# History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 5/Chapter 24

Contents
CHAPTER XXIV.
WAR SERVICE OF ORGANIZED SUFFRAGISTS.
The response of the women of the United States to the call of their country as it entered the World War was as vigorous and eager as had been that of women of other more deeply involved nations. Although American women had little opportunity for giving first line aid in comparison with the women of the Allied countries they gave a second or supporting line service organization and conservation to which they applied their full energy. These efforts brought them close in spirit to the firing line long before the Stars and Stripes were carried to Chateau Thierry and beyond.
It is the province of this chapter to review especially the work of the organized suffragists in their loyalty to their government — a government which from the first had refused to women all voice and part in its proceedings. This work may best be examined under two headings: 1. War Service of the National American Woman Suffrage Association; 2. War Service of suffragists as a whole under the direction of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense.
On Feb. 5, 1917, the president of the association, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, issued the following Call to its Executive Council of One Hundred to meet in Washington on February 23-24 to confer upon the approaching crisis in national affairs:
"To Members of the Executive Council:
"Our nation may be on the brink of war. To those who live in the interior war may seem a long way off but in the East, where public buildings, water works, forts, etc., are now under military guard and where some of the regiments of the National Guard have been called to duty, it comes as a sad realization that our ​country is facing a far more serious crisis than most of us have ever known. A few days may determine whether our people are to be drawn into war at once or whether the break can be patched up and the more tragic circumstances postponed or even averted.
"If the worst comes, very serious problems confront us. Our suffrage work would unquestionably come to a temporary standstill. How shall we dispose of our headquarters, our workers, our plans? How shall we hold our organization and resources meanwhile, so that our movement will not lose its prestige and place among the political issues of our country? These are questions we must not leave to answer themselves. If we are 'not the hammer, our cause will be the anvil.' Women not connected with any particular movement are calling meetings in order to pass pointless resolutions of the promised service of women if required. The big question presents itself, shall suffragists do the 'war work' which they will undoubtedly want to do with other groups newly formed, thus running the risk of disintegrating our organizations, or shall we use our headquarters and our machinery for really helpful constructive aid to our nation? The answer must be given now.
"Because this unexpected turn of public affairs creates an unprecedented condition, the majority of the National Board avails itself of the provision of the constitution which permits the call of the Executive Council on a two weeks' notice. I therefore issue this call to all Elected Officers, all Presidents, all Auxiliaries. all State Members, (auxiliaries which pay dues on a membership of 1500 or more are entitled to a State member in addition to the president), and all Chairmen of Standing and Special Committees to meet in Washington at the National Suffrage Headquarters, 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, February 23-25 inclusive, as per inclosed program. Each State is urged to send its State Congressional Chairmen also to this meeting...."
It was, therefore, for the Executive Council to decide what the association could best do to help the Government in case of war. The summons came as no surprise to the members of the National Association, since for many months their eyes had been ​fixed on the war-clouds gathering. upon the horizon. It was evident that the United States was about to enter the World War.
When this council met at the headquarters in Washington the national officers submitted to it the draft of a Note that specified various concrete ways in which, according to their ideas, the members of the association might give aid to their country in an emergency. This draft was discussed section by section and the motion then came to adopt the Note as a whole. This called out the most important debate of the two-days' meeting, remarkable for the kindly spirit and good temper with which were set forth opposing views on a vital matter concerning which public feeling ran high. The president gave an opportunity to all "conscientious objectors" to come forward and record their names as dissenting. Almost all who did so stated that they believed women should give their assistance in case of war but they feared that an offer of help to the Government made in advance might tend to fan the war spirit and create a psychological impetus towards war. Even this minority felt that the proposed services were judiciously chosen, as they were such as would benefit the country were it at war or at peace. The majority decision was that the National Association should now abandon its unbroken custom of not participating in any matters except those relating directly to woman suffrage and that in view of the national emergency it should offer its assistance to the Government of the United States and proceed to organize for war service. The registered vote on such action was 63 to 13. As the attendance at the conference represented 36 States out of the 45 in which the association had auxiliaries, it might be considered as expressing an almost nation-wide conviction among the members of the association. On February 24 the conference issued the following Note:
"To the President and Government of the United States:
