GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE [*CATT, Carrie Chapman *] [*Hyde, Clare 1909-11*] National-American Woman Suffrage Association COMMITTEE ON PETITION TO CONGRESS Chairman, Carrie Chapman Catt Rachel Foster Avery Florence Kelley Sub-Committee Mary G. Hay Ida A. Craft Minnie J. Reynolds Priscilla Hackstaff HEADQUARTERS FOR PETITION WORK: 29 East 29th Street New York ADVISORY COMMITTEE Bryant Brooks, Governor of Wyoming. John Shafroth, Governor of Colorado. John C. Cutler, Governor of Utah. F.W. Gooding, Governor of Idaho. Julia Ward Howe, Massachusetts. Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Massachusetts. Rabbi Charles Fleischer, Massachusetts. William Dudley Foulke, Indiana. Jane Addams, Illinois. Miss Garrett, Baltimore, Md. Sarah Platt Decker, Colorado. Judge Ben Lindsey, Colorado. Mrs. Clarence Mackay, New York. Mrs. Bourke Cochran, New York. Dr. Josiah Strong, New York. Col. G. Harvey, New York. Cynthia Westover Alden, New York. Edward T. Devine, New York. Hon. John D. Long, Massachusetts. Samuel Gompers, Washington, D.C. John Mitchell, Washington, D.C. Rev. Anna H. Shaw, Pennsylvania. Lillian M. Hollister, Michigan. January 29th 1909. Miss Clara Schlingheyde, 528 Mills Building, SAN FRANSISCO, California. My dear Steady, We are closing our petition correspondence today, and are sending on to Mrs. Avery in Washington the fullest possible report for every state. I am telling her that she must take up the correspondence with the State of California at once and find out just what is the situation. Any information you can give about it will be very gratefully received. I should like to know if there are any particular developments for or against the petition work. I am sailing away on the 13th of February, and I am not going to do anything about the petition meanwhile, but if I had some information I could pass it on the Mrs. Avery. I shall take your address along with me, but I make no promises as to what I may do with it on the other side. My address over there will be - Woman Suffrage Headquarters, 2 Victoria Street West, London. I shall be where about a week between the 23rd of February and the 1st of March, and will then go for a month of lecturing into Hungary. If I go to the National Convention in Seattle, it is still me intention to come down the coast and pay you a call, but time can make great changes in one's intentions. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Miss Clara Schlingheyde -- #2 Here is mu love and my steady devotion, even though silence lies between us for months at a time. Yours, Carrie C Catt "Emberi számítás szerint lehetetlen föltevés, hogy Kossuth Lajosnak, az Amerikában is félistenként dicsöitett szabadsághösnek hazájában megtagadhatná a törvényhozás az asszonyoktól a teljes polgárjogot." Mrs. Carrie Chapman-Catt (1907. októberben Budapesten tartott elöadásából.) I send this to show you how I have been immortalized on a postal card. The quotation on the other side is brilliant as you will readily see. I am sorry the bill failed in Cala. I think Hungary will have a vote before the golden state. Here is my love. I am well and happy and will be here for 10 days more. Budapest Mch 11, 1909 CCC Miss Clara Schlingheyde 528 Mills Bldg San Francisco, Cala. USA 2 West 86th Street, New York City. February 5, 1909. My dear Steady:- It was good news to learn that there was one physician's committee already formed and ready to work, and another one being born. I have sent this information to Mrs. Avery, who is now taking charge of the petition correspondence. When you know who will compose the homeopathic committee kindly sent that information to her, 1823 H Street N. W., Washington, D. C. Now that the California bill has been defeated, I see no reason why California should object to taking up the petition work and working it enthusiastically, and indeed the workers might well consider that if their own legislature will not submit the question it is proper for them to turn to Congress as a last resort. I shall expect that even Mrs. Sperry will be ready to move in this connection ere long. I am rather sorry the amendment was lost because I think California would have a good chance to carry it. It seems to me that the introducer of the bill was not well chosen either, because his name is figuring now in Eastern papers in connection with legislation which is not altogether up to date. Did you not know that I had forbidden you long ago to send me birthday telegrams? Since you did not obey, and did send one, here are my thanks. This year I had a surprise party on my birthday, and now not only you but all the world will know that I have passed the equator. What is good about it, however, is that I feel younger and healthier and more able to work than I have for some years. So long as this continues I shall not mind being 50. I am sailing on the Minnetonka, Atlantic Transport Line, on the morning of Feb'y 13th, and I expect to arrive in London about the 23rd. My address there will be care Women's Suffrage Headquarters, 25 Victoria Street W. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Mrs. Alice Park of Calif. and I shall remain a week, and then go for lectures to Hungary, Bohemia, Austria and Germany. I shall be back again at the same address by April 1st. I have no objections whatever to tell you what Mrs. Park thinks of me, so far as I know. She does not like me. I think it is simply a matter of her good taste. I am not aware that I have ever offended her in any way, and I am not aware that she has any special grudge against me. Nature itself seems to attract us to some people and to place us in antagonism to others, and I apparently am one of those who do not attract Mrs. Park. My theory usually is that when one person dislikes another it is reciprocated, but in this case it is not true, because I admire and like Mrs. Park very much. I wish you were going along with me to London. As it is I am going all by my lonesomes. Miss Hay talked about going, but she has given it up. Her only brother fell a few days ago on the ice and broke his hip. He is now in a hospital. Of course, that is a pretty serious matter, and she felt she should be near her sister in order to give her such aid as she might need. Affectionately, Carrie C Catt Steady Atlantic Transport Line S.S. Minnetonka Feb 15, 09 My dear Steady: Your big letter came just as I was leaving the house, so I brought it along unopened and stowed it away with some steamer letters. We sailed at eleven on Saturday but I felt like a spent cannon ball, that [I] had been fired onto the Steamer so I slept all the afternoon. I was looking for trouble with old Neptune but as he