Volume 6 / Part 1 — LOUISIANA. PART I.[57]

LOUISIANA. PART I.[57]

The history of woman suffrage in Louisiana is unique inasmuch as it records largely the activity of one club, an influence, however, which was felt in the upbuilding of sentiment not alone in Louisiana but in almost every Southern State. When in 1900 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt on her accession to the presidency of the National American Woman Suffrage Association called for conventions in the Southern States it was found that in Louisiana the State Suffrage Association, formed in 1896 by the union of the Portia and Era clubs, had lapsed because the former was no longer in existence. The Era Club, however, was flourishing under the stimulus and prestige gained by the successful Drainage, Sewerage and Water Campaign of 1899.[58] Mrs. Catt decided that, while it was a new precedent to recognize one club as a State association, it would be done in this case. Mrs. Evelyn Ordway was made president, Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick, vice-president; Miss Jeannette Ballard and Miss Jean Gordon, secretaries, and Mrs. Otto Joachim, treasurer of the new association at a meeting in May, 1900, at New Orleans. It went on record at this first meeting as a State's rights organization, which Mrs. Catt ruled was permissible under the dual character of the National Association's constitution.

The secretary entered into active correspondence with individuals in all sections of the State known to be favorable to suffrage, but all efforts to secure clubs were unsuccessful. The Era Club, therefore, extended its membership over the State in order that representation in the national suffrage conventions could be state-wide. It had a standing Legislative Committee and for thirteen years its activities constituted the work of a State association. In 1904, Mrs. Merrick, Louisiana's pioneer suffragist, was made honorary president; Miss Kate M. Gordon, president; Mrs. James McConnell, vice-president; Mrs. Armand Romain, corresponding secretary; Miss Jean Gordon, recording secretary; Mrs. Lucretia Horner (now Mrs. James McBride), treasurer. There was no change in this board until 1913 except that on the death of Mrs. Romain in 1908 Mrs. Judith Hyams Douglas was appointed in her place.

Clubs were formed during the years in various towns, but did not survive, until in 1913 a league was organized in Shreveport which did excellent work under its presidents, Mrs. S. B. Hicks, Mrs. S. P. Weaver and Mrs. J. M. Henry. The first State convention was held Nov. 12, 1913, in New Orleans, and the following officers were elected: Miss Jean Gordon, president; Mrs. George Wesley Smith, Rayville; Mrs. James C. Wooten, Monroe; Mrs. Louis Hackenjos, Alexandria, vice-presidents; Mrs. R. M. Carruth, New Roads, corresponding secretary; Miss Lois Janvier, New Orleans, recording secretary; Miss Olivia Munson, Napoleonville, treasurer; Mrs. Fannie Wolfson, Coushatta, auditor.

This board was unchanged until 1915, when Mrs. Clarence King of Shreveport became treasurer and Mrs. M. H. Lawless of Garden City and Mrs. D. C. Scarborough of Natchitoches, auditors. There was no further change until 1920, when Mrs. McBride became treasurer and Mrs. Horace Wilkinson took Mrs. Scarborough's place. State conventions met in Alexandria in 1914 and in Shreveport in 1915. Conferences were held in twenty-five parishes in anticipation of the proposed constitutional convention of 1915. A convention was held in Alexandria in July, 1918, and chairmen were appointed in forty-eight parishes in preparation for the State amendment campaign.

In reviewing the history of woman suffrage in Louisiana three factors stand out prominently as influences that molded a favorable public opinion. These are the national suffrage convention in 1903; the inauguration of charity campaigns on the lines of political organization and the forming of the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference, the object of which was to place the Democratic party on record for woman suffrage in this Democratic stronghold of the "solid South."

