That we pledge our unqualified support to the campaign for the sale of the War Savings Certificates and Thrift Stamps and urge our members to aid it in every way....
That we urge the establishment of the economic principle of equal pay for equal work as vital to the welfare of the nation....
That an American-born woman should not lose her nationality by marrying a foreigner and we urge a change of the law in this respect.
A resolution of gratitude to the memory of the many earnest workers for woman suffrage who had passed away during the year was adopted and letters of greeting were sent to the pioneers still living. A message of love and admiration was sent to Mrs. Catherine Breshkovsky, "the grandmother of the Russian Revolution." "Cordial and grateful appreciation for the inestimable service of the press," was voted.
The program for the last evening was devoted to Women's War Service Abroad. Miss Helen Fraser, representing Great Britain, was here on a special mission from its Government to tell what its women were doing. The audience was deeply moved by her simple but thrilling recital of the unparalleled sacrifices of the women of Great Britain and its colonies. Madame Simon pictured in eloquent language how the war had strengthened the devotion of France to America, not only through the unequalled assistance of this Government in money and soldiers but also through the sympathy and help of the American women. Miss C. M. Bouimistrow, a member of the Russian Relief Council, spoke of the warm feeling of that country for the United States and the bond between them created by the war in which they had a common enemy. Mrs. Nellie McClung, a leader of the Canadian suffragists, described what the war had meant to the women of the Dominion, and, as the Woman Citizen said in its account, "kept her hearers wavering between laughter and tears as she hid her own emotion behind a veil of stoicism and humor."
The convention ended with a mass meeting at the theater on Sunday afternoon at three o'clock with a notable audience such as can assemble only in Washington. Mrs. Catt presided. Mrs. McClung told enthusiastically the story of How Suffrage Came to the Women of Canada in 1916 and 1917, and Miss Fraser related how the work of women during the war had made it impossible for the British Government longer to deny them the franchise, that now only awaited the assent of the House of Lords, which was near at hand. It was always left to Dr. Shaw to finish the program. One who had attended many suffrage conventions said of her at this time: "As ever, Dr. Shaw's oratory was a marked feature of the week's proceedings. Sometimes she was the able advocate of loyalty to the country; sometimes she rose to heights of supplication for an applied democracy which shall include women; sometimes the mischief that is in her bubbled and sparkled to the surface."
Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with ringing words of inspiration, with a call for more and better work than had ever been done before and with a prophecy that the long-awaited victory was almost won. This convention, which had been held under such unfavorable auspices, proved to have been one of the best in way of accomplishment, and, although the papers were overflowing with news of the war, they came to the national suffrage press bureau from 44 States with excellent accounts of the convention; there were over 300 illustrated "stories" and it was estimated that it had received half a million words of "publicity."
It had been customary to have a hearing on the Federal Suffrage Amendment before the committees of every new Congress and this year an extra session had been called in the spring. As the question of a special Committee on Woman Suffrage in the Lower House was under consideration no hearing before its Judiciary Committee was asked for but a hearing took place before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage April 20. This was largely a matter of routine as the entire committee was ready to report favorably the resolution for the amendment. Chairman Jones announced that the entire forenoon had been set apart for the hearing, which would be in charge of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs. Catt said: "The Senate Committee of Woman Suffrage was established in 1883. Thirty-four years have passed since then and seventeen Congresses. We confidently believe that we are appearing before the last of these committees and that it will be your immortal fame, Mr. Chairman, to present the last report for woman suffrage to the United States Senate." With words of highest praise she introduced Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, "who has been our staunch and unfailing friend through trial and adversity."
Senator Shafroth answered conclusively from the twenty-four years' experience of his State the stock objections to woman suffrage, which he declared to be "simply another step in the evolution of government which has been going on since the dawn of civilization." He asked to have printed as part of his speech two chapters of Mrs. Catt's new book Woman Suffrage by Constitutional Amendment, which was so ordered. Senator Kendrick of Wyoming, former Governor, gave his experience of woman suffrage in that State for thirty-eight years. He declared that the early settlers were of the type of the Revolutionary Fathers and gladly gave to woman any right they claimed. He testified to the help he had received from them "in the promotion of every piece of progressive legislation" and said: "If for no other reason than the forces that are fighting woman suffrage, every decent man ought to line up in favor of it." He closed as follows: "Here and now I want to give this Constitutional Amendment my unqualified endorsement. No State that has adopted woman suffrage has ever even considered a plan to get along without it. It is soon realized that the votes of women are not for sale at any price, and, while they align themselves with the different parties, one thing is always and preeminently true—they never fail to put principle above partisanship and patriotism above patronage." Senator William Howard Thompson of Kansas sketched the steady progress of woman suffrage in his State, told of its beneficent results and submitted a comprehensive address which he had made before the Senate in 1914.