Two crazes swept the country in the closing decades of the 19th century; croquet became all the rage and the low-framed "safety" bicycle came to replace the high-seated model and by 1893 a million bicycles were in use and thousands of young women were turning to this new "spinning wheel," one that offered freedom, not tedium.
"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel." --Susan B. Anthony
Rise up!
To follow along with blog and discussion watch movie from 41:57-58:22.
In the early-twentieth century one of the most significant developments in presidential politics was the institution of the presidential primary. Kathleen A. Kendall argues that presidential primaries "were seen by early reformers as a way to take away the power to nominate the president from the party bosses and give it back to the 'the people.'" By the 1912 presidential election, as many as twenty-one states had adopted a presidential primary system, and by 1915, only a handful had yet to do so.
"A movement is not really alive which does not ask for immediate action . . .
"Did you see the paper? The National Women's Party (NWP) is traveling west by train."
Paul and Burns directed their militant campaign toward agitating Democratic members of Congress between 1913 and 1916. Exhibiting their political motives, one Committee member wrote to another: "If we can but continue a constant agitation which will rivet the eyes of Congressmen upon our measure, there is great hope it may go through this Congress."
"They will embark on a speaking campaign urging women voters to vote against the Democrats in this election who oppose the federal amendment."
Prior to the Seventeenth Amendment, which ensured the direct election of senators, U.S. senators were selected by their state legislatures. Throughout the latter decades of the nineteenth century, the labor movement pushed for the direct election of U.S. senators as a way to ensure full representation and to curb the corrupt promotion of certain senators. The ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in April 1913 also increased the potential of Congress to represent the political demands of U.S. citizens.
"I use my monthly allowance. It has nothing to do with you."
Woman's Party mimicked the strategies of a national political party by establishing headquarters in every state, stationing organizers in every congressional district, and launching a number of nationwide campaign strategies.
They harnessed the united voices of U.S. women through its May 2, 1914, nationwide demonstrations. On this day, national, state, and local organizers orchestrated and participated in suffrage demonstrations in more than 1,000 U.S. cities. Many demonstrations included between five and ten thousand marchers. All over the country, on hundreds of platforms the women's cause is being argued, and that hundreds of people are listening. Tomorrow every newspaper in the United States will rehearse the story of the women's demonstration, thus swelling the audience to millions. Never, in the history of the world, have women been as vocal as they are on this day in May.
For it's great to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl.
Exactly one week after the May 2, 1914, nation-wide demonstrations, 531 suffrage "delegates" representing every congressional district in the nation traveled to Washington, D.C. to present suffrage petitions to every member of Congress.
To greet Maryland state congressmen at the opening of the state's legislative session in 1914, at least thirty Maryland suffragists marched from Baltimore to Annapolis, where they presented the legislators with a petition of over 200,000 signatures of Maryland voters.
For it's great to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl.
April 30, 1915, 200 New York women visited Senator James A. O'Gorman. The meeting was preceded by an open-air meeting and a marching band.
Similarly, in 1915, at the conclusion of the first Convention of Women Voters, two "envoys" embarked on a cross-country road trip to Washington, D.C., where they accumulated more than 500,000 signatures on a single petition more than 18,000 feet in length.
In a parade much like the one held the year before, thousands of women marched through the streets of Washington, D.C., to the Capitol Building. There, the chosen 531 delegates from all over the nation marched up the capitol steps into the rotunda, where they were enthusiastically received by eleven senators and eleven representatives.
For it's great to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl.
In Salt Lake City, Utah, the envoys were greeted on the State Capitol steps by Governor William Spry, Mayor Samuel C. Park, and U.S. Representative Joseph Howell.
In Lincoln, Nebraska, Governor John H. Morehead met the envoys as a procession of ten cars carried them to the capitol building.
"They count on my monthly contributions."
Chicago, Illinois, 1,000 people and fifty cars gathered as Mayor William Hale Thompson and his wife gathered with the women and signed the petition.
The envoys enjoyed receptions such as these in at least twenty-three states and forty-two cities.
For it's great to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl.
Evanston, Wyoming, the envoys met with Republican Senator Clarence D. Clark in the city's court house, where the Senator stated that he believed strongly in the state method. According to The Suffragist, Sara Field "told the Senator and the people present of the untold waste of women's life force which the state campaigns entailed." To this, Senator Clark "listened attentively" and reported that he "was amazed and interested to learn of the difficulties of that form of work." When Field pressed the Senator to approve a printed statement of his endorsement, he relented: "Say anything you like and I will stand for it." By noting that the Senator listened and then capitulated to the envoys' case.
Moreover, of the forty-three Democrats running for election or re-election in 1914, twenty-three were defeated. Proudly, the WP credited itself with unseating six of those men.
For it's great to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl.
The WP's ultimate coup, however, was pressuring the Democratic National Convention to endorse woman suffrage. Section XX of the party's platform said, "We recommend the extension of the franchise to the women of the country by the States upon the same terms as men." Although the plank recommends a state-by-state strategy, it represented the first time the Democratic Party officially endorsed woman suffrage.
On the day of the 1916 congressional and presidential elections, the WP organized women to take post at 2,100 polling booths in Chicago alone. Many of these women reported converting 50-100 women voters before they cast their ballots. One WP organizer said that on voting day, "Every available speaker was drawn into service and as many meetings as possible arranged . . . At the same time a large amount of literature was distributed and thousands of posters were sent out and placed on display throughout the suffrage states."
One thing we may be sure of—until we ask for instant action, no one else will ask for it." - NWP Just before waging its 1914 campaign.
Of the WP's campaign, The Suffragist said, "It put the Democrats on the defensive. It forced them to declare greater and greater enthusiasm for national woman suffrage. The election ended with Democrats and Republicans vying with each other as to which was more devoted to the enfranchisement of women."
Although Democrats lost sixteen House seats and Wilson secured the presidency with 158 fewer electoral votes than he did in his 1912 election, they ultimately declared: "We did not care who won . . . we were simply pro-woman." One of the three lost Democratic seats in the suffrage states went to Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who secured a Republican seat in the House with 2,000 more votes than her Democratic opponent.
To challenge fear find hope.
Inez Milholland's last public words...
"Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?"
In 1916, she went on a tour in the West - speaking for women's rights as a member of the National Woman's Party - despite suffering from pernicious anemia and despite the admonitions of her family who were concerned about her deteriorating health. On October 22, 1916, she collapsed in the middle of a speech in Los Angeles, and was rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital. Despite repeated blood transfusions, she died on November 25, 1916.
Alice Paul chose the Capitol rotunda for their memorial tribute to beautiful young Inez, who gave her life for the "cause." They took possession of it and made it ready for the ceremonies without permission. The gold and purple colors of the militants bedecked its great marble posts. Senators who came to protect remained as silent and touched spectators.
"Beautiful and courageous, she embodied more than any other American woman the ideals of that part of womenkind whose eyes are on the future. She embodied all the things which make the Suffrage Movement something more than a fight to vote.
She meant the determination of modern women to live a full free life, unhampered by tradition." -The Philadelphia Public Lodger at the time of her death
Forward, out of error,
Leave behind the night,
Forward through the darkness,
Forward into light.
Next up FINISH THE ROW! Plant seeds and grow.
RESOURCES:
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/8759/1/umi-umd-5778.pdf
http://yesteryearsnews.wordpress.com/tag/inez-milholland/
http://www.adkhistorycenter.org/edu/pdf/WomenOfThePast.pdf
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