A very convincing address was given by Dr. Samuel J. Barrows (Mass.),

secretary of the National Prison Reform Association, on Women and

Prison Reform. In referring to the progress of prison reform he said:

"In this array of apostles and prophets and expositors of the new

penology we find men and women standing side by side." He described

the work in this reform by eminent women in Europe and the United

States and concluded: "In the field of penology woman needs the ballot

as she needs it in other fields, not as an end but as a means, as an

instrument through which she can express her conviction, her

conscience, intelligence, sympathy and love. Questions in philanthropy

are more and more forcing themselves to the front in legislation.

Women are obliged to journey to the Legislature at every session to

instruct members and committees at legislative hearings. Some of these

days the public will think it absurd that women who are capable of

instructing men how to vote should not be allowed to vote themselves.

If police and prison records mean anything they mean that, considered

as law-abiding citizens, women are ten times as good as men. Why debar

the better and enfranchise the worse? In the field of commercial and

political competition, woman may demand the ballot as a right but in

the field of philanthropy and reform she needs it for the fulfillment

of her duties."

Mrs. Nathan, president of the New York Consumers' League, considered

the Wage Earner and the Ballot, her handsome presence, fine humor and

long experience rendering her an unusually attractive speaker. "The

opponents of our cause," she said, "whether they be of the fair sex or

the unfair sex, seem to think that we regard the extension of the

suffrage to women as a panacea for all evils in this world and the

next. No honest suffragist has ever taken that ground. I can not

endorse any such general or sweeping statement but I feel that my

experience in investigating the condition of women wage-earners

warrants the assertion that some of the evils from which they suffer

would not exist if the women had the right to place their votes in the

ballot-box." She compared the industrial and educational situation

where women voted with that of States where they did not and showed

how women were excluded from official positions because disfranchised,

giving conclusive instances of the discrimination in her own State. "I

feel that not only on account of the women wage-earners should women

be accorded the ballot," she said, "but also because they are very

largely the spenders of all family incomes and as such they have the

right to the assurance that what they buy is free from adulteration

and has been produced under clean, wholesome and humane conditions.

For this right the Consumers' League persistently contends but it can

be only partially successful, in my opinion, so long as it depends

entirely upon moral suasion, while manufacturers and merchants have

the voting power to hold in terror over its administration."

Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, president of the Massachusetts State Suffrage

Association and a leader in the movement for peace and arbitration,

was on the program to talk of Woman's Work for Peace. "I am not going

to speak of any philanthropy," she began, "but of something much more

far-reaching and radical, which will make three-fourths of our

philanthropy needless." She then made an impassioned plea for a world

organization of the forces that would conduce to peace. Representative

government was the first step, she said, and the establishment of a

World Court was the next. The achievement of an International Advisory

Congress might be the third. "A simultaneous effort must be made," she

declared, "to arrange arbitration treaties with every nation on earth,

referring all questions that cannot be settled by diplomacy to the

Hague Court. Questions of 'honor' must not be excluded. Carnegie well

said in his plea for this plan, 'No word has been so dishonored as the

word honor.' Such treaties and the use of the economic boycott upon

European enemies would be vastly more efficient than battleships to

keep the peace.... We need to convert the church. There are many of

our Christian ministers who believe they are living under the

dispensation of Joshua and not of Jesus."

At the conclusion of Mrs. Mead's address Mrs. Catt said: "Sometimes

the cause of peace and arbitration seems to me the greatest of all. To

help working women was the motive that determined me to devote my life

to obtaining woman suffrage. How hard it is that women must spend so

many years just to get the means with which to effect reforms! But we

who believe that behind them all is the ballot are chained to the work

for that until it is gained."

Religious services were conducted Sunday afternoon by the Rev. Mary A.

Safford of Des Moines, assisted by Dr. Shaw and the Rev. Marie Jenney

Howe. The subject of the sermon was The Goal of Life and the text:

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the

children of God, and, if children, than heirs--heirs of God and joint

heirs with Christ." "In the preaching of the Gospel of all nations,"

she said, "it has been recognized that in Christ there is neither Jew

nor Gentile; while in breaking the fetters of millions of slaves it

also has been recognized that in Him there is neither bond nor free.

The world still awaits the time when it will be proclaimed that in Him

there is neither male nor female."[31]

Monday, February 15, was Miss Anthony's 84th birthday and it was a

coincidence that on the morning of that day the convention should be

opened with prayer by the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, chaplain of the

Senate, a life-long opponent of woman suffrage. When he was invited to

come he asked definite assurance that it would not be interpreted that

he had changed his opinion.[32] The air of the hall was fragrant with

the flowers that had been sent in honor of the birthday, and, as the

usual tribute of the convention, it made its pledges of money for the

expenses of the coming year. Mrs. Upton asked for $4,000 and nearly

$5,000 were quickly subscribed.[33]

The preceding day Mrs. John B. Henderson had given a 12 o'clock

birthday breakfast for Miss Anthony at her handsome home, Boundary

Castle, attended by the national officers and a number of invited

guests. In the evening a social reunion for the officers, delegates

and speakers was held in the banquet room of the Shoreham Hotel, which

was the convention headquarters. On the afternoon of the birthday

President and Mrs. Roosevelt received the members of the convention

with much cordiality. From the White House they went to a reception

given by Miss Clara Barton in her interesting home at Glen Echo, near

Washington. The nearly five hundred visitors received a warm welcome

and enjoyed wandering through the unique house built of lumber left

after the Johnstown flood, unplastered and the walls draped with the

flags of many nations that had been presented to her by their rulers.

At urgent request Miss Barton brought forth the laces, jewels, medals

and decorations given to her by the dignitaries and crowned heads of

Europe for her distinguished services in behalf of the Red Cross,

such a collection, it was said, as no other woman possessed.

The convention was largely in the nature of a Colorado jubilee, as its

women ten years before had cast their first vote, having been

enfranchised in the autumn of 1893. The program for two evenings was

given up to men and women from that State under the heading, Colorado

Speaks for Itself, and it was most appropriate that Miss Anthony

should preside. In presenting her Mrs. Catt said: "This is Miss

Anthony's 84th birthday. We might have had a program filled with

tributes to her and no doubt you would all have enjoyed them but

instead we have what she will like better, a program to show, not that

woman suffrage would be a good thing but that it has been a good

thing. When Miss Anthony was born no woman in America could vote; no

woman in modern times had been a lawyer. Tonight our ushers are seven

women graduates of the Washington Law School, in the cap and gown

which used to be forbidden to women. But there is something else going

on tonight that is a more noteworthy celebration of her birthday. A

measure to grant suffrage to women is pending in Denmark with the

backing of the government and the women of that country have arranged

a great demonstration in favor of the bill and have fixed the date for

today because it is the birthday of Susan B. Anthony. Opponents of

woman suffrage pay almost their whole attention to Colorado, so we

have asked Colorado to come and talk for itself and it has responded

magnificently. All the speakers pay their own expenses and have come

this long way for the pleasure of saying a word for woman suffrage."

The Washington _Post_ commented, "Miss Anthony received an ovation and

it was delightful to see the pride with which she introduced the

speakers--a former Governor, a woman State Superintendent of Public

Instruction, chairmen of women's political committees and clubs, a

woman county superintendent." Mrs. Katharine Cook, president of the

Jane Jefferson Club, a Democratic organization of over a thousand

women, spoke on The Ideals We Cherish and strongly emphasized that

politics did not impair true womanliness or lower high ideals. "A

nation can be no more free or pure or beautiful than the homes of

which it is composed," she said. "Our country is but a greater home

and no mother whose love for her fireside is more than an instinct or

a sentiment can fail to see that the welfare of her home and family is

vitally connected with an unstained ballot and an honest government.

We women who believe in the right of suffrage and exercise it with the

utmost wisdom with which we are gifted, use it for the preservation

and defense and love of our homes ... and it is this spirit which is

needed at the polls."

An entirely different but equally effective note was struck by Mrs.

Ellis Meredith, a prominent journalist of Denver, who said during her

address on Colorado Women and Legislation:

If I regarded the ballot merely as a right or a privilege or an

end; a divine, far-off event toward which the whole creation

moves and which, once attained, obviates its ever having to move

afterward, I should say it does not make a bit of difference what

we have done with it. If it is a right, who can question it? If

it is a privilege, it is beyond question. If it is an end, it is

achieved. But I do not regard it as any of these. To my mind the

ballot is simply one of our many modern labor-saving inventions.

It is the easiest way.... In the ten years that women have been

voting in Colorado, I believe they have done at least five times

as much as all the rest of the non-voting women in the United

States together, and I base this modest claim upon the record of

our statute books as compared with those of other States. Women

stand relatively for the same thing everywhere and their first

care is naturally and inevitably for the child. Whatever we have

done, other women wish to do. In many States they have tried and

failed. The difference is they are using stone-age methods while

we have those of the 20th century."

No one who knows anything about our laws will attempt to deny

that women have revolutionized the attitude of our State toward

the child. Two-thirds of their work has been for the children....

These laws mean that in Colorado there are no children under 14

out of school; we have no child beggars nor street musicians and

no girls vending anything. We have the best child labor law in

the world. We have the strictest laws for the prevention of the

abuse, moral, mental or physical of children, of any country, and

the best enforced, not merely in our cities but throughout the

entire State. We have the strongest compulsory school law and the

most enlightened law concerning delinquent children of any, save

where our laws have been copied.... What we have done has not

been for ourselves but for the very least of these. It has been

not for our fading today but for the dawning tomorrow. We have

gone to our legislators with new ideas and have set a little

child in the midst of them, and they have not been unmindful of

the heavenly vision.

Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Denver, president of the State Federation

of Women's Clubs and county superintendent of schools, began her

address, A Message to Garcia, by referring to the noted pamphlet of

that title by Elbert Hubbard, "which," she said, "was translated into

fourteen languages and called out a response from the hearts of the

civilized world, because it set forth the duty and necessity of doing

a thing yourself if you want it well done," and she made the

application: "The women of Colorado have learned by experience the

advantage of a direct vote over direct influence." She then told in a

graphic manner the vast amount of good work the Federation of Clubs

had been able to do through the power of the ballot and said: "During

the last Legislature a department of the federation had to sit one day

each week to confer with the many members who wanted its endorsement

for their bills. Clubwomen in non-suffrage States do not have this

experience. It is because we can carry the message to Garcia

ourselves." "Mrs. Catt helped to win our mountain republic for

suffrage," Mrs. Bradford said in conclusion, "and we women of Colorado

pledge ourselves to Susan B. Anthony to work until death to help get

it in other States."

Mrs. Isabella Churchill of Greeley spoke from the standpoint of the

women outside the cities. "To the women in the small towns and country

districts," she said, "it is a privilege and a pleasure to go to the

polls on election day with the men of their family and vote for the

candidates and measures they have had time to consider with care. In

such places the question next day is not, 'Did the election go

Democratic or Republican?' but 'Was it license or no license?' or else

concerning some candidate or issue that they believe of importance to

their community." Mrs. Helen Belford, chairman of the Women's State

Democratic Committee, devoted her address largely to the development

of the young women through the use of the ballot and the study of

political questions. Mrs. Ina Thompson, chairman of the Republican

Women's State Committee, gave a very interesting account of the way

campaigns are conducted by women.

Mrs. Helen Loring Grenfell, as State Superintendent of Education,

spoke with high authority and by her dignified and beautiful presence

no less than by her ability made a deep impression on all who heard

her. She pointed out that Colorado came into the Union in 1876 with

School suffrage for women and through this they had always been able

to keep the schools on a non-partisan basis. She showed that it paid

more per capita for public schools than any other State, leaving even

New York and Massachusetts behind; described its advanced position

from kindergartens to training schools and colleges, with especial

care in guarding the welfare of children, and continued:

In the East we hear of "the question of coeducation." It is not a

question west of the Mississippi River, it never has been, it

never will be. The eastern arrangement seems to us merely a

curious survival of antiquated ideas, a kind of sex-consciousness

which we have lost sight of in our care for the human being....

The place of State Superintendent has always been held by a woman

since women became eligible. The first superintendent elected was

a Republican, the second a Democrat, each holding the place for

one term; the third, who is now serving her third term, was

nominated as a Silver Republican but has really been elected and

twice re-elected without regard to politics--an example of the

independence of the vote where school affairs are concerned.

There are 59 counties in Colorado and 33 of them, including most

of those with the largest population, have women county

superintendents....

I have found Colorado women much like their sisters elsewhere

save that they have a broader view of public affairs and they

take naturally a more active interest in the world's work. They

have learned to think and to say what they think simply and

freely in gatherings where men and women meet to discuss the

vital concerns of life. They have not forgotten that they are

women but they have come to know that they are also human beings,

and, like Terence, they find nothing that concerns humanity

foreign to them. Surely had we not been faithful in the smaller

things, we should not have had these large opportunities given to

us.... I can not help thinking that my sisters elsewhere have

lost something rare and precious from their lives through the

lack of that complete citizenship which has been bestowed upon

the women of Colorado, and I hope the day may be near when those

sisters may be made man's equal under the law of the land as they

have always been under the law of God.

