The History of Woman Suffrage Volume VI Part 26

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

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

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

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

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

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

Large indoor meetings were held, addressed by distinguished visitors to the State, among them Philip Snowden and Mrs. Snowden, Senator Helen Ring Robinson of Colorado, U. S. Senators Clapp of Minnesota, Kenyon of Iowa and Thomas of Colorado. Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughter Sylvia spoke in Boston and Cambridge with great success. Louis D.

Brandeis, afterwards Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, came out for woman suffrage. In Boston, under the direction of Miss Mabel Caldwell Willard, innumerable street meetings were held for a year before the vote, with ma.s.s meetings every Sunday in the Tremont Theater and on the historic Common.

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

The most impressive publicity put forth by the State a.s.sociation was the two parades in Boston; the first held May 2, 1914, and the second, Oct. 16, 1915, just before the election. The first one caused a sensation. It contained about 12,000 women, with a small section of men, and was conducted under the chairmans.h.i.+p of Mrs. Leonard, with Mrs. Page, Mrs. Johnson and nine sub-committee chairmen. It was extremely well organized and the large ma.s.s of totally untrained marchers was handled so efficiently as to surprise all who saw it.

Delegations from all over New England took part and one from Australia; women in national costumes; nurses in uniform; delegations from all the women's colleges in the State and men and women from the universities; also a singing chorus trained by Dr. Archibald Davidson, Jr., of Appleton Chapel, Harvard. In the procession were a son, three grandsons, a granddaughter and two granddaughters-in-law of William Lloyd Garrison; the daughter of Abby Kelley Foster, the daughter-in-law of Angelina Grimke and Theodore Weld and the daughter of Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell. The Concord banner was carried by the grandniece of Louisa M. Alcott. Arrangements had been made for a delegation from the Boston Central Labor Union but when the time came the sole marcher to appear was the president, who courageously marched alone carrying the banner of the union.

The second, called the Victory Parade, was even more successful. It included about 15,000 marchers with a substantial men's section and was viewed by 500,000 people. It was reviewed by Governor David I.

Walsh in front of the State House and Mayor James Michael Curley in front of the City Hall and was followed by a tremendous ma.s.s meeting in Mechanics' Building, addressed by the Mayor and others. Parades were held also in other large cities.

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

Thirty county fairs out of thirty-seven were covered systematically.

Special help in the campaign work was given by Ohio, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hamps.h.i.+re, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The question of woman suffrage was presented before 621 organizations of men through the efforts of a committee formed for that purpose, under Mrs. Evelyn Peverly Coe's chairmans.h.i.+p. Women attended nearly all the primaries and town meetings, distributing literature and urging the men to vote yes.

As the election approached the work along all lines grew more intensive. Well-organized victory automobile tours ran steadily throughout the summer and fall, in the eastern part of the State under the direction of Mrs. Walter G. Morey and in the western under Miss Lus...o...b.. Meetings were held at the fas.h.i.+onable hotels on the north and south sh.o.r.es and outdoor meetings at the popular beach resorts.

Comparatively few were held indoors but 1,675 were supplied with speakers. Big meetings were addressed in Boston and other large cities by U. S. Senator William E. Borah and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw. An elaborate luncheon was given by the Men's League and the State a.s.sociation at the Hotel Bellevue to the Governors' conference held in Boston. Valuable help at this time was rendered by Governor Walsh and the favorable opinions of the Governors of equal suffrage States were published at length in the Boston papers by the Men's League. At the last moment ma.s.s meetings were held in Boston at Symphony Hall and in the largest halls of many other cities. A symbolical and picturesque flag-raising took place on Boston Common. A last-minute circular was sent to each of the State's 600,000 registered voters. The day before the vote the railroad stations in Boston were visited morning and evening and thousands of pieces of literature were given to the commuters.

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

Louis D. Brandeis said in an address on Columbus Day: "I doubt if there has been carried on ever in Ma.s.sachusetts--certainly not in my lifetime--a campaign which for intelligence, devotion and intensity surpa.s.sed the campaign of the women for suffrage. It should silence any doubt as to their fitness for enfranchis.e.m.e.nt." The suffragists, however, had to contend with serious and insuperable difficulties. The population of the State had changed radically since the early days when Ma.s.sachusetts had been the starting point of liberal movements.

For more than half a century its most progressive citizens had been going west and their places had been filled by wave after wave of immigration from Europe, largely ignorant and imbued with the Old World ideas as to the subjection of women. The religious question also entered in, and, while the Catholic Church took no stand as to woman suffrage, many Catholics believed that it would be a step toward Socialism, against which the church was making a vigorous contest. On the other hand, many Protestants believed that the Catholic women's votes would be unduly influenced by the priests.

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

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

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

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

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

At the annual meeting of the State a.s.sociation in May, 1916, a budget of $30,000 was adopted and $20,000 toward it was pledged on the spot.

