Books: Jailed for Freedom
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Doris Stevens >> Jailed for Freedom
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MR. PRESIDENT, WHY DO YOU BLOCK THE NATIONAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT
TO-DAY?
WHY ARE YOU BEHIND LINCOLN?
and another:
AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, WOMEN ASKED FOR POLITICAL FREEDOM. THEY WERE
TOLD TO WAIT--THIS WAS THE NEGRO'S HOUR. IN 1917 AMERICAN WOMEN
STILL ASK FOR FREEDOM.
WILL YOU, MR. PRESIDENT, TELL THEM TO WAIT-THAT THIS IS THE PORTO
RICANS HOUR?[1]
A huge labor demonstration on the picket line late in February
brought women wage earners from office and factory throughout the
Eastern States.
A special Susan B. Anthony Day on the anniversary of the birth of
that great pioneer, served to remind. the President who said,
"You can afford to wait," that the women had been waiting and
fighting for this legislation to pass Congress since the year
1878.
More than one person came forward to speak with true religious
fervor of the memory of the great Susan B. Anthony. Her name is
never mentioned nor her words quoted without finding such a
response.
In the face of heavy snow and rain, dozens of young women stood
in line, holding special banners made for this occasion.
Thousands of men and women streaming home from work in the early
evening read words of hers spoken during the Civil
[1]President Wilson had just advocated self-government for Porto
Rican men.
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War, so completely applicable to the policy of the young banner-
bearers at the gates.
WE PRESS OUR DEMAND FOR THE BALLOT AT THIS TIME IN NO NARROW,
CAPIOUS OR SELFISH SPIRIT, BUT FROM PUREST PATRIOTISM FOR THE
HIGHEST GOOD OF EVERY CITIZEN, FOR THE SAFETY OF THE REPUBLIC AND
A3 A GLORIOUS EXAMPLE TO THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH.
AT THIS TIME OUR GREATEST NEED IS NOT MEN O$ MONEY, VALIANT
GENERALS OR BRILLIANT VICTORIES, BUT A CONSISTENT NATIONAL POLICY
BASED UPON THE PRINCIPLE THAT ALL GOVERNMENTS DERIVE THEIR JUST
POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.
THE RIGHT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT FOR ONE-HALF OF ITS PEOPLE IS OF FAR
MORE VITAL CONSEQUENCE TO THE NATION THAN ANY OR ALL OTHER
QUESTIONS.
During the reunion week of the Daughters and Veterans of the
Confederacy, the picket line was the center of attraction for the
sight-seeing veterans and their families. For the first time in
history the troops of the Confederacy had crossed the Potomac and
taken possession of the capital city. The streets were lined with
often tottering but still gallant old men, whitehaired and
stooped, wearing their faded badges on their gray uniforms, and
carrying their tattered flags.
It seemed to the young women on picket duty during those days
that not a single veteran had failed to pay his respects to the
pickets. They came and came; and some brought back their wives to
show them the guard at the gates.
One old soldier with tears in his dim eyes came to say, "I've
done sentinel duty in my time. I know what it is . . .
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And now it's your turn. You young folks have the strength and the
courage to keep it up . . . . You are going to put it through!"'
One sweet old Alabamian came shyly up to one of the pickets and
said, "I say, Miss, this is the White House, isn't it?"
Before she could answer, he added: "We went three times around
the place and I told the boys, the big white house in the center
was the White House, but they wasn't believing me and I wasn't
sure, but as soon as I saw you girls coming with your flags, to
stand here, I said, `This must be the White House. This is sure
enough where the President lives; here are the pickets with their
banners that we read about down home."' A note of triumph was in
his frail voice.
The picket smiled, and thanked him warmly, as he finished with,
"You are brave girls. You are bound to get him, pointing his
shaking finger toward the White House.
President Wilson's second inauguration was rapidly approaching.
Also war clouds were gathering with all the increased
emotionalism that comes at such a crisis. Some additional
demonstration of power and force must be made before the
President's inauguration and before the excitement of our entry
into the war should plunge our agitation into obscurity. This was
the strategic moment to assemble our forces in convention in
Washington.
Accordingly, the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and the
Woman's Party, that section of the Congressional Union in
suffrage states made up of women voters, convened in Washington
and decided unanimously to unite their strength, money and
political power in one organization, and called it the National
Woman's Party.
