on august 10, 11, and 12, of 1916, the newly-formed national woman’s party held a conference at the hotel antlers in colorado springs, to formulate a policy for the coming presidential campaign.
in washington, senators and representatives read avidly the newspaper accounts of this convention.
politically, it was a tremendously impressive gathering. prominent women came from all the western states to decide how they should endeavor to mobilize the women’s votes. greatly alarmed at this drifting away of members, the democratic party sent prominent democratic women to plead with them not to leave the party and to represent to them that peace was more important than suffrage. the republicans sent important republican women to plead with them to give their support to hughes since he had come out for the federal suffrage amendment.
finally the democratic leaders appealed to the president to counteract the attacks being made on the party, on the score of its suffrage record. the president, thereupon, despatched to the thomas jefferson club of denver the following letter which was read at a banquet the last day of the conference.
the white house,
washington, d. c., august 7, 1916.
my dear friends:
i wish i could meet you face to face and tell you in person how deeply i appreciate the work your organization has done and proposes to do for the cause of democracy and popular government.
i am told that yours was the first woman’s democratic voters’ organization in america, and i am sure that as such it must have 173been the instrument of impressing your convictions very deeply upon the politics of your state.
one of the strongest forces behind the equal suffrage sentiment of the country is the now demonstrated fact that in the suffrage states women interest themselves in public questions, study them thoroughly, form their opinions and divide as men do concerning them. it must in frankness be admitted that there are two sides to almost every important public question, and even the best informed persons are bound to differ in judgment concerning it. with each difference in judgment, it is not only natural, but right and patriotic, that the success of opposing convictions should be sought through political alignment and the measuring of their strength at the polls through political agencies. men do this naturally, and so do women; though it has required your practical demonstration of it to convince those who doubted this. in proportion as the political development of women continues along this line, the cause of equal suffrage will be promoted.
those who believe in equal suffrage are divided into those who believe that each state should determine for itself when and in what direction the suffrage should be extended, and those who believe that it should be immediately extended by the action of the national government, by means of an amendment to the federal constitution. both the great political parties of the nation have in their recent platforms favored the extension of suffrage to women through state action, and i do not see how their candidates can consistently disregard these official declarations. i shall endeavor to make the declaration of my own party in this matter effectual by every influence that i can properly and legitimately exercise.
woman’s part in the progress of the race, it goes without saying, is quite as important as man’s. the old notion, too, that suffrage and service go hand in hand, is a sound one, and women may well appeal to it, though it has long been invoked against them. the war in europe has forever set at rest the notion that nations depend in time of stress wholly upon their men. the women of europe are bearing their full share of war’s awful burden in the daily activities of the struggle, and more than their share as sufferers. their fathers and husbands and sons are fighting and dying in the trenches; but they have taken up the work on the farms, at the mill, and in the workshop and counting houses. they bury the dead, care for the sick and wounded, console the fatherless, and sustain the constant shock of war’s appalling sacrifices.
174from these hideous calamities we in this favored land of ours have thus far been shielded. i shall be profoundly thankful, if, consistently with the honor and integrity of the nation, we may maintain to the end our peaceful relations with the world.
cordially and sincerely yours,
woodrow wilson.
to the officers and members of the jane jefferson club of colorado.
the woman’s party did not care for whom the women cast their protest vote—republicans, socialists, prohibitionists—they cared only that women should not vote for the democrats. they knew if this protest vote was large enough, whoever was elected would realize that opposition to suffrage was inexpedient.
at colorado springs the national woman’s party passed the following resolutions:
resolved that the national woman’s party, so long as the opposition of the democratic party continues, pledges itself to use its best efforts in the twelve states where women vote for president to defeat the democratic candidate for president; and in the eleven states where women vote for members of congress to defeat the candidates of the democratic party for congress.
