Title
Carrie Chapman Catt to Woodrow Wilson
Creator
Catt, Carrie Chapman, 1859-1947
Identifier
WWP25226
Date
1918 September 29
Description
President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association urges President Wilson to support suffrage as a war measure to sway senators.
Source
Library of Congress, Woodrow Wilson Papers
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
National American Woman Suffrage Association
Women--Suffrage--United States
Contributor
Danna Faulds
Relation
WWP25227
Language
English
Provenance
Document scan was taken from Library of Congress microfilm reel of the Wilson Papers. WWPL volunteers transcribed the text.
Text
Honorable Woodrow Wilson,
President of the United States,
Washington, DC
My dear Mr. President:
We turn to you this morning in sheer desperation. As you doubtless know, Mr. Drew of New Hampshire was won over by the Massachusetts senators, and Mr. Benet by the group representing the solid South. Our vote is on for tomorrow and we are still two short.
Several senators on the floor, and in conversation, have said that they could not see that woman suffrage is in any sense a war measure. Mr. Benet said he would change his position if he thought it was. There is but one thing we can think of which could win those needed votes. I venture to suggest that a friendly senator might write you a letter and ask if, in your judgment, it is a war measure. If you could see your way clear to reply to the effect that it is, and why, so that the reply could be printed in tomorrow’s papers, we feel sure it would greatly help. If it did not win the needed votes, at least it would still further clarify the war aims you have so wonderfully set forth, and especially in your masterly address of Friday. As the country has responded to your leadership in the material aids necessary to the victory of our armies, so must the country understand and endorse the principles of liberty for which this nation is supposed to be giving its life blood.
Many of us were shocked at the peace terms put forth by Senator Lodge. He had much of the substance, but the spirit of humanity was not there. There was none of the thrill, the exaltation which your exposition of our aims produces. We shudder to think that should the reactionary element of either or both parties come uppermost at the end of the war, the world may lose the fruits for which a generation has been sacrificed.
It is therefore not alone to win two votes that we suggest this step. The country and especially the women recognize the need of constant direction of thought and feeling upward and onward. Our country is making its women to give their all, and upon their voluntary and free offering may depend the outcome of the war. If the Amendment fails, it will take the heart out of thousands of women, and it will be no solace to tell them that “it is coming”. It will arouse in them a just suspicion that men and women are not co-workers for world freedom, but that women are regarded as mere servitors with no interest or rightful voice in the outcome. The leaders in women’s work in the Red Cross, Y.M.C.A., Liberty Loan, Food, are almost without exception women who have been trained to their work in our Association, so that my statement is no idle claim -- these women by the thousands feel as do we here in Washington feel. If the Amendment wins, it will revitalize women, put new fire and fervor in all they do, enable them to do more. We have many war workers in our house and last night I asked a young women, who for patriotic reasons only has been working in the Ordnance Department, why woman suffrage should be called a war measure. She promptly replied, “Because it is an incentive to better and more work”.
We are truly grateful for all you have done for our measure, but we believe that to hold the women to their best endeavors is so important at this time that you and the nation will find reward in their loyal gratitude. If, in addition to a letter of this nature, you could send for the men who we still believe are possibilities, and talk to them on these lines, it might win them. In addition to Senator Benet, who said yesterday on the floor of the Senate that he would change if convinced that it was a war measure, we suggest Senators Walcott, Shields, Overman and Trammell. The two latter are undoubtedly pledged to stand by the solid South, but two would be more willing to break way than one, and we hope that you who have proved yourself a miracle worker on many occasions may be able to produce another wonder on Monday--of putting vision where there was none before.
The hope and fate of the women of the nation rest in your hands.
Sincerely yours,
Carrie Chapman Catt
President.
President of the United States,
Washington, DC
My dear Mr. President:
We turn to you this morning in sheer desperation. As you doubtless know, Mr. Drew of New Hampshire was won over by the Massachusetts senators, and Mr. Benet by the group representing the solid South. Our vote is on for tomorrow and we are still two short.
Several senators on the floor, and in conversation, have said that they could not see that woman suffrage is in any sense a war measure. Mr. Benet said he would change his position if he thought it was. There is but one thing we can think of which could win those needed votes. I venture to suggest that a friendly senator might write you a letter and ask if, in your judgment, it is a war measure. If you could see your way clear to reply to the effect that it is, and why, so that the reply could be printed in tomorrow’s papers, we feel sure it would greatly help. If it did not win the needed votes, at least it would still further clarify the war aims you have so wonderfully set forth, and especially in your masterly address of Friday. As the country has responded to your leadership in the material aids necessary to the victory of our armies, so must the country understand and endorse the principles of liberty for which this nation is supposed to be giving its life blood.
Many of us were shocked at the peace terms put forth by Senator Lodge. He had much of the substance, but the spirit of humanity was not there. There was none of the thrill, the exaltation which your exposition of our aims produces. We shudder to think that should the reactionary element of either or both parties come uppermost at the end of the war, the world may lose the fruits for which a generation has been sacrificed.
It is therefore not alone to win two votes that we suggest this step. The country and especially the women recognize the need of constant direction of thought and feeling upward and onward. Our country is making its women to give their all, and upon their voluntary and free offering may depend the outcome of the war. If the Amendment fails, it will take the heart out of thousands of women, and it will be no solace to tell them that “it is coming”. It will arouse in them a just suspicion that men and women are not co-workers for world freedom, but that women are regarded as mere servitors with no interest or rightful voice in the outcome. The leaders in women’s work in the Red Cross, Y.M.C.A., Liberty Loan, Food, are almost without exception women who have been trained to their work in our Association, so that my statement is no idle claim -- these women by the thousands feel as do we here in Washington feel. If the Amendment wins, it will revitalize women, put new fire and fervor in all they do, enable them to do more. We have many war workers in our house and last night I asked a young women, who for patriotic reasons only has been working in the Ordnance Department, why woman suffrage should be called a war measure. She promptly replied, “Because it is an incentive to better and more work”.
We are truly grateful for all you have done for our measure, but we believe that to hold the women to their best endeavors is so important at this time that you and the nation will find reward in their loyal gratitude. If, in addition to a letter of this nature, you could send for the men who we still believe are possibilities, and talk to them on these lines, it might win them. In addition to Senator Benet, who said yesterday on the floor of the Senate that he would change if convinced that it was a war measure, we suggest Senators Walcott, Shields, Overman and Trammell. The two latter are undoubtedly pledged to stand by the solid South, but two would be more willing to break way than one, and we hope that you who have proved yourself a miracle worker on many occasions may be able to produce another wonder on Monday--of putting vision where there was none before.
The hope and fate of the women of the nation rest in your hands.
Sincerely yours,
Carrie Chapman Catt
President.
Original Format
Letter
To
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924