The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V

by Unknown

The Woman's Journal said in its summing up: "The personnel of the delegates and speakers was such as to inspire the most hostile, the most conservative and the most despondent student of human nature. When an observer reflected that these delegates represented thousands of women in each State who believe in equal suffrage, and that the speakers and leaders of the convention voiced the thoughts, hopes and aspirations of suffragists the world over, he could not help being stirred profoundly with the conviction not only that equal rights are inevitable in the near future but also with the compelling faith that the world is truly marching on in the very best sense and that it can never again be quite as dark a place to live in as it has been. A notable feature was the absolute conviction with which these representatives of the people speak and the unmistakable determination to win a speedy victory."

The "hearings" before committees of Senate and House took place on the historic date, April 19, when in 1776 "the shot was fired which was heard around the world" proclaiming the birth of a republic founded on the right of every individual to represent himself by his ballot! Heretofore they had been held in the Marble Room of the Senate Building and the room of the House Judiciary Committee, which could accommodate only a very limited number of the delegates and none of the public. The splendid new office buildings of the two Houses of Congress were now finished and in the spacious rooms assigned for the hearings all of the delegates found seats and many others, although a long line of the disappointed extended down the corridor.

The members of the Senate Committee were Alexander S. Clay (Ga.), chairman; Senators Joseph F. Johnston (Ala.), Elmer J. Burkett (Neb.), George Peabody Wetmore (R. I.), Albert J. Beveridge (Ind.). All were present except Senator Beveridge. Dr. Shaw presided and before introducing the speakers gave a résumé of the petitions which had just been presented to the Congress, called attention to the names of many eminent men and women who had signed them and said: "Believing that the first republic in the world, founded upon the principle of self-government with 'equal rights for all and special privileges for none,' should be among the leaders and not the laggards in this great world movement, your petitioners pray this honorable body to submit to the Legislatures of the several States for ratification an amendment to the Federal Constitution which will enable American women to vote." She continued:

It is not revolutionary on our part to ask a share in our Government. We are demanding it because it is in accord with American ideals and absolutely essential to the establishment of true democracy. A democratic form of government is right or it is not right—it is either right that the people should be self-governed or that they should not. If it is not right, then we ought to know it; the whole people ought to know it. If it is right, then the whole people ought to have equal opportunities in self-government. It is not that we women wish to dictate in regard to men or that we assume any superior ability for government, any superior wisdom, but it is that we do assume that whether we are wise or not, whether we have a grasp of all the affairs of state or not, whether we are earning and producing equally with men or not, we are human beings and as a part of the Government we should have at least a chance to exercise whatever powers we possess equally with all other citizens. It is because we believe that this Government should be true to its fundamental principles that we make these demands.

Some one asked Wendell Phillips if Christianity were not a failure and he replied, "It has not yet been tried." So we can say in regard to democracy. We hear the cry everywhere that democracy is a failure. A speaker in New York said that our democracy was the laughing stock of all the civilized nations of the world. It is the laughing stock because of the failure of this democracy to dare to be democratic. We have never tried universal suffrage but if that which we have is a failure the cure for it is not to restrict it but to extend it, because no class of men is able to represent another class and it is much truer that no class nor all classes of men are capable of representing any class or all classes of women. Believing this, we have come as citizens of the United States to this Mecca of all the people for more than forty years and we are ready to come for as many years more as may be necessary until our plea is granted.

Dr. Shaw then said: "I desire to introduce speakers from the professions and lines of work represented in our petitions: Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago, who has been a practicing lawyer for twenty-four years and was recently re-elected to the office of justice of the peace."

Mrs. McCulloch. There may be a woman school-teacher somewhere who does not want to vote that may be satisfied to receive only 75 per cent. as much as men teachers and to have no chance at highly paid superintendencies. There may be a mother who does not want equality at the ballot box nor in the guardianship of her children. There may be some factory girl who so earnestly believes it right to receive less wages than men do that she never wants the ballot to help her get equal pay for equal work. It may be that there is some woman paying heavy taxes—heavier than the equally wealthy man next door—who is happy to be taxed without being represented. It may be that some woman civil-service employee at Washington or in the State has for a long time been at the top of the list of those who are eligible for promotion and has seen men below her on the list requisitioned for places with large salaries and approves of this and enjoys being discriminated against because she is not a voter. There may be some woman physician who does not want to vote and who observes uncomplainingly that all remunerative political offices to which physicians are eligible on city or State boards of health or in public hospitals are filled by men. There may be a nurse so busy saving life that she has not realized the foolishness of her disfranchisement on the ground that she was never a soldier to destroy life. There may be some young woman in railroad office, stenographer, bookkeeper or clerk, who meekly approves an order for the discharge of all women employees for the ostensible reason that they marry too soon but for the real reason that they do not vote.

There may be a woman in any of these varied employments who is so convinced of her own inferiority that she does not want the ballot but to the credit of the women lawyers it may be said that almost every one does want to vote and can tell several reasons why. A woman may in this century go through a law college the only woman in her class without discomfort. She opens those sacred law books as easily and learns as readily as do the men and passes as good an examination. She sees her young men classmates rise to great distinction in the service of the State. She may count among them, as I can, city attorneys, State attorneys, civil-service commissioners, Judges of high degree, Senators and Governors. It will be impossible to prove to her that she, who in law school fed on the same mental diet as did these now renowned political leaders, is too ignorant to vote for them or against them or that the quality of her brain forbids her understanding of the great problems her law classmates are now solving....

Dr. Shaw: The next speaker will be Miss Eveline Gano, a teacher of history in one of the high schools of New York City, who will speak on behalf of the teachers of the country.

Miss Gano. If the woman teacher's need of the ballot is a debatable question then another very natural question arises: Do men teachers need the ballot?... I am asked to speak particularly of women who have made teaching a profession. In 1870, 41 per cent. of the teachers in the United States were men; 21 per cent. to-day are men. In large cities the number of women teachers is still greater in proportion. In New York only 12½ per cent. of the 17,000 teachers are men. According to the last census there are 17,000,000 children in the United States who should be in elementary schools. Approximately 90 per cent. are taught almost entirely by women. In New York City only seven per cent. of the 600,000 children in the public schools ever enter grades higher than the elementary; in western cities a few more. Practically all of the schooling that 90 citizens out of 100 ever get they receive from the hands and hearts and minds of women. Whatever this great number of future citizens knows of citizenship and correct standards of morals and industry they have learned from the mothers and the women teachers. The very foundations of law and equity and justice are in the hands of women who are in the eyes of the law but wards and dependents. If these women teachers and mothers had a keener sense of their responsibilities by actual participation in civic life, what might be the results in even one decade? Who is to blame if they do not have the keener sense?