The History of Woman Suffrage Volume VI Part 19

During 1917 suffrage work was displaced by war work, of which Kentucky suffragists did a large share. They were asked to raise $500 for the Women's Oversea Hospitals of the National a.s.sociation and more than doubled the quota by the able management of Mrs. Samuel Castleman of Louisville. Under the direction of Mrs. E. L. Hutchinson of Lexington a plan to raise money for an ambulance to be named in honor of Miss Laura Clay, the pioneer suffragist, was successfully carried through.

In 1918 for the first time there was every reason to believe that a resolution to submit a State amendment would pa.s.s the Legislature, but a majority of the State suffrage board voted to conform to the desire of the National a.s.sociation to avoid State campaigns and concentrate on the Federal Amendment and no resolution was presented.

At the State convention, held March 11, 1919, resolutions were adopted calling upon all Kentucky members of Congress to vote for the Federal Suffrage Amendment; calling on the Legislature to ratify this amendment, when pa.s.sed, at the first opportunity and asking it to enact a law giving to women a vote for presidential electors. Miss Clay, who for over thirty years had been the leader of the suffragists, withdrew from the State a.s.sociation, which she had founded, and formed a new organization to work for the vote by State action alone, as she was strongly opposed to Federal action. It was called the Citizens' Committee for a State Suffrage Amendment and opened headquarters in Lexington. It issued an "open letter to the public," an able argument for the State's control of its own suffrage and an arraignment of interference by Congress, which it declared would "become possessed of an autocratic power dangerous to free inst.i.tutions." It conducted a vigorous campaign against every move for a Federal Amendment and met the representatives of the old a.s.sociation at the Republican State convention in May to prevent their securing an endors.e.m.e.nt of it. In an eloquent speech before the platform committee Miss Clay urged it to reaffirm the State's rights plank in the National platform and pledge the party to secure the submission to the voters of a State suffrage amendment and to support it at the polls.

The plank adopted was as follows: "We reaffirm our belief in the justice and expediency of suffrage for women and call upon our representatives in the Congress of the United States, in the Legislature and in all executive positions to use their votes and their influence for all measures granting political rights to women."

The Federal Suffrage Amendment was submitted by Congress June 4. Both organizations urged their claims at the Democratic State convention in September and the platform contained the following plank:

We favor the ratification by the Legislature of Kentucky at its next session of the amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States extending to women the right of suffrage and we urge our representatives in the Legislature and all executive or other officers to use their votes and influence in every legitimate way to bring about the ratification of the same. We pledge ourselves to support in the next General a.s.sembly, if the Federal Amendment has not become operative by that time, the submission of an amendment to the State Const.i.tution granting suffrage to women on the same terms as to men and when the amendment is submitted to support it at the polls as a party measure.

Every candidate for the nomination for Governor had stood on a suffrage platform and the successful Democratic candidate, Governor James D. Black, defeated at the election by Edwin P. Morrow, was a staunch and life-long suffragist. When he was filling out Governor Stanley's unexpired term and he received a telegram in June, with all other Governors of Southern States, from the Governor of Louisiana, asking him to oppose ratification of the Federal Amendment, he gave to Mrs. Breckinridge a ringing interview for use in the press to the effect that he would not oppose it. Governor Morrow, a Republican, had always been a friend of woman suffrage in whatever form it was asked.

Kentucky suffragists could easily remember when they could poll but one vote in Congress--that of John W. Langley. When in 1919 the final vote was taken on the Federal Amendment but one of the State's ten votes in the Lower House, that of A. B. Rouse of Covington, was cast against it. There was one vacancy. Senator George B. Martin voted for the resolution and Senator J. C. W. Beckham against it. He had voted against it in February, when, having pa.s.sed the House, it was lost in the Senate by a single vote.

RATIFICATION. The November legislative election in 1919 resulted in a Republican House and a Democratic Senate. The Republicans caucused and agreed to vote for ratification. Governor Morrow urged it in a vigorous message personally delivered to the Legislature in which he said:

A government "of the people by the people" can not and does not exist in a commonwealth in which one-half of its citizens are denied the right of suffrage. The women of Kentucky are citizens and there is no good or just reason why they should be refused the full and equal exercise of the sovereign right of every free people--the ballot. Every member of this General a.s.sembly is unequivocally committed by his party's platform declaration to cast his vote and use his influence for the immediate enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women in both nation and State. Party loyalty, faith-keeping with the people and our long-boasted chivalry all demand that the General a.s.sembly shall break all previous speed records in ratifying the Federal Suffrage Amendment and pa.s.sing all measures granting political rights to women.

By agreement, a Democrat, Senator Charles M. Harriss, presented the resolution for ratification in the Senate, and a Republican, Joseph Lazarus, in the House. On Jan. 6, 1920, the first day of the session, it was pa.s.sed by a vote of 30 ayes, 8 noes in the Senate and 72 ayes, 25 noes in the House. The affirmative vote by parties was as follows: In the two Houses 39 Democrats out of a possible 65, and 63 Republicans out of a possible 73. That any measure should pa.s.s on the first day of the session was unprecedented in Kentucky legislative history. Democrats were in control of the two Legislatures--1914 and 1916--which defeated the full suffrage measures. Democrats were in control of the Legislature in 1918 which undoubtedly would have pa.s.sed a resolution for a State amendment, a Presidential suffrage bill, or would have ratified the Federal Amendment had Congress acted in time.

The leaders of both parties by this time had seen a great light!

The delegates who had gathered in Frankfort for the State convention were entertained at a buffet luncheon by the local suffrage organization, went in a body to the State House and had the gratification of seeing the Federal Amendment ratified. A glorification meeting was held that night at Lexington, twenty-five miles away, at which Governor Morrow told why the new women voters should enter the Republican party and Judge C. S. Nunn and Senator Harriss, leader of the Senate, told why they should enter the Democratic party. The latter were introduced by former Senator Combs, who had sponsored the suffrage cause among the Democrats in the last two Legislatures. The convention closed with an address by Mrs.

Emmeline Pankhurst of England the following night, and on the next day the officers and members of the a.s.sociation went to Frankfort again to see the Governor sign the ratification.

As it was not certain that the amendment would be completely ratified before the general election in November the Legislature decided to pa.s.s a bill giving to women the right to vote for presidential electors. On March 11 it pa.s.sed the House and on the 15th the Senate by almost the same vote given on the Federal Amendment. Only three Senators voted against it--Thomas J. Gardner of Bardwell, Hayes Carter of Elizabethtown and C. W. Burton of Crittenden. On the 16th bills were pa.s.sed making necessary changes in the election laws to insure the voting of the women in the primaries and at the regular elections.

Kentucky women who rendered conspicuous service in the lobby work at Was.h.i.+ngton under the auspices of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation were Mrs. John Glover South, Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith, Mrs. Edmund M. Post, Mrs. Samuel Castleman, Mrs. Charles Firth and Mrs. Samuel Henning. They were equally helpful in the State political work and among many others who deserve especial mention are Mrs. James A.

Leech, Mrs. J. B. Judah and Mrs. Robinson A. McDowell. The a.s.sociation is indebted to Mr. McDowell for legal a.s.sistance. An important factor was the press work of Miss Eleanor Hume.[56]

The organizing of cla.s.ses in citizens.h.i.+p was begun in the summer of 1919 and the services of a specialist in politics and history, Miss Mary Scrugham, a Kentucky woman, were secured to prepare a course of lectures for their use. These were published in the Lexington _Herald_ and supplied to women's clubs, suffrage a.s.sociations and newly formed Leagues of Women Citizens, soon to become Leagues of Women Voters.

The Equal Rights a.s.sociation voted at its convention in January, 1920, to change its name to the League of Women Voters as soon as ratification of the Federal Amendment was complete or Presidential suffrage granted. The league was fully organized on December 15, with Miss Mary Bronaugh of Hopkinsville chairman.

The first vice-president of the State Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation, Mrs.

South, was elected as chairman of the Women's Division of the National Republican Committee, and the second vice-president, Mrs. Castleman, as Kentucky member of the National Democratic Woman's Committee.

FOOTNOTES:

[55] The History is indebted for this chapter to Madeline McDowell (Mrs. Desha) Breckinridge, president of the State Equal Rights a.s.sociation 1912-1915 and 1919-1920; vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation 1913-1914.

[56] In addition to the presidents the following served as officers of the a.s.sociation: Vice-presidents: Mrs. Mary B. Clay, Mrs. Mary Cramer, Mrs. N. S. McLaughlin, Mrs. John Castleman, Mrs. E. L. Hutchinson, Mrs. Charles Firth, Mrs. Judah, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Samuel Castleman, Mrs. Leech, Mrs. McDowell, Mrs. Joseph Alderson, Mrs. F. A. Rothier.

Corresponding secretaries: Miss Anna Miller, Mrs. Mary C. Roark, Mrs.

