the president of the united states returned to america from europe on february 24, 1919, landing in boston. boston arranged an enormous welcome-home demonstration. the woman’s party determined to take part in that welcome to remind him of the suffrage work to be done, and they announced this to the world at large. alice paul went to boston to arrange this demonstration. the boston police announced in their turn that they would establish a dead line in front of the reviewing stand beyond which the suffragists would not be allowed to penetrate. however, the suffragists, following the red cross women, marched through the line of marines who held the crowd back, and took up their position before the reviewing stand where the president was to appear. at the head of the line in the place of honor, waving the american flag, was katherine morey. on one side of the stars and stripes was the historic banner:
mr. president, how long must women wait for liberty?
on the other side of the stars and stripes was a second historic banner:
mr. president, what will you do for woman suffrage?
the special lettered banner for the occasion read:
mr. president, you said in the senate on september 30,
“we shall not only be distrusted but we shall deserve
to be distrusted if we do not enfranchise women.”
409you alone can remove this distrust now by securing
the one vote needed to pass the suffrage amendment
before march 4.
this banner was carried by lois shaw and ruth small.
the police politely requested the pickets to depart and the pickets politely refused to go; whereupon the police politely arrested them. the arrested women were: jessica henderson, ruth small, lou daniels, mrs. frank page, josephine collins, berry pottier, wilma henderson, mrs. irving gross, mrs. george roewer, francis fowler, camilla whitcomb, mrs. h. l. turner, eleanor calnan, betty connelly, betty gram, lois warren shaw, rose lewis, mrs. e. t. russian.
they were charged with “loitering more than seven minutes.”
in the afternoon while the president was making a speech in mechanics hall, a watchfire demonstration occurred on boston common. a vast crowd gathered about it. from three o’clock in the afternoon until six, the women made speeches.
the speakers were: louise sykes, mrs. c. c. jack, mrs. mortimer warren, mrs. robert trent whitehouse, agnes h. morey, elsie hill.
louise sykes burned the president’s words—and they were the words that he was speaking that very afternoon. mrs. mortimer warren and mrs. c. c. jack were arrested at six o’clock and released immediately. elsie hill was detained on the charge of speaking without a permit.
that day the president’s carriage drove by the boston headquarters. when wilson saw the purple, white, and gold colors, his expression changed. quickly he looked the other way. it was observed that he held across his knees a newspaper whose flaring headlines announced that day’s picketing.
410the suffragists were tried on february 25, by what was very like a star chamber proceeding, in the judge’s lobby on the second floor of the court house. the press was not excluded from the hearing, but the public was. as usual, the suffragists did not assist the court by giving names or answering questions. as a result, in the words of the suffragist, “there is quite a family of jane does in boston.” sixteen of them—everybody, except wilma henderson, who was discovered to be a minor, and several others who could not be identified—were sentenced to eight days in jail.
some person—i quote from the suffragist—entirely unknown and untraceable and unidentified, whom the policemen gave the name “e. h. howe” paid the fines of these women. katherine morey, ruth small, and betty connelly were released on february 26; josephine collins on february 27; the others came out two at a time.
as usual, the complaints of the suffragists called the attention of the people of the community to the filthy condition of their jail, which these experts pronounced one of the worst in the country. it was characterized by the “bucket system.” in each cell stood two buckets for toilet purposes. one contained the water in which they bathed. the other was emptied once a day or once in two days, according to the frequency with which the prisoner was permitted to go into the jail-yard for the purpose.
the boston papers gave this demonstration enormous publicity. boston institutions received in the press a muckraking which they had not experienced in years.
when president wilson arrived in the capitol at washington—after this welcome in boston—one of the first pieces of legislation which he took up was the federal suffrage amendment. he went to the capitol and conferred with senator jones of new mexico (democrat) chairman of the woman’s suffrage committee, about the suffrage resolution. after the vote of february 10, 411senator jones of new mexico refused to introduce the suffrage resolution again, but senator jones of washington, the ranking republican, introduced the identical bill. the president expressed his regret over the failure of the measure on february 10, but he did not exert his influence towards getting it passed.
the sixty-fifth congress was about to adjourn in a few days. on february 28, in order to overcome the parliamentary difficulty of the reconsideration of a measure which had been once reconsidered, senator jones of new mexico introduced a suffrage amendment which was a variation of the anthony amendment and so of course to suffragists not so satisfactory. it was referred to the woman suffrage committee. soon after this, senator gay of louisiana, who had voted against the amendment on february 10, announced that he would now vote for it. the president had obtained this vote, but like all his action on suffrage, it came too late. there were only three days left and senator jones of new mexico made several attempts to obtain the necessary unanimous consent for the consideration of his resolution, but he was unsuccessful. on saturday, march 1, senator wadsworth (republican) objected. on monday, march 3, senator weeks (republican) objected. on tuesday, march 4, senator sherman (republican) objected. the session came to an end in the senate without action on the suffrage amendment. the republicans did not want the democrats to get the credit of passing it, and so prevented it from coming to a vote.
