NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION' OF IQ2O so and many were in tears. The Rev. Herbert L. Willet then offered the invocation. Mrs. Trout, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association, cordially welcomed the delegates to Chi- cago. The greeting from the Canadian Woman Suffrage Asso- ciation was brought by its president, Dr. Margaret Gordon. Mrs. Catt made a gracious response and resigning the chair to the first vice-president, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, gave a brief address, reserving a longer one for the League of Women Voters. She said in part : Yhen we met at St. Louis a year ago in the 5oth annual conven- tion nf our association, we knew that the end of our long struggle icar. We comprehended in a new sense the truth of Victor 's sage epigram : "There is one thing more powerful than Kings and Armies the idea whose time has come to move." We knew that the time for our idea was here, and as State after State has joined the list of the ratified we have seen our idea, our cause, move forward dramatically, majestically into its appropriate place as part of the constitution of our nation. We have not yet the official proc- lamation announcing that our amendment has been ratified by the necessary thirty-six States, but thirty-one have done so and another will ratify before we adjourn; three Governors have promised spe- cial sessions very soon and two more Legislatures will ratify when called together. There is no power on this earth that can do more than delay by a trifle the final enfranchisement of women. The enemies of progress and liberty never surrender and never die. Kver since the days of cave-men they have stood ready with ^l-dge hnmmers to strike any liberal idea on the head when- red. They arc still active, hysterically active, over our dmcnt ; still imagining, as their progenitors for thousands of have done, that a fly sitting on a wheel may command it to Ive no more and it will obey. They are running about from to State, a few women and a few paid men. They dash to W.-'-'hi'i'jton to hold hurried consultations with senatorial friends and away to carry out instructions. ... It docs not matter. SnfTra- re never dismayed when they were a tiny gmvtp and all the riinst them. What care they now when all the world
- ih them? March cm. siifTrni'ists. the victory is yours! 'Hie
trail ha< bcr-n long and winding; the struggle has been tedious and 'i have made sacrifices and received many hard knocks; be joyful i o-day. Our final victory is due, is inevitable, is ah Vbrate to-dnv. and when the proclamation comes I beg ' VI, rate tl : on with some form of joyous demon- m in your own home State. Two armist made a f the war. Let two ratification days, one a Nat : make a happy ending of the dminl of politi- cal freedom to women !
