100 years ago in The Saratogian
Wednesday, Aug. 29, 1917
“There was only one element of a men’s political convention lacking this morning, when the state conference of the NewYork State Woman Suffrage Party was called to order at 11 o’clock this morning in Convention Hall,” The Saratogian reports.
“There were standards marking the counties and campaign districts; there were badges galore; there was a sincerity of attitude toward the business in hand not conspicuous at the usual political convention, there was confidence of victory, and evidence of a high and hopeful spirit.”
The big difference between this gathering and other political conventions, one might assume, is that none of today’s delegates has the right to vote. The conference is dedicated to getting out the male vote for November’s state referendum on women’s suffrage.
The main difference the Saratogian reporter notices, however, is that “there wasn’t any tobacco smoke, and to the political convention habiture of Saratoga Springs, Convention Hall didn’t seem quite like the same old place without it.”
More than three hundred delegates representing every county of New York State are on hand when state chairman Mrs. N. DeR. Whitehouse calls the conference to order. “A quieter, more dignified, more business-like and capable group of politicians were never assembled in Convention Hall,” the reporter claims.
Former state senator Edgar T. Brackett, the elder statesman of the Saratoga County Republican party, welcomes delegates to Saratoga Springs.
“I confess to you that I have never found any sympathy with those who have attempted to say that women have not a right to vote,” Brackett says, “It needs no astrologer to say that the moment of triumph of the cause for which many of you have worked long and all have worked some is at hand.
“The welter and wrack of this awful war, which in my judgment has effectively closed the door to the liquor traffic, will open the door to suffrage for women.”
After the U.S. declared war against Germany last April, the Woman Suffrage Party volunteered its services to New York State. It played a major role in organizing the state military census and the first Liberty Loan campaign to raise money for the war effort.
Despite Brackett’s optimism, Whitehouse warns against complacency in her address this afternoon. She reminds delegates that “We are facing an election less than two and a half months distant, and the majority of the voters do not yet realize that the question is to be voted upon.”
Voters rejected a women’s-suffrage amendment in a 1915 referendum, but legislative support for suffrage was strong enough last year to put the proposition back on the ballot.