# History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 6/Chapter 20

Contents
CHAPTER XX.
MASSACHUSETTS.
From the beginning of the present century the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association, organized in 1870, steadily gained in membership year after year. Its annual conventions for many years were held in Boston in January and those of the New England Woman Suffrage Association in May, when the two united in a great Festival, which generally took place in Faneuil Hall. The day sessions usually were held in the rooms of the New England Women's Club, the evening sessions in some large place, in 1901 at Faneuil Hall.
At the State annual meeting Jan. 23, 1901, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, who had been president since 1893, presided and among the speakers were Mrs. Helen Campbell, the Rev. Charles W. Wendte, Dr. Emily B. Ryder and the Rev. Ida C. Hultin. Mrs. Livermore was re-elected and Mrs. Maud Wood Park succeeded Miss Alice Stone Blackwell as chairman of the State Board of Directors. The office of president had always been mainly honorary and the actual work was done by the chairman of this board. The other officers chosen were Henry B. Blackwell, corresponding secretary; William Lloyd Garrison, treasurer; Miss Eva Channing, clerk; Miss Amanda M. Lougee, Richard P. Hallowell, auditors; Mrs. Judith W. Smith, member National Executive Committee. There was a long list of distinguished vice-presidents. Mr. Blackwell had been secretary for over twenty years and was re-elected.
At the Festival on May 22, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe presided, Miss Sarah Cone Bryant was toastmistress and there were addresses by William M. Salter, the Hon. William Dudley Foulke ​and others of note. On May 23 at the annual meeting of the New England Association, organized in November, 1868, reports were made from the New England States, and addresses by the Rev. Florence Kollock Crooker, Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows, Mrs. Inez Haynes Gillmore and others. Mrs. Howe, who had been its president since 1893, was re-elected, with a board composed of eminent men and women.
During the year the State association sent out 1,246 press articles, circulated many thousand pages of literature and printed several leaflets. It held well-attended fortnightly meetings at its headquarters, No. 3 Park Street, and gave a brilliant reception in honor of Mrs. Livermore's 80th birthday. It compiled a list of about forty persons ready to give addresses on suffrage and sent a speaker free to every woman's club or other organization willing to hear the subject presented. It held ten public meetings and sent out 11,000 circulars to increase the women's registration and school vote in Boston. Many addresses under its auspices were given by Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz, Professor Anna May Soule of Mt. Holyoke and Sefiorita Carolina Holman Huidobro of Chile. Massachusetts contributed four-fifths of the money given to the Oregon campaign of 1900 from outside that State, and the Massachusetts booth (named the Lucy Stone booth) at the National Suffrage Bazar that year took in more money than that of any other State except New York. The College Equal Suffrage League's prize of $100, for the best essay in favor of suffrage by a college student, was won by Ava M. Stoddard of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The above is a sample of the activities carried on year after year by the association during the first decade of the century.
In 1901 the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government was organized through the efforts of Mrs. Mary Hutcheson Page, with Pauline Agassiz (Mrs. Quincy A.) Shaw as president, Mrs. Fanny B. Ames, chairman of Executive Committee, and Mrs. Park as executive secretary. It continued to be a power in the State till suffrage was won and aimed to devote ​itself not only to suffrage but to all activities in which women could be especially useful to the community.
The National Woman Suffrage Association of Massachusetts, a smaller organization, disbanded in 1901 after nearly twenty years of existence. Mrs. Sarah A. P. Dickerman was acting president, Miss Lavina A. Hatch secretary. It had held eleven monthly meetings during the past year, done congressional work and contributed to the Susan B. Anthony table at the national bazar in New York.
1902. At the annual meeting on January 23, Mrs. Park presided and a work conference was substituted for the usual public meeting. The Festival was held on May 28 with the Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer presiding. Other speakers were the Rev. Dr. James H. Ecob, Professor John Graham Brooks, the Rev. Ida C. Hultin, Colonel T. W. Higginson and the Rev. Charles F. Dole. Miss Vida Goldstein of Australia addressed a number of meetings this year. An enrollment of suffragists was begun. There was an increase of women's registration for the school vote in fourteen cities, in Boston of about 5,000. An investigation of the tax records by Mr. Blackwell showed that in Boston alone 18,500 women paid taxes on several hundred million dollars' worth of property.
1903. At the annual meeting of the State association on January 13, Mrs. Shaw and Mrs. Park presided. Mrs. Livermore was made honorary president and Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead president, Mrs. Mary Schlesinger, vice-president; Miss Harriet E. Turner, corresponding secretary; William Lloyd Garrison, treasurer; Mrs. Otto B. Cole, clerk; Mr. Blackwell, member of the National Executive Committee. Mrs. Page, chairman of the Organization Committee, reported that forty towns had been visited. There were speeches by Mrs. Livermore and Mrs. Enid Stacy Widdrington of England. Miss Blackwell presided at the New England annual meeting May 27 and the Rev. Charles G. Ames at the Festival the next day. On August 13 Lucy Stone's birthday anniversary was celebrated by a pilgrimage to the old farm house near West Brookfield where she was born. About 400 persons gathered from various States, even California being represented. Her niece, Mrs. Phebe Stone Beeman, president of the ​Warren Political Equality Club, presided and there were addresses by Mrs. Livermore, Mr. Blackwell, the Rev. Mary A. Safford and others. The beautiful weather and the beautiful scenery combined with the beautiful memories to make it a memorable occasion. Mrs. Livermore wrote afterwards: "It was greater and grander than any public day, not specially devoted to religion, that I have ever known. The hill was a Mount of Transfiguration, the faces of the people shone."
The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw addressed a series of meetings throughout the State. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Park, Mrs. Diaz, Mrs. Esther F. Boland, Miss Bryant and George H. Page spoke repeatedly for the association. Work conferences were held in various counties and equal rights plays by Mr. Page were performed for the benefit of the cause. The State headquarters were moved from Park Street to a house at No. 6 Marlboro Street, the use of which was given by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw. Massachusetts this year contributed more money to the National Association than did any other State. The time of the State annual meeting was changed to October and it began to be held outside of Boston, a second one for this year in the Newtons, October 29 and 30. It opened with a reception by the Newton League at the Hunnewell Club House, where Mrs. Electa N. L. Walton presided and Mayor Weeks of Newton and the Hon. Samuel L. Powers gave addresses of welcome. The following day at West Newton Mrs. Livermore presided, the Hon. Gorman D. Gilman gave the address of welcome and Mrs. Florence Kelley and Dr. Shaw spoke. The Enrollment Committee reported obtaining 11,169 signatures. A resolution of tribute was passed to Miss Harriet E. Turner, who retired after 21 years' devoted service at headquarters, where she had suggested some of the most successful lines of work. Mrs. Page was chosen as chairman of the State board, Mrs. Susan S. Fessenden succeeding her later in the year.
1904. The Festival was held on May 10, Mrs. Howe presiding. The speakers were Judge Edward E. Reynolds of Portland, Maine, the Rev. Florence Kollock Crooker of Michigan, Frank K. Foster of the State Federation of Labor, Mrs. Livermore, Professor George E. Gardner of the Boston University ​Law School, Mrs. May Alden Ward, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs, Mr. Blackwell and Mrs. Mead. The State meeting was held at Attleboro, October 21, in the Opera House, with the usual list of well known speakers. The International Peace Congress, held in Boston this year, gave an impetus to the movement. The men from abroad were much impressed by the American women. Other notable events were the celebration by the State W. C. T. U. of the quarter centennial of the granting of School suffrage and a conference of women ministers of different denominations, called by Mrs. Howe. There was a Suffrage Day at the big Mechanics' Fair in Boston, with addresses by Miss Jane Addams, Miss Sheriff Bain of New Zealand and W. P. Byles of England. A library of books bearing on the woman question was started at headquarters with a fund given by Miss M. F. Munroe in memory of Mary Lowell Stone.
1905. There was a very large attendance at the Festival on May 10, with Mrs. Mead presiding. Professor Edward Cummings was toastmaster, ex-Governor Garvin of Rhode Island and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt spoke and the Festival then resolved itself into a celebration of Mr. Blackwell's 80th birthday (May 4), with the presentation of a silver pitcher from the State association and addresses by William Lloyd Garrison and Mrs. Livermore. She had insisted upon coming, although by no means able. She said, "Mr. Blackwell and I have worked together for nearly half a century; we have gone anywhere and everywhere for woman suffrage. This evening he has been doing his best to persuade me to go out to the Oregon convention. I can not say half that ought to be said of his character, his devoted service, his fraternal spirit." She died a few days later and there was profound sorrow for her loss.
