XXVI. NEBRASKA.[107]…

XXVI. NEBRASKA.[107]

The History of the movement for woman suffrage in Nebraska from 1900 to 1920 naturally divides itself into three periods. The first period extends from 1900 to 1912. During those years the organization was supported by a small but faithful group whose continuous effort at educating public sentiment prepared the way for the work that followed. The second period included the years from 1912 to 1915, during which time a campaign for full suffrage by an amendment to the State constitution was carried on. The third period from 1915 to 1920 was marked by the passage of a partial suffrage law in 1917, which was an issue during the preceding two years; an attack on that law through the initiative and referendum; the successful defense of it by the State Suffrage Association and the ratification of the Federal Amendment at a special session in 1919, which marked the end of a long contest.

Miss Laura Gregg, a Nebraska woman, was put in charge of the State suffrage headquarters at Omaha in October, 1899, by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the Organization Committee of the National American Suffrage Association, and remained four years. During that time conventions and conferences were held, much field work was done and the membership was increased to nearly 1,200. At the annual convention at Blair in October, 1900, Mrs. Catt, now national president, was present. Mrs. Clara A. Young of Broken Bow was elected State president, relieving Mrs. Mary Smith Hayward of Chadron, who had pressing business obligations. Her section of the State, however, remained one of the suffrage strongholds and she was always one of the largest contributors. Other officers elected were, vice-president, Mrs. Amanda J. Marble of Broken Bow; corresponding secretary, Miss Nelly Taylor of Merna; recording secretary, Mrs. Ida L. Denny of Lincoln.

In 1901 the State convention was held in Lincoln November 12-14, welcomed by Mayor T. C. Winnett. A reception was given at the Lindell Hotel to the fifty-six delegates and Mrs. Catt, who had spent sixteen days in the State, attending conferences in Omaha and eleven other places. An address by Governor E. P. Savage, one by Mrs. Catt, and a debate between Miss Gregg and A. L. Bixby, editor of the State Journal, who took the negative, were the evening attractions. There was a work conference led by Mrs. Catt and reports were given by the officers and by State workers, including Mrs. Maria C. Arter of Lincoln; Mrs. K. W. Sutherland of Blair, Miss Taylor, Mrs. Mary G. Ward of Tecumseh, Mrs. Jennie Ross of Dakota City, Mrs. Hetty W. Drury of Pender, with a "question box" conducted by Mrs. Catt. The next afternoon the speakers in a symposium were Mrs. Anna A. Wells of Schuyler, J. H. Dundas of the Auburn Granger, Mrs. Emma Shuman of Nebraska City, Mrs. Rosa Modlin of Beaver City, Mrs. C. W. Damon of Omaha, Mrs. Mary E. Jeffords of Broken Bow, Mrs. Alice Isabel Brayton of Geneva and Mrs. Belle Sears of Tekamah.

The sum of $1,312 had been expended during the year, including the cost of headquarters and field work. Pledges to the amount of $1,000 were made for the next year. The large dailies of Omaha and Lincoln had given much attention to the subject of woman suffrage and over 150 weeklies had published matter furnished by the press departments. Mrs. Young, Mrs. Marble, Miss Taylor and Mrs. Denny were re-elected; other officers were: Treasurer, Mrs. Mary E. Dempster, Omaha; first auditor, Mrs. Hayward, second, Mrs. Sears; press chairman, Mrs. Lucie B. Meriom of Beaver City.

This convention was a type of those held during the next three or four years. County conventions were frequent and local clubs were active. A small printed sheet called the Headquarters Message, edited by Miss Gregg, filled with State suffrage news, club reports, National recommendations, etc., was sent monthly to the workers. During the spring of 1902 Miss Gail Laughlin, a national organizer, spent two weeks organizing new clubs and arousing old ones and Miss Gregg and Mr. Bixby debated in towns in eastern Nebraska. A series of parlor meetings in Omaha increased the interest there. Mrs. Marble was chairman of the Committee on Assemblies and during the summer the suffrage question was presented at the State Fair, the Epworth Assembly, Chautauquas, pioneer picnics and other gatherings. The committee included later Mrs. O. B. Bowers, Tekamah; Mrs. Ellen A. Miller, Beatrice; Mrs. Ollie King Carriker, Nebraska City; Mrs. Anna Pickett, Broken Bow. Miss Gregg spent the autumn in field work throughout the State. The annual convention was held at Tecumseh December 1-3, with a large attendance. The program included the Mayor, Governor-elect J. H. Mickey, the Hon. C. W. Beal, Senator O'Neill, and other prominent citizens. A memorial hour was given to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and to Nebraska suffragists who had died during the year. It was resolved to push press work, county organization, new memberships and work before assemblies.

In 1903 branch headquarters were established at the Lindell Hotel, Lincoln, for work with the Legislature. The delegates to the national convention in New Orleans in March were accompanied home by Miss Laughlin for organizing work. Assisted most of the time by Miss Gregg she visited thirty-five cities and towns, speaking from one to three times in each place, gained 403 new members and collected about $200. She spoke at five Normal Schools during the summer and had headquarters at the Northwest G. A. R. encampment and several Chautauquas. The State convention was held at Nebraska City, October 6-8. The program was enriched by the address of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national vice-president, on The Fate of Republics. Miss Laughlin made a strong speech and there were many new names on the program. To the previous plan of work had been added suffrage contests, literature in libraries and church work; the peace and industrial work of the National Association had been endorsed and committees formed.

In January, 1904, Miss Gregg was sent by Mrs. Catt to Oklahoma, where her services as organizer were very much needed. The State headquarters were transferred to Tecumseh with the secretary, Mrs. Mary G. Ward, in charge. Mrs. Young edited the Headquarters Message and Mrs. Myrtle W. Marble of Humboldt attended to the publishing and mailing. A Suffrage Cook Book was prepared and published and became a source of considerable revenue. Mrs. Lulu S. Halvorsen of Nebraska City was press chairman. Miss Laughlin spent a month speaking and organizing. The State convention was held at Geneva November 21-December 1, Mrs. Ellis Meredith of Denver a principal evening speaker. With the withdrawal of Miss Gregg and the conviction that no amendment of any kind could be carried under the existing law, the interest of the local organizations began to decline and the two brave and faithful women who had carried the heaviest part of the burden were now finding it too heavy for their strength. Mrs. Young took the headquarters to her own home in Broken Bow and Mrs. Marble did all kinds of work at all times if it helped the cause.

Mrs. Young kept the clubs at work during 1905 and a full delegation of fourteen was sent to the national convention at Portland, Oregon, but her health began to fail and at the State convention held at Broken Bow October 10-12 she was compelled to give up the presidency. The executive board needed her counsel and experience and she accepted the position of honorary president. Mrs. Marble was made president and the other officers were re-elected with Miss Mary H. Williams as historian. Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Colorado was the principal speaker. There were seventeen addresses of welcome from representative citizens.

Mrs. Marble kept up the work in 1906 as far as it was possible. She began publishing an annual report of the year's work, a pamphlet of about 70 pages, containing a roster of the clubs and much useful information, and continued it during the four years of her presidency. With Miss Williams she attended the national convention at Baltimore. The State convention met at Lincoln, October 2, 3, in All Souls' Church with Dr. Shaw as evening speaker. A memorial meeting was held for Susan B. Anthony, with the Rev. Newton Mann of Omaha, her former pastor in Rochester, N. Y., as speaker.

The State convention of 1907 met in Kenesaw October 1, 2. The legislative work had been to obtain a memorial to Congress asking for a Federal Suffrage Amendment. More conventions passed woman suffrage resolutions during the summer than ever before. On October 7 the beloved leader, Mrs. Young, passed away. In November Miss Gregg was sent by the National Association to assist Mrs. Marble and remained until the middle of January, doing office and field work.

In February, 1908, Mrs. Maud Wood Park of Boston made a visit to the State and formed College Woman Suffrage Leagues in the State and Wesleyan Universities and among graduates in Lincoln. Miss Williams was made chairman of a committee to raise Nebraska's pledge of $300 to the Anthony Memorial Fund. At the State convention in Lincoln Nov. 5, 6, Mrs. Marble was obliged to decline the presidency and was made vice-president. The Rev. Mary G. Andrews of Omaha was elected in her place; but from this time until her death, April 6, 1910, Mrs. Marble never ceased to do everything in her power to forward the success of the suffrage movement.

Early in 1909 the petition of the National Association to Congress for an amendment of the Federal Constitution was begun with Miss Williams chairman of the committee and 10,386 signatures were secured. Mrs. Philip Snowden of England lectured in Lincoln during the session of the Legislature and many of the members heard her. The annual convention was held in Lincoln November 18, 19. Mrs. Andrews had gone to Minneapolis and Dr. Inez Philbrick of Lincoln was elected president. A lecture tour was arranged for Dr. B. O. Aylesworth of Denver for the autumn of 1909 and again in 1910; Men's Suffrage Leagues were organized in Omaha and Lincoln and many new clubs formed of people of influence. The convention was postponed to March, 1911. The regular convention of 1911 was held in Lincoln November 20-22. Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst was the speaker and the audience filled the largest assembly room.

The convention of 1912 met in Omaha December 4-6, and it was decided to go into an active campaign to secure the submission of a constitutional amendment by petition in 1914. The Initiative and Referendum Law had been adopted the preceding month, which required the signature of 15 per cent. of the total vote cast at the last election, the signers coming from two-fifths of the counties. This meant 37,752 names from thirty-eight counties. Nebraska has ninety-three counties and an area of 77,520 square miles. Officers elected to serve throughout the campaign were: Henrietta I. (Mrs. Draper) Smith, president; Mrs. Kovanda, vice-president; Miss Williams, corresponding secretary; Miss Daisy Doane, recording secretary; Gertrude Law (Mrs. W. E.) Hardy, treasurer; Mrs. Grace M. Wheeler, first and Elizabeth J. (Mrs. Z. T.) Lindsey, second auditor; committee chairmen; Mrs. Wheeler, Education; Mrs. A. E. Sheldon, Finance; Mrs. Hardy, Publicity; Mrs. Edna M. Barkley, Speakers; Mrs. A. H. Dorris, Press.

Headquarters were opened Jan. 3, 1913, in the Brandeis Theater Building, Omaha, and maintained through the winter of 1912-13. Mrs. Draper Smith had at once assumed her duties as president and appointed Mrs. W. C. Sunderland chairman for the second congressional district, including Douglas, Sarpy and Washington counties. She had asked Mrs. Lindsey to be chairman of Douglas county in which Omaha is situated, who soon had ten precincts organized under capable chairmen, and a little later every ward in Omaha and South Omaha. On February 8 Dr. Shaw, the national president, arrived in Omaha for a conference with the workers. On Sunday afternoon she addressed a mass meeting in the Brandeis Theater at which there was not even standing room. John L. Kennedy presided. The committee of arrangements included the Rev. Frederick T. Rouse of the First Congregational Church; Judge Howard Kennedy, Superintendent of City Schools; E. U. Graff, City Attorney; John E. Rine, C. C. Belden and the officers of the suffrage association. A resolution was before the Legislature to submit an amendment to the voters but it was so evident that it would not be passed that the work for the initiative petition went on rapidly. The last of February thirty-six Omaha women and others from over the State went to Lincoln to see the vote taken in the House. The proposal was defeated, only one man from Douglas county voting for it.

In the early spring the headquarters were moved to Lincoln and the petition work for the State was managed from there, with the exception of that of Omaha. Throughout the year the task was continued of obtaining the signatures in the various counties, all done by volunteers. It was necessary at the same time to create public sentiment and organize clubs in preparation for the campaign for the submission of the amendment which would follow. In Omaha Mrs. Sunderland soon turned the district organization over to Mrs. James Richardson and took the position of city chairman. Meetings were held with prominent local speakers. On November 5 Chancellor Avery of the State University spoke for woman suffrage before the State Teachers' Association in the First Methodist Church. Two days later Dr. Shaw addressed it in the auditorium. She spoke at noon before the Commercial Club, a distinction given by it to a woman for the first time. On Nov. 6, 7, the State convention was held in Lincoln and Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, formerly of Beatrice, was made honorary president.

In January, 1914, a Men's Suffrage League was formed in Omaha with E. H. Geneau, T. E. Brady, Henry Olerichs and James Richardson promoting it. On February 2 a thorough canvass of the business part of the city was begun by the women. Mrs. Lindsey thus described it:

With a blizzard raging and the thermometer at 5 degrees below zero women stood in drug stores and groceries, and visited office buildings, factories and shops, wherever permission could be obtained, soliciting signatures for six consecutive days. Mrs. C. S. Stebbins, nearly seventy years of age, stood at the street car barns and filled several petitions and Mrs. Isaac Conner, a suffrage worker since 1868, made a similar record. Mrs. W. P. Harford and Mrs. George Tilden arranged to have people standing at the church doors for names at the close of service on Sunday. Many ministers offered their churches to the committee and spoke of the matter from their pulpits. Of all the Protestant churches, only the Episcopal refused the committee's request, Dean James A. Tancock of Trinity Cathedral and the Rev. T. J. Mackay of All Saints declining. Petitions were kept open at the Daily News office and other offices and places of business. Fifteen of the leading drug stores offered space to the women under the direction of Mrs. E. S. Rood, and it was decided to continue the intensive campaign until the 12th, when the county chairman had called a meeting at the city hall to celebrate Lincoln's birthday, to hear Medill McCormick of Chicago and to announce results. A large crowd of petition workers, sympathizers and members of the Men's League was present. While the goal for Douglas county was 5,000 signatures over 9,000 had passed through the hands of the county chairmen on their way to the Secretary of State.

Three days later Mrs. J. W. Crumpacker of Kansas appeared in Omaha to organize the opposition forces. The anti-suffragists, led by Mrs. Arthur Crittenden Smith, announced a meeting at Turpin's Hall on the afternoon of February 23. Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, and Miss Minnie Bronson, secretary, both of New York, addressed the meeting. Forty people were present, including five reporters and a number of suffragists. Those who joined at that meeting were Mesdames Edward P. Peck, William Archibald Smith, T. J. Mackay, E. A. Benson and Misses Ada Alexander, Genevra March and Minnie Martison. A temporary committee on organization was appointed consisting of Mesdames Arthur C. Smith, J. C. Cowin, Herman Kountze, J. W. Crumpacker, E. A. Benson; Misses Wallace, Riley, Alexander and McGaffney.... The next evening a public meeting was held at the American Theater, addressed by Mrs. Dodge and Miss Bronson, who were introduced by John L. Webster.[108]

On March 11 the district chairman, Mrs. Richardson, and county chairman, Mrs. Lindsey, with a group of workers, sorted, checked and made into neat parcels the precious sheets of paper, which Mrs. Draper Smith carried to Lincoln that afternoon. Possibly half a dozen men had circulated petitions but the bulk of the 11,507 names were obtained in Omaha by women. On March 14 the completed petition for submitting the amendment was filed with the Secretary of State in the presence of the Governor. Although only 37,752 signatures were required it had 50,705 and these represented sixty-three counties instead of the required thirty-eight. They were accepted without question and the amendment was submitted to the voters at the general election, Nov. 4, 1914.

From that time until the election strenuous and unceasing efforts were made to secure votes for the amendment. Many prominent Nebraska men and women spoke and worked for it and a number were brought into the State. On July 6 was issued in Omaha the famous Manifesto by the Nebraska Men's Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, a pamphlet of nine pages, signed by thirty prominent men, all of Omaha.[109] Early in July Park Commissioner J. B. Hummel of Omaha refused to grant any more permits for meetings in the parks and the suffragists arranged a voiceless automobile parade through all of them when they were filled with people, the cars decorated with banners and pennants carrying suffrage sentiments. Later the commissioner spoke for the amendment. On August 4 the first street meeting was held by "General" Rosalie Jones of New York, who spoke from the steps of the county court house at noon and on a corner in the evening. This was followed by street meetings in an endless number of towns. County fairs and all possible forms of publicity were utilized. An outstanding feature of the campaign was the automobile tours, the plan of Mrs. F. M. Hall, chairman of Lancaster county. They covered 20,000 miles and included 500 places containing one-half of the population. Several of the longest were made and financed by J. L. Kennedy and James Richardson of Omaha and W. E. Hardy of Lincoln.

Miss Jane Addams came from Chicago and spoke several times in October. William Jennings Bryan, who was making a political canvass of the State, never failed to make an appeal for the amendment and on October 31 gave a rousing suffrage speech in Brandeis Theater, Omaha. Dr. Shaw ended her tour of the State on the 30th, with an address in the auditorium.

The anti-suffragists were well financed and active. Their National Association sent Miss Marjorie Dorman to Omaha the last of September, who opened headquarters on the first floor of the City National Bank. Mrs. A. J. George was sent in October. On November 2 there appeared in the morning papers a double-column appeal to the Catholics to vote against the amendment because back of it were the Socialists, feminists, etc. It was signed by Mrs. L. F. Crofoot, wife of the Omaha attorney for the Northern Pacific R. R.

