Oliver and Company

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I've got nothing to do

with committee appointments.

Let her submit her proposal to Anna.

She's here in Philadelphia.

All she wants is half an hour.

She's a bright girl, Swarthmore...

and a doctorate from Penn.

Her family has money.

Carrie, are you listening?

Yeah.

She wants to lobby

for a constitutional amendment.

She thinks Congress is going to

suddenly roll over?

I thought you said she was bright.

- Paula who?

- Paul, Alice Paul.

- She worked in England.

- Don't bring me any radicals, Harriet.

She's not a radical, she's a Quaker.

She came all the way down here

to meet you and Anna.

Be nice.

- It's mine.

- I saw it first.

- It's calling my name.

- I must be deaf.

Heads.

- It's not your style.

- Nice try.

Carrie Catt's very proud of the

state-by-state campaign. Congratulate her.

On what? 64 years of begging,

and now women can vote in nine states.

How many years per state is that?

You congratulate her.

We go there and say, "Do the math,"

we won't get the letterhead or the office.

You want to be two girls on a soapbox...

or do you want to go to Washington

and play with the big lads?

I want them to give us

the Congressional Committee.

- What?

- Did you swallow it whole?

I strangled it first.

The President of the National American

Woman Suffrage Association...

the Reverend Anna Howard Shaw.

Don't bring up suffrage in England,

Shaw thinks the Brits are hooligans.

No matter what,

don't get your knickers in a knot.

- Don't start up, be polite.

- I'm always polite. When am I not polite?

It's the color, with your hair.

The passage of a constitutional amendment

is not a realistic goal.

- It could become one.

- Theoretically, yes, in the future.

First, we need more states.

Susan B. Anthony petitioned for it in 1868

and again in...

Thank you for the history lesson.

If Susan B. Anthony were alive today,

she'd say 1912 is the future.

Dr. Shaw and I worked side by side

with Susan and Elizabeth Stanton...

while you were still in diapers, Miss Paul.

Would you do me a favor

and please refrain...

from second-guessing her thoughts

on this topic?

"Do me a favor, don't second-guess

Susan's thoughts on cheese.

"We worked side by side.

We worked cheek to cheek with Susan.

"She despised Cheddar

and she loathed Muenster."

A constitutional amendment

that gives women the right to vote...

assuming it doesn't die in committee, will

almost certainly be vetoed in the Senate.

We waste time and money. We squander

the goodwill of the Democrats...

and worse, we look like babies

with no political savvy.

Which gives ammunition to our opponents.

Have you any other thoughts, Miss Paul?

A parade. In March.

The day Wilson's arriving

for his inauguration.

We're guaranteed a crowd, and hopefully...

some badly-needed publicity

from the newspapers.

Mrs. Blatch tells me

that you two met in England.

- Those women give suffrage a bad name.

- Better than no name at all.

I beg your pardon?

Lucy was studying at Oxford.

What? I was.

While I'm in sympathy

with the British suffragettes...

I don't approve of their methodology.

We don't throw bricks

to make our position clear.

If I send you to Washington...

I want your assurance

that there will be no hooligan tactics.

You have it.

I don't consider myself above the law

under any circumstances.

Then you may take over NAWSA's committee

in Washington.

Have your parade, Miss Paul.

Thank you.

You'll have to raise

your own funds, of course.

That the female mind

is inferior to the male mind...

need not be assumed.

There is something about it

essentially different...

and that this difference

is of a kind and degree...

that votes for women

would constitute a political danger...

ought to be plain to everyone.

I do not wish to see the day come...

when the women in my state

shall trail their skirts...

in the muck and mire of partisan politics.

These flippant girls

singing "votes for women"...

know not the disasters they invite

by this reckless movement.

Flip you for it.

Let me see.

How do you raise money to raise money?

Excuse me.

All we need is a handful of society women.

I found someone who designs parade floats.

Floats? I thought we were going to

keep it small.

Why?

You've never organized a parade before.

It's not like giving a dinner party.

- Have you ever given a dinner party?

- No.

Then what are you worried about?

Did you get the permit?

I've been to the District Police three times...

Go over his head,

to the Parks Commissioner.

- I could go under his belt.

- I bet you would.

I think 1,000 women marching...

means more than 10,000 signatures

on a piece of paper.

Suffrage is not a dead issue.

It's us, it's you. It's living, breathing women.

We're not just a petition

that can be crumpled up and tossed away.

And this is what marching does.

Marching shows the politicians

that we women...

are united in our demand for political...

Show me a raise. Screw the politicians.

Go ahead, if you think it'll help.

Now, there's...

A hundred and forty-six women

burned to death in a factory fire last month.

Where's your fire escape?

Laws are made by elected officials.

A fire escape can be required by law.

A vote is a fire escape.

If we take Sunday off to la-di-da for you,

we get fired on Monday.

You have children, missus?

They don't eat ballots.

Go ahead, shout your head off.

The ruling class are those who have a voice,

and that voice is a vote.

No one hears you.

- Votes for women.

- The parade is going to happen and...

Please, would you like one?

The more the merrier. Anyone?

A vote is a fire escape.

That's right. A vote's a fire escape.

Mrs. Wenclawska. Ruza.

Alice Paul.

Now give me the rest, college girl.

Helen Keller's in town.

Arrange for me to meet her.

I don't know which hotel.

She's deaf and blind.

If she found it, I'm sure you can.

Hi. Mabel Vernon.

I played hockey with Alice at Swarthmore.

Lucy Burns.

D.C. Police will not guarantee our safety

if we march on the 3rd...

- because Wilson's arriving.

- We're not changing the date.

Exactly what I said. I like that one.

And he said, "Well...

"miss, there might be trouble

with inaugural crowds...

"and I'm afraid I won't be held responsible."

And I said, "Look, mister,

we're entitled to police protection."

And he said, "Why don't you

take my advice, you ladies?

- "Why don't you stay at home?"

- Miss Paul?

Ida Wells-Barnett,

from the Chicago delegation.

I'm told you expect Negro women

to march in a separate unit, at the back.

Southern suffrage groups

threatened to withdraw...

Are the ladies afraid

we'll march out of step?

- Call their bluff.

- We can't afford to lose their support...

not with the Democrats in office.

Who's "we"? Women? Or just white women?

- Now, wait a minute.

- We have one agenda: Suffrage.

- Add another issue...

- lf we don't stand up now...

what happens to Negro women

when you finally get the vote?

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