Volume V Part 45 (1/2)
Dr. Shaw presided at the evening session of the second day of the convention and to this and other programs Mrs. Newton D. Baker contributed her beautiful voice, with Mrs. Morgan Lewis Brett at the piano. Mrs. Charles W. Fairfax and Paul Bleyden also sang most acceptably and there was music by the Meyer-Davis orchestra. This evening the speakers were the Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior; the Hon. Jeannette Rankin, first woman member of the National House of Representatives, and Mrs. Catt, who gave her president's address. The presence of Secretary Lane added much prestige as well as political significance to the program, for it was interpreted as an indication that President Wilson had advanced from a belief in woman suffrage itself to an advocacy of the Federal Amendment, which was the keynote of the convention. ”I come to you tonight,” the Secretary said, ”to bring a word of congratulation and good will from the first man in the nation. Dr. Shaw spoke of always being proud when she had some man back of her who could give respectability to the cause. What greater honor can there be, what greater pride can you feel, than in having behind you the man who is not alone the President of the United States but also the foremost leader of liberal thought throughout the world? It is to have with you the conscience, the mind and the spirit of today and tomorrow.” He spoke of his own strong belief in the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women and the necessity of establis.h.i.+ng for every one an individuality entirely her own, socially and politically. Only scattered newspaper references to this strong speech are available.
Especial interest was felt in the address of the young member of Congress, Miss Jeannette Rankin. In speaking of the bill which she had recently introduced to enable women to retain their nationality after marriage she said: ”We, who stand tonight so near victory after a majestic struggle of seventy long years, must not forget that there are other steps besides suffrage necessary to complete the political enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of American women. We must not forget that the self-respect of the American woman will not be redeemed until she is regarded as a distinct and social ent.i.ty, unhampered by the political status of her husband or her father but with a status peculiarly her own and accruing to her as an American citizen. She must be bound to American obligations not through her husband's citizens.h.i.+p but directly through her own.”
Mrs. Catt's address had been announced as a Message to Congress and was eagerly antic.i.p.ated. Miss Rose Young, the enthusiastic editor of _The Woman Citizen_, gave this vivid pen picture of the occasion:
When Mrs. Catt rose, the house rose with her. It was a crowded house and everybody was aware that the message in Mrs. Catt's hand was the vital message of the convention. Everybody wondered what would be its main focus. n.o.body quite understood why an address to Congress should be delivered at a ma.s.s meeting. The latter point the speaker quickly cleared up. Once before in suffrage history, she said, there had been an address to Congress. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had made it. At this moment she was but doing over what they had done a half-century ago. She would deliver her address to Congress from that platform to that audience and leave it to the printed page to carry the message on into the sacred halls themselves.
Then, with Senate and House visualized by the directness of her appeal to them and by the sharp limning of her argument, she pleaded for democracy, arraigned the obstructionists of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, showed up the harsh inconsistencies, the waste of time and energy and money asked of women in State referenda, clarified the reasons for establis.h.i.+ng suffrage by the Federal route and brought the whole case into high relief by resting the responsibility where it belongs--on the Congress of the United States.
The speaker, never ornate in rhetoric or delivery, seemed to withdraw her personality utterly, so that there was left only the mental and spiritual content of her message. To hear her was like listening to abstract thought, warmed by the fire of abstract conviction. To see her was like looking at sheer marble, flame-lit. Many an orator sways an audience's mind by emotional appeal. Hers was the crowning achievement to sway an audience to emotion by the symmetry and force of her appeal to its mind.
Again and again salvos of applause stopped her for a moment but again and again the steady rhythm of her strong voice regained control. At the end her grip on attention was so acute that a little hush followed the last word.
The address consumed an hour and a half in delivery and made a pamphlet of twenty-two pages when published. Up to the time the Federal Amendment was ratified it was a part of the standard literature of the National a.s.sociation and thousands of copies were circulated.[111] Among the subheads were these: The History of our Country and the Theory of our Government; the Leaders.h.i.+p of the United States in World Democracy compels the Enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of its Own Women; Three Reasons for the Federal Method; Three Objections Answered. It was an absolutely conclusive argument and closed with a ringing appeal for ”the submission and ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in order that this nation may at the earliest possible moment show to all the nations of the earth that its action is consistent with its principles.” Dr. Shaw, who never could forego a little joke, had said in introducing Mrs. Catt: ”I had long thought I should be willing to die as soon as suffrage was won in New York; that I never should be interested in politics or the making of tickets, but five minutes after the midnight of November 6 I had picked my ticket and now I don't want to die until it is elected.” Here she stopped and presented the speaker. After Mrs. Catt had finished Dr.
