The subject of the guardianship of children could have been treated a century ago in a few words. The father of the legitimate child was his sole guardian and the mother had no authority or right concerning their child except such as the husband gratuitously allowed her. She had, however, all the duties which the husband might put upon her. This meant that the husband decided about the children's food, clothing, medicine, school, church, home, associates, punishments, pleasures and tasks and that he alone could apprentice a child, could give him for adoption and control his wages. Many mothers were kept in happy ignorance of such unjust laws because their husbands voluntarily yielded to them much of the authority over the children but this was not so in all families and many mothers took cases to Supreme Courts, protesting against the absolute paternal power. When mothers learned what this sole guardianship meant they urged legal changes. Our present guardianship laws, very few alike, show how women, each group alone in their own States, have struggled to mitigate the severest evils of sole fatherly guardianship, especially of the child's person. This to mothers was more important than the guardianship of the child's property.Perhaps the greatest suffering came from the father's power to deed or to bequeath the guardianship to a stranger and away from the mother. Most of the States now allow a surviving mother the sole guardianship of the child's person with certain conditions. Six States have not yet thus limited the father's power and in those where the guardianship is not specifically granted to the surviving mother, the father's sole power of guardianship covers his child even if yet unborn.
The subject of the guardianship of children could have been treated a century ago in a few words. The father of the legitimate child was his sole guardian and the mother had no authority or right concerning their child except such as the husband gratuitously allowed her. She had, however, all the duties which the husband might put upon her. This meant that the husband decided about the children's food, clothing, medicine, school, church, home, associates, punishments, pleasures and tasks and that he alone could apprentice a child, could give him for adoption and control his wages. Many mothers were kept in happy ignorance of such unjust laws because their husbands voluntarily yielded to them much of the authority over the children but this was not so in all families and many mothers took cases to Supreme Courts, protesting against the absolute paternal power. When mothers learned what this sole guardianship meant they urged legal changes. Our present guardianship laws, very few alike, show how women, each group alone in their own States, have struggled to mitigate the severest evils of sole fatherly guardianship, especially of the child's person. This to mothers was more important than the guardianship of the child's property.
Perhaps the greatest suffering came from the father's power to deed or to bequeath the guardianship to a stranger and away from the mother. Most of the States now allow a surviving mother the sole guardianship of the child's person with certain conditions. Six States have not yet thus limited the father's power and in those where the guardianship is not specifically granted to the surviving mother, the father's sole power of guardianship covers his child even if yet unborn.
The report gave a thorough digest of these guardianship laws filling eight printed pages and this and Mrs. McCulloch's digest of other laws were printed in theWoman's Journaland the Handbook of the convention.
Miss Alice Henry presented greetings from the National Womens' Trade Union League; Miss Caroline Lowe from the Women's National Committee of the Socialist Party; Mrs. A. M.Harrison from the State Federation of Woman's Clubs; Mrs. Charles Campbell of Toronto from the Canadian Woman Suffrage Association; Mrs. W. S. Stubbs, wife of the Governor, and Mrs. William A. Johnston, wife of the Chief Justice and president of the State Suffrage Association, from Kansas. A letter of love and good wishes with regrets for her absence was ordered sent to Mrs. Catt and one of affectionate sympathy to Mrs. Susan Look Avery (Ky.) for the death of her son, which prevented her attendance. During the convention Mrs. Lida Calvert Obenchain, author of Aunt Jane of Kentucky, and Miss Eleanor Breckenridge, president of the Texas Suffrage Association, were introduced and said a few words. A telegram of greeting was read from Mrs. Caroline Meriwether Goodlett, a founder of the Daughters of the Confederacy.
The resolutions were presented by the chairman, Miss Bertha Coover, corresponding secretary of the Ohio Suffrage Association, the committee as usual consisting of one member from each State delegation. They urged the ratification of the Arbitration Treaties in the form desired by President Taft; expressed sympathy with Finland in its struggle for liberty; endorsed the proposed Federal Amendment for the election of U. S. Senators by popular vote and demanded that women should have part in this vote; endorsed the campaign for pure food and drugs; called for the same moral standard for men and women and the same legal penalties for those who transgress the moral law; asked the Government to erect a colossal statue of Peace at the entrance to the Panama Canal, and there were others on minor points. Greetings and appreciation were sent to "the justice-loving men of Washington and California, whose example will be an inspiration to the men of other States." Memorial resolutions were adopted for prominent suffragists who had died during the year, among them Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Dr. Emily Blackwell, Ellen C. Sargent, William A. Keith, the artist; Samuel Walter Foss, the poet; Lillian M. Hollister, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Eliza Wright Osborne and Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers.
There was a long resolution of thanks for the courtesy and hospitality received in Louisville, which included the clergymenwho opened the sessions with prayer, the musicians, who gave their services, the press committees, the hostesses and others.[71]
On the last evening with a large audience present Mrs. Desha Breckinridge spoke on The Prospect for Woman Suffrage in the South. "Although Kentuckians are wont to boast that within these borders is the purest Anglo-Saxon blood now existing, the spirit of their ancestors has departed," she said, and continued:
Since 1838 Kentucky has retrograded. An effort to obtain School suffrage for a larger class of women has brought about a reactionary measure. Kentucky women at present have no greater political rights than the women of Turkey—for we have none at all—but the action of certain male politicians in defeating the School suffrage measure in the last two Legislatures has really been of advantage to the movement. It has put not only women but the progressive men of the State into fighting trim.... The opposition of the non-progressive element has made of this "scrap of suffrage" a live, political issue. It is likely to be carried in the next Legislature by the determination of the better men of the State even more than of the women, and the fight made against it has gone far to convince both that the full franchise should be granted to women. The action of the Democratic party, when leadership in it is resumed by the best element, shows a realization that the wishes of the women of the State are to be reckoned with and that the friendship of the women, which may be gained by so simple an act of justice in their favor, is a political asset of no small importance. It is quite possible that the party in Kentucky and throughout the South may eventually realize that by advocating and securing suffrage for women it may bind to itself for many years to come, through a sense of gratitude and loyalty, a large number of women voters, just as the Republican party since the emancipation of the negro has had without effort the unquestioning loyalty of thousands of negro voters; although the women would never vote so solidly as do the negroes, because they would represent a much more thoughtful and independent body....
