George. When the League of Women Voters was formed the next year Mrs.
Henderson was among the first to join it.
In 1919, the State Teachers" a.s.sociation pa.s.sed unanimously a resolution endorsing woman suffrage introduced by Professor Frederick Davis Mellen of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College, the son of the late Reverend Thomas L. Mellen, one of Mississippi"s earliest suffragists. The Woman"s Christian Temperance Union here as elsewhere was a great school for women, teaching them the need of the ballot, and the majority of its members were suffragists but all through the years the minority, who did not want the question brought into the Union, overruled their wishes. Mrs. Harriet B. Kells, the president for many years and a lifelong suffragist, was not able to overcome this situation and it never endorsed woman suffrage.
There never has been any organized opposition among Mississippi women.
During the session of the Legislature in 1920 there was an open attempt to organize opposition to ratification of the Federal Amendment but it failed.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION. After the suffrage a.s.sociation in 1913 decided to ask for the submission of an amendment to the State const.i.tution to enfranchise women the preliminary work of interviewing legislators and distributing appropriate literature was conducted by the chairman of the Legislative Committee, Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville, the president, Mrs. Annie Kinkead Dent, and other members. The president at her own expense sent the _Woman"s Journal_ and other literature to all legislators for three months. The concurrent resolution asking for the submission was introduced in the House Jan. 9, 1914, by N. A. Mott of Yazoo county. Senator Hall Sanders of Tallahatchie county offered it in the Senate three days later. The House Committee on Const.i.tution, to which the bill was referred, granted a hearing, at which speeches were made by Mrs. Monroe McClurg, Miss Belle Kearney, Mrs. Somerville, Miss Kate Gordon (La.), Judge Allen Thompson and Colonel Clay Sharkey. The committee reported unfavorably by a majority of one. A minority report was made by the chairman, Henry A. Minor of Noxubee county, and others. Representative Mott offered a resolution inviting the women to present their case in the House the next day, which was carried by a close vote about one o"clock in the afternoon and the hearing was set for ten the next morning. The _Daily News_ had gone to press and the _Clarion Ledger_, a morning paper, had some time before forbidden its columns to any news or notices in any way favoring woman suffrage or advertising it.
The president of the Equity League of Jackson, Mrs. J. W. Tucker, with her a.s.sistants, announced the hearing over the telephone, the legislators spread the story and when the women who were to speak filed into the House on that memorable morning of January 21 they found all available s.p.a.ce occupied and the galleries overflowing. An invitation was sent to the Senators to come over but so many had already deserted their posts for the House that there was not a quorum to vote on the invitation. Hilary Quin of Hinds county, Speaker of the House, presided, introducing the speakers and extending every possible courtesy. They were Mrs. McClurg, Miss Kearney, Miss Orr, Miss Gordon, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Dent and Mrs. Somerville. The speeches made so profound an impression that hardly had the last word been spoken when there came a loud and insistent call from the enemies for adjournment.
The bill was presented next day. Emmett Cavette of Noxubee county strongly championed it and Speaker Quin left the chair to make a speech in its favor. Representative S. Joe Owen of Union county vigorously led the fight against it and it was lost by 80 noes, 42 ayes.
In 1916 the women"s organizations united in a bill making women eligible to serve as county school superintendents and on the boards of educational and benevolent inst.i.tutions. During the session of 1918 the suffrage a.s.sociation being in the midst of war work took no initiative in behalf of legislation but Senator Earl Richardson of Neshoba county on his own account introduced in the Senate a concurrent resolution to amend the State const.i.tution. The members of the Equity League gave a.s.sistance; Mrs. Isaac Reese of Memphis was invited to come to the Capitol and on the day the vote was taken she and Miss Kearney made brief speeches before the Senate. On motion of Senator P. E. Carothers the question was submitted without debate, which was a disappointment to its friends, H. H. Casteel of Holmes county declaring that he had remained up nearly all of the night before preparing his speech. The vote was a tie, 21 to 21. The House took no action.
Through the years the officers and members of the State and local suffrage a.s.sociations united with those of other women"s organizations to obtain laws. The age of consent was raised first to 12, then to 16 and in 1914 to 18; better child labor laws were secured; the law permitting a father to dispose of the children by will at his death was repealed. It is a fact not generally known that Mississippi was the pioneer State in securing to married women the right to own and dispose of property. This was done by an Act of the Legislature on Feb. 15, 1839.
