o long as she is deprived of the educative
responsibilities of self-government--by just so much does she
fall short of complete development as a human being and retard
the progress of the race. We are the children of our mothers as
well as of our fathers and we inherit the defects as well as the
perfections of both. Many a man goes down in his business--is a
"failure in life," as the phrase goes--because he is the son of
an undeveloped mother and, like her, is lacking in independence,
in initiative, in ability to seize upon golden opportunities. Yet
she was trained to passivity, to submission, to the obliteration
of whatever personality she may have possessed. What more could
we expect of her son? Imagine for a moment the effect upon men
had they from infancy been subjected to the narrowing, ossifying
processes applied to women for centuries!
Happily for the race, however, the great majority of women are
waking from the sleep of centuries, are eagerly stretching out
their hands for the key that is to open wide the door of larger
opportunity. Happily, too, the forward-looking men of today are
seeing the vision of womanhood released from the old-world
thraldom. In rapidly increasing numbers they are welcoming the
new woman, in whom they find not only the wife and mother more
fully equipped for her task but a comrade of congenial tastes,
keenly interested in the outside world and capable of taking her
place beside the husband, whether in peace or war, wherever her
country calls.... The suffrage movement is a world-wide protest
against the mental subjection of woman. Therein lies its vital
importance. It strikes deep into the core of life. It is a basic,
fundamental reform, for it is releasing for the service of the
State the unused natural resources dormant in womanhood; it is
transforming the dependent woman into woman enfranchised that she
may the more perfectly fulfill her destiny as the mother of the
race.
The morning and afternoon sessions were crowded with reports,
conferences and business of various kinds in which the delegates were
keenly interested. Mrs. Grace Thompson Seton, chairman of the Art
Publicity Committee, gave an interesting account of its work, told of
the prizes that had been offered for posters and slogans and the
cooperation of men and women p
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