee, and in the evening a mass meeting took place in the Court House, which the Judiciary and Elections Committees of the Senate and House attended in a body, as did also a large number of the members. Mrs. Gordon made the leading address and Mrs. Foltz the closing speech. Another meeting, held in the Assembly Chamber February 8, was addressed by Mrs. E. V. Spencer, Mrs. Blinn, Miss Laura Tilden, a lawyer, Mrs. Gordon and Mrs. Peet. Great assistance also was rendered by Mrs. Annie K. Bidwell, Mme. A. L. Sorbier, Dr. Lillian Lomax and Mrs. Jennie Phelps Purvis.

The bill came to a vote in the Assembly February 11 and passed. A defect was then discovered in the title and it was voted on again February 19, receiving 46 ayes, 29 noes. In the Senate it met with many vicissitudes which need not be recounted, as it eventually failed to pass. This was largely because the members did not believe it would be constitutional.

This question being settled, Senators McGowan of Eureka, and Bulla of Los Angeles, Assemblyman Spencer of Lassen, and others championed a resolution to amend the constitution by striking out the word "male" from the suffrage clause. This was adopted in March, 1895, by a two-thirds majority of both Houses, and signed by Gov. James H. Budd. The story of the campaign which was made to secure the adoption of this amendment is related hereafter. It was defeated by the voters.

Although the experienced national officers told the California women that it would be many years before they would be able to secure another bill they did not believe it, but went to the Legislature of 1897 full of hope that an amendment would be submitted again and they could make another campaign while their organizations were intact and public sentiment aroused. Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry and Mme. A. L. Sorbier spent much of the winter in Sacramento, and enough members were pledged to pass the bill. When it was acted upon, however, while it received a majority in both Houses, it lacked seven votes in the Assembly and one in the Senate of the necessary two-thirds.[171]

In 1899 Representative W. S. Mellick of Los Angeles introduced a bill giving women the right to vote for school trustees, and at elections for school bonds or tax levy. It passed the Assembly with only one dissenting vote, and the Senate by a majority of six. Gov. Henry T. Gage refused to sign it on the old ground of unconstitutionality.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT CAMPAIGN: The action of the Legislature of 1895 in submitting an amendment to the voters, instead of conferring the franchise by statute, was somewhat of a disappointment to the women as it precipitated a campaign which would come at the same time as that for President of the United States, and for which there was not sufficient organization. They were very much at sea for a while but in the spring of 1895 Miss Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, president and vice-president of the National Association, came to California to the Woman's Congress, and while here, having had much experience, helped them plan their work and gave every possible encouragement. In the autumn Miss Shaw returned and held meetings throughout the State, managed by Miss Harriet Cooper. The next year, at the urgent request of the State Association, Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw came back and remained from the first of March until after the election in November, rendering all the assistance within their power in the longest and hardest campaign ever made for a woman suffrage amendment. An amendment committee had been appointed at the last annual convention and out of this and the State officers a Campaign Committee[172] was formed and, in addition, a State Central Committee was organized.

Mrs. Sargent opened her handsome home for headquarters the first three months, and for eight months she and her daughter, Dr. Elizabeth C. Sargent, gave every hour to this work, entertaining as guests Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw and other workers and contributing large sums of money. In February, Dr. Sargent and Miss Shaw's secretary, Lucy E. Anthony, arranged a series of two days' conventions in every county in the State. Miss Harriet May Mills and Miss Mary G. Hay of New York, experienced organizers, were invited to California to manage these conventions and remained throughout the campaign.[173] The Rev. Miss Shaw and Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine were the speakers. The audiences were large and cordial, clubs were formed and the meetings more than paid expenses.

On Sunday, May 3, the San Francisco Call, the leading Republican paper, under the management of Charles M. Shortridge, came out with flaming headlines declaring for woman suffrage, and several hundred copies were sent to the State Republican convention which met in Sacramento the following Tuesday. A number of prominent women went to this convention, as it was considered very important that it should repeat its indorsement of the previous year. The delegation consisted of Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw, Mrs. Sargent, State president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, Mrs. Sarah Knox Goodrich, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper and Miss Mary G. Hay, members of the campaign committee. Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw addressed the Committee on Resolutions, and the next day a plank declaring for the amendment was adopted by the big convention with only one dissenting voice.

On May 12 most of these ladies attended the Populist Convention in Sacramento. They were received with cheers, escorted to front seats, invited to address the convention and the plank was unanimously adopted. From here a part of them went to the Prohibition Convention in Stockton, meeting a most cordial reception and a similar result. The Socialist Labor and the National parties also indorsed the amendment.

There was little hope for the indorsement of the Democratic Convention, but the ladies, reinforced by Mrs. Sarah B. and Miss Harriet Cooper, Mrs. Henry Krebs, Jr., Mrs. Alice M. Stocker and Mrs. E. O. Smith attended it on June 16. They were permitted to address the Resolutions Committee and present a petition signed by about 40,000 men and women of the State asking for the amendment, but it was laid on the table almost before they had left the room.[174]

A minority report was at once prepared by Charles Wesley Reed and signed by himself, William H. Alford, chairman of the committee, and two other members, but it was prevented from coming before the convention by order of its chairman, Frank Gould of San Joaquin County. After the platform had been adopted Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw were invited to address the convention, which they did to such effect that when they had finished the minority report was demanded. It was too late for this but, in spite of the efforts of John P. Irish and W. W. Foote of Alameda County,[175] and others, the original resolution declaring for an amendment was brought to a vote, receiving 149 ayes, 420 noes, more than one-fourth the whole number.

The women opened their campaign a few days later with an immense ratification meeting in Metropolitan Temple. All of the political parties were represented by prominent men who made strong suffrage speeches, Congressman James G. Maguire speaking for the fraction of the Democratic party. Most of the ladies who had attended the conventions made addresses and there was the greatest enthusiasm. Miss Anthony was invited to speak at the ratification meeting of each of the political parties and was most cordially received. No suffrage campaign ever commenced so full of promise.

Headquarters were opened on Main Street in the fine new Parrott Building, five rooms being donated for the purpose by the manager of the Emporium, William Harper. The furnishings were contributed by different firms and individuals, and a handsome banner was swung across the street. Here a force of women worked day and night for five months, most of them donating their services.[176]

The State Board and all the committees were composed of women of good position and especial ability. The counties formed their own organizations and all the important towns had active local clubs. The report from Southern California appears in another part of this chapter. In San Francisco Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper gave generously of her valuable time and powerful influence. Mrs. Mary Wood Swift and Mrs. Mary S. Sperry responded many times when the finances were at the lowest ebb. It would be impossible to name even a small fraction of those who freely and continuously gave labor and money.

Each of the eighteen assembly districts of San Francisco was organized by precincts, regular meetings were held, a personal canvass was made and an immense amount of literature was distributed. It is wholly impracticable in a limited space to mention the work done by the various counties, as in each where the amendment was carried it was due largely to the wise, faithful and unwearying efforts of its own women, and any distinction would be invidious.

The work of the W. C. T. U. deserves a prominent place in the history of the struggle, as all the powers of its excellent organization and experienced workers were devoted to the success of the amendment, and the majority in several counties at least was due to its efforts.

For the usual necessary and legitimate campaign purposes a fund of about $19,000 was raised and sent to headquarters, almost wholly the contributions of women.

Miss Anthony remained in San Francisco addressing meetings in that city and making many short trips to neighboring towns, speaking once or more every day for eight months. During this time she made a tour of Central and Southern California, lecturing in halls, churches, wigwams, parlors, schoolhouses and the open air. In some places the train was stopped and she spoke from the rear platform which was then banked with flowers.

The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw spoke every night for seven months; Miss Yates made about one hundred speeches; Mrs. Chapman Catt spent the last two months in the State giving several addresses every day. Miss Sarah M. Severance spoke under the auspices of the W. C. T. U. throughout the campaign. Mrs. Naomi Anderson represented the colored people. Every California woman who could make a speech was pressed into service for clubs, ward meetings, etc. Many handsome homes were opened for parlor lectures. Miss Anthony herself addressed great political rallies of thousands of people; church conventions of every denomination; Spiritualist and Freethinkers' gatherings; Salvation Army meetings; African societies; Socialists; all kinds of labor organizations; granges; Army and Navy Leagues; Soldiers' Homes and military encampments; women's clubs and men's clubs; Y. M. C. A.'s and W. C. T. U.'s. She spoke at farmers' picnics on the mountain tops, and Bethel missions in the cellars of San Francisco; at parlor meetings in the most elegant homes; and in pool-rooms where there was printed on the blackboard, "Welcome to Susan B. Anthony." Her services during the entire time were a personal contribution.

The attitude of the press was one of the remarkable features. Mrs. Ida Husted Harper was made Chairman of the Press Committee which had local members in every community. In company with Miss Anthony every editor in San Francisco was visited and assurances received that the amendment would have respectful treatment. The Call, the Record and the Post gave strong editorial indorsement, the latter maintaining a daily department, the responsibility being largely taken by Dr. Sargent. Mrs. Harper had a long article each week in the Sunday Call and many weeks one in the Chronicle also. The Examiner placed a column on the editorial page of its Sunday edition at the disposal of Miss Anthony and she filled it for seven months, but the paper gave no official approval. The Report had a double column every Saturday edited by Miss Winnifred Harper. The Bulletin had one conducted by Miss Eliza D. Keith, but editorially it was not friendly. Mrs. Mary L. Wakeman Curtis rendered especially valuable service. The Populist press was universally favorable, as were the Star and other labor papers, the temperance, Socialist and A. P. A. organs, the leading Jewish papers, those of the colored people, several published in foreign languages and many in the interest of agriculture, insurance, etc.

Before the close of the campaign the press chairman was in communication with 250 papers in the State which declared editorially for woman suffrage. Only 27 spoke openly against it, prominent among these being the San Francisco Chronicle, Argonaut, Sacramento Record-Union and Los Angeles Times. From California papers alone 9,000 clippings were received on this subject.

Had it not been the year of a presidential election it is probable that the amendment might have carried, but the bitter competition of politics soon produced many complications and, although the suffrage question was kept absolutely non-partisan, it could not escape their serious effects. The demand for free silver had made such inroads on the Republican party that it was threatened with the loss of the State, and it was soon made to understand by the liquor element that its continued advocacy of the suffrage amendment would mean a great loss of money and votes. It was found that the chairman of the State Central Committee, Major Frank M'Laughlin, was notifying the county chairmen not to permit the women to speak at the Republican meetings, and it became very difficult to persuade the speakers of that party to refer to the amendment, although an indorsement of it was the first plank in their platform.

The Populists and Democrats found themselves in accord on financial questions and in most localities a fusion was effected. While the former, for the most part, were loyal to the amendment they could not fully control the speakers or platforms at the rallies and it was kept out of sight as much as possible. The A. P. A. was strongly organized in California and was waging a bitter war against the Catholic Church, and both feared the effect of the enfranchisement of women, although at the beginning the former seemed wholly in favor.

The women made a brave fight but these political conditions, added to insufficient organization, too small a number of workers, lack of necessary funds, the immense amount of territory to be covered, the large foreign population in San Francisco and the strong prejudices in general against the movement, which must be overcome everywhere, made defeat inevitable. The final blow was struck when, ten days before election, the wholesale Liquor Dealers' League, which had been making its influence felt all during the campaign, met in San Francisco and resolved "to take such steps as are necessary to protect our interests." One of these steps was to send to the saloonkeepers, hotel proprietors, druggists and grocers throughout the State the following:

At the election to be held on November 3, Constitutional Amendment No. Six, which gives the right to vote to women, will be voted on.

It is to your interest and ours to vote against this amendment. We request and urge you to vote and work against it and do all you can to defeat it.

See your neighbor in the same line of business as yourself, and have him be with you in this matter.

Although the women had the written promise of the Secretary of State saying, "The amendment shall be third in order on the ballot, as certified to me by the various county clerks," it was placed last, which made it the easy target for the mass of voters who could not read. Hundreds of tickets were cast in San Francisco on which the only cross was against this amendment, not even the presidential electors voted for.

There were 247,454 votes cast on the suffrage amendment; 110,355 for; 137,099 against; defeated by 26,744. The majority against in San Francisco County was 23,772; in Alameda County, comprising Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley, 3,627; total 27,399--665 votes more than the whole majority cast against the amendment. Berkeley gave a majority in favor, so in reality it was defeated by the vote of San Francisco, Oakland and Alameda.[177] Alameda is the banner Republican County and gave a good majority for the Republican ticket. There never had been a hope of carrying San Francisco for the amendment, but the result in Alameda County was a most unpleasant surprise, as the voters were principally Republicans and Populists, both of whom were pledged in the strongest possible manner in their county conventions to support the amendment, and every newspaper in the county had declared in favor of it. The fact remains, however, that a change of 13,400 votes in the entire State would have carried the amendment; and proves beyond question that, if sufficient organization work had been done, this might have been accomplished in spite of the combined efforts of the liquor dealers and the political "bosses."[178]

As it is almost universally insisted that woman suffrage amendments are defeated by the ballots of the ignorant, the vicious and the foreign born, an analysis of the vote of San Francisco, which contains more of these elements than all the rest of California, is of interest. Not one of the eighteen Assembly Districts was carried for the amendment and but one precinct in the whole city. It is not practicable to draw an exact dividing line between the best and the worst localities in any city, but possibly the 28th, or water front, district in San Francisco may come under the latter head and the 40th under the former. The vote on the amendment in the 28th was 355 ayes, 1,188 noes; in the 40th, 890 ayes, 2,681 noes, a larger percentage of opposition in the district containing the so-called best people. Districts 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 would probably be designated the most aristocratic of the city. Their vote on the amendment was 5,189 ayes, 13,615 noes, an opposing majority of 8,426, or about 1,400 to the district. This left the remainder to be distributed among the other eighteen districts, including the ignorant, the vicious and the foreign born, with an average of less than 1,300 adverse votes in each district.

The proportion of this vote was duplicated in Oakland, the most aristocratic ward giving as large a negative majority as the one commonly designated "the slums."

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.[179]

In the spring of 1885 the first woman suffrage association of Southern California was organized in Los Angeles at the home of Mrs. Elizabeth A. Kingsbury, a lecturer and writer of ability and a co-worker with the Eastern suffragists in pioneer days. This small band of men and women held weekly meetings from this time until the opening of the Amendment Campaign in 1896, when it adjourned--subject to the call of its president--and its members became a part of the Los Angeles Campaign Committee.

The principal work of this early suffrage society was educational. Once a month meetings were held to which the public was invited, addresses were given by able men and women, good music was furnished and suffrage literature distributed. For five years Mrs. Kingsbury continued its efficient president and then returned to her Eastern home. She was succeeded by Mrs. Margaret V. Longley, another pioneer worker from the East, who served acceptably for the same length of time, when Mrs. Alice Moore McComas was elected. Under her regime was called the first county suffrage convention ever held in the State.

All other organizations of women wholly ignored the suffrage association during these years. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union had its franchise department, but it was by no means so popular as the other thirty-nine. Discouragement was met on every hand, but the faithful few, adhering to the principles of political liberty, saw year by year a slow but certain growth of sentiment in favor of the ballot for women.

In the winter of 1887, an effort was made to secure a bill from the Legislature conferring Municipal Suffrage upon women. Hundreds of letters were written and a large petition was sent but no action was taken.[180] Every year afterward a bill asking for some form of suffrage was presented to the Legislature, accompanied by great petitions signed by representative people, and an unremitting agitation was kept up throughout Southern California, until a strong sentiment was created in favor of the enfranchisement of women. Among those who championed the cause in the Legislature in those days were R. N. Bulla, R. B. Carpenter, Edward Denio and W. S. Mellick. U. S. Senators George C. Perkins and Stephen M. White also gave their influence in its favor.

In the autumn of 1892 the Southern California Woman's Parliament was organized. While the fact was emphasized that it was "not a woman's rights society;" the suffragists saw here an opportunity for good work. The whole membership of their various organizations went into this parliament and were active promoters of all the enterprises taken up, fully realizing that, sooner or later, in a body where all phases of woman's work--in the home, the church, the school and society--were discussed, woman's political limitations could not fail to receive attention. They were not mistaken for in a short time its sessions might properly have been called "woman's rights meetings," but none were more careful not to mention this fact than the "strong-minded" members. The women who were afraid to be seen at suffrage meetings were being so quietly converted that they had no idea of it. The sentiment grew and grew--and so did the suffrage association--until, after consultation with various members of the Legislature, it was decided to ask for an amendment to the State constitution which would enfranchise women.

Meanwhile the Los Angeles Suffrage Association called a convention of delegates from the southern counties in April, 1894, and a central committee was organized consisting of one representative woman from each voting precinct. This was productive of systematic work, and when the Legislature the following winter submitted an amendment, workers in every city, town, hamlet and school district were ready for the campaign.

County campaign committees were organized of which that of Los Angeles was the leader, and from its headquarters the main work was carried on. These, consisting of four large rooms on the second floor of the Muskegon block, a fine stone building in the business center of Los Angeles, were donated by T. D. Stimson. They were handsomely furnished by friends with every requirement for office work and semi-public meetings. Leo Alexander and William D. Hayward contributed the typewriters. Their arrangement was in the hands of Mesdames J. H. Braly, A. M. Davidson, R. L. Craig and Laura B. Fay. All through that ever-to-be-remembered hot summer of 1896 these dainty, artistic rooms, constantly supplied with fresh flowers, afforded a cool retreat for the busy suffragists, as well as a resting place for their less active sisters who were invited to visit them, even if not in sympathy, and none left without some of the literature and a gentle hint as to their obvious duty.

In San Diego the work was led by the president, Mrs. Flora M. Kimball. Mrs. Kimball was the first woman ever elected Master of a Grange, and was for eight years a member of the San Diego school board. She was a most efficient manager and the beautiful grounds around her home were the scene of many gatherings. A gifted writer also, her satires during this campaign, over the signature "Betty Snow, an anti-suffragist," made many converts.

Prominent among the workers were Mrs. Annie Bristol Sloan, president of the San Diego County W. S. A., the Rev. Amanda Deyo, Dr. Lelia Latta and Mrs. Laura Riddell; Mrs. Helen Joslin Le Boeuf (Tustin), organizer of Orange County; Mrs. Lizzie H. Mills, secretary of the Southern California W. C. T. U., and its president, Mrs. N. P. J. Button, who kept the question prominently before the people of Riverside County. Mrs. Ida K. Spears led the work in Ventura County with pen and voice. Kern County though less densely settled had in its little clusters of humanity staunch friends of the cause under the leadership of Mrs. McLeod, and gave also its majority for the amendment. San Bernardino was ably marshaled by Mrs. Ella Wilson Merchant, the county president. In Santa Barbara County Mrs. Emily Wright had stood sponsor for the cause for many years, and Mrs. S. E. A. Higgins assisted with her facile pen. This county in its favorable vote ranked next to Los Angeles. The work was tremendous but the result was compensating.

