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
Whenever the organizers came back to Washington, Miss Paul always sent
them to the Capitol to lobby for a while. This put them in touch with
the Congressional situation. Moreover, Congressmen were always glad to
talk with women who brought them concrete information in regard to the
country at large, and particularly in regard to the Suffrage sentiment
and the political situation in their own States, which they had often
not seen for months. On the other hand, when the organizers embarked on
their next journey, editors of small towns were always very grateful for
the chance of talking with these informed young persons, who could bring
their news straight from the national news-mint.
But one of the great secrets of Alice Paul’s success was that she
freshened her old forces all the time, by giving them new work, brought
new forces to bear all the time on the old work. If organizers showed
the first symptoms of growing stale on one beat, she transferred them to
another. Most of them performed at some time during their connection
with the Woman’s Party every phase of its work. Perpetual change ...
perpetual movement ... the onward rush of an exhilarating flood ... that
was the feeling the Woman’s Party gave the onlooker.
I reiterate that it would be impossible to do justice, short of a book
devoted entirely to their efforts, to these organizers. They turn up
everywhere. They do everything! They know not fatigue! There is no end
to their ingenuity and enthusiasm.
In spite of all this intensive thinking, and its result in action, the
Congressional Union had its lighter moments, and many of them.
On Valentine’s Day, 1916, a thousand Suffrage valentines were despatched
to Senators and Representatives by members of the Congressional Union
living in their districts; the President and Vice-President were not
forgotten. They were of all kinds and descriptions. Recalcitrant
politicians were especially favored. The Rules Committee, for instance,
were showered. One of Mr. Henry’s valentines took the form of an
acrostic:
H is for Hurry—
Which Henry should do.
E is for Every—
Which includes women too.
N is for Now—
The moment to act.
R is for Rules—
Which must bend to the fact.
Y is for You—
With statesmanlike tact.
Mr. Pou’s valentine showed an exquisitely ruffled little maiden, with
heel-less, cross-gartered slippers and a flower-trimmed hat, curtseying
to a stocked and ruffled gentleman who is presenting her with a bouquet.
Underneath it says:
The rose is red,
The violet’s blue,
But VOTES are better
Mr. Pou.
One to Representative Williams of the Judiciary Committee ran:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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