NAWSA                         Gen Corres      Idaho Suffrage Assocs.

[*Idaho*]
NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION

BRANCH OF INTERNATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ALLIANCE AND OF NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN

MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, PRESIDENT
DR. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, HONORARY PRESIDENT
   1ST VICE-PRESIDENT
MRS. STANLEY McCORMICK, MASS.
   2ND VICE-PRESIDENT
MISS MARY GARRETT HAY, NEW YORK
   3RD VICE-PRESIDENT
MRS. GUILFORD DUDLEY, TENN.
   4TH VICE-PRESIDENT
MRS. RAYMOND BROWN, NEW YORK
   5TH VICE-PRESIDENT
MRS. HELEN GARDNER.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
   TREASURER
MRS. HENRY WADE ROGERS, CONN.
   CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
MRS. FRANK J. SHULER, NEW YORK
   RECORDING SECRETARY
MRS. HALSEY W. WILSON, NEW YORK
   DIRECTORS
MRS. CHARLES H. BROOKS, KANSAS
   MRS. T. T. COTNAM, ARKANSAS
MRS. JAMES LEES LAIDLAW, NEW YORK
MRS. ARTHUR L. LIVERMORE, NEW YORK
   MRS. NONIE B. MAHONEY, TEXAS
   MISS ESTHER G. OGDEN, NEW YORK
   DR. MARY SAFFORD, FLORIDA
MRS. HORACE C. STILWELL, INDIANA

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
171 MADISON AVENUE
NEW YORK
TELEPHONE.  4818 MURRAY HILL

NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE
PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc.
MISS ESTHER G. OGDEN, PRESIDENT
171 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK

PRESS DEPARTMENT
MISS ROSE YOUNG, CHAIRMAN
171 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK

CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
MRS. MAUD WOOD PARK, CHAIRMAN
   HEADQUARTERS
1626 RHODE ISLAND AVE., WASHINGTON, D. C.

July 25, 1918

My dear Maud:
I enclose  [??] satisfying letters.  I have
 acknowledged both.  I think you can destroy as they are not
very important.
   We have heard from Idaho but nothing worth
shouting over.  I've passed the clues on to Mrs. Bass.
   We had a cool night last night and slept
like two tops.  Until about 8 pm we had sizzled even here
and I suspect that N Y and Washington would have brought
the Cong. Committee to an untimely end if it had been
in either place.
   Hope you are relaxing, refreshing and resting
Lovingly,
C C Catt

Mountain House
Lake Mohonk
N Y.
until Aug 9th D. V.

1896 IDAHO
                    Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway,
pioneer settler in Oregon between 
1876 and 1895, gave one hundred and 
forty lectures on Woman Suffrage in
Idaho. She addressed the Territorial
Legislature in 1887 and in 1889 
appealed to the constitutional convention.
When the Republican State
Convention met in 1894, Mrs. J. Ellen
Foster, of Iowa, addressed the convention
and proposed a woman suffrage
plank in the platform which was 
promptly adopted. In January 1895,
a constitutional amendment was submitted
to the voters and, at almost
the same moment, the National American
Woman Suffrage Association, meeting in
Atlanta, Georgia, established a new
Committee on Organization with Carrie 
Chapman Catt, Chairman, and Mary
Garrett Hay, Secretary. This Committee 
found a suffrage campaign under way in
Idaho where there was practically now 
organization.

             The Committee appointed, as 
its first work, Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe to
go to Idaho with the aim of establishing
organization. Mrs. DeVoe had had experience 
in South Dakota in the campaign 
of 1890. Mrs. Laura M, Johns went to
Idaho in May 1895 and remained four months. 
The State was organized and in November a 
State Convention was held. In 1896 Mrs.
Johns went again to Idaho and remained
some months. In August Mrs. Catt joined
her for a time. Mrs. Johns then returned
to her home, having been in Idaho four 
months, and Mrs. Catt remained one month,
speaking in all parts of the State. She


                                                                       -2-

had the unique experience of attending 
four State political conventions,
Republican, Democratic, Silver Republican,
and Populist. Each party willingly 
placed a plank in its platform. Mary
C. C. Bradford came in September and 
thus another speaker visited all parts 
of the State.

              It was a modest campaign, costing
the National Association only $2,500 but 
political parties were not in dictatorial 
power and all had endorsed the woman
suffrage amendment. Of sixty-five newspapers 
in the State, all but three were 
favorable. Again, Wyoming, the neighbor,
wielded a decisive influence.

              The amendment was carried by
5,844.

