 I will write a song for the President, full of menacing signs, and back of it all, Millions of Discontented Eyes. When all suffrage controversy has died away it will be the little army of women with their purple, white, and gold banners going to prison for their political freedom that will be remembered. They dramatized to victory the long suffrage fight in America. The challenge of the picket line roused the government out of its half-century sleep of indifference. It stirred the country to hot controversy. It made zealous friends and violent enemies. It produced a sharply drawn contest which forced the surrender of the government in the second administration of President Wilson. The day following the memorial deputation to the President, January 10, 1917, the first line of sentinels, a dozen in number, appeared for duty at the White House gates. In retrospect it must seem to the most inflexible person, a reasonably mild and gentle thing to have done. But at the same time it caused a profound stir. Columns of front-page space in all the newspapers of the country gave more or less dispassionate accounts of the main facts. Women carrying banners were standing quietly at the White House gates, picketing the President. Women wanted President Wilson to put his power behind the suffrage amendment in Congress. That did not seem so shocking, and only a few editors broke out into hot condemnation. Then however the women went back on the picket line the next day, and the next and the next. It began to dawn upon the excited press that such persistence was undesirable, unwomenly, dangerous. Gradually the people most hostile to the idea of suffrage in any form marshaled forth the fears which accompany every departure from the prescribed path. Partisan Democrats frowned. Partisan Republicans chuckled. The rest remained in cautious silence to see how others would take it. Following the refrain of the press the protest chorus grew louder. Silly women, unsexed, pathological, they must be crazy. Don't they know anything about politics? What can Wilson do? He does not have to sign the Constitutional amendment. So ran the comment from the wise elderly gentlemen sitting buried in their cushioned chairs at the Gentleman's Club across the park, watching eagerly the shocking shameless women at the gates of the White House. No wonder these gentlemen found the pickets irritating. This absorbing topic of conversation, we are told, shattered many an otherwise quiet afternoon and broke up many a quiet game. Here were American women before their very eyes, daring to shock them into having to think about liberty, and what was worse, liberty for women. Ah well, this could not go on. This insult to the President. Today could with impunity condemn him and gossip about his affairs, but that women should stand at his gates asking for liberty. That was a sin without mitigation. Disapproval was not confined merely to the Gentleman in their club. I merely mentioned them as an example, for they were our neighbors and the strain on them day by day as our beautiful banners floated gaily out from our headquarters was, I am told, a heavy one. Yet of course we enjoyed irritating them. Looking on the icy pavement on a damp wintry day in the penetrating cold of a Washington winter, knowing that within a stone's throw of our agony there was a greater agony than ours, there was a joy in that. There were the faint rumblings also in Congress, but like so many of its feelings they were confined largely to the cloakrooms. Representative Emerson of Ohio did demand from the floor of the House that the suffrage guard be withdrawn as it is an insult to the President. But his protest met with no response whatever from the other members. His oratory fell on indifferent ears. And of course there were always those in Congress who got a vicarious thrill watching women do in their fight what they themselves had not the courage to do in their own. Another representative, an anti-suffrage Democrat, inconsiderately called us iron jawed angels and hoped we would retire. But if by these protests these congressmen hoped to arouse their colleagues they failed. We were standing at the gates of the White House because the American Congress had become so supine that it could not or would not act without being compelled to act by the President. They knew that if they howled at us it would only afford an opportunity to retort. Very well then if you do not like us at the gates of your leader if you do not want us to insult the President end this agitation by taking the matter into your own hands and passing the amendment. Such a suggestion would be almost as severe a shock as our picketing. The thought of actually initiating legislation left a loyal Democratic follower transfixed. The heavy dignity of the Senate forbade their meddling much in this controversy over tactics. Also they were more interested in the sporting prospect of our going into the world war. There was no appeal to bloodlust in the women's fight. There were no shining rods of steel. There was no martial music. We were not pledging precious lives and vast billions in our crusade for liberty. The beginning of our fight did indeed seem tiny and frail by the side of the big game of war, and so the Senators were at first scarcely aware of our presence. But the intrepid women stood their long vigils day by day at the White House gates, through biting wind and driving rain, through sleet and snow as well as sunshine, waiting for the President to act. Above all the challenges of their banners rang this simple but insistent one. Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty? The royal blaze of purple, white, and gold, the party's tricolored banners, made a gorgeous spot of color against the bare, black limbed trees. There were all kinds of pickets, and so there were all kinds of reactions to the experience of picketing. The beautiful lady, who drove up in her limousine to do a twenty minute turn on the line, found it thrilling, no doubt. The winter tourist, who had read about the pickets in her home paper, thought it would be so exciting to hold a banner for a few minutes. But there were no illusions in the hearts of the women who stood at their posts day in and day out. None of them will tell you that they felt exalted, ennobled, exhilarated, possessed of any rare and exotic emotion. They were human beings before they were pickets. Their reactions were those of any human beings, called upon to set their teeth doggedly, and hang on to an unpleasant job. When will that woman come to relieve me? I have stood here an hour and a half, and my feet are like blocks of ice. Was a more frequent comment from picket to picket, then. Isn't it glorious to stand here defiantly, no matter what the stupid people say about us? I remember the thousand and one engaging things that would come to my mind on the picket line. It seemed that anything but standing at a president's gate would be more diverting. But there we stood. And what were the reflections of a president, as he saw the indomitable little army at his gates? We can only venture to say from events which happened. At first he seemed amused and interested. Perhaps he thought it a trifling incident staged by a minority of the extreme left, among suffragists, and anticipated no popular support for it. When he saw their persistence through a cruel winter, his sympathy was touched. He ordered the gorge to invite them in for a cup of hot coffee, which they declined. He raised his hat to them as he drove through the line. As he smiled, as yet he was not irritated. He was fortified in his national power. With the country's entrance into the war and his immediate elevation to world leadership, the pickets began to be a serious thorn in his flesh. His own statements of faith and democracy, and the necessity for establishing it throughout the world, left him open to attack. His refusal to pay the just bill owed the women and demanded by them brought irritation. What would you do if you owed a just bill, and every day someone stood outside your gates as a quiet reminder to the whole world that you had not paid it? You would object. You would get terribly irritated. You would call the insistent one all kinds of harsh names. You might even arrest him. But the scandal would be out. Rightly or wrongly your sincerity would be touched. Faith in you would be shaken a bit. Perhaps even against your will you would yield. But you would yield. And that was the one important fact to the women. This daily sight, inspiring, gallant, and impressive, escaped no visitor to the national capital, distinguished visitors from the far corners of the earth passed by the pickets on those days which made history. Thousands read the compelling messages on the banners, and literally hundreds of thousands learned the story when the visitors got back home. Real displeasure over the sentinels by those who passed was negligible. There was some mirth in joking, but the vast majority were filled with admiration, either silent or expressed. Keep it up. You're on the right track. Congratulations. I certainly admire your pluck. Stick to it and you will get it. This last from a military officer. It is an outrage that you women have to stand here and beg for your rights. We gave it to our women in Australia long ago. This from a charming gentleman who bowed approvingly. Often a lifted hat was held in sincere reverence over the heart as some courteous gentleman passed along the picket line. Of course there were some who came to try to argue with the pickets, who attempted to dissuade them from their persistent course. But the serene, good humor and even temper of the women would not allow heated arguments to break in on the military precision of their line. If a question was asked, a picket would answer quietly. An occasional sneer was easy to meet. That required no acknowledgment. A sweet old veteran of the Civil War said to one of my comrades, Use all right, you've got to fight for your rights in this world and now that we are about to plunge into