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
On December 16 occurred a Suffrage hearing before the Judiciary
Committee. It will be remembered that this was the first hearing since
the Congressional Union had campaigned against the Democratic Party. It
was one of the most stormy in the history of the Congressional Union.
Later a Republican Congressman referred to it, not as the “hearing,” but
as the “interruption.” The storm did not break until after two hours in
which the speakers of the other Suffrage Association had been heard, and
the following members of the Congressional Union: Mrs. Andreas Ueland,
Jennie C. Law Hardy, Florence Bayard Hilles, Mabel Vernon, all
introduced by Alice Paul.
At this point, there occurred among the Democratic members of the
Committee a sudden meeting of heads, a disturbed whispering. To informed
lookers-on, it became evident that it had just dawned on them that the
pale, delicate, slender slip of a girl in a gown of violet silk and a
long Quakerish white fichu was the power behind all this agitation, that
redoubtable Alice Paul who had waged the campaign of 1914 against them.
As Alice Paul rose to introduce one of the speakers, Mr. Taggart of
Kansas interrogated her. It will be remembered that this was the Mr.
Taggart whose majority had been diminished, by the Woman’s Party
campaign, from three thousand to three hundred.
Mr. Taggart to Miss Paul: Are you here to report progress in your
effort to defeat Democratic candidates?
Miss Paul: We are here to talk about this present Congress—this
present situation. We are here to ask the Judiciary Committee to
report this bill to the House.
Mr. Taggart: I take this occasion to say as a member of this
committee that if there was any partisan organization made up of men
who had attempted to defeat members of this committee, I do not
think we would have given them a hearing. And if they had been men,
they wouldn’t have asked it.
Miss Paul: But you hear members of the Republican Party and of the
Prohibition Party.
Mr. Webb: They aren’t partisan. (Laughter).
Mr. Taggart, coming back to the attack: You didn’t defeat a single
Democratic Member of Congress in a Suffrage State.
Miss Paul, quickly: Why, then, are you so stirred up over our
campaign? (Audible murmur from Republican left wing).
Mr. Webb: I move a recess of this committee for one hour.
After the recess Miss Paul rose to introduce Helen Todd of California.
Mr. Williams put the following question to her:
Miss Paul, would you state to me the names of the candidates for
Congress which your organization opposed in the State of Illinois?
Miss Paul: We conducted our campaign only in the nine States in
which women were able to vote for members of Congress. In no way did
we participate in the campaign in Illinois.
Miss Paul then introduced Helen Todd. After Miss Todd had spoken,
Frances Joliffe and Sara Bard Field spoke.
Later Alice Paul said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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