# History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 5/Chapter 19

Contents
CHAPTER XIX.
NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1920.
The official report of the Fifty-first convention, in 1920, was entitled Victory Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and First Congress of the League of Women Voters and the Call was as follows:
"Suffragists, hear this last call to a suffrage convention!
“The officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association hereby call the State auxiliaries, through their elected delegates, to meet in annual convention at Chicago, Congress Hotel, February 12th to 18th, inclusive. In other days our members and friends have been summoned to annual conventions to disseminate the propaganda for their common cause, to cheer and encourage each other, to strengthen their organized influence, to counsel as to ways and means of insuring further progress. At this time they are called to rejoice that the struggle is over, the aim achieved and the women of the nation about to enter into the enjoyment of their hard-earned political liberty. Of all the conventions held within the past fifty-one years, this will prove the most momentous. Few people live to see the actual and final realization of hopes to which they have devoted their lives. That privilege is ours.
“Turning to the past let us review the incidents of our long struggle together before they are laid away with other buried memories. Let us honor our pioneers. Let us tell the world of the ever-buoyant hope, born of the assurance of the justice and inevitability of our cause, which has given our army of workers the unswerving courage and determination that at last have overcome every obstacle and attained their aim. Come and let us together express the joy which only those can feel who have suffered for a cause.
"Turning to the future, let us inquire together how best we can now serve our beloved nation. Let us ask what political parties ​want of us and we of them. Come one and all and unitedly make this last suffrage convention a glad memory to you, a heritage for your children and your children's children and a benefaction to our nation."
The seven days of the convention were divided between the National Association and the League of Women Voters, the latter having the lion's share as a new organization requiring much time and attention. All of February 12 was given to the meetings of its committees, with dinners for all delegates and a program of speakers at the Auditorium, Morrison and La Salle Hotels in the evening. All matters relating to the league are considered in the chapter on the League of Women Voters by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary. The addresses at the convention, with the exception of those on Miss Anthony's one hundredth birthday and the memorial meeting for Dr. Shaw, were given under the auspices of the league and the Resolutions were prepared by its committee.
The convention of the National Association began February 13 but the two preceding days had been occupied by almost continuous business sessions of the officers and board of directors. Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout, State president, was chairman of the local committee of arrangements of nearly forty women of Chicago, Evanston and suburban towns for this largest national suffrage convention ever held and the arrangements had never been surpassed. Nothing was forgotten which could contribute to the success or pleasure of the convention. A hostess was appointed for each State to make its delegates acquainted and contribute to their comfort. There were present 546 delegates, a large number ​of alternates and thousands of visitors, while for the audiences at the public meetings there was not even standing room.
At the morning session on the 13th, with Mrs. Catt presiding, the following program was presented by the Executive Council for the consideration of the delegates and was discussed at this and other business sessions:
1. Shall the National American Woman Suffrage Association dissolve when the last task concerning the extension of suffrage to women is completed?
2. Shall it recommend its members to join the League of Women Voters?
3. Shall this be the last suffrage convention held under its auspices? If not, when shall the next be called?
4. If this is to be the last convention, shall a Board of Officers be elected at this convention to serve until all tasks are completed? If this is done, to whom shall such a board render its final report and by whom shall it be officially discharged?
5. If dissolution is determined upon, what disposition shall be made of (a) the files of data; (b) the property; (c) the funds, if any remain?
6. In the event that the association shall be dissolved what agency shall become the auxiliary of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance?
7. What plan for the intensive education of new women voters is possible and shall it be recommended that the League of Women Voters take up this work or shall it be conducted under the National American Woman Suffrage Association?
At the beginning of the afternoon session Mrs. Catt said that for twenty-eight years the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw had opened the national conventions with prayer and she asked that in memory of her the delegates rise and join in silent prayer. They did ​so and many were in tears. The Rev. Herbert L. Willet then offered the invocation. Mrs. Trout, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association, cordially welcomed the delegates to Chicago. The greeting from the Canadian Woman Suffrage Association was brought by its president, Dr. Margaret Gordon. Mrs. Catt made a gracious response and resigning the chair to the first vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, gave a brief address, reserving a longer one for the League of Women Voters. She said in part:
The enemies of progress and liberty never surrender and never die. Ever since the days of cave-men they have stood ready with their sledge hammers to strike any liberal idea on the head whenever it appeared. They are still active, hysterically active, over our amendment; still imagining, as their progenitors for thousands of years have done, that a fly sitting on a wheel may command it to revolve no more and it will obey. They are running about from State to State, a few women and a few paid men. They dash to Washington to hold hurried consultations with senatorial friends and away to carry out instructions.... It does not matter. Suffragists were never dismayed when they were a tiny group and all the world was against them. What care they now when all the world is with them? March on, suffragists, the victory is yours! The trail has been long and winding; the struggle has been tedious and wearying; you have made sacrifices and received many hard knocks; be joyful to-day. Our final victory is due, is inevitable, is almost here. Let us celebrate to-day, and when the proclamation comes I beg you to celebrate the occasion with some form of joyous demonstration in your own home State. Two armistice days made a joyous ending of the war. Let two ratification days, one a National and one a State day, make a happy ending of the denial of political freedom to women!