The Hon. Isaac N. Stevens, a pronounced suffragist, who had the topic

After Ten Years, was detained elsewhere. The Hon. Alva Adams, who had

twice been Governor of the State, in his strong and comprehensive

speeches before the convention and the Judiciary Committee of the

House of Representatives, answered for all time the misrepresentations

in regard to woman suffrage in Colorado which for years had been

persistently made by the anti-suffragists, and he also answered

conclusively the many objections that had been conjured up. In the

convention he discussed it From the Colorado Point of View, beginning

as follows:

Colorado does not go into mourning when a girl is born. Equal

suffrage has not taken Colorado out of the Union. She stands an

example of what a sovereign State should be--a model to those

self-righteous States that preach equal rights in press, pulpit

and forum and deny it in the law. The statue of Justice that

crowns her city hall, court house and Capitol is not a lie. For

the Capitol in Washington and in 41 States of the Union the

figure of St. Paul would be more fitting than that of the Goddess

of Liberty. Unfettered by tradition and prejudice Colorado has

dared to do right. She has given to woman what Solomon gave to

Sheba--"whatsoever she asked"--and has no regrets and no desire

to recall the gift. After ten years of experience, equal suffrage

needs neither apology nor defense. No harm has come to either

woman, man or the State. Justice never harmed any one. If

Colorado women were not angels before, the ballot has brought no

wings. Suffrage has not elevated them, it has simply placed them

where they belonged but it has raised the men who have dared to

be just. Woman has not yet conquered iniquity nor has it

conquered her. Suffrage is not a revolution, it is but a step and

not the end of the journey....

If women have not overthrown the entrenched political machines

the failure is due to the so-called respectable Christian men.

The women are ready but the men are chained to partisanship....

No single disaster, no backward step in politics or family morals

can be charged to woman suffrage. It has added nothing to the

business of the divorce court, no family has been disrupted, no

children neglected; but the prayers of hundreds of homeless

children and orphans have invoked a benediction upon the voting

women for the home and education that their influence has induced

the State to provide. Suffrage has sent no girl astray but it has

gathered many wanderers and turned their feet into paths of

safety and built for them a model State home. Through the age of

consent law many a seducer has ended his career in jail. The most

efficient members of the State Board of Charities and Correction

are women and this is true of other boards. Their influence has

sent rays of light and hope into darkened cells and established

reforms in asylums and prisons.

In answer to the continued charges that the people of the State would

like to repeal the law he said: "I have too high a regard, too sincere

a faith in Colorado manhood to believe that any of the men who

voluntarily conferred the ballot upon their wives, sisters and mothers

would now repeal that just act. Common sense refutes the statement

regarding women themselves. Not 75 per cent., not 10 per cent., not 1

per cent. would today vote to relinquish that which belongs to them.

It is not an American trait to give up rights.... I challenge any one

to find 100 intelligent women in Colorado who will voluntarily request

that the word 'male' be restored in the constitution and statutes of

the State. Many women may not go to the polls but the man who would

try to take away their right to do so would need a bombproof conning

tower. There will be no repeal, it stands for all time. There never

will be less than four woman suffrage States--there should be

forty-five.... Since 1876 school affairs have practically been in the

hands of women. They have voted at school elections, held the office

of superintendent in a majority of the counties and taught most of the

schools. In these twenty-eight years neither politics nor scandals

have impaired our public school system and in efficiency we challenge

comparison with any State in the Union. What the women have done for

our schools they can do for our civic government. They have introduced

conscience into educational affairs and they will do the same in city

and State. That is the fear of those who make politics a

profession...."

Henry B. Blackwell was introduced and spoke briefly of having gone to

Colorado in 1876 to assist in getting full suffrage for women into the

constitution for statehood, but it was left for the voters to decide.

Mrs. Catt closed the meeting with references to the successful

campaign of 1893, seventeen years later.

A resolution presented by Mrs. Mead was adopted urging Congress to

take the initial steps toward inviting the governments of the world to

establish an International Advisory Congress, and impressing upon

equal suffragists that they should create local public sentiment in

favor of arbitration treaties between the United States and all

countries with which it has diplomatic relations. On motion of Mrs.

Grenfell the convention endorsed the bill before Congress for a

national board of child and animal protection. It rejoiced in the

voting of 850,000 women in Australia and in the fact that woman

suffrage existed throughout 300,000 square miles of United States

territory and eight Senators and nine Representatives were sent to

Congress by votes of both men and women. Mrs. Mary Church Terrell (D.

C.), a highly educated woman, showing little trace of negro blood,

said: "A resolution asks you to stand up for children and animals; I

want you to stand up not only for children and animals but also for

negroes. You will never get suffrage until the sense of justice has

been so developed in men that they will give fair play to the colored

race. Much has been said about the purchasability of the negro vote.

They never sold their votes till they found that it made no difference

how they cast them. Then, being poor and ignorant and human, they

began to sell them, but soon after the Civil War I knew many efforts

to tempt them to do so which were not successful. My sisters of the

dominant race, stand up not only for the oppressed sex but also for

the oppressed race!"

Resolutions of regret were adopted for the death of many pioneer

suffragists during the year, among them Sarah Knox Goodrich of

California; Sarah Burger Stearns of Minnesota; Judge J. W. Kingman of

Iowa; Ellen Sully Fray of Ohio; Eliza Sproat Turner and Samuel Pennock

of Pennsylvania; Henrietta L. T. Wolcott, Lavina A. Hatch, Alice

Gordon Gulick, Richard P. Hallowell and the Hon. Henry S. Washburn of

Massachusetts. Telegrams of remembrance were sent to the veteran

workers, Mrs. Martha S. Root of Michigan and Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick

of Louisiana, and a letter to Mrs. Ellen Powell Thompson of the

District. Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey of Kentucky, author of Republics

vs. Women, was introduced to the convention and showed how republics

disfranchised half of their citizens.

The Declaration of Principles, prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, Miss

Blackwell and Mrs. Harper remained a permanent platform of the

association.

Dr. Shaw made the delegates smile at one morning session after they

had sung "America" by moving that hereafter the line, "Our Father's

God to Thee," should be printed on their program, "Our Father, God, to

Thee." She said the preachers and poets had a habit of talking so

exclusively about "the God of our fathers" that there was danger of

forgetting that our mothers had any God! Mrs. Mary Wood Swift

(Calif.), its president, brought the greetings of the National Council

of Women. The report from the Friends Equal Rights Association, an

affiliated society, was made by Mrs. Anne W. Janney (Md). Fraternal

greetings were given by Mrs. Olive Pond Amies for the Pennsylvania W.

C. T. U.; by Mrs. Arabella Carter (Penn.) for the Universal Peace

Union, and by Mrs. Emma S. Olds (O.) for the Ladies of the Maccabees

of the World. Mrs. Catt warmly complimented this last organization for

its fine business principles and the high character of its leaders.

The association appointed as its legal adviser Mrs. Catharine Waugh

McCulloch, a prominent lawyer of Chicago, for years the superintendent

of legislative work for the Illinois Suffrage Association and part of

the time its president. It is needless to say that it was not a

salaried position. One morning Mrs. Catt called the "pioneers" to the

platform and presented them to the convention, among them Miss Mary S.

Anthony, who had attended the first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848,

of whom her sister always said: "She has looked after the home and

made it possible for me to do my work."

Miss Emily Howland of Sherwood, N. Y., one of the early Abolitionists,

said in her few words of reminiscence: "I remember Lucy Stone holding

a series of meetings through New York State in my youth. My uncle came

home and reported that a young woman was lecturing and putting up her

own posters; that she was very bright and he was not sure but that she

was right and what she advocated would have to come. As I think of

those three great leaders, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and

Susan B. Anthony, I know what heroism is.... We women did not fully

realize at first that militarism was our greatest foe. We are always

told that women must not vote because they can not fight. I believe

they could--I see many women who have more fight in them than many

men.... Our cause came straight from the anti-slavery cause. All its

early advocates were also advocates of freeing the despised race in

bondage. Let us not forget them now. Neither a nation nor an

individual can be really free till all are free."

It had been known for some months that Mrs. Catt would not accept a

re-election to the presidency. For the past nine years she had given

her entire time to work for woman suffrage, speaking in many States,

attending conventions, serving as chairman of the Committee on

Organization for five years and as president for four years. During

this time she had had charge of the national headquarters and under

the combined strain found her health breaking. The first measure of

relief was the removal of the national headquarters to Warren, Ohio,

in May, 1904, where Mrs. Upton took it in charge, but this was not

sufficient and she announced her determination to retire from the

presidency, much to the regret of the association. The delegates

naturally turned to Dr. Shaw and urged the presidency upon her but she

was most reluctant to accept. It was an unsalaried position; she was

entirely dependent on her lectures and she felt that in the field she

could best serve the cause but she finally yielded to Miss Anthony's

earnest entreaties. She was almost unanimously elected and Mrs. Catt

consented to remain in official position as vice-president-at-large.

The convention adopted the following resolution: "We tender to our

retiring president our hearty thanks for her years of faithful and

efficient labor in behalf of our cause and for her self-sacrificing

devotion to its interests. We congratulate ourselves that we shall

continue to have her wise counsel and cooperation and we express our

earnest hope for her health and prosperity." No other change was made

except that Mrs. Coggeshall retired as second auditor and Dr. Cora

Smith Eaton again became a member of the board.

The _Evening Star_ had this description: "As the afternoon session was

about closing Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, retiring national president,

who has endeared herself to all by her gracious courtesy, her firm yet

gentle sway, presented to the convention its choice for her successor.

Miss Shaw was not as clear-eyed as usual when she faced the cheering

audience and her voice trembled and choked a little as she declared

she had accepted the office only to give Mrs. Catt a rest. As the

convention continued to applaud she said, trying to smile: 'Don't do

that or I shall surely cry!' The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw is probably the

first woman distinguished by having taken both theological and medical

degrees. She won her way into and through college by teaching and paid

for her theological training by preaching on Sundays.... After filling

one parish for seven years she found her widest opportunities in the

broad parish of the lecture field and is one of the ablest speakers on

the public platform."

Detroit sent an invitation for the next convention and Mrs. Richard

Williams of Buffalo, N. Y., presented one from that city with a

guarantee from the State Suffrage Association of $1,000 toward the

expenses. While these were appreciated the invitation from Portland,

Ore., was the choice. It was presented by Dr. Annice Jeffreys for the

association and by the Hon. Jefferson Myers in behalf of the Lewis and

Clark Exposition to be held in 1905, which the convention gave a

hearty endorsement.

The last evening found the large armory filled to the doors. Mrs.

Evelyn H. Belden (Ia.) made a delightful address on The Main Line,

which thoroughly disproved the assertion that women have no sense of

humor, as the audience testified by frequent laughter and applause.

Mrs. L. Annis Pound (Mich.) discussed the Problem of the Individual.

"A woman's value to society," she said, "will increase in direct ratio

as her value as an individual increases. Woman as the potential mother

of the race owes it to posterity to develop the noblest, strongest

type of individualism. She must be first a human being, a personality,

a member of society." Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, president of the National

Women's Republican Association, who had made political speeches from

ocean to ocean, told in a most entertaining manner of Campaigning in

Free States and paid a glowing tribute to the beneficial effects of

woman suffrage in the States where it existed.

Towards the end of the evening Mrs. Catt presented Miss Anthony and as

she came forward she brought Miss Barton with her and the audience

rose in heartfelt recognition of the two great leaders. "It seemed

unable quite fully to express its pleasure," said the _Evening Star_,

"and applauded again and again, as Miss Barton bowed and Miss Anthony

looked smilingly and benignly out over the enthusiastic crowds." She

expressed in words of affection and esteem her pleasure in appearing

on that platform with one who had stood by her from the beginning of

her work and Miss Barton responded in the same strain, giving then as

always her adherence to Miss Anthony and the cause of woman suffrage.

A national suffrage convention never seemed to be properly ended

unless Dr. Shaw made a speech at the close and for this one she chose

the subject, Woman without a Country, and with her matchless eloquence

described the position of women under the flag of a Government in

which they had no voice. Mrs. Catt spoke the president's inspiring

farewell words and the convention adjourned to meet next time in the

far northwest.

* * * * *

The usual hearings were granted by the Senate and House Committees on

February 16 at 10:30 a.m. Miss Anthony presided at the Senate hearing

and the speakers in the Marble Room were Mrs. Watson Lister,

Australia; Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, England; Dr. Anna Howard Shaw

and Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, Pennsylvania; Miss Laura A. Gregg,

Nebraska; Miss Harriet May Mills, Miss Emily Howland, Mrs. Maud

Nathan, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, New

York. In introducing Mrs. Gilman Miss Anthony said quaintly: "This is

one of the Beecher tribe," referring to her relationship, and she said

of Dr. Shaw, the last speaker, "She will wind us up!" In telling of

the first congressional hearing on woman suffrage ever granted--in

1869--she said: "Of all those who spoke here then I am the only one

living today and I shall not be able to come much longer." Her words

were prophetic, as this was the last hearing she ever attended.

Each speaker considered the question from a different standpoint: Miss

Mills showed that the high schools everywhere were graduating more

girls than boys and women were increasing in the colleges at a higher

ratio than men and said: "If only you would fix an educational

qualification for the franchise we might hope to attain it." Mrs.

Swift described the great campaign that had been made by California

women for the suffrage in 1896 and yet they could not now even vote

for school officers and she told of the unjust laws for women. Mrs.