immediately the campaign began. it was the biggest campaign—the most important ever waged by the woman’s party. a stream of organizers started for the western states to prepare the way for the speakers. how hard, and how long, and how intensively these girl organizers worked will never be known because, in the very nature of things, there could be no adequate record of their efforts. then came a stream of speakers, relay after relay—convinced, informed, experienced—and inspired. among them were harriot stanton blatch, sara bard field, ida finney mackrille, mrs. william kent, mrs. h. o. havemeyer, helen todd, maud younger, rose winslow, and gail laughlin. the brilliant, beautiful inez milholland boissevain, doomed soon to die so untimely but so glorious a death, was appointed special flying envoy to make a twelve mile swing through 175the twelve western equal suffrage states; to bring to the enfranchised women of the west an appeal for help from the disfranchised women of the east.
the campaign of 1916 was characterized by the swiftness of attack and efficiency of method which characterized the campaign of 1914, but it was carried out on a much larger scale. in washington, headquarters boiled ... bubbled ... seethed....
from washington there sifted into the west tons of campaign literature: miles of purple, white, and gold banners; acres of great across-the-street streamers. in the west itself, woman’s party speakers addressed every kind of meeting known to our civilization: indoor meetings; outdoor meetings; luncheons; banquets; labor unions; business men’s organizations; in churches, factories, theatres; at mining camps, county fairs. they took advantage of impromptu meetings in the streets; small ready-made meetings at clubs; large advertised mass-meetings. and inez milholland’s activities as a flying envoy—and in that, her last flight she did fly—were the climax of it all.
the slogan of the wilson party was, “he kept us out of war.” the slogan of the woman’s party developed, “he kept us out of suffrage.”
the democrats, remembering the results of the campaign of 1914, were far from indulgent of this small army, the members of which were all generals.
in denver, elsie hill the woman’s party organizer was arrested and hurried to the police station in a patrol wagon. the only charge against her was that she had distributed literature telling the democratic record on suffrage.
in colorado springs, the federal amendment banner was “arrested” and locked up for the night in jail.
in chicago, described by the chicago tribune as the “pivotal point of the 1916 election,” this hostility was much more violent. the day that wilson spoke there a hundred women, some of them carrying inscribed banners, stationed themselves at the entrance to the auditorium where he was 176to appear. they were attacked by groups of men, who tore their banners out of their hands, and demolished them. several women were thrown to the ground, and one, still clinging to the banner, was dragged across the street.
this was followed by an attack upon minnie e. brooke, one of the woman’s party speakers. she was alone, walking quietly down michigan boulevard. she had a small purple, white, and gold flag in her hand, and was wearing the regalia of the woman’s party. suddenly two men darted up to her, and tried to tear her colors away. in the struggle she was thrown down and would have fallen in front of an automobile had not a hotel employee run to her assistance.
however, in the out-of-way country places in the western states, the woman’s party speakers were received with that hearty hospitality, that instant and instinctive chivalry, which marks the west. in this campaign, they made a point of appearing in the state and county fairs which characterized the late summer and early fall months.
on frontier day, at the douglas county grange at castle rock, colorado, elsie hill spoke—to a grandstand crowded with people—between the end of the relay race (in which the riders changed horses and saddles) and the beginning of the steer-roping contest. on the stand were massed men, women, and children. just over the fence crowded hundreds of cowboys and farmers.
street processions also characterized this campaign. at night in salt lake city occurred an extraordinary parade—a river of yellow. the squad of mounted policemen who headed the procession wore the purple, white, and gold regalia of the woman’s party. marching women carried lighted yellow japanese lanterns. the people who filled the automobiles carried yellow lanterns. the huge amendment banner was yellow. yellow banners were strung across the streets.
billboards and posters appeared everywhere which adjured voters not to support wilson or any democratic candidates 177for congress. in tucson and prescott, arizona, these great banners were surreptitiously cut down. in california, the democrats placed counter placards beside these disturbing posters. in san francisco, armed patrols guarded the two conflicting posters in one hotel lobby.
the woman’s party speakers took advantage of all kinds of situations. in one town, maud younger found that a circus had arrived just ahead of her. there was no adequate hall for a meeting; and so the circus men offered her their tent; they even megaphoned her meeting for her. in another town, a county fair was being held. maud younger appealed to the clowns to give her a chance to speak, and they let her have their platform and the spot-light while they were changing costumes. in san francisco, hazel hunkins scattered thousands of leaflets from an aeroplane flying over the city. red lodge, montana, sent to the train, which brought abby scott baker to them, a delegation of members of the grand army of the republic, the leader bearing a large american flag. they conducted her in state through the town to the hall where she was to speak.
