History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 5/Chapter 16

 

CHAPTER XVI.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1916.

The year 1916 marked a turning point in the sixty-year-old struggle for woman suffrage. Large delegations of women had attended the Republican and Democratic National Conventions during the summer and for the first time each of them had put into its platform an unequivocal declaration in favor of suffrage for women; the Progressive, Socialist and Prohibition platforms contained similar planks, the last three declaring for a Federal Amendment. It had become one of the leading political issues of the day and a subject of nation-wide interest. The president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, quickly recognized the situation and saw that its official action must not be deferred until the usual time for its annual convention which would be after the presidential elections, therefore the Board of Officers issued a call for an Emergency Convention to meet in Atlantic City, N. J., Sept. 4-10, 1916.^[1] The members throughout the country were much surprised but welcomed the opportunity to visit this beautiful ocean resort. The headquarters were in the famous Hotel Marlborough-Blenheim and after the first day the sessions were held in the large New Nixon Theater on the Board Walk.

After two days of executive meetings the Forty-eighth annual convention opened the morning of September 6 in the handsome St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, granted by the trustees and pastor, with an invocation by the latter, the Rev. A. H. Lucas. Mayor Harry Backarach gave a cordial address of welcome, ending by presenting to Mrs. Catt, who was in the chair, a huge "key to the city and to our hearts" tied with ribbons of blue and gold, the colors of the association. Members of the Board made their official reports at this and other meetings and all were valuable and interesting but space permits only a brief mention of most of them. Miss Hannah J. Patterson (Penn.), corresponding secretary and chairman of organization, told of the division of the national work into six departments with a national officer at the head of each and of moving the national headquarters from 505 Fifth Avenue, corner of 42nd Street, New York, where they had been since 1909, into much larger offices at 171 Madison Avenue, corner of 33rd Street. An entire floor was rented with 3,800 square feet of space, nearly 1,000 more than in the old location. The Publishing Company took part of this, the association retaining ten rooms. Miss Patterson told of the thorough organization work being done under fourteen organizers, who had covered twelve States. She spoke of the need of training schools for organizers and told of the value of combining all departments, data, literature, publishing, organizing, etc., under headquarters management.

Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. J.), third vice-president and head of the Publishing Company, told! of doing field work in Colorado and California to interest their women in the demonstrations which were being planned for the political conventions. She spoke of the large correspondence in connection with the trip of the little "golden flier," saying:

This tour was undertaken by Miss Alice Burke and Miss Nell Richardson, who left New York April 6 to make a circuit of the United States in the interest of the National Association and the cause of suffrage. The Saxon Motor Company donated the car, while the association arranged for entertainment for Miss Burke and Miss Richardson along the route and for expenses over and above the collections taken at their meetings, of which they have held one a day in the closely settled States. They reached San Francisco early in June and are now on their way east. From each State through which they have passed we have had appreciative letters of their endurance and courage as automobilists and of their worth as public speakers. They have suffered actual privations crossing the desert and more recently, in the Bad Lands of the northwest. They were on the Mexican border during the raids and their car had to be pulled out of rivers during the floods; their courage has never faltered and they have given another proof of the well-kwown fact that you can't discourage a suffragist. They set out to make a circuit of the United States with the same determination that we all have set out to win our enfranchisement and they will not give up until the circuit is made. So far nineteen States have been included in the itinerary and it is planned to cover six more. The newspaper publicity has been nation-wide....

Later Miss Ogden made her report for the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company. "We exist," she said, "for two purposes—to serve the suffrage cause throughout the country and to prove that we can serve that cause and also develop a successful business." She spoke of the devoted office staff, under the business manager, Miss Anna De Baun, who had made personal sacrifices again and again when necessary.

The report of the recording secretary, Mrs. Mary Foulke Morrisson (Ills.), to whom had been entrusted the organization of the great parade of suffragists during the National Republican Convention in Chicago and especially its financing, stated that $6,699 had been raised by the State and Chicago Equal Suffrage Associations; $200 by the Chicago Political Equality League and some hundreds of dollars by local leagues and individuals. She paid high tribute to the unwearying work of Mrs. Medill McCormick, who, speaking and organizing in the city and outlying towns "won the support of whole sections of the community that had hitherto been utterly indifferent." Mrs. Morrisson herself had spoken fifty times in the interest of the parade in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Iowa and the Mississippi Valley Conference.

The report of the national treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, was received with much appreciation of her money-getting ability and satisfactory accounting. The total receipts for the year were $81,863 and the close of the fiscal year found a balance on hand of $8,869. The largest contributions had been $500 each from the State associations of Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The National College Equal Suffrage League gave $450. The expenditures in round numbers were: Headquarters, including salaries, expenses of conventions, etc., $16,531; publicity, $9,096; National Congressional Committee, $4,676; publishing News Letter, $982; contributions to campaigns, $21,131; demonstrations, organization, etc., $20,000.

In commenting Mrs. Rogers said: "Nothing to my mind indicates so vividly the progress of equal suffrage as the comparative ease with which the largest budget in the history of the National Association was pledged and most of it paid by August 25, and the fact that an excess of that budget amounting to many thousands of dollars has been raised three months before the usual convention date. 'Money talks' and it is saying this year: 'No cause in which I could be used appeals to me as does this fundamental one of enfranchising women, of opening the door to let them enter and help to make a more Christian civilization.' Literally we have had only to ask and it has been given unto us. Scores and hundreds of women in sending their generous gifts have said: 'Would that my check were ten times as large!' The wonderful spirit of kindliness and ardent desire to cooperate have touched the treasurer's heart deeply and made the work of the passing year a real joy. I am confident that all necessary funds for suffrage expenditures—national, State and local—can be raised, even to a million dollars, if more systematic work is done on the financial side in the States.... " Mrs. Rogers outlined the business methods that should be used and expressed her obligations to her committee of fifty on finance for their helpful support.

Mrs. Walter McNab Miller (Mo.), first auditor, in the report of her field work told of days, weeks and months spent in visiting cities from New York to St. Louis, holding conferences and meetings and writing hundreds of letters to raise money and arrange for the demonstration to be held in St. Louis during the Democratic National Convention—the "walkless parade," to which the Missouri Suffrage Association contributed nearly $2,000. She attended State suffrage and political conventions and the biennial of the General Federation of Women's Clubs in New York. "And then came Chicago," the report said, "with its exciting surge, its march in the rain and its near-victory plank, followed by St. Louis with its 'golden lane' of suffragists and a plank a little less pleasing; another trip to Indianapolis with our Chief—and the most momentous June in suffrage history was. over." The report told of the journey to Cheyenne to attend the Council of Women Voters; the addresses of the present Democratic Governor Kendrick and the former Republican Governor and U. S. Senator Carey; the two days at the State University in Laramie, "the guest of one of the best-known suffragists in the State, Professor Grace Raymond Hebard"; the visit in Denver, "asking questions and being interviewed." "All of this," she said, "sent me back firmly convinced that the western women want to help us in our battle and only wait for a definite program of work."

The second auditor, Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Ala.), in the report of her field work showed an equally full schedule. She had been present at every board meeting but one, of which she was notified too late; as a member of the Congressional Committee had assisted with the lobby work in Washington; had attended a three-days' State conference in Nashville and spoken three times; the Mississippi State convention and spoken twice; spoken in Savannah and Asheville and at the May-day celebration of the Nashville League; attended the Chicago and St. Louis demonstrations and spent the intervening times in raising the money to meet her pledge of $2,000 for her State to the National Association.

Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, chairman of the Press Department, stated that this was largely a nominal position, as the practical work was done by professionals and would be related in the report from the Publicity department. The reports of the national officers were concluded by that of Mrs. Catt, chairman of the Campaign and Survey Committee, a new feature of the association. It began: "For the purpose of making a survey of suffrage conditions throughout the nation, either an offiNATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQI6 485 cer of the National Board or some person or persons represent- ing the Board have visited nearly every State in the Union. I have myself visited twenty-three States; Miss Hauser and Miss Walker visited nine enfranchised States; Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Jacobs, Mrs. Morrisson and Mrs. Rogers have each visited sev- eral ; Mrs. Roessing and Miss Patterson have made a number of trips to West Virginia. Our chief motive was to learn conditions. To corroborate our impressions questionnaires were sent to all the State associations in January and again in July. As a result of the information obtained the National Board is convinced that our movement has reached a crisis which if recognized will open the way to a speedy and final victory." Mrs. Catt expressed the belief that in the future a better under- standing between national and State boards would be possible and spoke of the visits of herself and other national officers to West Virginia and South Dakota, where woman suffrage amend- ments -would be voted on in November. She then took up the case of Iowa, where one had been defeated the past June, and made an analysis of a situation which had existed here and in nearly all States where defeats had taken place as follows : When the present Board came into office. Iowa was in cam- paign and but a few months remained for work. In January 1 met with the State Board and we counselled together concerning the needs of the campaign ; later I met with it on three different occasions and one month to speaking in the State. The National Board con- tributed S- ooo to the campaign from the legacy of Mary J. Cogge- shall of Iowa and gave one organizer from January i until the vote was taken. It also sent shakers and workers toward the end of the campaign. The various States contributed generously through the national treasury. The campaign camp up splendidly at the last. Men, I believe, stip- f it more earnestly than the- ; n other Slates. One of th" l"^-t - ; any State has had. under the direction was at work for some months. The able president, Miss Flora Dunlap, gave all her time and ability, re many brilliant forays v: uly effective, but nothing coul -i weakness which has appeared in every 't is the inability of newlv-formcd. untrained corn- mitt' >. It will be near the nk spots inn rein . Another difficulty that mo' ic close of the campaign when all 486 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE the efforts of workers were demanded by other duties. This has been the trouble in most States. The lesson we must learn is that at the beginning a money-raising plan must be formed and car- ried out and pledges must be made to cover the major portion of the cost before the real campaign is begun. Toward the close there are many things which ought to be done but are left undone for want of money. State committees grow timid because they do not see the money in sight and naturally trim their budgets to the point which renders defeat inevitable. Iowa, like every other State, showed opposition from the "wets," tricks of politicians and the rounding up of every drunkard and out- cast to vote against the amendment. The unprecedented result was that 35,000 more votes were cast on the suffrage proposition than on the Governor. This could only have been brought about by inducements of some sort which were made to the lowest elements of the population. This story differs in coloring and detail with each campaign but varies little as to general fact. It must be borne in mind and our campaigns must be so good that these purchasable and controllable elements will be outvoted. A number of men worked against the amendment in Iowa and men are working at this time in South Dakota and West Virginia. Who employs or pays these men we have never been able to dis- cover. Their ordinary method is to secure strictly private meet- ings of men only, where they spread the basest of untruths. All past campaigns point to the necessity of waging those of the future with a distinct understanding that the worst elements of the popu- lation will be lined up by this unscrupulous, well-supported, combined opposition of men and of women. The women appeal to the respec- table elements of the community; the men make little pretense in this direction. There is a sure alliance between the two. The first public session was held Thursday afternoon and the delegates looked forward with keen enjoyment to the "three- cornered debate" on -what had become a paramount question. Mrs. Catt was in the chair. Each leader was to have ten min- utes and her second five minutes to speak in the affirmative only ; when the six had presented their arguments there was to be free discussion from the floor, and, after all who had wished had spoken, each leader would have ten minutes to answer the op- position to her point of view. The program was as follows : Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association drop work on the Federal Amendment and confine its activities to State legislation? Leader, Miss Laura Clay, Kentucky; sec- ond, Miss Kate Gordon, Louisiana. Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 487 drop work for State Referenda and concentrate on the Federal Amendment? Leader, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, New York; second, Mrs. Glendower Evans, Massachusetts. Shall the present policy of the National American Woman Suf- frage Association to work for woman suffrage "by appropriate National and State legislation" be continued? Leader, Mrs. Ray- mond Brown, New York; second, Miss Florence Allen, Ohio. The alternative amendments to the constitution -will then be put : I. To strike out the words "National and." II. To strike out the words "and State." If both are lost, the constitution will re- main as it is and the National American Woman Suffrage Asso- ciation will stand pledged to both Federal and State campaigns. The speakers presented their arguments with great earnestness; the discussion was vigorously carried on and the rebuttals were made with much spirit. By request the honorary president, Dr. Shaw, who was sitting on the platform, closed the debate and she strongly urged that there should be no change in the policy of the association. The convention voted overwhelmingly in favor of continuing to work for both National and State constitutional amendments, nearly all of the southern delegates joining in this vote. Mrs. Harper then rose to a question of personal privilege and said that she should consider it a great calamity for the association to discontinue its work for State amendments and that she only took the opposite side at the urgent request of Mrs. Catt, with the promise that she should be permitted to make this explanation. Mrs. Evans made a similar statement and the audi- ence, which had been mystified by their position, had a hearty laugh. This debate and the vote of the convention restored the 'i at ion to its position of standing for the original Federal Suffrage Amendment and working for amendments of State con- stitutions as a means to this end. In the evening a brilliant reception for the officers and delc- is given in the large drawing-room of the Marlborougli- Blcnheim by the Atlantic City Woman Suffrage Club and the New Jersey State Association. The convention was opened in the New Nixon Theater Thurs- day morning with prayer by the Rev. Thomas J. Cross, pastor <>t' the Chelsea Baptist Church, and much routine business was dis488 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE posed of. The constitution was changed so as to exclude from membership all organizations not in harmony with the policy of the association and the term of the officers was extended from one to two years. A unique program was carried out in the afternoon under the direction of the second vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick The Handicapped States, a Con- crete Lesson in Constitutions. The States whose constitutions practically could not be amended were grouped under these heads : The Impossibles ; The Insuperables ; The Inexecutables ; The Im- probables; The Indubitables ; The Inexcusables ; The Irreproach- ables. Each group was represented by one or more women who quoted from the constitutions. It was intended as an object les- son to show the necessity for a Federal Amendment. At 3 130 Mrs. Catt began her president's address before an audience that filled the large theater and listened with intense interest until the last word was spoken at five o'clock. It was a masterly review of the movement for woman suffrage and a pro- gram for the work now necessary to bring it to a successful end. The opening sentences were as follows : I have taken for my subject, "The Crisis," because I believe that a crisis has come in our movement which, if recognized and the opportunity seized with vigor, enthusiasm and will, means the final victory of our great cause in the very near future. I am aware that some suffragists do not share in this belief ; they see no signs nor symptoms today which were not present yesterday; no manifesta- tions in the year 1916 which differ significantly from those in the year 1910. To them, the movement has been a steady, normal growth from the beginning and must so continue until the end. I can only defend my claim with the plea that it is better to imagine a crisis where none exists than to fail to recognize one when it comes, for a crisis is a culmination of events which calls for new considera- tions and new decisions. A failure to answer the call may mean an opportunity lost, a possible victory postponed. . . . This address, coming at the moment when woman suffrage was accepted as inevitable by the President of the United States and all the political parties, was regarded as the key-note of the beginning of a campaign which would end in victory. In pamph- let form it was used as a highly valued campaign document. Mrs. Catt showed the impossibility of securing suffrage for all the women of the country by the State method and pointed out NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 489 that the Federal Amendment was the one and only way. "Our cause has been caught in a snarl of constitutional obstructions and inadequate election laws," she said, after drawing upon her own experience to show the hazards of State referenda, and we have a right to appeal to our Congress to extricate it from this tangle. If there is any chivalry left this is the time for it to come forward and do an act of simple justice. In my judgment the women of this land not only have the right to sit on the steps of Congress until it acts but it is their self-respecting duty to insist upon their enfranchisement by that route. . . . Were there never another convert made there are suffragists enough in this country, if combined, to make so irresistible a driving force that victory might be seized at once. How can it be done? a simple change of mental attitude. If you are to seize the victory, that change must take place in this hall, here and now. The crisis is here, but if the call goes unheeded, if our women think it means the vote without a struggle, if they think other women can and will pay the price of their emancipation, the hour may pass and our political liberty may not be won. . . . The character of a man is measured by his will. The same is true of a movement. Then unll to be free." The address made a deep impression and was accepted as a call to arms. Throughout the convention open-air meetings were held on the 'Iwalk addressed by popular suffrage speakers and thousands in the great crowds that throng this noted thoroughfare were in- ted listeners. The Friday morning session was enlivened by a resolution offered by Mrs. Raymond Robins, which said that thk Emergency Convention had been called to plan for the final which would lead to nation-wide enfranchisement of