Boyer spoke for the millions of women wage-earners and declared that

the present form of government was a sex-aristocracy. Mrs. Gilman said

that to have intelligent men there must be educated mothers and that

America could be made greater but not out of little people. Mrs.

Harper reviewed the Senate hearings of the past, the favorable and

unfavorable reports and the many times when no reports were made and

said: "We represent no vested interests, no constituency: we cannot

help or harm you politically; we can only appeal to you in the name of

abstract justice."

Mrs. Blatch, American by birth, told of the feelings of women arriving

in this country by steamer and seeing the men land from the steerage

who would soon have the right of suffrage which was denied to women

born in the United States. Mrs. Watson Lister was introduced as

representing over 800,000 women voters in Australia and said in part:

"It seems very odd to me to come to America to speak on

self-government. In Australia woman suffrage is not an experiment but

a long experience and one effect has been to disprove all the things

that were said against it." Dr. Shaw spoke of the hardships women had

endured to make this country what it is and of the injustice of

denying them any voice in its government.

Miss Anthony closed by saying that she had appealed to committees of

seventeen Congresses and she urged that this one would make a

favorable report. Senator Mitchell of Oregon responded: "I introduced

this resolution for woman suffrage. I am earnestly in favor of

it--have been for many years--and if I live you will get a report. I

have been more instructed and interested by the magnificent speeches I

have heard today than by any in the Senate of the United States during

the twenty-one years I have attended it." Others expressed themselves

in the same strain. Senator Mitchell's own personal affairs, however,

soon became much involved and no report was made.

* * * * *

Mrs. Catt conducted the hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the

House. Its chairman, Representative John J. Jenkins of Wisconsin, who

was presiding, made no secret of his hostility to woman suffrage but

some members of the committee were favorable. Colorado had been the

storm center of attack and defense for many years while Denver was the

only city of considerable size where women could vote. In opening the

hearing Mrs. Catt said: "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee:

Last year when we appeared before the committee to speak in behalf of

the bill asking the submission of the 16th Amendment we called

attention to the fact that Congress had appointed a great many

commissions for investigation of the conditions, political and

otherwise, of various classes of people, and inasmuch as we have come

here year after year claiming that woman suffrage had wrought none of

the ills which its enemies said it would and that it had brought many

benefits, we asked that Congress, through a commission, should

investigate it in the western States. You are aware that no such

commission resulted from our petition. When Mahomet commanded the

mountain to come to him and the mountain did not come he said: 'Then

Mahomet will go to the mountain.' We have therefore this year brought

Colorado to you and the speakers who will address you this morning are

all from that State."

The speeches largely followed the lines of those given before the

convention. Mrs. Katherine Cook showed the relation between the

women's vote and the home and family welfare. Mrs. Ellis Meredith,

introduced as on the editorial staff of the _Rocky Mountain News_ of

Denver, gave a summary of the excellent legislation that had been

effected since women began voting in 1894 and said: "I have read a

compilation of the laws in regard to the protection of children in

every State and I know that in no other have they such ample

protection and in no other are the laws so well enforced. This is

partly due to the fact that our Humane Society is a State institution

and has the free voluntary services of six hundred men and women

acting as agents over this big State of 104,000 square miles."

Answering questions she said: "In my district, one of the best, 571

women registered and 570 voted. There are as many men as women in the

district but only 235 voted. Men form 55 per cent. of our population

and women 45. Women cast over 43 per cent. of the total vote."

Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, president of the State Federation of Women's

Clubs, extended the account of the remarkable work it had accomplished

as described to the convention, a success, she said, due to the fact

that it represented a large body of well-informed voters. She

ridiculed the danger at the polling places. "Who are the evil

creatures we are supposed to meet there on election day? We vote in

the precinct in which we live and we meet our husbands, our brothers,

our sons.... In Colorado the environment in which the supreme right of

citizenship is performed has been improved to harmonize with the

improved character of the constituency."

Mrs. Helen Loring Grenfell was introduced by Mrs. Catt as "the State

Superintendent of Public Instruction now serving her third term, the

only successful candidate on her ticket at the last election." She

began by saying: "Gentlemen, this is a very peculiar position for a

Colorado woman. It seems just as strange to me as it would be to my

husband to be coming here before a body of women and saying: 'We men

ask from you equal rights under the Constitution of the United

States.'" After showing the interest felt in elections by women she

said: "I have been an office-holder, which has involved running for

office, and I think it is right for me to tell you a little of my

experiences. My campaigns have taken me through almost every county in

Colorado, the farming counties, the roughest mining communities, and

let me say to you that if there could be any more chivalry in the

States where you think it would be unchivalrous to let your women

vote, I would like to see it. I have met with the greatest courtesy

from men all over the State. I have been treated just as kindly, just

as politely by the men when I appeared as a political candidate as by

the men with whom I am associated in my school work, in my home and

society life. We have come to the time when we must feel that the word

chivalry belongs to the past. It is connected with a period when

woman's position before the law and in her home was far from a

desirable one; and so I believe you will not misunderstand me when I

say that if you will give us justice we feel that it will mean a great

deal more than chivalry ever did."

There had just been an exposition of fraud at the recent Congressional

election where Representative John F. Shafroth had been re-elected and

he at once resigned the office in order to disclaim all connection

with it. Nearly every speaker was interrogated about it by members of

the committee. Mrs. Grenfell answered, as did all of them: "The frauds

upon which this election was decided were committed in the city of

Denver alone and in the worst precincts in the city. We will admit

that they were committed. Is that a reason for considering that woman

suffrage is a mistake? I have heard reports from the cities of

Philadelphia and New York by which, if I should judge male suffrage,

I should say it was an utter failure in the States of Pennsylvania and

New York. We have tens of thousands of women voters in Colorado. We

have indictments out against many dishonest voters and with the utmost

searching they have found one woman who is charged with 'repeating' in

the election. Our State penitentiary has five women prisoners today

and 600 men. That surely cannot be used as an argument for woman

suffrage having injured the women, whatever it may have done to the

men."[34]

The committee were particularly interested in the speech of former

Governor Alva Adams, which gave much information on the voting of

women and called out many questions from the committee. Representative

Littlefield of Maine inquired: "What do you say, Governor, about Miss

McCracken's article in the _Outlook_?" and he answered: "I call it

infamous, to use the proper term. It was an absolute falsehood. It was

based upon no facts, because no decent women in Colorado would make

the statements that she quotes. She may have found one woman who would

say that they were using philanthropy and charity for political

purposes but to admit that the women of the State would do a thing of

that kind--would so debase themselves--would be an impeachment of the

decency and honesty of womankind everywhere. I am not prepared to make

that admission and the citizens of Colorado cannot make it. There are

100,000 honest women in the State who are voters and there are not

100 who will subscribe to the sentiments she gave voice to."[35]

Mrs. Catt closed the hearing with an earnest appeal for action, saying

in part:

When the constitution of Colorado was first made in 1876 a

provision was placed in it that at any time the Legislature might

enfranchise the women by a referendum of a law to the voters.

That was done in 1893 and it was passed by 6,000 majority. Last

year an amendment to the constitution was submitted to the

electors, now both men and women, concerning the qualifications

for the vote and in it there was included, of course, the

recognition of the enfranchisement of women quite as much as that

of men, so that it was virtually a woman suffrage amendment. It

received a majority of 35,000, showing certainly that after ten

years of experience the people were willing to put woman suffrage

in the constitution, where it became an integral part of it and

permanent.

When the American constitution was formulated it was the first of

its kind and this was the first republic of its kind. Man

suffrage was an experiment and it was considered universally a

very doubtful one. We find overwhelming evidence that the

thinkers of the world feared that if this republic should fail to

live it would come to its end through the instability of the

minds of men and that revolutionary thought would arise to

overturn the Government. We find it in George Washington and

Benjamin Franklin and all of our statesmen as well as those who

were watching the experiment here so anxiously from across the

sea. What was the result? The result was they made a constitution

just as ironclad as they could, so as to prevent its amendment.

They made it as difficult for the fundamental law of the nation

to be changed as they knew how to do.... Those of us who wish to

enter the political life, who believe that we have quite as good

a right to express ourselves there as any man--what is our

position? Within the last century there has been extension after

extension of the suffrage, and every one has put suffrage for

women further off....

Do you not see that while in this country there are millions of

people who believe in the enfranchisement of women, while there

is more sentiment for it than in any other, yet we are restricted

by this stone wall of constitutional limitations which was set at

a time when a republican form of government was totally untried?

Because of this we find ourselves distanced by monarchies and the

women enfranchised in other lands are coming to us to express

their pity and sympathy.... So I ask that you will this time make

a report to the House of Representatives and if you do not

believe that we are right, for Heaven's sake make an adverse

report. Anything will be more satisfactory than the indifference

with which we have been treated for many years. Do at least

recognize that we have a cause, that there are women here whose

hearts are aching because they see great movements to which they

desire to give their help and yet they are chained down to work

for the power that is not yet within their hands.... If you, Mr.

Chairman, feel that you can not offer a favorable report because

the majority of the committee is not favorable, then I beg of

you, in behalf of the women of the United States, to show where

you stand and to give an adverse report.

The Senate Committee presented the National Association with 10,000

and the House Committee with 15,000 copies of these hearings, which

they could use as a part of their propaganda literature. There was

not, however, enough political influence back of the appeals for the

submission of the Federal Amendment for woman suffrage to compel the

committees to make reports which would bring the subject before

Congress.

FOOTNOTES:

[29] Part of Call: In our own country the advocates of our cause know

no discouragement or disappointment. The seed planted by the pioneers

of the woman's rights movement is continuously bearing fruit in the

educational, industrial and social opportunities for the women of

today; these in turn presage the full harvest--political

enfranchisement. Under the stimulus of an educated intelligence and

awakened self-respect women daily grow more unwilling that their

opinions in government, the fundamental source of civilization, should

continue to be uncounted with those of the defective and criminal

classes of men.

In the industrial world organized labor is recognizing in the

underpaid services of women an enemy to economic prosperity and is

making common cause with woman's demand for the ballot with which to

protect her right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, avowed to

be inalienably hers by the Declaration of Independence. Time,

agitation, education and organization cannot fail to ripen these many

influences into a general belief in true democratic government of the

people, without distinctions in regard to sex.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President.

CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, President.

ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-President.

KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.

HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.

LAURA CLAY, } Auditors.

MARY J. COGGESHALL,}

[30] A ticket was sent with the invitation which took her carriage to

the private entrance and enabled her to avoid the crowd. She was

constantly surrounded by distinguished people and Miss Alice Roosevelt

left a party of friends, saying, "I must speak to Miss Anthony, she is

my father's special guest." The next day she told the convention in

her inimitable way that when she was presented to Mr. Roosevelt she

said: "Now, Mr. President, we don't intend to trouble you during the

campaign but after you are elected, then look out for us!"

[31] Clergymen who opened the various meetings with prayer were Dr.

Edward Everett Hale, chaplain of the U. S. Senate; the Rev. J. L.

Coudon, chaplain of the House of Representatives; the Reverends A. D.

Mayo, D.D.; S. M. Newman, D.D., of the First Congregational Church; U.

G. B. Pierce, All Souls Unitarian Church; John Van Schiack, Jr.,

Universalist Church; Alexander Kent, People's Church; the women

ministers at the convention, Anna Howard Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer,

Mary A. Safford, Marie Jenney Howe, and laywomen Laura Clay, Lucy

Hobart Day, Mrs. Clinton Smith, president District W. C. T. U. The

congregational singing was arranged and led by Miss Etta V. Maddox of

Baltimore and the evening musical programs were in charge of Herndon

Morsell and his pupils.

[32] The Washington _Post_ of that date contained an amusing little

incident. Miss Anthony came into the morning session while Mrs. Upton

was raising the money and the audience rose to their feet waving their

handkerchiefs. She was about to sit down on the front seat when Mrs.

Upton insisted she should come to the platform. "Must I do that?" she

said sotto voce. "I have on my travelling dress." "How we do put on

airs as we grow older," said Mrs. Upton jokingly, assisting her to the

platform. The applause continuing Miss Anthony smiled, reached out her

hand with a deprecating gesture and said: "There now, girls, that's

enough."

[33] The Washington _Times_ said: "Mrs. Upton is one of the most

popular women in the suffrage movement and her energy is a matter of

many years' history. If financial support is to be obtained from

States, societies or individuals there is no one more capable of

extracting generous subscriptions...." The _Star_ said: "Mrs. Upton

has served as treasurer many years. She is energetic, zealous,

tactful, possesses a remarkable insight of human nature and is greatly

admired. She is president of the Ohio Suffrage Association and member

of the Warren board of education. Before she became so engrossed in

suffrage she did a great deal of literary work. Her father, Ezra B.

Taylor, succeeded Garfield in Congress and she was with him during his

thirteen years in office. Miss Anthony always relied on him for advice

and assistance."

[34] There was a large amount of unimpeachable testimony that the

women had no part in these election frauds. Mr. Shafroth himself said:

"The frauds were committed in a bad part of Denver where few women

live. To represent them as characteristic of women's election methods

in Colorado is an outrage." A prominent Denver lawyer, who was then in

Washington, was interviewed on the subject and said: "That 'Exhibit

64' (relating to the alleged frauds by women) was not competent

evidence and would have been thrown out by any court. The woman who

accused herself and other women of cheating did not stay to be

cross-examined; she simply made her affidavit and 'skipped out.'

