The Colorado statesman., 1920-08-28

When Miss Anthony began talking
in public of "woman's rights" she was
derided and hissed by the men In her
audiences as "freak of nature" I'm.
dismayed she carried the campaign
to congress and to the states. During
the Civil war she demanded that won.
en- be given equal rights with the new.
ly enfranchised negroes. The answer
she got was: "This is the negro's
hour" For several years after the
Civil war Miss Anthony endeavored to
secure an Interpretation of the four
teenth and fifteenth amendments
which would allow women to vote.
Finally, in 1872 at Rochester, N. Y,
she tried to force an Interpretation by
voting at the polls. She was arrested
and fined. She refused to pay the
fine. but was not sent to jail.
In 1875 Miss Anthony drafted the
amendment to the Constitution which
has now been ratified. In 1873 the
amendment was introduced In the SEN
ate by Senator Sargent of California.
It was defeated in 1887 and thereafter
was not even debated in congress I'M
| til 1914.
During the years the constitutional
amendment campaign was making no
progress the women won many vic
tories in the states. They secured full
suffrage in Wyoming CS69), Colorado,
Utah and Idaho GS94, Washington
191O), California C1911), Kansas. Ari-
zona and Oregon (1912), Montana and
Nevada (1914. New York (191D, Ok
lahoma. South Dakota and Michigan
G91S). They won presidential suf-
frnge in Illinois Q913), Nebraska.
Rhode Island and North Dakota
(191D, Iowa. Wisconsin, Indiana,
Maine. Minnesota, Missouri and Ten
nessee (919 and Kentucky Q920.
Partial suffrage prevails in many Of
the states In Illinois, for example,
women vote for candidates for all Of
fees not mentioned by the state con-
stitution.
The National American Woman
Suffrage association in 1912 opened
headquarters in Washington and be-
gan an active campaign for the
passage of the amendment. In 1916
1t established branch headquarters
the amendment campaign.
The National Woman's party, or
ganized in 1910 by Alice Paul, estab-
lished Washington headquarters in
1913 and introduced the militant into
the campaign.
Alice Paul-the third Quakeress to
immortalize herself-is the spectacu-
@ 90 ha Str Opla
practical politician and developed the
deadliest card index on members OF
congress that practical politics has
ever seen. Pretty soon she was serv-
ing notice through the White House
pickets that the president was the
"man higher up" The arrest of near
ly 500 of these pickets and the IMPOSE
ton of jail sentences had no effect.
Incidentally Miss Paul herself served
seven terms in Jail.
The amendment was beaten three
times in the senate and once in the
house before it was finally passed by
the Sixty-sixth congress June 4, l9l9'
by the necessary two-thirds majority.
The resumption of woman suffrage
work after the Civil war was marked
by the organization in 1869 of two ma
tional organizations: National WOm-
an Suffrage association, with MIS-.
Stanton and Miss Anthony leaders ana
HEADQUARTERS in New York; American
Woman Suffrage association, with
Mary A. LivermOre. Julia Ward Howe
and Lucy Stone leaders and headquar-
ters in Boston. The line of division
was mis-: The former wished to
concentrate on the passage of con-
stitutional amendment; the latter
was in favor of obtaining the SUI
frage through amendments to state
constitutions. In 1890 the two organ
izations were united under the name
of National American Woman Suf-
fage Association, and work was
pushed along both lines of endeavor.
Mrs. Stanton was president until
1892. Miss Anthony served until
1900. resigning ut the age of eighty.
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Gait was its
head 19OO-19O4. DIR. Anna Howard
Shaw, recently deceased and possibly
best loved of all the leaders-a wom-
an of transcendent gifts and elo-
quence-was president until 1919.
Mrs. Gait was then again chosen.
Mrs. Frank Leslie left a large legacy
to Mrs. Gait to be used in the work.
The National association made ar
rangements at .he st. Louis conven-
ton of 1919 to dissolve its organlza-
tion and become the League of Wom-
en- Voters. These arrangements be-
came effective at the Chicago conven-
;n a