another war I want to tell you women there'll be no end to it unless you women get power. We can't save ourselves and we need you. I am 84 years old and I have watched this fight since I was a young man. Anything I can do to help I want to do. I am living at the old soldier's home and I ain't got much money but here's something for your campaign. It's all I got and God bless you, you've got to win. He spoke the last sentence almost with desperation as he shoved a crumpled two-dollar bill into her hand. His spirit made it a precious gift. Cabinet members passed and repassed. Congressman by the hundreds came and went. Administration leaders tried to conceal under an artificial indifference their sensitiveness to our strategy. And domestic battles were going on inside the homes throughout the country for women were coming from every state in the union to take their place on the line. For the first time good suffrage husbands were made uncomfortable. Had they not always believed in suffrage? Had they not always been uncomplaining when their wife's time was given to suffrage campaigning? Had they not in short been good sports about the whole thing? There was only one answer they had, but it had been proved that all the things that women had done and all the things in which their menfolk had cooperated were not enough. Women were called upon for more intensive action. You cannot go to Washington and risk your house standing in front of the White House. I cannot have it. But the time has come when we have to take risks of health or anything else. Well then, if you must know, I don't believe in it. Now I am a reasonable man, and I have stood by you all the way up to now. But I object to this. It isn't ladylike, and it will do the cause more harm than good. You women lay yourselves open to ridicule. That's just it. That's a fine beginning. As soon as men get tired laughing at us, they will do something more about it. They won't find our campaign so amusing before long. But I protest. You've no right to go without considering me. But if your country called you in a fight for democracy, as it is likely to do at any moment, you'd go, wouldn't you? Why, of course. Of course you would. You would go to the front and leave me to struggle on as best as I could without you. That is the way you would respond to your country's call, whether it was a righteous cause or not. Well, I am going to the front, too. I am going to answer the women's call to fight for democracy. I would be ashamed of myself if I were not willing to join my comrades. I am sorry that you object. But if you will just put yourself in my place, you will see that I cannot do otherwise. It must be recorded that there were exceptional men of sensitive imaginations who urged women against their own hesitancy. They are the handful who gave women a hope that they would not always have to struggle alone for their liberation. And women passed by the Daily Picket Line as spectators, not as participants. Occasionally a woman came forward to remonstrate. But more often women were either too shy to advance or so enthusiastic that nothing could restrain them. The more kindhearted of them, inspired by the dauntless pickets in the midst of a now freezing temperature, brought mittens, fur pieces, galoshes, wool-lined raincoats, hot bricks to stand on, coffee and thermos bottles, and what not. Meanwhile the pickets became a household word in Washington, and very soon were the subject of animated conversation in practically every corner of the nation. The press cartoonists, by their friendly and satirical comments, helped a great deal in popularizing the campaign. In spite of the bitter editorial comment of most of the press, the humor of the situation had an almost universal appeal. At the Washington Dinner of the Gridiron Club, probably the best-known press club in the world, a dinner at which President Wilson was a guest, one of the songs sung for his benefit was as follows. We're campin' tonight on the White House grounds, give us a rousing cheer, our golden flag we hold aloft, of cops we have no fear, many of the pickets are weary tonight, wishing for the war to cease, many are the chill-blanes and frostbites too, it is no life of ease, campin' tonight, campin' tonight, campin' on the White House grounds. The White House police, on duty at the gates, came to treat the picketers as comrades. I was kind of worried, confessed one burly officer when the pickets were five minutes late one day. We thought perhaps you weren't coming and we would have to hold down this place alone. The bitter enders among the opponents of suffrage broke into such violent criticism that they won new friends to the amendment. People who had never before thought of suffrage for women had to think of it, if only to the extent of objecting to the way in which we asked for it. People who had thought a little about suffrage were compelled to think more about it. People who had believed in suffrage all their lives, but had never done a stroke of work for it, began to make speeches about it. If only for the purpose of condemning us. Some politicians who had voted for it, when there were not enough votes to carry the measure, loudly threatened to commit political suicide by withdrawing their support. But it was easy to see at a glance that they would not dare to run so great a political risk on an issue growing daily more important. As soon as the regular picket line began to be accepted as a matter of course, we undertook to touch it up a bit to sustain public interest. Eight days were inaugurated beginning with Maryland. The other states took up the idea with enthusiasm. There was a college day when women representing fifteen American colleges stood on the line, a teacher's day, which found a long line represented by almost every state in the union, and a patriotic day when American flags mingled with the party's banners carried by the representatives of the women's reserve corps, daughters of the revolution, and other patriotic organizations. And there were professional days when women doctors, and nurses joined the picket appeal. Lincoln's birthday anniversary saw another new feature. A long line of women took out banners bearing the slogans. Lincoln stood for women's suffrage sixty years ago. Mr. President, why do you block the National Suffrage Amendment today? 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 asked for freedom. Will you, Mr. President, tell them to wait? That this is the Puerto Rican's hour? Footnote. President Wilson had just advocated self-government for Puerto Rican men. End of footnote. 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, red words of hers spoken during the Civil 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, capacious or selfish spirit, but from purest patriotism for the highest good of every citizen, for the safety of the Republic and as a glorious example to the nations of the earth. At this time, our greatest need is not men of 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 a 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, white-haired 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, and now it's your turn. You young folks have the strength and the courage to keep it up. You're 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 round 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 shown off 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 pickets smiled and thanked him warmly, as he finished with, y'all brave girls, y'all 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 Women's Suffrage and the Women'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 Women's Party. The following officers were unanimously elected to direct the activities of the new organization. Chairman of the National Women's Party, Miss Alice Paul, New Jersey. Vice Chairman, Miss Ann Martin, Nevada. Secretary, Miss Mabel Vernon, Nevada. Treasurer, Miss Gertrude Crocker, Illinois. Executive members, Miss Lucy Burns, Mrs. OHP Belmont, Mrs. John Winters Brannon, New York. Mrs. Gilson Gardner, Illinois. Mrs. Robert Baker, Washington, D.C. Mrs. William Kent and Miss Maude Younger, California. Miss Florence Bayard-Hillis, Delaware. Mrs. Donald Hooker, Maryland. Mrs. J. A. H. Hopkins, New Jersey. Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Pennsylvania. And Miss Dara Stevens, Nebraska. The convention came to a close on the eve of inauguration, culminating in the dramatic picket line made up of 1,000 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 hope that this glorified picket pageant might force 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 marched forth 1917, when 1,000 women, each bearing a banner, struggled against the gale to keep their banners erect. It is always impressive to see 1,000 people march, but the impression was imperishable when these 1,000 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 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 into 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 BR Watchword, the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Onward Christian Soldiers, the Pilgrims Chorus from Tannhauser, the Coronation March from Liprow Feet, the Russian Hymn and the Marseille. Miss Vita Milholland led the procession carrying her sister's last words. Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty? She was followed by Miss Bula Amidin 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 plainclothesmen. On every fifty feet of curve 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 marshaled at the head of the line and so heard first hand what passed between the leaders and the guards. Miss Ann Martin addressed the guard. 