“ I believe in woman suffrage not for women alone, not for men alone, but for the advantage of both men and women. Any community, any society, any State that excludes half of its members from participating in it is only half a State, only half a city, only half a community. So, you see, woman suffrage does not interest me so much because woman is a taxpayer or because of justice as because of democracy; because I believe in the fullest, freest, most responsible democracy that it is possible to create. The city of the people will be a man and woman city. ”

“ We have great things at stake in our children. We are trying to take away that shadow which rests upon these United States, the shadow of child labor. It will not be done until the mothers have the right to speak for their children through the ballot. We are looking for the day when we shall be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with our men and share with them the burdens and responsibilities of this greatest nation and be able to hold up our heads and say: "We are on an equal footing because we have men in the United States who recognize equality of rights." ”

“ I cannot help believing that the exercise of the suffrage by women is neces- sary to the welfare and growth of the nation. Your cause stands for the home; it stands for political purity, for civic righteous- ness, for everything that is for the betterment of the State, and I should be guilty of high treason to my deepest convictions if I did not bid a hearty God-speed to your efforts until every State shall recognize the equality of woman before the great law of civic redemption, as God has recognized her right before the great law of human redemption. ”

“ Two generations of men lie between the time when, in the early fifties, you and Mrs. Stanton sat together in New York State, writing over the cradles of her babies those trumpet calls to freedom that began and carried forward the emancipation of women—and the day eighteen months ago when that great audience in Berlin rose to do you honor, thousands of women from every country in the civilized world, silent, with full eyes and lumps in their throats, because of what they owed to you. ”

“ I consider no woman guiltless, whether she lives in a suffrage State or not, if she does not hold herself responsible for guard- ing less fortunate women. Corrupt custom has rent the sacred, seamless robe of womanhood and cast out part of the women, abandoning them to degradation. We must learn to recognize the responsibility of pure women for the fallen women, of the woman whose circumstances have enabled her to stand, for the woman whom adverse conditions have borne down. ”

“ It is unthinkable that women who have learned to act for themselves in college and have become awakened there to civic duties should not care for the ballot to enforce their wishes.
The same is true of every woman's club and every individual woman who tries to obtain laws to save little children from working cruel hours in cotton mills or to open summer gardens for homeless little waifs on the streets of a great city. These women, too, are being irresistibly driven to desire equal suffrage for the sake of the wrongs they try to right. ”

“ If woman by her ballot should plunge the country into war, would she not be in honor bound to fight by the side of man? Will the ballot in the hands of women pour oil on the troubled domestic waters ? Has not this movement a strong tendency to encourage the exodus from the land of bondage, otherwise known as matrimony and motherhood ? Is it not true that every free-lover, socialist, communist and anarchist the country over is openly in favor of female suffrage? ”

“ The woman had the burning sense of injustice to arouse her, the indignation caused by her calm relegation to the position of an inferior to inspire her with courage to fight for freedom, but a man, a man like Mr. Blackwell, had no such bitter sense of personal wrong to impel him. He entered the contest not for himself, for he had no wrongs to redress, but his great soul saw that woman had and he devoted life, means, energy, talents to redress them. ”

“ Men nearest the door hasten to light the candles of horsemen outside who speed away on the mission of torchbearer to every home, so that by nightfall the candles on every altar burn with a new brightness that has been transmitted from the holy fire. Likewise the fire of inspiration, kindled in the great soul of Anna Howard Shaw, touched into flame the zeal and courage of her messengers, who in turn reached the homes throughout the nation with her fervor and power. ”

“ Shaw spoke of always being proud when she had some man back of her who could give respectability to the cause. What greater honor can there be, what greater pride can you feel, than in having behind you the man who is not alone the President of the United States but also the foremost leader of liberal thought throughout the world? It is to have with you the conscience, the mind and the spirit of today and tomorrow." He spoke of his own strong belief in the enfranchisement of women and the necessity of establishing for every one an individuality entirely her own, socially and politically. ”

“ I would dishonor my womanhood to say that I will not do what I can for a child because I have none and I hope the time will never come when women must be ashamed of men because they are not willing to sacrifice something to take this action for women.' Think of it! Must we crawl on our knees to ask you for that which we feel we have a right to demand? You should see that every protection which every lifting hand that it is possible for manhood to offer to womanhood should be extended and your position gives you a great opportunity. ”

“ On the contrary, nothing save a community of great interests— whether in agreement or disagreement—can revive a fading romance. A high and equal comradeship is the one thing that can save those families which are the tottering cornerstones of society. A greater service of the developed woman to the State, however, will be her service in motherhood.... And yet to hear the sacredness of motherhood advanced as a reason why women should not become public-spirited and effectual, you would think this nation had no greater hope than to rear in innocence a generation of grown-up babies. ”

“ To the one who has made our victories possible, our national and international president, Mrs. Catt, women owe a debt of gratitude that can never be paid. Her strength and sagacity, her unerring judgment and masterful leadership have acted as a stimulus and inspiration, not only to those of us who have been privileged to work at close range but also to the women of the entire world. Our national suffrage headquarters have been a place of peace and happiness because of her patience, good-nature and sympathy. ”