n: that the method of amending State constitutions meant

delay: that many national candidates in all parties had de- f in favor of a Federal Amendment, and therefore the rites in this convention urged that in the present campaign suffragists should support for national office only those candi- ho pledged their support to this amendment. The dele- quickly recognized that this meant to endorse Judge Charles ies for president, although President Wilson was to address the convention that evening. Party feeling ran high VOX. V 49 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE but still stronger was the determination of the convention that the association should not depart from its policy of absolute non-partisanship. Motions were made and amendments offered and the discussion raged for two hours. Dr. Shaw spoke strongly against the resolution and finally it was defeated by a large majority. Later Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago offered a resolution which after several amendments read: "We re-affirm our non-partisan attitude concerning national political parties but this policy does not preclude the right of any member to work against any candidate who opposes woman suffrage, nor shall it refer to the personal attitude of enfranchised women." This was carried enthusiastically. A resolution by Mrs. J. Claude Bedford (Penn.) for a vigorous publicity campaign to make clear the association's non-partisan policy was passed. There had been such marked increase of public opinion in favor of woman suffrage in the southern States and so many of their able women had come into the association that a "Dixie evening" had been arranged. Mrs. Catt presided and the follow- ing program was presented: Master Words Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, president Texas Woman Suffrage Association; Kentucky and Her Constitution Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith, president Kentucky Equal Rights Association; The Evolution of Woman Mrs. Eugene Reilley, vice-president General Federation of Women's Clubs and vice-president North Carolina Woman Suffrage Association; Progress of Today and Traditions of Yes- terday Mrs. Edward McGehee, president Mississippi Federation of Women's Clubs ; For Woman Herself Mrs. Lila Mead Valen- tine, president Virginia Equal Suffrage League ; The Southern Temperament as Related to Woman Suffrage Mrs. Guilford Dudley, president Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association, Inc. ; Real Americanism Mrs. T. T. Cotnam, vice-president Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association. Southern women have a natural gift of oratory and the audience -was delightfully entertained. But three of these addresses were published and space can be given only to brief extracts. 'There is in America today," Mrs. Cotnam said, "a large class of people who are restless and dissatisfied and are smarting under the injustice of being governed without their consent. This is NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 4QI a class with the blood of the Pilgrim mothers in their veins of those who cheerfully endured untold hardships as the price of liberty; a class with the blood of the Revolutionary fathers in their veins of those who gave their lives that their children might be free ; a class who are the rightful joint heirs -with all the people of the United States of the heritage of freedom but whose inheritance after 140 years is still kept 'in trust.' ' She referred to the anxiety of Congress "to make the Filipinos a self -govern- ing people after only a few years of American tutelage while 140 s have not been enough to equip American women for self- government," and said : "Political leaders say America is 'the way- mark of all people seeking liberty' and yet one-half of the Ameri- can people have never known liberty. They promise justice to the oppressed of every land who are seeking refuge and practice injustice against one-half of those whose homes have always been here. Every citizen of the United States is jealous of her standing among the nations and just now each political party is claiming to be the only worthy custodian of national honor. It ith amazement we read the arraignment of one party by another and note that in no instance have they taken each other to task for injustice to American women which violates the fundamental principle of democracy, 'Equal rights for all, special privileges to none.' . . . Americanism it stands for the recog- nition of the equality of men and women before the law of man as they are equal before the law of God. Americanism it stands for truth triumphant. Americanism it will find its full realiza- tion when men and women meet upon a plane of equal rights with a united desire to maintain peace, to guard the nation's honor, Ivance prosperity and to secure the happiness of the people." "We are a race of dreamers in the South by choice and be- o of climatic conditions." said Mrs. Guilford Dudley in an icnt address. After a keenly sarcastic comparison between southern chivalry and the unjust laws for women, and the obser- vation that "the only business a southern girl is taught is the business of hearts," she said : it was a question of woman's rights; as long as the fight liacl ,-inv a] of being against man; as long as there d to be a vestige of sex antagonism, the southern woman 492 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE stood with her back turned squarely toward the cause. She wouldn't even turn around to look at it, she would have none of it, but when she awoke slowly to a social consciousness, when eyes and brain were at last free, after a terrible reconstruction period, to look out upon the world as a whole ; when she found particularly among the more fortunate classes that her leisure had come to mean laziness; when she realized that through the changed conditions of modern life so much of her work had been taken out of the home, leaving her to choose between following it into the world or remaining idle; when with a clearer vision she saw that her help in governmental affairs, especially where they touched her own interests, was much needed right about face she turned and said to the southern man : "I don't wish to usurp your place in government but it is time I had my own. T don't complain of the way you have conducted your part of the business but my part has been either badly managed or not managed at all. Tn the past you have not shown yourself averse to accept- ing my help in very serious matters; my courage and fortitude and wisdom you have continually praised. Now that there is a closer connection between the government and the home than ever before in the history of the world, I ask that you will let me help you." Mrs. Dudley described the effect of the demand for woman suf- frage on the politicians, on the men who feared they would be "reformed," on the sentimentalists, and then she paid tribute to the broad-minded, justice-loving men who encouraged the women in their new aspirations and concluded: "So you see not only the southern woman but the southern man is now awake and present conditions strongly indicate that before another year has passed we will have some form of suffrage for the woman of Tennessee. . . . We have had a vision a vision of a time when a woman's home will be the whole wide world, her children all those whose feet are bare and her sisters all who need a helping hand ; a vision of a new knighthood, a new chivalry, when men will not only fight for women but for the rights of women." The plea of Mrs. Valentine for a higher womanhood should be given in full but an idea at least can be gained by a quotation : If I were asked to give one reason above all others for advocat- ing the enfranchisement of women I should unhesitatingly reply, "The necessity for the complete development of woman as a prerequi- site for the highest development of the race." Just so long as woman remains under guardianship, as if she were a minor or an incom- petent just so long as she passively accepts at the hands of men conditions, usages, laws, as if they were decrees of Providence just so long as she is deprived of the educative responsibilities of selfNATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 493 government by just so much does she fall short of complete develop- ment as a human being and retard the progress of the race. We are the children of our mothers as well as of our fathers and we inherit the defects as well as the perfections of both. Many a man goes down in his business is a "failure in life," as the phrase goes because he is the son of an undeveloped mother and, like her, is lacking in independence, in initiative, in ability to seize upon golden opportunities. Yet she was trained to passivity, to submission, to the obliteration of whatever personality she may have possessed. What more could we expect of her son? Imagine for a moment the effect upon men had they from infancy been subjected to the narrowing, ossifying processes applied to women for centuries ! Happily for the race, however, the great majority of women are waking from the sleep of centuries, are eagerly stretching out their hands for the key that is to open wide the door of larger oppor- tunity. Happily, too, the forward-looking men of today are seeing the vision of womanhood released from the old-world thraldom. In rapidly increasing numbers they are welcoming the new woman, in whom they find not only the wife and mother more fully equipped for her task but a comrade of congenial tastes, keenly interested in the outside world and capable of taking her place beside the husband, whether in peace or war, wherever her country calls. . . . The suffrage movement is a world-wide protest against the mental subjection of woman. Therein lies its vital importance. It strikes into the core of life. It is a basic, fundamental reform, for it is releasing for the service of the State the unused natural resources dormant in womanhood; it is transforming the dependent woman voman enfranchised that she may the more perfectly fulfill her destiny as the mother of the race. The morning and afternoon sessions were crowded with re- ports, conferences and business of various kinds in which the delegates were keenly interested. Mrs. Grace Thompson Seton, chairman of the Art Publicity Committee, gave an interesting account of its work, told of the prizes that had been offered for posters and slogans and the cooperation of men and women promi- in the literary, artistic and social world; of the "teas" given at the national headquarters, bringing many who had never visited i before; of the beautiful banners and costumes designed for ^uffrage parades and other features of this somewhat neg- <1 side of the work for woman The chairman of ature Committee, Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore, subm a comprehensive report of t! ; of that department, ng and 1 the endeavor to ascertain and meet tl. I Suffrage Study Outline, a Blue 494 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE Book Suffrage School and Mrs. Annie G. Porritt's Laws Relating to Women and Children had been published; literature for the rural districts, for the home, for campaigns, placards, fliers and an endless number of novelties. It would be impossible to give in a few paragraphs even an idea of the carefully prepared report of Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, the skilled head of the Data Department, which filled eight printed pages. It told of the progress that had been made in organizing the department, the wide scope of the collections and the increasing demand for information from many sources. It would be equally difficult to do justice to the sixteen printed pages of the report of Charles T. Heaslip, national publicity director. He had organized a publicity council, which thus far had members in twenty-six States. His full knowledge of the large syndicates had enabled him to keep the subject before the public throughout the country; he had made wide use of photographs, cartoons, posters and moving pictures. Hundreds of papers on the route of the "golden flier'* had been supplied with pictures and stories. He had gone to Iowa to assist in the campaign there and he described also the large amount of publicity work done at the time the suffragists were making their national demonstrations dur- ing the presidential conventions in Chicago and St. Louis. He showed how victory could be hastened by thorough publicity work in every State from Maine to California. Later the Chair an- nounced the receipt of a letter from the press, signed by repre- sentatives of nineteen newspapers at the convention, expressing their thanks to Mr. Heaslip and their hearty appreciation of his services, without which they could not have handled its press work in a satisfactory manner. Under the topic How and Where to Drive the Entering Wedge, Miss Florence Allen of Ohio told of the openings offered by amending city charters for woman suffrage and Mrs. Roger G. Perkins described the successful campaign in East Cleveland for this purpose. The recent campaigns in West Virginia and South Dakota were discussed by the State presidents, Mrs. Ellis A. Yost and Mrs. John L. Pyle; that of Iowa by Mrs. Geyer, publicity director, and the work in Tennessee for a constitutional convention by Mrs. James M. McCormack, State president. The NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 495 chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee, Mrs. Robert S. Huse (N. J.), reported that bills had been introduced in the Legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Kentucky and Rhode Island, public hearings being granted by the first three, but no vote was taken. Is Limited Suffrage Worth While? was answered by Mrs. George Bass (Ills.) who declared it to be "a positive influence for good"; it was called by Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout (Ills.) "a step toward full suffrage ; by Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (Ohio) "a help to other States." Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch de- scribed "the chances opened by the Illinois law." It was the con- sensus of opinion that partial suffrage -was quite worth striving for. This was directly opposed to that heretofore held by the association but in the past only a Municipal vote had been asked for and Kansas alone had granted it. Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) made a strong presentation of the Elections Bill, which would permit women to vote for members of Congress. What Kansas Thinks about Woman Suffrage was graphically told by Mrs.

. Y. Morgan, president of the State association. Help from 

the West was promised by Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe (Wash.), president of the National Council of Women Voters. The climax of the convention came on the evening of Septem- ber 8 with the address of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. Only once before had a President appeared before a national suffrage convention when William Howard Taft made a ten-minute speech of welcome to Washington in 1910 but without committing himself to the movement. When the present convention was called, after the endorsement of woman suffrage by the national conventions of all parties, the two lead- ing candidates for President were invited to address it. Judge Hughes, who had declared in favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, answered that he would be too far away on a speaking tour to reach Atlantic City. President Wilson wrote that he would endeavor to arrange his itinerary so as to be present. Later he announced that he would come and would remain throughout the evening. Undoubtedly he never before faced such an audience. The greatest care had been taken to ex- clude all but delegates and invited guests and from the stage HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE of the theater to the back stretched tier after tier of white-robed women, while the boxes were rilled with prominent people, mostly women. As he came from the street to the stage with Mrs. Wil- son, also gowned in white, he passed through a lane of suffragists, one from each State, designated by banners, with broad sashes of blue and gold across their breasts. He was accompanied by Pri- vate Secretary Tumulty and several distinguished men and the entire stage behind the decorations of palms and other plants was surrounded by a cordon of the secret service. Forty-three large newspapers throughout the country were represented at the reporters' table. The President had asked to speak last and he listened with much interest to a program of noted public workers as follows: Why Women Need the Vote. The Call of the Working Woman for the Protection of the Woman's Vote Mrs. Raymond Robins, president of National Women's Trades Union League. Mothers in Politics Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of National Children's Bureau. A Necessary Safeguard to Public Morals Dr. Katha- rine Bement Davis, Chief of Parole Commission, New York City. Working Children Dr. Owen R. Love joy, general secre- tary of National Child Labor Committee. Each speaker empha- sized the necessity for the enfranchisement of women as a means for the nation's highest welfare. Mrs. Catt was in the chair and introduced the President, who said with much earnestness and sincerity : Madam President, Ladies of the Association: I have found it a real privilege to be here tonight and to listen to the addresses which you have heard. Though you may not all of you believe it, I would a great deal rather hear somebody else speak than speak myself, but I would feel that I was omitting a duty if I did not address you tonight and say some of the things that have been in my thoughts as I realized the approach of this evening and the duty that would fall upon me. The astonishing thing about the movement which you represent is not that it has grown so slowly but that it has grown so rapidly. No doubt for those who have been a long time in the struggle, like your honored president, it seems a long and arduous path that has been trodden, but when you think of the cumulating force of the movement in recent decades you must agree with me that it is one of the most astonishing tides in modern history. Two generations ago no doubt Madam President will agree with me in saying this NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 497 it was a handful of women who were fighting for this cause ; now it is a great multitude of women who are fighting for it. There are some interesting historical connections which I should like to attempt to point out to you. One of the most striking facts about the history of the United States is that at the outset it was a lawyers' history. Almost all of the questions to which America addressed itself, say a hundred years ago, were legal questions; were questions of methods, not questions of what you were going to do with your government but questions of how you were going to constitute your government; how you were going to balance the powers of the State and the Federal government; how you were going to balance the claims of property against the processes of liberty; how you were going to make up your government so as to balance the parts against each other, so that the Legislature would check the Executive and the Executive the Legislature. The idea of government when the United States became a nation was a mechanical conception and the me- chanical conception which underlay it was the Newtonian theory of the universe. If you take up the Federalist you see that some parts of it read like a treatise on government. They speak of the centrifu- gal and centripetal forces and locate the President somewhere in a rotating system. The whole thing is a calculation of power and adjustment of parts. There was a time when nobody but a lawyer could know enough to run the government of the United States. . . . And then something happened. A great question arose in this country which, though complicated with legal elements, was at bot- tom a human question and nothing but a question of humanity. That was the slavery question, and is it not significant that it was then, and then for the first time, that women became prominent in politics in America? Not many women those prominent in that are so few that you can almost name them over in a brief catalogue but, nevertheless, they then began to play a part not only in writing but in public speech, which was a very novel part for women to play in America; and after the Civil War had settled some of what seemed to be the most difficult legal questions of our in the life of the nation began not only to unfold but to 'nulate. Life in the United States was a comparatively simple matter at the time of the Civil War. There was none of that underground vhich is now so manifest to those who look only a little -ith the surface. Stories such as Dr. Davis has told tonight uncommon in those simpler days. The pressure of low wages, c?ony of obscure and unremuneratcd toil did not exist in America ing like the same proportions as they exist now. And as our Med and accumulated, as the contacts of it have become Nations have assembled in the cities and the cool

