XX. MASSACHUSETTS.[79]…

XX. MASSACHUSETTS.[79]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other suffrage organizations sprang up or were enlarged, the Writers' League, the Players' League, etc. Local branches were built up rapidly under the leadership of Mrs. Pinkham, State organization chairman, and by the spring of 1914 there were 138 leagues and committees. Just before the vote in November, 1915, these had grown to 200. Monthly conferences of the district leaders were held at State headquarters. A systematic effort was made to build up strong suffrage organizations in the cities outside of Boston. Workers and speakers were sent through the State to help the local workers. In 1914 a series of two-day conferences was held in eleven of the sixteen counties, the first day devoted to discussion of work with local leaders and the second to holding often as many as twenty meetings by a corps of speakers, at factories, stores, men's clubs, labor unions, church organizations, on the street, etc.

To educate the men who were to vote upon the question, a State-wide canvass of voters was begun by Mrs. Crowley, which was carried on up to election day. A body of from five to seven intelligent women, informed on the question, re-enforced by local volunteers, called from house to house, talking to the voter or his wife, leaving suffrage literature and if possible getting the voter's signature to a card pledge to vote yes. These canvassers moved from city to city and from town to town, reaching from one-half to two-thirds of the registered voters, averaging about 1,500 calls per week and leaving the rest of the work to be carried on by local women. By election day over 250,000 voters had been interviewed, 100,000 had signed pledge cards and more than 50,000 others had expressed themselves as favorable.

Much of this work was made possible by the activities of the Ways and Means Committee of the State Association, under the chairmanship of Mrs. B. F. Pitman, who, during the many years that she served in that capacity, repeatedly rescued the association from the verge of debt and filled up its treasury. Her committee accomplished this by a Bay State Bazaar held every year at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston; by balls, theatrical performances, outdoor fêtes, pageants and other entertainments.

As an extra provision for the campaign of 1915, the Bay State Finance Committee was formed in 1914 by Mrs. Park, chairman, which with the State association raised and spent about $54,000 in the campaign. This was exclusive of the money spent by the various leagues and branches throughout the State, including $10,820 by the Boston Association for Good Government.

For two years educational work was pushed in every way. It was carried into the country districts by systematic trolley and automobile trips, parties of workers carrying out well planned itineraries in different parts of the State, involving usually from two to four open-air meetings per day. Audiences were secured in all the small and scattered places, even the most remote, by postal notices mailed from State headquarters several days in advance to every registered voter.

Among the means employed to draw attention were huge "Votes for Women" kites, voiceless speeches (a series of placards held up to view in a store window or other public place), distribution of literature in the baseball parks; a suffrage automobile or a section in the parades on Labor Day, Columbus Day, etc.; a pilgrimage to Worcester on the anniversary of the First National Woman's Rights Convention, led by Miss Florence Luscomb in old-fashioned costume, in Lucy Stone's carriage; the running of propaganda films in the moving pictures and the placing of 100,000 brightly painted tin Blue Birds in conspicuous places throughout the State, each bird bearing the words "Votes for Women, Nov. 2, 1919." There were speakers and debates at men's clubs, church organizations, labor unions, in factories, granges, at cattle shows and at conventions of all sorts.

Large indoor meetings were held, addressed by distinguished visitors to the State, among them Philip Snowden and Mrs. Snowden, Senator Helen Ring Robinson of Colorado, U. S. Senators Clapp of Minnesota, Kenyon of Iowa and Thomas of Colorado. Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughter Sylvia spoke in Boston and Cambridge with great success. Louis D. Brandeis, afterwards Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, came out for woman suffrage. In Boston, under the direction of Miss Mabel Caldwell Willard, innumerable street meetings were held for a year before the vote, with mass meetings every Sunday in the Tremont Theater and on the historic Common.

Press material was supplied to city and country papers. The newspapers as a whole grew more favorable as time went by but their editorial pages were much more friendly than the news columns, which frequently carried stories that were unfair or wholly untrue. The Boston Sunday Herald printed regular suffrage notes for some months before the vote and once the daily edition gave the suffragists a full page. The Boston American let them issue a special supplement, in charge of Mrs. Jennette A. S. Jeffrey and Mrs. Leonard, and this example was followed by other papers in the State. As always, the Woman's Journal did much to hold together, encourage and stimulate the workers. A special committee distributed more than 100,000 copies of suffrage speeches made in Congress and more than 300,000 pieces of other literature within the last few months before the election.

The most impressive publicity put forth by the State association was the two parades in Boston; the first held May 2, 1914, and the second, Oct. 16, 1915, just before the election. The first one caused a sensation. It contained about 12,000 women, with a small section of men, and was conducted under the chairmanship of Mrs. Leonard, with Mrs. Page, Mrs. Johnson and nine sub-committee chairmen. It was extremely well organized and the large mass of totally untrained marchers was handled so efficiently as to surprise all who saw it. Delegations from all over New England took part and one from Australia; women in national costumes; nurses in uniform; delegations from all the women's colleges in the State and men and women from the universities; also a singing chorus trained by Dr. Archibald Davidson, Jr., of Appleton Chapel, Harvard. In the procession were a son, three grandsons, a granddaughter and two granddaughters-in-law of William Lloyd Garrison; the daughter of Abby Kelley Foster, the daughter-in-law of Angelina Grimké and Theodore Weld and the daughter of Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell. The Concord banner was carried by the grandniece of Louisa M. Alcott. Arrangements had been made for a delegation from the Boston Central Labor Union but when the time came the sole marcher to appear was the president, who courageously marched alone carrying the banner of the union.

The second, called the Victory Parade, was even more successful. It included about 15,000 marchers with a substantial men's section and was viewed by 500,000 people. It was reviewed by Governor David I. Walsh in front of the State House and Mayor James Michael Curley in front of the City Hall and was followed by a tremendous mass meeting in Mechanics' Building, addressed by the Mayor and others. Parades were held also in other large cities.

The State Federation of Women's Clubs at its annual meeting in 1915 endorsed woman suffrage, on motion of Mrs. Herbert J. Gurney, by a vote of 203 to 99. The extreme to which bitter feeling ran was shown by a widely advertised attempt to organize a Non-partisan League among the club women in consequence but only a few hundred joined out of a federation membership of 65,000. It had been endorsed by the General Federation and by 28 State federations but in no other had the defeated minority undertaken to organize another society.

Thirty county fairs out of thirty-seven were covered systematically. Special help in the campaign work was given by Ohio, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The question of woman suffrage was presented before 621 organizations of men through the efforts of a committee formed for that purpose, under Mrs. Evelyn Peverly Coe's chairmanship. Women attended nearly all the primaries and town meetings, distributing literature and urging the men to vote yes.

As the election approached the work along all lines grew more intensive. Well-organized victory automobile tours ran steadily throughout the summer and fall, in the eastern part of the State under the direction of Mrs. Walter G. Morey and in the western under Miss Luscomb. Meetings were held at the fashionable hotels on the north and south shores and outdoor meetings at the popular beach resorts. Comparatively few were held indoors but 1,675 were supplied with speakers. Big meetings were addressed in Boston and other large cities by U. S. Senator William E. Borah and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw. An elaborate luncheon was given by the Men's League and the State association at the Hotel Bellevue to the Governors' conference held in Boston. Valuable help at this time was rendered by Governor Walsh and the favorable opinions of the Governors of equal suffrage States were published at length in the Boston papers by the Men's League. At the last moment mass meetings were held in Boston at Symphony Hall and in the largest halls of many other cities. A symbolical and picturesque flag-raising took place on Boston Common. A last-minute circular was sent to each of the State's 600,000 registered voters. The day before the vote the railroad stations in Boston were visited morning and evening and thousands of pieces of literature were given to the commuters.

On election day, Nov. 2, 1915, practically all the polling places in the State were covered by 8,000 women, who stood for hours holding aloft placards reading, "Show your Faith in the Women of Massachusetts; vote 'Yes' on Woman Suffrage." And yet after all this strenuous effort and self-sacrificing devotion the amendment was defeated by a vote of 295,489 to 163,406, a majority of 132,000. The vote in Boston was: Noes, 53,654; ayes, 31,428; opposing majority, 22,226.

Louis D. Brandeis said in an address on Columbus Day: "I doubt if there has been carried on ever in Massachusetts--certainly not in my lifetime--a campaign which for intelligence, devotion and intensity surpassed the campaign of the women for suffrage. It should silence any doubt as to their fitness for enfranchisement." The suffragists, however, had to contend with serious and insuperable difficulties. The population of the State had changed radically since the early days when Massachusetts had been the starting point of liberal movements. For more than half a century its most progressive citizens had been going west and their places had been filled by wave after wave of immigration from Europe, largely ignorant and imbued with the Old World ideas as to the subjection of women. The religious question also entered in, and, while the Catholic Church took no stand as to woman suffrage, many Catholics believed that it would be a step toward Socialism, against which the church was making a vigorous contest. On the other hand, many Protestants believed that the Catholic women's votes would be unduly influenced by the priests.

Massachusetts was the home of the oldest and most influential anti-suffrage organization of women in the United States under the leadership of Mrs. Charles Eliot Guild, Miss Mary Ames, Mrs. James Codman, Mrs. Charles P. Strong and others. Few of its members did any active work but they were connected through the men of their families with the richest, most powerful and best organized groups of men in the State, who worked openly or behind the scenes against woman suffrage. They had an influence out of all proportion to their numbers. Most of the literature, most of the money and a liberal supply of speakers for anti-suffrage campaigns all over the country had emanated from this association. While always posing as a woman's protest, the real strength of the movement was in the men.

In May, 1912, a Man's Anti-Suffrage Association had been organized, its Executive Committee consisting of ten lawyers, one cotton broker, one Technology Professor, the treasurer of Harvard College and the treasurer of the Copley Society. Other societies were organized later. All through the summer and fall of 1915 the women's and the men's organizations and various groups and combinations of men, who for one reason or another did not want equal suffrage, worked publicly and privately in every conceivable way against the amendment. They held meetings, mostly indoor, sent out speakers, advertised in street cars, prepared and mailed to every voter at great expense an elaborate pamphlet, The Case Against Woman Suffrage, full of misrepresentations, and did all an active opposition could do, and they had an efficient and highly paid Publicity Committee. The liquor interests fought the amendment from start to finish. Pink slips were passed out in saloons on election day, saying, "Good for two drinks if woman suffrage is defeated."

The vote was curiously uniform. Every part of the State gave an adverse majority; so did every city and town except Tewksbury and Carver; and generally in about the same proportion--places with strong suffrage organizations and places with none; whether the work done in them had been much or little; even towns where a majority of the voters had signed pledge cards promising to vote for the amendment voted adversely and in about the same ratio. The vote was the largest ever cast on any amendment in the State. By appealing adroitly to all kinds of prejudices, as on the religious question, the opposition got out an enormous number of men who generally did not vote at all.

Both sides were required by law to file at the State House a record of their campaign expenses. An analysis of the lists showed that the bulk of the anti-suffrage campaign fund was made up of personal contributions, four-fifths of them from men, and more than three-fifths of the total from 135 men, whose average donation was $235. The slogan of their campaign had been that women did not want to vote. The official figures showed that those who claimed to speak for "80 per cent. of the women" received 80 per cent. of their contributions from men, and not from the rank and file of men but chiefly from bankers, brokers and powerful directors of the monied section of Boston. The bulk of the suffrage campaign fund came from fairs, sales and entertainments and of the personal contributions more than four-fifths were from women, their average donation being $17.

After the election in 1915 there was started a State branch of the Congressional Union, later called the National Woman's Party, formed some years before to push the Federal Amendment. It was under the leadership of Mrs. Morey, chairman, and other women most of whom had been active with the State association during the campaign. The defeat of the State amendment caused the work of all organizations to be directed toward the submission of the Federal Amendment.

At the annual meeting of the State association in May, 1916, a budget of $30,000 was adopted and $20,000 toward it was pledged on the spot. Through the preceding winter the association had five paid organizers, two of them working in Boston, and a large number of volunteer field workers, at least 230 in Boston alone. Besides the chairmen for the sixteen congressional districts, each of the forty senatorial districts had its chairman, all working under the State Chairman of Organization, Mrs. Sara S. Gilson. She was followed by Mrs. Mary P. Sleeper and by Mrs. Elizabeth Tilton, who formed an Advisory Council of 100 influential men in preparation for the campaign to ratify the Federal Amendment.

After the United States entered the World War in 1917 the suffrage organizations, State and local, devoted their efforts largely to various forms of war work, called for by the Government. They served on all committees, took part in all "drives," sold Liberty Bonds and continued their service till the last demand had been met.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The Massachusetts Legislature began in 1869 to grant hearings to women asking for the franchise and it continued to do so every year thereafter. These hearings usually crowded the largest committee room at the State House, the throng often extending far out into the hall. Able arguments were presented by eminent men and women but it was impossible to obtain favorable action. There was at least one hearing every year and often several on different measures. In later years they were generally conducted by Mrs. Maud Wood Park, Miss Amy F. Acton, a young woman lawyer, or Miss Alice Stone Blackwell for the petitioners; and by Thomas Russell, Aaron H. Latham, Charles R. Saunders or Robert Luce, as attorney for the Anti-Suffrage Association. Miss Blackwell usually replied for the petitioners. In recent years the suffragists had influential politicians of both parties to speak at the hearings, thus making woman suffrage a political question.

1901. The State association asked for the Municipal and Presidential franchise and for the submission to the voters of a constitutional amendment giving full suffrage. At the hearing on the latter, held February 18, the crowd broke all records and members of the committee who came late had to reach their seats by walking on top of the long table. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt was among the speakers.[84] The measure was defeated March 11 by a vote, including pairs, of 156 to 53. Individuals petitioned for Municipal suffrage for women taxpayers, which was referred to the next Legislature without a roll call.

1902. The association's petition for a constitutional amendment was debated in the House on March 5 and defeated by a vote (including pairs) of 153 to 61. Petitions from individuals for Municipal suffrage for taxpaying women and that women qualified to vote for school committee might vote in the primaries on the nominations for it and a petition of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union that women might vote on licenses, were all rejected, after lively hearings. The Anti-Suffrage Association opposed all of them.

The great legislative triumph of 1902 was the passage of the Equal Guardianship bill. Ever since Lucy Stone in 1847 began to urge the amendment of the old law, which gave the father absolute control, the suffragists had endeavored to have it changed. Bill after bill, drawn by Samuel E. Sewall and others, had been introduced and rejected and it required a tragedy to obtain a new law. Mrs. Naramore of Coldbrook, Mass., went insane and killed her six young children when she learned that their father intended to give them away and could legally do so. This deeply stirred the Rev. Charles H. Talmage, who had conducted the funeral service, with the six little coffins ranged before the pulpit. He made a careful inquiry into all the circumstances and gave a full account of them in the Boston Herald of April 15, 1901 (republished in the Woman's Journal of April 27). He gave his time and the State Suffrage Association paid his expenses while he went through the State enlisting the support of different organizations of women to secure a change in the law. Mr. Blackwell also put in much time for this purpose.

When the Equal Guardianship bill was introduced by Representative George H. Fall of Malden it was backed not only by the suffrage association but by the State Federation of Women's Clubs, the State W. C. T. U., the Women's Relief Corps, the Boston Children's Friend Society and more than a hundred other organizations, aggregating 34,000 women. Among them the Anti-Suffrage Association was not included. For six years it had been circulating, under its official imprint, a leaflet against the proposal to give mothers equal custody and control of the children and in defense of the law as it stood.

The Committee on Probate and Chancery reported adversely by 8 to 3. The outlook for its passage seemed so dark that Mr. Fall came to the Woman's Journal office and asked if it might not be better to drop it and await a more propitious time. Miss Blackwell urged him to push it to a test. On May 27 it was debated in the House. Representative Marshall of Gloucester said that the Probate Judges were all opposed to it; that its advocates were "sentimentalists" and that "it would create strife, separation and divorce." He added: "Those who appeared for it before the committee were practically the same crowd that appeared for woman suffrage." Representative Sleeper exclaimed: "If you want to enact legislation which will disrupt the home and sunder the tenderest and most sacred relations, pass this bill!" The House rejected the committee's adverse report by a viva voce vote and the next day passed the bill without further debate. It passed the Senate by a large majority. Thanks and praises were showered upon Representative Fall, who modestly said that two-thirds of the credit for working up the case belonged to his wife, Mrs. Anna Christy Fall.

1903. The bill for taxpayers' Municipal suffrage was defeated February 5 without a roll call; the association's petition for a constitutional amendment by 99 to 87.

1904. Governor John L. Bates recommended woman suffrage in his Message. The association asked for Municipal suffrage for women having the same qualifications required of men. The bill was debated in the House on February 16 and defeated without a roll call. The bill to let women vote on nominations for school trustees was defeated by 62 to 30.

1905. The association's petition for a constitutional amendment was rejected without a division and without even discussion. Petitions were rejected for License suffrage, for a vote on school nominations and to enable women to vote for the appointing officer if the Boston school board should be made appointive instead of elective. The association always joined with other societies in asking for measures for the public welfare.

1906. The association's petition for a constitutional amendment was debated March 23 and defeated without a roll call. One headed by John Golden, president of the Textile Workers, for Municipal suffrage for wage-earning women was also defeated without a division, as were the petitions for License suffrage and for a vote on school nominations.

1907. The constitutional amendment was debated February 20 and defeated by 125 to 14. The Good Templars asked for License suffrage for women. At the hearing the bill was supported by representatives of the Anti-Saloon League, the W. C. T. U., the Christian Endeavorers, etc., and opposed by the Anti-Suffrage Association and the attorney of the Wine and Spirits Wholesale Dealers' Association. A bill requiring that the same measures be taken to keep the names of women voters (school) on the register as the names of men failed to pass.

1908. Municipal suffrage for all women, asked for by the association, was vigorously debated and voted down by 99 to 30. Municipal suffrage for women taxpayers, asked for by individuals, was defeated without a roll call.

1909. At the hearing on February 23 the Boston Herald, which was not in favor of equal suffrage, estimated that 2,000 women besieged the State House. They crowded the corridors and the large portico until two great overflow meetings were held in the open air at either end of the broad stairway leading up to the entrance. Later the overflow meeting moved on to the Common. The huge crowd of women made a deep impression and was largely featured in the press, which said that nothing like it had ever been seen in Boston.[85] The hearing was conducted for the petitioners by Mrs. Crowley and for the "antis" by Mr. Saunders. He was so impressed by the crowd that his usual sneering and jeering manner was wholly changed. The suffrage speakers were Dr. Shaw, John F. Tobin, president of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union; Rabbi Charles Fleischer, Miss Josephine Casey, secretary of the Women's Trade Union League; Henry Abrahams of the Central Labor Union; Miss Rose Brennan of Fall River, Miss Blackwell, Miss Eleanor Rendell of England, Winfield Tuck and Mrs. Belle Davis. Mrs. Gorham Dana, Professor Sedgwick and Mrs. George spoke for the "antis." Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Ex-Governor Bates, who were to have spoken for suffrage, could not get into the room.[86] The constitutional amendment was debated March 23. The galleries were reserved for women, yet many were turned away. The vote stood 171 noes to 54 ayes, including 11 pairs.

1910. The hearing February 23 on a constitutional amendment was unusually impressive. It was held in the evening to enable women busy by day to attend. In the past two or three members of the Legislature not on the committee had sometimes dropped in. This year about sixty were present. Mrs. Crowley and Mrs. Luce conducted the hearing for the two sides. The petitioners had arranged delegations representing different groups of women--mothers, home-makers, leisure women, lawyers, mission and church workers, artists, authors and journalists, doctors and nurses, Socialists, W. C. T. U., the "unrepresented" (widows and single women), business women, trade unions, teachers, social workers, taxpayers, saleswomen, clerks and stenographers and college women. These 1,500 or more marched to the State House from Ford Hall, each group under its own banner, and presented themselves before the committee in turn, the spokeswoman of each group telling briefly why she, and women like her, wanted the ballot. Then they went over to Ford Hall, where a big rally was held and the main address was made by Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard. An overflow meeting was held on the State House steps addressed by Edwin D. Mead and others. In order to line up the labor vote in the Legislature, resolutions by different labor unions, signed by their secretaries, were sent to each legislator, under the direction of Mrs. Page. The measure was defeated March 31 by 148 to 47.

1911. For the first time in many years, the Legislative Committee of the State association, Mrs. Crowley, chairman, appeared, before the Resolutions Committee of the political parties to urge the adoption of a suffrage plank. The Democratic party inserted one favoring the submission of the question to the voters; the Republican party ignored it. The legislators were interviewed both at the State House and by representative suffragists within their districts, and they received suffrage literature. The hearing on February 23 was unusually successful from a political and publicity standpoint. It was conducted by Mrs. Crowley and was addressed by Mrs. Park and Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick; John Sherman Weaver, representing the State branch of the American Federation of Labor, and Henry Abrahams for the Boston Central Labor Union. Sylvia Pankhurst addressed the committee in a simple and effective way. Two of the opposition speakers were Mrs. George and Professor Sedgwick. The debate was spirited and was conducted for the suffragists by prominent Senators and Representatives. Four members spoke in opposition. The vote in the House was ayes, 69, noes, 161; in the Senate, ayes, 6, noes, 31. During all these years a quiet but effective opposition had been working at the State House under the direction of Charles R. Saunders, legislative counsel for the Anti-Suffrage Association.

One of the most significant features in the fall of 1911 was the political work of Miss Margaret Foley, as it marked the beginning of a new type of effort. She had made a special trip to England the year before with Miss Florence Luscomb and Miss Alice Carpenter to observe the methods of the English suffragettes, who were then receiving great publicity. After her return she began by attending with other women the political rallies of the various candidates for the State Legislature and at the close of each rally asking the candidate how he stood on the question of Votes for Women. By her knowledge of crowd psychology and gift as a speaker, she was able not only to handle but to win the roughest crowd to the consternation of the candidates. When the candidates for Governor started on their campaign, Miss Foley, with a group of workers, followed the Republican candidate in a fast automobile, attended all his meetings, spoke to the crowd on suffrage after the Republican speeches were over and questioned the candidates for Governor and other State officers as to their stand on suffrage. This unique and somewhat sensational method was taken up with avidity by the newspapers, which gave it front-page articles with illustrations. Later she turned her attention to the Democratic candidates. This was kept up until election and suffrage facts and arguments were presented to thousands of voters who would never otherwise have heard them.

In 1912 the Legislative Committee, Miss Mary Gay, chairman, conducted the hearing on February 26. Afterwards a special letter of thanks was sent to Professor Lewis J. Johnson of Harvard and the Hon. Joseph Walker for their help at the hearing. The amendment had able support from members and the campaign work began to show results. The vote in the House was ayes, 96, noes, 116; in the Senate, aye's, 14, noes, 17.

In the autumn the method was introduced which many believed was ultimately responsible for putting the amendment through the Legislature. It was the defeating of individual legislators who had been prominent opponents by making an active political campaign in their districts. The first was begun at the primaries against State Senator Roger Wolcott of Milton, chairman of the Constitutional Amendments Committee in the preceding Legislature. The women compiled a record of his negative votes on many liberal measures, including suffrage, and spread this record before his constituents. This work was done at the suggestion and under the direction of Mrs. Fitzgerald, who conducted open-air meetings in the district. The effort to defeat his renomination in the primary failed, however, largely through their inexperience. The Legislative Committee at the time consisted of Mrs. Crowley, chairman, Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Park, Mrs. Page, Miss Foley and Mrs. Mary Agnes Mahan and remained substantially the same during the next two or three years, with the addition of Mrs. Marie Burress Currier, Miss Cora Start and Mrs. Evelyn Peverley Coe. Then they made a fight against Mr. Wolcott's election and by a most thorough campaign defeated him at the polls and a Democrat was returned from that district for the first time in many years.

This year marked the high tide of the Progressive party in Massachusetts. It had put a straight suffrage plank in its platform and its members in the Legislature were very helpful. The defeat of Wolcott, the publicity, the increasing vote in the Legislature and the general stirring of the suffrage question, had caused the opponents to fear that the constitutional amendment would be submitted. Consequently a bill was filed calling for another referendum like the one in 1895 which would have no effect after it was taken. The Executive Board of the State association protested against it but the situation looked extremely dark. Levi H. Greenwood, President of the Senate, and Grafton D. Cushing, Speaker of the House, were bitter opponents of woman suffrage and on the Committee on Constitutional Amendments there was only one avowed friend, Lewis H. Sullivan of Dorchester. The association's Legislative Committee worked strenuously to pledge votes against the bill. A visit to every editor in the city by Mrs. Page and Mrs. Crowley enlisted them against it and the numerous editorials that followed were sent day by day to the legislators: The bill's support dwindled, and on April 18 it was defeated in the House by 117 to 73, although the Speaker left the chair for the only time that session to argue in favor of it.

At the hearing on the submission of the constitutional amendment, Louis D. Brandeis, ex-Congressman Samuel L. Powers, Joseph Walker and Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard spoke in favor and letters were read from Samuel W. McCall, afterwards Republican Governor; Charles Sumner Bird, the Progressive leader, and Thomas W. Riley, an influential Democrat. For the first time since 1895 woman suffrage commanded a majority in the House, the vote standing ayes, 144, noes, 88, but this was not the necessary two-thirds and the Legislative Committee consented that it might be voted down in the Senate, provided the "straw" vote bill was defeated at the same time.

It now seemed practically certain that the amendment would pass the next Legislature. In the fall of 1913 the Boston Equal Suffrage Association defeated Walter R. Meins of the 21st Suffolk District; the Legislative Committee of the State Association defeated Representatives Butler of Lowell and Underhill of Somerville at the primaries, and Bliss of Malden and Greenwood, president of the Senate, at the election. This being the first time for many years that a Democrat had been returned from Greenwood's district, his defeat caused a sensation.

In 1914 the Progressive party, the State Federation of Labor, the Socialists and the State Suffrage Association all introduced suffrage measures. The Progressive and Democratic parties had planks in their platforms recommending the submission of the constitutional amendment to the voters and Governor Walsh was in favor of it. The suffragists were unable to get a plank in the Republican platform. For reasons of political expediency, Mrs. Crowley turned over the conduct of the hearing to John Weaver Sherman, representing the State Federation of Labor. There were speeches in favor by Guy A. Ham, chairman of the Resolutions Committee of the State Republican convention; Henry Sterling, representing the American Federation of Labor; Mrs. William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., Mrs. Pinkham and Mrs. Katherine Lent Stevenson, president of the W. C. T. U. Letters were read from ex-Governor Bates and Sherman K. Whipple, Republican and Democratic leaders. The Women's Political Equality Union had speakers from the Textile Workers' Union of Boston and the unions of the telephone operators, candy-makers and street-car men. The debate in the House was successfully led by Sanford Bates, chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments. The resolution to submit the amendment passed by 168 to 39 in the House and 34 to 2 in the Senate, commanding the required two-thirds for the first time, but it had to pass a succeeding Legislature.

In 1915 the legislative work was less onerous and the amendment passed the House by 193 to 33, the Senate by 33 to 3 and was signed by Governor Walsh, who presented the pen to Mrs. Crowley. His signature was not necessary but he wished to show his approval.

Under the Corrupt Practices Act a political committee, so-called, of at least five men, had to be formed to handle the funds of any group that spent more than $20 to carry or defeat a constitutional amendment. A bill was passed which allowed women to form the committee in the case of the equal suffrage amendment and the following were named: Miss Blackwell, chairman; Mrs. Blanche Ames, treasurer; Mrs. Crowley, Mrs. Leonard and Miss Foley. The strenuous campaign and the defeat of the amendment after a struggle of more than half a century to have it submitted, have been described.

In 1916 no suffrage bill of any kind was presented to the Legislature by the State Association but it turned its attention to congressional work. This was skilfully conducted by Mrs. Grace A. Johnson, chairman; members of Congress were interviewed, letters and telegrams sent to the Congressional Judiciary Committee and delegates to the National party conventions were urged to support suffrage planks. When these planks were secured in the national platforms of all parties during the summer the victory was celebrated with a mass meeting in Faneuil Hall.

In 1917 Massachusetts held a Constitutional Convention. The Act calling it, in describing those to whom its recommendations should be submitted for ratification, used the word "people." A bill drawn by Mrs. Crowley was filed in the Legislature by the State Suffrage Association asking that women be considered people within the meaning of this Act. The Senate asked the opinion of the State Supreme Court as to its constitutionality and she filed a brief. The Supreme Court decided adversely and in view of the rapid advance of the Federal Suffrage Amendment the association decided that no State amendment should be submitted by the convention.

The directions of the National Suffrage Association for congressional work were carried out. Federal Amendment meetings were held, thousands of letters sent to members of Congress from their districts and about 500 telegrams sent just before the vote was taken in 1918. The amendment lacked but one vote of passing the U. S. Senate and it became necessary to defeat at least one among the anti-suffrage Senators who were coming up for re-election, so it was decided to defeat Senator John W. Weeks in Massachusetts. His reactionary record was spread before the Republican voters by 370,000 circulars and advertisements in Republican papers. A special campaign among the working men was made by members of the Women's Trade Union League, under the leadership of Miss Mabel Gillespie, and among the Jewish voters, who were normally Republican, under the leadership of Mrs. Joseph Fels and Mrs. Lillian E. deHaas of New York. The great popularity of President Wilson at this time was of assistance and also that of the Democratic candidate for the Senate, ex-Governor Walsh. A special letter was sent to every listed member of the State association asking that at least one vote be secured against Mr. Weeks, with a spirited appeal by Mrs. Ames, who belonged to a prominent Republican family. Mr. Walsh was elected by about 20,000 majority, the first Democratic U. S. Senator from Massachusetts since the Civil War.

The Congressional Committee, Mrs. Ames, chairman, sent more than 5,000 letters and telegrams asking suffragists in the State to write and telegraph the Massachusetts Senators and members of Congress to vote for the Federal Amendment. Concentrated work was done upon three doubtful Representatives, one of whom was secured, Carter of Needham. This proved most fortunate as the House gave exactly the two-thirds vote.

The work done in 1918 on the great petition for the Federal Amendment was very successful despite the influenza epidemic. In Worcester, Springfield, Pittsfield and North Adams women signed numbering more than 51 per cent. of the men's last vote for President and in Boston 62,000 names were secured or 60 per cent. of that vote. The anti-suffragists in twenty-four years had accumulated only a little over 40,000 signatures in the whole State, according to their own figures. In less than one year the suffragists obtained 70,792 in the above cities and over 100,000 in the State.

RATIFICATION. When the Federal Amendment was submitted by Congress on June 4, 1919, the Legislative Committee of the State Association, Mrs. Anna C. M. Tillinghast, chairman, was expanded into a Ratification Committee. It had already polled the Legislature, which was in session. A hearing was held before the Federal Relations Committee conducted by Mrs. Tillinghast for the suffragists and by Mrs. Henry Preston White for the "antis," who asked for a referendum to the voters in place of ratification. The suffrage speakers were Frank B. Hall, chairman of the Republican State Committee; Joseph Walker, Progressive Republican; Josiah Quincy, Democrat, Joseph Walsh, Democrat, of the Senate; Mrs. Bird, Mrs. FitzGerald, Mrs. Pinkham, who presented a petition of 135,000 names from representative sections of the Commonwealth; Mrs. Mary Thompson, representing the working women; Miss Margaret Foley, a prominent Catholic; a representative of the State W. C. T. U.; Charles J. Hodgson, legislative agent for the American Federation of Labor. The speakers for the Woman's Party were Mrs. Morey, Miss Betty Gram, Michael O'Leary, chairman of the Democratic State Committee, and Mrs. Louise Sykes. On the anti-suffrage side sixteen women representing the sixteen congressional districts told of their vote against suffrage in 1915. Miss Blackwell spoke in rebuttal for the suffragists, Miss Charlotte Rowe of Yonkers, N. Y., for the "antis." B. Loring Young, Republican floor leader in the House, acted as chairman of the suffrage Steering Committee in the House and Joseph Knox in the Senate. The committee reported in favor of ratification with two dissenting.

The debate in the House on June 25 was notable, about fifteen members speaking on each side. An amendment calling for a referendum was defeated by 166 to 67 and ratification carried by 185 ayes to 47 noes. The Senate ratified by 34 ayes, 5 noes. Massachusetts was the eighth State to ratify. Mrs. Tillinghast expressed especial gratitude for the assistance given by Governor Calvin Coolidge, Lieutenant Governor Channing M. Cox, Edwin T. McKnight, President of the Senate, Joseph E. Warner, Speaker of the House, B. Loring Young, Republican, and William H. McDonnell, Democratic floor leader, Leland Powers of the House, Joseph Knox of the Senate and the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic State committees.

After women had been enfranchised the State and the Boston suffrage associations conducted citizenship schools in every county to instruct them in their new duties.

LAWS. [The very complete digest of the legislation of the past twenty years in relation to women and children, especially to those in the industries, prepared by Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley, attorney at law, and filling nine typewritten pages, has to be omitted for lack of space.]

FOOTNOTES:

[79] The History is indebted for the first part of this chapter to Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, an officer of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1890 to 1912 inclusive; president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association from 1911, and president of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association almost continuously from 1909 to 1920; and for the second part of the chapter to Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley, chairman of the Legislative Committee of the State association from 1909 for many years.

[80] Later presidents were Mrs. Page, Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw and Mrs. J. Malcolm Forbes. When Mrs. Park was called to Washington to become national congressional chairman in 1916 Mrs. Wenona Osborne Pinkham succeeded her as executive secretary.

[81] At the annual meeting of the M. A. O. F. E. S. W. on May 1, officers were elected as follows: President, Mrs. G. Howland Shaw; vice-presidents, Mrs. J. H. Coolidge, Miss Anna L. Dawes, Mrs. Charles D. Homans, Miss Agnes Irwin, Mrs. Henry M. Whitney; corresponding secretary, Miss L. C. Post; recording secretary. Miss Elizabeth Johnson; treasurer, Mrs. James M. Codman; executive committee, the officers and Miss Sarah H. Crocker, Mrs. Gorham Dana, Mrs. Charles Eliot Guild, Miss Katherine E. Guild, Miss Elizabeth H. Houghton, Miss Sarah E. Hunt, Mrs. Francis C. Lowell, Mrs. J. H. Millet, Mrs. B. L. Robinson, Mrs. R. H. Saltonstall, Miss E. P. Sohier and Mrs. Henry M. Thompson.

[82] Additional speakers through the summer were Miss Margaret Foley, Miss Gertrude Y. Cliff, Miss Edith M. Haynes, Mrs. Marion Craig Wentworth, Miss Florence Luscomb, Miss Katherine Tyng, Miss Alfretta McClure and Miss Rosa Heinzen, the last four college girls.

[83] Much help was given for years by the steady financial support of Mrs. R. D. Evans, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw and Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw. The last named paid the rent of the suffrage headquarters during many years and her heirs continued this assistance for some time after her death in 1917.

[84] Many of the same persons appeared at these hearings year after year. Among those not mentioned who spoke for suffrage between 1900 and 1910 were Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, Henry B. Blackwell, the Rev. Charles G. Ames, Mrs. Fanny B. Ames, Miss Sarah Cone Bryant, the Rev. Charles F. Dole, Mrs. Anna Christy Fall, Mrs. Helen Campbell, Miss Mary Ware Allen, Miss Eva Channing, Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz, Miss Lillian Freeman Clarke, Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott, Frank B. Sanborn, Mrs. Eliza R. Whiting, Mrs. Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, Mrs. A. Watson Lister, of Australia; ex Governor John D. Long. Letters in favor were read from Professor Borden P. Bowne, of Boston University, U. S. Senator George F. Hoar, ex Governor George S. Boutwell, Dr. J. L. Withrow of Park Street Church, Congressman Samuel W. McCall, Professor W. O. Crosby of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mrs. Sarah Platt Decker, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs. May Alden Ward, president of the State Federation, Mrs. F. N. Shiek, president of the Wyoming Federation, and Judge Lindsey of the Denver Juvenile Court.

Among those who spoke in opposition were Professor William T. Sedgwick of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Mrs. Sedgwick, Mrs A. J. George, Mrs. Barrett Wendell, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Foxcroft and Dr. Lyman Abbott of New York. A number of women spoke every year who opposed the suffrage because it would take women into public life.

[85] The suggestion to get out a record-breaking crowd was made by Representative Norman H. White of Brookline, the first man for some years to lead a serious fight in the Legislature for woman suffrage. The work of getting it out was engineered by Mrs. Crowley, Mrs. Page and Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, who also arranged the great procession at the hearing of the following year.

[86] Among the speakers at the overflow meetings on the steps were the Misses Rendell and Costello, Miss Foley, Mrs. George F. Lowell, Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Fitzgerald, John Golden and Franklin H. Wentworth. At the overflow meeting on the Common Mrs. Fitzgerald presided and Dr. Shaw was the chief speaker. A great meeting in Faneuil Hall had been addressed by Dr. Shaw and others the night before.

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XXI. MICHIGAN.[87]

The Michigan Equal Suffrage Association is almost as old as any in the United State, having been organized in January, 1870, eight months after the National Association was formed, and its work has been long and arduous. It has had triumphs and disappointments; gained partial suffrage at two periods and ended in a complete victory in 1918.

In 1900-1901 the principal efforts of the association, which consisted of 14 auxiliaries, were along educational lines. At the annual convention in 1902 a petition was sent to President Theodore Roosevelt to recommend a woman suffrage amendment to the National Constitution in his message to Congress, which was heartily endorsed by the National Grange then in session in Lansing. Little active work was being done with the Legislature but it is the pride of the suffragists that no Legislature ever convened which they did not memorialize and only two years passed without a State convention--1912, and two were held in 1913; and 1917, when a congressional conference was held instead.[88] The presidents during these years were Mrs. Emily Burton Ketcham, Grand Rapids, 1901 (at intervals from 1892); Mrs. Martha E. Snyder Root, Bay City, 1902-3; Mrs. Guilielma H. Barnum, Charlotte, 1904-6; Mrs. Clara B. Arthur, Detroit, 1906-1914; Mrs. Orton H. Clark, Kalamazoo, 1914-1918; Mrs. Belle Brotherton, Detroit, acting president, 1918; Mrs. Percy J. Farrell, Detroit, 1918-1919.

From 1902 to 1906 the work was largely confined to the preparing of public opinion for the probable revision of the State constitution. Legislatures refused to submit a woman suffrage amendment to the voters on the plea that a new constitution would soon be in force. It was decided to make an intensive educational campaign, especially among the club women. To this end suffragists served on club committees working for legislative or civic ends, and the rebuffs of the measures urged by them finally resulted in the endorsement of woman suffrage by the State Federation of Women's Clubs with 8,000 members, at Battle Creek in October, 1908.

In 1906 speakers were sent over the State for lectures and debates. Prizes for suffrage essays were offered in high schools with material supplied. At county and State fairs, church bazars, picnics and meetings of various societies, literature was freely distributed. The Woman's Journal was placed in all public libraries and small suffrage tracts kept in interurban waiting rooms and in rest rooms of churches, societies and dry-goods stores. Birthdays of pioneer suffragists were celebrated by special meetings, local clubs always responding to a call with so concrete an object. A committee of members in all parts of the State attended constantly to press work, sending in items of interest concerning the progress of women, educationally and politically, and answering attacks on woman suffrage.

