XVIII. NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1918-1919…

XVIII. NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1918-1919

For the first time since it was founded in 1869 the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1918 omitted its annual convention. Suffragists were accustomed to strenuous effort but this year strained to the last ounce the strength of all engaged in national work. The Congressional Committee could not secure the respite of a single day and were summoning women from all parts of the country for service in Washington and demanding extra work from them at home, telegrams, letters, influence from the constituencies, etc. There was a vote Jan. 10, 1918, in the Lower House and a continual pressure from that moment to get a vote in the Senate, which did not come till October and was adverse. Then the committee pushed on without stopping. Mrs. Shuler, the corresponding secretary, had been in the Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma campaigns all summer and was exhausted. The three States were carried for suffrage and when the election was over all the forces were used to obtain Presidential suffrage in the big legislative year beginning January, 1919. It was a question of pressing forward to victory or stopping to prepare for and hold a convention and lose the opportunities for gains in Congress.

During the first ten months of 1918 the vast conflict in Europe had gone steadily on; the United States had sent over millions of soldiers and other millions were in training camps on this side of the ocean; transportation was blocked; the advanced cost of living had brought distress to many households; thousands of families were in mourning, and everywhere suffragists were devoting time and strength to those heavy burdens of war which always fall on women. By November 1, when it would have been necessary to issue the call for a convention, there was no prospect of a change in these hard conditions, and when on November 11 the Armistice was suddenly declared no one was interested in anything but the end of the war and its world-wide aftermath.[114] During the dark days of 1918, however, there had come a tremendous advance in the status of woman suffrage. The magnificent way in which women had met the demands of war, their patriotic service, their loyalty to the Government, had swept away the old-time objections to their enfranchisement and fully established their right to full equality in all the privileges of citizenship. Early in the winter the Lower House of Congress by a two-thirds vote declared in favor of submitting to the Legislatures an amendment to the Federal Constitution, the object for which the National Suffrage Association had been formed, and the Parliament of Great Britain had fully enfranchised the majority of its women. In the spring the Canadian Parliament conferred full Dominion suffrage on women. Before and after the Armistice the nations of Europe that had overthrown their Emperors and Kings gave women equal voting rights with men. In November at their State elections, Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma gave complete suffrage to women. The U. S. Senate was still holding out by a majority of two against submitting the Federal Amendment but it was almost universally recognized that the seventy years' struggle for woman suffrage in this country was nearing the end.

With the opening of the year 1919 the progress was evident by the addition of seven more States to those whose Legislatures had granted the Presidential franchise to women; that of Tennessee included Municipal suffrage and that of Texas had given Primary suffrage the preceding year. The situation now seemed to require an early convention of the National Association and the time was especially opportune, as this year marked the 50th anniversary of its founding. A Call was issued, therefore, for a Jubilee Convention to be held in March, fifteen months after the one of 1917. As it was the intention to launch the organization of Women Voters it was decided to meet in the central part of the country and the invitation of St. Louis was accepted.[115]

The Report of the annual convention of 1901, with which this volume begins, filled 130 printed pages; the Report of 1919 filled 322, which makes a complete account of its proceedings impracticable. Their character had been changing from year to year and at this convention it was almost transformed. At the public evening meetings there were no longer eloquent pleas and arguments for the ballot and the daytime sessions were not devoted to discussions of the many phases of the work. Now there was business and political consideration of the best and quickest methods of bringing the movement to an end and the most effective use that could be made of the suffrage already so largely won. It was a little difficult for some of the older workers to accustom themselves to the change, which deprived the convention of its old-time crusading, consecrated spirit, but the younger ones were full of ardor and enthusiasm over the limitless opportunities that were nearly within their grasp.

On Sunday evening the national officers and directors held an informal reception in the Hotel Statler for the delegates and all the sessions were held in this hotel, with the two evening mass meetings in the Odeon Theater. The convention opened Monday evening, March 24, with the president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who was an ordained Methodist minister, pronounced the invocation and the community singing at this and all sessions was led by Mrs. W.D. Steele of St. Louis.[116] The Mayor, Henry W. Kiel, extended a cordial welcome to the city and pledged his earnest support of woman suffrage. Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, president of the Missouri suffrage association, gave the welcome from the State. Mrs. B. Morrison Fuller, president of the Daughters of Pioneers, brought their greeting and referred to a convention held in St. Louis in 1872, introducing three ladies who were present at that time.

Dr. Shaw, honorary president, took the chair and presented Mrs. Catt. Her address, The Nation Calls, was a strong appeal for an organization of Women Voters to be formed in the States where they were enfranchised. The plan was outlined and she asked: "Shall the women voters go forward doing their work as free women in the great world while the non-free women are left to struggle on alone toward liberty unattained?" She showed how powerful an influence such a coordinated body could wield and among its primary objects she pointed out the Federal Suffrage Amendment, corrections in the present laws and true democracy for the world. She named nine vital needs of the Government at the present time, to which the proposed organization could contribute--compulsory education, English the national language, education of adults, higher qualifications for citizenship, direct citizenship for women and not through marriage, compulsory lessons in citizenship through foreign language papers, oath of allegiance as qualification for citizenship, schools of citizenship in every city ward and rural district and an educational requirement for voting.

This comprehensive and convincing address is given in part in the chapter on The League of Women Voters, by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary. It showed beyond question the great work that awaited the action of women endowed with political power and it swept away all doubts of the necessity for this new organization to which Mrs. Catt and her committee had given so much time and thought. Throughout the convention the League was the dominating feature, meetings being held daily to discuss its organization, constitution, objects, methods, officers, etc.

At the close of Mrs. Catt's address Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee, with a group of sixteen women from as many southern States came to the platform and with eloquent words presented her and Dr. Shaw with large framed parchments on which President Wilson's appeal to the Senate for the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment Sept. 30, 1918, was beautifully wrought in illuminated letters by the artist Scapecchi. At Mrs. Catt's request Dr. Shaw made the response for both of them.

Tuesday morning the convention was cordially welcomed to the city by Mrs. George Gellhorn, president of the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League and chairman of local arrangements. There were present 329 delegates, seventeen officers and three chairmen of standing committees. The chair announced that because of the crowded program the separate reports of officers and committee chairmen, which always had been read to the conventions, would be replaced with a general report of the year's work by Mrs. Shuler, chairman of Campaigns and Surveys. This report was a remarkably comprehensive survey of the varied work of the association. After recounting the gains in the States she said:

Our question is now political. The past year has seen suffrage by Federal Amendment endorsed by twenty-one Democratic and twenty Republican State conventions; by all those of the minor parties and by many State Central Committees, while many others have approved the principle of equal suffrage by a large vote. In July, 1918, our second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, was made chairman of the platform committee at the State Republican conference in Saratoga, N. Y., a distinct suffrage victory, inasmuch as the men realized that in thus signally honoring her they were honoring the woman, who, by her work in winning the suffrage campaign in New York City, had made possible the victory in the State. Miss Hay has since been made a member of the Republican State Executive Committee and chairman of the Executive Committee Woman's Division of the Republican National Committee.

The work of the last fifteen months has been accomplished under most trying and difficult conditions. Many women under the allurement of war work dropped suffrage work altogether, and could not be persuaded that it was necessary at this time; others were unable to endure the criticism that they would be "slackers" if they did anything besides war work; still others thought if they did this well that men, "seeing their good works" would "reward them openly" with the ballot.

Mobilization: The mobilization of our suffrage army came April 18, 1918, with the call for the Executive Council meeting at Indianapolis. At that time Mrs. Catt, our chief, plainly stated that there could be no "go it alone" campaigns but that provincial shackles must be dropped, nation-wide plans adopted and constructive cooperation from all branches assured. Her plans were accepted unanimously. On May 14 a bulletin was issued asking for a nation-wide protest campaign against further delay in passing the Federal Amendment. Resolutions were to be passed by State bodies and points given to be stressed at mass meetings and in publicity. Resolutions of protest were sent from the women of the Allied countries of Europe to the President of the United States; from National Republican and Democratic Committees; General Federation of Women's Clubs; National Women's Trade Union League; American Collegiate Alumnae; American Nurses' Association; National Education Association; National Convention of Business Women; Woman's Christian Temperance Union; American Federation of Labor. Many States responded with resolutions from State political parties, press associations, churches, granges, labor and business organizations, political leaders and large numbers of citizens.

Our Fighting Units: From honorary president to the last director, every member of the board of the National Association had some part in war work. Our service flag representing suffrage officials of our branches carried twenty-five stars. Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick were conscripted for the Woman's Committee of the National Council of Defense; Mrs. Catt for the Liberty Loan's National List; Miss Hay, Mrs. Gardener and Mrs. Dudley for Congressional and Mrs. Brown for Oversea Hospitals work. Other members of the board were sent from time to time to various States on special missions.

Congressional Work: Mrs. Rogers went to New Jersey; Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Stilwell to Delaware and Mrs. Livermore to New Hampshire for work connected with the Federal Amendment. Mrs. Wilson attended the State suffrage conventions in Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and made a longer stay in Florida and Vermont. Mrs. Shuler went to the three campaign States twice, spending five weeks in South Dakota, holding a suffrage school there; five weeks in Michigan and nearly five months in Oklahoma, later going to West Virginia. Others who were sent by the National Association on special missions were Miss Louise Hall, Mrs. Fitzgerald, Mrs. Anna C. Tillinghast and Miss Eva Potter to New Hampshire; Miss Mabel Willard to Delaware; Mrs. Cunningham, Miss Marjorie Shuler and Mrs. Mary Grey Brewer to Florida, while Mrs. Brewer made a trip as special envoy to five of the western States. Our nineteen national organizers have been in twenty States. In eighteen part or all of the expenses have been borne by the National Association. At present we have ten organizers in the field.

To the one who has made our victories possible, our national and international president, Mrs. Catt, women owe a debt of gratitude that can never be paid. Her strength and sagacity, her unerring judgment and masterful leadership have acted as a stimulus and inspiration, not only to those of us who have been privileged to work at close range but also to the women of the entire world. Our national suffrage headquarters have been a place of peace and happiness because of her patience, good-nature and sympathy. Her battle for the past fifteen months has been with adverse conditions and reactionary forces, which are always the hardest to combat, but not once has her courage faltered or her strength of purpose failed.

Our Ammunition: At national headquarters in New York City our work is departmentalized and functions through the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education under three department heads: The Woman Citizen, Press Bureau and Research. These cooperate with a fourth department, the National Publishing Company, and all are so closely co-ordinated that they work as one.

The Woman Citizen--Our National Organ. (See special report.) As you will remember, the Leslie Commission took over the Press Bureau March, 1917, and since then has paid all of its expenses.

In order to keep our official machinery moving, there are about fifty people on the two floors at 171 Madison Avenue, New York.

Circularization: The Woman Citizen has been sent each week to members of Congress and on thirty different occasions they received literature prepared in the most tempting fashion for their instruction and edification. Mrs. Catt put into operation the plan for resolutions from the Legislatures calling upon the Senate to pass the Federal Suffrage Amendment. These from twenty-four States were read into the Congressional Record, and while they did not put the Federal Amendment through they were effective as showing the nation-wide urge for favorable action. The Legislatures themselves were circularized with excellent literature.

In February, 1918, a bulletin was sent to State presidents offering one or more traveling libraries of sixty-two volumes, the Leslie Commission to pay expenses to the State and its association to pay them within the State. A library could be held one year. Quantities of literature have been sent to the States for distribution while requests for special literature have received prompt attention.

The activity regarding the appointment of a woman or women on the Peace Commission originated in the national office and stirred the people of the entire country. On Dec. 8, 1918, the association held a meeting of war workers in the National Theatre in Washington, D. C., to protest against further delay in the Senate on the Federal Amendment. Twenty-seven delegates representing the association attended the eight congresses held throughout the United States in the interest of the League of Nations.

Field Work. The resolution committing the National Association to an aggressive policy was passed at its convention of 1917. It read: "If the 65th Congress fails to submit the Federal Amendment before the next Congressional election the association shall select and enter into such a number of campaigns as will effect a change in both houses of Congress sufficient to insure its passage."

October came; the November elections were approaching; the 65th Congress had failed to pass the amendment. Probabilities had to be weighed which would produce the necessary two votes if possible and it was decided to enter the campaigns in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Delaware. The first two were at no time specially hopeful, as they were likely to poll Republican majorities and the Republican Senatorial candidates of both were against woman suffrage. However, as a result of the work done in New Jersey, Senator Baird fell much behind his ticket, while in New Hampshire the women and the advertising made so strong a case for the pro-suffrage candidate that for a day or two the result was in doubt, but it was finally declared that Moses had won by 1,200 votes.... The two most important and successful contests were in Massachusetts against the Republican Senator Weeks; in Delaware against the Democratic Senator Saulsbury....

Under the sub-title "In the trenches" Mrs. Shuler told of the three great State campaigns of the year in Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma (described in the chapters for those States) and said:

The National Association gave to these States eighteen organizers, all of whom rendered valuable service. It gave plate matter at a cost of $4,600; 100,000 posters, 1,528,000 pieces of literature, eighteen street banners and 50,000 buttons. It gave to South Dakota a "suffrage school," June 3-20, sessions in the daytime in seven cities and street meetings in ten of the nearby towns in the evenings. The sending of Miss Marjorie Shuler as press chairman to Oklahoma enabled it to issue 126,000 copies of a suffrage supplement and supply 300 papers with weekly bulletins, information service and two half-pages of plate. These three campaigns cost the association $30,720. This was the financial cost, but the immense output of time and energy by the women cannot be computed. It is safe to say that all of them as they emerged from this trench warfare again questioned the advisability of trying to secure suffrage by the State route.

Mrs. Shuler's fine report closed with an optimistic peroration on Seeing it Through. [See Handbook of convention.]

The carefully audited report of the treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, showed almost incredible collections during a period when the war was making its endless calls for money. In part it was as follows: "The year 1918 has been a very remarkable one for the national suffrage treasury. The large demands of the war on every individual, both for money and work, seemed to forebode financial difficulties for us before the close of our fiscal year. Instead, the response to the needs of our treasury was never more fully met, both in the payment of pledges made at the last convention and in securing new pledges and donations. Early in the year the treasurer was asked to assume also the duties of treasurer of the association's Women's Oversea Hospitals Committee and this fund has passed regularly through the treasury, amounting in all to $133,339. The very generous and hearty response of the State suffrage associations to the demands of our Oversea Hospitals' war work has been most gratifying and its financing has not diminished the regular income of the association.... About one-third of the association's income has been received from the State auxiliaries and two-thirds from individual donations. The receipts for suffrage work were $107,736; balance on hand $11,874." [The Leslie Commission contributed $20,000.]

A message to the convention from President Wilson was received conveying his greetings and best wishes for the success of the Federal Amendment. On motion of Dr. Shaw the convention sent to the President an expression of its appreciation of his support. Mrs. Philip North Moore, president of the National Council of Women, brought its fraternal greetings. Others were received from far and wide.... On motion of Mrs. Shuler a telegram of appreciation was sent to Mrs. Helen H. Gardener of Washington, and on motion of Dr. Shaw one to Mrs. Ida Husted Harper of New York. A message of sympathy in the loss of her husband was sent to the veteran suffragist, Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert of Pasadena, formerly of Chicago. It was voted that letters from the convention should be sent to the pioneers, Dr. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Miss Rhoda Palmer, Mrs. Charlotte Pierce, Miss Emily Howland and Mrs. C. D. B. Mills.