In public opinion woman suffrage was largely associated with the Abolition movement. In 1900 Miss Gordon had accepted an invitation to address the convention of the National Association in Washington on the famous Sewerage and Drainage Campaign of women in New Orleans. Then and there she decided that the most important work before Louisiana suffragists was to bring this conservative State under the influence of a national convention. In 1901 she attended another convention and was elected corresponding secretary of the National Association. In 1903 she brought its convention to New Orleans and it proved to be one of the most remarkable in the history of the association.[59] So impressed was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president at large, with the possibilities in the South that she volunteered a month's series of lectures in the next autumn and many places in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas came under the spell of her eloquence.

The influence of this convention was immediately seen in the increasing membership of the Era Club. Its leaders recognized that the best policy to rouse both men and women to the value of suffrage to the individual and the community was by applied politics in social service. It had already secured a partial franchise for taxpaying women and its achievements in the following years made it an acknowledged power.[60] In 1910 a great charity and educational benefit was launched for the Anti-Tuberculosis League and the Woman's Dispensary. A complete plan of organizing with Era Club members as ward and precinct leaders taught them political organization.

By 1913 the movement for a Federal Suffrage Amendment was growing so insistent that southern women who were opposed to this method felt the necessity of organizing to combat it and to uphold the State's rights principle of the Democratic party. Through the initiative of Miss Gordon a Call for a conference was sent in August to leading women in every southern State and signed by twenty-two from almost as many States asking the Governors to meet in New Orleans for a conference. It said:

We are united in the belief that suffrage is a State right and that the power to define a State's electorate should remain the exclusive right of the State. We recognize that Woman Suffrage is no longer a theory to be debated but a condition to be met. The inevitable "votes for women" is a world movement and unless the South squarely faces the issue and takes steps to preserve the State's right the force of public opinion will make it mandatory through a National Constitutional Amendment....

While as Southerners we wish to see the power of the State retained, yet as women we are equally determined to secure, as of paramount importance, the right which is the birthright of an American citizen. We, therefore, appeal to you gentlemen vested with the power largely to shape conditions to confer with us and influence public opinion to adopt woman suffrage through State action. Failing to accomplish this, the onus of responsibility will rest upon the men of the South if southern women are forced to support a National Amendment, weighted with the same objections as the Fifteenth.

It was not expected that the Governors would come, but the desired publicity was secured and several of them sent representative women. At the invitation of the Era Club the conference was held in New Orleans Nov. 10-11, with an excellent attendance. The Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference was organized with Miss Gordon president. On May 1, 1914, headquarters were opened in New Orleans in charge of Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer of Pennsylvania, as executive secretary, who had had long experience in suffrage organization and press work. For the next three years Miss Gordon went regularly to these headquarters and gave her entire time to the promotion of the Southern Conference without financial remuneration. In October a 20-page magazine, the New Southern Citizen, made its appearance, which became self-supporting and proved to be a most valuable factor in the work of the conference. The first convention was held in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Nov. 10, 1914, just before that of the National American Association in Nashville, which its delegates attended. It was welcomed by the Mayor, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and many club presidents. Delegates were present from twelve States and in addition a number of distinguished visitors. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont brought with her Miss Christabel Pankhurst of Great Britain and both made addresses. About $1,500 were pledged.

Miss Gordon said in her president's address: "The Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference has for its immediate object to make the Democratic party declare itself in favor of votes for women in its next national platform. This, we southern suffragists believe, is the first step in what will prove a veritable landslide in the South. The conference therefore recommends to the suffragists of the South the adoption of a policy of concentration upon the Democratic party to declare itself."

In December, 1915, a national conference was held in Richmond, Va. Smaller conferences were held in Atlanta, Greenville, S. C., and Little Rock. Miss Gordon visited most of the cities of the South to organize the women. In July, 1916, an executive meeting was held in St. Louis at the time of the national Democratic convention. Its Resolutions Committee gave a hearing to the representatives of the conference, Miss Clay, Mrs. O. F. Ellington of Little Rock, Mrs. Boyer, Mrs. Wesley Martin Stoner of Washington. Miss Gordon made an extended appeal for an endorsement of woman suffrage in the party platform and presented a resolution to "secure for women self-government while preserving to the State a like self-government." This was not adopted, but the platform did recommend "the extension of suffrage to the women of the country by the States."

