The State convention of 1914 was held in Omaha in December and it was decided to organize more thoroughly and to seek the advice of the National a.s.sociation as to how and when to try again. The board which had served throughout the campaign was re-elected. When it had begun there were not fifty clubs in the State; when it ended there were nearly 500 and it was desired to hold them together as far as possible. The opponents had insisted that women did not want the ballot and it was arranged to have an enrollment under the direction of Mrs. Wheeler. This was continued until the names of 30,000 women had been enrolled as desiring the suffrage. The press work was continued and the never-ending effort to educate the people.
The convention of 1915 was held at Columbus in October, was well attended, with a good program. Mrs. Edna M. Barkley was elected president. In October, 1916, the convention was held at Hastings. Mrs.
William Jennings Bryan was guest of honor and gave the opening address on Sunday evening in the Congregational church. Mrs. Catt, now national president, was present and remained two days. The a.s.sociation expected to appeal to the voters again in 1918 for full suffrage and she thought it was in good condition to do so. Her inspiring presence and her very able address given to a large evening audience made this one of most notable conventions. Mrs. Barkley was re-elected president.[110]
In January, 1917, the National a.s.sociation was beginning the "drive"
to obtain partial suffrage from the Legislatures and Nebraska was urged to undertake it. The board agreed to concentrate on a bill which would be const.i.tutional and would permit women to vote for all officers not specified in the State const.i.tution and upon all questions not referred to in it.
The bill was introduced by Senator C. E. Sandell of York county and Representative J. N. Norton of Polk county. Mrs. Barkley was chairman of the Legislative Committee and no measure ever had more careful and persistent "mothering" than she gave this one, watching over it for months. The bill pa.s.sed the House the middle of February by the magnificent vote of 73 to 24 in the presence of an audience of applauding women that filled the galleries. In the Senate the bill went to the Committee on Privileges and Elections, which granted a hearing on February 15. After a luncheon with enthusiastic speeches the entire body of 250 women, including 65 from Omaha, marched to the State House, where even the aisles were already crowded with women.
Among the speakers were George W. Howard, the eminent professor of history in the State University, and a number of prominent Nebraska men and women. Six "antis" were present and their spokesman was Miss Bronson of New York. The hearing lasted three hours. The bill was held two months in the committee and finally was reported out and pa.s.sed by a vote of 20 to 13 on April 19. It was signed by Governor Keith Neville on the 21st and gave women the suffrage for presidential electors, all munic.i.p.al and most county officers.[111]
The opponents immediately started an initiative pet.i.tion to have the law submitted to the voters and on July 22 it was suspended in operation by the filing of a pet.i.tion for a referendum on it by the Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation. Mrs. Barkley with others after inspection concluded it was not a bona fide pet.i.tion. Accordingly she summoned her board to discuss taking the proper legal steps to prove that it was fraudulent and invalid. There was no money in the treasury with which to undertake expensive litigation and there were those who thought it wiser not to attempt it. The courage and determination of Mrs. Barkley were the deciding factor and it was the same brave and persistent effort that finally won the long-drawn-out legal battle. A full account was given by Mrs. Draper Smith in the _Woman Citizen_ of which the following is a part:
For the larger part of the session in 1917 the Senate had been under great pressure from the public and the press to pa.s.s the bone dry law that the House had almost unanimously adopted.
Nineteen members of the Senate belonged to the clique led by representatives of the brewing interests. They fought for weeks to secure the consent of the House to a bill that would have made prohibition impossible of enforcement. Into this maelstrom the limited suffrage law was plunged. Only the most careful leadership secured its final pa.s.sage....
On the 21st of July the opponents caused to be filed with the Secretary of State a pet.i.tion asking that the law be referred to the voters at the general election in 1918 for approval or rejection. This pet.i.tion contained the signatures of 32,896 persons who claimed to be legal voters of the State and to live at the places designated as their legal residence.... Tact and patience were employed to get Secretary of State Pool to the point where he permitted the suffragists to make a copy. Eighteen thousand names bore the marks of an Omaha residence. The others were apparently gathered from two-fifths of the counties and presumptively represented 5 per cent. of the legal voters, as required by law. Suspicion that fraud and deception had been used, both in getting genuine signatures and in padding the lists, early gave way to positive conviction. When the investigation was complete it was found that 16,460 of the 32,896 signatures were subject to court challenge and that at least 10,000 of them were the product of fraud, forgery and misrepresentation. Prominent members of the bar volunteered their services--T. J. Doyle, C. A. Sorenson, John M. Stewart and H. H.
Wilson of Lincoln, and Elmer E. Thomas and Francis A. Brogan of Omaha. A pet.i.tion to enjoin the Secretary of State from placing the referendum on the election ballot was filed in February, 1918.
The Omaha workers were under the leadership of Mrs. H. C. Sumney, vice-president of the State a.s.sociation, and Mrs. James Richardson. They discovered that many of the residence addresses given were in railroad yards, cornfields or vacant lots. Many others were of men who had never lived at the addresses given; many affirmed that they had never signed any such pet.i.tion; others that they had been induced to sign by the representation of the solicitor that it was to submit the question of full suffrage. The work of running down each of the 18,000 names consumed days of arduous labor. It was also found that page after page of the names were written by the same hand. Experts in handwriting from the various banks in Lincoln spent night after night poring over the original pet.i.tions in the office of the Secretary of State, picking out and listing the forgeries, which were found to have been scattered all over the State.
The request of the suffragists to the Secretary of State said that the circulators had committed perjury in certifying that these fict.i.tious persons had affixed their names in their presence; that many of the names written thereon were not placed there, as the law required, in the presence of the circulator, but that the pet.i.tions had been left in pool halls, soft drink parlors, cigar stores and barber shops where everybody, including minors, was invited to sign, the circulator later coming around and gathering them up. It also said that many of the signatures were obtained by infants incapable at law of properly circulating or certifying to the pet.i.tion sheets and that a number of circulators named had engaged in a systematic course of fraud and forgery, thereby making invalid all of the names. Attached were twenty pages of exhibits in proof of these charges.
The evidence in Omaha was matched by that in fifty-nine other counties taken by the referee and attorney.
The attorneys enjoined the Secretary of State from putting the referendum on the ballot. Nineteen suffragists appeared as plaintiffs in the case as follows: Edna M. Barkley, Gertrude L. Hardy, Katharine Sumney, Ida Robbins, Grace Richardson, Margaretta Dietrich, Grace M.
Wheeler, Ella Brower, Ellen Ackerman, Henrietta Smith, Inez Philbrick, Harriet M. Stewart, Mary Smith Hayward, Mamie Claflin, Margaret T.
Sheldon, Alice Howell, Ellen Gere, Eliza Ann Doyle, Katharine McGerr.
As the suit had been brought against the Secretary of State the Attorney General appeared for him and was joined by the attorneys of the women"s Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation. They argued that the plaintiffs were not legally ent.i.tled to sue because they were not electors. The court upheld their right. The Secretary of State became convinced that the pet.i.tion was fraudulent and did not appear in the further litigation. The suffrage forces were prepared with their evidence and wished to proceed at once with the case but all the dilatory tactics possible were used and it was not until the full legal time was about to expire that the opponents were brought to the point on May 17, 1918. Mrs. Draper Smith"s account continued:
Inspection of the original pet.i.tion showed that of 116 pet.i.tions secured by A. O. Barclay 68 were in the same handwriting.... The name of one Omaha business man who had died three months previous to the circulation of the pet.i.tion was found; another who was killed two months before, and another who had been dead for three years. Witness after witness testified that his name on it was forged.
Several other circulators forged so many names we asked that all their work be thrown out. The hearing developed that forty ex-saloon keepers and bartenders had these pet.i.tions on the bars in their soft drink places; 831 names were secured by d.i.c.k Kennedy, a negro who could neither read nor write. He appeared in court in jail clothes, being under indictment for peddling "dope," and was unable to identify the pet.i.tions certified by him. Ten boys, ranging in age from 8 to 15, were circulators.