Since 1838 Kentucky has retrograded. An effort to obtain School suffrage for a larger class of women has brought about a reactionary measure. Kentucky women at present have no greater political rights than the women of Turkey—for we have none at all—but the action of certain male politicians in defeating the School suffrage measure in the last two Legislatures has really been of advantage to the movement. It has put not only women but the progressive men of the State into fighting trim.... The opposition of the non-progressive element has made of this "scrap of suffrage" a live, political issue. It is likely to be carried in the next Legislature by the determination of the better men of the State even more than of the women, and the fight made against it has gone far to convince both that the full franchise should be granted to women. The action of the Democratic party, when leadership in it is resumed by the best element, shows a realization that the wishes of the women of the State are to be reckoned with and that the friendship of the women, which may be gained by so simple an act of justice in their favor, is a political asset of no small importance. It is quite possible that the party in Kentucky and throughout the South may eventually realize that by advocating and securing suffrage for women it may bind to itself for many years to come, through a sense of gratitude and loyalty, a large number of women voters, just as the Republican party since the emancipation of the negro has had without effort the unquestioning loyalty of thousands of negro voters; although the women would never vote so solidly as do the negroes, because they would represent a much more thoughtful and independent body....
After showing what had been the results in the South from admitting a great body of illiterate voters she said:
A conference of southern women suffragists at Memphis a few years ago, in asking for woman suffrage with an educational qualification, pointed out that there were over 600,000 more white womenin the southern States than there were negroes, men and women combined. If the literate women of the South were enfranchised it would insure an immense preponderance of the Anglo-Saxon over the African, of the literate over the illiterate, and would make legitimate limitation of the male suffrage to the literate easily possible....Conditions of life in the South have made and kept Southerners individualists. The southern man believes that he should personally protect his women folk and he does it. He is only now slowly realizing that, with the coming of the cotton mills and other manufactories and with the growth of the cities, there has developed a great body of women, young girls and children who either have no men folk to protect them or whose men folk, because of ignorance and economic weakness, are not able to protect them against the greed and rapacity of employers or of vicious men. It is a shock to the pride of southern chivalry to find that women are less protected by the laws in their most sacred possessions in the southern States than in any other section of the Union; that the States which protect their women most effectively are those in which women have been longest a part of the electorate....In the community business of caring for the sick, the incurable, the aged, the orphaned, the deficient and the helpless, women of the South bear already so important a part that to withdraw them from public affairs would mean sudden and widespread calamity. Women in the South are in politics, in the higher conception of the word. "Politics," says Bernard Shaw, "is not something apart from the home and the babies—it is home and the babies." Women have long since gotten into politics in the South in the sense that they have labored for the passage and enforcement of legislation in the interest of public health, the betterment of schools and the protection of womanhood and childhood—for the preservation, in short, "of home and the babies."
A conference of southern women suffragists at Memphis a few years ago, in asking for woman suffrage with an educational qualification, pointed out that there were over 600,000 more white womenin the southern States than there were negroes, men and women combined. If the literate women of the South were enfranchised it would insure an immense preponderance of the Anglo-Saxon over the African, of the literate over the illiterate, and would make legitimate limitation of the male suffrage to the literate easily possible....
Conditions of life in the South have made and kept Southerners individualists. The southern man believes that he should personally protect his women folk and he does it. He is only now slowly realizing that, with the coming of the cotton mills and other manufactories and with the growth of the cities, there has developed a great body of women, young girls and children who either have no men folk to protect them or whose men folk, because of ignorance and economic weakness, are not able to protect them against the greed and rapacity of employers or of vicious men. It is a shock to the pride of southern chivalry to find that women are less protected by the laws in their most sacred possessions in the southern States than in any other section of the Union; that the States which protect their women most effectively are those in which women have been longest a part of the electorate....
In the community business of caring for the sick, the incurable, the aged, the orphaned, the deficient and the helpless, women of the South bear already so important a part that to withdraw them from public affairs would mean sudden and widespread calamity. Women in the South are in politics, in the higher conception of the word. "Politics," says Bernard Shaw, "is not something apart from the home and the babies—it is home and the babies." Women have long since gotten into politics in the South in the sense that they have labored for the passage and enforcement of legislation in the interest of public health, the betterment of schools and the protection of womanhood and childhood—for the preservation, in short, "of home and the babies."
Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England, received an ovation when she rose to speak and soon disarmed prejudice by her dignified and womanly manner. She began by pointing out the fallacy that the women of the United States had so many rights and privileges that they did not need the suffrage and in proof she quoted existing laws and conditions that called loudly for a change. She then took up the situation in Great Britain and explained how many years the women had tried to get the franchise by constitutional methods only to be deceived and spurned by the Government. She told how at last a small handful of them started a revolution; how they had grown into an army; how they had suffered imprisonment and brutality; how the suffrage bill had again and again passed the second reading by immense majorities and the Government had refused to let it cometo a final vote. "We asked Prime Minister Asquith to give us a time for this," she said. "For eight long hours in a heavy frost some of the finest women in England stood at the entrance to the House of Commons and waited humbly with petitions in their hands for their rulers and masters to condescend to receive them but the House adjourned while they stood there. The next day, while they waited again, there was an assault by the police, acting under instructions, that I do not like to dwell upon outside of my own country."
Dr. Shaw made the closing address, eloquent with hope and courage for the future and, as always, the final blessing at the convention as the benediction is at church.
In summing up the week theWoman's Journalsaid: "Only those who attended our national convention at Louisville can understand how really wonderful it was. For hospitality, for good management, for beautiful cooperation and self-effacement, the Kentucky women set a standard that will long be remembered and will be very hard to equal in the future. It made hard work easy and all work a joy. The gratitude of the National Association is theirs forever. They gave much to us, did we give anything to them? Here we can only say we trust that we did and accept with confidence what one of the State's great women said many times: 'This convention has done wonders for Kentucky; it has surpassed my hopes.'"
FOOTNOTES:[70]Part of Call: Within the year the State of Washington has completed its work of fully enfranchising its adult citizens. Before the convention assembles, California will no doubt have accepted the idea of true democracy. We also rejoice because the Legislatures of Kansas, Wisconsin, Oregon and Nevada have voted to submit the question to their electors. Many States, however, still refuse to allow the voters to pass upon the question of giving political independence to women. Since the purpose of the National American Woman Suffrage Association is "to secure the right to vote to women citizens of the United States," we have called this national convention of suffragists. From every State will come delegates, who will bring with them the growing spirit of rebellion against injustice....We call upon every public-spirited woman to come and help devise methods of carrying on the fight, to strengthen the fire of revolt, to show by overwhelming numbers and determined earnestness that women will no longer be satisfied to be treated with political contempt by the legislators who are supposed to represent them.... Do your part to inspire our workers with courage, determination, fervor and consecration; to arouse them to put forth their full strength, even to the utmost sacrifice, to obtain universal recognition of the truth that every adult citizen should have a voice in the government of a free country.Anna Howard Shaw, President.Catharine Waugh McCulloch, First Vice-President.Kate M. Gordon, Second Vice-President.Mary Ware Dennett, Corresponding Secretary.Ella S. Stewart, Recording Secretary.Jessie Ashley, Treasurer.Laura Clay,}Auditors.Alice Stone Blackwell,[71]Of the press theWoman's Journalsaid: "The Louisville papers gave the convention full and fair reports and theHeraldandTimeshad editorials declaring woman suffrage to be inevitable. Colonel Henry Watterson in theCourier-Journalstruggled between a sincere desire to be courteous and hospitable to a convention of distinguished women meeting in his city and an equally sincere belief that woman suffrage would be a bad thing. A rousing editorial in favor of it appeared in Desha Breckinridge's paper, theLexington Leader.
