either written nor stenographically reported but this
floating paragraph was found in a newspaper:

In all times men have entertained loftier theories of living than
they have been able to formulate into practical experience. We
Americans call our government a republic but it is not a republic
and never has been one. A republic is not a government in which
one-half of the people make the laws for all of the people. At
first the government was a hierarchy in which only male church
members could vote. In the process of evolution the qualification
of church membership was removed and the word "taxpayer"
substituted. Later that word was stricken out and all white men
could vote. Then followed the erasure of the word "white" and now
all male citizens have the ballot. The next measure is obvious
and it is not a revolutionary one but the logical step in the
evolution of our government. I believe thoroughly in democracy,
the extension of the franchise to all men, for all have a right
to a voice in the making of the laws that govern them, and no
nation has a right to place before any of its people an
insuperable barrier to self-government. We would make no outcry
against an educational standard, the necessary age limit, a
certain term of residence in any place--in fact there is no
regulation women would object to that applied to all citizens
equally. I make no criticism of the policy of the country in
giving all men the ballot. The men are all right so far as they
go--- but they go only half way. The United States has subjected
its women to the greatest political humiliation ever imposed upon
the women of any nation. German women are governed by German men;
French women by French men, etc., but American women are ruled by
the men of every country and race in the world.... I do not
belong to any political party and I have too much self-respect to
ally myself with any party until my opinion is of enough
importance to be counted at the polls.

The delegates heard reports from the chairmen of various
committees--Ways and Means, Dr. M. Carey Thomas; Enrollment, Mrs. Jean
Nelson Penfield; Presidential Suffrage, Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates;
Laws for Women, Miss Mary Rutter Towle (D. C.). Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead
made her usual comprehensive report as chairman of the Peace and
Arbitration Com