Volume V Part 60 (1/2)
Brooks of Kansas was elected national chairman. The recommendations of the sub-committees on organization plans, Mrs. Raymond Brown (N. Y.) chairman, were adopted as follows: 1. The Council of the League of Women Voters will consist of the presidents of the States having full, Presidential or Primary suffrage and the chairmen of the Ratification Committees in the seven States of Montana, Idaho, Was.h.i.+ngton, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and Wyoming--this Council to pa.s.s upon all policies of the league and approve the legislative programs. 2. The permanent chairman, who will also be chairman of the legislative committee, will conduct correspondence, direct organization in unorganized States and visit States with the view of stimulating organization and clarifying the objects of the league, the work for suffrage to remain in the National Congressional Committee and the State Ratification Committees. 3. The State Leagues of Women Voters will consist of individual members and organized committees with the addition of a.s.sociations already established which subscribe to the principles of the league. At the regular State convention or at a special State conference to be called the object of the league will be set forth and each department presented, with publicity and advertising to bring it to the attention of the public.
Eight departments each composed of a national chairman and one woman from every State were recommended, the members of these departments to become familiar with all laws on the subjects under consideration, recommend legislative programs, prepare and issue literature on their subjects and work in the States through the State committees. A ”budget” of $20,000 was recommended.
The program for the Women in Industry Committee presented by Mrs.
Raymond Robins (Ills.) was adopted. The greatest needs for Unification and Improvement of Laws defining the Legal Status of Women were named by Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.), such as joint guardians.h.i.+p of children, marriage and divorce laws, property rights, industry, civil service, morality, child welfare and elections. Education was set forth as the best means to Social Morality and Social Hygiene by Dr. Valeria Parker (Conn.). Miss Julia Lathrop (Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.), chief of the Federal Child Welfare Bureau, spoke on present needs, saying: ”Child labor and an educated community, child labor and modern democracy cannot co-exist.... Time does not wait, the child lives or dies. If he lives he takes up his life well or ill equipped, not as he chooses but as we choose for him.”
The following needed Improvements of Election Laws were named by Mrs.
Ellis Meredith (Colo.): _Federal_--A national amendment guaranteeing women the franchise on the same terms as men; restricting the franchise to those who are citizens; repealing the Act of 1907 which disfranchises women marrying foreigners; an extension of the present five-year time after which a foreigner becomes a full citizen by virtue of having taken out two sets of papers and giving the oath of allegiance. _State_--Adoption of the Australian ballot; reduction of number of ballots printed to not more than 5 per cent. more than registration; for ”military” and ”poll tax” subst.i.tution of ”election tax,” to be remitted to persons voting and collected from those failing to do so when not unavoidably prevented by illness; adoption of absent voter law--Montana or Minnesota statutes recommended; discontinuance of vehicles except for sick or feeble or crippled persons; even division of Judges between major political parties, examination required, more lat.i.tude in appointment and removal for cause; election of judicial, legislative and educational officers at a different time from that for national and State.
Miss Jessie R. Haver, legislative representative of the National Consumers' League and executive secretary of the Consumers' League of the District of Columbia, read a paper on The Government and the Market Basket, after which she presented a resolution urging the chairman of the Senate and House Interstate Commerce Committee to re-introduce and pa.s.s the bill drafted by the Federal Trade Commission in reference to the Packers' Trust.
During the convention sectional conferences were held on the department subjects. Out of these conferences came many suggestions and two resolutions were adopted: 1. That the League of Women Voters supports the Federal Trade Commission in its efforts to secure remedial legislation in the meat-packing industry. 2. That the convention endorses the principle of federal aid to the States for the removal of adult illiteracy and the Americanization of the adult foreign born.
In June, 1919, the initial conference of the president, Mrs. Brooks, and the committee chairmen of the League of Women Voters, was held at the headquarters of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation, 171 Madison Avenue, New York City, and plans were made to render the league effective throughout the United States.
The record of the action of the Official Board of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation in 1919 on questions pertaining to the League of Women Voters is as follows: In April it was voted that the Americanization Committee and the Committee on Protection of Women in Industry of the a.s.sociation be united with the committees of the same name in the league. In May the following chairmen for new committees were selected, subject to endors.e.m.e.nt of the Council of the league: Mrs. Edward P. Costigan, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., Food Supply and Demand; Mrs. Jacob Baur (Ills.), Improvement of Election Laws and Methods; Mrs. Percy V. Pennbacker (Tex.), Child Welfare. In July an appropriation of $200 for each of the eight departments of the league was made from the treasury of the a.s.sociation.
As the National a.s.sociation was the convener of the first congress of the League of Women Voters and there was no method of determining the number of delegates that any league was ent.i.tled to, the Board on December 30, in preparation for the approaching annual convention in Chicago, adopted the following resolution: 1. That each State auxiliary of the a.s.sociation be invited to secure for the league congress, which would be held at the same time, one delegate from the State Federation of Women's Clubs, one from the State Woman's Christian Temperance Union and one from the State Women's Trade Union League; and ten delegates at large from the national organizations of each. 2. That invitations be extended to the following national bodies, asking each to send ten delegates at large: a.s.sociation of Collegiate Alumnae, International Child Welfare League, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, Ladies of the Maccabees, National Council of Jewish Women, National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teachers'
a.s.sociations, Federation of College Women, Florence Crittenden Mission, Women's Relief Corps, Women's Relief Society, Women's Benefit a.s.sociation of the Maccabees, Women's Department National Civic Federation, United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Young Women's Christian a.s.sociation. 3. That each of the ten unorganized western States be ent.i.tled to ten delegates to be secured by the chairman of ratification.
