kly on her feet to say that Miss Miner had touched
upon the vital spot in the whole suffrage movement; that the liquor
interests were at the bottom of the opposition to it and that in the
States where it had been defeated they were responsible. Mrs. Kelley
spoke for The Woman at the Bottom of the Heap, who had even greater
need of the ballot than her more fortunate sisters. Mrs. Gannett, wife
of the Unitarian minister, William C. Gannett of Rochester, N. Y.,
both loving friends of Miss Anthony, considered the assertion that
"women do not want to vote," saying in part:

They tell us that women can bring better things to pass by
indirect influence. Try to persuade any man that he will have
more weight, more influence, if he gives up his vote, allies
himself with no party and relies on influence to achieve his
ends! By all means let us use to its utmost whatever influence we
have, but in all justice do not ask us to be content with this.
Facts show that a large body of earnest, responsible women do
want the ballot, a body large enough to deserve very respectful
hearing from our law-makers, but there certainly are many women
who do not yet want to vote. We think they ought to want it; that
women have no more right than men to accept and enjoy the
protection and privileges of civilized government and shirk its
duties and responsibilities. They say they do not thus shirk,
that woman's sphere lies in a different place, and we answer:
"This is true but only part of the truth." ... Municipal
government belongs far more to woman's sphere than to man's, if
we must choose between the two; it is home-making and
housekeeping writ large, but just as the best home is that where
father and mother together rule, so shall we have the better
city, the better State, when men and women together counsel,
together rule. No mother fulfills her whole mother duty in the
sight of God who is not willing to do her service, to take her
share of direct responsibility for the good of the whole. She can
not fully care for her own without some care for all the children
of the community. Her own, however guarded, are menaced so long
as the least of these is exposed to pestilence or is robbed of
his birthright of fresh air and sunshine.

The hard struggle and toil of our honored pioneers was for
Woman's Rights.