The suffrage issue was brought oftenest to his attention from
then on until his final surrender. It lay entirely with him as to
how long women would be obliged to remind him of this issue
before he willed to take a hand.

"The people" were on the Avenue watching the suffragists parade.
The informant was quite right. It seemed to those of us who
attempted to march for our idea that day that the whole world was
there-packed closely on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The purpose of the procession was to dramatize in numbers and
beauty the fact that women wanted to vote that women were asking
the Administration in power in the national government to speed
the day. What politicians had not been able to get through their
minds we would give them through their eyes-often a powerful
substitute. Our first task seemed simple actually to show that
thousands of women wanted immediate action on their long delayed
enfranchisement. This we did.

This was the first demonstration under the leadership of Alice
Paul, at that time chairman of the Congressional Com-

{22}

mittee of the National American Woman. Suffrage Association. It
was also the beginning of Woodrow Wilson's liberal education.

The Administration, without intending it, played into the hands
of the women from this moment. The women had been given a permit