Author: David Dismore

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

February 18, 1913: Halfway! Day Seven of the suffrage hike was very successful in a number of ways, not the least of which was passing the midpoint in the long trek from Newark, New Jersey, to Washington, D.C.

The relatively short 14-mile day began with General Jones leading her suffragist Army of the Hudson out of Chester, Pennsylvania, accompanied by tooting whistles, automobile horns, a police escort, at least 1,000 spectators cheering them from the sidewalks, and two local schoolgirls, ages 15 and 16, marching along for the day.

The troops carried with them a gift from Major Stundell, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. It consisted of a large gift box containing smaller boxes of pretzels for each hiker. It was a timely gift, because a large supply of “army rations” donated by Alva Belmont had been misrouted to General Jones’ home on Long Island.

Even the traditional “incident of the day” was minor, as General Jones tripped over a rock in Pennsylvania and stumbled into Delaware. Fortunately, no damage was done to the General or the State Line.

When the hikers approached the historic Robinson mansion, once frequented by numerous Revolutionary War figures, they were first met by “Jeff Davis,” a thankfully pro-suffrage bulldog who wore a blanket made of “Votes for Women” pennants. The present residents, a colony of artists, gave the hikers a warm reception.

Next came a luncheon with single-tax advocates known as “Ardenites.” They want to implement an idea by Henry George (1839-1897) to abolish all other taxes and replace them with a single tax based on the value of the land. Female members of the Arden colony have voted on affairs of common interest for ten years. The hikers were greeted by the Suffragist Club of Arden. (The name “Arden” derives from the “Forest of Arden” in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”)

The entry into Wilmington was wonderfully triumphal, and an appropriate way to celebrate the half way point of the march. Applauding crowds lined the streets and three fire companies gave the pilgrims the noisiest greeting of the trip, something especially appreciated by General Jones. The parade through town was followed by a reception at City Hall, where Mayor Howell – who has mixed feelings on the issue of woman suffrage, but great admiration for the hikers – expanded the army’s growing collection of “keys to the city” by presenting one from Wilmington.

Later in the evening, the troops gave speeches at an open-air suffrage meeting attended by an estimated 10,000 of the city’s residents, making it the largest rally so far for General Jones and her fellow hikers.

Colonel Craft barely managed to make it into town today, due to an ankle injury adding to the problems she already had with sore feet. But she is expected to be able to continue on when the hike resumes. Tomorrow will be the first time since leaving Newark on the 12th that the hikers will spend an entire day in the same place. But they will still be working for the cause by doing speaking engagements in this very supportive city and a day without hiking should give everyone a chance to give their feet some much-needed rest before starting out on the final half of the journey.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

February 13, 1913: This was an eventful, but exhausting, 27-mile second day of the Newark, New Jersey, to Washington, D.C., suffrage hike by “General” Rosalie Jones and her “Army of the Hudson.”

Though appreciative of temperatures that are no longer near the zero mark as they were yesterday, warmer weather has caused problems of its own. Melting snow and ice made going any distance through slush and water difficult on the already poor roads. But even so, when the army finally made its arrival in Princeton, thirteen of the original sixteen troops were still in the ranks and intent on finishing the hike.

The hikers started this morning from Metuchen, New Jersey, and after a luncheon in their honor at the Hotel Klein in New Brunswick, they approached Rutgers College. Some students spotted and then surrounded Olive Schultz in the advance scout car. When one yelled, “General Jones is coming!” the rest of the students, many in cadet uniforms, formed a single-file line when a student leader said, “Fall in!” They then lock-stepped out to meet her.

The students gave the General and her troops a slightly modified version of a traditional school yell (“Rah, Bow-Wow-Wow; Rah, Bow-Wow-Wow; Rutgers, suffragettes, Bow-Wow-Wow Rutgers!”) as the two armies marched together across the campus. Students then demanded a speech, which General Jones happily gave. It was accompanied by even more cheers. The atmosphere was so supportive that when she was introduced to the college president, General Jones pinned a suffrage button on his coat.

There was a brief, unplanned stop on the way to Princeton, the final destination of the day. What looked like a woman wearing a bonnet was spotted far out in a field, and Elizabeth Aldrich decided to see if she could be converted to the cause. Not until Aldrich had gone over a fence and some distance into the field was it discovered that the effort was doomed to failure, because scarecrows are universally neutral on all issues. Unfortunately, this was far from the biggest error of the day. Due to a wrong turn, a planned 20-mile hike became a 27-mile trek.

But despite the difficulties encountered along the way, the hikers’ arrival in Princeton was well worth the effort. In fact, the welcome was a bit too enthusiastic for Mary Boldt, the first to come into town, well ahead of the others. Several hundred very boisterous students suddenly rushed out to meet her, surrounded her, then picked her up and began to carry her around, much to her confusion and dismay.

The reception for the rest of the hikers, who arrived about 7:00, was equally supportive, but a bit more restrained after the earlier incident. Speeches were made by the army’s senior officers to a crowd of students that swelled to 500, with college yells and applause being heard until well after 9:00.

The pace of the hike is taking its toll, but the undaunted spirit of the troops is best exemplified by “Corporal” Martha Klatchken. She was in a state of near-exhaustion when she arrived an hour after the first hikers, but has absolutely refused all offers of a lift from passing drivers. Instead, she leans, when necessary, on another hiker. Everyone will rest well tonight, and be off to Trenton tomorrow.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

February 12, 1913: “On to Washington!” and “Votes for Women!”

Those were the enthusiastic cheers of Rosalie Jones and her hardy group of suffrage hikers as they left this morning on a trek that will make their hike from New York City to Albany two months ago seem like a brief stroll in the park.

“General” Jones’ “Army of the Hudson,” consisting of herself and fifteen other dedicated suffragists, will walk every step of the way from Newark, New Jersey, to Washington, D.C. Once in the nation’s capital, the hikers intend to deliver a letter written by officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association to President-elect Wilson, then take part in N.A.W.S.A.’s massive suffrage parade and pageant to be held on March 3rd, the day before Wilson’s inauguration.

The hikers’ official sendoff rally occurred in Manhattan, with speeches that were received with great enthusiasm by the mostly-sympathetic crowd. Nearly 200 supporters even agreed to walk part of the way with the “regulars,” so when they formed up to begin the actual march in Newark, it was an impressive sight.

Impassible roads across the meadows made it necessary to start from Newark, and “Colonel” Ida Craft was so distressed at the idea of taking the Hudson Tube Train on what was supposed to be a “hike” that she spent some of her time on board marching back and forth from one end of the train to the other. Her opening and closing of doors irritated the passengers and conductors, but it did succeed in at least partly fulfilling Craft’s desire to walk from New York City to Washington, D.C.

When the hikers got to Newark and formed up into ranks, they were approached by a line of mounted police officers. Fortunately, the Lieutenant in charge had a yellow “Votes for Women” pennant fluttering from his saddle, so the hikers knew it would be a friendly greeting and escort.

