Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/597

Gov. Charles S. Thomas and Gov. Alva Adams spoke enthusiastically of the results of equal suffrage, followed by Mrs. Chapman Catt in an interesting address. The occasion was especially happy because that day the Legislature had almost unanimously passed a joint resolution as follows:

Whereas, Equal suffrage has been in operation in Colorado for five years, during which time women have exercised the privilege as generally as men, with the result that better candidates have been selected for office, methods of election have been purified, the character of legislation improved, civic intelligence increased and womanhood developed to greater usefulness by political responsibility; therefore,

Resolved, by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring, That in view of these results the enfranchisement of women in every State and Territory of the American Union is hereby recommended as a measure tending to the advancement of a higher and better social order.

That an authenticated copy of these resolutions be forwarded by the Governor of the State to the Legislature of every State and Territory, and the press be requested to call public attention to them.^[1]

This year Mrs. Katherine A. G. Patterson, who had been president of the State E. S. A. for three years, retired and was succeeded by Mrs. Welch, who was followed in 1900 by Mrs. Amy K. Cornwall, and in 1901 by Prof. Theodosia G. Ammons.

One of the uncongenial tasks of the officers of the association has been the answering of the many attacks made in Eastern papers on the position of women in Colorado, though this becomes far less trying when it is remembered that in most States public opinion on the question of woman suffrage is still in its formative stage. So soon do we become accustomed to a new thing, if it is in the order of nature, that the women of Colorado have almost ceased to realize that they possess an uncommon privilege. It seems as much a matter of course that women should vote as that they should enjoy the right of free speech or the protection of the habeas corpus act. It is seldom defended, for the same reason that it is no longer thought necessary to defend the Copernican vs. the Ptolomaic theory. One aim of the association Is to arouse a more altruistic spirit, and another so to unite women that they will stand together for a good cause irrespective of party. There is at present a strong legislative committee which has

1. See Appendix—Testimony from Woman Suffrage States.