CATT, CARRIE CHAPMAN  SPEECH ARTICLE BOOK FILE   ARTICLE: "Their First Convention"

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1920
 C. C. C.*]
Their First Convention.
The Republican State Conference, held 
for the purpose of drafting a platform
took place at Saratoga, July 18th and 19th. The 
Democratic Conference will be held for the same
purpose at the same place July 23rd. The
Republicans treated the women voters with
cordial hospitality and with keen appreciation
of the fact that there is a large new electorate
whose party affiliations have yet to be fixed.
The vast Convention hall at Saratoga is
familiar campaign ground to suffragists. Most
political conventions for the past generation
have been held there and for twenty-five years
bands of representative women citizens of the
State have appealed to platform committees 
[to make their plea] for political liberty and in
the gallery have listened to grandiloquent 
orations and to platforms in which such
expressions as "government by consent",
"equal rights for all, special privileges for none,"
"free and equal" ad infinitum have been hailed with boisterous
partisan applause without the slightest
evidence appearing to indicate that  a single

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delegate sensed an inconsistency between 
declaration and realization in fact.
For the first time last week women were 
permitted to be a real part of it all. Over a hundred 
women delegates, fairly representative of all sections 
of the State, were seated and they were almost 
entirely drawn from the army of women who 
had so heroically striven to secure the ballot. 
One suffrage worker said she had to pinch 
herself occasionally that she might realize 
that she was at last within the one time 
forbidden sphere instead of a supplicant 
still at the portals.
Mrs. Edwin Danforth, wife of ex-Congressman 
Danforth, was appointed Chairman of the 
Committee to escort Hon J. Sloat Fassett, temporary
Chairman to the platform. Mrs. Florence
Knapp was appointed to the credentials committee
and several women were appointed 
honorary vice presidents and secretaries, 
but the big honor fell to Miss Mary Garrett 
Hay, Chairman of the Woman Suffrage Party

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of the City of New York, who was made
Chairman of the Platform Committee, 
a distinction, which next to the Chairmanship 
is the highest in the gift of a political convention. 
Heretofore this honor has been 
bestowed upon acknowledged leaders 
of parties or old "war horses" whose years of 
party service have given repeated tests 
of party fealty. It is safe to say that so 
responsible a post and so distinguished 
[a post] an honor was never before offered to an 
untried person and probably no other 
woman ever held the position in any 
State.
The plan to make Miss Hay Chairman 
of the platform committee was not prearranged, 
but is reported to have been 
proposed, in one of the early caucuses 
at Saratoga, by a one time bitter anti 
suffragist. It is certain that the proposal did not come from women 
From the caucus the rumor
spread among the gathering delegates.
[like the proverbial wild fire.] Like a bolt

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from the blue it fell upon friends and
foes of woman suffrage with startling
surprise. One long time woman hater was 
heard to mutter, "outrageous, impossible, 
it must not be permitted" while another
such merely uttered a despairing "My God!"
Even the friends of suffrage questioned 
the wisdom of the movement. Of the fifty-one 
members comprising the Committee, 
there would be many who not only were 
unreconstructed antis but were adepts 
at parliamentary tricks whereby leaders of minorities 
at times trip up an unskilled chairmen 
and get their way. Could a  woman hold 
such a committee down to its work? [down to
work?] Would a resentful minority 
display mob character in order   
to flout the chairman prevent any 
business being done? If a platform 
could really be drafted by the committee 
with such a chairman, could a woman 
read it, so that it could be heard

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by the thousand delegates in the far 
reaches of Saratoga's vast convention hall? 
These were questions passed from group to 
group but the proposal gained ground 
from moment to moment
Miss Hay had been appointed a member 
of the Platform Committee by the 18th Senatorial  
District and at the first meeting of the Committee 
she was nominated by Mr. Sam Koenig, Chairman 
of New York County and was elected unanimously. 
Among the members were Senator Wadsworth, 
Nicholas Murray Butler, Elon Brown William 
Barnes, [George Aldridge] ex Gov Horace White 
and divers others whose imagination had 
never visualized a woman member of a 
Republican Platform Committee, much less 
a chairman of one. Two other women members 
served on the Committee, Miss Mary Wood of 
New York and Mrs. Mary Schmiedendorff of Buffalo.
A member of the Committee, still harboring
a little doubt, said to Miss Hay hesitatingly, 
"You know, Miss Hay, it may mean sitting 
up all night. That often happens. "O responded 
Miss Hay, I've sat up all night at the door