The key-note of the campaign was to reach every voter without regard to race or rank. Therefore, women of all castes and conditions were set to work where their direct influence would be most effective. Hundreds of precinct meetings were held during the whole summer. Each precinct had its own organization officered by its own people--men and women--a vice-president being appointed from each of its churches, and this was called Campaign Committee Precinct No. ----, pledged to work only until election. The meetings numbered from five to eighteen a day, and one day in August twenty-two were held in a single county. In the city of Los Angeles the highest number in any one day was nine precinct meetings and one public rally in the evening, near the close of the campaign. Mrs. McComas addressed four of these meetings and spoke at the rally--which was not unusual work for the speakers in the field. From the afternoon meetings, held generally in the largest homes in the precinct, hundreds of leaflets were sent out and every effort was made to increase the interest among women, for it was believed that if these did their duty the votes could be secured. The evening meetings were held principally in halls or churches, though frequently the larger homes and hotel parlors were thrown open for a reception where men were the honored guests.

The churches of all Protestant denominations were offered for debates and entertainments. In several the Rev. Mila Tupper Maynard--the salaried campaign speaker--preached Sunday evenings on texts pertinent to the subject, and many pastors delivered special sermons on equal rights. Leading hotels gave their parlors for precinct meetings and many of the halls used for public gatherings were donated by the owners. Noontide meetings were held in workshops, factories and railroad stations, and while the men ate their lunch a short suffrage talk was given or some good leaflet read aloud. The wives of these men were invited to take part, or to have full charge, and many earnest, competent workers were found among them who influenced these voters as no one else could do. The large proportion of foreign citizens were thus reached in a quiet, educational manner.

Another most effective method of work was carried on by the public meeting committee. Every political organization had in its ranks some father, husband, son or brother who was pledged to watch the suffrage interests and report to this committee--composed of men from these organizations and women from the campaign committees--when and where a wedge could be put in for the amendment. Its main duty was to present at political meetings, through the most distinguished speaker on the program, a resolution favoring the amendment. In this way it was treated as one of the general issues and, being brought before the voters by one of their own speakers, did not give the annoyance that is sometimes felt when a lady is introduced for this purpose. In every instance, the speaker would call upon the voters to "honor themselves in honoring the women." This method became very popular and won many votes where, otherwise, a hearing could not have been secured.

Another popular plan was that of utilizing the young people, who proved effective helpers. Every boy and girl who could sing, play, declaim, write an essay or in any other way entertain was enlisted for oratorical debates, prize essays and public meetings.[181] Through their work many a young man cast his first vote for his mother.

Hearings were secured before clubs and organizations, when short addresses were made and resolutions adopted.[182]

The W. C. T. U. was throughout the campaign, active, efficient and helpful, while its members were found on all the suffrage committees. Valued assistance was given also by the Woman's Parliament, the church auxiliaries, labor unions, Christian Endeavor Societies, Epworth Leagues, theosophical societies and the Southern California Federation of Woman's Clubs--which devoted a whole session of its annual meeting to the question.

The Afro-American Congress, convening in Los Angeles, gave up an afternoon session to listen to Mrs. Naomi Anderson, the salaried organizer. This was followed up with faithful work by the Colored Woman's Club, its president, Dr. Mary T. Longley, assisted by Mesdames Washington, White, Jackson, Knott, Campbell, Clarkson and others, being instrumental in converting many of the colored men to a belief in suffrage for women. A number of them indeed became active workers, the most prominent being the Rev. John Albright. Mrs. McComas addressed the Los Angeles County Republican Convention, which put in its platform a resolution in favor of the amendment.

Literature in small, concise leaflets was hung up in the street cars, railroad offices, hotels, theaters and post-offices; wrapped in dry-goods and grocery parcels and placed in profusion in the public libraries, many of these being compiled especially to suit certain localities. This required unceasing labor and watchfulness on the part of the press committee. Much original matter was used to show the people that the women of their community were fully capable of expressing their ideas and giving their reasons for desiring the ballot.

Fourteen of the papers published in Los Angeles were friendly to the amendment and gave it more or less editorial support, while three used their influence against it. The Los Angeles Times was unyielding in its opposition throughout the campaign, although it published fair reports of the meetings. The Sunday World kept pace with the Liquor Dealer in its coarse hostility, while the Pasadena Town Talk was a good second to both. The majority of the newspapers in Southern California were favorable to the proposed measure and were largely responsible for its success in this section of the State.[183]

The most harmonious spirit existed at headquarters and among all the workers. Enough money was raised to pay salaries to county presidents, organizers, corresponding secretary and one speaker. All others donated their services. Among the series of county conventions called by the State board, Los Angeles not only paid its own expenses but contributed $67 to the general State fund. This money was freely given by friends and workers, no special assessments being levied and no collections taken at public meetings. Those who could not give largely worked the harder to secure contributions from those who could. Great credit is due to the excellent management of the financial secretary, Mrs. Almeda B. Gray, who labored constantly at headquarters from May to November, besides contributing a monthly instalment to the county fund. Much of it was also due to the wise and conservative policy of the president of the campaign committee, Mrs. Elizabeth H. Meserve.

It would be impossible to give even the names of all who assisted in this long and arduous campaign. The work was far-reaching, and many were modest home-keepers who gave effective service in their own immediate neighborhood.[184]

The amendment was defeated--for many reasons. Among the most conspicuous were ignorance of the real merits of the issue; indifference--for thousands of voters failed to vote either way; a secret but systematic opposition to woman's voice in legislative affairs from the only organization against it--the Liquor Dealers' Association; and, most potent of all, a political combination which would not have occurred except at the time of a presidential election. Every county in Southern California gave a majority for the amendment, Los Angeles County leading with 4,600. Miss Anthony, who spent the summer in California aiding and encouraging the women with her wisdom, cheerfulness and hope, said on leaving: "The campaign was a magnificent one, and it has developed many splendid workers who will be ready for the next which is sure to come."

After the disappointing result the Campaign Committee held a meeting, passed resolutions of fealty to the cause and adjourned sine die. But in order to perpetuate the work already done and be ready for "new business" at any time, the Los Angeles County Woman Suffrage League was organized the following week, Mrs. Elmira T. Stephens, president; Mrs. Gray, chairman of advisory board; Mrs. Craig, secretary. The natural reaction after defeat followed and no work was done for several years.

In November, 1900, the State president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, came to Los Angeles and gave a parlor talk at the home of her hostess, Mrs. I. G. Chandler, and later an address at a public meeting in the Woman's Club House, of which Mrs. Caroline M. Severance was chairman. Practically all were in favor of reviving the old Woman Suffrage League and an executive committee was appointed, Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns (formerly of Minnesota), chairman.

At its call a meeting was held December 1, and the league reorganized: President, Mrs. Severance; vice-president, Mrs. Shelley Tolhurst; secretary, Mrs. Carl Schutz; treasurer, Mrs. Amelia Griffith; chairman of executive committee, Mrs. Stearns. A leaflet announcing the formation of the league, its plan of work, etc., was largely circulated. A committee was appointed who went before the Legislative Conference, which was held later in the Chamber of Commerce, and expressed the thanks of the league for the efforts of the Southern California members who had worked and voted for the School Suffrage Bill at the previous session of 1899.

The executive committee meets once a month and special sessions are called whenever necessary. The plan of work, as outlined by Mrs. Stearns, was sent to the State convention at San Francisco and cordially approved.

In February half of a show window on Broadway was secured, with ample floor space back of it. With the donation of $100 by a Los Angeles woman both were made attractive with flags, engravings and furnishings. Above a handsome desk the suffrage flag with its four stars is draped and photographs of prominent women adorn the walls. The suffrage papers are kept on file and quantities of fresh literature are ready for distribution. Stationery, photographs, medallions, etc., are for sale, a register is open for the enrollment of friends and a member of the league is always in attendance. When another amendment campaign is to be made Southern California will be found ready for work and will declare in its favor by a largely increased majority.

* * * * *

LAWS: The original property law of California is an inheritance from the Mexicans, which it incorporated in its own code, and it is quite as unjust as those which still exist on the statute-books of some States as a remnant of the barbarous old English Common Law. Community property includes all which is accumulated by the joint labors of husband and wife after marriage. This is in the absolute control of the husband. Previous to 1891 he could dispose of all of it as if he had no wife, could will, sell, mortgage, pledge or give it away. That year the Legislature enacted that he could not make a gift of it or convey it without a valuable consideration, unless the wife consented in writing, although he could still dispose of it in ordinary business transactions without her knowledge or consent. The decision in the Spreckles case apparently nullified this law, as the gift was made in 1893 and the Supreme Court in 1897 declared it legal.[185]

In 1895 it was provided that at the husband's death the wife is entitled to one-half of what remains, subject to one-half of the debts. At the death of the wife the whole belongs absolutely to the husband without administration. If some portion of it may have been set apart for her support by judicial decree, this is subject to her testamentary disposition, or, if she makes none, it passes to her heirs.

A homestead to the value of $5,000, which must continuously be occupied by the family, may be selected from the community property, or from the husband's separate estate, or from the wife's with her consent. If from the first-named it belongs to the survivor, if from the separate property it descends to his or her heirs, subject to the power of the court to assign it to the family for a limited period. During marriage it can not be mortgaged or conveyed without the signature of both. In case of divorce, if it has been selected from community property, it may be assigned to the innocent party absolutely or for a limited time, or it may be sold and the proceeds divided, according to decree. If selected from separate property it shall be returned to the former owner, but the court may assign it for a limited time to the innocent party.

In 1897 a law was passed that if the estate is less than $1,500 it shall be assigned to the widow, subject to incumbrances, funeral charges and expenses of settlement.

Separate property consists in what was possessed before marriage or is received by gift or inheritance afterwards. If the deceased leave wife or husband and only one child, or the lawful issue of one, the separate estate is divided in equal shares. If there be more than one child or the issue of one, the widow or widower is entitled to one-third. If there is no issue the survivor takes one-half and the other half goes to the father, mother, brothers and sisters of the deceased. If none exists, the survivor is entitled to the whole estate.

Either husband or wife may dispose of separate property without the consent of the other. Until 1894 it rested upon the wife to prove that property was her separate possession, but now the proof rests upon the contestants. Until 1897 she was compelled to prove that it was not paid for with community earnings. Neither of these recent laws applies to property acquired previous to May 19, 1889.

A married woman may be administrator or executor. (1891.)

The wife may engage in business as sole trader and her husband is not liable for her contracts, but her earnings, and also any wages she may make by her labor, are community property and belong absolutely to him, and suit for them must be brought by him. By becoming a sole trader she makes herself liable for the support of the family.

A married woman may sue and be sued and make contracts in regard to her separate property, but in torts of a personal nature she must be sued jointly with her husband, although the wife may defend in her own right.

Until 1899 common law marriage was legal, and this consisted merely in a promise and the mutual assumption of marital rights, duties and obligations. That year a law was passed requiring a license and a civil or religious ceremony. The law declares specifically that "the husband is the head of the family and the wife is subject to him."

The wife may sue for separate maintenance without divorce.

The father is the guardian of the minor children and entitled to their custody, services and earnings. At his death, or if he has abandoned his family, the guardianship belongs to the mother, if suitable.

The husband is expected to give his family proper maintenance. There is no penalty for not supporting a wife but he can be arrested for failure to support the children. If he have no property or is disabled from any cause, then the wife must support him and the family out of her property or her earnings. The husband decides what are necessaries and may take even her personal belongings to pay for them.

In 1887 the W. C. T. U. asked to have the "age of protection" for girls raised from 10 to 18 years, but secured only 14. In 1895 they succeeded in having a bill passed for 18 years but it was vetoed by Gov. James H. Budd. In 1897 they obtained one for 16 years which he signed and it is now the law. The penalty is imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than five years.

SUFFRAGE: Women possess no form of suffrage.

In 1900, to make a test case, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent brought suit before Judge M. C. Sloss, of the Supreme Court of San Francisco, to recover her taxes for that year, about $500. The city through its attorney filed a demurrer which was argued March 29 by George C. Sargent, son of the plaintiff and a member of the bar. He based his masterly argument on the ground that a constitution which declares that "all political power is inherent in the people" has no right to exclude one-half of the people from the exercise of this inherent power. He quoted the most eminent authorities to prove that taxation and representation are inseparable; that the people of the United States would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed the constitutional right of granting or withholding their own money; that it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people that no taxes can be imposed upon them except with their consent given personally or by their representatives. He said in closing:

If Article I of the State constitution defines inalienable rights and Article II abrogates them, it is monarchy. The Code of Civil Procedure says that where one of two constructions is in favor of natural right and the other against it, the former shall be accepted. The question is whether the Court shall grant this right, or whether by toil and struggle it shall be wrung from the consciences of the electors.

The court decided that the case required a mandamus before the Registrar. Application was then made for a writ of mandate against the Registrar of Elections to compel him to place Mrs. Sargent's name upon the list of voters. Should this be denied she asked to have her taxes returned. Both demands were refused by Judge Sloss in the Superior Court. He took the ground that if Mr. Sargent's argument should be carried to its logical conclusion it would enfranchise idiots, lunatics and criminals; that if there is a conflict between the two sections of the constitution cited it should be settled in favor of limiting the suffrage to males, as where a general and a particular provision are inconsistent the latter is paramount to the former. He quoted various State Supreme Court decisions and declared that he decided the case according to the law.[186]

As Mrs. Sargent had every assurance that this judgment would be sustained by the Supreme Court she did not carry the case further. It attracted attention and comment in all parts of the country and she received encouragement and wishes for her success from all classes of society.

OFFICE HOLDING: The Legislature of 1873 made women eligible to all School offices. None ever has been elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction but there is scarcely a county where women have not served as superintendents. At present seventeen are acting in this capacity. They have frequently been elected School Trustees and a woman is now president of the San Francisco school board at a salary of $3,000 per annum.

The constitution is interpreted to prohibit women from holding any other office. It is claimed by some that this does not include the boards of State institutions, but out of twenty-six such boards and commissions only one ever has had a woman member--Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, who is on the Board of Regents of the State University.

There are women on local library boards. A woman has been assistant State Librarian, and there have been women deputies and clerks in county and city offices. At present in the offices of the Attorney-General, Board of Examiners, State Department of Highways and Debris Committee women hold positions as clerks at salaries of from $1,200 to $1,800. They may serve as notaries public.

In the autumn of 1899 the California Woman's Club resurrected an old law which never had been enforced, providing for the appointment of assistant women physicians at the hospitals for the insane "provided there are already three assistant male physicians." They petitioned the proper authorities and the matter was presented to the State Lunacy Commission by Gov. Henry T. Gage with his earnest indorsement. From highly qualified candidates, whom the club had in readiness, two were appointed, and the promise was made that others should be at an early date. In a short time the superintendent of one hospital wrote that he did not see how they ever had managed without a woman physician.

A woman physician is on the Board of Health in Oakland.

In 1891 a law was passed providing for jail matrons in cities of 100,000 and over. This included only San Francisco and was not mandatory. In 1901 a law was secured requiring all cities of over 15,000 to have a matron at jails and city prisons, to be appointed for two years at a salary of $50, $65 or $75 a month, according to the size of the city.

OCCUPATIONS: After the hard struggle to obtain a law admitting women to the bar in 1877, a long contest followed to secure their admission to the Hastings College of Law, a branch of the State University, which ended in a favorable decision of the Supreme Court.[187] As a result of these efforts the constitutional convention of 1879 incorporated a provision that "No person shall, on account of sex, be disqualified from entering upon or pursuing any lawful business, vocation or profession." This does not, however, include appointive or elective offices.

EDUCATION: This same constitution of 1879 provided also that "No person shall be debarred admission to any of the collegiate departments of the State University on account of sex." Most of the smaller colleges are co-educational.

The assertion will hardly be questioned that the gifts of women for educational purposes in all parts of the Union, in all time, do not equal those made by the women of California within the last decade. As a memorial to their son, U. S. Senator and Mrs. Leland Stanford erected the Leland Stanford, Jr., University at Palo Alto in 1890 and endowed it with many millions of dollars. Mr. Stanford's death before it was fully completed threw the estate into litigation for a number of years, the legality of even some portion of the university endowment being in doubt. He left the bulk of his great fortune to his wife, and, after the estate was settled and free from all encumbrances, she reaffirmed the titles of all previous gifts and added the largest part of her own property. The endowment is now about $30,000,000, all but $4,000,000 of this having been given by Mrs. Jane Lathrop Stanford. This is the largest endowment ever made by any one person for one institution, and places Stanford at the head of the endowed universities of the world. It has been co-educational in all departments from the beginning and the tuition is practically free.

In 1894 Mrs. Miranda Lux of San Francisco left a bequest of $750,000 for a school of manual training for both sexes. In 1898 Miss Cora Jane Flood of San Francisco conveyed to the University of California her magnificent estate at Menlo Park and 4,000 shares of stocks, valued at not far from $1,000,000. The request was made that the income should be devoted to some branch of commercial education. Mrs. Jane Krom Sather of Oakland has given about $200,000 to the University. The donations of Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst have been thus far about $300,000, but this is merely preliminary to the great endowment of millions for which she has arranged. It is exclusive also of $30,000 a year for several archaeological expeditions. Liberal gifts have been made by other women.

In the public schools there are 1,722 men and 6,425 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $81.08; of the women $64.76. As a law of 1873 requires equal pay of teachers for equal work, these figures show that the highly salaried positions are largely occupied by men.

* * * * *

Women's clubs play a very prominent part in the social life. Of these, 111 with a membership of over 7,000 belong to the State Federation. The oldest in the State is the Ebell of Oakland, organized over twenty-five years ago, and having now a handsome club house and a membership of 500. It raised $20,000 to purchase a site for the new Carnegie Library. The Century Club of San Francisco with 275 members is one of the oldest and most influential; the California Club has an active membership of 400; and there are a number of other flourishing clubs in that city, Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda and Sacramento, of from 175 to 250 members. The Friday Morning Club of Los Angeles, with a membership of 500, owns a beautiful club house. The Ebell of that city has 300 members, and clubs of from 150 to 200 are found in various places in Southern California.

