uestion that
underlies this movement among the women of this nation; it is
for God, and home, and native land. We love and appreciate our
country; we value the institutions of our country. We realize that
we owe great obligations to the men of this nation for what
they have done. We realize that to their strength we owe the
subjugation of all the material forces of the universe which give
us comfort and luxury in our homes. We realize that to their
brains we owe the machinery that gives us leisure for intellectual
culture and achievement. We realize that it is to their education
we owe the opening of our colleges and the establishment of our
public schools, which give us these great and glorious privileges.

This movement is the legitimate result of this development, of
this enlightenment, and of the suffering that woman has undergone
in the ages past. We find ourselves hedged in at every effort
we make as mothers for the amelioration of society, as
philanthropists, as Christians.

A short time ago I went before the Legislature of Indiana with a
petition signed by 25,000 women, the best women in the State. I
appeal to the memory of Judge McDonald to substantiate the truth
of what I say. Judge McDonald knows that I am a home-loving,
law-abiding, tax-paying woman of Indiana, and have been for 50
years. When I went before our Legislature and found that 100 of
the vilest men in our State, merely by the possession of the
ballot, had more influence with the law-makers of our land than
the wives and mothers of the nation, it was a revelation that was
perfectly startling.

You must admit that in popular government the ballot is the most
potent means of all moral and social reforms. As members of
society, as those who are deeply interested in the promotion of
good morals, of virtue, and of the proper protection of men from
the consequences of their own vices, and of the protection of
women, too, we are deeply interested in all the social problems
with which you have grappled so long unsuccessfully. We do not
intend to depreciate your efforts, but you have attempted to do
an impossible thing. You have attempted to represent the whole by
one-half; and we come to you to day for a recognition of the fact
that humanity is not a unit; that it is a unity; and because we
are one-half