Although the principal object of the conference had been attained, its leaders hesitated to dissolve it because of its excellent magazine and work yet to be done. It was maintained until May, 1917, when the entrance of this country into the World War made its discontinuance seem advisable.[61]

Legislative Action. Prior to 1904 it was an unheard of thing for women in Louisiana to take an active part in legislative procedure. A woman's club, the Arena, had been instrumental in obtaining the first "age of consent" legislation, but a Unitarian minister had entirely managed the Legislature. Therefore the tyros who formed the first Legislative Committee of the Era Club showed their ignorance and enthusiasm when their program included at least twelve bills which they proposed to have enacted into law in one session.[62] Without any friends at court it was with considerable relief that they followed advice to put them all in the hands of an influential lobbyist. Reform bills were not in his line and the session was drawing to a close with nothing done when the Gordon sisters cast precedent and propriety to the winds, telegraphed to the Senator from their district for an audience, boarded a morning train for Baton Rouge and descended upon the Capitol. Article 210 of the State constitution adopted in 1898 made women ineligible to serve in any official capacity. One of the first acts of the Era Club had been to try to have it amended so as to allow the appointment of a woman to fill a vacancy on the School Board. The surprised Senator met them on their arrival, learned the object of their visit and they will never know whether sympathy, amusement or curiosity actuated the Committee on Judiciary to whom he appealed for a hearing, but a few minutes after their arrival they were pleading their cause before its members. They then called on Governor Newton Blanchard, who offered to have Article 210 amended to enable the appointment of a factory inspector, but in their zeal for the larger object they declined.

1906. Wiser by two years' experience, the Legislative Committee was glad to accept Lieutenant Governor Jared Y. Sanders's offer of an amendment for the above purpose, and Miss Jean Gordon was appointed factory inspector for the city of New Orleans. It was not long before she realized that the Child Labor law, under which she must operate, was not worth the paper on which it was written. She then studied the child labor laws of every State and selected what was best suited to southern conditions, and put it into form for submission.

1908. The legislative program was limited to the attempt to amend Article 210, pass a School suffrage bill and the Child Labor bill. The School suffrage bill, under the skillful management of Senator R. E. Gueydan, assisted by Senators Albert Estinopal and James Brady and Lieutenant Governor Thos. C. Barrett, passed the Senate but failed in the House. The Child Labor bill passed the House but not the Senate.

1910. Senator Gueydan introduced the amendment of Article 210. Representative S. O. Shattuck introduced the first resolution to strike out the word "male" from the State constitution, with instructions from the women to substitute a School or Municipal suffrage bill if a favorable report was more likely to result. By this time the women had sufficiently progressed to address a joint suffrage committee hearing in the House in the presence of an immense audience, Miss Belle Van Horn, Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Douglas, Miss Gordon and labor representatives presenting suffrage arguments. The School suffrage bill was substituted and received a unanimous favorable report, but not the necessary two-thirds vote.

1912. The amendment to Article 210 was introduced by Martin Manion in the House and William Byrnes in the Senate. In the interim between the sessions Mrs. O. W. Chamberlain, legislative chairman, had rolled up a monster petition from all sections of the State and the favorable report of the committee was followed by the required two-thirds vote in the House. There seemed no hope in the Senate, but Miss Gordon appealed to Senator Byrnes to call it from the calendar. There was active lobbying among the opponents, but it finally passed and was sent to the voters! In the campaign for it the Newcomb College Alumnae, the State Nurses' Association and the Federation of Women's Clubs were very active, but it was defeated.

