eciding vote on our appeal for the Woman Suffrage Committee.
These seven belong to the majority, the Democratic party. One of
them comes from a partial suffrage State, Illinois, and another
from a campaign State, New York, where the Legislature has
declared in favor of submitting this question to the voters. I
shall, therefore, limit my examination to the remaining five
gentlemen whose point of view will in all probability decide the
women's destiny in the House of Representatives at least for the
moment. These five all represent one section of the country and
my analysis of them is made in the hope that they will take a
national point of view and help us obliterate sectional feeling.
Who are you that hesitate to promote, if you do not actually
obstruct this Federal Amendment? In looking over various public
records I find that the honored chairman of this committee holds
his strategic position as a result of the will expressed at the
polls of 7,623 men. Opposite his name should be written: "No
opposition." Another of the five comes here through the vote of
13,906 men. Another is sent by the very small group of 6,474 men,
and the remaining two represent respectively 18,000 and 16,000
men. The total vote behind all five of these gentlemen is 63,570.
These 63,570 voters, therefore, have the decision of this
momentous question....

You know the fight that you Democratic men put up against the
combination by the Committee on Rules under the leadership of
Speaker Cannon and you led that fight against the domination of
the committee over the House. You are today in this same position
of political power. Can you consistently oppose now the things
for which you fought so bitterly a short time ago? We know how
rapidly you have appointed committees when changed economic
conditions demanded it. I have here the report of the Committee
on the Judiciary for the special session, showing what work it
did, how many sittings it held, which proves conclusively that it
has not time for the consideration of our question....

This part of the hearing closed with the address of Mrs. Carrie
Chapman Catt, who was introduced as president of the International
Woman Suffrage Alliance, representing the organized womanhood of
twenty-six nations. She said in the course of her address: