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Women's Suffrage
Documents:
Poem by Alice Duer Miller
The following poem is from the book Are Women People? Writing to the President or other politicians was one method practiced by NAWSA.
("I hold it as fundamental principle and so do you, that every people has the right to determine its own form of government. And until recently 50 per cent. of the people of Mexico have not had a look-in in determining who should be their governors, or what their government should be."--Speech of President Wilson.)
Wise and just man--for such I think you are--
How can you see so burningly and clear
Injustices and tyrannies afar,
Yet blind your eyes to one that lies so near?
How can you plead so earnestly for men
Who fight their own fight with a bloody hand;
How hold their cause so wildly dear, and then
Forget the women of your native land?
With your stern ardor and your scholar's word
You speak to us of human liberty;
Can you believe that women are not stirred
By this same human longing to be free?
He who for liberty would strike a blow
Need not take arms, or fly to Mexico.
by Carrie Chapman Catt
(Carrie Chapman Catt was a key leader for NAWSA and president of the organization. Her article below was used to educate others on the need for the vote, show the inequality that exists when women are denied the vote, and used to help persuade others to her cause.)
DO YOU KNOW that the question of votes for women is one which is commanding the attention of the whole civilized world; that woman suffrage organizations of representative men and women exist in twenty-seven different countries; that in this country alone there are more than 1,000 woman suffrage organizations; that there is an International and a National Men's League for Woman Suffrage and numbers of local men's leagues; that the number of women who are asking for the vote in this country is larger than the number of men who have ever asked for anything in its entire history; that more and larger petitions asking for votes for women have been sent to legislative bodies than for any other one measure; that the press of this country is giving more space to woman suffrage than to any other one public question; that the legislatures of twenty-eight states this year entertained woman suffrage measures, II of them favorably; and that a bill for a woman suffrage amendment to the United States Constitution is now before Congress?
DO YOU KNOW that the women of New Zealand and the women of Australia possess all the political rights accorded to men?
DO YOU KNOW that the women of Finland vote in all elections upon the same terms as men, and that since then enfranchisement in 1906, from sixteen to twenty-five have been elected to the different Parliaments.?
DO YOU KNOW that in Norway all women have the full Parliamentary vote and that in 1910 one woman sat in the Norwegian Parliament, and that number of women are serving as members and alternates to city councils?
DO YOU KNOW that the women of Iceland have the full Parliamentary franchise and that since 1902 one-fourth of the members of the council of the capital city have been women?
DO YOU KNOW that in Sweden women have had some measure of suffrage since the eighteenth century, that in 1862 unmarried women who had to pay taxes were given the municipal franchise, and that in 1909 this right was extended to all women; that, furthermore, it is only a matter of a little time before women will have the full Parliamentary vote? The measure has already twice passed the Lower House of the Swedish Parliament and is known to have the support of the King and the Prime Minister. It is opposed only by the aristocrats of the Upper House who are against all democratic measures, but it is admitted that even they cannot long keep back so popular a cause.
DO YOU KNOW that in Denmark all women who pay taxes and the wives of men who pay taxes were given the municipal franchise in 1908, and that, as in Sweden, the measure to extend to them the full Parliamentary vote has passed the Lower House in two successive sessions of Parliament, and that, as in Sweden, it has the support of the King, the Prime Minister and the people in general, and is opposed only by the aristocrats of the Upper House who cannot long continue to stand out against the popular will?
DO YOU KNOW that in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales women vote in all elections except for members of Parliament; that they are eligible and have been elected to office as mayors and members of city and county councils; and that on the Isle Man women who pay rent or taxes can vote for members of the Manx Parliament?
DO YOU KNOW that in eight of the provinces of Canada--Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan--tax-paying widows and spinsters have the municipal vote, while in Nova Scotia married women whose husband are not voters are included also? DO YOU KNOW that women have the municipal vote in Rangoon, the capital of Burmah; in Belize, the capital of British Honduras; and in the cities of Baroda and Bombay in British India; and that in certain provinces of Austria. Hungary and Russia they have limited communal franchise rights?
DO YOU KNOW that within the past year the subject of woman suffrage has been considered in the National Parliament of 17 countries; that the revolutionary government in China stands pledged to woman suffrage, and that women have already voted in one province; that in France a special commission appointed to investigate the question has recommended that the full franchise be extended to women as rapidly as may be deemed feasible, and that the municipal franchise be granted immediately?
DO YOU KNOW that in our own country women have been voting on the same terms as men in Wyoming since 1869, in Colorado since 1893, in Utah and Idaho since 1896; that in 1910, the state of Washington voted to one to extend the full suffrage to women; that in 1911, California doubled the number of voting women in this country by giving the full suffrage to more than half a million women citizens; that in 1912, the men of Kansas, Oregon, and Arizona voted to give votes to their women; that in 1913, the legislature of the State of Illinois passed measure giving to women all the voting rights within the power of the legislature to bestow, including presidential electors, all municipal officers and some country and some state officers; and that the territorial legislature of Alaska granted full suffrage to women?
DO YOU KNOW that wherever women have got the vote they have used it in large numbers--larger, frequently than the men of the same city, state or country; that in the first election after the New Zealand women were given the franchise, seventy-eight per cent of the women voted as opposed to sixty-nine per cent of the men, while in subsequent elections the proportion of both men and women voting steadily rose until now it is about eighty per cent of the qualified persons of both sexes; that in the equal suffrage states of our own country from seventy to ninety per cent of the women vote, whereas in most states of the Union only sixty to sixty-five per cent of the qualified men voters actually cast their ballots; that in some of the equal suffrage states almost half of the vote is cast by women, although they do not nearly constitute half the population; that in the first elections after the Washington women were enfranchised, women's votes secured the recall of corrupt city governments in Seattle and Tacoma; that in the first election after the women of California were enfranchised, taking place in Los Angeles in 1911, ninety-five per cent of the women vote, outnumbering the men voters in many wards?
DO YOU KNOW that, on the other hand, large numbers of men are utterly indifferent to their rights as voters; that in the presidential election of 1912, the total vote cast was only 14,720,038, while the number of men eligible to vote was 24,335,000; that in the presidential election of 1908 the total vote cast was only 14,888,442, while the number of men eligible to vote was fully 22,000,000; that in the presidential election of 1904 the total vote was only 13,961,560 while the total number of men eligible to vote was 21,000,000?
