“I am sixty years old, Mr. President,” said Mrs. Blatch, “I have worked all my life for Suffrage; and I am determined that I will never again stand up on the street corners of a great city appealing to every Tom, Dick, and Harry for the right of self-government. When we work for a Federal Amendment, we are dealing at last with men who understand what we are talking about and can speak to us in our tongue. We are not asking for an easy way to win the vote. It is not easy to amend the United States Constitution. We are asking for a dignified way; and we ought to be able to rely on the chivalry of our representatives, particularly of the southern representatives, to accord to women a self-respecting method of working out their enfranchisement.” Miss Helen Todd told the President of her experience in a State campaign in Texas, when Democratic members of the Legislature refused to submit the question to the voters, saying bluntly that they controlled eleven votes in the upper house and that those eleven could keep the Suffrage Amendment “tied up” indefinitely. “Women go to Democrats in Congress and are told they must appeal to State Legislatures. They go to Democratic State Legislatures, who refuse to allow the electors of their own State to vote upon the question at all. What are women to do, Mr. President?” said Miss Todd, “when they are played with in this cat and mouse fashion?” The interview was in many respects interesting. President Wilson did not mention the States’ rights formula. He said he was unable to help the Suffrage Amendment in Congress because his Party was opposed to it. It was the President’s theory, he explained, that a Party leader should not go so far in advance of his adherents as to withdraw himself from them, and make united action impossible upon the other issues before the country. The impression was strongly conveyed, however, that this opposition from the President’s Party was not necessarily permanent. “In four years, or in two years,” said Mr. Wilson, impressively but vaguely, “the situation might be different. At present many members of the Democratic Party are opposed to Woman Suffrage on account of the negro question.” “But,” said one of his visitors, “if women were given the vote throughout the United States the percentage of the white vote to the negro vote would be increased.” “You have not explained that to the men in Congress,” President Wilson said.