expectation that at any moment the wires might flash the news that
Delaware had ratified and Washington would thus be the thirty-sixth
and final State to enfranchise the women of the whole nation, lent an
added thrill to the proceedings. At noon both Houses met in joint
session to listen to the Governor's message. Dealing with the
ratification he reminded the members that in 1910 the electors had
adopted woman suffrage by an overwhelming vote and said, "The State
has done well under the management of both men and women." A marked
feature of their proceedings was the gracious courtesy accorded to the
old suffrage leaders and workers, who were present in large numbers.

In the House the honor of introducing the resolution was accorded to
Mrs. Haskell, Representative from Pierce county, who made a strong
speech favoring its adoption. Not one vote was cast against it. By
special resolution Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe, referred to as "the mother
of suffrage" in the State, was invited to a seat on the right of
Speaker Adams, with Governor Hart on the left. A special committee was
appointed to escort her and she took her seat amid loud cheers. She
was asked to address the House and said in part:

I am proud of the Legislature of Washington because of this
patriotic act and I thank you in the name of our forefathers, who
first proclaimed that "taxation without representation is
tyranny" and that government without consent is unjust.... I
thank you in the name of the early suffrage workers who have
passed on to their beautiful reward. I thank you in the name of
the women of the United States of today who will, I trust, use
their new political freedom wisely and well. I thank you in the
name of the children who will come after us; they will have a
better, broader and nobler heritage than was ours. And I
personally thank you from the depths of my heart. God bless you
every one!

Twelve minutes after the resolution reached the Senate it had been
passed by another unanimous vote. During the proceedings Mrs. Homer M.
Hill sat beside President Carlyon and was invited to address the
members. Described as "a tiny figure whose white hair was scarcely on
a level with the top of the Speaker's desk," she expressed the
emotions of the older suffragists as they witnessed the adoption of
the resolution. She thanked them in the name also of the W. C. T. U.,
and thanked the leaders in th