Volume V Part 28 (1/2)
We welcome you in the name of the pioneers in the education of women, of those who gave us the first Medical College for Women, Ann Preston, Emily Cleveland, Hannah Longsh.o.r.e, whose daughter is here today--our honorary president, Lucretia L. Blankenburg, wife of the chief executive of this city, to whose eloquent words of welcome you have just listened; in the name of the first president of our State a.s.sociation, of whom the poet Whittier wrote: ”The way to make the world anew is just to grow as Mary Grew.” We welcome you in the name of our national president, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, who, although a citizen of the world, comes back to her Pennsylvania home to get fresh strength and courage.
Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, a national officer, made a graceful response for the a.s.sociation. Fraternal greetings were given by Mrs. Ba.r.s.els, from the Pennsylvania Woman's Christian Temperance Union; by Mrs.
Branstetter of Oklahoma from the National Socialist Party; by Mrs.
Campbell McIvor of Toronto from the Canadian Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation and later by Miss Leonora O'Reilly from the New York Women's Trade Union League.
Miss Laura Clay, chairman of the Members.h.i.+p Committee, announced the admission of nine new societies to the National a.s.sociation. There were 308 delegates in attendance. Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, corresponding secretary and chairman of the Literature Committee, said in the course of her report:
We are often asked at headquarters and by mail what the national headquarters is for and what it does. The briefest answer that can be given is that we furnish ammunition for the suffrage fight. The ammunition is of many sorts, from money, leaflets and b.u.t.tons to historical data, slide lectures and advice on organization.... One decided advantage in making headquarters more useful to visitors has been the enlargement of the main office. A part.i.tion was removed which gave us a large, light room where all our publications are accessible for consultation or purchase, all the chief suffrage periodicals of the world are on file, the gallery of eminent suffragists is on exhibition and all the various kinds of supplies, like b.u.t.tons, pennants, posters, etc., are shown. It serves as reference library as well, for beside the History of Woman Suffrage, the Life of Susan B.
Anthony and the bound volumes of the _Woman's Journal_, there is a collection of books on interests allied to suffrage, which have been selected and approved by the board. These are also on sale.... During the summer of 1912 a questionnaire was sent to the States and the answers tabulated and printed in a folder showing conclusively the status of each regarding headquarters, press, members.h.i.+p, finance, political district, legislative and Congressional work. There is an increasing demand for suffrage facts rather than for suffrage argument. It was in response to this demand that it became necessary to appoint an editor for the literature department. Fully half of the publications needed revising and bringing up to date and new compilations of data were urgently needed. Mrs. Frances Maule Bjorkman, a trained newspaper and magazine writer, was chosen and has filled the position admirably.
Mrs. Dennett gave a detailed account of the pamphlets, speeches, leaflets, plays, magazine articles, etc., published by the a.s.sociation--250 kinds of printed matter--and said:
We have published over 3,000,000 pieces of literature in this year and our total receipts from literature and supplies have been $13,000, or $746 over the cost of the printing and purchase.
Our record month was September, when our receipts were more than the entire receipts for the whole year of 1909. If we count our unsold stock and our uncollected bills as a.s.sets, we have a net gain for the year of $3,578. About $700 worth of literature has been sold in the office, the remainder having been ordered by mail.
Through the courtesy of the Illinois a.s.sociation and the generosity of Miss Addams and Miss Breckinridge, who paid for the rent and service, a sub-station for the supply of literature was established at the Chicago headquarters in April. The sales at this western branch have been $1,924. It would seem well worth while to continue this service for western customers. Also for their benefit Mrs. McCormick made a gift of a sample copy of every one of our new publications to the presidents of State a.s.sociations in eighteen of the western States, as a means of bringing them in closer touch with the national office.... Aside from our own literature we have been grateful for a very serviceable congressional doc.u.ment, thousands of which have been distributed in the last few months, the speech of Congressman Edward T. Taylor of Colorado. It proved a successful and timely campaign doc.u.ment and we are indebted not only to Mr. Taylor but to a most efficient volunteer worker in Was.h.i.+ngton--Mrs. Helen H.
Gardener--who gave unstinted personal service in seeing that the doc.u.ments were obtained and franked when needed....
[Ill.u.s.tration: COURT HOUSE OF WARREN, OHIO
Headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation from 1903 to 1910--on the ground floor.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: HOME OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY IN ROCHESTER, N. Y.
Headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation until 1895.]
The convention accepted the recommendation of the board that it should issue a monthly bulletin of facts and figures to be sent to every paying member, thus establis.h.i.+ng a real bond between the a.s.sociation and its thousands of members. The report of the Press Bureau by its chairman, Miss Caroline I. Reilly, showed remarkable progress in public sentiment as expressed by the newspapers. It said in part:
The winning of California last year wrought so complete a change in the work of the national press bureau that it was like taking up an entirely new branch. Before that victory our time was employed in furnis.h.i.+ng suffrage arguments, replying to adverse editorials and letters published in the newspapers and writing syndicate articles. Now this department has resolved itself into a bureau of information, news being the one thing required. Each week we send to our mailing list 2,000 copies of the press bulletin, giving brief items relative to suffrage activities the world over. These go into every non-suffrage State in the Union, to Canada, Cuba and England, and the demand for them increases daily. Almost every mail brings letters from newspapers asking to be placed on the regular mailing list.... Since the winning of the four States on November 5, newspapers and press a.s.sociations from all over the United States have written us asking for help to establish woman suffrage departments. The time has come when our question is a paying one from a publicity point of view, ...