"We devoutly hope and pray that our country's crisis may be passed without recourse to war. We declare our belief that the settlement of international difficulties by bloodshed is unworthy of the 20th Century, and also our confidence that our Government is using every honorable means to avoid conflict. If, ​however, our nation is drawn into the maelstrom, we stand ready to serve our country with the zeal and consecration which should ever characterize those who cherish high ideals of the duty and obligation of citizenship. With no intention of laying aside our constructive forward work to secure the vote for the womanhood of this country as 'the right protective of all other rights,' we Offer our services in the event that they should be needed, and, in so far as we are authorized, we pledge the loyal support of our more than two million members. We make this offer now in order to avoid waste of time and effort in an emergency; also, that the executive ability, industry and devotion of our women, trained through years of arduous endeavor, may be utilized, with all other national resources, for the protection of our country in its time of stress. We propose that a National Committee be formed at once, composed of a representative from each national organization of women willing to aid in war work, if the need arises. The object shall be to establish a clearing house between the Government and those organizations in order that service may be rendered in the most expeditious manner. With this end in view we recommend that each component organization list its resources and report to this central committee concerning the definite work it is prepared to do. To further the practical application of this suggestion our association declares its willingness to undertake the following departments of work:
"I. The Establishing of Employment Bureaus for Women.— Through its local, State and national headquarters to register the names and qualifications of women available for occupations which men will leave to enter the army; to supply these women to employers and to protect the work of such women.
"II. The increase of the Food Supply by the Training of Women for Agricultural Work and by the Elimination of Waste. The aid of the Department of Agriculture will be sought in planning systematic courses for women to accomplish these purposes. The cultivation by women of garden plots and vacant lots in cities will be encouraged at the same time that the larger importance of regular farming is urged.
"III. The Red Cross.—As the Red Cross, in which many of our members are zealous workers, is already equipped to render ​hospital, medical and general supply service,-we offer our organized service in other fields and we promise continued cooperation with the Red Cross as needed.
"IV. Americanization. A problem unknown to other lands will become accentuated in the event of war. Within our borders are eight millions of aliens, who by birth, tradition and training will find it difficult, if not impossible, to understand the causes which have led to this war. War invariably breeds intolerance and hatred and will tend to arouse antagonisms inimical to the best interests of the nation. With the desire to minimize this danger, our association, extending as it does into every precinct of our great cities and into the various counties of the States, offers to conduct classes in school centers wherein national allegiance shall be taught, emphasizing tolerance, to the end that the Stars and Stripes shall wave over a loyal and undivided people.
"V. Conference Committee. In order to carry out our expressed desire and purpose, a committee of three is hereby ordered appointed to confer with the proper authorities of the Government. If need arises, this committee shall be the intermediary between the Government and our association."
Signed, Executive Council, National American Woman Suffrage Association.
by Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president; Carrie Chapman Catt, president; Helen Guthrie Miller, first vice-president; Katharine Dexter McCormick, second vice-president; Esther G. Ogden, third vice-president; Emma Winner Rogers, treasurer; Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith, recording secretary; Nettie Rogers Shuler, corresponding secretary; Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, first auditor; Heloise Meyer, second auditor.
The conference ended on Saturday and on Sunday afternoon a public mass meeting was held. Poli's Theater was filled by a representative audience and on the platform were four members of the Cabinet: Secretaries Baker, McAdoo, Daniels and Houston, with their wives; also United States Senators, Representatives and many other prominent people, including Miss Margaret Wilson, the daughter of the President. The meeting was opened with an address by Mrs. Catt on The Impending Crisis, express​ing the hope that after the war there would arise a truer democracy than ever known before and that the world would never see another war. The Note to President Wilson was read by Mrs. Ida Husted Harper and handed to Secretary of War Baker. In accepting it he paid a tribute to the aspirations of women and expressed the belief that at the close of the war the United States would take its place in a concert of neutral nations and having practiced justice at home it would have earned the right to help establish international justice. Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton delighted the rather tense audience with her inimitable humor and Dr. Shaw closed the meeting with one of her strongest speeches. The addresses of Mrs. Catt and Dr. Shaw emphasized not only the desire of women to do effective patriotic service in time of stress but also their wish that a more civilized way than by the waste and destructiveness of war might be found to settle international disputes.
President Wilson immediately answered as follows:
"The Secretary of War has transmitted to me the Resolutions presented to him at the meeting held on Sunday afternoon, February 25, under the auspices of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. I want to express my great and sincere admiration of the action taken.
