A Federal amendment for woman suffrage had never been discussed in the House of Rep resentatives. After a long contest it was finally rmorted and brought to a vote 12 Jan. 191a. The debate lasted 10 hours and the vote stood 174 ayes, 86 Democrats, 75 Republicans, 12 Progressives, 1 Independent; 204 noes, 33 Re pubhcans and 171 Democrats.
In 1916 a nation-wide campaign was made to obtain from the Presidential nominating con ventions an endorsement of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, an effort which had been made un successfully every four years since 1872. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, honorary president, and Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National Association i were present at the Re publican Convention n Chicago and the Demo cratie in Saint Louis, with many other women leaden. Roth conventions failed to endorse the amendment but put a plank in the plat forms declaring in favor of woman suffrage by action of the States. It had long found a place in those of the minority and re ceived a strong impetus from its advocacy by the Progressive party in 1912.
The first of December the National Ameri can Association opened large, handsome branch headquarters in Washington for the special work of getting the Federal amendment through Congress. It was here that the Association s Council of One Hundred was summoned by Mrs. Catt to meet 23, 24 Feb. 1917 when the en trance of the United States into the European War seemed at hand and pledged to the gov ernment the services of the association with its millions of members. The following April Dr. Shaw was selected by President Wilson and the Council of National Defense as chairman of the Women's Committee to organize and direct the war work of the women of the nation.
A Federal Woman's Equality Association was organized in 1890 with the Rev. Olympia Brown, president, and Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, ccrresponding secretary. It held that Congress, by a majority vote of both houses, could em power women to vote in all elections for mem bers of the House of Representatives, and for United States Senators after the National Con stitution provided that they should be elected by popular vote. It had many hearings before com mittees of Congress but the question was never brought before either house. Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, of the District of Columbia, and Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett, of Kentucky, were among the prominent women who supported this measure.
An organization formed In 1913 called first the Congressional Union and later the National Woman's party, also had headquarters in Wash ington to work for the amendment and used partisan, militant methods, *picketed° the White House, burned President Wilson's speeches, etc.
It was exceedingly difficult to get a report even 'without recommendation' from the lu diciary Committee of the lower House, to which the measure was always referred, and the effort frequently made to secure a committee on suffrage, such as existed in the Senate, fatally succeeded in September 1917. Both Democrats and Republicans now admitted that a Federal Amendment was inevitable and the op ponents realized that all they could hope for was to postpone it as long as possible. After much opposition the measure was put on the calendar for 10 Jan. 1918. The evening before the vote was to be taken President Wilson urged his party to support it. After a long discussion the vote stood 274 ayes, 136 noes; Republicans, 165 for, 33 against ; Democrats, 104 for, 102 against ; 2 Independents, I Progressive, 1 Socialist, 1 Prohibitionist for; 1 Progressive (Louisiana) against. The amendment received one more than the two-thirds necessary to carry it but Speaker Champ Clark (Democrat), of Missouri, had promised to vote in favor if there should be a tie. Fifty-six of the affirma tive votes were from Southern States.
The contest was now carried into the Senate. The committee unanimously reported it and in a short time promises were secured for the needed two-thirds, lacking only three or four. Then occured an unprecedented misfortune in the death of 10 senators, seven of them pledged to vote for the amendment. Former President Roosevelt and many other eminent men urged its adoption. Prominent senators in both par ties worked for it and against it and at last it was decided to have a vote on 1 October. On 30 September President Wilson went in person to the Senate and made an eloquent appeal for the amendment in the name of true democracy. The vote stood 62 to 34, lacking two es of the necessary two-thirds majority. His own party polled 57 per cent of its mem bership in opposition and the Republican 27 per cent. Of the 62 senators who voted or were paired in favor 32 were Republicans, 30 Democrats; of the 34 voting or paired in op position 12 were Republicans and 22 Democrats.