At the meeting of the New England Association on May 11 Miss Blackwell presided. Francis J. Garrison was elected treasurer. The State annual meeting was held at Holyoke, October 24, 25, in the Second Baptist Church and Mayor Nathan P. Avery gave the address of welcome. Miss Blackwell was made chairman of the board of directors; Mrs. Mead was elected president; Mrs. Schlesinger vice-president. The association took part in the celebration of the centennial of William Lloyd ​Garrison on December 10. He had been a life-long champion of equal rights for women and his last public speech was made at a suffrage hearing in the State House. There was a noteworthy memorial meeting for Mrs. Edna D. Cheney, long a pillar of the suffrage association and of the New England Hospital for Women and Children. Catherine Breshkovsky, "the little grandmother of the Russian revolution," visited Massachusetts this year and addressed a number of meetings arranged by the suffragists, including a large one in Faneuil Hall.
The convention was held in October, 1906, at Lowell in the Trinitarian Congregational Church. Harriet A. Eager gave a stone from the pavement of the little church at Delft Haven in Holland, where the Pilgrims attended their last religious service before sailing for America and the association presented it to the Cape Cod Memorial Association to be placed in the monument. The World's W. C. T. U. convention in Boston this month aroused much interest and enthusiasm. At the opening banquet Miss Blackwell gave the address of welcome in behalf of the women's organizations.
1907. The annual meeting took place in Worcester at Trinity Church. Letters were read from Colonel Thomas W. Higginson and Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller, the only two survivors of the 89 men and women who signed the Call for the first National Woman's Rights Convention, held in Worcester in 1850; and a poem from the Rev. Antoinette L. Brown Blackwell, D.D., the only survivor of the speakers on that occasion. Dr. Shaw gave an address and conducted a question box and there was a symposium on Why I am a Suffragist by five young women, one a grandniece and namesake of Margaret Fuller.
A noteworthy meeting was held on March 23, 1907, by the Boston Equal Suffrage Association to consider "the indebtedness of women of collegiate and professional training to the leaders of the suffrage movement." Every woman's college in the State was represented, as well as law and medicine. Mrs. Fanny B. Ames presided and college girls in cap and gown acted as ushers. The speakers were Mrs. Howe, Miss Georgia L. White, Assistant Professor of Economics at Smith College; Professor Helen M. Searles of Mt. Holyoke; Dr. Emma Culbertson of the New ​England Hospital for Women and Children; Miss Emily Greene Balch, Associate Professor of Economics and Sociology at Wellesley; Miss Caroline J. Cooke, instructor in Commercial Law at Simmons, and Mrs. Park of Radcliffe.
On August 13 suffragists from different parts of the State again made a pilgrimage to Lucy Stone's old home, West Brookfield, to celebrate her birthday. Mrs. Cobden Sanderson, a daughter of Richard Cobden, one of the "militant" English suffragettes, spoke at the women's colleges and elsewhere. The Boston association, in connection with the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, gave courses in citizenship, addressed by heads of State and city departments. Mrs. Fessenden conducted many classes in Parliamentary practice (these were continued year after year), and there was a "suffrage day" in the woman's department of the great Food Fair.
The Association of Collegiate Alumnæ celebrated its quarter centennial in Boston November 5-9, which brought many distinguished suffragists from other States. In 1872 the New England Women's Club had given a reception for the only three college women then in this city. In 1907 this association had 3,147 members, several hundred of them in Boston alone. At the Whittier Centennial celebration at Amesbury on December 17 the poet's championship of equal rights for women was recalled with his work for other reforms. The Boston Federation of Suffrage Societies was organized by the Association for Good Government. The State Federation of Labor and the State Letter Carriers' Association endorsed woman suffrage.
The Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women changed its organ The Remonstrance from an annual to a quarterly and sent out a copy broadcast. The suffragists followed with an answer. The Woman's Journal pointed out that the M. A. O. F. E. S. W., according to its own official reports, had sold $40.86 worth of literature in 1905, $13.50 worth in 1906 and $12.30 worth in 1907, and that in 1906 the total receipts were $2,907, of which $2,018 were expended on salaries.
​1908. The State annual meeting was held in Boston October 27, 28. Mrs. Mead presided and Mrs. Ethel Snowden of England was the chief speaker. There was a reception to Mrs. Howe, with addresses by Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott, Mrs. Carota Von Koch of Sweden and Mrs. Howe. Miss Jane Addams gave suffrage lectures this year at Radcliffe, Smith, Mt. Holyoke and Wellesley colleges and Boston University, arranged by the College Equal Suffrage League, with large audiences and much enthusiasm. Mrs. Snowden spoke for the State association at Faneuil Hall and a reception was given by the College and Boston suffrage associations. Another large suffrage meeting in Faneuil Hall was addressed by Professor Charles Zueblin. Mrs. Park and Mrs. Eager held a series of meetings in Berkshire county, arousing much interest. At the suffrage booth in the Boston Food Fair, in charge of the Newton League, 6,255 names were added to the enrollment. The association by this time had more than 100 local branches. This year 145 labor unions endorsed equal suffrage. The association carried on a "poster campaign," putting up posters in towns and at county fairs. Mrs. FitzGerald composed the inscriptions and Mrs. George F. Lowell with a group of friends put them up. At the Biennial of the General Federation of Women's Clubs held in Boston every mention of suffrage was cheered and no one got such an ovation as Mrs. Howe, the fraternal delegate from the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
​Ex-Governor Long presided at a memorial meeting for Henry B. Blackwell, with addresses by Edwin D. Mead, Julia Ward Howe, the Rev. Charles G. Ames, Professor Sumichrast, Moses H. Gulesian, Francis J. Garrison, James H. Stark of the Victorian Club, Meyer Bloomfield and Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows. Mr. Blackwell was called by Mrs. Catt 'one of the world's most heroic men." He was the only man of large abilities who devoted his life to securing equal rights for women. In his youth a reward of $10,000 was offered for his head at a public meeting in the South because of his leading part in the rescue of a young slave girl. He made his first speech for woman's rights at a suffrage convention in Cleveland in 1853. Two years later he married Lucy Stone. She had meant never to marry but to devote herself wholly to the women's cause but he promised to devote himself to the same cause. He was the unpaid secretary of the American Woman Suffrage Association for twenty years, of the Massachusetts association for thirty years and of the New England association for nearly forty years. He traveled all over the country organizing suffrage societies, getting up conventions and addressing Legislatures. He attended the Republican national conventions year after year trying to get a suffrage plank and in 1872 secured a mild one in the national platform and a strong one in that of Massachusetts. He took part in constitutional amendment campaigns in Kansas, Vermont, Colorado, Michigan, Rhode Island and South Dakota. In 1889, when Washington, Montana and North Dakota were about to enter the Union as States, he attended the constitutional convention of each to urge equal suffrage. He was an editor of the Woman's Journal from its founding in 1870 till his death. An able writer, an eloquent speaker, he was widely beloved for his kindness, humor and geniality.
Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the "militant" suffragettes of England, visited Boston this year. She was met at the station by the suffragists with automobiles and flags and was taken through the streets to the headquarters—Boston's first suffrage procession—and later addressed in Tremont Temple a huge audience, critical at first, highly enthusiastic at the close. A reception was given by prominent suffragists to Miss Ethel M. ​Arnold of England, and there were lectures by her and Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman; a series of "petition teas" and meetings addressed by Dr. Shaw, Miss Leonora O'Reilly, a labor leader of New York; Judge Ben Lindsey of Denver; Charles Edward Russell, the Rev. Thomas Cuthbert Hall; and by Mrs. Snowden, Dr. Stanton Coit and the Misses Rendell and Costello, all of England.
In June the first of the open-air meetings that later became so important a feature of the campaign was held on the Common at Bedford. The speakers were Mrs. FitzGerald, Mrs. Leonora S. Little, Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick and Mrs. Crowley. The attendance was small; people were shy at first of seeming to countenance such an innovation but the crowds grew as the meetings continued and it was found to be the best if not the only way to reach the mass of voters. A summer campaign of 97 open-air meetings was held, the speakers traveling mainly by trolley, covering a large part of the State and reaching about 25,000 persons. Suffrage buttons and literature were distributed, posters put up, and sometimes mammoth kites flown to advertise the meetings. Mrs. H. S. Luscomb had presented a kite big enough to hold up a banner six feet wide by forty deep. The campaigners were resourceful. At Nantasket, when forbidden to speak on the beach, they went into the water with their Votes for Women banner and spoke from the sea to the audience on the shore.