Cordially and sincerely yours, Woodrow Wilson."
On April 6, 1917, the United States declared that a state of war with Germany existed. News of the severance of diplomatic relations elicited a deep and reverberating response from the millions of suffragists over the country. At the New York and Washington headquarters of the National Association telephone calls and telegrams were received all day, as State by State the suffrage organizations proffered concerted action with the national on any program of constructive service which it might decide to offer to the Government. The National Suffrage Association at once commenced its war work on the lines adopted at the Washington conference. This comprised departments under four sections: Thrift; Food Production; Industrial Protection of Women and Americanization. Branches of these four sections had already been formed by all its State auxiliaries and Mrs. ​McCormick, its second vice-president, had been appointed general chairman of the War Service Department. In many States the president of the suffrage association became chairman of the War Service Committee. Thus the suffragists of the United States started their war activities with as much vigor as they had been accustomed to put into efforts for their own cause.
There had been created in August, 1916, by an Act of Congress, the Council of National Defense, composed of the Secretaries of War, Navy, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor. This council was formed in order that an emergency might not find the country without a central agency to direct the mobilization of troops back of the regular army. It was not an executive body; its function was to consider and advise. By a wise provision of the Congressional Act the formation of subordinate agencies was authorized and upon the declaration of war advantage of this was quickly taken. Large fields of action were mapped out and assigned to committees on which were appointed the foremost men and women of the country. It was at once evident that the women of the United States had a, definite and powerful role to play in the great war and the council decided that "for the purpose of coordinating the women's preparedness movement a central body of woman should be formed under the Council of National Defense.'"? On April 19, 1917, the director, Secretary of War Baker, telegraphed to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw that Secretary of the Interior Lane and he would like to consult her in regard to important matters concerning the relations of women to the council. She was on a lecture tour in the South but arranged to meet with them in Washington on April 27. On April 21, before the time for this meeting, the Council of National Defense voted that a Woman's Committee be formed with the following personnel: Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, Mrs. Josiah Evans Cowles, Mrs. Philip North Moore, Mrs. Antoinette Funk, Miss Ida Tarbell, Miss Maude Wetmore, Mrs. Joseph R. Lamar. Later Miss Agnes Nestor and Miss Hannah J. Patterson were added. Of the eleven members of the committee all were prominent suffragists except Miss Tarbell, Mrs. Lamar and Miss Wet​more, who were well-known "antis." It was learned that the names had been carefully considered by the council. Dr. Shaw was designated as chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense and asked to hold a meeting in Washington at the earliest possible date. Its headquarters were opened in this city and the members accepted their appointments as a call by the Government to the service of the country.
In December, 1917, the 49th annual convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association was held at Washington. The chairman of its War Service Department, Mrs. McCormick, described the combination of efforts desirable between its branches and those of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense, saying that such a combination was essential to efficient war-service by the women of the country. Comprehensive reports were made of the activities of the four sections by their chairmen which may be read in full in the Handbook of the association for 1917 and space can be used here only for the briefest summantes.
(1) Thrift and Elimination of Waste. The chairman, Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, first vice-president of the association, said in part: "After consultation with Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Vrooman and the heads of Economics and Extension Departments and the Children's Bureau, a letter was sent to each State suffrage president outlining the plan of work and asking that a chairman be appointed to inaugurate and carry out the Thrift program. Food conservation was the subject stressed, for the experience of the European countries made it of prime importance. It is a matter of interest that the original food outline sent out in April contained all the suggestions afterwards insisted upon by Mr. Hoover, and the outline on Clothing contained the same advice as was later given out by the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense. The response from the southern States was especially gratifying. I have spoken 100 times for Thrift, travelled 6,000 miles, sent out 144 form letters and written 100 individual letters. Reports from States where Thrift Committees have been at work show constantly increasing interest and the gradual adoption of a definite line of effort."
​(2) Food Production. The chairman, Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer of the association, after speaking of the cooperation received from the Department of Agriculture, said in part: 'We appealed to all State suffrage presidents to appoint chairmen and encourage their local leagues to cooperate in every way possible in increasing the food supply and a splendid response came. We urged the importance of enlisting women to undertake practical gardening or farming and to provide training for women to this end. We urged the opening in every State of two or three Farm Employment Bureaus for women through which graduates of Agricultural Colleges and others with less training could be placed on farms, and farmers who were progressive enough to want women's help could be reasonably sure of securing it. We arranged with the largest overalls company in the United States to design and put out a suitable farm uniform for women, which was extensively sold and used. . . . The reports at the end of the season testified to the millions of gardens worked by suffragists, to the thousands who helped on farms or went to farm training schools, to canning kitchens and home canning on a scale hitherto unthought-of."