As the hike kicked off, Olive Schultz was in her assigned position in the “scout auto” ahead of the hikers, followed by Elizabeth “Gypsy” Freeman and her wagon full of suffrage literature. It was pulled by Lausanne, the suffragist horse, bought today in Newark for $59.98 to pull what Freeman calls her “ammunition wagon.”

Next in the procession came General Jones and Colonel Craft, followed by a line of women that stretched for an entire block. Banners from the Newark Equal Suffrage League and Essex County Suffrage Society were among those displayed as the colorful procession made its way through town after a successful street rally. Though there were a few incidents of horses being frightened by the marchers, no injuries were reported, and all the horses were safely recaptured after bolting and running a few blocks.

The hikers were cheered and welcomed at many places along today’s route, and with temperatures suddenly plunging to near zero in the afternoon, every chance to briefly warm up and get out of the wind was greatly appreciated, as was the opportunity to lighten the packed “ammunition wagon” by distributing flyers to interested people.

The line of marchers going out of Newark was briefly swelled by fifty local suffragists who marched with the troops as far as Elizabeth. The hikers had lunch at the local Elks Club there, escorted by members of the Women’s Political Study Club. Finally, long after darkness had fallen, all 16 official marchers arrived at the Hillside Hotel in Metuchen, having covered 16 miles on this first day. Tomorrow, on to Princeton!

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

February 11, 1937: Amelia Earhart, who five years ago became the first woman – and only the second person – to fly solo across the North Atlantic, announced plans today for a far more ambitious adventure.

Within the next month she intends to leave on an around-the-world trip, covering 27,000 miles.

The first three days of her flight will be the most difficult and risky, since they involve flying vast distances entirely over water. She will leave from Oakland, California and fly to Hawaii, then to tiny 1.1 square mile Howland Island in the South Pacific, and on to Lae, New Guinea. After that there will be stops in places such as Australia, India, Dakar, on the West Coast of Africa, then Natal, on Brazil’s East Coast on her way back to Oakland. She will be accompanied by Captain Harry Manning as far as Sydney, Australia, because his experience in navigating the South Seas – though gained on ships, not aircraft – will be needed.

Her purpose in making the trip is to establish the feasibility of commercial airlines making such flights. As she explained at today’s press conference:

The human reaction of pilots flying over long periods of time and distance is still an unknown quantity with respect to safety in air transport. Problems of fatigue, food, efficiency and the norm of alertness still confuse both airplane designers and pilots alike.

The flight will be made in a twin engine Lockheed Electra 10-E monoplane she calls a “Flying Laboratory.” It will be outfitted with oversize 1,150-gallon fuel tanks, which should be more than adequate for even the longest 2,556-mile, 17-hour hop from Howland to Lae. Though eager to leave on her trip, Earhart said she won’t be “stampeded” into going until all safety equipment and the latest navigational aids are in place.

In addition to her passion for flying, she is also a strong supporter of equality for women. On September 22, 1932, she and other members of the National Woman’s Party met with then-President Hoover to urge him to support the Lucretia Mott (Equal Rights) Amendment. She told the President:

I know from practical experience of the discriminations which confront women when they enter an occupation where men have priority in opportunity, advancement and protection. In aviation the Department of Commerce recognizes no legal differences between men and women licensed to fly. I feel that similar equality should be carried into all fields of endeavor, so that men and women may achieve without handicap because of sex.

As far as our country is concerned, in every State of the Union today there are discriminations against women in the law. I join with the National Woman’s Party in hoping for speedy passage of the Lucretia Mott Amendment, which would write into the highest law of our land that ‘men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.’

Just three months ago, she showed her continuing commitment to equality when she sent the following telegram to the National Woman’s Party at its convention:

Because my lecture schedule prevents, I cannot be present at the Biennial Convention. However, i am so deeply interested in women obtaining full equality under the law that I am sending a small contribution to help the cause along, Today women still stand victims of restrictive class legislation and of conflicting interpretations of statutes. To clear the situation their rights must be made theirs by definition – that is – by Constitutional guarantee. Therefore I hope this year’s National Woman’s Party meeting may bring us at least one step nearer the Lucretia Mott Amendment.

Almost 17 years after winning the vote, the battle for full equality continues on many fronts. In addition to everyone’s best wishes for success in her latest adventure, Amelia Earhart also deserves our praise for both her pioneering work in the air as well as for her efforts to put the Mott (Equal Rights) Amendment into the Constitution.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

February 10, 1919: A landmark suffrage victory came tantalizingly close today, but still remains out of reach tonight.

Only one vote stood in the way of the Susan B. Anthony (nationwide woman suffrage) Amendment being adopted by the Senate. Having already been passed by the House on January 10th of last year, Senate approval would have sent it directly to the States for ratification, and done so at the best possible time.

Since this is an odd-numbered year, all State legislatures are now – or soon will be – in regular session, so had the Anthony Amendment passed today, there could have been quick votes in every State, and ratification long before the first primaries in 1920.

Since Congressional approval will be delayed by at least a couple of months, legislators in many States will have finished voting on this session’s bills by then, and when the legislature adjourns, go back home to their other jobs until the next regular session, which in some States won’t be until 1921. So getting 36 approvals from State legislatures in time for the next Presidential election will mean convincing a number of governors to call “special sessions.” Even pro-suffrage governors will not be eager to do this because of the extra expense to taxpayers, and anti-suffrage governors certainly will not want to call their legislatures back into session to approve a suffrage amendment.

Despite vigorous campaigns by both militant and more conservative suffrage groups, personal pleas from political powerhouses such as President Wilson and William Jennings Bryan to their fellow Democrats, and 26 State legislatures having recently asked Congress to pass the suffrage amendment so that they can ratify it, that last vote was nowhere to be found. The amendment’s chief sponsor, Senator Andrieus Jones, Democrat of New Mexico, was bitterly disappointed that in the final few days in which his party controls Congress, this measure was not passed, and the blame for that failure will fall on his party.

Another Democratic Party leader expressed his disappointment this way:

It means certain defeat of the Democrats in 1920. The Republicans will adopt the resolution, and the women of the country will give them full credit for it. The Democrats have perpetrated a stupid trick in defeating the resolution.

Senate Majority Leader Thomas S. Martin, Democrat of Virginia, did not change his strong opposition to woman suffrage even though he had been warned by colleagues that his actions might “dig a hole” for the party in next year’s General Election.

Today there was a half-hour of debate, which convinced no one to switch sides, followed by a vote of 55-29. Two-thirds being needed for adoption of a Constitutional Amendment resolution, a single convert would have made it 56-28 and been sufficient for passage. Had all 96 members of the Senate been present and voting today, the result would have still been defeat, and by the same one-vote margin. The tally would have been 63-33, or one short of the 64-32 needed.

