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32 - Woman Suffrage and Politics by Carrie Chapman Catt, Nettie Rogers Shuler · Woman Suffrage and Politics

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven of Women's Suffrage and Politics. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Women's Suffrage in Politics, The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement,
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  Speaker 1: by Carrie Chapman Cat and Nettie Rogers Schuler, Chapter twenty seven.
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  Speaker 1: The Opposition grows grimmer. No observer accustomed to judge popular
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  Speaker 1: opinion could have failed to recognize by March nineteen twenty
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  Speaker 1: that the fifty years War for women's suffrage was one,
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  Speaker 1: and that no opposition could now do more than delay
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  Speaker 1: the final triumph. That women would vote was already an
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  Speaker 1: accepted fact. Suffragists from all parts of the country reported
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  Speaker 1: this acceptance. Yet the directors of the campaign knew that
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  Speaker 1: although the war for woman's suffrage was won, the fighting
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  Speaker 1: would go on and on, and that, in all probability,
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  Speaker 1: the bitterest conflict of the half century was scheduled for
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  Speaker 1: somewhere between the close of the last National Suffrage Convention
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  Speaker 1: and the proclamation of the Federal Suffrage Amendment by the
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  Speaker 1: Federal Secretary of State. It will be recalled that mention
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  Speaker 1: has been made of the fact that during the Chicago Convention,
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  Speaker 1: four state legislatures ratified, those of New Jersey, Idaho, Arizona,
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  Speaker 1: and New Mexico. One of these New Jersey served to
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  Speaker 1: emphasize for suffragists the mounting intensity of the opposition. In
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  Speaker 1: August nineteen nineteen, mister James Nugent, the Democratic boss in
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  Speaker 1: the state, had declared himself a candidate for the New
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  Speaker 1: Jersey governorship, and was quite frank in giving his reasons
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  Speaker 1: for doing so. He said, the only reason that I
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  Speaker 1: got into this campaign as a candidate for the governatorial
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  Speaker 1: honors was that the state needed at least one man
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  Speaker 1: with the courage to stand four square against prohibition and
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  Speaker 1: woman's suffrage. He was defeated at the primaries September twenty third,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen. The bosses of both political parties were avowedly
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  Speaker 1: anti suffragists, and with the liquor interests, worked openly against
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  Speaker 1: the amendment. To co operate with the National Suffrage Association's
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  Speaker 1: New Jersey Auxiliary, a men's suffrage council whose organized which
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  Speaker 1: contained the names of leading Democrats and Republicans, they united
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  Speaker 1: in the demand for political recognition of women Everett Colby
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  Speaker 1: was chairman, and the honorary chairman were Governor elect Edward I. Edwards,
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  Speaker 1: United States Senators Joseph S. Frelinghousen and Walter E. Edge.
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  Speaker 1: The list of vice chairmen included legislators, judges and other
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  Speaker 1: public officials, editors, lawyers, business and professional men from both
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  Speaker 1: major political parties and from all parts of the state.
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  Speaker 1: When the legislature convened in nineteen twenty, the resolution for
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  Speaker 1: ratifification was the first measure introduced. A public hearing was
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  Speaker 1: held February second, and the Senate ratified that same day.
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  Speaker 1: The opposition then concentrated its efforts upon the Assembly. Attorney
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  Speaker 1: General A. Mitchell Palmer had written to all the Democratic
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  Speaker 1: members urging support. By the evening of February ninth, when
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  Speaker 1: ratification was to be voted on in the Assembly, it
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  Speaker 1: was clear that the stage was set by the opposition
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  Speaker 1: for an all night filibuster. Hugh Barrett of Essex, Nugent's
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  Speaker 1: special representative, led the opposition by making one motion after another, which,
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  Speaker 1: one by one, after hot fight and much talking, were defeated.