During the convention the Legislature of Missouri passed the bill giving Presidential suffrage to women by 21 to 12 in the Senate and 118 to 2 in the House. The convention sent a message of enthusiastic appreciation. [For full account see Missouri chapter.] Miss Anna B. Lawther, president of the Iowa Suffrage Association, requested the National Association and the League of Women Voters to appeal to the Legislature of that State to pass a similar bill. Mrs. Dudley of Tennessee and Miss Mary Bulkley of Connecticut made the same request for these States and it was granted for all three. Mrs. Frederick Nathan (N. Y.) urged the suffragists to contribute to the Women's Roosevelt Memorial Association. Mrs. Gellhorn's young daughter was introduced as having recently organized a Junior Suffrage League in St. Louis of thirty-two members. Mrs. Katharine Philips Edson (Cal.) announced that though it had no regular suffrage organization, Northern and Southern California each had telegraphed a contribution of $500 to the work of the National Association.

The present policies of the association were endorsed. The reason given for wishing the officers to hold over until the next annual convention in 1920 was that the complete ratification of the Federal Amendment by that time was considered certain and these officers would be best fitted to close up the affairs of the association, which would then be merged into the League of Woman Voters. From the list of candidates the following eight directors were elected: Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.); Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.); Mrs. C. H. Brooks (Kans.); Mrs. Ben Hooper (Wis.); Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.); Mrs. J. C. Cantrill (Ky.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. Y.); Mrs. George A. Piersol (Penn.). Mrs. Brooks, Mrs. Livermore and Miss Ogden were re-elected.

The afternoon session of Tuesday was devoted to suffrage war work, with Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, chairman of the War Service Department, presiding. At the meeting of the Executive Council of the National Association in Washington, in February, 1917, just before the United States entered the war, it formed a number of committees in order that the suffragists throughout the country might do their especial work for it under the same generalship as they were accustomed to, and later chairmen of these committees were appointed to organize and superintend State branches. At the present session of the national convention these chairmen reported as follows: General Survey of War Program, Mrs. McCormick (N. Y.); Food Production, Miss Hilda Loines (N. Y.); Americanization, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley (Mass.); Child Welfare, Mrs. Percy Pennybacker (Tex.); Industrial Protection of Women, Mrs. Gifford Pinchot (D. C.); Food Conservation, Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.); Oversea Hospitals Service, Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany (N. Y.), chairman, and Mrs. Raymond Brown (N. Y.) director general in France.

These reports are considered at length in Mrs. McCormick's chapter on War Work of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and they conclusively refuted the charge publicly made again and again by the National Anti-Suffrage Association through its official organ and on the platform that the suffragists were "slackers," unpatriotic, pro-German and concerned only in getting the franchise for themselves. This charge was frequently made by the editor of the paper and president of the association, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., wife of the Republican U. S. Senator from New York, also a strong opponent of woman suffrage.

At the close of this very interesting session the convention enjoyed an automobile ride to see the beautiful city and its environs, tendered by the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League and under the auspices of Mrs. Philip B. Fouke. The "inquiry dinner" in the banquet room of the hotel in the evening, with Mrs. Catt presiding, carried out the clever idea of trying to ascertain why American women could not obtain their enfranchisement. The program was as follows: What is the matter with the United States? Women want it! Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout (Ills.); Men want it! the Rev. W. C. Bitting (Mo.); Political Parties want it! Mrs. Emma Smith De Voe (Wash.); The Press wants it! Miss Rose Young (N. Y.); The Old South wants it! Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Ala.); Congress wants it! Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.); The Legislatures want it! Mrs. T. T. Cotnam (Ark.); All other Countries have it! Mrs. Guilford Dudley (Tenn.); Who doesn't want it! Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (Ohio); Well then what is the matter? Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.); Making it right next time! U. S. Senator Selden P. Spencer (Mo.).

At one business session Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) argued that the time had come to change the form of the Federal Suffrage Amendment to meet the objections of the southern members of Congress. Discussion showed a preponderance of sentiment in favor of the old amendment and the convention so voted, but at the suggestion of Mrs. Park it empowered the Congressional Committee to make any minor changes which might seem advisable. At another session there was considerable talk of merging the National American Association into the new organization of voters and dropping its name at this convention, but Miss Hay carried the delegates with her in urging that they retain the old name until they celebrated Miss Anthony's one-hundredth birthday and were safely through the ratification of the Federal Amendment. This decision was especially pleasing to the older members for whom the name had many endearing memories. Mrs. Catt announced that suffrage societies had been formed in Cuba, Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines and it was voted to extend an official invitation to them to join the National Association without payment of dues. Mrs. Catt called attention to the increased educational value of the convention through the many opportunities extended to the delegates for addressing bodies of various kinds in the city. These included the churches, synagogues, Ethical Society, public schools, Chamber of Commerce, Junior Chamber of Commerce, City Club, Rotary Club, Town Club, Wednesday Club, Women's Trade Union League and other organizations.

One of the leading features of the convention was the report of Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman of the Congressional Committee, which gave a complete summary of the status of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in Congress from the time of the last convention to the present. This and Mrs. Shuler's secretary's report offer so comprehensive a survey of the important work of the National Association that a considerable amount of space is devoted to them. The report of Mrs. Park filled over thirty pages of the Handbook of the convention and was an interesting account of the struggle of the past year and a half to secure from Congress the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. A large part of it will be found in the chapter devoted to that amendment. It showed the work done at the national headquarters in New York City and Washington and also in the States and gave an idea of the tremendous effort which was necessary before the measure was sent to the Legislatures for ratification. It told of the House Judiciary Committee reporting the resolution on Dec. 11, 1917, "without recommendation," after amending it so as to limit the time for ratification to seven years, and of the determination of the opponents to force a vote on it before the appointment of a Woman Suffrage Committee for which the friends were striving. This committee was announced, however, on December 13, 1917.

All the members but three of the committee were in favor of the amendment. Chairman Raker introduced a new resolution omitting the seven-year clause and the committee gave a five-days' hearing to the National American Association, the National Woman's Party and the Anti-Suffrage Association, January 3-7 inclusive. The committee made a favorable report to the House on January 8. On the 9th twelve Democratic members called by appointment on President Wilson, who advised the submission of the amendment. Speaker Clark gave valuable assistance, as did many prominent Democrats and Republicans both in and out of Congress. A five-hours' debate took place in the House on the afternoon of Jan. 10, 1918, and the vote resulted as follows:

In Favor Opposed Republicans 165 33 Democrats 104 102 Miscellaneous 5 1 --- --- 274 136

This was a majority of less than one vote over the necessary two-thirds.

Mrs. Park gave a graphic account of the struggle to secure a favorable vote in the Senate. She described the influences brought to bear from all possible sources; the conferences with committees and individuals; the fixing and then postponing of days for a vote; the difficulty in arranging "pairs"; the "filibustering" of the opponents, the adjournments, the endless tactics for preventing a vote which for years had been employed against this amendment. She described the great five days' discussion in the Senate September 26-October 1; the appeal to President Wilson for help and his magnificent response in person on September 30 with its contemptuous treatment by the opponents; the failure of the Republican leaders to supply the thirty-three votes promised and of the Democrats to provide from their ranks the thirty-fourth, which would complete the necessary two-thirds, and she gave the summary of the result of the balloting on October 1. Analyzed by parties and including pairs the vote stood:

Yes No Democrats 30 22 Republicans 32 12 -- -- Total 62 34

The amendment was lost by two votes. This debate, printed in full in the Congressional Record for those days, hands down to posterity the noble effort of some members of the U. S. Senate to grant to women a voice in the Government to which they were giving the most loyal and devoted service in this hour when it was joining with other nations in the greatest battle for democracy ever fought. It preserves also the determination of other U. S. Senators to deny them this citizen's right and to continue their disfranchised condition. The Woman Citizen, official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in its issue of Oct. 5, 1918, gave a spirited account of the proceedings of those momentous five days.

Mrs. Park took up the story after the defeat in the Senate and said in part: "The election returns on Nov. 6, 1918, indicated that the necessary two-thirds majority in the 66th Congress had been secured. This belief was shared by prominent Democrats, who from that time on spared no effort to make unfriendly Democratic Senators realize the folly of their position in leaving the victory for a Republican Congress. Only the stupidity of extreme conservatism or a thoroughly provincial point of view can account for their failure to yield, unless we are to suppose that more sinister forces were at work.... On the eve of his sailing for Europe December 2 President Wilson included in his address to a joint session of Congress another eloquent appeal for the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment."[117] She described the mass meeting of the suffrage war workers on December 8 at the National Theater in Washington arranged by Miss Mabel Willard with the following program: Mrs. Catt, the national president, in the chair; Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, chairman Woman's Committee of National Council of Defense; Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo, chairman National Woman's Liberty Loan Committee; Mrs. Josephus Daniels, member National War Work Council, Y. W. C. A.; Miss Jane Delano, director Department of Nursing, American Red Cross; Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, representing Community War Work and Women's Oversea Hospitals; Mrs. F. Louis Slade, of Young Women's Department, Y. M. C. A.; Mrs. Raymond Robins, president National Women's Trade Union League; Miss Hannah Black, Munitions Worker. An overflow meeting was held and strong resolutions for the amendment were adopted at both and sent to each Senator.

Resolutions calling on every Senator to vote for submission of the amendment were adopted by twenty-five State Legislatures during January and February, 1919, and the gaining of Presidential suffrage in Vermont, Indiana and Wisconsin that winter increased hope. The suffrage Democrats were desirous of taking one more vote before going out of power. Mrs. Park's report said: "On petition of twenty-two Senators, a Democratic caucus on suffrage was held on February 5, the first since the United States entered the war. On a motion to adjourn, the suffragists without proxies defeated the "antis," who voted proxies, by 22 to 16. On a resolution recommending that the Democratic Senators support the Federal Amendment, twenty-two voted in the affirmative and when ten had voted in the negative, those ten were allowed by Senator Thomas S. Martin (Va.), Democratic floor leader, to withdraw their votes in order that he might declare that, as the vote stood 22 to 0, a quorum had not voted and the resolution was lost! This decision was, of course, most irregular and unfair but it afforded a good illustration of the kind of tactics used by the opponents.

"After the close of the morning business February 10, Senator Jones moved to take up the amendment. An extremely strong speech in its favor was made by the new Senator, William P. Pollock of South Carolina. The only other speeches were by Senator Frelinghuysen (N. J.), on the question of individual naturalization of women and by Senator Gay (La.) in opposition to the amendment. The vote taken early in the afternoon showed 55 in favor and 29 opposed. As on October 1, all the members who were not present to vote were accounted for by pairs, so that it stood practically 63 in favor to 33 opposed. In other words the amendment was lost in the 65th Congress by one vote. The responsibility for the defeat lies at the door of every man who voted against it. Analyzed by parties and including pairs, the vote on February 10, was:

Yes No Democrats 30 21 Republicans 33 12 -- -- Total 63 33

"Thus the Democrats lost their last opportunity and on March 1 the resolution for the amendment was again favorably reported by the Woman Suffrage Committee of the Lower House to be acted upon by a Republican Congress." In commenting on this result Mrs. Park said: "While we are condemning the un-American stand of our opponents, we should never lose sight of the hard work done by many of the Senators who were our friends. There is not space here for the record of all who helped us but special mention should be made of one, the Hon. John F. Shafroth, who will not be present to vote when victory comes in the next Congress. When our cause had only a handful of supporters in public life, he, then a member of the House, helped Miss Anthony bring the amendment forward, and from that time to the present his loyal and devoted service never flagged. Chairman Jones, Senators Ransdell, Hollis, Wesley Jones, Cummins and the other members of the Woman Suffrage Committee worked in constant cooperation with your committee. Among the others who were most frequently called on for help were Senators Curtis, Smoot, Walsh, Pittman, Lenroot, McNary, Hollis and Sheppard."

Mrs. Park spoke briefly of the hearing before the House Committee on Woman Suffrage April 29 on the bill granting to the Legislature of Hawaii the power to enfranchise its women. (See the chapter on Territories.) This bill had passed the Senate in September, 1918. On Jan. 3, it passed the House without a roll call.

Tribute to the association's Congressional Committee and other workers in Washington was paid by Mrs. Park, who said:

During the past fifteen months there have been several changes in the personnel of the committee, chief among them the resignation in September, 1918, of Miss Ruth White, whose gratuitous service as secretary had extended more than three years. She was succeeded by Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, but just as her marked gift for political work was making itself felt in Washington, the submission of a constitutional amendment in Texas made it necessary for her to return home in January, 1919. In August, 1918, the National Board appointed as a special congressional steering committee two women of widely known political acumen and experience, Miss Mary Garrett Hay of New York and Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Nashville, with Mrs. Catt and Mrs. Park ex officio. In October Mrs. Frank Roessing, who had been residing in Washington since the preceding April and thus had been able to give help from time to time, sent in her resignation. In November Miss Marjorie Shuler was added to the committee as secretary in charge of publicity, a designation that by no means expresses the varied duties which have fallen to her lot or the extent to which she has proved of service. To Mrs. Helen H. Gardener a new title, that of vice-chairman of the Congressional Committee, has been recently given by the National Board.... Her work can rarely be reported because of its confidential nature, but this may truly be said, that whenever a miracle has appeared to happen in our behalf, if the facts could be told they would nearly always prove that Mrs. Gardener was the worker of wonders....

Other members of the Congressional Committee who have been in Washington for the whole or a part of the period covered by this report are, in addition to its chairman, Miss Mabel Caldwell Willard, chairman of the social activities; Mrs. George Bass and Mrs. Medill McCormick, representing respectively the organizations of Democratic and Republican women affiliated with the national party committees; Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Mrs. C. W. McClure and Mrs. William L. McPherson. No report of the Washington headquarters would be complete without mention of the help given in innumerable ways by our house manager, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Walker, whose patience, tact and good judgment have made comfortable living possible under the most trying circumstances.

Members of the National Board who have been called on to assist are first and foremost our honorary president, Dr. Shaw; Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick and Mrs. Horace C. Stilwell of Indiana. Upon Mrs. Catt, the national president, your committee has constantly depended for advice and direction. Our misfortune has been that we could not have her continually in Washington.

To these a list of names was added of those who assisted during long or short periods. There was an account of the social uses of the Washington headquarters. In January, February and March of 1918 Miss Willard, with the help of Mrs. Louis Brownlow, arranged a series of weekly teas on Wednesday afternoons. Among the hostesses, the guests of honor and those serving at the table were some of the most prominent women in Washington--wives of the members of the Cabinet, Senators and Representatives. Social affairs were finally given up as war relief work absorbed other interests. Under the direction of Mrs. Brownlow, daughter of Representative Sims (Tenn.) and wife of the Chief Commissioner for the District of Columbia, the Washington Equal Franchise League established a Red Cross Branch at headquarters, where valuable work was done by suffragists. Several entertainments for the benefit of the Oversea Hospitals were given at the house and over $1,000 raised.

At the close of this report the convention gave a rising vote of thanks to Mrs. Park and a number of delegates paid special tribute to the excellent work of the chairman and the committee. A discussion which followed by Miss Katharine Ludington (Conn.); Mrs. Andreas Ueland (Minn.); Miss Anna B. Lawther (Iowa); Mrs. Lila Mead Valentine (Va.) and Mrs. Leslie Warner (Tenn.), under the head "And Now--What?" was devoted to ways and means for carrying the Federal Amendment. A number of conferences were held to consider various phases of the work of the association which had become all-embracing. The one on How to do Political Work for Suffrage was led by a past-master in it, Miss Hay. One on How to use our Organization to Win was under the direction of Mrs. Shuler. The conference of press workers was in charge of Miss Young. Why We Did Not Win was told by Mrs. Lydia Wickliffe Holmes, president of the Woman Suffrage Party of Louisiana, referring to the defeat of the State suffrage amendment; Why We Did Win, by Mrs. Ben Hooper, president of the Wisconsin association, describing the gaining of the Presidential franchise. There were reports by the State presidents of the work that had been done by women during the year throughout the country for the war, for suffrage, for civic improvement.

A report that was heard with the deepest interest was that of the Oversea Hospitals in France, by Mrs. Raymond Brown, general director, and Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, chairman of the committee. This had been a very important part during the past two years of the work of the association, which had raised $133,000 for its maintenance. [See the chapter on War Work.]

When it had been arranged to hold the convention the last week in March, 1919, it was supposed that the Federal Suffrage Amendment would have been submitted by Congress by that time, as it had passed the Lower House early in January. It seemed especially appropriate that this jubilee convention could celebrate this event on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of the National Association for the sole purpose of obtaining this amendment but to the keen disappointment of its leaders and members two obdurate Senators had spoiled this beautiful plan. Its success, however, was so universally conceded that it was decided to hold the semi-centennial celebration and the afternoon of March 26 was dedicated to this purpose and to the honoring of the early leaders. Fifty Years of Ever Widening Empire was the motto at the head of the program. The tribute to the Pioneers of the National Association was paid by Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, for twenty-one years from 1881 the corresponding secretary of the association and closely associated with Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and the other pioneers almost from her girlhood. To Miss Anthony she was like a daughter and she gave a touching account of her personal relations with these noble leaders. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell drew from her stores of memory a wealth of incidents of the lives of her parents and the eminent men and women who were associated with them in founding the American Woman Suffrage Association, also begun in 1869. A resolution offered by Mrs. Desha Breckinridge was enthusiastically adopted--that "we owe an undying and inextinguishable debt to Henry B. and Lucy Stone Blackwell for their great service in behalf of suffrage for women but believe their greatest gift was their daughter, who has kept us true to the trust which they committed to the care of their followers."

Mrs. Catt, who always had an eye to the practical and who was on the program to urge the members of the united associations to Finish the Fight, soon yielded her time to Miss Hay, the noted money-raiser, whose subject was, Make the Map White. In a very short time the delegates had shown their appreciation of the pioneers by subscribing $120,000, the whole amount of the "budget" for the work of the coming year. Dr. Shaw then closed the afternoon's services with reminiscences of her forty years' companionship with the workers in both associations. "The suffragist who has not been mobbed," she said, "has nothing really interesting to look back upon." She spoke of the last national convention which Miss Anthony ever attended, in 1906 at Baltimore, and how she had set her heart on a grand triumph for the cause in that old, conservative city, describing how her hopes had been realized in the most successful one from every point of view that ever had been held. And then she told with exquisite pathos how one month later Miss Anthony passed into eternal rest. Little did the listeners think that the next annual convention would hold memorial services for Dr. Shaw herself and for Mrs. Avery!

Throughout the week the meetings of the National Association alternated with the conferences for organizing the enfranchised women and the name officially decided on was League of Women Voters. A constitution for it was adopted and Mrs. Charles H. Brooks of Kansas was elected chairman. Mrs. Catt presented its first aims as outlined in her annual address and with some additions they were adopted. The addresses made by the chairmen of the war committees evinced statesmanship of a high order. The entire proceedings of the convention connected with this new organization are fully described in Mrs. Shuler's chapter on the League of Women Voters. There could be no greater contrast than between the firmness and authority of the speakers on this program and the pleading and argument of just as able women in earlier years for the opportunity and power to help in the solution of great national problems.

The large Odeon Theater was crowded on the evening of March 27 by an audience that heard with much interest the story of the recent campaigns for full and Presidential suffrage as told in the following program: The Indiana Irritation, Mrs. Richard E. Edwards; The Vermont Vortex, Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson; The Nebraska Nightmare, Mrs. W. E. Barkley; The South Dakota Sore Disasters, Mrs. John L. Pyle; The Michigan Mystery, Mrs. Myron B. Vorce; The Oklahoma Ordeal, Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler; The Texas Turmoil, Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham; The Duty of Citizenship, Mrs. Raymond Robins; All Roads Lead to Rome, Dr. Shaw.

The report of the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education, made by its director, Miss Rose Young, filled eighteen pages of the printed Handbook and covered a vast field of activity which included service to 25,000 publications--2,500 dailies, 16,000 weeklies, 3,233 monthlies, a number issued fortnightly, quarterly, etc., and the large syndicates and press associations. In addition were the mimeographed news bulletins and the editorial service. An idea was given of the varied character of the material sent out and the immense amount furnished during the campaigns. A compliment was paid to the press work of Mrs. Rose Geyer, "whose task it is to collect the news, State by State, and distribute the parts of nation-wide interest through weekly bulletins, and who has by direct personal correspondence of an intimate and tactful kind trained State organization women to send in reports of conventions, political and legislative situations, candidates, etc." Many incidents were cited of important publicity, special editions of papers and display advertising. Six pages were devoted to the mission of the weekly official magazine, the Woman Citizen, and the way it had been fulfilled. A tribute was paid to its very able associate editor, Miss Mary Ogden White. The invaluable service of the Research Bureau, under the expert direction of Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, assisted by Miss Eleanor Garrison, was strongly set forth.

Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, who conducted the editorial correspondence, referred in her report to her full accounts in preceding years of the wide correspondence with editors. "The scope of the department was gradually enlarged," she said, "and many letters were sent to prominent people in reference to their speeches, interviews in newspapers and other public expressions. For instance, in the debates on the Federal Amendment in the Senate, whenever a speaker showed lack of correct information, a letter giving it was sent to him. Other letters also were sent to Senators and usually received courteous answers from themselves, not their secretaries." The report continued:

Several letters were written to Colonel Theodore Roosevelt urging him to use his influence with the Republican leaders and always were fully answered. A letter dictated and signed by him on January 3, 1919, enclosed one he had just sent to Senator Moses of New Hampshire, strongly urging him to cast his vote for the Federal Suffrage Amendment on the 10th. I received it on January 4 and he died the night of the 5th.

Letters were sent to Chairman Hays and members of the National Republican Committee and to different State chairmen on various points connected with the suffrage amendment. The pamphlet on the Difficulty of Amending State Constitutions, which was prepared and sent to every Senator, was put into the Congressional Record by Senator Shafroth, and a circular letter on the founding and record of the National Woman's Party by Senator Thomas. Scores of letters were sent out showing up the fallacies of the Anti-suffragists during the year; others exposing the connection of the German-American Alliance with the Antis; others giving historic information and still others telling of gains in our own and foreign countries.

During the first year I wrote to over 2,000 editors in the United States and Canada. At the end of that time, and after the New York victory, so many were in favor of woman suffrage itself that during 1918 the work was very largely concentrated on the Federal Amendment. In the two months from November, 1917, to January, 1918, when the vote was taken in the House of Representatives, 2,600 circular letters containing an argument for this amendment went out from this department to the principal newspapers of the United States and in addition 100 special articles were sent to the largest papers. After that vote was taken this record was kept up to obtain favorable action by the Senate and a second and different circular argument was sent to 2,000 papers. A carefully selected list of several hundred southern newspapers was furnished to Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, to which he sent franked copies of his excellent speech on this amendment.

An open letter to Senator Baird was supplied to all the principal papers of New Jersey; one to Senator Benet to those of South Carolina; one to Senator Shields to Tennessee papers. A letter showing the attitude of the National Association toward organized labor went to a considerable number of labor papers in the various States. During the week following the failure to vote on the Federal Amendment in May, 250 letters and articles in regard to it were sent out from this department. Most of them enclosed printed or typed suffrage literature, some of Mrs. Catt's editorials and articles, and some from other sources, including my printed pamphlet on the Federal Amendment. Altogether nearly 8,000 letters and articles went out from this department.

Several pamphlets also were prepared and an article of about 2,000 words was furnished every month to the International Suffrage News in London, with many clippings for its files. A number of letters and clippings also were sent to Mrs. Fawcett, the national president of Great Britain, keeping her informed on the progress of the movement in the United States, of which she was very appreciative, and letters of information were written to other countries.

By the end of 1918 from 300 to 500 editorials on woman suffrage were received every month and it was as much a subject of comment in the newspapers as any political issue of the day. The old-time attacks were almost entirely absent; the editorials showed knowledge and discrimination; fully nine-tenths of the northern newspapers advocated not only woman suffrage but the Federal Amendment, while in every southern State some leading papers were in favor of enfranchising women and a few approved of its being done through this amendment. This editorial department of the Leslie Bureau might venture to claim some share in the evolution of editorial opinion, to which, of course, many causes contributed. While the need for its work was by no means at an end, another task yet remained for the bureau to see accomplished.

Mrs. Harper then stated that it was the wish of both the Leslie Commission and the Board of the National Association that the final volume of the History of Woman Suffrage should be written while the excellent facilities of the headquarters were available. Because of her experience in writing Volume IV this work was entrusted to her and the editorial department, therefore, was discontinued and the History begun in January, 1919.

The report of the Washington Press Bureau was made by its secretary, Miss Marjorie Shuler, dating from the preceding November and it stated that weekly press articles had been furnished to the big news services, the 200 newspaper correspondents in Washington, the papers of that city and many outside; State presidents, Congressional and press chairmen, in addition to a certain daily service; feature articles and Washington letters to the Woman Citizen. Material for favorable editorials was sent out through the Washington correspondents and 244 friendly to the policy of the National Association were received with only 12 opposed. The social activities at the Washington headquarters furnished good local publicity.

In the report of Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., she called attention to the almost insuperable difficulties of the publishing business during the past eighteen months through the high cost of production, deterioration of materials and uncertainties of transportation. With all these handicaps the company had printed 5,000,000 pieces of literature for the association and 1,000,000 for its own stock. It had filled orders from Great Britain, Canada, South America, Mexico, Porto Rico and the Philippines. She told of prominent visitors from foreign countries who expressed much surprise at the variety and extent of the literature and took samples home with them for translation. Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore, chairman of the Literature Committee, gave a list of the new publications which filled two printed pages and told of a notable group of booklets dealing with patriotic subjects; a large amount of special literature to facilitate the passage of the Federal Amendment; maps, folders, booklets and posters.

The following recommendations were made by the Executive Council and adopted by the convention:

1. That the N. A. W. S. A. continue to support and endorse the Federal Amendment which has been before Congress for the past forty years. 2. That the next convention be in the nature of a centennial celebration of the birthday of Susan B. Anthony and be held in February, 1920. 3. That the Board of Officers be asked to serve until that date, thus confining the election of officers at this convention to Directors only. 4. That the budget for 1919 be adopted as presented by Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, the treasurer--$120,000 if the Voters' League is formed and $100,000 if it is not formed. 5. That the six War Service Committees appointed at the last convention be discontinued with the exception of the Oversea Hospitals Committee, which shall be discontinued at the conclusion of its work, and those on Americanization and Industrial Protection of Women, which shall be continued. 6. That the post-convention board be requested to reappoint Mrs. Maud Wood Park as chairman of the Congressional Committee and extend to her a vote of appreciation of her services. 7. That the Board of Directors shall have authority to enter any State to carry on work without the authority of that State, if necessary. 8. That the policy of the association in regard to referendum campaigns be affirmed. 9. That an organization of women voters be formed. 10. That the constitution when amended and made satisfactory to the needs of the association be substituted for the present constitution; that, with this end in view, the Chair be instructed to appoint a committee of five women from enfranchised States and five from the Executive Council to whom the constitution shall be referred.[118]

It was recommended that the following resolution be adopted "in view of the fact that a request had been made for a new definition of 'non-partisan' in relation to the National Association as at present constituted or as it may be constituted": "Resolved, That the N. A. W. S. A. shall not affiliate with any political party or endorse the platform of any party or support or oppose any political candidates unless such action shall be recommended by the Board of Directors in order to achieve the ends and purposes of this organization as set forth in its constitution. Nothing in this resolution shall be construed to limit the liberty of action of any member or officer of this association to join or serve the party of her choice in any capacity whatsoever as an individual."

Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, chairman of the committee, offered fourteen resolutions, the last which were acted upon by representatives of the National American Suffrage Association, the first having been presented in 1869. They illustrate the wide scope of women's interests considered by that body. After full discussion the following, which are somewhat condensed, were among those adopted:

Whereas, women may now vote for President in twenty-six States of the Union, and for all elective officers in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and throughout the largest part of Europe; our eastern and southern States are now the only communities in the English-speaking world in which women are still debarred from self-government; our nation has just emerged from a war waged in the name of making the world safe for democracy and ought in consistency to establish real democracy at home; and every political party in the United States has endorsed woman suffrage in its national platform; therefore be it

Resolved, that we call upon the 66th Congress to submit the Constitutional Amendment for nation-wide woman suffrage to the States at the earliest possible moment.

Whereas, one-fourth of the men examined for the army were unable to read English or to write letters home to their families, be it

Resolved, that we urge the establishment at Washington of a national department of education with a Secretary of Education in the Cabinet.

Resolved, that this association earnestly favors a League of Nations to secure world-wide peace based upon the immutable principles of justice.

Resolved, that we protest against the unfair treatment of professional women by the United States authorities in declining the services of women physicians, surgeons and dentists in the recent war, thus compelling loyal, patriotic women to serve under the flag of a foreign government. We recommend that in future our Government recognize the fitness of accepting the services of professional women for work for which their training and experience have qualified them.

Resolved, That we urge our Government to bring about the prompt redress of all legitimate grievances, as the removal of the sense of injustice is the surest safeguard against revolution by violence.

Whereas, the Woman in Industry Service of the U. S. Department of Labor was established as a result of the war emergency,

Resolved, that we call upon Congress to establish this service as a permanent Women's Bureau in the U. S. Department of Labor with adequate funds for the continuance and extension of its work.

Resolved, that we ask the U. S. Government in its next census to classify definitely the unpaid women housekeepers as homemakers, thus recognizing their important service to the nation.

Resolved, that we call upon Congress to give military rank to army nurses.

Resolved, that we tender to our national president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, our deep appreciation of her sagacity, good judgment, fairness and indefatigable devotion to the cause of equal rights, and we pledge our best efforts to carry out her wise and far-reaching plans for ultimate victory.

The last evening of the convention was given to a second mass meeting at the Odeon Theater with Dr. Shaw presiding and a notable program. The first speaker was Miss Helen Fraser of Great Britain, who had been making a tour of the United States in the interest of the women's war hospital work of that country. She was announced on the program as "Great Britain's foremost speaker," and she eloquently pictured Women and the Future. The Hon. Henry J. Allen, Governor of Kansas, stirred the audience to enthusiasm with an address on Woman's Place in War and Peace. Mrs. Catt's splendid closing speech on Looking Forward ended a convention whose keynote throughout had been "progress"; a farewell to the past years of toil and disappointment, a preparation for the future work of women under better conditions than had ever before existed. A spirit of hope, courage and unlimited expectation pervaded the army of younger women, who were soon to take up the great work committed to their care.

On Saturday three important meetings took place. In the morning was the formal organization of the League of Women Voters, election of officers, appointment of committees and adoption of a program; also the final business session of the convention to harmonize the work of the National Association and that of the league. In the afternoon the two bodies met in joint session to discuss the question of how voting and non-voting women might best cooperate and the three following objects were agreed upon: (1) To secure the vote for all the women of the nation in the shortest possible time; (2) to obtain the vote for women in all civilized countries; (3) to carry out the legislative program of the new organization.

Thus ended the perfectly managed Jubilee Convention, probably the most important and far-reaching in the long history of the National Association.

HEARING ON THE FEDERAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT BEFORE THE

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE OF THE 65TH

CONGRESS, JAN. 3-7, 1918.

