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 appointment 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.