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  Speaker 1: Outside in the corridor was Nugent himself constantly sending messages
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  Speaker 1: to his representatives. Suffragists were there too, helping to steady
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  Speaker 1: their friends infirm in the determination to get the vote
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  Speaker 1: that night. For five hours of filibuster went on without abatement.
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  Speaker 1: Then the opposition gave up the fight and the resolution
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  Speaker 1: was passed. In Idaho and Arizona, both full suffrage states,
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  Speaker 1: there was no delay in ratification. Once the special session
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  Speaker 1: was called. Governor D. W. Davis called the legislature of
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  Speaker 1: Idaho February eleventh. The call requested the legislators not to
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  Speaker 1: take the full amount to which they were entitled, but
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  Speaker 1: to confine the appropriation to an amount equivalent to their
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  Speaker 1: actual expenses only. The call further stipulated that no legislation
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  Speaker 1: should be considered other than ratification. The session came at
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  Speaker 1: the time of the meeting of the Republican State Committee
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  Speaker 1: and that of the Executive Committee of the Idaho Republican Press.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor M. F. A. Drake, the only woman member of
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  Speaker 1: the House, introduced the resolution. The action there was unanimous,
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  Speaker 1: but in the Senate there were six opposing votes, three
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  Speaker 1: Republicans and three Democrats. Governor Campbell of Arizona, though not
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  Speaker 1: enthusiastic overcalling a special session because the majority in House
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  Speaker 1: and Senate were Democrats, while he was a Republican. Had
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  Speaker 1: on August nineteen nineteen at Flagstaff promised the envoys sent
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  Speaker 1: out by the National Suffrage Association that he would call
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  Speaker 1: one if the women would pull the legislature in order
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  Speaker 1: to learn if it would ratify and if the men
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  Speaker 1: would waive their per diem. He suggested the first week
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  Speaker 1: in November nineteen nineteen, but it was four months later,
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  Speaker 1: at noon February twelfth, nineteen twenty, when the first special
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  Speaker 1: Session of the fourth State Legislature of Arizona ratified. Attached
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  Speaker 1: to the House bill were the names of the four
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  Speaker 1: women members, Missus Nellie Heywood, Missus Rosa Mackay, Missus Westover,
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  Speaker 1: and Missus O'Neill. There was little eloquence, but much dispatch,
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  Speaker 1: and the resolution went promptly to the Senate, which adopted
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  Speaker 1: the ratifying resolution at nine fifteen p m. In New Mexico.
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  Speaker 1: Owing to the large Mexican population, there was doubt from
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  Speaker 1: the first whether the amendment could be ratified. Governor C. A.
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  Speaker 1: Lazarola was opposed to ratification, but as a Republican, agreed
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  Speaker 1: to support it in the legislature. The Democrats had worked
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  Speaker 1: for ratification, and a poll of their members taken immediately
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  Speaker 1: in both house showed twenty out of twenty six in favor.
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  Speaker 1: At the Governor's conference in Salt Lake City the year before,
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  Speaker 1: the envoys of the National American Woman Suffrage Association had
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  Speaker 1: been assured by Governor Lazarola that although he was not
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  Speaker 1: for the Federal Suffrage Amendment, Republican support would be forthcoming
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  Speaker 1: and the amendment would be ratified. It so happened that
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  Speaker 1: a Soldiers and Sailors Act, passed by the Governor's insistence
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  Speaker 1: at the last session, was faultily drawn and a special
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  Speaker 1: session was necessary to re enact the measure. The legislature
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  Speaker 1: met in special session February sixteenth, nineteen twenty. There was
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  Speaker 1: a determined effort on the part of one member, Dan
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  Speaker 1: Padillo of Albuquerque, to submit a referendum on the amendment
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  Speaker 1: to the voters of the state. Immediately, the entire city
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  Speaker 1: protested suffragists, prohibitionists, y WCA, and many men's organizations until
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  Speaker 1: Padillo declared that he would vote for immediate ratification, which
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  Speaker 1: he did. The five no votes in the Senate and
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  Speaker 1: eight of the ten opposed in the House were Republicans.