(3) Industrial Protection of Women. The chairman, Miss Ethel M. Smith, said in part:
"This committee was created by the National Suffrage Board to secure women workers to fill the places of men called for military service and it promised to 'protect the work of such women.' A letter was sent to five hundred Chambers of Commerce over Mrs. Catt's signature, asking for their cooperation in behalf of women workers against the danger of excessive overtime and underpay. The slogan of 'Equal Pay for Equal Work' was utilized and vigilance committees were planned for each State to note the conditions in industrial localities and report back to Washington. The questions of equal pay for equal work and equal opportunity for women were then taken up with the Government departments, which have been quite as unfair to women employees as have private firms. The scale of pay is notoriously less than for men, and women have been excluded from the civil service examinations for many positions which they are well equipped to fill, We therefore sent a letter to the Departments ​of War, Navy, State and Commerce where the discrimination had been proved, asking whether they would not modify their regulations to give women equal chances with men, and, now that men were needed for the army, give women the clerical positions in preference to men. We published these letters and received favorable replies from all but the State Department." Miss Smith told of the discovery that women in the Bureau of Engraving, under the Treasury Department, were working twelve hours a day seven days in the week; of the protest of her committee sent through Mrs. Catt to Secretary McAdoo and of his order restoring the eight-hour day and removing all cause of complaint."
(4) Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley, said that her first act was to secure three wise and experienced suffragists to form with her a central committee, Mrs. Shuler, corresponding secretary of the National Suffrage Association; Mrs. Robert S. Huse of New Jersey, and Mrs. Winona Osborn Pinkham, executive secretary of the Boston Equal Suffrage Association. A plan for Americanization work was printed in the Woman Citizen, June 30, 1917, and was sent to each State president with a letter asking for the appointment of a State chairman. Mrs. Bagley's thorough résumé of the work of her committee filled eleven pages of the printed convention report and among the various branches described were recruiting in the foreign tenement quarters for attendance at the public schools; securing cooperation with foreign leaders and with existing agencies for Americanization work: enlisting the cooperation of employers in providing school facilities for employees: teaching English in the homes where the women had not been able to attend school and aiding in the carrying on of the day school for immigrant women now established in the North End of Boston. She told of two new departments, Americanization for rural districts and citizenship classes for women voters. She urged, not only the necessity of schools for adult foreigners but the desirability of good ones that would hold their attention and she made a special plea for the immigrant women. She also called attention to the imperative need for teaching patriotism.
The plan of work recommended by the Executive Council and ​adopted by this convention provided that the association during 1918 should continue the four departments and add the Woman's Hospital Unit in France and Child Welfare; that these six departments be placed under the direction of a committee, the chairman of which should be a member of the national suffrage board; that each State suffrage auxiliary be asked to establish a War Service Committee, composed of chairmen of the above sections, with an additional one on Liberty Bonds. This Committee of Eight was to direct the war work for each State in cooperation with the State division of the Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense. The Land Army Section was added in the spring of 1918 and took the place of the Food Production section. The name of the Thrift section was changed to that of Food Conservation; Miss Hilda Loines became its chairman and its work was combined as closely as possible with the similar section in the Woman's National Defense Committee directed by Mrs. McCormick.
The National Suffrage Association held no convention in 1918 but it met in March, 1919, at St. Louis for its 5oth Anniversary. The Armistice had been declared and the final reports of the association's war activities were rendered. In that of the War Service Department the chairman, Mrs. McCormick, stated that the reason the reports did not cover all six of its sections but only Land Army, Americanization and Oversea Hospitals was that the other sections, after the convention of 1917, were merged with the similar sections of the Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense. Detailed statements regarding Food Conservation and Industrial Protection for women in which the suffrage committees took so large a part, may be found in the reports of the Government Agriculture and Labor Departments. The Child Welfare Department was combined with that of the Woman's National Defense Committee and both were put under the guidance of Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of the Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor. Miss Lathrop made an address to the convention in St. Louis on this subject which was published in full in its Handbook for 1919.