was not in evidence that day, I concluded I better take a nap by way of preparation for the shaking up. I felt he had in store for us. We are now 48 hrs from land and nothing had happened. Teppy is asleep himself or is making his entertainment ready for a later date. He usually avoids the Gulf Stream anyway. We should have another day of its calm. I am still suspicious of him, so on Sunday, I read my letters and today I am writing replies- while I may. I have never succumbed, in the usual way, to his violent and unmannerly attacks upon the boats I've happened to patronize; but I confess that when the boat stands on its head, then its tail, and mean while rolls like a cork. I get light headed and do not enjoy life. It may be quite impossible to write or eat soup, and may be even dangerous to walk. Even old sea dogs like me have accidents, When I came home last fall, the table was well fenced(?) but a sudden lurch landed a quarter of a huge and juicy watermelon bottom side up in my lap, and directly the ship veered the other way and a passing waiter, carrying a schooner of beer deluged my back with its contents! it so happened that I was not wearing my pink silk at the moment! Thanks for all you say concerning Cala suffrage politics the little letter, I will send to Mrs. Avery, but I shall forget the petition for awhile. There will be worries enough awaiting me on the other side, so I shall just let Mrs. Avery wrestle with the petition meanwhile. Your private letter is torn into a thousand unintelligible fragments and is safely stowed in the steamer waste paper basket. I shall not ask anyone to do (pi?t) work in Cala now, as it is "up to" Mrs. Avery If it lags, I shall come out in person. You are not to hint this to anyone, please for I may never get there: It is very sweet to have a nice Steady say such fond things of me, but I am sure, it is because you do not know me well. - I am now pondering whether I should break the spell by giving you a chance to witness my weaknesses, or should I stay away, so as to make sure of a Steady. I will think about it; I am travelling alone. There are only 30 passengers, so we do not get in each others way. I shall wake up and get acquainted by and bye, but now that I wish to rest, it is nice not to be bothered. Mollie talked of coming with me, but her brother fell on a slippery street and broke his hip bone. He is in a hospital and they feel anxious about him. Men do not make good patients, and he is no exception. Well, Steady dear, accept my love and devotion - devotion in all things except letter writing. In that respect I will try to improve, but cannot promise - Lovingly Carrie C. Catt [New] York June 26 [*1909*] My dear Steady: Alas, I am not in Seattle where the clans are gathering, but under the control of a very imperious doctor. I took on some new symptoms on the other side, which the aforesaid doctor tells me alternately will kill me, or do not amount to anything. She has a farm, and when she thinks she has persuaded me to go there, then I am to be cured; but when I broke loose from her clutches and took a cottage in the Catskills, then she knows I will die. According to her, this should be a farewell letter. In truth, as the darkey's say "I'm not daid yit" and I think two month of walks and sitting on a cool porch will make me over into a fighting suffragist. I was really not able to take the trip to Seattle. I am disappointed not to see you and Carrie this summer, but it is not to be. I shall soon be all right, I assure you. There are to be great things done in Seattle and I am sorry, too, not to be there. Mollie sends her love. Some of the cool days at my new retreat, I'll try to write a letter to you but I'm wary about promises. My address is Sunset Inn, Sunset Park, Harries Falls, New York Lovingly Mrs C - is far from well. but I hope to help cure her Carrie C Catt- Still Steady this summer - My address is same as above Mollie - Miss Clara Schlingheyde 528 Mills Building San Francisco, Cala. The address is Haines Falls, N. Y. only. Sunset Park Inn 8/24/09 Haines Falls, N.Y. In-The-Catskills Owen C. Becker Prop. July 15, 1909 My dear Steady: I have to thank you for two letters and the notes and clipping concerning Mrs. Blinn. I thank you especially for the clippings for as you suspect, I am interested in her outgoing. Last year, in Buffalo, at the National Convention. (I think) Mrs. Sweet brought a letter she had received from Effie Vance, and she had described very vividly how Mrs. Blinn had been able to rise above her sufferings thru Christian Science. Scaubi's(?) tears flowed as she read it, and she was no great admirer of Mrs. B. I believe she told me that E. Vance was also getting interested in Ch. Sci Mrs. B was one of the most generous and forgiving natures I ever met, and altho she also had her weaknesses of character, as well as the rest of us, she was a woman to be admired for very many estimable qualities. I am glad you have forgiven me for not coming to S. F. this year. I'm sure you would do so very freely if you could have seen me. I have had advices from several sources that for the sake of the cause, I should keep out of sight. You really must excuse me from giving you the diagnosis of my case. The other day I counted my ailments and found I had ten, but it requires a very rigorous mental effort to enumerate them all. I will say, however, since you so much desire to know, that my chief difficulty is that usual with women of late middle life, only I have some inflammation, which gives me much pain, and I have had so many hemmorages, that I am very aenemic, and that means no reserve of strength. Now. I am here to get over as many as I can of my frailties. We are 1950 ft above the sea. The mountains would only be called foothills in the Rockies. They are not grand, but are pretty and so very restful. They are completely covered with trees. We fortunately drew a cottage on a high hill which commands a broad view and which has sun to warm us when we are cold, and breezes to cool us when it is hot. We have porches all the way around the house, and some wonderfully picturesque rocks within a few feet. My daily program is as follows. I rise at 7:30. In 15 minutes with my kimono over my night gown I appears in the dining room and take my breakfast. At 8:30 a splendid Swedish Masseuse comes and for an hour and a quarter she mauls me like a prize fighter. Then I dress and come down to the front porch, where I lie in my hammock until noon, without doing one thing but look at my mountains. Then I have dinner. After that is over I am permitted to read, sew or what not (provided I rest in the hammock a part of the time) until 6, at which