Today -100: January 13, 1915: Their beauty is disturbing to business

The lame duck Congress votes down a women’s suffrage amendment to the US Constitution, 174-204. The ayes were 86 D’s, 72 R’s, 12 Progressives, 3 Progressive-Republicans and an independent. 171 D’s & 33 R’s voted against. The only Democrat from the Deep South who votes yes is Richmond Hobson of Alabama, an outgoing lame duck himself. Of the congresscritters from the 11 suffrage states, only one, George Kindel (D-Colo.), another lame duck, voted no. There was hissing in the galleries during the speech of Stanley Bowdle (D-Ohio), yet another outgoing lame duck, who said, “The women of this smart capital are beautiful. Their beauty is disturbing to business; their feet are beautiful; their ankles are beautiful, but here I must pause – for they are not interested in the State.”

Mrs Arthur Dodge, president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (honestly she has a real first name of her own, but I can never remember it and I’m tired of looking it up each time she pops up) says this vote shows “that from now on the wave of hysteria in which the suffragists have indulged or of which they have been the victims will be on the wane.”

Woodrow Wilson says he didn’t intend those remarks in his Jackson Day speech to indicate that he was running for re-election. No, really he didn’t.

It’s interesting seeing everyone jump to over-interpret anything he says, a la Hillary. It was genuinely thought possible that a president’s ambitions might not extend to a second term (there are rumors that he plans to step aside in favor of his son-in-law, William Gibbs McAdoo, who would eventually... well, check back here in 9 years).

The US Supreme Court stays Leo Frank’s execution.

The British War Office takes out an ad in various newspapers (I believe this is a poster version of the ad):

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