willing to have the matter of a Federal Suffrage Amendment referred to
the Committee on Election of President, Vice-President and
Representatives in Congress but after consultation with members of her
board it was decided to stand for a special committee. Mrs. Desha
Breckinridge was introduced as the great granddaughter of Henry Clay
and in the course of a speech worthy of her ancestry she recalled the
early history of Kentucky, the part of her grandfather in preserving
the Union, the fact that the State had not maintained its prestige
and that if this was to be regained the women must be permitted to
help and said:

I do not feel that I am doing any injustice to the men of my
State in asking this Federal Amendment, in asking the help of the
Congress of the United States. Some years ago, after we had
worked for our School-suffrage law at three sessions of the
Legislature and had at last gotten it past the House and up to
the Senate, only three days before adjournment a letter was sent
to the members by the German-American Alliance, calling upon the
men of Kentucky to protect the homes and womanhood of the State
by defeating it and saying that the Alliance believed the home
was the sphere for women. When we investigated we found that the
German-American Alliance was the brewers' alliance, with
headquarters at Louisville.... I would suggest to the men of this
committee, who I understand are mostly southern, that if they
object to having the suffrage for women forced upon them by the
U. S. Government, there is still time in which they may go home
and get it for their women in the States.

Representative John E. Raker (Calif.), speaking with a full knowledge
of the inner machinery of Congress, brushed aside all objections,
showed that it was the custom to appoint special committees for
special subjects, stood up against the heckling of the Rules Committee
and put the necessity for this desired committee beyond argument. Dr.
Shaw joined him in refuting the reiterated charge that the suffragists
would insist on having it composed entirely of their supporters. Mrs.
Mary Beard (N. Y.) addressed the committee as Democrats and from the
standpoint of party expediency with such a knowledge of politics as
they never had met in a woman. She said in a scathing arraignment:

This committee is composed of thirteen men and seven constitute
the d