Several men who could not read or write testified that they supposed their names were being taken for a census. Many thought the pet.i.tion was to "bring back beer." One man was told it was to pave an alley. At one hearing interpreters had to be used for all but two men. The treasurer of the Anti-Suffrage a.s.sociation, Mrs.
C. C. George, whose name appears as witness to the signatures of 81 certificates on the back of Barclay"s pet.i.tions, testified that she did not remember him. On the back of each pet.i.tion is a certificate in which the circulator certifies that each man signed in his presence and the signature must have two witnesses.
The soft drink men and others testified that although the name of Mrs. George appeared as witness to their signatures they had never seen her. She testified that the pet.i.tions went through the hands of her a.s.sociation.
The following question was asked of another "anti," wife of a rector: "Had you known that co-workers with you were d.i.c.k Kennedy, an illiterate negro; Abie Sirian; Gus Tylee, employee of Tom Dennison and a detective of doubtful reputation; 40 soft drink men; Jess Ross, colored porter for Dennison; Jack Broomfield, a colored sporting man and for twenty years keeper of the most notorious dive in Omaha, and many others of this character, would you have worked with them and accepted the kind of pet.i.tion they would secure?" She replied: "It would have made no difference to me. I was working for a cause and would not have cared who else was working for the same."
The testimony showed that the anti-suffrage a.s.sociation of Omaha, under the leadership of Mrs. Crofoot, president, had at first endeavored to employ to take charge of the work of circulating the pet.i.tions the man who had conducted the publicity department for the brewers in 1916.
The allegations of fraud were proved to the satisfaction of the District Court. The opponents appealed from its decision, which was confirmed by the Supreme Court in June, and the women entered into possession of this large amount of suffrage. By order of the court the anti-suffragists, together with the State, had to pay the costs of the long legal battle which ended on January 25, 1919, in a glorious victory for the suffragists. The costs were approximately $5,000.
RATIFICATION. The State convention of 1917 was held in Omaha in December and it was omitted in the fall of 1918 on account of the influenza, and none was held until 1919. The Federal Amendment had been submitted by Congress on June 4 and a Ratification Committee had been appointed consisting of Mrs. Barkley, Mrs. Hardy and Mrs. Wheeler to secure an early calling of a special session of the Legislature.
It was arranged for the State convention to meet in Lincoln at the time Governor Samuel R. McKelvie had called this special session to ratify the amendment. The convention _en ma.s.se_ saw the ratification of both Houses on August 2 by unanimous vote and had the joy of being present when it was signed by the Governor, who had been a consistent friend of the cause. The regular session had memorialized Congress by joint resolution to submit the Federal Suffrage Amendment and requested Senator Gilbert M. Hitchc.o.c.k of Nebraska to vote for it. He voted against it every time it became before the Senate. The other Senator, George W. Norris, voted in favor each time and was always a helpful friend of woman suffrage.
The last State convention met in Omaha June 13-15, 1920, with 104 delegates in attendance. With Mrs. Charles H. Dietrich, who had been elected president the preceding year, in the chair, the a.s.sociation was merged into the Nebraska League of Women Voters and Mrs. Dietrich was made chairman.
On Sat.u.r.day, Aug. 28, 1920, at noon, whistles were sounded and bells were rung for five minutes in Omaha and South Omaha to celebrate the proclamation by the Secretary of State at Washington that the woman suffrage amendment was now a part of the const.i.tution of the United States and the struggle was over.
In December, 1919, there a.s.sembled in Lincoln a convention to rewrite Nebraska"s const.i.tution, to be submitted to the electors Sept. 21, 1920. This convention put a clause in the new const.i.tution giving full suffrage to women. Using the power delegated to it by the Legislature it provided that women should vote on the const.i.tution and that the suffrage amendment should go into effect as soon as the adoption of the const.i.tution was announced by the Governor. The rest of it was to wait until Jan. 1, 1921. This was done in order that women might vote at the general election in November, 1920. Before the const.i.tution went to the voters the Federal Amendment was proclaimed and women were fully enfranchised. With women voting the const.i.tution received 65,483 ayes, 15,416 noes.