This year the Supreme Court decided that Mrs. Merrie Hoover Abbott, who had been elected prosecuting attorney of Ogemaw county, could not serve because no woman was entitled to hold office. The association used this decision as a practical lesson on the position of women under the present constitution. Finally the Legislature of 1907 arranged for a constitutional convention. The annual convention of the association promptly met the situation by appointing a Constitutional Revision Committee headed by Mrs. May Stocking Knaggs of Bay City, a former president, and each auxiliary was invited to appoint one woman to serve on an advisory committee. The purpose of this committee was to urge upon the convention the omission of the word "male" from the suffrage clause as a qualification for voting.

The Committee on Elective Franchise of the constitutional convention reported unanimously in favor and on Jan 8. 1908, granted the suffragists a hearing in Representatives Hall. Ten societies cooperating with the State suffrage association were represented--the Grange, two organizations of the Maccabees, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, State Federation of Labor, Detroit Garment Workers, State Woman's Press Association and several women's and farmers' clubs. A petition representing 225,000 names, 175,000 of individual women of voting age, was presented. The State president, Mrs. Clara B. Arthur, introduced the speakers, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, a lawyer of Chicago, who made earnest addresses. The Governor came in to hear them. The women "antis" circulated a leaflet opposing the change. On January 29 the debate took place in the convention on the proposed revision, and, although not a voice had been raised in protest, the vote stood 38 ayes, 57 noes. Some members who voted "no" did so because they believed that the whole constitution would be defeated at the polls if it proposed to enfranchise women. The hard work of the association was not, however, barren of results, for a clause was inserted in the new constitution giving taxpaying women the right to vote on any public question relating to the public expenditure of money or the issuing of bonds. [In 1915 the Legislature extended it to the granting of public franchises.]

In the spring Mrs. Arthur with Mrs. Maud Wood Park, organizer for the National College Suffrage League, formed branches in the colleges at Albion, Hillsdale, Olivet and Ann Arbor and among the collegiate alumnae in Detroit, of which Dr. Mary Thompson Stevens was made president. In June the fifty-six State delegates to the National Democratic convention were petitioned for a woman suffrage plank in the platform.

The next task was to try to comply with the request of the National Suffrage Association to secure 100,000 names to a nation-wide petition to be presented to Congress for a Federal Suffrage Amendment. Mrs. Fern Richardson Rowe, Grand Rapids, was chairman of the work, which took up the greater part of the year 1909 and went over into 1910. This last year the State association obtained the consent of the Hon. Levi L. Barbour, former U. S. Senator Thomas W. Palmer and the Rev. Lee S. McCollester, pastor of the Church of Our Father (Universalist), all residents of Detroit, to act as an invitational committee in organizing a Men's State League for Woman Suffrage. The charter membership consisted of 100 influential men well known throughout the State. In March a committee of the association went to the Republican State convention to have a woman suffrage resolution adopted but were unsuccessful.

In March, 1912, the association was thrown unexpectedly into a turmoil when Governor Chase S. Osborn called a special session of the Legislature to consider, among other things, the submission of a woman suffrage amendment to the State constitution to the voters at the general election on November 5, urged by the Detroit branch of the College Suffrage League. The time was not propitious but the Legislative Committee of the association, under the direction of Mrs. Jennie C. Law Hardy, went immediately to work, receiving able assistance from the Governor, the Rev. Eugene R. Shippen (Unitarian) of the Men's League and Dr. Mary Thompson Stevens of the College League. The State Grange immediately appropriated $1,000 for their Woman's Committee, directed by Miss Ida L. Chittenden. These united efforts were vigorously opposed by representatives of the liquor dealers but the measure passed the Senate and House. This big contest Michigan entered almost single-handed. Campaigns in other States which had been months in progress and gave greater promise of success were engaging nearly all of the organizers and speakers from outside the State. There was less than $250 in the treasury. This amount was augmented by $1,340 from the National Association; $211 from various States and the State Association raised $6,322. It was not until early June that plans were completely under way. The five months remaining were devoted to an intensive educational campaign, made possible only by the organizing work since 1906.

State headquarters were opened in Detroit and subsidiary headquarters in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. County suffrage societies cooperated heartily and much help came from the press. The Men's League, the College League, the powerful State Grange, the Farmers' Clubs and many labor organizations helped and all that was possible was done in this short and unexpected campaign. When the returns began to come in they were overwhelmingly in favor of the amendment. The newspapers fixed its majority at figures varying from 3,000 to 12,000. Immediately following these reports came rumors of large errors in the count. Ballot boxes were mysteriously lost and every artifice known to the politicians was employed to delay the official returns.

Governor Osborn was quoted in the press as follows: "If the liquor interests defeat the suffrage amendment by fraud, proved or suspected, the people of Michigan will retaliate, in my opinion, by adopting state wide prohibition. The question seems to be largely one as to whether these interests own, control and run Michigan. Those most feared are certain election 'crooks' in certain Detroit precincts, who would not hesitate to do anything they thought they could get away with." The Governor demanded that the returns be sent to Lansing at once. When at the end of three weeks the official count was published it showed that the amendment had been defeated by 762 votes, ayes, 247,373; noes, 248,135. Clear evidence of fraud was apparent in Wayne, Kent, Saginaw and Bay counties. The State association engaged the best legal talent and in Genesee county the courts threw out the vote on the amendment. It developed, however, that there was no law allowing a recount in a vote on a constitutional amendment and in the face of glaring fraud the defeat had to be accepted.

No State convention was held in November, 1912, because of the stress of campaign work but a postponed convention was held Jan. 15, 16, 1913. Indignation ran high over this defeat and an immediate resubmission of the amendment was decided upon as the result of favorable answers to questionnaires which had been sent to all county chairmen and the heads of all cooperating societies. During the campaign no open or organized opposition among women had been in evidence. A legislative hearing was arranged by the suffragists and the State and College League presidents on starting to Lansing found a special car attached to their train bearing about thirty prominent women members of a new Anti-Suffrage Association. Their only speaker was Miss Minnie Bronson of New York, secretary of the National Anti-Suffrage Association. As Mrs. Arthur rose to answer her hour's speech she remarked that for the first time the voice of a woman was heard in this State in protest against her own enfranchisement and she rejoiced that it was not the voice of a Michigan woman.

Despite determined opposition the proposal passed both Houses to be voted on at the spring election just five weeks ahead. Owing to the social position of the "antis," the State press gave much prominence to their association, published pages of the members' pictures and quoted their reasons for organizing it. Branches were at once formed in ten adjoining towns; State offices were opened on Woodward Avenue, near the suffrage headquarters, books opened for registration and great quantities of literature sent over the State. Several debates were attempted but few materialized, as they had no home talent.[89]

A placard printed in English and German and posted in saloons in various parts of the city by the Michigan Staatterbund announced that if the amendment should be adopted in Michigan, foreign born women would have to take out naturalization papers at a large price. This and the Royal Ark, an association of 1,100 liquor dealers in Detroit, were the only organizations in the State to pass resolutions against the amendment. A Men's Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was organized on March 15 at a meeting in the University Club; President, Charles A. Kent; vice-president, William A. Livingston, Jr.; treasurer, Garvin Denby; secretary, Henry C. Bulkley. A well known lawyer, William E. Heinze, wrote very bitter articles for the press and undoubtedly influenced the German-American vote. The Rev. Wm. Byron Forbush, pastor of the North Woodward Congregational Church, spoke at anti-suffrage meetings.

On March 29, with the election less than a week away, John Dohrinan and Senator James R. Murtha, representing Mr. Livingston, and Carl Bauer of the Staatterbund appeared before the Circuit Court with a petition to have the suffrage amendment printed on a separate ballot. The Court denied the petition. The case was immediately carried to the State Supreme Court which decided that all amendments must be on separate ballots.

Necessarily the campaign was short for the vote was to be taken April 7. Unlike the one preceding, three-fourths of the financial support came from without the State. Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer of Pennsylvania was engaged for press and executive work. The National Association furnished speakers, among them its president, Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Park, Mrs. Celia J. White, Mrs. Susan W. FitzGerald, Mrs. Glendower Evans, Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff, Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, Miss Doris Stevens, Mrs. Clara Laddey, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby and Mrs. Beatrice Forbes Robertson Hale. Miss Laura Clay came from Kentucky at her own expense. The State was organized by counties and the speaking and circularizing were done under the immediate direction of the county chairmen. In the report of Mrs. Edna S. Blair, chairman of organization, she stated that there were but eight counties in the State which had no working committees and only three of these were in the Lower Peninsula, their total voting strength being less than 2,500. The amendment was defeated by 96,144, receiving 168,738 ayes, 264,882 noes. Her analysis of the vote, prepared from county returns, showed that there was a gain of a little more than 16,000 negative votes over those of 1912, and 13,000 of these were in counties having a "wet" and "dry" issue.

The preceding year the liquor forces had not realized the need of active work. Never in any other State campaign did these forces make so open a fight as in this one. They paid for columns of space in the newspapers and circulated vast quantities of the literature prepared by the women's Anti-Suffrage Association. This was in piles on the bars of the saloons and, according to reports, in even more questionable places. The defeat was not due so much to a change in public opinion as it was to an absence of the favorable vote which had been called out in the previous year by reason of the presidential election.

After the election county chairmen and all suffragists were asked to urge their representatives in Congress to support the Federal Amendment. This was followed by a trip through the State by Mrs. Blair, who contributed her services, and at the convention in Jackson, in 1913, she reported that there were now only four counties, all in the Upper Peninsula, where there was no record of active workers. Mrs. Arthur was reelected.[90]

Although recovering from two successive defeats the association found itself in 1914 able to carry on more systematic work than had ever been attempted. In February a monthly magazine, the Michigan Suffragist, was established with Mrs. Blair editor. At the convention in Traverse City Nov. 4-6, 1914, Mrs. Orton H. Clark was elected president and the State board adopted her scheme for financing the association, which was successfully carried forward by the finance chairman, Mrs. J. G. Macpherson of Saginaw. It consisted in the apportionment of a fixed revenue on the basis of ten cents from each taxpaying woman, of whom there were 100,302 in the State. More than one-third of the counties met all or a part of their apportionment, which enabled the president to open headquarters in a business building in Kalamazoo, employ an executive secretary and an organizer and engage Mrs. Robertson Hale for a series of lectures.

Much of the effort during the early months of 1915 was directed toward securing Municipal suffrage, which necessitated active work by the Legislative Committee, Dr. Blanche M. Haines of Three Rivers, chairman. An attempt was made to organize according to congressional districts; chairmen were found for ten of the thirteen and a number of district conferences were held. All State and national candidates were interviewed on woman suffrage personally or by letter. Many meetings were addressed by national and international speakers.

This program was continued through 1915 and 1916. The State conventions were held in November in Saginaw and Grand Rapids and Mrs. Clark was re-elected president. Following the plan made by the National Association, suffrage schools were held in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Detroit in March, 1917, with Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, Mrs. T. T. Cotnam and Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler as instructors. Upon America's entry into the World War in April, communities, counties, the State and even the nation made demands on the association. Mrs. Clark called together the heads of nearly forty organizations to coordinate the war activities of Michigan women. The Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane was made chairman of the State committee, which afterwards became the State Division of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense, Dr. Crane chairman.

Notwithstanding this situation, however, a bill to give a vote for Presidential electors to women was introduced in the Senate and almost simultaneously one in the House asking for another referendum on a constitutional amendment by Representative Flowers, who had fought the suffrage battle for nearly a quarter of a century. The association protested but the sponsors of both bills were adamant. As a result both bills were passed in March and April and it found itself in the midst of a campaign on the referendum at this most inopportune time. There was nothing to do but to plunge into it. Interest lagged, however, as the women were absorbed in war work and there was a wide belief that in recognition of this work the men would give the suffrage without a campaign for it. Mrs. Catt, now national president, did not share this view and she requested a conference with the State workers. They decided to hold a State convention in Detroit, March 25-27, 1918, and she and Mrs. Shuler, national chairman of organization, came to it. Mrs. Brotherton was serving as president and it was one of the largest ever held. The names of the honorary committee filled two pages of the program. It was welcomed by Mayor Marx and many organizations of women were represented. Mrs. Catt addressed the evening meetings and Mrs. Shuler spoke at the banquet in Hotel Statler, where the convention took place.

The State Board presented a full report and program for war activities but no plan for campaign. Most of the delegates believed the men would give them the vote without any activity on their part. Mrs. Catt made a stirring appeal in which she pointed out that war work would be expected as their duty and that the vote would not be given as a recognition. Before the end of the convention she had thoroughly aroused the delegates and the force of her appeal was evident when the campaign plans providing for the budget, petition and political work, which had been prepared by the National Association as a basis of work for the three States then in campaign, was cheerfully adopted. The budget called for $100,000 to be raised equally by Detroit and the congressional districts. At the dinner on the 26th $50,000 were quickly subscribed, $24,000 by the districts. Detroit women, who had already secured $6,000, partly to pay back debts, pledged $10,000 more. Mrs. Catt promised the equivalent of $10,000 in help from the National Association if the full budget were raised. Mrs. Percy J. Farrell of Detroit was elected president of the association and chairman of the campaign committee and the following women were named chairmen of congressional districts; Mrs. Brotherton, Mrs. G. W. Patterson, Dr. Haines, Mrs. Huntley Russell, Mrs. Alice B. Locke, Mrs. Macpherson and Mrs. Alberta Droelle. The delegates went away from the convention filled with enthusiasm and ready for an active campaign.

Press work was again under the direction of Mrs. Boyer who was the adviser and right hand of Mrs. Farrell, giving unstintedly of her large experience. Mrs. Henry G. Sherrard was chairman of literature and Mrs. Myron B. Vorce of political work. Dr. Haines supervised eleven counties, which gave 15,000 majority. Mrs. Boyer said of Mrs. Brotherton: "Her faith, devotion and work extended through three campaigns and she was one of those who could remain steadfast through the sowing until the reaping time." Mrs. Russell, the State vice-president, was a recognized force. Mrs. E. L. Caulkins, president of the W. C. T. U., devoted its full organization to the amendment, especially to the petitions and at the polls on election day. The most telling feature of the campaign was the petition under the direction of Mrs. Emerson B. Davis of Detroit, signed by more than 202,000 women over twenty-one years old and addressed to voters, urging them to vote "yes" on the referendum. The work was finished in October and interesting uses were made of the names. Those in Grand Rapids were published in the daily papers of that city from day to day; in Saginaw they were hung as a frieze on the walls of the woman's section at the State Fair; in other places they were exhibited in store windows. Mrs. Catt had stipulated for this petition because of its educational value and its influence on the voters and the public. The work was done by volunteers.

Few campaigns ever had so much help from organizations outside of those for suffrage, among them were the W. C. T. U., Federation of Women's Clubs, State Grange, State Farmers' Clubs, Gleaners, American Federation of Labor, Anti-Saloon League, and Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense. The Men's League was an important factor. The clergy almost as a unit gave generous endorsement and constant help. The support of the press was nearly unanimous, many papers refusing pay for space from the "antis."

Most valuable assistance came from the two great fraternal insurance organizations of women, Ladies of the Maccabees and the Women's Benefit Association of the Maccabees, Miss Bina M. West supreme commander, which had had the experience of having to defeat two referenda aimed at crippling their form of insurance. Partly for this reason they were especially interested in securing the franchise for women. The Ladies of the Maccabees confined their work mainly to the women in their own large organization. The Women's Benefit Association assumed the responsibility of organizing six congressional districts. They financed their own work entirely, using their own skilled organizers whenever it was necessary, especially in the Upper Peninsula, where no other workers were sent. The story of Mrs. Locke and Mrs. Droelle reads like that of the pioneers in the far western countries. This contribution, if measured in dollars, would have represented many thousands.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford, Mr. and Mrs. Willard Pope, Mr. and Mrs. Gustavus Pope, Mrs. John B. Ford, Mrs. Delphine Dodge Ashbaugh and Mrs. Sherrard contributed nearly half of the amount required for the entire campaign. The teachers of Detroit financed a worker for several months, as did the Detroit business women. Many of the larger cities financed their own campaigns for the last six weeks. Among the individual men who gave great financial assistance at this time were James Couzens, Chas. B. Warren, member of the Republican National Committee and William A. Comstock of Alpena, who as treasurer of the Men's Suffrage League, collected the major part of their donations, nearly $9,000.

The National Suffrage Association gave in cash $1,400, paid the bill for literature and posters, $1,335, and made other contributions amounting to $6,000. It paid salaries and part of the expenses from Jan. 1, 1918, of Mrs. Augusta Hughston and the organizers, Miss Lola Trax, Miss Edna Wright, Miss Marie Ames, Miss Alma Sasse and Miss Stella Crossley, until the State was able to assume them. Mrs. Hughston became the campaign manager of Detroit. Mrs. Shuler came three times and campaigned all over the State. Mrs. Mary E. Craigie of New York gave assistance. The magnitude of the detail work of the campaign may be understood from the report of Mrs. Hughston, who said: "In Detroit alone there were distributed 500,000 pieces of literature; 50,000 buttons, 13,000 posters put in windows, 1,000 street car advertisements, 174 large billboard posters and 1,766 inches of paid advertisements in newspapers."

The election took place on Nov. 5, 1918, when the suffrage amendment received 229,790 ayes and 195,284 noes--carried by a majority of 34,506. Four strong factors influenced the vote; first, prohibition, which had been adopted in 1916, was in effect and the forces that had led past opposition were badly disorganized; second, the astute politicians saw the trend of events, and few, if any, openly opposed it; third, the war work of women, which, although it lessened the number of workers for suffrage, yet made forceful appeal to the voters; fourth, the activity of all organizations of women.

This summary of the work of Michigan women for their political freedom is most incomplete without the names of hundreds of workers who toiled, suffered, sacrificed, gave of their time, their strength, their money, year after year, but the list is too long. Every city, every locality had its special difficulties, which had to be overcome and their women were equal to the task. All contributed to the great victory. The Woman Citizen, official organ of the National American Suffrage Association, in its edition of Nov. 30, 1918, gave a detailed summary of this campaign and the workers.

After a brief respite, the suffragists took up the work of a registration "drive" for the spring election in April, when an amendment to weaken the prohibition law was to be voted on. The registration by women in some places was larger than that of men. Prohibition had been carried in 1916 by a majority of 68,624. At this election in 1919, with women voting, the majority was over three times as large--207,520--and the amendment was defeated.

The convention of the State Equal Suffrage Association met in Grand Rapids, April 3, 4, 1919, Mrs. Farrell presiding. The name was changed to the State League of Women Voters and Mrs. Brotherton was elected chairman. Plans for the approaching ratification campaign were made and she was authorized to secure chairmen for the new departments of work. The willingness of women to accept the various chairmanships was in marked contrast to the difficulties encountered during suffrage campaigns.

RATIFICATION. The Federal Suffrage Amendment was submitted by Congress June 4, 1919, and fortunately Governor Albert E. Sleeper had called a special session of the Legislature to convene on June 3. He was at once requested to submit the amendment for ratification and soon announced his willingness to do so. A recess had been taken over Sunday but each member received a letter from the League of Women Voters asking for a favorable vote and many cordial answers were received. The Legislature assembled at 2 o'clock on Tuesday, June 10. The Senate and House at once voted unanimously in favor of ratification. The same day the Wisconsin and Illinois Legislatures also ratified. These three States were the first to take action.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 1903. A joint resolution to amend the State constitution by striking out the word "male" as a qualification for voters was introduced by Representative Nathan A. Lovell but was not reported out of the committees.

