Jailed for Freedom

oters O

stern women to protest against the Congressional candidates of the National Democratic Party in the suffrage states, when ever

had faith in

campaign. Six weeks before election they woke up to find the issue of national suffrage injected into a campaign which th

s were spoken. Violent threats were made. In Colorado, where I was cam- paigning, I was invited politely but firmly by the Democratic leader to leave the state the

object to my bein

t to ask women to

on of this experien

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for and explaining the Democratic Party's record. Nor did they relish spending more money publishing more literature, in short, adding greatly to the burdens of their campaign. The candidates

rdily a general public recognition that the Congressional Union had made a real contribution to these results. In the nine suffrage states women vote3 for 45 members of Congress. For 43 of these seats the Democratic Party ran candidates. W

nt in Congress. The most backward member realized for the first time that women had voted. Even the President perceived that the movement had gained new strength, thoug

and determinatio

ocratic women (eighth deputation)

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ent permitting a national initiative and referendum on suffrage in the states, thereby forcing upon women the very course we had sought to circumvent. This red herring drawn across the path had been accepted b

offset this danger and to show again in dramatic fashion the strength and will of the women voters to act on this issue, we made political work among the western women the principal effort of the year 1915, the year preceding the presidential election. Taking advantage of the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco,

ting states assembled

nd 16. There is no

resentative A. Mitchell Palmer of Pennsylvania, Democrat, later Attorney General in President Wilson's Cabinet

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valleys of California, from the mountains of Nevada and Utah, were in deadly earnest. They had answered the call and they meant to stay in the fight until it was won. The convention went on record unanimously for fu

n thousand people were present, to go to the President and Congress bearing these resolutions and hundreds of thousands of signatures upon a petit

ng the way, received as they were by governors, by mayors, by officials high and low, and by the populace. Thousands more added their names to the petition an

e for suffrage in a state referendum. He was careful to state that he did so as a private citizen, "not as the leader of my party in the natio

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ronger at every turn of the agitation." He knew women were asking the powerful aid of the President of the United States, not the aid of Mr. Wilson of Princeton, New Jersey. The state ame

s of Congress, where they were received by senators and representatives and addressed with eloquent speeches. The envoys repl

the President's position. He listened with an eager attention to the story of the new-found power and what women meant to do with it. For

re given a hearing before the Senate Suffrage Committee and before the House Judiciary

ss! Only agile scrambling by each committee member to ask with eagerness and some heat, "Well,

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e to jump ahead to political consequences. "Sirs, that depends upon what you gentlemen do. We

r it and his party does not" from

lleague. And so the hearing passed in something of a verbal riot, but with no doubt as to

gain, but the Judiciary Committee footballed it to its sub-committee, ba

rock the ship even slightly! Oh, no, indeed; it was men's business to keep the nation out of war. Men never had shown marked skill at keeping natio

was clear that more highly organized woman-power would have to be called into action before the national government would speed its pace. To the women vote

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ters to come to Chicago on June 5th to form a new party,-The Woman's Party[1]-to serve as long as should

only in .the suffrage fight but in the whole woman movement. For the first time in history, women came together to organize their political power into a party to free th

y sent as its repre

born, formerly Gover

most persuasive orato

Malone, Collector of

date for the Presid

d the Socialist Pa

poke for the Prohibit

d Pinchot for The

y-The Woman's Party. A new party with but one plank-the immediate passage of the federal suffrage amendment-a party determined to withhold

f all Congressional Union members in suffrage st

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became a potent factor of protest

following, both included suffrage planks in their national platforms for the first time in history. To be sure, they were planks that failed to satisfy us. But the mere hint of organized political action on suffrag

y stated at the Democratic Convention by leading Administration Democrats that the President himself had written this suffrage plank. If the Republicans could afford to write a vague and indefinite plank, the President and his party could not. They as the party in power had been under fire and were

It would not permit it even to be reported from the Judiciary Committee. The party platform was

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to him soon after to ask his support of the amendment, the President said, "I am opposed by conviction and political traditions to federal action on this question. Moreov

ause the party plank which he had

women contin

and all struggles. He was proclaiming his beliefs in the abstractions of liberty and justice, when Miss Vernon, who was seated on the platform from which he was speaking, said in her powerful voice, "Mr. President, if you sincerely desire to forward the interes

ll have to take counsel over later," and resumed his speech. Miss Vernon r

e autumn. Attention was focussed on the two rival presidential candidates, Woodrow Wilson and

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of their position on t

laration on August 1st, 1916: "My view is that the proposed amendment should

port ing the measure to that body for a vote, and

e Democratic Party's record now complete through one Administration. We asked women

n effort to prove his great belief in suffrage. He said poetically, "The tide is rising to meet the moon . . . .

or of the amendment. Democratic orators did their utmost to meet this opposition. "Give the President time. He can't do everything at once." "Trust him once more; he will do it for you next term." "He kept us out of war. He is the best frie

d this contest wit

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The people were excited to an almost unprecedented pitch over the issue of peace versus war. In spite of the difficulty of competing with this emotional iss

en he was heckled. Often he saw huge "VOTE AGAINST WILSON! HE KEPT US OUT OF SUFFRAGE!" banners at the doors of his meetings. One woman in Arizona, who, unable longer to listen in patience to the glory of "a democracy where only were governed those

erenely announced at the opening of the campaign that it was "not an issue in this campaign." Some merely apologized and explained. Others, like Dudley Field Ma

of the scope and strength of our campaign. If it were possib

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he Republican Party. The appeal was to vote a vote of protest against Mr. Wilson and his Congressional candidates, because he and his party had had the power to pass the amendment through Congress and had refused to do so. That left the women free to choose from among the Republicans, Socialists and Prohibitionists. It was to be expected that the main strengt

arty at this crisis, for there are no records kept for men and women separately, except in on

lectoral votes from the suffrage states, in the 1916 election, when the whole West was aflame for him because of his peace policy, he got only 5'7. Enthusiasm for Mr. Hughes in the West w

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ic member from a suffrage state, Mr. Taggart of Kansas, standing for reelection. This was the only spot where women could strike ou

omen had forced the campaign committee of the Democratic Party to assume the defensive and to practically double

rty protest was the only factor in the campaign which stemmed the western tide toward Wilson,

hold the center of the stage. Again many women had stood together on this issue and put woman suffrage first. And the actual reelection of President Wilson had i

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