History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 6/Chapter 50
When the bill was before Congress in 1912 to make Alaska a Territory of the United States an amendment was added on motion of Representative Frank W. Mondell of Wyoming to give its Legislature full power to enfranchise women. This was accepted by the House without objection. Afterwards the official board of the National American Woman Suffrage Association gladly responded to the request of Arthur G. Stroup of Sitka, one of the Territorial Representatives, who intended to introduce a bill for the purpose, to send up some suitable literature. The board also asked women in Seattle, former residents of Alaska, to write to the members of the new Legislature.
Woman suffrage in Alaska possesses the unique record of being granted without any solicitation whatever from the residents. It is not known that a suffrage club ever existed in the Territory; it is quite certain that prior to the convening of the first Territorial Legislature in Juneau in 1913 no suffrage campaigning whatever had been carried on, yet two members, coming from towns not ban 1.500 miles apart, brought drafts for an equal suffrage bill. House Bill No. 2, "An Act to extend the elective franchise to the women in the Territory of Alaska," was the first to pass both Houses — 7 Senators and 15 Representatives and the vote on it was unanimous, Senator Elwood Brunner of Nome, the only member who had expressed himself as unfavorable, having had the good sense or caution to absent himself during roll call. This was also the first bill to be approved by the Governor, J. F. A. Strong, on March 21, 1913, and the Act became effective 714 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE ninety days thereafter. It declared the elective franchise extended to such women as had the qualifications required of male electors. The Alaska Code had permitted women to vote only at School elections. The new law gave them the privilege of voting for the officers in incorporated towns and cities ; for members of the Ter- ritorial Legislature and for Territorial Delegate to Congress. It is estimated that there is a white population of 30,000 of whom between 5,000 and 6,000 are women. Probably not 500 native women are voters. Indian men have a vote if they have "severed tribal relations," which is interpreted to mean that if an Indian moves to a white man's town or lives on a creek or in a camp in such a way that the missions or the marshals think he has left his tribe, he can vote. Indian women have a vote if they marry white men who have a vote; if they are unmarried and have "severed tribal relations"; if they are married to an Indian who has "severed tribal relations." The original code said defi- nitely that Juries should be drawn from the male citizens and it has never been changed. With this exception the rights of men and women are the same. Two other bills of importance passed by the first Legislature provided for the compulsory education of white children and for Juvenile Courts to look after dependent children and create a Board of Children's Guardians. This board consists of the District Judge and U. S. Marshal in each judicial division, to- gether with one woman appointed by the Governor, thus creating four such boards in the Territory, one for each division. The interest of Alaska women in questions affecting local' or Territorial conditions is intense and their efforts effective, as their work in the prohibition campaign of 1916 proved. This was essentially a woman's campaign, so well handled that at the pleb- iscite held at the time of the general election in November, 1916, the vote was about two to one in favor of prohibition. As a result, Congress enacted the Bone Dry Prohibition law for the Territory Feb. 14, 1917. It is believed that about three-fourths of the qualified women vote but there is no means of knowing. The percentage of illiteracy among white women is negligible and the young native women taught at the Government and mission schools can read and write. IN THE TERRITORIES AND PHILIPPINES 715 The women of Alaska did their share in all kinds of war work, for conservation, bond drives, Red Cross and kindred activities. On account of the vast distances and small means of transporta- tion any general cooperation is impossible. There are two daily papers in Fairbanks with a wide circulation over the entire district, which is larger than Texas. The organizing for Red Cross work had to be largely done through these papers but in % few months there were about 600 knitters, practically all the women in the district, and thirty organizations in the mining camps, many of these having only two or three women. In Fair- banks, by means of dances, card parties, sales, etc., $8,000 were raised just to buy wool, besides all the funds and "drives." The interest of Alaskan women in such public questions as affect women elsewhere is that of the spectator rather than of the worker. When legislation on housing and tenement laws, pro- tection of factory workers, prevention of child labor and like problems becomes necessary they will not be lacking in interest or energy. HAWAII. The Organic Act under which the Territories of the United States were created said that at the first election persons with specified qualifications should be entitled to vote and at subsequent elections such persons as the Territorial Legislature might desig- nate. It was under this Act that Wyoming and Utah enfranchised their women in 1869 and 1870 and Washington in 1883. When in 1899 tne Congress was