FOOTNOTES:

[162] The History is indebted for most of the material in this chapter to Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent of San Francisco, honorary president, and Miss Carrie A. Whelan of Oakland, corresponding secretary, of the State Woman Suffrage Association.

[163] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, Chap. LIII.

[164] Other names which appear in the scant records are Dr. Cora Morse, Mesdames William A. Keith, A. W. Manning, Helen Moore, Emily Pitt Stevens, Julia Schlessinger, Gertrude Smythe--of San Francisco and the towns around the bay; E. L. Collins of the Stockton Daily Mail, Mrs. D. P. Burr and Mrs. James Gillis of Stockton.

[165] For full description see Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Chap. XLV.

[166] President, Mrs. Ellen Clark (Aaron A.) Sargent; first vice-president, Mrs. Annie K. (General John) Bidwell; second vice-president, Mrs. Nellie Holbrook Blinn; third vice-president, Mrs. John Spalding; corresponding secretary, Mrs. George Oulton; recording secretary, Mrs. Hester A. Harland; treasurer, Mrs. Sarah Knox Goodrich; auditors, Mrs. Mary Wood (John F.) Swift and Mrs. Isabel A. Baldwin.

[167] Ida Husted Harper, the Rev. Eliza Tupper Wilkes, Mary Wood Swift, Dr. Ida V. Stambach, Harriet E. Cotton, Ada H. Van Pelt.

[168] The others who have held office in the State association since 1896 are--first vice-presidents, Mesdames Frank M. Smith, C. R. Randolph, H. J. D. Chapman, Mary Wood Swift, second vice presidents, Mrs. Annie K. Bidwell, Mrs. E. O. Smith, third vice-presidents, Mrs. Elmira T. Stevens, Mrs. R. H. Pratt, Mrs. A. K. Bidwell, corresponding secretaries, Mrs. Harriet E. Cotton, Miss Mary E. Donnelly, Dr. Amy G. Bowen, Miss Carrie A. Whelan, recording secretaries, Mrs. Nellie Holbrook Blinn, Miss Mary G. Gorham, Mrs. Henry Krebs, Jr., Mrs. Dorothy Harnden, treasurers, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry (six years), Miss Clara M. Schlingheyde; auditors, Mrs. Lovell White, Mrs. George Oulton, Miss Mary S. Keene, Dr. Alida C. Avery, Mrs. Mary Mc. H. Keith, Mrs. Anna K. Spero.

[169] Among those who have been officially connected with the work are Col. P. T. Dickinson, Col. George and Mrs. Olive E. Babcock, Drs. Alice Bush, Susan J. Fenton, Kellogg Lane, Carra B. Schofield, Rev. C. W. Wendte, Rev. Eliza Tupper Wilkes, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Howard, Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Woodhams, Mesdames A. E. S. Banks, S. C. Borland, J. C. Campbell, Ella E. Greenman, L. G. Judd, Mary McHenry Keith, A. A. Moore, M. B. Pelton, Emily M. Vrooman, C. L. Wood, J. A. Waymire, John Yule; Misses Mollie E. Connors, Mary S. Keene, Mary Snell, Winifred Warner, Carrie A. Whelan.

[170] Among the most active members are Mesdames M. B. Braley, Fred L. Foster, Sarah Knox Goodrich, J. H. Henry, H. Jennie James, A. K. de Jarnette (Spero), E. O. Smith, Laura J. Watkins, Alice B. Wilson.

[171] Immediately afterwards the ladies said to one of the members, "Why did you break your pledge to us and vote against the bill?" Without a moment's hesitation he answered, "Because I had a telegram this morning from the Liquor Dealers' Association telling me to do so."

[172] Chairman, Ellen Clark Sargent; vice-chairman, Sarah B. Cooper; corresponding secretary, Ida Husted Harper; recording secretary, Harriet Cooper; treasurer, Mary S. Sperry; auditors, Mary Wood Swift and Sarah Knox Goodrich.

State Central Committee: Mrs. Sargent, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Swift, Mrs. Sperry, Mrs. Blinn, with Mary G. Hay, chairman.

[173] Later Mrs. Ida Crouch Hazlitt of Colorado, Mrs. Laura M. Riddell of San Diego and other State women were added to the organizing force.

[174] Dr. Elizabeth Sargent was chairman of the Committee on Petitions for Northern and Mrs. Alice Moore McComas for Southern California. As the names had to be collected in the winter months preceding the spring campaign, the distances to be covered were long and the labor was the free offering of busy women, it is surprising that the list was so large. It by no means represented the suffrage sentiment in the State.

[175] Alameda had sent in the largest petition for woman suffrage of any county in the State, and San Joaquin afterwards gave a big majority vote for the amendment.

[176] A number of young women who were engaged the greater part of every day in teaching, stenography, bookkeeping, etc., gave every hour that could be spared to the work at headquarters, a free will offering. Among those who deserve special mention are Misses Mary, Louise and Sarah Donnelly, Mary Gorham, Clara Schlingheyde, Effie Scott Vance, Evelyn Grove, Mrs. N. W. Palmer, Winifred and Marguerite Warner and Carrie A. Whelan. Mrs. Lelia S. Martin also contributed five months' time.

[177] Los Angeles County gave a majority of 4,600 in favor of the amendment.

[178] Many personal incidents and anecdotes of this campaign will be found in the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Chap. XLVII.

[179] This portion of the chapter was prepared by Mrs. Alice Moore McComas, former president of the Los Angeles Woman Suffrage Association and chairman of the Southern California press committee during the amendment campaign of 1896. A considerable amount of space is given because it presents so admirable an example of the manner in which the work in such a campaign should be done.

[180] The first paper to establish a Suffrage Column was the Los Angeles Express, in 1887, H. Z. Osborne, editor. This was conducted by Mrs. McComas for three years.

[181] Among the many were Gertrude Foster, the young California actress, who added attraction to many programs with her brilliant readings, and Jessie, daughter of Superior Judge Waldo York, who won the prize of $75 offered by Dr. Ella Whipple Marsh, superintendent of franchise of the Southern California W. C. T. U., for the best essay on woman suffrage, one hundred young people of both sexes competing. An oratorical contest for young college men--original orations on woman suffrage--resulted in a $20 prize to Edwin Hahn of Pomona College, five young men participating. Clare, daughter of Judge C. C. McComas, gave highly-appreciated recitations on the woman question, and Miss Nina Cuthbert, the young teacher of elocution, delighted many audiences with her readings and wonderful imitations.

[182] Prominent among these were the Single Tax Club, Royal Arcanum, Foresters, Native Daughters of the Golden West, Socialist League, Y. M. C. A., Carpenters' Union, Woman's Relief Corps, Y. W. C. A., Friday Morning Woman's Club and the Fraternal Brotherhood.

[183] It is regretted that the carefully compiled list of these papers, sent by Mrs. McComas, is too long to be used. [Eds.

[184] In addition to men and women already mentioned the following is a partial list of those who aided in various ways: Annie B. Andrews, Alice Armor, Prof. W. C. and Sarah A. Bowman, Mary M. Bowman, Mrs. (Dr.) B. W. Beacher, Mary E. Benson, Mary E. Bucknell, Alice E. Broadwell, Rollo K. Bryan, James G. Clark, Mary L. Crawford, Lucy E. Cook, Mary Lynde Craig, Pauline Curram, Gen. A. B. Campbell, Edith Cross, Adelaide Comstock, Prof. G. A. Dobinson, the Hon. C. H. Dillon, Florence Dunham, Virginia W. Davis, Sallie Markham Davis, Ella H. Enderline, Katheryne Phillips Edson, Dr. and Mrs. Eli Fay, Ada C. Ferriss, Mary E. Fisher, Miss M. M. Fette, Kate Tupper Galpin, Mary E. Garbutt, Prof. Burt Estees Howard, Emma Hardacre, Mary I. Hutchinson, Rachel Handby, Mrs. C. E. Haines, Georgia Hodgeman, Judge and Mrs. Ivan, Mrs. Mary E. and Miss Kinney, Mrs. E. A. and Miss Lawrence, Alice Beach McComas, Ben S. May, Susie Munn, Mattie Day Murphy, Dr. Mary Nixon, Mrs. C. W. Parker, Delia C. Percival, Ursula M. Poats, Mary Rankin, Rachel Reid, Aglea Rothery, Mr. and Mrs. W. C. B. Randolph, Caroline M. Severance, Mrs. Fred Smith, Dora G. Smith, Drusilla E. Steele, Annie B. Smith, Gabrella Stickney, Mrs. A. Tichenor, Mrs. R. H. F. Variel, Dr. Theoda Wilkins, Mrs. (Dr.) Wills, Fanny Wills, Attorney Sarah Wild, Judge Waldo York, Jessie York.

[185] Claus Spreckles gave his son Rudolph a large amount of sugar stock which was community property, and Mrs. Spreckles did not join. Afterwards he sued to recover and the Supreme Court, all the Judges concurring, decided the gift was legal. Justice Temple rendered the decision as follows:

"All these differences point to the fact that the husband is absolute owner of the community property. The marital community was not acquired for the purpose of accumulating property, and the husband owes no duty to the community or to the wife, either to labor or accumulate money, or to save or to practice economy to that end. He owes his wife and children suitable maintenance, and if he has sufficient income from his separate estate he need not engage in business, or so live that there can be community property. If he earns more than is sufficient for such maintenance, he violates no legal obligation if he spends the surplus in extravagance or gives it away. The community property may be lost in visionary schemes or in mere whims. Within the law he may live his life, although the community property is dissipated. Of course I am not now speaking of moral obligations."

[186] During this trial Mrs. Sargent and her friends in attendance were caricatured in the most shameless manner by the San Francisco Call, which had passed under a new management.

[187] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, p. 757.

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XXIX. COLORADO.[188]

After the campaign of 1877, when a woman suffrage amendment was defeated in Colorado, the first really important step forward was the organization at Denver, in 1890, of a little club to aid the campaign in South Dakota. In April Miss Matilda Hindman, who was working there, came from that State to ask assistance and formed a committee of six, who pledged themselves to raise $100. They were Miss Georgiana Watson, president; Mrs. Susan Sharman, secretary; Mrs. Mary J. Nichols, treasurer; and Mesdames Amy K. Cornwall, Jennie P. Root and Lavinia C. Dwelle.

Shortly afterward Mrs. Louise M. Tyler removed from Boston to Denver, bearing a letter from Lucy Stone urging Colorado suffragists to unite in an organization auxiliary to the National Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs. Tyler heard of this small band, called with Mrs. Elizabeth P. Ensley, delivered her message, and their names were added to the list of members. The organization was completed and became an auxiliary.

About this time Mrs. Leonora Barry Lake followed her lecture, delivered under the auspices of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union by an appeal to the women of the audience to join the suffrage association; and among those who responded were two whose ears had longed for such a gospel sound, Mrs. Emily R. Meredith and her daughter Ellis. Temperance women who repeatedly had found their work defeated by the lack of "the right preservative of rights," such women as Mrs. Anna Steele, Mrs. Ella L. Benton, Mrs. Eliza J. Patrick and others, thought truly that a society whose sole aim should be the ballot was a necessity. At this time the meetings were held in Mrs. Tyler's parlor. Miss Watson was much occupied with school duties, and in the fall of 1890 Mrs. Tyler was chosen president in her stead.

In 1891 a petition for the right of suffrage by constitutional amendment was presented to the Legislature, but the bill not being introduced within the specific time it went by default. Ashamed of their lack of political acumen, the women then persuaded Representative F. F. O'Mahoney, who had a bill prohibiting foreigners from voting on their first naturalization papers, to strike the word "male" from his measure, thus making it an equal suffrage enactment, but bill and rider were defeated. The ladies who worked for suffrage were treated with such scant courtesy by some of the legislators, and the general sentiment was so adverse, that ultimate success looked very distant to the most sanguine friends.

Some of the club even questioned the advisability of giving an afternoon a week, as they had been doing, to the study of a government in which they had no part and might never hope to have. Mrs. Sharman, a small, delicate woman, who already had passed four-score years, was its inspiration. She advised the members to remain united, ready for active effort when opportunity offered, and in the meantime to continue as seed-sowers and students of citizenship in the preparatory department.

The membership slowly increased. Mrs. Tyler served as president until 1892, when Mrs. Olive Hogle was elected. Mrs. Benton (Adams) had given the use of her rooms in the central part of Denver, and the society remained with her until, having outgrown its quarters, it accepted the hospitality of Dr. Minnie C. T. Love early in 1893.

In the spring of 1891 a small majority of its members had put up a woman candidate for the East Denver school board and tried their "prentice hands" at voting. It is a settled fact that a partial suffrage seldom awakens much interest. The school ballot had been given to women by the constitution when Colorado became a State, but here, as elsewhere, they exercised it only when aroused by some especial occasion. Mrs. Scott Saxton was the candidate selected. The wiser of the suffragists thought the work should have been undertaken sooner, if at all, as there was not then sufficient time for canvassing, and the result proved they were right. More women voted than ever before, but the men opposed to women on the school board came out in still greater numbers. Twelve hundred ballots were cast--by far the largest school vote ever polled in the district. Of these about 300 were for Mrs. Saxton.

Two years later this effort was repeated and other organizations of women aided the suffragists. Mrs. Ione T. Hanna was the candidate. There were four tickets in the field and over 6,000 votes were cast. This time both men and women voted in favor and, in the face of bitter opposition, Mrs. Hanna was elected by 1,900 majority.

A bill providing that the question of full suffrage for women should be submitted to the voters at the next general election was drawn by J. Warner Mills and presented in the House early in 1893 by J. T. Heath. On this, and all other occasions when advice or assistance was needed, Mr. Mills gave his legal services without charge.

This was indeed the golden opportunity, the tide which taken at the flood might lead on to fortune. The Populist party, which was in power, had a suffrage plank in its State platform; in both the other parties there were individuals who favored it; and, if the bill passed, the Governor's signature was a certainty. But there are as many vicissitudes in the life of a bill as in that of an infant. It is thrown in the midst of its fellows to struggle for existence, and the outcome is not a question of the survival of the fittest but of the one that receives the best nursing. If it escapes the death that lurks in the committee room, it still may be gently crowded toward the edge until it falls into the abyss which awaits bills that never reach the third reading.

Mrs. Tyler, chairman of legislative work, gave a large share of her time during the entire session to looking after the bill in the House, and Miss Minnie J. Reynolds was equally untiring in the Senate. Three other suffrage bills were introduced that session but two yielded precedence to the one prepared by the association. The author of the third believed that women could obtain suffrage only through a constitutional amendment, which was what his bill called for. The women received such contradictory advice on this point as to awaken much anxiety. However, they read in their meetings a copy of the statutes of Colorado, and possessing only plain common sense and not the legal ability which would have qualified them for a place in the Supreme Court, concluded that the referendum to the voters, which their bill provided for, was the proper thing to request.

The opposition came from the usual sources. After the bill was presented, the Remonstrance, the organ of the anti-suffrage society in Boston, soon appeared on the desk of every legislator. The liquor influence also was prominent in the lobby.

The bill was reported from the committee to the House on Jan. 24, 1893, with the recommendation that it should not pass and a minority report in favor. The former was rejected by a vote of 39 to 21. The bill was brought to a final vote on March 8. A number of the members of the suffrage club and some other women who approved their cause were present by request of the friends in the House. Some of the arguments used were peculiar. Ruth didn't vote and she married very well (at least at the second trial) nor did any of the women referred to in the Bible, so why should the women of the United States do so? One Representative said he always attended to affairs out of doors and left those within to his wife. He thought that was the right way and didn't believe his wife would vote if she could. "But she says she would," declared another, who was prompted by Mrs. Tyler, and a ripple of laughter arose at the speaker's expense.

There was the customary talk about neglected homes and implied disbelief in woman's ability to use the ballot rightly, but only one man tried the weapon of insult. Robert W. Bonynge spoke so slightingly of the character of women who upheld equal suffrage that one incensed woman, not a member of the association and presumably ignorant of parliamentary courtesy, gave a low hiss. Immediately he assumed the denunciatory and threatened immediate expulsion of all persons not members from the House. Frank Carney then arose and referred to the fact that the anti-suffrage speakers had received repeated applause from their adherents and no notice had been taken of it, although it was equally out of place. Mr. Bonynge subsided from his position and continued his speech.[189]

The bill finally passed by 34 ayes, 27 noes; divided politically as follows: Ayes, 22 Populists, 11 Republicans, 1 Democrat; noes, 3 Populists, 21 Republicans, 3 Democrats.

Hamilton Armstrong had introduced the bill into the Senate, where it had been tabled to await the action of the House. It passed on April 3 by 20 ayes, 10 noes: Ayes, 12 Populists, 8 Republicans, no Democrat; noes, one Populist, 4 Republicans, 5 Democrats.

The bill received the signature of the Populist governor, Davis H. Waite, without delay.

A general election was to be held in the fall of 1893, so that the verdict of the voters was soon to follow. At the annual meeting of the State Woman Suffrage Association that spring the officers chosen were: President, Miss Martha Pease; vice-president, Mrs. Ellis Meredith; secretary, Mrs. C. S. Bradley; treasurer, Mrs. Ensley; chairman executive committee, Mrs. Tyler. On motion of Mrs. Meredith, the name of the society was changed to the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association of Colorado, as in the word "equal" there is an appeal to justice which does not seem to exist in the word "woman."

The women realized the conflict before them in the near future, and Mrs. Ellis Meredith volunteered to visit the Woman's Congress, which was to meet at Chicago in May, during the World's Fair, and appeal for aid to the representatives of the National Association who would be there. Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Lucy Stone and other notables were present and appointed a meeting to listen to appeals. These asked help for the Constitutional Convention Campaign in New York and the Kansas Amendment Campaign, which were both considered very hopeful compared to what was thought in the East to be the almost hopeless campaign in Colorado. Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake presented the claims of New York, Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Kansas, and Mrs. Meredith of Colorado. "Why was your campaign precipitated when our hands are so full?" was one of the discouraging questions. "Are all those Mexicans dead?" asked Miss Anthony, referring to the heavy vote against equal suffrage in the first Colorado campaign of 1877. "No," said Mrs. Meredith, "the Mexicans are all there yet;" but she explained that there were favorable influences now which did not then exist. In the labor unions women members voted, and this fact inclined the men belonging to them to grant the full franchise. The W. C. T. U., now organized throughout the State, had become a firm friend and advocate, and the ruling political party was favorable. Clearly this was the time to strike.

