Yassum, dat's de trouble wid women down to dis very day. Dey ain't got no backbone. Of a rib dey was made an' a rib dey has stayed an' nobody ain't got no right to expect nothin' else from 'em. Hit's becaze woman was made out of man's rib—an' from de way she acts hit looks lak she was made out of a floatin' rib at dat—an' man was left wid all his backbone, dat he has got de comeuppance over woman. Dat's de reason we women sets down an' cries when we ought to git up an' heave brickbats. What's de reason dat we women can't vote, an' ain't got no say-so 'bout makin' de laws dat bosses us? Ain't we got de right on our side? Yassir, but we'se got no backbone in us to just retch out an' grab dat ballot.

Dere ain't nobody 'sputing dat we'se got to scrape up de money to pay de tax collector, even if we does have to get down into a skirt pocket for hit insted of pants' pocket, an' our belongin' to de angel sect ain't gwine to keep us out of jail if we gits in a fight wid anodder lady or we swipes a ruffled petticote off de clothesline next do'. Fudermo', when de meat trust puts up de price of po'k chops, hits de woman dat has to squeeze de eagle on de dollar ontel hit holler a little louder an' pare de potato peelin's a little thinner. An' dat makes us women jest a-achin' to have a finger in dat government pie an' see if we can't put a little mo' sweetnin' in hit, an' make hit a little lighter so dat hit won't get so heavy an' ondigestible on de stomachs of dem what ain't millionaires.

Yassir, we'se jest a-honin' for de franchise an' we might have had hit any time dese last forty years ef we'd had enough backbone to riz up an' fit one good fight for hit, but instead of dat we set around a-holdin' our hands an' all we'se done is to say in a meek voice: "Please, sir, I don't lak to trouble you but ef you'd kindly pass me de ballot hit sho'ly would be agreeable to me." An' instead of givin' hit to us, men has kinder winked one eye at de odder an' said: "Lawd, she don't want hit or else she's make a row about hit. Dat's de way we men did. We didn't go after de right to vote wid our pink tea manners on."

Yassir, dat's de true word, an' you listen to me—de day dat women spunks up an' rolls up dere sleeves an' says to dere husband dat dey ain't a-gwine to do no' mo' cookin' in his house, nor darnin' of socks, nor patchin' of britches untel dere is some female votin', why dat day de ballot will be fetched home to women on a silver platter. All dat stands between women an' suffrage is de lack of a spinal colum.

An able address was given by Henry Wilbur, as representative of the Friends' Equal Rights Association. Max Eastman, assistant professor in Columbia University, representing the New York Men's League for Woman Suffrage, of which he was secretary, taking the broad subject Democracy and Women, said in the course of his speech:

The democratic hypothesis is that a State is good not when it conforms to some abstract eternal ideal of what a State ought to be, as the Greeks thought, but when it conforms to the interests of particular concrete individuals, namely, its citizens, all of them that are in mental and moral health; and that the way to find out their interests is not to sit on a throne or a bench and think about it but to go and ask them.... Barring this question of democracy, I think the political arguments for woman suffrage are not the main ones. The great thing to my mind is not that women will improve politics but that politics will develop women. The political act, the nature it demands and the recognition it attracts, will alter the character and status of women in society to the benefit of themselves, their husbands, their children and their homes. Upon this ground we can stand and declare that it is of high and immediate importance to all humanity not only that we give those women the vote who want it but that we rouse those who do not know enough to want it to a better appreciation of the great age in which they have the good fortune to live. Whatever else we may say for the industrial era we can say this, that it has made possible and actual the physical, social, moral and intellectual emancipation of women....

