Volume VI Part 23 (1/2)

At the convention of 1911 in Heptasophs Hall the California victory of October 11 was celebrated with a banquet attended by 400 men and women, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood of Was.h.i.+ngton presiding. The meeting on the next evening was addressed by Miss A. Maud Royden of London on The Economic, Spiritual and Religious Aspect of Woman Suffrage. During the year a leaflet had been issued ent.i.tled Opinions of Representative Men of Maryland on Woman Suffrage, through Miss Mary B. Dixon, chairman of publicity, and 600 suffrage posters were placed in the counties. In Baltimore they were made into double faced placards and men were employed to carry them through the business sections. Suffrage pet.i.tions and resolutions had been endorsed by the State Federation of Labor, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Ladies of the Maccabees, Grange and Jewish Council of Women.

The convention of 1912 was held in the Baltimore Business College, the afternoon devoted to discussions of plans of work, reports, etc., followed by a supper and bazar. A report was given of the organization of a Men's League for Woman Suffrage by Dr. Donald R. Hooker, Dr.

Funck, Dr. Janney, the Rev. James Gratten Mythen, Dr. Warren Lewis, Jacob M. Moses, S. Johnson Poe, Frank F. Ramey and William F. Cochran.

In the evening there was a debate on the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women by the boys of the Polytechnic Inst.i.tute, Samuel M. North, a member of the faculty and a pioneer suffragist, presiding. At the convention of 1913 the twenty-fourth anniversary of the State a.s.sociation was celebrated in Veteran Corps Hall with a supper, dance and addresses by Laura Clay of Kentucky, Clara Bewick Colby of Was.h.i.+ngton, Ella S.

Stewart of Illinois and Lucy Burns of New York. The convention of 1914 was held in the Royal Arcanum Building. The speakers were Mrs. Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin, Mrs. Nathan of New York, Mrs. Louis F. Post of Illinois and Mr. Western Star. It was reported that at the great suffrage parade held the preceding March in Was.h.i.+ngton Maryland had the largest delegation.

The business session of 1915 was held in the W. C. T. U. Building and the evening session in the Universalist Church, whose pastor, the Rev.

C. Clifton Clark, spoke on the pro-suffrage side. This year a union of all the organizations in the State was effected under the name of the Woman Suffrage Party of Maryland. Mrs. Funck was elected president and served two years.

The annual meeting of 1916 was held on the lawn at the home of Elizabeth Bruce Gwynn; that of 1917 on the grounds of the Young Woman's Christian a.s.sociation; in 1918 at Tolchester Beach and in 1919 at the home of Evelyn Albaugh Tima.n.u.s. The workers during these years always were volunteers, who served without financial compensation. The a.s.sociation is indebted for the past ten years to Mary Elizabeth Ward for all stenographic work and to Margaret A. Maddox for most of the publicity work.

Among those who have represented their counties in State conventions are the following: Montgomery county, Mary Bentley Thomas, Sarah Miller, Rebecca Miller, Mary E. Moore, Mary Magruder; Baltimore county, Elizabeth Herring, Josephine E. Smith, Julia F. Abbott, Anna S. Abbott, Ella Warfield, Kate Vanhorn, Mrs. Charles Weed, Mrs. James Green, Mary C. Raspe, Ethel C. Crosby; Harford, Annie H. Hoskins, Lydia Reckord, Eliza Edell; Carroll, Maggie Mehring; Cecil, Alice Coale Simpers; Somerset, Florence Hoge; Caroline, Miss Eliza Messenger; Anne Arundel, Mrs. Wilhelmina Nichols; Howard, Miss Elizabeth B. Wilson.

BALTIMORE CITY CLUB. For more than twenty years this club averaged from four to twenty public meetings annually in theaters, churches and suffrage headquarters. Scores of business and executive meetings were held and sociables, suppers, lawn fetes, banquets, excursions and bazars were given. The club opened the first headquarters in 1902 at 107 West Franklin Street, one of the city's noted thoroughfares. In 1908 they were established on North Gilmore Street, West Baltimore, and in 1912 on the corner of Baltimore and Carey Streets. At both localities the plate gla.s.s windows were decorated with pictures of suffrage leaders, cartoons, platforms of political parties and literature; afternoon tea was served and public meetings held at night. It also inaugurated Sunday afternoon meetings which became very popular and it was responsible for bringing to Baltimore many men and women of national and international distinction. The first English ”militant” to speak in Baltimore was Mrs. Annie Cobden Sanderson, on My Experience in an English Jail, in January, 1908, in the Christian Temple, the Rev. Peter Ainslie, the pastor, introducing the speaker, who made a profound impression. Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst came next, speaking in Osler Hall on Ideal Democracy, followed by Sylvia Pankhurst and Mrs. Philip Snowden, the latter speaking at the Seventh Baptist Church, the pastor presiding.

In 1909 at a ma.s.s meeting one Sunday afternoon in the Lyric Theater an audience of over 2,000 was present, more than half of them men, with Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Florence Kelley the speakers; Judge Jacob M.

Moses of the Juvenile Court presided and a number of men of distinction were seated on the platform. Mrs. Catt spoke at a ma.s.s meeting in the Academy of Music in March, 1913, at which Miss Eliza H.

Lord of Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., presided and Senator William E. Borah of Idaho was a guest. Other Sunday afternoon meetings were held in Ford's, Albaugh's, the Garden and the New Theaters with well known speakers. Baltimore clergymen a.s.sisting at these meetings, besides those already mentioned, were the Rev. Dr. Frank M. Ellis and the Rev.

