"I have been advised [Col. Ridley wrote to Miss Paul that you desire to hold a demonstration in Lafayette Square on Thursday, August 9.2d. By direction of the chief of engineers, U. S. Army, you are hereby granted permission to hold this demonstration. You are advised good order must prevail."
"We received yesterday [Miss Paul replied] your permit for a suffrage demonstration in Lafayette Park this afternoon, and are very glad that our meetings are no longer to be interfered with.
Because of the illness of so many of our members, due to their treatment in prison this last week, and with the necessity of caring for them at headquarters, we are planning to hold our neat meeting a little later. We have not determined on the exact date but we will inform you of the time as soon as it is decided upon."
It was reported on credible authority that this concession -was the result of a conference at which the President, Secretary of War Baker and Colonel Ridley were present. It was said that Secretary Baker and Colonel Ridley persuaded the President to withdraw the orders to arrest us and allow our meetings to go on, even though they took the form of attacks upon the President.
Two days after the release of the women, the Republican Party, for the first time in the history of woman suffrage, caucused in the Senate in favor of forcing suffrage to a vote.
The resolution which was pa.s.sed unanimously by the caucus determined to "insist upon consideration immediately" and "also to insist upon a final vote . . . at the earliest possible
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moment .... Provided, That this resolution shall not be construed as in any way binding the action or vote of any Member of the Senate upon the merits of the said woman suffrage amendment."
While not a direct attempt, therefore, to win more Republican Senators, this proved a very great tactical contribution to the cause. The Republicans were proud of their suffrage strength.
They knew the Democrats were not. With the Congressional elections approaching the Republicans meant to do their part toward acquainting the country with the Administration"s policy of vacillation and delay. This was not only helpful to the Republicans politically; it was also advantageous to the amendment in that it goaded the majority into action.
Nine months had pa.s.sed since the vote in the House and we were perilously near the end of the session, when on the 16th of September, Senator Overman, Democrat, Chairman of the Rules Committee, stated to our Legislative Chairman that suffrage was "not on the program for this session" and that the Senate would recess in a few days for the election campaigns without considering any more legislation. On the same day Senator Jones, Chairman of the Suffrage Committee, announced to us that he would not even call his Committee together to consider taking a vote.
We had announced a fortnight earlier that another protest "meeting would be held at the base of the Lafayette Monument that day, September 16th, at four o"clock. No sooner had this protest been announced than the President publicly stated that he would receive a delegation of Southern and Western women partisans on the question of the amendment at two o"clock the same day.
To this delegation he said, "I am, as I think you know, heartily in sympathy with you. I have endeavored to a.s.sist you in every way in my power, and I shall continue to do so.
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I will do all I can to urge the pa.s.sage of the amendment by an early vote."
Presumably this was expected to disarm us and perhaps silence our demonstration. However, it merely moved us to make another hasty visit to Senator Overman, Chairman of the Rules Committee, and to Senator Jones, Chairman of the Suffrage Committee, between the hours of two and four to see if the President"s statement that he would do all he could to secure an early vote had altered their statements made earlier in the day.
These Administration leaders a.s.sured us that their statements stood; that no provision had been made for action on the amendment; that the President"s statement did not mean that a vote would be taken this session; and that they did not contemplate being so advised by him.
Such a situation was intolerable. The President was uttering more fine words, while his Administration leaders interpreted them to mean nothing, because they were not followed up by action on his part.
We thereupon changed our demonstration at four o"clock to a more drastic form of protest. We took these words of the President to the base of Lafayette Monument and burned them in a flaming torch.
A throng gathered to hear the speakers. Ceremonies were opened with the reading of the following appeal by Mrs. Richard Wainwright, wife of Rear-Admiral Wainwright:
"Lafayette, we are here!
"We, the women of the United States, denied the liberty which you helped to gain, and for which we have asked in vain for sixty years, turn to you to plead for us.
"Speak, Lafayette, dead these hundred years but still living in the hearts of the American people. Speak again to plead for us like the bronze woman at your feet, condemned like us to a silent appeal. She offers you a sword. Will you not use
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for us the sword of the spirit, mightier far than the sword she holds out to you?
"Will you not ask the great leader of democracy to look upon the failure of our beloved country to be in truth the place where every one is free and equal and ent.i.tled to a share in the government? Let that outstretched hand of yours pointing to the White House recall to him his words and promises, his trumpet call for all of us, to see that the world is made safe for democracy.
"As our army now in France spoke to you there, saying here we are to help your country fight for liberty, will you not speak here and now for us, a little band with no army, no power but justice and right, no strength but in our Const.i.tution and in the Declaration of Independence; and win a great victory again in this country by giving us the opportunity we ask,,--to be heard through the Susan B. Anthony amendment.
