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 to 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 for 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.