Referring to the cost of special sessions, Mrs. Catt said:
Mrs. Catt enumerated some of the immortal pioneer suffragists and said: "How small seems the service of the rest of us by comparison, yet how glad and proud we have been to give it. Ours has been a cause to live for, a cause to die for if need be. It has been a movement with a soul, a dauntless, unconquerable soul ever leading onward. Women came, served and passed on hut others took their places.... How I pity the women who have had no share in the exaltation and the discipline of our army of workers! How I pity those who have not felt the grip of the oneness of women struggling, serving, suffering, sacrificing for the righteousness of woman's emancipation! Oh, women. Be glad today and let your voices ring I out the gladness your hearts! There will never come another day like this. joy he unconfined and lot it speak so clearly that its echo will be heard around the world and find its way into the soul of every woman of every race who is yearning for opportunity and liberty still denied...."
After this inspiring address the convention-was turned into jollification meeting for a considerable time until the delegates were tired out bv their enthusiasm and composed themselves to a telegram of greeting from President Woodrow Wilson addressed to Mrs. Catt: Permit me to congratulate your association upon the fact that its great work is so near its trium​phant end and that you can now merge it into a League of Women Voters to carry on the development of good citizenship and real democracy; and to wish for the new organization the same wise leadership and success." On motion of Mrs. McCormick it was voted that "the gratitude of the convention be expressed to the President for his constant cooperation and help, with deep regret for his illness." On motion of Miss Mary Garrett Hay, second vice-president, the convention authorized a letter of appreciation to be sent to the Governors of States that had ratified the Federal Amendment and telegrams to those who had not called special sessions strongly urging them to do so. This was made especially emphatic to Governor Louis F. Hart of Washington, the only equal suffrage State which had not ratified. [The session was called and the Legislature ratified unanimously March 22, leaving but one more to be gained.]
At the evening session the Recommendations were considered as presented by the Executive Council, which consisted of the president of the association, officers, board of directors, chairmen of standing and special committees, presidents of affiliated organizations and one representative of each society which paid dues on 1,500 or more members. After discussion and some amendment they were adopted as follows:
Whereas, The sole object of many years' endeavor by the National American Woman Suffrage Association has been "to secure the vote to the women citizens of the United States by appropriate national and State legislation" and that object is about to be attained, and
Whereas, The association must naturally dissolve or take up new lines of work when the last suffrage task has been completed, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the association shall assume no new lines of work and shall move toward dissolution by the following process:
(1) That a Board of Officers shall be elected at this convention, as usual, to serve two years (if necessary) in accordance with the provisions of the constitution;
​(2) That the eight directors elected at the soth annual convention, and whose term of office does not expire until March, 1921, shall be asked to serve until the term of elected officers shall expire;
(3) That any vacancy or vacancies occurring in the list of directors shall be filled by election at this convention;
(4) That all vacancies in the Board of Directors occurring after this convention shall be filled by majority vote of the board;
(5) That the Board of Officers so constituted shall have full charge of the remainder of the ratification campaign and all necessary legal proceedings and shall dispose of files, books, data, property and funds (if any remain) of the association subject to the further instruction of this convention. The Executive Council shall be subject to call by the Board of Officers if necessary;
A resolution was adopted regarding action in case of a referendum to the voters of ratification by a Legislature but later the U. S. Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional. Another urged the new league to make political education of the voters its first duty. The last resolution was as follows:
"We recommend that the League of Women Voters, now a section of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, be organized as a new and independent society, and that its auxiliaries, while retaining their relationship to the Board of Officers to be elected in this 51st convention in form, shall change their names, objects and constitutions to conform to those of the National League of Women Voters and take up the plan of work to be adopted by its first congress."
Following the precedent of the last convention, in order to save time, all headquarters' activities were summed up in the report of the corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler. Much condensed the report was as follows:
At our convention in St. Louis, March 24-29, 1919, when we met to counsel together for the future and to gird on our armor for the "one fight more—the last and the best," we celebrated the Missouri victory, the twenty-seventh State to give Presidential suffrage to women. Mrs. Catt, by resolution of the convention, immediately wrote to the legislators of Tennessee and Iowa urging passage of a similar bill. Tennessee gave Presidential and Municipal suffrage to women April 14 and Iowa Presidential suffrage on April 19, increasing the number of presidential electors for whom women may vote to 306 out of 531, the total in the United States.
Connecticut women made a magnificent campaign for Presidential suffrage, failing by only one vote in the Legislature. The strength displayed by the suffragists, the obtaining of 98,000 women's signatures and the dignity and ability shown under the leadership of Miss Katherine Ludington, so advanced suffrage in that State as to make the battle seem a victory rather than a defeat.
Municipal suffrage was given by the Legislature to the women of Orlando, Fla., April 21, making sixteen towns in ten counties in that State where women have this right. An effort to secure a Primary suffrage bill for the entire State failed.
Suffrage in the Democratic municipal primaries was granted by the local Democratic committee to the women of Atlanta, Ga., May 3, for one election.