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 Hillis 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 Weebel 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 waiting here 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 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 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 and 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 resolution 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 under the sting of the biting elements and under the worst 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 to dispatch with the resolutions to President Wilson in a letter to the National Women's Party acknowledging the receipt of them he concluded by saying, may I not once more express my sincere interest in the cause of women's 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. End of section five. Section six of Jail for Freedom. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Janet O'Reilly. Jail for Freedom by Doris Stevens. Part three, chapter two, The Suffrage War Policy. President Wilson called the war session of the 65th Congress on April 2nd, 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 wartime. 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. They're 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. Inspiring 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 historical 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 where some of the appeals made to our women by governmental 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 1,000 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 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 characters of these ideals the National Women'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 1,000 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 Women'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 wish or peace should be given through groups organized for such purposes and not through the Women's Party a body that was created according to its constitution for one purpose only to secure an amendment to the United States Constitution and franchising women. We declared officially through our organ that this held as the policy of the Women'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 their greater need for 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 Democrats 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 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 compared the methods women adopted to men use in the pursuit of democracy. Men use 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 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 night leader of the crusade be exposed to the critical eyes of the world. Here was the president suddenly elevated to the position of the 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 the 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 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 his universal trust and worldwide 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 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 Woodrow 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 such 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 women's 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 12th, 13th and 14th and adopted a suffrage plank which demanded the nationwide 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 was 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 congress of the United States a demand for immediate submission of an amendment to the United States constitution for 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. D. E. A. Rumley of the progressive republican party and vice president of the New York Evening Mel Mr. John Spargo of the socialist party Mr. Virgil Hinshaw chairman of the executive committee of the prohibition party and Ms. Mabel Vernon secretary of the national women's party it was the first suffrage conference with the president after the declaration of war and was the last deputation on suffrage of minority party leavers. The conference was one of the utmost informality and friendliness. The president was deeply moved indeed almost to the point of tears when Ms. 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 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 woman of this country. The president admitted that suffrage was constantly oppressing upon his mind for reconsideration. He added however that the program for the session was practically complete and intimated that it did not include the enfranchisement of women. He informed the committee that he had written a letter to Mr. Powell chairman of the rules committee of the House expressing himself as favoring the creation of a woman's suffrage committee in that body. While we had no objection to having the House create a suffrage committee we were not primarily interested in the amplification of congressional machinery unless this amplification was to be followed by the passage of the amendment. The president could as easily have written the senate committee on suffrage or the judiciary committee of the House advising an immediate report on the suffrage resolution as have asked for the creation of another committee to report on the subject. He made no mention of his state-by-state conviction however as he had in previous interviews and the committee of progressives understood him to have at least tacitly accepted federal action. The House judiciary committee continued to refuse to act and the House rules committee steadily refused to create a suffrage committee hoping to win back to the fold the wandering progressives who had thus demonstrated their allegiance to suffrage and seen an opportunity to embarrass the administration the Republicans began to interest themselves in action on the amendment in the midst of democratic relays representative James R. Mann Republican leader of the House moved to discharge the judiciary committee from further consideration of the suffrage amendment no matter if the discussion which followed did revolve around the authorization of an expenditure of $10,000 for the erection of a monument to a dead president as a legitimate war measure it was clear from the partisan attitude of those who took part in the debate that we were advancing to that position where we were as good political material to be contested over by opposing political groups as was a monument to a dead president and if the Democrats could defend such an issue as a war measure the Republicans wanted to know why they should ignore suffrage for women as a war measure and it was encouraging to find ourselves suddenly and spontaneously sponsored by the Republican leader the administration was aroused it did not know how far the Republicans were prepared to go in their drive for action so on the day of this flurry in the House the Snell-like Rules Committee suddenly met in answer to the call of its chairman Mr. Powell and by a vote of 6-5 decided to report favorably on the resolution providing for a woman suffrage committee in the House after all pending war measures were disposed of before the meeting Mr. Powell made a last appeal to the woman's party to remove the pickets we can't possibly win as long as pickets guard the White House and capital Mr. Powell had said the pickets continue their vigil and the motion carried still uncertain as to the purposes of the Republicans the Democrats removed to further action the executive committee of the Democratic House later voted 4-9 to officially urge upon the president that he call the two houses of Congress together and recommend the immediate submission of the Susan B. Anthony amendment this action which in effect reversed the plank in the Democratic platform evidently aroused protest from powerful quarters also the Republicans quickly subsided when they saw the Democrats making an advance and so the Democratic Executive Committee began to spread abroad the news that its act was not really official but merely reflected the personal conviction of the members present it extracted the official flavor and so of course no action followed in Congress and so it went like a great game of chess doubtless the politicians believed they were removed from their own true and noble motives the fact was that the pickets had moved the Democrats a step the Republicans had then attempted to take two steps where upon the Democrats they would have moved more rapidly than their opponents behind this matching of political wits by the two parties stood the faithful pickets compelling them both to act simultaneously with these moves and counter moves in political circles the people in all sections of this vast country began to speak their minds meetings were springing up everywhere at which resolutions were passed backing up the picket line and urging the president and congress to act even the south the administration's telegrams demanding action Alabama South Carolina Texas Maryland Mississippi as well as the West Middle West New England and the East the stream was endless every time a new piece of legislation was passed the war tax bill food conservation or what not women from unexpected quarters sent to the government their protest against the passage of measures so vital to women without women's consent coupled with an appeal for the liberation of women club women college women federations of labor various kinds of organizations sent protest to the administration leaders the picket line approaching its six month of duty had aroused the country to an unprecedented interest in suffrage it had rallied widespread public support to the amendment as a war measure and had itself become almost universally accepted if not universally approved and in the midst of picketing in spite of all the prophecies and fears that picketing would set back the cause within one month Michigan Nebraska and Rhode Island granted presidential suffrage to women the leaders were busy marshalling their forces behind the president's war program which included the controversial conscription and espionage bills then pending and did not relish having our questions so vivid in the public mind even when the rank and file of congress gave consideration to questions not in the war program they had to face a possible charge of inconsistency insincerity or bad faith the freedom of Ireland for example was not in the program and when 132 members of the