RATIFICATION. Congress submitted the Federal Amendment in June, and the Ratification Committee was organized in November. It opened its headquarters in Jackson at the beginning of the legislative session in January, 1920, after having made a whirlwind campaign. At the initial meeting of the committee in Clarksburg there had been great enthusiasm and women gave money as they never had done before. Mrs. B. F.
Saunders was made chairman and among those who worked with her in Jackson were Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. Trotter, Mrs. Sam Covington, Miss Blanche Rogers, Mrs. Thompson, Miss Kearney, Mrs. Annie Neely and Mrs.
Cunningham of Texas. The legislators were systematically interviewed, literature distributed, pet.i.tions circulated and the press kept supplied with arguments and news.
Mrs. Thompson, in charge of the Jackson press, wrote innumerable articles, and Mrs. Somerville and others contributed to the press work. Letters, telegrams and pet.i.tions from all over the State urging ratification poured in daily upon both Houses. Delegations of women came to urge their representatives to vote for ratification. Nine influential women came from Lauderdale county bringing a pet.i.tion of 2,100 names of prominent people obtained in a day and a half and begged their representatives to vote for the amendment but not one of them did so.
Many of the State"s leading newspapers were in favor of ratification.
The _Daily News_ of Jackson, in keeping with its policy for years, gave editorial support and generously of its s.p.a.ce. The _Clarion Ledger_, also a Jackson daily, boasted of being the only paper in the State which openly fought ratification. The editor, Colonel Hiram Henry, a veteran journalist of the State, always bitterly opposed to any form of woman suffrage, began his attack weeks before the Legislature met and daily during the session the pages of his paper reeked with hatred for the cause. The literature of the "antis" was largely copied and extracts from negro journals published in the North were reproduced in glaring headlines, extracts so offensive that had they been used against any cause save that of disfranchised women would have been suppressed. It was through his influence that Mrs.
Cola Barr Craig, once a resident of Jackson, and Mrs. James S.
Pinckard of Alabama came early in January to organize a branch of what they called the Southern Women"s Rejection League. They held a public meeting in the Carnegie library, at which besides the two speakers, there were nineteen women present, many of them the old friends of Mrs. Craig. No one would take even the temporary chairmanship and the attempt to organize failed ignominiously. Not daunted Mr. Henry sent for Miss Kate Gordon of New Orleans, a veteran suffragist who had joined hands with the "antis" in fighting ratification. She was advertised for a speech at the Carnegie library and all legislators were urged to attend. Two legislators and fifteen women were present, six of the latter State workers for ratification.
The retiring and incoming State officials were almost to a man outspoken in their advocacy of ratification. Governor Theodore G.
Bilbo, the retiring Governor, instead of having the clerk of the House read his farewell message, according to time honored custom, delivered it in person. Woman suffrage was its conspicuous feature and after a profound argument for ratification of the Federal Amendment, he closed his remarks with the solemn statement: "Woe to that man who raises his hand against the onward march of this progressive movement!" The newly elected Governor, Lee M. Russell, in his inaugural address, delivered in front of the Capitol to an audience of thousands, devoted more time to woman suffrage than to any other topic, making a clear cut, logical argument for ratification and a powerful plea for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women.
On January 21, W. A. Winter, Representative from Grenada county, offered the following resolution: "Resolved that the proposed amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States be and hereby is rejected as an unwarranted, unnecessary and dangerous interference with the rights reserved to the States, or to the people, in both State and Federal Const.i.tutions...." This came without warning to the friends of ratification and was not referred to a committee but rushed to a vote after Representative Guy W. Mitch.e.l.l of Lee county had spoken strongly against it. It was carried by a vote of 94 ayes to 25 noes and the announcement received with cheers and laughter. Sennett Conner of Covington county was the Speaker of the House whose ruling permitted this unparliamentary action.
Sent to the Senate the Winter Resolution of Rejection was referred to the Committee on Const.i.tution, of which Senator Minor was chairman. At the meeting of the committee W. B. Mixon of Pike county was authorized to draft a resolution ratifying the amendment, to be offered in the Senate as a subst.i.tute. This was done and Senators Minor, Mixon and Fred B. Smith made a majority report. This resolution was earnestly advocated by Senators Percy Bell and Walton Shields of Washington county, W. B. Roberts of Bolivar, Fred B. Smith of Union, A. A. Cohn of Lincoln and E. F. Noel of Holmes. It failed of adoption and the Winter resolution was recommitted to the Committee on Const.i.tution, where it remained.