the country have ' i -nted lv feverish urban

' whole nature of our ] have ceased to be legal qtie . hey have more and more 498 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE become social questions, questions with regard to the relations of human beings to one another, not merely their legal relations but their moral and spiritual relations to one another. This has been most characteristic of American life in the last few decades, and as these questions have assumed greater and greater prominence the movement which this association represents has gathered cumulative force, so that when anybody asks himself, What does this gathering force mean? if he knows anything about the history of the country he knows that it means something which has not only come to stay but has come with conquering power. I get a little impatient sometimes about the discussion of the channels and methods by which it is to prevail. It is going to prevail and that is a very superficial and ignorant view of it which attributes it to mere social unrest. It is not merely because women are discon- tented, it is because they have seen visions of duty, and that is something that we not only can not resist but if we be true Ameri- cans we do not wish to resist. Because America took its origin in visions of the human spirit, in aspirations for the deepest sort of lilnTty of the mind and heart, and, as visions of that sort come to the sight of those who are spiritually minded America comes more and more into its birthright and into the perfection of its develop- ment; so that what we have to realize is that in dealing with forces of this sort we are dealing with the substance of life itself. I have felt as I sat here tonight the wholesome contagion of the occasion. Almost every other time that I ever visited Atlantic City 1 came to fight somebody. I hardly know how to conduct myself vlic-n / have not come to fight anybody but with somebody. 1 have come to suggest among other things that when the forces of nature are working steadily and the tide is rising to meet the moon, you need not be afraid that it will not come to its flood. We feel the tide; we rejoice in the strength of it, and we shall not quarrel in the long run as to the method of it, because, when you are working with masses of men and organized bodies of opinion, you have got to carry the organized body along. The whole art and practice of government consist not in moving individuals but in moving masses. It is all very well to run ahead and beckon, but, after all, you have got to wait for them to follow. I have not come to ask you to be patient, because you have been, but I have come to congratulate you that there has been a force behind you that will beyond any peradventure be triumphant and for which you can afford a little while to wait. When President Wilson had finished amid enthusiastic ap- plause Mrs. Catt asked Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary presi- dent, to respond. She was much moved by the occasion and taking the last sentence of the address for a text she eloquently told how women had already worked and waited for more than three score years. "We have waited long enough for the vote, we want NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 4QQ it now," she exclaimed, and then turning to the President with her irresistible smile she finished, "and we want it to come in your administration!" He smiled and bowed and the whole audience rose in a sea of waving handkerchiefs as he took his' departure. The President of the United States had said : "Your cause is going to prevail ; I have come to fight with you ; we shall not quarrel as to the method !" The other speeches of the evening were all of a high order. Mrs. Robins, as always, made an unanswerable argument for giving women wage earners the protection of the ballot. "In the Children's Bureau," Miss Lathrop said, "-we have come to see the close connection between the welfare of mother and child. tuse we are so concerned for the children we asked a physician to take those vast, mysterious volumes of the census and look up the facts about the mortality of mothers. Last year in the I nited States more than 15,000 women lost their lives carrying on the life of the race. The death rate from other things, such yphoid and diphtheria, has been cut in half but between 1900 and 1913 maternal mortality was not lessened but seem- ingly increased; yet this waste of life is just as preventable as those diseases, for medical science has shown that with proper care the dangers of childbirth can be made very small. Just as as women are allowed a voice in public affairs it is their duty to see that no mother and child shall perish for lack of care. Every country should have a mother and child welfare center. When a memorial was lately proposed for a woman who had died in the war, a well-known man said : 'We can enfranchise her sex in tribute to the valor which she proved that it possessed.' not too much to give suffrage to women in tribute to the 15,000 who are dying every year in this great duty and service; yet we do not ask the ballot for women as a reward but because. duty and a service, we ought to ask for it. . . ." "Woman suffrage is needed in the interest of good morals," 1 )r. I tavis'fl address, who said : You cannot righteousness into the human heart hut you educe to a minimum the temptations that are offered to youth. you can stpp commercialized vice and the manu- facture oi criminals. I am not one of those who think that the 5OO HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE millenium will come soon after women get the vote, but I believe that women will take an unusual interest in the effort to clean up vicious conditions, because all down the ages women have paid the ^ price of vice and crime. 1 do not believe that at heart a man is any worse than a woman, but all through the centuries he lias been taught that he may do some things which a woman may not. It is only of late that we have begun to light these things in the open and you cannot suc- cessfully fight any evil in the dark. For sixteen years my work has brought me in contact with this peculiar phase of public morals and I know whereof I speak. Public morals are corrupted because woman's point of view has no representation. We have laws to regulate these things but they are man-made and the public senti- ment behind them which should govern their enforcement has grown up through the ages and it is the sentiment of men only. The laws are not equal nor equally enforced. If you doubt it you have only to go into the night court and you will see woman after woman convicted on the word of a policeman only, while in order to con- vict a man you have to pile evidence on evidence. I think this inequality of treatment will not cease till women get a vote. In a very convincing address Dr. Lovejoy said : The past month has been memorable in the history of child labor reform in America. A three-years' campaign culminated last Fri- day in the signing of a bill by President Wilson which excludes from the facilities of interstate commerce the exploiters of child labor, it has been estimated that 150,000 children who now bow under the yoke of excessive toil will be able to straighten up and look heaven in the face when this law begins to operate on the first of next September. In signing the bill the President said: "I want to say that with real emotion I sign this bill, because I know how long the struggle has been to secure legislation of this sort and what it is going to mean to the health and vigor of this country and also to the happiness of those whom it affects. It is with genuine pride that I play my part in completing legislation." 1 am convinced that we need the voice of the church, the school, the home, in making and enforcing laws to protect working children, and, since half the adult population of our American homes are women, since approximately 75 per cent, of the church members are women, since 90 per cent, of the school teachers are women and since every moral and educational enterprise in the country is repre- sented in about the same proportion, cold logic forces us to the conclusion that we need women in politics. Of 10,000 members of the National Child Labor Committee, 6,400 are women. Some of the experiences we have had with men in Legislatures in response to the appeal of mothers for the protection of working children have forced me to the conclusion that in this protection the partici- pation of women in the law-making of the State is vital. N OF TQl6 5OI The primary nominations and elections were held with voting machines and when the result was announced it was found that all the old board was nominated with the exception of Mrs. Roessing, Miss Patterson and Mrs. Morrisson, who declined to stand for re-election. Their places were filled with Mrs. Frank J. Shuler (N. Y.), corresponding secretary; Mrs. Thomas Jef- ferson Smith (Ky.), recording secretary and Miss Heloise Meyer (Mass.), first auditor. As there were no other candidates the secretary was unanimously requested by the convention to cast its vote. This was a remarkable record for 543 delegates. A national suffrage flag was adopted, the gift of Pennsylvania a yellow field with fringed edges, in the center a circle of eleven blue stars representing the equal suffrage States enclosing an eagle on the wing holding the globe in its talons. Mrs. J. O. Miller in behalf oT the president made an eloquent presentation. Miss Clay moved a resolution on her Elections Bill that the convention endeavor to protect women citizens in their right to vote for U. S. Senators and Representatives and with this ob- ject in view endorse this bill introduced by Senator Robert L. Ocn (Okla.). This motion was carried. Mrs. Catt stated that the resolution of Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett (Ky.) was similar and this also was passed. A large number of letters and tele- grams were read from eminent men and women and from societies of many kinds. Mrs. Catt stated that in not one had it been suggested that the association lessen its activities for the ral Amendment. The convention then adopted a resolution instructing the Congressional Committee "to concentrate all its resources on a determined effort to carry this amendment through the next session of Congress." Invitations for the next convention were received from nine tings were sent to three of the original surviving pioneers, the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of New Jersey; Judith : th of Massachusetts and Miss F.niily How- land of New York. Tlv - ere introduced who brought from the N Fqual Franchise Union of Can and ' rnpbell McTvor rcsponde ix?cial vote of th rett Hay and Miss Lulu IT. Marvel,

of the General Committee of mcnis. fr 5O2 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE

perfect management of President Wilson's visit to the conven- tion. Among those submitted by the Committee on Resolutions, Mrs. Alice Duer Miller (N. Y.), chairman, and adopted were the following: Whereas, all political parties in their national platforms have endorsed the principle of woman suffrage, be it Resolved, That the National American Woman Suffrage Associa- tion in convention assembled calls upon Congress to submit to the States the Constitutional Amendment providing nation-wide suffrage for women. Whereas, the Democratic and Republican parties in endorsing the principle of woman suffrage have specially recognized the right of the States to settle the question for themselves, we call upon these parties in the States where amendment campaigns are in progress to take immediate action to obtain the enfranchisement of women, and in other States to take such action as the suffrage organizations deem expedient. Whereas, honest elections are vital to good government in this country and to the decisions in the campaigns for woman suffrage; and Whereas, public records of all funds used in political campaigns will benefit our movement in that they will bring to light its real opponents, therefore Resolved, That this convention urges the passage by Congress and the States of a thorough and comprehensive Corrupt Practices Act providing effectual punishment for offenders. That in recognition of Miss Clara Barton's lifelong support of woman suffrage, as well as her service to the country in founding the American Red Cross and standing at its head for more than a quarter of a century, this association endorses the bill recently introduced in Congress providing for an appropriation of $1,000 to place a suitable memorial to Miss Barton in the Red Cross Building now being constructed in the city of Washington. That we express our profound sympathy with the women in the countries now at war and our sense of the advance that has been made in the cause of all women by the devotion, ability and courage with which those women have risen to the new demands on them. That we express our deep appreciation of the great honor the President of the United States has done the women of the country by coming to Atlantic City especially to address this convention. Rejoicing was expressed over the many victories during the year, the endorsement by large organizations the General Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Anti-Saloon League, the Women's Relief Corps and others; a plank for wo- man suffrage in all national party platforms ; a favorable declaraNATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 503 tion by all presidential candidates and for the first time the sanc- tion of the President of the United States. The report of Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, chairman of the National Congressional Committee, gave so complete an account of the situation at the time the great "drive" for the Federal Amendment was begun that it is largely reproduced. At the opening of the 64th Congress in December, 1915, several political leaders interested in the progress of social and economic legislation stated that 1916 would be a lean year in Congress for such movements. It was pointed out that particularly in the Senate some of the most reactionary men had been returned at the preced- lection. It is also a presidential election year and neither of the reat parties is willing to take one unnecessary step which in vlgment may tend to add to the number of its adversaries or vulnerable points in some particular section of the country. All of the 435 members of the House and one-third of the Senators conic up for re-election in November of this year they, too, are shy and sensitive. Some legislation, notably child labor after it had hern endorsed by the National Democratic platform, successfully ran the gauntlet but not so our Federal Suffrage Amendment. It is with keen regret your committee reports that it has not had action in cither the Senate or House of Representatives. In the Senate the resolution was introducd Dec. 7, 1915, by Sena- Sutherland, Thomas and Thompson of Kansas and referred to the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage. This committee re- '1 favorably resolution No. i, introduced by Senator Sutherland. The written report made from the committee by Senator Thomas is >f the best pieces of literature on the subject and copies were mailed to every State president and State chairman of congressional work. Since that early date our measure has been on the calendar. It lins come to the top a number of times but at the request of suffrage ttors has been held until a more auspicious hour. ihc National Association was desirous of having a vote on the ire at this session, your committee began to work to that end immediately after receiving specific instructions from the Board June 17. The meaning of the suffrage planks in the Repub- ratic platforms was disputed by some men in both ders stated that the planks were silent as to the ral Amendment and thus left men free to vote on the amend- rich decided. In order to ascertain the interpretation which given by members of Congress it was determined to push the Senate. On June 27 Mrs. Catt, Miss Hannah J. rson, corresponding secretary of the National Suffrage Associa- ritoinctte Funk, vice-chairman of the committee, Miss nnd the chairman held an informal conference with the Senators

"ranchised States in (lie office of Senator Shafroth ;

unanimous consent is required for the con504 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE sideration of such a measure, the Senators agreed that if we would have the vote taken without debate it would probably be possible, since this would not consume the time of the Senate. We believed that this was best in order to make sure of the vote. On July 22 Senator Thomas wrote to every Senator asking whether he would consent to a vote being taken without debate. He informed us that on both the Republican and Democratic sides there were men who would not give such consent, some stating that they had been asked by certain suffragists of the other organization not to consent. After the endorsement of the Federal Amendment by Judge Hughes, the candidate for President, frequent remarks were made in the Senate on it by members of both parties. Senator Clark (Republi- can) of Wyoming and Senator Pittman (Democrat) of Nevada were among those who urged action at this session but finally in August Senator Thomas gave up the effort. The unfair treatment of the amendment resolution in the House Judiciary Committee and its final suppression by Chair- man Edwin Y. Webb (N. C.) were described in full and the unsuccessful efforts, led by Mrs. Catt, to obtain action on it. [See Chapter on Federal Amendment.] The report continued: Federal Elections Bill : On December 6 Representative Raker intro- duced at the request of the Federal Suffrage Association a bill to protect the rights of women citizens of the United States to regis- ter and vote for Senators and members of the House. The bill was referred to the Committee on the Election of the President, Vice-President and Representatives in Congress and has not yet been reported out. On December TO this same bill was introduced by Senator Lane of Oregon, referred to the Committee on Woman Suffrage and is still there. United States Elections Bill: The United States Elections Bill, introduced by Senator Owen at the request of Miss Laura Clay on February 3, aims also to secure to women the right to vote for Senators and Representatives in Congress. Miss Clay says it is simply a declaratory act; that it does not permit Congress to specify qualifications of voters and therefore does not involve the issue of State's rights. This bill was referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections, where it remains. Your committee assisted the suf- fragists in the District of Columbia in the effort for a bill enabling it to elect a delegate to the Lower House. . . . Planks i 1 For some time prior to June your committee used every 1 On June i, a short time before the meeting of Republican and Democratic National Conventions, twenty-nine members of the Lower House of Congress from States where women vote, who wished the conventions to put woman suffrage in their platforms, had a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. The Representatives, both Democratic and Republican, who made brief arguments for the Federal Amendment were: Ariz., Carl Hayden; Cal., Denver S. Church, Charles H. Randall, William Kettner, John E. NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 5O5 opportunity with Senators and Representatives to further the work of securing suffrage planks in the Repuhlican and Democratic na- tional platforms. Its chairman was put in charge of drafting for submission to Mrs. Cart the planks which were to he offered to the two conventions on behalf of the National Association. Its mem- bers who went to Chicago and St. Louis concentrated their efforts on the planks. The two demonstrations of women planned and supervised bv the National Board were the culmination of the cam- paign on behalf of these planks. Tn cooperation with your Con- gressional Committee, many State delegations of women who came for the demonstrations did special eleventh-hour work with the dele- gates to the conventions. Your committee regrets that the planks in the two dominant national party platforms, since they mention method at all, do not specificallv endorse Federal action, but they will be of great value in the States and progress there will help the Federal work. Every man in Congress is keenly alive to the strength of our movement in his district and State. For that reason we urged the women of each State to secure planks in the State platforms endorsing the principle of woman suffrage. As a last resort, if they could not secure a separate plank in their State platforms, we asked them to make sure that each State convention endorsed its party's na- tional platform, that the plank might in this way have the equivalent of a State endorsement. With the final vielding of the two dominant parties to the justice of woman suffrage all are now on record in favor of the principle: all except the Republican and Democratic endorse the Federal Mment. Republicans have been strengthened in their advocacv of Federal action bv Jud^c Hughes' persona! endorsement of the amendment. Your committee must sound a note of warning here acrainst over-confidence. Some too zealous suffragists, including one suffrage orean. state quite seriouslv. notwithstanding the fact that their attention has been called to their error, that "the Republican partv has specifically declared for the Federal Suffrage Amendment." Alas! it has done no such thing. Tt has not done one bit more 4 be Democratic partv. The personal endorsement of the Re- publican candidate for President can not properly he construed as ' ^rsement. Those of us who have had some vears of evperi- witne<;sed the worming and screwing, fallacv and treach- vhibited bv members of a partv after their leading candidate i particular measure. We know that we can not hold onsible for one man's utterances made afler the plat-

im?n r. TTHUard. Fdwarr! Kmtln*. Edward f. Taylor; T!1* . Tnmr* T.