preparing to admit Hawaii as a Territory the commission framed a constitution which specific- ally refused the privilege that had been granted to every other Territory of having its own Legislature decide who should vote after the first election, by inserting a clause that it "should not grant to ... any individual any special privilege or franchise without the approval of Congress." This constitution gave the suffrage to every masculine citizen of whatever nationality- Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese who could read and write Eng- lish or Hawaiian, and it repeatedly used the word "male" to bar women from having a vote or holding an office. The nu-inlu-: this commission were Senators John T. Morgan of Alabama and Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois; I dive I 1>ert l. llitt of 71 6 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE Illinois; President San ford B. Dole and Associate Justice Frear of Hawaii. Justice Frear said over his own signature that he and President Dole desired that the Legislature should have power to authorize woman suffrage but the rest of the commission would not permit it. Miss Susan B. Anthony president, and the Official Board of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, made vigorous objection to this abuse of power, sent a protest to every member of Congress and followed this with petitions officially signed by large associations but to no avail. The Act was approved by President William McKinley April 30, igoo. 1 The women had always exercised great influence in political affairs and the people of Hawaii resented this discrimination but the U. S. Congress then and for years afterwards was adamant in its opposition to woman suffrage anywhere. After the women of Washington, California and Oregon were enfran- chised in 1910-11-12 this resentment found expression among the women of Honolulu in 1912, when they called on Mrs. John W. Dorsett to help them organize a suffrage club. They learned in October that by good fortune Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, would stop there on her way home from a trip around the world and they arranged by wireless messages for her to address a mass meeting at the opera house the one evening she would be there. The audience was large and sympathetic and she learned that every legislative candidate at the approaching election had an- nounced himself in favor of getting the vote for women. She met with the suffrage club and found its constitution modeled on the one recommended by the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She was in touch with the women afterwards and the interest was kept alive. By 1915 the more thoughtful men of the Territory were beginning to feel that its women must be enfranchised. Both political parties declared in favor of asking the U. S. Congress for an Act giving the Hawaiian Legislature authority in this matter and that body itself passed a bill to this effect. This was taken to Washington by the Delegate from the Territory, J. K. Kalanianaole, who presented it but it received no attention. He 1 History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, pages 325, 343, 346, 446. IN THE TERRITORIES AND PHILIPPINES 717 presented it again in 1916, with a like result. Soon afterwards Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin F. Pitman of Brookline, Mass., visited the Islands. Mr. Pitman was the son of a Hawaiian Chiefess and although he had not been there since childhood he was the person of the highest rank. Mrs. Pitman was prominent among the suffrage leaders in Massachusetts and was deeply interested in the situation in Hawaii. She attended the opening of the Legisla- ture and conversed with nearly all the members, finding them to a man in favor of the bill, and the Legislature adopted strong resolutions calling upon Congress to sanction it. In answer to a request for her experience to use in this chapter she wrote : It was on Jan. 30, 1917, that we arrived in Honolulu and on the 3 ist Madame Nakiuna, who was known as the Court historian, gave us a large reception at Laniakea. At this fete were all the women of the highest social circles in the Islands. Among them were Mrs. John W. Dorsett, Mrs. A. P. Taylor, Mrs. Castle-Cole- man, Miss Mary Ermine Cross and others who had heard of my activities in "the cause" and importuned me to hold meetings to try to arouse a keener interest. I would have consented at once but for the fact that almost the first person I saw in this beautiful land was the field-secretary of the Massachusetts Association Op- posed tu the Extension of Suffrage to Women. I had a feeling that if there was not already an anti-association here there would
- ie the moment I began any serious work and so I advised wait-
ing, promising to do my best for them as soon as it seemed wise, and MJ, while I was indeed sorry that the serious illness of a relative obliged her to depart for home at a very early date, it was amusing to say the least that while she was sailing out of the harbor I was holding my first suffrage meeting in the home of Mrs. Dorsett. I held meetings on two successive days, one attended mostly 1> the middle class and the other by high caste Hawaiian s and the "inis-
- ry set," which, perhaps, we might style their "400." My talk