The Anthony Amendment was endorsed today by 72.7% of Senate Republicans and 59.6% of Senate Democrats. The vote was even more lopsided in the House on January 10, 1918, when a bare majority of Democrats (50.5%) voted for it, but it got such overwhelming support from Republicans (83.3%) and five out of the six members of other parties that it got the 2/3 needed, but without a single vote to spare.

The opposition of Southern Democrats remains the roadblock to suffrage. Though traditional views about the role of women may have played a part in the “no” votes of some Senators from both North and South, the two biggest factors in Southern Democrats’ opposition to this measure are hostility toward Federal legislation in general, and the fact that this amendment is, and always has been, race-neutral.

Senator Edward James Gay, Democrat of Louisiana, said he was in favor of women voting, and had worked to get a suffrage bill through the Louisiana legislature, but was opposed to a Federal amendment that would “impose” woman suffrage on all States.

Senator John Sharp Williams, of Mississippi, addressed the other concern of Southern Democrats when he attempted to offer a change in the wording of the Anthony Amendment so that it would apply to white women only. Since the resolution was already on its third reading, his motion was ruled out of order unless unanimous consent was given, something that was clearly lacking. This saved the Senate the trouble of rejecting his proposal again as it did on October 1st, when 61 Senators voted against such a change, and 22 in favor.

Fortunately, the new Congress elected in November will be seated on March 4th. Suffragists appear to have gained three Senate votes and lost only one in the 1918 elections, so a favorable vote of 65-31 can be expected when the measure comes up again sometime this Spring. The new House must pass the Anthony Amendment again, but is expected to do so by a comfortable margin, so victory may have been delayed today, but it will certainly not be denied.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

February 9, 1908: The Progressive Woman Suffrage Union opened its new 6′ x 7.5′ office at 63 West 14th Street in Manhattan to the press and public today.

While the size of its second-floor headquarters may be modest, the ambitions of the group’s members are not. They used the occasion to announce a call for something unprecedented on next Sunday, the 16th: A parade of women in support of suffrage.

This first-of-its-kind event will begin in Union Square, then follow Fifth Avenue to Central Park, where if they can get some cooperation from police and the weather, there will also be speeches in the park at the end of the march. Regardless of the size of the parade, the Union’s members will be easy to spot, because they will be carrying a suffrage-yellow banner with “Votes for Women” inscribed on it. No one doubts that they’ll go through with their plan, because since December 31st this group has been engaging in what many consider to be a quite bold activity by having women speak to crowds of men in the street in open-air meetings in Madison Square.

The Union’s headquarters, next door to a popular palm-reader, was filled to capacity during the 4-6 P.M. reception. Admittedly, this was not hard to do, with people sharing the 45 square foot space with suffrage literature and a two-jet gas heater. Fortunately, none of the four visitors or five reporters had to wait outside because they all came at different times, and a member of the Union could step out to make room. The group has no formal “leader,” but an Executive Committee composed of Anna Maley, Lydia Commander, Mrs. Boorum Wells, Maude Malone, Christine Roe Ross Baker and others. Wells said:

But let not the public think too little of this movement because of its humble beginning. The beginning was made in England in even a smaller room than this. And now look at us over there! The parties are making advances to us to get our influence before they openly take up our cause. But we will make no alliances with political parties. Do men all join one party? They do not. They vote on different sides. So shall we. All we want is the right to vote. and we shall get it.

Big ideas can originate in small places, so let’s hope that next week’s suffrage parade is a success, and will be followed by more and larger ones!

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

February 5, 1917: Margaret Sanger is in Brooklyn’s Raymond Street Jail tonight, beginning a 30-day sentence for the “crime” of giving out birth control information.

She shared her knowledge with women who desperately wished to have it, and could get it nowhere else but at what – until it was raided and shut down – was the nation’s first and only birth control clinic.

Three days ago Sanger was found guilty of violating Section 1142 of the New York State Penal Code by opening her clinic in Brooklyn on October 16th and operating it until it was raided and closed on the 26th. Sentencing came today, and she was first given the option of paying a $5,000 fine instead of serving jail time. After refusing to pay the fine, she was given another opportunity to avoid prison, but only if she would agree to stop sharing information about birth control as long as Section 1142 remains on the books.

Justice Freschi, who presided over the three-judge panel, seemed quite sympathetic, but still determined to do his duty to uphold all of New York’s laws, including its anti-birth-control statute. He said:

Mrs. Sanger, if you promise to obey the law faithfully in the future, this court will exercise extreme clemency.

She replied:

This is a test case, and pending appeal only will I promise to refrain from my activities.

Agreeing to obey the law only during the appeals process proved insufficient, so Justice Freschi then addressed her lawyer, Jonah Goldstein, hoping that he could convince his client to agree to a deal in which she would apparently receive a suspended sentence in return for promising to stop counseling women on birth control until the law changes:

Mr. Goldstein, what is the use of beating around the bush? We are not prosecutors looking for blood. We are simply here to judge conservatively, with an eye for the whole people. In view of the physical condition of the prisoner and of appeals pending and other attending circumstances, we are inclined toward leniency … All we are concerned about is this statute, and as long as it remains the law, will this woman promise here and now unqualifiedly to respect and obey it?

The judge then returned to addressing Sanger, and indicated that he believed her to be a woman of principle. “You abided by the facts given the court as evidence,” he said. “You did not take the stand and attempt to perjure yourself. We will take your word if you will give it. Now, is it yes or no? What is your answer, Mrs, Sanger?”

Her answer – which was immediately followed by great applause and cheers from her many supporters in the courtroom – was: “I cannot respect the law as it is today.”

The judge then pronounced sentence:

Margaret Sanger, with the additional evidence submitted by the learned District Attorney after your case reopened last Friday to meet the claim that the proof was insufficient, there is now additional evidence that makes out a strong case that you established and maintained a birth control clinic where you exhibited to various women articles which purported to be for the prevention of conception, and that there you made a determined effort to disseminate birth control information and advice.

We are not here to applaud nor to condemn your beliefs; but your declarations and public utterances reflect an absolute disregard for law and order. You have challenged the constitutionality of the law under consideration and the jurisdiction of this court. When this is done in an orderly way, no one can find fault. It is your right as a citizen. Refusal to obey the law becomes an open defiance of the rule of the majority as expressed in this statute. I can see no good reason for all this excitement by some people. They have a perfect right to argue freely about amending the law, but not to advise how to prevent conception.

While the law is in its present form, defiance provokes anything but reasonable consideration. It is wholesome that we have discussion by citizens on matters that affect the welfare of citizens. People have the right to free speech, but they should not allow it to degenerate into license and defiance of the law. The judgment of this court is that you be confined to the Workhouse for the period of thirty days.

Sanger was taken to the Raymond Street Jail overnight, for transfer elsewhere tomorrow. She had been considering going on a hunger strike as her sister, Ethel Byrne, did when she was sent to the Workhouse on Blackwell’s Island. But she realized that such an action would isolate her in the hospital ward, away from the other prisoners. So, instead, she will use her month inside the prison system to investigate conditions there, which have been described as “outrageous” and in need of being exposed to the public.

Fania Mindell, convicted of selling a booklet by Sanger entitled “What Every Girl Should Know,” containing basic information about sexuality and reproduction, was fined $50 today when she came up for sentencing. The fine was paid on her behalf by Gertude Pinchot of the Committee of 100, organized to promote legalization of birth control and defend those prosecuted for breaking the present laws.

Forty-four years have gone by since the assault on birth control began when Congress passed the infamous “Comstock Act” of 1873, which classified birth control devices and information on how to use or obtain them as “obscene,” unmailable articles. States quickly went even farther, passing outright bans on birth control so strict that even giving out contraceptive information to anyone by any means became a criminal offense with serious penalties.

But thanks to some very courageous people, the issue of family planning is finally being debated out in the open, and public opinion is being mobilized in favor of reforming repressive laws from a previous century. The possibility that the courts will strike down, or legislatures will repeal, these laws now seems a quite realistic expectation. One sign that momentum is shifting to birth control advocates is that the Governor of New York agreed just a few days ago to appoint a commission to study how the law might be changed in his State to permit some practical, legal means of transmitting birth control information to those who want and need it.

Despite the progress made over the past few years, the road ahead still looks like a long one. It certainly will be an especially hard journey for those like Margaret Sanger and Ethel Byrne, who prefer prison to obeying an unjust law.

But however far in the future the end of State and Federal campaigns to suppress knowledge and promote ignorance about sexuality and family planning may be, the eventual outcome is not in doubt. The only question tonight is whether those who will be fortunate enough to grow up in a time when access to accurate information about sexuality, and effective methods of birth control are freely available will be willing to fight as hard to retain those rights as those who are battling today to establish them.

INFLATIONARY NOTE: $5,000 in 1917 = $92,475 today; $50 = $924.75.

Founding Feminists is the FMF’s daily herstory column.

February 2, 1917: The persecution of birth control advocates continued today with “guilty” verdicts announced in the cases of Fania Mindell and Margaret Sanger.

They were tried on January 29th for violating Section 1142 of the New York State Penal Code. This statute prohibits anyone from selling or giving away information about contraception, or birth control devices themselves, and classifies both as “indecent articles.”

Mindell was convicted of selling a copy of one of Sanger’s booklets which gives basic information about reproduction and contraception. This “crime” occurred at what was the nation’s first – and so far only – birth control clinic, founded by Sanger, her sister Ethel Byrne and Fania Mindell. It operated from October 16th until the 26th of last year, when it was raided and closed. Sanger, who was arrested as she counseled three women about birth control, while openly displaying contraceptive devices, was found guilty as well.

The verdicts of the three-judge panel (the defendants were denied jury trials) were read just hours after Ethel Byrne was freed from the Blackwell’s Island Workhouse by Governor Charles Whitman’s pardon. She had been in custody since her conviction on January 22nd for her role in running the clinic.

The reason for the four-day delay between the trial and the verdicts was so the judges could read the Sanger booklet, entitled “What Every Girl Should Know,” to determine whether it was in violation of the law, then read briefs submitted by the prosecution and defense concerning whether Sanger’s actions in opening and running the clinic could be legally justified.

Sanger said that whether she goes on a hunger strike as her sister did will depend upon what the court decides to do at the time of sentencing. If she is permitted to remain free on bond while her conviction is appealed, there would obviously be no strike. But if she, too, is sent straight to the Workhouse, she might follow her sister’s example, though other ideas are being considered as well.

Ethel Byrne, pardoned by the Governor after serving 10 days of her 30-day sentence, is at Sanger’s home recuperating from the effects of the hunger strike she began immediately after her conviction and sentencing on January 22nd, as well as the ordeal of about a dozen force-feedings, which began just after midnight on January 27th. Though still weak, her doctor says that she will regain her health soon.

Should Sanger and Mindell be given prison sentences, they, too, could be under the control of Commissioner of Correction Burdette Lewis. He made no secret of his hostility toward Ethel Byrne, and it was he who ordered her force-fed when she chose to protest her sentence with a hunger strike. So, vicious treatment can be expected for any imprisoned birth control advocate as the battle to legalize contraception goes on.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 30, 1917: Imprisoned birth control advocate Ethel Byrne’s force-feedings continue, as do nationwide protests over her conviction and treatment.

Today a telegram was sent from the Chicago Economic Forum to New York City Commissioner of Correction Burdette Lewis which said:

The Economic Forum assembled on Sunday at Colonial Hall, Randolph and Dearborn Streets, vigorously and unanimously protests the cruelty being practiced on Mrs. Ethel Byrne under your authority of forcibly feeding her. Your violence is of the same quality as the court’s injustice.

Commissioner Lewis replied:

The penitentiary laws of New York provide: ‘Every person guilty of attempting suicide is guilty of a felony. A person who willfully in any manner advises, encourages, abets or assists another person in taking the latter’s life is guilty of manslaughter in the first degree.’ I will not permit or abet the violation of either section. I would neglect my duty if I willingly permitted a prisoner to injure himself.

Byrne has been in custody since January 22nd, after being convicted of violating Section 1142 of New York State’s Penal Code by furnishing information on birth control to patients at the clinic she, Margaret Sanger and Fania Mindell operated in Brooklyn from October 16th until the 26th when it was raided and closed. Immediately after her conviction she began a hunger strike, and the force-feedings commenced after she had gone without food for the first four-and-a-half days of her 30-day sentence.

She is currently being force-fed twice a day, with beef juice newly added to Byrne’s diet of eggs, milk and brandy, administered through a funnel at the top of a rubber tube inserted down her throat to her esophagus.

According to prison officials, Byrne is supposedly doing well, “cooperating” in the procedure by not resisting the force-feedings, and even took a walk around the ward this morning. However, since not even her sister, Margaret Sanger, or her lawyer have been permitted to see her since before the force-feedings began, there is great skepticism about the official reports, and a growing concern about her health.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 29, 1917: Three thousand people cheered Margaret Sanger’s speech earlier tonight at Carnegie Hall, as she called for the repeal or overturning of Section 1142 of the New York State Penal Code and all similar statutes.

This law makes it a criminal offense for anyone to sell or give away contraceptives – or even information about birth control. The audience also expressed its support for Ethel Byrne, who is being force-fed after engaging in a four-and-a-half day hunger strike in the Workhouse on Blackwell’s Island. She is serving a 30-day sentence for the “crime” of distributing birth control information.

Sanger was able to attend tonight’s meeting despite having been on trial today on the same charges as her sister, Ethel Byrne. The three-judge panel has not rendered a verdict yet, and therefore has not imposed the expected sentence.

