ld
serve. But God, sitting between the eternities, has said
otherwise, and we of this land are foreordained to prove His word
just and true. And we will prove it by inviting every newcomer to
our shore to share our liberties so dearly bought and our
responsibilities now grown so heavy that the shoulders which bear
them are staggering under their weight; that by the joys of
freedom and the burdens of responsibility they, with us, may grow
into the stature of perfect men, and our country realize at last
the dreams of the great souls who, "appealing to the Supreme
Judge of the world for the rectitude of their intentions," did
"ordain and establish the Constitution for the United States of
America"--the grandest charter of human rights that the world has
yet conceived.

In an impassioned address Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell (N. Y.) contrasted
The Present and the Past, saying:

The destiny of the world to-day lies in the hearts and brains of
her women. The world can not travel upward faster than the feet
of her women are climbing the paths of progress. Put us back if
you can; veil us in harems; make us beasts of burden; take from
us all knowledge; teach us we are only material; and humanity
will go back to the dark ages. The nineteenth century is closing
over a world arising from bondage. It is the grandest, sublimest
spectacle ever beheld. The world has seen and is still looking at
the luminous writing in the heavens--"The truth shall make you
free"--and for the first time is gathering to itself the true
significance of liberty. All the progress of these years has not
come easily or from conservatism, but from the persistent efforts
of enthusiastic radicals, men and women with ideas in their heads
and courage in their hearts to make them practical.

Ever since woman took her life in her own hands, ever since she
began to think for herself, the dawning of a great light has
flooded the world. We are the mothers of men. Show me the mothers
of a country and I will tell you of the sons. If men would ever
rise above their sensuality and materialism, they must have
mothers whose pure souls, brave hearts and clear intellects have
touched them deeply before their birth and equipped them for the
journey of life....

It is the evening of the nineteenth cent