of the United States
of the heritage of freedom but whose inheritance after 140 years is
still kept 'in trust.'" She referred to the anxiety of Congress "to
make the Filipinos a self-governing people after only a few years of
American tutelage while 140 years have not been enough to equip
American women for self-government," and said: "Political leaders say
America is 'the waymark of all people seeking liberty' and yet
one-half of the American people have never known liberty. They promise
justice to the oppressed of every land who are seeking refuge and
practice injustice against one-half of those whose homes have always
been here. Every citizen of the United States is jealous of her
standing among the nations and just now each political party is
claiming to be the only worthy custodian of national honor. It is with
amazement we read the arraignment of one party by another and note
that in no instance have they taken each other to task for injustice
to American women which violates the fundamental principle of
democracy, 'Equal rights for all, special privileges to none.' ...
Americanism--it stands for the recognition of the equality of men and
women before the law of man as they are equal before the law of God.
Americanism--it stands for truth triumphant. Americanism--it will find
its full realization when men and women meet upon a plane of equal
rights with a united desire to maintain peace, to guard the nation's
honor, to advance prosperity and to secure the happiness of the
people."
"We are a race of dreamers in the South by choice and because of
climatic conditions," said Mrs. Guilford Dudley in an eloquent
address. After a keenly sarcastic comparison between southern chivalry
and the unjust laws for women, and the observation that "the only
business a southern girl is taught is the business of hearts," she
said:
As long as it was a question of woman's rights; as long as the
fight had any appearance of being against man; as long as there
seemed to be a vestige of sex antagonism, the southern woman
stood with her back turned squarely toward the cause. She
wouldn't even turn around to look at it, she would have none of
it, but when she awoke slowly to a social consciousness, when
eyes and brain were at last free, after a terrible reconstruction
period, to look out upon the world as a whole; when she found
particularly among the more fortunate classes that her leisure
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