Everything tends to the belief that she was in the employ of the

opposite party."

The president of the League for Honest Elections in Denver, when

stating that about thirty arrests had been made in connection with the

frauds, said: "Of those arrested and bound over, only one is a woman.

We believe that she is the least guilty of all and whatever connection

she had with the election in her precinct was as the passive

instrument of the men in charge of the fraudulent work at that place.

Of the persons for whom warrants have been issued but not yet served,

only one is a woman. She was a clerk in one of the lower precincts and

we understand has left the city. I may say, as a result of my own

experience in connection with this League, I find that women have

practically nothing to do with fraudulent work."

[35] A Miss Elizabeth McCracken had been sent to Colorado by the

_Outlook_ to prepare an article on woman suffrage, which it published.

The statements in it were universally repudiated by the press and the

people of that State. Mrs. Grenfell said of it at this convention: "It

is as absurd to refute her assertions as to reply to Baron Munchausen

or to insist that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland never happened.

Such conditions as she describes do not exist in Colorado."

CHAPTER V.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1905.

Until 1905 the national suffrage conventions had never been held

further west than Des Moines, Ia. (1897), but this year the innovation

was made of going to the Pacific Coast for the Thirty-seventh annual

meeting, June 28-July 5,[36] at the invitation of the managers of the

Lewis and Clark Exposition held in Portland, Ore. It was a delightful

experience from the beginning, as the delegates from the East and

Middle West met in Chicago and had three special cars from there. The

Chicago Woman's Club gave a large reception in the afternoon of June

23 for Miss Anthony, the officers and delegates. They took the train

that night; Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt joined them in Iowa and others

along the way, as it sped westward. The newspapers had given it wide

publicity and they were greeted by suffragists at many places. The

Political Equality Club of Boone, Ia., brought large bouquets for Miss

Anthony, Dr. Shaw and Mrs. Catt, who made brief speeches from the rear

platform. The colored porter listened attentively and said: "Well,

that settles me; I am for woman suffrage," and afterwards diligently

circulated copies of the _Woman's Journal_ on the train. Another

ovation awaited them at Council Bluffs. The train waited half an hour

at Omaha and the women of the Political Equality Club, the W. C. T. U.

and the Woman's Club united in a demonstration. A platform had been

improvised and their presidents expressed a welcome to which responses

were made by Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, the Rev. Antoinette

Brown Blackwell, Miss Laura Clay and Mr. and Miss Blackwell, editors

of the _Woman's Journal_, while reporters were busy getting

interviews. They returned to the train laden with flowers, which they

distributed, sending buttonhole bouquets to the engineer, fireman and

all the crew.

The train was delayed two hours at Cheyenne and former U. S. Senator

Joseph M. Carey and his wife, staunch suffragists and old friends of

Miss Anthony, took her for a drive while the officers and delegates

walked about the pleasant little city and went to see the handsome

State House. Miss Blackwell wrote of the occasion: "Everything in

Wyoming was surrounded by a sort of halo. The sky seemed of a more

vivid blue, the grass of a brighter emerald than in the States where

women do not enjoy equal rights. The leaves of the many cottonwood

trees twinkled pleasantly in the clear sunlight, the air was fresh and

bracing and the snow mountains looked down upon the city like a

visible realization of ideals." The presence of the visitors soon

became known and an impromptu reception was held in the large waiting

room of the station, which was beautified by potted ferns and palms.

Sunday services were held on the train and during the week days

business meetings in the stateroom of Miss Anthony and Dr. Shaw. As

the journey neared the end the porter confided to Lucy E. Anthony, the

railroad secretary, who arranged the trip: "I ain't never travelled

with such a bunch of women before--they don't fuss with me and they

don't scrap with each other!" Monday morning they entered the

magnificent scenery along the Columbia River and at The Dalles were

met by Mrs. Duniway and a party of friends. By noon they had reached

the City of Roses and were comfortably settled in the Portland Hotel

and the hospitable homes of the city.

The convention, held in the First Congregational Church, was planned

for a very full program of ten days instead of the usual week.

Notwithstanding the Exposition was in progress and conventions were a

matter of daily occurrence, none of the national suffrage conventions

ever had fuller or more satisfactory reports. _Journal_, _Telegram_

and _Oregonian_ vied with each other and the Associated Press sent out

whatever was requested of it. _The Oregonian_ said of the first

executive session: "Room 618 in the Portland Hotel was the scene of a

notable gathering yesterday afternoon. Lawyers, doctors, ministers of

the gospel, lecturers of renown and expert auditors were in close

conference, mapping out a plan of campaign by which they will fight

for their rights in this land of the free and home of the brave. That

they have not had the rights accorded by the Declaration of

Independence to all American citizens they attribute to the fact that

they are women and it is to convince unseeing mankind that women who

are intelligent enough to obey laws are capable of helping frame them,

that the most profound and representative women of the country are

gathered here in the interests of equal suffrage." Miss Blackwell

presented this interesting picture in her letter to the _Woman's

Journal_.

The convention has opened magnificently, with glorious sunshine,

great audiences, full and friendly press reports and the

suffragists of the Pacific Coast outdoing themselves in cordial

hospitality. The beautiful city of Portland is so full of flowers

at this season that the whole city might be thought to have

decorated in honor of the coming of the national convention. As

the yellow-ribboned delegates go through the streets they

constantly utter exclamations of delight over the enormous roses,

the curtains of dark blue clematis draping the verandas, the

luxuriant masses of ivy and the majestic trees rising above the

velvet lawns and casting their shade upon the many handsome

residences.... Hospitable Oregonians send in presents to the

officers of huge red and yellow apples and baskets of mammoth

cherries nestling in their green leaves....

The large gray stone church has its auditorium hung with American

flags and bunting of the suffrage color; portraits of Lucy Stone

and Susan B. Anthony stand back of the pulpit and along its front

runs the word "progress" in large letters made of flowers.... A

splendid bouquet of white lilies has just been sent to the

convention as a greeting from the Oregon State Federation of

Women's Clubs and another of rich red roses from the Portland

Woman's Club, and the platform is imbedded in carnations from

local florists. All sorts of organizations seem to vie with each

other in welcoming their happy guests.

The convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. Elwin L. House,

pastor of the church. The president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was in the

chair and greetings were given from the Oregon Suffrage Association by

its president, Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe; the National Council of Women by

the president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift (Calif.), who called attention to

the fact that it was organized by suffragists; the National Woman's

Christian Temperance Union by Mrs. Lucia Faxon Additon; the National

Grange by Mrs. Clara H. Waldo, who said: "The basic principle of the

Grange is equal rights for men and women and it practices what it

preaches, all the offices being open to women." Greetings from the

National Federation of Labor were offered by Mrs. F. Ross; the Ladies

of the Maccabees by Mrs. Nellie H. Lambson; the Federation of Women's

Clubs by Mrs. Sarah A. Evans; the Forestry Association by Mrs. Arthur

H. Breyman; the Women's Henry George League by Dr. Mary H. Thompson,

the pioneer woman physician of Oregon. The National Conference of

Charities and Corrections, then in session in Portland, sent greetings

by Mrs. Lillie R. Trumbull, who said: "If woman suffrage means

anything it means the protection of children, therefore we march under

the same banner."

Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway, the pioneer suffragist of the northwest,

presented to Dr. Shaw a gavel from the Oregon Historical Society with

a letter from its secretary, Dr. George H. Himes, describing the six

kinds of wood out of which it was made, each of important historical

value. It was accepted with thanks and used by her to preside over the

convention. A Centennial Ode, composed by Mrs. Duniway, was finely

read by Mrs. Sylvia W. McGuire. The response to all these greetings

was made by Miss Anthony, of whom the _Oregonian_ said: "The

appearance of Susan B. Anthony was the signal for a wild ovation. The

large audience rose to its feet and cheered the pioneer who has done

so much for the cause of equal suffrage and who is still the life of a

great work. At the close of the session men and women rushed forward,

eager to clasp her hand and pay homage to her. There are many famous

delegates present at this convention, women whose names are known in

every civilized nation on the globe, but none shines with the luster

which surrounds Miss Anthony." She began by recalling her visit in

1871, when Mrs. Duniway and she made a speaking tour of six weeks in

the State; the long stage rides over the corduroy roads, the prejudice

encountered but personal friendliness and large audiences everywhere,

and continued:

I am delighted to see and hear in this church today the women

representatives of so many organizations and it is in a measure

compensation for the half-century of toil which it has been my

duty and privilege to give to this our common cause. The sessions

of this convention will be treated by the press of America

exactly as it would treat any national gathering which was

representative in character and had an object worthy of serious

attention. The time of universal scorn for woman suffrage has

passed and today we have strong and courageous champions among

that sex the members of which fifty years ago regarded our

proposals as part of an iconoclasm which threatened the very

foundation of the social fabric.... Elizabeth Cady Stanton and I

made our first fight for recognition of the right of women to

speak in public and have organizations among themselves. You who

are younger cannot realize the intensity of the opposition we

encountered. To maintain our position we were compelled to attack

and defy the deep-seated and ingrained prejudices bred into the

very natures of men, and to some of them we were actually

committing a sin against God and violating His laws. Gradually,

however, the opposition has weakened until today we meet far less

hostility to equal suffrage itself than then was manifested

toward giving women the right of speaking in public and

organizing for mutual advantage.

The opening exercises closed with an address by the Rev. Thomas L.

Eliot, a Unitarian minister, who with his wife had encouraged Miss

Anthony during that visit of 1871. He said his mother's great-aunt,

Abigail Adams, had probably uttered the first declaration for woman

suffrage on American soil, and paid a warm tribute to Mrs. Duniway's

long and earnest labors for this cause as he had seen them during his

thirty-seven years in Oregon.

At the insistence of Dr. Shaw Miss Anthony presided at the first

evening session. It was said that she had wielded the gavel at more

conventions than any other woman and she had presided over national

suffrage conventions for nearly forty years, but this proved to be the

last at which she filled that honored position. A press report said:

"Her voice is more vigorous than that of many a woman half her age and

she speaks with fluency and ease." The _Oregonian_ thus described her

appearance on this occasion: "A rare picture she made in the

high-backed oaken chair, her snowy hair puffed over her ears in

old-time fashion and the collar of rose point lace, which seems to

belong to dignified old age, forming a frame for her gentle but

determined face. When she rose to call the meeting to order she was

deluged with many beautiful floral tributes and drolly peering over

the heap of flowers she said: "Well, this is rather different from the

receptions I used to get fifty years ago. They threw things at me

then--but they were not roses--and there were not epithets enough in

Webster's Unabridged to fit my case. I am thankful for this change of

spirit which has come over the American people."

Governor George E. Chamberlain gave the welcome of the State,

declaring himself unequivocally and emphatically in favor of woman

suffrage and expressing the hope that Oregon was now ready to grant

it. T. C. Devlin extended the welcome of the city as proxy for the

Mayor, who addressed the convention later. The Hon. Jefferson Myers,

president of the State Commission for the Exposition, paid eloquent

tribute to Miss Anthony and her co-workers and said:

I hope that you may yet live to see many victories for the

principles which you have so nobly advocated in behalf of the

women of our land. These principles are not new to the American

people. There are many differences of opinion, but, after all the

argument for and against, it hardly seems possible that any one

who is entitled to the privilege which you request can afford to

deny that privilege to his mother. There is no question but that

the women of our land bear today as great, if not greater,

burdens in the affairs of a good and honorable government than

our men. The raising of the children, their education and

protection from the vices of the world, are cares that mothers

have which no man's responsibility equals....

You are today among a citizenship on this coast that is very

fair, broad-minded and ready to assist your cause whenever

convinced that it will be an advantage and a betterment to our

present government. If it is fairly placed before the voters of

this commonwealth with a reasonable argument in its favor, there

is no doubt in my mind of its success. We are the only State that

has adopted the broad principle of government which permits the

citizens of the commonwealth to prepare and vote its own

legislation, by its own people, without aid or consent of any

other power. I refer to the Initiative and Referendum.... I

sometimes doubt whether this great western country would ever

have had the Stars and Stripes without the influence of the

American mother. Therefore my sympathies are with you in your

cause and all others supported by the mothers of our government

for the liberties of themselves and families.

Mrs. Duniway spoke on The Pioneers of the Northwest as one of them,

introduced by Miss Anthony as "the woman with whom I went gipsying

thirty-four years ago," and the audience grew enthusiastic at the

sight of these two brave veterans, the one 85 and the other 71. The

press commented: "Mrs. Duniway's talk will be remembered as one of the

best of the session. She said she had been electrified by the

Governor's speech and her own fairly scintillated with the result of

the shock. Her anecdotes were capital and her reminiscences of the

cabbage and rotten-egg days convulsed the audience." Mrs. Catt,

vice-president-at-large, responded to the greetings and expressed the

pleasure of the delegates at being in "this most beautiful city of the

United States and of the world." She spoke in highest praise of the

free, independent spirit of the West, quoting the man who said: "Out

here we don't ask who your grandfather was but everybody stands on his

own hypothenuse!"