house cabled Lloyd George that nothing would do more for American enthusiasm in the war than a settlement of the Irish question we took pains to ascertain the extent of the belief in liberty at home of these easy champions of Irish liberty when we found that of the 132 men only 57 believed in liberty for women we were not delicate in pointing out to the remaining that their belief in liberty for Ireland would appear more sincere if they believed in a democratic reform such as women's suffrage here the manifestations of popular approval of suffrage the constant stream of protest to the administration against its delay nationally and the shame of having women begging at its gates could result in only one of two things the administration had little choice it must yield to this pressure from the people or it must suppress the agitation which was causing such interest it must pass the amendment or remove the troublesome pickets it decided to remove the pickets part 3 chapter 3 the first arrest the administration chose suppression they resorted to force in an attempt to end picketing it was a policy doomed to failure as certainly efforts to force to kill agitation have failed ultimately this marked the beginning of the adoption by the administration of tactics from which they could never extricate themselves with honor unfortunately for them they were entering upon this policy toward women which savored of czarist practices at the very moment they were congratulating the Russians upon their liberation from the oppression of a czar this fact supplied us with a fresh angle of attack they sent a mission to Russia to add America's appeal to that of the other allies to keep that impoverished country in the war such was our democratic sale to persuade Russia to continue the war and to convince her people of its democratic purposes and of the democratic quality of America that L.A. Hufrut one of presidents on boys stated in Petrograd that he represented a republic where universal direct equal and secret suffrage obtained we subjected the president to attack through this statement Russia also sent a war mission to our country for purposes of cooperation this occasion offered us the opportunity again to expose the administration's weakness in claiming complete political democracy while women were still denied their political freedom it was a beautiful june day when all washington was a gog with the visit of the Russian diplomats to the president as the car carrying the envoys passed swiftly through the gates of the white house there stood on the picket line two silent sentinels miss lucy burns of new york and mrs. laurence lewis of philadelphia both members of the national executive committee with a great letter bannered which read to the Russian envoys president wilson and envoy are deceiving Russia when they say we are a democracy help us win the world war so that democracy may survive the women of america tell you that america is not a democracy twenty million american women are denied the right to vote president wilson is the chief opponent of their national enfranchisement help us make this nation really free tell our government it must liberate its people before it can claim free russia as an ally rumors that the suffragists would make a special demonstration before the Russian mission had brought a great crowd to the far gate of the white house a crowd composed almost entirely of men like all crowds this crowd had its share hoodlums and roughs who tried to interfere with the women's order of the day there was a flurry of excitement over this defiant message of truth but nothing that could not with the utmost ease have been settled by one policeman there was a criticism in the press and on the lips of men that we were embarrassing our government before the eyes of foreign visitors in answering the criticism miss paul publicly stated our position thus the intolerable conditions against which we protest can be changed in the twinkling of an eye the responsibility for our protest is therefore with the administration and not with the women of america if the lack of democracy at home weakens the administration in its fight for democracy three thousand miles away this was too dreadful a flurry of the gates of the chief of the nation at such a time would never do our allies in the crusade for democracy must not know that we had a day by day unrest at home something must be done to stop this expose at once had these women no manners had they no shame was the fundamental weakness in our boast of pure and perfect democracy to be so wantonly displayed with impunity of course it was embarrassing we meant it to be the truth must be told at all costs this was no time for manners hurried conferences behind closed doors summoning of the military to discuss declaring a military zone around the white house women could not advance on drawn bayonets and if they did what a picture common decency told the more humane leaders that this would never do I daresay political wisdom crept into the reasoning of others closing the woman's party headquarters was discussed perhaps a raid and all for what because women were holding banners asking for the precious principle at home that men were supposed to be dying for abroad finally a decision was reached embodying the combined wisdom of all various conferees the chief of police, major polman was detailed to request us to stop picketing and to tell us that if we continued to picket we would be arrested we have picketed for six months without interference said miss paul has the law been changed no was the reply but you must stop it but major polman, we have consulted our lawyers and no we have a legal right to picket I warn you, you will be arrested if you attempt to picket again the following day, miss lucy burns and miss catherine moary of boston carried to the white house gates we shall fight for the things we have always held nearest our hearts for democracy for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government and they were arrested news had spread through the city that the pickets were to be arrested a moderately large crowd had gathered to see the fun one has only to come into conflict with prevailing authority, whether rightly or wrongly to find friendly host vanishing with lightning speed to know that we were no longer wanted at the gates of the white house and that the police were no longer our friends was enough for the mob mind some members of the crowd made sport of the women others hurled cheap and childish epitets at them small boys were allowed to capture souvenirs such as shreds of the banners torn from non-resistant women as trophies of the sport thinking they had been mistaken in believing the pickets were to be arrested and having grown weary of their strenuous sport the crowd moved on its way two solitary figures remained standing on the sidewalk flanked by the vast pennsylvania avenue looking quite abandoned and alone when suddenly without any warrant in law they were arrested on a completely deserted avenue Miss Burns and Miss Moray upon arriving at the police station insisted to the great surprise of all the officials upon knowing the charge against them Major Pullman and his entire staff were utterly at a loss to know what to answer the administration had looked ahead only as far as threatening arrest they doubtless thought this was all they would have to do people could not be arrested for picketing picketing is a guaranteed right under the Clayton Act of Congress disorderly conduct there had been no disorderly conduct inciting to riot impossible the women had stood as silent sentinels holding the president's unelequent words doors opened and closed mysteriously officials and sub-officials passed hurriedly to and fro whispered conversations were heard the book on rules and regulations was hopefully thumbed hours passed finally the two prisoners were pompously told that they had obstructed the traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue they were dismissed on their own recognizance and never brought to trial the following day June 23rd more arrests were made two women at the White House two at the Capitol all carried banners with the same words of the president there was no hesitation this time on the traffic they too were dismissed and their cases never tried it seemed clear that the administration had hoped to suppress picketing merely by arrests when however women continued to picketing the face of arrest the administration quickened its advance into the venture of suppression it decided to bring the offenders to trial on June 26th six American women were tried judged guilty on the technical charge of obstructing traffic patriotic almost treasonable behavior and sentenced to pay a fine of twenty-five dollars or serve three days in jail not a dollar of your fine will we pay was the answer of the women to pay a fine would be an admission of guilt we are innocent the six women who were privileged to serve the first terms of imprisonment for suffrage in this country were Miss Catherine Moray of Massachusetts Mrs. Annie Arneal and Miss Mabel Vernon of Delaware Miss Levina Dock of Pennsylvania Miss Mod Jamison of Virginia and Miss Virginia Arnold of North Carolina privileged in spite of the foul air the rats the mutterings of their strange comrades in jail Independence Day July 4th 1917 is the occasion for two demonstrations in the name of liberty Champ Clark late Democratic Speaker of the House is declaiming to a cheering crowd behind the White House that's derived their just powers from the consent of the governed in front of the White House thirteen silent sentinels with banners bearing the same words are arrested it would have been exceedingly drawl if it had not been so tragic Champ Clark and his throng were not molested the women with practically a deserted street were arrested and served jail terms for obstructing traffic the trial of this group was delayed to give the jail authorities time to vacate the prisoner confided to Miss Joy Young it developed that orders had been