DO YOU KNOW, moreover, that in every state and country where the franchise has been extended to women, the vote of the men has steadily risen? In Australia in the first elections in which women voted, taking place in 1903, 53 per cent of the men eligible cast their ballots, whereas, in 1906, 56 per cent, and in 1901, 67 per cent cast their ballots. In our own country the vote of the men is larger in the equal suffrage states than in most of those in which women are unenfranchised.
DO YOU KNOW that extending the franchise to women actually increases the proportion of intelligent voters, that there is now and has been for years, according to the report of the Commissioner of Education, one-third more girls in the high schools of the country than boys; and that, according to the last census, the illiterate men of the country greatly outnumbered the illiterate women?
DO YOU KNOW that extending the suffrage to women increases the moral vote; that in all states and countries that have adopted equal suffrage the vote of this disreputable women is practically negligible, the slum wards of cities invariably having the lightest woman vote and the respectable residence wards the heaviest; that only one out of every twenty criminals are women; that women constitute a minority of drunkards and petty misdemeanants; that for every prostitute there are at least two men responsible for her immorality; that in all the factors that tend to handicap the progress of society, women form a minority, whereas in churches, schools and all organizations working for the uplift of humanity, women are a majority?
DO YOU KNOW that extending the suffrage to women increases the number of native-born voters; that for every one hundred foreign white women immigrants coming to this country there are 129 men, while among Asiatic immigrants the men outnumber the women two to one, according to the figures of the census of 1910?
DO YOU KNOW that there are in the United States about 8,000,000 women in gainful occupations outside the home who need the protection of the ballot to regulate the conditions under which they must labor; and that the efforts of working women to regulate these conditions without the ballot have been practically unavailing?
DO YOU KNOW that the laws of many states discriminate unjustly against women; that, for instance, in only seventeen is a mother equal guardian with the father over her own children; that for fifty-five years the women of Massachusetts worked for an equal guardianship law and then succeeded in getting it only when a dreadful tragedy had shocked the public into a realization of the injustice of the old law, whereas in Colorado and in California women had themselves made equal guardians with the fathers over their own children in the very next year following their enfranchisement?
DO YOU KNOW that wherever women, the traditional housekeepers of the world, have been given a voice in the government, public housekeeping has been materially improved by an increased attention to questions of pure food, pure water supply, sanitation, housing, public health and morals, child welfare and education?
DO YOU KNOW that the movement for woman suffrage is just a part of the eternal forward march of the human race toward a complete demcoracy; that in the American colonies only a very small proportion of the men could vote; that even after the Revolution only property-holders could vote; that it was only by slow and hard-fought stage that all men finally won the right to vote; and that in most foreign countries the franchise for men is still heavily loaded with restrictions?
DO YOU KNOW that the legislatures of some of the suffrage states, the Australian Parliament, and numbers of the most representative people, both men and women, in all the suffrage states and countries have testified time and again in print and over their own signatures, that woman suffrage has brought none of the evils which its opponents fear, but has, is instead, been productive of much positive good; that it has enlarged the outlook of women, increase their intelligence and self-reliance, rendered homes happier, ennobled men and dignified politics; that in all the places where women vote, the apponents, thus far, have not been able to find a dozen respectable men to assert, over their own names and addresses, that it has had any bad results; that more than five hundred organizations--state, national and international other than woman suffrgae associations--aggregating approximately a membership of over 50,000,000, have officially endoresed woman suffrage?
DO YOU KNOW one single sound, logical reason why the intelligence and individuality of women should not entitle them to the rights and priveleges of self-government?
Do you know?
by Carrie Chapman Catt.
Catt, Carrie Lane Chapman,
1859-1947.
NOTES
Reprinted in "Woman Suffrage" by Bjorkman and Porritt.
Scanned from the holdings of The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library, New York, New York.
SUBJECTS
Women's rights.
MEDIUM
? p.
PART OF
National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection (Library of Congress)
DIGITAL ID
rbnawsa n835e http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbnawsa.n835e
Social Evils: Their Causes and Cure
Pamphlet by Maria King, pgs. 34-35
(SUMMARY In this pamphlet, the author addresses a number of issues contributing to problems in contemporary society, among them poor diet, prostitution, marriage and divorce, the plight of orphans, and women in prisons. She suggests, in part, that better education for women and their enfranchisement will be a part of the remedy for these social evils.)
Woman can do nothing more honorable, more truly philanthropic, than to work for woman's elevation. Her voice raised in her own behalf does affect the hearts of fathers, brothers and husbands, to some extent already, and will yet more as she develops a more perfect understanding of what are her just rights and true needs. She must be a power to assist in demolishing the strongholds of vice and oppression which are so abundant in society, and which so depress the energies of every class--the oppressor as well as the oppressed, the virtuous as well as the vicious. Her power must lie in her ability to convince the other sex, and particularly law-makers, of the justice of her claims for herself as woman, and of the necessity of reform of the male sex as well as the female in respect to licentiousness. Woman owes it to herself to demand rights of society which she does not now possess; and to adhere to her demand until it is granted; never flinching at the shafts an ignorant conservatism may aim at her while she is striving to uproot worn-out customs and institute in their place such as are in consonance with the spirit of the age. She owes it to herself to be consistent in her demands and to keep her place as woman, without attempting to push herself into man's peculiar sphere. There is no denying that the sexes each have a peculiar sphere, and that these so blend that both make a perfect whole; as man and woman conjoined constitute the perfect one, which God pronounced good, and an image of Himself. By coöperation with man in whatever work society has to do, and by stimulating him to proper action on all questions of reform, woman can be a power in the land for advancing every reformatory movement of the age. Her right to fit herself to so cooperate with man, is the chief one which she should insist upon; and this, indeed, comprehends all, or nearly all that intelligent, consistent advocates of woman's rights claim.
Social evils; their causes and cure. Being a brief discussion of the social status, with reference to methods of reform.
By Mrs. Maria M. King ...
King, Maria M.
CREATED/PUBLISHED
Boston, W. White and company; New York, The American news company, agents, 1870.
CALL NUMBER
HN64 .K6
PART OF
National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection (Library of Congress)
DIGITAL ID
rbnawsa n4439 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbnawsa.n4439
Speech Before Congress on Women’s Suffrage (1917)
Carrie Chapman Catt
Woman suffrage is inevitable. Suffragists knew it before November 4, 1917; opponents afterward. Three distinct causes made it inevitable.