During the campaign a committee of business men was formed by the brewing interests, which visited the husbands of various women engaged in the effort for the amendment. They said "suffrage means prohibition" and threatened the husbands in a business way unless their wives retired from the work. This committee watched the papers and when names of women were given as interested in suffrage, even to the extent of attending a luncheon for some celebrity, the husbands promptly were visited. Through this intimidation many women were forced to withdraw and many men who would have subscribed generously did not dare give more than $25, as the State law required the publication of names of all contributing over this sum.

Three days before election an "appeal" to its members was sent by the German-American Alliance, a large and powerful organization. It was written in German and began as follows:

We consider the proposed amendment to the constitution granting the right of suffrage to women as the most important question which will be decided at the coming election. Our State Alliance took a most decided stand against woman suffrage at its annual convention held in Columbus August 25. Our German women do not want the right to vote, and since our opponents desire the right of suffrage mainly for the purpose of saddling the yoke of prohibition on our necks, we should oppose it with all our might.... We most earnestly urge our friends of German speech and German descent not to permit business or other considerations to prevent them from going to the polls and casting their ballots as above directed.

On November 4 the Omaha suffragists stood all day at the polls handing slips to the voters calling attention to the amendment on the ballot. The total State vote on it was 100,842 noes, 90,738 ayes; adverse majority of 10,104. The result of the splendid campaign in Douglas county, the stronghold of the opponents of all kinds, was seen in the small adverse majority of 1,188. Throughout the campaign the Omaha Daily News valiantly championed the amendment and the Bee and the World Herald as strongly opposed it. The National American Suffrage Association contributed $4,000 in cash, the services of two organizers--Miss Jane Thompson and Miss Elsie Benedict--and paid the travelling expenses of a number of national speakers.

* * * * *

The State convention of 1914 was held in Omaha in December and it was decided to organize more thoroughly and to seek the advice of the National Association as to how and when to try again. The board which had served throughout the campaign was re-elected. When it had begun there were not fifty clubs in the State; when it ended there were nearly 500 and it was desired to hold them together as far as possible. The opponents had insisted that women did not want the ballot and it was arranged to have an enrollment under the direction of Mrs. Wheeler. This was continued until the names of 30,000 women had been enrolled as desiring the suffrage. The press work was continued and the never-ending effort to educate the people.

The convention of 1915 was held at Columbus in October, was well attended, with a good program. Mrs. Edna M. Barkley was elected president. In October, 1916, the convention was held at Hastings. Mrs. William Jennings Bryan was guest of honor and gave the opening address on Sunday evening in the Congregational church. Mrs. Catt, now national president, was present and remained two days. The association expected to appeal to the voters again in 1918 for full suffrage and she thought it was in good condition to do so. Her inspiring presence and her very able address given to a large evening audience made this one of most notable conventions. Mrs. Barkley was re-elected president.[110]

In January, 1917, the National Association was beginning the "drive" to obtain partial suffrage from the Legislatures and Nebraska was urged to undertake it. The board agreed to concentrate on a bill which would be constitutional and would permit women to vote for all officers not specified in the State constitution and upon all questions not referred to in it.

The bill was introduced by Senator C. E. Sandell of York county and Representative J. N. Norton of Polk county. Mrs. Barkley was chairman of the Legislative Committee and no measure ever had more careful and persistent "mothering" than she gave this one, watching over it for months. The bill passed the House the middle of February by the magnificent vote of 73 to 24 in the presence of an audience of applauding women that filled the galleries. In the Senate the bill went to the Committee on Privileges and Elections, which granted a hearing on February 15. After a luncheon with enthusiastic speeches the entire body of 250 women, including 65 from Omaha, marched to the State House, where even the aisles were already crowded with women. Among the speakers were George W. Howard, the eminent professor of history in the State University, and a number of prominent Nebraska men and women. Six "antis" were present and their spokesman was Miss Bronson of New York. The hearing lasted three hours. The bill was held two months in the committee and finally was reported out and passed by a vote of 20 to 13 on April 19. It was signed by Governor Keith Neville on the 21st and gave women the suffrage for presidential electors, all municipal and most county officers.[111]

The opponents immediately started an initiative petition to have the law submitted to the voters and on July 22 it was suspended in operation by the filing of a petition for a referendum on it by the Anti-Suffrage Association. Mrs. Barkley with others after inspection concluded it was not a bona fide petition. Accordingly she summoned her board to discuss taking the proper legal steps to prove that it was fraudulent and invalid. There was no money in the treasury with which to undertake expensive litigation and there were those who thought it wiser not to attempt it. The courage and determination of Mrs. Barkley were the deciding factor and it was the same brave and persistent effort that finally won the long-drawn-out legal battle. A full account was given by Mrs. Draper Smith in the Woman Citizen of which the following is a part:

For the larger part of the session in 1917 the Senate had been under great pressure from the public and the press to pass the bone dry law that the House had almost unanimously adopted. Nineteen members of the Senate belonged to the clique led by representatives of the brewing interests. They fought for weeks to secure the consent of the House to a bill that would have made prohibition impossible of enforcement. Into this maelstrom the limited suffrage law was plunged. Only the most careful leadership secured its final passage....

On the 21st of July the opponents caused to be filed with the Secretary of State a petition asking that the law be referred to the voters at the general election in 1918 for approval or rejection. This petition contained the signatures of 32,896 persons who claimed to be legal voters of the State and to live at the places designated as their legal residence.... Tact and patience were employed to get Secretary of State Pool to the point where he permitted the suffragists to make a copy. Eighteen thousand names bore the marks of an Omaha residence. The others were apparently gathered from two-fifths of the counties and presumptively represented 5 per cent. of the legal voters, as required by law. Suspicion that fraud and deception had been used, both in getting genuine signatures and in padding the lists, early gave way to positive conviction. When the investigation was complete it was found that 16,460 of the 32,896 signatures were subject to court challenge and that at least 10,000 of them were the product of fraud, forgery and misrepresentation. Prominent members of the bar volunteered their services--T. J. Doyle, C. A. Sorenson, John M. Stewart and H. H. Wilson of Lincoln, and Elmer E. Thomas and Francis A. Brogan of Omaha. A petition to enjoin the Secretary of State from placing the referendum on the election ballot was filed in February, 1918.

The Omaha workers were under the leadership of Mrs. H. C. Sumney, vice-president of the State association, and Mrs. James Richardson. They discovered that many of the residence addresses given were in railroad yards, cornfields or vacant lots. Many others were of men who had never lived at the addresses given; many affirmed that they had never signed any such petition; others that they had been induced to sign by the representation of the solicitor that it was to submit the question of full suffrage. The work of running down each of the 18,000 names consumed days of arduous labor. It was also found that page after page of the names were written by the same hand. Experts in handwriting from the various banks in Lincoln spent night after night poring over the original petitions in the office of the Secretary of State, picking out and listing the forgeries, which were found to have been scattered all over the State.

The request of the suffragists to the Secretary of State said that the circulators had committed perjury in certifying that these fictitious persons had affixed their names in their presence; that many of the names written thereon were not placed there, as the law required, in the presence of the circulator, but that the petitions had been left in pool halls, soft drink parlors, cigar stores and barber shops where everybody, including minors, was invited to sign, the circulator later coming around and gathering them up. It also said that many of the signatures were obtained by infants incapable at law of properly circulating or certifying to the petition sheets and that a number of circulators named had engaged in a systematic course of fraud and forgery, thereby making invalid all of the names. Attached were twenty pages of exhibits in proof of these charges.

The evidence in Omaha was matched by that in fifty-nine other counties taken by the referee and attorney.

The attorneys enjoined the Secretary of State from putting the referendum on the ballot. Nineteen suffragists appeared as plaintiffs in the case as follows: Edna M. Barkley, Gertrude L. Hardy, Katharine Sumney, Ida Robbins, Grace Richardson, Margaretta Dietrich, Grace M. Wheeler, Ella Brower, Ellen Ackerman, Henrietta Smith, Inez Philbrick, Harriet M. Stewart, Mary Smith Hayward, Mamie Claflin, Margaret T. Sheldon, Alice Howell, Ellen Gere, Eliza Ann Doyle, Katharine McGerr. As the suit had been brought against the Secretary of State the Attorney General appeared for him and was joined by the attorneys of the women's Anti-Suffrage Association. They argued that the plaintiffs were not legally entitled to sue because they were not electors. The court upheld their right. The Secretary of State became convinced that the petition was fraudulent and did not appear in the further litigation. The suffrage forces were prepared with their evidence and wished to proceed at once with the case but all the dilatory tactics possible were used and it was not until the full legal time was about to expire that the opponents were brought to the point on May 17, 1918. Mrs. Draper Smith's account continued:

Inspection of the original petition showed that of 116 petitions secured by A. O. Barclay 68 were in the same handwriting.... The name of one Omaha business man who had died three months previous to the circulation of the petition was found; another who was killed two months before, and another who had been dead for three years. Witness after witness testified that his name on it was forged.

Several other circulators forged so many names we asked that all their work be thrown out. The hearing developed that forty ex-saloon keepers and bartenders had these petitions on the bars in their soft drink places; 831 names were secured by Dick Kennedy, a negro who could neither read nor write. He appeared in court in jail clothes, being under indictment for peddling "dope," and was unable to identify the petitions certified by him. Ten boys, ranging in age from 8 to 15, were circulators. Several men who could not read or write testified that they supposed their names were being taken for a census. Many thought the petition was to "bring back beer." One man was told it was to pave an alley. At one hearing interpreters had to be used for all but two men. The treasurer of the Anti-Suffrage Association, Mrs. C. C. George, whose name appears as witness to the signatures of 81 certificates on the back of Barclay's petitions, testified that she did not remember him. On the back of each petition is a certificate in which the circulator certifies that each man signed in his presence and the signature must have two witnesses. The soft drink men and others testified that although the name of Mrs. George appeared as witness to their signatures they had never seen her. She testified that the petitions went through the hands of her association.

The following question was asked of another "anti," wife of a rector: "Had you known that co-workers with you were Dick Kennedy, an illiterate negro; Abie Sirian; Gus Tylee, employee of Tom Dennison and a detective of doubtful reputation; 40 soft drink men; Jess Ross, colored porter for Dennison; Jack Broomfield, a colored sporting man and for twenty years keeper of the most notorious dive in Omaha, and many others of this character, would you have worked with them and accepted the kind of petition they would secure?" She replied: "It would have made no difference to me. I was working for a cause and would not have cared who else was working for the same."

The testimony showed that the anti-suffrage association of Omaha, under the leadership of Mrs. Crofoot, president, had at first endeavored to employ to take charge of the work of circulating the petitions the man who had conducted the publicity department for the brewers in 1916.

The allegations of fraud were proved to the satisfaction of the District Court. The opponents appealed from its decision, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court in June, and the women entered into possession of this large amount of suffrage. By order of the court the anti-suffragists, together with the State, had to pay the costs of the long legal battle which ended on January 25, 1919, in a glorious victory for the suffragists. The costs were approximately $5,000.

RATIFICATION. The State convention of 1917 was held in Omaha in December and it was omitted in the fall of 1918 on account of the influenza, and none was held until 1919. The Federal Amendment had been submitted by Congress on June 4 and a Ratification Committee had been appointed consisting of Mrs. Barkley, Mrs. Hardy and Mrs. Wheeler to secure an early calling of a special session of the Legislature. It was arranged for the State convention to meet in Lincoln at the time Governor Samuel R. McKelvie had called this special session to ratify the amendment. The convention en masse saw the ratification of both Houses on August 2 by unanimous vote and had the joy of being present when it was signed by the Governor, who had been a consistent friend of the cause. The regular session had memorialized Congress by joint resolution to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment and requested Senator Gilbert M. Hitchcock of Nebraska to vote for it. He voted against it every time it became before the Senate. The other Senator, George W. Norris, voted in favor each time and was always a helpful friend of woman suffrage.

The last State convention met in Omaha June 13-15, 1920, with 104 delegates in attendance. With Mrs. Charles H. Dietrich, who had been elected president the preceding year, in the chair, the association was merged into the Nebraska League of Women Voters and Mrs. Dietrich was made chairman.

On Saturday, Aug. 28, 1920, at noon, whistles were sounded and bells were rung for five minutes in Omaha and South Omaha to celebrate the proclamation by the Secretary of State at Washington that the woman suffrage amendment was now a part of the constitution of the United States and the struggle was over.

In December, 1919, there assembled in Lincoln a convention to rewrite Nebraska's constitution, to be submitted to the electors Sept. 21, 1920. This convention put a clause in the new constitution giving full suffrage to women. Using the power delegated to it by the Legislature it provided that women should vote on the constitution and that the suffrage amendment should go into effect as soon as the adoption of the constitution was announced by the Governor. The rest of it was to wait until Jan. 1, 1921. This was done in order that women might vote at the general election in November, 1920. Before the constitution went to the voters the Federal Amendment was proclaimed and women were fully enfranchised. With women voting the constitution received 65,483 ayes, 15,416 noes.

FOOTNOTES:

[107] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Grace M. Wheeler, historian of the State Woman Suffrage Association, and Miss Mary H. Williams, member of the State Board from 1905.

[108] A State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was formed, whose Executive Committee consisted of Mesdames Edward Porter Peck, chairman; Henry W. Yates, John C. Cowin, J. W. Griffith, W. H. Koenig, L. F. Crofoot, Gerrit Fort, John L. Webster, Helen Arion Lewis, Arthur Crittenden Smith, T. J. Mackay, F. N. Conner; Miss Janet M. Wallace, with Mrs. William Archibald Smith, secretary, and Mrs. Frank J. Noel treasurer; Mrs. S. H. Burnham of Lincoln, Mrs. J. D. Whitmore and Mrs. Fred W. Ashton of Grand Island, Mrs. A. D. Sears, Mrs. Charles Dodge and Miss Maud May of Fremont, with Mrs. Crumpacker as special representative of the National Association in the headquarters at 536 Bee Building.

[109] This Manifesto will be found in the Appendix.

[110] Besides those mentioned the following served on the official board: Miss Lincola S. Groat, Mrs. Alice I. Brayton, Mrs. Stearns, Mrs. Myrtle W. Marble, Dr. Emma Warner Demaree, Mrs. Ida Ensign, Mrs. Rosa Modlin, Mrs. F. B. Donisthorpe, Mrs. Mary P. Jay, Mrs. Theresa J. Dunn, Mrs. Margaret J. Carns, Mrs. Julia N. Cox, Mrs. Ada Shafer, Mrs. Frank Harrison, Mrs. E. L. Burke, Miss Ida Bobbins, Mrs. M. Bruegger, Mrs. E. S. Rood, Mrs. Lydia Pope, Mrs. Jessie Dietz, Mrs. J. H. Corrick, Mrs. Halleck F. Rose, Mrs. H. C. Sumney, Mrs. Dietrich, Mrs. Ellen Ackerman, Mrs. Ella I. Brower, Miss May Gund, Mrs. E. F. Bell, Miss Edith Tobitt, Mrs. Kate Chapin House.

[111] In March under the auspices of the National Association suffrage schools were held in Omaha and Lincoln. The instructors were Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler, chairman of organization, Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, its recording secretary, and Mrs. T. T. Cotnam and the subjects taught were Suffrage History and Argument, Organization, Publicity and Press, Money Raising and Parliamentary Law. Of the nineteen schools held by the National Association in various States none was larger. By request night schools were opened with a crowded attendance at all sessions.

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

XXVII. NEVADA.[112]

Towards the close of the last century, through the efforts of Miss Susan B. Anthony and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president and vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, a Nevada association had been formed with Mrs. Frances A. Williamson president and later Mrs. Elda A. Orr was elected. Mrs. Mary A. Boyd was an officer. It held three or four successful conventions and had bills before the Legislature but no record exists of any activities after 1899.

In November, 1909, Mrs. Clarence Mackay, who had organized an Equal Franchise Society in New York City, of which she was president, wrote to Miss Jeanne Elizabeth Wier, professor of history in the University of Nevada, asking if a branch society could not be organized in that State. Later Professor Wier conferred with Mrs. Mackay in New York. In the autumn of 1910 an agreement to assist in such an organization was signed by a large number of prominent men and women in Reno and finally in January, 1911, Professor Wier issued a call for a meeting to be held in her home to form a society. Mrs. O. H. Mack, president of the Federation of Women's Clubs, sent an invitation to each club to be represented at this meeting. It was soon evident that it would be too large for a private house and on January 24 a conference was held in the law office of Counsellor C. R. Reeves to arrange for a Saturday evening mass meeting. There were present Mr. Reeves, who was made temporary chairman; Professor Wier, Mrs. Mack, Mrs. Henry Stanislawsky, Professor Romanzo Adams, Judge William P. Seeds, Assemblyman Alceus F. Price, J. A. Buchanan, Mrs. Frank Page, Mrs. Frank R. Nicholas, who was made secretary, and J. Holman Buck, who was elected permanent chairman. A telegram of greeting was read from Mrs. Mackay.