There was no longer any necessity for a hearing before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage, as it had unanimously reported in favor of the Federal Amendment. The suffrage leaders were profoundly thankful that they would never again have to address a hostile Judiciary Committee of the Lower House, which not in all the years had permitted the amendment to come before the Representatives for discussion, and which had now under pressure reported it out but "without recommendation." A new era had dawned and a Committee on Woman Suffrage had been formed, whose chairman, Judge John E. Raker of California, by advice of Speaker Clark, had introduced another resolution for the submission of the amendment which was sent to this committee and it desired to have a hearing.[119] This began Jan. 3, 1918, and in opening it the chairman said: "We have determined to hear first the National American Suffrage Association and then the Woman's Party. There seem to be a few opponents--a few men--and they will be given an opportunity to be heard, as well as Mrs. Wadsworth and her organization." This hearing extended through four days and the stenographic report filled 330 closely printed pages. It was the last of the committee hearings on a Federal Suffrage Amendment which began in 1878 and had been held during every Congress since that date. If an investigator of this subject has time to read only one document it should be the report of this hearing.

The committee was composed of seven Democrats and six Republicans and it was well known that all but three--Saunders, Clark and Meeker--would report in favor of submitting the amendment. The National Suffrage Association was represented the first day by its honorary president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw; its president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt; the chairman of its Congressional Committee, Mrs. Maud Wood Park; Mrs. Rosalie Loew Whitney, an able lawyer of New York; Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee, a vice-president of the association; Mrs. Henry Ware Allen, a prominent suffragist and war worker of Kansas. Their speeches were among the strongest ever made at a hearing. Those of the opponents show the character of their objections up to the very end of the long contest. Dr. Shaw's address was especially notable for two reasons: it was devoted largely to the work of women in the war, which was now at its height, and it was the last one before a congressional committee by this eloquent woman, who had been coming to the Capitol for almost thirty years in behalf of the amendment, as she died the following year. She was introduced as having been appointed by the Secretary of War chairman of the Woman's Committee of National Defense and as such the head of the war work of women throughout the country. Dr. Shaw began by referring to the new line of attack which was now being made on suffragists as pro-Germans and pacifists but scattered quotations can give small idea of the strength and beauty of her answers to these charges. Regarding the one of pacifism she said:

We grant that we are in favor of peace; we grant that we have a large sympathy for the sufferings of humanity, but we also claim to be possessed of intelligence and knowledge and these have convinced us that there could be nothing more disastrous to the human race than a peace at this time, which would lead to greater suffering than a continuation of the war. Therefore, because we love peace and because we have large sympathy for human sufferings, we are opposed to anything that will bring a peace which does not forever and forever make it impossible that such sufferings shall again be inflicted on the world, and the women of all countries take that stand with us. We have only to face the present situation to know that any charges that women as a whole are not courageous, are not patriotic, are not devoted to the highest interests of their country are wholly false.... Even before war was declared the National American Woman Suffrage Association met in convention in this city and was the first organized body of women to formulate a definite line of action and present to the President and the Government a plan which would be followed by its more than 2,000,000 members, provided hostilities went so far that war should be declared. The President accepted our services, and not only did he accept them but the devotion of the suffragists to the welfare of the country was so uniformly recognized that when the Government decided upon war and upon the necessity for organizing the woman-power of the nation, it called upon the leaders of this association and appointed them on a committee for co-ordinating the war work of women throughout the United States. Can it for a moment be supposed that the men in whose charge the great interests of our nation rested would have called upon women whom they did not know to be thoroughly endowed with patriotic devotion and loyalty to their country for such a service at such a time?

Dr. Shaw told of the loyalty of women in other countries and quoted from the tributes of their distinguished men, such men as Mr. Asquith, Lloyd George, Lord Derby and General Joffre to the services of these women and in our own country of General Pershing and scores of others. She told of how the Canadian Government gave the suffrage to women and how they voted for conscription; of the splendid courage of the men of Australia and New Zealand, born of enfranchised mothers. She said that in ten of the eleven western States which filled their quota of volunteers before any eastern State had done so, there was equal suffrage. She referred to the eminent supporters of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, beginning with President Wilson and his Cabinet and Theodore Roosevelt; asked if these men were pro-Germans and pacifists and matched them with equally loyal women. In conclusion she said:

To fail to ask for the suffrage amendment at this time would be treason to the fundamental cause for which we, as a nation, have entered the war. President Wilson has declared that "we are at war because of that which is dearest to our hearts--democracy; that those who submit to authority shall have a voice in the Government." If this is the basic reason for entering the war, then for those of us who have striven for this amendment and for our freedom and for democracy to yield today, to withdraw from the battle, would be to desert the men in the trenches and leave them to fight alone across the sea not only for democracy for the world but also for our own country.... The time of reconstruction will come and when it comes many women will have to be both father and mother to fatherless children, and these mothers and their children will have no representatives in this Government unless it is through the mothers who have given everything that it might be saved and democracy might be secured.... No men better than those of the South know what it owes to southern women and shall those men stand in the way of freedom for the women who gave everything to retain for our country the very best of southern traditions--shall they plead in vain for the freedom of their daughters? What is true of the women of the South is true of the women of the North.... We are today a united people with one flag and one country because the women are worthy of their men, and we plead because we are a part of the people, a part of the Government which claims to be a democracy, and in order that this country may stand clean-handed before the nations of the world.

The speech of Mrs. Whitney, analyzing the vote on the suffrage amendment which was carried in New York State the preceding November was a complete statistical refutation of the charge made by the anti-suffragists that the favorable vote was due to Socialists and pro-Germans. A letter was read from Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, saying that speaking personally and not officially he favored the submission of the amendment. Telegrams urging it were received from well-known women in the southern States and Mrs. Catt read editorials strongly favoring it from a number of southern newspapers. Mrs. George Bass, head of the Democratic Women's National Committee, protested against the circulation in the Capitol which was being made by the "antis" of President Wilson's declaration made in 1914, "I believe this is a matter to be fought out in the individual States," because in 1916 he addressed the National Suffrage Convention in Atlantic City, saying: "I have come to fight with you ... and in the end we shall not differ as to methods."

Mrs. Dudley represented the women of the South, saying in the course of her address:

What has happened to the State's rights doctrine? Recently the Federal Constitution has been twice amended and that under a Democratic administration. While the child labor bill and eight-hour bill are not amendments, they are really open to the same objections because they impose upon a State laws to which it has not given consent. These bills were proposed in one House or both by southern Democrats; Federal prohibition was proposed in both Houses by southern Democrats and passed by the votes of others. So it appears that the theory of State's rights is only invoked when women plead at the bar of justice for that voice in their Government to which all those who submit to authority are entitled. Now, as to the negro problem. We southern women feel that the time has come to lay once and for all this old, old ghost that stalks through the halls of Congress. It is a phantom as applied to woman suffrage. In fifteen States south of the Mason and Dixon line there are over a million more white women than negro men and women combined. There are only two States in which the negro race predominates, South Carolina and Mississippi. In the former the percentage is 55.2, but there a voter must read and write and own and pay taxes on $300 worth of property. In Mississippi the percentage is 56.2 but there also they impose an educational qualification. In the eight years since these figures were estimated by the Government this percentage has greatly decreased, so that South Carolina claims that there is now no preponderance of negroes. In the other four States also in the so-called "black belt" an educational test is imposed upon the voters. In addition to all this we must consider that during the last decade the negro population has increased 11 per cent and the white population 22 per cent. Furthermore, in the past year alone 75,000 negroes have gone from one southern State to the north, and 73,000 have gone from three other southern States to one northern State alone. So it appears that we must transfer part of our rather hysterical anxieties with regard to the southern negro vote to some other States.

Mrs. Allen spoke from the standpoint of one who had lived many years in a State where women voted and asked the question: "Can you gentlemen not think what it means to women to know that their men are so chivalrous and have such a belief in their integrity and their intelligence that they are willing to make them their equal partners politically? Can you not see that under such conditions men and women are firmer friends; that husbands and wives are closer together and that all of the family relations are better because the adults of all the families are equally interested in city, State and national affairs?" She told how on the battlefield and in the hospitals in France could be heard in all languages the one cry, "mother," and she ended with the plea: "Our world is weary and wounded and sick and if you will listen in the silence of the night you will hear the same cry; the world is calling for the mother voice in its councils and in its activities."

The afternoon was devoted to the address of Mrs. Catt, which, with the questions of the committee and her answers, filled twenty-five pages of the printed report. For four decades the distinguished presidents of the National Suffrage Association had made their arguments and pleadings before committees of Congress--Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Miss Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, and then Mrs. Catt for eight years. This was the last time it would ever be necessary and the first time before a House committee which intended to report in favor. The changed character of her speaking was shown in her opening sentence: "The time of argument on woman suffrage has gone by. The controversy has been waged over a greater part of the civilized world for the last fifty years, with the result that many nations have capitulated and woman suffrage is now established under many flags. That it is still pending in the Congress of the United States is a disgrace to our country and a reflection on the intelligence and progress of our people." She illustrated how the doctrine of State's rights had been ignored by the southern members in their fight for prohibition, led by Mr. Webb of North Carolina, who as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee had also led the opposition to woman suffrage on this same ground. She proved by editorial quotations from southern papers the changing attitude on this point.

The vast number of American men who would be in the army in France at the time of the next election was pointed out and the question was asked: "When the election comes who will do the voting? Every 'slacker' has a vote; every newly-made citizen; every pro-German who cannot be trusted with any kind of war service; every peace-at-any-price man; every conscientious objector and even the alien enemy. It is a risk, a danger, to a nation like ours to send millions of loyal men out of the country and not replace their votes by those of the loyal women left at home." In referring to the "negro problem" in the South Mrs. Catt said:

In talking with some of the members of Congress we have learned that an idea prevails throughout the South that the colored women are more intelligent, ambitious and energetic than the men, and that while it is easy enough to keep the men from exercising too much ambition in the matter of politics, it will not be easy to control the women. When talking with these same men about the white women of the South, I have never known an exception to the rule that they have finally rested their case upon the statement that the women of the South do not want the vote anyway and if they did they would only vote as their husbands do. To say that means what? That the women of the South in the estimate of those men are too weak-minded to have an opinion of their own; it means that they have no independence of character; it means that they have been reduced so far to nonentity that they will only echo their husbands' opinions. Is living in the homes of the white men of the South so degrading to the character of the white women that they really cannot be trusted to have an honest conviction of their own, but that living in the South outside of those homes renders women more ambitious and more intelligent than the men? Do these men realize that they are saying almost in the same breath that the colored woman is superior to the colored man but that the white woman is the inferior of the white man? Or is it possible that the climate of the South produces a stronger "female of the species" than male, and that the men of the South are afraid of both the white and the black women?

Detached quotations give a most inadequate idea of this masterly address which embodied the complete case for the advocates of the Federal Amendment. Toward its close Mrs. Catt, in speaking of the assertion of the "antis" that President Wilson was opposed to the Federal Suffrage Amendment, made this significant answer: "I request you, Mr. Chairman, to ask Mr. Wilson for a conference and go to it taking Democrats and Republicans and say: 'Mr. President, are you or are you not for this Federal Amendment?' Then you will know. I trust that you will do this and that, if then it is possible to make a public statement, you will do so." Afterwards it was apparent that she knew of Mr. Wilson's complete change of opinion and his intention to support the amendment. On January 9 Mr. Raker and eleven other members of the Lower House held a conference with the President and he urged the submission of the amendment.

At the continuation of the hearing on January 4 the American Constitutional League, formed after the suffrage amendment was adopted in New York out of the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association, was represented by the chairman of its executive committee, Everett P. Wheeler, a lawyer of New York City, and by one of its members introduced as "Dr. Lucian Howe of Buffalo, a very eminent surgeon, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine and the Royal Academy of Surgeons." The two men occupied the entire day, Mr. Wheeler about two-thirds of it, but the committee consumed a good deal of this time by a running fire of questions not far from "heckling." Mr. Wheeler offered for insertion in the Record a page and a half of finely printed statistics compiled by the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association to prove that the laws for women and children were not so good in equal suffrage States as in those where women could not vote.

The session of January 5 began with the reading of another sheaf of urgent telegrams from women of the southern States and petitions for the amendment signed by a long list of southern women. The first speaker was Mrs. L. A. Hamilton, president of the National Equal Franchise Association of Canada and president also of the Women's Union Government League of Toronto, who was thoroughly informed on the granting of Provincial and Dominion suffrage and able to answer convincingly all the questions of the committee. The hearing was then turned over to the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, with its president, Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., in charge. I am much pleased by the personnel of this committee," she said, "because both the Republican Speaker, Mr. Gillett, and the Democratic floor leader, Mr. Kitchin, promised us that, unlike the suffrage committee in the Senate, this one would have a fair representation of 'antis.' I find we have been given two out of thirteen. Of course we think that a perfectly fair ratio, as we have always felt that one 'anti' was worth about five suffragists, but we did not suppose you would admit it." "That is about the ratio that exists in the House," observed Mr. Blanton, of the committee. "We will know more about that when we vote in the House," answered Mr. Clark, member from Florida. "I am going to give you the privilege this morning of hearing from my general staff," said Mrs. Wadsworth, "and I will have some of my officers of the line here Monday. I want to introduce Miss Minnie Bronson, our general secretary." The second speaker was Mr. Eichelberger, who presented elaborate charts and figures to show that woman suffrage was carried in New York by the Socialists. To the question of Chairman Raker, "This is nothing more or less than a compilation of figures as an idea of your own, to show what certain votes could do or certain figures would do, isn't it?" he answered: "Yes, absolutely, that is the idea." At one point Miss Jeannette Rankin of the committee asked: "Are you the gentleman who compiled some figures on the Democratic and Republican women's vote in Montana last year?" "I think so," was the answer. "Where did you get your figures?" "From the official election report." "How could you tell a Democratic woman's vote from a Republican woman's vote?" "Well, that part of it was estimation!" The statements of Mr. Eichelberger and the questions of the committee filled twenty-four pages of the stenographic report and with Miss Bronson's address consumed one session.

The hearing in the afternoon was given to the National Woman's Party, in charge of its vice-chairman, Miss Anne Martin of Nevada. Mrs. William Kent of California introduced the speakers--Mrs. Richard Wainwright, Mrs. Townsend Scott, Miss Ernestine Evans, Mrs. Francis J. Heney, Miss Elizabeth Gram, Miss Maud Younger, Mrs. Adeline Atwater, Mrs. Ellis Meredith.

Monday morning the hearing of the Anti-Suffrage Association was resumed, Mrs. Wadsworth presiding and speaking at length, saying: "We never have and never will ask a man to vote with us against his conscience but the men we do blame are those spineless opportunists who for political expediency or because they are too lazy to fight are preparing to surrender their principles for the sake of a dishonorable and, we believe, a temporary peace." Mrs. Edwin Ford followed and then Miss Lucy Price. Her remarks and the committee's questions filled fourteen pages of the report. About fifty telegrams opposing the amendment were received, nearly half of them from men and all from Massachusetts. One purported to represent 250 women of Wellesley and another 1,000 of New Bedford. Henry A. Wise Wood was introduced as president of the Aero Club of America. During his speech he declared that "this was no time to unman the Government by this foolhardy jeopardizing of the rights of both sexes"; that "one wonders at the spectacle of strong, masculine personalities urging at such an hour the demasculinization of Government--the dilution with the qualities of the cow, of the qualities of the bull upon which all the herd safety must depend"; that "this from now on is a man's job--the job of the fighting, the dominating, not the denatured, the womanlike man." Referring to Miss Rankin's vote against war he said: "I do not think she cried; I was speaking of the real woman, the woman that men love." He also said that during his campaign for "preparedness" he discovered that "the woman suffrage movement was hopelessly given over to pacifism in its extreme socialistic form." In closing he said that "for any sentimental or political reason it is a damnable thing that we should weaken ourselves by bringing into the war the woman, who has never been permitted in the war tents of any strong, virile dominating nation." This speech was made Jan. 7, 1918, after nearly a year's experience in the United States of the war work done by women.

