Monday, February 18, 2013
Dudley Field Malone, 1: The Courage of His Convictions
CHRONICLES OF CROTON’S BOHEMIA
Dudley Field Malone in 1913. He spoke truth to power.
One Fateful DayWilson New Jersey attorney, had served as an adviser to Wilson in his run for the New Jersey governorship in 1910; Wilson Wilson Wilson Wilson Wilson Washington Wilson
With the ratification of the 19th Amendment by the state of Tennessee
It was not only a right whose time had come; it was long overdue. Women could vote in elections in 27 other nations before suffrage became law in the United States
Four Croton women profiled previously in these pages—Louise Bryant, Inez Milholland, Crystal Eastman and Doris Stevens--had actively participated in the struggle for women's suffrage.
It is now time to pay tribute to one man who played a significant role in the fight: Dudley Field Malone.
The presence of this fascinating individual in the pantheon of fighters for women's rights is now almost forgotten. Yet there was no louder voice anywhere on the subject of fairness and justice.
Dudley Field Malone was born on June 3, 1882, and grew up Manhattan ’s West Side . His parents were William C. and Rose McKenny Malone. An 1880 directory shows a William C. Malone, whose occupation was "clerk," living at 402 West 42nd Street
After graduating from the College of St. Francis Xavier in Chelsea , young Dudley earned a law degree from Fordham Law School New York City
A friend and protégé of President Woodrow Wilson, Malone had known and supported him since the beginning of his political career. He campaigned for Wilson for the governorship of New Jersey and managed the campaign that led to Wilson 's nomination in 1912 at the Democratic convention in Baltimore
In 1913, the victorious Wilson appointed Malone Third Assistant Secretary of State under William Jennings Bryan, who would be his adversary a dozen years later in Tennessee Franklin
In November of 1913, after a brief State Department service of only seven months, Malone was named by Wilson to the post of Collector of the Port of New York Wilson 's victorious fight to winCalifornia
Dudley Field Malone in 1913. He spoke truth to power.
One Fateful Day
On July 16, 1917, Malone was present at the trial of sixteen women pickets who had been arrested in front of the White House and charged with obstructing traffic. Although this was their first brush with any law and because they refused to pay a $25 fine, they were sentenced to sixty days in jail. He immediately went to the women's counsel and offered to act as attorney on appeal of the case.
Outraged at the Wilson Administration's ill-advised actions in arresting the peaceful women pickets, Malone asked for an interview with Wilson
He began by reminding Wilson Wilson
Malone then dropped a bombshell: He could not remain a member of any administration that imprisoned American women for demanding the right to vote. He recounted for Wilson
"If the situation is as you describe it, " Wilson
"The manhandling of the women by the police was outrageous and the entire trial--before a judge of your appointment--was a perversion of justice," Malone told him.
Malone's directness upset the patrician president, a Virginian and former college professor.
"Why have you come to me in this indignant fashion for things that have been done by the police officials of Washington
"Mr. President," Malone replied, "the treatment of these women is the result of carefully laid plans made by district commissioners, who were appointed to office by you. Newspapermen of unquestioned integrity have told me the commissioners have been in consultation with your private secretary, Mr. Tumulty. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. McAdoo, sat in at a conference when the policy of these arrests was being determined."
William G. McAdoo, only seven years younger than Wilson , was Wilson Wilson
"Do you mean to tell me," Wilson
Malone's Irish temper flared at this. "If there is any sacrifice in this unhappy circumstance, I am the one who is making the sacrifice," he said. He reminded Wilson he had promised women voters in Western states that if they chose Wilson over pro-suffrage Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes, he would do everything in his power to get the Wilson
He added that suffrage was an urgent war measure and a necessary part of America Wilson
Malone rejected Wilson
"You are the president now, reelected to office," Malone went on. "You ask whether I am going to sacrifice you. You sacrifice nothing by my resignation. But I lose much. I quit a political career. I give up a powerful office in my state. I, who have no money, sacrifice a lucrative salary, and go back to revive my law practice.