First, the history of our country. Ours is a nation born of revolution, of rebellion nations had been ruled by kings and for kings, while the people served and paid the cost. The American Revolutionists boldly proclaimed the heresies: "Taxation without representation is tyranny." "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." …
Eighty years after the Revolution, Abraham Lincoln welded those two maxims into a new one: "Ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Fifty years more passed and the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, in a mighty crisis of the nation, proclaimed to the world: "We are fighting for the things which we have always carried nearest to our hearts: for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government."…
With such a history behind it, how can our nation escape the logic it has never failed to follow, when its last unenfranchised class calls for the vote? Behold our Uncle Sam floating the banner with one hand, "Taxation without representation is tyranny," and with the other seizing the billions of dollars paid in taxes by women to whom he refuses "representation." Behold him again, welcoming the boys of twenty-one and the newly made immigrant citizen to "a voice in their own government" while he denies that fundamental right of democracy to thousands of women public school teachers from whom many of these men learn all they know of citizenship and patriotism, to women college presidents, to women who preach in our pulpits, interpret law in our courts, preside over our hospitals, write books and magazines, and serve in every uplifting moral and social enterprise. Is there a single man who can justify such inequality of treatment, such outrageous discrimination? Not one ....
Second, the suffrage for women already established in the United States makes women suffrage for the nation inevitable. …our nation cannot long continue a condition under which government in half its territory rests upon the consent of half of the people and in the other half upon the consent of all the people; a condition which grants representation to the taxed in half of its territory and denies it in the other half a condition which permits women in some states to share in the election of the president, senators, and representatives and denies them that privilege in others. It is too obvious to require demonstration that woman suffrage, now covering half our territory, will eventually be ordained in all the nation. No one will deny it. The only question left is when and how will it be completely established.
Third, the leadership of the United States in world democracy compels the enfranchisement of its own women. The maxims of the Declaration were once called "fundamental principles of government." They are now called "American principles" or even "Americanisms." They have become the slogans of every movement toward political liberty the world around, of every effort to widen the suffrage for men or women in any land. Not a people, race, or class striving for freedom is there anywhere in the world that has not made our axioms the chief weapon of the struggle. …
Do you realize that in no other country in the world with democratic tendencies is suffrage so completely denied as in a considerable number of our own states? There are thirteen black states where no suffrage for women exists, and fourteen others where suffrage for women is more limited than in many foreign countries.
Do you realize that when you ask women to take their cause to state referendum you compel them to do this: that you drive women of education, refinement, achievement, to beg men who cannot read for their political freedom?
Do you realize that such anomalies as a college president asking her janitor to give her a vote are overstraining the patience and driving women to desperation?
Do you realize that women in increasing numbers indignantly resent the long delay in their enfranchisement?
Your party platforms have pledged women suffrage. Then why not be honest, frank friends of our cause, adopt it in reality as your own…why not put the amendment through Congress and the legislatures? We shall all be better friends, we shall have a happier nation, we women will be free to support loyally the party of our choice, and we shall be far prouder of our history.
"There is one thing mightier than kings and armies"--aye, than Congresses and political parties--"the power of an idea when its time has come to move." The time for woman suffrage has come. The woman's hour has struck. If parties prefer to postpone action longer and thus do battle with this idea, they challenge the inevitable. The idea will not perish; the party which opposes it may. Every delay, every trick, every political dishonesty from now on will antagonize the women of the land more and more, and when the party or parties which have so delayed woman suffrage finally let it come, their sincerity will be doubted and their appeal to the new voters will be met with suspicion. This is the psychology of the situation. Can you afford the risk? Think it over.
We know you will meet opposition. There are a few "women haters" left, a few "old males of the tribe… whose duty they believe it to be to keep women in the places they have carefully picked out for them. … There are women, too, with "slave souls" and "clinging vines" for backbones. There are female dolls and male dandies. But the world does not wait for such as these, nor does liberty pause…
Woman suffrage is coming--you know it. Will you, Honorable Senators and Members of the House of Representatives, help or hinder it?
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~aslagell/SpCm416/Catt_1917.html
Challenging Years: The Memoirs of Harriot Stanton Blatch, 1940
By Harriot Stanton Blatch
"Alica Paul and Lucy Burns soon [began] a separate organization, the Congressional Union. It introduced political methods into its campaign for the Federal Amendment, and was experiencing...the opposition of conservative suffragists who believed that the work for suffrage should be kept non-partisan....
They continued to want pressure put on leading Democrats in New York, and we continued to insist that no attacks be made on New York Democrats because they had befriended us in our New York campaign....I felt...that it might be disastrous for our state campaign if they should begin active work for the Federal Amendment in New York at this time."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
"The Winning Plan", speech to NAWSA, 1916.
By Carrie Chapman Catt
"When thirty-six state associations [of NAWSA], or preferably more, enter into a solemn compact to get the [Federal] Amendment submitted by Congress and ratified by their respective legislatures; when they live up to their compact by running a red-hot, never-ceasing campaign in their own states designed to create sentiment behind the political leaders of the states and to aim both these forces at the men in Congress as well as the legislatures, we can get the Amendment through. [The NAWSA associations] should be disciplined and obedient to the national officers in all matters...
We should win, if it is possible to do so, a few more states before the Federal Amendment gets up to the state legislatures...A southern state should be selected and made ready for a campaign, and the solid front of the 'antis' should be broken as soon as possible. Some break in the solid 'anti' East should be made too."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
By Maud Wood Park
"A few members of the Congressional Union (soon to change its name to the Woman's Party), the so-called militant group of suffragists, hung a votes-for-women banner over the railing of a gallery in the House while the President was speaking...
We, who had nothing to do with the demonstration, were so constantly blamed for it that our chairman directed us to make clear in the first words of every interview that we represented the great mass of suffragists, organized in the NAWSA, who did not approve of the methods used by the small group of militants."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
Editorial, The Woman's Journal, January 13, 1917
"It is a very mild sort of militancy that the Congressional Union has adopted, in picketing all the approaches to the White House with 'silent sentinels' bearing suffrage placards....This action of the Congressional Union gets wide publicity in the press but unfortunately it is the kind of publicity which will make the average reader think that some women are doing a rather silly thing."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
Editorial, The Woman's Journal, March 3, 1917
"Mrs. Maud Wood Park said...'I believe that this falling off [of congressional support for suffrage] was due to the picketing of the White House by the Congressional Union. Personally, I think that the fuss made over the banner and picketing is out of all proportion to the actions themselves. People almost foam at the mouth about it. They feel that the President and the government have been insulted...
