Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/686

 was elected for the full term beginning March 4. Senator Hale of Maine was the only hold-over Senator who changed his position, voting "no" in October and "aye" in June. The suffragists deeply regretted that Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, an able and valued friend for the past twenty-five years, was no longer a member of the Senate.

After the woman suffrage amendment had become a part of the Constitution of the United States Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the national president, prepared a complete summary of the several votes on it in the two Houses of Congress according to the political parties and sent it to Chairman Will H. Hays of the Republican National Committee and Chairman George White of the Democratic. To the former she said in part: "I take the occasion to express to you personally on behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, our grateful appreciation of your own faithful, consistent and always sincere efforts to carry out the platforms of your party wherein they referred to the enfranchisement of women. Ratification at this date would not have been achieved without your conscientious and understanding help. I wish also to express our gratitude to the Republican party fof its share in the final enfranchisement of the women of the United States"

To Mr. White Mrs. Catt said: "There is one important Democratic factor which should be included in the record and that is the fearless and able sponsorship of the amendment by the leader of your party, the President of the United StatesHe has never hesitated to let members of his party know in every State that he favored ratificationHis championship furnishes cause for pride to all forward-looking Democrats, since his vision foresaw this now achieved fact of the enfranchisement of the women of this country. On behalf of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, I wish to thank you and your party for its share in the completion of the task to which our association set itself more than fifty years ago."

Mrs. Catt said in the course of her summing up: "Women owe much to both political parties but to neither do they owe so much that they need feel themselves obligated to support that party if conscience and judgment dictate otherwise. Their politi-