FOOTNOTES:

"This committee was created by the National Suffrage Board to secure women workers to fill the places of men called for military service and it promised to 'protect the work of such women.' A letter was sent to five hundred Chambers of Commerce over Mrs. Catt's signature, asking for their cooperation in behalf of women workers against the danger of excessive overtime and underpay. The slogan of 'Equal Pay for Equal Work' was utilized and vigilance committees were planned for each State to note the conditions in industrial localities and report back to Washington. The questions of equal pay for equal work and equal opportunity for women were then taken up with the Government departments, which have been quite as unfair to women employees as have private firms. The scale of pay is notoriously less than for men, and women have been excluded from the civil service examinations for many positions which they are well equipped to fill. We therefore sent a letter to the Departmentsof War, Navy, State and Commerce where the discrimination had been proved, asking whether they would not modify their regulations to give women equal chances with men, and, now that men were needed for the army, give women the clerical positions in preference to men. We published these letters and received favorable replies from all but the State Department." Miss Smith told of the discovery that women in the Bureau of Engraving, under the Treasury Department, were working twelve hours a day seven days in the week; of the protest of her committee sent through Mrs. Catt to Secretary McAdoo and of his order restoring the eight-hour day and removing all cause of complaint."

(4) Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley, said that her first act was to secure three wise and experienced suffragists to form with her a central committee, Mrs. Shuler, corresponding secretary of the National Suffrage Association; Mrs. Robert S. Huse of New Jersey, and Mrs. Winona Osborn Pinkham, executive secretary of the Boston Equal Suffrage Association. A plan for Americanization work was printed in theWoman Citizen, June 30, 1917, and was sent to each State president with a letter asking for the appointment of a State chairman. Mrs. Bagley's thorough résumé of the work of her committee filled eleven pages of the printed convention report and among the various branches described were recruiting in the foreign tenement quarters for attendance at the public schools; securing cooperation with foreign leaders and with existing agencies for Americanization work; enlisting the cooperation of employers in providing school facilities for employees; teaching English in the homes where the women had not been able to attend school and aiding in the carrying on of the day school for immigrant women now established in the North End of Boston. She told of two new departments, Americanization for rural districts and citizenship classes for women voters. She urged, not only the necessity of schools for adult foreigners but the desirability of good ones that would hold their attention and she made a special plea for the immigrant women. She also called attention to the imperative need for teaching patriotism.

The plan of work recommended by the Executive Council andadopted by this convention provided that the association during 1918 should continue the four departments and add the Woman's Hospital Unit in France and Child Welfare; that these six departments be placed under the direction of a committee, the chairman of which should be a member of the national suffrage board; that each State suffrage auxiliary be asked to establish a War Service Committee, composed of chairmen of the above sections, with an additional one on Liberty Bonds. This Committee of Eight was to direct the war work for each State in cooperation with the State division of the Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense. The Land Army Section was added in the spring of 1918 and took the place of the Food Production section. The name of the Thrift section was changed to that of Food Conservation; Miss Hilda Loines became its chairman and its work was combined as closely as possible with the similar section in the Woman's National Defense Committee directed by Mrs. McCormick.

The National Suffrage Association held no convention in 1918 but it met in March, 1919, at St. Louis for its 50th Anniversary. The Armistice had been declared and the final reports of the association's war activities were rendered. In that of the War Service Department the chairman, Mrs. McCormick, stated that the reason the reports did not cover all six of its sections but only Land Army, Americanization and Oversea Hospitals was that the other sections, after the convention of 1917, were merged with the similar sections of the Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense. Detailed statements regarding Food Conservation and Industrial Protection for women in which the suffrage committees took so large a part, may be found in the reports of the Government Agriculture and Labor Departments. The Child Welfare Department was combined with that of the Woman's National Defense Committee and both were put under the guidance of Miss Julia Lathrop, chief of the Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor. Miss Lathrop made an address to the convention in St. Louis on this subject which was published in full in its Handbook for 1919.

In the section Industrial Protection of Women Mrs. GiffordPinchot had followed Miss Ethel M. Smith as chairman and in a brief report told how nominal the function of her committee had recently become, owing to the fact that all agencies working in this field had been consolidated under the direction of the U. S. Department of Labor. Before this amalgamation three interesting lines of effort had been carried forward by this committee: An attempt was made to secure a representation of women on the War Labor Board, which did not succeed; action was taken against the decision of this board in dismissing women street car conductors in Cleveland, O., and the committee's position was upheld; an unsuccessful effort was made through Mr. Gompers to have women appointed on the committee of labor delegates who went abroad to confer with the labor representatives of other countries during the Peace Conference.

Land Army. Miss Hilda Loines, chairman, said in part:

"The training of women for agricultural work as a war necessity was early foreseen by the National Suffrage Association and was made a part of its program of war service. Early in the spring of 1917 a number of organizations undertook to register and place women who could and would do agricultural labor. Bureaus were opened for their registry and field workers were sent out to secure promises of employment from the farmers. This was difficult at first but as the season wore on and there were no men to cultivate the crops and pick the fruit the farmers in desperation turned to the women. During the spring and summer of 1918 the Woman's Land Army was organized in thirty States, and about 15,000 women were placed on the land, 10,000 in units and 5,000 in emergency groups. The majority of these women had had no previous experience and most of them could receive little training but they did practically every kind of farm labor, ploughing, planting, cultivating and harvesting. They cut, stacked and loaded hay, corn and rye and filled the silos; worked on big western farms and orchards, dairy farms, truck farms, private estates and home gardens; did poultry work, beekeeping and teaming; learned to handle tractors, harvesters and other farm machinery. Their efficiency is best proved by the change of attitude from skepticism to enthusiastic appreciation on the part of the farmers for whom they worked."