A promise of consideration and such aid as the National Association was able to furnish was given. Later they decided to send Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and guarantee her expenses in case she was not able to raise them in the State. From her past record, they thought it likely she would not only do that but put money in the treasury, and the result justified their expectations. She was a financial help, but, much as money was needed, her eloquence and judgment were worth more, and she always will have a warm place in the hearts of Colorado women who were active in the campaign of 1893.

When that campaign opened, there were just $25 in the treasury. Lucy Stone sent a donation of $100. Iowa and California gave aid, and there were small contributions in money from members of the E. S. A. and from auxiliary clubs formed by Mrs. Chapman Catt in different parts of the State.

Besides these, others already had been organized. In Longmont a club was formed in the spring of 1893 by Mesdames Mary L. Carr, Orpha Bacon, Rosetta Webb and Jane Lincoln. They took up the study of laws relating to the property rights of women and endeavored to awaken interest in the question to be settled the following November. The majority which Longmont gave for suffrage is a testimony to the value of their work. In Colorado Springs Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford was president of a large local society which afterward became auxiliary to the State association, with Mrs. Ella L. C. Dwinnell as president, and did excellent work in El Paso County. In Greeley many of the workers of 1877 were still active. Mrs. Lillian Hartman Johnson organized a club in Durango and spoke for the cause. Mrs. A. Guthrie Brown formed one in Breckinridge of which Mesdames H. R. Steele, C. L. Westermann and E. G. Brown were active members.

All these clubs, large and small, scattered throughout the State, assisted in arousing public sentiment, but the situation in Denver was the one of most anxious interest. It is always in cities that reforms meet defeat, for there the opposing interests are better organized and more watchful. In no other State is the metropolis so much the center of its life as is Denver of Colorado. Through this modern Palmyra, which stands in the center of the continent and of the tide of commerce from East and West, flow all the veins and arteries of the State life. Arapahoe County, in which it is situated, contains more than one-fourth of the population of the entire State. Upon the women of Denver, therefore, was imposed a triple share of responsibility. Besides the importance of the large vote, there rested particularly upon the members of its suffrage club the burden of having invited this contest and made it a campaign issue.

In the early fall, the City League of Denver was organized with 100 members and Mrs. John L. Routt, wife of the ex-governor, as president. Mrs. Thomas M. Patterson and Mrs. N. P. Hill were prominent workers in this club. A Young Woman's League was formed by Misses Mary and Margaret Patterson and Miss Isabel Hill, and there were other leagues in various parts of the city. In all this work Mrs. Tyler was indefatigable.

Miss Minnie J. Reynolds, chairman of press work, enlisted the help of seventy-five per cent. of the newspapers. In some cases editorial approval and assistance were given, in others space was allowed for suffrage matter. In August Mrs. Elizabeth Tabor donated the use of two rooms in the opera house block, one large enough to seat several hundred persons, the other a suitable office for the corresponding secretary. Dr. Minnie C. T. Love had acted gratuitously in that capacity and opened communication with suffragists throughout the State, but it was now deemed necessary to employ some one who could devote her entire time to the work. Miss Helen M. Reynolds was chosen and added to unusual capability the most earnest zeal. The rooms were furnished through loans of rugs, desks, chairs, etc.

Equal suffrage was indorsed by the county conventions of the Republican, Prohibition and Populist parties, and also at a called meeting of the Democratic State Central Committee. Many ministers and lawyers spoke in its favor. Among the latter were Charles S. Thomas, since governor of the State, J. Warner Mills, Judge L. C. Rockwell, Charles Hartzell, Eugene Engley and Attorney-General I. N. Stevens, who was one of the most trusted advisers.

There were also women speakers of experience: Mrs. Therese Jenkins of Wyoming, Mrs. Susan S. Fessenden of Massachusetts; Mrs. Dora Phelps Buell, Mrs. Mary Jewett Telford, president of the Woman's Relief Corps in the Department of Colorado and Wyoming and also president for several terms of the State W. C. T. U., who made a five-months' speaking tour; Mrs. Leonora Barry Lake of St. Louis, who spoke efficiently under the auspices of the Knights of Labor. Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant of England delivered an address on her way westward.

Some women made speeches who never had been on the platform before but have since developed much oratorical ability. When needed, women who did not dare risk an unwritten address read papers. Meetings were held all over the city and State. "I should think," said a banker, "from the campaign the women are running that they had a barrel of money;" but he was a contributor to the fund and knew it was very limited. In all about $2,000 were raised, over $300 of which were spent for literature. Some of the most efficient leaflets were written by members of the association and printed in Denver. Nearly 150,000 of these were issued.

In the city press Mrs. Patience Mapleton represented the cause in the Republican; Mrs. Ellis Meredith in the Rocky Mountain News. There were house to house canvassers, distributors of literature and others who rendered most valuable assistance and yet whose names must necessarily remain unrecorded. The most of this service was given freely, but some of the women who devoted all their time received moderate salaries, for most of the workers belonged to the wage-earning class. The speakers asked no compensation but their expenses were frequently borne. Halls and churches had to be paid for and on several occasions opera houses were rented. When in the final report the expenses of election day were given as $17 a murmur of amusement ran through the audience.

The women who "had all the rights they wanted" appeared late in the campaign. Some of them sent communications to the papers, complaining of the effort to thrust the ballot upon them and add to the already onerous duties of life. When told that they would not be compelled to vote and that if silent influence was in their opinion more potent than the ballot, it would not be necessary to cast it aside for the weaker weapon, they responded indignantly that if they had the franchise of course it would be their duty to use it. Let it be noted that many of them have voted regularly ever since they were enfranchised, though some have reconsidered and returned to their silent influence.

The liquor element slept in fancied security until almost the eve of election, as they did not believe the amendment would receive popular sanction. When they awoke to the danger they immediately proceeded to assess all saloon keepers and as many as possible of their prominent patrons. They got out a large number of dodgers, which were put into the hands of passers-by. These were an attack upon equal suffrage and the women who advocated it, and at the bottom of the first issue was a brewer's advertisement. This dodger stated that "only some old maids like Lucy Stone, Susan Anthony, Frances Willard, Elizabeth Stanton and Mary Livermore wanted to vote." They also employed an attorney to juggle the ballots so that they might be thrown out on a technicality. There was consternation among the suffragists when the ballot was finally produced bearing the words "For the Amendment," "Against the Amendment," for it was well known that the measure was not an "amendment." The best legal talent in Denver was consulted and an opinion rendered that the ruse would prove of no avail, as the intention was still clear. The women, however, issued a leaflet instructing the voters just where to put the cross on the ticket if they wished to vote for equal suffrage.

The suffragists were divided in opinion as to the presence of women at the polls on the election day which was to decide their fate. Some thought it might be prejudicial, but the friends among the men strongly approved their presence in order to influence voters. What future election could be of more importance to women than this, and why should they hesitate to show their interest? Under directions from suffrage headquarters workers at the polls distributed the leaflets, often supplementing them by their own eloquence. No woman received any discourtesy.

The night of November 7 was an anxious one. Women went home and lay awake wondering whether they had done everything possible to insure success, or whether failure might be the result of some omission. When the returns published the next morning, although incomplete, showed that success really had crowned their efforts it seemed almost too good to be true. All day long and in the evening people were coming and going at suffrage headquarters with greetings and congratulations. Women of all classes seemed drawn together by the new tie of citizenship.

The full returns gave the result as follows: For suffrage, 35,798; against. 29,451; an affirmative majority of 6,347.

* * * * *

What were the causes of this unique success? First, it may be claimed that Western men have more than others of that spirit of chivalry of which the world has heard so much and seen so little. The human mind inclines to justice, except when turned aside by prejudice, and there is less prejudice against and a stronger belief in equal rights in the newer communities. The pressure of hard times, culminating in the panic of 1893, undoubtedly contributed to the success of the Populist party, and to its influence the suffrage cause owes much. A new party boldly accepts new principles while the old parties are struggling to conform to precedents. This is shown clearly in both the legislative and the popular vote. It was in the counties giving Populist pluralities that the majority of 6,818 in favor of equal suffrage was found. The counties which went Republican and Democratic gave a majority of 471 against the measure. The fact, however, that in all parties there were friends who were willing to work and speak for it, and also the number of suffrage bills which had been introduced at this time, showed that the State was ready for it.

The favorable influence of the W. C. T. U. and the labor organizations has been referred to. There was but little active opposition from women and, as the campaign progressed, indifference often turned into sympathy. Women who had kept silent even at home for fear of ridicule were surprised and delighted to hear their husbands express approval. Those of all classes of society worked unitedly and well. They could not have done this if they had not been used to organized effort in other directions. How many doors stand open now through which women freely pass, unmindful of the fact that they were unlocked by the earlier workers in the suffrage cause!

The first feeling was the one common in all victories, that of joy and exultation, but the weight of responsibility was soon felt. At the first meeting of the executive board of the equal suffrage association after the election, Mrs. Routt, a woman of queenly presence, said as she took the hand of another member, "I never felt so weak in all my life." Mrs. Routt was the first woman in the State to register.

It was natural that other women should look to the suffragists for direction, and as long as headquarters were kept open there were frequent calls for advice and instruction. Foreign women came to ask concerning the measures which would make them naturalized citizens; there were inquiries about registration, and the question often came from those in humble life: "Now that I have received this new right, what books shall I get to teach me how to exercise it?" Surely such an awakening of conscience ought to have a purifying effect! One firm in Denver stated that they sold more books on political economy in the first eight months after the suffrage victory than in twenty years before. The suffrage club took up the study of Fiske's Civil Government and of parliamentary law, and as long as it existed in the old form was actively devoted to political subjects.

The day after the election a German woman came out of her house and accosted one of the members of the club with the exclamation, "Ach, Yon he feel so bad; he not vote any more; me, I vote now!" When assured that John had not been deprived of any of his rights, with more generosity than can be attributed to many of the Johns, she called her husband, exclaiming delightedly: "Yon, Yon, you vote too; we bofe vote!"

AFTER THE BATTLE WAS WON: Colorado had always gone Republican in national elections until 1892, when the People's Party scored an overwhelming majority. In 1894, while still partially a unit on national issues, the parties were widely separated on State affairs and each put a ticket in the field.

The reign of the Populists was of short duration. The eccentricities of Gov. Davis H. Waite brought upon his party an unmerited degree of censure. The Republicans raised a cry of "Redeem the State!" and under that motto called to their aid women of former Republican affiliations. At no subsequent election have women given such close allegiance to party lines. Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, who was sent by the National Republican Committee to canvass the State, probably won many straight Republican votes by arousing in the minds of the women the fear that by attempting to scratch a ticket they might lose their vote entirely. They have learned since that the Australian ballot is not so intricate that any one who can read and write need stand in awe of it.

The Populist women had formed clubs to assist that party before the suffrage was granted. In February, 1894, they opened headquarters in Denver and began organizing throughout the State. Miss Phoebe W. Couzins of St. Louis assisted them in this campaign. Mrs. Helen M. Gougar of Indiana worked for the Prohibitionists. When the annual convention of the National Republican League Clubs was held at Denver, in June, the Republican women were as yet unorganized. At this time Mrs. Frank Hall was persuaded to take charge of that department under the direction of the State Central Committee. Women's Republican leagues were established throughout the State, and in the larger towns and cities complete precinct organizations were effected. In Denver women's Republican clubs were formed in every district and, with their committees subject to the county central committee, worked separately from the men. That known as the East Capitol Hill Women's Republican League, founded by Mrs. H. B. Stevens, acquired a membership of 1,000. The East Denver Women's Republican Club, president, Mrs. Alma Lafferty, was equally successful. These were very active in managing the large mass meetings which contributed so much to the success of their party.

The Democratic women had a peculiar task. Their party was in the minority and it was divided into Silver Democrats and White Wings (Cleveland Democrats). The women refused to acknowledge either faction. Mrs. Anna Marshall Cochrane and Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford called a meeting of the Democratic women of Denver at the home of the latter in May, 1894, and organized the Colorado Women's Democratic Club with a membership of nine: President, Mrs. Mary V. Macon; secretary, Mrs. Cochrane; treasurer, Mrs. Mary Holland Kincaid. The National Committee recognized this as the only straight Democratic association in Colorado, and appointed Mrs. Bradford as organizer. She canvassed the State and being a pleasant and convincing speaker and bringing letters from the chairmen of the two State committees, both factions attended her meetings. She formed twelve large women's clubs and set them to work. When the two State conventions met in Denver, they were both quite willing to acknowledge delegates from these clubs, but the delegates refused to act except with a united convention. Mrs. Bradford was nominated as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, being the first woman named in Colorado for a State office. Mrs. Macon was nominated for regent of the State University. Since there was no chance of electing their ticket, the principal work of the Democratic women in this campaign was the unifying of the party.

The Republicans elected Mrs. Antoinette J. Peavy Superintendent of Public Instruction and three women members of the Legislature--Mrs. Clara Cressingham, Mrs. Frances S. Klock and Mrs. Carrie C. Holly.

During this campaign women gained a good deal of insight into political machinery and learned much which dampened their ardor as party politicians. The idea began to prevail that at least in municipal government the best results could be attained by non-partisan methods.

In the spring of 1895 Mrs. Hall, as vice-chairman of the Republican State Central, Committee, being in charge of the woman's department, called a conference of the several presidents of the women's Republican clubs of Denver. Their object was to purify the ballot and to overcome corrupt gang rule and present worthy candidates. A meeting of all the clubs was called in the Broadway Theater and the house was crowded. Mrs. E. M. Ashley read an announcement of the objects to be accomplished "in the party if they could, out of it if they must." At this election, for the first time, the demi-monde were compelled to register. Desiring to avoid it they sent a petition to this woman's organization, imploring its interference in their behalf. A committee of three women of high standing was appointed and appeared before the Fire and Police Board to request that these unfortunates should not be forced to vote against their will. The board promised compliance but disregarded their pledge and those women were compelled to vote.

It is no wonder that other organizations sprang up in rebellion against such corrupt methods. The Tax-Payers' Party and the Independent Citizens' Movement were examples of these attempts, defeated at first but succeeding later. The Civic Federation of Denver, an outcome of these efforts, is an organization composed of women from all parties, which has endeavored to enforce the selection of suitable candidates.

The Silver Issue of 1896 created a division in the ranks of the Republican party which dissolved many of its women's clubs. The larger wing, under the name of Silver Republican, fused with the other silver parties and elected their State ticket. Miss Grace Espy Patton, who had been prominent in Democratic politics, was chosen State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Three women were elected to the Lower House: Mrs. Olive C. Butler, National Silver Party; Mrs. Martha A. B. Conine, Non-Partisan; Mrs. Evangeline Heartz, Populist, all of Denver.

In the campaign of 1898 voters were divided between the National Republican party under U. S. Senator Edward O. Wolcott and a fusion of the Silver Republicans, Democrats and Populists under the leadership of U. S. Senator Henry M. Teller, Thomas M. Patterson and Charles S. Thomas. In Arapahoe County, owing to various conflicting interests in the municipal government of Denver, fifteen tickets were filed. Each of the principal parties appointed a woman as vice-chairman of the State Central Committee: National Republican, Mrs. Ione T. Hanna; Silver Republican, Mrs. Arras Bissel; Democratic, Mrs. S. E. Shields; Populist, Mrs. Heartz. A woman's executive committee was formed in each party.

The Fusion party elected Mrs. Helen M. Grenfell, Silver Republican, as State Superintendent of Public Instruction; and Mrs. Frances S. Lee, Democrat, Mrs. Harriet G. R. Wright, Populist, and Dr. Mary F. Barry, Silver Republican, as members of the House of Representatives.

Conditions in the State changed materially between the Presidential elections of 1896 and 1900. The depression in the price of silver, which closed many mines and reduced the working force in others, set countless men adrift and led to much prospecting and the discovery of new gold fields. The mines of Cripple Creek gave Colorado the foremost place among gold-producing States, California taking second. Consequently, although interest in the silver question did not cease, its pressure was less felt. In 1896 the McKinley Republicans had no hope of carrying the State, while the Silver Republicans, Populists and Democrats had united and were confident of the success which always had attended a complete fusion of those parties. Thus in both cases the incentive to the utmost exertion was wanting.

In 1900 the situation was different. The Republicans thought there was a chance to win and the Fusionists were not over-confident, hence both parties were stimulated to greater efforts. In 1896 the straight Republicans had only one daily and not more than five weekly papers. In 1900 they had fifteen daily and 103 weekly papers supporting their ticket. They were thoroughly organized throughout the State. In Denver a Woman's Republican League was formed which vied in size with the organization of 1894. Mrs. Stanley M. Casper, a most efficient member of the Equal Suffrage Club in the campaign of 1893, was president; Mrs. A. L. Welch, vice-president and Miss Mary H. Thorn, secretary. They organized every district in the city of Denver, appointing women to look after the registration, secure speakers and get out the vote. It was through this league that U. S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge came to the State. Mrs. J. Ellen Foster and U. S. Senator J. B. Foraker also spoke under their auspices, as well as other distinguished orators, and from their own ranks Mrs. Hanna, Mrs. Lucy R. Scott, Mrs. Peavey and Mrs. Thalia M. Rhoads.

The Colorado Woman's Bryan League were not less active, under the following officers: Chairman, Mrs. Salena V. Ernest; vice-chairmen, Mesdames Sarah Platt Decker, Katherine A. G. (Thomas M.) Patterson and Mary L. Fletcher; secretary, Mrs. Helen Thomas Belford; treasurer, Mrs. Harriet G. R. Wright.

Both organizations kept open headquarters, and the daily papers contained long lists of parlor meetings held throughout the city, addressed by men and women of prominence. The Bryan League was fortunate in having among its own members many excellent speakers, including Mrs. Decker, Mrs. Patton Cowles, formerly State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Rose Kidd Beare, Mrs. Bradford, Mrs. Dora Phelps Buell and Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Grenfell, present State Superintendent, and Mrs. Heartz, now Representative, both candidates for re-election, made many speeches.[190]

The committees of men and women worked together. On October 27 the Woman's Bryan League held a rally of the Silver Parties and a reception to U. S. Senator Teller at the Coliseum. The same evening the Woman's Republican League gave a reception to their candidates at Windsor Hall. Women seem to have an unsuspected gift for managing large meetings. The Denver Times (Republican) said: "The women have shown an ability to handle campaigns for which they never were given credit in the past."

In the election of 1900 the Republicans not only lost their electoral ticket but carried fewer counties than they had done for years, yet their vote of 26,000 for McKinley in 1896 was increased to 93,000; and the Bryan vote was reduced from 161,000 to 122,700. John F. Shafroth and John C. Bell, Fusionists, both strong advocates of woman suffrage, were elected by large majorities. The Legislature was overwhelmingly Democratic, which defeated the re-election to the U. S. Senate of Edward O. Wolcott, that the women had especially determined upon. Thomas M. Patterson was elected.