"Lafayette, we are here!"
Before the enthusiastic applause for Mrs. Wainwright"s appeal had died away, Miss Lucy Branham of Baltimore stepped forward with a flaming torch, which she applied to the President"s latest words on suffrage. The police looked on and smiled, and the crowd cheered as she said:
"The torch which I hold symbolizes the burning indignation of the women who for years have been given words without action . . . .
"For five years women have appealed to this President and his party for political freedom. The President has given words, and words, and words. To-day women receive more words. We announce to the President and the whole world to-day, by this act of ours, our determination that words shall not longer be the only reply given to American women-our determination that this same democracy for whose establishment abroad we are making the utmost sacrifice, shall also prevail at home.
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"We have protested to this Administration by banners; we have protested by speeches; we now protest by this symbolic act.
"As in the ancient fights for liberty, the crusaders for freedom symbolized their protest against those responsible for injustice by consigning their hollow phrases to the flames, so we, on behalf of thousands of suffragists, in this same way to-day protest against the action of the President and his party in delaying the liberation of American women."
Mrs. Jessie Hardy Mackaye of Washington, D. C., then came forward to the end of the plinth to speak, and as she appeared, a man in the crowd handed her a twenty-dollar bill for the campaign in the Senate. This was the signal for others. Bills and coins were pa.s.sed up. Instantly marshals ran hither and thither collecting the money in improvised baskets while the cheers grew louder and louder. Many of the policemen present were among the donors.
Burning President Wilson"s words had met with popular approval from a large crowd!
The procession of women was starting back to headquarters, the police were eagerly clearing the way for the line; the crowd was dispersing in order; the great golden banner, "Mr. President, what will you do for woman suffrage?" was just swinging past the White House gate, when President Wilson stepped into his car for the afternoon drive.
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Chapter 18
President Wilson Appeals to the Senate Too Late
The next day the Administration completely reversed its policy.
Almost the first Senate business was an announcement on the floor by Senator Jones, Chairman of the Suffrage Committee, that the suffrage amendment would be considered in the Senate September 26th. And Senator Overman, Chairman of the Rules Committee, rather shyly remarked to our legislative chairman that he had been "mistaken yesterday." It was "now in the legislative program." The Senate still stood 6Q votes for and 34 against the amendment-2 votes lacking. The President made an effort among individual Democrats to secure them. But it was too feeble an effort and he failed.
Chairman Jones took charge of the measure on the floor. The debate opened with a long and eloquent. speech by Senator Vardaman of Mississippi, Democrat, in support of the amendment.
"My estimate of woman," said he, in conclusion, "is well expressed in the words employed by a distinguished author who dedicated his book to a "Little mountain, a great meadow, and a woman," "To the mountain for the sense of time, to the meadow for the sense of s.p.a.ce, and of everything.""
Senator Mcc.u.mber of North Dakota, Republican, followed with a curious speech. His problem was to explain why, although opposed to suffrage, he would vote for the amendment. Beginning with the overworked "cave man" and "beasts of the forests," and down to the present day, "the male had
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always protected the female" He always would! Forgetting recent events in the Capital, he went so far as to say, " . . . In our courts she ever finds in masculine nature an asylum of protection, even though she may have committed great wrong. While the mind may be convinced beyond any doubt, the masculine heart finds it almost impossible to p.r.o.nounce the word "guilty" against a woman." Scarcely had the galleries ceased smiling at this idea when he treated them to a novel application of the biological theory of inheritance. "The political field," he declared, "always has been and probably always will be an arena of more or less bitter contest. The political battles leave scars as ugly and lacerating as the physical battles, and the more sensitive the nature the deeper and more lasting the wound. And as no man can enter this contest or be a party to it and a.s.sume its responsibilities without feeling its blows and suffering its wounds, much less can woman with her more emotional and more sensitive nature.
"But . . . you may ask why should she be relieved from the scars and wounds of political contest? Because they do not affect her alone but are transmitted through her to generations yet to come . . . . "
The faithful story of the sinking ship was invoked by the Senator from North Dakota. One might almost imagine after listening to Congressional debates for some years that traveling on sinking ships formed a large part of human experience. "Fathers, sons, and brothers," said the Senator in tearful voice, "guarding the lifeboats until every woman from the highest to the lowest has been made safe, waving adieu with a smile of cheer on their lips, while the wounded vessel slowly bears them to a strangling death and a watery tomb, belie the charge . . " that woman needs her citizenship as a form of protection.
In spite of these opinions, however, the Senator was obliged to vote for the amendment because his state had so ordered.
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Senator Hardwick of Georgia, Democrat, felt somewhat betrayed that the suffrage plank in the platform of his party in 1916, recommending state action, should be so carelessly set aside.