Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
At least one member of the Cabinet thus showed that he had caught
something of the purpose and depth of our movement. He never publicly
protested, however, against the Administration’s policy of suppression.
Mr. McAdoo, then Secretary of the Treasury, gave no such evidence of
enlightenment as Mr. Baker. A committee of women endeavored to see him.
He was reported “out. But we expect him here soon.”
We waited an hour. The nervous private secretary returned to say that
he had been mistaken. “The Secretary will not be in until after
luncheon.”
“We shall wait,” said Mrs. William Kent, chairman of the deputation.
“We have nothing more important to do to-day than to see Secretary
McAdoo. We are willing to wait the whole day, if necessary, only it is
imperative that we see him.”
The private secretary’s spirits sank. He looked as if he would give
anything to undo his inadvertence in telling us that the Secretary was
expected after luncheon! Poor man! We settled down comfortably to wait,
a formidable looking committee of twenty women.
There was the customary gentle embarrassment of attendants whose chief
is in a predicament from which they seem powerless to extricate him,
but all were extremely courteous. The attendant at the door brought us
the morning papers to read. Gradually groups of men began to arrive and
cards were sent in the direction of the spot where we inferred the
Secretary of the Treasury was safely hidden, hoping and praying for our
early retirement.
Whispered conversations were held. Men disappeared in and out of
strange doors. Still we waited.
Finally as the fourth hour of our vigil was dragging on, a lieutenant
appeared to announce that the Secretary was very sorry but that he
would not be able to see us “at all.” We consulted, and finally sent in
a written appeal, asking for “five minutes of his precious time on a
matter of grave importance.” More waiting! Finally a letter was brought
to us directed to Mrs. William Kent, with the ink of the Secretary of
the Treasury’s signature still wet. With no concealment of contempt, he
declared that under no circumstances could he speak with women who had
conducted such an outrageous campaign in such an “illegal” way. We
smiled as we learned from his pronouncement that “picketing” was
“illegal,” for we were not supposed to have been arrested for
picketing. The tone of his letter, its extreme bitterness, tended to
confirm what we had always been told, that Mr. McAdoo assisted in
directing the policy of arrests and imprisonment.
I have tried to secure this letter for reproduction but unfortunately
Mrs. Kent did not save it. We all remember its bitter passion, however,
and the point it made about our “illegal picketing.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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