time we have our supper. Either just before, or just after supper we take a mile walk. That is all I am permitted. The evenings are spent on the porch doing nothing and 9 o'clock finds me in bed. To a frisky young thing like you, that must sound pretty stupid, but it is curious how lazy I have become, and how well I like it. We do not have to dress for fellow hotel guests, but wear our old clothes. Mollie is my nurse, and my housekeeper has her daughter with her for company so we are sufficient to ourselves. The air is the attraction. New York air in summer does not satisfy. Here, it fills the lungs and invigorates. We have been here only ten days, so I cannot yet speak of results, but I am hopeful that I shall be on the way to properly behaving by fall, and that I shall so far recover my ap- pearances that they wil not utterly read me out of the suffrage party. If your question is serious concerning a trip to Sweden in 1911, I will answer, do not plan for it! Sweden lies far outside the usual tourist route, and it is somewhat expensive to get to it. What one sees there is not so valuable as [that] those attractions more within the tourist route, and as you are not likely to go to Europe after or to stay long, I'd advise you to go where we are more within the beaten track. The Swedish invitation, indeed, was only provisionally given and provisionally accepted. We may need to find another place. We may go to Rome where we have an invitation for 1914, (but there is no meeting that year) That would be a good place for you. Or if we get to Vienna in 1913 that would be good also. You know, I presume, dass in Oesterreich nur Deutsch gesprochen ist, aber ist er sehr ha[?]ilich zu Leute. You see I haven't improved any. Yes, I shook my doctor. She meant well, but wanted to stuff me with medicines, and was a bore in the bargain. I think I am better without one. I who to be so far along that I shall be quite beyond any need of her, and that she will no longer consider me her property. Of course, I'll confess to disobedience. For instance, I am commanded to walk only on level roads, but alas, there are no five steps on the same level here! What can a poor fellow do. Lovingly, Carrie C Catt aft. post-operation New York, September 26, 1910. Mis Clara Schingheyde, 1412 Jackson Street, San Francisco, Cal. My dear Steady:- I am sure your devotion has been abundantly attested for never was there a steady so long and so horribly neglected. The plain truth is that sometime before I went to the hospital I was not able to receive my mail and for a long time after I came from the hospital I was not able to attend to it. As soon as I could do so I went to a Sanitorium and there they begged of me to write no letters. If there had been only a few, I might have written one a day and thus made some headway but there were so many that the task seemed absolutely impossible, and therefore I treated one and all alike. I came back to New York in early September and as soon as possible began coming to the office. I come four mornings a week for a short time. I am trying to attend to the daily correspondence now as it comes and to make a little headway every day on the accumulated pile. I am hoping to get my reputation reestablished some day. I have read and appreciated most highly all your notes and postal cards, which you have so considerately sent me. I have not been suffering so much as this tale of woe indicates. I have really been quite well so far as feelings are concerned since I came from the hospital, but my energy had been completely sapped and it is long in coming back. I can plainly see that I shall be unable to put in a full day's work for sometime yet to come. Yet I am making plans as though I were indeed a new woman. I do not know that I shall be able to carry it out, but I am dreaming of going to the Stockholm Meeting, which takes place[s] next June by way of Japan and the Phillipines. I have not yet been to an agency to inquire about the possibility of traveling on the Siberian Railway in winter. If that is feasible I am surely going to do it in which case, I shall see my steady in San Francisco en route. I suppose I shall be leaving about the first of January, if I do this thing, and I will give you ample notice. It may turn out to be only a dream. [It was a dream! I find the plan entirely impractical.] I have some miserable houses which are a continual nuisance to me and the other day I borrowed a friend's automobile and went to look them over. I could not get there on the elevated. I have been good for nothing ever since, and it shows me that I am not yet ready for hard travel. In spite of the fact that you have written me so often, you do _________________________________________________________________________________________________ - 2 - not tell me what you are up to, now that you have left Mrs. Howard. I hope you have found something which you like. Just at this moment your croquet photograph has arrived. I shall not be outdone, so I enclose you my latest. You certainly look round and rosy, and I hope you are quite all right. You have several years my advantage and I think you had not gone quite so near death's door as I had, so I shall be [more] content if your progress is more rapid than mine. The Suffrage Movement especially that part of it under the direction of the Woman Suffrage Party is booming now and I am hoping that San Francisco will take up our kind of work. I have had some letters of inquiry from Southern California and I learned from that quarter that there is a serious effort to get another submission of the question. San Francisco must get up and hum too. With a plea for forgiveness for my long silence and my assurance that I shall be steady to the end, though you do not get a peep from me for the next five years. In truth I find I had four hundred letters awaiting attention. You will know what that Means. My your shadow never grow less. With love now and always, I am, Yours cordially, The photograph has generously considered my vanity and has erased all the wrinkles. I assure you I look my years. I shall willingly confess to no more. Perhaps I sent you one of these last year for they belong to 1909, but as I find what appears to be my entire order perhaps I did not. Lovingly, Carrie C. Catt Probably you may want to know where I found such a jewel of a stenographer. She is the average of the New York product! #2 West 86th St., New York City, N.Y. April 30, 1910. My dear Steady:- If you had been able to look into my mind these past two weeks, you would have thought my attitude was a very proper one toward a"Steady", for every day I thought of you much, and had there been an