Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
“Inez Milholland is one around whom legends will grow up. Generations
to come will point out Mount Inez and tell of the beautiful woman who
sleeps her last sleep on its slopes.
“They will tell of her in the West, tell of the vision of loveliness as
she flashed through on her last burning mission, flashed through to her
death—a falling star in the western heavens.
“But neither legend nor vision is liberty, which was her life. Liberty
cannot die. No work for liberty can be lost. It lives on in the hearts
of the people, in their hopes, their aspira- tions, their activities.
It becomes part of the life of the nation. What Inez Milholland has
given to the world lives on forever.
“We are here to-day to pay tribute to Inez Milholland Boissevain, who
was our comrade. Let our tribute be not words which pass, nor song
which flies, nor flower which fades. Let it be this: that we finish the
task she could not finish; that with new strength we take up the
struggle in which fighting beside us she fell; that with new faith we
here consecrate ourselves to the cause of woman’s freedom until that
cause is won; that with new devotion we go forth, inspired by her
sacrifice, to the end that her sacrifice be not in vain, for dying she
shall bring to pass that which living she could not achieve—full
freedom for women, full democracy for the nation.
“Let this be our tribute, imperishable, to Inez Milholland Boissevain.”
Miss Anne Martin of Nevada, chairman of the Woman’s Party, presided
over the services. Other speakers were Honorable George Sutherland,
United States Senator from Utah, representing the United States
Congress; and Honorable Rowland S. Mahany, former member of Congress
and lifelong friend of the Milholland family.
Mrs. William Kent of California, wife of Representative Kent, presented
two resolutions which the vast audience approved by silently rising.
One resolution, a tribute of rare beauty, prepared by Zona Gale, a
friend of Inez Milholland, was a compelling appeal to all women to
understand and to reverence the ideals of this inspiring leader. The
other was an appeal to the Administration for action.
The pageantry of surpliced choristers and the long line of girl
standard-bearers retired to the strains of the solemn recessional. The
great audience sat still with bowed heads as the voices in the distance
dropped in silence. Instantly the strains of the Marseillaise, filling
the great dome with its stirring and martial song of hope, were taken
up by the organ and the strings, and the audience was lifted to its
feet singing as if in anticipation of the triumph of liberty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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