Double postals asking individuals their opinion of the suffrage movement were sent to the members of the Legislature; to city, county and State officials from San Diego to Siskiyou; to judges, lawyers, merchants, bankers, physicians and all prominent visitors within the gates of the city. Their answers were from time to time printed in the form of interviews. Letters went to club women in every town asking for cooperation in securing s.p.a.ce for suffrage material in the local press. Personal letters were sent to all the editors informing them that a weekly suffrage letter would be sent to them from the headquarters of the league.
This contained nothing but the shortest, pithiest items of suffrage activities and enclosed were the leaflets which were often printed in full. At the close of the campaign more than half of the papers of the State regularly used the letter either as news or as a basis for editorial comment. In Los Angeles alone more than 10,000 columns were printed on suffrage. In monetary value this amount of s.p.a.ce would have cost $100,000. The last week before election a cut of the ballot showing the position of the suffrage amendment was sent to 150 newspapers of the South with a letter offering the editor $5 for its publication but many printed it without compensation....
The majorities from the country districts won the victory by counteracting the immense majority rolled up against the amendment in San Francisco and thus proved that the country residents are most satisfactorily reached by the country press.
The anti-suffragists made a more open fight in California than ever before. A month preceding election a Committee of Fifty was organized in Los Angeles composed of the reactionary elements, men representing "big business," corporation lawyers, a number connected with the Southern Pacific R.R., some socially prominent. The only one known nationally was former U. S. Senator Frank P. Flint. The president was a Southerner, George S. Patten, who wrote long articles using the arguments and objections employed in the very earliest days of the suffrage movement sixty years ago. They claimed to have thousands of members but never held a meeting and depended on intimidation by their rather formidable list of names of local influence.
The Women"s a.s.sociation Opposed to Woman Suffrage was more active. It was formed in Los Angeles, with Mrs. George A. Caswell, head of a fashionable school for girls, as its president. It organized also in Northern California with Mrs. C. L. G.o.ddard president and Mrs.
Benjamin Ide Wheeler heading the list of honorary presidents. Both branches had a long list of officers, some with social prestige, and maintained headquarters. They also claimed to have a large membership but held only parlor and club meetings. The National Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation sent its secretary, Miss Minnie Bronson, to speak, write, organize and have charge of headquarters. Mrs. William Force Scott came as a speaker from New York. The a.s.sociation was not an important factor in the campaign.
Theodore Roosevelt lectured in California in the spring of 1911. He had been in the State twice in preceding years and each time had referred disparagingly to woman suffrage. During the present visit he spoke in the Greek Theater at the State University in Berkeley to an audience of 10,000 on March 25 and the San Francisco _Examiner_ of the next morning said in its report:
Here is what Colonel Roosevelt said on the burning question of woman suffrage:
"A short time ago I was handed a letter from the president of an Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation asking me to speak in behalf of it. I have always told my friends that it seemed to me that no man was worth his salt who didn"t think deeply of woman"s rights and no woman was worth her salt who didn"t think more of her duties than of her rights. Personally I am tepidly in favor of woman suffrage. I have studied the condition of women in those States where that right is exercised but I have never been able to take a great interest in it because it always seemed to me so much less important than so many other questions affecting women. I don"t think the harm will come of it that its opponents expect, and I don"t think that one-half of one per cent. of the good will come from it that its friends expect. It is not a millionth part as important as keeping and reviving the realization that the great work of women must be done in the home. The ideal woman of the future as of the past is the good wife and mother, able to train numbers of healthy children."
There were flourishing suffrage societies in all parts of the State.
An Equal Suffrage League had been formed in San Francisco from a consolidation of suffrage clubs, with a large membership of men and women, Mrs. Mary T. Gamage, president. With its various committees it was an active force throughout the campaign. Great a.s.sistance was rendered by the Woman"s Christian Temperance Union, as had been the case in 1896. During the fifteen years" interval it had been carrying on a steady work of education through its local unions and their members were among the most active in the suffrage clubs also. So complete was the cooperation that they took off their white ribbon badges toward the end of the campaign to disarm prejudice. Mrs. Keith, president of the Berkeley Club, hired a house in the central part of town for eight months as headquarters and Mrs. Hester Harland was installed as manager. An advisory committee was formed of Mrs. George W. Haight, Mrs. John Snook, Mrs. Fred G. Athearn, Mrs. Irving M.
