ct yours." A man would have to
be thoroughly hardened to vote "no" after such an appeal, but if he
were let alone he could do so without any qualms. The same situation
obtains in the family and in social life. The average man would not
vote against granting women the franchise if all those of his own
family and the circle of his intimate friends brought a strong
pressure to bear upon him in its favor. The measure could be carried
against all opposition if every clergyman in every community would
urge the women of his congregation to work for it, assuring them of
the sanction of the church and the blessing of God, and showing them
how vastly it would increase their power for good.

Every privilege which has been granted women has tended to develop
them, until their influence is incomparably stronger at the present
time than ever before. Their great organizations are a power in every
town and city. If these throughout a State would unite in a determined
effort to secure the franchise, bringing to bear upon legislators the
demands of thousands of women, high and low, rich and poor, of all
classes and conditions, they would be compelled to yield; and the same
amount of influence would carry the amendment with the voters. But the
petitioners for the suffrage are in the minority. There are many
obvious reasons for this, and one of them, paradoxical as it may seem,
is because so much already has been gained. Woman in general now finds
her needs very well supplied. If she wants to work she has all
occupations to choose from. If she desires an education the schools
and colleges are freely opened to her. If she wishes to address the
public by pen or voice the people hear her gladly. The laws have been
largely modified in her favor, and where they might press they are
seldom enforced. She may accumulate and control property; she may set
up her own domestic establishment and go and come at will. If the
workingwoman finds herself at a disadvantage she has not time and
often not ability to seek the cause until she traces it to
disfranchisement, and if she should do so she is too helpless to make
a contest against it. Those women who "have dwelt, since they were
born, in well-feathered nests and have never needed do anything but
open their soft beaks for the choicest little grubs to be dropped into
them," can not be expected to feel or see any necessity for the
ballot. Nor will the woman half way between, absorbed in her church,
her