At this hearing the opponents made their supreme effort, knowing that it was their last chance, and they brought to Washington one of the South's most noted orators, former U. S. Senator Joseph W. Bailey, of Texas. He began by saying: "I shall confine my speech entirely to the political aspect of the question, leaving these very intelligent women to explain the effect of suffrage on their sex and on our homes," but he got to the latter phase of it long before he had finished. He believed that under the Federal Constitution the right to control the suffrage belonged absolutely to the States but he said: "I am opposed to women voting anywhere except in their own societies; I would let them vote there but nowhere else in this country.... No free government should deny suffrage to any class entitled to it and no free government should extend suffrage to any class not entitled to it, for the ultimate success or failure of every free government will depend upon the average intelligence and patriotism of the electorate. I hope to show that as a matter of political justice and political safety women should not be allowed to vote...."

Giving other reasons why women should not be allowed to vote, he said: "The two most important personal duties of citizenship are military service and sheriff's service, neither of which is a woman capable of performing." Reminded by the chairman that there were many places where women then were performing the duty of sheriff, constable, marshal and police, he answered: "They may be playing at them but they are not really performing them. If an outlaw is to be arrested are you going to order a woman to get a gun and come with you? If you did she would sit down and cry, and she ought to keep on crying until her husband hunts you up and makes you apologize for insulting his wife.... A woman who is able to perform a sheriff's duty is not fit to be a mother because no woman who bears arms ought to bear children.... We agree, I think, that the women of this country will never go into our armies as soldiers or be required to serve on the sheriff's posse comitatus. That being true I hardly think they have the right to make the laws under which you and I must perform those services." The chairman asked: "When the men go to front with the cartridges and guns the women assisted in making are the latter not participating in the war the same as men?" He answered: "They are doing their part and it may be just as essential as the man's, for if there is not somebody here to provide the ammunition the guns would be useless, but it is not military service."

The war had been in progress three and a half years when these assertions were made and the whole world knew the part that women had taken in it.

"The third personal duty of citizenship is jury service," Mr. Bailey said, "and while women are physically capable of performing that service there are reasons, natural, moral and domestic, which render them wholly unfit for it.... We go to the court house for stern, unyielding justice. Will women help our courts to better administer justice? They will not. Nobody is qualified to decide any case until they have heard all the testimony on both sides but the average woman would make up her mind before the plaintiff had concluded his testimony." The awful consequences of "sending women with strange men into the jury room to discuss testimony which a sensible mother would not talk over with her grown daughter" were declared to be that "modesty for which we reverence women would disappear from among them." "Who will care for the children during the mother's absence?... They tell me they will require the unmarried women to act as jurors. There will be enough of them, for marrying will become a lost habit in our country if we apply ourselves much longer to this business of making women like men." Mr. Bailey appeared not to know that women had been serving on juries for from twenty to forty years in the western States where they were enfranchised.

"Will women vote intelligently? Can they do it? What time will a woman have to prepare herself for these new duties of citizenship? Will she take it from her home and husband or from her church and children or from her charities and social pleasures? She must take it from one or all of them and will she make herself or the world better by doing so?" Mr. Bailey asked. He said he wished that "every woman in the land was fortunate enough to have servants to do their work"; deplored "the unfortunate situation of eighty per cent. of the good women whose hard lot it is to toil from sunup to sundown" and inquired: "Do you think when they have done all this they will have time and strength to learn something about their duties as a citizen?" Asked if he did not think a woman ought to have something to say about the laws that concern the education and disposition of her children, he answered: "If she cannot trust that to the father of her children I pity her." "How about the women who have lost their husbands?" asked a member of the committee. "If they have neither father nor son nor brother to provide for them the public will do so," Mr. Bailey replied. In pointing out how favorable "man-made laws" are to women he said: "In my State, where women have never voted and where I sincerely trust they never will, the law gives to the wife as her separate property everything she owns at the time of her marriage and everything she may afterwards acquire by gift, devise or descent," but he omitted to say that all of it passes under the absolute control of the husband and that the wages she earns belong to him.

Further on he said: "We must have two sexes and if the women insist on becoming men I suppose the men must refine themselves into women.... I dread the effect of this woman's movement upon civilization because I know what happened to the Roman republic when women attained their full rights. They married without going to church and were divorced without going to court." After having discussed widows' pensions, the double standard of morals, divorce, alimony and various other matters in carrying out his promise at the beginning to confine his remarks "entirely to the political aspect of the question" he reached the subject of women's smoking. He summed up his opinion of this by saying: "If it were a question between their smoking and their voting and they would promise to stay at home and smoke I would say let them smoke." In this connection he said: "A single standard of conduct for men and women is an iridescent dream. We cannot pay women a higher tribute than to insist that their behavior shall be more circumspect than ours."

Finally Mr. Blanton of Texas, a member of the committee, having obtained Mr. Bailey's assent that the right of petition is the most sacred right of the people and that legislators should give it careful consideration, said: "I have here a very extensive petition from your State signed by prominent citizens of the leading cities urging Congress to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment and I notice from Houston, your city, the following: He then read a long list of bank presidents, judges, editors, college professors, the Mayor and other city officials, officers of labor unions, and, in addition, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Attorney General, District Attorney and other State officials, and pressed Mr. Bailey to admit their high character and standing. He did so but said: "I would not vote for this amendment if a majority of my constituents asked me to do so."

An undue amount of space is given to the address of Mr. Bailey because he had been selected by the anti-suffragists as the strongest speaker for their side in the entire country and it embodied their views as these had been presented ever since the suffrage movement began. He was thoroughly representative of the opposition, and the officers and members of the women's Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage who were present applauded his remarks from beginning to end. He made this speech Jan. 7, 1918, and the following March the Texas Legislature by a large majority gave Primary suffrage to women for all officers from President of the United States down the list and the bill was immediately signed by the Governor. The primaries decide the election in that State.[120]

The committee received petitions asking their favorable action on the amendment from the Texas State Federation of Women's Clubs and those of Houston and other cities; from women's clubs of many kinds in Waco representing 2,000 members; from women's organizations all over the State and from individuals, the number reaching thousands. There was the same outpouring from the other southern States, although it was the principal argument of the opposition that the vote was being forced on southern women. There was also a remarkable expression from southern men. Seventy-five pages of these petitions were printed in the official report of this hearing. As the sentiment in the northern States was now so largely in favor it was considered unnecessary for them to send petitions, although many did so. There were presented to the committee a message from the Governor of every equal suffrage State urging the immediate submission of the amendment and strong letters to this effect from Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo, Southerners and Democrats. None of this pressure was necessary to influence it but the leaders of the National Suffrage Association arranged this demonstration in order to show that favorable action by the committee would be fully sustained by the sentiment of the country, and as an answer to the charge that "a small, insistent lobby was forcing the amendment through Congress." The anti-suffragists did not present one communication of any kind from any State except Massachusetts.

The valuable space in this volume could not be better used perhaps than for the closing speeches of Mrs. Park, chairman of the association's Congressional Committee, and Mrs. Catt, its president. A greater contrast can scarcely be imagined than that between their statesmanlike quality and the rambling, inconsequential, prejudiced character of Mr. Bailey's. "After the eloquent address of the last speaker," began Mrs. Park with delicious satire, "I sympathize with the committee and the audience who will have to return to the plain subject of the Federal Amendment for Woman Suffrage.... I think those who have been listening to all of these hearings will agree that the opponents have made many interesting statements but have given comparatively few facts." Saying that Mrs. Catt would reply to Mr. Bailey's speech she answered the points in the others with a keenness and clearness that no lawyer could have exceeded and met with dignity and acumen the questions of the opponents on the committee. She was not once disconcerted or unable to reply convincingly and always with a disarming courtesy but she did not deviate from her subject or allow the questioners to do so.

Mrs. Catt's answer to Mr. Bailey's speech, which filled twenty-five pages of the stenographic report, occupied seven pages and there was not a superfluous word. She began by calling attention to the petitions as a whole from the southern States, printed copies of which were furnished to each member of the committee. They included the names of over a thousand prominent men, among them two and a half pages of Mayors; the Governors of Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida and many other State officials. She said that as she listened to Mr. Bailey's speech she was reminded of the declaration of a president of Harvard College, who asserted that without question there were witches and it was the duty of all good people to hunt them out, but twenty-five years later every intelligent man knew there had never been such a thing as a witch. A man once wrote a book to prove that a steamship could never cross the ocean and the book was brought to America by the first one that crossed. Daniel Webster made a speech against admitting as a State one of the western Territories because its members of Congress after their election would not be able to reach Washington until the session was over. "These men lacked vision," she said, "and so does the last speaker. He does not know what has been happening in the world." She referred to the vast changes in the industrial life of women since the days of the mother of Washington and the wife of Jefferson, whom he had used as models for those of the present day, and said: "It is my pleasure to inform him that I myself am that which he regrets--a voter--and I would rather have my vote as a protector than the reverence even of the gentleman from Texas."

Mrs. Catt continued: "The speech to which we have listened has been interesting because it has seemed to be a chapter from a book that was written long ago. The week before the war began it was my privilege, sitting in the balcony of the House of Commons, to look down upon the bald head of Mr. Asquith while he made a speech against woman suffrage. 'I am unalterably opposed to woman suffrage because Great Britain is a mighty empire and it will always be necessary to defend it by military power and what do women know about war?' he asked. Three years later he humbly confessed before the world that when a nation like Great Britain goes to war, and such a war as this one, which calls for every ounce of power the nation can offer in its defense, men and women make equal sacrifices and therefore it is not a man's job but it is a man's and a woman's job and they are doing it together. So the Premier demanded woman suffrage and voted for it in the House of Commons. Remembering Mr. Asquith, I think there is hope for Mr. Bailey."

Mrs. Catt pictured eloquently the marvelous work being done by women in Great Britain in the munitions factories, the railway service, the dockyards, and also in our own and all countries; she described the heroic sacrifices of the nurses; she told how the women of Canada and New Zealand had voted for conscription and how in all countries the women were backing their men in the war. "It is declared that American women cannot carry a gun," she said. "Why that is the kind of talk we heard forty years ago and Mr. Bailey's speech is just that much behind the times.... I am sorry for any man who has stood still while the world has moved on."

Only the merest outline of this convincing address is given but before its conclusion Mr. Bailey had deliberately insulted Mrs. Catt by leaving the room. Mrs. Wadsworth, when asked if she wished her side to be heard in rebuttal, introduced Miss Charlotte E. Rowe of Yonkers, N. Y., who made a vigorous plea for saving the home, children and womanhood and declared woman suffrage would lead to Socialism. During the course of her speech she said, according to the official stenographic report: "If working girls and women in colleges will study cooking and sewing and domestic science and hygiene, or simple rules of health and how to care for the sick and the fine and beautiful art of home making, it will be much better for them and better for the country than if they spend their time parading up the avenue of a crowded city and praying that they may some day, somehow, become policemen or boiler-makers side by side with men.... I say to you that it has remained for this self-sufficient 20th century to have produced a womanhood which would stand--even a small proportion of it--in legislative halls and say that they are doing more in this great and terrible war than the men are doing.... Gentlemen, if I were a married woman and my husband was a feminist and on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November he said to me, 'Come, walk by me so as to strengthen and sustain me as I go to the polls,' I would say to him, 'Look here, Mabel, here is the key of the flat; I am going home to father.' I would advise men and women suffragists--and especially those suffragist men who need their wives to strengthen and sustain them on election day--I would advise them to go to the cellar and check over the laundry."

This last hearing on the Federal Suffrage Amendment closed on January 7 and the following day the committee made a favorable report to the House of Representatives. By consent of the Committee on Rules the 10th was set for the debate and vote and on that day the House by a two-thirds majority voted to submit the amendment to the State Legislatures.

FOOTNOTES:

[114] Although there was no national convention in 1918 Mrs. Catt called a conference of the Executive Council, consisting of the national officers, chairmen of standing and special committees and State presidents, at Indianapolis, April 18th and 19th. It was in effect a convention except for the presence of elected delegates and forty-five States were represented, including many of the South. They were entertained by the Indiana Women's Franchise League, welcomed by Governor Goodrich and Mayor Jewett and were guests at many brilliant social functions. A full program of daytime plans for work and committee reports and of evening addresses was carried out. The visitors were able to attend meetings of the Indiana State Suffrage Convention and the League of Women Voters.

[115] Call: The National American Woman Suffrage Association calls its State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to meet in annual convention at St. Louis, Statler Hotel, March 24 to March 29, 1919, inclusive.

In 1869, Wyoming led the world by the grant of full suffrage to its women. The convention will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this event. In 1869, the National and the American Woman Suffrage Associations were organized--to be combined twenty years later into the National American. The convention will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the organization which without a pause has carried forward the effort to secure the enfranchisement of women. As a fitting memorial to a half-century of progress the association invites the women voters of the fifteen full suffrage States to attend this anniversary and there to join their forces in a League of Women Voters, one of whose objects shall be to speed the suffrage campaign in our own and other countries.

The convention will express its pleasure with suitable ceremonials that since last we met the women of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Canada and Germany have received the vote, but it will make searching inquiry into the mysterious causes which deny patriotic, qualified women of our Republic a voice in their own government while those of monarchies and erstwhile monarchies are honored with political equality. Suffrage delegates, women voters, there is need of more serious counsel than in any preceding year. It is not you but the nation that has been dishonored by the failure of the 65th Congress to pass the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Let us inquire together; let us act together.

CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Honorary President. KATHARINE DEXTER MCCORMICK, First Vice-President. MARY GARRETT HAY, Second Vice-President. ANNE DALLAS DUDLEY, Third Vice-President. GERTRUDE FOSTER BROWN, Fourth Vice-President. HELEN H. GARDENER, Fifth Vice-president. NETTIE ROGERS SHULER, Corresponding Secretary. JUSTINA LEAVITT WILSON, Recording Secretary. EMMA WINNER ROGERS, Treasurer.

[116] Ministers who opened the different sessions with prayer were Mary J. Safford, of Iowa; Dr. Ivan Lee Holt, Rabbi Samuel Thurman, Dr. G. Nussman and the Rev. Father Russell J. Wilbur; at the meetings in the Odeon, Dr. J. W. Mclvor and Dean Carrol Davis, all of St. Louis.

[117] From the address of President Wilson:

And what shall we say of the women?... Their contribution to the great result is beyond appraisal. They have added a new luster to the annals of American womanhood. The least tribute we can pay them is to make them the equals of men in political rights as they have proved themselves their equals in every field of practical work they have entered, whether for themselves or for their country. These great days of completed achievements would be sadly marred were we to omit that act of justice.

[118] For action of this committee see Appendix for Chapter XIX.

[119] Names of Committee: John E. Raker, California, chairman; Edward W. Saunders, Virginia; Frank Clark, Florida; Benjamin C. Hilliard, Colorado; James H. Mays, Utah; Christopher D. Sullivan, New York; Thomas L. Blanton, Texas; Jeannette Rankin, Montana; Frank W. Mondell, Wyoming; William H. Carter, Massachusetts; Edward C. Little, Kansas; Richard N. Elliott, Indiana; Jacob E. Meeker, Missouri.

[120] In the summer of 1920, Mr. Bailey, who had been living in New York City ever since he resigned from the Senate, returned to Texas and made the race for Governor to "rescue" the State from woman suffrage, prohibition and other progressive measures which had made great headway since he left it. He was badly defeated for the nomination, with women voting.

