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Butler, Jesse Haver (audio interview #4 of 11)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This third interview session with Jesse Haver Butler took place in Butler's apartment. She was recovering from the flu and had difficulty with her voice and seemed nervous. The interview broke the chronological sequence developed in previous interviews and jumped to her suffrage activities. 1973-01-04
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- 2020-01-28
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- *** File: sufjhbutler5.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-2:27)... Tape introduction (2:27-5:57)... Butler discusses the backgrounds of key suffrage leaders, Carrie Chapman Catt , head of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and Alice Paul, head of the National Woman's Party and elucidates the differences in tactics between the two women/organizations. For instance, Alice Paul attacked the entire Democratic party when a Democrat voted against suffrage, while Catt believed that the man's attitudes and beliefs should be blamed, not the entire party. Mrs. O.P. Belmont contributed a lot of money to Alice Paul's campaign. Alice Paul owned a house in Lafayette Park in front of the White House. [Note: the house was purchased by Mrs. Belmont and served as the headquarters of the NWP. It was referred to as Belmont House.] Butler often lunched at the house and the National Woman's Party tried to persuade her to get involved with the party. However, at the time she was lobbying for the National Consumer's League in Washington, DC and her career was her priority. Although her personality and temperament did not agree with Alice Paul's dramatic and militant activism, Butler believes that Paul's tactics made more of an impact on society and the government than Catt's polite legislative manner. (5:57-8:16)... In addition to burning President Woodrow Wilson's words, Butler also recalls that Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party burned the president in effigy in Lafayette Park. During World War I, the president made statements regarding the right of freedom to all people; however, many believed this right did not extend to women. After the National Woman's Party burned the president in effigy, he appeared before the senate as a courtesy of Carrie Chapman Catt and asked for a woman's suffrage amendment. To witness this historic occasion, Butler and her future husband purchased tickets and sat in the balcony the day the president appeared in front of the senate. After the 19th amendment was passed by the senate, Catt worked to get three-fourths of the country to ratify the amendment. (8:16-9:54)... At the time, it was against the law to picket in front of the White House. Although warned, Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party picked in front of the White House and were summarily arrested. In retaliation, the women went on hunger strikes while in jail. Fearing that the women would die while in their custody, the authorities force fed the women. The authorities believed that a suffragist who died in jail because of malnutrition would become a martyr. However, women in the National Woman's Party who were arrested became martyrs anyway because of their experiences with forced feedings and the maltreatment they received while in jail. Mrs. Harvey Wiley and Mrs. William Kent were among the suffragists arrested for picketing in front of the White House. Both of these women were married to very prominent men in Washington, DC. Their experiences in jail were very difficult and humiliating and many of the women never physically recovered from this ordeal. However, these women did what they believed was necessary for suffrage. (9:54-11:47)... She does not recall very many details about the actual picketing carried on by the National Woman's Party because she was focused on her career. However, she often visited Alice Paul's tea house and was aware of the events as they unfolded. Alice Paul hired a young Vassar graduate, Hazel [Hunkins]*, who traveled the country speaking on woman's suffrage. Butler became acquainted with her; she describes her as a very radical suffragist. *[Note: at this point in the interview, Butler recounts how a woman who she identified as Hazel Hunkins had a baby "out of wedlock." However, in an exchange between Hunkins and Amelia Fry, an oral historian who did extensive interviews with former members of the NWP, Hunkins disputes Butler's story. Apparently, she had a child only after she married and moved to England, and her relationship with Alice Paul remained warm. Hunkins does recall, however, that another, young NWP worker did have a "eugenic baby." ] (11:47-13:57)... Butler describes Alice Paul as a woman with a one-track mind. She did not attend Carrie Chapman Catt's celebratory meeting in Washington after the suffrage amendment was ratified because she was in the process of submitting the Equal Rights Amendment [ERA] to Congress. Alice Paul did not believe that suffrage would give women equality and Butler believes she was right. There are several laws that discriminated against women; and women have no recourse except to use their voting power to oppose these laws. Butler notes that Paul was still fighting for equality between men and women. (13:57-18:17)... Butler did not particularly like Alice Paul because of her fanaticism. She appreciates women who have a well-balanced nature about them and share her interests in family and children. She talks about the "fierce relationship" between Catt and Paul; it was based on political and work-related differences rather than a personal antagonism. Paul originally was associated with the National American Woman's Suffrage Association [NAWSA], but left the organization when she disagreed about the tactics they would employ for the suffrage fight. Alice Paul's Equal Rights Amendment [ERA] carried the woman's movement because when women got the vote "they just quit." Women stopped pursuing a better education and getting high-level college degrees. After the suffrage amendment was passed, the woman's movement experienced a dramatic slump and the activism aroused by Carrie Chapman Catt died down. Catt was disappointed in the League of Women Voters [LWV] because it limited itself to government issues; she believed that a woman's