isement
on account of sex? And will not the time speedily come when
Congress, recognizing the great injustice which was inflicted
upon the women of the land when by enfranchising a race of slave
men they riveted the fetters of disfranchisement upon educated
and patriotic women, redeem the nation from this stigma? It was
the most ungrateful and unjust act ever perpetrated by a republic
upon a class of citizens who had worked and sacrificed and
suffered as did the women of this nation in the struggle of the
Civil War only to be rewarded at its close by such unspeakable
degradation as to be reduced to the plane of subjects to
enfranchised slaves....

I stand here tonight to say that we have never known defeat; we
have never been vanquished. We have not always reached the goal
toward which we have striven, but in the hour of our greatest
disappointment we could always point to our battlefield and say:
"There we fought our good fight, there we defended the principles
for which our ancestors and yours laid down their lives; there
is our battlefield for justice, equality and freedom. Where is
yours?"

While the eminent speakers attracted the largest audiences that ever
had attended the conventions of the association, according to the
opinions of the older suffragists, the delegates themselves were
equally interested in the morning meetings devoted to the reports and
other business. The corresponding secretary, Miss Kate M. Gordon, a
keen student of politics and organization, in speaking of factors in
success, said: "There is great necessity for a personal acquaintance
between the leaders in our suffrage work in the States and the
prominent politicians in the States; the personal acquaintance also of
the editors and managers of our great public-opinion-forming
newspapers; a pleasant working relation in women's clubs and all
movements for better social conditions in our respective communities;
a more intimate acquaintance with the educational influences, the
teachers in our public schools and the college life of our
communities."

Miss Gordon made a special plea for cooperation in the efforts for
Child Labor legislation and she ended by saying: "But means and
methods for the future of our work pale into insignificance in the
need of the hour, which is Oregon. Funds for this campaign must be a
matter of conscience with every believ