opportunity to do it, I should have written you a letter. I was myself most of the time in bed, and lying so flat that I could not write or even read with comfort. I was only permitted to have a pocket handkerchief for a pillow. I was very much surprised to discover that a young thing like you was fooling away time over difficulties which belong only to old ladies like me. It has been my ambition for the last forty years to graduate from the follies of youth, and to be an old lady Emeritus. The years have rolled around, and here I am caught in the struggle between youth and age. The only thing I am certain of is that youth will not conquer. Whether I shall go down in the struggle or come up out of it, born again, remains to be seen. Just at present I do not like myself. I congratulate you over your successful endeavor to get rid of your difficulty, and hope your recovery and return to strength and spirits will not be long delayed. I do not know what kind of symptoms you have been having. Mine have been repeated hemorrhages, until I am so anemic that I have heart trouble and many kinds of foolish feelings. The doctor told me that I must eat, eat, eat, and about the time he gave this Miss Clara Schlingheyde -2- kind of command, I developed the most remarkable rapacious appetite which ever a woman possessed. My digestion is so excellent it does not even pause at horse shoes and wire nails! A quart of buttermilk every day, in addition to three meals and some incidental luncheons, is my stint. This I have been following for so long that I can report results, and these are most appalling. Not a dress did I have that would go around my waist, which had long ago ceased to be fairy-like; it was bad enough to develop a stomach and hips just when Dame Fashion declares they are not to be worn. At last conditions got so serious that I was obliged to purchase a new trousseau. I went to a high priced dressmaker, and had two grand gowns made in which to awe the public at the Washington Convention. I had another one let out to travel in. I got down there, and my old trouble returned, and I had to go to bed. I made a speech in one of the gowns, and the other one was never put on. I returned home and went to bed. I lay there for many days quietly, stuffing, stuffing, stuffing, without a bit of exercise, and yesterday I arose, girded up my loins and put on a corset and a dress, and bless your soul I was bigger than ever. Around my hips it was 45 inches, and this new trousseau of mine is already out-of-date, and will have to be let out. It will not be long before I shall look like a toadstool with the stem on top! I enclose my latest photograph, which I have had made for your benefit. It should be a warning to you. I will look like this the next time you see me; but if your doctor recommends the same treatment they have recommended to me, it is well for you to know to what it will lead. Miss Clara Schlingheyde - 3 - They told me that if I did not eat overtime, I should have no red corpuscles, and pretty soon would receive my summons to the great beyond; so it was a question whether I should have a big waist band in this world, or wings in the next. It will be a sad joke on me if I have both. When you are quite able to do so, and have nothing better to do, I shall be glad to hear how you are. Do be careful about not going to work too soon, for you can better afford to take a wee rest now than to suffer for long. You have my love, my sympathy, my congratulations- what more could a "Steady" want? Yours cordially, Miss Clara M. Schlingheyde 528 Mills Bldg., San Francisco, Cal. (drawing with text) Votes for Women Buttermilk "IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS, IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS, IN OMNIBUS CARITAS." International Woman Suffrage Alliance PRESIDENT, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, 2 WEST 86TH STREET, NEW YORK, U.S.A. 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT, MILLICENT FAWCETT, L.L.D. 2 GOWER STREET, LONDON, ENGLAND. 2ND VICE-PRESIDENT, ANNIE FURUHJELM, HELSINGFORS, FINLAND. SECRETARIES, MARTINA KRAMERS, 92 KRUISKADE, ROTTERDAM, HOLLAND. ANNA LINDEMANN. DEGERLOCH, STUTTGART, GERMANY SIGNE BERGMAN, 10A ARSENALSGATAN, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN. TREASURER, ADELA STANTON COIT, 30 HYDE PARK GATE, LONDON, ENGLAND. February 10, 1911. Mrs. Clara Schlingheyde, 1412 Jackson Street, San Francisco, Cal. My dear Steady: I want to thank you for your telegram which announced the victory in the Legislature. It has made me very happy, indeed; because I believe that California will really be the sixth star. I have unlimited confidence in the success of the campaign. I now learn that there is a prospect that it may come to vote at a special election at an early date. That means quicker work, and harder work; but it may be over the sooner, and I hope it may result in as great a victory as though the vote was postponed another year. If it can be won this year it will be all the more of a help to the movement through out the country. The question which troubles me is whether Californis has the leaders who will take the matter in hand and unite the forces in arranging a constructive campaign. While Washington won in the midst of quarrels it is not certain that the same process would be possible in another State. I am hoping that Mrs. Gerberding may prove to be a leader. Hers is a new name to me. Well, my dear Steady, peace, patience and perseverance be yours; and may you be rewarded by a vote before the year is done. I do not know why it is, but I must confess that I love old California better than any other State in the union, and were it another year than this I should only wait for an invitation to go by the first train and do what I could to help in the campaign; but as it is I must turn my back upon you and set sail for Stockholm, where the suffrage sisterhood will gather in June. I am expecting to sail March 31st. Mollie is going with me. With love now and always, I am Yours cordially, Carrie C. Catt AFFILIATED ASSOCIATIONS. Australia: Women's Political Association, President: MISS VIDA GOLDSTEIN. Whitehall, Bank Place, Melbourne. Belgium: President: MME. DR. JULIE GILAIN, 39 Rue Charles Martel, Brussels. Bulgaria: Woman's Rights Alliance. President: MME. I. MALINOFF Uliza Graf-Ignatieff II, Sofia. Canada: Dominion Woman Suffrage Association. President: DR. AUGUSTA STOWE GULLEN, 461 Spadina Avenue, Toronto. Denmark: Danske Kvindeforenigers Valgretsforbund. President: FRU LOUISE NORLUND 28 Ahlefeldtsgade, Copenhagen. Finland: Finsk Kvinnosaksforbundet Unionem. President: ANNIE FURUHJELM, Helsingfors France: President: MME. DR. JEANNE F. SCHMAHL, 41 Rue Gazan, Paris, Germany: Deutscher Verband für Frauenstimmrecht. President: DR. JUR. ANITA AUGSPURG, Huglfing, Oberbayern. Great Britain: Union of Woman Suffrage Societies, President: MRS. MILLICENT FAWCETT, 2 Gower Street, London. Hungary: Feministak Egyesulete. President: FRäULEIN VILMA GLüCKLICH, VI Kemnitzer-u-19, Budapest. Italy: Comitato Nazionale per il Voto Alla Donna. President: SIGNORA GIACENTA MARTINI, Piazza Pilotta 5, Rome. Netherlands: Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht. President: DR. ALETTA JACOBS, Tesselschadestraat, Amsterdam. Norway: Landskvindestemmeretsforenigen. President: FRU. F. M. QVAM, Gjevran per Stenkjaer. Russia: Union of Defenders of Women's Rights. Secretary: MME. MARIE TSCHEKOFF, Rue Nikolaevskaia, Maison 84, log 9, St. Petersburg Servia: President: MRS. SAVKA SUBBOTITCH, 17 Brancova ouliza, Belgrade. South Africa: Cape Colony: Women's Enfranchisement League. President: MRS. IRENE ASHBY MACFADYEN Lunderston, Plumstead. Natal; Women's Suffrage League. Presdient: MRS. OONA ANKETILL, 160 Bellevue Road, Durban. Sweden: Landsforeningen för Kvinnans Politiska Röstratt, President: DR. LYDIA WAHLSTRöM, 22 Johannesgatan, Stockholm. Switzerland: Verband für Frauenstimmrecht. President: M. M. de Morsier, Deputy, Geneva. The United States: National-American Woman Suffrage Association. President: REV. ANNA H. SHAW, Moylan, Penn. AFFILIATED COMMITTEES Austria: FRAU E. VON FURTH, VIII. Reichsratsgasse, Vienna. Bohemia: MISS M. STEPANKOVA, 23 Vsehrdova, Prague III. Mrs. Catt's Itinerary up to Nov. 7, 1911. Care of Union Castle Line, Cape Town, South Africa. Up to Sept. 5th, allowing six weeks for passage. ------------------- Union Castle Line, Durban, Natal, So. Africa. Up to Sept. 25th; same allowance of time. ---------------------- Zanzibar, East Africa. S.S. Gascon, going North, Union Castle Line, about October 6th. [*Letter mailed Sept 6/1911 not sent here as it takes 5 weeks for passage] (Steamers going south carry mail) Uncertain, nothing important here. --------------------- Care of Cooks, Pt. Said, Egypt. Arriving Oct. 17th. [*Letter mailed Sept 7/1911] (3 weeks should be enough time to allow.) ---------------- Care of Cooks, Jerusalem, Palestine. For Oct. 25th. ---------------- Care of Cooks, Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 1 to 7th. ---------------- (Other addresses later) Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Chairman Mrs. William Warner Penfield, Vice-Chairman Mrs. Martha Wentworth Suffren, Secretary Mrs. Margaret Chanler Aldrich, Treasurer Women Suffrage Party of the City of New York Headquarters Room 212, Metropolitan Life Building Telephone 66 Gramercy Manhattan Borough Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, Chairman Bronx Borough Mrs. Archibald C. Fisk, Chairman Brooklyn Borough Mrs. Robert H. Elder, Chairman Queens Borough Mrs. Helen Gilbert Ecob, Chairman Richmond Borough Miss Edith M. Whitmore, Chairman New York, Feb.18,1911. Mrs. Clara Schlingheyde, San Francisco, Cal. My dear Steady: I have a terrible and humiliating confession to make to you. I have been hard at work trying to clean up my correspondence, and I have really never been down to the bottom of my numerous baskets although I can now see the wires peeping through. Last night a letter from you dated a month ago turned out of some papers, and had never been opened. It was your account of the legislative work, and the organization of the Woman Suffrage Party. You will remember it as the long letter you wrote. You must have thought it very strange that I have not acknowledged it, or mentioned it when I did write to you. I therefore hasten now to thank you for it and to tell you that I found its contents extremely interesting. Since I wrote you I have seen Mrs. Laidlaw. She came home both enthused over the successful outcome of the campaign in the Legislature, and fearful of the results of the campaign owing to the division among the women. - That seemed to have impressed her more than anything else. She does not take sides with one faction or the other, but merely regrets that the division exists. I must say I share this feeling, for it handicaps the campaign very much. Nevertheless, I hope each group will be willing to do its part and that it will work its very best. You cannot have two Woman Suffrage Parties in San Francisco and have either one do any good. You can have as many clubs as you want, and they can work without seriously harming each other; but as the Woman Suffrage Party works by districts it must of necessity have clear sailing or its work is nil. I hope, therefore, that on this idea there will be union, at least. I shall want to make a contribution to the California campaign, but I shall be wise in my day and generation and wait until a campaign committee is on the job. Tell me when the Bill C.S. No.2 Feb.18,1911. goes through the Legislature which determines when the vote on the Suffrage amendment is to be taken. I have written to Mrs. Gerberding a letter of advice which may or may not be of value, and I am writing today to make further recommendations. As you are on her Board you will hear about it, so I need not repeat here. I am Yours lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt I do wish they could afford to give you a living during the campaign and hope it will be managed. An Bord des Dempfres Amerika den 13 April 1911 Hamburg-Amerika Linie My dear Steady: This is a letter of apologies. 1. You wrote me long ago that there was to be a meeting on Mch 11 with a mind to consolidation. I dictated a reply to that letter and requested news concerning the result. Thro' some one's carelessness, - my own probably - that letter was never mailed and consequently no acknowledgement of your nice long letter was received by you. I'm sorry!! (2) The telegram was received but I had to see what I could do about it. I'm not a rich woman, as some people seem to think and I have to do some planning to bring things about. Now, I had already put nearly all my bank accounts in a letter of credit and I still had some bills to pay from what remained. By the time I had learned, that I should not have enough left to give anything to Cala, I had packed my address book, and for the life of me couldn't remember it (your address). I wrote my wire, put the money in an envelope to pay for it, with the intention to hand it to my little Minnie who was to meet me at the steamer and who knew your address. A friend loaned us his big automobile to carry ourselves and innumerable accessories to the steamer. We knew there was to be a number of people at the steamer to see us off and we planned