y have followed an entirely legal
and constitutional method of procedure, which has been so absolutely
barren of results that in the past nineteen years the committees have
made no report whatever, either favorable or unfavorable. How much
longer do you expect women to treat with respect National and State
constitutions and legislative bodies that stand thus an impenetrable
barrier between them and their rights as citizens of the United
States?" A long colloquy followed which began:

The Chairman: The committee will be very glad to have you extend
your remarks to answer a question propounded by Mr. Littleton
awhile ago. I wish to say that this committee, during my service
on it, has always been met with this proposition when this
amendment was proposed, that the States already have the
authority to confer suffrage upon women, and, therefore, why is
it necessary for women to wait for an amendment to the Federal
Constitution when they can now go to the States and obtain this
right to vote, just as the women of California did last year?

Mrs. Harper: Mr. Chairman, the women are not waiting; they are
keeping right on with their efforts to get the suffrage from the
States. They began in 1867 with their State campaigns and have
continued them ever since, but in sending the women to the States
you require them to make forty-eight campaigns and to go to the
individual electors to get permission to vote. After the Civil
War the Republican party with all its power and with only the
northern States voting, was never able to get the suffrage for
the negroes. The leaders went to State after State, even to
Kansas, with its record for freeing the negroes, and every State
turned down the proposition to give them suffrage. I doubt if the
individual voters of many States would give the suffrage to any
new class, even of men. The capitalists would not let the working
people vote if they could help it, and the working people would
not let the capitalists vote; Catholics would not enfranchise the
Protestants and the Protestants would not give the vote to
Catholics. You impose upon us an intolerable condition when you
send us to the individual voters. What man on this committee
would like to submit his electoral rights to the voters of New
York City, for instance, representing as they do every