In the meantime Senator Mixon had introduced a bill in the Senate giving the right to women to vote in Primary elections and Representative A. J. Whitworth of Pike county a similar one in the House. In Mississippi a nomination is equivalent to an election. Both bills were defeated. A resolution for a woman suffrage amendment to the State const.i.tution to be submitted to the voters at the election of November, 1920, pa.s.sed both Houses with very little opposition.
During the last three weeks of the session Senator Mixon introduced a bill giving the right of suffrage to women in the event of the ratification of the Federal Amendment by thirty-six Legislatures, thus enabling them to vote in the August primaries, and Representative Whitworth introduced two bills, one giving suffrage to women in primary elections and the other in general elections, both contingent upon ratification. These bills pa.s.sed without opposition.
During the last week of the Legislature Senator Roberts called out of the committee the original Winter Resolution of Rejection and in Committee of the Whole it was amended by striking out the word "reject" and subst.i.tuting the word "ratify." Thus amended the vote in the Senate stood 21 ayes, 21 noes and Lieutenant Governor H. H.
Casteel broke the tie in favor of its adoption. News of the Senate"s favorable action spread all over the country in a few hours. Telegrams came pouring in to the Governor and Legislature offering congratulations and appealing to the House to make Mississippi the 36th State to ratify.
The Senate subst.i.tute was presented to the House the next afternoon, March 31. Representative Winter moved that the House "do not concur with the Senate Resolution of Ratification." Immediately there came calls for the vote. Telegrams were on the Speaker"s stand from William Jennings Bryan, Homer c.u.mmings, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, Attorney General A.
Mitch.e.l.l Palmer and many other prominent Democrats. A vote was taken as to whether these should be read to the House. Representative E. M.
Lane of Smith county, although an opponent of ratification, made an earnest appeal that the courtesy of a hearing should be accorded these national party leaders. A vote of 65 to 32 decided that the telegrams should not be read. Governor Russell had stated that he desired the privilege of the floor to make an appeal in behalf of ratification but this courtesy was denied him. Representatives T. D. Rees of Prentiss county and Walter Sillers of Bolivar spoke in favor of ratification but were poorly heard so great was the confusion and so loud and insistent the calls for the vote. Representative Mitch.e.l.l was absent.
Dr. Whitworth (author of three suffrage bills at this session) spoke against ratification and while he was speaking Representative R. H.
Watts of Rankin county interpolated, "I would die and go to h.e.l.l before I would vote for it." The subst.i.tute was defeated by 94 noes, 23 ayes.
Thus was banished forever the dream of Mississippi suffragists that the women would receive the ballot from the men of this great State.
Speaker Sennett Conner was responsible above every one else for the defeat of ratification. Its chance was weakened by the fact that Mississippi"s entire delegation in Congress, including Senators John Sharp Williams and "Pat" Harrison had voted against submitting the Federal Amendment.
Did s.p.a.ce permit there would be added to the names mentioned in this chapter many others who gave "aid and comfort" to the cause. Among those who never failed when asked to help with financial burdens was the late Major R. W. Millsaps, founder of Millsaps College for men and women. The army of active suffragists was never large. Many women wanted the ballot but comparatively few were under conviction to work for it. To those who did, especially in early, trying days, belongs that indescribable exultation which is the portion of those who help onward a great revolutionary movement for the uplift of the race.
The amendment to the State const.i.tution was voted on at the general election in November, 1920, and received 39,186 ayes, 24,296 noes but it was not carried, as the law requires a majority of all the votes cast at the election. As the women were already enfranchised by the Federal Amendment they did not make a campaign for it but as registration is necessary four months before election and the ratification did not take place until two months before this one, they were not able to vote, Mississippi and Georgia being the only two States that denied this privilege.
FOOTNOTES:
[100] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson, an officer in the State Suffrage a.s.sociation from its organization until its work was finished.
[101] Besides those mentioned the following served on the official board: Mrs. Jimmie Andrews Lips...o...b.. Mrs. Nella Lawrence Lee, Miss Mattie Kirkpatrick, Mrs. Annie Kinkead Dent, Mrs. Ella O. Biggs, Mrs.
