suffragette anna howard shaw speech central idea

If this be true, the time is past when we should say: 'Men and women of America, look upon that wonderful idea up there see, one day it will come down.' Instead, the time has come to shout aloud in every city, village and hamlet, and in tones so clear and jubilant that they will reverberate from every mountain peak and echo from shore to shore: 'The woman's Hour has struck.' Suppose suffragists as a whole do not believe a crisis has come and do not extend their hands to grasp the victory, what will happen? Why, we shall all continue to work and our cause will continue to hang, waiting for those who possess a clearer vision and more daring enterprise. I believe our victory hangs within our grasp, inviting us to pluck it out of the clouds and establish it among the good things of the world. In my judgment, that crucial moment, bidding us to renewed consecration and redoubled activity has come to our cause. As one has put it: 'A new idea floats in the air over the heads of the people and for a long, indefinite period evades their understanding but, by and by, when through familiarity, human vision grows clearer, it is caught out of the clouds and crystalized into law.' Such a period comes to every movement and is its crisis. Necessarily, it must obey the law of evolution and pass through the stages of agitation and education and finally through the stage of realization.

The object of the life of an organized movement is to secure its aim. A failure to answer the call may mean an opportunity lost, a possible victory postponed. I can only defend my claim with the plea that it is better to imagine a crisis where none exists than to fail to recognize one when it comes for a crisis is a culmination of events which calls for new considerations and new decisions. To them, the movement has been a steady, normal growth from the beginning and must so continue until the end. I am aware that some suffragists do not share this belief they see no signs nor symptoms today which were not present yesterday no manifestations in the year 1916 which differ significantly from those in the year 1910. I have taken for my subject, 'The Crisis,' because I believe that a crisis has come in our movement which, if recognized and the opportunity seized with vigor, enthusiasm and will, means the final victory of our great cause in the very near future. The version shared here was published in The Woman's Journal and Suffrage News on September 16, 1916, and includes the portion of the speech in which Catt outlines her 'Winning Plan.'

On September 7, the second day of the convention, Catt presented her presidential address. At the convention, members debated whether the NAWSA should concentrate on a federal amendment or on state legislation, or continue to work for both, with a goal of determining a course of action before the national presidential election. In 1916, an emergency convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association was organized following the Republican and Democratic conventions in June.

Suffragette anna howard shaw speech central idea