1905. A similar resolution was introduced by Representative George E. Dewey but failed to pass by seven votes.

1911. The same resolution received in the House 55 ayes, 44 noes, lacking the necessary two-thirds, and failed in the Senate by two votes.

1912. In the call for a special session Governor Osborn included the consideration of a woman suffrage amendment. It was introduced in the Senate by Robert Y. Ogg and in the House by Representative Charles Flowers. The Senate opposition was led by James A. Murtha and Charles M. Culver, while William M. Martz sought to block it in the House. The vote in the Senate was 23 ayes, 5 noes; in the House 75 ayes, 19 noes. It was submitted to the voters and defeated.

1913. A hearing on the amendment resolution was arranged by the State board in February. Without the knowledge of the suffragists the "antis" secured one to precede theirs. The president, Mrs. Arthur, Dr. Mary Thompson Stevens, Dr. Caroline Bartlett Crane and Mrs. Jennie C. Law Hardy spoke for the amendment. The vote in the Senate was 24 ayes, 5 noes; in the House, 73 ayes, 19 noes. Submitted and defeated at the polls.

1915. The bill for Municipal suffrage was rejected as unconstitutional.

1917. Two measures were introduced, one for the amendment by Representative Flower and the other for Presidential suffrage by Senator John M. Damon of Mt. Pleasant. At last the officers of the State Association had to withdraw their opposition to the referendum in order to save the Presidential bill. The vote on the referendum March 28 was, House 71 ayes, 21 noes; April 19, Senate, 26 ayes, 4 noes; a two-thirds vote required. The Presidential suffrage vote on March 21 in the Senate was 22 ayes, 7 noes; on April 18 in the House, 64 ayes, 30 noes. There was no strong opposition. The amendment was carried by a large majority on Nov. 5, 1918.

FOOTNOTES:

[87] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Clara B. Arthur, vice-president of the State Equal Suffrage Association 1895-1906; president, 1906-1914, and Mrs. Belle Brotherton, acting president, 1918; chairman of the League of Women Voters, 1919.

[88] Following are the times and places of holding State conventions: Oct. 23-25, 1901, Saginaw; Oct. 29-31, 1902, Charlotte; Nov. 10-12, 1903, Paw Paw; Oct. 25-27, 1904, Jackson; Nov. 1-3, 1905, Port Huron; Oct. 9, 10, 1906, Kalamazoo; Sept. 18-20, 1907, Charlotte; Nov. 5, 6, 1908, Bay City; Dec. 7, 8, 1909, Grand Rapids; Nov. 6-8, 1910, Kalamazoo; Nov. 16, 17, 1911, Kalamazoo; no convention in 1912; Jan. 15, 16, 1913, Lansing; Nov. 5-7, 1913, Jackson; Nov. 4-6, 1914, Traverse City; Nov. 10, 11, 1915, Saginaw; Nov. 15-17, 1916, Grand Rapids; no convention in 1917; March 26, 27, 1918, Detroit; April 3, 4, 1919, Grand Rapids.

[89] The officers of the Association Opposed to Equal Suffrage as published in the press were: President, Mrs. Henry F. Lyster; secretary, Miss Helen Keep; publicity committee, Miss Julia Russell, Mrs. A. A. Griffiths, Mrs. J. A. McMillan, Mrs. Fred Reynolds, Mrs. Edward H. Parker, Mrs. Richard Jackson and Miss Caroline Barnard.

[90] Mrs. Brotherton writes: "Special tribute should be paid to the splendid administrative ability of Mrs. Arthur. Her conduct of the 1912 and 1913 campaigns and the years of effort that preceded them deserve the unending gratitude of Michigan women. Her greatest monument was the vote of taxpaying women on bond issues. Mrs. Orton H. Clark, who succeeded Mrs. Arthur in 1914, brought to the work the same patient and consecrated zeal and to her is largely due the gaining of Presidential suffrage.

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XXII. MINNESOTA.[91]

The great event for the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association in 1901 was the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association May 30-June 5 in Minneapolis. Large audiences night after night filled the First Baptist Church to listen to the eloquent addresses of Miss Susan B. Anthony, honorary president; Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president, and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president of the association; Henry B. Blackwell, editor of the Woman's Journal, Rachel Foster Avery and other speakers of national fame. The officers were entertained at West Hotel and the 200 delegates in the homes of suffragists. Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, who was the chairman of arrangements, was elected second auditor of the National Association.

The State convention of 1901 was held in Mankato in October, with Mrs. Catt as the principal speaker. Mrs. Maud C. Stockwell and Mrs. Jennie Knight Brown were re-elected president and vice-president and Mrs. A. H. Boostrom appointed chairman of press. Through the generosity of Mrs. E. A. Russell of Minneapolis Miss Anna Gjertsen was engaged to organize the Scandinavian women. Among the names enrolled in the suffrage booth at the State Fair were those of Theodore Roosevelt, Vice-President of the United States; Gen. Nelson Miles, Gov. Samuel R. Van Sant and Archbishop Ireland. The annual convention of 1902 was entertained in June by the St. Paul Club, which had been organized a few months before. Mrs. Hannah Egelston was elected vice-president. The press chairman stated that fifteen newspapers were using suffrage articles and the enrollment and the petition work for Presidential suffrage was being successfully carried on. The association was incorporated this year.

In September, 1903, the State convention was held in Austin with Dr. Shaw the chief speaker. The former officers were re-elected. Reports showed old clubs revived and new ones formed through the efforts of Miss Gail Laughlin, one of the national organizers. Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer was this year appointed chairman of press and held the office till 1915 when she was made honorary chairman. She did not relinquish the work but continued to assist her successor, Mrs. W. H. Thorp. For eight years Mrs. Farmer kept press headquarters in the Old Capitol, St. Paul. She added new papers to the list which accepted suffrage matter till it had 500, about all of them, and much of the suffrage sentiment in the State can be traced to her years of work. The quarterly bulletin was edited by Mrs. Julia B. Nelson.

In October, 1904, the convention met in Anoka and Dr. Shaw addressed large audiences. Miss Marion Sloan of Rochester was made vice-president. During the year the association offered prizes for the best essay on woman suffrage to the students of the four Normal Schools, many competing. The annual meeting for 1905 was held in Minneapolis in November. In answer to the many calls a Lecture Bureau of twenty well-known speakers directed by Dr. Annah Hurd had been organized; a generous contribution was sent to Oregon for its campaign.

In March, 1906, an impressive memorial service was held in Minneapolis for the beloved leader, Susan B. Anthony. Another was held in Monticello in November during the State convention. It was reported that the Governor had appointed Dr. Margaret Koch, one of the active suffragists, to the State Medical Board; that many organizations had passed resolutions endorsing suffrage and that in June Mrs. Stockwell had presented the greetings of the National Association to the General Federation of Women's Clubs in convention in St. Paul. In October, 1907, the convention met in Austin. During the year a Scandinavian association had been formed by Dr. Ethel E. Hurd, with Mrs. Jenova Martin president, and a College Equal Suffrage League at the State University by Professors Frances Squire Potter and Mary Gray Peck, with Miss Elsa Ueland president. Miss Laura Gregg, sent by the National Association, had organized suffrage committees in twelve towns. It was decided to circularize the teachers of the State.

In November, 1908, the convention was held in Minneapolis with Dr. Shaw and Professor Potter as speakers. Mrs. Martin was elected vice-president. The energy of all suffrage workers had been turned toward the great petition to Congress for the Federal Amendment planned by the National Association and directed in the State by Mrs. F. G. Corser of Minneapolis. Mrs. Maud Wood Park made a tour of the State in March speaking in eight colleges in the interest of the National College Equal Suffrage League. In October, 1909, the State convention went to St. Paul. The Bulletin, official organ of the association and a valuable feature of its work, had had to be abandoned because of lack of funds. It had been edited for ten years by Dr. Ethel E. Hurd, recording secretary, who sometimes mimeographed it herself, sometimes had it typewritten and when possible printed, always herself addressing and mailing copies to the State members. An important event of the year was the unanimous endorsement of woman suffrage by the State Editorial Association, secured by Miss Mary McFadden, a journalist. For the first time a speaker was supplied to the State convention of the Federation of Women's Clubs.

In November, 1910, the State convention was entertained by the Minneapolis Political Equality Club, organized in 1868. Mrs. Stockwell, who had served as president for ten years, asked to be relieved from office and Miss Emily Dobbyn of St. Paul was elected president with Dr. Margaret Koch, who had been treasurer ten years, first vice-president. The petition was reported as finished with 20,300 names. It was sent to Washington and presented to Congress by Senator Moses E. Clapp with an earnest plea for its consideration. In October, 1911, the convention again went to St. Paul and Mrs. A. T. Hall of this city was elected president.

The convention of 1912 was held in Minneapolis in September. Under direction of Mrs. A. H. Bright of this city the first automobile suffrage parade took place, the route extending from the court house where the convention was held to the Fair grounds where addresses were made. Eleven new clubs were reported. The Woman's Welfare League of St. Paul joined the State association and did excellent work for suffrage. Mrs. Hall was re-elected president and removing from the State later Mrs. P. L. De Voist of Duluth was selected to fill out her term.[92]

In October, 1913, at the annual convention in St. Paul, Mrs. Bright was elected president. The Minneapolis Equal Suffrage Club, which had been organized independently by Mrs. Andreas Ueland, joined the State association and later became the Hennepin County suffrage organization. A Women Workers' Suffrage Club was formed with Mrs. Gertrude Hunter, president.

In November, 1914, at the convention in Minneapolis, Mrs. Ueland was elected president and served for the next five years.[93] It was reported that the Everywoman Suffrage Club of colored women had been organized in St. Paul with Mrs. W. T. Francis president. The clubs of St. Paul and Minneapolis, at the request of the National Association, had joined in the nation-wide demonstration May 2 with mass meetings in each city, a street meeting and parade in St. Paul at noon and a joint parade in Minneapolis in the afternoon with 2,000 men and women in line.

In October, 1915, the convention took place in St. Paul. Up to this time headquarters had been maintained free of charge in Minneapolis, at first in the office of Drs. Cora Smith Eaton and Margaret Koch and for many years in the office of Drs. Ethel E. and Annah Hurd. This year they were opened in the Essex Building of that city and a paid secretary installed. Organization by districts was arranged for. In conformity with plans sent out from the National Association, quarterly conferences were held in different sections of the State. "Organization day" on February 15, Miss Anthony's birthday, was celebrated in fifteen legislative districts with meetings and pageants. During the national convention in Washington this year deputations of suffragists from Minnesota called on the State's two Senators and ten Representatives asking them to promote the Federal Suffrage Amendment. To assist the campaign the services of the State organizer, Mrs. Maria McMahon, were given to New York for September and October; Mrs. David F. Simpson and Miss Florence Monahan contributed their services as speakers and $400 were sent to the New Jersey campaign.[94]

In October, 1916, at the convention in Minneapolis, a delightful feature was a banquet of 500 covers at the Hotel Radisson, where President George E. Vincent of the State University made his maiden speech for woman suffrage. Mrs. Simpson presided. There were favorable reports from officers, committee chairmen and organizers. At the request of the National Association deputations had called upon the State delegates to the national Republican and Democratic conventions urging them to work for suffrage planks in their party platforms. Twenty-five Minnesota women marched in the parade in Chicago at the time of the Republican National Convention and many went to the National Democratic Convention in St. Louis on a "suffrage barge," holding meetings on the boat and at a number of stopping places. In May the Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference was entertained in Minneapolis and a mass meeting of 2,000 was held. Automobile speaking trips were made. Money, organizers and speakers were contributed to the Iowa campaign.

In December, 1917, the convention again met in Minneapolis with Mrs. Nellie McClung of Edmonton, Alberta, as speaker. Pledges were made of $8,000 for State work and $3,000 to the National Association as the State's apportionment. In order to push Federal Amendment work chairmen were secured for the ten congressional districts. Resolutions for it were passed at many conventions. In May Dr. Effie McCollum Jones of Iowa had made a lecture tour of the State, contributed by the National Association, and addressed 10,000 people. An attractive concrete building had been erected on the State Fair grounds by the Scandinavian Association and presented to the State association.[95] This was known as the Woman Citizen Building and a tablet was placed in it in memory of Mrs. Julia B. Nelson, one of Minnesota's staunchest pioneer suffragists.

Owing to the influenza epidemic all meetings were forbidden in 1918. This year district organization was completed. With three organizers in the field, Mrs. Rene F. Stevens, Mrs. James Forrestal and Mrs. John A. Guise, ratification committees in 480 towns outside of the three large cities had been appointed and 90,000 signatures obtained for the national petition under the leadership of Miss Marguerite M. Wells. In March the following plank had appeared in the platform of the Democratic Statewide Conference held in St. Paul: "We believe in the principle of State woman suffrage as supported and commended by our leader, Woodrow Wilson." This was the only official Democratic endorsement ever received and there was none from the Republicans.[96]

A State conference was held at Minneapolis in May, 1919, with Mrs. McClung as the principal speaker. On June 9 in the rotunda of the Capitol at St. Paul an impressive program of addresses and ringing resolutions was given, 3,000 people taking part in this celebration of the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment by Congress on the 4th. A. L. Searle marshalled the 250 gaily decorated automobiles carrying the Minneapolis delegates, accompanied by a band.

RATIFICATION. Monday, September 8, was a beautiful and spirited occasion. Automobile parades assembled in the two cities and started for the Capitol with cars gay with sunflowers, goldenrod, yellow bunting and the word "suffrage" on the windshields. By 10 o'clock the galleries and the corridors were filled to overflowing with enthusiastic suffragists. Out-of-town women flocked in to join the festivities. The Federal Amendment came up immediately after the organization of both Houses in special session but the lower House won the race for the honor of being first to ratify, for it took up the amendment without even waiting for Governor Burnquist's message, and when it was presented by Representative Theodore Christiansen it was ratified by a vote of 120 to 6. The Senate considered it immediately after hearing the Governor's message. It was presented by Senator Ole Sageng, called the "father of woman suffrage" in Minnesota, and with no debate went through by 60 to 5.

The moment the Senate vote was polled the corridors, floors and galleries of both Houses were in an uproar, hundreds of women cheered and laughed and waved the suffrage colors, while in the rotunda a band swung into the strains of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Then Representatives and Senators became the guests of the State Suffrage Association, whose members having leased the Capitol restaurant for the day cooked and served an appetizing chicken dinner. There was a banquet at the St. Paul Hotel in the evening with 400 guests.

On that memorable day the curtain was rung down on the last act of the many years' long drama participated in by a vast host of consecrated women with inspired faith in the ultimate attainment of justice.

A conference was called for Oct. 28, 29, 1919, in Minneapolis and a State League of Women Voters was formed with Mrs. Ueland as chairman. It was voted to delay the dissolution of the State association until the 36 States had ratified the Federal Amendment and the date was set at the first annual meeting of the League.[97] Mrs. Ueland soon resigned to take the chairmanship of the Legislative Committee and was succeeded by Miss Wells, the vice-chairman.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 1903. A Presidential suffrage bill was introduced in the House and energetically pushed but was not reported by the Judiciary Committee.

1905. A large delegation headed by Mrs. Stockwell, State president, called on Governor John A. Johnson and urged him to recommend woman suffrage in his message to the Legislature but he failed to do so. The resolution to submit a constitutional amendment was introduced in the House but not reported by the Judiciary Committee.

1907. After the resolution for a suffrage amendment was presented a hearing was granted by the Senate Elections Committee and the Senate Chamber secured for it through Senator Virgil B. Seward, who had charge of it. The college women were represented by Professor Frances Squire Potter of the University of Minnesota and the committee reported favorably. It was defeated in the Senate and not brought up in the House.

1909. At the hearing before the Joint Committee on Elections on the resolution for a State amendment, which was the largest ever held by the association, convincing addresses were made by eminent lawyers, educators and other public men. It was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 30 to 26; in the House by 50 to 46.

1911. The chairman of the Legislative Committee was Miss Mary McFadden, who carried out a demonstration on Susan B. Anthony's birthday--February 15--the presenting by large delegations from the Twin Cities of a Memorial to a joint gathering of the two Houses with pleas for a State amendment. The resolution for it, sponsored by Ole Sageng, passed the House a few days later by a majority of 81 but the liquor interests and public service corporations defeated it in the Senate by two votes.

1913. Senator Sageng again had charge of the suffrage resolution, which passed the House by a majority of 43 votes but failed in the Senate by three.

1915. Mrs. Andreas Ueland was chairman of the Legislative Committee from 1915 to 1919 inclusive. Senator Sageng presented the amendment resolution in the Senate and Representative Larson in the House. An impressive hearing was held in a crowded Senate chamber, with Senators J. W. Andrews, Richard Jones, Frank E. Putnam, F. H. Peterson and Ole Sageng making speeches in favor. Those who spoke against it were Senators George H. Sullivan, F. A. Duxbury and F. H. Pauly.[98] It failed by one vote and was not brought up in the House. A Presidential suffrage bill was also introduced but did not come to a vote.

1917. The suffrage work was confined to the Presidential suffrage bill which was defeated in the Senate by two votes.

1919. This Legislature adopted a resolution calling upon Congress to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment; House 100 to 28 in favor, Senate 49 to 7. It was decided not to introduce an amendment resolution but to work for Presidential suffrage. The resolution was introduced, however, by a small group of women outside the association. It passed the House by 96 ayes, 26 noes, but was indefinitely postponed in the Senate. The bill giving women the right to vote for Presidential electors passed the House March 5 by 103 ayes, 24 noes; and the Senate March 21 by 49 ayes, 11 noes. It was signed by Governor J. A. A. Burnquist two days later in the presence of a group of suffragists.[99]

FOOTNOTES:

[91] The History is indebted for this chapter to Maud C. (Mrs. S. A.) Stockwell, for ten years president of the State Suffrage Association and for over twenty years a member of its executive board. Mrs. Stockwell wishes to acknowledge assistance from Mrs. David F. Simpson and Mrs. John A. Guise.

[92] A State Anti-Suffrage Association was organized in Minneapolis in 1912 and later branches were formed in other cities. The president was Mrs. J. B. Gilfillan of Minneapolis and other active workers were Mrs. E. L. Carpenter, Mrs. Edmund Pennington and Mrs. Frank Reed of Minneapolis, Mrs. J. W. Straight of St. Paul and Mrs. J. L. Washburn of Duluth. Time was given to their speakers at the last three hearings granted the State Suffrage Association by the Legislature. Miss Minnie Bronson, secretary of the National Anti-Suffrage Association, came from New York for one.

[93] Too much credit for the final success of woman suffrage in Minnesota can not be given to Mrs. Ueland, president of the association for the last five years of its existence. She organized the entire State, raised large sums of money each year, induced many prominent women to join in the work, carried out the instructions of the National Association to the letter, secured legislation, and not only took advantage of every opportunity for propaganda but created opportunities.

[94] In 1915 the Congressional Union, afterward the National Woman's Party, formed an organization in St. Paul with Mrs. Alexander Colvin chairman. The members were recruited from the State association and for a few years were active in both organizations.

[95] During the twenty years covered by this chapter the Twin City suffragists never failed to keep open house during the State Fair, where speakers were heard and literature was distributed.

