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"We therefore urge the members of this organization, because they are committed to the cause of Repeal, whether they be Republicans or whether they be Democrats, to give their support to the nominee of that party which favors the repeal of the 18th Amendment, Franklin Delano Roosevelt."
Of the 19 who dissented from handing the Democracy a million ballots, a majority was reported to have been "brought around" after the meeting. But Mrs. Robert W. Lovett, who rallied Massachusetts women to Hoover in 1928, did not vote for the resolution. Maude K. Wetmore, who did the same thing in Rhode Island, announced she would not support Roosevelt. Mrs. Agnes Jones Gifford, onetime Republican member of the New Jersey Legislature, was the first member to resign as a result of the swing to Roosevelt. Sixty-four rank & file Republicans, including Mmes August Belmont, George Fisher Baker and Kermit Roosevelt, served notice on their executive committee that they would not support the Democratic nominee because "each individual should vote for the man best qualified to lead the nation." Secretary of the Treasury Mills, adroit socialite, was supposed to have engineered their revolt.
On the other hand, Committeewoman Mrs. Graham Dougherty of Philadelphia, an active Republican worker in her city and State, announced: "You can say that no one of the Pennsylvania women here voted against . . . the resolution."
"I have been a Republican all my life," said motherly Mrs. Joy, "but I joined this organization believing that repeal of the 18th Amendment was necessary, and I still think it the most important issue before us." Another who sacrificed party to principle was the organization's chairman and founder, Pauline Morton Sabin.
"Not me, lady.' Last week was not the first time that Mrs. Sabin had made the sacrifice. Thirteen years ago she became sufficiently interested in politics to join the Suffolk County Republican Com mittee. Her husband, Board Chairman Charles Hamilton Sabin of Guaranty Trust Co., was a Democrat, but that did not hinder Mrs. Sabin's swift rise in G. O. P. circles. In 1920 she was selected for the New York State Executive Committee. A year later she was elected President of the Women's National Republican Club. She was a delegate to the Cleveland convention in 1924, served as a member of the Republican National Committee from 1924-28. She campaigned for President Hoover until two days after his inauguration. At that point Mrs. Sabin turned her back on her party affiliations.
It would not be accurate to say that Mrs. Sabin was immune to politics until 1919. Her family background is densely political. Her grandfather was Julius Sterling Morton, onetime Governor of Nebraska, Secretary of Agriculture in the Cleveland Cabinet, founder of Arbor Day. His ghost almost rose to smite her when she was making a speech recently in arid Omaha.