Alma Dorsey Birdsall, Mrs. Durrant, Mrs. Edith Marshall Tucker, Mrs.
Mary Powell Crane, Miss Ethel Clagett, Mrs. C. C. Miller, Mrs. T. F.
Buntin, Miss Estelle Crane, Miss Nannie Herndon Rice.
CHAPTER XXIV.
MISSOURI.[102]
When the last volume of the history of woman suffrage was written in 1900 Missouri was one of the blackest spots on the suffrage map and there was little to indicate that it would ever be lighter. The able and courageous women who inaugurated the movement in 1867, Mrs.
Virginia L. Minor, Mrs. Beverly Allen, Mrs. Rebecca Hazzard, Miss Phoebe Couzins and Mrs. Sarah Chandler Coates, were no longer living or past the age for strenuous work. A few women kept up a semblance of a State organization, met annually and in 1901 Mrs. Addie Johnson was elected president; in 1902 Mrs. Louis Werth and in 1903 Mrs. Alice Mulkley, but there was great apathy among women in general. From 1903 to 1910 no State convention was held. In St. Louis, which comprised one-fourth of the inhabitants of the State, there was no visible organization working for woman suffrage. The largest and most influential woman"s club refused to allow the subject on its programs.
During the decade to 1910 only one speaker of national prominence came into the State--Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the president of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation--and evidently at the national headquarters Missouri was considered too hopeless to consider.
The movement was only smoldering, however, and needed but a spark to burst into flame and that spark came from afar--from the torch held high by the "militant" suffragists of England. In no State perhaps was there more bitter invective hurled at them than by the press and people of Missouri but the conscience of the convinced suffragists was aroused. Stirring addresses in St. Louis by Stanton Coit of London and John Lovejoy Elliott of New York in defense of the English "militants" brought matters to a crisis and a few bold spirits decided to reorganize the scattered suffrage forces.
In March, 1910, Mrs. Florence Wyman Richardson, Miss Marie R. Garesche and Miss Florence Richardson (later Mrs. Roland R. Usher) barely out of her teens, renounced society and invited twenty or twenty-five women, whom they thought might be interested, to meet in Miss Garesche"s home. Only five responded, Miss Bertha Rombauer, Miss Jennie M. A. Jones, Mrs. Robert Atkinson, Miss Lillian Heltzell and Mrs. Dan Knefler. Not at all daunted it was decided as a first step to engage a prominent lecturer. Miss Ethel Arnold, the well-known Englishwoman, a suffragist but not a "militant," was then touring this country and before the meeting adjourned a telegram was sent to her and the eight women present guaranteed the sum to cover her charge and the rent of a hall. As her itinerary would bring her to St. Louis about the middle of April it was thought best to organize immediately, so that the publicity which would undoubtedly be given to Miss Arnold would be shared by the infant society. A circular letter outlining the project was sent broadcast and April 8 about fifty women gathered at the residence of Mrs. Richardson and effected an organization. Thus came into being the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League, which was destined to play the princ.i.p.al part in winning the vote for the women of the State. The following officers were elected: President, Mrs.
Richardson; first vice-president, Miss Garesche; second, Mrs.
Atkinson; corresponding secretary, Miss Rombauer; recording secretary, Miss Heltzell; treasurer, Mrs. Knefler; auditor, Mrs. Leslie Thompson.
Miss Arnold"s lecture took place April 11 and her charm, culture and cogent reasoning won many friends to the cause and disarmed many of its opponents. Branch organizations were soon formed in the northern and southern parts of the city with Mrs. Atlanta Hecker and Miss Cecilia Razovsky as presidents. Meetings were held in the Cabanne Branch Library and before the end of the year the members had increased to 275.[103] During the first year the league brought a number of lecturers to the city, realizing that this was the most valuable form of propaganda in a community so entrenched in conservatism. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Philip Snowden of England; Professor Frances Squire Potter of the University of Minnesota; Mrs.
Lucia Ames Mead of Boston; Professor Nathaniel Schmidt of Cornell and Professor Earl Barnes of Philadelphia.