I. N. Stevens, of the Colorado Springs Gazette, Republican, in closing an article on the State campaign says:

The women have demonstrated their effectiveness in political campaigns, and wherever party candidates and party politics are up to the high standard which they have a right to demand they can be counted upon for loyal support. The Republican party in Colorado can only hope to triumph in one way and that is by appealing to the judgment of the honest and intelligent people of the State with clean candidates for commendable policies and under worthy leadership.

This testimony certainly implies two things, viz.: That the women of Colorado are a power in politics which must be reckoned with, and that their loyal support can be fully counted upon only when the character of the candidates as well as the political methods and aims of the party receive due consideration.

The vote at the second presidential election after the suffrage was conferred on women was as follows:

Percentage of population in the State: Males, 55; females, 45 (in round numbers).

Percentage of vote cast: Males, (nearly) 58-1/2; females, (over) 41-1/2.

Percentage of vote cast in Denver: Males, 57-1/2; females, 42-1/2.

This vote shows that from all causes an average of only three per cent. of the women in the entire State failed to exercise the suffrage.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION: The legislation of most importance which is directly due to woman suffrage may be summed up as follows: Equal guardianship of children; raising the "age of protection" for girls from 16 to 18 years; establishment of a State Home for Dependent Children; a State Industrial School for Girls; indeterminate sentence for criminals; a State Arbitration Board; open meetings of school boards; the removal of emblems from ballots; placing drinking fountains on the corners of most of the down-town streets of Denver.

Indirectly, the results have been infinitely greater. The change in the conduct of Denver stores alone, in regard to women employes, is worthy a chapter. Probably no other city of the same size has more stores standing upon the so-called White List, and laws which prior to 1893 were dead letters are enforced to-day.

The bills introduced by women in the Legislature have been chiefly such as were designed to improve social conditions. The law raising the "age of protection" for girls, the law giving the mother an equal right in her children, and the law creating a State Home for Dependent Children were secured by women in 1895. In the next session they secured the Curfew Law and an appropriation for the State Home for Incorrigible Girls. By obtaining the removal of the emblems from the ballot, they enforced a measure of educational qualification. They have entirely answered the objection that the immature voter would be sure so to exaggerate the power of legislation that she would try to do everything at once.

Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton said that when she viewed the exhibit of woman's work at the Centennial, her heart sank within her; but when she bethought her to examine into the part women had had in the work accredited to men, she took new courage. In like manner much of the legislative work women already have done in Colorado is unchronicled. When a woman finds that there are several other bills besides her own advocating the same measure of reform, she wisely tries to concentrate this effort, even if it is necessary to let the desired bill appear in the name of another. Many excellent bills for which they receive no credit have run the gauntlet of legislative perils piloted by women.

A notable instance of this is what was called the Frog-Blocking Bill, for the protection of railroad employes, which was introduced by a man but so ably engineered by Mrs. Evangeline Heartz that upon its passage she received a huge box of candy, with "The thanks of 5,000 railroad men." While she introduced a number of bills herself, only two of them finally passed--one compelling school boards to hold open meetings instead of Star Chamber sessions, and the present law providing for a State Board of Arbitration. In order to make the latter effective it should have a compulsory clause, which she will strive for in the Legislature of 1901.

LAWS: While the laws of Colorado always have been liberal to women in many respects, there are a few notable exceptions.

The first Legislature of the Territory, in 1861, passed a bill to the effect that either party to the marriage contract might dispose of property without the signature or consent of the other. The men of this new mining country often had left their wives thousands of miles away in the Eastern States; there was no railroad or telegraph; mining claims, being real estate, had to be transferred by deed, often in a hurry, and this law was largely a necessity. It now works great injustice to women, however, through the fact that all the property accumulated after marriage belongs to the husband and he may legally dispose of it without the wife's knowledge, leaving her penniless. Even the household goods may be thus disposed of.[191]

A law of recent years exempts from execution a homestead to the value of $2,000 for "the head of the family," but even this can be sold by the husband without the wife's signature, although he can not mortgage it. This property must be designated as a "homestead" on the margin of the recorded title, and it must be occupied by the owner. "A woman occupying her own property as the home of the family has the right to designate it as a homestead. The husband has the legal right to live with her and enjoy the homestead he has settled upon her."(!) He has, however, the sole right to determine the residence of the family, as in every other State, and by removing from a property the homestead right is destroyed. If the husband abandon the wife and acquire a homestead elsewhere, she has a right only in that.

Neither curtesy nor dower obtains. The surviving husband or wife, if there are children or the descendants of children living, receives, subject to the payment of debts, one-half of the entire estate, real and personal. If there is no living child nor a descendant of any child, the entire estate goes to the survivor.

Husband and wife have the same rights in making wills. Each can will away from the other half of his or her separate property.

In buying and selling, making contracts, suing and being sued, the married woman has the same rights as the unmarried.

In 1895 fathers and mothers were made joint guardians of the children with equal powers.

The expenses of the family and the education of the children are chargeable upon the property of both husband and wife, or either of them, and in relation thereto they may be sued jointly or separately.

In case a man fails to support his family, he can be compelled to do so on the complaint of the wife, the chairman of the board of county commissioners, or the agent of the humane society. Unless he show physical incapacity, or some other good reason for this failure, he may be committed to jail for sixty days.

The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years in 1891; from 16 to 18 in 1895. The penalty is confinement in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than twenty years.

SUFFRAGE: School Suffrage was granted to women by the constitution in 1876, the year Colorado became a State.

The amendment to the constitution adopted by 6,347 majority, Nov. 7, 1893, is as follows:

Every female person shall be entitled to vote at all elections, in the same manner in all respects as male persons are or shall be entitled to vote by the constitution and laws of this State, and the same qualifications as to age, citizenship and time of residence in the State, county, city, ward and precinct, and all other qualifications required by law to entitle male persons to vote, shall be required to entitle female persons to vote.

OFFICE HOLDING: Possessing the Full Suffrage, women of course are eligible to all offices, but naturally the men will not surrender them unless compelled to do so. That of State Superintendent of Public Instruction is generally conceded by all parties as belonging to a woman, and no man has been a candidate for this office since 1893. It can best be spared, as it does not encourage idleness or enable its holder to amass wealth.

Beginning with 1895 ten women have been elected to the Lower House of the Legislature but none to the Senate. Not more than three have been members during any one term.

Only two women were elected to State offices in 1900. The others holding office at present are as follows: County school superintendents, 29; school directors, 508; county clerk, one; county treasurer, one; assessor, one; clerk of County Court, one; clerk of District Court, one. Of the county superintendents, three were elected by a fusion of Democrats and Prohibitionists, three by Democrats, Prohibitionists and Silver Republicans; ten by Democrats and thirteen by Republicans.

The State Board of Charities and Corrections, which has general supervision over all the charitable and penal institutions, has had Mrs. Sarah Platt Decker for its president through this and previous administrations. Dr. Eleanor Lawney also is on this board. On the board of control of the State Industrial School for Girls, three out of five members are women; State Home for Dependent Children, four out of five; State School for Deaf and Blind, one out of five; State Normal School, two out of seven; State Board of Horticulture, one out of six. There have been women on the State Board of Pardons.

There are women physicians in the State Insane Asylum and connected with all institutions containing women and children.

The law for jurors is construed by the judges to apply equally to men and women, but thus far it has been so manipulated that no women have been drawn for service.

In 1897-98 two counties had women coroners.

There are eight women clerks in the Senate and seven in the House of the present Legislature. A number are employed in the court-house and in the county offices.

This partition of offices does not appear very liberal, considering that women have cast as high as 52 per cent. of the total vote; but there are in the State 30,000 more men than women, who could vote if they chose, and they are much more accustomed to holding offices and much more anxious to get them. The less the probabilities of election, the more liberal the parties have been in granting nominations to women.

OCCUPATIONS: The only occupation legally forbidden to women is that of working in mines. Children under fourteen can not be employed, legally, in mines, factories, stores, etc.

EDUCATION: All the institutions of learning are open alike to both sexes. There are five women on the faculty of the State University, one on that of the School of Agriculture, nine in the State Normal School, and in the State Institute for Deaf Mutes seventeen of the thirty-three teachers are women. The Medical Department of the University of Denver has three women professors.

In the public schools there are 727 men and 2,557 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $67; of the women, $48.42. Colorado spends a larger amount per capita for public school education than any other State.

* * * * *

On June 29, 30, 1894, a general meeting of Colorado suffragists was held in Denver and a reorganization of the State association effected. The reason for its continuance was the desire to help other States in their efforts to win the franchise, and a feeling of loyalty to the National Association, to which in common with all other women those of Colorado owed so much.

In May 1895, Miss Susan B. Anthony, president of the National Association, and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president at large, on their way to California, addressed a large and delighted audience in the Broadway Theater, and a reception was given them by the Woman's Club.

In 1896 the Colorado E. S. A. raised the funds to send Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford to aid in the Idaho amendment campaign.

During the Biennial of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, held in Denver in June, 1898, the E. S. A. celebrated the Jubilee Anniversary of the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, N. Y., by a meeting in the Auditorium and a reception in the parlors of the Central Christian Church, with addresses by eminent local and visiting speakers. In these rooms, for the entire week, this organization and the Civic Federation kept open house, and in a flag-draped booth gave an illustration of the Australian system of voting.[192]

In January, 1899, Denver entertained Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, and Miss Mary G. Hay, secretary, as they were passing through the State. Mrs. A. L. Welch gave a reception in their honor, at which ex-Gov. Charles S. Thomas and Gov. Alva Adams spoke enthusiastically of the results of equal suffrage, followed by Mrs. Chapman Catt in an interesting address. The occasion was especially happy because that day the Legislature had almost unanimously passed a joint resolution as follows:

WHEREAS, Equal suffrage has been in operation in Colorado for five years, during which time women have exercised the privilege as generally as men, with the result that better candidates have been selected for office, methods of election have been purified, the character of legislation improved, civic intelligence increased and womanhood developed to greater usefulness by political responsibility; therefore,

Resolved, by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, That in view of these results the enfranchisement of women in every State and Territory of the American Union is hereby recommended as a measure tending to the advancement of a higher and better social order.

That an authenticated copy of these resolutions be forwarded by the Governor of the State to the Legislature of every State and Territory, and the press be requested to call public attention to them.[193]

This year Mrs. Katherine A. G. Patterson, who had been president of the State E. S. A. for three years, retired and was succeeded by Mrs. Welch, who was followed in 1900 by Mrs. Amy K. Cornwall, and in 1901 by Prof. Theodosia G. Ammons.

One of the uncongenial tasks of the officers of the association has been the answering of the many attacks made in Eastern papers on the position of women in Colorado, though this becomes far less trying when it is remembered that in most States public opinion on the question of woman suffrage is still in its formative stage. So soon do we become accustomed to a new thing, if it is in the order of nature, that the women of Colorado have almost ceased to realize that they possess an uncommon privilege. It seems as much a matter of course that women should vote as that they should enjoy the right of free speech or the protection of the habeas corpus act. It is seldom defended, for the same reason that it is no longer thought necessary to defend the Copernican vs. the Ptolemaic theory. One aim of the association is to arouse a more altruistic spirit, and another so to unite women that they will stand together for a good cause irrespective of party. There is at present a strong legislative committee which has been studying the statutes from a non-partisan standpoint, with a view to influencing needful legislation.[194]

Before the autumn of 1893 there were many clubs in Denver, mostly of a literary nature, each formed of women of a certain rank in life, with similar tastes and pursuits. Some had a membership so limited as to render them very difficult of access, but in their way all were good. Perhaps the only truly democratic association, if those of the churches were excepted, where the rich and the poor met together on a plane so perfectly level that only mental or moral height in the individual produced any difference, was the equal suffrage club. Whether related to it or not, this new ideal of club life followed closely after the gaining of political equality.

The Woman's Club of Denver was organized April 21, 1894, with 225 charter members, and now has nearly 1,000. It contains many women of wealth and high social standing, many quiet housekeepers without the slightest aspirations toward fashionable life, and many women who earn their daily bread by some trade or profession. What the public school is supposed to do for our youth in helping us to become a homogeneous nation, the modern woman's club is doing for those of maturer years. The North Side Woman's Club of Denver is second to the Woman's Club only in size and time of organization. The Colorado Federation of Women's Clubs was formed April 5, 1895, with a charter membership of thirty-seven. It now is composed of over 100 clubs, containing about 4,000 individuals.

* * * * *

This is merely a plain tale from the hills. Colorado women feel that they have done well but have made only a beginning. The fact that women are factors in politics underlies and overrules many things not directly connected with the results of election day. Many of the dire effects predicted of equal suffrage have proved their prophets false. In some cases the women themselves have been surprised to find they had entertained groundless fears. This is particularly true concerning the fierce partisanship which is supposed to run riot in the female nature. There is a strong tendency on the part of women to stand by each other, though not always to the extent evinced by one lady who was and still is a pronounced "anti." At the first election she voted for every woman placed in nomination for the Legislature, Populist, Democrat, Republican and Prohibitionist, until she had filled out her ticket. Women frequently scratch their ballots when by so doing they can elect a better man. In legislative work there are absolutely no party lines. The Republican and the Democratic women both want the same measures, and they look upon themselves as constituents whether the member belongs to their party or not.

The vote of the demi-monde always has been a stumbling-block to certain particularly good people. These women never register, never vote and never attend primaries except when compelled to do so. Their identity is often a secret even to their closest associates. It is almost impossible to learn their true names. All they ask is to be let alone. Unfortunately the city of Denver is under what is known as the Metropolitan Fire and Police System. The firemen and police are controlled by boards appointed by the Governor. If he is a politically scrupulous man and his appointments are good ones, this class is not molested. Gov. Davis H. Waite did not compel these women to vote for him in 1894, though he had the power. Under the administration of Governor Adams, when the Hon. Ralph Talbot was president of the board, they took no part whatever.

Possibly those who have been most disappointed at the workings of equal suffrage are the Prohibitionists, yet they really have reason for congratulation. Weld County, which gave the largest vote for equal suffrage of any in the State, has excluded liquor from its borders except in one small town, a coal mining camp with a heavy foreign vote. In many sections the liquor traffic has been abolished, always by the votes of women, but there are many more men than women in the State and without their co-operation no general reform can be enacted or enforced. Every political party has banished liquor and tobacco from its headquarters, as desiring to win the women's support they are careful not to give offense. On election days Denver has a holiday appearance. The vote is cast early and the members of a family usually go together to the polls.

The most noteworthy result is the improved character of the candidates, as one of the most important points to be considered is whether they can get the votes of women. The addition of a large number of independent and conscientious voters to the electorate; the wider outlook given to woman herself through the exercise of civic rights; and the higher degree of comradeship made possible by the removal of political inequality between man and woman; these are the greatest benefits which equal suffrage has brought to Colorado.

FOOTNOTES:

[188] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Emily R. Meredith and her daughter, Ellis Meredith of Denver, both strong factors in securing suffrage for the women of their State; the latter is on the staff of the Rocky Mountain News and editor of the Western Clubwoman.

[189] In 1900 Mr. Bonynge was a candidate for Congress on the Republican ticket and was overwhelmingly defeated by the votes of women.

[190] Mrs. Grenfell was re-elected on the Fusion ticket, having been indorsed by the heads of all the State institutions, most of the county superintendents and all the prominent educators. The Republicans had a woman candidate for this office. Mrs. Heartz was re-elected on the Fusion ticket. There was a Republican woman candidate for the Legislature also.

[191] A bill was introduced in the Legislature of 1901 to give the wife a half-interest in all the earnings after marriage, but it failed to pass either House, perhaps owing to the time consumed by the important revenue bill.

[192] Governor Adams did a splendid work for equal suffrage in his welcome to this great body of women. Quite unaware that it was a tabooed subject, he made a most eloquent address openly glorying in it and advocating its wholesale extension. Probably no one act of his administration made him so many friends among women, and it is said that scores of those from other States went home thoroughly converted.

[193] See Appendix--Testimony from Woman Suffrage States.

[194] The Legislature of 1901 passed 116 bills, a number being of special interest to women. Among these was one establishing truancy schools; another for the care of the feeble-minded; several humane society bills; a measure permitting the State Board of Charities and Corrections to investigate private charitable institutions; a bill for an eight-hour day; one for the preservation of forest trees; one for a bi-weekly pay-day, and an Insurance Bill providing that in cases where a company has to be sued for the amount of a policy it must pay the costs of said suit. This last was indorsed by nearly every woman's organization in the State. The Eight Hour Law requires a constitutional amendment, and will be voted on in the fall of 1902. This is also true of a bill consolidating and reducing the number of elections, and of one providing for full citizenship and an educational qualification as requisites for suffrage.

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XXX. CONNECTICUT.[195]

The Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association was organized in September, 1869, after a memorable two days' convention in Hartford, under the call and management of Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker,[196] The Rev. Nathaniel J. Burton, D. D., was elected its first president and in 1871 he was succeeded by Mrs. Hooker, who has now held the office thirty years with unswerving loyalty and devotion to the cause. During the first fifteen years eight conventions were held, addressed by the most prominent speakers in the country.

In 1884 a State convention took place in Hartford, attended by Miss Susan B. Anthony and a large delegation of men and women from various parts of the State. But one other (1888) intervened between this and that which met in Meriden in 1892, when the society was reorganized under a broader constitution, with the name of Connecticut Woman Suffrage Society for the Study of Political Science. Mrs. Hooker was made president and Mrs. Elizabeth D. Bacon vice-president-at-large.[197]

Since then annual conventions have been held in Hartford (four), Meriden, Willimantic and Southington. Several executive meetings have been called yearly and the business of the association has been systematically arranged. Public meetings have been addressed by Miss Anthony, president of the National Association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of its organization committee, Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell of New York, Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates of Maine and many others.[198]

The Hartford Equal Rights Club was organized in 1885 through the efforts of Mrs. Emily P. Collins and Miss Frances Ellen Burr, both pioneers in the work. Located in the capital, it is the center of the effort for the enfranchisement of women.

The Meriden Political Equality Club was formed in 1889. The late Hon. Isaac C. Lewis, one of its charter members and a lover of justice and equality, in 1893 gave $10,000 in invested funds to aid its work. The Equal Rights Club of Willimantic, founded in 1894, is an active body.

A series of public meetings was held in 1892 at Seymour, Willimantic, Winsted and Ansonia, arranged and financially supported by the Meriden Club and addressed by Mrs. Howell.