Scott, Jr., Dr. Helen Waterman, Mrs. Samuel C. Haight, Mrs. Aaron Schloss, Mrs. T. B. Sears, Mrs. C. C. Hall, Mrs. Frank F. Bunker, a.s.sisted by many others toward the close of the campaign. Mrs. J. B.
Hume and Miss Blanche Morse toured the State as speakers and organizers. Mrs. Keith herself spoke on a number of special occasions.
Mrs. Watson spoke night and day for three weeks in Sacramento Valley; at Chico to an audience of 3,000.[15]
The Central Campaign Committee was created in July, three months before election, consisting of one member from each of the five princ.i.p.al campaign organizations in San Francisco doing State work.
Mrs. Watson Taylor, daughter of the president, represented the State Equal Suffrage a.s.sociation; Mrs. Aylett Cotton, the Clubwoman"s Franchise League; Mrs. Robert A. Dean, the Woman Suffrage Party; Miss Maud Younger, the Wage Earners" League and Mrs. Deering the College League. This committee was formed at the suggestion of Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw of New York, who visited San Francisco with her husband in January, for the purpose of having all the organizations share in the money and workers sent by the New York Woman Suffrage Party. Over $1,000 were received from it, of which $500 came from General Horace Carpentier, a former Californian and ex-mayor of Oakland, sent through Mr. Laidlaw. The Men"s New York League sent $200; the Rochester Political Equality Club, $280; Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt $300. New York suffragists also paid the railroad expenses of the three organizers and speakers whom they sent and Chicago suffragists paid the travelling expenses of Mrs. McCulloch, who contributed her services.
From outside States came Miss Helen Todd, former factory inspector of Illinois; Miss Margaret Haley of Chicago; Miss Jeannette Rankin of Montana; Mrs. Helen Hoy Greeley, Mrs. A. C. Fisk and Mrs. John Rogers of New York; Mrs. Mary Stanislawsky of Nevada; Mrs. Alma Lafferty, member of the Colorado Legislature. These speakers were sent throughout Northern California.
The chairman of the Press Committee, Mrs. Deering, had been carrying on the press work steadily for the past five years and hundreds of papers were ready to support the amendment. Before the end of the brief campaign, under her efficient management, almost every paper of prominence either endorsed it or remained silent. The Los Angeles _Express_, Sacramento _Bee_, _Star_ and _Union_, the San Jose _Mercury_, the Oakland _Enquirer_, the San Francisco _Bulletin_ and the _Daily News_ were especially helpful. James H. Barry, editor of the _Star_, was an unfailing advocate. The _Call_ made a sustained fight for it and the _Examiner_ and _Post_ advised a vote in favor.
The German papers were outspokenly opposed. The _Chronicle_ in San Francisco, owned by M. H. De Young, and the _Times_, in Los Angeles, by Harrison Grey Otis, were relentless opponents. Much a.s.sistance was rendered in the Legislature and the campaign by E. A. d.i.c.kson, a prominent journalist of Los Angeles. The women connected with the press were sympathetic and helpful.
A most important feature of this remarkable campaign was the work of the College Equal Suffrage League of Northern California, which had been organized in 1909 for educational work among college women. When the suffrage amendment was submitted in February, 1911, the league decided to go actively into the campaign. The officers elected in May were as follows: Miss Charlotte Anita Whitney (Wellesley), president; Dr. Adelaide Brown (Smith), first vice-president; Miss Caroline Cook Jackson (Cornell), second; Miss Lillien J. Martin (Va.s.sar), third; Miss Belle Judith Miller (California), recording secretary; Miss Genevieve Cook (California Woman"s Hospital), corresponding secretary; Mrs. Genevieve Allen (Stanford), executive secretary; Dr. Anna Rude (Cooper Medical College), treasurer; Dr. Rachel L. Ash (California), delegate to Council. Directors: Miss Ethel Moore (Va.s.sar); Mrs. Mabel Craft Deering (California); Miss Kate Ames (Stanford); Mrs. Carlotta Case Hall (Elmira); Miss Frances W. McLean (California); Mrs. Thomas Haven (California); Dr. Kate Brousseau (University of Paris); Mrs. C.
