t society may advance. The natural conservatism of an existing
order of things will not give way to a new factor in the control
of affairs, until it has been shown in what way enlightened
selfishness may hope for good to society if the change be made.
Here it seems to me that the convention may now strike a blow
more powerful than for many years. Society has not so labored
with the great problems which concern its own salvation for
generations.

What would woman do with the ballot if she had it? What for
education? What for sobriety? What for social purity? What for
equalizing the conditions and the rewards of labor--the labor of
her own sex first--and towards a just division of production
among all members of the community? What for the removal, or for
the amelioration when removal is impossible, of hunger, cold,
disease and degradation, from the daily lives of human beings?
What could and what _would_ woman do with the ballot which is not
now as well done by man alone, to improve the conditions which
envelope individual existence as with bands of iron? What good
things--state them _seriatim_, as the lawyers say--could woman do
in New Hampshire and in New York city, and ultimately among the
savage tribes of the earth, which she cannot do as well without
as with the suffrage? Would woman by her suffrage even _help_ to
remove illiteracy from Louisiana, intemperance from New England,
and stop society from committing murder by the tenement-house
abuses of New York? Let the convention specify what practical
good woman will try to achieve with her God-given rights,
provided that men will permit her to enjoy them. Show us wherein
you will do _us_ good if we will rob you no longer. It might
influence us greatly. Why should we do right for nothing? In
fact, unless you show that the exercise of your alleged right
will be useful, can you logically conclude that you have any? We
must have proof that the experiment will not fail before we will
even try it. You must connect the ballot with progress and reform
and convince men that they, as well as women, will be better off
for its possession by the whole of the adult community rather
than only by a part. Theories may be true, but they are seldom
reduced to practice by society unless it can be clearly seen