We now have twenty syndicates on our list and are no longer obliged to write the articles ourselves but simply furnish the information which their own writers work up. These syndicates are both national and international and cover all of this country as well as some foreign countries. An interesting thing happened last week, when the representative of a European press syndicate came and said that he had been sent to America for the sole purpose of reporting the woman movement in the United States, the subject being regarded a vital one by the press of Europe.
Special suffrage editions seem to be more popular than almost anything else and appeals come to us from all over the Union to help on them.... During the past year we have received and answered over 3,000 communications. The Italian papers have been on our mailing list for some time, also many French and Hebrew papers.... The editors and a.s.sociate editors of twelve Italian newspapers in New York are enrolled in the city suffrage organization.
Miss Alice Stone Blackwell made an extended report of the _Woman's Journal_ since it became the official organ of the National American a.s.sociation in June, 1910, and had been published under its auspices.
The expenses had increased and funds had not been supplied to meet them. Committees of conference were appointed and eventually the deficit was paid and the paper was returned to Miss Blackwell, who offered the free use of its columns to the a.s.sociation. The report of the treasurer, Miss Jessie Ashley, was not encouraging. Under the old regime the year always closed with a balance in the treasury but this indebtedness to the _Woman's Journal_ left the a.s.sociation $5,000 in debt.[74] As its work broadened the expense became heavier and the income although far larger than ever before was not sufficient. During the past year it had contributed $18,144 to campaigns in eight States.
A very large part of this amount was paid by Dr. Shaw from a fund given to her personally for the purpose by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw of Boston. At this time and later she gave to Dr. Shaw to be used for campaigns according to her judgment $30,000 and the name of the donor was not revealed until after her death in 1917.
The first evening of the convention was devoted to the president's address and the stories of the successful campaigns for suffrage amendments at the November elections, related by Mrs. William A.
Johnston and Miss Helen N. Eaker for Kansas and Mrs. M. L. T. Hidden for Oregon. No one being present from Arizona Dr. Shaw told of the victory there. Mrs. Clara B. Arthur and Mrs. Huntley Russell described the situation in Michigan, where the indications were that the amendment would be lost by fraudulent returns. Dr. Shaw's speech, as usual, was neither written nor stenographically reported but this floating paragraph was found in a newspaper:
In all times men have entertained loftier theories of living than they have been able to formulate into practical experience. We Americans call our government a republic but it is not a republic and never has been one. A republic is not a government in which one-half of the people make the laws for all of the people. At first the government was a hierarchy in which only male church members could vote. In the process of evolution the qualification of church members.h.i.+p was removed and the word ”taxpayer”
subst.i.tuted. Later that word was stricken out and all white men could vote. Then followed the erasure of the word ”white” and now all male citizens have the ballot. The next measure is obvious and it is not a revolutionary one but the logical step in the evolution of our government. I believe thoroughly in democracy, the extension of the franchise to all men, for all have a right to a voice in the making of the laws that govern them, and no nation has a right to place before any of its people an insuperable barrier to self-government. We would make no outcry against an educational standard, the necessary age limit, a certain term of residence in any place--in fact there is no regulation women would object to that applied to all citizens equally. I make no criticism of the policy of the country in giving all men the ballot. The men are all right so far as they go--- but they go only half way. The United States has subjected its women to the greatest political humiliation ever imposed upon the women of any nation. German women are governed by German men; French women by French men, etc., but American women are ruled by the men of every country and race in the world.... I do not belong to any political party and I have too much self-respect to ally myself with any party until my opinion is of enough importance to be counted at the polls.
The delegates heard reports from the chairmen of various committees--Ways and Means, Dr. M. Carey Thomas; Enrollment, Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield; Presidential Suffrage, Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates; Laws for Women, Miss Mary Rutter Towle (D. C.). Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead made her usual comprehensive report as chairman of the Peace and Arbitration Committee. Mrs. Mary E. Craigie in her report of seven printed pages on the extensive and successful efforts of her Committee on Church Work told of a circular letter that had been sent to thousands of clergymen throughout the country asking for a special sermon in support of woman suffrage on Mothers' Day. It pointed out that in the vast moral and social reform work of the churches their women members are denied the weapon of Christian welfare, the ballot, while the forces of evil are fully enfranchised and the influence of the churches is thus essentially weakened.
Mrs. William Kent, in her report as chairman of the Congressional Committee, said that it had not been necessary to request members to introduce a resolution for a Federal Suffrage Amendment as six were offered by as many Representatives of their own volition. Senator Works of her own State of California had been glad to present it. She told of the ”hearings” before the committees of the two Houses on March 13, when the National a.s.sociation sent representatives to Was.h.i.+ngton. The preceding day a reception for the speakers was given in her home and many of the guests became interested who had been indifferent. In May the Congressional Committee sent out cards for a ”suffrage tea” in her house to the wives of Senators and Representatives; many were present and interesting addresses were made.
Among the resolutions submitted by the chairman of the committee, Mrs.