Dr. J. W. Wills; the Reverends Kingman Handy, Henry Wharton and W. H.

Baylor of the Baptist Church; George Scholl and Thomas Beadenkoph of the Lutheran Synod; Richard W. Hogue and George W. Dame of the Episcopal, E. L. Hubbard of the Methodist and Wynne Jones of the Highlandtown Presbyterian Churches.

Through the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation and the Baltimore City Club much educational work was done from 1900 to 1910 in the way of public and parlor meetings. The pictures of suffrage leaders were placed in the public schools. The History of Woman Suffrage and the Life of Susan B. Anthony were given to public libraries. Boys and girls were trained for suffrage debates and prizes given for essays.

Subscriptions were solicited for _Progress_ and the _Woman's Journal_; press work was pushed; opportunities were sought to speak before all kinds of organizations and there was a wide distribution of suffrage literature. Handsomely engrossed resolutions were presented in 1902 to Senator Jacob M. Moses in appreciation of his having introduced the bill in the Legislature to permit women to practice law in Maryland; and to Miss Maddox, the first to be admitted to the bar, a gold pin bearing the State coat-of-arms as an expression of esteem for her onerous work in securing its pa.s.sage.

In 1906 and thereafter by specially appointed committees suffrage planks were requested in the platforms of the political parties but with no success. In 1907 a delegation appeared before the State Federation of Labor asking for its endors.e.m.e.nt of woman suffrage, which was refused.

For 1908 the slogan was, Convert the public school teachers. To this end a ma.s.s meeting was held in Baltimore with Miss Grace C. Strachan, a district superintendent of the public schools of New York; the Rev.

Olympia Brown of Wisconsin and Mrs. Emma Smith Devoe of the State of Was.h.i.+ngton as speakers. Mrs. Funck attended tri-county conventions of teachers, speaking on woman suffrage and distributing 5,000 leaflets.

Three women attended the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee of Congress in the interest of the Federal Amendment, Mrs. Funck addressing the committee. Independence Day was observed by a parade and street speaking by Mrs. Colby, Mrs. Tima.n.u.s and others.

In 1911 the first debate on woman suffrage took place before the Men's Club of the Harlem Park Methodist Church, Mrs. Funck taking the affirmative side against two members of the Anti-Suffrage Society, Mrs. Francis T. Redwood and Mrs. Haslup Adams. The following year another debate was held at the State Normal School by the pupils. In both instances the affirmative won.

In 1914 a large suffrage bazar was held under the auspices of all the clubs in the Fifth Regiment Armory with good financial results. This year the a.s.sociation entered the political arena, the logical culmination of previous years of work. Legislation and Publicity was the slogan. It specialized in ward work, besieged legislative and political leaders with telegrams and letters, visited their offices and homes, watched at the polls, worked to defeat anti-suffrage candidates; addressed shop and factory employees, spoke on street corners and at county fairs, made use of suffrage posters and unique advertis.e.m.e.nts and had parades.

The State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation has had but two presidents, Mary Bentley Thomas of Ednor, 1894-1904 and Emma Maddox Funck, 1904-1920.

The latter was president of the Baltimore City Society 1897-1920.

Others who served as State officers ten years and more were Mary Badders Holton, Evelyn Albaugh Tima.n.u.s, Etta H. Maddox, Anne Webb (Mrs. O. Edward) Janney, Pauline W. Holme, Mary Young Taylor, Edna Annette Beveridge, Nellie C. Cromwell, Florence E. Barnes, Mary E.

Moore, Margaret Smythe Clark and Annie H. Hoskins. s.p.a.ce will not permit the names of the many women who were loyal and helpful during these years. Women were not left entirely alone to fight the battle and many men besides those mentioned a.s.sisted and encouraged.

The Maryland a.s.sociation Opposed to Woman Suffrage was organized in Baltimore in 1911, opening its first headquarters in North Charles Street with Mrs. N. C. Talbott as executive secretary. Later there was some organization in the counties. The members through public meetings, legislative hearings and distribution of literature vigorously carried on their opposition to women's enfranchis.e.m.e.nt. The society was affiliated with the National Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation and was organized for the purpose of fighting the movement to enfranchise women by both Federal and State amendments. The presidents were Mrs.

John Redwood, Mrs. Oscar Leser, Mrs. Rufus Gibbs and Mrs. Robert Garrett, the last named serving until after the Federal Amendment was adopted. Other women active in opposition were Mrs. Michael Wild, Mrs.

Rosalie Strauss, Mrs. W. P. E. Wyse, Mrs. P. Lea Thom, Mrs. Coyle Haslup Adams, Mrs. George A. Frick and Mrs. William L. Marbury. This a.s.sociation gave substantial aid in money and other ways to the Maryland legislators who went to Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee to work against the ratification of the Federal Amendment by their Legislatures.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The Maryland Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation in connection with its suffrage activities worked in the Legislature for other progressive measures, among them the use of the public schools for social centers; equal pay for equal service; appointment of women on boards of education and on all public inst.i.tutions; the abolition of capital punishment; initiative and referendum; co-education; abolition of child labor.

1906. Legislators declined to introduce any suffrage measure and treated the request as a joke.

1907. A special committee appointed by the Legislature to revise the election laws was asked that the word ”male” be stricken out. No attention was paid to the request.