American woman in fact and fiction; The suffrage victory

The following program is produced and recorded in the studios of KPFA Berkeley California under a grant from the Educational Television and Radio Center in cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcasters. We present the American woman in fact and fiction from Colonial Times to the present day. A series of 13 programs written and directed by Virginia Maynard and produced by Virginia Maynard and Charles Levy part 13. The Suffrage victory. Down to Madison. Your life I'm sure to talk about right. Now. It's just as plain as my old hat. I was thinking that you know we want the poets they all get no help from me not brought joy not looking back today it's somewhat difficult to understand the violence of the opposition to woman suffrage conservative opinion in the country was of course almost universally opposed to the idea of women voting. The church was divided in its position

while some denominations and individual clergymen were among the most zealous advocates of the movement. Others took the stand that women's political emancipation would mean the beginning of the end of a social morality which constituted the moral strength of the nation the enfranchisement of women it was feared would result in the dissolution of the home and family and the destruction of the institution of marriage. The most pessimistic of the prophets predicted that the very act of women's going to the polls and mingling with a rough crowd on Election Day would plunge the country into moral chaos. Professional politicians and certain powerful big business interests would just as violently opposed to vote for women for very different reasons. Political leaders felt that they knew how to manipulate men for party purposes but manipulating women was an unknown quantity which they wish to avoid as long as possible. The organized liquor industries with their fear of women's influence on the prohibition issue spent countless thousands of dollars lobbying against women's suffrage which they felt threatened their

very existence. Do these elements the fact that most men of the country were understandably reluctant to forego their traditional position of sex superiority which was in a sense symbolized by their power to vote and the fact that many women were quite as unwilling to give up the protected position in which men's chivalry had placed them. And perhaps we can understand why the battle for woman suffrage was inevitably a long and stormy one. After the disheartening failure to obtain the franchise by a federal amendment at the close of the Civil War when the negro was admitted to the vote the suffragist changed their tactics and began to concentrate their main strength on a policy of winning the suffrage state by state by the turn of the 20th century. The National Women's Suffrage Association was a powerful organization with headquarters in New York and an efficiently functioning machine in almost EVERY STATE OF THE UNION. Four states in the Far West had already granted women full suffrage as a result of the

association's work and by 1914 almost all the states west of the Mississippi had joined the ranks of the suffrage States and the association was turning its forces to the conquest of the traditionally more conservative East. Simpler loise in the novel and Vickers published in one thousand thirty two has left an amusing account of one of these state suffrage campaigns during this period in the following incident from this work. One doctor Melvina Wormser of New York reportedly chief surgeon of a Manhattan hospital for women president of the better obstetrical league author of the Mensa patient and sex Doctor of Science of Yale investor and an officer in all known birth control organizations is interviewed by the press in advance of her scheduled speech at a suffrage rally in a city called Claiborne Ohio. The professional suffragist says Lewis had been cautioned about talking to the press since the reporters or at least their editors were always on the alert for something scandalous from

Suffrage headquarters. Some hint that it was a free love colony or what was nearly as good says Lou as a frenzied zoo of men haters anarchists atheists Spiritualists or anything else eccentric or discreditable. The workers for the cause might attack the water or gas departments the city orphanages. President Wilson or even the allies in the Great War. But they must do so only as Christian gentlewomen and solid taxpayers. They must convince others that the vote would not lead to moral laxity but would immediately end prostitution gambling and the drinking of beer. But Dr Melvina Wormser of New York as guest speaker was outside headquarters discipline and a law unto herself. Here the young suffrage workers in and vicars stand by in shock silence as Dr. Wormser delivers her opinions to the delighted reporters. What sort of Doctor words or do you believe in free love do I believe in free

love. What do you mean by that young lady. How could love be anything but free. If you mean do I believe that any all said take not just a momentary action the moonlight means superior to any child a ceremony performed by some preacher. Why of course don't you. Why when I think of all the birth control and do you think women are brighter than you think there's any field women should not man growing one at a time please. Let's see do I believe that women are brighter than men some thought was a question not bright or just lift me a little cold outside to get me to writing man I'm a full on no maid but I adore I'm the darlings. What do you suppose men doctors would ever do without their women nurses and secretaries I know I was a nurse myself before I became a doc and now my chief status. Action in life is that I don't have to stand up when a surgeon enters a room. Silly costumes

