Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/558

This page needs to be proofread.
HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

524 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE of South Dakota; Jones of Washington; Nelson of Minnesota; Cum- mins of Iowa and Johnson of California. Chairman Jones, at our request, had secured the privilege of having his resolution made num- ber one on the calendar, but when it was decided that the war resolution should be introduced immediately, he tactfully yielded his place. Similar suffrage resolutions were introduced by Senators Shafroth, Owen, Poindexter and Thompson. In the House our resolution was introduced by Representative K'aker, on the Democratic side, and by Representative Rankin, on the Republican side. Similar ones were introduced by Representa- tives Mondell, Keating, Hayclen and Taylor. The War Resolution was adopted by the Senate April 4 and by the House April 5. A few days later the Finance Committee of the Senate informally recommended and leaders of both parties agreed that only legislation included in the war program should be considered during the extra session. The Democratic caucus of the House passed a similar recommendation, which was acquiesced in by the Republicans. It soon became clear to your committee that the suffrage resolution would not be admitted under this rule, and a total revision of plans had to be made. Three meetings were held and it was the opinion of all that the aim should be to establish and main- tain friendly relations with both parties rather than to arouse the antagonism of leaders whose support we must have if our measure is to succeed, so it was recommended and the National Board voted (hat our "drive" should be postponed until there was a possibility of securing a vote on the Federal Amendment. Happily, however, there were forms of work not prohibited by the legislative program. The Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage gave a hearing to our association April 20 ... and on September 15, Chairman Jones made a favorable report. The measure is now on the calendar of the Senate. In the House, resolutions calling for the creation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage had been introduced at the beginning of the session by Representatives Raker, Keating and Hayden and referred to the Committee on Rules. Our first step was to get the approval of Speaker Clark, who gave us cordial support. Later, to offset the fear on the part of certain members of conflicting with President Wilson's legislative program, a letter was sent, at Mrs. Helen H. Gardener's request, to Chair- man Edward Pou (N. C), of the Rules Committee, by the President himself, who stated that he thought the creation of the committee "would be a very wise act of public policy and also an act of fair- ness to the best women who are engaged in the cause of woman suffrage." Then, through the efforts of a working committee made up of the six members who had introduced suffrage resolutions, a petition asking for the creation of a Committee on Woman Suf- frage, as called for in the Raker resolution, was signed by all mem- bers from equal suffrage States and by many of those from Presi- dential suffrage States and from Primary suffrage Arkansas. This petition was presented to the Rules Committee, which on May 18