Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/524

 but still stronger was the determination of the convention that the association should not depart from its policy of absolute non-partisanship. Motions were made and amendments offered and the discussion raged for two hours. Dr. Shaw spoke strongly against the resolution and finally it was defeated by a large majority. Later Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago offered a resolution which after several amendments read: "We re-affirm our non-partisan attitude concerning national political parties but this policy does not preclude the right of any member to work against any candidate who opposes woman suffrage, nor shall it refer to the personal attitude of enfranchised women." This was carried enthusiastically. A resolution by Mrs. J. Claude Bedford (Penn.) for a vigorous publicity campaign to make clear the association's non-partisan policy was passed.

There had been such marked increase of public opinion in favor of woman suffrage in the southern States and so many of their able women had come into the association that a "Dixie evening" had been arranged. Mrs. Catt presided and the following program was presented: Master Words—Mrs, Minnie Fisher Cunningham, president Texas Woman Suffrage Association; Kentucky and Her Constitution—Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Smith, president Kentucky Equal Rights Association; The Evolution of Woman—Mrs. Eugene Reilley, vice-president General Federation of Women's Clubs and vice-president North Carolina Woman Suffrage Association; Progress of Today and Traditions of Yesterday—Mrs. Edward McGehee, president Mississippi Federation of Women's Clubs; For Woman Herself—Mrs. Lila Mead Valentine, president Virginia Equal Suffrage League; The Southern Temperament as Related to Woman Suffrage—Mrs. Guilford Dudley, president Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association, Inc.; Real Americanism—Mrs. T. T. Cotnam, vice-president Arkansas Woman Suffrage Association. Southern women have a natural gift of oratory and the audience was delightfully entertained. But three of these addresses were published and space can be given only to brief extracts.

"There is in America today," Mrs. Cotnam said, "a large class of people who are restless and dissatisfied and are smarting under the injustice of being governed without their consent. This is