THE WOMAN'S JOURNAL, DEC
               IDAHO PROTESTS
The following letter was sent to Mr.
Edward W. Bok by Evan Hunt Dockery, 
who is on the editorial staff of 
Boise Statesman. It was written
at the request of James McGee, president
of the Idaho Suffrage Society,
which has both men and women as 
members. She writes to Mrs. Ida H.
Harper: "Mr. Barry's article was so
unfair that every thinking man and
woman felt that a protest should be
made. From a letter received by Mr.
McGee from Mr. Bok, it is evident
that he will not use much, if any, of
my letter, and it occurred to me that
some of it might be of use to you in
your work." Our readers will be glad
to have it.

   The article by Richard Barry is
manifestly unfair in what it purports
to tell of what women have actually
done in Idaho. I have been asked by
a number of the citizens of Boise, who
know that I have been a member of
the legislative committee of the Idaho
Federation of Women's Clubs for five
sessions of the Legislature, to answer
the article.
          Finding Homes for Children
    Mr. Barry says: "In none of the four 
States where women vote was I able
to find any home-finding children, such
as you find in Massachusetts, Illinois,
etc. This is the most humane and
economical method of caring for the
orphan, and yet you do not find it
where women vote."
   If there is one thing on which Idaho
prides herself, it is her Children's
Home-Finding and Aid Society. It has
five women on its board of eleven directors,
and it had secured to it for
two years the sum of $20,000
more for the purpose of building a 
home for the children to be cared for
by this society; and on Thanksgiving
day of this year a $40,000 building on
a $50,000 tract of land donated by a 
woman of Boise, was opened for the 
care of the children, a branch home,
somewhat smaller, being built at present
at Lewiston, Idaho, to take care of
the orphans of the northern part of
the State. This organization ranks
among the first five or six out of 33 in 
the material aid given it by the State.
                   As to Railroads
  Instead of telling what the women of
Idaho have accomplished in the six
sessions of the Legislature since they
have had the ballot, Mr. Barry points
out a few isolated laws which the
State as yet has not on her statute
books. He says: "Idaho, where women 
have voted for fourteen years (this
means that six sessions of the Legislature
have been held when laws 
might have been passed), is the only
State in the union lacking a law to
compel railroads to provide suitable
toilet rooms for women and children."
This strikes an Idahoan as being about
as absurd as if he had said, "New York
has no law compelling cowboys to enter 
cafe's without their chaps." The 
one thing which Idaho lacks to make
her the most wonderful State in the 
union is railroads. The few that she
has, with a very few exceptions, are
the big transcontinental lines which
traverse the State, and the need of the
law just mentioned has never entered 
the head of any citizen of the State. 
             Women in Factories
  Mr. Barry says Idaho has no law 
restricting the hours of labor for
women employees, and no law compelling
employers in factories and stores 
to provide seats for them. Up to a
very few years ago, there was not a
department store in the State, and the
clerks in the stores were treated as
they were in the good old days in the
east, like members of the family.
Idaho has no factories where women
are employed, so the need of this law
has not been felt. 
              One Step at a Time
The women of the State, when they
were granted the suffrage, looked
about to see what should first demand
their attention, and decided that they
would ask for nothing hastily and
would take two years to consider all 
important legislation, that they might
be sure they were asking for the very
best thing possible. They also decided
protect the children, the future citizens,
and to amend the unjust women's 
property rights law.  In the last six
sessions of the Legislature, they have
succeeded in having passed a child
labor law, a juvenile-court law, a compulsory
school law (which, by the way,
is being enforced), a law creating a 
State Humane Society, an anti-gambling 
law, a Sunday rest law (these last
two were not introduced by the women,
but had their ardent support), a law
providing for a free traveling library
and allowing municipalities to tax
themselves for free libraries, with the
result that where there were four 
libraries in the State before this law
passed, there are now more than 30.
The age of consent was raised from
16 to 18 years. A bill providing for a
State Industrial School, in reality a reform
school, was passed also, and we
now have an institution for boys and
girls of which we are exceedingly
proud. So much of the children, who, 
we feel, are now protected by law as
well as the children of any other State
in the union. Our work now is seeing
that these laws are enforced.
Women's Property Rights Improved
   Now for the women. The property 
rights laws have been amended to allow
the wife the same right in the distribution
of her own property that her 
husband has with his. A law has been 
passed providing that when the husband 
dies without issue, and without
making a will, his property shall go entirely
to his widow, and not one-half
to his family as before. Five other
minor laws, relating to the property
rights of women, have been introduced,
and for the coming session of the Legislature,
the following bills were 
adopted by the State Federation of
Clubs to be introduced: A bill giving'
the wife equal guardianship rights 
over the children with her husband, 
and a bill requiring the wife's signature
to the conveyance of community 
property. A civil service bill, which
failed of passage at the last Legislature,
will also be reintroduced, and
will no doubt pass this year, since a
campaign of education along this line
has been made during the last two
years.
   In the light of this evidence (which
can easily be corroborated), do you
think that Mr. Barry has been quite 
fair in telling what the women of
Idaho have done with the ballot?
          Idaho's Women Lobbyists
    A word in regard to the lobbying 
committee of the club women of Idaho;
for, from Mr. Barry's story of Denver,
they must indeed be unusual. This
committee has been composed for five 
years of prominent society women of
the capital and other cities, who have
served from pure interest in the bills
passed, believing that they were for
the good of their sex. Not one ever received
a cent of pay, and those who
lived away from the capital have
either brought the children and nurses
with them at their own expense
or have engaged a housekeeper to care
for them at home, often at a real personal 
sacrifice of money to themselves. 
Mr. Barry said that in Denver the unimportant
bills passed, but the important 
ones never reached the House. The 
Idaho women confess to but two failures
in all the bills they introduced. 
The child-labor law failed to pass the
first session when it was introduced,
but did the second. The bill for civil
service reform in the State institutions
failed last session, but will be 
reintroduced at the coming session.
   What the women of the State have
done for the temperance is a story too
long to add to this already long article,
but I hope that I have given you
enough material for reflection.
  One other point, however, I must
mention. Mr. Barry says: "In none 
of the four states did I find a woman
in executive management of a corporation.
There are no women real estate
operators or promoters, not even a 
woman bank cashier." He does not
mention that for years we have had a 
woman on the State Board of Regents;
that in nearly every community there
are several women on the school
board; that we have a woman State
Superintendent of Schools, and nearly 
every County Superintendent is a 
woman; that we have women City and
County Treasurers, even in Boise 

