Volume IV Part 97 (1/2)

_1890_--Suffrage pet.i.tions were presented and also pet.i.tions asking that fathers and mothers be made equal guardians of their children; that contracts between husbands and wives be legally valid; and that a widow be allowed to stay more than forty days in the house of her deceased husband without paying rent. All these were refused.

On March 12 a hearing was given to the pet.i.tioners for suffrage. Mrs.

Stone, Mr. Blackwell, the Rev. J. W. Hamilton, Mrs. Ellen B. Dietrick, the Rev. Frederick A. Hinckley, Mr. Crane of Woburn and Miss Alice Stone Blackwell spoke in behalf of the W. S. A., and Mrs. Susan S.

Fessenden, Mrs. Amelia C. Thorpe and Miss Tobey in behalf of the W. C.

T. U. Mr. Ropes, Dr. A. P. Peabody and J. B. Wiggin spoke against woman suffrage. Mr. Lord asked that the hearing be extended for another day, as he wished to speak in behalf of the remonstrants, although no pet.i.tions had been sent in. Mr. Blackwell requested the chairman of the committee to ask Mr. Lord to state definitely whom he represented. The chairman answered that if he did not choose to tell he could not compel him. On March 19 a hearing was given to Mr. Lord, who spoke for more than an hour. The usual distinguished suffrage advocates spoke in answer.

On April 8 seventy-nine Republican Representatives met at the Parker House, Boston, in response to an invitation from the Republican members of the House Committee on Woman Suffrage. Ex-Gov. John D. Long presided. Addresses were made by Mr. Long, U. S. Collector Beard, Mayor Thomas N. Hart of Boston, the Hon. Albert E. Pillsbury, ex-president of the Senate, ex-Governor Claflin and State Treasurer George E. Marden. Letters were read from the Hon. W. W. c.r.a.po and ex-Governor Ames. The following was unanimously adopted:

_Resolved_, That it is the duty of the Republican party of Ma.s.sachusetts forthwith to extend Munic.i.p.al Suffrage to the women of the commonwealth.

On April 17, after extended discussion in the House, the bill was lost, including pairs, by 73 yeas, 141 nays. The same Legislature defeated a proposal to disfranchise for a term of three years men convicted of infamous crimes, and it voted to admit to suffrage men who did not pay their poll-tax.

_1891_--On February 4 a hearing was granted to the pet.i.tioners for Munic.i.p.al Suffrage, conducted by Mr. Blackwell for the a.s.sociation, by Mrs. Fessenden for the W. C. T. U. To the usual speakers for the former were added Mrs. Helen Campbell, the Rev. Charles G. Ames, and also the Rev. Daniel Whitney, who had advocated woman suffrage in the Ma.s.sachusetts const.i.tutional convention of 1853 and now celebrated his eighty-first birthday by supporting it again. The speakers for the W.

C. T. U. were the Rev. Joseph Cook, Mrs. Thorpe, President Elmer Hewitt Capen of Tufts College, Mrs. Katherine Lente Stevenson and others. Mrs. Martha Moore Avery spoke for the labor reformers. No remonstrants appeared.

In the Senate, March 31, Senators Gilman, Nutter and Breed spoke for Munic.i.p.al Suffrage, and no one in the negative. The bill was lost by a vote, including pairs, of 12 yeas, 25 nays.

This year a bill was pa.s.sed requiring the appointment of women as factory inspectors, and two were appointed.

_1892_--The suffrage a.s.sociation pet.i.tioned for Munic.i.p.al and Full Suffrage, also for equal property rights for women. The W. C. T. U.

for Munic.i.p.al and License Suffrage, and both societies for legislation granting women equal facilities with men in registering to vote for school committee. On March 2 a hearing was given by the Committee on Election Laws on an order introduced by Senator Gorham D. Gilman to remove the poll-tax prerequisite for women's school vote, as it had been removed from men. Bills to secure for them a more just and liberal method of registration, drafted by ex-Governor Long and Mr.

Blackwell, were submitted. Addresses were made by these two, Senator Gilman, Mrs. Cheney, Dr. Salome Merritt, Mrs. Brockway and others.

On February 19 a hearing was given on the suffrage pet.i.tions which were advocated by Senator Gilman, Colonel Dudley, Mrs. Howe, Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell, the Hon. George S. Hale, Mrs. Trask Hill and others. No remonstrants appeared. On March 14 the hearing for the W.

C. T. U. was held with many prominent advocates.

License Suffrage was discussed in the House April 27, and on a _viva voce_ vote was declared carried, but on a roll call was defeated, 93 yeas, 96 nays. A reconsideration was moved next day and the advocates of the bill secured twenty-three additional votes, but the opponents also increased their vote and the motion was refused. Out of the 240 members 117 recorded themselves in favor of the bill. Munic.i.p.al Suffrage was voted down in the Senate May 2, without debate, by 10 yeas, 22 nays.

The poll-tax was abolished as a prerequisite for voting in the case of women. This had been done in the case of men in 1890. A bill to permit a wife to bring an action against her husband, at law or in equity, for any matter relating to her separate property or estate pa.s.sed the House but was defeated in the Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee reported against legislation to enable a woman to be appointed a justice of the peace.

_1893_--This year for the first time the State W. S. A., the National W. S. A. of Ma.s.sachusetts, the W. C. T. U., the Independent Women Voters and the Loyal Women of American Liberty all united in pet.i.tioning for a single measure, Munic.i.p.al Suffrage. The hearing at the State House on February 1 was conducted by Mr. Blackwell.

Addresses were made by Lucy Stone,[318] Mrs. Howe, Mrs. Mary A.

Livermore, Mrs. Stevenson, the Rev. Louis A. Banks, Mayor Elihu B.

Hayes of Lynn, Mrs. A. J. Gordon, Mrs. Trask Hill, Mrs. A. P.

d.i.c.kerman, Mrs. Fiske of St. Johns, N. B., Amos Beckford, George E.

Lothrop, Mrs. M. E. S. Cheney and Miss Blackwell. Mrs. M. E. Tucker Faunce was the sole remonstrant.

The committee reported in favor of the pet.i.tioners, 7 yeas, 4 nays.

The question was debated in the Legislature February 21. Every inch of s.p.a.ce was crowded, the first three rows of the men's gallery were allowed on this occasion to be occupied by women and even then many stood. On motion of Representative White of Brookline an amendment was adopted by 110 yeas, 90 nays, providing that Munic.i.p.al Suffrage should be granted conditionally; the question be submitted to a vote of the men and women of the State, and the measure to go into effect only in case the majority of those voting on it voted in favor. The bill as amended was then defeated by 111 yeas, 101 nays, almost every opponent of suffrage voting against it. They thus virtually declared that they were not willing women should have Munic.i.p.al Suffrage even if the majority of both men and women could be shown to favor it. The adverse majority this year was ten votes; the smallest in any previous year had been 49.

_1894_--Gov. Frederick T. Greenhalge, in his inaugural message to the Legislature, strongly urged that it should consider the extension of Munic.i.p.al Suffrage to women.

On January 18 a hearing was given by the Joint Special Committee. No remonstrant pet.i.tions had been sent in. The chairman invited alternate speeches from suffragists and opponents, but only one of the latter presented himself, J. Otis Wardwell of Haverhill, who said:

I appear here this morning for a lady who, I understand, has occupied a position as chairman or secretary of an organization that has for some time been an active opponent of woman suffrage.

_Mr. Blackwell_--May I inquire what the organization is that the gentleman refers to? We have never been able to find out much about this organization against woman suffrage. We hear that there is one, but if so it is a secret society. What is the name of it?