The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V

by Unknown

As long as it was a question of woman's rights; as long as the fight had any appearance of being against man; as long as there seemed to be a vestige of sex antagonism, the southern woman stood with her back turned squarely toward the cause. She wouldn't even turn around to look at it, she would have none of it, but when she awoke slowly to a social consciousness, when eyes and brain were at last free, after a terrible reconstruction period, to look out upon the world as a whole; when she found particularly among the more fortunate classes that her leisure had come to mean laziness; when she realized that through the changed conditions of modern life so much of her work had been taken out of the home, leaving her to choose between following it into the world or remaining idle; when with a clearer vision she saw that her help in governmental affairs, especially where they touched her own interests, was much needed—right about face she turned and said to the southern man: "I don't wish to usurp your place in government but it is time I had my own. I don't complain of the way you have conducted your part of the business but my part has been either badly managed or not managed at all. In the past you have not shown yourself averse to accepting my help in very serious matters; my courage and fortitude and wisdom you have continually praised. Now that there is a closer connection between the government and the home than ever before in the history of the world, I ask that you will let me help you."

Mrs. Dudley described the effect of the demand for woman suffrage on the politicians, on the men who feared they would be "reformed," on the sentimentalists, and then she paid tribute to the broad-minded, justice-loving men who encouraged the women in their new aspirations and concluded: "So you see not only the southern woman but the southern man is now awake and present conditions strongly indicate that before another year has passed we will have some form of suffrage for the woman of Tennessee.... We have had a vision—a vision of a time when a woman's home will be the whole wide world, her children all those whose feet are bare and her sisters all who need a helping hand; a vision of a new knighthood, a new chivalry, when men will not only fight for women but for the rights of women."

The plea of Mrs. Valentine for a higher womanhood should be given in full but an idea at least can be gained by a quotation:

If I were asked to give one reason above all others for advocating the enfranchisement of women I should unhesitatingly reply, "The necessity for the complete development of woman as a prerequisite for the highest development of the race." Just so long as woman remains under guardianship, as if she were a minor or an incompetent—just so long as she passively accepts at the hands of men conditions, usages, laws, as if they were decrees of Providence—just so long as she is deprived of the educative responsibilities of self-government—by just so much does she fall short of complete development as a human being and retard the progress of the race. We are the children of our mothers as well as of our fathers and we inherit the defects as well as the perfections of both. Many a man goes down in his business—is a "failure in life," as the phrase goes—because he is the son of an undeveloped mother and, like her, is lacking in independence, in initiative, in ability to seize upon golden opportunities. Yet she was trained to passivity, to submission, to the obliteration of whatever personality she may have possessed. What more could we expect of her son? Imagine for a moment the effect upon men had they from infancy been subjected to the narrowing, ossifying processes applied to women for centuries!

Happily for the race, however, the great majority of women are waking from the sleep of centuries, are eagerly stretching out their hands for the key that is to open wide the door of larger opportunity. Happily, too, the forward-looking men of today are seeing the vision of womanhood released from the old-world thraldom. In rapidly increasing numbers they are welcoming the new woman, in whom they find not only the wife and mother more fully equipped for her task but a comrade of congenial tastes, keenly interested in the outside world and capable of taking her place beside the husband, whether in peace or war, wherever her country calls.... The suffrage movement is a world-wide protest against the mental subjection of woman. Therein lies its vital importance. It strikes deep into the core of life. It is a basic, fundamental reform, for it is releasing for the service of the State the unused natural resources dormant in womanhood; it is transforming the dependent woman into woman enfranchised that she may the more perfectly fulfill her destiny as the mother of the race.

The morning and afternoon sessions were crowded with reports, conferences and business of various kinds in which the delegates were keenly interested. Mrs. Grace Thompson Seton, chairman of the Art Publicity Committee, gave an interesting account of its work, told of the prizes that had been offered for posters and slogans and the cooperation of men and women prominent in the literary, artistic and social world; of the "teas" given at the national headquarters, bringing many who had never visited them before: of the beautiful banners and costumes designed for the suffrage parades and other features of this somewhat neglected side of the work for woman suffrage. The chairman of the Literature Committee, Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore, submitted a comprehensive report of the systematizing of that department, the classifying and cataloguing and the endeavor to ascertain and meet the varied demands. A Suffrage Study Outline, a Blue Book Suffrage School and Mrs. Annie G. Porritt's Laws Relating to Women and Children had been published; literature for the rural districts, for the home, for campaigns, placards, fliers and an endless number of novelties.

It would be impossible to give in a few paragraphs even an idea of the carefully prepared report of Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, the skilled head of the Data Department, which filled eight printed pages. It told of the progress that had been made in organizing the department, the wide scope of the collections and the increasing demand for information from many sources. It would be equally difficult to do justice to the sixteen printed pages of the report of Charles T. Heaslip, national publicity director. He had organized a publicity council, which thus far had members in twenty-six States. His full knowledge of the large syndicates had enabled him to keep the subject before the public throughout the country; he had made wide use of photographs, cartoons, posters and moving pictures. Hundreds of papers on the route of the "golden flier" had been supplied with pictures and stories. He had gone to Iowa to assist in the campaign there and he described also the large amount of publicity work done at the time the suffragists were making their national demonstrations during the presidential conventions in Chicago and St. Louis. He showed how victory could be hastened by thorough publicity work in every State from Maine to California. Later the Chair announced the receipt of a letter from the press, signed by representatives of nineteen newspapers at the convention, expressing their thanks to Mr. Heaslip and their hearty appreciation of his services, without which they could not have handled its press work in a satisfactory manner.

Under the topic How and Where to Drive the Entering Wedge, Miss Florence Allen of Ohio told of the openings offered by amending city charters for woman suffrage and Mrs. Roger G. Perkins described the successful campaign in East Cleveland for this purpose. The recent campaigns in West Virginia and South Dakota were discussed by the State presidents, Mrs. Ellis A. Yost and Mrs. John L. Pyle; that of Iowa by Mrs. Geyer, publicity director, and the work in Tennessee for a constitutional convention by Mrs. James M. McCormack, State president. The chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee, Mrs. Robert S. Huse (N. J.), reported that bills had been introduced in the Legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Kentucky and Rhode Island, public hearings being granted by the first three, but no vote was taken.

Is Limited Suffrage Worth While? was answered by Mrs. George Bass (Ills.) who declared it to be "a positive influence for good"; it was called by Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout (Ills.) "a step toward full suffrage"; by Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (Ohio) "a help to other States." Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch described "the chances opened by the Illinois law." It was the consensus of opinion that partial suffrage was quite worth striving for. This was directly opposed to that heretofore held by the association but in the past only a Municipal vote had been asked for and Kansas alone had granted it. Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) made a strong presentation of the Elections Bill, which would permit women to vote for members of Congress. What Kansas Thinks about Woman Suffrage was graphically told by Mrs. W. Y. Morgan, president of the State association. Help from the West was promised by Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe (Wash.), president of the National Council of Women Voters.

The climax of the convention came on the evening of September 8 with the address of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. Only once before had a President appeared before a national suffrage convention—when William Howard Taft made a ten-minute speech of welcome to Washington in 1910 but without committing himself to the movement. When the present convention was called, after the endorsement of woman suffrage by the national conventions of all parties, the two leading candidates for President were invited to address it. Judge Hughes, who had declared in favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, answered that he would be too far away on a speaking tour to reach Atlantic City. President Wilson wrote that he would endeavor to arrange his itinerary so as to be present. Later he announced that he would come and would remain throughout the evening. Undoubtedly he never before faced such an audience. The greatest care had been taken to exclude all but delegates and invited guests and from the stage of the theater to the back stretched tier after tier of white-robed women, while the boxes were filled with prominent people, mostly women. As he came from the street to the stage with Mrs. Wilson, also gowned in white, he passed through a lane of suffragists, one from each State, designated by banners, with broad sashes of blue and gold across their breasts. He was accompanied by Private Secretary Tumulty and several distinguished men and the entire stage behind the decorations of palms and other plants was surrounded by a cordon of the secret service. Forty-three large newspapers throughout the country were represented at the reporters' table.