voting bloc should concentrate on legislative issues related to women. (18:17-20:55)... In 1920, she was invited to the founding meeting of the League of Women Voters, which was also the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The meeting was very peaceful and women were looking forward to moving ahead. Carrie Chapman Catt spoke and set a tone of spirituality, imagery, and idealism. Many women believed that their battles were over and they were moving into a new wave of activism. Margaret Park, who lived in Boston, Massachusetts was appointed as the national president of the League of Women Voters. At a later meeting, Butler was appointed as the first legislative advocate of the League of Women Voters. (20:55-23:39)... The ratification tour through the western United States was very exciting for her. When they arrived in each city, crowds of people met them at the train station. They usually stayed at one of the large hotels in the city. During their suffrage meetings, Butler sat behind Carrie Chapman Catt and noticed that she persistently wrung her hands while speaking to the crowd. Catt told Butler that she was very nervous and shy and did not like to be in front of a large group of people. When Butler asked her why she chose to pursue such a public career, Catt responded with, "I didn't choose the career. It chose me." When Catt's future husband proposed to her, she told him that she was already married to her career. He respected and admired her for this and financially contributed to her suffrage activities and the development of the League of Women Voters. (23:39-25:42)... The tour through the west included cities such as Colorado, Nevada, and California. When they arrived in California, they spoke on a platform in the state Senate. In every state they visited there were several lawyers from the meatpacking industry who would monitor her speeches, threatening to sue if she discussed anything that was not public information. While the other women spoke about suffrage, Butler talked about the issues women would be interested in once they were able to vote. The title of her speech was "The Government and the Market Basket." After the tour, she returned to Washington, DC and was married in December 1920. (25:42-28:21)... There was a lot of publicity surrounding Catt's tour in the western states and people were waiting for their arrival in each city. People were eager to help Catt in her suffrage activities. Her speeches were great orations that tied suffrage to the history of government and democracy. There were very few men who attended the suffrage meetings during the ratification drive. It was the responsibility of the female attendees to persuade their husbands to support suffrage. Catt encouraged the women to pursue their state legislators and convince them to ratify the suffrage amendment. (28:21-33:41)... The ratification drive in Tennessee was a very arduous task for Catt. She was very disappointed that Tennessee was the final state to ratify the amendment because it was not very radical state. There were several opponents in Tennessee, including anti-suffragists and principal businesses, such as railroad representatives and the western union. Butler recounts a story of what happened during the fight to ratify in Tennessee, claiming that the legislators were fed bootleg whiskey and were too drunk to conduct business for an entire week. When they finally met, the suffragists were short one vote., but won the day when one man received a letter from his mother persuading him to support the amendment. Butler asserts: "this woman gave 17 million women the vote, which proves that democracy works." In an attempt to discredit Catt, someone placed a bottle of whiskey under her pillow. At this time, alcohol was prohibited and Catt was afraid of being caught with the substance. Ultimately, one of her cohorts traveled out to the country and buried the bottle of whiskey under a stone wall. (33:41-34:49)... When Connecticut legislators learned of the political obstacles suffragists were facing in Tennessee, they immediately ratified the suffrage amendment in their state, making Tennessee's vote unnecessary. Initially, however, Tennessee's endorsement of the suffrage amendment was vital to ratification. (34:49-35:09)... The tape concludes with a discussion of the colors on the banners used by Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party.
- SUBJECT BIO - Jesse Haver Butler served as a lobbyist for the National Consumers League in Washington, D.C. during which time she came into contact with activists in the National Woman's Party. In 1919-1920, she toured the western states with Carrie Chapman Catt during the ratification drive for the woman's suffrage amendment. Raised on a ranch in Colorado, Butler was determined to attend Smith College. She graduated from there in 1918 and went to work for first for the Massachusetts Minimum Wage and then moved to Washington D.C. to serve as a lobbyist for the National Consumers League. In Washington, she ate lunch regularly at the National Women's Party headquarters, and came into contact with many of the women involved with the picketing of the White House. After she toured the western states with Carrie Chapman Catt during the ratification drive for the woman's suffrage amendment, she married and went with her husband to England. On her return to the US, she began a new career, teaching public speaking to women. A full life history of approximately 12 hours was recorded with Butler, between November 1972 and the spring of 1973, when she was 88 years old, in her apartment in a retirement community in LaVerne, California. She had come to public attention as a result of her participation in the 1970 celebration of women's suffrage. A woman of commanding presence, with a vigorous voice and persona, Butler was highly committed to the goals of the Feminist History Research Project and to the women's liberation movement. In the course of the several years following the interview, she regularly spoke on college campuses and to women's groups and remained very involved working on child care issues with the local chapter of NOW. TOPICS - Topics covered on this side of the tape include: Butler's relationships to suffragists in Washington, D;C; and participation in Carrie Chapman Catt's ratification drive;
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