The period from 1900 to 1906 was one of inactivity in State suffrage circles; then followed a vigorous continued campaign culminating in the adoption of a constitutional amendment in 1910 granting to women full political equality. This victory, so gratifying to the women of Washington, had also an important national aspect, as it marked the end of the dreary period of fourteen years following the Utah and Idaho amendments in 1895-6, during which no State achieved woman suffrage.

The Legislature of 1897 had submitted an amendment for which a brilliant campaign was made by the Equal Suffrage Association under the able leadership of its president, Mrs. Homer M. Hill of Seattle, but it was defeated at the November election of 1898. The inevitable reaction followed for some years. Three State presidents were elected, Dr. Nina Jolidon Croake of Tacoma, 1900-1902, elected at the Seattle convention; Dr. Luema Greene Johnson of Tacoma, 1902-1904, elected at the Tacoma convention; Dr. Fannie Leake Cummings of Seattle, 1904-1906, elected at a meeting in Puyallup at which only five persons were present, the small suffrage club here being the only one surviving in the State. Dr. Cummings, aided by Mrs. Elizabeth Palmer Spinning of Puyallup, State treasurer for many years, and Mrs. Ellen S. Leckenby of Seattle, State secretary, kept the suffrage torch from being extinguished. Mrs. Leckenby held office continuously throughout twelve years.

The revival of interest plainly seen after 1906 was due to the impetus given through the initiative of Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe, who with her husband, John Henry DeVoe, had recently come from Harvey, Ills., and established a new home. Mrs. DeVoe was a life-long suffrage worker who had served many years in many States with Susan B. Anthony and also was a national organizer. She began by calling on individual suffragists and suggesting that Washington was a hopeful State for a campaign and aroused so much interest that in November a large and enthusiastic convention met at Seattle. Dr. Cummings presided and inspiring addresses were given by A. W. McIntyre of Everett, formerly Governor of Colorado; Miss Ida Agnes Baker of the Bellingham State Normal School; Miss Adella M. Parker of the Seattle Broadway High School and Professor J. Allen Smith of the University of Washington. Mrs. DeVoe was elected president.

Conventions were held at Seattle in 1907, 1908 and 1909, Mrs. DeVoe being re-elected each time. By June, 1909, there were 2,000 paid members of the State association and afterwards, many thousands of men and women were enrolled. The executive committee decided upon a campaign to amend the State constitution for woman suffrage and Mrs. DeVoe was made manager and given authority to conduct it according to her own judgment. No other convention or executive committee meeting was held, only frequent informal conferences, until after the vote was taken on November 8, 1910. The final executive committee meeting was held at Seattle in January, 1911, when it was voted to continue the association until all bills were paid and then disband. It was decided to present the large silken banner "Votes for Women" to the next State having a campaign and it went to California the following year. The unfinished business was completed by the old officers, Mrs. DeVoe, Mrs. Leckenby and Dr. Eaton.[197]

Campaign. After the defeat of 1898 no amendment came before the Legislature for eleven years, nor was there any legislation on woman suffrage until a resolution to submit to the voters an amendment to the State constitution giving full suffrage was presented to the session of 1909. It was drafted by Senator George F. Cotterill of Seattle, a radical suffragist, after many conferences with Mrs. DeVoe, and was introduced, strangely enough, by Senator George U. Piper of Seattle, an able politician and a friend of the liquor interests, in honor of his dead mother, who had been ardently in favor of woman suffrage. It was presented in the House by Representative T. J. Bell of Tacoma. The State association rented a house in Olympia for headquarters and Mrs. DeVoe spent all her time at the Capitol, assisted by many of its members, who came at different times from over the State to interview their Representatives and Senators. The work was conducted so skilfully and quietly that no violent opposition of material strength was developed. The resolution passed the House January 29 by 70 ayes, 18 noes; the Senate February 23 by 30 ayes, 9 noes, and was approved by Governor Marion E. Hay on February 25.

