When I came to Congress I did not realize and I have not yet been able fully to understand the deep-seated prejudice, bias and even vindictiveness against woman suffrage and the astounding amount of misinformation there is everywhere here in the East concerning its practical operation. I have been equally amazed and indignant at the many brazen assertions I] have seen in the papers and heard that are perfectly absurd and without the slightest foundation in fact, and I have had many heated discussions on the subject during the past three years. When I hear men and women who have never spent a week and most of them not an hour in an equal suffrage State attempt to discuss the subject from the standpoint of their own preconceived prejudices and idle impressions, I feel like saying: "May the Lord forgive them for they know not what they do." Let me say to them and to my colleagues in the House that it will not be ten years before the women of this country from the Pacific to the Atlantic will have the just and equal rights of American citizenship."[1]
Since coming here I have been frequently asked by friends what we think of woman suffrage in Colorado, and when I tell them that it is an unqualified success and that I doubt if even five per cent. of the people of the State would vote to repeal it, they ask me what it has accomplished. I believe it is generally conceded by enlightened people that the laws of a State are a true index of its degree of civilization. I will, therefore, give a brief catalogue of some of the most important of the 150 legislative measures that have been either introduced by the women or at the request of the various women's organizations and enacted into law.Then followed under the head of different years, beginning with 1893, that in which women were enfranchised, a roster of Colorado's unequalled laws. These were followed by a complete analysis of the practical working of woman suffrage during the past eighteen years, with comprehensive answers to all the stereotyped questions and objections.
Several who had addressed the Senate Committee came over to the House office building and spoke to the Judiciary Committee. Mrs. William Kent, wife of a Representative from California, was introduced by Miss Addams as one who was not a member of the House but was eligible. In the course of a winning speech she said: 'The United States is committed to a democratic form of government, a government by the people. Those who do not believe in the ideals of democracy are the only ones who can consistently oppose woman suffrage. The hope of democracy is in education. There is food for thought in the
- ↑ It was eight and a half years.