[96] Following are the names of State officers besides the presidents who served over three years: Vice-presidents, Mrs. Jenova Martin, four years; Mrs. David F. Simpson, three years; Mrs. H. G. Harrison, five years; Mrs. E. A. Brown, four years; Mrs. C. L. Atwood, six years; Dr. Margaret Koch, vice-president, three years and treasurer, ten years; Dr. Ethel E. Hurd of Minneapolis served on the board in different capacities for twenty-two years, as corresponding secretary for four years and recording secretary four; Mrs. Eva W. Morse, recording secretary five years; Mrs. Victor H. Troendle, treasurer five years. Those who served from four to ten years as directors on the State board were: Mesdames A. T. Anderson, Julia B. Nelson, Margaret K. Rogers, E. A. Russell, C. F. Lutz, Elizabeth McClary, A. H. Bright and A. B. Jackson.

[97] Following are a few names not mentioned elsewhere in the chapter of the many devoted friends and workers during the score of years: Dr. Cyrus Northrup, Professor Maria Sanford, Judge A. C. Hickman, Professor A. W. Rankin, Dr. Elizabeth Woodworth, Mesdames Margaret K. Rogers, Martha A. Dorsett, May Dudley Greeley, M. A. Luley, Eva S. Jerome, Alice Taylor, Lilla P. Clark, Milton E. Purdy, C. P. Noyes, Adelaide Lawrence, O. J. Evans, George M. Partridge, J. W. Andrews, C. M. Stockton, Stiles Burr, J. M. Guise, J. W. Straight; Misses Ella Whitney, A. A. Connor, Nellie Merrill, Hope McDonald, Josephine Schain, Blanche Segar, Cornelia Lusk, Martha Anderson (Wyman); Messrs. C. W. Dorsett, S. R. Child, A. H. Bright.

[98] For ten years Senator Sullivan of Stillwater, and for twenty-two years Senator W. W. Dunn, attorney for the Hamm Brewing Company of St. Paul, worked actively against all suffrage legislation, in late years being able to defeat bills by only two or three votes.

[99] Among legislators not mentioned who were helpful during these years were Senator S. A. Stockwell and Representatives W. I. Norton, H. H. Harrison, W. I. Nolan, Sherman Child, John Sanborn and Claude Southwick.

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XXIII. MISSISSIPPI.[100]

From 1899 to 1906 no State convention of the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association was held. Mrs. Hala Hammond Butt, who was elected president at its second annual convention in Clarksdale in 1899, acted as president during this time but the editing of a weekly newspaper in addition to other duties left her little time for its trying demands at this early stage of its existence. Among the few other women consecrated in their hearts to woman suffrage some were barred from leadership by ill health, some by family cares, while others were absent from the State most of the time. No definite progress, therefore, was made during the early years of the century.

In 1901 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, gave addresses in six cities in the State, arrangements for which were made by local suffragists, and a great deal of interest was aroused. In 1903 a business conference was held in Jackson, at which Mrs. Butt and three other women were present, to consider whether anything could be done for the cause of woman suffrage. In 1904 enrollment cards were distributed in a limited and unsystematic way, letters were sent to members of the Legislature, State officials and others and literature was distributed. An inspiring feature was the visit of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president at large of the National Association, who spoke in three cities.

Early in December, 1906, Miss Belle Kearney of Flora, formerly organizer for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, at this time a public lecturer, returned from an absence in Europe and on the 21st, in response to a call sent out by her, a meeting was held in the parlor of the Edwards House in Jackson. Those in attendance were Miss Kearney, Mrs. Butt, Mrs. Edward Sloan and Dr. Delia Randall. By invitation Dr. William La Prade of the First Methodist Church opened the meeting with prayer, after which he retired leaving these four women to reorganize the State Suffrage Association. Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Greenville was in touch with the conference by telegraph and Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson of Jackson, physically unable to attend, received reports from the meeting at her telephone. In this historic hour the breath of a new life was blown into the expiring association and from that time it grew and thrived. The officers elected were Miss Kearney, president; Mrs. Somerville, vice-president; Mrs. Thompson, treasurer.

During the following spring Miss Kearney, lecturing in the State on sociological subjects, spoke unfailingly for suffrage and wherever possible organized clubs. Press work was taken up earnestly by the newly elected superintendent of that department, Mrs. Thompson. All of the over two hundred editors in the State were interviewed by letter in regard to their attitude towards woman suffrage and space was requested for suffrage items. Twenty-one agreed to publish them, only two openly declining. Among the friendly editors were L. Pink Smith of the Greenville Democrat, J. R. Oliphant of the Poplarville Free Press, Frank R. Birdsall of the Yazoo Sentinel, C. E. Glassco of the Cleveland Enterprise, Joseph Norwood of the Magnolia Gazette, James Faulk of the Greene County Herald.

Adverse articles were carefully answered and private letters were sent, the enemy quietly reasoned with and in most cases converted. News bulletins furnished by the national press department were used but most of the matter sent out was prepared at home in the belief that an ounce of Mississippi was worth a pound of Massachusetts. Articles published in leaflet form and distributed broadcast were written by Mrs. Somerville, Miss Kearney, Mrs. Thompson, the Rev. Thomas K. Mellen and the Rev. H. Walter Featherstun, Methodist ministers. One of the most valuable contributions was The Legal Status of Mississippi Women, by Robert Campbell, an attorney of Greenville.

In November, 1907, a conference lasting five days was held at Jackson in the home of Charles H. Thompson, a devoted suffragist, and his wife, Lily Wilkinson Thompson. Among those attending were Miss Kearney, Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. Harriet B. Kells, president of the State W. C. T. U. and a life-long suffragist; Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky and Miss Kate Gordon of Louisiana. The advisability of attempting to have a woman suffrage measure introduced in the next session of the Legislature was considered. Two men besides the host appeared at this conference, a reporter, who regarded the meeting as something of a joke, and the Hon. R. H. Thompson of Jackson, an eminent lawyer, who came to offer sympathetic advice. Visits were made to the Governor, James K. Vardaman, and other State officials; to the Hinds county legislators who had recently been elected and to others. Most of these gentlemen were polite but bored and it was decided to defer legislative action. When two months later Governor Vardaman sent his farewell message to the Legislature he mentioned woman suffrage as one of the questions "pressing for solution in a National Constitutional Convention."

In the spring of 1908 the State convention was held in the Governor's Mansion at Jackson, Governor and Mrs. Edmund Favor Noel giving the parlors for the meeting. Six clubs were reported and State members at twelve places. Three or four women from outside of Jackson were present, Mrs. Pauline Alston Clark of Clarksdale having come from the greatest distance, and about fourteen were in attendance. The officers elected were: President, Mrs. Somerville; vice-presidents, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Fannie Clark, Mrs. Kells; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Pauline Clark; recording secretary, Dr. Randall; treasurer, Mrs. Sarah Summers Wilkinson. Superintendents were appointed for Press, Legislative, Enrollment, Industrial, Educational and Bible Study departments.

In the spring of 1909, the convention was held in the ladies' parlor of the Capitol at Jackson. It lasted two days, a public evening session being held in the Senate Chamber, at which Miss Kate Gordon, corresponding secretary of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, told of the work of the Era Club of New Orleans; Miss Jean Gordon, factory inspector for that city, spoke in behalf of child labor regulations and Mrs. Thompson gave a report of the press work, which had grown to such proportions that it was considered very significant of advance in suffrage sentiment throughout the State. The Rev. George Whitfield, a venerable Baptist minister, came from the neighboring town of Clinton and conducted devotional exercises and gave a talk on woman's position from a Biblical standpoint. R. K. Jayne of Jackson, an early suffragist, also spoke. At this time dues-paying members were reported from seventeen towns. Mrs. Somerville was re-elected president.

The annual convention was held in Greenville in 1910. Dr. Shaw and Miss Ray Costello of England made addresses; Judge E. N. Thomas of Greenville presided at one of the evening meetings; John L. Hebron, a Delta planter and afterwards State Senator, made an earnest speech of endorsement. It was reported that hundreds of letters were written and the association had gained a hold in fifty places, ranging from rural neighborhoods and plantation settlements to the largest towns. Frederick Sullens, editor of the Jackson Daily News, had given space for a weekly suffrage column edited by Mrs. Thompson. Mrs. J. C. Greenley edited a similar column in the Greenville Democrat. Mrs. Madge Quin Fugler supplied five papers and Mrs. Montgomery two. Miss Ida Ward of Greenville wrote articles for the papers of that town and Mrs. Mohlenhoff edited a column in the Cleveland Enterprise. Among other papers publishing suffrage material were the McComb City Journal and the Enterprise and the Magnolia Gazette. From the press superintendent there had gone out 1,700 articles, ranging in length from a paragraph to a half page, many of them written by her, and they were given prominence in special editions. Ten copies of the Woman's Journal which came from the national press department for years were forwarded to college, town and State libraries and to editors. How far and deep the influence of those Journals reached is beyond computation.

In the fall of 1910 the State association joined the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association in a booth at the Tri-State Fair in Memphis. An interesting feature was the press exhibit, consisting of a width of canvass many yards long on which had been pasted clippings from Mississippi newspapers, suffrage argument and favorable comment. The annual convention was held in Cleveland in 1911. Miss Gordon and Judge Thomas spoke at the evening session. Editor C. E. Glasco gave an earnest talk at a morning session. The department chairmen brought encouraging reports of their work. A letter was read from Colonel Clay Sharkey of Jackson, which later was published in leaflet form.

The State meeting was held at Flora in April, 1912. Mrs. Judith Hyams Douglas, president of the Era Club of New Orleans, and Omar Garwood of Colorado, secretary of the National Men's League for Woman Suffrage, were the principal speakers. The president, Mrs. Somerville, recommended that the various State organizations of women be invited to unite with the suffrage association in forming a central committee to secure such legislation as should be agreed upon by all. This was afterwards accepted by the Federation of Women's Clubs and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Resolutions were passed regretting the retirement from the presidency of Mrs. Somerville, to whose good generalship during the past four years the success of the association was in a large part due. Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson was elected president.

In response to the call to take part in the parade in Washington March 3, 1913, Mrs. Avery Harrell Thompson, temporarily residing there, was put in charge and with her husband, Harmon L. Thompson, arranged for a handsome float, on which Miss Fannie May Witherspoon, daughter of the member of Congress, represented Mississippi. Mr. Gibbs, a Mississippian, carried the purple and gold silk banner of the State Suffrage Association and four other young Mississippians, Judge Allen Thompson and his brother, Harmon, Walter and Edward Dent, marched beside the float, preforming valiant volunteer police duty when it became necessary. During this year the enrolled membership increased four-fold. Quarterly reports, nearly a thousand, were printed for the first time instead of written. A letter from the Irish Women's League of Dublin and one from the English Women's Equal Rights Union to the State president indicated the world-wide spirit of fraternalism which embraced even Mississippi's modest organization. Good work was done by the new superintendent of press work, Mrs. Dent. Not only did editors by this time willingly accept material but some of them wrote favorable editorials. The Yazoo City Herald, edited by N. A. Mott, was a new recruit. The Purple and White, a Millsaps College paper, was supplied with suffrage material by a bright senior, Janie Linfield.

For the first time suffrage headquarters were maintained at the State Fair by the Equity League of Jackson. Furnishings were loaned by Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Warren from their beautiful home "Fairview." A rest room for mothers and babies was provided, other tired visitors were also welcomed and the suffrage booth was the most popular place on the grounds. For the first time the association was invited to take part on Woman's Day at the State Fair, when representatives from the women's State organizations held a joint meeting, and the president, Mrs. Thompson, spoke for the suffragists.

Letters were sent to the Mississippi members of Congress urging them to vote for the Federal Suffrage Amendment and to President Wilson, pleading for his favorable consideration. Motion pictures were utilized in three ways--suffrage plays were shown, local clubs selling tickets received a part of the proceeds and suffrage slogans were thrown on the slides between pictures.

The State convention was held in the Senate Chamber of the new Capitol at Jackson in April, 1913. At the evening sessions all seats on the floor were taken, the galleries filled and chairs brought from committee rooms to accommodate the audiences. Music was furnished by the Chaminade Club of Jackson. Mayor Swepson I. Taylor gave the address of welcome. Others who spoke were Mrs. Fannie S. Clark, Mrs. E. T. Edmonds, president of the Equity League, and Mrs. Royden-Douglas, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs. In her president's address Mrs. Thompson recommended that the association ask the next Legislature to submit to the voters a State constitutional amendment giving women the ballot, and this was unanimously adopted. The Rev. E. T. Edmonds of the First Christian Church of Jackson spoke on Woman Suffrage in New Zealand, where he had been a resident.

Letters to the president and secretary from U. S. Senators John Sharp Williams and James K. Vardaman were read in reply to appeals that they vote for the Federal Amendment. Senator Vardaman said that when the amendment came up he would "be glad to vote for it." Senator Williams said that he thought "the federal government ought not attempt to control a State in the exercise of this privilege," that he favored a "white woman's primary, in which the women of the State might say whether they wanted the ballot or not" and that he thought women just as competent to use it as men but did not approve of "forcing it upon them." He was "inclined to woman suffrage" and believed that "with safeguards it might be made a bulwark of white supremacy in the State." The large reception planned by Governor and Mrs. Earl Brewer had to be omitted because of the sudden illness of Mrs. Brewer. On account of home demands Mrs. Thompson declined re-election and Mrs. Dent was made president.

Under Mrs. Dent's administration the work prospered and advanced in popular favor. In the fall "woman suffrage day" was for the first time on the calendar of the State Fair. Headquarters were again maintained, for which space three times as large as that used the previous year was occupied. Mrs. Dent, a successful cotton planter, brought a bale of cotton from her plantation and presented it to the headquarters, where it afforded a unique platform for the speakers. Women from different parts of the State came to act as hostesses and take part in the speaking. This year a college contest was conducted by Mrs. Thompson, who offered a gold medal for the best argument for woman suffrage written by a college student of the State. Six of the largest colleges were represented and the medal was won by Mrs. Pearl Powell, of the Industrial Institute and College.

In April, 1914, the State convention was again held in Jackson. Among the speakers were Rabbi Brill of Meridian and Mrs. Alex Y. Scott of Memphis. Mrs. Dent was re-elected president. In the fall for the first time there was a suffrage section in the parade that marked the opening of the State Fair. Six women, gowned in white and wearing yellow silk Votes for Women badges marched--Mrs. Ella O. Biggs and Miss Sadie Goeber bearing a banner inscribed Women vote in twelve States, why not in Mississippi? followed by Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Avery Harrell Thompson, Mrs. Sarah C. Watts and Mrs. R. W. Durfey and they were generously cheered along the way.

In the spring of 1915 the State convention was held in Greenville. Dr. Shaw was a guest, stopping on her way to Jackson, where under the auspices of the Equity League she spoke in the House of Representatives to a large audience, many standing throughout her address, which made a profound impression. The convention was well attended. Some of the interesting features were "an hour for men" presided over by Congressman B. G. Humphries, with excellent speeches; a five o'clock tea, given by the Belvidere Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the presentation of the motion picture play, Your Girl and Mine. Miss Pauline V. Orr was elected president. Miss Orr served as president for two years, widely extending the influence of the association through the hundreds of young women who came under her instruction at the Industrial Institute and College, where for many years she held the chair of English.

The annual convention was held in 1916 in the city hall in Meridian, where nineteen years before the State Woman Suffrage Association was organized, and Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs of Alabama, auditor of the National Association, made an address on the opening evening. During the following year eight new leagues were formed. The convention met in Starkville in April, 1917, and addresses were made by Dr. Shaw, Miss Margaret Hamilton Erwin, president of the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association; Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, first vice-president of the National Association; Mrs. W. H. Price, president of the Mississippi Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and Mrs. Edward F. McGehee, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs. Miss Orr, the president, declining re-election was succeeded by Mrs. McGehee. The United States had now entered the war and the suffragists began to concentrate on war work. As chairman of the Woman's Committee, Mississippi Division of the National Council of Defense, she was able to help popularize woman suffrage.[101]

In April, 1918, a one-day conference was held in the Capitol at Jackson, when Mrs. Marion B. Trotter of Winona was elected president and brought a great deal of energy and enthusiasm into her office. No convention was held in 1919 but at the close of the meeting of the State Federation of Women's Clubs in Clarksdale in November a conference of the suffragists present was called. It was there decided to organize to support the ratification of the Federal Amendment, which had been submitted by Congress and was to come before the Legislature the following January. Mrs. B. F. Saunders of Swan Lake, retiring president of the federation, was made chairman of the Ratification Committee; Mrs. Trotter, treasurer; Mrs. Somerville chairman of Petition and Press Work; Mrs. McClurg chairman of Finance. By request the National Association sent into the State its organizers, Miss Watkins of Arkansas and Miss Peshakova of New York. Mrs. Cunningham, president of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association and a national worker, also came to assist. Petitions were circulated, leaflets published and distributed, newspapers enlisted and legislators systematically interviewed. The organization thus speedily effected worked during the session of 1920. In April of this year the convention of the State Federation, held in Gulfport, closed with a "suffrage luncheon," a brilliant affair attended by 125 prominent men and women. Speeches were made by the Hon. Barney Eaton, a lawyer of Gulfport; Mrs. S. P. Covington, its president, and others. The State League of Women Voters was organized at this time with Miss Blanche Rogers chairman.

It had been the hope for years to have an endorsement of woman suffrage from the Federation of Women's Clubs, a strong and popular organization numbering over 3,000 of the State's leading women. During its annual meeting in 1916 Miss Orr, president of the State Suffrage Association, had introduced a favorable resolution and with Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. J. W. McGrath of Canton, Mrs. William Baldwin of Columbus and Mrs. W. S. Lott of Meridian led the fight for suffrage. Mrs. William R. Wright of Jackson headed the opposition, which asked for the postponement of the question until the next year and won. At the next convention, held in Meridian in 1917, the resolution was introduced by Miss Ann Rothenberg (now Mrs. Rosenbaum) of Meridian and passed almost unanimously. In 1919 at the annual meeting held in Clarksdale, during the presidency of Mrs. Saunders, a resolution endorsing the ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment was carried with but one dissenting vote, that of Mrs. Lizzie George Henderson of Greenwood, daughter of the late U. S. Senator J. Z. George. When the League of Women Voters was formed the next year Mrs. Henderson was among the first to join it.

In 1919, the State Teachers' Association passed unanimously a resolution endorsing woman suffrage introduced by Professor Frederick Davis Mellen of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College, the son of the late Reverend Thomas L. Mellen, one of Mississippi's earliest suffragists. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union here as elsewhere was a great school for women, teaching them the need of the ballot, and the majority of its members were suffragists but all through the years the minority, who did not want the question brought into the Union, overruled their wishes. Mrs. Harriet B. Kells, the president for many years and a lifelong suffragist, was not able to overcome this situation and it never endorsed woman suffrage.

There never has been any organized opposition among Mississippi women. During the session of the Legislature in 1920 there was an open attempt to organize opposition to ratification of the Federal Amendment but it failed.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. After the suffrage association in 1913 decided to ask for the submission of an amendment to the State constitution to enfranchise women the preliminary work of interviewing legislators and distributing appropriate literature was conducted by the chairman of the Legislative Committee, Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville, the president, Mrs. Annie Kinkead Dent, and other members. The president at her own expense sent the Woman's Journal and other literature to all legislators for three months. The concurrent resolution asking for the submission was introduced in the House Jan. 9, 1914, by N. A. Mott of Yazoo county. Senator Hall Sanders of Tallahatchie county offered it in the Senate three days later. The House Committee on Constitution, to which the bill was referred, granted a hearing, at which speeches were made by Mrs. Monroe McClurg, Miss Belle Kearney, Mrs. Somerville, Miss Kate Gordon (La.), Judge Allen Thompson and Colonel Clay Sharkey. The committee reported unfavorably by a majority of one. A minority report was made by the chairman, Henry A. Minor of Noxubee county, and others. Representative Mott offered a resolution inviting the women to present their case in the House the next day, which was carried by a close vote about one o'clock in the afternoon and the hearing was set for ten the next morning. The Daily News had gone to press and the Clarion Ledger, a morning paper, had some time before forbidden its columns to any news or notices in any way favoring woman suffrage or advertising it.

