They tell us that women can bring better things to pass by indirect influence. Try to persuade any man that he will have more weight, more influence, if he gives up his vote, allies himself with no party and relies on influence to achieve his ends! By all means let us use to its utmost whatever influence we have, but in all justice do not ask us to be content with this. Facts show that a large body of earnest, responsible women do want the ballot, a body large enough to deserve very respectful hearing from our law-makers, but there certainly are many women who do not yet want to vote. We think they ought to want it; that women have no more right than men to accept and enjoy the protection and privileges of civilized government and shirk its duties and responsibilities. They say they do not thus shirk, that woman's sphere lies in a different place, and we answer: "This is true but only part of the truth." ... Municipal government belongs far more to woman's sphere than to man's, if we must choose between the two; it is home-making and housekeeping writ large, but just as the best home is that where fatherand mother together rule, so shall we have the better city, the better State, when men and women together counsel, together rule. No mother fulfills her whole mother duty in the sight of God who is not willing to do her service, to take her share of direct responsibility for the good of the whole. She can not fully care for her own without some care for all the children of the community. Her own, however guarded, are menaced so long as the least of these is exposed to pestilence or is robbed of his birthright of fresh air and sunshine.The hard struggle and toil of our honored pioneers was for Woman's Rights. We of the coming day must take up the cry of Woman's Duty. We live in the new age; new obligations are laid upon us. We must labor until no woman in the land shall be content to say, "I am not willing to pay the price I owe for the comfort and safety of my life"; until every woman shall be ashamed not to demand equal duties and equal responsibilities for the common weal; until none can be found of whom it can with truth be said, "They do not want to vote."
They tell us that women can bring better things to pass by indirect influence. Try to persuade any man that he will have more weight, more influence, if he gives up his vote, allies himself with no party and relies on influence to achieve his ends! By all means let us use to its utmost whatever influence we have, but in all justice do not ask us to be content with this. Facts show that a large body of earnest, responsible women do want the ballot, a body large enough to deserve very respectful hearing from our law-makers, but there certainly are many women who do not yet want to vote. We think they ought to want it; that women have no more right than men to accept and enjoy the protection and privileges of civilized government and shirk its duties and responsibilities. They say they do not thus shirk, that woman's sphere lies in a different place, and we answer: "This is true but only part of the truth." ... Municipal government belongs far more to woman's sphere than to man's, if we must choose between the two; it is home-making and housekeeping writ large, but just as the best home is that where fatherand mother together rule, so shall we have the better city, the better State, when men and women together counsel, together rule. No mother fulfills her whole mother duty in the sight of God who is not willing to do her service, to take her share of direct responsibility for the good of the whole. She can not fully care for her own without some care for all the children of the community. Her own, however guarded, are menaced so long as the least of these is exposed to pestilence or is robbed of his birthright of fresh air and sunshine.
The hard struggle and toil of our honored pioneers was for Woman's Rights. We of the coming day must take up the cry of Woman's Duty. We live in the new age; new obligations are laid upon us. We must labor until no woman in the land shall be content to say, "I am not willing to pay the price I owe for the comfort and safety of my life"; until every woman shall be ashamed not to demand equal duties and equal responsibilities for the common weal; until none can be found of whom it can with truth be said, "They do not want to vote."
Miss Gregg discussed The Real Enemy, and, while endorsing all that had been said, asserted that "this enemy is among our own sex." "It is not the anti-suffragist," she said, "she is our unwilling ally, for when there is danger that we might fall asleep she arouses us by buzzing about our ears with her misrepresentations. It is not the indifferent suffragist, she can be galvanized into life. Our real enemy is the dead or dormant suffragist," and then she preached a stirring sermon on the necessity for hard, incessant, faithful work by all who were enlisted heart and soul in this cause.
Mrs. Upton, the treasurer, called attention to the mistaken idea conveyed through the newspapers that the association had unlimited funds. The report that it intended to raise $100,000 had been made to read that it had raised it, and the Garrett-Thomas fund of $12,000 a year had caused many to cease their subscriptions.[59]The new opportunities for effective work caused larger demands for money than ever before and the year 1907 had been the most anxious the board had known. The expenditures had been larger than the receipts and most of the balance that was in the treasury had been used. Even this strong statement,backed by an appeal from Dr. Shaw, brought pledges only to the amount of $3,600, a less amount than for years, the delegates, many of small means, still feeling that their former subscriptions were not necessary. Dr. Shaw then read to the convention a letter to herself from Mrs. George Howard Lewis of Buffalo, who expressed the pleasure of the New York State suffrage clubs that the 60th anniversary of the first Woman's Rights Convention had been held in this city, at Miss Anthony's expressed wish, and ended: "In memory of Susan B. Anthony will you accept the enclosed check for $10,000 to be used as the national officers deem best in the work, so dear to her and to all true lovers of justice, for the enfranchisement of women?" As she showed the enclosure Dr. Shaw said: "This is the largest check I ever held in my hand." The convention rose in appreciation of Mrs. Lewis's generous gift.
