Today in Herstory: One Million New York Women Want Suffrage

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Today in Herstory: One Million New York Women Want Suffrage




October 31, 1915: Despite the fact that it was a Sunday, this was no day of rest for New York’s suffragists, with Election Day coming up on Tuesday. The offices of the Woman Suffrage Party,
Empire State Campaign Committee and Women’s Political Union were open early, and crowded at all times. Even the W.P.U.’s mobile “Suffrage Shop” somehow managed to host a total of about 1,000 people at various times during the day, while the final poll-watching class was going on back at its headquarters. The “antis” will not have poll-watchers, because they do not believe women are “fitted or qualified” for such work.

At the office of the Woman Suffrage Party there was clearly a good deal of activity going on, but exactly what’s being planned is a secret, with no one willing to discuss this latest project. “Be silent – the enemy listens” was the word here today, and many regular volunteers were nowhere to be seen, but are said to be busily working at some undisclosed location.

The battle of statistics continues, with Carrie Chapman Catt, head of the Empire State Campaign Committee, defending her claim that 1,000,000 of New York State’s women want suffrage, while Alice Hill Chittenden and Josephine Dodge of the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage say that only 10% of the State’s women want the vote. According to Catt: “We have made no ‘wild guess,’ we have ‘framed up’ no false statement. We canvassed. We found our million women.” Catt’s organization has gone to a great deal of trouble to gather these statistics. Many communities have been canvassed house to house, and the Committee has maintained booths at 98 county fairs, the State Fair, and numerous expositions.

Catt also noted that the “antis” have not changed their 10% estimate in ten years despite the phenomenal growth of suffrage sentiment in that time, as shown by the addition of seven States to the full-suffrage column in just the past five years. Suffrage parades didn’t even exist a decade ago, but the one on October 23rd was considered by even the most vehemently anti-suffrage newspaper in the city to have been a stunning and massive spectacle. Even that turnout was not a complete reflection of suffrage sentiment because according to Catt: “Thousands of women did not possess the physical strength to stand waiting for hours and then walk two and a half miles. Many were obliged to work Saturday afternoon, and thousands more to remain home with their children.”

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http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2014/10/31/today-in-herstory-one-million-new-york-women-want-suffrage/