An interesting phase of this year's session in connection with the suffrage amendment was the presenting of the idea of Primary suffrage for women by Miss Gordon at the hearing. She had grown so tired of hearing from the opponents of woman suffrage that their objection rested solely upon the fact that negro women would be enfranchised, that on the part of the Legislative Committee she offered as a substitute for the full suffrage bill one limiting it to the white primary elections. This novel offer was received with great applause by the assembled members of the two Houses, but was not accepted. [See Arkansas and Texas chapters for Primary suffrage for women.]

1914. The full suffrage bill was introduced by Representative Manion and a quiet committee hearing held, with representatives from the State Suffrage Association and the Woman Suffrage Party. It received 60 ayes, 41 noes in the House, but not the necessary two-thirds. Amending Article 210 had become a city administration measure and was slated for success. A donation towards a Tuberculosis Hospital in New Orleans had been made by Mrs. John Dibert and the gift was municipalized by a condition which required a certain annual revenue from the city. She desired to be a member of the hospital board, but was ineligible under this article. The Era Club gave notice that it would challenge her eligibility and she supported its position. The long desired amendment was on the way to a successful passage, but went on the rocks because of the club's campaign against a financial measure for refunding the city debt known as the Nine Million Bond issue, in which the provisions for the public schools and the teachers' pay were totally inadequate and it was to be in effect for fifty years! The Era Club and the Mothers' Co-operative Club protested and worked against this political-financial alliance. In retaliation twenty-four hours before the election the order went to the voters to defeat the amendment to Article 210, which would have made women eligible to serve on school and charity boards, and they did so.

1918. Governor Ruffin G. Pleasant recommended in his message the submission of a woman suffrage amendment to the State constitution. The State association had a resolution for it introduced in the House by Frank Powell; the Woman Suffrage Party one in the Senate by Leon Haas, and it passed in both.

Campaigns. There have been two campaigns in the interest of woman suffrage in Louisiana, one for preparing for an expected constitutional convention which would have met in 1915, and the other in 1918 to amend the State constitution by striking out the word "male." A special session of the Legislature in 1915 proposed a convention to revise the constitution and submitted the question to the voters. Immediately Miss Jean Gordon, president of the State Suffrage Association, accompanied by Miss Lilly Richardson and Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, visited the various parishes and formed working committees in 40 of the 63. The enthusiastic reception wherever they went was practical testimony to the sentiment for woman suffrage that they knew existed and could be utilized if the politicians could be made to submit the amendment to the voters. The latter rejected the proposal to hold a convention, but the work done by the women laid the foundation for the campaign three years later.

In 1918 there was finally submitted for the first time the long desired amendment to the State constitution to enable women to vote. To Governor Pleasant is due a great debt of gratitude, for every influence that he could bring to bear was exerted, not alone to secure its submission but also its ratification. He had particularly urged in his Message at the opening of the Legislature the great importance of the South's realizing the danger threatened from the proposed submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The State Suffrage Association was in the midst of opening the campaign when the Woman Suffrage Party announced that they would retire from all suffrage activity and devote themselves to Red Cross work. Robert Ewing, member of the Democratic National Committee, owner of the New Orleans Daily States and Shreveport Times, and a political power, offered his support if the Woman Suffrage Party would unite with the State association and leave the Federal Amendment question entirely out of the campaign. They finally agreed to this and a joint committee was formed of the president and three capable women in each organization. Headquarters were opened in New Orleans; the parish committees which were organized in 1915 were found to be ready for active work. A petition to be signed was sent to each with a strong official letter from the Campaign Committee. A bitter three-cornered Senatorial fight was under way and the women were asked to delay action until after the September primaries, which they consented to do.