Shaw rose and looking at her with twinkling eyes said to the delighted audience: ”The head of my ticket!”
The mornings of the convention were devoted to routine business and to the reports of the presidents of the States, most of whom were present, and almost without exception they told of active work and a great advance in public sentiment. It was such a time of rejoicing and hopefulness as suffragists had never known. The chief and universal interest, however, was centered in the action of Congress, as this had always been the goal and it now seemed near at hand. Therefore the report of the Congressional Committee, made through its chairman, Mrs.
Maud Wood Park, was heard with close attention. The outline presented was as follows:
The duties of the present chairman began March 17, 1917, four days before President Wilson called an extra session of Congress to meet on April 2, a significant step toward the entrance of the United States into the World War. Thus our work started at a time of supreme importance in the history of our country and under conditions full of new possibilities for the cause of woman suffrage.
Mrs. Catt, keenly alive to the crisis in our national affairs, foresaw that our people, with their idealism fired by thought of increased freedom for the oppressed subjects of autocratic governments, might be aroused to new consciousness of the flaw in our own democracy. With this thought in mind, on the eve of the opening of the extraordinary session, she sent out a summons to the suffragists of the whole country to unite in a stupendous appeal to Congress for the immediate submission of the Federal Amendment.
The opening of the Sixty-fifth Congress was marked by another circ.u.mstance of unusual interest, the seating of the first woman member, the Hon. Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who made a speech from the balcony of our headquarters on the morning of April 2 and was then escorted to the Capitol by Mrs. Catt and other members of our a.s.sociation in a cavalcade of decorated motor cars. The day which opened so happily for suffragists ended with the President's message to Congress asking for the Declaration of War.
In the Senate the resolution for our amendment was introduced in behalf of our a.s.sociation by Senator Andrieus A. Jones of New Mexico, the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage, the other members of which were Senators Owen of Oklahoma; Ransdell of Louisiana; Hollis of New Hamps.h.i.+re; Johnson of South Dakota; Jones of Was.h.i.+ngton; Nelson of Minnesota; c.u.mmins of Iowa and Johnson of California. Chairman Jones, at our request, had secured the privilege of having his resolution made number one on the calendar, but when it was decided that the war resolution should be introduced immediately, he tactfully yielded his place. Similar suffrage resolutions were introduced by Senators Shafroth, Owen, Poindexter and Thompson.
In the House our resolution was introduced by Representative Raker, on the Democratic side, and by Representative Rankin, on the Republican side. Similar ones were introduced by Representatives Mondell, Keating, Hayden and Taylor.
The War Resolution was adopted by the Senate April 4 and by the House April 5. A few days later the Finance Committee of the Senate informally recommended and leaders of both parties agreed that only legislation included in the war program should be considered during the extra session. The Democratic caucus of the House pa.s.sed a similar recommendation, which was acquiesced in by the Republicans. It soon became clear to your committee that the suffrage resolution would not be admitted under this rule, and a total revision of plans had to be made. Three meetings were held and it was the opinion of all that the aim should be to establish and maintain friendly relations with both parties rather than to arouse the antagonism of leaders whose support we must have if our measure is to succeed, so it was recommended and the National Board voted that our ”drive” should be postponed until there was a possibility of securing a vote on the Federal Amendment.
Happily, however, there were forms of work not prohibited by the legislative program.
The Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage gave a hearing to our a.s.sociation April 20 ... and on September 15, Chairman Jones made a favorable report. The measure is now on the calendar of the Senate. In the House, resolutions calling for the creation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage had been introduced at the beginning of the session by Representatives Raker, Keating and Hayden and referred to the Committee on Rules.
Our first step was to get the approval of Speaker Clark, who gave us cordial support. Later, to offset the fear on the part of certain members of conflicting with President Wilson's legislative program, a letter was sent, at Mrs. Helen H.