In 1895, under the auspices of the State society, a course of twenty lectures was arranged by Mrs. Bacon for Miss Yates.

The local clubs have kept the question before the people through addresses, the circulation of literature and other methods of propaganda. For several years a suffrage tent was supported at the State Fair held in Meriden, and one day set apart as Woman's Day, with good speakers to present the subject. The press department has been an important feature of the work, most efficiently conducted by Mrs. Ella B. Kendrick, its superintendent for the past three years.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: Women have been instrumental in securing the passage of laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco in any form to boys under sixteen years of age; compelling merchants to provide women and girls in their employment with seats when not engaged in their duties; securing scientific temperance instruction in the public schools; and requiring a police matron in all cities of 20,000 or more inhabitants.

In 1884 a bill giving women the right to vote in school district meetings was rejected in the House by 83 ayes, 95 noes, and in the Senate by a majority vote.

In 1885 a bill for School Suffrage was rejected by both Houses.

In 1886 a bill for Full Suffrage was defeated in both Houses.

In 1887 two bills were introduced, one asking Full Suffrage and the other that unmarried women be exempt from taxation. In both cases the committee reported "Ought not to pass," and the petitioners were given leave to withdraw. At this session women were made eligible to serve as School Trustees.

This year the annual sessions were changed to biennial.

In 1889 the petitions for Full Suffrage of Mrs. Elizabeth D. Bacon and others were indefinitely postponed. During the same session women were made eligible to hold the office of assistant town clerk, and to become members of ecclesiastical societies.

In 1891 a legal dispute as to the result of a gubernatorial election caused the former Governor to hold over, and all legislative business to be postponed for two years.

In 1893 the committee, after giving several hearings upon a bill asking Full Suffrage, substituted, with the consent of the State association, one for School Suffrage. Upon the third reading this passed the House, but the Senate referred it back to the committee as imperfect. There it would have remained but for the efforts of the Hartford Equal Rights Club. It finally passed the Senate and the House, was signed by Gov. Luzon B. Morris and became law. Several attempts have been made to repeal it but unsuccessfully.

In 1895 a bill providing for the right of women to vote for Presidential electors was reported unfavorably by the committee, the report being accepted. The same year a Municipal Suffrage Bill went to a third reading and was passed by the House, but failed in the Senate by unanimous vote.

In 1897 a bill conferring upon women the right to vote for Presidential electors was rejected after a third reading both in the House and Senate. Another was presented for the exemption of women from taxation, the committee reported, "Ought not to pass," and the report was accepted. A bill for Municipal Suffrage met the same fate. This year a bill was introduced at the request of the Hartford club, creating the office of woman factory inspector, with the same salary as the male inspector. The Judiciary Committee reported unanimously in favor. Great opposition developed in the House, but after some amendments it passed, but failed in the Senate.

In 1899 a Municipal Suffrage Bill was again introduced and reported upon favorably, but on the third reading it was rejected in the House, and defeated by 9 ayes, 12 noes in the Senate. A bill also was presented providing that any woman who pays taxes on real estate wherein she resides may vote at any meeting upon questions of taxation or appropriation of money. This passed the House, but was rejected in the Senate. The House refused to concur, and the Senate adhered to its former action.

There have been hearings before the Judiciary Committees of several Legislatures for the purpose of securing a Reformatory for Women. Members of the Woman's Aid Society of Hartford and others equally interested have appeared in its behalf.

The law regarding the property rights of women upon the statute books of to-day, except one amendment, was passed in April, 1877, and reads as follows:

In case of marriage on or after April 20, 1877, neither husband nor wife shall acquire, by force of marriage, any right to or interest in any property held by the other before, or acquired after such marriage, except as to the share of the survivor in the property as provided by law. The separate earnings of the wife shall be her sole property. She shall have power to make contracts with third persons and to convey to them her real estate, as if unmarried. Her property shall be liable to be taken for her debts except when exempt from execution, but in no case shall be liable to be taken for the debts of her husband. And the husband shall not be liable for her debts contracted before her marriage, nor upon contracts made after her marriage, except as provided by the succeeding sections.

The dower rights of women married before this date are: A life estate in one-third the husband's realty and one-half his personalty absolutely, unless they shall have made together with their husbands a written contract and recorded the same in the Probate Records, in which they mutually agree to abandon their respective common-law rights in the property of each other, and to claim in place thereof certain other rights as provided by statute made in 1877 as below. The husband before that date took the whole of the wife's personal estate absolutely and the use for life of all her real estate.

Women married on or after April 20, 1877, and those married earlier, who have made and recorded contracts with their husbands as above stated, have no dower rights, and their husbands have no rights by curtesy, but both have, in place of these, rights more valuable.

Where there are children, the survivor is entitled to one-third of decedent's real and personal estate absolutely, and in the absence of children, takes all of the decedent's estate absolutely to the extent of $2,000, and one-half of the remainder absolutely after the decedent's debts have been paid.

The father always has been entitled to the custody and control of the minor children with power to appoint a guardian by will; but a law was passed the present year (1901) which gives the father and mother equal rights of guardianship, and on the death of the father makes the mother the legal guardian.

If a husband neglect to support his wife he may be committed to the workhouse or county jail and sentenced to hard labor not more than sixty days, unless he can show good cause why he is unable to furnish such support, or unless he can give a bond. If he neglect to comply with his bond the selectmen of the town shall immediately furnish support to the extent provided for in such bond. (1895.)

In 1887 the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 14 years, and in 1895 this was increased to 16. The penalty is imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than three years.

SUFFRAGE: The School Suffrage Law of 1893 allows all women citizens who have arrived at the age of majority, and have resided one year in the State and six months in the town, to vote at any meeting held for election of school trustees or for any educational purpose.

At the first election after the passage of this Act, 4,471 women voted in the State. Since then the number has gradually decreased for several reasons. Women soon learned that their vote amounted to but little because of the fact that Connecticut has a minority representation upon its school boards. This practically eliminates contest in the election of school officers, for it often occurs that only the exact number of candidates to be elected are placed in nomination. In cities men are frequently placed on school boards to pay political debts or as an opening for further advancement, therefore it has been found almost impossible to secure the nomination of women. This, of course, decreases their interest in the election. In several marked instances, however, where some question of importance has arisen, women have registered and voted in large numbers.

Willimantic offers a good illustration. All the schools in the town of Windham, of which Willimantic is a borough, were under the district system. For some time the largest school district had been unwisely managed through the influence of one man, who controlled enough votes to insure his retention as chairman year after year. In June, 1895, when he had entirely forfeited confidence, Mrs. Ella L. Bennett, president, and other wide awake members of the Equal Rights Club, determined he should no longer hold this office. The best citizens assured the women that their fears of his re-election were groundless, but they kept on in their efforts and secured the attendance of fifty women at the district meeting, where he was defeated by about twenty votes.

The level-headed ones saw that consolidation of all the school districts was absolutely necessary. Before the election in October the women did valiant work in agitating this question. Previous to this not more than 200 women ever had voted; but now the number registered reached 1,129, and on election day, although the rain fell in torrents and rivers of water ran down the streets, 975 cast their ballots. The Equal Rights Club conducted the election so far as the women were concerned, assisted in preparing ballots, kept a check-list and sent carriages where it seemed necessary. Every little while, all day long, could be heard from the hall where the voting was going on, "Fall back, ladies, fall back and give the men a chance." At the noon hour a crowd of male voters saw a line of women coming down the street and, seizing a ladder, they set it against a window over the stairway, scrambled up and thus got into the hall and headed off the women until the men had voted. The measure for consolidation was carried.

In Hartford the question of consolidation of districts has twice come before the people since women voted, and in both instances they cast a large number of ballots. In several districts in this city women have shown much interest in the annual meetings. One woman has served three years upon a district committee very acceptably, and it is due to the efforts and votes of women that wise management has been sustained and a good principal kept in office.

In his report of 1896, Secretary Charles D. Hine of the State Board of Education, after speaking in unmeasured terms of the efficient service rendered by women as school visitors, on boards of education and on town and district committees, says:

The returns indicate that women are not anxious to vote upon educational matters alone. If men were reluctantly permitted as a great favor to vote for agent of the town-deposit fund, they would not swarm to the polls. The exciting interests of State elections are important and varied enough to allure 85 per cent. of the male voters to the polls, but in many districts it is difficult to obtain enough of them to transact the business of the annual meeting. In the largest district in the State, school meetings have been held and considerable sums of money voted, with less than a dozen men present. Woman can not be adjudged peculiarly lacking in interest because they are not found voting in large numbers on one question and one set of officers.[199]

In 1897 the Legislature amended the School Suffrage Law. The women believed that this change was effected to make the process of becoming a voter more disagreeable. Heretofore they had been permitted to go at any time before the town clerk, answer the necessary questions and be registered. The amendment required them to observe the same regulations as the men who have the full franchise. They must make application to the registrar at one fixed time, fill out a blank and have their names published in the newspapers in the list of those who wish to be made voters. Then at another fixed time they must go before the selectmen, await their turn, take the necessary oath, etc. In many towns and cities it was ruled that all who had been made voters under the old law must re-register. Feeling the injustice of this, many women refused. In Hartford they rebelled absolutely, and after much discussion in the papers and otherwise the city attorney decided that the law was not retroactive.

OFFICE HOLDING: Since 1887 women have been eligible as school trustees, and at present 45 are serving, of whom 29 are school visitors. The latter prescribe rules for the management, classification, studies and discipline of the public schools. The old school district system prevails in many cities and towns and there are a dozen or more women on district committees.

Women are filling other offices, elective and appointive, as follows: Public librarians, 27; police matrons, 5; matron of the State Hospital for the Insane, one; matrons of Reform School for Boys, six, and one assistant; visiting committee of State Industrial School for Girls, 12, two acting each month; assistant superintendent for same, one; in each of the eight Homes connected with this school are to be found a matron and an assistant.

Two of the five members of the State Board of Charities must be women.

Women may serve as notaries public and forty-two are now doing so. They are eligible as assistant town clerks.

OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is forbidden to women by law.

EDUCATION: Wesleyan University, in Middletown, admitted women to equal privileges with men in 1872. By a vote of the trustees in 1900 the number of women was limited to 20 per cent. of the total number of students.

In 1889 the Theological Seminary (Cong'l) of Hartford admitted women upon the same terms as men.

In 1892 Yale University opened the courses of the post-graduate department, with the degree of Ph. D. to women.

In 1893, by an Act of the Legislature, the State Agricultural School, at Storrs, admitted women to its full course.

In the public schools there are 387 men and 3,692 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $89.87; of the women, $43.61.

* * * * *

The State Federation of Women's Clubs was organized in 1897 and under its auspices traveling libraries have been formed for rural schools, free kindergartens supported, etc.

The Society of Colonial Dames has loaned to the library committee twenty libraries which have been placed in public schools.

The Civic Club of Hartford, organized in 1895 with a membership of 150 women, has been instrumental in securing greater cleanliness of streets and public places. It has raised $3,000 for the support of vacation schools, for three years, and has instituted plans for public playgrounds.

In 1898 the Home for Incurable Children was founded by the Children's Aid Society, entirely the work of women.

FOOTNOTES:

[195] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Elizabeth D. Bacon of Hartford, vice-president-at-large of the State Woman Suffrage Association.

[196] See History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. III, p. 321.

[197] County vice-presidents, Mesdames Ella B. Kendrick, J. H. Hale, Rose I. Blakeslee, Mary L. Hemstead, George Sanger, Mary C. Hickox, the Hon. Edwin O. Dimock, Miss Elizabeth Sheldon; recording secretary, Miss Frances Ellen Burr; corresponding secretary, Mrs. G. W. Fuller; treasurer, Mrs. Mary J. Rogers; auditors, Joseph Sheldon, Mrs. S. E. Browne; member national executive committee, Miss Sara Winthrop Smith.

Among others who have served as State officers are Miss Hannah J. Babcock, Mesdames Jane S. Koons, Emma Hurd Chaffee, Annie C. S. Fenner, Ella S. Bennett, Ella G. Brooks, B. M. Parsons, Mary J. Warren.

[198] Among those who have advocated and worked for equal suffrage are the Hon. John Hooker, Judge Joseph Sheldon, Judge George A. Hickox, the Hon. Radcliffe Hicks, the Rev. John C. Kimball, the Hon. Henry Lewis, Judge M. H. Holcomb, ex-Speaker John H. Light, ex-Gov. Charles B. Andrews, the Hon. George M. Gunn, Miss Emily J. Leon and Mrs. Susan J. Cheney. Honorable mention might be made of many others who have spent time and money without stint in efforts to advance this cause.

[199] In 1902 a revised State constitution was submitted and only 15 per cent. of the electors voted on it.

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XXXI. DAKOTA

The Territory of Dakota was created in 1861, but in 1889 it entered the Union divided into two separate States, North and South Dakota. As early as 1872 the Territorial Legislature lacked only one vote of conferring the full suffrage on women. The sparsely settled country and the long distances made any organized work an impossibility, although a number of individuals were strong advocates of equal suffrage.

In 1879 it gave women the right to vote at school meetings. In 1883 a school township law was passed requiring regular polls and a private ballot instead of special meetings, which took away the suffrage from women in all but a few counties.

At the convening of the Territorial Legislature in January, 1885, Major J. A. Pickler (afterward member of Congress), without solicitation early in the session introduced a bill in the House granting Full Suffrage to women, as under the organic act the legislative body had the power to describe the qualifications for the franchise. The bill passed the House, February 11, by 29 ayes, 19 noes. Soon afterward it passed the Council by 14 ayes, 10 noes, and its friends counted the victory won. But Gov. Gilbert A. Pierce, appointed by President Arthur and only a few months in the Territory, failed to recognize the grand opportunity to enfranchise 50,000 American citizens by one stroke of his pen and vetoed the bill. Not only did it express the sentiment of the representatives elected by the voters, but it had been generally discussed by the press of the Territory, and all the newspapers but one were outspoken for it. An effort was made to carry it over the Governor's veto, but it failed.

In 1887 a law was passed enlarging the School Suffrage possessed by women and giving them the right to vote at all school elections and for all school officers, and also making them eligible to any elective school office. At this time, under the liberal provisions of the United States Land Laws, more than one-third of the land in the Territory was held by women.

In this same Legislature of 1887 another effort was made to pass an Equal Suffrage Bill, and a committee from the franchise department of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, consisting of Mesdames Helen M. Barker, S. V. Wilson and Alice M. A. Pickler, appeared before the committee and presented hundreds of petitions from the men and women of the Territory. The committees of both Houses reported favorably, but the bill failed by 13 votes in the House and 6 in the Council.

It was mainly through women's instrumentality that a local option bill was carried through this Legislature, and largely through their exertions that it was adopted by sixty-five out of the eighty-seven organized counties at the next general election.

In October, 1885, the American Woman Suffrage Association held a national convention in Minneapolis, Minn., which was attended by a number of people from Dakota, who were greatly interested. The next month the first suffrage club was formed, in Webster. Several local societies were afterwards started in the southern part of the Territory, but for five years no attempt was made at bringing these together in a convention.[200]

The long contention as to whether the Territory should come into the Union as one State or two was not decided until 1889, when Congress admitted two States. Thenceforth there were two distinct movements for woman suffrage, one in North and one in South Dakota.

NORTH DAKOTA.[201]

On July 4, 1889, a convention met at Bismarck to prepare a constitution for the admission of North Dakota as a State. As similar conventions were to be held in several other Territories, Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the Woman's Journal, came from Boston in the interest of woman suffrage. His object was to have it embodied in the constitution if possible, but failing in this he endeavored to have the matter left as it had been under the Territorial government, viz.: in the hands of the Legislature. To this end, H. F. Miller introduced the following clause:

The Legislature shall be empowered to make further extensions of suffrage hereafter at its discretion to all citizens of mature age and sound mind, not convicted of crime, without regard to sex, but it shall not restrict suffrage without a vote of the people.

Toward the adoption of this all efforts were directed. Two public meetings were addressed by Mr. Blackwell, and on July 8 the Constitutional Convention itself invited him to speak to its members.

After remaining in Bismarck two weeks he went to Helena to attend the Montana convention, but before leaving he succeeded in obtaining the promise of 30 votes out of the 38 necessary for the adoption of the clause. During his absence Dr. Cora Smith (Eaton), secretary of the Grand Forks Suffrage Club, was called to Bismarck to carry on the work. The secretary of the Territory, L. B. Richardson, placed at her service a room on the same floor as Convention Hall, and to this the friends of woman suffrage brought members who had not yet declared themselves in favor. Some ladies were always there to receive them and present the arguments in the case, among these Mrs. Mary Wilson, Mrs. George Watson, Dr. Kate Perkins and Mrs. Benjamin of Bismarck. Everything was managed with scrupulous formality and courtesy.

Mr. Miller's proposition was championed by R. M. Pollock and Judge John E. Carland in Committee of the Whole, and after a second reading was referred to the Committee on Elective Franchise, but on July 25 it reported the substitute of S. H. Moer, confining the suffrage to males. A minority report was offered, directing the Legislature at its first session to submit an amendment to the voters to enfranchise women. After a heated discussion the minority report was defeated, and the constitution provided as follows:

No law extending or restricting the right of suffrage shall be enforced until adopted by a majority of the electors of the State voting at a general election.

By requiring not merely a majority of those voting on the question but of the largest number voting at the election, no amendment for any purpose ever has been carried.

On the question of School Suffrage women received greater consideration, the constitution providing that all women properly qualified should vote for all school officers, including State Superintendent, also upon any question pertaining solely to school matters, and should be eligible to any school office.

ORGANIZATION: The suffragists were widely scattered over this immense Territory and there had been little opportunity for organized work. In the spring of 1888 a call had been issued in Grand Forks, signed by seventy-five representative men and women, for a meeting to form an association, and on April 12 this was held in the court-house, which was crowded to the doors. The extension of the franchise to women was strongly advocated by Judge J. M. Cochrane, Prof. H. B. Wentworth, Mrs. Sara E. B. Smith, Mrs. Sue R. Caswell and others; and encouraging letters were read from the Hon. William Dudley Foulke, Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe of the American Suffrage Association. A public meeting on July 25 at the same place was addressed by Mrs. Ella M. S. Marble of Minnesota. On September 9 Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake of New York gave a strong lecture.

