Mr. Falconer of Washington rose in reply.  He remarked:[430]

“I want to observe that the mental operation of the average woman in the State of Washington, as compared to the ossified brain operation of the gentleman from Alabama, would make him look like a mangy kitten in a tiger fight.  The average woman in the State of Washington knows more about social economics and political economy in one minute than the gentleman from Alabama has demonstrated to the members of this House that he knows in five minutes.”

On February 2, 1914, a delegation of women called upon President Wilson to ascertain his views.  The President refused to commit himself.  He was not at liberty, he said, to urge upon Congress policies which had not the endorsement of his party’s platform; and as the representative of his party he was under obligations not to promulgate or intimate his individual convictions.  On February 3, 1914, the Democrats of the House in caucus, pursuant to a resolution of Mr. Heflin, refused to create a woman suffrage committee.  So the constitutional amendment was quite lost.  In the following July Mr. Bryan suddenly issued a strong appeal for equal suffrage in the Commoner.  Among his arguments were these: 

“As man and woman are co-tenants of the earth and must work out their destiny together, the presumption is on the side of equality of treatment in all that pertains to their joint life and its opportunities.  The burden of proof is on those who claim for one an advantage over the other in determining the conditions under which both shall live.  This claim has not been established in the matter of suffrage.  On the contrary, the objections raised to woman suffrage appear to me to be invalid, while the arguments advanced in support of the proposition are, in my judgment, convincing.”

“Without minimising other arguments advanced in support of the extending of suffrage to woman, I place the emphasis upon the mother’s right to a voice in molding the environment which shall surround her children—­an environment which operates powerfully in determining whether her offspring will crown her latter years with joy or ’bring down her gray hairs in sorrow to the grave.’

“For a time I was imprest by the suggestion that the question should be left to the women to decide—­a majority to determine whether the franchise should be extended to woman; but I find myself less and less disposed to indorse this test....  Why should any mother be denied the use of the franchise to safeguard the welfare of her child merely because another mother may not view her duty in the same light?”