like that. Just what a man would institute a poor lambs we have to take care of them and their little egos. That's why we need to vote for them. You think there'll ever be a woman president. How do I know young men. But let me point out that women rulers Queen Elizabeth that lovely Ray Calle Catherine of Russia the last Chinese emperor has no reason to reserve Austria Queen eyin am Victoria. We're better rulers than any equal number of kings all presidents protect and women suffrage will be the law of the mind. You know boys and girls might as well know that I don't believe in hedging and pussyfooting this is going to be a long struggle not just giving the vote that some matter of a couple of years then we've got to go on birth control separate apartments for married couples if they happen to like them. What women need is not merely the vote but something warmer up here in the head. They. Need just exterior opportunity but something interior with which to

grab the opportunity when we get it and use it. Freedom's no good to pussy cat only to a Tigris and women have got to stick together men always have had the sense to grab them. Sex loyalty. We ought to live for one another and sneak off and have a go. Drawing together like the manhole under water. Bravo. Do you think there's any feel that should be closed to women I believe that there is no field of men in control now that women can't enter completely medicine ole politics physics aviation Explorer NEARY Turing's polarized society. Oh writing sweet little wrong little lonely I hope women will be too sensible for either the prizefighting or the wrongs. Which are both forms of male escapism and singularly alike if you look at them. Oh I don't expect women to imitate or try to displace men in any of these fields. I am not one of the guilds who believe that the sole difference between males and females is

in conception. Women have special qualities which like human races fail to use for civilization. I know a woman can be as good an architect as any man but she may be a different sort of architect. I bring something to medicine that no. Man can no matter how good he is. Oh well how about the army. Well have you think woman can go to war. Remember what the 2000 tribes marching with their women along did to the beautiful virile professional men and soldiers of Rome. The feeling headed masculine world forgot that lesson fall 15 a hundred years and never discovered it. Florence Nightingale happened in and bully the masculine British War Office into some of the common sins that any normal girl would have at seven. Do you want the right movement. Oh I don't want to rival men but I don't want to be kept by the traditional feminine subjection from the privilege of working 18 hours a day. I'm not much of a Democrat.

Believe in fairy years all to be subjected if they are imperious but they have a girl secretary is smarter than her male balls let him be a secretary. Listen that was in 1945. Maybe you'll have to go to England. That's where they invented this inferior woman myth so men could have their clubs. Maybe you'll have to go to England to find anybody so benighted that he'll even know what you're talking about when you speak of considering candidates for a job as male and female or on any other basis except their ability. Why 1945 dockworkers here I speak of 1945 because I have a hunch that after we get the vote will be less often feminists will find that work is hard. Their jobs are in secure that we must go much deeper than Woman Suffrage. Maybe just socialism. Anyway to something that fundamentally represents both men. Women not just women alone and know a lot of suffragists that pretend to hate a man. Well do you brood so nice to have around the house. But then we'll

come back. Not to shout alderman or his noisy professional females but for the first time since Queen Elizabeth as human beings you ought to be able to get sufficient out of what I did to make trouble enough for me to satisfy even a suffrage speaker got a thank you talk to them sort of. I never gave you your Whatever you do if this goes on Sinclair Lewis in an Vickers is what the newspapers made of Dr. worm's There's interview with the next morning. Love is nothing but temporary It caused by moonlight. But even so it is more important than lasting marriage because marriage is all performed by ministers who are all childish. Free love that is taking any sweet heart any time you choose is not only permissible but necessary for any free woman. Men are much meaner than women. Men doctors boss their nurses

around and create them simply terrible. The next president of the United States will be a woman and she will be lots better than any Madame Marie Louise of Russia was the greatest king who ever lived. As soon as we get the vote. Then we're going on and advocate birth control. Socialism and atheism all married couples will live in separate apartments and women will imitate meme and sneak off and get drunk together. Women must lie about one another's whereabouts to fool the men and. Women will make better soldiers prizefighters engineers and poets than men and men are fit only to be just secretaries and servants of women I know that talking frankly like this will get me into trouble but oh well suffrage speakers love public city and I guess I would get plenty on this Dr. worm's interview had the effect of selling out the

house for the suffrage meeting that evening with hundreds more trying to get in. Oh and. The crowd was threatening snarling. Losers are crazy thats what they are I want to have a woman dark for a sick cash or a loan. I like to show you some where you are right Gerri right now. But there were enough sympathizers with the movement to keep down violence backstage before the meeting. The suffragists were nervous and apprehensive. Oh those curse of newspapers. Will some of you explain to me why every single reporter an editor on a paper can be a liberal or perhaps a read and the paper itself as conservative as the measles. Oh don't worry Dr. Wormser. I have my Dudley and my two large brothers out there. They've stopped at the club for a drink and by this time they'll be equal to handling at least 300 bully. Average age 27. Well let's get started doctor and get it over. Listen you girls Eleanor Pac Man and then if the doctor starts talking you will

skip to the back of the house and if anything starts. See what you can do will you. Right Mr. Guterres we certainly will. Girls let's go let's go out there and play some doctor are you OK Doctor Wormser never say die. That. Answer was a ball and the Lady Gaga was for her. Ladies and gentlemen. I'm afraid that in the unavoidable haste of getting out the news papers all friends and reporters considerably exaggerated the radicalism of this big evening. I'll let her speak no for herself. I present. Dr. Melvin. A. I'm just. A.