At the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation and the League of Women Voters in Chicago Feb. 12-18, 1920, there were present 507 delegates, 102 alternates and 89 fraternal delegates.
Among the resolutions for dissolving the a.s.sociation recommended by its Executive Council and adopted by vote of the delegates was the following pertaining to the League of Women Voters:
_Citizens.h.i.+p_--Whereas, millions of women will become voters in 1920, and, Whereas, the low standards of citizens.h.i.+p found in the present electorate clearly indicate the need of education in the principles and ideals of our Government and the methods of political procedure, therefore be it resolved: 1. That the National League of Women Voters be urged to make Political Education for the new women voters (but not excluding men) its first duty for 1920. 2. That the nation-wide plan shall include normal schools for citizens.h.i.+p in each State followed by schools in each county. 3. That we urge the League of Women Voters to make every effort to have the study of citizens.h.i.+p required in the public schools of every State, beginning in the primary grades and continuing through the upper grades, high schools, normal schools, colleges and universities.
The recommendations were: 1. That the League of Women Voters, now a section of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, be organized as a new and independent society. 2. That the present State auxiliaries of the a.s.sociation, while retaining their relations.h.i.+p in form to the Board of Officers to be elected in this convention, shall change their names, objects and const.i.tutions to conform to those of the league and take up the plan of work to be adopted in its first congress.
At the opening session of the congress of the League of Women Voters Sat.u.r.day afternoon, February 14, Mrs. Brooks, the chairman, presiding, Mrs. Catt was made permanent chairman and Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson recording secretary for the convention. By vote of the convention the chair named the following committees and chairmen: Const.i.tution, Mrs.
Raymond Brown (N. Y.); Nominations, Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.); Regions, Mrs. Andreas Ueland (Wis.). The const.i.tution was adopted defining the aims of the league--to foster education in citizens.h.i.+p; to urge every woman to become an enrolled voter, but as an organization the league not to be allied with or support any party.
Following are the officers elected for 1920-1921, the regional division of States and the chairmen of departments: Directors at Large--Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Ma.s.s.), Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.), Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (Ala.). Board as Organized--Chairman, Mrs.
Park; vice-chairman, Mrs. Gellhorn; treasurer, Mrs. Edwards; secretary, Mrs. Jacobs. Mrs. Catt was made honorary chairman by the board.
Regional Directors--First Region: Miss Katharine Ludington (Conn.)--Maine, Vermont, New Hamps.h.i.+re, Ma.s.sachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Second: Mrs. F. Louis Slade (N. Y.)--New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. Third: Miss Ella Dortch (Tenn.)--Virginia, District of Columbia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee. Fourth: Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser (O.)--Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Fifth: Mrs.
James Paige (Minn.)--Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. Sixth: Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.)--Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri.
Seventh: Mrs. C. B. Simmons (Ore.)--Was.h.i.+ngton, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and California.
Chairmen of Departments.--1. American Citizens.h.i.+p, Mrs. Frederick P.
Bagley, Boston; 2. Protection of Women in Industry, Miss Mary McDowell, Chicago; 3. Child Welfare, Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, Austin (Tex.); Social Hygiene, Dr. Valeria H. Parker, Hartford (Conn.); 5.
Unification of Laws Concerning Civil Status of Women, Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, Chicago; 6. Improvement in Election Laws and Methods, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, New York; 7. Food Supply and Demand, Mrs.
Edward P. Costigan, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.; 8. Research, Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, New York.
The recommendations of the Committee on Plans for Citizens.h.i.+p Schools, appointed by the National Suffrage a.s.sociation, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, chairman, were adopted as follows:
1. That a normal school be held in the most available large city in each State, to which every county shall be asked to send one or more representatives, the school to be open to all local people. 2. That no State shall feel that it has approached the task of training for citizens.h.i.+p which has not had at least one school in every county, followed by schools in as many towns.h.i.+ps and wards as possible, with the ultimate aim of reaching the women of every election district. 3.
That minimum requirement of a citizens.h.i.+p school should include (a) the study of local, State and national government; (b) the technique of voting and election laws; (c) organization and platform of political parties; (d) the League of Women Voters--its aims, its platforms, its plans of work. 4. That each State employ a director for citizens.h.i.+p schools to be under the direction of the national director of such schools. 5. That the States urge the a.s.sistance of State universities through summer schools, extension departments and active partic.i.p.ation by professors from these departments to make the teaching of citizens.h.i.+p of real benefit to the State. 6. That the States invite the cooperation of local men who are experienced in public affairs and that every agency, including that of publicity, be employed which will tend to increased interest in the teaching of citizens.h.i.+p. 7. That the States try to make the study of citizens.h.i.+p compulsory in the public schools from the primary grades up.