The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-09-09
Mr.. Wilson Addresses 5000
Women Reviewing Growth
of Nation Problems
TELLS THEM HE IS IN
FIGHT FOR THEIR CAUSE
Declares Women Have Seen
Visions of Duty. Something
True Americans Can't Resist
Association Non-Partisan

ALIanliC lily, ~. -, sept Ok ISSi~
dent Wilson told the National Amer
can Women's Suffrage Association ne
had come to fight with them for the
cause they represented. The state
ment caused a prolonged outburst or
applause. 1t was accepted as the fore
runner of something more definite.
but the expectation was not realized
Beyond saying the woman suffrage
movement had not only come TO stay,
but had come with conauering force.
the President did not commit HIM
self. He admitted. however. that
after listening to several speeches.
he felt wholesome contagion Of the
. occasion
In concluding. the President con-
graduated the delegates on having
aroused a force which would triumph
in the end. but asked them to be
patient and wait a little longer
DR.. Anna Howard Shaw answered
the President briefly, saying that the
women had waired and waited for
equal franchise rights. and hoped
some step would be taken 10 further
the cause during the Wilson admins
tration.
The meeting which President Will
son addressed was attended by more
than 30oo women. There We're not
more than twenty men IN the audi
ence One of these was Secretary or
the Navy Josephus Daniels Mrs
Wilson occupied a seat ON the stage
and appeared TO be greatly interested
III ;ha proceedings
Secs Its Rapid Growth.
The astonishing thing about the
movement which you represent is not
that IL has grown so slowly. but that
It has grown so rapidly" said the
President NO doubt for those who
have been a long time ia the struggle,
like your honored president, IL seems
long and arduous path that mas
been trodden, but when YOU think OF
the cumulating force of this move
ment in recent decades you must
agree with me that II is one OF the
most astonishing tides in modern his
tory
Two generations ago it was a
handful Of women who were ightins.
Now it Is a great multitude Of women
who are fighting,
And there are some interesting
historical connections which | would
like to attempt To point out TO YOU,
| One of the most striking facts about
the history of the United states is
| that at the outset 1t was a lawyers
history Almost all of the questions
to which America addressed itself.
say hundred years ago, were legal
questions were questions of method.
| not questions Of what you were gong
| TO do with your government. but
| questions OF how YOU were going to
constitute your government, how you
were going to balance the claims Of
property against the processes OF lib
erty, how you were going 10 make your
government up so as 10 balance the
parts against each other so that the
legislature would check the executive
- and the executive the legislative. and
the courts both of them put together
Conception of Government
THE whole conception of govern
ment when the United States became
n nation was a mechanical concep-
ton OF government. and the mechani-
cal conception of government which
| underlay 1t was the Newtonian theory
Of the universe. If you pick up the
Federalist, some parts of 1t read like
| a treatise on astronomy instead of a
treatise on government, They speak
OF the centrifugal and the centripital
forces, and locate the President some
where in a rotating system. And the
whole thing is q calculation of power
and an adjustment of parts.
There was a time nobody but a
lawyer could know enough to run the
government of the United States and
a distinguished English publicist once
remarked, speaking of the completely
81 the American government, that it
was no proof of excellence of the
American Constitution that IL had
been successfully operated because
the Americans could run any consti-
N4atiep- But there have been a great
many technical difficulties in running
Il.
"And then something happened A
great question arose in this country,
which, though complicated with le-
gal elements, was at bottom human
question, and nothing but a question
Of humanity. That was the slavery
question, and Is it not significant that
II was then and then for the first
time, that women became prominent
in politics in America. Not many
women. Those prominent in that day
are SO few that you can almost name
them over in a brief catalogue, but
nevertheless then they began to play
= part in writing. not only, but in
public speech, which was a very novel
part for women to play in America,
and after the Civil war had settled
some of what seemed to be the most
difacult legal questions OF our sys-
tenn, the life OF the nation began not
only to unfold but to accumulate.
Simple Before Civil War.
Life in the United States was a
CO4u VAI6ttsSi SiAplC iHdttcT ut the
time OF the Civil war. There was
none Of that underground struggle
which 10 now 80 manifest TO those who
look only a little way beneath the
surface. Stories such las DR.. Davis
has told tonight were uncommon in
those simpler days The pressure of
low wages. the agony of obscure and
anremunsrated toll did not exist In
fOnnf1nnnA an aanonA RaenA