Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/743

 Senator Robert M. La Follette announced their intention of trying to secure the Republican nomination for the presidency and the press of the country took up the burning question, "Will Roosevelt be a candidate for a third term?" On February 25 he announced his candidacy and from then until the date of the Republican national convention the public interest was intense. The convention met in Chicago, June 16-20. Miss Jane Addams, vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, had arranged with a number of women to appear at a few hours' notice before the Resolutions Committee but she could not give even that, as she learned at 8:30 p.m. on the 19th that the committee would meet at 9:30 in the Congress Hotel and she must appear at that time. There was hastily mustered into service a small but distinguished group of suffragists consisting of Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen and Miss Mary Bartelme of Chicago; Professor Sophonisba Breckinridge of Kentucky; Mrs. B. B. Mumford of Richmond, Va.; Miss Lillian BD. Wald and Mrs. Simkovitch of New York City; Miss Helen Todd of California; Professor Freund of the Chicago University Law Faculty and a few others. At ten o'clock the suffragists were admitted to the committee room and greeted cordially by Governor Hadley of Missouri and courteously by the chairman, Charles W. Fairbanks. Miss Addams was told that she might have five minutes (later extended to seven) and present one speaker. She introduced Mrs. Bowen, president of the Juvenile Protective Association, who spoke earnestly four minutes, leaving Miss Addams three to make the final plea. There were confusion and noise in the room and the attention of the committee was distracted. The platform contained no reference to woman suffrage. Senator [sic]LaFollette presented his own platform to the convention in which was a plank favoring the extension of suffrage to women but it went down to defeat. Two days later the convention amid great excitement nominated President Taft by a vote of 561 while Colonel Roosevelt's vote was only 107. Directly after the convention adjourned the delegates who favored Roosevelt assembled at Orchestra Hall and nominated him in the name of the new Progressive party, Miss Addams seconding the nomination.

Soon after Colonel Roosevelt announced his candidacy he