same thing at the same time;  why do you ] expect all women  to  have  the  same  opinion in regard to this question?
Does it mean nothing to you that there are in New York State over 40,000 women organized to secure the franchise? That a few years ago over 600,000 people endorsed our petition at the time of the constitutional convention? That associations organized for other purposes representing hundreds of thousands of people have endorsed our bill, including the State Grange, with a membership of 80,000, the National Federation of Labor, the State Letter Carriers' Association, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and others, whose representatives are here to-day?
Our opponents claim that women do not want the vote.    We  challenge      them      to prove   this   by   marshalling   them   in   such       j array of supporting organizations or active       I membership  as  we  have  represented  here to-day.
VOICE OF THE WOMEN'S CLUBS. Mrs. Prank J. Shuler of Buffalo, president of the Western Federation of Women's Clubs, said she represented the largest sectional federation in the United States, the Federation's territory extending froii Buffalo to Syracuse, with a membership   of  32,000  women.    She   said:
A diversity of interests is represented in our organizations, literary and philanthropic, musical, and academical, library and historical, parliamentary law and sunshine, Women's Christian | Temperance Union and suffrage. And ye-t with this diversity six-eighths of our membership are active suffragists; one-eighth are inactive, and only one-eighth, while not opposing, are indifferent to the question.
I have been asked recently how to ac-i count for the large increase of those in-' terested in this question. My answer is: Woman, has ever found her best expression in service. As she has been able to improve her own conditions she sought to better conditions of those about her. To ao this she was forced to employ indirect methods which in the end were ineffectual and involved a great waste of time and energy. The repeated attempts to accomplish good measures have decided our women  fo-r suffrage.
I want the suffrage for two reasons: First, as a matter of justice as a property owner, taxpayer, and wage earner. We are told that every woman is represented in politics by some man. I should dislike to have any one think that 1 was represented in politics, as my husband never has voted the way I should like to have him. He is a Democrat while I am a Republican.
My second reason is to economize time. I believe it will take less time to deposit the ballot on election day than it takes to attend the Federation meetings, a suffrage convention, or  a hearing at Albany.
As a class we are debarred from the franchise. Because a woman was a woman did not save her from being beheaded. Because a woman was a woman did not save her from being burned at the stake. Woman has always had to suffer the penalty for crime and always had to conform to the law. Being amenable to the law she should share in any privileges which that law  can  grant.                              '
SPEAKER AIDS SUFFRAGISTS
WAVSWOItTH    SHOWS   'EM    HOW
TO  MAKE  ASSEMBLY  ACT.
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He's an Anti, but Ills Tip Will Get Tlielr Resolution   Out   of    Committee—An Army of Women Invade Albany With      | a. flood of Argument I*ro and Con.      j
Albany, Feb. 24.—As the result of j fifteen minutes coaching by Speaker j Wadssvorthin the niceties of true political j tacli<s   the   fighters   for   franchise   who;    |
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i         came here to-day to plead their cause be-
fore the joint Judiciary Committee of the ' •eccis'.a.ture achieved a triumph the like of which has not gladdened the hearts of New York State suffragists for more than a decade.
No matter how much i.he matter may. bore them the members of the Assembly ¦will probably be forced within two weeks to express their opinion as to whether or not the proposed amendment to the Constitution, which provides for the striking | out of the word "rcale" from Section 1 of Article   II.    shall   l;e   submitted   to   the people.                                       .                  j
While the rank and fi'e of the yearners j for the ballot and their opponents were | rushing for the front seats in the Assem- j bly chamber Miss Anne Miller of Geneva, I Mrs. Hariot   Stanton  Blatch, Mrs. Waist on   Brown   and   another   woman   who; didn't v ant her name printed were getting   past   the   array   of   sentinels   who guarded  the approach to the Speaker s sanctum by repetitions of the magic word "appointment."                  ,
Miss Miller, who is a cousin of Mr. Wadsworth, introduced those who had come with her, and the Speaker smiled and asked them what he could do for them.
When  Mrs.   Blatch  explained that all that she wanted was a promise from him that he would use his influence to persuade the members of the committee to j report   favorably   the   resolution   intro- j duced   by    Assemblyman   Frederick   R. Toombs regarding the  proposed amend- j merit he smiled again and said that such j course on his part would commit him ir- I retrievably   to   the   cause   of   votes - for women.
"Wei!, then," said Mrs. Blatch, -"get them to report it unfavorably. All we ¦want is to get it before the Legislature." Mrs Blatch seemed so grieved when 1 lie Speaker told hoi" that if the bill were reported unfavorably it would bts absolutely killed for this session of the Legislature, that his sympathies were touched] apd lie said that he thought he could suggest a better way out of the difficulty. He initiated the delegation into the form of procedure whereby they rnight get a hostile committee discharged and have their resolution brought before the Assembly.                                                         | "If you come out on our aide now," said, i Miss Mi.-ev to her cousin, "just enough to j ma'; d those men put the thing before the voters of the State, you -wi;l be the man of 1he moment, and your name will go down to lutiro generations in the anna's"—but Mr. 'Wadsworth held up his hand depre-catingiy.
"I am an 'anti' you know," he said with a s ight-blush, "but I hope I have teen able to help you a iitt.e nevertheless."
The delegation thanked him fervently, eaid that he surely had and then they sought the chamber.
As soon as Mr. Toombs was to!d of the interview in the Spea -t's office, he said that even if no orir'.'vri'^v'iion of flwi'ra-pists asV.ed him •,<» ir. ;e s/j.oh a step, ho would forma o" move for tho discharge of the committee if no report was mado upon the reso.ution within two wee-fe.
The anti"- from New1 York city who had kept the door of their special  drawing room  car locked so that no   suffragists, cou.d have a chance to annoy them on ' the trip up, and who had lunched at. tables reserved for them in the Union Station rather than mingle with the suffragists at the Ten Biyck, and antis from other parts ¦ of the State.occupied the side of the house i on the right of the Speaker's chair, while j the suffragists lined up opposite.                 i