The other day I had a letter from a man who said he wouldn't join my society because he feared I was "striking a blow at the family, which is the cornerstone of society." Well, I am not much of an authority on matrimony but that sort of language sounds to me like a hysterical outcry from a person whose family is already tottering. It is at least certain that a great many of these cornerstones of society are tottering, and why? Because there dwell in them triviality and vacuity, which prepare the way of the devil. Who can think that intellectual divergence, disagreement upon great public questions, would disrupt a family worth holding together? On the contrary, nothing save a community of great interests—whether in agreement or disagreement—can revive a fading romance. A high and equal comradeship is the one thing that can save those families which are the tottering cornerstones of society. A greater service of the developed woman to the State, however, will be her service in motherhood.... And yet to hear the sacredness of motherhood advanced as a reason why women should not become public-spirited and effectual, you would think this nation had no greater hope than to rear in innocence a generation of grown-up babies. Keep your mothers in a state of invalid remoteness from life and who shall arm the young with intelligent virtue? To educate a child is to lead him out into the world of experience. It is not to bring him in virgin innocence to the front door and say, "Now run on and be a good child!" A million lives wrecked at the very off-go can bear witness to the failure of this method.

Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch (N. Y.) presided at a symposium on Open Air Meetings, which were then being much discussed, and they were advocated by Miss Ray Costello of England; Mrs. Katherine Dexter McCormick (Mass.), Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald (Mass.) and Mrs. Helen LaReine Baker (Wash.). Mrs. Blatch announced a practical demonstration that afternoon at the corner of Seventh Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Mrs. Catt presided over a conference on Political District Organization as demonstrated in New York City. An afternoon meeting was devoted to an Industrial Program arranged by Mrs. Myra Strawn Hartshorne of Chicago. Conditions affecting Women as Workers and as Wives and Mothers of Workers were graphically described by Miss Rose Schneiderman (N. Y.), president of the Cap Makers' Union. The Consequences to Motherhood and Womanhood, as demonstrated by the White Slave Traffic, were strikingly pictured by Mrs. Raymond Robins (Ills.), president of the National Women's Trade Union League. A private conference, Mrs. Mary Hutcheson Page (Mass.) presiding, discussed the necessity for defeating anti-suffrage candidates for Congress and Legislatures. Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary of the National Consumers' League, brought greetings from the Southern Conference on Woman and Child Labor, which she had just attended, with a special one from Miss Jean Gordon (La.), and made a striking address. Dr. Anna Mercy, president of the first suffrage club on the East Side of New York, gave practical experiences. Miss Nettie A. Podell and Miss Bertha Ryshpan, representing the Political Equality League, of which Mrs. Belmont was president, told of its gratifying experiments with Political Settlements in New York City. The session closed with a stirring address by Charles Edward Russell on Self-Defense or the Demand for Political Action.

Mrs. Pauline Steinem (Ohio) reported the usual active and efficient work of her Committee on Education, urging among other valuable methods the organization of Mothers' and Parents' Clubs in connection with all public schools. Mrs. McCulloch gave her report as Legal Adviser, which combined sound sense with sparkling humor. She showed how much money had been lost to the association because those who intended to leave bequests to it delayed making their wills. She urged the women to study the statutes of their States relating to women and said that, while she had been glad to contribute her services as legal adviser and would not accept a salary, the association should employ a competent lawyer who could stay at the national headquarters and give her entire time to compiling the laws for women and giving legal information. The convention Minutes say: "A rising vote of thanks was given to Mrs. McCulloch for her magnificent work as legal adviser for many years." Miss Gordon presented the plan for raising the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Fund; Mrs. Alice C. Dewey (N. Y.), the report on Bibliography; Dr. Mary D. Hussey (N. J.), on Enrollment. Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser read the report of Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, chairman of the National Press Committee, which said in part:

My strong belief that New York offered the greatest and most promising field in the world for suffrage press work has been abundantly sustained. The national press bureau was opened about the middle of September, soon after the national headquarters were moved to this city, with a private reception to the representatives of every newspaper in the city, to whom its objects and hopes were stated. From that day the most of the men and women reporters have been its unfailing friends. A number of the women have not missed coming a single day and most of them are ardent suffragists and anxious to help the cause in every possible way. Back of reporters have been the interest and support of city and managing editors. In the nearly seven months there have not been half-a-dozen really opposing editorials and there have been many of a favorable and helpful character. Every day sixteen papers of New York City have been examined by some member of the bureau and the clippings carefully filed. These, during the past five months, have comprised over 3,000 articles on woman suffrage, ranging in length from a paragraph to a page.