to give woman suffrage as a part of that right
to self-government for which the world is fighting today, and said:
"For fifty years we have been allaying fears, meeting objections,
arguing, educating, until today there remain no fears, no objections
in connection with the question of woman suffrage that have not been
met and answered. The New York campaign may be said to have closed the
case. It carried the question forever out of the stage of argument and
into the stage of final surrender. As the women of the country
foregather for this convention nothing stands out more emphatically
than the new stress that has been laid on suffrage as a political
issue in the minds of women as in the minds of men. As such the
Federal Amendment must now be dealt with by Congress."

Mrs. Catt emphasized the necessity for active war work and introduced
Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, vice-president of the New York Suffrage
Association, who presented the "service flag" and said: "The National
American Suffrage Association's service flag, here unfurled--a field
of white with golden stars surrounded by a deep blue border--shows
thirteen stars for its first thirteen women serving at the front.
These stars represent women who have been connected with the
association or one of its State affiliations in official or
representative capacity. The total of suffragists in foreign service
numbers thousands."[109] The president accepted the flag on behalf of
the convention. Miss Hannah J. Patterson, an officer of the
Pennsylvania Association, presented the following resolution:

Whereas, The Executive Council of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association, assembled in executive session last
February, pledged the loyalty of the organization to the country
in event of war and forthwith placed a plan of intensive service
at the Government's command in view of the impending peril, and

Whereas, America since then has entered into the dread actuality
of war and is in greater need of woman's loyal service than our
readiest anticipation could visualize last February, and

Whereas, The suffragists of this organization are already in
compact formation as a second line of defense for husbands, sons,
fathers and brothers "somewhere in France," therefore, be it

Resolved, That we, delegates to the Forty-ninth annual convention
of the association, representing a membership of over 2,000,000