A general meeting for organization was held the evening of February 4 in Odd Fellows' Hall, which was far too small for the audience. The name State Equal Franchise Society was adopted. Mrs. Stanislawsky was elected president; Colonel Reeves, Mr. Price, Mrs. Mack and Miss Felice Cohn, vice-presidents; Mrs. Nicholas, Mrs. Grace E. Bridges and Mrs. Alice Chism, recording and corresponding secretary and treasurer. A membership of 177 was reported. The board of twenty-one directors included most of those who have been named and in addition Dr. J. E. Stubbs, president of the university; Mrs. A. B. McKinley, Dr. Morris Pritchard, W. D. Trout, Mrs. Nettie P. Hershiser, Mrs. George Armstrong, Mrs. Florence H. Church, Mrs. G. Taylor, Mrs. Frank Stickney.[113] Plans were made for a legislative lobby. A report of the organization was sent to Mrs. Mackay, who consented that her name should be used as honorary president but took no further interest in it or in the amendment campaign which soon followed and made no contribution.

Between the above meetings Assemblymen Arnold and Byrne of Esmeralda county had introduced a joint resolution on January 30 to submit to the voters an amendment to the State constitution to give full suffrage to women. It was referred to the Committee on Elections, which on February 7 reported it unfavorably. Assemblyman J. A. Denton of Lincoln county secured a hearing before the Committee of the Whole on February 20 and a large lobby from the society was present. Mrs. Stanislawsky and Miss Cohn addressed the committee, emphasizing the fact that each of the political parties had declared in its State platform for this referendum and all the women asked was to have the question sent to the voters. The resolution was put on file but at the bottom and every attempt to advance it failed but on March 6 it appeared in regular order. Speaker pro tem. Booth wanted it indefinitely postponed but was overruled. After numerous parliamentary tactics it was at length passed by 31 ayes, 13 noes, four absent and the Speaker not voting. The resolution was first read in the Senate on March 7 and referred to the Committee on Education. Three days later it was reported without recommendation. It came before the Senate March 13 and after considerable "fencing" it passed by 16 ayes, 2 noes, one absent. Mrs. Stanislawsky, Mrs. Mack, Professor Wier, Mrs. Chism, Miss Cohn and Mrs. Nicholas had worked strenuously in the two Houses.

The constitution requires that a resolution for an amendment must pass two successive Legislatures and the new association saw the task before it of getting the approval of another session in 1913. It received national and international attention about this time through a banner six feet high and four wide, presented by Mrs. Arthur Hodges of New York, with the words, Nevada, Votes for Women, brought out in sage brush green letters on a field of vivid orange. This was shipped to New York and carried by Miss Anne Martin of Reno in a big parade in that city and then taken to London and carried by her and Miss Vida Milholland of New York at the head of the American group in the great procession of the Social and Political Union.

Headquarters were opened in the Cheney Building in Reno, Mrs. Hodges assuming the rent, where visitors were made welcome and literature given out. A series of lectures until November were arranged, the first one in the Congregational church, where Mrs. Stanislawsky gave an address to a crowded meeting. Later she moved to California and in February, 1912, Mrs. Mack called a meeting and Miss Anne Martin was unanimously elected president. Mrs. Bridges, Mrs. Chism and Mrs. Mack were re-elected. The other members of the board chosen were: Vice-presidents, Mrs. F. O. Norton, Mrs. J. E. Church, Mrs. Jennie Logan, Mrs. Charles Gulling, Mrs. J. E. Bray, Miss B. M. Wilson; recording secretary, Mrs. Burroughs Edsall. An active executive committee was appointed and plans were made for a vigorous campaign. Mrs. Hodges continued to pay the rent of headquarters and a substantial bank account was built up by dues, subscriptions and collections at meetings.

Miss Martin attended the national suffrage convention at Philadelphia in November, where she told of the need of funds to further the campaign and secured many pledges and donations. Dr. Shaw, the president, promised $1,000 from the association after the amendment was submitted. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont and Mrs. Joseph Fels had become honorary presidents and the former gave $100; the latter made her contribution of $500 later. The Massachusetts association, through Mrs. Maud Wood Park, $100; the National Association, $100 in cash and $100 in literature; the Woman's Journal $45. California and Arizona gave funds and literature. A pamphlet entitled Woman Under Nevada Laws, by Miss B. M. Wilson, an attorney, had been published in a special edition of 20,000 and proved effective in rousing the women to a sense of their rights and wrongs.

The rapid organization had its effect on legislators and politicians. The resolution for submitting an amendment was presented in both Houses in 1913 and reported favorably by the Judiciary Committees. It passed in the House on January 24 by 49 ayes, 3 noes, one absent; in the Senate on January 30 by 19 ayes, 3 noes. On March 3 it was signed by the Governor.

The educational work was done through the press, the platform and entertainments. Speakers of national note were secured, among them Dr. Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, and Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, of New York; Dr. Charles F. Aked, of San Francisco; Miss Jane Addams of Chicago, and Miss Mabel Vernon of Washington. The meetings were attended by about three men to one woman. Mr. Laidlaw assisted in organizing a Men's Suffrage League, among whose members were Supreme Court Justice Frank Norcross, Dr. Stubbs, Superintendent of Public Instruction John Edwards Bray, S. W. Belford, Charles Gulling, A. A. Hibbard, Professor J. E. Church, Captain Applewhite, the Rev. Mr. Adams, the Rev. Mr. Sheldon, George Taylor and John Wright.

At the annual meeting Feb. 25, 1913, it was announced that there were nearly 1,000 paid up members, with most of the counties organized and many town societies. "Nevada, the black spot on the map! To make it white, give women the suffrage," was the constant slogan. Miss Martin, Mrs. Church, Mrs. Bray, Miss Wilson and Mrs. Bridges were re-elected. Other members chosen were: Vice-presidents, Mrs. Hugh Brown, Mrs. Alexander Orr, Mrs. George West, Mrs. Lyman D. Clark, Jr., Mrs. E. E. Caine, Mrs. Harry Warren; recording secretary, Mrs. J. B. Menardi; treasurer, Mrs. Mabel Redman; auditors, Mrs. P. B. Kennedy, Mrs. W. T. Jenkins.

In the little span of days that lay between the election of the State Executive Committee in 1912 and the legislative session of 1913 the sixteen counties were organized, each under a chairman. Mrs. M. S. Bonnifield as chairman of Humboldt county, with her helpers, Mrs. A. W. Card, Mrs. Mark Walser of Lovelock and Dr. Nellie Hascall of Fallon, led their branches into the mining fields. It is not easy to realize the difficulties under which these women labored. Mrs. H. C. Taylor, chairman of Churchill county, had to drive many miles from her ranch to attend every meeting. Some of the chairmen were Mrs. A. J. McCarty, Mineral county; Mrs. Rudolph Zadow, Eureka; Mrs. Sadie D. Hurst, Washoe; Mrs. Bray, Ormsby; Mrs. F. P. Langdon, Storey; Mrs. Caine, Elko; Mrs. Minnie Comins MacDonald, White Pine.

Mrs. Church, Miss Mary Henry, Mrs. Hurst, Mrs. Belford, and Mrs. Maud Gassoway were an active force in organizing societies at Sparks, Verdi and Wadsworth in Washoe county, the largest in the State. Mrs. W. H. Bray organized study classes in Sparks and gave prizes for the best suffrage essays. Mrs. Hurst addressed large street crowds in Reno every Saturday night. An important feature of the campaign was the complete circularization of the voters with suffrage literature by the county organizations and from State headquarters by Mrs. Bessie Eichelberger, State treasurer for two years, assisted by Miss Alexandrine La Tourette of the State University; Mrs. Belford, Mrs. P. L. Flannigan, Mrs. Alf. Doten, Miss Minnie Flannigan, Mrs. Charles E. Bosnell and Mrs. John Franzman. Mrs. Hood, the second vice-president, and chairman of civics in the State Federation of Women's Clubs, was the leading factor in getting its endorsement at its meeting in Reno, Oct. 30, 1913.

Nevada's population of only 80,000 is scattered over an area of 110,000 square miles, a territory larger than the whole of New England. Of these, 40,000 are men over twenty-one years of age, of whom only 20,000 remained in the State long enough to vote at the last general election--an average of one voter to every five square miles. Nevada has the smallest urban and the most scattered rural population in the United States. Reaching and winning this vote was done mostly by press work and literature. The new voters on the registration lists were circularized. The personal contact with the voter was accomplished by street meetings in the cities and towns; in the rural communities by train, automobile, stage and even on horseback.

All the political parties but the Republican endorsed the amendment in their platforms and it was supported by labor unions representing 6,000 members. Prestige and assistance were given by an Advisory Board consisting of U. S. Senators Francis G. Newlands and Key Pittman, Congressman E. E. Roberts, Governor Tasker H. Oddie, Lieutenant Governor Gilbert C. Ross, President Stubbs, Bishop Robinson and many professional and business men. There was fierce opposition from some newspapers, including the Reno Evening Gazette, the leading Republican paper of the State, but active support from the State Journal, owned and edited by George Darius Kilborn, formerly of New York, who was always in favor of woman suffrage. The Western Nevada Miner, owned and edited by J. Holman Buck, gave much assistance in that part of the State.

In canvassing and speaking tours over the State Miss Martin travelled over 3,000 miles and talked personally to nearly every one of the 20,000 voters. There are 240 election precincts and over 180 were organized with a woman leader. On Nov. 3, 1914, every county was carried for the amendment but four, each of these a county with one of the largest and oldest towns in the State. The vote in Washoe county was 1,449 for, 2,047 against; in Reno, the county seat, 938 for, 1,587 against. Ormsby county with Carson City gave an adverse majority of only 141; Storey county with Virginia City of only 31. The total vote was 10,936 ayes, 7,257 noes--the amendment carried by 3,679. The cost of the whole three years' campaign was only a little more than $7,000.

At the annual meeting of the Washoe county Equal Franchise Society after the election it was evident that, having won suffrage, women recognized their new and enlarged responsibilities and were anxious to do something for the public welfare and their own development. A mass meeting was held in the Y. W. C. A. building and the Woman Citizens' Club was organized with a charter membership of 80. Mrs. Hurst was elected president. Other officers were: Vice-presidents, Mrs. Belford, Mrs. C. H. Burke, Mrs. Hood; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Mack; recording secretary, Mrs. Bessie Mouffe; financial secretary, Mrs. Harold Duncan; treasurer, Mrs. Eichelberger; auditor, Mrs. Katherine Flett; librarian, Mrs. F. C. MacDiarmid. This club succeeded in getting a year as a required residence for those from other States seeking divorce and later another Legislature proposed to repeal it and restore the six months. Mrs. George F. Nixon, wife of the former U. S. Senator, was made legislative chairman and headed the women of Reno who went almost en masse to Carson City to protest but the pressure on the other side was too strong and the old law was restored.

In August, 1918, The Woman Citizens' Club endorsed Mrs. Sadie D. Hurst of Reno for the Assembly, in recognition of what she had done for suffrage and for the club. She won at the primaries and also at the polls in November and was the first woman member. The submission of the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment to the Legislatures by Congress seemed near and at the request of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the national president, a Ratification Committee was formed in December. Helen T. (Mrs. S. W.) Belford was acting chairman with Mesdames Walser, Hood, McKenzie, Mack, Church, Boyd, Bray, Franzman, Fannie B. Patrick and Emma Vanderlith members. At the request of this committee a resolution was presented to the Legislature by Mrs. Hurst on Jan. 22, 1919, asking this body to memorialize Congress in favor of the amendment. It passed the Assembly January 23 with but one dissenting vote; the Senate January 29 unanimously and the Nevada U. S. Senators were requested to present and actively support it.

In March the committee elected Mrs. Patrick delegate to the national suffrage convention in St. Louis and in April it met to hear her report and details of the proposed League of Women Voters. The following July a meeting was held to listen to Mrs. Minnie S. Cunningham of Texas and Mrs. Ben Hooper of Wisconsin, who were touring certain States under the auspices of the National Association, to consult the Governors on the question of special sessions for the ratification of the Federal Amendment, which had been submitted in June. Mrs. Patrick and Mrs. Belford accompanied them to Carson City and had an interview with Governor Emmet D. Boyle. In September the committee considered the offer of a conference of officers and chairmen of the National League of Women Voters to be held in Reno. It was arranged for November 20-21, with Mrs. McKenzie chairman of program, Mrs. Walser of finance, Mrs. Hurst of halls and Mrs. Belford of publicity.

The conference met in the Century Club House. Mrs Catt, Miss Jessie R. Haver, Dr. Valeria H. Parker, Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield and Miss Marjorie Shuler, national chairman of publicity, were the guests of honor. A luncheon at the Riverside Hotel was attended by about 70 men and women. An evening meeting was held in the Rialto Theater with Mrs. Patrick presiding. Governor Boyle introduced Mrs. Catt, who gave a rousing speech, Wake up America, and the others were heard at this and other times on the various departments of the league's work. At the last session a State League of Women Voters was organized and later Mrs. Belford was elected chairman.

RATIFICATION. Governor Boyle issued a call for the Legislature to meet in special session Feb. 7, 1920, for the express purpose of acting on the Federal Amendment, and in his Message when it convened he said: "While no certainty exists that the favorable action of Nevada will in 1920 assure to the women of the United States the same voting privileges which our own women enjoy by virtue of our State law, it does appear certain that without our favorable action national suffrage may be delayed for such a time as to withhold the right to vote in a presidential election from millions of the women of America."

To Mrs. Hurst, the one woman member, was given the honor of introducing the resolution to ratify in the House. On her motion the rules were suspended, the resolution was read the second time by title and referred to the Committee on Federal Relations. A recess of ten minutes was taken and when the Assembly reconvened a message from the Senate was received stating that the resolution had passed unanimously. The House committee recommended it and Mrs. Hurst moved that it be placed on third reading and final passage. After this had been done she thanked the Assembly for the honor accorded her and closed a brief but eloquent speech by saying: "There is no necessity of asking you to ratify, for I am proud of the men of the West and of Nevada." As the vote was about to be taken W. O. Ferguson of Eureka county announced that he would vote against the ratification; that he was opposed to having the people of this State telling the women of the Union whether or not they should vote and that he came to Carson City especially to vote against the resolution. At this stage Speaker Fitzgerald stated that twenty-seven Legislatures had already ratified the amendment but so far as he was aware no woman had presided over one taking such action and he had great pleasure in being able to request Mrs. Hurst to take charge of proceedings during roll call. Twenty-five members answered in favor of ratification, and one, Mr. Ferguson, against it.

Mrs. Hurst declared the resolution carried. At the suggestion of Assemblyman Sanai an opportunity was given to the women to address the legislators. Those speaking were Mrs. Patrick, chairman, and Mrs. Belford, secretary of the Ratification Committee; Mrs. Church, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, and Mrs. Eichelberger, chairman of its suffrage committee; Mrs. Hood, regent of the State University; Mrs. Maud Edwards, president of the W. C. T. U., and Mrs. L. D. Gassoway. All expressed their appreciation of the special session, to which most of the members had paid their own expenses. Governor and Mrs. Boyle invited the legislators and the Ratification Committee to the Mansion for luncheon. And thus was closed the Nevada chapter on woman suffrage.

A STORY OF THE NEVADA SUFFRAGE CAMPAIGN.[114]

In February, 1912, Miss Anne Martin of Reno, who had spent the years 1909-11 in England, during which she worked for suffrage under Mrs. Pankhurst, was elected president of the State Equal Franchise Society. Miss Martin, a native of Nevada, was a graduate of the State University; had the degrees of A.B. and A.M. from Leland Stanford University and had been professor of history in the former. She had studied abroad and travelled widely but her whole interest had now centered in woman suffrage. Miss B. M. Wilson of Goldfield was elected vice-president and Mrs. Grace Bridges of Reno, secretary. Mrs. Stanislawsky had removed to California and the organization, with the long wait between Legislatures and no definite work, had but a small membership, no county organizations and no funds. It was obvious to Miss Martin and her associates that, judging by the experience of other States, the legislative vote of 1911 must be regarded as merely complimentary and the real battle must be fought in 1913. Miss Martin therefore began the campaign by organizing the State in 1912. She paid her own expenses on speaking trips to every county for this purpose, also on journeys to California, to the Mississippi Valley Suffrage Conference at St. Louis in April and to the National Suffrage Convention in Philadelphia in November. Here she enlisted the interest and financial support of national and State leaders and an advisory board of influential women outside of Nevada was formed.

In February, 1913, her report made to the State suffrage convention in Reno showed that the Equal Franchise Society had been developed in one year into a State-wide body, with practically every county organized and a large number of auxiliary town societies, and with nearly one thousand paid-up members. There was a bank balance of several hundred dollars, from collections at meetings, monthly pledges of members and gifts from Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Joseph Fels, Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, Mrs. George Day (Conn.), and Connecticut and Massachusetts suffrage associations and other eastern supporters, and from suffrage leagues of California, Oregon, Arizona and Colorado. Reports also showed that a press bureau had been organized at State headquarters (principally Miss Martin and Mrs. Bridges) by which Nevada's forty-five newspapers, chiefly rural weeklies, were supplied regularly with a special suffrage news service; that every editor, all public libraries and railroad men's reading rooms, more than one hundred school districts and three hundred leading men and women throughout the State received the Woman's Journal (Boston) every week, which always contained Nevada suffrage news; that every voter on the county registration lists had been circularized with suffrage literature.