"Most of all I sever a personal association with you of the deepest affection that you know has meant much to me. But I cannot and will not remain in office and see women thrown in jail because they demand their political freedom."
"And, it may be necessary during the appeal to criticize and condemn members of your cabinet and others close to you, and I could not do this while remaining in office under you."
Dudley Field Malone left Wilson Wilson Wilson
Malone withheld his resignation and returned to New York
That was the last straw. Malone had been willing to concede that Wilson Wilson
Dudley Field Malone, 2: From Croton to Paris to Hollywood
CHRONICLES OF CROTON’S BOHEMIA
Internationally famous lawyer Dudley
Field Malone played a prominent role in spectacular human rights causes early
in the 20th century.
When women whowere lawfully picketing the White House and Capitol were arrested and jailed for obstructing the sidewalk, he defended them in court. And when the administration of Woodrow Wilson continued to harass and jail peaceful women pickets, he quit a lucrative and highly visible government post to protest the President's failure to act on women's suffrage.
To replace Malone as Collector of thePort of New York , Wilson Newton had watched the Wright Brothers' first experimental
flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903. He is today
remembered for a biting verse he wrote about New York City
When women whowere lawfully picketing the White House and Capitol were arrested and jailed for obstructing the sidewalk, he defended them in court. And when the administration of Woodrow Wilson continued to harass and jail peaceful women pickets, he quit a lucrative and highly visible government post to protest the President's failure to act on women's suffrage.
To replace Malone as Collector of the
Vulgar
of manner, overfed,
Overdressed and underbred;
Heartless, Godless, Hell's delight,
Rude by day and lewd by night,
Bedwarfed the man and large the brute,
Ruled by Jew and prostitute,
Purple robed and pauper clad,
Rotten, raving, money-mad;
A squirming herd in money's mesh,
A wilderness of human flesh;
Crazed by avarice, lust and rum --
"New York" thy name's Delirium.
Overdressed and underbred;
Heartless, Godless, Hell's delight,
Rude by day and lewd by night,
Bedwarfed the man and large the brute,
Ruled by Jew and prostitute,
Purple robed and pauper clad,
Rotten, raving, money-mad;
A squirming herd in money's mesh,
A wilderness of human flesh;
Crazed by avarice, lust and rum --
"New York" thy name's Delirium.
Dutifully, Newton
Following his
widely publicized resignation as collector of customs and free to aid the cause
of women's suffrage, Malone threw himself into legal activity on the movement's
behalf. He masterfully proved to a Virginia
jurist that the warden of the District of Columbia Jail had no authority to
transfer the women prisoners to a workhouse in Virginia
and forced their return to Washington
Faced with
Malone's formidable adversarial talents, the Wilson Administration capitulated
and unconditionally freed all women prisoners in November.
He was
identified with many liberal movements, helping to defend Max Eastman, Floyd
Dell and the other Masses defendants. Outspoken in his defense of five
Socialist lawmakers in Albany Bell County , Kentucky
 |
| A handsome Dudley Field Malone in 1913 when he entered government service. |
Many Marriages
In 1908, Dudley
Field Malone married Mary Patricia O'Gorman, daughter of Judge and U.S. Senator
James A. O'Gorman [D-N.Y.] Their marriage would end in a Paris
Malone and his
second wife, Doris Stevens, drove to Peekskill
During the
Twenties, Malone became a successful international divorce lawyer. So many
wealthy Americans were traveling to Paris to Paris
His conciliatory
skills were of no avail to save his marriage to Doris Stevens, however. She
obtained a Paris Doris
retained the Croton house at the corner of North Highland Place Mt. Airy Road
Malone married
his third wife, Minnesota-born actress Edna Louise Johnson, in London Columbia Presbyterian
Hospital on January 1, 1931, the first
arrival of the new year in New York
Gloria Swanson,
who had been Malone's neighbor when she lived at Longue Vue Farm on Mt. Airy Road California asking him to
speed up her divorce so she and Farmer could be married on their arrival in New York
In her 1980
autobiography, Swanson on Swanson,
she wrote, "I don't know how he arranged it, but we drove to Elmsford,
gave him our passports, and were married by the mayor there in Dudley Malone's
parlor on August 6, 1931."
