to the polls against their will. They seem to regard the matter
in the same light as a boy who went to the theatre night after
night, but invariably went to sleep. Upon being asked what he
went for, he replied: "Why I've got to go because I've a season
ticket." And so some women seem to think that the right of
suffrage will be like the boy's season ticket, and they must vote
whether they will or not. When we can not drive men to the polls,
when there is no law to compel them to serve or save their
country at the ballot-box, if they stay away from selfishness or
indifference, it is not likely that we will be more successful
with the women. No compulsion is intended. We will lay before
woman the great responsibility that rests upon her, her sacred
duty as a wife and mother, we will open up to her a career of the
highest usefulness in the world, in which she may more perfectly
than ever before fulfill the destiny for which she is created,
and then she may individually accept the ballot or not, according
to the dictates of her own conscience. All men can do is to take
down the barriers and say to her: "Vote, if you please." It is to
give more dignity and sacredness to woman; to enlarge and not
limit her field of usefulness; but not to take her out of her
appropriate sphere. It says to the wife: "Do all you can to save
your sons and husbands at home, strew around them its most
hallowed influences; but if you fail there, you have another
chance at the ballot-box to abolish, by your votes, the
liquor-sellers that are dragging them down to ruin."

I would earnestly recommend to this Convention the importance of
efficient and perfect organization, and not only in this body,
but throughout the country. In the judgment of those who called
this meeting, the great movement for woman suffrage is too far
advanced to be further prosecuted only by local and accidental
organizations. In most of the States, State Associations are of
but recent origin, and in many they do not exist at all. The
efforts hitherto made were all well and useful in their way, but
not enough to meet the demands of the present. It is the aim to
establish this Association on a national representative basis,
embracing all the States in the Union. We seek this because we
need it. The ente