to be there an hour before sailing. Alas, for human hopes! We had two punctures en route, with the result that all our friends were driven off the boat before we got there. I met Minnie going down one gang plank as [and] I was going up the other. The officers were crying, "Don't block the way" and we had to hustle on. In consequence the telegram did not get sent and I totally forgot it until the boat had started. I'm tremendously upset over such treatment of you. My apology must be found in the upheaval of my affairs incidental to closing our apartment, getting myself off, doing final suffrage duties, and arranging business matters. It was nearly equal I'm sure to an earthquake Now, had I wired, it would be to say that "no funds could be available before July," I have interest coming in then and had intended to give it to Cala. A curious thing happened. I promised $500 to New York and had written the check, but now I remember that I did not send it to the Treasurer, but left it in my check book - too large to bring with me. I transferred my balance to a smaller one which I have. I shall therefore send $300 to New York and enclose $200. I shall apply the July interest of which I speak to New York. I have laid all these details before you, because when I began to write this letter, I thought I could not manage it at all, and the An Bord des Dampfers den 19 Hamburg-Amerika Linie way to do it came to me as I wrote, so you have my mental and financial processes before you. I cannot give more than this I'm sorry to say. If Cala had had a good active capable committee it would have got more, but its gone now. It is possible the delay of my reply has occasioned the opportunity which you had in mind to pass. In that event, hold the check until you can communicate with me. If the District plan is being worked intelligently, I should like it applied there Your plan of attempting to get the Labor vote is excellent, but no public mention of this work should be made. Many of the more intelligent working men are with us, but not all--and the rank and file, not at all. They would sell us out for a mess of pottage any day. Two Labor women in New York whom we have supported have been doing work they thought wonderful. It was to culminate in a Labor convention, deligated. The Union's more enthusiastic, and eagerly sought places, but when the night came, they did not appear, and their absence did the cause more harm than had nothing been attempted at all. The women were bitter, and called it perfidy, but I know the men were really never truly interested. There was talk of orders having come from political leaders. This may or may not have been true. At any rate it will be best to make this a still hunt. There should be women who would join this campaign without pay. One woman cannot do it all. I hope my little contribution may start the matter and that enough money can be secured to keep your woman [her] actively engaged until the election. Your steamer letter elucidates the matter well. I'm wofully sorry that the State campaign is unlikely to be well managed, Cala. is a hopeful spot but hard, digging drudgery is the price of success. Please tell Mrs Sperry for me, or any others who should know, that Dr. Charles F Aked who has just taken a Congregational Ch in San F, has lived in the same apartment with me and assured me a few days ago that he wanted to keep the campaign there with strenuous endeavors. We have never had a more eloquent advocate, but he will be driven away if you attempt to use him in small meetings. He will appeal to the rich and the mighty, and must have big audiences. He is worthy of them. Please be sure to pass this word on. I think he would visit other Cities and if there was a strong woman to speak with him, they would revolutionize the popular visit. Lovingly C C Catt [*To CCC*] #1412 Jackson St. San Francisco, May 10, 1911 My dear Steady:- Some days ago I received your steamer letter of April 13th together with your check for $200. You are a dear and surely have done the handsome thing by us. We are ever so grateful to you. By this time you will have received my letter of April 6th explaining that we were unable to secure Mrs. Nolan but that we have another woman (Mrs. Louise La Rue) who is an able worker, though possibly not such a star as Mrs. Nolan. I also explained that the labor vote is of such tremendous importance to us that money spent in any part of this work would be justified. Your instructions to hold the check in case we could not secure Mrs. Nolan of course will be observed, and I shall expect to hear from you in reply to my letter of April 6th covering the substitute proposition. I have somewhat the feeling of having crowded the mourners a little in your case, I know you must have very large demands upon your purse at all times for all sorts of things, and assure you I would not for the world have urged this matter upon you except for the fact that you wrote Carrie and Mrs. Gerberding and me that you wished to contribute and were waiting only to decide where best to put the money, and further because Miss Younger's plans and ability appealed to me. I shall be most unhappy if I have crowded you in any way by pressing my "labor suit". Also, notwithstanding #2 you believe our plan to get the labor vote is excellent, I gather from the tone of your letter that your faith in the individual ordinary laborer is none too keen. If for this reason, or for any other reason whatsoever you should prefer to hold out your check, please do not hesitate to say so. I assure you I would have absolutely no feeling in the matter if you would rather the money were used for some other purpose in the campaign. I have a notion that perhaps I may have embarrassed some other plan you might have had. If I have not and you still care to have the amount used under the slightly changed plan concerning Mrs. Nolan'[s substitute], we will be delighted to have it but I want to feel sure you are entirely satisfied to have me use your check in the labor field. I have had a letter from Sweetie and she says that she wants to add her contribution to yours. Miss Younger herself will contribute but desires to hold out until such time as occasions crop up where it will be difficult to get money. She says she knows there will be many such. Besides that she is giving her time and talents, both of which it would be hard for us to estimate. Miss Cook also has a good angel on her list who is to contribute to this special field. Now as to the "still hunt". Miss Younger tells me the labor situation in New York is entirely different from what it is in California. The labor movement and power are very strong here and