received at the jail immediately after their year rests and before the trial to make ready for the suffragettes what did it matter that their case had not yet been heard to jail they must go was not the judge who tried and sentenced them a direct appointee of President Wilson were not the district commissioners who gave orders to prepare the sales the direct appointees of President Wilson and was not the chief of police of the District of Columbia a direct appointee of these same commissioners and was not the jail warden who made life for the women so unbearable in prison also a direct appointee of the commissioners it was all a merry little ring and its cavillier attitude toward the law toward justice and above all toward women was of no importance the world was on fire with a grand blaze this tiny flame would scarcely be visible no one would notice a few mad women thrown into jail and if the world should find it out doubtless public opinion would agree that the women ought to stay there and even if it should not agree this little matter could all be explained away before another election meanwhile the president could proclaim through official channels his disinterestedness observed the document of which I give in substance which he caused or allowed to be published at this time under public information under order of the president of the United States by the committee on public information George Creel Chairman furnished without charge to all newspapers, post offices government officials and agencies of a public character for the dissemination of official news of the United States government Washington July 3rd 1917 number 46 volume I there follows a long editorial which laments the public attention which has centered on the militant campaign appeals to editors and reporters not to encourage us in our peculiar conduct by printing defies to the president of the United States even when flaunted on a pretty little purple and gold banner and exhorts the public to control its thrills the official bulletin concludes with it is a fact that there remains in America one man who has known exactly the right attitude to take and maintain toward the pickets a whimsical smile slightly puckered at the roots by the sense of ridiculous a polite bow and for the rest a complete ignoring of their existence he happens to be the man around whom the little whirlwind whirls president of the United States and finally with an admonition that the rest of the country take example from him in its emotional reaction to the picket question the administration pinned its faith on jail that institution of convenience to the oppressor when he is strong in power and his weapons are effective when the oppressor miscalculates the strength of the oppressed jail loses its convenience end of section 6 please visit LibriVox.org recording by Janet O'Reilly Jailed for Freedom by Doris Stevens Part 3 Chapter 4 O'Cock One Workhouse it is Bastille Day July 14th inspiring scenes and tragic sacrifices for liberty come to our minds 16 women march in a single file to take their own liberty, equality, fraternity to the White House gates it is the middle of a hot afternoon a thin line of curious spectators is seen in the park opposite of the suffrage headquarters the police assemble from the obscure spots, some afoot, others on bicycles they close in on the women and follow them to the gates the proud banner is scarcely at the gates when the leader is placed under arrest her place is taken by another she is taken another, and still another she is taken to the breach and is arrested meanwhile the crowd grows attracted to the spot by the presence of the police and the patrol wagon applause is heard there are cries of shame for the police who I must say did not always act as if they relished carrying out what they termed orders from higher up an occasional hoot from a small boy served to make the mood of the hostile ones a bit gayer but for the most part an intense silence fell upon the watchers as they saw not only younger women but white haired grandmothers hoisted before the public gaze into the crowded patrol their heads erect their eyes a little moist and their frail hands holding tightly to the banner until it was rested from them by superior brute force this is the first time most of the women have ever seen a police station and they are interested in their surroundings they are not interested in helping the panting policemen count them over to identify them who arrested whom that becomes the gigantic question will the ladies please tell which officer arrested them they will not they do not intend to be a party to this outrage finally the officers abandoned their attempt at identification they have the names of the arrestees and will accept bail for their appearance Monday well girls I've never seen but one other court in my life but I must say they are not very much like was the cheery comment of Mrs. Florence Bayard Hillis as we entered the courtroom on Monday Mrs. Hillis is the daughter of the late Thomas Bayard formerly America's ambassador to Great Britain and Secretary of State in President Cleveland's cabinet the stuffy courtroom is packed to overflowing the fact one eyed bailiff is perspiring to no purpose he cannot make the throng sit down and in fact everyone who has anything to do with the pickets perspires to no purpose Judge Maloney takes his seat looking at once grotesque and menacing on his red throne silence in the courtroom from the sinister eyed bailiff and a silence follows so heavy that it can be heard Saturday nights both black and white are tried first the suffrage prisoners strain their ears to hear the pitiful pleas of these the bar without counsel or friend scraps of evidence are heard Judge you say you were not quarreling Lottie Lottie I should do your honor we was just singing we was shown of sa Judge singing Lottie why your neighbors here testify to the fact that you were making a great deal of noise so much that they could not sleep Lottie I tells you honor we was just singing like we always do Judge what were you singing Lottie why hymns saw the judge smiles cynically a neatly attired white man with a wise in face again takes the stand against Lottie hymns or no hymns he could not sleep the judge pronounces a sentence of six months in the workhouse for Lottie and so it goes on the suffrage prisoners are the main business of the morning 16 women come inside the railing which separates tried from untried and take their seats do the ladies wish the government to provide them with counsel they do not we shall speak in our own behalf we feel that we can best represent ourselves we announce Miss Ann Martin and I act as attorneys for the group the same panting police men who could not identify the people they had arrested give their stereotyped faults and illiterate testimony the judge helps him over the hard places and so does the government's attorney they stumbled to an embarrassed finish and retire an aged government clerk grown in firm in the service takes the stand and the government attorney proves through him that there is a white house that it has a sidewalk in front of it and a pavement and a hundred other overwhelming facts the pathetic shakes his dusty frame and slinks off the stand the prosecuting attorney now elaborately proves that we walked we carried banners that we were arrested by the A4 said officers while attempting to hold our banners at the white house gates each woman speaks briefly in her own defense she denounces the government's policy with hot defiance the blame is placed squarely at the door of the administration and in unmistakable terms missanne martin opens for the defense this is what we are doing with our banners before the white house petitioning the most powerful representative of the government the president of the united states for a redress of grievances we are asking him to use his great power to secure the passage of the national suffrage amendment as long as the government and the representatives of the government prefer to send women to jail on petty and technical charges we will go to jail persecution has always advanced the cause of justice the right of American women to work for democracy must be maintained we would hinder not help the whole cause of freedom for women if we weakly submitted to persecution now our work for the passage of the amendment must go on it will go on mrs. john rogers junior descendant of rogers sherman one of the signers of the declaration of independence speaks we are not guilty of any offense not even of infringing a police regulation we know full well that we stand here because the president of the united states refuses to give liberty to American women we believe your honor that the wrong persons are before the bar in this courtroom I object your honor to this woman making such a statement here in court says the district attorney we believe the president is the guilty one and that we are innocent your honor I object shouts the government's attorney the prisoner continues calmly there are votes enough and there is time enough to pass the national suffrage amendment through congress at this session more than 200 votes in the house and more than 50 in the senate are pledged to this amendment the president puts his power behind all measures in which he takes a genuine interest if he will say one frank word advocating this measure it will pass as a piece of war emergency legislation mrs. Florence Bayard Hillis speaks in her own defense for generations the men of my family have given their services to their country for myself my training from childhood has been with a father who believed in democracy and who belong to the democratic party by inheritance and connection I am a democrat and to a democratic president I went with my appeal what a spectacle it must be to the thinking people of this country to see us urged to go to war for democracy in a foreign land and to see women thrown into prison who plead for that same cause at home I stand here to affirm my innocence of the charge against me