The report of Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, chairman of the Libraries Committee, the result of a month's research in the Library of Congress in Washington and another month in the Public Library of Boston, was most interesting, as it dealt with old manuscripts and books on the Rights of Women written in the 16th and 17th centuries. The valuable report of Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg, chairman of the Committee on Legislation and Civil Rights, embodied those of presidents of twenty-three State Suffrage Associations, covering school, labor, factory and temperance laws, mercantile inspection, juvenile courts, educational matters, protection of wives and many others relating to the welfare of women and children, most of them showing advance.
The speakers at the Monday evening session were Miss Harriet Grim, winner of the Springer prize for the best essay written by an Illinois college student, who described "The Womanly Woman in Politics"; Mrs. Katharine Reed Balentine (Me.), daughter of Thomas B. Reed, the famous Speaker of the lower house of Congress and a staunch suffragist, and the brilliant orator, Mrs. Philip Snowden of England. Mrs. Balentine said in beginning her address that now women were voting in Russia she had the courage to hope that they would sometime obtain the suffrage in New York, Massachusetts and Maine, and continued in part:
In England the last final argument, that women do not themselves want the franchise, has in the light of recent events become ridiculous. On June 13, 15,000 suffragists paraded through the streets of London and it is said that the woman suffrage meeting of June 21 was the largest public meeting ever held for any cause. Fifty thousand women have just stormed Parliament.... No one now doubts that the women of England want and intend to have votes. It is said that history repeats itself but this particular phenomenon—the world-wide claim of women to political equality with men—has never appeared before; it has no historic precedent....Does disfranchised influence, unsteadied by the responsibility of the ballot and the broadening experience of public service, make for the greatest good to the greatest number, which is the aim of true democracy? Can women, and do the average, every-day women in their present condition as subjects take a very lively interest in the real welfare of the State? Hardly, and are not men and children affected by this indifference? It could scarcely be otherwise. It may be said that average men, notwithstanding their possession of the ballot, are indifferent to the public weal, but are they not rendered doubly so by continually associating with a class that feels no allegiance to the State?... In the political subjection and consequent political ignorance and indifference of women, men are unconsciously forging their own fetters. They can not retain their rights unless they share them with women. This is the true significance of the woman suffrage movement throughout the world. It is a vast attempt at the establishing of real government by the people of republics which, being real, shall endure; and as such it is as much a movement for men's rights as for women's.
In England the last final argument, that women do not themselves want the franchise, has in the light of recent events become ridiculous. On June 13, 15,000 suffragists paraded through the streets of London and it is said that the woman suffrage meeting of June 21 was the largest public meeting ever held for any cause. Fifty thousand women have just stormed Parliament.... No one now doubts that the women of England want and intend to have votes. It is said that history repeats itself but this particular phenomenon—the world-wide claim of women to political equality with men—has never appeared before; it has no historic precedent....
Does disfranchised influence, unsteadied by the responsibility of the ballot and the broadening experience of public service, make for the greatest good to the greatest number, which is the aim of true democracy? Can women, and do the average, every-day women in their present condition as subjects take a very lively interest in the real welfare of the State? Hardly, and are not men and children affected by this indifference? It could scarcely be otherwise. It may be said that average men, notwithstanding their possession of the ballot, are indifferent to the public weal, but are they not rendered doubly so by continually associating with a class that feels no allegiance to the State?... In the political subjection and consequent political ignorance and indifference of women, men are unconsciously forging their own fetters. They can not retain their rights unless they share them with women. This is the true significance of the woman suffrage movement throughout the world. It is a vast attempt at the establishing of real government by the people of republics which, being real, shall endure; and as such it is as much a movement for men's rights as for women's.
The "militant" suffrage movement in Great Britain, at this time in its early stage, was attracting world-wide attention and Mrs. Snowden devoted much of her address to explaining it, saying in part: "Our methods may seem strange to you, for perhaps you do not fully understand. We have the Municipal vote and have used it for many years. Today an Englishwoman may vote for every official except a member of Parliament; she may sit in every political body except the Parliament and we are after that last right. We have 420 members out of 670 of its members pledged to this reform. When the full suffrage bill went to its second reading the votes stood three to one in favor. We want that vote put through but it is the British Cabinet we must get at to approve finally the act when it has passed the two Houses. It is the Government we are trying to annoy. Our Government never moves in any radical way until it is kicked.Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman, when prime minister, advised the women to harass the Government until they got what they wanted and that is just what we are doing today. The Liberal Government, helped into power by at least 80,000 tax-paying women, promised to grant their rights. How have they kept that promise?"
Speaking of the two "militant" societies Mrs. Snowden said: "Our policy of aggressiveness has been justified by its results. When we began almost every newspaper in England was against us. Now, with one exception, theTimes, the London papers are all for us. The 'militancy' thus far has consisted chiefly in 'heckling' speakers; assembling before the House of Commons in large numbers; getting into the gallery and into public meetings and calling out 'Votes for Women' and breaking windows in government buildings, a time-honored English custom of showing disapproval. Many suffragists in the United States, knowing the contemptuous manner in which those of Great Britain and Ireland have been treated by the Government, have felt a good deal of sympathy with these measures." At this convention and the one preceding sympathy was expressed by Dr. Shaw and others and resolutions to this effect were adopted.