In a referendum vote on a State amendment, May 24, 1919, full suffrage was defeated in Texas. The main causes were: The large number of men who were so confident of the success of the amendment that they did not take the trouble to go to the polls to vote for it; illegal changes in the numbering and position of the amendment on the ballots of the various counties; the absence from the State of about 200,000 soldiers; unfavorable weather conditions; the shortness of the time allowed for the campaign, and, chief of all, the organized opposition of the foreign-born and negro voters. The Texas suffragists won a clear-cut victory January 28 when the State Supreme Court upheld the decisions of the lower courts that the Primary suffrage bill was constitutional....
On June 28 the women of Nebraska won a distinctive victory when the State Supreme Court held the Presidential and Municipal suffrage act of 1917 to be constitutional. The history of woman suffrage records no harder fought legal battle than this. They won another victory in the decision by Attorney General Clarence E. Davis that they had the right to help choose delegates to the national political party conventions. On February 12 the constitutional convention voted to leave the word "male" out of the new constitution.
In Tennessee the decision of the Court of Chancery, which declared the Presidential and Municipal suffrage bill of 1918 unconstitutional, has been reversed by the State Supreme Court.... ​On February 13 the suffrage committee of the constitutional convention then in session in Illinois voted unanimously to strike "male" out of the new constitution.
We began the year 1918 with nineteen organizers, but as the legislative work came to occupy the place of chief importance most of the States expressed a preference for the services of their own women and it became necessary to reduce the national staff.
During the winter of 1918-1919 a series of conferences was offered to the southern States but for various reasons not accepted. At the St. Louis convention in March, 1919, Mrs. Catt requested the southern representatives to outline the definite help desired from the National Association and their requests were accepted by the board at its post-convention meeting as follows: The National to give (a) one speaker or organizer to each State for two months; (b) a suffrage school to each; (c) one thousand copies of Senator Pollock's speech to each. This help from the National was conditional upon the promise of the southern States (a) that each State would furnish one of its own workers to be under the instruction of the national worker and to continue in charge after her departure; (b) that it would establish and maintain a speakers' bureau; (c) that it would begin the petition campaign. By October the association had fulfilled its promise of an organizer for two months to Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee and had arranged to send organizers to Kentucky, Delaware and Mississippi when those States were ready for them. Later, because of ratification, it gave additional help, sending Mrs. McMahon to Delaware, Mrs. Cunningham, Miss Watkins and Miss Peshakova to Mississippi; Miss Pidgeon, Miss Miller and Mrs. McMahon to Alabama, where a splendid campaign for ratification was directed by Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, State suffrage president.
Not only were the promised copies of Senator Pollock's speech sent but an additional 10,000 pieces of literature were given to Maryland, North Carolina and Delaware; 5,000 to Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida; 36,000 to West Virginia and 51,000 to Mississippi. In place of the suffrage schools a series of conferences was agreed to by the southern States. Three speakers were selected with great care and an outline for the trip was submitted to the States. Some responded that they could not arrange satisfactory conferences, others that they could not make dates to fit the ​itinerary, two did not reply in time and two did not respond at all. Since speakers could not be sent at such great cost for small, unsatisfactory meetings or on an incomplete itinerary, we were reluctantly forced to cancel the conferences. With regard to the work which the southern States agreed to do, only one State met the provision to provide a worker of its own under the direction of the national organizer to take charge after her departure. None of the States established a speakers' bureau. Three States started the petition campaign but none finished it.
Federal Amendment. We were confident of victory for the amendment in 1919 in the 66th Congress. The House passed it May 21 by an affirmative vote of 304, a majority of 42 votes, and June 4 the Senate by a vote of 56 to 25. The passage of this amendment introduced in Congress over forty years ago by the National Suffrage Association closed a long and interesting chapter of the movement. The completion of that part of our work made it no longer necessary for us to maintain a Washington headquarters. Accordingly June 30, 1919, the doors of the Suffrage House, 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, were closed after having received cabinet members, senators, congressmen, distinguished persons from this and foreign countries, thousands of American men and women and those active suffragists who were called to Washington from time to time to assist in the work of the congressional committee. Mrs. Maud Wood Park, to whose indefatigable energy, honesty of purpose and action and infinite tact we owe much, led the way to victory for the amendment. Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, whose diplomatic abilities made her the constant adviser of the committee, Miss Marjorie Shuler, chief of publicity, Miss Mabel Willard in charge of social affairs, Miss Caroline I. Reilly and Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, secretaries, formed the personnel of the Congressional Committee at the time of victory.
During the months preceding the passage of the Federal Amendment the National Association had carried not only the burden of the actual amendment campaign but had planned and carried out the preparatory work for ratification. Legislatures had been polled, Governors interviewed on the subject of special sessions and organization and publicity built up, looking forward to the final ratification battle. The presidential suffrage campaigns and the resolutions calling upon Congress to pass the suffrage amendment, which the National Association had secured in State Legislatures, were all part of the ratification strategy, a test of the suffrage sentiment in the current Legislatures as well as an impelling force on Congress to pass the amendment.
We had hoped that from this point the State associations would undertake their own campaigns and to that end Mrs. Catt issued a bulletin May 24 telling each one just what steps to take. She stated that the National Association would immediately ask Governors of all equal suffrage States to call sessions and would circularize all the Legislatures. She called upon the State associations to (1) ​circularize their legislators with the news of the final victory; (2) send deputations to secure the pledge of the vote of each legislator for ratification; (3) begin a statewide campaign through the press, petitions, literature and meetings to secure their own special sessions. It soon became apparent that the States as a whole were not carrying out these plans and instead of promises of special sessions excuses came from the men with the endorsement of the women themselves. It was evident that the national office in New York must be in command.