Alice Carpenter, Miss Clay, Mrs. Herbert Mendel, Mrs. South. Recording secretaries: Mrs. Emma Roebuck, Mrs. McDowell, Mrs. Firth, Mrs. J. D.

Hays. Treasurers: Mrs. Isabella Shepherd, Mrs. Warfield Bennett, Mrs.

Judah. Auditors: Miss Laura White, Mrs. Charles L. Nield, Mrs. W. F.

Lillard, Mrs. Alderson. Historians: Mrs. Mary Light Ogle, Mrs. M. B.

Reynolds. Press work: Mrs. Obenchain. Members National Executive Committee: Miss Mary E. Giltner, Mrs. Post, Miss Clay.

CHAPTER XVII.

LOUISIANA. PART I.[57]

The history of woman suffrage in Louisiana is unique inasmuch as it records largely the activity of one club, an influence, however, which was felt in the upbuilding of sentiment not alone in Louisiana but in almost every Southern State. When in 1900 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt on her accession to the presidency of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation called for conventions in the Southern States it was found that in Louisiana the State Suffrage a.s.sociation, formed in 1896 by the union of the Portia and Era clubs, had lapsed because the former was no longer in existence. The Era Club, however, was flouris.h.i.+ng under the stimulus and prestige gained by the successful Drainage, Sewerage and Water Campaign of 1899.[58] Mrs. Catt decided that, while it was a new precedent to recognize one club as a State a.s.sociation, it would be done in this case. Mrs. Evelyn Ordway was made president, Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, vice-president; Miss Jeannette Ballard and Miss Jean Gordon, secretaries, and Mrs. Otto Joachim, treasurer of the new a.s.sociation at a meeting in May, 1900, at New Orleans. It went on record at this first meeting as a State's rights organization, which Mrs. Catt ruled was permissible under the dual character of the National a.s.sociation's const.i.tution.

The secretary entered into active correspondence with individuals in all sections of the State known to be favorable to suffrage, but all efforts to secure clubs were unsuccessful. The Era Club, therefore, extended its members.h.i.+p over the State in order that representation in the national suffrage conventions could be state-wide. It had a standing Legislative Committee and for thirteen years its activities const.i.tuted the work of a State a.s.sociation. In 1904, Mrs. Merrick, Louisiana's pioneer suffragist, was made honorary president; Miss Kate M. Gordon, president; Mrs. James McConnell, vice-president; Mrs.

Armand Romain, corresponding secretary; Miss Jean Gordon, recording secretary; Mrs. Lucretia Horner (now Mrs. James McBride), treasurer.

There was no change in this board until 1913 except that on the death of Mrs. Romain in 1908 Mrs. Judith Hyams Douglas was appointed in her place.

Clubs were formed during the years in various towns, but did not survive, until in 1913 a league was organized in Shreveport which did excellent work under its presidents, Mrs. S. B. Hicks, Mrs. S. P.

Weaver and Mrs. J. M. Henry. The first State convention was held Nov.

12, 1913, in New Orleans, and the following officers were elected: Miss Jean Gordon, president; Mrs. George Wesley Smith, Rayville; Mrs.

James C. Wooten, Monroe; Mrs. Louis Hackenjos, Alexandria, vice-presidents; Mrs. R. M. Carruth, New Roads, corresponding secretary; Miss Lois Janvier, New Orleans, recording secretary; Miss Olivia Munson, Napoleonville, treasurer; Mrs. Fannie Wolfson, Coushatta, auditor.

This board was unchanged until 1915, when Mrs. Clarence King of Shreveport became treasurer and Mrs. M. H. Lawless of Garden City and Mrs. D. C. Scarborough of Natchitoches, auditors. There was no further change until 1920, when Mrs. McBride became treasurer and Mrs. Horace Wilkinson took Mrs. Scarborough's place. State conventions met in Alexandria in 1914 and in Shreveport in 1915. Conferences were held in twenty-five parishes in antic.i.p.ation of the proposed const.i.tutional convention of 1915. A convention was held in Alexandria in July, 1918, and chairmen were appointed in forty-eight parishes in preparation for the State amendment campaign.

In reviewing the history of woman suffrage in Louisiana three factors stand out prominently as influences that molded a favorable public opinion. These are the national suffrage convention in 1903; the inauguration of charity campaigns on the lines of political organization and the forming of the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference, the object of which was to place the Democratic party on record for woman suffrage in this Democratic stronghold of the "solid South."

In public opinion woman suffrage was largely a.s.sociated with the Abolition movement. In 1900 Miss Gordon had accepted an invitation to address the convention of the National a.s.sociation in Was.h.i.+ngton on the famous Sewerage and Drainage Campaign of women in New Orleans.