was in the form of a discussion and I was surprised and delighted at the fluency of all who spoke, their wide knowledge of world affairs and desire for the franchise. Many months had passed since the departure of Prince K.-danianaole and so they begged me to investigate as soon as I returned home. This I promised to do and >te at once to Mrs. Catt all that I heard. Mrs. Catt sent Mrs. Pitman's letter to Mrs. Maud Wood Park, chairman of the Congressional Committee of the National Suf- frage Association and she took up the question with Senator John F. Shafroth, chairman of the Committee on Pacific Islands and to Rico. The Delegate from Hawaii, who was deeply inter718 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE ested, welcomed this new force to assist in pushing the bill, which had simply been neglected. On May 21, 1917, he presented still another resolution from the Territorial Legislature asking for it and on June I Senator Shafroth introduced the following bill: Be it enacted . . . that the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii be, and it is hereby, vested with the power to provide that in all elections . . . female citizens possessing the same qualifications as male citizens shall be entitled to vote. SEC. 2. That the said Legislature is further hereby vested with the power to have submitted to the voters of the Territory the ques- tion of whether or not the female citizens shall be empowered to vote. . . . The bill was reported favorably by the committee and passed by the Senate without objection or even discussion on September 15. In the House it was referred to the Committee on Woman Suffrage, which set April 29, 1918, for a hearing. Delegate Kalanianaole had been called back to Honolulu by business but was represented by his secretary and there were present Mrs. Park, who presided, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary pres- ident of the National Suffrage Association, and Mrs. Pitman, the principal speaker. Judge John E. Raker was chairman of the committee, which did not need any argument but was interested in asking many questions of Mrs. Pitman. At the close of the hearing the committee voted unanimously to make a favorable report. The bill was passed June 3 without a roll call. It was signed by President Wilson on the I3th. The matter was now in the control of the Hawaiian Legislature, which received petitions from a number of organizations of women to exercise its power to confer the suffrage without a referendum to the voters. This was recommended by Governor C. J. McCarthy and early in the session of 1919 the Senate took this action and sent the bill to the House. This body under out- side influence refused to endorse it but substituted a bill to send the question to the voters. The Senate would not accept it and both bills were deadlocked. The women were then spurred to action; old suffrage clubs were revived; one was formed in Honolulu of the native high class women and what is known as the "missionary set," a very brilliant group. Mrs. Dorsett made a tour of all the Islands to IN THE TERRITORIES AND PHILIPPINES 719 arouse interest and on Mani, under the leadership of Mrs. Harry Baldwin, clubs were formed all over the island. A Hawaiian Suffrage Association was organized. At the next convention of the National Association a resolution was adopted that it be invited to become auxiliary without the payment of dues and the invitation was officially accepted with thanks. The Federal Suffrage Amendment proclaimed by Secretary of State Colby Aug. 26, 1920, included the women of the Territories and it was thus that Hawaiian women became enfranchised. They voted in large numbers at the November elections that year. THE PHILIPPINES. The Philippine Islands came under the jurisdiction of the United States as a consequence of the Spanish-American war in 1898 and their government soon became an active question in Congress. There was a desire to permit their own people to participate in this to some extent and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, always on the watch tower, took immediate action toward having women included in any scheme of self-government. With the recent example before it of the most unjust discrimination against them in the admission of Hawaii as a Territory, the association under the presidency of Miss Susan B. Anthony petitioned the members of Congress to recognize the rights of women in whatever form of government was adopted. At its annual convention in 1899 impassioned speeches were made against taking away from Filipino women the position of superiority which they always had held under Spanish rule by giving the men political authority over them. In 1900 Military Governor-General Otis ordered a re-organiza- tion of the municipalities. To decide who should have a vote in local affairs the Philippine Commission of the U. S. Senate sum- moned well informed persons and among them, in the spring of 1902, were Judge William H. Taft, Governor-General of the islands, and Archbishop Nozalcda, who had been connected with the Catholic church there for twenty-six years and archbishop since 1889. Both declared that the suffrage should be given to the women rather than to the men, the former saying: "The fact 72O HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE is that, not only among the Tagalogs but also among the Christian Filipinos, the woman is the active manager of the family, so if you expect to confer political power on the Filipinos it ought to be given to the women. Following is part of the Archbishop's statement. (Senate Document, p. 109.) : The woman is better than the man in every way in intelligence, in virtue and in labor and a great deal more economical. She is very much given to trade and trafficking. If any rights and privi- leges are to be granted to