On July 3, a delegation representing the Woman’s National Democratic League, composed, according to the Washington Times, of some of the most distinguished ladies of the Congressional and official sets, went to inform the President that the League had raised a thousand dollars as a contribution towards his re-election. Afterwards, Mrs. F. B. Moran, a grand-niece of Martha Washington, and it may be almost unnecessary to state, a member of the Congressional Union, requested a five minute interview with the President.
Mrs. Moran said:
I am really afraid for my Party. The women in the West are far superior to us. They have power, and they know how to use it. There are four million of them, and they are heartily in favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment because they do not wish to be disfranchised when they pass beyond the limits of their own State. It is not a question of their threatening us. It is a question of our realizing what they are going to do. You can get the Suffrage Amendment through Congress, and, if you do not do it, these women will regard you as responsible.
President Wilson said, in answer, that he could not interfere with the action of Congress. He believed that Suffrage should be established on the secure foundation of separate State action. “You should work from the bottom up, not from the top down,” the President said. “Women should be patient, and continue to work in the admirable way they have worked in the past.”
On July 4, President Wilson reviewed a Labor parade in connection with the laying of the corner-stone of the Labor Temple of the American Federation of Labor in Washington, D. C., and at its close he addressed the marchers. He had just declared that he stood for the interests of all classes, when Mabel Vernon, who sat on the platform a few feet away, called in a voice which has a notably clear, ringing quality, “Mr. President, if you sincerely desire to forward the interests of all the people, why do you oppose the national enfranchisement of women?”
The President answered, “That is one of the things which we will have to take counsel over later.”
When the President was closing his speech, Mabel Vernon called again; “Answer, Mr. President, why do you oppose the national enfranchisement of women?”
The President did not answer.
The Secret Service men with almost an exquisite courtesy gently hurried Miss Vernon away.