perhaps no campaign was more interesting than that of rose winslow in arizona. vivian pierce, whose experienced newspaper hand on the suffragist helped to make that paper the success it so swiftly became, thus describes her work:
rose winslow represented the workers. she spoke for the exploited women in eastern industry. in her own person to her audiences she typified her story of those imprisoned in factories and slums, unable to fight their own battles. her words had the authenticity of an inspired young evangelist. she herself had come up out of that darkness; and the men of the mines and lumber camps, the women of the remote arizona towns, listened to her with tears pouring down their faces. one does not see eastern audiences so moved. at winslow ... this girl, pleading for working women, the most exploited class in industry, appealed to the men of the great santa fé railroad shops that animate the life of that remote region on the edge of the “painted desert.” rose winslow had been warned that if she spoke at this town, she would be “mobbed” by the wilson democrats. after her impassioned story, told one noon hour, the 178men of the shops crowded around this young woman from the east, “one of our own people,” as one man said, and asked her what they could do for the women of the east....
in the remote copper camps around jerome and bisbee, the story of the industrial workers who have merely asked for a chance to help themselves, made a deep impression on the foreign-born voters of this section. there were poles, finns, and lithuanians in the great audience held in that copper town that is the working-man’s annex to bisbee. that audience both laughed and cried with rose winslow, and then crowded around to greet her in her own language.
from the vividly colored fastness of the miners’ villages in this wild mountain region, to border towns like nogales, though but a short step geographically, the temper and character of the cities change.... in places like nogales, the soldiers who could not go home to vote turned the woman’s party meetings into near-riots, so anxious were these victims of a peace administration to hear what the ladies had to say about wilson. the soldiers registered their approval by helping take up collections, though even the provost guard could not remove them to give space to citizens able to register their protests.
an event equally picturesque marked the closing of the campaign on the night of sunday, november 5, on the platform of the blackstone theatre, chicago. there, harriot stanton blatch, acting as the spokesman of the disfranchised women of the east, called up by long-distance telephone a series of mass-meetings, one in each of the twelve suffrage states and repeated their message—a final appeal to the women voters of the west to cast their ballots on the following tuesday against president wilson.
the result of the election is summed up in the suffragist of november 11:
in illinois, the only state where the vote of women is counted separately, over seventy thousand more women voted against mr. wilson than for him....
the reports indicate that the woman’s party campaign was as successful in holding the woman’s vote in line in the other eleven states as in illinois. while ten of these states went for wilson, they did not do so, as has been claimed, by the woman’s 179vote. mr. wilson received in these states almost the solid labor vote, the progressive, and the farmer’s vote. the popular majority which mr. wilson received in the twelve suffrage states amounted only to twenty-two thousand one hundred seventy-one out of a popular vote, according to the latest returns, of more than four million, eight hundred and ten thousand in the same states. this does not include the socialist and prohibition vote, which was very heavy in some of the western states....
we were not concerned with the result of the election. ours was a campaign in which it made no difference who was elected. we did not endorse any candidate. we did not care who won. we were not pro-republican, pro-socialist, pro-prohibition—we were simply pro-woman. we did not endeavor to affect the result in the non-suffrage states. what we did try to do was to organize a protest vote by women against mr. wilson’s attitude towards suffrage. this we did. every democrat who campaigned in the west knows this. the democratic campaign in the west soon consisted almost entirely of an attempt to combat the woman’s party attack.
tribute to the strength of the woman’s party campaign is contained in the remark of a woman who had in charge the campaign of the democratic women voters. out of six leaflets which her organization got out, five were on the subject of suffrage. a reporter remonstrated with her in regard to suffrage not being an issue in the west. she agreed with him, but, she added, “we have to combat the woman’s party.”
the whole western campaign of the republicans was conducted as if they were assured of victory. in many cases the organizers of the woman’s party told the republicans in the east that they were going to lose in certain districts. “nonsense,” laughed the republicans, “we are sure to win there, absolutely sure.” alice paul in chicago received reports from campaigners through the west and all predicted democratic victory. she went to republican headquarters with these reports, but she could not convince the republicans of the truth of them.