All was ready for beginning a whirlwind campaign on October 1, when suddenly just before that date the influenza epidemic broke out and no assembling of people was allowed. To add to the difficulties, instead of the usual dry, clear weather of this season there came a deluge of rains that lasted for six weeks and the condition of the roads made it wholly impossible to do any work in the outlying districts. Thus there was practically no campaign in the way of making personal appeals to the voters, but in New Orleans and other cities thousands received urgent letters from Miss Gordon and other leaders. Notwithstanding these adverse conditions, the majority against the amendment was only 3,600, nearly all of it in New Orleans, where it was the result of direct orders from Mayor Martin Behrman, through the ward "bosses" of a perfectly controlled "machine." From parish after parish in the State came reports of precincts not even being opened on account of the epidemic and the weather. There is no doubt that others which reported an adverse majority were really carried for the amendment. At a public meeting of protest immediately after Miss Gordon made an address recalling the glorious history of the Democratic party and comparing it with this election which had repudiated its highest principles.

In 1920 the State Suffrage Association stood alone in again having a resolution introduced for amending the State constitution, all the other suffrage societies concentrating on the ratification of the Federal Amendment, which had been submitted by Congress on June 4. It was presented in the Lower House by L. L. Upton, in the Senate by J. O. Stewart. They were followed immediately by Representative S. O. Shattuck and Senator Norris C. Williamson with one to ratify the Federal Amendment. At the close of the session Miss Jean Gordon issued the following statement:

To the Friends of Woman Suffrage:

Now that the smoke of battle has cleared ... as president of the State association I feel that an unbiased statement of facts should be given in order that the history of woman suffrage in this State may be correctly recorded. Having been at Baton Rouge from the opening day of the Legislature until its adjournment I can give all the facts and some of the reasons for one of the most remarkable controversies ever held in Louisiana.

The proposed amendment to the State constitution having been defeated in 1918 by the malevolent influences of the influenza throughout the State and Mayor Behrman in New Orleans, it was necessary to have another sent to the voters in 1920.

Congress having submitted a Federal Amendment to the Legislatures it was to be expected that men and women who believe in centralizing the voting power in Congress would work for its ratification, but that those who claimed to be ardent suffragists would work to defeat State submission after they found the sentiment for ratification amounted to almost nothing in both Houses seems incredible. The fact remains, however, that while the actual defeat of the State amendment was due primarily to personal animosity on the part of Senator Leopold of Plaquemine parish, when he realized what he had done he said that if it was possible to have it re-introduced he would vote for it, thus giving the necessary twenty-eight votes. After all arrangements for re-consideration had been made, Senator Louque, a faithful suffragist of many years' standing, provoked because one of his bills had been defeated, slipped away and it was again deprived of the one vote needed.

In the Senate Chamber were those nine Senators who proclaimed all through the session their intense belief in woman suffrage—so intense that they wanted the women enfranchised immediately and they wished to help all the women of the United States—these and many other reasons were given by them for standing firmly for a Federal Amendment but they voted against State submission, knowing the Federal Amendment had been killed overwhelmingly. Therefore the real defeat of the State amendment must be accredited to the following nine Senators: Bagwell, Brown, Cunningham, Hood, Johnston of Bossier, Lawrason, Wear, Williamson and Wood....

Very different was the spirit among the proponents of the Federal Amendment in the House. Men who have always been suffragists voted for both Federal and State suffrage.... When Senators Craven, Johness, Johnson of Franklin and Durr saw the Federal Amendment was hopelessly defeated they voted for State submission. When Mayor Behrman caught the vision of how a Federal Amendment could help him in the September primary, he had Senators Davey, Thoele and Roberts vote for it, though it was reported that all had said no power on earth could ever make them do it. After it was defeated they continued to vote against the State amendment. The interpretation put upon their attitude was that they would not help it because its success would be considered a victory for Mr. Ewing, as his Daily States had been the only city paper to stand for State submission. Be it said to the credit of Senators Boyer, Butler, Clinton, Doussan, Domengeaux, Dugas, Weil and Wilbert that although avowed anti-suffragists, they worked hard to secure the submission of the State amendment while so-called ardent suffragists worked overtime for its defeat.