Americanization. The chairman, Mrs. Bagley, continued her report of the preceding year of the work in connection with the Councils of Defense of the several States "by means of the local machinery of the various suffrage organizations." She urged the teaching of English to aliens as the first step in Americanization, with emphasis on the point that the immigrant women must not be left out. "This Americanization is a function peculiarly appropriate to suffragists," she said, "as a woman married to an alien must herself forever remain an alien unless her husband becomes a citizen, and as the States enfranchise women hundreds of thousands will still be left without the vote. Every married alien whom suffragists help to take out naturalization papers means not only a vote for him but also for his wife.

During the convention in December, 1917, the plan for Oversea Hospitals was presented to the delegates by Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany of New York, at the request of Mrs. Catt, the national president, to whom the matter had been suggested by the action of the Scottish Suffrage Societies in sending to France in 1914 the Scottish Women's Hospitals, units managed and staffed entirely by women, and was accepted. Mrs. Tiffany was made chairman of the Hospital Committee and Mrs. Raymond Brown director of the work in France. At the convention of March, 1919, in St. Louis, Mrs. Brown made a full report, from which the following is an extract.

"At its convention in 1917 the National Suffrage Association, as part of its war work, agreed to support a hospital unit in France and undertook to raise $125,000 for its maintenance for a year. This unit was already in process of organization by a group of women physicians of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children and was to be composed entirely of women. Since the U. S. Government does not accept women in its Medical Reserve Corps, and at that time neither it nor the Red Cross was sending women surgeons for service abroad, the unit was offered to the French Government, which accepted it by cable. The first group of the unit sailed on Feb. 17, 1918, and expected to establish a hospital for refugees in the devastated area. Before they could be installed the villages to which they had been assigned were taken in a new drive by the Germans and abouthalf the group, headed by Dr. Caroline Finley, was suddenly called upon for hospital service within the war zone. The hospital to which they were assigned was evacuated before they could reach it and they were finally placed in Chateau Ognon, a few miles north of Senlis on the road to Compiègne."Soon after the first group was sent into the war zone, the French Government asked the remainder of the unit to go to the Department of Landes in the south of France in order to establish there a hospital for refugees. The Germans were still advancing and as the refugees poured into the south the government was trying to build villages of barracks for them. When Dr. Alice Gregory with a group of fifteen women, including a carpenter, plumber, chemist and chauffeur, reached Labouheyre, early in April, a site had still to be found for the hospital and the buildings were still to be built, furnished and equipped. The barracks were erected in due time by the government; the equipment was the gift of the American Red Cross; the planning, directing purchasing and installing were done by our women. Dr. Marie Formad was finally put in charge. Later, at the request of the French Service de Sante, a 300-bed hospital unit for gas cases was organized by the Women's Oversea Hospitals and was started on its way from America to France. This was the first hospital unit exclusively for gas cases and had a personnel solely of women. Its principal group in Lorraine cared for 19,307 cases in three months."

"Soon after the first group was sent into the war zone, the French Government asked the remainder of the unit to go to the Department of Landes in the south of France in order to establish there a hospital for refugees. The Germans were still advancing and as the refugees poured into the south the government was trying to build villages of barracks for them. When Dr. Alice Gregory with a group of fifteen women, including a carpenter, plumber, chemist and chauffeur, reached Labouheyre, early in April, a site had still to be found for the hospital and the buildings were still to be built, furnished and equipped. The barracks were erected in due time by the government; the equipment was the gift of the American Red Cross; the planning, directing purchasing and installing were done by our women. Dr. Marie Formad was finally put in charge. Later, at the request of the French Service de Sante, a 300-bed hospital unit for gas cases was organized by the Women's Oversea Hospitals and was started on its way from America to France. This was the first hospital unit exclusively for gas cases and had a personnel solely of women. Its principal group in Lorraine cared for 19,307 cases in three months."

The Oversea Hospitals service was divided and sent from point to point to answer the many demands of war, having charge of hospitals and treating tens of thousands of cases. "With the signing of the Armistice," Mrs. Brown's report said, "the great problem in France became the care of refugees and repatriates, who were returning at the rate of thousands a day, most of them utterly destitute and in need of medical care, to homes in many cases completely destroyed." The hospital and dispensary service was therefore continued. Dr. Finley and her group were sent to Germany and here met the returned prisoners of war, who were in desperate condition.

"The work of the Oversea Hospitals has been handled with great economy," the report said, "and has cost less than was anticipated,both because of the large amount of volunteer work and because the units in French military hospitals received French rations. The State suffrage organizations have contributed most generously." A list was furnished of the trucks and ambulances given by the women's organizations in the United States. "The total number of women sent to France with the hospitals was seventy-four, who came from all parts of the United States. Several of the doctors received the French equivalent of a commission; three obtained the Croix de Guerre and two were decorated with the Medaille d'Honneur."