[70]Part of Call: Within the year the State of Washington has completed its work of fully enfranchising its adult citizens. Before the convention assembles, California will no doubt have accepted the idea of true democracy. We also rejoice because the Legislatures of Kansas, Wisconsin, Oregon and Nevada have voted to submit the question to their electors. Many States, however, still refuse to allow the voters to pass upon the question of giving political independence to women. Since the purpose of the National American Woman Suffrage Association is "to secure the right to vote to women citizens of the United States," we have called this national convention of suffragists. From every State will come delegates, who will bring with them the growing spirit of rebellion against injustice....We call upon every public-spirited woman to come and help devise methods of carrying on the fight, to strengthen the fire of revolt, to show by overwhelming numbers and determined earnestness that women will no longer be satisfied to be treated with political contempt by the legislators who are supposed to represent them.... Do your part to inspire our workers with courage, determination, fervor and consecration; to arouse them to put forth their full strength, even to the utmost sacrifice, to obtain universal recognition of the truth that every adult citizen should have a voice in the government of a free country.Anna Howard Shaw, President.Catharine Waugh McCulloch, First Vice-President.Kate M. Gordon, Second Vice-President.Mary Ware Dennett, Corresponding Secretary.Ella S. Stewart, Recording Secretary.Jessie Ashley, Treasurer.Laura Clay,}Auditors.Alice Stone Blackwell,
[70]Part of Call: Within the year the State of Washington has completed its work of fully enfranchising its adult citizens. Before the convention assembles, California will no doubt have accepted the idea of true democracy. We also rejoice because the Legislatures of Kansas, Wisconsin, Oregon and Nevada have voted to submit the question to their electors. Many States, however, still refuse to allow the voters to pass upon the question of giving political independence to women. Since the purpose of the National American Woman Suffrage Association is "to secure the right to vote to women citizens of the United States," we have called this national convention of suffragists. From every State will come delegates, who will bring with them the growing spirit of rebellion against injustice....
We call upon every public-spirited woman to come and help devise methods of carrying on the fight, to strengthen the fire of revolt, to show by overwhelming numbers and determined earnestness that women will no longer be satisfied to be treated with political contempt by the legislators who are supposed to represent them.... Do your part to inspire our workers with courage, determination, fervor and consecration; to arouse them to put forth their full strength, even to the utmost sacrifice, to obtain universal recognition of the truth that every adult citizen should have a voice in the government of a free country.
Anna Howard Shaw, President.Catharine Waugh McCulloch, First Vice-President.Kate M. Gordon, Second Vice-President.Mary Ware Dennett, Corresponding Secretary.Ella S. Stewart, Recording Secretary.Jessie Ashley, Treasurer.Laura Clay,}Auditors.Alice Stone Blackwell,
[71]Of the press theWoman's Journalsaid: "The Louisville papers gave the convention full and fair reports and theHeraldandTimeshad editorials declaring woman suffrage to be inevitable. Colonel Henry Watterson in theCourier-Journalstruggled between a sincere desire to be courteous and hospitable to a convention of distinguished women meeting in his city and an equally sincere belief that woman suffrage would be a bad thing. A rousing editorial in favor of it appeared in Desha Breckinridge's paper, theLexington Leader.
[71]Of the press theWoman's Journalsaid: "The Louisville papers gave the convention full and fair reports and theHeraldandTimeshad editorials declaring woman suffrage to be inevitable. Colonel Henry Watterson in theCourier-Journalstruggled between a sincere desire to be courteous and hospitable to a convention of distinguished women meeting in his city and an equally sincere belief that woman suffrage would be a bad thing. A rousing editorial in favor of it appeared in Desha Breckinridge's paper, theLexington Leader.
The Forty-fourth annual convention, which met in Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia, Nov. 21-26, 1912, celebrated three important victories. At the general election in the early part of the month, Oregon, Arizona and Kansas had amended their constitutions and conferred equal suffrage on women by large majority votes and the result in Michigan was still in doubt. It was the sentiment of the country that the eastward sweep of the movement was now fully under way. There was a new and vibrant tone in the Call and in the speeches and proceedings.[72]TheWoman's Journalsaid in its account: "Another new feature was the enormous crowds that turned out at the convention. Evening after evening, in conservative Philadelphia, ten or a dozen overflow meetings had to be held for the benefit of the people who could not possibly get into the hall. At the Thanksgiving service on Sunday afternoon, not only was thegreat Metropolitan Opera House filled to its capacity but for blocks the street outside was jammed with a seething crowd, eager to hear the illustrious speakers. It looked more like an inauguration than like an old-fashioned suffrage meeting."
There was a great out-door rally in Independence Square at the beginning, such as had been witnessed many times on this historic spot conducted by men but never before in the hands of women. Miss Elizabeth Freeman was manager of this meeting, assisted by Miss Jane Campbell, the Rev. Caroline Bartlett Crane, Mrs. Camilla von Klenze, Mrs. Teresa Crowley and Miss Florence Allen. From five platforms over forty well-known speakers demanded that the principles of the Declaration of Independence signed in the ancient hall close by should be applied to women and that the old bell should ring out liberty for all and not for half the people. Mrs. Otis Skinner read the Women's Declaration of Rights, which had been written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage in 1876 and presented at the great centennial celebration in that very square,[73]and a little ceremony was held in honor of Mrs. Charlotte Pierce of Philadelphia, the only one then living who had signed it, with a remembrance presented by Mrs. Anna Anthony Bacon.
