Religious services were conducted Sunday afternoon by the Rev. Mary A.
Safford of Des Moines, a.s.sisted by Dr. Shaw and the Rev. Marie Jenney Howe. The subject of the sermon was The Goal of Life and the text: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of G.o.d, and, if children, than heirs--heirs of G.o.d and joint heirs with Christ." "In the preaching of the Gospel of all nations,"
she said, "it has been recognized that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile; while in breaking the fetters of millions of slaves it also has been recognized that in Him there is neither bond nor free.
The world still awaits the time when it will be proclaimed that in Him there is neither male nor female."[31]
Monday, February 15, was Miss Anthony"s 84th birthday and it was a coincidence that on the morning of that day the convention should be opened with prayer by the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, chaplain of the Senate, a life-long opponent of woman suffrage. When he was invited to come he asked definite a.s.surance that it would not be interpreted that he had changed his opinion.[32] The air of the hall was fragrant with the flowers that had been sent in honor of the birthday, and, as the usual tribute of the convention, it made its pledges of money for the expenses of the coming year. Mrs. Upton asked for $4,000 and nearly $5,000 were quickly subscribed.[33]
The preceding day Mrs. John B. Henderson had given a 12 o"clock birthday breakfast for Miss Anthony at her handsome home, Boundary Castle, attended by the national officers and a number of invited guests. In the evening a social reunion for the officers, delegates and speakers was held in the banquet room of the Sh.o.r.eham Hotel, which was the convention headquarters. On the afternoon of the birthday President and Mrs. Roosevelt received the members of the convention with much cordiality. From the White House they went to a reception given by Miss Clara Barton in her interesting home at Glen Echo, near Washington. The nearly five hundred visitors received a warm welcome and enjoyed wandering through the unique house built of lumber left after the Johnstown flood, unplastered and the walls draped with the flags of many nations that had been presented to her by their rulers.
At urgent request Miss Barton brought forth the laces, jewels, medals and decorations given to her by the dignitaries and crowned heads of Europe for her distinguished services in behalf of the Red Cross, such a collection, it was said, as no other woman possessed.
The convention was largely in the nature of a Colorado jubilee, as its women ten years before had cast their first vote, having been enfranchised in the autumn of 1893. The program for two evenings was given up to men and women from that State under the heading, Colorado Speaks for Itself, and it was most appropriate that Miss Anthony should preside. In presenting her Mrs. Catt said: "This is Miss Anthony"s 84th birthday. We might have had a program filled with tributes to her and no doubt you would all have enjoyed them but instead we have what she will like better, a program to show, not that woman suffrage would be a good thing but that it has been a good thing. When Miss Anthony was born no woman in America could vote; no woman in modern times had been a lawyer. Tonight our ushers are seven women graduates of the Washington Law School, in the cap and gown which used to be forbidden to women. But there is something else going on tonight that is a more noteworthy celebration of her birthday. A measure to grant suffrage to women is pending in Denmark with the backing of the government and the women of that country have arranged a great demonstration in favor of the bill and have fixed the date for today because it is the birthday of Susan B. Anthony. Opponents of woman suffrage pay almost their whole attention to Colorado, so we have asked Colorado to come and talk for itself and it has responded magnificently. All the speakers pay their own expenses and have come this long way for the pleasure of saying a word for woman suffrage."
The Washington _Post_ commented, "Miss Anthony received an ovation and it was delightful to see the pride with which she introduced the speakers--a former Governor, a woman State Superintendent of Public Instruction, chairmen of women"s political committees and clubs, a woman county superintendent." Mrs. Katharine Cook, president of the Jane Jefferson Club, a Democratic organization of over a thousand women, spoke on The Ideals We Cherish and strongly emphasized that politics did not impair true womanliness or lower high ideals. "A nation can be no more free or pure or beautiful than the homes of which it is composed," she said. "Our country is but a greater home and no mother whose love for her fireside is more than an instinct or a sentiment can fail to see that the welfare of her home and family is vitally connected with an unstained ballot and an honest government.
We women who believe in the right of suffrage and exercise it with the utmost wisdom with which we are gifted, use it for the preservation and defense and love of our homes ... and it is this spirit which is needed at the polls."
An entirely different but equally effective note was struck by Mrs.
Ellis Meredith, a prominent journalist of Denver, who said during her address on Colorado Women and Legislation:
If I regarded the ballot merely as a right or a privilege or an end; a divine, far-off event toward which the whole creation moves and which, once attained, obviates its ever having to move afterward, I should say it does not make a bit of difference what we have done with it. If it is a right, who can question it? If it is a privilege, it is beyond question. If it is an end, it is achieved. But I do not regard it as any of these. To my mind the ballot is simply one of our many modern labor-saving inventions.