The president of the Equity League of Jackson, Mrs. J. W. Tucker, with her assistants, announced the hearing over the telephone, the legislators spread the story and when the women who were to speak filed into the House on that memorable morning of January 21 they found all available space occupied and the galleries overflowing. An invitation was sent to the Senators to come over but so many had already deserted their posts for the House that there was not a quorum to vote on the invitation. Hilary Quin of Hinds county, Speaker of the House, presided, introducing the speakers and extending every possible courtesy. They were Mrs. McClurg, Miss Kearney, Miss Orr, Miss Gordon, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Dent and Mrs. Somerville. The speeches made so profound an impression that hardly had the last word been spoken when there came a loud and insistent call from the enemies for adjournment. The bill was presented next day. Emmett Cavette of Noxubee county strongly championed it and Speaker Quin left the chair to make a speech in its favor. Representative S. Joe Owen of Union county vigorously led the fight against it and it was lost by 80 noes, 42 ayes.

In 1916 the women's organizations united in a bill making women eligible to serve as county school superintendents and on the boards of educational and benevolent institutions. During the session of 1918 the suffrage association being in the midst of war work took no initiative in behalf of legislation but Senator Earl Richardson of Neshoba county on his own account introduced in the Senate a concurrent resolution to amend the State constitution. The members of the Equity League gave assistance; Mrs. Isaac Reese of Memphis was invited to come to the Capitol and on the day the vote was taken she and Miss Kearney made brief speeches before the Senate. On motion of Senator P. E. Carothers the question was submitted without debate, which was a disappointment to its friends, H. H. Casteel of Holmes county declaring that he had remained up nearly all of the night before preparing his speech. The vote was a tie, 21 to 21. The House took no action.

Through the years the officers and members of the State and local suffrage associations united with those of other women's organizations to obtain laws. The age of consent was raised first to 12, then to 16 and in 1914 to 18; better child labor laws were secured; the law permitting a father to dispose of the children by will at his death was repealed. It is a fact not generally known that Mississippi was the pioneer State in securing to married women the right to own and dispose of property. This was done by an Act of the Legislature on Feb. 15, 1839.

RATIFICATION. Congress submitted the Federal Amendment in June, and the Ratification Committee was organized in November. It opened its headquarters in Jackson at the beginning of the legislative session in January, 1920, after having made a whirlwind campaign. At the initial meeting of the committee in Clarksburg there had been great enthusiasm and women gave money as they never had done before. Mrs. B. F. Saunders was made chairman and among those who worked with her in Jackson were Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. Trotter, Mrs. Sam Covington, Miss Blanche Rogers, Mrs. Thompson, Miss Kearney, Mrs. Annie Neely and Mrs. Cunningham of Texas. The legislators were systematically interviewed, literature distributed, petitions circulated and the press kept supplied with arguments and news.

Mrs. Thompson, in charge of the Jackson press, wrote innumerable articles, and Mrs. Somerville and others contributed to the press work. Letters, telegrams and petitions from all over the State urging ratification poured in daily upon both Houses. Delegations of women came to urge their representatives to vote for ratification. Nine influential women came from Lauderdale county bringing a petition of 2,100 names of prominent people obtained in a day and a half and begged their representatives to vote for the amendment but not one of them did so.

Many of the State's leading newspapers were in favor of ratification. The Daily News of Jackson, in keeping with its policy for years, gave editorial support and generously of its space. The Clarion Ledger, also a Jackson daily, boasted of being the only paper in the State which openly fought ratification. The editor, Colonel Hiram Henry, a veteran journalist of the State, always bitterly opposed to any form of woman suffrage, began his attack weeks before the Legislature met and daily during the session the pages of his paper reeked with hatred for the cause. The literature of the "antis" was largely copied and extracts from negro journals published in the North were reproduced in glaring headlines, extracts so offensive that had they been used against any cause save that of disfranchised women would have been suppressed. It was through his influence that Mrs. Cola Barr Craig, once a resident of Jackson, and Mrs. James S. Pinckard of Alabama came early in January to organize a branch of what they called the Southern Women's Rejection League. They held a public meeting in the Carnegie library, at which besides the two speakers, there were nineteen women present, many of them the old friends of Mrs. Craig. No one would take even the temporary chairmanship and the attempt to organize failed ignominiously. Not daunted Mr. Henry sent for Miss Kate Gordon of New Orleans, a veteran suffragist who had joined hands with the "antis" in fighting ratification. She was advertised for a speech at the Carnegie library and all legislators were urged to attend. Two legislators and fifteen women were present, six of the latter State workers for ratification.

The retiring and incoming State officials were almost to a man outspoken in their advocacy of ratification. Governor Theodore G. Bilbo, the retiring Governor, instead of having the clerk of the House read his farewell message, according to time honored custom, delivered it in person. Woman suffrage was its conspicuous feature and after a profound argument for ratification of the Federal Amendment, he closed his remarks with the solemn statement: "Woe to that man who raises his hand against the onward march of this progressive movement!" The newly elected Governor, Lee M. Russell, in his inaugural address, delivered in front of the Capitol to an audience of thousands, devoted more time to woman suffrage than to any other topic, making a clear cut, logical argument for ratification and a powerful plea for the enfranchisement of women.

On January 21, W. A. Winter, Representative from Grenada county, offered the following resolution: "Resolved that the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States be and hereby is rejected as an unwarranted, unnecessary and dangerous interference with the rights reserved to the States, or to the people, in both State and Federal Constitutions...." This came without warning to the friends of ratification and was not referred to a committee but rushed to a vote after Representative Guy W. Mitchell of Lee county had spoken strongly against it. It was carried by a vote of 94 ayes to 25 noes and the announcement received with cheers and laughter. Sennett Conner of Covington county was the Speaker of the House whose ruling permitted this unparliamentary action.

Sent to the Senate the Winter Resolution of Rejection was referred to the Committee on Constitution, of which Senator Minor was chairman. At the meeting of the committee W. B. Mixon of Pike county was authorized to draft a resolution ratifying the amendment, to be offered in the Senate as a substitute. This was done and Senators Minor, Mixon and Fred B. Smith made a majority report. This resolution was earnestly advocated by Senators Percy Bell and Walton Shields of Washington county, W. B. Roberts of Bolivar, Fred B. Smith of Union, A. A. Cohn of Lincoln and E. F. Noel of Holmes. It failed of adoption and the Winter resolution was recommitted to the Committee on Constitution, where it remained.

In the meantime Senator Mixon had introduced a bill in the Senate giving the right to women to vote in Primary elections and Representative A. J. Whitworth of Pike county a similar one in the House. In Mississippi a nomination is equivalent to an election. Both bills were defeated. A resolution for a woman suffrage amendment to the State constitution to be submitted to the voters at the election of November, 1920, passed both Houses with very little opposition. During the last three weeks of the session Senator Mixon introduced a bill giving the right of suffrage to women in the event of the ratification of the Federal Amendment by thirty-six Legislatures, thus enabling them to vote in the August primaries, and Representative Whitworth introduced two bills, one giving suffrage to women in primary elections and the other in general elections, both contingent upon ratification. These bills passed without opposition.

During the last week of the Legislature Senator Roberts called out of the committee the original Winter Resolution of Rejection and in Committee of the Whole it was amended by striking out the word "reject" and substituting the word "ratify." Thus amended the vote in the Senate stood 21 ayes, 21 noes and Lieutenant Governor H. H. Casteel broke the tie in favor of its adoption. News of the Senate's favorable action spread all over the country in a few hours. Telegrams came pouring in to the Governor and Legislature offering congratulations and appealing to the House to make Mississippi the 36th State to ratify.

The Senate substitute was presented to the House the next afternoon, March 31. Representative Winter moved that the House "do not concur with the Senate Resolution of Ratification." Immediately there came calls for the vote. Telegrams were on the Speaker's stand from William Jennings Bryan, Homer Cummings, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and many other prominent Democrats. A vote was taken as to whether these should be read to the House. Representative E. M. Lane of Smith county, although an opponent of ratification, made an earnest appeal that the courtesy of a hearing should be accorded these national party leaders. A vote of 65 to 32 decided that the telegrams should not be read. Governor Russell had stated that he desired the privilege of the floor to make an appeal in behalf of ratification but this courtesy was denied him. Representatives T. D. Rees of Prentiss county and Walter Sillers of Bolivar spoke in favor of ratification but were poorly heard so great was the confusion and so loud and insistent the calls for the vote. Representative Mitchell was absent. Dr. Whitworth (author of three suffrage bills at this session) spoke against ratification and while he was speaking Representative R. H. Watts of Rankin county interpolated, "I would die and go to hell before I would vote for it." The substitute was defeated by 94 noes, 23 ayes.

Thus was banished forever the dream of Mississippi suffragists that the women would receive the ballot from the men of this great State. Speaker Sennett Conner was responsible above every one else for the defeat of ratification. Its chance was weakened by the fact that Mississippi's entire delegation in Congress, including Senators John Sharp Williams and "Pat" Harrison had voted against submitting the Federal Amendment.

Did space permit there would be added to the names mentioned in this chapter many others who gave "aid and comfort" to the cause. Among those who never failed when asked to help with financial burdens was the late Major R. W. Millsaps, founder of Millsaps College for men and women. The army of active suffragists was never large. Many women wanted the ballot but comparatively few were under conviction to work for it. To those who did, especially in early, trying days, belongs that indescribable exultation which is the portion of those who help onward a great revolutionary movement for the uplift of the race.

The amendment to the State constitution was voted on at the general election in November, 1920, and received 39,186 ayes, 24,296 noes but it was not carried, as the law requires a majority of all the votes cast at the election. As the women were already enfranchised by the Federal Amendment they did not make a campaign for it but as registration is necessary four months before election and the ratification did not take place until two months before this one, they were not able to vote, Mississippi and Georgia being the only two States that denied this privilege.

FOOTNOTES:

[100] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson, an officer in the State Suffrage Association from its organization until its work was finished.

[101] Besides those mentioned the following served on the official board: Mrs. Jimmie Andrews Lipscomb, Mrs. Nella Lawrence Lee, Miss Mattie Kirkpatrick, Mrs. Annie Kinkead Dent, Mrs. Ella O. Biggs, Mrs. Alma Dorsey Birdsall, Mrs. Durrant, Mrs. Edith Marshall Tucker, Mrs. Mary Powell Crane, Miss Ethel Clagett, Mrs. C. C. Miller, Mrs. T. F. Buntin, Miss Estelle Crane, Miss Nannie Herndon Rice.

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XXIV. MISSOURI.[102]

When the last volume of the history of woman suffrage was written in 1900 Missouri was one of the blackest spots on the suffrage map and there was little to indicate that it would ever be lighter. The able and courageous women who inaugurated the movement in 1867, Mrs. Virginia L. Minor, Mrs. Beverly Allen, Mrs. Rebecca Hazzard, Miss Phoebe Couzins and Mrs. Sarah Chandler Coates, were no longer living or past the age for strenuous work. A few women kept up a semblance of a State organization, met annually and in 1901 Mrs. Addie Johnson was elected president; in 1902 Mrs. Louis Werth and in 1903 Mrs. Alice Mulkley, but there was great apathy among women in general. From 1903 to 1910 no State convention was held. In St. Louis, which comprised one-fourth of the inhabitants of the State, there was no visible organization working for woman suffrage. The largest and most influential woman's club refused to allow the subject on its programs. During the decade to 1910 only one speaker of national prominence came into the State--Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association--and evidently at the national headquarters Missouri was considered too hopeless to consider.

The movement was only smoldering, however, and needed but a spark to burst into flame and that spark came from afar--from the torch held high by the "militant" suffragists of England. In no State perhaps was there more bitter invective hurled at them than by the press and people of Missouri but the conscience of the convinced suffragists was aroused. Stirring addresses in St. Louis by Stanton Coit of London and John Lovejoy Elliott of New York in defense of the English "militants" brought matters to a crisis and a few bold spirits decided to reorganize the scattered suffrage forces.

In March, 1910, Mrs. Florence Wyman Richardson, Miss Marie R. Garesche and Miss Florence Richardson (later Mrs. Roland R. Usher) barely out of her teens, renounced society and invited twenty or twenty-five women, whom they thought might be interested, to meet in Miss Garesche's home. Only five responded, Miss Bertha Rombauer, Miss Jennie M. A. Jones, Mrs. Robert Atkinson, Miss Lillian Heltzell and Mrs. Dan Knefler. Not at all daunted it was decided as a first step to engage a prominent lecturer. Miss Ethel Arnold, the well-known Englishwoman, a suffragist but not a "militant," was then touring this country and before the meeting adjourned a telegram was sent to her and the eight women present guaranteed the sum to cover her charge and the rent of a hall. As her itinerary would bring her to St. Louis about the middle of April it was thought best to organize immediately, so that the publicity which would undoubtedly be given to Miss Arnold would be shared by the infant society. A circular letter outlining the project was sent broadcast and April 8 about fifty women gathered at the residence of Mrs. Richardson and effected an organization. Thus came into being the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League, which was destined to play the principal part in winning the vote for the women of the State. The following officers were elected: President, Mrs. Richardson; first vice-president, Miss Garesche; second, Mrs. Atkinson; corresponding secretary, Miss Rombauer; recording secretary, Miss Heltzell; treasurer, Mrs. Knefler; auditor, Mrs. Leslie Thompson.

Miss Arnold's lecture took place April 11 and her charm, culture and cogent reasoning won many friends to the cause and disarmed many of its opponents. Branch organizations were soon formed in the northern and southern parts of the city with Mrs. Atlanta Hecker and Miss Cecilia Razovsky as presidents. Meetings were held in the Cabanne Branch Library and before the end of the year the members had increased to 275.[103] During the first year the league brought a number of lecturers to the city, realizing that this was the most valuable form of propaganda in a community so entrenched in conservatism. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Philip Snowden of England; Professor Frances Squire Potter of the University of Minnesota; Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead of Boston; Professor Nathaniel Schmidt of Cornell and Professor Earl Barnes of Philadelphia.

On Nov. 3, 1911, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England, at the invitation of the league, lectured in the Odeon, the largest hall in the city, to an audience that taxed its capacity. Her charming personality set at rest all fears as to the ill effect of suffrage, even of the "militant" variety, on feminine grace and refinement. Soon afterwards the Mary Institute Alumnae Association invited Miss Sylvia Pankhurst to lecture and the result was most gratifying to the friends of suffrage.

The old State organization having ceased to exist the St. Louis league with its branches and the recently formed Webster Groves Suffrage League, Mrs. Lee Roseborough, president, met in St. Louis Feb. 14, 1911, and organized a State Woman Suffrage Association, which affiliated with the National American Association. The officers were: President, Mrs. Atkinson; vice-president, Mrs. Morrison-Fuller; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Boyd; recording secretary, Miss Rombauer; treasurer, Miss Jane Thompson; auditor, Mrs. R. D. McArthur. Owing to various causes this board was in a few months reduced to three working members, Mrs. Atkinson, Mrs. Boyd and Miss Rombauer. Realizing that it must enlist the support of the press they sent out letters to a long list of the State editors and favorable replies were received from twenty-six, who promised to give a weekly column in their papers for suffrage news and propaganda. All the libraries were written to and a number of them induced to procure the four large volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, generously offered by the National Association. The librarians, who were often women, were asked to keep on hand a supply of suffrage literature. The St. Louis public library, at the suggestion of the board, made a special exhibit of this literature, much of which was new. In the center of the exhibit was a large picture of William T. Harris, former superintendent of schools in St. Louis and later U. S. Commissioner of Education, with his strong testimony in favor of woman suffrage.

Mrs. Atkinson was permitted to make an address on suffrage before the State Federation of Women's Clubs at Sedalia but no action was taken. She also addressed a large audience at the dedication of the Woman's Building which had been erected by the Legislature on the State Fair grounds near that city and Mrs. Walter McNab Miller of Columbia also made an address. The board paid a lawyer to compile the State laws for women under the direction of E. M. Grossman. Mrs. Atkinson, Mrs. Boyd and Mrs. John L. Lowes of St. Louis and Mrs. Virginia Hedges of Warrensburg went as delegates to the convention of the National Association in 1911 at Louisville, where much satisfaction was expressed that Missouri had at last come into the fold. The Kansas City League was organized this year with Mrs. Henry N. Ess, president; Miss Helen Osborn, secretary; and Mrs. Helena Cramer Leavens, treasurer. The women of Warrensburg, under the leadership of Miss Laura Runyon, organized a club of fifty members. There was the State Normal School, to whose faculty Miss Runyon belonged, and through her the support of the students was obtained and suffrage propaganda extended gradually to every section of the State. Mrs. Knefler, president of the St. Louis Women's Trades Union, organized a league among its members, which, under the leadership of Mrs. Sarah Spraggon and Miss Sallie Quick, did excellent work in the campaigns that followed.

In 1912 a Business Woman's Suffrage League was formed in St. Louis under the leadership of Miss Mary McGuire, a graduate of the St. Louis University Law School, and Miss Jessie Lansing Moller, which starting with 50 members, eventually numbered 250. The same year the Junior Branch of the St. Louis League was organized, which included many of the younger society girls and matrons. Miss Ann Drew (later Mrs. James Platt) was president. In Kansas City in the autumn the Southside Equal Suffrage League was formed with Mrs. Cora Kramer Leavens, president, and Miss Cora Best Jewell, secretary. A Men's Equal Suffrage League was also organized with D. H. Hoff president; J. H. Austin, vice-president; David Proctor, secretary, which did a large work in securing the big vote given to the suffrage amendment in Kansas City and Jackson county in 1914.

In 1912 the first State convention was held in September at Sedalia, where Mrs. George Gellhorn was elected president and Mrs. John W. Barringer vice-president, both of St. Louis. They went to Jefferson City in September and tried to get a suffrage plank into the platform of the Democratic State convention. Though unsuccessful it was the initial step in bringing the subject out of the parlor and lecture-room into the sphere of politics, the arena where the battle ultimately had to be fought. Twenty-eight leagues were formed this year. Miss Amelia C. Fruchte, member of the St. Louis Central High School faculty, went before the State Teachers' Association and secured its endorsement of woman suffrage.

In 1913 at the State convention held at St. Louis in September, Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, formerly of Ohio, was elected State president. She had been the leading spirit in work for suffrage in Columbia, the seat of the State University, where her husband was a professor, and in November, 1912, an organization was formed with Dr. R. H. Jesse, former president of the university, at its head. Though the State in general was still apathetic the women in the large places, especially in St. Louis and Kansas City, were alert and active. Mrs. Richardson, after two strenuous years, had been succeeded by Mrs. David O'Neil as president of the St. Louis League. She was followed in October by Mrs. John L. Lowes, who had to resign from exhaustion and Mrs. O'Neil was again elected.