'[NAWSA] wanted to have the federal amendment...brought to a vote in the House at this session....But the leaders of the Congressional Union [Paul and Burns] do not want to have it brought to a vote in Congress until President Wilson comes out for it, which they believe will give it the necessary two-thirds majority.'
Mrs. Catt said: 'If the Congressional Union had not come back to Washington I believe we should have had the two-thirds vote in the House. If our organization in all the States were strong, we could do it despite the Congressional Union...'"
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
Note to President and Government
By NAWSA, The Women's Journal, March 3, 1917.
"If...our nation is drawn into the [war] we stand ready to serve our country...With no intention of laying aside our constructive, forward work to secure the vote for the womanhood of this country and the right protective of all rights, we offer our services to our country..."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
New York Times, October 28, 1917
This NY Times article covers the Fifth Avenue Parade in 1917. Many leaders from various groups, including NAWSA, were a part of this event that used the fighting for democracy in World War I to help promote their cause for fighting for democracy at home. This parade, filled with patriotism for our troops, also used President Wilson’s suffrage endorsement to support their cause. While women, like Carrie Chapman Catt, walked in the parade, NWP members were in the crowd passing out their newspapers and encouraging the protest of the war time President.
20,000 MARCH IN SUFFRAGE LINE
President’s Indorsement on Banners Carried in Fifth Avenue Parade.
500 MEN IN THE RANKS
Women of All Ages Join in the Demonstration, Many Carrying Service Flags.
More than 1,000,000 women in New York State are asking for the vote, and more than 20,000 of them- according to police and suffragist estimates- marched in Fifth Avenue yesterday afternoon to present their demand. Thousands of persons packed the sidewalks on both sides of the avenue from Washington Square to Fifty-ninth Street to cheer the marchers. The war provided the big, new features of this year’s suffrage parade. The patriotism of women, their sacrifices and contributions since America went to war, and the argument that a country fighting for democracy should establish democracy at home by giving the vote to women were emphasized in every way.
A long column of women carrying service flags of one, two, three, or four stars, indicating that the sons, husbands, and brothers of the women who marched were in their country’s service stirred the people to greatest applause and following it a long line of women who had given of their time and talents to the country as nurses, Red Cross workers, Liberty Loan campaigners, food growers and savers, recruiting speakers, and census takers was received with enthusiastic greeting. A banner stating that the Woman Suffrage party had subscribed the $7,053,400 to the second Liberty Loan was evidence of one of the patriotic contributions of women.
Quote Wilson’s Words.
The appeal for woman suffrage on the ground that a country fighting for democracy should give women the vote was joined with the argument that America’s democratic allies favored the cause.
“Our sons are fighting for democracy. In the name of democracy give us the vote,” and “Our allies, England, France, and Russia, are for Woman Suffrage. Wake Up, America!” were the words on two of the banners.
President Wilson’s recent indirsement of woman suffrage in New York State was employed to full effect. Near the front of the parade on a banner that stretched almost across the street, was: “’President Wilsons says: ‘This is the time to support woman suffrage.’” And on another was: ‘President Wilson says: ‘We shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts, for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own Government.’”
Other banners quoted Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, General Pershing and Herbert Hoover as in favor of woman suffrage.
To emphasize their loyalty to the nation at war, the suffragists carried banners repudiating the Washington pickets. “We are opposed to the picketing of the White House. We stand by our country and our President,” and “The Woman Suffrage Party does not picket at the White House,” were the words on two of the banners. This stand on the part of the New York suffragists was cheered by most of the onlookers. The approach of either banner was the signal for handclapping all along the line, which was more noticeable uptown than around Fourteenth Street, where the Socialists and radicals were grouped.
Only occasionally did the repudiation of the pickets seem to excite any one in the crowds to remonstrance. One such occasion was when one of the anti-picketing banners passed the reviewing stand at Forty-first Street. A woman directly across the street from the stand cried out: “You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. The nerve of you.” There was a scattered response of handclapping by those about her, but before anything like a demonstration could occur policemen had obtained quiet.
Negro Women in Line.
The parade was remarkable for the representative character of the women in it, both as to age and occupation. Women of all ages, from the nearly feeble to the vigorously youthful, walked side by side-all seemingly fired by enthusiasm for their cause. One elderly negro woman went all of the way from Washington Square to Fifty-ninth Street on crutches, and there were a number of her race in the line.
Much of the costuming of the marchers was striking. Four women of Finland wore their native dress; the women of Mr. Hoover’s enrollment appeared in their aprons and caps; many of the professional women were arrayed in cap and gown.
The flags and colors of the Allies were also a bright touch in the parade. Women from England, France, Japan, Russia, and other lands added their voice to the suffrage petition.
Most of the merchants along the avenue ignored the indirect threat of the anti-suffragists, in which they were advised not to decorate their shops, to the extent of putting the suffrage colors in their display windows. Yellow chrysanthemums were pinned on the models in the windows of department stores and ribbon streamers were stretched here and there, but few large banners were hung from the outside walls of buildings and few “Votes for Women” signs were on view.
The parade began to move from Washington Square at 2:30 o’clock, led by Miss Josephine Beiderhase, the grand marshal, and her staff. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany, carrying the leading American flag, came next. Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse led the State party delegation, accompanied by Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, Mrs. Courtlandt D. Barnes, Mrs. Katherine McCook Knox, Mrs. William Wood, Miss May Ladenburg, Miss Elizabeth Emmet, Mrs. Harrington Mann, and Mrs. Cornelia Tangeman.
Carry Ballot Boxes.
Miss Alice Morgan Wright, the sculptor, led the big division of women carrying the 800 beaver boards with the million signatures of the women of the State. Miss Mary Garrett Hay, dressed in white, led the New York City division.
A feature of the New York City Woman Suffrage Party division was the pile of ballot boxes carried by young women in white. There was a stack of boxes for each othe sixty-three Assembly districts of the city.