H. Howard (California).[16]
Altogether $2,075 were sent to the league from the East. Its total receipts were $11,030 in fixed sums and the personal donations of its working members in telegrams, postage, car fare, expressage, use of automobiles, etc., amounted to thousands. At a meeting held in Oakland Miss Sylvia Pankhurst spoke to more than a thousand persons who had paid for their seats.
Every legitimate method of campaigning was used, beginning with the printing of 900,000 leaflets. There were posters and all kinds of designs; city circularizing of the most thorough kind in many languages; pageants, plays, concerts and public social functions; the placarding of city bill boards over miles of country; advertising of every possible kind; huge electric and other signs; long weeks of automobile campaigning in the country and the villages; special speakers for all sorts of organizations; a handsome float in the labor day parade; speaking at vaudeville shows--there was no cessation of these eight months" strenuous work. The campaigning in Sacramento was in charge of Mrs. Mary Roberts Coolidge, a.s.sisted by Mrs. E. V.
Spencer, against great odds, but the city gave a small favorable majority, due chiefly to the union labor vote.
During the last six months the College League held more than fifty public meetings in halls in San Francisco, the audiences at the larger ones varying from 1,300 to 10,000 with hundreds turned away. The Rev.
Charles F. Aked, the brilliant English orator, had just come from New York and he made his first appearance outside of his pulpit at a suffrage ma.s.s meeting in Savoy Theater, donated by the John Cort management, and afterwards he could not refuse to speak at other meetings. His debate with Colonel John P. Irish in the Valencia Theater just before election was one of the great features of the campaign. One of the most important meetings, with 1,500 present, was addressed by the eloquent young priest, the Rev. Joseph M. Gleason, with the boxes reserved for prominent Catholics. Rabbi Martin H. Meyer was one of the strong speakers. At the meeting in the beautiful new auditorium of Scottish Rite Hall Mrs. Alexander Morrison, president of the National Collegiate Alumnae, was in the chair and among the speakers were Dr. Aked, William C. Ralston, U. S. Sub-Treasurer; Mrs.
W. W. Douglas and Albert H. Elliott. In the Italian theater was held the largest meeting of a political nature known to that quarter, addressed by Emilio Lastredo, a prominent banking attorney; Ettore Patrizi, editor of the daily _L"Italia_; Mr. Elliott, Miss Margaret Haley and Mayor J. St.i.tt Wilson of Berkeley. A second great suffrage meeting a.s.sembled there again, at which Mme. Adelina Dosenna of La Scala, Milan, sang. The culmination was the ma.s.s meeting in Dreamland Rink, the largest auditorium in the city. Mrs. Lowe Watson, president of the State a.s.sociation, introduced by George A. Knight, was in the chair. There were 6,000 in the audience and 4,000 on the outside, whom Mrs. Greeley and other speakers kept in a good humor. These were Mrs.
McCulloch, Dr. Aked, John I. Nolan, union labor leader; Mr. Wilson, Miss Todd, Miss Laughlin and Rabbi Meyer.
The campaign closed with a "business men"s meeting" in Cort"s Theater from 12 to 1:30 p. m. the day before election. The theater was crowded and it was necessary to begin before noon. For several hours the speakers held forth to an audience changing every half hour. Mr.
Elliott presided and the speakers were F. G. Athearn of the Southern Pacific R. R.; Dr. Aked, Mr. Wilson, R. C. Van Fleet, Miss Todd and A.
L. Sapiro. Then came the climax to the campaign when Mrs. Ernestine Black stepped forward and announced that Mme. Lilian Nordica would speak for woman suffrage and sing in Union Square that evening!
The great prima donna had come to San Francisco to sing at the ground-breaking for the Panama Exposition and in an ever-generous spirit agreed to give her matchless services to the cause in which she was deeply interested. The crowds were packed for blocks in every direction and suffrage speakers were addressing them from automobiles when Madame Nordica stood up in ma.s.ses of flowers in Union Square opposite the St. Francis Hotel and very simply made her plea for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of California women. Then her glorious voice rang out to the very edges of the throng in the stirring notes of the Star Spangled Banner. The campaign was over.