1910. Among the speakers at the Festival in May were Mrs. Frances Squire Potter, former Professor of English at the University of Minnesota; Professor Max Eastman of Columbia University, secretary of the New York Men's League for Woman Suffrage, and Professor Henry S. Nash of the Episcopal Theological School. At the State annual meeting in Lowell, October 27, 28, Philip Snowden, M. P., of England was a speaker. In connection with the convention Mrs. Park spoke before the Woman's Club; Rabbi Fleischer before the Board of Trade; Miss Alice Carpenter at the Congregational Church in Tewksbury; ​four factory meetings were held; the suffrage slides were exhibited twelve times at the Merrimac Theater; Miss Foley and Miss Anne Withington addressed seven trade unions; 27,000 fliers were distributed and four street meetings held.
An eight-weeks' summer campaign of open-air meetings was conducted through the great industrial cities of eastern Massachusetts, with from four to six regular and occasional special speakers. Three Englishwomen, Miss Margaret G. Bondfield, Miss M. M. A. Ward and Miss Emily Gardner, reinforced the American speakers, Miss Foley, Mrs. FitzGerald, Mrs. Glendower Evans, Miss Emily Pierson of Connecticut, and others. In each city, besides the outdoor meetings, there was some special feature; in two, garden parties; in Brockton, the women joined the circus parade, driving in a decorated team and giving out fliers. In Fall River they got two popular stores to wrap a colored flier in every parcel. In Taunton they had an evening band concert on the Common, accompanied with red fire and speeches. In Lawrence Miss Foley made a balloon ascension and showered down rainbow literature upon an eager crowd. Several times the women spoke from the vaudeville stage and showed colored lantern slides. They spoke in parks and pleasure resorts and outside the factories as well as in the streets and at one Yiddish and one French meeting. They held 200 meetings and talked to about 60,000 persons. Afterwards they held outdoor meetings in and about Boston and sent an automobile of speakers and literature to the Aviation Meet. A fall campaign of open-air speaking followed. Mrs. Park came home from a tour around the world and lectured on the women of different countries. Mrs. A. Watson-Lister of Australia and Mrs. Dora B. Montefiore of England addressed a number of meetings.
A week of meetings took place in Springfield, State speakers cooperating with the local suffragists, among them Mrs. Henry Phillips, president of the suffrage league; Mrs. McDuffie and Mr. Myrick, publisher of the "Farm and Home" and "Good Housekeeping." Headquarters were opened in a vacant store with daily meetings and teas; addresses were given before the Board of Trade, the teachers, the Woman's, the Mothers', the Socialist and the College Clubs, the Y. M. C. A. training school and ​other groups; colored slides of suffrage events were shown and prominent local women opened their homes for social affairs. Much interest was aroused and permanent Springfield headquarters were opened soon afterwards. Boston started to organize by wards and invitations were printed in various languages. The first meeting, in Ward 8, arranged by Mrs. Leonard, was attended by nearly 1,000 women and there were speeches in English and Yiddish. A class to train suffrage speakers was started. A suffrage club was organized in the College of Liberal Arts of Boston University. The suffragists sent Alfred H. Brown to help the campaign in the State of Washington.
The general sorrow for the death of Julia Ward Howe on October 17 brought support to the suffrage movement. In her later years people had revered her as they revered the flag and all her great influence had been placed unreservedly at the service of this cause. A large memorial meeting was held in Faneuil Hall on December 16.
1911. The State convention was held in Boston October 27, 28, the evening meeting at Tremont Temple addressed by Dr. Shaw and Professor Edward Howard Griggs. The Boston association raised $1,100 for the campaigns in Oregon, Kansas, Wisconsin and Michigan and gave Mrs. Park’s services to Ohio and Michigan. A Men’s League for Woman Suffrage was organized at Harvard University under the presidency of A. S. Olmstead. At the meeting of the New England Association Miss Blackwell was elected president. Mrs. Howe had held the office twenty-six years.
Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, one of the few surviving pioneers, passed away this year. He had been a champion of women’s rights for more than sixty years. When a young minister he spoke for the cause. He signed the Call for the First National Woman’s Rights Convention in 1850. He married Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell in 1855 and prefixed an approving foreword to their published protest against the inequalities of the marriage laws. He took part in organizing the American Woman Suffrage Association, was its president for a year and an officer in the New England and Massachusetts associations until his death. For years he was a great power as a ​lecturer and writer and addressed suffrage conventions in many States. Beginning with 1870 he contributed a long series of brilliant editorials to the Woman's Journal. He wrote four books on the woman question and gave 1,000 books about women to the Boston Public Library. The founder of Smith College said she was led to leave her fortune for that purpose by reading his article, Ought Women Learn the Alphabet?
1912. The State annual meeting was held in Boston, October It, with an unusually large attendance from western Massachusetts. In 1913 it met in Boston May 27, 28. The executive secretary, Mrs. Marion Booth Kelley, reported that 111 indoor meetings and 45 outdoor meetings had been held in the past six months. It was voted to have a suffrage parade in Boston the following spring. There was much doubt of the propriety of this but when a rising vote of the women present was taken to see how many would march almost the whole convention rose.
1914. The State annual meeting was held in Boston May 1 and 2, and again in 1915 on May 13-15. The latter opened with a brilliant banquet at the Hotel Somerset, attended by about 800. Mrs. Park presided and among the speakers were ex-Governor Bass of New Hampshire, ex-Governor Foss of Massachusetts, Dr. Hugh Cabot and Mrs. Judith W. Smith, aged 93. Suffrage clubs were reported at Wellesley, Smith and Mt. Holyoke Colleges, the last formed largely through Miss Mildred Blodgett, assistant professor of geology. A band concert and a mass meeting on the Common closed the convention.
1916. At the State annual meeting in Boston May 18, 19, dues were abolished and provision made for organizing the State along political party lines, as recommended by the National Association. Mrs. B. F. Pitman of Brookline gave a large reception. The treasurer reported receipts of $67,232, expenditures of $63,483.
1917. At the annual State meeting on May 10 resolutions were adopted calling upon the 125,000 enrolled members to "show their patriotism by doing their utmost to help their country ​and the world," especially along the five lines recommended by the National Suffrage Association; urging nation-wide prohibition as a war measure and commending the efforts to minimize moral dangers at the training camps; protesting against "any attempt to lower educational standards or to weaken the laws safeguarding the workers, especially women and children," because of the war emergency. The Twentieth Century Club rooms were crowded at the New England Conference and Festival. Miss Blackwell presided. A greeting from the National Association was brought by Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, its corresponding secretary, and speakers were present from all the New England States. Pledges and a collection were taken for the Maine campaign and it was voted to give $2,000, a bequest from Miss Marian Shannon, to the National Association, to help it.
1918. At the winter business meeting held in Fitchburg February 26 Mrs. Pitman reported that more than $30,000 had been raised by the association for war work. The State annual meeting in Boston on May 24, 25 was crowded and exciting. A resolution pledging the association's support to the country in the war was passed by acclamation, and it responded to the request of Mrs. Catt, president of the National American Suffrage Association, to follow its program of war work. The convention voted with enthusiasm to take up the circulation of the national petitions for the Federal Amendment and also to give $600 to the National Association to finance an organizer in Oklahoma, where a suffrage campaign was in progress and the Massachusetts "antis" were financing the opposition. In the evening a magnificent meeting was held in the Opera House with Mrs. Grace A. Johnson presiding and addresses by Mrs. Catt and Dr. Shaw. The collection of $1,124 was given to the Red Cross.
On August 13 the State and Boston associations celebrated the centenary of Lucy Stone's birth by a luncheon at the Hotel Somerset, Mrs. Charles Sumner Bird presiding, with addresses by ex-Governor Walsh, the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, D. D., 93 years of age; Mrs. Judith W. Smith, almost 97; Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott. Letters and telegrams of appreciation were received from President Wilson's secretary in his behalf; from Theodore Roosevelt, ex-Governor McCall, ​Mrs. Catt, Mayor Andrew James Peters of Boston and many others. The fall meeting was held in Boston November 30, when Miss Mary Garrett Hay, national vice-president, spoke on the national suffrage situation and there were addresses by heads of civic and philanthropic organizations.