Other local clubs were formed during the following years, and the first State convention was held in Grand Forks, Nov. 14, 15, 1895. It was called to order by Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, president of the local society. Mrs. Laura M. Johns of Kansas, a national organizer who had just made a successful lecturing tour of the State, was elected chairman and Mrs. Edwinna Sturman was made secretary. Cordial letters of greeting were read from Miss Susan B. Anthony, president of the National Suffrage Association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, U. S. Senator Henry C. Hansbrough,[202] Miss Elizabeth Preston, president of the State W. C. T. U., and others. In Miss Anthony's letter was outlined the plan of work that she never failed to recommend to State organizations, which said in part:

First, your local clubs should cover the respective townships, and the officers should not only hold meetings of their own to discuss questions pertaining to their work, but should have the men, when they go into their town meetings for any and every purpose pertaining to local affairs--especially into the meetings which nominate delegates to county conventions--pledged to present a resolution in favor of the enfranchisement of women. By this means you will secure the discussion of the question by the men who compose the different political parties in each township--an educational work that can not be done through any distinctively woman suffrage meeting, because so few of the rank and file of voters ever attend these.

Then, when the time comes for the county convention to elect delegates to the State nominating convention, let every town meeting see to it that they are instructed to vote for a resolution favoring the submission and indorsement of a proposition to strike the word "male" from your constitution. If the State conventions of the several parties are to put indorsement planks in their platforms, the demand for these must come from the townships composing the counties sending delegates thereto. Women going before a committee and asking a resolution indorsing equal suffrage, are sure to be met with the statement that they have heard nothing of any such demand among their constituents. This has been the response on the many different occasions when this request has been made of State conventions. From this repeated and sad experience we have learned that we must begin with the constituents in each township and have the demand start there.

Dr. Eaton was elected president of the association.

The second convention took place at Fargo, Nov. 30, 1897. An extra meeting was held this year at the Devil's Lake Chautauqua Assembly on Woman's Day, with Mrs. Julia B. Nelson, president of the Minnesota, and Mrs. Ella Knowles Haskell, of the Montana W. S. A., among the speakers. Dr. Eaton having removed from the State, Miss Mary Allen Whedon was made president.

The third convention met in Larimore, Sept. 27, 28, 1898, with delegates from eleven counties. Mrs. Chapman Catt was present and contributed much to the success of the meetings. These were held in the M. E. Church with the active co-operation of the pastor, the Rev. H. C. Cooper. Mrs. Flora Blackman Naylor was chosen president.

The fourth convention was held in Hillsboro, Sept. 26, 27, 1899, at which Mrs. Susan S. Fessenden of Massachusetts gave valuable assistance. A page to be devoted to suffrage matter was secured in the White Ribbon Bulletin, a paper published monthly under the auspices of the State W. C. T. U.

The annual meeting of 1900 convened in Lakota, September 25, 26, in the M. E. Church, its pastor, the Rev. Stephen Whitford, making the address of welcome. A Matron's Silver Medal Oratorical Contest was given under the direction of Mrs. Cora Ross Clark.[203]

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: In the Legislature of 1893 a bill was introduced granting women taxpayers the right of suffrage. This was voted down by the House: 18 ayes; 22 noes. A motion was offered that all woman suffrage bills hereafter presented at this session should be rejected, but it was tabled.

A bill to submit to the voters an amendment conferring Full Suffrage on women in the manner provided by the constitution was introduced in the Senate by J. W. Stevens and passed by 16 ayes, 15 noes. It was called up in the House on the last day of the session. Miss Elizabeth Preston was invited to address that body, and the Senate took a recess and came in. The bill received 33 ayes, a constitutional majority, and was returned to the Senate. The House then took a recess, and during this brief time the enemies of the measure secured enough votes to recall it from the Senate. This body by vote refused to send it back, thus endorsing it a second time. The Speaker of the House, George H. Walsh, refused to sign it. Then began a long fight between the House and the Senate. A motion was made by Judson La Moure instructing the President of the Senate to sign no more House bills until the Speaker signed the Woman Suffrage Bill. This armed neutrality lasted until 10 o'clock that night when some of the senators, who had important measures yet to pass, weakened and voted to send the bill back to the House. When it reached there a motion prevailed to expunge all the records relating to it.

In the Legislature of 1895 a bill for a suffrage amendment was introduced in the House by A. W. Edwards, editor of the Fargo Forum. Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe was sent by the National Association to assist in the work for the passage of this and other bills of interest to women. The courtesy of the floor was extended to her in the House and she was invited to address the members, the Senate again taking a recess and coming in to listen. Col. W. C. Plummer spoke against the bill, which received 28 ayes but not a constitutional majority. No suffrage bill has been introduced since.[204]

Dower and curtesy have been abolished. If either husband or wife die without a will, leaving only one child or the lawful issue of one child, the survivor is entitled to one-half of the real and personal estate. If there is more than one child living, or one child and the lawful issue of one or more children, the widow or widower receives one-third of the estate. If there is no issue living, he or she receives one-half of the estate; and if there is neither father, mother, brother nor sister, the whole of it. The survivor may retain a homestead to the value of $5,000, which on his or her death the minor children are entitled to occupy.

A married woman may contract, sue and be sued and proceed in all actions as if unmarried. She may dispose of all her separate property by deed or will, without the consent of her husband. He can not do this.

The father is the legal guardian of the persons, estates and earnings of the minor children. If he abandon them the mother is entitled thereto. At his death she is the guardian, if suitable. Should she marry again she loses the guardianship but, by agreement, the court may re-appoint her.

If the husband is not able to support the family the wife must maintain him and the children to the best of her ability, and her separate estate may be held liable. If he wilfully neglect to provide for them his separate property shall be held liable, and he may be imprisoned in the county jail not less than sixty days nor more than six months.

In case either husband or wife abandons the family and leaves the State for a year or more, or is sent to prison for a year or more, the court may authorize the one remaining to sell or encumber the property of the other for the maintenance of the family or the debts which were left unpaid after due notice has been given to the absent one.

The causes for divorce do not differ from those in a number of other States, but by requiring a residence of only six months a great inducement is offered to persons from outside to come here for the express purpose of securing a divorce.

The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 14 years in 1887. The women attempted in 1895 to have it raised to 18 but succeeded only in getting 16 years. The reduction of the penalty, however, made this of small avail. For the first degree it is imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than ten years; second degree, imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than five years. "But no conviction can be had in case the female is over the age of 10 years and the man under the age of 20 years, and it appears to the satisfaction of the jury that the female was sufficiently matured and informed to understand the nature of the act and consent thereto."

SUFFRAGE: The Territorial Legislature of 1879 gave women a vote on questions pertaining to the schools, which were then decided at school meetings. This was partially repealed by a law of 1883 which required regular polls and a private ballot, but this Act did not include fifteen counties which had school districts fully established, and women still continued to vote at these district school meetings. In 1887 a law was enacted giving all women the right to vote at all school elections for all officers, and making them eligible for all school offices. By the State constitution adopted in 1889 all women properly qualified may vote for all public school officers, including State Superintendent, and on all questions pertaining solely to school matters.

At the special school election held in Grand Forks, Aug. 4, 1890, Mrs. Sara E. B. Smith and Dr. Cora Smith (Eaton) voted. Objections were raised, but with the law and the constitution back of them they carried the day. On September 5, in response to a request from the Grand Forks W. S. A., Attorney-General J. M. Cochrane gave a written opinion that the provision of the constitution relating to woman suffrage was not self-executing, and that until supplementary legislation was enacted providing the requisite machinery for recording school ballots cast by women, they could not vote. As the authorities in a number of places refused to provide separate boxes, the Legislature of 1893 passed an act requiring them.

OFFICE HOLDING: Women are eligible for all school offices, but for no other elective office.

In 1892 Mrs. Laura J. Eisenhuth was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction on the Democratic ticket. In 1894 she was again nominated but was defeated by Miss Emma Bates on the Republican ticket.

Eleven women are now serving as county superintendents, and many on local school boards. They do not sit on any State boards. All of the directors of the Woman's Reformatory, under control of the W. C. T. U., are women.

In the Legislature they serve as librarians, journal, enrolling and engrossing clerks and stenographers. They act also as deputies in State, county and city offices. By special statute of 1893 they may be notaries public.

OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women.

EDUCATION: All of the educational institutions are open to both sexes alike and women are on the faculties. Dr. Janette Hill Knox was vice-president of Red River Valley University (Meth. Epis.) for five years.

There are in the public schools 1,115 men and 2,522 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $39.92; of the women, $35.57.

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first and still continues to be the largest of the organizations. It works for the franchise through public lectures, petitions, legislative bills and various educational measures. The Woman's Relief Corps and a large number of church, lodge and literary societies enlist women's activities in a marked degree. They sit on the official boards of many churches and some of these are composed entirely of women.

SOUTH DAKOTA.[205]

In June, 1883, a convention was held at Huron to discuss the question of dividing the Territory and forming two States, and a convention was called to meet at Sioux Falls, September 4, and prepare a constitution for those in the southern portion. The suffrage leaders in the East were anxious that this should include the franchise for women. Mrs. Matilda Joslyn Gage of New York, vice-president-at-large of the National Suffrage Association, lectured at various points in the Territory during the summer to awaken public sentiment on this question. On September 6 a petition signed by 1,000 Dakota men and women, praying that the word "male" should not be incorporated in the constitution, was presented to the convention, accompanied by personal appeals. There was some disposition to grant this request but the opponents prevailed and only the school ballot was given to women, which they already possessed by Act of the Legislature of 1879. However, this constitution never was acted upon.

The desire for division and Statehood became very urgent throughout the great Territory, and this, with the growing sentiment in Congress in favor of the same, induced the Legislature of 1885 to provide for a convention at Sioux Falls, composed of members elected by the voters of the Territory, to form a constitution for the proposed new State of South Dakota and submit the same to the electors for adoption, which was done in November, 1885. Many of the women had become landholders and were interested in the location of schoolhouses, county seats, State capital and matters of taxation. As their only organization was the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, a committee was appointed from that body, consisting of Alice M. A. Pickler, Superintendent of the Franchise Department, Helen M. Barker and Julia Welch, to appear before the Committee on Suffrage and ask that the word "male" be left out of the qualifications of electors. They were helped by letters to members of the convention from Lucy Stone, Henry B. Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony, Lillie Devereux Blake and others of national reputation.

Seven of the eleven members of the committee were willing to grant this request but there was so much opposition from the convention, lest the chances for Statehood might be imperiled, that they compelled a compromise and it was directed that the first Legislature should submit the question to the voters. They did incorporate a clause, however, that women properly qualified should be eligible to any school office and should vote at any election held solely for school purposes. This applied merely to school trustees, as State and county superintendents are elected at general and not special elections.

The constitution was ratified by the voters in 1885, with a provision that "the Legislature should at its first session after the admission of the State into the Union, submit to a vote of the electors at the next general election, the question whether the word 'male' should be stricken from the article of the constitution relating to elections and the right of suffrage."

Congress at that time refused to divide the Territory and thus the question remained in abeyance awaiting Statehood.

In 1889, an enabling act having been passed by Congress, delegates were elected from the different counties to meet in convention at Sioux Falls to prepare for the entrance of South Dakota into Statehood. This convention reaffirmed the constitution adopted in 1885, and again submitted it to the voters who again passed upon it favorably, and the Territory became a State, Nov. 2, 1889.

The first Legislature met at once in Pierre, and although they were required by the constitution to submit an amendment for woman suffrage a vote was taken as to whether this should be done. It stood in the Senate 40 yeas, one nay; absent or not voting, 4; in the House 84 yeas, 9 nays; 21 absent.

On Nov. 11, 1889, Miss Anthony, in response to urgent requests from the State, made a lecture tour of twelve cities and towns and addressed the Farmers' Alliance at their convention in Aberdeen, when they officially indorsed the suffrage amendment. On her return home she sent 50,000 copies of Senator T. W. Palmer's great woman suffrage speech to individual voters in Dakota under his frank.

A State Suffrage Association had been formed with S. A. Ramsey, president, Alonzo Wardall, vice-president, the Rev. M. Barker, secretary, and Mrs. Helen M. Barker, treasurer and State organizer; but the beginning of this campaign found the women with no funds and very little local organization. Mr. Wardall, who was also secretary of the Farmers' Alliance, went to Washington and, with Representative and Mrs. J. A. Pickler, presented a strong appeal for assistance to the national suffrage convention in February, 1890. It was heartily responded to and a South Dakota campaign committee was formed with Miss Anthony chairman. The officers and friends made vigorous efforts to raise a fund and eventually $5,500 were secured. Of this amount California sent $1,000; Senator Stanford personally gave $300; Rachel Foster Avery of Philadelphia, the same amount; Mrs. Clara L. McAdow of Montana, $250; a number gave $100, among them U. S. Senator R. F. Pettigrew of South Dakota, and different States sent various sums.[206]

The first of May Miss Anthony returned to South Dakota and established campaign headquarters in Huron. A mass convention of men and women was held and an active State organization formed with Mrs. Philena Everett Johnson, president, Mr. Wardall, vice-president, which co-operated with the national committee and inaugurated an active campaign. The new State had adopted as its motto, "Under God the People Rule," and the suffragists wrote upon their banners, "Under God the People Rule. Women Are People." A large number of national speakers came in the summer. Local workers would organize suffrage clubs in the schoolhouses and these efforts would culminate in large rallies at the county seats where some noted speakers would make addresses and perfect the organization.

Those from the outside who canvassed the State were Henry B. Blackwell, editor Woman's Journal, Boston, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, national lecturer, Mary Seymour Howell (N. Y.), the Rev. Olympia Brown (Wis.), Matilda Hindman (Penn.), Carrie Chapman Catt (Wash.), Laura M. Johns (Kan.), Clara Bewick Colby (Neb.), the Rev. Helen G. Putnam (N. D.), Julia B. Nelson (Minn.) Miss Anthony was always and everywhere the moving spirit and contributed her services the entire six months without pay. When $300 were lacking to settle the final expenses she paid them out of her own pocket. Mr. Blackwell also donated his services. Most effective State work was done by Mrs. Emma Smith De Voe, and the home of Mr. and Mrs. De Voe was a haven of rest for the toilers during the campaign. Among the other valuable State workers were Dr. Nettie C. Hall, Mrs. Helen M. Barker, and Mrs. Elizabeth M. Wardall, superintendent of press. A large number of ministers indorsed the amendment. Two grand rallies of all the speakers were held, one in Mitchell, August 26, 27, during which time Miss Anthony, Mr. Blackwell, Miss Shaw and Mrs. Pickler addressed the Republican State Convention; the other during the State Fair in September. The 17th was "Woman's Day" and the Fair Association invited the ladies to speak. Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw and Mrs. De Voe complied. The summing up of the superintendent of press was as follows: Total number of addresses by national speakers, 789; State speakers, 707; under the auspices of the W. C. T. U., 104; total, 1,600; local clubs of women organized, 400; literature sent to every voter.

It would be difficult to put into words the hardships of this campaign of 1890 in a new State through the hottest and dryest summer on record. Frequently the speakers had to drive twenty miles between the afternoon and evening meetings and the audiences would come thirty miles. All of the political State conventions declined to indorse the amendment. The Republicans refused seats to the ladies on the floor of their convention although Indians in blankets were welcomed. The Democrats invited the ladies to seats where they listened to a speech against woman suffrage by E. W. Miller, land receiver of the Huron district, too indecent to print, which was received with cheers and applause by the convention. The minority committee report asking for an indorsement, presented by Judge Bangs of Rapid City, was overwhelmingly voted down. A big delegation of Russians came to this convention wearing huge yellow badges lettered, Against Woman Suffrage and Susan B. Anthony.

The greatest disappointment of the campaign was the forming of an Independent party by the Farmers' Alliance and the Knights of Labor. The Alliance at its convention the previous year, 478 delegates present, at the close of Miss Anthony's address, had declared that they would do all in their power to carry the suffrage amendment, and it was principally on account of their assurances of support and on the invitation of their leaders, that she undertook the work in South Dakota. The Knights of Labor at their convention in January of the present year had adopted a resolution which said: "We will support with all our strength the amendment to be voted on at the next general election giving women the ballot ... believing this to be the first step toward securing those reforms for which all true Knights of Labor are striving."

But the following June these two organizations formed a new party and absolutely refused to put a woman suffrage plank in their platform, although Miss Anthony addressed their convention and implored them to keep their promise, assuring them that their failure to support the amendment would be its death blow. The previous summer H. L. Loucks, president of the Farmers' Alliance, had made a special journey to the State suffrage convention at Minneapolis to invite her to come to South Dakota to conduct this canvass. He was a candidate for Governor on this new party ticket and in his speech of acceptance did not mention the pending amendment. Before adjourning the convention adopted a long resolution containing seven or eight declarations, among them one that "no citizen should be disfranchised on account of sex," but so far as any party advocacy was concerned the question was a dead issue.

A bitter contest was being made between Huron and Pierre for the location of the State capital, and the woman suffrage amendment was freely used as an article of barter. There were 30,000 Russians, Poles, Scandinavians and other foreigners in the State, most of whom opposed woman suffrage. The liquor dealers and gamblers worked vigorously against it, and they were reinforced by the women "remonstrants" of Massachusetts, who sent their literature into every corner of the State.

At the election, Nov. 4, 1890, the amendment received 22,072 ayes, 45,862 noes, majority opposed 23,790. The Republicans carried the State by 16,000 majority.

At this same election an amendment was submitted as to whether male Indians should be enfranchised. It received an affirmative vote of 45 per cent.; that for woman suffrage received 35 per cent. Of the two classes of voters it seemed the men preferred the Indians. It was claimed by many, however, that they did not understand the wording of the Indian amendment and thought they were voting against it.[207]

As the School Suffrage possessed by women applied only to trustees and did not include the important offices of State and county superintendents, and as it was held that the franchise for this purpose could be secured only by a constitutional amendment, it was decided to ask for this. Through the efforts of Mrs. Anna R. Simmons and Mrs. Emma A. Cranmer, officers of the State Association, a bill for this purpose was secured from the Legislature of 1893. As there seemed to be no objection to women's voting for school trustees it was not supposed that there would be any to extending the privilege for the other school officers. It was submitted at the regular election in November, 1894, and defeated by 17,010 ayes, 22,682 noes, an opposing majority of 5,672.

In 1897 the above ladies made one more effort and secured from the Legislature the submission again of an amendment conferring the Full Suffrage on women. The campaign was managed almost entirely by Mrs. Simmons and Mrs. Cranmer. The National Association assisted to the extent of sending a lecturer, Miss Laura A. Gregg of Kansas, who remained for two months preceding the election; and $100 worth of literature also was furnished for distribution. The Dakota women raised about $1,500, and every possible influence was exerted upon the voters. The returns of the election in November, 1898, gave for the amendment 19,698; against, 22,983; adverse majority, 3,285.

