early days of the republic when property and not
manhood constituted the prerequisite for representation. She spoke in
glowing terms of the pure democracy of Thomas Jefferson, who extended
its privileges to the great masses of the people. "This ideal has been
growing," she said, "it will never stop growing, developing, widening
and changing and it must ultimately extend to women citizens the same
rights in the government that men have. This is the 20th century idea
of democracy."

The address of Miss Belle Kearney, Mississippi's famous orator, was a
leading feature of the last evening's program--The South and Woman
Suffrage. It began with a comprehensive review of the part the South
had had in the development of the nation from its earliest days.
"During the seventy-one years reaching from Washington's
administration to that of Lincoln," she said, "the United States was
practically under the domination of southern thought and leadership."
She showed the record southern leaders had made in the wars; she
traced the progress of slavery, which began alike in the North and
South but proved unnecessary in the former, and told of the enormous
struggle for white supremacy which had been placed on the South by the
enfranchisement of the negro. "The present suffrage laws in the
southern States are only temporary measures for protection," she said.
"The enfranchisement of women will have to be effected and an
educational and property qualification for the ballot be made to apply
without discrimination to both sexes and both races." The address
closed as follows:

The enfranchisement of women would insure immediate and durable
white supremacy, honestly attained, for upon unquestioned
authority it is stated that in every southern State but one there
are more educated women than all the illiterate voters, white
and black, native and foreign, combined. As you probably know, of
all the women in the South who can read and write, ten out of
every eleven are white. When it comes to the proportion of
property between the races, that of the white outweighs that of
the black immeasurably. The South is slow to grasp the great fact
that the enfranchisement of women would settle the race question
in politics. The civilization of the North is threatened by the
influx of foreigners with their imported customs; by the greed of
monopolistic wealth and the unrest among the working c