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XIX. NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1920

The official report of the Fifty-first convention, in 1920, was entitled Victory Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and First Congress of the League of Women Voters and the Call was as follows:

"Suffragists, hear this last call to a suffrage convention!

"The officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association hereby call the State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to meet in annual convention at Chicago, Congress Hotel, February 12th to 18th, inclusive. In other days our members and friends have been summoned to annual conventions to disseminate the propaganda for their common cause, to cheer and encourage each other, to strengthen their organized influence, to counsel as to ways and means of insuring further progress. At this time they are called to rejoice that the struggle is over, the aim achieved and the women of the nation about to enter into the enjoyment of their hard-earned political liberty. Of all the conventions held within the past fifty-one years, this will prove the most momentous. Few people live to see the actual and final realization of hopes to which they have devoted their lives. That privilege is ours.

"Turning to the past let us review the incidents of our long struggle together before they are laid away with other buried memories. Let us honor our pioneers. Let us tell the world of the ever-buoyant hope, born of the assurance of the justice and inevitability of our cause, which has given our army of workers the unswerving courage and determination that at last have overcome every obstacle and attained their aim. Come and let us together express the joy which only those can feel who have suffered for a cause.

"Turning to the future, let us inquire together how best we can now serve our beloved nation. Let us ask what political parties want of us and we of them. Come one and all and unitedly make this last suffrage convention a glad memory to you, a heritage for your children and your children's children and a benefaction to our nation.[121]"

The seven days of the convention were divided between the National Association and the League of Women Voters, the latter having the lion's share as a new organization requiring much time and attention. All of February 12 was given to the meetings of its committees, with dinners for all delegates and a program of speakers at the Auditorium, Morrison and La Salle Hotels in the evening. All matters relating to the league are considered in the chapter on the League of Women Voters by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary. The addresses at the convention, with the exception of those on Miss Anthony's one hundredth birthday and the memorial meeting for Dr. Shaw, were given under the auspices of the league and the Resolutions were prepared by its committee.

The convention of the National Association began February 13 but the two preceding days had been occupied by almost continuous business sessions of the officers and board of directors. Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout, State president, was chairman of the local committee of arrangements of nearly forty women of Chicago, Evanston and suburban towns for this largest national suffrage convention ever held and the arrangements had never been surpassed. Nothing was forgotten which could contribute to the success or pleasure of the convention. A hostess was appointed for each State to make its delegates acquainted and contribute to their comfort. There were present 546 delegates, a large number of alternates and thousands of visitors, while for the audiences at the public meetings there was not even standing room.[122]

At the morning session on the 13th, with Mrs. Catt presiding, the following program was presented by the Executive Council for the consideration of the delegates and was discussed at this and other business sessions:

1. Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association dissolve when the last task concerning the extension of suffrage to women is completed?

2. Shall it recommend its members to join the League of Women Voters?

3. Shall this be the last suffrage convention held under its auspices? If not, when shall the next be called?

4. If this is to be the last convention, shall a Board of Officers be elected at this convention to serve until all tasks are completed? If this is done, to whom shall such a board render its final report and by whom shall it be officially discharged?

5. If dissolution is determined upon, what disposition shall be made of (a) the files of data; (b) the property; (c) the funds, if any remain?

6. In the event that the association shall be dissolved what agency shall become the auxiliary of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance?

7. What plan for the intensive education of new women voters is possible and shall it be recommended that the League of Women Voters take up this work or shall it be conducted under the National American Woman Suffrage Association?

At the beginning of the afternoon session Mrs. Catt said that for twenty-eight years the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw had opened the national conventions with prayer and she asked that in memory of her the delegates rise and join in silent prayer. They did so and many were in tears. The Rev. Herbert L. Willet then offered the invocation. Mrs. Trout, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association, cordially welcomed the delegates to Chicago. The greeting from the Canadian Woman Suffrage Association was brought by its president, Dr. Margaret Gordon. Mrs. Catt made a gracious response and resigning the chair to the first vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, gave a brief address, reserving a longer one for the League of Women Voters. She said in part:

When we met at St. Louis a year ago in the 50th annual convention of our association, we knew that the end of our long struggle was near. We comprehended in a new sense the truth of Victor Hugo's sage epigram: "There is one thing more powerful than Kings and Armies--the idea whose time has come to move." We knew that the time for our idea was here, and as State after State has joined the list of the ratified we have seen our idea, our cause, move forward dramatically, majestically into its appropriate place as part of the constitution of our nation. We have not yet the official proclamation announcing that our amendment has been ratified by the necessary thirty-six States, but thirty-one have done so and another will ratify before we adjourn; three Governors have promised special sessions very soon and two more Legislatures will ratify when called together. There is no power on this earth that can do more than delay by a trifle the final enfranchisement of women.

The enemies of progress and liberty never surrender and never die. Ever since the days of cave-men they have stood ready with their sledge hammers to strike any liberal idea on the head whenever it appeared. They are still active, hysterically active, over our amendment; still imagining, as their progenitors for thousands of years have done, that a fly sitting on a wheel may command it to revolve no more and it will obey. They are running about from State to State, a few women and a few paid men. They dash to Washington to hold hurried consultations with senatorial friends and away to carry out instructions.... It does not matter. Suffragists were never dismayed when they were a tiny group and all the world was against them. What care they now when all the world is with them? March on, suffragists, the victory is yours! The trail has been long and winding; the struggle has been tedious and wearying; you have made sacrifices and received many hard knocks; be joyful to-day. Our final victory is due, is inevitable, is almost here. Let us celebrate to-day, and when the proclamation comes I beg you to celebrate the occasion with some form of joyous demonstration in your own home State. Two armistice days made a joyous ending of the war. Let two ratification days, one a National and one a State day, make a happy ending of the denial of political freedom to women!

Our amendment was submitted June 4, 1919, and to-day, eight months and eight days later, it has been ratified by thirty-one States. No other amendment made such a record but the time is not the significant part of the story. Of the thirty-one ratifications twenty-four have taken place in special sessions. These mean extra cost to the State, opportunity for other legislation and the chance of political intrigue for or against the Governor who calls them. These obstacles have been difficult to overcome, far more difficult than most of you will ever know, and in a few instances well-nigh insurmountable, but the point to emphasize to-day is that they were overcome. As a whole the ratifications have moved forward in splendid triumphal procession. There have been many inspiring incidents of daring and clever moves on the part of suffragists to speed the campaign and there have been many incidents of courage, nobility of purpose and proud scorn of the pettiness of political enemies on the part of Governors, legislators and men friends. On the other hand there have been tricks, chicanery and misrepresentation, but let us forget them all. Victors can afford to be generous.

Referring to the cost of special sessions, Mrs. Catt said:

If the Governor is a Republican tell him that had it not been that two Republican Senators, Borah of Idaho and Wadsworth of New York, refused to represent their States as indicated by votes at the polls, resolutions by their Legislatures and planks in their party platforms, the suffrage amendment would have passed the 65th Congress. It then would have come into the regular sessions of forty-two Legislatures with more than thirty-six pledged to ratify and without a cent of extra cost to any State! When a Republican Governor calls an extra session in order to ratify he merely atones for the conduct of two members of his own party. They, not he, are to blame that it became necessary. If the Governor is Democratic say that had it not been for two northern Democratic Senators, Pomerene of Ohio and Hitchcock of Nebraska, who refused to represent their States on the question as indicated by their Legislatures and platforms, Congress would have sent the amendment to the 1919 Legislatures and it would have cost the States nothing. The Democratic Governor who calls a special session only makes honorable amends for the misrepresentation of members of his own party....

We should be more than glad and grateful to-day, we should be proud--proud that our fifty-one years of organized endeavor have been clean, constructive, conscientious. Our association never resorted to lies, innuendoes, misrepresentation. It never accused its opponents of being free lovers, pro-Germans and Bolsheviki. It marched forward even when its forces were most disorganized by disaster. It always met argument with argument, honest objection with proof of error. In fifty years it never failed to send its representatives to plead our cause before every national political convention, although they went knowing that the prejudice they would meet was impregnable and the response would be ridicule and condemnation. It went to the rescue of every State campaign for half a century with such forces as it could command, even when realizing that there was no hope. In every corner it sowed the seeds of justice and trusted to time to bring the harvest. It has aided boys in high school with debates and later heard their votes of "yes" in Legislatures. Reporters assigned to our Washington conventions long, long ago, took their places at the press table on the first day with contempt and ridicule in their hearts but went out the last day won to our cause and later became editors of newspapers and spoke to thousands in our behalf. Girls came to our meetings, listened and accepted, and later as mature women became intrepid leaders.

In all the years this association has never paid a national lobbyist, and, so far as I know, no State has paid a legislative lobbyist. During the fifty years it has rarely had a salaried officer and even if so she has been paid less than her earning capacity elsewhere. It has been an army of volunteers who have estimated no sacrifice too great, no service too difficult.

Mrs. Catt enumerated some of the immortal pioneer suffragists and said: "How small seems the service of the rest of us by comparison, yet how glad and proud we have been to give it. Ours has been a cause to live for, a cause to die for if need be. It has been a movement with a soul, a dauntless, unconquerable soul ever leading onward. Women came, served and passed on but others took their places.... How I pity the women who have had no share in the exaltation and the discipline of our army of workers! How I pity those who have not felt the grip of the oneness of women struggling, serving, suffering, sacrificing for the righteousness of woman's emancipation! Oh, women, be glad today and let your voices ring out the gladness in your hearts! There will never come another day like this. Let joy be unconfined and let it speak so clearly that its echo will be heard around the world and find its way into the soul of every woman of every race who is yearning for opportunity and liberty still denied...."

After this inspiring address the convention was turned into a jollification meeting for a considerable time until the delegates were tired out by their enthusiasm and composed themselves to receive a telegram of greeting from President Woodrow Wilson addressed to Mrs. Catt: "Permit me to congratulate your association upon the fact that its great work is so near its triumphant end and that you can now merge it into a League of Women Voters to carry on the development of good citizenship and real democracy; and to wish for the new organization the same wise leadership and success." On motion of Mrs. McCormick it was voted that "the gratitude of the convention be expressed to the President for his constant cooperation and help, with deep regret for his illness." On motion of Miss Mary Garrett Hay, second vice-president, the convention authorized a letter of appreciation to be sent to the Governors of States that had ratified the Federal Amendment and telegrams to those who had not called special sessions strongly urging them to do so.[123] This was made especially emphatic to Governor Louis F. Hart of Washington, the only equal suffrage State which had not ratified. [The session was called and the Legislature ratified unanimously March 22, leaving but one more to be gained.]

At the evening session the Recommendations were considered as presented by the Executive Council, which consisted of the president of the association, officers, board of directors, chairmen of standing and special committees, presidents of affiliated organizations and one representative of each society which paid dues on 1,500 or more members. After discussion and some amendment they were adopted as follows:

Whereas, The sole object of many years' endeavor by the National American Woman Suffrage Association has been "to secure the vote to the women citizens of the United States by appropriate national and State legislation" and that object is about to be attained, and

Whereas, The association must naturally dissolve or take up new lines of work when the last suffrage task has been completed, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the association shall assume no new lines of work and shall move toward dissolution by the following process:

(1) That a Board of Officers shall be elected at this convention, as usual, to serve two years (if necessary) in accordance with the provisions of the constitution;

(2) That the eight directors elected at the 50th annual convention, and whose term of office does not expire until March, 1921, shall be asked to serve until the term of elected officers shall expire;

(3) That any vacancy or vacancies occurring in the list of directors shall be filled by election at this convention;

(4) That all vacancies in the Board of Directors occurring after this convention shall be filled by majority vote of the board;

(5) That the Board of Officers so constituted shall have full charge of the remainder of the ratification campaign and all necessary legal proceedings and shall dispose of files, books, data, property and funds (if any remain) of the association subject to the further instruction of this convention. The Executive Council shall be subject to call by the Board of Officers if necessary;

(6) That the Board of Officers shall render a quarterly account of its procedure and an annual report of all funds in its possession duly audited by certified accountant, to the women who in February, 1920, compose its Executive Council. When its work is completed and its final report has been accepted by this council it may by formal resolution dissolve.[124]

A resolution was adopted regarding action in case of a referendum to the voters of ratification by a Legislature but later the U. S. Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional. Another urged the new league to make political education of the voters its first duty. The last resolution was as follows:

"We recommend that the League of Women Voters, now a section of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, be organized as a new and independent society, and that its auxiliaries, while retaining their relationship to the Board of Officers to be elected in this 51st convention in form, shall change their names, objects and constitutions to conform to those of the National League of Women Voters and take up the plan of work to be adopted by its first congress."

Following the precedent of the last convention, in order to save time, all headquarters' activities were summed up in the report of the corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler. Much condensed the report was as follows:

In the greater glory of the Federal Amendment and the ratifications which are bringing about our ultimate victory we should not overlook the solid, constructive work of the past ten and a half months and those successes of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and its branches in the various States, which made possible the Federal Amendment.

At our convention in St. Louis, March 24-29, 1919, when we met to counsel together for the future and to gird on our armor for the "one fight more--the last and the best," we celebrated the Missouri victory, the twenty-seventh State to give Presidential suffrage to women. Mrs. Catt, by resolution of the convention, immediately wrote to the legislators of Tennessee and Iowa urging passage of a similar bill. Tennessee gave Presidential and Municipal suffrage to women April 14 and Iowa Presidential suffrage on April 19, increasing the number of presidential electors for whom women may vote to 306 out of 531, the total in the United States.

Connecticut women made a magnificent campaign for Presidential suffrage, failing by only one vote in the Legislature. The strength displayed by the suffragists, the obtaining of 98,000 women's signatures and the dignity and ability shown under the leadership of Miss Katherine Ludington, so advanced suffrage in that State as to make the battle seem a victory rather than a defeat.

Municipal suffrage was given by the Legislature to the women of Orlando, Fla., April 21, making sixteen towns in ten counties in that State where women have this right. An effort to secure a Primary suffrage bill for the entire State failed.

Suffrage in the Democratic municipal primaries was granted by the local Democratic committee to the women of Atlanta, Ga., May 3, for one election.

In a referendum vote on a State amendment, May 24, 1919, full suffrage was defeated in Texas. The main causes were: The large number of men who were so confident of the success of the amendment that they did not take the trouble to go to the polls to vote for it; illegal changes in the numbering and position of the amendment on the ballots of the various counties; the absence from the State of about 200,000 soldiers; unfavorable weather conditions; the shortness of the time allowed for the campaign, and, chief of all, the organized opposition of the foreign-born and negro voters. The Texas suffragists won a clear-cut victory January 28 when the State Supreme Court upheld the decisions of the lower courts that the Primary suffrage bill was constitutional....

On June 28 the women of Nebraska won a distinctive victory when the State Supreme Court held the Presidential and Municipal suffrage act of 1917 to be constitutional. The history of woman suffrage records no harder fought legal battle than this. They won another victory in the decision by Attorney General Clarence E. Davis that they had the right to help choose delegates to the national political party conventions. On February 12 the constitutional convention voted to leave the word "male" out of the new constitution.

In Tennessee the decision of the Court of Chancery, which declared the Presidential and Municipal suffrage bill of 1918 unconstitutional, has been reversed by the State Supreme Court....

On February 13 the suffrage committee of the constitutional convention then in session in Illinois voted unanimously to strike "male" out of the new constitution.

