Another deep-seated feeling is that, while development is the

general rule, yet the production of the best men and women

requires "the maternal sacrifice," _i. e._ that the mother shall

be sacrificed to her children, and incidentally to her husband.

If the sacrifice is necessary, well and good; but how if it is

not?... It has been regarded as dangerous to improve the

condition of women for fear they would not be as good mothers. If

gain to the mother means robbery to the child, let the mother

remain as she is. But the standard is the amount of good done to

the children, not the amount of evil done to herself....

Grant that it is a woman's business to take care of her

children--not merely of her own children. If children anywhere

are not under right conditions, women ought to see to it. The

trouble is we are too wrapped up in _my_ children to think of

_our_ children. We can not keep out disease by shutting our own

front door. We have to know and care about the world outside our

gates. In order to do our duty to our children we must make this

world a better place to live in.

Our children are not born with that degree of brain power that we

could wish. They will not be, until our minds are widened by

study of the whole duty of a human being.... What is needed for

women is an enlargement of their moral sense so as to include

social as well as private virtues. We have been taught that there

is only one virtue for us. Our morality is high but narrow. It is

not wholesome to limit oneself to one virtue, or to six or to

ten. Sons resemble their mothers. While mothers limit their

interests to their own narrow domestic affairs, regardless of the

world outside, their sons will betray the interests of the

country for their own private business interests.... Women and

men are so connected that we can not improve one without

improving the other. Under equal rights we shall raise the moral

sense of the community by the natural laws of transmission

through the mothers. We shall learn to blame a man as much if he

betrays a public trust as we do if he deserts his wife.

Have we done our full duty when we have loved and served and

taken care of those that every beast on earth loves and serves

and takes care of--our own young? That is the beginning of human

duty but not the whole of it. The duty of woman is not confined

to the reproduction of the species; it extends to the working of

the will of God on earth. The family is a leaf on the tree of the

State. It can grow in strength and purity while the State is

healthy, but when the State is degraded the family becomes

degraded with it. We have not done our full duty to the family

till we have done our best to serve the State.

Miss Shaw took up this subject, saying:

The millennium will not come as soon as women vote, but it will

not come until they do vote. If a woman has only a little brain,

she has a right to the fullest development of all she has.... If

we are to keep our children healthy, as Mrs. Stetson says is our

duty, pure water is essential. I know a city (Philadelphia) where

you can fast for forty days, drinking only water, and grow

fat--because you have chowder every time. Is there any reason why

women should not have a vote in regard to water-works? A woman

knows as much about water as a man. Generally, she drinks more of

it. See how the street cleaners sweep the dirt into heaps on

Monday and leave it to blow about until Saturday, before it is

taken up. Any housekeeper would know better. Sewers and man-traps

spread disease literally and also metaphorically. You may teach

your boy every precept in the Bible from beginning to end, and he

will go out into the street and be taught to violate every one of

them, under the protection of law, and you can't help yourself or

him.

At one of the morning meetings Miss Anthony said in response to a

message from the W. C. T. U. accompanied by a great bunch of daisies:

"We always are glad to receive greetings from this society, because

one of its forty departments is for the franchise. The suffrage

association has only one, but that one aims to make every State a true

republic." She continued: "A newspaper of this city has criticized the

suffrage banner with its four stars and has accused us of desecrating

our country's flag. But no one ever heard anything about desecration

of the flag during the political campaign, when the names and

portraits of all the candidates were tacked to it. Our critics compare

us to Texas and its lone star. We have not gone out of the Union, but

four States have come in. Keep your flag flying, and do not let any

one persuade you that you are desecrating it by putting on stars for

the States where government is based on the consent of the governed,

and leaving them off for those which are not."

State Senators Rowen, Kilburn and Byers brought an official message

inviting the convention to visit the Senate and select certain of

their members to address that body. Each of these gentlemen spoke

briefly but unequivocally in favor of the enfranchisement of women.

The ladies found the Senate Chamber crowded from top to bottom on the

occasion of their visit Friday morning, and they were welcomed by

Lieutenant-Governor Parrott. In her response Miss Anthony called

attention to the fact that the women of Iowa had been pleading their

cause in vain before the Legislature for nearly thirty years. Mrs.

Mary C. C. Bradford, Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells and Mrs. Mell C. Woods

spoke for the States of Colorado, Utah and Idaho, which had

enfranchised women; Mrs. Colby represented Wyoming. Clever two-minute

speeches were made by Mrs. Ballard, Miss Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt,

which were highly appreciated by the legislators and the rest of the

audience.

During the convention an informal speech of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton

(O.), As the World Sees Us, was much enjoyed. In the course of her

remarks she said:

The world thinks our husbands are inferior men, and I do not like

it. For fifty years they have said all sorts of things about the

overbearing suffragists--that they were crazy, tyrannical, etc.,

but they never have said we were fools. Why should they think

that we would pick out fools for our husbands?...

The world also thinks the suffrage advocates are poor

housekeepers. I know, for I was in the world a long time and I

thought so. When I was brought into the movement and visited the

leaders, I was surprised to find the order and executive ability

with which their homes were conducted.

The world thinks we are office-seekers. Most of us have not the

slightest wish for office, but we do want to see women serving on

all boards that deal with matters where woman's help is needed.

The world thinks we are irreligious; but our individual churches

do not think so--for most of us are members of churches in good

and regular standing, and we are not denied communion. We can not

be vestrymen, but if the church wants a steam heater it is voted

to have one, without a cent in the treasury, because the women

are relied upon to raise the money. We are religious enough to

have oyster suppers in aid of the church and to make choir-boys'

vestments and to raise the minister's salary and to make up the

congregation. Religion is love to God and man. If it is not

religion to promote a cause that will make men better and women

wiser and happier, what is it? The world thinks we are

irreligious because in the early days some of our leaders were

held to be unorthodox. But most of those who years ago were

looked upon as such are regarded as orthodox to-day. The

eye-sight of the world is much better than it used to be....

The discussion--_Resolved_, That the propaganda of the woman suffrage

idea demands a non-partisan attitude on the part of individual

workers--was led by Miss Laura Clay in the affirmative and Henry B.

Blackwell in the negative. Miss Clay said in part:

It is a well established rule that the greater should never be

subordinated to the less. Therefore, suffrage should never be

made a tail to the kite of any political party. There are

momentous issues now before the people, but none so momentous as

woman suffrage. This principle appeals to the conscience of the

people, and will ultimately convince all those who cherish the

political principles of our fathers. Already we believe we have

convinced a sufficient number to make this a practical question.

We have now to deal with the politicians. They may be divided

into two classes, men of high ideals and those who cling to

party, right or wrong. It is necessary to gain both classes.

Partisan methods are not suited to the discussion of this

question. We must show that when enfranchised we shall hold a

self-preservative attitude; that we know our rights, and, knowing

them, dare maintain. Wisdom is less tangible than force but more

powerful in the end. Women are different from men and their

political methods will differ from those of men. Women will never

win so long as they consent to barter their services for vague

promises of what will be done for them in the future, or to

subordinate woman suffrage to the interests of any party.

MR. BLACKWELL: We are all agreed that Woman Suffrage

Associations, local, State and national, are and must be

non-partisan. But a clear distinction should be made between the

attitude of a society and that of the individual women and men

who compose its membership. Suffrage societies, being composed of

men and women of all shades of political belief, can not take

sides on any other question without violating each member's right

and duty to have and express personal political opinions. But, as

individuals, it is our duty to be partisans. Woman suffrage is

not the only issue. In almost every political contest one party

is right and the other wrong. Everybody is bound to do what he or

she can to promote the success of the right side. If no moral

questions were involved, political contests would be ignoble and

insignificant. We value suffrage mainly because questions of

right and wrong are settled by votes....

Every woman, equally with every man, should be affiliated with

some political party.... Every manifestation by women of

intelligent interest in political questions helps woman suffrage.

Political questions necessarily become party questions, for we

live under a government of parties.

A non-partisan attitude is a phrase which needs definition. If

"partisan" means "our party, right or wrong," then no woman and

no man should be a partisan. An attitude of moderation and

conciliation befits every candid person. I am for holding equal

suffrage paramount to ordinary political questions, but I am not

for repudiating party ties altogether. Woman suffrage, though the

most important question, is not always the one to be first

settled. It is not the only question. Voting, though the most

direct form of political power, is not the only political power.

Women's interests and those of their children are involved,

equally with those of men, in every question of finance,

currency, tariff, domestic and foreign relations. They have no

right to be neutral or apathetic. So long as they remain silent

and inert they command no attention or respect. I maintain,

therefore, that affirmative political activity, working by and

through party machinery, is the duty of every individual

citizen--whether man or woman.

In States where a suffrage amendment is pending, in meetings

where suffrage is advocated, party politics should be laid aside

for the time being. In religious meetings no distinction should

be made between Republicans, Democrats or Populists. In political

meetings no distinction should be made between Methodists,

Baptists or Presbyterians. In suffrage meetings there should be

no distinction of sect or party. But we hold our individual

opinions all the same.

MISS ANTHONY: I want to say that you can not possibly divide

yourself up as Mr. Blackwell suggests. You can not be a

Republican in one convention to-day and non-partisan in another

to-morrow. The men who believe in suffrage are voters, and must

have their parties, of course. But any woman who champions either

political party makes more votes against than for suffrage. I

could give numerous examples. Do not be deluded with this idea

that one party is right and the other wrong. Which is it? One

party seems right to one-half of the people, and the other party

to the other half. As long as women have no votes, any one of

them who will make a speech either for gold or silver or for any

party issue is lacking in self-respect.

MISS BLACKWELL: Miss Clay seems to have understood the question

presented for discussion in a different sense from what I did. I

do not believe in making suffrage a tail to any party kite, of

course; but women as well as men are bound to do what they can to

promote good government, and hence to promote by all legitimate

means the party which they believe to be in the right. They will

inevitably do this more and more as they become more interested

in public questions. See how many women took part in the late

campaign, making speeches for gold or silver, not with any eye

to woman suffrage--for neither party was committed to it--but

purely for the sake of the welfare of the country, as they

understood it. I can not agree that they were lacking in

self-respect....

MISS SHAW: I have made only one party speech in my life. That was

ten years ago, for the Prohibition Party; and if the Lord will

forgive me, I will never do it again till women vote.

In spite of the lively difference of opinion, the meeting adjourned in

great good humor and amid considerable laughter.

The last session of the convention was a celebration of the suffrage

victory in Idaho, conducted by representatives of what the association

liked to call "the free States." Mrs. Colby said in behalf of Wyoming:

....No matter if we fill the field of blue with stars, one will

always shine with peculiar lustre, the star of Wyoming, who

opened the door of hope for women.

There is a beautiful custom in Switzerland among the Alpine

shepherds. He who, tending his flock among the heights, first

sees the rays of the rising sun gild the top of the loftiest

peak, lifts his horn and sounds forth the morning greeting,

"Praise the Lord." Soon another shepherd catches the radiant

gleam, and then another and another takes up the reverent

refrain, until mountain, hill and valley are vocal with praise

and bathed in the glory of a new day.

So the dawn of the day that shall mean freedom for woman and the

ennobling of the race was first seen by Wyoming, on the crest of

our continent, and the clarion note was sounded forth, "Equality

before the law." For a quarter of a century she was the lone

watcher on the heights to sound the tocsin of freedom. At last

Colorado, from her splendid snow-covered peaks, answered back in

grand accord, "Equality before the law." Then on Utah's brow

shone the sun, and she, too, exultantly joined in the trio,

"Equality before the law." And now Idaho completes the quartette

of mountain States which sing the anthem of woman's freedom. Its

echoes rouse the sleepers everywhere, until from the rock-bound

coast of the Atlantic to the golden sands of the Pacific resounds

one resolute and jubilant demand, "Equality before the law," and

lo, the whole world wakes to the sunlight of liberty!

Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, in speaking for Colorado, said:

Civilization means self-realization. The level is being slowly

but surely raised and the atmosphere improved. Freedom for the

individual, properly guarded, is the ideal to-day. When woman is

free, the eternal feminine shows itself to be also the truly

human. Witness Wyoming, with its magnificent school system, its

equal pay for equal work. Witness Colorado, where women cast 52

per cent. of the total vote though the State contains a large

majority of men. What does this show if not that women wish to

vote? We women believe that election day administers to each of

us the sacrament of citizenship, and we go, most of us,

prayerfully and thankfully to partake in this outward and visible

sign of an inward and spiritual grace....

