The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-06-05
rHE coNvENTIoN sPEEcHEs.
Many Speakers Pleaded for Votes for
Women in Vermont.

Women in Vermont
The meetings Of the association both
yesterday afternoon and last evening
were carried out as was expected and
each speaker on the program appeared.
The president Of the association, Mrs.
Julia A. Pierce of Rochester, delivered
an interesting address. She sdid in
part: "For more than 25 years. the
Vermont Equal Suffrage association has
been earnestly laboring to overcome
prejudice and to secure Vermont women
equal rights with men.
Naturally the question presents it,
self to-day, What has been accomplished
ii All these years. since Vermont women
are still disfranehsed citizens except on
the school questions We women an.
swer; Very much has been accomplished
that must inevitably precede the result
sought When We call to mind the con-
serVatism OF the state and remember
how dire foe is prejudice, the progress
is probably all that can be expected
Opposition to this reform has been re-
moved from very many hearts and
though the fruits Of conversion may not
in all cases be apparent, a large number
Of the best people have renounced oppo-
sition and favor the reform Christian
people of to-day are coming to realize
that we must have the cooperation of
good women with good men if We are
to combat the forces Of evil
"Our greatest need is agitation and
education. For all thinking people now
acknowledge the justice Of our cause and
just as soon as the majority Of the Wo-
men wake up to the fact that the ballot
ii not only right but d duty, it will
no longer be practically dead issue.
"Three stages are accredited TO every
reform ridicule. argument and adoption.
Our proposed reform has passed the first
two and the third Il only question of
time. Within recent years the sphere
OF woman's work has greatly enlarged
without detriment to herself or TO the
other sex. She has shown remarkable
capacity in business affairs. Her educa
tion to-day leads to Independents thought
and action; association with demands
for the ballot eolfes the demand for
industrial opportunities. Woman should
be allowed the privilege of protecting
herself and her children. God gave her
that right and the state is certainly erim-
inal when it deprives her Of her inheri
tance
Reduced to a brief, plain statement.
the whole argument against equal suf
frage Isl; No man has the power to
deny it and some men, who admit that
il is right in principle, do not think il
best, and some women who do not wish
ii themselves, are unwilling chat other
women who want it should have Ill
This Is the keystone Of the arch whose
absence leaves SO strange gap in the
construction of our political morality.
Following Mrs. pierees address came
an address = oman Suffrage in Prae
tice," BY Miss Mary N. Chase Of An
dover, n. H., president Of the New Hamp-
shire association. Miss Chase compared
tile small size of the movement in New
England to little plot Of ground and
said that Il was a world wide move
ment. She spoke Of The remarkably good
that had been done IN New Zealand.
Australia and Finland. the countries
where women have equal rights with
men and IN Wyoming, Utah. Colorado
and Idaho, the states in our own West
where woman's rights are recognized and
she has her vote as well as the man. She