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HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.
jections that had been conjured up. In the convention he discussed it From the Colorado Point of View, beginning as follows:
Colorado does not go into mourning when a girl is born. Equal suffrage has not taken Colorado out of the Union. She stands an example of what a sovereign State should be—a model to those self-righteous States that preach equal rights in press, pulpit and forum and deny it in the law. The statue of Justice that crowns her city hall, court house and Capitol is not a lie. For the Capitol in Washington and in 41 States of the Union the figure of St. Paul would be more fitting than that of the Goddess of Liberty. Unfettered by tradition and prejudice Colorado has dared to do right. She has given to woman what Solomon gave to Sheba—"whatsoever she asked"—and has no regrets and no desire to recall the gift. After ten years of experience, equal suffrage needs neither apology nor defense. No harm has come to either woman, man or the State. Justice never harmed any one. If Colorado women were not angels before, the ballot has brought no wings. Suffrage has not elevated them, it has simply placed them where they belonged but it has raised the men who have dared to be just. Woman has not yet conquered iniquity nor has it conquered her. Suffrage is not a revolution, it is but a step and not the end of the journey.....
If women have not overthrown the entrenched political machines the failure is due to the so-called respectable Christian men. The women are ready but the men are chained to partisanship..... No single disaster, no backward step in politics or family morals can be charged to woman suffrage. It has added nothing to the business of the divorce court, no family has been disrupted, no children neglected; but the prayers of hundreds of homeless children and orphans have invoked a benediction upon the voting women for the home and education that their influence has induced the State to provide. Suffrage has sent no girl astray but it has gathered many wanderers and turned their feet into paths of safety and built for them a model State home. Through the age of consent law many a seducer has ended his career in jail. The most efficient members of the State Board of Charities and Correction are women and this is true of other boards. Their influence has sent rays of light and hope into darkened cells and established reforms in asylums and prisons.
In answer to the continued charges that the people of the State would like to repeal the law he said: "I have too high a regard, too sincere a faith in Colorado manhood to believe that any of the men who voluntarily conferred the ballot upon their wives, sisters and mothers would now repeal that just act. Common sense refutes the statement regarding women themselves. Not 75 per cent., not 10 per cent., not 1 percent. would today vote to relinquish that which belongs to them. It is not an American