One of the Buffalo papers said in regard to the election of officers: "If the way the women vote at the national convention may be taken as a criterion of what they will do when they gain the ballot, there will be very little electioneering. Yesterday's election was characterized by entire absence of wire-pulling. The balloting was done quickly and there was no contest for any office, the women voting as they wished and only a few scattered ballots going for particular friends of voters. The election of the president, first vice-president, corresponding secretary and treasurer was unanimous and the others so nearly so that there was no question of result by the time half the ballots had been counted." Mrs. Sperry retired from the office of second vice-president and Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, president of the Illinois suffrage association, was chosen in her place.
The paper on Some Legal Phases of the Disfranchisement of Women by Mrs. Harriette Johnston Wood, a New York lawyer, was regarded as so important that it was ordered to be printedfor circulation. She quoted from Federal and State constitutions and court decisions to prove that "if properly construed the laws specify the rights and privileges of 'persons' and no distinction is made as to 'sex' in provisions relating to the elective franchise." She encouraged women to try to register for voting and qualify for jury service and urged that bills be presented to legislative bodies covering the following points: First, that citizens shall equally enjoy all civil and political rights and privileges; second, that in the selection of jurors no discrimination shall be made against citizens on account of sex; third, that representation be based on the electorate and that non-voters be non-taxpayers; fourth, that husband and wife have equal right in each other's property; fifth, equal rights in the property of a child; sixth, in case of separation, equal rights to the custody of the children. A visit to the Albright Art Gallery and an automobile ride along the lake front, through Delaware Park and the many handsome avenues of the city, was a much-enjoyed part of this afternoon's program.
At one evening session Miss Grace H. Ballantyne, attorney in the noted City Hall case at Des Moines, Iowa, gave a spirited account of the way in which the women's right to vote on issuing bonds was sustained. Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey (Ky.), who had resided some years in England, compared the condition of women in that country and the United States to the disadvantage of the latter, "where," she said, "the women did not profit by the Declaration of Independence but on the contrary lost when the colonies were supplanted by the republic. In this they discover that a republic may endure as a political institution to the end of time without conferring recognition, honors or power on women; that it can exist as an oligarchy of sex, and they say: 'Why should we be loyal to this government?' Thus through women republicanism itself is imperiled and I tell you that if an amendment is not added to the National Constitution giving women the power to vote, this republic, within the living generation, will find that prophecy, 'Woman is the rock upon which our Ship of State is to founder,' will be fulfilled."
As chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead gave a report of its many activities. In 1907she had attended a plenary session at The Hague Peace Conference, which she described in glowing terms, and she went as a delegate in September to an International Peace Conference in Munich. In July, 1908, she went to one in London, where Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood of Washington, D. C., presented a paper on the Central American Peace Congress, held in that city, and the recently established Arbitration Court, which formed the basis of three resolutions adopted by the congress. She told of the new society, the American School Peace League to improve the teaching of history and in every way promote international fraternity, sympathy and justice.
During business meetings the following were among the recommendations adopted: To recommend to States to continue a systematic and specialized distribution of literature; to secure and present to Congress at an early date a petition asking for a 16th Amendment enfranchising women, the chair to appoint a committee to superintend this work; to try to obtain the appointment of a U. S. Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage favorable to it; to send letters simultaneously to the President of the United States in advance of the time for writing his message, followed by telegrams one week preceding the opening of Congress, expressing the wishes of women for the ballot; to ask their Legislatures for some form of suffrage and follow up this request with systematic legislative work; to urge that States having any form of partial suffrage take measures to secure the largest possible use of it by women. It was decided to appropriate $125 for two months' work in South Dakota to ascertain conditions with a view to the submission of a State amendment.
The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the committee, reviewed the wonderful progress made by women since the first convention whose 60th anniversary they were celebrating. They told of the progress of suffrage, as outlined in the Call for the convention, and said: "When that first convention met, one college in the United States admitted women; now hundreds do so. Then there was not a single woman physician or ordained minister or lawyer; now there are 7,000 women physicians and surgeons, 3,000 ordained ministers and1,000 lawyers. Then only a few poorly-paid employments were open to women; now they are in more than three hundred occupations and comprise 80 per cent. of our school teachers. Then there were scarcely any organizations of women; now such organizations are numbered by thousands. Then the few women who dared to speak in public, even on philanthropic questions, were overwhelmingly condemned by public opinion; now the women most opposed to woman suffrage travel about the country making speeches to prove that a woman's only place is at home. Then a married woman in most of our States could not control her own person, property or earnings; now in most of them these laws have been largely amended or repealed and it is only in regard to the ballot that the fiction of woman's perpetual minority is still kept up."
Mrs. Catt's powerful address was entitled The Battle to the Strong but nothing is preserved except newspaper clippings. She ended by saying: "In all history there has been no event fraught with more importance for the generations to follow than the present uprising of the women of the world.... Every struggle helps and no movement for right, for reform in this country or in England but has made the woman's movement easier in every other land. We have brought the countries of the world very close together in the last few years. Papers and cables and telegraph spread the news almost instantly to the centres of the earth and then to the obscure corners, so that the women of other nations know what the women here are doing and what they are doing in every other part of the world.... The suffrage campaign in England has become the kind of fanaticism that caused the American Revolution. These women are no longer reformers, they are rebels, and they are going to win.... Woman's hour has struck at last and all along the line there is a mobilization of the woman's army ready for service. We are going forward with flags flying to win. If you are not for us you are against us. Justice for the women of the world is coming. This is to be a battle to the strong—strong in faith, strong in courage, strong in conviction. Women of America, stand up for the citizenship of our own country andlet the world know we are not ashamed of the Declaration of Independence!"