The report of Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, treasurer of the National Association, given at the convention, stated that funds for the hospitals service to the amount of $133,340 had passed through her hands. Their disbursement, carefully audited, is published in the Handbook of the association for 1918, page 111.

At the annual convention of the National Suffrage Association held in Chicago, in February, 1920, the report of Mrs. Rogers stated that Oversea Hospitals funds to the amount of $178,000 had passed through the treasury and a balance of $35,000 remained. (See Handbook, page 116.) The question of the disposition of this balance was put to the convention, which voted that it be divided equally between the work in France of the Women's Oversea Hospitals and the American Hospital for French Wounded in Rheims. Mrs. Tiffany, chairman of the committee, and Mrs. Brown, director in France, made a final report to the convention, stating that the work in France was continued until September 1, 1919, in order to care for the French disabled soldiers, and to maintain hospitals, dental clinics, dispensaries, ambulances, motor cars, etc. Such work proceeded in connection with the American Fund for French Wounded. The principal group was transferred from Lorraine to Rheims in April, with Dr. Marie Lefort still in charge. On September 1, with its mission finished, the hospital and all its equipment were presented to the American Fund for French Wounded. The Mayor sent a letter to Dr. Lefort which said in part: "The Municipality of Rheims would like to express to you and the Women's Oversea Hospitals its profound gratitude for the splendid assistance you have given our population. France and the city ofRheims are deeply moved." The full equipment of the smaller hospital groups was given to the French government for its own hospital service. Dr. Caroline Finley returned to the U. S. in August, still a Lieutenant in the French Army. The Prince of Wales, who was in New York, invited her on board H. M. S.Renown, where he conferred on her the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her work at Metz, where British prisoners stricken with influenza were cared for as they arrived from German prison-camps.

This ends the story of the Women's Oversea Hospitals, for which the National Suffrage Association willingly raised nearly $200,000 at the crisis in its own fifty-year movement. Desks for suffrage work were vacant over all the country while their occupants were cheerfully giving their best service to the demands of the war. For the vast majority this took the forms indicated by the above committee reports. In addition there were the activities of money-raising; caring for children and other dependents; safeguarding public health; the usual tasks of nursing and other Red Cross work; the distribution of food administration pledge cards, the organizing of food committees in all townships under the direction of district captains, with "clean-up" days and "elimination of waste" days in counties; canning demonstrations throughout communities; alloting and directing garden plots; holding normal training schools to teach gardening; making collections for the Red Cross and other war funds, with countless other activities. Liberty Bonds in the second, third and fourth campaigns to the amount of one-fourth of the total sales were disposed of through the National Suffrage Association, its State branches and women throughout the country.

While the suffragists were devoting themselves to war-service they did not lay down arms for their own cause, which had reached a stage where further delay was impossible. There was a general tacit understanding that, while the war needs of their country were and should be uppermost, their hands must never relinquish the suffrage throttle, and the double tasks of war work and suffrage work were undertaken in a fine spirit of devotion to both. Nevertheless, the anti-suffrage women seized upon theoccasion to accuse them of disloyalty, pacifism, pro-Germanism and of placing the interests of woman suffrage above those of the nation! These attacks were repeatedly made in the press and on the platform, Mrs. Catt, the president of the National Association, being especially the victim. At times they grew so virulent that it became necessary to answer them through the newspapers.

Her letters were published with headlines and widely quoted. One of these letters, under date of Oct. 2, 1917, addressed to Mrs. Margaret C. Robinson of Cambridge, Mass., chairman of the press committee of the National Anti-Suffrage Association, began: "My attention has been called to the fact that you are circulating by public letter and bulletin various statements that impugn my loyalty as an American and thereby put in jeopardy my good name and reputation. These assertions are made by you either with wilful intent to injure my name and standing in the community or without having made an effort to establish their proof. I hereby set forth the facts which have been distorted by you into untruths, either by contrary statements or by implications." It ended: "In the name of our common womanhood, I ask you to meet the suffrage issue fairly and squarely, and I warn you that for personal attacks tending to injure my name or those of my fellow-workers, you will be held responsible."

Another letter dated Nov. 1, 1917, addressed by Mrs. Catt to Mrs. James W. Wadsworth, Jr., president of the Anti-Suffrage Association; Mrs. Robinson and Miss Alice Hill Chittenden, president of the New York State Anti-Suffrage Association, took up and refuted the charges saying: "To every single and collective insinuation, implication or direct charge, published or spoken in any place at any time by professional anti-suffrage campaigners, which has conveyed the impression that I or any other officially responsible leader of the National Suffrage Association has by word or deed been disloyal to our country, I make complete and absolute denial here and now." It said in closing: "In this connection I wish to call your attention to the fact that the late John Hay, the father of the president of the National Association of Anti-suffragists, had his own experiences with people who challenged his loyalty and 'cursed me,' he says, 'for being the tool of England.' In May, 1898, when our countrywas at war with Spain, John Hay actually had the temerity to draft a peace project, although he knew, so he said, that he 'would be lucky if he escaped lynching for it.' Are you willing to apply to Mrs. Wadsworth's father the chain of alleged reasoning that you apply to me, and, because of his great faith in and hope for peace, call him a traitor to his country?"