In 1890 the amendment had received 35 per cent. of the whole vote cast upon it; in 1898 it received 77 per cent. The figures show unmistakably that the falling off in the size of the vote was almost wholly among the opponents.[208]

ORGANIZATION: After the defeat of the suffrage amendment in 1890 a more thorough State organization was effected and a convention has been held every year since. That of 1891 met in Huron and Mrs. Irene G. Adams was elected president. Soon afterwards she compiled a leaflet showing the unjust laws for women which disgraced the statute books.

In 1892 a successful annual meeting took place at Hastings and Mrs. Mary A. Groesbeck was made president. In September, 1893, the convention was held in Aberdeen during the Grain Palace Exposition. The State president and the president elect, Mrs. Emma A. Cranmer, had charge of the program for Woman's Day, and Mrs. Clara Hoffman (Mo.) gave addresses in the afternoon and evening.

In 1894 Mrs. Anna R. Simmons was elected president and continued in office for six years. This year $100 was sent to aid the Kansas campaign. During 1894 and '95 she made twenty public addresses and held ten parlor meetings. At the convention in Pierre in September, 1895, she was able to report fifty clubs organized with 700 members. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, was present at this convention.

Active work was continued throughout 1896 and 1897, when the submission of a suffrage amendment was secured. The year of 1898 was given up to efforts for its success. Mrs. C. C. King established and carried on almost entirely at her own expense the South Dakota Messenger, a campaign paper which was of the greatest service. The State convention met in Mitchell September 28-30. Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates (Me.) came as representative of the National Association and gave two addresses to large audiences. The following October a conference of National and State workers was held at Sioux Falls, the former represented by Mrs. Chapman Catt, the Rev. Henrietta G. Moore (O.) and Miss Mary G. Hay, national organizers. Several public sessions were held.

The annual meeting of 1899 took place in Madison, September 5, 6. The tenth convention met in Brookings, Sept. 5, 1900. Mrs. Simmons having removed from the State, Mrs. Alice M. A. Pickler was elected president. Mrs. Philena Everett Johnson was made vice-president.[209]

Among the prominent friends of woman suffrage may be mentioned the Hon. Arthur C. Mellette, first State Governor; U. S. Senators Richard F. Pettigrew, James H. Kyle and Robert J. Gamble; Lieutenant-Governor D. T. Hindman; members of Congress J. A. Pickler, W. B. Lucas and E. W. Martin; the Hons. S. A. Ramsey and Coe I. Crawford; Attorney-General John L. Pyle, Judge D. C. Thomas, General W. H. Beadle, Professor McClennen, of the Madison Normal School, and ministers of many churches. The Hon. J. H. Patton and the Hon. W. C. Bowers paid the expenses of the legislative committee of the suffrage association while they were in Pierre during the winter of 1897 to secure the submission of an amendment. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court A. J. Edgerton, was a pronounced advocate of woman suffrage and appointed a woman official stenographer of his judicial district, the best salaried office within his gift. Associate Justice Seward Smith appointed a woman clerk of the Faulk County district court.[210]

LAWS: Neither dower nor curtesy obtains. If either husband or wife die without a will, leaving only one child or the lawful issue of one, the survivor is entitled to one-half of the separate estate of the other; or one-third if there are more than one child or the issue of more than one. If there are no children nor the issue of any, the survivor is entitled to one-half of the estate and the other half goes to the kindred of the deceased. If there are none the survivor takes all. A homestead of 160 acres, or one-quarter of an acre in town, may be reserved for the widow or widower.

Either husband or wife may dispose of separate property, real or personal, by deed or will, without the consent of the other. Joint real estate, including the homestead, can be conveyed only by signature of both, but the husband may dispose of joint personal property without the consent of the wife.

In order to control her separate property the wife must keep it recorded in the office of the county register.

On the death of an unmarried child the father inherits all of its property. If he is dead and there are no other children, the mother inherits it. If there are brothers and sisters she inherits a child's share.

A married woman can not act as administrator. Of several persons claiming and equally entitled to act as executors, males must be preferred to females.

A married woman can control her earnings outside the home only when living separate from her husband.

The father is the legal guardian and has custody of the persons and services of minor children. If he refuse to take the custody or has abandoned his family or has been legally declared a drunkard, the mother is entitled to the custody.

The law declares the husband the head of the family and he must support the wife by his separate property or labor, but if he has not deserted her, and has no separate property, and is too infirm to support her by his labor, the wife must support him and their children out of her separate property or in other ways to the extent of her ability. An act of Feb. 21, 1896, makes the wife liable for necessaries for the family purchased on her own account to the same extent that her husband would be liable under a similar purchase, but with no control over the joint earnings.

The causes for divorce are the same as in most States but only six months' residence is required. The disposition of the children is left entirely with the court.

In 1887, through the efforts of the W.C.T.U., the "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 14 years. In 1893 they tried to have it made 18 but the Legislature compromised on 16 years. Rape in the first degree is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than ten years; in the second degree, not less than five years.

The penalty for seduction and for enticing away for purposes of prostitution is prescribed by the same words "is punishable," which in reality leaves it to the judgment of the court, but the statutes fix the penalty for all other crimes by the words "shall be punished." In addition to this latitude the penalty for seduction or enticing for purposes of prostitution is, if the girl is under 15, imprisonment in the penitentiary not more than five years, or in the county jail not more than one year, or by fine not exceeding $1,000, or both; with no minimum penalty.

SUFFRAGE: The Territorial Legislature of 1879 gave women a vote on questions pertaining to the schools, which were then decided at school meetings. This was partially repealed by a law of 1883 which required regular polls and a private ballot, but this act did not include fifteen counties which had school districts fully established, and women still continued to vote at these district school meetings. In 1887 a law was enacted giving all women the right to vote at all school elections for all officers, and making them eligible for all school offices. The constitution which was adopted when South Dakota entered the Union (1889) provided that "any woman having the required qualifications as to age, residence and citizenship may vote at any election held solely for school purposes." As State and county superintendents are elected at general and not special elections, women can vote only for school trustees. They have no vote on bonds or appropriations.

OFFICE HOLDING: The State constitution provides that all persons, either male or female, being twenty-one years of age and having the necessary qualifications, shall be eligible to the office of school director, treasurer, judge or clerk of school elections, county superintendent of public schools and State Superintendent of Public Instruction. All other civil offices must be filled by male electors.

There are at present eleven women serving as county superintendents. They sit on the school boards in many places and have been treasurers. A woman was nominated for State Superintendent of Public Instruction by the Independent party.

Efforts to secure a law requiring women on the boards of State institutions have failed. The Governor is required to appoint three women inspectors of penal and charitable institutions, who are paid by the State and make their report directly to him. They inspect the penitentiary, reform school, insane hospitals, deaf and dumb institute and school for the blind. There is one assistant woman physician in the State Hospital for the Insane. Women in subordinate official positions are found in all State institutions.

They act as clerks in all city, county and State offices and in the Legislature, and have served as court stenographers and clerk of the Circuit Court.

There are eight women notaries public at the present time.

OCCUPATIONS: No profession or occupation is legally forbidden to women. Ten hours is made a legal working day for them. Four women are editing county papers.

EDUCATION: All institutions of learning are open alike to both sexes and there are women on the faculties. In the public schools there are 1,225 men and 3,581 women teachers. The average monthly salary of the men is $36.45; of the women $30.82.

* * * * *

The W.C.T.U. was the first organization of women in the State and through its franchise department has worked earnestly and collected numerous petitions for suffrage. The Woman's Relief Corps is the largest body, having 1,800 members. The Eastern Star, Daughters of Rebekah, Ladies of the Maccabees, and other lodge societies are well organized. The Federation of Clubs, the youngest association, represents 200 members. A number of churches have women on their official boards.

FOOTNOTES:

[200] At the New Orleans Exposition in 1885 the displays of Kansas, Dakota and Nebraska taught the world the artistic value of grains and grasses for decoration, but it was exemplified most strikingly in the Dakota's Woman's Department, arranged by Mrs. J. M. Melton of Fargo. Among the industrial exhibits was a carriage robe sent from a leading furrier to represent the skilled work of women in his employ. There were also bird fans, a curtain of duck skins and cases of taxidermy, all prepared and cured by women, and a case of work from women employed in the printing office of the Fargo Argus. Four thousand bouquets of grasses were distributed on Dakota Day and carried away as curious and beautiful memorials. All were made by women in the Territory.

[201] The History is indebted for this part of the chapter to Dr. Janette Hill Knox, of Wahpeton, corresponding secretary of the State Woman Suffrage Association.

[202] U. S. Senator W. N. Roach also wrote and voted in favor of woman suffrage. Martin N. Johnson, M. C., was a strong advocate.

[203] Officers elected: Honorary presidents, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton and Miss Mary Allen Whedon; president, Mrs. Flora Blackman Naylor; vice-president, Mrs. G. S. Roberts; corresponding secretary, Dr. Janette Hill Knox; recording secretary, Mrs. Henrietta Paulson Haagenson; treasurer, Mrs. Anna Carmody; auditors, Mrs. J. S. Kemp, Mrs. Addie L. Carr; member national executive committee, Mrs. Lois L. Muir; organizer and lecturer, Mrs. Mary E. Slater; press superintendent, Mrs. Flora P. Gates.

In addition to these, the following have served as State officers: Vice-presidents, Mesdames Mary Wilson, Florence Dixon and G. S. Roberts; corresponding secretaries, Mrs. Sara E. B. Smith, Mrs. Delia Lee Hyde; recording secretary, Mrs. Helen de Lendrecie; treasurer, Mrs. Katherine V. King; auditors, Dr. Helena G. Wink and Mesdames M. B. Goodrich, L. C. McKinney and L. C. Campbell.

Among other efficient workers may be mentioned Gov. Eli Shortridge, Gov. Roger Allen, Dr. M. V. B. Knox, Miss Bena Halerow, and Mesdames Ida S. Clark, Mazie Stevens, Nellie Mott, Frances M. Dixon, R. C. Cooper and S. M. Woodhull.

[204] In the Legislature of 1901 a bill was introduced in the House by H. E. Lavayea of Grand Forks County, to take away School Suffrage from women. The bill was unconstitutional and was never reported from the committee, but its introduction stirred up indignant protests from all parts of the State.

[205] The History is indebted to Mrs. Alice M. A. Pickler of Faulkton, president of the State Woman Suffrage Association, for the material contained in this part of the chapter.

[206] The speakers raised about $1,400 which went toward paying their expenses. Over $1,000 were secured by other means. Most of the State workers donated their expenses.

[207] A graphic account of this campaign, with many anecdotes and personal reminiscences, will be found in the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Chap. XXXVIII.

[208] Petitions have been presented to several Legislatures to grant Municipal Suffrage by statute but a bill for this purpose has been brought to a vote only once, in 1893, when it was passed by the Senate, 27 ayes, 11 noes; and defeated in the House by only one vote.

[209] Others who have served in official position are vice-president, Mrs. Emma A. Cranmer; corresponding secretaries, Mesdames Kate Uline Folger, F. C. Bidwell, Hannah V. Best; treasurers, Mrs. Elizabeth M. Wardall, Mrs. Marion L. Bennett, Mrs. Clara M. Williams; auditor, Mrs. John Davis; superintendents of literature, Mrs. Jane Rooker Breeden, Mrs. Delia Robinson King.

[210] The list of men and women who are not so widely known but who have stood faithfully for woman suffrage would be a long one. Among them are S. H. Cranmer, Rev. and Mrs. C. E. Hagar, Mrs. Alice Gossage, Mrs. C. E. Thorpe, Mrs. Luella A. Ramsey, Mrs. Ruby Smart, Kara Smart and Floy Cochrane.

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XXXII. DELAWARE.[211]

In the campaign of 1884 the Republicans had a Ship of State called the New Constitution, with an eagle on the top, which was mounted on wheels and taken from place to place where they held public meetings. When they came to Greenwood, the home of Mrs. Mary A. Stuart, she put a "blue hen" upon it, saying they should not have an eagle to represent freedom for men and nothing to represent women. So the hen went from one end of Delaware to the other, sitting in state in a glass coop. Some of the Republican speakers announced from the platform this year that they favored enfranchisement of women.

In 1888 the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union adopted the franchise department with Mrs. Patience Kent as superintendent, and held several public meetings. In 1889 Mrs. Martha S. Cranston was elected her successor, and still occupies the position.

Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, corresponding secretary of the National Association, organized the Wilmington Equal Suffrage Club, the first in the State, on Nov. 18, 1895, with twenty-five members. The membership soon increased to fifty-three.

The following winter Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, sent into the State the Rev. Henrietta G. Moore of Ohio and Miss Mary G. Hay of New York, the latter to arrange meetings and the former to address them and organize clubs. On Jan. 17, 18, 1896, they assisted in a convention at Wilmington, where a State Association was formed.

As Delaware was to hold a Constitutional Convention in 1897, the National Association was especially interested in pushing the suffrage work there. Mrs. Chapman Catt met with the executive committee in Wilmington to arrange plans, and Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Colorado and Miss Laura A. Gregg of Kansas were sent during March and April to further organization. Three county associations were formed, and Mrs. Hortense Davenport held parlor meetings in various towns throughout May.

On Nov. 27, 1896, the second annual convention was held in the New Century Club parlors in Wilmington. Judge William N. Ashman of Philadelphia and Mrs. Mary Heald Way of Oxford, Penn., addressed the audience in the evening.

Petitions were circulated throughout the State, and Mrs. Cranston and Miss Hay went to Dover to present the Constitutional Convention with a memorial, which was referred to the Committee on Elections. It contained the signatures of 1,592 men and 1,228 women. A hearing was granted Jan. 13, 1897. Mrs. Emalea P. Warner, Mrs. Margaret W. Houston and Miss Emma Worrell made addresses. Mrs. Chapman Catt was the chief speaker. Only two members of the committee were absent. A vote was taken February 16 on omitting the word "male" from the new constitution, and the proposition was defeated by 7 yeas, 17 nays, with 6 not present.

A national conference was held in Wilmington April 22, 23. Mrs. Chapman Catt and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, national vice-president-at-large, were the principal speakers, and Mrs. Elizabeth G. Robinson, Mrs. Elizabeth Walling and Mrs. Houston assisted in making the meetings a success. On Sunday Miss Shaw preached in the Union M. E. Church in the morning and the Delaware Avenue Baptist Church in the evening.

The third State meeting took place at Wilmington, Dec. 2, 1897, with addresses by Miss Diana Hirschler of Boston and Mrs. C. O. H. Craigie of Brooklyn.

There was no convention in 1898, but the State association held a meeting in the Unitarian Church, in Wilmington, Dec. 15, 1899, which was addressed by Mrs. Chapman Catt.

After the national convention in February, 1900, Mrs. Bradford made a few addresses in the State. The annual meeting took place in Newcastle, Nov. 15, 1900. Among the speakers were Mrs. Ellen H. E. Price of Pennsylvania and Professors William H. Purnell and Wesley Webb.

Mrs. Martha S. Cranston has been president of the State association, and Mrs. Margaret W. Houston vice-president, since its beginning. Others who have served in official capacity are Mrs. Margaret H. Kent, Edward Mullen, Miss Emma Lore, Mrs. Mary R. De Vou and Mrs. May Price Phillips. Among those not previously mentioned who have given valuable assistance are Chief Justice Charles B. Lore and Mrs. Gertrude Nields.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: No bill for woman suffrage has been presented to the Legislature since 1881.

On the petition of women a law was passed in 1887 requiring employers to provide seats for female employes when not on duty.

In 1889 a police matron was appointed for Wilmington.

In 1893 the Bastardy Law, which compelled the father of an illegitimate child to pay fifty cents a week for its support during seven years, was repealed; $3 a week for ten years were asked, but the law made it $1 a week for ten years.

Until 1889 the "age of protection" for girls was only seven years. That year, on petition of many women, it was raised to fifteen, but the violation of the law was declared to be only a "misdemeanor," punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than seven years, or both, at the discretion of the court, with no minimum penalty named. In 1895 the Legislature, on the insistence of women, raised the "age of protection" to eighteen years, but continued to extend the "protection" to boys as well as girls. It has been found very difficult to secure the conviction of men for this crime, and those convicted have been repeatedly pardoned by the Governor.

On May 10, 1897, the Legislature passed a bill requiring the proprietors of mills, factories and stores in the city of Wilmington to provide comfortable toilet-rooms for their female employes, and one giving power for the appointment of women as factory inspectors. One was appointed by Chief Justice Lore the same year.

If there is a child or the lawful issue of a child living, the widow has a life-interest in one-third of the real estate and one-third absolutely of the personal property. If there is no child nor the descendant of any child living, the widow has a life-interest in one-half of the real estate and one-half absolutely of the personal estate. If there are neither descendants nor kin--brothers, sisters, their descendants, father nor mother--the widow has the entire real estate for her life, and all the personal estate absolutely. If a child of the marriage was born alive, whether living or dead at the death of the wife, the widower has her entire real estate during his life, and the whole of her personal estate absolutely, subject to all legal claims. If there has not been a child born alive, the widower has a life-interest in one-half of her real estate, but the whole of her personal estate absolutely.

The father is the legal guardian of the children, and he alone may appoint a guardian at his death.

For failure to support his wife and minor children, a man may be fined from $10 to $100; and, by Act of 1887, arrested and required to give bail not exceeding $500. The court may order him to pay reasonable support not exceeding $100 per month and give security to the State. If he fail to comply, he may be committed to jail. The wife is competent as a witness.

SUFFRAGE: The women in Milford, Townsend, Wyoming and Newark who pay a property tax are privileged to vote for Town Commissioners in person or by proxy. All such women in the State may vote for School Trustees.

OFFICE HOLDING: In January, 1900, the Supreme Court denied the application of a woman to practice at the bar, on the ground that a lawyer is a State officer and all State officers must be voters.

In the one city of Wilmington women are eligible as school directors, but none ever has been elected.

A woman factory inspector was appointed by the Chief Justice in 1897, and reappointed in 1900.

Women never have served as notaries public.

OCCUPATIONS: Only the practice of law is legally forbidden.

EDUCATION: Delaware has one college, at Newark, which receives State funds. Women were admitted in 1872, and during the next thirteen years eighty availed themselves of its advantages. It was then closed to them. The only High School in the State, at Wilmington, is open to girls.

There are in the public schools 211 men and 643 women teachers. It is impossible to obtain their average salaries.

FOOTNOTES:

[211] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Martha S. Cranston of Newport, president of the State Woman Suffrage Association.

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