Dr. Shaw was so impressed with the responsibility of her new office

that for the first time she wrote her president's address and it was

published in twelve columns of the _Woman's Journal_. A Portland paper

thus prepared the audience: "The event of the evening will be the

address of the president, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. She is easily the

best and foremost woman speaker in the world and in her appearance

Portland will enjoy a rare treat. Her eloquence is seldom equalled and

she is a woman of deep learning, a cogent reasoner and a brilliant

thinker.... She has wonderful magnetism and a rare voice of round,

rich tones and great carrying capacity. An unusual combination of

dignity and wit is hers and many brilliant remarks intersperse the

numbers on the program, keeping the audience in fine humor and

constant interest." After a glowing word-picture of the natural beauty

of Portland and Oregon Dr. Shaw turned her attention to Sacajawea, the

young Indian woman who guided Lewis and Clark through thousands of

miles of trackless wilderness on their expedition to the great

northwest.

Others will speak of that brave band of immortals whose

achievements your great Exposition commemorates, while we pay our

tribute of honor and gratitude to the modest, unselfish, enduring

little Shoshone squaw, who uncomplainingly trailed, canoed,

climbed, slaved and starved with the men of the party, enduring

all that they endured, with the addition of a helpless baby on

her back. At a time in the weary march when the hearts of the

leaders had well nigh fainted within them, when success or

failure hung a mere chance in the balance, this woman came to

their deliverance and pointed out to the captain the great Pass

which led from the forks of the Three Rivers over the mountains.

Then silently strapping her papoose upon her back she led the

way, interpreting and making friendly overtures to powerful

tribes of Indians, who but for her might at any moment have

annihilated that brave band of intrepid souls.... The Pass

through which she led the expedition has long borne the name of a

French explorer who had not seen it until many years after

Sacajawea had been gathered to her rest, but tardy

acknowledgements of this heroine's services have at last been

partially made. The U. S. Geological Survey has recently named

one of the finest peaks in the Bridge range in Montana "Sacajawea

Peak." ...

Forerunner of civilization, great leader of men, patient and

motherly woman, we bow our hearts to do you honor! Your tribe is

fast disappearing from the land of your fathers. May we, the

daughters of an alien race who slew your people and usurped your

country, learn the lessons of calm endurance, of patient

persistence and unfaltering courage exemplified in your life, in

our efforts to lead men through the Pass of justice, which goes

over the mountains of prejudice and conservatism to the broad

land of the perfect freedom of a true republic; one in which men

and women together shall in perfect equality solve the problems

of a nation that knows no caste, no race, no sex in opportunity,

in responsibility or in justice! May "the eternal womanly" ever

lead us on!...

Referring to the convention and the delegates Dr. Shaw said:

What does our coming mean to us, who gather in this 37th annual

convention where sits the woman whose chair has never been

vacant in all these years of hope deferred; whose heart has

continually glowed with perennial youth; whose soul has burned

with a vivid flame of love and freedom; whose brain has been the

inspirer of herculean service; whose industry has never flagged;

whose quenchless hope for humanity has carried us from victory to

victory? May her spirit of devotion to freedom ever lead us on!

It means fifty-seven years nearer to victory than when the first

invincible band of pioneers of universal freedom met in that

little church in Seneca Falls, N. Y., in 1848. It means that in

this body are women from four States of our Union already crowned

with full citizenship; that delegates from more than two-score

States have crossed the borderland of freedom, and that

representatives from nearly every State and Territory are banded

together in an unfaltering purpose to become politically free. It

also means that more has been accomplished for the betterment of

the condition of women, for their physical, economic,

intellectual and religious emancipation, by these fifty-seven

years of evolutionary progress, than by all the revolutions the

world has known; and it means that in every civilized nation of

the earth, more and more the most patriotic, the most

law-abiding, the most intelligent and the most industrious people

are coming to see the justice of our claim, that in a

representative government "the people who bear the burdens and

responsibilities should share its privileges also--not excepting

women." ...

The recent attacks of Cardinal Gibbons and former President Cleveland,

who had protested against women taking part in the Government lest it

interfere with the home, she answered with keen analysis, saying in

part:

The great fear that the participation of women in public affairs

will impair the quality and character of home service is

irrational and contrary to the tests of experience. Does an

intelligent interest in the education of a child render a woman

less a mother? Does the housekeeping instinct of woman,

manifested in a desire for clean streets, pure water and

unadulterated food, destroy her efficiency as a home-maker? Does

a desire for an environment of moral and civic purity show

neglect of the highest good of the family? It is the "men must

fight and women must weep" theory of life which makes men fear

that the larger service of women will impair the high ideal of

home. The newer ideal that men must cease fighting and thus

remove one prolific cause for women's weeping, and that they

shall together build up a more perfect home and a more ideal

government, is infinitely more sane and desirable. Participation

in the larger and broader concerns of the State will increase

instead of decrease the efficiency of government and tend to

develop that self-control, that more perfect judgment which are

wanting in much of the home training of today.

A comprehensive review was made of the great events in the world's

history during the past year and the work of the National American

Suffrage Association was described. "Whatever others may say or do,"

she declared, "our association must not accept any compromises. We

must guard against the reactionary spirit which marks the present time

and stand unfalteringly for the principle of perfect equality of

rights and opportunities for all.... Never was there a time when

heroic service was more needed--not the spectacular heroism marching

with flying banners and weapons of destruction but the quiet, earnest

heroism of men and women standing steadfastly by that which seems

right and rigidly adhering in daily intercourse to that sterling

honesty of purpose which ennobles character and develops the best in a

nation's life." This inspiring address, all of which was on the same

high level as the portions quoted, thus concluded:

We are told that to assume that women will help purify political

life and develop a more ideal government but proves us to be

dreamers of dreams. Yes, we are in a goodly company of dreamers,

of Confucius, of Buddha, of Jesus, of the English Commons

fighting for the Magna Charta, of the Pilgrims, of the American

Revolutionists, of the Anti-slavery men and women. The seers and

leaders of all times have been dreamers. Every step of progress

the world has made is the crystallization of a dream into

reality. To look forward to a time when men shall be just, when

"fair play and a square deal for all" will include women, when

our republic shall in truth become what its dreamers have hoped

it would be, a government "of the people, by the people and for

the people,"--this _is_ a dream but it is a dream which we are

helping to make real, and the result will come not alone because

a vision has been revealed but by following it steadfastly to its

fruition. The idealists dream and the dream is told, and the

practical men listen and ponder and bring back the truth and

apply it to human life, and progress and growth and higher human

ideals come into being and so the world moves ever on.

During the several business sessions the following action was taken:

It was directed that a letter be sent to the President-elect, Theodore

Roosevelt, asking him to recommend the submission of a 16th Amendment

in his message to Congress; that as many organizations of women as

possible be secured to unite in urging him to do so, following the

methods employed by the Protest Committee (a committee appointed to

wait upon him to present this request); that the Banker, Starr,

Underwood and Green bequests amounting to $3,801 be appropriated for

campaign work in Oregon and the Territories. Miss Clay announced that

Miss Laura Bruce had bequeathed $5,000 to her in trust for the

National American Woman Suffrage Association.

The work conferences established by Mrs. Catt during her

administration were held with the following among the questions

discussed: Must we supplement our present form of organization to

achieve our "argument of numbers"? How can we best spread our ideas in

other organizations? The field in 1904 and 1905. Our request in 1904

for a plank in the national platforms. These conferences, which had

been a feature of the conventions for eight years, were dropped after

this one but many of the practical subjects formerly discussed in such

conferences were placed on the regular program. Mrs. Catharine Waugh

McCulloch presided at the conference on How can we nationalize our

request for a 16th Amendment? At its conclusion it was voted to refer

to the Business Committee the idea of asking the suffragists of the

four free States to instruct their Senators and Representatives in

Congress to move for the submission of a 16th Amendment. It was her

thought that all the State suffrage associations should send petitions

to their respective Congressmen asking for a 16th Amendment to the

National Constitution enfranchising women; that earnest efforts should

be made to have other organizations take similar action and every

means employed to bring the question before them.

The reports of the standing and special committees and those from the

various State presidents, which occupied the morning and afternoon

sessions, were excellent and valuable as usual. Miss Kate M. Gordon

(La.) in her corresponding secretary's report called attention to the

conspicuous triumph for woman suffrage when the great International

Council of Women, whose delegates represented practically the whole

civilized world, at its meeting in Berlin the preceding year

unanimously endorsed woman suffrage and appointed a standing committee

on Citizenship and Equal Rights, with Dr. Shaw as its chairman. She

read letters from the Governors of the four equal suffrage States

regretting their inability to be present for Woman's Day at the

Exposition and giving the strongest possible endorsement of the

practical working of woman suffrage.

The report of Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, headquarters secretary, of the

first year's work in its new home at Warren, O., was most interesting.

The letters sent out numbered 14,000 and included three during the

year to the president of every local club, giving information, plans

of work and encouragement. The bureau had over 1,200 individual

correspondents. Nearly 44,000 copies of _Progress_ went to newspapers,

public men, delegates to the political conventions and subscribers.

About 65,000 pieces of literature exclusive of _Progress_ were

distributed, going to every State and Territory, to Canada, England,

Holland and Australia. In addition thousands of booklets, political

equality leaflets and souvenirs of various kinds were sent forth as

propaganda. The report of Mrs. Catt, chairman of the Committee on

Literature, showed that it had provided 62,000 of these pieces and had

printed about 100,000 during the year. Miss Anthony had presented to

the association ten sets of the History of Woman Suffrage and eighty

copies of the new Volume IV to be sold, Miss Hauser said. Headquarters

were maintained at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. The

work inaugurated by Miss Anthony of securing resolutions for woman

suffrage from conventions of various kinds was successfully continued.

Fraternal delegates were sent to national conventions and the U. S.

National Council of Women had created a Committee on Political

Equality. Nineteen State organizations adopted resolutions endorsing

woman suffrage; fraternal delegates from suffrage associations were

sent to eighteen other State gatherings and the question was given a

hearing at six Territorial conventions; greetings were sent to three,

literature distributed in four and woman suffrage day observed in

three State gatherings. Add to these the 283 societies (not suffrage)

which reported adopting resolutions on the Statehood Protest and there

is positive knowledge that the question was before and received

favorable action from 339 societies in 1904. A full report was given

of the effort to obtain woman suffrage planks in the platforms of the

political parties, delegates from the association being sent to all.

[See Chapter XXIII.]

An outstanding feature of the year's achievements was what was known

as the Statehood Protest. At the beginning of the 58th Congress a bill

passed the Lower House providing for the admission to Statehood of

Oklahoma, Indian, Arizona and New Mexico Territories under the names

of Oklahoma and Arizona. It contained a clause saying that "the right

of suffrage should never be abridged except on account of illiteracy,

minority, _sex_, conviction of felony or mental condition." The

association's legal adviser, Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of

Chicago, was consulted by Mrs. Upton and Miss Hauser the preceding

June as to how the word "sex" could be eliminated. She took the matter

under consideration and laid her plan before the Business Committee in

September. It called for a nation-wide protest from women's

organizations and individuals. The committee approved but did not feel

able to make a sufficient appropriation. The report continued:

When the result was communicated to Mrs. McCulloch by letter she

answered post-haste: "We dare not let this work go undone. I will

raise the money for it myself." The headquarters undertook to do

the work. We appealed to the president or the corresponding

secretary for directories of associations and as fast as names

were secured copies of the circular letter of the Woman's Protest

Committee, written by Miss Blackwell, were sent out. This letter

was signed by twenty-six women, among them presidents of the

following national organizations: Council of Women, Council of

Jewish Women, Woman Suffrage Association, Teachers' Federation,

Catholic Women's League, Woman's Christian Temperance Union,

Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, Lutheran Women's

League, Congress of Mothers, etc., and 34,000 were sent out with

28,000 leaflets, "Why Women Should Protest." Perhaps no more

spontaneous response was ever given to anything than to this

letter. All sorts of societies, not of women only but of men and

of men and women, protested. More than 400 reported their action

to headquarters. The number of individuals who reported that they

had written to Senator Albert J. Beveridge (Ind.), chairman of

the Committee on Territories, and to their own Senators was so

great that we could not keep a record. Newspapers the country

over commented on the matter, hundreds of clippings on the

subject sometimes being received in one mail.

What was the result? Under date of Dec. 16, 1904, Senator

Beveridge notified headquarters that the Senate Committee had

unanimously voted to strike out the objectionable word "in

accordance with your very reasonable request." It was a great

victory and more than paid for the labor. Mrs. McCulloch was as

good as her word and raised the money to defray all the expenses,

giving $100 herself and securing from her friend and ours, Mrs.

Elmina Springer of Chicago, $500; Mrs. Mary Wood Swift of

California, president of the National Council of Women,

contributed $50; our own president, Miss Shaw, gave $25 and there

were some small contributions. The work was most economically

done, the printing and envelopes costing $118, the postage over

$300 and a balance was left.[37]

The report of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, showed

receipts for the year to be $14,662, including bequests of $4,237 from

Mrs. Henrietta L. Banker of New York and $500 from Mrs. Armilla J.

Starr of Michigan; $2,000 from Mrs. Charlotte A. Cleveland of New York

and $100 each from Mrs. Jonas Green of Virginia and Mrs. Helen J.

Underwood of California. The disbursements were $12,437. Miss Hauser

asked for the money for the next year's work and $4,614 were quickly

subscribed. A large number of $50 life memberships were taken. One

hundred one-dollar pledges were made in memory of Sacajawea. Mrs. Catt

guaranteed that Mrs. Upton and herself would raise $3,000 for the

Oregon campaign.

