THE SUFFRAGENTS How Women Used Men to Get the Vote

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1 LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF BROOKHAVEN NOVEMBER 2017 lwv-suffolk.org/html.brookhaven BROOKE KROEGER THE SUFFRAGENTS How Women Used Men to Get the Vote The Suffragents is the untold story of how some of New York s most powerful men formed the Men s League for Woman Suffrage, which grew between 1909 and 1917 from 150 members into a force of thousands across thirty-five states. Monday, November 20, 1:30 at Longwood Public Library 800 Middle Country Road Middle Island (about 4 miles east of Route 112) ( )

2 Page 2 LWV of BROOKHAVEN P. O. BOX 92 BELLPORT, NY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Nancy Marr VOTER Editor Candidates Debates Jean Baker Vice-President, Membership Linda Devin-Sheehan Recording Secretary Renee Stahlman Corresponding Secretary Sue Kinsey Treasurer DIRECTORS Judi Bird Voters Service Betsy Gaidry Study Groups Carol Manel Logistics Roberta Fishman Events OFF-BOARD CHAIRPER- SONS Peggy Olness Transportation Esther Glass New York State Government, Students inside Albany Alice D Amico Finance Joan Nickeson Publicity Nancy Arthur Publicity PRESIDENTS PAGE The following statement is from Laura Ladd Bierman, Executive Director of the New York State League about the no vote on holding a constitutional convention in While most of our members, and many voters, thought hard about how to vote, I came to my own conclusion that I would support it. I knew that there was the possibility that special interests might succeed in eliminating things that are important the Blaine Amendment, collective bargaining laws, the right to choose, and other rights but it seemed that it would be possible for us to work with the other organizations supporting it to give voters the power to elect representative delegates who would represent voters instead of politicians and suggest the amendments that we could support. The opponents spoke of an easier way to amend the constitution if the legislature voted in two subsequent years and then submitted it to the voters for adoption. Laura reminds us that that will be our only alternative. League members, and others, will have to use our efforts to convince all our legislators to move forward with changes that we had hoped could be passed by the convention since the legislature has never used that easier way to pass them and seems reluctant to do so. The League of Women Voters of New York State is disheartened to see the convention question voted down by New York State voters. A constitutional convention would have allowed us to circumvent our gridlocked legislature and pass meaningful ethics and voting reforms. We have no current hopes that our state legislators will act to change the laws that line their pockets and ensure their re-election. How many corrupt officials need to be convicted before the legislature passes real reforms? It is notable that many legislators and the Governor came out in opposition to holding a convention. Many cited the ability to change our constitution through legislative action. Now that the measure has failed, we challenge the legislature to take action. Our legislature needs to take responsibility and amend our constitution to allow for no-excuse absentee voting and a shorter voter registration deadline. The legislature needs to act to ensure true independent ethics enforcement in a notoriously corrupt state. Finally but not least importantly, the legislature must codify Roe v. Wade and ensure that women in New York State will maintain their right to choose regardless of future Supreme Court rulings. The League supported a constitutional convention even though some of our valued partners in reform opposed it. Now that the measure has failed, we will redouble our efforts to fight for the reforms which we had hoped to accomplish in a constitutional convention. Despite the outcome of this vote, we continue to be committed to serving New York voters, breaking down barriers to voting, and ensuring civic engagement at all levels of government.

3 Page 3 ANOTHER VIEW OF THE SUFFRAGIST MOVEMENT HOW WOMEN USED MEN TO GET THE VOTE by Brooke Kroeger On Monday, November 20, at 1:30 we will have the pleasure of meeting and hearing from Brooke Kroeger about her latest book, The Suffragents, the untold story of how some of New York s most powerful men formed the Men s League for Woman Suffrage, which grew between 1909 and 1917 from 150 founding members into a force of thousands across thirty-five states. Brooke Kroeger explores the formation of the League and the men who instigated it to involve themselves with the suffrage campaign, what they did at the behest of the movement s female leadership, and why. She details the National American Woman Suffrage Association s strategic decision to accept their organized help and then to deploy these influential new allies as suffrage foot soldiers, a role they accepted with uncommon grace. Led by such luminaries as Oswald Garrison Villard, John Dewey, Max Eastman, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and George Foster Peabody, members of the League worked the streets, the stage, the press, and the legislative and executive branches of government. In the process, they helped convince waffling politicians, a dismissive public, and a largely hostile press to support the women s demand. Together, they swayed the course of history. Professor Kroeger is a journalist, author of five books, a professor of journalism at the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and director of its MA unit, Global and Joint Program Studies, which she founded in The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote, is her latest. Her previous book, Undercover Reporting: The Truth About Deception (2012), has a companion online database at undercoverreporting.org. Brooke is also the author of the 1994 Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist; Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst (1994); and Passing: When People Can t Be Who They Are (2003.) NEW STATUES TO HONOR LOCAL SUFFRAGISTS Cold Spring Harbor has been selected for a suffrage statue. State officials will dedicate and build statues of Sojourner Truth and Rosalie Gardiner Jones in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of women suffrage in New York State, 3 years before the 19th Amendment granted the vote to women across the country.

