MR. PRESIDENT, HOW LONG MUST WOMEN WAIT FOR LIBERTY?
The Great Demand banner followed, carried by Mrs. Benton Mackaye:
WE DEMAND AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF
THE UNITED STATES ENFRANCHISING WOMEN.
Beulah Amidon carried the Suffrage banner which Inez Milholland bore in the first Suffrage procession in New York:
“Forward, Out Of Darkness,
Leave Behind The Night.
Forward Out Of Error,
Forward Into Light.”
Behind there came hundreds of women bearing the purple, white, and gold. They were divided according to States; and before each division marched the State flag of the division. The drenching rain fell steadily. The pavements turned to shallow lakes, and the banners—their brilliancy accentuated by the wet—threw long, wavy reflections on the glassy, gray streets. They were of course expecting this demonstration at the White House, and, as though it were dangerous, unusual precautions had been taken against it. Every gate was locked. The Washington force of police officers, augmented by police from Baltimore and by squads of plain-clothes men, guarded the grounds without and within. Gilson Gardner said the President seemed to think the women were going to steal his grass roots.