Henry B. Blackwell, chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee,

gave the welcome information that the U. S. Supreme Court through

Chief Justice Fuller had rendered a decision that "the power of every

State Legislature in the appointment of presidential electors is

plenary, exclusive and final." The report of Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer,

chairman of the Libraries Committee, was read by Mrs. Blankenburg and

showed that thus far a bibliography of 823 books, pamphlets, etc., on

woman suffrage had been compiled. One book bore the date of 1627.

Another had the title "No Female Suffrage; Theology, Logic, Anatomy,

Physiology and Philology United to Establish the Truism that Woman is

No Human Being." Mrs. Blankenburg went as fraternal delegate to the

convention of the National Libraries Association meeting in Portland

at this time and gave part of this report, which was received with

much interest and cooperation was promised.

The report of Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, chairman of the Press Committee,

was as complete and valuable as usual. It said that 80,000 general

suffrage articles had been sent out and 6,000 papers supplied by the

chairman and committee since the last convention. Each paper in

Portland had been furnished with personal sketches of every officer

and speaker connected with the convention and copies of all the

reports and speeches that could be obtained, as was customary wherever

a convention was held. In referring to special articles she said that

5,000 copies from members of the association and residents of Colorado

had been sent out in answer to the charges that woman suffrage was

responsible for the recent election frauds in that State, which seemed

to be made by every opponent who could wield a pen. Answers were

widely distributed to the report of the Mosely Educational Commission

sent here from Great Britain, and the Male Teachers' Association of

New York, to the effect that women should not be employed to teach

boys over ten years of age and that teaching was interfering with the

marriage of many women and keeping them from their proper place in the

world. The article of former President Grover Cleveland in the

_Ladies' Home Journal_ denouncing women's clubs and particularly

suffrage clubs had been almost universally commented on by the press

and required extensive attention. A reply to Cardinal Gibbons's

address to the women graduates of Trinity College, Washington, by Mrs.

Ida Husted Harper was sent to eighty metropolitan papers and hundreds

of shorter ones were scattered broadcast. The excellent work of the

various State press chairman was described.

One afternoon was devoted to a conference on How Can We Best Utilize

the Press? Mrs. Harper presided and nearly twenty speakers took part.

One of the Portland papers commented: "If the great political organs

of the United States knew how well these women have the tricks of the

trade at their fingers' ends they would employ special detectives to

watch for suffrage literature in disguise." Mr. Lathrop, editor of the

Portland _Journal_, said: "A newspaper man in his official capacity is

not an educator but a seller of news. One who would treat a suffrage

convention as a negligible quantity would lose his job. The question

is not how you can get matter about women into the papers but how you

can keep it out." Mrs. Florence Kelley added: "We all know to our

sorrow that women cannot keep out of the papers but the question is

how to get our subject in them in a way to promote it. I can recommend

the following method: Write something in editorial style just about as

you want it to appear and send it to the editor with a deprecatory

note to the effect that it is only raw material but perhaps it could

be whipped into an editorial by his able pen. The chances are that the

first time he is hard up for one he will use it--probably beheaded or

with the end off or the middle amputated to show that the editor is

editing, but it will be published."

Miss Anthony was asked for reminiscences of her famous paper, the

_Revolution_, published in New York in 1868-70. Mrs. Duniway gave an

interesting account of her paper, the _New Northwest_, begun in 1871

in Portland and continued for a number of years with the help of her

five young sons. She expressed her love for the _Woman's Journal_,

"the dear, reliable, old paper started by Lucy Stone and kept going by

the heroic efforts of her husband and daughter," and many joined in

this expression. Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.), editor of the

_Woman's Tribune_, told of the press conference at the International

Council of Women. Mrs. Julia B. Nelson (Minn.) and Miss Amanda Way

(Ind.) were among the veteran writers who spoke. Miss Blackwell gave

experienced advice and a number of younger women made brief but clever

suggestions.

An interesting part of the convention was Woman's Day at the

Exposition on June 30 and this day had been chosen for the dedication

of the statue of Sacajawea, the Indian woman who led the Lewis and

Clark Expedition thousands of miles through the wilderness unknown to

white men. It was thus described: "The statue, a beautiful creation in

bronze, was the work of Miss Alice Cooper of Denver, a pupil of Lorado

Taft, the figure full of buoyancy and animation, a shapely arm

suggestive of strength pointing to the distant sea, the face radiant,

the head thrown back, the eyes full of daring." The exercises were in

charge of the Order of Red Men and the Women's Sacajawea Association,

Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, president, and on the platform facing the statue

prominent members of the convention sat with President Goode, of the

Exposition, Mayor Lane and other dignitaries. Miss Anthony and Mrs.

Duniway spoke during the unveiling and presentation ceremonies and Dr.

Shaw pronounced the benediction. [See Oregon chapter.]

The afternoon session of the convention was held in Festival Hall on

the grounds and greetings were offered for organizations, including

the Young Woman's Christian Association by Mrs. L. E. Rockwell and

Women's Medical Association by Dr. Esther C. Pohl. Dr. Sarah A.

Kendall of Washington responded. The Los Angeles Suffrage Club sent a

greeting and Mrs. Helen Secor Tonjes brought one from the New York

City Equal Suffrage League. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman gave an

original poem. Mrs. Mabel Craft Deering, a graduate of California

State University and the Hastings Law School of San Francisco, read an

able paper on Coeducation. Its sentiments were strongly endorsed by

Professor William S. Giltner, president of Eminence College, Kentucky,

one of the earliest women's colleges, from its beginning in 1858 to

its close in 1894. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, under the title, Sowing

the Seed, gave an interesting account of the early trials of her

mother and two aunts, the pioneer doctors, Elizabeth and Emily

Blackwell. The Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, an aunt by marriage,

the pioneer woman minister, who was on the platform, said: "Ever since

I made my first suffrage speech in 1848 I have believed that the cause

of woman suffrage was the cause of religion and vice versa." Mrs. Maud

Wood Park read the eloquent address of Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead on The

Organization of the World.

Mrs. May Arkwright Hutton (Idaho), who spoke for the equal suffrage

States, gave this unique reminiscence of her early life in Ohio when

William McKinley, a young lawyer, after speaking in the town hall, was

a guest of her grandfather. She said in part: "Mr. McKinley carried

the lantern, leading me by the hand, while I led grandfather, we

little dreaming that the kindly young man guiding a child and an old,

blind man through the wintry night would some day guide the destiny

of the nation. On reaching home, I brought cider, apples and

doughnuts from the cellar that we might have what grandfather called a

'schold check' before going to bed. The fire roared in the wide

chimney place; grandfather sat in his armchair, Mr. McKinley opposite

and I on a low stool between them. They talked of the late war,

reconstruction and woman's rights. Then it was that I learned that

women were denied rights enjoyed by men. Mr. McKinley deplored the

fact and contended that woman was the intellectual equal of man and

should be his political equal. Patting my head he said: 'I believe

when this lassie grows up she will be a voter.'"

At the close of the session a reception for Miss Anthony and the

officers, speakers and delegates was given in the Oregon building by

its hostess, Dr. Annice Jeffreys (Mrs. Jefferson) Myers, assisted by

Mrs. Coe, the State president. The big reception hall and the parlors

were filled with visitors from all parts of the country. The

_Oregonian_ said: "When Miss Anthony, the honored guest, reached the

Oregon building the band played Auld Lang Syne and the crowds became

so dense that it was with difficulty Dr. Myers could escort her to the

parlors. Here she stood in line for more than an hour, women and men

pressing around her wanting just a word and they got it! She declared

that it did not make her nearly so tired as she used to feel when

nobody wanted to take her hand." In a letter to the _Woman's Journal_

Miss Blackwell said: "Both in the convention and at all the social

functions Miss Anthony has been the central figure, the object of

general admiration and affection. It is the strongest possible

contrast to the unpopularity and persecution of her early days. All

these attentions were most gratifying to the members of the

convention, who appreciated her courage and devotion in making this

long journey at the age of 85, and afterwards they were remembered

with especial pleasure because it was the last in which she was able

to take an active part."

The social courtesies during the convention were unbounded. The

Woman's Club gave a large evening reception in the rooms of the

Commercial Club and Mrs. Arthur H. Breyman, its president, opened her

handsome residence for an afternoon tea. Mrs. Coe gave a dinner party

of about thirty, her lovely home decorated in yellow flowers, the

suffrage color. Mrs. Hutton had a handsome dinner of thirty covers at

the Portland Hotel and the Ode which she had written and dedicated to

the convention was sung by Mrs. Alice Mason Barnett of San Francisco

here and at the convention. Private dinners and teas were of daily

occurrence and the drives around this beautiful city and its environs

were a never failing delight.

At one evening session C. E. S. Wood (Ore.) spoke on The Injustice of

Majority Rule in a cynical strain, believing that woman suffrage was

right but fearing it would not do as much good as its advocates hoped

for. Now suffrage meant "little stuffed men going to a little stuffed

ballot box" and he was afraid "women would take their place on the

chess board to be moved in the game by some power they did not see."

After he had finished Dr. Shaw observed: "I would rather be a little

stuffed woman having my own say than to be ruled by a little stuffed

man without my consent, and the only way we will cease to have little

stuffed men is for them to be born of free mothers."

Dr. Harriet B. Jones of Wheeling, W. Va., told of the unsuccessful

campaign to have Municipal suffrage for women included in its new

charter. "The anti-suffrage women of New York and Massachusetts," she

said," flooded the newspapers with literature and the heaviest

opposing vote came from the lowest and most ignorant sections of the

city." In answer to the request of the Wheeling women the National

Association had sent Miss Hauser to take charge of the campaign and

appropriated funds for it. A telegram to Dr. Shaw from Samuel Gompers,

president of the American Federation of Labor, was read, saying:

"Kindly convey fraternal greetings to the officers and delegates of

your convention and the earnest expression of our hope for the

enfranchisement and disenthrallment of women." A telegram of greeting

was received from Mrs. Frederick Schoff, president of the National

Congress of Mothers. One came from the National Suffrage Association

of Denmark.

Mrs. Harper gave an address under the subject Facing the Situation,

showing the satire of the disfranchisement of one-half the citizens in

a Government boasting of being founded on individual representation.

In closing she said: "Eastward the star of woman's empire takes its

way. She does not look for the star in the East but for the star in

the West. Her sun of political freedom rose not in the East but in the

West. It is to the strong, courageous and progressive men of the

western States that the women of this whole country are looking for

deliverance from the bondage of disfranchisement. It is these men who

must start this movement and give it such momentum that it will roll

irresistibly on to the very shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Today the

eyes of the whole country are on this beautiful and progressive State.

This magnificent Exposition has been a revelation of its splendid

powers. It is an anomaly, a contradiction, a reproach indeed that in

the midst of these wonderful achievements one-half of its citizens

should be in absolute political subjection, without voice or share in

affairs of State. Are you not ready now to wipe out that paltry 2,000

majority which five years ago voted to continue this unjust condition?

Would it not add the crowning glory to this greatest period in your

history if the free men of Oregon should decree that this shall be,

henceforth and forever, the land also of free women?" The Rev. J.

Burgette Short expressed regret that his church, the Methodist

Episcopal, had refused to ordain Dr. Shaw and said it was much poorer

in consequence. "You represent the brains of the world," he said to

the delegates, "and you have my hearty interest and support in your

work."

A noteworthy address was made by the Hon. W. S. U'Ren, known as "the

father of the Initiative and Referendum," which was then in its early

stages but had been adopted by Oregon and some other States. The

convention was much impressed by this innovation, as the suffragists

had long struggled against the refusal of Legislatures to submit their

question to the voters, and Mrs. Catt offered a resolution that "the

convention affirms its belief in the Initiative and Referendum as a

needed reform and a potent factor in the progress of true democracy."

It was enthusiastically received and later adopted by the convention,

contrary to the habit of the association to consider only subjects

relating directly to women and children.[38]

Under the pen name of Lucas Malet, Mrs. Mary St. Leger Harrison, a

daughter of Charles Kingsley who was a strong believer in woman

suffrage, had published an article in the London _Fortnightly Review_

attacking it and quoting President Roosevelt as an opponent. A long

resolution giving his favorable record for the past twenty-five years

on questions relating to women was presented and adopted, against the

judgment of many delegates. A committee was appointed to ask him for a

more definite expression on woman suffrage.[39]

Telegrams of greeting were sent to veterans in the cause--Mrs. Laura

de Force Gordon, Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent

of California; Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick of Louisiana; Mrs. Julia Ward

Howe, Col. T. W. Higginson, Mrs. Judith W. Smith of Massachusetts;

Mrs. Armenia S. White of New Hampshire; Miss Laura Moore of Vermont;

Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell of Iowa.

The Committee on Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs. Blankenburg,

chairman, reported that among measures the suffragists had worked for,

the child labor laws had been strengthened in New York, Pennsylvania

and California; the "age of consent" had been raised in Illinois and

Oregon; laws had been passed in several States requiring that women

should be appointed to public boards and women physicians to public

institutions, California leading. In Massachusetts a petition that

women might take part in nominating candidates for the school board,

for which they were allowed to vote, signed by 100,000 women, was

refused by the Legislature. School suffrage was granted to women in

the first class cities of Oklahoma.