Through the preceding winter the a.s.sociation had five paid organizers, two of them working in Boston, and a large number of volunteer field workers, at least 230 in Boston alone. Besides the chairmen for the sixteen congressional districts, each of the forty senatorial districts had its chairman, all working under the State Chairman of Organization, Mrs. Sara S. Gilson. She was followed by Mrs. Mary P.

Sleeper and by Mrs. Elizabeth Tilton, who formed an Advisory Council of 100 influential men in preparation for the campaign to ratify the Federal Amendment.

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

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature began in 1869 to grant hearings to women asking for the franchise and it continued to do so every year thereafter. These hearings usually crowded the largest committee room at the State House, the throng often extending far out into the hall. Able arguments were presented by eminent men and women but it was impossible to obtain favorable action. There was at least one hearing every year and often several on different measures. In later years they were generally conducted by Mrs. Maud Wood Park, Miss Amy F. Acton, a young woman lawyer, or Miss Alice Stone Blackwell for the pet.i.tioners; and by Thomas Russell, Aaron H.

Latham, Charles R. Saunders or Robert Luce, as attorney for the Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation. Miss Blackwell usually replied for the pet.i.tioners. In recent years the suffragists had influential politicians of both parties to speak at the hearings, thus making woman suffrage a political question.

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

1902. The a.s.sociation's pet.i.tion for a const.i.tutional amendment was debated in the House on March 5 and defeated by a vote (including pairs) of 153 to 61. Pet.i.tions from individuals for Munic.i.p.al suffrage for taxpaying women and that women qualified to vote for school committee might vote in the primaries on the nominations for it and a pet.i.tion of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union that women might vote on licenses, were all rejected, after lively hearings. The Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation opposed all of them.

The great legislative triumph of 1902 was the pa.s.sage of the Equal Guardians.h.i.+p bill. Ever since Lucy Stone in 1847 began to urge the amendment of the old law, which gave the father absolute control, the suffragists had endeavored to have it changed. Bill after bill, drawn by Samuel E. Sewall and others, had been introduced and rejected and it required a tragedy to obtain a new law. Mrs. Naramore of Coldbrook, Ma.s.s., went insane and killed her six young children when she learned that their father intended to give them away and could legally do so.

This deeply stirred the Rev. Charles H. Talmage, who had conducted the funeral service, with the six little coffins ranged before the pulpit.

He made a careful inquiry into all the circ.u.mstances and gave a full account of them in the Boston _Herald_ of April 15, 1901 (republished in the _Woman's Journal_ of April 27). He gave his time and the State Suffrage a.s.sociation paid his expenses while he went through the State enlisting the support of different organizations of women to secure a change in the law. Mr. Blackwell also put in much time for this purpose.

When the Equal Guardians.h.i.+p bill was introduced by Representative George H. Fall of Malden it was backed not only by the suffrage a.s.sociation but by the State Federation of Women's Clubs, the State W.

C. T. U., the Women's Relief Corps, the Boston Children's Friend Society and more than a hundred other organizations, aggregating 34,000 women. Among them the Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation was not included. For six years it had been circulating, under its official imprint, a leaflet against the proposal to give mothers equal custody and control of the children and in defense of the law as it stood.

The Committee on Probate and Chancery reported adversely by 8 to 3.

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

1903. The bill for taxpayers' Munic.i.p.al suffrage was defeated February 5 without a roll call; the a.s.sociation's pet.i.tion for a const.i.tutional amendment by 99 to 87.

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

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

1906. The a.s.sociation's pet.i.tion for a const.i.tutional amendment was debated March 23 and defeated without a roll call. One headed by John Golden, president of the Textile Workers, for Munic.i.p.al suffrage for wage-earning women was also defeated without a division, as were the pet.i.tions for License suffrage and for a vote on school nominations.

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

1908. Munic.i.p.al suffrage for all women, asked for by the a.s.sociation, was vigorously debated and voted down by 99 to 30. Munic.i.p.al suffrage for women taxpayers, asked for by individuals, was defeated without a roll call.

1909. At the hearing on February 23 the Boston _Herald_, which was not in favor of equal suffrage, estimated that 2,000 women besieged the State House. They crowded the corridors and the large portico until two great overflow meetings were held in the open air at either end of the broad stairway leading up to the entrance. Later the overflow meeting moved on to the Common. The huge crowd of women made a deep impression and was largely featured in the press, which said that nothing like it had ever been seen in Boston.[85] The hearing was conducted for the pet.i.tioners by Mrs. Crowley and for the "antis" by Mr. Saunders. He was so impressed by the crowd that his usual sneering and jeering manner was wholly changed. The suffrage speakers were Dr.

Shaw, John F. Tobin, president of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union; Rabbi Charles Fleischer, Miss Josephine Casey, secretary of the Women's Trade Union League; Henry Abrahams of the Central Labor Union; Miss Rose Brennan of Fall River, Miss Blackwell, Miss Eleanor Rendell of England, Winfield Tuck and Mrs. Belle Davis. Mrs. Gorham Dana, Professor Sedgwick and Mrs. George spoke for the "antis." Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Ex-Governor Bates, who were to have spoken for suffrage, could not get into the room.[86] The const.i.tutional amendment was debated March 23. The galleries were reserved for women, yet many were turned away. The vote stood 171 noes to 54 ayes, including 11 pairs.