In the section Industrial Protection of Women Mrs. Gifford ​Pinchot had followed Miss Ethel M. Smith as chairman and in a brief report told how nominal the function of her committee had recently become, Owing to the fact that all agencies working in this field had been consolidated under the direction of the U. S. Department of Labor. Before this amalgamation three interesting lines of effort had been carried forward by this committee: An attempt was made to secure a representation of women on the War Labor Board, which did not succeed; action was taken against the decision of this board in dismissing women street car conductors in Cleveland, O., and the committee's position was upheld; an unsuccessful effort was made through Mr. Gompers to have women appointed on the committee of labor delegates who went abroad to confer with the labor representatives of other countries during the Peace Conference.
Land Army. Miss Hilda Loines, chairman, said in part: "The training of women for agricultural work as a war necessity was early foreseen by the National Suffrage Association and was made a part of its program of war service. Early in the spring of 1917 a number of organizations undertook to register and place women who could and would do agricultural labor. Bureaus were opened for their registry and field workers were sent out to secure promises of employment from the farmers. This was difficult at first but as the season wore on and there were no men to cultivate the crops and pick the fruit the farmers in desperation turned to the women. During the spring and summer of 1918 the Woman's Land Army was organized in thirty States, and about 15,000 women were placed on the land, 10,000 in units and 5,000 in emergency groups. The majority of these women had had no previous experience and most of them could receive little training but they did practically every kind of farm labor, ploughing, planting, cultivating and harvesting. They cut, stacked and loaded hay, corn and rye and filled the silos; worked on big western farms and orchards, dairy farms, truck farms, private estates and home gardens; did poultry work, beekeeping and teaming; learned to handle tractors, harvesters and other farm machinery. Their efficiency is best proved by the change of attitude from skepticism to enthusiastic appreciation on the part of the farmers for whom they worked."
​Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Bagley, continued her report of the preceding year of the work in connection with the Councils of Defense of the several States "by means of the local machinery of the various suffrage organizations." She urged the teaching of English to aliens as the first step in Americanization, with emphasis on the point that the immigrant women must not be left out. "This Americanization is a function peculiarly appropriate to suffragists," she said, "as a woman married to an alien must herself forever remain an alien unless her husband becomes a citizen, and as the States enfranchise women hundreds of thousands will still be left without the vote. Every married alien whom suffragists help to take out naturalization papers means not only a vote for him but also for his wife.
During the convention in December, 1917, the plan for Oversea Hospitals was presented to the delegates by Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany of New York, at the request of Mrs. Catt, the national president, to whom the matter had been suggested by the action of the Scottish Suffrage Societies in sending to France in 1914 the Scottish Women's Hospitals, units managed and staffed entirely by women, and was accepted. Mrs. Tiffany was made chairman of the Hospital Committee and Mrs. Raymond Brown director of the work in France. At the convention of March, 1919, in St. Louis, Mrs. Brown made a full report, from which the following is an extract.
"At its convention in 1917 the National Suffrage Association, as part of its war work, agreed to support a hospital unit in France and undertook to raise $125,000 for its maintenance for a year. This unit was already in process of organization by a group of women physicians of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children and was to be composed entirely of women. Since the U. S. Government does not accept women in its Medical Reserve Corps, and at that time neither it nor the Red Cross was sending women surgeons for service abroad, the unit was offered to the French Government, which accepted it by cable. The first group of the unit sailed on Feb. 17, 1918, and expected to establish a hospital for refugees in the devastated area. Before they could be installed the villages to which they had been assigned were taken in a new drive by the Germans and about ​half the group, headed by Dr. Caroline Finley, was suddenly called upon for hospital service within the war zone. The hospital to which they were assigned was evacuated before they could reach it and they were finally placed in Chateau Ognon, a few miles north of Senlis on the road to Compiégne.
