From 1916 on, the years in which Maud Younger was in charge of the lobby committee, twenty-two Senators changed their position in favor of Suffrage.
I have said that it was difficult for a Congressman to elude these swift and determined scouts of the Woman’s Party. But harder still was it to elude a something, an unknown quality—an x—which had come into the fourth generation of women to demand enfranchisement. That quality was political-mindedness. Congressmen had undoubtedly before run the gamut of feminine persuasiveness; grace; charm; tact. But here was an army of young Amazons who looked them straight in the eye, who were absolutely informed, who knew their rights, who were not to be frightened by bluster, put off by rudeness, or thwarted either by delay or political trickery. They never lost their tempers and they never gave up. They never took “No” for an answer. They were young and they believed they could do the impossible. And believing it, they accomplished it. Before the six years and a half of campaign of the Woman’s Party was over, Congressman after Congressman, Senator after Senator paid tribute—often a grudged one—to the verve and élan of that campaign.
But though they talked man fashion, eye to eye, the lobbyists, when returned to Headquarters, were full of excellent information and suggestions and all that mysterious by-product which comes from feminine intuition.
III
ORGANIZING
Although it is impossible to do justice to any department of the National Woman’s Party, it seems particularly difficult in the case of the organizers. The reason for this is not far to seek. These young women were turned loose, sometimes quite inexperienced; sometimes only one to a State, with the injunction to come back with their shield or on it. They always came back with their shield—that is to say an organization of some sort in the State they had just left. As has been before stated, the National Woman’s Party has organized in every State in the Union at some time during its history—that is between the years 1912 and 1919. As has also been stated, the organizers divided into three groups—those who worked in the first two years; those who worked in the middle two; those who worked in the last two.
It has been shown with what careful instruction Alice Paul sent these young adventurers into the wide wide world of unorganized States; but perhaps justice has not been done to the trust she placed in them and the consequent extraordinary results. She kept in close telegraphic communication with them all the time—and yet always, she left them free to make big decisions and sudden changes in policy. “She made us feel that we could do it in the first place,” one of them said to me, “and somehow we did. That sense we had of her—brooding and hovering back there in Washington—always gave us courage; always gave us the physical strength to do the things we did and the mental strength to make the decisions we made.”
As one looks through the lists of these three groups of organizers, one is astounded at the various kinds of work they did; their versatility. Mabel Vernon for instance. Her activities form an integral part of the Woman’s Party history. Mabel Vernon traveling ahead of Sara Bard Field in her spectacular automobile trip across the country, was more responsible than anybody, except Mrs. Field herself, for the success of that trip. Mabel Vernon challenged the President in the course of his speech at the laying of the corner-stone of the new Headquarters of the American Federation of Labor in Washington. Mabel Vernon was one of the women who dropped the banner in the Senate when the President came to speak before them. Mabel Vernon picketed and went to jail. Mabel Vernon seems to have organized or spoken in every State in the Union.
Elsie Hill, Doris Stevens—you find them everywhere, luminous spirits with a new modern adjunct of political-mindedness. Abby Scott Baker was always on the wing.
One’s mind stops at the names of Vivian Pierce, Lucy Branham, Mary Gertrude Fendall, Hazel Hunkins. How many and what varying and difficult things they did! Vivian Pierce in addition to speaking and organizing and picketing activities, edited the Suffragist, and designed the charming tea-room at Headquarters. As for Lucy Branham—she must have seemed a stormy petrel to all opposing forces—she had so much the capacity of being everywhere at once.