Gentleman and all so I had thoughts of the moon up some of them. It is and gentlemen I agree with you. I knew myself through reading the papers this evening. I would. Disapprove of myself was. So I would tell them why I never get out of this and go back to the sinfulness of New York that we now that you know that. Some. Now know you. See a sad farewell never can that man I love just getting out. And in the meantime in the back of the hall. The three girls conferred. What are we going to do what he thought one drunk would keep quiet she could speak. He's going to ruin everything. Let's get one of those policemen to throw him out to an idea.

Hey officer I'm going to throw that man out to start a riot Oh yeah I do enough the lady that I was reading today I'll get in my car and come on Eleanor they're out. You get out of here you drown. There was rock I think your entire career. Don't you talk to her like that don't you dare. 0 6 you see here I am that brazen the rising yet you know we're slapping a man around you know making a disturbance here officer take him out he's got a right to Tong know you want to be ashamed of yourselves. Call yourselves bunch of hellions Mark you have the wrong her forget this world skirt or where you go back to your safe place. You're making all a fuss not this guy your place is already a and we'll take care of their own place Souray that may.

Be coming up. Let's prank the whole bunch of them and then start on the lady doctor. Just. A minute don't start anything. I came to hear a speech and if this gentleman is going to interfere I suggest he be removed. And if the officers refused to do it for them. To help me put him off. Which one you want already. Thank you Officer I'm glad to see you're helping. You know that cell right there. And Dr. Wormser resumed her address a fictitious episode from Sinclair Lewis is novel and vicar in 1017 the American Woman's Suffrage Association won a victory which made universal suffrage for women almost inevitable. The state of New York yielded to 69 years of persistent agitation and granted the franchise to women during the

last few years of the campaign. Two hundred thousand women worked tirelessly for their cause like a well-trained army organizing every county and Borough and precinct in New York on the model of a political machine frankly patterned after the Tammany organization in 1910 when the state legislature refused to act on the suffrage petition. The workers of Greater New York organized a protest parade in which thousands of women marched up Fifth Avenue a demonstration which they repeated every year afterward until suffrage was won. On one occasion in New York the women joined in the night torchlight parade in which a seemingly endless stream of women each carrying a lighted lantern marched up Fifth Avenue in a procession which went on for hours. One parade toward the end of the campaign lasted all day long. Two factors States ainus Haynes Irwin angels and Amazons the size of the unceasing efforts of the organization workers contributed to the final victory. One was that the organized

liquor industries were by this time occupied in fighting the Prohibition amendment and could give only secondary attention to the campaign against women suffrage and the second factor was that so many New York women had become enthusiastic supporters of the suffrage movement. But Tammany Hall refused to make a stand against it. In 1917 the New York victory was won and the largest state in the union that granted women full suffrage. Even before this notable triumph however much headway had been made toward obtaining suffrage for women on a national scale. In 1013 a new element had entered the struggle. A group of young militant intellectuals led by Alice Paul from Swarthmore in Pennsylvania from which she held a Ph.D. and Lucy Burns from Vassar Berlin and Bonn at organized a National Woman's party and were striking boldly for a woman's suffrage amendment to the United States Constitution. The day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration as president these women with the

approval of Jane Adams of the National Association had organized a demonstration of 8000 women in Washington D.C. as the procession moved down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House. It ran into unexpected difficulties. Washington was crowded with people who had come from all over the country to witness the inauguration and violence broke out. Women were spat upon tripped slapped in the face pelted with burning cigar stubs and insulted by jeers and obscene language. The Secretary of War finally called in troops from Fort Myers to settle the rioting. But afterwards the suffragists forced a congressional inquiry on the neglect of the police which resulted in the chief of police losing his job. The suffrage cause received unprecedented public that he. And the radical faction continued the campaign with tactics which grew more and more militant. They held meetings and demonstrations. They exerted pressure on the president and on Congress. They sent delegations cause

thousands of letters and telegrams to flood the Capitol. They worked on political leaders in 1914. They initiated their policy of holding the political party in power responsible for the fact that woman suffrage was not yet the law of the land and they campaigned actively against the Democratic candidates in the nine states in which women could already vote according to Alice Paul's testimony. They campaigned that year against 43 men who were running for Congress on the Democratic ticket and only 19 of those campaigned against were returned by other states to Washington. The Democratic Party was forced to acknowledge the power of the women in 1916 President Wilson recognized the principle of woman suffrage in his party platform but he did not yet commit himself to the national amendment. Later that year he addressed the convention of the National Association advising patients. Knowing that the president could compel passage of the amendment if he would. Alice