The following officers were unanimously elected to direct the
activities of the new organization: Chairman of the National
Woman's Party, Miss Alice Paul, New Jersey; Vice-
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chairman, Miss Anne Martin, Nevada; secretary, Miss Mabel Vernon,
Nevada; treasurer, Miss Gertrude Crocker, Illinois; executive
members, Miss Lucy Burns, Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, Mrs. John
Winters Brannan, New York; Mrs. Gilson Gardner, Illinois; Mrs.
Robert Baker, Washington, D. C.; Mrs. William Kent and Miss Maud
Younger, California; Mrs. Florence Bayard Hilles, Delaware; Mrs.
Donald Hooker, Maryland; Mrs. J. A. H. Hopkins, New Jersey; Mrs.
Lawrence Lewis, Pennsylvania, and Miss Doris Stevens, Nebraska.
The convention came to a close on the eve of inauguration,
culminating in the dramatic picket line made up of one thousand
delegates who sought an interview with the President. The purpose
of the interview was to carry to him the resolutions of the
convention, and further plead with him to open his second
administration with a promise to back the amendment.
In our optimism we hoped that this glorified picket-pageant might
form a climax to our three months of picketing. The President
admired persistence. He said so. He also said he appreciated the
rare tenacity shown by our women. Surely "now" he would be
convinced! No more worrying persistence would be needed ! The
combined political strength of the western women and the
financial strength of the eastern women would surely command his
respect and entitle us to a hearing.
What actually happened?
It was a day of high wind and stinging, icy rain, that March 4th,
1917, when a thousand women, each bearing a banner, struggled
against the gale to keep their banners erect. It is always
impressive to see a thousand people march, but the impression was
imperishable when these thousand women marched in rain-soaked
garments, hands bare, gloves roughly torn by the sticky varnish
from the banner poles and the streams of water running down the
poles into the palms of their hands. It was a sight to impress
even the most hardened
{76}
spectator who had seen all the various forms of the suffrage
agitation in Washington. For more than two hours the women
circled the White House-the rain never ceasing for an instant-
hoping to the last moment that at least their leaders would be
allowed to take in to the President the resolutions which they
were carrying.
Long before the appointed hour for the march to start, thousands
of spectators sheltered by umbrellas and raincoats lined the
streets to watch the procession. Two bands whose men managed to
continue their spirited music in spite of the driving rain led
the march playing "Forward Be Our Watchword"; "The Battle Hymn of
the Republic"; "Onward Christian Soldiers"; "The Pilgrim's
Chorus" from Tannhauser; "The Coronation March" from Le Prophete,
the Russian Hymn and "The Marsellaise"
Miss Vida Milholland led the procession carrying her sister's
last words, "Mr. President, how long must women wait for
liberty?" She was followed by Miss Beulah Amidon of North Dakota,
who carried the banner that the beloved Inez Milholland carried
in her first suffrage procession in New York. The long line of
women fell in behind.
Most extraordinary precautions had been taken about the White
House. Everything had been done except the important thing. There
were almost as many police officers as marchers. The Washington
force had been augmented by a Baltimore contingent and squads of
plainclothes men. On every fifty feet of curb around the entire
White House grounds there was a policeman., About the same
distance apart on the inside of the tall picket-fence which
surrounds the grounds were as many more.
We proceeded to the main gate. Locked! I was marshalling at the
head of the line and so heard first hand what passed between the
leaders and the guards. Miss Anne, Martin addressed the guard
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"We have come to present some important resolutions to the
President of the United States."
"I have orders to keep the gates locked, Ma'am."
"But there must be some mistake. Surely the President does not
mean to refuse to see at least . . ."
"Those are my only orders, Ma'am."
The procession continued on to the second gate on Pennsylvania
Avenue. Again locked. Before we could address the somewhat
nervous policeman who stood at the gates, he hastened to say,
"You can't come in here; the gates are locked."
"But it is imperative; we are a thousand women from all States in
the Union who have come all the way to Washington to see the
President and lay before him . . ."
"No orders, Ma'am."
The line made its way to the third and last gate the gate leading
to the Executive offices. As we came up to this gate a small army
of grinning clerks and secretaries manned the windows of the
Executive offices, evidently amused at the sight of the women
struggling in the wind and rain to keep their banners intact.