The amendment went to the voters Oct. 10, 1911. It was most important to watch the vote in San Francisco and Oakland, as their expected adverse vote would have to be counteracted by the rest of the State if the suffrage amendment carried. Oakland was put in charge of Mrs.
Coolidge, who had a corps of efficient helpers in the members of the Amendment League, composed of old residents of Oakland, who had been engaged for many years in church, temperance and other social work, among them Mrs. Sarah C. Borland, Mrs. Agnes Ray, Mrs. A. A. Dennison, Mrs. Emma Shirtzer, Mrs. Jean Kellogg, Mrs. F. M. Murray and Mrs. F.
Harlan. Of these league members 240 stood at the polls twelve hours, not half enough of them but they were treated with the greatest respect and undoubtedly they helped reduce the adverse majority. This work was paralleled in Berkeley, Alameda and other places around the bay.
Four weeks before election two representatives of each of the nine suffrage a.s.sociations of San Francisco met and placed in the capable hands of Miss Laughlin the difficult task of looking after the election in that city and this committee of eighteen acted as an executive board for carrying out her plans. Her management received the highest commendation from political leaders. Dr. Mary Sperry and Misses Miriam and Julie Michelson were a permanent office force and Miss Schlingheyde, Mrs. Chapin and Miss Sullivan carried much of the work. The Woman Suffrage Party gave the use of its headquarters in the Lick building. The State a.s.sociation and the clubs of San Francisco contributed about $1,500. A captain was appointed for each district who selected her precinct captains and was supplied with an automobile. Connection was established with the chairmen throughout the counties and all were charged to "watch the count." On election day and the next day $94 were spent for telegrams. To nearby places experienced workers were rushed when the word came of dishonest election officials. There were 1,066 volunteer workers in San Francisco, 118 of them men. On election day hundreds reported for duty before 6 o"clock and after standing at the polls twelve hours many went into the booths and kept tally of the count until midnight. In Oakland Pinkerton men were hired to watch it and in San Francisco the vault where the ballots were deposited was watched for two days and nights.
The vote in San Francisco was 21,912 ayes, 35,471 noes, an adverse majority of 13,559, and even the imperfect watching of the women detected a fraudulent count of 3,000. In Oakland there were 6,075 ayes, 7,818 noes, an adverse majority of 1,743. Berkeley alone of the places around the bay came in victorious with 2,417 ayes, 1,761 noes, a favorable majority of 656. Los Angeles, which in 1896 had given a majority of about 4,600 in favor, returned 15,708 ayes, 13,921 noes, a majority of only 1,787. On election night and for two days following the suffragists judged from the vote in the cities that they were defeated but the favorable returns from the villages, the country districts and the ranches came slowly in and when the count was finally completed it was found that out of a total of 246,487 votes the suffrage amendment had been carried by 3,587, an average majority of one in every voting precinct in the State.[17]
With the winning of this old, wealthy and influential State the entire movement for woman suffrage pa.s.sed the crisis and victory in the remaining western States was sure to be a matter of a comparatively short time. As soon as the result was certain Mrs. Watson, the State president; Mrs. Sperry and Miss Whitney, representing Northern, and Mr. and Mrs. Braly, Mrs. Ringrose and Mrs. French, Southern California, went to Louisville, Ky., to carry the report to the convention of the National a.s.sociation, of which this State had forty-five life members, more than any other except New York.
No State convention had been held in 1911 but one was called to meet in San Francisco in January, 1912, and it was decided to maintain the State a.s.sociation to a.s.sist the work in neighboring States. Mrs.
William Keith was made president and the officers and executive committee held all day monthly meetings in her home for several years.
After the National League of Women Voters was formed in 1919, when Congress was about to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment, a meeting was held on Feb. 12, 1920, and a California branch was formed with Mrs. Robert J. Burdette as chairman.
The demand of the newly enfranchised women for guidance and knowledge was met at once by the College League, which reorganized in November, 1911, and became the California Civic League for social service, education for citizenship and the promotion of just legislation. The excellent work of Miss Charlotte Anita Whitney was recognized by continuing her as president of the new league from 1911 to 1914. It is composed of about twenty-five centers in the cities and towns of Northern California, with a membership of nearly 4,000 and many centers wield a strong influence in munic.i.p.al affairs.
The Women"s Legislative Council of California was organized in December, 1912, the outgrowth of the Legislative Committee of the State Federation of Women"s Clubs. This council, which is non-sectarian, non-partisan and non-political, is in reality a Central Committee of State, county and some local organizations--about sixty in all--representing a membership of over 100,000 women. Its purpose is to coordinate the efforts and concentrate the influence of women"s organizations behind a legislative program, especially for the benefit of women and children. A list of at least thirty excellent laws since the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women have been either directly sponsored by this council or greatly aided by the efforts of women.[18]
s.p.a.ce can not be given for local societies but the suffrage history of California seems to require the mention of one--the Susan B. Anthony Club. It was formed in the hour of defeat In 1896 in honor of the great pioneer, who had worked with the California women through all that long campaign, and in order to hold together some of those who had shared in the toil and the disappointment. The club was formed in the home of Mrs. Mary S. Sperry in San Francisco and she was its president many years. Other presidents were Mrs. Sargent, wife of U.
S. Senator Sargent, who in 1878 first introduced the Federal Suffrage Amendment; Mrs. Swift, wife of John F. Swift, Minister to j.a.pan; Mrs.
William Keith, wife of the distinguished artist; Mrs. Isabel A.
Baldwin and Mrs. Nellie Holbrook Blinn, all officers of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation also at different times. Dr. Alida C. Avery was its treasurer and Mrs. Sarah G. Pringle its press representative for a number of years. Its membership comprised many influential women, it held regular meetings and was a liberal contributor to suffrage work in California and other States. In 1911, when all the suffrage clubs were disbanding, this one remained in existence and continued to hold social meetings for many years.
In 1916-17 the Committee of Political Science of the State Federation of Women"s Clubs, Mrs. Seward A. Simons, president, made a Survey of the results of five years of woman suffrage in California, which was widely circulated. It was a most valuable resume of the registration and the vote of women, the legislation they had obtained, the offices they had held, their service on juries, their political work and the effect of the suffrage on women and on public life. A very complete report was made also by Mrs. Coolidge, president of the Civic League.
LEGISLATIVE AND CONVENTION ACTION. 1901. A bill for School suffrage was defeated.
1905. A resolution to submit a const.i.tutional amendment was defeated in both Houses by large majorities. A bill legalizing prize fighting was pa.s.sed the same day.
1906. A Suffrage State Central Committee of twenty-one competent workers was organized, Mrs. Lillian Harris Coffin, chairman, Mrs.
Katharine Reed Balentine, secretary, and it continued its activities in behalf of an amendment to the State const.i.tution for the next five years. The plan was to secure its endors.e.m.e.nt by all conventions and organizations and have it incorporated in the platforms of the political parties and the Central Committee was divided into sub-committees with representatives in every part of the State. The Executive of this Central Committee, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, Mrs. Nellie Holbrook Blinn, Mrs. Helen Moore and Mrs. Coffin, were the delegates to the State Republican convention in Santa Cruz in 1906, which was completely under the control of the "machine." It was at this convention that the "insurgent" sentiment began to crystallize into the "progressive" movement. Woman suffrage was not put in the platform. James G. Gillette, nominated for Governor, approached the women and pledged himself, if elected, to do all he could to carry through the amendment. Later, at Sacramento, the Democratic convention, under the leadership of Thomas E. Hayden, Albert Johnson, Max Popper and John Sweeny, incorporated the amendment in the platform. It was placed in the platform of the Labor party, Miss Maud Younger and Mrs. Francis S. Gibson a.s.sisting the Legislative Committee.
1907. The Legislature of this year was the last under the complete domination of the corrupt political forces. The graft prosecution in San Francisco was in full swing, the result of which was an awakened public conscience. Every legislator had been interviewed and the San Francisco delegation was pledged in favor of the suffrage amendment.
It was introduced by Senator Leroy Wright of San Diego and in the House of Grove L. Johnson of Sacramento the first week of the session.