senator curtis, secretary of the republican senatorial committee, said he got more information as to the situation 180in the west from the woman’s party than he got from any other source.
it became apparent soon that wilson was going to win. it was then that advisors came to alice paul and said, “withdraw your speakers from the campaign, so that you will not have the humiliation of defeat before the country.”
and it was then that alice paul answered, “no. if we withdraw our speakers from the campaign, we withdraw the issue from the campaign. we must make this such an important thing in national elections that the democrats will not want to meet it again.”
commenting on this campaign, alice paul said the democrats made a strong appeal to the women voters but for the republicans the women did not exist, and in fact the chief recognition that the republicans made of the women in the west was to send there the hughes so-called “golden special,” which, on leaving chicago, announced that it was not a “suffrage special.”
after the campaign was over, vance mccormick, chairman of the democratic party, was talking with a member of his committee. he said, in effect: “before the election of 1918, we must patch up our weak places. our weakest spot is the suffrage situation. we must get rid of the suffrage amendment before 1918 if we want to control the next congress.”
the sixty-fourth congress met for its second and last session on december 4, 1916. president wilson delivered a message which made no reference to the subject of woman suffrage. the congressional union, always having advance information, knew this beforehand. and so on that occasion, by a bit of direct action, they brought suffrage vividly to the attention of president wilson, congress, and the whole country. this was the only action of the woman’s party which alice paul did not give out beforehand to the press.
early that morning, before the outer doors were opened, 181five women of the congressional union appeared before the capitol. after a long wait the doors were opened, and—the first of a big crowd—they placed themselves in the front row of the gallery just to the left of the big clock. they faced the speaker’s desk, from which the president would read his message. these five women were: mrs. john rogers, jr.; mrs. harry lowenburg; dr. caroline spencer; florence bayard hilles; mabel vernon. in a casual manner, other members of the union seated themselves behind them and on the gallery steps beside them: lucy burns; elizabeth papandre; mildred gilbert; mrs. william l. colt; mrs. townsend scott.
mabel vernon sat in the middle of the five women in the front row. pinned to her skirt, under the enveloping cape which she wore, was a big banner of yellow sateen. after the five women had settled themselves, mabel vernon unpinned the banner and dropped it, all ready for unrolling, on the floor. at the top of the banner were five long tapes—too long—mabel vernon now regretfully declares. at the psychological moment, which had been picked beforehand, in president wilson’s speech—he was recommending a greater freedom for the porto rican men—mabel vernon whispered the series of signals which had previously been decided on. immediately—working like a beautifully co-ordinated machine—the five women stooped, lifted the banner, and, holding it tightly by the tapes, dropped it over the balcony edge. it unrolled with a smart snap and displayed these words:
mr. president, what will you do for woman suffrage?
then the women sat perfectly still, in the words of the washington post “five demure and unruffled women ... with the cords supporting the fluttering thing clenched in their hands.”
the effect was instantaneous. the president looked up, hesitated a moment, then went on reading. all the congressmen 182turned. the speaker sat motionless. a buzz ran wildly across the floor. policemen and guards headed upstairs to the gallery where the women were seated; but their progress was inevitably slow as the steps were tightly packed with members of the congressional union. in the meantime, one of the pages, leaping upward, caught the banner and tore it away from the cords in the women’s hands. “if it hadn’t been for those long tapes,” mabel vernon says, “they never could have got it until the president finished his speech.”
the episode took up less than five minutes’ time. until the president finished his message, it seemed to be completely forgotten. but the instant the president with his escort disappeared through the door, every congressman was on his feet staring up at the gallery.
the woman’s party publicity accounts of this episode—multigraphed the night before—were in the hands of the men in the press gallery the instant after it happened. this is a sample of the perfect organization and execution of the woman’s party plans.
of course, this incident was a front page story in every newspaper in the united states that night despoiling the president of his headlines. it is now one of the legends in washington that in the midst of the dinner given to the president by the gridiron club shortly after, the identical banner was unfurled before his eyes.
the following week, at the first meeting of the judiciary committee since the presidential campaign, the report of the federal suffrage amendment was made without recommendation to the house of representatives.
