Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
There was a long delay in the Supreme Court and during this time it
was vitally necessary to demonstrate that the women wanted the ballot
by bringing out as large a registration as possible for the municipal
election to be held in April, 1914. The opponents were saying: "Women
down the State have voted because they are interested in local option
but not 25,000 women will register in Chicago." It was, therefore, of
paramount importance to arouse the Chicago women. This work was in
charge of Mrs. Edward L. Stewart, assisted by Mrs. Judith Weil
Loewenthal, members of the State Board. Mrs. Stewart called upon every
organization of women in the city to assist. Valuable help was given
by Mrs. Ida Darling Engelke, city chairman of ward organization for
the Chicago Political Equality League; Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen, president
of the Woman's City Club, and Mrs. James Morrisson, president of the
Chicago Equal Suffrage Association. There were public meetings in
every ward, and a mass meeting the Sunday before the election in the
Auditorium Theater, which seated over 4,000 people, but overflow
meetings were necessary. As a result of this united effort over
200,000 women registered in Chicago alone and thousands more
throughout the State.
On May 2, 1914, was held the first large suffrage parade in Illinois.
It was managed by the State association and its affiliated Chicago
clubs. Mrs. Trout, with the members of the Board and distinguished
pioneer suffragists, led the procession, and Governor Dunne and Mayor
Carter H. Harrison reviewed it. The city government sent to head the
parade the mounted police, led by Chief Gleason, called "the beauty
squad," only brought out on very special occasions. Nearly 15,000
women, representing all parties, creeds and classes, marched down
Michigan Boulevard and hundreds of thousands of people lined both
sides for over two miles. Captain Charles W. Kayser of Wheaton planned
the procession with military skill. The Parade Committee, including
the heads of divisions and numbering over a thousand women, was
invited immediately after the procession to the Hotel La Salle by
Ernest Stevens, manager and one of the owners, where they were guests
of the management at supper, which was followed by music and speaking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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