The division of Patriotic Women, under Mrs. Thomas Wells, carried large American flags and slogans, which said: “My Country, I am at Your Service,” and “We Work for the Liberty Loan.” Among those in the division were Miss Gertrude Freeman, Miss Louise B. Willard, Mrs. Worthington Miner, Mrs. D. W. Evans, Miss Belle Andrews, Miss L. Dingwall, Miss Kate Burnett, Mrs. Walter Lewishon, Mrs. Laurent Oppenheim, Mrs. Gifford Pinchot, Mrs. Everett Colby, Mrs. Herbert Pratt, Mrs F. Louis Slade, Mrs. Learned Hand, Miss Edith Pratt, Mrs. Harold Pratt, Mrs. George Pratt, Mrs. Reginald Fincke, Mrs. Willard D. Straight, Mrs. V. Everit Macy, Miss Agnes Carpenter, Mrs. Linzee Bladgen, and Mrs. Joseph Swan.
Members of the National Woman’s Party, which is doing the picketing in the Washington, had a large number of its members on the street selling copies of its organ, The Suffragist. Circulars on which was printed “The Pickets at the White House Gates, Have They Helped Suffrage? Yes.” were distributed. Mrs. John Rogers, Jr., and Mrs. Peggie Parker, who were two of the imprisoned pickets, were in the crowd as well as Mrs. William L. Colt and Miss Elizabeth Freeman.
Nearly Three Hours in Passing.
The head of the parade reached those on the reviewing stand at about 3 o’clock and was two hours and forty minutes in passing. Near the front of the line was a company of Western women who carried a banner reading, “We were voters out West, why can we not vote here?” Following them came thousands of women carrying the petitions for suffrage signed by 1,013,531 women of the State. The signed sheets had been pasted on large squares of cardboard and stretched more than a mile.
Thirty or more women dressed in white and gold, each carrying a small American flag and led by two large flags, sounded the first distinctively patriotic note of the parade. The first of the banners repudiating the Washington pickets came with this division.
The men’s section came next, and there were an estimated 500 in the column who, by their presence and by banners, urged their fellow voters to indorse woman suffrage on Nov. 6.
The hundreds of women carrying service flags, led by Mrs. Oliver Harriman, followed the men, and behind them were several thousand women in industry. Professional women, including nurses, doctors, social workers, lawyers, actresses, musicians, painters, sculptors, illustrators, editors, authors, and teachers then passed for nearly an hour. After them came the women who had rendered patriotic service, and among these was the first women’s medical unit, under the command of Dr. Caroline Finley.
The new women subway guards, recently employed by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, were represented by about fifty of their number in uniform. A Bellevue Hospital ambulance, in which rode a women surgeon, came at the end of the parade.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E07E2DE113AE433A2575BC2A9669D946696D6CF
New York, Dec., 1916.
"We are not working to win New York. We are working to put the Federal Suffrage Amendment in the Constitution. The trouble with the suffragists is they are like the allies in the war....State suffrage by its scattered methods is losing as the allies have been losing."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
Jailed for Freedom, 1920 (excerpt 1)
Book by Doris Stevens
Excerpt refers to arrests of picketers on June 6, 1917:
"There was criticism in the press and on the lips of men that we were embarrassing our Government before the eyes of foreign visitors....Of course it was embarrassing. We meant it to be...
Miss Lucy Burns ad Miss Katharine Morey of Boston carried to the White House [a banner reading] 'We shall fight for the things we have always held nearest our hearts, for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government', and were arrested..."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
New York Times, June 27, 1917.
"The coveted goal of the American militant suffragists - a hunger strike in jail - appeared in sight today when nine White House pickets who were arrested this morning...let it be known that they would go to jail before they would pay a fine....[They] are manoeuvering for a jail term so that they can start a hunger strike."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
Letter from Doris Stevens to her husband from jail, July 1917
"My fainting probably means nothing except that I am not strong after these weeks. I know you won't be alarmed. Alice Paul is in the psychopathic ward. She dreaded forcible feeding frightfully, and I hate to think how she must be feeling. I have a nervous time of it, gasping a long time afterward, and my stomach rejecting during the process....The poor soul who fed me got liberally besprinkled....I heard myself making the most hideous sounds..."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
Jailed for Freedom, 1920 (excerpt 2)
Book by Doris Stevens
"With thirty determined women on hunger strike, of whom eight were in a state of almost total collapse, the Administration capitulated. It would not afford to feed thirty women forcibly and risk the social and political consequences; nor could it let thirty women starve themselves to death....And so all the prisoners were unconditionally released....Immediately following the release of the prisoners and the magnificent demonstration of public support of them,....Committees of Congress acted on the amendment. President Wilson surrendered and a date for the vote was set."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
Reaction to Tactics of Engligh Suffragists
Inez Hayes Irwin, American woman suffragist, on her reaction to the tactics of the English Suffragists (date unknown). NWP adopted many of their tactics when fighting for women’s suffrage in America.
"When in England, the first militant of Mrs. Pankhurst's forces threw her first stone, my heart went with it....At last the traditions of female patience...had gone by the board. Women were using the tactics that, through all the ages, men had used; the only tactics that were sure to bring results; rebellion and violence."
http://marchand.ucdavis.edu/lessons/HS/SuffrageHS.htm
From New York Times, October 6, 1912
Below is a London newspaper article about women going on a hunger strike. Women, such as Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, learned their fighting tactics from British suffragists.
SUFFRAGISTS HUNGER STRIKE
National Fast Threatened Among Englishwomen at Christmas.
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
LONDON, Oct. 5.- A new and extraordinary move in the suffragette campaign is threatened. It is nothing less than a national hunger strike among all the women of the Great Britain who are devoted to the feminist cause.
This remarkable development originates with Mary Gawthorpe, who write to The Sunday Observer, saying that if during the forthcoming session of Parliament the Government’s pledges to women are evaded, she proposes to initiate “A Women’s Great Hunger Strike” throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain.
Miss Gawthorpe suggests that the strike begin at midnight, Dec. 25 next, “that being the anniversary of the birthday of the founder of the national religion of this country; the birthday of the Master, whose mightiest message, ‘Be ye perfect,’ was addressed to women and men of this civilization alike.”