The interests of the amendment were materially advanced later by Senator W. H. Paulhamus, then an anti-suffragist, who "in the interest of fair play" gave advance information as to the exact wording and position of the amendment on the ballot, which enabled the women to hold practice drills and to word their slogan, "Vote for Amendment to Article VI at the Top of the Ballot." The clause relating to the qualifications of voters was reproduced verbatim except for two changes: 1. "All persons" was substituted for "all male persons." 2. At the end was added "There shall be no denial of the elective franchise at any election on account of sex."

During the campaign of 1910 the State Equal Franchise Society, an offshoot from the regular organization, was formed, its members being largely recruited from the Seattle Suffrage Club, Mrs. Harvey L. Glenn, president, with which it cooperated. Headquarters were opened in Seattle July 5, with Mrs. Homer M. Hill, president, in charge and the organization was active during the last four months of the campaign.[198] The Political Equality League of Spokane, Mrs. May Arkwright Hutton, president, worked separately for fourteen months prior to the election, having been organized in July, 1909. The college women under the name of the College Suffrage League, with Miss Parker as president, cooperated with the regular State association.

Following the act of the Legislature twenty months were left to carry on the campaign destined to enfranchise the 175,000 women of the State. It was a favorable year for submission, as no other important political issue was before them and there was a reaction against the dominance of the political "machines."

The campaign was unique in its methods and was won through the tireless energy of nearly a hundred active, capable women who threw themselves into the work. The outstanding feature of the plan adopted by the State Equal Suffrage Association under the leadership of Mrs. DeVoe, was the absence of all spectacular methods and the emphasis placed upon personal intensive work on the part of the wives, mothers and sisters of the men who were to decide the issue at the polls. Big demonstrations, parades and large meetings of all kinds were avoided. Only repeated informal conferences of workers were held in different sections of the State on the call of the president. The result was that the real strength was never revealed to the enemy. The opposition was not antagonized and did not awake until election day, when it was too late. Although the women held few suffrage meetings of their own, their speakers and organizers constantly obtained the platform at those of granges, farmers' unions, labor unions, churches and other organizations.

Each county was canvassed as seemed most expedient by interviews, letters or return postals. Every woman personally solicited her neighbor, her doctor, her grocer, her laundrywagon driver, the postman and even the man who collected the garbage. It was essentially a womanly campaign, emphasizing the home interests and engaging the cooperation of home makers. The association published and sold 3,000 copies of The Washington Women's Cook Book, compiled by the suffragists and edited by Miss Linda Jennings of LaConner. Many a worker started out into the field with a package of these cook books under her arm. In the "suffrage department" of the Tacoma News a "kitchen contest" was held, in which 250-word essays on household subjects were printed, $70 in prizes being given by the paper. Suffrage clubs gave programs on "pure food" and "model menus" were exhibited and discussed.

Thousands of leaflets on the results of equal suffrage in other States were distributed and original ones printed. A leaflet by Mrs. Edith DeLong Jarmuth containing a dozen cogent reasons Why Washington Women Want the Ballot was especially effective. A monthly paper, Votes for Women, was issued during the last year of the campaign with Mrs. M. T. B. Hanna publisher and editor, Misses Parker, Mary G. O'Meara, Rose Glass and others assistant editors. It carried a striking cartoon on the front page and was full of suffrage news and arguments, even the advertisements being written in suffrage terms.[199]

State and county fairs and Chautauquas were utilized by securing a Woman's Day, with Mrs. DeVoe as president of the day. Excellent programs were offered, prominent speakers secured and prizes given in contests between various women's societies other than suffrage for symbolic "floats" and reports of work during the year. Space was given for a suffrage booth, from which active suffrage propaganda went on with the sale of Votes for Women pins, pennants and the cook book and the signing of enrollment cards. The great Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909 at Seattle was utilized as a medium for publicity. A permanent suffrage exhibit was maintained, open air meetings were held and there was a special Suffrage Day, on which Judge Ben B. Lindsey of Denver spoke for the amendment. The dirigible balloon, a feature of the exposition, carried a large silken banner inscribed Votes for Women. Later a pennant with this motto was carried by a member of the Mountaineers' Club to the summit of Mt. Rainier, near Tacoma, said to be the loftiest point in the United States.[200] It was fastened to the staff of the larger pennant "A. Y. P." of the exposition and the staff was planted in the highest snows on the top of Columbia Crest, a huge white dome that rises above the crater.