Sanger’s trial opened with testimony from the female police officer who arrested her on October 26th, ten days after she, Byrne and Fania Mindell opened the nation’s first birth control clinic. Officer Margaret Whitehurst had been to the clinic before, in an undercover role, to gather evidence. Whitehurst said that when she entered the clinic on the 26th, she observed Sanger sitting in a back room with an open box of Aseptikon Vaginal Suppositories on the table. Sanger was talking to three women on the other side of the table. After putting down the Aseptikon, Sanger picked up two rubber birth control devices, one for men and one for women, and continued talking.

Officer Whitehurst said that at this point, she and two male officers placed Sanger under arrest, and after interrogating the three other women, took Sanger to the station house in a patrol wagon. After more witness testimony and lengthy arguments from Assistant District Attorney Edward Cooper and defense lawyer Jonah Goldstein, Presiding Judge Freschi said: “This is a very close case. The court will reserve decision and ask both sides to submit briefs.”

At the Carnegie Hall rally earlier this evening, Sanger left no doubt about her goal of repealing Section 1142 of New York State law and the Federal Comstock Act, both of which classify birth control devices and information on their use as obscenity:

I come to you tonight from a crowded courtroom, from a vortex of persecution. I come not from the stake at Salem, where women were burned for blasphemy, but from the shadow of Blackwell’s Island, where women are tortured for ‘obscenity …’ My purpose in life is to arouse sentiment for the repeal of the law, State and Federal. It is we women who have paid for the folly of this law, and it is up to us to repeal it.

The audience members enthusiastically passed a number of resolutions by acclimation. They condemned the denial of a jury trial to Sanger and the refusal of the judge to stay Byrne’s sentence while her conviction is being appealed. They also expressed sympathy for Byrne, and protested her being denied visitors by Commissioner of Correction Lewis. Finally, they pledged to “secure such change in State and Federal laws as shall put birth control knowledge within the reach of all who need it” and “unwavering moral and financial support” to Margaret Sanger “in her campaign to establish the principle of voluntary motherhood in this country.”

The evening was a great success, with the proceeds from the 25-cent to 75-cent seats, as well as the $10 boxes going to help the campaign to decriminalize birth control. To the surprise of many, sales of the first issue of Sanger’s “Birth Control Review,” which contains articles from such noted individuals as H.G. Wells and Havelock Ellis, advocating legalization of birth control, were not blocked by the police, and numerous copies were sold at 15 cents each.

But while spirits were high at Carnegie Hall, Ethel Byrne is still unjustly imprisoned in the grim surroundings of the Workhouse. She continues to refuse to take food voluntarily, and is still being force-fed, though now only twice a day instead of three times.

One incident in her continuing ordeal exemplifies her character. When physicians offered Byrne the opportunity to take two pints of nourishment from a glass instead of a rubber tube inserted down her throat and into her esophagus, and assured her that “nobody would know,” she refused, saying: “Nobody else might know about it, but I would, and I would not be following out the course I have laid down.” Even Burdette Lewis, the Commissioner of Correction, had to admit that “she appears to be a very conscientious woman.”

The battle is far from over, but it has certainly reached a new stage. And thanks to the courage and determination of women and men like those here tonight, the fight for birth control will continue in public forums, courtrooms, prisons, State legislatures, and Congress until victory is achieved.

INFLATIONARY NOTE: 15 cents in 1917 = $2.77 today; 25 cents = $4.62; 50 cents = $9.25; 75 cents = $13.87; $10 = $184.95.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 28, 1917: A regular schedule of force-feedings is being drawn up by Workhouse authorities for Ethel Byrne, now serving a 30-day sentence for giving out information on contraception last October at the nation’s first birth control clinic.

On October 26th, after providing services to at least 400 women since it opened ten days earlier, the clinic at 46 Amboy Street in Brooklyn was raided and closed by police for violating Section 1142 of the New York State Penal Code, which prohibits anyone from giving out information on contraception or actual birth control devices. Byrne’s trial was held before a three-judge panel on January 8th, with sentencing on the 22nd.

Ethel Byrne has been undergoing force-feeding three times a day since just after midnight yesterday morning. The procedure consists of having a rubber tube inserted through her mouth and into her esophagus while a pint of milk, two eggs, and a small amount of brandy are poured through a funnel.

The authorities have announced that they will not end the feedings when Byrne has recovered from the immediate effects of her four-and-a-half day hunger strike. They will continue the ordeal until she agrees to eat and drink voluntarily. Commissioner of Correction Lewis has been besieged by telephone calls from people objecting to Byrne’s treatment, but he insists that it is nothing unusual:

“Mrs. Byrne is being fed because the law requires it. Forcible feeding is nothing to cause so much comment. It is an every day matter with us. We constantly get alcoholics and drug addicts who must be forcibly fed. We are not permitted to allow prisoners to commit suicide. The only difference between Mrs. Byrne and the others is that Mrs. Byrne has someone on the outside giving out statements about her and us.”

That “someone” is Margaret Sanger, Byrne’s sister, who along with Fania Mindell will go on trial tomorrow for the same offense as Byrne. Since Sanger has also vowed to go on a hungers strike if jailed, Workhouse officials said today that she will not be allowed to go over four days without food, but will probably be force-fed after two.

Neither Sanger, nor Byrne’s lawyer have been able to see the prisoner for three days, and there is growing concern about her true condition, despite reassuring bulletins issued by the Workhouse allegedly showing her condition to be improving. At 6:00 this evening the latest report said that her temperature was 97, pulse 96, respiration 19, blood pressure 122, and that her physical and mental condition were both “good.”

On another front, it was announced today that a delegation from the Committee of 100 will go to Albany on the 31st to ask New York Governor Charles Whitman to commute Byrne’s sentence. The Committee was organized by Gertrude Pinchot and other members of the National Birth Control League, such as Rose Pastor Stokes, Crystal Eastman and Juliet Rublee, to protest the arrests at the clinic and to raise money to help with the growing legal expenses of birth control advocates.

The mass meeting in Carnegie Hall tomorrow night in support of those arrested at the clinic, and to promote the legalization of birth control, is now a sold-out affair, though six box seats will likely be empty. They have been reserved for the three judges who convicted and sentenced Byrne, the Assistant District Attorney who prosecuted her, and two of his staff members. The police, on the other hand, are expected to show up, since there will be an attempt to distribute copies of the first issue of the “Birth Control Review,” containing articles favoring contraception.

The immediate goal of local birth control advocates is to repeal the law under which Byrne has been convicted. Section 1142 of the New York State Penal Code reads as follows:

INDECENT ARTICLES: A person who sells, lends, gives away, or in any manner exhibits or offers to sell, lend or give away, or has in his possession with intent to sell, lend or give away, or advertises, or offers for sale, loan or distribution, any instrument or article, or any recipe, drug or medicine for the prevention of conception or for causing unlawful abortion, or advertises or holds out representation that it can be used or so applied, or any such description as will be calculated to lead another to so use or apply any such article, recipe, drug, medicine or instrument, or who writes or prints, or causes to be written or printed, a card, circular, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind, or gives information orally, stating when, where, how, of whom, or by what means such an instrument, article, recipe, drug or medicine can be purchased or obtained, or who manufactures any such instrument, article, recipe, drug or medicine, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to the same penalties as provided in section eleven hundred and forty-one of this chapter.

The punishment prescribed in Section 1141 is a sentence of “not less than ten days nor more than one year’s imprisonment or a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than one thousand dollars or both fine and imprisonment for each offense.”

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 27, 1917: Force-feeding of birth control advocate Ethel Byrne at the Workhouse on Blackwell’s Island has begun, and will continue on a three-times-per-day basis.

She’s currently serving a 30-day sentence for violating New York State law by distributing contraceptive information at America’s first (and so far only) birth control clinic, which was raided and closed on October 26th, 10 days after its opening.

Hunger-striker Byrne had gone without food for four and a half days when prison authorities decided that her condition warranted this extreme form of intervention. Following an examination at 11:45 last night, doctors ordered her wrapped in a blanket and the feeding apparatus brought in. A rubber tube was inserted through her mouth into her esophagus, and a pint of warm milk, two eggs and a small quantity of brandy were poured through a funnel at the top of the tube. The procedure was repeated a second time at 2:30 p.m. with a sixteenth of a grain of strychnine added, then performed a third time earlier this evening.

There is great concern tonight as to Byrne’s true condition. Her sister, Margaret Sanger, has received reports that Byrne has been unconscious since early this morning, but prison officials deny this, and have been releasing updates showing her to be “improving.” Nothing can be verified because Commissioner of Correction Burdette Lewis has denied anyone other than the two staff physicians and two visiting prison physicians access to the prisoner.

Meanwhile, protests continue. Emma Goldman sent a telegram yesterday to Commissioner Lewis stating:

“A thousand people in meeting assembled at Forward Hall, New York City, to protest against the continued imprisonment of Mrs. Ethel Byrne. You have a rare opportunity to prove your moral worth by refusing to be a party to the official starving to death of a woman.”

Today the Commissioner replied: “I am following your advice. We fed her last night at 11:45 o’clock.”

Another mass meeting will be held in Carnegie Hall on the 29th and Dr. Frederick Blossom, President of the New York City Birth Control League, said that at the meeting the first issue of the “Birth Control Review,” containing articles advocating birth control would be distributed. It is rumored that the police will try to stop any distribution of the publication. If they do, Blossom will appeal to the courts. So, the battle continues on many fronts!

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 26, 1917: Ethel Byrne’s condition continued to weaken this morning as she passed the 96-hour mark of her fast.

Its purpose is to protest her 30-day sentence for giving out birth control information. She is being closely watched by the prison physician, and authorities say that force-feeding may begin on the 29th if she does not willingly eat. Coincidentally, that’s the same day her sister, Margaret Sanger, and Fania Mindell will go on trial for their part in the “crime” of operating America’s first birth control clinic from October 16th until the 26th when it was raided and closed.

Commissioner of Correction Burdette Lewis is not sympathetic to Byrne, or her hunger strike, and in an attempt to discredit her said: “In an institution of 5,000 inmates it is next to impossible to prevent food from being smuggled to an inmate.” However, when pressed, he admitted that: “So far as I know, Mrs. Byrne has not eaten, but I cannot be absolutely certain of it.” He also noted: “I cannot say that she drank any water, but her handkerchiefs have needed washing with suspicious frequency.”

Commissioner Lewis refused to allow Byrne’s sister Margaret to visit her today. Sanger said: “Officialism is running riot when one sister is not permitted to see another who is in a dying condition.”

But Commissioner Lewis does allow regular bulletins on Byrne’s condition to be released. The 10:00 a.m. update described her blood pressure as within normal limits but wavering, her pulse moderately weakened, her temperature slightly below normal, her respiration within normal limits, and her general condition slightly weaker. Fortunately, these reports are being reprinted in newspapers, so a great deal of attention is now being focused on the drive to legalize contraception and allow distribution of birth control information, as well as on the courage and determination of those committed to the cause.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 23, 1917: Ethel Byrne, imprisoned birth control advocate, is fully resisting jailhouse authorities today, just as she vowed to do yesterday when sentenced to 30 days for distributing contraceptive information.

She committed her “crime” at what was the country’s first and only birth control clinic, opened on October 16th at 46 Amboy Street in Brooklyn, and run by Byrne, her sister Margaret Sanger and Fania Mindell until it was raided by police on October 26th.

Byrne is not yet in her cell in the Workhouse on Blackwell’s Island because after initially arriving there early today, a writ of habeus corpus brought her back to court, and by the time it was dismissed, it was too late to return her to the Workhouse to complete the rest of the in-processing procedure. She is spending the night in a cell at The Tombs, in Lower Manhattan.

But regardless of location, her hunger strike is on, and she says she will not cooperate in any way with her jailers:

I do not intend to have any physical contact. My sentence is unjust and I shall protest against it in this way. I shall not work, eat, or drink while I am here.

Commissioner of Correction Burdette Lewis is skeptical and equally determined:

I have not paid much attention to Mrs. Byrne’s threatened hunger strike. We have had threats of hunger strikes before. We have had people who said they were on hunger strikes, but we never had a real honest-to-goodness hunger strike yet. While some prisoners are announcing that they were voluntarily starving in prison we are keeping a record of what they ate, and they did eat.

I do not expect there will be any trouble with Mrs. Byrne. Persons have gone without food for more than thirty days and have remained healthy. If, however, the physicians on the island should report that Mrs. Byrne was dying, or if experts should say she must be fed to be kept alive, we certainly shall feed her forcibly.

I do not propose to issue bulletins on the progress of the hunger strike Mrs. Byrne says she will declare. I do not know whether she has started it yet. Advertising is what she wants, and I will not help her to get it. I will issue a permit to a woman reporter from each newspaper to visit the prison to see how Mrs. Byrne has been received. They can make only one visit, however, and cannot keep going there to see Mrs. Byrne and have her talk voluminously on the progress of the strike.

Aside from food and water, Byrne has thus far refused a bath and a physical examination. The confrontation with the woman doctor who was to perform the exam was temporarily avoided when the order came down that she be immediately returned to court for a hearing. But upon arrival at Blackwell’s Island tomorrow, the battle of wills shall be renewed.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 22, 1917: It’s 30 days in the Workhouse for Ethel Byrne, sentenced today for her work at what was the nation’s first and only birth control clinic until it was raided and shut down by authorities.

“I intend to go on a hunger strike. Furthermore, I do not intend to do a stroke of work at the institution,” Byrne said defiantly after sentencing.

The three-judge panel’s edict was read by Justice Garvin:

Ethel Byrne, you have been convicted, after trial of violating Section 1142 of the penal law. You have been represented by able, alert, and zealous counsel, and your rights have been carefully guarded. Those who compose society, for the benefits they enjoy therefrom, assume some obligation in return. One of the most sacred of these obligations is a respect for and an observance of the rules of conduct laid down by the legislative branch of Government. Disobedience of law even if unintentional, is to be regretted, if deliberate is exceedingly serious, and if persistent make the offender a public menace.

