[NAWSA*] GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE [Shaw, Anna Howard 1915*] NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION Branch of International Woman Suffrage Alliance and of National Council of Women President Dr. Anna Howard Shaw 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 1st Vice-President Mrs. Stanley McCormick 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 2nd Vice-President Mrs. Desha Breckinridge Lexington, Ky 3rd Vice-President Miss Katharine Bement Davis 145 East 45th Street, New York Recording Secretary Mrs. Richard Y. FitzGerald 7 Greenough Ave., Jamaica Plain, Mass. Corresponding Secretary Mrs. Orten H. Clark Kalamazoo, Michigan Treasurer Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 1st Auditor Mrs. Walter McNab Miller Columbia, Missouri 2nd Auditor Mrs. Medill McCormick 500 Diversey Parkway, Chicago, Ill. _____ CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE Chairman, Mrs. Medill McCormick Vice-Chairman, Mrs. Antoinette Funk Headquarters, Munsey Building, Washington, D.C. _____ PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT Chairman, Charles T. Hallinan Press Bureau, Miss Clara Savage 505 Fifth Avenue, New York _____ EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Mrs. Charles Forster Camp NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, 505 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 1915 NATIONAL AFFILIATED SOCIETIES College Equal Suffrage League Miss M. Carey Thomas, President Bryn Mawr, Pa. Men's League for Woman Suffrage James Lees Laidlaw, President 26 Broadway, New York _____ NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc. President, Mrs. Cyrus W. Field 505 Fifth Avenue, New York _____ Telephone, 4818 Murray Hill U.S. map showing states with Full, Partial, Presidential, Municipal and Partial County Suffrage, and No Suffrage [*Shaw*] Moylan, Pa., January 13, 1915. My dear Mrs. Catt, The enclosed letter has been on Aunt Anna's mind for days, and, while she is still very weak ought not to be troubled by business matters, it seemed best to have her dictate it and see if she would then think no more about it. She is improving slowly and we can see that she is a little better each day. Lucy tells me that Aunt Anna knows nothing about the letter you wrote about the Publishing Company and that she is not yet able to see it. Aunt Anna will undoubtedly be looking forward to your acknowledgment of the enclosed letter. It is a great responsibility to decide how much should be told her and what are the things that should be kept from her. She has great faith in you and your personal words have done her a great deal of good. Very sincerely yours, Nicolas Shaw Fraser NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION Branch of International Woman Suffrage Alliance and of National Council of Women President Dr. Anna Howard Shaw 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 1st Vice-President Mrs. Stanley McCormick 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 2nd Vice-President Mrs. Desha Breckinridge Lexington, Ky 3rd Vice-President Miss Katharine Bement Davis 145 East 45th Street, New York Recording Secretary Mrs. Richard Y. FitzGerald 7 Greenough Ave., Jamaica Plain, Mass. Corresponding Secretary Mrs. Orten H. Clark Kalamazoo, Michigan Treasurer Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 1st Auditor Mrs. Walter McNab Miller Columbia, Missouri 2nd Auditor Mrs. Medill McCormick 500 Diversey Parkway, Chicago, Ill. _____ CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE Chairman, Mrs. Medill McCormick Vice-Chairman, Mrs. Antoinette Funk Headquarters, Munsey Building, Washington, D.C. _____ PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT Chairman, Charles T. Hallinan Press Bureau, Miss Clara Savage 505 Fifth Avenue, New York _____ EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Mrs. Charles Forster Camp NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, 505 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 1915 NATIONAL AFFILIATED SOCIETIES College Equal Suffrage League Miss M. Carey Thomas, President Bryn Mawr, Pa. Men's League for Woman Suffrage James Lees Laidlaw, President 26 Broadway, New York _____ NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc. President, Mrs. Cyrus W. Field 505 Fifth Avenue, New York _____ Telephone, 4818 Murray Hill U.S. map showing states with Full, Partial, Presidential, Municipal and Partial County Suffrage, and No Suffrage Moylan, Pa., January 13, 1916. PERSONAL AND IMPORTANT. My dear Mrs. Catt, Lucy tells me that you think if a strong National and Anti-Union president of the Publishing Company is elected, she will be able to so adjust prices for publishing literature for the Union as to make it practically prohibitive. If I believed that the Union was getting its publishing done by our Company because it was advantageous to it, I would perhaps accept that theory, but I think it is only one of its methods by which it involves the National with itself so as to deceive the public into believing that the National and it are in accord, and that it does not care a fig about the National Publishing Company