The State association entertained the national suffrage convention at Seattle in 1909 and brought its guests from Spokane on a special train secured by Mrs. DeVoe, as an effective method of advertising the cause and the convention.

The State Grange and the State Farmers' Union worked hard for the amendment. State Master C. B. Kegley wrote: "The Grange, numbering 15,000, is strongly in favor of woman suffrage. In fact every subordinate grange is an equal suffrage organization.... We have raised a fund with which to push the work.... Yours for victory." The State Federation of Labor, Charles R. Case, president, at its annual convention in January, 1910, unanimously adopted with cheers a strong resolution favoring woman suffrage and urged the local unions to "put forth their most strenuous efforts to carry the suffrage amendment ... and make it the prominent feature of their work during the coming months."

Practically all the newspapers were friendly and featured the news of the campaign; no large daily paper was opposed. S. A. Perkins, publisher of eleven newspapers in the State, gave a standing order to his editors to support the amendment. The best publicity bureau in the State was employed and for a year its weekly news letter carried a readable paragraph on the subject to every local paper. Besides this, "suffrage columns" were printed regularly; there were "suffrage pages," "suffrage supplements" and even entire "suffrage editions"; many effective "cuts" were used, and all at the expense of the publishers.

The clergy was a great power. Nearly every minister observed Mrs. DeVoe's request to preach a special woman suffrage sermon on a Sunday in February, 1910. All the Protestant church organizations were favorable. The Methodist Ministerial Association unanimously declared for the amendment April 11 at the request of Miss Emily Inez Denney. The African Methodist Conference on August 10 passed a ringing resolution in favor, after addresses by Mrs. DeVoe and Miss Parker. The Rev. Harry Ferguson, Baptist, of Hoquiam was very active. In Seattle no one spoke more frequently or convincingly than the Rev. J. D. O. Powers of the First Unitarian Church and the Rev. Sidney Strong of Queen Anne Congregational Church. Other friends were the Rev. Joseph L. Garvin of the Christian Church, the Rev. F. O. Iverson among the Norwegians, and the Rev. Ling Hansen of the Swedish Baptist Church. Mrs. Martha Offerdahl and Mrs. Ida M. Abelset compiled a valuable campaign leaflet printed in Scandinavian with statements in favor by sixteen Swedish and Norwegian ministers. The Catholic priests said nothing against it and left their members free to work for it if they so desired. Among Catholic workers were the Misses Lucy and Helen Kangley of Seattle, who formed a Junior Suffrage League. Father F. X. Prefontaine gave a definite statement in favor of the amendment. Distinguished persons from outside the State who spoke for it were Miss Janet Richards of Washington, D. C., the well-known lecturer; Miss Jeannette Rankin of Montana, afterwards elected to Congress; Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby of Nebraska and Washington, D. C., and Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon.

None of the officers and workers connected with the State association received salaries except the stenographers. For four-and-a-half years Mrs. DeVoe, with rare consecration, gave her entire time without pay, save for actual expenses, and even these were at crucial times contributed by her husband, from whom she received constant encouragement and support. For the most part of the entire period she was necessarily absent from home, traveling over the State, keeping in constant personal touch with the leaders of all groups of women whether connected with her association or not, advising and helping them and on special days speaking on their programs. Her notable characteristics as a leader were that she laid personal responsibility on each friend and worker; from the first assumed success as certain and avoided arousing hostility by mixing suffrage with politics or with other reforms. She asked the voters everywhere merely for fair play for women and made no predictions as to what the women would do with the vote when obtained. It was her far-sighted generalship and prodigious personal work that made success possible.

