The History of the Women's Suffrage: The Flame Ignites. Susan B. Anthony
The committees of men and women worked together. On October 27 the Woman's Bryan League held a rally of the Silver Parties and a reception to U. S. Senator Teller at the Coliseum. The same evening the Woman's Republican League gave a reception to their candidates at Windsor Hall. Women seem to have an unsuspected gift for managing large meetings. The Denver Times (Republican) said: "The women have shown an ability to handle campaigns for which they never were given credit in the past."
In the election of 1900 the Republicans not only lost their electoral ticket but carried fewer counties than they had done for years, yet their vote of 26,000 for McKinley in 1896 was increased to 93,000; and the Bryan vote was reduced from 161,000 to 122,700. John F. Shafroth and John C. Bell, Fusionists, both strong advocates of woman suffrage, were elected by large majorities. The Legislature was overwhelmingly Democratic, which defeated the re-election to the U. S. Senate of Edward O. Wolcott, that the women had especially determined upon. Thomas M. Patterson was elected.
I. N. Stevens, of the Colorado Springs Gazette, Republican, in closing an article on the State campaign says:
The women have demonstrated their effectiveness in political campaigns, and wherever party candidates and party politics are up to the high standard which they have a right to demand they can be counted upon for loyal support. The Republican party in Colorado can only hope to triumph in one way and that is by appealing to the judgment of the honest and intelligent people of the State with clean candidates for commendable policies and under worthy leadership.
This testimony certainly implies two things, viz.: That the women of Colorado are a power in politics which must be reckoned with, and that their loyal support can be fully counted upon only when the character of the candidates as well as the political methods and aims of the party receive due consideration.
The vote at the second presidential election after the suffrage was conferred on women was as follows:
Percentage of population in the State: Males, 55; females, 45 (in round numbers).
Percentage of vote cast: Males, (nearly) 58½; females, (over) 41½.
Percentage of vote cast in Denver: Males, 57½; females, 42½.
This vote shows that from all causes an average of only three per cent. of the women in the entire State failed to exercise the suffrage.
Legislative Action: The legislation of most importance which is directly due to woman suffrage may be summed up as follows: Equal guardianship of children; raising the "age of protection" for girls from 16 to 18 years; establishment of a State Home for Dependent Children; a State Industrial School for Girls; indeterminate sentence for criminals; a State Arbitration Board; open meetings of school boards; the removal of emblems from ballots; placing drinking fountains on the corners of most of the down-town streets of Denver.
Indirectly, the results have been infinitely greater. The change in the conduct of Denver stores alone, in regard to women employes, is worthy a chapter. Probably no other city of the same size has more stores standing upon the so-called White List, and laws which prior to 1893 were dead letters are enforced to-day.
The bills introduced by women in the Legislature have been chiefly such as were designed to improve social conditions. The law raising the "age of protection" for girls, the law giving the mother an equal right in her children, and the law creating a State Home for Dependent Children were secured by women in 1895. In the next session they secured the Curfew Law and an appropriation for the State Home for Incorrigible Girls. By obtaining the removal of the emblems from the ballot, they enforced a measure of educational qualification. They have entirely answered the objection that the immature voter would be sure so to exaggerate the power of legislation that she would try to do everything at once.
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton said that when she viewed the exhibit of woman's work at the Centennial, her heart sank within her; but when she bethought her to examine into the part women had had in the work accredited to men, she took new courage. In like manner much of the legislative work women already have done in Colorado is unchronicled. When a woman finds that there are several other bills besides her own advocating the same measure of reform, she wisely tries to concentrate this effort, even if it is necessary to let the desired bill appear in the name of another. Many excellent bills for which they receive no credit have run the gauntlet of legislative perils piloted by women.
A notable instance of this is what was called the Frog-Blocking Bill, for the protection of railroad employes, which was introduced by a man but so ably engineered by Mrs. Evangeline Heartz that upon its passage she received a huge box of candy, with "The thanks of 5,000 railroad men." While she introduced a number of bills herself, only two of them finally passed—one compelling school boards to hold open meetings instead of Star Chamber sessions, and the present law providing for a State Board of Arbitration. In order to make the latter effective it should have a compulsory clause, which she will strive for in the Legislature of 1901.
Laws: While the laws of Colorado always have been liberal to women in many respects, there are a few notable exceptions.
The first Legislature of the Territory, in 1861, passed a bill to the effect that either party to the marriage contract might dispose of property without the signature or consent of the other. The men of this new mining country often had left their wives thousands of miles away in the Eastern States; there was no railroad or telegraph; mining claims, being real estate, had to be transferred by deed, often in a hurry, and this law was largely a necessity. It now works great injustice to women, however, through the fact that all the property accumulated after marriage belongs to the husband and he may legally dispose of it without the wife's knowledge, leaving her penniless. Even the household goods may be thus disposed of.191
A law of recent years exempts from execution a homestead to the value of $2,000 for "the head of the family," but even this can be sold by the husband without the wife's signature, although he can not mortgage it. This property must be designated as a "homestead" on the margin of the recorded title, and it must be occupied by the owner. "A woman occupying her own property as the home of the family has the right to designate it as a homestead. The husband has the legal right to live with her and enjoy the homestead he has settled upon her."(!) He has, however, the sole right to determine the residence of the family, as in every other State, and by removing from a property the homestead right is destroyed. If the husband abandon the wife and acquire a homestead elsewhere, she has a right only in that.
Neither curtesy nor dower obtains. The surviving husband or wife, if there are children or the descendants of children living, receives, subject to the payment of debts, one-half of the entire estate, real and personal. If there is no living child nor a descendant of any child, the entire estate goes to the survivor.
Husband and wife have the same rights in making wills. Each can will away from the other half of his or her separate property.
In buying and selling, making contracts, suing and being sued, the married woman has the same rights as the unmarried.
In 1895 fathers and mothers were made joint guardians of the children with equal powers.
The expenses of the family and the education of the children are chargeable upon the property of both husband and wife, or either of them, and in relation thereto they may be sued jointly or separately.
In case a man fails to support his family, he can be compelled to do so on the complaint of the wife, the chairman of the board of county commissioners, or the agent of the humane society. Unless he show physical incapacity, or some other good reason for this failure, he may be committed to jail for sixty days.
The "age of protection" for girls was raised from 10 to 16 years in 1891; from 16 to 18 in 1895. The penalty is confinement in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than twenty years.
Suffrage: School Suffrage was granted to women by the constitution in 1876, the year Colorado became a State.
The amendment to the constitution adopted by 6,347 majority, Nov. 7, 1893, is as follows:
Every female person shall be entitled