ark gave valuable
assistance, as did many prominent Democrats and Republicans both in
and out of Congress. A five-hours' debate took place in the House on
the afternoon of Jan. 10, 1918, and the vote resulted as follows:

In Favor Opposed
Republicans 165 33
Democrats 104 102
Miscellaneous 5 1
--- ---
274 136

This was a majority of less than one vote over the necessary
two-thirds.

Mrs. Park gave a graphic account of the struggle to secure a favorable
vote in the Senate. She described the influences brought to bear from
all possible sources; the conferences with committees and individuals;
the fixing and then postponing of days for a vote; the difficulty in
arranging "pairs"; the "filibustering" of the opponents, the
adjournments, the endless tactics for preventing a vote which for
years had been employed against this amendment. She described the
great five days' discussion in the Senate September 26-October 1; the
appeal to President Wilson for help and his magnificent response in
person on September 30 with its contemptuous treatment by the
opponents; the failure of the Republican leaders to supply the
thirty-three votes promised and of the Democrats to provide from their
ranks the thirty-fourth, which would complete the necessary
two-thirds, and she gave the summary of the result of the balloting on
October 1. Analyzed by parties and including pairs the vote stood:

Yes No
Democrats 30 22
Republicans 32 12
-- --
Total 62 34

The amendment was lost by two votes. This debate, printed in full in
the Congressional Record for those days, hands down to posterity the
noble effort of some members of the U. S. Senate to grant to women a
voice in the Government to which they were giving the most loyal and
devoted service in this hour when it was joining with other nations in
the greatest battle for democracy ever fought. It preserves also the
determination of other U. S. Senators to deny them this citizen's
right and to continue their disfranchised condition. The _Woman
Citizen_, official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association, in its issue of Oct. 5, 1918, gave a spirited account of
the proceedings of th