JANE ADDAMS 25 high excitement even prevented sleep. The only reward of this heroic stndy was an emetic and a reprimand. Even at that early date Miss Addams took for granted the justice of the franchise for women, merely following, at first, her father's conviction. That this belief has not grown less strong is evidenced by her election in 1912 to the vice-pres- idency of the National Woman's Suffrage Association and by the prominent part which she played in the first convention of the Progressive Party in the same year. *' Government, ' ' she holds, '4s in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the diseases that enter into our homes. It has to do with the education of our children and the living condi- tions of our men and women. ' ' That women can successfully deal with such subjects of government no one who is ac- quainted with the work of Miss Addams and her colleagues at Hull House can deny. When Bockf ord Seminary was allowed to compete in the in- tercollegiate oratorical contest of Illinois, she was elected to represent her school. Her schoolmates looked upon her, as she looked upon herself, as the champion of Woman's Cause. When the contest was over she found that she ranked fifth and, although she concurred with the judges in their decision, it was no easy matter to meet her disappointed schoolmates who had, perhaps, expected too much and could not readily forgive this blow to the cause of woman. Doubtless any bit- terness at the decision has been wiped away by the after- career of the winner of that contest — William Jennings Bryan. During the four years at Rockford, Miss Addams did not escape many emotional appeals to join herself to the church. She was one of the few girls in the school who were not avowed Christians. "^th a strong sense of personal integ- rity she refused to yield to the pressure because she could not subscribe to the dogmas of the church. Personal piety she had, and a strong sense of the presence and power of a living God. But it was not till several years afterward that she became a member of the Presbyterian Church of her na- tive village of Cedarville, Illinois. It was not that she had