FOOTNOTES:
[107] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Grace M.
Wheeler, historian of the State Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, and Miss Mary H. Williams, member of the State Board from 1905.
[108] A State a.s.sociation Opposed to Woman Suffrage was formed, whose Executive Committee consisted of Mesdames Edward Porter Peck, chairman; Henry W. Yates, John C. Cowin, J. W. Griffith, W. H. Koenig, L. F. Crofoot, Gerrit Fort, John L. Webster, Helen Arion Lewis, Arthur Crittenden Smith, T. J. Mackay, F. N. Conner; Miss Janet M. Wallace, with Mrs. William Archibald Smith, secretary, and Mrs. Frank J. Noel treasurer; Mrs. S. H. Burnham of Lincoln, Mrs. J. D. Whitmore and Mrs.
Fred W. Ashton of Grand Island, Mrs. A. D. Sears, Mrs. Charles Dodge and Miss Maud May of Fremont, with Mrs. Crumpacker as special representative of the National a.s.sociation in the headquarters at 536 Bee Building.
[109] This Manifesto will be found in the Appendix.
[110] Besides those mentioned the following served on the official board: Miss Lincola S. Groat, Mrs. Alice I. Brayton, Mrs. Stearns, Mrs. Myrtle W. Marble, Dr. Emma Warner Demaree, Mrs. Ida Ensign, Mrs.
Rosa Modlin, Mrs. F. B. Donisthorpe, Mrs. Mary P. Jay, Mrs. Theresa J.
Dunn, Mrs. Margaret J. Carns, Mrs. Julia N. c.o.x, Mrs. Ada Shafer, Mrs.
Frank Harrison, Mrs. E. L. Burke, Miss Ida Bobbins, Mrs. M. Bruegger, Mrs. E. S. Rood, Mrs. Lydia Pope, Mrs. Jessie Dietz, Mrs. J. H.
Corrick, Mrs. Halleck F. Rose, Mrs. H. C. Sumney, Mrs. Dietrich, Mrs.
Ellen Ackerman, Mrs. Ella I. Brower, Miss May Gund, Mrs. E. F. Bell, Miss Edith Tobitt, Mrs. Kate Chapin House.
[111] In March under the auspices of the National a.s.sociation suffrage schools were held in Omaha and Lincoln. The instructors were Mrs.
Nettie R. Shuler, chairman of organization, Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, its recording secretary, and Mrs. T. T. Cotnam and the subjects taught were Suffrage History and Argument, Organization, Publicity and Press, Money Raising and Parliamentary Law. Of the nineteen schools held by the National a.s.sociation in various States none was larger. By request night schools were opened with a crowded attendance at all sessions.
CHAPTER XXVII.
NEVADA.[112]
Towards the close of the last century, through the efforts of Miss Susan B. Anthony and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president and vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, a Nevada a.s.sociation had been formed with Mrs. Frances A. Williamson president and later Mrs. Elda A. Orr was elected. Mrs. Mary A. Boyd was an officer. It held three or four successful conventions and had bills before the Legislature but no record exists of any activities after 1899.
In November, 1909, Mrs. Clarence Mackay, who had organized an Equal Franchise Society in New York City, of which she was president, wrote to Miss Jeanne Elizabeth Wier, professor of history in the University of Nevada, asking if a branch society could not be organized in that State. Later Professor Wier conferred with Mrs. Mackay in New York. In the autumn of 1910 an agreement to a.s.sist in such an organization was signed by a large number of prominent men and women in Reno and finally in January, 1911, Professor Wier issued a call for a meeting to be held in her home to form a society. Mrs. O. H. Mack, president of the Federation of Women"s Clubs, sent an invitation to each club to be represented at this meeting. It was soon evident that it would be too large for a private house and on January 24 a conference was held in the law office of Counsellor C. R. Reeves to arrange for a Sat.u.r.day evening ma.s.s meeting. There were present Mr. Reeves, who was made temporary chairman; Professor Wier, Mrs. Mack, Mrs. Henry Stanislawsky, Professor Romanzo Adams, Judge William P. Seeds, a.s.semblyman Alceus F. Price, J. A. Buchanan, Mrs. Frank Page, Mrs.