During the following weeks up to the present time the days and nights have been filled with intensive effort. Never before have the members of the national force, the board, the office force of forty persons in the national headquarters, the Leslie Commission, the publicity department, the "Woman Citizen" and the Publishing Company worked with so little sparing of themselves and with such absolute concentration upon the matter in hand, still carrying on citizenship preparation, organization and all the routine work but always giving Ratification the right of way. It was Mrs. Catt who sounded the rallying call, who mapped out every step of the way, who did the work of a dozen women herself and cheered the rest on. No one will ever know the full story of her ingenious plans which brought about the ratification and in some States even the women think it was easily won because they do not know of the efforts put forth from the national office.
As soon as the amendment had passed the Senate, Mrs. Catt kept the agreement made by her in the bulletin and sent telegrams to the Governors of full suffrage States, asking for special sessions, and to Legislatures then in session asking for ratification. With the cooperation of the suffrage associations, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan ratified on June 10, in six days after the amendment was submitted by Congress. Kansas and New York ratified in special session and Ohio in regular session on June 16. Pennsylvania ratified on June 24, its blackness wiped off the map. The change of black Massachusetts to the ratified white on June 25 gave another big impetus to the campaign. Texas distinguished itself by ratifying on June 28. This made nine ratifications in nineteen days!
Mrs. Catt had previously asked the presidents of State suffrage associations to interview their Governors regarding special sessions and she had sent personal letters to them and to members of the Legislatures enclosing facts concerning the Federal Amendment. As a result the Governors of Nebraska, Indiana and Minnesota sent letters and telegrams to twenty-two other Governors asking them to call special sessions.
To carry the appeal to the West, two commissions were sent out the last of July, Mrs. John Glover South of Kentucky and Miss Shuler of New York to the Republican States; Mrs. Cunningham of Texas and Mrs. Hooper of Wisconsin to the Democratic States. After a tour of the States and visits to the Governors they went to Salt Lake City for the Governors' Conference. Their reports ​revealed the fact that women in the enfranchised States had been absorbed into the political parties, and, with their suffrage campaign organizations practically dissolved, were in no position to determine or carry out independent political action. The replies of the Governors—that "the women of my State have the suffrage, it will not help us, the cost of a special session is too great, ill-advised legislation might be considered"—revealed an even more deplorable fact, that both men and women in those States were bounded in thought by their State lines and did not have a national point of view on national issues.
From the first Mrs. Catt had believed that the strategy of ratification demanded rapid action by the western full suffrage States, the partial suffrage States falling into line and the last fight coming in the eastern States where women had not yet become political factors. Therefore the Governors of the fully enfranchised States were wired as soon as the Federal Amendment passed. Those of Kansas and New York responded at once with special sessions on June 16. Then came an ominous pause. No far western States had yet ratified. What mysterious cause delayed them?
Ratifications came in Iowa July 2; Missouri July 3; Arkansas July 28; Montana July 30; Nebraska August 2; Minnesota September 8; New Hampshire September 10; Utah September 30. Another ominous pause, with Montana and Utah the only far western States yet heard from.
On October 23 Mrs. Catt opened a "drive" for ratification through sixteen conferences in twelve States, all but two with equal suffrage. She was accompanied by two chairmen of the League of Women Voters, Dr. Valeria Parker of the Committee of Social Hygiene, and Mrs. Edward P. Costigan of the Committee on Food Supply and Demand, with Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield speaking for the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Shuler for that on Child Welfare. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of the Committee on Unification of Laws and Miss Julia Lathrop, chairman of the Child Welfare Committee, spoke at one of the conferences and Miss Jessie Haver substituted for Mrs. Costigan during the latter part of the trip. Mrs. Catt's address—Wake Up America—was an appeal for special sessions to ratify in those States where there were to be no regular sessions until 1921 and an appeal to both men and women to use their votes for a better America. Ratifications in North Dakota December 1; South Dakota December 4; Colorado December 12; Oregon January 12; Nevada February 7—were in answer to those stirring appeals. California ratified November 1; Maine November 5; Rhode Island and Kentucky January 6; Indiana January 16. Following soon New Jersey ratified by regular session February 9. Idaho by special session February 11; Arizona February 12. The special session is called in New Mexico February 16 and in Oklahoma February 23. [Both ratified.]
Mrs. Shuler told of the Oversea Hospitals, which are considered in another chapter. She gave an eloquent tribute to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and spoke of the beautiful memorial booklet prepared by a committee of officers of the National Association, who distributed 5,000 copies. It also aided in circulating 10,000 copies of her last speech—What the War Meant to Women— prepared as a memorial by the League to Enforce Peace. She spoke tenderly of the death of Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, corresponding secretary of the National Association twenty-one years; of that of Mrs. Elizabeth Wheeler Walker, who presided so charmingly over the headquarters in Washington, and of Miss Aloysius Larch-Miller, who as secretary of the committee on ratification in Oklahoma sacrificed her life through her work for it. Reference was made to the contributory work of the National Board in stabilizing the League of Women 'Voters; to the Citizenship Schools and Travelling Libraries, and the very complete report closed with a testimonial to the immeasurable value of the national organization which read in part:
While the value of any movement depends upon the success with which its practical details are worked out, yet in the final analysis the idealism of a movement is the mainspring of its vitality.