women at the head of jewelry stores 
and other mercantile  establishments.
We have even had a woman mayor,
but we are condemned because we
have not a woman bank cashier.
                 The Social Evil 
  Just a word in regard to the social
evil, which Mr. Barry says the women
of the suffrage States have not lessened. 
This, you will admit, is a problem
which the students of sociology,
through all the ages, have not yet
solved' yet here in Idaho we have 
made an attempt at it, though, I believe,
it has not been a success except
in the smaller cities. I can name for
you several small towns where the
club women have succeeded for
the last six years in keeping out the
undesirable element. In one of these,
the woman's club has the very terrifying
name of Amphictionic Council, and
all that is has been necessary to do,
in case of the arrival of an undesirable
person at the city's gates, has been to
send her a letter, signed by this club's 
name, asking immediate removal, and
the next train has seen the departure
of that person. 
In the capital, Boise, the largest city
in the State, public sentiment became
so strong that the present city council
abolished the restricted district, and
has endeavored to keep vigilant watch
of suspected places.
    Will Mr. Barry give the thinking women
of Idaho a little more time?
I feel sure that he will have no cause 
to complain of what they have not
done. But, for the present, will he not
give them credit for a few of their
excellent deeds of commission, and
not dwell entirely on their deeds of
omission?

that he will not use much, if any, on
my letter, and it occurred to me that 
some of it might be of use to you in
your work." Our readers will be glad
to have it.

The article by Richard Barry is
manifestly unfair in what it purports
to tell of what women have actually
done in Idaho. I have been asked by
a number of the citizens of Boise, who
know that I have been a member of
the legislative committee of the Idaho
Federation of Women's Clubs for five
sessions of the Legislature, to answer 
the article. 

Finding Homes for Children

Mr. Barry says: "In none of the four
States where women vote was I able
to find any home-finding societies for
the placing of destitute children, such 
as you find in Massachusetts, Illinois,
etc. This is the most humane and
economical method of caring for the
orphan, and yet you do not find it
where women vote."

If there is one thing on which Idaho
prides herself, it is her Children's 
Home-Finding and Aid Society. It has
five women on its board of eleven directors,
and it had secured to it for
two years the sum of $20,000 by the
State, through a bill introduced by the 
women, who agreed to raise $20,000 
more for the purpose of building a 
home for the children to be cared for
by this society; and on Thanksgiving
day of this year a $40,000 building, on
a $50,000 tract of land donated by a 
woman of Boise, was opened for the
care of the children, a branch home,
somewhat smaller, being built at present
at Lewiston, Idaho, to take care of 
the orphans of the northern part of 
the State. This organization ranks
among the first five or six out of 33 in
the material aid given it by the State.

As to Railroads

Instead of telling what the women of
Idaho have accomplished in the six
sessions of the Legislature since they
have had the ballot, Mr. Barry points
out a few isolated laws which the 
State as yet has not on her statute
books. He says: "Idaho, where women
have voted for fourteen years (this
means that six sessions of the Legislature
have been held when laws 
might have been passed), is the only
State in the union lacking a law to
compel railroads to provide suitable
toilet rooms for women and children."
This strikes an Idahoan as being about 
as absurd as if he had said, "New York
has no law compelling cowboys to enter
cafés without their chaps." The
one thing which Idaho lacks to make
her the most wonderful State in the
union is railroads. The few that she
has, with a very few exceptions, are
the big transcontinental lines which
traverse the State, and the need of the
law just mentioned has never entered
the head of any citizen of the State.