These letters had no effect on the abuse and misrepresentation of the suffragists but the charges were continued by the leaders of the "antis" until after the close of the war. There can be no doubt that the splendid war work of the suffragists was a principal factor in the submission and ratification of the Federal Amendment. Their instant and universal response in New York to the call of the Government, and later the actual conscription of all women over sixteen years of age by the Governor, proved that not only were women capable of war service but actually liable for it. These facts were largely responsible for the big majority vote cast by the men for woman suffrage in November, 1917, and the action of this great State paved the way for the success of the Federal Amendment in Congress.

It is impossible in this brief space to set forth the achievements of the Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense, whose chairman, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was honorary president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and had been for eleven years its president; two of whose members, Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick, were now its president and vice-president, while five of the remaining eight were prominent suffragists. Its accomplishments were on so large a scale and embodied so much important detail that only a full review could do them justice. The facts attested to the work of an organization which built up branches in forty-eight States comprising 18,000 component units and capable in at least one instance of reaching as many as 82,000 women in a single State. The reader is referred to the excellent account by Mrs. Emily Newell Blair—The Woman's Committee, United States Council of National Defense, an interpretative report. (Government Printing Office.)

From the time Dr. Shaw called the first meeting, May 2, 1917, to the middle of March, 1919, the committee labored unceasingly to perform its great task. On New Year's Day, 1918, a telegramto Dr. Shaw from Queen Mary expressed the "thanks of the women of the British Empire for the inspiring words of encouragement and assurance from the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense of America."

On Nov. 11, 1918, the Armistice was signed and on the 18th representatives of New York organizations of women met in the ball-room of the Hotel McAlpin at the call of Mrs. Catt. The second vice-president, Miss Mary Garrett Hay, presided and Mrs. Catt offered the following resolution:

"Whereas, the great war just ended has been a partnership of all the people of all belligerent countries composing two vast armies, one of soldiers in the trenches and one of civilians who formed a second line of defense to supply the needs of the fighters, thus making it possible to fight; and whereas, the war could not have been carried to a victorious conclusion without the aid of women in civilian activities, as is shown by the testimony of men in high authority in every belligerent land; and whereas, all truly civilized, intelligent people now wish to make a final end of war and to organize the forces of civilization so as to make future war impossible; and whereas, women compose half of society with very special and peculiar interests to be conserved and protected—all too frequently overlooked by men—thereforeResolved, that we urge the President of the United States to give women adequate representation on the United States delegation to the Peace Conference to meet in Paris. We urge him to select women whose broad experience and sympathies render them competent to support and defend every point which bears upon the establishment of liberty for all the peoples of the world and especially upon the proper protection of women and children in peace and war. We urge him to select women who may be relied upon to uphold free representative institutions, based upon the will of the people in every land in which independence is established, in order that democratic institutions may make an end of war."

Resolved, that we urge the President of the United States to give women adequate representation on the United States delegation to the Peace Conference to meet in Paris. We urge him to select women whose broad experience and sympathies render them competent to support and defend every point which bears upon the establishment of liberty for all the peoples of the world and especially upon the proper protection of women and children in peace and war. We urge him to select women who may be relied upon to uphold free representative institutions, based upon the will of the people in every land in which independence is established, in order that democratic institutions may make an end of war."

No attention was paid to this resolution by the President or the Government and no women were appointed on the Peace delegation as a recognition of their work and sacrifice.

The Woman's Committee gradually closed up its affairs andat a meeting on Feb. 12, 1919, Dr. Shaw was instructed to write to the Secretary of War that it believed its work to be at an end and tendered its resignation to take effect when, in the judgment of his Council, its services should no longer be required. This resignation was accepted by President Wilson on February 27 with a splendid tribute to the work of the committee. The announcement was formally made on March 15, and the committee passed out of existence.[151]Two of its members, the chairman and the resident director, Miss Hannah J. Patterson, received from the Government in May the distinguished service medal.

Secretary of War Newton D. Baker in a Foreword to Mrs. Blair's report said: "The chairman of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense from the beginning was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw—ripened by a long life devoted intensely to the advocacy of great causes; cheered and heartened by recent victories for the greatest cause for which she had fought in her long and unusual life; loved and honored by her sex as their leader and by men as a citizen combining in a rare degree high qualities of intellect, force of character and persuasive eloquence in speech. She and her committee wrought a work the like of which had never been seen before, and her reward was to see its success and then to be caught up as she was engaged in another high and fierce conflict into which she threw herself when hostilities ceased in order that this great work might be but a helpful part of a greater thing in the hope and history of mankind.... The Woman's Committee was the leader of the women of America. It informed and broadened the minds of women everywhere, and with no thought of propaganda it made an argument by producing results. The Council of National Defense fades out of this work and the Woman's Committee looms large—and yet larger still is the American woman...."

It was the earnest desire of Dr. Shaw and the suffragists that she might now give her important services to the Federal Suffrage Amendment, which was at a critical stage, but this hope could not be realized. Former President Taft and PresidentLowell of Harvard University, both of whom had done valuable work for the Peace Treaty and the League of Nations, were starting in May, 1919, on a speaking tour to advocate the League in fifteen States and they urged Dr. Shaw to cancel all other engagements and join them on this tour. For two years she had been giving her time and labor without price and now she had commenced again to fill her own lecture dates. She was going later to Spain as the guest of Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, for a well-earned and much-needed rest, but at this call everything was given up willingly and cheerfully to continue her service to her country. As the tour was arranged, every night was to be spent on a sleeping car and Dr. Shaw was to speak only once in twenty-four hours. She could not, however, resist the pleading of people in different cities and at Indianapolis she filled eight engagements of various kinds in one day. The following day at Springfield, Ills., she succumbed to her old foe, pneumonia. She received every possible care in the hospital and after two weeks recovered sufficiently to make the journey to her home at Moylan, Pennsylvania. She had, however, put too great a strain on her vital forces and died July 2, at the age of seventy-two.