Miss Younger's experience with the[m] leaders has been very favorable. I know this to be true so far as her undertaking of the #3 Eight Hour Labor bill at Sacrameto was concerned. I was there with her and know of my own knowledge that the big labor lobby that was up there stood by her loyally. She has gotten in with the wives of some of the prominent labor leaders and through them she has been able to reach these men. A great many of these women are prominent in the labor movement themselves and are strong for suffrage. They claim that their Eight Hour law [bill] will be ineffective without the ballot and so they are strong to vote. Miss Younger tells me that the ten hour law for women in New York is practically not in effect because women are without the ballot to back it up. In any case, Mrs. Greenman too, to whom I referred your point and who is well up on the labor movement here, says she does not believe the laboring man her will prove as fickle as your New York unions. Nearly all the leaders are for suffrage. I went to a Labor Council meeting myself about a week ago. I had a curiosity to see Miss Younger among these people, and talked with a few of the leaders myself. One of the strongest of the leaders assured me there was not a doubt but that the amendment would go through. Miss Younger never misses a Council meeting which takes place every Friday night. She even came down from Sacramento every week during the two and a half months she was up there. She occupies a very unique position among them. Notwithstanding the social position of her family and the fact that she is not a toiler as they understand the word, she has been so tactful with #4 them and the handling of their problem that she has gained their entire confidence and is accepted as one of them without question. Then too, her ability appeals to them. The Labor Council has just given her authority to open Suffrage Headquarters for the Wage Earners' Suffrage League in the Labor [Council] Temple; a big concession I understand. As far as I am able to analyze the sympathy of the laboring man here for woman suffrage it seems to me to be based upon class prejudice. In other words his chief object in voting for the measure is that it will help the laboring woman. The third day after Dr. Aked's arrival here he addressed a big house at the Savoy Theatre under the auspices of the College League. You can judge the character of the house when I tell you it was of the automobile type. I got away from the office to hear him and must say he gauged his audience accurately. He made a fine "automobile" address and society went away stirred and awakened. As you say, he wouldn't do out in the Mission or south of Market at all. I have passed along your word about him where it is needed. The College League has him booked for a big meeting in Oakland shortly. His auspicious opening in San Francisco will in all probability insure him a large audience where he is known. Fortunately for us the newspapers had been filled with him and his Rockefeller Church for weeks before his arrival - and so we easily fell in for the fruits of this advertising when we announced him for our speaker. #5 Some time ago Mrs. Blatch wrote Maud Younger that she would beglad to assist in our campaign for her expenses, but at the moment we could not see enough money in sight to undertake the offer. Aside from this there is a lingering prejudice on the part of some suffragists against the "Easterner" which you understand without comment from me. Miss Younger [therefore] however does not share this prejudice but on account of lack of funds wrote Mrs. Blatch it was impossible to accept her offer at that time, although she held out the hope that we might make some joint arrangement with Oregon to share Mrs. Blatch's services and the expenses in connection with them. Mrs. Blatch replied that she would come for nothing, raising the money in New York to defray her expenses, and only waited to be invited. Miss Younger telephoned me this morning that the matter wastaken up by a joint conference of the various suffrage wings, but opinion seemed to be divided as to the advisability of injecting aneasterner in to the campaign. There is to be another meeting held next week by those favoring the project and it may be that she will be invited by them to come here. Miss Younger tells me further (shegot all the gossip at a big banquet held last night at the St. Francis hotel-350 covers- where the Commonwealth Club had a debate between one of its big men and Miss Bronson, the anti , on the suffrage question) that Miss Shaw has been invited by a Mr. Brawley, Los Angeles millionaire sympathizer, to come to that city near the end of the #6 campaign. I understand a great many southern women are opposed to Miss Shaw coming here. However, Mr. Brawley has extended the invitation and Miss Shaw doubtless"will be with us". When I ascertain whether the invitation has the backing of others I will let you know. Miss Bronson, the anti, has been with us since the legislature. She made the principal address at the joint hearing. She is a good talker and is working among wealthy aristocrats and conservative club women. I do no think she is having very great success among them, as I understand she is having difficulty in persuading some big gun to start an anti organization. However, she has succeeded in getting before some exclusive clubs. A reporter who interviewed Mrs. Geo. Smith of Seattle when she was here about a month ago said that the hotel clerk at Sacramento had told him that Miss Bronson was employed by the liquor people- at least he assumed that she was as her mail all bore the stamp of liquor dealers. In any case she is heard from here and there all the time- so I presume she must be active. San Francisco is doing a good deal of work in the way of public meetings. The use of the Savoy Theatre had been secured gratis a couple of months ago, for every Tuesday afternoon. The various suffrage organizations pooled on it and each organization took an afternoon and was [were] to keep up in rotation until the campaign was over. The management however, after four or five Tuesdays had passed, complained that this #9 this arrangement interfered with rehearsals of companies engaging the theatre, and so they felt obliged to withdraw their concession. These afternoon meetings were considered so important however, that another theatre is being engaged from time to time to go on with the Tuesday meetings. Mis Younger is to have a big labor meeting next Tuesday. She is hard at work on it now and I am anxious to see the result and to get some idea of what effect the coming out of the big labor guns will have