Volume VI Part 54 (1/2)

In May, 1918, Mrs. Cathcart was appointed by U. S. Senator Tillman as a.s.sociate committeewoman on the Democratic National Committee. When the State Democratic convention was held in Columbia that month the committeewoman and the committee decided that this was the opportunity for the Democratic party to substantiate its pledge. Senator Neils Christensen was asked to introduce a resolution requesting the party to permit women to vote in the Democratic Primaries in August, provided the 36th State had ratified the Federal Amendment. The resolution was debated in committee and rejected by a vote of 18 to 14. The convention adopted the unfavorable report by a vote of 249 to 58. The women were not only rejected but through the spokesman for the opposing faction, U. S. Senator Christie Benet of Columbia, they were dubbed as paid propagandists. This the women denied through the press and called on him to prove his accusation, which was never done. The State suffrage convention was held in October and Mrs. Lynch and Mrs.

Cathcart were re-elected. At this convention the league declared itself in favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment as a war measure.

The State convention of 1919 was held in Columbia in January, Mrs.

Julian B. Salley of Aiken presiding. Resolutions on the death of Dr.

Anna Howard Shaw, also resolutions endorsing the Treaty of Peace and the League of Nations were read by Mrs. Cathcart and adopted. Mrs.

Lynch, whose resignation was accepted, was made honorary president, and at the meeting of the executive committee in Columbia in July Mrs.

Salley was elected president. During the year work was immensely strengthened by the contribution of the National a.s.sociation of 10,000 pieces of literature and of Miss Lola Trax, who in five months organized forty counties for the pet.i.tion work for ratification. The National's expenditures were over $1,700.

The State convention of 1920 met in Columbia in January at the Jefferson Hotel and was welcomed by Governor Robert A. Cooper, who said he was convinced that women would soon vote. U. S. Senator Pollock of Cheraw made a rousing speech in favor of the Federal Amendment. Mrs. Salley reviewed the year's work, telling of the distribution of 10,000 copies of Senator Pollock's speech in Congress; of the new course of citizens.h.i.+p in the State University and of the growth of the organization. The legislative report of the past five years was read by the chairman, Mrs. Cathcart. Mrs. Munsell, chairman of the American Citizens.h.i.+p Committee, reported a ten-day course of citizens.h.i.+p at Winthrop Summer School; a summer cla.s.s at the University of South Carolina; one at c.o.ker College, Hartsville, conducted by Mrs. J. L. c.o.ker, and a course at Converse College, Spartanburg. Mrs. Cathcart, chairman of the Resolutions Committee, read the following: ”The State Equal Suffrage League tenders appreciation and thanks to the members of the General a.s.sembly of South Carolina, who have fostered the cause ... among them Joseph E.

McCullough, Greenville; A. E. Horton, Spartanburg; James A. Hoyt, Speaker of the House; Senators J. L. Sherard, Anderson; Neils Christensen, Beaufort; Allan Johnston, Newberry; Legrande Walker, Georgetown; T. C. Duncan, Union, and Representative Shelor, Oconee. We commend William P. Pollock who spoke and voted in the U. S. Senate for the Federal Suffrage Amendment, for his loyalty to his convictions and his belief in true democracy.” At the afternoon session Miss Marjorie Shuler, who had been sent by the National a.s.sociation for press and publicity work for one month, was one of the princ.i.p.al speakers.

Delegates were elected for the meeting to be called to merge the Equal Suffrage League into the League of Women Voters. This meeting was held June 20 at Craven Hall, Columbia, the league was formed and Mrs.

Munsell was elected chairman.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. In 1902 Mrs. Virginia D. Young, then president of the suffrage a.s.sociation, brought personal influence to bear on the Governor, Senators and Representatives for a hearing on woman suffrage. On January 28 Senator Aldrich and Representative Izler introduced simultaneously two bills, one asking for Presidential suffrage for taxpaying women; the other for suffrage in Munic.i.p.al elections. A hearing was held before a joint session January 31, with the galleries crowded, where, in Mrs. Young's own words, ”I was received with the usual chivalric attention and asked if I would ascend to the Speaker's chair. 'By no means. I wish to speak from the floor,' I answered. This privilege was accorded me and for the first time a woman spoke in the House of Representatives.”

1914. From 1902 there is no record of action on the part of the General a.s.sembly to grant suffrage to women until Jan. 23, 1914, when a bill was introduced in the House by Mr. McMillan and referred to the Judiciary Committee, by which it was unfavorably reported the next day and rejected without a record vote, after little if any discussion. It had been introduced in the Senate by Mr. Carlisle on the 15th and referred to the Judiciary Committee, which reported it without recommendation February 25, and the next day it was laid on the table without discussion or a record vote.