Whatever may have been the unthinking verdict passed upon suffragists and their activities prior to the World War, it was thereafter widely acknowledged that in the national crisis they played a leading rôle in the support and defense of the nation. While it is a matter for regret that their war record cannot be chronicled as fully and definitely as can their work for suffrage, nevertheless, even a casual examination will show that it was a heroic one and none the less so because it was frequently merged, through far-sighted efficiency, in the war-service of all American women, of which it formed a distinguished part.

FOOTNOTES:[150]The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, first vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and general chairman of its War Service Department.[151]It was a question long and seriously discussed whether this vast organization should be wholly dissolved or whether it should be continued in the various States for civic and humanitarian purposes. Dr. Shaw was strongly in favor of preserving it and her earnest appeal will be found in Mrs. Blair's Report, page 137.

[150]The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, first vice-president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and general chairman of its War Service Department.

[151]It was a question long and seriously discussed whether this vast organization should be wholly dissolved or whether it should be continued in the various States for civic and humanitarian purposes. Dr. Shaw was strongly in favor of preserving it and her earnest appeal will be found in Mrs. Blair's Report, page 137.

From the address of an old and valued friend, the Rev. Moncure D. Conway of Virginia, who was many years at the head of the Ethical Culture Society of London, at the funeral of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her home in New York City, Oct. 28, 1902.

A lighthouse on the human coast is fallen. To vast multitudes the name Elizabeth Cady Stanton does not mean so much a person as a standard inscribed with great principles. Roses will grow out of her ashes; individual characters will give a resurrection to her soul and genius, but the immortality she has achieved is that of her long and magnificent services to every cause of justice and reason. Beginning her career amid ridicule and obloquy, all the worth she put into her life has not only been returned to her personally in the love and friendship which have surrounded her and made life happy even to her last day, but has been returned to her tenfold in the successes of her cause.Could I utter to her my farewell I would say: Revered and beloved friend, you pass to your rest after a brave and beautiful life; you have journeyed by a path of unsullied light. If ever there shall be established in America a republic—a Constitution and Government free from all caste and privilege, whether of color, creed or sex—its founders will be discovered not in those who purchased by their valor and blood mere independence of territory in which a government allied with slavery was founded, but among those who, while faithful to heart and home, toiled unweariedly for an ideal civilization.

Could I utter to her my farewell I would say: Revered and beloved friend, you pass to your rest after a brave and beautiful life; you have journeyed by a path of unsullied light. If ever there shall be established in America a republic—a Constitution and Government free from all caste and privilege, whether of color, creed or sex—its founders will be discovered not in those who purchased by their valor and blood mere independence of territory in which a government allied with slavery was founded, but among those who, while faithful to heart and home, toiled unweariedly for an ideal civilization.

A few touching words were spoken by the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, a contemporary in the early days of the movement for woman suffrage. At Woodlawn Cemetery the committal to earth was pronounced by the Rev. Phoebe A. Hanaford, another companion in the long contest.

My Dear Mrs. Stanton:—I shall indeed be happy to spend with you November 12, the day on which you round out your four-score and seven, over four years ahead of me, but in age as in all else I follow you closely. It is fifty-one years since first we met and we have been busy through every one of them, stirring up the world to recognize the rights of women. The older we grow the more keenly we feel the humiliation of disfranchisement and the more vividly we realize its disadvantages in every department of life and most of all in the labor market.We little dreamed when we began this contest, optimistic with the hope and buoyancy of youth, that half a century later we would be compelled to leave the finish of the battle to another generation of women. But our hearts are filled with joy to know that they enter upon this task equipped with a college education, with business experience, with the fully admitted right to speak in public—all of which were denied to women fifty years ago. They have practically but one point to gain—the suffrage; we had all. These strong, courageous, capable young women will take our place andcomplete our work. There is an army of them where we were but a handful. Ancient prejudice has become so softened, public sentiment so liberalized and women have so thoroughly demonstrated their ability as to leave not a shadow of doubt that they will carry our cause to victory.And we, dear, old friend, shall move on to the next sphere of existence—higher and larger, we cannot fail to believe, and one where women will not be placed in an inferior position but will be welcomed on a plane of perfect intellectual and spiritual equality.Ever lovingly yours,Susan B. Anthony.

My Dear Mrs. Stanton:—

I shall indeed be happy to spend with you November 12, the day on which you round out your four-score and seven, over four years ahead of me, but in age as in all else I follow you closely. It is fifty-one years since first we met and we have been busy through every one of them, stirring up the world to recognize the rights of women. The older we grow the more keenly we feel the humiliation of disfranchisement and the more vividly we realize its disadvantages in every department of life and most of all in the labor market.