The hard work that had been done was beginning to bear fruit and the Farmers' Alliance, the Prohibitionists, the Single Taxers and other organizations were seeking the cooperation of the suffrage societies. The press was giving more and more space to suffrage news. Mrs. Emily Newell Blair of Carthage was a powerful influence with country editors. The St. Louis Post Dispatch offered prizes amounting to $100 for the best arguments in favor and often contained strong editorials. Thanks largely to Miss Jane Winn, on the editorial staff of the Globe Democrat, suffrage news was seldom refused by that paper. The Kansas City Star and the Post gave strong support. Best of all, the women were gaining in courage and confidence. In September the managers of a Merchants' and Manufacturers' Street Exposition in St. Louis invited the suffragists to conduct a parade under their auspices and a large number of automobiles and auto-trucks gaily decorated with white and yellow bunting and accompanied by several bands of music went through the principal downtown streets. The crowds were respectful and occasionally enthusiastic. The enthusiasm of the paraders reached such a pitch that they left their protecting cars and marched boldly down the middle of the street, preceded by a band playing "Everybody's doing it." The details were arranged by Mrs. W. W. Boyd, Jr.

The time was judged to be ripe for an organized effort to secure action at the general election of 1914 and two plans presented themselves: First, to ask the Legislature to submit to the voters an amendment to the State constitution giving full suffrage to women; second, to secure the necessary number of signatures under the newly enacted initiative petition law to place the amendment on the ballot regardless of action by the Legislature. The former method was tried first but the latter was found to be necessary. A finance committee was appointed by the league to raise funds for the campaign and at a luncheon in St. Louis amid great enthusiasm $11,000 were pledged, which were turned over to Mrs. B. B. Graham, campaign treasurer. Headquarters were opened down town with Mrs. Knefler, campaign manager, in charge. The interest aroused throughout the State by the circulating of the petition was manifested at the State convention in Columbia, in May, 1914, which was attended by a number of delegates from the country districts. Mrs. Miller was re-elected president. On "suffrage day," May 1, men and women addressed crowds between acts at different theaters and on the steps of public buildings. Miss Fola LaFollette was the speaker at a large evening meeting and addressed the Men's City Club at luncheon the next day. The slogan was sent out far and wide, "Suffrage for Missouri in 1914." After the heavy task of obtaining 14,000 names to the petition and a strenuous campaign the amendment was defeated at the polls.

In 1915 an offer was made by a newspaper man in Monet to publish a suffrage magazine and eagerly accepted, the suffragists agreeing to furnish the material and to work up the subscriptions. Mrs. Blair was the first editor of the Missouri Woman and all went well for a few months, then the publisher failed. This was a keen disappointment but through the efforts of Miss Mary Bulkley and Percy Werner of St. Louis, Flint Garrison, president of the Garrison-Wagner Printing Company, a prominent Democrat and an ardent suffragist, became interested and agreed to publish the magazine. It was adopted as the organ of the State Federation of Women's Clubs and was endorsed by the State branch of the National Congress of Mothers and the State Parent Teachers' Association. In March, 1916, Mrs. Blair, owing to the difficulty of editing the magazine from her home in Carthage while it was published in St. Louis, resigned as editor and was succeeded by Miss Mary Semple Scott of St. Louis, who continued in that office during the remaining three years of its useful existence, until the women of the State had been partially enfranchised and the Federal Suffrage Amendment had been ratified by the Legislature.

During 1916 the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League reorganized on political lines with a Central Committee composed of a member from each of the twenty-five wards. Mrs. William C. Fordyce, who for a long time had urged this action, was unanimously elected chairman. At the convention held in Springfield in May Mrs. John R. Leighty of Kansas City succeeded Mrs. Miller, who had been elected first vice-president of the National Association and would reside in Washington. At the meeting of the board held in St. Louis in June the State association also was reorganized on political lines and a Congressional Committee of sixteen members representing the sixteen congressional districts was appointed. The St. Louis League subscribed $500 to carry on the work and Mrs. Charles Passmore was made chairman. The committees appealed to the Republican State convention to put a plank for woman suffrage in its platform but with no success. Later, after the two national parties had adopted suffrage planks, an effort was made to have the State committees adopt the same plank but they refused.

The National Democratic Convention held in St. Louis in June, 1916, offered a splendid opportunity which both State and city suffragists eagerly seized. Some unique schemes were evolved, among them the "golden lane," the idea of Mrs. Blair. It has been described as "a walkless, talkless parade" and consisted of about 7,000 women arranged in a double line on both sides of the street, the front row sitting, the back row standing, all dressed in white with yellow sashes and each one carrying a yellow parasol. They held their places on the opening day of the convention, June 14, from 10 a. m. till noon, on both sides of Locust Street for a distance of ten blocks, the route the delegates had to take in going from their headquarters in the Jefferson Hotel to the Coliseum, where the convention was held.

Another striking appeal was in the form of a beautiful and imposing tableau staged on the steps of the old Art Museum, also on the route of the delegates, which was given with an occasional interval of rest for two long hours. The details were managed by Miss Virginia Stevenson. Under a canopy of gold cloth, which cast a glow over the group below, there stood at the top of the steps "Liberty," posed by handsome Mrs. O'Neil. Grouped about her were thirteen women dressed in white representing the twelve equal suffrage States and Alaska. Farther down on the steps were the States in which only partial suffrage had been granted, impersonated by women dressed in gray. At the bottom were figures in black, representing the States where women were wholly disfranchised, extending their manacled arms to Liberty. A mass meeting was held later in the day in the auditorium of the Museum, when Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, William Jennings Bryan, U. S. Senator John F. Shafroth and Mrs. Miller addressed large and enthusiastic audiences. The Town Club, an organization of women, gave a dinner with covers laid for 300, which was followed by music and speaking in front of the Jefferson Hotel. On the same night there was street speaking on the principal down town corners for two hours, one speaker relieving another as the crowds called for more. Miss Scott brought out an impressive number of the Missouri Woman during the convention. William Burns, a well-known artist on the Post Dispatch, designed an attractive and significant cover and Miss Marguerite Martin illustrated a story by Mrs. Blair; editors of the St. Louis dailies, Louis Ely, Casper Yost and Paul W. Brown, contributed editorials and William Marion Reedy, editor of the St. Louis Mirror, wrote a charming article. The edition of 10,000 was sold at the bookstands and by volunteers who acted as "newsies." The business men advertised generously.

The result partially of all the hard work and enthusiasm was a woman suffrage plank in the platform according to the Democratic principle of State's rights, which, though not entirely satisfactory to the suffragists, was regarded as a decided victory.

The entrance of the United States in the World War in 1917 acted as a deterrent of suffrage activities, as the various organizations threw themselves whole-heartedly into war work. Mrs. Leighty, State chairman, Mrs. Stix, chairman of the St. Louis League, and other heads of suffrage societies throughout the State, had the difficult task of directing their activities in war work and at the same time keeping at the front the idea that, while working to make the world safe for democracy abroad, the cause of democracy at home demanded the speedy enfranchisement of the women of America. Missouri's quota for the Oversea Hospitals organized by the National Suffrage Association was $1,000. At a luncheon given by the St. Louis League May 8, where Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany of New York was the speaker, $4,331 were subscribed in fifteen minutes. Mrs. Miller was chairman of the Food Conservation Committee of the National Association and Mrs. George Gellhorn organized its work for Missouri. All demands of the Government were fully met.

In May, 1917, the State convention was held at Kansas City and Mrs. Miller having returned from Washington was again elected president. This year a Men's Advisory Committee in St. Louis was formed composed of 147 well-known residents organized under the following leaders: Jackson Johnson, N. A. McMillan, Ernest W. Stix, Joseph Woracek, Edward F. Goltra, E. N. Grossman, Benjamin Gratz, J. L. Babler. A teachers' division including many thousand was formed, with Miss Tillie Gecks as president. Largely through the efforts of the executive secretary of the St. Louis league, Mrs. Lucille B. Lowenstein, its membership in 1918 was increased to 8,000. Mrs. Stix, resigning because of illness, Mrs. Gellhorn was elected.

At the State convention held at Macon in May, 1918, Mrs. Miller was re-elected. Owing to the splendid organization of the St. Louis League it was able to invite the National Suffrage Association to hold its Golden Jubilee in this city in 1919. It was held March 23-29 inclusive at the Statler Hotel with two evening mass meetings at the Odeon, and was declared by Mrs. Catt to have been "the best convention ever held anywhere." A large group of women worked indefatigably for weeks in advance to make it a success but to Mrs. Gellhorn, chairman of the Local Arrangements Committee, must go the chief honor. Second must be placed the name of Mrs. Stix, who had raised the funds to defray the local expenses.

On the evening of March 28 was held one of the mass meetings. The large auditorium of the Odeon, beautifully decorated for the occasion under the supervision of Mrs. Fred Taussig and Mrs. Everett W. Pattison, was filled to overflowing. On the stage were Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw and the other national officers, also the speakers of the evening, among whom were Governor Henry J. Allen of Kansas and Miss Helen Frazier of England. Suddenly music was heard from the back. It heralded the Missouri delegation, composed of Mrs. Miller, Mrs. David O'Neil, Mrs. W. R. Haight and Miss Marie B. Ames, who had been in Jefferson City for ninety-six days working in the interest of the Presidential suffrage bill and had just returned with the joyful tidings that it had passed both Houses! The delegation was met at the door and escorted down the center aisle by Mrs. Gellhorn, holding aloft a banner bearing the words, "Now we are voters." The large audience rose spontaneously and amidst deafening cheers and wild waving of handkerchiefs and hats the women ascended to the stage, where they were individually presented to the audience by the presiding officer, Dr. Shaw, who congratulated them and the rest of the women of Missouri on the great victory. [Full account of convention in Chapter XVIII, Volume V.]

To celebrate the success of this great convention and especially the winning of Presidential suffrage, the St. Louis League at its annual meeting in April gave a "victory tea" in the Statler Hotel. The guests of honor were Senator James W. McKnight and Representative Walter E. Bailey, who had so successfully led the suffrage forces in the Senate and House. With music and the presentation to Mrs. O'Neil, in acknowledgment of her long and faithful services, of an illuminated testimonial, it was a delightful afternoon. Mrs. Fred English was elected president of the league. At the State convention held at St. Louis Mrs. Gellhorn was elected president, Mrs. Miller honorary president, Mrs. David O'Neil honorary vice-president of the association.

With Presidential suffrage won, the work before both State and city association was obviously the organization and education of the new voters. At a State meeting held in Kansas City May 3, a "budget" system was adopted and a definite quota assigned to each county. Kansas City raised $3,000 at a banquet in the Muehlbach Hotel, Mrs. J. B. White presiding. St. Louis then raised its quota of $6,000 and another $6,000 was pro-rated throughout the remainder of the State, giving $15,000.

The next step in order was the establishment of Citizenship Schools and the slogan "Every Missouri Woman an Intelligent Voter in 1920" was adopted. Under the direction of Mrs. Olive B. Swan, executive secretary of the State association, citizenship schools were arranged for in every one of the sixteen congressional districts. Miss Ames and Miss Lutie Stearns, two expert organizers, traveled through the State holding meetings and conducting schools. Mrs. Leighty and Mrs. Alfred Buschman assisted in this work. Mrs. English and Mrs. Clarke conducted all those in St. Louis. The Young Women's Christian Association allowed them the use of its auditorium for the first suffrage normal school. Some mothers of families got up at five o'clock and did part of their day's work in order to be able to attend; some women traveled miles in order to do so; others came to night classes after a hard day's work in office or school room. The St. Louis Board of Education recognized the importance of this work and offered to incorporate the citizenship schools in the night school system. It furnished the building and paid the instructors, the St. Louis League managed the schools. The response of the colored women to these opportunities was especially noteworthy; in one school over 300 were in constant attendance. Mrs. McBride, secretary of the Jackson county suffrage league, conducted classes throughout the county. Kansas City secured Professor Isador Loeb of the University of Missouri for a course of lectures on government. All the women's clubs united into one school. The course included principles of government, organization, publicity, public speaking, suffrage history and argument, parliamentary law and use of literature.

* * * * *

The submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment by Congress in June, 1919, was celebrated with the greatest joy throughout the State. Prominent suffragists in St. Louis waited upon Mayor Keil, the board of aldermen and other city officials and escorted them in gaily decorated automobiles to the steps of the Post Office, where the Mayor, an old friend of woman suffrage, made a rousing speech. Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Gellhorn also spoke and Charles M. Hay closed the meeting with an eloquent address. In Kansas City a similar meeting was held in one of the large theaters.

RATIFICATION. Steps were at once taken to secure the ratification of the amendment by the Legislature. Edward F. Goltra, National Democratic Committeeman, a proved friend, and Ben Neals, State Democratic chairman, were often asked for advice and other help. Jacob Babler, Republican National Committeeman, and W. L. Cole, Republican State chairman, Mayor Keil and many others of both political parties assisted the suffrage associations in placing before Governor Gardner the urgency of calling a special session. He was not slow in responding and one was called for July 2, 1919. All the suffrage organizations in the State, with the Federated Clubs and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, started to work immediately to make sure of a large majority. Legislators were visited by their constituents and letters and telegrams were showered on them by prominent men and women from other sections of the State.

On July 1 the suffragists gathered in Jefferson City and opened a State board meeting with a luncheon and speeches at the New Central Hotel to which every one was welcome. At 7 o'clock the ratification dinner took place, with members of the Legislature as the invited guests of the State association. Every foot of space in the dining-room, ante-room and lobby of the hotel was filled with tables. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor were escorted to the hall by prominent suffragists and both made stirring appeals.

At 10 o'clock the morning of July 3, a procession of women wended its way from the hotel to the beautiful new Capitol. The yellow parasols, which had figured in every suffrage celebration since the time of the historic Golden Lane in 1916, were everywhere in evidence and yellow banners, ribbons and flowers gave the dominant note of color to the scene. The galleries in both Senate and House were filled. The resolution passed the House by a vote of 125 to 4; the Senate by a vote of 29 to 3.

A great sorrow came in the midst of the rejoicing, as the news was received that Dr. Anna Howard Shaw died the evening before the ratification. She had addressed the Legislature in other years and both Houses passed resolutions of regret.

Missouri women will forever remember gratefully the 50th General Assembly, as it did all possible for it to do toward their enfranchisement. It memorialized Congress urging the passage of the Federal Suffrage Amendment; it passed the Presidential suffrage bill and it promptly ratified the Amendment.

A called convention of the State association was held October 16-18, at the Hotel Statler in St. Louis and the name was changed to the Missouri League of Women Voters. Mrs. Gellhorn was elected chairman. Every district was represented by the 122 delegates present.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 1913. A petition signed by 14,000 voters of the State, of whom 8,000 were from St. Louis, was presented to the Legislature asking it to submit an amendment for woman suffrage at the election of 1914. The women who had had charge of the petition were Mrs. David O'Neil, president, Miss Mary Bulkley, Miss Charlotte Rumbold and Mrs. William C. Fordyce of the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League and Mrs. St. Clair Moss and Mrs. Rose Ingels of Columbia. A letter had been sent to every legislator saying that all he was asked to do was to help get the amendment before the voters. The resolution was introduced by Representative Thomas J. Roney and Senator Anderson Craig. It was referred to the House and Senate Committees on Constitutional Amendment and a joint hearing was set for February 6. A number of women from different parts of the State appeared before these committees and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National Suffrage Association, disarmed all prejudice. There was a unanimous favorable report from the Senate Committee and only one adverse vote in the House Committee. A week later the resolution was sent to engrossment by both Houses with but five dissenting votes in the Senate while in the House the "ayes" were so overwhelming that the "noes" were not counted. The women went home feeling that the fight was won but the last week of the session the resolution was taken off the calendar, referred back to the committees and pigeon-holed.

The women then decided to resort to the newly created device of the "initiative petition," by which the amendment could be submitted without legislative action. Mrs. Walter McNab Miller was urged to take charge of the work, the St. Louis Suffrage League agreeing to look after the three most difficult congressional districts. She began the latter part of August to canvass a State that has 114 counties, in many of which there are no railroads and the other roads are almost impassable. After six weeks of constant travel and hard work she obtained only 1,000 names. The cooperation of Mrs. Nellie Burger, president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the only woman's organization in the State outside of the regular suffrage societies which had endorsed suffrage, was then secured. The St. Louis and Kansas City leagues took the most thickly populated districts and the others were apportioned among little bands of suffragists, who, under the leadership of Mrs. Miller, worked steadily for the next six months. At last the required 14,000 signatures were obtained and representatives from each district went to Jefferson City to present the petitions to Secretary of State Cornelius Roach. He received them in a most friendly manner, saying that he hoped this work, which had been done at such great cost, would bring the desired reward.

It had only begun and the task during the next six months was to induce the men to vote for the amendment, which now had an assured place on the ballot. Help came from the outside, as well as within the State. Ruth Hanna (Mrs. Medill) McCormick of Chicago, chairman of the Congressional Committee of the National Association, sent an organizer and paid her expenses for four months. From friends outside $3,264 were sent and about $1,800 were raised in various ways in the State. Dr. Shaw and Miss Jane Addams spoke in several cities and other prominent speakers were Mrs. Desha Breckinridge of Kentucky, Miss Helen Todd of California, Mrs. McCormick and "General" Rosalie Jones of New York. The State and county fairs were utilized. Headquarters were rented in a big downtown building in St. Louis with Miss Rumbold as director of publicity, Miss Genevieve Tierney and Mrs. R. L. Sanford in charge of the business part, Mrs. Alice Curtis Moyer-Wing head of the speakers' bureau and Miss Bulkley treasurer. Mrs. Blair had charge of the press work for the State, Miss Clara Sommerville for St. Louis.[104] The St. Louis Times, the Kansas City Post and the Warrensburg Daily Star allowed the women to get out a special suffrage edition.

All the hard work of a year and a half was in vain. On Nov. 3, 1914, the woman suffrage amendment went down to defeat with fourteen other amendments on the ballot. More votes were cast on this one than on any other--182,257 ayes; 322,463 noes; lost by 140,206. In Kansas City the adverse majority was only 1,000. Thirteen counties were carried.

1915. It had been decided at the first State board meeting after the defeat to attempt again to have an amendment submitted by the Legislature. Mrs. Miller took charge of the work and remained six weeks in Jefferson City. The resolution was written by Judge Robert Franklin Walker, now Chief Justice of Missouri, and was introduced by Senator Craig and Representative Roney, as before. A joint hearing was arranged at which twelve Missouri women, representing various professions and occupations, spoke five minutes each. It passed the House by 88 ayes to 42 noes. Through the efforts of Senator William Phelps, who was showered with letters and telegrams from his constituents, the committee, a majority of whom were violently opposed to woman suffrage, was persuaded to report it favorably but it did not come to a vote in the Senate.

1916. As the Federal Amendment was now well advanced and the bad effect on it of the loss of a State campaign was clearly recognized, the National Board asked the officers of each State association to refrain from entering into one. Therefore it was agreed at the State convention in May, 1916, to give up the projected campaign.

1917. A bill for Presidential suffrage, which was approved by the national officers, was introduced. Headquarters were opened in the Capitol with Miss Geraldine Buchanan of California, Mo., in charge and a strong lobby of State women remained there during the session--Mrs. Leighty, Mrs. Fordyce, Mrs. O'Neil, Mrs. Passmore and Mrs. Grossman of St. Louis. Mrs. Katherine Smith, daughter of Judge Walker, and Miss Matilda Dahlmeyer of Jefferson City gave effective aid. Percy Werner, a lawyer of St. Louis, agreed to defend its legal status before the Legislature if necessary and in January it was introduced by Senator Robert J. Mitchell of Aurora and Representative Nick Cave of Fulton. It was reported favorably by the House Committee but when it came to a hearing before the Senate committee there appeared Miss Minnie Bronson from New York, secretary of the National Anti-Suffrage Association. The speaker in favor was Mrs. Fordyce, a granddaughter of the pioneer suffragist, Mrs. Beverly Allen. The House passed it by 87 to 37 but the Senate defeated it.