1915. Early in the session a resolution was introduced asking for the submission of a woman suffrage amendment to the State const.i.tution. In connection an invitation was extended by Speaker James A. Hoyt of Columbia to Mrs. Valentine, president of the Virginia Suffrage League, to address the House and she spoke most convincingly. It was said that if a vote had been taken that night the resolution would have been adopted. It was referred to the Judiciary Committee, which granted a hearing. The speakers were the Rev. Kirkman G. Finlay, Professor Lewis Parke Chamberlayne, Mrs. Coleman, Mrs. Lynch, Miss Eudora Ramsey, Dr.

Gannt and Mrs. Valentine. The resolution was reported out of the committee unfavorably, with a minority report, and it was thought best not to push for a vote.

1916. The resolution for an amendment was introduced in the House by Judge McCullough of Greenville and received a vote of 51 ayes; 61 noes.

1917. The amendment resolution was introduced by Senator J. L. Sherard and Representative A. E. Horton. After an exciting debate lasting for three days the Senate bill came to a vote, receiving 25 ayes; 19 noes.

In the House the bill was reported and placed early on the calendar for the next year.

1918. Mr. Horton, House leader, was requested by the league to withdraw the resolution and state that as President Wilson had declared himself in favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment and had requested members of Congress to vote for its submission the league would concentrate on this amendment. After the vote in favor by the U.

S. House of Representatives letters and telegrams were sent by leagues and individuals all over the State requesting the Senators to vote for it. Both voted against it but with the election of William P. Pollock the suffragists were encouraged. The amendment was submitted to the Legislatures June 4, 1919.

RATIFICATION. On January 14, 1920, Senator Neils Christensen introduced a joint resolution to ratify the proposed Federal Suffrage Amendment, which was referred to the Judiciary Committee. On the 23rd it was reported unfavorably; on motion of Senator Christensen the report was laid on the table; on the 28th the resolution went to a vote and received 32 noes, four ayes--Christensen, Duncan, Shelor and Walker. In the House on January 21 Representatives Bradford and Hart introduced a concurrent resolution to reject the proposed amendment; on the 22nd a motion to refer it to the Judiciary Committee was defeated by a vote of 85 to 26. The debate on the resolution to reject extended into the afternoon and the vote resulted in 93 ayes, 20 noes.

Even members who were opposed to ratification made strong speeches for justice and denounced this unprecedented action of voting for a measure before it had been referred to a committee or placed on the calendar.

FOOTNOTES:

[162] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. W. C. Cathcart, member of the State Board of Public Welfare and chairman of the Legislative Committee of the State Equal Suffrage League for six years.

CHAPTER XL.

SOUTH DAKOTA.[163]

Here beginneth the last chapter of the history of woman suffrage in South Dakota. At the time this is written (1920) women have the same rights, privileges and duties politically as men except that they do not serve on juries but the law will undoubtedly be amended to permit them to do so if there is any demand for it. For many years the suffrage work was conducted by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, its officers acting for the suffrage societies and its legislative committees doing the lobbying. The activities of the two organizations are so interwoven until 1909 that the history of the W. C. T. U. is practically the history of woman suffrage. The suffrage a.s.sociation was inactive after the last defeat in 1898 until 1901. In that year a State Political Equality a.s.sociation was organized with Mrs. Alice M.

A. Pickler of Faulkton president and Mrs. Philena Everett Johnson of Highmore vice-president. She was the mother of Royal C. Johnson, now in Congress.

A State amendment for full suffrage was not again submitted until 1909 and in the interim there was a lull in active work although local clubs were formed as the nucleus of a larger organization. The suffrage lobby, usually the same as the W. C. T. U. lobby, appeared at each session of the Legislature. When a suffrage resolution was introduced it either died in committee or was reported out unfavorably and failed to pa.s.s. Always when the question was brought before either House there was a spirited debate and the suffragists then continued their campaign through literature and other means.

In October, 1902, Mrs. Pickler called a conference at Watertown which decided to take advantage of the initiative and referendum, that the State had adopted in 1897. Not realizing that it did not apply to const.i.tutional amendments, the suffragists in 1903 at great expense and effort secured the signatures of the requisite number of voters to a pet.i.tion asking that a const.i.tutional amendment be submitted to the voters. Secretary of State O. C. Berg was criticized for refusing to receive it for transmission to the Legislature but he could not legally do so, as the initiative applied only to Laws. He was not opposed to woman suffrage and in later years his wife worked for it and his son conducted a newspaper which gave it able support.

Still under the leaders.h.i.+p of Mrs. Pickler, the years 1904 and 1905 pa.s.sed with the usual routine work and in 1906 another pet.i.tion was begun which had nothing to do with the initiative and referendum but was merely a pet.i.tion of women as citizens to the Legislature asking that the question be submitted to a vote at the next general election.