We little dreamed when we began this contest, optimistic with the hope and buoyancy of youth, that half a century later we would be compelled to leave the finish of the battle to another generation of women. But our hearts are filled with joy to know that they enter upon this task equipped with a college education, with business experience, with the fully admitted right to speak in public—all of which were denied to women fifty years ago. They have practically but one point to gain—the suffrage; we had all. These strong, courageous, capable young women will take our place andcomplete our work. There is an army of them where we were but a handful. Ancient prejudice has become so softened, public sentiment so liberalized and women have so thoroughly demonstrated their ability as to leave not a shadow of doubt that they will carry our cause to victory.

And we, dear, old friend, shall move on to the next sphere of existence—higher and larger, we cannot fail to believe, and one where women will not be placed in an inferior position but will be welcomed on a plane of perfect intellectual and spiritual equality.

Ever lovingly yours,

Susan B. Anthony.

Practically every magazine in the United States contained an article about Mrs. Stanton and her great work and there was scarcely a newspaper that did not have an editorial. An extended account, with tributes from Miss Anthony, will be found in her Life and Work, Chapter LXI.

In theReview of Reviewsfor December, 1902, appeared an appreciation from the writer of these volumes.

The following Declaration of Principles, prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, Miss Blackwell and Mrs. Harper, was adopted by the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1904.

When our forefathers gained the victory in a seven years' war to establish the principle that representation should go hand in hand with taxation, they marked a new epoch in the history of man; but though our foremothers bore an equal part in that long conflict its triumph brought to them no added rights and through all the following century and a quarter, taxation without representation has been continuously imposed on women by as great tyranny as King George exercised over the American colonists.So long as no married woman was permitted to own property and all women were barred from the money-making occupations this discrimination did not seem so invidious; but to-day the situation is without a parallel. The women of the United States now pay taxes on real and personal estate valued at billions of dollars. In a number of individual States their holdings amount to many millions. Everywhere they are accumulating property. In hundreds of places they form one-third of the taxpayers, with the number constantly increasing, and yet they are absolutely without representation in the affairs of the nation, of the State, even of the community in which they live and pay taxes. We enter our protest against this injustice and we demand that the immortal principles established by the War of the Revolution shall be applied equally to women and men citizens.As our new republic passed into a higher stage of development the gross inequality became apparent of giving representation to capital and denying it to labor; therefore the right of suffrage was extended to the workingman. Now we demand for the 4,000,000 wage-earning women of our country the same protection of the ballot as is possessed by the wage-earning men.The founders took an even broader view of human rights when they declared that government could justly derive its powers only from the consent of the governed, and for 125 years this grand assertion was regarded as a corner-stone of the republic, with scarcely a recognition of the fact that one-half of the citizens were as completely governed without their consent as were the people of any absolute monarchy in existence. It was only when our government was extended over alien races in foreign countries that ourpeople awoke to the meaning of the principles of the Declaration of Independence. In response to its provisions, the Congress of the United States hastened to invest with the power of consent the men of this new territory, but committed the flagrant injustice of withholding it from the women. We demand that the ballot shall be extended to the women of our foreign possessions on the same terms as to the men. Furthermore, we demand that the women of the United States shall no longer suffer the degradation of being held not so competent to exercise the suffrage as a Filipino, a Hawaiian or a Porto Rican man.The remaining Territories within the United States are insisting upon admission into the Union on the ground that their citizens desire "the right to select their own governing officials, choose their own judges, name those who are to make their laws and levy, collect, and disburse their taxes." These are just and commendable desires but we demand that their women shall have full recognition as citizens when these Territories are admitted and that their constitutions shall secure to women precisely the same rights as to men.When our government was founded the rudiments of education were thought sufficient for women, since their entire time was absorbed in the multitude of household duties. Now the number of girls graduated by the high schools greatly exceeds the number of boys in every State and the percentage of women students in the colleges is vastly larger than that of men. Meantime most of the domestic industries have been taken from the home to the factory and hundreds of thousands of women have followed them there, while the more highly trained have entered the professions and other avenues of skilled labor. We demand that under this new régime, and in view of these changed conditions in which she is so important a factor woman shall have a voice and a vote in the solution of their innumerable problems.The laws of practically every State provide that the husband shall select the place of residence for the family, and if the wife refuse to abide by his choice she forfeits her right to support and her refusal shall be regarded as desertion. We protest against the recent decision of the courts which has added to this injustice by requiring the wife also to accept for herself the citizenship preferred by her husband, thus compelling a woman born in the United States to lose her nationality if her husband choose to declare his allegiance to a foreign country.As women form two-thirds of the church membership of the entire nation; as they constitute but one-eleventh of the convicted criminals; as they are rapidly becoming the educated class and as the salvation of our government depends upon a moral, law-abiding, educated electorate, we demand for the sake of its integrity and permanence that women be made a part of its voting body.In brief, we demand that all constitutional and legal barriers shall be removed which deny to women any individual right or personal freedom which is granted to man. This we ask in the name of a democratic and a republican government, which, its constitution declares, was formed "to establish justice and secure the blessings of liberty."

So long as no married woman was permitted to own property and all women were barred from the money-making occupations this discrimination did not seem so invidious; but to-day the situation is without a parallel. The women of the United States now pay taxes on real and personal estate valued at billions of dollars. In a number of individual States their holdings amount to many millions. Everywhere they are accumulating property. In hundreds of places they form one-third of the taxpayers, with the number constantly increasing, and yet they are absolutely without representation in the affairs of the nation, of the State, even of the community in which they live and pay taxes. We enter our protest against this injustice and we demand that the immortal principles established by the War of the Revolution shall be applied equally to women and men citizens.