The convention was noteworthy for the large number of distinguished speakers on its program. On the opening afternoon, after a moment of silent prayer in memory of Lucretia Mott, the welcome of the city was extended by the widely-known "reform" Mayor Rudolph Blankenburg, who pointed out the vast field of municipal work for women and expressed his firm conviction of their need for the suffrage. He was followed with a greeting by Mrs. Blankenburg, a former president of the State Suffrage Association. Its formal welcome to the delegates was given by the president, Mrs. Ellen H. Price, who said in part: "We hope that you will feel at home in Pennsylvania, for the idea that has called this organization into being—that divine passion for human rights—actuated the great founder of our Commonwealth in setting up his 'holy experiment in government.'" After regretting that a State founded on so broad a conception had not applied it to women Mrs. Price said:
We welcome you in the name of William Penn, who, antedating the Declaration of Independence by nearly a century, enunciated in his Frame of Government the truth that the States of today are coming very rapidly to acknowledge: "Any Government is free to the people under it when the laws rule and the people are a party to those laws; anything more than this (and anything less) is oligarchy and confusion." We welcome you in the name of our only woman Governor, Hannah Penn, who, as we are told, for six years managed the affairs of the infant colony wisely and well.We welcome you in the name of the patriots who placed on our Liberty Bell the injunction, "Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land to all the Inhabitants Thereof"; in the name of those ancestors of ours (yours and mine) who here gave up their lives in that struggle to establish the principle that "taxation without representation is tyranny" for a nation; in the name of those uncompromising agitators who delivered their message of liberty even at the risk of life itself, till the shackles fell from a race enslaved; in the name of Lucretia Mott, that gentle, that queenly champion of the downtrodden and oppressed, that inspired preacher whose motto, "Truth for Authority, not Authority for Truth," should be the watchword of every soul that seeks for freedom.We welcome you in the name of the pioneers in the education of women, of those who gave us the first Medical College for Women, Ann Preston, Emily Cleveland, Hannah Longshore, whose daughter is here today—our honorary president, Lucretia L. Blankenburg, wife of the chief executive of this city, to whose eloquent words of welcome you have just listened; in the name of the first president of our State association, of whom the poet Whittier wrote: "The way to make the world anew is just to grow as Mary Grew." We welcome you in the name of our national president, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, who, although a citizen of the world, comes back to her Pennsylvania home to get fresh strength and courage.
We welcome you in the name of William Penn, who, antedating the Declaration of Independence by nearly a century, enunciated in his Frame of Government the truth that the States of today are coming very rapidly to acknowledge: "Any Government is free to the people under it when the laws rule and the people are a party to those laws; anything more than this (and anything less) is oligarchy and confusion." We welcome you in the name of our only woman Governor, Hannah Penn, who, as we are told, for six years managed the affairs of the infant colony wisely and well.
We welcome you in the name of the patriots who placed on our Liberty Bell the injunction, "Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land to all the Inhabitants Thereof"; in the name of those ancestors of ours (yours and mine) who here gave up their lives in that struggle to establish the principle that "taxation without representation is tyranny" for a nation; in the name of those uncompromising agitators who delivered their message of liberty even at the risk of life itself, till the shackles fell from a race enslaved; in the name of Lucretia Mott, that gentle, that queenly champion of the downtrodden and oppressed, that inspired preacher whose motto, "Truth for Authority, not Authority for Truth," should be the watchword of every soul that seeks for freedom.
We welcome you in the name of the pioneers in the education of women, of those who gave us the first Medical College for Women, Ann Preston, Emily Cleveland, Hannah Longshore, whose daughter is here today—our honorary president, Lucretia L. Blankenburg, wife of the chief executive of this city, to whose eloquent words of welcome you have just listened; in the name of the first president of our State association, of whom the poet Whittier wrote: "The way to make the world anew is just to grow as Mary Grew." We welcome you in the name of our national president, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, who, although a citizen of the world, comes back to her Pennsylvania home to get fresh strength and courage.
Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, a national officer, made a graceful response for the association. Fraternal greetings were given by Mrs. Barsels, from the Pennsylvania Woman's Christian Temperance Union; by Mrs. Branstetter of Oklahoma from the National Socialist Party; by Mrs. Campbell McIvor of Toronto from the Canadian Woman Suffrage Association and later by Miss Leonora O'Reilly from the New York Women's Trade Union League.
Miss Laura Clay, chairman of the Membership Committee, announced the admission of nine new societies to the National Association. There were 308 delegates in attendance. Mrs.Mary Ware Dennett, corresponding secretary and chairman of the Literature Committee, said in the course of her report:
We are often asked at headquarters and by mail what the national headquarters is for and what it does. The briefest answer that can be given is that we furnish ammunition for the suffrage fight. The ammunition is of many sorts, from money, leaflets and buttons to historical data, slide lectures and advice on organization.... One decided advantage in making headquarters more useful to visitors has been the enlargement of the main office. A partition was removed which gave us a large, light room where all our publications are accessible for consultation or purchase, all the chief suffrage periodicals of the world are on file, the gallery of eminent suffragists is on exhibition and all the various kinds of supplies, like buttons, pennants, posters, etc., are shown. It serves as reference library as well, for beside the History of Woman Suffrage, the Life of Susan B. Anthony and the bound volumes of theWoman's Journal, there is a collection of books on interests allied to suffrage, which have been selected and approved by the board. These are also on sale.... During the summer of 1912 a questionnaire was sent to the States and the answers tabulated and printed in a folder showing conclusively the status of each regarding headquarters, press, membership, finance, political district, legislative and Congressional work. There is an increasing demand for suffrage facts rather than for suffrage argument. It was in response to this demand that it became necessary to appoint an editor for the literature department. Fully half of the publications needed revising and bringing up to date and new compilations of data were urgently needed. Mrs. Frances Maule Bjorkman, a trained newspaper and magazine writer, was chosen and has filled the position admirably.
We are often asked at headquarters and by mail what the national headquarters is for and what it does. The briefest answer that can be given is that we furnish ammunition for the suffrage fight. The ammunition is of many sorts, from money, leaflets and buttons to historical data, slide lectures and advice on organization.... One decided advantage in making headquarters more useful to visitors has been the enlargement of the main office. A partition was removed which gave us a large, light room where all our publications are accessible for consultation or purchase, all the chief suffrage periodicals of the world are on file, the gallery of eminent suffragists is on exhibition and all the various kinds of supplies, like buttons, pennants, posters, etc., are shown. It serves as reference library as well, for beside the History of Woman Suffrage, the Life of Susan B. Anthony and the bound volumes of theWoman's Journal, there is a collection of books on interests allied to suffrage, which have been selected and approved by the board. These are also on sale.... During the summer of 1912 a questionnaire was sent to the States and the answers tabulated and printed in a folder showing conclusively the status of each regarding headquarters, press, membership, finance, political district, legislative and Congressional work. There is an increasing demand for suffrage facts rather than for suffrage argument. It was in response to this demand that it became necessary to appoint an editor for the literature department. Fully half of the publications needed revising and bringing up to date and new compilations of data were urgently needed. Mrs. Frances Maule Bjorkman, a trained newspaper and magazine writer, was chosen and has filled the position admirably.
Mrs. Dennett gave a detailed account of the pamphlets, speeches, leaflets, plays, magazine articles, etc., published by the association—250 kinds of printed matter—and said:
We have published over 3,000,000 pieces of literature in this year and our total receipts from literature and supplies have been $13,000, or $746 over the cost of the printing and purchase. Our record month was September, when our receipts were more than the entire receipts for the whole year of 1909. If we count our unsold stock and our uncollected bills as assets, we have a net gain for the year of $3,578. About $700 worth of literature has been sold in the office, the remainder having been ordered by mail.Through the courtesy of the Illinois association and the generosity of Miss Addams and Miss Breckinridge, who paid for the rent and service, a sub-station for the supply of literature was established at the Chicago headquarters in April. The sales at this western branch have been $1,924. It would seem well worth while to continue this service for western customers. Also for their benefit Mrs.McCormick made a gift of a sample copy of every one of our new publications to the presidents of State associations in eighteen of the western States, as a means of bringing them in closer touch with the national office.... Aside from our own literature we have been grateful for a very serviceable congressional document, thousands of which have been distributed in the last few months, the speech of Congressman Edward T. Taylor of Colorado. It proved a successful and timely campaign document and we are indebted not only to Mr. Taylor but to a most efficient volunteer worker in Washington—Mrs. Helen H. Gardener—who gave unstinted personal service in seeing that the documents were obtained and franked when needed....
We have published over 3,000,000 pieces of literature in this year and our total receipts from literature and supplies have been $13,000, or $746 over the cost of the printing and purchase. Our record month was September, when our receipts were more than the entire receipts for the whole year of 1909. If we count our unsold stock and our uncollected bills as assets, we have a net gain for the year of $3,578. About $700 worth of literature has been sold in the office, the remainder having been ordered by mail.
Through the courtesy of the Illinois association and the generosity of Miss Addams and Miss Breckinridge, who paid for the rent and service, a sub-station for the supply of literature was established at the Chicago headquarters in April. The sales at this western branch have been $1,924. It would seem well worth while to continue this service for western customers. Also for their benefit Mrs.McCormick made a gift of a sample copy of every one of our new publications to the presidents of State associations in eighteen of the western States, as a means of bringing them in closer touch with the national office.... Aside from our own literature we have been grateful for a very serviceable congressional document, thousands of which have been distributed in the last few months, the speech of Congressman Edward T. Taylor of Colorado. It proved a successful and timely campaign document and we are indebted not only to Mr. Taylor but to a most efficient volunteer worker in Washington—Mrs. Helen H. Gardener—who gave unstinted personal service in seeing that the documents were obtained and franked when needed....
COURT HOUSE OF WARREN, OHIOHeadquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1903 to 1910—on the ground floor.
HOME OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY IN ROCHESTER, N. Y.Headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association until 1895.
The convention accepted the recommendation of the board that it should issue a monthly bulletin of facts and figures to be sent to every paying member, thus establishing a real bond between the association and its thousands of members. The report of the Press Bureau by its chairman, Miss Caroline I. Reilly, showed remarkable progress in public sentiment as expressed by the newspapers. It said in part:
The winning of California last year wrought so complete a change in the work of the national press bureau that it was like taking up an entirely new branch. Before that victory our time was employed in furnishing suffrage arguments, replying to adverse editorials and letters published in the newspapers and writing syndicate articles. Now this department has resolved itself into a bureau of information, news being the one thing required. Each week we send to our mailing list 2,000 copies of the press bulletin, giving brief items relative to suffrage activities the world over. These go into every non-suffrage State in the Union, to Canada, Cuba and England, and the demand for them increases daily. Almost every mail brings letters from newspapers asking to be placed on the regular mailing list.... Since the winning of the four States on November 5, newspapers and press associations from all over the United States have written us asking for help to establish woman suffrage departments. The time has come when our question is a paying one from a publicity point of view, ...We now have twenty syndicates on our list and are no longer obliged to write the articles ourselves but simply furnish the information which their own writers work up. These syndicates are both national and international and cover all of this country as well as some foreign countries. An interesting thing happened last week, when the representative of a European press syndicate came and said that he had been sent to America for the sole purpose of reporting the woman movement in the United States, the subject being regarded a vital one by the press of Europe. Special suffrage editions seem to be more popular than almost anything else and appeals cometo us from all over the Union to help on them.... During the past year we have received and answered over 3,000 communications. The Italian papers have been on our mailing list for some time, also many French and Hebrew papers.... The editors and associate editors of twelve Italian newspapers in New York are enrolled in the city suffrage organization.
The winning of California last year wrought so complete a change in the work of the national press bureau that it was like taking up an entirely new branch. Before that victory our time was employed in furnishing suffrage arguments, replying to adverse editorials and letters published in the newspapers and writing syndicate articles. Now this department has resolved itself into a bureau of information, news being the one thing required. Each week we send to our mailing list 2,000 copies of the press bulletin, giving brief items relative to suffrage activities the world over. These go into every non-suffrage State in the Union, to Canada, Cuba and England, and the demand for them increases daily. Almost every mail brings letters from newspapers asking to be placed on the regular mailing list.... Since the winning of the four States on November 5, newspapers and press associations from all over the United States have written us asking for help to establish woman suffrage departments. The time has come when our question is a paying one from a publicity point of view, ...
We now have twenty syndicates on our list and are no longer obliged to write the articles ourselves but simply furnish the information which their own writers work up. These syndicates are both national and international and cover all of this country as well as some foreign countries. An interesting thing happened last week, when the representative of a European press syndicate came and said that he had been sent to America for the sole purpose of reporting the woman movement in the United States, the subject being regarded a vital one by the press of Europe. Special suffrage editions seem to be more popular than almost anything else and appeals cometo us from all over the Union to help on them.... During the past year we have received and answered over 3,000 communications. The Italian papers have been on our mailing list for some time, also many French and Hebrew papers.... The editors and associate editors of twelve Italian newspapers in New York are enrolled in the city suffrage organization.
Miss Alice Stone Blackwell made an extended report of theWoman's Journalsince it became the official organ of the National American Association in June, 1910, and had been published under its auspices. The expenses had increased and funds had not been supplied to meet them. Committees of conference were appointed and eventually the deficit was paid and the paper was returned to Miss Blackwell, who offered the free use of its columns to the association. The report of the treasurer, Miss Jessie Ashley, was not encouraging. Under the old régime the year always closed with a balance in the treasury but this indebtedness to theWoman's Journalleft the association $5,000 in debt.[74]As its work broadened the expense became heavier and the income although far larger than ever before was not sufficient. During the past year it had contributed $18,144 to campaigns in eight States. A very large part of this amount was paid by Dr. Shaw from a fund given to her personally for the purpose by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw of Boston. At this time and later she gave to Dr. Shaw to be used for campaigns according to her judgment $30,000 and the name of the donor was not revealed until after her death in 1917.
The first evening of the convention was devoted to the president's address and the stories of the successful campaigns for suffrage amendments at the November elections, related by Mrs. William A. Johnston and Miss Helen N. Eaker for Kansas and Mrs. M. L. T. Hidden for Oregon. No one being present from Arizona Dr. Shaw told of the victory there. Mrs. Clara B. Arthur and Mrs. Huntley Russell described the situation in Michigan, where the indications were that the amendment would be lost by fraudulent returns. Dr. Shaw's speech, as usual, was neither written nor stenographically reported but this floating paragraph was found in a newspaper:
In all times men have entertained loftier theories of living than they have been able to formulate into practical experience. We Americans call our government a republic but it is not a republic and never has been one. A republic is not a government in which one-half of the people make the laws for all of the people. At first the government was a hierarchy in which only male church members could vote. In the process of evolution the qualification of church membership was removed and the word "taxpayer" substituted. Later that word was stricken out and all white men could vote. Then followed the erasure of the word "white" and now all male citizens have the ballot. The next measure is obvious and it is not a revolutionary one but the logical step in the evolution of our government. I believe thoroughly in democracy, the extension of the franchise to all men, for all have a right to a voice in the making of the laws that govern them, and no nation has a right to place before any of its people an insuperable barrier to self-government. We would make no outcry against an educational standard, the necessary age limit, a certain term of residence in any place—in fact there is no regulation women would object to that applied to all citizens equally. I make no criticism of the policy of the country in giving all men the ballot. The men are all right so far as they go—- but they go only half way. The United States has subjected its women to the greatest political humiliation ever imposed upon the women of any nation. German women are governed by German men; French women by French men, etc., but American women are ruled by the men of every country and race in the world.... I do not belong to any political party and I have too much self-respect to ally myself with any party until my opinion is of enough importance to be counted at the polls.
In all times men have entertained loftier theories of living than they have been able to formulate into practical experience. We Americans call our government a republic but it is not a republic and never has been one. A republic is not a government in which one-half of the people make the laws for all of the people. At first the government was a hierarchy in which only male church members could vote. In the process of evolution the qualification of church membership was removed and the word "taxpayer" substituted. Later that word was stricken out and all white men could vote. Then followed the erasure of the word "white" and now all male citizens have the ballot. The next measure is obvious and it is not a revolutionary one but the logical step in the evolution of our government. I believe thoroughly in democracy, the extension of the franchise to all men, for all have a right to a voice in the making of the laws that govern them, and no nation has a right to place before any of its people an insuperable barrier to self-government. We would make no outcry against an educational standard, the necessary age limit, a certain term of residence in any place—in fact there is no regulation women would object to that applied to all citizens equally. I make no criticism of the policy of the country in giving all men the ballot. The men are all right so far as they go—- but they go only half way. The United States has subjected its women to the greatest political humiliation ever imposed upon the women of any nation. German women are governed by German men; French women by French men, etc., but American women are ruled by the men of every country and race in the world.... I do not belong to any political party and I have too much self-respect to ally myself with any party until my opinion is of enough importance to be counted at the polls.
The delegates heard reports from the chairmen of various committees—Ways and Means, Dr. M. Carey Thomas; Enrollment, Mrs. Jean Nelson Penfield; Presidential Suffrage, Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates; Laws for Women, Miss Mary Rutter Towle (D. C.). Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead made her usual comprehensive report as chairman of the Peace and Arbitration Committee. Mrs. Mary E. Craigie in her report of seven printed pages on the extensive and successful efforts of her Committee on Church Work told of a circular letter that had been sent to thousands of clergymen throughout the country asking for a special sermon in support of woman suffrage on Mothers' Day. It pointed out that in the vast moral and social reform work of the churches their women members are denied the weapon of Christian welfare, the ballot, while the forces of evil are fullyenfranchised and the influence of the churches is thus essentially weakened.
Mrs. William Kent, in her report as chairman of the Congressional Committee, said that it had not been necessary to request members to introduce a resolution for a Federal Suffrage Amendment as six were offered by as many Representatives of their own volition. Senator Works of her own State of California had been glad to present it. She told of the "hearings" before the committees of the two Houses on March 13, when the National Association sent representatives to Washington. The preceding day a reception for the speakers was given in her home and many of the guests became interested who had been indifferent. In May the Congressional Committee sent out cards for a "suffrage tea" in her house to the wives of Senators and Representatives; many were present and interesting addresses were made.
Among the resolutions submitted by the chairman of the committee, Mrs. Raymond Brown, and adopted were the following:
We reaffirm that our one object and purpose is the enfranchisement of the women of our country.We call upon all our members to rejoice at the winning of the School vote by the women of Kentucky and at the full enfranchisement of four more States, Kansas, Oregon, Arizona and Michigan[75]; and in the fact that at the last election the electoral vote of women fully enfranchised was nearly doubled, and to rejoice that all the political parties are now obliged to reckon with the growing power of the woman vote; and be it resolvedThat this association believes in the settlement of all disputes and difficulties, national and international, by arbitration and judicial methods and not by war.That we commend the action of those State Federations of Women's Clubs which have founded departments for the study of political economy and we congratulate those clubs which have endorsed our movement to gain the ballot for all women.That we deeply deplore the exploiting of the children of this country in our labor markets to the detriment and danger of coming generations; that we commend the action of Congress in the creation of a National Children's Bureau and President Taft's appointment of a woman, Miss Julia Lathrop, as head of the bureau.That we commend the efforts of our National Government toend the white slave traffic; that we urge the passage in our States of more stringent laws for the protection of women; that we demand the same standard of morals for men and women and the same penalties for transgressors; that we call upon women everywhere to awake to the dangers of the social evil and to hasten the day when women shall vote and when commercialized vice shall be exterminated.
We reaffirm that our one object and purpose is the enfranchisement of the women of our country.
