If Queen Isabella was an argument in favor for Mr. Elliott of Indiana, Lady Macbeth played the opposite part for Mr. Parker of New Jersey, Republican . . . . “I will not debate the question as to whether in a time of war women are the best judges of policy. That great student of human nature, William Shakespeare, in the play of Macbeth, makes Lady Macbeth eager for deeds of blood until they are committed and war is begun and then just as eager that it may be stopped.” . . .
Said Mr. Gray of New Jersey, Republican: “A nation will endure just so long as its men are virile. History, physiology, and psychology all show that giving woman equal political rights with man makes ultimately for the deterioration of manhood. It is, therefore, not only because I want our country to win this war but because I want our nation to possess the male virility necessary to guarantee its future existence that I am opposed to the pending amendment.”
The hope was expressed that President Wilson’s conversion would be like that of St. Paul, “and that he will become a master- worker in the vineyards of the Lord for this proposition.” (Applause.)
Mr. Gallivan, Democrat, although a representative of Massachusetts, “the cradle of American liberty,” called upon a great Persian philosopher to sustain him in his support. “ ‘Dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.’ . . . Democracy cannot live half free and half female.”
Mr. Dill of Washington, Democrat, colored his support with the following tribute: “ . . . It was woman who first learned to prepare skins of animals for protection from the elements, and tamed and domesticated the dog and horse and cow. She was a servant and a slave . . . . To-day she is the peer of man.”
Mr. Little of Kansas, Republican, tried to bring his colleagues back to a moderate course by interpolating:
“It seems to me, gentlemen, that it is time for us to learn that woman is neither a slave nor an angel, but a human being, entitled to be treated with ordinary common sense in the adjustment of human affairs . . . .”
But this calm statement could not allay the terror of Representative Clark of Florida, Democrat, who cried: “In the hearings before the committee it will be found that one of the leaders among the suffragettes declared that they wanted the ballot for ‘protection’, and when asked against whom she desired ‘protection’ she promptly and frankly replied, ‘men.’ My God, has it come to pass in America that the women of the land need to be protected from the men?” The galleries quietly nodded their heads, and Mr. Clark continued to predict either the complete breakdown of family life . . . . or “they [man and wife] must think alike, act alike, have the same ideals of life, and look forward with like vision to the happy consummation ‘beyond the vale.’ . . .
“God knows that . . . when you get factional politics limited to husband and wife, oh, what a spectacle will be presented, my countrymen . . . . Love will vanish, while hate ascends the throne . . . .
“To-day woman stands the uncrowned queen in the hearts of all right-thinking American men; to her as rightful sovereign we render the homage of protection, respect, love, and may the guiding hand of an all-wise Providence stretch forth in this hour of peril to save her from a change of relation which must bring in its train, discontent, sorrow, and pain,” he concluded desperately, with the trend obviously toward “crowning” the queens.