The Progressives endorsed National Suffrage. This was the first time a national political Party had ever endorsed the Federal Amendment; for although the Progressives, the Socialists, and the Prohibitionists had endorsed the principle of Suffrage in 1912, they had apparently never heard of the principle of Federal Suffrage. The platforms of the other two Parties were unsatisfactory as far as the Federal Amendment was concerned.
The Republican Suffrage plank was:
The Republican Party, reaffirming its faith in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, as a measure of justice to one-half the adult population of this country, favors the extension of Suffrage to women, but recognizes the right of each State to settle this question for itself.
The Democratic Suffrage plank ran:
We recommend the extension of the franchise to the women of the country by the States upon the same terms as to men.
These two planks also marked a great advance; for it was the first time the major political Parties had ever mentioned Suffrage.
Now every effort of the Woman’s Party was directed to getting the Presidential candidates, Wilson and Hughes, to come out for National Suffrage.
Alice Paul’s campaign, conducted on Hughes, was particularly vigorous. It was nation-wide in its extent. She sent telegrams all over the country asking people to urge this upon him. She sent numberless women to plead with Hughes. She sent women to Roosevelt and to other prominent Republicans and Progressives to get them to use their influence with Hughes. Every Republican member of Congress was lobbied to write to Hughes or to see him.
Hughes found himself bombarded. Letters inundated him from all over the nation. Newspapers besieged him with editorials. Most important of all, Alice Paul herself went to him. Then it was that she presented an unanswerable argument which has already been quoted.
Your Party consists of two factions, the old stand-pat Republicans and the Progressives. Now if you put a Suffrage plank in your platform, you will not alienate the Progressives, because the Progressives have a Suffrage plank and the old stand-pat Republicans will not vote for a Democrat, no matter what you put in your platform.