CHAPTER XIV.
IOWA.[50]
The Iowa Equal Suffrage Association was still conducting in 1901 the campaign of education begun when it was organized in 1870, as fully described in Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage. It seemed at times a deadly dull process and there rose bolder spirits occasionally who suggested more vigorous and spectacular means of bringing the cause to the attention of the general public and of focusing the suffrage sentiment, which evidently existed, on the members of the Legislatures and putting them into a more genial attitude toward submitting a State constitutional amendment, which seemed in those years the only method of attaining the longed-for goal. Women, however, are conservative and the Iowa laws on the whole were not oppressive enough to stir the average woman to active propaganda for a share in making and administering them. Therefore the association proceeded along the beaten path—by way of education, aided by social and economic evolution, from which not even the most non-progressive woman can protect herself, much less protect her daughters. The association never missed an annual meeting and the women elected each year to carry on its work were those who knew that the cause might be delayed but could not be permanently defeated.
The convention of 1901 was held in November at Waterloo and Mrs. Adelaide Ballard was elected president, having previously served two terms. The conventions of 1902, 1903 and 1904 took place in October in Des Moines, Boone and Sheldon, and Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall was each year elected president, having held the office two years at earlier dates. The annual meeting of 1905 was held in November at Panora; that of 1906 in September at Ida Grove, and Bertha A. Wilcox was each year elected president.
The conventions of 1907 and 1908 took place in October at Des Moines and Boone and the Rev. Eleanor E. Gordon was at each elected president. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, who was present at the Boone convention, had just returned from England and was accompanied by two young English women who had campaigned for suffrage there and who took part in the convention. She had marched in a parade in London and was very desirous that parades should be held here. After much urging from her and the president, and with great trepidation and many misgivings on the part of the members, a procession was formed and marched through the principal streets on October 29. The Boone Daily News said: "The members of the Equal Suffrage Association in convention, scores of the local women interested in the movement and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union united in a monster parade through the main streets. The Wilder-Yeoman Band led with the Rev. Eleanor Gordon, president, Mrs. Coggeshall, honorary president, Mrs. Julia Clark Hallam, Dr. Shaw of Philadelphia and the Misses Rendell and Costelloe of London next in the procession. From every viewpoint it was a success." This was the first or one of the first suffrage parades to be held in the United States and it required much courage to take part in it. The crowd which lined the sidewalks was most respectful and when Dr. Shaw and the English visitors spoke from an automobile there was enthusiastic response.
In 1909 at the State convention held in Des Moines Mrs. Hallam was made president. In 1910, at the convention in Corydon, Mrs. Harriet B. Evans was elected to this position. The report of the corresponding secretary, Mrs. Lona I. Robinson, was similar to those that had been made in many preceding years and that continued to be made for several following years. It showed that hundreds of letters were sent to the officers of local clubs, asking them to interview the candidates for the Legislature on their attitude towards woman suffrage; to sign the petitions to Congress for a Federal Amendment, which were sent to them; to strengthen their organization; to increase their propaganda work, for which quantities of literature were furnished. The report showed the activities of the State officers, meetings arranged, addresses made and legislative work done.
At the annual meeting in October, 1911, at Perry, the Rev. Mary A. Safford became president. This year the Woman's Standard, a monthly newspaper published since 1886 by the association, was discontinued, as there was an ever-increasing opportunity for suffrage news and arguments in the newspapers of the State. On Dec. 22, 1911, Mrs. Coggeshall, who had been the inspiration and leader of the State suffrage work since its beginning and part of the time an officer of the National Suffrage Association, passed away. She was the link between those who began the movement and those who finished it. Whatever the later workers in Iowa had done had been as a candle flame lighted from the torch of her faith and devotion. She was a friend of Susan B. Anthony, of Lucy Stone and of many of the other veterans. Her delightful home was open to every suffragist of high or low degree—there were no degrees to her if a woman was a suffragist. She showed her faith in the cause not only by her gifts, her hospitality and her unceasing activity during her life but also by bequests of $5,000 to the State association and $10,000 to the National Association. The former was used, as she would have wished it to be, in the amendment campaign of 1916 and the National Association returned a large part of its bequest for use at this time.
In October, 1912, the convention was held in Des Moines and the Rev. Miss Safford was re-elected president. By this time new methods of propaganda were being used. During the State Fair the City Council of Suffrage Clubs in Des Moines arranged for the photoplay Votes for Women to be shown in a river front park near a band stand where nightly concerts were given and literally thousands of people had their first education in suffrage through the speeches made there.
The State convention met in October, 1913, in Boone and Miss Flora Dunlap was made president. An automobile trip crossing the State twice, with open air meetings in thirty towns, had been undertaken in September. Governor George W. Clark and Harvey Ingham, editor of the Des Moines Register, a long time supporter of woman suffrage, spoke at the first meeting and other prominent men, officials, editors and clergymen, joined the party for one or more days. Two reporters from Des Moines newspapers went with it and there was excellent publicity. Mrs. P. J. Mills of Des Moines managed the trip and accompanied the party with her car, Miss Evangeline Prouty, daughter of an Iowa member of Congress, acting as chauffeur. Miss Dunlap also made the entire two weeks' journey, while other workers joined for briefer periods. J. R. Hanna, Mayor of Des Moines, wrote the Mayors of all towns in which meetings were scheduled asking the courtesies of the city for the party, and this, with the Governor's opening speech, gave a helpful official sanction.
The annual meeting took place in October, 1914, at Des Moines and Miss Dunlap was re-elected president. In March the Mississippi Valley Conference, with many interesting delegates, had been held in that city and made a very favorable impression. Miss Jane Addams and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, president of the Ohio Suffrage Association, had spoken at a Sunday afternoon mass meeting in the largest theater. When the convention met at Des Moines in October, 1915, a woman suffrage amendment to the State constitution had at last been submitted by the Legislature to be passed upon by the voters in June, 1916. Miss Dunlap was again re-elected and arrangements were perfected for continuing the vigorous campaign already under way. By the time the association held its convention at Waterloo in September, 1916, the amendment had been defeated but nevertheless the meeting was large and enthusiastic. Miss Anna B. Lawther was elected president and arrangements were made for securing as soon as possible the re-submission of the amendment.