in general. I understand she is to have a very ambitious program, but her labor friends have promised that her meeting shall be a success. Her manner with them is easy without being obvious and so her good breeding and talents are appreciated and not embarrassing quantities to them. I believe that is the secret of her success in this field. I have not time at the moment to write you with regard to the situation generally here, but expect to do so within the week anyway. Will you have any forwarding address? If you are going round the world I presume it will be difficult for you to say at present just where you can be reached. If you should care to be kept advised of the situation here I would be glad to write you from time to time. I hope this finds you and Mollie well. Withlove, Yours always, "IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS, IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS, IN OMNIBUS CARITAS" International Woman Suffrage Alliance President, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, 2 WEST 86TH STREET, NEW YORK, U.S.A 1ST Vice-President. MILLICENT FAWCETT. L.L.D. 2 GOWER STREET, LONDON, ENGLAND. 2ND Vice-President, ANNIE FURUHJELM, HELSINGFORS, FINLAND. Secretaries. MARTINA KRAMERS. 92 KRUISKADE, ROTTERDAM, HOLLAND, ANNA LINDEMAANN, DEGERLOCH, STUTTGART, GERMANY, SIGNE BERGMAN, 10A ARSENALSGATAN, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN Treasurer. ADELA STANTON COIT, 30 HYDE PARK GATE, LONDON, ENGLAND AFFILIATED ASSOCIATIONS. Australia : Women's Political Association, President : Miss Vida Goldstein, Whitehall, Bank Place, Melbourne. Belgium : President : Mme. Dr. Julie Gilain. 39 Rue Charles Martel, Brussels. Bulgaria: Woman's Rights Alliance, President: Mme. I. Malinoff, Uliza Graf-Ignatieff II, Sofia. Canada : Dominion Woman Suffrage Association President : Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen, 461 Spadina Avenue, Toronto. Denmark: Danske Kvindeforenigers Valgretsforbund, President: Miss Eline Hnasen, 19 Ravonsberggade, Copenhagen. Danske Landsforbundet, President: Mrs. Elna Munch, 138 Ostrobrogade, Copenhagen Finland: Finsk Kvinnosaksforbundet Unionem, President: Annie Furuhjelm, Helsingfors. France: President: Mme. Dr. Jeanne E. Schmahl, 41 Rue Gazan, Paris. Germany : Deutscher Verband für Frauenstimmrecht President: Dr. Jur. Anita Auspurg, Huglfing, Oberbayern. Great Britain : Union of Women Suffrage Societies, President: Mrs. Millicent Fawcett. 2 Gower Street, London. Hungary : Feministak Egyesulete, President: Fräulein Vilma Glücklich, VI Kemnitzer-u-19, Budapest. Iceland: President: Mrs. Briet Asmundsson, Reikjavik. Italy: Comitato Nazionale per il Voto Alla Donna, President: Signora Giacenta Martini, Piazza Pilotta 5, Rome. Netherlands: Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht, President: Dr. Aletta Jacobs, Tesselschadestraat, Amsterdam. Norway: Landskvindestemmeretsforenigen, President: Fru. F. M. Qvam, Gjevran per Stenkjaer. Russia: Union of Defenders of Women's Rights, Secretary: Mme. Marie Tshekoff, Rue Nikolaevskaia, Maison, 84 log 9, St. Petersburg. Servia: President: Mlle. Helene Losanitch, 17 Braneova, Belgrade South Africa: Cape Colony: Women's Enfranchisement League, President: Mrs. Irene Ashby Macfadyen, Natal: Women's Suffrage League. President: Mrs. Oona Anketill, 160 Bellevue Road, Durban. Sweden: Landsforeningen för Kvinnans Politiska Röstratt, President: Dr. Lydia Wahlström 22 Johannesgatan, Stockholm. Switzerland: Verband für Frauenstimmrecht, President: M. M. de Morsier, Deputy, Geneva. The United States: National-American Woman Suffrage Association, President: Rev. Anna H. Shaw, Moylan, Penn. AFFILIATED COMMITTEES. Austria: Frau E. von Furth VIII. Reichsratsgasse, Vienna. Bohemia: Miss M. Stepankova, 23 Vsehrdova, Prague III. Grand Hotel Stockholm Sweden, My dear Clara - Presumably May 29/1911 Your letter to Mrs Catt came today. - she is busy with her address, and from now until after the Congress She will have little or no time to write letters, & has asked one to reply to yours, She did not expect you to respond when details of the work with the Labour Voters, and if your judgement & that if the others you have talked with, think that branch of the work needs the donation she made, then use it that way, & you need not wait for any other word from her, go on & use it for The Trades Union Vote - Of course she wants to hear how the Campaign is going & how the work with Labour Unions progresses. You can reach us from July 1" to July 13" at Welbeck Palace Hotel Welbeck St. London W. England - after that any letter sent to her at 2 West 86" St New York will be forwarded - She does not know her route, & between you & me I hate to see her start on that long trip - & believe she is beginning to weaken on it a little herself - She does not gain her strength rapidly & I fell worried over the long hard travel & bad Hotels she will have in many places. She likes Comforts & ought to have them, but I hear in S. Africa &c. the Hotels are very poor. Still I hope the Good Lord will take care of her, & that she will get back all right - To return to California, Dr Aked is fine & just the one to reach the "Swells" I do hope he will be kept busy speaking to the Educated & wealthy people, He wants to work, but also wants full hours & the right kind of people, but he will make votes for you, & also stir up that class of women - Frankly for you only, I do not believe Mrs Blatch would help the cause - She is not a vote maker - is too radical & has a sharp tongue also lacks political sagacity - If we fail in New York Legislature next year - it will be her fault & that of the State Assn, Mrs Blatch you know does not work with any of us in N. Y. & knifs the W. S. P. Whenever She Can. It is just as well not to invite her. Of course I do not want you to repeat this, but I am only putting you wise - The rich man in Los Angeles we met in Washington City a year ago, he is a great admirer of Miss Shaw & the National. I am not astonished if he asked her to come out - & I think she will go - I do not think she would either help or hurt the Amendment - She will be here next week, & will I suppose tell us if she is going out to California. I think you will win - I know you will win - & I am going on thinking that hard until the votes are counted & then I will rejoice with the rest of you, I am coming to San Francisco next June to the General Federation meeting - at least I hope to, As President of New York State Federation of Womens Clubs, I have to lead our delegation - Mrs Catt sends love - With love to you & all other friends there Yours Mary G Hay Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.