Miss Martin, Mrs. William Kent of California, Mrs. Florence
Bayard Hilles of Delaware, Miss Mary Patterson of Ohio, niece of
John C. Patterson of Dayton, Mrs. J. A. H. Hopkins of New Jersey,
Miss Eleanor Barker of Indiana, and Mrs. Mary Darrow Weible of
North Dakota,-the leaders -stayed at the gate, determined to get
results from the guard, while the women continued to circle the
White House.
"Will you not carry a message to the President's Secretary asking
him to tell the President that we are here waiting to see him?"
"Can't do that, Ma'am."
"Will you then take our cards to the Secretary to the president,
merely announcing to him that we are here, so that he may send
somebody to carry in our resolutions?"
Still the guard hesitated. Finally he left the gate and
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carried the message a distance of a few rods into the Executive
offices. He had scarcely got inside when he rushed back to his
post. When we sought to ascertain what had happened to the cards-
-had they been given and what the answer was-he quietly confided
to us that he had been reprimanded for even attempting to bring
them in and informed us that the cards were still in his pocket.
"I have orders to answer no questions and to carry no messages.
If you have anything to leave here you might take it to the
entrance below the Executive offices, and-when I go off my beat
at six o'clock I will leave it as I go by the White House."
We examined this last entrance suggested. It, did not strike us
as the proper place to leave an important message for the
President.
"What is this entrance used for?" I asked the guard.
"It's all right, lady. If you've got something you'd like to
leave, leave it with me. It will be safe."
I retorted that we were not seeking safety for our message, but
speed in delivery.
The guard continued: "This is the gate where Mrs. Wilson's
clothes and other packages are left."
It struck us as scarcely fitting that we should leave our
resolutions amongst "Mrs. Wilson's clothes and other packages,"
so we returned to the last locked gate to ask the guard if he had
any message in the meantime for us. He shook his head
regretfully.
Meanwhile the women marched and marched, and the rain fell harder
and as the afternoon wore on the cold seemed almost unendurable.
The white-haired grandmothers in the procession-there were some
as old as 84-were as energetic as the young girls of 20. What was
this immediate hardship compared to eternal subjection! Women
marched and waited-waited and marched,
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under the sting of the biting elements and under the worse sting
of the indignities heaped upon them. It was impossible to believe
that in democratic America they could not see the President to
lay before him their grievance.
It was only when they saw the Presidential limousine, in the late
afternoon, roll luxuriously out of the grounds, and through the
gates down Pennsylvania Avenue, that the weary marchers realized
that President Wilson had deliberately turned them away unheard!
The car for an instant, as it came through the gates, divided the
banner-bearers on march. President and Mrs. Wilson looked
straight ahead as if the long line of purple, white and gold were
invisible.
All the women who took part in that march will tell you what was
burning in their hearts on that dreary day. Even if reasons had
been offered-and they were not-genuine reasons why the President
could not see them, it would not have cooled the women's heat.
Their passionate resentment went deeper than any reason could
possibly have gone.
This one single incident probably did more than any other to make
women sacrifice themselves. Even something as thin as diplomacy
on the part of President Wilson might have saved him many
restless hours to follow, but he did not take the trouble to
exercise even that.
The women returned to headquarters and there wrote a letter which
was dispatched with the resolutions to President Wilson. In a
letter to the National Woman's Party, acknowledging the receipt
of them, he concluded by saying: "May I not once more express my
sincere interest in the cause of woman suffrage?"
Three months of picketing had not been enough. We must not only
continue on duty at his gates but also, at the gates of Congress.
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Chapter 2
The Suffrage War Policy
President Wilson called the War Session of the Sixty-fifth
Congress on April 2, 1917.
On the opening day of Congress not only were the pickets again on
duty at the White House, but another picket line was inaugurated
at the Capitol. Returning senators and congressmen were surprised
when greeted with great golden banners reading:
RUSSIA AND ENGLAND ARE ENFRANCHISING THEIR WOMEN IN WAR-TIME. HOW
LONG MUST AMERICAN WOMEN WAIT FOR THEIR LIBERTY
The last desperate flurries in the pro-war and anti-war camps
were focused on the Capitol grounds that day. There swarmed about
the grounds and through the buildings pacifists from all over the
country wearing white badges, and advocates of war, wearing the
national colors. Our sentinels at the Capitol stood strangely
silent, and almost aloof, strong in their dedication to
democracy, while the peace and war agitation circled about them.