Paul concentrated on winning Wilson's support to keep the matter constantly in his mind. She set the famous suffrage pickets before the White House which for a year and a half made front page news in America. Mr. President what will you do for woman suffrage. How long must women wait for liberty their banners read on inauguration day of back year of thousand pickets and circled the White House four times even after the declaration of war with Germany of the picketing continued. The women knew from their experience of the civil war that they could not afford to stop you know with their final goal almost in sight. But suddenly in June 1989 on whose orders no one no was. The police began to arrest the pickets. Scores of women were arrested including both Lucy Burns and Alice Paul. They were subjected to all manner of atrocities and prosecutions which culminated in the

following episode which the National Woman's party refers to as the night of terror. The party historian tells the story of the US. On November 14 1917 a group of pickets was arrested and taken to the Auckland workhouse in Virginia. They protested against being sent there and refused to register demanding that they be considered political prisoners. The officers tried to force them to register. Come on girls over here now over here if the gas we demand to see superintendent Whittaker printed what occurrence away you had better all line up and get registered but I'm sure there's some mistake about our being sent here. What political prisoners not common criminals. Nobody got dropped in this room I think up to their own might. Not going to sit here all night. Look at right over there and register your god now. Leave me alone you. See. Come now ladies you can't wait here all night. You there come over here and register.

I want to ask you a few questions you tell or no. We won't answer any questions until we sing Mr. Whitaker you know better and sure it'll be the worse for you for your made me get to move on when I was here superintendent Whittaker now all right what's all this what's going on here. What's all the trouble of ours we demand to be treated as political prisoners to go prisoners your Euro shot off men here who are political prisoners you. Are just going to run. Come on. Come. Here treated us well let me go present. And then I. Gotta go get them through that door. Don't you call me after that. Oh right that. Was that. You. Owe. Gary Sheffield you're my mother right. Don't put your TRUE out. There you may never find that. Do

you. Hear. What. This is J.W. Brannon who is one of those arrested says of the attack. It's perfectly unexpected ferocity stunned us. I saw two men seize Mrs. Lawrence Louis lift her from her feet and catapulted through the doorway. I saw three men take Lucy Burns twisting her arms behind her and then two other men grasped her shoulders. There were six to ten guards in the room and many others collected on the porch 40 to 50 and all these all rushed in with Whittaker when he first entered the guards brought from the male prison fell upon us. Miss Lincoln a slight young girl was thrown to the floor. Mrs Nolan a delicate old lady of seventy three was mastered by two men. The furniture was overturned and the room was a scene of havoc. Whittaker in the center of the room directed the whole attack inciting the guards to every brutality. The women were dragged out of the office down the steps and across the road and feel to the

administration building. They were thrown into the cells with such violence that several of them were seriously injured and Mrs Lewis whose head struck an iron bedstead was unconscious for some time. As always when arrested Lucy Burns took charge of the situation. Now from her cell she began calling the roll. Mrs. Brand. Miss is. Do you. Do you. Do you thank you Mrs. Nolan. Mrs. cause. Didn't you. You know Lady America you opened your mouth I cannot put you in a strait jacket. MRS. Les I know you're going to stop that. I'm not going to lie. Rolling Stone still don't like us we know how to fix you your guard there. Bring me those jobs. Done just like the.

Former heads. Of Almighty. God. That will find them up at the top of the door I don't wear them. How do you like that fine lady. But I've got place for you know I just got out of mischief. I don't I hear any more noise audio. Bring the bottle. The country resented the persecution of the pickets and a month later they were all suddenly released. In another month President Wilson declared himself in favor of the federal amendment and two days later it was passed by the house. By June of 1919 the 19th Amendment had passed both houses of the sixty fifth Congress and was ready for ratification by the states. The rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The American women voted in the presidential

election of 1920. That was Paul Thirteen of the American woman in fact and fiction a series of 13 programs written and directed by Virginia Maynard. The cast included Charles Levy Margaret Doyle William Matheson Edwin Smith Angela Goldsby your nan Cortright Evelyn and Virginia Maynard engineering was by David L. Talcott the American woman in fact and fiction was produced in recording studios of KPFA Berkeley California under a grant from the Educational Television Radio Center and is being distributed by the National Association of educational broadcasters This is the NEA Radio Network.