It is the easiest way.... In the ten years that women have been voting in Colorado, I believe they have done at least five times as much as all the rest of the non-voting women in the United States together, and I base this modest claim upon the record of our statute books as compared with those of other States. Women stand relatively for the same thing everywhere and their first care is naturally and inevitably for the child. Whatever we have done, other women wish to do. In many States they have tried and failed. The difference is they are using stone-age methods while we have those of the 20th century."
No one who knows anything about our laws will attempt to deny that women have revolutionized the att.i.tude of our State toward the child. Two-thirds of their work has been for the children....
These laws mean that in Colorado there are no children under 14 out of school; we have no child beggars nor street musicians and no girls vending anything. We have the best child labor law in the world. We have the strictest laws for the prevention of the abuse, moral, mental or physical of children, of any country, and the best enforced, not merely in our cities but throughout the entire State. We have the strongest compulsory school law and the most enlightened law concerning delinquent children of any, save where our laws have been copied.... What we have done has not been for ourselves but for the very least of these. It has been not for our fading today but for the dawning tomorrow. We have gone to our legislators with new ideas and have set a little child in the midst of them, and they have not been unmindful of the heavenly vision.
Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Denver, president of the State Federation of Women"s Clubs and county superintendent of schools, began her address, A Message to Garcia, by referring to the noted pamphlet of that t.i.tle by Elbert Hubbard, "which," she said, "was translated into fourteen languages and called out a response from the hearts of the civilized world, because it set forth the duty and necessity of doing a thing yourself if you want it well done," and she made the application: "The women of Colorado have learned by experience the advantage of a direct vote over direct influence." She then told in a graphic manner the vast amount of good work the Federation of Clubs had been able to do through the power of the ballot and said: "During the last Legislature a department of the federation had to sit one day each week to confer with the many members who wanted its endors.e.m.e.nt for their bills. Clubwomen in non-suffrage States do not have this experience. It is because we can carry the message to Garcia ourselves." "Mrs. Catt helped to win our mountain republic for suffrage," Mrs. Bradford said in conclusion, "and we women of Colorado pledge ourselves to Susan B. Anthony to work until death to help get it in other States."
Mrs. Isabella Churchill of Greeley spoke from the standpoint of the women outside the cities. "To the women in the small towns and country districts," she said, "it is a privilege and a pleasure to go to the polls on election day with the men of their family and vote for the candidates and measures they have had time to consider with care. In such places the question next day is not, "Did the election go Democratic or Republican?" but "Was it license or no license?" or else concerning some candidate or issue that they believe of importance to their community." Mrs. Helen Belford, chairman of the Women"s State Democratic Committee, devoted her address largely to the development of the young women through the use of the ballot and the study of political questions. Mrs. Ina Thompson, chairman of the Republican Women"s State Committee, gave a very interesting account of the way campaigns are conducted by women.
Mrs. Helen Loring Grenfell, as State Superintendent of Education, spoke with high authority and by her dignified and beautiful presence no less than by her ability made a deep impression on all who heard her. She pointed out that Colorado came into the Union in 1876 with School suffrage for women and through this they had always been able to keep the schools on a non-partisan basis. She showed that it paid more per capita for public schools than any other State, leaving even New York and Ma.s.sachusetts behind; described its advanced position from kindergartens to training schools and colleges, with especial care in guarding the welfare of children, and continued:
In the East we hear of "the question of coeducation." It is not a question west of the Mississippi River, it never has been, it never will be. The eastern arrangement seems to us merely a curious survival of antiquated ideas, a kind of s.e.x-consciousness which we have lost sight of in our care for the human being....
The place of State Superintendent has always been held by a woman since women became eligible. The first superintendent elected was a Republican, the second a Democrat, each holding the place for one term; the third, who is now serving her third term, was nominated as a Silver Republican but has really been elected and twice re-elected without regard to politics--an example of the independence of the vote where school affairs are concerned.
There are 59 counties in Colorado and 33 of them, including most of those with the largest population, have women county superintendents....
I have found Colorado women much like their sisters elsewhere save that they have a broader view of public affairs and they take naturally a more active interest in the world"s work. They have learned to think and to say what they think simply and freely in gatherings where men and women meet to discuss the vital concerns of life. They have not forgotten that they are women but they have come to know that they are also human beings, and, like Terence, they find nothing that concerns humanity foreign to them. Surely had we not been faithful in the smaller things, we should not have had these large opportunities given to us.... I can not help thinking that my sisters elsewhere have lost something rare and precious from their lives through the lack of that complete citizenship which has been bestowed upon the women of Colorado, and I hope the day may be near when those sisters may be made man"s equal under the law of the land as they have always been under the law of G.o.d.