4 UPDATE OF NYS LWV POSITION ON CHARTER SCHOOLS The State League has asked local Leagues to consider updating our position on charter schools. The update, approved by delegates to the 2017 State League Convention, would delete the following sentence: In lieu of the amendment of the Charter School Act to increase the total number of charters that could be granted, it supports retention of the current total (100) with amendment of the Charter School Act so that a charter could be reissued if a charter school ceased to function for any reason. The State League wants to delete this sentence because it is no longer relevant. It advocates to keep a cap of 100 charter schools when, in fact, the current cap is 460. Deletion of this sentence does not change the intent of the State League s position on charter schools, namely that the number of charter schools should be limited. Charter schools should also show evidence of effectiveness and be mindful of students with special needs. Please read and respond if you have questions or wish to approve or disapprove of the deletion. Call me at Nancy Marr BOOK GROUP Our book group met on November 9 and discussed Warnings, by Richard Clarke and R. P. Eddy. In the book, the authors review happenings that can be prevented if people heed the warnings of experts who foresee catastrophes. Unfortunately, they usually don t. Most interesting were their discussions of rising waters, artificial intelligence, and gene editing. Our next book will be A Fine Mess, by T.R. Reid, comparing the taxation system in the United States with that in other countries. The next book group meeting, at Betsy Gaidry s, will be January 18. VOTER SERVICE BROOKHAVEN LWV Judi has just submitted our report for the voter services and voter education done in We thank the following members (and a friend) who did voter registration, candidate meeting moderation and time-keeping, and voter education: Nancy Arthur Jean Baker Marilyn Beard Judi Bird Waveney Bowman Eileen Brenner Jayne Brown Alice d Amico Linda Devin-Sheehan Joyce Edward Arlene Fassman Esther Glass Dee Henson Barbara Jordan Waveney Klaiber Sue Kinsey Frances McGuire Nancy Marr Sue O Brien Elise Powell Jeanne Sommer H Mae Sprouse Renee Stahlman Judy Welter

5 From the Times Beacon Herald, November 3, 2017 Link to original article: Making Democracy Work: Women in New York State won the vote 100 years ago next week By Lisa Scott By On Election Day next week, you may be offered a blue sticker that says I Voted. If you take a closer look, you might wonder why it has a quaint and old-fashioned image with the words Honoring 100 Years of a Woman s Right to Vote. For every one of us that struggle, the victory and the legacy made a tremendous difference in our lives, rights and American democracy today. The sticker s image, chosen by public vote across New York State, is Long Island s Rosalie Gardiner Jones (yes, that Gardiner s Island and that Jones Beach!). Far from being a grandmotherly, stern face in a photograph, Jones was a flamboyant young socialite from the Oyster Bay-Cold Spring Harbor area who, much to the dismay of her anti-suffragist mother, preferred campaigning for women s suffrage over the performance of her social duties. Always with an eye for publicity, in 1912 she joined fellow suffragette Elisabeth Freeman in a trek across Long Island in a horse-drawn carriage to distribute suffrage pamphlets and literature, and in December of that year received much publicity for leading a 170-mile, 13-day march in the midst of winter from the Bronx to Albany to deliver petitions to the governor, demanding a woman s suffrage amendment in the NYS Constitution. Jones believed that the movement should exhibit a more military stance and discipline and thus began calling herself The General. She carried the suffrage message into small towns and villages with a personal attention that was both impassioned and provocative. After suffrage was achieved, she continued to campaign for equal rights and social reform until she died in 1978.

