To carry the appeal to the West, two commissions were sent out the last of July, Mrs. John Glover South of Kentucky and Miss Shuler of New York to the Republican States; Mrs. Cunningham of Texas and Mrs. Hooper of Wisconsin to the Democratic States. After a tour of the States and visits to the Governors they went to Salt Lake City for the Governors' Conference. Their reports revealed the fact that women in the enfranchised States had been absorbed into the political parties, and, with their suffrage campaign organizations practically dissolved, were in no position to determine or carry out independent political action. The replies of the Governors—that "the women of my State have the suffrage, it will not help us, the cost of a special session is too great, ill-advised legislation might be considered"—revealed an even more deplorable fact, that both men and women in those States were bounded in thought by their State lines and did not have a national point of view on national issues.
From the first Mrs. Catt had believed that the strategy of ratification demanded rapid action by the western full suffrage States, the partial suffrage States falling into line and the last fight coming in the eastern States where women had not yet become political factors. Therefore the Governors of the fully enfranchised States were wired as soon as the Federal Amendment passed. Those of Kansas and New York responded at once with special sessions on June 16. Then came an ominous pause. No far western States had yet ratified. What mysterious cause delayed them?
Ratifications came in Iowa July 2; Missouri July 3; Arkansas July 28; Montana July 30; Nebraska August 2; Minnesota September 8; New Hampshire September 10; Utah September 30. Another ominous pause, with Montana and Utah the only far western States yet heard from.
On October 23 Mrs. Catt opened a "drive" for ratification through sixteen conferences in twelve States, all but two with equal suffrage. She was accompanied by two chairmen of the League of Women Voters, Dr. Valeria Parker of the Committee of Social Hygiene, and Mrs. Edward P. Costigan of the Committee on Food Supply and Demand, with Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield speaking for the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Shuler for that on Child Welfare. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Julia Lathrop, chairman of the Child Welfare Committee, spoke at one of the conferences and Miss Jessie Haver substituted for Mrs. Costigan during the latter part of the trip. Mrs. Catt's address—Wake Up America—was an appeal for special sessions to ratify in those States where there were to be no regular sessions until 1921 and an appeal to both men and women to use their votes for a better America. Ratifications in North Dakota December 1; South Dakota December 4; Colorado December 12; Oregon January 12; Nevada February 7—were in answer to those stirring appeals. California ratified November 1; Maine November 5; Rhode Island and Kentucky January 6; Indiana January 16. Following soon New Jersey ratified by regular session February 9. Idaho by special session February 11; Arizona February 12. The special session is called in New Mexico February 16 and in Oklahoma February 23. [Both ratified.]
In the story of our ratification campaign there occurs often the name of our second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, whose work for the National Association has always been valuable but who has made her greatest contribution in work for the passage of the Federal Amendment in the campaign to secure special sessions and the overwhelming number of ratifications in Republican States.
Mrs. Shuler told of the Oversea Hospitals, which are considered in another chapter. She gave an eloquent tribute to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and spoke of the beautiful memorial booklet prepared by a committee of officers of the National Association, who distributed 5,000 copies. It also aided in circulating 10,000 copies of her last speech—What the War Meant to Women—prepared as a memorial by the League to Enforce Peace. She spoke tenderly of the death of Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, corresponding secretary of the National Association twenty-one years; of that of Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler Walker, who presided so charmingly over the headquarters in Washington, and of Miss Aloysius Larch-Miller, who as secretary of the committee on ratification in Oklahoma sacrificed her life through her work for it. Reference was made to the contributory work of the National Board in stabilizing the League of Women Voters; to the Citizenship Schools and Travelling Libraries, and the very complete report closed with a testimonial to the immeasurable value of the national organization which read in part:
Our State suffrage associations welded into a great chain have made the National Association. Our members have been one in heart, one in hope, one in purpose. We have held the same standards, the same ideals. When the way has seemed long and dark and the goal of our efforts afar off, we have supported, cheered and encouraged each other. We have rejoiced over even the smallest victory and have never been a downhearted group. The suffrage spirit has ever buoyed us up and carried us on even when the road was the steepest and the obstructions seemed almost insurmountable. These experiences could not have been realized through fifty-one years without "lengthening the cords and strengthening the stakes of friendship" but more—the result has been a liberal training, a greater belief in each other and more confidence in the merits of our cause.
While the value of any movement depends upon the success with which its practical details are worked out, yet in the final analysis the idealism of a movement is the mainspring of its vitality.
"The spirit stands behind the deed,
In holy thought the dream must start
And every cause that moves the world
Was born within a single heart."
So to-day we render homage to our great leader, Mrs. Catt, whose hand has guided and whose genius has vitalized our movement. She has given to a world of women her love, her faith. She has dreamed a dream and then with prophetic vision and undaunted courage led the way to victory and the consummation of that dream.