Miss Gawthorpe calls for the support of the following: “Volunteers of special individual value in such a campaign; wives, friends, sisters, mothers, and relatives generally of members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers; relatives and friends of all who sit in high places; suffragists of title; suffragists of reputations, literary, artistic, scientific, and philanthropic; suffragists who held or hold public office; well-known suffragists; Head mistresses, Principals of colleges and teachers, and silent, sympathetic women in the nation’s homes who are not ordinarily militant, but who would bravely bear witness to their heart’s belief that British womanhood has the right to full political liberty.”
The New York Times Published: October 6, 1912 Copyright © The New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9407E4D7113AE633A25755C0A9669D946396D6CF
Editorial by Annie Nathan Meyer from New York Times, March 10, 1913
Suffragists from various groups marched in the Washington D.C. parade on March 3, 1913. Alice Paul, who was still associated with NAWSA at the time, headed up this parade. Violence broke out at the parade, jeering, and verbal attacks resulted in over 300 people being hurt. The newspaper article below is an editorial from a woman who disagreed with the tactics used by Alice Paul.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE PARADERS.
Themselves Declared to Blame for Ill-Treatment at Washington.
To the Editor of the New York Times:
Miss Paul of English jail experience, one of those who recklessly defied law and order in a country which she was visiting, admits that the head of the Washington police opposed the granting of a permit to the suffragists to parade. “He told me,” said Miss Paul to the committee which is “investigating the shameful behavior of the police,” instead of investigating the callous insistence of the women paraders, “that the riff-raff of the South would be here on account of the inauguration.”
Will anyone tell me why a body of women has the right to impose on the authorities at Washington the double task of keeping order for two parades instead of one-the one in which the entire country was interested? It was cruelly thoughtless and obstinate for the women to insist upon parading the day before the inauguration, a bit of the same policy of “advertising at any cost” that has been pursued by the militants. Those who are responsible for the good name of the Nation had all they could attend to in handling the vast crowds that were assembling on March 3, and it is inconceivable that any body of men would have received permission to parade.
An editorial article in THE TIMES calls upon everyone, anti-suffragists especially, to deplore the outrageous treatment of the suffragist paraders by the hoddlums, but I see no one to blame but themselves. No longer is the world divided into separate countries, but for the purposes of publicity it is all one huge country. Therefore, the suffragists cannot expect in England to destroy the mall of innocent people, cut up golf courses, blow up houses, and set fire to theatres, without the rougher (and, perhaps, the saner, who knows?) element of all countries becoming inflamed. It is idle for American suffragists to say they do not countenance militant methods. They certainly continue entertaining and honoring those who are responsible for that shameful spectacle of a disgraced and degraded womanhood. Only this week I have twice refused to meet an English author whose work I should have liked to honor, but I will not meet anyone who defends the outrageous behavior of those termagants- the English militants.
ANNIE NATHAN MEYER.
New York, March 10, 1913 The New York Times
Published: March 12, 1913 Copyright © The New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A01E0DE1F3AE633A25751C1A9659C946296D6CF
Suffragists Will Picket White House
NY Times article published on January 10, 1917
SUFFRAGISTS WILL PICKET WHITE HOUSE
Plan to Post “Silent Sentinels” Bearing Emblems, Whom President Must Pass.
WILL GUARD ALL EXITS
New Campaign of Militancy Arranged when President Says His Views Are Unchanged.
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9-Women suffragists, representing all parts of the country, disappointed over the result of an appeal which they made this afternoon to President Wilson in the East Room of the White House, held an indignation meeting and decided to adopt a new plan of campaign. They intend to post women pickets hereafter about the White House grounds. Their purpose is to make it impossible for the President to enter or leave the White House without encountering a picket bearing some device pleading the suffrage cause. The pickets will be known as “silent sentinels.”
Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who presided over the indignation meeting, coined the title of ‘silent sentinels’ for the White House pickets. These silent sentinels, all young women, commencing at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning will take up their stations near the entrances to the White House.
Raise Fund for Sentinels.
At the indignation meeting a subscription list was started to pay the cost of the silent sentinel campaign, to buy umbrellas to protect the sentinels from inclement weather, and pay other expenses. Miss Mary Burnham of Philadelphia started the subscription by giving $1,000. Mrs. Townsend Scott of Baltimore, one of the groups of six suffrage leaders who flung their banner from the gallery of the House of Representatives, gave $100. Mrs. William Kent, wife of the independent member of Congress from California, subscribed $100 a month to the silent sentinel cause.
There were 800 suffragists in the delegation that went to the White House to present memorials on the death of Mrs. Inez Milholland Boissevain. The women were admitted by cards, which the White House sent to the headquarters of the Congressional Union yesterday. The delegation was headed by Sara Bard Field of San Francisco, who crossed the continent to present the Boissevain Resolutions, which were adopted at a recent mass meeting in California.
Although the White House audience was arranged merely to present the Boissevain memorials, the women made it the occasion to renew their pleas that the President should support the Susan B. Anthony amendment. The President expressed his surprise, reminded the spokesmen of the party that he had not been apprised of their full purpose, and was not prepared to say any more than he had on previous occasions. His speech follows: “I had not been apprised that you were coming here to make any representations that would issue an appeal to me. I had been told that you were coming to present memorial resolutions with regard to the very remarkable woman whom your cause has lost. I therefore am not prepared to say anything further than I have said on previous occasions of this sort. I do not need to tell you where my own convictions and my own personal purpose lie, and I need not tell you by what circumscriptions I am bound as the leader of a party.
Bound by Party Commands.
“As the leader of a party, my commands come from the party and not from private personal convictions. My personal action as a citizen, of course, comes from no source but my own convictions, and therefore my position has been so frequently defined and I hope so candidly defined, and it is so impossible for me, until the orders of my party are changed, to do anything other than I am doing, as a party leader, that I think nothing more is necessary to be said.
“I do not want to say this. I do not see how anybody can fail to observe from the utterances of the last campaign that the Democratic Party is more inclined than the opposition party to assist in this great cause, and it has been a matter of surprise to me, and a matter of very great regret, that so many of those who were heart and soul for this cause seemed so greatly to misunderstand and misinterpret the attitude of parties. Because in this country, as in every other self-governing country, it is only through the instrumentality of parties that things can be accomplished. They are not accomplished by the individual voice, but by concerted action, and that action must come only so fast as you can concert it. I have done my best and shall continue to do my best to concert it in the interest of the cause in which I personally believe.”