It was a secret
marriage, and the couple traveled back to Hollywood Yuma , Arizona
Malone had an
earlier association with Gloria Swanson and the movie industry as corporate
secretary of her movie production company called Gloria Productions. The company
had been organized and bankrolled by her longtime lover Joseph P. Kennedy,
whose trysts with her in Croton had been conveniently timed to coincide with
periods when the Marquis was away.
Proposed as a
wartime grain-saving measure in 1917, the 18th Amendment prohibiting the
manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages did not go into effect until 1920,
long after the war had ended. During the so-called Roaring Twenties, the
country was divided into “Drys” (supporters of Prohibition) and “Wets” (for repeal).
In June of 1924,
the Ku Klux Klan and Drys under the leadership of William Jennings Bryan had
made religion an issue in the Democratic convention at New
York City 's Madison
Square Garden Bryan
Always a
political nonconformist, Malone made many unpredictable choices in his career.
He supported Smith for re-election as governor in New York Wisconsin and Burton K. Wheeler of
Montana
He not only
opposed the investigation into the Tammany Hall machine's participation in
municipal corruption conducted by retired Judge Samuel Seabury but helped his
friend, the popular bon vivant mayor Jimmy Walker, prepare his defense to the
charges. Malone and comedian George Jessel had campaigned with Walker
Seabury, who had
presidential ambitions, had dumped the report of his investigations in the lap
of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt called a hearing in Albany to look into Seabury's charges against Walker
Actor
With his divorce
practice in decline during the Depression, Malone was forced to declare
bankruptcy in 1935. Turning his attention to Broadway, he appeared in several
plays, mostly in bit parts. In 1941, he left New York
for California
His physical resemblance to Winston Churchill
earned him a role as the British prime minister in the 1943 Warner Brothers film
Mission to Moscow Russia
He also supplied
Churchill’s voice in the film Edge of
Darkness about the Norwegian underground and played Churchill again in An American in Paris
Epilogue
Troubled with a
heart condition for about a dozen years, he was admitted to Culver City Hospital
Of all his
public actions, Dudley Field Malone was proudest of having sacrificed a
prestigious appointment on the altar of principle. His selfless gesture was a
significant milestone in the bitter struggle that finally won the vote for
American women.
His son, also
named Dudley Field Malone, had a long career as a theatrical talent agent and
manager. Among his clients were singer Jane Froman and actor and screenwriter
Emlyn Williams. He died of lung cancer in Bellport, Long
Island , on January 1, 1990, his 59th birthday. There were no
immediate survivors.
Monday, February 04, 2013
Doris Stevens: Jailed for Freedom
CHRONICLES OF CROTON’S BOHEMIA
Doris managed to make headlines by getting herself arrested at the gate of the home of French president, Gaston Doumergue in Rambouillet. Members of theNWP carried a banner reading, "We demand a treaty giving women their rights." French police arrested ten demonstrators, including Doris , for refusing to leave the area and for not having identity cards.
A militant feminist and leader in the women's suffrage movement, Doris Stevens was a keen eyewitness to the historic events that led up to the passage of the 19th Amendment. While the experiences were still fresh in her mind, she recorded them.
Her 1920 book, Jailed for Freedom, captures in minute detail the cruelties suffragists endured during the fight to achieve the vote. More than 500 women were arrested during the demonstrations. Her book performs an invaluable service by recording in an appendix the names of the 168 women who actually served prison sentences, with a brief biography of each. Their names deserve to be remembered.
Doris Stevens was born in Omaha , Neb. Oberlin College in Ohio United States
Activist
Doris Stevens joined with Doris Paul, Lucy Burns, Crystal Eastman and Dorothy Day to form the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, forerunner of the National Woman's Party (NWP), in 1913. She began to work as an organizer in Newport , R.I. , Denver and California San Francisco 's Golden Gate Park
Women's suffrage was gaining momentum. By 1915, a dozen states, all in the West, had given women the right to vote. The reason for this tilt toward equality was understandable: Western states had fewer women than men. Any state in which women had the right to vote would attract women to settle there and rectify the imbalance.
During the 1916 presidential campaign, Woodrow Wilson, running for a second term as president, promised peace but not suffrage. Charles Evans Hughes, his Republican challenger, promised suffrage but not peace. Doris was the California
Active in demonstrating for women's suffrage, she was arrested in Washington , D.C.
She was among the protesters arrested in New York City Peekskill Highland Place Wilson
In 1918, Malone’s appeal had won the release of a group of suffrage demonstrators who had been jailed for “obstructing the sidewalk” in front of the White House.
Later, Malone was invited to be co-counsel, with Clarence Darrow, in the defense of John T. Scopes, in the famous 1925 Tennessee
Second Marriage
Doris was divorced from Malone in Paris Portland , Maine , she married Jonathan Mitchell, a writer on the staff of the magazine The New Republic
Always a firebrand and a fighter, after helping to win the battle for women's suffrage in the United States , Doris turned her attention to the widespread discrimination against women in other countries.
In 1928, Doris and members of the NWP asked to be allowed to present a proposed Equal Rights Treaty at an international conference in France
Exhibiting bruises on her arms and wrists, she told reporters later, "It was a splendid battle, and we are proud of it."
Denying that they had planned to disrupt the conference, she explained that women were amateurs in diplomatic affairs.
"We see only the forthright, common-sense way to proceed," she added. "That, I think, is often an asset."
The next month in London
The Kellogg-Briand Treaty was eventually ratified by the U.S. Senate with only one dissenting vote. As it turned out, the pact never made a meaningful contribution to international order in the face of several undeclared wars of the 1930s--the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and the German occupation of Austria
When the 6th Pan American Congress met in Havana in 1928, Doris was there. She succeeded in getting six Western Hemisphere countries to sponsor the inclusion of an Equal Rights Treaty on the agenda of the 7th Pan American Congress to be held in 1933 at Montevideo , Uruguay
An even more significant accomplishment was the 7th Congress's creation of an Inter-American Commission of Women (IACW) to study the status of women, with Doris as its head. She would continue in this role until 1939.
Her efforts in directing the IACW resulted in the adoption of two equality treaties. Nineteen republics signed the Equal Nationality Convention, and four signed an Equal Rights Treaty--the first international agreements in history to equalize the status of men and women.
Like suffrage, the international equal rights movement was fraught with squabbles. In 1939, the NWP's rival, the League of Women Voters, succeeded in getting Doris ousted from the IACW. Instrumental in accomplishing this was Mollie Dewson, of the Democratic National Committee, who had influence with the State Department. A Democratic administration was in power, and Doris was a registered Republican. She was also accused of having been too cozy with some of the Latin American delegates.
In her place, the State Department announced the appointment to the ICAW of Mary Winslow, of the Women's Trade Union League. The excuse was that Stevens had not been chosen by the United States
League of Women Voters president Marguerite Wells was also instrumental in getting the IACW reorganized in 1940, with a Latin American woman appointed as chairman.
Doris Stevens was a member of the national council of the NWP from 1924 to 1948.
In addition to having written Jailed for Freedom, she designed the book, Paintings and Drawings of Jeannette Scott, 1863-1937. She also wrote a biographical sketch for this limited edition of 500 copies, privately printed in New Rochelle Syracuse University
The Mitchells continued to live in Croton, where she also pursued song writing. Five of her songs were premiered on New York radio station WINS, and introduced in concerts at Constitution Hall in Washington Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City McCook , Neb. , she is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland ,Maine Fairfield , Conn.
Doris Stevens’ papers were deposited in the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College Princeton University