An advisory council of the State's most prominent men had been formed. Every legislative candidate had been asked to vote for the suffrage amendment, if elected, and, as a result of the favorable public opinion created by the new State organization, more than the necessary number had pledged themselves in writing, so the day after the election in November it was known that there was a safe majority in the coming Legislature if all pledges were kept. The Legislative Committee of the Equal Franchise Society was on duty and within the first two weeks of the session, in January, 1913, the amendment was passed by both Houses and approved by Governor Oddie.

The problem before the State convention at Reno in February was how to educate the voters and overcome the active opposition of the liquor and other vested interests, which were determined to continue Nevada "wide-open" by "keeping out the women." The convention re-elected Miss Martin and left in her hands the supervision of building up a majority for the amendment at the election in November, 1914. During 1913 she had kept the State organization actively at work by trips through the northern and southern counties and by securing the help of suffrage speakers from other States. Miss Wilson, the vice-president and also president of the Esmeralda County League, with headquarters at Goldfield, was in general charge of the southern counties, which had a very large miners' vote. In November Miss Martin had gone as delegate to the National Woman Suffrage Convention in Washington, and there, in addition to promises of an organizer and money from Dr. Shaw, the national president, she secured from Miss Alice Paul, chairman of the Congressional Union, the services of Miss Mabel Vernon, perhaps its most capable organizer. She also obtained pledges of $1,000 from Senator Newlands; $1,000 from Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw of Boston through Mrs. Maud Wood Park; $1,000 from the National American Woman Suffrage Association; $500 from Mrs. Fels, $300 from Miss Eileen Canfield; also $250 from Mrs. W. O'H. Martin of Reno and many smaller sums from individuals and organizations.

With the assurance of an adequate fund, amounting to over $7,000 in all, the final "drive" for suffrage for Nevada women was begun after the State convention. Miss Vernon arrived, as promised, in April and at once made a trip around the State to strengthen the county and local organizations. At State headquarters in Reno Miss Martin kept in touch with the work in every section of the State, wrote suffrage leaflets and planned the final campaign. Its concrete object was to secure the endorsement of labor unions, women's clubs and political parties; to rouse as many women as possible to active work and to have at least one in charge of every voting precinct; to reach every voter in the State with literature and by a personal message through a house-to-house canvass, and to appeal to both men and women everywhere through press work and public meetings addressed by the best speakers in the country.

The 20,000 voters were scattered over the enormous area of 110,000 square miles. There was only one large town, Reno, with about 15,000 inhabitants, and three or four others with a population of a few thousands each; the rest of the people lived far apart in families or small groups, in mining camps on distant mountains and on remote ranches in the valleys. Nothing could prevent a heavy adverse vote in Reno and other towns where the saloons, with their annexes of gambling rooms, dance halls and "big business" generally, were powerful, so everything depended on reducing their unfavorable majority by building up the largest possible majorities in the mining camps and rural districts. "Every vote counts" was the slogan.

In July, 1914, Miss Martin and Miss Vernon started out on their final canvass of the State, "prospecting for votes" in the mines, going underground in the vast mountains by tunnel, ladder or in buckets lowered by windlass to talk to the miners who were "on shift" and could not attend the street or hall meetings. To reach less than 100 voters at Austin, the county seat of Lauder county, required a two days' journey over the desert, and many places were a several days' trip away from a railroad. By automobile, wagon, on horseback, climbing up to mining camps on foot, the canvassers went; making a house-to-house canvass of ranches many miles apart; travelling 150 miles over the desert all day to speak to the "camp," which was always assembled on the street in front of the largest and best lighted saloon, on their arrival at dusk. Many were the courtesies they received from shirt-sleeved miners and cowboys. They were also greatly assisted by the suffrage association's local chairmen, who would hastily secure substitutes to cook for their "hay crews" and drive miles to arrange meetings. They always tried to reach a settlement or hospitable ranch house for the night. Where this was not possible they slept on blankets in hayfields or on the ground in the heart of the desert itself. The trip covered 3,000 miles.

Meanwhile at State headquarters in Reno leaflets that had been carefully written as appeals to "give Nevada women a square deal" were addressed to voters' lists as they registered for the approaching election, under the direction of the society's treasurer, Mrs. Bessie Eichelberger.

A State labor conference representing 6,000 members endorsed the amendment and every labor union that took a vote on it. The official endorsements of the Democratic, Progressive and Socialist parties were obtained. Individual Republicans supported it but the party refused its approval and the leading Republican newspaper, the Reno Evening Gazette, under the orders of George Wingfield, multi-millionaire, with other newspapers he controlled, bitterly fought the amendment to the last. Only one or two newspapers, notably the Nevada State Journal, actively supported it but many published campaign news. Reno papers contained over 200 columns of suffrage matter. Fremont Older, editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, gave to State headquarters the valuable services and paid the expenses of Miss Bessie Beatty, a member of its staff, to direct the State-wide press campaign of news and advertisements planned for September and October. With the assistance of President Stubbs and in spite of the opposition of Regent Charles B. Henderson, a College Equal Suffrage League was formed at the State University, under the leadership of Miss Clara Smith, and a suffrage essay contest was promoted in the schools of the State. Through Judge William P. Seeds' and Miss Martin's efforts a Men's Suffrage League was formed, to counteract the so-called Business Men's League, organized to fight the amendment.

A state-wide Anti-Suffrage Society was organized during the last months, led by Mrs. Jewett Adams and Mrs. Paris Ellis of Carson, Mrs. Frank M. Lee of Reno and Mrs. John Henderson of Elko. Miss Minnie Bronson of New York and Mrs. J. D. Oliphant of New Jersey, sent by the National Anti-Suffrage Association, toured the State under their auspices. In contrast with the hardships of travel to remote places endured by the loyal workers for suffrage and the economic problems always to be solved, the speakers for the "antis" only visited the large towns, were provided with every obtainable luxury and the meetings well advertised and arranged.

The organizer promised by the National Suffrage Association, Mrs. Laura Gregg Cannon, arrived in September and was sent at once to organize more thoroughly the southern counties, as success depended on an overwhelming vote from the miners and ranchers there. Miss Margaret A. Foley of Boston also came, as arranged by Miss Martin, for constant speaking through the northern and southern counties during the last two months. Miss Jane Addams gave a priceless four days to a whirlwind tour. The Overland Limited was stopped for her to speak at Elko and Winnemucca. She ended her trip at Reno, where she addressed an overflow mass meeting at the Majestic Theater just two weeks before election day. A large public dinner was given in her honor at the Riverside Hotel by the State Franchise Society. Dr. Shaw, tireless crusader and incomparable speaker, travelled swiftly through the State by train and automobile during the eight days she gave in October, which were filled with receptions and crowded meetings. Mrs. Martin gave a reception in her home in Reno, whose hospitality was extended throughout the campaign to those who came from outside the State to help it. Dr. Shaw's strenuous itinerary included meetings at Battle Mountain, Winnemucca, Lovelocks, Reno, Washoe, Carson City, Virginia City, Tonopah, Goldfield, Las Vegas and Caliente. She made many hundreds of votes for the amendment.

Other notable outside speakers and workers, whose interest was aroused by Miss Martin and who gave their services during the nearly three years' sustained effort, were Miss Annie Kenney of London, Mr. and Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, Miss Ida Craft and "General" Rosalie Jones of New York; Mrs. Antoinette Funk of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. William Kent, Dr. Charles F. Aked, J. Stitt Wilson, Miss Gail Laughlin, Dr. Mary Sperry, Mrs. Sara Bard Field, Miss Maud Younger, Miss Charlotte Anita Whitney, Mrs. Alice Park, Mrs. Eleanor Stewart, Mrs. Mary Ringrose of California. The last named did valuable work among the Catholics. Miss Mary Bulkley and Mrs. Alice Day Jackson, a granddaughter of Isabella Beecher Hooker, whom Miss Martin had interested on her visit to Connecticut, came at their own expense and for three weeks canvassed Reno, Carson City, Virginia City and other places. Miss Vernon's work in organization and her many strong speeches on the streets of Reno and in meetings throughout the State were an important factor in winning votes. While many splendid Nevada women worked with enthusiasm and great efficiency in every county, yet without Miss Martin's leadership in organizing them and direction of the campaign during the years 1912-13-14, and without the money she gave and raised, woman suffrage in Nevada would probably have been delayed for several years. She personally contributed in her travelling expenses and other ways over $2,000. Aside from this sum the entire three years' campaign was made at a cost of $7,000.

Out of the 240 precincts in the State every one that had ten votes in it was canvassed and open air or hall meetings held before election. More than 180 were organized, each with a woman leader, who, with her committee, "picketed the polls" every hour during election day, handing out the final appeal to give women a square deal by voting for the amendment. The suffrage map showing Nevada as the last "black spot" in the West was printed in every newspaper and on every leaflet, put up in public places and on large banners hung in the streets.

The amendment received the largest proportionate vote for woman suffrage on record. Reno and Washoe county, as had been anticipated, went against it by a majority that was brought down to 600. Of the remaining fifteen counties, three others, the oldest in the State--Ormsby, Storey and Eureka--also defeated the amendment, but the favorable majorities of the other northern counties and the staunch support of the miners in the south won the victory. Esmeralda, a mining county and one of the largest in population, gave a majority for the amendment in every precinct. Out of 18,193 votes cast on it, it had a majority in favor of 3,679, and Nevada gave its leverage on Congress for the Federal Amendment.

* * * * *

At the annual convention of the State Equal Franchise Society in Reno in February, 1915, the Nevada Woman's Civic League was formed as its successor. It continued an affiliated member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, pledged to support the Federal Amendment. Its object was to meet a general demand of the newly enfranchised women for information about the wise use of the ballot.

FOOTNOTES:

[112] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. O. H. Mack, vice-president of the State Equal Franchise Society.

[113] Charter members besides those already mentioned were Mrs. J. E. Stubbs, J. D. Layman, C. A. Jacobson, Mrs. Jennie Blanche Taylor, Mrs. Julia F. Bender, J. E. Church, Miss Laura de Laguna, Grant Miller, Miss Kate Bardenwerper, Mrs. W. H. Hood, Mrs. Orr, Mrs. Boyd, Mrs. George McKenzie, Mrs. May Gill.

[114] The History is indebted for this sketch to Miss B. M. Wilson, vice-president of the State Equal Franchise Society during the campaign, 1912-1914.

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

XXVIII. NEW HAMPSHIRE.[115]

There has been a woman suffrage association in New Hampshire since 1868 with some of the State's most eminent men and women among its members. In 1900 it took on new life when the New England Association, with headquarters in Boston, sent Mrs. Susan S. Fessenden to speak and organize. In 1901 Miss Mary N. Chase of Andover spent a month forming societies and a conference was held at Manchester in December, addressed by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and Henry B. and Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, editors of the Woman's Journal.

In 1902 the National Board engaged Miss Chase as organizer for a month. A State Suffrage Association was formed with seven auxiliary clubs and the following officers were elected: President, Miss Chase, honorary president, Mrs. Armenia S. White, Concord; honorary vice-presidents, ex-U. S. Senator Henry W. Blair, U. S. Senator Jacob H. Gallinger; vice-president, Miss Elizabeth S. Hunt, Manchester; secretary, Miss Mary E. Quimby, Concord; treasurer, the Rev. Angelo Hall, Andover; auditors, Miss Caroline R. Wendell, Dover; Sherman E. Burroughs (afterwards member of Congress), Manchester.

A convention met in Concord December 2 to revise the State constitution and on the 4th Captain Arthur Thompson of Warner offered an amendment which struck out the word "male" from the suffrage clause. A hearing on it was granted on the 9th and Mrs. Catt and Mr. and Miss Blackwell addressed the convention. After long discussion by the delegates it was voted on the 11th, by 145 to 92 that this amendment should be submitted to the voters with the revised constitution in March, 1903. The State suffrage convention was held in December at the time the hearing took place. The officers of the State association did a great deal of work before the constitutional convention met to influence its action. Miss Chase spoke 103 times before the local Granges, an important factor in State politics. Miss Quimby circularized the delegates, prepared a leaflet of opinions from prominent citizens and aided in securing a petition of 2,582.

In January, 1903, Mrs. Catt came and took charge of the campaign, remaining until the vote was taken in March. Others from outside who gave their services without pay, speaking throughout the State, were Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president of the National Association; Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, Mrs. Mary D. Fiske, Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff, Mrs. Maud Wood Park and Mrs. Mary E. Craigie. The National Association contributed $3,255 to the campaign and various States sent generous donations. Among the New Hampshire speakers were Captain Arthur Thompson, the Rev. Charles W. Casson (Unitarian) of Milford; the Hon. Oliver E. Branch of Manchester; the Hon. Clarence E. Carr of Andover. Miss Chase continued her work among the Granges, addressing thirty-seven. Miss Quimby circularized 87,000 voters. Mrs. White gave the headquarters in Concord. Seventy-five ministers preached sermons in favor of the amendment.

So much interest was aroused that the opponents wrote for Dr. Lyman Abbott of New York to come to Concord. Among the signers of the letter were former Governor Nahum Batchelder of Andover; Judge Edgar Aldrich of the district court of Littleton; Winston Churchill of Cornish; Irving W. Drew of Lancaster and George H. Moses of Concord.[116] On March 4 Representatives' Hall was packed to hear addresses against the amendment by Miss Emily P. Bissell of Delaware; Mrs. A. J. George of Brookline, Mass.; Judge David Cross of Manchester and Dr. Abbott. The Concord Monitor of that date in a leading editorial said: "Through a maudlin sense of false sentiment the constitutional convention sent this question to the people ... and the people will deal with it as it deserves." On March 5 came the speeches of the suffragists. Representatives' Hall was even more crowded than before and scores were turned away. The Hon. James O. Lyford of Concord presided and the speakers were Mrs. Catt, Mr. Branch, one of the ablest lawyers in the State, and Henry H. Metcalf of Concord, founder and editor of the Granite Monthly. The amendment was submitted to the voters March 10 with the constitution. The votes in favor were 14,162; against, 21,788, lost by 7,626.

During the year the membership of the association more than doubled. The annual meeting was held in the Unitarian Church, Milford, November 18, 19. In 1904 the National Association engaged Miss Chase to do three months' organization work and the membership increased 137 per cent. The annual meeting was held in the Christian Church at Franklin November 14, 15, with addresses by the Rev. Nancy W. Paine Smith (Universalist) of Newfields and other State speakers. On Oct. 30, 31, 1905, the State convention was held at Claremont with Dr. Shaw as the principal speaker. The most important work of the year had been the effort to secure a Municipal suffrage bill. Mrs. Mary I. Wood of Portsmouth, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, had been the chief speaker at the hearing.

In 1906 the convention was held at Concord, October 30, 31, with addresses by Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Wood, vice-president, and Mrs. Fannie J. Fernald of Old Orchard, president of the Maine Suffrage Association. Mrs. White, now 89 years old, gave reminiscences of the early days of the suffrage movement. Among the clergymen taking part were the Reverends Edwin W. Bishop (Congregationalist); John Vannevar, D.D. (Universalist); Daniel C. Roberts, D.D. (Episcopalian); L. H. Buckshorn (Unitarian); E. C. Strout (Methodist); John B. Wilson (Baptist), all of Concord; and the Rev. Olive M. Kimball (Universalist) of Marlboro.

In 1907 the convention was held in Manchester October 25 with Dr. Shaw, national president, as the inspiring speaker. The State Federation of Labor had unanimously endorsed woman suffrage. On January 2 at Washington, D. C., had occurred the death of Mrs. Henry W. Blair of Plymouth and Manchester, whose husband, U. S. Senator Henry W. Blair, had secured the first vote in the Senate on the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Both were lifelong friends of the cause.

In 1908 prizes were offered in the State Granges for the best essays in favor of Woman Suffrage and excellent ones were sent in. A lecture bureau had been organized and eighteen men and women were speaking at public meetings. On October 23 Mrs. Mary Hutchinson Page of Boston addressed a meeting at the home of Agnes M. (Mrs. Barton P.) Jenks, president of the Concord society. The State convention was held in Portsmouth November 11, 12, where Dr. Shaw as usual made the principal address and Miss Aina Johanssen, a visitor from Finland, gave an interesting account of woman suffrage there.

By 1909 there was considerable advance in favorable sentiment and people of influence were seeing the justice of the cause. Governor Henry B. Quinby and his wife gave their support. The Rev. Henry G. Ives (Unitarian) of Andover and his wife were strong advocates. Intensive work had been done in the 275 Granges, their State lecturer sending out instructions to discuss woman suffrage at April meetings. Fifty-four Grange essays were submitted for the prizes by the State association. Resolutions in favor of woman suffrage were passed by the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Universalist State Convention. The annual convention was held in Manchester November 11, addressed by Mrs. Fernald and the Rev. Ida C. Hultin (Unitarian), Sudbury, Mass.

