Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/523

 that the Federal Amendment was the one and only way. Our cause has been caught in a snarl of constitutional obstructions and inadequate election laws," she said, after drawing upon her own experience to show the hazards of State referenda, and we have a right to appeal to our Congress to extricate it from this tangle. If there is any chivalry left this is the time for it to come forward and do an act of simple justice. In my judgment the women of this land not only have the right to sit on the steps of Congress until it acts but it is their self-respecting duty to insist upon their enfranchisement by that routeWere 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? By 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 wonThe character of a man is measured by his will. The same is true of a movement. Then will to be free." The address made a deep impression and was accepted as a call to arms.

Throughout the convention open-air meetings were held on the Boardwalk addressed by popular suffrage speakers and thousands in the great crowds that throng this noted thoroughfare were interested listeners. The Friday morning session was enlivened by a resolution offered by Mrs. Raymond Robins, which said that this Emergency Convention had been called to plan for the final steps which would lead to nation-wide enfranchisement of women; that the method of amending State constitutions meant long delay; that many national candidates in all parties had declared in favor of a Federal Amendment, and therefore the delegates in this convention urged that in the present campaign suffragists should support for national office only those candidates who pledged their support to this amendment. The delegates quickly recognized that this meant to endorse Judge Charles Evans Hughes for president, although President Wilson was to address the convention that evening. Party feeling ran high