With lightning speed the President declared that a state of war
existed. Within a fortnight following, Congress declared war on
Germany and President Wilson voiced his memorable, "We shall
fight for the things 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." Inspir-
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ing words indeed! The war message concluded with still another
defense of the fight for political liberty: "To such a task we
can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are
and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know
that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her
blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and
happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her,
she can do no less."
Now that the United States was actually involved in war, we were
face to face with the question, which we had considered at the
convention the previous month, when war was rumored, as to what
position we, as an organization, should take in this situation.
The atmosphere of that convention had been dramatic in the
extreme. Most of the delegates assembled had been approached
either before going to Washington or upon arriving, and urged to
use their influence to persuade the organization to abandon its
work for the freedom of women and turn its activities into war
channels. Although war was then only rumored, the hysterical
attitude was already prevalent. Women were asked to furl their
banners and give up their half century struggle for democracy, to
forget the liberty that was most precious to their hearts.
"The President will turn this Imperialistic war into a crusade
for democracy." . . . "Lay aside your own fight and help us crush
Germany, and you will find yourselves rewarded with a vote out of
the nation's gratitude," were some of the appeals made to our
women by government officials high and low and by the rank and
file of men and women. Never in history did a band of women stand
together with more sanity and greater solidarity than did these
1000 delegates representing thousands more throughout the States.
As our official organ, The Suffragist, pointed out editorially,
in its issue of April 21st, 1917: Our membership was
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made up of women who had banded together to secure political
freedom for women. We were united on no other subject. Some would
offer passive resistance to the war; others would become devoted
followers of a vigorous military policy. Between these, every
shade of opinion was represented. Each was loyal to the ideas
which she held for her country. With the character of these
various ideals, the National Woman's Party, we maintained, had
nothing to do. It was concerned only with the effort to obtain
for women the opportunity to give effective expression, through
political power, to their ideals, whatever they might be.
The thousand delegates present at the convention, though
differing widely on the duty of the individual in war, were
unanimous in voting that in the event of war, the National
Woman's Party, as an organization, should continue to work for
political liberty for women and for that alone, believing as the
convention stated in its resolutions, that in so doing the
organization "serves the highest interest of the country." They
were also unanimous in the opinion that all service which
individuals wished to give to war or peace should be given
through groups organized for such purposes, and not through the
Woman's Party, a body created, according to its constitution, for
one purpose only-"to secure an amendment to the United States
Constitution enfranchising women."
We declared officially through our organ that this held "as the
policy of the Woman's Party, whatever turn public events may
take."
Very few days after we were put upon a national war basis it
became clear that never was there greater need of work for
internal freedom in the country. Europe, then approaching her
third year of war, was increasing democracy in the midst of the
terrible conflict. In America at that very moment women were
being told that no attempt at electoral reform had any place in
the country's program "until the war is over." The Demo-
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crats met in caucus and decided that only "war measures" should
be included in the legislative program, and announced that no
subjects would be considered by them, unless the President urged
them as war measures.
Our task was, from that time on, to make national suffrage a war
measure.
We at once urged upon the Administration the wisdom of accepting
this proposed reform as a war measure, and pointed out the
difficulty of waging a war for democracy abroad while democracy
was denied at home. But the government was not willing to profit
by the experience of its Allies in extending suffrage to women,
without first offering a terrible and brutal resistance.
We must confess that the problem of dramatizing our fight for
democracy in competition with the drama of a world-war, was most
perplexing. Here were we, citizens without power and recognition,
with the only weapons to which a powerless class which does not
take up arms can resort. We could not and would not fight with
men's weapons. Compare the methods women adopted to those men use
in the pursuit of democracy; bayonets, machine guns, poison gas,
deadly grenades, liquid fire, bombs, armored tanks, pistols,
barbed wire entanglements, submarines, mines-every known
scientific device with which to annihilate the enemy!
What did we do?
We continued to fight with our simple, peaceful, almost quaint
device -a banner. A little more fiery, perhaps; pertinent to the
latest political controversy, but still only a banner inscribed
with militant truth!
Just as our political strategy had been to oppose, at elections,
the party in power which had failed to use its power to free
women, so now our military strategy was based on the military
doctrine of concentrating all one's forces on the enemy's weakest
point. To women the weakest point in the
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Administration's political lines during the war was the
inconsistency between a crusade for world democracy and the
denial of democracy at home. This was the untenable position of
President Wilson and the Democratic Administration, from which we
must force them to retreat. We could force ,such a retreat when
we had exposed to the world this weakest point.
Just as the bluff of a democratic crusade must be called, so must
the knight-leader of the crusade be exposed to the critical eyes
of the world. Here was the President, suddenly elevated to the
position of a world leader with the almost pathetic trust of the
peoples of the world. Here was the champion of their democratic
aspirations. Here was a kind of universal Moses, expected to lead
all peoples out of bondage no matter what the bondage, no matter
of how long standing.
The President's elevation to this unique pinnacle of power was at
once an advantage and a disadvantage to us. It was an advantage
to us in that it made our attack more dramatic. One supposed to
be impeccable was more vulnerable. It was a disadvantage to have
to overcome this universal trust and world-wide popularity. But
this conflict of wits and brains against power only enhanced our
ingenuity.
On the day the English mission headed by Mr. Balfour, and the
French mission headed by M. Viviani, visited the White House, we
took these inscriptions to the picket line:
WE SHALL FIGHT FOR THE THINGS WE HAVE ALWAYS CARRIED NEAREST OUR
HEARTS
DEMOCRACY SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME
WE DEMAND JUSTICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT IN OUR OWN LAND
Embarrassing to say these things before foreign visitors? We
hoped it would be. In our capacity to embarrass Mr. Wilson in his
Administration, lay our only hope of success. We had to keep
before the country the flagrant inconsistency of
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the President's position. We intended to know why, if
democracy were so precious as to demand the nation's blood and
treasure for its achievement abroad, its execution at home was so
undesirable.
Meanwhile:
"I tell you solemnly, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot any longer
postpone justice in these United States"-President Wilson.
"I don't wish to sit down and let any man take care of me without
my at least having a voice in it, and if he doesn't listen to my
advice, I am going to make it as unpleasant as I can President
Wilson,-and other challenges were carried on banners to the
picket line.
Some rumblings of political action began to be heard. The
Democratic majority had appointed a Senate Committee on Woman
Suffrage whose members were overwhelmingly for federal action.
The chairman, Senator Andreas Jones of New Mexico, promised an
early report to the Senate. There were scores of gains in
Congress. Representatives and Senators were tumbling over each
other to introduce similar suffrage resolutions. We actually had
difficulty in choosing the man whose name should stamp our
measure.
A minority party also was moved to act. Members of the
Progressive Party met in convention in St. Louis on April 12, 13
and 14 and adopted a suffrage plank which demanded "the nation-
wide enfranchisement of women . . . ."
In addition to this plank they adopted a resolution calling for
the establishment of democracy at home "at a time when the United
States is entering into an international war for democracy" and
instructing the chairman of the convention "to request a
committee consisting of representatives of all liberal groups to
go to Washington to present to the President and the Congress of
the United States a demand for immediate sub-
{86}
mission of an amendment to the United States constitution
enfranchising women."
They appointed a committee from the convention to carry these
resolutions to the President. The committee included Mr. J. A. H.
Hopkins of the Progressive Party, as chairman; Dr. E. A. Rumley
of the Progressive-Republican Party and Vice President of the New
York Evening Mail; Mr. John Spargo of the Socialist Party; Mr.
Virgil Hinshaw, chairman of the Executive Committee of the
Prohibition Party; and Miss Mabel Vernon, Secretary of the
National Woman's Party. It was the first suffrage conference with
the President after the declaration of war, and was the last
deputation on suffrage by minority party leaders. The conference
was one of the utmost informality and friendliness.
The President was deeply moved, indeed, almost to the point of
tears, when Miss Mabel Vernon said, "Mr. President, the feelings
of many women in this country are best expressed by your own
words in your war message to Congress . . . . To every woman who
reads that message must come at once this question: If the right
of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own
government is so sacred a cause to foreign people as to
constitute the reason for our entering the international war in
its defense, will you not, Mr. President, give immediate aid to
the measure before Congress demanding self-government for the
women of this country?"
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