That the function of the Legislature is distinct from that of the court is elementary, and when a law has been enacted by the former and construed by the latter any change therein must come by modification or repeal. The court is of the opinion that the manner in which you violated the law was both deliberate and persistent. The court cannot substitute for the solemn act of the Legislature the opinion of individuals, however high may be their character or praiseworthy their motives, and no one may defy the law as it exists.

Byrne was immediately taken to the Raymond Street Jail, and tomorrow is expected to go to Blackwell’s Island. The clinic, opened in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn on October 16th, was raided on October 26th, with Byrne, her sister Margaret Sanger and Fania Mindell arrested for violating a New York State law which classifies contraceptive information and devices as “indecent articles” and prohibits their distribution. Violators of the law can be sentenced to anything from ten days to a year in prison as well as fined from $50 to $1,000 for each offense. Ethel Byrne’s trial took place on January 8th, with sentencing postponed until today. Sanger and Mindell’s trials are scheduled to begin a week from now, so between Byrne’s hunger strike and the upcoming trials, the issue of New York’s archaic anti-birth-control law should remain in the spotlight for some time, and hopefully generate momentum for repeal.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 21, 1972: This is certainly an exciting time to be a feminist, and that was especially true in Chicago today.

Women at the center of two national events next week are here vigorously promoting their upcoming ventures. Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) is in town to talk about her Presidential campaign, which has been running informally since July, but gets officially launched four days from now. Gloria Steinem is here as well, generating publicity for the first stand-alone issue of “Ms.” magazine (pronounced “miz”), which will hit newsstands nationwide in just a few days.

The two started the day early – and together – as guests on Channel 7’s “Kennedy and Company.” Steinem was delighted to share the camera with Chisholm, saying:

I don’t even remember when we first met. I know our first long conversation was about two years ago when I tried to talk Shirley into running against Senator Javits. We’re in contact with each other at least once a month. We spent a fortune in telegrams yesterday trying to arrange our press conferences here so they wouldn’t conflict.

Though she forgot to bring her copy of Ms., Steinem did remember to wear her “Shirley Chisholm for President” button. Since she’s already been campaigning for Senator George McGovern (D-SD), Steinem was asked if there was a conflict, but said that she supported both candidates.

Steinem had undivided loyalty toward her new magazine, however. Originally an insert in the December 20th issue of “New York” magazine, the response was so great that a full-length version is about to be sent out to newsstands all around the country. If the 300,000 issues printed up sell out (it’s labeled a “Spring” issue so it will have several months to do so), Ms. will become a monthly “forum for all women” and deal with feminist and real women’s issues in a way that mainstream “women’s magazines” don’t.

The idea could work. Though “The Revolution,” owned by Susan B. Anthony and edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury had a rather short run after its launch in 1868, and ended up putting Anthony deeply in debt, Lucy Stone’s “Woman’s Journal” was successful and very influential from 1870 until 1917. Fifty-five years later it’s time for the country to have a new, overtly feminist, nationally-distributed, large circulation magazine.

Rep. Chisholm told viewers that she thinks it’s time for the nation to get over its sex prejudices:

People in this country have to realize no psychological test says a man is more intelligent than a woman. We here in the United States have become so hung-up on sex. We waste our energies talking about the differences between men and women, not the similarities. I have talent, and I have ability. Permit me to use them. Don’t reject me because I’m a woman.

Apparently there is still plenty of work to do in regard to sex bias in the media. One nationally syndicated talk show has given the eight other candidates seeking the Presidential nomination an entire show to themselves, but Chisholm was offered only the chance to share a show with Gloria Steinem. As Steinem notes: “To this day, she hasn’t been invited to do the entire show. The problem is that people refuse to take Shirley’s candidacy seriously.”

Later in the day, Chisholm addressed a Catholic audience at a Cana Conference seminar at the Drake Hotel, and talked about the future of Black families:

If we are to relieve the burden it will not be at conferences and rap sessions about their situation, but by providing employment opportunities for the Black man who can’t support his family, but instead must leave so that his wife will be eligible for welfare benefits. No one stops to recognize that in America, Black men on the street corners do not have passports to American society – a white skin – and are paid wages embarrassing to them. Union membership is closed.” She then suggested a solution: “We need a Marshall Plan immediately that will give Black men an opportunity to work and will provide day care centers so that money spent for child care can be spent instead where it is needed – for rent, food, clothing, not to mention education.

Boldly addressing the issue of reproductive rights, she told the priests, nuns and other members of the Church in attendance that she was a supporter of birth control, as well as re-legalizing abortion so it could be taken out of the back alleys and done in the same well-regulated facilities and by the same licensed physicians that perform all other procedures: “I reject the notion that birth control by Black Americans is a form of ethnic suicide,” and in regard to abortion, “as long as we have women in civilized, Western society – Black women, white women, pink women – we’re going to have abortion. This accounts for the largest number of maternal deaths in this country, particularly among poorer women, from quack abortionists, people who have butchered bodies in back rooms.”

Let’s hope that both Ms. magazine and “Chisholm for President” meet with success, and are just two manifestations of the new wave of feminism that has already brought about such major changes in less than a decade.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 20, 1910: Alice Paul returned to her family’s home in New Jersey today after an extended stay in Great Britain.

Though she is planning on giving a high priority to her studies at present, she still seems quite dedicated to the cause of woman suffrage, and will surely be making more contributions to the “Votes for Women” campaign before too long.

She went to England in 1907 to study social work, and while there, just happened to be walking by when Christabel Pankhurst was speaking – or trying to speak – to a loudly jeering street corner crowd. Afterward, Paul introduced herself to the daughter of England’s most radical “suffragette,” Emmeline Pankhurst, and soon became a member of their Women’s Social and Political Union. (British women who engage in traditional, peaceful means of securing the vote refer to themselves as “suffragists,” and though the word “suffragette” was originally coined by London’s Daily Mail as a derogatory term, the militant members of the W.S.P.U. have adopted it, and use it as a way of distinguishing themselves from their more moderate colleagues in other groups.)

Believing in “deeds not words,” the W.S.P.U. has engaged in a variety of radical actions, escalating from heckling to rock throwing and window smashing. It was heckling that got Alice Paul tossed into Holloway Jail, when in November of last year, she and another woman snuck into the Guild Hall disguised as scrubwomen, and when Prime Minister Asquith made a short pause during a speech, interrupted him. As she explained today:

I did not throw a stone. I simply rose in the gallery and shouted ‘Votes for Women!’ In the prison it was horrible. I had been arrested twice before, once in Scotland and once in London, simply for refusing orders to ‘move on’ at political meetings. I was released after five days’ imprisonment in Scotland and three weeks in London because I refused food. Those were recognized tactics among the suffragettes. Last October the custom of forcible feeding was introduced and I was one of the victims of the practice.