1919. The mid-winter meeting was held in Worcester February 15 and eight young girls presented to Miss Blackwell the national petition bearing 16,434 names, many more than the quota for this city. The State meeting was held May 21, 22, in Boston. While it was in session the news came that the Federal Suffrage Amendment had passed the U. S. House of Representatives. This called out great enthusiasm and it was voted to telegraph Mrs. Maud Wood Park: "Three cheers for our Congressional Chairman! Very proud that Mrs. Park is a Massachusetts woman!" The following Sunday the Boston association held a meeting in Tremont Theater to rejoice, with Samuel L. Powers, a prominent Republican lawyer, presiding, and addresses by Mrs. Park, Joseph Conry, a prominent Democrat, and Secretary of State Langtry for Governor Coolidge.
1920. The annual meeting was again held in Boston, May 27, 28, Mrs. Bird presiding. She stated that it was the 1ooth anniversary of the birth of Julia Ward Howe, to whose work for suffrage and other good causes a heart-felt tribute was paid. Mrs. Bird presented Miss Blackwell with a laurel wreath as representing the pioneers and as having been at the head of the association when victory was won. As the complete ratification was almost at hand it was voted to take legal steps to dissolve the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. Later it was decided, in accordance with the policy of the National Association, to continue it as a skeleton organization with the same officers until all possible need for it should be over. The State League of Women Voters was organized, with Mrs. George R. Fearing, Jr., as chairman and Miss Blackwell as honorary president, the delegates and members of the association enrolling in the new society. The New England Woman Suffrage Association never formally disbanded but simply ceased to meet.
From 1910 onward what had tended most to increase membership was the formation of the Woman Suffrage Party to work ​as the State association, with a non-dues-paying membership of men and women, similar to the political parties, having district leaders, precinct captains and ward chairmen, strictly non-partisan and solely to promote woman suffrage. The first chairman was Mrs. Gertrude Halladay Leonard. A convention was held in Faneuil Hall on March 5, 1912, at which time twenty-three of the twenty-six Boston wards had been organized, also Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, Newton and many other cities and towns. The membership was 25,000 and by the referendum campaign in 1915 it had advanced to about 250,000.
This change in the type of organization was indicative of a change in the whole suffrage movement. It was recognized that more widely diffused education on the subject was needed and that suffrage must become a political issue. The suffrage leagues were changed into political district organizations; the parlor meeting gave place to the outdoor meeting; State headquarters were moved from No. 6 Marlboro Street, a residential section, to 585 Boylston Street in a business building, and local societies were kept in touch. Every effort was made to reach labor unions and other organizations of men with speakers and educational propaganda and to carry information to the man in the street, who often had never heard of the Woman Suffrage Association. The executive board met every two weeks and later every week or oftener. Mrs. Page, its chairman, was followed in 1911 by Mrs. Marion Booth Kelley; in 1912 by Mrs. Gertrude B. Newell, and in May, 1913, Mrs. Leonard was elected and served to October, 1917. Upon her resignation Mrs. Grace A. Johnson was chosen, who was succeeded by Mrs. Charles Sumner Bird.
In 1912 a new State organization, called the Political Equality Union, was formed, with Miss Mabel Gillespie as chairman, Mrs.— FitzGerald as secretary and Dr. Lily Burbank as treasurer, which made a special effort to reach the labor men and women. As the vote on the constitutional amendment approached, in order that there might be no overlapping, ten per cent. of the State was assigned as a field for the work of the Union and the rest for that of the State association. The two cooperated in legislative work. The Union disbanded in November, 1916, advising its members to join the State association.
​Campaign. Through the campaign year of 1914, preceding the vote on a constitutional amendment, which had been submitted by the Legislature, the association kept five salaried speakers continually in the field, besides numerous volunteers. On the list of the speakers' bureau there were 125 women and 76 men. The State and the Boston headquarters had a large office force, and in the field were nine organizers, giving full or half time. The State College Equal Suffrage League handled the retail literature for the association and took charge of the office hospitality. The Equal Franchise Committee, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw, president, had an important part in the campaign. The Men's League for Woman Suffrage was reorganized with Oakes Ames as president and Joseph Kelley as secretary. The Harvard Men's League cooperated in many ways. The use of one of the University Halls for a speech by Mrs. Pankhurst was refused to it, much to the chagrin of liberal-minded graduates and undergraduates, but she held a very successful meeting in a nearby hall. The use of a hall was refused also for Mrs. Florence Kelley, although she had spoken at Harvard on other subjects. In order to avoid further trouble the Harvard Corporation voted that thereafter no woman should be allowed to lecture in the college halls except by its special invitation. This rule was abandoned later and Miss Helen Todd of California spoke on suffrage in Emerson Hall before a large audience.
Other suffrage organizations sprang up or were enlarged, the Writers' League, the Players' League, etc. Local branches were built up rapidly under the leadership of Mrs. Pinkham, State organization chairman, and by the spring of 1914 there were 138 leagues and committees. Just before the vote in November, 1915, these had grown to 200. Monthly conferences of the district leaders were held at State headquarters. A systematic effort was made to build up strong suffrage organizations in the cities outside of Boston. Workers and speakers were sent through the State to help the local workers. In 1914 a series of two-day conferences was held in eleven of the sixteen counties, the first day devoted to discussion of work with local leaders and the second to holding often as many as twenty meetings by a corps ​of speakers, at factories, stores, men's clubs, labor unions, church organizations, on the street, etc.
To educate the men who were to vote upon the question, a State-wide canvass of voters was begun by Mrs. Crowley, which was carried on up to election day. A body of from five to seven intelligent women, informed on the question, re-enforced by local volunteers, called from house to house, talking to the voter or his wife, leaving suffrage literature and if possible getting the voter's signature to a card pledge to vote yes. These canvassers moved from city to city and from town to town, reaching from one-half to two-thirds of the registered voters, averaging about 1,500 calls per week and leaving the rest of the work to be carried on by local women. By election day over 250,000 voters had been interviewed, 100,000 had signed pledge cards and more than 50,000 others had expressed themselves as favorable.
Much of this work was made possible by the activities of the Ways and Means Committee of the State Association, under the chairmanship of Mrs. B. F. Pitman, who, during the many years that she served in that capacity, repeatedly rescued the association from the verge of debt and filled up its treasury. Her committee accomplished this by a Bay State Bazaar held every year at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston; by balls, theatrical performances, outdoor fêtes, pageants and other entertainments.
As an extra provision for the campaign of 1915, the Bay State Finance Committee was formed in 1914 by Mrs. Park, chairman, which with the State association raised and spent about $54,000 in the campaign. This was exclusive of the money spent by the various leagues and branches throughout the State, including $10,820 by the Boston Association for Good Government.
For two years educational work was pushed in every way. It was carried into the country districts by systematic trolley and automobile trips, parties of workers carrying out well planned itineraries in different parts of the State, involving usually from two to four open-air meetings per day. Audiences were secured in all the small and scattered places, even the most remote, by postal notices mailed from State headquarters several days in advance to every registered voter.
Among the means employed to draw attention were huge ​"Votes for Women" kites, voiceless speeches (a series of placards held up to view in a store window or other public place), distribution of literature in the baseball parks; a suffrage automobile or a section in the parades on Labor Day, Columbus Day, etc.; a pilgrimage to Worcester on the anniversary of the First National Woman's Rights Convention, led by Miss Florence Luscomb in old-fashioned costume, in Lucy Stone's carriage; the running of propaganda films in the moving pictures and the placing of 100,000 brightly painted tin Blue Birds in conspicuous places throughout the State, each bird bearing the words "Votes for Women, Nov. 2, 1919." There were speakers and debates at men's clubs, church organizations, labor unions, in factories, granges, at cattle shows and at conventions of all sorts.
Large indoor meetings were held, addressed by distinguished visitors to the State, among them Philip Snowden and Mrs. Snowden, Senator Helen Ring Robinson of Colorado, U. S. Senators Clapp of Minnesota, Kenyon of Iowa and Thomas of Colorado. Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughter Sylvia spoke in Boston and Cambridge with great success. Louis D. Brandeis, afterwards Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, came out for woman suffrage. In Boston, under the direction of Miss Mabel Caldwell Willard, innumerable street meetings were held for a year before the vote, with mass meetings every Sunday in the Tremont Theater and on the historic Common.
Press material was supplied to city and country papers. The newspapers as a whole grew more favorable as time went by but their editorial pages were much more friendly than the news columns, which frequently carried stories that were unfair or wholly untrue. The Boston Sunday Herald printed regular suffrage notes for some months before the vote and once the daily edition gave the suffragists a full page. The Boston American let them issue a special supplement, in charge of Mrs. Jennette A. S. Jeffrey and Mrs. Leonard, and this example was followed by other papers in the State. As always, the Woman's Journal did much to hold together, encourage and stimulate the workers. A special committee distributed more than 100,000 copies of suffrage speeches made in Congress and more than 300,000 pieces of other literature within the last few months before the election.
