nly be on the assertion of an assumed or usurped right--that
which we have condemned as not the source of rightful power. We
all remember Lincoln's declaration that "when the white man
governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs
himself and also governs another man, that is despotism." The
exercise of any power of government not emanating from the
consent of the governed, therefore, is despotism. After men by an
assumption of power have attached the elective franchise to
themselves, is it a just answer to the demand of women to say
that men have concluded that "suffrage is a privilege which
attaches neither to man nor to woman by nature?" Have we
forgotten the cry of our forefathers which stirred the blood of
every patriotic American, that "taxation without representation
is tyranny?" Why is it tyranny to men but not to women? Is it
sufficient to say that "they are not the only persons taxed as
property holders from whom the ballot is withheld," when the only
other persons from whom it is permanently withheld are lunatics,
idiots and criminals? How would men like such reasoning applied
to themselves?...

Deprive any class or nationality of men of the elective franchise
and the detrimental effect would be felt immediately. Their
petitions for legislation would no longer receive prompt and
careful consideration and if the proposed legislation conflicted
with conditions favorable to a class of voters it would be almost
impossible to get a legislator or Congressman even to introduce
such a measure. The equal suffrage advocates have appeared before
a committee of the House of Representatives at Washington every
session for a great many years, begging for a favorable report.
If persons representing one-tenth as many voters had made an
appeal for some important legislation affecting their rights,
don't we know that those same Congressmen would almost have
fought with each other for the privilege of writing a favorable
report?

Governor Shafroth quoted election statistics which showed conclusively
that women in Colorado voted in about the same proportion as men and
he gave a long list of progressive laws which had been enacted through
the support of women. He declared that in no respect had the ideals of
womanhood been lowered and closed by saying: "T