1910. The hearing February 23 on a const.i.tutional amendment was unusually impressive. It was held in the evening to enable women busy by day to attend. In the past two or three members of the Legislature not on the committee had sometimes dropped in. This year about sixty were present. Mrs. Crowley and Mrs. Luce conducted the hearing for the two sides. The pet.i.tioners had arranged delegations representing different groups of women--mothers, home-makers, leisure women, lawyers, mission and church workers, artists, authors and journalists, doctors and nurses, Socialists, W. C. T. U., the "unrepresented"

(widows and single women), business women, trade unions, teachers, social workers, taxpayers, saleswomen, clerks and stenographers and college women. These 1,500 or more marched to the State House from Ford Hall, each group under its own banner, and presented themselves before the committee in turn, the spokeswoman of each group telling briefly why she, and women like her, wanted the ballot. Then they went over to Ford Hall, where a big rally was held and the main address was made by Mrs. f.a.n.n.y Garrison Villard. An overflow meeting was held on the State House steps addressed by Edwin D. Mead and others. In order to line up the labor vote in the Legislature, resolutions by different labor unions, signed by their secretaries, were sent to each legislator, under the direction of Mrs. Page. The measure was defeated March 31 by 148 to 47.

1911. For the first time in many years, the Legislative Committee of the State a.s.sociation, Mrs. Crowley, chairman, appeared, before the Resolutions Committee of the political parties to urge the adoption of a suffrage plank. The Democratic party inserted one favoring the submission of the question to the voters; the Republican party ignored it. The legislators were interviewed both at the State House and by representative suffragists within their districts, and they received suffrage literature. The hearing on February 23 was unusually successful from a political and publicity standpoint. It was conducted by Mrs. Crowley and was addressed by Mrs. Park and Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick; John Sherman Weaver, representing the State branch of the American Federation of Labor, and Henry Abrahams for the Boston Central Labor Union. Sylvia Pankhurst addressed the committee in a simple and effective way. Two of the opposition speakers were Mrs.

George and Professor Sedgwick. The debate was spirited and was conducted for the suffragists by prominent Senators and Representatives. Four members spoke in opposition. The vote in the House was ayes, 69, noes, 161; in the Senate, ayes, 6, noes, 31.

During all these years a quiet but effective opposition had been working at the State House under the direction of Charles R. Saunders, legislative counsel for the Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation.

One of the most significant features in the fall of 1911 was the political work of Miss Margaret Foley, as it marked the beginning of a new type of effort. She had made a special trip to England the year before with Miss Florence Lus...o...b..and Miss Alice Carpenter to observe the methods of the English suffragettes, who were then receiving great publicity. After her return she began by attending with other women the political rallies of the various candidates for the State Legislature and at the close of each rally asking the candidate how he stood on the question of Votes for Women. By her knowledge of crowd psychology and gift as a speaker, she was able not only to handle but to win the roughest crowd to the consternation of the candidates. When the candidates for Governor started on their campaign, Miss Foley, with a group of workers, followed the Republican candidate in a fast automobile, attended all his meetings, spoke to the crowd on suffrage after the Republican speeches were over and questioned the candidates for Governor and other State officers as to their stand on suffrage.

This unique and somewhat sensational method was taken up with avidity by the newspapers, which gave it front-page articles with ill.u.s.trations. Later she turned her attention to the Democratic candidates. This was kept up until election and suffrage facts and arguments were presented to thousands of voters who would never otherwise have heard them.

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

In the autumn the method was introduced which many believed was ultimately responsible for putting the amendment through the Legislature. It was the defeating of individual legislators who had been prominent opponents by making an active political campaign in their districts. The first was begun at the primaries against State Senator Roger Wolcott of Milton, chairman of the Const.i.tutional Amendments Committee in the preceding Legislature. The women compiled a record of his negative votes on many liberal measures, including suffrage, and spread this record before his const.i.tuents. This work was done at the suggestion and under the direction of Mrs. Fitzgerald, who conducted open-air meetings in the district. The effort to defeat his renomination in the primary failed, however, largely through their inexperience. The Legislative Committee at the time consisted of Mrs.

Crowley, chairman, Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Park, Mrs. Page, Miss Foley and Mrs. Mary Agnes Mahan and remained substantially the same during the next two or three years, with the addition of Mrs. Marie Burress Currier, Miss Cora Start and Mrs. Evelyn Peverley Coe. Then they made a fight against Mr. Wolcott's election and by a most thorough campaign defeated him at the polls and a Democrat was returned from that district for the first time in many years.

This year marked the high tide of the Progressive party in Ma.s.sachusetts. It had put a straight suffrage plank in its platform and its members in the Legislature were very helpful. The defeat of Wolcott, the publicity, the increasing vote in the Legislature and the general stirring of the suffrage question, had caused the opponents to fear that the const.i.tutional amendment would be submitted.