Women in Factories

Mr. Barry says Idaho has no law
restricting the hours of labor for
women employees, and no law compelling
employers in factories and stores
to provide seats for them. Up to a
very few years ago, there was not a
department store in the State, and the
clerks in the stores were treated as
they were in the good old days in the
east, like members of the family.
Idaho has no factories where women
are employed, so the need of this law
has not been felt.

One Step at a Time

The Women of the State, when they
were granted the suffrage, looked
about to see what should first demand
their attention, and decided that they
would ask for nothing hastily and
would take two years to consider all
important legislation, that they might
be sure they were asking for the very
best thing possible. They also decided
not to ask for everything at one time,
realizing that there were other laws
needed by the State besides those in
which the women were particularly interested.

A List of Good Laws

They decided first to set about to

result that where there were four
libraries in the State before this law
passed, there are now more than 30.
The age of consent was raised from
16 to 18 years. A bill providing for a
State Industrial School, in reality a reform
school, was passed also, and we
now have an institution for boys and
girls of which we are exceedingly
proud. So much for the children, who,
we feel, are now protected by law as
well as the children of any other State
in the union. Our work now is seeing
that these laws are enforced.

Women's Property Rights Improved

Now for the women. The property
rights laws have been amended to allow
the wife the same right in the distribution
of her own property that her
husband has with his. A law has been
passed providing that when the husband
dies without issue, and without
making a will, his property shall go entirely
to his widow, and not one-half
to his family as before. Five other
minor laws, relating to the property
rights of women, have been introduced,
and for the coming session of the Legislature,
the following bills were
adopted by the State Federation of
Clubs to be introduced: A bill giving
the wife equal guardianship rights
over the children with her husband,
and a bill requiring the wife's signature
to the conveyance of community
property. A civil service bill, which
failed of passage at the last Legislature,
will also be reintroduced, and
will no doubt pass this year, since a
campaign of education along this line
has been made during the last two
years.

In the light of this evidence (which
can easily be corroborated), do you
think that Mr. Barry has been quite
fair in telling what the women of
Idaho have done with the ballot?

Idaho's Women Lobbyists

A word in regard to the lobbying
committee of the club women of Idaho;
for, from Mr. Barry's story of Denver,
they must indeed be unusual. This
committee has been compose for five
years of prominent society women of
the capital and other cities, who have
served from pure interest in the bills
passed, believing that they were for
the good of their sex. Not one ever received
a cent of pay, and those who
lived away from the capital have
either brought the children and nurses
with them at their own expense or
have engaged a housekeeper to care
for them at home, often at a real personal
sacrifice of money to themselves.
Mr. Barry said that in Denver the unimportant
bills passed, but the important
ones never reached the House. The
Idaho women confess to but two failures
in all the bills they introduced. 
The child-labor law failed to pass the
first session when it was introduced,
but did the second. The bill for civil
service reform in the State institutions
failed last session, but will be
reintroduced at the coming session.

Women in Public Work

What the women of the State have
done for temperance is a story too
long to add to this already long article,
but I hope that I have given you
enough material for reflection. 

One other point, however, I must
mention. Mr. Barry says: "In none
of the four States did I find a woman
in executive management of a corporation. 
There are no women real estate
operators or promoters, not even a
woman bank cashier." He does not
mention that for years we have had a
woman on the State Board of Regents;
that in nearly every community there
are several women on the school
board; that we have a woman State
Superintendent of Schools, and nearly
every County Superintendent is a
woman; that we have women City and
County Treasurers, even in Boise;
women City Clerks; women at the
head of large mines; women at the
head of large sheep camps. A woman
runs the largest stock ranch in the
State and takes her stock clear to New
York to sell it. We have women at the
head of undertaking establishments,

in the smaller cities. I can name for
you several small towns where the
club women have succeeded for
the last six years in keeping out the
undesirable element. In one of these,
the woman's club has the very terrifying
name of Amphictionic Council, and
all that it has been necessary to do,
in case of the arrival of an undesirable
person at the city's gates, has been to
send her a letter, signed by this club's
name, asking immediate removal, and
the next train has seen the departure
of that person. 

In the capital, Boise, the largest city
in the State, public sentiment became
so strong that the present city council
abolished the restricted district, and
has endeavored to keep vigilant watch
of suspected places.

Will Mr. Barry give the thinking
women of Idaho a little more time?
I feel sure that he will have no cause
to complain of what they have not
done. But, for the present, will he not
give them credit for a few of their
excellent deeds of commission, and
not dwell entirely on their deeds of
omission?

Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.