when congress adjourned at noon march 3, president wilson left immediately for europe, stopping in new york to speak at the metropolitan opera house. alice paul arranged at once a demonstration in new york as a protest against the president leaving the suffrage question still unsettled. her plan was to have every word on democracy, uttered by the president inside the opera house, immediately burned outside the opera house.
on the evening of march 4 a long line of suffragists started from the new york headquarters at 13 east forty-first street. margaretta schuyler carried the american flag. lucy maverick followed her carrying the purple, white, and gold tri-color. florence de shan carried:
mr. president, how long must women wait for liberty?
beatrice castleton bore:
mr. president, how long must women wait for liberty?
the lettered banner for the occasion said:
mr. president, american women protest against the
defeat of suffrage for which you and your party are
responsible. we demand that you call an extra session
of congress immediately to pass the suffrage amendment.
an autocrat at home is a poor champion for
democracy abroad.
413at the corner of fortieth street and broadway, this line met a barrier of more than a hundred policemen. as the suffragists tried to pass through them, the police—assisted by soldiers and sailors from the crowd—rushed upon them; tore down the banners; broke them.
in her book, jailed for freedom, doris stevens tells how in perfect silence, but in the most business-like way, the new york police clubbed the pickets. they arrested six of the women; alice paul, elsie hill, doris stevens, beatrice castleton, lucy maverick, marie bodenheim. these were taken to the police station charged with disorderly conduct. after half an hour, they were suddenly released.
they went back to headquarters, re-formed into a second line and started for the opera house. at fortieth street, the police again rushed them, tearing and breaking their flags. the women were knocked down. some were trampled underfoot, and picked up later, limp and bleeding from scrapes and bruises. elsie hill succeeded in retaining her torch. she began her meeting of protest. a messenger emerged from the opera house with some of the words which the president had just uttered, and she burned them. the police rushed upon her, but they were too late. in the meantime, alice paul had succeeded in bringing the line of suffragists up to the wall of police. there the crowds dashed on them again.
with the wonderful spirit which always characterized her, elsie hill called out to one of the soldiers: did you fellows turn back when you saw the germans come? what would you have thought of any one who did? do you expect us to turn back now? we never turn back either—and we won’t until democracy is won!
finally the police pushed the crowds back so far that there was no audience. the pickets returned to headquarters. there they found that all the evening long, lawless citizens had been breaking in, carrying out great bundles of banners and burning them in the street.
414doris stevens tells in jailed for freedom how, when she attempted to enter headquarters, she was knocked down by a hoodlum armed with one of their banner poles.
that night and the following day, sailors, privates and officers—military and naval—called at suffrage headquarters to apologize for the conduct of other men in uniform. they begged the women to believe that their action was not representative of the attitude of service men in general.
the sixty-sixth congress convened in special session on may 19, 1919, with the republicans in control.
the suffragists knew before this congress convened, that it would pass the anthony amendment.
this was how it happened.
