[2]At Colorado Springs in 1911, when Mr. Wilson was Governor of
New Jersey and campaigning for the Presidential nomination, a
delegation of Colorado women asked him his position on woman
suffrage. He said, "Ladies, this is a very arguable question and
my mind is in the midst of the argument"

{23}

and that above all it was his task to see that Congress
concentrated on the currency revision and the tariff reform. It
is recorded that the President was somewhat taken aback when Miss
Paul addressed him during the course of the interview with this
query, "But Mr. President, do you not understand that the
Administration has no right to legislate for currency, tariff,
and any other reform without first getting the consent of women
to these reforms?"

"Get the consent of women?" It was evident that this course had
not heretofore occurred to him.

"This subject will receive my most careful consideration," was
President Wilson's first suffrage promise.

He was given time to "consider" and a second deputation went to
him, and still a third, asking him to include the suffrage
amendment in his message to the new Congress assembling in extra
session the following month. And still he was obsessed with the
paramount considerations of "tariff" and "currency." He flatly
said there would be no time to consider suffrage for women. But