The exquisite poem, "Oh, Dreamer of Dreams," was quoted and the report ended: "Year after year at national conventions women have agreed to 'carry on.' How well this has been done the records prove. All who have shared in the service and sacrifice which were necessary to bring about the great victory which we are here to celebrate will be glad that they were given and rejoice that they helped in putting to flight the powers of darkness."
In the course of her report as national treasurer Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers said:
In February, 1918, the duties of treasurer of the Women's Oversea Hospitals were added to those of the association and the sum of $178,000 has passed through the special treasury of the hospitals to carry on the splendid war work undertaken by the National Suffrage Association. A balance of about $35,000 remains in that treasury, the use of which in some form of memorial this convention will be asked to designate.
The receipts of the treasury since I took office have been, for 1914-1915, $43,186; 1915-1916, $81,862; 1916-1917, $103,826; 1917-1918, $107,736; 1919-1920, $97,379; a total of $443,989. Adding the fund raised for the Hospitals the total is $611,991. Each year I have solicited funds for the National Association from hundreds of suffragists, in addition to the large sums pledged at the conventions, and have had always most generous responses. In November and December, 1919, 38,000 letters were sent out signed by the president and treasurer of the National Suffrage Association asking for a ratification fund of $100,000. Very per returns have come from this appeal and are still coming....
With this report were ten closely printed pages of perfectly kept and audited accounts. They showed a balance of $10,905 in the treasury. Mrs. Rogers continued the duties of her office at unanimous request having given up to the present time about seven years of most efficient service, spending days, weeks and months at the national headquarters with no remuneration except the joy of helping the cause of woman suffrage. At one session through the efforts of Miss Mary Garrett Hay and Mrs. Raymond Brown, pledges of $44,500 were obtained for the League of Women Voters, Miss Lucy E. Anthony making the first contribution of $1,000 in memory of her aunt, Susan B. Anthony. The Leslie Commission guaranteed $15,000 of this amount.
The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington had during the year set apart a division of space for mementoes of distinguished suffragists, and Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, through whose efforts chiefly this concession had been secured, offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted: "This convention expresses to the Directors of the Smithsonian Institution profound appreciation of this section devoted to the great women leaders of liberty and civilization on the same broad basis accorded to men and believes that this shrine will be an object of the reverence and education of all womanhood.
​A resolution was adopted to send congratulatory and affectionate letters to the pioneers, Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y.; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell of Elizabeth, N. J., and Mrs. Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia. The Rev. Olympia Brown of Racine, Wis., one of the few remaining pioneers, was— guest of honor of the convention and received especial attention throughout the week. A telegram was sent to Mrs. Ida Husted Harper of New York in recognition of her constant, untiring work on the last volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, still in progress. Very laudatory resolutions of "sincere gratitude" were adopted and sent to Will H. Hays and Homer Cummings, chairmen of the Republican and Democratic National Committees, for their services in behalf of the Federal Suffrage Amendment.
Five large rooms in the hotel were required for the 1,400 guests who attended the "ratification banquet" the evening of February 14 and there were almost as many disappointed women who could not obtain seats. Mrs. Catt presided and the following program of sparkling speeches was given: The Apology of New York [for re-election of U. S. Senator Wadsworth], Mrs. F. Louis Slade; The Specials of the Middle West, Mrs. Peter Olesen, Minnesota; Tradition vs. Justice, Mrs. Pattie Jacobs, Alabama; By the Grace of Governors, Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, Wyoming; "All's Well That Ends Well," Mrs. T. T. Cotnam, Arkansas. Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, "cheer leader," had prepared a program of well-known songs cleverly adapted to suffrage and set to popular airs.
The culminating feature, arranged by Mrs. Richard E. Edwards, was a living "ratification valentine." On the stage was disclosed a big heart of silver and blue and in the opening appeared one after another the faces of the presidents of the States whose Legislatures had ratified and they recited caustic but good humored rhymes at the expense of the women whose States were still in outer darkness. It was a hilarious occasion greatly enjoyed by the younger suffragists and those who had come late
​into the movement. Many memories were awakened, however, in those older in years and service of the days when conventions were largely a time of serious conferences and impassioned appeal; a time when one banquet table was all sufficient but those who gathered around it were very near and dear to each other as they consecrated themselves anew to continue the work till the hour of victory, which seemed very far ahead.
The 14th of February was the seventy-third birthday of Dr. Shaw, who had died the preceding July 2, and the 15th was the one hundredth of Susan B. Anthony, falling on Sunday this year, but it was arranged to have the memorial services for Dr. Shaw on the afternoon of this day. The following program was carried out:
Memorial to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw Fourth Presbyterian Church Corner Lake Shore Drive and Delaware Place Dr. Stone, pastor of the church, presiding. Sunday, February 15, 1921.
