The Committee on Probate and Chancery reported adversely by 8 to 3. The outlook for its passage seemed so dark that Mr. Fall came to the Woman's Journal office and asked if it might not be better to drop it and await a more propitious time. Miss Blackwell urged him to push it to a test. On May 27 it was debated in the House. Representative Marshall of Gloucester said that the Probate Judges were all opposed to it; that its advocates were "sentimentalists" and that "it would create strife, separation and divorce." He added: "Those who appeared for it before the committee were practically the same crowd that appeared for woman suffrage." Representative Sleeper exclaimed: "If you want to enact legislation which will disrupt the home and sunder the tenderest and most sacred relations, pass this bill!" The House rejected the committee's adverse report by a viva voce vote and the next day passed the bill without further debate. It passed the Senate by a large majority. Thanks and praises were showered upon Representative Fall, who modestly said that two-thirds of the credit for working up the case belonged to his wife, Mrs. Anna Christy Fall.
1903. The bill for taxpayers' Municipal suffrage was defeated February 5 without a roll call; the association's petition for a constitutional amendment by 99 to 87.
1904. Governor John L. Bates recommended woman suffrage in his Message. The association asked for Municipal suffrage for women having the same qualifications required of men. The bill was debated in the House on February 16 and defeated without a roll call. The bill to let women vote on nominations for school trustees was defeated by 62 to 30.
1905. The association's petition for a constitutional amendment was rejected without a division and without even discussion. Petitions were rejected for License suffrage, for a vote on school nominations and to enable women to vote for the appointing officer if the Boston school board should be made appointive instead of elective. The association always joined with other societies in asking for measures for the public welfare.
1906. The association's petition for a constitutional amendment was debated March 23 and defeated without a roll call. One headed by John Golden, president of the Textile Workers, for Municipal suffrage for wage-earning women was also defeated without a division, as were the petitions for License suffrage and for a vote on school nominations.
1907. The constitutional amendment was debated February 20 and defeated by 125 to 14. The Good Templars asked for License suffrage for women. At the hearing the bill was supported by representatives of the Anti-Saloon League, the W. C. T. U., the Christian Endeavorers, etc., and opposed by the Anti-Suffrage Association and the attorney of the Wine and Spirits Wholesale Dealers' Association. A bill requiring that the same measures be taken to keep the names of women voters (school) on the register as the names of men failed to pass.
1908. Municipal suffrage for all women, asked for by the association, was vigorously debated and voted down by 99 to 30. Municipal suffrage for women taxpayers, asked for by individuals, was defeated without a roll call.
1909. At the hearing on February 23 the Boston Herald, which was not in favor of equal suffrage, estimated that 2,000 women besieged the State House. They crowded the corridors and the large portico until two great overflow meetings were held in the open air at either end of the broad stairway leading up to the entrance. Later the overflow meeting moved on to the Common. The huge crowd of women made a deep impression and was largely featured in the press, which said that nothing like it had ever been seen in Boston.[85] The hearing was conducted for the petitioners by Mrs. Crowley and for the "antis" by Mr. Saunders. He was so impressed by the crowd that his usual sneering and jeering manner was wholly changed. The suffrage speakers were Dr. Shaw, John F. Tobin, president of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union; Rabbi Charles Fleischer, Miss Josephine Casey, secretary of the Women's Trade Union League; Henry Abrahams of the Central Labor Union; Miss Rose Brennan of Fall River, Miss Blackwell, Miss Eleanor Rendell of England, Winfield Tuck and Mrs. Belle Davis. Mrs. Gorham Dana, Professor Sedgwick and Mrs. George spoke for the "antis." Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Ex-Governor Bates, who were to have spoken for suffrage, could not get into the room.[86] The constitutional amendment was debated March 23. The galleries were reserved for women, yet many were turned away. The vote stood 171 noes to 54 ayes, including 11 pairs.
1910. The hearing February 23 on a constitutional amendment was unusually impressive. It was held in the evening to enable women busy by day to attend. In the past two or three members of the Legislature not on the committee had sometimes dropped in. This year about sixty were present. Mrs. Crowley and Mrs. Luce conducted the hearing for the two sides. The petitioners had arranged delegations representing different groups of women—mothers, home-makers, leisure women, lawyers, mission and church workers, artists, authors and journalists, doctors and nurses, Socialists, W. C. T. U., the "unrepresented" (widows and single women), business women, trade unions, teachers, social workers, taxpayers, saleswomen, clerks and stenographers and college women. These 1,500 or more marched to the State House from Ford Hall, each group under its own banner, and presented themselves before the committee in turn, the spokeswoman of each group telling briefly why she, and women like her, wanted the ballot. Then they went over to Ford Hall, where a big rally was held and the main address was made by Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard. An overflow meeting was held on the State House steps addressed by Edwin D. Mead and others. In order to line up the labor vote in the Legislature, resolutions by different labor unions, signed by their secretaries, were sent to each legislator, under the direction of Mrs. Page. The measure was defeated March 31 by 148 to 47.
1911. For the first time in many years, the Legislative Committee of the State association, Mrs. Crowley, chairman, appeared, before the Resolutions Committee of the political parties to urge the adoption of a suffrage plank. The Democratic party inserted one favoring the submission of the question to the voters; the Republican party ignored it. The legislators were interviewed both at the State House and by representative suffragists within their districts, and they received suffrage literature. The hearing on February 23 was unusually successful from a political and publicity standpoint. It was conducted by Mrs. Crowley and was addressed by Mrs. Park and Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick; John Sherman Weaver, representing the State branch of the American Federation of Labor, and Henry Abrahams for the Boston Central Labor Union. Sylvia Pankhurst addressed the committee in a simple and effective way. Two of the opposition speakers were Mrs. George and Professor Sedgwick. The debate was spirited and was conducted for the suffragists by prominent Senators and Representatives. Four members spoke in opposition. The vote in the House was ayes, 69, noes, 161; in the Senate, ayes, 6, noes, 31. During all these years a quiet but effective opposition had been working at the State House under the direction of Charles R. Saunders, legislative counsel for the Anti-Suffrage Association.