this court has not proven that I obstructed traffic my presence at the White House gate was under the constitutional right of petitioning the government for freedom or for any other cause during the months of January February March April and May picketing was legal in June it suddenly became illegal my services as an American woman are being conscripted by order of the president of the united states to help win the world war for democracy for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government I shall continue to plead for the political liberty of American women and especially do I plead to the president since he is the only person who can end the struggles of American women to take the proper places in a true democracy there is continuous objection from the prosecutor eager advice from the judge you had better keep to the charge of obstructing traffic but round on round of applause comes from the intent audience whenever a defiant note is struck by the prisoners and in spite of the sharp wrapping of the gavel confusion reigns how utterly puny the charge is if it were true that the prisoners actually obstructed the traffic how grotesque that would be the importance of their demand the purity of their reasoning the nobility and gentle quality of the prisoners at the bar all conspired to make the charge against them and the attorney who makes it and the judge who hears it petty and ridiculous but justice must proceed Mrs. Gilson Gardner of Washington DC a member of the executive committee of the national women's party and the wife of Gilson Gardner a well-known liberal and journalist speaks it is impossible for me to believe that we were arrested because we were obstructing traffic or blocking the public highway we have been carrying on activities of a distinctly political nature and these political activities have seemingly disturbed certain powerful influences arrests followed I submit that these arrests are purely political and that the charge of an unlawful assemblage and of obstructing traffic is a political subterfuge even should I be sent to jail which I could not your honor anticipate I would be in jail not because I obstructed traffic but because I have offended politically because I have demanded of this government freedom for women it was my task to sum up for the defense the judge sat board through my statement we know and I believe the court knows also I said that President Wilson and his administration are responsible for our being here today it is a fact that they gave the orders which caused our arrest and appearance before this bar we know and you know that the district commissioners are appointed by a president that the present commissioners were appointed by President Wilson we know that you your honor were appointed by President Wilson and that the district attorney who prosecutes us was appointed by the president these various officers would not dare bring us here under false charges without the policy having them decided upon by the responsible leaders what is our real crime what have these distinguished and liberty loving women done to bring them before this court of justice why your honor their crime is that they peacefully petitioned the president of the United States for liberty what must be the shame of our nation before the world when it becomes known that here we throw women into jail who love liberty and attempt to peacefully petition the president for it these women are nearly all descended from revolutionary ancestors or from some of the greatest libertarian statements this country has produced what would these men say now if they could see that passion for liberty which was in their own hearts rewarded in the 20th century with foul and filthy imprisonment we say to you this outrageous policy of stupid and brutal punishment will not dampen the ardor of the women where 16 of us face your judgment today there will be 60 tomorrow so great will be the indignation of our colleagues in this fight the trial came to an end after a tense two days the packed courtroom fat in terrible silence waiting for the judge's answer there were distinguished men present at the trial men who also fight for their ideals there was Frederick C. Howe then commissioner of immigration of the port of New York Frank P. Walsh international labor leader Dudley Fred Malone then collector of the port of New York Amos Pinchot liberal leader John A. Hopkins then liberal progressive leader in New Jersey who had turned his organization to the support of the president and become a member of the president's campaign committee now chairman of the committee of 48 and whose beautiful wife was among the prisoners Alan McCurdy secretary of the committee of 48 and many others one and all came forward to protest to us during the adjournment this is monstrous never have I seen evidence so disregarded this is a tragic farce and he will never dare sentence you it was reported to us that the judge he entered him to telephone to the district building where the district commissioners sit he returned to pronounce 60 days in the work house in default of a $25 fine the shock was swift and certain to all the spectators we would not of course pay the unjust fine imposed for we were not guilty of any offense the judge attempted persuasion you had better decide to pay your fines he ventured and you will not find jail a pleasant place to be it was clear that neither he nor his conferee had imagined women would accept with equanimity such a drastic sentence it was now their time to be shocked here were ladies that was perfectly clear ladies of unusual distinction surely they would not face the humiliation of a work house sentence which involved not only imprisonment but penal servitude the administration was wrong again we protest against this unjust sentence and conviction we said but we prefer the work house to the payment of a fine imposed for an offense of which we are not guilty we filed into the pan to join the other prisoners and wait for the black Mariah to carry us to prison we are all taken to the district jail where we are put through the regular catechism were you ever in prison before age birthplace father mother religion and what not we were then locked up to a cell what will happen next the sleek jailer whose attempt to be cordial provokes a certain distrust comes to our corridor to turn us over to our next keeper the warden of O'Cock one we learned that the work house is not situated in the district of Columbia but in Virginia other locked wagons with tiny windows up near the driver now take us side by side with drunks and prostitutes and thieves to the Pennsylvania station here we embark for the unknown terrors of the work house filing through crowds at the station driven on by our keeper who resembles Simon LaGrie with his long stick and is pushing and showing to hurry us along the crowd is quick to realize that we are prisoners because of our associates friends tried to beat us at last farewell and flip us a sweet or fruit as we are rushed through the iron station gates to the train warden Whitaker is our keeper thin and old with a cruel mouth brutalized and a sinister birthmark on his temple he guards very anxiously his dangerous criminals lest they try to leap out of the train to freedom we chat a little and attempt to relax from the strain that we have endured since Saturday it is now late in the afternoon of Tuesday the dusk is gathering it is almost totally dark when we alight at a tiny station in what seems to us a wilderness it is a deserted country even the gayest member of the party I am sure was struck with a little terror here more locked wagons blacker than the desk awaited us the prison van jolted and bumped along the rocky and hilly road a cluster of lights twinkled beyond the last hill and we knew that we were coming to our temporary summer residence I can still see the long thin line of black poplars against the smoldering afterglow I did not know then what tragic things they concealed we entered a well-lighted office a few guards of ugly demeanors stood about warden Whitaker consulted with the hard-faced matron mrs. Herndon who began the prison routine names were called and each prisoner stepped to the desk to get her number to give up all jewelry money handbags letters eyeglasses traveling bags containing toilet necessities in fact everything except the clothes on her body from there we were herded into the long bear dining room where we sat dumbly down to a bowl of dirty sour soup I say dumbly for now began the rule of silence prisoners are punished for speaking to one another at table they cannot even whisper much less smile or laugh they must be conscious always of their guilt every possible thing is done to make the inmates feel that they are and must continue to be anti-social creatures we taste our soup and crust of bread we try so hard to eat it for we are tired and hungry but no one of us is able to get it down we leave the table hungry and slightly nauseated another long march and silence through various channels into a large dormitory and through a double line of cuts then we stand weary to the point of fainting waiting the next ordeal this seemed to be the juncture at which we lost all that is left us of contact with the outside world our clothes an assistant matron attended by negress prisoners relieves us of our clothes each prisoner is obliged to strip naked without even the protection of a sheet and proceed across what seems endless space to a shower bath a large tin bucket stands on the floor and in this is a minute piece of dirty soap which is offered to us and rejected we dare not risk the soap used by so many prisoners naked we return from death to receive our allotment of course hideous prison clothes the outer garments of which consist of a bulky mother hubbard wrapper of bluish gray ticking and a heavy apron of the same dismal stuff it takes a dominant personality indeed to survive these clothes the thick unbleached muslin undergarments are of designs never to be forgotten and the thick stockings and