dvance royalties on one book before a word of it
was printed. A number of distinguished writers had signed the
general petition before the writers' blank had reached them,
among them Mark Twain, Booth Tarkington, Ernest Thompson Seton,
Julia Ward Howe, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mary Wilkins Freeman
and Ellen Glasgow.

Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, former corresponding secretary of the
National Suffrage Association, in speaking of the petition told of one
containing 10,000 names which had been gathered in Indiana years ago
and presented to the Legislature by Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace, often
referred to as the mother pictured in "Ben Hur." It was treated with
the utmost contempt, one member saying, "These 10,000 women have about
as much influence as that many mice." This experience sent that
eloquent woman to the suffrage platform for the rest of her life. Mrs.
Avery urged the committee to give a favorable report on this great
petition as the first step toward making the influence of the
thousands of women who had signed it of more value than that of so
many mice. [For the address of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of
the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, see Appendix for this
chapter.]

U. S. Senator John F. Shafroth of Colorado, a consistent supporter of
woman suffrage from the very beginning of the movement for it in his
State twenty years before, made an address to the committee which was
printed in a pamphlet of seven pages and made a part of the propaganda
of the National Association. Limited space permits only brief
extracts, which give little idea of its compelling arguments.

An eminent writer has said that all powers of government are
either delegated or assumed; that all not delegated are assumed
and all assumed powers are usurpations. The powers of government
by men over women are not delegated, because the women never
delegated such powers to men. They are assumed then and, as all
assumed powers are usurpations, the exercise of the powers of
government by men over women is usurpation. How can those who
refuse to give women the right to vote reconcile their opinion
with the form of government in which they believe? What right
have I to make all the laws which shall govern not only myself
but also my wife, sister and mother, without giving to them any
voice in determining the justice or wisdom of those laws? It can
o