The first time I went to vote I was out of the house just nine

minutes. The second time I took my little girl along to school,

stopped in to vote, and then went down town and did my marketing;

and I was gone twenty minutes. While I was casting my vote the

men gave my little one a flower. They always decorate the

polling-places with flowers now, for they know women love beauty.

The tone of political conventions has improved since suffrage was

granted to women. So has the character of the candidates....

There is no character-builder like responsibility. Every woman's

club in the State has been turned into a study club, and the

women are examining public questions for themselves. This is one

of the best results of equal suffrage.

When women obtained the ballot they wanted to know about public

affairs, and so they asked their husbands at home (every woman

wants to believe that her husband knows everything), and the

husbands had to inform themselves in order to answer their wives'

questions. Equal suffrage has not only educated women and

elevated the primaries, but it has given back to the State the

services of her best men, large numbers of whom had got into the

habit of neglecting their political duties....

Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells said in describing the conditions in Utah:

After the ballot was given to women the men soon came to us and

asked us to help them. We divided on party lines but not rigidly

so. We helped not only the good men and women of our own party,

but those of the other. If they put up a Republican or a Democrat

who is not fit for the position, the women vote against him. In

all the work I do for the Republicans, I never denounce the

Democrats....

This year the men were more willing to have us go to the

primaries than we were to go. Even the women who had not wished

for suffrage voted. I do not mind going to the primaries. I am

not afraid of men--not the least in the world. I have often been

on committees with men. I don't think it has hurt me at all, and

I have learned a great deal. They have always been very good to

me. We must stand up for the men. We could not do without them.

Certainly we could not have settled Utah without them. They built

the bridges and killed the bears; but I think the women worked

just as hard, in their way....

When Mrs. Mell C. Woods came forward to speak for Idaho the audience

arose and received her with cheers and the waving of handkerchiefs.

She brought letters of greeting from most of the women's clubs of

that State, and in a long and beautiful address she said:

With her head pillowed in the lap of the North, her feet resting

in the orchards of the South, her snowy bosom rising to the

clouds, Idaho lies serene in her beauty of glacier, lake and

primeval forest, guarding in her verdure-clad mountains vast

treasures of precious minerals, with the hem of her robe

embroidered in sapphires and opals.... As representing Idaho,

first I wish to express the heartfelt gratitude of every equal

suffragist in our proud and happy State to the National

Association for the most generous help afforded us in our two

years' campaign. Without the aid of the devoted women, Mrs.

DeVoe, Mrs. Chapman Catt, Mrs. Bradford and Mrs. Johns, who made

the arduous journey to organize our clubs, plead our cause and

teach us how to work and win, we should not be celebrating

Idaho's victory to-night....

After describing the great output of the mines and the fruit-producing

value of the State, she continued:

I fancy few of you know much of the conditions existing in the

mining country, dotted with camps in every gulch; the

preponderance of the adult males over the women of maturity; the

power of the saloon element, and the cosmopolitan character of

the people--men from all parts of the world, ignorant and

cultured, depraved and respectable, seeking fame and fortune in

the far West--no reading-rooms, no lectures, no lyceums, no

spelling-bees or corn-huskings, the relaxation of the farm hand;

single men away from home and its influences, forced from the

draughty lobby of the hotel or tavern to the warmth and comfort

of the well-appointed saloon.

The missionary suffrage work in such places was obliged to be

quietly done, without any apparent advocacy on the part of men

who were in reality ardent supporters of our cause, lest the

saloon element should organize and, by concerted action, crush

the movement as they did in the State of Washington in 1889; and

California, too, owes her defeat of the amendment at least

partially to this cause. Yet you may go far to find nobler men

than we have in Idaho, and we did not lack able champions. Our

amendment was carried by more than a two-thirds majority of the

votes cast upon it.

The last address, by the Rev. Ida C. Hultin (Ills.), The Point of

View, was a masterly effort. She said in part:

Before any woman is a wife, a sister or a mother she is a human

being. We ask nothing as women but everything as human beings.

The sphere of woman is any path that she can tread, any work that

she can do. Let no one imagine that we wish to be men. In the

beginning God created them male and female. The principle of

co-equality is recognized in all of God's kingdom. We are

beginning to find in the human race, as in the vegetable and the

animal, that the male and the female are designed to be the

equals of each other.

It is because woman loves her home that she wants her country to

be pure and holy, so that she may not lose her children when they

go out from her protection. We want to be women, womanly women,

stamping the womanliness of our nature upon the country, even as

the men have stamped the manliness of their nature upon it. The

home is the sphere of woman and of man also. The home does not

mean simply bread-making and dish-washing, but also the place

into which shall enter that which makes pure manhood possible.

Give woman a chance to do her whole duty. What is education for,

what is religion for, but as a means to the end of the

development of humanity? If national life is what it ought to be

also, a means to the same end, it needs then everything that

humanity has to make it sweet and hopeful. Women have moral

sentiments and they want to record them. That is the only

difference between voting and not voting. The national life is

the reflected life of the people. It is strong with their

strength and weak with their weakness.

A letter was read to the convention by Miss Anthony from Miss Kitty

Reed, daughter of Speaker Thomas B. Reed, who had been with her father

in California during the recent suffrage campaign. In referring to

this she said:

There and elsewhere the thinking women who opposed it used this

argument: There are too many people voting already; the practical

effect of woman suffrage would be an increase in the illiterate

vote, without a proportionate increase in the intelligent vote.

They were not in favor of it unless there could be an educational

qualification. In other words, they were opposed to woman

suffrage because they were opposed to universal suffrage. I have

always regarded universal suffrage as the foundation principle of

our government. If "governments deriving their just powers from

the consent of the governed" does not mean that, what can it

mean? So I tried to persuade these women of the truth of that

which I supposed had been settled about one hundred and

twenty-one years ago. It is necessary to make women believe that

suffrage is a natural right rather than a privilege; that, while

abstractly it seems well for an intelligent citizen to govern an

ignorant one, human nature is such that the intelligent will

govern selfishly and leave the ignorant no opportunity to

improve.

It seems to me that the worst obstacle we have to encounter now

is not the prejudice of men against women's voting, but a

misunderstanding on the part of women of the real meaning of

government by the people. This may be ancient history to you, but

it impressed me deeply while I was in California and that is why

I write it. Of course there are many women who do not think. When

they hear woman suffrage spoken of, they go to their husbands and

ask them what they think about it, and their husbands tell them

that they are too good to vote, and those women are content. It

does not occur to them to ask why, if they are too pure and good

to vote, they are not excused from obeying the laws and paying

taxes.

The report of the first year's work done at national headquarters was

very satisfactory. In regard to the Press it contained the following:

The year 1896 has seen the beginning of an effort by our National

Association to use systematically the mighty lever of the public

press in behalf of our work. We have sent out in regular weekly

issues since March hundreds of copies of good equal suffrage

articles. These go into the hands of Press Committees in

forty-one States, and now between six and seven hundred papers

publish them each week. Of forty-one different articles by about

thirty different writers, nearly 25,000 copies have been

distributed to newspapers. These articles reach, in local papers,

not less than one million readers weekly.

We have taken charge of the National Suffrage Bulletin which is

edited by the chairman of the organization committee, have had it

printed in Philadelphia and mailed from the headquarters. In the

past twelve months there have been wrapped and sent out

separately 17,700 copies of the Bulletin. A portion of the

expenses has been defrayed by special contributions of $900 of

the $1,000 given to Miss Anthony by Mrs. Southworth, and $400

through the New York State Association, from the bequest of Mrs.

Eliza J. Clapp of Rochester to Miss Anthony.

Mr. Blackwell, as usual, reported for the Committee on Presidential

Suffrage, suggesting a form of petition as follows:

WHEREAS, The Constitution of the United States, the supreme law

of the land, expressly confers upon the Legislature of every

State the sole and exclusive right to appoint or to delegate the

appointment of presidential electors, in article II, section 1,

paragraph 2, as follows: "Each State shall appoint in such manner

as the Legislature thereof may direct a number of electors equal

to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the

State may be entitled in the Congress;" and

WHEREAS, In some of the States said appointment has been

repeatedly made by the Legislature; and

WHEREAS, Women equally with men are citizens of this State and of

the United States; therefore,

_The undersigned_, citizens of the State of ----, 21 years of age

and upwards, respectfully petition your honorable bodies so to

amend the election laws as to enable women to vote in the

appointment of presidential electors.

The report of the treasurer, Mrs. Upton, showed that the receipts had

risen to $11,825 during the year just passed. It ended thus: "In

closing this report the treasurer would like to say that no one person

has ever been to the treasury what Miss Anthony has been and is. Every

dollar given to her for any purpose whatever, she feels belongs to the

work and is most happy when she turns it in. On the other hand the

association does very little for her. She pays her own traveling

expenses and her own clerk hire. It is to be hoped that this is the

last year we may be so neglectful in this direction."

The Congressional Committee, Mrs. Ellen Powell Thompson, acting

chairman, reported as a part of the work done: "To still further

advance the matter we determined to address a letter to each member of

the House and Senate, asking his opinion on the proposed amendment to

enfranchise women. At least three-fourths of these letters were

promptly answered in most gracious terms, and in many of them hearty

sympathy with the purpose of the amendment was expressed. Not a small

number declared they were ready to vote for the amendment when

opportunity should be given."

Among the State reports those of California, by Mrs. Ellen Clark

Sargent, and of Idaho, by Mrs. Eunice Pond Athey, were of special

interest, as they contained an epitomized history of the recent

campaigns in these States. It was decided that there should be a

special effort to make the next annual meeting a noteworthy affair, as

it would celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Woman's

Rights Convention.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE NATIONAL-AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1898.

The Thirtieth annual convention of the suffrage association took place

in the Columbia Theatre, Washington, D. C., Feb. 13-19, 1898, and

celebrated the Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Woman's Rights

Convention.[112] In the center of the stage was an old-fashioned,

round mahogany table, draped with the Stars and Stripes and the famous

silk suffrage flag with its four golden stars. In her opening address

the president, Miss Susan B. Anthony, said: "On this table the

original Declaration of Rights for Women was written at the home of

the well-known McClintock family in Waterloo, N. Y., just half a

century ago. Around it gathered those immortal four, Elizabeth Cady

Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright and Mary Ann McClintock, to

formulate the grievances of women. They did not dare to sign their

names but published the Call for their convention anonymously.[113] We

have had that remarkable document printed for distribution here, and

you will notice that those demands which were ridiculed and denounced

from one end of the country to the other, all have now been conceded

but the suffrage, and that in four States."

This convention was the largest in number of delegates and States

represented of any in the history of the association, 154 being in

attendance and all but four of the States and Territories represented.

The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw devoted the most of her vice-president's

report to an account of the work to secure a suffrage amendment from

the Legislature which was being done in Iowa, where she had been

spending considerable time. The report on Press Work by the chairman,

Miss Jessie J. Cassidy, stated that 30,000 suffrage articles had been

sent from headquarters to the various newspapers of the country and

the number willing to accept these was constantly increasing. The

headquarters had been removed from Philadelphia to New York City

during the year and united with the organization office. The Committee

on Course of Study, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman, reported that

during the past three years they had published 25,000 books and

pamphlets, purchased from publishers 3,100 and had 9,000 contributed.

The treasurer, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, announced the receipts of

the past year to be $14,055. Bequests had been received of $500 by the

will of Mrs. Eliza Murphy of New Jersey, and $500 from Mrs. A. Viola

Neblett of South Carolina.

The report of the Organization Committee, Mrs. Chapman Catt, chairman,

showed a large amount of work done in Iowa, Illinois, South Dakota and

the Southern States, the writing of 10,000 letters, the holding of

1,000 public meetings under the auspices of this committee. It closed

by saying:

The chief obstacle to organization is not found in societies

opposed to the extension of suffrage to woman, nor in ignorance,

nor in conservatism; it is to be found in that large body of

suffragists who believe that the franchise will come, but that it

will come in some unaccountable way without effort or concern on

their part. It is to be found in the hopeless, faithless,

lifeless members of our own organization. They are at times the

officers of local clubs, and the clubs die on their hands; in

State executive committees, and there, appalled by the magnitude

of the undertaking, they decide that organization is impossible

because there is no money, and they make no effort to secure

funds. They are in our national body, ready to find fault with

plans and results and to criticise the conscientious efforts of

those who are struggling to accomplish good--yet they are never

ready to propose more helpful methods. In short, we find them

everywhere, doing practically nothing themselves, but "throwing

cold water" upon every effort inaugurated by others. "It can not

be done" is their motto, and by it they constantly discourage the

hopeful and extract all enthusiasm from new workers. Judging from

the intimate knowledge of the condition of our association gained

in the last three years, I am free to say that these are our most

effective opponents to-day, and, without question, the best

result of the three years' work is the gradual strengthening of

belief in the possibility of organization.

Mrs. Sallie Clay Bennett, chairman, presented the report on Federal

Suffrage;[114] Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake, chairman, on Legislation;

and Miss Laura Clay on the Suffrage Convocation at the Tennessee

Exposition the preceding year. The Plan of Work, offered by the

chairman, Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman, and adopted, represented the best

result of many years' experience and exemplified the aims and methods

of the association. The old board of officers was almost unanimously

re-elected.

The afternoon Work Conferences, to exchange ideas as to methods for

organizing, raising funds, etc., which met in a small hall, aroused so

much interest and attracted so many people that it was necessary to

transfer them to the large auditorium. The Resolutions Committee

presented by its chairman, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, a brief summary of

the results already accomplished and the rights yet to be secured, in

part as follows:

The National-American Woman Suffrage Association, at this its

thirtieth annual meeting, celebrates the semi-centennial

anniversary of the first Woman's Rights Convention, held in 1848

in Seneca Falls, N. Y., and reaffirms every principle then and

there enunciated. We count the gains of fifty years. Woman's

position revolutionized in the home, in society, in the church

and in the State; public sentiment changed, customs modified,

industries opened, co-education established, laws amended,

economic independence partially secured, and equal suffrage a

recognized subject of legislation. Fifty years ago women voted

nowhere in the world; to-day Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho

have established equal suffrage for women, and have already in

the Congress of the United States eight Senators and seven

Representatives with women constituents. Kansas has granted women

Municipal Suffrage, and twenty-three other States have made women

voters in school elections. This movement is not confined to the

United States; in Great Britain and her colonies women now have

Municipal and County Suffrage, while New Zealand and South

Australia have abolished all political distinctions of sex.

Therefore,

_Resolved_, That we hereby express our profound appreciation of

the prophetic vision, advanced thought and moral courage of the

pioneers in this movement for equality of rights, and our sincere

gratitude for their half century of toil and endurance to secure

for women the privileges they now enjoy, and to make the way

easier for those who are to complete the work. We, their

successors, a thousandfold multiplied, stand pledged to unceasing

effort until women have all the rights and privileges which

belong equally to every citizen of a republic.

That in every State we demand for women citizens equality with

male citizens in the exercise of the elective franchise, upon

such terms and conditions as the men impose upon themselves.

That we appeal to Congress to submit a Sixteenth Amendment to the

United States Constitution, thereby enabling the citizens of each

State to carry this question of woman suffrage before its

Legislature for settlement.

That we will aid, so far as practicable, every State campaign for

woman suffrage; but we urgently recommend our auxiliary State

societies to effect thorough county organizations before

petitioning their Legislatures for a State constitutional

amendment.

WHEREAS, The good results of woman suffrage in Wyoming since 1869

have caused its adoption successively by the three adjoining

States; therefore,

_Resolved_, That we earnestly request the citizens of these four

free States to make a special effort to secure the franchise for

women in the States contiguous to their own.

That we demand for mothers equal custody and control of their

minor children, and for wives and widows an equal use and

inheritance of property.

That we ask for an equal representation of women on all boards of

education and health, of public schools and colleges, and in the

management of all public institutions; and for their employment

as physicians for women and children in all hospitals and

asylums, and as police matrons and guards in all prisons and

reformatories.

That this Association limits its efforts exclusively to securing

equal rights for women, and it appeals for co-operation to the

whole American people.

Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer and Mrs. Harper were

appointed fraternal delegates to the Woman's Press Association, in

session at this time in Washington.

A beautiful feature of this occasion was the luncheon given by Mrs.

John R. McLean to Miss Anthony on her seventy-eighth birthday,

February 15, attended by thirty-six of the most distinguished ladies

in the national capital, and followed by a reception to the members of

the convention. Mrs. McLean was assisted in receiving by Miss Anthony

and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant. Seventy-eight wax tapers burned upon the

birthday cake, which was three feet in diameter and decorated with

flowers. It was presented to Miss Anthony, who carried it in triumph

to the convention in Columbia Theatre, where it was cut into slices

that were sold as souvenirs and realized about $120, which she donated

to the cause.

Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, at the age of eighty-two, sent two papers

for this fiftieth anniversary, one for the congressional hearing, on

The Significance of the Ballot; the other, Our Defeats and our

Triumphs, was read to the convention by Mrs. Colby. Both displayed

all the old-time vigor of thought and beauty of expression. The

latter, filled with interesting reminiscence, closed with these words:

Another generation has now enlisted for a long or short campaign.

What, say they, shall we do to hasten the work? I answer, the

pioneers have brought you through the wilderness in sight of the

promised land; now, with active, aggressive warfare, take

possession. Instead of rehearsing the old arguments which have

done duty fifty years, make a brave attack on every obstacle

which stands in your way.... Lord Brougham said: "The laws for

women [in England and America] are a disgrace to the civilization

of the nineteenth century." The women in every State should watch

their law-makers, and any bill invidious to their interests

should be promptly denounced, and with such vehemence and

indignation as to agitate the whole community....

There is no merit in simply occupying the ground which others

have conquered. There are new fields for conquest and more

enemies to meet. Whatever affects woman's freedom, growth and

development affords legitimate subject for discussion here....

Some of our opponents think woman would be a dangerous element in

politics and destroy the secular nature of our Government. I

would have a resolution on that point discussed freely, and show

liberal thinkers that we have a large number in our association

as desirous to preserve the secular nature of our Government as

they themselves can possibly be.... When educated women, teachers

in all our schools, professors in our colleges, are governed by

rulers, foreign and native, who can neither read nor write, I

would have this association discuss and pass a resolution in

favor of "educated suffrage." ...

The object of our organization is to secure equality and freedom

for woman: First, in the State, which is denied when she is not

permitted to exercise the right of suffrage; second, in the

Church, which is denied when she has no voice in its councils,

creeds and discipline, or in the choice of its ministers, elders

and deacons; third, in the Home, where the State makes the

husband's authority absolute, the wife a subject, where the

mother is robbed of the guardianship of her own child, and where

the joint earnings belong solely to the husband.

....Let this generation pay its debt to the past by continuing

this great work until the last vestige of woman's subjection

shall be erased from our creeds and codes and constitutions. Then

the united thought of man and woman will inaugurate a pure

religion, a just government, a happy home and a civilization in

which ignorance, poverty and crime will exist no more. They who

watch behold already the dawn of a new day.

The Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (N. Y.), the first woman to

graduate in theology and be ordained, delineated The Changing Phases

of Opposition, pointing out that when the first Woman's Rights

Convention was held the general tone of the press was shown in that

newspaper which said: "This bolt is the most shocking and unnatural

incident ever recorded in the history of humanity; if these demands

were effected, it would set the world by the ears, make confusion

worse confounded, demoralize and degrade from their high sphere and

noble destiny women of all respectable and useful classes, and prove a

monstrous injury to all mankind." Yet this present convention was

celebrating the granting of all those demands except the suffrage and

not one of the predicted evils had come to pass. The direful

prophecies of the early days were taken up, one by one, and their

utter absurdity pointed out in the light of experience. Now all of

those ancient, stereotyped objections were concentrated against

granting the suffrage.

Mrs. Virginia D. Young (S. C.) delighted the audience with one of her

characteristic addresses. Prof. Frances Stewart Mosher, of Hillsdale

College (Mich.), gave an exhaustive review of the great increase and

value of Woman's Work in Church Philanthropies. Mrs. May Wright Sewall

(Ind.) demonstrated the wonderful Progress of Women in Education. The

New Education possessed the charm of novelty in being presented by

Miss Grace Espy Patton, State Superintendent of Public Instruction in

Colorado, a lady so delicate and dainty that, when Miss Anthony led

her forward and said, "It has always been charged that voting and

officeholding will make women coarse and unwomanly; now look at her!"

the audience responded with an ovation.

Miss Belle Kearney (Miss.) discussed Social Changes in the South,

depicting in a rapid, magnetic manner, interspersed with flashes of

wit, the evolution of the Southern woman and the revolution in customs

and privileges which must inevitably lead up to political rights. Mrs.

Mary Seymour Howell (N. Y.) gave an eloquent review of the splendid

services of Women in Philanthropy.

At the memorial services Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.) offered the

following resolutions:

It is fitting in this commemorative celebration to pause a moment

to place a laurel in memory's chaplet for those to whom it was

given to be the earliest to voice the demand that woman should be

allowed to enter into the sacred heritage of liberty, as one

made equally with man in the image of the Creator and divinely

appointed to co-sovereignty over the earth. To name them here is

to recognize their presence with us in spirit and to invoke their

benediction upon this generation which, entering into the results

of their labors, must carry them forward to full fruition.

Lucretia Mott always will be revered as one of those who

conceived the idea of a convention to make an organized demand

for justice to women. She became a Quaker preacher in 1818 at the

age of twenty-five, and the last suffrage convention she attended

was in her eighty-sixth year. Her motto, "Truth for authority and

not authority for truth," is still the tocsin of reform. Sarah

Pugh, the lovely Quaker, was ever her close friend and helper.

Frances Wright, a noble Scotchwoman, a friend of General

Lafayette, early imbibed a love for freedom and a knowledge of

the principles on which it is based. In this the land of her

adoption she was the first woman to lecture on political

subjects, in 1826.

Ernestine L. Rose, the beautiful Polish patriot, sent the first

petition to the New York Legislature to give a married woman the

right to hold real estate in her own name. This was in 1836, and

she continued the work of securing signatures until 1848, when

the bill was passed. She was a matchless orator and lectured on

woman suffrage for nearly fifty years.

Lucy Stone's voice pleaded the wide continent over for justice

for her sex. Her life-long devotion to the woman suffrage cause

was idealized by the companionship and assistance of her husband,

Henry B. Blackwell, the one man in this nation who under any and

all circumstances has made woman's cause his chief consideration.

Her first lecture on woman's rights was given in 1847, the year

of her graduation at Oberlin College, and her life work was

epitomized in her dying words, "Make the world better."

Martha C. Wright, Jane Hunt and Mary Ann McClintock were three of

those noble women who issued the call for the Seneca Falls

Convention, and were ever ready for service.

Paulina Wright Davis, who called the first National Convention in

1850 and presided over its twentieth celebration in 1870, was one

of the moving spirits of the work for more than twenty-five

years. Assisted by Caroline H. Dall, she edited the _Una_,

founded in 1853, the first distinctively woman suffrage paper.

Frances Dana Gage, better known by her pen-name, "Aunt Fanny,"

was farmer, editor, lecturer and worker in the Sanitary

Commission. Of her eight children six were stalwart sons, and she

used to boast that she was the mother of thirty-six feet of boys.

She was a pillar of strength to the movement in early days.

Clarina Howard Nichols is associated with the seed-sowing in

Vermont, in Wisconsin and especially in Kansas, where her labors

with the first constitutional convention, in 1859, engrafted in

organic law many rights for women which were obtained elsewhere,

if at all, only by slow and difficult legislative changes. Susan

E. Wattles led the Kansas campaign of 1859 with Mrs. Nichols.

Emily Robinson of Salem, Ohio, was one of the chief movers in

the second Woman's Rights Convention, and this was held in her

own town in 1850. From that time until the present year she has

been unfaltering in her devotion.

Dr. Susan A. Edson, who was graduated in medicine in 1854, was a

fellow-pioneer in the District of Columbia with Dr. Caroline B.

Winslow, whose death preceded hers by about one year. She was one

of the most distinguished army nurses and the friend and faithful

attendant of President Garfield. For many years she was the

president of the District Woman Suffrage Association. Among the

earlier woman physicians who espoused the cause were Dr. Harriot

K. Hunt, Dr. Mary B. Jackson, Dr. Ann Preston, one of the

founders and physicians of the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia,

and Dr. Clemence S. Lozier, a founder and physician of the New

York Medical College for Women.

Sarah Helen Whitman was the first literary woman of reputation

who gave her name to the movement, which later counted among its

warmest friends Lydia Maria Child, Alice and Phoebe Cary and Mary

Clemmer.

Amalia B. Post of Cheyenne, to whom the enfranchisement of the

women of Wyoming was largely due, was ready, as she often said,

at the first tap of the drum at Seneca Falls. She occupied the

place of honor by the side of the Governor on that proud day when

the admission of Wyoming as a State was celebrated.

Josephine S. Griffing, organizer of the Freedman's Bureau; Amelia

Bloomer, editor of the _Lily_, the first temperance and woman's

rights paper; Mary Grew, for twenty-three years president of the

Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association; Myra Bradwell, the first

woman to enter the ranks of legal journalism; Virginia L. Minor,

the dove with the eagle's heart, who took to the U. S. Supreme

Court her suit against the Missouri officials for refusing her

vote--all these, and many more who might be added, form the noble

galaxy who brought to the cause of woman's liberty rare personal

beauty, social gifts, intellectual culture, and the

all-compelling eloquence of earnestness and sincerity.

Albert O. Willcox of New York, whose eighty-seven years were

filled with valuable work for reforms, was drawn to the

conviction that women should have a share in the Government by a

sermon preached by Lucretia Mott in 1831, and from that time

declared himself publicly for the movement and was its life-long

supporter.

James G. Clark, the sweet-souled troubadour of reform, sang for

woman's freedom in suffrage conventions all over the land.

Joseph N. Dolph was always to be counted on to further the

political emancipation of women, both in his own State of Oregon

and in the U. S. Senate, of which he was long an honored member.

To name the men who have been counselors and friends of the woman

suffrage movement is to name the greatest poets, preachers and

statesmen of the last half century. Wherever there has been a

woman strong enough to demand her rights there has been a man

generous and just enough to second her. Surely we may say that

"the spirits of just men made perfect" are our strength and our

inspiration.

No less entitled to remembrance and gratitude are the unnamed

multitude who have helped the onward march of freedom by standing

for the truth that was revealed to them. Whether they pass away

in the beauty of youth, the strength of maturity or the glory of

old age, they who have given to the world one impulse on the

upward path to freedom and to light are not dead. They live here

in the life of all good things, and, because of strength gained

in earthly activity, have strength to perfect in other spheres

what here they but dreamed of.

The _Woman's Tribune_ thus described one scene of the convention:

The opening address of Wednesday evening was by Mrs. Isabella

Beecher Hooker (Conn.) on United States Citizenship. She was not

heard distinctly and the audience was very fidgety. Miss Anthony

came forward and told them they ought to be perfectly satisfied

just to sit still and look at Mrs. Hooker. She is always a

commanding presence on the stage, and on this evening, impressed

with the deep significance of the event, and clad in silver gray,

which harmonized beautifully with her whitening curls, she was a

picture which would delight an artist. But notwithstanding Miss

Anthony's admonition, the audience really wanted to hear as well

as to see. Mrs. Hooker realizing this at last said impatiently,

"I never could give a written speech, but Susan insisted that I

must this time," and, discarding her manuscript, she spoke

clearly and forcibly with her old-time power. A portion of her

address was a graphic recital of Miss Anthony's trial for illegal

voting in 1872.

When Mrs. Hooker's time had expired Miss Anthony rose and put her

arm around her, and thus these striking figures, representing the

opposite poles of the woman suffrage force, made a tableau which

will never pass from the mental vision of those who witnessed it.

At the close of her remarks Mrs. Hooker threw her arms around

Miss Anthony and kissed her. The latter, more moved than was her

wont, gave vent to that strong feeling of the injustice of

woman's disfranchisement which is ever present with her, and

exclaimed: "To think that such a woman, belonging by birth and

marriage to the most distinguished families in our country's

history, should be held as a subject and have set over her all

classes of men, with the prospect of there being added to her

rulers the Cubans and the Sandwich Island Kanakas. Shame on a

government that permits such an outrage!"

Mrs. Caroline Hallowell Miller (Md.), one of the first suffrage

advocates south of Mason and Dixon's line, gave A Glimpse of the Past

and Present. Dr. Clara Marshall, Dean of the Woman's Medical College

of Pennsylvania, presented the history of Fifty Years in Medicine. She

related in a graphic manner the struggle of women to gain admission

to the colleges, the embarrassments they suffered, the obstacles they

were obliged to overcome, reading from published reports the hostile

demonstrations of the male students. In closing she bore testimony to

the encouragement and assistance rendered by those men who were

broad-minded and generous enough to recognize the rights of women in

this profession and help secure them. The Ministry of Religion as a

Calling for Women was the subject of an able and interesting address

by the Rev. Florence Buck of Unity Church, Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Ella

Knowles Haskell, assistant attorney-general of Montana, spoke on Women

in the Legal Profession, giving many incidents of the practice of law

in the far West.

Samuel J. Barrows, member of Congress from Massachusetts, was called

from the audience by Miss Anthony, and closed his brief remarks by

saying: "I believe in woman suffrage; it has in it the elements of

justice which entitle it to every man's support, and we all ought to

help secure it." A leading feature of the program was the speech of

August W. Machen, head of the free delivery division of the national

post office, on Women in the Departmental Service of the United

States. He gave the history of their employment by the government,

declared they had raised the standard of work and testified to their

efficiency and faithfulness.

The Civil Rights of Women were ably discussed by the Rev. Frederick A.

Hinckley of the Second Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, who reviewed

the existing laws and pointed out the changes in favor of women. In

regard to the prevalence of divorce he said: "There is a large class

of our fellow-citizens who greatly misinterpret, in my opinion, the

significance of the increase in the number of divorces. No one would

counsel more earnestly than I, patience and consideration and every

reasonable effort on the part of people once married to live together.

But I can not dispute the proposition, nor do I believe any one can

dispute it, that in the great process of evolution divorce is an

indication of growing independence and self-respect in women, a

proclamation that marriage must be the union of self-respecting and

mutually respected equals, and that in the ideal home of the future

that hideous thing, the subjugation of woman, is to be unknown."

Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch (Ills.) discussed The Economic Status

of Women. Madame Clara Neymann (N. Y.) read a philosophical paper on

Marriage in the Light of Woman's Freedom. The Progress of Colored

Women was pictured in an impassioned address by Mrs. Mary Church

Terrell, president of the National Association of Colored Women. She

received numerous floral tributes at its close. Mrs. Emmy C. Evald of

Chicago, with an attractive foreign enthusiasm, told of the work of

Swedish women in their own country and in the United States. Mrs.

Lillie Devereux Blake (N. Y.) with clever satire and amidst laughter

and applause, considered Women in Municipalities.

The Pioneers' Evening was one of great interest, when Miss Anthony

marshalled her hosts and made "the roll-call of the years." As each

decade was called, beginning with 1848, those who began the suffrage

work at that time rose on the stage and in all parts of the house and

remained standing. Not one was there who was present at the original

Seneca Falls Convention, but it had held an adjourned meeting at

Rochester, three weeks later, and Miss Anthony's sister, Mary S.,

responded as having attended then and signed the Declaration of

Rights. The daughters of Mrs. Martha C. Wright, who called this

convention--Mrs. Eliza Wright Osborne and Mrs. Wm. Lloyd Garrison--and

also Mrs. Millie Burtis Logan, whose mother, Miss Anthony's cousin,

served as its secretary, were introduced to the audience. The children

of Frederick Douglass, who had spoken at both meetings, were present

and should have come forward with this group. The Rev. Antoinette

Brown Blackwell stated that she had spoken in favor of woman's rights

in 1846. Among the earliest of the pioneers present were John W.

Hutchinson, the last of that famous family of singers; Henry B.

Blackwell, Mrs. Helen Philleo Jenkins (Mich.), Miss Sarah Wall (Mass.)

and Mrs. Hooker. Many of those who arose made brief remarks and the

occasion was one which will not be forgotten by those who witnessed

it.

Among the letters received from the many pioneers still living was one

from Mrs. Abigail Bush, now eighty-eight years old and residing in

California, who presided over the Rochester meeting, Aug. 2, 1848. It

is especially interesting as showing that even so advanced women as

Lucretia Mott and Mrs. Stanton, although they dared call such a

meeting, were yet so conservative as to object to a woman's presiding

over it:

TO SUSAN B. ANTHONY, GREETING: You will bear me witness that the

state of society is very different from what it was fifty years

ago, when I presided at the first Woman's Rights Convention. I

had not been able to meet in council at all with the friends

until I met them in the hall as the congregation was gathering,

and then fell into the hands of those who urged me to take part

with the opposers of a woman serving, as the party had with them

a fine-looking man to preside at all of their meetings, James

Mott, who had presided at Seneca Falls. Afterward I fell in with

the old friends, Amy Post, Rhoda de Garmo and Sarah Fish, who at

once commenced labors with me to prove that the hour had come

when a woman should preside, and led me into the church. Amy

proposed my name as president; I was accepted at once, and from

that hour I seemed endowed as from on high to serve.

It was a two days' meeting with three sessions per day. On my

taking the chair, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton left

the platform and took their seats in the audience, but it did not

move me from performing all my duties, and at the close of the

meeting Lucretia Mott came forward, folded me tenderly in her

arms and thanked me for presiding. That settled the question of

men's presiding at a woman's convention. From that day to this,

in all the walks of life, I have been faithful in asserting that

there should be "no taxation without representation." It has

seemed long in coming, but I think the time draws near when woman

will be acknowledged as equal with man. Heaven grant the day to

dawn soon!

Mrs. Catharine A. F. Stebbins (Mich.), who had attended the Seneca

Falls Convention and signed the Declaration of Rights, sent an

interesting descriptive letter. Mrs. Lucinda H. Stone (Mich.), the

mother of women's clubs and a pioneer on educational lines, wrote:

You wanted I should write you any anecdotes of early interest in

woman suffrage. The remembrance of Dr. Stone's waking up to that

subject has come to me, and I have thought I would tell you about

it.

It was some time in the forties that he was requested to deliver

a Fourth of July oration in Kalamazoo. I can not tell the exact

year, but it was before I had ever heard of the Rochester

Convention, or of you or Mrs. Stanton, and he was looking up all

that he could find in the early history of our Declaration of

Independence, and the principles of Jefferson and the early

revolutionists. I remember his coming in one day (it must have

been before 1848), seeming very much absorbed in something that

he was thinking about. He threw down the book he had been

reading, and said to me: "The time will come when women will

vote. Mark my words! We may not live to see it, we probably shall

not, but it will come. It is not a woman's right or a man's

right; it is a human right, and their voting is but a natural

process of evolution." ...

Mrs. Esther Wattles, who helped secure School Suffrage and equal

property laws for women in the State constitution of Kansas in 1859,

sent this message: "My attention was first called to the injustice

done to women by a lecture given near Wilmington, Ohio, by John O.

Wattles in 1841. He devoted most of his time to lecturing on Woman's

Rights, The Sin of Slavery, The Temperance Reform and Peace. I heard

him on all these subjects, off and on, till 1844, when we were

married.... Seventy-nine summers with their clouds and sunshine, make

it fitting I should greet you by letter rather than personal presence.

May the cause never falter till the victory is won."

Most of the letters were sent to Miss Anthony personally. Among these

were the following:

We, the members of the National Association of Woman

Stenographers, take great pleasure in extending congratulations

to you on the occasion of your seventy-eighth birthday, and hope

that the days of your years may still be many and happy. We also

desire to express our appreciation of and gratitude for the work

you have done in securing freedom and justice for women. As

business women we are better able to comprehend what you have

accomplished, especially for those who are bread-winners, and we

trust the time may soon come when we shall not be limited to

understanding what freedom is, but be able to act in accordance

with its principles.

THE NEVADA EQUAL SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION: Although we are young in

the ranks and few in number compared with the older States, yet

we are none the less loyal to the principles advocated and

established by the National Association. We are brave because we

draw inspiration from the thoughts and acts of that Spartan band

of suffragists of fifty years ago, who devoted the sunshine of

their lives and the energies of their philosophic minds to the

effort to obtain for womankind their inherent right to have a

voice in the Government which derives its just powers from the

consent of the governed.

ALFRED H. LOVE, president of the Universal Peace Union: From our

rooms in the east wing of Independence Hall, I send greetings to

you and your cause. Your cause is ours, and has been one of our

essential principles since our organization. Your success is a

triumph for peace.

MARY LOWE DICKINSON, secretary of the International Order of the

King's Daughters and Sons: I hope you will live to see the full

day for the cause whose dawn owed so much to your labors, and I

can ask nothing better for you than that you have "the desire of

your heart," which I am sure will be the ballot for us all.

DR. ELIZABETH BLACKWELL, the first woman physician: Although I

can not respond in person to your very friendly invitation to be

a representative of "the pioneers," yet I gladly send my hearty

greeting to you and to the other brave workers for the progress

of the race--a progress slow but inevitable. Amongst all its

steps I consider the admission of women to the medical profession

as the most important. Whilst thankfully recognizing the

wonderful accumulations of knowledge which generations of our

brethren have gathered together, our future women physicians will

rejoice to help in the construction of that noble temple of

medicine, whose foundation stone must be sympathetic justice.

Pray allow me to send my warm greeting to the Congress through

you.

There were messages and grateful recognition from so many societies

and individuals in the United States that it would be impossible even

to call them by name; also from the Dominion of Canada Suffrage Club,

through Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen; the National Union of Women's

Suffrage Societies in Great Britain, with individual letters from Lady

Aberdeen, Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Mrs. Priscilla Bright

McLaren and others; on behalf of the Swedish Frederika Bremer

Foerbundet, by Carl Lindhagen; on behalf of Finnish women by Baroness

Alexandra Gripenberg; on behalf of German women by Frau Hanna

Bieber-Bohm, president of the National Council of Women; on behalf of

the Woman Suffrage Society of Holland by its secretary, Margarethe

Galle; from the Norwegian Woman Suffrage Club; from the Verein

Jugendschutz of Berlin, and from the Union to Promote Woman's Rights

in Finland.

The remarkable scenes of the closing evening made a deep impression

upon the large audience. After fifty years of effort to overcome the

most stubborn and deeply-rooted prejudices of the ages, the results

were beginning to appear. Among the speakers were a woman State

senator from Utah, Mrs. Martha Hughes Cannon; a woman member of the

Colorado Legislature, Mrs. Martha A. B. Conine; a woman State

Superintendent of Public Instruction, Miss Estelle Reel of Wyoming; U.

S. Senators Henry M. Teller of Colorado, and Frank J. Cannon of Utah,

States where women have full suffrage; Representative John F. Shafroth

of Colorado--and in the center of this distinguished group, Susan B.

Anthony, receiving the fruits of her half century of toil and

hardship.

MISS REEL: I want to tell you a little about our work in

Wyoming, where women have been voting and holding office for

nearly thirty years, and where our people are convinced that it

has been of great benefit. Our home life there is as sacred and

sweet as anywhere else on the globe. Equal suffrage has been

tried and not found wanting. You may ask, What reforms has

Wyoming to show? We were the first State to adopt the Australian

ballot, and to accept a majority verdict of juries in civil

cases. We are noted for our humane treatment of criminals, our

care of the deserving poor and the education of our young. Child

labor is prohibited. The Supreme Court has just decided that

every voter must be able to read the Constitution in English. We

have night schools all over the State for those who can not

attend school by day. Equal suffrage was given to help protect

the home element, and the home vote is a great conservative

force. Woman suffrage means stable government, anchored in the

steadfast rock of American homes.

Mrs. Conine was commissioned as a delegate to the convention by Gov.

Alva Adams of Colorado. She read the statement recently put forth,

testifying to the good results of equal suffrage and signed by the

Governor, three ex-Governors, all the State Senators and the

Representatives in Congress, the Chief Justice and the Associate

Justices of the Supreme Court, the Judges of the Court of Appeals, the

Judges of the District Court, the Secretary of State, the State

treasurer, auditor, attorney-general, the mayor of Denver, the

presidents of the State University and of Colorado College, the

president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs and the

presidents of thirteen women's clubs, and said:

During the session of the Legislature last winter, there were

three women in the House. We met the other members upon terms of

absolute equality. No thought of incongruity or unfitness seems

to have arisen, and at the same time those little courtesies

which gentlemen instinctively pay to ladies were never omitted.

Each of the ladies was given a chairmanship, one of them that of

the Printing Committee, and the printing bill was lower by

thousands of dollars than for any previous session. The women

were as frequently called to the chair in Committee of the Whole

as were the men. One of them was placed upon the Judiciary

Committee at the request of its chairman. Every honorary

committee appointed during the session included one or more of

the ladies.

Our State Federation of Women's Clubs now numbers about 100,

representing a united membership of 4,000. They are largely

occupied in studying social and economic questions, earnestly

seeking for the best methods of educating their children,

reforming criminals, alleviating poverty and purifying the

ballot; in short, striving to make their city and their State a

cleaner, better home for their families. Their work receives

added encouragement from the knowledge that by their ballots

they may determine who shall make and administer the laws under

which their children must be reared. The home has always been

conceded to be the woman's kingdom. In the free States she has

but expanded the walls of that home, that she may afford to the

inmates, and also to those who unfortunately have no other home,

the same protection and loving care which was formerly limited to

the few short years of childhood passed beneath the parental

roof.

SENATOR TELLER: I want to indorse what has been said by the two

members from Colorado and Wyoming. The former is rather young as

a suffrage State, but we are living side by side with the latter,

where they have had equal suffrage for nearly thirty years. The

results of woman suffrage have proved entirely satisfactory--not

to every individual, but to the great mass of the people: I hear

it said in this city every day that if women are allowed to vote

the best women will not take part. I want to say to you that this

is a mistake. To my certain knowledge, the best women do take

part. When I went back to Colorado, after the granting of equal

suffrage, a prominent society woman, whom I had known for years,

telephoned me to come up and speak to the ladies at her house. I

found her big parlors full of representative women--the wives of

bankers, lawyers, preachers--society women. If you put any duty

upon women they are not going to shirk it. Those who feared the

responsibility are now as enthusiastic as those who had been

"clamoring" for it. In the past, women have had no object in

studying political questions; now they have, and they are taking

them up in their clubs. We find that women are less partisan than

men. Why? Because they generally have more conscience than men.

They will not vote for a dissolute and disreputable man who may

happen to force himself on a party ticket....

We are an intelligent community; we have long had a challenge to

our fellow-citizens to show any other city that has as large a

proportion of college graduates as Denver. Colorado people are

proud of equal suffrage. The area where it prevails spread last

year and took in Utah and Idaho. It will take in more neighboring

States. I predict that in ten years, instead of four suffrage

States, we shall have twice as many--perhaps three or four times

that number.

REPRESENTATIVE SHAFROTH: I want to say this, as coming from

Colorado: The experience we have had ought to demonstrate to

every one that woman suffrage is not only right but practical. It

tends to elevate. There is not a caucus now but is better

attended and by better people, and held in a better place. I have

seen the time when a political convention without a disturbance

and the drawing of weapons was rare. That time is past in

Colorado, and it is due to the presence of women. Every man now

shows that civility which makes him take off his hat and not

swear, and deport himself decently when ladies are present.

Instead of women's going to the polls corrupting them it has

purified the polls. Husband and wife go there together. No one

insults them. There are no drunken men there, nothing but what

is pleasant and decorous.

Woman is an independent element in politics. She has no

allegiance to any party. When a ticket is presented to her, she

asks, "Are these good men?" A man is apt to say, "Well, this is a

bad ticket, but I must stand by my party." He wants to keep his

party record straight. She votes for the best man on the ticket.

That element is bound to result in good in any State.

People say they don't know how it will work; they are afraid of

it. Can it be that we distrust our mothers and sisters? We shall

never have the best possible government till women participate in

it.

SENATOR CANNON: No nation can exist half slave and half free. Ten

years before I was old enough to vote, my mother was a voter. I

learned at her knee to vote according to my conscience, and not

according to the dictation of the bosses. The strongest argument

for the suffrage of any class exists in behalf of womankind,

because women will not be bound by mere partisanship. If the

world is to be redeemed, it must be by the conscience of the

individual voter. The woman goes to the truth by instinct. Men

have to confer together and go down street and look through

glasses darkly. The woman stays at home and rocks the cradle, and

God tells her what to do. The suffrage never was abused by women

in Utah. During the seventeen years that they voted in the

Territory there was not a defalcation in any public office.

I believe in the republic. I believe that its destiny is to shed

light not only here, but all over the world. If we can trust

woman in the house to keep all pure and holy there, so that the

little ones may grow up right, surely we can trust her at the

ballot-box. When children learn political wisdom and truth from

their mother's lips, they will remember it and live up to it; for

those lessons are the longest remembered. When Senator Teller

withdrew from a political convention for conscience's sake, a man

said, commenting on his action: "It is generally safe to stay

with your party." His wife said: "And it is always safe to stay

with your principles."

In the midst of the convention came the sad news on February 17 of the

death of Miss Frances E. Willard, president of the National Woman's

Christian Temperance Union. Affectionate tributes were offered by Miss

Anthony, Miss Shaw and other members; a telegram of sympathy was sent

to her secretary and close companion, Miss Anna Gordon, by a rising

vote, and the audience remained standing for a few moments in silent

prayer. A large wreath of violets and Southern ivy, adorned with

miniatures of Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony and other pioneer suffrage

workers was sent by the delegates to be laid on her coffin.

The congressional hearings on the morning of February 15, Miss

Anthony's birthday, attracted crowds of people to the Capitol. The

hearing before the Senate Committee was conducted by the Rev. Anna

Howard Shaw, and considered The Philosophy of the Movement for Woman

Suffrage. Only two members of the committee were present--James H.

Berry of Arkansas, and George P. Wetmore of Rhode Island--but a number

of other senators were interested listeners, and the large Marble Room

was crowded with delegates and spectators. The first paper, by Wm.

Lloyd Garrison (Mass.) considered The Nature of a Republican Form of

Government:

The advocates of complete enfranchisement of women base their

demand upon the principles underlying all suffrage, rather than

upon the question of sex. If manhood suffrage is a mistake; if

voting is a privilege and not a right; if government does not

derive its just powers from the consent of the governed; if

Lincoln's aphorism that ours is a "government of the people, for

the people and by the people" is only a rhetorical generality,

then women have no case. If not, they see no reason why, as they

are governed, they should not have a voice in choosing their

rulers; why, as people, they are not covered by Lincoln's

definition. They feel naturally that their exclusion is unjust.

Woman suffragists are not unconscious of the glaring contrast

between declared principles and actual practice, and they venture

to believe that a professed self-government which deliberately

ignores its own axioms is tending to decadence. They are not

unmindful of the slow evolution of human government from earliest

history, beginning in force and greed, reaching through struggles

of blood, in the course of time, to the legislative stage where

differences are adjudicated by reason, and the sword reserved as

the last resort. This vantage ground has been gained only by a

recognition of the primal right of the people to be consulted in

regard to public affairs; and in proportion as this right has

been respected and the franchise extended has government grown

more stable and society more safe. It has come through a

succession of steps, invariably opposed by the dominant classes,

and only permitted after long contest and a changed public

opinion.

In England, where the progress of constitutional government can

be most accurately traced, there was a time when the landowning

aristocracy controlled the franchise and elected the members of

Parliament. The dawn of a sense of injustice in the minds of the

mercantile classes brought with it a demand for the extension of

the suffrage, which was of course vigorously combated. It was an

illogical resistance, which ended in the admission of the

tradesmen. Later the workingmen awakened to their political

disability and asserted their rights, only to be promptly

antagonized by both classes in power. Eventually logic and

justice won in this issue. In the light of history none of the

objections urged against the extension of the right of voting

have been sustained by subsequent facts. On the contrary, the

broadening of the suffrage base has been found to add stability

to the superstructure of British government and to have been in

the interest of true conservatism.

In the course of time the woman's hour has struck. Her cause is

now going through the same ordeal suffered by the classes

referred to. Her triumph is as sure as theirs. The social and

industrial changes of constitutional government in all countries

have revolutionized her condition. Fifty years ago the avenues of

employment open to women were few and restricted. To-day, in

every branch of manufacture and trade, and in the professions

formerly monopolized by men, they are actively and successfully

engaged. Every law put upon the statute books affects their

interests directly and indirectly--undreamed of in a social order

where household drudgery and motherhood limited a woman's

horizon.

It is inevitable, therefore, that, feeling the pressure of

legislation under which they suffer, a new intelligence should

stir the minds of women such as stirred the once disfranchised

classes of men in Great Britain. It leads to an examination of

the principles of self-government and to their application on

lines of equality and not of sex. In them is found no

justification for the present enforced political disability.

Therefore all legislative bodies vested with the power to change

the laws are petitioned to consider the justice and expediency of

allowing women to register their opinions, on the same terms with

men, at the ballot-box.

The principles at stake are rarely alluded to by the opponents of

woman suffrage. The battle rages chiefly upon the ground of

expediency. Every argument formerly used by the English Tories is

to-day heard in the mouths of men who profess a belief in a

democratic form of government....

In the discussion of the rights of labor, the inadequacy of

wages, the abuses of the factory system, the management of

schools, of reformatory and penal institutions, the sanitary

arrangements of a city, the betterment of public highways, the

encroachment of privileged corporations, the supervision of the

poor, the improvement of hospitals, and the many branches of

collective housekeeping included in a municipality--women are by

nature and education adapted to participate. In many States,

certainly in Massachusetts, it is a common practice to appoint

women to responsible positions demanding large organizing and

directing power. If thus fitted to rule, are women unfitted to

have a voice in choosing rulers?

The true advancement of common interest waits for the active and

responsible participation of women in political matters. Indirect

and irresponsible influence they have now, but indirection and

irresponsibility are dangerous elements in governments which

assume to be representative, and are a constant menace. If this

whole question of equal political rights of women is considered

in the light of common sense and common justice, the sooner will

the present intolerable wrong be wiped out and self-government be

put upon a broader and safer basis.

Mrs. May Wright Sewall (Ind.) discussed the Fitness of Women to Become

Citizens from the Standpoint of Education and Mental Development.

From the close of the Revolution, we find all the distinguished

American patriots expressing the conviction that a self-governing

people must be an educated people. Hancock, Jay, Franklin,

Morris, Paine, Quincy Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Washington, all

urge the same argument in support of education. It is no longer

to produce an educated ministry, but to insure educated citizens,

that schools are maintained and colleges multiplied....

In this year of 1897-98 not less than 20,000,000 pupils and

students of all ages, from the toddlers in the kindergartens to

the full-grown candidates for post-graduate honors, are

registered in the schools, academies, colleges and universities

of the United States. The average length of time which girls

spend in school exceeds by nearly three years the average length

of time which boys stay there; while the number of girls

graduating from high-school courses, those which include United

States history and civil government, is almost double the number

of boys. Thus, at the present time, largely more than one-half of

the moneys spent by the governments, local and national, in

support of free schools, is used in the education of girls. By

what authority does the Government tax its citizens to support

schools for the education of millions of women to whom, after

they have received the education declared necessary to

citizenship, this is denied?

Is it urged that the Government gets its return upon its

investment in the education of women through the increased

intelligence with which women rear their children, manage their

homes and conduct the larger social affairs outside the boundary

of their home life? I have no disposition to diminish the

Government's recognition of such return, but I wish to remind you

that no one has ever justified the maintenance of public schools,

and an enforced attendance upon them, on the theory that the

Government has a right to compel _men_ to be agreeable husbands

and wise fathers, or that it is responsible for teaching _men_

how to conduct their own business with discretion and judgment.

Quite in another tone is it urged that the schools are the

fountains of the nation's liberties and that a government whose

policy is decided by a majority of the votes cast by its men is

not safe in the hands of uneducated voters. ....It is the

political life of our nation which stands in the sorest need; yet

this is the only department of our national life which rejects

the aid of women.

If intelligence is vital to good citizenship in a republic, it

would seem that, to justify the exclusion of the present

generation of American women, whose intelligence is bought at so

high a price and at the expense of the whole people, there must

be some proof that they have qualities which so vitiate it as to

render it unserviceable. Such proof has never yet been presented.

At the present moment the education and the intellectual culture

of American women has reached a plane where its further

development is a menace, unless it is to be accompanied by the

direct responsibility of its possessors--a responsibility which

in a republic can be felt only by those who participate directly

in the election of public officers and in the shaping of public

policies.

The Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer (R. I.) considered the Fitness of Women

to Become Citizens from the Standpoint of Moral Development.

Government is not now merely the coarse and clumsy instrument by

which military and police forces are directed; it is the

flexible, changing and delicately adjusted instrument of many and

varied educative, charitable and supervisory functions, and the

tendency to increase the functions of government is a growing

one. Prof. Lester F. Ward says: "Government is becoming more and

more the organ of the social consciousness and more and more the

servant of the social will." The truth of this is shown in the

modern public school system; in the humane and educative care of

dependent, defective and wayward children; in the increasingly

discriminating and wise treatment of the insane, the pauper, the

tramp and the poverty-bound; in the provisions for public parks,

baths and amusement places; in the bureaus of investigation and

control and the appointment of officers of inspection to secure

better sanitary and moral conditions; in the board of arbitration

for the settlement of political and labor difficulties; and in

the almost innumerable committees and bills, national, State and

local, to secure higher social welfare for all classes,

especially for the weaker and more ignorant. Government can never

again shrink and harden into a mere mechanism of military and

penal control.

It is, moreover, increasingly apparent that for these wider and

more delicate functions a higher order of electorate, ethically

as well as intellectually advanced, is necessary. Democracy can

succeed only by securing for its public service, through the rule

of the majority, the best leadership and administration the State

affords. Only a wise electorate will know how to select such

leadership, and only a highly moral one will authoritatively

choose such....

When the State took the place of family bonds and tribal

relationships, and the social consciousness was born and began

its long travel toward the doctrine of "equality of human rights"

in government and the principle of human brotherhood in social

organization, man, as the family and tribal organizer and ruler,

of course took command of the march. It was inevitable, natural

and beneficent so long as the State concerned itself with only

the most external and mechanical of social interests. The

instant, however, the State took upon itself any form of

educative, charitable or personally helpful work, it entered the

area of distinctive feminine training and power, and therefore

became in need of the service of woman. Wherever the State

touches the personal life of the infant, the child, the youth, or

the aged, helpless, defective in mind, body or moral nature,

there the State enters "woman's peculiar sphere," her sphere of

motherly succor and training, her sphere of sympathetic and

self-sacrificing ministration to individual lives. If the service

of women is not won to such governmental action (not only through

"influence or the shaping of public opinion," but through

definite and authoritative exercise), the mother-office of the

State, now so widely adopted, will be too often planned and

administered as though it were an external, mechanical and

abstract function, instead of the personal, organic and practical

service which all right helping of individuals must be.

In so far as motherhood has given to women a distinctive ethical

development, it is that of sympathetic personal insight

respecting the needs of the weak and helpless, and of

quick-witted, flexible adjustment of means to ends in the

physical, mental and moral training of the undeveloped. And thus

far has motherhood fitted women to give a service to the modern

State which men can not altogether duplicate....

Whatever problems might have been involved in the question of

woman's place in the State when government was purely military,

legal and punitive have long since been antedated. Whatever

problems might have inhered in that question when women were

personally subject to their families or their husbands are

well-nigh outgrown in all civilized countries, and entirely so in

the most advanced. Woman's nonentity in the political department

of the State is now an anachronism and inconsistent with the

prevailing tendencies of social growth....

The earth is ready, the time is ripe, for the authoritative

expression of the feminine as well as the masculine

interpretation of that common social consciousness which is

slowly writing justice in the State and fraternity in the social

order.

Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) illustrated the Fitness of Women to Become

Citizens from the Standpoint of Physical Development.

Among the objections brought against the extension of suffrage to

women, that of their physical unfitness to perform military

duties is the most plausible, because in the popular mind there

is an idea that the right of casting a ballot is in its final

analysis dependent upon the ability to defend it with a

bullet....

It is by no means self-evident that women are naturally unfitted

for fighting or are unwarlike in disposition. The traditions of

Amazons and the conduct of savage women give room to believe that

the instinct for war was primitively very much the same in both

sexes. Though the earliest division of labor among savages known

to us is that of assigning war and the chase to men, yet we have

no reason to believe that this was done by way of privilege to

women; but in the struggle for tribal supremacy that tribe must

have ultimately survived and succeeded best which exposed its

women the least. Polygamy, universal among primitive races, could

in a degree sustain population against the ravages among men of

continual warfare, but any large destruction of women must

extinguish a tribe that suffered it. So those tribes which

earliest engrafted among their customs the exclusion of women

from war were the ones that finally survived....

Military genius among women has appeared in all ages and people,

as in Deborah, Zenobia, Joan of Arc and our own Anna Ella

Carroll. The prowess of women has often been conspicuous in

besieged cities. Our early history of Indian warfare recounts

many of their valiant deeds. It is well known that in the late

war many women on both sides eluded the vigilance of recruiting

officers, enlisted and fought bravely. Who knows how many of such

women there might have been if their enlistment had been desired

and stimulated by beat of drum and blare of trumpet and "all the

pomp and circumstance of glorious war?" But no State can afford

to accept military service from its women, for while a nation may

live for ages without soldiers, it could exist but for a span

without mothers. Since woman's exemption from war is not an

un-bought privilege, it is evident that in justice men have no

superior rights as citizens on that account.

It is an equally fallacious idea that sound expediency demands

that every ballot shall be defended by a bullet. The theory of

representative government does not admit of any connection

between military service and the right and duty of suffrage, even

among men. It is trite to point out that the age required for

military service begins at eighteen years, when a man is too

young to vote, and ends at forty-five years, when he is usually

in the prime of his usefulness as a citizen. Some very slight

physical defects will incapacitate a man under the usual

recruiting rules. Many lawyers, judges, physicians, ministers,

merchants, editors, authors, legislators and Congressmen are

exempt on the ground of physical incapacity. A citizen's ability

to help govern by voting is in no manner proportioned to ability

to bear arms....

In the finest conception of government not only is there room for

women to take part, but it can not be realized without help from

them. Men alone possess only a half of human wisdom; women

possess the other half of it, and a half that must always be

somewhat different from men's, because women must always see from

a somewhat different point of view. The wisdom of men must be

supplemented by that of women to discover the whole of

governmental truth. Women's help is equally indispensable in

persuading society to love and obey law. This help is very

largely given now, or civilization as we know it would be

impossible. But the best interests of society demand that women's

present indirect and half-conscious influence shall be

strengthened by the right of suffrage, so that their sense of

duty to government may be stimulated by a clear perception of the

connection which exists between power and responsibility.

Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch (Eng.) treated of Woman as an Economic

Factor.

It is often urged that women stand greatly in need of training in

citizenship before being finally received into the body

politic.... As a matter of fact women are the first class who

have asked the right of citizenship after their ability for

political life has been proved. I have seen in my time two

enormous extensions of the suffrage to men--one in America and

one in England. But neither the negroes in the South nor the

agricultural laborers in Great Britain had shown before they got

the ballot any capacity for government; for they had never had

the opportunity to take the first steps in political action. Very

different has been the history of the march of women toward a

recognized position in the State. We have had to prove our

ability at each stage of progress, and have gained nothing

without having satisfied a test of capacity....

The public demand for "proved worth" suggests what appears to me

the chief and most convincing argument upon which our future

claims must rest--the growing recognition of the economic value

of the work of women.... There has been a marked change in the

estimate of our position as wealth producers. We have never been

"supported" by men; for if all men labored hard every hour of the

twenty-four, they could not do all the work of the world. A few

worthless women there are, but even they are not so much

supported by the men of their family as by the overwork of the

"sweated" women at the other end of the social ladder. From

creation's dawn our sex has done its full share of the world's

work; sometimes we have been paid for it, but oftener not.

Unpaid work never commands respect; it is the paid worker who has

brought to the public mind conviction of woman's worth. The

spinning and weaving done by our great-grandmothers in their own

homes was not reckoned as national wealth until the work was

carried to the factory and organized there; and the women who

followed their work were paid according to its commercial value.

It is the women of the industrial class, the wage-earners,

reckoned by the hundreds of thousands, and not by units, the

women whose work has been submitted to a money test, who have

been the means of bringing about the altered attitude of public

opinion toward woman's work in every sphere of life.

If we would recognize the democratic side of our cause, and make

an organized appeal to industrial women on the ground of their

need of citizenship, and to the nation on the ground of its need

that all wealth producers should form part of its body politic,

the close of the century might witness the building up of a true

republic in the United States.

Mrs. Florence Kelley, State Factory Inspector of Illinois, showed the

Working Woman's Need of the Ballot.

No one needs all the powers of the fullest citizenship more

urgently than the wage-earning woman, and from two different

points of view--that of actual money wages and that of her wider

needs as a human being and a member of the community.

The wages paid any body of working people are determined by many

influences, chief among which is the position of the particular

body of workers in question. Thus the printers, by their

intelligence, their powerful organization, their solidarity and

united action, keep up their wages in spite of the invasion of

their domain by new and improved machinery. On the other hand,

the garment-workers, the sweaters' victims, poor, unorganized,

unintelligent, despised, remain forever on the verge of

pauperism, irrespective of their endless toil. If, now, by some

untoward fate the printers should suddenly find themselves

disfranchised, placed in a position in which their members were

politically inferior to the members of other trades, no effort of

their own short of complete enfranchisement could restore to them

that prestige, that good standing in the esteem of their

fellow-craftsmen and the public at large which they now enjoy,

and which contributes materially in support of their demand for

high wages.

In the garment trades, on the other hand, the presence of a body

of the disfranchised, of the weak and young, undoubtedly

contributes to the economic weakness of these trades. Custom,

habit, tradition, the regard of the public, both employing and

employed, for the people who do certain kinds of labor,

contribute to determine the price of that labor, and no

disfranchised class of workers can permanently hold its own in

competition with enfranchised rivals. But this works both ways.

It is fatal for any body of workers to have forever hanging from

the fringes of its skirts other bodies on a level just below its

own; for that means continual pressure downward, additional

difficulty to be overcome in the struggle to maintain reasonable

rates of wages. Hence, within the space of two generations there

has been a complete revolution in the attitude of the

trades-unions toward the women working in their trades. Whereas

forty years ago women might have knocked in vain at the doors of

the most enlightened trade-union, to-day the Federation of Labor

keeps in the field paid organizers whose duty it is to enlist in

the unions as many women as possible. The workingmen have

perceived that women are in the field of industry to stay; and

they see, too, that there can not be two standards of work and

wages for any trade without constant menace to the higher

standard. Hence their effort to place the women upon the same

industrial level with themselves in order that all may pull

together in the effort to maintain reasonable conditions of life.

But this same menace holds with regard to the vote. The lack of

the ballot places the wage-earning woman upon a level of

irresponsibility compared with her enfranchised fellow

workingman. By impairing her standing in the community the

general rating of her value as a human being, and consequently as

a worker, is lowered. In order to be rated as good as a good man

in the field of her earnings, she must show herself better than

he. She must be more steady, or more trustworthy, or more

skilled, or more cheap in order to have the same chance of

employment. Thus, while women are accused of lowering wages,

might they not justly reply that it is only by conceding

something from the pay which they would gladly claim, that they

can hold their own in the market, so long as they labor under the

disadvantage of disfranchisement?...

Finally, the very fact that women now form about one-fifth of the

employes in manufacture and commerce in this country has opened a

vast field of industrial legislation directly affecting women as

wage-earners. The courts in some of the States, notably in

Illinois, are taking the position that women can not be treated

as a class apart and legislated for by themselves, as has been

done in the factory laws of England and on the continent of

Europe, but must abide by that universal freedom of contract

which characterizes labor in the United States. This renders the

situation of the working woman absolutely anomalous. On the one

hand, she is cut off from the protection awarded to her sisters

abroad; on the other, she has no such power to defend her

interests at the polls, as is the heritage of her brothers at

home. This position is untenable, and there can be no pause in

the agitation for full political power and responsibility until

these are granted to all the women of the nation.

Mrs. Mariana W. Chapman (N. Y.) spoke from the standpoint of Women as

Capitalists and Taxpayers.

The first impulse toward the organization of women to protect

their own rights came from the injustice of laws toward married

women, and in 1848 it manifested itself in the first Woman's

Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. Slowly the leaven spread.

There was agitation in one State after the other about the

property rights of women.... Now in many States married as well

as single women are proprietors of business enterprises upon the

same basis as men, and are interested as capitalists and

tax-payers in every law which affects the country industrially or

financially.

In 1894 a careful copy was made of the women taxpayers of

Brooklyn. Names with initials were not placed on the list, so

that the total was probably under rather than over estimated.

This showed 22.03 or nearly one-fourth of all the assessable

realty in the names of women, amounting to $110,000,000, besides

many large estates in which they were interested. In 1896 the

assessed value of real estate in the State of New York was

$4,506,985,694, which, if estimated in the same ratio, would give

taxable property owned by women to the extent of $1,124,221,423.

They are agriculturally interested, inasmuch as they are

frequently owners of large tracts of land in the West as well as

of smaller farms in our Eastern States. What shall we say to a

Government that gives land in severalty to the Indian, supplies

him with tools and rations, puts a ballot in his hand, and then

says to the American woman who purchases the same right to land,

"You shall not have the political privileges of American

citizenship?" Under the laws of our country every stock company

is obliged to give men and women shareholders a vote upon the

same basis, and one fails to see why a government, which

professedly exists to maintain the rights of the people, should

practice in its own dealing such flaunting injustice....

Women help to support every public institution in the State and

should have representation upon every board, and in the laws

which control them. They help to pay the army pensions and should

be allowed to help in deciding how much shall be paid. They help

to pay for standing armies and for navies and they have the

larger part in the nurture and training of every man who is in

army or navy, and this is not the smaller part of the tax, since

it is at times the matter of a life for a life. Women pay their

part of the taxes to support our public schools and have intense

interests in their well-doing. Twenty-six States have recognized

this fact and have given to women some kind of School Suffrage,

one has granted Municipal Suffrage and four Full Political

Equality; but this is only a fraction of the justice which

belongs to a government founded by statesmen whose watchword was,

"No taxation without representation."

Miss Elizabeth Burrill Curtis (N. Y.) answered the question, Are Women

Represented in our Government?

"Taxation without representation is tyranny" was one of the

slogans of liberty in this country one hundred and twenty years

ago. Have we outlived this principle? If not, why is it supposed

to have no application to women?

That a century ago the latter were not thought of as having any

rights under this motto is not surprising. So few women then held

property in their own name that the injustice done them was not

so apparent. But the situation is changed now, and the right of

women to be considered as individuals is everywhere acknowledged

save in this one particular. Even those who feel that the

granting of universal male suffrage was a mistake, and that the

right to self-government should be proved by some test,

educational or otherwise--even those do not assert that it would

be anything but gross injustice to tax men without allowing them

a voice in the disposal of their money....

But there is still another side to the question. It is not only

that the disfranchised women are unfairly treated, but the public

good inevitably suffers from the political nonexistence of half

the citizens of the republic. Either women are interested in

politics or they are not. If the former, the country is

distinctly injured, for nothing is more fatal to good government

than the intermeddling of a large body of people who have never

studied the questions at issue and whose only interest is a

personal one. If, on the other hand, women are not interested in

politics, what is the condition of that country, half of whose

citizens do not care whether it be well or ill governed? That

women influence men is never denied, even by the most strenuous

opponents of woman suffrage. It is, on the contrary, most

violently asserted by those very people; but of what value is

that interest if woman is utterly ignorant of one of the most

important duties of a man's life?...

On one hand the public good demands that no class of citizens be

arbitrarily prevented from serving the commonweal; and on the

other hand thinking and patriotic women are crying against the

injustice which forbids them to prove their fitness for

self-government. What shall be the result of this double demand?

Woman Suffrage and the Home was the topic of Henry B. Blackwell

(Mass.).

One of the objections to extending suffrage to women is a fear

that its exercise will divert their attention from domestic

pursuits, and diminish their devotion to husband, children and

home. We believe, on the contrary, that it will increase domestic

happiness by giving women greater self-respect and greater

respect and consideration from men.

People who make this objection seem to regard the conjugal and

maternal instincts as artificial, as the result of education and

circumstances, losing sight of the fact that these qualities are

innate in the feminine soul. Mental cultivation and larger views

of life do not tend to make women less womanly any more than they

tend to make men less manly. No one imagines that business or

politics diminishes or destroys the conjugal and paternal

instinct in men. We do not look for dull or idle or indolent men

as husbands for our daughters. Ignorant, narrow-minded men do not

make the best husbands and fathers. Ignorant, narrow-minded women

do not make the best wives and mothers. Mental discipline and

intelligent responsibility add strength to the conjugal and

parental sentiment alike in men and women....

But fortunately this is no longer a question of theory. We appeal

to the experience of the four States which have extended equal

suffrage to women. Wyoming has had complete woman suffrage since

1869. For twenty-nine years, as a Territory and a State, women

have voted there in larger ratio than men. Supreme Judge J. W.

Kingman many years ago testified that the actual proportion of

men voting had increased to 80 per cent., but that 90 per cent.

of the women went to the polls. And now, after a generation of

continuous voting, the percentage of divorces in Wyoming is

smaller than in the surrounding States where women do not vote,

and while the percentage in the latter is rapidly increasing, in

Wyoming it is steadily diminishing. Where women have once voted

the right has never been taken away by the people. In Utah women

voted for seventeen years while it was a Territory, until

Congress abolished it for political reasons. But when Utah was

about to be admitted to statehood the men in framing their

constitution restored the suffrage to women. Would they have done

so if it had proved injurious to their homes? Impossible! You

have eight Senators and seven Representatives in Congress from

the four States where women have the full franchise. Ask them if

it has demoralized their homes or the homes of their

fellow-citizens, and your fears, if you have any, will be forever

set at rest....

Believe me, gentlemen, it is not patriotism, it is not a passion

for justice, it is not loyalty to sister women, it is not a

desire to better her country, which will make a woman neglect her

husband. Society women, superficial, selfish, silly women, the

butterflies of the ballroom, the seekers for every new sensation,

the worldly-minded aspirants for social position, these are the

women who neglect their homes; and not the brave, earnest,

serious-minded, generous, unselfish women who ask for the ballot

in order by its use to make the world better. In the twentieth

century, already dawning, we shall have a republican family in a

republican nation, a true democracy, a government of the people,

by the people and for the people, men and women co-operating

harmoniously on terms of absolute equality in the home and in the

State.

The Senate Hearing closed with the paper of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady

Stanton on the Significance and History of the Ballot, which was in

part as follows:

The recent bills on Immigration, by Senators Lodge of

Massachusetts and Kyle of South Dakota, indirectly affect the

interests of woman. Their proposition to demand a reading and

writing qualification on landing strikes me as arbitrary and

equally detrimental to our mutual interests. The danger is not in

their landing and living in this country, but in their speedy

appearance at the ballot-box and there becoming an impoverished

and ignorant balance of power in the hands of wily politicians.

While we should not allow our country to be a dumping ground for

the refuse population of the Old World, still we should welcome

all hardy, common-sense laborers here, as we have plenty of room

and work for them. Here they can improve their own condition and

our surroundings, developing our immense resources and the

commerce of the country. The one demand I would make in regard to

this class is that they should not become a part of our ruling

power until they can read and write the English language

intelligently and understand the principles of republican

government. This is the only restrictive legislation we need to

protect ourselves against foreign domination. To this end the

Congress should enact a law for "educated suffrage" for our

native-born as well as foreign rulers.

With free schools and compulsory education, no one has an excuse

for not understanding the language of the country. As women are

governed by a "male aristocracy," they are doubly interested in

having their rulers able at least to read and write. See with

what care in the Old World the prospective heirs to the throne

are educated. There was a time when the members of the British

Parliament could neither read nor write, but these

accomplishments are now required of the Lords and Commons, and

even of the King and Queen, while we have rulers, native and

foreign, who do not understand the letters of the alphabet; and

this in a republic supposed to be based on intelligence of the

people!

Much as we need this measure for the stability of our Government,

we need it still more for the best interests of women. This

ignorant vote is solid against woman's emancipation. In States

where amendments to their constitutions are proposed for the

enfranchisement of women, this vote has been in every case

against them. We should ask for national protection against this

hostile force playing football with the most sacred rights of

one-half of the people.... In all national conflicts it is ever

deemed the most grievous accident of war for the conquered people

to find themselves under a foreign yoke, yet this is the position

of the women of this republic to-day. Foreigners are our judges

and jurors, our legislators and municipal officials, and decide

all questions of interest to us, even to the discipline in our

schools, charitable institutions and prisons. Woman has no voice

as to the education of her children or the environments of the

unhappy wards of the State. The love and sympathy of the

mother-soul have but an evanescent influence in all departments

of human interest until coined into law by the hand that holds

the ballot. Then only do they become a direct and effective power

in the Government....