Mrs. Mead, chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration seems to

outshine the preceding one but last night's was the one in Portland;

of the series of articles published in preparation for the

International Peace Congress in Boston in 1904 and the work she had

done in connection with it; of the many lectures given to universities

and clubs and of the arrangements to have the public schools observe

the anniversary of the first Hague Conference.

The _Oregonian_ said: "Each program given by the convention seems to

outshine the preceding one but last night's was the best thus far."

The speakers were Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, former president of the

Illinois Suffrage Association; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (N.

J.); Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall (Ia.); Miss Gail Laughlin (N. Y.); Judge

Stephen A. Lowell, one of Oregon's leading jurists. Judge Lowell

reviewed the political situation, the evils that had crept into the

Government and the remedies that had been tried and failed and he

summed up his conclusion by saying: "The reforms of the last century

have come from women. Man has few to his credit because he could not

measure them by the only standard he had mastered, that of the dollar.

Witness the movement for female education led by Mary Lyon, the birth

of the Red Cross in the work of Florence Nightingale, the institution

of modern prison methods under the inspiration of Elizabeth Fry and

the campaigns for temperance and social purity under the leadership of

Frances Willard. The electorate needs the inspiring influence of women

at the ballot box and the full mission of this republic to the world

will never be met until she is admitted there. Not color or creed or

sex but patriotic honesty must be the test of citizenship if the

republic lives."

Mrs. Stewart took up the objections made by many of the clergy to

woman suffrage and applied these to the ministers themselves. "They

should not vote," she said with fine sarcasm, "because like women they

are exempt from jury duty. They seldom go to war--some of them are too

old, others too delicate, some too near-sighted, some too far-sighted.

Ministers as a rule are not heavy tax-payers. Many of them do not want

to vote and do not use the vote they have. A preacher has not time to

vote. It might lead him to neglect his pastoral duties. Political

feeling often runs high and if he voted it might make quarrels in the

church. The minister has a potent indirect influence. He would be

contaminated by the corruption of politics. He is represented by his

male relations; they are not as good and pure as he is and are

probably immune from contamination by politics."

Mrs. Catt, who presided, in presenting the Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, one of

the first to make the fight for the right of women to speak in public,

said: "The combination of her sweet personality and her invincible

soul has won friends for woman suffrage wherever she has gone." Her

address on Suffrage and Education showed the evolution in woman's

work. "My grandmother taught me to spin," she said, "but the men have

relieved womankind from that task and as they have taken so many

industrial burdens off of our hands it is our duty to relieve them of

some of their burdens of State." Introducing Mrs. Coggeshall of Iowa

Mrs. Catt said: "When I get discouraged I think of her and for many a

year she has been one of my strongest inspirations." A Portland paper

commented: "Her snow-white hair and demure face give no indication of

the brilliant repartee and sharp argument of which she is capable." In

her Word from the Middle West she said: "Its women are determined to

have the ballot if they have to bear and raise the sons to give it to

them. This scheme is in active operation. I myself have raised

three--eighteen feet for woman suffrage--and others have done better.

No bugle can ever sound retreat for the women of the Middle West." The

_Oregonian_ said of Miss Laughlin's address:

Her arguments are the straight, convincing kind that leave

nothing for the other fellow to say. She comes to Oregon a lawyer

of New York who is proudly boasted of, and justly, by her fellow

workers as the woman who carried off the oratorical honors of

Cornell and won for that institution the championship in

intercollegiate debating contests.... In asking for a "Square

Deal" Miss Laughlin said:

"'A square deal for every man.' These words of President

Roosevelt were more discussed during our last presidential

campaign than was any party platform plank. The growing

prominence of the doctrine of a square deal is of vital

significance to us who stand for equal suffrage, as we ask only

for this. It has been invoked chiefly against 'trusts.' We invoke

the doctrine of a square deal against the greatest 'trust' in the

world--the political trust--which is the most absolute monopoly

because entrenched in law itself and because it is a monopoly of

the greatest thing in the world, of liberty itself. The exclusion

of women from participation in governmental affairs means the

going to waste of a vast force, which, if utilized, would be a

great power in the advance of civilization.... But there depends

on the success of the equal suffrage movement something more

valuable even than national prosperity and that is the

preservation of human liberty. Now, as in 1860, 'the nation

cannot remain half slave and half free,' and either women must be

made free or men will lose the liberty which they enjoy."

Sunday services were conducted at 4:30 in the First Congregational

church by the Rev. Eleanor Gordon, pastor of the First Unitarian

church of Des Moines, Ia., assisted by Dr. Shaw and the Rev. Eliza

Tupper Wilkes of Los Angeles, with a special musical program. Miss

Gordon had filled the Unitarian pulpit in the morning, giving an

eloquent sermon on Revelations of God. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman

had preached in the Congregational church in the morning and the Rev.

Mrs. Blackwell in the evening. Miss Laura Clay gave a Bible reading

and exposition in the Taylor Street Methodist Episcopal church in the

evening. The Rev. J. Whitcomb Brougher, pastor of the White Temple,

the large Baptist church, invited Miss Anthony to occupy its pulpit

and expound "any doctrine she had at heart." The _Oregonian_ said:

"She took him at his word and got in some of the best words for

suffrage that have been put before the Portland public. There was such

enthusiasm over the venerable founder and leader of the suffrage

movement that when she appeared on the rostrum the applause was as

vigorous as though it had not been Sunday and the place a church.

There was not room in the big Temple for another person to squeeze

past the doors." The papers quoted liberally from the sermons of all

and the Portland _Journal_ said: "Each preached to a congregation that

taxed the capacity of the church.... The welcome accorded the women

by the Portland pastors was sharply in contrast with the hostility

shown by the clergy when equal suffrage conventions began in the

middle of the last century.[40]

The Monday evening session was opened by Willis Duniway, who gave a

glowing appreciation of the work of the National American Suffrage

Association and said in the course of a strong speech that he wanted

to see woman suffrage because it was right and because he wanted the

brave pioneer women who had worked for it so long to get it before

they passed away. "I want my mother to vote," he declared amid

applause.[41] "The basis of safe and sane government is justice, which

has its roots in constitutional liberty and means equal rights and

opportunities.... I claim no right or privilege for myself that I

would not give to my mother, wife and sister and to every law-abiding

citizen." When he had finished his mother rose and said dryly: "That,

dear women from the north, east, south and west, is one of Mrs.

Duniway's poor, neglected children!"

Miss Mary N. Chase, president of the New Hampshire Association, spoke

convincingly on The Vital Question, taking as the keynote: "A republic

based on equal rights for all is not the dream of a fanatic but the

only sane form of government." I. N. Fleischner, who had just been

elected to the school board largely by the votes of women, assured the

convention of his approval and support of the measures it advocated

and said he hoped to see the women enjoying the full right of suffrage

in Oregon in the very near future.

Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary of the National Consumers'

League, spoke with deeper understanding than would be possible for any

other woman of The Young Bread-winner's Need. "We have in this

country," she said, "2,000,000 children under the age of sixteen who

are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven in the

cotton mills of Georgia, eight, nine and ten in the coal-breakers of

Pennsylvania and fourteen, fifteen and sixteen in more enlightened

States.... In some of the States children from six to thirteen may

legally be compelled to work the whole night of twelve hours," and she

described the heart-breaking conditions under which they toil. She

urged the need of woman's votes to destroy the great evil of child

labor and said: "We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our

enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the

children."

In introducing Mr. Blackwell, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, who was presiding,

said: "As we came across the continent what impressed me most was the

mountains. First came the foothills, then the high mountains and then

the grand, snow clad peaks. Some of us are like the foothills, just

raised a little above the women who have all the rights they want;

then come those on a higher level of public spirit and service, who

are like the mountains; and then the pioneers rising above all like

the snow covered peaks." Taking the ground that "the perpetuity of

republican institutions depends on the speedy extension of the

suffrage to women," Mr. Blackwell said in his sound, logical address:

"How can we reach the common sense of the plain people, without whose

approval success is impossible?... A purely masculine government does

not fully represent the people, the feminine qualities are lacking. It

is a maxim among political thinkers that 'every class that votes makes

itself felt in the government.' Women as a class differ more widely

from men than any one class of men differs from another. To give the

ballot to merchants and lawyers and deny it to farmers would be class

legislation, which is always unwise and unjust, but there is no class

legislation so complete as an aristocracy of sex. Men have qualities

in which they are superior to women; women have qualities in which

they are superior to men, both are needed. Women are less belligerent

than men, more peaceable, temperate, chaste, economical and

law-abiding, with a higher standard of morals and a deeper sense of

religious obligation, and these are the very qualities we need to add

to the aggressive and impulsive qualities of men."

The _Journal_ in commenting on this address said: "A venerable and

historical figure is that of Henry B. Blackwell, who in company with

his daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, is in attendance upon the

national suffrage convention. This snowy-haired, white-bearded

patriarch embodies in his voice, his presence, his interest in every

passing event, in his appreciation of every beauty of earth and sky,

in the shifting panorama of nature, the loyal spirit of freedom, the

true spirit of manhood that has dominated his passing years."[42]

A valuable report on Industrial Problems Relating to Women and

Children was made by Mrs. Kelley, chairman of the committee, which she

began by saying that during 1905 eleven States had improved their

Child Labor Laws or adopted new ones and in every State suffragists

had helped secure these laws. She said that wherever woman suffrage

was voted on its weakness proved to be among the wage-earners of the

cities and she urged that the association submit to the labor

organizations its bill in behalf of wage-earning women and children

with a view to close cooperation. To the workingmen woman suffrage

meant chiefly "prohibition" and an effort should be made to convince

them that it includes assistance in their own legislative measures.

Mrs. Kate S. Hilliard (Utah) answered the question, Will the Ballot

Solve the Industrial Problem? Wallace Nash spoke on the work of the

Christian Cooperative Federation. The leading address of the afternoon

was made by Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago on The Educational

Problem. "It is a strange anomaly in American public life," he said,

"that we have given our schools largely into the hands of women who

must teach history and patriotism but are not considered competent to

vote. I plead for the same education for boys and girls and I urge you

to take a deep interest in the public schools." He gave testimony to

the excellent legislative work women had done along many lines and

declared that "women pay taxes and do public service and hold up

before men the standard of righteousness and they ought to have a

vote," and closed by saying: "We need appeals to the heart and

conscience in our schools and a revival of conscience. We need a

standard of character and conscience and women can bring it into the

schools much better than men can. The woman, because she is a woman,

is less easily corrupted than the man who has forgotten that he had a

mother. If we must disfranchise somebody, it would better be many of

the men than the women."

At one meeting Judge Roger S. Greene, who was Chief Justice of the

Territory of Washington when the majority of the Supreme Court gave a

decision which took away the suffrage from women and who loyally tried

to preserve it for them, was invited to the platform and received an

ovation. At another time Judge William Galloway, a veteran suffragist,

was called before the convention, and after referring to his journey

to Oregon by ox-team in 1852 told of his conversion by Mrs. Duniway

when he was a member of the Legislature at the age of 21. National

conventions were of daily occurrence during the Exposition and a

number of them called for addresses by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw and other

suffrage speakers. At the evening session preceding the last Miss Mary

S. Anthony, 78 years old, read in a clear, strong voice the

Declaration of Sentiments adopted at the famous first Woman's Rights

Convention in 1848, which she had signed. The rest of the evening of

July 4 was given to what the _Woman's Journal_ spoke of as "Mrs.

Catt's noble address," The New Time, beginning:

This is a glorious Fourth of July. In a hundred years the United

States has grown into a mighty nation. This last has been a

century of wonderful material development, but we celebrate not

for this. July 4 commemorates the birth of a great idea. All over

the world, wherever there is a band of revolutionists or of

evolutionists, today they celebrate our Fourth. The idea existed

in the world before but it was never expressed in clear,

succinct, intelligible language until the American republic came

into being.... Taxation without representation is tyranny, it

always was tyranny, it always will be tyranny, and it makes no

difference whether it be the taxation of black or white, rich or

poor, high or low, man or woman.... The United States has lost

its place as the leading exponent of democracy. Australia and New

Zealand have out-Americanized America. Let us not forget that

progress does not cease with the 20th century. We say our

institutions are liberal and just. They may be liberal but they

are not just for they are not derived from the consent of the

governed. What is your own mental attitude toward progress? If

you should meet a new idea in the dark, would you shy?

Robespierre said that the only way to regenerate a nation was

over a heap of dead bodies but in a republic the way to do it is

over a heap of pure, white ballots.

"Mrs. Catt was awarded the Chautauqua salute when she appeared on the

platform," said the _Oregonian_, "and it was some minutes before the

former president of the association could proceed. She spoke

eloquently and at considerable length and in this assemblage of

remarkably bright women it was plain to be seen that she was a star of

the first magnitude." It was hard for the convention to accede to Mrs.

Catt's determination to retire from even the vice-presidency of the

association because of her continued ill health but they yielded

because this was so evident. Mrs. Florence Kelley was the choice for

this office and in accepting she said: "I was born into this cause. My

great-aunt, Sarah Pugh of Philadelphia, attended the meeting in London

which led to the first suffrage convention in 1848. My father, William

D. Kelley, spoke at the early Washington conventions for years." Dr.

Eaton was again obliged to give up the office of second auditor on

account of her professional duties and Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, who

had so successfully planned and managed the convention, was almost

unanimously elected. No other change was made in the board.