Missouri women now turned their attention to furthering the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The Congressional Committee appointed for this purpose worked indefatigably and early in January, armed with two large bundles of petitions for it, one from the State and one from St. Louis, aggregating 75,000 names, a delegation went to Washington. Mrs. Miller, vice-president of the National Association, arranged, with the assistance of Miss Mabel Stone, daughter of the Missouri Senator, William R. Stone, for a meeting in his office between them and the State's members of Congress. They presented their petitions and made earnest appeals for the amendment.

Suffragists throughout the State kept up a constant stream of telegrams and letters to the Missouri members and Governor Gardner used his influence. Senator Stone, and after his death Senator Xenophon P. Wilfley, were pledged to the amendment, and Senator Selden P. Spencer, who later was elected, could positively be depended upon. All possible efforts were concentrated upon Senator James A. Reed but to no avail. To disprove his statements that his constituents were not in favor of woman suffrage, the Jackson county campaign committee, with Mrs. J. B. White of Kansas City chairman, sent him the signatures of 47,382 women and 12,583 men from his district, asking for it. When the amendment came to a vote in 1918, Senator Wilfley and all the Representatives voted in the affirmative except Meeker of St. Louis, who died soon afterwards. In 1919 Senator Spencer and the entire delegation in the House voted in favor. Senator Reed fought it every time it came before the Senate.

Delegations of women appeared before the State conventions of both parties on the same day in August, 1918, and asked for a suffrage plank. Mrs. Miller, Mrs. O'Neil and Mrs. Stix attended the Democratic convention in Jefferson City; Mrs. Gellhorn and Mrs. Grossman, assisted by others, looked after the Republican convention in St. Louis. They were invited to speak and each party put a very good suffrage plank in its platform.

1919. Work for Presidential suffrage was continued. Extra pressure was brought to bear on the Senate. Two national organizers, Miss Ames and Miss Alma Sasse, were sent into various senatorial districts to enlist the help of influential people and when the time came for a vote it undoubtedly was favorable pressure from home that kept some of the Senators in line. When the General Assembly convened Jan. 8, 1919, Governor Gardner recommended such suffrage legislation as the women might desire. Through the courtesy of Lieutenant Governor Crossley, President of the Senate, and S. F. O'Fallon, Speaker of the House, it was the first bill introduced.

On February 6 the Presidential bill was put on the calendar over the adverse report of the Election Committee, an action almost without precedent. On the 11th the Speaker left the chair and delivered a powerful address urging its passage. Representative Frank Farris also made a strong speech in its favor and the final vote was 122 ayes, 8 noes. The opposition used every device to prevent it from being brought up for the final reading in the Senate but finally the time was set for March 28. On that date two of the Senators favoring it were absent and their votes were absolutely necessary. Senator David W. Stark was at his home in Westline and Senator Howard Gray had been called on important business to Caruthersville. On the 27th Mrs. Miller, Mrs. O'Neil, Mrs. Haight and Miss Ames, who had been in Jefferson City for over three months, met for final consultation. Senator Stark responded to a telephone call and promised to be in his seat the next morning. It was found it would be impossible for Senator Gray to arrive on time. They were in despair but a savior was at hand. Democratic National Committeeman Edward F. Goltra offered to charter a special train to bring Senator Gray, a Republican, to Jefferson City in time to cast his vote. This offer was gladly and gratefully accepted and the Senator left Caruthersville that night. The next morning all the other Senators were in their seats, the opposition complacent and confident that the bill could not pass. While Senator McKnight was reading a telegram from the National Suffrage Convention in session at St. Louis urging the immediate passage of the Presidential suffrage bill Senator Gray quietly walked in and took his seat! The opposition, out-witted and out-generaled, threw up their hands and the bill was passed by a vote of 21 to 12, some of its former opponents voting for it. On April 5 in the presence of the board of the State association it was signed by Governor Gardner.

FOOTNOTES:

[102] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Marie R. Garesche, a founder and first vice-president of the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League.

[103] Thirteen men were enrolled this year, Eugene Angert, George Blackman, R. W. Boysselier, Dr. W. W. Boyd, Mr. Chauvenet, E. M. Grossman, Charles Haanel, Stephen Hart, Charles Van Dyke Hill, Dr. John C. Morfit, H. J. Peifer, Judge R. E. Rombauer and Percy Werner.

[104] Because of lack of space it has been impossible to include the long lists of names prepared of women who worked all over the State.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXV. MONTANA.[105]

Before 1900 the National American Woman Suffrage Association, under the presidency of Miss Susan B. Anthony, helped to organize suffrage societies in Montana and several conventions were held. In 1899 Dr. Maria M. Dean was elected president. She was succeeded by Mrs. Clara B. Tower, whose report to the national suffrage convention of 1903 said:

On May 1, 1902, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, National president, Miss Gail Laughlin and Miss Laura A. Gregg, organizers, arrived in Helena and in conjunction with the State officers planned a campaign to include a meeting in every town of any importance. Mrs. Catt re-organized the Helena Suffrage Club and remained two weeks, conducting a large correspondence, addressing all the women's organizations in the city and a mass meeting. Miss Laughlin spent these two weeks in Butte, where she spoke to a number of labor unions and obtained resolutions strongly endorsing woman suffrage from the Silver Bow Trades and Labor Assembly, a delegate body representing 10,000 men. Mrs. Catt then went to Butte and for ten days she and Miss Laughlin delivered addresses before the principal organizations of the city, among which were the Woman's Club and the Trades Council. Their visit closed with a mass meeting at which a large number of names were secured for membership in the Equal Suffrage Club, which was organized immediately afterward. The campaign was then placed in charge of Miss Laughlin, who did the field work, and Miss Gregg, who arranged the dates from the headquarters in Helena. The speaking before labor unions was continued through the State and not a union or delegate body of laboring men failed to endorse woman suffrage. Miss Laughlin, by invitation, addressed the State labor convention, representing all the labor unions, and resolutions strongly endorsing woman suffrage and the submission of an amendment were passed with only one dissenting voice on a roll-call vote.

Miss Laughlin spent the summer and fall visiting every town of importance, organizing more than thirty clubs, and securing committees to circulate petitions where organization was impracticable. The State convention was held in Butte in September in preparation for work in the Legislature during January and February, 1903, for submission to the voters of a woman suffrage amendment to the State constitution, which had been strongly recommended by Governor Toole in his Message. A considerable sum was raised for press work and Miss Mary E. O'Neill was appointed superintendent. A resolution asking the National Association for the services of Miss Laughlin for legislative work was adopted and she remained.[106]

The bill for full suffrage was introduced in both Houses; public hearings were granted by the Judiciary Committee of each and the House took a recess that its members might attend in a body. Miss Laughlin and others spoke and the measure had strong advocates in Dr. O. M. Lanstrum, J. M. Kennedy, John Maginness, Colonel James U. Sanders, F. Augustus Heinze (the copper magnate), Colonel C. B. Nolan, State Senators Whipple, Myers and Johnson. State officers and members of the Helena Club assisted in the legislative work, which continued two months. The vote in the House was 41 ayes, 23 noes, but two-thirds were necessary. The resolution introduced in the Senate by H. L. Sherlock was also defeated.

At the session of 1905 the amendment resolution was again introduced and Mrs. Tower travelled from Boston to be present at the hearing. Mrs. J. M. Lewis, Mrs. Walter Matheson and Miss O'Neill addressed the committees but the vote was adverse.

For a number of years little was done except in a desultory way. The suffrage resolution was presented at almost every session of the Legislature but there was no intensive work for it. Some of the political equality clubs lived on, the strongest one in Missoula with J. Washington McCormick president and Miss Jeannette Rankin vice-president. In 1911 Dr. J. M. Donahue had introduced the suffrage resolution in the Legislature but no work had been done for it and this club sent Miss Rankin to Helena to press for its passage. It found champions in Colonel J. B. Nolan, W. W. Berry and D. G. O'Shea and opponents in James E. McNally and Joseph Binnard. Miss Rankin obtained permission to address the House. The Senate refused to attend officially but adjourned and was present almost in a body. House members brought flowers and the room resembled anything but a legislative hall, as masses of hats hid the legislators and people were banked in the doorways. Miss Rankin was escorted to the reading desk by a number of old-time suffragists, Dr. Dean, Dr. Atwater, Mrs. Sanders, Mrs. Mary Long Alderson and Miss May Murphy. As Representative Binnard was the strongest opponent he was delegated by the members to present Miss Rankin with a corsage bouquet of violets. He made a flowery speech and attempted to turn the meeting into a facetious affair but when Miss Rankin spoke his purpose was defeated and she received much applause. The bill was, however, reported out of the committee without recommendation and neither House took any action.

At the State Fairs of 1911 and 1912 the suffragists erected attractive booths, giving out suffrage literature and buttons to all passers-by. They were in charge of Ida Auerbach, Frieda Fligelman and Grace Rankin Kinney. In 1912 a State Central Committee was formed with Miss Rankin as temporary chairman and Miss Auerbach as temporary secretary. Later Mrs. Grace Smith was made treasurer. The first meeting was called in the studio of Miss Mary C. Wheeler of Helena. These women attended the State conventions of the Republican, Democratic and Progressive parties and succeeded in getting planks in their platforms for a suffrage amendment to the State constitution. Then all nominees were circularized and asked to stand by their party platforms. Miss Rankin went over the State quietly, stopping in every county seat and searching out women willing to work. She secured the consent of Thomas Stout to introduce the bill at the next session.

In January, 1913, the women met in Helena and formed a permanent State organization, electing the following officers: Chairman, Miss Rankin, Missoula; assistant chairmen, Mrs. Louis P. Sanders, Butte; Mrs. G. M. Gillmore, Glendive; secretary, Mrs. Harvey Coit, Big Timber; treasurer, Mrs. Wilbur L. Smith, Helena; finance chairman, Mrs. Wallace Perham, Glendive; press chairman, Miss Auerbach. The organization never had any constitution or by-laws. Letters from all over the State were written to Governor S. V. Stewart and on January 7 the women went in a body to hear his Message, in which he recommended that Montana women should be enfranchised. With no discussion the resolution to submit an amendment to the voters passed the Senate by 26 ayes, two noes--J. E. Edwards and I. A. Leighton--and was signed by the president, Lieutenant Governor W. W. McDowell, in open session. In the House the vote was 74 ayes, two noes--Ronald Higgins and John W. Blair. On January 25 it was signed by the Governor.

On June 27 the second meeting of the State Central Committee was held in Livingston, immediately following that of the State Federation of Women's Clubs. Great progress in interest and organization was reported from all parts of the State. The only new officers elected were: Recording secretary, Mrs. John Willis of Glasgow; chairman of literature, Miss Mary Agnes Cantwell of Hunters' Hot Springs. Chairmen were appointed in each county and workers were sent into every precinct. The third meeting of the Central Committee was held in Butte September 22, 23, just before the State Fair, where it had a booth. It was decided to open headquarters in Butte Feb. 1, 1914.

The fourth meeting was held in Big Timber February 14 and the fifth in Lewiston June 6. Miss O'Neill was made assistant chairman and press chairman; Mrs. Edith Clinch, treasurer; Miss Eloise Knowles chairman of literature.

Headquarters were opened in Butte in January, 1914. Letters were sent to granges, labor unions, women's clubs and other organizations asking them to pass resolutions in favor of the amendment and aid the campaign as far as they could. Every newspaper in the State received each week a letter of suffrage news and items from Miss O'Neill and occasionally some propaganda material. Letters were sent regularly to the county chairmen and other workers giving instructions and keeping them in touch with the campaign. Large quantities of literature were distributed with many leaflets for special occasions. A short time before election personal letters and a leaflet especially for farmers were sent to 20,000 voters in the country districts. The house-to-house canvass of the women in the towns and cities was the most effective work done. Montana women spoke in every county and women from outside the State in all but a few of the smaller ones.

In the spring Mr. and Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw of New York City stopped off en route to California and spoke in a number of places. The women were charmed with her beauty and style and some men who had considered the movement as only carried on by women were surprised that a man of Mr. Laidlaw's standing should be at the head of a National Men's Suffrage League. He organized a Montana branch of it with Wellington D. Rankin (now Attorney General) as president.

Miss Rankin in her report to the national suffrage convention of November 12-17, expressed the highest appreciation of the women who came into Montana, either sent by the National Association or at their own expense, and campaigned for weeks under the instructions of the State board. They were headed by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, the national president, and included Miss Katharine Devereux Blake, Miss Ida Craft and Miss Rosalie Jones of New York; Mrs. Antoinette Funk, Miss Jane Thompson, Miss Gratia Erickson and Miss Florence Lord of Chicago; Mrs. Root of Los Angeles. During May and June Mrs. Cotterill of Seattle, and during July and August Miss Margaret Hinchey of Boston, gave their time to labor unions. A number of large demonstrations were held in various cities. Campaigning in a State of such distances and geographical formation presented great difficulties.

A precinct organization was perfected wherever possible but to the far-off places word was simply sent to the women to work to get votes for the amendment and they did so with splendid results. The usual program of party campaigning in rural districts was adopted of holding a rally followed by a dance. Miss Rankin, Miss Fligelman, Miss Grace Hellmick, Mrs. Maggie Smith Hathaway, Miss O'Neill, Dr. Dean, Mrs. Topping and many other volunteer speakers went into every little mining camp and settlement that could be reached. They spoke from the steps of the store and the audience, composed entirely of men, would listen in respectful silence, applaud a little at the close, too shy to ask questions, but on election day every vote was for suffrage. Old prospectors back in the mountains when approached and asked for their votes would say: "Do you ladies really want to vote? Well, if you do, we'll sure help all we can." Many old-timers said: "What would our State have been without the women? You bet you can count on us." The campaigners spoke in moving picture theaters, from wagons and automobiles and wherever they could obtain an audience however small. There were no rebuffs but some of the Southerners would say that it would be a bad thing for the South. All these outlying districts that could be reached gave a favorable majority. The money for the campaign was raised in many ways, by donations, food sales, dances, collections, the sale of suffrage papers on the street, etc. The loss of the funds collected for the campaign through the closing of the State bank was a heavy blow and it could not have succeeded without the help of the National Association and friends in outside States. The campaign cost about $9,000, of which over half was contributed by the association and other States.

To the women specifically mentioned the names of the following especially active in the campaign should be added: Miss Mary Stewart, Mrs. W. I. Higgins, Mrs. J. F. Kilduff, Mrs. Tyler Thompson, Jean Bishop, Mrs. Wm. Roza, Mrs. J. W. Scott, Mrs. John Duff, Mrs. Bertha Rosenberg, Mrs. Mary Tocher, Mrs. J. M. Darroch, Mrs. W. E. Cummings, Mrs. Stevens, Mrs. A. E. Richardson, Mrs. Frank D. O'Neill, Mrs. J. B. Ellis, Mrs. M. E. Hughes, Mrs. Delia Peets, Mrs. C. P. Irish, Mrs. J. R. E. Sievers, Mrs. A. P. Rooney, Mrs. Sarah M. Souders, Mrs. Sherrill, Mrs. Nathan Lloyd, Mrs. Burt Addams Tower, Mrs. Mary Meigs Atwater, Mrs. Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, Mrs. Charles N. Skillman, Mrs. Charles S. Haire, Mrs. J. M. Lewis, Mrs. H. W. Child, Miss Susan Higgins. Among the men the best friends besides those already mentioned were Miles Romney, Joseph H. Griffin, Lewis J. Duncan, W. W. McDowell, Lieutenant Governor, and the two U. S. Senators, Thomas J. Walsh and Henry L. Myers.

At the beginning of the campaign a travelling organizer of the National Anti-Suffrage Association came to Butte, and, saying that she acted officially, had an interview with the editors of the National Forum, the organ of the liquor interests. She told them their open opposition was helping the amendment, urged them to carry it on in secret and said she would return later and lay before them a plan of campaign. Afterwards when the Butte papers exposed this scheme the National Forum described the interview. Before the election the National Anti-Suffrage Association sent its executive secretary, Miss Minnie Bronson, and Mrs. J. D. Oliphant of New Jersey to campaign against the amendment. They succeeded in forming only one society in the State and that was at Butte, with a branch in the little town of Chinook. The officers were Mrs. John Noyes, president; Mrs. Theodore Symons, secretary; Mrs. W. J. Chrystie, press chairman; Mrs. David Nixon, active worker; Mrs. Oliphant challenged Miss Rankin to a debate, which was held in the old auditorium in Helena. At the meeting, which had been packed by the liquor interests, Mrs. Oliphant was noisily applauded and the confusion was appalling.

Although the speakers travelled to remote districts up to the night before election in November, the instructions from headquarters were to have loose ends gathered up by the opening of the State Fair September 25, at Helena. Headquarters were maintained a week at the fair and in the city and each day The Suffrage Daily was issued. The editors were Mrs. L. O. Edmunds, Miss O'Neill, Mrs. M. E. McKay and Miss Belle Fligelman, all newspaper women. The most picturesque and educative feature of the whole campaign and the greatest awakener was the enormous suffrage parade which took place one evening during the week. Thousands of men and women from all parts of the State marched, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw was at the head, and next, carrying banners, came Dr. Dean, the past president, and Miss Rankin, the present State chairman. A huge American flag was carried by women representing States having full suffrage; a yellow one for the States now having campaigns; a large gray banner for the partial suffrage States and a black banner for the non-suffrage States. Each county and city in the State had its banner. The Men's League marched and there were as many men as women in the parade.

During the entire campaign the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, one of the strongest organizations in the State, conducted a vigorous fight for the amendment, sending its speakers to every locality. For many years it had worked for woman suffrage.

At the election Nov. 3, 1914, the amendment received 41,302 ayes; 37,588 noes, a majority of 3,714, and women were enfranchised on equal terms with men.

The various suffrage societies merged into Good Government Clubs with the avowed purpose of obtaining political action on many needed measures. The next year they secured mother's pension and equal guardianship laws, and others equally important in following years. The Executive Committee continued in existence and directed the work. At its meeting in 1916 it was decided to conduct an intensive campaign for prohibition in 1917; to elect a woman to Congress and a woman State Superintendent of Schools. Prohibition was carried; Miss Jeannette Rankin was elected the first Congresswoman in the United States and Miss May Trumper was elected Superintendent of Schools. That year an eight-hour-day for women was secured. This record was continued. Mrs. Maggie Smith Hathaway and Mrs. Emma A. Ingalls have served two terms each as State Representatives. All the county superintendents of schools are women.

After the Federal Amendment was submitted by Congress the societies met on June 22, 1919, and formed a State branch of the National League of Women Voters with Mrs. Edwin L. Norris chairman.

RATIFICATION. Governor Samuel V. Stewart called a special session of the Legislature to meet in August, 1920, and the Federal Suffrage Amendment was ratified on the 2nd by unanimous vote in the House and by 38 to one in the Senate--Claude F. Morris of Havre, Hill county. The resolution was introduced in the House by Mrs. Ingalls.

FOOTNOTES:

[105] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Lucile Dyas Topping, formerly Lewis and Clark county superintendent of schools and prominent in the work of the campaign of 1914, when Montana women obtained the suffrage.

[106] In the intensive work that followed, Mrs. Tower was assisted by Dr. Dean, Mrs. Ellen Maria Dean, Mrs. James U. Sanders, Mrs. T. J. Walsh, Mrs. Bessie Hughes Smith, Mrs. Martha Dunkel, Mrs. Ella Knowles Haskell, Mrs. Adelaide Staves Reeder, Dr. Bertha Mackal McCleman, Mrs. C. B. Nolan, Mrs. Donald Bradford, Madame F. Rowena Medini, Miss Sarepta Sanders, Dr. Mary B. Atwater, Mrs. H. L. Sherlock, Mrs. Hughes and Miss Mary C. Wheeler.

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