In February, 1910, Miss Ethel M. Arnold of England lectured for the Concord society in the Parish House (Episcopalian). The annual meeting was held in the Free Baptist Church at Franklin November 15, 16. Among the speakers was the Rev. Florence Kollock Crooker (Universalist) of Roslindale, Mass. Miss Chase had given addresses in thirty-one towns and cities and organized nine new committees.

In 1911 an attractive booth at the Rochester Agricultural fair, made possible by Miss Martha S. Kimball of Portsmouth, drew crowds and 10,000 leaflets were distributed and hundreds of buttons and pennants sold. The Free Baptist convention passed a resolution favoring suffrage. Mrs. Jenks attended the congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance at Stockholm, Sweden, as delegate. At a meeting of the Concord society where the special guest was the Woman's Club, addresses were made by Judge Charles R. Corning, Mrs. Winston Churchill and Mrs. Jenks. The noted English suffragist, Miss Sylvia Pankhurst, spoke there on March 30. In 1912 the convention was held in Portsmouth December 4, 5 in the chapel of the old North Congregational Church. The Rev. Lucius Thayer, pastor since 1890, and his wife were strong suffragists. Mrs. Maud Wood Park of Boston made the principal address. Miss Chase after having held the presidency ten years declined re-election and was succeeded by Miss Kimball, who was re-elected for the next seven years.[117]

In 1913 a brilliant suffrage banquet, the first of its kind, was given at the Eagle Hotel, Concord, on February 28, attended by notables from all parts of the State. Mrs. Wood was toast mistress. Among the speakers were Governor Samuel D. Felker, Mrs. Josiah N. Woodward, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, and William J. Britton, Speaker of the House. On May 9 a debate was held in the Woman's Club of Newport, between Miss Frances M. Abbott of Concord, press agent of the State association, and Mrs. Albertus T. Dudley of Exeter, president of the State Society Opposed to Woman Suffrage. The large audience voted in favor of woman suffrage. The convention was held at Concord, December 10, 11, with addresses by Mrs. Katherine Houghton Hepburn, president of the Connecticut association; Witter Bynner of Cornish, the poet and playwright, and Senator Helen Ring Robinson of Colorado. Miss Kimball subscribed $600, the largest individual contribution yet received. Mrs. Jenks gave a report of the meeting of the International Suffrage Alliance at Budapest, which she attended. This year the charters of Manchester and Nashua were changed by the Legislature to give School suffrage to women.

In 1914 the convention was held in the Y. M. C. A. Hall, Manchester, November 11, 12, with able State speakers. Major Frank Knox, head of the Manchester Union, always strong for suffrage, presided in the evening. Ten county chairmen were appointed. The association cooperated with that of Vermont in a booth at the State fair at White River Junction.

In 1915 State headquarters in charge of Miss Abbott were opened in Concord and continued five months during the legislative session. Public meetings were addressed by Mrs. Marion Booth Kelley and Mrs. Park of Boston; Mrs. Antoinette Funk of Chicago, member of the National Congressional Committee; Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston of Bangor and U. S. Senator Hollis of New Hampshire. Miss Jeannette Rankin of Montana made a few addresses. A large illuminated "suffrage map" was framed and put in the State House and other public places. Quantities of suffrage literature were sent out, including 400 suffrage valentines and tickets for the suffrage film Your Girl and Mine to the legislators. At the 150th anniversary celebration of the naming of Concord on June 8 an elaborate suffrage float and several decorated motor cars filled with suffragists, two of college women in caps and gowns, were in the procession. Many members marched in the parade in Boston October 6. Through Miss Kimball's generosity Mrs. Mary I. Post of California was sent for six months' work in the New Jersey campaign. Later she took charge of headquarters in Manchester and in Concord. The State convention was held at Nashua December 2, 3. Among the speakers were Miss Zona Gale, the novelist; U. S. Senator Moses E. Clapp of Minnesota, and John R. McLane, son of former Governor McLane of New Hampshire.

On May 7, 1916, Mrs. Armenia S. White passed away at the age of 98. To her more than to any one person was the suffrage cause in New Hampshire indebted. With her husband, Nathaniel White, she had been from the first identified with the unpopular reforms, anti-slavery, temperance and equal suffrage. More men and women of national prominence had been entertained under their roof than in any other home in the State. A successful conference was held in Manchester February 28, addressed by Mrs. Catt, president again of the National Association, and Mrs. Susan Walker Fitzgerald of Massachusetts. The State convention was held at Concord November 9, 10, with Dr. Effie McCollum Jones of Iowa as the chief speaker.

In February, 1917, ten newspapers issued special suffrage editions with plate matter furnished by the National Association and 3,000 extra copies were mailed, besides thousands of suffrage speeches and circulars. In March and April 371 Protestant, 81 Catholic and four Jewish clergymen were circularized. The services of Mrs. Post were given to Maine for two weeks' and to New York for six weeks' campaign work. Money also was sent to the Maine campaign. The State convention was held at Portsmouth, November 8, 9, with addresses by Mrs. Park, Mrs. Post, Mrs. Wood, Congressman Burroughs and Huntley L. Spaulding of Rochester, Government Food Administrator.

In 1918 as chairmen of committees, the State officers were almost submerged in war work, as were the other members of the association, but although no State convention was held they did not cease their suffrage duties. Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, national recording secretary, addressed a number of the leagues, urging them to keep alive their interest and be ready for the next step, which would be the ratification of the Federal Amendment. On August 17 occurred the death of U. S. Senator Jacob H. Gallinger. A staunch friend of woman suffrage for fifty years, much of the time vice-president of the State association, it seemed the irony of fate that death intervened when his vote and influence as Republican leader would have carried the Federal Suffrage Amendment without delay. Senator Hollis and Representatives Mason and Burroughs were in favor of it.

Irving W. Drew of Lancaster, an avowed "anti," was appointed by Governor Henry W. Keyes as Senator until the fall election. It was said that he was urged to appoint an opponent by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge when he came to Concord to deliver Senator Gallinger's funeral address. The situation was tense at the November election. Senator Hollis (Democrat) declined to stand for another term and Governor Keyes (Republican) was elected in his place. The two candidates for Senator Gallinger's unexpired term were George H. Moses (Republican) and John B. Jameson (Democrat). Mr. Moses was known as an uncompromising opponent while Mr. Jameson was a sincere suffragist. The prospects were good for Mr. Jameson's election when President Wilson issued an appeal for the election of a Democratic Congress, which had the effect of stiffening the Republican ranks and Mr. Moses was elected by a small majority. After his election the National Association sent a representative to interview him. He told her that he was not interested in the question but that if the Legislature should instruct him by resolution to vote for the Federal Amendment he would do so. It would not sit for some time and therefore Mrs. Anna Tillinghast of Boston, Miss Eva S. Potter and Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore of New York were sent by the National Association, and in cooperation with the State association, secured a petition from more than two-thirds of the Legislature, which numbered 426 members, asking Senator Moses to vote for the amendment. When it was presented he said that he must insist on a resolution.

When the Legislature convened in 1919 Senator Moses made a trip to Concord, took a room in a hotel and made it his office, where he was visited by members of the Legislature. It was current opinion that he was using his influence against a resolution and the results bore out the conclusion. The resolution was introduced in the House January 8 by Robert M. Wright of Sanbornton and on the 9th in Committee of the Whole it granted a hearing. The galleries were crowded with people from all parts of the State and many women were invited to sit with the legislators. The speakers urging the resolution were: Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Wood, Mrs. Winfield L. Shaw of Manchester, also Miss Doris Stevens representing the National Woman's Party. Those opposing it were Mrs. Albertus T. Dudley of Exeter, president of the State Anti-Suffrage Association; James R. Jackson of Littleton; Mrs. John Balch of Milton, Mass., and Miss Charlotte Rowe of Yonkers, N. Y., representing the National Anti-Suffrage Association. The resolution was carried by 210 to 135 votes.

It was now most important to win the Senate. The twenty-four members were again interviewed by the suffragists and seventeen declared their intention to vote for the resolution. On January 14 it was introduced by Senator John J. Donahue of Manchester and six Senators voted for it, fifteen against it!

It was generally believed and freely charged that Senator Moses, astounded at the vote in the House, had used all the influence he possessed to prevent the Senate from concurring. It was publicly stated that Senator Lodge and other Republican U. S. Senators urged the members not to vote for the resolution. When the vote was to be taken three men, Merrill Shurtleff of Lancaster, alleged to be the personal representative of U. S. Senator John W. Weeks of Massachusetts, and the best lobbyist in the State, assisted by Burns P. Hodgman, clerk of the District Court, and John Brown of Governor Bartlett's Council, appeared to confer with the legislators. At this time U. S. Senators Dillingham of Vermont and Wadsworth of New York published a letter in the papers of the State protesting against the action of the Republican National Committee in favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Nothing was left undone to secure an adverse vote in the New Hampshire Senate. Mrs. Catt issued to the press a detailed record of each State Senator, showing that 11 of the 15 who voted against the resolution had signed the petition to Senator Moses asking him to vote for the Federal Amendment. The adverse vote stood 12 Republicans, 3 Democrats; the Republican president of the Senate not voting.

Senator Moses returned to Washington and voted against the Federal Suffrage Amendment every time it came before the Senate; in February, 1919, when it lacked only one vote, he disregarded an urgent appeal from Theodore Roosevelt made a few days before his death.

* * * * *

In March, 1919, the National Association sent one of its best organizers, Miss Edna Wright, to interest the leagues in ratification and the State Association retained her for the remainder of the year. Invitations for a Citizenship School at Durham, July 8-12, were sent out by the association and President Hetzel of the State College, the first time in history that a State College had cooperated with women in such an undertaking. The school was organized by Miss Wright and presided over by Mrs. Wood, with the publicity and press conference in charge of Miss Marjorie Shuler, sent by the National Association.

RATIFICATION. The Federal Suffrage Amendment had been submitted by Congress to the Legislatures in June and the vital question now was ratification. A mass meeting was held in Manchester at which Governor Bartlett announced that he was willing to call a special session to ratify. Realizing from past experience that the association could have little influence with it, the board appointed Huntley N. Spaulding, a prominent citizen, chairman of a Men's Committee for Ratification, and he called to his aid Dwight Hall, chairman of the State Republican Committee, and Alexander Murchie, chairman of the State Democratic Committee. The Governor can not call a session without the consent of his Council, which consists of five men. It met on August 13 and the Governor arranged to have a hearing for the women. Mrs. Olive Rand Clarke, Mrs. Winfield Shaw of Manchester, Mrs. Charles Bancroft of Concord and Mrs. Vida Chase Webb of Lisbon made short speeches. After the hearing the Council voted to call a special session for September 9.

Mr. Hall and Mr. Murchie immediately got in touch with the members of the Legislature belonging to their respective parties. Under the direction of Mr. Spaulding a remarkable publicity campaign was inaugurated and the leading men of the State, many of whom had been extremely opposed to woman suffrage, gave interviews in favor of ratification. The Manchester Union devoted its front pages to these interviews for three weeks. Marked copies were sent not only to members of the Legislature but to the 750 committeemen of each of the parties. James O. Lyford, dean of the Republicans, put his political knowledge at the disposal of the committee. Miss Betsy Jewett Edwards came from the National Woman's Republican Committee and did splendid work among the Republicans, who made up a large majority of both Houses. Miss Kimball, State president, gave devoted service and much financial assistance. Miss Wright had entire charge of the office work, publicity, organization, etc.

The special session met on September 9 and the Governor sent a strong message calling for ratification. The House voted on the opening day, 212 ayes to 143 noes. The real test was in the Senate, which on September 10 gave forty minutes to outside speakers. Mrs. Mary I. Wood spoke for the suffragists and Mrs. F. S. Streeter of Concord, Miss Charlotte Rowe and two Senators for the opponents. The Senate ratified by 14 to 10 and Governor Bartlett signed the bill without delay.

The last meeting of the State Association, its work accomplished, took place in Manchester, November 21, 22, 1919. Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, national corresponding secretary, described the aims of the League of Women Voters, and, after discussion, it was decided to merge the association into a State League. Miss Kimball was elected chairman. The National Association had contributed to New Hampshire during the last year about $3,000.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION: 1905. A bill for Municipal suffrage was introduced in the House by William F. Whitcher of Haverhill, a hearing granted and it was reported out of the Judiciary Committee by a vote of 7 to 2 but got no farther.

1907. The bill was introduced by Mr. Whitcher but the House Judiciary Committee reported against it 8 to 7. An attempt to have the minority report substituted was defeated February 20 by a vote for indefinite postponement of 224 to 77.

1909. The chairman of the Legislative Committee, Mrs. Barton P. Jenks, conducted an energetic campaign for the bill and a hearing was held before the Judiciary Committee, which reported 8 to 7 against it, and in the House on the question of substituting the minority report the vote was 86 ayes; 115 noes.

1911. Bills for Municipal suffrage were introduced by Mr. Whitcher and George S. Sibley of Manchester. The large committee room was crowded for the hearing. The speakers were Mrs. Jenks, the Rev. John Vannevar, Mrs. Wood and Miss Chase, the latter presenting a petition of 1,100 names headed by Governor and Mrs. Quinby and Clarence E. Carr, recent candidate for Governor. The committee reported the bill favorably but on January 26 the House voted to postpone indefinitely by 160 to 121.

1913. The association had two bills, one for Municipal and one for Presidential and County suffrage. The latter, introduced by Raymond B. Stevens of Landaff, Congressman-elect, had a hearing February 19, at which one of the chief affirmative speakers was Dean Walter T. Sumner of Chicago, later Bishop of Oregon, who was in town for the Conference of Charities and Corrections. The Judiciary Committee reported the bill favorably but six out of fifteen members signed an adverse report. The debate in the House on March 18 was particularly acrid. Among the speakers in favor were Levin J. Chase of Concord and Edward C. Bean of Belmont, later Secretary of State. The saloon element as usual was prominent in the opposition. The roll call showed 98 ayes; 239 noes.

1915. The bill for Municipal suffrage was unfavorably reported by the Committee on Revision of Statutes. On March 17 when the vote to substitute the minority report was taken the State House was crowded with eager throngs from all parts of the State. Mr. Chase, Benjamin W. Couch and James O. Lyford spoke in favor. Dr. Thomas Manley Dillingham of Roxbury represented the "antis." The vote was 121 ayes; 230 noes. A bill for Presidential suffrage had previously been killed in committee.

1917. Bills for Presidential and for County and Municipal suffrage were introduced into both Houses. The former was favorably reported by Joseph P. Perley, Daniel J. Daley and Clarence M. Collins of the Senate Committee with a minority report by Obe G. Morrison and Michael H. Shea, which was substituted February 7 by a vote of 16 to 7. The favorable report of eight of the fifteen members of the House Committee was submitted by John G. Winant, afterward vice-rector of St. Paul's School, Concord. The struggle came on March 7 when it was debated for several hours with galleries crowded and finally defeated by 205 to 152. On March 16 the bill for Municipal suffrage was defeated without debate or roll call.

FOOTNOTES:

[115] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Frances M. Abbott, treasurer of the State College Equal Suffrage League, writer and genealogist.

[116] Mr. Drew and Mr. Moses as U. S. Senators in 1918 were able to defeat the passage of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, which lacked just two votes. Mr. Churchill afterwards became an earnest advocate of woman suffrage.

[117] It has been impossible to obtain a complete list of those who have served as officers but the following is a partial list of those not mentioned elsewhere. Vice-presidents: Mrs. Ella H. J. Hill, Concord; Mrs. Frank Knox, Manchester; secretaries: the Rev. Olive M. Kimball, Marlboro; Mrs. Henry F. Hollis, Concord; Dr. Alice Harvie, Concord; Mrs. Edna L. Johnston, Manchester; Mrs. Arthur F. Wheat, Manchester; treasurers: Henry H. Metcalf, Harry E. Barnard, Frank Cressy, Miss Harriet L. Huntress, all of Concord; auditors: Mrs. Charles P. Bancroft, Concord; the Rev. H. G. Ives, Andover; members National Executive Committee: Mrs. Ida E. Everett and Dr. Sarah J. Barney, Franklin; Witter Bynner, Cornish; Mrs. Churchill.

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

XXIX. NEW JERSEY. PART I.[118]

The first women in the United States to vote were those of New Jersey, whose State constitution of 1776 conferred the franchise on "all inhabitants worth $250." In 1790 the election law confirmed women's right to the suffrage and in 1807 the Legislature illegally deprived them of it. In 1867 Lucy Stone, then a resident of New Jersey, organized a State society, one of the first in the country, which lapsed after her removal to Massachusetts a few years later. In 1890 a new State association was organized, which held annual meetings and was active thereafter, although interest diminished after women lost their School suffrage in 1897. [See New Jersey chapter Volume IV.]

Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, a daughter of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, was president from 1893 until 1900, when she declined re-election. Mrs. Minola Graham Sexton of Orange was elected president at the annual meeting in Moorestown in November. At that time there were but five local societies, which she soon increased to fifteen. With her during the five years of her presidency were the following officers: Vice-presidents, Mrs. Susan W. Lippincott of Cinnaminson; Catherine B. Lippincott, Hartford; corresponding secretaries, Dr. Mary D. Hussey and Mrs. Bertha L. Fearey, East Orange, Mrs. Fanny B. Downs, Orange; recording secretaries, Miss Jennie H. Morris, Moorestown, Miss Helen Lippincott, Riverton; treasurer, Mrs. Anna B. Jeffery, South Orange; auditors, Mrs. Mary C. Bassett and Mrs. Emma L. Blackwell, East Orange; Mrs. Anna R. Powell and Mrs. Louise M. Riley, Plainfield. Mrs. Riley had started the first woman's club in the State in Orange in 1872.

The Orange Political Study Club was the first suffrage club to join the State Federation in 1901, which invited other clubs to hear Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Suffrage Association, give one of her convincing lectures. Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey of East Orange held a meeting in her park to hear the reports of the four delegates who attended the national convention at Minneapolis. Dr. Hussey gave out suffrage leaflets to the farmers on their "salt water day" at Sea Girt and to the Congress of Mothers at Trenton. Mrs. Eliza Dutton Hutchinson, press superintendent, got some of the plate matter from the National Association for the first time into four newspapers. Letters were sent to 400 progressive women telling them how the ballot would aid them in all good work and inviting them to join the association and many did so. The annual meeting was held in Newark and Mrs. Howe Hall was elected honorary president.

In July, 1902, Mrs. Sexton in cooperation with the National Association, held the first of the seashore meetings that were continued every summer as long as she was president. They were held for two days in the Tabernacle at Ocean Grove and welcomed by Bishop Fitzgerald and Dr. A. E. Ballard, heads of the Camp Meeting Association. The speakers were Mrs. Catt, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president of the National Association, Miss Kate Gordon, its corresponding secretary, and Miss Mary Garrett Hay, a national organizer. The Mayor and two editors became advocates of the cause. At the Friends' conference at Asbury Park in September a day was devoted to political equality and Mrs. Catt and Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman, president of the New York State Association, spoke. The annual meeting was held at Orange and a board of directors was elected: the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Elizabeth; Mrs. Katherine H. Browning, West Orange; Mrs. Phebe C. Wright, Sea Girt; Mrs. Joanna Hartshorn, Short Hills; Miss Susan W. Lippincott and Mrs. Elizabeth Vail, East Orange. Memorials were read for Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mrs. Cornelia C. Hussey and Mrs. Sexton told of the $10,000 Mrs. Hussey had left the National Association and of her constant generosity to the suffrage work in New Jersey for many years. Mrs. Howe Hall and Henry B. Blackwell gave addresses. Women's clubs were urged to devote a meeting to the discussion of woman suffrage and the Woman's Club of Orange, the largest in the State, heard Mrs. Catt and the Outlook Club of Montclair heard Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller of England addressed a number of leagues. Miss Susan B. Anthony was heard early in May at the Political Study Club of Orange.

In 1903 large audiences again attended the two-day suffrage rally under the auspices of the Camp Meeting at Ocean Grove. Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Hall, Miss Harriet May Mills of New York and Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg of Philadelphia were the speakers and the interest resulted in the starting of several leagues along the coast. With the help of the National Association Miss Mills was engaged for a month, during which she formed ten new leagues, speaking twenty-four times in nineteen places. The leagues studied local government and found that women paid about one-third of the taxes. Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Ellis Meredith of Denver, Mrs. Stanton Blatch of New York and Miss Alice Stone Blackwell of Boston were heard by different leagues. The convention this year was held for the first time in Trenton.

In 1904 a special effort was made to bring the question of woman suffrage before other organizations and Mrs. Sexton spoke to the Federation of Women's Clubs, the Conference of Charities and Corrections and the State W. C. T. U.; Dr. Hussey spoke before the convention of the Epworth League and the subject was presented to the State Grange. At the Ocean Grove meeting Mrs. Emma Bourne brought greetings from the State's 8,000 white ribboners. Mrs. Sexton and Miss Mills spoke at seaside meetings and five new leagues were formed. The State convention was held in the public library in Jersey City and welcomed by Dr. Medina F. DeHart, president of the Political Study Club; Miss Cornelia F. Bradford, head worker of Whittier House; Mrs. Spencer Wiart, president of the Woman's Club and Mrs. Andrew J. Newberry, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs.

At the Ocean Grove meeting in 1905 resolutions were adopted in memory of Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. The State convention was held in Orange. Mrs. Emma L. Blackwell, a niece of Lucy Stone, was elected president and the other officers were re-elected. In 1906 Miss Anthony passed away and many leagues held memorial meetings. The Woman's Club of Orange joined the suffrage association in holding one addressed by Dr. Shaw, preceding the State convention held there in Union Hall in November. Henry B. Blackwell traced the history of woman suffrage in New Jersey from 1776 and made a plea for the Presidential franchise for women, for which a committee was appointed. Resolutions thanking the American Federation of Labor for its stand on woman suffrage and expressing sympathy with the imprisoned "suffragettes" in England were passed.

In 1907 little suffrage work was done by the association owing to the absence of the president from the State. The leagues worked along many lines, for police matrons; for "school cities"; studied the lives of the pioneers and the constitution and laws of the State and held public meetings with good speakers. The annual convention met in the public library in Newark and it was voted to petition Congress for a Federal Suffrage Amendment. Dr. DeHart was elected president and the other new officers were Mrs. Ella A. Kilborn and Miss Mary D. Campbell, secretaries. Miss Mary Willits and Mrs. Mary B. Kinsley were the only other officers who had been added in the past seven years.

In 1908 at the State convention in Bayonne Mrs. Clara S. Laddey of Arlington was elected president and Miss Emma L. Richards of Newark recording secretary. Dr. Hussey was made chairman of the Committee on Literature and Petitions and the Rev. Mrs. Blackwell was appointed to write to President Roosevelt in behalf of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, as requested by the National Association. Public lectures by Dr. Shaw, Miss Janet Richards of Washington and others were arranged for Newark. Dr. Emily Blackwell, of the New York Infirmary for Women, was made honorary president.

Mrs. Laddey visited all the leagues and spoke before many societies, including the large German Club at Hoboken. With Dr. Hussey she attended the State convention of the Federation of Labor and obtained its endorsement of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. She put new life into the association and was re-elected at the State convention in 1909 at Newark. Over fifty delegates were present and it was reported that 5,000 names were on the petition to Congress which the Socialists, Granges, W. C. T. U.'s and Trade Unions had helped secure, and they had given an opportunity for much educational work. Committees on legislation and organization were formed. Mrs. Sexton was elected honorary president; Mrs. Elizabeth T. Bartlett of Arlington was made historian and Mrs. Mary L. Colvin of East Orange, corresponding secretary. Resolutions were adopted in memory of Henry B. Blackwell and William Lloyd Garrison. Professor Francis Squire Potter, corresponding secretary of the National Association, delivered a very able address.

In the fall of 1909 two young women in East Orange, Dr. Emma O. Gantz and Miss Martha Klatschken, started the Progressive Woman Suffrage Society and held the first open air meetings in the State. The first one took place on a Saturday night at the corner of Main and Day streets in Orange, the speakers Mrs. J. Borrman Wells of England, Miss Klatschken and Miss Helen Murphy of New York. The next was in Newark. The crowds were always respectful, listened and asked questions. Much literature was given out. A Political Equality League of Self Supporting Women, a branch of the one in New York organized by Mrs. Stanton Blatch, was formed by Mrs. Mina Van Winkle, later called Women's Political Union.

At the January board meeting in 1910 Mrs. Ulilla L. Decker was made chairman of organization and Mrs. Minnie J. Reynolds of the press committee. Mrs. Laddey reported having received an invitation to bring greetings to a meeting at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Stevens at Castle Point, Hoboken, to form a New Jersey branch of the Equal Franchise League which Mrs. Clarence Mackay had organized in New York. At an adjourned meeting on February 3 Mrs. Decker reported having consulted Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, Miss Mary Garrett Hay and others in New York and also in New Jersey about the proposed new league. Mrs. Laddey urged harmony among all workers and she, Dr. Hussey, Miss Emma L. Richards and others attended the meeting at Castle Point. The Equal Franchise Society of New Jersey was formed there with Mrs. Thomas S. Henry of Jersey City president; Mrs. Caroline B. Alexander, Hoboken, Mrs. Everett Colby, West Orange, Mrs. George Harvey, Deal, and Miss Alice Lakey, Cranford, vice-presidents; Mrs. Harry Campton, Newark, corresponding secretary; Miss Richards, Newark, recording secretary; Mrs. Charles Campbell, Hoboken, treasurer.

The delegation of the State association to the national convention in Washington in April rode in the procession to the Capitol and presented a petition to Congress for a Federal Amendment containing over 9,000 signatures from New Jersey. At the great parade held in New York on the last Saturday in May it was represented by its president and seven members. Its first experience with street speaking was in Military Park in June with Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff of Brooklyn as the speaker and a respectful audience. Open air meetings were also held in Asbury Park at which Mrs. Laddey and Mrs. Emma Fisk spoke. Miss Richards took charge of a booth at the Olympic Park Fair, assisted by Mrs. Campton. Charles C. Mason was thanked for reviewing the laws of the State relating to women compiled by Miss Laddey. Lucy Stone's birthday was celebrated August 13 in six places in memory of her pioneer work in the State. Mrs. Laddey organized leagues in Montclair and Asbury Park and spoke at seven public meetings. Money was contributed to the South Dakota, Washington and Oklahoma campaigns and to the national treasury. Congressmen were questioned as to their stand on woman suffrage. Dr. Shaw was heard at the Conference of Governors at Spring Lake.

The convention of 1910 was held in Plainfield welcomed by Mrs. C. R. Riley, the local president. The Rev. Mrs. Blackwell paid a tribute to Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, who had passed away, and after resolutions by Mrs. Colvin the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was sung. Mrs. Decker presented a flag to the association in honor of Mrs. Sexton, the former president. Mrs. Kinsley gave a greeting from the Equal Franchise Society. How it Works in Wyoming was told by Mrs. May Preston Slosson, Ph.D., and Dr. Edwin A. Slosson. In the evening Mayor Charles J. Fisk welcomed the convention. Professor Earl Barnes, who had resided two years in England, gave an address on The Englishwoman. Champlain Lord Riley of Plainfield announced the organization in Newark on March 23 of the Men's League for Woman Suffrage with Dr. William L. Saunders of Plainfield, president; Merton C. Leonard, Arlington, vice-president; Dr. Edward S. Krans, Plainfield, secretary; Edward F. Feickert, Dunellen, treasurer and 17 members.[119]

Mrs. Laddey was re-elected. Four new committees were appointed on Church Work, Mrs. Bartlett, chairman; Industrial Problems relating to Women and Children, Miss Bessie Pope; Endorsement by Organizations, Mrs. Laddey; Education, Mrs. Riley. Public meetings were held in the various cities; prizes for school essays were awarded and a year book published. With the Equal Franchise Society the association had a hearing before the State Senate Committee on Education, Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, chairman in behalf of a School suffrage bill. Mrs. Laddey, Mrs. George T. Vickers, Mrs. Philip McKim Garrison, Mrs. Frederick Merck, and Mrs. Kinsley appeared for the suffragists. The committee approved it but the Legislature rejected it.

In January, 1911, a luncheon was given by the association in Newark to Mrs. Minnie J. Reynolds, who had returned from work in the victorious campaign in the State of Washington. At a board meeting it was decided that some plan must be adopted for enrolling non-dues-paying members similar to that of the Woman Suffrage Party of New York. This name was taken for New Jersey and an Enrollment Committee was formed with Mrs. Lillian F. Feickert of Dunellen chairman, to organize by political districts. Over a hundred New Jersey women marched in the second New York parade on May 4. The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony was placed in libraries. The three associations agreed to unite in work for a suffrage measure in the Legislature and Dr. Luella Morrow, Miss Laddey, Miss Grace Selden and Mrs. Howe Hall were appointed to have charge of it. Mrs. Bartlett secured the favorable opinions of twelve New Jersey clergymen and had them printed for circulation. The Equal Justice League of young women was started in Bayonne with eighty members, Miss Dorothy Frooks, president. At this time the State association had fourteen branches and about 500 members.

The convention of 1911 was held in Willard Hall, Passaic, in November. All rose to greet the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell when she entered. Mayor George N. Seger in his welcome said that all women who paid taxes should vote and with the ballot women could help many needed reforms. A hundred copies of the New York American with an editorial on woman suffrage in New Jersey sent by Arthur Brisbane were distributed.

It was voted to ask Governor Woodrow Wilson, as a Presidential candidate, if he favored woman suffrage. Mrs. Rheta Childe Dorr of the editorial staff of Hampton's Magazine appealed for legislation in behalf of working girls. Miss Emma McCoy, president of the New Brunswick Teachers' Association, made a plea for equal pay for women teachers. Addresses were given by Robert Elder, assistant district attorney of Kings county, N. Y.; Mrs. Raymond Brown of New York, Miss Melinda Scott of Newark, treasurer of the National Women's Trade Union League, and Judge William H. Wood of New York. Dr. Hussey told of 10,000 leaflets distributed.

Mrs. Feickert described the successful house-to-house canvass in Jersey City by Miss Pope and herself, by which the membership had increased to 1,400. Mrs. Decker announced the opening of the first State headquarters the next week in Newark with a volunteer committee in charge, Mrs. George G. Scott, chairman. Mrs. Vernona H. Henry of Newark was elected recording secretary and no other change was made in the board, most of whom had served over ten years. With the cooperation of all the societies the meeting at the auditorium in Newark addressed by Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England was a great success.

This record of details, much condensed, represents the seed-sowing in the first decade of the century in preparation for the harvest which came at the end of the second decade.

NEW JERSEY. PART II.[120]

In December, 1911, a Joint Legislative Committee, representing the four woman suffrage organizations in New Jersey was formed with Mrs. George T. Vickers as chairman, and in January, 1912, a resolution for a submission to the voters of a woman suffrage amendment to the State constitution was first introduced in the Legislature at the request of this committee.

On Oct. 25, 1912, a parade was given in Newark under the auspices of the State Suffrage Association with all four organizations represented among the marchers, who numbered about 1,000 men and women. This was followed by a well-attended mass meeting at Proctor's Theater, arranged by the Women's Political Union, at which Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National Suffrage Association, was the principal speaker.

The twenty-second annual convention of the association was held in Trenton in November, when the following officers were elected: President, Mrs. E. F. Feickert; first vice-president, Mrs. F. H. Colvin; second, Miss Elinor Gebhardt; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Charles P. Titus; recording secretary, Mrs. Charles P. Eaton; treasurer, Mrs. Anna B. Jeffery; auditor, Miss Bessie Pope. Twenty-five local branches were reported with a total membership of 2,200.

In December the Legislative Committee was re-organized on the basis of equal representation for each of the four organizations. Mrs. Everett Colby was elected chairman and Mrs. Minnie J. Reynolds was engaged as legislative secretary, who resigned in six months to become field organizer for the Women's Political Union. This committee continued to function until 1917, when the Women's Political Union, the Equal Franchise Society and the Men's League having disbanded and their branches having joined the State association the political work was taken over by its Legislative Committee. In 1914 Mrs. Philip McKim Garrison succeeded Mrs. Colby and she was succeeded by Mrs. Robert S. Huse in 1916. Among those who served actively were Miss Bessie Pope, who gave valuable and continuous service to the completion of suffrage work in 1920; Champlain Lord Riley, William L. Saunders, Everett Colby, Mrs. Mina C. Van Winkle, Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs R. T. Newton, Miss Belle Tiffany, Mrs. Colvin, Mrs. James Billington and Mrs. Feickert.

In June, 1913, the Women's Political Union held its first State conference, at which the following officers were elected: President, Mrs. Van Winkle; vice-presidents, Miss Julia S. Hurlbut, Mrs. E. T. Lukens, Mrs. H. R. Reed, Mrs. W. H. Gardner, Miss Edna C. Wyckoff, Mrs. R. T. Newton, Miss Louise Antrim, Mrs. Carl Vail, Miss Louise Connolly; recording secretary, Miss Sara Crowell; executive secretary, Mrs. Reynolds; financial secretary, Mrs. Amelia Moorfield; treasurer, Mrs. Stewart Hartshorne. This was the only state-wide conference held until after the referendum election in 1915 and these officers continued to serve. The Equal Franchise Society's president, Mrs. Vickers, served from 1911 until it disbanded in 1915. Other active members were Mrs. H. Otto Wittpen and Mrs. Mary B. Kinsley.