​The most impressive publicity put forth by the State association was the two parades in Boston; the first held May 2, 1914, and the second, Oct. 16, 1915, just before the election. The first one caused a sensation. It contained about 12,000 women, with a small section of men, and was conducted under the chairmanship of Mrs. Leonard, with Mrs. Page, Mrs. Johnson and nine sub-committee chairmen. It was extremely well organized and the large mass of totally untrained marchers was handled so efficiently as to surprise all who saw it. Delegations from all over New England took part and one from Australia; women in national costumes; nurses in uniform; delegations from all the women's colleges in the State and men and women from the universities; also a singing chorus trained by Dr. Archibald Davidson, Jr., of Appleton Chapel, Harvard. In the procession were a son, three grandsons, a granddaughter and two granddaughters-in-law of William Lloyd Garrison; the daughter of Abby Kelley Foster, the daughter-in-law of Angelina Grimké and Theodore Weld and the daughter of Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell. The Concord banner was carried by the grandniece of Louisa M. Alcott. Arrangements had been made for a delegation from the Boston Central Labor Union but when the time came the sole marcher to appear was the president, who courageously marched alone carrying the banner of the union.
The second, called the Victory Parade, was even more successful. It included about 15,000 marchers with a substantial men's section and was viewed by 500,000 people. It was reviewed by Governor David I. Walsh in front of the State House and Mayor James Michael Curley in front of the City Hall and was followed by a tremendous mass meeting in Mechanics' Building, addressed by the Mayor and others. Parades were held also in other large cities.
The State Federation of Women's Clubs at its annual meeting in 1915 endorsed woman suffrage, on motion of Mrs. Herbert J. Gurney, by a vote of 203 to 99. The extreme to which bitter feeling ran was shown by a widely advertised attempt to organize a Non-partisan League among the club women in consequence but only a few hundred joined out of a federation membership of 65,000. It had been endorsed by the General Federation and ​by 28 State federations but in no other had the defeated minority undertaken to organize another society.
Thirty county fairs out of thirty-seven were covered systematically. Special help in the campaign work was given by Ohio, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The question of woman suffrage was presented before 621 organizations of men through the efforts of a committee formed for that purpose, under Mrs. Evelyn Peverly Coe's chairmanship: Women attended nearly all the primaries and town meetings, distributing literature and urging the men to vote yes.
As the election approached the work along all lines grew more intensive. Well-organized victory automobile tours ran steadily throughout the summer and fall, in the eastern part of the State under the direction of Mrs. Walter G. Morey and in the western under Miss Luscomb. Meetings were held at the fashionable hotels on the north and south shores and outdoor meetings at the popular beach resorts. Comparatively few were held indoors but 1,675 were supplied with speakers. Big meetings were addressed in Boston and other large cities by U. S. Senator William E. Borah and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw. An elaborate luncheon was given by the Men's League and the State association at the Hotel Bellevue to the Governors' conference held in Boston. Valuable help at this time was rendered by Governor Walsh and the favorable opinions of the Governors of equal suffrage States were published at length in the Boston papers by the Men's League. At the last moment mass meetings were held in Boston at Symphony Hall and in the largest halls of many other cities. A symbolical and picturesque flag-raising took place on Boston Common. A last-minute circular was sent to each of the State's 600,000 registered voters. The day before the vote the railroad stations in Boston were visited morning and evening and thousands of pieces of literature were given to the commuters.
On election day, Nov. 2, 1915, practically all the polling places in the State were covered by 8,000 women, who stood for hours holding aloft placards reading, "Show your Faith in the Women of Massachusetts; vote 'Yes' on Woman Suffrage." And yet after all this strenuous effort and self-sacrificing devotion the amendment was defeated by a vote of 295,489 to 163,406, a ​majority of 132,000. The vote in Boston was: Noes, 53,654; ayes, 31,428; opposing majority, 22,226.
Louis D. Brandeis said in an address on Columbus Day: "I doubt if there has been carried on ever in Massachusetts—certainly not in my lifetime—a campaign which for intelligence, devotion and intensity surpassed the campaign of the women for suffrage. It should silence any doubt as to their fitness for enfranchisement." The suffragists, however, had to contend with serious and insuperable difficulties. The population of the State had changed radically since the early days when Massachusetts had been the starting point of liberal movements. For more than half a century its most progressive citizens had been going west and their places had been filled by wave after wave of immigration from Europe, largely ignorant and imbued with the Old World ideas as to the subjection of women. The religious question also entered in, and, while the Catholic Church took no stand as to woman suffrage, many Catholics believed that it would be a step toward Socialism, against which the church was making a vigorous contest. On the other hand, many Protestants believed that the Catholic women's votes would be unduly influenced by the priests.
Massachusetts was the home of the oldest and most influential anti-suffrage organization of women in the United States under the leadership of Mrs. Charles Eliot Guild, Miss Mary Ames, Mrs. James Codman, Mrs. Charles P. Strong and others. Few of its members did any active work but they were connected through the men of their families with the richest, most powerful and best organized groups of men in the State, who worked openly or behind the scenes against woman suffrage. They had an influence out of all proportion to their numbers. Most of the literature, most of the money and a liberal supply of speakers for anti-suffrage campaigns all over the country had emanated from this association. While always posing as a woman's protest, the real strength of the movement was in the men.
In May, 1912, a Man's Anti-Suffrage Association had been organized, its Executive Committee consisting of ten lawyers, one cotton broker, one Technology Professor, the treasurer of Harvard College and the treasurer of the Copley Society. Other ​societies were organized later. All through the summer and fall of 1915 the women's and the men's organizations and various groups and combinations of men, who for one reason or another did not want equal suffrage, worked publicly and privately in every conceivable way against the amendment. They held meetings, mostly indoor, sent out speakers, advertised in street cars, prepared and mailed to every voter at great expense an elaborate pamphlet, The Case Against Woman Suffrage, full of misrepresentations, and did all an active opposition could do, and they had an efficient and highly paid Publicity Committee. The liquor interests fought the amendment from start to finish. Pink slips were passed out in saloons on election day, saying, "Good for two drinks if woman suffrage is defeated."
The vote was curiously uniform. Every part of the State gave an adverse majority; so did every city and town except Tewksbury and Carver; and generally in about the same proportion— places with strong suffrage organizations and places with none; whether the work done in them had been much or little; even towns where a majority of the voters had signed pledge cards promising to vote for the amendment voted adversely and in about the same ratio. The vote was the largest ever cast on any amendment in the State. By appealing adroitly to all kinds of prejudices, as on the religious question, the opposition got out an enormous number of men who generally did not vote at all.
Both sides were required by law to file at the State House a record of their campaign expenses. An analysis of the lists showed that the bulk of the anti-suffrage campaign fund was made up of personal contributions, four-fifths of them from men, and more than three-fifths of the total from 135 men, whose average donation was $235. The slogan of their campaign had been that women did not want to vote. The official figures showed that those who claimed to speak for "80 per cent. of the women" received 8o per cent. of their contributions from men, and not from the rank and file of men but chiefly from bankers, brokers and powerful directors of the monied section of Boston. The bulk of the suffrage campaign fund came from fairs, sales and entertainments and of the personal contributions more than four-fifths were from women, their average donation being $17.
​After the election in 1915 there was started a State branch of the Congressional Union, later called the National Woman's Party, formed some years before to push the Federal Amendment. It was under the leadership of Mrs. Morey, chairman, and other women most of whom had been active with the State association during the campaign. The defeat of the State amendment caused the work of all organizations to be directed toward the submission of the Federal Amendment.
At the annual meeting of the State association in May, 1916, a budget of $30,000 was adopted and $20,000 toward it was pledged on the spot. Through the preceding winter the association had five paid organizers, two of them working in Boston, and a large number of volunteer field workers, at least 230 in Boston alone. Besides the chairmen for the sixteen congressional districts, each of the forty senatorial districts had its chairman, all working under the State Chairman of Organization, Mrs. Sara S. Gilson. She was followed by Mrs. Mary P. Sleeper and by Mrs. Elizabeth Tilton, who formed an Advisory Council of 100 influential men in preparation for the campaign to ratify the Federal Amendment.