The Hon. Isaac N. Stevens, a p.r.o.nounced suffragist, who had the topic After Ten Years, was detained elsewhere. The Hon. Alva Adams, who had twice been Governor of the State, in his strong and comprehensive speeches before the convention and the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, answered for all time the misrepresentations in regard to woman suffrage in Colorado which for years had been persistently made by the anti-suffragists, and he also answered conclusively the many objections 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 G.o.ddess 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 per cent. would today vote to relinquish that which belongs to them.
It is not an American trait to give up rights.... I challenge any one to find 100 intelligent women in Colorado who will voluntarily request that the word "male" be restored in the const.i.tution and statutes of the State. Many women may not go to the polls but the man who would try to take away their right to do so would need a bombproof conning tower. There will be no repeal, it stands for all time. There never will be less than four woman suffrage States--there should be forty-five.... Since 1876 school affairs have practically been in the hands of women. They have voted at school elections, held the office of superintendent in a majority of the counties and taught most of the schools. In these twenty-eight years neither politics nor scandals have impaired our public school system and in efficiency we challenge comparison with any State in the Union. What the women have done for our schools they can do for our civic government. They have introduced conscience into educational affairs and they will do the same in city and State. That is the fear of those who make politics a profession...."
Henry B. Blackwell was introduced and spoke briefly of having gone to Colorado in 1876 to a.s.sist in getting full suffrage for women into the const.i.tution for statehood, but it was left for the voters to decide.
Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with references to the successful campaign of 1893, seventeen years later.
A resolution presented by Mrs. Mead was adopted urging Congress to take the initial steps toward inviting the governments of the world to establish an International Advisory Congress, and impressing upon equal suffragists that they should create local public sentiment in favor of arbitration treaties between the United States and all countries with which it has diplomatic relations. On motion of Mrs.
Grenfell the convention endorsed the bill before Congress for a national board of child and animal protection. It rejoiced in the voting of 850,000 women in Australia and in the fact that woman suffrage existed throughout 300,000 square miles of United States territory and eight Senators and nine Representatives were sent to Congress by votes of both men and women. Mrs. Mary Church Terrell (D.
C.), a highly educated woman, showing little trace of negro blood, said: "A resolution asks you to stand up for children and animals; I want you to stand up not only for children and animals but also for negroes. You will never get suffrage until the sense of justice has been so developed in men that they will give fair play to the colored race. Much has been said about the purchasability of the negro vote.
They never sold their votes till they found that it made no difference how they cast them. Then, being poor and ignorant and human, they began to sell them, but soon after the Civil War I knew many efforts to tempt them to do so which were not successful. My sisters of the dominant race, stand up not only for the oppressed s.e.x but also for the oppressed race!"
Resolutions of regret were adopted for the death of many pioneer suffragists during the year, among them Sarah Knox Goodrich of California; Sarah Burger Stearns of Minnesota; Judge J. W. Kingman of Iowa; Ellen Sully Fray of Ohio; Eliza Sproat Turner and Samuel Pennock of Pennsylvania; Henrietta L. T. Wolcott, Lavina A. Hatch, Alice Gordon Gulick, Richard P. Hallowell and the Hon. Henry S. Washburn of Ma.s.sachusetts. Telegrams of remembrance were sent to the veteran workers, Mrs. Martha S. Root of Michigan and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick of Louisiana, and a letter to Mrs. Ellen Powell Thompson of the District. Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey of Kentucky, author of Republics vs. Women, was introduced to the convention and showed how republics disfranchised half of their citizens.
The Declaration of Principles, prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Harper remained a permanent platform of the a.s.sociation.
Dr. Shaw made the delegates smile at one morning session after they had sung "America" by moving that hereafter the line, "Our Father"s G.o.d to Thee," should be printed on their program, "Our Father, G.o.d, to Thee." She said the preachers and poets had a habit of talking so exclusively about "the G.o.d of our fathers" that there was danger of forgetting that our mothers had any G.o.d! Mrs. Mary Wood Swift (Calif.), its president, brought the greetings of the National Council of Women. The report from the Friends Equal Rights a.s.sociation, an affiliated society, was made by Mrs. Anne W. Janney (Md). Fraternal greetings were given by Mrs. Olive Pond Amies for the Pennsylvania W.