On March 25, 1913, the State association held a jubilee mass meeting in Newark to celebrate submission of a State suffrage amendment by the Legislature. This spring it held a large and successful school for suffrage workers in Newark and the expenses of two volunteer organizers were paid for several months, Mrs. U. L. Decker and Miss Dille Hastings. In August its representatives took part in the demonstration at Washington, arranged by the National Congressional Committee, when petitions were presented to the Senate asking for the immediate submission of the Federal Amendment, Mrs. Champlain Lord Riley, Mrs. Colvin, Miss Helen Lippincott, Miss Edith Abbott and Mrs. Feickert. The New Jersey petitions of several thousand names were unwillingly presented by Senator James E. Martine, who made a speech against woman suffrage at the same time.

At the annual convention held in Newark in November reports showed that the membership had more than doubled during the year, there being now 44 local branches with over 6,000 members. Three changes took place in the board, Miss Lippincott, elected second vice-president; Mrs. Edward Olmsted, treasurer and Mrs. Arthur Hunter, auditor. Just after this convention a delegation of 58 from the association and 17 from the Political Union went to Washington at the request of the National Congressional Committee to interview President Wilson in behalf of favorable action on the Federal Amendment by the House of Representatives. The committee could not arrange for a special interview but finally saw him by going to the White House at the hour set aside for the reception of the general public and made their request. The President was cordial and said that he was giving the matter careful consideration and hoped soon to take a decided stand which he thought the suffragists would find satisfactory. The speakers were its chairman, Mrs. Feickert, Mrs. Van Winkle and Miss Melinda Scott, who represented the organized working women of New Jersey.

In April, 1914, the State headquarters were transferred to Plainfield, the home of the president, who took charge of them. Board meetings were held in different sections of the State each month, followed by open conferences for suffragists from the nearby towns. Each of these was attended by from 50 to 250 and resulted in greatly increased activity in the branches. During the summer a number of county automobile tours were made, a "flying squadron" of decorated cars going from town to town, holding meetings and distributing literature. These tours were well worked up and advertised and very successful. A great deal of the work connected with them was done by Miss Florence Halsey, a volunteer field organizer.

During July a week of suffrage meetings was held in Asbury Park, the auditorium there given free on condition that there should be debates and not merely presentations of suffrage. Over a hundred columns of publicity were secured for them in the New Jersey papers and during the week the hotels of Asbury Park and nearby resorts were canvassed and thousands of leaflets and circulars given out. This year over 300,000 pieces of literature were distributed by the State association and the Political Union. A weekly press service was established by the association and news bulletins and special stories were sent regularly to over one hundred papers. The local branches of the association increased to 96 and of the Political Union to 15, with a membership of 22,000 and 4,000 respectively. At the annual convention of the association held in Camden in November the new officers elected were, second vice-president, Mrs. Robert P. Finley; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Bayard Naylor; recording secretary, Mrs. L. H. Cummings. All attention and action were centered on the approaching campaign.

The resolution to submit the amendment had passed two Legislatures and was to go to the voters at a special election Oct. 19, 1915. A Cooperative Committee was formed of three from the State association and the Women's Political Union each and one each from the Equal Franchise Society and the Men's League. A Committee of One Hundred was also organized to raise money for the campaign, Mrs. Colby chairman. It obtained $9,000 which were used for the expenses of the Press Committee, that had its office at the National Suffrage headquarters in New York, for news bulletins every day, plate matter, interviews, stories, advertising cards and posters in the trolley cars and the stations of the Hudson Tunnels system; illuminated signs and street banners in New Jersey cities and a half-page advertisement in all the papers of the State at the end of the campaign. The executive secretary was Mrs. Flora Gapen Charters. The total amount of money raised and spent by the State and local organizations was approximately $80,000, obtained by dues and pledges, by collections at mass meetings, special luncheons and very largely by personal contributions from men and women.

The State association increased to 200 branches in twenty-four cities. The Political Union maintained a large headquarters in Newark. Over 3,000,000 pieces of literature and 400,000 buttons were distributed. The association circularized all the women's organizations of the State, the fraternal organizations, clergymen, grange officers, lawyers, office-holders and other special groups. Speakers were sent to grange picnics and county fairs. Street meetings took place regularly in all the principal cities and towns and automobile tours over the State. Over 4,000 outdoor and 500 indoor meetings were held. Four paid and thirty volunteer organizers were kept in the field for eight months.

The association arranged a conference of the leaders of the four campaign States, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Jersey, which was held in East Orange in connection with the celebration on August 13 of the birthday of its founder, Lucy Stone. There was a pilgrimage of suffragists from almost every county, and, after exercises at her old home and the unveiling by her daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, of a tablet placed in front of the house, there was an automobile parade through the nearby towns, winding up with a mass meeting in the park in East Orange, where Dr. Shaw and ex-Governor John Franklin Fort were the principal speakers.

The Women's Political Union conducted a "handing on the torch" demonstration which was quite effective. The New York Union supplied a large torch of bronze, which Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, representing New York, took with her on a tugboat half way across the Hudson River, where she was met by a New Jersey tug bearing Mrs. Van Winkle, to whom the torch was delivered. It was sent about the State to twenty or more towns where the Union had branches and its arrival was made the occasion for an outdoor reception and mass meeting.

The Women's Anti-Suffrage Association was also busy. It paid the salaries and expenses of two New Jersey speakers, Mrs. O. D. Oliphant of Trenton and John A. Matthews of Newark, an ex-Assemblyman, and brought in a number of outside speakers. It never claimed to have more than fifteen local branches and 18,000 members. Among the more prominent were the president, Mrs. E. Yarde Breese of Plainfield; Mrs. Thomas J. Preston, Mrs. Garrett A. Hobart, Mrs. Carroll P. Bassett, Miss Anna Dayton, Robert C. Maxwell, Miss Clara A. Vezin, Mrs. Hamilton F. Kean, Mrs. Alexander F. Jamieson, Mrs. Charles W. MacQuoid, Mrs. Thomas B. Adams, Miss Anne McIlvaine and Mrs. Sherman B. Joost.

James R. Nugent of Newark, prominent as the champion of the "wets" and the "antis," paid the salary of Edward J. Handley, an ex-newspaperman of Newark, and gave him a suite of offices in the Wise building with several clerks. His "publicity" kept the amendment on the front pages of the papers and the suffragists were always able to refute and disprove his statements. The intensive campaign carried on among the editors for the past two or three years bore fruit and 80 per cent. of the newspapers by actual canvass favored the amendment, and frequently when the front page carried a story against suffrage it was contradicted on the editorial page. Among editors who were particularly strong friends were James Kerney and John E. Sines of the Trenton Evening Times; Joseph A. Dear and Julius Grunow of the Jersey City Journal; John L. Matthews of the Paterson Press Guardian; George M. Hart of the Passaic Daily News; the Boyds of the New Brunswick Home News; J. L. Clevenger of the Perth Amboy Evening News; William H. Fischer of the New Jersey Courier; George W. Swift of the Elizabeth Daily Journal and E. A. Bristor of the Passaic Herald.

Three weeks before the election President Wilson announced himself in favor of the amendment, and he and his private secretary, Joseph P. Tumulty, made a special trip to New Jersey to vote for it. This had a marked effect over the country.

The Legislative Committee having secured a bill allowing women to watch at the polls, watchers' schools were held in every important city under the direction of Mrs. Colvin, with the result that at the election 1,657 of the 1,891 polling places in the State were supplied with trained women watchers.

On election day Nugent and his lieutenants worked all day at the Newark polling places and the suffragists were positive that hundreds of voters were imported from New York and other places, which was possible because men could vote on the amendment without having previously registered. Nugent is reported to have said: "We knew we had the amendment beaten when the election was put on registration day." This was done against the protests of the suffragists. Men voted on it at the same time they registered and in the police canvass made before the general election, the names of several thousand illegally registered were taken off the books in Essex and Hudson counties, all of whom had a chance to vote on the amendment. All day in all the cities the women watchers saw little groups of men taken into saloons opposite the polling places by persons avowedly working to defeat it, instructed how to vote on it, marshalled to the polling place and after voting taken back to the saloon to be paid.

Finding at the last moment that no provision was made by the State to pay for sending in returns from special elections, the State association arranged with the Associated Press to obtain its own returns and a wire was run into the suffrage headquarters in Jersey City. By midnight complete returns were in from 70 per cent. of the State, due to the splendid cooperation of the county and local suffrage chairmen, who knew only one day in advance that this work would be required of them. A manager of the Associated Press said that they had never handled an election where the returns came in faster or more accurately and few where they came in as well.

The election resulted in a vote of 317,672, a very large one considering that the Presidential vote in 1912 had been only 459,000. The vote in favor of the suffrage amendment was 133,281, or 42 per cent. of the whole; against, 184,391, defeated by 51,110. Ocean county was the only one carried but 126 cities and towns were carried and a number of counties gave from 46 to 49 per cent. in favor.

Two weeks after their defeat several hundred New Jersey suffragists went to New York and Philadelphia to march in the suffrage parades, taking the biggest and best band in the State and carrying at the head of their division a runner twenty feet long reading: New Jersey--Delayed but not Defeated.

The State convention of 1915 was postponed until January, 1916, when it was held in Elizabeth. There were then 215 local branches with a membership of over 50,000. No discouragement was visible but a program of educational work and intensive organization was adopted, money was pledged for the salaries of three field organizers and it was decided to have a bill for Presidential suffrage introduced in the Legislature. Mrs. Ward D. Kerlin, second vice-president, was the only new officer elected. A new constitution was adopted putting the association on a non-dues-paying basis, providing for an annual budget and re-organization of the State by congressional districts.

In June New Jersey was represented at the National Republican convention in Chicago by Mrs. Feickert, Miss Esther G. Ogden, Mrs. E. G. Blaisdell, Miss A. E. Cameron and Mrs. Joseph Marvel. All of the New Jersey delegates were interviewed and twelve of the twenty-eight promised to support a suffrage plank in the platform.

In July the Women's Political Union disbanded and its local branches joined the State association. The national suffrage convention held at Atlantic City in September gave a great impetus to the State work. The annual convention met in Jersey City in November, where it was decided to conduct a strenuous campaign during 1917 for Presidential suffrage and for the Federal Amendment and to employ four field organizers. The new officers elected were Mrs. John J. White, Miss Lulu H. Marvel, Mrs. J. Thompson Baker, vice-presidents; Miss Anita Still, auditor. The Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell and Dr. Mary D. Hussey were added to the list of honorary presidents.

A bill for Presidential suffrage was introduced in the Legislature in February, 1917, and everything was going finely when war was declared. The suffrage association was the first women's organization in the State to offer its services to the Governor and was publicly thanked by him for its patriotic stand. At his request it conducted a canvass of women nurses, doctors and clerical workers and received letters of thanks from him and the Adjutant General for this very successful piece of work. It cooperated in the organization of a Woman's Division of the State Council of National Defense and its president, Mrs. Feickert, was vice-chairman of the Council. The association purchased and operated a Soldiers' Club House and canteen in the town of Wrightstown, near which Camp Dix was located. It was opened in November, 1917, and was kept open until June, 1919, by volunteer workers. Over $30,000 were raised for it, one-fifth of this amount being contributed by Mrs. White. More than 250,000 men were entertained there. Officers and members of the association responded to all demands of the war.

The annual convention was held in the Capitol at Trenton in November. Reports showed that only thirty of the hundreds of local branches had dropped suffrage work because of their war activities, and the spirit was one of determination that the battle for real democracy in the United States should be kept up just as actively as the war against autocracy abroad. Mrs. Wells P. Eagleton was elected a vice-president, Mrs. E. G. Blaisdell a secretary and Mrs. F. W. Veghte an auditor. The State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs was accepted as an affiliated organization and its president, the Rev. Florence Randolph, was made a member of the State Board. The convention voted to make its special work for the year the collecting of a monster petition of women, to be so worded that it could be used in Congressional work for the Federal Amendment and with the Legislature for ratification.

In the summer of 1918 U. S. Senator William Hughes, who was pledged to vote for the Federal Amendment, died and the candidate for the office was David Baird, a strong anti-suffragist. As only one more vote in the Senate was needed to pass the amendment the National Association asked the New Jersey association to do its best to defeat him. An active campaign was carried on for two months but he was too powerful a party leader, though he ran 9,000 votes behind the rest of the ticket. He voted against the amendment every time it came before the Senate.

Because of the Baird campaign and the general unsettled feeling around the time of the signing of the armistice the annual convention was postponed to May, 1919, when it was held in Atlantic City. The ratification petitions collected the preceding year had over 80,000 names of women not previously enrolled as suffragists. Mrs. H. N. Simmons, vice-president, and Mrs. F. T. Kellers, auditor, were the only new officers elected. It was voted that the other State organizations of women should be asked to join in the campaign for ratification of the Federal Amendment by the Legislature. The committee was organized in July, 1918, with the following organizations represented: Woman Suffrage Association, Federation of Women's Clubs, Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Public Health Nursing, Teachers' Association; chairman, Mrs. Feickert; secretary, Mrs. James Simister; treasurer, Mrs. Olmsted. A Finance Committee was appointed--Mrs. Seymour L. Cromwell, Mrs. Colby and Mrs. Hunter--which raised over $10,000. The principal contributors were Mrs. Cromwell, Mrs. Colby, Judge and Mrs. John J. White, Mrs. Wittpenn, Mrs. Hartshorne, Mrs. Lewis S. Thompson and Mrs. Robert Stevens.

A very active primary and general election campaign was made in 1919 for the election of men pledged to vote for ratification, in which 110,000 personal letters were sent out, all kinds of organizations were circularized and about 1,000,000 pieces of literature were distributed. A State ratification mass meeting at Asbury Park in August opened the campaign and local meetings were held in every county. A Governor and a majority in both Houses were elected who were pledged to ratification.

A Men's Council for Ratification was organized in December with Everett Colby as chairman, Governor Edward I. Edwards and U. S. Senators Joseph S. Frelinghuysen and Walter E. Edge as honorary chairmen and 54 of the most prominent Democrats and Republicans in the State as vice-chairmen. This was not an active organization but the fact that the leaders of their parties allowed their names to be used had considerable influence upon many legislators. In January, 1920, campaign headquarters were opened in Trenton near the State House in charge of Miss Julia Wernig, field organizer of the association, where a great deal of literature was given out and other work done.

On January 27 in Crescent Temple, Trenton, the Ratification Committee staged the most spectacular suffrage mass meeting ever held in New Jersey. Its special purpose was to present to the Governor, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House the huge suffrage petition containing almost 140,000 names of women, arranged by counties and towns. The hall was beautifully decorated with American flags and suffrage banners and a fine band played at intervals. The speakers were Governor Edwards, President of the Senate Clarence E. Case, Speaker of the Assembly W. Irving Glover and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National Suffrage Association. The twenty-one county chairmen and representatives of the women's organizations composing the committee were seated on the platform and at the proper time each came forward with her petitions and was presented to the Governor and the legislative officials by Mrs. Feickert, who presided. About 1,200 women and most of the Legislature were present and there was much enthusiasm.

RATIFICATION. The Federal Suffrage Amendment was submitted by Congress June 4, 1919. The resolution for ratification was the first measure introduced when the Legislature convened in 1920, by Senator William B. MacKay, Jr., of Bergen county and Assemblyman Henry G. Hershfield of Passaic county. A public hearing was held February 2 with Mrs. Feickert chairman. The principal suffrage speakers were U. S. Senator Selden Spencer of Missouri, Mrs. Robert S. Huse, Mrs. Harriman N. Simons and the Rev. Florence Randolph. Each of five others representing various women's organizations spoke for two minutes. That day the Senate ratified by 18 ayes, 2 noes, two men voting in favor who had been pledged against it.

The opposition then concentrated its efforts upon the Assembly, where various tricks were played which in the end were unsuccessful. U. S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer had written to each of the Democratic members urging his support. The evening that ratification was to be voted on, February 9, the chamber was jammed and it was evident that the opposition intended to "filibuster" all night rather than allow the resolution to pass. One motion after another was made by the leader of the opposition, Assemblyman Hugh Barrett of Essex, Nugent's special representative, and after a hot fight and much talking they were defeated. Mr. Nugent was outside in the corridor constantly sending in messages to his delegation and it was understood that he was offering anything the Assemblymen might ask for their votes against ratification. The women suffragists were present in force helping their friends to maintain their determination to vote on the resolution that night. It was a stormy session, the "filibuster" going on steadily from 8 p. m. Finally the opposition gave up the fight and at ten minutes to 1 o'clock in the morning the Assembly passed the resolution by 34 ayes, 24 noes. The gallery was still filled with women, who were most enthusiastic.

The resolution was signed promptly by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House and the Governor sent it to Washington by a special messenger. The suffragists felt especially indebted to Senators William N. Runyon, C. D. White and Arthur Whitney and to Assemblymen William A. Blair, Emmor Roberts, Henry G. Hershfield and William George for their work in party caucuses as well as on the floor. Governor Edwards and Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City (the Democratic leader of the State) were responsible for the solid vote of all the Democrats except those under the control of Nugent. U. S. Senators Frelinghuysen and Edge and Attorney General McCran also rendered most valuable assistance.