After the United States entered the World War in 1917 the suffrage organizations, State and local, devoted their efforts largely to various forms of war work, called for by the Government. They served on all committees, took part in all "drives," sold Liberty Bonds and continued their service till the last demand had been met.
Legislative Action. The Massachusetts Legislature began in 1869 to grant hearings to women asking for the franchise and it continued to do so every year thereafter. These hearings usually crowded the largest committee room at the State House, the throng often extending far out into the hall. Able arguments were presented by eminent men and women but it was impossible to obtain favorable action. There was at least one hearing every year and often several on different measures. In later years they were generally conducted by Mrs. Maud Wood Park, Miss Amy F. Acton, a young woman lawyer, or Miss Alice Stone Blackwell for the petitioners; and by Thomas Russell, Aaron H. Latham, Charles R. Saunders or Robert Luce, as ​attorney for the Anti-Suffrage Association. Miss Blackwell usually replied for the petitioners. In recent years the suffragists had influential politicians of both parties to speak at the hearings, thus making woman suffrage a political question.
1901. The State association asked for the Municipal and Presidential franchise and for the submission to the voters of aconstitutional amendment giving full suffrage. At the hearing on the latter, held February 18, the crowd broke all records and members of the committee who came late had to reach their seats by walking on top of the long table. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt was among the speakers. The measure was defeated March II by a vote, including pairs, of 156 to 53. Individuals petitioned for Municipal suffrage for women taxpayers, which was referred to the next Legislature without a roll call.
1902. The association's petition for a constitutional amendment was debated in the House on March 5 and defeated by a vote (including pairs) of 153 to 61. Petitions from individuals for Municipal suffrage for taxpaying women and that women qualified to vote for school committee might vote in the primaries on the nominations for it and a petition of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union that women might vote on licenses, were all rejected, after lively hearings. The AntiSuffrage Association opposed all of them.
The great legislative triumph of 1902 was the passage of the Equal Guardianship bill. Ever since Lucy Stone in 1847 began to urge the amendment of the old law, which gave the father ​absolute control, the suffragists had endeavored to have it changed. Bill after bill, drawn by Samuel E. Sewall and others, had been introduced and rejected and it required a tragedy to obtain a new law. Mrs. Naramore of Coldbrook, Mass., went insane and killed her six young children when she learned that their father intended to give them away and could legally do so. This deeply stirred the Rev. Charles H. Talmage, who had conducted the funeral service, with the six little coffins ranged before the pulpit. He made a careful inquiry into all the circumstances and gave a full account of them in the Boston Herald of April 15, 1901 (republished in the Woman's Journal of April 27). He gave his time and the State Suffrage Association paid his expenses while he went through the State enlisting the support of different organizations of women to secure a change in the law. Mr. Blackwell also put in much time for this purpose.
When the Equal Guardianship bill was introduced by Representative George H. Fall of Malden it was backed not only by the suffrage association but by the State Federation of Women's Clubs, the State W. C. T. U., the Women's Relief Corps, the Boston Children's Friend Society and more than a hundred other organizations, aggregating 34,000 women. Among them the Anti-Suffrage Association was not included. For six years it had been circulating, under its official imprint, a leaflet against the proposal to give mothers equal custody and control of the children and in defense of the law as it stood.
The Committee on Probate and Chancery reported adversely by 8 to 3. The outlook for its passage seemed so dark that Mr. Fall came to the Woman's Journal office and asked if it might not be better to drop it and await a more propitious time. Miss Blackwell urged him to push it to a test. On May 27 it was debated in the House. Representative Marshall of Gloucester said that the Probate Judges were all opposed to it; that its advocates were "sentimentalists" and that "it would create strife, separation and divorce." He added: "Those who appeared for it before the committee were practically the same crowd that appeared for woman suffrage." Representative Sleeper exclaimed: "If you want to enact legislation which will disrupt the home and sunder the tenderest and most sacred relations, ​pass this bill!" The House rejected the committee's adverse report by a viva voce vote and the next day passed the bill without further debate. It passed the Senate by a large majority. Thanks and praises were showered upon Representative Fall, who modestly said that two-thirds of the credit for working up the case belonged to his wife, Mrs. Anna Christy Fall.
1903. The bill for taxpayers' Municipal suffrage was defeated February 5 without a roll call; the association's petition for a constitutional amendment by 99 to 87.
1904. Governor John L. Bates recommended woman suffrage in his Message. The association asked for Municipal suffrage for women having the same qualifications required of men. The bill was debated in the House on February 16 and defeated without a roll call. The bill to let women vote on nominations for school trustees was. defeated by 62 to 30.
1905. The association's petition for a constitutional amendment was rejected without a division and without even discussion. Petitions were rejected for License suffrage, for a vote on school nominations and to enable women to vote for the appointing officer if the Boston school board should be made appointive instead of elective. The association always joined with other societies in asking for measures for the public welfare.
1906. The association's petition for a constitutional amendment was debated March 23 and defeated without a roll call. One headed by John Golden, president of the Textile Workers, for Municipal suffrage for wage-earning women was also defeated without a division, as were the petitions for License suffrage and for a vote on school nominations,
1907. The constitutional amendment was debated February 20 and defeated by 125 to 14. The Good Templars asked for License suffrage for women. At the hearing the bill was supported by representatives of the Anti-Saloon League, the W. C. T. U., the Christian Endeavorers, etc., and opposed by the Anti-Suffrage Association and the attorney of the Wine and Spirits Wholesale Dealers' Association. A bill requiring that the same measures be taken to keep the names of women voters (school) on the register as the names of men failed to pass.
1908. Municipal suffrage for all women, asked for by the ​association, was vigorously debated and voted down by 99 to 30. Municipal suffrage for women taxpayers, asked for by individuals, was defeated without a roll call.
1909. At the hearing on February 23 the Boston Herald, which was not in favor of equal suffrage, estimated that 2,000 women besieged the State House. They crowded the corridors and the large portico until two great overflow meetings were held in the open air at either end of the broad stairway leading up to the entrance. Later the overflow meeting moved on to the Common. The huge crowd of women made a deep impression and was largely featured in the press, which said that nothing like it had ever been seen in Boston. The hearing was conducted for the petitioners by Mrs. Crowley and for the "antis" by Mr. Saunders. He was so impressed by the crowd that his usual sneering and jeering manner was wholly changed. The suffrage speakers were Dr. Shaw, John F. Tobin, president of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union; Rabbi Charles Fleischer, Miss Josephine Casey, secretary of the Women's Trade Union League; Henry Abrahams of the Central Labor Union; Miss Rose Brennan of Fall River, Miss Blackwell, Miss Eleanor Rendell of England, Winfield Tuck and Mrs. Belle Davis. Mrs. Gorham Dana, Professor Sedgwick and Mrs. George spoke for the "antis." Mrs. Julia Ward Howe and Ex-Governor Bates, who were to have spoken for suffrage, could not get into the room. The constitutional amendment was debated March 23. The galleries were reserved for women, yet many were turned away. The vote stood 171 noes to 54 ayes, including 11 pairs.
1910. The hearing February 23 on a constitutioual amendment was unusually impressive. It was held in the evening to enable women busy by day to attend. In the past two or three members of the Legislature not on the committee had sometimes ​dropped in. This year about sixty were present. Mrs. Crowley and Mrs. Luce conducted the hearing for the two sides. The petitioners had arranged delegations representing different groups of women—mothers, home-makers, leisure women, lawyers, mission and church workers, artists, authors and journalists, doctors and nurses, Socialists, W. C. T. U., the "unrepresented" (widows and single women), business women, trade unions, teachers, social workers, taxpayers, saleswomen, clerks and stenographers and college women. These 1,500 or more marched to the State House from Ford Hall, each group under its own banner, and presented themselves before the committee in turn, the spokeswoman of each group telling briefly why she, and women like her, wanted the ballot. Then they went over to Ford Hall, where a big rally was held and the main address was made by Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard. An overflow meeting was held on the State House steps addressed by Edwin D. Mead and others. In order to line up the labor vote in the Legislature, resolutions by different labor unions, signed by their secretaries, were sent to each legislator, under the direction of Mrs. Page. The measure was defeated March 31 by 148 to 47.