Mrs. Coffin, Mrs. Moore and Thomas E. Hayden, an attorney retained by the State a.s.sociation, were the lobby maintained in Sacramento during the entire session. The amendment was reported favorably out of committee in both Houses. When the roll was called in the House it was discovered that the San Francisco delegates had received orders and the entire delegation voted "no." The result was a bare majority and not two-thirds. On demand of the suffrage lobby Mr. Johnson obtained reconsideration. When the vote was next taken it showed that the San Francisco delegation had been again instructed and voted solid for the amendment, giving the necessary two-thirds, 54 to 16. Thus was this city able to control every measure.
Then began the long struggle in the Senate. President pro tem. Edward I. Wolf of San Francisco and Senator J. B. Sanford of Ukiah, Republican and Democratic senior Senators, were bitter opponents of the amendment of long years" standing. After weeks of effort, with a deadlock of constantly changing votes and always "one more to get," it was decided to appeal to Governor Gillette to redeem his pledge of help and Mrs. Coffin and Mr. Hayden called upon him at the Capitol. He received them without rising or inviting them to be seated and wholly repudiated the promises he had made to the women at the Republican convention, saying he was only fooling! The amendment went down to defeat, lacking two votes.
1908. The Democratic convention in Stockton in 1908 again incorporated the amendment in the platform. The Labor convention did likewise, Mrs.
Edith DeLong Jarmuth rendering valuable service on the committee. The convention of the Republican party, the dominant one, was held in Oakland. The Suffrage State Central Committee opened headquarters at the Hotel Metropole simultaneously with the Republicans, much to their chagrin. Rooms were also opened in the Bacon Block, financed by the Oakland Amendment League, who were coming to lobby. Three hundred women marched in the first suffrage parade in the State behind a yellow silk suffrage banner, with the State coat of arms richly embroidered on it by Mrs. Theodore Pinther, who carried it to reserved seats in the front of the gallery of the McDonough Theater, where the convention was held. Mrs. Sperry, Mrs. Pease of Colorado and a committee of eight women representing as many separate interests had spoken before the Resolutions Committee the evening before, with two minutes allotted to each. Mrs. Josephine Manahan, Miss Younger, Mrs.
LaRue, Mrs. Barron and Mrs. O"Donnell composed the labor committee.
Filling the galleries and boxes the suffragists waited for the result.
In lieu of a suffrage plank the Republican chairman stepped forth and in his pleasantest manner thanked the women for their attendance, a.s.suring them that by their grace and beauty they had contributed materially to the success of the convention. Mrs. Pease, who was seated in the front row, rose and answered that the women were not there for bouquets but for justice and declined their thanks.
1909. This year the amendment was in the middle of the stream. It had the promise of support from individual members but the party leaders had declined a.s.sistance. The Progressives felt topheavy with reforms and feared to be overbalanced if it were adopted as part of their program. They had the majority in both Houses but failing to secure any part of the organization they were left off of all important committees and were on the outside. Apartments for the suffrage lobby, under the care of Mrs. E. L. Campbell, were opened near the Capitol.
Delegates from many parts of the State were constantly arriving to relieve the others, with the exception of Mrs. Coffin and Mrs. Moore, who were in constant attendance and with other members of the committees and Mrs. Elizabeth Lowe Watson, the president, carried the burden of the work. a.s.semblyman Johnson again introduced the amendment. A ruling was made, aimed at the women, that no lobbyists should be permitted on the floor of the a.s.sembly. To the amazement of every one the women began to secure votes. The Judiciary Committee recommended the amendment and it came up as a special order. Speaker Philip A. Stanton was an avowed opponent, as was a.s.semblyman J. P.
Transue, floor leader, both of Los Angeles. The San Francisco delegation, under the direction of a.s.semblyman J. J. McMa.n.u.s, lined up with them. The debate lasted an hour. a.s.semblymen Otis, Telfer, Juilliard and Hinkel were among those speaking for the amendment. The atmosphere seemed favorable but at 12 o"clock, when the vote should have been taken, to the amazement of its friends, Mr. Johnson moved for a recess until one o"clock. In that hour every possible pressure was brought to bear against the amendment. When the session reconvened the galleries were packed with persons there in the interest of the race-track bill and the suffrage lobby were compelled to sit on the steps. Without preliminaries the amendment went down to defeat, Mr.