C. T. U.; by Mrs. Arabella Carter (Penn.) for the Universal Peace Union, and by Mrs. Emma S. Olds (O.) for the Ladies of the Maccabees of the World. Mrs. Catt warmly complimented this last organization for its fine business principles and the high character of its leaders.
The a.s.sociation appointed as its legal adviser Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, a prominent lawyer of Chicago, for years the superintendent of legislative work for the Illinois Suffrage a.s.sociation and part of the time its president. It is needless to say that it was not a salaried position. One morning Mrs. Catt called the "pioneers" to the platform and presented them to the convention, among them Miss Mary S.
Anthony, who had attended the first Woman"s Rights Convention in 1848, of whom her sister always said: "She has looked after the home and made it possible for me to do my work."
Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y., one of the early Abolitionists, said in her few words of reminiscence: "I remember Lucy Stone holding a series of meetings through New York State in my youth. My uncle came home and reported that a young woman was lecturing and putting up her own posters; that she was very bright and he was not sure but that she was right and what she advocated would have to come. As I think of those three great leaders, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, I know what heroism is.... We women did not fully realize at first that militarism was our greatest foe. We are always told that women must not vote because they can not fight. I believe they could--I see many women who have more fight in them than many men.... Our cause came straight from the anti-slavery cause. All its early advocates were also advocates of freeing the despised race in bondage. Let us not forget them now. Neither a nation nor an individual can be really free till all are free."
It had been known for some months that Mrs. Catt would not accept a re-election to the presidency. For the past nine years she had given her entire time to work for woman suffrage, speaking in many States, attending conventions, serving as chairman of the Committee on Organization for five years and as president for four years. During this time she had had charge of the national headquarters and under the combined strain found her health breaking. The first measure of relief was the removal of the national headquarters to Warren, Ohio, in May, 1904, where Mrs. Upton took it in charge, but this was not sufficient and she announced her determination to retire from the presidency, much to the regret of the a.s.sociation. The delegates naturally turned to Dr. Shaw and urged the presidency upon her but she was most reluctant to accept. It was an unsalaried position; she was entirely dependent on her lectures and she felt that in the field she could best serve the cause but she finally yielded to Miss Anthony"s earnest entreaties. She was almost unanimously elected and Mrs. Catt consented to remain in official position as vice-president-at-large.
The convention adopted the following resolution: "We tender to our retiring president our hearty thanks for her years of faithful and efficient labor in behalf of our cause and for her self-sacrificing devotion to its interests. We congratulate ourselves that we shall continue to have her wise counsel and cooperation and we express our earnest hope for her health and prosperity." No other change was made except that Mrs. Coggeshall retired as second auditor and Dr. Cora Smith Eaton again became a member of the board.
The _Evening Star_ had this description: "As the afternoon session was about closing Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, retiring national president, who has endeared herself to all by her gracious courtesy, her firm yet gentle sway, presented to the convention its choice for her successor.
Miss Shaw was not as clear-eyed as usual when she faced the cheering audience and her voice trembled and choked a little as she declared she had accepted the office only to give Mrs. Catt a rest. As the convention continued to applaud she said, trying to smile: "Don"t do that or I shall surely cry!" The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw is probably the first woman distinguished by having taken both theological and medical degrees. She won her way into and through college by teaching and paid for her theological training by preaching on Sundays.... After filling one parish for seven years she found her widest opportunities in the broad parish of the lecture field and is one of the ablest speakers on the public platform."
Detroit sent an invitation for the next convention and Mrs. Richard Williams of Buffalo, N. Y., presented one from that city with a guarantee from the State Suffrage a.s.sociation of $1,000 toward the expenses. While these were appreciated the invitation from Portland, Ore., was the choice. It was presented by Dr. Annice Jeffreys for the a.s.sociation and by the Hon. Jefferson Myers in behalf of the Lewis and Clark Exposition to be held in 1905, which the convention gave a hearty endors.e.m.e.nt.
The last evening found the large armory filled to the doors. Mrs.
Evelyn H. Belden (Ia.) made a delightful address on The Main Line, which thoroughly disproved the a.s.sertion that women have no sense of humor, as the audience testified by frequent laughter and applause.
Mrs. L. Annis Pound (Mich.) discussed the Problem of the Individual.
"A woman"s value to society," she said, "will increase in direct ratio as her value as an individual increases. Woman as the potential mother of the race owes it to posterity to develop the n.o.blest, strongest type of individualism. She must be first a human being, a personality, a member of society." Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, president of the National Women"s Republican a.s.sociation, who had made political speeches from ocean to ocean, told in a most entertaining manner of Campaigning in Free States and paid a glowing tribute to the beneficial effects of woman suffrage in the States where it existed.
