IV MORE PRESSURE ON THE PRESIDENT

In the meantime the work with the President was going on. Mr. Wilson was about to make a speaking trip which included Kansas. This would be the first time since his inauguration that he would visit a Suffrage State.

On January 26, 1916, Mrs. William Kent and Maud Younger waited on the President to ask him to receive a delegation of women in a forthcoming visit to New York. In presenting this request, Mrs. Kent sounded a note which was beginning to become the dominant strain in the Suffrage demands of the western women.

“Women are anxious to express to you, Mr. President,” she said, “the depth of earnestness of the demand for Woman Suffrage. We as western women and as citizens are accustomed to having a request for political consideration received with seriousness; and we feel keenly the injustice of the popular rumor that such delegations are planned to annoy a public official. We hope that you will appreciate the dignity and propriety of such a representative appeal as the women of New York are now making.”

President Wilson said that such an assumption was entirely absent from his mind. He added that he had decided to make it a rule during his trip to New York and throughout the Middle West not to receive any delegations whatever, since he would “get in wrong,” as he said, if he received one and not another; it was very possible, however, that he might be approached by deputations which he would be able to receive.

As Mrs. Kent and Miss Younger came out from this call on the President, the evening papers were on the stands. 145They announced that the next day in New York the President would receive fifteen hundred ministers.

On the morning of January 27, 1916, over a hundred women, organized by Doris Stevens and led by Mrs. E. Tiffany Dyer, assembled in the East Room of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Fifteen minutes later they sent up a note asking for a ten-minute audience with the President, that New York women might lay their case for federal action upon Suffrage before him. Secretary Tumulty sent back the following note:

For the President, I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your note requesting a Conference with him to discuss the Suffrage Amendment. I very much regret that the President’s engagements make it impossible to arrange this matter as you have so generously suggested. When a representative from your committee called at the White House the President informed her of the crowded condition of his calendar today.

Joseph Tumulty.

As this note merely said that no time had been set aside for a deputation of women, and did not say that it would be impossible to see him at all, a second note was sent, asking for just five minutes and offering to wait as long as necessary. In the meantime, an interview between Mr. Tumulty and Mrs. Amos Pinchot took place. Mrs. Pinchot reported to the deputation that the President and his Secretary were “conferring.” For two hours the women waited, holding a meeting. Some of the women thought it was undignified to wait since the President had stated in his note that an appointment had not been secured.

“But,” said Mrs. Carol Beckwith, “why quibble about our undignified position here in the Waldorf? Our political position is undignified, and that is what we should remedy.”

At a quarter past eleven, the President appeared.

In answer to the speeches of Mrs. Dyer, Mrs. Henry Bruere, Mary Ritter Beard, President Wilson said:

I ought to say, in the first place, that the apologies, I think, ought to come from me, because I had not understood that an 146appointment had been made. On the contrary, I supposed none had been made, and, therefore, had filled my morning with work, from which it did not seem possible to escape.

I can easily understand the embarrassment of any one of your representatives in trying to make a speech in this situation. I feel that embarrassment very strongly myself, and I wish very much that I had the eloquence of some of your speakers, so that I could set my views forth as adequately as they set forth theirs.

It may be, ladies, that my mind works slowly. I have always felt that those things were most solidly built that were built piece by piece, and I felt that the genius of our political development in this country lay in the number of our States, and in the very clear definition of the difference of sphere between the State and Federal Government. It may be that I am a little old-fashioned in that.

When I last had the pleasure of receiving some ladies urging the Amendment that you are urging this morning, I told them that my mind was unchanged, but I hoped open, and that I would take pleasure in conferring with the leaders of my Party and the leaders of Congress with regard to this matter. I have not fulfilled that promise, and I hope you will understand why I have not fulfilled it, because there seemed to be questions of legislation so pressing in their necessity that they ought to take precedence of everything else; that we could postpone fundamental changes to immediate action along lines in the national interest. That has been my reason, and I think it is a sufficient reason. The business of government is a business from day to day, ladies, and there are things that cannot wait. However great the principle involved in this instance, action must of necessity in great fundamental constitutional changes be deliberate, and I do not feel that I have put the less pressing in advance of the more pressing in the course I have taken.

I have not forgotten the promise that I made, and I certainly shall not forget the fulfillment of it, but I want to be absolutely frank. My own mind is still convinced that we ought to work this thing out State by State. I did what I could to work it out in my own State in New Jersey, and I am willing to act there whenever it comes up; but that is so far my conviction as to the best and solidest way to build changes of this kind, and I for my own part see no reason for discouragement on the part of the women of the country in the progress that this movement has been making. It may move like a glacier, but when it does move, its effects are permanent.
147

The Suffragist’s Dream.
President Wilson: My dear young lady, you have saved my life. How can I thank you?

Nina Allender in The Suffragist.

I had not expected to have this pleasure this morning, and therefore am simply speaking offhand, and without consideration of my phrases, but I hope in entire frankness. I thank you sincerely for this opportunity.

Smiling the President turned to leave the room, when Mrs. Beard reminded him that the Clayton Bill, with its far-reaching effects on the working-man, had not been gained State by State.

“I do not care to enter into a discussion of that,” he said sharply.

In February, President Wilson visited Kansas in his “Preparedness Tour.” As soon as it became known that he was coming to Topeka, the heads of various Civic and Suffrage organizations in Kansas telegraphed him, asking for an interview.

Secretary Tumulty answered by telegram that the crowded condition of the Topeka program would not permit of this arrangement.

The Kansas women telephoned that they were sure the President could spare them five minutes, and they would await him at the State House, immediately after the party arranged in his honor.

When Secretary Tumulty alighted from the President’s car in Topeka, the inspired, swift, and executive Mabel Vernon met him with a note from the Kansas women asking the President to see them. To do this, she had had to run the gauntlet of a large force of police, Secret Service men and the National Guard.

Mr. Tumulty said that he could give no answer at that time, but that later the delegation could telephone him at Governor Capper’s house, where President and Mrs. Wilson were entertained. Governor Capper was a strong Suffragist. The women did call later, but Secretary Tumulty explained then that it would be impossible for the President to see them. After much talk, an arrangement was made that the delegation should come to the Governor’s house at twenty minutes before one. The thermometer was at zero, and snow 148was falling, but the women waited before Governor Capper’s house for an hour. Finally the President came out. The delegation, following the purple, white, and gold, marched up the steps in double file. Lila Day Monroe made a little speech, and handed the President the petition. The President murmured:

“I appreciate this call very much.... I appreciate it very much.... I am much obliged, much obliged.... Pleased to meet you ...” he repeated at intervals, but he gave no expression of opinion.

After the deputation of women had filed by, The President handed the petition to one of the Secret Service men, who buttoned it up in his inside pocket.