publishing its literature for any other reason. I think it would pay any price, because that would simply be one of its stunts and as it has nothing to do but stunts it does not make any difference what it uses its money for. If you think the plan wise, I beg of you to insist that the name of the National shall not be published on the literature of the Union. You see, the Publishing Company has "National Suffrage Publishing Company, Publishers of the C.C.C. -2 National Woman Suffrage Association." I hope that you will insist that the Publishing Company shall not put this on the literature of the Union. I think if the name of the publishing Company and the name of the National Woman Suffrage Association were left off their literature, they would not care about having it published at all by the Company. Of course, I do not want to butt in, but it seems a very important thing. There is one other point that has come to me and in the multitude of things that you have on your hands may have escaped your notice. Some time since I saw that an effort was to be made in Congress this winter to make Alaska a State. I spoke to Mrs. Medill McCormick when I saw her in Washington but I fear in the rush of things it may have been overlooked. Of course, the important thing for us is to see that woman suffrage is not left out when Alaska becomes a State, and to my mind that is one of the most important things to push in Congress this winter. I also feel that whatever we do must be done with the utmost secrecy and as few people know about it as possible. It may be that the antis would not work against that issue if they were not working there. It may be that you have this all attended to, but I was afraid that it might not be one in the rush and change of business. I want so much to see you and talk to you and I hope I may before I go South. There are one or two points of vast importance just now and I feel that you alone can understand about them and be able to reach out and meet them. I feel very grown up to-day because the doctor promised that I could sit up in a chair for a while on Saturday if everything goes right and we are looking forward to the great occasion. With affectionate regards, I am Very sincerely yours, Anna H. Shaw per NAF. National American Woman Suffrage Association Branch of International Woman Suffrage Alliance and of National Council of Women President Dr. Anna Howard Shaw 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 1st Vice-President Mrs. Stanley McCormick 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 2nd Vice-President Mrs. Nellie N. Somerville Greenville, Miss. 3rd Vice-President Miss Katharine Bement Davis 145 East 35th Street, New York Treasurer Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers 505 Fifth Avenue, New York Corresponding Secretary Mrs. Orten H. Clark Kalamazoo, Michigan Recording Secretary Mrs. Richard Y. FitzGerald 7 Greenough Ave., Jamaica Plain, Mass. 1st Auditor Mrs. Walter McNab Miller Columbia, Missouri 2nd Auditor Mrs. Medill McCormick 500 Diversey Parkway, Chicago, Ill. _____ CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE Chairman, Mrs. Medill McCormick Vice-Chairman, Mrs. Antoinette Funk Headquarters, Munsey Building, Washington, D.C. _____ PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT Chairman, Charles T. Hallinan Press Bureau, Miss Clara Savage 505 Fifth Avenue, New York _____ EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Mrs. Charles Forster Camp NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, 505 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 1915 NATIONAL AFFILIATED SOCIETIES College Equal Suffrage League Miss M. Carey Thomas, President Bryn Mawr, Pa. Men's League for Woman Suffrage James Lees Laidlaw, President 26 Broadway, New York _____ NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc. President, Mrs. Cyrus W. Field 505 Fifth Avenue, New York _____ Telephone, 4818 Murray Hill U.S. map showing states with Full, Partial, Presidential, Municipal and Partial County Suffrage, and No Suffrage November 29, 1915 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, 303 Fifth Avenue, New York City. My dear Mrs. Catt: Here are two letters from women who desire work during the coming year. I have written them that the probabilities are that speakers will be decided upon as soon as we decide at the National Convention what is to be done during the coming year. In the meantime, I am forwarding these letters to you so that if you have any work along these lines, you may be able to utilize these applicants. Faithfully, Anna H. Shaw B President. AHS.MB. Dictated but not read. National-American Woman Suffrage Association National Lecturer, Rev. Annie H. Shaw, Private Secretary, Lucy E. Anthony. Washington DC Dec 26 1890 My dear Alice Your kind christmas remembrance came yesterday and your letter today forwarded from Philadelphia. Many thanks for both. Yours has been waiting for a chance to go to the post office for three days. Ah but you ought to have seen us this week almost head deep in trunks boxes etc. and now we are only about respectable. I shall be glad when all is done. I echoed your wishes that you might have dropped in on us yesterday but I would be as glad for it on any day. Mrs. Spofford kindly invited us [*What is the matter with girls these days that they act so like halfwits about voting in class meeting. It is fearful Good for your cousin, I shall hands[?] with her. A.H.S.