Frank R. Nicholas, who was made secretary, and J. Holman Buck, who was elected permanent chairman. A telegram of greeting was read from Mrs.
Mackay.
A general meeting for organization was held the evening of February 4 in Odd Fellows" Hall, which was far too small for the audience. The name State Equal Franchise Society was adopted. Mrs. Stanislawsky was elected president; Colonel Reeves, Mr. Price, Mrs. Mack and Miss Felice Cohn, vice-presidents; Mrs. Nicholas, Mrs. Grace E. Bridges and Mrs. Alice Chism, recording and corresponding secretary and treasurer.
A membership of 177 was reported. The board of twenty-one directors included most of those who have been named and in addition Dr. J. E.
Stubbs, president of the university; Mrs. A. B. McKinley, Dr. Morris Pritchard, W. D. Trout, Mrs. Nettie P. Hershiser, Mrs. George Armstrong, Mrs. Florence H. Church, Mrs. G. Taylor, Mrs. Frank Stickney.[113] Plans were made for a legislative lobby. A report of the organization was sent to Mrs. Mackay, who consented that her name should be used as honorary president but took no further interest in it or in the amendment campaign which soon followed and made no contribution.
Between the above meetings a.s.semblymen Arnold and Byrne of Esmeralda county had introduced a joint resolution on January 30 to submit to the voters an amendment to the State const.i.tution to give full suffrage to women. It was referred to the Committee on Elections, which on February 7 reported it unfavorably. a.s.semblyman J. A. Denton of Lincoln county secured a hearing before the Committee of the Whole on February 20 and a large lobby from the society was present. Mrs.
Stanislawsky and Miss Cohn addressed the committee, emphasizing the fact that each of the political parties had declared in its State platform for this referendum and all the women asked was to have the question sent to the voters. The resolution was put on file but at the bottom and every attempt to advance it failed but on March 6 it appeared in regular order. Speaker pro tem. Booth wanted it indefinitely postponed but was overruled. After numerous parliamentary tactics it was at length pa.s.sed by 31 ayes, 13 noes, four absent and the Speaker not voting. The resolution was first read in the Senate on March 7 and referred to the Committee on Education. Three days later it was reported without recommendation. It came before the Senate March 13 and after considerable "fencing" it pa.s.sed by 16 ayes, 2 noes, one absent. Mrs. Stanislawsky, Mrs. Mack, Professor Wier, Mrs.
Chism, Miss Cohn and Mrs. Nicholas had worked strenuously in the two Houses.
The const.i.tution requires that a resolution for an amendment must pa.s.s two successive Legislatures and the new a.s.sociation saw the task before it of getting the approval of another session in 1913. It received national and international attention about this time through a banner six feet high and four wide, presented by Mrs. Arthur Hodges of New York, with the words, Nevada, Votes for Women, brought out in sage brush green letters on a field of vivid orange. This was shipped to New York and carried by Miss Anne Martin of Reno in a big parade in that city and then taken to London and carried by her and Miss Vida Milholland of New York at the head of the American group in the great procession of the Social and Political Union.
Headquarters were opened in the Cheney Building in Reno, Mrs. Hodges a.s.suming the rent, where visitors were made welcome and literature given out. A series of lectures until November were arranged, the first one in the Congregational church, where Mrs. Stanislawsky gave an address to a crowded meeting. Later she moved to California and in February, 1912, Mrs. Mack called a meeting and Miss Anne Martin was unanimously elected president. Mrs. Bridges, Mrs. Chism and Mrs. Mack were re-elected. The other members of the board chosen were: Vice-presidents, Mrs. F. O. Norton, Mrs. J. E. Church, Mrs. Jennie Logan, Mrs. Charles Gulling, Mrs. J. E. Bray, Miss B. M. Wilson; recording secretary, Mrs. Burroughs Edsall. An active executive committee was appointed and plans were made for a vigorous campaign.