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The Story of the Womans Party by Inez Haynes Irwin PDF

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Project Gutenberg's The Story of The Woman's Party, by Inez Haynes Irwin This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: The Story of The Woman's Party Author: Inez Haynes Irwin Release Date: March 7, 2018 [EBook #56701] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE WOMAN'S PARTY *** Produced by David Edwards, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) on Alice Paul. Taken the Day Before She Went to Prison. Photo Copr. Edmonston Studio, Washington, D. C. i ii THE STORY OF THE WOMAN’S PARTY BY INEZ HAYNES IRWIN ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY 1921 COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY RAHWAY. N. J. iii “But with such women consecrating their lives failure is impossible.” Last words spoken in public by Susan B. Anthony— her birthday, 1906. “Most of those who worked with me in the early years have gone. I am here for a little time only and my place will be filled as theirs was filled. The fight must not cease; you must see that it does not stop.” Susan B. Anthony. iv TO THE INSPIRED, DEVOTED, UNTIRING, AND SELF- SACRIFICING MEMBERS OF THE WOMAN’S PARTY, AND IN ESPECIAL TO THOSE WHOSE WORK CANNOT FOR LACK OF SPACE BE MENTIONED HERE OR WHOSE EFFORTS MAY NEVER EVEN IN THE FUTURE BE PROPERLY APPRECIATED, THIS BOOK IS ADMIRINGLY AND REVERENTLY DEDICATED. vi CONTENTS PART ONE 1913-1914 I. Introduction 3 II. Alice Paul 6 III. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns 14 IV. F Street and the Early Days 18 V. Making the Federal Amendment an Issue 31 VI. Pressure on Congress 49 VII. Pressure on the President 57 VIII. The Struggle With the Rules Committee 66 IX. The First Appeal to the Women Voters 73 X. Congress Takes up the Suffrage Amendment 87 PART TWO 1915-1916 I. The Woman Voters Appeal to the President and to Congress 99 II. The New Headquarters and the Middle Years 123 III. The Conflict with the Judiciary Committee 130 IV. More Pressure on the President 144 V. Forming the Woman’s Party 149 VI. Still More Pressure on the President 164 VII. The Second Appeal to the Women Voters 172 VIII. Hail and Farewell 183 PART THREE 1917 I. The Perpetual Delegation 193 1. The Peaceful Picketing 193 2. The Peaceful Reception 212 3. The War on Pickets 220 4. The Court and the Pickets 259 5. The Strange Ladies 261 II. Telling the Country 292 1 III. More Pressure on Congress 299 PART FOUR VICTORY I. The New Headquarters and the Later Years 311 II. Lobbying 317 III. Organizing 327 IV. The President Capitulates and the House Surrenders 336 V. Fighting for Votes in the Senate 340 VI. Burning the President’s Words 355 VII. The President Appeals to the Senate to Pass the Suffrage Amendment 366 VIII. Picketing the Senate 372 IX. The Third Appeal to the Women Voters 380 X. The President Includes Suffrage in His Campaign for Congress 384 XI. Burning the President’s Words Again 386 XII. The Watch Fires of Freedom 391 XIII. The Appeal to the President on His Return 408 XIV. The Appeal to the President on His Departure 412 XV. The President Obtains the Last Vote and Congress Surrenders 415 XVI. Ratification 418 XVII. The Last Days 464 Index 477 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Alice Paul Frontispiece Lucy Burns at the Head of the “Prison Specialists” 16 Why is the Girl from the West Getting all the Attention? Cartoon by Nina Allender 76 The Suffragist’s Dream. Cartoon by Nina Allender 146 Inez Milholland in the Washington Parade, March 3, 1913 184 Joy Young at the Inez Milholland Memorial Service 188 Wage Earners Picketing the White House, February, 1917 200 The Thousand Pickets try vainly to Deliver Their Resolutions to the President, March 4, 1917 204a A Thousand Pickets Marching Around the White House, March 4, 1917 204b Obeying Orders, Washington Police Arresting White House Pickets Before the Treasury Building 256a The Patrol Wagon Waiting the Arrival of the Suffrage Pickets 256b Burning the President’s Words at the Lafayette Monument, Washington 356a A Summer Picket Line 356b Lucy Branham Burning the President’s Words at the Lafayette Monument 364b The Russian Envoy Banner, August, 1917 364b One of the Watchfires of Freedom 396a A Policeman Scatters the Watchfire 396b Suffragist Rebuilding the Fire Scattered by the Police 398a The Last Suffragist Arrested. The Fire Burns On 398b The Oldest and the Youngest Pickets 448 The Flag Complete 462 Every Good Suffragist the Morning after Ratification. Cartoon by Nina Allender 470 2 PART ONE 1913 and 1914 I INTRODUCTION In 1912 the situation in the United States in regard to the enfranchisement of women was as follows: Agitation for an amendment to the National Constitution had virtually ceased. Before the death of Susan B. Anthony in 1906, Suffragists had turned their attention to the States. Suffrage agitation there was persistent, vigorous, and untiring; in Washington, it was merely perfunctory. The National American Woman Suffrage Association maintained a Congressional Committee in Washington, but no Headquarters. This Committee arranged for one formal hearing before the Senate and the House Committee of each Congress. The speeches were used as propaganda mailed on a Congressman’s frank. The Suffrage Amendment had never in the history of the country been brought to a vote in the National House of Representatives, and had only once, in 1887, been voted upon in the Senate. It had not received a favorable report from the Committee in either House since 1892 and had not received a report of any kind since 1896. Suffrage had not been debated on the floor of either House since 1887. In addition, the incoming President, Woodrow Wilson, if not actually opposed to the enfranchisement of women, gave no appearance of favoring it; the great political Parties were against it. Political leaders generally were unwilling to be connected with it. Congress lacked—it is scarcely exaggeration to say—several hundreds of the votes necessary to pass the Amendment. Last of all the majority of Suffragists did not think the Federal Amendment a practical possibility. They were entirely engrossed in State campaigns. On the other hand, the Suffrage movement, itself, was virile and vital. The fourth generation of women to espouse this cause were throwing themselves into the work with all the power and force of their able, aroused, and emancipate generation. The franchise had been granted in six States: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, California. With the winning of Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona in 1912, the movement assumed a new importance in the national field. These victories meant that there were approximately two million women voters in the United States, that one-fifth of the Senate, one-seventh of the House and one-sixth of the electoral vote came from Suffrage States. It was in December, 1912, as Chairman of the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, that Alice Paul came to Washington. In the next eight years, this young woman was to bring into existence a new political Party of fifty thousand members. She was to raise over three-quarters of a million dollars. She was to establish a Headquarters in Washington that became the focus of the liberal forces of the country. She was to gather into her organization hundreds of devoted workers; some without pay and others with less pay than they could command at other work or with other organizations. She was to introduce into Suffrage agitation in the United States a policy which, though not new in the political arena, was new to Suffrage—the policy of holding the Party in power responsible. She was to institute a Suffrage campaign so swift, so intensive, so compelling—and at the same time so varied, interesting, and picturesque— that again and again it pushed the war news out of the preferred position on the front pages of the newspapers of the United States. She was to see her Party blaze a purple, white, and gold trail from the east to the west of the United States; and from the north to the south. She was to see the Susan B. Anthony Amendment pass first the House and then the Senate. She was to see thirty-seven States ratify the Amendment in less than a year and a half thereafter. She was to see the President of the United States move from a position of what seemed definite opposition to the Suffrage cause to an open espousal of it; move slowly at first but with a progress which gradually accelerated until he, himself, obtained the last Senatorial vote necessary to pass the Amendment. What was the training which had developed in Alice Paul this power and what were the qualities back of that training, which made it possible for her to invent so masterly a plan, to pursue it so resistlessly? 3 4 5

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