Volume VI Part 43 (1/2)
On the night of November 2, election day, officers, leaders, workers, members of the Party and many prominent men and women gathered at City headquarters in East 34th Street to receive the returns, Mrs. Catt and Miss Hay at either end of a long table. At first optimism prevailed as the early returns seemed to indicate victory but as adverse reports came in by the hundreds all hopes were destroyed. The fighting spirits of the leaders then rose high. Speeches were made by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Catt, Miss Hay, Dr. Katherine Bement Davis, Mrs. Laidlaw and others, and, though many workers wept openly, the gathering took on the character of an embattled host ready for the next conflict.
After midnight many of the women joined a group from the State headquarters and in a public square held an outdoor rally which they called the beginning of the new campaign.
The vote was as follows:
For Against Lost by Manhattan Borough 88,886 117,610 28,724 Brooklyn Borough 87,402 121,679 34,277 Bronx Borough 34,307 40,991 6,684 Richmond Borough 6,108 7,469 1,361 Queens Borough 21,395 33,104 11,709
Total opposed, 320,853; in favor, 238,098; adverse majority, 82,755.
Two days after the election the City Party united with the National a.s.sociation in a ma.s.s meeting at Cooper Union, where speeches were made and $100,000 pledged for a new campaign fund. The spirit of the members was shown in the words of a leader who wrote: ”We know that we have gained over half a million voters in the State, that we have many new workers, have learned valuable lessons and with the knowledge obtained and undiminished courage we are again in the field of action.” In December and January the usual district and borough conventions for the election of officers and then the city convention were held. At the latter the resolution adopted showed a change from the oldtime pleading: ”We demand the re-submission of the woman suffrage amendment in 1917. We insist that the Judiciary Committee shall present a favorable report without delay and that the bill shall come to an early vote.” Much legislative work was necessary to obtain re-submission, for which the City Party worked incessantly until the amendment was re-submitted by the Legislatures of 1916 and 1917 and preparations were again made for a great campaign.
The campaign of 1915 had been one of the highways, and of spectacular display. That of 1917 was of the byways, of quiet, intensive work reaching every group of citizens. The campaign was launched at a meeting in Aeolian Hall, March 29, where the addresses of Mrs. Catt and Miss Hay aroused true campaign fervor, the former saying: ”Some foreign countries have given the franchise to women for their war work; we ask it that our women may feel they have been recognized as a.s.sets of the nation before it calls on them for war work.”
The suffragists offered their services to the Government, even before it declared war; the State Party to the Governor, the City Party to the Mayor. The later said in a resolution adopted February 5: ”We place at the disposal of the Mayor of this city for any service he may require our full organization of over 200,000 women, thoroughly organized and trained and with headquarters in every borough.” The ma.s.s of the members stood solidly behind this offer. A War Service Committee was appointed with Mrs. F. Louis Slade as its chairman and it accomplished work that was not exceeded, if indeed equalled, in any city of the United States. Nine other committees were also appointed.
The leading features of the campaign of 1917 were the war work and the enrolling of women. In 1916 when Mrs. Catt started a canva.s.s to obtain a million signatures of women to a pet.i.tion to answer the argument, ”Women do not want to vote,” the City Party took as its share the securing of 514,555 in Greater New York. This accomplished, the signatures mounted on big placards were placed on exhibition at Party headquarters, now in East 38th Street, and a little ceremony was arranged during which Mayor John Purroy Mitchel and other prominent men made commendatory speeches. Debarred from outdoor meetings during the summer of 1916 on account of an epidemic and during the summer of 1917 because of war conditions, the following was nevertheless accomplished:
Meetings 2,085 Leaflets distributed 5,196,884 Money expended $151,438 Canva.s.sed and enrolled women 514,555 Women secured to watch at polls 5,000 Campaign headquarters maintained 40 Newspapers (English and foreign) served daily 153 Suffrage editions and pages edited 10 Special suffrage articles 200 Other suffrage articles and interviews 400 Posters placed in shop windows 2,000
Maintained Letter Writing Committee to send letters to the press; issued Weekly News Bulletin; printed suffrage news in papers in ten languages; circularized all churches and business men in 75 per cent of the 2,060 election districts; conducted hundreds of watchers' schools; exhibited suffrage movies in hundreds of clubs, churches and settlements; had series of suppers and conferences for working-women; held captains' rally at the Waldorf-Astoria and a patriotic rally at Carnegie Hall; gave a series of suffrage study courses; raised funds at sacrifice sales, entertainments, lectures, etc.; sent speakers to hundreds of Labor Union meetings; held four pre-election ma.s.s meetings and as a wind-up to the campaign staged eight hours of continuous speaking by 40 men and women at Columbus Circle.
The Party leaders had to meet attacks and misrepresentations from the Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation, whose national and State headquarters were in New York City. The Party had also to combat the actions of the ”militant” suffragists, whose headquarters were in Was.h.i.+ngton and whose picketing of the White House and attacks on President Wilson and other public men displeased many people who did not discriminate between the large constructive branch of the suffrage movement and the small radical branch. The Party leaders had often publicly to repudiate the ”militant” tactics. In the parade of Oct. 28, 1917, the Party exhibited placards which read: ”We are opposed to Picketing the White House. We stand by the Country and the President.”