We began the year 1918 with nineteen organizers, but as the legislative work came to occupy the place of chief importance most of the States expressed a preference for the services of their own women and it became necessary to reduce the national staff.[125]

During the winter of 1918-1919 a series of conferences was offered to the southern States but for various reasons not accepted. At the St. Louis convention in March, 1919, Mrs. Catt requested the southern representatives to outline the definite help desired from the National Association and their requests were accepted by the board at its post-convention meeting as follows: The National to give (a) one speaker or organizer to each State for two months; (b) a suffrage school to each; (c) one thousand copies of Senator Pollock's speech to each. This help from the National was conditional upon the promise of the southern States (a) that each State would furnish one of its own workers to be under the instruction of the national worker and to continue in charge after her departure; (b) that it would establish and maintain a speakers' bureau; (c) that it would begin the petition campaign. By October the association had fulfilled its promise of an organizer for two months to Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee and had arranged to send organizers to Kentucky, Delaware and Mississippi when those States were ready for them. Later, because of ratification, it gave additional help, sending Mrs. McMahon to Delaware, Mrs. Cunningham, Miss Watkins and Miss Peshakova to Mississippi; Miss Pidgeon, Miss Miller and Mrs. McMahon to Alabama, where a splendid campaign for ratification was directed by Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, State suffrage president.

Not only were the promised copies of Senator Pollock's speech sent but an additional 10,000 pieces of literature were given to Maryland, North Carolina and Delaware; 5,000 to Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida; 36,000 to West Virginia and 51,000 to Mississippi. In place of the suffrage schools a series of conferences was agreed to by the southern States. Three speakers were selected with great care and an outline for the trip was submitted to the States. Some responded that they could not arrange satisfactory conferences, others that they could not make dates to fit the itinerary, two did not reply in time and two did not respond at all. Since speakers could not be sent at such great cost for small, unsatisfactory meetings or on an incomplete itinerary, we were reluctantly forced to cancel the conferences. With regard to the work which the southern States agreed to do, only one State met the provision to provide a worker of its own under the direction of the national organizer to take charge after her departure. None of the States established a speakers' bureau. Three States started the petition campaign but none finished it.

FEDERAL AMENDMENT. We were confident of victory for the amendment in 1919 in the 66th Congress. The House passed it May 21 by an affirmative vote of 304, a majority of 42 votes, and June 4 the Senate by a vote of 56 to 25. The passage of this amendment introduced in Congress over forty years ago by the National Suffrage Association closed a long and interesting chapter of the movement. The completion of that part of our work made it no longer necessary for us to maintain a Washington headquarters. Accordingly June 30, 1919, the doors of the Suffrage House, 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, were closed after having received cabinet members, senators, congressmen, distinguished persons from this and foreign countries, thousands of American men and women and those active suffragists who were called to Washington from time to time to assist in the work of the congressional committee. Mrs. Maud Wood Park, to whose indefatigable energy, honesty of purpose and action and infinite tact we owe much, led the way to victory for the amendment. Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, whose diplomatic abilities made her the constant adviser of the committee, Miss Marjorie Shuler, chief of publicity, Miss Mabel Willard in charge of social affairs, Miss Caroline I. Reilly and Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, secretaries, formed the personnel of the Congressional Committee at the time of victory.

During the months preceding the passage of the Federal Amendment the National Association had carried not only the burden of the actual amendment campaign but had planned and carried out the preparatory work for ratification. Legislatures had been polled, Governors interviewed on the subject of special sessions and organization and publicity built up, looking forward to the final ratification battle. The presidential suffrage campaigns and the resolutions calling upon Congress to pass the suffrage amendment, which the National Association had secured in State Legislatures, were all part of the ratification strategy, a test of the suffrage sentiment in the current Legislatures as well as an impelling force on Congress to pass the amendment.

We had hoped that from this point the State associations would undertake their own campaigns and to that end Mrs. Catt issued a bulletin May 24 telling each one just what steps to take. She stated that the National Association would immediately ask Governors of all equal suffrage States to call sessions and would circularize all the Legislatures. She called upon the State associations to (1) circularize their legislators with the news of the final victory; (2) send deputations to secure the pledge of the vote of each legislator for ratification; (3) begin a statewide campaign through the press, petitions, literature and meetings to secure their own special sessions. It soon became apparent that the States as a whole were not carrying out these plans and instead of promises of special sessions excuses came from the men with the endorsement of the women themselves. It was evident that the national office in New York must be in command.

During the following weeks up to the present time the days and nights have been filled with intensive effort. Never before have the members of the national force, the board, the office force of forty persons in the national headquarters, the Leslie Commission, the publicity department, the Woman Citizen and the Publishing Company worked with so little sparing of themselves and with such absolute concentration upon the matter in hand, still carrying on citizenship preparation, organization and all the routine work but always giving Ratification the right of way. It was Mrs. Catt who sounded the rallying call, who mapped out every step of the way, who did the work of a dozen women herself and cheered the rest on. No one will ever know the full story of her ingenious plans which brought about the ratification and in some States even the women think it was easily won because they do not know of the efforts put forth from the national office.

As soon as the amendment had passed the Senate, Mrs. Catt kept the agreement made by her in the bulletin and sent telegrams to the Governors of full suffrage States, asking for special sessions, and to Legislatures then in session asking for ratification. With the cooperation of the suffrage associations, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan ratified on June 10, in six days after the amendment was submitted by Congress. Kansas and New York ratified in special session and Ohio in regular session on June 16. Pennsylvania ratified on June 24, its blackness wiped off the map. The change of black Massachusetts to the ratified white on June 25 gave another big impetus to the campaign. Texas distinguished itself by ratifying on June 28. This made nine ratifications in nineteen days!

Mrs. Catt had previously asked the presidents of State suffrage associations to interview their Governors regarding special sessions and she had sent personal letters to them and to members of the Legislatures enclosing facts concerning the Federal Amendment. As a result the Governors of Nebraska, Indiana and Minnesota sent letters and telegrams to twenty-two other Governors asking them to call special sessions.

To carry the appeal to the West, two commissions were sent out the last of July, Mrs. John Glover South of Kentucky and Miss Shuler of New York to the Republican States; Mrs. Cunningham of Texas and Mrs. Hooper of Wisconsin to the Democratic States. After a tour of the States and visits to the Governors they went to Salt Lake City for the Governors' Conference. Their reports revealed the fact that women in the enfranchised States had been absorbed into the political parties, and, with their suffrage campaign organizations practically dissolved, were in no position to determine or carry out independent political action. The replies of the Governors--that "the women of my State have the suffrage, it will not help us, the cost of a special session is too great, ill-advised legislation might be considered"--revealed an even more deplorable fact, that both men and women in those States were bounded in thought by their State lines and did not have a national point of view on national issues.

From the first Mrs. Catt had believed that the strategy of ratification demanded rapid action by the western full suffrage States, the partial suffrage States falling into line and the last fight coming in the eastern States where women had not yet become political factors. Therefore the Governors of the fully enfranchised States were wired as soon as the Federal Amendment passed. Those of Kansas and New York responded at once with special sessions on June 16. Then came an ominous pause. No far western States had yet ratified. What mysterious cause delayed them?

Ratifications came in Iowa July 2; Missouri July 3; Arkansas July 28; Montana July 30; Nebraska August 2; Minnesota September 8; New Hampshire September 10; Utah September 30. Another ominous pause, with Montana and Utah the only far western States yet heard from.

On October 23 Mrs. Catt opened a "drive" for ratification through sixteen conferences in twelve States, all but two with equal suffrage. She was accompanied by two chairmen of the League of Women Voters, Dr. Valeria Parker of the Committee of Social Hygiene, and Mrs. Edward P. Costigan of the Committee on Food Supply and Demand, with Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield speaking for the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Shuler for that on Child Welfare. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Julia Lathrop, chairman of the Child Welfare Committee, spoke at one of the conferences and Miss Jessie Haver substituted for Mrs. Costigan during the latter part of the trip. Mrs. Catt's address--Wake Up America--was an appeal for special sessions to ratify in those States where there were to be no regular sessions until 1921 and an appeal to both men and women to use their votes for a better America. Ratifications in North Dakota December 1; South Dakota December 4; Colorado December 12; Oregon January 12; Nevada February 7--were in answer to those stirring appeals. California ratified November 1; Maine November 5; Rhode Island and Kentucky January 6; Indiana January 16. Following soon New Jersey ratified by regular session February 9. Idaho by special session February 11; Arizona February 12. The special session is called in New Mexico February 16 and in Oklahoma February 23. [Both ratified.]

In the story of our ratification campaign there occurs often the name of our second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, whose work for the National Association has always been valuable but who has made her greatest contribution in work for the passage of the Federal Amendment in the campaign to secure special sessions and the overwhelming number of ratifications in Republican States.

Mrs. Shuler told of the Oversea Hospitals, which are considered in another chapter. She gave an eloquent tribute to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and spoke of the beautiful memorial booklet prepared by a committee of officers of the National Association, who distributed 5,000 copies. It also aided in circulating 10,000 copies of her last speech--What the War Meant to Women--prepared as a memorial by the League to Enforce Peace. She spoke tenderly of the death of Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, corresponding secretary of the National Association twenty-one years; of that of Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler Walker, who presided so charmingly over the headquarters in Washington, and of Miss Aloysius Larch-Miller, who as secretary of the committee on ratification in Oklahoma sacrificed her life through her work for it. Reference was made to the contributory work of the National Board in stabilizing the League of Women Voters; to the Citizenship Schools and Travelling Libraries, and the very complete report closed with a testimonial to the immeasurable value of the national organization which read in part:

Our State suffrage associations welded into a great chain have made the National Association. Our members have been one in heart, one in hope, one in purpose. We have held the same standards, the same ideals. When the way has seemed long and dark and the goal of our efforts afar off, we have supported, cheered and encouraged each other. We have rejoiced over even the smallest victory and have never been a downhearted group. The suffrage spirit has ever buoyed us up and carried us on even when the road was the steepest and the obstructions seemed almost insurmountable. These experiences could not have been realized through fifty-one years without "lengthening the cords and strengthening the stakes of friendship" but more--the result has been a liberal training, a greater belief in each other and more confidence in the merits of our cause.

While the value of any movement depends upon the success with which its practical details are worked out, yet in the final analysis the idealism of a movement is the mainspring of its vitality.

"The spirit stands behind the deed, In holy thought the dream must start And every cause that moves the world Was born within a single heart."

So to-day we render homage to our great leader, Mrs. Catt, whose hand has guided and whose genius has vitalized our movement. She has given to a world of women her love, her faith. She has dreamed a dream and then with prophetic vision and undaunted courage led the way to victory and the consummation of that dream.

The exquisite poem, "Oh, Dreamer of Dreams," was quoted and the report ended: "Year after year at national conventions women have agreed to 'carry on'. How well this has been done the records prove. All who have shared in the service and sacrifice which were necessary to bring about the great victory which we are here to celebrate will be glad that they were given and rejoice that they helped in putting to flight the powers of darkness."

In the course of her report as national treasurer Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers said:

It was in November, 1914, at the Nashville convention, that I was elected treasurer of the National Suffrage Association. In November, 1919, I completed my fifth year of service, these last three months additional being by way of good measure. I succeeded with trepidation Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick's very efficient service. She and I are the only members on the present board who were members in 1914.

In February, 1918, the duties of treasurer of the Women's Oversea Hospitals were added to those of the association and the sum of $178,000 has passed through the special treasury of the hospitals to carry on the splendid war work undertaken by the National Suffrage Association. A balance of about $35,000 remains in that treasury, the use of which in some form of memorial this convention will be asked to designate.[126]

The receipts of the treasury since I took office have been, for 1914-1915, $43,186; 1915-1916, $81,862; 1916-1917, $103,826; 1917-1918, $107,736; 1919-1920, $97,379; a total of $443,989. Adding the fund raised for the Hospitals the total is $611,991. Each year I have solicited funds for the National Association from hundreds of suffragists, in addition to the large sums pledged at the conventions, and have had always most generous responses. In November and December, 1919, 38,000 letters were sent out signed by the president and treasurer of the National Suffrage Association asking for a ratification fund of $100,000. Very gratifying returns have come from this appeal and are still coming....

We come to this final convention of our National Association with a balance in the treasury and it must be determined here whether or not this sum is sufficient to finish the fight for nation-wide suffrage. Because of your sympathy and generous cooperation I have found the treasurership a real pleasure. The actual work has been lightened by the faithful service of Miss Eleanor Bates, accountant of the association since 1912. We cannot too gratefully acknowledge also the devoted service of many others, who, unheralded and unsung, have helped to make possible this victory hour....

With this report were ten closely printed pages of perfectly kept and audited accounts. They showed a balance of $10,905 in the treasury. Mrs. Rogers continued the duties of her office at unanimous request having given up to the present time about seven years of most efficient service, spending days, weeks and months at the national headquarters with no remuneration except the joy of helping the cause of woman suffrage. At one session through the efforts of Miss Mary Garrett Hay and Mrs. Raymond Brown, pledges of $44,500 were obtained for the League of Women Voters, Miss Lucy E. Anthony making the first contribution of $1,000 in memory of her aunt, Susan B. Anthony. The Leslie Commission guaranteed $15,000 of this amount.

The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington had during the year set apart a division of space for mementoes of distinguished suffragists, and Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, through whose efforts chiefly this concession had been secured, offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted: "This convention expresses to the Directors of the Smithsonian Institution profound appreciation of this section devoted to the great women leaders of liberty and civilization on the same broad basis accorded to men and believes that this shrine will be an object of the reverence and education of all womanhood.[127]

A resolution was adopted to send congratulatory and affectionate letters to the pioneers, Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y.; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of Elizabeth, N. J., and Mrs. Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia. The Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine, Wis., one of the few remaining pioneers, was guest of honor of the convention and received especial attention throughout the week. A telegram was sent to Mrs. Ida Husted Harper of New York in recognition of her constant, untiring work on the last volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, still in progress. Very laudatory resolutions of "sincere gratitude" were adopted and sent to Will H. Hays and Homer Cummings, chairmen of the Republican and Democratic National Committees, for their services in behalf of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.

Five large rooms in the hotel were required for the 1,400 guests who attended the "ratification banquet" the evening of February 14 and there were almost as many disappointed women who could not obtain seats. Mrs. Catt presided and the following program of sparkling speeches was given: The Apology of New York [for re-election of U. S. Senator Wadsworth], Mrs. F. Louis Slade; The Specials of the Middle West, Mrs. Peter Olesen, Minnesota; Tradition vs. Justice, Mrs. Pattie Jacobs, Alabama; By the Grace of Governors, Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, Wyoming; "All's Well That Ends Well," Mrs. T. T. Cotnam, Arkansas. Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, "cheer leader," had prepared a program of well-known songs cleverly adapted to suffrage and set to popular airs.

The culminating feature, arranged by Mrs. Richard E. Edwards, was a living "ratification valentine." On the stage was disclosed a big heart of silver and blue and in the opening appeared one after another the faces of the presidents of the States whose Legislatures had ratified and they recited caustic but good humored rhymes at the expense of the women whose States were still in outer darkness. It was a hilarious occasion greatly enjoyed by the younger suffragists and those who had come late into the movement. Many memories were awakened, however, in those older in years and service of the days when conventions were largely a time of serious conferences and impassioned appeal; a time when one banquet table was all sufficient but those who gathered around it were very near and dear to each other as they consecrated themselves anew to continue the work till the hour of victory, which seemed very far ahead.

The 14th of February was the seventy-third birthday of Dr. Shaw, who had died the preceding July 2, and the 15th was the one hundredth of Susan B. Anthony, falling on Sunday this year, but it was arranged to have the memorial services for Dr. Shaw on the afternoon of this day. The following program was carried out:

MEMORIAL TO DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW Fourth Presbyterian Church Corner Lake Shore Drive and Delaware Place Dr. Stone, pastor of the church, presiding. Sunday, February 15, 1921.