The State Suffrage Association celebrated the successful termination of its over fifty years of continuous effort by a Victory Convention held in Newark on April 23, 24. Leading features were a Victory banquet with prominent men of both political parties as speakers, and a Pioneers' luncheon, at which Dr. Mary D. Hussey, Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, Mrs. Minola Graham Sexton, Mrs. Clara S. Laddey and other early workers spoke. Before the close of the convention the State League of Women Voters was organized to carry on the work for good government and better conditions through the use of the power which had been secured for them by the older association. Mrs. John R. Schermerhorn was elected chairman.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION: 1912. The first resolution for the submission of a woman suffrage amendment to the voters was introduced in February by Senator William C. Gebhardt in the Senate and Assemblyman A. R. McAllister in the House. A public hearing was held on March 12 at which Mrs. Vickers presided and the speakers for the suffrage side were Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Henry Villard, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mrs. Clara S. Laddey, George T. Vickers and Linton Satterthwaite. Miss Anna Dayton presided for the "antis" and Mrs. E. N. Loomis was their principal speaker. The vote in the Senate was 18 noes, 3 ayes--Senators Gebhardt of Hunterdon county, J. Warren Davis of Salem and G. W. F. Gaunt of Gloucester. In the Assembly the resolution was finally forced out of an unfavorable committee but was tabled by a vote of 31 ayes, 19 noes.

1913. In January the resolution was introduced by Senator J. Warren Davis and Assemblyman Charles M. Egan. A hearing was held February 18 at which Mrs. Everett Colby presided and the speakers were Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Suffrage Association; U. S. Senator Shafroth of Colorado, Everett Colby, George La Monte and Cornelius Ford, president of the State Federation of Labor. The resolution passed the Senate by 14 ayes, 5 noes, and the Assembly by 45 ayes, 5 noes. A few weeks later it was discovered that the word "or" appeared in the printed resolution instead of "and," making it necessary to have a new one introduced, which went through by the same vote.

The New Jersey law in regard to constitutional amendments provides that after being submitted by one Legislature they must be advertised in every county for three months prior to the next election, acted upon favorably by the succeeding Legislature and then voted on at a special election, the date of which it decides. After the passage of the referendum resolution in 1913 the Legislative Committee took up with the Secretary of State the matter of advertising and were assured that it would be attended to and they could go home and "forget it," which they trustingly did. When no advertisements appeared members of the committee hurried to Trenton and learned that Governor James F. Fielder was responsible. His excuse was that his secretary had mislaid the resolution and forgotten to remind him of it.

1914. The resolution was introduced in January by Senator Charles M. Egan and Assemblyman Joseph M. Branegan, both of Hudson county. It passed the Senate by 15 ayes, 3 noes, and the Assembly by 49 ayes, 4 noes.

1915. The advertising was properly done for this year and the resolution came up for second passage in January, introduced by Senator Blanchard H. White and Assemblyman Robert Peacock, both of Burlington county. A hearing was held January 25, Mrs. Philip McKim Garrison chairman and speakers Dr. Shaw, E. G. C. Bleakley, city counsel of Camden; Mrs. Reynolds and Mrs. Feickert. The Senate passed the resolution by 17 ayes, 4 noes, and the Assembly by unanimous vote.

1916. A bill for Presidential suffrage for women was introduced by Senator Charles O'Connor Hennessy of Bergen county and was lost by a vote of 10 noes, 3 ayes--Senators Hennessy, Austen Colgate of Essex county and Carlton B. Pierce of Union county. No effort was made to press the bill in the Assembly.

1917. Another bill for Presidential suffrage was introduced by Senator Edmund B. Osborne of Essex county and Assemblyman Roy M. Robinson of Bergen. In both Houses the presiding officers were strongly opposed to woman suffrage and put the bill into unfavorable committees, who refused to report it for action. A hearing was held with Mrs. Robert S. Huse chairman and Mrs. Antoinette Funk the chief speaker. Finally by using what is known as the "rule of fifteen," in the Assembly its friends got the bill out of committee on March 15 but with an unfavorable report. Majority leader Oliphant moved that the House concur and Speaker Edward Schoen of Essex county ruled that the motion was carried. Many members demanded a roll call but the Speaker paid no attention to them. Pandemonium reigned, members shouting and banging their desks until finally he declared a recess and fled to his private room.

1918. It was hoped that the Federal Amendment would be submitted in the spring and it was decided not to complicate ratification by introducing a Presidential suffrage bill. In February a bill providing that the Legislature should not act on the ratification of Federal Amendments until after they had been referred to the voters was introduced by Assemblyman Arthur N. Pierson of Union county. It was designed especially to prevent action on the Prohibition Amendment but would also apply to the one for woman suffrage. The Legislative Committee went at once to Trenton, where the Anti-Saloon workers were already busy. Sufficient force was brought to keep the bill in committee for three weeks, at the end of which time 46 votes were pledged against it and it was killed in committee at the request of its introducer. In 1919 a similar bill was introduced by Assemblyman David Young of Morris county but the suffragists made so strong a demonstration against it that it was killed in committee.

FOOTNOTES:

[118] The History is indebted for this chapter to Dr. Mary D. Hussey, a founder of the State Woman Suffrage Association in 1890 and continuously an officer for the next twenty years.

[119] Afterwards Mr. Riley became president and Arthur B. Jones, secretary. Among the League's prominent members were the Hon. Everett Colby, Governor John Franklin Fort, J. A. H. Hopkins, Jesse Lynch Williams, Charles O'Connor Hennessy, the Hon. John W. Westcott, the Rev. Dr. Arthur E. Ballard, the Rev. Edgar S. Weirs, Colonel George Harvey, the Hon. Edmond B. Osbourne, the Hon. Ernest R. Ackerman, Emerson P. Harris, Richard Stevens, the Hon. James C. Connally and Mayor Victor Mavalag of Elizabeth. They passed resolutions "reaffirming their sympathy with the great world movement for woman suffrage"; "heartily approved" of the Federal Amendment; pledged their "untiring support" of the State referendum; spoke at legislative hearings; raised money; addressed meetings; appointed a State committee of 63 members which met monthly; appointed a committee with George M. Strobell, chairman, that marched in the parade in Newark, Oct. 25, 1913; held a mass meeting in Elizabeth at which Mayor George L. LaMonte and Mrs. Forbes-Robertson Hale spoke, and helped in many ways.

[120] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Lillian F. Feickert, president of the State Woman Suffrage Association 1912-1920.

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

XXX. NEW MEXICO.[121]

As the railroads were few and automobiles almost unknown in New Mexico in the first decade of the present century, and as the distances were great and cities and towns widely separated, there was no attempt to organize for woman suffrage. In 1910 the Women's Clubs were called in convention at Las Cruces through the efforts of Mrs. George W. Frenger, secretary of the General Federation, and Mrs. Philip North Moore, then its president, was in attendance. A State Federation was formed with Mrs. S. P. Johnson of Palomas Springs, president; Mrs. Sam J. Nixon of Portales secretary, and several department chairmen were named, Mrs. W. E. Lindsey being chosen for the Legislative Department.

This department through its bold stand for woman suffrage and better laws for women and children easily became the foremost factor in the federation. At each yearly convention one evening was given to the discussion of the benefits which women would receive from the suffrage. Almost before it was realized suffrage had become popular with both men and women. The delegates carried the messages from the State conventions to their own clubs; suffrage discussions became the regular program for one meeting each year in almost every club and generally made converts of those taking the opposition. Women began searching the statutes and questioning their attorneys and husbands in regard to laws. Their interest became such that no Legislature during the federation's existence has proposed any law derogatory to the rights of women and children, but when attention has been called to unfair laws, some of them have been replaced by better ones.

Under direction of the executive board of the federation this department sent out questionnaires to all of the State candidates for office in 1916 as to whether they would work for placing women on the State boards and use their influence to bring the Federal Amendment to a successful vote in the United States Senate and House. Their members were also interrogated as to whether they would work and vote for it. Therefore the Legislative Department of the Federated Clubs really did the work that any suffrage organization would do and had the backing of the women of the State in general. Suffrage was unanimously endorsed in the convention of the federation at Silver City in 1914. It is to the credit of the work of the Federated Clubs in the State that its members of Congress, with one exception, have needed no lobbying from suffrage forces in Washington. Senator Andrieus A. Jones, as chairman of the Suffrage Committee, made the submission of the amendment possible in the present Congress by his systematic and forceful course in the last one.

Mrs. Lindsey remained chairman of this department six years. In 1913 she was appointed State chairman for the National American Woman Suffrage Association by its president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw. In 1914 the suffragists had a "float" in the parade at the State fair in Albuquerque. In May, 1916, the National Association under the presidency of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, sent one of its organizers, Miss Lola Walker of Pittsburgh, for ten days to look over the situation and she visited Albuquerque, Santa Fé, Portales and Las Vegas. In the last place she spoke before the Woman's Club with about eighty present and at the close of her talk a vote was taken which stood unanimous for suffrage. At Portales a society was formed and a large evening reception was held to which both men and women were invited. Miss Walker gave a very interesting résumé of woman suffrage which aroused much interest. An appeal was sent to the National Association to return her for a fall campaign to organize the State as an auxiliary. She went to Maine, however, and Miss Gertrude Watkins of Little Rock was sent to New Mexico in January, 1917. She visited the eastern and central parts of the State organizing leagues in most of the towns. In Santa Fé one was formed of about thirty members with Mrs. Paul A. F. Walter president; Mrs. R. W. Twitchell secretary, and Mrs. Ellen J. Palen treasurer.

The Congressional Union also sent an organizer into the State in 1916, Mrs. Thompson, who spent some time in Santa Fé, Albuquerque and Las Vegas. The Santa Fé women were sufficiently aroused to hold a street parade and march to the home of U. S. Senator Catron, an opponent, where they gathered on the lawn and made speeches to convince the aged Senator of the wishes of the women as to his conduct in the Senate. Mrs. Joshua Reynolds was made State chairman of the Congressional Union and afterwards Mrs. Nina Otero Warren, and Mrs. A. A. Kellan was legislative chairman, all of Albuquerque. Miss Mabel Vernon came from Washington to hold meetings that year and Miss Anne Martin in 1917, and active work was done.

Washington E. Lindsey was Governor in 1917-18, and in November, 1918, all the suffrage forces in Albuquerque and Santa Fé were invited by Mrs. Lindsey to meet at the Executive Mansion and form a committee to work for suffrage at the coming session of the Legislature. This meeting elected the following officers: Mrs. R. P. Barnes chairman; Mrs. A. B. Stroup secretary; Mrs. Warren legislative chairman; Mrs. John W. Wilson party platform chairman; Mrs. Walter congressional chairman. This committee did good work for suffrage in both the regular and special sessions.

In December, 1919, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and her party of speakers for the ratification of the Federal Amendment came to Albuquerque for the last of several western State conferences. It was arranged by Mrs. Barnes and was carried out with great success. Mrs. Catt spoke at a large luncheon held in the Y. M. C. A. building, which many of the Judges, newspaper representatives and other prominent men and women attended. On account of the great distances few except from Albuquerque and Santa Fé were present but Mrs. Catt's appeal was carried from one end of the State to the other through the public press and created an atmosphere of hope. This was changed to rejoicing as word came that Governor Octaviano A. Larrazolo would call a special session of the Legislature for the ratification.

RATIFICATION. When the time came the Legislature had adjourned and would not meet again until 1921, so a special session would be necessary if it ratified before the presidential election. The opponents concentrated their forces to prevent it and were successful until 1920 but finally were obliged to yield and Governor Larrazolo called the special session for February 16. When it met there was a determined effort by one member, Dan Padillo of Albuquerque, to have a referendum to the voters of the State. All the city was up in arms--men's organizations, the Y. W. C. A., the W. C. T. U., the Woman's Committee, the Woman's Party, individual men and women--until at last he declared that he would vote for the immediate ratification. The vote in the Senate February 18 was 17 ayes, 8 Republicans, 9 Democrats; 5 noes, all Republicans--Gallegos, Mirabel, Lucero (Emiliano), Salazar and Sanchez. The vote in the House February 19 was 36 ayes, 23 Republicans, 13 Democrats; 10 noes, 8 Republicans, 2 Democrats.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. Beginning with 1915 the Federation of Women's Clubs was able to secure some legislation favorable to women and children. In 1916 the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, through its president, Mrs. Harriet L. Henderson, had a Prohibition Amendment endorsed by the State Republican platform which the Legislature submitted to the electors in November, 1917. Both parties, all women's organizations and everybody of influence from the Governor down worked with zeal for its passage. Miss Anna A. Gordon, national president of the W. C. T. U., came to the State in October and was a guest at the convention of the Federated Clubs in Gallup, which voted unanimously to give all the time until the election to work for its success, and parades and much individual effort followed. Women went to the polls with their lists of voters, checking them off as they came and then going for those who had not voted. It was carried by 20,000 majority, the largest percentage vote ever given by any State for prohibition.

As the State constitution rendered it impossible to carry an amendment for woman suffrage the women made no attempt to have the Legislature submit one, but in 1917 some of the Representatives brought an amendment resolution before the House, which promptly killed it. As the State conventions of both political parties this year had declared in favor of woman suffrage, the committee appointed at the meeting in the Governor's mansion asked for the Presidential and Municipal franchise, which the Legislature had power to grant without a referendum to the voters. They made a spirited campaign with all the assistance that Governor Lindsey could give and the suffrage societies throughout the State poured in letters upon the legislators. The vote in the Senate was 9 ayes, 14 noes. Before it was taken in the House a conference was held in the office of the Governor at the Capitol attended by the following workers for the bill: Senator Isaac Barth, National Committeeman; Charles A. Spiess, Holm O. Bursum, Supreme Justice Clarence J. Roberts, Charles Springer, Mrs. Kellam, Mrs. Walter, Mrs. Hughey, chairman of the State suffrage legislative committee; Mrs. Kate Hall, president of the Santa Fé branch of the Congressional Union; Mrs. N. B. Laughlin and Mrs. Lindsey.

The leaders of the two political parties admitted that they could not control their legislators and tried to hold the Spanish-Americans responsible. The House voted on the bill March 7, after a loud, disorderly and acrimonious debate, 26 noes, 21 ayes. The Speaker afterwards explained his affirmative vote by saying that he thought it was to submit the question to the electors! Of the 29 Republican members 10 voted for the bill; of the 18 Democratic members, 11 voted for it.

SUFFRAGE. The convention to prepare a constitution for statehood, which met in 1910, was the battle ground for School suffrage for women. The question was very seriously debated in the Elective Franchise Committee, which many times voted it down only to renew it upon appeal to do so. Mrs. S. F. Culberson, then county school superintendent in Roosevelt county, argued the matter before the committee, and its chairman, Nestor Montoya, cast the deciding vote for it to come before the convention. Both Democrats and Republicans rallied to its support but José D. Sena, Clerk of the Supreme Court, a member of the convention, strenuously opposed it and finally carried it back to be caucused upon by the Republican majority. After a stormy caucus it was returned to the convention and passed. The president of the convention, Charles A. Spiess, spoke urgently in Committee of the Whole to save women's eligibility to the county superintendency from being eliminated. The clause gave women the right to vote for school trustees, on the issuing of bonds and in the local administration of public schools but not for county or State superintendents. It provided that "if a majority of the qualified voters of any school district shall, not less than thirty days before any school election, present a petition to the county commissioners against woman suffrage in that district it shall be suspended and only renewed by a petition of the majority!"

No effort could obtain any larger extension of the franchise to women but the new State constitution gave universal suffrage to men and carefully protected the right to vote of those who could not speak, read or write either the English or Spanish language. It then provided that the suffrage clause could only be amended by having the amendment submitted by a vote of three-fourths of each House of the Legislature. In order to be carried, it must have a three-fourths majority of the highest number voting at a State election and a two-thirds majority of the highest number voting in every county. This was expressly designed to prevent woman suffrage and it destroyed all possibility of it until conferred by a Federal Amendment.

Among the women who worked for woman suffrage in addition to those mentioned in the chapter were Mesdames Margaret Cartright, S. F. Culberson, George W. Carr, Josie Lockard, J. R. Kinyon, H. F. LaBelle, N. J. Strumquist, Margaret Medler, William J. Barker, Lansing Bloom, C. E. Mason, R. P. Donahoe, Ruth Skeen, John W. Wilson, S. C. Nutter, Catherine Patterson, Minnie Byrd, Howard Huey, Alfred Grunsfeld, Edgar L. Hewett, I. H. Elliot and I. H. Rapp.

As all women were fully enfranchised by the Federal Amendment a State branch of the National League of Women Voters was formed with Mrs. Gerald Cassidy as chairman.

FOOTNOTES:

[121] The History is indebted for this chapter to Deane H. (Mrs. Washington E.) Lindsey, State chairman of the National Woman Suffrage Association.

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