Included in the delegation which called on the President were Miss Anne Martin of Nevada, Chairman of the Woman’s Party: Miss Ella Roegel of Bryn Mawr, Legislative Chairman of the Pennsylvania Branch of the Congressional Union; Mrs. Townsend Scott, Chairman of the Maryland Branch of the Congressional Union; Mrs. William J. Ewing, Mrs. Howard Schwarz, Miss Eleanor White, and Miss Morris, all of Baltimore; Mrs. Harvey Wiley of the National Advisory Council; Mrs. Frank P. Odenheimer, President General of the Daughters of the Confederacy; Mrs. William Kent, Mrs. Lola P. Thurston, widow of Senator Thurston of Nebraska; Mrs. William Bailey Lamar of Florida; Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch of Kansas; Mrs. Charles Houghton Wood, and Miss Mary Phelps Morgan.
The New York Times Published: January 10, 1917 Copyright © The New York Times
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President Ignores Suffrage Pickets
NY Times article published on January 11, 1917
PRESIDENT IGNORES SUFFRAGE PICKETS
Six Silent Sentinels Posted at Each of the Main Gates of the White House.
BUT HE GOES BY OBLIVIOUS
While Police on Duty Only Smile- Women to Post Guards with Military Regularity.
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10.-The White House has been picketed before, but never until today by hostile suffragists. It was placed in the beleaguered state this morning under the new “silent sentinel” campaign, begun by the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage as an outgrowth of the failure of President Wilson to declare in favor of the proposed Federal suffrage amendment when he received a delegation of 300 suffragist leaders at the White House yesterday.
The first guard mount of the suffrage sentinels marched across historic Lafayette Square a few minutes before 9 o’clock this morning, under command of Miss Mabel Vernon. The detail consisted of six young women. The Sergeant of the guard for its first day of picketing was Miss Mary Gertrude Fendall of Baltimore.
Twenty-four suffragists, besides the officer of the day and the Sergeant of the guard, were utilized today. Twelve were on picket duty this morning and the others this afternoon. Six were stationed at each of the two main gateways- east and west-from which the semi-circular roadway leads to the main entrance to the White House. Each of the sentinels carried a banner. Two banners of yellow bunting at each gate were inscribed with the words, “Mr. President, What Will You Do for Woman Suffrage?” Flanking each of these banners were two others, displaying the suffrage colors-purple, white, and yellow-but bearing no inscriptions.
President Wilson was one of the first to enter the western gate after the sentinels went to their posts. He was returning in a sedan motor car at 10 o’clock from a game of golf, and seemingly ignored the presence of the pickets when he passed them. One of the sentinels, when asked whether the President smiled as he passed through the gate replied: “Not so that you could notice it. He was utterly oblivious, apparently, of our presence here.”
Ignored by White House.
If the Congressional Union members expected that the stationing of these pickets would result in a flare-up of resentment from the White House today they were disappointed. No disagreeable incident occurred. At the White House it was said that it was the purpose to ignore the presence of the pickets. The White House police, supposedly acting under orders, merely smiled when they approached the sentinels.
The object of the campaign is to flash before the Presidential eye the phrase “Mr. President. What will You Do For Woman Suffrage?” every time he passes through either of the main gates to his official residence. It was acknowledged that the move was part of a new policy of mild militancy, which began when the suffragists unfurled a “Votes for Women” banner from the gallery of the House of Representatives on Dec. 5 last when the President was delivering his address to Congress. It was said that the picketing would be continued in the most systematic fashion for an indefinite period, at least until March 4, when Mr. Wilson is to be inaugurated for a second time.
A separate day is to be designated for each State in the Union until forty-eight days have passed. On these State days the sentinels representing their respective States. After that it is the intention to have a woman lawyer day, a woman doctor day, a woman scientist day, a feminine author day, and so on.
The Congressional Union announces that it intends to keep the pickets posted as long as necessary, rain or shine, daily from 9 to 5:30. A fund of more than $3,000 has been raised to pay for umbrellas, raincoats, and other incidental expenses, including possible fines.
Order for the Day.
A general order for the guard mounting will be issued every day. The order issued today was as follows:
GENERAL ORDERS NO. 1
Officer of the Day, Miss Mabel Vernon.
Sergeant of the Guard, Miss Mary Gertrude Fendall.
Guard mount.
Morning detail, east gate.
Privates-Miss Vivian Pierce, San Francisco; Miss Bertha Cron, San Francisco; Miss Mildred Gilbert, San Francisco; Miss Bessle Papandre, San Francisco; Miss Elizabeth Gary, Illinois; Miss Gertrude Crocker, Illinois.
Morning detail, west gate.
Privates-Mrs. M.C. Dowell, Philadelphia; Miss Joy Young, District of Columbia; Miss Maud Jamison, Norfolk; Miss Elizabeth Smith, New York; Miss Pauline Floyd, Arkansas; Miss Frances Pepper, District of Columbia.
Bugler of the Day-Press Bureau of the Congressional Union.
Challenge-“Mr. President, What Will You Do For Woman Suffrage?”
Uniform-Shoulder sashes.
Miss ALICE PAUL, Commandant. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association said she thought the Congressional Association was making an error in picketing the White House.
The New York Times Published: January 11, 1917 Copyright © The New York Times
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Miss Alice Paul on Hunger Strike
Below is a NY Times article covering one of the tactics used by NWP suffragists. (Published: November 7, 1917) These tactics led to a substantial amount of media attention.
MISS ALICE PAUL ON HUNGER STRIKE
Suffragist Leader Adopts This Means of Protesting Against Washington Prison Fare.
NOW IN JAIL HOSPITAL
Threatens to Starve to Death Unless Better Food Is Provided for Six Companions.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 6- Alice Paul, National Chairman for the Woman’s Party, now doing a seven months’ sentence in jail here for picketing the White House, has gone on a hunger strike, and tonight she had been in the jail hospital without food for the preceding twenty-four hours, stolidly threatening to starve herself to death unless her six companions, serving time for the same offense, got better food.
So far the jail officials are taking the strike calmly and waiting for Miss Paul to get hungry enough to eat. Forcible feeding has not been discussed as yet. But inasmuch as Miss Paul made somewhat of a record for herself as a hunger striker in an English jail several years ago, while militating with Mrs. Pankhurst, headquarters of the Woman’s Party is quite confident that she will give the prison officials a surprise of they expect her to yield quickly.
