I am going recklessly on to try to tell what I think about Alice
Paul. It is difficult, for when I begin to put it down on paper,
I realize how little we know about this laconic person, and yet
how abundantly we feel her power, her will and her compelling
leadership. In an instant and vivid reaction, I am either
congealed or inspired; exhilarated or depressed; sometimes even
exasperated, but always moved. I have seen her very presence in
headquarters change in the twinkling of an eye the mood of fifty
people. It is not through their affections

{11}

that she moves them, but through a naked force, a vital force
which is indefinable but of which one simply cannot be unaware.
Aiming primarily at the intellect of an audience or an
individual, she almost never fails to win an emotional
allegiance.

I shall never forget my first contact with her. I tell it here as
an illustration of what happened to countless women who came in
touch with her to remain under her leadership to the end. I had
come to Washington to take part in the demonstration on the
Senate in July, 1913, en route to a muchneeded, as I thought,
holiday in the Adirondacks.

"Can't you stay on and help us with a hearing next week?" said
Miss Paul.

"I'm sorry," said I, "but I have promised to join a party of
friends in the mountains for a summer holiday and . . ."