ident Wilson
and seven of the ten members of his Cabinet declared in favor of woman
suffrage; and in November the President had gone to his home in
Princeton, N. J., on election day to cast his vote for the pending
State amendment.

An honorary committee of arrangements for the convention had been
formed in Washington which included many of the most prominent women
officially and socially, headed by Miss Margaret Wilson, the
President's eldest daughter. Republican and Democratic National
Committees had cordially received suffrage speakers. The first measure
to be introduced in both Houses of the new Congress was the resolution
for the Federal Suffrage Amendment, with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw,
president of the National American Suffrage Association, sitting on
the Speaker's bench by invitation of Speaker and Mrs. Champ Clark. The
convention opened Tuesday morning and at five o'clock in the afternoon
the delegates were received by President Wilson in the White House.
They walked the few short blocks from the convention headquarters in
the New Willard Hotel to the White House and the line reached from the
street through the corridors to the East Room. After each had had a
hearty handshake Dr. Shaw expressed the gratitude of all suffragists,
not for his vote, which was a duty, but for his reasons, to which the
widest publicity had been given. She said the women felt encouraged to
ask for two things: first, his influence in obtaining the submission
of the Federal Amendment by Congress at the present session; second,
if that failed, his influence in securing a plank for woman suffrage
in his party's national platform. The latter he answered to their
great joy by saying that he had it under consideration. He looked at
his hand a little ruefully and said: "You ladies have a strong grip."
"Yes," she responded, "we hold on."

The most striking contrast between this and other conventions was
seen in the program. For more than two-score years the evening
sessions and often those of the afternoon had been given up to
addresses by prominent men and women and attended by large general
audiences. In this way the seed was sowed and public sentiment created
and people in the cities which invited the convention looked forward
to an intellectual feast. This year it was felt that the general
public needed no further education on this subject; the association
had become a business organization and the woman suffrage question one
of practical