CHAPTER XLVIII.
WISCONSIN.[206]
Woman suffrage history in Wisconsin from 1900 to 1920 naturally divides itself into three sections, the first including the ten years preceding the submission of the referendum measure by the Legislature in 1911; the second the two years of the referendum campaign and the third the succeeding seven years to 1920.
The work of the State Woman Suffrage Association, which was organized in 1869, continued in the 20th century, as in the 19th, through organization, public meetings, annual conventions, the publication of the Wisconsin Citizen. The conventions of the first decade, which always took place in the autumn, were held as follows: 1901, Brodhead; 1902, Madison; 1903, Platteville; 1904, Janesville; 1905, Milwaukee; 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, Madison; 1911, Racine. The Rev. Olympia Brown, who had been elected president in 1883, continued to serve in that capacity with undiminished vigor and ability, having been elected every year, until the end of 1912. Besides her other services she gave hundreds of addresses on woman suffrage, speaking in nearly every city in the State.[207]
The publication of the Wisconsin Citizen, established in 1887, was continued in spite of limited finances. Its first editor was Martha Parker Dingee from Boston, a niece of Theodore Parker, who gave her services for seven years. After that the editors were Mrs. Helen H. Charlton, Miss Lena V. Newman and Mrs. Youmans. After 1914 it was published at Waukesha, before that at Brodhead, and was discontinued in 1917. Notable speakers from outside the State at conventions of the first decade were Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, the Rev. Florence Buck, the Rev. Marion Murdock, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, Miss Jane Addams and Dr. Julia Holmes Smith.
The association for some time supported a State organizer, the Rev. Alice Ball Loomis, and later Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe for two seasons. In 1902 headquarters were established at Madison, the capital, in a little room in the State House, for the distribution of literature, and here was kept a register of men and women who believed in woman suffrage. In 1907 the Rev. Mrs. Brown prepared a bulletin for the legislators, giving the statistics of woman suffrage in the United States and other countries.
In 1908 Mrs. Maud Wood Park came to Wisconsin and spoke to women students of five colleges, arrangements having been previously made by Mrs. Brown, who took part in some of the meetings, and College Women's Suffrage Leagues were organized. Mrs. Brown prepared a pamphlet, Why the Church Should Demand the Ballot for Women, which was widely distributed. Near the end of 1909 the State association was asked to circulate the national petition to Congress for the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Blanks were sent all over the State to schools, libraries and other public institutions and to individuals. The members took up the matter with enthusiasm and worked faithfully. The association did all that could be done in the six weeks allowed and about 18,000 names were signed, 5,000 of them in Racine. Mrs. Wentworth, over eighty years of age, canvassed portions of the city and obtained 1,000 names.
During this whole decade resolutions and petitions were sent to Congress and at every session of the Legislature suffrage measures were introduced. Mrs. Jessie M. Luther was chairman of the Legislative Committee during this period, an unrecognized and unpaid lobbyist, but by her skilful work, in which at times she was assisted by Mrs. Nellie Donaldson and others, she kept the Legislature in advance of the people of the State.
In 1911 the Legislature submitted to the voters a statutory law giving full suffrage to women, as it had authority to do. Influences from outside the State led to the organization of the Political Equality League, of which Miss Ada L. James was president and Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict from New York was made campaign manager. The campaign of 1911-1912, therefore, was carried on by two organizations, the State association and this league, working separately, although effort was made to correlate their activities by forming a cooperative committee representing both societies, of which Miss Gwendolen Brown Willis was chairman. The National American Woman Suffrage Association, through its president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, contributed $100 per month salary for an organizer and speaker, Miss Harriet Grim, and gave further assistance to both organizations.[208]