A newspaper account said: "And then Anna Howard Shaw stepped forward, the light of a great purpose shining in her eyes. 'Our International president has asked for recruits,' she said. 'Never have we had so many as now.' She spoke of the immense gains to the suffrage cause within the last few months in America and of the suffrage pioneers and their sufferings, and ended: 'The path has been blazed for us and they have shown us the way. Who shall say that our triumph is to be long delayed? It is the hour for us to rally. We have enlisted for the war. Ninety days? No; for the war! We may not win every battle but we shall win the war. Happy they who are the burden-bearers in a great fight! Happy is any man or woman who is called by the Giver of all to serve Him in the cause of humanity! Friends, come with us and we will do you good; but whether you come or not we are going, and when we enter the promised land of freedom we will try to be just and to show that we understand what freedom is, what the law is. 'God grant us law in liberty and liberty in law!'"
FOOTNOTES:[56]Part of Call: Since we met last in convention women in Norway have won full suffrage; tax-paying women in Iceland have been granted a vote and made eligible as municipal councillors; Municipal suffrage has been given to women in Denmark and they now vote for all officers except members of Parliament; women in Sweden, who already had the Municipal vote, have been made eligible to municipal offices; a proxy in the election of the Douma has been conferred on women of property in Russia. In Great Britain, where they have long possessed Municipal suffrage, women have been made eligible as mayors, county, borough and town councillors and their heroic struggle for Parliamentary suffrage is attracting the attention of the world.In our own country during the past year, 175,000 women of Michigan appealed for full suffrage to its constitutional convention and a partial franchise was given; in Oregon women obtained the submission of a constitutional amendment for suffrage to a referendum vote. Though no large victories were won the advocates of equal suffrage have never felt more hopeful, as public sentiment is in closer sympathy with them than ever before. Five hundred associations of men, organized for other purposes and numbering millions of voters, have officially declared for woman suffrage; only one, the organized liquor traffic, has made a record of unremitting hostility to it and the domination of the saloon in politics has wrested many victories from our grasp....We cordially invite all men and women who have faith in the principles of the American government and love liberty and justice to meet with us in convention in Buffalo.Anna Howard Shaw, President.Rachel Foster Avery, First Vice-President.Florence Kelly, Second Vice-President.Kate M. Gordon, Corresponding Secretary.Alice Stone Blackwell, Recording Secretary.Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer.Laura Clay,}Auditors.Mary Simpson Sperry,[57]Other ministers who officiated at different times were the Reverends Anna Howard Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer and Olympia Brown of the convention, and the Reverends Richard W. Boynton, Robert Freeman, L. O. Williams, E. H. Dickinson and F. Hyatt Smith of Buffalo.[58]For full account seeHistory of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page 67.[59]This fund had been raised primarily to pay salaries to officers who now had to devote their whole time to the increased work of the association and who had hitherto for the most part given their service gratuitously. Dr. Shaw received $3,500; the secretary $1,000, the treasurer $1,000. This left $6,500 for other purposes each year.
[56]Part of Call: Since we met last in convention women in Norway have won full suffrage; tax-paying women in Iceland have been granted a vote and made eligible as municipal councillors; Municipal suffrage has been given to women in Denmark and they now vote for all officers except members of Parliament; women in Sweden, who already had the Municipal vote, have been made eligible to municipal offices; a proxy in the election of the Douma has been conferred on women of property in Russia. In Great Britain, where they have long possessed Municipal suffrage, women have been made eligible as mayors, county, borough and town councillors and their heroic struggle for Parliamentary suffrage is attracting the attention of the world.In our own country during the past year, 175,000 women of Michigan appealed for full suffrage to its constitutional convention and a partial franchise was given; in Oregon women obtained the submission of a constitutional amendment for suffrage to a referendum vote. Though no large victories were won the advocates of equal suffrage have never felt more hopeful, as public sentiment is in closer sympathy with them than ever before. Five hundred associations of men, organized for other purposes and numbering millions of voters, have officially declared for woman suffrage; only one, the organized liquor traffic, has made a record of unremitting hostility to it and the domination of the saloon in politics has wrested many victories from our grasp....We cordially invite all men and women who have faith in the principles of the American government and love liberty and justice to meet with us in convention in Buffalo.Anna Howard Shaw, President.Rachel Foster Avery, First Vice-President.Florence Kelly, Second Vice-President.Kate M. Gordon, Corresponding Secretary.Alice Stone Blackwell, Recording Secretary.Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer.Laura Clay,}Auditors.Mary Simpson Sperry,
[56]Part of Call: Since we met last in convention women in Norway have won full suffrage; tax-paying women in Iceland have been granted a vote and made eligible as municipal councillors; Municipal suffrage has been given to women in Denmark and they now vote for all officers except members of Parliament; women in Sweden, who already had the Municipal vote, have been made eligible to municipal offices; a proxy in the election of the Douma has been conferred on women of property in Russia. In Great Britain, where they have long possessed Municipal suffrage, women have been made eligible as mayors, county, borough and town councillors and their heroic struggle for Parliamentary suffrage is attracting the attention of the world.