On Nov. 3, 1911, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England, at the invitation of the league, lectured in the Odeon, the largest hall in the city, to an audience that taxed its capacity. Her charming personality set at rest all fears as to the ill effect of suffrage, even of the "militant" variety, on feminine grace and refinement. Soon afterwards the Mary Inst.i.tute Alumnae a.s.sociation invited Miss Sylvia Pankhurst to lecture and the result was most gratifying to the friends of suffrage.
The old State organization having ceased to exist the St. Louis league with its branches and the recently formed Webster Groves Suffrage League, Mrs. Lee Roseborough, president, met in St. Louis Feb. 14, 1911, and organized a State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, which affiliated with the National American a.s.sociation. The officers were: President, Mrs. Atkinson; vice-president, Mrs. Morrison-Fuller; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Boyd; recording secretary, Miss Rombauer; treasurer, Miss Jane Thompson; auditor, Mrs. R. D. McArthur.
Owing to various causes this board was in a few months reduced to three working members, Mrs. Atkinson, Mrs. Boyd and Miss Rombauer.
Realizing that it must enlist the support of the press they sent out letters to a long list of the State editors and favorable replies were received from twenty-six, who promised to give a weekly column in their papers for suffrage news and propaganda. All the libraries were written to and a number of them induced to procure the four large volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage, generously offered by the National a.s.sociation. The librarians, who were often women, were asked to keep on hand a supply of suffrage literature. The St. Louis public library, at the suggestion of the board, made a special exhibit of this literature, much of which was new. In the center of the exhibit was a large picture of William T. Harris, former superintendent of schools in St. Louis and later U. S. Commissioner of Education, with his strong testimony in favor of woman suffrage.
Mrs. Atkinson was permitted to make an address on suffrage before the State Federation of Women"s Clubs at Sedalia but no action was taken.
She also addressed a large audience at the dedication of the Woman"s Building which had been erected by the Legislature on the State Fair grounds near that city and Mrs. Walter McNab Miller of Columbia also made an address. The board paid a lawyer to compile the State laws for women under the direction of E. M. Grossman. Mrs. Atkinson, Mrs. Boyd and Mrs. John L. Lowes of St. Louis and Mrs. Virginia Hedges of Warrensburg went as delegates to the convention of the National a.s.sociation in 1911 at Louisville, where much satisfaction was expressed that Missouri had at last come into the fold. The Kansas City League was organized this year with Mrs. Henry N. Ess, president; Miss Helen Osborn, secretary; and Mrs. Helena Cramer Leavens, treasurer. The women of Warrensburg, under the leadership of Miss Laura Runyon, organized a club of fifty members. There was the State Normal School, to whose faculty Miss Runyon belonged, and through her the support of the students was obtained and suffrage propaganda extended gradually to every section of the State. Mrs. Knefler, president of the St. Louis Women"s Trades Union, organized a league among its members, which, under the leadership of Mrs. Sarah Spraggon and Miss Sallie Quick, did excellent work in the campaigns that followed.
In 1912 a Business Woman"s Suffrage League was formed in St. Louis under the leadership of Miss Mary McGuire, a graduate of the St. Louis University Law School, and Miss Jessie Lansing Moller, which starting with 50 members, eventually numbered 250. The same year the Junior Branch of the St. Louis League was organized, which included many of the younger society girls and matrons. Miss Ann Drew (later Mrs. James Platt) was president. In Kansas City in the autumn the Southside Equal Suffrage League was formed with Mrs. Cora Kramer Leavens, president, and Miss Cora Best Jewell, secretary. A Men"s Equal Suffrage League was also organized with D. H. Hoff president; J. H. Austin, vice-president; David Proctor, secretary, which did a large work in securing the big vote given to the suffrage amendment in Kansas City and Jackson county in 1914.
In 1912 the first State convention was held in September at Sedalia, where Mrs. George Gellhorn was elected president and Mrs. John W.
Barringer vice-president, both of St. Louis. They went to Jefferson City in September and tried to get a suffrage plank into the platform of the Democratic State convention. Though unsuccessful it was the initial step in bringing the subject out of the parlor and lecture-room into the sphere of politics, the arena where the battle ultimately had to be fought. Twenty-eight leagues were formed this year. Miss Amelia C. Fruchte, member of the St. Louis Central High School faculty, went before the State Teachers" a.s.sociation and secured its endors.e.m.e.nt of woman suffrage.
In 1913 at the State convention held at St. Louis in September, Mrs.