1911. For the first time in many years, the Legislative Committee of the State association, Mrs. Crowley, chairman, appeared, before the Resolutions Committee of the political parties to urge the adoption of a suffrage plank. The Democratic party inserted one favoring the submission of the question to the voters; the Republican party ignored' it. The legislators were interviewed both at the State House and by representative suffragists within their districts, and they received suffrage literature. The hearing on February 23 was unusually successful from a political and publicity standpoint. It was conducted by Mrs. Crowley and was addressed by Mrs. Park and Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick; John Sherman Weaver, representing the State branch of the American Federation of Labor, and Henry Abrahams for the Boston Central Labor Union. Sylvia Pankhurst addressed the committee in a simple and effective way. Two of the opposition speakers were Mrs. George and Professor Sedgwick. The debate Was spirited and was conducted for the suffragists by prominent Senators and Representatives. Four members spoke in opposi​tion. The vote in the House was ayes, 69, noes, 161; in the Senate, ayes, 6, noes, 31. During all these years a quiet but effective opposition had been working at the State House under the direction of Charles R. Saunders, legislative counsel for the Anti-Suffrage Association.
One of the most significant features in the fall of 1911 was the political work of Miss Margaret Foley, as it marked the beginning of a new type of effort. She had made a special trip to England the year before with Miss Florence Luscomb and Miss Alice Carpenter to observe the methods of the English suffragettes, who were then receiving great publicity. After her return she began by attending with other women the political rallies of the various candidates for the State Legislature and at the close of each rally asking the candidate how he stood on the question of Votes for Women. By her knowledge of crowd psychology and gift as a speaker, she was able not only to handle but to win the roughest crowd to the consternation of the candidates. When the candidates for Governor started on their campaign, Miss Foley, with a group of workers, followed the Republican candidate in a fast automobile, attended all his meetings, spoke to the crowd on suffrage after the Republican speeches were over and questioned the candidates for Governor and other State officers as to their stand on suffrage. This unique and somewhat sensational method was taken up with avidity by the newspapers, which gave it front-page articles with illustrations. Later she turned her attention to the Democratic candidates. This was kept up until election and suffrage facts and arguments were presented to thousands of voters who would never otherwise have heard them.
In 1912 the Legislative Committee, Miss Mary Gay, chairman, conducted the hearing on February 26. Afterwards a special letter of thanks was sent to Professor Lewis J. Johnson of Harvard and the Hon. Joseph Walker for their help at the hearing. The amendment had able support from members and the campaign work began to show results. The vote in the House was ayes, 96, noes, 116; in the Senate, ayes, 14, noes, 17.
In the autumn the method was introduced which many believed was ultimately responsible for putting the amendment through the Legislature. It was the defeating of individual ​legislators who had been prominent opponents by making an active political campaign in their districts. The first was begun at the primaries against State Senator Roger Wolcott of Milton, chairman of the Constitutional Amendments Committee in the preceding Legislature. The women compiled a record of his negative votes on many liberal measures, including suffrage, and spread this record before his constituents. This work was done at the suggestion and under the direction of Mrs. Fitzgerald, who conducted open-air meetings in the district. The effort to defeat his renomination in the primary failed, however, largely through their inexperience. The Legislative Committee at the time consisted of Mrs. Crowley, chairman, Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Park, Mrs. Page, Miss Foley and Mrs. Mary Agnes Mahan and remained substantially the same during the next two or three years, with the addition of Mrs. Marie Burress Currier, Miss Cora Start and Mrs. Evelyn Peverley Coe. Then they made a fight against Mr. Wolcott's election and by a most thorough campaign defeated him at the polls and a Democrat was returned from that district for the first time in many years.
This year marked the high tide of the Progressive party in Massachusetts. It had put a straight suffrage plank in its platform and its members in the Legislature were very helpful. The defeat of Wolcott, the publicity, the increasing vote in the Legislature and the general stirring of the suffrage question, had caused the opponents to fear that the constitutional amendment would be submitted. Consequently a bill was filed calling for another referendum like the one in 1895 which would have no effect after it was taken. The Executive Board of the State association protested against it but the situation looked extremely dark. Levi H. Greenwood, President of the Senate, and Grafton D. Cushing, Speaker of the House, were bitter opponents of woman suffrage and on the Committee on Constitutional Amendments there was only one avowed friend, Lewis H. Sullivan of Dorchester. The association's Legislative Committee worked strenuously to pledge votes against the bill. A visit to every editor in the city by Mrs. Page and Mrs. Crowley enlisted them against it and the numerous editorials that followed were sent day by day to the legislators. The bill's support dwindled, and on April 18 ​it was defeated in the House by 117 to 73, although the Speaker left the chair for the only time that session to argue in favor of it.
At the hearing on the submission of the constitutional amendment, Louis D. Brandeis, ex-Congressman Samuel L. Powers, Joseph Walker and Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard spoke in favor and letters were read from Samuel W. McCall, afterwards Republican Governor; Charles Sumner Bird, the Progressive leader, and Thomas W. Riley, an influential Democrat. For the first time since 1895 woman suffrage commanded a majority in the House, the vote standing ayes, 144, noes, 88, but this was not the necessary two-thirds and the Legislative Committee consented that it might be voted down in the Senate, provided the "straw" vote bill was defeated at the same time.
It now seemed practically certain that the amendment would pass the next Legislature. In the fall of 1913 the Boston Equal Suffrage Association defeated Walter R. Meins of the 21st Suffolk District; the Legislative Committee of the State Association defeated Representatives Butler of Lowell and Underhill of Somerville at the primaries, and Bliss of Malden and Greenwood, president of the Senate, at the election. This being the first time for many years that a Democrat had been returned from Greenwood's district, his defeat caused a sensation.
In 1914 the Progressive party, the State Federation of Labor, the Socialists and the State Suffrage Association all introduced suffrage measures. The Progressive and Democratic parties had planks in their platforms recommending the submission of the constitutional amendment to the voters and Governor Walsh was in favor of it. The suffragists were unable to get a plank in the Republican platform. For reasons of political expediency, Mrs. Crowley turned over the conduct of the hearing to John Weaver Sherman, representing the State Federation of Labor. There were speeches in favor by Guy A. Ham, chairman of the Resolutions Committee of the State Republican convention; Henry Sterling, representing the American Federation of Labor; Mrs. William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., Mrs. Pinkham and Mrs. Katherine Lent Stevenson, president of the W. C. T. U. Letters were read from ex-Governor Bates and Sherman K. Whipple, Republican and Democratic leaders. The Women's Political ​Equality Union had speakers from the Textile Workers' Union of Boston and the unions of the telephone operators, candymakers and street-car men. The debate in the House was successfully led by Sanford Bates, chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments. The resolution to submit the amendment passed by 168 to 39 in the House and 34 to 2 in the Senate, commanding the required two-thirds for the first time, but it had to pass a succeeding Legislature.
In 1915 the legislative work was less onerous and the amendment passed the House by 193 to 33, the Senate by 33 to 3 and was signed by Governor Walsh, who presented the pen to Mrs. Crowley. His signature was not necessary but he wished to show his approval.
Under the Corrupt Practices Act a political committee, so called, of at least five men, had to be formed to handle the funds of any group that spent more than $20 to carry or defeat a constitutional amendment. A bill was passed which allowed women to form the committee in the case of the equal suffrage amendment and the following were named: Miss Blackwell, chairman; Mrs. Blanche Ames, treasurer; Mrs. Crowley, Mrs. Leonard and Miss Foley. The strenuous campaign and the defeat of the amendment after a struggle of more than half a century to have it submitted, have been described.
In 1916 no suffrage bill of any kind was presented to the Legislature by the State Association but it turned its attention to congressional work. This was skilfully conducted by Mrs. Grace A. Johnson, chairman; members of Congress were interviewed, letters and telegrams sent to the Congressional Judiciary Committee and delegates to the National party conventions were urged to support suffrage planks. When these planks were secured in the national platforms of all parties during the summer the victory was celebrated with a mass meeting in Faneuil Hall.
In 1917 Massachusetts held a Constitutional Convention. The Act calling it, in describing those to whom its recommendations should be submitted for ratification, used the word "people." A bill drawn by Mrs. Crowley was filed in the Legislature by the State Suffrage Association asking that women be considered people within the meaning of this Act. The Senate asked the ​opinion of the State Supreme Court as to its constitutionality and she filed a brief. The Supreme Court decided adversely and in view of the rapid advance of the Federal Suffrage Amendment the association decided that no State amendment should be submitted by the convention.