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of so many platform committees hoping 
for a suffrage resolution that that is one 
thing I shall not mind in the least."
The committee did sit till three o'clock 
in the morning and meet again at nine 
a m and was ready to report at the time 
ordered by the convention, eleven a m 
Experienced members of the Committee 
declared that they had never seen a chairman 
make quicker decisions or fairer rulings. Those 
who enjoy odd incidents found amusement 
in the, "I rise to a question of parliamentary 
procedure," frequently but to the chairman 
by Sen. Wadsworth. Apparently the anti 
suffragists bore themselves with more 
resignation than was expected and as a whole 
the men, friends of suffrage were enthusiastic 
over the experiment and glad and happy 
that they had been part of the movement 
that had made it possible; while the 
former foes of suffrage gave evidence 
of finding work with women not half 
so terrifying as they feared.

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When Miss Hay appeared on time with 
the platform in her hand, she was received 
by a standing audience and tumultuous 
applause, continuing without a lull 
a la favorite candidate, for several minutes. 
Her first clear sentence, resounding through  
out the hall announced that she brought 
a unanimous report and that aroused 
another salvo of applause. It was known 
that the platform would contain a 
plank on behalf the Federal Amendment, 
and that the group of anti suffragists 
would bring in a minority report was 
expected. That there was none, was a 
relief to all concerned.
Sen Wadsworth, announced to the Platform 
Committee that he would not bring in a 
minority report, but that that fact was not to be 
construed into the belief that he had changed 
his mind.

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Immediately after the planks relating 
to the war and the duty of the State of the Nation 
the following plank was read:

"The Woman's Suffrage Federal Amendment has passed the 
House of Representatives by a tremendous Republican vote. Practically 
every Republican Country Committee in the State has urged its approval. 
The decisive plurality for suffrage in this great Republican State has so 
clearly shown the sentiment of the people, that we emphatically call upon 
the United States Senators from New York to vote for the submission of this 
amendment to the Staes."

The applause which followed the reading 
of the above resolution exceeded that 
of any other plank and recorded unmistakably 
the attitude of N. Y. Republicans 
on the Federal Amendment.
The description of the event in one newspaper  
paid the woman chairman the compliment 
of saying that, "she read the long instrument 
of party faith so that it was not not an 
instrument of torture which in itself is 
a novelty." During the reading, the chairman 
interrupted to say "Miss Hay, I fear the people in 
the gallery do not not hear you," whereupon, she 
addressed herself to the gallery and asked whether

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she was being heard. An unknown woman sitting 
on the top most seat responded with clear tone 
"Yes, Mary" which occasioned a general laugh.
           That Miss Hay performed the duties of this 
high office with skill and dignity is no surprise 
[who] to those who know her. As presiding officer 
her training
has covered [many difficult] a wide range and 
her repute as a tactful, composed and intelligent 
chairman is common knowledge among women. 
More, the parliamentary training of women 
is far more extensive and able than most 
men realize. That a woman could carry off such 
honor so easily may astonish some men but it 
is no surprise to the millions of organzed
American woman.
             The honor paid Miss Hay was a compliment 
to all womanhood, but it was a 
more distinct recognition of the Woman 
Suffrage Party which through its inclusive organzatn 
won the vote for the women of New York. It 
was far more clearly a suffrage than  
a woman's victory.
In his convention address, the chairman, the Hon 
J. Sloat Fassett made the following 
comment on the presence of the women:

[It was the first time in New York 
state that women had sat side by side 
with Republican men, in the big councils 
of the party. Every speaker paid 
tribute to the fealty and devotion of 
the women to America and to the part 
they are to play in the new world of 
politics]
      From the beginning of [?]