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  Speaker 1: The thirty third ratification followed one week later. It was
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  Speaker 1: that of Oklahoma. At the Governor's Conference at Salt Lake
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  Speaker 1: City in August nineteen nineteen, J. B. A. Robertson, Governor
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  Speaker 1: of Oklahoma, gave the great expense and the fear of
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  Speaker 1: untimely legislation as his reasons for not calling a special
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  Speaker 1: session of the Oklahoma Legislature, But he pledged that if
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  Speaker 1: the women could get the legislators to waive their per diem,
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  Speaker 1: he would call the session at once. He added, However,
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  Speaker 1: I do not think it can be done, as the
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  Speaker 1: women do not care enough. Thereafter, he gave a telling
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  Speaker 1: exhibition of a chief executive dodging women who cared enough.
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  Speaker 1: In September, Miss Aloysius larch Miller, secretary of the Oklahoma
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  Speaker 1: Ratification Committee, assisted by a representative of the National Suffrage Association,
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  Speaker 1: secured sign pledges from a majority of the legislators that
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  Speaker 1: they would attend, serve without pay, consider no other legislation,
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  Speaker 1: and vote for ratification. When these were presented, the governor's
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  Speaker 1: answer was a refusal to answer. Several weeks later, he
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  Speaker 1: addressed the State Federation of Women's Clubs at Edmund and
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  Speaker 1: again offered the same excuses expense and state political problems. Meantime,
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  Speaker 1: the Republican State Organization, through the Republican National Committeeman James A.
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  Speaker 1: Mc graw, had offered to pay the expenses of the
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  Speaker 1: Republican legislators who could not pay their own. The governor
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  Speaker 1: answered that by saying that the states which did not
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  Speaker 1: have the suffrage should assume the burden of ratifying the
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  Speaker 1: suffrage Amendment. In January nineteen twenty, the Democratic State Central
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  Speaker 1: Committee called county conventions to select delegates to the Democratic
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  Speaker 1: State Convention. Many of these county conventions passed resolutions asking
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  Speaker 1: the governor to call the session. Although she had been
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  Speaker 1: confined to her room for several days with influenza, Miss
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  Speaker 1: larch Miller attended the convention of her county, Potawatomi, and
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  Speaker 1: spoke for the resolution in opposition to aturn General S. P. Breeling,
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  Speaker 1: One of the ablest orators of the state and also
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  Speaker 1: the strongest opponent of women's suffrage in Oklahoma, her enthusiasm
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  Speaker 1: and eloquence carried the day for suffrage. The resolution was adopted.
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  Speaker 1: For her, the price was her life. The exertion proved
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  Speaker 1: too heavy attacks, and in two days she paid the
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  Speaker 1: supreme sacrifice for the cause she had served. Interviewed again,
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  Speaker 1: the governor said his action would depend on the action
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  Speaker 1: of his party convention. In the meantime, Senator Robert L. Owen,
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  Speaker 1: who had a long record for women's suffrage, had become
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  Speaker 1: a candidate for Vice President of the United States. Democratic
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  Speaker 1: women from many states had wired him to know why
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  Speaker 1: his state had not taken action on the Federal Suffrage Amendment,
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  Speaker 1: reminding him that he was the only candidate for Vice
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  Speaker 1: president whose state had not ratified. At the Democratic State
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  Speaker 1: convention at Muskegee February fifth, Governor Robertson finally agreed that,
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  Speaker 1: because of his interest in the candidacy of Senator Owen,
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  Speaker 1: he would call the session. This he did for February
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  Speaker 1: twenty third. A majority of the legislators were pledged to ratify.
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  Speaker 1: The governor sent a favorable message, and there was a
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  Speaker 1: telegram from President Wilson to the Speaker of the House.