In our own country during the past year, 175,000 women of Michigan appealed for full suffrage to its constitutional convention and a partial franchise was given; in Oregon women obtained the submission of a constitutional amendment for suffrage to a referendum vote. Though no large victories were won the advocates of equal suffrage have never felt more hopeful, as public sentiment is in closer sympathy with them than ever before. Five hundred associations of men, organized for other purposes and numbering millions of voters, have officially declared for woman suffrage; only one, the organized liquor traffic, has made a record of unremitting hostility to it and the domination of the saloon in politics has wrested many victories from our grasp....
We cordially invite all men and women who have faith in the principles of the American government and love liberty and justice to meet with us in convention in Buffalo.
Anna Howard Shaw, President.Rachel Foster Avery, First Vice-President.Florence Kelly, Second Vice-President.Kate M. Gordon, Corresponding Secretary.Alice Stone Blackwell, Recording Secretary.Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer.Laura Clay,}Auditors.Mary Simpson Sperry,
[57]Other ministers who officiated at different times were the Reverends Anna Howard Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer and Olympia Brown of the convention, and the Reverends Richard W. Boynton, Robert Freeman, L. O. Williams, E. H. Dickinson and F. Hyatt Smith of Buffalo.
[57]Other ministers who officiated at different times were the Reverends Anna Howard Shaw, Anna Garlin Spencer and Olympia Brown of the convention, and the Reverends Richard W. Boynton, Robert Freeman, L. O. Williams, E. H. Dickinson and F. Hyatt Smith of Buffalo.
[58]For full account seeHistory of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page 67.
[58]For full account seeHistory of Woman Suffrage, Volume I, page 67.
[59]This fund had been raised primarily to pay salaries to officers who now had to devote their whole time to the increased work of the association and who had hitherto for the most part given their service gratuitously. Dr. Shaw received $3,500; the secretary $1,000, the treasurer $1,000. This left $6,500 for other purposes each year.
[59]This fund had been raised primarily to pay salaries to officers who now had to devote their whole time to the increased work of the association and who had hitherto for the most part given their service gratuitously. Dr. Shaw received $3,500; the secretary $1,000, the treasurer $1,000. This left $6,500 for other purposes each year.
The invitation to hold the Forty-first annual convention of the association in Seattle was accepted for two special reasons. The Washington Legislature had submitted a woman suffrage amendment to be voted on in 1910; similar action had been taken by the Legislatures of Oregon and South Dakota, and a convention on the Pacific Coast would attract western people and create sentiment in favor of these amendments. The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in progress during the summer, by causing reduced railroad rates, would enable those of the east and middle west to attend the convention and visit this beautiful section of the country.[60]The date fixed was July 1-6.
The eastern delegates assembled in Chicago on June 25 to take the "suffrage special" train for Seattle and a reception was givento them at Hotel Stratford by the Chicago suffragists. At St. Paul the next morning ex-Senator S. A. Stockwell and Mrs. Stockwell, president of the Minnesota Association, with a delegation of suffragists, met them at the station and escorted them to the Woman's Exchange, where a delicious breakfast was served on tables adorned with golden iris and ferns. Many club officials were there and brief addresses were made by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Florence Kelley, Miss Laura Clay, Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, Miss Kate M. Gordon and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton. Mrs. Villard recalled a visit she had made there twenty-six years before with her husband, Henry Villard, who had just completed the Northern Pacific Railroad and his train was making a kind of triumphal tour across the continent. "St. Paul welcomed him with a procession ten miles long," she said, "and Minneapolis, determined not to be outdone, got up one fifteen miles long. It gives me joy to remember that not only my father, William Lloyd Garrison, but also my good German-born husband believed in equal rights for women."
The train sped through the Great Northwest and continuous business meetings were held by the board of officers in what was usually the smoking car until the next stop was made at Spokane, Washington. Here the Chamber of Commerce had appropriated $500 for their entertainment. They were presented with buttons and badges and taken in automobiles through the beautiful residence district, the handsome grounds of the three colleges and to the picturesque Falls. Then they saw the fine exhibits in the Chamber of Commerce and were taken to the Amateur Athletic Club, whose facilities for rest and recreation were placed at their disposal. An elaborate banquet followed with Mrs. May Arkwright Hutton, president of the Spokane Equal Suffrage Club, presiding. Mrs. Emma Smith De Voe, president of the State Suffrage Association, welcomed them to Washington, and Mayor N. S. Pratt to the city. "I have welcomed many organizations to Spokane," he said, "but none with so much pleasure as this. My belief in equal suffrage is no new conviction; I have voted for it twice and hope soon to do so again. The coming of equal rights for women is the inevitableresult of progress and enlightenment." He presented Dr. Shaw with a gavel made of wood from the four suffrage States bound together with a band of Idaho silver and expressed the hope that when she used it to open the convention in Seattle the sound would be like "the shot heard round the world."
The account in theWoman's Journalsaid: "Dr. Shaw, in returning thanks, said: 'It is an apt simile, for the blow will be struck on the Pacific Coast and it needs to be heard to the Atlantic and not only from the west to the east but from the north to the south. I hope it will be answered by men who, having known themselves what freedom is, wish to give women the benefits of it also. The only man who can be in any way excused for wanting to withhold freedom from women is the man who is himself a slave.' She recalled the times when the suffragists were offered not banquets but abuse and compared them to the pioneer days of clearing the forest. She closed with a beautiful tribute to the pioneer mothers and called upon the men to pay their debt to them next November."
Mrs. Villard, recalling here also her visit of more than a quarter of a century before, said in part: "Never could I have believed that such changes could have been wrought since that historic train. Then there was nothing at Spokane but Indians and cowboys and the beautiful Falls. I am glad you want women to share the full life of the city. 'The woman's cause is man's.' This movement is as wide as the world and will benefit men as well as women. I have come on this trip largely because I like to connect my husband's name not merely with the building of a great railroad but also with the cause of justice to women in which he believed. I wish greater and greater prosperity to Spokane but with her material prosperity let her not forget the larger things which must go hand in hand with it if cities are not to perish from the earth."
Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway of Portland, Ore., the renowned suffrage pioneer of the northwest, was enthusiastically received and in the course of her interesting reminiscences said: "I remember when 'Old Oregon' comprised most of the Pacific Northwest. At that time I was living in a log cabin engaged in the very domestic occupation of raising a large family of small children....On my first visit to Spokane I came by stage from Walla Walla. It went bumping and careening over the rocks and the one hotel of the village had not accommodations for the three or four passengers. They made up improvised beds for us on slats and all the food we had for several days was bread and sugar, but I enjoyed it for after such a journey anything tasted good. There was only one little hall in the town and I was importuned by Captain Wilkinson of Portland to speak. So I hired the hall for Sunday and he advised me to offer it to a clergyman there for the afternoon service. I did so and asked him to announce after his sermon that my meeting would be held in the evening. He accepted the use of the hall but failed to give the notice. When I asked him about it he said: 'Do you think I would notice a woman's meeting?' But we had a good one and almost everybody in Spokane subscribed for my paper, theNew Northwest. The next time I came here was to celebrate the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad. I had the honor of writing a poem for the occasion and reading it in that little hall and Henry Villard wrote me a letter about it."
A large evening meeting was held in the First Methodist Church with Mrs. LaReine Baker presiding. Henry B. Blackwell and Prof. Frances Squire Potter were among the national speakers. A tired lot of travellers but happy over their cordial welcome took the night train. Next day they stopped for a brief time at North Yakima and Ellensburg and spoke from the rear platform to the crowds awaiting them. Women, girls and children dressed in white greeted them with banners, songs and quantities of the lovely roses for which that section is noted and with fancy baskets of the wonderful cherries and apples. During several hours spent in Tacoma they had the famous ride around the city in special trolley cars, supper at sunset on the veranda of a hotel overlooking the beautiful Puget Sound and a walk through the magnificent park.
The never to be forgotten convention in Seattle was preceded by an evening reception on June 30 in Lincoln Hotel, given by the State suffrage association, whose former president, Mrs. Homer M. Hill, extended its welcome to the delegates. Dr. Shaw, the national president, called the convention to orderthe next afternoon in the large Plymouth Congregational Church and the audience sang The March of the Mothers. Mrs. Margaret B. Platt brought the greetings of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, pointing out that "there are wrongs which can never be righted until woman holds in her hand the ballot, symbol of the power to right them." In introducing Mrs. M. B. Lord to speak for the Grange, Dr. Shaw said she herself was a member of it. Mrs. Lord said in part: "From the first of it women came into our organization on a perfect equality and for forty years the Grange has carried on an education for woman suffrage. It was the proudest moment of my life when I got a resolution for it through the New York State Grange. Here in Washington it has increased three-fold in five years and always passes a resolution in favor of suffrage for women." Mrs. De Voe gave a big-hearted welcome from the State and Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, president of the California suffrage association, made a gracious response. By a rising vote the convention sent a message of warm regard to Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of New York, the former national president, and regret that she was not able to be present. Dr. Shaw spoke of the "masterly way" in which she had presided at the meeting of the International Suffrage Alliance in London in May, "her power and dignity commanding universal respect," and told of the message of greeting from Queen Maud of Norway and other incidents of the congress.
Leaving more formal ceremonies for the evening the convention proceeded to business and listened to the report of the corresponding secretary, Miss Gordon (La.). In referring to the specialized literature which had been sent out, she spoke of the letter of the Brewers' and Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association, so widely circulated during the recent Oregon Suffrage campaign, calling the attention of all retailers in the State to the necessity of defeating the amendment, and to the postal instructing them how to mark their ballot, with a return card signifying their willingness. This had been put into an "exhibit" by Miss Blackwell and her Literature Committee and Miss Gordon urged that clergymen of all denominations should be circularized with it. She said: "I believe the association should not be dissuadedfrom this undertaking because of the amount of work and its costliness. The burden of responsibility rests upon us to prove with such evidence that the worst enemy of the church and the most active enemy of woman suffrage is a mutual foe, the 'organized liquor and vice power.' If in the face of such direct evidence representatives of the church still allow prejudice, ignorance or indifference to woman suffrage to influence them, then they knowingly become the common allies of this power."
