On November 27 and 28, a few days after Miss Paul’s strange experience—suddenly, quite arbitrarily, and with no reason assigned—the government released all the Suffrage prisoners.
The speakers of the Woman’s Party began telling this story of the visit to Alice Paul’s cell, everywhere. It finally appeared in the Milwaukee Leader and in the San Francisco Bulletin in an article written by John D. Barry. The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage immediately questioned the truth of this episode.
Congress reconvened on December 3. The President, true to David Lawrence’s prophecy, did not mention Suffrage in his message to Congress. However, on January 9, 1918, on the evening of the victorious vote in the House—as will subsequently and in more detail again be told—the President declared for the Federal Amendment.
Minnie Bronson, the General Secretary of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, immediately sent Alice Paul a letter of apology for questioning the truth of her statement. In that letter, she repeats Maud Younger’s statement in regard to this visit to Alice Paul in prison, and says:
The inference contained in this article that the President of the United States would under cover assist a proposition which he had publicly and unqualifiedly repudiated, seemed to us unworthy of his high office, and we felt justified in defending him from what seemed an unwarranted and unbelievable accusation.
However, the President’s subsequent public support of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, his announcement coming on the eve of the vote in the House of Representatives, indicates the truth of your original assertion, and we therefore deem it incumbent upon ourselves to apologize for having questioned Miss Younger’s statement.
We are sending a copy of this letter to the President and members of Congress.
Very truly yours,
Minnie Bronson.
Perhaps a word should be said of description—and even of explanation—in regard to the crowds who harried the Suffragists. Of course, in all crowds there is a hoodlum element, and if that element is not held down by the police, it rapidly becomes the controlling power; tends to become more and more destructive. The police, as has been indicated from time to time, adopted various policies. At first, they maintained order. Then they began to permit the rowdy element in the crowds to do as it pleased. Later, they even worked with these destructive forces.