Mr. Fassett's speech was as follows: 
"This convention marks an epoch 
in the political development of the state 
of New York. For the first time we 
have sitting with us, representatives 
of the Republican women of the state 
of New York. The franchise never 
moves backward. There never will be 
in the future a time when the women 
will not share with us equally the 
rights and the duties of citizenship. I 
am not one of those who ever regarded 
this revolutionary proceeding with 
either dread, or suspicion, or opposition. 
I never could see any good reason 
why the state should deprive itself of 
the assistance of the better half of its 
citizenry. I have always believed that 
the women of this state and the women 
of American would be a potent factor for 
good service and good results in political 
activities, as they have always been 
potent factors for good results in all 
charities of the world and in the church 
of the world and in the homes of the 
world.
       Their passion for fair play and high 
ideals, their motherly instincts for helping 
the weak and the unfortunate and 
the inefficient; their bravery and resolution 
in times of peril convince me 
that we shall look back in the future 
with great joy and pride to the occassion 
when we first welcomed women to 
equal political rights. I can only say 
in passing that I hope the woman, and 
I believe the women will, regard this 
high privilege for which they have 
struggled so many years in vain, with 
greater respect than we men have 
habitually regarded it.
[Would Exalt Partisanship.]
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       For some months previous to the [primaries] special day 
for registering New York women in order to permit them to vote 
in the primaries (the men having been registered previously) a sweet tempered, but serious minded 
controversy stirred the ranks of suffragists from  
Buffalo to Montauk Point. The suffragists of New York 
are pledged to the Federal Amendment and to 
the use of their votes to see it through to its ratification 
by the last State. It had not yet passed the Senate 
and a minority in both parties represented in that body 
have manifested an incomprehensible hostility 
to its passage. It was clear, too, that, since New York 
State had enfranchised its women by over 
103,000 majority, that the legislature of the 
State had passed a resolution calling upon 
the two Republican Senators to support the 
amendment, that the Republican National 
Committee and most of the Republican County 
Committees had endorsed the [amendment?] 
the women had the right to expect the 
support of their Senators. Sen. Calder gave aid to the campaign 
within the State, and has right royally 
supported the Federal Amendment campaign, 
but Sen Wadsworth is one of three men in the 
Senate [wh] at whose door lies the entire responsibility 
of delay in the Senate. 

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New York has much territory which is practically 
one party Republican, and other territory which 
is one party Democratic in politics. Sen Wadsworth's   
part of the State is Republican. Under his 
directing influence it defeated suffrage in 1915 and again 
in 1917. The two Congressman representing 
that part of the State voted against the Federal 
Amendment in the House and Sen Wadsworth 
has led the obstruction campaign 
against the Amendment in the Senate That 
the women of New York have the vote is due 
to sections of the State over which he has no 
especial influence. He cost the women of the 
State two additional years of slavish self 
sacrificing campaign work and hundreds 
of thousands of dollars. He is now costing 
the women of the nation thousand 
of dollars because of the delay which 
he alone has caused. Naturally many New York women 
are embittered by these facts. [and] Women  
normally Republican in politics and residing 
in Republican territory or neutral women qualified to choose a party , hesitated to enroll 
themselves in the [Wads] party of Wadsworth 
On the other hand the narrowminded

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provincial opposition of the Democratic 
minority chiefly from the so called solid South 
have made Democratic women and neutral women unwilling to enroll
with the Democrats whose enjoyment of a control 
of House and Senate puts the main Chairmanships
into the hands of these anti suffragists, 
One group of suffragists therefore held 
that until the Federal Amendment was 
ratified women should remain non partisan 
and throw their votes where they would be of most 
help to the nation wide campaign, but another led by Miss Hay 
contended that the influence of women would 
be greater within the party than out of it, 
that women should give to the country the 
best service they could render at this time
of its great stress, while not forgetting their objective 
of enfranchising the women of the 
nation by Federal Amendment. As a 
result of the controversy about half 
the women who will probably vote at the 
coming election enrolled in the primaries. 
(679,000).
      The leaders of all political parties have 
watched this controversy with deep and understanding
interest and are fully aware 
of the tremendous influence upon the destiny 

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of New York politics which will be wielded 
by the women [not yet] whose affiliations 
with political parties are not yet made as 
well as those already enrolled.
When Miss Hay was reading the closing 
paragraphs of the platform a group of 
the picket party sitting in the gallery let down 
a banner over the railing containing the 
words: "Sen Wadsworth obstructs the freedom 
of women. We demand his support for the 
national suffrage amendment or his resignation 
from the Senate." As soon as it was observed 
by the delegates pandemonium reigned and cries 
of "put them out, put them out", "tear 
it down" were heard on every side. Chairman 
Fassett ordered the banner taken down 
by the Sergeant at Arms. The picketers held 
on to it, while the Convention continued to 
roar, there being no sympathy manifested among 
the delegates for the interrupters. The banner 
was eventually captured and peace restored. 
Miss Hay stepping forward on the platform
said:

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"That banner was not put there by the voting 
women of New York."
Later when Mrs Baker of Washington denied 
that the truth of this claim, Miss Hay issued 
the following statement 

"I understand that it is said I made an 
inaccurate statement in [saying] claiming that the banner in question 
was not placed by the women voters of New York State. 
A note was sent me on the platform after the incident 
closed to this effect. It was, of course, impossible 
for me to reopen the discussion then. I am told that
[one or two] several of the women connected with the incident are enrolled 
New York voters. To this extent, therefore, my statements 
seem to have been inaccurate. But the spirit of what 
I said remains true that this group of women is not representative
of the women voters of New York State.
In fact, the opposition [or] manifested by the whole assemblage to the 
banner, justifies my own attitude throughout the [whole State] New York 
suffrage campaign, in always opposing the militant tactics of the 
National Woman's Party, and also in the campaign for the 
Federal Amendment. as unnecessary and undignified 
tactics.

As a matter of historical fact, few if any women 
belonging to the group known as the Womans Party 
assisted the great New York campaign while on the 
contrary several obstructed it. The women presenting 
the banner are not known as women to whom any 
credit for the New York victory belongs.

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As a matter of further fact, the words on the
banner [are those] represented a sentiment very 
generally felt by men and women in New York. Had 
Sen Wadsworth the nicety of feeling which one 
should expect in a gentleman he would either 
vote for the Federal Amendment so strongly 
demanded by his state, or if his feelings 
forbid, resign in order that representative 
government may proceed. It has been 
made clear that he has no such understanding 
of his duty and has given no [such] evidence 
that he intends to do other than continue 
to obstruct the will of his State. No banner 
tactics can compel him to change his attitude 
but the psychology of such methods has the 
reverse effect.
A woman beaten by her husband complained 
bitterly to the neighbors. One night they heard her 
cries as his blows fell upon her. They few to 
her defense but were much discomfited when 
the woman grabbed a chair and attacked her
would be defenders. She would not permit 
them to thus to "insult her husband ". That is a 
story of simple every day human psychology 
In similar fashion Republican women and men who hold exactly 
the views of the banner turned against the group

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of outsiders who attempted to attack the 
Senator in public fashion. Many men 
said to the women delegates, "we know Sen 
Wadsworth has not done right. We cannot 
defend him and do not intend to try, but we 
cannot stand by and see him insulted."
Some tactics are psychologically right and some 
are psychologically wrong and this was an 
episode which helped not at all [and] but 
put a bitter taste in many mouths. There is 
little reason to suppose that "rhyme or reason" 
will [change] alter the bigotry of the Senator's 
attitude. The Federal Amendment will  
pass without him. 
Mrs Wadsworth is reported by the press 
to have said to a picketer:

you will
see, if he [*Sen Wadsworth*] offers himself again for public 
service, the anti-suffragists will be in a 
majority both among men and women. 
They will support a man who clings to 
principle rather than to bow to political expediency.

Sen Wadsworth's wife has thrown down 
the gauntlet and thus announces that when and 
if he comes up for re-election it will be as a drawn 
battle between suffragists and anti suffragists.  
It is doubtful if Republican will take the 
risk of nominating him, but if they do, 
New York at times has had a Democratic Senator. 
It will upon that occasion have another. 
The women of New York are fairly 
in politics.

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