nntt. Adolph J. Sabath. James MrAndrews, FrnnV H. Buchanan. Thomas Gallagher, Tf T*Tenner. Claudius U. Stnnr. TTrnry T. Knincv. Mnrtin P. Foster, William "* fa member of the TtidfrJary Committcr): Kan*.. Joseph Tafnrart (also * member). Dudley Pooli-- TMvrrinp. John R. Connrllv Jouett Shome. William fobn M. F.vans. Tom -,,h.. C. C OH!. Judire RaVer acted at chairman and the remarkably strong presentation ratted ottt many question* frotn the anti-suffrage members of the Judiciary Committee, vou T 506 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE form had been adopted by the party convention and accepted by the party candidate. Committee: Mrs. Medill McCormick was unable to continue as chairman of the Congressional Committee and the present chairman was appointed by the National Board in January, 1916, immediately went to Washington and lived there eight months, until the opening of this convention. During the entire term of this session of Con- gress this committee has had some representatives on duty at the Washington headquarters every moment. The service of each mem- ber has not been continuous but has varied from a week to three months in length. In addition to the chairman, the committee con- sisted of Mrs. Funk of Illinois; Miss Hay of New York; Mrs. Jacobs of Alabama; Mrs. Cotnam of Arkansas; Mrs. C. S. McClure of Michigan; Mrs. Valentine of Virginia; Miss Martha Norn's of Ohio ; Mrs. Elizabeth Higgins Sullivan of Nebraska and Miss Ruth White of Missouri. Mrs. Funk resigned March 14 to take up other work and in July Miss White was appointed secretary and has done much special work. Because of the amount of travel involved only two meet- ings of the full committee have been held, on March 2 and Septem- ber 4. Every plan for congressional work has been submitted to the National Board or to the national president for approval. Revision of Work : At the beginning of the present year the work of the National Association was revised and departmentalized, the organization branch was separated from the congressional work, made a distinct department, placed under another head and operated from the New York office. This division was advisable, since each task is big enough by itself. The only disadvantage resulted from the distance between the bases of operation of the two depart- ments one of the paramount reasons for the removal of all the headquarters to Washington. . . . The work of the committee in 1916 consisted of the supervision and direction of all activity con- nected with the Federal Amendment, including lobbv work at the Capitol ; the stimulating of congressional activity in the States : the cataloguing of information concerning Senators and Representatives ; the assembling and filing of all information specifically relating to the Federal Amendment in Congress and in the States; the issuing of newspaper articles ; the handling of the large correspondence. Headquarters : The chairman had been on duty only a short time when the necessity for removing national headquarters to Wash- ington was deeply impressed upon her so deeply that she made a special trip to New York to labor with the national officers there to this end but was unsuccessful. The headquarters of the Con- gressional Committee at the opening of this session consisted of two rooms in the Munsey Building at Washington too diminutive to hold even our furniture, to say nothing of our workers. On February 19 it moved to two larger rooms in the same building. NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 507 A summary of the correspondence, etc., was given and the re- port said of the lobby work : All the direct work with Senators and Congressmen is a time as well as brain consuming process. Usually it means tramping up and down the long stone corridors, hour after hour, in order to find one man in his office. Then he may be having a committee meeting or a previous engagement or emergency business and you are invited to come some other day. Perhaps you have waited an hour before you are sure that he ca'n not see you. It is not uncom- mon for the members of our lobby to state that they have made as many as six. eight or ten calls before they succeeded in reaching a man. Speaking from my own knowledge, I have wasted hours at the Capitol trying to see men who would not make appointments. I have called eighteen times to see one man and have not seen him He is the Representative from my own district. We carried the district for suffrage in Pennsylvania last year but I am told that he does not want to vote for the Federal Amendment. It is, of course, possible to interview members by calling them out of the session but this method is uncertain and not very successful, since they feel hurried and interviews in a public reception room are seldom satisfactory. The latest piece of work done by the committee is the interviewing tter of all congressional candidates who will stand for elec- tion in November. This has been done in cooperation with the State associations which have been urged to institute vigorous inter- ng in the congressional districts. Presidential Interviewing: The presidential candidates of the two hose platforms do not endorse the Federal Amendment have interviewed in person. On July 17 Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, president of the New York suf- e association, called on Judge Hughes in New York and had a long and satisfactory conversation. He told them that in his acceptance he could not endorse the Federal Amendment ise this was the accepting of the party's nomination and of its ich had not mentioned it. He said, however, that i it and that soon after his speech of acceptance he Bounce his personal advocacy of the amendment. He asked information in vhich of course they tatcment of ref ore no surprise to 'rtheless most gratif ' and your chairman called on President ngton. He reiterated his belief that woman suf- v State action. We presented the argmr the Federal Amendment but he r need, and openmii; have by up hope of i MI the jr 1 ad visa- Conferences: At the last n.v n vent inn al committe 508 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE recommended that the Board of Officers should consider the sug- gestion of conferences hetween the Congressional Committee of the National Association and the Legislative Committee of the Congres- sional Union, with a view to securing more united action in the lohby work in Washington. Nine such conferences were held one in January, three in February, three in March, one in June, one in July. Your chairman was present at each and Miss Anne Martin, representing the Union, was present at each. At some of them each organization had additional representatives. Mrs. Catt attended two and our corresponding secretary, Miss Patterson, attended one. The subject was the time at which action on the Federal Amend- ment should be secured in both branches of Congress. When on July 20 it was found that the National Committee wished to obtain a vote in the Senate before adjournment and the Congressional Union wished to postpone it the conferences came to an end. It is the unanimous judgment of your committee that they were of no value to the work on the amendment. General : The congressional work done in Washington this year by the National Association has not been spectacular. Your com- mittee had not been on duty long before they realized that many members had been irritated by the too-frequent calls of suffragists and by the inconsiderate demands on their time. As our last na- tional convention was held at the opening session of this Congress, delegations of suffragists used the opportunity to call on their Sena- tors and Representatives. Considering the strain of work of Con- gress during the past months and the fact that the men had already been interviewed by State delegations or representatives, we did not encourage further visits to the Capitol. In Washington such visits, like pageants and other spectacular forms of activity, have been overdone. There was nothing to be gained and probably something to be lost by them. Your committee wishes to express its appreciation of the coopera- tion of many Senators and members of the House. Our friends have often gone out of their way to assist us and not once has any one refused a request for help. They have made speeches on the floor at our suggestion, taken polls for us, held conferences, arranged interviews, provided us with documents and extended all the official courtesies within their power. While we have not secured action we are not discouraged in the least. Even the most radical opponents acknowledge that our movement has grown tremendously this year. We have achieved recognition of the justice of our principle by the political parties and we have with us in our Federal fight the great majority of the leaders of thought and action who believe in suf- frage at all. By a continuation of sane methods, sound tactics, coordination and concentration we shall soon accomplish the sub- mission of the Federal Amendment. Your chairman becomes more convinced each day that one of the next steps necessary to nationalize our work and to secure Federal action is the removal of the national headquarters to Washington. NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 509 She feels it to be her clear duty frankly to state to the convention her conviction on this point. It is her judgment, based upon her own observation this year and a study of the past work on the Federal Amendment, that it will not pass until the national head- quarters are in Washington and the National Board as well as the Congressional Committee is in a position to gives its direct attention to the work on this amendment. A lobby in Washington for special educational purposes may be a good thing but you will have to do special educational and political work in the States if your committee is to achieve political action to the point of a two-thirds vote on the amendment. We appreciate that support has been given to it by many suffragists and a number tate chairmen and presidents but there has not been the inten- sive, persistent, determined congressional activity in the States which tin-re must be before the amendment can be passed and ratified. Your committee has done its utmost, I believe, but it can no more put the Federal Amendment through Congress without your activity in the States than a State committee can achieve success without activity in the counties. Activity on the part of a small number of local Washington suffragists is not a sufficient backing for the wurk of the Congressional Committee. If you propose to secure the Federal Amendment you must work just as hard in the States as you expect it to work in Washington. Without a doubt we can e the Federal Amendment if the women of this country enthusi- 'ly want their enfranchisement that way. . . . The friendliness of members of Congress toward the National Association and their continued respect for the suffrage movement in this country have been maintained by the dignity, poise and ability of the national lobby. In the many years of my connection with us kinds of organizations I have never served any in which was more frankness, unity and good fellowship than in the jiial Board and the National Congressional Committee. That harmony exists is due to our great president, to whom each i^ more indebted than all of us together can express. Her visits to Washington did for us what nothing and no one else could It was my duty and pleasure always to accompany her to apitol, and the unfailing impression of nobility, directness and r which she left upon the men was a joy to witness. I can not close this re-port without acknowledging mv personal to that co-officer who is not on our committee, Miss Hannah J. i. It is but fair to say that had we not had her assistance lous moments the suffrage planks would not be in the two