"Soon after the first group was sent into the war zone, the French Government asked the remainder of the unit to go to the Department of Landes in the south of France in order to establish there a hospital for refugees. The Germans were still advancing and as the refugees poured into the south the government was trying to build villages of barracks for them. When Dr. Alice Gregory with a group of fifteen women, including a carpenter, plumber, chemist and chauffeur, reached Labouheyre, early in April, a site had still to be found for the hospital and the buildings were still to be built, furnished and equipped. The barracks were erected in due time by the government; the equipment was the gift of the American Red Cross; the planning, directing purchasing and installing were done by our women. Dr. Marie Formad was finally put in charge. Later, at the request of the French Service de Sante, a 300-bed hospital unit for gas cases was organized by the Women's Oversea Hospitals and was started on its way from America to France. This was the first hospital unit exclusively for gas cases and had a personnel solely of women. Its principal group in Lorraine cared for 19,307 cases in three months."
The Oversea Hospitals service was divided and sent from point to point to answer the many demands of war, having charge of hospitals and treating tens of thousands of cases. "With the signing of the Armistice,' Mrs. Brown's report said, "the great problem in France became the care of refugees and repatriates, who were returning at the rate of thousands a day, most of them utterly destitute and in need of medical care, to homes in many cases completely destroyed." The hospital and dispensary service was therefore continued. Dr. Finley and her group were sent to Germany and here met the returned prisoners of war, who were in desperate condition.
"The work of the Oversea Hospitals has been handled with great economy," the report said, "and has cost less than was an​ticipated, both because of the large amount of volunteer work and because the units in French military hospitals received French rations. The State suffrage organizations have contributed most generously." A list was furnished of the trucks and ambulances given by the women's organizations in the United States. "The total number of women sent to France with the hospitals was seventy-four, who came from all parts of the United States. Several of the doctors received the French equivalent of a commission; three obtained the Croix de Guerre and two were decorated with the Medaille d'Honneur."
The report of Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer of the National Association, given at the convention, stated that funds for the hospitals service to the amount of $133,340 had passed through her hands. Their disbursement, carefully audited, is published in the Handbook of the association for 1918, page 111.
At the annual convention of the National Suffrage Association held in Chicago, in February, 1920, the report of Mrs. Rogers stated that Oversea Hospitals funds to the amount of $178,000 had passed through the treasury and a balance of $35,000 remained. (See Handbook, page 116.) The question of the disposition of this balance was put to the convention, which voted that it be divided equally between the work in France of the Women's Oversea Hospitals and the American Hospital for French Wounded in Rheims. Mrs. Tiffany, chairman of the committee, and Mrs. Brown, director in France, made a final report to the convention, stating that the work in France was continued until September 1, 1919, in order to care for the French disabled soldiers, and to maintain hospitals, dental clinics, dispensaries, ambulances, motor cars, etc. Such work proceeded in connection with the American Fund for French Wounded. The principal group was transferred from Lorraine to Rheims in April, with Dr. Marie Lefort still in charge. On September 1, with its mission finished, the hospital and all its equipment were presented to the American Fund for French Wounded. The Mayor sent a letter to Dr. Lefort which said in part: "The Municipality of Rheims would like to express to you and the Women's Oversea Hospitals its profound gratitude for the splendid assistance you have given our population. France and the city of ​Rheims are deeply moved." The full equipment of the smaller hospital groups was given to the French government for its own hospital service. Dr. Caroline Finley returned to the U. S. in August, still a Lieutenant in the French Army. The Prince of Wales, who was in New York, invited her on board H. M. S. Renown, where he conferred on her the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her work at Metz, where British prisoners stricken with influenza were cared for as they arrived from German prison-camps.
This ends the story of the Women's Oversea Hospitals, for which the National Suffrage Association willingly raised nearly $200,000 at the crisis in its own fifty-year movement. Desks for suffrage work were vacant over all the country while their occupants were cheerfully giving their best service to the demands of the war. For the vast majority this took the forms indicated by the above committee reports. In addition there were the activities of money-raising; caring for children and other dependents; safeguarding public health; the usual tasks of nursing and other Red Cross work; the distribution of food administration pledge cards, the organizing of food committees in all townships under the direction of district captains, with "clean-up" days and "elimination of waste days in counties; canning demonstrations throughout communities; alloting and directing garden plots; holding normal training schools to teach gardening; making collections for the Red Cross and other war funds, with countless other activities. Liberty Bonds in the second, third and fourth campaigns to the amount of one-fourth of the total sales were disposed of through the National Suffrage Association, its State branches and women throughout the country.
While the suffragists were devoting themselves to war-service they did not lay down arms for their own cause, which had reached a stage where further delay was impossible. There was a general tacit understanding that, while the war needs of their country were and should be uppermost, their hands must never relinquish the suffrage throttle, and the double tasks of war work and suffrage work were undertaken in a fine spirit of devotion to both. Nevertheless, the anti-suffrage women seized upon the ​occasion to accuse them of disloyalty, pacifism, pro-Germanism and of placing the interests of woman suffrage above those of the nation! These attacks were repeatedly made in the press and on the platform, Mrs. Catt, the president of the National Association, being especially the victim. At times they grew so virulent that it became necessary to answer them through the newspapers.
Her letters were published with headlines and widely quoted. One of these letters, under date of Oct. 2, 1917, addressed to Mrs. Margaret C. Robinson of Cambridge, Mass., chairman of the press committee of the National Anti-Suffrage Association, began: "My attention has been called to the fact that you are circulating by public letter and bulletin various statements that impugn my loyalty as an American and thereby put in jeopardy my good name and reputation. 'These assertions are made by you either with wilful intent to injure my name and standing in the community or without having made an effort to establish their proof. I hereby set forth the facts which have been distorted by you into untruths, either by contrary statements or by implications." It ended: "In the name of our common womanhood, I ask you to meet the suffrage issue fairly and squarely, and I warn you that for personal attacks tending to injure my name or those of my fellow-workers, you will be held responsible."
Another letter dated Nov. 1, 1917, addressed by Mrs. Catt to Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., president of the Anti-Suffrage Association; Mrs. Robinson and Miss Alice Hill Chittenden, president of the New York State Anti-Suffrage Association, took up and refuted the charges saying: 'To every single and collective insinuation, implication or direct charge, published or spoken in any place at any time by professional anti-suffrage campaigners, which has conveyed the impression that I or any other officially responsible leader of the National Suffrage Association has by word or deed been disloyal to our country, I make complete and absolute denial here and now." It said in closing: "In this connection I wish to call your attention to the fact that the late John Hay, the father of the president of the National Association of Anti-suffragists, had his own experiences with people who challenged his loyalty and 'cursed me,' he says, 'for being the tool of England.' In May, 1898, when our country ​was at war with Spain, John Hay actually had the temerity to draft a peace project, although he knew, so he said, that he 'would be lucky if he escaped lynching for it.' Are you willing to apply to Mrs. Wadsworth's father the chain of alleged reasoning that you apply to me, and, because of his great faith in and hope for peace, call him a traitor to his country?"
These letters had no effect on the abuse and misrepresentation of the suffragists but the charges were continued by the leaders of the "antis" until after the close of the war. There can be no doubt that the splendid war work of the suffragists was a principal factor in the submission and ratification of the Federal Amendment. Their instant and universal response in New York to the call of the Government, and later the actual conscription of all women over sixteen years of age by the Governor, proved that not only were women capable of war service but actually liable for it. 'These facts were largely responsible for the big majority vote cast by the men for woman suffrage in November, 1917, and the action of this great State paved the way for the success of the Federal Amendment in Congress.
It is impossible in this brief space to set forth the achievements of the Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense, whose chairman, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was honorary president of, the National American Woman Suffrage Association and had been for eleven years its president; two of whose members, Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick, were now its president and vice-president, while five of the remaining eight were prominent suffragists. Its accomplishments were on so large a scale and embodied so much important detail that only a full review could do them justice. The facts attested to the work of an organization which built up branches in forty-eight States comprising 18,000 component units and capable in at least one instance of reaching as many as 82,000 women in a single State. The reader is referred to the excellent account by Mrs. Emily Newell Blair—The Woman's Committee, United States Council of National Defense, an interpretative report. (Government Printing Office.)
From the time Dr. Shaw called the first meeting, May 2, 1917, to the middle of March, 1919, the committee labored unceasingly to perform its great task. On New Year's Day, 1918, a telegram ​to Dr. Shaw from Queen Mary expressed the "thanks of the women of the British Empire for the inspiring words of encouragement and assurance from the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense of America."