Then and there she decided that the most important work before Louisiana suffragists was to bring this conservative State under the influence of a national convention. In 1901 she attended another convention and was elected corresponding secretary of the National a.s.sociation. In 1903 she brought its convention to New Orleans and it proved to be one of the most remarkable in the history of the a.s.sociation.[59] So impressed was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president at large, with the possibilities in the South that she volunteered a month's series of lectures in the next autumn and many places in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas came under the spell of her eloquence.

The influence of this convention was immediately seen in the increasing members.h.i.+p of the Era Club. Its leaders recognized that the best policy to rouse both men and women to the value of suffrage to the individual and the community was by applied politics in social service. It had already secured a partial franchise for taxpaying women and its achievements in the following years made it an acknowledged power.[60] In 1910 a great charity and educational benefit was launched for the Anti-Tuberculosis League and the Woman's Dispensary. A complete plan of organizing with Era Club members as ward and precinct leaders taught them political organization.

By 1913 the movement for a Federal Suffrage Amendment was growing so insistent that southern women who were opposed to this method felt the necessity of organizing to combat it and to uphold the State's rights principle of the Democratic party. Through the initiative of Miss Gordon a Call for a conference was sent in August to leading women in every southern State and signed by twenty-two from almost as many States asking the Governors to meet in New Orleans for a conference.

It said:

We are united in the belief that suffrage is a State right and that the power to define a State's electorate should remain the exclusive right of the State. We recognize that Woman Suffrage is no longer a theory to be debated but a condition to be met. The inevitable "votes for women" is a world movement and unless the South squarely faces the issue and takes steps to preserve the State's right the force of public opinion will make it mandatory through a National Const.i.tutional Amendment....

While as Southerners we wish to see the power of the State retained, yet as women we are equally determined to secure, as of paramount importance, the right which is the birthright of an American citizen. We, therefore, appeal to you gentlemen vested with the power largely to shape conditions to confer with us and influence public opinion to adopt woman suffrage through State action. Failing to accomplish this, the onus of responsibility will rest upon the men of the South if southern women are forced to support a National Amendment, weighted with the same objections as the Fifteenth.

It was not expected that the Governors would come, but the desired publicity was secured and several of them sent representative women.

At the invitation of the Era Club the conference was held in New Orleans Nov. 10-11, with an excellent attendance. The Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference was organized with Miss Gordon president. On May 1, 1914, headquarters were opened in New Orleans in charge of Mrs.

Ida Porter Boyer of Pennsylvania, as executive secretary, who had had long experience in suffrage organization and press work. For the next three years Miss Gordon went regularly to these headquarters and gave her entire time to the promotion of the Southern Conference without financial remuneration. In October a 20-page magazine, the _New Southern Citizen_, made its appearance, which became self-supporting and proved to be a most valuable factor in the work of the conference.

The first convention was held in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Nov. 10, 1914, just before that of the National American a.s.sociation in Nashville, which its delegates attended. It was welcomed by the Mayor, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and many club presidents.

Delegates were present from twelve States and in addition a number of distinguished visitors. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont brought with her Miss Christabel Pankhurst of Great Britain and both made addresses.

About $1,500 were pledged.

Miss Gordon said in her president's address: "The Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference has for its immediate object to make the Democratic party declare itself in favor of votes for women in its next national platform. This, we southern suffragists believe, is the first step in what will prove a veritable landslide in the South. The conference therefore recommends to the suffragists of the South the adoption of a policy of concentration upon the Democratic party to declare itself."

In December, 1915, a national conference was held in Richmond, Va.

Smaller conferences were held in Atlanta, Greenville, S. C., and Little Rock. Miss Gordon visited most of the cities of the South to organize the women. In July, 1916, an executive meeting was held in St. Louis at the time of the national Democratic convention. Its Resolutions Committee gave a hearing to the representatives of the conference, Miss Clay, Mrs. O. F. Ellington of Little Rock, Mrs.

Boyer, Mrs. Wesley Martin Stoner of Was.h.i.+ngton. Miss Gordon made an extended appeal for an endors.e.m.e.nt of woman suffrage in the party platform and presented a resolution to "secure for women self-government while preserving to the State a like self-government."

This was not adopted, but the platform did recommend "the extension of suffrage to the women of the country by the States."

Although the princ.i.p.al object of the conference had been attained, its leaders hesitated to dissolve it because of its excellent magazine and work yet to be done. It was maintained until May, 1917, when the entrance of this country into the World War made its discontinuance seem advisable.[61]