Organ Prelude, "In Memoriam." Anthem by Choir, "How blest are they." Invocation. Anthem, "Crossing the bar." Scripture Lesson, Bishop Samuel Fallows, D.D., LL.D. Greetings and Communications, Miss Caroline Ruutz-Rees. Address—Memory Pictures, Mrs. Florence Cotnam. Anthem—The Shepherds and Wise Men. (Composed for this occasion by Witter Bynner and A. Madely Richardson.) Address—The Courageous Leader, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw. Address—Reminiscences, Miss Jane Addams. Address—Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. A Closing Word, Rev. John Timothy Stone, D.D., LL.D. The Last Farewell, Dr. Caroline Bartlett Crane. Hymn—"My Country 'Tis of Thee." Benediction. Choir Refrain. Organ Postlude—Toccata.
​Eric Delamater, formerly director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was the organist. It was a most impressive occasion with many evidences of deep feeling, and, although it was a church service, the audience responded with warm applause as Mrs. Catt closed her eulogy with this beautiful comparison: "A significant ceremony is performed each Easter in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. In the wall that encloses the tomb of Christ there is an opening which on Easter Sunday is surrounded by priests of the shrine carrying unlighted candles. It is believed that the candles are touched into flame by a holy fire emanating from Divinity through this opening. Also provided with candles are the worshippers who throng the church, the nearby receiving their light from the priests and passing it on until every candle is aflame. Men nearest the door hasten to light the candles of horsemen outside who speed away on the mission of torchbearer to every home, so that by nightfall the candles on every altar burn with a new brightness that has been transmitted from the holy fire. Likewise the fire of inspiration, kindled in the great soul of Anna Howard Shaw, touched into flame the zeal and courage of her messengers, who in turn reached the homes throughout the nation with her fervor and power."
[Dr. Shaw had given forty-five years of consecrated devotion to the cause of woman suffrage and this was the first national convention for nearly thirty years without the inspiration of her presence. She first met Miss Anthony at the International Council of Women in Washington in 1888 and from that time gave her the deepest affection and truest allegiance. While the years went by she became nearer and dearer to Miss Anthony and was loved by her beyond all others. As an orator she played upon the whole gamut of human emotions, lifting her audiences to intellectual heights, touching their sentiment with her exquisite pathos, convincing them with her keen logic and winning their hearts with her irresistible humor. People not only admired but loved her, and this was true not alone in the United States but in all parts of the world, as she had addressed international congresses in most of the large cities of Europe. She lived to see the submission by Congress of the Federal Suffrage Amendment ​and to render most valuable assistance to her country during the World War as chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense, and she died in its service.]
There was considerable discussion in the convention of a suitable memorial to Dr. Shaw and finally a resolution was adopted that the association establish an official joint memorial—at Bryn Mawr College a Foundation in Politics and at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania a Foundation in Preventive Medicine —as a fitting continuation of her life work; that a committee be appointed to carry out the project by appealing to the women throughout the country and that this committee be incorporated and assume the financial responsibility. The Chair presented as the first donation towards the fund a check of $1,000 sent by Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo, in memory of Dr. Shaw on her birthday. The gift was accompanied by an eloquent tribute from Mrs. Lewis, an intimate and devoted friend of nearly twenty years, in which she gave beautiful quotations from Dr. Shaw's letters and an extract from her charming autobiography, The Story of a Pioneer.
As had long been the custom the officers of the association gave an informal reception to the delegates and friends on Sunday evening. This took place in the Congress Hotel and they were assisted by the local committee of arrangements.
The final report of the Oversea Hospitals maintained by the ​National Association, as given by Mrs, Charles L. Tiffany, chairman, and Mrs. Raymond Brown, general director in France, is in the chapter on the War Work of Organized Suffragists.
A brief report of the Leslie Bureau of Education was made by Miss Young who said: 'The Leslie Bureau was founded by Mrs. Catt in 1917, as administratrix of the fortune left to her to promote the cause of suffrage by Mrs. Frank Leslie. Mrs. Catt cherished the view that if the public were thoroughly educated on the subject of suffrage it would be wholly in favor of it. She proposed to set aside a large part of the Leslie fund for use in channels of education. I was-appointed director of the bureau and departmentalized it under the following heads: News, Field Work, Features, Research.... The Woman Citizen was termed "an adventure in journalism." Miss Young was editor-in-chief and business manager and Miss Mary Ogden White was associate editor. 'The great body of testimony shows," she said, "that the service of the magazine has been at all times indispensable."
Miss Esther G. Ogden, president of the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., supplemented Mrs. Shuler's report of its dissolution, paid a tribute to its board of directors and said: "In reviewing the six years of the company's existence a few facts come to my mind which I think may interest you. We have printed and distributed over 50,000,000 pieces of literature. Besides supplying suffrage material to practically every State in the Union we have filled orders from Switzerland, France, Italy, Great Britain, Norway, Canada, Philippine Islands, Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, Argentina, China and Japan. Recently we
have been asked to send a complete line of our publications to the new American Library in Rome, Italy, and nearly every day we receive requests for pamphlets from libraries all over the United States and from universities for their extension courses. My correspondence and association with suffragists over the country through the Publishing Company will ever wi among the happiest memories of my life."
Almost every State president submitted a report of vigorous work either to secure the suffrage or where this had been done to organize and put into operation a League of Women Voters. ​Never before in the history of the National Association had so much interest and activity been manifest in the States.
The Pioneer Suffrage Luncheon with Mrs. McCormick presiding brought together many of the older workers, whose rejoicing over the final victory after their long years of toil and sacrifice such as the younger ones had never known, was lessened by the thought that this was the last of the love feasts which they had shared together for many decades. The response to the leading toast—What the Modern Woman Owes to the Pioneers—was made by the Rev. Olympia Brown, now eighty-four years old, whose excellent voice was not equalled among any of the younger women. Songs, reminiscences and clever, informal speeches contributed to a most delightful afternoon.
It had been a keen disappointment that the Jubilee Convention of the preceding year—March, 1919—which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the association, could not have celebrated the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment but this had to await a new Congress. Now it was almost unendurable that this commemoration of Miss Anthony's one hundredth birthday could not have been glorified by the proclamation that this amendment was forever a part of the National Constitution. However, by the time another month had rolled by, this culmination of her life work awaited the ratification of only one more Legislature and it was so universally recognized as near at hand that this last meeting could appropriately be termed the Victory Convention. Following is the program of the celebration of her centenary:
susan b. anthony centenary celebration.
Monday, February 16, 1920, 2 p. m.
What Happened in Ten Decades Briefly Told: 1820-1830—The Age of Mobs and Eggs. Mrs. E. F. Feickert, president of New Jersey.
| 1830-1840— | The First School Suffrage. |
| | Mrs. Desha Breckenridge, president of Kentucky. |
| 1840-1850— | The Dawn of Property Rights. |
| | Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, former president of Missouri. |
| 1850-1860— | The First High School for Girls. |
| | Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, president of Massachusetts. |
| 1860-1870— | The World's First Full Suffrage. |
| | Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, professor of political Science, University of Wyoming. |
| 1870-1880— | The Negro's Hour. |
| | Mrs. Henry Youmans, president of Wisconsin. |
| 1880-1890— | The First Municipal Suffrage. |
| | Mrs. William A. Johnston, president of Kansas. |
| 1890-1900— | Suffrage Spreads. |
| | Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, former press director of Pennsylvania. |
| 1900-1910— | Ridicule Gives Way to Argument, Indifference to to Organization. |
| | Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, president of Ohio. |
| 1910-1920— | The Portent of Victory. |
| | Mrs. Raymond Brown, national vice-president. |
| Miss Anthony— An Appreciation, Mrs. Harriette Taylor Treadwell, member of the Illinois board. ||
| Miss Anthony— A Historical Recognition, Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, national vice-president. ||
the suffrage honor roll. "Undaunted by opposition brave spirits led on."
While Mrs. Catt was busy handing out the honor rolls to pioneers and veterans with a few precious words to each, Mrs. Upton came suddenly forward and laid a detaining hand on her arm. With tender reminiscence, relieved by the sparkles of humor never absent from whatever she said, she presented in the name of countless suffragists an exquisite pin, a large star sapphire surrounded by diamonds and set in platinum. It was the association's parting gift to its beloved leader, whose usually perfect poise deserted her and she could not acknowledge it. To her whispered appeal to Mrs. Upton to speak for her, the latter laugh​ingly answered that this was the first time she ever was able to do something that Mrs. Catt could not.
The evening part of the celebration began with community singing, William Griswold Smith, director, and was followed by an illustration of Then and Now, Told in Pictures, under the management of Miss Young. Down a wide flight of stairs came one picturesque figure after another garbed to represent the passing years during the suffrage contest, beginning with the middle of the last century, many clothed in the actual garments worn at the period, and after crossing the stage they took their seats in tiers, a lovely spectacle. At the last came the Red Cross workers, the nurses, the motor corps and others in war service. The picture ended with a gay group of debutantes in filmy chiffon gowns to symbolize the present day of rejoicing. The triumphs of women in the intellectual field were told in the program that followed: Education—Professor Maria L. Sanford; Medicine— Dr. Julia Holmes Smith; Law—Miss Florence Allen; Theology—the Rev. Olympia Brown; Journalism—Miss Ethel M. Colson; Politics—Miss Mary Garrett Hay.
Different sections of the League of Women Voters were in session day and night perfecting the organization of this most significant association of women ever attempted. The culmination of seventy years' continuous effort was about to be reached in the complete and universal enfranchisement of women and now a new generation, under the guidance of the older workers who remained, was bravely taking up another great task, that of bringing about cooperation among women in the effective use of this supreme power for the highest welfare of the State. On the last afternoon of the convention the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the League of Women Voters held a joint session for discussion of matters in which they had a mutual interest. On the last evening, just before the beginning of the first session of the School for Political Education in the Florentine Room, Mrs. Catt, with suitable ceremony formally adjourned the Victory Convention, the last of a series held for fifty years by the old association, you.
