e declared. The
President accepted our services, and not only did he accept them
but the devotion of the suffragists to the welfare of the country
was so uniformly recognized that when the Government decided upon
war and upon the necessity for organizing the woman-power of the
nation, it called upon the leaders of this association and
appointed them on a committee for co-ordinating the war work of
women throughout the United States. Can it for a moment be
supposed that the men in whose charge the great interests of our
nation rested would have called upon women whom they did not know
to be thoroughly endowed with patriotic devotion and loyalty to
their country for such a service at such a time?

Dr. Shaw told of the loyalty of women in other countries and quoted
from the tributes of their distinguished men, such men as Mr. Asquith,
Lloyd George, Lord Derby and General Joffre to the services of these
women and in our own country of General Pershing and scores of others.
She told of how the Canadian Government gave the suffrage to women and
how they voted for conscription; of the splendid courage of the men of
Australia and New Zealand, born of enfranchised mothers. She said that
in ten of the eleven western States which filled their quota of
volunteers before any eastern State had done so, there was equal
suffrage. She referred to the eminent supporters of the Federal
Suffrage Amendment, beginning with President Wilson and his Cabinet
and Theodore Roosevelt; asked if these men were pro-Germans and
pacifists and matched them with equally loyal women. In conclusion she
said:

To fail to ask for the suffrage amendment at this time would be
treason to the fundamental cause for which we, as a nation, have
entered the war. President Wilson has declared that "we are at
war because of that which is dearest to our hearts--democracy;
that those who submit to authority shall have a voice in the
Government." If this is the basic reason for entering the war,
then for those of us who have striven for this amendment and for
our freedom and for democracy to yield today, to withdraw from
the battle, would be to desert the men in the trenches and leave
them to fight alone across the sea not only for democracy for the
world but also for our own country.... The time of reconstruction
will come and when it comes many women wil