Towards the end of the evening Mrs. Catt presented Miss Anthony and as she came forward she brought Miss Barton with her and the audience rose in heartfelt recognition of the two great leaders. "It seemed unable quite fully to express its pleasure," said the _Evening Star_, "and applauded again and again, as Miss Barton bowed and Miss Anthony looked smilingly and benignly out over the enthusiastic crowds." She expressed in words of affection and esteem her pleasure in appearing on that platform with one who had stood by her from the beginning of her work and Miss Barton responded in the same strain, giving then as always her adherence to Miss Anthony and the cause of woman suffrage.
A national suffrage convention never seemed to be properly ended unless Dr. Shaw made a speech at the close and for this one she chose the subject, Woman without a Country, and with her matchless eloquence described the position of women under the flag of a Government in which they had no voice. Mrs. Catt spoke the president"s inspiring farewell words and the convention adjourned to meet next time in the far northwest.
The usual hearings were granted by the Senate and House Committees on February 16 at 10:30 a.m. Miss Anthony presided at the Senate hearing and the speakers in the Marble Room were Mrs. Watson Lister, Australia; Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, England; Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, Pennsylvania; Miss Laura A. Gregg, Nebraska; Miss Harriet May Mills, Miss Emily Howland, Mrs. Maud Nathan, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, New York. In introducing Mrs. Gilman Miss Anthony said quaintly: "This is one of the Beecher tribe," referring to her relationship, and she said of Dr. Shaw, the last speaker, "She will wind us up!" In telling of the first congressional hearing on woman suffrage ever granted--in 1869--she said: "Of all those who spoke here then I am the only one living today and I shall not be able to come much longer." Her words were prophetic, as this was the last hearing she ever attended.
Each speaker considered the question from a different standpoint: Miss Mills showed that the high schools everywhere were graduating more girls than boys and women were increasing in the colleges at a higher ratio than men and said: "If only you would fix an educational qualification for the franchise we might hope to attain it." Mrs.
Swift described the great campaign that had been made by California women for the suffrage in 1896 and yet they could not now even vote for school officers and she told of the unjust laws for women. Mrs.
Boyer spoke for the millions of women wage-earners and declared that the present form of government was a s.e.x-aristocracy. Mrs. Gilman said that to have intelligent men there must be educated mothers and that America could be made greater but not out of little people. Mrs.
Harper reviewed the Senate hearings of the past, the favorable and unfavorable reports and the many times when no reports were made and said: "We represent no vested interests, no const.i.tuency: we cannot help or harm you politically; we can only appeal to you in the name of abstract justice."
Mrs. Blatch, American by birth, told of the feelings of women arriving in this country by steamer and seeing the men land from the steerage who would soon have the right of suffrage which was denied to women born in the United States. Mrs. Watson Lister was introduced as representing over 800,000 women voters in Australia and said in part: "It seems very odd to me to come to America to speak on self-government. In Australia woman suffrage is not an experiment but a long experience and one effect has been to disprove all the things that were said against it." Dr. Shaw spoke of the hardships women had endured to make this country what it is and of the injustice of denying them any voice in its government.
Miss Anthony closed by saying that she had appealed to committees of seventeen Congresses and she urged that this one would make a favorable report. Senator Mitch.e.l.l of Oregon responded: "I introduced this resolution for woman suffrage. I am earnestly in favor of it--have been for many years--and if I live you will get a report. I have been more instructed and interested by the magnificent speeches I have heard today than by any in the Senate of the United States during the twenty-one years I have attended it." Others expressed themselves in the same strain. Senator Mitch.e.l.l"s own personal affairs, however, soon became much involved and no report was made.
Mrs. Catt conducted the hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the House. Its chairman, Representative John J. Jenkins of Wisconsin, who was presiding, made no secret of his hostility to woman suffrage but some members of the committee were favorable. Colorado had been the storm center of attack and defense for many years while Denver was the only city of considerable size where women could vote. In opening the hearing Mrs. Catt said: "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: Last year when we appeared before the committee to speak in behalf of the bill asking the submission of the 16th Amendment we called attention to the fact that Congress had appointed a great many commissions for investigation of the conditions, political and otherwise, of various cla.s.ses of people, and inasmuch as we have come here year after year claiming that woman suffrage had wrought none of the ills which its enemies said it would and that it had brought many benefits, we asked that Congress, through a commission, should investigate it in the western States. You are aware that no such commission resulted from our pet.i.tion. When Mahomet commanded the mountain to come to him and the mountain did not come he said: "Then Mahomet will go to the mountain." We have therefore this year brought Colorado to you and the speakers who will address you this morning are all from that State."