* ↑ Following are the officers of the association who were elected at the convention in St. Louis in 1919 and re-elected in Chicago in 1920 to remain in office until the association should go out of existence: President, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt; first vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick; second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay; third vice-president, Mrs. Guilford Dudley; fourth vice-president, Mrs, Raymond Brown; fifth vice-president, Mrs. Helen H. Gardener; treasurer, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers; Corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler; recording secretary, Mrs, Halsey W. Wilson. All were of New York City except Mrs. Dudley of Tennessee and Mrs. Gardener of the District of Columbia. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who had been president from 1904 to 1915 and honorary president thereafter, had died July 2, 1919.   Directors: Mrs. Charles H. Brooks (Kans.); Mrs. J. C. Cantrill (Ky.); Mrs. Richard E. Edwards (Ind.); Mrs. George Gellhorn (Mo.); Mrs. Ben Hooper (Wis.); Mra. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. Y.); Mrs. George A. Piersol (Penn.).
* ↑ Fraternal delegates were present from the Association of Collegiate Alum Florence Crittenden Mission; General Federation of Women's Clubs; Ladies of Grand Army of the Republic; National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association; National Congress of Mothers; Parent Teachers' Association; National Council of Jewish Women; National Council of Women; National Council of College Women; National Women's Trade Union League; National Women's Association of Commerce National Women's Relief Corps; National Women's Relief Society; State Federation of Women's Clubs; State Trade Union League; Woman's Christian Temperance Union; Women's City Club; State League of Women Voters; Womens' International League for Peace and Freedom.
* ↑ To Governors who called special sessions: "On behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association meeting in its 51st annual convention I am instructed to express its official appreciation and gratitude to you for your assistance in ratifying the Federal Suffrage Amendment. Woman suffrage will soon be a closed chapter in the history of our country and we are confident that the pride and satisfaction of every Governor and legislator who has aided the ratification will increase as time goes on. We want you to know that the women of the nation are truly grateful to you for your fart in their enfranchisement. Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary.
* ↑ For account of meetings of the Board of Officers and Executive Council in April and June, 1921, see Appendix for this chapter.
* ↑ The names of the organizers retained, all of whom gave most effective service, were Mrs, Augusta Hughston, Miss Edna Annette Beveridge, Mrs. Marie S, McMahon, Miss Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, Miss Josephine Miller, Miss Lola Trax, Miss Edna Wright, Miss Marie Ames and Miss Gertrude Watkins. Their organized work extended over Iowa, Missouri, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Delaware and New Hampshire. In addition to the regular force Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham and Miss Liba Peshakova were sent to Mississippi for two months. The work of the organizers is regarded as the hardest and most difficult connected with a State campaign and Mrs. Shuler paid high tribute to them.
* ↑ The final report of the Oversea Hospitals Committee is given in the chapter on War Work of Organized Suffragists.
* ↑ In this space have been placed the little mahogany table on which were written the Call for the first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848, the Declaration of Principles and the Resolutions; a portrait in oil of Miss Anthony on her eightieth birthday; large framed photographs of Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt; photographs of the signing of the Federal Suffrage Amendment by Vice-president Marshall and Speaker Gillett, the pens with which it was done and the pen with which Secretary of State Colby signed the Proclamation that it was a part of the National Constitution, and personal mementoes of Miss Anthony. The table has special historical value. It stood for years in the parlor of the McClintock family at Waterloo, N. Y., and was bequeathed to Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who, with Mrs. McClintock, Lucretia Mott and her sister, Martha C. Wright, wrote the Call, etc. When Mrs. Stanton died in New York City it stood at the head of her casket holding the Biography of Susan B. Anthony and the History of Woman Suffrage, of which Mrs, Stanton and Miss Anthony wrote the first three volumes. The table was left to Miss Anthony and was in her home st Rochester, N. Y. until her death, when it stood at the head of her casket, bearing a floral tribute from the National American Woman Suffrage Association. It then passed to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and was in her home at Moylan, Penn., until the national suffrage headquarters were opened in Washington December, 1916, when it was taken there. At the time they were closed, after the Federal Suffrage Amendment had been submitted by Congress, the table found a final haven in the Smithsonian Institution.
* ↑ Dr. Shaw was a graduate of Albion College, Mich.; of the medical department of Boston University and of its School of Theology. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on her by Temple University, Philadelphia.
* ↑ Mrs. John O. Miller, president of the Pennsylvania State Suffrage Association, was appointed chairman of this committee, to which six others were added and it was decided to raise $500,000 to be divided between the two colleges. When Bryn Mawr was making its "drive" for $2,000,000 in 1920 it included an appeal for $100,000 for this chair in politics, which were subscribed. The Medical College raised $30,000 for the chair in preventive medicine. The committee hopes to have the full amount by Feb. 14, 1922. Several months before, at the invitation of Dean Virginia C. Gildersleeve, a meeting had been held at Barnard College, Columbia University, to arrange for the Anna Howard Shaw Chair of American Citizenship. It was addressed by President Nicholas Murray Butler, who strongly favored it; by Dean Gildersleeve, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw and other alumnæ and a committee formed to raise $100,000, of which amount $4,000 were subscribed at that time. Mrs. George McAneny (a daughter of Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi) was made chairman and the other members were Barnard alumnæ and well-known workers for woman suffrage. The convention was asked to endorse the project, which was done. The committee expects soon to have the full amount. These lectures on American Citizenship will not be confined to Barnard students but will be offered to women in general.
* ↑ For accounts and tributes see Appendix for this chapter.