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  Speaker 1: May I not take the liberty of expressing my earnest
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  Speaker 1: hope that Oklahoma will join the other suffrage states in
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  Speaker 1: ratifying the Federal Suffrage Amendment, thus demonstrating anew its sense
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  Speaker 1: of justice and retaining its place as a leader in democracy.
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  Speaker 1: In opposition was the activity of Attorney General Freeling, who
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  Speaker 1: used the state's rights argument to influence some members, but
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  Speaker 1: the sacrifice of Miss larch Miller, coupled with the fact
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  Speaker 1: that Oklahoma was a suffrage state, overwhelmed all opposition. The
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  Speaker 1: resolution to ratify was past February twenty seventh, nineteen twenty.
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  Speaker 1: Then Attorney General Freeling added one more chapter to his
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  Speaker 1: record against suffrage by immediately starting the circulation of a
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  Speaker 1: petition to refer this action to the voters. The decision
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  Speaker 1: of the United States Supreme Court that there could be
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  Speaker 1: no referenda on federal amendments ended this effort. Governor John W.
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  Speaker 1: Cornwell of West Virginia, a Democrat, was known to favor ratification.
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  Speaker 1: A letter from the National Suffrage Association in December nineteen
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  Speaker 1: nineteen brought word from him that as soon as there
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  Speaker 1: was a court decision on the public utilities question, which
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  Speaker 1: was to be voted upon with the suffrage amendment, the
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  Speaker 1: call would be issued. The Democratic governor called his Republican
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  Speaker 1: legislature in special session Friday, February twenty seventh, nineteen twenty.
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  Speaker 1: President Wilson wire members of the senat as follows, quote,
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  Speaker 1: may I not urge upon you the importance to the
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  Speaker 1: whole country of the prompt ratification of the Suffrage Amendment,
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  Speaker 1: and express the hope that you will find it possible
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  Speaker 1: to lend your aid to this end end. The Democratic
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  Speaker 1: and Republican National Committee's urged ratification. The state's delegation in
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  Speaker 1: Congress used its influence, and the governor's message was in favor.
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  Speaker 1: The outlook was promising when opposition broke from two unexpected sources.
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  Speaker 1: Due to the contest over the governorship and to influences
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  Speaker 1: from outside the state, the Maryland legislature sent a committee
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  Speaker 1: to urge rejection of the amendment. They arrived February twenty
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  Speaker 1: eighth Senator George Arnold Frick and Representatives Willis R. Jones
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  Speaker 1: and Daniel P. Joseph, who said they had come to
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  Speaker 1: say that quote, West Virginia had no right to help
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  Speaker 1: put something over what was not wanted by other states
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  Speaker 1: end quote. Two other members L. S. R. Grimes and
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  Speaker 1: Senator Charles H. Gibson came independently as former West Virginians
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  Speaker 1: to say that the entire legislature of Maryland was not
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  Speaker 1: opposed to ratification, and that they believed quote, West Virginia
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  Speaker 1: capable of settling our own affairs without interference from Maryland
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  Speaker 1: end quote. A vote was rushed through both houses and
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  Speaker 1: stood House eyes forty six nays forty one, Senate eyes
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  Speaker 1: fourteen Nays fourteen. A motion to reconsider in the Senate
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  Speaker 1: lost on Wednesday by the same vote. In the meantime,
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  Speaker 1: Senator Jesse A. Block, who was in California, received tardy
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  Speaker 1: notice of the session, wired that he was in favor
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  Speaker 1: of ratification and asked for a pair. This was refused
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  Speaker 1: by the opposition with jeers. Secretary of State Houston G.
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  Speaker 1: Young immediately got into telephone communication with Senator Block, and
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  Speaker 1: he agreed to make the race across the continent if
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  Speaker 1: Suffrage members would hold the minds intact until his arrival.