On Nov. 11, 1918, the Armistice was signed and on the 18th representatives of New York organizations of women met in the ball-room of the Hotel McAlpin at the call of Mrs. Catt. The second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, presided and Mrs. Catt offered the following resolution:
"Whereas, the great war just ended has been a partnership of all the people of all belligerent countries composing two vast armies, one of soldiers in the trenches and one of civilians who formed a second line of defense to supply the needs of the fighters, thus making it possible to fight; and whereas, the war could not have been carried to a victorious conclusion without the aid of women in civilian activities, as is shown by the testimony of men in high authority in every belligerent land; and whereas, all truly civilized, intelligent people now wish to make a final end of war and to organize the forces of civilization so as to make future war impossible; and whereas, women compose half of society with very special and peculiar interests to be conserved and protected—all too frequently overlooked by men—therefore
Resolved, that we urge the President of the United States to give women adequate representation on the United States delegation to the Peace Conference to meet in Paris. We urge him to select women whose broad experience and sympathies render them competent to support and defend every point which bears upon the establishment of liberty for all the peoples of the world and especially upon the proper protection of women and children in peace and war. We urge him to select women who may be relied upon to uphold free representative institutions, based upon the will of the people in every land in which independence is established, in order that democratic institutions may make an end of war."
No attention was paid to this resolution by the President or the Government and no women were appointed on the Peace delegation as a recognition of their work and sacrifice.
The Woman's Committee gradually closed up its affairs and ​at a meeting on Feb. 12, 1919, Dr, Shaw was instructed to write to the Secretary of War that it believed its work to be at an end and tendered its resignation to take effect when, in the judgment of his Council, its services should no longer be required. This resignation was accepted by President Wilson on February 27 with a splendid tribute to the work of the committee. The announcement was formally made on March 15, and the committee passed out of existence. Two of its members, the chairman and the resident director, Miss Hannah J. Patterson, received from the Government in May the distinguished service medal.
Secretary of War Newton D. Baker in a Foreword to Mrs. Blair's report said: "The chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense from the beginning was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw—ripened by a long life devoted intensely to the advocacy of great causes; cheered and heartened by recent victories for the greatest cause for which she had fought in her long and unusual life; loved and honored by her sex as their leader and by men as a citizen combining in a rare degree high qualities of intellect, force of character and persuasive eloquence in speech. She and her committee wrought a work the like of which had never been seen before, and her reward was to see its success and then to be caught up as she was engaged in another high and fierce conflict into which she threw herself when hostilities ceased in order that this great work might be but a helpful part of a greater thing in the hope and history of mankind.... The Woman's Committee was the leader of the women of America. It informed and broadened the minds of women everywhere, and with no thought of propaganda it made an argument by producing results. The Council of National Defense fades out of this work and the Woman's Committee looms large—and yet larger still is the American woman...."
It was the earnest desire of Dr. Shaw and the suffragists that she might now give her important services to the Federal Suffrage Amendment, which was at a critical stage, but this hope could not be realized. Former President Taft and President ​Lowell of Harvard University, both of whom had done valuable work for the Peace Treaty and the League of Nations, were starting in May, 1919, on a speaking tour to advocate the League in fifteen States and they urged Dr. Shaw to cancel all other engagements and join them on this tour. For two years she had been giving her time and labor without price and now she had commenced again to fill her own lecture dates. She was going later to Spain as the guest of Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, for a well-earned and much-needed rest, but at this call everything was given up willingly and cheerfully to continue her service to her country. As the tour was arranged, every night was to be spent on a sleeping car and Dr. Shaw was to speak only once in twenty-four hours. She could not, however, resist the pleading of people in different cities and at Indianapolis she filled eight engagements of various kinds in one day. The following day at Springfield, Ills., she succumbed to her old foe, pneumonia. She received every possible care in the hospital and after two weeks recovered sufficiently to make the journey to her home at Moylan, Pennsylvania. She had, however, put too great a strain on her vital forces and died July 2, at the age of seventy-two.
Whatever may have been the unthinking verdict passed upon suffragists and their activities prior to the World War, it was thereafter widely acknowledged that in the national crisis they played a leading role in the support and defense of the nation. While it is a matter for regret that their war record cannot be chronicled as fully and definitely as can their work for suffrage, nevertheless, even a casual examination will show that it was a heroic one and none the less so because it was frequently merged, through far-sighted efficiency, in the war-service of all American women, of which it formed a distinguished part.
* ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, first vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and general chairman of its War Service Department.
* ↑ It was a question long and seriously discussed whether this vast organization should be wholly dissolved or whether it should be continued in the various States for civic and humanitarian purposes. Dr. Shaw was strongly in favor of preserving it and her earnest appeal will be found in Mrs. Biair's Report, page 137.