6 Article from Times Beacon Herald, November 3, 2017, continued from page 5 New Yorkers have long led the struggle for women s rights; a fight with diverse people and disparate ideas (people disagreed vehemently for years about goals, partners and methods to further the cause). Seneca Falls is considered the birthplace of the women s rights movement, and some of its greatest leaders, from Susan B. Anthony to Matilda Joslyn Gage and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (who summered in Shoreham with her suffragist daughter and family), did their pioneering work in the Empire State. In passing women s suffrage in 1917, New York fueled the momentum for the entire nation to follow suit three years later. Women vote today because of the women s suffrage movement, a courageous and persistent political campaign that lasted over 72 years, involved tens of thousands of women and men and resulted in enfranchising one-half of the citizens of the United States. Inspired by idealism and grounded in sacrifice, the suffrage campaign is of enormous political and social significance, yet it is virtually unacknowledged in the chronicles of American history. For women won the vote. They were not given it, granted it or anything else. They won it as truly as any political campaign is ultimately won or lost. And they won it, repeatedly, by the slimmest of margins, which only underscores the difficulty and magnitude of their victories. It was a movement of female organizers, leaders, politicians, journalists, visionaries, rabble rousers and warriors. It was an active, controversial, multifaceted, challenging, passionate movement of the best and brightest women in America, from all backgrounds, who, in modern parlance, boldly went where no woman had ever gone before. The suffrage movement holds a particular relevance now as it has helped lead us as a country and a people to where we are today. It celebrates rights won and honors those who helped win them. It puts women into our national history as participants. It reminds us of the necessity of progressive leaders, organizers and visionaries in every local community. The legacy of those women and men 100 years ago is democracy at work for all: civil rights, gender diversity, equality and civic engagement. For more about our local suffragists, read Antonia Petrash s book, Long Island and the Woman Suffrage Movement. For thought-provoking insights on the suffrage movement and its legacy, read Robert Cooney s essay, Taking a New Look The Enduring Significance of the American Woman Suffrage Movement, and his comprehensive book, Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement. Lisa Scott is the president of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. For more information, visit league@lwv-suffolkcounty.org or call

7 CHARGED BY NEW YORK STATE A NEW STUDY WE HOPE YOU WILL JOIN On January 29, we will hold a meeting to decide whether we have a consensus to support a law that allows terminally ill persons to request physician aid in dying. We will be following the lead of the LWV of Utah, and using their study materials. Please think about joining our study committee, which will be planning the program to present to our members. LWV OF UTAH S POSITIONS ON DEATH WITH DIGNITY The League of Women Voters of Utah has released a two-point consensus position statement based on our recent study Death with Dignity. The study provides information about laws in the five states currently allowing terminally ill persons to request physician aid in dying, as well as a detailed history of death with dignity through the ages. Our position states: 1. The League of Women Voters of Utah believes state laws should grant the option for a terminally ill person to request medical assistance from a relevant, licensed physician to end one s life. 2. The League of Women Voters of Utah believes such legislation should include safeguards against abuse for the dying and/or medical personnel. Death with Dignity legislation has become of increasing public interest and concern. Currently five states have legislation allowing physician aid in dying Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont and California. Additionally, interpretation of physician-assisted dying legal standing is under review in New Mexico. It is anticipated that this issue will remain on legislative agendas not just in Utah, but many other states as well.. To find out more, contact Betsy Gaidry,

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10 LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF BROOKHAVEN P.O.BOX 92, BELLPORT, N,Y November Tues Nov 7 ELECTION DAY Wed Nov 15 SCLWV Board Meeting, 10 am, Riverhead Library Mon Nov 20 Speaker: Brooke Kroeger, THE SUFFRAGENTS, 1:30, at Longwood Library December Tues Dec 5 LWV of Brookhaven Board Meeting, 10 am, at Sue Kinsey s Thurs Dec 14 Planning Program (NYS programs), 7:00, at Nancy Marr s Sat Dec 16 Planning Program (NYS programs), 10 am at Linda Devin-Sheehan s HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND BEST WISHES FOR A THOUGHTFUL NEW YEAR