The Suffragents

Brooke Kroeger

Description

Gold Medalist, 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the U.S. History Category
Finalist for the 2018 Sally and Morris Lasky Prize presented by the Center for Political History at Lebanon Valley College

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 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.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
An Introduction

1. “If Men Should Be Wanted”: 1907–1908

2. “The Favor of Such Men”: 1909

3. “What Can We Do to Persuade You?”: 1910

4. “Jeers and Abuse”: 1911

5. “The Change in Public Sentiment Is Remarkable”: 1912

6. “Gettes and Gists”: 1913

7. “This Whole Feminist Front”: 1914

8. “Should Women Vote in New York?”: 1915

9. “It May Move Like a Glacier, But . . .”: 1916

10. “Mr. President, How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty?”: 1917

A Coda “The Least Tribute We Can Pay Them”: 1918–1920

Suffragent Portraits List and Credits
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• USA
• United States of America
• Local history
• Region
• 20th century
• History of the Americas
• Regional
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 11 mai 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438466316
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Praise for The Suffragents
“Not all the suffragists who risked ridicule to march down Fifth Avenue in the big parades touting votes for women wore dresses. Brooke Kroeger meticulously documents the largely unsung role of men who publicly supported their wives, mothers, sisters, or lovers in the final dramatic decade of women’s seventy-year battle for the ballot.”
—Linda J. Lumsden, author of Inez: The Life and Times of Inez Milholland and Rampant Women: Suffragists and the Right of Assembly
“Women ‘need’ men to get the rights they deserve: after all, men had to vote to let women vote. Brooke Kroeger gives us the first history of the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage, the ‘Gentleman’s Auxiliary’ of the women’s movement. Eschewing the spotlight, they supported gender equality, as we all should, because it’s quite simply the right thing to do. With this gift, Kroeger gives us back a bit of our history.”
—Michael S. Kimmel, coeditor of Against the Tide: Pro-Feminist Men in the United States, 1776–1990: A Documentary History
The Suffragents
Previous books by Brooke Kroeger
Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist
Fannie: The Talent for Success of Writer Fannie Hurst
Passing: When People Can’t Be Who They Are
Undercover Reporting: The Truth about Deception
The Suffragents
How Women Used Men to Get the Vote
Brooke Kroeger
On the cover : Men’s League Suffrage Parade delegation marches into Union Square, 1915 Suffrage Parade, New York City. (C. Catt Collection, Bryn Mawr College Library)
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Dana Foote
Marketing, Katherine Dias
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kroeger, Brooke, 1949– author.
Title: The suffragents : how women used men to get the vote / by Brooke Kroeger.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, Albany, 2017. | “Excelsior editions.” | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016044034 (print) | LCCN 2017000548 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438466293 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438466309 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438466316 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Men’s League for Woman Suffrage (New York, N.Y.) | Women—Suffrage—New York (State)—History.
Classification: LCC JK1896 .K57 2017 (print) | LCC JK1896 (ebook) | DDC 324.6/2309747—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016044034
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Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
An Introduction
1 “If Men Should Be Wanted”: 1907–1908
2 “The Favor of Such Men”: 1909
3 “What Can We Do to Persuade You?”: 1910
4 “Jeers and Abuse”: 1911
5 “The Change in Public Sentiment Is Remarkable”: 1912
6 “Gettes and Gists”: 1913
7 “This Whole Feminist Front”: 1914
8 “Should Women Vote in New York?”: 1915
9 “It May Move Like a Glacier, But …”: 1916
10 “Mr. President, How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty?”: 1917
A Coda “The Least Tribute We Can Pay Them”: 1918–1920
Suffragent Portraits List and Credits
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
A N I NTRODUCTION
Men’s League delegation in the New York Suffrage Day Parade, May 6, 1911
An 1874 postcard from J.K.H. Willcox to General Francis E. Spinner
C HAPTER 1
In order of appearance, left to right: William Lloyd Garrison, Israel Zangwill, W.E.B. Du Bois, Stephen S. Wise, H.G. Wells, Thomas Hardy, Bertrand Russell, John S. Crosby, Oswald Garrison Villard, John Dewey, George Harvey, Charles Sprague Smith, Charles F. Aked, Frederick Douglass, William M. Ivins, Melville Stone
Letter from Oswald Garrison Villard to Anne Fitzhugh Miller, December 3, 1907
A 1908 campaign button of the British Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage
C HAPTER 2
In order of appearance, left to right: Max Eastman, Stewart Woodford, J. Howard Melish, Samuel J. Barrows, David J. Brewer, William Dean Howells, Rollo Ogden, Finley Peter Dunne, John Wesley Hill, George Foster Peabody, Charles Beard, John B. Stanchfield, Barton Aylesworth, Nathaniel Schmidt, Charles C. Burlingham, Arthur Levy (Leeds), Julius Mayer
Men’s League circular, ca. summer 1909
First press release of the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage, November 29, 1909
C HAPTER 3
In order of appearance, left to right: Edwin Markham, John Punnett Peters, Ben B. Lindsey, William Gordon VerPlanck, Robert Owen, Clarence Mackay, Raymond Robins, Samuel Untermyer, Hamilton Holt, Robert H. Elder, John Hyde Braly, Charles L. Guy, William E. Borah, John E. Milholland, Herbert Parsons, Jesse Lynch Williams
The 1910 Men’s League for Woman Suffrage constitution, charter, and membership roster
“Facts as to Woman Suffrage,” ca. February 1910, campaign flyer of the Equal Franchise Society
Men’s League Dinner Invitation, December 13, 1910, with hand notation by Max Eastman
C HAPTER 4
In order of appearance, left to right: Robert Cameron Beadle, James Lees Laidlaw, Simon Flexner, Frederick Nathan, George Creel, Harvey Washington Wiley, James Brady, Peter J. Brady, George Middleton, Witter Bynner, Vladimir Simkhovitch, Harold Spielberg, Richard Le Gallienne, Upton Sinclair, Arthur Brisbane, Norman Hapgood
Suffrage Week program, Albany, February 21–28, 1911
First International Men’s League for Woman Suffrage gathering in Stockholm, June 14, 1911
Suffrage Day Parade, May 6, 1911
C HAPTER 5
In order of appearance, left to right: Dudley Field Malone, Edwin Mead, Lincoln Steffens, Louis D. Brandeis, Frederick S. Greene, Winter Russell, Frederic C. Howe, Joel Elias Spingarn, Gardner Hale, A.S.G. Taylor, Swinburne Hale, Algernon Crapsey, Will Irwin, Joseph Fels, William Sulzer, Theodore Roosevelt
The 1912 constitution, charter, and membership roster of the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage of the State of New York
Cartoon by Boardman Robinson
Black-lettered yellow Men’s League for Woman Suffrage campaign ribbon
James Lees Laidlaw as a marshal in the Torchlight Parade of 1912
C HAPTER 6
In order of appearance, left to right: Charles Edward Russell, Charles S. Thomas, William A. De Ford, Gilson Gardner, Ward Melville, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, James Tanner, Herbert Warbasse, Donald MacKenzie MacFadyen, George E. Green, Samuel Merwin, Martin Glynn, W.S. Moore, Gifford Pinchot, William A. Delacey, Selden Allen Day
Suffrage hikers arriving in Washington, DC, for the 1913 Suffrage Parade, 1913
Crowd breaking up at Ninth Street, Washington, DC, Suffrage Parade, 1913, March 3, 1913
Resolution of the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage, King’s County, New York, April 14, 1913
Charles V. Drysdale of Britain and a group of men lead a panel of the International Men’s League at the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Budapest, June 15–21, 1913
C HAPTER 7
In order of appearance, left to right: Adolph Lewisohn, Floyd Dell, Theodore Dreiser, Gilbert E. Roe, William H. Howell, Frederick Peterson, Walter Lionel George, Franklin P. Mall, Frederick Davenport, Edwin Björkman, Theodore Douglas Robinson, Carl Lincoln Schurz
Men’s League for Woman Suffrage membership fee receipt, January 1, 1914
Page from Hazel Mackaye’s choreography and script for the Men’s League Pageant of May 1914
C HAPTER 8
In order of appearance, left to right: Calvin Tomkins, Anthony Fiala, Isaac Marcosson, Walter Lippmann, Charles Burnham, Charles H. Strong, Frank Crowninshield, Thomas E. Rush, Irving Burdick, Charles Frederick Adams, George W. Kirchwey, Leo M. Klein, Ray Stannard Baker, William Harman Black, William H. Wadhams, Irvin S. Cobb
Referendum propaganda from the suffrage antis against the 1915 amendment
Pre-publication promotion for Puck ’s suffrage issue, February 13, 1915
Cover image by Rolf Armstrong for the suffrage issue of Puck , February 20, 1915
“The Awakening,” by Henry Mayer, from Puck , February 20, 1915
A newspaper battle plan, Men’s League, 1915
The Crisis magazine cover for its Votes for Women issue, August 1915
Cartoon from The Masses suffrage issue, October–November 1915
C HAPTER 9
In order of appearance, left to right: John O’Hara Cosgrave, Robert Schuyler, Edgar Sisson, Robert H. Davis, Mark Sullivan, Isador Michaels, Amos Pinchot, Woodrow Wilson, J.A.H. Hopkins, David I. Walsh, E.A. Rumely, John Spargo, Virgil Hinshaw, Edward House, William Channing Gannett, George Gordon Battle
Two Men’s League letterheads, 1915–1916, and a request to be reimbursed from George Creel, dated April 7, 1915
Poster bearing the suffrage movement’s 1916 slogan, chosen in a contest judged by Men’s League members
C HAPTER 10
In order of appearance, left to right: Willard D. Straight, Charles A. Lindbergh Sr., Charles S. Whitman, John Purroy Mitchel, Charles B. Smith, Frank Vanderlip, Ogden Mills Reid, Jacob Gould Schurman, Rupert Hughes, Carl Jonas Nordstrom, George Notman, James W. Gerard, Robert Underwo