ial platforms today. Food, sleep, rest, pleasure, all were day

ip by this most self-sacrificing officer. She ii

kept with one other [Mrs. Roessing] the lonely vigil the ni^lit of June 6 at the door of the Republican Resolutions Committee nli committee's adverse report on the

.i^e plank. The crisis in our work for both the planks came

of seven, for we knew that if we lost in Chi5IO HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE cago there would be no hope in St. Louis. At midnight that all- powerful sub-committee by a vote of 5 to 4 turned down our plank and refused to permit suffrage to be mentioned in the platform in any way. That committee has seldom been reversed in all the history of the party. When later Senator Borah, also sleepless and hungry, came to us in one of those agonizing moments when decision must be made at once, when we could not reach our president or our board, it was Miss Patterson who made the decision that won the plank. 1 A comprehensive plan of work was adopted with the following principal features: Federal Work: The National Board shall continue a lobby in Washington until the Federal Amendment shall be submitted; the matter of removing headquarters to Washington shall be left to the judgment of the Board ; it shall conduct a nation-wide campaign of agitation, education, organization and publicity in support of the amendment, which shall include the following: a million-dollar fund for the campaign from Oct. I, 1916, to Oct. I, 1917; a monthly propaganda demonstration simultaneously conducted throughout the nation; at least four campaign directors and 200 organizers in the field and a vigorous, thorough organization in every State ; a na- tionalized scheme for education through literature; national suf- frage schools ; a speakers' bureau ; innumerable activities for agita- tion and publicity; a national press bureau and a national publicity council with departments in each State; a national committee to extend suffrage propaganda among non-English-speaking races. State Work: A Council of the representatives of States shall meet in executive session in connection with each annual national convention to hear reports as to the status of each campaign State and to fix upon States which shall be recommended to go forward with campaigns. No State association shall ask the Legislature for the submis- sion of a State constitutional amendment or for the submission of the question by initiative or by a referred law until such Council or the National Board has had the opportunity to investigate condi- tions and to give consent. Any State which proceeds to a referendum campaign without securing this consent shall be prepared to finance its own campaign without help from the National Board. Any State which has secured the consent of the National Board to proceed with a campaign shall have its cooperation to the fullest extent of its powers. 1 Senator Borah told them that the plank the National Suffrage Board had submitted, endorsing a Federal Amendment, was absolutely impossible but one could be obtained declaring for woman suffrage by State action. They accepted it, which was a wise thing to do, as had the Republican platform not favored woman suffrage per se the Democratic platform, adopted the following week, would not have done so. NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF IQl6 As soon as possible experienced campaign managers shall be trained for the work and shall be supplied to a campaign State to work under the direction of the National Board in cooperation with the State board. States willing to contribute to campaigns in other States should do so by the advice of the National Board, who should be informed as to conditions, and the money so contributed should be passed through the national treasury. The rule that the National Board shall do nothing in States without the consent of the State shall be repealed. The organization, press work, literature distributed and general activity of the States shall be standardized and regular reports 11 of these departments shall be made to the National Board in order that advice and help may be rendered when most needed. This Board shall have the authority to nationalize the suffrage movement by unifying the work as far as is possible. Any States not desiring to work for the Federal Amendment may remain members of the National Association provided they do not

actively against it.

Dr. Sha-w presided over the last evening session of the con- vention and three of the strongest speeches during the conven- tion were made by the Hon. Herbert Parsons, New York member of the Republican National Committee; Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston (Me.), Superintendent of Franchise of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and Raymond Robins, a national leader of progressive thought. The convention ended with a mass meeting Sunday afternoon in the New Nixon Theater Mrs. Catt presiding. Rabbi Henry M. Fisher of Atlantic City gave the invocation and inspiring addresses were made by . David F. Simpson (Minn.) and the Rev. Efne McCollum Jones (la.). Dr. Shaw closed her address with a beautiful delineation of Americanism, saying at its close: What is Americanism? Every one has a different answer. Some is never to submit to the dictation of a King. Others ism is the pride of liberty and the defence of an insult th their gore. When some half -developed person tram- ilag, we should be ready to pour out tin- blood of the

i, they say. But do we not sit in .silence when iluit Hag waves

living conditions which should 'he an insult to all patriot we care more about our lla^ than any other flag? Why, does the sight of flag bri: annth in our hearer r.itions of the le world in is 512 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE the love of liberty, but men died for that and women gave their lives for it thousands of years before America was known. Others say it is the love of justice but the whole world is filled with that, no one country loves it more than another. Human love, sacrifice and sympathy have been manifested in the history of the world since the beginning of time. The American sees in Americanism just what he wants to see. He looks over the world and finds every good thing and calls it his own justice, liberty, humanity, patriotism. It is not Americanism but humanism. There is only one thing we can claim in higher degree than the other nations opportunity is the word which means true Americanism. The anti-suffragists have said that when women have the vote they will have less time for charity and philanthropy. They are right when we have the vote there will be less need for charity and philan- thropy. The highest ideal of a republic is not a long bread line nor a soup kitchen but such opportunity that the people can buy their own bread and make their own soup. Opportunity must be for all, men and women alike, and the peoples of every nationality. Ameri- canism does not mean militarism. The greatest need of Americans is not military preparedness nor changed economic conditions but a baptism of the spirit, higher religious ideals, deeper tolerance and sympathy. The human heart must be in accord with the Divine heart if America is to mean more than other countries, and, if we are to be what our mothers and fathers aspired to be, we must all be a part of the Government. At 5 o'clock Mrs. Catt spoke the closing -words and declared the convention adjourned.

 

1. Call: Our cause has been endorsed in the platforms of every political party. In order to determine how most expeditiously to press these newly won advantages to final victory this convention is called. Women workers in every rank of life and in every branch of service in increasing numbers are appealing for relief from the political handicap of disfranchisement. . . . Unmistakably the crisis of movement has been reached. A significant and startling fact is urging American women to increased activity in their campaign for the vote. Across our borders three large Canadian provinces have granted universal suffrage to their women within the year. In every thinking American woman's mind the question is revolving: Had our forefathers tolerated the oppressions of autocratic George the Third and remained under the British flag would the women of the United States today, like their Canadian sisters, have found their political emancipation under the more democratic George the Fifth? American men are neither lacking in national pride nor approval of democracy and must in support of their convictions hasten the enfranchisement of women. To plan for the final steps which will lead to the inevitable establishment of nation-wide suffrage for the women of our land is the specific purpose of the Atlantic City Convention.
    

   	Anna Howard Shaw,	Honorary President.
   	Carrie Chapman Catt	President.
   	Jennie Bradley Roessing,	First Vice-President.
   	Katharine Dexter McCormick,	Second Vice-President.
   	Esther G. Ogden,	Third Vice-President.
   	Hanna J. Patterson,	Corresponding Secretary.
   	Mary Foulke Morrison,	Recording Secretary.
   	Emma Winner Rogers,	Treasurer.
   	Helen Guthrie Miller,	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$ Auditors.
   	Pattie Ruffner Jacobs,