THIS DAY IN 1918 IN THERECORD

Saturday, Aug. 24, 1918. “It is quite safe to say that the Rensselaer County Republican Club is the first political organization in the state to invite women to join with the men in a day of fun and feasting out in the arboreal halls of nature,” the Sunday Budget reports after today’s gathering of more than 1,000 people at Brookside Park.

Women in New York State received the right to vote when male voters approved a constitutional amendment last year. They’re being integrated gradually into the rituals of political life, despite worries that the sometimes rough and tumble atmosphere of local politics would be beneath women’s dignity.

‘Quite naturally many of our new voters hesitated about accepting the invitation to attend,” a Budget reporter writes, “because they had the impression that an outing and clambake in which a thousand men were apt to participate might not be as orderly and refined as they would consider necessary to warrant their presence.”

More than 100 ladies attended Republican Day. The reporter predicts that they “will now bear testimony that a more delightful and enjoyable function could not have been conceived and carried out. There was not an incident at which the most sensitive person could find even a pretext of offense…. No woman has any reason to hesitate about attending a Republican clambake.”

While “of course, the men gave special attention to the women on certain occasions,” especially when Kirkpatrick’s Band plays, in general “There was no distinction made between the sexes. All were citizens and acted as such.”

The Republican women “were pleased to meet their fellow- citizens, talk politics, sports, crops or war, and were at all times gracious and appreciative.” While they understandably don’t take part in the men’s sporting events, they take part in their own ball-throwing contest. Jennie Pitts wins a mantel clock for the long throw of 84 feet, far outdistancing Mrs. C. Arthur Wales’ 63’ toss. Wales earns a box of soap for her runner-up effort.

Women’s participation helps organizers break the Republican Day attendance record, despite the absence of many men currently serving in the military. While most of the county’s GOP leaders and elected officials are on hand, the Budget notes that Assemblyman Arthur Cowee “was the one man present who seemed to realize the value of the women voters” and “made himself very agreeable to the new citizens.”

The clambake menu consists of little neck clams, fish, lobster, chicken, sausage, potatoes and vegetables, watermelon, brown bread and biscuits, ice cream, coffee and cigars. Women receive “some extra consideration in being assigned to the most desirable tables.”

-- Kevin Gilbert