Mrs. Emma S. South, wife of former Representative Oliver South of Illinois, said the opponents had given alleged facts that would require weeks of investigation to prove or disprove. She answered their favorite assertion that women had more influence without the vote by convincing illustrations of what the women of Chicago had been able to accomplish with even their partial suffrage, retaining Mrs. Ella Flagg Young as superintendent of schools, for instance. She showed how in the appointment of the new school board the fact that their power had been doubled and trebled by the recently granted Municipal vote was manifest. Mrs. William Kent, after showing why the women of California had asked for the ballot, gave her time to Miss Helen Todd, who said in the course of an impassioned speech: "My conversion to suffrage came through six years of work as factory inspector in Illinois. I have always thought that the reason there could be such a thing as women 'antis' was simply that the screen of ignorance and the comfort and protection of home were so thrown around them that they never had to face the realities.... No one can go, as I have gone, through the factories of a great State and see the suffering just of the children and not want the women who create human life to have the power to protect that life."
Mrs. Ella S. Stewart (Ills.), Mrs. John Rogers, Jr. (N. Y.), Mrs. Katharine Houghton Hepburn (Conn.), Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer (Penn.) and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (O.) spoke briefly but strongly and an effective letter was read from Miss Constance Leupp (D. C.). The women present from the South were deeply incensed at the long, opposing speech of Representative Heflin, who claimed to represent the women of that section, and he was severely answered by Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, Mrs. Oscar Hundley and Mrs. Felix Baldwin of his own State; Mrs. S. D. Meehan of Louisiana; Mrs. L. Crozier French and Miss Catharine J. Wester of Tennessee and Mrs. Lulu Loveland Shepherd of Utah, formerly of Tennessee. Mrs. Harper cited the three classes enfranchised since the founding of the Government, the working men, the negroes and the Indians, and said: "There was never any question as to whether they would improve things or hurt things; now, in the President's Message, he asks you to bring in the Porto Rican men. Are you going to do this because you think they are needed in the electorate and because they will make conditions better? We women are the only class who have ever asked for suffrage in this country to whom all these objections have been made and in regard to whom all these fears have been expressed. There is not a class of voters in the United States today which has lifted one finger to get the ballot, yet the women of this country have been struggling sixty-five years for the right to a voice in the Government. You must admit that they are the best-equipped class that have ever asked this privilege and yet you have kept them out. All we ask of you is to make it a little less hard than it has been by giving us a committee from whom we can get some consideration."
Mrs. Frank W. Mondell, wife of the Representative from Wyoming, said in the course of a very comprehensive address: "We do not desire to base our request for the appointment of a Committee on Woman Suffrage solely on the proposition that the subject is one of greater importance than those included within the jurisdiction of many committees of the House but rather on the ground that it has never, so far as my recollection and information go, failed to provide by general or special committee for the study and consideration of any vitally important question that has arisen in the growth and development of the nation." A review of the different committees was made and she concluded: "We do not ask or expect a committee constituted to represent our views but we ask for one whose special duty it shall be to consider the question. We feel that we are only asking the House of Representatives to follow its usual rule and procedure."
Mr. Mondell closed the hearing with a sarcastic review of the objections made by the opponents during which he said: "I had the privilege and pleasure of listening to the exceedingly strong and forceful argument in favor of woman suffrage made this morning by the gentleman from Alabama, or was it intended for an argument against it? I think, taking it as a whole, that it was the most conclusive argument I have ever heard in favor of it.... We have a committee whose business it is to inquire how much further we should extend the franchise to the little brown brother over in the Philippines, some six or seven millions of him, and the President considers that a sufficiently important matter to refer to it in his Message. I hope it was through forgetfulness and not deliberate intent that he seemed to fail to realize that it is of vastly less importance than the question of granting the franchise to the mothers, wives and sisters among the 95,000,000 of the folks here in the United States." Mr. Mondell ridiculed the sentimental effusion of Mr. Heflin and his solicitude lest the harmony of family life might be disturbed and said: "If the testimony of one who speaks from experience is worth while I can say with full realization that it is a sweeping statement: In twenty-seven years' wide knowledge of a people where woman suffrage prevails I have never known a solitary case where a difference of political opinion resulted in family quarrels or misunderstanding, not a single one.... Are we to understand that men elsewhere—in Alabama, for instance—are less considerate than with us and that they would make trouble if their women folks did not vote as they wanted them to?... The exercise of the franchise is a privilege and a right but above and beyond the question of right or privilege stands the fact that as time goes on and we are attempting to meet wisely the multitude of questions that arise in government, many of them social and economic, we need the assistance of the best half of mankind."
The Rules Committee met January 24, 1914, with eight of the fourteen members present and Mr. Lenroot moved to report favorably the resolution for a Woman Suffrage Committee. Representatives Foster (Ills.), Campbell (Kans.) and Kelly (Penn.) joined him; Representatives Hardwick (Ga.), Pou (N. C.), Cantrill (Ky.) and Garrett (Tenn.) opposed. Mr. Lenroot then moved to report it without recommendation and there was a tie vote. Enough signatures were secured for the calling of a Democratic caucus on February 3 but just before it convened a meeting of Democrats was held in the office of Representative Oscar J. Underwood (Ala.) and it was decided by a vote of 123 to 55 that suffrage was a State and not a Federal question and no further action on a special committee was taken.
FOOTNOTES:
[78] Call: For the forty-fifth time in its history the National American Woman Suffrage Association summons its members together in council. By thus assembling, one more united step toward the final emancipation of the women of this country is made practicable.... To the wise and courageous, to those not fearful of the changes demanded by the vital needs of growing humanity, this Call will have two meanings: first, it will speak of loyalty to work and to comrade workers; of large undertakings worthily begun and to be worthily finished; of the stimulus of difficulty; of joy in the exercise of talents and strength; of the self-control and ability required for cooperation.
Second, it will express—like other summons of women to women throughout the ages—the need not alone for counsel and comfort but also for the preservation of all they hold most high—for that to which they gladly give their lives. It will speak of the struggle for development which individual women have made; of the opportunities they have won for each other; of the unequivocal demand for the best, to which the few have led the many....
To you who grasp the underlying meaning of this struggle; to you who know yourselves akin to those who have preceded and to those who will follow; to you who are daily making this ideal a reality, this Call is sent.