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5. A Contest for Inclusion: Gender, Race, and the Campaign of 1912 In the middle of August 1912,Theodore Roosevelt wrote Jane Addams that he wished her to write articles on the “new movement and what we Progressives are striving for in the way of social justice,especially for the women and children and those men who have the hardest time in life.”1 Writing campaign literature had been a function of partisan women since the founding days of the Republican party, and Roosevelt’s letter was therefore an invitation for Addams to continue this political tradition. At the same time, her prominent position in the central ritual of the Progressive party—the national convention—strengthened and magnified the representation of women as symbols of political virtue and principles.The Progressive party offered them new political opportunities even as it reinforced long-held political ideas of the proprietary boundaries of political womanhood. Addams accepted the offer and took it as an opportunity to expand her own role in national politics. She understood that men like Roosevelt would offer prominent women carefully defined campaign roles to fill organizational voids but also to create an image for the party. The party looked more principled with principled men, and women, in it. Women like Addams accepted the offers given by the party not only to build the party itself but also to build on its promises to create more expansive political roles for women. To do so, Progressive women and men had to negotiate not only who would write campaign literature, give speeches, and create organizational groups; they were involved in a renegotiation of the meanings of gender and race in party politics. In early August 1912, supporters of the newly founded Progressive party traveled to Chicago for their first national convention.The election was three 116 women and the republican party, 1854–1924 months away.As they were gathering, the Provisional Committee was meeting at Chicago’s Congress Hotel to organize the party’s structure and to finalize the platform for presentation to the convention delegates. There was to be no bossism or corruption at this convention and,it was hoped,no controversy over delegates. In the thirty days between the announcement of the formation of the party and the first meeting of the Provisional Committee, Roosevelt spent a good deal of time on organization. From the start, he held firm to his belief that each state Progressive party was an autonomous organization and would choose its own delegates,structure its own organization, and write its own platform. Forty-eight states responded. This was to be a national party strengthened by local and state organizations championing local and state candidates. It was not to be a party by and for Roosevelt’s political fortunes only.2 Three women worked with the Provisional National Committee and were members-at-large of the National Committee: Jane Addams, Frances Kellor of New York, and Isabella Blaney of California. Jean Gordon of Louisiana declined the offer of a position on the National Committee,and her place was not filled.Alice Carpenter, who sat on the Platform Committee, was the only other woman to be given an important position. Eleanor Garrison, who accompanied Carpenter to Chicago, was “filled with pride” by Carpenter’s position on the committee.3 Working with the committee,these women sought to influence the structure of the party and the formation of the platform. Although the writing of the platform had been underway since late June, it was only finalized during the convention.By then,women were in places from which they had some influence over specific planks. Eleanor Garrison wrote her mother that she and Carpenter were leading “a thrilling life” and that the “women in this convention are perfect stars” and have “real status.You feel it every minute and they are going to keep it or else leave the party.”4 The Progressive party platform was written as the new party quickly moved to gather supporters, workers, and volunteers. The desire to be a part of the creation of a party platform based on long-standing policy goals led many women social reformers into the ranks of the party. Aspects of the platform and the party deliberations frustrated some Progressives, but the inclusion of its many important planks for social welfare concerns won party members ’ final endorsement. They believed that the party would survive beyond the election, whether Roosevelt won or lost, and that the...

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