*] to dinner with her family and it was a grand dinner I tell you fourteen courses and it took us two hours to eat, but we had a good time, and I enjoyed it. Have I told you of the elegant desk Mrs Avery presented to me and the office chair from her husband. It is the finest desk and outfit I ever saw and I feel so grand. Lucy says I will scarcely allow her to touch it. I ordered it through Mr Avery as he can get things at wholesale and to my surprise and delight when it came it was accompanied by a chair and a note saying the desk was a christmas remembrance from Mrs Avery and the chair from him. You may use them whenever you will come to see me. If that will NATIONAL-AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. National Lecturer, Rev. Annie H. Shaw, Private Secretary, Lucy E. Anthony. _________________1890 be any inducement. So the Press Ass'n managed to settle itself without you having to take the Presidency. You are a queer little body, why did you not take it and make those women behave themselves Lucy is in a committee meeting for Mimordaughsis[?] She has gotten through this time with only one day of very hard pain that I think was caused by her taking cold. She was so very sick that day poor little thing. I am glad we got that money from Mrs. McCormick's estate. It is a shame we had to pay the costs. But we need every cent now for the meeting. This winter I dont send you my list of dates now because Lucy does not give them to me a week ahead and they would be of no use as far as sending mail is concerned. I do hope it will be better soon Yes I am going to Kentucky in Feb. before the Washington convention. I go tomorrow to Philadelphia to christen Rachels baby, Mr Nichols and I are to do it. On Monday I give an informal talk for the Penn association and return to Washington in the evening. I shall have two weeks here altogether and then I am off to Canada. Your aunt was in one day this [past] week. I cannot help thinking yesterday was Sunday. Dear little girl, I would like to give you a big christmas hug and kiss. Give my love to your home loved ones. Affy, A.H.S. [*To Mrs. Catt*] 540 Manhattan Av. New York City November 25 - 1915 Miss Anna Shaw D.D. 505 - 5th Ave. N.Y. My dear Dr. Shaw - A mutual friend Mrs. Christina Fitch of Rome N.Y. suggested that I write you in regard to a position in the Suffrage Work. Have had the experience of Campain work in Wash. before we were enfranchised and since - [?] I am a Member of the Legislative Federation. The Workers Congress and Various other Organizations. Have been to the Legislature three times. At the last Session I was instrumental in having two Bills Introduced - one for The Office of Public Defender The Other to Provide for Probation for The Bench. In behalf of these I toured all of Washington & Oregon part of Idaho & Utah making two & three address a night sometimes 4 in an afternoon. Have served as Register, Clerk & Judge of Elections Also served on Juries from which I derived my idea of a Public Defender. On my way East I spoke in Rome, Utica & Albany also in N.J. for the week preceding Election - in N.Y. The Bronx, Brooklyn & Flusing. Am sorry to have this letter all appear in the first person but knowing how busy you are think it best to give You some concrete idea of my ability. I would indeed appreciate an interview and then You might consider giving me an opportunity to go into the work here. Thanking you for the favor Remaining Sincerely Yours Mary E. Howe Morningside 5770 Women's Political Union of New Jersey Headquarters: 79 Halsey Street, Newark, N.J. Telephone 3150 Mulberry Officers President, Mrs. Mina C. Van Winkle, Neward Vice-Presidents Miss Julia S. Hurlburt, Morristown Mrs. E.T. Lukens, Oxford Mrs. H.R. Reed, Leonia Mrs. W.H. Gardner, Hammonton Miss Edna C. Wycoff, Hightstown Mrs. R.T. Newton, Nutley Miss Louise Antrim, Merchantville Mrs. Robert Irving, Haddonfield Mrs. E.A. Albright, Roselle Mrs. Carl Vail, Ridgewood Miss Louise Connolly, Summit Miss Lora E. Palmer, Spring Lake Treasurer Mrs. Stewart Hartshorn, Short Hills Financial Secretary Mrs. Amelia Moorfield, Newark Recording Secretary Miss Sara Crowell, Newark Executive Secretary Mrs. M.J. Reynolds, Newark Chairman of Finance Mrs. R.B. Halley, Rahway Legislative Chairman Mrs. Philip McKim Garrison, West Orange Chairman House Committee Miss Anne Skinner Legislative Secretary Mrs. R.T. Newton, Nutley Congressional Secretary Miss Julia S. Hurlbut, Morristown Labor Union Executive Secretary Mrs. Ella Reeve Bloor, Ohio Field Organizers Miss Alyse Gregory Miss Emily Pierson ADVISORY BOARD Mr. William Fellowes Morgan Hon. Charles O'Connor Hennessy Rev. Henry R. Rose Dr. Addison B. Poland Mr. Jesse Lynch Williams Rev. Charles S. Kemble Mr. Frank H. Sommer Rev. J.J. McKeever Mr. Henry Carless Mr. Frank W. Smith Mr. Arthur R. Rule Mr. A.W. MacDougall Mr. Richard Stevens Rev. Edgar Swan Wiers Mr. Everett Colby