the natives, do not give them to the men but to the women. Q. Then you think it would be much better to give the women the right to vote than the men? v A. O, much better. Why, even in the fields it is the women who do the work ; the men go to the cock fights and gamble. The woman is the one who supports the man there, so every law of justice demands that in political life they should have the privilege over the men. Notwithstanding this and other testimony of a similar nature the Commission framed a Code giving a Municipal or local franchise to certain classes of men and excluding all women, taking away from them the privileges they always had possessed. The men soon began demanding their own lawmaking body and in response Congress passed an Act to take effect Jan. 15, 1907, to provide for the holding of elections in the Islands for a Legislative Assembly. The Act limited the voters to "male persons 23 years of age or over," thus again putting up the barriers against women and including them in the list of the disqualified as listed "insane, feeble-minded, rebels and traitors." The U. S. Government did, however, give women to the same extent as men all educational advantages, which heretofore had been denied them and their progress was very rapid. In 1912 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, visited Manila on her trip around the world and was warmly received. A meeting was called at the Manila Hotel for August 15 and twelve women responded. After mak- ing an address she helped them form a club which they called Society for the Advancement of Women. Thirty attended the next meeting two weeks later and they took up active philan- thropic work. In a little while most of the women of influence were members of it and it was re-organized as the Woman's Club IN THE TERRITORIES AND PHILIPPINES 72! of Manila. Its work extended in many directions and it became one of the city's leading institutions. Other clubs were formed and they joined the General Federation of Clubs in 1915. There are between 300 and 400 clubs in the Islands (1920). Meanwhile the men were not satisfied with their one-house Legislative Assembly largely under American control, but wanted more power. In response Congress provided for a Legislature of a Senate of 24 members and a Lower House of 90, all to be elected except two of the former and nine of the latter, who would be appointed by the American Governor-General to represent districts where elections were not held, the Act to go into effect in 1918. The suffrage was still confined exclusively to males, although in 1916 the Women's Club had organized fifty-seven Mothers' Clubs for the welfare of infants; had secured through women lawyers legal aid for over thirty poor women ; had been instrumental in having 15,000 people make gardens to give variety to their fish and rice diet and done a vast amount of other valuable public work. The Act passed by large majorities, members voting for it who had persistently voted against the Federal Amendment to enfranchise the women of the United States. The Philippines were from 1917 represented in Congress by an able and progressive Commissioner, Jaime C. De Veyra, an advo- cate of woman suffrage. His wife, a native of Iloilo, who had been prominent in civic work in the Islands, shared his views, and was a frequent visitor at the suffrage headquarters in Washing- ton. In 1919, assisted by Miss Bessie Dwyer, vice-president of the Manila Women's Club, she gave beautifully illustrated ad- dresses in Washington and New York, on the position of women in the Islands. In these and in interviews she said : Philippine women have always been free and have always been held as e<jiiaK of the men. In the little rural "barrios" you will uhvuvs find some sort of vnian leader. All over the islands they are highly co when old they exercise full sway over the family and have the laM wrd in all financial matters. The married children still rlintf t<> the mother as adviser. I he vmintf marry ,<M, into partnership with their hiishands and while tl.< a'ndle the the v -men vlio do the paying and oversee things generally. They arc engaged in all s for th and are employed by scores of 722 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE thousands. Many thousands carry work home where they can take care of their children, do the housework and be earning money. They have the same opportunities in the professions as men, are successful physicians and lawyers and members of the Bar Asso- ciation. Laws made for them have combined the best of Spanish and American precedents. They are guardians of their own chil- dren; married women may hold property; of that which accrues to a married couple, the wife is half administrator. These are vested rights and cannot be taken away. A short time ago the question of woman suffrage was introduced into the Legislature, not by the initiative of American women but urged by Madame Apacibile, wife of one of the government secre- taries. A petition signed by 18,000 women asking for a joint legis- lative hearing was sent to the law makers who granted it. Three Filipina women spoke, one the widow of the eminent Concepcion Calderon, a successful business woman, owning a fish farm and an embroidery enterprise. Others were Mrs. Feodore Kalon, Miss Almeda and Miss Pazlegaspi, the last two practicing lawyers. Only one man appeared in the negative. The president of the Senate, the Hon. Manuel L. Quezon, is in favor of woman suffrage. Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison recommended to the Legislature to give the suffrage to women, as it has the power to do. A bill was introduced and passed the Senate almost unanimously Dec. 7, 1919, but it was not acted upon by the House. As the Constitution of the United States is not in force in the Philippines the women were not enfranchised by the Federal Suffrage Amendment in 1920 but must await the action of their own Legislature. PORTO RICO. After Porto Rico came under the control of the United States as a result of the Spanish- American war in 1898 its political status was undetermined for a long time. Shortly before that war Spain had granted universal suffrage to all its men over 21. Con- gress confirmed this privilege as to the affairs of the island but they had no voting rights in those of the United States. After a few years the more progressive of the people began asking for the status of a Territory with their own Legislature. This agitation was continued for sixteen years before Congress took action and agreed on a bill which would admit the islanders to citizenship. As usual the chief difficulty was over the suffrage. There was a desire to have a slight educational and a small property qualificaIN THE TERRITORIES AND PHILIPPINES 723 tion but as a large majority of the men were illiterate and with- out property this aroused a protest, which was supported by the American Federation of Labor. On May 22, 1916, while the Porto Rican bill was under consideration in Committee of the Whole in the Lower House of Congress, the Republican floor leader, James R. Mann (Ills.), discovered that a majority of those present were Republicans and suffragists. He therefore proposed a clause giving the franchise to the women, which was passed by 60 to 37. He expected to put the Democrats in the position of voting it down the next day in regular session but when it came up Republicans joined with Democrats in defeating it by 80 noes to 59 ayes. Finally when, under pressure, the committee was obliged to put in universal suffrage for the great mass of illiterate men, even the most ardent advocates of woman suffrage among the members felt that it would be unwise to add universal suffrage for women. In answer to the urgent request of the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Associa- tion that this injustice should not be done to women, Senator John F. Shafroth, chairman of the Committee on the Pacific Islands and Porto Rico, wrote : "I would have been very glad to incorporate a provision including women but it would have killed the bill. I was notified by Senator Martine of New Jersey and others that they would not permit a provision of that kind to go into it and the parliamentary stage of the bill was such that any one Senator could have defeated it. As it was, it took two years to get the bill before Congress and fully twenty motions to have it considered and if either prohibition or woman suffrage had gone into it there would have been no bill for Porto Rico. We avoided the word 'male 1 in prescribing the qualifications of electors." The Act, which received the approval of President Wilson March 2, 1917, provided that at the first election for the Legis- lature and other officers the electors should be those qualified under the present law, and thereafter voters should be citizens of the United States 21 years of age and have such additional qualifications as might be prescribed by the Legislature of Porto Rico. The election took place on July 16. While this Act was an improvement on the one which admitted Hawaii as a Territory 724 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE it left the many educated, tax paying women, the woman in busi- ness, the teachers in government and mission schools, the nurses in the hospitals, the social workers, wholly in the power of men. About 1916 there was incorporated in Porto Rico an organiza- tion called La Liga Feminea de Puerto Rico, which worked energetically for the social uplift of the people and for the political enfranchisement of women. The official organ was La Mujer del Siglo Veinte The Twentieth Century Woman. Early in the spring of 1917 Mrs. Geraldine Maud Froscher, an American living in Porto Rico, appealed to the National Suffrage Associa- tion for financial assistance for a campaign preparatory to the introduction of the woman suffrage bill in the Legislature that year. Literature was sent immediately and the association agreed to pay the expenses of Mrs. Froscher, who organized suffrage leagues in all towns of any considerable size, addressed women's clubs, interviewed legislators and distributed literature. In this work she had the able assistance of Mrs. Ana Roque Duprey, the first president of the San Juan Suffrage League, editor of the above paper and later of El Heraldo de la Mujcr The IVomans Herald, with Mrs. Froscher as the American editor. In August, 1917, at the first session of the new Legislature, a bill was introduced in the Lower House to give women the right to hold office but without the right to vote and one to give them equal rights. Later two more bills were introduced but none was passed. As Porto Rico is an unincorporated Territory of the United States, its women were not enfranchised by the Federal Suffrage Amendment in 1920. At three consecutive sessions of the Legislative Assembly a petition for woman suffrage has been presented.
- ↑ The history is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Jeannette Drury Clark, a graduate of the University of California, who with her husband, John A. Clark, an attorney, has made her home in Fairbanks for the past fifteen years.