Gardener's request, to Chairman Edward Pou (N. C.), of the Rules Committee, by the President himself, who stated that he thought the creation of the committee ”would be a very wise act of public policy and also an act of fairness to the best women who are engaged in the cause of woman suffrage.” Then, through the efforts of a working committee made up of the six members who had introduced suffrage resolutions, a pet.i.tion asking for the creation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage, as called for in the Raker resolution, was signed by all members from equal suffrage States and by many of those from Presidential suffrage States and from Primary suffrage Arkansas. This pet.i.tion was presented to the Rules Committee, which on May 18 granted a hearing on the subject. On June 6, by a vote of 6 to 5, on motion of Mr.
Cantrill of Kentucky, a resolution calling for the creation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage to consist of thirteen members, to which all proposed action touching the subject should be referred, was adopted, with an amendment, made by Mr. Lenroot of Wisconsin, to the effect that the resolution should not be reported to the House until the pending war legislation was out of the way.
The report of the Rules Committee, therefore, was not brought into the House until September 24, when the extremely active opposition of Chairman Edwin Y. Webb (N. C.) and most of the other members of the Judiciary Committee made a hard fight inevitable. Thanks to the hearty support of Speaker Clark, the good management of Chairman Pou and the help of loyal friends of both parties in the House, as well as to the admirable work done by our own State congressional chairmen, the report was adopted by a vote of 180 yeas to 107 noes, with 3 answering present and 142 not voting. Of the favorable votes, 82 were from Democrats and 96 from Republicans. Of the unfavorable votes, 74 were from Democrats and 32 from Republicans. Of those not voting, 59 were Democrats and 81 were Republicans. These facts show that the measure was regarded, as we had hoped it would be, as strictly non-partisan. The victory came so late in the session that the appointment of the new committee was postponed until the present session.
Referring to the housing of the Congressional Committee in the new headquarters of the National a.s.sociation in Was.h.i.+ngton Mrs. Park said:
To the preceding chairman, Mrs. Miller, fell the hard work of finding new headquarters, moving the office and establis.h.i.+ng the house routine which has been continued under the efficient care of our house manager, Mrs. Elizabeth W. Walker. The secretary of the committee, Miss Ruth White, who has worked indefatigably in the office since June, 1916, has had charge of the records of members of Congress and of correspondence with our State chairmen, besides lightening in numberless other ways the burdens of your chairman. To a member of the committee, who is a long-time resident of Was.h.i.+ngton, Mrs. Gardener, the a.s.sociation is profoundly indebted for constant advice and help, as well as for the most skillful handling of delicate and difficult situations. She has been called the ”Diplomatic Corps” of the committee and the name in every good sense has been well won by the important services which she has rendered. Another member of the committee, a former chairman, Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, after helping to start the legislative work last December, generously came to our aid at busy seasons and took active charge of the work from July 10 to September 12, during the absence of the chairman. The management of the office and the Department of Publicity have been in the hands of the executive secretary, Miss Ethel M. Smith.
Social activities through the spring and early summer were in charge of Miss Heloise Meyer, a.s.sisted by Mrs. J. Borden Harriman. Miss Mabel Caldwell Willard has represented the committee in undertakings involving the house as a center for local work. These have included getting hostesses to receive visitors at headquarters, supplying speakers for local meetings, providing cooperation with the suffrage federation of the District of Columbia for the daily afternoon teas, and looking after hospitality for delegates to conventions meeting in Was.h.i.+ngton. Among the organizations for which receptions have been arranged are Daughters of the American Revolution, a.s.sociation of Collegiate Alumnae, Confederate Veterans, Sons of Veterans, Daughters of the Confederacy, Congress of Mothers, Parent-Teacher a.s.sociations and Farm and Garden a.s.sociations. Ten of the fourteen members of the committee, in addition to the executive secretary, have given highly valued service in Was.h.i.+ngton during the last nine months. Other suffragists not members have kindly devoted days or weeks to our work and the local suffrage a.s.sociations have been most cordial in their response to our requests.
Any attempt to state our obligations to our national president would be futile. Our high hope for the adoption of the Federal Amendment by the 65th Congress is linked inseparably with our faith in her leaders.h.i.+p.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A LECTURE IN THE BANQUET HALL OF THE WAs.h.i.+NGTON SUFFRAGE HEADQUARTERS.
Formerly occupied by the French Emba.s.sy.]