cause has been caught
in a snarl of constitutional obstructions and inadequate election
laws," she said, after drawing upon her own experience to show the
hazards of State referenda, and we have a right to appeal to our
Congress to extricate it from this tangle. If there is any chivalry
left this is the time for it to come forward and do an act of simple
justice. In my judgment the women of this land not only have the right
to sit on the steps of Congress until it acts but it is their
self-respecting duty to insist upon their enfranchisement by that
route.... Were there never another convert made there are suffragists
enough in this country, if combined, to make so irresistible a driving
force that victory might be seized at once. How can it be done? By a
simple change of mental attitude. If you are to seize the victory,
that change must take place in this hall, here and now. The crisis is
here, but if the call goes unheeded, if our women think it means the
vote without a struggle, if they think other women can and will pay
the price of their emancipation, the hour may pass and our political
liberty may not be won.... The character of a man is measured by his
will. The same is true of a movement. Then _will_ to be free." The
address made a deep impression and was accepted as a call to arms.

Throughout the convention open-air meetings were held on the Boardwalk
addressed by popular suffrage speakers and thousands in the great
crowds that throng this noted thoroughfare were interested listeners.
The Friday morning session was enlivened by a resolution offered by
Mrs. Raymond Robins, which said that this Emergency Convention had
been called to plan for the final steps which would lead to
nation-wide enfranchisement of women; that the method of amending
State constitutions meant long delay; that many national candidates in
all parties had declared in favor of a Federal Amendment, and
therefore the delegates in this convention urged that in the present
campaign suffragists should support for national office only those
candidates who pledged their support to this amendment. The delegates
quickly recognized that this meant to endorse Judge Charles Evans
Hughes for president, although President Wilson was to address the
convention that evening. Party feeling ran high but still stronger
was the determination of the convention that the association should
not depart from its policy of absolute non-partisanship. Motions were
made