meet was impregnable and the response would be ridicule and con- demnation. It went to the rescue of every State campaign for half a century with such forces as it could command, even when realizing that there was no hope. In every corner it sowed the seeds of justice and trusted to time to bring the harvest. It has aided boys in high school with debates and later heard their votes of "yes" in Legislatures. Reporters assigned to our Washington conven- tions long, long ago, took their places at the press table on the first clay with contempt and ridicule in their hearts but went out the last clay won to our cause and later became editors of newspapers and spoke to thousands in our behalf. Girls came to our meetings, lis- tened and accepted, and later as mature women became intrepid leaders. Tn all the years this association has never paid a national lobbyist, and. so far as I know, no State has paid a legislative lobbyist. Dur- ing the fifty years it has rarely had a salaried officer and even if he has been paid less than her earning capacity elsewhere. It has been an army of volunteers who have estimated no sacrifice jreat, no service too difficult.
Mrs. Catt enumerated some of the immortal pioneer suffragists and said: "How small seems the service of the rest of us by comparison, yet how glad and proud we have been to give it. Ours has been a cause to live for, a cause to die for if need be. It has been a movement with a soul, a dauntless, unconquerable soul ever leading onward. Women came, served and passed on hut others took their places. . . . How I pity the women who have had no share in the exaltation and the discipline of our army nf workers! How I pity those who have not felt the grip >f the oneness of women struggling, serving, suffering, sacri- ing for the righteousness of woman's emancipation! Oh, omen. IK- glad today and let your voices ring 1 out the gladness iir hearts! There will never come another day like this. joy he unconfined and lot it speak so clearly that its echo }>< heard around the world and find its way into the soul of
- ry woman of every race who is yearning for opportunity and
iberty still denied. . . ."
After this inspiring address the convention -was turned into jollification meeting i siderahle time until the delegates re tired nut hv their enthusiasm and composed themselves to a telegram IDg t"n>in President Ynndrov Vilson mit me to congratulate your a n upon the fact that its great vnk is so near its trinm-