forlorn shoes what torture to put on shoes that are alike for each foot and made to fit just anybody who may happen along why are we be in order to dress it is long past the bedtime hour our suspense is brief all dressed in cloth of guilt we are led into what we later learn is the recreation room lined up against the wall we might any other time have bantered about the possibility of being shot but we are in no mood to jest the door finally opens and in strides warden Whitaker with a stranger beside him he reviews his latest criminal recruits engaging the stranger meanwhile in whispered conversation there are short uncertain laughs there are nods of the head and more whispers well ladies I hope you are all comfortable now make yourselves at home I think you will find it healthy here you'll weigh more when you go out than when you came in you will be allowed to write one letter a month to your family of course we open and read all letters coming in and going out tomorrow you will be assigned your work I hope you will sleep well good night we did not answer we just looked at each other news leaks through in the morning that the stranger had been a newspaper reporter the papers next morning were full of the comfort and luxury of our surroundings the delicious food sounded most reassuring to the nation in fact no word of the truth was allowed to appear the one that could not know that he went back to our cots to try to sleep side by side with negro prostitutes not that we shrank from these women on account of their color but how terrible to know that the institution had gone out of its way to bring these prisoners from their own wing to the white wing in an attempt to humiliate us there was plenty of room in the negro wing but prison must be made so unbearable that no more women could face it that was the attempted here we tried very hard to sleep and forget our hunger and wariness but all the night through our dusky comrades padded by to the lavatory and in the streak of light which shot across the center of the room startled heads could be seen bobbing up in the direction of a demented woman in the end caught her weird mutterings made us fearful there was no sleep in this strange place our thoughts turned to the outside world will the women care will enough women believe that such humiliation all may win freedom will they believe that through our imprisonment their slavery will be lifted the sooner less philosophically will the government be moved by public protest will such protest come the next morning brought us a visitor from the suffrage headquarters the institution hoped that the visitor would use her persuasion to make us pay our fines and leave and so she was admitted we learned the cherry news that immediately after sentence had been pronounced by the court Dudley Field Malone had gone direct to the woodhouse to protest to the president his protest was delivered with heat the president said that he was shocked at the 60 day sentences and that he did not know how it had been done and made other evasions Mr. Malone's report of his interview with the president is given in a full subsequent chapter following Mr. Malone Mr. J. A. H. Hopkins went to the White House how would you like to have your wife sleeping in a dirty workhouse next to the prostitutes was his direct talk to the president again the president was shocked no wonder Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins had been the president's dinner guest not very long before celebrating his return to power they had supported him politically and financially in New Jersey now Mrs. Hopkins had been arrested at his gate and thrown into the prison in reporting the interview Mr. Hopkins said the president asked me for suggestions as to what might be done and I replied that in view of the seriousness of the present situation the only solution lay in immediate passage of the Susan B. Anthony amendment Gilson Gardner also went to the White House to leave his hot protest and there were others telegram supporting from all over the country the press printed headlines which could not but arouse the sympathy of thousands even people who did not approve of picketing the White House said after all what women have done is certainly not bad enough to merit such drastic punishment and women protested from coast to coast their port in at our headquarters copies of telegram sent to administration leaders of course not all women by any means had approved this method for agitation but the government's action had done more than we had been able to do for them it had made them feel sex conscious women were being unjustly treated regardless of their feelings about this particular procedure they stood up and objected for the first time I believe our form of agitation began to seem a little more respectable than the administration's handling of it but the administration did not know this fact yet everybody in line for the work room we were thankful to leave our inedible breakfast we were unable to drink the greasy black coffee the pain in the tops of our heads was acute what will you all down here for us the young negroes barely out of her teens as she casually fingered her sewing material why I held a purple white and gold banner at the gates of the white house you don't say what dieters do same thing we all held banners at the white house gates asking president wilson to give us the vote and you all got 60 days for that yes you see the president thought it would be a good idea to send us to the workhouse for asking for the vote you know women want to vote and have wanted to for a long time in our country oh yes I know I seen your parades and meetings and everything I know we all live right near the white house you're all right I hope you get it for women certainly do need protection against men like judge Maloney he has his all the time picked up on and send down here they send you down here once and then you come out without a cent and try to look for a job and before you can find one a cop walks up what you live and if you don't have a place yet because yank got a cent to rent one with he says come with me I'll find you a home and hustles you off to the police station and down here again and you are called a vagrant what chance has we niggas got I ask you I hope you all gets a vote and fixes up something for women you see that young girl over there said another prisoner who in spite of an unfortunate life had kept a remnant of her early beauty I nodded well judge Maloney gave her 30 days for her first offense and when he sentenced her she cried out desperately don't send me down there judge if you do I'll kill myself what do you think he said to that I'll give you six months in which to change your mind I reflected the judge that broke this pale faced silent girl was the appointee of the president it was the task of such a man to sentence American women to the workhouse for demanding liberty conversing with the regulars was forbidden by the warders but we managed from time to time to talk to our fellow prisoners with stealthiness we knew something was going to happen said one negro girl because Monday the clothes we had on were took off us and we were give these old patch ones we was told they wanted to take stock but we heard they was being washed for y'all suff jets the unpleasantness at wearing the former list garments of these unfortunate but the government's a calculation aroused our hot indignation we were not convicted until Tuesday and our prison garments were ready Monday you must not speak against the president said the servile wardress when she discovered we were telling our story to the inmates you know you will be thrashed if you say anything more about the president and don't forget you're on government property and may be arrested for treason if it happens again we doubted the seriousness of this threat of thrashing into one of the girls confided to us as such outrageous happened often we afterward obtained proof of these brutalities see affidavit of mrs. bovy page 144 old widaker beat up that girl over there just last week and put her in a booby house on bread and water for five days what did she do I asked oh she and another girl got scrapping in the blackberry patch and she didn't make enough berries all put up your work girls and get in line this from the wardress who sped up the work in the sign room it was lunchtime and though we were all hungry we dreaded going to the silence and the food in that great dining room with the vile odors we were counted again as we filed out carrying our heavy chairs with us as is the workhouse custom do they do this all the time I asked it seemed as though needless energy was being spent counting recounting our little group wouldn't do anybody any good to try to get away from here said one of the white girls too many bloodhounds bloodhounds I asked in amazement for after all these women were not criminals but merely misdemeanants oh yes just a little while ago three men tried to get away and they turned bloodhounds on after them and shot them dead they weren't bad men either when our untasted supper was over that night we were ordered into the square bare walled recreation room where we and other prisoners sat and sat and sat our chairs against the walls a dreary sight indeed waiting for the 45 minutes before bedtime to pass the sight of two negro girl prisoners combing out each other's lice and dressing their kinky hair in such a way as to discourage permanently a return of the vermin did not produce in us exactly a feeling of recreation but we tried singing the negroes joined in too soon out sang us with their plaintive melodies and hymns then back to our sails and another attempt to sleep a new ordeal the next morning another of the numberless pedigrees is to be taken one by one we recall to the warden's office were your father or mother ever insane are you a confirmed drunkard chronic or moderate drinker do you smoke or chew or use tobacco in any form married or single single how many children none what religion do you profess Christian