The Story of the Woman's PartyGillmore, Inez Haynes
History
The Story of the Woman's Party
Gillmore, Inez Haynes
National Woman's Party; Paul, Alice, 1885-1977; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
Finally after weeks of working and watchful waiting I reported to
Anne on Wednesday that a majority of our members were in town and
well. We were jubilant. Early next morning we were before the doors
of the Judiciary Committee to see them file in. They arrived one by
one, solemn, nervously hurrying by, or smiling in an amused or
friendly way. Mr. Hunter Moss, our staunch friend, appeared. Mr.
Moss was dying of cancer. Though often too ill to leave his bed, he
asked his secretary to notify him whenever Suffrage was to come up
so that he might fight for it. Mr. Moss was our tenth man. We
recounted them anxiously. Ten supporters, ten opponents—where was
Mr. Dale of New York? I flew downstairs to his office—I don’t know
who went with me but I have a faint memory of red hair—and there he
was in his shirt sleeves calmly looking over his mail.
“Hurry!” we cried. “The committee is ready to meet. Every one’s
there except you!”
He reached for his coat but we exclaimed, “Put it on in the hall!”
and hurrying him out between us we raced down the corridor, helping
him with the coat as we ran, then into the elevator and up to the
third floor and to the committee room. We deposited him in one
vacant seat. Our majority was complete!
As we stood off and looked at our eleven men sitting there together,
gathered with so much effort and trial, no artist was ever prouder
of a masterpiece than we. We stood entranced surveying them until
Mr. Webb sternly announced that the committee would go into
executive session which meant that we must go.
In the anteroom other Suffragists gathered, also the newspaper men.
Every one said that in a few moments the Amendment would be reported
out. But the minutes ran into hours. Our suspense grew. Each time
those closed doors opened and a member came out we asked for news.
There was none. “Carlin’s got the floor.”
The morning dragged past. Twelve o’clock came. Twelve-thirty. One
o’clock. The doors opened. We clustered around our supporters and
eagerly asked the news.
Well, Carlin got the floor and kept it. He took up the time. It got
late and the members were hungry and wanted to go to luncheon, and
there would have been a lot of wrangling over the Amendment. So they
adopted Carlin’s motion to make Suffrage the special order of
business two weeks from today.
“It’s all right,” our friends consoled us. “Only two weeks’ delay!”
But why two weeks? And why had Mr. Carlin, our avowed and bitter
enemy, himself made the motion to reconsider, tacking to it the two
weeks’ delay, unless something disastrous was planned?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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