“ Now, my dear ladies, you must show yourselves equal to selfgovernment by exercising, in listening to opposing arguments, that degree of restraint without which self-government is impossible. If I could be sure that women as a class in the community, including all the intelligent women most desirable as political constituents, would exercise the franchise, I should be in favor of it. At present there is considerable doubt upon that point. In certain of the States which have tried it woman suffrage has not been a failure. It has not made, I think, any substantial difference in politics. ”

“ Or will not some brave, consistent and freedom-loving President, recognizing the duty the Government owes to the disfranchised millions of patriotic women, recommend to Congress to submit an amendment to the Federal Constitution forbidding disfranchisement on account of sex? And will not the time speedily come when Congress, recognizing the great injustice which was inflicted upon the women of the land when by enfranchising a race of slave men they riveted the fetters of disfranchisement upon educated and patriotic women, redeem the nation from this stigma? ”

“ I have never known an organized body of women to be on the wrong side of a public question, although as individuals women sometimes get the wrong point of view, just as men are prone to do. I want equal suffrage because it is right. I want it also because it would have a great effect on woman's influence in public affairs and would help powerfully to get the right thing done. The very fact that woman had the vote would be a restraining and elevating influence. The women have been a tower of strength to every official in this country who has tried to do his duty. ”

“ Right here in Washington, in your big bindery of the Government, a trade to which I gave the larger part of my life, the women who do equal work with the men do not receive equal pay. The Government more than any other employer has taken advantage of women of my class because they have not a vote.... The workmen, more than any other men, even more than those who are supposed to be statesmen, have seen the necessity for women to have a vote. Ever since 1890 the convention of the American Federation of Labor has unanimously adopted a resolution favoring woman suffrage. ”

“ Who is to blame if they do not have the keener sense? One of the greatest problems facing this republic has been turned over to women teachers—that of coping with the foreign born and their children. Who can estimate the value of this great constructive work, the creation of American citizens out of the varied materials that are landed on our shores? And who can estimate the quickening force and the gain in appreciation and respect for law and order, if the mothers and the teachers of these children were considered worthy of the principles which they are asked to inculcate? ”

“ It seems to me in the highest degree ungenerous for women like these in this audience, who are cared for and protected in every way, not to desire equal suffrage for the sake of other less fortunate women, and it is not only ungenerous but short-sighted of such women not to desire it for their own sakes. There is nothing dearer to women than the respect and reverence of their children and of the men they love. ”

“ Shaw told of the organization of the College Women's Equal Suffrage League and asked: "Who can compute the loss sustained by our country every year by the addition of unrestricted, ignorant and often criminal male voters and the exclusion of the vast number of college and high-school graduates through the disfranchisement of women? If the stability of a government depends upon the morality and intelligence of its voting citizens, how long can the foundations of ours remain secure if we continue to enfranchise ignorance and vice and disfranchise intelligence and virtue?" ”

“ A few days ago some one said to me that every woman should stand with bared head before Susan B. Anthony. 'Yes,' I answered, 'and every man as well.' I would not retract these words. I believe that man has benefited by her work as much as woman. For ages he has been trying to carry the burden of life's responsibilities alone and when he has the efficient help of woman he will be grateful. Just now it is new and strange and men cannot comprehend what it would mean but the change is not far away. The nation is soon to have woman suffrage and it will be a glad and proud day when it comes. ”

“ I have often felt as if some sudden and unlooked for revelation had been vouchsafed to me, for at my first real contact with the suffragists of, say, forty years ago, I was made to feel that womanhood is not only static but also much more dynamic, a power to move as well as a power to stay. True womanliness must grow and not diminish, in its larger and freer exercise. Whom did I see at that first suffrage meeting, first in my experience? Lucy Stone, sweet faced and silver voiced, the very embodiment of Goethe's "eternal feminine" ”

“ I am one of the millions of women who work in the shadow of these women of whom men speak as though they are the only ones in the country, in order that they may parade the avenue in all the beauty and glory of everything brought from all over the world for their decoration, but I do not come with merely my personal opinion and experience. I have the opinion of the organized working women of America in convention assembled. These women represent all the trades that women work at in the United States and they have passed this resolution demanding the ballot without a dissenting vote. ”

“ I claim, and fear no contradiction, that the women of this land are better qualified to exercise the suffrage with intelligence, honesty and patriotism than were any other class of citizens in the world at the time when it was conferred upon them.
Must women, unaided, continue the struggle for forty years longer until they have rounded out a century, assailing the bulwarks of prohibitive constitutions in the forty-one States yet to be won? ”

“ Were there never another convert made there are suffragists enough in this country, if combined, to make so irresistible a driving force that victory might be seized at once. How can it be done? a simple change of mental attitude. If you are to seize the victory, that change must take place in this hall, here and now. The crisis is here, but if the call goes unheeded, if our women think it means the vote without a struggle, if they think other women can and will pay the price of their emancipation, the hour may pass and our political liberty may not be won. ”