The popular objection to woman suffrage is that it would "double

the ignorant vote." The patent answer to this is, "Abolish the

ignorant vote." Our legislators have this power in their own

hands. There have been serious restrictions in the past for men.

We are willing to abide by the same for women, provided the

insurmountable qualification of sex be forever removed. Some of

the opponents talk as if educated suffrage would be invidious to

the best interests of the laboring masses, whereas it would be

most beneficial in its ultimate influence.... Surely when we

compel all classes to learn to read and write and thus open to

themselves the door to knowledge, not by force, but by the

promise of a privilege which all intelligent citizens enjoy, we

are benefactors and not tyrants. To stimulate them to climb the

first rounds of the ladder that they may reach the divine heights

where they shall be as gods, knowing good and evil, by

withholding the citizen's right to vote for a few years is a

blessing to them as well as to the State.

We must inspire our people with a new sense of their sacred

duties as citizens of a republic, and place new guards around our

ballot-box. Walking in Paris one day I was greatly impressed with

an emblematic statue in the square Chateau d'Eau, placed there in

1883 in honor of the republic. On one side is a magnificent

bronze lion with his fore paw on the electoral urn, which answers

to our ballot-box, as if to guard it from all unholy uses.... As

I turned away I thought of the American republic and our

ballot-box with no guardian or sacred reverence for its contents.

Ignorance, poverty and vice have full access; thousands from

every incoming steamer go practically from the steerage to the

polls, while educated women, representing the virtue and

intelligence of the nation, are driven away. I would like to see

a monument to "educated suffrage" in front of our national

Capitol, guarded by the goddess Minerva, her right hand resting

on the ballot-box, her left hand on the spelling book, the

Declaration of Rights and the Federal Constitution. It would be

well for us to ponder the Frenchman's idea, but instead of the

royal lion, representing force to guard the sacred urn, let us

substitute wisdom and virtue in the form of Woman.

The Washington _Star_ said of the hearing before the House Judiciary

Committee:

The members paid a tribute to the devotion of the woman

suffragists, and at the same time showed appreciation of it by

nearly all being in attendance at the hearing this morning. It is

seldom that more than a quorum of any committee can be induced to

attend a hearing of any sort. To-day fifteen out of seventeen

members were present and manifested a deep interest in the

remarks submitted by the women. The character of the assemblage

was one to inspire respect, and the force and intelligence of

what was said warranted the attention and interest shown. The

people who not many years ago thought that every woman suffragist

was a masculine creature who "wanted to wear the pants" would

have been greatly embarrassed in their theories had they been

present at the hearing to-day. There was not a mannish-appearing

woman among the number. It was such an assemblage as may be seen

at a popular church on Sunday, or at a fashionable afternoon

reception. In fact there was not anywhere such an affectation of

masculinity as is common among the society women of the period.

Each year there have appeared more young women at these hearings,

and the average of youth seemed greater to-day than ever before.

Fashionably attired and in good taste, representative of the

highest grade of American womanhood, the fifty or sixty women

present inspired respect for their opinions without destroying

the sentiment of gallantry which men generally feel that they

must extend towards women.

The speakers before this committee[115] presented The Practical

Working of Woman Suffrage. Miss Anthony introduced them. Limited

Suffrage in the United States was discussed by Prof. Ellen H. E. Price

of Swarthmore College, Penn., whose address was rendered especially

valuable by a carefully compiled table of statistics showing the

amount of suffrage possessed by women in every State and Territory.

Municipal Suffrage in Kansas was described by J. W. Gleed; Woman

Suffrage in Wyoming by ex-U. S. Senator Joseph M. Carey; Woman

Suffrage in Colorado by the Hon. Martha A. B. Conine, member of its

State Legislature; Woman Suffrage in Idaho by Wm. Balderston, editor

of the Boise _Statesman_; Woman Suffrage in Foreign Countries by Miss

Helen Blackburn, editor _The Englishwomen's Review_.[116] Woman

Suffrage in Utah was depicted by State Senator Martha Hughes Cannon:

....The history of the struggle in Utah for equal rights is full

of interest and could be recounted with advantage. But, after

all, the results which have been attained speak with such

unerring logic, and vindicate so thoroughly the argument that

woman should take part in the affairs of government which so

vitally affect her, that I point to the actual conditions now

existing as a complete vindication of the efforts of equal

suffragists, and as the most cogent of all reasons why woman

should have the right to aid in nominating and electing our

public officers.

I can say, in all sincerity, that there is a strong and

cumulative evidence that even those who opposed equal suffrage

with the greatest ability and vehemence would not now vote for

the repeal of the measure. The practical working of the law

demonstrates its wisdom and verifies the claims which were

advanced by its ardent advocates. It has proved to the world that

woman is not only a helpmeet by the fireside, but when allowed to

do so she can become a most powerful factor in the affairs of the

Government.

None of the unpleasant results which were predicted have

occurred. The contentions in families, the tarnishment of woman's

charm, the destruction of ideals, have all been proved to be but

the ghosts of unfounded prejudices. "The divinity which doth

hedge woman about like subtle perfume" has not been displaced.

Women have quietly assumed the added power which always was

theirs by right, and with the grace and ready adaptation to

circumstances peculiar to the women of America, they have so

conducted themselves that they have gained admiration and respect

while losing none of their old-time prestige.

Before suffrage was granted to women they had ideas upon public

questions. Suffrage has given them opportunity for practical

expression of these views. They pay more attention to political

affairs. They studied political economy more earnestly. They

familiarize themselves with public questions, and their mistakes,

if they have made any, have not thus far been brought to light.

Women have acted as delegates to county and State conventions,

and represented Utah in the national convention of one of the

great political parties, held in Chicago in 1896. They have acted

upon political committees and have taken part in political

management, and, instead of being dragged down, as was most

feared, their enfranchisement has tended to elevate them. Under

our system of the Australian ballot, they have found that the

contaminating influence of which they had been told was but a

bugbear, born of fright, produced by shadows. They learned that

to deposit their vote did not subject them to anything like the

annoyance which they often experienced from crowds on "bargain

days," while their presence drove from the polls the ward workers

who had been so obnoxious in the past.

Through the courtesy of the Governor and the approval of the

Senate they have been given places upon various State boards, and

in the last Legislature, in both the Senate and the House, they

represented the two most populous and wealthy counties of Utah.

The bills introduced by women received due consideration, and a

majority were enacted into laws. Whatever they have been required

to do they have done to the full satisfaction of their

constituents, and they have proved most careful and painstaking

public officers.

No one in Utah will dispute the statements I have made. To the

people of that young commonwealth, destined by its manifold

resources and the intelligence of its men and women to become the

Empire State of the Rocky Mountains, I refer you, in the fullest

confidence that, with scarcely a dissenting voice, they will say

that woman suffrage is no longer an experiment, but is a

practical reality, tending to the well-being of the State.

Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, national recording secretary, took for a

subject The Indifference of Women:

It is often said that the chief obstacle to equal suffrage is the

indifference and opposition of women, and that whenever the

majority ask for the ballot they will get it. But it is a simple

historical fact that every improvement thus far made in their

condition has been secured, not by a general demand from the

majority, but by the arguments, entreaties and "continual coming"

of a persistent few. In each case the advocates of progress have

had to contend not merely with the conservatism of men, but with

the indifference of women, and often with active opposition from

some of them.

When a man in Saco, Me., first employed a saleswoman the men

boycotted his store, and the women remonstrated with him on the

sin of which he was guilty in placing a young woman in a position

of such publicity. When Lucy Stone tried to secure for married

women the right to their own property, they asked with scorn, "Do

you think I would give myself where I would not give my

property?" When Elizabeth Blackwell began to study medicine, the

women at her boarding house refused to speak to her, and those

passing her on the streets would hold their skirts aside so as

not to touch her. It is a matter of history with what ridicule

and opposition Mary Lyon's first efforts for the education of

women were received, not only by the mass of men, but by the mass

of women as well. In England when the Oxford examinations were

thrown open to women, the Dean of Chichester preached a sermon

against it, in which he said: "By the sex at large, certainly,

the new curriculum is not asked for. I have ascertained, by

extended inquiry among gentlewomen, that, with true feminine

instinct, they either entirely distrust or else look with

downright disfavor on so wild an innovation and interference with

the best traditions of their sex." Pundita Ramabai tells us that

the idea of education for girls is so unpopular with the majority

of Hindoo women that when a progressive Hindoo proposes to

educate his little daughter it is not uncommon for the women of

his family to threaten to drown themselves.

All this merely shows that human nature is conservative, and that

it is fully as conservative in women as in men. The persons who

take a strong interest in any reform are always comparatively

few, whether among men or women, and they are habitually regarded

with disfavor, even by those whom the proposed reform is to

benefit. Thomas Hughes says, in School Days at Rugby: "So it is,

and must be always, my dear boys. If the Angel Gabriel were to

come down from heaven and head a successful rise against the most

abominable and unrighteous vested interest which this poor old

world groans under, he would most certainly lose his character

for many years, probably for centuries, not only with the

upholders of the said vested interest, but with the respectable

mass of the people whom he had delivered."

Many changes for the better have been made during the last half

century in the laws, written and unwritten, relating to women.

Everybody approves of these changes now, because they have become

accomplished facts. But not one of them would have been made to

this day if it had been necessary to wait until the majority of

women asked for it. The change now under discussion is to be

judged on its merits. In the light of history the indifference of

most women and the opposition of a few must be taken as a matter

of course. It has no more rational significance than it has had

in regard to each previous step of woman's progress.

Miss Anthony closed with an impassioned argument which profoundly

moved both the committee and the audience. The chairman said that in

all the years there had never been so dignified, logical and perfectly

managed a hearing before the Judiciary, and several of its members

corroborated this statement and assured the ladies present of a full

belief in the justice of their cause. Yet neither the Senate nor the

House Committee made any report or paid the slightest heed to these

earnest and eloquent appeals.

FOOTNOTES:

[112] The Sunday afternoon preceding the convention religious services

were held in the theatre, which was crowded. The sermon was given by

the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, from the text, "One shall chase a thousand

and two put ten thousand to flight."

[113] A most interesting account of that historic occasion may be

found in the History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, p. 67.

[114] Federal Suffrage is considered in Chapter I.

[115] David B. Henderson, Ia.; George W. Ray, N. Y.; Case Broderick,

Kan.; Thomas Updegraff, Ia.; James A. Connolly, Ill.; Samuel W.

McCall, Mass.; John J. Jenkins, Wis.; Riehard Wayne Parker, N. J.;

Jesse R. Overstreet, Ind.; DeAlva S. Alexander, N. Y.; Warren Miller,

W. Va.; William L. Terry, Ark.; David A. DeArmond, Mo.; Samuel W. T.

Lanham, Tex.; William Elliott, S. C.; Oscar W. Underwood, Ala.; David

H. Smith, Ky.

[116] The main facts brought out in all these addresses are fully

included in the various State chapters in this volume.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE NATIONAL-AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1899.

A departure was made by the suffrage association in 1899 in having its

convention in the late spring instead of the winter, the Thirty-first

annual meeting being held in Grand Rapids, Mich., April 27-May 3. It

was thought by many that this was an unfavorable season, as the

audiences were not so large as usual, but in all other respects it was

one of the most delightful of these many gatherings. The meetings were

held in the handsome St. Cecilia Club House, whose auditorium seats

1,200, and the official report, usually confined to bare details,

contains the following account:

The music arranged by Mrs. Rathbone Carpenter and her efficient

committee was throughout of the finest character and fully

justified the reputation of Grand Rapids as a musical community.

Mrs. W. D. Giddings, chairman of decorations, worked daily with

different members of her committee in arranging the cut flowers

and decorative plants generously furnished by different florists,

so that the platform was beautiful and fragrant from beginning to

end of the meetings. At the evening sessions the audience was

seated by the help of young lady ushers under the management of

Mrs. Marie Wilson Beasley.

The Bureau of Information, under the charge of Mrs. H. Margaret

Downs; the Courtesies, chairman, Mrs. Delos A. Blodgett, and the

opening reception on the first evening of the convention,

chairman, Mrs. William Alden Smith, were ably managed. But, with

the exception of the work devolving upon Mrs. Ketcham, the most

constant and trying labor fell to the chairman of entertainment,

Mrs. Allen C. Adsit, who cared for the housing of all the

delegates and also of the Michigan friends in attendance.