Miss Gordon gave instances to show the great change taking place in the attitude of the public toward woman suffrage and said the present difficulty was to utilize the opportunities which presented themselves. She urged more concentrated effort from the national headquarters and a substantial appropriation to enable the chairmen of the standing committees to carry on their work; also that they should be elected instead of appointed and be members of the official board, and she concluded: "It is earnestly recommended that suffragists take steps to politicalize their methods. The primaries, affording in many States an opportunity for women to secure the nominations of favorable candidates; active interest in defeating the election of those opposed to suffrage; the questioning of candidates, etc., are all instances where intelligent interest and activity on the part of suffragists will educate the public far more effectively than debates, lectures and literature—to see that women are determined to take an active part in so-called politics, so intimately associated for weal or woe in their lives."
The reports of the headquarters secretary and national press chairman, Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser (Ohio) were read by Mrs. Upton. The first in speaking of the increased demands on the headquarters began: "In no previous presidential campaign in the United States were the views of candidates on the enfranchisement of women ever so generally commented on by the press. Perhaps never before did candidates consider the question of sufficient importance to have any opinion upon it. Never before did the newspaper interviewer put to every possible personage—politician or preacher, writer or speaker, inventor or explorer, captain of industry, social worker, actor, prize-fighter, maid, matron, widow—the burning query, 'What about votes for women?'" She told of about 30,000 letters having beensent out and an average of nearly 1,000 pieces of literature a day, as many in the first half of the present year as in all of 1908. The Book Department, in charge of Miss Caroline I. Reilly, reported that the sales of the Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony had amounted to $800; 200 sets of the History of Woman Suffrage had been placed in the libraries of the leading colleges and universities; 100 copies of the Reports of the last two national conventions had been put into the libraries which keep the file.
The delegates to the presidential nominating conventions had been appealed to by letter for a suffrage plank in the platform but without result. The Independence Party convention in Chicago voted it down. The usual work had been done in international and national conventions and many had adopted favorable resolutions, among them those of the International Bricklayers' and Stone Masons' Union meeting in Detroit; the International Cotton Spinners' Union in Boston and the Woman's National Trade Union League in that city: the National Council of Women and the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association. The United Mine Workers of America, meeting at Indianapolis, passed the woman suffrage resolution by unanimous vote and sent to the headquarters 500 copies of it, which were promptly mailed to members of Congress. The American Federation of Labor, representing 2,000,000 members, at its convention in Denver, followed its long established custom of passing this resolution. Dr. Shaw attended the National Conference of Charities and Corrections: Mrs. Julia Ward Howe was received as a fraternal delegate from the National American Suffrage Association by the General Federation of Women's Clubs at its biennial in Boston; Mrs. Stockwell by the convention of the American Library Association; Mrs. Sperry and Mrs. Alice L. Park of California, by the Nurses Associated Alumnæ of the United States; Mrs. Coryell by the American Baptist Home Missionary Society, and the association had representatives at many other conventions. "To summarize, 29 national associations have endorsed woman suffrage; 14 others have taken action on some phase of the question; 20 State Federations of Labor, 16 State Granges and seven State Letter Carriers' Associations have endorsed it. Some of the States have carried on a veryactive propaganda in this direction, securing endorsements from hundreds of local organizations representing labor unions, educational and religious societies, Farmers' Institutes, etc."
In the press report Miss Hauser said that 43,000 copies ofProgresshad been sent out and 52,095 pages of material representing 190 different subjects had been distributed, including 1,262 copies of Mrs. Catt's address to the International Suffrage Alliance. She told of the special articles, of the full pages, of the personal work with editors—a report of remarkable accomplishment, filling eight printed pages of the Minutes. In concluding she said: "The day of old methods has gone by and if new methods are to be successfully developed there must be for press chairman a woman who is not only acquainted with the philosophy and history of the woman suffrage movement but who is possessed of the newspaper instinct and the ability to make friends readily. Nothing but press work should be expected of her and she should be enabled to get in touch with the controlling forces in the newspaper world." This report was supplemented with that of Miss Blackwell, chairman of the Committee on Literature.
As the headquarters were soon to be removed from Warren, Ohio, and Miss Hauser had resigned as secretary, this was the last of her excellent reports and the convention sent her a letter of thanks and appreciation for her admirable work. Dr. Shaw said of her: "There never was a woman who gave more consecrated service; she dreamed of woman suffrage by night and toiled for it by day." [Afterward Miss Hauser went to the headquarters in New York as vice-chairman of the National Press Committee.]
In the evening Mayor John F. Miller welcomed the convention and congratulated the association on the personnel of its members in Washington. "This has been a pioneer State in the woman's rights movement," he said. "In 1854 Arthur Denny introduced a woman suffrage bill in the Territorial Legislature. In 1878 the civil disabilities of married women were removed and this was the first State west of the Rocky Mountains to say that a wife's property should be her own. Women here have all the rights of men except to vote and hold office. I do not knowwhether woman suffrage will bring in everything good and abolish everything evil but if it will by all means let us have it." He closed with a tribute to the mothers in the State.
