Practically the same thing happened in the Republican
convention. They, too, endorsed a plank and "double-crossed." There
was apparently no difference between the two dominant parties on that
score. Men who had always been pronounced suffragists weakly confessed
themselves afraid to speak for woman suffrage in the campaign lest
votes be lost for their party. Political campaigners who went into the
state, with the exception of Senator Borah and Raymond Robins, were
told not to mention suffrage, and they obeyed. The wets apparently had
the state literally by the throat and in order to save votes the great
fundamental principle of "government by the people" was refused a
public hearing. Election Day came. Women poll workers reported from
many parts of the state that drunken hoodlums were marched in line
into the precinct, saying boldly that they were going to vote "agin
the ---- women." The women workers testified with remarkable unanimity
that their opposition was chiefly "riffraff and illiterate negroes and
that it was under the direction of well-known 'wets.
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