The Equal Franchise Society of Seattle planned to carry suffrage into organizations already existing. It gave a series of luncheons at the New Washington Hotel and made converts among many who could not be met in any other way and was especially helpful in reaching society and professional people. Its workers spoke before improvement clubs, women's clubs, churches, labor unions, etc. A man was employed to travel and engage men in conversation on woman suffrage on trains, boats and in hotel lobbies and lumber camps. A good politician looked after the water front. The Political Equality League of Spokane worked in the eastern counties and placed in the field the effective worker, Mrs. Minnie J. Reynolds of Colorado.

The Franchise Department of the W. C. T. U. had done educational work for years under the leadership of Mrs. Margaret B. Platt, State president, and Mrs. Margaret C. Munns, State secretary, affectionately referred to as "the Margarets." Its speakers always made convincing pleas for suffrage and Mrs. Munns's drills in parliamentary usage were valuable in training the women for the campaign of 1910. Tribute must be paid to the fine, self-sacrificing work of this organization. In a private conference called by Mrs. DeVoe early in the campaign, the W. C. T. U. represented by these two, an agreement was reached that, in order not to antagonize the "whisky" vote, the temperance women would submerge their hard-earned honors and let the work of their unions go unheralded. They kept the faith.

A suffrage play, A Mock Legislative Session, written by Mrs. S. L. W. Clark of Seattle, was given in the State House and repeated in other cities. Several hundred dollars' worth of suffrage literature was furnished to local unions. They placarded the bill boards throughout the State, cooperating with Dr. Fannie Leake Cummings, who managed this enterprise, assisted by the Seattle Suffrage Club, by Mrs. George A. Smith of the Alki Point Club and others who helped finance it to a cost of $535. The placard read: "Give the Women a Square Deal. Vote for the Amendment to Article VI," and proved to be an effective feature.

Mrs. Eliza Ferry Leary, among the highest taxpayers in the State, was chosen by the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage as their representative, but, having satisfied her sense of duty by accepting the office, she did nothing and thus endeared herself to the active campaigners for the vote. There were no other "anti" members in the State. The only meeting held was called by a brief newspaper notice at the residence of Mrs. Leary one afternoon on the occasion of a visit by a representative, Mrs. Frances E. Bailey of Oregon, at which six persons were present—the hostess, the guest of honor, three active members of the suffrage association and a casual guest. No business was transacted. With the "antis" should be classed the only minister who opposed suffrage, the Rev. Mark A. Mathews of the First Presbyterian Church, the largest in Seattle. He was born in Georgia but came to Seattle from Tennessee. His violent denunciations lent spice to the campaign by calling out cartoons and articles combating his point of view. When suffrage was obtained he harangued the women on their duty to use the vote, not forgetting to instruct them how to use it.

Election day was reported to the Woman's Journal of Boston by Miss Parker as follows: "It was a great victory. The women at the polls were wonderfully effective. Many young women, middle-aged women and white-haired grandmothers stood for hours handing out the little reminders. It rained—the usual gentle but very insistent kind of rain—and the men were so solicitous! They kept trying to drag us off to get our feet warm or bringing us chairs or offering to hand out our ballots while we took a rest, but the women would not leave their places until relieved by other women, even for lunch, for fear of losing a vote. The whole thing appealed to the men irresistibly. We are receiving praise from all quarters for the kind of campaign we made—no personalities, no boasting of what we would do, no promises, no meddling with other issues—just 'Votes for Women' straight through, because it is just and reasonable and everywhere when tried has been found expedient."

The amendment was adopted November 8, 1910, by the splendid majority of 22,623, nearly 2 to 1. The vote stood 52,299 ayes to 29,676 noes out of a total vote of 138,243 cast for congressmen. Every one of the 39 counties and every city was carried. The large cities won in the following order: Seattle and King County 12,052 to 6,695; Tacoma and Pierce County, 5,552 to 3,442; Spokane and Spokane County, 5,639 to 4,551. Then came Bellingham and Whatcom County, 3,520 to 1,334; Everett and Snohomish County, 3,209 to 1,294; Bremerton and Kitsap County, including the U. S. Navy Yard, 1,094 to 372. Kitsap was the banner county giving the highest ratio for the amendment. This was largely due to the remarkable house to house canvass made by Mrs. Elizabeth A. Baker of Manette.

The cost of the twenty months' campaign is estimated to be $17,000, which includes the amounts spent by organizations and individuals. The money was raised in various ways and contributions ran from 25 cents up, few exceeding $100. Over $500 were subscribed by the labor unions and about $500 collected at the Granges and Farmers' Unions' suffrage meetings. Dr. Sarah A. Kendall of Seattle collected the largest amount of any one person. About $3,000 were contributed from outside the State, chiefly from New York, Massachusetts and California. The first and largest gift which heartened the workers was $500 from Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt.[201]

After the suffrage amendment was carried there was organized on Jan. 14, 1911, the National Council of Women Voters at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Mason in Tacoma. Governor James H. Brady of Idaho issued a call to the Governors of the four other equal suffrage States—Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Washington—asking them to send delegates to this first convention. He presided at the opening session and spoke at the evening meeting which filled the largest theater. Mrs. DeVoe was elected president and was re-elected at each succeeding convention. It was non-partisan and non-sectarian and its objects were three-fold: 1. To educate women voters in the exercise of their citizenship; 2. To secure legislation in equal suffrage States in the interest of men and women, of children and the home; 3. To aid in the further extension of woman suffrage. As new States gained suffrage they joined the Council.

Before Mrs. DeVoe went to the National Suffrage Convention at St. Louis in March, 1919, she was authorized by the Council to take whatever steps were necessary to merge it in the National League of Women Voters which was to be organized there. Mrs. Catt requested her to complete the arrangements when she returned to Washington and act as chairman until this was accomplished. On Jan. 6, 1920, the Council became the State League of Women Voters. Mrs. Nelle Mitchell Fick was elected temporary and later Mrs. W. S. Griswold permanent chairman.

On the afternoon of August 21, old and new suffrage workers joined in a celebration at Seattle of the final ratification by the Legislature of Tennessee, which was attended by over two hundred women.

Election returns furnish conclusive proof that the women of Washington use the ballot. After 1910 the total registration of the State nearly doubled, although men outnumber women, and the women apparently vote in the same proportion as men. A tremendous increase of interest among them in civic, economic and political affairs followed the adoption of suffrage and the results were evidenced by a much larger number of laws favorably affecting the status of women and the home passed in the ten year period following 1910 than during the previous ten year period. Uniform hostility to liquor, prostitution and vice has been shown; also to working conditions adversely affecting the health and morals of women and children.

The vote of the women was the deciding factor in the Seattle recall election of February 8, 1911, when Mayor Hiram Gill was removed because of vice conditions permitted to flourish under his administration. It was acknowledged that, due to a strong combination of the vice and public utility interests of the city, he would have been retained but for their opposition. His re-election later by a small majority is explained by the fact that he begged the citizens to give him a chance to remove the stigma from his name for the sake of his wife and family, with whom his relations were blameless.

The State Legislative Federation, representing 140 various kinds of women's clubs and organizations, having a total membership of over 50,000 women, has maintained headquarters at Olympia during the sessions of the Legislature in recent years, to the advantage of legislation. The W. C. T. U. also is an active influence. Miss Lucy R. Case, as executive secretary of the Joint Legislative Committee of the State Federation of Labor, Grange, Farmers' Union and Direct Legislation League, took an important part at the elections of 1914 and 1916 in defeating the reactionary measures affecting popular government and labor.

Representative Frances C. Axtell of Bellingham introduced and engineered the minimum wage law and several moral bills in cooperation with the W. C. T. U. Representative Frances M. Haskell of Tacoma led in securing the law for equal pay for men and women teachers. Reah M. Whitehead, Justice of the Peace of King county, prepared and promoted the law relating to unmarried mothers. The Seattle Branch of the Council of Women Voters established a "quiz congress," which requested candidates to attend its meetings and state their position on campaign issues and answer questions and many candidates importuned it for a chance to be heard.

Ratification. The Federal Suffrage Amendment was ratified on March 22, 1920, at an extraordinary session called principally for that purpose. Governor Louis F. Hart had been reluctant to call a special session on the ground that, due to the unsettled condition of the country at that time, it would afford opportunity for the introduction of a flood of radical legislation which would keep the Legislature in prolonged session at great expense to the State. He finally yielded to the persuasion of a large number of the leading women of the State and to political pressure from his party in high places and called the session, which lasted but three days and dealt only with the subjects mentioned in the call.

The occasion was most impressive. The Capitol was thronged with women who had traveled from every corner of the State to participate in the occasion. Every available seat in the balconies of both Houses was filled and the aisles and corridors were crowded. The hope and expectation that at any moment the wires might flash the news that Delaware had ratified and Washington would thus be the thirty-sixth and final State to enfranchise the women of the whole nation, lent an added thrill to the proceedings. At noon both Houses met in joint session to listen to the Governor's message. Dealing with the ratification he reminded the members that in 1910 the electors had adopted woman suffrage by an overwhelming vote and said, "The State has done well under the management of both men and women." A marked feature of their proceedings was the gracious courtesy accorded to the old suffrage leaders and workers, who were present in large numbers.

In the House the honor of introducing the resolution was accorded to Mrs. Haskell, Representative from Pierce county, who made a strong speech favoring its adoption. Not one vote was cast against it. By special resolution Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe, referred to as "the mother of suffrage" in the State, was invited to a seat on the right of Speaker Adams, with Governor Hart on the left. A special committee was appointed to escort her and she took her seat amid loud cheers. She was asked to address the House and said in part:

I am proud of the Legislature of Washington because of this patriotic act and I thank you in the name of our forefathers, who first proclaimed that "taxation without representation is tyranny" and that government without consent is unjust.... I thank you in the name of the early suffrage workers who have passed on to their beautiful reward. I thank you in the name of the women of the United States of today who will, I trust, use their new political freedom wisely and well. I thank you in the name of the children who will come after us; they will have a better, broader and nobler heritage than was ours. And I personally thank you from the depths of my heart. God bless you every one!

Twelve minutes after the resolution reached the Senate it had been passed by another unanimous vote. During the proceedings Mrs. Homer M. Hill sat beside President Carlyon and was invited to address the members. Described as "a tiny figure whose white hair was scarcely on a level with the top of the Speaker's desk," she expressed the emotions of the older suffragists as they witnessed the adoption of the resolution. She thanked them in the name also of the W. C. T. U., and thanked the leaders in the cause of labor and of many other organizations, as well as the leaders of both parties. "Washington has led the victorious crusade for the Pacific Coast States," she said. "May we always appreciate what it means to live in a State whose men themselves gave this right to women!"

[Laws. A complete digest of the laws relating especially to the interests of women and children and to moral questions enacted during the first decade of the present century was prepared for this chapter by Judge Reah M. Whitehead of Seattle. This was supplemented by an abstract of fifty-eight statutes of a similar nature enacted during the last decade, prepared by attorneys Adella M. Parker of Seattle and Bernice A. Sapp of Olympia. They largely cover the field of modern liberal legislation but can not be given because of the decision to omit the laws in all the State chapters for lack of space. The results on questions related to prohibition submitted to the electors, with women voting, are significant: Statute for State-wide prohibition submitted in 1914: ayes, 189,840; noes, 171,208; statute submitted in 1916 permitting hotels to sell liquor: ayes, 48,354; noes, 262,390; statute authorizing manufacture, sale and export of 4 per cent. beer: ayes, 98,843; noes, 245,399.]

[196] The History is indebted for this chapter to Dr. Cora Smith King, assisted by Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe, Dr. Sarah A. Kendall, Mrs. Homer M. Hill, and others. Valuable assistance in editing the manuscript was rendered by Judson King, writer and lecturer, Secretary of the National Popular Government League, Washington, D. C.