"She was a genuine American with all the qualities which in fiction collect about that name but which are not so often seen in real life; an American with the measureless patience, the deep and gentle humor, the whimsical and tolerant philosophy and the dauntless courage, physical as well as moral, which we find most satisfyingly displayed in Lincoln, of all our heroes."--New York Times.

Organ Prelude, "In Memoriam." Anthem by Choir, "How blest are they." Invocation. Anthem, "Crossing the bar." Scripture Lesson, Bishop Samuel Fallows, D.D., LL.D. Greetings and Communications, Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees. Address--Memory Pictures, Mrs. Florence Cotnam. Anthem--The Shepherds and Wise Men. (Composed for this occasion by Witter Bynner and A. Madely Richardson.) Address--The Courageous Leader, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw. Address--Reminiscences, Miss Jane Addams. Address--Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. A Closing Word, Rev. John Timothy Stone, D.D., LL.D. The Last Farewell, Dr. Caroline Bartlett Crane. Hymn--"My Country 'Tis of Thee." Benediction. Choir Refrain. Organ Postlude--Toccata.

Eric Delamater, formerly director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was the organist. It was a most impressive occasion with many evidences of deep feeling, and, although it was a church service, the audience responded with warm applause as Mrs. Catt closed her eulogy with this beautiful comparison: "A significant ceremony is performed each Easter in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. In the wall that encloses the tomb of Christ there is an opening which on Easter Sunday is surrounded by priests of the shrine carrying unlighted candles. It is believed that the candles are touched into flame by a holy fire emanating from Divinity through this opening. Also provided with candles are the worshippers who throng the church, the nearby receiving their light from the priests and passing it on until every candle is aflame. Men nearest the door hasten to light the candles of horsemen outside who speed away on the mission of torchbearer to every home, so that by nightfall the candles on every altar burn with a new brightness that has been transmitted from the holy fire. Likewise the fire of inspiration, kindled in the great soul of Anna Howard Shaw, touched into flame the zeal and courage of her messengers, who in turn reached the homes throughout the nation with her fervor and power."

* * * * *

[Dr. Shaw had given forty-five years of consecrated devotion to the cause of woman suffrage and this was the first national convention for nearly thirty years without the inspiration of her presence. She first met Miss Anthony at the International Council of Women in Washington in 1888 and from that time gave her the deepest affection and truest allegiance. While the years went by she became nearer and dearer to Miss Anthony and was loved by her beyond all others. As an orator she played upon the whole gamut of human emotions, lifting her audiences to intellectual heights, touching their sentiment with her exquisite pathos, convincing them with her keen logic and winning their hearts with her irresistible humor. People not only admired but loved her, and this was true not alone in the United States but in all parts of the world, as she had addressed international congresses in most of the large cities of Europe. She lived to see the submission by Congress of the Federal Suffrage Amendment and to render most valuable assistance to her country during the World War as chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense, and she died in its service.]

There was considerable discussion in the convention of a suitable memorial to Dr. Shaw and finally a resolution was adopted that the association establish an official joint memorial--at Bryn Mawr College a Foundation in Politics and at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania a Foundation in Preventive Medicine--as a fitting continuation of her life work;[128] that a committee be appointed to carry out the project by appealing to the women throughout the country and that this committee be incorporated and assume the financial responsibility.[129] The Chair presented as the first donation towards the fund a check of $1,000 sent by Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo, in memory of Dr. Shaw on her birthday. The gift was accompanied by an eloquent tribute from Mrs. Lewis, an intimate and devoted friend of nearly twenty years, in which she gave beautiful quotations from Dr. Shaw's letters and an extract from her charming autobiography, The Story of a Pioneer.[130]

As had long been the custom the officers of the association gave an informal reception to the delegates and friends on Sunday evening. This took place in the Congress Hotel and they were assisted by the local committee of arrangements.

The final report of the Oversea Hospitals maintained by the National Association, as given by Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, chairman, and Mrs. Raymond Brown, general director in France, is in the chapter on the War Work of Organized Suffragists.

A brief report of the Leslie Bureau of Education was made by Miss Young who said: "The Leslie Bureau was founded by Mrs. Catt in 1917, as administratrix of the fortune left to her to promote the cause of suffrage by Mrs. Frank Leslie. Mrs. Catt cherished the view that if the public were thoroughly educated on the subject of suffrage it would be wholly in favor of it. She proposed to set aside a large part of the Leslie fund for use in channels of education. I was appointed director of the bureau and departmentalized it under the following heads: News, Field Work, Features, Research.... The Woman Citizen was termed "an adventure in journalism." Miss Young was editor-in-chief and business manager and Miss Mary Ogden White was associate editor. "The great body of testimony shows," she said, "that the service of the magazine has been at all times indispensable."

Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., supplemented Mrs. Shuler's report of its dissolution, paid a tribute to its board of directors and said: "In reviewing the six years of the company's existence a few facts come to my mind which I think may interest you. We have printed and distributed over 50,000,000 pieces of literature. Besides supplying suffrage material to practically every State in the Union we have filled orders from Switzerland, France, Italy, Great Britain, Norway, Canada, Philippine Islands, Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, Argentina, China and Japan. Recently we have been asked to send a complete line of our publications to the new American Library in Rome, Italy, and nearly every day we receive requests for pamphlets from libraries all over the United States and from universities for their extension courses. My correspondence and association with suffragists over the country through the Publishing Company will ever be among the happiest memories of my life."

Almost every State president submitted a report of vigorous work either to secure the suffrage or where this had been done to organize and put into operation a League of Women Voters. Never before in the history of the National Association had so much interest and activity been manifest in the States.

The Pioneer Suffrage Luncheon with Mrs. McCormick presiding brought together many of the older workers, whose rejoicing over the final victory after their long years of toil and sacrifice such as the younger ones had never known, was lessened by the thought that this was the last of the love feasts which they had shared together for many decades. The response to the leading toast--What the Modern Woman Owes to the Pioneers--was made by the Rev. Olympia Brown, now eighty-four years old, whose excellent voice was not equalled among any of the younger women. Songs, reminiscences and clever, informal speeches contributed to a most delightful afternoon.

It had been a keen disappointment that the Jubilee Convention of the preceding year--March, 1919--which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the association, could not have celebrated the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment but this had to await a new Congress. Now it was almost unendurable that this commemoration of Miss Anthony's one hundredth birthday could not have been glorified by the proclamation that this amendment was forever a part of the National Constitution. However, by the time another month had rolled by, this culmination of her life work awaited the ratification of only one more Legislature and it was so universally recognized as near at hand that this last meeting could appropriately be termed the Victory Convention. Following is the program of the celebration of her centenary:

SUSAN B. ANTHONY CENTENARY CELEBRATION.

"To me Susan B. Anthony was an unceasing inspiration--the torch that illumined my life. We went through some difficult times together--years when we fought hard for each inch of headway gained--but I found full compensation for every effort in the glory of working with her for the cause that was first in our hearts and in the happiness of being her trusted friend."--Anna Howard Shaw.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1920, 2 p. m.

What Happened in Ten Decades Briefly Told:

1820-1830--The Age of Mobs and Eggs. Mrs. E. F. Feickert, president of New Jersey.

1830-1840--The First School Suffrage. Mrs. Desha Breckenridge, president of Kentucky.

1840-1850--The Dawn of Property Rights. Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, former president of Missouri.

1850-1860--The First High School for Girls. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, president of Massachusetts.

1860-1870--The World's First Full Suffrage. Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, professor of Political Science, University of Wyoming.

1870-1880--The Negro's Hour. Mrs. Henry Youmans, president of Wisconsin.

1880-1890--The First Municipal Suffrage. Mrs. William A. Johnston, president of Kansas.

1890-1900--Suffrage Spreads. Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, former press director of Pennsylvania.

1900-1910--Ridicule Gives Way to Argument, Indifference to to Organization. Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, president of Ohio.

1910-1920--The Portent of Victory. Mrs. Raymond Brown, national vice-president.

Miss Anthony--An Appreciation, Mrs. Harriette Taylor Treadwell, member of the Illinois board.

Miss Anthony--A Historical Recognition, Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, national vice-president.

THE SUFFRAGE HONOR ROLL.

"Undaunted by opposition brave spirits led on."

PRESENTATION OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS BY THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION to Pioneers, those who labored before 1880; Veterans, those who labored between 1880 and 1900; Honor Workers after 1900.

While Mrs. Catt was busy handing out the honor rolls to pioneers and veterans with a few precious words to each, Mrs. Upton came suddenly forward and laid a detaining hand on her arm. With tender reminiscence, relieved by the sparkles of humor never absent from whatever she said, she presented in the name of countless suffragists an exquisite pin, a large star sapphire surrounded by diamonds and set in platinum. It was the association's parting gift to its beloved leader, whose usually perfect poise deserted her and she could not acknowledge it. To her whispered appeal to Mrs. Upton to speak for her, the latter laughingly answered that this was the first time she ever was able to do something that Mrs. Catt could not.

The evening part of the celebration began with community singing, William Griswold Smith, director, and was followed by an illustration of Then and Now, Told in Pictures, under the management of Miss Young. Down a wide flight of stairs came one picturesque figure after another garbed to represent the passing years during the suffrage contest, beginning with the middle of the last century, many clothed in the actual garments worn at the period, and after crossing the stage they took their seats in tiers, a lovely spectacle. At the last came the Red Cross workers, the nurses, the motor corps and others in war service. The picture ended with a gay group of debutantes in filmy chiffon gowns to symbolize the present day of rejoicing. The triumphs of women in the intellectual field were told in the program that followed: Education--Professor Maria L. Sanford; Medicine--Dr. Julia Holmes Smith; Law--Miss Florence Allen; Theology--the Rev. Olympia Brown; Journalism--Miss Ethel M. Colson; Politics--Miss Mary Garrett Hay.

Different sections of the League of Women Voters were in session day and night perfecting the organization of this most significant association of women ever attempted. The culmination of seventy years' continuous effort was about to be reached in the complete and universal enfranchisement of women and now a new generation, under the guidance of the older workers who remained, was bravely taking up another great task, that of bringing about cooperation among women in the effective use of this supreme power for the highest welfare of the State. On the last afternoon of the convention the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the League of Women Voters held a joint session for discussion of matters in which they had a mutual interest. On the last evening, just before the beginning of the first session of the School for Political Education in the Florentine Room, Mrs. Catt, with suitable ceremony formally adjourned the Victory Convention, the last of a series held for fifty years by the old association.

FOOTNOTES:

[121] Following are the officers of the association who were elected at the convention in St. Louis in 1919 and re-elected in Chicago in 1920 to remain in office until the association should go out of existence: President, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt; first vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick; second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay; third vice-president, Mrs. Guilford Dudley; fourth vice-president, Mrs. Raymond Brown; fifth vice-president, Mrs. Helen H. Gardener; treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler; recording secretary, Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson. All were of New York City except Mrs. Dudley of Tennessee and Mrs. Gardener of the District of Columbia. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who had been president from 1904 to 1915 and honorary president thereafter, had died July 2, 1919.

Directors: Mrs. Charles H. Brooks (Kans.); Mrs. J. C. Cantrill (Ky.); Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.); Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.); Mrs. Ben Hooper (Wis.); Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. Y.); Mrs. George A. Piersol (Penn.).

[122] Fraternal delegates were present from the Association of Collegiate Alumnae; Florence Crittenden Mission; General Federation of Women's Clubs; Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic; National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association; National Congress of Mothers; Parent Teachers' Association; National Council of Jewish Women; National Council of Women; National Council of College Women; National Women's Trade Union League; National Women's Association of Commerce; National Women's Relief Corps; National Women's Relief Society; State Federation of Women's Clubs; State Trade Union League; Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Women's City Club; State League of Women Voters; Womens' International League for Peace and Freedom.

[123] To Governors who called special sessions: "On behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association meeting in its 51st annual convention I am instructed to express its official appreciation and gratitude to you for your assistance in ratifying the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Woman suffrage will soon be a closed chapter in the history of our country and we are confident that the pride and satisfaction of every Governor and legislator who has aided the ratification will increase as time goes on. We want you to know that the women of the nation are truly grateful to you for your part in their enfranchisement. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary.

[124] For account of meetings of the Board of Officers and Executive Council in April and June, 1921, see Appendix for this chapter.

[125] The names of the organizers retained, all of whom gave most effective service, were Mrs. Augusta Hughston, Miss Edna Annette Beveridge, Mrs. Maria S, McMahon, Miss Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, Miss Josephine Miller, Miss Lola Trax, Miss Edna Wright, Miss Marie Ames and Miss Gertrude Watkins. Their organized work extended over Iowa, Missouri, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Delaware and New Hampshire. In addition to the regular force Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham and Miss Liba Peshakova were sent to Mississippi for two months. The work of the organizers is regarded as the hardest and most difficult connected with a State campaign and Mrs. Shuler paid high tribute to them.

[126] The final report of the Oversea Hospitals Committee is given in the chapter on War Work of Organized Suffragists.

[127] In this space have been placed the little mahogany table on which were written the Call for the first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848, the Declaration of Principles and the Resolutions; a portrait in oil of Miss Anthony on her eightieth birthday; large framed photographs of Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt; photographs of the signing of the Federal Suffrage Amendment by Vice-president Marshall and Speaker Gillett, the pens with which it was done and the pen with which Secretary of State Colby signed the Proclamation that it was a part of the National Constitution, and personal mementoes of Miss Anthony. The table has special historical value. It stood for years in the parlor of the McClintock family at Waterloo, N. Y., and was bequeathed to Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who, with Mrs. McClintock, Lucretia Mott and her sister, Martha C. Wright, wrote the Call, etc. When Mrs. Stanton died in New York City it stood at the head of her casket holding the Biography of Susan B. Anthony and the History of Woman Suffrage, of which Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony wrote the first three volumes. The table was left to Miss Anthony and was in her home at Rochester, N. Y., until her death, when it stood at the head of her casket, bearing a floral tribute from the National American Woman Suffrage Association. It then passed to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and was in her home at Moylan, Penn., until the national suffrage headquarters were opened in Washington December, 1916, when it was taken there. At the time they were closed, after the Federal Suffrage Amendment had been submitted by Congress, the table found a final haven in the Smithsonian Institution.

[128] Dr. Shaw was a graduate of Albion College, Mich.; of the medical department of Boston University and of its School of Theology. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on her by Temple University, Philadelphia.

[129] Mrs. John O. Miller, president of the Pennsylvania State Suffrage Association, was appointed chairman of this committee, to which six others were added and it was decided to raise $500,000 to be divided between the two colleges. When Bryn Mawr was making its "drive" for $2,000,000 in 1920 it included an appeal for $100,000 for this chair in politics, which were subscribed. The Medical College raised $30,000 for the chair in preventive medicine. The committee hopes to have the full amount by Feb. 14, 1922.

Several months before, at the invitation of Dean Virginia C. Gildersleeve, a meeting had been held at Barnard College, Columbia University, to arrange for the Anna Howard Shaw Chair of American Citizenship. It was addressed by President Nicholas Murray Butler, who strongly favored it; by Dean Gildersleeve, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw and other alumnae and a committee formed to raise $100,000, of which amount $4,000 were subscribed at that time. Mrs. George McAneny (a daughter of Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi) was made chairman and the other members were Barnard alumnae and well-known workers for woman suffrage. The convention was asked to endorse the project, which was done. The committee expects soon to have the full amount. These lectures on American Citizenship will not be confined to Barnard students but will be offered to women in general.

[130] For accounts and tributes see Appendix for this chapter.

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