Volume VI Part 28 (1/2)

The next task was to try to comply with the request of the National Suffrage a.s.sociation to secure 100,000 names to a nation-wide pet.i.tion to be presented to Congress for a Federal Suffrage Amendment. Mrs.

Fern Richardson Rowe, Grand Rapids, was chairman of the work, which took up the greater part of the year 1909 and went over into 1910.

This last year the State a.s.sociation obtained the consent of the Hon.

Levi L. Barbour, former U. S. Senator Thomas W. Palmer and the Rev.

Lee S. McCollester, pastor of the Church of Our Father (Universalist), all residents of Detroit, to act as an invitational committee in organizing a Men's State League for Woman Suffrage. The charter members.h.i.+p consisted of 100 influential men well known throughout the State. In March a committee of the a.s.sociation went to the Republican State convention to have a woman suffrage resolution adopted but were unsuccessful.

In March, 1912, the a.s.sociation was thrown unexpectedly into a turmoil when Governor Chase S. Osborn called a special session of the Legislature to consider, among other things, the submission of a woman suffrage amendment to the State const.i.tution to the voters at the general election on November 5, urged by the Detroit branch of the College Suffrage League. The time was not propitious but the Legislative Committee of the a.s.sociation, under the direction of Mrs.

Jennie C. Law Hardy, went immediately to work, receiving able a.s.sistance from the Governor, the Rev. Eugene R. s.h.i.+ppen (Unitarian) of the Men's League and Dr. Mary Thompson Stevens of the College League. The State Grange immediately appropriated $1,000 for their Woman's Committee, directed by Miss Ida L. Chittenden. These united efforts were vigorously opposed by representatives of the liquor dealers but the measure pa.s.sed the Senate and House. This big contest Michigan entered almost single-handed. Campaigns in other States which had been months in progress and gave greater promise of success were engaging nearly all of the organizers and speakers from outside the State. There was less than $250 in the treasury. This amount was augmented by $1,340 from the National a.s.sociation; $211 from various States and the State a.s.sociation raised $6,322. It was not until early June that plans were completely under way. The five months remaining were devoted to an intensive educational campaign, made possible only by the organizing work since 1906.

State headquarters were opened in Detroit and subsidiary headquarters in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. County suffrage societies cooperated heartily and much help came from the press. The Men's League, the College League, the powerful State Grange, the Farmers' Clubs and many labor organizations helped and all that was possible was done in this short and unexpected campaign. When the returns began to come in they were overwhelmingly in favor of the amendment. The newspapers fixed its majority at figures varying from 3,000 to 12,000.

Immediately following these reports came rumors of large errors in the count. Ballot boxes were mysteriously lost and every artifice known to the politicians was employed to delay the official returns.

Governor Osborn was quoted in the press as follows: ”If the liquor interests defeat the suffrage amendment by fraud, proved or suspected, the people of Michigan will retaliate, in my opinion, by adopting state wide prohibition. The question seems to be largely one as to whether these interests own, control and run Michigan. Those most feared are certain election 'crooks' in certain Detroit precincts, who would not hesitate to do anything they thought they could get away with.” The Governor demanded that the returns be sent to Lansing at once. When at the end of three weeks the official count was published it showed that the amendment had been defeated by 762 votes, ayes, 247,373; noes, 248,135. Clear evidence of fraud was apparent in Wayne, Kent, Saginaw and Bay counties. The State a.s.sociation engaged the best legal talent and in Genesee county the courts threw out the vote on the amendment. It developed, however, that there was no law allowing a recount in a vote on a const.i.tutional amendment and in the face of glaring fraud the defeat had to be accepted.

No State convention was held in November, 1912, because of the stress of campaign work but a postponed convention was held Jan. 15, 16, 1913. Indignation ran high over this defeat and an immediate resubmission of the amendment was decided upon as the result of favorable answers to questionnaires which had been sent to all county chairmen and the heads of all cooperating societies. During the campaign no open or organized opposition among women had been in evidence. A legislative hearing was arranged by the suffragists and the State and College League presidents on starting to Lansing found a special car attached to their train bearing about thirty prominent women members of a new Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation. Their only speaker was Miss Minnie Bronson of New York, secretary of the National Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation. As Mrs. Arthur rose to answer her hour's speech she remarked that for the first time the voice of a woman was heard in this State in protest against her own enfranchis.e.m.e.nt and she rejoiced that it was not the voice of a Michigan woman.

