The President told the Committee as proof of his willingness, as he said, “to help Suffrage in every little way,” that he had written a letter to Representative Pou, Chairman of the Rules Committee of the House, saying he would favor the creation of a Woman Suffrage Committee.
The next day, May 15, a hearing was held before the Judiciary Committee of the House. The Progressive Committee, who had visited the President the day before, spoke, and also a group of the Woman’s Party leaders: Mrs. William H. Kent, Mrs. John Rogers, Mrs. Donald R. Hooker, Lucy Burns, Anne Martin, Abby Scott Baker. Again the note of the Great War sounded through all the speeches, and the impatience of women because everything in the way of war service was demanded of them, but nothing given in return.
Mrs. Rogers said:
You men sit here in Congress and plan to take our sons and husbands and every cent in our pockets. Yet you say to us: “Do not be selfish; do not ask anything of the government now, but do your part.”
Mrs. Rogers quoted the words of Lord Northcliffe:
The old arguments against giving women Suffrage were that they were useless in war. But we have found that we could not carry on the war without them. They are running many of our industries, and their services may be justly compared to those of our soldiers.
“It has taken England nineteen hundred years to find this out,” said Mrs. Rogers.
Also, stress was laid on the fact that, since the last hearing before the Judiciary Committee, six States had granted Presidential Suffrage to women.
In this connection, a letter written by Chairman Webb of the Judiciary Committee to J. A. H. Hopkins of New Jersey, is interesting.
Mr. Hopkins wrote Mr. Webb: