New-York tribune., 1918-05-10
Sufragists Lack
2 of Needed Vote
To Win in Senate
Senator Jones Announces
Test Scheduled for To-
day Will Be Postponed
BY Emma Buqbee

By Emma Bugbee
WASHINGTON, May s.-Suffragists
still lack two votes of the two-thirds
vote necessary to carry the Federal
amendment to victory In the Senate,
according to statement made to-day
by Senator Jones, of New Mexico, chair
He gave the figures as 81 to 80.
The debate on the suffrage amend
ment, which was scheduled to begin
tomorrow, probably will not take
place. This was decided upon at an
informal conference of friends of the
cause in Senator Jones's Office this
! afternoon. Women leaders, however,
| were not present at the conference, and
they were still optimistic tonight that
the needed votes would materialize.
Senator Jones believes two more
Senators must be converted before it
will be safe to bring the measure to a
vote. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Gait,
| president of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association, believes
enough Senators have been converted; j;
and that it is merely question of
railroads to bring all the friends Of
suffrage to Washington on the mid
uISAt CIdlIlS.
Mrs. Gait Is Hopeful
owe shall not give up hope until II
o'clock tomorrow" she said. "Not
until we know whether or not our alb
sent friends have been able to reach
the capital shall we consent to having
the vote postponed. We sent wires to
no reply. Senator Jones evidently in
terprets this fact as meaning they Will
be unable to reach Washington. W.
interpret it to mean they have not
been able to communicate with us, but
we see no reason to believe they will
net appear on Friday as we asked them
to-"
The conference which decided that
the suffrage bill should not be brought
up for debate tomorrow was unofficial,
and its decision is subject to change,
if facts and the railroads overthrow
Senator Jones's poll during the night
In the meantime, suffrage headquar-
ters is filled with women leaders who
have been hurrying from all parts of
the country to give what they believed
would be the last hours work for the
cause.
Mrs. Travis Whitney, chairman Of the
Congressional Committee of New York
state, nursing broken arm, worked all
day at the capital, and Mrs. Norman
De r. Whitehouse and Mrs. Ogden
New York State Woman Suffrage party,
also have been busy. Mrs. Minnie
Fisher Cunningham, leader of the
Texas suffragists. who won primary
suffrage for the women of her state,
came up to make a last minute appeal
to the Texas Senators.
Gloom at HEADQUARTERS
This evening suffrage headquarters
presented a mournful contrast to the
scene that preceded the vote on suf-
frage in the House of Representatives
on January 10. On that night the wom-
en- were already celebrating, for Pres-
dent Wilson had come out for suffrage
by Federal enactment, making victory
certain. Tonight the President is just
as strong for suffrage as ever, but he
has made no appeal to the Senate, so
far as is known.
Since January 10 the suffragsts
have been watching for an hour when
all their friends in the Senate should
be in Washington at the same time.
They have been confident that they
had enough votes pledged to carry
them to victory, but illness and acc-
dent and death have made it impos-
sible to get all the votes together on
any one day. On one occasion the suf-
frage statisticians discovered that
their full quota of Senators was in
town, and they were ready to notify
Senator Jones that he could bring on
his orators the next day, when one of
the Senators was called away by the
illness of his wife. Before he returned
some one else was away for some other
reason, and so it has been all spring.
Woman's Party Blamed
Just why Senator Jones should have
announced he would bring the matter
up for debate on Friday and then
change his mind suddenly is one of the
things the friends of suffrage were de-
batting this evening. Some put the
blame not at the door of the congested
railroad systems. but much nearer
home, in the headquarters of the White
party. 1t was said in Senatorial cloak
rooms that within the week three SEN
ators who were trembling on the verge
of conversion had been antagonized by
the persistence Of the "pickets" and
changed from the favorable to the
doubtful column.
The suffragists. however. are conf
dent of victory at this session of
Congress, even if they are temporarily
disappointed tomorrow.
Mis. SAIt Oenled vigorously That
there was any intention of allowing
the vote to go over until the short ses-
sion of Congress next winter. The
suffragists want the bill out of the
way, and it would seem to be to the
interest of Senators who are coming
up for reelection to have it out of the
way, too.
Senator'S will be reminded tomorrow
that the National American Woman
Suffrage Association voted at its last
convention to make suffrage an issue
in the fall elections, in case it had
not been settled at the nresant sas-