emulate in everything the bird and like the bird
to alight suddenly, without fatigue and physical hardships. When
the voyage was over, I realized that my apprehension and fear had
been unfounded; that it was not more risky to fly through space on
an aeroplane than to speed across country on an automobile, and I
then realized the numerous advantages to be derived from the flying
machine, that product of our time which is destined to revolutionize
not only warfare, but also the pursuits of peace.

The same thing occurs with all new ideas and reforms of a moral and
political order. They are adopted with the instinctive fear, the
vague apprehension inspired by the new and unknown. There is much
talk of their objectional features and dangers for the established
order of things. You might think the firmament was going to crumble
to pieces or the world was threatening to go out of joint. However,
after the innovation has been made, it is found to be quite natural and
logical, because things go on in their natural course, the heavenly
bodies continue in their orbits as before and the mountain peaks do
not slide down into the valleys. Courage and hope are born again in
the human breast, the masses get used to the new state of affairs,
and soon even the most recalcitrant would be furious if any one should
propose to return to the old order of things. This has happened in
our country before, and has always been and always will be the way
in which progress is worked out.

We must make up our minds to overcome our scruples and fears. If
in discussing the aeroplane, we were to speak of nothing but of the
number of aviators who have been killed, we would never accept that
invention. We must embark in one in order to prove to ourselves that
our fears and apprehensions are unfounded. Sight must not be lost of
the fact that suffragism is not a new thing in the world, that it is
far from being an experiment and is already an established fact in some
countries. Exactly the same as the aeroplane: if we desire to become
acquainted with the advantages of that apparatus, we do not ask those
who have never traveled in it, but those who have experimented with it,
and if we wish to know the advantages of suffragism, we must not listen
to those who oppose it as a matter of principle and theory, but must
consult countries that have made experiments with it and have already
had a chance to see its results. We must take note of the fact that
suffr