During the campaign, Miss Hay had a.s.sociated with her on the executive board, Mrs. Slade, Mrs. Aldrich, Mrs. George Notman, Miss Annie Doughty, Mrs. F. Robertson-Jones, Mrs. Wells, Miss Adaline W.
Sterling, Mrs. Herbert Lee Pratt, Mrs. Charles E. Simonson, Dr.
Katherine B. Davis, Miss Eliza McDonald, Mrs. Alice P. Hutchins, Mrs.
Louis Welzmiller. Borough chairmen who a.s.sisted were Mrs. John Humphrey Watkins, Manhattan; Mrs. Dreier, Brooklyn; Mrs. Daniel Appleton Palmer, Bronx; Mrs. David B. Rodger, Queens; Mrs. Wilc.o.x, Richmond.
On the evening of November 6, election day, the City Party headquarters were crowded with people waiting for the returns. Mrs.
Catt, Miss Hay, Mrs. Laidlaw and other leaders were present. Mr.
Laidlaw and Judge Wadhams were ”keeping the count.” Walter Damrosch and other prominent men came in. From the beginning the returns were encouraging and as the evening wore on and victory was a.s.sured, the room rang with cheers and applause and there were many jubilant speeches.
The election brought a great surprise, for the big city, whose adverse vote suffragists had always predicted would have to be outbalanced by upstate districts, won the victory, the latter not helping but actually pulling down its splendid majority. The final vote in Greater New York read:
_Majority_ _Yes_ _No_ _in Favor_ New York County 129,412 89,124 40,288 Kings (Brooklyn) 129,601 92,315 37,286 Bronx 52,660 36,346 16,314 Richmond 7,868 5,224 2,644 Queens 34,125 26,794 7,331 ------- ------- ------- Total 353,666 249,803 103,863
Upstate districts, 349,463 ayes; 350,973 noes, lost by 1,510.
Majority in the State as a whole, 102,353.
Immediately opponents made the charge that suffrage won in the City because of the pro-German, pacifist and Socialist vote. An a.n.a.lysis showed that in many districts where the Germans and Socialists predominated there was not as great a suffrage majority as in Republican or Democratic districts; that some of the conservative residential sections were more favorable than radical districts and that the soldiers in the field had voted for suffrage in the ratio of two to one.
Those who were best informed attributed the victory to many causes--to the support of voters in all the parties; to the help of the labor unions; to recognition of women's war work; to the example set by European countries in enfranchising their women; to the endors.e.m.e.nt of prominent men and strong organizations. Most of all, however, it was due to the originality, the dauntless energy, the thorough organization methods and the ceaseless campaigning of the suffrage workers, who in winning the great Empire State not only secured the vote for New York women but made the big commonwealth an important a.s.set in the final struggle for the Federal Suffrage Amendment.
THE TWO STATE CAMPAIGNS.[132]
At the 45th convention of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation held in Binghamton Oct. 14-17, 1913, Miss Harriet May Mills declined to stand for re-election to the presidency. The following officers were elected: President, Mrs. Raymond Brown, New York City; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Henry W. Cannon, Delhi; recording secretary, Mrs.
Nicolas Shaw Fraser, Geneseo; treasurer, Mrs. Edward M. Childs, New York City; directors; Miss Mills, Syracuse; Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore, Yonkers; Mrs. Helen Probst Abbott, Rochester; Mrs. Dexter P. Rumsey, Buffalo; Mrs. George W. Topliff, Binghamton; Mrs. Luther Mott, Oswego; Mrs. Chanler Aldrich, Tarrytown.
This convention had before it work of the gravest importance. The submission of a woman suffrage amendment had pa.s.sed one Legislature and it was almost certain that it would pa.s.s a second and be voted on at the fall election of 1915. New York was recognized as an immensely difficult State to win. It contained great areas of spa.r.s.ely settled country and also many large cities. It had a foreign born population of 2,500,000 in a total of 9,000,000. The political ”machines” of both Republican and Democratic parties were well intrenched and there was no doubt that the powerful influence of both would be used to the utmost against a woman suffrage amendment. Party leaders might allow it to go through the Legislature because confident of their ability to defeat it at the polls. The vital problem for the suffragists was how to organize and unite all the friendly forces.
While the State Suffrage a.s.sociation was the one which was organized most extensively there were other important societies. For some years the Women's Political Union, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch president, had carried on an effective campaign. The Woman Suffrage Party, a large group, existed princ.i.p.ally in New York City, organized by a.s.sembly districts. The Men's League for Woman Suffrage comprised a considerable number of influential men, now under the presidency of James Lees Laidlaw. The College Equal Suffrage League, Mrs. Charles L.
Tiffany, president, was an active body of young women. The Equal Franchise Society, organized originally among the society women of New York City by Mrs. Clarence Mackay had Mrs. Howard Mansfield as president and had helped make the movement ”fas.h.i.+onable.” This was the case with Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont's Political Equality League.