The directions of the National Suffrage Association for congressional work were carried out. Federal Amendment meetings were held, thousands of letters sent to members of Congress from their districts and about 500 telegrams sent just before the vote was taken in 1918. The amendment lacked but one vote of passing the U. S. Senate and it became necessary to defeat at least one among the anti-suffrage Senators who were coming up for re-election, so it was decided to defeat Senator John W. Weeks in Massachusetts. His reactionary record was spread before the Republican voters by 370,000 circulars and advertisements in Republican papers. A special campaign among the working men was made by members of the Women's Trade Union League, under the leadership of Miss Mabel Gillespie, and among the Jewish voters, who were normally Republican, under the leadership of Mrs. Joseph Fels and Mrs. Lillian E. deHaas of New York. The great popularity of President Wilson at this time was of assistance and also that of the Democratic candidate for the Senate, ex-Governor Walsh. A special letter was sent to every listed member of the State association asking that at least one vote be secured against Mr. Weeks, with a spirited appeal by Mrs. Ames, who belonged to a prominent Republican family. Mr. Walsh was elected by about 20,000 majority, the first Democratic U. S. Senator from Massachusetts since the Civil War.
The Congressional Committee, Mrs. Ames, chairman, sent more than 5,000 letters and telegrams asking suffragists in the State to write and telegraph the Massachusetts Senators and members of Congress to vote for the Federal Amendment. Concentrated work was done upon three doubtful Representatives, one of whom was secured, Carter of Needham. This proved most fortunate as the House gave exactly the two-thirds vote.
The work done in 1918 on the great petition for the Federal Amendment was very successful despite the influenza epidemic. In Worcester, Springfield, Pittsfield and North Adams women ​signed numbering more than 51 per cent. of the men's last vote for President and in Boston 62,000 names were secured or 60 per cent. of that vote. The anti-suffragists in twenty-four years had accumulated only a little over 40,000 signatures in the whole State, acording to their own figures. In less than one year the suffragists obtained 70,792 in the above cities and over 100,000 in the State.
Ratification. When the Federal Amendment was submitted by Congress on June 4, 1919, the Legislative Committee of the State Association, Mrs. Anna C. M. Tillinghast, chairman, was expanded into a Ratification Committee. It had already polled the Legislature, which was in session. A hearing was held before the Federal Relations Committee conducted by Mrs. Tillinghast for the suffragists and by Mrs. Henry Preston White for the "antis," who asked for a referendum to the voters in place of ratification. The suffrage speakers were Frank B. Hall, chairman of the Republican State Committee; Joseph Walker, Progressive Republican; Josiah Quincy, Democrat, Joseph Walsh, Democrat, of the Senate; Mrs. Bird, Mrs. FitzGerald, Mrs. Pinkham, who presented a petition of 135,000 names from representative sections of the Commonwealth; Mrs. Mary Thompson, representing the working women; Miss Margaret Foley, a prominent Catholic; a representative of the State W. C. T. U.; Charles J. Hodgson, legislative agent for the American Federation of Labor. The speakers for the Woman's Party were Mrs. Morey, Miss Betty Gram, Michael O'Leary, chairman of the Democratic State Committee, and Mrs. Louise Sykes. On the anti-suffrage side sixteen women representing the sixteen congressional districts told of their vote against suffrage in 1915. Miss Blackwell spoke in rebuttal for the suffragists, Miss Charlotte Rowe of Yonkers, N. Y., for the "antis." B. Loring Young, Republican floor leader in the House, acted as chairman of the suffrage Steering Committee in the House and Joseph Knox in the Senate. The committee reported in favor of ratification with two dissenting.
The debate in the House on June 25 was notable, about fifteen members speaking on each side. An amendment calling for a referendum was defeated by 166 to 67 and ratification carried by ​185 ayes to 47 noes. The Senate ratified by 34 ayes, 5 noes. Massachusetts was the eighth State to ratify. Mrs. Tillinghast expressed especial gratitude for the assistance given by Governor Calvin Coolidge, Lieutenant Governor Channing M. Cox, Edwin T. McKnight, President of the Senate, Joseph E. Warner, Speaker of the House, B. Loring Young, Republican, and William H. McDonnell, Democratic floor leader, Leland Powers of the House, Joseph Knox of the Senate and the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic State committees.
After women had been enfranchised the State and the Boston suffrage associations conducted citizenship schools in every county to instruct them in their new duties.
Laws. [The very complete digest of the legislation of the past twenty years in relation to women and children, especially to those in the industries, prepared by Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley, attorney at law, and filling nine typewritten pages, has to be omitted for lack of space.]
* ↑ The History is indebted for the first part of this chapter to Miss Alice Stone Black well, an officer of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1890 to 1912 inclusive; president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association from 1911, and president of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association almost continuously from 1909 to 1920; and for the second part of the chapter to Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley, chair. man of the Legislative Committee of the State association from 1909 for many years.
* ↑ Later presidents were Mrs. Page, Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw and Mrs. J. Malcolm Forbes. When Mrs. Park was called to Washington to become national congressional chairman in 1916 Mrs. Wenona Osborne Pinkham succeeded her as executive secretary.
* ↑ At the annual meeting of the M. A. O. F. E. S. W. on May 1, officers were elected as follows: President, Mrs. G. Howland Shaw; vice-presidents, Mrs. J. H. Coolidge, Miss Anna L. Dawes, Mrs. Charles D. Homans, Miss Agnes Irwin, Mrs. Henry M. Whit- ney; corresponding secretary, Miss L. C. Post; recording secretary, Miss Elizabeth Johnson; treasurer, Mrs. James M. Codman; executive committee, the officers and Miss Sarah H. Crocker Mrs. Gorham Dana, Mrs. Charles Eliot Guild, Miss Katherine E. Guild, Miss Elizabeth H. Houghton, Miss Sarah E. Hunt, Mrs, Francis C. Lowell, Mrs. J. H. Millet, Mrs. B. L. Robinson, Mrs. R. H. Saltonstall, Miss E. P. Sohier and Mrs. Henry M. Thompson.
* ↑ Additional speakers through the summer were Miss Margaret Foley, Miss Gertrude Y. Cliff, Miss Edith M. Haynes, Mrs. Marion Craig Wentworth, Miss Florence Lus comb, Miss Katherine Tyng, Miss Alfretta McClure and Miss Rosa Heinzen, the last four college girls.
* ↑ Much help was given for years by the steady financial support of Mrs. R. D. Evans, Mrs, Robert Gould Shaw and Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw. The last named paid the rent of the suffrage headquarters during many years and her heirs continued this assistance for some time after her death in 1917.
* ↑ Many of the same persons appeared at these hearings year after year. Among those not mentioned who spoke for suffrage between 1900 and 1910 were Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, Henry B. Blackwell, the Rev. Charles G. Ames, Mrs. Fanny B. Ames, Miss Sarah Cone Bryant, the Rev. Charles F. Dole, Mrs. Anna Christy Fall, Mrs. Helen Campbell, Miss Mary Ware Allen, Miss Eva Channing, Mrs. Abby Morton Diaz, Miss Lillian Freeman Clarke, Mrs. Maud Howe Elliott, Frank B. Sanborn, Mrs. Eliza R. Whiting, Mrs. Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, Mrs. A. Watson Lister, of Australia; ex-Governor John D. Long. Letters in favor were read from Professor Borden P. Bowne, of Boston University; U. S. Senator George F. Hoar, ex-Governor George S. Boutwell, Dr. J. L. Withrow of Park Street Church, Congressman Samuel W. McCall, Professor W. O. Crosby of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mrs. Sarah Platt Decker, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs. May Alden Ward, president of the State Federation, Mrs. F. N. Shick, president of the Wyoming Federation, and Judge Lindsey of the Denver Juvenile Court.   Among those who spoke in opposition were Professor William T. Sedgwick of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Mrs. Sedgwick, Mrs. A. J. George, Mrs, Barrett Wendell, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Foxcroft and Dr. Lyman Abbott of New York, A number of women spoke every year who opposed the suffrage because it would take women into public life.
* ↑ The suggestion to get out a record-breaking crowd was made by Representative Norman H. White of Brookline, the first man for some years to lead a serious fight in the Legislature for woman suffrage. The work of getting it out was engineered by Mrs. Crowley, Mrs. Page and Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, who also arranged the great procession at the hearing of the following year.
* ↑ Among the speakers at the overflow meetings on the steps were the Misses Rendell and Costello, Miss Foley, Mrs. George F. Lowell, Mr. Blackwell, Mrs. Fitzgerald, John Golden and Franklin H. Wentworth. At the overflow meeting on the Common Mrs. Fitzgerald presided and Dr. Shaw was the chief speaker. A great meeting in Faneuil Hall had been addressed by Dr. Shaw and others the night before.