Volume VI Part 44 (1/2)
SECOND NEW YORK CAMPAIGN.
With 42-1/2 per cent. of the vote cast in November, 1915, in favor of the woman suffrage amendment the leaders were eager to start a new campaign at once and take advantage of the momentum already gained.
Two nights after election the campaign was started at a ma.s.s meeting in Cooper Union, New York City, where $100,000 were pledged amid boundless enthusiasm. The reorganization of the State took place immediately, at the annual convention held in this city, November 30-December 2, and all the societies that had cooperated in the Empire State Campaign Committee became consolidated under the name of the State Woman Suffrage Party, into which the old State a.s.sociation was merged. The demand was so overwhelming that Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who had led the two years' fight so magnificently, should continue to be leader, that she was obliged to accept the chairmans.h.i.+p.
The other officers elected were Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, Mrs.
James Lees Laidlaw, Mrs. Henry W. Cannon, first, second and third vice-chairmen; Mrs. Michael M. Van Beuren and Miss Alice Morgan Wright, secretaries; Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, treasurer; Mrs. Raymond Brown, Mrs. Dexter P. Rumsey, Miss Harriet May Mills and Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore, directors. A few weeks later the convention of the National a.s.sociation called Mrs. Catt even more insistently to accept its presidency and Mrs. Whitehouse became chairman and therefore the leader of the new campaign. Mrs. Catt headed the list of directors; Mrs. Laidlaw was made chairman of legislative work and Mrs. Brown of organization.
The next State convention was held in Albany, Nov. 16-23, 1916, and the same officers were elected except that Mrs. Charles Noel Edge succeeded Mrs. Van Beuren as secretary. The chairmen of the twelve campaign districts were continued with the following changes: Second, Mrs. Frederick Edey, Bellport; fourth, Mrs. Robert D. Ford, Canton; fifth, Mrs. William F. Canough, Syracuse; sixth, Miss Lillian Huffcut, Binghamton; eighth, Mrs. Frank J. Tone, Niagara Falls; ninth, Mrs.
Frank A. Vanderlip, Scarborough.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The determination to enter immediately into another campaign met with much opposition, even from many suffragists.
The Legislature had submitted the amendment in 1915 confident that it would be overwhelmingly defeated but the ability and persistence of the women and the big vote secured made the opponents afraid to take another chance. That it was finally forced through both Houses was due, first, to the brilliant legislative work of Mrs. Whitehouse and Mrs. Laidlaw, a.s.sisted by Mrs. Helen Leavitt, chairman of legislative work for the Albany district; second, to the extraordinary support given by the organizations throughout the State, through delegations, ma.s.s meetings, letters and telegrams, 6,000 from the 9th district alone. The Men's League gave invaluable help.
The resolution was introduced in both branches on Jan. 10, 1916. The fight centered in the Senate and had as determined opponents Senator Elon F. Brown, floor leader of the Republicans, and Senator Walters, Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The Democratic minority gave it a lukewarm support. Every subterfuge was directed against it. Finally it was reported out of the a.s.sembly Judiciary Committee February 15 by a vote of 11 to one and then there was a standstill. The Senate Judiciary Committee constantly postponed action. At last 500 women came to the Capitol on March 14 to urge immediate action and the resolution was adopted in the a.s.sembly that day by 109 ayes to 30 noes.
The Senate Committee had promised that it would report that same day, and at 2 p. m. it went into executive session and the suffrage leaders camped outside the door. That evening a suffrage ball was to take place in Madison Square Garden, New York City, which they were to open, and the last train that would reach there in time left Albany at 6 o'clock. The Committee knew this but hour after hour went by without word from it. After time for the train a friendly Senator appeared and announced that it had adjourned sometime before without taking action and had gone out the back way in order to escape from the waiting watchers! Taking the next train and arriving in New York at 10 o'clock at night the suffragists drove direct to Madison Square Garden. As they approached it they saw great throngs outside storming the doors, which had been closed by the police as it was dangerously crowded.
They succeeded in getting in and were greeted by cheers as they led the grand march, which had been awaiting their arrival. At midnight Mrs. Whitehouse and Mrs. Laidlaw took the sleeper back to Albany and were on hand at the opening of the session the next morning. Such undaunted spirit caught the public imagination and the newspapers did it full justice, with big headlines and columns of copy, but still the bill did not pa.s.s.
The final pressure which put the amendment through was a clever bit of strategy due to Mrs. Whitehouse. In answer to her appeal editorials appeared in newspapers throughout the State saying that no group of men in Albany had the right to strangle the amendment or refuse the voters the privilege of pa.s.sing on it. On March 22 the Senate Committee reported the resolution by 11 ayes, one no. On April 10 it pa.s.sed the Senate by 33 ayes, 10 noes.
In 1917 the amendment was pa.s.sed again to go to the voters at the regular election November 6. The State Woman Suffrage Party strengthened its organization with the goal of a captain for every polling precinct, each with a committee of ten women to look after the individual voters. Larger cities had a chairman and board of officers combined with the a.s.sembly and election district organization. In Buffalo, Mrs. Thew Wright headed a capable board; in Rochester one was led by Mrs. Alice Clement, later by Mrs. Henry G.
Danforth; in Syracuse by Mrs. Mary Hyde Andrews; in Utica by Miss Lucy C. Watson. By the end of the campaign, in addition to volunteers, 88 trained organizers were at work in the 57 counties outside of Greater New York. The National Suffrage a.s.sociation contributed four of its best workers and paid their salaries. Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ma.s.sachusetts, New Hamps.h.i.+re and some of the southern and western States sent valuable workers.
Early in 1917 the entire organization was well developed and suffrage work was at its height when it was suddenly stopped short by the entrance of the United States into the World War. At once everything else became of secondary importance. The Suffrage Party, like all organizations of women, was eager to serve the country and seized the first opportunity, which came with the order from Governor Charles S.
Whitman for a military census of all the men and women of the State over 21 years of age. Entire responsibility for organizing and carrying on this work in several counties was given to the party. From April to August the suffrage campaign was almost entirely suspended while its leaders took a prominent part in war activities. It was only about three months before election that the suffrage issue again became dominant. The amendment must come before the voters at the November election. With the United States engaged in a World War for democracy it seemed impossible to allow democracy to be defeated at home, and therefore it was decided that the suffrage campaign must be carried on.
In spite of some opposition Mrs. Whitehouse called a State conference at Saratoga the end of August. Besides the distraction caused by the war other difficulties had arisen. The White House at Was.h.i.+ngton had been ”picketed” by the National Woman's Party and the President burned in effigy as a protest because the Federal Suffrage Amendment had not been submitted by Congress. The press was filled with the story and the public was indignant. Because the country was at war and the President burdened with heavy responsibilities, reproaches of disloyalty and pro-Germanism were hurled at suffragists in general.
The officers of the National a.s.sociation had repeatedly condemned the ”militancy” and repudiated all responsibility for it but to the public generally all suffragists looked alike and people did not at first recognize the difference between the small group of ”pickets” and the great suffrage organization of almost countless numbers. New York workers were very resentful because a direct appeal to suspend the ”picketing” until after the election was refused by the leaders of the Woman's Party. The Saratoga conference adopted a resolution of disapproval.
At a ma.s.s meeting in New York soon afterwards Governor Whitman, Mayor Mitchel and other prominent men spoke most encouragingly, but on September 10 a suffrage amendment was defeated in Maine by a vote of two to one and this had a disastrous effect on the New York situation.
It discouraged the workers and many newspapers which had been friendly, antic.i.p.ating a similar defeat in New York, became hostile in tone; also because of the pressure of war news, the papers were almost closed to suffrage matter. Ma.s.s meetings which formerly were crowded were now so poorly attended that many had to be abandoned.
In order to help the chances of the amendment President Wilson on October 25 received a delegation of one hundred of the most prominent women of the Party, headed by Mrs. Whitehouse. He expressed his appreciation of the war work of women and his thorough belief that they should have the suffrage, praising the New York campaign and saying: ”I am very glad to add my voice to those which are urging the people of your State to set a great example by voting for woman suffrage. It would be a pleasure if I might utter that advice in their presence, but, as I am bound too close to my duties here to make that possible, I am glad to ask you to convey that message to them....”
This address was published far and wide and had a marked effect on the voters. Later the President wrote Mrs. Catt that he hoped no voter in New York would be influenced by anything the so-called ”pickets” had done in Was.h.i.+ngton. The suffrage meetings were soon again crowded. On October 27 the final parade took place in New York City. The signatures of 1,014,000 women citizens of the State, of voting age, asking for suffrage had been obtained. Those from up-State were pasted on huge cardboards and carried in the parade by delegations from the various counties. Those from the city were placed in 62 huge ballot boxes, one for each a.s.sembly district, with the number of them on the outside, and carried by the ”captains” of the districts and their helpers.
The largest registration of men voters in the State was 1,942,000; there were nearly 100,000 more men than women of voting age and many more men than women were naturalized, therefore it was evident that 1,014,000 signatures represented a good majority of women eligible to vote. This enormous piece of work was done almost entirely by volunteers. For many months women in every county went from door to door, preaching suffrage, asking wives to talk to their husbands about it and leaving literature. The effect of this personal education was undoubtedly great and the pet.i.tion influenced public opinion.
The propaganda carried on by the Educational section under Mrs. Howard Mansfield was enormous, including training schools, travelling libraries and 8,000 sets of correspondence courses sent out. Women were trained in watchers' schools for work at the polls and 15,000 leaflets of instructions were furnished. Over 11,000,000 pieces of literature, 7 million posters and nearly 200,000 suffrage novelties were used, in addition to the 5,000,000 pieces used in New York City.
The Industrial Section, under Miss Mary E. Dreier, president of the Women's Trade Union League, made effective appeals to organized labor.
A series of letters setting forth the conditions under which women work and their relation to the vote were distributed at factory doors as men left for home during the last fifteen weeks of the campaign.
Organizers and speakers from their own ranks, men and women, spoke at trade union meetings, in factories and on the street. The State Federation of Labor endorsed the work and the Women's Trade Union League gave constant help. The Church Section, under Miss Adella Potter, was very successful in its appeal with specially prepared literature and the churches were an active force.
Every registered voter was circularized at least once and many twice.
Special letters and literature were prepared for picked groups of men, 198,538 letters in all, and speakers were sent to the military camps where this was permitted. The Speakers' Bureau, conducted by Mrs.
Victor Morawetz, had 150 speakers on its lists and a record of 2,015 speakers placed in the State. Besides these more than 7,000 meetings were arranged independently. In New York City 58 speakers held 2,085 meetings, a total of 11,100. Senators and Representatives from the equal suffrage States were to speak in the closing days of the campaign but the war held Congress constantly in session and most of the other prominent men who had promised to speak were prevented by service for the Government.