Miss Martin then pointed out to the President the immense difficulties involved in State campaigns. She said: “The referendum campaigns are killing work, and the women of America are working for the passage of this Federal Amendment in order to end the long struggle.”
Miss Martin referred to the President’s attitude toward the Filipinos. She said she had read with interest that part of his message to Congress in which he advocated a larger measure of self-government for them. She pointed out that Suffragists were asking for an extension of the same right to American women, and urged him to give equal support to the Amendment enfranchising his country-women.
The Congressional Union began to send deputations to the refractory Rules Committee, immediately upon the return of the Committee members to Washington. On December 9, Mrs. William Kent and Mrs. Gardner called upon Chairman Henry as soon as he reached the city. To their great astonishment, they were promptly assured by Mr. Henry that the Rules Committee would report favorably House Resolution No. 514—providing time for the consideration of the Suffrage Amendment in the House—which had been before it since May 13.
“Mr. Henry said,” says the Suffragist of December 12, “that he had always desired to make a favorable report of the Suffrage rule; certain ‘sinister influences,’ however, working upon some of the members of this Committee had made it impossible for the Committee to take action upon it during the last Session. Mr. Henry did not state what the ‘sinister influences’ were, nor why they had been removed immediately after the election.”
He also assured representatives of the Union that the Rules Committee would shortly bring the Amendment to a vote in the House.
“There is every reason to believe,” said Mrs. Gilson Gardner commenting on Mr. Henry’s glib change of front, “that the Party leaders have met and studied the Democratic returns from the campaign States.”
On January 12, the Resolution on the Susan B. Anthony Amendment was debated for over six hours in the House and voted upon the same day. One hundred and seventy-four votes were cast for the Amendment, two hundred and four against it. Forty-six members were recorded as not voting. Of the forty-six, twelve were paired in favor, and six paired against it. The Amendment thus failed by seventy-eight votes of the necessary two-thirds.
It is a favorite trick with politicians to bring up the Amendment in the short session of a dying Congress. They can vote no and still have a chance, in the new Congress, to redeem themselves before election.
The Suffragist of January 23 quotes some of the reasons for opposing the Amendment: