I have felt as I sat here tonight the wholesome contagion of the occasion. Almost every other time that I ever visited Atlantic City I came to fight somebody. I hardly know how to conduct myself when I have not come to fight against anybody, but with somebody. I have come to suggest, among other things, that when the forces of nature are steadily working and the tide is rising to meet the moon, you need not be afraid that it will not come to its flood. We feel the tide: we rejoice in the strength of it and we shall not quarrel in the long run as to the method of it. Because, when you are working with masses of men and organized bodies of opinion, you have got to carry the organized body along. The whole art and practice of government consists, not in moving individuals, but in moving masses. It is all very well to run ahead and beckon, but, after all, you have got to wait for the mass to follow. I have not come to ask you to be patient, because you have been, but I have come to congratulate you that there was a force behind you that will, beyond any peradventure, be triumphant and for which you can afford a little while to wait. This speech is, of course, often exquisitely phrased. However, it promised nothing. The Woman’s Party was not deceived by it. * * * * * It is to be seen that President Wilson was moving—slowly, to be sure; one cautious foot carefully planted before the other cautious foot moved—in the right direction. He had progressed a measurable distance from the man who just after his inauguration admitted he had never considered the subject of Suffrage. However, he still held to his idea of the “State by State” progress for the enfranchisement of women. But he was to change even in that, as will subsequently be seen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ VII THE SECOND APPEAL TO WOMEN VOTERS ON August 10, 11, and 12, of 1916, the newly-formed National Woman’s Party held a conference at the Hotel Antlers in Colorado Springs, to formulate a policy for the coming presidential campaign. In Washington, Senators and Representatives read avidly the newspaper accounts of this convention. Politically, it was a tremendously impressive gathering. Prominent women came from all the Western States to decide how they should endeavor to mobilize the women’s votes. Greatly alarmed at this drifting away of members, the Democratic Party sent prominent Democratic women to plead with them not to leave the Party and to represent to them that Peace was more important than Suffrage. The Republicans sent important Republican women to plead with them to give their support to Hughes since he had come out for the Federal Suffrage Amendment.