Volume VI Part 55 (1/2)

In June Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary of the National a.s.sociation, came to South Dakota and with Mrs. S. V.

Ghrist, vice-president of the State League, and Mrs. McMahon, a school of methods was held in the princ.i.p.al towns. The women were taught how to organize and were grounded in the new aspects of the campaign. Mrs. Catt was ill and could not come, which was the greatest blow the campaign had; however Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, national recording secretary, took her place very acceptably.

Among the organizers Mrs. McMahon mentioned Mrs. R. E. H. Stevens, Miss Stella Crosley, Miss Gertrude Watkins, Miss Josephine Miller, Miss Liba Peshokova and Miss Ida Stadie and said: ”But this efficient, faithful little band could not have won the campaign alone. South Dakota State women will perhaps never realize how much they owe to Mrs. John L. Pyle, president, who gave herself absolutely to the winning of their political freedom. She was at her desk from early in the morning until 11 o'clock and later at night. Nothing was allowed to stand in the way of her complete service. The best there was in her she gave to the cause and she has the grat.i.tude of those for whom and with whom she worked. Ably seconding her efforts were Mrs. Ghrist, vice-president; Mrs. Frank Meyer, office secretary; Mrs. Rewman and Miss Alice Lorraine Daly in the finance department; Mrs. Lewis L.

Leavitt, chairman of the Minnehaha committee; Miss Harriet Grant of Huron and Mrs. R. H. Lewis of Mitch.e.l.l. The whole structure rested on the county workers. There was never a Fair that was not covered nor a Teachers' nor a Farmers' Inst.i.tute nor a political meeting. Everywhere that voters gathered, there they were.”

It may be presumed that those who would be disfranchised until they had completed their naturalization would cast their votes against the amendment but these were more than counteracted by American citizens, who, even if they did not believe in woman suffrage, would vote for the amendment because of this part of it. The election took place Nov.

6, 1918, and the amendment received 49,318 ayes and 28,934 noes; carried by 20,384. The following figures show the progress made from campaign to campaign: Opposing majority in 1910, 22,419; in 1914, 11,914; in 1916, 4,934.

The women of South Dakota are deeply grateful to the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, which always helped generously with organizers, speakers and money. It contributed $7,500 to this campaign. Various States were loyal and helpful and have the fullest appreciation and grat.i.tude.

RATIFICATION. The final scene in the drama of woman suffrage was staged on December 4, 1919, at 12:40 a. m., when the members of the Legislature, coming to Pierre at their own expense and at great inconvenience, in the middle of winter, unanimously ratified the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Many States were having special sessions for this purpose but Governor Norbeck, who would have to call one in January, did not wish to do so before then. He agreed, however, that if a majority of the members would come to Pierre at their own expense in order to ratify the amendment, he would call a session for that purpose.

This State has a new law which requires that in December of the year preceding an election there shall be ”proposal meetings” held at the capital to propose candidates for nomination at the March primaries, each party holding a separate meeting. This year there were to be also three party conventions at the same time and practically all the politicians would be at the capital. Mrs. Pyle and her board asked the Governor to call the session for that time, for many of the members would be in attendance as delegates from their counties. Accordingly, after receiving the a.s.surance that a majority of them were willing to come to Pierre at their own expense, he issued a call for December 3 at 7 o'clock in the evening. It was dead of winter and distances are long. The call was issued after 3 o'clock on Sat.u.r.day and the session was to be the next Tuesday. Telephone and telegraph wires were kept humming for the next thirty-six hours and the men came from all directions. One man rushed home to Huron from Minneapolis, called to his wife to send his ”grip” after him and just caught the train for Pierre. Another used up three automobiles getting to the train from his home many miles from the railroad, as the snow made the roads almost impa.s.sable.

The question arose how to put the resolution through the two Houses in the least possible time. It was finally done by introducing the resolutions in both Houses and giving them their first and second readings on the evening of December 3. They were then referred to the proper committees and the Legislature adjourned until the next legislative day. The earliest possible moment of the next day was one minute after midnight and this was the hour when it convened. The final pa.s.sage took place at 12:44 a. m. on the 4th by unanimous vote.

This was the first time that a South Dakota Legislature ever convened in the middle of the night but the members were anxious to get home as soon as possible and the trains leave in both directions about 2 a.

m.

FOOTNOTES:

[163] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Ruth B. Hipple, member of the Legislative Committee of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation and editor of the _South Dakota Messenger_.

CHAPTER XLI.

TENNESSEE. PART I.[164]

The history of the suffrage movement in Tennessee filled only five pages of the volume preceding this one, which ended with 1900, and such as there was had been due princ.i.p.ally to that dauntless pioneer, Mrs. Lide A. Meriwether of Memphis, to whom this chapter is reverently and gratefully dedicated. The first suffrage society was formed in Memphis in May, 1889, and none of its founders is now living except Mrs. J. D. Allen of this city. In April, 1894, a society was formed at Nashville at the home of Mrs. H. C. Gardner by Miss Amelia Territt, Mrs. Bettie Donelson and a few others but it had no connection with the one at Memphis. Its members were earnest and capable but it did not long survive. Through the efforts of the National a.s.sociation a State organization was effected in 1897, the year of the Centennial Exposition in Nashville, and there was a convention in April, 1900, attended by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, national president. There had been no State convention for five years when in 1906, through the initiative of Miss Belle Kearney of Mississippi a meeting was called in Memphis of which Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky sends the following account taken from her sc.r.a.pbook:

The conference of Southern Women Suffragists was held in Memphis December 19, 20, the opening session in the morning at the Peabody Hotel; the afternoon session at the residence of Mrs. J.

O. Crawford and the other sessions at the hotel. Miss Clay was elected chairman; Mrs. Nannie Curtiss of Texas, secretary. The meeting included representatives from many of the southern States and letters were received from ”Dorothy Dix,” Mrs. Caroline E.

Merrick and Mrs. Sophy Wright of New Orleans; Mrs. Mary Bentley Thomas of Baltimore; Mrs. Josephine K. Henry of Versailles, Ky.; Mrs. Eliza Strong Tracey of Houston; Mrs. Mary B. Clay and Mrs.

James Bennett of Richmond, Ky., and Mrs. Key, president of the North Texas Girls' College. Discussions on aspects of the suffrage question were led by Miss Kearney, Miss Clay, Mrs.

Meriwether and Mrs. Jennie H. Sibley of Georgia. The conference was resolved into a committee of the whole to formulate plans for concerted legislative work in the southern States. A thousand copies of the resolutions were printed. At this time the State Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation was re-organized, with Mrs. Meriwether honorary president; Mrs. J. D. Allen, president; Mrs. L. F.

Selden, corresponding secretary and treasurer; Mrs. M. M. Betts, recording secretary; Mrs. S. S. Deem, chairman of problems affecting women or children.

Mrs. Allen served continuously until 1912. In 1908 the State Federation of Labor not only endorsed woman suffrage but agreed to pet.i.tion members of the Legislature and Congress to work for it and they loyally kept their pledge. This same year suffrage literature was first distributed at the State Federation of Women's Clubs and Dr.

Shaw, then president of the National a.s.sociation, spoke in Memphis.

In 1910 the first suffrage State pet.i.tion work was begun in Memphis and its Nineteenth Century Club and the Newman Circle of Knoxville held parlor meetings and discussions. Knoxville formed a local league; the women's clubs began to awaken and the State Federation appointed its first legislative committee, with the object of having the laws unfavorable to women changed. In 1911 thousands of pieces of literature were distributed, press articles sent out and a resolution to amend the State const.i.tution by striking out the word ”male” was first presented to the Legislature. The movement did not gain much impetus until the Nashville League was organized in the fall of this year and Chattanooga and Morrison soon followed. On Jan. 10-12, 1912, the a.s.sociation with its five virile infant leagues met in Nashville and plans for state-wide organization began. Miss Sarah Barnwell Elliott, an eminent writer, was unanimously chosen president. In October, 1913, the State convention met in Morristown and eight leagues answered the roll call.

The work in the Legislature naturally always fell heavily upon the Nashville League and from 1913 to 1919 the lobby was composed princ.i.p.ally of its members. The first real effort to break down the prejudice of the legislators was in 1913, when Miss Elliott and Mrs.

Guilford Dudley asked for an audience for Miss Laura Clay, president of the Kentucky a.s.sociation, and Miss Mary Johnston of Virginia, the novelist. This was granted and Miss Elliott was the first woman to address the Legislature, although no bill was before it.

At a called meeting of the Executive Board, at Memphis in May, 1914, the resignation of Miss Elliott was regretfully accepted and Mrs. L.

Crozier French succeeded her. At the State convention held October 29, 30 in Knoxville a division occurred and some of the delegates, refusing to be headed by Mrs. French, elected as president Mrs. James M. McCormack, who was first vice-president. Mrs. French was unanimously elected by a part of the original a.s.sociation, which had obtained a charter October 13, incorporating the name Tennessee Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation. This a.s.sociation continued to be a dominating force in suffrage activities. Mrs. French resigned the presidency April 1, 1915, and her unexpired term was filled by the vice-president-at-large, Mrs. John M. Kenny of Nashville. The holding of the annual convention of the National a.s.sociation in Nashville Nov.

12-17, 1914, was the turning point in the history of suffrage in Tennessee because of its far-reaching educational propaganda and because Nashville was the political center of the State.

Mrs. Dudley was elected president at the State convention held at Jackson in October, 1915. She went to east, west and middle Tennessee, visiting in the first year of her administration nineteen towns, many of them twice, and a.s.sisting the Campaign Committee in organizing fourteen. She made addresses in twenty-two different cities. Toward the end of the year Miss Sue S. White, of Jackson, the recording secretary, a court stenographer and business woman, gave a month to organizing the headquarters staff and making plans to carry forward the work in a businesslike way.[165]