One for the Ladies

If it's Suffragette Saturday, it must be time to check in on the progress of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 100 years ago this month.

"It's a Long Lane That Has No Turning" by O.P. Williams in Los Angeles Evening Herald New York Journal, June 18, 1919

Passage of the amendment had failed in the Senate by one vote back in February after passage in the House. Congress then adjourned in April, but heeding demands of the suffragettes, President Wilson called Congress into special session in May. The House again passed the amendment on May 21, 1919; and this time, it finally passed the Senate with two votes to spare (56 to 25) on June 4, 1919.

"Kissing the Bride" by Bob Satterfield, June, 1919

Illinois was first to ratify the amendment on June 10, followed quickly by Michigan and Wisconsin. Suffragists wanted the amendment ratified in time for the 1920 elections, but contrary to Bob Satterfield's cartoon, ratification of the 19th Amendment was not going to be quite as rapid as it had been for the 18th.

Detail from "Cartoons of the Day" by John T. McCutcheon for Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1919

For one thing, many state legislatures were out of session for the summer. For another, there was stiff opposition throughout the South. (Mississippi would eventually get around to ratifying the amendment in the year of our Lord 1984.)

"Her 'Wallflower' Days Are Over" by Leo Thiele in Sioux City Tribune, June, 1919

Elsewhere, however, the potential cost of alienating such a huge voting bloc ensured that both parties had a vested interest in wooing those new voters. After all, any women who didn't think women deserved the vote weren't liable to come out to vote against the politicians who voted for suffrage, would they?

"The New Ringmaster" by J. Thomas in Bend (OR) Bulletin, June 20, 1919

Whereas the women who were eager to vote might take want to show up to the polls to tell the politicians who voted against it a thing or two.

"Like It?" by John Cassel in New York Evening World, June 6, 1919

Like it? You'd better get used to it.

"Nose Powder an' Hair Pins" by Bill Donahey in Cleveland Plain Dealer, June, 1919