Among the excellent resolutions presented by the chairman of the

committee, Mr. Blackwell, were the following:

Whereas, the children of today are the republic of the future;

and whereas two million children today are bread-winners; and

whereas the suffrage movement is deeply interested in the welfare

of these children and suffragists are actively engaged in

securing protection for them; and whereas working-men voters are

also vitally interested in protection for the young

bread-winners; therefore,

Resolved, That it is desirable that our bills for civil rights

and political rights, together with the bills for effective

compulsory education and the proposal for prohibiting night work

and establishing the eight-hour day for minors under eighteen

years of age, be submitted to the organizations of labor and

their cooperation secured.

The frightful slaughter in the Far East shows the imperative need

of enlisting in government the mother element now lacking;

therefore we ask women to use their utmost efforts to secure the

creation of courts of international arbitration which will make

future warfare forever afterwards unnecessary.

We protest against all attempts to deal with the social evil by

applying to women of bad life any such penalties, restrictions or

compulsory medical measures as are not applied equally to men of

bad life; and we protest especially against any municipal action

giving vice legal sanction and a practical license.... We

recommend one moral standard for men and women.

The list of Memorial Resolutions was long and included many prominent

advocates of woman suffrage. Among those of California were Mrs.

Leland Stanford, Judge E. V. Spencer and the veteran workers, Mrs. E.

O. Smith and Sarah Burger Stearns, the latter formerly of Minnesota;

Jas. P. McKinney and Jas. B. Callanan of Iowa; Helen Coffin Beedy of

Maine. Twenty-two names were recorded from Massachusetts, among them

the Hon. George S. Boutwell, President Elmer H. Capen, of Tufts

College; the Hon. William Claflin, the Rev. George C. Lorimer, Mrs.

Ednah D. Cheney; Mrs. Martha E. Root, a Michigan pioneer; Grace Espey

Patton Cowles, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Montana. The Rev.

Augusta Chapin, D. D., Dr. Phoebe J. B. Waite, Bishop Huntington,

James W. Clarke, Dr. Cordelia A. Greene, were among the ten from New

York; Mayor Samuel M. Jones, among seven from Ohio. Five pioneers of

Pennsylvania had passed away, John K. Wildman, Richard P. White, Mrs.

Mary E. Haggart, Miss Matilda Hindman, Miss Anna Hallowell. Cyrus W.

Wyman of Vermont and Orra Langhorne of Virginia were other deceased

pioneers; also Mrs. Rebecca Moore and Mrs. Margaret Preston Tanner,

who were among the earliest workers in Great Britain.

Special resolutions were adopted for Mrs. Mary A. Livermore and U. S.

Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts; Col. Daniel R. Anthony of

Kansas; Mrs. Louisa Southworth of Ohio. The eloquent resolutions

prepared by Mr. Blackwell ended: "Never before in a single year have

we had to record the loss of so many faithful suffragists. Let the

pioneers who still survive close up their ranks and rejoice in the

accession of so many young and vigorous advocates, who will carry on

the work to a glorious consummation." The California delegation

presented the following resolution, which was enthusiastically

adopted: "Resolved, That we remember with the deepest gratitude the

one man who has stood steadfast at the helm, notwithstanding constant

ridicule and belittlement on the part of the press during the early

years of the work, unselfishly and unceasingly devoting his life to

the self-imposed task year after year, never faltering, never seeking

office or honors but always a worker; one who has grown gray in the

service--Henry B. Blackwell."

Invitations were received to hold the next convention in Washington,

Chicago and Baltimore. The by-law requiring that every alternate

convention must be held in Washington during the first session of

Congress was amended to read "may be held." The _Woman's Journal_

said: "Miss Anthony favored the change and Mr. Blackwell opposed

it--an amusing fact to those who remember how strongly he used to

advocate a movable annual convention and Miss Anthony a stationary one

in Washington. Evidently neither of them is so fossilized as to be

unable to see new light." The invitation of the Maryland Woman

Suffrage Association was accepted.

The dominant interest of the convention had been in a prospective

campaign for a woman suffrage amendment to the constitution of Oregon.

The Legislature had refused to submit it but under the Initiative and

Referendum law this could be done by petition. Public sentiment

throughout the State seemed to indicate that it was now ready to

enfranchise women and officials from the Governor down believed an

amendment could be carried. All the officers of the State Suffrage

Association had joined in the invitation to the National Association

to hold its convention of 1905 in Portland and inaugurate the campaign

and to assist it in every possible way. After the report of the State

vice-president, Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, had been read to the

convention of 1904 a resolution had been moved by Mrs. Catt, seconded

by Miss Anthony and unanimously adopted, that the association accept

this invitation and a pledge of $3,000 had been made. Throughout the

present convention the speeches of public officials and the pledges

made on every hand encouraged the members to feel that the association

should give all possible help in money and workers.[43]

The public was much impressed at the last session by the appearance on

the platform of four prominent politicians of the State representing

the different parties and this was generally regarded as the opening

of the campaign for woman suffrage. They were introduced by State

Senator Henry Waldo Coe, M. D., who spoke in highest praise of homes

and housekeepers as he had seen them in his practice and said: "The

woman who takes an interest in the affairs of her country has the

highest interest in her home, and the suffrage will not lessen her

fitness as wife and mother." He introduced Mayor Harry Lane as the

Democrat who carried a Republican city and who was the best mayor

Portland ever had. Mr. Lane declared that women were as much entitled

to the suffrage as men and that the enfranchisement of women would

tend to purify politics. Dr. Andrew C. Smith, a Republican, was

introduced as "the man who presented the names of thirteen women

physicians to the State Medical Association and got them admitted."

The press report said: "The prospective women voters were informed

that they saw before them the next Governor of Oregon." Dr. Smith

declared that he had been for woman suffrage twenty-five years and

that "the United States was guilty of a national sin in not giving

women equal rights." Thomas Burns, State Secretary of the Socialist

party, asserted that it was the only one which had a plank for woman

suffrage in its platform and the Socialists had fought for it all over

the world. "Men have made a failure of government," he said, "now let

the women try it." O. M. Jamison, of the Citizens' movement, said: "We

have found women the strongest factor in our work for reform and I

think 99 per cent. of us are for woman suffrage." B. Lee Paget, who

spoke for the Prohibitionists, declared himself an old convert to

woman suffrage and said: "I think intelligent women far better fitted

to vote on public measures than the majority of men who take part in

campaigns and are wholly ignorant of the issues."

L. F. Wilbur of Vermont told of its improved laws for women and

advancing public sentiment for woman suffrage and paid a glowing

tribute to the early work in that State of Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell

and Julia Ward Howe. Mrs. Maud Wood Park, president of the

Massachusetts College Women's Suffrage League, gave a scholarly

address on The Civic Responsibility of Women, which she began by

saying that the first "new woman" was from Boston--Anne Hutchinson.

Dr. Marie D. Equi, candidate for inspector of markets, spoke briefly

on the need of market inspection for which women were especially

fitted. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (N. Y.) in discussing Woman's

World said in part: "Ex-President Cleveland, after warning women

against the clubs which are leading them straight to the abyss of

suffrage, told us that 'the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand

that rules the world.' ... Is it true? The Indian woman rocks the

cradle; does she rule the world? The Chinese woman--the woman of the

harem--do they rule it? An amiable old gentleman in opening a suffrage

debate said: 'My wife rules me and if a woman can rule a man, why

should she care to rule the country?' He seemed to think he was equal

to the whole United States! Women have been taught that the home was

their sphere and men have claimed everything else for themselves. The

fact that women in the home have shut themselves away from the thought

and life of the world has done much to retard progress. We fill the

world with the children of 20th century A. D. fathers and 20th century

B. C. mothers."

Miss Blackwell lightened the proceedings with some of her clever

anecdotes with a suffrage moral, and Mrs. Gilman with several of her

brilliant poems. Mrs. Catt gave a concise review of the International

Woman Suffrage Alliance, formed at Berlin in 1904, and told of the

progress of woman suffrage in other countries. Greetings to all of

them were sent by the convention. Dr. Shaw gave an impressive

peroration to this interesting session by pointing out the

responsibility resting on the men and women of Oregon to carry to

success the campaign which they had now begun, and Miss Anthony closed

the convention with a fervent appeal to all to work for victory.

The delegates and visitors greatly enjoyed the Exposition, which had

such a setting as none ever had before, looking out on the dazzling

beauty of the snowclad peaks of Mt. Hood and the Olympic Range, and

now they had to select from the many opportunities for travel and

sight-seeing. The Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, Emily Howland, Mrs. Cartwright

of Portland and others from seventy to eighty years of age, took a

steamer for Alaska. Mr. and Miss Blackwell and others went to

Seattle, Vancouver and home through the magnificent scenery of the

Canadian Pacific Railroad. Mrs. Catt and another party returned east

by way of the Yellowstone Park. Dr. Cora Smith Eaton with a few daring

spirits went for a climb of Mt. Hood. Miss Anthony with a group of

friends started southward, stopping at Chico, California, for her to

dedicate a park of 2,000 acres, which Mrs. Annie K. Bidwell had

presented to the village. They went on to San Francisco where they

were joined by Dr. Shaw, who had remained in Portland for the Medical

Convention and spoken at several places en route. Here they were

beautifully entertained in the homes of the suffrage leaders, Mrs.

Mary Wood Swift, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, Mrs.

Emma Shafter Howard and others, and mass meetings crowded to the doors

were held in San Francisco and Oakland. From here they went to Los

Angeles for other meetings, except Dr. Shaw, who started eastward for

her round of Chautauqua engagements.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] Part of Call: A government of men and women--not by women alone,

not by men alone, but a government of men and women by men and women

for men and women--this is the aim and ideal of our association.

One hundred years ago Oregon was an untrodden wilderness. The

transformation of that primeval territory into prosperous communities

enjoying the highest degree of civilization could not have been

accomplished without the work of women. No restriction should be

placed upon energies and abilities so potent for good. The extension

of the right of suffrage would remove a handicap from the efforts of

women and give them an opportunity to work for the welfare of the

State. We do not claim that woman's voice in the government would at

once sound the death knell to all social and political evils but we do

believe that a government representing the interests and beliefs of

women and men would prove itself, and is proving itself where it now

exists, to be a better government than one which represents the

interests and beliefs of men alone.

The movement for the enfranchisement of women is based upon the

unchanging and unchangeable principles of human liberty, in accordance

with which successive classes of men have won the right of

self-government. On such a foundation ultimate victory is assured and

in truth is conceded even by those who oppose. The day is ever drawing

nearer when the nation will apply to women the principles which are

the very foundation of its existence; when on every election day there

will be re-affirmed the immortal truths of our Declaration of American

Independence. Then will this indeed be a just government, "deriving

its powers from the consent of the governed."

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President.

ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President.

CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Vice-president.

KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary.

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary.

HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer.

LAURA CLAY, }

CORA SMITH EATON, } Auditors.

[37] If this request was so "reasonable" why was the word "sex"

included in the first place? Although it was omitted from the Act of

Congress which admitted these Territories to Statehood under the names

of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, each one adopted a constitution

whose suffrage clause absolutely barred women and those constitutions

were approved by Congress. (See their special chapters.)

[38] In later years woman suffrage amendments were submitted to the

voters through the Initiative and Referendum after the Legislature had

refused to do it and were carried in Oregon and Arizona and defeated

in Nebraska and Missouri. Still later by this method the ratification

of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in Ohio by the Legislature was sent

to the voters after they had defeated the ratification of the

Prohibition Amendment. This was attempted in several other States and

both prohibitionists and suffragists were in great distress, which was

relieved by a decision of the U. S. Supreme Court that this action was

unconstitutional. They learned, however, that the Initiative and

Referendum has its harmful as well as its beneficial side.

[39] Miss Anthony and Mrs. Upton went to Washington in November, where

Mrs. Harper joined them, and on the 15th President Roosevelt received

them cordially and granted them a long interview. Miss Anthony was the

principal spokesman and made these requests: 1. To mention woman

suffrage in his speeches when practicable. 2. To put experienced women

on boards and commissions relating to such matters as they would be

competent to pass upon. 3. To recommend to Congress a special

committee to investigate the practical working of woman suffrage where

it exists. 4. To see that Congress should not discriminate against the

women of the Philippines as it had done against those of Hawaii. 5. To

say something that would help the approaching suffrage campaign in

Oregon. 6. To speak to the national suffrage convention in Baltimore

in February, as he did to the Mothers' Congress. 7. To recommend to

Congress a Federal Suffrage Amendment before he left the presidency.

These requests were given to him in typewritten form but President

Roosevelt did not comply with one of them and did not communicate

further with the committee who called upon him. For full account of

this occurrence see Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, page 1375.

[40] Different sessions were opened with prayer by Rabbi Stephen S.

Wise, Father Black and the Reverends Elwin L. House, H. M. Barden, E.

S. Muckley, J. Burgette Short, J. Whitcomb Brougher, E. Nelson Allen,

Edgar P. Hill, W. S. Gilbert, A. A. Morrison, T. L. Eliot, Asa Sleeth,

J. F. Ghormley, George Creswell Cressey, representing various

denominations. Nearly all of them pledged their support to the

suffrage movement. The fine musical programs throughout the convention

were in charge of Mrs. M. A. Dalton.