We call upon all our members to rejoice at the winning of the School vote by the women of Kentucky and at the full enfranchisement of four more States, Kansas, Oregon, Arizona and Michigan[75]; and in the fact that at the last election the electoral vote of women fully enfranchised was nearly doubled, and to rejoice that all the political parties are now obliged to reckon with the growing power of the woman vote; and be it resolved
That this association believes in the settlement of all disputes and difficulties, national and international, by arbitration and judicial methods and not by war.
That we commend the action of those State Federations of Women's Clubs which have founded departments for the study of political economy and we congratulate those clubs which have endorsed our movement to gain the ballot for all women.
That we deeply deplore the exploiting of the children of this country in our labor markets to the detriment and danger of coming generations; that we commend the action of Congress in the creation of a National Children's Bureau and President Taft's appointment of a woman, Miss Julia Lathrop, as head of the bureau.
That we commend the efforts of our National Government toend the white slave traffic; that we urge the passage in our States of more stringent laws for the protection of women; that we demand the same standard of morals for men and women and the same penalties for transgressors; that we call upon women everywhere to awake to the dangers of the social evil and to hasten the day when women shall vote and when commercialized vice shall be exterminated.
A unique feature of the convention was Men's Night, with James Lees Laidlaw of New York, president of the National Men's League for Woman Suffrage of 20,000 members, in the chair and all the speeches made by men. Miss Blackwell said editorially in theWoman's Journal: "From the very beginning of the equal rights movement courageous and justice-loving men have stood by the women and have been invaluable allies in the long fight that is now nearing its triumph but never before have been actually organized to work for the cause. Men old and young, men of the most diverse professions, parties and creeds, spoke with equal earnestness in behalf of equal rights for women." The speakers were the Hon. Frederick C. Howe, Judge Dimner Beeber, president of the Pennsylvania League; A. S. G. Taylor of the Connecticut League; Joseph Fels, the Single Tax leader; Julian Kennedy of Pittsburgh; George Foster Peabody of New York; the Rev. Wm. R. Lord of Massachusetts; Jesse Lynch Williams, J. H. Braly of California and Reginald Wright Kauffman. The last named, whose recently published book, The House of Bondage, had aroused the country on the "white slave traffic," discussed this question as perhaps it never before had been presented in public and he found a sympathetic audience.
The Rev. James Grattan Mythen, of the Prince of Peace Church, Walbrook, Md., made a strong demand for the influence of women in the electorate, in which he said: "Whatever wrongs the law allows must not be laid entirely at the door of paid public servants whom by the franchise we employ to do our public will. Where there are criminals in public office they represent criminals. They represent the active criminals whose debased ballots put them in office, and they represent the passive criminals whose ballot was not cast to keep them out! 'That ye did it not' merits as great a condemnation as 'That ye did it.' What is needed in politics is the reassertion of the moral ideal,and as men we know that this moral ideal has been, is now and always will be the possession of womankind. For this reason men ought to demand that women come into the body politic and bring with them the same moral standard that they hold for themselves in the home, in the Church, in the hospitals, in the great reform movements which are voiced by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and all other endeavors for righteousness that are always championed by women."
This was not the time and place arranged for taking a collection but the enthusiasm was so great that Mr. Fels started the ball rolling and $2,000 were quickly subscribed. Later at the regular collection the amount was increased to $6,908. Among the largest pledges were those of Miss Kate Gleason of Rochester, N.Y., for $1,200; Mrs. Oliver H.P. Belmont, $1,000; Mrs. Bowen of Chicago, $600; New York State Association, $600; Pennsylvania State Association, $500; Miss Emily Howland, $300. The treasurer, Miss Ashley, stated that the receipts from April 1 to November 1 had been $55,197.
Dr. Shaw had telegraphed the congratulations of the association to the Governors of the four victorious States and telegrams of greetings to the convention were read from Governors Oswald West of Oregon; George P. Hunt of Arizona; W.R. Stubbs of Kansas; and Chase S. Osborn of Michigan. Greetings were received from Miss Martina G. Kramers of Holland, editor of the international suffrage paper; the U.S. National Council of Women, and from Mrs. Champ Clark and her sister, Mrs. Annie Pitzer of Colorado, sent through Miss Nettie Lovisa White of Washington. Telegrams of congratulation were sent to the State presidents, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon and Mrs. Frances W. Munds of Arizona, and of sympathy to the Rev. Olympia Brown and Miss Ada L. James for the defeat in Wisconsin.
It was voted to continue the national headquarters in New York. There was a flurry of discussion over a proposed amendment to the constitution changing the present method of voting, which allowed the delegates present to cast the entire number of votes to which the State was entitled by its paid membership. The convention finally adopted the amendment that hereafterthe delegates present should cast only their individual votes. The election resulted in a change of but two officers. Professor Breckinridge and Miss Ashley did not stand for re-election and Miss Anita Whitney of California was chosen for second vice-president and Mrs. Louise De Koven Bowen of Chicago for second auditor.
A serious controversy arose during the convention in regard to the deviation of some of the national officers from the time-honored custom of non-partisanship. It had always been the unwritten but carefully observed law of the association that no member of the board should advocate or work for any political party. Mrs. George Howard Lewis, a veteran suffragist of Buffalo, N.Y., sent a resolution to the convention declaring that officers of the association must remain non-partisan and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper presented it and led the contest for it. Dr. Shaw announced before it was discussed that the board recommended that it should not pass.
Women had taken a larger part in the political campaign which had just ended than ever before and one of the officers and many of the delegates present had spoken and worked for the Progressive party because of the suffrage plank in its platform. Other members had done the same for the Socialist and Prohibition parties for a like reason. As a result, while the resolution had some warm support it was defeated by a vote of ten to one, although it applied only to the officers and left individual members free. The consequences of this vote soon began to be realized by the board and the delegates and in the official resolutions was one which said: "The National American Suffrage Association reaffirms the position for which it always has stood, of being an absolutely non-partisan, non-sectarian body." When asked for an interpretation the officers answered that "the association must not declare officially for any political party."[76]
One of the most enjoyable evenings of the convention was the one in charge of the National College Equal Suffrage League, the program consisting of a debate between groups of clever speakers, each with one or more university degrees, half of themposing as anti-suffragists, with Dr. Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College and of the league, in the chair. A suffrage meeting which touched high water mark was that of Sunday afternoon, when the immense opera house was filled to overflowing and literally thousands stood on the outside in the intense cold and listened to speakers who were hastily sent out to address them. Dr. Shaw presided. The meeting was opened with prayer by the Rt. Rev. Philip Mercer Rhinelander and the music was rendered by the choir, under its director, Samuel J. Riegel, with the audience joining. An eloquent address was given, the Democracy of Sex and Color, by Dr. W.E. Burghardt Du Bois, and one by Miss Addams on the Communion of the Ballot, the necessity for cooperative work by men and women, in which she said: "Take a still graver subject. Everywhere vice regulation is coming up for government action. The white slave traffic is international and it goes on from city to city. I ask you, in the name of common sense, is it safe or wise or sane to entrust to men alone the dealing with this age-long evil? Our laws are superior to those of most European countries. In England, because women have been obliged to appeal to the pity of men against these evils, (for the appeal to chivalry seems to have fallen), there is a disposition to divide into two camps, men in one and women in the other. Any sex antagonism thus engendered arises because these grave moral questions have not been taken up by men and women together. By debarring women from suffrage, we are failing to bring to bear on these questions that vast moral energy which dwells in women.... Whenever there is a great moral awakening it is followed by an extension of the movement for women's rights. The first wave came with the anti-slavery agitation; the second with the prohibition movement and Frances Willard, and now there is coming all over the world this irresistible movement of government to take up great social and industrial questions."