Prof. J.C. Monaghan Mr. J.A.H. Hopkins Mr. John Cotton Dana Mr. Frederick L. Hoffman Dr. Charles L. Thompson Mr. Edward D. Page Dr. William E. Bohn Mr. L.H. Sage Rev. James Moore Mr. Theodore Gottlieb Mr. Clinton E. Fisk Mr. Julius Grunow Mr. Anthony Spair Mr. Eugene F. Kinkead Mr. Fillmore Condit Mr. George H. Goebel [*to Mrs Catt*] Nov. 5th Dear Comrade In Arms Now that the battle is over, at least, the last skirmish I want to keep right on fighting Where can I do the most good? Mrs. Van Winkle of New Jersey and Lucy Lewis of Penna. will tell you that I'm never tired - I cannot only work hard myself but can make others work - I have to go work at once, as I not only support myself entirely but also a boy of 15 (He is now in a New York High School and I'm making my Headquarters in New York Labor Union Suffrage Campaign Committee Women's Political Union Headquarters: 79 Halsey Street, Newark, N.J. Telephone Mulberry 3150 Vote "YES" for Woman Suffrage, October 19, 1915 Ella Reeve Bloor, Executive Secretary Percy Sulc Steve Burcher Frank A. Fetridge Jacob C. Taylor James S. Kelley Henry J. Lohse Charles P. Price Charles P. Ingalls William J. Brennan Sigmund Moss Eugene J. Brock Hugh Reilly A.L. Small C.A. Knapp Timothy McEligot Arnold Klein I could live here I think, on $25 per week and expenses of travelling around & - I know I could help you in Legislative, Executive and Congressional work - Let me know if I can help you and in that way best help the cause Sincerely Ella Reeve Bloor Address/ in Care School Social Science 140 East 19th St New York City [*Claud Wilson Wellesley Hills, Mass*] NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION Branch of International Woman Suffrage Alliance and of National Council of Women President 3rd Vice President Dr. Anna Howard Shaw Miss Katharine Bement Davis 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 145 East 35th Street, New York 1st Vice-President Treasurer Mrs. Stanley McCormick Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 505 Fifth Avenue, New York 2nd Vice-President Corresponding Secretary Mrs. Nellie N. Somerville Mrs. Orten H. Clark Greenville, Miss. Kalamazoo, Michigan Recording Secretary. Mrs. Richard Y. FitzGerald 7 Greenough Ave., Jamaica Plain, Mass. 1st Auditor Mrs. Walter McNab Miller Columbia, Missouri 2nd Auditor Mrs. Medill McCormick 500 Diversey Parkway, Chicago, Ill. -------------------------------- NATIONAL AFFILIATED SOCIETIES College Equal Suffrage League Miss M. Carey Thomas, President Bryn Mawr, Pa. Men's League for Woman Suffrage James Lees Laidlaw, President 26 Broadway, New York ----------------------------- NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc. President, Mrs. Cyrus W. Field, 505 Fifth Avenue, New York --------------------------- Telephone, 4818 Murray Hill ---------------------------- CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE Chairman, Mrs. Medill McCormick Vice-Chairman, Mrs. Antoinette Funk Headquarters, Munsey Building, Washington D.C. ---------------------------------- PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT Chairman, Charles T. Hallinan Press Bureau, Miss Clara Savage 505 Fifth Avenue, New York ----------------- EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Mrs. Charles Forster Camp NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 505 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK ------------------- November 29, 1915 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, 303 Fifth Avenue, New York City. My dear Mrs. Catt: I have just had a letter from Miss Caroline V. Burghardt of Des Moines, Ia. who says that they are hoping to have you come into Iowa and help rescue the state. I thought perhaps you would like to know just a little clause which she has in her letter. "I am not so optimistic of Iowa as some are, The liquor interests are so organized against us. I in my work come in contact with them and they are all one in thinking that if the women get the vote that they will have to quit. I was talking with a saloon keeper in Boone whom I have known since he was a little boy and he told me that they were organized and were going to put us out." Of course, we knew that the saloon would be on the job out there, but I thought you would like to have this little fact at hand. I have also just received the notice which the Congressional Union is sending out before its meeting, and in it there is this clause: "Nearly four million women vote in the West. With one-fourth of the Senate, one-sixth of the House and one-fifth of the electorate vote coming from the suffrage states nothing can prevent the success of a National Amendment if we unite in its support. We have but to consider the failure of the referendum campaigns in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts to realize the Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. #2. 11-29-15. wisdom of concentrating our strength upon the national government rather than dissipating it in many state referendums. We appeal to all those who have never before helped in the national work to throw in their strength now." Again they use "national" where they ask for financial help by saying: "Every woman can give at least one dollar to the national suffrage campaign." The use of the word "national" in the way it is here, while not absolutely and deliberately a falsehood, is very misleading to those who do not understand, and I have no doubt that they will get a great deal of money from people who will think they are giving to the National suffrage work. Is there any way in your mind that we can meet this situation? It does seem to me that there ought to be some way. If we only had a great national paper, but we have nothing; the women who fought a national paper for fear it would interfere with the Woman's Journal have almost in every case gotten papers of their own like the Southern Citizen, etc. What we need is a great national journal to meet just this sort of misleading statement. Hoping to see you Wednesday night, I am Faithfully, Anna H Shaw President. AHS/MB. Dictated but not read. COPY. [*file orig*] 505 Fifth Avenue New York Oct. 29th (1915) Dear Miss Earl, Of course I never said the marriage ceremony must be cut out. You can see from the paragraph that they have taken a part of a sentence and cut it out from its context which would explain it and put together parts of different sentences taken far from each other so as to make them mean just what they want them to. In fact the whole thing is such a patent fraud that it seems like an insult to the intelligence of people to assume they will believe it as it seems almost an insult to be asked to deny it. I am sure it would not be done by any suffragist if it were not that there are so many unthinking people who believe everything they read if they want to. I am too tired and have not time to write out an explanation of the whole interview. It was a long article, garbled, distorted, and untrue in the beginning, - was not an authenticated interview at all. The paper publicly withdrew it and apologized and offered to discharge the reporter if I requested it. The sentence which they quote was not in the article at all but in the headline. What I said was the marriage service was so sacred a thing and marriage so solemn a contract that there should be nothing in the service that was not true and Christian, and that as it is a sin for anyone, man or woman, to solemnly swear they will obey another fallible human being without knowing what will be asked of him or her, the word obey should be eliminated from the marriage ceremony; that is the other clause which had come down to us from the old pagan custom of men buying their wives from their fathers or captors, (and then the woman thus bought was given to the man as his wife) the clause, which was a relic of that form of paganism which says who gives this woman away, should be eliminated because it is unchristian. In regard to the poll-parrot affair, I said nothing of the kind; but when asked why when I performed the ceremony I did not repeat the vows and have them say them after me, I replied that I did not like it, that the vows were the pact of the ceremony which belonged to the couple alone, and not to the clergyman, and that I always had my couples commit the vows and each say them to the other, and I added it always sounded, when the frightened man repeated the vows after the preacher, like a lesson repeated by a poll-parrot. The other way is so much more dignified, solemn, and beautiful. Then as to my being a czar and unmarrying people. In the course of the conversation I was asked if I believed every man and woman should marry. I replied, no, not by any means; that part 2 - copy of letter from Dr. Shaw to Miss Louise S. Earle if the reports of medical societies were true, and from my own observation I knew they were, and when I looked into the faces of the children in our schools, and saw all the signs of inherited disease, I felt as if, if I were the Czar and could do what I wished, I would unmarry half the people who were now married, until they were healed, and morally and physically and mentally fit for parenthood. Then I would marry them up again. I believe every word of what I said then and more. It was just after I had listened to a report of a Board of physicians who declared that 45% of the men of one of our great cities, married and unmarried, were so diseased that they were unfit to have children. In this hurried time I cannot do more than scratch off these sentences. The whole thing has been denied and explained over and over again. In fact my ideal of marriage is so high that an anti-suffragists with their filthy, over-sex-developed minds cannot comprehend it. I believe a real marriage should be and is the holiest and divinest relation in life, such an one as an unclean minded anti can never know. Faithfully, (signed) Anna H. Shaw Excuse the writing, spelling and everything else. I ought to be resting for tonight, for I am dead tired. Editor's note: The foregoing letter was written by Dr. Shaw to Miss Louise S. Earle of 124 Ocean Street, Lynn, Massachusetts, in answer to a request from Miss Earle for such a statement. The original letter has been present by Miss Earl to the Woman's Rights Collection at Radcliffe College Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.