As our new republic passed into a higher stage of development the gross inequality became apparent of giving representation to capital and denying it to labor; therefore the right of suffrage was extended to the workingman. Now we demand for the 4,000,000 wage-earning women of our country the same protection of the ballot as is possessed by the wage-earning men.

The founders took an even broader view of human rights when they declared that government could justly derive its powers only from the consent of the governed, and for 125 years this grand assertion was regarded as a corner-stone of the republic, with scarcely a recognition of the fact that one-half of the citizens were as completely governed without their consent as were the people of any absolute monarchy in existence. It was only when our government was extended over alien races in foreign countries that ourpeople awoke to the meaning of the principles of the Declaration of Independence. In response to its provisions, the Congress of the United States hastened to invest with the power of consent the men of this new territory, but committed the flagrant injustice of withholding it from the women. We demand that the ballot shall be extended to the women of our foreign possessions on the same terms as to the men. Furthermore, we demand that the women of the United States shall no longer suffer the degradation of being held not so competent to exercise the suffrage as a Filipino, a Hawaiian or a Porto Rican man.

The remaining Territories within the United States are insisting upon admission into the Union on the ground that their citizens desire "the right to select their own governing officials, choose their own judges, name those who are to make their laws and levy, collect, and disburse their taxes." These are just and commendable desires but we demand that their women shall have full recognition as citizens when these Territories are admitted and that their constitutions shall secure to women precisely the same rights as to men.

When our government was founded the rudiments of education were thought sufficient for women, since their entire time was absorbed in the multitude of household duties. Now the number of girls graduated by the high schools greatly exceeds the number of boys in every State and the percentage of women students in the colleges is vastly larger than that of men. Meantime most of the domestic industries have been taken from the home to the factory and hundreds of thousands of women have followed them there, while the more highly trained have entered the professions and other avenues of skilled labor. We demand that under this new régime, and in view of these changed conditions in which she is so important a factor woman shall have a voice and a vote in the solution of their innumerable problems.

The laws of practically every State provide that the husband shall select the place of residence for the family, and if the wife refuse to abide by his choice she forfeits her right to support and her refusal shall be regarded as desertion. We protest against the recent decision of the courts which has added to this injustice by requiring the wife also to accept for herself the citizenship preferred by her husband, thus compelling a woman born in the United States to lose her nationality if her husband choose to declare his allegiance to a foreign country.

As women form two-thirds of the church membership of the entire nation; as they constitute but one-eleventh of the convicted criminals; as they are rapidly becoming the educated class and as the salvation of our government depends upon a moral, law-abiding, educated electorate, we demand for the sake of its integrity and permanence that women be made a part of its voting body.

In brief, we demand that all constitutional and legal barriers shall be removed which deny to women any individual right or personal freedom which is granted to man. This we ask in the name of a democratic and a republican government, which, its constitution declares, was formed "to establish justice and secure the blessings of liberty."

Shortly after the death of Susan B. Anthony a group of her co-workers and other friends in Rochester set out to raise a fund for the purpose of erecting, as a memorial to her, a building for the use of women students at the University of Rochester. This seemed to them especially fitting, as Miss Anthony had been intensely interested and very active in the raising of theCo-education Fund which admitted women students to the University in 1900.[152]Endorsement of this plan and the use of their names were given by her sister, Mary S. Anthony, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw and many well known women throughout this country and several from over-seas.

A Memorial Association was formed with an executive committee of Rochester women[153]but very little organized committee work was done. Suffragists were by this time too busy with the growing intensity of their own campaigns and said, truly enough, that Miss Anthony would much rather they would spend their time and money for the cause. However, an appeal was issued, coupon books were scattered among many women's organizations and individuals and the chairman of the committee addressed her personal appeal to every club and conference that would give her a hearing.

The largest single gift was from Miss Anthony's old friend Mrs. Sarah L. Willis of Rochester, $5,250. Mrs. Susan Look Avery of Louisville, Ky., gave $1,199. Of nine gifts of $1,000 each, five were from Rochester women—Miss Mary S. Anthony, Mrs. Hannah M. Byam, Mrs. Mary H. Hallowell, Miss Ada Howe Kent and Miss Frances Baker. The other $1,000 gifts were from Mrs. Emma J. Bartol, George and Mary A. Burnham of Philadelphia; John C. Haynes of Boston; Mrs. Lydia Coonley Ward of Chicago. Among many interesting gifts may be noted one from the women of The Netherlands and one from the Portia Suffrage Club of New Orleans. Women students at the college made class gifts from time to time but the fund grew slowly. After eight years it had reached $27,475. At this point the college authorities offered to complete the amount necessary for the building as planned, if the committee would turn over its money, which it gladly did. The cost was $58,763, the balance, which came to $31,288, being paid from the Co-education Fund raised by and for the women in 1900.

In the fall of 1914 the college girls took possession of the handsome gray stone building, bearing on its face, cut in stone, "Anthony Memorial." It contains a well-equipped gymnasium, a lunch room and four parlors for the social life of the students and the use of the Alumnæ Association. The possession of this building and Catherine Strong Hall, the two connected by a cloistered walk, has added greatly to the enjoyment and convenience of the women students. Miss Eddy's half-length portrait of Miss Anthony hangs over the chimney-piece in the largest parlor and these rooms furnish a homelike place for their smaller social gatherings: larger affairs, such as the alumnæ dinner, are held in the gymnasium. "Miss Anthony would certainly rejoice if she could look in on some February 15th and see the girls commemorating her birthday, as they do in some way every year," Mrs. Gannett writes in sending information for this account.

