Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/181

 

The Thirty-eighth annual convention held in Baltimore Feb. 7-13, 1906, was notable in several respects. It had gone into the very heart of conservatism and a larger number of eminent men and women took part in its proceedings than had ever before been represented on a single program. Part of Call: Never have we had so much cause to issue a thanksgiving proclamation. Never has it been so easy to love our enemies, for they have combined to fight for us in their courses.

The inevitable logic of events is with us. All over the world intelligent women are interested in securing better protection for their homes and their children.... They are called upon to take part in civic affairs, and social and economic conditions force them into the world's broad field of battle where there is no place for non-combatants. The time has gone by for subterfuge and indirection.... The American Republic settles its questions in the light of day at the ballot box. No one, man or woman, has ever lost influence by the possession of power. We do not ask the ballot simply as a right, though if it be a right it cannot be rightfully denied us; we do not ask it as a privilege, though if it be a privilege it must be ours unless we admit % the existence of a privileged class. We demand it because it is a duty and one which no good citizen has a right to shirk.

If you are indifferent come and be convinced. What we ask is not revolutionary but is the reasonable and just demand of every being living under a democratic form of government. If you are opposed, come and let us reason together, consider our points of agreement and waive for a moment those of differenceLet us have the truth for authority and we shall not need authority for truth

There were university presidents and professors, men and women; office holders, men and women; representatives of other large movements, men and women, and more distinguished women than had ever before nbled in one convention. It was especially memorable because of the presence on the platform together for the first and only time of the three great pioneers, Susan B. Anthony, Clara P>arton and Julia Ward Howe, and never to be forgotten by suffragists as the last ever attended by Miss Anthony. Here was sung the Battle Hymn of the Republic in the presence of