Miss Paul, a slight, little woman, weighing about ninety pounds and a delicate constitution, was taken to the jail hospital last night because she was ill. Miss Paul said she was ill because of bad food, bad air, and no exercise. Woman’s Party officials say she and the other militants have been getting a coarse diet principally of salt pork and cabbage at the rate of eighteen times in thirteen days. When Miss Paul was taken to the hospital a diet, including milk and eggs and without the salt pork and cabbage, was offered her, but she announced she would have none of it unless her sisters got the same.
Tonight Dr. Cora Smith King, Miss Paul’s physician, who was permitted to attend her, issued a bulletin saying Miss Paul was much thinner than when she centered the jail, Oct 22, was refusing food, and would not touch a morsel until she and her companions received the same treatment as seventeen murderers, who have the privilege of special food, air exercise, and the newspapers.
“If we are to be starved, I prefer to be starved at once,” was the message Miss Paul sent out to the workers. “There is no use giving us special food today and not tomorrow simply to keep us alive as long as possible.”
Although the militants have announced they will not resume picketing the White House until Congress reconvenes in December, they consider that a hunger strike is a sufficient climax, for the present at least, to their efforts to force President Wilson to indorse woman suffrage by Constitutional amendment.
The New York Times Published: November 7, 1917 Copyright © The New York Times
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Suffragists Off in "Prison Special"
NY Times article published on February 16, 1919
SUFFRAGISTS OFF IN ‘PRISON SPECIAL’
Women Who Have Been Sentenced for White House Disturbances Will Tour Country.
WILL WEAR JAIL CLOTHES
As They Demand the Passage of the Federal Amendment-A Who’s Who of the Militant Party.
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15.-Militant suffragists of the National Woman’s Party left Washington tonight on a special train which they are calling the “Prison Special,” for a transcontinental tour in advocacy or immediate action on the national suffrage amendment. On this trip the speakers, most of them women who have been jailed for their picketing and other demonstrations in front of the White House, will demand the reintroduction and passage of the suffrage amendment before March 4. Twenty0six of the women who have served jail or workhouse sentences for their demonstrations left Washington on the special.
The itinerary of the prison special will be Charleston, S.C.; Jacksonville, Chattanooga, New Orleans, San Antonio, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Milwaukee, Syracuse, Boston, Hartford and New York. The prison special, after having gone to the Pacific Coast and return, will arrive at New York City at 5:40 o’clock the afternoon of Monday, march 10, and will leave New York for Washington at 12 o’clock the same night.
Duplicates of the prison costumes worn by the women in the Ocoquan workhouse have been made for all those traveling on the special. The costumes consist of shapeless blue calico wrappers, with washrags pinned at the belt. Some member of the party will wear these costumes at every meeting.
There was no outside evidence of the character of the tour on the car, the Railroad Administration having refused to carry the car over its lines if there were any bars or prison insignia on the outside of it.
The New York women making the journey are Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, Mrs. John Rogers, Mrs. Lucy Burns, Miss Vida Milholland, Miss Cira Week, Miss Edith Ainge, and Mrs. W.D. Ascough. Mrs. Havemeyer was recently imprisoned for taking part in the demonstrations in front of the White House. She has been active in all phases of war work, campaigning for the Liberty Loan and food conservation, was one of the founder of the “Land Army,” and the first woman to agitatie for military rank for nurses.
Mrs. Roger is the wife of the surgeon, Dr. John Rogers. She has been active in suffrage and in work for public education. She is a descendant of John Alden and Miles Standish. Roger Sherman, an ancestor, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Mrs. Lucy Burns has served more jail sentences than any other suffragist, and has been in charge of all recent demonstrations at the White House.
Miss Milholland is a sister of the late Inez Milholland Boissevain, and will sing “The Women’s Marseillaise” and oteh rwar songs of suffrage on the trip.
Miss Week, it is explained by the militants, is descended from Scandinavian Vikings. Her family were pioneers in this country, tramping across the plains of Wisconsin, where she was raised and educated. She studied art in Paris, and exhibited there.
Miss Ainge of Jamestown, N.Y., was brought up in a family of nine brothers and sisters before she took up suffrage work in New York State.
Mrs. Ascough gave up a career as a professional singer to devote herself to suffrage.
Others on the prison special are: Miss Mary Ingham of Philadelphia, State Chairman of the National Woman’s Party, a graduate of Bryn Mawr, Secretary of the National Progressive League in 1912, member of the State Committee of Progressive Party, member of Executive Committee of the National Party; Miss Mary Winsor of Haverford. Penn., graduate of Drexel Institute and Bryn Mawr College, student at Columbia and Harvard, sent abroad by the American Academy of Political and Social Science to study the English Suffrage movement; Miss Elizabeth McShane of Uniontown, Penn., graduate of Vassar.
Mrs. Robert Walker of Baltimore, whose husband is a Captain in the army, formerly Miss Amelia Himes; Miss Gladys Greiner, daughter of John E. Griner, member of the Stevens Railway Commission to Russia, holder of the golf and tennis championships for Marlyand; Mrs. Mary A. Nolan of Jacksonville, Fla., who at 75 years of age suffered imprisonment; Miss Willie Grace Johnson of Shreveport, La., of an old Southern family; Mrs. Estella Eylward of New Orleans, studied in Stanford University, studied law in her father’s office, and has traveled extensively throughout this country.
Miss Sue White of Nashville, Tenn., State Chairman of the National Woman’s party, member of the D.A.R.’ Mrs. A.R. Colvin of St. Paul, State Chairman of National Woman’s Party; Mrs. Pauline Adams of Norfolk, Va., wife of noted physician and prominent clubwoman; Mrs. Abbie Scott Baker of Washington, Political Chairman National Woman’s Party; Mrs. Raymond B. Hunter of Port Huron, Mich., and Miss Gertrude Shaw of Grand Rapids, both of whom came to Washington to do war work.
State branches of the Woman’s Party and special organizers are arranging mass meetings in the cities where the special stops.
The New York Times Published: February 16, 1919 Copyright © The New York Times
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D0DE0DC1139E13ABC4E52DFB4668382609EDE
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