Dr. Rush Rhees, president of the university, who has sent for this volume a picture of the Memorial Building and some additional information, says:"The building is in constant use and is a great contribution to the comfort, health and pleasure of our women students."

Friends of Miss Anthony gave a scholarship for women in her name and Miss Mary S. Anthony gave the money for one in her own name. The university has seven other scholarships for women.

Although the Constitution of the United States in section 2 of Article I seems to have relegated authority over the extension of the suffrage to the various States, yet, curiously, few men in the United States possess the suffrage because they or the class to which they belong have secured their right to it by State action. The first voters were those who possessed the right under the original charters granted by the mother country and as the restrictions were many, including religious tests in most of the colonies and property qualifications in all, the number of actual voters was exceedingly small. When it became necessary at the close of the Revolution to form a federation for the "common defense" and the promotion of the "general welfare," it was obvious that citizenship must be made national. To do this it became clearly necessary that religious tests must be abandoned, since Catholic Maryland, Quaker Pennsylvania and Congregational Massachusetts could be united under a common citizenship by no other method. The elimination of the religious test enfranchised a large number of men and this without a struggle or any movement in their behalf.

In 1790 the first naturalization law was passed by Congress. Under the Articles of Confederation citizenship had belonged to the States but since it was apparent that it must now be national, a compromise was made between the old idea of State's rights and the new idea of Federal union. Each of the original States had its representatives in the convention which drafted the Federal Constitution and by common consent it was there planned that citizenship should carry with it the right to vote, although this was to be put into the State constitutions and not into the National. These delegates, influencing their own States in the forming of their constitutions, easily brought this about and without any movement on the part of those who were to be naturalized. This common understanding in the National Constitutional Convention and the Naturalization Act of Congress in 1790 certainly enfranchised somewhere between three-fourths and four-fifths of all men in the United States at this time.

The population of the colonies at the time of the Revolution was two and a half millions and even though all men had been voters the number could not have been more than seven or eight hundred thousand. By the census of 1900 there were 21,000,000 men of voting age in the United States. The Act, therefore, of the U. S. Government virtually enfranchised millions upon millions of men. Generations then unborn have come into the right of the suffrage in this country under that Act and men of every nationality have availed themselves of its privileges to become voting citizens. Although, technically speaking,enfranchisement of the foreign-born was extended by the States, yet in reality it is obvious that the real granting of this privilege came from Congress itself. The thirteen original States retained their property qualifications after the formation of the Union and these were removed by State amendments. This extension of the suffrage was made in most cases many years ago, when the electorate was very small in numbers.

The history of the enfranchisement of the negro is well known. States attempted it by amending their constitutions but in no case was this accomplished. Congress undertook to secure it by national amendment and although this was ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the State Legislatures yet it must be remembered that all the southern States were virtually coerced into giving their consent.... The Indians were enfranchised by Acts of Congress.

The evolution of man suffrage in the United States shows that but one class received their votes by direct State action—the nonproperty holders. They found political parties and statesmen to advocate their cause and their enfranchisement was made easy by State constitutional action.

In the 120 years of our national life no class of men have been forced to organize a movement in behalf of their enfranchisement; they have offered no petition or plea or even given sign that the extension of suffrage to them would be acceptable. Yet American women, who have conducted a persistent, intelligent movement for a half-century, which has grown stronger and stronger with the years, appealing for their own enfranchisement and supported now by a petition of 400,000 citizens of the United States are told that it is unnecessary to consider their plea since all women do not want to vote!

Gentlemen, is it not manifestly unfair to demand of women a test which has never been made in the case of men in this or any other country? Is it not true that the attitude of the Government toward an unenfranchised class of men has ever been that the vote is a privilege to be extended and it is optional with the citizen whether or not he shall use it? If any proof is needed it can be found in the fact that the U. S. Government has no record whatever of the number who have been naturalized in this country. It has no record of the number of Indians who have accepted its offer of the vote as a reward for taking up land in severalty. Manifestly the Government, as represented by Congress and the State Legislatures, considers it entirely unnecessary to know whether men who have had the suffrage "thrust upon them" use it or not, but imperative that women must not only demand it in very large numbers but give guaranty that they will use it, before its extension shall be made to them.

Is it not likewise unfair to compel women to seek their enfranchisement by methods infinitely more difficult than those by means of which any man in this country has secured his right to a vote? Ordinary fair play should compel every believer in democracy and individual liberty, no matter what are his views on woman suffrage, to grant to women the easiest process of enfranchisement and that is the submission of a Federal Amendment.

In 1914 the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, of which Mrs. Medill McCormick was chairman and Mrs. Antoinette Funk vice-chairman, caused to be introduced in Congress, with the sanction of the National Board, a Federal Amendment for woman suffrage radically different from the one for which the association had been working since 1869. It was named for its introducers in Senate and House. The merits of the proposed amendment, as stated by Mrs. Funk, which are given in condensed form inChapter XIV, will be found in full in the published Handbook or Minutes of the national suffrage convention of this year. Specimens of the objections made as published in theWoman's Journalare given herewith:

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