In an eloquent response Mrs. Villard reminded the Mayor that if a cause is just the consequences following in its path need not be feared and said: "I was early taught by my father that moral principle in vigorous exercise is irresistible. It has an immortal essence. It may disappear for a time but it can no more be trod out of existence by the iron foot of time or the ponderous march of iniquity than matter can be annihilated. It lives somewhere, somehow, and rises again in renovated strength. The women of this country who are advocating the cause of woman suffrage are animated by a great moral principle. They are armed with a spiritual weapon of finest caliber and one that is sure to win." She told of the great reception given in 1883 to her husband and his guests when they reached Seattle for the opening of the railroad after its completion; of his response and that of the Hon. Carl Schurz. She described an address made by a young girl, the daughter of Professor Powell of the university, the entire expenses of which Mr. Villard had paid for several years, in which she said he would be remembered more for what he had done for education than for the building of the railroad. "In the retrospect of time," said Mrs. Villard, "I can see her, sweetly modest and gracious, standing as it were with outstretched arms inviting the women who are gathered here today to come and help make the State of Washington free." Then in an appeal for the pending suffrage amendment she said: "Many tributes of respect and admiration have been paid to my noble companion in the great northwest, which are carefully cherished by me and my children, but I crave one more and it is this—that Mr. Villard's keen sense of justice and fair play for women shall find echo in the hearts of the men of Washington, to whose extraordinary development he gave such powerful impetus, so that in November, 1910, they will proclaim with loud accord that the women of Washington are no longer bond but free, no longer disfranchised but regenerated and disenthralled, equal partners in the unending struggle of the human race for nobler laws and higher moral standards."
The evening session closed with the president's address of Dr. Shaw, which theWoman's Journaldescribed as "inimitable" but not a paragraph of it can be found after the lapse of years. Her speeches always were inspired by the occasion and only a stenographic report could give an adequate idea of them. Miss Anthony mourned because this was not made and others often spoke of it but Dr. Shaw herself was indifferent. There were pressing demands for money and the endless details of these meetings absorbed the time and strength of those who might otherwise have attended to it.
Mrs. Upton in her report as treasurer made a stirring appeal in which she said: "The most important question before this convention is that of money. A grave responsibility rests upon the shoulders of each delegate. She should know how much money we have had in the last year, where it went and why. More than this, she should decide for herself how money for the coming year shall be disbursed and suggest ways of raising the same. No delegate ought to quiet her conscience with the thought that the judgment of the general officers is the best judgment. Each State has entrusted into the hands of its delegates precious business and the responsibility is great and cannot honestly be disregarded. In the long ago we worked until our money gave out. Now, as the beginning of the end of our work is in sight, demands for money are many and if business rules are followed they must be met. The small self-sacrifices must be continued and larger ways of obtaining money created. We are all shouting for a fifth star on our suffrage flag but we must remember that no star was ever placed upon any flag without cost, without sacrifice. Our fifth star will find its place because we explain to voters what a fifth star really means. These voters will not come to us; we must go to them. To go anywhere costs money. To go to the voters of a large and thinly populated State means much money. Shall we be content with four stars or shall we provide the means to get a fifth?"
The total receipts of the past year were $15,420; disbursements, $14,480. She told of the many ways in which the money was being used—over $2,000 added to several other thousands spent in field work in Oklahoma for the next year's amendmentcampaign; $3,000 to the College League; headquarters' expenses, literature, posters, etc. Part of the money came from the Anthony Memorial Fund, part from the fund raised by Dr. Thomas and Miss Garrett, the rest from individual subscriptions. The convention, which was not a large one, subscribed over $3,000. The following recommendations of the Business Committee were adopted by the convention: Appropriations shall be made for educational, church and petition work; financial aid shall not be given to States having campaigns on hand unless there be perfect harmony within the ranks of the workers of those States; an organizer shall be sent to Arizona to prepare the Territory for constitutional or legislative work and a campaign organizer to South Dakota.
There was much interest in the question of returning the national headquarters to New York City. It was long the desire of Miss Anthony to do this on a scale befitting so large a city and so important a cause and the funds had never been available. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, who had lately come into the suffrage movement, had taken the entire twentieth floor of a new office building for two years and invited the New York State Suffrage Association to occupy a part of it. She now extended an invitation to the National Association to use for this period as many rooms as it needed and she would pay the difference in the rent between these and the headquarters at Warren, O. In addition she would maintain the press bureau. The advantages of this great newspaper and magazine center were recognized by the general officers, executive committee and delegates, the offer was gladly accepted and a rising vote of thanks was sent to Mrs. Belmont.
Miss Perle Penfield (Texas) read the report of Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead, chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration. She told of the tenth anniversary this year of The Hague Conference, which was attended by representatives of forty-six instead of twenty-six nations and had made various international agreements that would lessen the likelihood of war. She spoke of attending the second National Peace Congress in Chicago in May, at which all the women who took part were suffragists. Mrs. Mead referred to having spoken eighty-six times during theyear. In pointing out the work that should be done in the United States for peace she said: