The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V

by Unknown

The story of the campaign in Maine the preceding September was told by the chairman of the campaign committee, Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston, the next afternoon, and the reasons given for its almost inevitable failure. [See Maine chapter.] A lively discussion took place on the advisability of campaigns for Presidential suffrage and Mrs. Catt gave the opinion that its legality when granted by a Legislature was unquestioned but if by a referendum to the voters it would be doubtful. The war work undertaken by the association was thoroughly considered, with a general review of Women's War Service by Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, second vice-president. She sketched briefly the appointment of a woman's branch of the Council of National Defense and pointed out how the choice of Dr. Shaw for chairman had brought the suffragists into even closer cooperation with the Government if possible than would have resulted from their intense patriotism.[110] Reports were made by the chairmen of the association's four committees, as follows: Food Production—Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers; Thrift—Mrs. Walter McNab Miller; Americanization—Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley; Industrial Protection of Women—Miss Ethel M. Smith. A Child Welfare Committee was added to the list.

Dr. Shaw presided at the evening session of the second day of the convention and to this and other programs Mrs. Newton D. Baker contributed her beautiful voice, with Mrs. Morgan Lewis Brett at the piano. Mrs. Charles W. Fairfax and Paul Bleyden also sang most acceptably and there was music by the Meyer-Davis orchestra. This evening the speakers were the Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior; the Hon. Jeannette Rankin, first woman member of the National House of Representatives, and Mrs. Catt, who gave her president's address. The presence of Secretary Lane added much prestige as well as political significance to the program, for it was interpreted as an indication that President Wilson had advanced from a belief in woman suffrage itself to an advocacy of the Federal Amendment, which was the keynote of the convention. "I come to you tonight," the Secretary said, "to bring a word of congratulation and good will from the first man in the nation. Dr. Shaw spoke of always being proud when she had some man back of her who could give respectability to the cause. What greater honor can there be, what greater pride can you feel, than in having behind you the man who is not alone the President of the United States but also the foremost leader of liberal thought throughout the world? It is to have with you the conscience, the mind and the spirit of today and tomorrow." He spoke of his own strong belief in the enfranchisement of women and the necessity of establishing for every one an individuality entirely her own, socially and politically. Only scattered newspaper references to this strong speech are available.

Especial interest was felt in the address of the young member of Congress, Miss Jeannette Rankin. In speaking of the bill which she had recently introduced to enable women to retain their nationality after marriage she said: "We, who stand tonight so near victory after a majestic struggle of seventy long years, must not forget that there are other steps besides suffrage necessary to complete the political enfranchisement of American women. We must not forget that the self-respect of the American woman will not be redeemed until she is regarded as a distinct and social entity, unhampered by the political status of her husband or her father but with a status peculiarly her own and accruing to her as an American citizen. She must be bound to American obligations not through her husband's citizenship but directly through her own."

Mrs. Catt's address had been announced as a Message to Congress and was eagerly anticipated. Miss Rose Young, the enthusiastic editor of The Woman Citizen, gave this vivid pen picture of the occasion:

When Mrs. Catt rose, the house rose with her. It was a crowded house and everybody was aware that the message in Mrs. Catt's hand was the vital message of the convention. Everybody wondered what would be its main focus. Nobody quite understood why an address to Congress should be delivered at a mass meeting. The latter point the speaker quickly cleared up. Once before in suffrage history, she said, there had been an address to Congress. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had made it. At this moment she was but doing over what they had done a half-century ago. She would deliver her address to Congress from that platform to that audience and leave it to the printed page to carry the message on into the sacred halls themselves.

Then, with Senate and House visualized by the directness of her appeal to them and by the sharp limning of her argument, she pleaded for democracy, arraigned the obstructionists of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, showed up the harsh inconsistencies, the waste of time and energy and money asked of women in State referenda, clarified the reasons for establishing suffrage by the Federal route and brought the whole case into high relief by resting the responsibility where it belongs—on the Congress of the United States.

The speaker, never ornate in rhetoric or delivery, seemed to withdraw her personality utterly, so that there was left only the mental and spiritual content of her message. To hear her was like listening to abstract thought, warmed by the fire of abstract conviction. To see her was like looking at sheer marble, flame-lit. Many an orator sways an audience's mind by emotional appeal. Hers was the crowning achievement to sway an audience to emotion by the symmetry and force of her appeal to its mind. Again and again salvos of applause stopped her for a moment but again and again the steady rhythm of her strong voice regained control. At the end her grip on attention was so acute that a little hush followed the last word.

The address consumed an hour and a half in delivery and made a pamphlet of twenty-two pages when published. Up to the time the Federal Amendment was ratified it was a part of the standard literature of the National Association and thousands of copies were circulated.[111] Among the subheads were these: The History of our Country and the Theory of our Government; the Leadership of the United States in World Democracy compels the Enfranchisement of its Own Women; Three Reasons for the Federal Method; Three Objections Answered. It was an absolutely conclusive argument and closed with a ringing appeal for "the submission and ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in order that this nation may at the earliest possible moment show to all the nations of the earth that its action is consistent with its principles." Dr. Shaw, who never could forego a little joke, had said in introducing Mrs. Catt: "I had long thought I should be willing to die as soon as suffrage was won in New York; that I never should be interested in politics or the making of tickets, but five minutes after the midnight of November 6 I had picked my ticket and now I don't want to die until it is elected." Here she stopped and presented the speaker. After Mrs. Catt had finished Dr. Shaw rose and looking at her with twinkling eyes said to the delighted audience: "The head of my ticket!"

The mornings of the convention were devoted to routine business and to the reports of the presidents of the States, most of whom were present, and almost without exception they told of active work and a great advance in public sentiment. It was such a time of rejoicing and hopefulness as suffragists had never known. The chief and universal interest, however, was centered in the action of Congress, as this had always been the goal and it now seemed near at hand. Therefore the report of the Congressional Committee, made through its chairman, Mrs. Maud Wood Park, was heard with close attention. The outline presented was as follows:

The duties of the present chairman began March 17, 1917, four days before President Wilson called an extra session of Congress to meet on April 2, a significant step toward the entrance of the United States into the World War. Thus our work started at a time of supreme importance in the history of our country and under conditions full of new possibilities for the cause of woman suffrage.