The very fine address of Miss Julia Lathrop, Chief of the National Children's Bureau, on Woman Suffrage and Child Welfare filled over five columns of theWoman's Journaland contained a sufficient argument for the enfranchisement of women if no other ever had been or should be made. "My purpose,"she began, "is to show that woman suffrage is a natural and inevitable step in the march of society forward; that instead of being incompatible with child welfare it leads toward it and is indeed the next great service to be rendered for the welfare and ennoblement of the home. A little more than one-third of all the people in this country, something over 29,500,000 in actual numbers, are children under the age of fifteen—that is, still in a state of tutelage; and it is of unbounded importance that nothing be done by the rest of us which will injure this budding growth. So it is right to judge in large measure any proposed change in our social fabric by its probable effect on that dependent third of the race to whom we are pledged, for whose succession it is the work of this generation to prepare. What we propose is to give universal suffrage to women."
Answering the question, "Do we propose a mad revolution?" she traced the development in the position of woman, every step of which was condemned at the time as a dangerous innovation. "It was a revolution when women were given equal property rights over their goods and equal rights over their children," she said. "We must blush that there are States in this country where that revolution is still to be accomplished. I have heard an old Illinois lawyer describe the early efforts to secure equal property rights for women in that State and the constant objection that such laws would destroy the family, that there could be no harmony unless the ownership were all in one person and that person the man. It was feared then, as now, that women would become tyrannical and unbearable if they were allowed too much independence. Do children suffer because their mothers own property?" She pointed out the necessity for woman's political influence on humanitarian movements and said: "Suffrage for women is not the final word in human freedom but it is the next step in the onward march, because it is the next step in equalizing the rights and balancing the duties of the two types of individuals who make up the human race."
Miss Lathrop showed the need of legislation for all social reforms and how the experience of women beginning with domestic duties carried them forward to a sense of their obligations in community life and a fitness for it. Referring to theuneducated women she said: "The ignorant vote is not the working vote. Working women in great organized factories have been having, since they began that work, an education for the suffrage. They are not the ignorant voters nor are wives of workingmen; at least, they know in part what they need to safeguard themselves and their homes. The ignorant vote is the complacent, blind vote of men and of the feminine 'influence' that moves them, which disregards the real problems of setting safe and wholesome standards of life and labor and education and spends its strength in looking backward, insisting upon precedents without seeing that, good and enduring as they may be, all precedents must be daily retranslated into the setting of today. "Women must vote for their own souls' good," she said, "and they must vote to protect the family. The newer conception of the family is one which depends upon giving to both parents the fullest expression on all those matters of common concern."
The address closed with a fine peroration—Pass on the Torch! In the evening the officers of the association gave a largely attended reception to delegates and friends in the banquet hall of Hotel Walton.
The closing night of the convention was one long to be remembered. There was the same vast, eager audience: Dr. Shaw presided and on the platform was the distinguished Apostle of Peace, winner of the Nobel prize, Baroness Bertha von Suttner, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, just returned from a two-years' trip around the world. The meeting was opened by the Rt. Rev. James Henry Darlington, bishop of central Pennsylvania, whose brief address was of great value to the cause. He congratulated the American people on the fact that four more States had been added to the ever-growing list of those which had given the suffrage to women and he called upon all observers to notice that no State which had once voted in woman suffrage had ever voted it out. Once in use, local opposition to it ceased by reason of the self-evident good results. He offered congratulations to those who were humble privates in the ranks and to the famous and brave leaders who organized the victories. "As the Elizabethan and Victorian eras are the most distinguished for philanthropic, literary and economic advancement in the wholehistory of Great Britain, though the Kings were many and the Queens were few in the long line," he said, "so no man need be ashamed to follow feminine leadership when it means advancement in every good word and work," and he offered congratulations to little children of the future generations of this and all lands. "When our anti-suffrage sisters throw aside their complacency and selfish ease," he said, "to strive side by side with men to formulate and pass necessary laws to protect and develop the bodies, minds and souls of our present little children and all that are to come through the passing centuries, then will dawn a new day for humanity."
Brief addresses were made by Mrs. Blankenburg, Miss Jane Campbell and Professor Breckinridge of Chicago University. Miss Crystal Eastman gave a graphic account of why the amendment failed in Wisconsin and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, State president, told in her inimitable way of the campaign that failed in Ohio. Baroness von Suttner made a magnificent plea for the peace of the world and asked for the enfranchisement of women as an absolutely necessary factor in it. The dominant note of Mrs. Catt's speech was the great need for political power in the hands of women to combat the social evil, which she had found intrenched in the governments of every country. These last two addresses, which carried thrilling conviction to every heart, were made without notes and not published.
From the early days of the National Suffrage Association its representatives had appeared before committees of every Congress to ask for the submission of an amendment to the Federal Constitution and during many years this "hearing" took place when the annual convention met in Washington. As it was to be held elsewhere this year and at a time when the Congress was not in session a delegation of speakers had gone before the committees the preceding March by arrangement of Mrs. William Kent, chairman of the association's Congressional Committee.
At the hearing before a joint committee of the Senate Judiciary and Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage March 13 six of the members were present: Senators Overman (N. C.), chairman;Brandegee (Conn.); Bourne (Ore.); Brown (Neb.); Johnston (Ala.); Wetmore (R. I.). Senator John D. Works of California, who had introduced the resolution in the Senate, presented Dr. Anna Howard Shaw as "one of the best known and most distinguished of those connected with the movement for the enfranchisement of women." As she took charge of the hearing she said in part: