A conference of the suffrage leaders was held in Des Moines the next month after the election. Every one was sad but no one was resigned and those who had worked the hardest and sacrificed the most were the first to renew their pledges for further effort. It was decided that while their forces were well organized they should at once begin another campaign. The half-century-old resolution was presented to the General Assembly of 1917, and, though there were arguments that the voters had just spoken and that the question ought not again be submitted in so brief a time, the resolution passed by a vote of 35 ayes, 13 noes in the Senate and 85 ayes, 20 noes in the House.
The women continued their work for the second vote, which must be given by the Legislature of 1919. When it convened the discovery was made that the Secretary of State, William S. Allen, did not publish notice of the passage of the resolution the first time, as required by law and it had to be voted on again as if the first time. It passed with but one dissenting voice in each House but the second vote could not be taken till 1921.
A bill for Primary suffrage passed the Lower House in 1919 by 86 ayes, 15 noes, but met with great opposition in the Senate even from men posing as friends of woman suffrage. In a one-party State, as Iowa had been for many years, the dominant party hardly could feel that its supremacy would be threatened by women's votes in the primary, but, as one speaker naïvely disclosed in the debate, the "machine" might be thrown entirely out of gear. "Why," said he dramatically to the listening Senate, "the Republican party would be in hopeless confusion. Nobody could tell in advance what candidate the women might nominate in the primary!" The bill was postponed by 31 ayes, 17 noes.
The next step was to have a bill introduced to give women a vote for Presidential electors. One of the contributing factors to its success was the ever-increasing number of victories for similar bills in other States, particularly the recent victory in Missouri, which had completed the circle of "white" States surrounding Iowa. One of the features of the debate in the Senate was the reading of a letter from John T. Adams, vice-chairman of the National Republican Committee, heretofore an anti-suffragist, by Senator Eugene Schaffter, the sponsor of the bill, in which he impressed upon the Republicans the political urgency of granting the Presidential franchise to women. After a hard campaign by the Legislative Committee of the State Suffrage Association, with Mrs. Frank W. Dodson of Des Moines as chairman, the Iowa legislators joined the procession and on April 4, 1919, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 38 ayes, 8 noes, the House following on April 19 with a vote of 84 ayes, 2 noes.
Ratification. When the Federal Amendment went to the last vote in Congress, the Iowa delegation maintained its record on each vote that had been taken, both Senators and ten of the eleven Representatives—all but Harry E. Hull—casting their votes in the affirmative. Immediately Mrs. Devitt of Oskaloosa, acting president, and Mrs. Fred B. Crowley of Des Moines, corresponding secretary of the State association, requested Governor William L. Harding to call a special session of the Legislature to ratify it. It met on July 2 in special session for this sole purpose. Men and women had made their way early to the Capitol, filling the galleries and the rear of the chambers. The legislators, too, were apparently as happy as boys, with a new idea of real democracy in Iowa. It seemed like a gathering of great-hearted, honest-of-purpose men who were eager to do an act of justice. The joyous expressions of these men, who had taken hot, dusty rides on day trains from their farms and stores in the scorching July weather to come and cast their votes for ratification, assured the women of victory. It was a wonderful moment. After a joint session at 10 a. m., to hear the reading of the Governor's message, by 11:40 the vote had been taken in both Houses. Every Senator but two was present and was recorded in the affirmative; the vote in the House was 96 ayes, 5 noes; E. H. Knickerbocker, Linn county; T. J. O'Donnell, Dubuque; C. A. Quick and George A. Smith, Clinton; W. H. Vance, Madison. Senators J. D. Buser of Conesville and D. W. Kimberly of Davenport were absent. The former had voted against Presidential suffrage and the latter had not voted.
An informal luncheon followed in one of the Des Moines tea rooms which had often housed the suffragists in times of desolation and it was turned into a jollification meeting. Three former State presidents and other women spoke and there were many present for whom the occasion meant the fulfillment of an idea to which they had given years of devoted service.
FOOTNOTES:
[50] The History is indebted for this chapter to Miss Flora Dunlap, president of the State Equal Suffrage Association 1913-1915 and chairman of the League of Women Voters.
[51] Space is given to this report because it is a fair illustration of the conditions under which woman suffrage amendments were defeated again and again in different States.