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  Speaker 1: The situation was acute. A motion in the House to
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  Speaker 1: reconsider had been laid on the table and could be
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  Speaker 1: called up at any time. Many legislators wanted to go home,
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  Speaker 1: and it was difficult to keep the necessary number of
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  Speaker 1: Suffrage men on hand to defeat hostile attacks. The entire
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  Speaker 1: country watched and waited. The tie in the Senate held
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  Speaker 1: and Senator Block sped across the country. The day he
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  Speaker 1: reached Chicago, the opposition resorted to its most desperate expedient
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  Speaker 1: by producing a former Senator, A. R. Montgomery, who about
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  Speaker 1: eight months before had resigned because he was leaving the
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  Speaker 1: state permanently. The governor had accepted his resignation and he
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  Speaker 1: was living in Illinois. Arriving in Charleston, he demanded the
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  Speaker 1: return of his letter of resignation from the governor, who
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  Speaker 1: refused it because of documentary evidence that mister Montgomery had
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  Speaker 1: given up his residence in West Virginia. But mister Montgomery
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  Speaker 1: appeared in the Senate that afternoon and attempted to vote President,
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  Speaker 1: since ruled that he was not a member. On an
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  Speaker 1: appeal from the ruling, the vote was a tie and
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  Speaker 1: his case was referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections.
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  Speaker 1: That committee sustained the President's ruling. Upon his arrival in Chicago,
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  Speaker 1: Senator Block was met by mister V. L. Highland, National
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  Speaker 1: Republican committeeman from West Virginia and Captain Victor Hintz, in
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  Speaker 1: charge of the National Republican headquarters in Chicago. He was
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  Speaker 1: given the choice of completing his journey by airplane or
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  Speaker 1: by train. Senator Block chose the airplane. Missus Block chose
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  Speaker 1: the train. Came by train. The trip was made with
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  Speaker 1: a record breaking speed, and the Senator arrived on March tenth,
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  Speaker 1: taking his seat in the Senate amid cheers from crowded galleries.
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  Speaker 1: Men who were sick have gone into Senate chambers and
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  Speaker 1: Assembly halls to cast their vote for suffrage. Those who
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  Speaker 1: saw Representative Man of Illinois, Sims of Tennessee, Barnhardt of Indiana,
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  Speaker 1: and Crosser of Ohio come into the House of Representatives
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  Speaker 1: in Washington on that historic day January tenth, nineteen eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: when the Federal Suffrage Amendment won its first Great House victory,
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  Speaker 1: will never forget it. Similar sacrifices have been made at
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  Speaker 1: heavy personal expense in many a state capital. To the
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  Speaker 1: list of loyal men suffragists who have not only believed
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  Speaker 1: in suffrage but proved it was now added the name
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  Speaker 1: of Senator Block. A debate of several hours followed his appearance,
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  Speaker 1: each side fencing for the advantage. At six p m.
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  Speaker 1: The vote was taken Ayes sixteen Nays fourteen, opponent changing
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  Speaker 1: his vote when he saw that the resolution was going
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  Speaker 1: to pass without him. After the Senate vote, a second
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  Speaker 1: vote was secured in the House by the opponents on
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  Speaker 1: the motion to reconsider. This resulted in a larger favorable
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  Speaker 1: majority than the first. On March tenth, West Virginia completed
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  Speaker 1: ratification thirty four ratifications. Now and evermore persistent grew the
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  Speaker 1: opposition as it saw that its time was short. On
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  Speaker 1: March seventeenth, Joseph Hope Gaines and W. E. R. Byrne,
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  Speaker 1: Council for the West Virginia Anti Suffrage League, sent telegrams
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  Speaker 1: to the governors of the states of Delaware, Connecticut, Vermont, Washington,
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  Speaker 1: and North Carolina which read, we beg to inform you
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  Speaker 1: that the report that the proposed nineteenth Amendment was ratified
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  Speaker 1: by the legislature of West Virginia is not the fact,
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  Speaker 1: but on the contrary, the legislature refused to ratify the amendment.
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  Speaker 1: The facts are that the Senate, having refused to ratify afterwards,
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  Speaker 1: undertook in violation of its own rules, to take action
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  Speaker 1: ratifying the amendment. That action, we claim, is absolutely void,
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  Speaker 1: and we are taking legal steps to enjoin any official
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  Speaker 1: certification or promulgation to the effect that West Virginia is
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  Speaker 1: now one of the states ratifying. We have taken the
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  Speaker 1: liberty of giving you this information because there has been
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  Speaker 1: an effort to suppress the full facts with reference to
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  Speaker 1: West Virginia's action. End. While they were notifying these governors
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  Speaker 1: that steps would be taken to prevent the certification of
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  Speaker 1: the West Virginia ratification, the certificate had already reached Washington,
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  Speaker 1: making West Virginia thirty fourth in the ratification list received
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  Speaker 1: by the Secretary of State. Although the Governor of Washington,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Louis F. Hart, in August nineteen nineteen, telegraphed his pledge
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  Speaker 1: to call a special session to the Governor's Conference and
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: requested the other governors to join with him, it was
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  Speaker 1: not until March twenty second, nineteen twenty that the legislature
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  Speaker 1: of Washington, last of the full suffrage states, met in
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  Speaker 1: special session and ratified the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The session
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  Speaker 1: was called to provide funds for the maintenance of state schools.
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  Speaker 1: It was summoned after a conference with state regents and
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  Speaker 1: legislators who had supervision of appropriations for educational institutions. Because
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  Speaker 1: of a crisis in finances which might result in closing
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  Speaker 1: the University of Washington, the State College at Pullman, and
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  Speaker 1: several state normal schools. Both houses met in joint session
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  Speaker 1: to hear the governor's message. There was a tense expectation
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  Speaker 1: throughout the proceedings, since at any moment, the wires might
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  Speaker 1: flash the news that Delaware, known to be meeting in
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  Speaker 1: special session, had ratified, in which case Washington would be
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  Speaker 1: the thirty sixth state to ratify and would put the
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  Speaker 1: final seal on the full enfranchisement of the women of
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  Speaker 1: the entire nation. The ratifying resolution was introduced in the
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  Speaker 1: House by Representative Francis M. Haskell from Pierce County, who
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  Speaker 1: the year before had introduced the memorial to Congress for
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  Speaker 1: the passage of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Rules were suspended
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  Speaker 1: and the resolution to ratify was adopted unanimously. Twelve minutes
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  Speaker 1: after the resolution reached the Senate, it had been passed
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  Speaker 1: by another unanimous vote. Thirty five states had now ratified.
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  Speaker 1: Many of them had done so only because of the
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  Speaker 1: unceasing intensive ratification campaign waged by the National American Woman
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  Speaker 1: Suffrage Association. Again and again, the Association had had to
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  Speaker 1: work its way through state situations of extreme complication. Continually.
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  Speaker 1: It had had to spur political leaders and political parties
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  Speaker 1: to further the struggle. Its representatives had had to fly
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  Speaker 1: from end to end of the country untiringly. It had
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  Speaker 1: had to agitate, and educate and placate steadily. The work
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  Speaker 1: had grown harder state by state through all the later ratifications.
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  Speaker 1: Step by step, the opposition had grown grimmer. But the
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  Speaker 1: Association knew, and the opposition knew that whatever had gone before,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: whatever success in the result, however hard the work, the
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  Speaker 1: real fight was now at hand. Everything else paled into
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  Speaker 1: insignificance before the opposition's final attitude. Before it, every resource
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  Speaker 1: that suffragists possessed was going to be drained dry, every
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  Speaker 1: reliance be leaned on to the breaking point. Suffragists might
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: have thirty five ratifications till the crack of doom, but
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the thirty sixth they should not have. That was the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: final attitude of the opposition. End of Chapter twenty seven
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: read by Sandra