The Story of the Woman's Party

by Inez Haynes Gillmore

We regard this, however (the formation of a Suffrage Committee in the House), Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Committee, as only one step toward our goal. We will not be satisfied with this alone. It will not in any way take the place of the passage of the Amendment. Nor are we interested in any mere record vote which might come from the Suffrage Committee. We are working only for the passage of the Amendment at the earliest possible date....

We ask for this measure now in war time, because the sufferings of war fall heavily upon women. In case of an invading army the greatest barbarities, the greatest cruelties, fall upon the women. In this war, as never before, the burdens are borne by women. Secretary Redfield said yesterday that three armies are necessary to the prosecution of this war, the army in the field, the army on the farm, and the army in the factories. In these two armies at home the women are taking an increasingly large part and the efficiency of their work depends largely upon the conditions under which they do this work. In England the output of munitions was not satisfactory. The government appointed a commission to investigate. They found that the trouble lay in the conditions under which the women worked, with the overlong hours. They could not get the best results under such conditions. In America today there is an effort to break down the protective legislation that through the years has been built up around women and children. And so for efficiency in the war as well as for the protection of the women, we urge Suffrage upon you now.

We do not know when this struggle may end nor to what extent the women here may replace men. An English shipbuilder said recently that should the war last two years longer he would build ships entirely with women. We know that all over Europe today they are doing men’s work, in field, in factory, and in office. When the war is over and the armies march home, whether in victory or defeat, they will find the women in their places. Not without a struggle will the women give up the work, but give it up they probably will. And then, without the means of livelihood, many of them without husbands, with the men of their families killed in war, without the chance to marry, to bear children, they will turn to America. We can then look forward to an immigration of women such as this country has never known. Before that time comes we want the power to protect the women who are here, and to prepare to meet the new conditions that we may not be swamped by them.

We are asking for Suffrage in war time because other nations at war are considering it now. Over a year ago, in the Hungarian Parliament, a deputy asked the prime minister, “When our soldiers return from fighting our battles, will they be given the vote?” We find men everywhere in Europe asking for Suffrage for themselves now in war time. In Germany today the most powerful political party is urging the vote for women as well as for men. Russia, England, and France are on the verge of enfranchising their women. But two days ago in the British Parliament the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies urged the immediate passage of the Suffrage measure that the government might not be hampered by domestic problems when, at the end of the war, international problems will cry for settlement and a unified nation will be needed. In the period of reconstruction also we feel that women have something to contribute, that we may be of help in solving the new problems which will arise from the war and which will tax all the resources of the people. We ask you now to release to other service the time, the energy, the money that is being poured into the Suffrage movement.

Lastly, we urge this now that we may prove to other nations our sincerity in wanting to establish democracy and our unselfish motives in going into the war.

I think of that night on the 2nd of April when, from the gallery of the House, we heard President Wilson read his war message. We were going to war not for any gain for ourselves but to make the world safe for democracy. We sat there and heard him read, and, gentlemen, you applauded, “we shall fight for those things which we have always carried nearest our hearts, for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government.” And while you applauded, some of us there in the gallery thought of the 20,000,000 of women in our own country who “submit to authority without a voice in their own government,” which is the President’s definition of democracy. We thought, too, of the women of other nations on the verge of enfranchisement themselves, and we wondered how they would welcome the United States at the peace council, to establish democracy for them—the United States, which does not recognize its own women.

And we went out into the night. The Capitol looked very beautiful and shining white against the dark sky. It seemed a great beacon light to the nations of the world. Suddenly a dark shadow fell across our path—the shadow of a mounted soldier. A troop of cavalry had encircled the Capitol holding back the people. We walked down the marble terraces and started across the Avenue. There, again, the troop of cavalry winding down the hill blocked our progress. Suddenly it seemed so symbolic of what war meant, the armed force, centralized authority, blocking progress, encroaching upon the people. And it came to us that our greatest foe is not the enemy without but the danger to democracy within. We realized then that the greatest service we could render today would be to fight for democracy in this country.

We are going into this war. We will give our service, our time, our money. We may give our lives and what is harder still, the lives of those dear to us. We lay them all down upon the altar for the sake of an ideal. But in laying them down let us see that the ideal for which we sacrifice shall not perish also. Let us fight to preserve that ideal, to make this a real democracy. And, gentlemen, the first step toward that end lies with you here today. We ask you to take that step and help make this nation truly a beacon light to nations of the earth.

Although—following the hearing before the Senate Committee, on May 15—the Chairman, Senator Jones of New Mexico, was unanimously instructed to make a report on the Amendment, he failed to do so. When so requested by the Woman’s Party, he refused. After three months the minority (Republican) leaders of the Committee, led by Senator Cummins of Iowa, and backed by Senator Jones of Washington and Senator Johnson of California, attempted to get the Suffrage Amendment on the Senate Calendar by discharging the Senate Suffrage Committee from its further consideration.

In his own defense, Senator Jones of New Mexico pleaded lack of time and desire to make a report that would be “a contribution to the cause.” Another Democratic member, Senator Hollis of New Hampshire, brought forward the picketing of the Suffragists as a reason for withholding the report. He expressed the amazing reason for not acting, his fear that this “active group of Suffragists” would focus public attention and “get credit.” The Chairman of the Committee who had neglected week after week to make the report which he had been authorized to make by the Committee, was finally galvanized into action by a visit to the imprisoned pickets at Occoquan. Immediately, September 15, he made his report to the Senate. On September 24, the creation of the House Suffrage Committee came up for heated debate in the House of Representatives, though its passage was a foregone conclusion. Of course, there was much discussion of the picketing which was still going on. Many of the speakers harped on the note that this late action in regard to the creation of a committee, which the Woman’s Party had been working for ever since 1913, would be interpreted by the country as being the result of the picketing. This was a quaint argument on their part, because of course, it was the result of the picketing. Why else would it have come so swiftly?