Despite determined opposition the proposal pa.s.sed both Houses to be voted on at the spring election just five weeks ahead. Owing to the social position of the ”antis,” the State press gave much prominence to their a.s.sociation, published pages of the members' pictures and quoted their reasons for organizing it. Branches were at once formed in ten adjoining towns; State offices were opened on Woodward Avenue, near the suffrage headquarters, books opened for registration and great quant.i.ties of literature sent over the State. Several debates were attempted but few materialized, as they had no home talent.[89]

A placard printed in English and German and posted in saloons in various parts of the city by the Michigan Staatterbund announced that if the amendment should be adopted in Michigan, foreign born women would have to take out naturalization papers at a large price. This and the Royal Ark, an a.s.sociation of 1,100 liquor dealers in Detroit, were the only organizations in the State to pa.s.s resolutions against the amendment. A Men's a.s.sociation Opposed to Woman Suffrage was organized on March 15 at a meeting in the University Club; President, Charles A. Kent; vice-president, William A. Livingston, Jr.; treasurer, Garvin Denby; secretary, Henry C. Bulkley. A well known lawyer, William E. Heinze, wrote very bitter articles for the press and undoubtedly influenced the German-American vote. The Rev. Wm.

Byron Forbush, pastor of the North Woodward Congregational Church, spoke at anti-suffrage meetings.

On March 29, with the election less than a week away, John Dohrinan and Senator James R. Murtha, representing Mr. Livingston, and Carl Bauer of the Staatterbund appeared before the Circuit Court with a pet.i.tion to have the suffrage amendment printed on a separate ballot.

The Court denied the pet.i.tion. The case was immediately carried to the State Supreme Court which decided that all amendments must be on separate ballots.

Necessarily the campaign was short for the vote was to be taken April 7. Unlike the one preceding, three-fourths of the financial support came from without the State. Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer of Pennsylvania was engaged for press and executive work. The National a.s.sociation furnished speakers, among them its president, Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Park, Mrs. Celia J. White, Mrs. Susan W.

FitzGerald, Mrs. Glendower Evans, Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff, Mrs.

Ella S. Stewart, Miss Doris Stevens, Mrs. Clara Laddey, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby and Mrs. Beatrice Forbes Robertson Hale. Miss Laura Clay came from Kentucky at her own expense. The State was organized by counties and the speaking and circularizing were done under the immediate direction of the county chairmen. In the report of Mrs. Edna S. Blair, chairman of organization, she stated that there were but eight counties in the State which had no working committees and only three of these were in the Lower Peninsula, their total voting strength being less than 2,500. The amendment was defeated by 96,144, receiving 168,738 ayes, 264,882 noes. Her a.n.a.lysis of the vote, prepared from county returns, showed that there was a gain of a little more than 16,000 negative votes over those of 1912, and 13,000 of these were in counties having a ”wet” and ”dry” issue.

The preceding year the liquor forces had not realized the need of active work. Never in any other State campaign did these forces make so open a fight as in this one. They paid for columns of s.p.a.ce in the newspapers and circulated vast quant.i.ties of the literature prepared by the women's Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation. This was in piles on the bars of the saloons and, according to reports, in even more questionable places. The defeat was not due so much to a change in public opinion as it was to an absence of the favorable vote which had been called out in the previous year by reason of the presidential election.

After the election county chairmen and all suffragists were asked to urge their representatives in Congress to support the Federal Amendment. This was followed by a trip through the State by Mrs.

Blair, who contributed her services, and at the convention in Jackson, in 1913, she reported that there were now only four counties, all in the Upper Peninsula, where there was no record of active workers. Mrs.

Arthur was reelected.[90]

Although recovering from two successive defeats the a.s.sociation found itself in 1914 able to carry on more systematic work than had ever been attempted. In February a monthly magazine, the _Michigan Suffragist_, was established with Mrs. Blair editor. At the convention in Traverse City Nov. 4-6, 1914, Mrs. Orton H. Clark was elected president and the State board adopted her scheme for financing the a.s.sociation, which was successfully carried forward by the finance chairman, Mrs. J. G. Macpherson of Saginaw. It consisted in the apportionment of a fixed revenue on the basis of ten cents from each taxpaying woman, of whom there were 100,302 in the State. More than one-third of the counties met all or a part of their apportionment, which enabled the president to open headquarters in a business building in Kalamazoo, employ an executive secretary and an organizer and engage Mrs. Robertson Hale for a series of lectures.

Much of the effort during the early months of 1915 was directed toward securing Munic.i.p.al suffrage, which necessitated active work by the Legislative Committee, Dr. Blanche M. Haines of Three Rivers, chairman. An attempt was made to organize according to congressional districts; chairmen were found for ten of the thirteen and a number of district conferences were held. All State and national candidates were interviewed on woman suffrage personally or by letter. Many meetings were addressed by national and international speakers.

This program was continued through 1915 and 1916. The State conventions were held in November in Saginaw and Grand Rapids and Mrs.

Clark was re-elected president. Following the plan made by the National a.s.sociation, suffrage schools were held in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Detroit in March, 1917, with Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, Mrs.

T. T. Cotnam and Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler as instructors. Upon America's entry into the World War in April, communities, counties, the State and even the nation made demands on the a.s.sociation. Mrs. Clark called together the heads of nearly forty organizations to coordinate the war activities of Michigan women. The Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane was made chairman of the State committee, which afterwards became the State Division of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense, Dr. Crane chairman.

Notwithstanding this situation, however, a bill to give a vote for Presidential electors to women was introduced in the Senate and almost simultaneously one in the House asking for another referendum on a const.i.tutional amendment by Representative Flowers, who had fought the suffrage battle for nearly a quarter of a century. The a.s.sociation protested but the sponsors of both bills were adamant. As a result both bills were pa.s.sed in March and April and it found itself in the midst of a campaign on the referendum at this most inopportune time.

There was nothing to do but to plunge into it. Interest lagged, however, as the women were absorbed in war work and there was a wide belief that in recognition of this work the men would give the suffrage without a campaign for it. Mrs. Catt, now national president, did not share this view and she requested a conference with the State workers. They decided to hold a State convention in Detroit, March 25-27, 1918, and she and Mrs. Shuler, national chairman of organization, came to it. Mrs. Brotherton was serving as president and it was one of the largest ever held. The names of the honorary committee filled two pages of the program. It was welcomed by Mayor Marx and many organizations of women were represented. Mrs. Catt addressed the evening meetings and Mrs. Shuler spoke at the banquet in Hotel Statler, where the convention took place.

The State Board presented a full report and program for war activities but no plan for campaign. Most of the delegates believed the men would give them the vote without any activity on their part. Mrs. Catt made a stirring appeal in which she pointed out that war work would be expected as their duty and that the vote would not be given as a recognition. Before the end of the convention she had thoroughly aroused the delegates and the force of her appeal was evident when the campaign plans providing for the budget, pet.i.tion and political work, which had been prepared by the National a.s.sociation as a basis of work for the three States then in campaign, was cheerfully adopted. The budget called for $100,000 to be raised equally by Detroit and the congressional districts. At the dinner on the 26th $50,000 were quickly subscribed, $24,000 by the districts. Detroit women, who had already secured $6,000, partly to pay back debts, pledged $10,000 more. Mrs. Catt promised the equivalent of $10,000 in help from the National a.s.sociation if the full budget were raised. Mrs. Percy J.

Farrell of Detroit was elected president of the a.s.sociation and chairman of the campaign committee and the following women were named chairmen of congressional districts; Mrs. Brotherton, Mrs. G. W.

Patterson, Dr. Haines, Mrs. Huntley Russell, Mrs. Alice B. Locke, Mrs.