Today in Herstory: Suffrage Leaders Celebrate Victory in New York

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Today in Herstory: Suffrage Leaders Celebrate Victory in New York


Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1904 until 1915, and an untiring worker in the New York State suffrage campaign this year.


November 7, 1917: The festive atmosphere that prevailed at suffrage offices last night continued this morning amid a run on “I Am A Voter” buttons by the newly enfranchised women of New York State at the headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
The joy remained undiminished late tonight at the largest – and possibly loudest – meeting ever held in Cooper Union.

But even with all of today’s celebrations, there was still time to sift through the returns from yesterday’s suffrage referendum, as well as make serious plans for the next step in the battle. The unprecedented organizing efforts in New York City paid off well. Two years ago, the men of the city voted against suffrage by an 82,755 vote margin, which would have sunk the 1915 campaign even if up-State voters hadn’t rejected the referendum by an even greater margin of 112,229 votes. But this year, the suffrage referendum appears to have broken about even in the rest of the State, while getting a 100,000 vote boost from New York City. This landslide endorsement of “Votes for Women” leaves no doubt about the outcome, even though a few results from rural areas are not in yet.

The Empire State’s victorious suffragists lost no time in gearing up for the next step, which will be to win the vote nationwide. Both Mary Garrett Hay, head of the New York City branch of the Woman Suffrage Party, and the Executive Board of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party sent telegrams to President Wilson this morning thanking him for his support. Carrie Chapman Catt, head of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, her immediate predecessor, have been invited by the President to bring a delegation of suffragists to the White House later this week for a meeting. Catt and Shaw are expected to use their audience with the President to try to convince him to support nationwide woman suffrage via the Susan B. Anthony Amendment in addition to his already expressed support for winning suffrage on a State-by-State basis.

Former President Theodore Roosevelt expressed his happiness today at the result of yesterday’s election. According to Col. Roosevelt: “The women deserved it, they were entitled to it, and I am glad the voters saw it as they should. The vote for suffrage has grown wonderfully, and the vote of yesterday is an honor to every man who marked his ballot for women.” Apparently he did some local lobbying, because the measure passed 242 to 70 at his polling place in Oyster Bay.
Every suffrage leader who took part in the campaign was at the Cooper Union victory jubilee tonight, but since the applause and cheering was virtually constant and unrestrained, it was often hard to hear the declarations of victory that everyone had been denied at the end of the first campaign in 1915 and been looking forward to for two years.

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http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2014/11/07/today-in-herstory-suffrage-leaders-celebrate-victory-in-new-york/