what religion do you profess in a higher pitched voice I did not clearly comprehend do you mean am I a Catholic or a Protestant I am a Christian but it was of no avail she wrote down none I protested that is not accurate I insist that I am a Christian or at least I try to be one you must learn to be polite she retorted almost fiercely and I returned to the sewing room for the hundredth time we asked to be given our toothbrushes, combs, handkerchiefs and our own soap the third day of imprisonment without any of these essentials found us depressed and worried over our unsanitary condition we pled also for toilet paper it was senseless to deny these necessities it is enough to imprison people why seek to degrade them utterly the third afternoon we were mysteriously summoned by the presence of Superintendent Whitaker he seemed warm and cordial we were ordered drawn up in a semicircle ladies there is a rumor that you may be pardoned he began by whom asked one for what asked another we're innocent women there's nothing to pardon us for I have come to ask you what you would do if the president pardoned you we would refuse to accept it came the ready response from several I shall leave you for a while to consider this, mind I have not yet received information of a pardon but I have been asked to ascertain your attitude our consultation was brief we were of one mind we were unanimous and wishing to reject a pardon for a crime which we had never committed we said so with some spirit when Mr. Whitaker returned for our decision you have no choice you are obliged to accept a pardon that settled it and we waited that this protest on the outside had been strong enough to precipitate action from the government was the subject of our conversation evidently it had not been strong enough to force action on the suffrage amendment but it was forcing action and that was important Mr. Whitaker return triumphant ladies you are pardoned by the president you are free to go as soon as you have taken off your prison clothes and put on your own it was sad to leave the other prisoners behind especially pathetic were the girls who helped the girls they whispered such eager appeals in our ears telling us of their drastic sentences for trifling offenses and of the cruel punishments it was hard to resist digressing into some effort at prison reform that way lay our instincts our reason told us that we must first change the status of women as we were leaving the work house to return to Washington we had an unexpected revelation of the attitude of officialdom toward our campaign addressing Miss Lucy Burns who had arrived to assist us in getting on our way superintendent Whitaker in an almost unbelievable rage said now that you women are going away I have something to say and I want to say it to you the next lot of women who come here won't be treated with the same consideration that these women were I will show later on how he made good this terrible threat receiving a presidential pardon through the attorney general had its reasoning aspect my comrades shared this amusement when I told them the following incident on the day after our arrest I was having tea at the Chevy Chase country club in Washington quite casually a gentleman introduced me to Mr. Gregory the attorney general I see you were mixed up with the suffragettes yesterday was the attorney general's first remark to the gentleman and before the latter could explain that he had settled accounts quietly but efficiently with a hoodlum expecting to trip the women up on their march the chief law officer of the United States contributed this important suggestion you know what I do if I was those policemen I just take a hose out with me and when the women came out with their banners well I just squirt the hose on them but Mr. Gregory yes sir if you can just make what a woman does look ridiculous you can sure kill it but Mr. Attorney General what right would the police have to assault these men or any other women the gentleman finally managed to interpolate pop denoting great surprise came from the Attorney General as he looked to me for reassurance his expected look vanished when I said Mr. Gregory did it ever occur to you that it might make the government look ridiculous instead of the women you can imagine how the easy manner of one who is sure of his audience melted from his face this is one of the women arrested yesterday continued the gentleman while the Attorney General smothered a well I'll be I'm out on bail I said tomorrow we go to jail it is all prearranged you understand the trial is merely a matter of form the highest law officer of the land fled gurgling the day following our release Mrs. J. H. Hopkins carried a picket banner to the Gates of the White House to test the validity of the pardon her banner read we do not ask for pardon for ourselves but justice for all American women a curious crowd as largest had collected on those days when the police arrested women for obstructing traffic stood watching the lone picket the President passed through the Gates and saluted the police did not interfere daily picketing was resumed and no arrests followed for the moment it was now August three months since the Senate Suffrage Committee authorized its chairman Mr. Jones to measure to the Senate for action Mr. Jones said however that he was too busy to make a report that he wanted to make a particularly brilliant one one that would be a contribution to the cause that he did not approve of picketing but that he would report the measure in a reasonable time so much for the situation in the Senate from the House we gathered some interesting evidence we reminded Mr. Webb Chairman of the Judiciary Committee that out of a total membership of 21 men on his committee 12 were Democrats two-thirds of whom were opposed to the measure we reminded him that the Republicans on the committee were for action Mr. Webb wrote an answer the Democratic caucus passed a resolution that only war emergency measures would be considered during the sex recession and that the President might designate from time to time special legislation which he regarded as war legislation and such would be acted on by the House the President not having designated women's suffrage and national prohibition so far as war measures the Judiciary Committee up to this time has not felt warranted under the caucus rule in reporting either of these measures if the President should request either or both of them as war measures then I think the committee would attempt to take some action on them promptly so you see after all it is important to your cause to make the President see that women's suffrage and the rules lay down here was a frank admission of the assumption upon which women had gone to jail that the President was responsible for action on the amendment now that we were again allowed to pick at the White House the Republicans seized the opportunity legitimately to embarrass their opponents by precipitating a bitter debate Senator Cummins of Iowa a Republican member of the suffrage committee moved as had Mr. Mann in the House at an earlier date to discharge the suffrage committee for failing to make the report authorized by the entire committee Mr. Cummins said among other things I look upon the resolution as definitely and certainly a war measure there is nothing that this country could do which would strengthen it more than to give the disfranchised women the opportunity to vote last week I went to the chairman of the committee and told him that we had finished the hearings reached a conclusion and that it was our bound and duty to make the report to the Senate I asked him if he would not call the meeting of the committee he said that it would be impossible that he had some other engagements which would prevent a meeting of the committee Senator Cummins explained that he finally got the promise of the chairman that a meeting of the committee would be called on a given date when it was not called he made his motion Chairman Jones made some feeble remarks and some evasive excuses which meant nothing and which only further aroused Republican friends of the measure on the committee Senator Grona of North Dakota with a direct question I asked the chairman of this committee why this joint resolution has not been reported the senator who is chairman of the committee I suppose knows as well as I do that the people of the entire country are anxious to have this joint resolution submitted and to be given an opportunity to vote upon it Senator Johnson of California Republican proposed that chairman Jones consent to call the committee together to consider reporting out the bill which Senator Jones flatly refused to do Senator Jones of Washington another Republican member of the committee added I agree with the senator from Iowa that this is a war measure and ought to be considered as such at this time I do not see how we can very consistently talk democracy while disfranchising the better half of our citizenship I may not approve of the action of the women picketing the White House but neither do I approve of what I considered the lawless action toward these women in connection with the picketing I do not want to think I do not desire to call the committee together because of some influence outside of Congress as some have suggested at this point senator Hollis of New Hampshire Democrat arose to say there is a small but very active group of women suffragists who have acted in such a way that some who are ardently in favor of women suffrage believe that their action should not be encouraged by making a favorable report at this time Senator Johnson protested at this point but senator Hollis continued to discharge the committee would focus the attention of the country upon the action and would give undue weight to what has been done by the active group of women suffragists I think that any student of psychology will acknowledge that our picketing had stimulated action in Congress and that what was now needed was some still more provocative action from us End of section 7