She served her full 30-day sentence for the heckling, and was released on December 9th, after twice-daily force-feedings by prison officials beginning on November 11th. During her stay in England she met another American, Lucy Burns, in a police station after both had been arrested, and they have now become good friends. So, one by one, Americans are being converted to more radical tactics. These methods are quite effective, according to Paul: “The militant policy is bringing success … the agitation has brought England out of her lethargy, and women of England are now talking of the time when they will vote, instead of the time when their children would vote, as was the custom a year or two back.”

Though still dominated by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the American suffrage movement is slowly becoming more assertive as well. There’s certainly justification for more militance, as nearly 62 years of working for the vote by traditional means have won over only four States, and the last such victory was in 1896.

New innovations such as frequent street corner meetings – and even a small suffrage parade two years ago – are now becoming accepted activities among the younger, more radical suffragists in groups like the Progressive Woman Suffrage Union, the Political Equality Association and the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women. But should Alice Paul become a full-time activist again after she finishes her studies, and if her friend Lucy Burns returns to the U.S. from her current suffrage work in Scotland, things could get even more lively here.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 15, 1917: Reinforcements – and more contributions – for the “Silent Sentinels” today.

The small group of banner-bearing suffragists huddled around the White House gates from 9 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. since January 10th was expanded by enough new recruits today to form a line of pickets almost all the way along the fence.

Support for their protest of President Wilson’s refusal to endorse or work for the Susan B. Anthony (nationwide woman suffrage) Amendment is manifesting itself in many forms and is growing as quickly as the number of protesters. Heavy coats and rain gear have been the most appreciated items donated to the Sentinels as they fight Washington’s winter weather. Among the most generous of their outfitters are Elizabeth Kent and her husband, Independent Representative William Kent of California. They have given not only their own warmest clothing, but gone around collecting more from other supporters so Elizabeth can make her daily donations.

Monetary contributions are certainly welcome, and are coming in at an increased pace. Alva Belmont is the largest donor so far at $5,000. Louisine Havemeyer sent a note to Alice Paul, who was on the picket line today right along with her troops. The note said: “Good Work! Keep it up!” and was accompanied by a check for $200.

Small contributions can mean a lot as well, because they show that even people who are not active in the movement are now lending their support. For example, a schoolmaster leading a group of students along Pennsylvania Avenue walked up to a Sentinel and gave her five dollars. Another man dropped off a dollar at their headquarters “to treat the pickets to coffee.” There were even a few male supporters of equal suffrage in the line from time to time today alongside the officially designated protesters of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage.

Expanded picket lines require more banners, so four more have been added. All the banners ask one of two questions: “MR. PRESIDENT, HOW LONG MUST WOMEN WAIT FOR LIBERTY?” and “MR. PRESIDENT, WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE?”

Presidential cordiality continues to steadily increase, and has come a long way from the first day when Wilson clearly tried to ignore the pickets. Once again today, the President smiled, tipped his hat and even leaned forward in a kind of bow while being driven past the gate. But today First Lady Edith Wilson even gave a smile, and the automobile deliberately slowed – instead of speeding up – when entering the White House grounds.

One of the things people wonder about is whether women’s protests can have much political effect, since so many women can’t vote. But women have full voting rights in 11 Western States now, and for a time today, there were more women voters on the picket line than non-voting women.

President Wilson and members of Congress must slowly be recognizing the fact that woman suffrage is steadily expanding, and women are becoming more and more of a force in electoral politics. By coming thousands of miles to protest, some of the women from Western States have shown concern for their non-voting sisters in the Eastern States. These pickets should help convince the Senators and Representatives in Congress who are elected from suffrage States that their female constituents do care about the issue, and will hold them responsible for their actions in regard to the Anthony Amendment. Even those who currently owe their jobs to a solely male electorate must sense that this will not always be the case, and will hopefully decide that now would be a good time to jump on the “Votes for Women” bandwagon.

INFLATIONARY NOTE: $5,000 in 1917 = $92,246.48 today; $200 = $3,689.86; $5 = $92.25; $1 = $18.45.

Founding Feminists is FMF’s daily herstory column.

January 14, 1909: In a pair of bold moves, the National American Woman Suffrage Association has announced that it will be opening new offices in both Washington, D.C. and Albany, New York, to more vigorously pursue its goal of achieving “Votes for Women.”

The opening of the D.C. office as its legislative headquarters may represent a major change in strategy. Up until now, N.A.W.S.A. has tried to win the vote on a State-by-State basis, while doing little in Congress to promote the Susan B. Anthony (nationwide woman suffrage) Amendment, first introduced in 1878. But in the almost 61 years since the Seneca Falls convention of July 19-20, 1848, only four of the forty-six States have recognized a woman’s right to vote – and only in Colorado and Idaho was the vote won through a popular referendum. So, a speedier and more efficient method of attaining nationwide woman suffrage certainly seems called for at this point.

Though N.A.W.S.A.’s national headquarters remains in Warren, Ohio, there will now be a permanent and more assertive presence on Capitol Hill. In recent years, the campaign for the Anthony Amendment has consisted of an annual ritual in which D.C. suffragists go before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage, give their reasons why women should have the vote, are then told by the Senators how nice they look, and then after the women tell the Senators how gracious they have been, that’s it until next year.

But this new N.A.W.S.A. office clearly represents a change in tactics. Already several Senators have expressed concern over the fact that more numerous and more aggressive suffragists may be descending upon them and lobbying on a year-round basis. Another interesting aspect of this new office is the hope that it will be shared with other women’s rights groups. In this way, the knowledge and enthusiasm of those working to end many types of discrimination against women can be pooled, and they could lobby together for legislation in Congress.

The announcement about the new office in Albany indicates a growing optimism and enthusiasm about the campaign in New York State. The effort this year will be the biggest since 1898, when Susan B. Anthony herself ran a Statewide petition campaign to get woman suffrage included among the proposals to be submitted to the voters by that year’s State Constitutional Convention. But the man who presided over the convention was convinced that if women became involved in politics they would lose their “precious charm of personality,” so he appointed a committee of like-minded people who studied, then rejected, the proposal.

Of course, much has changed in the past decade and it is hoped that there will be much faster progress in these more modern times. Evidence of that is shown by the fact that an amendment to strike out the word “male” from the New York State Constitution in regard to voting rights has been submitted to this session of the legislature by the Senate Majority Leader, who intends to work hard for it.

Women won the vote in Wyoming in 1869, when it was still a Territory, and despite the objections of many members of Congress, the legislators insisted on having woman suffrage in their State Constitution when Wyoming achieved statehood in 1890.

Women voted in Utah Territory from 1870 until 1887, when Congress revoked their right to vote as part of the Edmunds-Tucker (anti-polygamy) Act, but they regained the vote again when Utah was admitted as a State in 1896.

Women won the vote in Colorado in 1893 and in Idaho in 1896 through referenda submitted to each State’s male voters.